The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 03

Inscribed to the Memory of A Friend Who During A Friendship of Twenty-Six Years Ever Showed Me The Most Unwearied Kindness, Richard Monckton Milnes Baron Houghton.
When it was the One Hundred and Twenty-Fifth Night
When it was the One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Night,
When it was the One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir Dandan pursued to King Zau al-Makan, The youth Aziz thus continued his story to Taj al-Muluk: When I awoke and found myself thrown down at the garden gate, I rose, groaning for pain and misery, and made my way to our home and entering, I came upon my mother weeping for me, and saying, Would I knew, O my son, in what land art thou? So I drew near and threw myself upon her, and when she looked at me and felt me, she knew that I was ill; for my face was coloured black and tan. Then I thought of my cousin and all the kind offices she had been wont to do me, and I learned when too late that she had truly loved me; so I wept for her and my mother wept also Presently she said to me, O my son, thy sire is dead. At this my fury against Fate redoubled, and I cried till I fell into a fit. When I came to myself, I looked at the place where my cousin Azizah had been used to sit and shed tears anew, till I all but fainted once more for excess of weeping; and I ceased not to cry and sob and wail till midnight, when my mother said to me, Thy father hath been dead these ten days. I shall never think of any one but my cousin Azizah, replied I; and indeed I deserve all that hath befallen me, for that I neglected her who loved me with love so dear. Asked she, What hath befallen thee? So I told her all that had happened and she wept awhile, then she rose and set some matter of meat and drink before me. I ate a little and drank, after which I repeated my story to her, and told her the whole occurrence; whereupon she exclaimed, Praised be Allah, that she did but this to thee and forbore to slaughter thee! Then she nursed me and medicined me till I regained my health; and, when my recovery was complete, she said to me, O my son, I will now bring out to thee that which thy cousin committed to me in trust for thee; for it is thine. She swore me not to give it thee, till I should see thee recalling her to mind and weeping over her and thy connection severed from other than herself; and now I know that these conditions are fulfilled in thee. So she arose, and opening a chest, took out this piece of linen, with the figures of gazelles worked thereon, which I had given to Azizah in time past; and taking it I found written therein these couplets,