Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 7.djvu/83

65 countries, far and near, eat and drink and carry to their houses. And do thou command the people to hold holiday and decorate the city seven days and shut not the taverns night nor day.’

The vizier did as the king bade him and the folk donned their richest apparel and decorated the city and citadel and fortifications, after the goodliest fashion, and passed their time in feasting and sporting and making merry, till the days of the queen’s pregnancy were accomplished and she was taken, one night, with the pains of labour hard before dawn. Then the king bade summon all the astrologers and mathematicians and men of learning in the town, and they assembled and sat awaiting the throwing of a bead in at the window, which was to be a signal to them, as well as to the nurses and attendants, that the child was born. Presently, the queen gave birth to a boy like a piece of the full moon, and the astrologers took his altitude and made their calculations and drew his horoscope.

Then they rose and kissing the earth before the king, gave him the joyful tidings that the new-born child was of happy augury and born under a fortunate aspect, ‘but,’ added they, ‘in the first of his life there will befall him a thing that we fear to name to the king.’ Quoth Aasim, ‘Speak and fear not;’ so they said, ‘O king, this boy will leave this [his native] land and journey in strange countries and suffer shipwreck and hardship and captivity and distress, and indeed he hath before him many perils and stresses; but, in the end, he shall win free of them and attain to his desire and live the happiest of lives the rest of his days, ruling over subjects and countries and having dominion in the land, in despite of enemies and enviers.’

When the king heard the astrologers’ words, he said, ‘The matter is obscure; but all that God the Most High decreeth unto the creature of good and bad cometh to VOL. VII.