blackened my face in my husband's eyes!" Asked the King, "How
so?"; and she answered, "He came in to me yesterday; but, before
I could name the matter to him, behold, in walked Faraj the Chief
Eunuch, letter in hand, and said:--Ten white slaves stand under
the palace window and have this letter, saying:--Kiss for us the
hands of our lord, Merchant Ma'aruf, and give him this letter,
for we are of his Mamelukes with the baggage, and it hath reached
us that he hath wedded the King's daughter, so we are come to
acquaint him with that which befel us by the way. Accordingly I
took the letter and read as follows:--From the five hundred
Mamelukes to his highness our lord Merchant Ma'aruf. But further.
We give thee to know that, after thou quittedst us, the
Arabs[FN#57] came out upon us and attacked us. They were two
thousand horse and we five hundred mounted slaves and there befel
a mighty sore fight between us and them. They hindered us from
the road thirty days doing battle with them and this is the cause
of our tarrying from thee."--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
day and ceased saying her permitted say.

When it was the Nine Hundred and Ninety-fifth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Princess
Dunya said to her sire, "My husband received a letter from his
dependents ending with:--The Arabs hindered us from the road
thirty days which is the cause of our being behind time. They
also took from us of the luggage two hundred loads of cloth and
slew of us fifty Mamelukes. When the news reached my husband, he
cried, Allah disappoint them! What ailed them to wage war with
the Arabs for the sake of two hundred loads of merchandise? What
are two hundred loads? It behoved them not to tarry on that