youngest sister again came forwards and kissed the ground before
him and blessed him and recited this couplet:

"Fair fate befal thee to thy foe's despite: * White be thy days
and his be black as night.[FN#150]

By Allah, O King of the Age, thou art the Sultan and that is the
Minister." The Sovran asked, "What cause hast thou for supposing
this?" and she answered, "From your grand demeanour and your
majestic mien; for such be the qualities of Kings which cannot be
concealed." Quoth the Monarch, "Thou hast spoken sooth; but, tell
me, how happeneth it that you wone here without men protectors?"
and quoth she, "O my lord the King, our history is wondrous and
were it graven with graver-needles upon the eye-corners it were a
warning to whoso would be warned." He rejoined, "What is it?" and
she began the




Story of the Three Sisters and Their Mother.[FN#151]



I and my sisters and my mother are not natives of this city but
of a capital in the land Al-Irak where my father was Sovran
having troops and guards, Wazirs and Eunuch-chamberlains; and my
mother was the fairest woman of her time insomuch that her beauty
was a proverb throughout each and every region. Now it chanced
that when I and my sisters were but infants, our father would set