in the city of Cufa a youth called Ni'amah, son of Al-Rabi'a, and
he had a slave-girl whom he loved and who loved him. They had
been reared in one bed; but when they grew up and mutual-love get
hold of them, Fortune smote them with her calamities and Time,
the tyrant, brought upon them his adversity and decreed
separation unto them. Thereupon designing and slanderous folk
enticed her by sleight forth of his house and, stealing her away
from his home, sold her to one of the Kings for ten thousand
dinars. Now the girl loved her lord even as he loved her, so he
left kith and kin and house and home and the gifts of fortune,
and set out to search for her and when she was found he devised
means to gain access to her".--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn
of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

When it was the Two Hundred and Forty-sixth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the
Caliph's sister said, "And Ni'amah ceased not absenting himself
from his kith and kin and patrial-stead, that he might gain
access to his handmaid, and he incurred every peril and lavished
his life till he gained access to her, and her name was Naomi,
like this slave-girl. But the interview was short; they had not
been long in company when in came the King, who had bought her of
her kidnapper, and hastily ordered them to be slain, without
doing justice by his own soul and delaying to enquire into the
matter before the command was carried out. Now what sayest thou,
O Commander of the Faithful, of this King's wrongous conduct?"
Answered the Caliph; "This was indeed a strange thing: it behoved
that King to pardon when he had the power to punish; and he ought
to have regarded three things in their favour. The first was that