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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Book of the Thousand Nights and a
+Night, Volume 6, by Richard F. Burton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 6
+
+Author: Richard F. Burton
+
+Release Date: July 10, 2001 [eBook #3440]
+[Most recently updated: April 26, 2021]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+Produced by: This etext was scanned by J.C. Byers and proofread by J.C.
+Byers, Sergio Camarena, Muhammad Hozien, P.J. LaBrocca, Laura Shaffer,
+Charles Wilson. Revised by Richard Tonsing.
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF THE THOUSAND
+NIGHTS AND A NIGHT, VOLUME 6 ***
+
+
+
+
+THE BOOK OF THE
+ THOUSAND NIGHTS AND A NIGHT
+
+A Plain and Literal Translation
+
+of the Arabian Nights Entertainments
+
+
+Translated and Annotated by
+ Richard F. Burton
+
+
+
+
+VOLUME SIX
+
+
+Privately Printed By The Burton Club
+
+
+
+
+                     I Inscribe This Volume
+              To My Old And Valued Correspondent,
+                    I Whose Debt I Am Deep,
+
+                    Professor Aloys Sprenger
+                        (of Heidelberg),
+
+Arabist, Philosopher and Friend.
+
+Richard F. Burton.
+
+
+Contents of the Sixth Volume
+
+
+ 133. Sindbad the Seaman and Sindbad the Landsman
+     a. The First Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman
+     b. The Second Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman
+     c. The Third Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman
+     d. The Fourth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman
+     e. The Fifth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman
+     f. The Sixth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman
+     g. The Seventh Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman
+        The Seventh Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman
+          (according to the Calcutta Edition)
+ 134. The City of Brass
+ 135. The Craft and Malice of Woman
+     a. The King and His Wazir’s Wife
+     b. The Confectioner, His Wife and the Parrot
+     c. The Fuller and His Son
+     d. The Rake’s Trick Against the Chaste Wife
+     e. The Miser and the Loaves of Bread
+     f. The Lady and Her Two Lovers
+     g. The King’s Son and the Ogress
+     h. The Drop of Honey
+     i. The Woman Who Made Her Husband Sift Dust
+     j. The Enchanted Spring
+     k. The Wazir’s Son and the Hamman-Keeper’s Wife
+     l. The Wife’s Device to Cheat her Husband
+     m. The Goldsmith and the Cashmere Singing-Girl
+     n. The Man who Never Laughed During the Rest of His Days
+     o. The King’s Son and the Merchant’s Wife
+     p. The Page Who Feigned to Know the Speech of Birds
+     q. The Lady and Her Five Suitors
+     r. The Three Wishes, or the Man Who Longed to see the Night of Power
+     s. The Stolen Necklace
+     t. The Two Pigeons
+     u. Prince Behram and the Princess Al-Datma
+     v. The House With the Belvedere
+     w. The King’s Son and the Ifrit’s Mistress
+     x. The Sandal-Wood Merchant and the Sharpers
+     y. The Debauchee and the Three-Year-Old Child
+     z. The Stolen Purse
+     aa. The Fox and the Folk
+ 136. Judar and His Brethren
+ 137. The History of Gharib and His Brother Ajib
+
+
+
+
+The Book Of The
+
+THOUSAND NIGHTS AND A NIGHT
+
+
+
+
+Sindbad The Seaman[FN#1] and Sindbad The Landsman.
+
+
+There lived in the city of Baghdad, during the reign of the Commander
+of the Faithful, Harun al-Rashid, a man named Sindbád the Hammál,[FN#2]
+one in poor case who bore burdens on his head for hire. It happened to
+him one day of great heat that whilst he was carrying a heavy load, he
+became exceeding weary and sweated profusely, the heat and the weight
+alike oppressing him. Presently, as he was passing the gate of a
+merchant’s house, before which the ground was swept and watered, and
+there the air was temperate, he sighted a broad bench beside the door;
+so he set his load thereon, to take rest and smell the air,—And
+Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted
+say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Thirty-seventh Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Hammal
+set his load upon the bench to take rest and smell the air, there came
+out upon him from the court-door a pleasant breeze and a delicious
+fragrance. He sat down on the edge of the bench, and at once heard from
+within the melodious sound of lutes and other stringed instruments, and
+mirth-exciting voices singing and reciting, together with the song of
+birds warbling and glorifying Almighty Allah in various tunes and
+tongues; turtles, mocking-birds, merles, nightingales, cushats and
+stone-curlews,[FN#3] whereat he marvelled in himself and was moved to
+mighty joy and solace. Then he went up to the gate and saw within a
+great flower-garden wherein were pages and black slaves and such a
+train of servants and attendants and so forth as is found only with
+Kings and Sultans; and his nostrils were greeted with the savoury
+odours of all manner meats rich and delicate, and delicious and
+generous wines. So he raised his eyes heavenwards and said, “Glory to
+Thee, O Lord, O Creator and Provider, who providest whomso Thou wilt
+without count or stint! O mine Holy One, I cry Thee pardon for all sins
+and turn to Thee repenting of all offences! O Lord, there is no
+gainsaying Thee in Thine ordinance and Thy dominion, neither wilt Thou
+be questioned of that Thou dost, for Thou indeed over all things art
+Almighty! Extolled be Thy perfection: whom Thou wilt Thou makest poor
+and whom Thou wilt Thou makest rich! Whom Thou wilt Thou exaltest and
+whom Thou wilt Thou abasest and there is no god but Thou! How mighty is
+Thy majesty and how enduring Thy dominion and how excellent Thy
+government! Verily, Thou favourest whom Thou wilt of Thy servants,
+whereby the owner of this place abideth in all joyance of life and
+delighteth himself with pleasant scents and delicious meats and
+exquisite wines of all kinds. For indeed Thou appointest unto Thy
+creatures that which Thou wilt and that which Thou hast foreordained
+unto them; wherefore are some weary and others are at rest and some
+enjoy fair fortune and affluence, whilst others suffer the extreme of
+travail and misery, even as I do.” And he fell to reciting,
+
+“How many by my labours, that evermore endure, * All goods of
+     life enjoy and in cooly shade recline?
+Each morn that dawns I wake in travail and in woe, * And strange
+     is my condition and my burden gars me pine:
+Many others are in luck and from miseries are free, * And Fortune
+     never loads them with loads the like o’ mine:
+They live their happy days in all solace and delight; * Eat,
+     drink and dwell in honour ’mid the noble and the digne:
+All living things were made of a little drop of sperm, * Thine
+     origin is mine and my provenance is thine;
+Yet the difference and distance ’twixt the twain of us are far *
+     As the difference of savour ’twixt vinegar and wine:
+But at Thee, O God All-wise! I venture not to rail * Whose
+     ordinance is just and whose justice cannot fail.”
+
+
+When Sindbad the Porter had made an end of reciting his verses, he bore
+up his burden and was about to fare on, when there came forth to him
+from the gate a little foot-page, fair of face and shapely of shape and
+dainty of dress who caught him by the hand saying, “Come in and speak
+with my lord, for he calleth for thee.” The Porter would have excused
+himself to the page but the lad would take no refusal; so he left his
+load with the doorkeeper in the vestibule and followed the boy into the
+house, which he found to be a goodly mansion, radiant and full of
+majesty, till he brought him to a grand sitting-room wherein he saw a
+company of nobles and great lords, seated at tables garnished with all
+manner of flowers and sweet-scented herbs, besides great plenty of
+dainty viands and fruits dried and fresh and confections and wines of
+the choicest vintages. There also were instruments of music and mirth
+and lovely slave-girls playing and singing. All the company was ranged
+according to rank; and in the highest place sat a man of worshipful and
+noble aspect whose beard-sides hoariness had stricken; and he was
+stately of stature and fair of favour, agreeable of aspect and full of
+gravity and dignity and majesty. So Sindbad the Porter was confounded
+at that which he beheld and said in himself, “By Allah, this must be
+either a piece of Paradise or some King’s palace!” Then he saluted the
+company with much respect praying for their prosperity, and kissing the
+ground before them, stood with his head bowed down in humble
+attitude.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
+permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Thirty-eighth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the
+Porter, after kissing ground between their hands stood with his head
+bowed down in humble attitude. The master of the house bade him draw
+near and be seated and bespoke him kindly, bidding him welcome. Then he
+set before him various kinds of viands, rich and delicate and
+delicious, and the Porter, after saying his Bismillah, fell to and ate
+his fill, after which he exclaimed, “Praised be Allah whatso be our
+case![FN#4]” and, washing his hands, returned thanks to the company for
+his entertainment. Quoth the host, “Thou art welcome and thy day is a
+blessed. But what is thy name and calling?” Quoth the other, “O my
+lord, my name is Sindbad the Hammal, and I carry folk’s goods on my
+head for hire.” The house-master smiled and rejoined, “Know, O Porter
+that thy name is even as mine, for I am Sindbad the Seaman; and now, O
+Porter, I would have thee let me hear the couplets thou recitedst at
+the gate anon.” The Porter was abashed and replied, “Allah upon thee!
+Excuse me, for toil and travail and lack of luck when the hand is
+empty, teach a man ill manners and boorish ways.” Said the host, “Be
+not ashamed; thou art become my brother; but repeat to me the verses,
+for they pleased me whenas I heard thee recite them at the gate.
+Hereupon the Porter repeated the couplets and they delighted the
+merchant, who said to him,—Know, O Hammal, that my story is a
+wonderful one, and thou shalt hear all that befel me and all I
+underwent ere I rose to this state of prosperity and became the lord of
+this place wherein thou seest me; for I came not to this high estate
+save after travail sore and perils galore, and how much toil and
+trouble have I not suffered in days of yore! I have made seven voyages,
+by each of which hangeth a marvellous tale, such as confoundeth the
+reason, and all this came to pass by doom of fortune and fate; for from
+what destiny doth write there is neither refuge nor flight. Know, then,
+good my lords (continued he) that I am about to relate the
+
+
+First Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman.”[FN#5]
+
+My father was a merchant, one of the notables of my native place, a
+monied man and ample of means, who died whilst I was yet a child,
+leaving me much wealth in money and lands and farmhouses. When I grew
+up, I laid hands on the whole and ate of the best and drank freely and
+wore rich clothes and lived lavishly, companioning and consorting with
+youths of my own age, and considering that this course of life would
+continue for ever and ken no change. Thus did I for a long time, but at
+last I awoke from my heedlessness and, returning to my senses, I found
+my wealth had become unwealth and my condition ill-conditioned and all
+I once hent had left my hand. And recovering my reason I was stricken
+with dismay and confusion and bethought me of a saying of our lord
+Solomon, son of David (on whom be peace!), which I had heard aforetime
+from my father, “Three things are better than other three; the day of
+death is better than the day of birth, a live dog is better than a dead
+lion and the grave is better than want.”[FN#6] Then I got together my
+remains of estates and property and sold all, even my clothes, for
+three thousand dirhams, with which I resolved to travel to foreign
+parts, remembering the saying of the poet,
+
+“By means of toil man shall scale the height; * Who to fame
+     aspires mustn’t sleep o’ night:
+Who seeketh pearl in the deep must dive, * Winning weal and
+     wealth by his main and might:
+And who seeketh Fame without toil and strife * Th’ impossible
+     seeketh and wasteth life.”
+
+
+So taking heart I bought me goods, merchandise and all needed for a
+voyage and, impatient to be at sea, I embarked, with a company of
+merchants, on board a ship bound for Bassorah. There we again embarked
+and sailed many days and nights, and we passed from isle to isle and
+sea to sea and shore to shore, buying and selling and bartering
+everywhere the ship touched, and continued our course till we came to
+an island as it were a garth of the gardens of Paradise. Here the
+captain cast anchor and making fast to the shore, put out the landing
+planks. So all on board landed and made furnaces[FN#7] and lighting
+fires therein, busied themselves in various ways, some cooking and some
+washing, whilst other some walked about the island for solace, and the
+crew fell to eating and drinking and playing and sporting. I was one of
+the walkers but, as we were thus engaged, behold the master who was
+standing on the gunwale cried out to us at the top of his voice,
+saying, “Ho there! passengers, run for your lives and hasten back to
+the ship and leave your gear and save yourselves from destruction,
+Allah preserve you! For this island whereon ye stand is no true island,
+but a great fish stationary a-middlemost of the sea, whereon the sand
+hath settled and trees have sprung up of old time, so that it is become
+like unto an island;[FN#8] but, when ye lighted fires on it, it felt
+the heat and moved; and in a moment it will sink with you into the sea
+and ye will all be drowned. So leave your gear and seek your safety ere
+ye die!”— And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
+permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Thirty-ninth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
+ship-master cried to the passengers, “Leave your gear and seek safety,
+ere ye die;” all who heard him left gear and goods, clothes washed and
+unwashed, fire pots and brass cooking-pots, and fled back to the ship
+for their lives, and some reached it while others (amongst whom was I)
+did not, for suddenly the island shook and sank into the abysses of the
+deep, with all that were thereon, and the dashing sea surged over it
+with clashing waves. I sank with the others down, down into the deep,
+but Almighty Allah preserved me from drowning and threw in my way a
+great wooden tub of those that had served the ship’s company for
+tubbing. I gripped it for the sweetness of life and, bestriding it like
+one riding, paddled with my feet like oars, whilst the waves tossed me
+as in sport right and left. Meanwhile the captain made sail and
+departed with those who had reached the ship, regardless of the
+drowning and the drowned; and I ceased not following the vessel with my
+eyes, till she was hid from sight and I made sure of death. Darkness
+closed in upon me while in this plight and the winds and waves bore me
+on all that night and the next day, till the tub brought to with me
+under the lee of a lofty island, with trees overhanging the tide. I
+caught hold of a branch and by its aid clambered up on to the land,
+after coming nigh upon death; but when I reached the shore, I found my
+legs cramped and numbed and my feet bore traces of the nibbling of fish
+upon their soles; withal I had felt nothing for excess of anguish and
+fatigue. I threw myself down on the island ground, like a dead man, and
+drowned in desolation swooned away, nor did I return to my senses till
+next morning, when the sun rose and revived me. But I found my feet
+swollen, so made shift to move by shuffling on my breech and crawling
+on my knees, for in that island were found store of fruits and springs
+of sweet water. I ate of the fruits which strengthened me; and thus I
+abode days and nights, till my life seemed to return and my spirits
+began to revive and I was better able to move about. So, after due
+consideration, I fell to exploring the island and diverting myself with
+gazing upon all things that Allah Almighty had created there; and
+rested under the trees from one of which I cut me a staff to lean upon.
+One day as I walked along the marge, I caught sight of some object in
+the distance and thought it a wild beast or one of the
+monster-creatures of the sea; but, as I drew near it, looking hard the
+while, I saw that it was a noble mare, tethered on the beach. Presently
+I went up to her, but she cried out against me with a great cry, so
+that I trembled for fear and turned to go away, when there came forth a
+man from under the earth and followed me, crying out and saying, “Who
+and whence art thou, and what caused thee to come hither?” “O my lord,”
+answered I, “I am in very sooth, a waif, a stranger, and was left to
+drown with sundry others by the ship we voyaged in;[FN#9] but Allah
+graciously sent me a wooden tub; so I saved myself thereon and it
+floated with me, till the waves cast me up on this island.” When he
+heard this, he took my hand and saying, “Come with me,” carried me into
+a great Sardab, or underground chamber, which was spacious as a saloon.
+He made me sit down at its upper end; then he brought me somewhat of
+food and, being anhungered, I ate till I was satisfied and refreshed;
+and when he had put me at mine ease he questioned me of myself, and I
+told him all that had befallen me from first to last; and, as he
+wondered at my adventure, I said, “By Allah, O my lord, excuse me; I
+have told thee the truth of my case and the accident which betided me;
+and now I desire that thou tell me who thou art and why thou abidest
+here under the earth and why thou hast tethered yonder mare on the
+brink of the sea.” Answered he, “Know, that I am one of the several who
+are stationed in different parts of this island, and we are of the
+grooms of King Mihrjan[FN#10] and under our hand are all his horses.
+Every month, about new-moon tide we bring hither our best mares which
+have never been covered, and picket them on the sea-shore and hide
+ourselves in this place under the ground, so that none may espy us.
+Presently, the stallions of the sea scent the mares and come up out of
+the water and seeing no one, leap the mares and do their will of them.
+When they have covered them, they try to drag them away with them, but
+cannot, by reason of the leg-ropes; so they cry out at them and butt at
+them and kick them, which we hearing, know that the stallions have
+dismounted; so we run out and shout at them, whereupon they are
+startled and return in fear to the sea. Then the mares conceive by them
+and bear colts and fillies worth a mint of money, nor is their like to
+be found on earth’s face. This is the time of the coming forth of the
+sea-stallions; and Inshallah! I will bear thee to King Mihrjan”—And
+Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted
+say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Fortieth Night,
+
+She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the
+Syce[FN#11] said to Sindbad the Seaman, “I will bear thee to King
+Mihrjan and show thee our country. And know that hadst thou not
+happened on us thou hadst perished miserably and none had known of
+thee: but I will be the means of the saving of thy life and of thy
+return to thine own land.” I called down blessings on him and thanked
+him for his kindness and courtesy; and, while we were yet talking,
+behold, the stallion came up out of the sea; and, giving a great cry,
+sprang upon the mare and covered her. When he had done his will of her,
+he dismounted and would have carried her away with him, but could not
+by reason of the tether. She kicked and cried out at him, whereupon the
+groom took a sword and target[FN#12] and ran out of the underground
+saloon, smiting the buckler with the blade and calling to his company,
+who came up shouting and brandishing spears; and the stallion took
+fright at them and plunging into the sea, like a buffalo, disappeared
+under the waves.[FN#13] After this we sat awhile, till the rest of the
+grooms came up, each leading a mare, and seeing me with their
+fellow-Syce, questioned me of my case and I repeated my story to them.
+Thereupon they drew near me and spreading the table, ate and invited me
+to eat; so I ate with them, after which they took horse and mounting me
+on one of the mares, set out with me and fared on without ceasing, till
+we came to the capital city of King Mihrjan, and going in to him
+acquainted him with my story. Then he sent for me, and when they set me
+before him and salams had been exchanged, he gave me a cordial welcome
+and wishing me long life bade me tell him my tale. So I related to him
+all that I had seen and all that had befallen me from first to last,
+whereat he marvelled and said to me, “By Allah, O my son, thou hast
+indeed been miraculously preserved! Were not the term of thy life a
+long one, thou hadst not escaped from these straits; but praised by
+Allah for safety!” Then he spoke cheerily to me and entreated me with
+kindness and consideration: moreover, he made me his agent for the port
+and registrar of all ships that entered the harbour. I attended him
+regularly, to receive his commandments, and he favoured me and did me
+all manner of kindness and invested me with costly and splendid robes.
+Indeed, I was high in credit with him, as an intercessor for the folk
+and an intermediary between them and him, when they wanted aught of
+him. I abode thus a great while and, as often as I passed through the
+city to the port, I questioned the merchants and travellers and sailors
+of the city of Baghdad; so haply I might hear of an occasion to return
+to my native land, but could find none who knew it or knew any who
+resorted thither. At this I was chagrined, for I was weary of long
+strangerhood; and my disappointment endured for a time till one day,
+going in to King Mihrjan, I found him with a company of Indians. I
+saluted them and they returned my salam; and politely welcomed me and
+asked me of my country.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
+ceased saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Forty-first Night,
+
+She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the
+Seaman said:—When they asked me of my country I questioned them of
+theirs and they told me that they were of various castes, some being
+called Shakiriyah[FN#14] who are the noblest of their castes and
+neither oppress nor offer violence to any, and others Brahmans, a folk
+who abstain from wine, but live in delight and solace and merriment and
+own camels and horses and cattle. Moreover, they told me that the
+people of India are divided into two-and-seventy castes, and I
+marvelled at this with exceeding marvel. Amongst other things that I
+saw in King Mihrjan’s dominions was an island called Kásil,[FN#15]
+wherein all night is heard the beating of drums and tabrets; but we were
+told by the neighbouring islanders and by travellers that the
+inhabitants are people of diligence and judgment.[FN#16] In this sea I
+saw also a fish two hundred cubits long and the fishermen fear it; so
+they strike together pieces of wood and put it to flight.[FN#17] I also
+saw another fish, with a head like that of an owl, besides many other
+wonders and rarities, which it would be tedious to recount. I occupied
+myself thus in visiting the islands till, one day, as I stood in the
+port, with a staff in my hand, according to my custom, behold, a great
+ship, wherein were many merchants, came sailing for the harbour. When
+it reached the small inner port where ships anchor under the city, the
+master furled his sails and making fast to the shore, put out the
+landing-planks, whereupon the crew fell to breaking bulk and landing
+cargo whilst I stood by, taking written note of them. They were long in
+bringing the goods ashore so I asked the master, “Is there aught left
+in thy ship?”; and he answered, “O my lord, there are divers bales of
+merchandise in the hold, whose owner was drowned from amongst us at one
+of the islands on our course; so his goods remained in our charge by
+way of trust and we purpose to sell them and note their price, that we
+may convey it to his people in the city of Baghdad, the Home of Peace.”
+“What was the merchant’s name?” quoth I, and quoth he, “Sindbad the
+Seaman;” whereupon I straitly considered him and knowing him, cried out
+to him with a great cry, saying, “O captain, I am that Sindbad the
+Seaman who travelled with other merchants; and when the fish heaved and
+thou calledst to us some saved themselves and others sank, I being one
+of them. But Allah Almighty threw in my way a great tub of wood, of
+those the crew had used to wash withal, and the winds and waves carried
+me to this island, where by Allah’s grace, I fell in with King
+Mihrjan’s grooms and they brought me hither to the King their master.
+When I told him my story, he entreated me with favour and made me his
+harbour-master, and I have prospered in his service and found
+acceptance with him. These bales, therefore are mine, the goods which
+God hath given me.”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
+to say her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Forty-second Night,
+
+She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Sindbad
+the Seaman said to the captain, “These bales are mine, the goods which
+Allah hath given me,” the other exclaimed, “There is no Majesty and
+there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great! Verily, there
+is neither conscience nor good faith left among men!” said I, “O
+Rais,[FN#18] what mean these words, seeing that I have told thee my
+case?” And he answered, “Because thou heardest me say that I had with
+me goods whose owner was drowned, thou thinkest to take them without
+right; but this is forbidden by law to thee, for we saw him drown
+before our eyes, together with many other passengers, nor was one of
+them saved. So how canst thou pretend that thou art the owner of the
+goods?” “O captain,” said I, “listen to my story and give heed to my
+words, and my truth will be manifest to thee; for lying and leasing are
+the letter-marks of the hypocrites.” Then I recounted to him all that
+had befallen me since I sailed from Baghdad with him to the time when
+we came to the fish-island where we were nearly drowned; and I reminded
+him of certain matters which had passed between us; whereupon both he
+and the merchants were certified at the truth of my story and
+recognized me and gave me joy of my deliverance, saying, “By Allah, we
+thought not that thou hadst escaped drowning! But the Lord hath granted
+thee new life.” Then they delivered my bales to me, and I found my name
+written thereon, nor was aught thereof lacking. So I opened them and
+making up a present for King Mihrjan of the finest and costliest of the
+contents, caused the sailors carry it up to the palace, where I went in
+to the King and laid my present at his feet, acquainting him with what
+had happened, especially concerning the ship and my goods; whereat he
+wondered with exceeding wonder and the truth of all that I had told him
+was made manifest to him. His affection for me redoubled after that and
+he showed me exceeding honour and bestowed on me a great present in
+return for mine. Then I sold my bales and what other matters I owned
+making a great profit on them, and bought me other goods and gear of
+the growth and fashion of the island-city. When the merchants were
+about to start on their homeward voyage, I embarked on board the ship
+all that I possessed, and going in to the King, thanked him for all his
+favours and friendship and craved his leave to return to my own land
+and friends. He farewelled me and bestowed on me great store of the
+country-stuffs and produce; and I took leave of him and embarked. Then
+we set sail and fared on nights and days, by the permission of Allah
+Almighty; and Fortune served us and Fate favoured us, so that we
+arrived in safety at Bassorah-city where I landed rejoiced at my safe
+return to my natal soil. After a short stay, I set out for Baghdad, the
+House of Peace, with store of goods and commodities of great price.
+Reaching the city in due time, I went straight to my own quarter and
+entered my house where all my friends and kinsfolk came to greet me.
+Then I bought me eunuchs and concubines, servants and negro slaves till
+I had a large establishment, and I bought me houses, and lands and
+gardens, till I was richer and in better case than before, and returned
+to enjoy the society of my friends and familiars more assiduously than
+ever, forgetting all I had suffered of fatigue and hardship and
+strangerhood and every peril of travel; and I applied myself to all
+manner joys and solaces and delights, eating the dantiest viands and
+drinking the deliciousest wines; and my wealth allowed this state of
+things to endure. “This, then, is the story of my first voyage, and
+to-morrow, Inshallah! I will tell you the tale of the second of my
+seven voyages.” (Saith he who telleth the tale), Then Sindbad the
+Seaman made Sindbad the Landsman sup with him and bade give him an
+hundred gold pieces, saying, “Thou hast cheered us with thy company
+this day.”[FN#19] The Porter thanked him and, taking the gift, went his
+way, pondering that which he had heard and marvelling mightily at what
+things betide mankind. He passed the night in his own place and with
+early morning repaired to the abode of Sindbad the Seaman, who received
+him with honour and seated him by his side. As soon as the rest of the
+company was assembled, he set meat and drink before them and, when they
+had well eaten and drunken and were merry and in cheerful case, he took
+up his discourse and recounted to them in these words the narrative of
+
+
+The Second Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman.
+
+Know, O my brother, that I was living a most comfortable and enjoyable
+life, in all solace and delight, as I told you yesterday,—And Shahrazad
+perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Forty-third Night,
+
+She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Sindbad
+the Seaman’s guests were all gathered together he thus bespake them:—I
+was living a most enjoyable life until one day my mind became possessed
+with the thought of travelling about the world of men and seeing their
+cities and islands; and a longing seized me to traffic and to make
+money by trade. Upon this resolve I took a great store of cash and,
+buying goods and gear fit for travel, bound them up in bales. Then I
+went down to the river-bank, where I found a noble ship and brand-new
+about to sail, equipped with sails of fine cloth and well manned and
+provided; so I took passage in her, with a number of other merchants,
+and after embarking our goods we weighed anchor the same day. Right
+fair was our voyage and we sailed from place to place and from isle to
+isle; and whenever we anchored we met a crowd of merchants and notables
+and customers, and we took to buying and selling and bartering. At last
+Destiny brought us to an island, fair and verdant, in trees abundant,
+with yellow-ripe fruits luxuriant, and flowers fragrant and birds
+warbling soft descant; and streams crystalline and radiant; but no sign
+of man showed to the descrier, no, not a blower of the fire.[FN#20] The
+captain made fast with us to this island, and the merchants and sailors
+landed and walked about, enjoying the shade of the trees and the song
+of the birds, that chanted the praises of the One, the Victorious, and
+marvelling at the works of the Omnipotent King.[FN#21] I landed with
+the rest; and, sitting down by a spring of sweet water that welled up
+among the trees, took out some vivers I had with me and ate of that
+which Allah Almighty had allotted unto me. And so sweet was the zephyr
+and so fragrant were the flowers, that presently I waxed drowsy and,
+lying down in that place, was soon drowned in sleep. When I awoke, I
+found myself alone, for the ship had sailed and left me behind, nor had
+one of the merchants or sailors bethought himself of me. I seared the
+island right and left, but found neither man nor Jinn, whereat I was
+beyond measure troubled and my gall was like to burst for stress of
+chagrin and anguish and concern, because I was left quite alone,
+without aught of worldly gear or meat or drink, weary and heart-broken.
+So I gave myself up for lost and said, “Not always doth the crock
+escape the shock. I was saved the first time by finding one who brought
+me from the desert island to an inhabited place, but now there is no
+hope for me.” Then I fell to weeping and wailing and gave myself up to
+an access of rage, blaming myself for having again ventured upon the
+perils and hardships of voyage, whenas I was at my ease in mine own
+house in mine own land, taking my pleasure with good meat and good
+drink and good clothes and lacking nothing, neither money nor goods.
+And I repented me of having left Baghdad, and this the more after all
+the travails and dangers I had undergone in my first voyage, wherein I
+had so narrowly escaped destruction, and exclaimed “Verily we are
+Allah’s and unto Him we are returning!” I was indeed even as one mad
+and Jinn-struck and presently I rose and walked about the island, right
+and left and every whither, unable for trouble to sit or tarry in any
+one place. Then I climbed a tall tree and looked in all directions, but
+saw nothing save sky and sea and trees and birds and isles and sands.
+However, after a while my eager glances fell upon some great white
+thing, afar off in the interior of the island; so I came down from the
+tree and made for that which I had seen; and behold, it was a huge
+white dome rising high in air and of vast compass. I walked all around
+it, but found no door thereto, nor could I muster strength or
+nimbleness by reason of its exceeding smoothness and slipperiness. So I
+marked the spot where I stood and went round about the dome to measure
+its circumference which I found fifty good paces. And as I stood,
+casting about how to gain an entrance the day being near its fall and
+the sun being near the horizon, behold, the sun was suddenly hidden
+from me and the air became dull and dark. Methought a cloud had come
+over the sun, but it was the season of summer; so I marvelled at this
+and lifting my head looked steadfastly at the sky, when I saw that the
+cloud was none other than an enormous bird, of gigantic girth and
+inordinately wide of wing which, as it flew through the air, veiled the
+sun and hid it from the island. At this sight my wonder redoubled and I
+remembered a story,—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
+to say her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Forty-fourth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the
+Seaman continued in these words:—My wonder redoubled and I remembered a
+story I had heard aforetime of pilgrims and travellers, how in a
+certain island dwelleth a huge bird, called the “Rukh”[FN#22] which
+feedeth its young on elephants; and I was certified that the dome which
+caught my sight was none other than a Rukh’s egg. As I looked and
+wondered at the marvellous works of the Almighty, the bird alighted on
+the dome and brooded over it with its wings covering it and its legs
+stretched out behind it on the ground, and in this posture it fell
+asleep, glory be to Him who sleepeth not! When I saw this, I arose and,
+unwinding my turband from my head, doubled it and twisted it into a
+rope, with which I girt my middle and bound my waist fast to the legs
+of the Rukh, saying in myself, “Peradventure, this bird may carry me to
+a land of cities and inhabitants, and that will be better than abiding
+in this desert island.” I passed the night watching and fearing to
+sleep, lest the bird should fly away with me unawares; and, as soon as
+the dawn broke and morn shone, the Rukh rose off its egg and spreading
+its wings with a great cry flew up into the air dragging me with it;
+nor ceased it to soar and to tower till I thought it had reached the
+limit of the firmament; after which it descended, earthwards, little by
+little, till it lighted on the top of a high hill. As soon as I found
+myself on the hard ground, I made haste to unbind myself, quaking for
+fear of the bird, though it took no heed of me nor even felt me; and,
+loosing my turband from its feet, I made off with my best speed.
+Presently, I saw it catch up in its huge claws something from the earth
+and rise with it high in air, and observing it narrowly I saw it to be
+a serpent big of bulk and gigantic of girth, wherewith it flew away
+clean out of sight. I marvelled at this and faring forwards found
+myself on a peak overlooking a valley, exceeding great and wide and
+deep, and bounded by vast mountains that spired high in air: none could
+descry their summits, for the excess of their height, nor was any able
+to climb up thereto. When I saw this, I blamed myself for that which I
+had done and said, “Would Heaven I had tarried in the island! It was
+better than this wild desert; for there I had at least fruits to eat
+and water to drink, and here are neither trees nor fruits nor streams.
+But there is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the
+Glorious, the Great! Verily, as often as I am quit of one peril, I fall
+into a worse danger and a more grievous.” However, I took courage and
+walking along the Wady found that its soil was of diamond, the stone
+wherewith they pierce minerals and precious stones and porcelain and
+the onyx, for that it is a dense stone and a dure, whereon neither iron
+nor hardhead hath effect, neither can we cut off aught therefrom nor
+break it, save by means of leadstone.[FN#23] Moreover, the valley
+swarmed with snakes and vipers, each big as a palm tree, that would
+have made but one gulp of an elephant; and they came out by night,
+hiding during the day, lest the Rukhs and eagles pounce on them and
+tear them to pieces, as was their wont, why I wot not. And I repented
+of what I had done and said, “By Allah, I have made haste to bring
+destruction upon myself!” The day began to wane as I went along and I
+looked about for a place where I might pass the night, being in fear of
+the serpents; and I took no thought of meat and drink in my concern for
+my life. Presently, I caught sight of a cave nearhand, with a narrow
+doorway; so I entered and seeing a great stone close to the mouth, I
+rolled it up and stopped the entrance, saying to myself, “I am safe
+here for the night; and as soon as it is day, I will go forth and see
+what destiny will do.” Then I looked within the cave and saw to the
+upper end a great serpent brooding on her eggs, at which my flesh
+quaked and my hair stood on end; but I raised my eyes to Heaven and,
+committing my case to fate and lot, abode all that night without sleep
+till daybreak, when I rolled back the stone from the mouth of the cave
+and went forth, staggering like a drunken man and giddy with watching
+and fear and hunger. As in this sore case I walked along the valley,
+behold, there fell down before me a slaughtered beast; but I saw no
+one, whereat I marvelled with great marvel and presently remembered a
+story I had heard aforetime of traders and pilgrims and travellers; how
+the mountains where are the diamonds are full of perils and terrors,
+nor can any fare through them; but the merchants who traffic in
+diamonds have a device by which they obtain them, that is to say, they
+take a sheep and slaughter and skin it and cut it in pieces and cast
+them down from the mountain-tops into the valley-sole, where the meat
+being fresh and sticky with blood, some of the gems cleave to it. There
+they leave it till mid-day, when the eagles and vultures swoop down
+upon it and carry it in their claws to the mountain-summits, whereupon
+the merchants come and shout at them and scare them away from the meat.
+Then they come and, taking the diamonds which they find sticking to it,
+go their ways with them and leave the meat to the birds and beasts; nor
+can any come at the diamonds but by this device,—And Shahrazad
+perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Forty-fifth Night,
+
+She said, it hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the
+Seaman continued his relation of what befel him in the Mountain of
+Diamonds, and informed them that the merchants cannot come at the
+diamonds save by the device aforesaid. So, when I saw the slaughtered
+beast fall (he pursued) and bethought me of the story, I went up to it
+and filled my pockets and shawl-girdle and turband and the folds of my
+clothes with the choicest diamonds; and, as I was thus engaged, down
+fell before me another great piece of meat. Then with my unrolled
+turband and lying on my back, I set the bit on my breast so that I was
+hidden by the meat, which was thus raised above the ground. Hardly had
+I gripped it, when an eagle swooped down upon the flesh and, seizing it
+with his talons, flew up with it high in air and me clinging thereto,
+and ceased not its flight till it alighted on the head of one of the
+mountains where, dropping the carcass he fell to rending it; but,
+behold, there arose behind him a great noise of shouting and clattering
+of wood, whereat the bird took fright and flew away. Then I loosed off
+myself the meat, with clothes daubed with blood therefrom, and stood up
+by its side; whereupon up came the merchant, who had cried out at the
+eagle, and seeing me standing there, bespoke me not, but was affrighted
+at me and shook with fear. However, he went up to the carcass and
+turning it over, found no diamonds sticking to it, whereat he gave a
+great cry and exclaimed, “Harrow, my disappointment! There is no
+Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah with whom we seek refuge
+from Satan the stoned!” And he bemoaned himself and beat hand upon
+hand, saying, “Alas, the pity of it! How cometh this?” Then I went up
+to him and he said to me, “Who art thou and what causeth thee to come
+hither?” And I, “Fear not, I am a man and a good man and a merchant. My
+story is a wondrous and my adventures marvellous and the manner of my
+coming hither is prodigious. So be of good cheer, thou shalt receive of
+me what shall rejoice thee, for I have with me great plenty of diamonds
+and I will give thee thereof what shall suffice thee; for each is
+better than aught thou couldst get otherwise. So fear nothing.” The man
+rejoiced thereat and thanked and blessed me; then we talked together
+till the other merchants, hearing me in discourse with their fellow,
+came up and saluted me; for each of them had thrown down his piece of
+meat. And as I went off with them I told them my whole story, how I had
+suffered hardships at sea and the fashion of my reaching the valley.
+But I gave the owner of the meat a number of the stones I had by me, so
+they all wished me joy of my escape, saying, “By Allah a new life hath
+been decreed to thee, for none ever reached yonder valley and came off
+thence alive before thee; but praised be Allah for thy safety!” We
+passed the night together in a safe and pleasant place, beyond measure
+rejoiced at my deliverance from the Valley of Serpents and my arrival
+in an inhabited land; and on the morrow we set out and journeyed over
+the mighty range of mountains, seeing many serpents in the valley, till
+we came to a fair great island, wherein was a garden of huge camphor
+trees under each of which an hundred men might take shelter. When the
+folk have a mind to get camphor, they bore into the upper part of the
+bole with a long iron; whereupon the liquid camphor, which is the sap
+of the tree, floweth out and they catch it in vessels, where it
+concreteth like gum; but, after this, the tree dieth and becometh
+firewood.[FN#24] Moreover, there is in this island a kind of wild
+beast, called “Rhinoceros,”[FN#25] that pastureth as do steers and
+buffalos with us; but it is a huge brute, bigger of body than the camel
+and like it feedeth upon the leaves and twigs of trees. It is a
+remarkable animal with a great and thick horn, ten cubits long,
+amiddleward its head; wherein, when cleft in twain, is the likeness of
+a man. Voyagers and pilgrims and travellers declare that this beast
+called “Karkadan” will carry off a great elephant on its horn and graze
+about the island and the sea-coast therewith and take no heed of it,
+till the elephant dieth and its fat, melting in the sun, runneth down
+into the rhinoceros’s eyes and blindeth him, so that he lieth down on
+the shore. Then comes the bird Rukh and carrieth off both the
+rhinoceros’s eyes and blindeth him, so that he lieth down on the shore.
+Then comes the bird Rukh and carrieth off both the rhinoceros and that
+which is on its horn to feed its young withal. Moreover, I saw in this
+island many kinds of oxen and buffalos, whose like are not found in our
+country. Here I sold some of the diamonds which I had by me for gold
+dinars and silver dirhams and bartered others for the produce of the
+country; and, loading them upon beasts of burden, fared on with the
+merchants from valley to valley and town to town, buying and selling
+and viewing foreign countries and the works and creatures of Allah,
+till we came to Bassorah-city, where we abode a few days, after which I
+continued my journey to Baghdad.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
+day and ceased to say her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Forty-sixth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Sindbad the
+Seaman returned from his travel to Baghdad, the House of Peace, he
+arrived at home with great store of diamonds and money and goods.
+(Continued he) I foregathered with my friends and relations and gave
+alms and largesse and bestowed curious gifts and made presents to all
+my friends and companions. Then I betook myself to eating well and
+drinking well and wearing fine clothes and making merry with my
+fellows, and forgot all my sufferings in the pleasures of return to the
+solace and delight of life, with light heart and broadened breast. And
+every one who heard of my return came and questioned me of my
+adventures and of foreign countries, and I related to them all that had
+befallen me, and the much I had suffered, whereat they wondered and
+gave me joy of my safe return. “This, then is the end of the story of
+my second voyage; and to-morrow, Inshallah! I will tell you what befel
+me in my third voyage.” The company marvelled at his story and supped
+with him; after which he ordered an hundred dinars of gold to be given
+to the Porter, who took the sum with many thanks and blessings (which
+he stinted not even when he reached home) and went his way, wondering
+at what he had heard. Next morning as soon as day came in its sheen and
+shone, he rose and praying the dawn-prayer, repaired to the house of
+Sindbad the Seaman, even as he had bidden him, and went in and gave him
+good-morrow. The merchant welcomed him and made him sit with him, till
+the rest of the company arrived; and when they had well eaten and
+drunken and were merry with joy and jollity, their host began by
+saying, “Hearken, O my brothers, to what I am about to tell you; for it
+is even more wondrous than what you have already heard; but Allah alone
+kenneth what things His Omniscience concealed from man! And listen to
+
+
+The Third Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman.
+
+As I told you yesterday, I returned from my second voyage overjoyed at
+my safety and with great increase of wealth, Allah having requited me
+all that I had wasted and lost, and I abode awhile in Baghdad-city
+savouring the utmost ease and prosperity and comfort and happiness,
+till the carnal man was once more seized with longing for travel and
+diversion and adventure, and yearned after traffic and lucre and
+emolument, for that the human heart is naturally prone to evil. So
+making up my mind I laid in great plenty of goods suitable for a
+sea-voyage and repairing to Bassorah, went down to the shore and found
+there a fine ship ready to sail, with a full crew and a numerous
+company of merchants, men of worth and substance; faith, piety and
+consideration. I embarked with them and we set sail on the blessing of
+Allah Almighty and on His aidance and His favour to bring our voyage to
+a safe and prosperous issue and already we congratulated one another on
+our good fortune and boon voyage. We fared on from sea to sea and from
+island to island and city to city, in all delight and contentment,
+buying and selling wherever we touched, and taking our solace and our
+pleasure, till one day when, as we sailed athwart the dashing sea,
+swollen with clashing billows, behold, the master (who stood on the
+gunwale examining the ocean in all directions) cried out with a great
+cry, and buffeted his face and pluckt out his beard and rent his
+raiment, and bade furl the sail and cast the anchors. So we said to
+him, “O Rais, what is the matter?” “Know, O my brethren (Allah preserve
+you!), that the wind hath gotten the better of us and hath driven us
+out of our course into mid-ocean, and destiny, for our ill luck, hath
+brought us to the Mountain of the Zughb, a hairy folk like apes,[FN#26]
+among whom no man ever fell and came forth alive; and my heart
+presageth that we all be dead men.” Hardly had the master made an end
+of his speech when the apes were upon us. They surrounded the ship on
+all sides swarming like locusts and crowding the shore. They were the
+most frightful of wild creatures, covered with black hair like felt,
+foul of favour and small of stature, being but four spans high,
+yellow-eyed and black-faced; none knoweth their language nor what they
+are, and they shun the company of men. We feared to slay them or strike
+them or drive them away, because of their inconceivable multitude;
+lest, if we hurt one, the rest fall on us and slay us, for numbers
+prevail over courage; so we let them do their will, albeit we feared
+they would plunder our goods and gear. They swarmed up the cables and
+gnawed them asunder, and on like wise they did with all the ropes of
+the ship, so that it fell off from the wind and stranded upon their
+mountainous coast. Then they laid hands on all the merchants and crew,
+and landing us on the island, made off with the ship and its cargo and
+went their ways, we wot not whither. We were thus left on the island,
+eating of its fruits and pot-herbs and drinking of its streams till,
+one day, we espied in its midst what seemed an inhabited house. So we
+made for it as fast as our feet could carry us and behold, it was a
+castle strong and tall, compassed about with a lofty wall, and having a
+two-leaved gate of ebony-wood both of which leaves open stood. We
+entered and found within a space wide and bare like a great square,
+round which stood many high doors open thrown, and at the farther end a
+long bench of stone and brasiers, with cooking gear hanging thereon and
+about it great plenty of bones; but we saw no one and marvelled thereat
+with exceeding wonder. Then we sat down in the courtyard a little while
+and presently falling asleep, slept from the forenoon till sundown,
+when lo! the earth trembled under our feet and the air rumbled with a
+terrible tone. Then there came down upon us, from the top of the
+castle, a huge creature in the likeness of a man, black of colour, tall
+and big of bulk, as he were a great date-tree, with eyes like coals of
+fire and eye-teeth like boar’s tusks and a vast big gape like the mouth
+of a well. Moreover, he had long loose lips like camel’s, hanging down
+upon his breast and ears like two Jarms[FN#27] falling over his
+shoulder-blades and the nails of his hands were like the claws of a
+lion.[FN#28] When we saw this frightful giant, we were like to faint
+and every moment increased our fear and terror; and we became as dead
+men for excess of horror and affright.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn
+of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Forty-seventh Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the
+Seaman continued:—When we saw this frightful giant we were struck with
+exceeding terror and horror. And after trampling upon the earth, he sat
+awhile on the bench; then he arose and coming to us seized me by the
+arm choosing me out from among my comrades the merchants. He took me up
+in his hand and turning me over felt me, as a butcher feeleth a sheep
+he is about to slaughter, and I but a little mouthful in his hands; but
+finding me lean and fleshless for stress of toil and trouble and
+weariness, let me go and took up another, whom in like manner he turned
+over and felt and let go; nor did he cease to feel and turn over the
+rest of us, one after another, till he came to the master of the ship.
+Now he was a sturdy, stout, broad-shouldered wight, fat and in full
+vigour; so he pleased the giant, who seized him, as a butcher seizeth a
+beast, and throwing him down, set his foot on his neck and brake it;
+after which he fetched a long spit and thrusting it up his backside,
+brought it forth of the crown of his head. Then, lighting a fierce
+fire, he set over it the spit with the Rais thereon, and turned it over
+the coals, till the flesh was roasted, when he took the spit off the
+fire and set it like a Kabáb-stick before him. Then he tare the body,
+limb from limb, as one jointeth a chicken and, rending the flesh with
+his nails, fell to eating of it and gnawing the bones, till there was
+nothing left but some of these, which he threw on one side of the wall.
