of this. Now I was present
in the assembly; so I said to him, “O King, I know a man called
Sa’adu’lláh the Babylonian, than whom there is not on the face of the
earth one more masterly in these matters, and if thou see fit to send me
to him, do so.” Said he, “Go to him;” and quoth I, “Bring me a piece of
carnelian.” Accordingly he gave me a great piece of carnelian and an
hundred thousand dinars and a present, which I took, and with which I
betook myself to the land of Babel. Then I sought out the Shaykh and
when he was shown to me I delivered to him the money and the present,
which he accepted and sending for a lapidary, bade him fashion the
carnelian into this amulet. Then he abode seven months in observation of
the stars, till he chose out an auspicious time for engraving it, when
he graved upon it these talismanic characters which thou seest, and I
took it and returned with it to the King.——And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.


        Now when it was the Nine Hundred and Fifty-second Night,

She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young man
said to the Commander of the Faithful:—So after the Shaykh had spoken, I
took this talisman and returned with it to the King. Now the Princess
was bound with four chains, and every night a slave-girl lay with her
and was found in the morning with her throat cut. The King took the
amulet and laid it upon his daughter who was straightway made whole. At
this he rejoiced with exceeding joy and invested me with a vest of
honour and gave alms of much money; and he caused set the amulet in the
Princess’s necklace. It chanced, one day, that she embarked with her
women in a ship and went for a sail on the sea. Presently, one of her
maids put out her hand to her, to sport with her, and the necklace brake
asunder and fell into the waves. From that hour the possessor[293] of
the Princess returned to her, wherefore great grief betided the King and
he gave me much money, saying, “Go thou to Shayk