Arabian Nights: 255th Night: Jullanar of the Sea - 26

King Badr was turned into bird by Jauhara, the daughter of al-Shamandal the king. Now the bird was at the palace of another king. He was put in a cage by the servant and hung up. 

The king asked for the bird, and the servant brought the cage to him.  The king found that the food was untouched by the bird. He said to himself, "O my lord, what bird is this? What kind of food it likes? I don't know what it will eat, so that I may feed it.  But the king continued to look at it and marveled at its beauty.

King called for the food. The table was laid before him. And he began to eat.  The bird hopped and fluttered inside the cage. The king understood that the bird craves for food. He called the servant to open the cage, and the servant came and opened the cage. The bird flitted out and flew down to the table and perched on it. Slowly it hopped on to the plates, pecked on it raised its head and swallowed it. In this way it ate bread, meat, sweets and fruits.

The king, the officers and the servants, who  witnessed the scene were surprised.  "Never in my life have I seen a bird eat like this one." The king called for his wife to come and see the bird.  The lady came in a hurry, but when she saw the bird, she veiled her face and turned to go away.  The king saw this, and asked her, "Why do you veil your face and turn away, when there is none, but the servants and your maids? 

She replied, "O Lord, this is not a bird, but a man." 
The king replied, "You are crazy, how can a bird be man? How much my wife likes to joke!"  She replied, "By God, I am not joking, but telling you the truth.  This bird is king Badr, the king of Persia and the son of Jullanar of the sea."

But morning overtook 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