+This done, he sat for a while; then he lay down on the stone-bench and
+fell asleep, snarking and snoring like the gurgling of a lamb or a cow
+with its throat cut; nor did he awake till morning, when he rose and
+fared forth and went his ways. As soon as we were certified that he was
+gone, we began to talk with one another, weeping and bemoaning
+ourselves for the risk we ran, and saying, “Would Heaven we had been
+drowned in the sea or that the apes had eaten us! That were better than
+to be roasted over the coals; by Allah, this is a vile, foul death! But
+whatso the Lord willeth must come to pass and there is no Majesty and
+there is no Might, save in Him, the Glorious, the Great! We shall
+assuredly perish miserably and none will know of us; as there is no
+escape for us from this place.” Then we arose and roamed about the
+island, hoping that haply we might find a place to hide us in or a
+means of flight, for indeed death was a light matter to us, provided we
+were not roasted over the fire[FN#29] and eaten. However, we could find
+no hiding-place and the evening overtook us; so, of the excess of our
+terror, we returned to the castle and sat down awhile. Presently, the
+earth trembled under our feet and the black ogre came up to us and
+turning us over, felt one after other, till he found a man to his
+liking, whom he took and served as he had done the captain, killing and
+roasting and eating him: after which he lay down on the bench[FN#30]
+and slept all night, snarking and snoring like a beast with its throat
+cut, till daybreak, when he arose and went out as before. Then we drew
+together and conversed and said one to other, “By Allah, we had better
+throw ourselves into the sea and be drowned than die roasted; for this
+is an abominable death!” Quoth one of us, “Hear ye my words! let us
+cast about to kill him, and be at peace from the grief of him and rid
+the Moslems of his barbarity and tyranny.” Then said I, “Hear me, O my
+brothers; if there is nothing for it but to slay him, let us carry some
+of this firewood and planks down to the sea-shore and make us a boat
+wherein, if we succeed in slaughtering him, we may either embark and
+let the waters carry us whither Allah willeth, or else abide here till
+some ship pass, when we will take passage in it. If we fail to kill
+him, we will embark in the boat and put out to sea; and if we be
+drowned, we shall at least escape being roasted over a kitchen fire
+with sliced weasands; whilst, if we escape, we escape, and if we be
+drowned, we die martyrs.” “By Allah,” said they all, “this rede is a
+right;” and we agreed upon this, and set about carrying it out. So we
+haled down to the beach the pieces of wood which lay about the bench;
+and, making a boat, moored it to the strand, after which we stowed
+therein somewhat of victual and returned to the castle. As soon as
+evening fell the earth trembled under our feet and in came the
+blackamoor upon us, snarling like a dog about to bite. He came up to us
+and feeling us and turning us over one by one, took one of us and did
+with him as he had done before and ate him, after which he lay down on
+the bench and snored and snorted like thunder. As soon as we were
+assured that he slept, we arose and taking two iron spits of those
+standing there, heated them in the fiercest of the fire, till they were
+red-hot, like burning coals, when we gripped fast hold of them and
+going up to the giant, as he lay snoring on the bench, thrust them into
+his eyes and pressed upon them, all of us, with our united might, so
+that his eyeballs burst and he became stone blind. Thereupon he cried
+with a great cry, whereat our hearts trembled, and springing up from
+the bench, he fell a-groping after us, blind-fold. We fled from him
+right and left and he saw us not, for his sight was altogether blent;
+but we were in terrible fear of him and made sure we were dead men
+despairing of escape. Then he found the door, feeling for it with his
+hands and went out roaring aloud; and behold, the earth shook under us,
+for the noise of his roaring, and we quaked for fear. As he quitted the
+castle we followed him and betook ourselves to the place where we had
+moored our boat, saying to one another, “If this accursed abide absent
+till the going down of the sun and come not to the castle, we shall
+know that he is dead; and if he come back, we will embark in the boat
+and paddle till we escape, committing our affair to Allah.” But, as we
+spoke, behold, up came the blackamoor with other two as they were
+Ghuls, fouler and more frightful than he, with eyes like red-hot coals;
+which when we saw, we hurried into the boat and casting off the
+moorings paddled away and pushed out to sea.[FN#31] As soon as the
+ogres caught sight of us, they cried out at us and running down to the
+sea-shore, fell a-pelting us with rocks, whereof some fell amongst us
+and others fell into the sea. We paddled with all our might till we
+were beyond their reach, but the most part of us were slain by the
+rock-throwing, and the winds and waves sported with us and carried us
+into the midst of the dashing sea, swollen with billows clashing. We
+knew not whither we went and my fellows died one after another, till
+there remained but three, myself and two others;—And Shahrazad
+perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Forty-eighth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the
+Seaman thus continued:—Most part of us were slain by the rock-thowing
+and only three of us remained on board the boat for, as often as one
+died, we threw him into the sea. We were sore exhausted for stress of
+hunger, but we took courage and heartened one another and worked for
+dear life and paddled with main and might, till the winds cast us upon
+an island, as we were dead men for fatigue and fear and famine. We
+landed on the island and walked about it for a while, finding that it
+abounded in trees and streams and birds; and we ate of the fruits and
+rejoiced in our escape from the black and our deliverance from the
+perils of the sea; and thus we did till nightfall, when we lay down and
+fell asleep for excess of fatigue. But we had hardly closed our eyes
+before we were aroused by a hissing sound like the sough of wind, and
+awaking, saw a serpent like a dragon, a seld-seen sight, of monstrous
+make and belly of enormous bulk which lay in a circle around us.
+Presently it reared its head and, seizing one of my companions,
+swallowed him up to his shoulders; then it gulped down the rest of him,
+and we heard his ribs crack in its belly. Presently it went its way,
+and we abode in sore amazement and grief for our comrade and mortal
+fear for ourselves, saying, “By Allah, this is a marvellous thing! Each
+kind of death that threatened us is more terrible than the last. We
+were rejoicing in our escape from the black ogre and our deliverance
+from the perils of the sea; but now we have fallen into that which is
+worse. There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah! By the
+Almighty, we have escaped from the blackamoor and from drowning: but
+how shall we escape from this abominable and viperish monster?” Then we
+walked about the island, eating of its fruits and drinking of its
+streams till dusk, when we climbed up into a high tree and went to
+sleep there, I being on the topmost bough. As soon as it was dark
+night, up came the serpent, looking right and left; and, making for the
+tree whereon we were, climbed up to my comrade and swallowed him down
+to his shoulders. Then it coiled about the bole[FN#32] with him, whilst
+I, who could not take my eyes off the sight, heard his bones crack in
+its belly, and it swallowed him whole, after which it slid down from
+the tree. When the day broke and the light showed me that the serpent
+was gone, I came down, as I were a dead man for stress of fear and
+anguish, and thought to cast myself into the sea and be at rest from
+the woes of the world; but could not bring myself to this, for verily
+life is dear. So I took five pieces of wood, broad and long, and bound
+one crosswise to the soles of my feet and others in like fashion on my
+right and left sides and over my breast; and the broadest and largest I
+bound across my head and made them fast with ropes. Then I lay down on
+the ground on my back, so that I was completely fenced in by the pieces
+of wood, which enclosed me like a bier.[FN#33] So as soon as it was
+dark, up came the serpent, as usual, and made towards me, but could not
+get at me to swallow me for the wood that fenced me in. So it wriggled
+round me on every side, whilst I looked on, like one dead by reason of
+my terror; and every now and then it would glide away and come back;
+but as often as it tried to come at me, it was hindered by the pieces
+of wood wherewith I had bound myself on every side. It ceased not to
+beset me thus from sundown till dawn, but when the light of day shone
+upon the beast it made off, in the utmost fury and extreme
+disappointment. Then I put out my hand and unbound myself, well-nigh
+down among the dead men for fear and suffering; and went down to the
+island-shore, whence a ship afar off in the midst of the waves suddenly
+struck my sight. So I tore off a great branch of a tree and made signs
+with it to the crew, shouting out the while; which when the ship’s
+company saw they said to another, “We must stand in and see what this
+is; peradventure ’tis a man.” So they made for the island and presently
+heard my cries, whereupon they took me on board and questioned me of my
+case. I told them all my adventures from first to last, whereat they
+marvelled mightily and covered my shame[FN#34] with some of their
+clothes. Moreover, they set before me somewhat of food and I ate my
+fill and I drank cold sweet water and was mightily refreshed; and Allah
+Almighty quickened me after I was virtually dead. So I praised the Most
+Highest and thanked Him for His favours and exceeding mercies, and my
+heart revived in me after utter despair, till meseemed as if all I had
+suffered were but a dream I had dreamed. We sailed on with a fair wind
+the Almighty sent us till we came to an island, called
+Al-Saláhitah,[FN#35] which aboundeth in sandal-wood when the captain
+cast anchor,—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying
+her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Forty-ninth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the
+Seaman continued:—And when we had cast anchor, the merchants and the
+sailors landed with their goods to sell and to buy. Then the captain
+turned to me and said, “Hark’ee, thou art a stranger and a pauper and
+tellest us that thou hast undergone frightful hardship; wherefore I
+have a mind to benefit thee with somewhat that may further thee to thy
+native land, so thou wilt ever bless me and pray for me.” “So be it,”
+answered I; “thou shalt have my prayers.” Quoth he, “Know then that
+there was with us a man, a traveller, whom we lost, and we know not if
+he be alive or dead, for we had no news of him; so I purpose to commit
+his bales of goods to thy charge, that thou mayst sell them in this
+island. A part of the proceeds we will give thee as an equivalent for
+thy pains and service, and the rest we will keep till we return to
+Baghdad, where we will enquire for his family and deliver it to them,
+together with the unsold goods. Say me then, wilt thou undertake the
+charge and land and sell them as other merchants do?” I replied
+“Hearkening and obedience to thee, O my lord; and great is thy kindness
+to me,” and thanked him; whereupon he bade the sailors and porters bear
+the bales in question ashore and commit them to my charge. The ship’s
+scribe asked him, “O master, what bales are these and what merchant’s
+name shall I write upon them?”; and he answered, “Write on them the
+name of Sindbad the Seaman, him who was with us in the ship and whom we
+lost at the Rukh’s island, and of whom we have no tidings; for we mean
+this stranger to sell them; and we will give him a part of the price
+for his pains and keep the rest till we return to Baghdad where, if we
+find the owner we will make it over to him, and if not, to his family.”
+And the clerk said, “Thy words are apposite and thy rede is right.” Now
+when I heard the captain give orders for the bales to be inscribed with
+my name, I said to myself, “By Allah, I am Sindbad the Seaman!” So I
+armed myself with courage and patience and waited till all the
+merchants had landed and were gathered together, talking and chaffering
+about buying and selling; then I went up to the captain and asked him,
+“O my lord, knowest thou what manner of man was this Sindbad, whose
+goods thou hast committed to me for sale?”; and he answered, “I know of
+him naught save that he was a man from Baghdad-city, Sindbad hight the
+Seaman, who was drowned with many others when we lay anchored at such
+an island and I have heard nothing of him since then.” At this I cried
+out with a great cry and said, “O captain, whom Allah keep! know that I
+am that Sindbad the Seaman and that I was not drowned, but when thou
+castest anchor at the island, I landed with the rest of the merchants
+and crew; and I sat down in a pleasant place by myself and ate somewhat
+of food I had with me and enjoyed myself till I became drowsy and was
+drowned in sleep; and when I awoke, I found no ship and none near me.
+These goods are my goods and these bales are my bales; and all the
+merchants who fetch jewels from the Valley of Diamonds saw me there and
+will bear me witness that I am the very Sindbad the Seaman; for I
+related to them everything that had befallen me and told them how you
+forgot me and left me sleeping on the island, and that betided me which
+betided me.” When the passengers and crew heard my words, they gathered
+about me and some of them believed me and others disbelieved; but
+presently, behold, one of the merchants, hearing me mention the Valley
+of Diamonds, came up to me and said to them, “Hear what I say, good
+people! When I related to you the most wonderful thing in my travels,
+and I told you that, at the time we cast down our slaughtered animals
+into the Valley of Serpents (I casting with the rest as was my wont),
+there came up a man hanging to mine, ye believed me not and gave me the
+lie.” “Yes,” quoth they, “thou didst tell us some such tale, but we had
+no call to credit thee.” He resumed, “Now this is the very man, by
+token that he gave me diamonds of great value, and high price whose
+like are not to be found, requiting me more than would have come up
+sticking to my quarter of meat; and I companied with him to
+Bassorah-city, where he took leave of us and went on to his native
+stead, whilst we returned to our own land. This is he; and he told us
+his name, Sindbad the Seaman, and how the ship left him on the desert
+island. And know ye that Allah hath sent him hither, so might the truth
+of my story be made manifest to you. Moreover, these are his goods for,
+when he first foregathered with us, he told us of them; and the truth
+of his words is patent.” Hearing the merchant’s speech the captain came
+up to me and considered me straitly awhile, after which he said, “What
+was the mark on thy bales?” “Thus and thus,” answered I, and reminded
+him of somewhat that had passed between him and me, when I shipped with
+him from Bassorah. Thereupon he was convinced that I was indeed Sindbad
+the Seaman and took me round the neck and gave me joy of my safety,
+saying, “By Allah, O my lord, thy case is indeed wondrous and thy tale
+marvellous; but lauded be Allah who hath brought thee and me together
+again, and who hath restored to thee thy goods and gear!”—And Shahrazad
+perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Fiftieth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the
+Seaman thus continued:—“Alhamdolillah!” quoth the captain, “lauded be
+Allah who hath restored unto thee thy goods and gear.” Then I disposed
+of my merchandise to the best of my skill, and profited largely on them
+whereat I rejoiced with exceeding joy and congratulated myself on my
+safety and the recovery of my goods. We ceased not to buy and sell at
+the several islands till we came to the land of Hind, where we bought
+cloves and ginger and all manner spices; and thence we fared on to the
+land of Sind, where also we bought and sold. In these Indian seas, I
+saw wonders without number or count, amongst others a fish like a cow
+which bringeth forth its young and suckleth them like human beings; and
+of its skin bucklers are made.[FN#36] There were eke fishes like asses
+and camels[FN#37] and tortoises twenty cubits wide.[FN#38] And I saw
+also a bird that cometh out of a sea-shell and layeth eggs and hatcheth
+her chicks on the surface of the water, never coming up from the sea to
+the land.[FN#39] Then we set sail again with a fair wind and the
+blessing of Almighty Allah; and, after a prosperous voyage, arrived
+safe and sound at Bassorah. Here I abode a few days and presently
+returned to Baghdad where I went at once to my quarter and my house and
+saluted my family and familiars and friends. I had gained on this
+voyage what was beyond count and reckoning, so I gave alms and largesse
+and clad the widow and the orphan, by way of thanksgiving for my happy
+return, and fell to feasting and making merry with my companions and
+intimates and forgot, while eating well and drinking well and dressing
+well, everything that had befallen me and all the perils and hardships
+I had suffered. “These, then, are the most admirable things I sighted
+on my third voyage, and to-morrow, an it be the will of Allah, you
+shall come to me and I will relate the adventures of my fourth voyage,
+which is still more wonderful than those you have already heard.”
+(Saith he who telleth the tale), Then Sindbad the Seaman bade give
+Sindbad the Landsman an hundred golden dinars as of wont and called for
+food. So they spread the tables and the company ate the night-meal and
+went their ways, marvelling at the tale they had heard. The Porter
+after taking his gold passed the night in his own house, also wondering
+at what his namesake the Seaman had told him, and as soon as day broke
+and the morning showed with its sheen and shone, he rose and praying
+the dawn-prayer betook himself to Sindbad the Seaman, who returned his
+salute and received him with an open breast and cheerful favour and
+made him sit with him till the rest of the company arrived, when he
+caused set on food and they ate and drank and made merry. Then Sindbad
+the Seaman bespake them and related to them the narrative of
+
+
+The Fourth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman.
+
+Know, O my brethren that after my return from my third voyage and
+foregathering with my friends, and forgetting all my perils and
+hardships in the enjoyment of ease and comfort and repose, I was
+visited one day by a company of merchants who sat down with me and
+talked of foreign travel and traffic, till the old bad man within me
+yearned to go with them and enjoy the sight of strange countries, and I
+longed for the society of the various races of mankind and for traffic
+and profit. So I resolved to travel with them and buying the
+necessaries for a long voyage, and great store of costly goods, more
+than ever before, transported them from Baghdad to Bassorah where I
+took ship with the merchants in question, who were of the chief of the
+town. We set out, trusting in the blessing of Almighty Allah; and with
+a favouring breeze and the best conditions we sailed from island to
+island and sea to sea, till, one day, there arose against us a contrary
+wind and the captain cast out his anchors and brought the ship to a
+standsill, fearing lest she should founder in mid-ocean. Then we all
+fell to prayer and humbling ourselves before the Most High; but, as we
+were thus engaged there smote us a furious squall which tore the sails
+to rags and tatters: the anchor-cable parted and, the ship foundering,
+we were cast into the sea, goods and all. I kept myself afloat by
+swimming half the day, till, when I had given myself up for lost, the
+Almighty threw in my way one of the planks of the ship, whereon I and
+some others of the merchants scrambled.—And Shahrazad perceived the
+dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Fifty-first Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the
+Seaman continued as follows:—And when the ship foundered I scrambled on
+to a plank with some others of the merchants and, mounting it as we
+would a horse, paddled with our feet in the sea. We abode thus a day
+and a night, the wind and waves helping us on, and on the second day
+shortly before the mid-time between sunrise and noon[FN#40] the breeze
+freshened and the sea wrought and the rising waves cast us upon an
+island, well-nigh dead bodies for weariness and want of sleep, cold and
+hunger and fear and thirst. We walked about the shore and found
+abundance of herbs, whereof we ate enough to keep breath in body and to
+stay our failing spirits, then lay down and slept till morning hard by
+the sea. And when morning came with its sheen and shone, we arose and
+walked about the island to the right and left, till we came in sight of
+an inhabited house afar off. So we made towards it, and ceased not
+walking till we reached the door thereof when lo! a number of naked men
+issued from it and without saluting us or a word said, laid hold of us
+masterfully and carried us to their king, who signed us to sit. So we
+sat down and they set food before us such as we knew not[FN#41] and
+whose like we had never seen in all our lives. My companions ate of it,
+for stress of hunger, but my stomach revolted from it and I would not
+eat; and my refraining from it was, by Allah’s favour, the cause of my
+being alive till now: for no sooner had my comrades tasted of it than
+their reason fled and their condition changed and they began to devour
+it like madmen possessed of an evil spirit. Then the savages gave them
+to drink of cocoa-nut oil and anointed them therewith; and straightway
+after drinking thereof, their eyes turned into their heads and they
+fell to eating greedily, against their wont. When I saw this, I was
+confounded and concerned for them, nor was I less anxious about myself,
+for fear of the naked folk. So I watched them narrowly, and it was not
+long before I discovered them to be a tribe of Magian cannibals whose
+King was a Ghul.[FN#42] All who came to their country or whoso they
+caught in their valleys or on their roads they brought to this King and
+fed them upon that food and anointed them with that oil, whereupon
+their stomachs dilated that they might eat largely, whilst their reason
+fled and they lost the power of thought and became idiots. Then they
+stuffed them with cocoa-nut oil and the aforesaid food, till they
+became fat and gross, when they slaughtered them by cutting their
+throats and roasted them for the King’s eating; but, as for the savages
+themselves, they ate human flesh raw.[FN#43] When I saw this, I was
+sore dismayed for myself and my comrades, who were now become so
+stupefied that they knew not what was done with them and the naked folk
+committed them to one who used every day to lead them out and pasture
+them on the island like cattle. And they wandered amongst the trees and
+rested at will, thus waxing very fat. As for me, I wasted away and
+became sickly for fear and hunger and my flesh shrivelled on my bones;
+which when the savages saw, they left me alone and took no thought of
+me and so far forgot me that one day I gave them the slip and walking
+out of their place made for the beach which was distant and there
+espied a very old man seated on a high place, girt by the waters. I
+looked at him and knew him for the herdsman, who had charge of
+pasturing my fellows, and with him were many others in like case. As
+soon as he saw me, he knew me to be in possession of my reason and not
+afflicted like the rest whom he was pasturing; so signed to me from
+afar, as who should say, “Turn back and take the right-hand road, for
+that will lead thee into the King’s highway.” So I turned back, as he
+bade me, and followed the right-hand road, now running for fear and
+then walking leisurely to rest me, till I was out of the old man’s
+sight. By this time, the sun had gone down and the darkness set in; so
+I sat down to rest and would have slept, but sleep came not to me that
+night, for stress of fear and famine and fatigue. When the night was
+half spent, I rose and walked on, till the day broke in all its beauty
+and the sun rose over the heads of the lofty hills and athwart the low
+gravelly plains. Now I was weary and hungry and thirsty; so I ate my
+fill of herbs and grasses that grew in the island and kept life in body
+and stayed my stomach, after which I set out again and fared on all
+that day and the next night, staying my greed with roots and herbs; nor
+did I cease walking for seven days and their nights, till the morn of
+the eighth day, when I caught sight of a faint object in the distance.
+So I made towards it, though my heart quaked for all I had suffered
+first and last, and behold it was a company of men gathering
+pepper-grains.[FN#44] As soon as they saw me, they hastened up to me
+and surrounding me on all sides, said to me, “Who art thou and whence
+come?” I replied, “Know, O folk, that I am a poor stranger,” and
+acquainted them with my case and all the hardships and perils I had
+suffered,—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
+permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Fifty-second Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the
+Seaman continued:—And the men gathering pepper in the island questioned
+me of my case, when I acquainted them with all the hardships and perils
+I had suffered and how I had fled from the savages; whereat they
+marvelled and gave me joy of my safety, saying, “By Allah, this is
+wonderful! But how didst thou escape from these blacks who swarm in the
+island and devour all who fall in with them; nor is any safe from them,
+nor can any get out of their clutches?” And after I had told them the
+fate of my companions, they made me sit by them, till they got quit of
+their work; and fetched me somewhat of good food, which I ate, for I
+was hungry, and rested awhile, after which they took ship with me and
+carrying me to their island-home brought me before their King, who
+returned my salute and received me honourably and questioned me of my
+case. I told him all that had befallen me, from the day of my leaving
+Baghdad-city, whereupon he wondered with great wonder at my adventures,
+he and his courtiers, and bade me sit by him; then he called for food
+and I ate with him what sufficed me and washed my hands and returned
+thanks to Almighty Allah for all His favours praising Him and
+glorifying Him. Then I left the King and walked for solace about the
+city, which I found wealthy and populous, abounding in market-streets
+well stocked with food and merchandise and full of buyers and sellers.
+So I rejoiced at having reached so pleasant a place and took my ease
+there after my fatigues; and I made friends with the townsfolk, nor was
+it long before I became more in honour and favour with them and their
+King than any of the chief men of the realm. Now I saw that all the
+citizens, great and small, rode fine horses, high-priced and
+thorough-bred, without saddles or housings, whereat I wondered and said
+to the King, “Wherefore, O my lord, dost thou not ride with a saddle?
+Therein is ease for the rider and increase of power.” “What is a
+saddle?” asked he: “I never saw nor used such a thing in all my life;”
+and I answered, “With thy permission I will make thee a saddle, that
+thou mayest ride on it and see the comfort thereof.” And quoth he, “Do
+so.” So quoth I to him, “Furnish me with some wood,” which being
+brought, I sought me a clever carpenter and sitting by him showed him
+how to make the saddle-tree, portraying for him the fashion thereof in
+ink on the wood. Then I took wool and teased it and made felt of it,
+and, covering the saddle-tree with leather, stuffed it and polished it
+and attached the girth and stirrup leathers; after which I fetched a
+blacksmith and described to him the fashion of the stirrups and
+bridle-bit. So he forged a fine pair of stirrups and a bit, and filed
+them smooth and tinned[FN#45] them. Moreover, I made fast to them
+fringes of silk and fitted bridle-leathers to the bit. Then I fetched
+one of the best of the royal horses and saddling and bridling him, hung
+the stirrups to the saddle and led him to the King. The thing took his
+fancy and he thanked me; then he mounted and rejoiced greatly in the
+saddle and rewarded me handsomely for my work. When the King’s Wazir
+saw the saddle, he asked of me one like it and I made it for him.
+Furthermore, all the grandees and officers of state came for saddles to
+me; so I fell to making saddles (having taught the craft to the
+carpenter and blacksmith), and selling them to all who sought, till I
+amassed great wealth and became in high honour and great favour with
+the King and his household and grandees. I abode thus till, one day, as
+I was sitting with the King in all respect and contentment, he said to
+me, “Know thou, O such an one, thou art become one of us, dear as a
+brother, and we hold thee in such regard and affection that we cannot
+part with thee nor suffer thee to leave our city; wherefore I desire of
+thee obedience in a certain matter, and I will not have thee gainsay
+me.” Answered I, “O King, what is it thou desirest of me? Far be it
+from me to gainsay thee in aught, for I am indebted to thee for many
+favours and bounties and much kindness, and (praised be Allah!) I am
+become one of thy servants.” Quoth he, “I have a mind to marry thee to
+a fair, clever and agreeable wife who is wealthy as she is beautiful;
+so thou mayst be naturalised and domiciled with us: I will lodge thee
+with me in my palace; wherefore oppose me not neither cross me in
+this.” When I heard these words I was ashamed and held my peace nor
+could make him any answer,[FN#46] by reason of my much bashfulness
+before him. Asked he, “Why dost thou not reply to me, O my son?”; and I
+answered saying, “O my master, it is thine to command, O King of the
+age!” So he summoned the Kazi and the witnesses and married me
+straightway to a lady of a noble tree and high pedigree; wealthy in
+moneys and means; the flower of an ancient race; of surpassing beauty
+and grace, and the owner of farms and estates and many a
+dwelling-place.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
+saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Fifty-third Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the
+Seaman continued in these words:—Now after the King my master had
+married me to this choice wife, he also gave me a great and goodly
+house standing alone, together with slaves and officers, and assigned
+me pay and allowances. So I became in all ease and contentment and
+delight and forgot everything which had befallen me of weariness and
+trouble and hardship; for I loved my wife with fondest love and she
+loved me no less, and we were as one and abode in the utmost comfort of
+life and in its happiness. And I said in myself, “When I return to my
+native land, I will carry her with me.” But whatso is predestined to a
+man, that needs must be, and none knoweth what shall befal him. We
+lived thus a great while, till Almighty Allah bereft one of my
+neighbours of his wife. Now he was a gossip of mine; so hearing the cry
+of the keeners I went in to condole with him on his loss and found him
+in very ill plight, full of trouble and weary of soul and mind. I
+condoled with him and comforted him, saying, “Mourn not for thy wife
+who hath now found the mercy of Allah; the Lord will surely give thee a
+better in her stead and thy name shall be great and thy life shall be
+long in the land, Inshallah!”[FN#47] But he wept bitter tears and
+replied, “O my friend, how can I marry another wife and how shall Allah
+replace her to me with a better than she, whenas I have but one day
+left to live?” “O my brother,” said I, “return to thy senses and
+announce not the glad tidings of thine own death, for thou art well,
+sound and in good case.” “By thy life, O my friend,” rejoined he,
+“to-morrow thou wilt lose me and wilt never see me again till the Day
+of Resurrection.” I asked, “How so?” and he answered, “This very day
+they bury my wife, and they bury me with her in one tomb; for it is the
+custom with us, if the wife die first, to bury the husband alive with
+her and in like manner the wife, if the husband die first; so that
+neither may enjoy life after losing his or her mate.” “By Allah,” cried
+I, “this is a most vile, lewd custom and not to be endured of any!”
+Meanwhile, behold, the most part of the townsfolk came in and fell to
+condoling with my gossip for his wife and for himself. Presently they
+laid the dead woman out, as was their wont; and, setting her on a bier,
+carried her and her husband without the city, till they came to a place
+in the side of the mountain at the end of the island by the sea; and
+here they raised a great rock and discovered the mouth of a
+stone-rivetted pit or well,[FN#48] leading down into a vast underground
+cavern that ran beneath the mountain. Into this pit they threw the
+corpse, then tying a rope of palm-fibres under the husband’s armpits,
+they let him down into the cavern, and with him a great pitcher of
+fresh water and seven scones by way of viaticum.[FN#49] When he came to
+the bottom, he loosed himself from the rope and they drew it up; and,
+stopping the mouth of the pit with the great stone, they returned to
+the city, leaving my friend in the cavern with his dead wife. When I
+saw this, I said to myself, “By Allah, this fashion of death is more
+grievous than the first!” And I went in to the King and said to him, “O
+my lord, why do ye bury the quick with the dead?” Quoth he, “It hath
+been the custom, thou must know, of our forbears and our olden Kings
+from time immemorial, if the husband die first, to bury his wife with
+him, and the like with the wife, so we may not sever them, alive or
+dead.” I asked, “O King of the age, if the wife of a foreigner like
+myself die among you, deal ye with him as with yonder man?”; and he
+answered, “Assuredly, we do with him even as thou hast seen.” When I
+heard this, my gall-bladder was like to burst, for the violence of my
+dismay and concern for myself: my wit became dazed; I felt as if in a
+vile dungeon; and hated their society; for I went about in fear lest my
+wife should die before me and they bury me alive with her. However,
+after a while, I comforted myself, saying, “Haply I shall predecease
+her, or shall have returned to my own land before she die, for none
+knoweth which shall go first and which shall go last.” Then I applied
+myself to diverting my mind from this thought with various occupations;
+but it was not long before my wife sickened and complained and took to
+her pillow and fared after a few days to the mercy of Allah; and the
+King and the rest of the folk came, as was their wont, to condole with
+me and her family and to console us for her loss and not less to
+condole with me for myself. Then the women washed her and arraying her
+in her richest raiment and golden ornaments, necklaces and jewellery,
+laid her on the bier and bore her to the mountain aforesaid, where they
+lifted the cover of the pit and cast her in; after which all my
+intimates and acquaintances and my wife’s kith and kin came round me,
+to farewell me in my lifetime and console me for my own death, whilst I
+cried out among them, saying, “Almighty Allah never made it lawful to
+bury the quick with the dead! I am a stranger, not one of your kind;
+and I cannot abear your custom, and had I known it I never would have
+wedded among you!” They heard me not and paid no heed to my words, but
+laying hold of me, bound me by force and let me down into the cavern,
+with a large gugglet of sweet water and seven cakes of bread, according
+to their custom. When I came to the bottom, they called out to me to
+cast myself loose from the cords, but I refused to do so; so they threw
+them down on me and, closing the mouth of the pit with the stones
+aforesaid, went their ways,—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
+ceased to say her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Fifty-fourth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the
+Seaman continued:—When they left me in the cavern with my dead wife
+and, closing the mouth of the pit, went their ways, I looked about me
+and found myself in a vast cave full of dead bodies, that exhaled a
+fulsome and loathsome smell and the air was heavy with the groans of
+the dying. Thereupon I fell to blaming myself for what I had done,
+saying, “By Allah, I deserve all that hath befallen me and all that
+shall befal me! What curse was upon me to take a wife in this city?
+There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious,
+the Great! As often as I say, I have escaped from one calamity, I fall
+into a worse. By Allah, this is an abominable death to die! Would
+Heaven I had died a decent death and been washed and shrouded like a
+man and a Moslem. Would I had been drowned at sea or perished in the
+mountains! It were better than to die this miserable death!” And on
+such wise I kept blaming my own folly and greed of gain in that black
+hole, knowing not night from day; and I ceased not to ban the Foul
+Fiend and to bless the Almighty Friend. Then I threw myself down on the
+bones of the dead and lay there, imploring Allah’s help and in the
+violence of my despair, invoking death which came not to me, till the
+fire of hunger burned my stomach and thirst set my throat aflame when I
+sat up and feeling for the bread, ate a morsel and upon it swallowed a
+mouthful of water. After this, the worst night I ever knew, I arose,
+and exploring the cavern, found that it extended a long way with
+hollows in its sides; and its floor was strewn with dead bodies and
+rotten bones, that had lain there from olden time. So I made myself a
+place in a cavity of the cavern, afar from the corpses lately thrown
+down and there slept. I abode thus a long while, till my provision was
+like to give out; and yet I ate not save once every day or second day;
+nor did I drink more than an occasional draught, for fear my victual
+should fail me before my death; and I said to myself, “Eat little and
+drink little; belike the Lord shall vouchsafe deliverance to thee!” One
+day, as I sat thus, pondering my case and bethinking me how I should
+do, when my bread and water should be exhausted, behold, the stone that
+covered the opening was suddenly rolled away and the light streamed
+down upon me. Quoth I, “I wonder what is the matter: haply they have
+brought another corpse.” Then I espied folk standing about the mouth of
+the pit, who presently let down a dead man and a live woman, weeping
+and bemoaning herself, and with her an ampler supply of bread and water
+than usual.[FN#50] I saw her and she was a beautiful woman; but she saw
+me not; and they closed up the opening and went away. Then I took the
+leg-bone of a dead man and, going up to the woman, smote her on the
+crown of the head; and she cried one cry and fell down in a swoon. I
+smote her a second and a third time, till she was dead, when I laid
+hands on her bread and water and found on her great plenty of ornaments
+and rich apparel, necklaces, jewels and gold trinkets;[FN#51] for it
+was their custom to bury women in all their finery. I carried the
+vivers to my sleeping place in the cavern-side and ate and drank of
+them sparingly, no more than sufficed to keep the life in me, lest the
+provaunt come speedily to an end and I perish of hunger and thirst. Yet
+did I never wholly lose hope in Almighty Allah. I abode thus a great
+while, killing all the live folk they let down into the cavern and
+taking their provisions of meat and drink; till one day, as I slept, I
+was awakened by something scratching and burrowing among the bodies in
+a corner of the cave and said, “What can this be?” fearing wolves or
+hyaenas. So I sprang up and seizing the leg-bone aforesaid, made for
+the noise. As soon as the thing was ware of me, it fled from me into
+the inward of the cavern, and lo! it was a wild beast. However, I
+followed it to the further end, till I saw afar off a point of light
+not bigger than a star, now appearing and then disappearing. So I made
+for it, and as I drew near, it grew larger and brighter, till I was
+certified that it was a crevice in the rock, leading to the open
+country; and I said to myself, “There must be some reason for this
+opening: either it is the mouth of a second pit, such as that by which
+they let me down, or else it is a natural fissure in the stonery.” So I
+bethought me awhile and nearing the light, found that it came from a
+breach in the back side of the mountain, which the wild beasts had
+enlarged by burrowing, that they might enter and devour the dead and
+freely go to and fro. When I saw this, my spirits revived and hope came
+back to me and I made sure of life, after having died a death. So I
+went on, as in a dream, and making shift to scramble through the breach
+found myself on the slope of a high mountain, overlooking the salt sea
+and cutting off all access thereto from the island, so that none could
+come at that part of the beach from the city.[FN#52] I praised my Lord
+and thanked Him, rejoicing greatly and heartening myself with the
+prospect of deliverance; then I returned through the crack to the
+cavern and brought out all the food and water I had saved up and donned
+some of the dead folk’s clothes over my own; after which I gathered
+together all the collars and necklaces of pearls and jewels and
+trinkets of gold and silver set with precious stones and other
+ornaments and valuables I could find upon the corpses; and, making them
+into bundles with the grave clothes and raiment of the dead, carried
+them out to the back of the mountain facing the sea-shore, where I
+established myself, purposing to wait there till it should please
+Almighty Allah to send me relief by means of some passing ship. I
+visited the cavern daily and as often as I found folk buried alive
+there, I killed them all indifferently, men and women, and took their
+victual and valuables and transported them to my seat on the sea-shore.
+Thus I abode a long while,—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
+ceased saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Fifty-fifth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the
+Seaman continued:—And after carrying all my victuals and valuables from
+the cavern to the coast I abode a long while by the sea, pondering my
+case, till one day I caught sight of a ship passing in the midst of the
+clashing sea, swollen with dashing billows. So I took a piece of a
+white shroud I had with me and, tying it to a staff, ran along the
+sea-shore, making signals therewith and calling to the people in the
+ship, till they espied me and hearing my shouts, sent a boat to fetch
+me off. When it drew near, the crew called out to me, saying, “Who art
+thou and how camest thou to be on this mountain, whereon never saw we
+any in our born days?” I answered, “I am a gentleman[FN#53] and a
+merchant, who hath been wrecked and saved myself on one of the planks
+of the ship, with some of my goods; and by the blessing of the Almighty
+and the decrees of Destiny and my own strength and skill, after much
+toil and moil I have landed with my gear in this place where I awaited
+some passing ship to take me off.” So they took me in their boat
+together with the bundles I had made of the jewels and valuables from
+the cavern, tied up in clothes and shrouds, and rowed back with me to
+the ship, where the captain said to me, “How camest thou, O man, to
+yonder place on yonder mountain behind which lieth a great city? All my
+life I have sailed these seas and passed to and fro hard by these
+heights; yet never saw I here any living thing save wild beasts and
+birds.” I repeated to him the story I had told the sailors,[FN#54] but
+acquainted him with nothing of that which had befallen me in the city
+and the cavern, lest there should be any of the islandry in the ship.
+Then I took out some of the best pearls I had with me and offered them
+to the captain, saying, “O my lord, thou hast been the means of saving
+me off this mountain. I have no ready money; but take this from me in
+requital of thy kindness and good offices.” But he refused to accept it
+of me, saying, “When we find a shipwrecked man on the sea-shore or on
+an island, we take him up and give him meat and drink, and if he be
+naked we clothe him; nor take we aught from him; nay, when we reach a
+port of safety, we set him ashore with a present of our own money and
+entreat him kindly and charitably, for the love of Allah the Most
+High.” So I prayed that his life be long in the land and rejoiced in my
+escape, trusting to be delivered from my stress and to forget my past
+mishaps; for every time I remembered being let down into the cave with
+my dead wife I shuddered in horror. Then we pursued our voyage and
+sailed from island to island and sea to sea, till we arrived at the
+Island of the Bell, which containeth a city two days’ journey in
+extent, whence after a six days’ run we reached the Island Kala, hard
+by the land of Hind.[FN#55] This place is governed by a potent and
+puissant King and it produceth excellent camphor and an abundance of
+the Indian rattan: here also is a lead mine. At last by the decree of
+Allah, we arrived in safety at Bassorah-town where I tarried a few
+days, then went on to Baghdad-city, and, finding my quarter, entered my
+house with lively pleasure. There I foregathered with my family and
+friends, who rejoiced in my happy return and gave my joy of my safety.
+I laid up in my storehouses all the goods I had brought with me, and
+gave alms and largesse to Fakirs and beggars and clothed the widow and
+the orphan. Then I gave myself up to pleasure and enjoyment, returning
+to my old merry mode of life. “Such, then, be the most marvellous
+adventures of my fourth voyage, but to-morrow if you will kindly come
+to me, I will tell you that which befel me in my fifth voyage, which
+was yet rarer and more marvellous than those which forewent it. And
+thou, O my brother Sindbad the Landsman, shalt sup with me as thou art
+wont.” (Saith he who telleth the tale), When Sindbad the Seaman had
+made an end of his story, he called for supper; so they spread the
+table and the guests ate the evening meal; after which he gave the
+Porter an hundred dinars as usual, and he and the rest of the company
+went their ways, glad at heart and marvelling at the tales they had
+heard, for that each story was more extraordinary than that which
+forewent it. The porter Sindbad passed the night in his own house, in
+all joy and cheer and wonderment; and, as soon as morning came with its
+sheen and shone, he prayed the dawn-prayer and repaired to the house of
+Sindbad the Seaman, who welcomed him and bade him sit with him till the
+rest of the company arrived, when they ate and drank and made merry and
+the talk went round amongst them. Presently, their host began the
+narrative of the fifth voyage,—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day
+and ceased to say her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Fifty-sixth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the host began in
+these words the narrative of
+
+
+The Fifth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman.
+
+Know, O my brothers, that when I had been awhile on shore after my
+fourth voyage; and when, in my comfort and pleasures and merry-makings
+and in my rejoicing over my large gains and profits, I had forgotten
+all I had endured of perils and sufferings, the carnal man was again
+seized with the longing to travel and to see foreign countries and
+islands.[FN#56] Accordingly I bought costly merchandise suited to my
+purpose and, making it up into bales, repaired to Bassorah, where I
+walked about the river-quay till I found a fine tall ship, newly
+builded with gear unused and fitted ready for sea. She pleased me; so I
+bought her and, embarking my goods in her, hired a master and crew,
+over whom I set certain of my slaves and servants as inspectors. A
+number of merchants also brought their outfits and paid me freight and
+passage-money; then, after reciting the Fatihah we set sail over
+Allah’s pool in all joy and cheer, promising ourselves a prosperous
+voyage and much profit. We sailed from city to city and from island to
+island and from sea to sea viewing the cities and countries by which we
+passed, and selling and buying in not a few till one day we came to a
+great uninhabited island, deserted and desolate, whereon was a white
+dome of biggest bulk half buried in the sands. The merchants landed to
+examine this dome, leaving me in the ship; and when they drew near,
+behold, it was a huge Rukh’s egg. They fell a-beating it with stones,
+knowing not what it was, and presently broke it open, whereupon much
+water ran out of it and the young Rukh appeared within. So they pulled
+it forth of the shell and cut its throat and took of it great store of
+meat. Now I was in the ship and knew not what they did; but presently
+one of the passengers came up to me and said, “O my lord, come and look
+at the egg we thought to be a dome.” So I looked and seeing the
+merchants beating it with stones, called out to them, “Stop, stop! do
+not meddle with that egg, or the bird Rukh will come out and break our
+ship and destroy us.”[FN#57] But they paid no heed to me and gave not
+over smiting upon the egg, when behold, the day grew dark and dun and
+the sun was hidden from us, as if some great cloud had passed over the
+firmament.[FN#58] So we raised our eyes and saw that what we took for a
+cloud was the Rukh poised between us and the sun, and it was his wings
+that darkened the day. When he came and saw his egg broken, he cried a
+loud cry, whereupon his mate came flying up and they both began
+circling about the ship, crying out at us with voices louder than
+thunder. I called to the Rais and crew, “Put out to sea and seek safety
+in flight, before we be all destroyed.” So the merchants came on board
+and we cast off and made haste from the island to gain the open sea.
+When the Rukhs saw this, they flew off and we crowded all sail on the
+ship, thinking to get out of their country; but presently the two
+re-appeared and flew after us and stood over us, each carrying in its
+claws a huge boulder which it had brought from the mountains. As soon
+as the he-Rukh came up with us, he let fall upon us the rock he held in
+his pounces; but the master put about ship, so that the rock missed her
+by some small matter and plunged into the waves with such violence,
+that the ship pitched high and then sank into the trough of the sea and
+the bottom of the ocean appeared to us. Then the she-Rukh let fall her
+rock, which was bigger than that of her mate, and as Destiny had
+decreed, it fell on the poop of the ship and crushed it, the rudder
+flying into twenty pieces; whereupon the vessel foundered and all and
+everything on board were cast into the main.[FN#59] As for me I
+struggled for sweet life, till Almighty Allah threw in my way one of
+the planks of the ship, to which I clung and bestriding it, fell
+a-paddling with my feet. Now the ship had gone down hard by an island
+in the midst of the main and the winds and waves bore me on till, by
+permission of the Most High, they cast me up on the shore of the
+island, at the last gasp for toil and distress and half dead with
+hunger and thirst. So I landed more like a corpse than a live man and
+throwing myself down on the beach, lay there awhile, till I began to
+revive and recover spirits, when I walked about the island and found it
+as it were one of the garths and gardens of Paradise. Its trees, in
+abundance dight, bore ripe-yellow fruit for freight; its streams ran
+clear and bright; its flowers were fair to scent and to sight and its
+birds warbled with delight the praises of Him to whom belong permanence
+and all-might. So I ate my fill of the fruits and slaked my thirst with
+the water of the streams till I could no more and I returned thanks to
+the Most High and glorified Him;—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
+day and ceased saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Fifty-seventh Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the
+Seaman continued:—So when I escaped drowning and reached the island
+which afforded me fruit to eat and water to drink, I returned thanks to
+the Most High and glorified Him; after which I sat till nightfall,
+hearing no voice and seeing none inhabitant. Then I lay down, well-nigh
+dead for travail and trouble and terror, and slept without surcease
+till morning, when I arose and walked about under the trees, till I
+came to the channel of a draw-well fed by a spring of running water, by
+which well sat an old man of venerable aspect, girt about with a
+waist-cloth[FN#60] made of the fibre of palm-fronds.[FN#61] Quoth I to
+myself, “Haply this Shaykh is one of those who were wrecked in the ship
+and hath made his way to this island.” So I drew near to him and
+saluted him, and he returned my salam by signs, but spoke not; and I
+said to him, “O nuncle mine, what causeth thee to sit here?” He shook
+his head and moaned and signed to me with his hands as who should say,
+“Take me on thy shoulders and carry me to the other side of the
+well-channel.” And quoth I in my mind, “I will deal kindly with him and
+do what he desireth; it may be I shall win me a reward in Heaven for he
+may be a paralytic.” So I took him on my back and carrying him to the
+place whereat he pointed, said to him, “Dismount at thy leisure.” But
+he would not get off my back and wound his legs about my neck. I looked
+at them and seeing that they were like a buffalo’s hide for blackness
+and roughness,[FN#62] was affrighted and would have cast him off; but
+he clung to me and gripped my neck with his legs, till I was well-nigh
+choked, the world grew black in my sight and I fell senseless to the
+ground like one dead. But he still kept his seat and raising his legs
+drummed with his heels and beat harder than palm-rods my back and
+shoulders, till he forced me to rise for excess of pain. Then he signed
+to me with his hand to carry him hither and thither among the trees
+which bore the best fruits; and if ever I refused to do his bidding or
+loitered or took my leisure he beat me with his feet more grievously
+than if I had been beaten with whips. He ceased not to signal with his
+hand wherever he was minded to go; so I carried him about the island,
+like a captive slave, and he bepissed and conskited my shoulders and
+back, dismounting not night nor day; and whenas he wished to sleep he
+wound his legs about my neck and leaned back and slept awhile, then
+arose and beat me; whereupon I sprang up in haste, unable to gainsay
+him because of the pain he inflicted on me. And indeed I blamed myself
+and sore repented me of having taken compassion on him and continued in
+this condition, suffering fatigue not to be described, till I said to
+myself, “I wrought him a weal and he requited me with my ill; by Allah,
+never more will I do any man a service so long as I live!” And again
+and again I besought the Most High that I might die, for stress of
+weariness and misery; and thus I abode a long while till, one day, I
+came with him to a place wherein was abundance of gourds, many of them
+dry. So I took a great dry gourd and, cutting open the head, scooped
+out the inside and cleaned it; after which I gathered grapes from a
+vine which grew hard by and squeezed them into the gourd, till it was
+full of the juice. Then I stopped up the mouth and set it in the sun,
+where I left it for some days, until it became strong wine; and every
+day I used to drink of it, to comfort and sustain me under my fatigues
+with that froward and obstinate fiend; and as often as I drank myself
+drunk, I forgot my troubles and took new heart. One day he saw me
+drinking and signed to me with his hand, as who should say, “What is
+that?” Quoth I, “It is an excellent cordial, which cheereth the heart
+and reviveth the spirits.” Then, being heated with wine, I ran and
+danced with him among the trees, clapping my hands and singing and
+making merry; and I staggered under him by design. When he saw this, he
+signed to me to give him the gourd that he might drink, and I feared
+him and gave it him. So he took it and, draining it to the dregs, cast
+it on the ground, whereupon he grew frolicsome and began to clap hands
+and jig to and fro on my shoulders and he made water upon me so
+copiously that all my dress was drenched. But presently the fumes of
+the wine rising to his head, he became helplessly drunk and his
+side-muscles and limbs relaxed and he swayed to and fro on my back. When I
+saw that he had lost his senses for drunkenness, I put my hand to his
+legs and, loosing them from my neck, stooped down well-nigh to the
+ground and threw him at full length,—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn
+of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Fifty-eighth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the
+Seaman continued:—So I threw the devil off my shoulders, hardly
+crediting my deliverance from him and fearing lest he should shake off
+his drunkenness and do me a mischief. Then I took up a great stone from
+among the trees and coming up to him smote him therewith on the head
+with all my might and crushed in his skull as he lay dead drunk.
