which in ruth I refrained and commanded the herdsman to slay her
and flay her. He killed her and skinned her but found in her
neither fat nor flesh, only hide and bone; and I repented when
penitence availed me naught. I gave her to the herdsman and said
to him, "Fetch me a fat calf;" so he brought my son ensorcelled.
When the calf saw me, he brake his tether and ran to me, and
fawned upon me and wailed and shed tears; so that I took pity on
him and said to the herdsman, "Bring me a heifer and let this
calf go!" Thereupon my cousin (this gazelle) called aloud at me,
saying, "Needs must thou kill this calf; this is a holy day and a
blessed, whereon naught is slain save what be perfect pure; and
we have not amongst our calves any fatter or fairer than this!"
Quoth I, "Look thou upon the condition of the heifer which I
slaughtered at thy bidding and how we turn from her in
disappointment and she profited us on no wise; and I repent with
an exceeding repentance of having killed her: so this time I will
not obey thy bidding for the sacrifice of this calf." Quoth she,
"By Allah the Most Great, the Compassionating, the Compassionate!
there is no help for it; thou must kill him on this holy day, and
if thou kill him not to me thou art no man and I to thee am no
wife." Now when I heard those hard words, not knowing her object
I went up to the calf, knife in hand--And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.[FN#48] Then
quoth her sister to her, "How fair is thy tale, and how grateful,
and how sweet and how tasteful!" And Shahrazad answered her,
"What is this to that I could tell thee on the coming night, were
I to live and the King would spare me?" Then said the King in
himself, "By Allah, I will not slay her, until I shall have heard
the rest of her tale." So they slept the rest of that night in
mutual em brace till day fully brake. Then the King went forth to