Today's excerpt is from the story of The Porter And The Three Ladies Of Baghdad.
Then the
Khalif said to Jaafer, 'Out on thee! Tell her who we are, or we shall be slain
in a mistake, and speak her fair, ere an abomination befall us.' 'It were only
a part of thy deserts,' replied Jaafer. Whereupon the Khalif cried out at him
in anger and said, 'There is a time to jest and a time to be serious.' Then the
lady said to the Calenders, 'Are ye brothers?' 'Not so,' answered they; 'we are
only poor men and strangers.' And she said to one of them, 'Wast thou born
blind of one eye?' 'No, by Allah!' replied he; 'but there hangs a rare story by
the loss of my eye, a story which, were it graven with needles on the corners of
the eye, would serve as a lesson to those that can profit by example.' She
questioned the two other Calenders, and they made a like reply, saying, 'By
Allah! O our mistress, each one of us comes from a different country and is the
son of a king and a sovereign prince ruling over lands and subjects.' Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Illiad by Homer.
From the Arab world: these stories date back to the Middle Ages.
Picture: Queen Scheherazade tells her stories to King Shahryār.
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