burton--1001-nights--sample

and honourably entreated her. So we voyaged on, and my heart became
attached to her with exceeding attachment, and I was separated from
her neither night nor day, and I paid more regard to her than to my
brothers. Then they were estranged from me, and waxed jealous of my
wealth and the quantity of merchandise I had, and their eyes were
opened covetously upon all my property. So they took counsel to
murder me and seize my wealth, saying, “Let us slay our brother and
all his monies will be ours;” and Satan made this deed seem fair in
their sight; so when they found me in privacy (and I sleeping by my
wife’s side) they took us both up and cast us into the sea.
My wife awoke startled from her sleep and, forthright becoming an
Ifritah, 19 she bore me up and carried me to an island and disappeared
for a short time; but she returned in the morning and said, “Here am I,
thy faithful slave, who hath made thee due recompense; for I bore thee
up in the waters and saved thee from death by command of the
Almighty. Know that I am a Jinniyah, and as I saw thee my heart loved
thee by will of the Lord, for I am a believer in Allah and in His Apostle
(whom Heaven bless and preserve!). Thereupon I came to thee conditioned
as thou sawest me and thou didst marry me, and see now I
have saved thee from sinking. But I am angered against thy brothers
and assuredly I must slay them.”
When I heard her story I was surprised and, thanking her for all
she had done, I said, “But as to slaying my brothers this must not be.”
Then I told her the tale of what had come to pass with them from the
beginning of our lives to the end, and on hearing it quoth she, “This
night will I fly as a bird over them and will sink their ship and slay
them.” Quoth I, “Allah upon thee, do not thus, for the proverb saith,
19
A she-Ifrit, not necessarily an evil spirit.
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