1850
THE ARABIAN NIGHTS
by Sir Richard Burton
ENTERTAINMENTS
THE ARABIAN NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENTS
(ALF LAYLAH WA LAYLAH)
STORY OF KING SHAHRYAR AND HIS BROTHER

In the Name of Allah,
the Compassionating, the Compassionate!

PRAISE BE TO ALLAH - THE BENEFICENT KING - THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE
- LORD OF THE THREE WORLDS - WHO SET UP THE FIRMAMENT WITHOUT
PILLARS IN ITS STEAD - AND WHO STRETCHED OUT THE EARTH EVEN AS A BED -
AND GRACE, AND PRAYER-BLESSING BE UPON OUR LORD MOHAMMED - LORD OF
APOSTOLIC MEN - AND UPON HIS FAMILY AND COMPANION TRAIN -PRAYER AND
BLESSINGS ENDURING AND GRACE WHICH UNTO THE DAY OF DOOM SHALL REMAIN -
AMEN! - O THOU OF THE THREE WORLDS SOVEREIGN!

AND AFTERWARD. Verily the works and words of those gone before us
have become instances and examples to men of our modern day, that folk
may view what admonishing chances befell other folk and may
therefrom take warning; and that they may peruse the annals of antique
peoples and all that hath betided them, and be thereby ruled and
restrained. Praise, therefore, be to Him who hath made the histories
of the past an admonition unto the present! Now of such instances
are the tales called "A Thousand Nights and a Night," together with
their far-famed legends and wonders.
Therein it is related (but Allah it is All-knowing of His hidden
things and All-ruling and All-honored and All-giving and
All-gracious and All-merciful!) that in tide of yore and in time
long gone before, there was a King of the Kings of the Banu Sasan in
the islands of India and China, a Lord of armies and guards and
servants and dependents. He left only two sons, one in the prime of
manhood and the other yet a youth, while both were knights and braves,
albeit the elder was a doughtier horseman than the younger. So he
succeeded to the empire, when he ruled the land and lorded it is
over his lieges with justice so exemplary that he was beloved by all
the peoples of his capital and of his kingdom. His name was King
Shahryar, and he made his younger brother, Shah Zaman hight, King of
Samarkand in Barbarian land. These two ceased not to abide in their
several realms and the law was ever carried out in their dominions.
And each ruled his own kingdom with equity and fair dealing to his
subjects, in extreme solace and enjoyment, and this condition
continually endured for a score of years.
But at the end of the twentieth twelvemonth the elder King yearned
for a sight of his younger brother and felt that he must look upon him
once more. So he took counsel with his Wazir about visiting him, but
the Minister, finding the project unadvisable, recommended that a
letter be written and a present be sent under his charge to the
younger brother, with an invitation to visit the elder. Having
accepted this advice, the King forthwith bade prepare handsome
gifts, such as horses with saddles of gem-encrusted gold; Mamelukes,
or white slaves; beautiful handmaids, high-breasted virgins, and
splendid stuffs and costly. He then wrote a letter to Shah Zaman
expressing his warm love and great wish to see him, ending with
these words: "We therefore hope of the favor and affection of the
beloved brother that he will condescend to bestir himself and turn his
face usward. Furthermore, we have sent our Wazir to make all ordinance
for the march, and our one and only desire it is to see thee ere we
die. But if thou delay or disappoint us, we shall not survive the
blow. Wherewith peace be upon thee!"
Then King Shahryar, having sealed the missive and given it is to the
Wazir with the offerings aforementioned, commanded him to shorten
his skirts and strain his strength and make all expedition in going
and returning. "Harkening and obedience!" quoth the Minister, who fell
to making ready without stay and packed up his loads and prepared
all his requisites without delay. This occupied him three days, and on
the dawn of the fourth he took leave of his King and marched right
away, over desert and hallway, stony waste and pleasant lea, without
halting by night or by day. But whenever he entered a realm whose
ruler was subject to his suzerain, where he was greeted with
magnificent gifts of gold and silver and all manner of presents fair
and rare, he would tarry there three days, the term of the guest rite.
And when he left on the fourth, he would be honorably escorted for a
whole day's march.
As soon as the Wazir drew near Shah Zaman's court in Samarkand he
dispatched to report his arrival one of his high officials, who
presented himself before the King and, kissing ground between his
hands, delivered his message. Hereupon the King commanded sundry of
his grandees and lords of his realm to fare forth and meet his
brother's Wazir at the distance of a full day's journey. Which they
did, greeting him respectfully and wishing him all prosperity and
forming an escort and a procession. When he entered the city, he
proceeded straightway to the palace, where he presented himself in the
royal presence; and after kissing ground and praying for the King's
health and happiness and for victory over all his enemies, he
informed him that his brother was yearning to see him, and prayed
for the pleasure of a visit.
He then delivered the letter, which Shah Zaman took from his hand
and read. It contained sundry hints and allusions which required
thought, but when the King had fully comprehended its import, he said,
"I hear and I obey the commands of the beloved brother!" adding to the
Wazir, "But we will not march till after the third day's hospitality."
He appointed for the Minister fitting quarters of the palace and
pitching tents for the troops, rationed them with whatever they
might require of meat and drink and other necessaries. On the fourth
day he made ready for wayfare and got together sumptuous presents
befitting his elder brother's majesty, and stablished his chief
Wazir Viceroy of the land during his absence. Then he caused his tents
and camels and mules to be brought forth and encamped, with their
bales and loads, attendants and guards, within sight of the city, in
readiness to set out next morning for his brother's capital.
But when the night was half-spent he bethought him that he had
forgotten in his palace somewhat which he should have brought with
him, so he returned privily and entered his apartments, where he found
the Queen, his wife, asleep on his own carpet bed embracing with
both arms a black cook of loathsome aspect and foul with kitchen
grease and grime. When he saw this the world waxed black before his
sight and he said: "If such case happen while I am yet within sight of
the city, what will be the doings of this damned whore during my
long absence at my brother's court?" So he drew his scimitar, and
cutting the two in four pieces with a single blow, left them on the
carpet and returned presently to his camp without letting anyone
know of what had happened. Then he gave orders for immediate departure
and set out at once and began his travel; but he could not help
thinking over his wife's treason, and he kept ever saying to
himself: "How could she do this deed by me? How could she work her own
death?" till excessive grief seized him, his color changed to
yellow, his body waxed weak, and he was threatened with a dangerous
malady, such a one as bringeth men to die. So the Wazir shortened
his stages and tarried long at the watering stations, and did his best
to solace the King.
Now when Shah Zaman drew near the capital of his brother, he
dispatched vaunt-couriers and messengers of glad tidings to announce
his arrival, and Shahryar came forth to meet him with his wazirs and
emirs and lords and grandees of his realm, and saluted him and joyed
with exceeding joy and caused the city to be decorated in his honor.
When, however, the brothers met, the elder could not but see the
change of complexion in the younger and questioned him of his case,
whereto he replied: "'Tis caused by the travails of wayfare and my
case needs care, for I have suffered from the change of water and air!
But Allah be praised for reuniting me with a brother so dear and so
rare!" On this wise he dissembled and kept his secret, adding: "O King
of the Time and Caliph of the Tide, only toil and moil have tinged
my face yellow with bile and hath made my eyes sink deep in my head."
Then the two entered the capital in all honor, and the elder brother
lodged the younger in a palace overhanging the pleasure garden. And
after a time, seeing his condition still unchanged, he attributed it
is to his separation from his country and kingdom. So he let him
wend his own ways and asked no questions of him till one day when he
again said, "O my brother, I see thou art grown weaker of body and
yellower of color." "O my brother," replied Shah Zaman, "I have an
internal wound." Still he would not tell him what he had witnessed
in his wife. Thereupon Shahryar summoned doctors and surgeons and bade
them treat his brother according to the rules of art, which they did
for a whole month. But their sherbets and potions naught availed,
for he would dwell upon the deed of his wife, and despondency, instead
of diminishing, prevailed, and leechcraft treatment utterly failed.
One day his elder brother said to him: "I am going forth to hunt and
course and to take my pleasure and pastime. Maybe this would lighten
thy heart." Shah Zaman, however, refused, saying: "O my brother, my
soul yearneth for naught of this sort, and I entreat thy favor to
stiffer me tarry quietly in this place, being wholly taken up with
my malady." So King Shah Zaman passed his night in the palace, and
next morning when his brother had fared forth, he removed from his
room and sat him down at one of the lattice windows overlooking the
pleasure grounds. And there he abode thinking with saddest thought
over his wife's betrayal, and burning sighs issued from his tortured
breast.
And as he continued in this case lo! a postern of the palace,
which was carefully kept private, swung open, and out of it is came
twenty slave girls surrounding his brother's wife, who was wondrous
fair, a model of beauty and comeliness and symmetry and perfect
loveliness, and who paced with the grace of a gazelle which panteth
for the cooling stream. Thereupon Shah Zaman drew back from the
window, but he kept the bevy in sight, espying them from a place
whence he could not be espied. They walked under the very lattice
and advanced a little way into the garden till they came to a
jetting fountain a-middlemost a great basin of water. Then they
stripped off their clothes, and behold, ten of them were women,
concubines of the King, and the other ten were white slaves. Then they
all paired off, each with each. But the Queen, who was left alone,
presently cried out in a loud voice, "Here to me, O my lord Saeed!"
And then sprang with a drop leap from one of the trees a big
slobbering blackamoor with rolling eyes which showed the whites, a
truly hideous sight. He walked boldly up to her and threw his arms
round her neck while she embraced him as warmly. Then he bussed her
and winding his legs round hers, as a button loop clasps a button,
he threw her and enjoyed her. On like wise did the other slaves with
the girls till all had satisfied their passions, and they ceased not
from kissing and clipping, coupling and carousing, till day began to
wane, when the Mamelukes rose from the damsels' bosoms and the
blackamoor slave dismounted from the Queen's breast. The men resumed
their disguises and all except the Negro, who swarmed up the tree,
entered the palace and closed the postern door as before.
Now when Shah Zaman saw this conduct of his sister-in-law, he said
to himself: "By Allah, my calamity is lighter than this! My brother is
a greater King among the Kings than I am, yet this infamy goeth on
in his very palace, and his wife is in love with that filthiest of
filthy slaves. But this only showeth that they all do it and that
there is no woman but who cuckoldeth her husband. Then the curse of
Allah upon one and all, and upon the fools who lean against them for
support or who place the reins of conduct in their hands!" So he put
away his melancholy and despondency, regret and repine, and allayed
his sorrow by constantly repeating those words, adding, "'Tis my
conviction that no man in this world is safe from their malice!"
When suppertime came, they brought him the trays and he ate with
voracious appetite, for he had long refrained from meat, feeling
unable to touch any dish, however dainty. Then he returned grateful
thanks to Almighty Allah, praising Him and blessing Him, and he
spent a most restful night, it having been long since he had savored
the sweet food of sleep. Next day he broke his fast heartily and began
to recover health and strength, and presently regained excellent
condition. His brother came back from the chase ten days after, when
he rode out to meet him and they saluted each other. And when King
Shahryar looked at King Shah Zaman, he saw how the hue of health had
returned to him, how his face had waxed ruddy, and how he ate with
an appetite after his late scanty diet. He wondered much and said:
"O my brother, I was no anxious that thou wouldst join me in hunting
and chasing, and wouldst take thy pleasure and pastime in my
dominion!" He thanked him and excused himself.
Then the two took horse and rode into the city, and when they were
seated at their ease in the palace, the food trays were set before
them and they ate their sufficiency. After the meats were removed
and they had washed their hands, King Shahryar turned to his brother
and said: "My mind is overcome with wonderment at thy condition. I was
desirous to carry thee with me to the chase, but I saw thee changed in
hue, pale and wan to view, and in sore trouble of mind too. But now,
Alhamdolillah- glory be to God!- I see thy natural color hath returned
to thy face and that thou art again in the best of case. It was my
belief that thy sickness came of severance from thy family and
friends, and absence from capital and country, so I refrained from
troubling thee with further questions. But now I beseech thee to
expound to me the cause of thy complaint and thy change of color,
and to explain the reason of thy recovery and the return to the
ruddy hue of health which I am wont to view. So speak out and hide
naught!"
When Shah Zaman heard this, he bowed groundward awhile his head,
then raised it and said: "I will tell thee what caused my complaint
and my loss of color. But excuse my acquainting thee with the cause of
its return to me and the reason of my complete recovery. Indeed I pray
thee not to press me for a reply." Said Shahryar, who was much
surprised by these words, "Let me hear first what produced thy
pallor and thy poor condition." "Know, then, O my brother," rejoined
Shah Zaman, "that when thou sentest thy Wazir with the invitation to
place myself between thy hands, I made ready and marched out of my
city. But presently I minded me having left behind me in the palace
a string of jewels intended as a gift to thee. I returned for it
alone, and found my wife on my carpet bed and in the arms of a hideous
black cook. So I slew the twain and came to thee, yet my thoughts
brooded over this business and I lost my bloom and became weak. But
excuse me if I still refuse to tell thee what was the reason of my
complexion returning."
Shahryar shook his head, marveling with extreme marvel, and with the
fire of wrath flaming up from his heart, he cried, "Indeed, the malice
of woman is mighty!" Then he took refuge from them with Allah and
said: "In very sooth, O my brother, thou hast escaped many an evil
by putting thy wife to death, and right excusable were thy wrath and
grief for such mishap, which never yet befell crowned king like
thee. By Allah, had the case been mine, I would not have been
satisfied without slaying a thousand women, and that way madness lies!
But now praise be to Allah Who hath tempered to thee thy
tribulation, and needs must thou acquaint me with that which so
suddenly restored to thee complexion and health, and explain to me
what causeth this concealment." "O King of the Age, again I pray
thee excuse my so doing!" "Nay, but thou must." "I fear, O my brother,
lest the recital cause thee more anger and sorrow than afflicted
me." "That were but a better reason," quoth Shahryar, "for telling
me the whole history, and I conjure thee by Allah not to keep back
aught from me."
Thereupon Shah Zaman told him all he had seen, from commencement
to conclusion, ending with these words: "When I beheld thy calamity
and the treason of thy wife, O my brother, and I reflected that thou
art in years my senior and in sovereignty my superior, mine own sorrow
was belittled by the comparison, and my mind recovered tone and
temper. So, throwing off melancholy and despondency, I was able to eat
and drink and sleep, and thus I speedily regained health and strength.
Such is the truth and the whole truth." When King Shahryar heard
this he waxed wroth with exceeding wrath, and rage was like to
strangle him. But presently he recovered himself and said, "O my
brother, I would not give thee the lie in this matter, but I cannot
credit it till I see it with mine own eyes." "And thou wouldst look
upon thy calamity," quoth Shah Zaman, "rise at once and make ready
again for hunting and coursing, and then hide thyself with me. So
shalt thou witness it and thine eyes shall verify it." "True," quoth
the King. Whereupon he let make proclamation of his intent to
travel, and the troops and tents fared forth without the city, camping
within sight, and Shahryar sallied out with them and took seat
a-midmost his host, bidding the slaves admit no man to him. When night
came on, he summoned his Wazir and said to him, "Sit thou in my stead,
and let none wot of my absence till the term of three days."
Then the brothers disguised themselves and returned by night with
all secrecy to the palace, where they passed the dark hours. And at
dawn they seated themselves at the lattice overlooking the pleasure
grounds, when presently the Queen and her handmaids came out as
before, and passing under the windows, made for the fountain. Here
they stripped, ten of them being men to ten women, and the King's wife
cried out, "Where art thou, O Saeed?" The hideous blackamoor dropped
from the tree straightway, and rushing into her arms without stay or
delay, cried out, "I am Sa'ad al-Din Saood!" The lady laughed
heartily, and all fell to satisfying their lusts, and remained so
occupied for a couple of hours, when the white slaves rose up from the
handmaidens' breasts and the blackamoor dismounted from the Queen's
bosom. Then they went into the basin and after performing the ghusl,
or complete ablution, donned their dresses and retired as they had
done before.
When King Shahryar saw this infamy of his wife and concubines, he
became as one distraught, and he cried out: "Only in utter solitude
can man be safe from the doings of this vile world! By Allah, life
is naught but one great wrong." Presently he added, "Do not thwart me,
O my brother, in what I propose." And the other answered, "I will
not." So he said: "Let us up as we are and depart forthright hence,
for we have no concern with kingship, and let us overwander Allah's
earth, worshiping the Almighty till we find someone to whom the like
calamity hath happened. And if we find none then will death be more
welcome to us than life."
So the two brothers issued from a second private postern of the
palace, and they never stinted wayfaring by day and by night until
they reached a tree a-middle of a meadow hard by a spring of sweet
water on the shore of the salt sea. Both drank of it and sat down to
take their rest. And when an hour of the day had gone by, lo! they
heard a mighty roar and uproar in the middle of the main as though the
heavens were falling upon the earth, and the sea brake with waves
before them and from it towered a black pillar, which grew and grew
till it rose skyward and began making for that meadow. Seeing it, they
waxed fearful exceedingly and climbed to the top of the tree, which
was a lofty, whence they gazed to see what might be the matter. And
behold, it was a Jinni, huge of height and burly of breast and bulk,
broad of brow and black of blee, bearing on his head a coffer of
crystal. He strode to land, wading through the deep, and coming to the
tree whereupon were the two Kings, seated himself beneath it. He
then set down the coffer on its bottom and out of it drew a casket
with seven padlocks of steel, which he unlocked with seven keys of
steel he took from beside his thigh, and out of it a young lady to
come was seen, whiteskinned and of winsomest mien, of stature fine and
thin, and bright as though a moon of the fourteenth night she had
been, or the sun raining lively sheen. Even so the poet Utayyah
hath excellently said:-

She rose like the morn as she shone through the night
And she gilded the grove with her gracious sight.
From her radiance the sun taketh increase when
She unveileth and shameth the moonshine bright.
Bow down all beings between her hands
As she showeth charms with her veil undight.
And she floodeth cities with torrent tears
When she flasheth her look of levin light.

The Jinni seated her under the tree by his side and looking at
her, said: "O choicest love of this heart of mine! O dame of noblest
line, whom I snatched away on thy bride night that none might
prevent me taking thy maidenhead or tumble thee before I did, and whom
none save myself hath loved or hath enjoyed. O my sweetheart! I
would lief sleep a little while." He then laid his head upon the
lady's thighs, and, stretching out hip legs, which extended down to
the sea, slept and snored and snarked like the roll of thunder.
Presently she raised her head toward the treetop and saw the two Kings
perched near the summit. Then she softly lifted off her lap the
Jinni's pate, which she was tired of supporting, and placed it upon
the ground, then, standing upright under the tree, signed to the
Kings, "Come ye down, ye two, and fear naught from this Ifrit." They
were in a terrible fright when they found that she had seen them,
and answered her in the same manner, "Allah upon thee and by thy
modesty, O lady, excuse us from coming down!" But she rejoined by
saying: "Allah upon you both that ye come down forthright. And if ye
come not, I will rouse upon you my husband, this Ifrit, and he shall
do you to die by the illest of deaths." And she continued making
signals to them.
So, being afraid, they came down to her, and she rose before them
and said, "Stroke me a strong stroke, without stay or delay, otherwise
will I arouse and set upon you this Ifrit, who shall slay you
straightway." They said to her: "O our lady, we conjure thee by Allah,
let us off this work, for we are fugitives from such, and in extreme
dread and terror of this thy husband. How then can we do it in such
a way as thou desirest?" "Leave this talk. It needs must be so," quoth
she, and she swore them by Him who raised the skies on high without
prop or pillar that if they worked not her will, she would cause
them to be slain and cast into the sea. Whereupon out of fear King
Shahryar said to King Shah Zaman, "O my brother, do thou what she
biddeth thee do." But he replied, "I will not do it till thou do it
before I do." And they began disputing about futtering her.
Then quoth she to the twain: "How is it I see you disputing and
demurring? If ye do not come forward like men and do the deed of kind,
ye two, I will arouse upon you the Ifrit." At this, by reason of their
sore dread of the Jinni, both did by her what she bade them do, and
when they had dismounted from her, she said, "Well done!" She then
took from her pocket a purse and drew out a knotted string whereon
were strung five hundred and seventy seal rings, and asked, "Know ye
what be these?" They answered her saying, "We know not!" Then quoth
she: "These be the signets of five hundred and seventy men who have
all futtered me upon the horns of this foul, this foolish, this filthy
Ifrit. So give me also your two seal rings, ye pair of brothers."
When they had drawn their two rings from their hands and given
them to her, she said to them: "Of a truth this Ifrit bore me off on
my bride night, and put me into a casket and set the casket in a
coffer, and to the coffer he affixed seven strong padlocks of steel
and deposited me on the deep bottom of the sea that raves, dashing and
clashing with waves, and guarded me so that I might remain chaste
and honest, quotha! that none save himself might have connection
with me. But I have lain under as many of my kind as I please, and
this wretched Jinni wotteth not that Destiny may not be averted nor
hindered by aught, and that whatso woman willeth, the same she
fulfilleth however man nilleth. Even so saith one of them:

"Rely not on women,
Trust not to their hearts,
Whose joys and whose sorrows
Are hung to their parts!
Lying love they will swear thee
Whence guile ne'er departs.
Take Yusuf for sample,
'Ware sleights and 'ware smarts!
Iblis ousted Adam
(See ye not?) thro' their arts."

Hearing these words, they marveled with exceeding marvel, and she
went from them to the Ifrit, and taking up his head on her thigh as
before, said to them softly, "Now wend your ways and bear yourselves
beyond the bounds of his malice." So they fared forth saying either to
other, "Allah! Allah!" and: "There be no Majesty and there be no Might
save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great, and with Him we seek refuge
from women's malice and sleight, for of a truth it hath no mate in
might. Consider, O my brother, the ways of this marvelous lady with an
Ifrit, who is so much more powerful than we are. Now since there
hath happened to him a greater mishap than that which befell us and
which should bear us abundant consolation, so return we to our
countries and capitals, and let us decide never to intermarry with
womankind, and presently we will show them what will be our action."
Thereupon they rode back to the tents of King Shahryar, which they
reached on the morning of the third day. And having mustered the
wazirs and emirs, the chamberlains and high officials, he gave a
robe of honor to his Viceroy and issued orders for an immediate return
to the city. There he sat him upon his throne and, sending for the
Chief Minister, the father of the two damsels who (Inshallah!) will
presently be mentioned, he said, "I command thee to take my wife and
smite her to death, for she hath broken her plight and her faith."
So he carried her to the place of execution and did her die. Then King
Shahryar took brand in hand and, repairing to the seraglio, slew all
the concubines and their Mamelukes. He also sware himself by a binding
oath that whatever wife he married he would abate her maidenhead at
night and slay her next morning, to make sure of his honor. "For,"
said he, "there never was nor is there one chaste woman upon the
face of earth."
Then Shah Zaman prayed for permission to fare homeward, and he
went forth equipped and escorted and traveled till he reached his
own country. Meanwhile Shahryar commanded his Wazir to bring him the
bride of the night that he might go in to her. So he produced a most
beautiful girl, the daughter of one of the emirs, and the King went in
unto her at eventide. And when morning dawned, he bade his Minister
strike off her head, and the Wazir did accordingly, for fear of the
Sultan. On this wise he continued for the space of three years,
marrying a maiden every night and killing her the next morning, till
folk raised an outcry against him and cursed him, praying Allah
utterly to destroy him and his rule. And women made an uproar and
mothers wept and parents fled with their daughters till there remained
not in the city a young person fit for carnal copulation.
Presently the King ordered his Chief Wazir, the same who was charged
with the executions, to bring him a virgin, as was his wont, and the
Minister went forth and searched and found none. So he returned home
in sorrow and anxiety, fearing for his life from the King. Now he
had two daughters, Scheherazade and Dunyazade, hight, of whom the
elder had perused the books, annals, and legends of preceding kings,
and the stories, examples, and instances of bygone men and things.
Indeed it was said that she had collected a thousand books of
histories relating to antique races and departed rulers. She had
purused the works of the poets and knew them by heart, she had studied
philosophy and the sciences, arts, and accomplishments. And she was
pleasant and polite, wise and witty, well read and well bred. Now on
that day she said to her father: "Why do I see thee thus changed and
laden with cark and care? Concerning this matter quoth one of the
poets:

"Tell whoso hath sorrow
Grief never shall last.
E'en as joy hath no morrow
So woe shall go past."

When the Wazir heard from his daughter these words, he related to
her, from first to last, all that had happened between him and the
King. Thereupon said she: "By Allah, O my father, how long shall
this slaughter of women endure? Shall I tell thee what is in my mind
in order to save both sides from destruction?" "Say on, O my
daughter," quoth he, and quoth she: "I wish thou wouldst give me in
marriage to this King Shahryar. Either I shall live or I shall be a
ransom for the virgin daughters of Moslems and the cause of their
deliverance from his hands and thine." "Allah upon thee!" cried he
in wrath exceeding that lacked no feeding. "O scanty of wit, expose
not thy life to such peril! How durst thou address me in words so wide
from wisdom and unfar from foolishness? Know that one who lacketh
experience in worldly matters readily falleth into misfortune, and
whoso considereth not the end keepeth not the world to friend, and the
vulgar say: 'I was lying at mine ease. Naught but my officiousness
brought me unease'." "Needs must thou," she broke in, "make me a
doer of this good deed, and let him kill me an he will. I shall only
die a ransom for others." "O my daughter," asked he, "and how shall
that profit thee when thou shalt have thrown away thy life?" And she
answered, "O my father, it must be, come of it what will!" The Wazir
was again moved to fury and blamed and reproached her, ending with,
"In very deed I fear lest the same befall thee which befell the bull
and the ass with the husbandman." "And what," asked she, "befell them,
O my father?" Whereupon the Wazir began
TALE
THE TALE OF THE BULL AND THE ASS

KNOW, O my daughter, that there was once a merchant who owned much
money and many men, and who was rich in cattle and camels. He had also
a wife and family, and he dwelt in the country, being experienced in
husbandry and devoted to agriculture. Now Allah Most High had
endowed him with understanding the tongues of beasts and birds of
every kind, but under pain of death if he divulged the gift to any. So
he kept it secret for very fear. He had in his cow house a bull and an
ass, each tethered in his own stall, one hard by the other. As the
merchant was sitting near-hand one day with his servans and his
children were playing about him, he heard and bull say to the ass:
"Hail and health to thee O Father of Waking! for that thou
enjoyest rest and good ministering. All under thee is clean-swept
and fresh-sprinkled. Men wait upon thee and feed thee, and thy
provaunt is sifted barley and thy drink pure spring water, while I
(unhappy creature!) am led forth in the middle of the night, when they
set on my neck the plow and a something called yoke, and I tire at
cleaving the earth from dawn of day till set of sun. I am forced to do
more than I can and to bear all manner of ill-treatment from night to
night. After which they take me back with my sides torn, my neck
flayed, my legs aching, and mine eyelids sored with tears. Then they
shut me up in the byre and throw me beans and crushed straw mixed with
dirt and chaff, and I lie in dung and filth and foul stinks through
the livelong night. But thou art ever in a place swept and sprinkled
and cleansed, and thou art always lying at ease, save when it
happens (and seldom enough!) that the master hath some business,
when he mounts thee and rides thee to town and returns with thee
forthright. So it happens that I am toiling and distrest while thou
takest thine ease and thy rest. Thou sleepest while I am sleepless,
I hunger still while thou eatest thy fill, and I win contempt while
thou winnest goodwill."
When the bull ceased speaking, the ass turned toward him and said:
"O Broad-o'-Brow, O thou lost one! He lied not who dubbed thee
bullhead, for thou, O father of a bull, hast neither forethought nor
contrivance. Thou art the simplest of simpletons, and thou knowest
naught of good advisers. Hast thou not heard the saying of the wise?

"For others these hardships and labors I bear,
And theirs is the pleasure and mine is the care,
As the bleacher who blacketh his brow in the sun
To whiten the raiment which other men wear.

But thou, O fool, art full of zeal, and thou toilest and moilest
before the master, and thou tearest and wearest and slayest thyself
for the comfort of another. Hast thou never heard the saw that saith
'None to guide and from the way go wide'? Thou wendest forth at the
call to dawn prayer and thou returnest not till sundown, and through
the livelong day thou endurest all manner hardships: to wit, beating
and belaboring and bad language.
"Now hearken to me, Sir Bull! When they tie thee to thy stinking
manger, thou pawest the ground with thy forehand and lashest out
with thy hind hoofs and pushest with thy horns and bellowest aloud, so
they deem thee contented. And when they throw thee thy fodder, thou
fallest on it with greed and hastenest to line thy fair fat paunch.
But if thou accept any advice, it will be better for thee, and thou
wilt lead an easier life even than mine. When thou goest afield and
they lay the thing called yoke on thy neck, be down and rise not
again, though haply they swings thee. And if thou rise, lie down a
second time. And when they bring thee home and offer thee thy beans,
fall backward and only sniff at thy meat and withdraw thee and taste
it not, and be satisfied with thy crushed straw and chaff. And on this
wise feign thou art sick, and cease not doing thus for a day or two
days or even three days; so shalt thou have rest from toil and moil."
When the Bull heard these words, he knew the ass to be his friend
and thanked him, saying, "Right is thy rede," and prayed that all
blessings might requite him, and cried: "O Father Wakener! Thou hast
made up for my failings." (Now the merchant, O my daughter, understood
all that passed between them.) Next day the driver took the bull
and, settling the plow on his neck, made him work as wont. But the
bull began to shirk his plowing, according to the advice of the ass,
and the plowman drubbed him till he broke the yoke and made off. But
the man caught him up and leathered him till he despaired of his life.
Not the less, however, would he do nothing but stand still and drop
down till the evening. Then the herd led him home and stabled him in
his stall, but he drew back from his manger and neither stamped nor
ramped nor butted nor bellowed as he was wont to do, whereat the man
wondered. He brought him the beans and husks, but he sniffed at them
and left them and lay down as far from them as he could and passed the
whole night fasting. The peasant came next morning and, seeing the
manger full of beans, the crushed straw untasted, and the ox lying
on his back in sorriest plight, with legs outstretched and swollen
belly, he was concerned for him, and said to himself, "By Allah, he
hath assuredly sickened, and this is the cause why he would not plow
yesterday."
Then he went to the merchant and reported: "O my master, the bull is
ailing. He refused his fodder last night- nay, more, he hath not
tasted a scrap of it this morning." Now the merchant-farmer understood
what all this meant, because he had overheard the talk between the
bull and the ass, so quoth he, "Take that rascal donkey, and set the
yoke on his neck, and bind him to the plow and make him do bull's
work." Thereupon the plowman took the ass, and worked him through the
livelong day at the bull's task. And when be failed for weakness, he
made him eat stick till his ribs were sore and his sides were sunken
and his neck was rayed by the yoke. And when he came home in the
evening he could hardly drag his limbs along, either forehand or
hind legs. But as for the bull, he had passed the day lying at full
length, and had eaten his fodder with an excellent appetite, and he
ceased not calling down blessings on the ass for his good advice,
unknowing what had come to him on his account.
So when night set in and the ass returned to the byre, the bull rose
up before him in honor, and said: "May good tidings gladden thy heart,
O Father Wakener! Through thee I have rested all this day, and I
have eaten my meat in peace and quiet." But the ass returned no reply,
for wrath and heartburning and fatigue and the beating he had
gotten. And he repented with the most grievous of repentance, and
quoth he to himself: "This cometh of my folly in giving good
counsel. As the saw saith, I was in joy and gladness, naught save my
officiousness brought me this sadness. And now I must take thought and
put a trick upon him and return him to his place, else I die." Then he
went aweary to his manger while the bull thanked him and blessed him.
And even so, O my daughter (said the Wazir) thou wilt die for lack
of wits. Therefore sit thee still and say naught and expose not thy
life to such stress, for, by Allah, I offer thee the best advice,
which cometh of my affection and kindly solicitude for thee. "O my
father," she answered, "needs must I go up to this King and be married
to him." Quoth he, "Do not this deed," and quoth she, "Of a truth I
will." Whereat he rejoined, "If thou be not silent and bide still, I
will do with thee even what the merchant did with his wife." "And what
did be?" asked she.
Know then (answered the Wazir) that after the return of the ass
the merchant came out on the terrace roof with his wife and family,
for it was a moonlit night and the moon at its full. Now the terrace
overlooked the cow house, and presently as he sat there with his
children playing about him, the trader heard the ass say to the
bull, "Tell me, O Father Broad-o'-Brow, what thou purposest to do
tomorrow." The bull answered: "What but continue to follow thy
counsel, O Aliboron? Indeed it was as good as good could be, and it
hath given me rest and repose, nor will I now depart from it one
tittle. So when they bring me my meat, I will refuse it and blow out
my belly and counterfeit crank." The ass shook his head and said,
"Beware of so doing, O Father of a Bull!" The buff asked, "Why?" and
the ass answered, "Know that I am about to give thee the best of
counsel, for verily I heard our owner say to the herd, 'If the bull
rise not from his place to do his work this morning and if he retire
from his fodder this day, make him over to the butcher that he may
slaughter him and give his flesh to the poor, and fashion a bit of
leather from his hide.' Now I fear for thee on account of this. So
take my advice ere a calamity befall thee, and when they bring thee
thy fodder, eat it and rise up and bellow and paw the ground, or our
master will assuredly slay thee. And peace be with thee!"
Thereupon the bull arose and lowed aloud and thanked the ass, and
said, "Tomorrow I will readily go forth with them." And he at once ate
up all his meat and even licked the manger. (All this took place and
the owner was listening to their talk.) Next morning the trader and
his wife went to the bull's crib and sat down, and the driver came and
led forth the bull, who, seeing his owner, whisked his tail and
brake wind, and frisked about so lustily that the merchant laughed a
loud laugh and kept laughing till he fell on his back. His wife
asked him, "Whereat laughest thou with such loud laughter as this?"
and he answered her, "I laughed at a secret something which I have
heard and seen but cannot say lest I die my death." She returned,
"Perforce thou must discover it to me, and disclose the cause of thy
laughing even if thou come by thy death!" But he rejoined, "I cannot
reveal what beasts and birds say in their lingo for fear I die."
Then quoth she: "By Allah, thou liest! This is a mere pretext. Thou
laughest at none save me, and now thou wouldest hide somewhat from me.
But by the Lord of the Heaven, an thou disclose not the cause I will
no longer cohabit with thee, I will leave thee at once." And she sat
down and cried.
Whereupon quoth the merchant: "Woe betide thee! What means thy
weeping? Fear Allah, and leave these words and query me no more
questions." "Needs must thou tell me the cause of that laugh," said
she, and he replied: "Thou wettest that when I prayed Allah to
vouchsafe me understanding of the tongues of beasts and birds, I
made a vow never to disclose the secret to any under pain of dying
on the spot." "No matter!" cried she. "Tell me what secret passed
between the bull and the ass and die this very hour an thou be so
minded." And she ceased not to importune him till he was worn-out
and clean distraught. So at last he said, "Summon thy father and thy
mother and our kith and kin and sundry of our neighbors." Which she
did, and he sent for the kazi and his assessors, intending to make his
will and reveal to her his secret and die the death; for he loved
her with love exceeding because she was his cousin, the daughter of
his father's brother, and the mother of his children, and he had lived
with her a life of a hundred and twenty years.
Then, having assembled all the family and the folk of his
neighborhood, he said to them, "By me there hangeth a strange story,
and 'tis such that if I discover the secret to any, I am a dead
man." Therefore quoth every one of those present to the woman,
"Allah upon thee, leave this sinful obstinacy and recognize the
right of this matter, lest haply thy husband and the father of thy
children die." But she rejoined, "I will not turn from it till he tell
me, even though he come by his death." So they ceased to urge her, and
the trader rose from amongst them and repaired to an outhouse to
perform the wuzu ablution, and he purposed thereafter to return and to
tell them his secret and to die.
Now, Daughter Scheherazade, that merchant had in his outhouses
some fifty hens under one cock, and whilst making ready to farewell
his folk he heard one of his many farm dogs thus address in his own
tongue the cock, who was flapping his wings and crowing lustily and
jumping from one hen's back to another and treading all in turn,
saying: "O Chanticleer! How mean is thy wit and how shameless is thy
conduct! Be he disappointed who brought thee up. Art thou not
ashamed of thy doings on such a day as this?" "And what," asked the
rooster, "hath occurred this day?" when the dog answered; "Dost thou
not know that our master is this day making ready for his death? His
wife is resolved that he shall disclose the secret taught to him by
Allah, and the moment he so doeth he shall surely die. We dogs are all
a-mourning, but thou clappest thy wings and clarionest thy loudest and
treadest hen after hen. Is this an hour for pastime and pleasuring?
Art thou not ashamed of thyself?"
"Then by Allah," quoth the cock, "is our master a lackwit and a
man scanty of sense. If he cannot manage matters with a single wife,
his life is not worth prolonging. Now I have some fifty dame partlets,
and I please this and provoke that and starve one and stuff another,
and through my good governance they are all well under my control.
This our master pretendeth to wit and wisdom, and she hath but one
wife and yet knoweth not how to manage her." Asked the dog, "What
then, O Cock, should the master do to will clear of his strait?" "He
should arise forthright," answered the cock, "and take some twigs from
yon mulberry tree and give her a regular back-basting and
ribroasting till she cry: 'I repent, O my lord! I will never ask
thee a question as Ion, as I live!' Then let him beat her once more
and soundly, and when he shall have done this, he shall sleep free
from care and enjoy life. But this master of ours owns neither sense
nor judgment."
"Now, Daughter Scheherazade," continued the Wazir, "I will do to
thee as did that husband to that wife." Said Scheherazade, "And what
did he do?" He replied, "When the merchant heard the wise words spoken
by his cock to his dog, he arose in haste and sought his wife's
chamber, after cutting for her some mulberry twigs and hiding them
there. And then he called to her, "Come into the closet, that I may
tell thee the secret while no one seeth me, and then die." She entered
with him and he locked the door and came down upon her with so sound a
beating of back and shoulders, ribs, arms, and legs, saying the
while "Wilt thou ever be asking questions about what concerneth thee
not?" that she was well-nigh senseless. Presently she cried out: "I am
of the repentant! By Allah, I will ask thee no more questions, and
indeed I repent sincerely and wholesomely." Then she kissed his hand
and feet and he led her out of the room submissive, as a wife should
be. Her parents and all the company rejoiced and sadness and
mourning were changed into joy and gladness.
Thus the merchant learnt family discipline from his cock and he
and his wife lived together the happiest of lives until death. And
thou also, O my daughter! continued the Wazir, unless thou turn from
this matter I will do by thee what that trader did to his wife. But
she answered him with much decision: "I will never desist, O my
father, nor shall this tale change my purpose. Leave such talk and
tattle. I will not listen to thy words and if thou deny me, I will
marry myself to him despite the nose of thee. And first I will go up
to the King myself and alone and I will say to him: 'I prayed my
father to wive me with thee, but he refused, being resolved to
disappoint his lord, grudging the like of me to the like of thee'."
Her father asked, "Must this needs be?" and she answered, "Even so."
Hereupon the Wazir, being weary of lamenting and contending,
persuading and dissuading her, all to no purpose, went up to King
Shahryar and, after blessing him and kissing the ground before him,
told him all about his dispute with his daughter from first to last
and how he designed to bring her to him that night. The King
wondered with exceeding wonder, for he had made an especial
exception of the Wazir's daughter, and said to him: "O most faithful
of counsellors, how is this? Thou wettest that I have sworn by the
Raiser of the Heavens that after I have gone into her this night I
shall say to thee on the morrow's 'Take her and slay her!' And if thou
slay her not, I will slay thee in her stead without fail." "Allah
guide thee to glory and lengthen thy life, O King of the Age,"
answered the Wazir. "It is she that hath so determined. All this
have I told her and more, but she will not hearken to me and she
persisteth in passing this coming night with the King's Majesty." So
Shahryar rejoiced greatly and said, "'Tis well. Go get her ready,
and this night bring her to me." The Wazir returned to his daughter
and reported to her the command, saying, "Allah make not thy father
desolate by thy loss!"
But Scheherazade rejoiced with exceeding joy and get ready all she
required and said to her younger sister, Dunyazade: "Note well what
directions I entrust to thee! When I have gone into the King I will
send for thee, and when thou comest to me and seest that he hath had
his carnal will of me, do thou say to me: 'O my sister, an thou be
not sleepy, relate to me some new story, delectable and delightsome,
the better to speed our waking hours.' And I will tell thee a tale
which shall be our deliverance, if so Allah please, and which shall
turn the King from his bloodthirsty custom." Dunyazade answered
"With love and gladness."
So when it was night, their father the Wazir carried Scheherazade to
the King, who was gladdened at the sight and asked, "Hast thou brought
me my need?" And he answered, "I have." But when the King took her
to his bed and fell to toying with her and wished to go in to her, she
wept, which made him ask, "What aileth thee?" She replied, "O King
of the Age, I have a younger sister, and lief would I take leave of
her this night before I see the dawn." So he sent at once for
Dunyazade and she came and kissed the ground between his hands, when
he permitted her to take her seat near the foot of the couch. Then the
King arose and did away with his bride's maidenhead and the three fell
asleep.
But when it was midnight Scheherazade awoke and signaled to her
sister Dunyazade, who sat up and said, "Allah upon thee, O my
sister, recite to us some new story, delightsome and delectable,
wherewith to while away the waking hours of our latter night." "With
joy and goodly gree," answered Scheherazade, "if this pious and
auspicious King permit me." "Tell on," quoth the King, who chanced
to be sleepless and restless and therefore was pleased with the
prospect of hearing her story. So Scheherazade rejoiced, and thus,
on the first night of the Thousand Nights and a Night, she began her
recitations.
THE FISHERMAN AND THE JINNI

IT hath reached me, O auspicious King, that there was a fisherman
well stricken in years who had a wife and three children, and withal
was of poor condition. Now it was his custom to cast his net every day
four times, and no more. On a day he went forth about noontide to
the seashore, where he laid down his basket and, tucking up his
shirt and plunging into the water, made a cast with his net and waited
till it settled to the bottom. Then he gathered the cords together and
haled away at it, but found it weighty. And however much he drew it
landward, he could not pull it up, so he carried the ends ashore and
drove a stake into the ground and made the net fast to it. Then he
stripped and dived into the water all about the net, and left not
off working hard until he had brought it up.
He rejoiced thereat and, donning his clothes, went to the net,
when he found in it a dead jackass which had torn the meshes. Now
when he saw it, he exclaimed in his grief, "There is no Majesty and
there is no Might save in Allah the Glorious, the Great!" Then quoth
he, "This is a strange manner of daily bread," and he began reciting
in extempore verse:

"O toiler through the glooms of night in peril and in pain,
Thy toiling stint for daily bread comes not by might and main!
Seest thou not the fisher seek afloat upon the sea
His bread, while glimmer stars of night as set in tangled skein?
Anon he plungeth in despite the buffet of the waves,
The while to sight the bellying net his eager glances strain,
Till joying at the night's success, a fish he bringeth home
Whose gullet by the hook of Fate was caught and cut in twain.
When buys that fish of him a man who spent the hours of night
Reckless of cold and wet and gloom in ease and comfort fain,
Laud to the Lord who gives to this, to that denies, his wishes
And dooms one toil and catch the prey and other eat the fishes."

Then quoth he, "Up and to it. I am sure of His beneficence,
Inshallah!" So he continued:

"When thou art seized of Evil Fate, assume
The noble soul's long-suffering. 'Tis thy best.
Complain not to the creature, this be 'plaint
From one most Ruthful to the ruthlessest."

The fisherman, when he had looked at the dead ass, got it free of
the toils and wrung out and spread his net. Then he plunged into the
sea, saying, "In Allah's name!" and made a cast and pulled at it,
but it grew heavy and settled down more firmly than the first time.
Now he thought that there were fish in it, and he made it fast and,
doffing his clothes, went into the water, and dived and haled until he
drew it up upon dry land. Then found he in it a large earthern pitcher
which was full of sand and mud, and seeing this, he was greatly
troubled. So he prayed pardon of Allah and, throwing away the jar,
wrung his net and cleansed it and returned to the sea the third time
to cast his net, and waited till it had sunk. Then he pulled at it and
found therein potsherds and broken glass. Then, raising his eyes
heavenward, he said: "O my God! Verily Thou wettest that I cast not my
net each day save four times. The third is done and as yet Thou hast
vouchsafed me nothing. So this time, O my God, deign give me my
daily bread."
Then, having called on Allah's name, he again threw his net and
waited its sinking and settling, whereupon he haled at it but could
not draw it in for that it was entangled at the bottom. He cried out
in his vexation, "There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in
Allah!" and he began reciting:

"Fie on this wretched world, an so it be
I must be whelmed by grief and misery.
Tho' gladsome be man's lot when dawns the morn,
He drains the cup of woe ere eve he see.
Yet was I one of whom the world when asked
'Whose lot is happiest?' would say, ''Tis he!'"