+Thereupon his flesh and fat and blood being in a pulp, he died and went
+to his deserts, The Fire, no mercy of Allah be upon him! I then
+returned, with a heart at ease, to my former station on the sea-shore
+and abode in that island many days, eating of its fruits and drinking
+of its waters and keeping a look-out for passing ships; till one day,
+as I sat on the beach, recalling all that had befallen me and saying,
+“I wonder if Allah will save me alive and restore me to my home and
+family and friends!” behold, a ship was making for the island through
+the dashing sea and clashing waves. Presently, it cast anchor and the
+passengers landed; so I made for them, and when they saw me all
+hastened up to me and gathering round me questioned me of my case and
+how I came thither. I told them all that had betided me, whereat they
+marvelled with exceeding marvel and said, “He who rode on thy shoulder
+is called the ‘Shaykh al-Bahr’ or Old Man of the Sea,[FN#63] and none
+ever felt his legs on neck and came off alive but thou; and those who
+die under him he eateth: so praised be Allah for thy safety!” Then they
+set somewhat of food before me, whereof I ate my fill, and gave me
+somewhat of clothes wherewith I clad myself anew and covered my
+nakedness; after which they took me up into the ship, and we sailed
+days and nights, till fate brought us to a place called the City of
+Apes, builded with lofty houses, all of which gave upon the sea and it
+had a single gate studded and strengthened with iron nails. Now every
+night, as soon as it is dusk the dwellers in this city use to come
+forth of the gates and, putting out to sea in boats and ships, pass the
+night upon the waters in their fear lest the apes should come down on
+them from the mountains. Hearing this I was sore troubled remembering
+what I had before suffered from the ape-kind. Presently I landed to
+solace myself in the city, but meanwhile the ship set sail without me
+and I repented of having gone ashore, and calling to mind my companions
+and what had befallen me with the apes, first and after, sat down and
+fell a-weeping and lamenting. Presently one of the townsfolk accosted
+me and said to me, “O my lord, meseemeth thou art a stranger to these
+parts?” “Yes,” answered I, “I am indeed a stranger and a poor one, who
+came hither in a ship which cast anchor here, and I landed to visit the
+town; but when I would have gone on board again, I found they had
+sailed without me.” Quoth he, “Come and embark with us, for if thou lie
+the night in the city, the apes will destroy thee.” “Hearkening and
+obedience,” replied I, and rising, straightway embarked with him in one
+of the boats, whereupon they pushed off from shore and anchoring a mile
+or so from the land, there passed the night. At daybreak, they rowed
+back to the city and landing, went each about his business. Thus they
+did every night, for if any tarried in the town by night the apes came
+down on him and slew him. As soon as it was day, the apes left the
+place and ate of the fruits of the gardens, then went back to the
+mountains and slept there till nightfall, when they again came down
+upon the city.[FN#64] Now this place was in the farthest part of the
+country of the blacks, and one of the strangest things that befel me
+during my sojourn in the city was on this wise. One of the company with
+whom I passed the night in the boat, asked me, “O my lord, thou art
+apparently a stranger in these parts; hast thou any craft whereat thou
+canst work?”; and I answered, “By Allah, O my brother, I have no trade
+nor know I any handicraft, for I was a merchant and a man of money and
+substance and had a ship of my own, laden with great store of goods and
+merchandise; but it foundered at sea and all were drowned excepting me
+who saved myself on a piece of plank which Allah vouchsafed to me of
+His favour.” Upon this he brought me a cotton bag and giving it to me,
+said, “Take this bag and fill it with pebbles from the beach and go
+forth with a company of the townsfolk to whom I will give a charge
+respecting thee. Do as they do and belike thou shalt gain what may
+further thy return voyage to thy native land.” Then he carried me to
+the beach, where I filled my bag with pebbles large and small, and
+presently we saw a company of folk issue from the town, each bearing a
+bag like mine, filled with pebbles. To these he committed me,
+commending me to their care, and saying, “This man is a stranger, so
+take him with you and teach him how to gather, that he may get his
+daily bread, and you will earn your reward and recompense in Heaven.”
+“On our head and eyes be it!” answered they and bidding me welcome,
+fared on with me till we came to a spacious Wady, full of lofty trees
+with trunks so smooth that none might climb them. Now sleeping under
+these trees were many apes, which when they saw us rose and fled from
+us and swarmed up among the branches; whereupon my companions began to
+pelt them with what they had in their bags, and the apes fell to
+plucking of the fruit of the trees and casting them at the folk. I
+looked at the fruits they cast at us and found them to be Indian[FN#65]
+or cocoa-nuts; so I chose out a great tree, full of apes, and going up
+to it, began to pelt them with stones, and they in return pelted me
+with nuts, which I collected, as did the rest; so that even before I
+had made an end of my bagful of pebbles, I had gotten great plenty of
+nuts; and as soon as my companions had in like manner gotten as many
+nuts as they could carry, we returned to the city, where we arrived at
+the fag-end of day. Then I went in to the kindly man who had brought me
+in company with the nut-gatherers and gave him all I had gotten,
+thanking him for his kindness; but he would not accept them, saying,
+“Sell them and make profit by the price;” and presently he added (giving
+me the key of a closet in his house) “Store thy nuts in this safe place
+and go thou forth every morning and gather them as thou hast done
+to-day, and choose out the worst for sale and supplying thyself; but
+lay up the rest here, so haply thou mayst collect enough to serve thee
+for thy return home.” “Allah requite thee!” answered I and did as he
+advised me, going out daily with the cocoa-nut gatherers, who commended
+me to one another and showed me the best-stocked trees.[FN#66] Thus did
+I for some time, till I had laid up great store of excellent nuts,
+besides a large sum of money, the price of those I had sold. I became
+thus at my ease and bought all I saw and had a mind to, and passed my
+time pleasantly greatly enjoying my stay in the city, till, as I stood
+on the beach, one day, a great ship steering through the heart of the
+sea presently cast anchor by the shore and landed a company of
+merchants, who proceeded to sell and buy and barter their goods for
+cocoa-nuts and other commodities. Then I went to my friend and told him
+of the coming of the ship and how I had a mind to return to my own
+country; and he said, “’Tis for thee to decide.” So I thanked him for
+his bounties and took leave of him; then, going to the captain of the
+ship, I agreed with him for my passage and embarked my cocoa-nuts and
+what else I possessed. We weighed anchor,—And Shahrazad perceived the
+dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Fifty-ninth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the
+Seaman continued:—So I left the City of the Apes and embarked my
+cocoa-nuts and what else I possessed. We weighed anchor the same day
+and sailed from island to island and sea to sea; and whenever we
+stopped, I sold and traded with my cocoa-nuts, and the Lord requited me
+more than I erst had and lost. Amongst other places, we came to an
+island abounding in cloves[FN#67] and cinnamon and pepper; and the
+country people told me that by the side of each pepper-bunch groweth a
+great leaf which shadeth it from the sun and casteth the water off it
+in the wet season; but, when the rain ceaseth the leaf turneth over and
+droopeth down by the side of the bunch.[FN#68] Here I took in great
+store of pepper and cloves and cinnamon, in exchange for cocoa-nuts,
+and we passed thence to the Island of Al-Usirat,[FN#69] whence cometh
+the Comorin aloes-wood and thence to another island, five days’ journey
+in length, where grows the Chinese lign-aloes, which is better than the
+Comorin; but the people of this island[FN#70] are fouler of condition
+and religion than those of the other, for that they love fornication
+and wine-bibbing, and know not prayer nor call to prayer. Thence we
+came to the pearl-fisheries, and I gave the divers some of my
+cocoa-nuts and said to them, “Dive for my luck and lot!” They did so
+and brought up from the deep bight[FN#71] great store of large and
+priceless pearls; and they said to me, “By Allah, O my master, thy luck
+is a lucky!” Then we sailed on, with the blessing of Allah (whose name
+be exalted!); and ceased not sailing till we arrived safely at
+Bassorah. There I abode a little and then went on to Baghdad, where I
+entered my quarter and found my house and foregathered with my family
+and saluted my friends who gave me joy of my safe return, and I laid up
+all my goods and valuables in my storehouses. Then I distributed alms
+and largesse and clothed the widow and the orphan and made presents to
+my relations and comrades; for the Lord had requited me fourfold that I
+had lost. After which I returned to my old merry way of life and forgot
+all I had suffered in the great profit and gain I had made. “Such,
+then, is the history of my fifth voyage and its wonderments, and now to
+supper; and to-morrow, come again and I will tell you what befel me in
+my sixth voyage; for it was still more wonderful than this.” (Saith he
+who telleth the tale), Then he called for food; and the servants spread
+the table, and when they had eaten the evening-meal, he bade give
+Sindbad the porter an hundred golden dinars and the Landsman returned
+home and lay him down to sleep, much marvelling at all he had heard.
+Next morning, as soon as it was light, he prayed the dawn-prayer; and,
+after blessing Mohammed the Cream of all creatures, betook himself to
+the house of Sindbad the Seaman and wished him a good day. The merchant
+bade him sit and talked with him, till the rest of the company arrived.
+Then the servants spread the table and when they had well eaten and
+drunken and were mirthful and merry, Sindbad the Seaman began in these
+words the narrative of
+
+
+The Sixth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman.
+
+Know, O my brothers and friends and companions all, that I abode some
+time, after my return from my fifth voyage, in great solace and
+satisfaction and mirth and merriment, joyance and enjoyment; and I
+forgot what I had suffered, seeing the great gain and profit I had made
+till, one day, as I sat making merry and enjoying myself with my
+friends, there came in to me a company of merchants whose case told
+tales of travel, and talked with me of voyage and adventure and
+greatness of pelf and lucre. Hereupon I remembered the days of my
+return from abroad, and my joy at once more seeing my native land and
+foregathering with my family and friends; and my soul yearned for
+travel and traffic. So compelled by Fate and Fortune I resolved to
+undertake another voyage; and, buying me fine and costly merchandise
+meet for foreign trade, made it up into bales, with which I journeyed
+from Baghdad to Bassorah. Here I found a great ship ready for sea and
+full of merchants and notables, who had with them goods of price; so I
+embarked my bales therein. And we left Bassorah in safety and good
+spirits under the safeguard of the King, the Preserver.—And Shahrazad
+perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Sixtieth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the
+Seaman continued:—And after embarking my bales and leaving Bassorah in
+safety and good spirits, we continued our voyage from place to place
+and from city to city, buying and selling and profiting and diverting
+ourselves with the sight of countries where strange folk dwell. And
+Fortune and the voyage smiled upon us, till one day, as we went along,
+behold, the captain suddenly cried with a great cry and cast his
+turband on the deck. Then he buffeted his face like a woman and plucked
+out his beard and fell down in the waist of the ship will nigh fainting
+for stress of grief and rage, and crying, “Oh and alas for the ruin of
+my house and the orphanship of my poor children!” So all the merchant
+and sailors came round about him and asked him, “O master, what is the
+matter?”; for the light had become night before their sight. And he
+answered, saying, “Know, O folk, that we have wandered from our course
+and left the sea whose ways we wot, and come into a sea whose ways I
+know not; and unless Allah vouchsafe us a means of escape, we are all
+dead men; wherefore pray ye to the Most High, that He deliver us from
+this strait. Haply amongst you is one righteous whose prayers the Lord
+will accept.” Then he arose and clomb the mast to see an there were any
+escape from that strait; and he would have loosed the sails; but the
+wind redoubled upon the ship and whirled her round thrice and drave her
+backwards; whereupon her rudder brake and she fell off towards a high
+mountain. With this the captain came down from the mast, saying, “There
+is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the
+Great; nor can man prevent that which is fore-ordained of fate! By
+Allah, we are fallen on a place of sure destruction, and there is no
+way of escape for us, nor can any of us be saved!” Then we all fell
+a-weeping over ourselves and bidding one another farewell for that our
+days were come to an end, and we had lost all hopes of life. Presently
+the ship struck the mountain and broke up, and all and everything on
+board of her were plunged into the sea. Some of the merchants were
+drowned and others made shift to reach the shore and save themselves
+upon the mountain; I amongst the number, and when we got ashore, we
+found a great island, or rather peninsula[FN#72] whose base was strewn
+with wreckage of crafts and goods and gear cast up by the sea from
+broken ships whose passengers had been drowned; and the quantity
+confounded compt and calculation. So I climbed the cliffs into the
+inward of the isle and walked on inland, till I came to a stream of
+sweet water, that welled up at the nearest foot of the mountains and
+disappeared in the earth under the range of hills on the opposite side.
+But all the other passengers went over the mountains to the inner
+tracts; and, dispersing hither and thither, were confounded at what
+they saw and became like madmen at the sight of the wealth and
+treasures wherewith the shores were strewn. As for me I looked into the
+bed of the stream aforesaid and saw therein great plenty of rubies, and
+great royal pearls[FN#73] and all kinds of jewels and precious stones
+which were as gravel in the bed of the rivulets that ran through the
+fields, and the sands sparkled and glittered with gems and precious
+ores. Moreover we found in the island abundance of the finest
+lign-aloes, both Chinese and Comorin; and there also is a spring of
+crude ambergris[FN#74] which floweth like wax or gum over the
+stream-banks, for the great heat of the sun, and runneth down to the
+sea-shore, where the monsters of the deep come up and swallowing it,
+return into the sea. But it burneth in their bellies; so they cast it
+up again and it congealeth on the surface of the water, whereby its
+color and quantities are changed; and at last, the waves cast it
+ashore, and the travellers and merchants who know it, collect it and
+sell it. But as to the raw ambergris which is not swallowed, it floweth
+over the channel and congealeth on the banks and when the sun shineth
+on it, it melteth and scenteth the whole valley with a musk-like
+fragrance: then, when the sun ceaseth from it, it congealeth again. But
+none can get to this place where is the crude ambergris, because of the
+mountains which enclose the island on all sides and which foot of man
+cannot ascend.[FN#75] We continued thus to explore the island,
+marvelling at the wonderful works of Allah and the riches we found
+there, but sore troubled for our own case, and dismayed at our
+prospects. Now we had picked up on the beach some small matter of
+victual from the wreck and husbanded it carefully, eating but once
+every day or two, in our fear lest it should fail us and we die
+miserably of famine or affright. Moreover, we were weak for colic
+brought on by sea-sickness and low diet, and my companions deceased,
+one after other, till there was but a small company of us left. Each
+that died we washed and shrouded in some of the clothes and linen cast
+ashore by the tides; and after a little, the rest of my fellows
+perished, one by one, till I had buried the last of the party and abode
+alone on the island, with but a little provision left, I who was wont
+to have so much. And I wept over myself, saying, “Would Heaven I had
+died before my companions and they had washed and buried me! It had
+been better than I should perish and none wash me and shroud me and
+bury me. But there is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the
+Glorious, the Great!”— And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
+ceased saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Sixty-first Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the
+Seaman continued in these words:—Now after I had buried the last of my
+party and abode alone on the island, I arose and dug me a deep grave on
+the sea-shore, saying to myself, “Whenas I grow weak and know that
+death cometh to me, I will cast myself into the grave and die there, so
+the wind may drift the sand over me and cover me and I be buried
+therein.”[FN#76] Then I fell to reproaching myself for my little wit in
+leaving my native land and betaking me again to travel, after all I had
+suffered during my first five voyages, and when I had not made a single
+one without suffering more horrible perils and more terrible hardships
+than in its forerunner and having no hope of escape from my present
+stress; and I repented me of my folly and bemoaned myself, especially
+as I had no need of money, seeing that I had enough and more than
+enough and could not spend what I had, no, nor a half of it in all my
+life. However, after a while Allah sent me a thought and I said to
+myself, “By God, needs must this stream have an end as well as a
+beginning; ergo an issue somewhere, and belike its course may lead to
+some inhabited place; so my best plan is to make me a little
+boat[FN#77] big enough to sit in, and carry it and launching it on the
+river, embark therein and drop down the stream. If I escape, I escape,
+by God’s leave; and if I perish, better die in the river than here.”
+Then, sighing for myself, I set to work collecting a number of pieces
+of Chinese and Comorin aloes-wood and I bound them together with ropes
+from the wreckage; then I chose out from the broken-up ships straight
+planks of even size and fixed them firmly upon the aloes-wood, making
+me a boat-raft a little narrower than the channel of the stream; and I
+tied it tightly and firmly as though it were nailed. Then I loaded it
+with the goods, precious ores and jewels: and the union pearls which
+were like gravel and the best of the ambergris crude and pure, together
+with what I had collected on the island and what was left me of victual
+and wild herbs. Lastly I lashed a piece of wood on either side, to
+serve me as oars; and launched it, and embarking, did according to the
+saying of the poet,
+
+“Fly, fly with life whenas evils threat; * Leave the house to
+     tell of its builder’s fate!
+Land after land shalt thou seek and find * But no other life on
+     thy wish shall wait:
+Fret not thy soul in thy thoughts o’ night; * All woes shall end
+     or sooner or late.
+Whoso is born in one land to die, * There and only there shall
+     gang his gait:
+Nor trust great things to another wight, * Soul hath only soul
+     for confederate.”[FN#78]
+
+
+My boat-raft drifted with the stream, I pondering the issue of my
+affair; and the drifting ceased not till I came to the place where it
+disappeared beneath the mountain. I rowed my conveyance into the place
+which was intensely dark; and the current carried the raft with it down
+the underground channel.[FN#79] The thin stream bore me on through a
+narrow tunnel where the raft touched either side and my head rubbed
+against the roof, return therefrom being impossible. Then I blamed
+myself for having thus risked my life, and said, “If this passage grow
+any straiter, the raft will hardly pass, and I cannot turn back; so I
+shall inevitably perish miserably in this place.” And I threw myself
+down upon my face on the raft, by reason of the narrowness of the
+channel, whilst the stream ceased not to carry me along, knowing not
+night from day, for the excess of the gloom which encompassed me about
+and my terror and concern for myself lest I should perish. And in such
+condition my course continued down the channel which now grew wide and
+then straiter till, sore aweary by reason of the darkness which could
+be felt, I fell asleep, as I lay prone on the raft, and I slept knowing
+not an the time were long or short. When I awoke at last, I found
+myself in the light of Heaven and opening my eyes I saw myself in a
+broad stream and the raft moored to an island in the midst of a number
+of Indians and Abyssinians. As soon as these blackamoors[FN#80] saw
+that I was awake, they came up to me and bespoke me in their speech;
+but I understood not what they said and thought that this was a dream
+and a vision which had betided me for stress of concern and chagrin.
+But I was delighted at my escape from the river. When they saw I
+understood them not and made them no answer, one of them came forward
+and said to me in Arabic, “Peace be with thee, O my brother! Who art
+thou and whence faredst thou thither? How camest thou into this river
+and what manner of land lies behind yonder mountains, for never knew we
+any one make his way thence to us?” Quoth I, “And upon thee be peace
+and the ruth of Allah and his blessing! Who are ye and what country is
+this?” “O my brother,” answered he, “we are husbandmen and tillers of
+the soil, who came out to water our fields and plantations; and,
+finding thee asleep on this raft, laid hold of it and made it fast by
+us, against thou shouldst awake at thy leisure. So tell us how thou
+camest hither?” I answered, “For Allah’s sake, O my lord, ere I speak
+give me somewhat to eat, for I am starving, and after ask me what thou
+wilt.” So he hastened to fetch me food and I ate my fill, till I was
+refreshed and my fear was calmed by a good belly-full and my life
+returned to me. Then I rendered thanks to the Most High for mercies
+great and small, glad to be out of the river and rejoicing to be
+amongst them, and I told them all my adventures from first to last,
+especially my troubles in the narrow channel.—And Shahrazad perceived
+the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Sixty-second Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the
+Seaman continued:—When I landed and found myself amongst the Indians
+and Abyssinians and had taken some rest, they consulted among
+themselves and said to one another, “There is no help for it but we
+carry him with us and present him to our King, that he may acquaint him
+with his adventures.” So they took me, together with the raft-boat and
+its lading of monies and merchandise; jewels, minerals and golden gear,
+and brought me to their King, who was King of Sarandib,[FN#81] telling
+him what had happened; whereupon he saluted me and bade me welcome.
+Then he questioned me of my condition and adventures through the man
+who had spoken Arabic and I repeated to him my story from beginning to
+end, whereat he marvelled exceedingly and gave me joy of my
+deliverance; after which I arose and fetched from the raft great store
+of precious ores and jewels and ambergris and lign-aloes and presented
+them to the King, who accepted them and entreated me with the utmost
+honour, appointing me a lodging in his own palace. So I consorted with
+the chief of the islanders, and they paid me the utmost respect. And I
+quitted not the royal palace. Now the Island Sarandib lieth under the
+equinoctial line, its night and day both numbering twelve house. It
+measureth eighty leagues long by a breadth of thirty and its width is
+bounded by a lofty mountain[FN#82] and a deep valley, The mountain is
+conspicuous from a distance of three days and it containeth many kinds
+of rubies and other minerals, and spice-trees of all sorts. The surface
+is covered with emery wherewith gems are cut and fashioned; diamonds
+are in its rivers and pearls are in its valleys. I ascended that
+mountain and solaced myself with a view of its marvels which are
+indescribable and afterwards I returned to the King.[FN#83] Thereupon,
+all the travellers and merchants who came to the place questioned me of
+the affairs of my native land and of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid and his
+rule and I told them of him and of that wherefor he was renowned, and
+they praised him because of this; whilst I in turn questioned them of
+the manners and customers of their own countries and got the knowledge
+I desired. One day, the King himself asked me of the fashions and form
+of government of my country, and I acquainted him with the circumstance
+of the Caliph’s sway in the city of Baghdad and the justice of his
+rule. The King marvelled at my account of his appointments and said,
+“By Allah, the Caliph’s ordinances are indeed wise and his fashions of
+praiseworthy guise and thou hast made me love him by what thou tellest
+me; wherefore I have a mind to make him a present and send it by thee.”
+Quoth I, “Hearkening and obedience, O my lord; I will bear thy gift to
+him and inform him that thou art his sincere lover and true friend.”
+Then I abode with the King in great honour and regard and consideration
+for a long while till, one day, as I sat in his palace, I heard news of
+a company of merchants, that were fitting out a ship for Bassorah, and
+said to myself, “I cannot do better than voyage with these men.” So I
+rose without stay or delay and kissed the King’s hand and acquainted
+him with my longing to set out with the merchants, for that I pined
+after my people and mine own land. Quoth he, “Thou art thine own
+master; yet, if it be thy will to abide with us, on our head and eyes
+be it, for thou gladdenest us with thy company.” “By Allah, O my lord,”
+answered I, “thou hast indeed overwhelmed me with thy favours and
+well-doings; but I weary for a sight of my friends and family and native
+country.” When he heard this, he summoned the merchants in question and
+commended me to their care, paying my freight and passage-money. Then
+he bestowed on me great riches from his treasuries and charged me with
+a magnificent present for the Caliph Harun al-Rashid. Moreover he gave
+me a sealed letter, saying, “Carry this with thine own hand to the
+Commander of the Faithful and give him many salutations from us!”
+“Hearing and obedience,” I replied. The missive was written on the skin
+of the Kháwi[FN#84] (which is finer than lamb-parchment and of yellow
+colour), with ink of ultramarine and the contents were as follows.
+“Peace be with thee from the King of Al-Hind, before whom are a
+thousand elephants and upon whose palace-crenelles are a thousand
+jewels. But after (laud to the Lord and praises to His Prophet!): we
+send thee a trifling gift which be thou pleased to accept. Thou art to
+us a brother and a sincere friend; and great is the love we bear for
+thee in heart; favour us therefore with a reply. The gift besitteth not
+thy dignity: but we beg of thee, O our brother, graciously to accept it
+and peace be with thee.” And the present was a cup of ruby a span
+high[FN#85] the inside of which was adorned with precious pearls; and a
+bed covered with the skin of the serpent which swalloweth the elephant,
+which skin hath spots each like a dinar and whoso sitteth upon it never
+sickeneth;[FN#86] and an hundred thousand miskals of Indian lign-aloes
+and a slave-girl like a shining moon. Then I took leave of him and of
+all my intimates and acquaintances in the island and embarked with the
+merchants aforesaid. We sailed with a fair wind, committing ourselves
+to the care of Allah (be He extolled and exalted!) and by His
+permission arrived at Bassorah, where I passed a few days and nights
+equipping myself and packing up my bales. Then I went on to
+Baghdad-city, the House of Peace, where I sought an audience of the
+Caliph and laid the King’s presents before him. He asked me whence they
+came and I said to him, “By Allah, O Commander of the Faithful, I know
+not the name of the city nor the way thither!” He then asked me, “O
+Sindbad, is this true which the King writeth?”; and I answered, after
+kissing the ground, “O my lord, I saw in his kingdom much more than he
+hath written in his letter. For state processions a throne is set for
+him upon a huge elephant, eleven cubits high: and upon this he sitteth
+having his great lords and officers and guests standing in two ranks,
+on his right hand and on his left. At his head is a man hending in hand
+a golden javelin and behind him another with a great mace of gold whose
+head is an emerald[FN#87] a span long and as thick as a man’s thumb.
+And when he mounteth horse there mount with him a thousand horsemen
+clad in gold brocade and silk; and as the King proceedeth a man
+precedeth him, crying, ‘This is the King of great dignity, of high
+authority!’ And he continueth to repeat his praises in words I remember
+not, saying at the end of his panegyric, ‘This is the King owning the
+crown whose like nor Solomon nor the Mihraj[FN#88] ever possessed.’
+Then he is silent and one behind him proclaimeth, saying, ‘He will die!
+Again I say he will die!;’ and the other addeth, ‘Extolled be the
+perfection of the Living who dieth not!’[FN#89] Moreover by reason of
+his justice and ordinance and intelligence, there is no Kazi in his
+city, and all his lieges distinguish between Truth and Falsehood.”
+Quoth the Caliph, “How great is this King! His letter hath shown me
+this; and as for the mightiness of his dominion thou hast told us what
+thou hast eye-witnessed. By Allah, he hath been endowed with wisdom as
+with wide rule.” Then I related to the Commander of the Faithful all
+that had befallen me in my last voyage; at which he wondered
+exceedingly and bade his historians record my story and store it up in
+his treasuries, for the edification of all who might see it. Then he
+conferred on me exceeding great favours, and I repaired to my quarter
+and entered my home, where I warehoused all my goods and possessions.
+Presently, my friends came to me and I distributed presents among my
+family and gave alms and largesse; after which I yielded myself to
+joyance and enjoyment, mirth and merry-making, and forgot all that I
+had suffered. “Such, then, O my brothers, is the history of what befel
+me in my sixth voyage, and to-morrow, Inshallah! I will tell you the
+story of my seventh and last voyage, which is still more wondrous and
+marvellous than that of the first six.” (Saith he who telleth the
+tale), Then he bade lay the table, and the company supped with him;
+after which he gave the Porter an hundred dinars, as of wont, and they
+all went their ways, marvelling beyond measure at that which they had
+heard.— And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
+permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Sixty-third Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Sindbad the
+Seaman had related the history of what befel him in his sixth voyage,
+and all the company had dispersed, Sindbad the Landsman went home and
+slept as of wont. Next day he rose and prayed the dawn-prayer and
+repaired to his namesake’s house where, after the company was all
+assembled, the host began to relate
+
+
+The Seventh Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman.
+
+Know, O company, that after my return from my sixth voyage, which
+brought me abundant profit, I resumed my former life in all possible
+joyance and enjoyment and mirth and making merry day and night; and I
+tarried some time in this solace and satisfaction till my soul began
+once more to long to sail the seas and see foreign countries and
+company with merchants and hear new things. So having made up my mind,
+I packed up in bales a quantity of precious stuffs suited for sea-trade
+and repaired with them from Baghdad-city to Bassorah-town, where I
+found a ship ready for sea, and in her a company of considerable
+merchants. I shipped with them and becoming friends, we set forth on
+our venture, in health and safety; and sailed with a fair wind, till we
+came to a city called Madínat-al-Sín; but after we had left it, as we
+fared on in all cheer and confidence, devising of traffic and travel,
+behold, there sprang up a violent head-wind and a tempest of rain fell
+on us and drenched us and our goods. So we covered the bales with our
+cloaks and garments and drugget and canvas, lest they be spoiled by the
+rain, and betook ourselves to prayer and supplication to Almighty Allah
+and humbled ourselves before Him for deliverance from the peril that
+was upon us. But the captain arose and tightening his girdle tucked up
+his skirts and, after taking refuge with Allah from Satan the Stoned,
+clomb to the mast-head, whence he looked out right and left and gazing
+at the passengers and crew fell to buffeting his face and plucking out
+his beard. So we cried to him, “O Rais, what is the matter?”; and he
+replied saying, “Seek ye deliverance of the Most High from the strait
+into which we have fallen and bemoan yourselves and take leave of one
+another; for know that the wind hath gotten the mastery of us and hath
+driven us into the uttermost of the seas of the world.” Then he came
+down from the mast-head and opening his sea-chest, pulled out a bag of
+blue cotton, from which he took a powder like ashes. This he set in a
+saucer wetted with a little water and, after waiting a short time,
+smelt and tasted it; and then he took out of the chest a booklet,
+wherein he read awhile and said weeping, “Know, O ye passengers, that
+in this book is a marvellous matter, denoting that whoso cometh hither
+shall surely die, without hope of escape; for that this ocean is called
+the Sea of the Clime of the King, wherein is the sepulchre of our lord
+Solomon, son of David (on both be peace!) and therein are serpents of
+vast bulk and fearsome aspect: and what ship soever cometh to these
+climes there riseth to her a great fish[FN#90] out of the sea and
+swalloweth her up with all and everything on board her.” Hearing these
+words from the captain great was our wonder, but hardly had he made an
+end of speaking, when the ship was lifted out of the water and let fall
+again and we applied to praying the death-prayer[FN#91] and committing
+our souls to Allah. Presently we heard a terrible great cry like the
+loud-pealing thunder, whereat we were terror-struck and became as dead
+men, giving ourselves up for lost. Then behold, there came up to us a
+huge fish, as big as a tall mountain, at whose sight we became wild for
+affright and, weeping sore, made ready for death, marvelling at its vast
+size and gruesome semblance; when lo! a second fish made its appearance
+than which we had seen naught more monstrous. So we bemoaned ourselves
+of our lives and farewelled one another; but suddenly up came a third
+fish bigger than the two first; whereupon we lost the power of thought
+and reason and were stupefied for the excess of our fear and horror.
+Then the three fish began circling round about the ship and the third
+and biggest opened his mouth to swallow it, and we looked into its
+mouth and behold, it was wider than the gate of a city and its throat
+was like a long valley. So we besought the Almighty and called for
+succour upon His Apostle (on whom be blessing and peace!), when
+suddenly a violent squall of wind arose and smote the ship, which rose
+out of the water and settled upon a great reef, the haunt of
+sea-monsters, where it broke up and fell asunder into planks and all
+and everything on board were plunged into the sea. As for me, I tore
+off all my clothes but my gown and swam a little way, till I happened
+upon one of the ship’s planks whereto I clung and bestrode it like a
+horse, whilst the winds and the waters sported with me and the waves
+carried me up and cast me down; and I was in most piteous plight for
+fear and distress and hunger and thirst. Then I reproached myself for
+what I had done and my soul was weary after a life of ease and comfort;
+and I said to myself, “O Sindbad, O Seaman, thou repentest not and yet
+thou art ever suffering hardships and travails; yet wilt thou not
+renounce sea-travel; or, an thou say, ‘I renounce,’ thou liest in thy
+renouncement. Endure then with patience that which thou sufferest, for
+verily thou deservest all that betideth thee!”—And Shahrazad perceived
+the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Sixty-fourth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the
+Seaman continued:—But when I had bestridden the plank, quoth I to
+myself, “Thou deservest all that betideth thee. All this is decreed to
+me of Allah (whose name be exalted!), to turn me from my greed of gain,
+whence ariseth all that I endure, for I have wealth galore.” Then I
+returned to my senses and said, “In very sooth, this time I repent to
+the Most High, with a sincere repentance, of my lust for gain and
+venture; and never will I again name travel with tongue nor in
+thought.” And I ceased not to humble myself before Almighty Allah and
+weep and bewail myself, recalling my former estate of solace and
+satisfaction and mirth and merriment and joyance; and thus I abode two
+days, at the end of which time I came to a great island abounding in
+trees and streams. There I landed and ate of the fruits of the island
+and drank of its waters, till I was refreshed and my life returned to
+me and my strength and spirits were restored and I recited,
+
+“Oft when thy case shows knotty and tangled skein, * Fate downs
+     from Heaven and straightens every ply:
+In patience keep thy soul till clear thy lot * For He who ties
+     the knot can eke untie.”
+
+
+Then I walked about, till I found on the further side, a great river of
+sweet water, running with a strong current; whereupon I called to mind
+the boat-raft I had made aforetime and said to myself, “Needs must I
+make another; haply I may free me from this strait. If I escape, I have
+my desire and I vow to Allah Almighty to foreswear travel; and if I
+perish I shall be at peace and shall rest from toil and moil.” So I
+rose up and gathered together great store of pieces of wood from the
+trees (which were all of the finest sanders-wood, whose like is not
+albe I knew it not), and made shift to twist creepers and tree-twigs
+into a kind of rope, with which I bound the billets together and so
+contrived a raft. Then saying, “An I be saved, ’tis of God’s grace,” I
+embarked thereon and committed myself to the current, and it bore me on
+for the first day and the second and the third after leaving the
+island; whilst I lay in the raft, eating not and drinking, when I was
+athirst, of the water of the river, till I was weak and giddy as a
+chicken, for stress of fatigue and famine and fear. At the end of this
+time I came to a high mountain, whereunder ran the river; which when I
+saw, I feared for my life by reason of the straitness I had suffered in
+my former journey, and I would fain have stayed the raft and landed on
+the mountain-side; but the current overpowered me and drew it into the
+subterranean passage like an archway; whereupon I gave myself up for
+lost and said, “There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in
+Allah, the Glorious, the Great!” However, after a little, the raft
+glided into open air and I saw before me a wide valley, whereinto the
+river fell with a noise like the rolling of thunder and a swiftness as
+the rushing of the wind. I held on to the raft, for fear of falling off
+it, whilst the waves tossed me right and left; and the craft continued
+to descend with the current nor could I avail to stop it nor turn it
+shorewards, till it stopped with me at a great and goodly city, grandly
+edified and containing much people. And when the townsfolk saw me on
+the raft, dropping down with the current, they threw me out ropes which
+I had not strength enough to hold; then they tossed a net over the
+craft and drew it ashore with me, whereupon I fell to the ground amidst
+them, as I were a dead man, for stress of fear and hunger and lack of
+sleep. After awhile, there came up to me out of the crowd an old man of
+reverend aspect, well stricken in years, who welcomed me and threw over
+me abundance of handsome clothes, wherewith I covered my nakedness.
+Then he carried me to the Hammam-bath and brought me cordial sherbets
+and delicious perfumes; moreover, when I came out, he bore me to his
+house, where his people made much of me and, seating me in a pleasant
+place, set rich food before me, whereof I ate my fill and returned
+thanks to God the Most High for my deliverance. Thereupon his pages
+fetched me hot water, and I washed my hands, and his handmaids brought
+me silken napkins, with which I dried them and wiped my mouth. Also the
+Shaykh set apart for me an apartment in a part of his house and charged
+his pages and slave-girls to wait upon me and do my will and supply my
+wants. They were assiduous in my service, and I abode with him in the
+guest-chamber three days, taking my ease of good eating and good
+drinking and good scents till life returned to me and my terrors
+subsided and my heart was calmed and my mind was eased. On the fourth
+day the Shaykh, my host, came in to me and said, “Thou cheerest us with
+thy company, O my son, and praised be Allah for thy safety! Say: wilt
+thou now come down with me to the beach and the bazar and sell thy
+goods and take their price? Belike thou mayst buy thee wherewithal to
+traffic. I have ordered my servants to remove thy stock-in-trade from
+the sea and they have piled it on the shore.” I was silent awhile and
+said to myself, “What mean these words and what goods have I?” Then
+said he, “O my son, be not troubled nor careful, but come with me to
+the market and if any offer for thy goods what price contenteth thee,
+take it; but, an thou be not satisfied, I will lay them up for thee in
+my warehouse, against a fitting occasion for sale.” So I bethought me
+of my case and said to myself, “Do his bidding and see what are these
+goods!”; and I said to him, “O my nuncle the Shaykh, I hear and I obey;
+I may not gainsay thee in aught for Allah’s blessing is on all thou
+dost.” Accordingly he guided me to the market-street, where I found
+that he had taken in pieces the raft which carried me and which was of
+sandal-wood and I heard the broker calling it for sale.—And Shahrazad
+perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Sixty-fifth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the
+Seaman thus resumed his tale:—I found that the Shaykh had taken to
+pieces my raft which lay on the beach and the broker was crying the
+sandal-wood for sale. Then the merchants came and opened the gate of
+bidding for the wood and bid against one another till its price reached
+a thousand dinars, when they left bidding and my host said to me,
+“Hear, O my son, this is the current price of thy goods in hard times
+like these: wilt thou sell them for this or shall I lay them up for
+thee in my storehouses, till such time as prices rise?” “O my lord,”
+answered I, “the business is in thy hands: do as thou wilt.” Then asked
+he, “Wilt thou sell the wood to me, O my son, for an hundred gold
+pieces over and above what the merchants have bidden for it?” and I
+answered, “Yes, I have sold it to thee for monies received.”[FN#92] So,
+he bade his servants transport the wood to his storehouses and,
+carrying me back to his house, seated me and counted out to me the
+purchase money; after which he laid it in bags and setting them in a
+privy place, locked them up with an iron padlock and gave me its key.
+Some days after this, the Shaykh said to me, “O my son, I have somewhat
+to propose to thee, wherein I trust thou wilt do my bidding.” Quoth I,
+“What is it?” Quoth he, “I am a very old man and have no son; but I
+have a daughter who is young in years and fair of favour and endowed
+with abounding wealth and beauty. Now I have a mind to marry her to
+thee, that thou mayst abide with her in this our country, and I will
+make thee master of all I have in hand for I am an old man and thou
+shalt stand in my stead.” I was silent for shame and made him no
+answer, whereupon he continued, “Do my desire in this, O my son, for I
+wish but thy weal; and if thou wilt but do as I say, thou shalt have
+her at once and be as my son; and all that is under my hand or that
+cometh to me shall be thine. If thou have a mind to traffic and travel
+to thy native land, none shall hinder thee, and thy property will be at
+thy sole disposal; so do as thou wilt.” “By Allah, O my uncle,” replied
+I, “thou art become to me even as my father, and I am a stranger and
+have undergone many hardships: while for stress of that which I have
+suffered naught of judgment or knowledge is left to me. It is for thee,
+therefore, to decide what I shall do.” Hereupon he sent his servants
+for the Kazi and the witnesses and married me to his daughter making us
+for a noble marriage-feast[FN#93] and high festival. When I went in to
+her, I found her perfect in beauty and loveliness and symmetry and
+grace, clad in rich raiment and covered with a profusion of ornaments
+and necklaces and other trinkets of gold and silver and precious
+stones, worth a mint of money, a price none could pay. She pleased me
+and we loved each other; and I abode with her in solace and delight of
+life, till her father was taken to the mercy of Allah Almighty. So we
+shrouded him and buried him, and I laid hands on the whole of his
+property and all his servants and slaves became mine. Moreover, the
+merchants installed me in his office, for he was their Shaykh and their
+Chief; and none of them purchased aught but with his knowledge and by
+his leave. And now his rank passed on to me. When I became acquainted
+with the townsfolk, I found that at the beginning of each month they
+were transformed, in that their faces changed and they became like
+birds and they put forth wings wherewith they flew unto the upper
+regions of the firmament and none remained in the city save the women
+and children; and I said in my mind, “When the first of the month
+cometh, I will ask one of them to carry me with them, whither they go.”
+So when the time came and their complexion changed and their forms
+altered, I went in to one of the townsfolk and said to him, “Allah upon
+thee! carry me with thee, that I might divert myself with the rest and
+return with you.” “This may not be,” answered he; but I ceased not to
+solicit him and I importuned him till he consented. Then I went out in
+his company, without telling any of my family[FN#94] or servants or
+friends, and he took me on his back and flew up with me so high in air,
+that I heard the angels glorifying God in the heavenly dome, whereat I
+wondered and exclaimed, “Praised be Allah! Extolled be the perfection
+of Allah!” Hardly had I made an end of pronouncing the Tasbih—praised
+be Allah!—when there came out a fire from heaven and all but consumed
+the company; whereupon they fled from it and descended with curses upon
+me and, casting me down on a high mountain, went away, exceeding wroth
+with me, and left me there alone. As I found myself in this plight, I
+repented of what I had done and reproached myself for having undertaken
+that for which I was unable, saying, “There is no Majesty and there is
+no Might, save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great! No sooner am I
+delivered from one affliction than I fall into a worse.” And I
+continued in this case knowing not whither I should go, when lo! there
+came up two young men, as they were moons, each using as a staff a rod
+of red gold. So I approached them and saluted them; and when they
+returned my salam, I said to them, “Allah upon you twain; who are ye
+and what are ye?” Quoth they, “We are of the servants of the Most High
+Allah, abiding in this mountain;” and, giving me a rod of red gold they
+had with them, went their ways and left me. I walked on along the
+mountain-ridge staying my steps with the staff and pondering the case
+of the two youths, when behold, a serpent came forth from under the
+mountain, with a man in her[FN#95] jaws, whom she had swallowed even to
+below his navel, and he was crying out and saying, “Whoso delivereth
+me, Allah will deliver him from all adversity!” So I went up to the
+serpent and smote her on the head with the golden staff, whereupon she
+cast the man forth of her mouth.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
+day and ceased to say her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Sixty-sixth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the
+Seaman thus continued:—When I smote the serpent on the head with my
+golden staff she cast the man forth of her mouth. Then I smote her a
+second time, and she turned and fled; whereupon he came up to me and
+said, “Since my deliverance from yonder serpent hath been at thy hands
+I will never leave thee, and thou shalt be my comrade on this
+mountain.” “And welcome,” answered I; so we fared on along the
+mountain, till we fell in with a company of folk, and I looked and saw
+amongst them the very man who had carried me and cast me down there. I
+went up to him and spake him fair, excusing myself to him and saying,
+“O my comrade, it is not thus that friend should deal with friend.”
+Quoth he, “It was thou who well-nigh destroyed us by thy Tasbih and thy
+glorifying God on my back.” Quoth I, “Pardon me, for I had no knowledge
+of this matter; but, if thou wilt take me with thee, I swear not to say
+a word.” So he relented and consented to carry me with him, but he made
+an express condition that, so long as I abode on his back, I should
+abstain from pronouncing the Tasbih or otherwise glorifying God. Then I
+gave the wand of gold to him whom I had delivered from the serpent and
+bade him farewell, and my friend took me on his back and flew with me
+as before, till he brought me to the city and set me down in my own
+house. My wife came to meet me and saluting me gave me joy of my safety
+and then said, “Beware of going forth hereafter with yonder folk,
+neither consort with them, for they are brethren of the devils, and
+know not how to mention the name of Allah Almighty; neither worship
+they Him.” “And how did thy father with them?” asked I; and she
+answered, “My father was not of them, neither did he as they; and as
+now he is dead methinks thou hadst better sell all we have and with the
+price buy merchandise and journey to thine own country and people, and
+I with thee; for I care not to tarry in this city, my father and my
+mother being dead.” So I sold all the Shaykh’s property piecemeal, and
+looked for one who should be journeying thence to Bassorah that I might
+join myself to him. And while thus doing I heard of a company of
+townsfolk who had a mind to make the voyage, but could not find them a
+ship; so they bought wood and built them a great ship wherein I took
+passage with them, and paid them all the hire. Then we embarked, I and
+my wife, with all our moveables, leaving our houses and domains and so
+forth, and set sail, and ceased not sailing from island to island and
+from sea to sea, with a fair wind and a favouring, till we arrived at
+Bassorah safe and sound. I made no stay there, but freighted another
+vessel and, transferring my goods to her, set out forthright for
+Baghdad-city, where I arrived in safety, and entering my quarter and
+repairing to my house, foregathered with my family and friends and
+familiars who laid up my goods in my warehouses. When my people who,
+reckoning the period of my absence on this my seventh voyage, had found
+it to be seven and twenty years, and had given up all hope of me, heard
+of my return, they came to welcome me and to give me joy of my safety;
+and I related to them all that had befallen me; whereat they marvelled
+with exceeding marvel. Then I forswore travel and vowed to Allah the
+Most High I would venture no more by land or sea, for that this seventh
+and last voyage had surfeited me of travel and adventure; and I thanked
+the Lord (be He praised and glorified!), and blessed Him for having
+restored me to my kith and kin and country and home. “Consider,
+therefore, O Sindbad, O Landsman,” continued Sindbad the Seaman, “what
+sufferings I have undergone and what perils and hardships I have
+endured before coming to my present state.” “Allah upon thee, O my
+Lord!” answered Sindbad the Landsman, “pardon me the wrong I did
+thee.”[FN#96] “And they ceased not from friendship and fellowship,
+abiding in all cheer and pleasures and solace of life till there came
+to them the Destroyer of delights and the Sunderer of Societies, and the
+Shatterer of palaces and the Caterer for Cemeteries to wit, the Cup of
+Death, and glory be to the Living One who dieth not!”[FN#97]
+
+
+A Translation of
+
+The Seventh Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman
+
+according to
+
+the version of the
+
+Calcutta Edition
+which differs in essential form
+
+from the preceding
+
+tale
+
+Know, O my brothers and friends and companions all, that when I left
+voyaging and commercing, I said in myself, “Sufficeth me that hath
+befallen me;” and I spent my time in solace and pleasure. One day as I
+sat at home there came a knock at the door, and when the porter opened
+a page entered and said, “The Caliph biddeth thee to him.” I went with
+him to the King’s majesty and kissed ground and saluted him; whereupon
+he welcomed me and entreated me with honour and said, “O Sindbad, I
+have an occasion for thee: wilt thou do it?” So I kissed his hand and
+asked him, saying, “O my lord, what occasion hath the master for the
+slave?”; whereto he answered me, “I am minded that thou travel to the
+King of Sarandib and carry to him our writ and our gift, for that he
+hath sent to us a present and a letter.” I trembled at these words and
+rejoined, “By Allah the Omnipotent, O my lord, I have taken a loathing
+to wayfare, and when I hear the words ‘Voyage’ or ‘Travel,’ my limbs
+tremble for what hath befallen me of hardships and horrors. Indeed I
+have no desire whatever for this; more by token as I have bound myself
+by oath not to quit Baghdad.” Then I informed the Caliph of all I had
+passed through from first to last, and he marvelled with exceeding
+marvel and said, “By the Almighty, O Sindbad, from ages of old such
+mishaps as happened to thee were never known to happen to any, and thou
+dost only right never even to talk of travel. For our sake, however,
+thou wilt go this time and carry our present and our letter to him of
+Sarandib; and Inshallah—by God’s leave!—thou shalt return quickly; and
+on this wise we shall be under no obligation to the said King.” I
+replied that I heard and obeyed, being unable to oppose his command, so
+he gave me the gifts and the missive with money to pay my way and I
+kissed hands and left the presence. Then I dropped down from Baghdad to
+the Gulf, and with other merchants embarked, and our ship sailed before
+a fair wind many days and nights till, by Allah’s aid, we reached the
+island of Sarandib. As soon as we had made fast we landed and I took
+the present and the letter; and, going in with them to the King, kissed
+ground before him. When he saw me, he said, “Well come, O Sindbad! By
+Allah Omnipotent we were longing to see thee, and glory be to God who
+hath again shown us thy face!” Then taking me by the hand he made me
+sit by his side, rejoicing, and he welcomed me with familiar kindness
+again and entreated me as a friend. After this he began to converse
+with me and courteously addressed me and asked, “What was the cause of
+thy coming to us, O Sindbad?” So after kissing his hand and thanking
+him I answered, “O my lord, I have brought thee a present from my
+master, the Caliph Harun Al-Rashid;” and offered him the present and
+the letter which he read and at which he rejoiced with passing joy. The
+present consisted of a mare worth ten thousand ducats, bearing a golden
+saddle set with jewels; a book; a sumptuous suit of clothes and an
+hundred different kinds of white Cairene cloths and silks of
+Suez,[FN#98] Cufa and Alexandria; Greek carpets and an hundred
+maunds[FN#99] weight of linen and raw silk. Moreover there was a
+wondrous rarety, a marvellous cup of crystal middlemost of which was
+the figure of a lion faced by a kneeling man grasping a bow with arrow
+drawn to the very head, together with the food-tray[FN#100] of Sulayman
+the son of David (on whom be peace!). The missive ran as follows,
+“Peace from King Al-Rashid, the aided of Allah (who hath vouchsafed to
+him and his forefathers noble rank and wide-spread glory), be on the
+fortunate Sultan. But after. Thy letter came to our hands and we
+rejoiced thereat; and we have sent the book entitled ‘Delight of the
+Intelligent and for Friends the Rare Present,’[FN#101] together with
+sundry curiosities suitable for Kings; so do thou favour us by
+accepting them: and peace be with thee!” Then the King lavished upon me
+much wealth and entreated me with all honour; so I prayed for him and
+thanked him for his munificence. Some days after I craved his leave to
+depart, but could not obtain it except by great pressing, whereupon I
+farewelled him and fared forth from his city, with merchants and other
+companions, homewards-bound without any desire for travel or trade. We
+continued voyaging and coasting along many islands; but, when we were
+half-way, we were surrounded by a number of canoes, wherein were men
+like devils armed with bows and arrows, swords and daggers; habited in
+mail-coats and other armoury. They fell upon us and wounded and slew
+all who opposed them; then, having captured the ship and her contents,
+carried us to an island, where they sold us at the meanest price. Now I
+was bought by a wealthy man who, taking me to his house, gave me meat
+and drink and clothing and treated me in the friendliest manner; so I
+was heartened and I rested a little. One day he asked me, “Dost thou
+know any art or craft?” and I answered him, “O my lord, I am a merchant
+and know nothing but trade and traffic.” “Dost thou know,” rejoined he,
+“how to use bow and arrow?” “Yes,” replied I, “I know that much.”
