12 illustration(s) from this book
Now the Wezeer had two daughters; the elder of whom was named Shahrazád;
and the younger, Dunyázád. The former had read various books of
histories, and the lives of preceding kings, and stories of past
generations: it is asserted that she had collected together a thousand
books of histories, relating to preceding generations and kings, and
works of the poets: and she said to her father on this occasion, Why do
I see thee thus changed, and oppressed with solicitude and sorrows? It
has been said by one of the poets:--
Tell him who is oppressed with anxiety, that anxiety will not last:
As happiness passeth away, so passeth away anxiety.
When the Wezeer heard these words from his daughter, he related to her
all that had happened to him with regard to the King: upon which she
said, By Allah, O my father, give me in marriage to this King: either I
shall die, and be a ransom for one of the daughters of the Muslims,
or I shall live, and be the cause of their deliverance from
him.[i_29]--I conjure thee by Allah, exclaimed he, that thou expose
not thyself to such peril:--but she said, It must be so. Then, said he,
I fear for thee that the same will befall thee that happened in the case
of the ass and the bull and the husbandman.--And what, she asked, was
that, O my father.
[Illustration]