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
member masculine,[FN#4] so that I remained like a woman: after which
she seared the wound with the boiling and rubbed it with a powder, and
I the while unconscious. Now when I came to myself, the blood had
stopped; so she bade the slave girls unbind me and made me drink a cup
of wine. Then said she to me, "Go now to her whom thou hast married and
who grudged me a single night, and the mercy of Allah be on thy cousin
Azizah, who saved thy life and never told her secret love! Indeed,
haddest thou not repeated those words to me, I had surely slit thy
weasand. Go forth this instant to whom thou wilt, for I needed naught
of thee save what I have just cut off; and now I have no part in thee,
nor have I any further want of thee or care for thee. So begone about
thy business and rub thy head[FN#5] and implore mercy for the daughter
of thine uncle!" Thereupon she kicked me with her foot and I rose,
hardly able to walk; and I went, little by little, till I came to the
door of our house. I saw it was open, so I threw myself within it and
fell down in a fainting fit; whereupon my wife came out and lifting me
up, carried me into the saloon and assured herself that I had become
like a woman. Then I fell into a sleep and a deep sleep; and when I
awoke, I found myself thrown down at the garden gate,—And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir Dandan
pursued to King Zau al-Makan, The youth Aziz thus continued his story
to Taj al-Muluk: When I awoke and found myself thrown down at the
garden gate, I rose, groaning for pain and misery, and made my way to
our home and entering, I came upon my mother weeping for me, and
saying, "Would I knew, O my son, in what land art thou?" So I drew near
and threw myself upon her, and when she looked at me and felt me, she
knew that I was ill; for my face was coloured black and tan. Then I
thought of my cousin and all the kind offices she had been wont to do
me, and I learned when too late that she had truly loved me; so I wept
for her and my mother wept also Presently she said to me, "O my son,
thy sire is dead." At this my fury against Fate redoubled, and I cried
till I fell into a fit. When I came to myself, I looked at the place
where my cousin Azizah had been used to sit and shed tears anew, till I
all but fainted once more for excess of weeping; and I ceased not to
cry and sob and wail till midnight, when my mother said to me, "Thy
father hath been dead these ten days." "I shall never think of any one
but my cousin Azizah," replied I; "and indeed I deserve all that hath
befallen me, for that I neglected her who loved me with love so dear."
Asked she, "What hath befallen thee?" So I told her all that had
happened and she wept awhile, then she rose and set some matter of meat
and drink before me. I ate a little and drank, after which I repeated
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