The History of Badoura - Page 1

Author: Laurence Housman

The story of Aboulhassan, the Prince of Persia, had come to an end and the light of morning was full. Then said Dinarzade, "Another story, O sister, another story !" Scheherazade made answer, "If my Lord will suffer me to live for another day, there is yet one more tale that I could tell. The history of Prince Camaralzaman and of his bride Badoura is far more entrancing than that which I have just given; but it is too long to be told now."

Then she was silent; and Shahriar could not bring himself to order her death till he had heard that story also. So once more he let his oath stay unfulfilled and deferred sentence; and the next night, wakened in the small hours towards dawn, Scheherazade, opening a mouth of loveliness and filling it with wise and sweet words, took up the thread of her tale and began :

O King, live for ever! About twenty days' sail from the coast of Persia there lies in the open sea an island which is called Khaledan, a country wealthy and prosperous and containing many large and well-inhabited towns. Its ruler in ancient times was a king named Shahzaman. As a reward for his many virtues, he had gathered about him a large and well-proportioned household, four wives, the daughters of kings, and sixty concubines; but, in spite of so generous a provision for that which only Heaven can bestow, he had no son; and as time went on, and he grew old, his bones wasted, and his heart became filled with affliction; and he said to his Vizier, "Now in a little while I shall die; then will my name perish, and my Kingdom pass to others, for I have not a son to come after me. Tell me, is there anything I can do to avert so great a calamity? "