320 
A CRUSADE IN THE EAST. 
were green slopes of grass, and banks of fragrant herbs, and 
thick shrubberies of oleander in full bloom. Camels browsed 
lazily among the bushes ; herds of sheep were scattered over 
the openings of meadow, and lambs ran frisking from us as 
we passed; the cackling of hens and the distant barking of 
dogs about the villages fell pleasantly on the ear; and some¬ 
times we crossed little streams of limpid water, lingering like 
ourselves to catch each beauty by the wayside, yet ever jour¬ 
neying on to the Sea of Death. Here and there we saw a 
swarthy Bedouin, seated upon the rocks with his pipe in his 
hand, watching the smoke from his lips as it curled upward, 
and vanished in the air. Pelicans stood upon the shores of 
the lake peering into the clear water in search of prey ; and 
the dapper duck sported about on its surface, diving out of 
sight as we approached. Yusef meantime entertained us 
with the wonderful history of Hassin, the Dragon-killer ; 
telling us all about the way in which Hassin outwitted the 
Grand Vizier, and slew the most ferocious seven-headed dragon 
that ever existed ; how he went off to court the daughter of 
the Sultan, a cruel Princess who had a palace built of the 
skulls of her lovers, and only wanted one more skull to finish 
it; how she set him to work to test the sincerity of his pro¬ 
fessions by ordering him to eat at a single meal forty cows, 
four hundred sheep, two thousand chickens, and a thousand 
baskets of bread ; also to drink twenty or thirty hogsheads 
of wine, and empty every well of water within a circuit of 
ten miles ; how Hassin, by helping a giant out of a cobweb, 
in which he (the giant) had become entangled under the 
disguise of a fly, so won upon the regard of that distinguished 
person that he made himself as small as an ordinary man, 
for convenience, and disguised in Hassin’s clothes did eat all 
the cows, sheep, chickens, and bread, and drink all the wine 
and water, and then call for more, protesting that such trifles 
as these only gave him an appetite ; how Hassin eventually 
carried off the Princess, and lived with her in a palace of 
gold ornamented with diamonds and precious stones, and be¬ 
came known throughout the whole world as the greatest of 
Sultans, and was called ever after Hassin, the Dragon-killer. 
