Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 1.djvu/347

321 Then said he, ‘O my lord, she for whom the august mandate was issued is here.’ ‘Bring her to me,’ replied the Vizier. So he went away and returned in a little with a damsel of elegant shape, swelling-breasted, with melting black eyes and smooth cheeks, slender-waisted and heavy-hipped, clad in the richest of clothes. The dew of her lips was sweeter than syrup, her shape more symmetrical than the bending branch and her speech softer than the morning zephyr, even as says one of those who have described her:

When the Vizier saw her she pleased him exceedingly, so he turned to the broker and said to him, ‘What is the price of this damsel?’ ‘Her price is ten thousand dinars,’ replied he, ‘and her owner swears that this sum will not cover the cost of the chickens she hath eaten, the wine she hath drunk and the dresses of honour bestowed on her teachers; for she hath learnt penmanship and grammar and lexicology and the exposition of the Koran and the rudiments of law and theology, medicine and the calendar, as well as the art of playing on instruments of music.’ Then said the Vizier, ‘Bring me her master.’ So the broker brought him at once, and behold, he was a foreigner, who had lived so long that time had worn him to bones and skin. Quoth the Vizier to him, ‘Art thou content to sell this damsel to the Sultan for ten thousand dinars?’ ‘By Allah,’ replied the merchant, ‘if I made him a present of her, it were but my duty!’ So the Vizier sent for the money and gave it to the slave-dealer, who said, ‘By the VOL. I.