The Three Hundred and Forty-ninth 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 youth pursued:?By Allah, O our lord the Sultan, of that house I never saw the fellow. She then bade me hide within a room and I did her bidding in a corner place where beside me I beheld heaped together and cast down in that private site all the pieces of stuff which the ancient dame had purchased of me. Seeing this I marvelled in my mind and lo! appeared two damsels as they were moons and came down from an upper story till they stood on the ground-floor; after which they cut a piece of cloth into twain and each maiden took one and tucked up her sleeves. They then sprinkled the court of that palace with water of the rose and of the orange-flower,[75] wiping the surface with the cloth and rubing it till it became as silver; after which the two girls retired into an inner room and brought out some fifty chairs[76] which they set down, and placed over each seat a rug[77] with cushions of brocade. They then carried in a larger chair of gold and placed upon it a carpet with cushions of orfrayed work and after a time they withdrew. Presently, there descended from the staircase, two following two, a host of maidens in number till they evened the chairs and each one of them sat down upon her own, and at last suddenly appeared a young lady in whose service were ten damsels, and she walked up to and they seated her upon the great chair. When I beheld her, O my lord the Sultan, my right senses left me and my wits fled me and I was astounded at her loveliness and her stature and her symmetric grace as she swayed to and fro in her pride of beauty and gladsome spirits amongst those damsels and laughed and sported with them. At last she cried aloud, "O mother mine!" when the ancient dame answered her call and she asked her, "Hast thou brought the young man?" The old woman replied, "Yes, he is present between thy hands;" and the fair lady said, "Bring him hither to me!" But when I heard these words I said to myself, "There is no Majesty and there is no Might, save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great! Doubtless when this damsel shall have discovered my being in such hiding place she will bid them do me die." The old woman then came forwards to me and led me before the young lady seated on the great chair; and, when I stood in her presence, she smiled in my face and saluted me with the salam and welcomed me; after which she signed for a seat to be brought and when her bidding was obeyed set it close beside her own. She then commanded me to sit and I seated me by her side.?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 would relate to you on the coming night, an the Sovran suffer me to survive?" Now when it was the next night and that was