The care with which Ali placed this cup on the table roused Franz's curiosity.

He raised the cover and saw a kind of greenish paste, something like preserved angelica, but which was perfectly unknown to him.

He replaced the lid, as ignorant of what the cup contained as he was before he had looked at it, and then casting his eyes towards his host he saw him smile at his disappointment.

"You cannot guess," said he, "what there is in that small vase, can you ?" "No, I really cannot." "Well, then, that green preserve is nothing less than the ambrosia which Hebe served at the table of Jupiter." "But," replied Franz, "this ambrosia, no doubt, in passing through mortal hands has lost its heavenly appellation and assumed a human name; in vulgar phrase, what may you term this composition, for which, to tell the truth, I do not feel any particular desire ?" "Ah, thus it is that our material origin is revealed," cried Sinbad; "we frequently pass so near to happiness without seeing, without regarding it, or if we do see and regard it, yet without recognizing it.

Are you a man for the substantials, and is gold your god?
taste this, and the mines of Peru, Guzerat, and Golconda are opened to you.