Hardly had he finished when up came more than twenty damsels like moons, encompassing the young lady, who appeared among them as the full moon among stars.  She was clad in royal brocade, and girt with a woven girdle set with various kinds of jewels that straitly clasped her waist....  On her head she wore a network of pearls, gemmed with various kinds of jewels, and she moved with a coquettish, swimming gait, swaying wonder-gracefully, whilst the damsels held up her skirts....  She fixed her eyes on him, and considered him awhile, till she was assured of him, when she came up to him and said, “Indeed the place is honored and illumined with thy presence, O Sherkan!  How didst thou pass the night, O hero, after we went away and left thee?  Verily, lying is a defect and a reproach in kings; especially in great kings:  and thou art Sherkan, son of King Omar ben Ennuman; so henceforth tell me naught but truth, and strive not to keep the secret of thy condition, for falsehood engenders hatred and enmity.  The arrow of destiny hath fallen upon thee, and it behooves thee to show resignation and submission.”  When Sherkan heard what she said, he saw nothing for it but to tell her the truth:  so he said, “I am indeed Sherkan, son of Omar ben Ennuman; whom fortune hath afflicted and cast into this place:  so now do whatsoever thou wilt.”

FROM ‘SINDBAD THE SEAMAN AND SINDBAD THE LANDSMAN’

Portions of Nights 536 to 542, presenting the Introduction and the first of the seven ‘Voyages’:  Translation of Captain Sir Richard Burton.

There lived in the city of Bagdad, during the reign of the Commander of the Faithful, Harun al-Rashid, a man named Sindbad the Hammal [Porter], one in poor case, who bore burdens on his head for hire.  It happened to him one day of great heat that whilst he was carrying a heavy load, he became exceeding weary and sweated profusely; the heat and the weight alike oppressing him.  Presently, as he was passing the gate of a merchant’s house, before which the ground was swept and watered, and where the air was temperate, he sighted a broad bench beside the door; so he set his load thereon, to take rest and smell the air.—­

And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

NOW WHEN IT WAS THE FIVE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SEVENTH NIGHT,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Hammal set his load upon the bench to take rest and smell the air, there came out upon him from the court-door a pleasant breeze and a delicious fragrance.  He sat down on the edge of the bench, and at once heard from within the melodious sound of lutes and other stringed instruments, and mirth-exciting voices singing and reciting, together with the song of birds warbling and glorifying Almighty Allah in various tunes and tongues; turtles, mockingbirds, merles, nightingales, cushats, and stone-curlews:  whereat he marveled