The Arabian Nights Entertainments - Complete eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,940 pages of information about The Arabian Nights Entertainments.

The Arabian Nights Entertainments - Complete eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,940 pages of information about The Arabian Nights Entertainments.

The good cauzee having finished the ceremonies of his pilgrimage at Mecca, where he resided one year, and visited all the holy spots around, returned to Bagdad:  but dreadful was his agony and grief when informed that his wife had played the harlot, and that his brother, unable to bear the disgrace of his family, had left the city, and had not been heard of since.  This sad intelligence had such an effect upon his mind, that he resolved to give up worldly concerns, and adopt the life of a wandering religious, to move from place to place, from country to country, and visit the devotees celebrated for sanctity in each.  For two years he travelled through various kingdoms, and at length hearing of his wife’s fame, though he little supposed the much-talked-of female saint stood in that relation to himself, he resolved to pay his respects to so holy a personage.  With this view he journeyed towards the capital of the sultan her protector, hoping to receive benefit from her pious conversation and prayers.

The cauzee on his way overtook his treacherous brother, who, repenting of his wicked life, had turned mendicant, and was going to confess his sins, and ask the prayers for absolution of the far-famed religious woman.  Time and alteration of dress, for they were both habited as dervishes, caused the brothers not to know each other.  As fellow travellers they entered into conversation; and finding they were both bound the same way, agreed to continue their journey together.  They had not proceeded many days when they came up with a driver of camels, who informed them that he was upon the same errand as themselves, having been guilty of a horrid crime, the reflection upon which tormented his conscience, and made life miserable; that he was going to confess his sins to the pious devotee, and consult her on whatever penance could atone for his villany, of which he had heartily repented, and hoped to obtain the mercy of heaven by a sincere reformation of life.  The crime of this wretch was no less than murder; the circumstances of which we forgot to detail in its proper place.  The cauzee’s wife immediately after her expulsion from Bagdad, and before she had met the young man who sold her for a slave, had taken shelter in the hut of a camel breeder, whose wife owed her great obligations, and who received her with true hospitality and kindness; consoling her in her misfortunes, dressing her wounds, and insisting on her stay till she should be fully recovered of the painful effects of her unjust and disgraceful punishment; and in this she was seconded by the honest husband.  With this humble couple, who had an infant son, she remained some time, and was recovering her spirits and beauty when the wicked camel breeder, first mentioned, arrived on a visit to her host; and being struck with her beauty made love to her, which she mildly but firmly rejected, informing him that she was a married woman.  Blinded by passion, the wretch pressed his addresses repeatedly,

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The Arabian Nights Entertainments - Complete from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.