Meanwhile the Sultan had summoned two eunuchs and ordered them
and repeatedly enjoined them that whoso might approach the statue
and consider it straitly him they should seize and bring before
the presence. Accordingly, the slaves fared forth and took their
seats before the Baths. After a while of time the father of the
damsel who had become Sultan wandered forth to seek her,[FN#34]
and arrived at that city, where he heard that whoso entered the
Hammam to bathe and afterwards drank coffee did this without
cost; so he said in his min, "Let me go thither to enter, when
behold, he looked at the statue over the gateway, and he stood
still and considered it with the tears flowing adown his cheeks,
and he cried, "Indeed this figure be like her!" But when the
eunuchs saw him they seized him and carried him away until they
had led him to the Sultan his daughter, who, seeing him,
recognized him forthright, and bade set apart for him an
apartment and appointed to him rations for the time being. The
next that appeared was the son of her uncle, who also had
wandered as far as that city seeking his cousin, and he also
having heard the folk speaking anent a free entrance to the
Baths, said in himself, "Do thou get thee like others to that
Hammam and solace thyself." But when he arrived there he also
cast a look at that image and stood before it and wept for an
hour or so as he devoured it with his eyes when the eunuchry
beholding him seized and carried him off to the Sultan, who knew
him at first sight. So she bade prepare a place for him and
appointed to him rations for the time being. Then also came the
Ra'is of the ship, who had reached that city seeking his lost
vessel, and when the fame of the free Hammam came to his ears, he
said in his mind, "Go thou to the Baths and solace thyself." And
when he arrived there and looked upon the statue and fixed his