and earth, in your presence; in spite of all, I made the genie know that I understood more than he; I have conquered and reduced him to ashes, but I cannot escape death, which is approaching.”
Suddenly the princess exclaimed, “I burn, I burn!” She found that the fire had at last seized upon her vital parts, which made her still cry, “I burn;” until death had put an end to her intolerable pains. The effect of the fire was so powerful, that in a few moments she too was wholly reduced to ashes.
I cannot tell you, madam, how much I was grieved at so dismal a spectacle; I had rather all my life have continued an ape or a dog, than to have seen my benefactress thus miserably perish. The sultan cried piteously, and beat himself on his head and breast, until, being quite overcome with grief, he fainted away. In the mean time, the attendants and officers came running at the sultan’s lamentations, and with much difficulty brought him to himself.
When the knowledge of the death of the princess had spread through the palace and the city, all the people greatly bewailed her loss. Public mourning was observed for seven days. The ashes of the genie were thrown into the air; but those of the princess were collected into a precious urn, to be preserved; and the urn was deposited in a superb mausoleum constructed for that purpose on the spot where the princess had been consumed.
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