Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 4 (of 6)
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Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 4 (of 6)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
"O my husband, this business can on no wise be hidden from the
people for more than a week or at most till next month." Herewith
he cried out, "O my calamity; if it reach the ears of folk and
they say, 'Our Kazi hath borne a babe,' then what shall we do?"
He pondered the matter until morning when he rose before daylight
and, taking some provaunt secretly, made ready to depart the
city, saying, "O Allah, suffer none to see me!" Then, after
giving his wife charge of the house and bidding her take care of
his effects and farewelling her, he went forth secretly from her
and journeyed that day and a second and a third until the
seventh, when he entered Damascus of Syria where none knew him.
But he had no spending money for he could not persuade himself to
take even a single dinar from his hoard and he had provided
himself with naught save the meagrest provision. So his condition
was straitened and he was compelled to sell somewhat of his
clothes and lay out the price upon his urgent needs; and when the
coin was finished he was forced to part with other portions of
his dress till little or nothing of it remained to him. Then, in
his sorest strait, he went to the Shaykh of the Masons and said
to him, "O master, my wish is to serve in this
industry;''[FN#217] and said he, "Welcome to thee." So the Kazi
worked through every day for a wage of five Faddahs. Such was his
case; but as regards his wife,?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 this coming night an the Sovran suffer me to survive?" Now
when it was the next night and that was
The Three Hundred and Ninetieth Night,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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