For these most
lovely ladies have, each and all of them, so strong and vehement
a temper and so great a reciprocal hatred, that Ashimullah is
compelled to keep them apart, each in her own chamber, and by no
means can they be allowed to come together for an instant.
Not even my presence would have restrained them, and therefore I
saw each alone."
"I do not object to a little temper," observed the Sultan,
stroking his beard again. "It is a sauce to beauty, and keeps a
man alive."
"It is only toward one another that they are fierce," said the
Sultana. "For all spoke with the greatest love of Ashimullah,
and with the most dutiful respect."
"I do not see on what account they are so fond of Ashimullah,"
said the Sultan, frowning.
That night the Sultan did not once close his eyes, for he could
think of nothing save the marvelous and varied beauty of the
wives of the Vizier; and between the rival charms of the black,
the brown, the ruddy, and the golden, his Majesty was so torn and
tossed about that, when he rose, his brow was troubled and his
cheek pale. And being no longer able to endure the torment that
he suffered, he sent the Sultana again to visit the house of
Ashimullah, bidding her observe most carefully which of the
ladies was in truth most beautiful. But the Sultana, having
returned, professed herself entirely unable to set any one of
Ashimullah's wives above any other in any point of beauty.
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