The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 03 (of 10)
General
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 03 (of 10)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the ship
sped on her course, Kamar al-Zaman returned to the garden in cark and
care; but- anon he rented the place of its owner and hired a man to
help him in irrigating the trees. Moreover, he repaired the trap-door
and he went to the underground chamber and bringing the rest of the
gold to grass, stowed it in other fifty bottles which he filled up with
a layer of olives. Then he enquired of the ship and they told him that
it sailed but once a year, at which his trouble of mind redoubled and
he cried sore for that which had betided him, above all for the loss of
the Princess Budur's talisman, and spent his nights and days weeping
and repealing verses. Such was his case; but as regards the ship she
sailed with a favouring wind till she reached the Ebony Islands. Now by
decree of destiny, Queen Budur was sitting at a lattice-window
overlooking the sea and saw the galley cast anchor upon the strand. At
this sight, her heart throbbed and she took horse with the Chamberlains
and Nabobs and, riding down to the shore, halted by the ship, whilst
the sailors broke bulk and bore the bales to the storehouses; after
which she called the captain to her presence and asked what he had with
him. He answered "O King, I have with me in this ship aromatic drugs
and cosmetics and healing powders and ointments and plasters and
precious metals and rich stuffs and rugs of Yemen leather, not to be
borne of mule or camel, and all manner of otters and spices and
perfumes, civet and ambergris and camphor and Sumatra aloes-wood, and
tamerinds[FN#333] and sparrow-olives to boot, such as are rare to find
in this country." When she heard talk of sparrow- olives her heart
longed for them and she said to the ship-master, "How much of olives
hast thou?" He replied, "Fifty bottles full, but their owner is not
with us, so the King shall take what he will of them." Quoth she,
"Bring them ashore, that I may see them.'' Thereupon he called to the
sailors, who brought her the fifty bottles; and she opened one and,
looking at the olives, said to the captain, "I will take the whole
fifty and pay you their value, whatso it be." He answered, "By Allah, O
my lord, they have no value in our country; moreover their shipper
tarried behind us, and he is a poor man." Asked she, "And what are they
worth here?" and he answered "A thousand dirhams." "I will take them at
a thousand," she said and bade them carry the fifty bottles to the
palace. When it was night, she called for a bottle of olives and opened
it, there being none in the room but herself and the Princess Hayat
al-Nufus. Then, placing a dish before her she turned into it the
contents of the jar, when there fell out into the dish with the olives
a heap of red gold; and she said to the Lady Hayat al-Nufus, "This is
naught but gold!" So she sent for the rest of the bottles and found
them all full of precious metal and scarce enough olives to fill a
single jar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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