The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 06 (of 10)
General
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 06 (of 10)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
“Adsum! Ask what thou wilt.” Quoth Sálim, “Take my brother Salím and
put him to death and carry forth the two bodies, the poisoned and the
slaughtered, and cast them down before the troops.” So the Marid took
Salím and slew him; then, carrying the two corpses forth, he cast them
down before the chief officers of the army, who were sitting at table
in the parlour of the house. When they saw Judar and Salím slain, they
raised their hands from the food and fear get hold of them and they
said to the Marid, “Who hath dealt thus with the Sultan and the Wazir?”
Replied the Jinni, “Their brother Sálim.” And behold, Sálim came up to
them and said, “O soldiers, eat and make merry, for Judar is dead and I
have taken to me the seal ring, whereof the Marid before you is the
servant; and I bade him slay my brother Salím lest he dispute the
kingdom with me, for he was a traitor and I feared lest he should
betray me. So now I am become Sultan over you; will ye accept of me? If
not, I will rub the ring and bid the Marid slay you all, great and
small.”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.
When it was the Six Hundred and Twenty-fourth Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Sálim
said to the officers, “Will ye accept me as your Sultan, otherwise I
will rub the ring and the Marid shall slay you all, great and small?”;
they replied, “We accept thee to King and Sultan.” Then he bade bury
his brothers and summoned the Divan; and some of the folk followed the
funeral, whilst others forewent him in state procession to the audience
hall of the palace, where he sat down on the throne and they did homage
to him as King; after which he said, “It is my will to marry my brother
Judar’s wife.” Quoth they, “Wait till the days of widowhood are
accomplished.”[FN#310] Quoth he, “I know not days of widowhood nor aught
else. As my head liveth, I needs must go in unto her this very night.”
So they drew up the marriage contract and sent to tell the Princess
Asiyah, who replied, “Bid him enter.” Accordingly, he went in to her
and she received him with a show of joy and welcome; but by and by she
gave him poison in water and made an end of him. Then she took the ring
and broke it, that none might possess it thenceforward, and tore up the
saddle bags; after which she sent to the Shaykh al-Islam and other
great officers of state, telling them what had passed and saying to
them, “Choose you out a King to rule over you.” And this is all that
hath come down to us of the Story of Judar and his Brethren.[FN#311]
But I have also heard, O King, a tale called the
HISTORY OF GHARIB AND HIS BROTHER AJIB.[FN#312]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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