the fourth he got ready for them a banquet and invited them to his Palace. They mounted and repaired thither when he set before them food; and as soon as they had fed, the trays were removed and coffee and confections and sherbets were served up and they sat talking and enjoying themselves till supper-tide when they sought permission to hie campwards. But the Sultan of the city sware them to pass the night with him; so they returned to their session till the father of the damsels said, "Let each of us tell a tale that our waking hours may be the more pleasant." "Yes," they replied and all agreed in wishing that the Sultan of the city would begin. Now by the decree of the Decreer the lattice-window of the Queen opened upon the place of session and she could see them and hear every word they said. He began, "By Allah I have to relate an adventure which befel me and 'tis one of the wonders of our time." Quoth they, "And what may it be?"?And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and fell silent and ceased saying her permitted say. Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, "How sweet and tasteful is thy tale, O sister mine, and enjoyable and delectable!" Quoth she, "And where is this compared with that I would relate to you on the coming night an the Sovran suffer me to survive?" Now when it was the next night and that was The Three Hundred and Eighty-third Night, Dunyazad said to her, "Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching of this our latter night!" She replied, "With love and good will!" It hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding, lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming and worthy celebrating, that the Sultan of the city said:?In such a year I had a malady which none availed to medicine until at last an old woman came to me bearing a tasse of broth which when I drank caused health return to me. So I bade her bring me a cupful every day and I drank it till, after a time, I chanced to ask her who made that broth and she answered that it was her daughter. And one day I assumed a disguise and went to the ancient dame's house and there saw the girl who was a model of beauty and loveliness, brilliancy, symmetric stature and perfect grace, and seeing her I lost my heart to her, and asked her to wife. She answered, "How can I wed; I separated from my sisters and parents and all unknowing what hath become of them?" Now when the father of the damsels heard these words, tears rolled down his cheeks in rills and he remembered his two lost girls and wept and moaned and complained, the Sultan looking on in astonishment the while; and when he went to his Queen he found her lying in a fainting fit. Hereupon he cried out her name and seated her and she on coming to exclaimed, "By Allah, he who wept before you is my very father: by Him who created me I have no doubt thereof!" So the Sultan went down to