178
breasts are straitened. Indeed, this is the greatest of ill-will in you to me, and had I hearkened to you, my regret had been prolonged and I had died miserably of grief.” “O my father,” quoth the prince, “but for the fairness of thy thought and thy judgment and thy longanimity and deliberation in affairs, there had not betided thee this great joyance. Hadst thou slain me in haste, repentance would have been sore on thee and long grief, and on this wise doth he who ensueth haste repent.”
Then the king sent for the captain of the thieves and bestowed on him a dress of honour,[1] commanding that all who loved the king should put off [their raiment and cast it] upon him.[2] So there fell dresses of honour [and other presents] on him, till he was wearied with their much plenty, and Azadbekht invested him with the mastership of the police of his city. Then he bade set up other nine gibbets beside the first and said to his son, “Thou art guiltless, and yet these wicked viziers endeavoured for thy slaughter.” “O my father,” answered the prince, “I had no fault [in their eyes] but that I was a loyal counsellor to thee and still kept watch over thy good and withheld their
- ↑ Khilaah, lit. that which one takes off from one’s own person, to bestow upon a messenger of good tidings or any other whom it is desired especially to honour. The literal meaning of the phrase, here rendered “he bestowed on him a dress of honour,” is “he put off on him [that which was upon himself].” A Khilaah commonly includes a horse, a sword, a girdle or waist-cloth and other articles, according to the rank of the recipient, and might more precisely be termed “a complete equipment of honour.”
- ↑ An economical mode of rewarding merit, much in favour with Eastern monarchs.
