Page:Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp.djvu/294

246 the princess and promised her all she sought, he went straight to his closet and taking the lamp rubbed it; whereupon the Marid at once appeared and said to him, “Seek what thou wilt;” and Alaeddin, “I will have thee bring me a Roc’s egg and hang it in the dome of the [upper] pavilion.”

When the Marid heard Alaeddin’s words, his face frowned and he was wroth and cried out with a terrible great voice, saying, “O denier of benefits, doth it not suffice thee that I and all the slaves of the Lamp are at thy service and wouldst thou eke have me bring thee our liege lady, for thy pleasure, and hang her in the dome of thy pavilion, to divert thee and thy wife? By Allah, ye deserve that I should forthright reduce you both to ashes and scatter you to the winds! But, inasmuch as ye are ignorant, thou and she, concerning this matter and know not its inward from its outward, I excuse you, for that ye are innocent. As for the guilt, it lieth with the accursed one, the surviving brother of the Maugrabin enchanter, who feigneth himself to be Fatimeh the Recluse; for lo, he hath slain Fatimeh in her cavern and hath donned her dress and disguised himself after her favour and fashion