When the King heard this, he arose and embraced his son, and kissing him between the eyes, made him sit by his side on the couch; then he turned to the Wazir, and, looking on him with eyes of wrath, said, “O dog of Wazirs, how didst thou say of my son such and such things and make my heart quake for him?” Then he turned to the Prince and said, “O my son, what is to-day called?” He answered, “O my father, this day is the Sabbath, and to morrow is First day:  then come Second day, Third, Fourth, Fifth day and lastly Friday."[FN#275] Exclaimed the King, “O my son, O Kamar al-Zaman, praised be Allah for the preservation of thy reason!  What is the present month called in our Arabic?” “Zu’l Ka’adah,” answered Kamar al-Zaman, “and it is followed by Zu’l hijjah; then cometh Muharram, then Safar, then Rabi’a the First and Rabi’a the Second, the two Jamadas, Rajab, Sha’aban, Ramazan and Shawwal.”  At this the King rejoiced exceedingly and spat in the Wazir’s face, saying, “O wicked old man, how canst thou say that my son is mad?  And now none is mad but thou.”  Hereupon the Minister shook his head and would have spoken, but bethought himself to wait awhile and see what might next befal.  Then the King said to his child, “O my son, what words be these thou saddest to the eunuch and the Wazir, declaring, ’I was sleeping with a fair damsel this night?’[FN#276] What damsel is this of whom thou speakest?” Then Kamar al-Zaman laughed at his father’s words and replied, “O my father, know that I can bear no more jesting; so add me not another mock or even a single word on the matter, for my temper hath waxed short by that you have done with me.  And know, O my father, with assured knowledge, that I consent to marry, but on condition that thou give me to wife her who lay by my side this night; for I am certain it was thou sentest her to me and madest me in love with her and then despatchedst a message to her before the dawn and tookest her away from beside me.”  Rejoined the King, “The name of Allah encompass thee about, O my son, and be thy wit preserved from witlessness!”—­And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

        When it was the One Hundred and Ninetieth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that quoth King Shahriman to his son Kamar al-Zaman, “The name of Allah encompass thee about, O my son, and be thy wit preserved from witlessness!  What thing be this young lady whom thou fanciest I sent to thee last night and then again that I sent to withdraw her from thee before dawn?  By the Lord, O my son, I know nothing of this affair, and Allah upon thee, tell me if it be a delusion of dreaming or a deception caused by indisposition.  For verily thou layest down to sleep last night with thy mind occupied anent marriage and troubled with the talk of it (Allah damn marriage and the hour when I spake of it and curse him who counselled it!); and without doubt or diffidence I can say that being moved in mind by the mention