Arabian Nights: 240th Night: Jullanar of the Sea - 11

The following night Shahrazad said: 

Jullanar said to the king, "How can I bear to part from you? You should know that when I praised you to my brother, mother and cousins, they felt a great affection for you and desired to see you, saying, 'We will not leave until we meet him and eat with him, so that his bread and salt may bind with us together."' 
The king replied, "I heard and obey. But I am afraid of them because of the fire I saw flaming from their mouths, for although I was not near them, I almost died of fright."
Jullanar laughed and said, "Do not worry, for they do this only when they are angry, and they got angry this time because I had invited them to eat with you.  Then she took him by hand and led him to them, while they sat before the food, waiting for him. 
He came up to them and greeted them. They greeted him back with high respect, and sprang up to their feet and kissed the ground before him. 
They said to him, "O King of the age, we have only one request for you; take care of this unique pearl, Jullanar of the sea who is worthy of you just as you are worthy of her.  By God all the kings of the sea sought her hand in marriage, but we rejected them because we could not bear to part from her even for a single moment.  Have you not been pionus, upright honourable and noble-hearted man, God would not have blessed you with this queen.  Glory to him who made you cherish her and made her favour you and serve you, for you are like those of whom the poet said:

She is worthy of none but him, 
And he none but her, 
That should another seek her hand,
The earth would be astir. 

The king thanked them and thanked Jullanar, and sat to chat with them.  When they have had enough of the food they washed their hands.  The king lodged them in one of his private apartments where they lived for a full month, during which he frequently came to them to keep his company. 

At the end of the month, Jullanar said, "the time of my delivery is at hand," and the king provided for all the medicines and potion needed for the mother and the child.  Then she went into labour, the midwives and her assistants gathered around her. The Almighty granted her safe delivery and she gave birth to a boy as lovely as the Moon.  Jullanar was extremely happy.  Her mother went to the king and announced the birth of his son. 

Morning overtook the night and Shahrazad lapsed into silence.

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 Erythraean Sea: Thirteen

In the previous section Gaurdafui and Tohen on the Red Sea coast were described. Gaurdafui is on the apex of The Horn.Tohen is around 10 kilometres south of Gaurdafui. Gaurdafui's strategic position in relation to Gulf of Aden helped it to align it with known trade routes connecting East Africa to Arabia and India. Continue reading Thirteen. Beyond Taba (modern day Tohen), after four hundred stadia, there is the village of Pano . And then, after sailing four hundred stadia, along a promontory, towards which place the current also draws you, there is another market-town called Opone , into which the same things are imported, as those already mentioned, and in it the greatest quantity of cinnamon is produced, (the arebo, and moto), and slaves of better sort, which are brought to Egypt in increasing numbers and a great quantity of tortoise shell, better than that found elsewhere. My Search:- The village of Pano may be somewhere between Tohen and Hafun. It is widely accepted by scholar...
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