Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/55

35 taken the two pairs of saddle-bags; which when he heard, it was grievous to him and he said to her, ‘Grieve not for this; I will show thee what I can do and bring my brothers hither forthright.’ So he rubbed the ring, whereupon the genie appeared, saying, ‘At thy service! Ask and thou shalt have.’ Quoth Jouder, ‘Bring me my two brothers from the prison.’

So the genie sank into the earth and came not up but in the midst of the gaol where Salim and Selim lay in piteous plight and sore affliction, for the misery of prison, so that they wished for death and one of them said to the other, ‘By Allah, O my brother, affliction is long upon us! How long shall we abide in this prison? Death would be relief.’ As he spoke, the earth clove in sunder and out came Er Raad, who took them up and plunged with them into the earth. They swooned away for excess of fear, and when they recovered, they found themselves in their mother’s house and saw her seated, with Jouder by her side. Quoth he, ‘I salute you, O my brothers! I rejoice to see you.’ And they bowed their heads and fell a-weeping. Then said he, ‘Weep not, for it was the devil and covetise that led you to do thus. How could you sell me? But I comfort myself with the thought of Joseph, whose brothers did with him worse than ye with me, when they cast him into the pit. Repent unto God and crave pardon of Him, and He will forgive you, for He is the Most Forgiving, the Merciful. As for me, I pardon you and bid you welcome: no harm shall befall you.’ Then he comforted them and set their hearts at ease and related to them all he had suffered, till he fell in with Abdussemed, and told them also of the ring that the latter had given him. ‘O our brother,’ said they, ‘forgive us this time; and if we return to our old ways, do with us as thou wilt.’ Quoth he, ‘No harm shall befall you; but tell me what the king did with you.’ ‘He beat us and threatened us,’ answered they, ‘and