Page:Arabian Nights Entertainments (1728)-Vol. 2.djvu/45

his Neighbours of the Envy he had conceiv’d againſt him; he has acquired ſuch a general Eſteem, that the envious Man, not able to endure it, came hither on purpoſe to ruin him, which he had perform’d had it not been for the Aſſiſtance which we have given this honeſt Man, whoſe Reputation is ſo great, that the Sultan who keeps his Reſidence in the neighbouring City, was to pay him a Viſit to-morrow, to recommend the Princeſs hiſ Daughter to his Prayers.

Another Voice ask’d, What need had the Princeſs of the Dervis’s Prayers? To which the firſt anſwer’d, You do not know, it ſeems, that ſhe is poſſeſs’d by Genie Maimoun, the Son of Dimdim, who is fallen in Love with her. But know well how this good Head of the Derviſes may cure her; the Thing is very eaſy, and I will tell it you. He has a black Cat in his Convent with a white Spot at the End of her Tail, about the Bigneſs of a ſmall Piece of Silver Money, let him only pull ſeven Hairs out of this white Spot, burn them and ſmoke the Princeſs’s Head with the Fume, ſhe will not only preſently be cured, but be ſo ſafely deliver’d from Maimoun, the Son of Dimdim, that he will never dare to come near her a ſecond Time.

The Head of the Derviſes remembred every Word of this Diſcourſe between the Fairies and the Genies, who were very ſilent all the Night after. The next Morning by break of Day, that he could diſcern one Thing from another, the Well being broke down in ſeveral Places, he ſaw a Hole by which he crept out with eaſe.

The other Derviſes who had been ſeeking for him, were rejoyced to ſee him; he gave them a brief Account of the Wickedneſs of that Man to whom he had given ſo kind a Reception the Day before, and retired into his Cell. It was not long till the black Cat, of whom the Fairies and the Genies had made mention in their Diſcourſes the Night before, came to fawn upon her Maſter, as ſhe was accuſtomed to do; he took her up and pull’d out ſeven Hairs off the white Spot that was upon her Tail, and laid them aſide for his Uſe when Occaſion ſhould ſerve.

The Sun was not high when the Sultan, who would leave no means untried that he thought could reſtore the Princeſs to her perfect Health, arrived at the Gate of the