Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/156

132 answered, saying, ‘We hear and obey.’ So, when Muraash came up and entered Bercan’s pavilion, the latter rose to him and embraced him, whereupon the Jinn fell upon Muraash and seized him and bound him. He looked at Bercan and said, ‘What manner of thing is this?’ Quoth Bercan, ‘O dog of the Jinn, wilt thou leave the faith of thy fathers and grandfathers and enter a faith thou knowest not?’ ‘O son of my uncle,’ rejoined Muraash, ‘indeed I have found the faith of Abraham the Friend to be the true faith and all other than it vain.’ ‘And who told thee of this?’ asked Bercan. ‘Gherib, King of Irak,’ answered Muraash, ‘whom I hold in the highest honour.’ ‘By the fire and the light and the shade and the heat,’ cried Bercan, ‘I will slay both thee and him!’ And he cast him into prison.

Now, when Muraash’s henchman saw what had befallen his lord, he fled back to the city and told the King’s men, who cried out and mounted. Quoth Gherib, ‘What is to do?’ And they told him what had passed, whereupon he cried out to Sehim, saying, ‘Saddle me one of the chargers that King Muraash gave me.’ ‘O my brother,’ said Sehim, ‘wilt thou do battle with the Jinn?’ ‘Yes,’ answered Gherib; ‘I will fight them with the sword of Japhet son of Noah, seeking help of the God of Abraham the Friend, (on whom be peace,) for He is Lord and Creator of all things.’ [sic] So Sehim saddled him a sorrel horse of the horses of the Jinn, as he were a castle, and he armed and mounting, rode out with the tribes of the Jinn, armed cap-a-pie. Then Bercan and his host mounted also and the two hosts drew out in battalia in face of one another. The first to open the chapter of war was Gherib, who spurred his charger into the mid-field and drew the enchanted sword, whence issued a glittering light, that dazzled the eyes of all the Jinn and struck terror to their heart. Then he played with the sword, till their wits were