Page:The Arabian Nights (1909).djvu/70

 him, thinking they were prepared in the best manner, he reached out his hand and took one; but when he cut it, was in extreme surprise to find it stuffed with pearls. ‘‘What novelty is this?” said he; ‘‘and with what design were these cucumbers stuffed thus with pearls, since pearls are not to be eaten?” He looked at his hosts to ask them the meaning when the Bird interrupting him, said: “Can your majesty be in such great astonishment at cucumbers stuffed with pearls, which you see with your own eyes, and yet so easily believe that the queen, your wife, gave birth to a dog, a cat, and a piece of wood?” “I believed those things,” replied the emperor, “because the attendants assured me of the facts.” “Those attendants, sir,” replied the Bird, “were the queen’s two sisters, who, envious of her happiness in being preferred by your majesty before them, to satisfy their envy and revenge, have abused your majesty’s credulity. If you interrogate them, they will confess their crime. The two brothers and the sister whom you see before you are your own children, whom they exposed, and who were taken in by the intendant of your gardens, who provided nurses for them, and took care of their education.”

This speech presently cleared up the emperor’s understanding. “Bird,” cried he, “I believe the truth which you discover to me. The inclination which drew me to them told me plainly they must be of my own blood. Come then, my sons, come, my daughter, let me embrace you, and give you the first marks of a father’s love and tenderness.” The emperor then rose, and after having embraced the two princes and the princess, and mingled his tears with theirs, said: “It is not enough, my children; you must embrace each other, not as the children of the intendant of my gardens, to whom I have been so much obliged for preserving your lives, but as my own children, of the royal blood of the