Thereupon he stripped and, diving down to the net, busied himself
with it till it came to land. Then he opened the meshes and found
therein a cucumber-shaped jar of yellow copper, evidently full of
something, whose mouth was made fast with a leaden cap stamped with
the seal ring of our Lord Solomon, son of David (Allah accept the
twain!). Seeing this, the fisherman rejoiced and said, "If I sell it
in the brass bazaar, 'tis worth ten golden dinars." He shook it, and
finding it heavy, continued: "Would to Heaven I knew what is herein.
But I must and will open it and look to its contents and store it in
my bag and sell it in the brass market." And taking out a knife, he
worked at the lead till he had loosened it from the jar. Then he
laid the cup on the ground and shook the vase to pour out whatever
might be inside. He found nothing in it, whereat he marveled with an
exceeding marvel. But presently there came forth from the jar a
smoke which spired heavenward into ether (whereat he again marveled
with mighty marvel), and which trailed along earth's surface till
presently, having reached its full height, the thick vapor
condensed, and became an Ifrit huge of bulk, whose crest touched the
clouds while his feet were on the ground. His head was as a dome,
his hands like pitchforks, his legs long as masts, and his mough big
as a cave. His teeth were like large stones, his nostrils ewers, his
eyes two lamps, and his look was fierce and lowering.
Now when the fisherman saw the Ifrit, his side muscles quivered, his
teeth chattered, his spittle dried up, and he became blind about
what to do. Upon this the Ifrit looked at him and cried, "there is
no god but the God, and Solomon is the prophet of God," presently
adding: "O Apostle of Allah, slay me not. Never again will I gainsay
thee in word nor sin against thee in deed." Quoth the fisherman, "O
Marid, diddest thou say Solomon the Apostle of Allah? And Solomon is
dead some thousand and eight hundred years ago, and we are now in
the last days of the world! What is thy story, and what is thy account
of thyself, and what is the cause of thy entering into this cucurbit?"
Now when the Evil Spirit heard the words of the fisherman, quoth he:
"There is no god but the God. Be of good cheer, O Fisherman!" Quoth
the fisherman, "Why biddest thou me to be of good cheer?" And he
replied, "Because of thy having to die an ill death in this very
hour." Said the fisherman, "Thou deservest for thy good tidings the
withdrawal of Heaven's protection, O thou distant one! Wherefore
shouldest thou kill me, and what thing have I done to deserve death, I
who freed thee from the jar, and saved thee from the depths of the
sea, and brought thee up on the dry land?" Replied the Ifrit, "Ask
of me only what mode of death thou wilt die, and by what manner of
slaughter shall I slay thee." Rejoined the fisherman, "What is my
crime, and wherefore such retribution?" Quoth the Ifrit, "Hear my
story, O Fisherman!" And he answered, "Say on, and be brief in thy
sayinig, for of very sooth my life breath is in my nostrils."
Thereupon quoth the Jinni: "Know that I am one among the heretical
Jann, and I sinned against Solomon, David-son (on the twain be
peace!), I together with the famous Sakhr al-Jinni, whereupon the
Prophet sent his Minister, Asaf son of Barkhiya, to seize me. And this
Wazir brought me against my will and led me in bonds to him (I being
downcast despite my nose), and he placed me standing before him like a
suppliant. When Solomon saw me, he took refuge with Allah and bade
me embrace the True Faith and obey his behests. But I refused, so,
sending for this cucurbit, he shut me up therein and stopped it over
with lead, whereon he impressed the Most High Name, and gave his
orders to the Jann, who carried me off and cast me into the midmost of
the ocean. There I abode a hundred years, during which I said in my
heart, 'Whoso shall release me, him will I enrich forever and ever.'
"But the full century went by and, when no one set me free, I
entered upon the second fivescore saying, 'Whoso shall release me, for
him I will open the hoards of the earth.' Still no one set me free,
and thus four hundred years passed away. Then quoth I, 'Whoso shall
release me, for him will I fulfill three wishes.' Yet no one set me
free. Thereupon I waxed wroth with exceeding wrath and said to myself,
'Whoso shall release me from this time forth, him will I slay, and I
will give him choice of what death he will die.' And now, as thou hast
released me, I give thee full choice of deaths."
The fisherman, hearing the words of the Ifrit, said, "O Allah! The
wonder of it that I have not come to free thee save in these days!"
adding, "Spare my life, so Allah spare thine, and slay me not, lest
Allah set one to slay thee." Replied the Contumacious One, "There is
no help for it. Die thou must, so ask by way of boon what manner of
death thou wilt die." Albeit thus certified, the fisherman again
addressed the Ifrit, saying, "Forgive me this my death as a generous
reward for having freed thee," and the Ifrit, "Surely I would not slay
thee save on account of that same release." "O Chief of the Ifrits,"
said the fisherman, "I do thee good and thou requitest me with evil!
In very sooth the old saw lieth not when it saith:

"We wrought them weal, they met our weal with ill,
Such, by my life! is every bad man's labor.
To him who benefits unworthy wights
Shall hap what hapt to Ummi-Amir's neighbor."

Now when the Ifrit heard these words he answered: "No more of this
talk. Needs must I kill thee." Upon this the fisherman said to
himself: "This is a Jinni, and I am a man to whom Allah hath given a
passably cunning wit, so I will now cast about to compass his
destruction by my contrivance and by mine intelligence, even as he
took counsel only of his malice and his frowardness." He began by
asking the Ifrit, "Hast thou indeed resolved to kill me?" And,
receiving for all answer "Even so," he cried, "Now in the Most Great
Name, graven on the seal ring of Solomon the son of David (peace be
with the holy twain!), an I question thee on a certain matter, wilt
thou give me a true answer?" The Ifrit replied "Yea," but, hearing
mention of the Most Great Name, his wits were troubled and he said
with trembling, "Ask and be brief."
Quoth the fisherman: "How didst thou fit into this bottle which
would not hold thy hand- no, nor even thy foot- and how came it to be
large enough to contain the whole of thee?" Replied the Ifrit,
"What! Dost not believe that I was all there?" And the fisherman
rejoined, "Nay! I will never believe it until I see thee inside with
my own eyes." The Evil Spirit on the instant shook and became a vapor,
which condensed and entered the jar little and little, till all was
well inside, when lo! the fisherman in hot haste took the leaden cap
with the seal and stoppered therewith the mouth of the jar and
called out to the Ifrit, saying: "Ask me by way of boon what death
thou wilt die! By Allah, I will throw thee into the sea before us
and here will I build me a lodge, and whoso cometh hither I will
warn him against fishing and will say: 'In these waters abideth an
Ifrit who giveth as a last favor a choice of deaths and fashion of
slaughter to the man who saveth him!"'
Now when the Ifrit heard this from the fisherman and saw himself
in limbo, he was minded to escape, but this was prevented by Solomon's
seal. So he knew that the fisherman had cozened and outwitted him, and
he waxed lowly and submissive and began humbly to say, "I did but jest
with thee." But the other answered, "Thou liest, O vilest of the
Ifrits, and meanest and filthiest!" And he set off with the bottle for
the seaside, the Ifrit calling out, "Nay! Nay!" and he calling out,
"Aye! Aye!" Thereupon the Evil Spirit softened his voice and
smoothed his speech and abased himself, saying, "What wouldest thou do
with me. O Fisherman?" "I will throw thee back into the sea," he
answered, "Where thou hast been housed and homed for a thousand and
eight hundred years. And now I will leave thee therein till Judgment
Day. Did I not say to thee, `Spare me and Allah shall spare thee,
and slay me not lest Allah slay thee'? yet thou spurnedst my
supplication and hadst no intention save to deal ungraciously by me,
and Allah hath now thrown thee into my hands, and I am cunninger
that thou." Quoth the Ifrit, "Open for me that I may bring thee weal."
Quoth the fisherman: "Thou liest, thou accursed! Nothing would satisfy
thee save my death, so now I will do thee die by hurling thee into
this sea." Then the Marid roared aloud and cried: "Allah upon thee,
O Fisherman, don't! Spare me, and pardon my past doings, and as I have
been tyrannous, so be thou generous, for it is said among sayings that
go current: 'O thou who doest good to him who hath done thee evil,
suffice for the ill-doer his ill deeds, and do not deal with me as did
Umamah to 'Atikah.'"
Asked the fisherman, "And what was their case?" And the Ifrit
answered, "This is not the time for storytelling and I in this prison,
but set me free and I will tell thee the tale." Quoth the fisherman:
"Leave this language. There is no help but that thou be thrown back
into the sea, nor is there any way for thy getting out of it forever
and ever. Vainly I placed myself under thy protection, and I humbled
myself to thee with weeping, while thou soughtest only to slay me, who
had done thee no injury deserving this at thy hands. Nay, so far
from injuring thee by any evil act, I worked thee naught but weal in
releasing thee from that jail of thine. Now I knew thee to be an
evil-doer when thou diddest to me what thou didst, and know that when
I have cast thee back into this sea, I will warn whosoever may fish
thee up of what hath befallen me with thee, and I will advise him to
toss thee back again. So shalt thou abide here under these waters till
The End of Time shall make an end of thee." But the Ifrit cried aloud:
"Set me free. This is a noble occasion for generosity, and I make
covenant with thee and vow never to do thee hurt and harm- nay, I
will help thee to what shall put thee out of want."
The fisherman accepted his promises on both conditions, not to
trouble him as before, but on the contrary to do him service, and
after making firm the plight and swearing him a solemn oath by Allah
Most Highest, he opened the cucurbit. Thereupon the pillar of smoke
rose up till all of it was fully out, then it thickened and once
more became an Ifrit of hideous presence, who forthright
administered a kick to the bottle and sent it flying into the sea. The
fisherman, seeing how the cucurbit was treated and making sure of
his own death, piddled in his clothes and said to himself, "This
promiseth badly," but he fortified his heart, and cried: "O Ifrit,
Allah hath said: 'Perform your covenant, for the performance of your
covenant shall be inquired into hereafter.' Thou hast made a vow to me
and hast sworn an oath not to play me false lest Allah play thee
false, for verily He is a jealous God who respiteth the sinner but
letteth him not escape. I say to thee as said the Sage Duban to King
Yunan, 'Spare me so Allah may spare thee!'" The Ifrit burst into
laughter and stalked away, saying to the fisherman, "Follow me."
And the man paced after him at a safe distance (for he was not
assured of escape) till they had passed round the suburbs of the city.
Thence they struck into the uncultivated grounds and, crossing them,
descended into a broad wilderness, and lo! in the midst of it stood
a mountain tarn. The Ifrit waded in to the middle and again cried,
"Follow me," and when this was done he took his stand in the center
and bade the man cast his net and catch his fish. The fisherman looked
into the water and was much astonished to see therein varicolored
fishes, white and red, blue and yellow. However, he cast his net
and, hauling it in, saw that he had netted four fishes, one of each
color. Thereat he rejoiced greatly, and more when the Ifrit said to
him: "Carry these to the Sultan and set them in his presence, then
he will give thee what shall make thee a wealthy man. And now accept
my excuse, for by Allah, at this time I wot none other way of
benefiting thee, inasmuch I have lain in this sea eighteen hundred
years and have not seen the face of the world save within this hour.
But I would not have thee fish here save once a day." The Ifrit then
gave him Godspeed, saying, "Allah grant we meet again," and struck the
earth with one foot, whereupon the ground clove asunder and
swallowed him up.
The fisherman, much marveling at what had happened to him with the
Ifrit, took the fish and made for the city, and as soon as he
reached home he filled an earthen bowl with water and therein threw
the fish, which began to struggle and wriggle about. Then he bore
off the bowl upon his head and, repairing to the King's palace (even
as the Ifrit had bidden him) laid the fish before the presence. And
the King wondered with exceeding wonder at the sight, for never in his
lifetime had he seen fishes like these in quality or in
conformation. So he said, "Give those fish to the stranger slave
girl who now cooketh for us," meaning the bondmaiden whom the King
of Roum had sent to him only three days before, so that he had not yet
made trial of her talents in the dressing of meat.
Thereupon the Wazir carried the fish to the cook and bade her fry
them, saying: O damsel, the King sendeth this say to thee: 'I have not
treasured thee, O tear o' me! save for stress time of me.' Approve,
then, to us this day thy delicate handiwork and thy savory cooking,
for this dish of fish is a present sent to the Sultan and evidently
a rarity." The Wazir, after he had carefully charged her, returned
to the King, who commanded him to give the fisherman four hundred
dinars. He gave them accordingly, and the man took them to his bosom
and ran off home stumbling and falling and rising again and deeming
the whole thing to be a dream. However, he bought for his family all
they wanted, and lastly he went to his wife in huge joy and
gladness. So far concerning him.
But as regards the cookmaid, she took the fish and cleansed them and
set them in the frying pan, basting them with oil till one side was
dressed. Then she turned them over and behold, the kitchen wall
clave asunder, and therefrom came a young lady, fair of form, oval
of face, perfect in grace, with eyelids which kohl lines enchase.
Her dress was a silken headkerchief fringed and tasseled with blue.
A large ring hung from either ear, a pair of bracelets adorned her
wrists, rings with bezels of priceless gems were on her fingers, and
she hent in hand a long rod of rattan cane which she thrust into the
frying pan, saying, "O fish! O fish! Be ye constant to your
convenant?" When the cookmaiden saw this apparition she swooned
away. The young lady repeated her words a second time and a third
time, and at last the fishes raised their heads from the pan, and
saying in articulate speech, "Yes! Yes!" began with one voice to
recite:

"Come back and so will I! Keep faith and so will I!
And if ye fain forsake, I'll requite till quits we cry!"

After this the young lady upset the frying pan and went forth by the
way she came in and the kitchen wall closed upon her. When the
cookmaiden recovered from her fainting fit, she saw the four fishes
charred black as charcoal, and crying out, "His staff brake in his
first bout," she again fell swooning to the ground. Whilst she was
in this case the Wazir came for the fish, and looking upon her as
insensible she lay, not knowing Sunday from Thursday, shoved her
with his foot and said, "Bring the fish for the Sultan!" Thereupon,
recovering from her fainting fit, she wept and informed him of her
case and all that had befallen her. The Wazir marveled greatly and
exclaiming, "This is none other than a right strange matter!" he
sent after the fisher-man and said to him, "Thou, O Fisherman, must
needs fetch us four fishes like those thou broughtest before."
Thereupon the man repaired to the tarn and cast his net, and when he
landed it, lo! four fishes were therein exactly like the first.
These he at once carried to the Wazir, who went in with them to the
cookmaiden and said, "Up with thee and fry these in my presence,
that I may see this business." The damsel arose and cleansed the fish,
and set them in the frying pan over the fire. However, they remained
there but a little while ere the wall clave asunder and the young lady
appeared, clad as before and holding in hand the wand which she
again thrust into the frying pan, saying, "O fish! O fish! Be ye
constant to your olden convenant?" And behold, the fish lifted their
heads and repeated "Yes! Yes!" and recited this couplet:

"Come back and so will I! Keep faith and so will I!
But if ye fain forsake, I'll requite till quits we cry!"

When the fishes spoke, and the young lady upset the frying pan
with her rod and went forth by the way she came and the wall closed
up, the Wazir cried out, "This is a thing not to be hidden from the
King." So he went and told him what had happened, whereupon quoth
the King, "There is no help for it but that I see this with mine own
eyes Then he sent for the fisherman and commanded him to bring four
other fish like the first and to take with him three men as witnesses.
The fisherman at once brought the fish, and the King, after ordering
them to give him four hundred gold pieces, turned to the Wazir and
said, "Up, and fry me the fishes here before me!" The Minister,
replying, "To hear is to obey," bade bring the frying pan, threw
therein the cleansed fish, and set it over the fire, when lo! the wall
clave asunder, and out burst a black slave like a huge rock or a
remnant of the tribe Ad, bearing in hand a branch of a green tree. And
he cried in loud and terrible tones, "O fish! O fish! Be ye an
constant to your antique convenant?" Whereupon the fishes lifted their
heads from the frying pan and said, "Yes! Yes! We be true to our vow,"
and they again recited the couplet:

"Come back and so will I! Keep faith and so will I!
But if ye fain forsake, I'll requite till quits we cry!"

Then the huge blackamoor approached the frying pan and upset it with
the branch and went forth by the way he came in. When he vanished from
their sight, the King inspected the fish, and finding them all charred
black as charcoal, was utterly bewildered, and said to the Wazir:
"Verily this is a matter whereanent silence cannot be kept. And as for
the fishes, assuredly some marvelous adventure connects with them." So
he bade bring the fisherman and asked him, saying: "Fie on thee,
fellow! Whence come these fishes?" And he answered, "From a tarn
between four heights lying behind this mountain which is in sight of
thy city." Quoth the King, "How many days' march?" Quoth he, "O our
Lord the Sultan, a walk of half-hour." The King wondered, and
straightway ordering his men to march and horsemen to mount, led off
the fisherman, who went before as guide, privily damning the Ifrit.
They fared on till they had climbed the mountain and descended
unto a great desert which they had never seen during all their
lives. And the Sultan and his merry men marveled much at the wold
set in the midst of four mountains, and the tarn and its fishes of
four colors, red and white, yellow and blue. The King stood fixed to
the spot in wonderment and asked his troops and an present, "Hath
anyone among you ever seen this piece of water before now?" And all
made answer, "O King of the Age, never did we set eyes upon it
during an our days." They also questioned the oldest inhabitants
they met, men well stricken in years, but they replied, each and
every, "A lakelet like this we never saw in this place." Thereupon
quoth the King, "By Allah, I will neither return to my capital nor sit
upon the throne of my forebears till I learn the truth about this tarn
and the fish therein."
He then ordered his men to dismount and bivouac all around the
mountain, which they did, and summoning his Wazir, a Minister of
much experience, sagacious, of penetrating wit and well versed in
affairs, said to him: "'Tis in my mind to do a certain thing,
whereof I will inform thee. My heart telleth me to fare forth alone
this night and root out the mystery of this tarn and its fishes. Do
thou take thy scat at my tent door, and say to the emirs and wazirs,
the nabobs and the chamberlains, in fine, to all who ask thee, 'The
Sultan is ill at ease, and he hath ordered me to refuse all
admittance.' And be careful thou let none know my design." And the
Wazir could not oppose him. Then the King changed his dress and
ornaments and, slinging his sword over his shoulder, took a path which
led up one of the mountains and marched for the rest of the night till
morning dawned, nor did he cease wayfaring till the heat was too
much for him. After his long walk he rested for a while, and then
resumed his march and fared on through the second night till dawn,
when suddenly there appeared a black point in the far distance. Hereat
he rejoiced and said to himself, "Haply someone here shall acquaint me
with the mystery of the tarn and its fishes."
Presently, drawing near the dark object, he found it a palace
built of swart stone plated with iron, and while one leaf of the
gate stood wide-open, the other was shut. The King's spirits rose high
as he stood before the gate and rapped a light rap, but hearing no
answer, he knocked a second knock and a third, yet there came no sign.
Then he knocked his loudest, but still no answer, so he said,
"Doubtless 'tis empty." There upon he mustered up resolution and
boldly walked through the main gate into the great hall, and there
cried out aloud: "Holloa, ye people of the palace! I am a stranger and
a wayfarer. Have you aught here of victual?" He repeated his cry a
second time and a third, but still there came no reply.
So, strengthening his heart and making up his mind, he stalked
through the vestibule into the very middle of the palace, and found no
man in it. Yet it was furnished with silken stuffs gold-starred, and
the hangings were let down over the doorways. In the midst was a
spacious court off which sat four open saloons, each with its raised
dais, saloon facing saloon. A canopy shaded the court, and in the
center was a jetting fount with four figures of lions made of red
gold, spouting from their mouths water clear as pearls and
diaphanous gems. Round about the palace birds were let loose, and over
it stretched a net of golden wire, hindering them from flying off.
In brief, there was everything but human beings. The King marveled
mightily thereat, yet felt he sad at heart for that he saw no one to
give him an account of the waste and its tarn, the fishes, the
mountains, and the palace itself. Presently as he sat between the
doors in deep thought behold, there came a voice of lament, as from
a heart griefspent, and he heard the voice chanting these verses:

"I hid what I endured of him and yet it came to light,
And nightly sleep mine eyelids fled and changed to sleepless night.
O world! O Fate! Withhold thy hand and cease thy hurt and harm
Look and behold my hapless sprite in dolor and affright.
Wilt ne'er show ruth to highborn youth who lost him on the way
Of Love, and fell from wealth and fame to lowest basest wight?
Jealous of Zephyr's breath was I as on your form he breathed,
But whenas Destiny descends she blindeth human sight.
What shall the hapless archer do who when he fronts his foe
And bends his bow to shoot the shaft shall find his string undight?
When cark and care so heavy bear on youth of generous soul,
How shall he 'scape his lot and where from Fate his place of
flight?"

Now when the Sultan heard the mournful voice he sprang to his feet
and following the sound, found a curtain let down over a chamber door.
He raised it and saw behind it a young man sitting upon a couch
about a cubit above the ground, and he fair to the sight, a
well-shaped wight, with eloquence dight. His forehead was
flower-white, his cheek rosy bright, and a mole on his cheek breadth
like an ambergris mite, even as the poet doth indite:

A youth slim-waisted from whose locks and brow
The world in blackness and in light is set.
Throughout Creation's round no fairer show
No rarer sight thine eye hath ever met.
A nut-brown mole sits throned upon a cheek
Of rosiest red beneath an eye of jet.

The King rejoiced and saluted him, but he remained sitting in his
caftan of silken stuff purfled with Egyptian gold and his crown
studded with gems of sorts. But his face was sad with the traces of
sorrow. He returned the royal salute in most courteous wise adding, "O
my lord, thy dignity demandeth my rising to thee, and my sole excuse
is to crave thy pardon." Quoth the King: "Thou art excused, O youth,
so look upon me as thy guest come hither on an especial object. I
would thou acquaint me with the secrets of this tarn and its fishes
and of this palace and thy loneliness therein and the cause of thy
groaning and wailing." When the young man heard these words he wept
with sore weeping till his bosom was drenched with tears. The King
marveled and asked him, "What maketh thee weep, O young man?" and he
answered, "How should I not weep, when this is my case!" Thereupon
he put out his hand and raised the skirt of his garment, when lo!
the lower half of him appeared stone down to his feet while from his
navel to the hair of his head he was man. The King, seeing this his
plight, grieved with sore grief and of his compassion cried: "Alack
and wellaway! In very sooth, O youth, thou heapest sorrow upon my
sorrow. I was minded to ask thee the mystery of the fishes only,
whereas now I am concerned to learn thy story as well as theirs. But
there is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious,
the Great! Lose no time, O youth, but tell me forthright thy whole
tale." Quoth he, "Lend me thine ears, thy sight, and thine insight."
And quoth the King, "All are at thy service!"
Thereupon the youth began, "Right wondrous and marvelous is my
case and that of these fishes, and were it graven with gravers upon
the eye corners it were a warner to whoso would be warned." "How is
that?" asked the King, and the young man began to tell
THE TALE OF THE ENSORCELED PRINCE

KNOW then, O my lord, that whilom my sire was King of this city, and
his name was Mahmud, entitled Lord of the Black Islands, and owner
of what are now these four mountains. He ruled threescore and ten
years, after which he went to the mercy of the Lord and I reigned as
Sultan in his stead. I took to wife my cousin, the daughter of my
paternal uncle, and she loved me with such abounding love that
whenever I was absent she ate not and she drank not until she saw me
again. She cohabited with me for five years till a certain day when
she went forth to the hammam bath, and I bade the cook hasten to get
ready all requisites for our supper. And I entered this palace and lay
down on the bed where I was wont to sleep and bade two damsels to
fan my face, one sitting by my head and the other at my feet.
But I was troubled and made restless by my wife's absence and
could not sleep, for although my eyes were closed, my mind and
thoughts were wide-awake. Presently I heard the slave girl at my
head say to her at my feet: "O Mas'udah, how miserable is our master
and how wasted in his youth, and oh! the pity of his being so betrayed
by our mistress, the accursed whore!" The other replied: "Yes
indeed. Allah curse all faithless women and adulterous! But the like
of our master, with his fair gifts, deserveth something better than
this harlot who lieth abroad every night." Then quoth she who sat by
my head, "Is our lord dumb or fit only for bubbling that he
questioneth her not!" and quoth the other: "Fie on thee! Doth our lord
know her ways, or doth she allow him his choice? Nay, more, doth she
not drug every night the cup she giveth him to drink before sleeptime,
and put bhang into it? So he sleepeth and wotteth not whither she
goeth, nor what she doeth, but we know that after giving him the
drugged wine, she donneth her richest raiment and perfumeth herself
and then she fareth out from him to be away till break of day. Then
she cometh to him and burneth a pastille under his nose and he awaketh
from his death-like sleep." When I heard the slave girls' words, the
light became black before my sight and I thought night would never
fall.
Presently the daughter of my uncle came from the baths, and they set
the table for us and we ate and sat together a fair half-hour quaffing
our wine, as was ever our wont. Then she called for the particular
wine I used to drink before sleeping and reached me the cup, but,
seeming to drink it according to my wont, I poured the contents into
my bosom and, lying down, let her hear that I was asleep. Then,
behold, she cried: "Sleep out the night, and never wake again! By
Allah, I loathe thee and I loathe thy whole body, and my soul
turneth in disgust from cohabiting with thee, and I see not the moment
when Allah shall snatch away thy life!" Then she rose and donned her
fairest dress and perfumed her person and slung my sword over her
shoulder, and opening the gates of the palace, went her ill way.
I rose and followed her as she left the palace and she threaded
the streets until she came to the city gate, where she spoke words I
understood not and the padlocks dropped of themselves as if broken and
the gate leaves opened. She went forth (and I after her without her
noticing aught) till she came at last to the outlying mounds and a
reed fence built about a round-roofed hut of mud bricks. As she
entered the door, I climbed upon the roof, which commanded a view of
the interior, And lo! my fair cousin had gone in to a hideous Negro
slave with his upper lip like the cover of a pot and his lower like an
open pot, lips which might sweep up sand from the gravel floor of
the cot. He was to boot a leper and a paralytic, lying upon a strew of
sugar-cane trash and wrapped in an old blanket and the foulest rags
and tatters.
She kissed the earth before him, and he raised his head so as to see
her and said: "Woe to thee! What call hadst thou to stay away all this
time? Here have been with me sundry of the black brethren, who drank
their wine and each had his young lady, and I was not content to drink
because of thine absence." Then she: "O my lord, my heart's love and
coolth of my eyes, knowest thou not that I am married to my cousin,
whose very look I loathe, and hate myself when in his company? And did
not I fear for thy sake, I would not let a single sun arise before
making his city a ruined heap wherein raven should croak and howlet
hoot, and jackal and wolf harbor and loot- nay, I had removed its
very stones to the back side of Mount Kaf." Rejoined the slave:
"Thou liest, damn thee! Now I swear an oath by the valor and honor
of blackamoor men (and deem not our manliness to be the poor manliness
of white men), from today forth if thou stay away till this hour, I
will not keep company with thee nor will I glue my body with thy body.
Dost play fast and loose with us, thou cracked pot, that we may
satisfy thy dirty lusts, O vilest of the vile whites?"
When I heard his words, and saw with my own eyes what passed between
these two wretches, the world waxed dark before my face and my soul
knew not in what place it was. But my wife humbly stood up weeping
before and wheedling the slave, and saying: "O my beloved, and very
fruit of my heart, there is none left to cheer me but thy dear self,
and, if thou cast me off, who shall take me in, O my beloved, O
light of my eyes?" And she ceased not weeping and abasing herself to
him until he deigned be reconciled with her. Then was she right glad
and stood up and doffed her clothes, even to her petticoat trousers,
and said, "O my master, what hast thou here for thy handmaiden to
eat?" "Uncover the basin," he grumbled, "and thou shalt find at the
bottom the broiled bones of some rats we dined on. Pick at them, and
then go to that slop pot, where thou shalt find some leavings of
beer which thou mayest drink." So she ate and drank and washed her
hands, and went and lay down by the side of the slave upon the cane
trash and crept in with him under his foul coverlet and his rags and
tatters.
When I saw my wife, my cousin, the daughter of my uncle, do this
deed, I clean lost my wits, and climbing down from the roof, I entered
and took the sword which she had with her and drew it, determined to
cut down the twain. I first struck at the slave's neck and thought
that the death decree had fallen on him, for he groaned a loud hissing
groan, but I had cut only the skin and flesh of the gullet and the two
arteries! It awoke the daughter of my uncle, so I sheathed the sword
and fared forth for the city, and entering the palace, lay upon my bed
and slept till morning, when my wife aroused me and I saw that she had
cut off her hair and had donned mourning garments. Quoth she: "O son
of my uncle, blame me not for what I do. It hath just reached me
that my mother is dead and my father hath been killed in holy war, and
of my brothers one hath lost his life by a snake sting and the other
by falling down some precipice, and I can and should do naught save
weep and lament."
When I heard her words I refrained from all reproach and said
only: "Do as thou list. I certainly will not thwart thee." She
continued sorrowing, weeping and wailing one whole year from the
beginning of its circle to the end, and when it was finished she
said to me: "I wish to build me in thy palace a tomb with a cupola,
which I will set apart for my mourning and will name the House of
Lamentations." Quoth I again: "Do as thou list!" Then she builded
for herself a cenotaph wherein to mourn, and set on its center a
dome under which showed a tomb like a santon's sepulcher. Thither
she carried the slave and lodged him, but he was exceeding weak by
reason of his wound, and unable to do her love service. He could
only drink wine, and from the day of his hurt he spake not a word, yet
he lived on because his appointed hour was not come. Every day,
morning and evening, my wife went to him and wept and wailed over
him and gave him wine and strong soups, and left not off doing after
this manner a second year. And I bore with her patiently and paid no
heed to her.
One day, however, I went in to her unawares, and I found her weeping
and beating her face and crying: "Why art thou absent from my sight, O
my heart's delight? Speak to me, O my life, talk with me, O my
love." When she had ended for a time her words and her weeping I
said to her, "O my cousin, let this thy mourning suffice, for in
pouring forth tears there is little profit!" "Thwart me not," answered
she, "in aught I do, or I will lay violent hands on myself!" So I held
my peace and left her to go her own way, and she ceased not to cry and
keen and indulge her affliction for yet another year. At the end of
the third year I waxed aweary of this longsome mourning, and one day I
happened to enter the cenotaph when vexed and angry with some matter
which had thwarted me, and suddenly I heard her say: "O my lord, I
never hear thee vouchsafe a single word to me! Why dost thou not
answer me, O my master?" and she began reciting:

"O thou tomb! O thou tomb! Be his beauty set in shade?
Hast thou darkened that countenance all-sheeny as the noon?
O thou tomb! Neither earth nor yet Heaven art to me,
Then how cometh it in thee are conjoined my sun and moon?"

When I heard such verses as these rage was heaped upon my rage, I
cried out: "Wellaway! How long is this sorrow to last?" and I began
repeating:

"O thou tomb! O thou tomb! Be his horrors set in blight?
Hast thou darkened his countenance that sickeneth the soul?
O thou tomb! Neither cesspool nor pigskin art to me,
Then how cometh it in thee are conjoined soil and coal?"

When she heard my words she sprang to her feet crying: "Fie upon thee,
thou cur! All this is of thy doings. Thou hast wounded my heart's
darling and thereby worked me sore woe, and thou hast wasted his youth
so that these three years he hath lain abed more dead than alive!"
In my wrath I cried: "O thou foulest of harlots and filthiest of
whores ever futtered by Negro slaves who are hired to have at thee!
Yes, indeed it was I who did this good deed." And snatching up my
sword, I drew it and made at her to cut her down. But she laughed my
words and mine intent to scorn, crying: "To heel, hound that thou art!
Alas for the past which shall no more come to pass, nor shall anyone
avail the dead to raise. Allah hath indeed now given into my hand
him who did to me this thing, a deed that hath burned my heart with
a fire which died not a flame which might not be quenched!"
Then she stood up, and pronouncing some words to me
unintelligible, she said, "By virtue of my egromancy become thou
half stone and half man!" Whereupon I became what thou seest, unable
to rise or to sit, and neither dead nor alive. Moreover, she
ensorceled the city with all its streets and garths, and she turned by
her gramarye the four islands into four mountains around the tarn
whereof thou questionest me. And the citizens, who were of four
different faiths, Moslem, Nazarene, Jew, and Magian, she transformed
by her enchantments into fishes. The Moslems are the white, the
Magians red, the Christians blue, and the Jews yellow. And every day
she tortureth me and scourgeth me with a hundred stripes, each of
which draweth floods of blood and cutteth the skin of my shoulders
to strips. And lastly she clotheth my upper half with a haircloth
and then throweth over them these robes. Hereupon the young man
again shed tears and began reciting:

"In patience, O my God, I endure my lot and fate,
I will bear at will of Thee whatsoever be my state.
They oppress me, they torture me, they make my life a woe,
Yet haply Heaven's happiness shall compensate my strait.
Yea, straitened is my life by the bane and hate o' foes,
But Mustafa and Murtaza shall ope me Heaven's gate."

After this the Sultan turned toward the young Prince and said: "O
youth, thou hast removed one grief only to add another grief. But now,
O my friend, where is she, and where is the mausoleum wherein lieth
the wounded slave?" "The slave lieth under yon dome," quoth the
young man, "and she sitteth in the chamber fronting yonder door. And
every day at sunrise she cometh forth, and first strippeth me, and
whippeth me with a hundred strokes of the leathern scourge, and I weep
and shriek, but there is no power of motion in my lower limbs to
keep her off me. After ending her tormenting me she visiteth the
slave, bringing him wine and boiled meats. And tomorrow at an early
hour she will be here." Quoth the King: "By Allah, O youth, I will
assuredly do thee a good deed which the world shall not willingly
let die, and an act of derring-do which shall be chronicled long after
I am dead and gone by."
Then the King sat him by the side of the young Prince and talked
till nightfall, when he lay down and slept. But as soon as the false
dawn showed, he arose and, doffing his outer garments, bared his blade
and hastened to the place wherein lay the slave. Then was he ware of
lighted candles and lamps, and the perfume of incenses and unguents,
and directed by these, he made for the slave and struck him one
stroke, killing him on the spot. After which he lifted him on his back
and threw him into a well that was in the palace. Presently he
returned and, donning the slave's gear, lay down at length within
the mausoleum with the drawn sword laid close to and along his side.
After an hour or so the accursed witch came, and first going to her
husband, she stripped off his clothes and, taking a whip, flogged
him cruelly while he cried out: "Ah! Enough for me the case I am in!
Take pity on me, O my cousin!" But she replied, "Didst thou take
pity on me and spare the life of my truelove on whom I doated?"
Then she drew the cilice over his raw and bleeding skin and threw
the robe upon all and went down to the slave with a goblet of wine and
a bowl of meat broth in her hands. She entered under the dome
weeping and wailing, "Wellaway!" and crying: "O my lord! Speak a
word to me! O my master! Talk awhile with me!" and began to recite
these couplets:

"How long this harshness, this unlove, shall bide?
Suffice thee not tear floods thou hast espied?
Thou dost prolong our parting purposely
And if wouldst please my foe, thou'rt satisfied!"

Then she wept again and said: "O my lord! Speak to me, talk with
me!" The King lowered his voice and, twisting his tongue, spoke
after the fashion of the blackamoors and said "'Lack, 'lack! There
be no Majesty and there be no Might save in Allauh, the Gloriose,
the Great!"
Now when she heard these words she shouted for joy, and fell to
the ground fainting, and when her senses returned she asked, "O my
lord, can it be true that thou hast power of speech?" And the King,
making his voice small and faint, answered: "O my cuss! Dost thou
deserve that I talk to thee and speak with thee?" "Why and wherefore?"
rejoined she, and he replied: "The why is that all the livelong day
thou tormentest thy hubby, and he keeps calling on 'eaven for aid
until sleep is strange to me even from evenin' till mawnin', and he
prays and damns, cussing us two, me and thee, causing me disquiet
and much bother. Were this not so, I should long ago have got my
health, and it is this which prevents my answering thee." Quoth she,
"With thy leave I will release him from what spell is on him," and
quoth the King, "Release him, and let's have some rest!" She cried,
"To hear is to obey," and, going from the cenotaph to the palace,
she took a metal bowl and filled it with water and spake over it
certain words which made the contents bubble and boil as a caldron
seetheth over the fire. With this she sprinkled her husband saying,
"By virtue of the dread words I have spoken, if thou becamest thus
by my spells, come forth out of that form into thine own former form."
And lo and behold! the young man shook and trembled, then he rose to
his feet and, rejoicing at his deliverance, cried aloud, "I testify
that there is no god but the God, and in very truth Mohammed is His
Apostle, whom Allah bless and keep!" Then she said to him, "Go forth
and return not hither, for if thou do I will surely slay thee,"
screaming these words in his face. So he went from between her
hands, and she returned to the dome and, going down to the
sepulcher, she said, "O my lord, come forth to me that I may look upon
thee and thy goodliness!" The King replied in faint low words: "What
thing hast thou done? Thou hast rid me of the branch, but not of the
root." She asked: "O my darling! O my Negroling! What is the root?"
And he answered: "Fie on thee, O my cuss! The people of this city
and of the four islands every night when it's half-passed lift their
heads from the tank in which thou hast turned them to fishes and cry
to Heaven and call down its anger on me and thee, and this is the
reason why my body's balked from health. Go at once and set them free,
then come to me and take my hand, and raise me up, for a little
strength is already back in me."
When she heard the King's words (and she still supposed him to be
the slave) she cried joyously: "O my master, on my head and on my eyes
be thy command. Bismillah!" So she sprang to her feet and, full of joy
and gladness, ran down to the tarn and took a little of its water in
the palm of her hand and spake over it words not to be understood, and
the fishes lifted their heads and stood up on the instant like men,
the spell on the people of the city having been removed. What was
the lake again became a crowded capital. The bazaars were thronged
with folk who bought and sold, each citizen was occupied with his
own calling, and the four hills became islands as they were whilom.
Then the young woman, that wicked sorceress, returned to the King
and (still thinking he was the Negro) said to him: "O my love! Stretch
forth thy honored hand that I may assist thee to rise." "Nearer to
me," quoth the King in a faint and feigned tone. She came close as
to embrace him, when he took up the sword lying hid by his side and
smote her across the breast, so that the point showed gleaming
behind her back. Then he smote her a second time and cut her in
twain and cast her to the ground in two halves. After which he fared
forth and found the young man, now freed from the spell, awaiting
him and gave him joy of his happy release while the Prince kissed
his hand with abundant thanks.
Quoth the King, "Wilt thou abide in this city, or go with me to my
capital?" Quoth the youth, "O King of the Age, wettest thou not what
journey is between thee and thy city?" "Two days and a half," answered
he, whereupon said the other: "An thou be sleeping, O King, awake!
Between thee and thy city is a year's march for a well-girt walker,
and thou haddest not come hither in two days and a half save that
the city was under enchantment. And I, O King, will never part from
thee- no, not even for the twinkling of an eye." The King rejoiced at
his words and said: "Thanks be to Allah, Who hath bestowed thee upon
me! From this hour thou art my son and my only son, for that in all my
life I have never been blessed with issue." Thereupon they embraced
and joyed with exceeding great joy. And, reaching the palace, the
Prince who had been spellbound informed his lords and his grandees
that he was about to visit the Holy Places as a pilgrim, and bade them
get ready all things necessary for the occasion.
The preparations lasted ten days, after which he set out with the
Sultan, whose heart burned in yearning for his city, whence he had
been absent a whole twelvemonth. They journeyed with an escort of
Mamelukes carrying all manners of precious gifts and rarities, nor
stinted they wayfaring day and night for a full year until they
approached the Sultan's capital, and sent on messengers to announce
their coming. Then the Wazir and the whole army came out to meet him
in joy and gladness, for they had given up all hope of ever seeing
their King, and the troops kissed the ground before him and wished him
joy of his safety. He entered and took seat upon his throne and the
Minister came before him and, when acquainted with all that had
befallen the young Prince, he congratulated him on his narrow escape.
When order was restored throughout the land, the King gave largess
to many of his people, and said to the Wazir, "Hither the fisherman
who brought us the fishes!" So he sent for the man who had been the
first cause of the city and the citizens being delivered from
enchantment, and when he came into the presence, the Sultan bestowed
upon him a dress of honor, and questioned him of his condition and
whether he had children. The fisherman gave him to know that he had
two daughters and a son, so the King sent for them and, taking one
dauhter to wife, gave the other to the young Prince and made the son
his head treasurer. Furthermore, he invested his Wazir with the
Sultanate of the City in the Black Islands whilom belonging to the
young Prince, and dispatched with him the escort of fifty armed
slaves, together with dresses of honor for all the emirs and grandees.
The Wazir kissed hands and fared forth on his way, while the Sultan
and the Prince abode at home in all the solace and the delight of
life, and the fisherman became the richest man of his age, and his
daughters wived with the Kings until death came to them.
And yet, O King! this is not more wondrous than the story of
THE PORTER AND THE THREE LADIES OF BAGHDAD

ONCE upon a time there was a porter in Baghdad who was a bachelor
and who would remain unmarried. It came to pass on a certain day, as
he stood about the street leaning idly upon his crate, behold, there
stood before him an honorable woman in a mantilla of Mosul silk
broidered with gold and bordered with brocade. Her walking shoes
were also purred with gold, and her hair floated in long plaits. She
raised her face veil and, showing two black eyes fringed with jetty
lashes, whose glances were soft and languishing and whose perfect
beauty was ever blandishing, she accosted the porter and said in the
suavest tones and choicest language, "Take up thy crate and follow
me."
The porter was so dazzled he could hardly believe that he heard
her aright, but he shouldered his basket in hot haste, saying in
himself, "O day of good luck! O day of Allah's grace!" and walked
after her till she stopped at the door of a house. There she rapped,
and presently came out to her an old man, a Nazarene, to whom she gave
a gold piece, receiving from him in return what she required of
strained wine clear as olive oil, and she set it safely in the hamper,
saying, "Lift and follow." Quoth the porter, "This, by Allah, is
indeed an auspicious day, a day propitious for the granting of all a
man wisheth." He again hoisted up the crate and followed her till
she stopped at a fruiterer's shop and bought from him Shami apples and
Osmani quinces and Omani peaches, and cucumbers of Nile growth, and
Egyptian limes and Sultani oranges and citrons, besides Aleppine
jasmine, scented myrtle berries, Damascene nenuphars, flower of privet
and camomile, blood-red anemones, violets, and pomegranate bloom,
eglantine, and narcissus, and set the whole in the porter's crate,
saying, "Up with it."
So he lifted and followed her till she stopped at a butcher's
booth and said, "Cut me off ten pounds of mutton." She paid him his
price and he wrapped it in a banana leaf, whereupon she laid it in the
crate and said, "Hoist, O Porter." He hoisted accordingly, and
followed her as she walked on till she stopped at a grocer's, where
she bought dry fruits and pistachio kernels, Tihamah raisins,
shelled almonds, and all wanted for dessert, and said to the porter,
"Lift and follow me." So he up with his hamper and after her till
she stayed at the confectioner's, and she bought an earthen platter,
and piled it with all kinds of sweetmeats in his shop, open-worked
tarts and fritters scented with musk, and "soap cakes," and lemon
loaves, and melon preserves, and "Zaynab's combs," and "ladies'
fingers," and "Kazi's titbits," and goodies of every description,
and placed the platter in the porter's crate. Thereupon quoth he
(being a merry man), "Thou shouldest have told me, and I would have
brought with me a pony or a she-camel to carry all this market stuff."
She smiled and gave him a little cuff on the nape, saying, "Step out
and exceed not in words, for (Allah willing!) thy wage will not be
wanting."
Then she stopped at a perfumer's and took from him ten sorts of
waters, rose scented with musk, orange-flower, water-lily,
willow-flower, violet and five others. And she also bought two
loaves of sugar, a bottle for perfume-spraying, a lump of male
incense, aloe wood, ambergris, and musk, with candles of Alexandria
wax, and she put the whole into the basket, saying, "Up with thy crate
and after me." He did so and followed until she stood before the
greengrocer's, of whom she bought pickled sallower and olives, in
brine and in oil, with tarragon and cream cheese and hard Syrian
cheese, and she stowed them away in the crate, saying to the porter,
"Take up thy basket and follow me." He did so and went after her
till she came to a fair mansion fronted by a spacious court, a tall,
fine place to which columns gave strength and grace. And the gate
thereof had two leaves of ebony inlaid with plates of red gold. The
lady stopped at the door and, turning her face veil sideways,
knocked softly with her knuckles whilst the porter stood behind her,
thinking of naught save her beauty and loveliness.
Presently the door swung back and both leaves were opened, whereupon
he looked to see who had opened it, and behold, it was a lady of
tall figure, some five feet high, a model of beauty and loveliness,
brilliance and symmetry and perfect grace. Her forehead was
flower-white, her cheeks like the anemone ruddy-bright. Her eyes were
those of the wild heifer or the gazelle, with eyebrows like the
crescent moon which ends Sha'aban and begins Ramazan. Her mouth was
the ring of Solomon, her lips coral-red, and her teeth like a line
of strung pearls or of camomile petals. Her throat recalled the
antelope's, and her breasts, like two pomegranates of even size, stood
at bay as it were. Her body rose and fell in waves below her dress
like the rolls of a piece of brocade, and her navel would hold an
ounce of benzoin ointment. In fine, she was like her of whom the
poet said:

On Sun and Moon of palace cast thy sight,
Enjoy her flowerlike face, her fragrant light.
Thine eyes shall never see in hair so black
Beauty encase a brow so purely white.
The ruddy rosy cheek proclaims her claim,
Though fail her name whose beauties we indite.
As sways her gait, I smile at hips so big
And weep to see the waist they bear so slight.

When the porter looked upon her, his wits were waylaid and his
senses were stormed so that his crate went nigh to fall from his head,
and he said to himself, "Never have I in my life seen a day more
blessed than this day!" Then quoth the lady portress to the lady
cateress, "Come in from the gate and relieve this poor man of his
load." So the provisioner went in, followed by the portress and the
porter, and went on till they reached a spacious ground-floor hall,
built with admirable skill and beautified with all manner colors and
carvings, with upper balconies and groined arches and galleries and
cupboards and recesses whose curtains hung before them. In the midst
stood a great basin full of water surrounding a fine fountain, and
at the upper end on the raised dais was a couch of juniper wood set
with gems and pearls, with a canopy like mosquito curtains of red
satin-silk looped up with pearls as big as filberts and bigger.
Thereupon sat a lady bright of blee, with brow beaming brilliancy,
the dream of philosophy, whose eyes were fraught with Babel's gramarye
and her eyebrows were arched as for archery. Her breath breathed
ambergris and perfumery and her lips were sugar to taste and carnelian
to see. Her stature was straight as the letter l and her face shamed
the noon sun's radiancy; and she was even as a galaxy, or a dome
with golden marquetry, or a bride displayed in choicest finery, or a
noble maid of Araby. The third lady, rising from the couch, stepped
forward with graceful swaying gait till she reached the middle of
the saloon, when she said to her sisters: "Why stand ye here? Take
it down from this poor man's head!" Then the cateress went and stood
before him and the portress behind him while the third helped them,
and they lifted the load from the porter's head, and, emptying it of
all that was therein, set everything in its place. Lastly they gave
him two gold pieces, saying, "Wend thy ways, O Porter."
But he went not, for he stood looking at the ladies and admiring
what uncommon beauty was theirs, and their pleasant manners and kindly
dispositions (never had he seen goodlier). And he gazed wistfully at
that good store of wines and sweet-scented flowers and fruits and
other matters. Also he marveled with exceeding marvel, especially to
see no man in the place, and delayed his going, whereupon quoth the
eldest lady: "What aileth thee that goest not? Haply thy wage be too
little?" And, turning to her sister, the cateress, she said, "Give him
another dinar!" But the porter answered: "By Allah, my lady, it is not
for the wage, my hire is never more than two dirhams, but in very
sooth my heart and my soul are taken up with you and your condition. I
wonder to see you single with ne'er a man about you and not a soul
to bear you company. And well you wot that the minaret toppleth o'er
unless it stand upon four, and you want this same fourth, and
women's pleasure without man is short of measure, even as the poet
said:

"Seest not we want for joy four things all told-
The harp and lute, the flute and flageolet-
And be they companied with scents fourfold,
Rose, myrtle, anemone, and violet.
Nor please all eight an four thou wouldst withhold-
Good wine and youth and gold and pretty pet.

