The trumpeter blew the trumpet, the
peacock pecked its young and the Persian sage mounted the horse
of ebony, whereupon it soared with him into the air and
descended again. When the King saw all this, he was amazed and
perplexed and was like to fly for joy and said to the three
sages, 'Now am I certified of the truth of your words and it
behoves me to quit me of my promise. Seek ye, therefore, what
ye will, and I will give it you.' Now the report of the [beauty
of the] King's daughters had reached the sages, so they
answered, 'If the King be content with us and accept of our
gifts and give us leave to ask a boon of him, we ask of him
that he give us his three daughters in marriage, that we may be
his sons-in-law; for that the stability of kings may not be
gainsaid.' Quoth the King, 'I grant you that which you desire,'
and bade summon the Cadi forthright, that he might marry each
of the sages to one of his daughters.
Now these latter were behind a curtain, looking on; and when they
heard this, the youngest considered [him that was to be] her
husband and saw him to be an old man, a hundred years of age,
with frosted hair, drooping forehead, mangy eyebrows, slitten
ears, clipped[FN#69] beard and moustaches, red, protruding eyes,
bleached, hollow, flabby cheeks, nose like an egg-plant and face
like a cobbler's apron, teeth overlapping one another,[FN#70]
lips like camel's kidneys, loose and pendulous; brief, a monstrous
favour; for he was the frightfullest of the folk of his time; his
grinders had been knocked[FN#71] out and his teeth were like the
tusks of the Jinn that fright the fowls in the hen-house.
Pages:
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232