Page:Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp.djvu/201

157 seek the Sultan’s daughter in marriage and he requireth of me forty dishes of pure gold, each ten pounds in weight and full of the jewels which be in the garden of the treasure, the forty dishes to be borne by forty slave-girls and each slave-girl to be accompanied by a male slave; wherefore I will have thee bring me this, all of it.” “Hearkening and obedience, O my lord,” replied the genie and disappearing, was absent awhile, then returned with the forty slave-girls, each attended by a male slave and bearing on her head a dish of pure gold, full of precious jewels. So he brought them before Alaeddin and said to him, “Here is that which thou soughtest. Tell me an thou need thing or service other than this.” Quoth Alaeddin, “I need nothing [more]; if I need aught, I will summon thee and tell thee.”

Accordingly, the genie vanished and after a little, Alaeddin’s mother returned and entering the house, saw the slaves and slave-girls; whereat she marvelled and said, “All this is of the Lamp; God continue it unto my son!” Then, before she put off her veil, Alaeddin said to her, “O my mother, this is thy time, ere the Sultan enter his palace [and withdraw] to his harem. Take him what he seeketh, and that forthright, so he may know that I can avail unto that which he requireth, ay, and more, and that