awhile, so they might hear what the king should command.  Then quoth Salma, “Ho, ye gathering of soldiers and subjects, ye wot that ye forced me willy-nilly to accept the kingship and besought me thereof and I consented to your desires anent my being raised to rule over you; and I did this against my will; for I would have you know that I am a woman and that I disguised myself and donned man’s dress, so peradventure my case might be concealed when I lost my brother.  But now Allah hath deigned reunite me with my brother, and it is no longer lawful to me that I be king and Sultan over the people, and I a woman; because there is no Sultanate for women, whenas men are present.[FN#551] For this reason, an it suit you, set my brother on the throne of the kingdom, for this is he; and I will busy myself with the worship of Allah the Most High and thanksgiving to Him for my reunion with my brother.  Or, an ye prefer it, take your kingship and make whom ye will ruler and liege lord thereof.”  Upon this the folk all cried out, saying, “We accept him to king over us;” and they did him suit and service and gave him joy of the kingship.  So the preachers preached the sermon[FN#552] in his name and the court-poets praised him; and he lavished largesse upon the soldiery and the suite and overwhelmed them with favours and bounties and was prodigal to the Ryots of justice and equity, with goodly policy and polity.  When he had effected this much of his affect, he caused bring forth the Cook and his household to the divan, but spared the old woman who had nursed him, because she had been the cause of his deliverance.  Then all assembled without the town and he tormented the Cook and those who were with him with all manner torments, after which he did him to die by the foulest of deaths[FN#553] and burning him with fire, scattered his ashes far and wide in the air.  After this Salim abode in the governance, invested with the Sultanate, and ruled the people a whole year, when he returned to Al-Mansurah and sojourned there another year.  And he and his wife ceased not to go from city to city and tarry in this a year and that a year, till he was vouchsafed children and they grew up, whereupon he appointed him of his sons, who was found fitting, to be his deputy in one kingdom and he ruled in the other; and he lived, he and his wife and children, what while Almighty Allah willed.[FN#554] “Nor” (continued the Wazir), “O King of the age, is this story rarer or stranger than the King of Hind and his wronged and envied Minister.”  When the King heard this, his mind was occupied,[FN#555] and he bade the Wazir hie to his own house.

         The Twenty-eighth and Last Night of the Month.

When the evening evened, the King summoned the Minister and bade him tell the story of the King of Hind and his Wazir.  So he said, “Hearkening and obedience.  Give ear, O auspicious King, to

The Tale of the King of Hind and his Wazir.