And so it happened a thought of this character came to him one day in midsummer and he invited all his retinue to a month of banqueting. Well knowing the lavish supply he always provided, his palace was filled to overflowing. To aid him in his joke he had employed a chemist of great learning to assist in compounding the viands, always taking care that while his portions resembled the others closely they did not contain certain ingredients present in the others.
He also arranged for games on the lawns of great expanse around about his palace, and it so occurred that while viewing these his guests were compelled to sit in the sunlight unprovided with shelter from its rays. And it also turned out all looking-glasses were secreted, which caused much dismay in the minds of the feminine guests. And each guest, owing to the brilliancy of the beams, was given colored glasses to wear.
The last half of the month contained a great novelty, so the guests thought, for during that time every window was sealed and every door closed so tightly not a ray of light penetrated anywhere, and all functions were observed in the darkness.
At the end of that time the light was one day admitted throughout the entire building and great was the consternation thereat. Husbands knew not their wives and wives disowned their husbands. Lovers were horror-stricken on the discovery by each the other was as black as the ace of spades.
Oh, there was a tumult, for each was hastening to leave the place, but he prevailed upon them to remain another week and all would be well. Thereupon he explained to them he was but illustrating the way in which the Africans became black. That he had added to the portions each day a certain amount of silver which had at last mixed with their blood, and that when they came into the sunlight the silver in them had oxidized and made them black. He assured them the portions they would now receive would quickly remove the silver and they would again become white.
At another time, when he was about to start on a long journey, he called his servants together and instructed them he would be gone some time and they must under no circumstances admit into the palace any stranger unless ordered to do so by his chief butler, whom he had told to put all strangers in certain rooms and to lock them in there.