the throne of his kingship and ruled it, bidding and forbidding, and his consort became Queen of Bassorah.  His mother left this life a short while afterwards and they both mourned and lamented their loss.  Lastly he lived with his wife in all joyance of life till there came to them the Destroyer of delights and the Separator of societies.—­And Shahrazad ceased to say her pleasant[FN#63] say.  Quoth Dunyazad, “O sister mine, how rare is thy tale and delectable!” whereto quoth Shahrazad, “And what is this compared with that I would relate to you on the coming night concerning Alaeddin[FN#64] and the Enchanted Lamp, an this my lord the King leave me on life?” The King said to himself, “By Allah, I will not slay her until she tell me the whole tale.”

       When it was the Five Hundred and Fourteenth Night,

Quoth Dunyazad,[FN#65] to Shahrazad, “O sister mine, an thou be other than sleepy, do tell us some of thy pleasant tales;” and Shahrazad began to relate the story of

ALAEDDIN; OR, THE WONDERFUL LAMP.

It hath reached me, O King of the Age, that there dwelt in a city of the cities of China a man which was a tailor, withal a pauper, and he had one son, Alaeddin hight.  Now this boy had been from his babyhood a ne’er-do-well, a scapegrace; and, when he reached his tenth year, his father inclined to teach him his own trade; and, for that he was over indigent to expend money upon his learning other work or craft or apprenticeship, he took the lad into his shop that he might be taught tailoring.  But, as Alaeddin was a scapegrace and a ne’er-do-well and wont to play at all times with the gutter boys of the quarter, he would not sit in the shop for a single day; nay, he would await his father’s leaving it for some purpose, such as to meet a creditor, when he would run off at once and fare forth to the gardens with the other scapegraces and low companions, his fellows.  Such was his case; counsel and castigation were of no avail, nor would he obey either parent in aught or learn any trade; and presently, for his sadness and sorrowing because of his son’s vicious indolence, the tailor sickened and died.  Alaeddin continued in his former ill courses and, when his mother saw that her spouse had deceased, and that her son was a scapegrace and good for nothing at all[FN#66] she sold the shop and whatso was to be found therein and fell to spinning cotton yarn.  By this toilsome industry she fed herself and found food for her son Alaeddin the scapegrace who, seeing himself freed from bearing the severities of his sire, increased in idleness and low habits; nor would he ever stay at home save at meal-hours while his miserable wretched mother lived only by what her hands could spin until the youth had reached his fifteenth year.—­And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

       When it was the Five Hundred and Fifteenth Night,