suffer thee to pass one night with either of us, away from her?
How then must it be with one from whom thou hast been absent a
full year, and I knew thee before she did? But Allah have mercy
on thy cousin Azizah, for there befel her what never befel any
and she bore what none other ever bore and she died by thy ill
usage; yet 'twas she who protected thee against me. Indeed, I
thought thou didst love me, so I let thee take thine own way;
else had I not suffered thee to go safe in a sound skin, when I
had it in my power to clap thee in jail and even to slay thee."
Then she wept with sore weeping and waxed wroth and shuddered in
my face with skin bristling[FN#1] and looked at me with furious
eyes. When I saw her in this case I was terrified at her and my
side muscles trembled and quivered, for she was like a dreadful
she Ghul, an ogress in ire, and I like a bean over the fire.
Then said she, "Thou art of no use to me, now thou art married
and hast a child; nor art thou any longer fit for my company; I
care only for bachelors and not for married men:[FN#2] these
profit us nothing Thou hast sold me for yonder stinking armful;
but, by Allah, I will make the whore's heart ache for thee, and
thou shalt not live either for me or for her!" Then she cried a
loud cry and, ere I could think, up came the slave girls and
threw me on the ground; and when I was helpless under their hands
she rose and, taking a knife, said, "I will cut thy throat as
they slaughter he goats; and that will be less than thy desert,
for thy doings to me and the daughter of thy uncle before me."
When I looked to my life and found myself at the mercy of her
slave women, with my cheeks dust soiled, and saw her sharpen the
knife, I made sure of death.--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
day and ceased to say her permitted say.