The Arabian Nights by Anonymous & Ursula Lyons & Robert Irwin

Author:Anonymous & Ursula Lyons & Robert Irwin
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141943527
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2010-01-11T16:00:00+00:00

Nights 535 to 554

Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the five hundred and thirty-fifth night, SHE CONTINUED:

I have heard, O fortunate king, that the snake queen told Karim not to drink from the first lot of froth and to keep the second. The snake queen went on: ‘When the vizier comes back from the king and asks for the second bottle, give him the first and see what happens to him. You can then drink the second bottle, after which your heart will become a home of wisdom. Then take the flesh, put it on a copper plate and give it to the king to eat. When he does and it settles in his stomach, cover his face with a kerchief and wait until noon so that his stomach may cool down. Then give him something to drink and he will be cured of his illness and go back to being as healthy as ever he was, through the power of Almighty God. Listen to my advice and pay it the closest attention.’

The party rode on to Shamhur’s house, where Shamhur told Karim to go in with him, and when they had done so the escort dispersed and went their own ways. Karim took the plate with the queen on it from his head, and Shamhur told him to kill her. ‘I know nothing of butchery,’ he replied, ‘and never in my life have I slaughtered anything. If you have some reason for doing this, do it yourself.’ So Shamhur took the queen from the plate and killed her. On seeing that, Karim wept bitterly and Shamhur laughed at him and said: ‘You silly fellow, why are you weeping for the death of a snake?’ After that, he cut the body into three pieces and put them in a copper pot, which he set over the fire. He sat there watching the flesh cooking, but while he was doing that a mamluk came to him to say that he was urgently wanted by the king. ‘To hear is to obey,’ said Shamhur, and he then got up and brought two bottles to Karim, telling him: ‘See to the fire under this pot. Wait until the first lot of froth appears as the flesh cooks, and when it does, scoop it off and put it in one of these bottles. Wait until it cools and then drink it, for this will make you healthy and never again will you suffer bodily pain or sickness. When it froths a second time, put that froth in the other bottle and keep it by you until I get back from the king. I shall then drink it, as I suffer from a pain in my loins which it may cure.’

Shamhur then went off to visit the king, having repeated his instructions to Karim, who for his part tended the fire beneath the pot until he was able to remove the first lot of froth, which he put in one of the two bottles.

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