"You be three and want a fourth who shall be a person of good
sense and prudence, smart-witted, and one apt to keep careful
counsel." His words pleased and amused them much, and they laughed
at him and said: "And who is to assure us of that? We are maidens, and
we fear to entrust our secret where it may not be kept, for we have
read in a certain chronicle the lines of one Ibn al-Sumam:

"Hold fast thy secret and to none unfold,
Lost is a secret when that secret's told.
An fail thy breast thy secret to conceal,
How canst thou hope another's breast shall hold?"

When the porter heard their words, he rejoined: "By your lives! I am a
man of sense and a discreet, who hath read books and perused
chronicles. I reveal the fair and conceal the foul and I act as the
poet adviseth:

"None but the good a secret keep,
And good men keep it unrevealed.
It is to me a well-shut house
With keyless locks and door ensealed."

When the maidens heard his verse and its poetical application
addressed to them, they said: "Thou knowest that we have laid out
all our moneys on this place. Now say, hast thou aught to offer us
in return for entertainment? For surely we will not suffer thee to sit
in our company and be our cup companion, and gaze upon our faces so
fair and so rare, without paying a round sum. Wettest thou not the
saying:

"Sans hope of gain
Love's not worth a grain"?

Whereto the lady portress added, "If thou bring anything, thou art a
something; if no thing, be off with thee, thou art a nothing." But the
procuratrix interposed, saying: "Nay, O my sisters, leave teasing him,
for by Allah he hath not failed us this day, and had he been other
he never had kept patience with me, so whatever be his shot and scot I
will take it upon myself."
The porter, overjoyed, kissed the ground before her and thanked her,
saying, "By Allah, these moneys are the first fruits this day hath
given me." Hearing this, they said, "Sit thee down and welcome to
thee," and the eldest lady added: "By Allah, we may not suffer thee to
join us save on one condition, and this it is, that no questions be
asked as to what concerneth thee not, and frowardness shall be soundly
flogged." Answered the porter: "I agree to this, O my lady. On my head
and my eyes be it! Look ye, I am dumb, I have no tongue." Then arose
the provisioneress and, tightening her girdle, set the table by the
fountain and put the flowers and sweet herbs in their jars, and
strained the wine and ranged the flasks in rows and made ready every
requisite. Then sat she down, she and her sisters, placing amidst them
the porter, who kept deeming himself in a dream. And she took up the
wine flagon and poured out the first cup and drank it off, and
likewise a second and a third. After this she filled a fourth cup,
which she handed to one of her sisters, and lastly, she crowned a
goblet and passed it to the porter, saying:

"Drink the dear draught, drink free and fain
What healeth every grief and pain."

He took the cup in his hand and, Touting low, returned his best
thanks and improvised:

"Drain not the bowl save with a trusty friend,
A man of worth whose good old blood all know.
For wine, like wind, sucks sweetness from the sweet
And stinks when over stench it haply blow."

Adding:

"Drain not the bowl, save from dear hand like thine,
The cup recalls thy gifts, thou, gifts of wine."

After repeating this couplet he kissed their hands and drank and was
drunk and sat swaying from side to side and pursued:

"All drinks wherein is blood the Law unclean
Doth hold save one, the bloodshed of the vine.
Fill! Fill! Take all my wealth bequeathed or won,
Thou fawn! a willing ransome for those eyne."

Then the cateress crowned a cup and gave it to the portress, who
took it from her hand and thanked her and drank. Thereupon she
poured again and passed to the eldest lady, who sat on the couch,
and filled yet another and handed it to the porter. He kissed the
ground before them, and after drinking and thanking them, he again
began to recite:

"Here! Here! By Allah, here!
Cups of the sweet, the dear!
Fill me a brimming bowl,
The Fount o' Life I speer."

Then the porter stood up before the mistress of the house and said, "O
lady, I am thy slave, thy Mameluke, thy white thrall, thy very
bondsman," and he began reciting:

"A slave of slaves there standeth at thy door,
Lauding thy generous boons and gifts galore.
Beauty! May he come in awhile to 'joy
Thy charms? For Love and I part nevermore!"

Then the lady took the cup and drank it off to her sisters'
health, and they ceased not drinking (the porter being in the midst of
them) and dancing and laughing and reciting verses and singing ballads
and ritornellos. All this time the porter was carrying on with them,
kissing, toying, biting, handling, groping, fingering whilst one
thrust a dainty morsel in his mouth and another slapped him, and
this cuffed his cheeks, and that threw sweet flowers at him. And he
was in the very paradise of pleasure, as though he were sitting in the
seventh sphere among the houris of Heaven. And they ceased not to be
after this fashion till night began to fall. Thereupon said they to
the porter, "Bismillah, O our master, up and on with those sorry old
shoes of thine and turn thy face and show us the breadth of thy
shoulders!" Said he: "By Allah, to part with my soul would be easier
for me than departing from you. Come, let us join night to day, and
tomorrow morning we will each wend our own way." "My life on you,"
said the procuratrix, "suffer him to tarry with us, that we may
laugh at him. We may live out our lives and never meet with his
like, for surely he is a right merry rogue and a witty." So they said:
"Thou must not remain with us this night save on condition that thou
submit to our commands, and that whatso thou seest, thou ask no
questions thereanent, nor inquire of its cause." "All right," rejoined
he, and they said, "Go read the writing over the door."
So he rose and went to the entrance and there found written in
letters of gold wash: WHOSO SPEAKETH OF WHAT CONCERNETH HIM NOT
SHALL HEAR WHAT PLEASETH HIM NOT! The porter said, "Be ye witnesses
against me that I will not speak on whatso concerneth me not." Then
the cateress arose and set food before them and they ate. After
which they changed their drinking place for another, and she lighted
the lamps and candles and burned ambergris and aloe wood, and set on
fresh fruit and the wine service, when they fell to carousing and
talking of their lovers. And they ceased not to eat and drink and
chat, nibbling dry fruits and laughing and playing tricks for the
space of a full hour, when lo! a knock was heard at the gate.
The knocking in no wise disturbed the seance, but one of them rose
and went to see what it was and presently returned, saying, "Truly our
pleasure for this night is to be perfect." "How is that?" asked
they, and she answered: "At the gate be three Persian Kalandars with
their beards and heads and eyebrows shaven, and all three blind of the
left eye- which is surely a strange chance. They are foreigners from
Roumland with the mark of travel plain upon them. They have just
entered Baghdad, this being their first visit to our city, and the
cause of their knocking at our door is simply because they cannot find
a lodging. Indeed one of them said to me: 'Haply the owner of this
mansion will let us have the key of his stable or some old outhouse
wherein we may pass this night.' For evening had surprised them and,
being strangers in the land, they knew none who would give them
shelter. And, O my sisters, each of them is a figure o' fun after
his own fashion, and if we let them in we shall have matter to make
sport of." She gave not over persuading them till they said to her:
"Let them in, and make thou the usual condition with them that they
speak not of what concerneth them not, lest they hear what pleased
them not."
So she rejoiced and, going to the door, presently returned with
the three monoculars whose beards and mustachios were clean-shaven.
They salaamed and stood afar off by way of respect, but the three
ladies rose up to them and welcomed them and wished them joy of
their safe arrival and made them sit down. The Kalandars looked at the
room and saw that it was a pleasant place, clean-swept and garnished
with flowers, and the lamps were burning and the smoke of perfumes was
spiring in air, and beside the dessert and fruits and wine, there were
three fair girls who might be maidens. So they exclaimed with one
voice, "By Allah, 'tis good!" Then they turned to the porter and saw
that he was a merry-faced wight, albeit he was by no means sober and
was sore after his slappings. So they thought that he was one of
themselves and said, "A mendicant like us, whether Arab or foreigner!"
But when the porter heard these words, he rose up and, fixing his
eyes fiercely upon them, said: "Sit ye here without exceeding in talk!
Have you not read what is writ over the door? Surely it befitteth
not fellows who come to us like paupers to wag your tongues at us."
"We crave thy pardon, O Fakir," rejoined they, "and our heads are
between thy hands." The ladies laughed consumedly at the squabble and,
making peace between the Kalandars and the porter, seated the new
guests before meat, and they ate. Then they sat together, and the
portress served them with drink, and as the cup went round merrily,
quoth the porter to the askers, "And you, O brothers mine, have ye
no story or rare adventure to amuse us withal?"
Now the warmth of wine having mounted to their heads, they called
for musical instruments, and the portress brought them a tambourine of
Mosul, and a lute of Irak, and a Persian harp. And each mendicant took
one and tuned it, this the tambourine and those the lute and the harp,
and struck up a merry tune while the ladies sang so lustily that there
was a great noise. And whilst they were carrying on, behold, someone
knocked at the gate, and the portress went to see what was the
matter there.
Now the cause of that knocking, O King (quoth Scheherazade) was
this, the Caliph Harun al-Rashid had gone forth from the palace, as
was his wont now and then, to solace himself in the city that night,
and to see and hear what new thing was stirring. He was in
merchant's gear, and he was attended by Ja'afar, his Wazir, and by
Masrur, his Sworder of Vengeance. As they walked about the city, their
way led them toward the house of the three ladies, where they heard
the loud noise of musical instruments and singing and merriment. So
quoth the Caliph to Ja'afar, "I long to enter this house and hear
those songs and see who sing them." Quoth Ja'afar, "O Prince of the
Faithful, these folk are surely drunken with wine, and I fear some
mischief betide us if we get amongst them." "There is no help but that
I go in there," replied the Caliph, "and I desire thee to contrive
some pretext for our appearing among them." Ja'afar replied, "I hear
and I obey," and knocked at the door, whereupon the portress came
out and opened. Then Ja'afar came forward and, kissing the ground
before her, said, "O my lady, we be merchants from Tiberias town. We
arrived at Baghdad ten days ago and, alighting at the merchants'
caravanserai, we sold all our merchandise. Now a certain trader
invited us to an entertainment this night, so we went to his house and
he set food before us and we ate. Then we sat at wine and wassail with
him for an hour or so when he gave us leave to depart. And we went out
from him in the shadow of the night and, being strangers, we could not
find our way back to our khan. So haply of your kindness and
courtesy you will suffer us to tarry with you this night, and Heaven
will reward you!"
The portress looked upon them and, seeing them dressed like
merchants and men of gave looks and solid, she returned to her sisters
and repeated to them Ja'afar's story, and they took compassion upon
the strangers and said to her, "Let them enter." She opened the door
to them, when said they to her, "Have we thy leave to come in?"
"Come in," quoth she, and the Caliph entered, followed by Ja'afar
and Masrur. And when the girls saw them they stood up to them in
respect and made them sit down and looked to their wants, saying,
"Welcome, and well come and good cheer to the guests, but with one
condition!" "What is that?" asked they, and one of the ladies
answered, "Speak not of what concerneth you not, lest ye hear what
pleaseth you not." "Even so," said they, and sat down to their wine
and drank deep.
Presently the Caliph looked on the three Kalandars and, seeing them,
each and every blind of the left eye, wondered at the sight. Then he
gazed upon the girls, and he was startled and he marveled with
exceeding marvel at their beauty and loveliness. They continued to
carouse and to converse, and said to the Caliph, "Drink!" But he
replied, "I am vowed to pilgrimage," and drew back from the wine.
Thereupon the portress rose and, spreading before him a tablecloth
worked with gold, set thereon a porcelain bowl into which she poured
willow-flower water with a lump of snow and a spoonful of sugar candy.
The Caliph thanked her and said in himself, "By Allah, I will
recompense her tomorrow for the kind deed she hath done." The others
again addressed themselves to conversing and carousing, and when the
wine gat the better of them, the eldest lady, who ruled the house,
rose and, making obeisance to them, took the cateress by the hand
and said, "Rise, O my sister, and let us do what is our devoir."
Both answered "Even so!"
Then the portress stood up and proceeded to remove the table service
and the remnants of the banquet, and renewed the pastilies and cleared
the middle of the saloon. Then she made the Kalandars sit upon a
sofa at the side of the estrade, and seated the Caliph and Ja'afar and
Masrur on the other side of the saloon, after which she called the
porter, and said: "How scant is thy courtesy! Now thou art no
stranger- nay, thou art one of the household." So he stood up and,
tightening his waistcloth, asked, "What would ye I do?" And she
answered, "Stand in thy place." Then the procuratrix rose and set in
the midst of the saloon a low chair and, opening a closet, cried to
the porter, "Come help me."
So he went to help her and saw two black bitches with chains round
their necks, and she said to him, "Take hold of them," and he took
them and led them into the middle of the saloon. Then the lady of
the house arose and tucked up her sleeves above her wrists and,
seizing a scourge, said to the porter, "Bring forward one of the
bitches." He brought her forward, dragging her by the chain, while the
bitch wept and shook her head at the lady, who, however, came down
upon her with blows on the sconce. And the bitch howled and the lady
ceased not beating her till her forearm failed her. Then, casting
the scourge from her hand, she pressed the bitch to her bosom and,
wiping away her tears with her hands, kissed her head. Then said she
to the porter, "Take her away and bring the second." And when he
brought her, she did with her as she had done with the first.
Now the heart of the Caliph was touched at these cruel doings. His
chest straitened and he lost all patience in his desire to know why
the two bitches were so beaten. He threw a wink at Ja'afar, wishing
him to ask, but the Minister, turning toward him, said by signs, "Be
silent!" Then quoth the portress to the mistress of the house, "O my
lady, arise and go to thy place, that I in turn may do my devoir." She
answered, "Even so," and, taking her seat upon the couch of juniper
wood, pargetted with gold and silver, said to the portress and
cateress, "Now do ye what ye have to do." Thereupon the portress sat
upon a low seat by the couch side, but the procuratrix, entering a
closet, brought out of it a bag of satin with green fringes and two
tassels of gold. She stood up before the lady of the house and,
shaking the bag, drew out from it a lute which she tuned by tightening
its pegs; and when it was in perfect order, she began to sing these
quatrains:

"Ye are the wish, the aim of me,
And when, O love, thy sight I see,
The heavenly mansion openeth,
But Hell I see when lost thy sight.
From thee comes madness, nor the less
Comes highest joy, comes ecstasy.
Nor in my love for thee I fear
Or shame and blame, or hate and spite.
When Love was throned within my heart
I rent the veil of modesty,
And stints not Love to rend that veil,
Garring disgrace on grace to alight.
The robe of sickness then I donned,
But rent to rags was secrecy.
Wherefore my love and longing heart
Proclaim your high supremest might.
The teardrop railing adown my cheek
Telleth my tale of ignomy.
And all the hid was seen by all
And all my riddle ree'd aright.
Heal then my malady, for thou
Art malady and remedy!
But she whose cure is in thy hand
Shall ne'er be free of bane and blight.
Burn me those eyne that radiance rain,
Slay me the swords of phantasy.
How many hath the sword of Love
Laid low, their high degree despite?
Yet will I never cease to pine,
Nor to oblivion will I flee.
Love is my health, my faith, my joy,
Public and private, wrong or right.
O happy eyes that sight thy charms,
That gaze upon thee at their gree!
Yea, of my purest wish and will
The slave of Love I'll aye be hight."

When the damsel heard this elegy in quatrains, she cried out
"Alas! Alas!" and rent her raiment, and fell to the ground fainting.
And the Caliph saw scars of the palm rod on her back and welts of
the whip, and marveled with exceeding wonder. Then the portress
arose and sprinkled water on her and brought her a fresh and very fine
dress and put it on her. But when the company beheld these doings,
their minds were troubled, for they had no inkling of the case nor
knew the story thereof. So the Caliph said to Ja'afar: "Didst thou not
see the scars upon the damsel's body? I cannot keep silence or be at
rest till I learn the truth of her condition and the story of this
other maiden and the secret of the two black bitches." But Ja'afar
answered: "O our lord, they made it a condition with us that we
speak not of what concerneth us not, lest we come to hear what
pleaseth us not."
Then said the portress, "By Allah, O my sister, come to me and
complete this service for me." Replied the procuratrix, "With joy
and goodly gree." So she took the lute and leaned it against her
breasts and swept the strings with her finger tips, and began singing:

"Give back mine eyes their sleep long ravished,
And say me whither be my reason fled.
I learnt that lending to thy love a place,
Sleep to mine eyelids mortal foe was made.
They said, `We held thee righteous. Who waylaid
Thy soul?' 'Go ask his glorious eyes,' I said.
I pardon all my blood he pleased to shed.
Owning his troubles drove him blood to shed.
On my mind's mirror sunlike sheen he cast,
Whose keen reflection fire in vitals bred.
Waters of Life let Allah waste at will,
Suffice my wage those lips of dewy red.
And thou address my love thou'lt find a cause
For plaint and tears or ruth or lustilied.
In water pure his form shall greet your eyne,
When fails the bowl nor need ye drink of wine."

Then she quoted from the same ode:

"I drank, but the draught of his glance, not wine,
And his swaying gait swayed to sleep these eyne.
'Twas not grape juice gript me but grasp of Past,
'Twas not bowl o'erbowled me but gifts divine.
His coiling curllets my soul ennetted
And his cruel will all my wits outwitted."

After a pause she resumed:

"If we 'plain of absence, what shall we say?
Or if pain afflict us, where wend our way?
An I hire a truchman to tell my tale,
The lovers' plaint is not told for pay.
If I put on patience, a lover's life
After loss of love will not last a day.
Naught is left me now but regret, repine,
And tears flooding cheeks forever and aye.
O thou who the babes of these eyes hast fled,
Thou art homed in heart that shall never stray.
Would Heaven I wot hast thou kept our pact
Long as stream shall flow, to have firmest fay?
Or hast forgotten the weeping slave,
Whom groans afflict and whom griefs waylay?
Ah, when severance ends and we side by side
Couch, I'll blame thy rigors and chide thy pride!"

Now when the portress heard her second ode, she shrieked aloud and
said: "By Allah! 'Tis right good!" and, laying hands on her
garments, tore them as she did the first time, and fell to the
ground fainting. Thereupon the procuratrix rose and brought her a
second change of clothes after she had sprinkled water on her. She
recovered and sat upright and said to her sister the cateress,
"Onward, and help me in my duty, for there remains but this one song."
So the provisioneress again brought out the lute and began to sing
these verses:

"How long shall last, how long this rigor rife of woe
May not suffice thee all these tears thou seest flow?
Our parting thus with purpose fell thou dost prolong
Is't not enough to glad the heart of envious foe?
Were but this lying world once true to lover heart,
He had not watched the weary night in tears of woe.
Oh, pity me whom overwhelmed thy cruel will,
My lord, my king, 'tis time some ruth to me thou show.
To whom reveal my wrongs, O thou who murdered me?
Sad, who of broken troth the pangs must undergo!
Increase wild love for thee and frenzy hour by hour,
And days of exile minute by so long, so slow.
O Moslems, claim vendetta for this slave of Love,
Whose sleep Love ever wastes, whose patience Love lays low.
Doth law of Love allow thee, O my wish! to lie
Lapt in another's arms and unto me cry 'Go!'?
Yet in thy presence, say, what joys shall I enjoy
When he I love but works my love to overthrow?"

When the portress heard the third song, she cried aloud and,
laying hands on her garments, rent them down to the very skirt and
fell to the ground fainting a third time, again showing the scars of
the scourge. Then said the three Kalandars, "Would Heaven we had never
entered this house, but had rather nighted on the mounds and heaps
outside the city! For verily our visit hath been troubled by sights
which cut to the heart." The Caliph turned to them and asked, "Why
so?" and they made answer, "Our minds are sore troubled by this
matter." Quoth the Caliph, "Are ye not of the household?" and quoth
they, "No, nor indeed did we ever set eyes on the place till within
this hour." Hereat the Caliph marveled and rejoined, "This man who
sitteth by you, would he not know the secret of the matter?" And so
saying he winked and made signs at the porter. So they questioned
the man, but he replied: "By the All-might of Allah, in love all are
alike! I am the growth of Baghdad, yet never in my born days did I
darken these doors till today, and my companying with them was a
curious matter." "By Allah," they rejoined, "we took thee for one of
them and now we see thou art one like ourselves."
Then said the Caliph: "We be seven men, and they only three women
without even a fourth to help them, so let us question them of their
case. And if they answer us not, fain we will be answered by force."
All of them agreed to this except Ja'afar, who said, "This is not my
recking. Let them be, for we are their guests and, as ye know, they
made a compact and condition with us which we accepted and promised to
keep. Wherefore it is better that we be silent concerning this matter,
and as but little of the night remaineth, let each and every of us
gang his own gait." Then he winked at the Caliph and whispered to him,
"There is but one hour of darkness left and I can bring them before
thee tomorrow, when thou canst freely question them all concerning
their story." But the Caliph raised his head haughtily and cried out
at him in wrath, saying: "I have no patience left for my longing to
hear of them. Let the Kalandars question them forthright." Quoth
Ja'afar, "This is not my rede."
Then words ran high and talk answered talk, and they disputed as
to who should first put the question, but at last all fixed upon the
porter. And as the jangle increased the house mistress could not but
notice it and asked them, "O ye folk! On what matter are ye talking so
loudly?" Then the porter stood up respectfully before her and said: "O
my lady, this company earnestly desire that thou acquaint them with
story of the two bitches and what maketh thee punish them so
cruelly, and then thou fallest to weeping over them and kissing
them. And lastly, they want to hear the tale of thy sister and why she
hath been bastinadoed with palm sticks like a man. These are the
questions they charge me to put, and peace be with thee." Thereupon
quoth she who was the lady of the house to the guests, "Is this true
that he saith on your part?" and all replied, "Yes!" save Ja'afar, who
kept silence.
When she heard these words she cried: "By Allah, ye have wronged us,
O our guests, with grievous wronging, for when you came before us we
made compact and condition with you that whoso should speak of what
concerneth him not should hear what pleaseth him not. Sufficeth ye not
that we took you into our house and fed you with our best food? But
the fault is not so much yours as hers who let you in." Then she
tucked up her sleeves from her wrists and struck the floor thrice with
her hand, crying, "Come ye quickly!" And lo! a closet door opened
and out of it came seven Negro slaves with drawn swords in hand, to
whom she said, "Pinion me those praters' elbows and bind them each
to each." They did her bidding and asked her: "O veiled and
virtuous! Is it thy high command that we strike off their heads?"
But she answered, "Leave them awhile that I question them of their
condition before their necks feel the sword." "By Allah, O my lady!"
cried the porter, "slay me not for other's sin. All these men offended
and deserve the penalty of crime save myself. Now, by Allah, our night
had been charming had we escaped the mortification of those
monocular Kalandars whose entrance into a populous city would
convert it into a howling wilderness." Then he repeated these verses:

"How fair is ruth the strong man deigns not smother!
And fairest fair when shown to weakest brother.
By Love's own holy tie between us twain,
Let one not suffer for the sin of other."

When the porter ended his verse, the lady laughed despite her wrath,
and came up to the party and spake thus: "Tell me who ye be, for ye
have but an hour of life. And were ye not men of rank and perhaps
notables of your tribes, you had not been so froward and I had
hastened your doom." Then said the Caliph: "Woe to thee, O Ja'afar,
tell her who we are lest we be slain by mistake, and speak her fair
before some horror befall us." "'Tis part of thy deserts," replied he,
whereupon the Caliph cried out at him, saying, "There is a time for
witty words and there is a time for serious work." Then the lady
accosted the three Kalandars and asked them, "Are ye brothers?" when
they answered, "No, by Allah, we be naught but fakirs and foreigners."
Then quoth she to one among them, "Wast thus born blind of one eye?"
and quoth he, "No, by Allah, 'twas a marvelous matter and a wondrous
mischance which caused my eye to be torn out, and mine is a tale
which, if it were written upon the eye corners with needle gravers,
were a warner to whoso would be warned." She questioned the second and
third Kalandar, but all replied like the first, "By Allah, O our
mistress, each one of us cometh from a different country, and we are
all three the sons of kings, sovereign princes ruling over suzerains
and capital cities."
Thereupon she turned toward them and said: "Let each and every of
you tell me his tale in due order and explain the cause of his
coming to our place, and if his story please us, let him stroke his
head and wend his way." The first to come forward was the hammal,
the porter, who said: "O my lady, I am a man and a porter. This
dame, the cateress, hired me to carry a load and took me first to
the shop of a vintner, then to the booth of a butcher, thence to the
stall of a fruiterer, thence to a grocer who also sold dry fruits,
thence to a confectioner and a perfumer-cum-druggist, and from him
to this place, where there happened to me with you what happened. Such
is my story, and peace be on us all!" At this the lady laughed and
said, "Rub thy head and wend thy ways!" But he cried, "By Allah, I
will not stump it till I hear the stories of my companions!" Then came
forward one of the monoculars and began to tell her
FIRST
THE FIRST KALANDAR'S TALE

KNOW, O my lady, that the cause of my beard being shorn and my eye
being outtorn was as follows: My father was a king and he had a
brother who was a king over another city; and it came to pass that I
and my cousin, the son of my paternal uncle, were both born on one and
the same day. And years and days rolled on and as we grew up I used to
visit my uncle every now and then and to spend a certain number of
months with him. Now my cousin and I were sworn friends, for he ever
entreated me with exceeding kindness. He killed for me the fattest
sheep and strained the best of his wines, and we enjoyed long
conversing and carousing. One day when the wine had gotten the
better of us, the son of my uncle said to me, "O my cousin, I have a
great service to ask of thee, and I desire that thou stay me not in
whatso I desire to do!" And I replied, "With joy and goodly will."
Then he made me swear the most binding oaths and left me, but
after a little while he returned leading a lady veiled and richly
appareled, with ornaments worth a large sum of money. Presently he
turned to me (the woman being still behind him) and said, "Take this
lady with thee and go before me to such a burial ground" (describing
it, so that I knew the place) "and enter with her into such a
sepulcher and there await my coming." The oaths I swore to him made me
keep silence and suffered me not to oppose him, so I led the woman
to the cemetery and both I and she took our seats in the sepulcher.
And hardly had we sat down when in came my uncle's son, with a bowl of
water, a bag of mortar, and an adze somewhat like a hoe. He went
straight to the tomb in the midst of the sepulcher and, breaking it
open with the adze, set the stones on one side. Then he fell to
digging into the earth of the tomb till he came upon a large iron
plate, the size of a wicket door, and on raising it there appeared
below it a staircase vaulted and winding. Then he turned to the lady
and said to her, "Come now and take thy final choice!"
She at once went down by the staircase and disappeared, then quoth
he to me, "O son of my uncle, by way of completing thy kindness,
when I shall have descended into this place, restore the trapdoor to
where it was, and heap back the earth upon it as it lay before. And
then of thy great goodness mix this unslaked time which is in the
bag with this water which is in the bowl and, after building up the
stones, plaster the outside so that none looking upon it shall say:
'This is a new opening in an old tomb'. For a whole year have I worked
at this place whereof none knoweth but Allah, and this is the need I
have of thee," presently adding, "May Allah never bereave thy
friends of thee nor make them desolate by thine absence, O son of my
uncle, O my dear cousin!" And he went down the stairs and
disappeared for ever.
When he was lost to sight, I replaced the iron plate and did all his
bidding till the tomb became as it was before, and I worked almost
unconsciously, for my head was heated with wine. Returning to the
palace of my uncle, I was told that he had gone forth a-sporting and
hunting, so I slept that night without seeing him. And when the
morning dawned, I remembered the scenes of the past evening and what
happened between me and my cousin. I repented of having obeyed him
when penitence was of no avail. I still thought, however, that it
was a dream. So I fell to asking for the son of my uncle, but there
was none to answer me concerning him, and I went out to the
graveyard and the sepulchers, and sought for the tomb under which he
was, but could not find it. And I ceased not wandering about from
sepulcher to sepulcher, and tomb to tomb, all without success, till
night set in. So I returned to the city, yet I could neither eat nor
drink, my thoughts being engrossed with my cousin, for that I knew not
what was become of him. And I grieved with exceeding grief and
passed another sorrowful night, watching until the morning. Then
went I a second time to the cemetery, pondering over what the son of
mine uncle had done and, sorely repenting my hearkening to him, went
round among all the tombs, but could not find the tomb I sought. I
mourned over the past, and remained in my mourning seven days, seeking
the place and ever missing the path.
Then my torture of scruples grew upon me till I well-nigh went
mad, and I found no way to dispel my grief save travel and return to
my father. So I set out and journeyed homeward, but as I was
entering my father's capital a crowd of rioters sprang upon me and
pinioned me. I wondered thereat with all wonderment, seeing that I was
the son of the Sultan, and these men were my father's subjects and
amongst them were some of my own slaves. A great fear fell upon me,
and I said to my soul, "Would Heaven I knew what hath happened to my
father!" I questioned those that bound me of the cause of their so
doing, but they returned me no answer. However, after a while one of
them said to me (and he had been a hired servant of our house),
"Fortune hath been false to thy father. His troops betrayed him, and
the Wazir who slew him now reigneth in his stead, and we lay in wait
to seize thee by the bidding of him." I was well-nigh distraught and
felt ready to faint on hearing of my father's death, when they carried
me off and placed me in presence of the usurper.
Now between me and him there was an olden grudge, the cause of which
was this: I was fond of shooting with the stone bow, and it befell one
day, as I was standing on the terrace roof of the palace, that a
bird lighted on the top of the Wazir's house when he happened to be
there. I shot at the bird and missed the mark, but I hit the Wazir's
eye and knocked it out, as fate and fortune decreed. Now when I
knocked out the Wazir's eye, he could not say a single word, for
that my father was King of the city, but he hated me ever after, and
dire was the grudge thus caused between us twain. So when I was set
before him hand-bound and pinioned, he straightway gave orders for
me to be beheaded. I asked, "For what crime wilt thou put me to
death?" Whereupon he answered, "What crime is greater than this?"
pointing the while to the place where his eye had been. Quoth I, "This
I did by accident, not of malice prepense," and quoth he, "If thou
didst it by accident, I will do the like by thee with intention." Then
cried he, "Bring him forward," and they brought me up to him, when
he thrust his finger into my left eye and gouged it out, whereupon I
became one-eyed as ye see me.
Then he bade bind me hand and foot, and put me into a chest, and
said to the sworder, "Take charge of this fellow, and go off with
him to the wastelands about the city. Then draw thy scimitar and
slay him, and leave him to feed the beasts and birds." So the headsman
fared forth with me, and when he was in the midst of the desert, he
took me out of the chest (and I with both hands pinioned and both feet
fettered) and was about to bandage my eyes before striking off my
head. But I wept with exceeding weeping until I made him weep with
me and, looking at him I began to recite these couplets:

"I deemed you coat o'mail that should withstand
The foeman's shafts, and you proved foeman's brand.
I hoped your aidance in mine every chance,
Though fail my left to aid my dexter hand.
Aloof you stand and hear the railer's gibe
While rain their shafts on me the giber band.
But an ye will not guard me from my foes,
Stand clear, and succor neither these nor those!"

And I also quoted:

"I deemed my brethren mail of strongest steel,
And so they were- from foes to fend my dart!
I deemed their arrows surest of their aim,
And so they were- when aiming at my heart!"

When the headsman heard my lines (he had been sworder to my sire and
he owed me a debt of gratitude), he cried, "O my lord, what can I
do, being but a slave under orders?" presently adding, "Fly for thy
life and nevermore return to this land, or they will slay thee and
slay me with thee." Hardly believing in my escape, I kissed his hand
and thought the loss of my eye a light matter in consideration of my
escaping from being slain. I arrived at my uncle's capital, and
going in to him, told him of what had befallen my father and myself,
whereat he wept with sore weeping and said: "Verily thou addest
grief to my grief, and woe to my woe, for thy cousin hath been missing
these many days. I wot not what hath happened to him, and none can
give me news of him." And he wept till he fainted. I sorrowed and
condoled with him, and he would have applied certain medicaments to my
eye, but he saw that it was become as a walnut with the shell empty.
Then said he, "O my son, better to lose eye and keep life!"
After that I could no longer remain silent about my cousin, who
was his only son and one dearly loved, so I told him all that had
happened. He rejoiced with extreme joyance to hear news of his son and
said, "Come now and show me the tomb." But I replied, "By Allah, O
my uncle, I know not its place, though I sought it carefully full many
times, yet could not find the site." However, I and my uncle went to
the graveyard and looked right and left, till at last I recognized the
tomb, and we both rejoiced with exceeding joy. We entered the
sepulcher and loosened the earth about the grave, then, upraising
the trapdoor, descended some fifty steps till we came to the foot of
the staircase, when lo! we were stopped by a blinding smoke. Thereupon
said my uncle that saying whose sayer shall never come to shame:
"There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the
Glorious, the Great!" and we advanced till we suddenly came upon a
saloon, whose floor was strewed with flour and grain and provisions
and all manner necessaries, and in the midst of it stood a canopy
sheltering a couch. Thereupon my uncle went up to the couch and,
inspecting it, found his son and the lady who had gone down with him
into the tomb, lying in each other's embrace.
But the twain had become black as charred wood. It was as if they
had been cast into a pit of fire. When my uncle saw this spectacle, he
spat in his son's face and said: "Thou hast thy deserts, O thou hog!
This is thy judgment in the transitory world, and yet remaineth the
judgment in the world to come, a durer and a more enduring." I
marveled at his hardness of heart and, grieving for my cousin and
the lady, said: "By Allah, O my uncle, calm thy wrath. Dost not see
that all my thoughts are occupied with this misfortune, and how
sorrowful I am for what hath befallen thy son, and how horrible it
is that naught of him remaineth but a black heap of charcoal? And is
not that enough, but thou must smite him with thy slipper?" Answered
he: "O son of my brother, this youth from his boyhood was madly in
love with his own sister, and often and often I forbade him from
her, saying to myself, 'They are but little ones.' However, when
they grew up sin befell between them, and although I could hardly
believe it, I confined him and chided him and threatened him with
the severest threats, and the eunuchs and servants said to him:
'Beware of so foul a thing which none before thee ever did, and
which none after thee will ever do, and have a care lest thou be
dishonored and disgraced among the kings of the day, even to the end
of time.' And I added: 'Such a report as this will be spread abroad by
caravans, and take heed not to give them cause to talk or I will
assuredly curse thee and do thee to death.'
After that I lodged them apart and shut her up, but the accursed
girl loved him with passionate love, for Satan had got the mastery
of her as well as of him and made their foul sin seem fair in their
sight. Now when my son saw that I separated them, he secretly built
this souterrain and furnished it and transported to it victuals,
even as thou seest, and when I had gone out a-sporting, came here with
his sister and hid from me. Then His righteous judgment fell upon
the twain and consumed them with fire from Heaven, and verily the Last
Judgment will deal them durer pains and more enduring!" Then he wept
and I wept with him, and he looked at me and said, "Thou art my son in
his stead." And I bethought me awhile of the world and of its chances,
how the Wazir had slain my father and had taken his place and had
put out my eye, and how my cousin had come to his death by the
strangest chance. And I wept again and my uncle wept with me.
Then we mounted the steps and let down the iron plate and heaped
up the earth over it, and after restoring the tomb to its former
condition, we returned to the palace. But hardly had we sat down ere
we heard the tom-toming of the kettledrum and tantara of trumpets
and clash of cymbals, and the rattling of war men's lances, and the
clamors of assailants and the clanking of bits and the neighing of
steeds, while the world was canopied with dense dust and sand clouds
raised by the horses' hoofs. We were amazed at sight and sound,
knowing not what could be the matter. So we asked, and were told us
that the Wazir who had usurped my father's kingdom had marched his
men, and that after levying his soldiery and taking a host of wild
Arabs into service, he had come down upon us with armies like the
sands of the sea. Their number none could tell, and against them
none could prevail. They attacked the city unawares, and the citizens,
being powerless to oppose them, surrendered the place. My uncle was
slain and I made for the suburbs, saying to myself, "If thou fall into
this villain's hands, he will assuredly kill thee."
On this wise all my troubles were renewed, and I pondered all that
had betided my father and my uncle and I knew not what to do; for if
the city people or my father's troops had recognized me, they would
have done their best to will favor by destroying me. And I could think
of no way to escape save by shaving off my beard and my eyebrows. So I
shore them off and, changing my fine clothes for a Kalandar's rags,
I fared forth from my uncle's capital and made for this city, hoping
that peradventure someone would assist me to the presence of the
Prince of the Faithful, and the Caliph who is the Viceregent of
Allah upon earth. Thus have I come hither that I might tell him my
tale and lay my case before him. I arrived here this very night, and
was standing in doubt whither I should go when suddenly I saw this
second Kalandar. So I salaamed to him, saying, 'I am a stranger'
and he answered,- 'I too am a stranger!' And as we were conversing,
behold, up came our companion, this third Kalandar, and saluted us
saying, 'I am a stranger!' And we answered, `We too be strangers!'
Then we three walked on and together till darkness overtook us and
Destiny drave us to your house. Such, then. is the cause of the
shaving of my beard and mustachios and eyebrows, and the manner of
my losing my left eye. They marveled much at this tale, and the Caliph
said to Ja'afar, "By Allah, I have not seen nor have I heard the
like of what hath happened to this Kalandar!" Quoth the lady of the
house, "Rub thy head and wend thy ways." But he replied, "I will not
go till I hear the history of the two others." Thereupon the second
Kalandar came forward and, kissing the ground, began to tell
SECOND
THE SECOND KALANDAR'S TALE

KNOW, O my lady, that I was not born one-eyed, and mine is a strange
story. And it were graven with needle graver on the eye corners, it
were a warner to whoso would be warned. I am a king, son of a king,
and was brought up like a prince. I learned intoning the Koran
according the seven schools, and I read all manner books, and held
disputations on their contents with the doctors and men of science.
Moreover, I studied star lore and the fair sayings of poets, and I
exercised myself in all branches of learning until I surpassed the
people of my time. My skill in calligraphy exceeded that of all the
scribes, and my fame was bruited abroad over all climes and cities,
and all the kings learned to know my name.
Amongst others, the King of Hind heard of me and sent to my father
to invite me to his court, with offerings and presents and rarities
such as befit royalties. So my father fitted out six ships for me
and my people, and we put to sea and sailed for the space of a full
month till we made the land. Then we brought out the horses that
were with us in the ships, and after loading the camels with our
presents for the Prince, we set forth inland. But we had marched
only a little way when behold, a dust cloud up flew, and grew until it
walled the horizon from view. After an hour or so the veil lifted
and discovered beneath it fifty horsemen, ravening lions to the sight,
in steel armor dight. We observed them straightly and lo! they were
cutters-off of the highway, wild as wild Arabs. When they saw that
we were only four and had with us but the ten camels carrying the
presents, they dashed down upon us with lances at rest. We signed to
them with our fingers, as it were saying, "We be messengers of the
great King of Hind, so harm us not!" But they answered on like wise,
"We are not in his dominions to obey nor are we subject to his sway."
Then they set upon us and slew some of my slaves and put the lave to
flight. And I also fled after I had gotten a wound, a grievous hurt,
whilst the Arabs were taken up with the money and the presents which
were with us. I went forth unknowing whither I went, having become
mean as I was mighty, and I fared on until I came to the crest of a
mountain, where I took shelter for the night in a cave. When day arose
I set out again, nor ceased after this fashion till I arrived at a
fair city and a well filled. Now it was the season when winter was
turning away with his rime and to greet the world with his flowers
came prime, and the young blooms were springing and the streams flowed
ringing, and the birds were sweetly singing, as saith the poet
concerning a certain city when describing it:

A place secure from every thought of fear,
Safety and peace forever lord it here.
Its beauties seem to beautify its sons
And as in Heaven its happy folk appear.

I was glad of my arrival, for I was wearied with the way, and yellow
of face for weakness and want, but my plight was pitiable and I knew
not whither to betake me. So I accosted a tailor sitting in his little
shop and saluted him. He returned my salaam, and bade me kindly
welcome and wished me well and entreated me gently and asked me of the
cause of my strangerhood. I told him all my past from first to last,
and he was concerned on my account and said: "O youth, disclose not
thy secret to any. The King of this city is the greatest enemy thy
father hath, and there is blood wite between them and thou hast
cause to fear for thy life." Then he set meat and drink before me, and
I ate and drank and he with me, and we conversed freely till
nightfall, when he cleared me a place in a corner of his shop and
brought me a carpet and a coverlet. I tarried with him three days,
at the end of which time he said to me, "Knowest thou no calling
whereby to will thy living, O my son?" "I am learned in the law," I
replied, "and a doctor of doctrine, an adept in art and science, a
mathematician, and a notable pen-man." He rejoined, "Thy calling is of
no account in our city, where not a soul understandeth science or even
writing, or aught save money-making." Then said I, "By Allah, I know
nothing but what I have mentioned," and he answered, "Gird thy
middle and take thee a hatchet and a cord, and go and hew wood in
the wold for thy daily bread till Allah send thee relief, and tell
none who thou art lest they slay thee."
Then he bought me an ax and a rope and gave me in charge to
certain woodcutters, and with these guardians I went forth into the
forest, where I cut fuel wood the whole of my day and came back in the
evening bearing my bundle on my head. I sold it for half a dinar, with
part of which I bought provision, and laid by the rest. In such work I
spent a whole year, and when this was ended, I went out one day, as
was my wont, into the wilderness and, wandering away from my
companions, I chanced on a thickly grown lowland in which there was an
abundance of wood. So I entered and I found the gnarled stump of a
great tree and loosened the ground about it and shoveled away the
earth. Presently my hatchet rang upon a copper ring, so I cleared away
the soil and behold, the ring was attached to a wooden trapdoor.
This I raised, and there appeared beneath it a staircase.
I descended the steps to the bottom and came to a door, which I
opened and found myself in a noble hall strong of structure and
beautifully built, where was a damsel like a pearl of great price,
whose favor banished from my heart an grief and cark and care, and
whose soft speech healed the soul in despair and captivated the wise
and ware. Her figure measured five feet in height, her breasts were
firm and upright, her cheek a very garden of delight, her color lively
bright, her face gleamed like dawn through curly tresses which gloomed
like night, and above the snows of her bosom glittered teeth of a
pearly white. When I looked upon her I prostrated myself before Him
who had created her, for the beauty and loveliness He had shaped in
her, and she looked at me and said, "Art thou man or Jinni?" "I am a
man," answered I, and she, "Now who brought thee to this place where I
have abided five-and-twenty years without even yet seeing man in
it?" Quoth I (and indeed I found her words wondersweet, and my heart
was melted to the core by them), "O my lady, my good fortune led me
hither for the dispelling of my cark and care."
Then I related to her all my mishap from first to last, and my
case appeared to her exceeding grievous, so she wept and said: "I will
tell thee my story in my turn. I am the daughter of the King Ifitamus,
lord of the Islands of Abnus, who married me to my cousin, the son
of my paternal uncle. But on my wedding night an Ifrit named Jirjis
bin Rajmus, first cousin- this is, mother's sister's son- of Iblis,
the Foul Fiend, snatched me up and, flying away with me like a bird,
set me down in this place, wither he conveyed all I needed of fine
stuffs, raiment and jewels and furniture, and meat and drink and other
else. Once in every ten days he comes here and lies a single night
with me, and then wends his way, for he took me without the consent of
his family. And he hath agreed with me that if ever I need him by
night or by day, I have only to pass my hand over yonder two lines
engraved upon the alcove and he will appear to me before my fingers
cease touching. Four days have now passed since he was here, and as
there remain six days before he come again, say me, wilt thou abide
with me five days, and go hence the day before his coming?" I
replied "Yes, and yes again! O rare, if all this be not a dream!"
Hereat she was glad and, springing to her feet, seized my hand and
carried me through an arched doorway to a hammam bath, a fair hall and
richly decorate. I doffed my clothes, and she doffed hers, then we
bathed and she washed me. And when this was done we left the bath, and
she seated me by her side upon a high divan, and brought me sherbet
scented with musk. When we felt cool after the bath, she set food
before me and we ate and fell to talking, but presently she said to
me, "Lay thee down and take thy rest, for surely thou must be
weary." So I thanked her, my lady, and lay down and slept soundly,
forgetting all that happened to me. When I awoke I found her subbing
and shampooing my feet, so I again thanked her and blessed her and
we sat for a while talking. Said she, "By Allah, I was sad at heart,
for that I have dwelt alone underground for these five-and-twenty
years, and praise be to Allah Who hath sent me someone with whom I can
converse!" Then she asked, "O youth, what sayest thou to wine?" and
I answered, "Do as thou wilt." Whereupon she went to a cupboard and
took out a sealed flask of right old wine and set off the table with
flowers and scented herbs and began to sing these lines:

"Had we known of thy coming we fain had dispread
The cores of our hearts or the balls of our eyes,
Our cheeks as a carpet to greet thee had thrown,
And our eyelids had strown for thy feet to betread."

Now when she finished her verse I thanked her, for indeed love of
her had gotten hold of my heart, and my grief and anguish were gone.
We sat at converse and carousal till nightfall, and with her I spent
the night- such night never spent I in all my life! On the morrow
delight followed delight till midday, by which time I had drunken wine
so freely that I had lost my wits, and stood up, staggering to the
right and to the left, and said "Come, O my charmer, and I will
carry thee up from this underground vault and deliver thee from the
spell of thy Jinni." She laughed and replied: "Content thee and hold
thy peace. Of every ten days one is for the Ifrit and the other nine
are thine." Quoth I (and in good sooth drink had got the better of
me), "This very instant will I break down the alcove whereon is graven
the talisman and summon the Ifrit that I may slay him, for it is a
practice of mine to slay Ifrits!" When she heard my words, her color
waxed wan and she said, "By Allah, do not!" and she began repeating:

"This is a thing wherein destruction lies.
I rede thee shun it an thy wits be wise."

And these also:

"O thou who seekest severance, draw the rein
Of thy swift steed nor seek o'ermuch t' advance.
Ah stay! for treachery is the rule of life,
And sweets of meeting end in severance."

