Pagina 399 di 1116

Then he assembled the astrologers and astronomers who knew the

places of the planets, and the wizards and wise ones of the time,

and men learned in horoscopes and nativities,[FN#268] and they

drew out my birth scheme and said to my father, "Thy son shall

live to fifteen years, but in his fifteenth there is a sinister

aspect; an he safely tide it over he shall attain a great age.

And the cause that threateneth him with death is this. In the Sea

of Peril standeth the Mountain Magnet hight; on whose summit is a

horseman of yellow laton seated on a horse also of brass and

bearing on his breast a tablet of lead. Fifty days after this

rider shall fall from his steed thy son will die and his slayer

will be he who shoots down the horseman, a Prince named Ajib son

of King Khazib." My father grieved with exceeding grief to hear

these words; but reared me in tenderest fashion and educated me

excellently well until my fifteenth year was told.