+Thereupon he brought me a bow and arrows and mounted me behind him upon
+an elephant: then he set out as night was well nigh over and, passing
+through a forest of huge growths, came to a tall and sturdy tree up
+which he made me climb. Then he gave me the bow and arrows, saying,
+“Sit here now, and when the elephants troop hither in early morning,
+shoot at them; belike thou wilt hit one; and, if he fall, come and tell
+me.” With this he left me. I hid myself in the tree being in sore
+terror and trembled till the sun arose; and, when the elephants
+appeared and wandered about among the trees, I shot my arrows at them
+and continued till I had shot down one of them. In the evening I
+reported my success to my master who was delighted in me and entreated
+me with high honour; and next morning he removed the slain elephant. In
+this wise I continued, every morning shooting an elephant which my
+master would remove till, one day, as I was perched in hiding on the
+tree there came on suddenly and unexpectedly an innumerable host of
+elephants whose screaming and trumpeting were such that I imagined the
+earth trembled under them. All surrounded my tree, whose circumference
+was some fifty cubits,[FN#102] and one enormous monster came up to it
+and winding his trunk round the bole haled it up by the roots, and
+dashed it to the ground. I fell down fainting amongst the beasts when
+the monster elephant wound his trunk about me and, setting me on his
+back, went off with me, the others accompanying us. He carried me still
+unconscious till he reached the place for which he was making, when he
+rolled me off his back and presently went his ways followed by the
+others. So I rested a little; and, when my terror had subsided, I
+looked about me and I found myself among the bones of elephants,
+whereby I concluded that this was their burial-place, and that the
+monster elephant had led me thither on account of the tusks.[FN#103] So
+I arose and walked a whole day and night till I arrived at the house of
+my master, who saw my colour changed by stress of affright and famine.
+He rejoiced in my return and said to me, “By Allah, thou hast made my
+heart sore! I went when thou wast missing and found the tree torn up,
+and thought that the elephants had slain thee. Tell me how it was with
+thee.” I acquainted him with all that had betided me; whereat he
+wondered greatly, and rejoiced and at last asked me, “Dost thou know
+the place?”; whereto I answered, “Yes, O my master!” So we mounted an
+elephant and fared until we came to the spot and, when my master beheld
+the heaps of tusks, he rejoiced greatly; then carrying away as many as
+he wanted he returned with me home. After this, he entreated me with
+increased favour and said, “O my son, thou hast shown us the way to
+great gain, wherefore Allah requite thee! Thou art freed for the
+Almighty’s sake and before His face! The elephants used to destroy many
+of us on account of our hunting them for their ivories and sorivellos;
+but Allah hath preserved thee from them, and thou hast profited us by
+the heaps to which thou hast led us.” “O my master,” replied I, “God
+free thy neck from the fire! And do thou grant me, O my master, thy
+gracious leave to return to my own country.” “Yes” quoth he, “thou
+shalt have that permission. But we have a yearly fair, when merchants
+come to us from various quarters to buy up these ivories. The time is
+drawing near; and, when they shall have done their business, I will
+send thee under their charge and will give thee wherewithal to reach
+thy home.” So I blessed and thanked him and remained with him, treated
+with respect and honour, for some days, when the merchants came as he
+had foretold, and bought and sold and bartered; and when they had made
+their preparations to return, my master came to me and said, “Rise and
+get thee ready to travel with the traders en route to thy country.”
+They had bought a number of tusks which they had bound together in
+loads and were embarking them when my master sent me with them, paying
+for my passage and settling all my debts; besides which he gave me a
+large present in goods. We set out and voyaged from island to island
+till we had crossed the sea and landed on the shores of the Persian
+Gulf, when the merchants brought out and sold their stores: I also sold
+what I had at a high profit; and I bought some of the prettiest things
+in the place for presents and beautiful rarities and everything else I
+wanted. I likewise bought for myself a beast and we fared forth and
+crossed the deserts from country to country till I reached Baghdad.
+Here I went in to the Caliph and, after saluting him and kissing hands,
+informed him of all that had befallen me; whereupon he rejoiced in my
+safety and thanked Almighty Allah; and he bade my story be written in
+letters of gold. I then entered my house and met my family and
+brethren: and such is the end of the history that happened to me during
+my seven voyages. Praise be to Allah, the One, the Creator, the Maker
+of all things in Heaven and Earth!—
+
+Now when Shahrazad had ended her story of the two Sindbads, Dinarzad
+exclaimed, “O my sister, how pleasant is thy tale and how tasteful! How
+sweet and how grateful!” She replied, “And what is this compared with
+that I could tell thee to-morrow night?” Quoth the King, “What may it
+be?” And she said:—It is a tale touching
+
+
+
+
+THE CITY OF BRASS.[FN#104]
+
+
+It is related that there was, in tide of yore and in times and years
+long gone before, at Damascus of Syria, a Caliph known as Abd al-Malik
+bin Marwan, the fifth of the Ommiade house. As this Commander of the
+Faithful was seated one day in his palace, conversing with his Sultans
+and Kings and the Grandees of his empire, the talk turned upon the
+legends of past peoples and the traditions of our lord Solomon, David’s
+son (on the twain be peace!), and on that which Allah Almighty had
+bestowed on him of lordship and dominion over men and Jinn and birds
+and beasts and reptiles and the wind and other created things; and
+quoth the Caliph, “Of a truth we hear from those who forewent us that
+the Lord (extolled and exalted be He!) vouchsafed unto none the like of
+that which He vouchsafed unto our lord Solomon and that he attained
+unto that whereto never attained other than he, in that he was wont to
+imprison Jinns and Marids and Satans in cucurbites of copper and to
+stop them with lead and seal[FN#105] them with his ring.”—And Shahrazad
+perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Sixty-seventh Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Caliph
+Abd al-Malik bin Marwan sat conversing with his Grandees concerning our
+lord Solomon, and these noted what Allah had bestowed upon him of
+lordship and dominion, quoth the Commander of the Faithful, “Indeed he
+attained unto that whereto never attained other than he, in that he was
+wont to imprison Jinns and Marids and Satans in cucurbites of copper
+and stop them with lead and seal them with his ring.” Then said Talib
+bin Sahl (who was a seeker after treasures and had books that
+discovered to him hoards and wealth hidden under the earth), “O
+Commander of the Faithful,—Allah make thy dominion to endure and exalt
+thy dignity here and hereafter!—my father told me of my grandfather,
+that he once took ship with a company, intending for the island of
+Sikiliyah or Sicily, and sailed until there arose against them a
+contrary wind, which drove them from their course and brought them,
+after a month, to a great mountain in one of the lands of Allah the
+Most High, but where that land was they wot not. Quoth my
+grandfather:—This was in the darkness of the night and as soon as it
+was day, there came forth to us, from the caves of the mountain, folk
+black of colour and naked of body, as they were wild beasts,
+understanding not one word of what was addressed to them; nor was there
+any of them who knew Arabic, save their King who was of their own kind.
+When he saw the ship, he came down to it with a company of his
+followers and saluting us, bade us welcome and questioned us of our
+case and our faith. We told him all concerning ourselves and he said,
+Be of good cheer for no harm shall befal you. And when we, in turn,
+asked them of their faith, we found that each was of one of the many
+creeds prevailing before the preaching of Al-Islam and the mission of
+Mohammed, whom may Allah bless and keep! So my shipmates remarked, We
+wot not what thou sayest. Then quoth the King, No Adam-son hath ever
+come to our land before you: but fear not, and rejoice in the assurance
+of safety and of return to your own country. Then he entertained us
+three days, feeding us on the flesh of birds and wild beasts and
+fishes, than which they had no other meat; and, on the fourth day, he
+carried us down to the beach, that we might divert ourselves by looking
+upon the fisher-folk. There we saw a man casting his net to catch
+fish, and presently he pulled them up and behold, in them was a
+cucurbite of copper, stopped with lead and sealed with the signet of
+Solomon, son of David, on whom be peace! He brought the vessel to land
+and broke it open, when there came forth a smoke, which rose a-twisting
+blue to the zenith, and we heard a horrible voice, saying, I repent! I
+repent! Pardon, O Prophet of Allah! I will never return to that which I
+did aforetime. Then the smoke became a terrible Giant frightful of
+form, whose head was level with the mountain-tops, and he vanished from
+our sight, whilst our hearts were well-nigh torn out for terror; but
+the blacks thought nothing of it. Then we returned to the King and
+questioned him of the matter; whereupon quoth he, Know that this was
+one of the Jinns whom Solomon, son of David, being wroth with them,
+shut up in these vessels and cast into the sea, after stopping the
+mouths with melted lead. Our fishermen ofttimes, in casting their nets,
+bring up such bottles, which being broken open, there come forth of
+them Jinnis who, deeming that Solomon is still alive and can pardon
+them, make their submission to him and say, I repent, O Prophet of
+Allah!” The Caliph marvelled at Talib’s story and said, “Glory be to
+God! Verily, to Solomon was given a mighty dominion.” Now al-Nábighah
+al-Zubyání[FN#106] was present, and he said, “Talib hath spoken soothly
+as is proven by the saying of the All-wise, the Primćval One,
+
+And Solomon, when Allah to him said, * ‘Rise, be thou Caliph,
+     rule with righteous sway:
+Honour obedience for obeying thee; * And who rebels imprison him
+     for aye’
+
+
+Wherefore he used to put them in copper-bottles and cast them into the
+sea.” The poet’s words seemed good to the Caliph, and he said, “By
+Allah, I long to look upon some of these Solomonic vessels, which must
+be a warning to whoso will be warned.” “O Commander of the Faithful,”
+replied Talib, “it is in thy power to do so, without stirring abroad.
+Send to thy brother Abd al-Aziz bin Marwán, so he may write to Músá bin
+Nusayr,[FN#107] governor of the Maghrib or Morocco, bidding him take
+horse thence to the mountains whereof I spoke and fetch thee therefrom
+as many of such cucurbites as thou hast a mind to; for those mountains
+adjoin the frontiers of his province.” The Caliph approved his counsel
+and said “Thou hast spoken sooth, O Talib, and I desire that, touching
+this matter, thou be my messenger to Musa bin Nusayr; wherefore thou
+shalt have the White Flag[FN#108] and all thou hast a mind to of monies
+and honour and so forth; and I will care for thy family during thine
+absence.” “With love and gladness, O Commander of the Faithful!”
+answered Talib. “Go, with the blessing of Allah and His aid,” quoth the
+Caliph, and bade write a letter to his brother, Abd al-Aziz, his
+viceroy in Egypt, and another to Musa bin Nusayr, his viceroy in North
+Western Africa, bidding him go himself in quest of the Solomonic
+bottles, leaving his son to govern in his stead. Moreover, he charged
+him to engage guides and to spare neither men nor money, nor to be
+remiss in the matter as he would take no excuse. Then he sealed the two
+letters and committed them to Talib bin Sahl, bidding him advance the
+royal ensigns before him and make his utmost speed and he gave him
+treasure and horsemen and footmen, to further him on his way, and made
+provision for the wants of his household during his absence. So Talib
+set out and arrived in due course at Cairo.[FN#109]—And Shahrazad
+perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Sixty-eighth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Talib bin Sahl
+set out with his escort and crossed the desert country between Syria
+and Egypt, where the Governor came out to meet him and entreated him
+and his company with high honour whilst they tarried with him. Then he
+gave them a guide to bring them to the Sa’íd or Upper Egypt, where the
+Emir Musa had his abiding-place; and when the son of Nusayr heard of
+Talib’s coming, he went forth to meet him and rejoiced in him. Talib
+gave him the Caliph’s letter, and he took it reverently and, laying it
+on his head, cried, “I hear and I obey the Prince of the Faithful.”
+Then he deemed it best to assemble his chief officers and when all were
+present he acquainted them with the contents of the Caliph’s letter and
+sought counsel of them how he should act. “O Emir,” answered they, “if
+thou seek one who shall guide thee to the place summon the Shaykh ’Abd
+al-Samad, ibn ’Abd al-Kuddús, al-Samúdí;[FN#110] for he is a man of
+varied knowledge, who hath travelled much and knoweth by experience all
+the seas and wastes and words and countries of the world and the
+inhabitants and wonders thereof; wherefore send thou for him and he
+will surely guide thee to thy desire.” So Musa sent for him, and
+behold, he was a very ancient man shot in years and broken down with
+lapse of days. The Emir saluted him and said, “O Shaykh Abd al-Samad,
+our lord the Commander of the Faithful, Abd al-Malik bin Marwan’ hath
+commanded me thus and thus. I have small knowledge of the land wherein
+is that which the Caliph desireth; but it is told me that thou knowest
+it well and the ways thither. Wilt thou, therefore, go with me and help
+me to accomplish the Caliph’s need? So it please Allah the Most High,
+thy trouble and travail shall not go waste.” Replied the Shaykh, “I
+hear and obey the bidding of the Commander of the Faithful; but know, O
+Emir, that the road thither is long and difficult and the ways few.”
+“How far is it?” asked Musa, and the Shaykh answered, “It is a journey
+of two years and some months going and the like returning; and the way
+is full of hardships and terrors and things wondrous and marvellous.
+Now thou art a champion of the Faith[FN#111] and our country is hard by
+that of the enemy; and peradventure the Nazarenes may come out upon us
+in thine absence; wherefore it behoveth thee to leave one to rule thy
+government in thy stead.” “It is well,” answered the Emir and appointed
+his son Hárún Governor during his absence, requiring the troops to take
+the oath of fealty to him and bidding them obey him in all he should
+command. And they heard his words and promised obedience. Now this
+Harun was a man of great prowess and a renowned warrior and a doughty
+knight, and the Shaykh Abd al-Samad feigned to him that the place they
+sought was distant but four months’ journey along the shore of the sea,
+with camping-places all the way, adjoining one another, and grass and
+springs, adding, “Allah will assuredly make the matter easy to us
+through thy blessing, O Lieutenant of the Commander of the Faithful!”
+Quoth the Emir Musa, “Knowest thou if any of the Kings have trodden
+this land before us?”; and quoth the Shaykh, “Yes, it belonged
+aforetime to Darius the Greek, King of Alexandria.” But he said to Musa
+privily, “O Emir, take with thee a thousand camels laden with victual
+and store of gugglets.”[FN#112] The Emir asked, “And what shall we do
+with these?”, and the Shaykh answered. “On our way is the desert of
+Kayrwán or Cyrene, the which is a vast wold four days’ journey long,
+and lacketh water; nor therein doth sound of voice ever sound nor is
+soul at any time to be seen. Moreover, there bloweth the Simoon[FN#113]
+and other hot winds called Al-Juwayb, which dry up the water-skins; but
+if the water be in gugglets, no harm can come to it.” “Right,” said
+Musa and sending to Alexandria, let bring thence great plenty of
+gugglets. Then he took with him his Wazir and two thousand cavalry,
+clad in mail cap-à-pie and set out, without other to guide them but Abd
+al-Samad who forewent them, riding on his hackney. The party fared on
+diligently, now passing through inhabited lands, then ruins and anon
+traversing frightful wolds and thirsty wastes and then mountains which
+spired high in air; nor did they leave journeying a whole year’s space
+till, one morning, when the day broke, after they had travelled all
+night, behold, the Shaykh found himself in a land he knew not and said,
+“There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious,
+the Great!” Quoth the Emir, “What is to do, O Shaykh?”; and he
+answered, saying, “By the Lord of the Ka’abah, we have wandered from
+our road!” “How cometh that?” asked Musa, and Abd al-Samad replied,
+“The stars were overclouded and I could not guide myself by them.”
+“Where on God’s earth are we now?” asked the Emir, and the Shaykh
+answered, “I know not; for I never set eyes on this land till this
+moment.” Said Musa, “Guide us back to the place where we went astray”,
+but the other, “I know it no more.” Then Musa, “Let us push on; haply
+Allah will guide us to it or direct us aright of His power.” So they
+fared on till the hour of noon-prayer, when they came to a fair
+champaign, and wide and level and smooth as it were the sea when calm,
+and presently there appeared to them, on the horizon some great thing,
+high and black, in whose midst was as it were smoke rising to the
+confines of the sky. They made for this, and stayed not in their course
+till they drew near thereto, when, lo! it was a high castle, firm of
+foundations and great and gruesome, as it were a towering mountain,
+builded all of black stone, with frowning crenelles and a door of
+gleaming China steel, that dazzled the eyes and dazed the wits. Round
+about it were a thousand steps and that which appeared afar off as it
+were smoke was a central dome of lead an hundred cubits high. When the
+Emir saw this, he marvelled thereat with exceeding marvel and how this
+place was void of inhabitants; and the Shaykh, after he had certified
+himself thereof, said, “There is no god but the God and Mohammed is the
+Apostle of God!” Quoth Musa, “I hear thee praise the Lord and hallow
+Him, and meseemeth thou rejoicest.” “O Emir,” answered Abd al-Samad,
+“Rejoice, for Allah (extolled and exalted be He!) hath delivered us
+from the frightful wolds and thirsty wastes.” “How knowest thou that?”
+said Musa, and the other, “I know it for that my father told me of my
+grandfather that he said, We were once journeying in this land and,
+straying from the road, we came to this palace and thence to the City
+of Brass; between which and the place thou seekest is two full months’
+travel; but thou must take to the sea-shore and leave it not, for there
+be watering-places and wells and camping-grounds established by King Zú
+al-Karnayn Iskandar who, when he went to the conquest of Mauritania,
+found by the way thirsty deserts and wastes and wilds and dug therein
+water-pits and built cisterns.’” Quoth Musa, “Allah rejoice thee with
+good news!” and quoth the Shaykh, “Come, let us go look upon yonder
+palace and its marvels, for it is an admonition to whose will be
+admonished.” So the Emir went up to the palace, with the Shaykh and his
+officers, and coming to the gate, found it open. Now this gate was
+builded with lofty columns and porticoes whose walls and ceilings were
+inlaid with gold and silver and precious stones; and there led up to it
+flights of steps, among which were two wide stairs of coloured marble,
+never was seen their like; and over the doorway was a tablet whereon
+were graven letters of gold in the old ancient Ionian character. “O
+Emir,” asked the Shaykh, “Shall I read?”; and Musa answered, “Read and
+God bless thee!; for all that betideth us in this journey dependeth
+upon thy blessing.” So the Shaykh, who was a very learned man and
+versed in all tongues and characters, went up to the tablet and read
+whatso was thereon and it was verse like this,
+
+“The signs that here their mighty works portray * Warn us that
+     all must tread the self-same way:
+O thou who standest in this stead to hear * Tidings of folk,
+     whose power hath passed for aye,
+Enter this palace-gate and ask the news * Of greatness fallen
+     into dust and clay:
+Death has destroyed them and dispersed their might * And in the
+     dust they lost their rich display;
+As had they only set their burdens down * To rest awhile, and
+     then had rode away.”
+
+
+When the Emir Musa heard these couplets, he wept till he lost his
+senses and said, “There is no god but the God, the Living, the Eternal,
+who ceaseth not!” Then he entered the palace and was confounded at its
+beauty and the goodliness of its construction. He diverted himself
+awhile by viewing the pictures and images therein, till he came to
+another door, over which also were written verses, and said to the
+Shaykh, “Come read me these!” So he advanced and read as follows,
+
+“Under these domes how many a company * Halted of old and fared
+     with-outen stay:
+See thou what might displays on other wights * Time with his
+     shifts which could such lords waylay:
+They shared together what they gathered * And left their joys and
+     fared to Death-decay:
+What joys they joyed! what food they ate! and now * In dust
+     they’re eaten, for the worm a prey.”
+
+
+At this the Emir Musa wept bitter tears; and the world waxed yellow
+before his eyes and he said, “Verily, we were created for a mighty
+matter!”[FN#114] Then they proceeded to explore the palace and found it
+desert and void of living thing, its courts desolate and dwelling
+places waste laid. In the midst stood a lofty pavilion with a dome
+rising high in air, and about it were four hundred tombs, builded of
+yellow marble. The Emir drew near unto these and behold, amongst them
+was a great tomb, wide and long; and at its head stood a tablet of
+white marble, whereon were graven these couplets,
+
+“How oft have I fought! and how many have slain! * How much have
+     I witnessed of blessing and bane!
+How much have I eaten! how much have I drunk! * How oft have I
+     hearkened to singing-girl’s strain!
+How much have I bidden! how oft have forbid! * How many a castle
+     and castellain
+I have sieged and have searched, and the cloistered maids * In
+     the depths of its walls for my captives were ta’en!
+But of ignorance sinned I to win me the meeds * Which won proved
+     naught and brought nothing of gain:
+Then reckon thy reck’ning, O man, and be wise * Ere the goblet of
+     death and of doom thou shalt drain;
+For yet but a little the dust on thy head * They shall strew, and
+     thy life shall go down to the dead.”
+
+
+The Emir and his companions wept; then, drawing near unto the pavilion,
+they saw that it had eight doors of sandal-wood, studded with nails of
+gold and stars of silver and inlaid with all manner precious stones. On
+the first door were written these verses,
+
+“What I left, I left it not for nobility of soul, * But through
+     sentence and decree that to every man are dight.
+What while I lived happy, with a temper haught and high, * My
+     hoarding-place defending like a lion in the fight,
+I took no rest, and greed of gain forbad me give a grain * Of
+     mustard seed to save from the fires of Hell my sprite,
+Until stricken on a day, as with arrow, by decree * Of the Maker,
+     the Fashioner, the Lord of Might and Right.
+When my death was appointed, my life I could not keep * By the
+     many of my stratagems, my cunning and my sleight:
+My troops I had collected availed me not, and none * Of my
+     friends and of my neighbours had power to mend my plight:
+Through my life I was weaned in journeying to death * In stress
+     or in solace, in joyance or despight:
+So when money-bags are bloated, and dinar unto dinar * Thou
+     addest, all may leave thee with fleeting of the night:
+And the driver of a camel and the digger of a grave[FN#115] * Are
+     what thine heirs shall bring ere the morning dawneth bright:
+And on Judgment Day alone shalt thou stand before thy Lord, *
+     Overladen with thy sins and thy crimes and thine affright:
+Let the world not seduce thee with lurings, but behold * What
+     measure to thy family and neighbours it hath doled.”
+
+
+When Musa heard these verses, he wept with such weeping that he swooned
+away; then, coming to himself, he entered the pavilion and saw therein
+a long tomb, awesome to look upon, whereon was a tablet of China steel
+and Shaykh Abd al-Samad drew near it and read this inscription: “In the
+name of Ever-lasting Allah, the Never-beginning, the Never-ending; in
+the name of Allah who begetteth not nor is He begot and unto whom the
+like is not; in the name of Allah the Lord of Majesty and Might; in the
+name of the Living One who to death is never dight!”—And Shahrazad
+perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Sixty-ninth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Shaykh Abd
+al-Samad, having read the aforesaid, also found the following, “O thou
+who comest to this place, take warning by that which thou seest of the
+accidents of Time and the vicissitudes of Fortune and be not deluded by
+the world and its pomps and vanities and fallacies and falsehoods and
+vain allurements, for that it is flattering, deceitful and treacherous,
+and the things thereof are but a loan to us which it will borrow back
+from all borrowers. It is like unto the dreams of the dreamer and the
+sleep-visions of the sleeper or as the mirage of the desert, which the
+thirsty take for water;[FN#116] and Satan maketh it fair for men even
+unto death. These are the ways of the world; wherefore put not thou thy
+trust therein neither incline thereto, for it betrayeth him who leaneth
+upon it and who committeth himself thereunto in his affairs. Fall not
+thou into its snares neither take hold upon its skirts, but be warned
+by my example. I possessed four thousand bay horses and a haughty
+palace, and I had to wife a thousand daughters of kings, high-bosomed
+maids, as they were moons: I was blessed with a thousand sons as they
+were fierce lions, and I abode a thousand years, glad of heart and
+mind, and I amassed treasures beyond the competence of all the Kings of
+the regions of the earth, deeming that delight would still endure to
+me. But there fell on me unawares the Destroyer of delights and the
+Sunderer of societies, the Desolator of domiciles and the Spoiler of
+inhabited spots, the Murtherer of great and small, babes and children
+and mothers, he who hath no ruth on the poor for his poverty, or
+feareth the King for all his bidding or forbidding. Verily, we abode
+safe and secure in this palace, till there descended upon us the
+judgment of the Lord of the Three Worlds, Lord of the Heavens, and Lord
+of the Earths, the vengeance of the Manifest Truth[FN#117] overtook us,
+when there died of us every day two, till a great company of us had
+perished. When I saw that destruction had entered our dwellings and had
+homed with us and in the sea of deaths had drowned us, I summoned a
+writer and bade him indite these verses and instances and admonitions,
+the which I let grave, with rule and compass, on these doors and
+tablets and tombs. Now I had an army of a thousand thousand bridles,
+men of warrior mien with forearms strong and keen, armed with spears
+and mail-coats sheen and swords that gleam; so I bade them don their
+long-hanging hauberks and gird on their biting blades and mount their
+high-mettled steeds and level their dreadful lances; and whenas there
+fell on us the doom of the Lord of heaven and earth, I said to them,
+Ho, all ye soldiers and troopers, can ye avail to ward off that which
+is fallen on me from the Omnipotent King?’ But troopers and soldiers
+availed not unto this and said, How shall we battle with Him to whom no
+chamberlain barreth access, the Lord of the door which hath no
+doorkeeper?’ Then quoth I to them, Bring me my treasures’ Now I had in
+my treasuries a thousand cisterns in each of which were a thousand
+quintals[FN#118] of red gold and the like of white silver, besides
+pearls and jewels of all kinds and other things of price, beyond the
+attainment of the kings of the earth. So they did that and when they
+had laid all the treasure in my presence, I said to them, Can ye ransom
+me with all this treasure or buy me one day of life therewith?’ But
+they could not! So they resigned themselves to fore-ordained Fate and
+fortune and I submitted to the judgment of Allah, enduring patiently
+that which he decreed unto me of affliction, till He took my soul and
+made me to dwell in my grave. And if thou ask of my name, I am Kúsh,
+the son of Shaddád son of Ád the Greater.” And upon the tablets were
+engraved these lines,
+
+“An thou wouldst know my name, whose day is done * With shifts of
+     time and chances ’neath the sun,
+Know I am Shaddád’s son, who ruled mankind * And o’er all earth
+     upheld dominion!
+All stubborn peoples abject were to me; * And Shám to Cairo and
+     to Adnanwone;[FN#119]
+I reigned in glory conquering many kings; * And peoples feared my
+     mischief every one.
+Yea, tribes and armies in my hand I saw; * The world all dreaded
+     me, both friends and fone.
+When I took horse, I viewed my numbered troops, * Bridles on
+     neighing steeds a million.
+And I had wealth that none could tell or count, * Against
+     misfortune treasuring all I won;
+Fain had I bought my life with all my wealth, * And for a
+     moment’s space my death to shun;
+But God would naught save what His purpose willed; * So from my
+     brethren cut I ’bode alone:
+And Death, that sunders man, exchanged my lot * To pauper hut
+     from grandeur’s mansion
+When found I all mine actions gone and past * Wherefor I’m
+     pledged[FN#120] and by my sin undone.
+Then fear, O man, who by a brink dost range, * The turns of
+     Fortune and the chance of Change.”
+
+
+The Emir Musa was hurt to his heart and loathed his life for what he
+saw of the slaughtering-places of the folk; and, as they went about the
+highways and byeways of the palace, viewing its sitting-chambers and
+pleasaunces, behold they came upon a table of yellow onyx, upborne on
+four feet of juniper-wood,[FN#121] and there-on these words graven, “At
+this table have eaten a thousand kings blind of the right eye and a
+thousand blind of the left and yet other thousand sound of both eyes,
+all of whom have departed the world and have taken up their sojourn in
+the tombs and the catacombs.” All this the Emir wrote down and left the
+palace, carrying off with him naught save the table aforesaid. Then he
+fared on with his host three days’ space, under the guidance of the
+Shaykh Abd al-Samad, till they came to a high hill, whereon stood a
+horseman of brass. In his hand he held a lance with a broad head, in
+brightness like blinding leven, whereon was graven, “O thou that comest
+unto me, if thou know not the way to the City of Brass, rub the hand of
+this rider and he will turn round and presently stop. Then take the
+direction whereto he faceth and fare fearless, for it will bring thee,
+without hardship, to the city aforesaid.”—And Shahrazad perceived the
+dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Seventieth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Emir
+Musa rubbed the horseman’s hand he revolved like the dazzling
+lightning, and stopped facing in a direction other than that wherein
+they were journeying. So they took the road to which he pointed (which
+was the right way) and, finding it a beaten track, fared on through
+their days and nights till they had covered a wide tract of country.
+Then they came upon a pillar of black stone like a furnace chimney
+wherein was one sunken up to his armpits. He had two great wings and
+four arms, two of them like the arms of the sons of Adam and other two
+as they were lion’s paws, with claws of iron, and he was black and tall
+and frightful of aspect, with hair like horses’ tails and eyes like
+blazing coals, slit upright in his face. Moreover, he had in the middle
+of his forehead a third eye, as it were that of a lynx, from which flew
+sparks of fire, and he cried out saying, “Glory to my Lord, who hath
+adjudged unto me this grievous torment and sore punishment until the
+Day of Doom!” When the folk saw him, they lost their reason for
+affright and turned to flee; so the Emir Musa asked the Shaykh Abd
+al-Samad, “What is this?”; and he answered, “I know not.” Whereupon
+quoth Musa, “Draw near and question him of his condition; haply he will
+discover to thee his case.” “Allah assain thee, Emir! Indeed, I am
+afraid of him;” replied the Shaykh; but the Emir rejoined, saying,
+“Fear not; he is hindered from thee and from all others by that wherein
+he is.” So Abd al-Samad drew near to the pillar and said to him which
+was therein, “O creature, what is thy name and what art thou and how
+camest thou here in this fashion?” “I am an Ifrit of the Jinn,” replied
+he, “by name Dáhish, son of Al-A’amash,[FN#122] and am confined here by
+the All-might, prisoned here by the Providence and punished by the
+judgement of Allah, till it pleases Him, to whom belong Might and
+Majesty, to release me.” Then said Musa, “Ask him why he is in durance
+of this column?” So the Shaykh asked him of this, and the Ifrit
+replied, saying,—Verily my tale is wondrous and my case marvellous,
+and it is this. One of the sons of Iblis had an idol of red carnelian,
+whereof I was guardian, and there served it a King of the Kings of the
+sea, a Prince of puissant power and prow of prowess, over-ruling a
+thousand thousand warriors of the Jann who smote with swords before him
+and answered his summons in time of need. All these were under my
+commandment and obeyed my behest, being each and every rebels against
+Solomon, son of David, on whom be peace! And I used to enter the belly
+of the idol and thence bid and forbid them. Now this King’s daughter
+loved the idol and was frequent in prostration to it and assiduous in
+its service; and she was the fairest woman of her day, accomplished in
+beauty and loveliness, elegance and grace. She was described unto
+Solomon and he sent to her father, saying, “Give me thy daughter to wife
+and break thine idol of carnelian and testify saying, There is no god
+but _the_ God and Solomon is the Prophet of Allah! an thou do this, our
+due shall be thy due and thy debt shall be our debt, but, if thou
+refuse, make ready to answer the summons of the Lord and don thy
+grave-gear, for I will come upon thee with an irresistible host, which
+shall fill the waste places of earth and make thee as yesterday that is
+passed away and hath no return for aye. When this message reached the
+King, he waxed insolent and rebellious, pride-full and contumacious and
+he cried to his Wazirs, What say ye of this? Know ye that Solomon son
+of David hath sent requiring me to give him my daughter to wife, and
+break my idol of carnelian and enter his faith!’ And they replied, O
+mighty King, how shall Solomon do thus with thee? Even could he come at
+thee in the midst of this vast ocean, he could not prevail against
+thee, for the Marids of the Jann will fight on thy side and thou wilt
+ask succour of thine idol whom thou servest, and he will help thee and
+give thee victory over him. So thou wouldst do well to consult on this
+matter thy Lord,’ (meaning the idol aforesaid) and hear what he saith.
+If he say, Fight him, fight him, and if not, not.’ So the King went in
+without stay or delay to his idol and offered up sacrifices and
+slaughtered victims; after which he fell down before him, prostrate and
+weeping, and repeated these verses,
+
+“O my Lord, well I weet thy puissant hand: * Sulaymán would break
+     thee and see thee bann’d.
+O my Lord, to crave succour here I stand * Command and I bow to
+     thy high command!”
+
+
+Then I (continued the Ifrit addressing the Shaykh and those about
+him), of my ignorance and want of wit and recklessness of the
+commandment of Solomon and lack of knowledge anent his power, entered
+the belly of the idol and made answer as follows.
+
+“As for me, of him I feel naught affright, * For my lore and my
+     wisdom are infinite:
+If he wish for warfare I’ll show him fight * And out of his body
+     I’ll tear his sprite!”
+
+
+When the King heard my boastful reply, he hardened his heart and
+resolved to wage war upon the Prophet and to offer him battle;
+wherefore he beat the messenger with a grievous beating and returned a
+foul answer to Solomon, threatening him and saying, Of a truth, thy
+soul hath suggested to thee a vain thing; dost thou menace me with
+mendacious words? But gird thyself for battle; for, an thou come not to
+me, I will assuredly come to thee.’ So the messenger returned to
+Solomon and told him all that had passed and whatso had befallen him,
+which when the Prophet heard, he raged like Doomsday and addressed
+himself to the fray and levied armies of men and Jann and birds and
+reptiles. He commanded his Wazir Al-Dimiryát, King of the Jann, to
+gather together the Marids of the Jinn from all parts, and he collected
+for him six hundred thousand thousand of devils.[FN#123] Moreover, by
+his order, his Wazir Ásaf bin Barkhiyá levied him an army of men, to
+the number of a thousand thousand or more. These all he furnished with
+arms and armour and mounting, with his host, upon his carpet, took
+flight through air, while the beasts fared under him and the birds flew
+overhead, till he lighted down on the island of the refractory King and
+encompassed it about, filling earth with his hosts.—And Shahrazad
+perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Seventy-first Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Ifrit
+continued, “So when Solomon the prophet (with whom be peace!) lighted
+down with his host on the island he sent to our King, saying, Behold, I
+am come: defend thy life against that which is fallen upon thee, or
+else make thy submission to me and confess my apostleship and give me
+thy daughter to lawful wife and break thine idol and worship the one
+God, the alone Worshipful; and testify, thou and thine, and say, There
+is no God but the God, and Solomon is the Apostle of Allah![FN#124]
+This if thou do, thou shalt have pardon and peace; but if not, it will
+avail thee nothing to fortify thyself in this island, for Allah
+(extolled and exalted be He!) hath bidden the wind obey me; so I will
+bid it bear me to thee on my carpet and make thee a warning and an
+example to deter others.’ But the King made answer to his messenger,
+saying, It may not on any wise be as he requireth of me; so tell him I
+come forth to him,’ With this reply the messenger returned to Solomon,
+who thereupon gathered together all the Jinn that were under his hand,
+to the number of a thousand thousand, and added to them other than they
+of Marids and Satans from the islands of the sea and the tops of the
+mountains and, drawing them up on parade, opened his armouries and
+distributed to them arms and armour. Then the Prophet drew out his host
+in battle array, dividing the beasts into two bodies, one on the right
+wing of the men and the other on the left, and bidding them tear the
+enemies’ horses in sunder. Furthermore, he ordered the birds which were
+in the island to hover over their heads and, whenas the assault should
+be made, that they should swoop down and tear out the foe’s eyes with
+their beaks and buffet their faces with their wings; and they answered,
+saying, We hear and we obey Allah and thee, O Prophet of Allah!’ Then
+Solomon seated himself on a throne of alabaster, studded with precious
+stones and plated with red gold; and, commanding the wind to bear him
+aloft, set his Wazir Asaf bin Barkhiya[FN#125] and the kings of mankind
+on his right and his Wazir Al-Dimiryat and the kings of the Jinn on his
+left, arraying the beasts and vipers and serpents in the van. Thereupon
+they all set on us together, and we gave them battle two days over a
+vast plain; but, on the third day, disaster befel us, and the judgment
+of Allah the Most High was executed upon us. Now the first to charge
+upon them were I and my troops, and I said to my companions, Abide in
+your places, whilst I sally forth to them and provoke Al-Dimiryat to
+combat singular.’ And behold, he came forth to the duello as he were a
+vast mountain, with his fires flaming and his smoke spireing, and shot
+at me a falling star of fire; but I swerved from it and it missed me.
+Then I cast at him in my turn, a flame of fire, and smote him; but his
+shaft[FN#126] overcame my fire and he cried out at me so terrible a cry
+that meseemed the skies were fallen flat upon me, and the mountains
+trembled at his voice. Then he commanded his hosts to charge;
+accordingly they rushed on us and we rushed on them, each crying out
+upon other, and battle reared its crest rising in volumes and smoke
+ascending in columns and hearts well nigh cleaving. The birds and the
+flying Jinn fought in the air and the beasts and men and the
+foot-faring Jann in the dust and I fought with Al-Dimiryat, till I was
+aweary and he not less so. At last, I grew weak and turned to flee from
+him, whereupon my companions and tribesmen likewise took to flight and
+my hosts were put to the rout, and Solomon cried out, saying, Take
+yonder furious tyrant, the accursed, the infamous!’ Then man fell upon
+man and Jinn upon Jinn and the armies of the Prophet charged down upon
+us, with the wild beasts and lions on their right hand and on their
+left, rending our horses and tearing our men; whilst the birds hovered
+over-head in air pecking out our eyes with their claws and beaks and
+beating our faces with their wings, and the serpents struck us with
+their fangs, till the most of our folk lay prone upon the face of the
+earth, like the trunks of date-trees. Thus defeat befel our King and we
+became a spoil unto Solomon. As to me, I fled from before Al-Dimiryat,
+but he followed me three months’ journey, till I fell down for
+weariness and he overtook me, and pouncing upon me, made me prisoner.
+Quoth I, By the virtue of Him who hath exalted thee and abased me,
+spare me and bring me into the presence of Solomon, on whom be peace!’
+So he carried me before Solomon, who received me after the foulest
+fashion and bade bring this pillar and hollow it out. Then he set me
+herein and chained me and sealed me with his signet-ring, and
+Al-Dimiryat bore me to this place wherein thou seest me. Moreover, he
+charged a great angel to guard me, and this pillar is my prison until
+Judgment-day.” Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say
+her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Seventy-second Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Jinni
+who was prisoned in the pillar had told them his tale, from first to
+last, the folk marvelled at his story and at the frightfulness of his
+favour, and the Emir Musa said, “There is no God but the God! Soothly
+was Solomon gifted with a mighty dominion.” Then said the Shaykh Abd
+al-Samad to the Jinni, “Ho there! I would fain ask thee of a thing,
+whereof do thou inform us.” “Ask what thou wilt,” answered the Ifrit
+Dahish and the Shaykh said, “Are there hereabouts any of the Ifrits
+imprisoned in bottles of brass from the time of Solomon (on whom be
+peace!)?” “Yes,” replied the Jinni; “there be such in the sea of
+al-Karkar[FN#127] on the shores whereof dwell a people of the lineage
+of Noah (on whom be peace!); for their country was not reached by the
+Deluge and they are cut off there from the other sons of Adam.” Quoth
+Abd al-Samad, “And which is the way to the City of Brass and the place
+wherein are the cucurbites of Solomon, and what distance lieth between
+us and it?” Quoth the Ifrit, “It is near at hand,” and directed them in
+the way thither. So they left him and fared forward till there appeared
+to them afar off a great blackness and therein two fires facing each
+other, and the Emir Musa asked the Shaykh, “What is yonder vast
+blackness and its twin fires?”; and the guide answered, “Rejoice O
+Emir, for this is the City of Brass, as it is described in the Book of
+Hidden Treasures which I have by me. Its walls are of black stone and
+it hath two towers of Andalusian brass,[FN#128] which appear to the
+beholder in the distance as they were twin fires, and hence is it named
+the City of Brass.” Then they fared on without ceasing till they drew
+near the city and behold, it was as it were a piece of a mountain or a
+mass of iron cast in a mould and impenetrable for the height of its
+walls and bulwarks; while nothing could be more beautiful than its
+buildings and its ordinance. So they dismounted down and sought for an
+entrance, but saw none neither found any trace of opening in the walls,
+albeit there were five-and-twenty portals to the city, but none of them
+was visible from without. Then quoth the Emir, “O Shaykh, I see to this
+city no sign of any gate;” and quoth he, “O Emir, thus is it described
+in my Book of Hidden Treasures; it hath five-and-twenty portals; but
+none thereof may be opened save from within the city.” Asked Musa,
+“And how shall we do to enter the city and view its wonders?” and Talib
+son of Sahl, his Wazir, answered, “Allah assain the Emir! let us rest
+here two or three days and, God willing, we will make shift to come
+within the walls.” Then said Musa to one of his men, “Mount thy camel
+and ride round about the city, so haply thou may light upon a gate or a
+place somewhat lower than this fronting us, or Inshallah! a breach
+whereby we can enter.” Accordingly he mounted his beast, taking water
+and victuals with him, and rode round the city two days and two nights,
+without drawing rein to rest, but found the wall thereof as it were one
+block, without breach or way of ingress; and on the third day, he came
+again in sight of his companions, dazed and amazed at what he had seen
+of the extent and loftiness of the place, and said, “O Emir, the
+easiest place of access is this where you have alighted.” Then Musa
+took Talib and Abd al-Samad and ascended the highest hill which
+overlooked the city. When they reached the top, they beheld beneath
+them a city, never saw eyes a greater or a goodlier, with
+dwelling-places and mansions of towering height, and palaces and
+pavilions and domes gleaming gloriously bright and sconces and bulwarks
+of strength infinite; and its streams were a-flowing and flowers
+a-blowing and fruits a glowing. It was a city with gates impregnable;
+but void and still, without a voice or a cheering inhabitant. The owl
+hooted in its quarters; the bird skimmed circling over its squares and
+the raven croaked in its great thoroughfares weeping and bewailing the
+dwellers who erst made it their dwelling.[FN#129] The Emir stood
+awhile, marvelling and sorrowing for the desolation of the city and
+saying, “Glory to Him whom nor ages nor changes nor times can blight,
+Him who created all things of His Might!” Presently, he chanced to look
+aside and caught sight of seven tablets of white marble afar off. So he
+drew near them and finding inscriptions graven thereon, called the
+Shaykh and bade him read these. Accordingly he came forward and,
+examining the inscriptions, found that they contained matter of
+admonition and warning and instances and restraint to those of
+understanding. On the first tablet was inscribed, in the ancient Greek
+character: “O son of Adam, how heedless art thou of that which is
+before thee! Verily, thy years and months and days have diverted thee
+therefrom. Knowest thou not that the cup of death is filled for thy
+bane which in a little while to the dregs thou shalt drain? Look to thy
+doom ere thou enter thy tomb. Where be the Kings who held dominion over
+the lands and abased Allah’s servants and built these palaces and had
+armies under their commands? By Allah, the Destroyer of delights and
+the Severer of societies and the Devastator of dwelling-places came
+down upon them and transported them from the spaciousness of their
+palaces to the staitness of their burial-places.” And at the foot of
+the tablet were written the following verses,
+
+“Where are the Kings earth-peopling, where are they? * The built
+     and peopled left they e’er and aye!
+They’re tombed yet pledged to actions past away * And after death
+     upon them came decay.
+Where are their troops? They failed to ward and guard! * Where
+     are the wealth and hoards in treasuries lay?
+Th’ Empyrean’s Lord surprised them with one word, * Nor wealth
+     nor refuge could their doom delay!”
+
+
+When the Emir heard this, he cried out and the tears ran down his
+cheeks and he exclaimed, “By Allah, from the world abstaining is the
+wisest course and the sole assaining!” And he called for pen-case and
+paper and wrote down what was graven on the first tablet. Then he drew
+near the second tablet and found these words graven thereon, “O son of
+Adam, what hath seduced thee from the service of the Ancient of Days
+and made thee forget that one day thou must defray the debt of death?
+Wottest thou not that it is a transient dwelling wherein for none there
+is abiding; and yet thou taketh thought unto the world and cleavest
+fast thereto? Where be the kings who Irak peopled and the four quarters
+of the globe possessed? Where be they who abode in Ispahan and the land
+of Khorasan? The voice of the Summoner of Death summoned them and they
+answered him, and the Herald of Destruction hailed them and they
+replied, Here are we! Verily, that which they builded and fortified
+profited them naught; neither did what they had gathered and provided
+avail for their defence.” And at the foot of the tablet were graven the
+following verses,
+
+Where be the men who built and fortified * High places never man
+     their like espied?
+In fear of Fate they levied troops and hosts, * Availing naught
+     when came the time and tide,
+Where be the Kisrás homed in strongest walls? * As though they
+     ne’er had been from home they tried!
+
+
+The Emir Musa wept and exclaimed, “By Allah, we are indeed created for
+a grave matter!” Then he copied the inscription and passed on to the
+third tablet,—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying
+her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Seventy-third Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Emir Musa
+passed on to the third tablet, whereon was written, “O son of Adam, the
+things of this world thou lovest and prizest and the hest of thy Lord
+thou spurnest and despisest. All the days of thy life pass by and thou
+art content thus to aby. Make ready thy viaticum against the day
+appointed for thee to see and prepare to answer the Lord of every
+creature that be!” And at the foot were written these verses,
+
+“Where is the wight who peopled in the past * Hind land and Sind;
+     and there the tyrant played?
+Who Zanj[FN#130] and Habash bound beneath his yoke, * And Nubia
+     curbed and low its puissance laid.
+Look not for news of what is in his grave. * Ah, he is far who
+     can thy vision aid!
+The stroke of death fell on him sharp and sure; * Nor saved him
+     palace, nor the lands he swayed.”
+
+
+At this Musa wept with sore weeping and, going on to the fourth tablet,
+he read inscribed thereon, “O son of Adam, how long shall thy Lord bear
+with thee and thou every day sunken in the sea of thy folly? Hath it
+then been stablished unto thee that some day thou shalt not die? O son
+of Adam, let not the deceits of thy days and nights and times and hours
+delude thee with their delights; but remember that death lieth ready
+for thee ambushing, fain on thy shoulders to spring, nor doth a day
+pass but he morneth with thee in the morning and nighteth with thee by
+night. Beware, then, of his onslaught and make provision there-against.
+As was with me, so it is with thee; thou wastest thy whole life and
+squanderest the joys in which thy days are rife. Hearken, therefore, to
+my words and put thy trust in the Lord of Lords; for in the world there
+is no stability; it is but as a spider’s web to thee.” And at the foot
+of the tablet were written these couplets,
+
+“Where is the man who did those labours ply * And based and built
+     and reared these walls on high?
+Where be the castles’ lords? Who therein dwelt * Fared forth and
+     left them in decay to lie.
+All are entombed, in pledge against the day * When every sin
+     shall show to every eye.
+None but the Lord Most High endurance hath, * Whose Might and
+     Majesty shall never die.”
