166
“I will have thee bring me eight-and-forty mamelukes,[1] four-and-twenty to walk before me and four-and-twenty to walk behind me, with their horses and clothes and arms, and let all that is upon them and their horses be of stuffs costly and precious exceedingly, such as are not found in kings’ treasuries. Then bring me a stallion fit for the riding of the Chosroës and be his trappings all of gold, embossed with noble jewels; and bring me eight-and-forty thousand dinars, in each mameluke’s hand a thousand, for that I purpose presently to visit the Sultan; wherefore delay thou not on me, since I cannot go thither without all that whereof I have bespoken thee. Bring me also twelve slave-girls, who must be unique in loveliness and clad in the richest of raiment, so they may attend my mother to the Sultan’s palace, and let each slave-girl have with her a suit of apparel fit for the wearing of kings’ wives.”[2]
“Hearkening and obedience,” replied the genie and
- ↑ i.e. male white slaves (memlouk, whence our “mameluke,” sing. for plural memalik).
- ↑ Lit. “and let there be with each slave-girl a suit, etc.” Burton, “And let every handmaid be robed in raiment that befitteth queens’ wearing.” The twelve suits of clothes to be brought by the slave-girls were of course intended for the wearing of Alaeddin’s mother; see post, p. 167.
