Thousand & One Nights: Seventeenth Night: The King & The Sage

Sage Duban saw that the drug had spread through the King's body, and that the king was heaving and swaying, he began to recite the following verses:

For long they ruled us willy-nilly, 
But they lost their power swiftly.
Had they been just, happily would Have been they lived. But, they
Oppressed, and punishing fate
Afflicted them to fall in pieces.
A tit for tat, and blame not destiny.

As the sage's head finished reciting the verses the king fell dead, and at that very moment, the king too succumbed.

The Break of Dawn

Notes:-
1. The king was only a tribal chief, and all the paraphernalia like vizier and chamberlains were mere embellishments. The story originated when might was right.
2. Kohl jar: A jar with lid used to store kohl, a dark eye make up (eyeliner) used for centuries in various cultures. In ancient Egypt, both men and women used this. In India it was called Kajal.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

( 16 )CHARLES DICKENS: DAVID COPPERFIELD: CHAPTER 16: I AM A NEW BOY IN MORE SENSES THAN ONE

Next morning, after breakfast, I entered on school life again.  I went, accompanied by Mr Wickfield to the scene of my future studies- a grave building in a courtyard, with a learned air about it that suited very well to the stray rooks and jackdaws who came down from the Cathedral tower to walk with a clerkly bearing on the grass plot - and was introduced to my new master, Doctor Strong. Doctor Strong looked almost as rusty, to my thinking, as the tall iron rails and gates outside the house; and almost as stiff and heavy as the great stone urn that flanked them, and were set up, on the top of red brick wall, at regular distances all round the court, like sublimated skittles for Time to play at.  Doctor Strong was in his library, with his clothes not particularly well brushed, and his hair not particularly combed, his knee-small unbraced, his long black gaiters unbuttoned, and his shoes  yawning like two caverns on the hearth-rug.  Turning upon me a lustreless eye, t...
Read more

Sailing Around Erethraean Sea: Three

Updated 29/11/2024 Below the Calf-Eaters there is a little market-town on the shore after sailing about four thousand stadia from Berenice, called Ptolemais of Hunts, from which the hunters started for the interior under the dynasty of Ptolemies. This market town has true land to rtoise in small quantities; it is white and smaller in the shells. And here also is found a little ivory, like that of Adulis. But the place has no harbour, and is reached by small boats. 1. Calf-Eaters: Cattle rearing nomadic tribes. 2. Stadia is the plural of stadion. Ten  stadia= one mile. 3. Ptolemais of Hunts: Ptolemies Theron is the exact Greek term,  located at the Bay of Anfile or Amphila Bay on the coast of Eritrea. Facing the bay is Hando island. It is, in fact, a double bay, an inner bay within, between promontories M'edr and Lelisa. End of the Section 
Read more

Travels Of Marco Polo: Thirty

Now, let me tell of the beasts which his Majesty keeps for hunting.  Among these are Leopards and lynxes or stag-wolves well fitted for that purpose.  He has also many lions larger than those of Babylon of a beautiful hair and colour, striped length ways black red and white, and trained to catch stags, wild oxen, hogs, wild goats and asses; it is delightful to see one of these chases, where the hunters go out, carrying the lion in a cage, and with him a small dog.  They have likewise abundance of eagles, with which they capture hares, foxes and even wolves; those which are trained to catch these last are very large, and of great weight, so that no wolf can escape them. ____________________________________ 1. The lion here described by the author is manifestly the tiger. It is probable that tiger was unknown in Europe when Marco left, he might have viewed it as a variety of lion. 2. Lion and tigers are wild animals and cannot be domesticated. Still human societies used to ...
Read more