Page:Abdullah--Thief of Bagdad.djvu/137

THE THIEF OF BAGDAD 131 would I commit the many sins. And so I want her to be my wife."

"By my tail! Almost a woman's reason!" exclaimed Hakim Ali impatiently, scratching his nose with his left hind claw—"that is to say, no reason at all!"

But the Prince of India was stubborn in his resolve. He implored the other to help him find the greatest treasure, the most exotic rarity on earth, adding: "There is no price I would not be willing to pay for it, including the revenues of all my kingdom, and all the jewels of my ancient dynasty!”

Hakim Ali laughed.

"My lord,” he replied, "you will not have to pay one millionth part of it."

With his tail he pointed at a bazar booth where a mass of Persian, Bokharan, and Turkish rugs was heaped up for sale, precious, silken masterpieces of the weaver's art, gay with furnace-crimson and cherry-red and lilac subtle as a spirit flame, with serpent-green and emerald-green, with amber like the bloom of grapes and the dead-gold of autumn leaves, with black and silver as a fervid summer night