Page:Fairy tales from the Arabian nights.djvu/389

 for my cure. You have only eased me of part of my disease; you must cut it up by the roots.'

'My lovely black man,' replied she, 'what do you mean by the roots?'

'Unfortunate woman,' replied the sultan, 'do you not understand that I mean the town, and its inhabitants, and the four islands, which thou hast destroyed by thy enchantments? The fishes every night at midnight raise their heads out of the pond, and cry for vengeance against thee and me. This is the root cause of the delay of my cure. Go speedily, restore things as they were, and at thy return I will give thee my hand, and thou shalt help me to rise.'

The enchantress, filled with hope from these woids, cried out in a transport of joy, 'My heart, my soul, you shall soon be restored to health, for I will immediately do what you command me.' Accordingly she went that moment, and when she came to the brink of the pond, she took a little water in her hand, and sprinkling it, she pronounced some words over the fishes and the pond, and the city was immediately restored. The fishes became men, women, and children; Mahometans, Christians, Persians, or Jews; freemen or slaves, as they were before; every one having recovered his natural form. The houses and shops were immediately filled with their inhabitants, who found all things as they were before the enchantment. The sultan's numerous retinue, who had encamped in the largest square, were astonished to see themselves in an instant in the middle of a large, handsome, and well-peopled city.

To return to the enchantress. As soon as she had effected this wonderful change, she returned with all diligence to the Palace of Tears. 'My dear,' she cried, as she entered, 'I come to rejoice with you for the return of your health: I have done all that you required of me; then pray rise, and give me your hand.'

'Come near,' said the sultan, still counterfeiting the language of the blacks. She did so. 'You are not near enough,' said he, 'come nearer.' She obeyed. Then he rose up, and seized her by the arm so suddenly, that she had not time to discover who it was, and with a blow of his scimitar cut her in two, so that one