Page:Arabian Nights Entertainments (1728)-Vol. 3.djvu/93

themſelves round Agib, and one of them call’d out, Let ts begin a Play, but on Condition, That he that cannot tell his own Name, and that of his Father and Mother, ſhall not play at all, They all cried out, and ſo did Agib, We conſent to it. Then he that ſpoke firft ask’d every one the Queſtion, and all fulfill’d the condition except Agib, who anſwer’d, My Name is Agib, my Mother is call’d the Lady of beauty, and my Father Schemſedden Mohammed, Vizier to the Sultan.

At theſe Words all the Children cried out, Agib, What do you ſay? That’s not the Name of your Father, but your Grand-father, A Curſe’on you, ſaid he in a Paſſion. What! Dare you ſay that the Vizier Schemſeddin Mohammed is not my Father? No, no, cried they with great Laughter, he is but your Grandfather, and you ſhall not play with us. Nay, we will take care how we come into your Company. Having ſpoke thus, they all left him, ſcoffing him, and laughing among themſelves, which mortified Agib ſo much, that he wept.

The School-maſter, who was near, and heard all that paſt, come juſt at the nick of time, and ſpeaking to Agib, ſays he, Agib, do not you know that the Vizier Schemſeddin Mohammmed is none of your Father, but your Grand-father, and the Father of your Mother, the Lady of beauty. We know not the Name of your Father no more than you do. We only know that the Sultan was going to marry your Mother to one of his Grooms, a Hump-back Fellow; but a Genie lay with her. This is hard upon you, and ought to teach you to treat your School-fellows with leſs Haughtineſs than you have done hitherto.

Here Scheherazade ſtopp’d, and next Night reſum’d her Diſcourſe thus:

SIR, Little Agib being nettled at this, run haſtily out of the School, and went home crying. He came ftrait to his Mother’s Chamber, who being alarm’d to ſee him thus griev’d, ask’d him the Reaſon? He could not anſwer for Tears, his Grief was ſo great, and it was but now and then he could ſpeak plain enough to repeat what had been faid to him, and occafion’d his Sorrow.

When he came to himſelf, “Mother (ſaid he) for the Love of God be pleas’d to tell me who is my Father?” My Son, (ſaid ſhe) “Sehemſeddin Mohammed, that every Day makes ſo much of you, he is your Father,” You do