“Sire,” said the princess to her father, “you wish me to marry, and I know you desire to please me, for which I am very grateful. But, indeed, I have no inclination to change my state, for where could I find so happy a life amidst so many beautiful and delightful surroundings? I feel that I could never be as happy with any husband as I am here, and I beg you not to press one on me.”
“At last an embassy came from a king so rich and powerful that the King of China felt constrained to urge this suit on his daughter. He told her how important such an alliance would be, and pressed her to consent. In fact, he pressed her so persistingly that the princess at length lost her temper and quite forgot the respect due to her father. `Sire,’ cried she angrily, `do not speak further of this or any other marriage or I will plunge this dagger in my breast and so escape from all these importunities.’”
“The king of China was extremely indignant with his daughter and replied: `You have lost your senses and you must be treated accordingly.’” So he had her shut in one set of rooms in one of her palaces, and only allowed her ten old women, of whom her nurse was the head, to wait on her and keep her company. He next sent letters to all the kings who had sued for the princess’s hand, begging they would think of her no longer, as she was quite insane, and he desired his various envoys to make it known that anyone who could cure her should have her to wife.
“Fair Maimoune,” continued Danhasch, “this is the present state of affairs. I never pass a day without going to gaze on this incomparable beauty, and I am sure that if you would only accompany me you would think the sight well worth the trouble, and own that you never saw such loveliness before.”
The fairy only answered with a peal of laughter, and when at length she had control of her voice she cried, “Oh, come, you are making game of me! I thought you had something really interesting to tell me instead of raving about some unknown damsel. What would you say if you could see the prince I have just been looking at and whose beauty is really transcendent? That is something worth talking about, you would certainly quite lose your head.”
“Charming Maimoune,” asked Danhasch, “may I inquire who and what is the prince of whom you speak?”
“Know,” replied Maimoune, “that he is in much the same case as your princess. The king, his father, wanted to force him to marry, and on the prince’s refusal to obey he has been imprisoned in an old tower where I have just seen him.”
“I don’t like to contradict a lady,” said Danhasch, “but you must really permit me to doubt any mortal being as beautiful as my princess.”
“Hold your tongue,” cried Maimoune. “I repeat that is impossible.”
“Well, I don’t wish to seem obstinate,” replied Danhasch, “the best plan to test the truth of what I say will be for you to let me take you to see the princess for yourself.”
“There is no need for that,” retorted Maimoune; “we can satisfy ourselves in another way. Bring your princess here and lay her down beside my prince. We can then compare them at leisure, and decide which is in the right.”
Danhasch readily consented, and after having the tower where the prince was confined pointed out to him, and making a wager with Maimoune as to the result of the comparison, he flew off to China to fetch the princess.
In an incredibly short time Danhasch returned, bearing the sleeping princess. Maimoune led him to the prince’s room, and the rival beauty was placed beside him.
When the prince and princess lay thus side by side, an animated dispute as to their respective charms arose between the fairy and the genius. Danhasch began by saying:
“Now you see that my princess is more beautiful than your prince. Can you doubt any longer?”
“Doubt! Of course I do!” exclaimed Maimoune. “Why, you must be blind not to see how much my prince excels your princess. I do not deny that your princess is very handsome, but only look and you must own that I am in the right.”
“There is no need for me to look longer,” said Danhasch, “my first impression will remain the same; but of course, charming Maimoune, I am ready to yield to you if you insist on it.”
“By no means,” replied Maimoune. “I have no idea of being under any obligation to an accursed genius like you. I refer the matter to an umpire, and shall expect you to submit to his verdict.”
Danhasch readily agreed, and on Maimoune striking the floor with her foot it opened, and a hideous, hump-backed, lame, squinting genius, with six horns on his head, hands like claws, emerged. As soon as he beheld Maimoune he threw himself at her feet and asked her commands.
“Rise, Caschcasch,” said she. “I summoned you to judge between me and Danhasch. Glance at that couch, and say without any partiality whether you think the youth or the maiden lying there the more beautiful.”
Caschcasch looked at the prince and princess with every token of surprise and admiration. At length, having gazed long without being able to come to a decision, he said
“Madam, I must confess that I should deceive you were I to declare one to be handsomer than the other. There seems to me only one way in which to decide the matter, and that is to wake one after the other and judge which of them expresses the greater admiration for the other.”
This advice pleased Maimoune and Danhasch, and the fairy at once transformed herself into the shape of a gnat and settling on Camaralzaman’s throat stung him so sharply that he awoke. As he did so his eyes fell on the Princess of China. Surprised at finding a lady so near him, he raised himself on one arm to look at her. The youth and beauty of the princess at once awoke a feeling to which his heart had as yet been a stranger, and he could not restrain his delight.
“What loveliness! What charms! Oh, my heart, my soul!” he exclaimed, as he kissed her forehead, her eyes and mouth in a way which would certainly have roused her had not the genie’s enchantments kept her asleep.
“How, fair lady!” he cried, “you do not wake at the signs of Camaralzaman’s love? Be you who you may, he is not unworthy of you.”
It then suddenly occurred to him, that perhaps this was the bride his father had destined for him, and that the King had probably had her placed in this room in order to see how far Camaralzaman’s aversion to marriage would withstand her charms.
“At all events,” he thought, “I will take this ring as a remembrance of her.”
So saying he drew off a fine ring which the princess wore on her finger, and replaced it by one of his own. After which he lay down again and was soon fast asleep.
Then Danhasch, in his turn, took the form of a gnat and bit the princess on her lip.
She started up, and was not a little amazed at seeing a young man beside her. From surprise she soon passed to admiration, and then to delight on perceiving how handsome and fascinating he was.
“Why,” cried she, “was it you my father wished me to marry? How unlucky that I did not know sooner! I should not have made him so angry. But wake up! wake up! for I know I shall love you with all my heart.”
So saying she shook Camaralzaman so violently that nothing but the spells of Maimoune could have prevented his waking.
“Oh!” cried the princess. “Why are you so drowsy?” So saying she took his hand and noticed her own ring on his finger, which made her wonder still more. But as he still remained in a profound slumber she pressed a kiss on his cheek and soon fell fast asleep too.
Then Maimoune turning to the genie said: “Well, are you satisfied that my prince surpasses your princess? Another time pray believe me when I assert anything.”
Then turning to Caschcasch: “My thanks to you, and now do you and Danhasch bear the princess back to her own home.”
The two genii hastened to obey, and Maimoune returned to her well.
On waking next morning the first thing Prince Camaralzaman did was to look round for the lovely lady he had seen at night, and the next to question the slave who waited on him about her. But the slave persisted so strongly that he knew nothing of any lady, and still less of how she got into the tower, that the prince lost all patience, and after giving him a good beating tied a rope round him and ducked him in the well till the unfortunate man cried out that he would tell everything. Then the prince drew him up all dripping wet, but the slave begged leave to change his clothes first, and as soon as the prince consented hurried off just as he was to the palace. Here he found the king talking to the grand-vizir of all the anxiety his son had caused him. The slave was admitted at once and cried: