MR. HUTCHiSON'S DIARY. 
415 
them, 1 might not speak of. They told me they knew we kept 
some of our genii on a floating island in the sea ; if any ships came 
near it, the genii were instructed to laugh at them, and the island 
disappeared ; with other such stories. One of the boys told them 
I had a stuff (phosphorus) which they supposed gave me such 
power ; they wished to see it, and laughed at first at the idea of 
any thing in water producing fire, or that I could confine that ele- 
ment and dare to keep it in a trunk ; I put it to the proof, by 
burning a piece of cloth, paper, and mat, and told them if they 
were not satisfied they might have some on their skins, but they 
did not choose it, and called out in wonder, " Houa Kahina iakul 
naroo malekaneran," " he is a magician and eats fire, he is the King 
of fire;"" be it remembered that this last appellation is peculiar to 
the devil. The Shereef after thinking some time, enquired if that 
stuff was not made from the bones of genii? I told him bones were 
in the composition. He wished to know if we killed genii and 
took their bones, I told him blood was never shed in England but 
for great crimes ; true, he said, but none could see us do ^o. I told 
him there was an eye that never sleeps, at which he bent his head, 
pronouncing " God is great.^' The Moors then held a conversa- 
tion in Arabic, by which they settled that I must be in the secrets 
of Solomon, and the Shereef Abraham related one of the Arabian 
tales, by which Balkes or Bilkis, Queen of Sheba, is made out to 
be the child carried away by the dog in one of the stories of that 
work. Balkis, according to them, adored the sun, and Solomon 
made her turn and worship God ; he commanded the genii to 
transport her palace from her own country to Jerusalen], and the 
three palaces he built for her in Arabia Felix had gold mixed with 
the mortar with which they were formed. They wished to know if 
I could move a house ? I told them, such was the mystery attached 
to our concerns, that it was difficult to answer them ; any thing 
