Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 7.djvu/190

168 a hundred thousand dinars, gave him the price. Then he returned to the khan and removed all his goods to the house; after which he went down to the market and bought all that was needed therefor of vessels and carpets and other household stuff, besides servants and a little black slave for the house.

He abode with his wife in all solace and delight of life three years, during which time he was vouchsafed by her two sons, one of whom he named Nasir and the other Mensour: but, at the end of this time, he bethought him of his sisters, the princesses, and called to mind all their goodness to him and how they had helped him to his desire. So he longed after them and going out to the markets of the city, bought trinkets and costly stuffs and confections, such as they had never seen nor known. His mother asked him why he bought these rarities and he answered, ‘I purpose to visit my sisters, who entreated me with all kindness and to whose goodness and munificence I owe all that I at present enjoy: wherefore I will journey to them and return soon, so God please.’ Quoth she, ‘O my son, be not [long] absent from me.’

Then said he, ‘Know, O my mother, how thou shalt do with my wife. Here is her feather-dress in a chest, buried in the earth in such a place; do thou watch over it, lest she light on it and take it, for she would fly away, she and her children, and I should never hear of them again and should die of grief; wherefore I warn thee, O my mother, that thou name this not to her. Thou must know that she is the daughter of a king of the Jinn, than whom there is not a greater among the kings of the Jinn nor a richer in troops and treasure, and she is mistress of her people and dearest to her father of all he hath. Moreover, she is exceeding high-spirited, so do thou serve her thyself and suffer her not to go forth the door neither look out of window nor over the wall, for I fear the air for her, when