found his liege lord at supper. The King bade him sit to the
trays which he did and he ate after the measure of his
sufficiency, and again when the Sultan looked upon him he was
pleased with him. And when the hour of nightprayers came all
prayed together;[FN#288] then the King invited him to sit down as
a cup-companion and commanded him to relate one of his
tales.--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 should relate to you on the coming night an the
Sovran suffer me to survive?" Now when it was the next night and
that was

The Four Hundred and Seventeenth Night,

Dunyazad said to her, "Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be
other than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short
the watching of this our latter night!" She replied, "With love
and good will!" It hath reached me, O auspicious King, the
director, the right-guiding, lord of the rede which is benefiting
and of deeds fair-seeming and worthy celebrating, that the man
took seat as a boon-companion of the King, and began to relate




The Tale of the Sultan and His Sons and the Enchanting Bird.[FN#289]