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Burton, Richard Francis

"The Arabian Nights"

The sun was high over the horizon when Ali Baba walked
back from the baths, and he marveled exceedingly to see the jars still
standing under the shed, and said: "How cometh it that he, the oil
merchant, my guest, hath not carried to the market his mules and
jars of oil?" She answered: "Allah Almighty vouchsafe to thee sixscore
years and ten of safety! I will tell thee in privacy of this
merchant."
So Ali Baba went apart with his slave girl, who, taking him without
the house, first locked the court door, then, showing him a jar, she
said, "Prithee look into this and see if within there be oil or
aught else."
Thereupon, peering inside it, he perceived a man, at which sight
he cried aloud and fain would have fled in his fright. Quoth Morgiana:
"Fear him not. This man hath no longer the force to work thee harm, he
lieth dead and stone-dead." Hearing such words of comfort and
reassurance, Ali Baba asked: "O Morgiana, what evils have we
escaped, and by what means hath this wretch become the quarry of
Fate?" She answered: "Alhamdolillah- praise be to Almighty Allah!- I
will inform thee fully of the case.


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