AHMED AND PARI-BANOU. 461

princess had already been, and informed him of their unexpected
arrival, and of the manner in which the princess had been by
their means perfectly cured. The sultan received and embraced
them with the greatest transport, and he experienced the greater
joy at their return, because he was at the same instant informed
of the perfect and wonderful recovery of the princess his niece,
whom he loved as tenderly as if she had been his own daughter,
and wnom all the physicians had givenover. Afterthe mutual and
common compliments and inquiries on such occasions, each of
the princes presented the rarity that they had severally procured.

The sultan of India, after having listened with the great-
est attention and kindness to everything the princes wished to
say in behalf of the rarities they brought, without giving them
the least interruption, and having also been informed of every-
thing that had passed respecting the cure of the princess, re-
mained for some time silent, as if he were considering what
answer he should make them. He at last broke silence, ad-
dressing them in these terms :—“I would, my children, declare
my opinion in favour of one of you with the greatest pleasure,
if I could do so with justice ; but reflect in your own minds
whether I can do so. It is indeed true that the princess, my
niece, is indebted to you, Prince Ahmed, for her recovery by
means of your artificial apple; but I ask you, could it have
been thus employed, had not the ivory tube of Prince Ali
afforded you the opportunity of knowing the danger in which
she was, and the carpet of Prince Houssain procured you
the means of instantly coming to her assistance? You, Prince
Ali, by means of your ivory tube, discovered the irreparable
loss that yourself and brothers were about to experience in the
death of the princess, your cousin, and it must therefore be
acknowledged, that she is under a very great obligation to you ;
but you must allow, that this information would have been in-
adequate to produce the advantage that has taken place with-
out the artificial apple and the carpet. Nourounnihar too,
Prince Houssain, must be ungrateful if she should be deficient
in gratitude to you, on account of your carpet,which proved so
necessary towards the accomplishment of her cure. But you
must allow that it would not have been of the smallest use if you
had not become acquainted with her dangerous illness by means
of Prince Ali’s ivory tube, and if Prince Ahmed had not employed