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"Very true," replied the pacha; "Haroun Alraschid, if I recollect right, was very strict in his observances of the precepts of the Koran. After all, he was but a pastek a water-melon. You may proceed, Menouni."
"I am here in obedience to the will of the pacha," replied the man in a most musical voice, as he salaamed low. "What does his highness require of his slave Menouni?" "His highness requires a proof of thy talent, and an opportunity to extend his bounty."
The sultan is the Holy Prophet's vicegerent on earth and he, guided by the Prophet, invests virtue and wisdom with the kalaats of dignity, in the persons of his pachas." "Very true," said the pacha, "the sultan is guided by Allah, and," continued he in a low tone to Mustapha, "a few hundred purses to boot. Menouni, you may proceed."
"She was, that very evening, your sublime highness." "Allah be praised!" rejoined the pacha. "Mustapha, let Menouni know what it is to tell a story to a pacha, even though it is rather a long one, and I thought the princess would never have been married." And the pacha rose and waddled to his harem.
"Be it so," replied the pacha; "Let Menouni be rewarded, and we will try to find some other storyteller, until his return from his pilgrimage." Can I say more?" "Allah acbar! God is great! and it is well said. But why a book, when nobody can read it?" "These are great words, and spiced with wisdom.
"Very true," replied the pacha; "Haroun Alraschid, if I recollect right, was very strict in his observances of the precepts of the Koran. After all, he was but a pastek a water-melon. You may proceed, Menouni."
"Menouni, it is the pleasure of the pacha that you proceed." "Your slave obeys. Your sublime perspicuity is but too well acquainted with geography ?" "Not that I know of. Hath he ever left his slippers at our threshold, Mustapha?" "I suspect," replied Mustapha, "that he goes all over the world, and therefore he must have been here. Proceed, Menouni, and ask not such questions.
"Amidst the cries of 'Long live Acota, Souffraria's legitimate king." "Legitimate. Pray, good Menouni, what may that word mean?" "Legitimate, your sublime highness, implies that a king and his descendants are chosen by Allah to reign over a people." "Well, but I don't see that Allah had much to do with the choice of Acota."
I don't care how long it is, only let us have no more princesses to be married. That Babe-bi-bobu was enough to tire the patience of a dervish." "Your sublime highness shall be obeyed," replied Menouni. "Would it please you to hear the story of Yussuf, the Water carrier?" "Yes, that sounds better. You may proceed."
"Mustapha," said the pacha, "I feel as the caliph Haroun Alraschid, in the tale of Yussuf, related by Menouni, full of care; my soul is weary my heart is burnt as roast meat." Mustapha, who had wit enough to perceive that he was to act the part of Giaffar, the vizier, immediately replied, "O pacha! great and manifold are the cares of state.
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