Fairy Tales from the Arabian Nights. E. Dixon
was served up, she invited the queen her mother, the king her brother, and her cousins, to sit down and take part of it. They began to reflect, that without asking leave, they had got into the palace of a mighty king, who had never seen nor heard of them, and that it would be a great piece of rudeness to eat at his table without him. This reflection raised a blush in their faces; in their emotion their eyes glowed like fire, and they breathed flames at their mouths and nostrils.
This unexpected sight put the King of Persia, who was totally ignorant of the cause of it, into a dreadful consternation. Queen Gulnare suspecting this, and understanding the intention of her relations, rose from her seat, and told them she would be back in a moment. She went directly to the recess, and recovered the King of Persia from his surprise.
'Sir,' said she, 'give me leave to assure you of the sincere friendship that the queen my mother and the king my brother are pleased to honour you with: they earnestly desire to see you, and tell you so themselves: I intended to have some conversation with them by ordering a banquet for them, before I introduced them to your majesty, but they are very impatient to pay their respects to you: and therefore I desire your majesty would be pleased to walk in, and honour them with your presence.'
'Madam,' said the King of Persia, 'I should be very glad to salute persons that have the honour to be so nearly related to you, but I am afraid of the flames that they breathe at their mouths and nostrils.'
'Sir,' replied the queen, laughing, 'you need not in the least be afraid of those flames, which are nothing but a sign of their unwillingness to eat in your palace, without your honouring them with your presence, and eating with them.'
The King of Persia, encouraged by these words, rose up, and came out into the room with his Queen Gulnare. She presented him to the queen her mother, to the king her brother, and to her other relations, who instantly threw themselves at his feet, with their faces to the ground. The King of Persia ran to them, and lifting them up, embraced them one after another. After they were all seated, King Saleh began: 'Sir,' said he to the King of Persia, 'we are at a loss for words to express our joy to think that the queen my sister should have the happiness of falling under the protection of so powerful a monarch. We can assure you she is not unworthy of the high rank you have been pleased to raise her to; and we have always had so much love and tenderness for her, that we could never think of parting with her to any of the puissant princes of the sea, who often demanded her in marriage before she came of age. Heaven has reserved her for you, Sir, and we have no better way of returning thanks to it for the favour it has done her, than by beseeching it to grant your majesty a long and happy life with her, and to crown you with prosperity and satisfaction.'
'Certainly,' replied the King of Persia, 'I cannot sufficiently thank either the queen her mother, or you, Prince, or your whole family, for the generosity with which you have consented to receive me into an alliance so glorious to me as yours.' So saying, he invited them to take part of the luncheon, and he and his queen sat down at the table with them. After it was over, the King of Persia conversed with them till it was very late; and when they thought it time to retire, he waited upon them himself to the several rooms he had ordered to be prepared for them.
Next day, as the King of Persia, Queen Gulnare, the queen her mother, King Saleh her brother, and the princesses their relations, were discoursing together in her majesty's room, the nurse came in with the young Prince Beder in her arms. King Saleh no sooner saw him, than he ran to embrace him; and taking him in his arms, fell to kissing and caressing him with the greatest demonstration of tenderness. He took several turns with him about the room, dancing and tossing him about, when all of a sudden, through a transport of joy, the window being open, he sprang out, and plunged with him into the sea.
The King of Persia, who expected no such sight, set up a hideous cry, verily believing that he should either see the dear prince his son no more, or else that he should see him drowned; and he nearly died of grief and affliction. 'Sir,' said Queen Gulnare (with a quiet and undisturbed countenance, the better to comfort him), 'let your majesty fear nothing; the young prince is my son as well as yours, and I do not love him less than you do. You see I am not alarmed; neither in truth ought I to be so. He runs no risk, and you will soon see the king his uncle appear with him again, and bring him back safe and sound. For he will have the same advantage his uncle and I have, of living equally in the sea and upon the land.' The queen his mother and the princesses his relations confirmed the same thing; yet all they said had no effect on the king's fright, from which he could not recover till he saw Prince Beder appear again before him.
The sea at length became troubled, when immediately King Saleh arose with the young prince in his arms, and holding him up in the air, he re-entered at the same window he went out at. The King of Persia being overjoyed to see Prince Beder again, and astonished that he was as calm as before he lost sight of him, King Saleh said, 'Sir, was not your majesty in a great fright, when you first saw me plunge into the sea with the prince my nephew?'
'Alas! Prince,' answered the King of Persia, 'I cannot express my concern. I thought him lost from that very moment, and you now restore life to me by bringing him again.'
'I thought as much,' replied King Saleh, 'though you had not the least reason to apprehend any danger; for, before I plunged into the sea with him I pronounced over him certain mysterious words, which were engraven on the seal of the great Solomon, the son of David. We do the same to all those children that are born in the regions at the bottom of the sea, by virtue of which they receive the same privileges that we have over those people who inhabit the earth. From what your majesty has observed, you may easily see what advantage your son Prince Beder has acquired by his birth, for as long as he lives, and as often as he pleases, he will be at liberty to plunge into the sea, and traverse the vast empires it contains in its bosom.'
Having so spoken, King Saleh, who had restored Prince Beder to his nurse's arms, opened a box he had fetched from his palace in the little time he had disappeared. It was filled with three hundred diamonds, as large as pigeons' eggs, a like number of rubies of extraordinary size, as many emerald wands, each half a foot long, and thirty strings or necklaces of pearl, consisting each of ten feet. 'Sir,' said he to the King of Persia, presenting him with this box, 'when I was first summoned by the queen my sister, I knew not what part of the earth she was in, or that she had the honour to be married to so great a monarch. This made us come empty handed. As we cannot express how much we have been obliged to your majesty, I beg you to accept this small token of gratitude, in acknowledgment of the many particular favours you have been pleased to show her.'
It is impossible to express how greatly the King of Persia was surprised at the sight of so much riches, enclosed in so little compass. 'What! Prince,' cried he, 'do you call so inestimable a present a small token of your gratitude? I declare once more, you have never been in the least obliged to me, neither the queen your mother nor you. Madam,' continued he, turning to Gulnare, 'the king your brother has put me into the greatest confusion; and I would beg of him to permit me to refuse his present, were I not afraid of disobliging him; do you therefore endeavour to obtain his leave that I may be excused accepting it.'
'Sir,' replied King Saleh, 'I am not at all surprised that your majesty thinks this present so extraordinary. I know you are not accustomed upon earth to see precious stones of this quality and quantity: but if you knew, as I do, the mines whence these jewels were taken, and that it is in my power to form a treasure greater than those of all the kings of the earth, you would wonder we should have the boldness to make you a present of so small a value. I beseech you, therefore, not to regard it in that light, but on account of the sincere friendship which obliges us to offer it to you not to give us the mortification of refusing it.' This obliged the King of Persia to accept the present, for which he returned many thanks both to King Saleh and the queen his mother.
A few days after, King Saleh gave the King of Persia to understand that the queen his mother, the princesses his relations and himself, could have no greater pleasure than to spend their whole lives at his court; but that having been so long absent from their own kingdom, where their presence was absolutely necessary, they begged of him not to take it ill if they took leave of him and Queen Gulnare. The King of Persia assured them he was very sorry that it was not in his power to return their visit in their own dominions; but he added, 'As I am verily persuaded you will not