Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 3 (of 6) Part 1
General
Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 3 (of 6) Part 1
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
in the direction where formerly stood Alaeddin’s pavilion and pour forth
tears until his eyes were dried up and their lids were ulcered. Now on
that day he arose at dawn and, according to his custom, looked out when,
lo and behold! he saw before him an edifice; so he rubbed his eyes and
considered it curiously when he became certified that it was the
pavilion of his son-in-law. So he called for a horse[211] without let or
delay; and as soon as his beast was saddled, he mounted and made for the
place; and Alaeddin, when he saw his father-in-law approaching, went
down and met him half way: then, taking his hand, aided him to step
upstairs to the apartment of his daughter. And the Princess, being as
earnestly desirous to see her sire, descended and greeted him at the
door of the staircase fronting the groundfloor hall. Thereupon the King
folded her in his arms and kissed her, shedding tears of joy; and she
did likewise till at last Alaeddin led them to the upper saloon where
they took seats and the Sultan fell to asking her case and what had
betided her.——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-fifth Night,
Quoth Dunyazad, “O sister mine, an thou be other than sleepy, do tell us
some of thy pleasant tales,” whereupon Shahrazad replied, “With love and
good will.”——It hath reached me, O King of the Age, that the Lady Badr
al-Budur began to inform the Sultan of all which had befallen her,
saying, “O my father, I recovered not life save yesterday when I saw my
husband, and he it was who freed me from the thraldom of that Maghrabi,
that Magician, that Accursed, than whom I believe there be none viler on
the face of earth; and, but for my beloved, I had never escaped him nor
hadst thou seen me during the rest of my days. But mighty sadness and
sorrow gat about me, O my father, not only for losing thee but also for
the loss of a husband, under whose kindness I shall be all the length of
my life, seeing that he freed me from that fulsome sorcerer.” Then the
Princess began repeating to her sire every thing that happened to her,
and relating to him how the Moorman had tricked her in the guise of a
lamp-seller who offered in exchange new for old; how she had given him
the Lamp whose worth she knew not, and how she had bartered it away only
to laugh at the lampman’s folly. “And next morning, O my father,” she
continued, “we found ourselves and whatso the pavilion contained in
Africa-land, till such time as my husband came to us and devised a
device whereby we escaped: and, had it not been for Alaeddin’s hastening
to our aid, the Accursed was determined to enjoy me perforce.” Then she
told him of the Bhang-drops administered in wine to the African and
concluded, “Then my husband returned to me and how I know not, but we
were shifted from Africa-land to this place.” Alaeddin in his turn
recounted how, finding the wizard dead drunken, he had sent away his
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