+
+
+When the Emir read this, he swooned away and presently coming to
+himself marvelled exceedingly and wrote it down. Then he drew near the
+fifth tablet and behold, thereon was graven, “O son of Adam, what is it
+that distracteth thee from obedience of thy Creator and the Author of
+thy being, Him who reared thee whenas thou west a little one, and fed
+thee whenas thou west full-grown? Thou art ungrateful for His bounty,
+albeit He watcheth over thee with His favours, letting down the curtain
+of His protection over thee. Needs must there be for thee an hour
+bitterer than aloes and hotter than live coals. Provide thee,
+therefore, against it; for who shall sweeten its gall or quench its
+fires? Bethink thee who forewent thee of peoples and heroes and take
+warning by them, ere thou perish.” And at the foot of the tablet were
+graven these couplets,
+
+“Where be the Earth-kings who from where they bode, * Sped and
+     to grave yards with their hoardings yode:
+Erst on their mounting-days there hadst beheld * Hosts that
+     concealed the ground whereon they rode:
+How many a king they humbled in their day! * How many a host they
+     led and laid on load!
+But from th’ Empyrean’s Lord in haste there came * One word, and
+     joy waxed grief ere morning glowed.”
+
+
+The Emir marvelled at this and wrote it down; after which he passed on
+to the sixth tablet and behold, was inscribed thereon, “O son of Adam,
+think not that safety will endure for ever and aye, seeing that death
+is sealed to thy head alway. Where be thy fathers, where be thy
+brethren, where thy friends and dear ones? They have all gone to the
+dust of the tombs and presented themselves before the Glorious, the
+Forgiving, as if they had never eaten nor drunken, and they are a
+pledge for that which they have earned. So look to thyself, ere thy
+tomb come upon thee.” And at the foot of the tablet were these
+couplets,
+
+“Where be the Kings who ruled the Franks of old? * Where be the
+     King who peopled Tingis-wold[FN#131]?
+Their works are written in a book which He, * The One, th’
+     All-father shall as witness hold.”
+
+
+At this the Emir Musa marvelled and wrote it down, saying, “There is no
+god but the God! Indeed, how goodly were these folk!” Then he went up
+to the seventh tablet and behold, thereon was written, “Glory to Him
+who fore-ordaineth death to all He createth, the Living One, who dieth
+not! O son of Adam, let not thy days and their delights delude thee,
+neither thine hours and the delices of their time, and know that death
+to thee cometh and upon thy shoulder sitteth. Beware, then, of his
+assault and make ready for his onslaught. As it was with me, so it is
+with thee; thou wastest the sweet of thy life and the joyance of thine
+hours. Give ear, then, to my rede and put thy trust in the Lord of
+Lords and know that in the world is no stability, but it is as it were
+a spider’s web to thee and all that is therein shall die and cease to
+be. Where is he who laid the foundation of Amid[FN#132] and builded it
+and builded Fárikín[FN#133] and exalted it? Where be the peoples of the
+strong places? Whenas them they had inhabited, after their might into
+the tombs they descended. They have been carried off by death and we
+shall in like manner be afflicted by doom. None abideth save Allah the
+Most High, for He is Allah the Forgiving One.” The Emir Musa wept and
+copied all this, and indeed the world was belittled in his eyes. Then
+he descended the hill and rejoined his host, with whom he passed the
+rest of tile day, casting about for a means of access to the city. And
+he said to his Wazir Talib bin Sahl and to the chief officers about
+him, “How shall we contrive to enter this city and view its marvels?:
+haply we shall find therein wherewithal to win the favour of the
+Commander of the Faithful.” “Allah prolong the Emir’s fortune!” replied
+Talib, “let us make a ladder and mount the wall therewith, so
+peradventure we may come at the gate from within.” Quoth the Emir,
+“This is what occurred to my thought also, and admirable is the
+advice!” Then he called for carpenters and blacksmiths and bade them
+fashion wood and build a ladder plated and banded with iron. So they
+made a strong ladder and many men wrought at it a whole month. Then all
+the company laid hold of it and set it up against the wall, and it
+reached the top as truly as if it had been built for it before that
+time. The Emir marvelled and said, “The blessing of Allah be upon you.
+It seems as though ye had taken the measure of the mure, so excellent
+is your work.” Then said he to his men, “Which of you will mount the
+ladder and walk along the wall and cast about for a way of descending
+into the city, so to see how the case stands and let us know how we may
+open the gate?” Whereupon quoth one of them, “I will go up, O Emir, and
+descend and open to you”; and Musa answered, saying, “Go and the
+blessing of Allah go with thee!” So the man mounted the ladder; but,
+when he came to the top of the wall, he stood up and gazed fixedly down
+into the city, then clapped his hands and crying out, at the top of his
+voice, “By Allah, thou art fair!” cast himself down into the place, and
+Musa cried, “By Allah, he is a dead man!” But another came up to him
+and said, “O Emir, this was a madman and doubtless his madness got the
+better of him and destroyed him. I will go up and open the gate to you,
+if it be the will of Allah the Most High.” “Go up,” replied Musa, “and
+Allah be with thee! But beware lest thou lose thy head, even as did thy
+comrade.” Then the man mounted the ladder, but no sooner had he reached
+the top of the wall than he laughed aloud, saying, “Well done! well
+done!”; and clapping palms cast himself down into the city and died
+forthright. When the Emir saw this, he said, “An such be the action of
+a reasonable man, what is that of the madman? If all our men do on this
+wise, we shall have none left and shall fail of our errand and that of
+the Commander of the Faithful. Get ye ready for the march: verily we
+have no concern with this city.” But a third one of the company said,
+“Haply another may be steadier than they.” So a third mounted the wall
+and a fourth and a fifth and all cried out and cast themselves down,
+even as did the first, nor did they leave to do thus, till a dozen had
+perished in like fashion. Then the Shaykh Abd al-Samad came forward and
+heartened himself and said, “This affair is reserved to none other than
+myself; for the experienced is not like the inexperienced.” Quoth the
+Emir, “Indeed thou shalt not do that nor will I have thee go up: an
+thou perish, we shall all be cut off to the last man since thou art our
+guide.” But he answered, saying, “Peradventure, that which we seek may
+be accomplished at my hands, by the grace of God Most High!” So the
+folk all agreed to let him mount the ladder, and he arose and
+heartening himself, said, “In the name of Allah, the Compassionating,
+the Compassionate!” and mounted the ladder, calling on the name of the
+Lord and reciting the Verses of Safety.[FN#134] When he reached the top
+of the wall, he clapped his hands and gazed fixedly down into the city;
+whereupon the folk below cried out to him with one accord, saying “O
+Shaykh Abd al-Samad, for the Lord’s sake, cast not thyself down!”; and
+they added, “Verily we are Allah’s and unto Him we are returning! If
+the Shaykh fall, we are dead men one and all.” Then he laughed beyond
+all measure and sat a long hour, reciting the names of Allah Almighty
+and repeating the Verses of Safety; then he rose and cried out at the
+top of his voice, saying, “O Emir, have no fear; no hurt shall betide
+you, for Allah (to whom belong Might and Majesty!) hath averted from me
+the wiles and malice of Satan, by the blessing of the words, ‘In the
+name of Allah the Compassionating the Compassionate!’” Asked Musa,
+“What didst thou see, O Shaykh?”; and Abd al-Samad answered, “I saw ten
+maidens, as they were Houris of Heaven calling to me with their
+hands”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
+permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Seventy-fourth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Shaykh Abd
+al-Samad answered, “I saw ten maidens like Houris of Heaven,[FN#135]
+and they calling and signing,[FN#136] Come hither to us’; and meseemed
+there was below me a lake of water. So I thought to throw myself down,
+when behold, I espied my twelve companions lying dead; so I restrained
+myself and recited somewhat of Allah’s Book, whereupon He dispelled
+from me the damsels’ witchlike wiles and malicious guiles and they
+disappeared. And doubtless this was an enchantment devised by the
+people of the city, to repel any who should seek to gaze upon or to
+enter the place. And it hath succeeded in slaying our companions.” Then
+he walked on along the wall, till he came to the two towers of brass
+aforesaid and saw therein two gates of gold, without pad locks or
+visible means of opening. Hereat he paused as long as Allah
+pleased[FN#137] and gazed about him awhile, till he espied in the
+middle of one of the gates, a horseman of brass with hand outstretched
+as if pointing, and in his palm was somewhat written. So he went up to
+it and read these words, “O thou who comest to this place, an thou
+wouldst enter turn the pin in my navel twelve times and the gate will
+open.” Accordingly, he examined the horseman and finding in his navel a
+pin of gold, firm-set and fast fixed, he turned it twelve times,
+whereupon the horseman revolved like the blinding lightning and the
+gate swung open with a noise like thunder. He entered and found himself
+in a long passage,[FN#138] which brought him down some steps into a
+guard-room furnished with goodly wooden benches, whereon sat men dead,
+over whose heads hung fine shields and keen blades and bent bows and
+shafts ready notched. Thence, he came to the main gate of the city;
+and, finding it secured with iron bars and curiously wrought locks and
+bolts and chains and other fastenings of wood and metal, said to
+himself, “Belike the keys are with yonder dead folk.” So he turned back
+to the guard-room and seeing amongst the dead an old man seated upon a
+high wooden bench, who seemed the chiefest of them, said in his mind,
+“Who knows but they are with this Shaykh? Doubtless he was the warder
+of the city and these others were under his hand.” So he went up to him
+and lifting his gown, behold, the keys were hanging to his girdle;
+whereat he joyed with exceeding joy and was like to fly for gladness.
+Then he took them and going up to the portal, undid the padlocks and
+drew back the bolts and bars, whereupon the great leaves flew open with
+a crash like the pealing thunder by reason of its greatness and
+terribleness. At this he cried out saying, “Allaho Akbar—God is most
+great!” And the folk without answered him with the same words,
+rejoicing and thanking him for his deed. The Emir Musa also was
+delighted at the Shaykh’s safety and the opening of the city-gate, and
+the troops all pressed forward to enter; but Musa cried out to them,
+saying, “O folk, if we all go in at once we shall not be safe from some
+ill-chance which may betide us. Let half enter and other half tarry
+without.” So he pushed forwards with half his men, bearing their
+weapons of war, and finding their comrades lying dead, they buried
+them; and they saw the doorkeepers and eunuchs and chamberlains and
+officers reclining on couches of silk and all were corpses. Then they
+fared on till they came to the chief market-place, full of lofty
+buildings whereof none overpassed the others, and found all its shops
+open, with the scales hung out and the brazen vessels ordered and the
+caravanserais full of all manner goods; and they beheld the merchants
+sitting on the shop-boards dead, with shrivelled skin and rotted bones,
+a warning to those who can take warning; and here they saw four
+separate markets all replete with wealth. Then they left the great
+bazar and went on till they came to the silk market, where they found
+silks and brocades, orfrayed with red gold and diapered with white
+silver upon all manner of colours, and the owners lying dead upon mats
+of scented goats’ leather, and looking as if they would speak; after
+which they traversed the market-street of pearls and rubies and other
+jewels and came to that of the schroffs and money-changers, whom they
+saw sitting dead upon carpets of raw silk and dyed stuffs in shops full
+of gold and silver. Thence they passed to the perfumers’ bazar where
+they found the shops filled with drugs of all kinds and bladders of
+musk and ambergris and Nadd-scent and camphor and other perfumes, in
+vessels of ivory and ebony and Khalanj-wood and Andalusian copper, the
+which is equal in value to gold; and various kinds of rattan and Indian
+cane; but the shopkeepers all lay dead nor was there with them aught of
+food. And hard by this drug-market they came upon a palace, imposingly
+edified and magnificently decorated; so they entered and found therein
+banners displayed and drawn sword blades and strung bows and bucklers
+hanging by chains of gold and silver and helmets gilded with red gold.
+In the vestibules stood benches of ivory, plated with glittering gold
+and covered with silken stuffs, whereon lay men, whose skin had dried
+up on their bones; the fool had deemed them sleeping; but, for lack of
+food, they had perished and tasted the cup of death. Now when the Emir
+Musa saw this, he stood still, glorifying Allah the Most High and
+hallowing Him and contemplating the beauty of the palace and the
+massiveness of its masonry and fair perfection of its ordinance, for it
+was builded after the goodliest and stablest fashion and the most part
+of its adornment was of green[FN#139] lapis-lazuli, and on the inner
+door, which stood open, were written in characters of gold and
+ultramarine, these couplets,
+
+“Consider thou, O man, what these places to thee showed * And be
+     upon thy guard ere thou travel the same road:
+And prepare thee good provision some day may serve thy turn * For
+     each dweller in the house needs must yede wi’ those who yode
+Consider how this people their palaces adorned * And in dust have
+     been pledged for the seed of acts they sowed
+They built but their building availed them not, and hoards * Nor
+     saved their lives nor day of Destiny forslowed:
+How often did they hope for what things were undecreed. * And
+     passed unto their tombs before Hope the bounty showed
+And from high and awful state all a sudden they were sent * To
+     the straitness of the grave and oh! base is their abode:
+Then came to them a Crier after burial and cried, * What booted
+     thrones or crowns or the gold to you bestowed:
+Where now are gone the faces hid by curtain and by veil, * Whose
+     charms were told in proverbs, those beauties à-la-mode?
+The tombs aloud reply to the questioners and cry, * Death’s
+     canker and decay those rosy cheeks corrode’
+Long time they ate and drank, but their joyaunce had a term, *
+     And the eater eke was eaten, and was eaten by the worm.”
+
+
+When the Emir read this, he wept, till he was like to swoon away—And
+Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted
+say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred ante Seventy-fifth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Emir wept
+till he was like to swoon away, and bade write down the verses, after
+which he passed on into the inner palace and came to a vast hall, at
+each of whose four corners stood a pavilion lofty and spacious, washed
+with gold and silver and painted in various colours. In the heart of
+the hall was a great jetting-fountain of alabaster, surmounted by a
+canopy of brocade, and in each pavilion was a sitting-place and each
+place had its richly-wrought fountain and tank paved with marble and
+streams flowing in channels along the floor and meeting in a great and
+grand cistern of many-coloured marbles. Quoth the Emir to the Shaykh
+Abd al-Samad, “Come let us visit yonder pavilion!” So they entered the
+first and found it full of gold and silver and pearls and jacinths and
+other precious stones and metals, besides chests filled with brocades,
+red and yellow and white. Then they repaired to the second pavilion,
+and, opening a closet there, found it full of arms and armour, such as
+gilded helmets and Davidean[FN#140] hauberks and Hindi swords and
+Arabian spears and Chorasmian[FN#141] maces and other gear of fight and
+fray. Thence they passed to the third pavilion, wherein they saw
+closets padlocked and covered with curtains wrought with all manner of
+embroidery. They opened one of these and found it full of weapons
+curiously adorned with open work and with gold and silver damascene and
+jewels. Then they entered the fourth pavilion, and opening one of the
+closets there, beheld in it great store of eating and drinking vessels
+of gold and silver, with platters of crystal and goblets set with fine
+pearls and cups of carnelian and so forth. So they all fell to taking
+that which suited their tastes and each of the soldiers carried off
+what he could. When they left the pavilions, they saw in the midst of
+the palace a door of teak-wood marquetried with ivory and ebony and
+plated with glittering gold, over which hung a silken curtain purfled
+with all manner of embroideries; and on this door were locks of white
+silver, that opened by artifice without a key. The Shaykh Abd al-Samad
+went valiantly up thereto and by the aid of his knowledge and skill
+opened the locks, whereupon the door admitted them into a corridor
+paved with marble and hung with veil-like[FN#142] tapestries
+embroidered with figures of all manner beasts and birds, whose bodies
+were of red gold and white silver and their eyes of pearls and rubies,
+amazing all who looked upon them. Passing onwards they came to a saloon
+builded all of polished marble, inlaid with jewels, which seemed to the
+beholder as though the floor were flowing water[FN#143] and whoso
+walked thereon slipped. The Emir bade the Shaykh strew somewhat upon
+it, that they might walk over it; which being done, they made shift to
+fare forwards till they came to a great domed pavilion of stone, gilded
+with red gold and crowned with a cupola of alabaster, about which were
+set lattice-windows carved and jewelled with rods of emerald,[FN#144]
+beyond the competence of any King. Under this dome was a canopy of
+brocade, reposing upon pillars of red gold and wrought with figures of
+birds whose feet were of smaragd, and beneath each bird was a network
+of fresh-hued pearls. The canopy was spread above a jetting fountain
+of ivory and carnelian, plated with glittering gold and thereby stood a
+couch set with pearls and rubies and other jewels and beside the couch
+a pillar of gold. On the capital of the column stood a bird fashioned
+of red rubies and holding in his bill a pearl which shone like a star;
+and on the couch lay a damsel, as she were the lucident sun, eyes never
+saw a fairer. She wore a tight-fitting body-robe of fine pearls, with a
+crown of red gold on her head, filleted with gems, and on her forehead
+were two great jewels, whose light was as the light of the sun. On her
+breast she wore a jewelled amulet, filled with musk and ambergris and
+worth the empire of the Caesars; and around her neck hung a collar of
+rubies and great pearls, hollowed and filled with odoriferous musk And
+it seemed as if she gazed on them to the right and to the left.—And
+Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted
+say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Seventy-sixth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the damsel seemed
+to be gazing at the folk to the right and to the left. The Emir Musa
+marvelled at her exceeding beauty and was confounded at the blackness
+of her hair and the redness of her cheeks, which made the beholder deem
+her alive and not dead, and said to her, “Peace be with thee, O
+damsel!” But Talib ibn Sahl said to him, “Allah preserve thee, O Emir,
+verily this damsel is dead and there is no life in her; so how shall
+she return thy salam?” adding, “Indeed, she is but a corpse embalmed
+with exceeding art; her eyes were taken out after her death and
+quicksilver set under them, after which they were restored to their
+sockets. Wherefore they glisten and when the air moveth the lashes, she
+seemeth to wink and it appeareth to the beholder as though she looked
+at him, for all she is dead.” At this the Emir marvelled beyond measure
+and said, “Glory be to God who subjugateth His creatures to the
+dominion of Death!” Now the couch on which the damsel lay, had steps,
+and thereon stood two statues of Andalusian copper representing slaves,
+one white and the other black. The first held a mace of steel[FN#145]
+and the second a sword of watered steel which dazzled the eye; and
+between them, on one of the steps of the couch, lay a golden tablet,
+whereon were written, in characters of white silver, the following
+words: “In the name of God, the Compassionating, the Compassionate!
+Praise be to Allah, the Creator of mankind; and He is the Lord of
+Lords, the Causer of Causes! In the name of Allah, the Never beginning,
+the Everlasting, the Ordainer of Fate and Fortune! O son of Adam! what
+hath befooled thee in this long esperance? What hath unminded thee of
+the Death-day’s mischance? Knowest thou not that Death calleth for thee
+and hasteneth to seize upon the soul of thee? Be ready, therefore, for
+the way and provide thee for thy departure from the world; for,
+assuredly, thou shalt leave it without delay. Where is Adam, first of
+humanity? Where is Noah with his progeny? Where be the Kings of Hind
+and Irak-plain and they who over earth’s widest regions reign? Where do
+the Amalekites abide and the giants and tyrants of olden tide? Indeed,
+the dwelling-places are void of them and they have departed from
+kindred and home. Where be the Kings of Arab and Ajam? They are dead,
+all of them, and gone and are become rotten bones. Where be the lords
+so high in stead? They are all done dead. Where are Kora and Haman?
+Where is Shaddad son of Ad? Where be Canaan and Zul-Autad,[FN#146] Lord
+of the Stakes? By Allah, the Reaper of lives hath reaped them and made
+void the lands of them. Did they provide them against the Day of
+Resurrection or make ready to answer the Lord of men? O thou, if thou
+know me not, I will acquaint thee with my name: I am Tadmurah,[FN#147]
+daughter of the Kings of the Amalekites, of those who held dominion
+over the lands in equity and brought low the necks of humanity. I
+possessed that which never King possessed and was righteous in my rule
+and did justice among my lieges; yea, I gave gifts and largesse and
+freed bondsmen and bondswomen. Thus lived I many years in all ease and
+delight of life, till Death knocked at my door and to me and to my folk
+befel calamities galore; and it was on this wise. There betided us
+seven successive years of drought, wherein no drop of rain fell on us
+from the skies and no green thing sprouted for us on the face of
+earth.[FN#148] So we ate what was with us of victual, then we fell upon
+the cattle and devoured them, until nothing was left. Thereupon I let
+bring my treasures and meted them with measures and sent out trusty men
+to buy food. They circuited all the lands in quest thereof and left no
+city unsought, but found it not to be bought and returned to us with
+the treasure after a long absence; and gave us to know that they could
+not succeed in bartering fine pearls for poor wheat, bushel for bushel,
+weight for weight. So, when we despaired of succour, we displayed all
+our riches and things of price and, shutting the gates of the city and
+its strong places, resigned ourselves to the deme of our Lord and
+committed our case to our King. Then we all died,[FN#149] as thou seest
+us, and left what we had builded and all we had hoarded. This, then, is
+our story, and after the substance naught abideth but the trace.” Then
+they looked at the foot of the tablet and read these couplets,
+
+“O child of Adam, let not hope make mock and flyte at thee, *
+     From all thy hands have treasuréd, removéd thou shalt be;
+I see thou covetest the world and fleeting worldly charms, * And
+     races past and gone have done the same as thou I see.
+Lawful and lawless wealth they got; but all their hoarded store,
+     * Their term accomplished, naught delayed of Destiny’s
+     decree.
+Armies they led and puissant men and gained them gold galore; *
+     Then left their wealth and palaces by Pate compelled to
+     flee,
+To straitness of the grave-yard and humble bed of dust * Whence,
+     pledged for every word and deed, they never more win free:
+As a company of travellers had unloaded in the night * At house
+     that lacketh food nor is o’erfain of company:
+Whose owner saith, O folk, there be no lodging here for you;’ *
+     So packed they who had erst unpacked and faréd hurriedly:
+Misliking much the march, nor the journey nor the halt * Had
+     aught of pleasant chances or had aught of goodly greet
+Then prepare thou good provision for to-morrow’s journey stored,
+     * Naught but righteous honest life shall avail thee with the
+     Lord!”
+
+
+And the Emir Musa wept as he read, “By Allah, the fear of the Lord is
+the best of all property, the pillar of certainty and the sole sure
+stay. Verily, Death is the truth manifest and the sure behest, and
+therein, O thou, is the goal and return place evident. Take warning,
+therefore, by those who to the dust did wend and hastened on the way of
+the predestined end. Seest thou not that hoary hairs summon thee to the
+tomb and that the whiteness of thy locks maketh moan of thy doom?
+Wherefore be thou on the wake ready for thy departure and thine account
+to make. O son of Adam, what hath hardened thy heart in mode abhorred?
+What hath seduced thee from the service of thy Lord? Where be the
+peoples of old time? They are a warning to whoso will be warned! Where
+be the Kings of al-Sín and the lords of majestic mien? Where is Shaddad
+bin Ad and whatso he built and he stablished? Where is Nimrod who
+revolted against Allah and defied Him? Where is Pharaoh who rebelled
+against God and denied Him? Death followed hard upon the trail of them
+all, and laid them low sparing neither great nor small, male nor
+female; and the Reaper of Mankind cut them off, yea, by Him who maketh
+night to return upon day! Know, O thou who comest to this place, that
+she whom thou seest here was not deluded by the world and its frail
+delights, for it is faithless, perfidious, a house of ruin, vain and
+treacherous; and salutary to the creature is the remembrance of his
+sins; wherefore she feared her Lord and made fair her dealings and
+provided herself with provaunt against the appointed marching day.
+Whoso cometh to our city and Allah vouchsafeth him competence to enter
+it, let him take of the treasure all he can, but touch not aught that
+is on my body, for it is the covering of my shame[FN#150] and the
+outfit for the last journey; wherefore let him fear Allah and despoil
+naught thereof; else will he destroy his own self. This have I set
+forth to him for a warning from me and a solemn trust to be; wherewith,
+peace be with ye and I pray Allah to keep you from sickness and
+calamity.” And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying
+her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Seventy-seventh Night,
+
+She said, it hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Emir
+Musa read this, he wept with exceeding weeping till he swooned away and
+presently coming to himself, wrote down all he had seen and was
+admonished by all he had witnessed. Then he said to his men, “Fetch the
+camels and load them with these treasures and vases and jewels.” “O
+Emir,” asked Talib, “shall we leave our damsel with what is upon her,
+things which have no equal and whose like is not to be found and more
+perfect than aught else thou takest; nor couldst thou find a goodlier
+offering wherewithal to propitiate the favour of the Commander of the
+Faithful?” But Musa answered, “O man, heardest thou not what the Lady
+saith on this tablet? More by token that she giveth it in trust to us
+who are no traitors.” “And shall we,” rejoined the Wazir Talib,
+“because of these words, leave all these riches and jewels, seeing that
+she is dead? What should she do with these that are the adornments of
+the world and the ornament of the worldling, seeing that one garment of
+cotton would suffice for her covering? We have more right to them than
+she.” So saying he mounted the steps of the couch between the pillars,
+but when he came within reach of the two slaves, lo! the mace-bearer
+smote him on the back and the other struck him with the sword he held
+in his hand and lopped off his head, and he dropped down dead. Quoth
+the Emir, “Allah have no mercy on thy resting-place! Indeed there was
+enough in these treasures, and greed of gain assuredly degradeth a
+man.” Then he bade admit the troops; so they entered and loaded the
+camels with those treasures and precious ores; after which they went
+forth and the Emir commanded them to shut the gate as before. They
+fared on along the sea-shore a whole month, till they came in sight of
+a high mountain overlooking the sea and full of caves, wherein dwelt a
+tribe of blacks, clad in hides, with burnooses also of hide and
+speaking an unknown tongue. When they saw the troops they were startled
+like shying steeds and fled into the caverns, whilst their women and
+children stood at the cave doors, looking on the strangers. “O Shaykh
+Abd al-Samad,” asked the Emir, “what are these folk?” and he answered,
+“They are those whom we seek for the Commander of the Faithful.” So
+they dismounted and setting down their loads, pitched their tents;
+whereupon, almost before they had done, down came the King of the
+blacks from the mountain and drew near the camp. Now he understood the
+Arabic tongue; so, when he came to the Emir he saluted him with the
+salam and Musa returned his greeting and entreated him with honour.
+Then quoth he to the Emir, “Are ye men or Jinn?” “Well, we are men,”
+quoth Musa; “but doubtless ye are Jinn, to judge by your dwelling apart
+in this mountain which is cut off from mankind, and by your inordinate
+bulk.” “Nay,” rejoined the black; “we also are children of Adam, of the
+lineage of Ham, son of Noah (with whom be peace!), and this sea is
+known as Al-Karkar.” Asked Musa, “O King, what is your religion and
+what worship ye?”; and he answered, saying, “We worship the God of the
+heavens and our religion is that of Mohammed, whom Allah bless and
+preserve!” “And how came ye by the knowledge of this,” questioned the
+Emir, “seeing that no prophet was inspired to visit this country?”
+“Know, Emir,” replied the King, “that there appeared to us whilere from
+out the sea a man, from whom issued a light that illumined the horizons
+and he cried out, in a voice which was heard of men far and near,
+saying, O children of Ham, reverence to Him who seeth and is not seen
+and say ye, There is no god but the God, and Mohammed is the messenger
+of God!’ And he added, I am Abu al-Abbás al-Khizr.’ Before this we were
+wont to worship one another, but he summoned us to the service of the
+Lord of all creatures; and he taught us to repeat these words, There is
+no god save the God alone, who hath for partner none, and His is the
+kingdom and His is the praise. He giveth life and death and He over all
+things is Almighty.’ Nor do we draw near unto Allah (be He exalted and
+extolled!) except with these words, for we know none other; but every
+eve before Friday[FN#151] we see a light upon the face of earth and we
+hear a voice saying, Holy and glorious, Lord of the Angels and the
+Spirit! What He willeth is, and what He willeth not, is not. Every boon
+is of His grace and there is neither Majesty nor is there Might save in
+Allah, the Glorious, the Great!’ But ye,” quoth the King, “who and what
+are ye and what bringeth you to this land?” Quoth Musa, “We are
+officers of the Sovereign of Al-Islam, the Commander of the Faithful,
+Abd al-Malik bin Marwan, who hath heard tell of the lord Solomon, son
+of David (on whom be peace!) and of that which the Most High bestowed
+upon him of supreme dominion; how he held sway over Jinn and beast and
+bird and was wont when he was wroth with one of the Marids, to shut him
+in a cucurbite of brass and, stopping its mouth on him with lead,
+whereon he impressed his seal ring, to cast him into the sea of
+Al-Karkar. Now we have heard tell that this sea is nigh your land; so
+the Commander of the Faithful hath sent us hither, to bring him some of
+these cucurbites, that he may look thereon and solace himself with
+their sight. Such, then, is our case and what we seek of thee, O King,
+and we desire that thou further us in the accomplishment of our errand
+commanded by the Commander of the Faithful.” “With love and gladness,”
+replied the black King, and carrying them to the guest house, entreated
+them with the utmost honour and furnished them with all they needed,
+feeding them upon fish. They abode thus three days, when he bade his
+divers fetch from out the sea some of the vessels of Solomon. So they
+dived and brought up twelve cucurbites, whereat the Emir and the Shaykh
+and all the company rejoiced in the accomplishment of the Caliph’s
+need. Then Musa gave the King of the blacks many and great gifts; and
+he, in turn, made him a present Of the wonders of the deep, being
+fishes in human form,[FN#152] saying “Your entertainment these three
+days hath been of the meat of these fish.” Quoth the Emir, “Needs must
+we carry some of these to the Caliph, for the sight of them will please
+him more than the cucurbites of Solomon.” Then they took leave of the
+black King and, setting out on their homeward journey, travelled till
+they came to Damascus, where Musa went in to the Commander of the
+Faithful and told him all that he had sighted and heard of verses and
+legends and instances, together with the manner of the death of Talib
+bin Sahl; and the Caliph said, “Would I had been with you, that I might
+have seen what you saw!” Then he took the brazen vessels and opened
+them, cucurbite after cucurbite, whereupon the devils came forth of
+them, saying, “We repent, O Prophet of Allah! Never again will we
+return to the like of this thing; no never!” And the Caliph marvelled
+at this. As for the daughters of the deep presented to them by the
+black King, they made them cisterns of planks, full of water, and laid
+them therein; but they died of the great heat. Then the Caliph sent for
+the spoils of the Brazen City and divided them among the Faithful,—And
+Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted
+say,
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Seventy-eighth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Caliph
+marvelled much at the cucurbites and their contents; then he sent for
+the spoils and divided them among the Faithful, saying, “Never gave
+Allah unto any the like of that which he bestowed upon Solomon
+David-son!” Thereupon the Emir Musa sought leave of him to appoint his
+son Governor of the Province in his stead, that he might be take
+himself to the Holy City of Jerusalem, there to worship Allah. So the
+Commander of the Faithful invested his son Harun with the government
+and Musa repaired to the Glorious and Holy City, where he died. This,
+then, is all that hath come down to us of the story of the City of
+Brass, and God is All-knowing! Now (continued Shahrazad) I have another
+tale to tell anent the
+
+
+
+
+CRAFT AND MALICE OF WOMEN,[FN#153] OR THE TALE OF THE KING, HIS SON,
+HIS CONCUBINE AND THE SEVEN WAZIRS.
+
+
+There was, in days of yore and in ages and times long gone before, a
+puissant King among the Kings of China, the crown of crowned heads, who
+ruled over many men of war and vassals with wisdom and justice, might
+and majesty; equitable to his Ryots, liberal to his lieges and dearly
+beloved by the hearts of his subjects. He was wealthy as he was
+powerful, but he had grown old without being blessed with a son, and
+this caused him sore affliction. He could only brood over the cutting
+off of his seed and the oblivion that would bury his name and the
+passing of his realm into the stranger’s hands. So he secluded himself
+in his palace, never going in and out or rising and taking rest till
+the lieges lost all tidings of him and were sore perplexed and began to
+talk about their King. Some said, “He’s dead”; others said, “No, he’s
+not”; but all resolved to find a ruler who could reign over them and
+carry out the customs of government. At last, utterly despairing of
+male issue, he sought the intercession of the Prophet (whom Allah bless
+and keep!) with the Most High and implored Him, by the glory of His
+Prophets and Saints and Martyrs and others of the Faithful who were
+acceptable to Heaven that he would grant him a son, to be the coolth of
+his eyes and heir to the kingdom after him. Then he rose forthright
+and, withdrawing to his sitting-saloon, sent for his wife who was the
+daughter of his uncle. Now this Queen was of surpassing beauty and
+loveliness, the fairest of all his wives and the dearest to him as she
+was the nearest: and to boot a woman of excellent wit and passing
+judgement. She found the King dejected and sorrowful, tearful-eyed and
+heavy-hearted; so she kissed ground between his hands and said, “O
+King, may my life ransom thy life! may Time never prove thy foe, nor
+the shifts of Fortune prevail over thee; may Allah grant thee every joy
+and ward off from thee all annoy! How is it I see thee brooding over
+thy case and tormented by the displeasures of memory?” He replied,
+“Thou wottest well that I am a man now shotten in years, who hath never
+been blessed with a son, a sight to cool his eyes; so I know that my
+kingdom shall pass away to the stranger in blood and my name and memory
+will be blotted out amongst men. ’Tis this causeth me to grieve with
+excessive grief.” “Allah do away with thy sorrows,” quoth she: “long
+ere this day a thought struck me; and yearning for issue arose in my
+heart even as in thine. One night I dreamed a dream and a voice said to
+me, ‘The King thy husband pineth for progeny: if a daughter be
+vouchsafed to him, she will be the ruin of his realm; if a son, the
+youth will undergo much trouble and annoy but he will pass through it
+without loss of life. Such a son can be conceived by thee and thee only
+and the time of thy conception is when the moon conjoineth with
+Gemini!’ I woke from my dream, but after what I heard that voice
+declare I refrained from breeding and would not consent to bear
+children.” “There is no help for it but that I have a son, Inshallah,
+—God willing!” cried the King. Thereupon she soothed and consoled him
+till he forgot his sorrows and went forth amongst the lieges and sat,
+as of wont, upon his throne of estate. All rejoiced to see him once
+more and especially the Lords of his realm. Now when the conjunction of
+the moon and Gemini took place, the King knew his wife carnally and, by
+order of Allah Almighty she became pregnant. Presently she anounced the
+glad tidings to her husband and led her usual life until her nine
+months of pregnancy were completed and she bare a male child whose face
+was as the rondure of the moon on its fourteenth night. The lieges of
+the realm congratulated one another thereanent and the King commanded
+an assembly of his Olema and philosophers, astrologers and
+horoscopists, whom he thus addressed, “I desire you to forecast the
+fortune of my son and to determine his ascendant[FN#154] and whatever
+is shown by his nativity.” They replied “’Tis well, in Allah’s name,
+let us do so!” and cast his nativity with all diligence. After
+ascertaining his ascendant, they pronounced judgement in these words,
+“We see his lot favourable and his life viable and durable; save that a
+danger awaiteth his youth.” The father was sorely concerned at this
+saying, when they added “But, O King, he shall escape from it nor shall
+aught of injury accrue to him!” Hereupon the King cast aside all cark
+and care and robed the wizards and dismissed them with splendid
+honoraria; and he resigned himself to the will of Heaven and
+acknowledged that the decrees of destiny may not be countervailed. He
+committed his boy to wet nurses and dry nurses, handmaids and eunuchs,
+leaving him to grow and fill out in the Harim till he reached the age
+of seven. Then he addressed letters to his Viceroys and Governors in
+every clime and by their means gathered together Olema and philosophers
+and doctors of law and religion, from all countries, to a number of
+three hundred and three score. He held an especial assembly for them
+and, when all were in presence, he bade them draw near him and be at
+their ease while he sent for the food-trays and all ate their
+sufficiency. And when the banquet ended and the wizards had taken seats
+in their several degrees, the King asked them, “Wot ye wherefore I have
+gathered ye together?”; whereto all answered, “We wot not, O King!” He
+continued, “It is my wish that you select from amongst you fifty men,
+and from these fifty ten, and from these ten one, that he may teach my
+son omnem rem scibilem; for whenas I see the youth perfect in all
+science, I will share my dignity with the Prince and make him partner
+with me in my possessions.” “Know, O King,” they replied, “that among
+us none is more learned or more excellent than Al-Sindibad,[FN#155]
+hight the Sage, who woneth in thy capital under thy protection. If such
+be thy design, summon him and bid him do thy will.” The King acted upon
+their advice and the Sage, standing in the presence, expressed his
+loyal sentiments with his salutation, whereupon his Sovereign bade him
+draw nigh and thus raised his rank, saying, “I would have thee to know,
+O Sage, that I summoned this assembly of the learned and bade them
+choose me out a man to teach my son all knowledge; when they selected
+thee without dissenting thought or voice. If, then, thou feel capable
+of what they claimed for thee, come thou to the task and understand
+that a man’s son and heir is the very fruit of his vitals and core of
+his heart and liver. My desire of thee is thine instruction of him; and
+to happy issue Allah guideth!” The King then sent for his son and
+committed him to Al-Sindibad conditioning the Sage to finish his
+education in three years. He did accordingly but, at the end of that
+time, the young Prince had learned nothing, his mind being wholly
+occupied with play and disport; and when summoned and examined by his
+sire, behold, his knowledge was as nil. Thereupon the King turned his
+attention to the learned once more and bade them elect a tutor for his
+youth; so they asked, “And what hath his governor, Al-Sindibad, been
+doing?” and when the King answered, “He hath taught my son naught;” the
+Olema and philosophers and high officers summoned the instructor and
+said to him, “O Sage, what prevented thee from teaching the King’s son
+during this length of days?” “O wise men,” he replied, “the Prince’s
+mind is wholly occupied with disport and play; yet, an the King will
+make with me three conditions and keep to them, I will teach him in
+seven months what he would not learn (nor indeed could any other lesson
+him) within seven years.” “I hearken to thee,” quoth the King, “and I
+submit myself to thy conditions;” and quoth Al-Sindibad, “Hear from me,
+Sire, and bear in mind these three sayings, whereof the first is, ‘Do
+not to others what thou wouldst not they do unto thee’;[FN#156] and
+second, ‘Do naught hastily without consulting the experienced’; and
+thirdly, ‘Where thou hast power show pity.’[FN#157] In teaching this
+lad I require no more of thee but to accept these three dictes and
+adhere thereto.” Cried the King, “Bear ye witness against me, O all ye
+here assembled, that I stand firm by these conditions!”; and caused a
+proces verbal to be drawn up with his personal security and the
+testimony of his courtiers. Thereupon the Sage, taking the Prince’s
+hand, led him to his place, and the King sent them all requisites of
+provaunt and kitchen-batteries, carpets and other furniture. Moreover
+the tutor bade build a house whose walls he lined with the whitest
+stucco painted over with ceruse,[FN#158] and, lastly, he delineated
+thereon all the objects concerning which he proposed to lecture his
+pupil. When the place was duly furnished, he took the lad’s hand and
+installed him in the apartment which was amply furnished with
+belly-timber; and, after stablishing him therein, went forth and
+fastened the door with seven padlocks. Nor did he visit the Prince save
+every third day when he lessoned him on the knowledge to be extracted
+from the wall-pictures and renewed his provision of meat and drink,
+after which he left him again to solitude. So whenever the youth was
+straitened in breast by the tedium and ennui of loneliness, he applied
+himself diligently to his object-lessons and mastered all the
+deductions therefrom. His governor seeing this turned his mind into
+other channel and taught him the inner meanings of the external
+objects; and in a little time the pupil mastered every requisite. Then
+the Sage took him from the house and taught him cavalarice and Jerid
+play and archery. When the pupil had thoroughly mastered these arts,
+the tutor sent to the King informing him that the Prince was perfect
+and complete in all things required to figure favourably amongst his
+peers. Hereat the King rejoiced; and, summoning his Wazirs and Lords of
+estate to be present at the examination, commanded the Sage to send his
+son into the presence. Thereupon Al-Sindibad consulted his pupil’s
+horoscope and found it barred by an inauspicious conjunction which
+would last seven days; so, in sore affright for the youth’s life, he
+said, “Look into thy nativity-scheme.” The Prince did so and,
+recognising the portent, feared for himself and presently asked the
+Sage, saying, “What dost thou bid me do?” “I bid thee,” he answered,
+“remain silent and speak not a word during this se’nnight; even though
+thy sire slay thee with scourging. An thou pass safely through this
+period, thou shalt win to high rank and succeed to thy sire’s reign;
+but an things go otherwise then the behest is with Allah from the
+beginning to the end thereof.” Quoth the pupil, “Thou art in fault, O
+preceptor, and thou hast shown undue haste in sending that message to
+the King before looking into my horoscope. Hadst thou delayed till the
+week had passed all had been well.” Quoth the tutor, “O my son, what
+was to be was; and the sole defaulter therein was my delight in thy
+scholarship. But now be firm in thy resolve; rely upon Allah Almighty
+and determine not to utter a single word.” Thereupon the Prince fared
+for the presence and was met by the Wazirs who led him to his father.
+The King accosted him and addressed him but he answered not; and sought
+speech of him but he spake not. Whereupon the courtiers were astounded
+and the monarch, sore concerned for his son, summoned Al-Sindibad. But
+the tutor so hid himself that none could hit upon his trace nor gain
+tidings of him; and folk said, “He was ashamed to appear before the
+King’s majesty and the courtiers.” Under these conditions the Sovereign
+heard some of those present saying, “Send the lad to the Serraglio
+where he will talk with the women and soon set aside this bashfulness;”
+and, approving their counsel, gave orders accordingly. So the Prince
+was led into the palace, which was compassed about by a running stream
+whose banks were planted with all manner of fruit-trees and
+sweet-smelling flowers. Moreover, in this palace were forty chambers
+and in every chamber ten slave-girls, each skilled in some instrument
+of music, so that whenever one of them played, the palace danced to her
+melodious strains. Here the Prince passed one night; but, on the
+following morning, the King’s favourite concubine happened to cast eyes
+upon his beauty and loveliness, his symmetrical stature, his brilliancy
+and his perfect grace, and love gat hold of her heart and she was
+ravished with his charms.[FN#159] So she went up to him and threw
+herself upon him, but he made her no response; whereupon, being dazed
+by his beauty, she cried out to him and required him of himself and
+importuned him; then she again threw herself upon him and clasped him
+to her bosom kissing him and saying, “O King’s son, grant me thy
+favours and I will set thee in thy father’s stead; I will give him to
+drink of poison, so he may die and thou shalt enjoy his realm and
+wealth.” When the Prince heard these words, he was sore enraged against
+her and said to her by signs, “O accursed one, so it please Almighty
+Allah, I will assuredly requite thee this thy deed, whenas I can speak;
+for I will go forth to my father and will tell him, and he shall kill
+thee.” So signing, he arose in rage, and went out from her chamber;
+whereat she feared for herself. Thereupon she buffeted her face and
+rent her raiment and tare her hair and bared her head, then went in to
+the King and cast herself at his feet, weeping and wailing. When he saw
+her in this plight, he was sore concerned and asked her, “What aileth
+thee, O damsel? How is it with thy lord, my son? Is he not well?”; and
+she answered, “O King, this thy son, whom thy courtiers avouch to be
+dumb, required me of myself and I repelled him, whereupon he did with
+me as thou seest and would have slain me; so I fled from him, nor will
+I ever return to him, nor to the palace again, no, never again!” When
+the King heard this, he was wroth with exceeding wrath and, calling his
+seven Wazirs, bade them put the Prince to death. However, they said one
+to other, “If we do the King’s commandment, he will surely repent of
+having ordered his son’s death, for he is passing dear to him and this
+child came not to him save after despair; and he will round upon us and
+blame us, saying, ‘Why did ye not contrive to dissuade me from slaying
+him?’” So they took counsel together, to turn him from his purpose, and
+the chief Wazir said, “I will warrant you from the King’s mischief this
+day.” Then he went in to the presence and prostrating himself craved
+leave to speak. The King gave him permission, and he said, “O King,
+though thou hadst a thousand sons, yet were it no light matter to thee
+to put one of them to death, on the report of a woman, be she true or
+be she false; and belike this is a lie and a trick of her against thy
+son; for indeed, O King, I have heard tell great plenty of stories of
+the malice, the craft and perfidy of women.” Quoth the King, “Tell me
+somewhat of that which hath come to thy knowledge thereof.” And the
+Wazir answered, saying, ‘Yes, there hath reached me, O King, a tale
+entitled
+
+
+The King and his Wazir’s Wife.[FN#160]
+
+There was once a King of the Kings, a potent man and a proud, who was
+devoted to the love of women and one day being in the privacy of his
+palace, he espied a beautiful woman on the terraceroof of her house and
+could not contain himself from falling consumedly in love with
+her.[FN#161] He asked his folk to whom the house and the damsel
+belonged and they said, “This is the dwelling of the Wazir such an one
+and she is his wife.” So he called the Minister in question and
+despatched him on an errand to a distant part of the kingdom, where he
+was to collect information and to return; but, as soon as he obeyed and
+was gone, the King contrived by a trick to gain access to his house and
+his spouse. When the Wazir’s wife saw him, she knew him and springing
+up, kissed his hands and feet and welcomed him. Then she stood afar
+off, busying herself in his service, and said to him, “O our lord, what
+is the cause of thy gracious coming? Such an honour is not for the like
+of me.” Quoth he, “The cause of it is that love of thee and desire
+thee-wards have moved me to this.” Whereupon she kissed ground before
+him a second time and said, “By Allah, O our lord, indeed I am not
+worthy to be the handmaid of one of the King’s servants; whence then
+have I the great good fortune to be in such high honour and favour with
+thee?” Then the King put out his hand to her intending to enjoy her
+person, when she said, “This thing shall not escape us; but take
+patience, O my King, and abide with thy handmaid all this day, that she
+may make ready for thee somewhat to eat and drink.” So the King sat
+down on his Minister’s couch and she went in haste and brought him a
+book wherein he might read, whilst she made ready the food. He took the
+book and, beginning to read, found therein moral instances and
+exhortations, such as restrained him from adultery and broke his
+courage to commit sin and crime. After awhile, she returned and set
+before him some ninety dishes of different kinds of colours, and he ate
+a mouthful of each and found that, while the number was many, the taste
+of them was one. At this, he marvelled with exceeding marvel and said
+to her, “O damsel, I see these meats to be manifold and various, but
+the taste of them is simple and the same.” “Allah prosper the King!”
+replied she, “this is a parable I have set for thee, that thou mayst be
+admonished thereby.” He asked, “And what is its meaning?”; and she
+answered, “Allah amend the case of our lord the King!; in thy palace
+are ninety concubines of various colours, but their taste is
+one.”[FN#162] When the King heard this, he was ashamed and rising
+hastily, went out, without offering her any affront and returned to his
+palace; but, in his haste and confusion, he forgot his signet-ring and
+left it under the cushion where he had been sitting and albeit he
+remembered it he was ashamed to send for it. Now hardly had he reached
+home when the Wazir returned and, presenting himself before the King,
+kissed the ground and made his report to him of the state of the
+province in question. Then he repaired to his own house and sat down on
+his couch and chancing to put his hand under the cushion, behold, he
+found the King’s seal-ring. So he knew it and taking the matter to
+heart, held aloof in great grief from his wife for a whole year, not
+going in unto her nor even speaking to her, whilst she knew not the
+reason of his anger. —And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
+ceased saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Seventy-ninth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir held
+aloof from his wife, whilst she knew not the cause of his wrath. At
+last, being weary of the longsome neglect, she sent for her sire and
+told him the case; whereupon quoth he, “I will complain of him to the
+King, at some time when he is in the presence.” So, one day, he went in
+to the King and, finding the Wazir and the Kazi of the army before
+him,[FN#163] complained thus saying, “Almighty Allah amend the King’s
+case! I had a fair flower-garden, which I planted with mine own hand
+and thereon spent my substance till it bare fruit; and its fruitage was
+ripe for plucking, when I gave it to this thy Wazir, who ate of it what
+seemed good to him, then deserted it and watered it not, so that its
+bloom wilted and withered and its sheen departed and its state
+changed.” Then said the Wazir, “O my King, this man saith sooth. I did
+indeed care for and guard the garden and kept it in good condition and
+ate thereof, till one day I went thither and I saw the trail of the
+lion there, wherefore I feared for my life and withdrew from the
+garden.” The King understood him that the trail of the lion meant his
+own seal-ring, which he had forgotten in the woman’s house; so he said,
+“Return, O Wazir, to thy flower-garden and fear nothing, for the lion
+came not near it. It hath reached me that he went thither; but, by the
+honour of my fathers and forefathers, he offered it no hurt.”
