Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 3 (of 6) Part 2
General
Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 3 (of 6) Part 2
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
Quoth they, “O our sister, at early light we espied thee going
to the pleasure grounds with a gardener-lad empty handed, but now thou
bringest back this golden casket; so disclose to us where and how thou
hast found it; and haply there may be some hoard close hidden in the
parterre?” Perizadah replied, “Sooth ye say, O my brothers: I took this
lad with me and made him dig under a certain tree where we came upon
this box of pearls, at the sight whereof methinks your hearts will be
delighted.” The Princess straightway opened the box and her Brothers
sighting the pearls and unions were amazed with extreme amazement and
rejoiced greatly to see them. Quoth the Princess, “Come now ye twain
with me, for that I have in hand a weighty matter;” and quoth Prince
Bahman, “What is there to do? I pray thee tell us without delay for
never yet hast thou kept aught of thy life from us.” She made reply, “O
my brothers, I have nothing to hide from you, nor think ye any ill of
me, for I am now about to tell you all the tale.” Then she made known to
them what advice the Speaking-Bird had given to her; and they, conning
the matter over in their minds, marvelled much why her slave had bidden
them set a dish of green cucumbers stuffed with pearls before the Shah,
nor could they devise any reason for it. Presently the Princess resumed,
“The Speaking-Bird indeed is wise and ware; so methinks this counsel
must be for our advantage; and at any rate it cannot be without some
object and purpose. It therefore behoveth us to do even as he hath
commanded.” Hereupon the Princess went to her own chamber and summoning
the head cook said to him, “This day the Shah, the Shadow of Allah upon
Earth, will condescend here to eat the noon-meal. So do thou take heed
that the meats be of choicest flavour and fittest to set before the
Asylum of the World, but of all the dishes there is one thou alone must
make and let not another have a hand therein. This shall be of the
freshest green cucumbers with a stuffing of unions and pearls.”——And as
the morn began to dawn Shahrazad held her peace till
The end of the Six Hundred and Eighty-fifth Night.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account