Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 7.djvu/31

13 neither had we any tidings of her; but now that we see thee to be united with her and we are all become as one thing, we have brought thee this present; and every little while, God willing, we will bring thee the like thereof; for that these jewels and jacinths are more plentiful with us than pebbles on the earth and we know the good and bad of them and their whereabouts and the way to them, and they are easy to us.’

When the king saw the jewels, his reason was confounded and his mind bewildered and he said, ‘By Allah, one of these jewels is worth my kingdom!’ Then he thanked Salih for his bounty and said to Julnar, ‘I am abashed before thy brother, for that he hath dealt munificently by me and bestowed on me this splendid present, whereto the folk of the land may not avail.’ So she thanked her brother for his deed and he said, ‘O king of the age, thou hast the prior claim on us and it behoves us to thank thee, for thou hast entreated our sister with kindness and we have entered thy dwelling and eaten of thy victual; and the poet says:

And if we stood in thy service, O king of the age, a thousand years, yet might we not avail to requite thee, and this were but a scantling of thy due.’

The king thanked him with effusion and they all abode with him forty days’ space, at the end of which time Salih arose and kissed the earth before his brother-in-law. Quoth the latter, ‘What wantest thou, O Salih?’ And he answered, saying, ‘O king of the age, indeed thou hast done us [many] favours, and we crave of thy bounties that thou deal charitably with us and give us leave [to depart];