aughter, Shahrazad. Then he
proceeded to make ready the wedding gear, and presently he sent after
his brother, King Shah Zaman, who came, and King Shahryar went forth to
meet him with the troops. Furthermore, they decorated the city after the
goodliest fashion and diffused scents from censers and burnt aloes-wood
and other perfumes in all the markets and thoroughfares and rubbed
themselves with saffron, what while the drums beat and the flutes and
pipes sounded and mimes and mountebanks played and plied their arts, and
the King lavished on them gifts and largesse, and in very deed it was a
notable day. When they came to the palace, King Shahryar commanded to
spread the table with beasts roasted whole, and sweetmeats, and all
manner of viands, and bade the crier cry to the folk that they should
come up to the Diwan and eat and drink, and that this should be a means
of reconciliation between him and them. So high and low, great and
small, came up unto him, and they abode on that wise, eating and
drinking, seven days with their nights.

Then the King shut himself up with his brother, and related to him that
which had betided him with the Wazir's daughter Shahrazad during the
past three years, and told him what he had heard from her of proverbs
and parables, chronicles and pleasantries, quips and jests, stories and
anecdotes, dialogues and histories, and elegies and other verses;
whereat King Shah Zaman marveled with the utmost marvel and said, "Fain
would I take her younger sister to wife, so we may be two
brothers-german to two sisters-german, and they on like wise be sisters
to us; for that the calamity which befell me was the cause of our
discovering that which befell thee, and all this time of three years
past I have taken no delight in woman; but now I desire to marry thy
wife's sister Dunyazad."

When King Shahryar heard his brother's words, he rejoiced with joy
exceeding, and arising forthright, went in to his wife Shahrazad and
acquainted her with that which his brother purposed, namely, that he
sought her sister Dunyazad in wedlock; whereupon she answered, "O King
of the Age, we seek of him one condition, to wit, that he take up his
abode with us, for that I cannot brook to be parted from my sister an
hour, because we were brought up together, and may not endure separation
each from another. If he accept this pact, she is his handmaid." King
Shahryar returned to his brother and acquainted him with that which
Sha