ABSTRACT
MORAL anecdotes, O auspicious King, are the tales which I know best. I will tell you one or two or three from the Perfumed Garden,’ Then said King Shahryar: ‘Begin quickly, for a great weariness weighs upon my soul to-night and I doubt whether your head is safe upon your shoulders.’ ‘Listen, then,’ answered Shahrazad with a smile, ‘but first I must warn you, O auspicious King, that, though these anecdotes are very moral, they might seem licentious to gross and narrow minds.’ ‘Do not let that stop you, Shahrazad,’ said King Shahryar. ‘Only, if you think these moral anecdotes ought not to be heard by this little one, who listens, I do not very well know why, among the carpets at your feet, tell her to depart at once.’ But little Dunyazad, fearing to be driven away, threw herself into the arms of her elder sister. Shahrazad kissed her upon the eyes and calmed her against her breast; then she turned to King Shahryar, saying: ‘I think that she should be allowed to stay, for “to the pure and clean all things are pure and clean,” and there is nothing shameful in speaking of those things which lie below our waists.’
