Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/97

77 bestow a robe of honour on Gherib,’ and there fell dresses of honour on him like rain. Then Gherib abode the King’s guest ten days, at the end of which time he would have departed, but Sabour clad him in a dress of honour and swore by his faith that he should not depart for a month. Quoth Gherib, ‘O King, I am plighted to one of the girls of the Arabs and I desire to go in to her.’ ‘Whether is the fairer,’ asked the King, ‘thy betrothed or Fekhr Taj?’ ‘O King of the age,’ replied Gherib, ‘what is the slave beside the lord?’ And Sabour said, ‘Fekhr Taj is become thy handmaid, for that thou didst rescue her from the clutches of the Ghoul, and she shall have none other husband than thee.’

Thereupon Gherib rose and kissed the earth, saying, ‘O King of the age, thou art a king and I am but a poor man, and belike thou wilt ask a heavy dowry.’ ‘O my son,’ replied the King, ‘know that Khired Shah, lord of Shiraz, seeks her in marriage and hath appointed a hundred thousand dinars to her dower; but I have chosen thee before all men, that I may make thee the shield of my kingship and the sword of my vengeance.’ Then he turned to his chief officers and said to them, ‘Bear witness against me that I give my daughter Fekhr Taj in marriage to my son Gherib.’ With that he joined hands with him and she became his wife. Then said Gherib, ‘Appoint me a dower and I will bring it to thee, for I have in the Castle of Sasa wealth and treasures beyond count.’ ‘O my son,’ answered Sabour, ‘I want of thee neither gold nor treasure and I will take nothing for her dower save the head of Jemrcan, King of Desht and the city of Ahwaz.’ ‘O King of the age,’ rejoined Gherib, ‘I will fetch my people and go to thine enemy and lay waste his realm.’ Quoth Sabour, ‘May God requite thee with good!’ and dismissed the assembly, thinking that, if Gherib went forth against Jemrcan, he would never return.