Scheherazade, instead of answering her sister, addressed herself
to the sultan thus: Sir, will your majesty be pleased to allow me
to give my sister this satisfaction? With all my heart, answers
the sultan. Then Scheherazade bid her sister listen; and
afterwards, addressing herself to Schahriar, began thus.
The First Night.
The Merchant and the Genie.
Sir--There was formerly a merchant, who had a great estate in
lands, goods, and money. He had abundance of deputies, factors,
and slaves. He was obliged from time to time to take journies,
and talk with his correspondents; and one day being under the
necessity of going a long journey about an affair of importance,
he took horse, and put a portmanteau behind him, with some
biscuits and dates, because he had a great desert to pass over,
where he could have no manner of provisions. He arrived without
any accident at the end of his journey, and, having despatched
his affairs, took horse again in order to return home.
The fourth day of his journey, he was so much incommoded by the
heat of the sun, and the reflection of that heat from the earth,
that he turned out of the road to refresh himself under some
trees that he saw in the country. There he found, at the foot of
a great walnut-tree, a fountain of very clear running water; and
alighting, tied his horse to a branch of the tree, and sitting
down by the fountain, took some biscuits and dates out of his
portmanteau, and, as he ate his dates, threw the shells about on
both sides of him.
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