Janakilah,[FN#112] the gypsies, give him fifty piastres and say
him, 'We desire thee to furnish us with a father and a mother and
cousins and kith and kin, and do thou charge them to say of me,
This is our cousin and our blood relation.' Then let him send
them all to the house of the Shaykh al-Islam and repair thither
himself together with his followers, a party of drummers and a
parcel of pipers. When they enter his house and the Shaykh shall
perceive them and exclaim, 'What's this we've here?' let the Agha
reply, 'O my lord, we be kinsmen with thy son-in-law and we are
come to gladden his marriage with thy daughter and to make merry
with him.' He will exclaim, 'Is this thy son a gypsey musician?'
and do thou explain, saying, 'Aye, verily I am a Jankali;' and he
will cry out to thee, 'O dog, thou art a gypsey and yet durst
thou marry the daughter of the Shaykh al-Islam?' Then do thou
make answer, 'O my lord, 'twas my ambition to be ennobled by
thine alliance and I have espoused thy daughter only that the
mean name of Jankali may pass away from me and that I may be
under the skirt of thy protection.'" Hereat, O my lord the
Sultan, I arose without stay and delay and did as the damsel bade
me and agreed with the Chiefs of the Gypsies for fifty
piastres.[FN#113] On the second day about noon lo and behold! all
the Janakilah met before the house of the Shaykh al-Islam and
they, a tom-toming and a-piping and a-dancing, crowded into the
courtyard of the mansion.--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
day and fell silent and ceased saying her permitted say. Then
quoth her sister Dunyazad, "How sweet and tasteful is thy tale, O
sister mine, and enjoyable and delectable!" Quoth she, "And where
is this compared with that I would relate to you on the coming
night an the Sovran suffer me to survive?" Now when it was the
next night and that was