Page:Tales from the Arabic, Vol 1.djvu/297

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272

she still said, ‘O liar, seest thou aught?’ ‘Yes,’ would he answer and came down in haste, but saw no one and she said to him, ‘By my life, look and say nought but the truth!’ Then said he to her, ‘Arise, let us depart this place,[1] for it is full of Jinn and Marids.’ [So they returned to their house] and passed the night [there] and the man arose in the morning, assured that this was all but imagination and illusion. And so the lover accomplished his desire.[2] Nor, O king of the age,” added the vizier, “is this more extraordinary than the story of the king and the tither.”


When the king heard this from the vizier, he bade him go away [and he withdrew to his house].

  1. Lit. “land;” but the meaning is evidently as in the text.
  2. The reader will recognize the well-known story used by Chaucer, Boccaccio and La Fontaine.