She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Ala
al-Din's mother said to her lady-friends, "Verily his father
feared for him the evil eye and reared him in an underground
chamber; and haply the slave forgot to shut the door and he fared
forth; but we did not mean that he should come out, before his
beard was grown." The women gave her joy of him, and the youth
went out from them into the court yard where he seated himself in
the open sitting room; and behold, in came the slaves with his
father's she mule, and he said to them, "Whence cometh this
mule?" Quoth they, "We escorted thy father when riding her to the
shop, and we have brought her back." He asked, "What may be my
father's trade?"; and they answered, "Thy father is Consul of the
merchants in the land of Egypt and Sultan of the Sons of the
Arabs." Then he went in to his mother and said to her, "O my
mother, what is my father's trade?" Said she, "O my son, thy sire
is a merchant and Consul of the merchants in the land of Egypt
and Sultan of the Sons of the Arabs. His slaves consult him not
in selling aught whose price is less than one thousand gold
pieces, but merchandise worth him an hundred and less they sell
at their own discretion; nor cloth any merchandise whatever,
little or much, leave the country without passing through his
hands and he disposeth of it as he pleaseth; nor is a bale packed
and sent abroad amongst folk but what is under his disposal. And
"Almighty Allah, O my son, hath given thy father monies past
compt." He rejoined, "O my mother, praised be Allah, that I am
son of the Sultan of the Sons of the Arabs and that my father is
Consul of the merchants! But why, O my mother, do ye put me in
the underground chamber and leave me prisoner there?" Quoth she,
"O my son, we imprisoned thee not save for fear of folks' eyes:
'the evil eye is a truth,'[FN#34] and most of those in their long