Page:Peregrinaggio di tre giovani figliuoli del re di Serendippo.djvu/177

 I knew also that a great many illnesses are usually cured by their opposites. I thought that since you were unable to close your eyes to sleep while you were in your palace, that if you were for at least seven days required to change dwellings you might be able to recover your previous health. Therefore, I suggested to you that if you had to live each day in one of seven palaces which had to be built rapidly, I believed that in this way sleep would easily return to your eyes.

The second brother said, "because I knew that Diliramma whom you loved so much and whom you believed had been devoured by wild animals, was the reason for your illness, I was led to believe that if you entertained yourself with other women, you would forget her, and thereby you would be freed from your illness. So, I suggested to you that one of seven beautiful young women should be placed in each of the seven palaces."

After he had said this, the third brother added, "Because I could not believe that Diliramma had been devoured by wild animals since there was no indication of her death in the forest, I reasoned that if you proclaimed in various provinces that seven storytellers were sought who could tell beautiful tales, and who would receive rich gifts when they returned to their cities. There was the chance that one of them might have news to confirm about Diliramma's state. And in this way the idea of the seven storytellers came to my mind.