Pagina 631 van 1116

I cooked this myself and none can cook it as nicely as I can save

thy father, Badr al-Din Hasan." "By Allah, O my lady, Ajib

answered, "this dish is nasty stuff; for we saw but now in the

city of Bassorah a cook who so dresseth pomegranate-grains that

the very smell openeth a way to the heart and the taste would

make a full man long to eat; and, as for this mess compared with

his, 'tis not worth either much or little." When his grandmother

heard his words she waxed wroth with exceeding wrath and looked

at the servant-And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased

to say her permitted say.

When it was the Twenty-fourth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Ajib's

grandmother heard his words, she waxed wroth and looked at the

servant and said, "Woe to thee!