Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 3 (of 6) Part 1
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Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 3 (of 6) Part 1
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
But when they came to the
last of the supper and the wine had mastered his brains and the Princess
saw this in him, she said, “With us there be a custom throughout our
country, but I know not an it be the usage of yours or not.” The Moorman
replied, “And what may that be?” So she said to him, “At the end of
supper each lover in turn taketh the cup of the beloved and drinketh it
off;” and at once she crowned one with wine and bade the handmaid carry
to him her cup wherein the drink was blended with the Bhang. Now she had
taught the slave-girl what to do and all the handmaids and eunuchs in
the pavilion longed for the Sorcerer’s slaughter and in that matter were
one with the Princess. Accordingly the damsel handed him the cup and he,
when he heard her words and saw her drinking from his cup and passing
hers to him and noted all that show of love, fancied himself Iskandar,
Lord of the Two Horns. Then said she to him, the while swaying
gracefully to either side and putting her hand within his hand, “O my
life, here is thy cup with me and my cup with thee, and on this
wise[208] do lovers drink from each other’s cups.” Then she bussed the
brim and drained it to the dregs and again she kissed its lip and
offered it to him. Thereat he flew for joy and meaning to do the like,
raised her cup to his mouth and drank off the whole contents, without
considering whether there was therein aught harmful or not. And
forthright he rolled upon his back in death-like condition and the cup
dropped from his grasp, whereupon the Lady Badr al-Budur and the
slave-girls ran hurriedly and opened the pavilion door to their lord
Alaeddin who, disguised as a Fellah, entered therein.——And Shahrazad was
surprised by the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Five Hundred and Eighty-fourth Night,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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