Page:Sinbad the sailor & other stories from the Arabian nights.djvu/317

 of her death you have succeeded at last in killing her!" "This is foolish talk," replied the Khalifeh, while Mesrur and the old woman glared at one another, speechless. "Did not Abu-I-Hasan come to me, plucking his beard and smiting his breast, and saying, 'Nuzhet-el-Fuad is dead?' Truly, then, she died first, and he, after we had made our wager, died of grief. I, therefore, have won." But Zubeydeh replied to this in a torrent of words, saying that Nuzhet-el-Fuad came to her, tearing her hair and calling out in sorrow for the death of Abu-I-Hasan. And as this was before the wager was made she in her turn claimed to have won. A long dispute ensued in which Mesrur and the old woman joined, but neither side could convince the other; and none knew but the two who lay still as death.

At last the Khalifeh, weary of the wrangle, sat himself down at the heads of the two corpses and said hotly, "By Allah! By the tomb of the Prophet! By the graves of all my ancestors! I would give a thousand pieces of gold to any one who could tell me which of these two died before the other."

No sooner had Abu-I-Hasan heard these words than he, being somewhat quicker in such things than his wife, sprang up crying, "O Prince of the Faithful! it was I who died first. And I have won the thousand pieces according to thine oath." But, when Nuzhet-el-Fuad sat up before them, and the Lady Zubeydeh saw that they had practised a trick to obtain the gold, she chid her gently, reproaching her for not asking for help; and yet she wept all the time with joy that she was alive. And the Khalifeh—he wept with laughter, and, as soon as he could speak, he cried, "O Abu-I-Hasan, truly thou art a wag!" "Nay, O Prince of the Faithful!" 221