Whither can he have gone? It must have
been some extraordinary matter that drew him away, for he cannot
brook to leave me an hour. May God curse the talisman and its
hour!' Then she considered awhile and said in herself, 'If I go
out and tell the servants that my husband is lost, they will
covet me: I must use stratagem.' So she rose and donned some of
her husband's clothes and boots and spurs and a turban like his,
drawing the loose end across her face for a chin-band. Then
setting a slave-girl in her litter, she went forth the tent and
called to the servants, who brought her Kemerezzeman's horse; and
she mounted and bade load the beasts and set forward. So they
bound on the burdens and departed, none doubting but she was
Kemerezzeman, for she resembled him in face and form; nor did
they leave journeying, days and nights, till they came in sight
of a city overlooking the sea, when they halted to rest and
pitched their tents without the walls. The princess asked the
name of the place and was told, 'It is called the City of Ebony:
its king is named Armanous, and he hath a daughter called Heyat
en Nufous.' Presently, the King sent to learn who it was that
had encamped without his city; so the messenger, coming to the
tents, enquired of Budour's servants and was told that she was a
king's son, bound for the Khalidan Islands, who had strayed
from his road; whereupon he returned and told the King, who
straightway took horse and rode out, with his nobles, to meet the
strange prince.
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