bear him to the house and give him a fine funeral." So I went
forth before them crying out, "Slack, my master!"; and they after
me with faces and heads bare and all shrieking, "Alas! Alas for
the man!" Now there remained none in the quarter, neither man nor
woman, nor epicene, nor youth nor maid, nor child nor old trot,
but went with us smiting their faces and weeping bitterly, and I
led them leisurely through the whole city. The folk asked them
what was the matter, whereupon they told them what they had heard
from me, and all exclaimed, "There is no Majesty and there is no
Might save in Allah!" Then said one of them, "He was a personage
of consequence; so let us go to the Governor and tell him what
hath befallen him." When they told the Governor,--And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

When it was the Fortieth Night,[FN#97]

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when they
told the Governor, he rose and mounted and, taking with him
labourers, with spades and baskets, went on my track, with many
people behind him; and I ran on before them, howling and casting
dust on my head and beating my face, followed by my mistress and
her children keening for the dead. But I got ahead of them and
entered the garden before them, and when my master saw me in this
state, I smiting my face and saying, "Well away! my mistress!
Alas! Alas! Alas! who is left to take pity on me, now that my
mistress is gone? Would I had been a sacrifice for her!", he
stood aghast and his colour waxed yellow and he said to me, "What
aileth thee O Kafur! What is the matter?" "O my lord," I replied,
"when thou sentest me to the house, I found that the saloon wall
had given way and had fallen like a layer upon my mistress and