Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 1.djvu/32

14 cannot disclose it, or I shall die.’ Quoth she, ‘There is no help for it but thou must tell me the reason of thy laughter, though thou die for it.’ ‘I cannot reveal it,’ answered he, ‘for fear of death.’ ‘It was at me thou didst laugh,’ said she, and ceased not to importune him till he was worn out and distracted. So he assembled all his family and kinsfolk and summoned the Cadi and the witnesses, being minded to make his last dispositions and impart to her the secret and die, for indeed he loved her with a great love, and she was the daughter of his father’s brother and the mother of his children. Moreover, he sent for all her family and the neighbours, and when they were all assembled, he told them the state of the case and announced to them the approach of his last hour. Then he gave his wife her portion and appointed guardians of his children and freed his slave girls and took leave of his people. They all wept, and the Cadi and the witnesses wept also and went up to the wife and said to her, ‘We conjure thee, by Allah, give up this matter, lest thy husband and the father of thy children die. Did he not know that if he revealed the secret, he would surely die, he would have told thee.’ But she replied, ‘By Allah, I will not desist from him, till he tell me, though he die for it.’ So they forbore to press her. And all who were present wept sore, and there was a general mourning in the house. Then the merchant rose and went to the cow-house, to make his ablutions and pray, intending after to return and disclose his secret and die.

Now he had a cock and fifty hens and a dog, and he heard the latter say in his lingo to the cock, ‘How mean is thy wit, O cock! May he be disappointed who reared thee! Our master is in extremity and thou clappest thy wings and crowest and fliest from one hen’s back to another’s! God confound thee! Is this a time for sport and diversion? Art thou not ashamed of thyself?’ ‘And