The mother and son talked no more then of the African magician; but the next day Aladdin’s uncle found him playing in another part of the town with other children, and embracing him as before, put two pieces of gold into his hand, and said to him, “Carry this, child, to your mother, and tell her that I will come and see her to-night, and bid her get us something for supper; but first shew me the house where you live.”
After Aladdin had shewed the African magician the house, he carried the two pieces of gold to his mother, and when he had told her of his uncle’s intention, she went out and bought provisions; and considering she wanted various vessels, she went and borrowed them of her neighbours. She spent the whole day in preparing the supper; and at night, when it was ready, she said to Aladdin, “Perhaps your uncle knows not how to find our house, go and see for him, and bring him if you meet with him.”
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.”