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could not find it and had no money to buy another. So he went forth and cried out, saying, ‘Ho, people of the quarter!’
Now the most part of the folk were asleep; but they awoke at his crying and said, ‘What ails thee, O Khelifeh?’ ‘Bring me a lamp,’ answered he; ‘for the Jinn are upon me.’ They laughed at him and gave him a lamp, with which he returned to his chamber. Then he beat upon the lock of the chest with a stone and broke it and opening it, saw a damsel like a houri lying asleep within. Now she had been drugged with henbane, but at that moment she threw up the henbane and awoke. Then she opened her eyes and feeling herself cramped, moved: whereupon quoth Khelifeh, ‘By Allah, O my lady, whence art thou?’ Quoth she, ‘Bring me Jessamine and Narcissus.’[1] And Khelifeh answered, ‘There is nought here but henna-flowers.’ Thereupon she came to herself and looking at Khelifeh, said to him, ‘What art thou and where am I?’ He answered, ‘Thou art in my lodging.’ Quoth she, ‘Am I not in the palace of the Khalif Haroun er Reshid?’ ‘O madwoman,’ replied he, ‘what manner of thing is Er Reshid? Thou art nought but my slave-girl: I bought thee this very day for a hundred dinars and one and brought thee home, and thou wast asleep in this chest.’
When she heard this, she said to him, ‘What is thy name?’ ‘My name is Khelifeh,’ answered he. ‘How comes my star to have grown propitious, when I know it to have been otherwise?’ She laughed and said, ‘Spare me this talk. Hast thou anything to eat?’ ‘No, by Allah,’ answered he, ‘nor yet to drink! I have not eaten these two days and am now in want of a morsel.’ ‘Hast thou no money?’ asked she; and he said, ‘God keep this chest that hath beggared me! I gave all I had for it and
- ↑ Names of her slave-girls.
