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So she made them music, that would have caused the very rocks to
dance; and they passed the night in mirth and converse and good
cheer, till the morning appeared with its light and shone, when
they took leave of Alaeddin and went their way, after laying
other hundred dinars under the carpet. They continued to visit
him thus every night for nine nights, and each morning the Khalif
put a hundred dinars under the prayer-carpet, till the tenth
night, when they came not. Now the reason for their failure to
come was that the Khalif had sent to a great merchant, saying to
him,  Bring me fifty loads of stuffs, such as come from Cairo,
each worth a thousand dinars, and write on each bale its price;
and bring me also a male Abyssinian slave. The merchant did the
bidding of the Khalif, who write a letter to Alaeddin, as from
his father Shemseddin, and committed it to the slave, together
with the fifty loads and a basin and ewer of gold and other
presents, saying to him,  Take these bales and what else and go
to such and such a quarter and enquire for Alaeddin Abou esh
Shamat, at the house of the Provost of the merchants. So the
slave took the letter and the goods and went out on his errand.
Meanwhile the lady s first husband went to her father and said to
him,  Come, let us go to Alaeddin and make him divorce my
cousin. So they set out, and when they came to the street in
which Zubeideh s house stood, they found fifty mules, laden with
stuffs, and a black slave riding on a she-mule. So they said to
him,  Whose goods are these?  They belong to my lord Alaeddin
Abou esh Shamat, answered he.  His father equipped him with
merchandise and sent him on a journey to Baghdad; but the
Bedouins fell on him and took all he had. So when the news of his
despoilment reached his father, he despatched me to him with
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these fifty loads, in place of those he had lost, besides a mule
laden with fifth thousand dinars and a parcel of clothes worth
much money and a cloak of sables and a basin and ewer of gold.
When the old merchant heard this, he said,  He whom thou seekest
is my son-in-law and I will show thee his house. Now Alaeddin
was sitting in great concern, when one knocked at the door, and
he said,  O Zubeideh, God is all-knowing! Thy father hath surely
sent me an officer from the Cadi or the Chief of the Police.  Go
down, said she,  and see what it is. So he went down and
opening the door, found his father-in-law, with an Abyssinian
slave, dusky-hued and pleasant of favour, riding on a mule. When
the slave saw him, he alighted and kissed his hands: and Alaeddin
said,  What dost thou want? Quoth he,  I am the slave of my load
Alaeddin Abou esh Shamat, son of Shemseddin, Provost of the
merchants of Cairo, who has sent me to him with this charge.
Then he gave him the letter and Alaeddin, opening it, read what
follows:
Harkye, my letter, when my beloved sees thee, Kiss thou the earth
before him and his shoes.
Look thou go softly and hasten not nor hurry, For in his hands
are my life and my repose.
Then after the usual salutations from Shemseddin to his son, the
letter proceeded thus:  Know, O my son, that news hath reached me
of the slaughter of thy men and the plunder of thy baggage; so I
send thee herewith fifty loads of Egyptian stuffs, together with
a suit of clothes and a cloak of sables and an ewer and basin of
gold. Fear no evil and be not anywise troubled, for, O my son,
the goods thou hast lost were the ransom of thy life. Thy mother
and the people of the house are well and in good case and send
thee many greetings. Moreover, O my son, I hear that they have
married thee, by way of intermediation, to the lady Zubeideh the
Lutanist and have imposed on thee a dowry of ten thousand dinars;
wherefore I send thee also fifty thousand dinars by thy slave
Selim, the bearer of these presents, whereout thou mayest pay the
dowry and provide thyself with the rest. When Alaeddin had made
an end of reading the letter, he took possession of the goods and
turning to the old merchant, said to him,  O my father-in-law,
take the ten thousand dinars, thy daughter s dowry, and take also
the loads of goods and dispose of them, and thine be the profit;
only return me the cost-price.  Nay, by Allah, answered he,  I
will take nothing; and as for thy wife s dowry, do thou settle it
with her. Then they went in to Zubeideh, after the goods had
been brought in, and she said to her father,  O my father, whose
goods are these?  They belong to thy husband Alaeddin, answered
he;  his father hath sent them to him in place of those of which
the Bedouins spoiled him. Moreover, he hath sent him fifty
thousand dinars and a parcel of clothes and a cloak of sables and
a riding mule and an ewer and basin of gold. As for the dower,
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that is thine affair. Thereupon Alaeddin rose and opening the
chest [of money] gave her her dowry. Then said the lady s cousin,
 O my uncle, let him divorce to me my wife; but the old man
replied,  This may never be now, for the marriage-tie is in his
hand. With this the young man went out, sore afflicted, and
returning home, fell sick, for he had received his death-blow; so
he took to his bed and presently died. But as for Alaeddin, he
went to the market and buying what victual he needed, made a
banquet as usual against the night, saying to Zubeideh,  See
these lying dervishes; they promised us and broke their promise.
Quoth she,  Thou art the son of a Provost of the merchants yet
did thy hand lack of a para; how then should it be with poor
dervishes?  God the Most High hath enabled us to do without
them, answered Alaeddin;  but never again will I open the door
to them.  Why so, asked she,  seeing that their coming brought
us good luck, and moreover, they put a hundred dinars under the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]