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flower garden. Presently the physician entered, bearing an old book and a small pot full of powder; and sitting down, called for a dish. So they brought him a dish, and he poured the powder therein and levelled it. Then he said, “O King, take this book, but do not open it till my head has been cut off, placed on this dish and pressed down on the powder, when the blood will cease to flow: then open the book and do as I have enjoined thee.” The King took the book and gave the signal to the headsman, who rose and struck off the physician’s head and set it on the dish, pressing it down upon the powder, when the blood immediately ceased to flow, and the head unclosed its eyes and said, “Open the book, O King!” Younan opened the book and found the leaves stuck together; so he put his finger to his mouth and took of his spittle and loosened them therewith and turned over the pages in this manner, one after another, for the leaves would not come apart but with difficulty, till he came to the seventh page, but found nothing written thereon and said to the head, “O physician, there is nothing here.” Quoth the head, “Open more leaves.” So the King turned over more leaves in the same manner. Now the book was poisoned, and before long the poison began to work upon the King, and he fell back in convulsions and cried out, “I am poisoned!” Whereupon the head repeated the following verses:
Lo, these once were kings who governed with a harsh and haughty sway! In a little, their dominion was as if it ne’er had been.
Had they swayed the sceptre justly, they had been repaid the like, But they were unjust, and Fortune guerdoned them with dole and teen.
Now they’re passed away, the moral of their case bespeaks them thus, “This is what your sins have earnt you: Fate is not to blame, I ween.”
No sooner had it done speaking, than the King fell down dead and the head also ceased to live. And know, O Afrit (continued the fisherman), that if King Younan
