Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/56

36 took the two pairs of saddle-bags from us.’ ‘He shall answer for this,’ said Jouder and rubbed the ring, whereupon Er Raad appeared.

When his brothers saw the genie, they were affrighted and thought Jouder would bid him slay them; so they fled to their mother, saying, ‘O our mother, we throw ourselves on thy mercy: do thou intercede for us!’ And she said to them, ‘Fear nothing, O my sons!’ Then said Jouder to the genie, ‘I command thee to bring me all that is in the king’s treasury, together with the two pairs of saddle-bags he took from my brothers, and look thou leave nothing.’ ‘I hear and obey,’ replied Er Raad and disappearing, straightway returned with the two pairs of saddle-bags and all else that was in the treasury and laid them before Jouder, saying, ‘O my lord, I have left nothing in the treasury.’ Jouder gave the treasure to his mother to keep and laying the enchanted saddle-bags before him, said to the genie, ‘I command thee to build me this night a lofty palace and overlay it with liquid gold and furnish it magnificently: and let not the day dawn, ere thou be quit of the whole work.’ ‘Thy commands shall be obeyed,’ replied the genie and sank into the earth. Then Jouder brought forth food and they ate and took their ease and lay down to sleep.

Meanwhile, Er Raad summoned his attendant Jinn and commanded them to build the palace. So some of them fell to hewing stones and some to building, whilst others plastered and painted and furnished; nor did the day dawn before the ordinance of the palace was complete; whereupon Er Raad came to Jouder and said to him, ‘O my lord, the palace is ready, if it please thee to come and look on it.’ So Jouder went forth with his mother and brothers and saw a palace, whose like there was not in the whole world. It stood upon the merge of the highway and confounded all minds with the goodliness of its ordinance; and withal it had cost him nothing. Then he said to his