Do as I tell you, for friendship's sake, and when I wake I shall bathe and sleep naturally the rest of the night." I carefully fulfilled his instructions.

Before I had finished rubbing his head he was drowsy, and when I took the vial from his nostrils he was sound asleep.

I placed the precious thing where he had told me, and arranged his limbs on the cushions.

Then I opened everything, and leaving the servant in charge went my way to my rooms.

On removing the silk and the wax which had protected me from the powerful drug, an indescribable odour which permeated my clothes ascended to my nostrils; aromatic, yet pungent and penetrating; I never smelt anything that it reminded me of, but I presume the compound contained something of the nature of an opiate.