Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 3 (of 6)
Science
Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 3 (of 6)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
upon her belly; then he drew his dagger and shouted at her; and,
when she awoke and opened her eyes, she espied a Moorish man with
an unsheathed poniard sitting upon her middle as though about to
kill her. She was troubled and sore terrified, but he said to
her, "Hearken! an thou cry out or utter a word I will slay thee
at this very moment: arise now and do all I bid thee." Then he
sware to her an oath that if she obeyed his orders, whatever they
might be, he would not do her die. So saying, he rose up from off
her and Fatimah also arose, when he said to her, "Give me thy
gear and take thou my habit ;" whereupon she gave him her
clothing and head-fillets, her face-kerchief and her mantilla.
Then Quoth he, " 'tis also requisite that thou anoint me with
somewhat shall make the colour of my face like unto thine."
Accordingly she went into the inner cavern and, bringing out a
gallipot of ointment, spread somewhat thereof upon her palm and
with it besmeared his face until its hue favoured her own; then
she gave him her staff[FN#220] and, showing him how to walk and
what to do when he entered the city, hung her rosary around his
neck. Lastly she handed to him a mirror and said, "Now look! Thou
differest from me in naught;" and he saw himself Fatimah's
counterpart as though she had never gone or come.[FN#221] But
after obtaining his every object he falsed his oath and asked for
a cord which she brought to him; then he seized her and strangled
her in the cavern; and presently, when she was dead, haled the
corpse outside and threw it into a pit hard by.--And Shahrazad
was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted
say.
When it was the Five Hundred and Eighty-eighth Night,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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