The Arabian Nights Entertainments - Volume 01Anonymous
General
The Arabian Nights Entertainments - Volume 01
Anonymous
Arabs -- Folklore; Fairy tales; Folklore -- Arab countries
At another shop, she took capers, cucumbers, and other herbs
preserved in vinegar; at another she bought pistachios, walnuts,
small nuts, almonds, kernels of pine-apples, and other fruits;
and of another she bought all sorts of confections. When the
porter had put all these things into his basket, and perceiving,
that it grew full, My good lady, says he, you ought to have given
me notice that you had so much provision to carry, and then I
would have got a horse, or rather a camel, to have carried them;
for if you buy ever so little more, I shall not be able to carry
it. The lady laughed at the fellow's pleasant humour, and ordered
him still to follow her.
Then she went to a druggist, where she furnished herself with all
manner of sweet-scented waters, cloves, musk, pepper, ginger, and
a great piece of ambergris, and several other Indian spices; this
quite filled the porter's basket, and she ordered him to follow
her. They walked till they came to a magnificent house, whose
front was adorned with fine columns, and which had a gate of
ivory: there they stopped, and the lady knocked softly.
While the young lady and the porter staid for the opening of the
gate, the porter had a thousand thoughts: he wondered that such a
line lady should come abroad to buy provisions; he concluded she
could not be a slave, her air being too noble for that, and
therefore he thought she must needs be a woman of quality. Just
as he was about to ask her some questions upon that head, another
lady came to open the gate, and appeared so beautiful to him,
that he was perfectly surprised, or rather so much struck with
her charms, that he was like to let the basket fall, for he had
never seen any beauty that came near her.
The lady, who brought the porter with her, perceiving his
disorder, and the occasion of it, diverted herself with it, and
took so much pleasure to examine his looks, that she forgot the
gate was opened. Upon this, the beautiful lady says to her, Pray
sister, come in, what do you stay for? Do you not see this poor
man so heavy loaded, that he is scarcely able to stand under it?
When she entered with the porter, the lady who opened the gate
shut it, and all three, after having gone through a very fine
porch, came into a very spacious court encompassed with an open
gallery, which had a communication with several apartments on a
floor, and was extremely magnificent. There was at the further
end of the court a sofa richly adorned, with a throne of amber in
the middle of it, supported by four columns of ebony, enriched
with diamonds and pearls of extraordinary size, and covered with
satin embroidered with Indian gold, of admirable workmanship. In
the middle of the court there was a great fountain faced with
white marble, and full of clear water, which fell into it
abundantly out of the mouth of a lion of brass.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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