Page:Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp.djvu/46

4 and those who smote the sand and said to them, “It is my will that ye enquire concerning the child that shall be born to me this month, whether it will be male or female, and tell me what will betide it of chances and what will proceed from it.” So the geomancers smote their [tables of] sand and the astrologers took their altitudes and observed the star of the babe [un]born and said to the Sultan, “O King of the age and lord of the time and the tide, the child that shall be born to thee of the queen is a male and it beseemeth that thou name him Zein ul Asnam.” And as for those who smote upon the sand, they said