Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 7.djvu/141

121 with their parents and abode with them a week; after which they took leave of them and returned to Serendib; and after this, whenever they longed for their people, they used to go to them and return. Then Seif el Mulouk and Bediya el Jemal abode in all delight and solace of life, as did Saïd and Dauleh Khatoun, till there came to them the Destroyer of Delights and Sunderer of Companies. So glory be to the Living One who dieth not, who createth all creatures and decreeth to them death and who is the First, without beginning, and the Last, without end! This is all that hath come down to us of the story of Seif el Mulouk and Bediya el Jemal. HASSAN OF BASSORA AND THE KING’S DAUGHTER OF THE JINN.

There was once, of old days and in bygone ages and times, a rich merchant, who dwelt in the land of Bassora. [In due time] God the all-hearing and knowing decreed that he should be admitted to the mercy of the Most High; so he died, leaving a widow and a son, by name Hassan, a youth of surpassing beauty and grace, to inherit his wealth. They laid him out and buried him, after which Hassan betook himself to the company of folk [of lewd life], women and boys, consorting with them in gardens and making them [banquets of] meat and wine for months together and occupying himself not with traffic,