+“Hearkening and obedience,” answered the Minister and, returning home
+sent for his wife and made his peace with her and thenceforth put faith
+in her chastity. “This I tell thee, O King (continued the Wazir), for
+no other purpose save to let thee know how great is their craft and how
+precipitancy bequeatheth repentance.[FN#164] And I have also heard the
+following
+
+
+Story of the Confectioner, his Wife, and the Parrot.
+
+Once upon a time there dwelt in Egypt a confectioner who had a wife
+famed for beauty and loveliness; and a parrot which, as occasion
+required, did the office of watchman and guard, bell and spy, and
+flapped her wings did she but hear a fly buzzing about the sugar. This
+parrot caused abundant trouble to the wife, always telling her husband
+what took place in his absence. Now one evening, before going out to
+visit certain friends, the confectioner gave the bird strict
+injunctions to watch all night and bade his wife make all fast, as he
+should not return until morning. Hardly had he left the door than the
+woman went for her old lover, who returned with her and they passed the
+night together in mirth and merriment, while the parrot observed all.
+Betimes in the morning the lover fared forth and the husband,
+returning, was informed by the parrot of what had taken place;
+whereupon he hastened to his wife’s room and beat her with a painful
+beating. She thought in herself, “Who could have informed against me?”
+and she asked a woman that was in her confidence whether it was she.
+The woman protested by the worlds visible and invisible that she had
+not betrayed her mistress; but informed her that on the morning of his
+return home, the husband had stood some time before the cage listening
+to the parrot’s talk. When the wife heard this, she resolved to
+contrive the destruction of the bird. Some days after, the husband was
+again invited to the house of a friend where he was to pass the night;
+and, before departing, he enjoined the parrot with the same injunctions
+as before; wherefore his heart was free from care, for he had his spy
+at home. The wife and her confidante then planned how they might
+destroy the credit of the parrot with the master. For this purpose they
+resolved to counterfeit a storm; and this they did by placing over the
+parrot’s head a hand-mill (which the lover worked by pouring water upon
+a piece of hide), by waving a fan and by suddenly uncovering a candle
+hid under a dish. Thus did they raise such a tempest of rain and
+lightning, that the parrot was drenched and half-drowned in a deluge.
+Now rolled the thunder, then flashed the lightning; that from the noise
+of the hand-mill, this from the reflection of the candle; when thought
+the parrot to herself, “In very sooth the flood hath come on, such an
+one as belike Noah himself never witnessed.” So saying she buried her
+head under her wing, a prey to terror. The husband, on his return,
+hastened to the parrot to ask what had happened during his absence; and
+the bird answered that she found it impossible to describe the deluge
+and tempest of the last night; and that years would be required to
+explain the uproar of the hurricane and storm. When the shopkeeper
+heard the parrot talk of last night’s deluge, he said: “Surely O bird,
+thou art gone clean daft! Where was there, even in a dream, rain or
+lightning last night? Thou hast utterly ruined my house and ancient
+family. My wife is the most virtuous woman of the age and all thine
+accusations of her are lies.” So in his wrath he dashed the cage upon
+the ground, tore off the parrot’s head, and threw it from the window.
+Presently his friend, coming to call upon him, saw the parrot in this
+condition with head torn off, and without wings or plumage. Being
+informed of the circumstances he suspected some trick on the part of
+the woman, and said to the husband, “When your wife leaves home to go
+to the Hammam-bath, compel her confidante to disclose the secret.” So
+as soon as his wife went out, the husband entered his Harim and
+insisted on the woman telling him the truth. She recounted the whole
+story and the husband now bitterly repented having killed the parrot,
+of whose innocence he had proof. “This I tell thee, O King (continued
+the Wazir), that thou mayst know how great are the craft and malice of
+women and that to act in haste leadeth to repent at leisure.” So the
+King turned from slaying his son: but, next day, the favourite came in
+to him and, kissing the ground before him, said, “O King, why dost thou
+delay to do me justice? Indeed, the Kings have heard that thou
+commandest a thing and thy Wazir countermandeth it. Now the obedience
+of Kings is in the fulfilment of their commandments, and every one
+knows thy justice and equity: so do thou justice for me on the Prince.
+I also have heard tell a tale concerning
+
+
+The Fuller and his Son.
+
+There was once a man which was a fuller, and he used every day to go
+forth to the Tigris-bank a-cleaning clothes; and his son was wont to go
+with him that he might swim whilst his father was fulling, nor was he
+forbidden from this. One day, as the boy was swimming,[FN#165] he was
+taken with cramp in the forearms and sank, whereupon the fuller plunged
+into the water and caught hold of him; but the boy clung about him and
+pulled him down and so father and son were both drowned. “Thus it is
+with thee, O King. Except thou prevent thy son and do me justice on
+him, I fear lest both of you sink together, thou and he.”—And Shahrazad
+perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
+
+When it Was the Five Hundred and Eightieth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
+favourite had told her tale of the Fuller and his son, she ended with,
+“I fear lest both of you sink together, thou and he. Moreover,”
+continued she, “for an instance of the malice of men, I have heard tell
+a tale concerning
+
+
+The Rake’s Trick against the Chaste Wife.
+
+A certain man loved a beautiful and lovely woman, a model of charms and
+grace, married to a man whom she loved and who loved her. Moreover, she
+was virtuous and chaste, like unto me, and her rake of a lover found no
+way to her; so when his patience was at an end, he devised a device to
+win his will. Now the husband had a young man, whom he had brought up
+in his house and who was in high trust with him as his steward. So the
+rake addressed himself to the youth and ceased not insinuating himself
+into his favour by presents and fair words and deeds, till he became
+more obedient to him than the hand to the mouth and did whatever he
+ordered him. One day, he said to him, “Harkye, such an one; wilt thou
+not bring me into the family dwelling-place some time when the lady is
+gone out?” “Yes,” answered the young steward so, when his master was at
+the shop and his mistress gone forth to the Hammam, he took his friend
+by the hand and, bringing him into the house, showed him the
+sitting-rooms and all that was therein. Now the lover was determined to
+play a trick upon the woman; so he took the white of an egg which he
+had brought with him in a vessel, and spilt it on the merchant’s
+bedding, unseen by the young man; after which he returned thanks and
+leaving the house went his way. In an hour or so the merchant came
+home; and, going to the bed to rest himself, found thereon something
+wet. So he took it up in his hand and looked at it and deemed it man’s
+seed; whereat he stared at the young man with eyes of wrath, and asked
+him, “Where is thy mistress?”; and he answered, “She is gone forth to
+the Hammam and will return forthright after she has made her
+ablutions.”[FN#166] When the man heard this, his suspicion concerning
+the semen was confirmed; and he waxed furious and said, “Go at once and
+bring her back.” The steward accordingly fetched her and when she came
+before her husband, the jealous man sprang upon her and beat her a
+grievous beating; then, binding her arms behind her, offered to cut her
+throat with a knife; but she cried out to the neighbours, who came to
+her, and she said to them, “This my man hath beaten me unjustly and
+without cause and is minded to kill me, though I know not what is mine
+offence.” So they rose up and asked him, “Why hast thou dealt thus by
+her?” And he answered, “She is divorced.” Quoth they, “Thou hast no
+right to maltreat her; either divorce her or use her kindly, for we
+know her prudence and purity and chastity. Indeed, she hath been our
+neighbour this long time and we wot no evil of her.” Quoth he, “When I
+came home, I found on my bed seed like human sperm, and I know not the
+meaning of this.” Upon this a little boy, one of those present, came
+forward and said, “Show it to me, nuncle mine!” When he saw it, he
+smelt it and, calling for fire and a frying-pan, he took the white of
+egg and cooked it so that it became solid. Then he ate of it and made
+the husband and the others taste if it, and they were certified that it
+was white of egg. So the husband was convinced that he had sinned
+against his wife’s innocence, she being clear of all offence, and the
+neighbours made peace between them after the divorce, and he prayed her
+pardon and presented her with an hundred gold pieces. And so the wicked
+lover’s cunning trick came to naught. “And know, O King, that this is
+an instance of the malice of men and their perfidy.” When the King
+heard this, he bade his son be slain; but on the next day the second
+Wazir came forward for intercession and kissed ground in prostration.
+Whereupon the King said, “Raise thy head: prostration must be made to
+Allah only.”[FN#167] So the Minister rose from before him and said, “O
+King, hasten not to slay thy son, for he was not granted to his mother
+by the Almighty but after despair, nor didst thou expect such good
+luck; and we hope that he will live to become a guerdon to thy reign
+and a guardian of thy good. Wherefore, have patience, O King; belike he
+will offer a fit excuse; and, if thou make haste to slay him, thou wilt
+surely repent, even as the merchant-wight repented.” Asked the King,
+“And how was it with the merchant, O Wazir?”; and the Wazir answered,
+“O King, I have heard a tale of
+
+
+The Miser and the Loaves of Bread.
+
+There was once a merchant, who was a niggard and miserly in his eating
+and drinking. One day, he went on a journey to a certain town and as he
+walked in the market-streets, behold, he met an old trot with two
+scones of bread which looked sound and fair, He asked her, “Are these
+for sale?”; and she answered, “Yes!” So he beat her down and bought
+them at the lowest price and took them home to his lodging, where he
+ate them that day. When morning morrowed, he returned to the same place
+and, finding the old woman there with other two scones, bought these
+also; and thus he ceased not during twenty-five days’ space when the
+old wife disappeared. He made enquiry for her, but could hear no
+tidings of her, till, one day as he was walking about the high streets,
+he chanced upon her: so he accosted her and, after the usual salutation
+and with much praise and politeness, asked why she had disappeared from
+the market and ceased to supply the two cakes of bread? Hearing this,
+at first she evaded giving him a reply; but he conjured her to tell him
+her case; so she said, “Hear my excuse, O my lord, which is that I was
+attending upon a man who had a corroding ulcer on his spine, and his
+doctor bade us knead flour with butter into a plaster and lay it on the
+place of pain, where it abode all night. In the morning, I used to take
+that flour and turn it into dough and make it into two scones, which I
+cooked and sold to thee or to another; but presently the man died and I
+was cut off from making cakes.”[FN#168] When the merchant heard this,
+he repented whenas repentance availed him naught, saying, “Verily, we
+are Allah’s and verily unto Him we are returning! There is no Majesty
+and there is no Might save in Him, the Glorious, the Great!” —And
+Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted
+say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Eighty-first Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the old trot
+told the merchant the provenance of the scones, he cried, “There is no
+Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great!”
+And he repeated the saying of the Most High, “Whatever evil falleth to
+thee it is from thyself;”[FN#169] and vomited till he fell sick and
+repented whenas repentance availed him naught. “Moreover, O King”
+(continued the second Wazir), “I have heard tell, of the malice of
+women, a tale of
+
+
+The Lady and her Two Lovers.
+
+Once upon a time there was a man, who was sword-bearer to one of the
+Kings, and he loved a damsel of the common sort. One day, he sent his
+page to her with a message, as of wont between them, and the lad sat
+down with her and toyed with her. She inclined to him and pressed him
+to her breast and groped him and kissed him whereupon he sought carnal
+connection of her and she consented; but, as the two were thus, lo! the
+youth’s master knocked at the door. So she pushed the page through a
+trapdoor into an underground chamber there and opened the door to his
+lord, who entered hending sword in hand and sat down upon her bed. Then
+she came up to him and sported and toyed with him, kissing him and
+pressing him to her bosom, and he took her and lay with her. Presently,
+her husband knocked at the door and the gallant asked her, “Who is
+that?”; whereto she answered, “My husband.” Quoth he, “How shall I do?”
+Quoth she, “Draw thy sword and stand in the vestibule and abuse me and
+revile me; and when my husband comes in to thee, do thou go forth and
+wend thy ways.” He did as she bade him; and, when the husband entered,
+he saw the King’s sword-bearer standing with naked brand in hand,
+abusing and threatening his wife; but, when the lover saw him, he was
+ashamed and sheathing his scymitar, went forth the house. Said the man
+to his wife, “What means this?”; and she replied, “O man, how blessed
+is the hour of thy coming! Thou hast saved a True Believer from
+slaughter, and it happed after this fashion. I was on the
+house-terrace, spinning,[FN#170] when behold, there came up to me a
+youth, distracted and panting for fear of death, fleeing from yonder
+man, who followed upon him as hard as he could with his drawn sword.
+The young man fell down before me, and kissed my hands and feet,
+saying, “O Protector, of thy mercy, save me from him who would slay me
+wrongously!” So I hid him in that underground chamber of ours and
+presently in came yonder man to me, naked brand in hand, demanding the
+youth. But I denied him to him, whereupon he fell to abusing and
+threatening me as thou sawest. And praised be Allah who sent thee to
+me, for I was distraught and had none to deliver me!” “Well hast thou
+done, O woman!” answered the husband. “Thy reward is with Allah the
+Almighty, and may He abundantly requite thy good deed!” Then he went to
+the trap door and called to the page, saying, “Come forth and fear not;
+no harm shall befal thee.” So he came out, trembling for fear, and the
+husband said, “Be of good cheer: none shall I hurt thee;” condoling
+with him on what had befallen him; whilst the page called down
+blessings on his head. Then they both went forth, nor was that Cornuto
+nor was the page aware of that which the woman had contrived. “This,
+then, O King,” said the Wazir, “is one of the tricks of women; so
+beware lest thou rely upon their words.” The King was persuaded and
+turned from putting his son to death; but, on the third day, the
+favourite came in to him and, kissing the ground before him, cried, “O
+King, do me justice on thy son and be not turned from thy purpose by
+thy Ministers’ prate, for there is no good in wicked Wazirs, and be not
+as the King of Baghdad, who relied on the word of a certain wicked
+counsellor of his.” Quoth he, “And how was that?” Quoth she, “There
+hath been told me, O auspicious and well-advised King, a tale of
+
+
+The Kings Son and the Ogress.[FN#171]
+
+A certain King had a son, whom he loved and favoured with exceeding
+favour, over all his other children; and this son said to him one day,
+“O my father, I have a mind to fare a-coursing and a-hunting.” So the
+King bade furnish him and commanded one of his Wazirs to bear him
+company and do all the service he needed during his trip. The Minister
+accordingly took everything that was necessary for the journey and they
+set out with a retinue of eunuchs and officers and pages, and rode on,
+sporting as they went, till they came to a green and well-grassed
+champaign abounding in pasture and water and game. Here the Prince
+turned to the Minister and told him that the place pleased him and he
+purposed to halt there. So they set down in that site and they loosed
+the falcons and lynxes and dogs and caught great plenty of game,
+whereat they rejoiced and abode there some days, in all joyance of life
+and its delight. Then the King’s son gave the signal for departure;
+but, as they went along, a beautiful gazelle, as if the sun rose
+shining from between her horns, that had strayed from her mate, sprang
+up before the Prince, whereupon his soul longed to make prize of her
+and he coveted her. So he said to the Wazir, “I have a mind to follow
+that gazelle;” and the Minister replied, “Do what seemeth good to
+thee.” Thereupon the Prince rode single-handed after the gazelle, till
+he lost sight of his companions, and chased her all that day till dusk,
+when she took refuge in a bit of rocky ground[FN#172] and darkness
+closed in upon him. Then he would have turned back, but knew not the
+way; whereat he was sore concerned and said, “There is no Majesty and
+there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great!” He sat his
+mare all night till morning dawned, in quest of relief, but found none;
+and, when the day appeared, he fared on at hazard fearful, famished,
+thirsty, and knowing not whither to wend till it was noon and the sun
+beat down upon him with burning heat. By that time he came in sight of
+a great city, with massive base and lofty bulwarks; but it was ruined
+and desolate, nor was there any live thing therein save owl and raven.
+As he stood among the buildings, marvelling at their ordinance, lo! his
+eyes fell on a damsel, young, beautiful and lovely, sitting under one
+of the city walls wailing and weeping copious tears. So he drew nigh to
+her and asked, “Who art thou and who brought thee hither?” She
+answered, “I am called Bint al-Tamimah, daughter of Al-Tiyakh, King of
+the Gray Country. I went out one day to obey a call of nature,[FN#173]
+when an Ifrit of the Jinn snatched me up and soared with me between
+heaven and earth; but as he flew there fell on him a shooting-star in
+the form of a flame of fire and burned him, and I dropped here, where
+these three days I have hungered and thirsted; but when I saw thee I
+longed for life.” —And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
+to say her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Eighty-second Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Prince when
+addressed by the daughter of King Al-Tiyakh who said to him, “When I
+saw thee I longed for life,” was smitten with ruth and grief for her
+and took her up on his courser’s crupper, saying, “Be of good cheer and
+keep thine eyes cool and clear; for, if Allah (extolled and exalted be
+He!) restore me to my people and family, I will send thee back to thine
+own folk.” Then he rode on, praying for deliverance, and presently the
+damsel said to him, “O King’s son, set me down, that I may do an
+occasion under this wall.” So he drew bridle and she alighted. He
+waited for her a long while as she hid herself behind the wall; and she
+came forth, with the foulest of favours; which when he saw, his hair
+stood on end and he quaked for fear of her and he turned deadly pale.
+Then she sprang up on his steed, behind him, wearing the most loathly
+of aspects, and presently she said to him, “O King’s son, what ails
+thee that I see thee troubled and thy favour changed?” “I have
+bethought me of somewhat that troubles me.” “Seek aid against it of thy
+father’s troops and his braves.” “He whom I fear careth naught for
+troops, neither can braves affright him.” “Aid thyself against him with
+thy father’s monies and treasures.” “He whom I fear will not be
+satisfied with wealth.” “Ye hold that ye have in Heaven a God who seeth
+and is not seen and is Omnipotent and Omniscient.” “Yes, we have none
+but Him.” “Then pray thou to Him; haply He will deliver thee from me
+thine enemy!” So the King’s son raised his eyes to heaven and began to
+pray with his whole heart, saying, “O my God, I implore Thy succour
+against that which troubleth me.” Then he pointed to her with his hand,
+and she fell to the ground, burnt black as charcoal. Therewith he
+thanked Allah and praised Him and ceased not to fare forwards; and the
+Almighty (extolled and exalted be He!) of His grace made the way easy
+to him and guided him into the right road, so that he reached his own
+land and came upon his father’s capital, after he had despaired of
+life. Now all this befel by the contrivance of the Wazir, who travelled
+with him, to the end that he might cause him to perish on the way; but
+Almighty Allah succoured him. “And this” (said the damsel) “have I told
+thee, O King, that thou mayst know that wicked Wazirs deal not honestly
+by nor counsel with sincere intent their Kings; wherefore be thou wise
+and ware of them in this matter.” The King gave ear to her speech and
+bade put his son to death; but the third Wazir came in and said to his
+brother Ministers, “I will warrant you from the King’s mischief this
+day” and, going in to him, kissed the ground between his hands and
+said, “O King, I am thy true counsellor and solicitous for thee and for
+thine estate, and indeed I rede thee the best of rede; it is that thou
+hasten not to slay thy son, the coolth of thine eyes and the fruit of
+thy vitals. Haply his sin is but a slight slip, which this damsel hath
+made great to thee; and indeed I have heard tell that the people of two
+villages once destroyed one another, because of a drop of honey.” Asked
+the King, “How was that?”; and the Wazir answered, saying, “Know, O
+King, that I have heard this story anent
+
+
+The Drop of Honey.[FN#174]
+
+A certain hunter used to chase wild beasts in wold, and one day he came
+upon a grotto in the mountains, where he found a hollow full of bees’
+honey. So he took somewhat thereof in a water-skin he had with him and,
+throwing it over his shoulder, carried it to the city, followed by a
+hunting dog which was dear to him. He stopped at the shop of an oilman
+and offered him the honey for sale and he bought it. Then he emptied it
+out of the skin, that he might see it, and in the act a drop fell to
+the ground, whereupon the flies flocked to it and a bird swooped down
+upon the flies. Now the oilman had a cat, which sprang upon the bird,
+and the huntsman’s dog, seeing the cat, sprang upon it and slew it;
+whereupon the oilman sprang upon the dog and slew it, and the huntsman
+in turn sprang upon the oilman and slew him. Now the oilman was of one
+village and the huntsman of another; and when the people of the two
+places heard what had passed, they took up arms and weapons and rose
+one on other in wrath and the two lines met; nor did the sword leave to
+play amongst them, till there died of them much people, none knoweth
+their number save Almighty Allah. “And amongst other stories of the
+malice of women” (continued the Wazir) “I have heard tell, O King, one
+concerning
+
+
+The Woman who made her Husband Sift Dust.[FN#175]
+
+A man once gave his wife a dirham to buy rice; so she took it and went
+to the rice-seller, who gave her the rice and began to jest with her
+and ogle her, for she was dowered with beauty and loveliness, saying,
+“Rice is not good but with sugar which if thou wilt have, come in with
+me for an hour.” So, saying, “Give me sugar,” she went in with him into
+his shop and he won his will of her and said to his slave, “Weigh her
+out a dirham’s worth of sugar.” But he made the slave a privy sign, and
+the boy, taking the napkin, in which was the rice, emptied it out and
+put in earth and dust in its stead, and for the sugar set stones, after
+which he again knotted up the napkin and left it by her. His object, in
+doing this, was that she should come to him a second time; so, when she
+went forth of the shop, he gave her the napkin and she took it,
+thinking to have in it rice and sugar, and ganged her gait; but when
+she returned home and, setting it before her husband, went for a
+cooking-pot, he found in it earth and stones. So, as soon as she came
+back bringing the pot, he said to her, “Did I tell thee I had aught to
+build, that thou bringest me earth and stones?” When she saw this; she
+knew that the rice-seller’s slave had tricked her; so she said to her
+husband, “O man, in my trouble of mind for what hath befallen me, I
+went to fetch the sieve and brought the cooking-pot.” “What hath
+troubled thee?” asked he; and she answered, “O husband, I dropped the
+dirham thou gavest me in the market-street and was ashamed to search
+for it before the folk; yet I grudged to lose the silver, so I gathered
+up the earth from the place where it fell and brought it away, thinking
+to sift it at home. Wherefore I went to fetch the sieve, but brought
+the cooking-pot instead.” Then she fetched the sieve and gave it to her
+husband, saying, “Do thou sift it; for thine eyes are sharper than
+mine.” Accordingly he sat, sifting the clay, till his face and beard
+were covered with dust; and he discovered not her trick, neither knew
+what had befallen her. “This then, O King,” said the Wazir, “is an
+instance of the malice of women, and consider the saying of Allah
+Almighty,—Surely the cunning of you (women) is great![FN#176] And
+again, ‘Indeed, the malice of Satan is weak in comparison with the
+malice of women.’”[FN#177] The King gave ear to his Wazir’s speech and
+was persuaded thereby and was satisfied by what he cited to him of the
+signs of Allah[FN#178]; and the lights of good counsel arose and shone
+in the firmament of his understanding and he turned from his purpose of
+slaying his son. But on the fourth day, the favourite came in to him
+weeping and wailing and, kissing the ground before him, said, “O
+auspicious King, and lord of good rede, I have made plainly manifest to
+thee my grievance and thou hast dealt unjustly by me and hast forborne
+to avenge me on him who hath wronged me, because he is thy son and the
+darling of thy heart; but Allah (extolled and exalted be He!) will
+presently succour me against him, even as He succoured the King’s son
+against his father’s Wazir.” “And how was that?” asked the King; and
+she answered, “I have heard tell, O King, a tale of
+
+
+The Enchanted String.[FN#179]
+
+There was once in times gone by a King who had one son and none other;
+and, when the Prince grew up to man’s estate, he contracted him in
+marriage to another King’s daughter. Now the damsel was a model of
+beauty and grace and her uncle’s son had sought her in wedlock of her
+sire, but she would none of him. So, when he knew that she was to be
+married to another, envy and jealousy gat hold of him and he bethought
+himself and sent a noble present to the Wazir of the bridegroom’s
+father and much treasure, desiring him to use craft for slaying the
+Prince or contrive to make him leave his intent of espousing the girl
+and adding, “O Wazir, indeed jealousy moveth me to this for she is my
+cousin.”[FN#180] The Wazir accepted the present and sent an answer,
+saying, “Be of good cheer and of eyes cool and clear, for I will do all
+that thou wishest.” Presently, the bride’s father wrote to the Prince,
+bidding him to his capital, that he might go in to his daughter;
+whereupon the King his father gave him leave to wend his way thither,
+sending with him the bribed Wazir and a thousand horse, besides
+presents and litters, tents and pavilions. The Minister set out with
+the Prince, plotting the while in his heart to do him a mischief; and
+when they came into the desert, he called to mind a certain spring of
+running water in the mountains there, called Al-Zahra,[FN#181] whereof
+whosoever drank from a man became a woman. So he called a halt of the
+troops near the fountain and presently mounting steed again, said to
+the Prince, “Hast thou a mind to go with me and look upon a spring of
+water near hand?” The Prince mounted, knowing not what should befal him
+in the future,[FN#182] and they rode on, unattended by any, and without
+stopping till they came to the spring. The Prince being thirsty said to
+the Wazir, “O Minister, I am suffering from drouth,” and the other
+answered, “Get thee down and drink of this spring!” So he alighted and
+washed his hands and drank, when behold, he straightway became a woman.
+As soon as he knew what had befallen him, he cried out and wept till he
+fainted away, and the Wazir came up to him as if to learn what had
+befallen him and cried, “What aileth thee?” So he told him what had
+happened, and the Minister feigned to condole with him and weep for his
+affliction, saying, “Allah Almighty be thy refuge in thine affliction!
+How came this calamity upon thee and this great misfortune to betide
+thee, and we carrying thee with joy and gladness, that thou mightest go
+in to the King’s daughter? Verily, now I know not whether we shall go
+to her or not; but the rede[FN#183] is thine. What dost thou command me
+to do?” Quoth the Prince, “Go back to my sire and tell him what hath
+betided me, for I will not stir hence till this matter be removed from
+me or I die in my regret.” So he wrote a letter to his father, telling
+him what had happened, and the Wazir took it and set out on his return
+to the city, leaving what troops he had with the Prince and inwardly
+exulting for the success of his plot. As soon as he reached the King’s
+capital, he went in to him and, telling him what had passed, delivered
+the letter. The King mourned for his son with sore mourning and sent
+for the wise men and masters of esoteric science, that they might
+discover and explain to him this thing which had befallen his son, but
+none could give him an answer. Then the Wazir wrote to the lady’s
+cousin, conveying to him the glad news of the Prince’s misfortune, and
+he when he read the letter rejoiced with great joy and thought to marry
+the Princess and answered the Minister sending him rich presents and
+great store of treasure and thanking him exceedingly. Meanwhile, the
+Prince abode by the stream three days and three nights, eating not nor
+drinking and committing himself, in his strait, unto Allah (extolled
+and exalted be He!) who disappointeth not whoso relieth on him. On the
+fourth night, lo! there came to him a cavalier on a bright-bay
+steed[FN#184] with a crown on his head, as he were of the sons of the
+Kings, and said to him, “Who brought thee hither, O youth?” The Prince
+told him his mishap, how he was wending to his wedding, and how the
+Wazir had led him to a spring whereof he drank and incurred what had
+occurred; and as he spoke his speech was broken by tears. Having heard
+him the horseman pitied his case and said, “It was thy father’s Wazir
+who cast thee into this strait, for no man alive save he knoweth of
+this spring;” presently adding, “Mount thee behind me and come with me
+to my dwelling, for thou art my guest this night.” “Acquaint me who
+thou art ere I fare with thee,” quoth the Prince; and quoth the other,
+“I am a King’s son of the Jánn, as thou a King’s son of mankind; so be
+of good cheer and keep thine eyes clear of tear, for I will surely do
+away thy cark and care; and this is a slight thing unto me.” So the
+Prince mounted him behind the stranger, and they rode on, leaving the
+troops, from the first of the day till midnight, when the King’s son of
+the Jinn asked the Prince, “Knowest thou how many days’ march we have
+covered in this time?” “Not I.” “We have come a full year’s journey for
+a diligent horseman.” The Prince marvelled at this and said, “How shall
+I do to return to my people?” “That is not thine affair, but my
+business. As soon as thou art quit of thy complaint, thou shalt return
+to thy people in less than the twinkling of an eye; for that is an easy
+matter to me.” When the Prince heard these words he was ready to fly
+for excess of joy; it seemed to him as he were in the imbroglio of a
+dream and he exclaimed, “Glory be to Him who can restore the unhappy to
+happiness!”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying
+her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Eighty-third Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Prince of the
+Jinn said to the Prince of mankind, “When thou art quit of thy
+complaint, thou shalt return to thy folk in less than the twinkling of
+an eye;” and the King’s son rejoiced. They fared on all that night till
+the morning morrowed when lo! they found themselves in a green and
+smiling country, full of trees spireing and birds quiring and garths
+fruit-growing and palaces highshowing and waters a-flowing and
+odoriferous flowers a-blowing. Here the King’s son of the Jinn alighted
+from his steed and, bidding the Prince do the like, took him by the
+hand and carried him into one of the palaces, where he found a great
+King and puissant Sultan; and abode with him all that day eating and
+drinking, till nightfall. Then the King’s son of the Jinn mounted his
+courser and taking the Prince up behind him, fared on swiftly through
+the murks and glooms until morning, when lo, they found themselves in a
+dark land and a desert, full of black rocks and stones, as it were a
+piece of Hell; and the Prince asked the Jinni, “What is the name of
+this land?” Answered the other, “It is called the Black Country, and
+belongs to one of the Kings of the Jinn, by name Zu’l Janahayn, against
+whom none of the other Kings may prevail, neither may any enter his
+dominions save by his permit; so tarry thou here, whilst I go ask
+leave.” So saying, he went away and, returning after awhile, they fared
+on again, till they landed at a spring of water welling forth of a
+black rock, and the King’s son of the Jinn said to the King’s son of
+men, “Alight!” He dismounted and the other cried, “Drink of this
+water!” So he drank of the spring without stay or delay; and, no sooner
+had he done so than, by grace of Allah, he became a man as before. At
+this he joyed with exceeding joy and asked the Jinni, “O my brother,
+how is this spring called?” Answered the other, “It is called the
+Women’s Spring, for that no woman drinketh thereof but she becometh a
+man: wherefore do thou praise Allah the Most High and thank Him for thy
+restoration and mount.” So the Prince prostrated himself in gratitude
+to the Almighty, after which he mounted again and they fared on
+diligently all that day, till they returned to the Jinni’s home, where
+the Prince passed the night in all solace of life. They spent the next
+day in eating and drinking till nightfall, when the King’s son of the
+Jinn asked the Prince, “Hast thou a mind to return to thy people this
+very night?” “Yes,” he answered; “for indeed I long for them.” Then the
+Jinni called one of his father’s slaves, Rajiz[FN#185] hight, and said
+to him, “Take this young man mounted on thy shoulders, and let not the
+day dawn ere he be with his father-in-law and his wife.” Replied the
+slave, “Hearkening and obedience, and with love and gladness, and upon
+my head and eyes!” then, withdrawing awhile, re-appeared in the form of
+an Ifrit. When the Prince saw this, he lost his senses for affright,
+but the Jinni said to him, “Fear not; no harm shall befal thee. Mount
+thy horse and leap him on to the Ifrit’s shoulders.” “Nay,” answered
+he, “I will leave my horse with thee and bestride his shoulders
+myself.” So he bestrode the Ifrit’s shoulders and, when the Jinni
+cried, “Close thine eyes, O my lord, and be not a craven!” he
+strengthened his heart and shut his eyes. Thereupon the Ifrit rose with
+him into the air and ceased not to fly between sky and earth, whilst
+the Prince was unconscious, nor was the last third of the night come
+before he alighted down with him on the terrace-roof of his
+father-in-law’s palace. Then said the Ifrit, “Dismount and open thine
+eyes; for this is the palace of thy father-in-law and his daughter.” So
+he came down and the Ifrit flew away and left him on the roof of the
+palace. When the day broke and the Prince recovered from his troubles,
+he descended into the palace and as his father-in-law caught sight of
+him, he came to meet him and marvelled to see him descend from the roof
+of the palace, saying, “We see folk enter by the doors; but thou comest
+from the skies.” Quoth the Prince, “Whatso Allah (may He be extolled
+and exalted!) willeth that cometh to pass.” And he told him all that
+had befallen him, from first to last, whereat the King marvelled and
+rejoiced in his safety; and, as soon as the sun rose, bade his Wazir
+make ready splendid bride-feasts. So did he and they held the marriage
+festival: after which the Prince went in unto his bride and abode with
+her two months, then departed with her for his father’s capital. As for
+the damsel’s cousin, he died forthright of envy and jealousy. When the
+Prince and his bride drew near his father’s city, the King came out to
+meet them with his troops and Wazirs, and so Allah (blessed and exalted
+be He!) enabled the Prince to prevail against his bride’s cousin and
+his father’s Minister. “And I pray the Almighty” (added the damsel) “to
+aid thee against thy Wazirs, O King, and I beseech thee to do me
+justice on thy son!” When the King heard this, he bade put his son to
+death;—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
+permitted say.
+
+When is was the Five Hundred and Eighty-forth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
+favourite had told her tale to the King she said, “I beseech thee to do
+me justice by putting thy son to death.” Now this was the fourth day,
+so the fourth Wazir entered and, kissing the ground before him, said,
+“Allah stablish and protect the King! O King, be deliberate in doing
+this thou art resolved upon, for the wise man doth naught till he hath
+considered the issue thereof, and the proverb saith, ‘Whoso looketh not
+to his actions’ end, hath not the world to friend; and whoso acteth
+without consideration, there befalleth him what befel the Hammam-keeper
+with his wife.’” “And what betided him?” asked the King. And the Wazir
+answered, “I have heard tell, O King, a tale of the
+
+
+Wazir’s Son and the Hammam-Keepeer’s Wife.”[FN#186]
+
+There was once a bath-keeper, to whom resorted the notables of the folk
+and head men, and one day there came in to him a handsome youth of the
+sons of Wazirs who was fat and bulky of body. So he stood to serve him
+and when the young man put off his clothes[FN#187] he saw not his yard,
+for that it was hidden between his thighs, by reason of the excess of
+his fat, and there appeared thereof but what was like unto a
+filbert.[FN#188] At this the bath-keeper fell a-lamenting and smiting
+hand upon hand, which when the youth saw, he said to him, “What ails
+thee, O bath-keeper, to lament thus?” And he answered, saying, “O my
+lord, my lamentation is for thee, because thou art in sore straits, for
+all thy fair fortune and goodliness and exceeding comeliness, seeing
+thou hast naught wherewithal to do and receive delight, like unto other
+men.” Quoth the youth, “Thou sayst sooth, but thou mindest me of
+somewhat I had forgotten.” “What is that?” asked the bathkeeper, and
+the youth answered, “Take this gold piece and fetch me a pretty woman,
+that I may prove my nature on her.” So he took the money and betaking
+himself to his wife, said to her, “O woman, there is come to me in the
+bath a young man of the sons of the Wazirs, as he were the moon on the
+fullest night; but he hath no prickle like other men, for that which he
+hath is but some small matter like unto a filbert. I lamented over his
+youth and he gave me this dinar and asked me to fetch him a woman on
+whom he might approve himself. Now thou art worthier of the money than
+another, and from this no harm shall betide us, for I will protect
+thee. So do thou sit with him awhile and laugh at him and take this
+dinar from him.” So the good wife took the dinar and rising, adorned
+herself and donned the richest of her raiment. Now she was the fairest
+woman of her time. Then she went out with her husband and he carried
+her in to the Wazir’s son in a privy place. When she came in to him,
+she looked at him and finding him a handsome youth, fair of favour as
+he were the moon at full, was confounded at his beauty and loveliness;
+and on like wise his heart and wit were amazed at the first sight of
+her and the sweetness of her smile. So he rose forthright and locking
+the door, took the damsel in his arms and pressed her to his bosom and
+they embraced, whereupon the young man’s yard swelled and rose on end,
+as it were that of a jackass, and he rode upon her breast and futtered
+her, whilst she sobbed and sighed and writhed and wriggled under him.
+Now the bathkeeper was standing behind the door, awaiting what should
+betide between them, and he began to call her saying, “O Umm Abdillah,
+enough! Come out, for the day is long upon thy sucking child.” Quoth
+the youth, “Go forth to thy boy and come back;” but quoth she, “If I go
+forth from thee, my soul will depart my body; as regards the child, so
+I must either leave him to die of weeping or let him be reared an
+orphan, without a mother.” So she ceased not to abide with him till he
+had done his desire of her ten times running, while her husband stood
+at the door, calling her and crying out and weeping and imploring
+succour. But none came to aid him and he ceased not to do thus, saying,
+“I will slay myself!”; till at last, finding no way of access to his
+wife, and being distraught with rage and jealousy, to hear her sighing
+and murmuring and breathing hard under the young man, he went up to the
+top of the bath and, casting himself down therefrom, died. “Moreover, O
+King” (continued the Wazir), “there hath reached me another story of
+the malice of women.” “What is that?” asked the King, and the Wazir
+said, “Know, O King, that it is anent
+
+
+The Wife’s Device to Cheat her Husband.”
+
+There was once a woman who had no equal in her day for beauty and
+loveliness and grace and perfection; and a certain lewd youth and an
+obscene setting eyes on her, fell in love with her and loved her with
+exceeding passion, but she was chaste and inclined not to adultery. It
+chanced one day that her husband went on a journey to a certain town,
+whereupon the young man fell to sending to her many times a day; but
+she made him no reply. At last, he resorted to an old woman, who dwelt
+hard by, and after saluting her he sat down and complained to her of
+his sufferings for love of the woman and his longing to enjoy her.
+Quoth she, “I will warrant thee this; no harm shall befal thee, for I
+will surely bring thee to thy desire, Inshallah, —an it please Allah
+the Most High!” At these words he gave her a dinar and went his way.
+When the morning morrowed she appeared before the woman and, renewing
+an old acquaintance with her, fell to visiting her daily, eating the
+undertime with her and the evening meal and carrying away food for her
+children. Moreover, she used to sport and jest with her, till the wife
+became corrupted[FN#189] and could not endure an hour without her
+company. Now she was wont, when she left the lady’s house, to take
+bread and fat wherewith she mixed a little pepper and to feed a bitch,
+that was in that quarter; and thus she did day by day, till the bitch
+became fond of her and followed her wherever she went. One day she took
+a cake of dough and, putting therein an overdose of pepper, gave it to
+the bitch to eat, whereupon the beast’s eyes began to shed tears, for
+the heat of the pepper, and she followed the old woman, weeping. When
+the lady saw this she was amazed and asked the ancient, “O my mother,
+what ails this bitch to weep?” Answered she, “Learn, O my heart’s love,
+that hers is a strange story. Know that she was once a close friend of
+mine, a lovely and accomplished young lady, a model of comeliness and
+perfect grace. A young Nazarene of the quarter fell in love with her
+and his passion and pining increased on him, till he took to his
+pillow, and he sent to her times manifold, begging her to have
+compassion on him and show him mercy, but she refused, albeit I gave
+her good counsel, saying,—O my daughter, have pity on him and be kind
+and consent to all he wisheth. She gave no heed to my advice, until,
+the young man’s patience failing him, he complained at last to one of
+his friends, who cast an enchantment on her and changed her human shape
+into canine form. When she saw what transformation had befallen her and
+that there was none to pity her case save myself, she came to my house
+and began to fawn on me and buss my hands and feet and whine and shed
+tears, till I recognised her and said to her, ‘How often did I not warn
+thee?; but my advice profited thee naught.’”—And Shahrazad perceived
+the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Eighty-fifth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the old trot
+related to the young lady the tale of the bitch and recounted the case
+in her cunning and deceit, with the view to gain her consent and said
+to her, “When the enchanted beast came to me and wept I reminded her,
+‘How often did I not warn thee?; but my advice profited thee naught.’
+However, O my daughter, seeing her misery, I had compassion on her case
+and kept her by me; and as often as she bethinketh herself of her
+former estate, she weepeth thus, in pity for herself.” When the lady
+heard this, she was taken with great alarm and said, “O my mother, by
+Allah, thou affrightest me with this thy story.” “Why so?” asked the
+old woman. Answered the lady, “Because a certain handsome young man
+fell in love with me and hath sent many times to me, but hitherto I
+have repelled him; and now I fear lest there befal me the like of what
+befel this bitch.” “O my daughter,” rejoined the old woman, “look thou
+to what I counsel thee and beware of crossing me, for I am in great
+fear for thee. If thou know not his abiding-place, describe his
+semblance to me, that I may fetch him to thee, and let not any one’s
+heart be angered against thee.” So the lady described him to her, and
+she showed not to know him and said, “When I go out, I will ask after
+him.” But when she left the lady, she went straight to the young man
+and said to him, “Be of good cheer, for I have played with the girl’s
+wits; so to-morrow at noon wait thou at the head of the street, till I
+come and carry thee to her house, where thou shalt take thine ease with
+her the rest of the day and all night long.” At this the young man
+rejoiced with exceeding joy and gave her two dinars, saying, “When I
+have won my wish of her, I will give thee ten gold pieces.” Then she
+returned to the lady and said to her, “I have seen him and spoken with
+him on this matter. I found him exceeding wroth with thee and minded to
+do thee a harm, but I plied him with fair words till he agreed to come
+to-morrow at the time of the call to noon-prayer.” When the lady heard
+this she rejoiced exceedingly and said, “O my mother, if he keep his
+promise, I will give thee ten dinars.” Quoth the old woman, “Look to
+his coming from none but from me.” When the next morn morrowed she said
+to the lady, “Make ready the early meal and forget not the wine and
+adorn thyself and don thy richest dress and decoration, whilst I go and
+fetch him to thee.” So she clad herself in her finest finery and
+prepared food, whilst the old woman went out to look for the young man,
+who came not. So she went around searching for him, but could come by
+no news of him, and she said to herself, “What is to be done? Shall the
+food and drink she hath gotten ready be wasted and I lose the gold
+pieces she promised me? Indeed, I will not allow my cunning contrivance
+to come to naught, but will look her out another man and carry him to
+her.” So she walked about the highways till her eyes fell on a pretty
+fellow, young and distinguished-looking, to whom the folk bowed and who
+bore in his face the traces of travel. She went up to him and saluting
+him, asked, “Hast thou a mind to meat and drink and a girl adorned and
+ready?” Answered he, “Where is this to be had?” “At home, in my house,”
+rejoined she and carrying him to his own house, knocked at the door.
+The lady opened to them and ran in again, to make an end of her
+dressing and perfuming; whilst the wicked old woman brought the man,
+who was the husband and house-master, into the saloon and made him sit
+down congratulating herself on her cunning contrivance. Presently in
+walked the lady, who no sooner set eyes on her husband sitting by the
+old trot than she knew him and guessed how the case stood;
+nevertheless, she was not taken aback and without stay or delay
+bethought her of a device to hoodwink him. So she pulled off her outer
+boot and cried at her husband, “Is this how thou keepest the contract
+between us? How canst thou betray me and deal thus with me? Know that,
+when I heard of thy coming, I sent this old woman to try thee and she
+hath made thee fall into that against which I warned thee: so now I am
+certified of thine affair and that thou hast broken faith with me. I
+thought thee chaste and pure till I saw thee, with my own eyes, in this
+old woman’s company and knew that thou didst frequent loose baggages.”
+So saying, she fell to beating him with her slipper about the head, and
+crying out, “Divorce me! Divorce me!”; whilst he excused himself and
+swore to her, by Allah the Most High, that he had never in his life
+been untrue to her nor had done aught of that whereof she suspected
+him. But she stinted not to weep and scream and bash him, crying out
+and saying, “Come to my help, O Moslems!”; till he laid hold of her
+mouth with his hand and she bit it. Moreover, he humbled himself to her
+and kissed her hands and feet, whilst she would not be appeased and
+continued to cuff him. At last, she winked at the old woman to come and
+hold her hand from him. So she came up to her and kissed her hands and
+feet, till she made peace between them and they sat down together;
+whereupon the husband began to kiss her hands, saying, “Allah Almighty
+requite thee with all good, for that thou hast delivered me from her!”
+And the old woman marvelled at the wife’s cunning and ready wit. “This,
+then, O King” (said the Wazir) “is one of many instances of the craft
+and malice and perfidy of women.” When the King heard this story, he
+was persuaded by it and turned from his purpose to slay his son;— And
+Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted
+say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Eighty-sixth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the fourth
+Wazir had told his tale, the King turned from his purpose to slay his
+son; but, on the fifth day, the damsel came in to him hending a bowl of
+poison in hand, calling on Heaven for help and buffeting her cheeks and
+face, and said to him, “O King, either thou shalt do me justice and
+avenge me on thy son, or I will drink up this poison-cup and die, and
+the sin of my blood shall be on thy head at the Day of Doom. These thy
+Ministers accuse me of malice and perfidy, but there be none in the
+world more perfidious than men. Hast thou not heard the story of the
+Goldsmith and the Cashmere[FN#190] singing-girl?” “What befel the
+twain, O damsel?” asked the King; and she answered, saying, “There hath
+come to my knowledge, O august King, a tale of the
+
+
+Goldsmith and the Cashmere Singing-Girl.
+
+There lived once, in a city of Persia a goldsmith who delighted in
+women and in drinking wine. One day, being in the house of one of his
+intimates, he saw painted on the wall the figure of a lutanist, a
+beautiful damsel, beholder never beheld a fairer or a more pleasant. He
+looked at the picture again and again, marvelling at its beauty, and
+fell so desperately in love with it, that he sickened for passion and
+came near to die. It chanced that one of his friends came to visit him
+and sitting down by his side, asked how he did and what ailed him,
+whereto the goldsmith answered, “O my brother, that which ails me is
+love, and it befel on this wise. I saw a figure of a woman painted on
+the house-wall of my brother such an one and became enamoured of it.”
