Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 4.djvu/241

 is indeed a Nazarene,—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

When it was the Three Hundred and Twenty-first Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Barsum replied, "Pardon, O King of the age; thou art right as regards the table, for thy slave is indeed a Nazarene." Whereupon all present, gentle and simple, wondered at the King's skill in hitting upon the truth by geomancy, and said, "Verily this King is a diviner, whose like there is not in the world." Thereupon Queen Zumurrud bade flay the Nazarene and stuff his skin with straw and hang it over the gate of the race-course. Moreover, she commended to dig a pit without the city and burn therein his flesh and bones and throw over his ashes offal and ordure. "We hear and obey," answered they, and did with him all she bade; and, when the folk saw what had befallen the Christian, they said, "Serve him right; but what an unlucky mouthful was that for him!" And another said, "Be the far one's wife divorced if this vow be broken: never again to the end of my days will I eat of sugared rice!"; and the Hashish-eater cried "Praised be Allah, who spared me this fellow's fate by saving me from eating of that same rice!" Then they all went out, holding it thenceforth unlawful to sit over against the dish of sweet rice as the Nazarene had sat. Now when the first day of the third month came, they laid the tables according to custom, and covered them with dishes and chargers, and Queen Zumurrud came down and sat on her throne, with her guards in attendance, as of wont, in awe of her dignity and majesty. Then the townsfolk entered as before and went round about the tables, looking for the place of the dish of sweet rice, and quoth one to another, "Hark ye, O Hájí Khalaf!"; and the other answered, "At thy service, O Hájí Khálid." Said Khálid, "Avoid the dish of sweet rice and look thou eat not thereof; for, if thou do, by early morning thou will be hanged." Then