Pagina 605 di 1116

Then said the Monitor to him, "We know that the Wazir is thy

grandfather, the father of thy mother, Sitt al-Husn, and not thy

father. As for thy father, neither dost thou know him nor yet do

we; for the Sultan married thy mother to the hunchbacked

horse-groom; but the Jinni came and slept with her and thou hast

no known father. Leave, then, comparing thyself too

advantageously with the little ones of the school, till thou know

that thou hast a lawful father; for until then thou wilt pass for

a child of adultery amongst them. Seest thou not that even a

huckster's son knoweth his own sire? Thy grandfather is the Wazir

of Egypt; but as for thy father we wot him not and we say indeed

that thou hast none.