kissed the hem of her
garment, said, "My dear deliverer, I am so sensible of your
unparalleled humanity towards a stranger, as I am, that I beg of
you to tell me yourself what I can do to shew my gratitude; or
rather dispose of me as a slave, to whom you have a just right,
since I am no more my own, but entirely yours: and that you may
know who I am, I will tell you my story in as few words as
possible."
After I had informed her who I was, I gave her an account of my
marriage with Ameeneh, of the complaisance I had shewn her, my
patience in bearing with her humour, her extraordinary behaviour,
and the savage inhumanity with which she had treated me out of
her inconceivable wickedness, and finished my story with my
transformation, and thanking her mother for the inexpressible
happiness she had procured me.
"Syed Naomaun," said the daughter to me, "let us not talk of the
obligation you say you owe me; it is enough for me that I have
done any service to so honest a man. But let us talk of Ameeneh
your wife. I was acquainted with her before your marriage; and as
I know her to be a sorceress, she also is sensible that I have
some of the same kind of knowledge as herself, since we both
learnt it of the same mistress. We often meet at the baths, but
as our tempers are different, I avoid all opportunities of
contracting an intimacy with her, which is no difficult matter,
as she does the same by me. I am not at all surprised at her
wickedness: but what I have already done for you is not
sufficient; I must complete what I have begun. It is not enough
to have broken the enchantment by which she has so long excluded
you from the society of men. You must punish her as she deserves,
by going home again, and assuming the authority which belongs to
you. I will give you the proper means. Converse a little with my
mother till I return to you."
My deliveress went into a closet, and while she was absent, I
repeated my obligations to the mother as well as the daughter.
She said to me, "You see my daughter has as much skill in the
magic art as the wicked Ameeneh; but makes such use of it, that
you would be surprised to know the good she has done, and daily
does, by exercising her science. This induces me to let her
practise it; for I should not permit her, if I perceived she made
an improper application of it in the smallest instance."
The mother then related some of the wonders she had seen her
perform: by this time the daughte
|