Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 7.djvu/30

12 When Shehriman saw him take his son and disappear with him in the abysses of the sea, he gave the child up for lost and fell to weeping and wailing; but Julnar said to him, ‘O king of the age, fear not neither grieve for thy son, for I love my child more than thou and he is with my brother; so reck thou not of the sea neither fear drowning for him. Except my brother knew that no harm would betide the little one, he had not done this; and he will presently bring thee thy son safe, if it please God the Most High.’ Nor was an hour past before the sea became troubled and King Salih came forth, with the little one safe in his arms, quiet and with a face like the moon on the night of her full, and [rising into the air] flew till he reached the palace and came in to them. Then said he to the king, ‘Belike thou fearedst harm for thy son, whenas I plunged into the sea with him?’ ‘Yes, O my lord,’ replied the king; ‘I did indeed fear for him and thought he would never be saved therefrom.’ ‘O king of the land,’ rejoined Salih, ‘we pencilled his eyes with an eye-powder we know of and recited over him the names engraven upon the seal of Solomon son of David (on whom be peace!), for this is what we use to do with children born among us; and now thou needst not fear for him drowning or suffocation in all the waters of the world, if he should go down into them; for, even as ye walk on the land, so walk we in the sea.’

Then he pulled out of his pocket a casket, graven and sealed, and breaking open the seals, emptied it; whereupon there fell from it strings of all manner jacinths and other jewels, besides three hundred bugles of emerald and other three hundred hollow jewels, as big as ostrich-eggs, whose light outshone that of sun and moon. Quoth Salih, ‘O king of the age, these jewels and jacinths are a present from me to thee. We never yet brought thee a present, for that we knew not Julnar’s abiding-place