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The Arabian Nights

By THE PRINCESS SHEHERAZADE Condensation by ALFRED S. CLARK SHEHERAZADE was a vizier's daughter and when she besought her father to wed her to King Shahriar it was cause for grief to the vizier. For each day was it Shahriar's wont to put to death his bride of the day before. It befell, however, that Sheherazade had her will. As she had hoped, the king was wakeful and to beguile him she began a story of magic. Dawn broke before she had finished, and so eager was Shahriar to hear it all that he gave no order for her execution.

For a thousand and one nights did this befall while Sheherazade told tales of love, war, and sorcery, of kings, beggars, and rogues, of lands where diamonds were more plentiful than pebbles and bigger than eggs, of intrigues in the lanes and bazaars of Oriental cities. In towns and deserts and far islands did necromancers work their wills. Horses flew; dogs talked; mermaidens and creatures greater than whales peopled the deeps; orgres and enormous apes crept out of forests; birds so great that their wings darkened the day swooped from the skies. Here too were lovers in palaces and hovels, bold and cowardly, yet all so enamoured that they swooned at the very thought of the beloved. Underlying all was the colorful Orient with barbers and porters jostling caliphs and princesses in the thronged and picturesque lanes of three cities whose very names conjure up romance--Bagdad, Cairo, and Damascus. Now these are the best liked of Sheherazade's tales: