Page 271 - Bulbul Hezar

tell the princess how he had invited them to go home with him;
but yet did not fail, the next morning, to meet him at the place

appointed. Well, said the sultan, have you spoke to your sister,
and has she consented to the pleasure I expect of seeing you at
my palace? The two princes looked at each other, and blushed.
Sir, said Prince Bahman, we beg of your majesty to excuse us,
for both my brother and I forgot. Then remember to-day,
replied the sultan, and be sure to bring me an answer
tomorrow.

The princes were guilty of the same fault a second time; yet the
sultan was so good-natured as to forgive their negligence; but
to prevent their forgetfulness the third time, he pulled three
golden bullets out of a purse, and put them into Prince
Bahman's bosom. These bullets, said he, smiling, will prevent
your forgetting a third time, since the noise they make, byfalling
on the floor when you undress yourself, will remind you, in
case you should forget. And indeed the thing happened out as
the sultan foresaw it would; and without these bullets, the

princes had not thought of speaking to their sister of this affair;
for as Prince Bahman unloosed his girdle to go to bed, the
bullets dropt on the floor, and thereupon he ran into Prince
Perviz's chamber, and both went into the princess Parizade's
___

271