Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 3.djvu/338

310 them, ‘God hath reunited you.’ ‘By thy kind offices, O my lady,’ replied Alaeddin and turning to his wife, said to her, ‘O Zubeideh, thou didst surely die and we buried thee: how then camest thou to life and to this place?’ ‘O my lord,’ answered she, ‘I did not die; but a Marid of the Jinn snatched me up and flew with me hither. She whom thou buriedst was a Jinniyeh, who took my shape and feigned herself dead, but presently broke open the tomb and returned to the service of this her mistress, the princess Husn Meryem. As for me, I was in a trance, and when I opened my eyes, I found myself with the princess; so I said to her, “Why hast thou brought me hither?” “O Zubeideh,” answered she, “know that I am predestined to marry thy husband Alaeddin Abou esh Shamat: wilt thou then accept of me to fellow-wife, a night for me and a night for thee?” “I hear and obey, O my lady,” rejoined I; “but where is my husband?” Quoth she, “Upon his forehead is written what God hath decreed to him; as soon as what is there written is fulfilled to him he must needs come hither, and we will beguile the time of our separation from him with songs and smiting upon instruments of music, till it please God to unite us with him.” So I abode with her till God brought us together in this church.’ Then the princess turned to him and said, ‘O my lord Alaeddin, wilt thou accept of me to wife?’ ‘O my lady,’ replied he, ‘I am a Muslim and thou art a Nazarene; so how can I marry thee?’ ‘God forbid,’ rejoined she, ‘that I should be an infidel! Nay, I am a Muslim; these eighteen years have I held fast the Faith of Submission and I am pure of any faith other than that of Islam.’ Then said he, ‘O my lady, I would fain return to my native land.’ And she answered, ‘Know that I see written on thy forehead things that thou must needs fulfil and thou shalt come to thy desire. Moreover, I give thee the glad tidings, O Alaeddin, that there hath been