Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/332

302 and Zureic and tell them that I have brought the gear and the Jew’s head and bid them meet me to-morrow at the Khalif’s Divan, to receive Zeyneb’s dowry.’ And Ahmed ed Denef rejoiced in this and said to Ali, ‘Thou hast not disappointed our pains in rearing thee, O Ali!’

Next morning, Ali took the robe and tray and the rod and chains of gold, together with the Jew’s head on a pike, and went up, accompanied by Ahmed ed Denef and the Forty, to the Divan, where they kissed the ground before the Khalif, who turned and seeing a youth of the most valiant aspect, enquired of Ahmed ed Denef concerning him. ‘O Commander of the Faithful,’ answered Ahmed, ‘this is Quicksilver Ali the Egyptian, captain of the brave boys of Cairo, and he is the first of my lads.’ And the Khalif loved him for the valour that shone from between his eyes, testifying for him and not against him. Then Ali rose and cast the Jew’s head down before him, saying, ‘May all thine enemies be like this one, O Commander of the Faithful!’ Quoth Er Reshid, ‘Whose head is this?’ And Ali answered, ‘It is the head of Azariah the Jew.’ ‘Who slew him?’ asked the Khalif. So Ali related to him all that had passed, from first to last, and the Khalif said, ‘I had not thought thou wouldst kill him, for that he was a sorcerer.’ ‘O Commander of the Faithful,’ rejoined Ali, ‘my Lord made me able to his slaughter.’ Then the Khalif sent the chief of the police to the Jew’s palace, where he found him lying headless; so he laid the body on a bier, and carried it to Er Reshid, who commanded to burn it.

At this moment up came Kemer and kissing the earth before the Khalif, informed him that she was the Jew’s daughter and that she had become a Muslim. Then she renewed her profession before the Commander of the Faithful and said to him, ‘Be thou my intercessor with Quicksilver Ali that he take me to wife.’ [So Er Reshid