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
Maymun the Sworder drained his bowl and said to her, “Brava, O
perfection of qualities!” Then he signed to her and was absent awhile,
after which he returned and with him a tray of jewels worth an hundred
thousand ducats, which he gave to Tohfah. Thereupon Kamariyah arose and
bade her slave-girl open the closet behind the Songstress, wherein she
laid all that wealth; and committed the key to her, saying, “Whatso of
riches cometh to thee, lay thou in this closet that is by thy side, and
after the festivities, it shall be borne to thy palace on the heads of
the Jinn.” Tohfah kissed her hand and another king, by name Munír,[198]
took the bowl and filling it, said to her, “O ferly Fair, sing to me
over my bowl somewhat upon the jasmine.” She replied with, “Hearkening
and obedience,” and improvised these couplets:—
’Twere as though the Jasmine (when self she enrobes ✿ On her boughs)
doth display to my wondering eyne;
In sky of green beryl, which Beauty enclothes, ✿ Star-groups like studs
of the silvern mine.
Munir drank off his cup and ordered her eight hundred thousand dinars,
whereat Kamariyah rejoiced and rising to her feet, kissed Tohfah on her
face and said to her, “Be the world never bereaved of thee, O thou who
lordest it over the hearts of Jinn-kind and mankind!” Then she returned
to her place and the Shaykh Iblis arose and danced, till all present
were confounded; after which the Songstress said, “Verily, thou
embellishest my festivities, O thou who commandest men and Jinn and
rejoicest their hearts with thy loveliness and the beauty[199] of thy
faithfulness to thy lord. All that thy hands possess shall be borne to
thee in thy palace and placed at thy service; but now the dawn is
nearhand; so do thou rise and rest thee according to thy custom.” Tohfah
turned and found with her none of the Jinn; so she laid her head on the
floor and slept till she had gotten her repose; after which she arose
and betaking herself to the lakelet, made the Wuzu-ablution and prayed.
Then she sat beside the water awhile and meditated the matter of her
lord Al-Rashid and that which had betided him after her loss and wept
with sore weeping. Presently, she heard a blowing behind her;[200] so
she turned and behold, a Head without a body and with eyes slit endlong:
it was of the bigness of an elephant’s skull and bigger and had a mouth
as it were an oven and projecting canines as they were grapnels, and
hair which trailed upon the ground. So Tohfah cried, “I take refuge with
Allah from Satan the Stoned!” and recited the Two Preventives;[201] what
while the Head drew near her and said, “Peace be with thee, O Princess
of Jinn and men and union-pearl of her age and her time! Allah continue
thee on life, for all the lapsing of the days, and reunite thee with thy
lord the Imam!”[202] She replied, “And upon thee be Peace; O thou whose
like I have not seen among the Jann!” Quoth the Head, “We are a folk who
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