I heard her verse but paid no heed to her words- nay, I raised my
foot and administered to the alcove a mighty kick, and behold, the air
starkened and darkened and thundered and lightened, the earth trembled
and quaked, and the world became invisible. At once the fumes of
wine left my head. I cried to her, "What is the matter?" and she
replied: "The Ifrit is upon us! Did I not warn thee of this? By Allah,
thou hast brought ruin upon me, but fly for thy life and go up by
the way thou camest down!" So I fled up the staircase, but in the
excess of my fear I forgot sandals and hatchet. And when I had mounted
two steps I turned to look for them, and lo! I saw the earth cleave
asunder, and there arose from it an Ifrit, a monster of hideousness,
who said to the damsel: "What trouble and pother be this wherewith
thou disturbest me? What mishap hath betided thee?" "No mishap hath
befallen me," she answered, "save that my breast was straitened and my
heart heavy with sadness. So I drank a little wine to broaden it and
to hearten myself, then I rose to obey a call of nature, but the
wine had gotten into my head and I fell against the alcove." "Thou
liest, like the whore thou art!" shrieked the Ifrit, and he looked
around the hall right and left till he caught sight of my ax and
sandals and said to her, "What be these but the belongings of some
mortal who hath been in thy society?" She answered: "I never set
eyes upon them till this moment. They must have been brought by thee
hither cleaving to thy garments." Quoth the Ifrit, "These words are
absurd, thou harlot! thou strumpet!"
Then he stripped her stark-naked and, stretching her upon the floor,
bound her hands and feet to four stakes, like one crucified, and set
about torturing and trying to make her confess. I could not bear to
stand listening to her cries and groans, so I climbed the stair on the
quake with fear, and when I reached the top I replaced the trapdoor
and covered it with earth. Then repented I of what I had done with
penitence exceeding, and thought of the lady and her beauty and
loveliness, and the tortures she was suffering at the hands of the
accursed Ifrit, after her quiet life of five-and-twenty years, and how
all that had happened to her was for cause of me. I bethought me of my
father and his kingly estate and how I had become a woodcutter, and
how, after my time had been awhile serene, the world had again waxed
turbid and troubled to me. So I wept bitterly and repeated this
couplet:

"What time Fate's tyranny shall most oppress thee
Perpend! One day shall joy thee, one distress thee!"

Then I walked till I reached the home of my friend the tailor,
whom I found most anxiously expecting me. Indeed he was, as the saying
goes, on coals of fire for my account. And when he saw me he said:
"All night long my heart hath been heavy, fearing for thee from wild
beasts or other mischances. Now praise be to Allah for thy safety!"
I thanked him for his friendly solicitude and, retiring to my
corner, sat pondering and musing on what had befallen me, and I blamed
and chided myself for my meddlesome folly and my frowardness in
kicking the alcove. I was calling myself to account when behold, my
friend the tailor came to me and said: "O youth, in the shop there
is an old man, a Persian, who seeketh thee. He hath thy hatchet and
thy sandals, which he had taken to the woodcutters, saying, I was
going out at what time the muezzin began the call to dawn prayer, when
I chanced upon these things and know not whose they are, so direct
me to their owner. Tie woodcutters recognized thy hatchet and directed
him to thee. He is sitting in my shop, so fare forth to him and
thank him and take thine ax and sandals."
When I heard these words I turned yellow with fear and felt
stunned as by a blow, and before I could recover myself, lo! the floor
of my private room clove asunder, and out of it rose the Persian,
who was the Ifrit. He had tortured the lady with exceeding tortures,
natheless she would not confess to him aught, so he took the hatchet
and sandals and said to her, "As surely as I am Jirjis of the seed
of Iblis, I will bring thee back the owner of this and these!" Then he
went to the woodcutters with the pretense aforesaid and, being
directed to me, after waiting a while in the shop till the fact was
confirmed, he suddenly snatched me up as a hawk snatcheth a mouse
and flew high in air, but presently descended and plunged with me
under the earth (I being a-swoon the while), and lastly set me down in
the subterranean palace wherein I had passed that blissful night.
And there I saw the lady stripped to the skin, her limbs bound to
four stakes and blood welling from her sides. At the sight my eyes ran
over with tears, but the Ifrit covered her person and said, "O wanton,
is not this man thy lover?" She looked upon me and replied, "I wot him
not, nor have I ever seen him before this hour!" Quoth the Ifrit,
"What! This torture and yet no confessing?" And quoth she, "I never
saw this man in my born days, and it is not lawful in Allah's sight to
tell lies on him." "If thou know him not," said the Ifrit to her,
"take this sword and strike off his head." She hent the sword in
hand and came close up to me, and I signaled to her with my
eyebrows, my tears the while flowing a-down my cheeks. She
understood me and made answer, also by signs, "How couldest thou bring
all this evil upon me?" And I rejoined after the same fashion, "This
is the time for mercy and forgiveness." And the mute tongue of my case
spake aloud saying:

Mine eyes were dragomans for my tongue betied,
And told full clear the love I fain would hide.
When last we met and tears in torrents railed,
For tongue struck dumb my glances testified.
She signed with eye glance while her lips were mute,
I signed with fingers and she kenned th'implied.
Our eyebrows did all duty 'twixt us twain,
And we being speechless, Love spake loud and plain.

Then, O my mistress, the lady threw away the sword and said: "How
shall I strike the neck of one I wot not, and who hath done me no
evil? Such deed were not lawful in my law!" and she held her hand.
Said the Ifrit: "'Tis grievous to thee to slay thy lover, and, because
he hath lain with thee, thou endurest these torments and obstinately
refusest to confess. After this it is clear to me that only like
loveth and pitieth Eke." Then he turned to me and asked me, "O man,
haply thou also dost not know this woman," whereto I answered: "And
pray who may she be? Assuredly I never saw her till this instant."
"Then take the sword," said he, "and strike off her head and I will
believe that thou wettest her not and will leave thee free to go,
and will not deal hardly with thee." I replied, "That will I do," and,
taking the sword, went forward sharply and raised my hand to smite.
But she signed to me with her eyebrows, "Have I failed thee in aught
of love, and is it thus that thou requitest me?" I understood what her
looks implied and answered her with an eye glance, "I will sacrifice
my soul for thee." And the tongue of the case wrote in our hearts
these lines:

How many a lover with his eyebrows speaketh
To his beloved, as his passion pleadeth.
With flashing eyne his passion he inspireth
And well she seeth what his pleading needeth.
How sweet the look when each on other gazeth,
And with what swiftness and how sure it speedeth.
And this with eyebrows all his passion writeth,
And that with eyeballs all his passion readeth.

Then my eyes filled with tears to overflowing and I cast the sword
from my hand, saying: "O mighty Ifrit and hero, if a woman lacking
wits and faith deem it unlawful to strike off my head, how can it be
lawful for me, a man, to smite her neck whom I never saw in my whole
life? I cannot do such misdeed, though thou cause me drink the cup
of death and perdition." Then said the Ifrit, "Ye twain show the
good understanding between you, but I will let you see how such doings
end." He took the sword and struck off the lady's hands first, with
four strokes, and then her feet, whilst I looked on and made sure of
death and she farewelled me with her dying eyes. So the Ifrit cried at
her, "Thou whorest and makest me a wittol with thine eyes," and struck
her so that her head went flying. Then turned he to me and said: "O
mortal, we have it in our law that when the wife committeth
advowtry, it is lawful for us to slay her. As for this damsel, I
snatched her away on her bride night when she was a girl of twelve and
she knew no one but myself. I used to come to her once in every ten
days and lie with her the night, under the semblance of a man, a
Persian, and when I was well assured that she had cuckolded me, I slew
her. But as for thee, I am not well satisfied that thou hast wronged
me in her. Nevertheless I must not let thee go unharmed, so ask a boon
of me and I will grant it."
Then I rejoiced, O my lady, with exceeding joy and said, "What
boon shall I crave of thee?" He replied, "Ask me this boon- into what
shape I shall bewitch thee? Wilt thou be a dog, or an ass, or an ape?"
I rejoined (and indeed I had hoped that mercy might be shown me),
"By Allah, spare me, that Allah spare thee for sparing a Moslem and
a man who never wronged thee." And I humbled myself before him with
exceeding humility, and remained standing in his presence, saying,
"I am sore oppressed by circumstance." Said the Ifrit: "Lengthen not
thy words! As to my slaying thee, fear it not, and as to my
pardoning thee, hope it not, but from my bewitching thee there is no
escape." Then he tore me from the ground, which closed under my
feet, and flew with me into the firmament till I saw the earth as a
large white cloud or a saucer in the midst of the waters. Presently he
set me down on a mountain, and taking a little dust, over which he
muttered some magical words, sprinkled me therewith, saying, "Quit
that shape and take thou the shape of an ape!" And on the instant I
became an ape, a tailless baboon, the son of a century.
Now when he had left me and I saw myself in this ugly and hateful
shape, I wept for myself, but resigned my soul to the tyranny of
Time and Circumstance, well weeting that Fortune is fair and
constant to no man. I descended the mountain and found at the foot a
desert plain, long and broad, over which I traveled for the space of a
month till my course brought me to the brink of the briny sea. After
standing there awhile, I was ware of a ship in the offing which ran
before a fair wind making for the shore. I hid myself behind a rock on
the beach and waited till the ship drew near, when I leaped on
board. I found her full of merchants and passengers, and one of them
cried, "O Captain, this ill-omened brute will bring us ill luck!"
And another said, "Turn this ill-omened beast out from among us."
The Captain said, "Let us kill it!" Another said, "Slay it with the
sword," a third, "Drown it," and a fourth, "Shoot it with an arrow."
But I sprang up and laid hold of the rais's skirt, and shed tears
which poured down my chops. The Captain took pity on me, and said,
"O merchants, this ape hath appealed to me for protection and I will
protect him. Henceforth he is under my charge, so let none do him
aught hurt or harm, otherwise there will be bad blood between us."
Then he entreated me kindly, and whatsoever he said I understood,
and ministered to his every want and served him as a servant, albeit
my tongue would not obey my wishes, so that he came to love me. The
vessel sailed on, the wind being fair, for the space of fifty days, at
the end of which we cast anchor under the walls of a great city
wherein was a world of people, especially learned men. None could tell
their number save Allah. No sooner had we arrived than we were visited
by certain Mameluke officials from the King of that city, who, after
boarding us, greeted the merchants and, giving them joy of safe
arrival, said: "Our King welcometh you, and sendeth you this roll of
paper, whereupon each and every of you must write a line. For ye shall
know that the King's Minister, a calligrapher of renown, is dead,
and the King hath sworn a solemn oath that he will make none Wazir
in his stead who cannot write as well as he could."
He then gave us the scroll, which measured ten cubits long by a
breadth of one, and each of the merchants who knew how to write
wrote a line thereon, even to the last of them, after which I stood up
(still in the shape of an ape) and snatched the roll out of their
hands. They feared lest I should tear it or throw it overboard, so
they tried to stay me and scare me, but I signed to them that I
could write, whereat all marveled, saying, "We never yet saw an ape
write." And the Captain cried: "Let him write, and if he scribble
and scrabble we will kick him out and kill him. But if he write fair
and scholarly, I will adopt him as my son, for surely I never yet
saw a more intelligent and well-mannered monkey than he. Would
Heaven my real son were his match in morals and manners!"
I took the reed and, stretching out my paw, dipped it in ink and
wrote, in the hand used for letters, these two couplets:

Time hath recorded gifts she gave the great,
But none recorded thine, which be far higher.
Allah ne'er orphan men by loss of thee
Who be of Goodness mother, Bounty's sire.

And I wrote in Rayhani or larger letters elegantly curved:

Thou hast a reed of rede to every land,
Whose driving causeth all the world to thrive.
Nil is the Nile of Misraim by thy boons,
Who makest misery smile with fingers five.

Then I wrote in the Suls character:

There be no writer who from Death shall fleet
But what his hand hath writ men shall repeat.
Write, therefore, naught save what shall serve thee when
Thou see't on Judgment Day an so thou see't!

Then I wrote in the character of Naskh:

When to sore parting Fate our love shall doom,
To distant life by Destiny decreed,
We cause the inkhom's lips to 'plain our pains,
And tongue our utterance with the talking reed.

Then I gave the scroll to the officials, and after we all had
written our line, they carried it before the King. When he saw the
paper, no writing pleased him save my writing, and he said to the
assembled courtiers: "Go seek the writer of these lines and dress
him in a splendid robe of honor. Then mount him on a she-mule, let a
band of music precede him, and bring him to the presence." At these
words they smiled and the King was wroth with them and cried "O
accursed! I give you an order and you laugh at me?" "O King,"
replied they, "if we laugh 'tis not at thee and not without a
cause." "And what is it?" asked he, and they answered, "O King, thou
orderest us to bring to thy presence the man who wrote these lines.
Now the truth is that he who wrote them is not of the sons of Adam,
but an ape, a tailless baboon, belonging to the ship Captain." Quoth
he, "Is this true that you say?" Quoth they, "Yea! by the rights of
thy munificence!" The King marveled at their words and shook with
mirth and said, "I am minded to buy this ape of the Captain."
Then he sent messengers to the ship with the mule, the dress, the
guard, and the state drums, saying, "Not the less do you clothe him in
the robe of honor and mount him on the mule, and let him be surrounded
by the guards and preceded by the band of music." They came to the
ship and took me from the Captain and robed me in the robe of honor
and, mounting me on the she-mule, carried me in state procession
through the streets whilst the people were amazed and amused. And folk
said to one another: "Halloo! Is our Sultan about to make an ape his
Minister?" and came all agog crowding to gaze at me, and the town
was astir and turned topsy-turvy on my account. When they brought me
up to the King and set me in his presence, I kissed the ground
before him three times, and once before the High Chamberlain and great
officers, and he bade me be seated, and I sat respectfully on shins
and knees, and all who were present marveled at my fine manners, and
the King most of all.
Thereupon he ordered the lieges to retire, and when none remained
save the King's Majesty, the eunuch on duty, and a little white slave,
he bade them set before me the table of food, containing all manner of
birds, whatever hoppeth and flieth and treadeth in nest, such as quail
and sand grouse. Then he signed to me to eat with him, so I rose and
kissed ground before him, then sat me down and ate with him. Presently
they set before the King choice wines in flagons of glass and he
drank. Then he passed on the cup to me, and I kissed the ground and
drank and wrote on it:

With fire they boiled me to loose my tongue,
And pain and patience gave for fellowship.
Hence comes it hands of men upbear me high
And honeydew from lips of maid I sip!

The King read my verse and said with a sigh, "Were these gifts in
a man, he would excel all the folk of his time and age!" Then he
called for the chessboard, and said, "Say, wilt thou play with me?"
and I signed with my head, "Yes." Then I came forward and ordered
the pieces and played with him two games, both of which I won. He
was speechless with surprise, so I took the pen case and, drawing
forth a reed, wrote on the board these two couplets:

Two hosts fare fighting thro' the livelong day,
Nor is their battling ever finished
Until, when darkness girdeth them about,
The twain go sleeping in a single bed.

The King read these lines with wonder and delight and said to his
eunuch, "O Mukbil, go to thy mistress, Sitt al-Husn, and say her,
'Come, speak the King, who biddeth thee hither to take thy solace in
seeing this right wondrous ape!"' So the eunuch went out, and
presently returned with the lady, who when she saw me veiled her
face and said: "O my father, hast thou lost all sense of honor? How
cometh it thou art pleased to send for me and show me to strange men?"
"O Sitt al-Husn," said he, "no man is here save this little foot
page and the eunuch who reared thee and I, thy father. From whom,
then, dost thou veil thy face?" She answered, "This whom thou
deemest an ape is a young man, a clever and polite, a wise and
learned, and the son of a king. But he is ensorceled, and the Ifrit
Jirjaris, who is of the seed of Iblis, cast a spell upon him, after
putting to death his own wife, the daughter of King Ifitamus lord of
the Islands of Abnus." The King marveled at his daughter's words
and, turning to me, said, "Is this true that she saith of thee?" and I
signed by a nod of my head the answer "Yea, verily," and wept sore.
Then he asked his daughter, "Whence knewest thou that he is
ensorceled?" and she answered: "O my dear Papa, there was with me in
my childhood an old woman, a wily one and a wise and a witch to
boot, and she taught me the theory of magic and its practice, and I
took notes in writing and therein waxed perfect, and have committed to
memory a hundred and seventy chapters of egromantic formulas, by the
least of which I could transport the stones of thy city behind the
Mountain Kaf and the Circumambient Main, or make its site an abyss
of the sea and its people fishes swimming in the midst of it." "O my
daughter," said her father, "I conjure thee, by my life, disenchant
this young man, that I may make him my Wazir and marry thee to him,
for indeed he is an ingenious youth and a deeply learned." "With joy
and goodly gree," she replied and, hending in hand an iron knife
whereon was inscribed the name of Allah in Hebrew characters she
described a wide circle in the midst of the palace hall, and therein
wrote in Kufic letters mysterious names and talismans. And she uttered
words and muttered charms, some of which we understood and others we
understood not.
Presently the world waxed dark before our sight till we thought that
the sky was falling upon our heads, and lo! the Ifrit presented
himself in his own shape and aspect. His hands were like
many-pronged pitchforks, his legs like the masts of great ships, and
his eyes like cressets of gleaming fire. We were in terrible fear of
him, but the King's daughter cried at him, "No welcome to thee and
no greeting, O dog!" Whereupon he changed to the form of a lion and
said, "O traitress, how is it thou hast broken the oath we sware
that neither should contraire other?" "O accursed one," answered
she, "how could there be a compact between me and the like of thee?"
Then said he, "Take what thou hast brought on thyself." And the lion
open his jaws and rushed upon her, but she was too quick for him, and,
plucking a hair from her head, waved it in the air muttering over it
the while. And the hair straightway became a trenchant sword blade,
wherewith she smote the lion and cut him in twain. Then the two halves
flew away in air and the head changed to a scorpion and the Princess
became a huge serpent and set upon the accursed scorpion, and the
two fought, coiling and uncoiling, a stiff fight for an hour at least.
Then the scorpion changed to a vulture and the serpent became an
eagle, which set upon the vulture and hunted him for an hour's time,
till he became a black tomcat, which miauled and grinned and spat.
Thereupon the eagle changed into a piebald wolf and these two
battled in the palace for a long time, when the cat, seeing himself
overcome, changed into a worm and crept into a huge red pomegranate
which lay beside the jetting fountain in the midst of the palace hall.
Whereupon the pomegranate swelled to the size of a watermelon in air
and, falling upon the marble pavement of the palace, broke to
pieces, and all the grains fell out and were scattered about till they
covered the whole floor. Then the wolf shook himself and became a
snow-white cock, which fell to picking up the grains, purposing not to
leave one, but by doom of destiny one seed rolled to the fountain edge
and there lay hid.
The cock fell to crowing and clapping his wings and signing to us
with his beak as if to ask, "Are any grains left?" But we understood
not what he meant, and he cried to us with so loud a cry that we
thought the palace would fall upon us. Then he ran over all the
floor till he saw the grain which had rolled to the fountain edge, and
rushed eagerly to pick it up when behold, it sprang into the midst
of the water and became a fish and dived to the bottom of the basin.
Thereupon the cock changed to a big fish, and plunged in after the
other, and the two disappeared for a while and lo! we heard loud
shrieks and cries of pain which made us tremble. After this the
Ifrit rose out of the water, and he was as a burning flame, casting
fire and smoke from his mouth and eyes and nostrils. And immediately
the Princess likewise came forth from the basin, and she was one
live coal of flaming lowe, and these two, she and he, battled for
the space of an hour, until their fires entirely compassed them
about and their thick smoke filled the palace.
As for us, we panted for breath, being well-nigh suffocated, and
we longed to plunge into the water, fearing lest we be burnt up and
utterly destroyed. And the King said: "There is no Majesty and there
is no Might save in Allah the Glorious, the Great! Verily we are
Allah's and unto Him are we returning! Would Heaven I had not urged my
daughter to attempt the disenchantment of this ape fellow, whereby I
have imposed upon her the terrible task of fighing yon accursed Ifrit,
against whom all the Ifrits in the world could not prevail. And
would Heaven we had never seen this ape, Allah never assain nor
bless the day of his coming! We thought to do a good deed by him
before the face of Allah, and to release him from enchantment, and now
we have brought this trouble and travail upon our heart." But I, O
my lady, was tonguetied and powerless to say a word to him.
Suddenly, ere we were ware of aught, the Ifrit yelled out from under
the flames and, coming up to us as we stood on the estrade, blew
fire in our faces. The damsel overtook him and breathed blasts of fire
at his face, and the sparks from her and from him rained down upon us,
and her sparks did us no harm. But one of his sparks alighted upon
my eye and destroyed it, making me a monocular ape. And another fell
on the King's face, scorching the lower half, burning off his beard
and mustachios and causing his underteeth to fall out, while a third
lighted on the castrato's breast, killing him on the spot. So we
despaired of life and made sure of death when lo! a voice repeated the
saying: "Allah is Most Highest! Allah is Most Highest! Aidance and
victory to all who the Truth believe, and disappointment and
disgrace to all who the religion of Mohammed, the Moon of Faith,
unbelieve." The speaker was the Princess, who had burnt the Ifrit, and
he was become a heap of ashes. Then she came up to us and said, "Reach
me a cup of water." They brought it to her and she spoke over it words
we understood not and, sprinkling me with it, cried, "By virtue of the
Truth, and by the Most Great Name of Allah, I charge thee return to
thy former shape!" And behold, I shook and became a man as before,
save that I had utterly lost an eye.
Then she cried out: "The fire! The fire! O my dear Papa, an arrow
from the accursed hath wounded me to the death, for I am not used to
fight with the Jann. Had he been a man, I had slain him in the
beginning. I had no trouble till the time when the pomegranate burst
and the grains scattered, but I overlooked the seed wherein was the
very life of the Jinni. Had I picked it up, he had died on the spot,
but as Fate and Fortune decreed, I saw it not, so he came upon me
all unawares and there befell between him and me a sore struggle under
the earth and high in air and in the water. And as often as I opened
on him a gate, he opened on me another gate and a stronger, till at
last he opened on me the gate of fire, and few are saved upon whom the
door of fire openeth. But Destiny willed that my cunning prevail
over his cunning, and I burned him to death after I vainly exhorted
him to embrace the religion of Al-Islam. As for me, I am a dead woman.
Allah supply my place to you!"
Then she called upon Heaven for help and ceased not to implore
relief from the fire, when lo! a black spark shot up from her robed
feet to her thighs, then it flew to her bosom and thence to her
face. When it reached her face, she wept and said, "I testify that
there is no god but the God and that Mohammed is the Apostle of
God!" And we looked at her and saw naught but a heap of ashes by the
side of the heap that had been the Ifrit. We mourned for her, and I
wished I had been in her place, so had I not seen her lovely face
who had worked me such weal become ashes, but there is no gainsaying
the will of Allah.
When the King saw his daughter's terrible death, he plucked out what
was left of his beard and beat his face and rent his raiment, and I
did as he did and we both wept over her. Then came in the chamberlains
and grandees, and were amazed to find two heaps of ashes and the
Sultan in a fainting fit. So they stood round him till he revived
and told them what had befallen his daughter from the Ifrit, whereat
their grief was right grievous and the women and the slave girls
shrieked and keened, and they continued their lamentations for the
space of seven days. Moreover, the King bade build over his daughter's
ashes a vast vaulted tomb, and burn therein wax tapers and
sepulchral lamps. But as for the Ifrit's ashes, they scattered them on
the winds, speeding them to the curse of Allah.
Then the Sultan fell sick of a sickness that well-nigh brought him
to his death for a month's space, and when health returned to him
and his beard grew again and he had been converted by the mercy of
Allah to Al-Islam, he sent for me and said: "O youth, Fate had decreed
for us the happiest of lives, safe from all the chances and changes of
Time, till thou camest to us, when troubles fell upon us. Would to
Heaven we had never seen thee and the foul face of thee! For we took
pity on thee, and thereby we have lost our all. I have on thy
account first lost my daughter, who to me was well worth a hundred
men, secondly, I have suffered that which befell me by reason of the
fire and the loss of my teeth, and my eunuch also was slain. I blame
thee not, for it was out of thy power to prevent this. The doom of
Allah was on thee as well as on us, and thanks be to the Almighty
for that my daughter delivered thee, albeit thereby she lost her own
life! Go forth now, O my son, from this my city, and suffice thee what
hath befallen us through thee, even although 'twas decreed for us.
Go forth in peace, and if I ever see thee again I will surely slay
thee." And he cried out at me.
So I went forth from his presence, O my lady, weeping bitterly and
hardly believing in my escape and knowing not whither I should wend.
And I recalled all that had befallen me, my meeting the tailor, my
love for the damsel in the palace beneath the earth, and my narrow
escape from the Ifrit, even after he had determined to do me die,
and how I had entered the city as an ape and was now leaving it a
man once more. Then I gave thanks to Allah and said, "My eye and not
my life!" And before leaving the place I entered the bath and shaved
my poll and beard and mustachios and eyebrows, and cast ashes on my
head and donned the coarse black woolen robe of a Kalandar.
Then I journeyed through many regions and saw many a city, intending
for Baghdad, that I might seek audience in the House of Peace with the
Commander of the Faithful, and tell him all that had befallen me. I
arrived here this very night and found my brother in Allah, this first
Kalandar, standing about as one perplexed, so I saluted him with
"Peace be upon thee," and entered into discourse with him. Presently
up came our brother, this third Kalandar, and said to us: "Peace be
with you! I am a stranger," whereto we replied, "And we too be
strangers, who have come hither this blessed night."
So we all three walked on together, none of us knowing the other's
history, till Destiny drave us to this door and we came in to you.
Such then is my story and my reason for shaving my beard and
mustachios, and this is what caused the loss of my eye. Said the house
mistress, "Thy tale is indeed a rare, so rub thy head and wend thy
ways." But he replied, "I will not budge till I hear my companions'
stories."
Then came forward the third Kalandar, and said, "O illustrious lady,
my history is not like that of these my comrades, but more wondrous
and far more marvelous. In their case Fate and Fortune came down on
them unawares, but I drew down Destiny upon my own head and brought
sorrow on mine own soul, and shaved my own beard and lost my own
eye. Hear then
THIRD
THE THIRD KALANDAR'S TALE

KNOW, O my lady, that I also am a king and the son of a king and
my name is Ajib son of Khazib. When my father died I succeeded him,
and I ruled and did justice and dealt fairly by all my lieges. I
delighted in sea trips, for my capital stood on the shore, before
which the ocean stretched far and wide, and near hand were many
great islands with sconces and garrisons in the midst of the main.
My fleet numbered fifty merchantmen, and as many yachts for pleasance,
and a hundred and fifty sail ready fitted for holy war with the
unbelievers.
It fortuned that I had a mind to enjoy myself on the islands
aforesaid, so I took ship with my people in ten keel and, carrying
with me a month's victual, I set out on a twenty days' voyage. But one
night a head wind struck us, and the sea rose against us with huge
waves. The billows sorely buffeted us and a dense darkness settled
round us. We gave ourselves up for lost, and I said, "Whoso
endangereth his days, e'en an he 'scape deserveth no praise." Then
we prayed to Allah and besought Him, but the storm blasts ceased not
to blow against us nor the surges to strike us till morning broke,
when the gale fell, the seas sank to mirrory stillness, and the sun
shone upon us kindly clear. Presently we made an island, where we
landed and cooked somewhat of food, and ate heartily and took our rest
for a couple of days. Then we set out again and sailed other twenty
days, the seas broadening and the land shrinking.
Presently the current ran counter to us, and we found ourselves in
strange waters, where the Captain had lost his reckoning, and was
wholly bewildered in this sea, so said we to the lookout man, "Get
thee to the masthead and keep thine eyes open." He swarmed up the mast
and looked out and cried aloud, "O Rais, I espy to starboard something
dark, very like a fish floating on the face of the sea, and to
larboard there is a loom in the midst of the main, now black and now
bright." When the Captain heard the lookout's words, he dashed his
turban on the deck and plucked out his beard and beat his face,
saying: "Good news indeed! We be all dead men, not one of us can be
saved." And he fell to weeping and all of us wept for his weeping
and also for our lives, and I said, "O Captain, tell us what it is the
lookout saw."
"O my Prince," answered he, "know that we lost our course on the
night of the storm, which was followed on the morrow by a two days'
calm during which we made no way, and we have gone astray eleven days'
reckoning from that night, with ne'er a wind to bring us back to our
true course. Tomorrow by the end of the day we shall come to a
mountain of black stone hight the Magnet Mountain, for thither the
currents carry us willy-nilly. As soon as we are under its lea, the
ship's sides will open and every nail in plank will fly out and cleave
fast to the mountain, for that Almighty Allah hath gifted the
loadstone with a mysterious virtue and a love for iron, by reason
whereof all which is iron traveleth toward it. And on this mountain is
much iron, how much none knoweth save the Most High, from the many
vessels which have been lost there since the days of yore. The
bright spot upon its summit is a dome of yellow laton from
Andalusia, vaulted upon ten columns. And on its crown is a horseman
who rideth a horse of brass and holdeth in hand a lance of laton,
and there hangeth on his bosom a tablet of lead graven with names
and talismans." And he presently added, "And, O King, none
destroyeth folk save the rider on that steed, nor will the egromancy
be dispelled till he fall from his horse."
Then, O my lady, the Captain wept with exceeding weeping and we
all made sure of death doom and each and every one of us farewelled
his friend and charged him with his last will and testament in case he
might be saved. We slept not that night, and in the morning we found
ourselves much nearer the Loadstone Mountain, whither the waters drave
us with a violent send. When the ships were close under its lea,
they opened and the nails flew out and all the iron in them sought the
Magnet Mountain and clove to it like a network, so that by the end
of the day we were all struggling in the waves round about the
mountain. Some of us were saved, but more were drowned, and even those
who had escaped knew not one another, so stupefied were they by the
beating of the billows and the raving of the winds.
As for me, O my lady, Allah (be His name exalted!) preserved my life
that I might suffer whatso He willed to me of hardship, misfortune,
and calamity, for I scrambled upon a plank from one of the ships and
the wind and waters threw it at the feet of the mountain. There I
found a practicable path leading by steps carven out of the rock to
the summit, and I called on the name of Allah Almighty and breasted
the ascent, clinging to the steps and notches hewn in the stone, and
mounted little by little. And the Lord stilled the wind and aided me
in the ascent, so that I succeeded in reaching the summit. There I
found no resting place save the dome, which I entered, joying with
exceeding joy at my escape, and made the wudu ablution and prayed a
two-bow prayer, a thanksgiving to God for my preservation.
Then I fell asleep under the dome, and heard in my dream a
mysterious voice saying, "O son of Khazib! When thou wakest from thy
sleep, dig under thy feet and thou shalt find a bow of brass and three
leaden arrows inscribed with talismans and characts. Take the bow
and shoot the arrows at the horseman on the dome top and free
mankind from this sore calamity. When thou hast shot him he shall fall
into the sea, and the horse will also drop at thy feet. Then bury it
in the place of the bow. This done, the main will swell and rise
till it is level with the mountain head, and there will appear on it a
skiff carrying a man of laton (other than he thou shalt have shot)
holding in his hand a pair of paddles. He will come to thee, and do
thou embark with him, but beware of saying Bismillah or of otherwise
naming Allah Almighty. He will row thee for a space of ten days,
till he bring thee to certain islands called the Islands of Safety,
and thence thou shalt easily reach a port and find those who will
convey thee to thy native land. And all this shall be fulfilled to
thee so thou call not on the name of Allah."
Then I started up from my sleep in joy and gladness and, hastening
to do the bidding of the mysterious voice, found the bow and arrows
and shot at the horseman and tumbled him into the main, whilst the
horse dropped at my feet, so I took it and buried it. Presently the
sea surged up and rose till it reached the top of the mountain, nor
had I long to wait ere I saw a skiff in the offing coming toward me. I
gave thanks to Allah, and when the skiff came up to me, I saw
therein a man of brass with a tablet of lead on his breast inscribed
with talismans and characts, and I embarked without uttering a word.
The boatman rowed on with me through the first day and the second
and the third, in all ten whole days, till I caught sight of the
Islands of Safety, whereat I joyed with exceeding joy and for stress
of gladness exclaimed, "Allah! Allah! In the name of Allah! There is
no god but the God and Allah is Almighty." Thereupon the skiff
forthwith upset and cast me upon the sea, then it righted and sank
deep into the depths.
Now I am a fair swimmer, so I swam the whole day till nightfall,
when my forearms and shoulders were numbed with fatigue and I felt
like to die, so I testified to my faith, expecting naught but death.
The sea was still surging under the violence of the winds, and
presently there came a billow like a hillock and, bearing me up high
in air, threw me with a long cast on dry land, that His will might
be fulfilled. I crawled upon the beach and doffing my raiment, wrung
it out to dry and spread it in the sunshine. Then I lay me down and
slept the whole night. As soon as it was day, I donned my clothes
and rose to look whither I should walk. Presently I came to a
thicket of low trees and, making a cast round it, found that the
spot whereon I stood was an islet, a mere holm, girt on all sides by
the ocean, whereupon I said to myself, "Whatso freeth me from one
great calamity casteth me into a greater!"
But while I was pondering my case and longing for death, behold, I
saw afar off a ship making for the island, so I clomb a tree and hid
myself among the branches. Presently the ship anchored and landed
ten slaves, blackamoors, bearing iron hoes and baskets, who walked
on till they reached the middle of the island. Here they dug deep into
the ground until they uncovered a plate of metal, which they lifted,
thereby opening a trapdoor. After this they returned to the ship and
thence brought bread and flour, honey and fruits, clarified butter,
leather bottles containing liquors, and many household stuffs; also
furniture, table service, and mirrors; rugs, carpets, and in fact
all needed to furnish a dwelling. And they kept going to and fro,
and descending by the trapdoor, till they had transported into the
dwelling all that was in the ship.
After this the slaves again went on board and brought back with them
garments as rich as may be, and in the midst of them came an old old
man, of whom very little was left, for Time had dealt hardly and
harshly with him, and all that remained of him was a bone wrapped in a
rag of blue stuff, through which the winds whistled west and east.
As saith the poet of him:

Time gars me tremble. Ah, how sore the balk!
While Time in pride of strength doth ever stalk.
Time was I walked nor ever felt I tired,
Now am I tired albe' I never walk!

And the Sheikh held by the hand a youth cast in beauty's mold, all
elegance and perfect grace, so fair that his comeliness deserved to be
proverbial, for he was as a green bough or the tender young of the
roe, ravishing every heart with his loveliness and subduing every soul
with his coquetry and amorous ways. They stinted not their going, O my
lady, till all went down by the trapdoor and did not reappear for an
hour, or rather more; at the end of which time the slaves and the
old man came up without the youth and, replacing the iron plate and
carefully closing the door slab as it was before, they returned to the
ship and made sail and were lost to my sight.
When they turned away to depart, I came down from the tree and,
going to the place I had seen them fin up, scraped off and removed the
earth, and in patience possessed my soul till I had cleared the
whole of it away. Then appeared the trapdoor, which was of wood, in
shape and size like a millstone, and when I lifted it up, it disclosed
a winding staircase of stone. At this I marveled and, descending the
steps tier I reached the last, found a fair hall, spread with
various kinds of carpets and silk stuffs, wherein was a youth
sitting upon a raised couch and leaning back on a round cushion with a
fan in his hand and nosegays and posies of sweet scented herbs and
flowers before him. But he was alone and not a soul near him in the
great vault. When he saw me he turned pale, but I saluted him
courteously and said: "Set thy mind at ease and calm thy fears. No
harm shall come near thee. I am a man like thyself and the son of a
king to boot, whom the decrees of Destiny have sent to bear thee
company and cheer thee in thy loneliness. But now tell me, what is thy
story and what causeth thee to dwell thus in solitude under the
ground?"
When he was assured that I was of his kind and no Jinni, he rejoiced
and his fine color returned, and, making me draw near to him, he said:
"O my brother, my story is a strange story and 'tis this. My father is
a merchant jeweler possessed of great wealth, who hath white and black
slaves traveling and trading on his account in ships and on camels,
and trafficking with the most distant cities, but he was not blessed
with a child, not even one. Now on a certain night he dreamed a
dream that he should be favored with a son, who would be
short-lived, so the morning dawned on my father, bringing him woe
and weeping. On the following night my mother conceived and my
father noted down the date of her becoming pregnant. Her time being
fulfilled, she bare me, whereat my father rejoiced and made banquets
and called together the neighbors and fed the fakirs and the poor, for
that he had been blessed with issue near the end of his days. Then
he assembled the astrologers and astronomers who knew the places of
the planets, and the wizards and wise ones of the time, and men
learned in horoscopes and nativities, and they drew out my birth
scheme and said to my father: "Thy son shall live to fifteen years,
but in his fifteenth there is a sinister aspect. An he safely tide
it over, he shall attain a great age. And the cause that threateneth
him with death is this. In the Sea of Peril standeth the Mountain
Magnet hight, on whose summit is a horseman of yellow laton seated
on a horse also of brass and bearing on his breast a tablet of lead.
Fifty days after this rider shall fall from his steed thy son will die
and his slayer will be he who shoots down the horseman, a Prince named
Ajib son of King Khazib."
My father grieved with exceeding grief to hear these words, but
reared me in tenderest fashion and educated me excellently well till
my fifteenth year was told. Ten days ago news came to him that the
horseman had fallen into the sea and he who shot him down was named
Ajib son of King Khazib." My father thereupon wept bitter tears at the
need of parting with me and became like one possessed of a Jinni.
However, being in mortal fear for me, he built me this place under the
earth, and stocking it with all required for the few days still
remaining, he brought me hither in a ship and left me here. Ten are
already past, and when the forty shall have gone by without danger
to me, he will come and take me away, for he hath done all this only
in fear of Prince Ajib. Such, then, is my story and the cause of my
loneliness."
When I heard his history I marveled and said in my mind, "I am the
Prince Ajib who hath done all this, but as Allah is with me I will
surely not slay him!" So said I to him: "O my lord, far from thee be
this hurt and harm and then, please Allah, thou shalt not suffer
cark nor care nor aught disquietude, for I will tarry with thee and
serve thee as a servant, and then wend my ways. And after having borne
thee company during the forty days, I will go with thee to thy home,
where thou shalt give me an escort of some of thy Mamelukes with
whom I may journey back to my own city, and the Almighty shall requite
thee for me." He was glad to hear these words, when I rose and lighted
a large wax candle and trimmed the lamps and the three lanterns, and I
set on meat and drink and sweetmeats. We ate and drank and sat talking
over various matters till the greater part of the night was gone, when
he lay down to rest and I covered him up and went to sleep myself.
Next morning I arose and warmed a little water, then lifted him
gently so as to awake him and brought him the warm water, wherewith he
washed his face, and said to me: "Heaven requite thee for me with
every blessing, O youth! By Allah, if I get quit of this danger and am
saved from him whose name is Ajib bin Khazib, I will make my father
reward thee and send thee home healthy and wealthy. And if I die, then
my blessing be upon thee." I answered, "May the day never dawn on
which evil shall betide thee, and may Allah make my last day before
thy last day!" Then I set before him somewhat of food and we ate,
and I got ready perfumes for fumigating the hall, wherewith he was
pleased. Moreover I made him a mankalah cloth; and we played and ate
sweetmeats and we played again and took our pleasure till nightfall,
when I rose and lighted the lamps, and set before him somewhat to eat,
and sat telling him stories till the hours of darkness were far spent.
Then he lay down to rest and I covered him up and rested also.
And thus I continued to do, O my lady, for days and nights, and
affection for him took root in my heart and my sorrow was eased, and I
said to myself: "The astrologers lied when they predicted that he
should be slain by Ajib bin Khazib. By Allah, I will not slay him."
I ceased not ministering to him and conversing and carousing with
him and telling him all manner tales for thirty-nine days. On the
fortieth night the youth rejoiced and said: "O my brother,
Alhamdolillah!- praise be to Allah- who hath preserved me from death,
and this is by thy blessing and the blessing of thy coming to me,
and I prayed God that He restore thee to thy native land. But now, O
my brother, I would thou warm me some water for the ghusl ablution and
do thou kindly bathe me and change my clothes." I replied, "With
love and gladness," and I heated water in plenty and carrying it in to
him, washed his body all over, the washing of health, with meal of
lupins, and rubbed him well and changed his clothes and spread him a
high bed whereon he lay down to rest, being drowsy after bathing.
Then said he, "O my brother, cut me up a watermelon, and sweeten
it with a little sugar candy." So I went to the storeroom and bringing
out a fine watermelon, I found there, set it on a platter and laid
it before him saying, "O my master, hast thou not a knife?" "Here it
is," answered he, "over my head upon the high shelf." So I got up in
haste and, and, taking the knife, drew it from its sheath, but my foot
slipped in stepping down and I fell heavily upon the youth holding
in my hand the knife, which hastened to fulfill what had been
written on the Day that decided the destinies of man, and buried
itself, as if planted, in the youth's heart. He died on the instant.
When I saw that he was slain and knew that I had slain him, mauger
myself I cried out with an exceeding loud and bitter cry and beat my
face and rent my raiment and said: "Verily we be Allah's and unto
Him we be returning, O Moslems! O folk fain of Allah! There remained
for this youth but one day of the forty dangerous days which the
astrologers and the learned had foretold for him, and the
predestined death of this beautiful one was to be at my hand. Would
Heaven I had not tried to cut the watermelon! What dire misfortune
is this I must bear, lief or loath? What a disaster! What an
affliction! O Allah mine, I implore thy pardon and declare to Thee
my innocence of his death. But what God willeth, let that come to
pass."
When I was certified that I had slain him, I arose and, ascending
the stairs, replaced the trapdoor and covered it with earth as before.
Then I looked out seaward and saw the ship cleaving the waters and
making for the island, wherefore I was afeard and said, "The moment
they come and see the youth done to death, they will know 'twas I
who slew him and will slay me without respite." So I climbed up into a
high tree and concealed myself among its leaves, and hardly had I done
so when the ship anchored and the slaves landed with the ancient
man, the youth's father, and made direct for the place, and when
they removed the earth they were surprised to see it soft. Then they
raised the trapdoor and went down and found the youth lying at full
length, clothed in fair new garments, with a face beaming after the
bath, and the knife deep in his heart. At the sight they shrieked
and wept and beat their faces, loudly cursing the murderer, whilst a
swoon came over the Sheikh so that the slaves deemed him dead,
unable to survive his son. At last they wrapped the slain youth in his
clothes and carried him up and laid him on the ground, covering him
with a shroud of silk.
Whilst they were making for the ship the old man revived, and,
gazing on his son who was stretched out, fell on the ground and
strewed dust over his head and smote his face and plucked out his
beard, and his weeping redoubled as he thought of his murdered son and
he swooned away once more. After a while a slave went and fetched a
strip of silk whereupon they lay the old man and sat down at his head.
All this took place and I was on the tree above them watching
everything that came to pass, and my heart became hoary before my head
waxed gray, for the hard lot which was mine, and for the distress
and anguish I had undergone, and I fell to reciting:

"How many a joy by Allah's will hath fled
With flight escaping sight of wisest head!
How many a sadness shall begin the day,
Yet grow right gladsome ere the day is sped!
How many a weal trips on the heels of ill,
Causing the mourner's heart with joy to thrill!"

But the old man, O my lady, ceased not from his swoon till near
sunset, when he came to himself and, looking upon his dead son, he
recalled what had happened, and how what he had dreaded had come to
pass, and he beat his face and head. Then he sobbed a single sob and
his soul fled his flesh. The slaves shrieked aloud, "Alas, our
lord!" and showered dust on their heads and redoubled their weeping
and wailing. Presently they carried their dead master to the ship side
by side with his dead son and, having transported all the stuff from
the dwelling to the vessel, set sail and disappeared from mine eyes. I
descended from the tree and, raising the trapdoor, went down into
the underground dwelling, where everything reminded me of the youth,
and I looked upon the poor remains of him and began repeating these
verses:

"Their tracks I see, and pine with pain and pang,
And on deserted hearths I weep and yearn.
And Him I pray who doomed them depart
Some day vouchsafe the boon of safe return."

Then, O my lady, I went up again by the trapdoor, and every day I
used to wander round about the island and every night I returned to
the underground hall. Thus I lived for a month, till at last,
looking at the western side of the island, I observed that every day
the tide ebbed, leaving shallow water for which the flow did not
compensate, and by the end of the month the sea showed dry land in
that direction. At this I rejoiced, making certain of my safety, so
I arose and, fording what little was left of the water, got me to
the mainland, where I fell in with great heaps of loose sand in
which even a camel's hoof would sink up to the knee. However, I
emboldened my soul and, wading through the sand, behold, a fire
shone from afar burning with a blazing light. So I made for it
hoping haply to find succor and broke out into these verses:

"Belike my Fortune may her bridle turn
And Time bring weal although he's jealous hight,
Forward my hopes, and further all my needs,
And passed ills with present weals requite."

And when I drew near the fire aforesaid, lo! it was a palace with
gates of copper burnished red which, when the rising sun shone
thereon, gleamed and glistened from afar, showing what had seemed to
me a fire. I rejoiced in the sight, and sat down over against the
gate, but I was hardly settled in my seat before there met me ten
young men clothed in sumptuous gear, and all were blind of the left
eye, which appeared as plucked out. They were accompanied by a Sheikh,
an old, old man, and much I marveled at their appearance, and their
all being blind in the same eye. When they saw me, they saluted me
with the salaam and asked me of my case and my history, whereupon I
related to them all what had befallen me and what full measure of
misfortune was mine. Marveling at my tale, they took me to the
mansion, where I saw ranged round the hall ten couches each with its
blue bedding and coverlet of blue stuff and a-middlemost stood a
smaller couch furnished like them with blue and nothing else.
As we entered each of the youths took his seat on his own couch
and the old man seated himself upon the smaller one in the middle,
saying to me, "O youth, sit thee down on the floor, and ask not of our
case nor of the loss of our eyes." Presently he rose up and set before
each young man some meat in a charger and drink in a larger mazer,
treating me in like manner, and after that they sat questioning me
concerning my adventures and what had betided me. And I kept telling
them my tale till the night was far spent. Then said the young men: "O
our Sheikh, wilt not thou set before us our ordinary? The time is
come." He replied, "With love and gladness," and rose and, entering
a closet, disappeared, but presently returned bearing on his head
ten trays each covered with a strip of blue stuff. He set a tray
before each youth and, lighting ten wax candles, he stuck one upon
each tray, and drew off the covers and lo! under them was naught but
ashes and powdered charcoal and kettle soot. Then all the young men
tucked up their sleeves to the elbows and fell a-weeping and wailing
and they blackened their faces and smeared their clothes and
buffeted their brows and beat their breasts, continually exclaiming,
"We were sitting at our ease, but our frowardness brought us
unease!" They ceased not to do thus till dawn drew nigh, when the
old man rose and heated water for them, and they washed their face and
donned other and clean clothes.
Now when I saw this, O my lady, for very wonderment my senses left
me and my wits went wild and heart and head were full of thought, till
I forgot what had betided me and I could not keep silence, feeling I
fain must speak out and question them of these strangenesses. So I
said to them: "How come ye to do this after we have been so
openhearted and frolicsome? Thanks be to Allah, ye be all sound and
sane, yet actions such as these befit none but madmen or those
possessed of an evil spirit. I conjure you by all that is dearest to
you, why stint ye to tell me your history, and the cause of your
losing your eyes and your blackening your faces with ashes and
soot?" Hereupon they turned to me and said, "O young man, hearken
not to thy youthtide's suggestions, and question us no questions."
Then they slept and I with them, and when they awoke the old man
brought us somewhat oi food. And after we had eaten and the plates and
goblets had been removed, they sat conversing till nightfall, when the
old man rose and lit the wax candles and lamps and set meat and
drink before us.
After we had eaten and drunken we sat conversing and carousing in
companionage till the noon of night, when they said to the old man,
"Bring us our ordinary, for the hour of sleep is at hand!" So he
rose and brought them the trays of soot and ashes, and they did as
they had done on the preceding night, nor more, nor less. I abode with
them after this fashion for the space of a month, during which time
they used to blacken their faces with ashes every night, and to wash
and change their raiment when the morn was young, and I but marveled
the more and my scruples and curiosity increased to such a point
that I had to forgo even food and drink.
At last I lost command of myself, for my heart was aflame with
fire unquenchable and lowe unconcealable, and I said, "O young men,
will ye not relieve my trouble and acquaint me with the reason of thus
blackening your faces and the meaning of your words, 'We were
sitting at our ease, but our frowardness brought us unease'?" Quoth
they, "'Twere better to keep these things secret." Still I was
bewildered by their doings to the point of abstaining from eating
and drinking and at last wholly losing patience, quoth I to them:
"There is no help for it. Ye must acquaint me with what is the
reason of these doings." They replied: "We kept our secret only for
thy good. To gratify thee will bring down evil upon thee and thou wilt
become a monocular even as we are." I repeated, "There is no help
for it, and if ye will not, let me leave you and return to mine own
people and be at rest from seeing these things, for the proverb saith:

"Better ye 'bide and I take my leave;
For what eye sees not heart shall never grieve."

