Persian Tales (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1919. Excerpt: ... X THE STORY OF THE JEALOUS SISTERS Once upon a time there was a time when there was no one but God. There was a father who had three daughters, and his wife who was their mother was dead. Every day he used to go off to work at his trade, and every evening he came home. One night on his return he said: "Girls, some evening you might make a little sherbatu for me. You can eat some yourselves, and put a little aside so that I can have it in the morning to dip my bread into at breakfast-time." The daughters took sugar, flour, butter, and spices and made the sherbatu and ate their own share, putting the rest into a bowl, which they placed on one side for their father's breakfast. In the middle of the night, when he was asleep, the two elder sisters got up and ate up the whole bowlful of sherbatu, and filled the bowl with dirt and rubbish and put it back in its place. In the morning when the father woke up and found what the daughters had done, he was very angry and wished them ill, but he said nothing about it. A little later in the day he said: "Come, children, let's go for an excursion to-day." So they took some bread and a skin of water for their picnic, and went far, far out into the desert. After some time they came to the ruins of an old house. "Come here and sit down and rest a little," said the father. "I'll just go and wash my hands and be back presently." He went out and hung the skin of water up behind the wall, and made a hole in it and went off about his own business., The daughters waited and waited, but there was no sign of his coming back. However, as long as they heard the water splashing out of the skin they thought he was washing his hands and didn't worry about him. But at last, when the skin ran dry, the splashing stopped, and they began to get frightened and called...