Though Aladdin had shewed the magician the house, he was very ready to go, when somebody knocked at the door, which Aladdin immediately opened; and the magician came in, loaded with wine and all sorts of fruits, which he brought for a dessert.
After the African magician had given what he brought into Aladdin’s hands, he saluted his mother, and desired her to shew him the place where his brother Mustapha used to sit on the sofa; and when she had so done, he presently fell down and kissed it several times, crying out with tears in his eyes, “My poor brother! How unhappy am I, not to have come soon enough to give you one last embrace!” Aladdin’s mother desired him to sit down in the same place, but he would not. “No,” said he, “I shall take care how I do that; but give me leave to sit here over against it, that if I am deprived of the satisfaction of seeing the master of a family so dear to me, I may at least have the pleasure of seeing the place where he used to sit.” Aladdin’s mother pressed him no farther, but left him at his liberty to sit where he pleased.
When the magician had made choice of a place, and sat down, he began to enter into discourse with Aladdin’s mother. “My good sister,” said he, “do not be surprised at your never having seen me all the time you have been married to my brother, Mustapha, of happy memory. I have been forty years absent from this country, which is my native place, as well as my late brother’s; and during that time have travelled into the Indies, Persia, Arabia, Syria, and Egypt, and have resided in the finest towns of those countries, and afterwards crossed over into Africa, where I made a longer stay. At last, as it is natural for a man, how distant soever it may be, to remember his native country, relations and acquaintance, I was very desirous to see mine again, and to embrace my dear brother; and finding I had strength and courage enough to undertake so long a journey, I immediately made the necessary preparations for it, and set out. I will not tell you the length of time it took me, all the obstacles I met with, and what fatigues I have endured, to come hither; but nothing ever mortified and afflicted me so much as the hearing of my brother’s death, for whom I always had a brotherly love and friendship. I observed his features in the face of my nephew, your son, and distinguished him from a number of children with whom he was at play; he can tell you how I received the most melancholy news that ever reached my ears. But God be praised for all things! It is a comfort to me to find him again in a son, who has his most remarkable features.”
The African magician, perceiving that Aladdin’s mother began to weep at the remembrance of her husband, changed the discourse, and turning towards Aladdin, asked him his name. “I am called Aladdin,” said he. “Well, Aladdin,” replied the magician, “what business do you follow? Are you of any trade?”
At this question Aladdin hung down his head, and was not a little dashed when his mother made answer, “Aladdin is an idle fellow; his father, when alive, strove all he could to teach him his trade, but could not succeed; and since his death, notwithstanding all I can say to him, he does nothing but idle away his time in the streets, as you saw him, without considering he is no longer a child: and if you do not make him ashamed of it, and make him leave it off, I despair of his ever coming to any good. He knows that his father left him no fortune, and sees me endeavour to get bread by spinning cotton every day; for my part, I am resolved, one of these days, to turn him out of doors and let him provide for himself.”
After these words, Aladdin’s mother burst out into tears; and the magician said, “This is not well, nephew; you must think of helping yourself, and getting your livelihood. There are a great many sorts of trades: consider if you have not an inclination to some of them; perhaps you did not like your father’s trade, and would prefer another! come, do not disguise your sentiments from me; I will endeavour to help you.” But finding that Aladdin returned no answer,—“If you have no mind,” continued he, “to learn any trade, and prove an honest man, I will take a shop for you, and furnish it with all sorts of fine stuffs and linens, and set you to trade with them; and with the money you make with them, lay in fresh goods, and then you will live after an honourable way. Consult your own inclination, and tell me freely what you think of it; you shall always find me ready to keep my word.”
This proposal greatly flattered Aladdin, who mortally hated work, and had sense enough to know that such sort of shops were very much esteemed and frequented, and the owners honoured and respected. He told the magician he had a greater inclination to that business than to any other, and that he should be very much obliged to him all his life for his kindness. “Since this profession is agreeable to you,” said the African magician, “I will carry you along with me to-morrow, and clothe you as richly and handsomely as the best merchants in the city, and after that we will think of opening a shop as I mean.”
Aladdin’s mother, who never till then could believe that the magician was her husband’s brother, no longer doubted it after his promises of kindness to her son. She thanked him for his good intentions; and after having exhorted Aladdin to render himself worthy of his uncle’s favour by his good behaviour, served up supper, at which they talked of several indifferent matters; and then the magician, who saw that the night was pretty far advanced, took his leave of the mother and son, and retired.
He came again the next day, as he promised, and took Aladdin along with him to a great merchant, who sold all sorts of clothes for different ages and ranks ready made, and a variety of fine stuffs. He asked to see some that suited Aladdin in size; and after choosing a suit which he liked best, and rejecting others which he did not think handsome enough, he bid Aladdin choose those he preferred. Aladdin, charmed with the liberality of his new uncle, made choice of one, and the magician immediately bought it, and all things proper to it, and paid for it without haggling.
When Aladdin found himself so handsomely equipped from top to toe, he returned his uncle all imaginable thanks; who, on the other hand, promised never to forsake him, but always to take him along with him; which he did to the most frequented places in the city, and particularly where the capital merchants kept their shops. When he brought him into the street where they sold the richest stuffs, and finest linens, he said to Aladdin, “As you are soon to be a merchant as well as these, it is proper you should frequent these shops, and be acquainted with them.” Then he shewed him the largest and finest mosques, and carried him to the khans or inns where the merchants and travellers lodged, and afterwards to the sultan’s palace, where he had free access; and at last brought him to his own khan, where, meeting with some merchants he had got acquainted with since his arrival, he gave them a treat, to bring them and his pretended nephew acquainted.