The Arabian Nights Entertainments - Volume 01Anonymous
General
The Arabian Nights Entertainments - Volume 01
Anonymous
Arabs -- Folklore; Fairy tales; Folklore -- Arab countries
The enchantress went immediately out of the Palace of Tears; she
took a cup of water, and pronounced words over it, which caused
it to boil as if it had been on the fire. She went afterwards to
the hall to the young king her husband, and threw the water upon
him, saying, 'If the Creator of all things did form thee so as
thou art at present, or if he be angry with thee, do not change;
but if thou art in that condition merely by virtue of my
enchantments, resume thy natural shape, and become what thou wast
before.' She had scarcely spoken these words, when the prince,
finding himself restored to his former condition, rose up freely
with all imaginable joy, and returned thanks to God. The
enchantress then said to him, Get thee gone from this castle, and
never return here on pain of death. The young king, yielding to
necessity, went away from the enchantress without replying a
word, and retired to a remote place, where he immediately
expected the success of the design which the sultan had begun so
happily. Meanwhile the enchantress returned to the Palace of
Tears, and, supposing that she still spoke to the black, says,
Dear lover, I have done what you ordered; let nothing now hinder
you to give me that satisfaction of which I have been deprived so
long.
The sultan continued to counterfeit the language of the blacks.
That which you have just now done, said he, signifies nothing to
my cure; you have only eased me of part of my disease; you must
cut it up by the roots. My lovely black, replies she, what do you
mean by the roots? Unfortunate woman, replies the sultan, do you
not understand that I mean the town and its inhabitants, and the
four islands, which thou hast destroyed by thy enchantments?
The fishes, every night at midnight, raise their heads out of the
pond, and cry for vengeance against thee and me. This is the true
cause of the delay of my cure. Go speedily, restore things as
they were, and at thy return I will give thee my hand, and thou
shalt help me to rise.
The enchantress, filled with hopes from these words, cried out in
a transport of joy, My heart, my soul, you shall soon be restored
to your health; for I will immediately do what you command me.
Accordingly she went that moment, and when she came to the brink
of the pond, she took a little water in her hand, and sprinkling
it--Here Scheherazade saw day, and stopped.
Dinarzade says to the sultaness, Sister, I am much rejoiced to
hear that the young king of the Black Islands was disenchanted,
and I already consider the town and the inhabitants as restored
to their former state; but I long to know what will become of the
enchantress. Have a little patience, replies the sultaness, and
you shall have the satisfaction you desire to-morrow, if the
sultan, my lord, will consent to it. Schahriar, having resolved
on it already, as was said before, rose up, and went about his
business.
The Twenty-seventh Night.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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