Page:Arabian Nights (Sterrett).djvu/158

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

her arms, and the two black dogs under the other, and conveyed us to my house in Bagdad, where I found in my storehouses all the riches with which my vessel had been laden. Before she left me, she delivered to me the two dogs, and said, “If you would not be changed into a similar form, I command you to give each of your sisters every night one hundred lashes with a rod, as the punishment of the crime they have committed against yourself and the young prince, whom they have drowned.” I was forced to promise obedience. Since that time I have whipped them every night, though with regret, whereof your majesty has been a witness.

After the caliph had heard Zobeide with much astonishment, he desired his grand vizier to request Amina to tell him wherefore her breast was disfigured with so many scars.


The sun rose and shone into the chamber as Scheherazade concluded the story of Zobeide. But the sultan, who was anxious to hear that of Amina, bade her be ready to continue her narrative on the following morning. This she was quite content to do.

128