burton--1001-nights--sample

“Is this,” continued Duban, “the return I meet from thee? Thou givest
me, meseems, but crocodile-boon.” Quoth the King, “What is the tale
of the crocodile?”, and quoth the physician, “Impossible for me to tell
it in this my state; Allah upon thee, spare me, as thou hopest Allah
shall spare thee.” And he wept with exceeding weeping.
Then one of the King’s favourites stood up and said, “O King!
grant me the blood of this physician; we have never seen him sin
against thee, or doing aught save healing thee from a disease which
baffled every leach and man of science.” Said the King, “Ye wot not
the cause of my putting to death this physician, and this it is. If I spare
him, I doom myself to certain death; for one who healed me of such
a malady by something held in my hand, surely can slay me by
something held to my nose; and I fear lest he kill me for a price, since
haply he is some spy whose sole purpose in coming hither was to compass
my destruction. So there is no help for it; die he must, and then
only shall I be sure of my own life.” Again cried Duban, “Spare me and
Allah shall spare thee; and slay me not or Allah shall slay thee.” But it
was in vain.
Now when the physician, O Ifrit, knew for certain that the King
would kill him, he said, “O King, if there be no help but I must die,
grant me some little delay that I may go down to my house and release
myself from mine obligations and direct my folk and my neighbours
where to bury me and distribute my books of medicine. Amongst these
I have one, the rarest of rarities, which I would present to thee as an
offering: keep it as a treasure in thy treasury.”
“And what is in the book?” asked the King and the Sage answered,
“Things beyond compt; and the least of secrets is that if, directly after
thou hast cut off my head, thou open three leaves and read three lines
of the page to thy left hand, my head shall speak and answer every
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