The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Volume I
General
The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Volume I
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
With this the King turned to him and said, 'O youth, after having
rid me of one trouble, thou addest another to me: but tell me,
where is thy wife and where is the wounded slave?' 'The slave
lies in the tomb under the dome,' answered the youth, 'and she is
in the chamber over against the gate. Every day at sunrise, she
comes out and repairs first to me and strips off my clothes and
gives me a hundred strokes with the whip; and I weep and cry out,
but cannot stir to keep her off. When she has done torturing me,
she goes down to the slave with the wine and broth on which she
feeds him; and to-morrow at sunrise she will come.' 'O youth,'
rejoined the King, 'by Allah, I will assuredly do thee a service
by which I shall be remembered and which men shall chronicle to
the end of time!' Then he sat down by the youth and talked with
him till nightfall, when they went to sleep. At peep of day, the
King rose and put off his clothes and drawing his sword, repaired
to the mausoleum, where, after noting the paintings of the place
and the candles and Lamps and perfumes burning there, he sought
for the slave till he came upon him and slew him with one blow of
the sword; after which he took the body on his back and threw it
into a well that was in the palace. Then he returned to the dome
and wrapping himself in the black's clothes, lay down in his
place, with his drawn sword by his side. After awhile, the
accursed enchantress came out and, going first to her husband,
stripped him and beat him with the whip, whilst he cried out,
'Alas! the state I am in suffices me. Have mercy on me, O my
cousin!' But she replied, 'Didst thou show me any mercy or spare
my beloved?' And beat him till she was tired and the blood ran
from his sides. Then she put the hair shirt on him and the royal
robes over it, and went down to the dome with a goblet of wine
and a bowl of broth in her hands. When she came to the tomb, she
fell a-weeping and wailing and said, 'O my lord, speak to me!'
And repeated the following verse:
How long ere this rigour pass sway and thou relent? Is it not yet
enough of the tears that I have spent?'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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