The Crimson Fairy Book, part 28 · page 21 2101“My husband lies dead at home, and he has spent all our money, and sold everything, and I have nothing left to bury him with,” sobbed the wife.102Then Subida took up a purse containing two hundred gold pieces, and said: “Your husband served us long and faithfully.103You must see that he has a fine funeral.”104The wife took the money, and, kissing the feet of the Sultana, she joyfully hastened home.105They spent some happy hours planning how they should spend it, and thinking how clever they had been.106“When the Sultan goes this evening to Subida’s palace,” said Abu Nowas, “she will be sure to tell him that Abu Nowas is dead.107‘Not Abu Nowas, it is his wife,’ he will reply, and they will quarrel over it, and all the time we shall be sitting here enjoying ourselves.108Oh, if they only knew, how angry they would be!”109As Abu Nowas had foreseen, the Sultan went, in the evening after his business was over, to pay his usual visit to the Sultana.110“Poor Abu Nowas is dead!” said Subida when he entered the room.111“It is not Abu Nowas, but his wife who is dead,” answered the Sultan.112“No; really you are quite wrong.113She came to tell me herself only a couple of hours ago,” replied Subida, “and as he had spent all their money, I gave her something to bury him with.”114“You must be dreaming,” exclaimed the Sultan.115“Soon after midday Abu Nowas came into the hall, his eyes streaming with tears, and when I asked him the reason he answered that his wife was dead, and they had sold everything they had, and he had nothing left, not so much as would buy her a shroud, far less for her burial.”116For a long time they talked, and neither would listen to the other, till the Sultan sent for the door-keeper and bade him go instantly to the house of Abu Nowas and see if it was the man or his wife who was dead.117But Abu Nowas happened to be sitting with his wife behind the latticed window, which looked on the street, and he saw the man coming, and sprang up at once.118“There is the Sultan’s door-keeper!119They have sent him here to find out the truth.120Quick! throw yourself on the bed and pretend that you are dead.”121And in a moment the wife was stretched out stiffly, with a linen sheet spread across her, like a corpse.122She was only just in time, for the sheet was hardly drawn across her when the door opened and the porter came in.123“Has anything happened?” asked he.124“My poor wife is dead,” replied Abu Nowas.125“Look! she is laid out here.”126And the porter approached the bed, which was in a corner of the room, and saw the stiff form lying underneath.127“We must all die,” said he, and went back to the Sultan.128“Well, have you found out which of them is dead?” asked the Sultan.129“Yes, noble Sultan; it is the wife,” replied the porter.130“He only says that to please you,” cried Subida in a rage; and calling to her chamberlain, she ordered him to go at once to the dwelling of Abu Nowas and see which of the two was dead.131“And be sure you tell the truth about it,” added she, “or it will be the worse for you.”1 2← previousThe Crimson Fairy Book, part 27next →The Crimson Fairy Book, part 29↑ back to The Crimson Fairy BookThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/page/2/