Thereupon they said to me, "Remember, O youth, that should ill
befall thee, we will not again harbor thee nor suffer thee to abide
amongst us." And bringing a ram, they slaughtered it and skinned it.
Lastly they gave me a knife, saying: "Take this skin and stretch
thyself upon it and we will sew it around thee. Presently there
shall come to thee a certain bird, hight roe, that will catch thee
up in his pounces and tower high in air and then set thee down on a
mountain. When thou feelest he is no longer flying, rip open the
pelt with this blade and come out of it. The bird will be scared and
will fly away and leave thee free. After this fare for half a day, and
the march will place thee at a palace wondrous fair to behold,
towering high in air and builded of khalanj, lign aloes and
sandalwood, plated with red gold, and studded with all manner emeralds
and costly gems fit for seal rings. Enter it and thou shalt will to
thy wish, for we have all entered that palace, and such is the cause
of our losing our eyes and of our blackening our faces. Were we now to
tell thee our stories it would take too long a time, for each and
every of us lost his left eye by an adventure of his own."
I rejoiced at their words, and they did with me as they said, and
the bird roc bore me off and set me down on the mountain. Then I
came out of the skin and walked on till I reached the palace. The door
stood open as I entered and found myself in a spacious and goodly
hall, wide exceedingly, even as a horse course. And around it were a
hundred chambers with doors of sandal and aloe woods plated with red
gold and furnished with silver rings by way of knockers. At the head
or upper end of the hall I saw forty damsels, sumptuously dressed
and ornamented and one and all bright as moons. None could ever tire
of gazing upon them, and all so lovely that the most ascetic devotee
on seeing them would become their slave and obey their will. When they
saw me the whole bevy came up to me and said: "Welcome and well come
and good cheer to thee, O our lord! This whole month have we been
expecting thee. Praised be Allah Who hath sent us one who is worthy of
us, even as we are worthy of him!"
Then they made me sit down upon a high divan and said to me, "This
day thou art our lord and master, and we are thy servants and thy
handmaids, so order us as thou wilt." And I marveled at their case.
Presently one of them arose and set meat before me and I ate and
they ate with me whilst others warmed water and washed my hands and
feet and changed my clothes, and others made ready sherbets and gave
us to drink, and all gathered around me, being full of joy and
gladness at my coming. Then they sat down and conversed with me till
nightfall, when five of them arose and laid the trays and spread
them with flowers and fragrant herbs and fruits, fresh and dried,
and confections in profusion. At last they brought out a fine wine
service with rich old wine, and we sat down to drink and some sang
songs and others played the lute and psaltery and recorders and
other instruments, and the bowl went merrily round. Hereupon such
gladness possessed me that I forgot the sorrows of the world one and
all and said: "This is indeed life. O sad that 'tis fleeting!"
I enjoyed their company till the time came for rest, and our heads
were all warm with wine, when they said, "O our lord, choose from
amongst us her who shall be thy bedfellow this night and not lie
with thee again till forty days be past." So I chose a girl fair of
face and perfect in shape, with eyes kohl-edged by nature's hand, hair
long and jet-black, with slightly parted teeth and joining brows.
'Twas as if she were some limber graceful branchlet or the slender
stalk of sweet basil to amaze and to bewilder man's fancy. So I lay
with her that night. None fairer I ever knew. And when it was morning,
the damsels carried me to the hammam bath and bathed me and robed me
in fairest apparel. Then they served up food, and we ate and drank and
the cup went round till nightfall, when I chose from among them one
fair of form and face, soft-sided and a model of grace, such a one
as the poet described when he said:

On her fair bosom caskets twain I scanned,
Sealed fast with musk seals lovers to withstand.
With arrowy glances stand on guard her eyes,
Whose shafts would shoot who dares put forth a hand.

With her I spent a most goodly night, and, to be brief, O my
mistress, I remained with them in all solace and delight of life,
eating and drinking, conversing and carousing, and every night lying
with one or other of them. But at the head of the New Year they came
to me in tears and bade me farewell, weeping and crying out and
clinging about me, whereat I wondered and said: "What may be the
matter? Verily you break my heart!" They exclaimed, "Would Heaven we
had never known thee, for though we have companied with many, yet
never saw we a pleasanter than thou or a more courteous." And they
wept again. "But tell me more clearly," asked I, "what causeth this
weeping which maketh my gall bladder like to burst?" And they
answered: "O lord and master, it is severance which maketh us weep,
and thou, and thou only, art the cause of our tears. If thou hearken
to us we need never be parted, and if thou hearken not we part
forever, but our hearts tell us that thou wilt not listen to our words
and this is the cause of our tears and cries." "Tell me how the case
standeth."
"Know, O our lord, that we are the daughters of kings who have met
here and have lived together for years, and once in every year we
are perforce absent for forty days. And afterward we return and
abide here for the rest of the twelvemonth eating and drinking and
taking our pleasure and enjoying delights. We are about to depart
according to our custom, and we fear lest after we be gone thou
contraire our charge and disobey our injunctions. Here now we commit
to thee the keys of the palace, which containeth forty chambers, and
thou mayest open of these thirty and nine, but beware (and we
conjure thee by Allah and by the lives of us!) lest thou open the
fortieth door, for therein is that which shall separate us for
ever." Quoth I, "Assuredly I will not open it if it contain the
cause of severance from you." Then one among them came up to me and
falling on my neck wept and recited these verses:

"If Time unite us after absent-while,
The world harsh-frowning on our lot shall smile,
And if thy semblance deign adorn mine eyes,
I'll pardon Time past wrongs and bygone guile."

And I recited the following:

"When drew she near to bid adieu with her heart unstrung,
While care and longing on that day her bosom wrung,
Wet pearls she wept and mine like red camelians rolled
And, joined in sad riviere, around her neck they hung."

When I saw her weeping I said, "By Allah, I will never open that
fortieth door, never and nowise!" and I bade her farewell. Thereupon
all departed flying away like birds, signaling with their hands
farewells as they went and leaving me alone in the palace. When
evening drew near I opened the door of the first chamber and
entering it found myself in a place like one of the pleasaunces of
Paradise. It was a garden with trees of freshest green and ripe fruits
of yellow sheen, and its birds were singing clear and keen and rills
ran wimpling through the fair terrene. The sight and sounds brought
solace to my sprite, and I walked among the trees, and I smelt the
breath of the flowers on the breeze and heard the birdies sing their
melodies hymning the One, the Almighty, in sweetest litanies, and I
looked upon the apple whose hue is parcel red and parcel yellow, as
said the poet:

Apple whose hue combines in union mellow
My fair's red cheek, her hapless lover's yellow.

Then I looked upon the pear whose taste surpasseth sherbet and
sugar, and the apricot whose beauty striketh the eye with
admiration, as if she were a polished ruby.
Then I went out of the place and locked the door as it was before.
When it was the morrow I opened the second door, and entering found
myself in a spacious plain set with tall date palms and watered by a
running stream whose banks were shrubbed with bushes of rose and
jasmine, while privet and eglantine, oxeye, violet and lily,
narcissus, origane, and the winter gilliflower carpeted the borders.
And the breath of the breeze swept over these sweet-smelling growths
diffusing their delicious odors right and left, perfuming the world
and filling my soul with delight. After taking my pleasure there
awhile I went from it and, having closed the door as it was before,
opened the third door, wherein I saw a high open hall pargetted with
particolored marbles and pietra dura of price and other precious
stones, and hung with cages of sandalwood and eagle wood, full of
birds which made sweet music, such as the "thousand-voiced," and the
cushat, the merle, the turtledove, and the Nubian ringdove. My heart
was filled with pleasure thereby, my grief was dispelled, and I
slept in that aviary till dawn.
Then I unlocked the door of the fourth chamber, and therein found
a grand saloon with forty smaller chambers giving upon it. All their
doors stood open, so I entered and found them full of pearls and
jacinths and beryls and emeralds and corals and carbuncles, and all
manner precious gems and jewels, such as tongue of man may not
describe. My thought was stunned at the sight and I said to myself,
"These be things methinks united which could not be found save in
the treasuries of a King of Kings, nor could the monarchs of the
world have collected the like of these!" And my heart dilated and my
sorrows ceased. "For," quoth I, "now verily am I the Monarch of the
Age, since by Allah's grace this enormous wealth is mine, and I have
forty damsels under my hand, nor is there any to claim them save
myself." Then I gave not over opening place after place until nine and
thirty days were passed, and in that time I had entered every
chamber except that one whose door the Princesses had charged me not
to open.
But my thoughts, O my mistress, ever ran on that forbidden fortieth,
and Satan urged me to open it for my own undoing, nor had I patience
to forbear, albeit there wanted of the trusting time but a single day.
So I stood before the chamber aforesaid and, after a moment's
hesitation, opened the door, which was plated with red gold, and
entered. I was met by a perfume whose like I had never before smelt,
and so sharp and subtle was the odor that it made my senses drunken as
with strong wine, and I fell to the ground in a fainting fit which
lasted a full hour. When I came to myself I strengthened my heart, and
entering, found myself in a chamber whose floor was bespread with
saffron and blazing with light from branched candelabra of gold and
lamps fed with costly oils, which diffused the scent of musk and
ambergris. I saw there also two great censers each big as a mazer
bowl, flaming with lign aloes, nadd perfume, ambergris, and honeyed
scents, and the place was full of their fragrance.
Presently, O my lady, I espied a noble steed, black as the murks
of night when murkiest, standing ready saddled and bridled (and his
saddle was of red gold) before two mangers, one of clear crystal
wherein was husked sesame, and the other also of crystal containing
water of the rose scented with musk. When I saw this I marveled and
said to myself, "Doubtless in this animal must be some wondrous
mystery." And Satan cozened me so I led him without the palace and
mounted him, but he would not stir from his place. So I hammered his
sides with my heels, but he moved not, and then I took the rein whip
and struck him withal. When he felt the blow, he neighed a neigh
with a sound like deafening thunder and, opening a pair of wings, flew
up with me in the firmament of heaven far beyond the eyesight of
man. After a full hour of flight he descended and alighted on a
terrace roof and shaking me off his back, lashed me on the face with
his tad and gouged out my left eye, causing it roll along my cheek.
Then he flew away. I went down from the terrace and found myself
again amongst the ten one-eyed youths sitting upon their ten couches
with blue covers, and they cried out when they saw me: "No welcome
to thee, nor aught of good cheer! We all lived of lives the happiest
and we ate and drank of the best. Upon brocades and cloths of gold
we took our rest, and we slept with our heads on beauty's breast,
but we could not await one day to gain the delights of a year!"
Quoth I, "Behold, I have become one like unto you and now I would have
you bring me a tray full of blackness, wherewith to blacken my face,
and receive me into your society." "No, by Allah," quoth they, "thou
shalt not sojourn with us, and now get thee hence!" So they drove me
away.
Finding them reject me thus, I foresaw that matters would go hard
with me, and I remembered the many miseries which Destiny had
written upon my forehead, and I fared forth from among them
heavy-hearted and tearful-eyed, repeating to myself these words: "I
was sitting at mine ease, but my frowardness brought me to unease."
Then I shaved beard and mustachios and eyebrows, renouncing the world.
and wandered in Kalandar garb about Allah's earth, and the Almighty
decreed safety for me till I arrived at Baghdad, which was on the
evening of this very night. Here I met these two other Kalandars
standing bewildered, so I saluted them saying, "I am a stranger!"
and they answered, "And we likewise be strangers!" By the freak of
Fortune we were like to like, three Kalandars and three monoculars all
blind of the left eye.
Such, O my lady, is the cause of the shearing of my beard and the
manner of my losing an eye. Said the lady to him, "Rub thy head and
wend thy ways," but he answered, "By Allah, I will not go until I hear
the stories of these others." Then the lady, turning toward the Caliph
and Ja'afar and Masrur, said to them, "Do ye also give an account of
yourselves, you men!" Whereupon Ja'afar stood forth and told her
what he had told the portress as they were entering the house, and
when she heard his story of their being merchants and Mosul men who
had outrun the watch, she said, "I grant you your lives each for
each sake, and now away with you all." So they all went out, and
when they were in the street, quoth the Caliph to the Kalandars, "O
company, whither go ye now, seeing that the morning hath not yet
dawned?" Quoth they, "By Allah, O our lord, we know not where to
go." "Come and pass the rest of the night with us," said the Caliph
and, turning to Ja'afar, "Take them home with thee, and tomorrow bring
them to my presence that we may chronicle their adventures."
Ja'afar did as the Caliph bade him and the Commander of the Faithful
returned to his palace, but sleep gave no sign of visiting him that
night and he lay awake pondering the mishaps of the three Kalandar
Princes, and impatient to know the history of the ladies and the two
black bitches. No sooner had morning dawned than he went forth and sat
upon the throne of his sovereignty and, turning to Ja'afar, after
all his grandees and officers of state were gathered together, he
said, "Bring me the three ladies and the two bitches and the three
Kalandars."
So Ja'afar fared forth and brought them all before him (and the
ladies were veiled). Then the Minister turned to them and said in
the Caliph's name: "We pardon you your maltreatment of us and your
want of courtesy, in consideration of the kindness which forewent
it, and for that ye knew us not. Now however I would have you to
know that ye stand in presence of the fifth of the sons of Abbas,
Harun al-Rashid, brother of Caliph Musa al-Hadi, son of Al-Mansur, son
of Mohammed the brother of Al-Saffah bin Mohammed who was first of the
royal house. Speak ye therefore before him the truth and the whole
truth!" When the ladies heard Ja'afar's words touching the Commander
of the Faithful, the eldest came forward and said, "O Prince of True
Believers, my story is one which were it graven with needle gravers
upon the eye corners, were a warner for whoso would be warned and an
example for whoso can take profit from example." And she began to tell
ELDEST
THE ELDEST LADY'S TALE

VERILY a strange tale is mine and 'tis this: Yon two black bitches
are my eldest sisters by one mother and father, and these two others
she who beareth upon her the signs of stripes and the third our
procuratrix, are my sisters by another mother. When my father died,
each took her share of the heritage and after a while my mother also
deceased, leaving me and my sisters german three thousand dinars, so
each daughter received her portion of a thousand dinars and I the
same, albe' the youngest. In due course of time my sisters married
with the usual festivities and lived with their husbands, who bought
merchandise with their wives' moneys and set out on their travels
together. Thus they threw me off. My brothers-in-law were absent
with their wives five years, during which period they spent all the
money they had and, becoming bankrupt, deserted my sisters in
foreign parts amid stranger folk.
After five years my eldest sister returned to me in beggar's gear
with her clothes in rags and tatters and a dirty old mantilla, and
truly she was in the foulest and sorriest plight. At first sight I did
not know my own sister, but presently I recognized her and said, "What
state is this?" "O our sister," she replied, "words cannot undo the
done, and the reed of Destiny hath run through what Allah decreed."
Then I sent her to the bath and dressed her in a suit of mine own, and
boiled for her a bouillon and brought her some good wine, and said
to her: "O my sister, thou art the eldest, who still standest to us in
the stead of father and mother, and as for the inheritance which
came to me as to you twain, Allah hath blessed it and prospered it
to me with increase, and my circumstances are easy, for I have made
much money by spinning and cleaning silk. And I and you will share
my wealth alike."
I entreated her with all kindliness and she abode with me a whole
year, during which our thoughts and fancies were always full of our
other sister. Shortly after she too came home in yet fouler and
sorrier plight than that of my eldest sister, and I dealt by her still
more honorably than I had done by the first, and each of them had a
share of my substance. After a time they said to me, "O our sister, we
desire to marry again, for indeed we have not patience to drag on
our days without husbands and to lead the lives of widows
bewitched," and I replied: "O eyes of me! Ye have hitherto seen scanty
weal in wedlock, for nowadays good men and true are become rareties
and curiosities, nor do I deem your projects advisable, as ye have
already made trial of matrimony and have failed." But they would not
accept my advice, and married without my consent. Nevertheless I
gave them outfit and dowries out of my money, and they fared forth
with their mates.
In a mighty little time their husbands played them false and, taking
whatever they could lay hands upon, levanted and left them in the
lurch. Thereupon they came to me ashamed and in abject case and made
their excuses to me, saying: "Pardon our fault and be not wroth with
us, for although thou art younger in years yet art thou older in
wit. Henceforth we will never make mention of marriage, so take us
back as thy handmaidens that we may eat our mouthful." Quoth I,
"Welcome to you, O my sisters, there is naught dearer to me than you."
And I took them in and redoubled my kindness to them. We ceased not to
live after this loving fashion for a full year, when I resolved to
sell my wares abroad and first to fit me a conveyance for Bassorah. So
I equipped a large ship, and loaded her with merchandise and
valuable goods for traffic and with provaunt and all needful for a
voyage, and said to my sisters, "Will ye abide at home whilst I
travel, or would ye prefer to accompany me on the voyage?" "We will
travel with thee," answered they, "for we cannot bear to be parted
from thee." So I divided my moneys into two parts, one to accompany me
and the other to be left in charge of a trusty person, for, as I
said to myself, "Haply some accident may happen to the ship and yet we
remain alive, in which case we shall find on our return what may stand
us in good stead."
I took my two sisters and we went a-voyaging some days and nights,
but the master was careless enough to miss his course, and the ship
went astray with us and entered a sea other than the sea we sought.
For a time we knew naught of this, and the wind blew fair for us ten
days, after which the lookout man went aloft to see about him and
cried, "Good news!" Then he came down rejoicing and said, "I have seen
what seemeth to be a city as 'twere a pigeon." Hereat we rejoiced, and
ere an hour of the day had passed, the buildings showed plain in the
offing, and we asked the Captain, "What is the name of yonder city?"
and he answered: "By Allah, I wot not, for I never saw it before and
never sailed these seas in my life. But since our troubles have ended
in safety, remains for you only to land where with your merchandise,
and if you find selling profitable, sell and make your market of
what is there, and if not, we will rest here two days and provision
ourselves and fare away."
So we entered the port and the Captain went up town and was absent
awhile, after which he returned to us and said, "Arise, go up into the
city and marvel at the works of Allah with His creatures, and pray
to be preserved from His righteous wrath!" So we landed, and going
up into the city, saw at the gate men hending staves in hand, but when
we drew near them, behold, they had been translated by the anger of
Allah and had become stones. Then we entered the city and found all
who therein woned into black stones enstoned. Not an inhabited house
appeared to the espier, nor was there a blower of fire. We were
awe-struck at the sight, and threaded the market streets, where we
found the goods and gold and silver left lying in their places, and we
were glad and said, "Doubtless there is some mystery in all this."
Then we dispersed about the thoroughfares and each busied himself
with collecting the wealth and money and rich stuffs, taking scanty
heed of friend or comrade.
As for myself, I went up to the castle, which was strongly
fortified, and, entering the King's palace by its gate of red gold,
found all the vaiselle of gold and silver, and the King himself seated
in the midst of his chamberlains and nabobs and emirs and wazirs, an
clad in raiment which confounded man's art. I drew nearer and saw
him sitting on a throne encrusted and inlaid with pearls and gems, and
his robes were of gold cloth adorned with jewels of every kind, each
one flashing like a star. Around him stood fifty Mamelukes, white
slaves, clothed in silks of divers sorts, holding their drawn swords
in their hands. But when I drew near to them, lo! all were black
stones. My understanding was confounded at the sight, but I walked
on and entered the great hall of the harem, whose walls I found hung
with tapestries of gold-striped silk, and spread with silken carpets
embroidered with golden flowers. Here I saw the Queen lying at full
length arrayed in robes purfled with fresh young pearls. On her head
was a diadem set with many sorts of gems each fit for a ring, and
around her neck hung collars and necklaces. All her raiment and her
ornaments were in natural state, but she had been turned into a
black stone by Allah's wrath.
Presently I espied an open door, for which I made straight, and
found leading to it a flight of seven steps. So I walked up and came
upon a place pargeted with marble and spread and hung with gold-worked
carpets and tapestry, a-middlemost of which stood a throne of
juniper wood inlaid with pearls and precious stones and set with
bosses of emeralds. In the further wall was an alcove whose
curtains, bestrung with pearls, were let down and I saw a light
issuing therefrom, so I drew near and perceived that the light came
from a precious stone as big as an ostrich egg, set at the upper end
of the alcove upon a little chryselephantine couch of ivory and
gold. And this jewel, blazing like the sun, cast its rays wide and
side. The couch also was spread with all manner of silken stuffs
amazing the gazer with their richness and beauty. I marveled much at
all this, especially when seeing in that place candies ready
lighted, and I said in my mind, "Needs must someone have lighted these
candles." Then I went forth and came to the kitchen and thence to
the buttery and the King's treasure chambers, and continued to explore
the palace and to pace from place to place. I forgot myself in my
awe and marvel at these matters and I was drowned in thought till
the night came on.
Then I would have gone forth, but knowing not the gate, I lost my
way, so I returned to the alcove whither the lighted candles
directed me and sat down upon the couch, and wrapping myself in a
coverlet, after I had repeated somewhat from the Koran, I would have
slept but could not, for restlessness possessed me. When night was
at its noon I heard a voice chanting the Koran in sweetest accents,
but the tone thereof was weak. So I rose, glad to hear the silence
broken, and followed the sound until I reached a closet whose door
stood ajar. Then, peeping through a chink, I considered the place
and lo! it was an oratory wherein was a prayer niche with two wax
candles burning and lamps hanging from the ceiling. In it too was
spread a prayer carpet whereupon sat a youth fair to see, and before
him on its stand was a copy of the Koran, from which he was reading. I
marveled to see him alone alive amongst the people of the city and
entering, saluted him. Whereupon he raised his eyes and returned my
salaam. Quoth I, "Now by the truth of what thou readest in Allah's
Holy Book, I conjure thee to answer my question." He looked upon me
with a smile and said: "O handmaid of Allah, first tell me the cause
of thy coming hither, and I in turn will tell what hath befallen
both me and the people of this city, and what was the reason of my
escaping their doom." So I told him my story, whereat he wondered, and
I questioned him of the people of the city, when he replied, "Have
patience with me for awhile, O my sister!" and, reverently closing the
Holy Book, he laid it up in a satin bag. Then he seated me by his
side, and I looked at him and behold, he was as the moon at its
full, fair of face and rare of form, soft-sided and slight, of
well-proportioned height, and cheek smoothly bright and diffusing
light. I glanced at him with one glance of eyes which caused me a
thousand sighs, and my heart was at once taken captive-wise, so I
asked him, "O my lord and my love, tell me that whereof I questioned
thee," and he answered:
"Hearing is obeying! Know, O handmaid of Allah, that this city was
the capital of my father who is the King thou sawest on the throne
transfigured by Allah's wrath to a black stone, and the Queen thou
foundest in the alcove is my mother. They and all the people of the
city were Magians who fire adored in lieu of the Omnipotent Lord and
were wont to swear by lowe and heat and shade and light, and the
spheres revolving day and night. My father had ne'er a son till he was
blest with me near the last of his days, and he reared me till I
grew up and prosperity anticipated me in all things. Now it is
fortuned there was with us an old woman well stricken in years, a
Moslemah who, inwardly believing in Allah and His Apostle, conformed
outwardly with the religion of my people. And my father placed
thorough confidence in her for that he knew her to be trustworthy
and virtuous, and he treated her with ever-increasing kindness,
believing her to be of his own belief.
"So when I was well-nigh grown up my father committed me to her
charge saying: 'Take him and educate him and teach him the rules of
our faith. Let him have the best instructions and cease not thy
fostering care of him.' So she took me and taught me the tenets of
Al-Islam with the divine ordinances of the wuzu ablution and the
five daily prayers and she made me learn the Koran by rote, often
repeating, 'Serve none save Allah Almighty!' When I had mastered
this much of knowledge, she said to me, 'O my son, keep this matter
concealed from thy sire and reveal naught to him, lest he slay
thee." So I hid it from him, and I abode on this wise for a term of
days, when the old woman died, and the people of the city redoubled in
their impiety and arrogance and the error of their ways.
"One day while they were as wont, behold, they heard a loud and
terrible sound and a crier crying out with a voice like roaring
thunder so every ear could hear, far and near: 'O folk of this city,
leave ye your fire-worshiping and adore Allah the All-compassionate
King!" At this, fear and terror fell upon the citizens and they
crowded to my father (he being King of the city) and asked him:
'What is this awesome voice we have heard; for it hath confounded us
with the excess of its terror?' And he answered: 'Let not a voice
fright you nor shake your steadfast sprite nor turn you back from
the faith which is right.' Their hearts inclined to his words and they
ceased not to worship the fire and they persisted in rebellion for a
full year from the time they heard the first voice. And on the
anniversary came a second cry, and a third at the head of the third
year, each year once.
Still they persisted in their malpractices till one day at break
of dawn, judgment and the wrath of Heaven descended upon them with all
suddenness, and by the visitation of Allah all were metamorphosed into
black stones, they and their beasts and their cattle, and none was
saved save myself, who at the time was engaged in my devotions. From
that day to this I am in the case thou seest, constant in prayer and
fasting and reading and reciting the Koran, but I am indeed grown
weary by reason of my loneliness, having none to bear me company."
Then said I to him (for in very sooth he had won my heart and was
the lord of my life and soul): "O youth, wilt thou fare with me to
Baghdad city and visit the Ulema and men teamed in the law and doctors
of divinity and get thee increase of wisdom and understanding and
theology? And know that she who standeth in thy presence will be thy
handmaid, albeit she be head of her family and mistress over men and
eunuchs and servants and slaves. Indeed my life was no life before
it fell in with thy youth. I have here a ship laden with
merchandise, and in very truth Destiny drove me to this city that I
might come to the knowledge of these matters, for it was fated that we
should meet." And I ceased not to persuade him and speak him fair
and use every art till he consented. I slept that night at his feet
and hardly knowing where I was for excess of joy.
As soon as the next morning dawned (she pursued, addressing the
Caliph), I arose and we entered the treasuries and took thence
whatever was light in weight and great in worth. Then we went down
side by side from the castle to the city, where we were met by the
Captain and my sisters and slaves, who had been seeking for me. When
they saw me, they rejoiced and asked what had stayed me, and I told
them all I had seen and related to them the story of the young
Prince and the transformation wherewith the citizens had been justly
visited. Hereat all marveled, but when my two sisters (these two
bitches, O Commander of the Faithful!) saw me by the side of my
young lover, they jaloused me on his account and were wroth and
plotted mischief against me. We awaited a fair wind and went on
board rejoicing and ready to fly for joy by reason of the goods we had
gotten, but my own greatest joyance was in the youth. And we waited
awhile till the wind blew fair for us and then we set sail and fared
forth.
Now as we sat talking, my sisters asked me, "And what wilt thou do
with this handsome young man?" and I answered, "I purpose to make
him my husband!" Then I turned to him and said: "O my lord, I have
that to propose to thee wherein thou must not cross me, and this it is
that, when we reach Baghdad, my native city, I offer thee my life as
thy handmaiden in holy matrimony, and thou shalt be to me baron and
I will be femme to thee." He answered, "I hear and I obey! Thou art my
lady and my mistress and whatso thou doest I will not gainsay." Then I
turned to my sisters and said: "This is my gain. I content me with
this youth and those who have gotten aught of my property, let them
keep it as their gain with my goodwill." "Thou sayest and doest well,"
answered the twain, but they imagined mischief against me.
We ceased not spooning before a fair wind till we had exchanged
the sea of peril for the seas of safety, and in a few days we made
Bassorah city, whose buildings loomed clear before us as evening fell.
But after we had retired to rest and were sound asleep, my two sisters
arose and took me up, bed and all, and threw me into the sea. They did
the same with the young Prince, who, as he could not swim, sank and
was drowned, and Allah enrolled him in the noble army of martyrs. As
for me, would Heaven I had been drowned with him, but Allah deemed
that I should be of the saved, so when I awoke and found myself in the
sea and saw the ship making off like a flash of lightning, He threw in
my way a piece of timber, which I bestrided, and the waves tossed me
to and fro till they cast me upon an island coast, a high land and
an uninhabited. I landed and walked about the island the rest of the
night, and when morning dawned, I saw a rough track barely fit for
child of Adam to tread, leading to what proved a shallow ford
connecting island and mainland.
As soon as the sun had risen I spread my garments to dry in its
rays, and ate of the fruits of the island and drank of its waters.
Then I set out along the foot track and ceased not walking till I
reached the mainland. Now when there remained between me and the
city but a two hours' journey, behold, a great serpent, the bigness of
a date palm, came fleeing toward me in all haste, gliding along now to
the right, then to the left, till she was close upon me, whilst her
tongue lolled groundward a span long and swept the dust as she went.
She was pursued by a dragon who was not longer than two lances, and of
slender build about the bulk of a spear, and although her terror
lent her speed and she kept wriggling from side to side, he overtook
her and seized her by the tail, whereat her tears streamed down and
her tongue was thrust out in her agony. I took pity on her and,
picking up a stone and calling upon Allah for aid, threw it at the
dragon's head with such force that he died then and there, and the
serpent, opening a pair of wings, flew into the lift and disappeared
from before my eyes.
I sat down marveling over that adventure, but I was weary and,
drowsiness overcoming me, I slept where I was for a while. When I
awoke I found a jet-black damsel sitting at my feet shampooing them,
and by her side stood two black bitches (my sisters, O Commander of
the Faithful!). I was ashamed before her and, sitting up, asked her,
"O my sister, who and what art thou?" and she answered: "How soon hast
thou forgotten me! I am she for whom thou wroughtest a good deed and
sowedest the seed of gratitude and slewest her foe, for I am the
serpent whom by Allah's aidance thou didst just now deliver from the
dragon. I am a Jinniyah and he was a Jinn who hated me, and none saved
my life from him save thou. As soon as thou freedest me from him I
flew on the wind to the ship whence thy sisters threw thee, and
removed all that was therein to thy house. Then I ordered my attendant
Marids to sink the ship, and I transformed thy two sisters into
these black bitches, for I know all that hath passed between them
and thee. But as for the youth, of a truth he is drowned."
So saying, she flew up with me and the bitches, and presently set us
down on the terrace roof of my house, wherein I found ready stored the
whole of what property was in my ship, nor was aught of it missing.
"Now (continued the serpent that was), I swear by all engraven on
the seal ring of Solomon (with whom be peace!) unless thou deal to
each of these bitches three hundred stripes every day I will come
and imprison thee forever under the earth." I answered, "Hearkening
and obedience!" and away she flew. But before going she again
charged me saying, "I again swear by Him who made the two seas flow
(and this be my second oath), if thou gainsay me I will come and
transform thee like thy sisters." Since then I have never failed, O
Commander of the Faithful, to beat them with that number of blows till
their blood flows with my tears, I pitying them the while, and well
they wot that their being scourged is no fault of mine and they accept
my excuses. And this is my tale and my history!
THE TALE OF THE THREE APPLES

THEY relate, O King of the Age and Lord of the Time and of these
days, that the Caliph Harun al-Rashid summoned his Wazir Ja'afar one
night and said to him: "I desire to go down into the city and question
the common folk concerning the conduct of those charged with its
governance, and those of whom they complain we will depose from office
and those whom they commend we will promote." Quoth Ja'afar,
"Hearkening and obedience!"
So the Caliph went down with Ja'afar and the eunuch Masrur to the
town and walked about the streets and markets, and as they were
threading a narrow alley, they came upon a very old man with a fishing
net and crate to carry small fish on his head, and in his hands a
staff, and as he walked at a leisurely pace, he repeated these lines:

"They say me: 'Thou shinest a light to mankind
With thy lore as the night which the Moon doth uplight!'
I answer, 'A truce to your jests and your gibes.
Without luck what is learning?- a poor-devil wight!
If they take me to pawn with my lore in my pouch,
With my volumes to read and my ink case to write,
For one day's provision they never could pledge me,
As likely on Doomsday to draw bill at sight.'
How poorly, indeed, doth it fare wi' the poor,
With his pauper existence and beggarly plight.
In summer he faileth provision to find,
In winter the fire pot's his only delight.
The street dogs with bite and with bark to him rise,
And each losel receives him with bark and with bite.
If he lift up his voice and complain of his wrong,
None pities or heeds him, however he's right,
And when sorrows and evils like these he must brave,
His happiest homestead were down in the grave."

When the Caliph heard his verses, he said to Ja'afar, "See this poor
man and note his verses, for surely they point to his necessities."
Then he accosted him and asked, "O Sheikh, what be thine
occupation?" And the poor man answered: "O my lord, I am a fisherman
with a family to keep and I have been out between midday and this
time, and not a thing hath Allah made my portion wherewithal to feed
my family. I cannot even pawn myself to buy them a supper, and I
hate and disgust my life and I hanker after death." Quoth the
Caliph, "Say me, wilt thou return with us to Tigris' bank and cast thy
net on my luck, and whatsoever turneth up I will buy of thee for a
hundred gold pieces?" The man rejoiced when he heard these words and
said: "On my head be it! I will go back with you," and, returning with
them riverward, made a cast and waited a while.
Then he hauled in the rope and dragged the net ashore and there
appeared in it a chest, padlocked and heavy. The Caliph examined it
and lifted it, finding, it weighty, so he gave the fisherman two
hundred dinars and sent him about his business whilst Masrur, aided by
the Caliph, carried the chest to the palace and set it down and
lighted the candles. Ja'afar and Masrur then broke it open and found
therein a basket of palm leaves corded with red worsted. This they cut
open and saw within it a piece of carpet, which they lifted out, and
under it was a woman's mantilla folded in four, which they pulled out,
and at the bottom of the chest they came upon a young lady, fair as
a silver ingot, slain and cut into nineteen pieces. When the Caliph
looked upon her he cried, "Alas!" and tears ran down his cheeks and
turning to Ja'afar, he said: "O dog of Wazirs, shall folk be
murdered in our reign and be cast into the river to be a burden and
a responsibility for us on the Day of Doom? By Allah, we must avenge
this woman on her murderer, and he shall be made die the worst of
deaths!"
And presently he added: "Now, as surely as we are descended from the
Sons of Abbas, if thou bring us not him who slew her, that we do her
justice on him, I will hang thee at the gate of my palace, thee and
forty of thy kith and kin by thy side." And the Caliph was wroth
with exceeding rage. Quoth Ja'afar, "Grant me three days' delay,"
and quoth the Caliph, "We grant thee this." So Ja'afar went out from
before him and returned to his own house, full of sorrow and saying to
himself: "How shall I find him who murdered this damsel, that I may
bring him before the Caliph? If I bring other than the murderer, it
will be laid to my charge by the Lord. In very sooth I wot not what to
do." He kept his house three days, and on the fourth day the Caliph
sent one of the chamberlains for him, and as he came into the
presence, asked him, "Where is the murderer of the damsel?" To which
answered Ja'afar, "O Commander of the Faithful, am I inspector of
murdered folk that I should ken who killed her?" The Caliph was
furious at his answer and bade hang him before the palace gate, and
commanded that a crier cry through the streets of Baghdad: "Whoso
would see the hanging of Ja'afar, the Barmaki, Wazir of the Caliph,
with forty of the Barmecides, his cousins and kinsmen, before the
palace gate, let him come and let him look!" The people flocked out
from all the quarters of the city to witness the execution of
Ja'afar and his kinsmen, not knowing the cause.
Then they set up the gallows and made Ja'afar and the others stand
underneath in readiness for execution, but whilst every eye was
looking for the Caliph's signal, and the crowd wept for Ja'afar and
his cousins of the Barmecides, lo and behold! a young man fair of face
and neat of dress and of favor like the moon raining fight, with
eyes black and bright, and brow flower-white, and cheeks red as rose
and young down where the beard grows, and a mole like a grain of
ambergris, pushed his way through the people till he stood immediately
before the Wazir and said to him: "Safety to thee from this strait,
O Prince of the Emirs and Asylum of the Poor! I am the man who slew
the woman ye found in the chest, so hang me for her and do her justice
on me!" When Ja'afar heard the youth's confession he rejoiced at his
own deliverance, but grieved and sorrowed for the fair youth.
And whilst they were yet talking, behold, another man well
stricken in years pressed forward through the people and thrust his
way amid the populace till he came to Ja'afar and the youth, whom he
saluted, saying: "Ho, thou the Wazir and Prince sans peer! Believe not
the words of this youth. Of a surety none murdered the damsel but I.
Take her wreak on me this moment, for an thou do not thus, I will
require it of thee before Almighty Allah." Then quoth the young man:
"O Wazir, this is an old man in his dotage who wotteth not whatso he
saith ever, and I am he who murdered her, so do thou avenge her on
me!" Quoth the old man: "O my son, thou art young and desirest the
joys of the world and I am old and weary and surfeited with the world.
I will offer my life as a ransom for thee and for the Wazir and his
cousins. No one murdered the damsel but I, so Allah upon thee, make
haste to hang me, for no life is left in me now that hers is gone."
The Wazir marveled much at all this strangeness and taking the young
man and the old man, carried them before the Caliph, where, after
kissing the ground seven times between his hands, he said, "O
Commander of the Faithful, I bring thee the murderer of the damsel!"
"Where is he?" asked the Caliph, and Ja'afar answered: "This young man
saith, 'I am the murderer,' and this old man, giving him the lie,
saith, 'I am the murderer,' and behold, here are the twain standing
before thee." The Caliph looked at the old man and the young man and
asked, "Which of you killed the girl?" The young man replied, "No
one slew her save I," and the old man answered, "Indeed none killed
her but myself." Then said the Caliph to Ja'afar, "Take the twain
and hang them both." But Ja'afar rejoined, "Since one of them was
the murderer, to hang the other were mere injustice." "By Him who
raised the firmament and dispread the earth like a carpet," cried
the youth, "I am he who slew the damsel," and he went on to describe
the manner of her murder and the basket, the mantilla, and the bit
of carpet- in fact, all that the Caliph had found upon her.
So the Caliph was certified that the young man was the murderer,
whereat he wondered and asked him: "What was the cause of thy
wrongfully doing this damsel to die, and what made thee confess the
murder without the bastinado, and what brought thee here to yield up
thy life, and what made thee say 'Do her wreak upon me'?" The youth
answered: "Know, O Commander of the Faithful, that this woman was my
wife and the mother of my children, also my first cousin and the
daughter of my paternal uncle, this old man, who is my father's own
brother. When I married her she was a maid, and Allah blessed me
with three male children by her. She loved me and served me and I
saw no evil in her, for I also loved her with fondest love. Now on the
first day of this month she fell ill with grievous sickness and I
fetched in physicians to her, but recovery came to her little by
little, and when I wished her to go to the hammam bath, she said,
'There is something I long for before I go to the bath, and I long for
it with an exceeding longing.' 'To hear is to comply,' said I. 'And
what is it?' Quoth she, 'I have a queasy craving for an apple, to
smell it and bite a bit of it.' I replied, 'Hadst thou a thousand
longings, I would try to satisfy them!' So I went on the instant
into the city and sought for apples, but could find none, yet had they
cost a gold piece each, would I have bought them. I was vexed at
this and went home and said, 'O daughter of my uncle, by Allah I can
find none!' She was distressed, being yet very weakly, and her
weakness increased greatly on her that night and I felt anxious and
alarmed on her account.
"As soon as morning dawned I went out again and made the round of
the gardens, one by one, but found no apples anywhere. At last there
met me an old gardener, of whom I asked about them and he answered, 'O
my son, this fruit is a rarity with us and is not now to be found save
in the garden of the Commander of the Faithful at Bassorah, where
the gardener keepeth it for the Caliph's eating.' I returned to my
house troubled by my ill success, and my love for my wife and my
affection moved me to undertake the journey, So I at me ready and
set out and traveled fifteen days and nights, going and coming, and
brought her three apples, which I bought from the gardener for three
dinars. But when I went in to my wife and set them before her, she
took no pleasure in them and let them lie by her side, for her
weakness and fever had increased on her, and her malady lasted without
abating ten days, after which she began to recover health.
"So I left my house and betaking me to my shop, sat there buying and
selling. And about midday, behold, a great ugly black slave, long as a
lance and broad as a bench, passed by my shop holding in hand one of
the three apples, wherewith he was playing, Quoth I, `O my good slave,
tell me whence thou tookest that apple, that I may get the like of
it?' He laughed and answered: `I got it from my mistress, for I had
been absent and on my return I found her lying ill with three apples
by her side, and she said to me, "My horned wittol of a husband made a
journey for them to Bassorah and bought them for three dinars." 'So
I ate and drank with her and took this one from her.' When I heard
such words from the slave, O Commander of the Faithful, the world grew
black before my face, and I arose and locked up my shop and went
home beside myself for excess of rage. I looked for the apples and
finding, only two of the three, asked my wife, `O my cousin, where
is the third apple?' And raising her head languidly, she answered,
`I wot not, O son of my uncle, where 'tis gone!' This convinced me
that the slave had spoken the truth, so I took a knife and coming
behind her, got upon her breast without a word said and cut her
throat. Then I hewed off her head and her limbs in pieces and,
wrapping her in her mantilla and a rag of carpet, hurriedly sewed up
the whole, which I set in a chest and, locking it tight, loaded it
on my he-mule and threw it into the Tigris with my own hands.
"So Allah upon thee, O Commander of the Faithful, make haste to hang
me, as I fear lest she appeal for vengeance on Resurrection Day. For
when I had thrown her into the river and one knew aught of it, as I
went back home I found my eldest son crying, and yet he knew naught of
what I had done with his mother. I asked him, 'What hath made thee
weep, my boy?' and he answered, 'I took one of the three apples
which were by my mammy and went down into the lane to play with my
brethren when behold, a big long black slave snatched it from my
hand and said, "Whence hadst thou this?" Quoth I, "My father
traveled far for it, and brought it from Bassorah for my mother, who
was ill, and two other apples for which he paid three ducats." 'He
took no heed of my words and I asked for the apple a second and a
third time, but he cuffed me and kicked me and went off with it. I was
afraid lest my mother should swinge me on account of the apple, so for
fear of her I went with my brother outside the city and stayed there
till evening closed in upon us, and indeed I am in fear of her. And
now, by Allah, O my father, say nothing to her of this or it may add
to her ailment!"
"When I heard what my child said, I knew that the slave was he who
had foully slandered my wife, the daughter of my uncle, and was
certified that I had slain her wrongfully. So I wept with exceeding
weeping and presently this old man, my paternal uncle and her
father, came in, and I told him what had happened and he sat down by
my side and wept, and we ceased not weeping till midnight. We have
kept up mourning for her these last five days and we lamented her in
the deepest sorrow for that she was unjustly done to die. This came
from the gratuitous lying of the slave, the blackamoor, and this was
the manner of my killing her. So I conjure thee, by the honor of thine
ancestors, make haste to kill me and do her justice upon me, as
there is no living for me after her!"
The Caliph marveled at his words and said: "By Allah, the young
man is excusable. I will hang none but the accursed slave, and I
will do a deed which shall comfort the ill-at-ease and suffering,
and which shall please the All-glorious King." Then he turned to
Ja'afar and said to him: "Bring before me this accursed slave who
was the sole cause of this calamity, and if thou bring him not
before me within three days, thou shalt be slain in his stead." So
Ja'afar fared forth weeping and saying: "Two deaths have already beset
me, nor shall the crock come off safe from every shock. In this matter
craft and cunning are of no avail, but He who preserved my life the
first time can preserve it a second time. By Allah, I will not leave
my house during the three days of life which remain to me, and let the
Truth (whose perfection be praised!) do e'en as He will." So he kept
his house three days, and on the fourth day he summoned the kazis
and legal witnesses and made his last will and testament, and took
leave of his children weeping.
Presently in came a messenger from the Caliph and said to him:
"The Commander of the Faithful is in the most violent rage that can
be, and he sendeth to seek thee and he sweareth that the day shall
certainly not pass without thy being hanged unless the slave be
forthcoming," When Ja'afar heard this he wept, and his children and
slaves and all who were in the house wept with him. After he had
bidden adieu to everybody except this youngest daughter, he
proceeded to farewell her, for he loved this wee one, who was a
beautiful child, more than all his other children. And he pressed
her to his breast and kissed her and wept bitterly at parting from
her, when he felt something round inside the bosom of her dress and
asked her, "O my little maid, what is in the bosom pocket?" "O my
father," she replied, "it is an apple with the name of our Lord the
Caliph written upon it. Rayhan our slave brought it to me four days
ago, and would not let me have it till I gave him two dinars for
it." When Ja'afar heard speak of the slave and the apple, he was
glad and put his hand into his child's pocket and drew out the apple
and knew it and rejoiced, saying, "O ready Dispeller of trouble!"
Then he bade them bring the slave and said to him, "Fie upon thee,
Rayhan! Whence haddest thou this apple?" "By Allah, O my master," he
replied, "though a he may get a man once off, yet may truth get him
off, and well off, again and again. I did not steal this apple from
thy palace nor from the gardens of the Commander of the Faithful.
The fact is that five days ago, as I was walking along one of the
alleys of this city, I saw some little ones at play and this apple
in hand of one of them. So I snatched it from him and beat him, and he
cried and said, 'O youth, this apple is my mother's and she is ill.
She told my father how she longed for an apple, so he traveled to
Bassorah and bought her three apples for three gold pieces, and I took
one of them to play withal.' He wept again, but I paid no heed to what
he said and carried it off and brought it here, and my little lady
bought it of me for two dinars of gold. And this is the whole story."
When Ja'afar heard his words he marveled that the murder of the
damsel and all this misery should have been caused by his slave. He
grieved for the relation of the slave to himself while rejoicing
over his own deliverance, and he repeated these lines:

"If ill betide thee through thy slave,
Make him forthright thy sacrifice.
A many serviles thou shalt find,
But life comes once and never twice."

