"What wouldst thou?" said the genie. "I and the other slaves of the ring serve him who wears it. I am ready to obey!"
At any other time, so hideous a figure as that of the genie would have frightened Aladdin, but the danger was so great that he cried out to the spirit, "Whoever thou art, deliver me from this place."
As soon as the words were uttered, Aladdin found himself on the very spot where the magician had last left him, and no sign remained of cave or opening.
After returning thanks to God for his deliverance, he hurried home, and as soon as he had recovered from his weariness, he told his mother what had happened.
Aladdin slept late the next morning, and when he wakened his first words were a request for something to eat.
"Alas! child," said his mother, "I have no bread to give you. Everything was eaten up yesterday. I have nothing but a little cotton which I might sell."
"Keep your cotton, mother, till another time," said Aladdin. "I will take the lamp which I got in the cave yesterday and try to sell it. The money will buy us our dinner and perhaps our supper."
Aladdin's mother looked at the lamp and saw that it was very dirty. "Perhaps it would bring more," she said, "if I should clean it." Taking some water and sand, she began to rub the lamp, when in an instant a genie of gigantic size and hideous appearance stood before her and called out in a voice of thunder:
"What wouldst thou have? I and the other slaves of the lamp that is in your hands are ready to obey thee."
Terrified at the sight of the genie, Aladdin's mother fainted, but Aladdin, who had seen such an apparition before in the cave, snatched the lamp from her hands and cried out, "I am hungry; bring me something to eat."