Page:The Perfumed Garden - Burton - 1886.djvu/72

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The Perfumed Garden


At sunrise he sent a mule to Beder el Bedour, in order to let her be brought to him. He made her dwell with him, and found her to be excelling all those who excel.

Then the King caused the wife of Omar ben Isad to be restored to him, and he made him his private secretary. Then he ordered the Vizir to repudiate his wife. He did not forget the Chaouch and the commander of the guards, to whom he made large presents, as he had promised, using for that purpose the negro's hoards. He sent the son of his father's Vizir to prison. He also caused the old go-between to be brought before him, and then asked her, "Give me all the particulars about the conduct of the negro, and tell me whether it was well done to bring in that way women to men." She answered, "This is the trade of nearly all old women." He then had her executed, as well as all old women who followed that trade, and thus cut off in his State the tree of panderism as the root, and burnt the trunk.

He besides sent back to their families the women and girls, and bade them repent in the name of God.

This story presents but a small part of the tricks and stratagems used by women against their husbands.

The moral of the tale is, that a man who falls in love with a woman imperils himself, and exposes himself to the greatest troubles.