Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 2.djvu/253

220 saw this, the tears streamed from his eyes and he wept and sighed and lamented; sobs rose from his bosom and he repeated the following verses:

Then he opened his bales and displayed their contents to Taj el Mulouk, piece by piece, till he came to a mantle of satin brocaded with gold, worth two thousand dinars from which, when he opened it, there fell a piece of linen. As soon as he saw this, he caught up the piece of linen in haste and hid it under his thigh; and indeed he seemed as though he had lost his reason, and he repeated the following verses:

The prince wondered greatly at his behaviour, and said to him, ‘What is that piece of linen?’ ‘O my lord,’ replied the merchant, ‘thou hast no concern with it.’ ‘Show it me,’ said the prince; and the merchant answered, ‘O my lord, it was on account of this piece of linen that I refused to show thee my goods; for I cannot let thee look on it.’ But Taj el Mulouk rejoined, ‘I must and will see it;’ and insisted and became angry. So he