The minister took them himself, carried them to the
kitchen, and shutting himself up all alone with the cook-maid,
she gutted them, and put them on the fire, as she had done the
four others the day before; when they were fried on the one side,
and she had turned them upon the other, the kitchen-wall opened,
and the same lady came in with the rod in her hand, struck one of
the fishes, spoke to it as before, and all four gave her the same
answer. But, sir, says Scheherazade, day appears, which obliges
me to break off. What I have told you is indeed singular, but if
I be alive to-morrow, I will tell you other things which are yet
better worth your hearing. Schahriar, conceiving that the sequel
must be very curious, resolved to hear her next night.
The Twentieth Night.
Next morning the sultan prevented Dinarzade, and says to
Scheherazade, Madam, I pray you make an end of the story of the
fisherman; I am impatient to hear it. Upon which the sultaness
continued it thus:
Sir, after the four fishes had answered the young lady, she
overturned the frying-pan with her rod, and retired into the same
place of the wall from whence she came out. The grand vizier
being witness to what passed, This is too surprising and
extraordinary, says he, to be concealed from the sultan; I will
inform him of this prodigy; which he did accordingly, and gave
him a faithful account of all that had happened.
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