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
to heaven with the child. The king ordered a tomb to be built in the palace
for his sister, and was so much grieved at her death that he went on
pilgrimage. When he had been gone some time, and the time of his return
approached, the old woman opened the sister's tomb, intending to throw her
body to the dogs to devour, and to put the carcase of a sheep in its place.
The angels put the child in the tomb, and she reproached and threatened the
old woman; who, however, seized upon her and dyed her black, pretending that
she was a little black slave whom she had bought. When the king returned, he
pitied her, and called her to sit by him, but she asked for a candle and
candlestick to hold in her hand before all the company. Then she told her
mother's story, saying to the candle at every word, "Gutter for kings; this is
my uncle, the chief of kings." Then the candle threw mahboubs on her uncle's
knees. When the story was ended the king ordered proclamation to be made, "Let
whosoever loves the Prophet and the Elect, bring wood and fire." The people
obeyed, and the old woman and her daughter were burned.
VIII.--Histoire du Prince Amoureux.
A woman prayed to God to give her a daughter, even if she should die of the
smell of flax. When the girl was ten years old, the king's son passed through
the street, saw her at the window, and fell in love with her. An old woman
discovered that he loved Sittoukan, the daughter of a merchant, and promised
to obtain her. She contrived to set her to spin flax, when a splinter ran
under her nail, and she fainted. The old woman persuaded her father and mother
to build a palace in the midst of the river, and to lay her there on a bed.
Thither she took the prince, who turned the body about, saw the splinter, drew
it out, and the girl awoke. He remained with her forty days, when he went down
to the door, where he found the wazir waiting, and they entered the garden.
There they found roses and jasmines, and the prince said, "The jasmines are as
white as Sittoukan, and the roses are like her cheeks; if you did not approve,
I would still remain with her, were it only for three days." He went up again
for three days, and when he next visited the wazir, they saw a carob-tree, and
the prince said, "Remember, wazir, the carob-tree is like the eyebrows of
Sittoukan, and if you would not let me, I would still remain with her, were it
only for three days." Three days later, they saw a fountain, when the prince
observed that it was like the form of Sittoukan, and he returned. But this
time, she was curious to know why he always went and returned, and he found
her watching behind the door, so he spat on her saying, "If you did not love
men, you would not hide behind doors"; and he left her. She wandered into the
garden in her grief, where she found the ring of empire, which she rubbed, and
the ring said, "At your orders, what do you ask for ?" She asked for increased
beauty, and a palace beside that of the prince.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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