When it was the Six Hundred and Sixty-fourth Night,
She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Gharib said to his Captains, “Whatsoever this wise man shall say to you, that do”; they replied, “Hearing and obeying!” So the Omani chose out ten captains and asked them, “How many braves have ye under your hands?”; and they answered, “Ten thousand fighting-men.” Then he carried them into the armoury and armed five thousand of them with harquebuses and other five thousand with cross bows and taught them to shoot with these new weapons.[FN#61] Now as soon as it was day, the Indians came out to the field, armed cap-à-pie, with the elephants, giraffes and champions in their van; whereupon Gharib and his men mounted and both hosts drew out and the big drums beat to battle. Then the man of Oman cried out to the archers and harquebusiers to shoot, and they plied the elephants and giraffes with shafts and leaden bullets, which entered the beasts’ flanks, whereat they roared out and turning upon their own ranks, trod them down with their hoofs. Presently the Moslems charged the Misbelievers and outflanked them right and left, whilst the elephants and giraffes trampled them and drove them into the hills and wolds, whither the Moslems followed hard upon them with the keen-edged sword and but few of the giraffes and elephants escaped. Then King Gharib and his folk returned, rejoicing in their victory; and on the morrow they divided the loot and rested five days; after which King Gharib sat down on the throne of his kingship and sending for his brother Ajib, said to him, “O dog, why hast thou assembled the Kings against us? But He who hath power over all things hath given us the victory over thee. So embrace the Saving Faith and thou shalt be saved, and I will forbear to avenge my father and mother on thee therefor, and I will make thee King again as thou wast, placing myself under thy hand.” But Ajib said, “I will not leave my faith.” So Gharib bade lay him in irons and appointed an hundred stalwart slaves to guard him; after which he turned to Ra’ad Shah and said to him, “How sayst thou of the faith of Al-Islam?” Replied he, “O my lord, I will enter thy faith; for, were it not a true Faith and a goodly, thou hadst not conquered us. Put forth thy hand and I will testify that there is no god but _the_ God and that Abraham the Friend is the Apostle of God.” At this Gharib rejoiced and said to him, “Is thy heart indeed stablished in the sweetness of this Belief?” And he answered, saying, “Yes, O my lord!” Then quoth Gharib, “O Ra’ad Shah, wilt thou go to thy country and thy kingdom?” and quoth he, “O, my lord, my father will put me to death, for that I have left his faith.” Gharib rejoined, “I will go with thee and make thee king of the country and constrain the folk to obey thee, by the help of Allah the Bountiful, the Beneficent.” And Ra’ad Shah kissed his hands and feet. Then Gharib rewarded the counsellor who had caused the rout of the foe and gave him great wealth; after which he turned to Kaylajan and Kurajan, and said to them, “Harkye, Chiefs of the Jinn, ’tis my will that ye carry me, together with Ra’ad Shah and Jamrkan and Sa’adan to the land of Hind.” “We hear and we obey,” answered they. So Kurajan took up Jamrkan and Sa’adan, whilst Kaylajan took Gharib and Ra’ad Shah and made for the land of Hind.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.