Arabs -- Folklore; Fairy tales; Fairy tales -- Arab countries; Folklore -- Arab countries; Tales -- Arab countries
Ali Baba then detailed the incidents of his journey, till he came to the
finding of Cassim's body. "Now," said he, "sister, I have something to
relate which will afflict you the more, because it is what you so little
expect; but it cannot now be remedied; if my endeavours can comfort you,
I offer to put that which God hath sent me to what you have, and marry
you: assuring you that my wife will not be jealous, and that we shall
live happily together. If this proposal is agreeable to you, we must
think of acting so that my brother should appear to have died a natural
death. I think you may leave the management of the business to Morgiana,
and I will contribute all that lies in my power to your consolation."
What could Cassim's widow do better than accept of this proposal? for
though her first husband had left behind him a plentiful substance, his
brother was now much richer, and by the discovery of this treasure might
be still more so. Instead, therefore, of rejecting the offer, she
regarded it as the sure means of comfort; and drying up her tears, which
had begun to flow abundantly, and suppressing the outcries usual with
women who have lost their husbands, showed Ali Baba that she approved of
his proposal. Ali Baba left the widow, recommended to Morgiana to act
her part well, and then returned home with his ass.
Morgiana went out at the same time to an apothecary, and asked for a
sort of lozenges which he prepared, and were very efficacious in the
most dangerous disorders. The apothecary inquired who was ill at her
master's? She replied with a sigh, her good master Cassim himself: that
they knew not what his disorder was, but that he could neither eat nor
speak. After these words, Morgiana carried the lozenges home with her,
and the next morning went to the same apothecary's again, and with tears
in her eyes, asked for an essence which they used to give to sick people
only when at the last extremity. "Alas!" said she, taking it from the
apothecary, "I am afraid that this remedy will have no better effect
than the lozenges; and that I shall lose my good master." On the other
hand, as Ali Baba and his wife were often seen to go between Cassim's
and their own house all that day, and to seem melancholy, nobody was
surprised in the evening to hear the lamentable shrieks and cries of
Cassim's wife and Morgiana, who gave out everywhere that her master was
dead. The next morning, soon after day appeared, Morgiana, who knew a
certain old cobbler that opened his stall early, before other people,
went to him, and bidding him good morrow, put a piece of gold into his
hand. "Well," said Baba Mustapha, which was his name, and who was a
merry old fellow, looking at the gold, "this is good hansel: what must I
do for it? I am ready."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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