Then he took the slave's hand and, leading him to the Caliph,
related the story from first to last, and the Caliph marveled with
extreme astonishment, and laughed till he fell on his back, and
ordered that the story be recorded and be made public amongst the
people.
But Ja'afar said, "Marvel not, O Commander of the Faithful, at this
adventure, for it is not more wondrous than the History of the Wazir
Nur al-Din Ali of Egypt and his brother Shams al-Din Mohammed."
Quoth the Caliph, "Out with it, but what can be stranger than this
story?" And Ja'afar answered, "O Commander of the Faithful, I will not
tell it thee save on condition that thou pardon my slave." And the
Caliph rejoined, "If it be indeed more wondrous than that of the three
apples, I grant thee his blood, and if not I will surely slay thy
slave." So Ja'afar began in these words the
TALE OF NUR AL-DIN ALI AND HIS SON BADR AL-DIN HASAN

KNOW, O Commander of the Faithful, that in times of yore the land of
Egypt was ruled by a Sultan endowed with justice and generosity, one
who loved the pious poor and companied with the Ulema and learned men.
And he had a Wazir, a wise and an experienced, well versed in
affairs and in the art of government. This Minister, who was a very
old man, had two sons, as they were two moons. Never man saw the
like of them for beauty and grace- the elder called Shams al-Din
Mohammed and the younger Nur al-Din Ali. But the younger excelled
the elder in seemliness and pleasing semblance, so that folk heard his
fame in far countries and men flocked to Egypt for the purpose of
seeing him.
In course of time their father, the Wazir, died and was deeply
regretted and mourned by the Sultan, who sent for his two sons and,
investing them with dresses of honor, said to them, "Let not your
hearts be troubled, for ye shall stand in your father's stead and be
joint Ministers of Egypt." At this they rejoiced and kissed the ground
before him and performed the ceremonial mourning for their father
during a full month, after which time they entered upon the wazirate
and the power passed into their hands as it had been in the hands of
their father, each doing duty for a week at a time. They lived under
the same roof and their word was one, and whenever the Sultan
desired to travel they took it by turns to be in attendance on him.
It fortuned one night that the Sultan purposed setting out on a
journey next morning, and the elder, whose turn it was to accompany
him, was sitting conversing with his brother and said to him: "O my
brother, it is my wish that we both marry, I and thou, two sisters,
and go in to our wives on one and the same night." "Do, O my
brother, as thou desirest," the younger replied, "for right is thy
recking and surely I will comply with thee in whatso thou sayest."
So they agreed upon this, and quoth Shams al-Din: "If Allah decree
that we marry two damsels and go in to them on the same night, and
they shall conceive on their bride nights and bear children to us on
the same day, and by Allah's will thy wife bear thee a son and my wife
bear me a daughter, let us wed them either to other, for they will
be cousins." Quoth Nur al-Din: "O my brother, Shams al-Din, what dower
wilt thou require from my son for thy daughter?" Quoth Shams al-Din:
"I will take three thousand dinars and three pleasure gardens and
three farms, and it would not be seemly that the youth make contract
for less than this."
When Nur al-Din heard such demand, he said: "What manner of dower is
this thou wouldest impose upon my son? Wottest thou not that we are
brothers and both by Allah's grace Wazirs and equal in office? It
behooveth thee to offer thy daughter to my son without marriage
settlement, or, if one need be, it should represent a mere nominal
value by way of show to the world. For thou knowest that the masculine
is worthier than the feminine, and my son is a male and our memory
will be preserved by him, not by thy daughter." "But what," said Shams
al-Din, "is she to have?" And Nur al-Din continued, "Through her we
shall not be remembered among the emirs of the earth, but I see thou
wouldest do with me according to the saying, 'An thou wouldst bluff of
a buyer, ask him high price and higher,' or as did a man who they
say went to a friend and asked something of him being in necessity and
was answered, 'Bismillah, in the name of Allah, I will do all what
thou requirest, but come tomorrow!' Whereupon the other replied in
this verse:

'When he who is asked a favor saith "Tomorrow,"
The wise man wots 'tis vain to beg or borrow.'

Quoth Shams al-Din: "Basta! I see thee fail in respect to me by
making thy son of more account than my daughter, and 'tis plain that
thine understanding is of the meanest and that thou lackest manners.
Thou remindest me of thy partnership in the wazirate, when I
admitted thee to share with me only in pity for thee, and not
wishing to mortify thee, and that thou mightest help me as a manner of
assistant. But since thou talkest on this wise, by Allah, I will never
marry my daughter to thy son- no, not for her weight in gold!" When
Nur al-Din heard his brother's words, he waxed wroth and said: "And I
too, I will never, never marry my son to thy daughter- no, not to keep
from my lips the cup of death." Shams al-Din replied: "I would not
accept him as a husband for her, and he is not worth a paring of her
nail. Were I not about to travel, I would make an example of thee.
However, when I return thou shalt see, and I will show thee, how I can
assert my dignity and vindicate my honor. But Allah doeth whatso He
willeth."
When Nur al-Din heard this speech from his brother, he was filled
with fury and lost his wits for rage, but he hid what he felt and held
his peace; and each of the brothers passed the night in a place far
apart, wild with wrath against the other.
As soon as morning dawned the Sultan fared forth in state and
crossed over from Cairo to Jizah and made for the Pyramids,
accompanied by the Wazir Shams al-Din, whose turn of duty it was,
whilst his brother Nur al-Din, who passed the night in sore rage, rose
with the light and prayed the dawn prayer. Then he betook himself to
his treasury and, taking a small pair of saddlebags, filled them
with gold. And he called to mind his brother's threats and the
contempt wherewith he had treated him, and he repeated these couplets:

"Travel! And thou shalt find new friends for old ones left behind.
Toil! For the sweets of human life by toil and moil are found.
The stay-at-home no honor wins, nor aught attains but want,
So leave thy place of birth and wander all the world around!
I've seen, and very oft I've seen, how standing water stinks,
And only flowing sweetens it and trotting makes it sound.
And were the moon forever full and ne'er to wax or wane,
Man would not strain his watchful eyes to see its gladsome round.
Except the lion leave his lair, he ne'er would fell his game,
Except the arrow leave the bow, ne'er had it reached its bound.
Gold dust is dust the while it lies untraveled in the mine,
And aloes wood mere fuel is upon its native ground.
And gold shall win his highest worth when from his goal ungoaled,
And aloes sent to foreign parts grows costlier than gold."

When he ended his verse, he bade one of his pages saddle him his
Nubian mare mule with her padded selle. Now she was a dapple-gray,
with ears like reed pens and legs like columns and a back high and
strong as a dome builded on pillars. Her saddle was of gold cloth
and her stirrups of Indian steel, and her housing of Ispahan velvet.
She had trappings which would serve the Chosroes, and she was like a
bride adorned for her wedding night. Moreover, he bade lay on her back
a piece of silk for a seat, and a prayer carpet under which were his
saddlebags. When this was done, he said to his pages and slaves: "I
purpose going forth a-pleasuring outside the city on the road to
Kalyub town, and I shall be three nights abroad, so let none of you
follow me, for there is something straiteneth my breast." Then he
mounted the mule in haste and, taking with him some provaunt for the
way, set out from Cairo and faced the open and uncultivated country
lying around it.
About noontide he entered Bilbays city, where he dismounted and
stayed awhile to rest himself and his mule and ate some of his
victual. He bought at Bilbays all he wanted for himself and forage for
his mule and then fared on the way of the waste. Toward nightfall he
entered a town called Sa'adiyah, where he alighted and took out
somewhat of his viaticum and ate. Then he spread his strip of silk
on the sand and set the saddlebags under his head and slept in the
open air, for he was still overcome with anger. When morning dawned he
mounted and rode onward till he reached the Holy City, Jerusalem,
and thence he made Aleppo, where he dismounted at one of the
caravanserais and abode three days to rest himself and the mule and to
smell the air. Then, being determined to travel afar and Allah
having written safety in his fate, he set out again, mending without
wotting whither he was going. And having fallen in with certain
couriers, he stinted not traveling till he had reached Bassorah
city, albeit he knew not what the place was.
It was dark night when he alighted at the khan, so he spread out his
prayer carpet and took down the saddlebags from the back of the mule
and gave her with her furniture in charge of the doorkeeper that he
might walk her about. The man took her and did as he was bid. Now it
so happened that the Wazir of Bassorah, a man shot in years, was
sitting at the lattice window of his palace opposite the khan and he
saw the porter walking the mule up and down. He was struck by her
trappings of price, and thought her a nice beast fit for the riding of
wazirs or even of royalties, and the more he looked, the more was he
perplexed, till at last he said to one of his pages, "Bring hither yon
doorkeeper." The page went and returned to the Wazir with the
porter, who kissed the ground between his hands, and the Minister
asked him, "Who is the owner of yonder mule, and what manner of man is
he?" and he answered, "O my lord, the owner of this mule is a comely
young man of pleasant manners, withal grave and dignified, and
doubtless one of the sons of the merchants."
When the Wazir heard the doorkeeper's words he arose forthright and,
mounting his horse, rode to the khan and went in to Nur al-Din, who,
seeing the Minister making toward him, rose to his feet and advanced
to meet him and saluted him. The Wazir welcomed him to Bassorah and
dismounting, embraced him and made him sit down by his side, and said,
"O my son, whence comest thou, and what dost thou seek?" "O my
lord," Nur al-Din replied, "I have come from Cairo city, of which my
father was whilom Wazir, but he hath been removed to the grace of
Allah." And he informed him of all that had befallen him from
beginning to end, adding, "I am resolved never to return home before I
have seen all the cities and countries of the world." When the Wazir
heard this, he said to him: "O my son, hearken not to the voice of
passion lest it cast thee into the pit, for indeed many regions be
waste places, and I fear for thee the turns of Time." Then he let load
the saddlebags and the silk and prayer carpets on the mule and carried
Nur al-Din to his own house, where he lodged him in a pleasant place
and entreated him honorably and made much of him, for he inclined to
love him with exceeding love.
After a while he said to him: "O my son, here am I left a man in
years and have no male children, but Allah hath blessed me with a
daughter who eveneth thee in beauty, and I have rejected all her
many suitors, men of rank and substance. But affection for thee hath
entered into my heart. Say me, then, wilt thou be to her a husband? If
thou accept this, I will go with thee to the Sultan of Bassorah and
will tell him that thou art my nephew, the son of my brother, and
bring thee to be appointed Wazir in my place that I may keep the
house, for, by Allah, O my son, I am stricken in years and aweary."
When Nur al-Din heard the Wazir's words, he bowed his head in
modesty and said, "To hear is to obey!" At this the Wazir rejoiced and
bade his servants prepare a feast and decorate the great assembly hall
wherein they were wont to celebrate the marriages of emirs and
grandees. Then he assembled his friends and the notables of the
reign and the merchants of Bassorah, and when all stood before him
he said to them: "I had a brother who was Wazir in the land of
Egypt, and Allah Almighty blessed him with two sons, whilst to me,
as well ye wot, He hath given a daughter. My brother charged me to
marry my daughter to one of his sons, whereto I assented, and when
my daughter was of age to marry, he sent me one of his sons, the young
man now present, to whom I purpose marrying her, drawing up the
contract and celebrating the night of unveiling with due ceremony. For
he is nearer and dearer to me than a stranger, and after the
wedding, if he please he shall abide with me, or if he desire to
travel, I will forward him and his wife to his father's home."
Hereat one and all replied, "Right is thy recking," and they looked at
the bridegroom and were pleased with him.
So the Wazir sent for the kazi and legal witnesses and they wrote
out the marriage contract, after which the slaves perfumed the
guests with incense, and served them with sherbet of sugar and
sprinkled rose-water on them, and all went their ways. Then the
Wazir bade his servants take Nur al-Din to the hammam baths and sent
him a suit of the best of his own especial raiment, and napkins and
towelry and bowls and perfume-burners and all else that was
required. And after the bath, when he came out and donned the dress,
he was even as the full moon on the fourteenth night, and he mounted
his mule and stayed not till he reached the Wazir's palace. There he
dismounted and went in to the Minister and kissed his hands, and the
Wazir bade him welcome, saying: "Arise and go in to thy wife this
night, and on the morrow I will carry thee to the Sultan, and pray
Allah bless thee with all manner of weal." So Nur al-Din left him
and went in to his wife the Wazir's daughter.
Thus far concerning him, but as regards his elder brother, Shams
al-Din, he was absent with the Sultan a long time, and when he
returned from his journey he found not his brother, and he asked of
his servants and slaves, who answered: "On the day of thy departure
with the Sultan, thy brother mounted his mule fully caparisoned as for
state procession saying, 'I am going towards Kalyub town, and I
shall be absent one day or at most two days, for my breast is
straitened, and let none of you follow me.' Then he fared forth, and
from that time to this we have heard no tidings of him." Shams
al-Din was greatly troubled at the sudden disappearance of his brother
and grieved with exceeding grief at the loss, and said to himself:
"This is only because I chided and upbraided him the night before my
departure with the Sultan. Haply his feelings were hurt, and he
fared forth a-traveling, but I must send after him." Then he went in
to the Sultan and acquainted him with what had happened and wrote
letters and dispatches, which he sent by running footmen to his
deputies in every province. But during the twenty days of his
brother's absence Nur al-Din had traveled far and had reached
Bassorah, so after diligent search the messengers failed to come at
any news of him and returned. Thereupon Shams al-Din despaired of
finding his brother and said: "Indeed I went beyond all bounds in what
I said to him with reference to the marriage of our children. Would
that I had not done so! This all cometh of my lack of wit and want
of caution."
Soon after this he sought in marriage the daughter of a Cairene
merchant, and drew up the marriage contract, and went in to her. And
it so chanced that on the very same night when Shams al-Din went in to
his wife, Nur al-Din also went in to his wife, the daughter of the
Wazir of Bassorah, this being in accordance with the will of
Almighty Allah, that He might deal the decrees of Destiny to His
creatures. Furthermore, it was as the two brothers had said, for their
two wives became pregnant by them on the same night and both were
brought to bed on the same day, the wife of Shams al-Din, Wazir of
Egypt, of a daughter, never in Cairo was seen a fairer, and the wife
of Nur al-Din of a son, none more beautiful was ever seen in his time,
as one of the poets said concerning the like of him:

That jetty hair, that glossy brow,
My slender waisted youth, of thine,
Can darkness round creation throw,
Or make it brightly shine.
The dusky mole that faintly shows
Upon his cheek, ah! blame it not.
The tulip flower never blows
Undarkened by its spot.

They named the boy Badr al-Din Hasan and his grandfather, the
Wazir of Bassorah, rejoiced in him, and on the seventh day after his
birth made entertainments and spread banquets which would befit the
birth of kings' sons and heirs. Then he took Nur al-Din and went up
with him to the Sultan, and his son-in-law, when he came before the
presence of the King, kissed the ground between his hands and repeated
these verses, for he was ready of speech, firm of sprite and good in
heart, as he was goodly in form:

"The world's best joys long be thy lot, my lord!
And last while darkness and the dawn o'erlap.
O thou who makest, when we greet thy gifts,
The world to dance and Time his palms to clap."

Then the Sultan rose up to honor them and, thanking Nur al-Din for
his fine compliment, asked the Wazir, "Who may be this young man?" And
the Minister answered, "This is my brother's son," and related his
tale from first to last. Quoth the Sultan, "And how comes he to be thy
nephew and we have never heard speak of him?" Quoth the Minister: "O
our lord the Sultan, I had a brother who was Wazir in the land of
Egypt and he died, leaving two sons, whereof the elder hath taken
his father's place and the younger, whom thou seest, came to me. I had
sworn I would not marry my daughter to any but him, so when he came
I married him to her. Now he is young and I am old, my hearing is
dulled and my judgment is easily fooled, wherefore I would solicit our
lord the Sultan to set him in my stead, for he is my brother's son and
my daughter's husband, and he is fit for the wazirate, being a man
of good counsel and ready contrivance."
The Sultan looked at Nur al-Din and liked him, so he stablished
him in office as the Wazir had requested and formally appointed him,
presenting him with a splendid dress of honor and a she-mule from
his private stud, and assigning to him solde, stipends, and
supplies. Nur al-Din kissed the Sultan's hand and went home, he and
his father-in-law, joying with exceeding joy and saying, "All this
followeth on the heels of the boy Hasan's birth!" Next day he
presented himself before the King and, kissing the ground, began
repeating:

"Grow thy weal and thy welfare day by day,
And thy luck prevail o'er the envier's spite,
And ne'er cease thy days to be white as day,
And thy foeman's day to be black as night!"

The Sultan bade him be seated on the Wazir's seat, so he sat down
and applied himself to the business of his office and went into the
cases of the lieges and their suits, as is the wont of Ministers,
while the Sultan watched him and wondered at his wit and good sense,
judgment and insight. Wherefor he loved him and took him into
intimacy. When the Divan was dismissed, Nur al-Din returned to his
house and related what had passed to his father-in-law, who
rejoiced. And thenceforward Nur al-Din ceased not so to administer the
wazirate that the Sultan would not be parted from him night or day,
and increased his stipends and supplies till his means were ample
and he became the owner of ships that made trading voyages at his
command, as well as of Mamelukes and blackamoor slaves. And he laid
out many estates and set up Persian wheels and planted gardens.
When his son Hasan was four years of age, the old Wazir deceased,
and he made for his father-in-law a sumptuous funeral ceremony ere
he was laid in the dust. Then he occupied himself with the education
of this son, and when the boy waxed strong and came to the age of
seven, he brought him a fakir, a doctor of law and religion, to
teach him in his own house, and charged him to give him a good
education and instruct him in politeness and good manners. So the
tutor made the boy read and retain all varieties of useful
knowledge, after he had spent some years in learning the Koran by
heart, and he ceased not to grow in beauty and stature and symmetry.
The professor brought him up in his father's palace, teaching him
reading, writing and ciphering, theology, and belles lettres. His
grandfather, the old Wazir, had bequeathed to him the whole of his
property when he was but four years of age.
Now during all the time of his earliest youth he had never left
the house till on a certain day his father, the Wazir Nur al-Din, clad
him in his best clothes and, mounting him on a she-mule of the finest,
went up with him to the Sultan. The King gazed at Badr al-Din Hasan
and marveled at his comeliness and loved him. As for the city folk,
when he first passed before them with his father, they marveled at his
exceeding beauty and sat down on the road expecting his return, that
they might look their fill on his beauty and loveliness and symmetry
and perfect grace. And they blessed him aloud as he passed and
called upon Almighty Allah to bless him. The Sultan entreated the
lad with especial favor and said to his father, "O Wazir, thou must
needs bring him daily to my presence." Whereupon he replied, "I hear
and I obey."
Then the Wazir returned home with his son and ceased not to carry
him to court till he reached the age of twenty. At that time the
Minister sickened and, sending for Badr al-Din Hasan, said to him:
"Know, O my son, that the world of the present is but a house of
mortality, while that the future is a house of eternity. I wish,
before I die, to bequeath thee certain charges, and do thou take
heed of what I say and incline thy heart to my words." Then he gave
him his last instructions as to the properest way of dealing with
his neighbors and the due management of his affairs, after which he
called to mind his brother and his home and his native land and wept
over his separation from those he had first loved.
Then he wiped away his tears and, turning to his son, said to him:
"Before I proceed, O my son, to my last charges and injunctions,
know that I have a brother, and thou hast an uncle, Shams al-Din
hight, the Wazir of Cairo, with whom I parted, leaving him against his
will. Now take thee a sheet of paper and write upon it whatso I say to
thee." Badr al-Din took a fair leaf and set about doing his father's
bidding, and he wrote thereon a full account of what had happened to
his sire first and last: the dates of his arrival at Bassorah and of
his forgathering with the Wazir, of his marriage, of his going in to
the Minister's daughter, and of the birth of his son- brief, his life
of forty years from the day of his dispute with his brother, adding
the words: "And this is written at my dictation, and may Almighty
Allah be with him when I am gone!" Then he folded the paper and sealed
it and said: "O Hasan, O my son, keep this paper with all care, for it
will enable thee to establish thine origin and rank and lineage, and
if anything contrary befall thee, set out for Cairo and ask for
thine uncle and show him this paper, and say to him that I died a
stranger far from mine own people and full of yearning to see him
and them." So Badr al-Din Hasan took the document and folded it and,
wrapping it up in a piece of waxed cloth, sewed it like a talisman
between the inner and outer cloth of his skullcap and wound his
light turban round it. And he fell to weeping over his father and at
parting with him, and he but a boy.
Then Nur al-Din lapsed into a swoon, the forerunner of death, but
presently recovering himself, he said: "O Hasan, O my son, I will
now bequeath to thee five last behests. The FIRST BEHEST is: Be
overintimate with none, nor frequent any, nor be familiar with any. So
shalt thou be safe from his mischief, for security lieth in
seclusion of thought and a certain retirement from the society of
thy fellows, and I have heard it said by a poet:

"In this world there is none thou mayst count upon
To befriend thy case in the nick of need.
So live for thyself nursing hope of none.
Such counsel I give thee-enow, take heed!

"The SECOND BEHEST is, O my son: Deal harshly with none lest fortune
with thee deal hardly, for the fortune of this world is one day with
thee and another day against thee, and all worldly goods are but a
loan to be repaid. And I have heard a poet say:

"Take thought nor haste to will the thing thou wilt,
Have ruth on man, for ruth thou mayst require.
No hand is there but Allah's hand is higher,
No tyrant but shall rue worse tyrant's ire!

"The THIRD BEHEST is: Learn to be silent in society and let thine
own faults distract thine attention from the faults of other men,
for it is said, 'In silence dwelleth safety,' and thereon I have heard
the lines that tell us:

"Reserve's a jewel, Silence safety is.
Whenas thou speakest, many a word withhold,
For an of Silence thou repent thee once,
Of speech thou shalt repent times manifold.

"The FOURTH BEHEST, O My son, is: Beware of winebibbing, for wine is
the head of all frowardness and a fine solvent of human wits. So shun,
and again I say shun, mixing strong liquor, for I have heard a poet
say:

"From wine I turn and whoso wine cups swill,
Becoming one of those who deem it ill.
Wine driveth man to miss salvation way,
And opes the gateway wide to sins that kill.

"The FIFTH BEHEST, O My Son, is: Keep thy wealth and it will keep
thee, guard thy money and it will guard thee, and waste not thy
substance lest haply thou come to want and must fare a-begging from
the meanest of mankind. Save thy dirhams and deem them the
sovereignest salve for the wounds of the world. And here again I
have heard that one of the poets said:

"When fails my wealth no friend will deign befriend.
When wealth abounds all friends their friendship tender.
How many friends lent aid my wealth to spend,
But friends to lack of wealth no friendship render."

On this wise Nur al-Din ceased not to counsel his son Badr al-Din
Hasan till his hour came and, sighing one sobbing sigh, his life
went forth. Then the voice of mourning and keening rose high in his
house and the Sultan and all the grandees grieved for him and buried
him. But his son ceased not lamenting his loss for two months,
during which he never mounted horse, nor attended the Divan, nor
presented himself before the Sultan. At last the King, being wroth
with him, stablished in his stead one of his chamberlains and made him
Wazir, giving orders to seize and set seals on all Nur al-Din's houses
and goods and domains. So the new Wazir went forth with a mighty posse
of chamberlains and people of the Divan, and watchmen and a host of
idlers, to do this and to seize Badr al-Din Hasan and carry him before
the King, who would deal with him as he deemed fit.
Now there was among the crowd of followers a Mameluke of the
deceased Wazir who, when he had heard this order, urged his horse
and rode at full speed to the house of Badr al-Din Hasan, for he could
not endure to see the ruin of his old master's son. He found him
sitting at the gate with head hung down and sorrowing, as was his
wont, for the loss of his father, so he dismounted and, kissing his
hand, said to him, "O my lord and son of my lord, haste ere ruin
come and lay waste!" When Hasan heard this he trembled and asked,
"What may be the matter?" and the man answered: "The Sultan is angered
with thee and hath issued a warrant against thee, and evil cometh hard
upon my track, so flee with thy life!" At these words Hasan's heart
flamed with the fire of bale, and his rose-red cheek turned pale,
and he said to the Mameluke: "O my brother, is there time for me to go
in and get some worldly gear which may stand me in stead during my
strangerhood?" But the slave replied, "O my lord, up at once and
save thyself and leave this house while it is yet time." And he quoted
these lines:

"Escape with thy life, if oppression betide thee,
And let the house tell of its builder's fate!
Country for country thou'lt find, if thou seek it,
Life for life never, early or late.
It is strange men should dwell in the house of abjection
When the plain of God's earth is so wide and so great!"

At these words of the Mameluke, Badr al-Din covered his head with
the skirt of his garment and went forth on foot till he stood
outside of the city, where he heard folk saying: "The Sultan hath sent
his new Wazir to the house of the old Wazir, now no more, to seal
his property and seize his son Badr al-Din Hasan and take him before
the presence, that he may put him to death." And all cried, "Alas
for his beauty and his loveliness!" When he heard this, he fled
forth at hazard, knowing not whither he was going, and gave not over
hurrying onward till Destiny drove him to his father's tomb. So he
entered the cemetery and, threading his way through the graves, at
last he reached the sepulcher, where he sat down and let fall from his
head the skirt of his long robe, which was made of brocade with a
gold-embroidered hem whereon were worked these couplets:

O thou whose forehead, like the radiant East,
Tells of the stars of Heaven and bounteous dews,
Endure thine honor to the latest day,
And Time thy growth of glory ne'er refuse!

While he was sitting by his father's tomb, behold, there came to him
a Jew as he were a shroff, a money-changer, with a pair of
saddlebags containing much gold, who accosted him and kissed his hand,
saying: "Whither bound, O my lord? 'Tis late in the day, and thou
art clad but lightly, and I read signs of trouble in thy face." "I was
sleeping within this very hour," answered Hasan, "when my father
appeared to me and chid me for not having visited his tomb. So I awoke
trembling and came hither forthright lest the day should go by without
my visiting him, which would have been grievous to me." "O my lord,"
rejoined the Jew, "thy father had many merchantmen at sea, and as some
of them are now due, it is my wish to buy of thee the cargo of the
first ship that cometh into port with this thousand dinars of gold."
"I concent," quoth Hasan, whereupon the Jew took out a bag full of
gold and counted out a thousand sequins, which he gave to Hasan, the
son of the Wazir, saying, "Write me a letter of sale and seal it."
So Hasan took a pen and paper and wrote these words in duplicate:
"The writer, Hasan Badr al-Din, son of Wazir Nur al-Din, hath sold
to Isaac the Jew all the cargo of the first of his father's ships
which cometh into port, for a thousand dinars, and he hath received
the price in advance." And after he had taken one copy, the Jew put it
into his pouch and went away, but Hasan fell a-weeping as he thought
of the dignity and prosperity which had erst been his and night came
upon him. So he leant his head against his father's gave and sleep
overcame him- glory to Him who sleepeth not! He ceased not slumbering
till the moon rose, when his head slipped from off the tomb and he lay
on his back, with limbs outstretched, his face shining bright in the
moonlight. Now the cemetery was haunted day and night by Jinns who
were of the True Believers, and presently came out a Jinniyah who,
seeing Hasan asleep, marveled at his beauty and loveliness and
cried: "Glory to God! This youth can be none other than one of the
Wuldan of Paradise." Then she flew firmamentward to circle it, as
was her custom, and met an Ifrit on the wing, who saluted her, and
said to him, "Whence comest thou?" "From Cairo," he replied. "Wilt
thou come with me and look upon the beauty of a youth who sleepeth
in yonder burial place?" she asked, and he answered, "I will."
So they flew till they lighted at the tomb and she showed him the
youth and said, "Now diddest thou ever in thy born days see aught like
this?" The Ifrit looked upon him and exclaimed: "Praise be to Him that
hath no equal! But, O my sister, shall I tell thee what I have seen
this day?" Asked she, "What is that?" and he answered: "I have seen
the counterpart of this youth in the land of Egypt. She is the
daughter of the Wazir Shams al-Din and she is a model of beauty and
loveliness, of fairest favor and formous form, and dight with symmetry
and perfect grace. When she had reached the age of nineteen, the
Sultan of Egypt heard of her and, sending for the Wazir her father,
said to him, `Hear me, O Wazir. It hath reached mine ear that thou
hast a daughter, and I wish to demand her of thee in marriage.' The
Wazir replied:
"`O our lord the Sultan, deign accept my excuses and take compassion
on my sorrows, for thou knowest that my brother, who was partner
with me in the wazirate, disappeared from amongst us many years ago
and we wot not where he is. Now the cause of his departure was that
one night, as we were sitting together and talking of wives and
children to come, we had words on the matter and he went off in high
dudgeon. But I swore that I would marry my daughter to none save to
the son of my brother on the day her mother gave her birth, which
was nigh upon nineteen years ago. I have lately heard that my
brother died at Bassorah, where he had married the daughter of the
Wazir and that she bare him a son, and I will not marry my daughter
but to him in honor of my brother's memory. I recorded the date of
my marriage and the conception of my wife and the birth of my
daughter, and from her horoscope I find that her name is conjoined
with that of her cousin, and there are damsels in foison for our
lord the Sultan.'
"The King, hearing his Minister's answer and refusal, waxed wroth
with exceeding wrath and cried: 'When the like of me asketh a girl
in marriage of the like of thee, he conferreth an honor, and thou
rejectest me and puttest me off with cold excuses! Now, by the life of
my head, I will marry her to the meanest of my men in spite of the
nose of thee!' There was in the palace a horse groom which was a Gobbo
with a bunch to his breast and a hunch to his back, and the Sultan
sent for him and married him to the daughter of the Wazir, lief or
loth, and hath ordered a pompous marriage procession for him and
that he go in to his bride this very night. I have not just flown
hither from Cairo, where I left the hunchback at the door of the
hammam bath amidst the Sultan's white slaves, who were waving
lighted flambeaux about him. As for the Minister's daughter, she
sitteth among her nurses and tirewomen, weeping and wailing, for
they have forbidden her father to come near her. Never have I seen,
O my sister, more hideous being than this hunchback, whilst the
young lady is the likest of all folk to this young man, albeit even
fairer than he."
At this the Jinniyah cried at him: "Thou liest! This youth is
handsomer than anyone of his day." The Ifrit gave her the he again,
adding: "By Allah, O my sister, the damsel I speak of is fairer than
this. Yet none but he deserveth her, for they resemble each other like
brother and sister, or at least cousins. And, wellaway, how she is
wasted upon that hunchback!" Then said she, "O my brother, let us
get under him and lift him up and carry him to Cairo, that we may
compare him with the damsel of whom thou speakest and so determine
whether of the twain is the fairer." "To hear is to obey!" replied he.
"Thou speakest to the point, nor is there a righter recking than
this of thine, and I myself will carry him." So he raised him from the
ground and flew with him like a bird soaring in upper air, the Ifritah
keeping close by his side at equal speed, till be alighted with him in
the city of Cairo and set him down on a stone bench and woke him up.
He roused himself and finding that he was no longer at his father's
tomb in Bassorah city, he looked right and left and saw that he was in
a strange place, and he would have cried out, but the Ifrit gave him a
cuff which persuaded him to keep silence. Then he brought him rich
raiment and clothed him therein and, giving him a lighted flambeau,
said:
"Know that I have brought thee hither meaning to do thee a good turn
for the love of Allah. So take this torch and mingle with the people
at the hammam door and walk on with them without stopping till thou
reach the house of the wedding festival. Then go boldly forward and
enter the great saloon, and fear none, but take thy stand at the right
hand of the hunchback bridegroom. And as often as any of the nurses
and tirewomen and singing girls come up to thee, put thy hand into thy
pocket, which thou wilt find filled with gold. Take it out and throw
to them and spare not, for as often as thou thrustest fingers in
pouch, thou shalt find it full of coin. Give largess by handfuls and
fear nothing, but set thy trust upon Him who created thee, for this is
not by thine own strength but by that of Allah Almighty, that His
decrees may take effect upon His creatures."
When Badr al-Din Hasan heard these words from the Ifrit, he said
to himself, "Would Heaven I knew what all this means and what is the
cause of such kindness!" However, he mingled with the people and,
lighting his flambeau, moved on with the bridal procession till he
came to the bath, where he found the hunchback already on horseback.
Then he pushed his way in among the crowd, a veritable beauty of a man
in the finest apparel, wearing tarboosh and turban and a
long-sleeved robe purfled with gold. And as often as the singing women
stopped for the people to give him largess, he thrust his hand into
his pocket and, finding it full of gold, took out a handful and
threw it on the tambourine till he had filled it with gold pieces for
the music girls and the tirewomen. The singers were amazed by his
bounty and the people marveled at his beauty and loveliness and the
splendor of his dress. He ceased not to do thus till he reached the
mansion of the Wazir (who was his uncle), where the chamberlains drove
back the people and forbade them to go forward, but the singing
girls and the tirewomen said, "By Allah, we will not enter unless this
young man enter with us, for he hath given us length o' life with
his largess, and we will not display the bride unless he be present."
Therewith they carried him into the bridal hall and made him sit
down, defying the evil glances of the hunchbacked bridegroom. The
wives of the emirs and wazirs and chamberlains and courtiers all stood
in double line, each holding a massy cierge ready lighted. All wore
thin face veils, and the two rows right and left extended from the
bride's throne to the head of the hall adjoining the chamber whence
she was to come forth. When the ladies saw Badr al-Din Hasan and noted
his beauty and loveliness and his face that shone like the new moon,
their hearts inclined to him and the singing girls said to all that
were present, "Know that this beauty crossed our hands with naught but
red gold, so be not chary to do him womanly service and comply with
all he says, no matter what he ask." So all the women crowded round
Hasan with their torches and gazed on his loveliness and envied him
his beauty, and one and all would gladly have lain on his bosom an
hour, or rather a year. Their hearts were so troubled that they let
fall their veils from before their faces and said, "Happy she who
belongeth to this youth or to whom he belongeth!" And they called down
curses on the crooked groom and on him who was the cause of his
marriage to the girl beauty, and as often as they blessed Badr
al-Din Hasan they damned the hunchback, saying, "Verily this youth and
none else deserveth our bride. Ah, wellaway for such a lovely one with
this hideous Quasimodo! Allah's curse light on his head and on the
Sultan who commanded the marriage!"
Then the singing girls beat their tabrets and lullilooed with joy,
announcing the appearing of the bride, and the Wazir's daughter came
in surrounded by her tirewomen, who had made her goodly to look
upon. For they had perfumed her and incensed her and adorned her hair,
and they had robed her in raiment and ornaments befitting the mighty
Chosroes kings. The most notable part of her dress was a loose robe
worn over her other garments. It was diapered in red gold with figures
of wild beasts, and birds whose eyes and beaks were of gems and
claws of red rubies and green beryl. And her neck was graced with a
necklace of Yamani work, worth thousands of gold pieces, whose
bezels were great round jewels of sorts, the like of which was never
owned by Kaysar or by Tobba king. And the bride was as the full moon
when at fullest on fourteenth night, and as she paced into the hall
she was like one of the houris of Heaven- praise be to Him who
created her in such splendor of beauty! The ladies encompassed her
as the white contains the black of the eye, they clustering like stars
whilst she shone amongst them like the moon when it eats up the
clouds.
Now Badr al-Din Hasan of Bassorah was sitting in full gaze of the
folk when the bride came forward with her graceful swaying and
swimming gait, and her hunchbacked bridegroom stood up to meet and
receive her. She, however, turned away from the wight and walked
forward till she stood before her cousin Hasan, the son of her
uncle. Whereat the people laughed. But when the wedding guests saw her
thus attracted toward Badr al-Din, they made a mighty clamor and the
singing women shouted their loudest. Whereupon he put his hand into
his pocket and, pulling out a handful of gold, cast it into their
tambourines, and the girls rejoiced and said, "Could we will our wish,
this bride were thine!" At this he smiled and the folk came round him,
flambeaux in hand, like the eyeball round the pupil, while the Gobbo
bridegroom was left sitting alone much like a tailless baboon. For
every time they lighted a candle for him it went out willy-nilly, so
he was left in darkness and silence and looking at naught but himself.
When Badr al-Din Hasan saw the bridegroom sitting lonesome in the
dark, and all the wedding guests with their flambeaux and wax
candles crowding about himself, he was bewildered and marveled much,
but when he looked at his cousin, the daughter of his uncle, he
rejoiced and felt an inward delight. He longed to greet her, and gazed
intently on her face, which was radiant with light and brilliancy.
Then the tirewomen took off her veil and displayed her in all her
seven toilettes before Badr al-Din Hasan, wholly neglecting the Gobbo,
who sat moping alone, and when she opened her eyes, she said, "O
Allah, make this man my goodman and deliver me from the evil of this
hunchbacked groom." As soon as they had made an end of this part of
the ceremony they dismissed the wedding guests, who went forth, women,
children and all, and none remained save Hasan and the hunchback,
whilst the tirewomen led the bride into an inner room to change her
garb and gear and get her ready for the bridegroom.
Thereupon Quasimodo came up to Badr al-Din Hasan and said: "O my
lord, thou hast cheered us this night with thy good company and
overwhelmed us with thy kindness and courtesy, but now why not get
thee up and go?" "Bismillah," he answered. "In Allah's name, so be
it!" And rising, he went forth by the door, where the Ifrit met him
and said, "Stay in thy stead, O Badr al-Din, and when the hunchback
goes out to the closet of ease, go in without losing time and seat
thyself in the alcove, and when the bride comes say to her: ''Tis I am
thy husband, for the King devised this trick only fearing for thee the
evil eye, and he whom thou sawest is but a syce, a groom, one of our
stablemen.' Then walk boldly up to her and unveil her face, for
jealousy hath taken us of this matter."
While Hasan was still talking with the Ifrit, behold, the groom
fared forth from the hall and entering the closet of ease, sat down on
the stool. Hardly had he done this when the Ifrit came out of the
tank, wherein the water was, in semblance of a mouse and squeaked
out "Zeek!" Quoth the hunchback, "What ails thee?" And the mouse
grew and grew till it became a coal-black cat and caterwauled "Miaowl!
Miaow!" Then it grew still more and more till it became a dog and
barked out, "Owh! Owh!" When the bridegroom saw this, he was
frightened and exclaimed "Out with thee, O unlucky one!" But the dog
grew and swelled till it became an ass colt that brayed and snorted in
his face, "Hauk! Hauk!" Whereupon the hunchback quaked and cried,
"Come to my aid, O people of the house!" But behold, the ass colt grew
and became big as a buffalo and walled the way before him and spake
with the voice of the sons of Adam, saying, "Woe to thee, O thou
hunchback, thou stinkard, O thou filthiest of grooms!"
Hearing this, the groom was seized with a colic and he sat down on
the jakes in his clothes with teeth chattering and knocking
together. Quoth the Ifrit, "Is the world so strait to thee thou
findest none to marry save my ladylove?" But as he was silent the
Ifrit continued, "Answer me or I will do thee dwell in the dust!"
"By Allah," replied the Gobbo, "O King of the Buffaloes, this is no
fault of mine, for they forced me to wed her, and verily I wot not
that she had a lover amongst the buffaloes. But now I repent, first
before Allah and then before thee." Said the Ifrit to him: "I swear to
thee that if thou fare forth from this place, or thou utter a word
before sunrise, I assuredly will wring thy neck. When the sun rises,
wend thy went and never more return to this house." So saying, the
Ifrit took up the Gobbo bridegroom and set him head downward and
feet upward in the slit of the privy, and said to him: "I will leave
thee here, but I shall be on the lookout for thee till sunrise, and if
thou stir before then, I will seize thee by the feet and dash out
thy brains against the wall. So look out for thy life!"
Thus far concerning the hunchback, but as regards Badr al-Din
Hasan of Bassorah, he left the Gobbo and the Ifrit jangling and
wrangling and, going into the house, sat him down in the very middle
of the alcove. And behold, in came the bride attended by an old woman,
who stood at the door and said, "O Father of Uprightness, arise and
take what God giveth thee." Then the old woman went away and the
bride, Sitt al-Husn or the Lady of Beauty hight, entered the inner
part of the alcove brokenhearted and saying in herself, "By Allah, I
will never yield my person to him- no, not even were he to take my
life!"
But as she came to the further end she saw Badr al-Hasan and she
said, "Dearling! Art thou still sitting here? By Allah, I was
wishing that thou wert my bridegroom, or at least that thou and the
hunchbacked horsegroom were partners in me." He replied, "O
beautiful lady, how should the syce have access to thee, and how
should he share in thee with me?" "Then," quoth she, "who is my
husband, thou or he?" "Sitt al-Husn," rejoined Hasan, "we have not
done this for mere fun, but only as a device to ward off the evil
eye from thee. For when the tirewomen and singers and wedding guests
saw thy beauty being displayed to me, they feared fascination, and thy
father hired the horsegroom for ten dinars and a porringer of meat
to take the evil eye off us, and now he hath received his hire and
gone his gait."
When the Lady of Beauty heard these words she smiled and rejoiced
and laughed a pleasant laugh. Then she whispered him: "By the Lord,
thou hast quenched a fire which tortured me and now, by Allah, O my
little dark-haired darling, take me to thee and press me to thy
bosom!" Then she began singing:

"By Allah, set thy foot upon my soul,
Since long, long years for this alone I long.
And whisper tale of love in ear of me,
To me 'tis sweeter than the sweetest song!
No other youth upon my heart shall lie,
So do it often, dear, and do it long."

Then she stripped off her outer gear and she threw open her
chemise from the neck downward and showed her person and all the
rondure of her hips. When Badr al-Din saw the glorious sight, his
desires were roused, and he arose and doffed his clothes, and wrapping
up in his bam, trousers the purse of gold which he had taken from
the Jew and which contained the thousand dinars, he laid it under
the edge of the bedding. Then he took off his turban and set it upon
the settle atop of his other clothes, remaining in his skullcap and
fine shirt of blue silk laced with gold. Whereupon the Lady of
Beauty drew him to her and he did likewise. Then he took her to his
embrace and found her a pearl unpierced, and he abaged her virginity
and had joyance of her youth in his virility; and she conceived by him
that very night. Then he laid his hand under her head and she did
the same and they embraced and fell asleep in each other's arms, as
a certain poet said of such lovers in these couplets:

Visit thy lover, spurn what envy told,
No envious churl shall smile on love ensouled.
Merciful Allah made no fairer sight
Than coupled lovers single couch doth hold,
Breast pressing breast and robed in joys their own,
With pillowed forearms cast in finest mold.
And when heart speaks to heart with tongue of love,
Folk who would part them hammer steel ice-cold.
If a fair friend thou find who cleaves to thee,
Live for that friend, that friend in heart enfold.
O ye who blame for love us lover-kind,
Say, can ye minister to diseased mind?

