Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 7.djvu/19

 THE BOOK OF THE THOUSAND NIGHTS AND ONE NIGHT.

JULNAR OF THE SEA AND HER SON KING BEDR BASIM OF PERSIA.

There was once of old days and in bygone ages and times, in the land of the Persians, a king called Shehriman, whose abiding-place was Khorassan. He had a hundred concubines, but by none of them had he been vouchsafed a child, male or female, all the days of his life. One day, he bethought him of this and fell a-lamenting for that the most part of his life was past and he had not been blessed with a son, to inherit the kingdom after him, even as he had inherited it from his fathers and forefathers; by reason whereof there betided him sore chagrin and the extreme of care and despite. As he sat thus [absorbed in melancholy thought], one of his officers came in to him and said, ‘O my lord, at the door is a merchant, with a slave-girl, than whom a fairer was never seen.’ ‘Bring them to me,’ answered the king, and the merchant and the damsel came in to him.

When Shehriman beheld the latter, he saw that she was like a Rudeini lance, and she was wrapped in a veil of gold-embroidered silk. The merchant uncovered her face,

VOL. VII.