“O new fruit of life! you must just do what I tell you, and you must
use your eyes and your brains, for if you don’t you will find yourself
at the place of the negroes, who are a bloodthirsty set; and God forbid
they should lay hands on your precious person.”
Then she took the bow and quiver of arrows, the sword, and the dagger
out of a box, and the prince let fall a Bismillah, and girt them all
on. Then Jamila of the houri-face, produced two saddle-bags of ruby-red
silk, one filled with roasted fowl and little cakes, and the other with
stones of price. Next she gave him a horse as swift as the breeze of
the morning, and she said: “Accept all these things from me; ride till
you come to a rising ground, at no great distance from here, where
there is a spring. It is called the Place of Gifts, and you must stay
there one night. There you will see many wild beasts—lions, tigers,
leopards, apes, and so on. Before you get there you must capture some
game. On the long road beyond there dwells a lion-king, alla if other
beasts did not fear him they would ravage the whole country and let no
one pass. The lion is a red transgressor, so when he comes rise and do
him reverence; take a cloth and rub the dust and earth from his face,
then set the game you have taken before him, well cleansed, and lay the
hands of respect on your breast. When he wishes to eat, take your knife
and cut pieces of the meat and set them before him with a bow. In this
way you will enfold that lion-king in perfect friendship, and he will
be most useful to you, and you will be safe from molestation by the
negroes. When you go on from the Place of Gifts, be sure you do not
take the right-hand road; take the left, for the other leads by the
negro castle, which is known as the Place of Clashing Swords, and where
there are forty negro captains each over three thousand or four
thousand more. Their chief is Taramtaq.[11] Further on than this is the
home of the Simurgh.”
Having stored these things in the prince’s memory, she said: “You will
see everything happen just as I have said.” Then she escorted him a
little way; they parted, and she went home to mourn his absence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account