name is Daulat Khatun[FN#418] and I am the daughter of the King of Hind.  My father dwelleth in the Capital-city of Sarandib and hath a great and goodly garden, there is no goodlier in all the land of Hind or its dependencies; and in this garden is a great tank.  One day, I went out into the garden with my slave-women and I stripped me naked and they likewise and, entering the tank, fell to sporting and solacing ourselves therein.  Presently, before I could be ware, a something as it were a cloud swooped down on me and snatching me up from amongst my handmaids, soared aloft with me betwixt heaven and earth, saying, ’Fear not, O Daulat Khatun, but be of good heart.’  Then he flew on with me a little while, after which he set me down in this palace and straightway without stay or delay became a handsome young man daintily apparelled, who said to me, ‘Now dost thou know me?’ Replied I, ‘No, O my lord’; and he said, ’I am the Blue King, Sovran of the Jann; my father dwelleth in the Castle Al-Kulzum[FN#419] hight, and hath under his hand six hundred thousand Jinn, flyers and divers.  It chanced that while passing on my way I saw thee and fell in love with thee for thy lovely form:  so I swooped down on thee and snatched thee up from among the slave-girls and brought thee to this the High-builded Castle, which is my dwelling-place.  None may fare hither be he man or be he Jinni, and from Hind hither is a journey of an hundred and twenty years:  wherefore do thou hold that thou wilt never again behold the land of thy father and thy mother; so abide with me here, in contentment of heart and peace, and I will bring to thy hands whatso thou seekest.’  Then he embraced me and kissed me,”—­And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

     When it was the Seven Hundred and Sixty-ninth Night,

She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the damsel said to Sayf al-Muluk, “Then the King of the Jann, after he had acquainted me with his case, embraced me and kissed me, saying, ‘Abide here and fear nothing’; whereupon he went away from me for an hour and presently returned with these tables and carpets and furniture.  He comes to me every Third[FN#420] and abideth with me three days and on Friday, at the time of mid-afternoon prayer, he departeth and is absent till the following Third.  When he is here, he eateth and drinketh and kisseth and huggeth me, but doth naught else with me, and I am a pure virgin, even as Allah Almighty created me.  My father’s name is Taj al-Muluk, and he wotteth not what is come of me nor hath he hit upon any trace of me.  This is my story:  now tell me thy tale.”  Answered the Prince, “My story is a long and I fear lest while I am telling it to thee the Ifrit come.”  Quoth she “He went out from me but an hour before thy entering and will not return till Third:  so sit thee down and take thine ease and hearten thy heart and tell me what hath betided thee, from beginning to end.”  And quoth he, “I hear and