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traitress, wilt thou lie to me and tell me that none lay with me
last night and forswear thyself to me? By Allah, replied the
nurse, I do not lie to thee nor have I sworn falsely! Her
words incensed the princess and drawing a sword she had by her,
she smote the old woman with it and slew her; whereupon the
eunuch and the waiting-women cried out at her and running to her
father, acquainted him with her case. So he went to her
forthright and said to her, O my daughter, what ails thee? O
my father, answered she, where is the young man that lay with
me last night? Then her reason left her and she cast her eyes
right and left and rent her dress even to the skirt. When the
King saw this, he bade the women lay hands on her; so they seized
and bound her, then putting a chain of iron about her neck, made
her fast to the window and there left her. As for her father,
the world was straitened upon him, when he saw what had befallen
her, for that he loved her and her case was not a little thing to
him. So he summoned the doctors and astrologers and magicians
and said to them, Whoso cureth my daughter of her disorder, I
will marry him to her and give him half my kingdom; but whoso
cometh to her and cureth her not, I will strike off his head and
hang it over her palace-gate. Accordingly, all who went in to
her, but failed to cure her, he beheaded and hung their heads
over her palace-gate, till he had beheaded forty physicians and
crucified as many astrologers on her account; wherefore all the
folk held aloof from her, for all the physicians failed to cure
her malady and her case was a puzzle to the men of science and
the magicians. And as her longing and passion redoubled and love
and distraction were sore upon her, she poured forth tears and
repeated the following verses:
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My longing after thee, my moon, my foeman is; The thought of thee
by night doth comrade with me dwell.
I pass the darksome hours, and in my bosom flames A fire, for
heat that s like the very fire of hell.
I m smitten with excess of ardour and desire; By which my pain is
grown an anguish fierce and fell.
Then she sighed and repeated these also:
My peace on the belovéd ones, where er they light them down! I
weary for the neighbourhood of those I love, full sore.
My salutation unto you, not that of taking leave, But greetings
of abundant peace, increasing evermore!
For, of a truth, I love you dear and love your land no less; But
woe is me! I m far away from that I weary for.
Then she wept till her eyes grew weak and her cheeks pale and
withered: and thus she abode three years. Now she had a
foster-brother, by name Merzewan, who was absent from her all
this time, travelling in far countries. He loved her with an
exceeding love, passing that of brothers; so when he came back,
he went in to his mother and asked for his foster-sister the
princess Budour. Alas, my son, answered she, thy sister has
been smitten with madness and has passed these three years, with
an iron chain about her neck; and all the physicians and men of
science have failed of curing her. When he heard this, he said,
I must needs go in to her; peradventure I may discover what ails
her, and be able to cure her. So be it, replied his mother;
but wait till to-morrow, that I may make shift for thee. Then
she went to the princess s palace and accosting the eunuch in
charge of the door, made him a present and said to him, I have a
married daughter, who was brought up with thy mistress and is
sore concerned for what has befallen her, and I desire of thy
favour that my daughter may go in to her and look on her awhile,
then return whence she came, and none shall know it. This may
not be, except by night, replied the eunuch, after the King has
visited the princess and gone away; then come thou and thy
daughter. She kissed the eunuch s hand and returning home,
waited till the morrow at nightfall, when she dressed her son in
woman s apparel and taking him by the hand, carried him to the
palace. When the eunuch saw her, he said, Enter, but do not
tarry long. So they went in and when Merzewan saw the princess
in the aforesaid plight, he saluted her, after his mother had
taken off his woman s attire: then pulling out the books he had
brought with him and lighting a candle, he began to recite
certain conjurations. The princess looked at him and knowing
him, said to him, O my brother, thou hast been absent on thy
travels and we have been cut off from news of thee. True,
answered he; but God has brought me back in safety and I am now
minded to set out again; nor has aught delayed me but the sad
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news I hear of thee; wherefore my heart ached for thee and I came
to thee, so haply I may rid thee of thy malady. O my brother,
rejoined she, thinkest thou it is madness ails me? Yes,
answered he, and she said, Not so, by Allah! It is even as says
the poet:
Quoth they, Thou rt surely mad for him thou lov st; and I
replied, Indeed the sweets of life belong unto the raving
race.
Lo, those who love have not, for that, the upper hand of fate;
Only the madman tis, I trow, o ercometh time and space.
Yes, I am mad; so bring me him for whom ye say I m mad; And if he
heal my madness, spare to blame me for my case.
Then she told him that she was in love, and he said, Tell me thy
story and what befell thee: peradventure God may discover to me a
means of deliverance for thee. Know then, said she, that one
night I awoke from sleep, in the last watch of the night, and
sitting up, saw by my side the handsomest of youths, as he were a
willow-wand or an Indian cane, the tongue fails to describe him.
Me-thought this was my father s doing to try me, for that he had
consulted me, when the kings sought me of him in marriage, and I
had refused. It was this idea that withheld me from arousing
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