Page:Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp.djvu/195

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he might compass the like of that affair;[1] so he said to his son, “Have patience, O my son, so we may see [how it will be] to-night, and we will set over you guards to guard you; but do not thou let slip this great honour, for that it hath fallen to none other than thyself.” Therewith he left him and returning to the Sultan, told him that the Lady Bedrulbudour’s story was true; whereupon quoth the Sultan, “Since the case is thus, we need no wedding festivities.”[2] And he bade forthright break off the rejoicings and the marriage was dissolved. The folk and the people of the city marvelled at this strange thing, especially when they saw the Vizier and his son go forth the palace in a pitiable plight for stress of chagrin and

    man ibn Auf, Abou Ubeideh ibnu ’l Jerrah and Saïd ibn Zeid), to whom (and to whom alone) he is said to have promised certain entrance into Paradise. They are accordingly considered to have pre-eminence over the Prophet’s other disciples and are consequently often invoked by the less orthodox Muslims as intercessors with him, much after the fashion of the Quatuordecim Adjutores, the Fourteen Helpers [in time of need], (i.e. Saints Catherine, Margaret, Barbara, Pantaleon, Vitus, Eustace, Blase, Gregory, Nicholas, Erasmus, Giles, George, Leonard and Christopher) of Romish hagiology.

  1. i.e. the marriage of his son to the Sultan’s daughter. Burton, “it having been a rare enjoyment to him that he had fallen upon such high good fortune.”
  2. Lit. “marriage,” i.e. “wedding festivities are out of place.” The word (zijeh) here used is a dialectic (Syrian) variant of zewaj, marriage. Burton, “we require no delay.”