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of rare stories and marvellous histories and do your endeavour to procure me the story of Seif el Mulouk. If ye find it with any one, pay him what price soever he asks for it, though he seek a thousand dinars: give him what ye may and promise him the rest and bring me the story; for whoso happens on it and brings it to me, I will bestow on him a sumptuous dress of honour and largesse galore, and there shall be to me none dearer than he.’
Then said he to one of them, ‘Go thou to Hind and Sind and all their provinces and dependencies.’ To another, ‘Go thou to the land of the Persians and to China.’ To the third, ‘Go thou to the land of Khorassan.’ To the fourth, ‘Go thou to Northern Africa and all its coasts and districts.’ And to the fifth, ‘Go thou to Egypt and Syria.’ Moreover, he chose them out an auspicious day and said to them, ‘Set forth this day and be diligent in the accomplishment of my errand and be not slothful, though the quest cost you your lives.’ So they took leave of him and departed, each taking the direction prescribed to him. At the end of four months, four of them returned and told their master that they had searched towns and cities and countries for the thing he sought, but had found nought thereof, wherefore his breast was straitened.
Meanwhile, the fifth servant journeyed till he came to the land of Syria and entered Damascus, which he found a pleasant and safe city, abounding in trees and streams and fruits and birds chanting the praises of God the One, the All-powerful, Creator of Night and Day. Here he abode some days, enquiring for his master’s desire, but none answered him and he was on the point of departing thence to another place, when he met a young man running and stumbling in his skirts. So he said to him, ‘Whither runnest thou in such haste?’ And he answered, saying, ‘There is an elder here, a man of learning, who every day at this time takes his seat on a stool and relates
