Jewellers[FN#123] where he would sit and divert himself by
inspecting their precious stones and by noting how jewels were
sold and bought therein. Accordingly, he presently became ware
that the tree-fruits, wherewith he had filled his pockets what
time he entered the Enchanted Treasury, were neither glass nor
crystal but gems rich and rare; and he understood that he had
acquired immense wealth such as the Kings never can possess. He
then considered all the precious stones which were in the
Jewellers' Quarter, but found that their biggest was not worth
his smallest. On this wise he ceased not every day repairing to
the Bazar and making himself familiar with the folk and winning
their loving will;[FN#124] and enquiring anent selling and
buying, giving and taking, the dear and the cheap, until one day
of the days when, after rising at dawn and donning his dress he
went forth, as was his wont, to the Jewellers' Bazar; and, as he
passed along it he heard the crier crying as follows: "By command
of our magnificent master, the King of the Time and the Lord of
the Age and the Tide, let all the folk lock up their shops and
stores and retire within their houses, for that the Lady Badr al-
Budur,[FN#125] daughter of the Sultan, designeth to visit the
Hammam; and whoso gainsayeth the order shall be punished with
death-penalty and be his blood upon his own neck!" But when
Alaeddin heard the proclamation, he longed to look upon the
King's daughter and said in his mind, "Indeed all the lieges talk
of her beauty and loveliness and the end of my desires is to see
her."--And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased
to say her permitted say.

When it was the Five Hundred and Fortieth Night,