+Hereupon the other fell to blaming him and said, “This was of thy lack
+of wit; how couldst thou fall in love with a painted figure on a wall,
+that can neither harm nor profit, that seeth not neither heareth, that
+neither taketh nor withholdeth.” Said the sick man, “He who painted
+yonder picture never could have limned it save after the likeness of
+some beautiful woman.” “Haply,” rejoined his friend, “he painted it
+from imagination.” “In any case,” replied the goldsmith, “here am I
+dying for love of the picture, and if there live the original thereof
+in the world, I pray Allah Most High to protect my life till I see
+her.” When those who were present went out, they asked for the painter
+of the picture and, finding that he had travelled to another town,
+wrote him a letter, complaining of their comrade’s case and enquiring
+whether he had drawn the figure of his own inventive talents or copied
+it from a living model; to which he replied, “I painted it after a
+certain singing-girl belonging to one of the Wazirs in the city of
+Cashmere in the land of Hind.” When the goldsmith heard this, he left
+Persia for Cashmere-city, where he arrived after much travail. He
+tarried awhile there till one day he went and clapped up an
+acquaintance with a certain of the citizens who was a druggist, a
+fellow of a sharp wit, keen, crafty; and, being one even-tide in
+company with him, asked him of their King and his polity; to which the
+other answered, saying, “Well, our King is just and righteous in his
+governance, equitable to his lieges and beneficent to his commons and
+abhorreth nothing in the world save sorcerers; but, whenever a sorcerer
+or sorceress falls into his hands, he casteth them into a pit without
+the city and there leaveth them in hunger to die.” Then he questioned
+him of the King’s Wazirs, and the druggist told him of each Minister,
+his fashion and condition, till the talk came round to the singing-girl
+and he told him, “She belongeth to such a Wazir.” The goldsmith took
+note of the Minister’s abiding place and waited some days, till he had
+devised a device to his desire; and one night of rain and thunder and
+stormy winds, he provided himself with thieves’ tackle and repaired to
+the house of the Wazir who owned the damsel. Here he hanged a
+rope-ladder with grappling-irons to the battlements and climbed up to
+the terrace-roof of the palace. Thence he descended to the inner court
+and, making his way into the Harim, found all the slave-girls lying
+asleep, each on her own couch; and amongst them reclining on a couch of
+alabaster and covered with a coverlet of cloth of gold a damsel, as she
+were the moon rising on a fourteenth night. At her head stood a candle
+of ambergris, and at her feet another, each in a candlestick of
+glittering gold, her brilliancy dimming them both; and under her pillow
+lay a casket of silver, wherein were her Jewels. He raised the coverlet
+and drawing near her, considered her straitly, and behold, it was the
+lutanist whom he desired and of whom he was come in quest. So he took
+out a knife and wounded her in the back parts, a palpable outer wound,
+whereupon she awoke in terror; but, when she saw him, she was afraid to
+cry out, thinking he came to steal her goods. So she said to him, “Take
+the box and what is therein, but slay me not, for I am in thy
+protection and under thy safe-guard[FN#191] and my death will profit
+thee nothing.” Accordingly, he took the box and went away.—And
+Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted
+say.
+
+When is was the Five Hundred and Eighty-seventh Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
+goldsmith had entered the Wazir’s palace he wounded the damsel slightly
+in the back parts and, taking the box which contained her jewels,
+wended his way. And when morning morrowed he donned clothes after the
+fashion of men of learning and doctors of the law and, taking the
+jewel-case went in therewith to the King of the city, before whom he
+kissed the ground and said to him, “O King, I am a devout man; withal a
+loyal well-wisher to thee and come hither a pilgrim to thy court from
+the land of Khorasan, attracted by the report of thy just governance
+and righteous dealing with thy subjects and minded to be under thy
+standard. I reached this city at the last of the day and finding the
+gate locked and barred, threw me down to sleep without the walls; but,
+as I lay betwixt sleep and wake, behold, I saw four women come up; one
+riding on a broom-stick, another on a wine-jar, a third on an oven-peel
+and a fourth on a black bitch,[FN#192] and I knew that they were
+witches making for thy city. One of them came up to me and kicked me
+with her foot and beat me with a fox’s tail she had in her hand,
+hurting me grievously, whereat I was wroth and smote her with a knife I
+had with me, wounding her in the back parts, as she turned to flee from
+me. When she felt the wound, she fled before me and in her flight let
+drop this casket, which I picked up and opening, found these costly
+jewels therein. So do thou take it, for I have no need thereof, being a
+wanderer in the mountains[FN#193] who hath rejected the world from my
+heart and renounced it and all that is in it, seeking only the face of
+Allah the Most High.” Then he set the casket before the King and fared
+forth. The King opened the box and emptying out all the trinkets it
+contained, fell to turning them over with his hand, till he chanced
+upon a necklace whereof he had made gift to the Wazir to whom the girl
+belonged. Seeing this, he called the Minister in question and said to
+him, “This is the necklace I gave thee?” He knew it at first sight and
+answered, “It is; and I gave it to a singing girl of mine.” Quoth the
+King, “Fetch that girl to me forthwith.” So he fetched her to him, and
+he said, “Uncover her back parts and see if there be a wound therein or
+no.” The Wazir accordingly bared her backside and finding a knife-wound
+there, said, “Yes, O my lord, there is a wound.” Then said the King,
+“This is the witch of whom the devotee told me, and there can be no
+doubt of it,” and bade cast her into the witches’ well. So they carried
+her thither at once. As soon as it was night and the goldsmith knew
+that his plot had succeeded, he repaired to the pit, taking with him a
+purse of a thousand dinars, and, entering into converse with the
+warder, sat talking with him till a third part of the night was passed,
+when he broached the matter to him, saying, “Know, O my brother, that
+this girl is innocent of that they lay to her charge and that it was I
+brought this calamity upon her.” Then he told him the whole story,
+first and last, adding, “Take, O my brother, this purse of a thousand
+dinars and give me the damsel, that I may carry her to my own land, for
+these gold pieces will profit thee more than keeping her in prison;
+moreover Allah will requite thee for us, and we too will both offer up
+prayers for thy prosperity and safety.” When the warder heard this
+story, he marvelled with exceeding marvel at that device and its
+success; then taking the money, he delivered the girl to the goldsmith,
+conditioning that he should not abide one hour with her in the city.
+Thereupon the goldsmith took the girl and fared on with her, without
+ceasing, till he reached his own country and so he won his wish. “See,
+then, O King” (said the damsel), “the malice of men and their wiles.
+Now thy Wazirs hinder thee from doing me justice on thy son; but
+to-morrow we shall stand, both thou and I, before the Just Judge, and
+He shall do me justice on thee, O King.” When the King heard this, he
+commanded to put his son to death; but the fifth Wazir came in to him
+and kissing the ground before him, said, “O mighty King, delay and
+hasten not to slay thy son: speed will oftentimes repentance breed; and
+I fear for thee lest thou repent, even as did the man who never laughed
+for the rest of his days.” “And how was that, O Wazir?” asked the King.
+Quoth he, “I have heard tell, O King, this tale concerning
+
+
+The Man who never Laughed during the Rest of his Days.
+
+There was once a man who was rich in lands and houses and monies and
+goods, eunuchs and slaves, and he died and went to the mercy of Allah
+the Most High; leaving a young son, who, when he grew up, gave himself
+to feasting and carousing and hearing music and singing and the loud
+laughter of parasites; and he wasted his substance in gifts and
+prodigality till he had squandered all the money his father left him,
+—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
+permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Eighty-eighth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young man,
+when he had squandered all the money his father had left him and naught
+thereof remained to him, betook himself to selling his slaves and
+handmaids, lands and houses and spent the proceeds on like wise, till
+he was reduced to beggary and must needs labour for his living. He
+abode thus a year’s space, at the end of which time he was sitting one
+day under a wall, awaiting who should hire him when behold, there came
+up to him an old man of comely aspect and apparel and saluted him. The
+young man asked, “O uncle, hast thou known me aforetime?” and the other
+answered, “Not so, O my son, I know thee not at all, at all; but I see
+the trace of gentle breeding on thee despite thy present case.” “O
+uncle,” rejoined the poor man, “needs must Fate and Fortune be
+accomplished; but, O uncle, O bright of blee, hast thou any occasion
+wherein thou wouldst employ me?” Said the other, “I wish, O my son, to
+employ thee in a slight matter.” “What is it?” quoth the young man, and
+quoth the stranger, “We are eleven old men in one house, but we have
+none to serve us; so an thou wilt stay and take service with us, thou
+shalt have food and clothing to thy heart’s content, besides what
+cometh to thee of coin and other good; and haply Allah will restore
+thee thy fortune by our means.” Replied the youth, “Hearkening and
+obedience!” “But I have a condition to impose on thee.” “What is that?”
+“O my son, it is that thou keep our secret in what thou seest us do,
+and if thou see us weep, that thou question us not of the cause of our
+weeping.” “It is well, O uncle;” “Come with me, O my son, with the
+blessing of Allah Almighty.” So he followed him to the bath, where the
+old man caused cleanse his body of the crusted dirt, after which he
+sent one to fetch a handsome garment of linen and clad him therein.
+Then he carried him to his company which was in his domicile and the
+youth found a house lofty and spacious and strongly builded, wherein
+were sitting-chambers facing one another; and saloons, in each one a
+fountain of water, with the birds warbling over it, and windows on
+every side, giving upon a fair garden within the house. The old man
+brought him into one of the parlours, which was variegated with
+many-coloured marbles, the ceiling thereof being decorated with
+ultramarine and glowing gold; and the floor bespread with silken
+carpets. Here he found ten Shaykhs in mourning apparel, seated one
+opposite other, weeping and wailing. He marvelled at their case and
+purposed to ask the reason, when he remembered the condition and held
+his peace. Then he who had brought him delivered to him a chest
+containing thirty thousand dinars and said to him, “O my son, spend
+freely from this chest what is fitting for our entertainment and thine
+own; and be thou faithful and remember that wherewith I charged thee.”
+“I hear and I obey,” answered he and served them days and nights, till
+one of them died, whereupon his fellows washed him and shrouded him and
+buried him in a garden behind the house,[FN#194] nor did death cease to
+take them, one after other, till there remained but the Shaykh who had
+hired the youth for service. Then the two men, old and young, dwelt
+together in that house alone for years and years, nor was there with
+them a third save Allah the Most High, till the elder fell sick; and
+when the younger despaired of his life, he went up to him and condoling
+with him, said, “O nuncle mine, I have waited upon you twelve years and
+have not failed of my duties a single hour, but have been loyal and
+faithful to you and served you with my might and main.” “Yes, O my
+son,” answered the old man, “thou hast served us well until all my
+comrades are gone to the mercy of Allah (to whom belong honour and
+glory!) and needs must I die also.” “O my lord,” said the other, “thou
+art in danger of death and I would fain have thee acquaint me with the
+cause of your weeping and wailing and of your unceasing mourning and
+lamentation and regrets.” “O my son,” answered the old man, “it
+concerns thee not to know this, so importune me not of what I may not
+do: for I have vowed to Almighty Allah that I would acquaint none of
+His creatures with this, lest he be afflicted with what befel me and my
+comrades. If, then, thou desire to be delivered from that into which we
+fell, look thou open not yonder door,”[FN#195] and pointed to a
+certain part of the house; “but, if thou have a mind to suffer what we
+have suffered, then open it and thou shalt learn the cause of that thou
+hast seen us do; and whenas thou knowest it, thou shalt repent what
+time repentance will avail thee not.”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn
+of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Eighty-ninth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the surviving
+Shaykh of the ten said to the youth, “Beware how thou open yonder door
+or thou shalt repent what time repentance will avail thee not.” Then
+his sickness grew on him and he accomplished his term and departed life
+to the presence of his Lord; and the young man washed him with his own
+hands and shrouded him and buried him by the side of his comrades;
+after which he abode alone in the place and took possession of
+whatsoever was therein. Withal he was uneasy and troubled concerning
+the case of the old men, till, one day, as he sat pondering the words
+of his dead master and his injunction not to open the door, he suddenly
+bethought himself to go and look for it. So he rose up and repaired to
+the part whither the dead man had pointed and sought till, in a dark
+unfrequented corner, he found a little door, over which the spider had
+spun her webs and which was fastened with four padlocks of steel.
+Seeing this he recalled the old man’s warning and restrained himself
+and went away; and he held aloof from it seven days, whilst all the
+time his heart prompted him to open it. On the eighth day his curiosity
+got the better of him and he said, “Come what will, needs must I open
+the door and see what will happen to me therefrom. Nothing can avert
+what is fated and fore-ordained of Allah the Most High; nor doth aught
+befal but by His will.” So saying, he rose and broke the padlocks and
+opening the door saw a narrow passage, which he followed for some three
+hours when lo! he came out on the shore of a vast ocean[FN#196] and
+fared on along the beach, marvelling at this main, whereof he had no
+knowledge and turning right and left. Presently, a great eagle swooped
+down upon him from the lift and seizing him in its talons, flew away
+with him betwixt heaven and earth, till it came to an island in the
+midst of the sea, where it cast him down and flew away. The youth was
+dazed and knew not whither he should wend, but after a few days as he
+sat pondering his case, he caught sight of the sails of a ship in the
+middlemost of the main, as it were a star in the sky; and his heart
+clave to it, so haply his deliverance might be therein. He continued
+gazing at the ship, until it drew nigh, when he saw that it was a foyst
+builded all of ivory and ebony, inlaid with glistening gold made fast
+by nails of steel, with oars of sandal and lign-aloes. In it were ten
+damsels, high-bosomed maids, as they were moons; and when they saw him,
+they came ashore to him and kissed his hands, saying, “Thou art the
+King, the Bridegroom!” Then there accosted him a young lady, as she
+were the sun shining in sky serene bearing in hand a silken napkin,
+wherein were a royal robe and a crown of gold set with all manner
+rubies and pearls. She threw the robe over him and set the crown upon
+his head, after which the damsels bore him on their arms to the foyst,
+where he found all kinds of silken carpets and hangings of various
+colours. Then they spread the sails and stretched out into mid-ocean.
+Quoth the young man, “Indeed, when they put to sea with me, meseemed it
+was a dream and I knew not whither they were wending with me.
+Presently, we drew near to land, and I saw the shore full of troops
+none knoweth their number save Allah (extolled and exalted be He!) and
+all were magnificently arrayed and clad in complete steel. As soon as
+the vessel had made fast to the land, they brought me five
+marked[FN#197] horses of noble breeds, housed and saddled with gold,
+inlaid with all manner pearls and high-priced bezel stones. I chose out
+one of them and mounted it, whilst they led the four others before me.
+Then they raised the banners and the standards over my head, whilst the
+troops ranged themselves right and left, and we set out, with drums
+beating and cymbals clashing, and rode on; whilst I debated in myself
+whether I were in sleep or on wake; and we never ceased faring, I
+believing not in that my estate, but taking all this for the imbroglio
+of a dream, till we drew near to the green mead, full of palaces and
+gardens and trees and streams and blooms and birds chanting the praises
+of Allah the One, the Victorious. Hereupon, behold, an army sallied out
+from amid the palaces and gardens, as it were the torrent when it
+poureth down,[FN#198] and the host overflowed the mead. These troops
+halted at a little distance from me and presently there rode forth from
+amongst them a King, preceded by some of his chief officers on foot.”
+When he came up to the young man (saith the tale-teller) he dismounted
+also, and the two saluted each other after the goodliest fashion. Then
+said the King, “Come with us, for thou art my guest.” So they took
+horse again and rode on stirrup touching stirrup in great and stately
+procession, conversing as they went, till they came to the royal
+palace, where they alighted together.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn
+of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Ninetieth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the two rode
+together in stately procession till they entered the palace, when the
+King taking the young man by the hand, led him into a domed room
+followed by his suite, and making him sit down on a throne of gold,
+seated himself beside him. Then he unbound the swathe from his lower
+face; and behold, the King was a young lady, like the splendid sun
+shining in the sheeny sky, perfect in beauty and loveliness, brilliancy
+and grace, arrogance[FN#199] and all perfection. The youth looked upon
+this singular blessing and embodied boon and was lost in wonder at her
+charms and comeliness and seemlihead and at the splendour and affluence
+he saw about him, when she said “Know, O King, that I am the Queen of
+this land and that all the troops thou hast seen, whether horse or
+foot, are women, there is no man amongst them; for in this our state
+the men delve and sow and ear and occupy themselves with the tillage of
+the earth and the building of towns and other mechanical crafts and
+useful arts, whilst the women govern and fill the great offices of
+state and bear arms.” At this the youth marvelled with exceeding marvel
+and, as they were in discourse, behold, in came the Wazir who was a
+tall gray-haired old woman of venerable semblance and majestic aspect,
+and it was told him that this was the Minister. Quoth the Queen to her,
+“Bring us the Kazi and witnesses.” So she went out to do this, and the
+Queen, turning to him, conversed with him in friendly fashion, and
+enforced herself to reassure his awe of her and do away his shame with
+speech blander than the zephyr, saying, “Art thou content to be to me
+baron and I to thee feme?” Thereupon he arose and would have kissed
+ground between her hands, but she forbade him and he replied, saying,
+“O my lady, I am the least of thy slaves who serve thee.” “Seest thou
+all these servants and soldiers and riches and hoards and treasures?”
+asked she, and he answered, “Yes!” Quoth she, “All these are at thy
+commandment to dispose of them and give and bestow as seemeth good to
+thee.” Then she pointed to a closed door and said, “All these things
+are at thy disposal, save yonder door; that shalt thou not open, and if
+thou open it thou shalt repent when repentance will avail thee naught.
+So beware! and again I say, beware!” Hardly had she made an end of
+speaking when the Waziress entered followed by the Kazii and witnesses,
+all old women, with their hair streaming over their shoulders and of
+reverend and majestic presence; and the Queen bade them draw up the
+contract of marriage between herself and the young man. Accordingly,
+they performed the marriage-ceremony and the Queen made a great
+bride-feast, to which she bade all the troops; and after they had eaten
+and drunken, he went in unto his bride and found her a maid virginal.
+So he did away her hymen and abode with her seven years in all joyance
+and solace and delight of life, till, one day of the days, he bethought
+himself of the forbidden door and said in himself, “Except there were
+therein treasures greater and grander than any I have seen, she had not
+forbidden me therefrom.” So he rose and opened the door, when, lo!
+behind it was the very bird which had brought him from the sea-shore to
+the island, and it said to him, “No welcome to a face that shall never
+prosper!” When he saw it and heard what it said, he fled from it; but
+it followed him and seizing him in its talons, flew with him an hour’s
+journey betwixt heaven and earth, till it set him down in the place
+whence it had first carried him off and flew away. When he came to his
+senses, he remembered his late estate, great, grand and glorious, and
+the troops which rode before him and his lordly rule and all the honour
+and fair fortune he had lost and fell to weeping and wailing.[FN#200]
+He abode two months on the sea-shore, where the bird had set him down,
+hoping yet to return to his wife, till, as he sat one night wakeful,
+mourning and musing, behold, he heard one speaking, albeit he saw no
+one, and saying, “How great were the delights! Alas, far from thee is
+the return of that which is past!” When he heard this, he redoubled in
+his regrets and despaired of recovering his wife and his fair estate
+that was; so he returned, weary and broken-hearted, to the house where
+he had dwelt with the old men and knew that they had fared even as he
+and that this was the cause of their shedding tears and lamenting their
+lot; wherefore he ever after held them excused. Then, being overcome
+with chagrin and concern, he took to his chamber and gave himself up to
+mourning and lamentation; and he ceased not crying and complaining and
+left eating and drinking and pleasant scents and merriment; nor did he
+laugh once till the day of his death, when they buried him beside the
+Shaykhs. “See, then, O King,” continued the Wazir “what cometh of
+precipitance; verily, it is unpraiseworthy and bequeatheth repentance;
+and in this I give thee true advice and loyal counsel.” When the King
+heard this story, he turned from slaying his son;—And Shahrazad
+perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Ninety-first Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the King
+heard this story he turned from slaying his son; but, on the sixth day,
+the favourite came in to him hending a naked knife in hand, and said to
+him, “Know, O my lord, that except thou hearken to my complaint and
+protect thy right and thine honour against these thy Ministers, who are
+banded together against me, to do me wrong, I will kill myself with
+this knife, and my blood will testify against thee on the Day of Doom.
+Indeed, they pretend that women are full of tricks and malice and
+perfidy; and they design thereby to defeat me of my due and hinder the
+King from doing me justice; but, behold, I will prove to thee that men
+are more perfidious than women by the story of a King among the Kings
+and how he gained access to the wife of a certain merchant.” “And what
+passed between them?” asked the King, and she answered, “I have heard
+tell, O august King, a tale of
+
+
+The King’s Son and the Merchant’s Wife.
+
+A certain merchant, who was addicted to jealousy, had a wife that was a
+model of beauty and loveliness; and of the excess of his fear and
+jealousy of her, he would not abide with her in any town, but built her
+a pavilion without the city, apart from all other buildings. And he
+raised its height and strengthened its doors and provided them with
+curious locks; and when he had occasion to go into the city, he locked
+the doors and hung the keys about his neck.[FN#201] One day, when the
+merchant was abroad, the King’s son of that city came forth, to take
+his pleasure and solace in the open country without the walls, and
+seeing the solitary pavilion, stood still to examine it for a long
+while. At last he caught sight of a charming lady looking and leaning
+out of one of the windows,[FN#202] and being smitten with amazement at
+her grace and charms, cast about for a means of getting to her, but
+could find none. So he called up one of his pages, who brought him
+ink-case[FN#203] and paper and wrote her a letter, setting forth his
+condition for love of her. Then he set it on the pile-point of an arrow
+and shot it at the pavilion, and it fell in the garden, where the lady
+was then walking with her maidens. She said to one of the girls,
+“Hasten and bring me yon letter,” for she could read writing;[FN#204]
+and, when she had read it and understood what he said in it of his love
+and passion, yearning and longing, she wrote him a merciful reply, to
+the effect that she was smitten with a yet fiercer desire for him; and
+then threw the letter down to him from one of the windows of the
+pavilion. When he saw her, he picked up the reply and after reading it,
+came under the window and said to her, “Let me down a thread, that I
+may send thee this key; which do thou take and keep by thee.” So she
+let down a thread and he tied the key to it.[FN#205] Then he went away
+and repairing to one of his father’s Wazirs, complained to him of his
+passion for the lady and that he could not live without her; and the
+Minister said, “And how dost thou bid me contrive?” Quoth the Prince,
+“I would have thee set me in a chest[FN#206] and commit it to the
+merchant, feigning to him that it is thine and desiring him to keep it
+for thee in his country-house some days, that I may have my will of
+her; then do thou demand it back from him.” The Wazir answered, “With
+love and gladness.” So the Prince returned to his palace and fixing the
+padlock, the key whereof he had given the lady, on a chest he had by
+him, entered therein. Then the Wazir locked it upon him and setting it
+on a mule, carried it to the pavilion of the merchant, who, seeing the
+Minister, came forth to him and kissed his hands, saying, “Belike our
+lord the Wazir hath some need or business which we may have the
+pleasure and honour of accomplishing for him?” Quoth the Minister, “I
+would have thee set this chest in the safest and best place within thy
+house and keep it till I seek it of thee.” So the merchant made the
+porters carry it inside and set it down in one of his store-closets,
+after which he went out on business. As soon as he was gone, his wife
+arose and went up to the chest and unlocked it with the key the King’s
+son had given her, whereupon there came forth a youth like the moon.
+When she saw him, she donned her richest raiment and carried him to her
+sitting-saloon, where they abode seven days, eating and drinking and
+making merry: and as often as her husband came home, she put the Prince
+back into the chest and locked it upon him. One day the King asked for
+his son and the Wazir hurried off to the merchant’s place of business
+and sought of him the chest.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day
+and ceased to say her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Ninety-second Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Wazir
+reached the merchant’s counting-house he asked for the box. The man
+accordingly repaired in haste to his pavilion, contrary to his custom
+and knocked at the door. When his wife was ware of him, she hurried the
+Prince back into the chest, but, in her confusion, forgot to lock it.
+The merchant bade the porters take it up and carry it to his house in
+the town. So they took up the box by the lid, whereupon it flew open
+and lo! the Prince was lying within. When the merchant saw him and knew
+him for the King’s son, he went out to the Wazir and said to him, “Go
+in, thou, and take the King’s son; for none of us may lay hands on
+him.” So the Minister went in and taking the Prince, went away with
+him. As soon as they were gone, the merchant put away his wife and
+swore that he would never marry again. “And,” continued the damsel, “I
+have heard tell, also, O King, a tale of
+
+
+The Page who Feigned to Know the Speech of Birds.[FN#207]
+
+A certain man of rank once entered the slave-market and saw a page
+being cried for sale; so he bought him and carrying him home, said to
+his wife, “Take good care of him.” The lad abode there for a while
+till, one day, the man said to his wife, “Go forth to-morrow to the
+garden and take thy solace therein and amuse thyself and enjoy
+thyself.” And she replied, “With love and gladness!” Now when the page
+heard this, he made ready in secret meat and drink and fruits and
+desert, and sallied forth with them privily that night to the garden,
+where he laid the meat under one tree, the wine under another and the
+fruit and conserves under a third, in the way his mistress must pass.
+When morning morrowed the husband bade him accompany the lady to that
+garden carrying with him all the provisions required for the day; so
+she took horse and riding thither with him, dismounted and entered.
+Presently, as they were walking about, a crow croaked,[FN#208] and the
+page said, “Thou sayst sooth;” whereupon his mistress asked him, “Dost
+thou know what the crow said?”; and he answered, “Yes, O my lady, he
+said, Under yonder tree is meat; go and eat it.” So she said, “I see
+thou really dost understand them;” then she went up to the tree and,
+finding a dish of meat ready dressed, was assured that the youth told
+the truth and marvelled with exceeding marvel. They ate of the meat and
+walked about awhile, taking their pleasure in the garden, till the crow
+croaked a second time, and the page again replied, “Thou sayst sooth.”
+“What said he?” quoth the lady, and quoth the page, “O my lady, he
+saith that under such a tree are a gugglet of water flavoured with musk
+and a pitcher of old wine.” So she went up with him to the tree and,
+finding the wine and water there, redoubled in wonderment and the page
+was magnified in her eyes. They sat down and drank, then arose and
+walked in another part of the garden. Presently the crow croaked again
+and the page said, “Thou sayst sooth.” Said the lady, “What saith he
+now?” and the page replied, “He saith that under yonder tree are
+fruits, fresh and dried.” So they went thither and found all as he said
+and sat down and ate. Then they walked about again till the crow
+croaked a fourth time, whereupon the page took up a stone and threw it
+at him. Quoth she, “What said he, that thou shouldst stone him?” “O my
+lady,” answered he, “he said what I cannot tell thee.” “Say on,”
+rejoined she, “and be not abashed in my presence, for there is naught
+between me and thee.” But he ceased not to say, “No,” and she to press
+him to speak, till at last she conjured him to tell her, and he
+answered, “The crow said to me, ‘Do with thy lady even as doth her
+husband.’” When she heard his words she laughed till she fell backward
+and said, “This is a light matter, and I may not gainsay thee therein.”
+So saying, she went up to a tree and, spreading the carpet under it,
+lay down, and called to him to come and do her need, when, lo! her
+husband, who had followed them unawares and saw this, called out to the
+page, saying, “Harkye, boy! What ails thy mistress to lie there,
+weeping?” Answered the page, “O my lord, she fell off the tree and was
+killed;[FN#209] and none but Allah (be He extolled and exalted!)
+restored her to thee. Wherefore she lay down awhile to recover herself
+by rest.” When the lady saw her husband standing by her head, she rose
+and made a show of weakness and pain, saying, “O my back! O my sides!
+Come to my help, O my friends! I shall never survive this.” So her
+husband was deceived and said to the page, “Fetch thy mistress’s horse
+and set her thereon.” Then he carried her home, the boy holding one
+stirrup and the man the other and saying, “Allah vouchsafe thee ease
+and recovery!” “These then, O King,” (said the damsel) “are some
+instances of the craft of men and their perfidy; wherefore let not thy
+Wazirs turn thee from succouring me and doing me justice.” Then she
+wept, and when the King saw her weeping (for she was the dearest to him
+of all his slave-girls) he once more commanded to put his son to death;
+but the sixth Minister entered and kissing ground before him, said,
+“May the Almighty advance the King! Verily I am a loyal counsellor to
+thee, in that I counsel thee to deal deliberately in the matter of thy
+son;”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
+permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Ninety-third Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the sixth Wazir
+said, “O King, deal deliberately in the matter of thy son; for
+falsehood is as smoke and fact is built on base which shall not be
+broken; yea, and the light of sooth dispelleth the night of untruth.
+Know that the perfidy of women is great, even as saith Allah the Most
+High in His Holy Book, “Verily, the malice of you is great.[FN#210] And
+indeed a tale hath reached me that a certain woman befooled the Chiefs
+of the State on such wise as never did any before her.” Asked the King,
+“And how was that?” And the Wazir answered, “I have heard tell a tale,
+O King, as follows concerning
+
+
+The Lady and her Five Suitors.[FN#211]
+
+A woman of the daughters of the merchants was married to a man who was
+a great traveller. It chanced once that he set out for a far country
+and was absent so long that his wife, for pure ennui, fell in love with
+a handsome young man of the sons of the merchants, and they loved each
+other with exceeding love. One day, the youth quarrelled with another
+man, who lodged a complaint against him with the Chief of Police, and
+he cast him into prison. When the news came to the merchant’s wife his
+mistress, she wellnigh lost her wits; then she arose and donning her
+richest clothes repaired to the house of the Chief of Police. She
+saluted him and presented a written petition to this purport, “He thou
+hast clapped in jail is my brother, such and such, who fell out with
+such an one; and those who testified against him bore false witness. He
+hath been wrongfully imprisoned, and I have none other to come in to me
+nor to provide for my support; therefore I beseech thee of thy grace to
+release him.” When the magistrate had read the paper, he cast his eyes
+on her and fell in love with her forthright; so he said to her, “Go
+into the house, till I bring him before me; then I will send for thee
+and thou shalt take him.” “O my lord,” replied she, “I have none to
+protect me save Almighty Allah!: I am a stranger and may not enter any
+man’s abode.” Quoth the Wali, “I will not let him go, except thou come
+to my home and I take my will of thee.” Rejoined she, “If it must be
+so, thou must needs come to my lodging and sit and sleep the siesta and
+rest the whole day there.” “And where is thy abode?” asked he; and she
+answered, “In such a place,” and appointed him for such a time. Then
+she went out from him, leaving his heart taken with love of her, and
+she repaired to the Kazi of the city, to whom she said, “O our lord the
+Kazi!” He exclaimed, “Yes!” and she continued, “Look into my case, and
+thy reward be with Allah the Most High!” Quoth he, “Who hath wronged
+thee?” and quoth she, “O my lord, I have a brother and I have none but
+that one, and it is on his account that I come to thee; because the
+Wali hath imprisoned him for a criminal and men have borne false
+witness against him that he is a wrong-doer; and I beseech thee to
+intercede for him with the Chief of Police.” When the Kazi looked on
+her, he fell in love with her forthright and said to her, “Enter the
+house and rest awhile with my handmaids whilst I send to the Wali to
+release thy brother. If I knew the money-fine which is upon him, I
+would pay it out of my own purse, so I may have my desire of thee, for
+thou pleasest me with thy sweet speech.” Quoth she, “If thou, O my
+lord, do thus, we must not blame others.” Quoth he, “An thou wilt not
+come in, wend thy ways.” Then said she, “An thou wilt have it so, O our
+lord, it will be privier and better in my place than in thine, for here
+are slave-girls and eunuchs and goers-in and comers-out, and indeed I
+am a woman who wotteth naught of this fashion; but need compelleth.”
+Asked the Kazi, “And where is thy house?”; and she answered, “In such a
+place,” and appointed him for the same day and time as the Chief of
+Police. Then she went out from him to the Wazir, to whom she preferred
+her petition for the release from prison of her brother who was
+absolutely necessary to her: but he also required her of herself,
+saying, “Suffer me to have my will of thee and I will set thy brother
+free.” Quoth she, “An thou wilt have it so, be it in my house, for
+there it will be privier both for me and for thee. It is not far
+distant and thou knowest that which behoveth us women of cleanliness
+and adornment.” Asked he, “Where is thy house?” “In such a place,”
+answered she and appointed him for the same time as the two others.
+Then she went out from him to the King of the city and told him her
+story and sought of him her brother’s release. “Who imprisoned him?”
+enquired he; and she replied, “Twas thy Chief of Police.” When the King
+heard her speech, it transpierced his heart with the arrows of love and
+he bade her enter the palace with him, that he might send to the Kazi
+and release her brother. Quoth she, “O King, this thing is easy to
+thee, whether I will or nill; and if the King will indeed have this of
+me, it is of my good fortune; but, if he come to my house, he will do
+me the more honour by setting step therein, even as saith the poet,
+
+‘O my friends, have ye seen or have ye heard * Of his visit whose
+virtues I hold so high?’”
+
+Quoth the King, “We will not cross thee in this.” So she appointed him
+for the same time as the three others, and told him where her house
+was.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
+permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Ninety-fourth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the woman told
+the King where her house was and appointed him for the same time as the
+Wali, the Kazi and the Wazir. Then she left him and betaking herself to
+a man which was a carpenter, said to him, “I would have thee make me a
+cabinet with four compartments one above other, each with its door for
+locking up. Let me know thy hire and I will give it thee.” Replied he,
+“My price will be four dinars; but, O noble lady and well-protected, if
+thou wilt vouchsafe me thy favours, I will ask nothing of thee.”
+Rejoined she, “An there be no help but that thou have it so, then make
+thou five compartments with their padlocks;” and she appointed him to
+bring it exactly on the day required. Said he, “It is well; sit down, O
+my lady, and I will make it for thee forthright, and after I will come
+to thee at my leisure.” So she sat down by him, whilst he fell to work
+on the cabinet, and when he had made an end of it she chose to see it
+at once carried home and set up in the sitting-chamber. Then she took
+four gowns and carried them to the dyer, who dyed them each of a
+different colour; after which she applied herself to making ready meat
+and drink; fruits, flowers and perfumes. Now when the appointed
+trysting day came, she donned her costliest dress and adorned herself
+and scented herself, then spread the sitting-room with various kinds of
+rich carpets and sat down to await who should come. And behold, the
+Kazi was the first to appear, devancing the rest, and when she saw him,
+she rose to her feet and kissed the ground before him; then, taking him
+by the hand, made him sit down by her on the couch and lay with him and
+fell to jesting and toying with him. By and by, he would have her do
+his desire, but she said, “O my lord, doff thy clothes and turband and
+assume this yellow cassock and this head-kerchief,[FN#212] whilst I
+bring thee meat and drink; and after thou shalt win thy will.” So
+saying, she took his clothes and turband and clad him in the cassock
+and the kerchief; but hardly had she done this, when lo! there came a
+knocking at the door. Asked he, “Who is that rapping at the door?” and
+she answered, “My husband.” Quoth the Kazi, “What is to be done, and
+where shall I go?” Quoth she, “Fear nothing, I will hide thee in this
+cabinet;” and he, “Do as seemeth good to thee.” So she took him by the
+hand and pushing him into the lowest compartment, locked the door upon
+him. Then she went to the house-door, where she found the Wali; so she
+bussed ground before him and taking his hand brought him into the
+saloon, where she made him sit down and said to him, “O my lord, this
+house is thy house; this place is thy place, and I am thy handmaid:
+thou shalt pass all this day with me; wherefore do thou doff thy
+clothes and don this red gown, for it is a sleeping gown.” So she took
+away his clothes and made him assume the red gown and set on his head
+an old patched rag she had by her; after which she sat by him on the
+divan and she sported with him while he toyed with her awhile, till he
+put out his hand to her. Whereupon she said to him, “O our lord, this
+day is thy day and none shall share in it with thee; but first, of thy
+favour and benevolence, write me an order for my brother’s release from
+gaol that my heart may be at ease.” Quoth he, “Hearkening and
+obedience: on my head and eyes be it!”; and wrote a letter to his
+treasurer, saying, “As soon as this communication shall reach thee, do
+thou set such an one free, without stay or delay; neither answer the
+bearer a word.” Then he sealed it and she took it from him, after which
+she began to toy again with him on the divan when, behold, some one
+knocked at the door. He asked, “Who is that?” and she answered, “My
+husband.” “What shall I do?” said he, and she, “Enter this cabinet,
+till I send him away and return to thee.” So she clapped him into the
+second compartment from the bottom and padlocked the door on him; and
+meanwhile the Kazi heard all they said. Then she went to the house-door
+and opened it, whereupon lo! the Wazir entered. She bussed the ground
+before him and received him with all honour and worship, saying, “O my
+lord, thou exaltest us by thy coming to our house; Allah never deprive
+us of the light of thy countenance!” Then she seated him on the divan
+and said to him, “O my lord, doff thy heavy dress and turband and don
+these lighter vestments.” So he put off his clothes and turband and she
+clad him in a blue cassock and a tall red bonnet, and said to him,
+“Erst thy garb was that of the Wazirate; so leave it to its own time
+and don this light gown, which is better fitted for carousing and
+making merry and sleep.” Thereupon she began to play with him and he
+with her, and he would have done his desire of her; but she put him
+off, saying, “O my lord, this shall not fail us.” As they were talking
+there came a knocking at the door, and the Wazir asked her, “Who is
+that?”: to which she answered, “My husband.” Quoth he, “What is to be
+done?” Quoth she, “Enter this cabinet, till I get rid of him and come
+back to thee and fear thou nothing.” So she put him in the third
+compartment and locked the door on him, after which she went out and
+opened the house-door when lo and behold! in came the King. As soon as
+she saw him she kissed ground before him, and taking him by the hand,
+led him into the saloon and seated him on the divan at the upper end.
+Then said she to him, “Verily, O King, thou dost us high honour, and if
+we brought thee to gift the world and all that therein is, it would not
+be worth a single one of thy steps us-wards.”—And Shahrazad perceived
+the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Ninety-fifth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the King
+entered the lady’s house she said to him, “Had we brought thee to gift
+the world and all which is therein, it would not be worth a single one
+of thy steps us-wards.” And when he had taken his seat upon the divan
+she said, “Give me leave to speak one word.” “Say what thou wilt,”
+answered he, and she said, “O my lord, take thine ease and doff thy
+dress and turband.” Now his clothes were worth a thousand dinars; and
+when he put them off she clad him in a patched gown, worth at the very
+most ten dirhams, and fell to talking and jesting with him; all this
+while the folk in the cabinet hearing everything that passed, but not
+daring to say a word. Presently, the King put his hand to her neck and
+sought to do his desire of her; when she said, “This thing shall not
+fail us, but I had first promised myself to entertain thee in this
+sitting-chamber, and I have that which shall content thee.” Now as they
+were speaking, some one knocked at the door and he asked her, “Who is
+that?” “My husband,” answered she, and he, “Make him go away of his own
+good will, or I will fare forth to him and send him away perforce.”
+Replied she, “Nay, O my lord, have patience till I send him away by my
+skilful contrivance.” “And I, how shall I do!” enquired the King;
+whereupon she took him by the hand and making him enter the fourth
+compartment of the cabinet, locked it upon him. Then she went out and
+opened the house-door when behold, the carpenter entered and saluted
+her. Quoth she, “What manner of thing is this cabinet thou hast made
+me?” “What aileth it, O my lady?” asked he, and she answered, “The top
+compartment is too strait.” Rejoined he, “Not so;” and she, “Go in
+thyself and see; it is not wide enough for thee.” Quoth he, “It is wide
+enough for four,” and entered the fifth compartment, whereupon she
+locked the door on him. Then she took the letter of the Chief of Police
+and carried it to the treasurer who, having read and understood it,
+kissed it and delivered her lover to her. She told him all she had done
+and he said, “And how shall we act now?” She answered, “We will remove
+hence to another city, for after this work there is no tarrying for us
+here.” So the twain packed up what goods they had and, loading them on
+camels, set out forthright for another city. Meanwhile, the five abode
+each in his compartment of the cabinet without eating or drinking three
+whole days, during which time they held their water until at last the
+carpenter could retain his no longer; so he staled on the King’s head,
+and the King urined on the Wazir’s head, and the Wazir piddled on the
+Wali and the Wali pissed on the head of the Kazi; whereupon the Judge
+cried out and said, “What nastiness[FN#213] is this? Doth not what
+strait we are in suffice us, but you must make water upon us?” The
+Chief of Police recognised the Kazi’s voice and answered, saying aloud,
+“Allah increase thy reward, O Kazi!” And when the Kazi heard him, he
+knew him for the Wali. Then the Chief of Police lifted up his voice and
+said, “What means this nastiness?” and the Wazir answered, saying,
+“Allah increase thy reward, O Wali!” whereupon he knew him to be the
+Minister. Then the Wazir lifted up his voice and said, “What means this
+nastiness?” But when the King heard and recognised his Minister’s
+voice, he held his peace and concealed his affair. Then said the Wazir,
+“May God damn[FN#214] this woman for her dealing with us! She hath
+brought hither all the Chief Officers of the state, except the King.”
+Quoth the King, “Hold your peace, for I was the first to fall into the
+toils of this lewd strumpet.” Whereat cried the carpenter, “And I, what
+have I done? I made her a cabinet for four gold pieces, and when I came
+to seek my hire, she tricked me into entering this compartment and
+locked the door on me.” And they fell to talking with one another,
+diverting the King and doing away his chagrin. Presently the neighbours
+came up to the house and, seeing it deserted, said one to other, “But
+yesterday our neighbour, the wife of such an one, was in it; but now no
+sound is to be heard therein nor is soul to be seen. Let us break open
+the doors and see how the case stands, lest it come to the ears of the
+Wali or the King and we be cast into prison and regret not doing this
+thing before.” So they broke open the doors and entered the saloon,
+where they saw a large wooden cabinet and heard men within groaning for
+hunger and thirst. Then said one of them, “Is there a Jinni in this
+cabinet?” and his fellow, “Let us heap fuel about it and burn it with
+fire.” When the Kazi heard this, he bawled out to them, “Do it
+not!”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
+permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Ninety-sixth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
+neighbours proposed to heap fuel about the cabinet and to burn it the
+Kazi bawled out to them, “Do it not!” And they said to one another,
+“Verily the Jinn make believe to be mortals and speak with men’s
+voices.” Thereupon the Kazi repeated somewhat of the Sublime Koran and
+said to the neighbours, “Draw near to the cabinet wherein we are.” So
+they drew near, and he said, “I am so and so the Kazi, and ye are such
+an one and such an one, and we are here a company.” Quoth the
+neighbours, “Who brought you here?” And he told them the whole case
+from beginning to end. Then they fetched a carpenter, who opened the
+five doors and let out Kazi, Wazir, Wali, King and carpenter in their
+queer disguises; and each, when he saw how the others were accoutred,
+fell a-laughing at them. Now she had taken away all their clothes; so
+every one of them sent to his people for fresh clothes and put them on
+and went out, covering himself therewith from the sight of the folk.
+“Consider, therefore, O our lord the King” (said the Wazir), “what a
+trick this woman played off upon the folk! And I have heard tell also a
+tale of
+
+
+The Three Wishes,[FN#215] or the Man who Longed to see the Night of
+Power.
+
+A certain man had longed all his life to look upon the Night of
+Power,[FN#216] and one night it befel that he gazed at the sky and saw
+the angels, and Heaven’s gates thrown open; and he beheld all things
+prostrating themselves before their Lord, each in its several stead. So
+he said to his wife, “Harkye, such an one, verily Allah hath shown me
+the Night of Power, and it hath been proclaimed to me, from the
+invisible world, that three prayers will be granted unto me; so I
+consult thee for counsel as to what shall I ask.” Quoth she, “O man,
+the perfection of man and his delight is in his prickle; therefore do
+thou pray Allah to greaten thy yard and magnify it.” So he lifted up
+his hands to heaven and said, “O Allah, greaten my yard and magnify
+it.” Hardly had he spoken when his tool became as big as a column and
+he could neither sit nor stand nor move about nor even stir from his
+stead; and when he would have carnally known his wife, she fled before
+him from place to place. So he said to her, “O accursed woman, what is
+to be done? This is thy list, by reason of thy lust.” She replied, “No,
+by Allah, I did not ask for this length and huge bulk, for which the
+gate of a street were too strait. Pray Heaven to make it less.” So he
+raised his eyes to Heaven and said, “O Allah, rid me of this thing and
+deliver me therefrom.” And immediately his prickle disappeared
+altogether and he became clean smooth. When his wife saw this, she
+said, “I have no occasion for thee, now thou are become pegless as a
+eunuch, shaven and shorn;” and he answered her, saying, “All this comes
+of thine ill-omened counsel and thine imbecile judgment. I had three
+prayers accepted of Allah, wherewith I might have gotten me my good,
+both in this world and in the next, and now two wishes are gone in pure
+waste, by thy lewd will, and there remaineth but one.” Quoth she, “Pray
+Allah the Most High to restore thee thy yard as it was.” So he prayed
+to his Lord and his prickle was restored to its first estate. Thus the
+man lost his three wishes by the ill counsel and lack of wit in the
+woman; “And this, O King” (said the Wazir), “have I told thee, that
+thou mightest be certified of the thoughtlessness of women and their
+inconsequence and silliness and see what cometh of hearkening to their
+counsel. Wherefore be not persuaded by them to slay thy son, thy
+heart’s core, who shall cause thy remembrance to survive thee.” The
+King gave ear to his Minister’s words and forbore to put his son to
+death; but, on the seventh day, the damsel came in, shrieking, and
+after lighting a great fire in the King’s presence, made as she would
+cast herself therein; whereupon they laid hands on her and brought her
+before him. He asked her, “Why hast thou done this?”; and she answered,
+“Except thou do me justice on thy son, I will cast myself into this
+very fire and accuse thee of this on the Day of Resurrection, for I am
+a-weary of my life, and before coming into thy presence I wrote my last
+will and testament and gave alms of my goods and resolved upon death.
+And thou wilt repent with all repentance, even as did the King of
+having punished the pious woman who kept the Hammam.” Quoth the King,
+“How was that?” and quoth she, “I have heard tell, O King, this tale
+concerning
+
+
+The Stolen Necklace.
+
+There was once a devotee, a recluse, a woman who had devoted herself to
+religion. Now she used to resort to a certain King’s palace,[FN#217]
+whose dwellers were blessed by her presence and she was held of them in
+high honour. One day she entered that palace according to her custom
+and sat down beside the King’s wife. Presently the Queen gave her a
+necklace, worth a thousand dinars, saying, “Keep this for me, O woman,
+whilst I go to the Hammam.” So she entered the bath, which was in the
+palace, and the pious woman remaining in the place where the Queen was
+and awaiting her return laid the necklace on the prayer-carpet and
+stood up to pray. As she was thus engaged, there came a magpie[FN#218]
+which snatched up the necklace, while she went out to obey a call of
+nature and carrying it off, hid it inside a crevice in a corner of the
+palace-walls. When the Queen came out of the bath, she sought the
+necklace of the recluse, who also searched for it, but found it not nor
+could light on any trace of it; so she said to the King’s wife, “By
+Allah, O my daughter, none hath been with me. When thou gavest me the
+necklace, I laid it on the prayer-carpet, and I know not if one of the
+servants saw it and took it without my heed, whilst I was engaged in
+prayer. Almighty Allah only knoweth what is come of it!” When the King
+heard what had happened, he bade his Queen put the bath-woman to the
+question by fire and grievous blows, —And Shahrazad perceived the dawn
+of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Ninety-seventh Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the King
+bade his Queen question the bath-woman with fire and grievous blows,
+they tortured her with all manner tortures, but could not bring her to
+confess or to accuse any. Then he commanded to cast her into prison and
+manacle and fetter her; and they did as he bade. One day, after this,
+as the King sat in the inner court of his palace, with the Queen by his
+side and water flowing around him, he saw the pie fly into a crevice in
+a corner of the wall and pull out the necklace, whereupon he cried out
+to a damsel who was with him, and she caught the bird and took the
+necklace from it. By this the King knew that the pious bath-woman had
+been wronged and repented of that he had done with her. So he sent for
+her to the presence and fell to kissing her head and with many tears
+sought pardon of her. Moreover, he commanded much treasure to be given
+to her, but she refused and would none of it. However, she forgave him
+and went away, swearing never again to enter any one’s house. So she
+betook herself to wandering in the mountains and valleys and worshipped
+God until she died, and Almighty Allah have mercy upon her! “And for an
+instance of the malice of the male sex” (continued the damsel), “I have
+heard, O King, tell this tale of
+
+
+The Two Pigeons.[FN#219]
+
+A pair of pigeons once stored up wheat and barley in their nest during
+the winter, and when the summer came, the grain shrivelled and became
+less; so the male pigeon said to his wife, “Thou hast eaten of this
+grain.” Replied she, “No, by Allah, I have never touched it!” But he
+believed not her words and beat her with his wings and pecked her with
+his bill, till he killed her. When the cold season returned, the corn
+swelled out and became as before, whereupon he knew that he had slain
+his wife wrongously and wickedly, and he repented whenas repentance
+availed him naught. Then he lay down by her side, mourning over her and
+weeping for grief, and left meat and drink, till he fell sick and died.
