forward and offered to
take the frightful risk.

Did ever tale-teller compare with Shahrazad? Who does not sympathise
with the Trader who killed the invisible son of the jinni? Who has not
dreamt of the poor fisherman and the pot that was covered with the seal
of King Solomon? The story of Duban, who cured King Yunon of leprosy and
was sent home on the royal steed reads like a verse out of Esther,
[439] and may remind us that there is no better way of understanding the
historical portions of the Bible than by studying The Arabian Nights.
King Yunan richly deserved the death that overtook him, if only for his
dirty habit of wetting his thumb when turning over the leaves of the
book. [440] What a rare tale is that of the Ensorcelled Prince, alias
The Young King of the Black Isles, who though he sat in a palace where
fountains limbecked water "clear as pearls and diaphanous gems," and
wore "silken stuff purfled with Egyptian gold," was from his midriff
downwards not man but marble! Who is not shocked at the behaviour of
the Three Ladies of Baghdad! In what fearful peril the caliph and the
Kalendars placed themselves when, in spite of warning, they would ask
questions! How delightful are the verses of the Nights, whether they
have or have not any bearing upon the text! Says the third Kalendar,
apropos of nothing:

"How many a weal trips on the heels of ill
Causing the mourner's heart with joy to thrill."

What an imbecile of imbeciles was this same Kalendar when he found
himself in the palace with the forty damsels, "All bright as moons to
wait upon him!" It is true, he at first appreciated his snug quarters,
for he cried, "Hereupon such gladness possessed me that I forgot the
sorrows of the world one and all, and said, 'This is indeed life!'" Then
the ninny must needs go and open that fatal fortieth door! The story
of Nur al-Din Ali and his son Badr al-Din Hasan has the distinction
of being the most rollicking and the most humorous in the Nights. What
stupendous events result from a tiff! The lines repeated by Nur al-Din
Ali when he angrily quitted his brother must have appealed forcibly to
Burton:

Travel! and thou shalt find new friends for old ones left behind;
toil! for the sweets of human life by toil and moil are found;
The stay at home no honour wins nor ought attains but want; so
leave thy place of birth and wander all the world around. [441]

As long as time lasts the pretty coquettish