Page:Tales from the Arabic, Vol 1.djvu/124

104 punishment neither maketh great his mourning and his concern; but whoso hath sinned, needs must his sin be expiated upon him, though his life be prolonged, and it shall overtake him, even as it overtook Dadbin the king and his vizier.” “How was that?” asked Azadbekht, and the youth said, STORY OF KING DADBIN AND HIS VIZIERS.

“There was once a king in the land of Teberistan, by name Dadbin, and he had two viziers, called one Zourkhan and the other Kardan. The Vizier Zourkhan had a daughter, there was not in her time a handsomer than she nor yet a chaster nor a more pious, for she was a faster, a prayer and a worshipper of God the Most High, and her name was Arwa. Now Dadbin heard tell of her charms; so his heart clave to her and he called the vizier [her father] and said to him, ‘I desire of thee that thou marry me to thy daughter.’ Quoth Zourkhan, ‘Allow me to consult her, and if she consent, I will marry thee with her.’ And the king said, ‘Hasten unto this.’

So the vizier went in to his daughter and said to her, ‘O my daughter, the king seeketh thee of me and desireth to marry thee.’ ‘O my father,’ answered sheshe, [sic] ‘I desire not a husband and if thou wilt marry me, marry me not but with one who shall be below me in rank and I nobler than he, so he may not turn to other than myself nor lift his eyes upon me, and marry me