burton--1001-nights--sample

have I seen from him that I should compass his death? I would not do
this thing, save to serve thee, and soon shalt thou sight that it is right;
and if thou accept my advice thou shalt be saved, otherwise thou shalt
be destroyed even as a certain Wazir who acted treacherously by the
young Prince.”
Asked the King, “How was that?” and the Minister thus began the
Tale of the Prince and the Ogress.
A certain King, who had a son over much given to hunting and
coursing, ordered one of his Wazirs to be in attendance upon him
whithersoever he might wend. One day the youth set out for the chase
accompanied by his father’s Minister; and, as they jogged on together,
a big wild beast came in sight. Cried the Wazir to the King’s son,
“Up and at yon noble quarry!” So the Prince followed it until he was
lost to every eye and the chase got away from him in the waste; whereby
he was confused and he knew not which way to turn, when lo! a
damsel appeared ahead and she was in tears.
The King’s son asked, “Who art thou?” and she answered, “I am
daughter to a King among the Kings of Hind, and I was travelling with
a caravan in the desert when drowsiness overcame me, and I fell from
my beast unwittingly; whereby I am cut off from my people and sore
bewildered.” The Prince, hearing these words, pitied her case and,
mounting her on his horse’s crupper, travelled until he passed by an
old ruin, when the damsel said to him, “O my master, I wish to obey
a call of nature”: he therefore set her down at the ruin where she
delayed so long that the King’s son thought that she was only wasting
time; so he followed her without her knowledge and behold, she was
a Ghúlah, a wicked Ogress, who was saying to her brood, “O my
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