120 
THE ORIENTAL ANNUAL. 
slowly, he assured the dangerous syren, whose 
eyes of beauty now rested upon him with a stem 
and terrible glance, that in this dread task alone 
he hesitated to obey her ; in all others, were death 
itself the penalty incurred, he was her devoted and 
ready slave. Scarcely had the words left his lips 
when Klioob-soomt, rising from her throne, uttered 
two words of tremendous malison , and pointing 
towards him her white and taper finger, that form 
of beauty and grace vanished for ever and ever from 
the gaze of the hapless Bhudroo ; for his eyes had 
withered in their sockets. Then warning him that 
instant death would be his doom if ever he revealed 
the cause or manner of his misfortune, she hade him 
begone from her palace. 
“ The agonized youth strove to escape from the 
fatal abode, but darkling and bewildered he wandered 
for hours amid the enchanted halls and tangled laby- 
rinths of that delusive paradise, the fierce arrows of 
the sun bursting upon his head, and the hiss of 
venomed reptiles making his blood run cold as he 
stumbled along, knowing not what hidden danger 
lurked in his path. The song of birds, the scent of 
flowers, were no longer manifest to his senses; but 
the fiendish laugh of the cruel Khoob-soorut rang 
unceasingly in his ears. It was night-fall ere, ex- 
hausted, blind, and despairing, he reached his home. 
“ The unfortunate Bhudroo languished in obscurity, 
none knowing the cause of his affliction, while the 
