Page:Arabian Nights Entertainments (1728)-Vol. 3.djvu/46
( 156 )
as Piſtachos, And, 4. A She Slave of raviſhing Beauty, whoſe Apparel was all cover’d over with Jewels.
The Ship ſet fail, and after a long and very ſucceſsful Navigation, we landed at Balfora, from whence I went to Bagdad, where the firſt thing I did was to acquit my ſelf of my Committion.
Scheherazade ſtopt, becauſe Day began to appear, and next Night reſum’d her Diſcourſe thus,
The Eighty Eighth Night.
I Took the King of Serendib’s Letter, continu’d Sindbad, I and went to preſent my ſelf at the Gate of the Commander of the Faithtul, follow’d by the beauriful Slave, and ſuch of my own Family as carried the Preſents. I gave an Account of the Reaſon of my coming, and was immediately conducted to the Throne of the Califf, I made my Reverence by Proſtration, and after a ſhort Speech, gave him the Letter and Preſent. When he had read what the King of Serendib wrote to him, he ask’d me, If that Prince were really ſo rich and potent as he had ſaid in his Letter? I proſtrated my ſelf a fecond time, and rifing again, Commander of the Faithful, ſays I, I can aſſure your Majeſty he doth not exceed the Truth on that He’d, I am a Witneſs of it. There’s nothing more capable of railing a Man s Admiration, than the Magnificence of his Palace. When the Prince appears in Publick, he has a Throne fix’d on the Back of an Elephant, and marches betwixt two Ranks of his Miniſters, Favourites, and other People of his Court: Before him, upon the ſame Elephznt, an Officer carries a golden Lance in his Hand; and behind the Throne there’s another, who ſtands upright, with a Column of Gold, on the Top of which there’s an Emerald half a Foot long, and an Inch thick: before him there marches a guard-of a 1000 Men, clad in Cloth of Gold and Silk, and mounted on Elephants richly capariſon’d.
Crowns