Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 5.djvu/352

318 But,’ added the damsel, ‘I know a story of the malice of men more extraordinary than either of these.’ ‘Let us hear it,’ said the King; and she said, ‘I have heard tell, O King, that STORY OF PRINCE BEHRAM OF PERSIA AND THE PRINCESS ED DETMA.

There was once a king’s daughter, by name Ed Detma, who had no equal in her time for beauty and elegance and symmetry and amorous grace and the art of ravishing men’s wits, nor was there one more accomplished than she in horsemanship and martial exercises and all that behoveth a cavalier, and all the king’s sons sought her in marriage; but she would none of them, saying, “None shall marry me except he overcome me at push of pike and stroke of sword in the open field. If any can do this, I will willingly wed him; but, if I overcome him, I will take his horse and clothes and arms and write with fire upon his forehead, ‘This is the freedman of Ed Detma.’” So the sons of the kings flocked to her from far and near, and she overcame them and put them to shame, stripping them of their arms and branding them with fire.

At last, the son of a king of the kings of the Persians, by name Behram, heard of her and journeyed from afar to her father’s court, bringing with him men and horses and great store of wealth and royal treasures. When he drew near the city, he sent her father a rich present and the king came out to meet him and received him with the utmost honour. Then the prince sent a message to him by his vizier, demanding his daughter’s hand in marriage; but the king answered, saying, “O my son, I have no power over my daughter Ed Detma, for she hath sworn by her soul to marry none except he overcome her in the listed field.” Quoth the prince, “It was to this intent that I