Then for the last figure of all she drew out the dagger

Edmund Dulac, 1882-1953

1911

Photographic reproduction of watercolor.

Source: “Ali Babba and the Forty Thieves” in Housman's Stories from the Arabian Nights

See below for passage illustrated

[Click on image to enlarge it.]

Formatting and text by George P. Landow

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the Internet Archive and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. ]

Passage illustrated

Abdallah began to beat upon his tabor and sing an air for Morgiana to dance to; and she, advancing with much grace and propriety of deportment, began to move through several figures, performing them with the ease and facility which none but the most highly practised can attain to. Then, for the last figure of all, she drew out the dagger and, holding it in her hand, danced a dance which excelled all that had preceded it in the surprise and change and quickness and dexterity of its movements. Now she presented the dagger at her own breast, now at one of the onlookers; but always in the act of striking she drew back. At length, as though out of breath, she snatched his instrument from Abdallah with her left hand, and, still holding the dagger in her right, advanced the hollow of the tabor toward her master, as is the custom of dancers when claiming their fee. Ali Baba threw in a piece of gold; his son did likewise. Then advancing it in the same manner toward Cogia Houssain, who was feeling for his purse, she struck under it, and before he knew had plunged her dagger deep into his heart. [“Ali Babba and the Forty Thieves”]

Bibliography

Housman, Laurence. Stories from the Arabian Nights. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1911. Internet Archive version of a copy in the New York Public Library. Web. 2 January 2013

---

Victorian
Web

Visual
Arts

Illus-
tration

Edmund
Dulac

Next

Last modified 8 January 2013