Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 6 (of 6)
General
Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 6 (of 6)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
Two of her attendants then took Fattane under the armpits, and led her to her
apartment, followed by the others. She took her seat on a small raised sofa,
and her women separated, some to the right and some to the left, and set about
their work. Prince Badialzaman had dropped his handkerchief. One of the
waiting women saw it and picked it up, and when she looked round, she saw the
prince. She was alarmed, and warned Fattane, who sent some of her women to see
who the stranger was. The prince came forward, and presented himself before
Fattane, who beheld a young prince, and gave him a most gracious reception.
She made him sit next to her, and inquired what brought him there? He told his
story from the beginning to the end, and asked where he could find the genius,
on whom he wished to take vengeance. Fattane smiled, and told him to think no
more about it, but only to enjoy himself in the good company in which he found
himself. They spread the table, and she made him sit next to her, and her
women played on all kinds of musical instruments before they retired to rest.
Fattane persuaded the prince to stay with her from day to day: but on the
fortieth day he declared that he could wait no longer, and that it was
absolutely necessary for him to find out where Morhagian dwelt. The princess
acknowledged that he was her father, and told him that his strength was so
great [that nobody could overcome him]. She added that she could not inform
him where to find him, but that her second sister would tell him. She sent one
of her women to guide him to her sister's palace through a door of
communication, and to introduce him. He was well received by the fairy, for
whom he had a letter, and he found her younger and more beautiful than
Fattane. He begged her to inform him where he could find the genius, but she
changed the subject of conversation, entertained him magnificently, and kept
him with her for forty days. On the fortieth day she permitted him to depart,
gave him a letter, and sent him to her youngest sister, who was a still more
beautiful fairy. He was received and welcomed with joy. She promised to show
him Morhagian's dwelling, and she also entertained him for forty days. On the
fortieth day she tried to dissuade him from his enterprise, but he insisted.
She told him that Morhagian would grasp his head in one hand, and his feet in
the other, and would tear him asunder in the middle. But this did not move
him, and she then told him that he would find Morhagian in a dwelling, long,
high and wide in proportion to his bulk. The prince sought him out, and the
moment he caught sight of him, he rushed at him, sword in hand. Morhagian
stretched out his hand, seized his head in one hand and his feet in the other,
rent him in two with very little effort, and threw him out of a window which
overlooked a garden.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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