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The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 13 by Anonymous
page 70 of 688 (10%)
Lamp which, whoso possessed, could not possibly be surpassed by
any man upon earth, either in high degree or in wealth and
opulence; nor could the mightiest monarch of the universe attain
to the all-sufficiency of this Lamp with its might of magical
means.--And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased
to say her permitted say.

When it was the Five Hundred and Twenty-ninth Night,

Quoth Dunyazad, "O sister mine, an thou be other than sleepy, do
tell us some of thy pleasant tales." whereupon Shahrazad replied,
"With love and good will."--It hath reached me, O King of the
Age, that when the Maghrabi assured himself by his science and
saw that this Hoard could be opened only by the presence of a lad
named Alaeddin, of pauper family and abiding in that very city,
and learnt how taking it would be easy and without hardships, he
straightway and without stay or delay equipped himself for a
voyage to China (as we have already told) and he did what he did
with Alaeddin fancying that he would become Lord of the Lamp. But
his attempt and his hopes were baffled and his work was clean
wasted; whereupon, determining to do the lad die, he heaped up
the earth over him by gramarye to the end that the unfortunate
might perish, reflecting that "The live man hath no
murtherer."[FN#99] Secondly, he did so with the design that, as
Alaeddin could not come forth from underground, he would also be
impotent to bring out the Lamp from the souterrain. So presently
he wended his ways and retired to his own land, Africa, a sadder
man and disappointed of all his expectations. Such was the case
with the Wizard; but as regards Alaeddin when the earth was
heaped over him, he began shouting to the Moorman whom he
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