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
The princess Badr-oul-boudour, who was not only inconsolable to be
separated from her dear husband, whom she loved from the first moment,
and still continued to love more out of inclination than duty, but also
from the sultan her father, who had always shewed a tender and paternal
love for her, had, ever since that cruel separation, lived in great
neglect of her person. She had almost, as one may say, forgot the
neatness so becoming persons of her sex and quality, particularly after
the first time the magician paid her a visit; and she understood by some
of the women, who knew him again, that it was he who took the old lamp
in exchange for a new one, which notorious cheat rendered the sight of
him more abhorred. However, the opportunity of taking the revenge he
deserved sooner than she durst hope for, made her resolve to gratify
Aladdin. As soon, therefore, as he was gone, she sat down at her toilet,
and was dressed by her women to the best advantage, in the richest
habit, most suitable to her design. Her girdle was of the finest and
largest diamonds set in gold, which she suited with a necklace of
pearls, six on a side, so well proportioned to that in the middle, which
was the largest and most valuable, that the greatest sultanesses and
queens would have been proud to have been adorned with only two of the
smallest. Her bracelets, which were of diamonds and rubies intermixed,
answered admirably to the richness of the girdle and necklace.
When the princess Badr-oul-boudour was completely dressed, she consulted
her glass and women upon her adjustment; and when she found she wanted
no charms to flatter the foolish passion of the African magician, she
sat down on a sofa, expecting his arrival.
The magician came at the usual hour, and as soon as he entered the great
hall, where the princess waited to receive him, she rose up in all her
beauty and charms and pointed with her hand to the most honourable
place, waiting till he sat down, that she might sit at the same time
which was a piece of civility she had never shewn him before.
The African magician, dazzled more with the lustre of the princess’s
eyes than the glittering of the jewels with which she was adorned, was
very much surprised. The majestic and graceful air with which she
received him, so opposite to her former behaviour, quite confounded him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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