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any thing you have to ſay can be more ſurpriſing. Siſter, replies the Sultaneſs, if the Sultan, my Maſter, will let me live till to-morrow, I am perſwaded you will find the ſequel of the Hiſtory of the Fiſherman more wonderful than the beginning of it, and incomparably more diverting. Schahriar curious to know if the remainder of the Story of the Fiſherman, would be ſuch as the Sultaneſs ſaid, he put off the Execution of his cruel Law, for one Day more.
The Nineteenth Night.
TOwards Morning, Dinarzade call’d the Sultaneſs, and ſaid, dear Siſter, my Pendulum tells me it will be Day ſpeedily, therefore pray continue the Hiftory of the Fiſherman; I am extream impatient to know what the Iſſue of it was. Scheherazade having demanded leave of Schahriar, reſum’d her Diſcourſe as follows: Sir, I leave it to your Majeſty to think how much the Sultan was ſurpriz’d, when he ſaw the four Fiſhes which the Fiſherman preſented him. He took ’em up one after another, and beheld them with Attention; and after having admir’d ’em along time, take thoſe Fiſhes, ſays he to his prime Viſier, and carry them to the fine Cook-maid, that the Emperor of the Greeks has ſent me, I cannot imagine but they muſt be as good as they are fine.
The Viſier carried them himſelf to the Cook, and delivering them into her Hands, Look ye, ſays he, there are four Fiſhes newly brought to the Sultan, he orders you to dreſs them; and having ſaid fo, he returned to the Sultan, his Maſter, who ordered him to give the Fiſherman Four hundred Pieces of Gold of the Coin of that Country, which he did accordingly.
The Fiſherman, who had never ſeen ſo much Caſh in his Life-time, could ſcarce believe his own good Fortune, but thought it muſt needs be a Dream, until he found it to be real, when he provided Neceſſaries for his Family with it,
But,
