Unknown

“ Accordingly, they prepared for battle, and when the robbers drew near the caravan, they fell in upon them and they fought a sore battle. At last the folk of the caravan overmastered the thieves, by dint of numbers, and slew some of them, whilst the others fled. Moreover they took the boy, the son of King Azadbekht, and seeing him as he were the moon, possessed of beauty and grace, brightfaced and comely of fashion, questioned him, saying, “Who is thy father, and how camest thou with these thieves?” ”

“ Then he wrote a letter to King Azadbekht, saying to him, “I am a servant of thy servants and a slave of thy slaves and my daughter is a handmaid at thy service, and may God the Most High prolong thy days and appoint thy times [to be] in delight and contentment! Indeed, I still went girded of the waist in thy service and in caring for the preservation of thy dominion and warding off thine enemies from thee ”

“ How deemest thou of the affair?” “God prolong the king’s continuance!” replied the vizier. “What sawest thou in this youth [to make thee trust in him] ? Is he not vile of origin, the son of thieves? Needs must a thief revert to his vile origin, and whoso reareth the young of the serpent shall get of them nought but biting. As for the woman, she is not at fault; for, since [the] time [of her marriage with thee] till now, there hath appeared from her nought but good breeding and modesty; and now, if the king give me leave, I will go to her and question her, so I may discover to thee the affair.” ”

“ So the king bade hoist up the viziers upon the gibbets and crucify them there, for that God is just and ordaineth that which is right. Then Azadbekht and his wife and son abode in joyance and contentment, till there came to them the Destroyer of Delights and they died all; and extolled be the perfection of the [Ever-] Living One, who dieth not, to whom be glory and whose mercy be upon us for ever and ever! ”

“ When the king heard these words, he abode in perplexity and said, “Restore him to the prison till the morrow, so we may look into his affair, for the day draweth to an end and I mean to put him to death on exemplary wise, and [to-morrow] we will do with him that which he meriteth.” ”

“ Amen.
↑ See supra, p. 66. ↑ Khilaah, lit. that which one takes off from one’s own person, to bestow upon a messenger of good tidings or any other whom it is desired especially to honour. The literal meaning of the phrase, here rendered “he bestowed on him a dress of honour,” is “he put off on him [that which was upon himself] .” A Khilaah commonly includes a horse, a sword, a girdle or waist-cloth and other articles, according to the rank of the recipient, and might more precisely be termed “a complete equipment of honour.” ”

“ And he related to him what had passed and how the king had taken her by force. When Isfehend heard the eunuch’s story, he was exceeding wroth and assembling many troops, said to them, “Whenas the king was occupied with his women [and concerned not himself with the affairs of his kingdom] , we took no reck of him; but now he putteth out his hand to our harem; wherefore methinketh we should do well to look us out a place, wherein we may have sanctuary.” ”

“ The Persian origin of the story is apparent, not only in the turn of the incidents and style and the names of the personages, but in the fact that not a single line of verse occurs in it. ↑ Rawi; this is probably a copyist’s mistake for raäi, a beholder, one who seeth. ↑ Lit. what was his affair? It may be here observed that the word keif (how?) is constantly used in the Breslau Text in the sense of ma (what?) . ↑ A district of Persia, here probably Persia itself. ↑ Probably a corruption of Kisra (Chosroës) . ↑ i.e. waylaying travellers, robbing on the high road. ↑ Or skill. ”