This much concerning Badr al-Din Hasan and Sitt al-Husn his
cousin, but as regards the Ifrit, as soon as he saw the twain
asleep, he said to the Ifritah: "Arise, slip thee under the youth, and
let us carry him back to his place ere dawn overtake us, for the day
is near-hand." Thereupon she came forward and getting under him as
he lay asleep, took him up clad only in his fine blue shirt, leaving
the rest of his garments, and ceased not flying (and the Ifrit vying
with her in flight) till the dawn advised them that it had come upon
them midway, and the muezzin began his call from the minaret: "Haste
ye to salvation! Haste ye to salvation!" Then Allah suffered His
angelic host to shoot down the Ifrit with a shooting star, so he was
consumed, but the Ifritah escaped, and she descended with Badr
al-Din at the place where the Ifrit was burnt, and did not carry him
back to Bassorah, fearing lest he come to harm.
Now by the order of Him who predestineth all things, they alighted
at Damascus of Syria, and the Ifritah set down her burden at one of
the city gates and flew away. When day arose and the doors were
opened, the folk who came forth saw a handsome youth, with no other
raiment but his blue shirt of gold-embroidered silk and skullcap,
lying upon the ground drowned in sleep after the hard labor of the
night, which had not suffered him to take his rest. So the folk,
looking at him, said: "Oh, her luck with whom this one spent the
night! But would he had waited to don his garments!" Quoth another: "A
sorry lot are the sons of great families! Haply he but now came
forth of the tavern on some occasion of his own and his wine flew to
his head, whereby he hath missed the place he was making for and
strayed till he came to the gate of the city, and finding it shut, lay
him down and went to by-by!"
As the people were bandying guesses about him, suddenly the
morning breeze blew upon Badr al-Din and raising his shirt to his
middle, showed a stomach and navel with something below it, and legs
and thighs clear as crystal and smooth as cream. Cried the people, "By
Allah, he is a pretty fellow!" and at the cry Badr al-Din awoke and
found himself lying at a city gate with a crowd gathered around him.
At this he greatly marveled and asked: "Where am I, O good folk, and
what causeth you thus to gather round me, and what have I had to do
with you?" and they answered: "We found thee lying here asleep
during the call to dawn prayer, and this is all we know of the matter.
But where diddest thou lie last night?" "By Allah, O good people,"
replied he, "I lay last night in Cairo." Said somebody, "Thou hast
surely been eating hashish," and another, "He is a fool," and a third,
"He is a citrouille," and a fourth asked him: "Art thou out of thy
mind? Thou sleepest in Cairo and thou wakest in the morning at the
gate of Damascus city!" Cried he: "By Allah, my good people, one and
all, I lie not to you. Indeed I lay yesternight in the land of Egypt
and yesternoon I was at Bassorah." Quoth one, "Well! well!" and
quoth another, "Ho! ho!" and a third, "So! so!" and a fourth cried,
"This youth is mad, is possessed of the Jinni!" So they clapped
hands at him and said to one another: "Alas, the pity of it for his
youthl By Allah, a madman! And madness is no respecter of persons."
Then said they to him: "Collect thy wits and return to thy reason!
How couldest thou be in Bassorah yesterday and in Cairo yesternight
and withal awake in Damascus this morning?" But he persisted,
"Indeed I was a bridegroom in Cairo last night." "Belike thou hast
been dreaming," rejoined they, "and sawest all this in thy sleep."
So Hasan took thought for a while and said to them: "By Allah, this is
no dream, nor visionlike doth it seem! I certainly was in Cairo, where
they displayed the bride before me, in presence of a third person, the
hunchback groom, who was sitting hard by. By Allah, O my brother, this
be no dream, and if it were a dream, where is the bag of gold I bore
with me, and where are my turban and my robe, and my trousers?"
Then he rose and entered the city, threading its highways and byways
and bazaar streets, and the people pressed upon him and jeered at him,
crying out "Madman! Madman!" till he, beside himself with rage, took
refuge in a cook's shop. Now that cook had been a trifle too
clever- that is, a rogue and thief- but Allah had made him repent and
turn from his evil ways and open a cookshop, and all the people of
Damascus stood in fear of his boldness and his mischief. So when the
crowd saw the youth enter his shop, they dispersed, being afraid of
him, and went their ways. The cook looked at Badr al-Din and, noting
his beauty and loveliness, fell in love with him forthright and
said: "Whence comest thou, O youth? Tell me at once thy tale, for thou
art become dearer to me than my soul." So Hasan recounted to him all
that had befallen him from beginning to end (but in repetition there
is no fruition) and the cook said: "O my lord Badr al-Din, doubtless
thou knowest that this case is wondrous and this story marvelous.
Therefore, O my son, hide what hath betide thee, till Allah dispel
what ills be thine, and tarry with me here the meanwhile, for I have
no child and I will adopt thee." Badr al-Din replied, "Be it as thou
wilt, O my uncle!" Whereupon the cook went to the bazaar and bought
him a fine suit of clothes and made him don it, then fared with him to
the kazi, and formally declared that he was his son. So Badr al-Din
Hasan became known in Damascus city as the cook's son, and he sat with
him in the shop to take the silver, and on this wise he sojourned
there for a time.
Thus far concerning him, but as regards his cousin, the Lady of
Beauty, when morning dawned she awoke and missed Badr al-Din Hasan
from her side; but she thought that he had gone to the privy and she
sat expecting him for an hour or so, when behold, entered her father
Shams al-Din Mohammed, Wazir of Egypt. Now he was disconsolate by
reason of what had befallen him through the Sultan, who had
entreated him harshly and had married his daughter by force to the
lowest of his menials and he too a lump of a groom hunchbacked withal,
and he said to himself, "I will slay this daughter of mine if her
own free she had yielded her person to this accursed carle." So he
came to the door of the bride's private chamber, and said, "Ho! Sitt
al-Husn." She answered him: "Here am I! Here am I! O my lord," and
came out unsteady of pit after the pains and pleasures of the night.
And she kissed his hand, her face showing redoubled brightness and
beauty for having lain in the arms of that gazelle, her cousin.
When her father, the Wazir, saw her in such case, he asked her, "O
thou accursed, art thou rejoicing because of this horse groom?" And
Sitt al-Husn smiled sweetly and answered: "By Allah, don't ridicule
me. Enough of what passed yesterday when folk laughed at me, and
evened me with that groom fellow who is not worthy to bring my
husband's shoes or slippers- nay, who is not worth the paring of my
husband's nails! By the Lord, never in my life have I nighted a
night so sweet as yesternight, so don't mock by reminding me of the
Gobbo." When her parent heard her words he was filled with fury, and
his eyes glared and stared, so that little of them showed save the
whites and he cried: "Fie upon thee! What words are these? 'Twas the
hunchbacked horse groom who passed the night with thee!" "Allah upon
thee," replied the Lady of Beauty, "do not worry me about the
Gobbo- Allah damn his father- and leave jesting with me, for this
groom was only hired for ten dinars and a porringer of meat and he
took his wage and went his way. As for me, I entered the bridal
chamber, where I found my true bridegroom sitting, after the singer
women had displayed me to him- the same who had crossed their hands
with red gold till every pauper that was present waxed wealthy. And
I passed the night on the breast of my bonny man, a most lively
darling, with his black eyes and joined eyebrows."
When her parent heard these words, the light before his face
became night, and he cried out at her, saying: "O thou whore! What
is this thou tellest me? Where be thy wits?" "O my father," she
rejoined, "thou breakest my heart. Enough for thee that thou hast been
so hard upon me! Indeed my husband who took my virginity is but just
now gone to the draught-house, and I feel that I have conceived by
him." The Wazir rose in much marvel and entered the privy, where he
found the hunchbacked horse groom with his head in the hole and his
heels in the air. At this sight he was confounded and said, "This is
none other than he, the rascal hunchback!" So he called to him, "Ho,
Hunchback!" The Gobbo grunted out, "Taghum! Taghum!" thinking it was
the Ifrit spoke to him, so the Wazir shouted at him and said, "Speak
out, or I'll strike off thy pate with this sword." Then quoth the
hunchback, "By Allah, O Sheikh of the Ifrits, ever since thou
settest me in this place I have not lifted my head, so Allah upon
thee, take pity and entreat me kindly!"
When the Wazir heard this he asked: "What is this thou sayest? I'm
the bride's father and no Ifrit." "Enough for thee that thou hast
well-nigh done me die," answered Quasimodo. "Now go thy ways before he
come upon thee who hath served me thus. Could ye not marry me to any
save the ladylove of buffaloes and the beloved of Ifrits? Allah
curse her, and curse him who married me to her and was the cause of
this my case." Then said the Wazir to him, "Up and out of this place!"
"Am I mad," cried the groom, "that I should go with thee without leave
of the Ifrit whose last words to me were: 'When the sun rises, arise
and go thy gait.' So hath the sun risen, or no? For I dare not budge
from this place till then." Asked the Wazir, "Who brought thee
hither?" And he answered, "I came here yesternight for a call of
nature and to do what none can do for me, when lo! a mouse came out of
the water, and squeaked at me and swelled and waxed gross till it
was big as a buffalo, and spoke to me words that entered my ears. Then
he left me here and went away. Allah curse the bride and him who
married me to her!"
The Wazir walked up to him and lifted his head out of the cesspool
hole, and he fared forth running for dear life and hardly crediting
that the sun had risen, and repaired to the Sultan, to whom he told
all that had befallen him with the Ifrit. But the Wazir returned to
the bride's private chamber, sore troubled in spirit about her, and
said to her, "O my daughter, explain this strange matter to me!" Quoth
she: "'Tis simply this. The bridegroom to whom they displayed me
yestereve lay with me all night, and took my virginity, and I am
with child by him. He is my husband, and if thou believe me not, there
are his turban twisted as it was, lying on the settle and his dagger
and his trousers beneath the bed with a something, I wot not what,
wrapped up in them."
When her father heard this, he entered the private chamber and found
the turban which had been left there by Badr al-Din Hasan, his
brother's son, and he took it in hand and turned it over, saying,
"This is the turban worn by Wazirs, save that it is of Mosul stuff."
So he opened it and, finding what seemed to be an amulet sewn up in
the fez, he unsewed the lining and took it out. Then he lifted up
the trousers, wherein was the purse of the thousand gold pieces and
opening that also, found in it a written paper. This he read, and it
was the sale receipt of the Jew in the name of Badr al-Din Hasan son
of Nur al-Din All, the Egyptian, and the thousand dinars were also
there.
No sooner had Shams al-Din read this than he cried out with a loud
cry and fell to the ground fainting, and as soon as he revived and
understood the gist of the matter he marveled and said: "There is no
god but the God, whose All-might is over all things! Knowest thou, O
my daughter, who it was that became the husband of thy virginity?"
"No," answered she, and he said: "Verily he is the son of my
brother, thy cousin, and this thousand dinars is thy dowry. Praise
be to Allah! And would I wot how this matter came about!" Then
opened he the amulet which was sewn up and found therein a paper in
the handwriting of his deceased brother, Nur al-Din the Egyptian,
father of Badr al-Din Hasan. And when he saw the handwriting, he
kissed it again and again, and he wept and wailed over his dead
brother. Then he read the scroll and found in it recorded the dates of
his brother's marriage with the daughter of the Wazir of Bassorah, and
of his going in to her, and her conception, and the birth of Badr
al-Din Hasan, and all his brother's history and doings up to his dying
day.
So he marveled much and shook with joy and, comparing the dates with
his own marriage and going in unto his wife and the birth of his
daughter, Sitt al-Husn, he found that they perfectly agreed. So he
took the document and, repairing with it to the Sultan, acquainted him
with what had passed, from first to last, whereat the King marveled
and commanded the case to be at once recorded. The Wazir abode that
day expecting to see his brother's son, but he came not, and he waited
a second day, a third day, and so on to the seventh day without any
tidings of him. So he said, "By Allah, I will do a deed such as none
hath ever done before me!" And he took reed pen and ink and drew
upon a sheet of paper the plan of the whole house, showing whereabouts
was the private chamber with the curtain in such a place and the
furniture in such another and so on with all that was in the room.
Then he folded up the sketch and, causing all the furniture to be
collected, he took Badr al-Din's garments and the turban and fez and
robe and purse, and carried the whole to his house and locked them up,
against the coming of his nephew, Badr al-Din Hasan, the son of his
lost brother, with an iron padlock on which he set his seal.
As for the Wazir's daughter, when her tale of months was
fulfilled, she bare a son like the full moon, the image of his
father in beauty and loveliness and fair proportions and perfect
grace. They cut his navel string and kohled his eyelids to
strengthen his eyes, and gave him over to the nurses and nursery
governesses, naming him Ajib, the Wonderful. His day was as a month
and his month was as a year, and when seven years had passed over him,
his grandfather sent him to school, enjoining the master to teach
him Koran-reading, and to educate him well. He remained at the
school four years, till he began to bully his schoolfellows and
abuse them and bash them and thrash them and say: "Who among you is
like me? I am the son of the Wazir of Egypt!
At last the boys came in a body to complain to the monitor of what
hard usage they were wont to have from Ajib, and he said to them: "I
will tell you somewhat you may do to him so that he shall leave off
coming to the school, and it is this. When he enters tomorrow, sit
ye down about him and say some one of you to some other: 'By Allah,
none shall play with us at this game except he tell us the names of
his mamma and papa, for he who knows not the names of his mother and
his father is a bastard, a son of adultery, and he shall not play with
us."' When morning dawned, the boys came to school, Ajib being one
of them, and all flocked round him saying: "We will play a game
wherein none shall join save he can tell the name of his mamma and his
papa." And they all cried, "By Allah, good!" Then quoth one of them,
"My name is Majid and my mammy's name is Alawiyah and my daddy's Izz
al-Din." Another spoke in like guise and yet a third, till Ajib's turn
came, and he said, "My name is Ajib, and my mother's is Sitt
al-Husn, and my father's Shams al-Din, the Wazir of Cairo." "By
Allah," cried they, "the Wazir is not thy true father." Ajib answered,
"The Wazir is my father in very deed." Then the boys all laughed and
clapped their hands at him, saying: "He does not know who is his papa.
Get out from among us, for none shall play with us except he know
his father's name."
Thereupon they dispersed from around him and laughed him to scorn,
so his breast was straitened and he well-nigh choked with tears and
hurt feelings. Then said the monitor to him: "We know that the Wazir
is thy grandfather, the father of thy mother, Sitt al-Husn, and not
thy father. As for thy father, neither dost thou know him nor yet do
we, for the Sultan married thy mother to the hunchbacked horse
groom, but the Jinni came and slept with her and thou hast no known
father. Leave, then, comparing thyself too advantageously with the
littles ones of the school, till thou know that thou hast a lawful
father, for until then thou wilt pass for a child of adultery
amongst them. Seest thou not that even a huckster's son knoweth his
own sire? Thy grandfather is the Wazir of Egypt, but as for thy
father, we wot him not and we say indeed that thou hast none. So
return to thy sound senses!"
When Ajib heard these insulting words from the monitor and the
schoolboys and understood the reproach they put upon him, he went
out at once and ran to his mother, Sitt al-Husn, to complain, but he
was crying so bitterly that his tears prevented his speech for a
while. When she heard his sobs and saw his tears, her heart burned
as though with fire for him, and she said: "O my son, why dost thou
weep? Allah keep the tears from thine eyes! Tell me what hath
betided thee." So he told her all that he heard from the boys and from
the monitor and ended with asking, "And who, O my mother, is my
father?" She answered, "Thy father is the Wazir of Egypt." But he
said: "Do not lie to me. The Wazir is thy father, not mine! Who then
is my father? Except thou tell me the very truth I will kill myself
with this hanger."
When his mother heard him speak of his father she wept,
remembering her cousin and her bridal night with him and all that
occurred there and then, and she repeated these couplets:

"Love in my heart they lit and went their ways,
And all I love to furthest lands withdrew,
And when they left me sufferance also left,
And when we parted Patience bade adieu.
They fled and flying with my joys they fled,
In very constancy my spirit flew.
They made my eyelids flow with severance tears
And to the parting pang these drops are due.
And when I long to see reunion day, ruth I sue.
My groans prolonging sore for ruth I sue.
Then in my heart of hearts their shapes I trace,
And love and longing care and cark renew.
O ye whose names cling round me like a cloak,
Whose love yet closer than a shirt I drew,
Beloved ones, how long this hard despite?
How long this severance and this coy shy flight?"

Then she wailed and shrieked aloud and her son did the like, and
behold, in came the Wazir, whose heart burnt within him at the sight
of their lamentations and he said, "What makes you weep?" So the
Lady of Beauty acquainted him with what happened between her son and
the schoolboys, and he also wept, calling to mind his brother and what
had past between them and what had betided his daughter and how be had
failed to find out what mystery there was in the matter. Then he
rose at once and, repairing to the audience hall, went straight to the
King and told his tale and craved his permission to travel eastward to
the city of Bassorah and ask after his brother's son. Furthermore,
he besought the Sultan to write for him letters patent, authorizing
him to seize upon Badr al-Din, his nephew and son-in-law,
wheresoever he might find him. And he wept before the King, who had
pity on him and wrote royal autographs to his deputies in all climes
and countries and cities, whereat the Wazir rejoiced and prayed for
blessings on him.
Then, taking leave of his sovereign, he returned to his house, where
he equipped himself and his daughter and his adopted child Ajib with
all things meet for a long march, and set out and traveled the first
day and the second and the third and so forth till he arrived at
Damascus city. The Wazir encamped on the open space called AlHasa, and
after pitching tents, said to his servants, "A halt here for two
days!" So they went into the city upon their several occasions, this
to sell and that to buy, this to go to the hammam and that to visit
the cathedral mosque of the Banu Umayyah, the Ommiades, whose like
is not in this world. Ajib also went, with his attendant eunuch, for
solace and diversion to the city, and the servant followed with a
quarterstaff of almond wood so heavy that if he struck a camel
therewith the beast would never rise again.
When the people of Damascus saw Ajib's beauty and brilliancy and
perfect grace and symmetry (for he was a marvel of comeliness and
winning loveliness, softer than the cool breeze of the North,
sweeter than limpid waters to man in drought, and pleasanter than
the health for which sick man sueth), a mighty many followed him,
whilst others ran on before and sat down on the road until he should
come up, that they might gaze on him, till, as Destiny stopped
opposite the shop of Ajib's father, Badr al-Din Hasan. Now his beard
had grown long and thick and his wits had ripened during the twelve
years which had passed over him, and the cook and ex-rogue having
died, the so-called Hasan of Bassorah had succeeded to his goods and
shop, for that he had been formally adopted before the kazi and
witnesses. When his son and the eunuch stepped before him, he gazed on
Ajib and, seeing how very beautiful he was, his heart fluttered and
throbbed, and blood drew to blood and natural affection spake out
and his bowels yearned over him. He had just dressed a conserve of
pomegranate grains with sugar, and Heaven implanted love wrought
within him, so he called to his son Ajib and said: "O my lord, O
thou who hast gotten the mastery of my heart and my very vitals and to
whom my bowels yearn, say me, wilt thou enter my house and solace my
soul by eating of my meat?"
Then his eyes streamed with tears which he could not stay, for he
bethought him of what he had been and what he had become. When Ajib
heard his father's words, his heart also yearned himward, and he
looked at the eunuch and said to him: "Of a truth, O my good guard, my
heart yearns to this cook. He is as one that hath a son far away
from him. So let us enter and gladden his heart by tasting of his
hospitality. Perchance for our so doing Allah may reunite me with my
father." When the eunuch heard these words, he cried: "A fine thing
this, by Allah! Shall the sons of Wazirs be seen eating in a common
cookshop? Indeed I keep off the folk from thee with this
quarterstaff lest they even look upon thee, and I dare not suffer thee
to enter this shop at all."
When Hasan of Bassorah heard his speech he marveled and turned to
the eunuch with the tears pouring down his cheeks, and Ajib said,
"Verily my heart loves him!" But he answered: "Leave this talk. Thou
shalt not go in." Thereupon the father turned to the eunuch and
said, "O worthy sir, why wilt thou not gladden my soul by entering
my shop? O thou who art like a chestnut, dark without but white of
heart within! O thou of the like, of whom a certain poet said..." The
eunuch burst out a-laughing and asked: "Said what? Speak out, by
Allah, and be quick about it." So Hasan the Bassorite began reciting
these couplets:

"If not master of manners or aught but discreet,
In the household of kings no trust could he take,
And then for the harem! What eunuch is he
Whom angels would serve for his service' sake?"

The eunuch marveled and was pleased at these words, so he took
Ajib by the hand and went into the cook's shop; whereupon Hasan the
Bassorite ladled into a saucer some conserve of pomegranate grains
wonderfully good, dressed with almonds and sugar, saying: "You have
honored me with your company. Eat, then, and health and happiness to
you!" Thereupon Ajib said to his father, "Sit thee down and eat with
us, so perchance Allah may unite us with him we long for." Quoth
Hasan, "O my son, hast thou then been afflicted in thy tender years
with parting from those thou lovest?" Quoth Ajib: "Even so, O nuncle
mine. My heart burns for the loss of a beloved one who is none other
than my father, and indeed I come forth, I and my grandfather, to
circle and search the world for him. Oh, the pity of it, and how I
long to meet him!" Then he wept with exceeding weeping, and his father
also wept seeing him weep and for his own bereavement, which
recalled to him his long separation from dear friends and from his
mother, and the eunuch was moved to pity for him.
Then they ate together till they were satisfied, and Ajib and the
slave rose and left the shop. Hereat Hasan the Bassorite felt as
though his soul had departed his body and had gone with them, for he
could not lose sight of the boy during the twinkling of an eye, albeit
he knew not that Ajib was his son. So he locked up his shop and
hastened after them, and he walked so fast that he came up with them
before they had gone out of the western gate. The eunuch turned and
asked him, "What ails thee?" and Badr al-Din answered, "When ye went
from me, meseemed my soul had gone with you, and as I had business
without the city gate, I purposed to bear you company till my matter
was ordered, and so return." The eunuch was angered, and said to Ajib:
"This is just what I feared! We ate that unlucky mouthful (which we
are bound to respect), and here is the fellow following us from
place to place, for the vulgar are ever the vulgar."
Ajib, turning and seeing the cook just behind him, was wroth, and
his face reddened with rage and he said to the servant: "Let him
walk the highway of the Moslems, but when we turn off it to our
tents and find that he still follows us, we will send him about his
business with a flea in his ear." Then he bowed his head and walked
on, the eunuch walking behind him. But Hasan of Bassorah followed them
to the plain Al-Hasa, and as they drew near to the tents, they
turned round and saw him close on their heels, so Ajib was very angry,
fearing that the eunuch might tell his grandfather what had
happened. His indignation was the hotter for apprehension lest any say
that after he had entered a cookshop the cook had followed him. So
he turned and looked at Hasan of Bassorah and found his eyes fixed
on his own, for the father had become a body without a soul, and it
seemed to Ajib that his eye was a treacherous eye or that he was
some lewd fellow.
So his rage redoubled and, stooping down, he took up a stone
weighing half a pound and threw it at his father. It struck him on the
forehead, cutting it open from eyebrow to eyebrow and causing the
blood to stream down, and Hasan fell to the ground in a swoon whilst
Ajib and the eunuch made for the tents. When the father came to
himself, he wiped away the blood and tore off a strip from his
turban and bound up his head, blaming himself the while, and saying,
"I wronged the lad by shutting up my shop and following, so that he
thought I was some evil-minded fellow." Then he returned to his place,
where he busied himself with the sale of his sweetmeats, and he yeamed
after his mother at Bassorah, and wept over her and broke out
repeating:

"Unjust it were to bid the world be just
And blame her not. She ne'er was made for justice.
Take what she gives thee, leave all grief aside,
For now to fair and then to foul her lust is."

So Hasan of Bassorah set himself steadily to sell his sweetmeats,
but the Wazir, his uncle, halted in Damascus three days and then
marched upon Emesa, and passing through that town, he made inquiry
there, and at every place where he rested. Thence he fared on by way
of Hamah and Aleppo and thence through Diyar Bakr and Maridin and
Mosul, still inquiring, till he arrived at Bassorah city. Here, as
soon as he had secured a lodging, he presented himself before the
Sultan, who entreated him with high honor and the respect due to his
rank, and asked the cause of his coming. The Wazir acquainted him with
his history and told him that the Minister Nur al-Din was his brother,
whereupon the Sultan exclaimed, "Allah have mercy upon him!" and
added: "My good Sahib, he was my Wazir for fifteen years and I loved
him exceedingly. Then he died leaving a son who abode only a single
month after his father's death, since which time he has disappeared
and we could gain no tidings of him. But his mother, who is the
daughter of my former Minister, is still among us."
When the Wazir Shams al-Din heard that his nephew's mother was alive
and well, he rejoiced and said, "O King, I much desire to meet her."
The King on the instant gave him leave to visit her, so he betook
himself to the mansion of his brother Nur al-Din and cast sorrowful
glances on all things in and around it and kissed the threshold.
Then he bethought him of his brother Nur al-Din Ali, and how he had
died in a strange land far from kith and kin and friends, and he
wept and repeated these lines:

"I wander 'mid these walls, my Lavla's walls,
And kissing this and other wall I roam.
'Tis not the walls or roof my heart so loves,
But those who in this house had made their home."

Then he passed through the gate into a courtyard and found a vaulted
doorway builded of hardest syenite inlaid with sundry kinds of
multicolored marble. Into this he walked, and wandered about the house
and, throwing many a glance around, saw the name of his brother Nur
al-Din written in gold wash upon the walls. So he went up to the
inscription and kissed it and wept and thought of how he had been
separated from his brother and had now lost him forever.
Then he walked on till he came to the apartment of his brother's
widow, the mother of Badr al-Din Hasan, the Egyptian. Now from the
time of her son's disappearance she had never ceased weeping and
wailing through the light hours and the dark, and when the years
grew longsome with her, she built for him a tomb of marble in the
midst of the saloon and there used to weep for him day and night,
never sleeping save thereby. When the Wazir drew near her apartment,
he heard her voice and stood behind the door while she addressed the
sepulcher in verse and said:

"Answer, by Allah! Sepulcher, are all his beauties gone?
Hath change the power to blight his charms, that beauty's paragon?
Thou art not earth, O Sepulcher! Nor art thou sky to me.
How comes it, then, in thee I see conjoint the branch and moon?"

While she was bemoaning herself after this fashion, behold, the
Wazir went in to her and saluted her and informed her that he was
her husband's brother, and, telling her all that had passed beween
them, laid open before her the whole story- how her son Badr al-Din
Hasan had spent a whole night with his daughter full ten years ago,
but had disappeared in the morning. And he ended with saying: "My
daughter conceived by thy son and bare a male child who is now with
me, and he is thy son and thy son's son by my daughter." When she
heard the tidings that her boy Badr al-Din was still alive and saw her
brother-in-law, she rose up to him and threw herself at his feet and
kissed them. Then the Wazir sent for Ajib and his grandmother stood up
and fell on his neck and wept, but Shams al-Din said to her: "This
is no time for weeping. This is the time to get thee ready for
traveling with us to the land of Egypt. Haply Allah will reunite me
and thee with thy son and my nephew." Replied she, "Hearkening and
obedience," and, rising at once, collected her baggage and treasures
and her jewels, and equipped herself and her slave girls for the
march, whilst the Wazir went to take his leave of the Sultan of
Bassorah, who sent by him presents and rarities for the Sultan of
Egypt.
Then he set out at once upon his homeward march and journeyed till
he came to Damascus city, where he alighted in the usual place and
pitched tents, and said to his suite, "We will halt a sennight here to
buy presents and rare things for the Sultan." Now Ajib bethought him
of the past, so he said to the eunuch: "O Laik, I want a little
diversion. Come, let us go down to the great bazaar of Damascus and
see what hath become of the cook whose sweetmeats we ate and whose
head we broke, for indeed he was kind to us and we entreated him
scurvily." The eunuch answered, "Hearing is obeying!" So they went
forth from the tents, and the tie of blood drew Ajib toward his
father, and forthwith they passed through the gateway, Bab
al-Faradis hight, and entered the city and ceased not walking
through the streets till they reached the cookshop, where they found
Hasan of Bassorah standing at the door. It was near the time of
midafternoon prayer, and it so fortuned that he had just dressed a
confection of pomegranate grains.
When the twain drew near to him and Ajib saw him, his heart
yearned toward him, and noticing the scar of the blow, which time
had darkened on his brow, he said to him: "Peace be on thee, O man!
Know that my heart is with thee." But when Badr al-Din looked upon his
son, his vitals yearned and his heart fluttered, and he hung his
head earthward and sought to make his tongue give utterance to his
words, but he could not. Then he raised his head humbly and
suppliant-wise toward his boy and repeated these couplets:

"I longed for my beloved, but when I saw his face,
Abashed I held my tongue and stood with downcast eye,
And hung my head in dread and would have hid my love,
But do whatso I would, hidden it would not he.
Volumes of plaints I had prepared, reproach and blame,
But when we met, no single word remembered I."

And then said he to them: "Heal my broken heart and eat of my
sweetmeats, for, by Allah, I cannot look at thee but my heart
flutters. Indeed I should not have followed thee the other day but
that I was beside myself." "By Allah," answered Ajib, "thou dost
indeed love us! We ate in thy house a mouthful when we were here
before and thou madest us repent for it, for that thou followedst us
and wouldst have disgraced us, so now we will not eat aught with
thee save on condition that thou make oath not to go out after us
nor dog us. Otherwise we will not visit thee again during our
present stay, for we shall halt a week here whilst my grandfather buys
certain presents for the King." Quoth Hasan of Bassorah, "I promise
you this."
So Ajib and the eunuch entered the shop, and his father set before
them a saucerful of conserve of pomegranate grains. Said Ajib: "Sit
thee down and eat with us. So haply shall Allah dispel our sorrows."
Hasan the Bassorite was joyful and sat down and ate with them, but his
eyes kept gazing fixedly on Ajib's face, for his very heart and vitals
clove to him, and at last the boy said to him: "Did I not tell thee
thou art a most noyous dotard? So do stint thy staring in my face!"
Hansan kept putting morsels into Ajib's mouth at one time and at
another time did the same by the eunuch, and they ate till they were
satisfied and could no more. Then all rose up and the cook poured
water on their hands, and loosing a silken waist shawl, dried them and
sprinkled them with rose-water from a casting bottle he had by him.
Then he went out and presently returned with a gugglet of sherbet
flavored with rose-water, scented with musk, and cooled with snow, and
he set this before them saying, "Complete your kindness to me!" So
Ajib took the gugglet and drank and passed it to the eunuch, and it
went round till their stomachs were full and they were surfeited with
a meal larger than their wont.
Then they went away and made haste in walking till they reached
the tents, and Ajib went in to his grandmother, who kissed him and,
thinking of her son Badr al-Din Hasan, groaned aloud and wept. Then
she asked Ajib: "O my son! Where hast thou been?" And he answered, "In
Damascus city." Whereupon she rose and set before him a bit of scone
and a saucer of conserve of pomegranate grains (which was too little
sweetened), and she said to the eunuch, "Sit down with thy master!"
Said the servant to himself: "By Allah, we have no mind to eat. I
cannot bear the smell of bread." But he sat down, and so did Ajib,
though his stomach was full of what he had eaten already and
drunken. Nevertheless he took a bit of the bread and dipped it in
the pomegranate conserve and made shift to eat it, but he found it too
little sweetened, for he was cloyed and surfeited, so he said, "Faugh,
what be this wild-beast stuff?" "O my son," cried his grandmother,
"dost thou find fault with my cookery? I cooked this myself and none
can cook it as nicely as I can, save thy father, Badr al-Din Hasan."
"By Allah, O my lady," Ajib answered, "this dish is nasty stuff, for
we saw but now in the city of Bassorah a cook who so dresseth
pomegranate grains that the very smell openeth a way to the heart
and the taste would make a full man long to eat. And as for this
mess compared with his, 'tis not worth either much or little."
When his grandmother heard his words, she waxed wroth with exceeding
wrath and looked at the servant and said: "Woe to thee! Dost thou
spoil my son, and dost take him into common cookshops?" The eunuch was
frightened and denied, saying, "We did not go into the shop, we only
passed by it." "By Allah," cried Ajib, "but we did go in, and we ate
till it came out of our nostrils, and the dish was better than thy
dish!" Then his grandmother rose and went and told her brother-in-law,
who was incensed against the eunuch, and sending for him, asked him,
"Why didst thou take my son into a cookshop?" And the eunuch, being
frightened, answered, "We did not go in." But Ajib said, "We did go
inside and ate conserve of pomegranate grains till we were fall, and
the cook gave us to drink of iced and sugared sherbet."
At this the Wazir's indignation redoubled and he questioned the
castrato, but as he still denied, the Wazir said to him, "If thou
speak sooth, sit down and eat before us." So he came forward and tried
to eat, but could not, and threw away the mouthful crying: "O my lord!
I am surfeited since yesterday." By this the Wazir was certified
that he had eaten at the cook's, and bade the slaves throw him,
which they did. Then they came down on him with a rib-basting which
burned him till he cried for mercy and help from Allah, saying, "O
my master, beat me no more and I will tell thee the truth."
Whereupon the Wazir stopped the bastinado and said, "Now speak thou
sooth." Quoth the eunuch, "Know then that we did enter the shop of a
cook while he was dressing conserve of pomegranate grains, and he
set some of it before us. By Allah! I never ate in my life its like,
nor tasted aught nastier than this stuff which is now before us." Badr
al-Din Hasan's mother was angry at this and said, "Needs must thou
go back to the cook and bring me a saucer of conserved pomegranate
grains from that which is in his shop and show it to thy master,
that he may say which be the better and the nicer, mine or his."
Said the unsexed, "I will."
So on the instant she gave him a saucer and a half-dinar and he
returned to the shop and said to the cook, "O Sheikh of all Cooks,
we have laid a wager concerning thy cookery in my lord's house, for
they have conserve of pomegranate grains there also. So give me this
half-dinar's worth and look to it, for I have eaten a full meal of
stick on account of thy cookery, and so do not let me eat aught more
thereof." Hasan of Bassorah laughed and answered: "By Allah, none
can dress this dish as it should be dressed save myself and my mother,
and she at this time is in a far country." Then he ladled out a
saucerful and, finishing it off with musk and rose-water, put it in
a cloth, which he sealed, and gave it to the eunuch, who hastened back
with it. No sooner had Badr al-Din Hasan's mother tasted it and
perceived its fine flavor and the excellence of the cookery then she
knew who had dressed it, and she screamed and fell down fainting.
The Wazir, sorely startled, sprinkled rose-water upon her, and after
a time she recovered and said: "If my son be yet of this world, none
dressed this conserve of pomegranate grains but he, and this cook is
my very son Badr al-Din Hasan. There is no doubt of it, nor can
there be any mistake, for only I and he knew how to prepare it and I
taught him." When the Wazir heard her words, he joyed with exceeding
joy and said: "Oh, the longing of me for a sight of my brother's
son! I wonder if the days will ever unite us with him! Yet it is to
Almighty Allah alone that we look for bringing about this meeting."
Then he rose without stay or delay and, going to his suite, said to
them, "Be off, some fifty of you, with sticks and staves to the cook's
shop and demolish it, then pinion his arms behind him with his own
turban, saying, 'It was thou madest that foul mess of pomegranate
grains!' And drag him here perforce, but without doing him a harm."
And they replied, "It is well."
Then the Wazir rode off without losing an instant to the palace and,
forgathering with the Viceroy of Damascus, showed him the Sultan's
orders. After careful perusal he kissed the letter and placing it upon
his head, said to his visitor, "Who is this offender-of thine?"
Quoth the Wazir, "A man which is a cook." So the Viceroy at once
sent his apparitors to the shop, which they found demolished and
everything in it broken to pieces, for whilst the Wazir was riding
to the palace his men had done his bidding. Then they awaited his
return from the audience, and Hasan of Bassorah, who was their
prisoner, kept saying, "I wonder what they have found in the
conserve of pomegranate grains to bring things to this pass!"
When the Wazir returned to them after his visit to the Viceroy,
who had given him formal permission to take up his debtor and depart
with him, on entering the tents he called for the cook. They brought
him forward pinioned with his turban, and, when Badr al-Din Hasan
saw his uncle, he wept with exceeding weeping and said, "O my lord,
what is my offense against thee?" "Art thou the man who dressed that
conserve of pomegranate grains?" asked the Wazir, and he answered
"Yes! Didst thou find in it aught to call for the cutting off of my
head?" Quoth the Wazir, "That were the least of thy deserts!" Quoth
the cook, "O my lord, wilt thou not tell me my crime, and what
aileth the conserve of pomegranate grains?" "Presently," replied the
Wazir, and called aloud to his men, saying "Bring hither the camels."
So they struck the tents and by the Wazir's orders the servants took
Badr al-Din Hasan and set him in a chest which they padlocked and
put on a camel. Then they departed and stinted not journeying till
nightfall, when they halted and ate some victual, and took Badr al-Din
Hasan out of his chest and gave him a meal and locked him up again.
They set out once more and traveled till they reached Kimrah, where
they took him out of the box and brought him before the Wazir, who
asked him, "Art thou he who dressed that conserve of pomegranate
grains?" He answered "Yes, O my lord!" and the Wazir said, "Fetter
him!" So they fettered him and returned him to the chest and fared
on again till they reached Cairo and lighted at the quarter called
Al-Raydaniyah. Then the Wazir gave order to take Badr al-Din Hasan out
of the chest and sent for a carpenter and said to him, "Make me a
cross of wood for this fellow!" Cried Badr al-Din Hasan, "And what
wilt thou do with it?" and the Wazir replied, "I mean to crucify
thee thereon, and nail thee thereto and parade thee all about the
city."
"And why wilt thou use me after this fashion?" "Because of thy
villainous cookery of conserved pomegranate grains. How durst thou
dress it and sell it lacking pepper?" "And for that it lacked
pepper, wilt thou do all this to me? Is it not enough that thou hast
broken my shop and smashed my gear and boxed me up in a chest and
fed me only once a day?" "Too little pepper! Too little pepper! This
is a crime which can be expiated only upon the cross!" Then Badr
al-Din Hasan marveled and fell a-mourning for his life, whereupon
the Wazir asked him, "Of what thinkest thou?" and he answered him, "Of
maggoty heads like thine, for an thou had one ounce of sense, thou
hadst not treated me thus." Quoth the Wazir, "It is our duty to punish
thee, lest thou do the like again." Quoth Badr al-Din Hasan, "Of a
truth my offense were overpunished by the least of what thou hast
already done to me, and Allah damn all conserve of pomegranate
grains and curse the hour when I cooked it, and would I had died ere
this!" But the Wazir rejoined, "There is no help for it. I must
crucify a man who sells conserve of pomegranate grains lacking
pepper."
All this time the carpenter was shaping the wood and Badr al-Din
looked on, and thus they did till night, when his uncle took him and
clapped him into the chest, saying, "The thing shall be done
tomorrow!" Then he waited till he knew Badr al-Din Hasan to be asleep,
when he mounted and, taking the chest up before him, entered the
city and rode on to his own house, where he alighted and said to his
daughter, Sitt al-Husn, "Praised be Allah Who hath reunited thee
with thy husband, the son of thine uncle! Up now, and order the
house as it was on thy bridal night." So the servants arose and lit
the candles, and the Wazir took out his plan of the nuptial chamber,
and directed them what to do till they had set everything in its
stead, so that whoever saw it would have no doubt but it was the
very night of the marriage. Then he bade them put down Badr al-Din
Hasan's turban on the settle, as he had deposited it with his own
hand, and in like manner his bag trousers and the purse which were
under the mattress, and told his daughter to undress herself and go to
bed in the private chamber as on her wedding night, adding: "When
the son of thine uncle comes in to thee say to him, 'Thou hast
loitered while going to the privy,' and call him to lie by thy side
and keep him in converse till daybreak, when we will explain the whole
matter to him."
Then he bade take Badr al-Din Hasan out of the chest, after
loosing the fetters from his feet and stripping off all that was on
him save the fine shirt of blue silk in which he had slept on his
wedding night, so that he was well-nigh naked, and trouserless. All
this was done whilst he was sleeping on utterly unconscious. Then,
by doom of Destiny, Badr al-Din Hasan turned over and awoke, and
finding himself in a lighted vestibule, said to himself, "Surely I
am in the mazes of some dream." So he rose and went on a little to
an inner door and looked in, and lo! he was in the very chamber
wherein the bride had been displayed to him, and there he saw the
bridal alcove and the settle and his turban and all his clothes.
When he saw this, he was confounded, and kept advancing with one
foot and retiring with the other, saying, "Am I sleeping or waking?"
And he began rubbing his forehead and saying (for indeed he was
thoroughly astounded): "By Allah, verily this is the chamber of the
bride who was displayed before me! Where am I, then? I was surely
but now in a box!" Whilst he was talking with himself, Sitt al-Husn
suddenly lifted the corner of the chamber curtain and said, "O my
lord, wilt thou not come in? Indeed thou hast loitered long in the
watercloset." When he heard her words and saw her face, he burst out
laughing and said, "Of a truth this is a very nightmare among dreams!"
Then he went in sighing, and pondered what had come to pass with him
and was perplexed about his case, and his affair became yet more
obscure to him when he saw his turban and bag trousers and when,
feeling the pocket, he found the purse containing the thousand gold
pieces. So he stood still and muttered: "Allah is All-knowing!
Assuredly I am dreaming a wild waking dream!"
Then said the Lady of Beauty to him, "What ails thee to look puzzled
and perplexed?" adding, "Thou wast a very different man during the
first of the night!" He laughed and asked her, "How long have I been
away from thee?" and she answered him: "Allah preserve thee and His
Holy Name be about thee! Thou didst but go out an hour ago for an
occasion and return. Are thy wits clean gone?" When Badr al-Din
Hasan heard this, he laughed and said: "Thou hast spoken truth, but
when I went out from thee, I forgot myself awhile in the
draughthouse and dreamed that I was a cook at Damascus and abode there
ten years, and there came to me a boy who was of the sons of the
great, and with him a eunuch." Here he passed his hand over his
forehead and, feeling the scar, cried: "By Allah, O my lady, it must
have been true, for he struck my forehead with a stone and cut it open
from eyebrow to eyebrow, and here is the mark, so it must have been on
wake." Then he added: "But perhaps I dreamt it when we fell asleep,
I and thou, in each other's arms, for meseems it was as though I
traveled to Damascus without tarboosh and trousers and set up as a
cook there."
Then he was perplexed and considered for a while, and said: "By
Allah, I also fancied that I dressed a conserve of pomegranate
grains and put too little pepper in it. By Allah, I must have slept in
the numero-cent and have seen the whole of this is a dream, but how
long was that dream!" "Allah upon thee," said Sitt al-Husn, "and
what more sawest thou?" So he related all to her, and presently
said, "By Allah, had I not woke up, they would have nailed me to a
cross of wood!" "Wherefore?" asked she, and he answered: "For
putting too little pepper in the conserve of pomegranate grains, and
meseemed they demolished my shop and dashed to pieces my pots and
pans, destroyed all my stuff, and put me in a box. Then they sent
for the carpenter to fashion a cross for me and would have crucified
me thereon. Now Alhamdolillah! thanks be to Allah, for that all this
happened to me in sleep, and not on wake." Sitt al-Husn laughed and
clasped him to her bosom and he her to his.
Then he thought again and said: "By Allah, it could not be save
while I was awake. Truly I know not what to think of it." Then he
lay down, and all the night he was bewildered about his case, now
saying, "I was dreaming!" and then saying, "I was awake!" till
morning, when his uncle Shams al-Din, the Wazir, came too him and
saluted him. When Badr al-Din Hasan saw him he said: "By Allah, art
thou not he who bade bind my hands behind me and smash my shop and
nail me to a cross on a matter of conserved pomegranate grains because
the dish lacked a sufficiency of pepper?" Whereupon the Wazir said
to him: "Know, O my son, that truth hath shown it soothfast and the
concealed hath been revealed! Thou art the son of my brother, and I
did all this with thee to certify myself that thou wast indeed he
who went in unto my daughter that night. I could not be sure of this
till I saw that thou knewest the chamber and thy turban and thy
trousers and thy gold and the papers in thy writing and in that of thy
father, my brother, for I had never seen thee afore that and knew thee
not. And as to thy mother, I have prevailed upon her to come with me
from Bassorah."
So saying, he threw himself on his nephew's breast and wept for joy,
and Badr al-Din Hasan, hearing these words from his uncle, marveled
with exceeding marvel and fell on his neck and also shed tears for
excess of delight. Then said the Wazir to him, "O my son, the sole
cause of all this is what passed between me and thy sire," and he told
him the manner of his father wayfaring to Bassorah and all that had
occurred to part them. Lastly the Wazir sent for Ajib, and when his
father saw him he cried, "And this is he who struck me with the
stone!" Quoth the Wazir, "This is thy son!" And Badr al-Din Hasan
threw himself upon his boy and began repeating:

"Long have I wept o'er severance' ban and bane,
Long from mine eyelids tear rills rail and rain.
And vowed I if Time reunion bring,
My tongue from name of "Severance" I'll restrain.
Joy hath o'ercome me to this stress that I
From joy's revulsion to shed tears am fain.
Ye are so trained to tears, O eyne of me!
You weep with pleasure as you weep in pain."

When he had ended his verse his mother came in and threw herself
upon him and began reciting:

"When we met we complained,
Our hearts were sore wrung.
But plaint is not pleasant
Fro' messenger's tongue."

Then she wept and related to him what had befallen her since his
departure, and he told her what he had suffered, and they thanked
Allah Almighty for their reunion.
Two days after his arrival the Wazir Shams al-Din went in to the
Sultan and, kissing the ground between his hands, greeted him with the
greeting due to kings. The Sultan rejoiced at his return and his
face brightened and, placing him hard by his side, asked him to relate
all he had seen in his wayfaring and whatso had betided him in his
going and coming. So the Wazir told him all that had passed from first
to last and the Sultan said: "Thanks be to Allah for thy victory and
the winning of thy wish and thy safe return to thy children and thy
people! And now I needs must see the son of thy brother, Hasan of
Bassorah, so bring him to the audience hall tomorrow." Shams al-Din
replied, "Thy slave shall stand in thy presence tomorrow, Inshallah,
if it be God's will." Then he saluted him and, returning to his own
house, informed his nephew of the Sultan's desire to see him,
whereto replied Hasan, whilom the Bassorite, "Me slave is obedient
to the orders of his lord." And the result was that next day he
accompanied his uncle, Shams al-Din, to the Divan, and after
saluting the Sultan and doing him reverence in most ceremonious
obeisance and with most courtly obsequiousness, he began improvising
these verses:

"The first in rank to kiss the ground shall deign
Before you, and all ends and aims attain.
You are Honor's fount, and all that hope of you,
Shall gain more honor than Hope hoped to gain."

The Sultan smiled and signed to him to sit down. So he took a seat
close to his uncle, Shams al-Din, and the King asked him his name.
Quoth Badr al-Din Hasan, "The meanest of thy slaves is known as
Hasan the Bassorite, who is instant in prayer for thee day and night."
The Sultan was pleased at his words and, being minded to test his
learning and prove his good breeding, asked him, "Dost thou remember
any verses in praise of the mole on the cheek?" He answered, "I do,"
and began reciting:

"When I think of my love and our parting smart,
My groans go forth and my tears upstart.
He's a mole that reminds me in color and charms
O' the black o' the eye and the grain of the heart."

The King admired and praised the two couplets and said to him:
"Quote something else. Allah bless thy sire, and may thy tongue
never tire!" So he began:

That cheek mole's spot they evened with a grain
Of Musk, nor did they here the simile strain.
Nay, marvel at the face comprising all
Beauty, nor falling short by single grain."

The King shook with pleasure and said to him: "Say more. Allah bless
thy days!" So be began:

"O you whose mole on cheek enthroned recalls
A dot of musk upon a stone of ruby,
Grant me your favors! Be not stone at heart!
Core of my heart, whose only sustenance you be!"

Quoth the King: "Fair comparison, O Hasan! Thou hast spoken
excellently well and hast proved thyself accomplished in every
accomplishment! Now explain to me how many meanings be there in the
Arabic language for the word khal or mole." He replied, "Allah keep
the King! Seven and fifty, and some by tradition say fifty." Said
the Sultan, "Thou sayest sooth," presently adding, "Hast thou
knowledge as to the points of excellence in beauty?" "Yes," answered
Badr al-Din Hasan. "Beauty consisteth in brightness of face, clearness
of complexion, shapeliness of nose, gentleness of eyes, sweetness of
mouth, cleverness of speech, slenderness of shape, and seemliness of
all attributes. But the acme of beauty is in the hair and indeed
al-Shihab the Hijazi hath brought together all these items in his
doggrel verse of the meter Rajaz, and it is this:

"Say thou to skin 'Be soft,' to face 'Be fair,'
And gaze, nor shall they blame howso thou stare.
Fine nose in Beauty's list is high esteemed,
Nor less an eye full, bright and debonnair.
Eke did they well to laud the lovely lips
(Which e'en the sleep of me will never spare),
A winning tongue, a stature tall and straight,
A seemly union of gifts rarest rare.
But Beauty's acme in the hair one views it,
So hear my strain and with some few excuse it!"

