burton--1001-nights--sample

falcon which presently caught it up and, swooping down, drove her
talons into its eyes, bewildering and blinding it; and the King drew his
mace and struck a blow which rolled the game over. He then dismounted;
and, after cutting the antelope’s throat and flaying the body,
hung it to the pommel of his saddle.
Now the time was that of the siesta and the wold was parched and
dry, nor was any water to be found anywhere; and the King thirsted
and his horse also; so he went about searching till he saw a tree
dropping water, as it were melted butter, from its boughs. Thereupon
the King who wore gauntlets of skin to guard him against poisons took
the cup from the hawk’s neck, and filling it with the water set it before
the bird, and lo! the falcon struck it with her pounces and upset the
liquid. The King filled it a second time with the dripping drops, thinking
his hawk was thirsty; but the bird again struck at the cup with her
talons and overturned it. Then the King waxed wroth with the hawk
and filling the cup a third time offered it to his horse: but the hawk
upset it with a flirt of wings. Quoth the King, “Allah confound thee,
thou unluckiest of flying things! thou keepest me from drinking, and
thou deprivest thyself also, and the horse.” So he struck the falcon with
his sword and cut off her wing; but the bird raised her head and said
by signs, “Look at that which hangeth on the tree!”
The King lifted up his eyes accordingly and caught sight of a brood
of vipers, whose poison-drops he mistook for water; thereupon he
repented him of having struck off his falcon’s wing, and mounting
horse, fared on with the dead gazelle, till he arrived at the camp, his
starting place. He threw the quarry to the cook saying, “Take and broil
it,” and sat down on his chair, the falcon being still on his fist when
suddenly the bird gasped and died; whereupon the King cried out in
sorrow and remorse for having slain that falcon which had saved his
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