the sea till the sixth day passed, and on the seventh she was
cast upon a stead where lay gardens distant from the town six
miles. So she walked into them and seeing fruit close-clustering
she took of it and ate and donned the cast-off dress of a man she
found nearhand. Then she kept on faring till she entered the town
and here she fell to wandering about the Bazars till she came to
the shop of a Kunafah[FN#171]-maker who was cooking his
vermicelli; and he, seeing a fair youth in man's habit, said to
her, "O younker, wilt thou be my servant!" "O my uncle," she
said, "I will well;" so he settled her wage each day a quarter
farthing,[FN#172] not including her diet. Now in that town were
some fifteen shops wherein Kunafah was made. She abode with the
confectioner the first day and the second and the third to the
full number of ten, when the traces of travel left her and fear
departed from her heart, and her favour and complexion were
changed for the better and she became even as the moon, nor could
any guess that the lad was a lass. Now it was the practice of
that man to buy every day half a quartern[FN#173] of flour and
use it for making his vermicelli; but when the so-seeming youth
came to him he would lay in each morning three quarterns; and the
townsfolk heard of this change and fell to saying, "We will never
dine without the Kunafah of the confectioner who hath in his
house the youth." This is what befel the eldest Princess of whom
(quoth Shahrazad) there is much to say and we will say it when
the tale shall require the telling. But as regards the
Queen-mother,--And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and
fell silent and ceased to say her permitted say. Then quoth her
sister Dunyazad, "How sweet is thy story, O sister mine, and how
enjoyable and delectable!" Quoth she, "And where is this compared
with that I would relate to you on the coming night an the Sovran