burton--1001-nights--sample

young man?” and he answered, “How should I not weep, when this
is my case!” Thereupon he put out his hand and raised the skirt of his
garment, when lo! the lower half of him appeared stone down to his
feet while from his navel to the hair of his head he was man.
The King, seeing this his plight, grieved with sore grief and of his
compassion cried, “Alack and well-away! in very sooth, O youth, thou
heapest sorrow upon my sorrow. I was minded to ask thee the mystery
of the fishes only: whereas now I am concerned to learn thy story as
well as theirs. But there is no Majesty and there is no Might save in
Allah, the Glorious, the Great! Lose no time, O youth, but tell me
forthright thy whole tale.” Quoth he, “Lend me thine ears, thy sight
and thine insight;” and quoth the King, “All are at thy service!”
Thereupon the youth began, “Right wondrous and marvellous is
my case and that of these fishes; and were it graven with gravers upon
the eye-corners it were a warner to whoso would be warned.”
“How is that?” asked the King, and the young man began to tell the
Tale of the Ensorcelled Prince.
Know then, O my lord, that whilome my sire was King of this city, and
his name was Mahmúd, entitled Lord of the Black Islands, and owner
of what are now these four mountains. He ruled three score and ten
years, after which he went to the mercy of the Lord and I reigned as
Sultan in his stead. I took to wife my cousin, the daughter of my
paternal uncle, and she loved me with such abounding love that whenever
I was absent she ate not and she drank not until she saw me again.
She cohabited with me for five years till a certain day when she went
forth to the Hammam-bath; and I bade the cook hasten to get ready all
requisites for our supper. And I entered this palace and lay down on
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