The Sultan was captivated by his converse and, regarding him as a
friend, asked, "What meaning is there in the saw 'Shurayh is foxier
than the fox'?" And he answered, "Know, O King (whom Almighty Allah
keep!), that the legist Shurayh was wont, during the days of the
plague, to make a visitation to Al-Najaf, and whenever he stood up
to pray, there came a fox which would plant himself facing him and
which, by mimicking his movements, distracted him from his
devotions. Now when this became longsome to him, one day he doffed his
shirt and set it upon a cane and shook out the sleeves. Then,
placing his turban on the top and girding its middle with a shawl,
he stuck it up in the place where he used to pray. Presently up
trotted the fox according to his custom and stood over against the
figure, whereupon Shurayh came behind him, and took him. Hence the
sayer saith, 'Shurayh is foxier than the fox.'" When the Sultan
heard Badr al-Din Hasan's explanation he said to his uncle, Shams
al-Din, "Truly this the son of thy brother is perfect in courtly
breeding and I do not think that his like can be found in Cairo." At
this Hasan arose and kissed the ground before him and sat down again
as a Mameluke should sit before his master.
When the Sultan had thus assured himself of his courtly breeding and
bearing and his knowledge of the liberal arts and belles-lettres, he
joyed with exceeding joy and invested him with a splendid robe of
honor and promoted him to an office whereby he might better his
condition. Then Badr al-Din Hasan arose and, kissing the ground before
the King, wished him continuance of glory and asked leave to retire
with his uncle, the Wazir Shams al-Din. The Sultan gave him leave
and he issued forth, and the two returned home, where food was set
before them and they ate what Allah had given them. After finishing
his meal Hasan repaired to the sitting chamber of his wife, the Lady
of Beauty, and told her what had past between him and the Sultan,
whereupon quoth she: "He cannot fail to make thee a cup companion
and give thee largess in excess and load thee with favors and
bounties. So shalt thou, by Allah's blessing, dispread, like the
greater light, the rays of thy perfection wherever thou be, on shore
or on sea." Said he to her, "I purpose to recite a Kasidah, an ode, in
his praise, that he may redouble in affection for me." "Thou art right
in thine intent," she answered, "so gather thy wits together and weigh
thy words, and I shall surely see my husband favored with his
highest favor." Thereupon Hasan shut himself up and composed these
couplets on a solid base and abounding in inner grace and copied
them out in a handwriting of the nicest taste. They are as follows:

Mine is a Chief who reached most haught estate,
Treading the pathways of the good and great.
His justice makes all regions safe and sure,
And against froward foes bars every gate.
Bold lion, hero, saint, e'en if you call
Seraph or Sovran he with an may rate!
The poorest suppliant rich from him returns,
All words to praise him were inadequate.
He to the day of peace is saffron Morn,
And murky Night in furious warfare's bate,
Bow 'neath his gifts our necks, and by his deeds
As King of freeborn souls he 'joys his state.
Allah increase for us his term of years,
And from his lot avert all risks and fears!

When he had finished transcribing the lines, he dispatched them in
charge of one of his uncle's slaves to the Sultan, who perused them,
and his fancy was pleased, so he read them to those present and all
praised them with the highest praise. Thereupon he sent for the writer
to his sitting chamber and said to him: "Thou art from this day
forth my boon companion, and I appoint to thee a monthly solde of a
thousand dirhams, over and above that I bestowed on thee aforetime."
So Hasan rose and, kissing the ground before the King several times,
prayed for the continuance of his greatness and glory and length of
life and strength. Thus Badr al-Din Hasan the Bassorite waxed high
in honor and his fame flew forth to many regions, and he abode in
all comfort and solace and delight of life with his uncle and his
own folk till death overtook him.
When the Caliph Harun al-Rashid heard this story from the mouth of
his Wazir, Ja'afar the Barmecide, he marveled much and said, "It
behooves that these stories be written in letters of liquid gold."
Then he set the slaves at liberty and assigned to the youth who had
slain his wife such a monthly stipend as sufficed to make his life
easy. He also gave him a concubine from amongst his own slave girls,
and the young man became one of his cup companions.
THE CITY OF MANY-COLUMNED IRAM AND ABDULLAH SON OF ABI KILABAH

IT is related that Abdullah bin Abi Kilabah went forth in quest of a
she-camel which had strayed from him, and as he was wandering in the
deserts of Al-Yaman and the district of Saba, behold, he came a
great city girt by a vast castle around which were palaces and
pavilions that rose high into middle air. He made for the place
thinking to find there folk of whom he might ask concerning his
she-camel. But when he reached it, he found it desolate, without a
living soul in it. So (quoth he) I alighted and, hobbling my
dromedary, and composing my mind, entered into the city.
Now when I came to the castle, I found it had two vast gates
(never in the world was seen their like for size and height) inlaid
with all manner jewels and jacinths, white and red, yellow and
green. Beholding this, I marveled with great marvel and thought the
case mighty wondrous. Then, entering the citadel in a flutter of
fear and dazed with surprise and affright, I found it long and wide,
about equaling Al-Medinah in point of size. And therein were lofty
palaces laid out in pavilions all built of gold and silver and
inlaid with many colored jewels and jacinths and chrysolites and
pearls. And the door leaves in the pavilions were like those of the
castle for beauty, and their floors were strewn with great pearls
and balls, no smaller than hazelnuts, of musk and ambergris and
saffron.
Now when I came within the heart of the city and saw therein no
created beings of the Sons of Adam, I was near swooning and dying
for fear. Moreover, I looked down from the great roofs of the pavilion
chambers and their balconies and saw rivers running under them, and in
the main streets were fruit-laden trees and tall palms, and the manner
of their building was one brick of gold and one of silver. So I said
to myself, "Doubtless this is the Paradise promised for the world to
come." Then I loaded me with the jewels of its gravel and the musk
of its dust as much as I could carry, and returned to my own
country, where I told the folk what I had seen.
After a time the news reached Mu'awiyah, son of Abu Sufyan, who
was then Caliph in Al-Hijaz, so he wrote to his lieutenant in San'a of
Al-Yaman to send for the teffer of the story and question him of the
truth of the case. Accordingly the lieutenant summoned me and
questioned me of my adventure and of all appertaining to it, and I
told him what I had seen, whereupon he dispatched me to Mu'awiyah,
before whom I, repeated the story of the strange sights, but he
would not credit it. So I brought out to him some of the pearls and
balls of musk and ambergris and saffron, in which latter there was
still some sweet savor, but the pearls were grown yellow and had
lost pearly color.
Now Mu'awiyah wondered at this and, sending for Ka'ab al-Ahbar, said
to him, "O Ka'ab, I have sent for thee to ascertain the truth of a
certain matter and hope that thou wilt be able to certify me thereof."
Asked Ka'ab, "What is it, O Commander of the Faithful?" and
Mu'awiyah answered, "Wottest thou of any city founded by man which
is builded of gold and silver, the pillars whereof are of chrysolite
and rubies and its gravel pearls and bans of musk and ambergris and
saffron?" He replied, "Yes, O Commander of the Faithful, this is 'Iram
with pillars decked and dight, the like of which was never made in the
lands,' and the builder was Shaddad son of Ad the Greater." Quoth
the Caliph, 'Tell us something of its history," and Ka'ab said:
"Ad the Greater had two sons, Shadid and Shaddad, who when their
father died ruled conjointly in his stead, and there was no King of
the Kings of the earth but was subject to them. After awhile Shadid
died and his brother Shaddad reigned over the earth alone. Now he
was fond of reading in antique books, and happening upon the
description of the world to come and of Paradise, with its pavilions
and pileries and trees and fruits and so forth, his soul move him to
build the like thereof in this world, after the fashion aforesaid. Now
under his hand were a hundred thousand kings, each ruling over a
hundred thousand chiefs, commanding each a hundred thousand
warriors, so he called these all before him and said to them: 'I
find in ancient books and annals a description of Paradise as it is to
be in the next world, and I desire to build me its like in this world.
Go ye forth therefore to the goodliest tract on earth and the most
spacious, and build me there a city of gold and silver, whose gravel
shall be chrysolite and rubies and pearls, and for support of its
vaults make pillars of jasper. Fill it with palaces, whereon ye
shall set galleries and balconies, and plant its lanes and
thoroughfares with all manner trees bearing yellow-ripe fruits, and
make rivers to run through it in channels of gold and silver.'
"Whereat said one and all, 'How are we able to do this thing thou
hast commanded, and whence shall we get the chrysolites and rubies and
pearls whereof thou speakest?' Quoth he, 'What! Weet ye not that the
kings of the world are subject to me and under my hand and that none
therein dare gainsay my word?' Answered they, 'Yes, we know that.'
Whereupon the King rejoined, 'Fare ye then to the mines of chrysolites
and rubies and pearls and gold and silver and collect their produce
and gather together all of value that is in the world, and spare no
pains and leave naught. And take also for me such of these things as
be in men's hands and let nothing escape you. Be diligent and beware
of disobedience.' And thereupon he wrote letters to all the kings of
the world and bade them gather together whatso of these things was
in their subjects' hands, and get them to the mines of precious stones
and metals, and bring forth all that was therein, even from the
abysses of the seas.
"This they accomplished in the space of twenty years, for the number
of rulers then reigning over the earth was three hundred and sixty
kings. And Shaddad presently assembled from all lands and countries
architects and engineers and men of art and laborers and
handicraftsmen, who dispersed over the world and explored all the
wastes and wolds and tracts and holds. At last they came to an
uninhabited spot, a vast and fair open plain clear of sand hills and
mountains, with founts flushing and rivers rushing, and they said,
'This is the manner of place the King commanded us to seek and ordered
us to find.' So they busied themselves in building the city even as
bade them Shaddad, King of the whole earth in its length and
breadth, leading the fountains in channels and laying the
foundations after the prescribed fashion. Moreover, all the kings of
earth's several reigns sent thither jewels and precious stones and
pearls large and small and carnelian and refined gold and virgin
silver upon camels by land, and in great ships over the waters, and
there came to the builders' hands of all these materials so great a
quantity as may neither be told nor counted nor conceived.
"So they labored at the work three hundred years, and when they
had brought it to end, they went to King Shaddad and acquainted him
therewith. Then said he: 'Depart and make thereon an impregnable
castle, rising and towering high in air, and build around it a
thousand pavilions, each upon a thousand columns of chrysolite and
ruby and vaulted with gold, that in each pavilion a wazir may
dwell.' So they returned forthwith and did this in other twenty years,
after which they again presented themselves before King Shaddad and
informed him of the accomplishment of his will. Then he commanded
his wazirs, who were a thousand in number, and his chief officers
and such of his troops and others as he put trust in, to prepare for
departure and removal to Many-columned Iram, in the suite and at the
stirrup of Shaddad, son of Ad, King of the world, and he bade also
such as he would of his women and his harem and of his handmaids and
eunuchs make them ready for the journey.
"They spent twenty years in preparing for departure, at the end of
which time Shaddad set out with his host, rejoicing in the
attainment of his desire till there remained but one day's journey
between him and Iram of the Pillars. Then Allah sent down on him and
on the stubborn unbelievers with him a mighty rushing sound from the
Heavens of His power, which destroyed them all with its vehement
clamor, and neither Shaddad nor any of his company set eyes on the
city. Moreover, Allah blotted out the road which led to the city,
and it stands in its stead unchanged until the Resurrection Day and
the Hour of Judgment."
So Mu'awiyah wondered greatly at Ka'ab al-Ahbar's story, and said to
him, "Hath any mortal ever made his way to that city?" He replied,
"Yes, one of the companions of Mohammed (on whom be blessing and
peace!) reached it, doubtless and for sure after the same fashion as
this man here seated." And (quoth Al-Sha'abi) it is related, on the
authority of learned men of Himyar in Al-Yaman that Shaddad, when
destroyed with all his host by the sound, was succeeded in his
kingship by his son Shaddad the Less, whom he left viceregent in
Hazramaut and Saba when he and his marched upon Many-columned Iram.
Now as soon as he heard of his father's death on the road, he caused
his body to be brought back from the desert to Hazramaut and bade them
hew him out a tomb in a cave, where he laid the body on a throne of
gold and threw over the corpse threescore and ten robes of cloth of
gold, purfled with precious stones. Lastly at his sire's head he set
up a tablet of gold whereon were graven these verses:

Take warning O proud,
And in length o' life vain!
I'm Shaddad son of Ad,
Of the forts castellain,
Lord of pillars and power,
Lord of tried might and main,
Whom all earth sons obeyed
For my mischief and bane,
And who held East and West
In mine awfulest reign.
He preached me salvation
Whom God did assain,
But we crossed him and asked,
"Can no refuge be ta'en?"
When a Cry on us cried
From th' horizon plain,
And we fell on the field
Like the harvested grain,
And the Fixt Day await
We, in earth's bosom lain!

Al-Sa'alibi also relateth: It chanced that two men once entered this
cave and found steps at its upper end, so they descended and came to
an underground chamber, a hundred cubits long by forty wide and a
hundred high. In the midst stood a throne of gold, whereon lay a man
of huge bulk, filling the whole length and breadth of the throne. He
was covered with jewels and raiment gold-and-silver wrought, and at
his head was a tablet of gold bearing an inscription. So they took the
tablet and carried it off, together with as many bars of gold and
silver and so forth as they could bear away.
And men also relate the tale of
THE SWEEP AND THE NOBLE LADY

DURING the season of the Meccan pilgrimage, whilst the people were
making circuit about the Holy House and the place of compassing was
crowded, behold, a man laid hold of the covering of the Ka'aba and
cried out from the bottom of his heart, saying, "I beseech thee, O
Allah, that she may once again be wroth with her husband and that I
may know her!" A company of the pilgrims heard him and seized him
and carried him to the Emir of the pilgrims, after a sufficiency of
blows, and, said they, "O Emir, we found this fellow in the Holy
Places, saying thus and thus." So the Emir commanded to hang him,
but he cried, "O Emir, I conjure thee, by the virtue of the Apostle
(whom Allah bless and preserve!), hear my story and then do with me as
thou wilt." Quoth the Emir, "Tell thy tale forthright."
"Know then, O Emir," quoth the man, "that I am a sweep who works
in the sheep slaughterhouses and carries off the blood and the offal
to the rubbish heaps outside the gates. And it came to pass as I
went along one day with my ass loaded, I saw the people running away
and one of them said to me, 'Enter this alley, lest haply they slay
thee.' Quoth I, 'What aileth the folk running away?' and one of the
eunuchs who were passing said to me, 'This is the harem of one of
the notables, and her eunuchs drive the people out of her way and beat
them all, without respect to persons.' So I turned aside with the
donkey and stood still awaiting the dispersal of the crowd, and I
saw a number of eunuchs with staves in their hands, followed by nigh
thirty women slaves, and amongst them a lady as she were a willow wand
or a thirsty gazelle, perfect in beauty and grace and amorous languor,
and all were attending upon her.
"Now when she came to the mouth of the passage where I stood, she
turned right and left and calling one of the castratos, whispered in
his ear, and behold, he came up to me and laid hold of me, whilst
another eunuch took my ass and made off with it. And when the
spectators fled, the first eunuch bound me with a rope and dragged
me after him, till I knew not what to do, and the people followed us
and cried out, saying: 'This is not allowed of Allah! What hath this
poor scavenger done that he should be bound with ropes?' and praying
the eunuchs, 'Have pity on him and let him go, so Allah have pity on
you!' And I the while said in my mind: 'Doubtless the eunuchry
seized me because their mistress smelt the stink of the offal and it
sickened her. Belike she is with child or ailing, but there is no
Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great!"
"So I continued walking on behind them till they stopped at the door
of a great house, and, entering before me, brought me into a big
hall- I know not how I shall describe its magnificence- furnished with
the finest furniture. And the women also entered the hall, and I bound
and held by the eunuch and saying to myself, 'Doubtless they will
torture me here till I die and none know of my death.' However,
after a while they carried me into a neat bathroom leading out of
the hall, and as I sat there, behold, in came three slave girls, who
seated themselves round me and said to me, 'Strip off thy rags and
tatters.' So I pulled off my threadbare clothes and one of them fell
a-rubbing my legs and feet whilst another scrubbed my head and a third
shampooed my body. When they had made an end of washing me, they
brought me a parcel of clothes and said to me, 'Put these on,' and I
answered, 'By Allah, I know not how!' So they came up to me and
dressed me, laughing together at me the while. After which they
brought casting bottles full of rose-water, and sprinkled me
therewith.
"Then I went out with them into another saloon- by Allah, I know
not how to praise its splendor for the wealth of paintings and
furniture therein- and entering it, I saw a person seated on a couch
of Indian rattan with ivory feet, and before her a number of damsels.
When she saw me, she rose to me and called me, so I went up to her and
she seated me by her side. Then she bade her slave girls bring food,
and they brought all manner of rich meats, such as I never saw in
all my life. I do not even know the names of the dishes, much less
their nature. So I ate my fill, and when the dishes had been taken
away and we had washed our hands, she called for fruits, which came
without stay or delay, and ordered me eat of them. And when we had
ended eating she bade one of the waiting women bring the wine
furniture. So they set on flagons of divers kinds of wine and burned
perfumes in all the censers, what while a damsel like the moon rose
and served us with wine to the sound of the smitten strings. And I
drank, and the lady drank, till we were swized with wine and the whole
time I doubted not but that all this was an illusion of sleep.
"Presently, she signed to one of the damsels to spread us a bed in
such a place, which being done, she rose and took me by the hand and
led me thither, and lay down and I lay with her till the morning,
and as often as I pressed her to my breast I smelt the delicious
fragrance of musk and other perfumes that exaled from her, and could
not think otherwise but that I was in Paradise, or in the vain
phantasies of a dream. Now when it was day, she asked me where I
lodged and I told her, 'In such a place,' whereupon she gave me
leave to depart, handing to me a kerchief worked with gold and
silver and containing somewhat tied in it, and took leave of me,
saying, 'Go to the bath with this.' I rejoiced and said to myself, 'If
there be but five coppers here, it will buy me this day my morning
meal.'
"Then I left her, as though I were leaving Paradise, and returned to
my poor crib, where I opened the kerchief and found in it fifty
miskals of gold. So I buried them in the ground and, buying two
farthings' worth of bread and "kitchen," seated me at the door and
broke my fast. After which I sat pondering my case, and continued so
doing till the time of afternoon prayer, when lo! a slave girl
accosted me saying, 'My mistress calleth for thee.' I followed her
to the house aforesaid and, after asking permission, she carried me
into the lady, before whom I kissed the ground, and she commanded me
to sit and called for meat and wine as on the previous day. After
which I again lay with her all night. On the morrow, she gave me a
second kerchief, with other fifty dinars therein, and I took it and,
going home, buried this also. In such pleasant condition I continued
eight days running, going in to her at the hour of afternoon prayer
and leaving her at daybreak, but on the eighth night, as I lay with
her, behold, one of her slave girls came running in and said to me,
'Arise, go up into yonder closet.'
"So I rose and went into the closet, which was over the gate, and
presently I heard a great clamor and tramp of horse, and, looking
out of the window which gave on the street in front of the house, I
saw a young man as he were the rising moon on the night of fullness
come riding up attended by a number of servants and soldiers who
were about him on foot. He alighted at the door and entering the
saloon, found the lady seated on the couch. So he kissed the ground
between her hands, then came up to her and kissed her hands, but she
would not speak to him. However, he continued patiently to humble
himself, and soothe her and speak her fair, till he made his peace
with her, and they lay together that night. Now when her husband had
made his peace with the young lady, he lay with her that night, and
next morning the soldiers came for him and he mounted and rode away,
whereupon she drew near to me and said, 'Sawest thou yonder man?' I
answered, 'Yes,' and she said, 'He is my husband, and I will tell thee
what befell me with him.'
"It came to pass one, day that we were sitting, he and I, in the
garden within the house, and behold, he rose from my side and was
absent a long while, till I grew tired of waiting and said to
myself, 'Most like, he is in the privy.' So I arose and went to the
watercloset, but not finding him there, went down to the kitchen,
where I saw a slave girl, and when I enquired for him, she showed
him to me lying with one of the cookmaids. Hereupon I swore a great
oath that I assuredly would do adultery with the foulest and filthiest
man in Baghdad, and the day the eunuch laid hands on thee, I had
been four days going round about the city in quest of one who should
answer to this description, but found none fouler nor filthier than
thy good self. So I took thee and there passed between us that which
Allah foreordained to us, and now I am quit of my oath.'
"Then she added, 'If, however, my husband return yet a pin to the
cookmaid and lie with her, I will restore thee to thy lost place in my
favors.' Now when I heard these words from her lips, what while she
pierced my heart with the shafts of her glances, my tears streamed
forth till my eyelids were chafed sore with weeping. Then she made
them give me other fifty dinars (making in all four hundred gold
pieces I had of her) and bade me depart. So I went out from her and
came hither, that I might pray Allah (extolled and exalted be He!) to
make her husband return to the cookmaid, that haply I might be again
admitted to her favors."
When the Emir of the pilgrims heard the man's story, he set him free
and said to the bystanders, "Allah upon you, pray for him, for
indeed he is excusable."
THE MAN WHO STOLE THE DISH OF GOLD WHEREIN THE DOG ATE

SOME time erst there was a man who had accumulated debts, and his
case was straitened upon him so that he left his people and family and
went forth in distraction, and he ceased not wandering on at random
till he came after a time to a city tall of walls and firm of
foundations. He entered it in a state of despondency and despair,
harried by hunger and worn with the weariness of his way. As he passed
through one of the main streets, he saw a company of the great going
along, so he followed them till they reached a house like to a royal
palace. He entered with them, and they stayed not faring forward
till they came in presence of a person seated at the upper end of a
saloon, a man of the most dignified and majestic aspect, surrounded by
pages and eunuchs, as he were of the sons of the wazirs. When he saw
the visitors, he rose to greet them and received them with honor,
but the poor man aforesaid was confounded at his own boldness when
beholding the goodliness of the place and the crowd of servants and
attendants, so drawing back in perplexity and fear for his life, sat
down apart in a place afar off, where none should see him.
Now it chanced that whilst he was sitting, behold, in came a man
with four sporting dogs, whereon were various kinds of raw silk and
brocade and wearing round their necks collars of gold with chains of
silver, and tied up each dog in a place set privy for him. After which
he went out and presently returned with four dishes of gold, full of
rich meats, which he set severally before the dogs, one for each. Then
he went away and left them, whilst the poor man began to eye the
food for stress of hunger, and longed to go up to one of the dogs
and eat with him. But fear of them withheld him. Presently, one of the
dogs looked at him and Allah Almighty inspired the dog with a
knowledge of his case, so he drew back from the platter and signed
to the man, who came and ate till he was filled. Then he would have
withdrawn, but the dog again signed to him to take for himself the
dish and what food was left in it, and pushed it toward him with his
forepaw. So the man took the dish and leaving the house, went his way,
and none followed him.
Then he journeyed to another city, where he sold the dish and buying
with the price a stock in trade, returned to his own town. There he
sold his goods and paid his debts, and he throve and became affluent
and rose to perfect prosperity. He abode in his own land, but after
some years had passed he said to himself, "Needs must I repair to
the city of the owner of the dish, and carry him a fit and handsome
present and pay him the money value of that which his dog bestowed
upon me." So he took the price of the dish and a suitable gift, and
setting out, journeyed day and night till he came to that city. He
entered it and sought the place where the man lived, but he found
there naught save ruins moldering in row and croak of crow, and
house and home desolate and all conditions in changed state. At
this, his heart and soul were troubled, and he repeated the saying
of him who saith:

"Void are the private rooms of treasury.
As void were hearts of fear and piety.
Changed is the wady, nor are its gazelles
Those fawns, nor sand hills those I wont to see."

Now when the man saw these moldering ruins and witnessed what the
hand of time had manifestly done with the place, leaving but traces of
the substantial things that erewhiles had been, a little reflection
made it needless for him to inquire of the case, so he turned away.
Presently, seeing a wretched man, in a plight which made him shudder
and feel goose skin, and which would have moved the very rock to ruth,
he said to him: "Ho, thou! What have time and fortune done with the
lord of this place? Where are his lovely faces, his shining full moons
and splendid stars? And what is the cause of the ruin that is come
upon his abode, so that nothing save the walls thereof remain?"
Quoth the other: "He is the miserable thou seest mourning that which
hath left him naked. But knowest thou not the words of the Apostle
(whom Allah bless and keep!), wherein is a lesson to him who will
learn by it and a warning to whoso will be warned thereby and guided
in the right way, 'Verily it is the way of Allah Almighty to raise
up nothing of this world, except He cast it down again'?
"If thou question of the cause of this accident, indeed it is no
wonder, considering the chances and changes of Fortune. I was the lord
of this place and I builded it and founded it and owned it, and I
was the proud possessor of its full moons lucent and its
circumstance resplendent and its damsels radiant and its garniture
magnificent, but Time turned and did away from me wealth and
servants and took from me what it had lent (not given), and brought
upon me calamities which it held in store hidden. But there must needs
be some reason for this thy question, so tell it me and leave
wondering."
Thereupon the man who had waxed wealthy, being sore concerned,
told him the whole story, and added: "I have brought thee a present,
such as souls desire, and the price of thy dish of gold which I
took; for it was the cause of my affluence after poverty, and of the
replenishment of my dwelling place after desolation, and of the
dispersion of my trouble and straitness." But the man shook his head
and weeping and groaning and complaining of his lot, answered: "Ho,
thou! Methinks thou art mad, for this is not the way of a man of
sense. How should a dog of mine make generous gift to thee of a dish
of gold and I meanly take back the price of what a dog gave? This were
indeed a strange thing! Were I in extremest unease and misery, by
Allah, I would not accept of thee aught- no, not the worth of a nail
paring! So return whence thou camest in health and safety."
Whereupon the merchant kissed his feet and taking leave of him,
returned whence he came, praising him and reciting this couplet:

"Men and dogs together are all gone by,
So peace be with all of them, dogs and men!"

And Allah is All-knowing!
Again men tell the tale of
THE RUINED MAN WHO BECAME RICH AGAIN THROUGH A DREAM

THERE lived once in Baghdad a wealthy man and made of money, who
lost all his substance and became so destitute that he could earn
his living only by hard labor. One night he lay down to sleep dejected
and heavyhearted, and saw in a dream a speaker who said to him,
"Verily thy fortune is in Cairo. Go thither and seek it." So he set
out for Cairo, but when he arrived there, evening overtook him and
he lay down to sleep in a mosque. Presently, by decree of Allah
Almighty a band of bandits entered the mosque and made their way
thence into an adjoining house, but the owners, being aroused by the
noise of the thieves, awoke and cried out. Whereupon the Chief of
Police came to their aid with his officers.
The robbers made off, but the Wali entered the mosque, and finding
the man from Baghdad asleep there, laid hold of him and beat him
with palm rods so grievous a beating that he was well-nigh dead.
Then they cast him into jail, where he abode three days, after which
the Chief of Police sent for him and asked him, "Whence art thou?" and
he answered, "From Baghdad." Quoth the Wali, "And what brought thee to
Cairo?" and quoth the Baghdadi, "I saw in a dream One who said to
me, 'Thy fortune is in Cairo. Go thither to it.' But when I came to
Cairo the fortune which he promised me proved to be the palm rods thou
so generously gavest to me."
The Wali laughed till he showed his wisdom teeth and said, "O man of
little wit, thrice have I seen in a dream one who said to me: 'There
is in Baghdad a house in such a district and of such a fashion and its
courtyard is laid out gardenwise, at the lower end whereof is a
jetting fountain and under the same a great sum of money lieth buried.
Go thither and take it.' Yet I went not, but thou, of the briefness of
thy wit, hast journeyed from place to place on the faith of a dream,
which was but an idle galimatias of sleep."
Then he gave him money, saying, "Help thee back herewith to thine
own country," and he took the money and set out upon his homeward
march. Now the house the Wali had described was the man's own house in
Baghdad, so the wayfarer returned thither and, digging underneath
the fountain in his garden, discovered a great treasure. And thus
Allah gave him abundant fortune, and a marvelous coincidence occurred.
And a story is also current of
THE EBONY HORSE

THERE was once in times of yore and ages long gone before, a great
and puissant King, of the kings of the Persians, Sabur by name, who
was the richest of all the kings in store of wealth and dominion and
surpassed each and every in wit and wisdom. He was generous,
openhanded and beneficent, and he gave to those who sought him and
repelled not those who resorted to him, and he comforted the
brokenhearted and honorably entreated those who fled to him for
refuge. Moreover, he loved the poor and was hospitable to strangers
and did the oppressed justice upon the oppressor. He had three
daughters, like full moons of shining light or flower gardens blooming
bright, and a son as he were the moon. And it was his wont to keep two
festivals in the twelvemonth, those of the Nau-Roz, or New Year, and
Mihrgan, the Autumnal Equinox, on which occasions he threw open his
palaces and gave largess and made proclamation of safety and
security and promoted his chamberlains and viceroys. And the people of
his realm came in to him and saluted him and gave him joy of the
holy day, bringing him gifts and servants and eunuchs.
Now he loved science and geometry, and one festival day as he sat on
his kingly throne there came in to him three wise men, cunning
artificers and past masters in all manner of craft and inventions,
skilled in making things curious and rare, such as confound the wit,
and versed in the knowledge of occult truths and perfect in
mysteries and subtleties. And they were of three different tongues and
countries: the first a Hindi or Indian, the second a Roumi or Greek,
and the third a Farsi or Persian. The Indian came forward and,
prostrating himself before the King, wished him joy of the festival
and laid before him a present befitting his dignity; that is to say, a
man of gold, set with precious gems and jewels of price and hending in
hand a golden trumpet. When Sabur saw this, he asked, "O sage, what is
the virtue of this figure?" and the Indian answered: "O my lord, if
this figure be set at the gate of thy city, it will be a guardian over
it; for if an enemy enter the place, it will blow this clarion against
him and he will be seized with a palsy and drop down dead." Much the
King marveled at this and cried, "By Allah, O sage, an this thy word
be true, I will grant thee thy wish and thy desire."
Then came forward the Greek and, prostrating himself before the
King, presented him with a basin of silver in whose midst was a
peacock of gold, surrounded by four and twenty chicks of the same
metal. Sabur looked at them and turning to the Greek, said to him,
"O sage, what is the virtue of this peacock?" "O my lord," answered
he, "as often as an hour of the day or night passeth, it pecketh one
of its young and crieth out and flappeth its wing, till the four and
twenty hours are accomplished. And when the month cometh to an end, it
will open its mouth and thou shalt see the crescent therein." And
the King said, "An thou speak sooth, I will bring thee to thy wish and
thy desire."
Then came forward the Persian sage and, prostrating himself before
the King, presented him with a horse of the blackest ebony wood inlaid
with gold and jewels, and ready harnessed with saddle, bridle, and
stirrups such as befit kings, which when Sabur saw, he marveled with
exceeding marvel and was confounded at the beauty of its form and
the ingenuity of its fashion. So he asked, "What is the use of this
horse of wood, and what is its virtue and what the secret of its
movement?" and the Persian answered, "O my lord, the virtue of this
horse is that if one mount him, it will carry him whither he will
and fare with its rider through the air and cover the space of a
year in a single day."
The King marveled and was amazed at these three wonders, following
thus hard upon one another on the same day, and turning to the sage,
said to him: "By Allah the Omnipotent, and our Lord the Beneficent,
who created all creatures and feedeth them with meat and drink, an thy
speech be veritable and the virtue of thy contrivance appear, I will
assuredly give thee whatsoever thou lustest for and will bring thee to
thy desire and thy wish!" Then he entertained the sages three days,
that he might make trial of their gifts, after which they brought
the figures before him and each took the creature he had wroughten and
showed him the mystery of its movement. The trumpeter blew the
trump, the peacock pecked its chicks, and the Persian sage mounted the
ebony horse, whereupon it soared with him high in air and descended
again. When King Sabur saw all this, he was amazed and perplexed and
felt like to fly for joy and said to the three sages: "Now I am
certified of the truth of your words and it behooveth me to quit me of
my promise. Ask ye, therefore, what ye will, and I will give you
that same."
Now the report of the King's daughters had reached the sages, so
they answered: "If the King be content with us and accept of our gifts
and allow us to prefer a request to him, we crave of him that he
give us his three daughters in marriage, that we may be his
sons-inlaw, for that the stability of kings may not be gainsaid."
Quoth the King, "I grant you that which you wish and you desire,"
and bade summon the kazi forthright, that he might marry each of the
sages to one of his daughters. Now it fortuned that the Princesses
were behind a curtain, looking on, and when they heard this, the
youngest considered her husband-to-be and behold, he was an old man, a
hundred years of age, with hair frosted, forehead drooping, eyebrows
mangy, ears slitten, beard and mustachios stained and dyed, eyes red
and goggle, cheeks bleached and hollow, flabby nose like a brinjall or
eggplant, face like a cobblees apron, teeth overlapping and lips
like camel's kidneys, loose and pendulous- in brief, a terror, a
horror, a monster, for he was of the folk of his time the unsightliest
and of his age the frightfulest. Sundry of his grinders had been
knocked out and his eyeteeth were like the tusks of the Jinni who
frighteneth poultry in henhouses.
Now the girl was the fairest and most graceful of her time, more
elegant than the gazelle, however tender, than the gentlest zephyr
blander, and brighter than the moon at her full, for amorous fray
right suitable, confounding in graceful sway the waving bough and
outdoing in swimming gait the pacing roe,- in fine, she was fairer
and sweeter by far than all her sisters. So when she saw her suitor,
she went to her chamber and strewed dust on her head and tore her
clothes and fell to buffeting her face and weeping and walling. Now
the Prince, her brother, Kamar al-Akmar, or the Moon of Moons hight,
was then newly returned from a journey and, hearing her weeping and
crying, came in to her (for he loved her with fond affection, more
than his other sisters) and asked her: "What aileth thee? What hath
befallen thee? Tell me, and conceal naught from me." So she smote
her breast and answered: "O my brother and my dear one, I have nothing
to hide. If the palace be straitened upon thy father, I will go out,
and if he be resolved upon a foul thing, I will separate myself from
him, though he consent not to make provision for me, and my Lord
will provide." Quoth he, "Tell me what meaneth this talk and what hath
straitened thy breast and troubled thy temper." "O my brother and my
dear one," answered the Princess, "know that my father hath promised
me in marriage to a wicked magician who brought him as a gift a
horse of black wood, and hath bewitched him with his craft and his
egromancy. But as for me, I will none of him, and would, because of
him, I had never come into this world!"
Her brother soothed her and solaced her, then fared to his sire
and said: "What be this wizard to whom thou hast given my youngest
sister in marriage, and what is this present which he hast brought
thee, so that thou hast killed my sister with chagrin? It is not right
that this should be." Now the Persian was standing by, and when he
heard the Prince's words, he was mortified and filled with fury, and
the King said, "O my son, an thou sawest this horse, thy wit would
be confounded and thou wouldst be amated with amazement." Then he bade
the slaves bring the horse before him and they did so, and, when the
Prince saw it, it pleased him. So (being an accomplished cavalier)
he mounted it forthright and struck its sides with the shovelshaped
stirrup irons. But it stirred not, and the King said to the sage,
"Go show him its movement, that he also may help thee to win thy
wish."
Now the Persian bore the Prince a grudge because he willed not he
should have his sister, so he showed him the pin of ascent on the
right side of the horse and saying to him, "Trill this," left him.
Thereupon the Prince trilled the pin and lo! the horse forthwith
soared with him high in ether, as it were a bird, and gave not over
flying till it disappeared from men's espying, whereat the King was
troubled and perplexed about his case and said to the Persian, "O
Sage, look how thou mayst make him descend." But he replied, "O my
lord, I can do nothing, and thou wilt never see him again till
Resurrection Day, for he, of his ignorance and pride, asked me not
of the pin of descent, and I forgot to acquaint him therewith." When
the King heard this, he was enraged with sore rage, and bade bastinado
the sorcerer and clap him in jail, whilst he himself cast the crown
from his head and beat his face and smote his breast. Moreover, he
shut the doors of his palaces and gave himself up to weeping and
keening, he and his wife and daughters and all the folk of the city,
and thus their joy was turned to annoy and their gladness changed into
sore affliction and sadness.
Thus far concerning them, but as regards the Prince, the horse
gave not over soaring with him till he drew near the sun, whereat he
gave himself up for lost and saw death in the sides, and was
confounded at his case, repenting him of having mounted the horse
and saying to himself: "Verily, this was a device of the sage to
destroy me on account of my youngest sister. But there is no Majesty
and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great! I am
lost without recourse, but I wonder, did not he who made the ascent
pin make also a descent pin?" Now he was a man of wit and knowledge
and intelligence, so he fell to feeling all the parts of the horse,
but saw nothing save a screw like a cock's head on its right
shoulder and the like on the left, when quoth he to himself, "I see no
sip save these things like button."
Presently he turned the right-hand pin, whereupon the horse flew
heavenward with increased speed. So he left it, and looking at the
sinister shoulder and finding another pin, he wound it up and
immediately the steed's upward motion slowed and ceased and it began
to descend, little by little, toward the face of the earth, while
the rider became yet more cautious and careful of his life. And when
he saw this and knew the uses of the horse, his heart was filled
with joy and gladness and he thanked Almighty Allah for that He had
deigned deliver him from destruction. Then he began to turn the
horse's head whithersoever he would, making it rise and fall at
pleasure, till he had gotten complete mastery over its every movement.
He ceased not to descend the whole of that day, for that the steed's
ascending flight had borne him afar from the earth, and as he
descended, he diverted himself with viewing the various cities and
countries over which he passed and which he knew not, never having
seen them in his life.
Amongst the rest, he decried a city ordered after the fairest
fashion in the midst of a verdant and riant land, rich in trees and
streams, with gazelles pacing daintily over the plains, whereat he
fell a-musing and said to himself, "Would I knew the name of yon
town and in what land it is!" And he took to circling about it and
observing it right and left. By this time, the day began to decline
and the sun drew near to its downing, and he said in his mind, "Verily
I find no goodlier place to night in than this city, so I will lodge
here, and early on the morrow I will return to my kith and kin and
my kingdom and tell my father and family what hath passed and acquaint
him with what mine eyes have seen.
Then he addressed himself to seeking a place wherein he might safely
bestow himself and his horse and where none should descry him, and
presently, behold, he espied a-middlemost of the city a palace
rising high in upper air surrounded by a great wall with lofty
crenelles and battlements, guarded by forty black slaves clad in
complete mail and armed with spears and swords, bows and arrows. Quoth
he, "This is a goodly place," and turned the descent pin, whereupon
the horse sank down with him like a weary bird, and alighted gently on
the terrace roof of the palace. So the Prince dismounted and
ejaculating "Alhamdolillah- praise be to Allah," he began to go round
about the horse and examine it, saying: "By Allah, he who fashioned
thee with these perfections was a cunning craftsman, and if the
Almighty extend the term of my life and restore me to my country and
kinsfolk in safety and reunite me with my father, I will assuredly
bestow upon him all manner bounties and benefit him with the utmost
beneficence."
By this time night had overtaken him and he sat on the roof till
he was assured that all in the palace slept, and indeed hunger and
thirst were sore upon him for that he had not tasted food nor drunk
water since he parted from his sire. So he said within himself,
"Surely the like of this palace will not lack of victual," and,
leaving the horse above, went down in search of somewhat to eat.
Presently he came to a staircase and, descending it to the bottom,
found himself in a court paved with white marble and alabaster,
which shone in the light of the moon. He marveled at the place and the
goodliness of its fashion, but sensed no sound of speaker and saw no
living soul and stood in perplexed surprise, looking right and left
and knowing not whither he should wend. Then said he to himself, "I
may not do better than return to where I left my horse and pass the
night by it, and as soon as day shall dawn I will mount and ride
away."
However, as he tarried talking to himself, he espied a light
within the palace, and making toward it, found that it came from a
candle that stood before a door of the harem, at the head of a
sleeping eunuch, as he were one of the Ifrits of Solomon or a
tribesman of the Jinn, longer than lumber and broader than a bench. He
lay before the door, with the pommel of his sword gleaming in the
flame of the candle, and at his head was a bag of leather hanging from
a column of granite. When the Prince saw this, he was affrighted and
said, "I crave help from Allah the Supreme! O mine Holy One, even as
Thou hast already delivered me from destruction, so vouchsafe me
strength to quit myself of the adventure of this palace!" So saying,
he put out his hand to the budget and taking it, carried it aside
and opened it and found in it food of the best.
He ate his fill and refreshed himself and drank water, after which
he hung up the provision bag in its place and drawing the eunuch's
sword from its sheath, took it, whilst the slave slept on, knowing not
whence Destiny should come to him. Then the Prince fared forward
into the palace and ceased not till he came to a second door, with a
curtain drawn before it. So he raised the curtain and, behold, on
entering he saw a couch of the whitest ivory inlaid with pearls and
jacinths and jewels, and four slave girls sleeping about it. He went
up to the couch, to see what was thereon, and found a young lady lying
asleep, chemised with her hair as she were the full moon rising over
the eastern horizon, with flower-white brow and shining hair parting
and cheeks like blood-red anemones, and dainty moles thereon. He was
amazed at her as she lay in her beauty and loveliness, her symmetry
and grace, and he recked no more of death.
So he went up to her, trembling in every nerve, and, shuddering with
pleasure, kissed her on the right cheek, whereupon she awoke
forthright and opened her eyes, and seeing the Prince standing at
her head, said to him, "Who art thou, and whence comest thou?" Quoth
he, "I am thy slave and thy lover." Asked she, "And who brought thee
hither?" and he answered, "My Lord and my fortune." Then said Shams
al-Nahar (for such was her name) "Haply thou art he who demanded me
yesterday of my father in marriage and he rejected thee, pretending
that thou wast foul of favor. By Allah, my sire lied in his throat
when he spoke this thing, for thou art not other than beautiful."
Now the son of the King of Hind had sought her in marriage, but her
father had rejected him for that he was ugly and uncouth, and she
thought the Prince was he. So when she saw his beauty and grace (for
indeed he was like the radiant moon) the syntheism of love gat hold of
her heart as it were a flaming fire, and they fell to talk and
converse.
Suddenly, her waiting women awoke and, seeing the Prince with
their mistress, said to her, "O my lady, who is this with thee?" Quoth
she: "I know not. I found him sitting by me when I woke up. Haply 'tis
he who seeketh me in marriage of my sire." Quoth they, "O my lady,
by Allah the All-Father, this is not he who seeketh thee in
marriage, for he is hideous and this man is handsome and of high
degree. Indeed, the other is not fit to be his servant." Then the
handmaidens went out to the eunuch, and finding him slumbering,
awoke him, and he started up in alarm. Said they, "How happeth it that
thou art on guard at the palace and yet men come in to us whilst we
are asleep?" When the black heard this, he sprang in haste to his
sword, but found it not, and fear took him, and trembling. Then he
went in, confounded, to his mistress and seeing the Prince sitting
at talk with her, said to him, "O my lord, art thou man or Jinni?"
Replied the Prince: "Woe to thee, O unluckiest of slaves. How darest
thou even the sons of the royal Chosroes with one of the unbelieving
Satans?" And he was as a raging lion.
Then he took the sword in his hand and said to the slave, "I am
the King's son-in-law, and he hath married me to his daughter and
bidden me go in to her." And when the eunuch heard these words he
replied, "O my lord, if thou be indeed of kind a man as thou
avouchest, she is fit for none but for thee, and thou art worthier
of her than any other." Thereupon the eunuch ran to the King,
shrieking loud and rending his raiment and heaving dust upon his head.
And when the King heard his outcry, he said to him: "What hath
befallen thee? Speak quickly and be brief, for thou hast fluttered
my heart." Answered the eunuch, "O King, come to thy daughter's
succor, for a devil of the Jinn, in the likeness of a King's son
hath got possession of her, so up and at him!"
When the King heard this, he thought to kill him and said, "How
camest thou to be careless of my daughter and let this demon come at
her?" Then he betook himself to the Princess's palace, where he
found her slave women standing to await him, and asked them, "What
is come to my daughter?" "O King," answered they, "slumber overcame us
and when we awoke, we found a young man sitting upon her couch in talk
with her, as he were the full moon. Never saw we aught fairer of favor
than he. So we questioned him of his case and he declared that thou
hadst given him thy daughter in marriage. More than this we know
not, nor do we know if he be a man or a Jinni, but he is modest and
well-bred, and doth nothing unseemly or which leadeth to disgrace."
Now when the King heard these words, his wrath cooled, and he raised
the curtain little by little and looking in, saw sitting at talk
with his daughter a Prince of the goodliest, with a face like the full
moon for sheen. At this sight he could not contain himself, of his
jealousy for his daughter's honor, and putting aside the curtain,
rushed in upon them drawn sword in hand like a furious Ghul. Now
when the Prince saw him he asked the Princess, "Is this thy sire?" and
she answered, "Yes." Whereupon he sprang, to his feet and, seizing his
sword, cried out at the King with so terrible a cry that he was
confounded. Then the youth would have fallen on him with the sword,
but the King, seeing that the Prince was doughtier than he, sheathed
his scimitar and stood till the young man came up to him, when he
accosted him courteously and said to him, "O youth, art thou a man
or a Jinni?" Quoth the Prince: "Did I not respect thy right as mine
host and thy daughter's honor, I would spill thy blood! How darest
thou fellow me with devils, me that am a Prince of the sons of the
royal Chosroes, who, had they wished to take thy kingdom, could
shake thee like an earthquake from thy glory and thy dominions, and
spoil thee of all thy possessions?"
Now when the King heard his words, he was confounded with awe and
bodily fear of him and rejoined: "If thou indeed be of the sons of the
Kings, as thou pretendest, how cometh it that thou enterest my
palace without my permission, and smirchest mine honor, making thy way
to my daughter and feigning that thou art her husband and claiming
that I have given her to thee to wife, I that have slain kings and
king's sons who sought her of me in marriage? And now who shall save
thee from my might and majesty when, if I cried out to my slaves and
servants and bade them put thee to the vilest of deaths, they would
slay thee forthright? Who shall deliver thee out of my hand?"
When the Prince heard this speech of the King, he answered: "Verily,
I wonder at thee and at the shortness and denseness of thy wit! Say
me, canst covet for thy daughter a mate comelier than myself, and hast
ever seen a stouter-hearted man or one better fitted for a Sultan or a
more glorious in rank and dominion than I?" Rejoined the King: "Nay,
by Allah! But I would have had thee, O youth, act after the custom
of kings and demand her from me to wife before witnesses, that I might
have married her to thee publicly. And now, even were I to marry her
to thee privily, yet hast thou dishonored me in her person."
Rejoined the Prince: "Thou sayest sooth, O King, but if thou summon
thy slaves and thy soldiers and they fall upon me and slay me, as thou
pretendest, thou wouldst but publish th