after his parents and his family and his native country;
and at length, on a day of the days, when a banquet
was served up to him by his bride, he refused to taste
thereof, and she, noting and understanding his condition,
said to him, “Be of good cheer, this very night
thou shalt find thee amongst thine own folk.”
Accordingly she summoned her Wazir of the Jann, and
when he came she made proclamation amongst the nobles
and commons of the capital saying, “This my
Wazir shall be my Viceregent over you and whoso shall
gainsay him that man I will slay.” They
replied with “Hearkening to and obeying Allah
and thyself and the Minister.” Then turning
to her newly-established deputy she said, “I
desire that thou guide me to the garden wherein was
the Sultan Habib;” and he replied, “Upon
my head be it and on my eyes!” So an Ifrit was
summoned, and Habib mounting him pick-a-back together
with the Princess Durrat al-Ghawwas bade him repair
to the garden appointed, and the Jinni took flight,
and in less than the twinkling of an eye bore the
couple to their destination. Such was the reunion
of the Sultan Habib with Durrat al-Ghawwas and his
joyous conjunction;[FN#428] but as regards the Emir
Salamah and his wife, as they were sitting and recalling
to memory their only child and wondering in converse
at what fate might have betided him, lo and behold!
the Sultan Habib stood before them and by his side
was Durrat al-Ghawwas his bride, and as they looked
upon him and her, weeping prevailed over them for
excess of their joyance and delight and both his parents
threw themselves upon him and fell fainting to the
ground. As soon as they recovered the youth told
them all that had betided him, first and last, whereupon
one congratulated other and the kettledrums of glad
tidings were sounded, and a world of folk from all
the Badawi tribes and the burghers gathered about them
and offered hearty compliments on the reunion of each
with other. Then the encampment was decorated
in whole and in part, and festivities were appointed
for a term of seven days full-told, in token of joy
and gladness; and banquets were arrayed and trays were
dispread, and all sat down to them in the pleasantest
of life eating and drinking; and the hungry were filled,
and the mean and the miserable and the mendicants
were feasted until the end of the seventh day.
After this they applied them to the punishment of the
ten Knights whom the Emir Salamah had despatched to
escort his son; and the Sultan Habib gave order that
retribution be required from them, and restitution
of all the coin and the good and the horses and the
camels entrusted to them by his sire. When these
had been recovered he commanded that there be set
up for them as many stakes in the garden wherein he
sat with his bride, and there in their presence he
let impale[FN#429] each upon his own pale. And
thenceforward the united household ceased not living
the most joyous of lives and the most delectable until
the old Emir Salamah paid the debt of nature, and