The Four Hundred and Eighteenth Night,
Dunyazad said to her, "Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching of this our latter night!" She replied, "With love and good will!" It hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding, lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming and worthy celebrating, that the second Prince, when the signet squeezed his little finger, cried out saying, "My brother, by Allah, is ruined and lost; but needs must I also set forth and look for him and find what hath befallen him." Accordingly he said to his sire, "O my father, 'tis my desire to seek my brother;" and the old King answered, "Why, O my son, shouldst thou become like thy brother, both bereaving us of your company?" But the other rejoined, "There is no help for that nor will I sit at rest till I go after my lost one and espy what hath betided him." Thereupon his sire gave orders for his journey and got ready what would suffice him of victual, and he departed, but before he went he said to his youngest brother, "Take thou this ring and set it upon thy little finger, and if it press hard thereupon do thou understand and be certified that my life's blood is shed and that I have perished." After this he farewelled them and travelled to the place of the Enchanting Bird, and he ceased not wayfaring for whole days and nights and nights and days until he arrived at that stead. Then he found the bird Philomelet and sat afar from him till about sundown when he took station upon his cage and began to cry, "Ho thou who sayest to the mean and mesguin, 'Lodge!' Ho thou who sayest to the sad and severed, 'Lodge!' Ho thou who sayest to the woeful and doleful, 'Lodge!'" Now this cry of the Bird was hard upon the young Prince and he had no sooner pronounced the word "Lodge!" than the Philomelet took up somewhat of dust beside his cage and scattered it upon him, when forthright he became a stone lying beside his brother. Now the youngest of the three Princes was sitting at meat with his sire when suddenly the signet shrank till it was like to cut off his finger; so he rose forthright to his feet and said, "There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great." Quoth his father, "What is to do with thee, O my son?" and quoth he, "By Allah, my brother is ruined and wasted, so needs must I also fare forth and look after the twain of them." Exclaimed his sire, "Why, O my son, should you three be cut off?" but the other answered, "Needs must I do this, nor can I remain after them without going to see what hath betided them, and either we three shall return in safety and security or I also shall become one of them." So the father bade them prepare for his journey and after they had got ready for him a sufficiency of provision he farewelled him and the youth set out. But when he departed from his sire the old man and his wife filleted their brows with the fillets of sorrow[295] and they fell to weeping by night and by day. Meanwhile the youth left not wayfaring till he reached the stead of the Bird and the hour was mid-afternoon, when he found his brothers ensorcelled to stones, and about sunset he sat down at the distance from Philomelet who took station upon his cage and began to cry, "Ho thou who sayest to the mean and mesquin, 'Lodge!' Ho thou who sayest to the sad and severed, 'Lodge!'" together with many words and instances of the same kind. But the Prince hardened his heart nor would speak the word, and albeit the Bird continued his cry none was found to answer him. Now when the sun evanished and he had kept up his appeal in vain he went into the cage, whereupon the youngest of the Princes arose and running up shut the door upon him. Quoth the Bird, "Thou hast done the deed, O son of the Sultan," and the youth replied, "Relate to me whatso thou hast wrought in magic to these creations of God." Replied Philomelet, "Beside thee lie two heaps of clay whereof one is white and the other blue: this is used in sorcery and that to loose the spells."?And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and fell silent and ceased to say her permitted say. Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, "How sweet is thy story, O sister mine, and how enjoyable and delectable!" Quoth she, "And where is this compared with that I should relate to you on the coming night an the Sovran suffer me to survive?" Now when it was the next night and that was