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
wife and her women from the polluted place into the inner apartments;
how he had taken the Lamp from the Sorcerer’s breast-pocket whereto he
was directed by his wife; how he had slaughtered the villain and,
finally how, making use of the Lamp, he had summoned its Slave and
ordered him to transport the pavilion back to its proper site, ending
his tale with, “And, if thy Highness have any doubt anent my words,
arise with me and look upon the accursed Magician.” The King did
accordingly and, having considered the Moorman, bade the carcase be
carried away forthright and burned and its ashes scattered in air. Then
he took to embracing Alaeddin and kissing him said, “Pardon me, O my
son, for that I was about to destroy thy life through the foul deeds of
this damned enchanter, who cast thee into such pit of peril; and I may
be excused, O my child, for what I did by thee, because I found myself
forlorn of my daughter; my only one, who to me is dearer than my very
kingdom. Thou knowest how the hearts of parents yearn unto their
offspring, especially when like myself they have but one and none other
to love.” And on this wise the Sultan took to excusing himself and
kissing his son-in-law.——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-sixth 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 Alaeddin said
to the Sultan, “O King of the Time, thou didst naught to me contrary to
Holy Law, and I also sinned not against thee; but all the trouble came
from that Maghrabi, the impure, the Magician.” Thereupon the Sultan bade
the city be decorated and they obeyed him and held high feast and
festivities. He also commanded the crier to cry about the streets
saying, “This day is a mighty great fête, wherein public rejoicings must
be held throughout the realm, for a full month of thirty days, in honour
of the Lady Badr al-Budur and her husband Alaeddin’s return to their
home.” On this wise befel it with Alaeddin and the Maghrabi; but withal
the King’s son-in-law escaped not wholly from the Accursed, albeit the
body had been burnt and the ashes scattered in air. For the villain had
a brother yet more villainous than himself, and a greater adept in
necromancy, geomancy and astromancy; and, even as the old saw saith “A
bean and ’twas split;”[212] so each one dwelt in his own quarter of the
globe that he might fill it with his sorcery, his fraud and his
treason.[213] Now, one day of the days it fortuned that the Moorman’s
brother would learn how it fared with him, so he brought out his
sandboard and dotted it and produced the figures which, when he had
considered and carefully studied them, gave him to know that the man he
sought was dead and housed in the tomb. So he grieved and was certified
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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