'Shadows from the Walls of Death' – Studying Poisonous Pages of a Lethal Book

"O king, open the book."

The king did this, but he found the pages stuck together, so he put his finger into his mouth, wet it with his spittle, and with difficulty he opened the first, the second and the third pages. He opened six pages in all, but when he looked at them, he could find nothing written there.

"Wise man," he said, "there is no writing here."

"Open more pages," said Duban.

The king opened three more, but soon afterwards he felt the poison with which the book had been impregnated spreading through him. He was wracked by convulsions and cried out that he had been poisoned...