body.

Others maintained, and amongst the rest Khacan, that personal
charms were by no means the only qualifications to be desired in
a slave; but that they ought to be accompanied with a great share
of wit, a cultivated understanding, modesty, and, if possible,
every agreeable accomplishment. The reason they gave was, that
nothing could be more gratifying to persons on whom the
management of important affairs devolved, than, after having
spent the day in fatiguing employment, to have a companion in
their retirement, whose conversation would be not only pleasing,
but useful and instructive: for, in short, continued they, there
is but little difference between brutes and those men who keep a
slave only to look at, and to gratify a passion that we have in
common with them.

The king entirely concurred in this opinion, and accordingly
ordered Khacan to buy him a slave, of perfect beauty, mistress of
all the qualifications they had enumerated, and possessed, above
all things, of an enlightened understanding.

Saouy, jealous of the honour the king had done Khacan, and
differing widely with him in opinion, said, "Sire, it will be
very difficult to find a slave so accomplished as your majesty
requires; and should such a one be discovered, which I scarcely
believe possible, she will be cheap at ten thousand pieces of
gold." "Saouy," replied the king, "I perceive plainly you think
the sum too great; it may be so for you, though not for me." Then
turning to his high treasurer, he ordered him to send the ten
thousand pieces of gold to the vizier's house.

Khacan, as soon as he had returned home, sent for all the brokers
who used to deal in women-slaves, and strictly charged them,
that, if ever they met with one who answered the description he
gave them, they should immediately apprise him. The brokers,
partly to oblige the vizier, and partly for their own interest,
promised to use their utmost endeavours to procure for him one
that would accord with his wishes. Scarcely a day passed but they
brought him a slave for his inspection, but he always discovered
in each something defective.

One day, early in the morning, as Khacan was mounting his horse
to go to court, a broker came to him, and, taking hold of the
stirrup with great eagerness, told him a Persian merchant had
arrived very late the day before, who had a slave to sell, so
surprisingly beautiful that she excelled all the women his eyes
had ever beheld; "And for wit