Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 4 (of 6) — John Shaqi
Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 4 (of 6)
General
Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 4 (of 6)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
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
asked the second Sharper saying, "And thou, the other, what may
be thy craft?" He answered, "I am a genealogist[FN#23] of the
horse-kind." So the King glanced at him in surprise and said to
himself, "A sharper yet he claimeth an astounding knowledge!"
Then he left him and put the same question to the third who said
to him, "O King of the Age, verily my art is more wondrous and
marvellous than aught thou hast heard from these twain: their
craft is easy but mine is such that none save I can discover the
right direction thereto or know the first of it from the last of
it." The Sultan enquired of him, "And what be thy craft?" Whereto
he replied, "My craft is the genealogy of the sons of Adam."
Hearing these words the Sovran wondered with extreme wonderment
and said in himself, "Verily He informeth with His secrets the
humblest of His creatures! Assuredly these men, an they speak
truth in all they say and it prove soothfast, are fit for naught
except kingship. But I will keep them by me until the occurrence
of some nice contingency wherein I may test them; then, if they
approve themselves good men and trustworthy of word, I will leave
them on life; but if their speech be lying I will do them die."
Upon this he set apart for them apartments and rationed them with
three cakes of bread and a dish of roast meat[FN#24] and set over
them his sentinels dreading lest they fly. This case continued
for a while till behold, there came to the Sultan from the land
of 'Ajam a present of rarities, amongst which were two gems
whereof one was clear of water and the other was clouded of
colour.[FN#25] The Sultan hent them in hand for a time and fell
to considering them straitly for the space of an hour; after
which he called to mind the first of the three Sharpers, the
self-styled jeweller, and cried, "Bring me the jeweller-man."
Accordingly they went and brought him and set him before the
Sovran who asked him, "O man, art thou a lapidary?" And when the
Sharper answered "Yes" he gave him the clear-watered stone,
saying, "What may be the price of this gem?"?And Shahrazad was
surprised by the dawn of day and fell silent and ceased to say
her permitted say. Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, "How sweet is
thy story, O sister mine, and how 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 Thirty-sixth Night,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account