Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/191

165 his throne.’ ‘I hear and obey,’ answered the genie, and gathering his troops, repaired to Isbanir and set upon Gherib. When the latter saw him, he drew his sword El Mahic and he and Kailjan and Courjan fell upon the army of the Red King and slew of them five hundred and thirty and wounded the King himself grievously; whereupon he and his people fled and stayed not in their flight, till they reached the Castle of Fruits and went in to Siran, crying out and saying, ‘Woe!’ and ‘Ruin!’ And the Red King said to Siran, ‘O sage, Gherib hath with him the enchanted sword of Japhet son of Noah, whomsoever he smites withal, he cuts him in sunder, and with him also are two Marids from the Mountain Caf, given him by King Muraash. He it is who slew the Blue King and Bercan, lord of the Cornelian City, and did to death much people of the Jinn.’

When Siran heard this, he dismissed the Red King and conjuring up a Marid, by name Zuazia, gave him a drachm of powdered henbane and said to him, ‘Take the form of a sparrow and go to King Gherib’s palace at Isbanir. Wait till he is asleep and there is none with him; then put the henbane up his nostrils and bring him to me.’ ‘I hear and obey,’ answered the Marid and changing himself into a sparrow, flew to Isbanir, where he perched on a window of the palace and waited till all Gherib’s attendants retired and the King himself slept. Then he flew down and going up to Gherib, blew the powdered henbane into his nostrils, till he lost his senses, whereupon he wrapped him in the coverlet of the bed and flew off with him, like the storm-wind, to the Castle of Fruits; where he arrived at midnight and laid his prize before Siran. The enchanter thanked him and would have put Gherib to death, as he lay senseless; but a man of his people withheld him, saying, ‘O sage, if thou slay him, his friend King Muraash will fall on us with all his Jinn and lay waste our realm.’