sore for that which had betided him, above all for the loss of the Princess Budur’s talisman, and spent his nights and days weeping and repealing verses.  Such was his case; but as regards the ship she sailed with a favouring wind till she reached the Ebony Islands.  Now by decree of destiny, Queen Budur was sitting at a lattice-window overlooking the sea and saw the galley cast anchor upon the strand.  At this sight, her heart throbbed and she took horse with the Chamberlains and Nabobs and, riding down to the shore, halted by the ship, whilst the sailors broke bulk and bore the bales to the storehouses; after which she called the captain to her presence and asked what he had with him.  He answered “O King, I have with me in this ship aromatic drugs and cosmetics and healing powders and ointments and plasters and precious metals and rich stuffs and rugs of Yemen leather, not to be borne of mule or camel, and all manner of otters and spices and perfumes, civet and ambergris and camphor and Sumatra aloes-wood, and tamerinds[FN#333] and sparrow-olives to boot, such as are rare to find in this country.”  When she heard talk of sparrow-olives her heart longed for them and she said to the ship-master, “How much of olives hast thou?” He replied, “Fifty bottles full, but their owner is not with us, so the King shall take what he will of them.”  Quoth she, “Bring them ashore, that I may see them.’’ Thereupon he called to the sailors, who brought her the fifty bottles; and she opened one and, looking at the olives, said to the captain, “I will take the whole fifty and pay you their value, whatso it be.”  He answered, “By Allah, O my lord, they have no value in our country; moreover their shipper tarried behind us, and he is a poor man.”  Asked she, “And what are they worth here?” and he answered “A thousand dirhams.”  “I will take them at a thousand,” she said and bade them carry the fifty bottles to the palace.  When it was night, she called for a bottle of olives and opened it, there being none in the room but herself and the Princess Hayat al-Nufus.  Then, placing a dish before her she turned into it the contents of the jar, when there fell out into the dish with the olives a heap of red gold; and she said to the Lady Hayat al-Nufus, “This is naught but gold!” So she sent for the rest of the bottles and found them all full of precious metal and scarce enough olives to fill a single jar.  Moreover, she sought among the gold and found therein the talisman, which she took and examined and behold, it was that which Kamar al-Zaman had taken from off the band of her petticoat trousers.  Thereupon she cried out for joy and slipped down in a swoon;—­And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

        When it was the Two Hundred and Sixteenth Night,