Aladdin left the princess Badr-oul-boudour that moment, and went up into the hall of four-and-twenty windows, where pulling out of his bosom the lamp, which after the danger he had been exposed to, he always carried about him, he rubbed it; upon which the genie immediately appeared. “Genie,” said Aladdin, “there wants a roc’s egg to be hung up in the midst of the dome. I command thee, in the name of this lamp, to repair the deficiency.” Aladdin had no sooner pronounced these words, but the genie gave so loud and terrible a cry, that the hall shook, and Aladdin could scarce stand upright. “What! wretch,” said the genie, in a voice that would have made the most undaunted man tremble, “is it not enough that I and my companions have done everything for you, but you, by an unheard-of ingratitude, must command me to bring my master, and hang him up in the midst of this dome? This attempt deserves that you, your wife, and your palace, should be immediately reduced to ashes; but you are happy in not being the author of this request, and that it does not come from yourself. Know, then, that the true author is the brother of the African magician, your enemy, whom you have destroyed as he deserved. He is now in your palace, disguised in the clothes of the holy woman Fatima, whom he murdered: and it is he who has suggested to your wife to make this pernicious demand. His design is to kill you, therefore take care of yourself.” After these words, the genie disappeared.
Aladdin lost not a word of what the genie had said. He had heard talk of the holy woman Fatima, and how she pretended to cure the headache. He returned to the princess’s apartment, and without mentioning a word of what had happened, he sat down, and complained of a great pain which had suddenly seized his head; upon which the princess ordered the holy woman to be presently fetched, and then told him how that holy woman came to the palace, and that she had appointed her an apartment.
When the pretended Fatima came, Aladdin said, “Come hither, good mother, I am glad to see you here at so fortunate a time: I am tormented with a violent pain in my head, and request your assistance, by the confidence I have in your good prayers, and hope you will not refuse me that favour which you do to so many persons afflicted with this distemper.” So saying, he rose up, but held down his head. The counterfeit Fatima advanced towards him, with his hand all the time on a dagger concealed in his girdle under his gown; which Aladdin observing, he seized his hand before he had drawn it, pierced him to the heart with his own dagger, and then threw him down on the floor dead.
“My dear husband, what have you done?” cried the princess in surprise. “You have killed the holy woman.” “No, my princess,” answered Aladdin without emotion, “I have not killed Fatima, but a wicked wretch that would have assassinated me, if I had not prevented him. This wicked man,” added he, uncovering his face, “has strangled Fatima, whom you accused me of killing, and disguised himself in her clothes, to come and murder me: but that you may know him better, he is brother to the African magician.” Then Aladdin told her how he came to know those particulars, and afterwards ordered the dead body to be taken away.
Thus was Aladdin delivered from the persecution of two brothers who were magicians. Within a few years afterwards the sultan died in a good old age, and as he left no male children, the princess Badr-oul-boudour, as lawful heir of the crown, succeeded him, and communicating the power to Aladdin, they reigned together many years, and left a numerous and illustrious posterity behind them.
“Sir,” said the sultaness Scheherazade, after she had finished the story of the Wonderful Lamp, “your majesty without doubt has observed in the person of the African magician a man abandoned to the unbounded passion for possessing immense treasures by the most unworthy means. On the contrary, your majesty sees in Aladdin a person of mean birth raised to the regal dignity by making use of the same treasures, which came to him without his seeking, but just as he had an occasion for them to compass the end proposed; and in the sultan you will have learnt what dangers a just and equitable monarch runs, even to the risk of being dethroned, when, by crying injustice, and against all the rules of equity, he dares by an unreasonable precipitation, condemn an innocent person to death, without giving him leave to justify himself. In short, you must abhor those two wicked magicians, one of whom sacrificed his life to attain great riches, the other his life and religion to revenge him, and both received the chastisements they deserved.”[[233]]
KHUDADAD AND HIS BROTHERS.
Quoth Dunyazad, “O sister mine, how rare is thy tale and delectable!” and quoth Shahrazad, “And what is this compared with that I could relate to you after the coming night, an this my lord the King deign leave me on life?” So Shahryar said to himself, “Indeed I will not slay her until she tell me the whole tale.”
And when it was the Five Hundred and Ninety-second Night,[[234]]
Shahrazad began to relate the adventures of