Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 5.djvu/298

264 lady, “O damsel, I see these meats to be many [and various of hue], but the taste of them is one.” “God prosper the king!” replied she. “This is a parable I have set for thee, that thou mayst be admonished thereby.” “And what is its meaning?” asked he. “May God amend the case of our lord the king!” answered she. “In thy palace are ninety concubines of various colours, but their taste is one.” When the king heard this, he was ashamed and rising hastily, went out and returned to his palace, without offering her any affront; but, in his haste and confusion, he forgot his signet-ring and left it under the cushion where he had been sitting.

Presently the vizier returned and presenting himself before the king, kissed the earth and made his report to him of the state of the province in question. Then he repaired to his own house and sat down on his couch, and chancing to put his hand under the cushion, found the king’s seal-ring. So he looked at it and knew it and taking the matter to heart, held aloof from his wife nor spoke with her for a whole year, while she knew not the reason of his anger. At last, being weary of estrangement, she sent for her father and told him the case, whereupon quoth he, “I will complain of him to the king, some day when he is in presence.”

So, one day, he went in to the king and finding the vizier and the cadi of the army before him, made his complaint in the following words. “May God the Most High amend the king’s case! I had a fair garden, which I planted with my own hand and spent my substance thereon, till it bore fruit and its fruit was ripe, when I gave it to this thy vizier, who ate of it what seemed good to him, then forsook it and watered it not, so that its flowers withered and its beauty departed and it became waste.” Then said the vizier, “O king, what this man says is true. I did indeed care for the garden and ate