The Arabian Nights Entertainments - Volume 01Anonymous
General
The Arabian Nights Entertainments - Volume 01
Anonymous
Arabs -- Folklore; Fairy tales; Folklore -- Arab countries
cream-tart? Cursed be all cream-tarts, as well as the hour in
which I was born! Would to God I had died that minute!
The disconsolate Bedreddin did not cease to pour forth his
lamentations; and when the stake was brought, and the nails to
nail him to it, he cried out bitterly at the horrid sight.
Heaven! said he, canst thou suffer me to die an ignominious and
painful death? And for what crime? Not for robbery or murder, or
renouncing my religion, but for not putting pepper in a cream-
tart!
Night being pretty far advanced, the vizier ordered Bedreddin to
be put up again in his cage, saying to him, Stay here till
to-morrow; the day shall not be spent before I give orders for
your death. The chest or cage was then carried away, and laid
upon the camel that had brought it from Damascus; at the same
time all the other camels were loaded again, and the vizier,
mounting his horse, ordered the camel that carried his nephew to
march before him, thus entering the city, with all his equipage
following. After passing through several streets, where nobody
appeared, every one being in bed, he arrived at his house, where
he ordered the chest to be taken down, but not to be opened till
further orders. While his retinue were unloading the other
camels, the vizier took Bedreddin's mother and his daughter
aside; and, addressing himself to the latter, said, God be
praised, my child, for this happy occasion of meeting your cousin
and your husband. You surely remember in what order your chamber
was on your wedding night; put every thing in the very same
situation; and, in the mean time, if your memory do not serve
you, I can supply you by a written account which I caused to be
taken upon that occasion; and leave the rest to me.
The beautiful lady went joyfully about the orders of her father,
who at the same time began to put things in the hall in the same
order they were in when Bedreddin was there with the sultan of
Egypt's hunch-backed groom. As he went over his manuscript, his
domestics placed every moveable accordingly. The throne was not
forgotten, nor the lighted wax-candles. When every thing was put
to rights in the hall, the vizier went into his daughter's
chamber, and put Bedreddin's clothes, with the purse of sequins,
in their proper place. This done, he said to the beautiful lady,
Undress yourself, my child, and go to bed. As soon as Bedreddin
enters the room, complain of his being from you so long, and tell
him, that when you awaked, you were astonished you did not find
him by you. Press him to come to bed again; and to-morrow morning
you will divert your mother-in-law and me by telling us what has
passed between you and him. The vizier went from his daughter's
apartment, and left her to undress and go to bed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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