to bring her "kunafah sweetened with bees' honey."
So he fled from her, and a good-natured Marid transported him to a
distant city. Here he encounters an old playfellow who lends him money
and recommends him to play the wealthy merchant, by declaring that his
baggage is on the road. This he does with a thoroughness that alarms his
friend. He borrows money right and left and lavishes it upon beggars. He
promises to pay his creditors twice over when his baggage comes. By and
by the king--a very covetous man--hears of Ma'aruf's amazing generosity,
and desirous himself of getting a share of the baggage, places his
treasury at Ma'aruf's disposal, and weds him to his daughter Dunya.
Ma'arfu soon empties the treasury, and the Wazir, who dislikes Ma'aruf,
suspects the truth. Ma'aruf, however, confesses everything to Dunya. She
comes to his rescue, and her clairvoyance enables her to see his
future prosperity. Having fled from the king, Ma'aruf discovers a magic
"souterrain" and a talismanic seal ring, by the aid of which he attains
incalculable wealth. Exclaims his friend the merchant when Ma'aruf
returns as a magnifico, "Thou hast played off this trick and it hath
prospered to thy hand, O Shaykh of Imposters! But thou deservest it."
Ma'aruf ultimately succeeds to the throne. Then occurs the death of the
beautiful and tender Dunya--an event that is recorded with simplicity
and infinite pathos. The old harridan Fatimah next obtrudes, and,
exhibiting again her devilish propensities, receives her quietus by
being very properly "smitten on the neck." So ends this fine story,
and then comes the conclusion of the whole work. This is very touching,
especially where the story-telling queen, who assumes that death is to
be her portion, wants to bid adieu to the children whom she had borne
to the king. But, as the dullest reader must have divined, the king had
long before "pardoned" her in his heart, and all ends pleasantly with
the marriage of her sister Dunyazad to the king's brother.

What an array of figures--beautiful, revolting, sly, fatuous, witty,
brave, pusillanimous, mean, generous--meets the eye as we recall one by
one these famous stories; beautiful and amorous, but mercurial ladies
with henna scented feet and black eyes--often with a suspicion of
kohl and more than a suspicion of Abu Murreh [456] in them--peeping
cautiously through the close jalousies of some lattice; love sick
princes overcoming all obstacles; executioners