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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.