of sadness and he noted that contrary to her custom, she did not laugh; so he asked her, “What hath betided thee, O my dearling? tell me, hath aught happened to trouble thy thoughts!” “Nothing whatever,” answered she, “but, O my beloved, I fancied that our pavilion lacked naught at all; however, O eyes of me, O Alaeddin, were the dome of the upper story hung with an egg of the fowl called Rukh, there would be naught like it in the universe.”  Her husband rejoined, “And for this trifle thou art saddened when ’tis the easiest of all matters to me!  So cheer thyself; and, whatever thou wantest, ’tis enough thou inform me thereof, and I will bring it from the abysses of the earth in the quickest time and at the earliest hour.”—­And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

       When it was the Five Hundred and Ninetieth Night,

Quoth Dunyazad, “O sister mine, an thou be other than sleepy, do tell us some of thy pleasant tales,” whereupon Shahrazad replied, “With love and good will.”—­It hath reached me, O King of the Age, that Alaeddin after refreshing the spirits of his Princess by promising her all she could desire, repaired straight way to his chamber and taking the Lamp[FN#226] rubbed it, when the Marid appeared without let or delay saying, “Ask whatso thou wantest.”  Said the other, “I desire thee to fetch me an egg of the bird Rukh and do thou hang it to the dome-crown of this my pavilion.”  But when the Marid heard these words, his face waxed fierce and he shouted with a mighty loud voice and a frightful, and cried, “O denier of kindly deeds, sufficeth it not for thee that I and all the Slaves of the Lamp are ever at thy service, but thou must also require me to bring thee our Liege Lady[FN#227] for thy pleasure, and hang her up at thy pavilion dome for the enjoyment of thee and thy wife!  Now by Allah, ye deserve, thou and she, that I reduce you to ashes this very moment and scatter you upon the air; but, inasmuch as ye twain be ignorant of this matter, unknowing its inner from its outer significance, I will pardon you for indeed ye are but innocents.  The offence cometh from that accursed Necromancer, brother to the Maghrabi, the Magician, who abideth here representing himself to be Fatimah, the Devotee, after assuming her dress and belongings and murthering her in the cavern:  indeed he came hither seeking to slay thee by way of blood-revenge for his brother; and ’tis he who taught thy wife to require this matter of me.’’[FN#228] So saying the Marid evanished.  But when Alaeddin heard these words, his wits fled his head and his joints trembled at the Marid’s terrible shout; but he empowered his purpose and, rising forthright, issued from his chamber and went into his wife’s.  There he affected an ache of head, for that he knew how famous was Fatimah for the art and mystery of healing all such pains; and, when the Lady Badr al-Budur saw him sitting hand to head and complaining of unease,