Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 8.djvu/333

321 I will give him all he asks.’ So I went up to him and said, ‘If I contrive thee his slaughter, wilt thou set me free, me and my wife and children?’ ‘Yes,’ answered the king, ‘and I will give thee [to boot] whatsoever thou shalt desire.’

So we agreed upon this and he sent me in a galleon to this city, where I presented myself to the king and he built me this bath. So now I have nought to do but to slay him and return to the King of the Christians, that I may redeem my wife and children and ask a boon of him.” Quoth I, “And how wilt thou go about to kill him?” “By the simplest of all devices,” answered he; “for I have compounded him somewhat wherein is poison; so, when he comes to the bath, I shall say to him, ‘Take this unguent and anoint thy privy parts therewith, for it will cause the hair to drop off.’ So he will take it and anoint himself therewith, and the poison will work in him a day and a night, till it reaches his heart and destroys him; and meanwhile I shall have made off and none will know that it was I slew him.” When I heard this,’ added Aboukir, ‘I feared for thee, being beholden to thee for thy goodness, wherefore I have told thee thereof.’

When the king heard the dyer’s story, he was exceeding wroth and said to him, ‘Keep this secret.’ Then he betook himself to the bath, that he might dispel doubt with assurance; and when he entered, Abousir put off his clothes and betaking himself [as of wont] to the service of the king, proceeded to shampoo him; after which he said to him, ‘O king of the age, I have made an unguent for removing the hair from the privy parts.’ ‘Bring it to me,’ said the king. So the barber brought it to him and the king, finding it nauseous of smell, was assured that it was poison; wherefore he was incensed and called out to his guards, saying, ‘Seize him!’ So they seized him and the king donned his clothes and returned to his VOL. VIII.