“‘H’m!’ said Al Faan; ‘I can tell you of a better occupation than looking for a man that is not born yet. Let us go and find the king of the snakes and get him to give us a charm medicine; then we will go to King Solomon and get his rings, and we shall be able to make slaves of the genii and order them to do whatever we wish.’
“And Bolookeea said, ‘I have seen the king of the snakes in the mountain of Al Kaaf.’
“‘All right,’ said Al Faan; ‘let’s go.’
“Now, Al Faan wanted the ring of Solomon that he might be a great magician and control the genii and the birds, while all Bolookeea wanted was to see the great prophet.
“As they went along, Al Faan said to Bolookeea, ‘Let us make a cage and entice the king of the snakes into it; then we will shut the door and carry him off.’
“‘All right,’ said Bolookeea.
“So they made a cage, and put therein a cup of milk and a cup of wine, and brought it to Al Kaaf; and I, like a fool, went in, drank up all the wine and became drunk. Then they fastened the door and took me away with them.
“When I came to my senses I found myself in the cage, and Bolookeea carrying me, and I said, ‘The sons of Adam are no good. What do you want from me?’ And they answered, ‘We want some medicine to put on our feet, so that we may walk upon the water whenever it is necessary in the course of our journey.’ ‘Well,’ said I, ‘go along.’
“We went on until we came to a place where there were a great number and variety of trees; and when those trees saw me, they said, ‘I am medicine for this;’ ‘I am medicine for that;’ ‘I am medicine for the head;’ ‘I am medicine for the feet;’ and presently one tree said, ‘If any one puts my medicine upon his feet he can walk on water.’
“When I told that to those men they said, ‘That is what we want;’ and they took a great deal of it.