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
Quoth Dunyazad, "O sister mine, an thou be other than sleepy do
tell us some of thy pleasant tales," whereupon Shahrazad replied,
"With love and good will."--It hath reached me, O King of the
Age, that when the Maghrabi, the Magician, reached his
caravanserai, he took his astrological gear[FN#189] and geomantic
table to discover where might be the Lamp; and he found that it
was in the pavilion and not upon Alaeddin's person. So he
rejoiced thereat with joy exceeding and exclaimed, "Now indeed
'twill be an easy task to take the life of this Accursed and I
see my way to getting the Lamp." Then he went to a coppersmith
and said to him, "Do thou make me a set of lamps and take from me
their full price and more; only I would have thee hasten to
finish them." Replied the smith, "Hearing and obeying," and fell
aworking to keep his word; and when they were ready the Moorman
paid him what price he required; then taking them he carried them
to the Khan and set them in a basket. Presently he began
wandering about the highways and market-streets of the capital
crying aloud, "Ho! who will exchange old lamps for new
lamps?''[FN#190] But when the folk heard him cry on this wise,
they derided him and said, "Doubtless this man is Jinn-mad, for
that he goeth about offering new for old;" and a world followed
him and the children of the quarter caught him up from place to
place, laughing at him the while, nor did he forbid them or care
for their maltreatment. And he ceased not strolling about the
streets till he came under Alaeddin's pavilion,[FN#191] where he
shouted with his loudest voice and the boys screamed at him, "A
madman! A madman!" Now Destiny had decreed that the Lady Badr al-
Budur be sitting in her Kiosque whence she heard one crying like
a crier, and the children bawling at him; only she understood not
what was going on; so she gave orders to one of her slave-girls
saying,[FN#192] "Go thou and see who 'tis that crieth and what be
his cry?" The girl fared forth and looked on when she beheld a
man crying, "Ho! who will exchange old lamps for new lamps?" and
the little ones pursuing and laughing at him; and as loudly
laughed the Princess when this strange case was told to her. Now
Alaeddin had carelessly left the Lamp in his pavilion without
hiding it and locking it up in his strong box;[FN#193] and one of
the slave-girls who had seen it said, "O my lady, I think to have
noticed, in the apartment of my lord Alaeddin, an old lamp: so
let us give it in change for a new lamp to this man, and see if
his cry be truth or lie."--And Shahrazad was surprised by the
dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the Five Hundred and Seventy-sixth Night,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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