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 Sultan
said to the Wazir, "Needs must thou bring these three men into my
presence, as soon as the wedding-fetes be finished, and we will
enquire into what proved their imbecility." Then quoth the King
to them, "Wherefore fare ye not, ye three, and eat of the royal
banquet day by day?" and quoth they, "O Darwaysh, we are crippled
folk who cannot go and come, for this be grievous to us; but, an
the Sultan would assign to us somewhat of victual, and send it
hither, we would willingly eat thereof." He rejoined, "What
knoweth the Sultan that ye sit in this place?" and they retorted,
"Ye be Darwayshes who enter everywhere: so when ye go in to him,
tell him our tale; haply shall Almighty Allah incline his heart
uswards." The King asked them, "Be you three ever sitting
together in this stead?" and they answered, "Yea, verily: we
never leave one another by night or by day." Then the King and
the Minister rose up and having presented them with a few silvers
took leave and departed. Now it was midnight when they reached a
tenement wherein sat three girls with their mother spinning and
eating; and each one appeared fairer than her fellows, and at
times they sang and then they laughed and then they talked. The
Sultan said to the Wazir, "There is no help but we enter to these
damsels;" whereto the Minister replied "What have we to do with
going near them? Let them be as they are!" The Sultan, however,
rejoined, "Needs must we enter," and the Wazir retorted,
"Hearkening and obedience;" and he rapped at the door when one of