Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 2 (of 6)
General
Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 2 (of 6)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
So the three brothers fell to quarrelling with one another, and being
completely under the dominion of conceit, they left that turtle, and
went off immediately to the court of the king of that country, whose
name was Prasenajit, and who lived in a city named Vitankapura, in order
to have the dispute decided. There they had themselves announced by the
warder, and went in, and gave the king a circumstantial account of their
case. The king said, “Wait here, and I will put you all in turn to the
proof;” so they agreed and remained there. And at the time that the king
took his meal, he had them conducted to a seat of honour, and given
delicious food fit for a king, possessing all the six flavours. And
while all were feasting around him, the Bráhman who was fastidious about
eating alone of all the company did not eat, but sat there with his face
puckered up with disgust. The king himself asked the Bráhman why he did
not eat his food, though it was sweet and fragrant, and he slowly
answered him, “I perceive in this food an evil smell of the reek from
corpses, so I cannot bring myself to eat it, however delicious it may
be.” When he said this before the assembled multitude, they all smelled
it by the king’s orders, and said, “This food is prepared from white
rice and is good and fragrant.” But the Bráhman who was so fastidious
about eating would not touch it, but stopped his nose. Then the king
reflected, and proceeded to inquire into the matter, and found out from
his officers that the food had been made from rice which had been grown
in a field near the burning _ghát_ of a certain village. Then the king
was much astonished, and, being pleased, he said to him, “In truth you
are very particular as to what you eat; so eat of some other dish.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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