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"You must know then," said the perie, "that the sultan of Egypt has a vizier, Shumse ad Deen Mahummud, who has a daughter most beautiful and accomplished.
This tender mother used to spend the greatest part of the day and night in that room which she had built as a representation of the tomb of her son Buddir ad Deen Houssun, whom she supposed to be dead after so long an absence. She was pouring tears over his memorial when Shumse ad Deen entering, found her buried in the deepest affliction.
At the end of nine months the wife of Shumse ad Deen was brought to bed of a daughter at Cairo, and on the same day the lady of Noor ad Deen was delivered of a son at Bussorah, who was called Buddir ad Deen Houssun. The grand vizier, of Bussorah testified his joy for the birth of his grandson by gifts and public entertainments.
Shumse ad Deen having opened the paper, knew his brother's hand, and found this superscription, "For my son Buddir ad Deen Houssun."
The vizier Shumse ad Deen being recovered from his fit by the aid of his daughter, and the women she called to her assistance; "Daughter," said he, "do not alarm yourself at this accident, occasioned by what is scarcely credible. Your bridegroom is your cousin, the son of my beloved and deceased brother.
Crookback, knowing it to be the vizier answered, "Alas! alas! it is you then that would marry me to the mistress of a genie in the form of a buffalo." Shumse ad Deen Mahummud, when he heard hump-back speak thus, thought he was raving, bade him move, and stand upon his legs. "I will take care how I stir," said hump-back, "unless the sun be risen.
This minister had two sons, who in every thing followed his footsteps. The eldest was called Shumse ad Deen Mahummud, and the younger Noor ad Deen Ali. The latter was endowed with all the good qualities that man could possess.
This said, Buddir ad Deen cried out so ludicrously, that Shumse ad Deen could hardly keep his countenance: "Alas!" said he, "must I suffer a death as cruel as it is ignominious, for not putting pepper in a cream-tart?" "How," said Buddir ad Deen, "must I be rifled; must I be imprisoned in a chest, and at last impaled, and all for not putting pepper in a cream-tart?
Day-light, which then appeared, had not yet dispelled his uneasiness, when the vizier Shumse ad Deen, his uncle, knocked at the door, and at the same time went in to bid him good morrow. Buddir ad Deen was extremely surprised to see a man he knew so well, and who now appeared with a different air from that with which he pronounced the terrible sentence of death against him.
It was in vain for Buddir ad Deen to ask those who carried him off, what fault had been found with his cream-tart: they gave him no answer. In short, they conducted him to the tents, and made him wait there till Shumse ad Deen returned from the governor of Damascus. Upon the vizier's return, the pretended culprit was brought before him.