The old man listened to him with
astonishment, and when he had done, cried out, This is the most
surprising thing in the world, and you are bound by the most
inviolable oath; however, I will be witness of your interview
with the genie; and sitting down by the merchant, they talked
together. But I see day, says Scheherazade, and must leave off;
but the best of the story is yet to come. The sultan, resolving
to hear the end of it, suffered her to live that day also.
The Third Night.
Next morning Dinarzade made the same request to her sister as
formerly, thus: My dear sister, says she, if you be not asleep,
tell me one of those pleasant stories you have read: but the
sultan, willing to understand what followed betwixt the merchant
and the genie, bid her go on with that; which she did as follows:
Sir, while the merchant and the old man that led the bitch were
talking, they saw another old man coming to them, followed by two
black dogs; after they had saluted one another, he asked them
what they did in that place? The old man with the bitch told him
the adventure of the merchant and genie, with all that had passed
betwixt them, particularly the merchant's oath. He added, that
this was the day agreed on, and that he was resolved to stay and
see the issue.
The second old man, thinking it also worth his curiosity,
resolved to do the like: he likewise sat down by them; and they
had scarcely begun to talk together, when there came a third old
man, who, addressing himself to the two former, asked why the
merchant that sat with them looked so melancholy.
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