+“But” (added the damsel), “I know a story of the malice of men more
+extraordinary than either of these.” Quoth the King, “Let us hear what
+thou hast to tell;” and quoth she, “I have heard tell, O King, this
+
+
+Story of Prince Behram and the Princess Al-Datma.
+
+There was once a King’s daughter, who had no equal in her time for
+beauty and loveliness and symmetrical stature and grace, brilliancy,
+amorous lace and the art of ravishing the wits of the masculine race
+and her name was Al-Datmá. She used to boast, “Indeed there is none
+like me in this age.” Nor was there one more accomplished than she in
+horsemanship and martial exercises and all that behoveth a cavalier. So
+all the Kings’ sons sought her to wife; but she would take none of
+them, saying, “No man shall marry me except he overcome me at lunge of
+lance and stroke of sword in fair field and patent plain. If any can do
+this, I will willingly wed him; but, if I overcome him, I will take his
+horse and clothes and arms and write with fire upon his forehead, ‘This
+is the freed man of Al-Datma.’” Now the sons of the Kings flocked to
+her from every quarter far and near, and she overcame them and put them
+to shame, stripping them of their arms and branding them with fire.
+Presently the son of a King of the Kings of the Persians, by name
+Behram ibn Tájí, heard of her and journeyed from afar to her father’s
+court, bringing with him men and horses and great store of wealth and
+royal treasures. When he drew near the city, he sent her parent a rich
+present and the King came out to meet him and honoured him with the
+utmost honour. Then the King’s son sent a message to him by his Wazir,
+demanding his daughter’s hand in marriage; but the King answered,
+saying, “O my son, as regards my daughter Al-Datma, I have no power
+over her, for she hath sworn by her soul to marry none except he
+overcome her in the listed field.” Quoth the Prince, “I journeyed
+hither from my father’s court with no other object but this; I came
+here to woo and for thine alliance to sue;” quoth the King, “Thou shalt
+meet her to-morrow.” So next day he sent to bid his daughter who, making
+ready for battle, donned her harness of war, and the folk, hearing of
+the coming joust, flocked from all sides to the field. Presently the
+Princess rode into the lists, armed cap-à-pie and belted and with vizor
+down, and the Persian King’s son came out singlehanded to meet her,
+equipped at all points after the fairest of fashions. Then they drove
+at each other and fought a great while, wheeling and falsing, advancing
+and retreating, till the Princess, finding in him such courage and
+cavalarice as she had seen in none else, began to fear for herself lest
+he put her to shame before the bystanders and knew that he would
+assuredly overcome her. So she resolved to trick him and, raising her
+vizor, lo! her face appeared more brilliant than the full moon, which
+when he saw, he was confounded by her beauty and his strength failed
+and his spirit faltered. When she perceived this, she fell upon him
+unawares in his moment of weakness, and tare him from his saddle, and
+he became in her hands as he were a sparrow in the clutches of an
+eagle, knowing not what was done with him for amazement and confusion.
+So she took his steed and clothes and armour and, branding him with
+fire, let him wend his ways. When he recovered from his stupor, he
+abode several days without meat or drink or sleep for despite and love
+of the girl which had taken hold upon his heart. Then he sent a letter
+by certain of his slaves to his father, advising him that he could not
+return home till he had won his will of the Princess or died for want
+of her. When his sire got the letter, he was sore concerned for his son
+and would have succoured him by sending troops and soldiers; but his
+Wazirs dissuaded him from this and exhorted him to patience; so he
+committed his affair to Almighty Allah. Meanwhile, the Prince cast
+about for a means of coming to his desire; and presently, disguising
+himself as a decrepit old man, with a white beard over his own black
+beard repaired to a garden of the Princess wherein she used to walk
+most of her days. Here he sought out the gardener and said to him, “I
+am a stranger from a far country and from my youth upwards I have been
+a gardener, and in the grafting of trees and the culture of fruits and
+flowers and care of the vine none is more skilled than I.” When the
+gardener heard this, he rejoiced in him with exceeding joy and carried
+him into the garden, where he commended him to his underlings, and the
+Prince betook himself to the service of the garden and the tending of
+the trees and the bettering of their fruits and improving the Persian
+water-wheels and disposing the irrigation-channels. One day, as he was
+thus employed, lo! he saw some slaves enter the garden, leading mules
+laden with carpets and vessels, and asked them the meaning of this, to
+which they answered, “The Princess is minded to take her pleasure.”
+When he heard these words he hastened to his lodging and, fetching some
+of the jewels and ornaments he had brought with him from home, sat down
+in the garden and spread somewhat of them out before him, shaking and
+making a show of extreme old age,—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
+day and ceased to say her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Ninety-eighth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the son of the
+Persian King, after disguising himself as an old man shotten in years
+and taking a seat in the garden, spread out somewhat of the jewels and
+ornaments before him and made a show of shaking and trembling as if for
+decrepitude and the weakness of extreme senility. After an hour or so a
+company of damsels and eunuchs entered with the Princess in their
+midst, as she were the moon among the stars, and dispersed about the
+garden, plucking the fruits and diverting themselves. Presently they
+espied a man sitting under one of the trees; and, making towards him
+(who was the Prince), found him a very old man, whose hands and feet
+trembled for decrepitude, and before him store of precious jewels and
+royal ornaments. So they marvelled at his case and asked him what he
+did there with the jewels; when he answered, “With these trinkets I
+would fain buy me to wife one of you.” They laughed together at him and
+said, “If one of us marry thee, what wilt thou do with her?” Said he,
+“I will give her one kiss and divorce her.” Then quoth the Princess, “I
+give thee this damsel to wife.” So he rose and coming up to her,
+leaning on his staff and shivering and staggering, kissed her and gave
+her the jewels and ornaments; whereat she rejoiced and they, laughing
+at him, went their way. Next day, they came again to the garden, and
+finding him seated in the same place, with more jewels and ornaments
+than before spread in front of him, asked him, “O Shaykh, what wilt
+thou do with this jewellery?”; and he answered, saying, “I wish
+therewith to take one of you to wife even as yesterday.” So the
+Princess said, “I marry thee to this damsel;” and he came up to her and
+kissed her and gave her the jewels, and they all went their ways. But,
+seeing such generosity to her handmaids, the Princess said in herself,
+“I have more right to all these fine things than these baggages, and no
+harm can betide me.” So when morning morrowed she went down from her
+chamber singly into the garden, in the habit of one of her damsels, and
+presenting herself privily before the Prince, said to him, “O Shaykh,
+the King’s daughter hath sent me to thee, that thou mayst marry me.” He
+looked at her and knew her; so he answered, “With love and gladness,”
+and gave her jewels and ornaments of the finest and costliest. Then he
+rose to kiss her, and she off her guard and fearing nothing but, when
+he came up to her, he suddenly laid hold of her with a strong hand and
+instantly throwing her down, on the ground abated her
+maidenhead.[FN#220] Then he pulled the beard from his face and said to
+her, “Dost thou not know me?” Asked she, “Who art thou?” and he
+answered, “I am Behram, the King’s son of Persia, who have changed my
+favour and am become a stranger to my people and estate for thy sake
+and have lavished my treasures for thy love.” So she rose from under
+him in silence and answered not his address nor spake a word of reply
+to him, being dazed for what had befallen her and seeing nothing better
+than to be silent, for fear of shame; and she bethought herself and
+said, “If I kill myself it will be useless and if I do him die, his
+death will profit me naught;” and presently added, “Nothing will serve
+me but that I elope with him to his own country.” Then she gathered
+together her monies and treasures and sent to him, acquainting him
+therewith, to the intent that he also might equip himself with his
+wealth and needs; and they agreed upon a night on which to depart. So,
+at the appointed time, they mounted race-horses and set out under cover
+of the gloom, nor did morning morrow till they had traversed a great
+distance; and they ceased not faring forwards till they drew near his
+father’s capital in the land of the Persians. When the King heard of
+his son’s coming, he rode out to meet him with his troops and rejoiced
+in him with exceeding joy. Then, after a few days, he sent the
+Princess’s father a splendid present, and a letter to the effect that
+his daughter was with him and demanding her wedding equipage.
+Al-Datma’s father came out to meet the messengers with the greatest
+gladness (for that he had deemed his daughter lost and had grieved sore
+for her loss): after which he made bride-feasts and, summoning the Kazi
+and the witnesses, let draw up the marriage-contract between his
+daughter and the Prince of Persia. He invested the envoys with robes of
+honour, then he made ready her equipage and despatched it to her; and
+Prince Behram abode with her till death sundered their union. “See
+therefore, O King” (continued the favourite), “the malice of men in
+their dealing with women. As for me, I will not go back from my due
+till I die.” So the King once more commanded to put his son to death;
+but the seventh Wazir came in to him and kissing the ground before him,
+said, “O King, have patience with me whilst I speak these words of good
+counsel to thee; how many patient and slow-moving men unto their hope
+attain, and how many who are precipitate fall into shameful state! Now
+I have seen how this damsel hath profligately excited the King by lies
+to horrible and unnatural cruelties; but I his Mameluke, whom he hath
+overwhelmed with his favours and bounties, do proffer him true and
+loyal rede; for that I, O King, know of the malice of women that which
+none knoweth save myself; and in particular there hath reached me, on
+this subject, the story of the old woman and the son of the merchant
+with its warning instances.” Asked the King, “And what fell out between
+them, O Wazir?” and the seventh Wazir answered, “I have heard tell, O
+King, the tale of
+
+
+The House with the Belvedere.[FN#221]
+
+A wealthy merchant had a son who was very dear to him and who said to
+him one day, “O my father, I have a boon to beg of thee.” Quoth the
+merchant, “O my son, what is it, that I may give it thee and bring thee
+to thy desire, though it were the light of mine eyes.” Quoth the youth,
+“Give me money, that I may journey with the merchants to the city of
+Baghdad and see its sights and sail on the Tigris and look upon the
+palace of the Caliphs[FN#222]; for the sons of the merchants have
+described these things to me and I long to see them for myself.” Said
+the father, “O my child, O my little son, how can I endure to part from
+thee?” But the youth replied, “I have said my say and there is no help
+for it but I journey to Baghdad with thy consent or e’en without it:
+such a longing for its sight hath fallen upon me as can only be
+assuaged by the going hither.” —And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day
+and ceased saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Five Hundred and Ninety-ninth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the merchant’s
+son said to his sire, “There is no help for it but that I journey to
+Baghdad.” Now when the father saw that there was no help for it, he
+provided his son with goods to the value of thirty thousand gold pieces
+and sent him with certain merchants in whom he trusted, committing him
+to their charge. Then he took leave of the youth, who journeyed with
+his friends the merchants till they reached Baghdad, the House of
+Peace, where he entered the market and hired him a house, so handsome
+and delectable and spacious and elegant that on seeing it he well nigh
+lost his wits for admiration; for therein were pavilions facing one
+another, with floors of coloured marbles and ceilings inlaid with gold
+and lapis lazuli, and its gardens were full of warbling birds. So he
+asked the door keeper[FN#223] what was its monthly rent, and he
+replied, “Ten dinars.” Quoth the young man, “Speakest thou soothly or
+dost thou but jest with me?” Quoth the porter, “By Allah, I speak
+naught but the truth, for none who taketh up his abode in This house
+lodgeth in it more than a week[FN#224] or two.” “And how is that?”
+quoth the youth; and quoth the porter, “O my son, whoso dwelleth in
+this house cometh not forth of it, except sick or dead, wherefore it is
+known amongst all the folk of Baghdad so that none offereth to inhabit
+it, and thus cometh it that its rent is fallen so low.” Hearing this
+the young merchant marvelled with exceeding marvel and said, “Needs
+must there be some reason for this sickening and perishing.” However
+after considering awhile and seeking refuge with Allah from Satan the
+Stoned, he rented the house and took up his abode there. Then he put
+away apprehension from his thought and busied himself with selling and
+buying; and some days passed by without any such ill case befalling him
+in the house, as the doorkeeper had mentioned. One day as he sat upon
+the bench before his door, there came up a grizzled crone, as she were
+a snake speckled white and black, calling aloud on the name of Allah,
+magnifying Him inordinately and, at the same time, putting away the
+stones and other obstacles from the path.[FN#225] Seeing the youth
+sitting there, she looked at him and marvelled at his case; where upon
+quoth he to her, “O woman, dost thou know me or am I like any thou
+knowest?” When she heard him speak, she toddled up to him and saluting
+him with the salaam, asked, “How long hast thou dwelt in this house?”
+Answered he, “Two months, O my mother;” and she said, “It was hereat I
+marvelled; for I, O my son, know thee not, neither dost thou know me,
+nor yet art thou like unto any one I know; but I marvelled for that
+none other than thou hath taken up his abode in this house but hath
+gone forth from it, dead or dying, saving thee alone. Doubtless, O my
+son, thou hast periled thy young years; but I suppose thou hast not
+gone up to the upper story neither looked out from the belvedere
+there.” So saying, she went her way and he fell a pondering her words
+and said to himself, “I have not gone up to the top of the house; nor
+did I know that there was a belvedere there.” Then he arose forthright
+and going in, searched the by ways of the house till he espied, in a
+wall corner among the trees, a narrow door between whose posts[FN#226]
+the spider had woven her webs, and said in himself, “Haply the spider
+hath not webbed over the door, but because death and doom is within.”
+However, he heartened himself with the saying of God the Most High,
+“Say, nothing shall befall us but what Allah hath written for
+us;”[FN#227] and opening the door, ascended a narrow flight of stairs,
+till he came to the terrace roof, where he found a belvedere, in which
+he sat down to rest and solace himself with the view. Presently, he
+caught sight of a fine house and a well cared for hard by, surmounted
+by a lofty belvedere, over looking the whole of Baghdad, in which sat a
+damsel fair as a Houri. Her beauty took possession of his whole heart
+and made away with his reason, bequeathing to him the pains and
+patience of Job and the grief and weeping of Jacob. And as he looked at
+her and considered her curiously, an object to enamour an ascetic and
+make a devotee lovesick, fire was lighted in his vitals and he cried,
+“Folk say that whoso taketh up his abode in this house dieth or
+sickeneth. An this be so, yon damsel is assuredly the cause. Would
+Heaven I knew how I shall win free of this affair, for my wits are
+clean gone!” Then he descended from the terrace, pondering his case,
+and sat down in the house, but being unable to rest, he went out and
+took his seat at the door, absorbed in melancholy thought when, behold,
+up came the old woman afoot, praising and magnifying Allah as she went.
+When he saw her, he rose and accosting her with a courteous salaam and
+wishes for her life being prolonged said to her, “O my mother, I was
+healthy and hearty till thou madest mention to me of the door leading
+to the belvedere; so I opened it and ascending to the top Of the house,
+saw thence what stole away my senses; and now methinks I am a lost man,
+and I know no physician for me but thyself.” When she heard this, she
+laughed and said, “No harm shall befall thee Inshallah so Allah
+please!” Whereupon he rose and went into the house and coming back with
+an hundred dinars in his sleeve, said to her, “Take this, O my mother,
+and deal with me the dealing of lords with slaves and succour me
+quickly for, if I die, a claim for my blood will meet thee on the Day
+of Doom.” Answered she, “With love and gladness; but, O my son, I
+expect thou lend me thine aid in some small matter, whereby hangs the
+winning of thy wish.” Quoth he, “What wouldst thou have me do, O my
+mother?” Quoth she, “Go to the silk market and enquire for the shop of
+Abú al-Fath bin Kaydám. Sit thee down on his counter and salute him and
+say to him, ‘Give me the face veil[FN#228] thou hast by thee orfrayed
+with gold:’ for he hath none handsomer in his shop. Then buy it of him,
+O my son, at his own price however high and keep it till I come to thee
+to morrow, Allah Almighty willing.” So saying, she went away and he
+passed the night upon live coals of the Ghazá[FN#229]-wood. Next
+morning he took a thousand ducats in his pocket and repairing to the
+silk market, sought out the shop of Abu al-Fath to whom he was directed
+by one of the merchants. He found him a man of dignified aspect,
+surrounded by pages, eunuchs and attendants; for he was a merchant of
+great wealth and consideration befriended by the Caliph; and of the
+blessings which Allah the Most High had bestowed upon him was the
+damsel who had ravished the young man’s heart. She was his wife and had
+not her match for beauty, nor was her like to be found with any of the
+sons of the Kings. The young man saluted him and Abu al-Fath returned
+his salaam and bade him be seated. So he sat down by him and said to
+him, “O merchant, I wish to look at such a face veil.” Accordingly he
+bade his slave bring him a bundle of silk from the inner shop And
+opening it, brought out a number of veils, whose beauty amazed the
+youth. Among them was the veil he sought; so he bought it for fifty
+gold pieces and bore it home well pleased.—And Shahrazad perceived the
+dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Six Hundredth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the youth after
+buying the veil of the merchant bore it home; but hardly had he reached
+the house when lo! up came the old woman. He rose to her and gave her
+his purchase when she bade him bring a live coal, with which she burnt
+one of the corners of the veil, then folded it up as before and,
+repairing to Abu al-Fath’s house, knocked at the door. Asked the
+damsel, “Who is there?”; and she answered, “I, such an one.” Now the
+damsel knew her for a friend of her mother so, when she heard her
+voice, she came out and opening the door to her, said, “What brought
+thee here, O my mother? My mamma hath left me and gone to her own
+house.” Replied the old woman, “O my daughter, I know thy mother is not
+with thee, for I have been with her in her home, and I come not to
+thee, but because I fear to pass the hour of prayer; wherefore I desire
+to make my Wuzu-ablution with thee, for I know thou art clean and thy
+house pure.”[FN#230] The damsel admitted the old trot who saluted her
+and called down blessings upon her. Then she took the ewer and went
+into the wash house, where she made her ablutions and prayed in a place
+there. Presently, she came out again and said to the damsel, “O my
+daughter, I suspect thy handmaidens have been in yonder place and
+defiled it; so do thou show me another place where I may pray, for the
+prayer I have prayed I account null and void.” Thereupon the damsel
+took her by the hand and said to her, “O my mother, come and pray on my
+carpet, where my husband sits.” So she stood there and prayed and
+worshipped, bowed and prostrated; and presently, she took the damsel
+unawares and made shift to slip the veil under the cushion, unseen of
+her. Then she blessed her and went her ways. Now as the day was closing
+Abu al-Fath came home and sat down upon the carpet, whilst his wife
+brought him food and he ate of it his sufficiency and washed his hands;
+after which he leant back upon the cushion. Presently, he caught sight
+of a corner of the veil protruding from under the cushion; so he pulled
+it out and considered it straitly, when, knowing it for that he had
+sold to the young man, he at once suspected his wife of unchastity.
+Thereupon he called her and said, “Whence hadst thou this veil?” And
+she swore an oath to him, saying, “None hath come to me but thou.” The
+merchant was silent for fear of scandal, and said to himself, “If I
+open up this chapter, I shall be put to shame before all Baghdad;” for
+he was one of the intimates of the Caliph and so he could do nothing
+save hold his peace. So he asked no questions, but said to his wife,
+whose name was Mahzíyah, “It hath reached me that thy mother lieth ill
+of heart ache[FN#231] and all the women are with her, weeping over her;
+wherefore I order thee to go to her.” Accordingly, she repaired to her
+mother’s house and found her in the best of health; and she asked her
+daughter, “What brings thee here at this hour?” So she told her what
+her husband had said and sat with her awhile; when behold, up came
+porters, who brought her clothes from her husband’s house, and
+transporting all her paraphernalia and what not else belonged to her of
+goods and vessels, deposited them in her mother’s lodging. When the
+mother saw this, she said to her daughter, “Tell me what hath passed
+between thee and thy husband, to bring about this.” But she swore to
+her that she knew not the cause thereof and that there had befallen
+nothing between them to call for this conduct. Quoth her mother, “Needs
+must there be a cause for this.” And she answered, saying, “I know of
+none, and after this, with Almighty Allah be it to make provision!”
+Whereupon her mother fell a weeping and lamented her daughter’s
+separation from the like of this man, by reason of his sufficiency and
+fortune and the greatness of his rank and dignity. On this wise things
+abode some days, after which the curst, ill omened old woman, whose
+name was Miryam the Koranist,[FN#232] paid a visit to Mahziyah, in her
+mother’s house and saluted her cordially, saying, “What ails thee, O my
+daughter, O my darling? Indeed, thou hast troubled my mind.” Then she
+went in to her mother and said to her, “O my sister, what is this
+business about thy daughter and her husband? It hath reached me that he
+hath divorced her! What hath she done to call for this?” Quoth the
+mother, “Belike her husband will return to her by the blessed influence
+of thy prayers, O Háfizah; so do thou pray for her, O my sister, for
+thou art a day faster and a night prayer.” Then the three fell to
+talking together and the old woman said to the damsel, “O my daughter,
+grieve not for, if Allah please, I will make peace between thee and thy
+husband before many days.” Then she left them and going to the young
+merchant, said to him, “Get ready a handsome entertainment for us, for
+I will bring her to thee this very night.” So he sprang up and went
+forth and provided all that was fitting of meat and drink and so forth,
+then sat down to await the twain; whilst the old woman returned to the
+girl’s mother and said to her, “O my sister, we have a splendid bride
+feast to night; so let thy daughter go with me, that she may divert
+herself and make merry with us and throw off her cark and care, and
+forget the ruin of her home. I will bring her back to thee even as I
+took her away.” The mother dressed her daughter in her finest dress and
+costliest jewels and accompanied her to the door, where she commended
+her to the old woman’s charge, saying, “’Ware lest thou let any of
+Almighty Allah’s creatures look upon her, for thou knowest her
+husband’s rank with the Caliph; and do not tarry, but bring her back to
+me as soon as possible.” The old woman carried the girl to the young
+man’s house which she entered, thinking it the place where the wedding
+was to be held: but as soon as she came into the sitting saloon,—And
+Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted
+say.
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and First Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that as soon as the
+damsel entered the sitting saloon, the youth sprang up to her and flung
+his arms round her neck and kissed her hands and feet. She was
+confounded at his loveliness, as well as at the beauty of the place and
+the profusion of meat and drink, flowers and perfumes that she saw
+therein, and deemed all was a dream. When the old woman saw her
+amazement, she said to her, “The name of Allah be upon thee, O my
+daughter! Fear not; I am here sitting with thee and will not leave thee
+for a moment. Thou art worthy of him and he is worthy of thee.” So the
+damsel sat down shame-fast and in great confusion; but the young man
+jested and toyed with her and entertained her with laughable stories
+and loving verses, till her breast broadened and she became at her
+ease. Then she ate and drank and growing warm with wine, took the lute
+and sang these couplets,
+
+“My friend who went hath returned once more; * Oh, the welcome
+     light that such beauty shows!
+ And but for the fear of those arrowy eyes, * From his lovely
+     cheek I had culled the rose.”
+
+
+And when the youth saw that she to his beauty did incline he waxt
+drunken without wine and his life was a light matter to him compared
+with his love.[FN#233] Presently the old woman went out and left them
+alone together to enjoy their loves till the next morning, when she
+went into them and gave them both good morrow[FN#234] and asked the
+damsel, “How hast thou passed the night, O my lady?” Answered the girl,
+“Right well, thanks to thy adroitness and the excellence of thy going
+between.”[FN#235] Then said the old woman, “Up, let us go back to thy
+mother.” At these words the young man pulled out an hundred sequins and
+gave them to her, saying, “Take this and leave her with me to night.”
+So she left them and repaired to the girl’s mother, to whom quoth she,
+“Thy daughter saluteth thee, and the bride’s mother hath sworn her to
+abide with her this night.” Replied the mother, “O my sister, bear her
+my salaam, and, if it please and amuse the girl, there is no harm in
+her staying the night; so let her do this and divert herself and come
+back to me at her leisure, for all I fear for her is chagrin on account
+of an angry husband.” The old woman ceased not to make excuse after
+excuse to the girl’s mother and to put off cheat upon cheat upon her,
+till Mahziyah had tarried seven days with the young man, of whom she
+took an hundred dinars each day for herself; while he enjoyed all the
+solace of life and coition. But at the end of this time, the girl’s
+mother said to her, “Bring my daughter back to me forthright; for I am
+uneasy about her, because she hath been so long absent, and I misdoubt
+me of this.” So the old woman went out saying, “Woe to thee! shall such
+words be spoken to the like of me?”; and, going to the young man’s
+house, took the girl by the hand and carried her away (leaving him
+lying asleep on his bed, for he was drunken with wine) to her mother.
+She received her with pleasure and gladness and seeing her in redoubled
+beauty and brilliancy rejoiced in her with exceeding joy, saying, “O my
+daughter, my heart was troubled about thee and in my uneasiness I
+offended against this my sister the Koranist with a speech that wounded
+her.” Replied Mahziyah, “Rise and kiss her hands and feet, for she hath
+been to me as a servant in my hour of need, and if thou do it not thou
+art no mamma of mine, nor am I thy girl.” So the mother went up at once
+to the old woman and made her peace with her. Meanwhile, the young man
+recovered from his drunkenness and missed the damsel, but congratulated
+himself on having enjoyed his desire. Presently Miryam the old Koranist
+came in to him and saluted him, saying, “What thinkest thou of my
+feat?” Quoth he, “Excellently well conceived and contrived of thee was
+that same.” Then quoth she, “Come, let us mend what we have marred and
+restore this girl to her husband, for we have been the cause of their
+separation and it is unrighteous.” Asked he, “How shall I do?” and she
+answered, “Go to Abu al-Fath’s shop and salute him and sit down by him,
+till thou seest me pass by, when do thou rise in haste and catch hold
+of my dress and abuse me and threaten me, demanding of me the veil. And
+do thou say to the merchant, ‘Thou knowest, O my lord, the face veil I
+bought of thee for fifty dinars? It so chanced that my handmaid put it
+on and burnt a corner of it by accident; so she gave it to this old
+woman, who took it, promising to get it fine-drawn[FN#236] and return
+it, and went away, nor have I seen her from that day to this.’” “With
+joy and good will,” replied the young man, and rising forthright,
+walked to the shop of the silk merchant, with whom he sat awhile till
+behold, the old woman passed telling her beads on a rosary she held in
+hand; whereupon he sprang up and laying hold of her dress began to
+abuse and rail at her, whilst she answered him with fair words, saying,
+“Indeed, my son, thou art excusable.” So the people of the bazaar
+flocked round the two, saying, “What is the matter?” and he replied, “O
+folk, I bought of this merchant a veil for fifty dinars and gave it to
+my slave girl, who wore it awhile, then sat down to fumigate it with
+perfume. Presently a spark flew out of the censer and, lighting on the
+edge of the veil, burnt a hole in it. So we committed it to this
+pestilent old woman, that she might give it to who should fine-draw it
+and return it to us; but from that time we have never set eyes on her
+again till this day.” Answered the old woman, “This young man speaks
+sooth. I had the veil from him, but I took it with me into one of the
+houses where I am wont to visit and forgot it there, nor do I know
+where I left it; and, being a poor woman, I feared its owner and dared
+not face him.” Now the girl’s husband was listening to all they
+said,—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
+permitted say.
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Second Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the young
+man seized the old woman and spoke to her of the veil as she had primed
+him, the girl’s husband was listening to all they said, from beginning
+to end, and when he heard the tale which the crafty old woman had
+contrived with the young man, he rose to his feet and said, “Allah
+Almighty! I crave pardon of the Omnipotent One for my sins and for what
+my heart suspected!” And he praised the Lord who had discovered to him
+the truth. Then he accosted the old woman and said to her, “Dost thou
+use to visit us?”[FN#237] Replied she, “O my son, I visit you and other
+than you, for the sake of alms; but from that day to this, none hath
+given me news of the veil.” Asked the merchant, “Hast thou enquired at
+my house?” and she answered, “O my lord, I did indeed go to thy house
+and ask; but they told me that the person of the house[FN#238] had been
+divorced by the merchant; so I went away and asked no farther; nor have
+I enquired of anybody else until this day.” Hereupon the merchant
+turned to the young man and said, “Let the old woman go her way; for
+the veil is with me.” So saying he brought it out from the shop and
+gave it to the fine-drawer before all present. Then he betook himself
+to his wife and, giving her somewhat of money, took her to himself
+again, after making abundance of excuses to her and asking pardon of
+Allah, because he knew not what the old woman had done. (Said the
+Wazir), “This then, O King, is an instance of the malice of women and
+for another to the same purport, I have heard tell the following tale
+anent
+
+
+The King’s Son and the Ifrit’s Mistress[FN#239]
+
+A certain King’s son was once walking alone for his pleasure, when he
+came to a green meadow, abounding in trees laden with fruit and birds
+singing on the boughs, and a river running athwart it. The place
+pleased him; so he sat down there and taking out some dried fruits he
+had brought with him, began to eat, when lo! he espied a great smoke
+rising up to heaven and, taking fright, he climbed up into a tree and
+hid himself among the branches. Thence he saw an Ifrit rise out of the
+midst of the stream bearing on his head a chest of marble, secured by a
+padlock. He set down the chest on the meadow-sward and opened it and
+there came forth a damsel of mortal race like the sun shining in the
+sheeny sky. After seating her he solaced himself by gazing on her
+awhile, then laid his head in her lap and fell asleep, whereupon she
+lifted up his head and laying it on the chest, rose and walked about.
+Presently, she chanced to raise her eyes to the tree wherein was the
+Prince, and seeing him, signed to him to come down. He refused, but she
+swore to him, saying, “Except thou come down and do as I bid thee, I
+will wake the Ifrit and point thee out to him, when he will straightway
+kill thee.” The King’s son fearing she would do as she said, came down,
+whereupon she kissed his hands and feet and besought him to do her
+need. To this he consented and, when he had satisfied her wants, she
+said to him, “Give me this seal ring I see on thy finger.” So he gave
+her his signet and she set it in a silken kerchief she had with her,
+wherein were more than four score others. When the Prince saw this, he
+asked her, “What dost thou with all these rings?”; and she answered,
+“In very sooth this Ifrit carried me off from my father’s palace and
+shut me in this box, which he beareth about on his head wherever he
+goeth, with the keys about him; and he hardly leaveth me one moment
+alone of the excess of his jealousy over me, and hindereth me from what
+I desire. When I saw this, I swore that I would deny my last favours to
+no man whatsoever, and these rings thou seest are after the tale of the
+men who have had me; for after coition I took from each a seal ring and
+laid it in this kerchief.” Then she added, “And now go thy ways, that I
+may look for another than thyself, for the Ifrit will not awake yet
+awhile.” Hardly crediting what he had heard, the Prince returned to his
+father’s palace, but the King knew naught of the damsel’s malice (for
+she feared not this and took no count thereof), and seeing that his son
+had lost his ring, he bade put him to death.[FN#240] Then he rose from
+his place and entered his palace; but his Wazirs came in to him and
+prevailed with him to abandon his purpose. The same night, the King
+sent for all of them and thanked them for having dissuaded him from
+slaying his son; and the Prince also thanked them, saying, “It was well
+done of you to counsel my father to let me live and Inshallah! I will
+soon requite you abundantly.” Then he related to them how he had lost
+the ring, and they offered up prayers for his long life and advancement
+and withdrew. “See then, O King,” (said the Wazir), “the malice of
+women and what they do unto men.” The King hearkened to the Minister’s
+counsel and again countermanded his order to slay his son. Next
+morning, it being the eighth day, as the King sat in his audience
+chamber in the midst of his Grandees and Emirs and Wazirs and Olema,
+the Prince entered, with his hand in that of his governor, Al Sindibad,
+and praised his father and his Ministers and lords and divines in the
+most eloquent words and thanked them for having saved his life; so that
+all who were present wondered at his eloquence and fluency of speech.
+His father rejoiced in him with exceeding, all surpassing joy, and
+calling him to him, kissed him between the eyes. Then he called his
+preceptor, al-Sindibad, and asked him why his son had kept silence
+these seven days, to which he replied, “O our lord, the truth is, it
+was I who enjoined him to this, in my fear for him of death: I knew
+this from the day of his birth; and, when I took his nativity, I found
+it written in the stars that, if he should speak during this period, he
+would surely die; but now the danger is over, by the King’s fortune.”
+At this the King was glad and said to his Wazirs, “If I had killed my
+son, would the fault have fallen on me or the damsel or on the
+preceptor, al-Sindibad?” But all present refrained from replying, and
+al-Sindibad said to the Prince, “Answer thou, O my son.”—And Shahrazad
+perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Third Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Al-Sindibad
+said, “Answer thou, O my son,” the Prince replied, “I have heard tell
+that a merchant at whose house certain guests once alighted sent his
+slave girl to the market to buy a jar of clotted milk.[FN#241] So she
+bought it and set out on her return home; but on the way there passed
+over her a kite, holding and squeezing a serpent in its claws, and a
+drop of the serpent’s venom fell into the milk jar, unknown of the
+girl. So, when she came back, the merchant took the milk from her and
+drank of it, he and his guests; but hardly had it settled in their
+stomachs when they all died.[FN#242] Now consider, O King, whose was
+the fault in this matter?” Thereupon some present said, “It was the
+fault of the company who drank the milk without examining it.” And
+other some, “That of the girl, who left the jar without cover.” But
+al-Sindibad asked the Prince, “What sayest thou, O my son?” Answered
+he, “I say that the folk err; it was neither the fault of the damsel
+nor of the company, for their appointed hour was come, their divinely
+decreed provision was exhausted and Allah had fore ordained them to die
+thus.”[FN#243] When the courtiers heard this, they marvelled greatly
+and lifted up their voices, blessing the King’s son, and saying, “O our
+lord, thou hast made a reply sans peur, and thou art the sagest man of
+thine age sans reproche.” “Indeed, I am no sage,” answered the Prince;
+“the blind Shaykh and the son of three years and the son of five years
+were wiser than I.” Said the bystanders, “O youth, tell us the stories
+of these three who were wiser than thou art, O youth.” Answered he,
+“With all my heart. I have heard tell this tale concerning the
+
+
+Sandal-Wood Merchant and the Sharpers.[FN#244]
+
+There once lived an exceeding rich merchant, who was a great traveller
+and who visited all manner of places. One day, being minded to journey
+to a certain city, he asked those who came thence, saying, “What kind
+of goods brought most profit there?” and they answered, “Chanders-wood;
+for it selleth at a high price.” So he laid out all his money in sandal
+and set out for that city; and arriving there at close of day, behold,
+he met and old woman driving her sheep. Quoth she to him, “Who art
+thou, O man?” and quoth he, “I am a stranger, a merchant.” “Beware of
+the townsfolk,” said she, “for they are cheats, rascals, robbers who
+love nothing more than imposing on the foreigner that they may get the
+better of him and devour his substance. Indeed I give thee good
+counsel.” Then she left him and on the morrow there met him one of the
+citizens who saluted him and asked him, “O my lord, whence comest
+thou?” Answered the merchant, “From such a place.” “And what
+merchandise hast thou brought with thee?” enquired the other; and
+replied he, “Chanders-wood, for it is high of price with you.” Quoth
+the townsman, “He blundered who told thee that; for we burn nothing
+under our cooking-pots save sandal-wood, whose worth with us is but
+that of fuel.” When the merchant heard this he sighed and repented and
+stood balanced between belief and unbelief. Then he alighted at one of
+the khans of the city, and, when it was night, he saw a merchant make
+fire of chanders-wood under his cooking pot. Now this was the man who
+had spoken with him and this proceeding was a trick of his. When the
+townsman saw the merchant looking at him, he asked, “Wilt thou sell me
+thy sandal-wood for a measure[FN#245] of whatever thy soul shall
+desire?” “I sell it to thee,” answered the merchant; and the buyer
+transported all the wood to his own house and stored it up there;
+whilst the seller purposed to take an equal quantity of gold for it.
+Next morning the merchant, who was a blue-eyed man, went out to walk in
+the city but, as he went along, one of the townsfolk, who was blue-eyed
+and one-eyed to boot, caught hold of him, saying, “Thou are he who
+stole my eye and I will never let thee go.”[FN#246] The merchant denied
+this, saying, “I never stole it: the thing is impossible.” Whereupon
+the folk collected round them and besought the one-eyed man to grant
+him till the morrow, that he might give him the price of his eye. So
+the merchant procured one to be surety for him, and they let him go.
+Now his sandal had been rent in the struggle with the one-eyed man; so
+he stopped at a cobbler’s stall and gave it to him, saying, “Mend it
+and thou shalt have of me what shall content thee.” Then he went on,
+till he came to some people sitting at play of forfeits and sat down
+with them, to divert his cark and care. They invited him to play with
+them and he did so; but they practised on him and overcoming him,
+offered him his choice,[FN#247] either to drink up the sea or disburse
+all the money he had. “Have patience with me till to-morrow,” said he,
+and they granted him the delay he sought; whereupon he went away, sore
+concerned for what had betided him and knowing not how he should do,
+and sat down in a solitary place heart-heavy, care-full,
+thought-opprest. And behold, the old woman passed by and seeing him
+thus, said to him, “Peradventure the townsfolk have gotten the better
+of thee, for I see the troubled at that which hath befallen thee:
+recount to me what aileth thee.” So he told her all that had passed
+from first to last, and she said, “As for him who diddled thee in the
+matter of the chanders-wood, thou must know that with us it is worth
+ten gold pieces a pound. But I will give thee a rede, whereby I trust
+thou shalt deliver thyself; and it is this. Go to such and such a gate
+whereby lives a blind Shaykh, a cripple, who is knowing, wise as a
+wizard and experienced; and all resort to him and ask him what they
+require, when he counsels them what will be their advantage; for he is
+versed in craft[FN#248] and magic and trickery. Now he is a sharper and
+the sharpers resort to him by night; therefore, I repeat, go thou to
+his lodging and hide thyself from thine adversaries, so thou mayst hear
+what they say, unseen of them; for he telleth them which party got the
+better and which got the worse; and haply thou shalt learn from them
+some plan which may avail to deliver thee from them.” —And Shahrazad
+perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Fourth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the old woman
+said to the merchant, “Go this night to that expert who is frequented
+by the townsfolk and hide thine identity: haply shalt thou hear from
+him some plea which shall deliver thee from thine adversaries.” So he
+went to the place she mentioned and hid himself albeit he took seat
+near the blind man. Before long, up came the Shaykh’s company who were
+wont to choose him for their judge: they saluted the oldster and one
+another and sat down round him, whereupon the merchant recognised his
+four adversaries. The Chief set somewhat of food before them and they
+ate; then each began to tell what had befallen him during his day, and
+amongst the rest came forward he of the chanders-wood and told the
+Shaykh how he had bought of one man sandal below its price, and had
+agreed to pay for it a Sá’a or measure of whatever the seller should
+desire.[FN#249] Quoth the old man, “Thine opponent hath the better of
+thee.” Asked the other, “How can that be?”; and the Shaykh answered,
+“What if he say, I will take the measure full of gold or silver, wilt
+thou give it to him?” “Yes,” replied the other, “I will give it to him
+and still be the gainer.” And the Shaykh answered, “And if he say,
+I will take the measure full of fleas,[FN#250] half male and half
+female, what wilt thou do?” So the sharper knew that he was worsted.
+Then came forward the one-eyed man and said, “O Shaykh, I met to-day a
+blue-eyed man, a stranger to the town; so I picked a quarrel with him
+and caught hold of him, saying, ‘’Twas thou robbedst me of my eye’;
+nor did I let him go, till some became surety for him that he should
+return to me to-morrow and satisfy me for my eye.” Quoth the oldster,
+“If he will he may have the better of thee and thou the worse.” “How
+so?” asked the sharper; and the Chief said, “he may say to thee, ‘Pluck
+out thine eye, and I will pluck out one of mine; then we will weigh
+them both, and if thine eye be of the same weight as mine, thou sayest
+sooth in what thou avouchest.’ So wilt thou owe him the legal price of
+his eye and be stone blind, whilst he will still see with his other
+eye.” So the sharper knew that the merchant might baffle him with such
+plea. Then came the cobbler; and said, “O Shaykh, a man brought me his
+sandal-shoe to-day, saying, ‘Mend this;’ and I asked him, ‘What wage
+wilt thou give me?’; when he answered, ‘Thou shalt have of me what will
+content thee.’ Now nothing will content me but all the wealth he hath.”
+Quoth the oldster, “And he will, he may take his sandal from thee and
+give thee nothing.” “How so?” quoth the cobbler, and quoth the Shaykh,
+“He has but to say to thee, ‘The Sultan’s enemies are put to the rout;
+his foes are waxed weak and his children and helpers are multiplied.
+Art thou content or no?’ If thou say, ‘I am content,’[FN#251] he will
+take his sandal and go away; and if thou say, ‘I am not content,’ he
+will take his sandal and beat thee therewith over the face and neck.”
+So the cobbler owned himself worsted. Then came forward the gamester
+and said, “O Shaykh, I played at forfeits with a man to-day and beat
+him and quoth I to hime, ‘If thou drink the sea I will give thee all
+my wealth; and if not I will take all that is thine.’” Replied the
+Chief, “An he will he may worst thee.” “How so?” asked the sharper,
+and the Shaykh answered, “He hath but to say, ‘Hold for me the mouth
+of the sea in thine hand and give it me and I will drink it.’ But thou
+wilt not be able to do this; so he will baffle thee with this plea.”
+When the merchant heard this, he knew how it behoved him to deal with
+his adversaries. Then the sharpers left the Shaykh and the merchant
+returned to his lodging. Now when morning morrowed, the gamester came
+to him and summoned him to drink the sea; so he said to him, “Hold for
+me its mouth and I will drink it up.” Whereupon he confessed himself
+beaten and redeemed his forfeit by paying an hundred gold pieces.
+Then came the cobbler and sought of him what should content him.
+Quoth the merchant, “Our lord the Sultan hath overcome his foes and
+hath destroyed his enemies and his children are multiplied. Art thou
+content or no?” “I am content,” replied the cobbler and, giving up the
+shoe[FN#252] without wage, went away. Next came the one-eyed man and
+demanded the legal price of his eye. Said the merchant, “Pluck out
+thine eye, and I will pluck out mine: then we will weigh them, and if
+they are equal in weight, I will acknowledge thy truth, and pay thee
+the price of thine eye; but, if they differ, thou liest and I will sue
+thee for the price of mine eye.” Quoth the one-eyed man, “Grant me
+time;” but the merchant answered, saying, “I am a stranger and grant
+time to none, nor will I part from thee till thou pay.” So the sharper
+ransomed his eye by paying him an hundred ducats and went away. Last
+of all came the buyer of the chanders-wood and said, “Take the price
+of thy ware.” Asked the merchant, “What wilt thou give me?”; and the
+other answered, “We agreed for a Sá’a-measure of whatever thou shouldst
+desire; so, if thou wilt, take it full of gold and silver.” “Not I,”
+rejoined the merchant, “Not I! nothing shall serve me but I must have
+it full of fleas, half male and half female.” Said the sharper, “I can
+do nothing of the kind;” and, confessing himself beaten, returned him
+his sandal-wood and redeemed himself from him with an hundred sequins,
+to be off his bargain. Then the merchant sold the chanders-wood at
+his own price and, quitting the city of sharpers, returned to his own
+land,—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
+permitted say.
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Fifth Night
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the merchant
+had sold his chanders-wood and had taken the money he quitted that city
+and returned to his own land. Then the Prince continued, “But this is
+not more wondrous than the tale of the three-year-old child.” “What may
+that be?” asked the King, and the Prince answered, “I have heard tell
+this tale of
+
+
+The Debauchee and the Three-Year-Old Child.
+
+Know, O King that a certain profligate man, who was addicted to the
+sex, once heard of a beautiful and lovely woman who dwelt in a city
+other than his own. So he journeyed thither, taking with him a present,
+and wrote her a note, setting forth all that he suffered of
+love-longing and desire for her and how his passion for her had driven
+him to forsake his native land and come to her; and he ended by praying
+for an assignation. She gave him leave to visit her and, as he entered
+her abode, she stood up and received him with all honour and worship,
+kissing his hands and entertaining him with the best entertainment of
+meat and drink. Now she had a little son, but three years old, whom she
+left and busied herself in cooking rice.[FN#253] Presently the man said
+to her, “Come, let us go and lie together;” but she replied, “My son is
+sitting looking at us.” Quoth the man, “He is a little child,
+understanding not neither knowing how to speak.” Quoth the woman, “Thou
+wouldst not say thus, and thou knew his intelligence.” When the boy saw
+that the rice was done, he wept with bitter weeping and his mother said
+to him, “What gars thee weep, O my son?” “Ladle me out some rice,”
+answered he, “and put clarified butter in it.” So she ladled him out
+somewhat of rice and put butter therein; and the child ate a little,
+then began to weep again. Quoth she, “What ails thee now, O my son?”;
+and quoth he, “O mother mine, I want some sugar with my rice.” At this
+said the man, who was an-angered, “Thou art none other than a curst
+child.” “Curst thyself, by Allah,” answered the boy, “seeing thou
+weariest thyself and journeyest from city to city, in quest of
+adultery. As for me, I wept because I had somewhat in my eye, and my
+tears brought it out; and now I have eaten rice with butter and sugar
+and am content; so which is the curst of us twain?” The man was
+confounded at this rebuke from a little child and forthright grace
+entered him and he was reclaimed. Wherefor he laid not a finger on the
+woman, but went out from her and returned to his own country, where he
+lived a contrite life till he died. “As for the story of the
+five-year-old child” (continued the Prince), “I have heard tell, O
+King, the following anent
+
+
+The Stolen Purse.
+
+Four merchants once owned in common a thousand gold pieces; so they
+laid them mingled together in one purse and set out to buy merchandise
+therewith. They happened as they wended their way on a beautiful
+garden; so they left the purse with a woman who had care of the garden,
+saying to here, “Mind thee, thou shalt not give it back save when all
+four of us in person demand it of thee.” She agreed to this and they
+entered and strolled awhile about the garden-walks and ate and drank
+and made merry, after which one of them said to the others, “I have
+with me scented fuller’s-earth; come, let us wash our heads therewith
+in this running water.” Quoth another, “We lack a comb;” and a third,
+“Let us ask the keeper; belike she hath a comb.” Thereupon one of them
+arose and accosting the care-taker, said to her, “Give me the purse.”
+Said she, “Not until ye be all present or thy fellows bid me give it
+thee.” Then he called to his companions (who could see him but not hear
+him) saying, “She will not give it me;” and they said to her, “Give it
+him,” thinking he meant the comb. So she gave him the purse and he took
+it and made off as fast as he could. When the three others were wary of
+waiting, they went to the keeper and asked her, “Why wilt thou not give
+him the comb?” Answered she, “He demanded naught of me save the purse,
+and I gave not that same but with your consent, and he went his way
+with it.” When they heard her words they buffeted their faces and,
+laying hands upon her, said, “We authorized thee only to give him the
+comb;” and she rejoined, “He named not a comb to me.” Then they seized
+her and haled her before the Kazi, to whom they related their claim and
+he condemned her to make good the purse and bound over sundry of
+her debtors to answer for her.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
+day and ceased to say her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Sixth Night
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Kazi
+condemned the care-taker to make good the purse and bound over sundry
+of her debtors to answer for her. So she went forth, confounded and
+knowing not her way out of difficulty. Presently she met a
+five-year-old boy who, seeing her troubled, said to her, “What ails
+thee, O my mother?” But she gave him no answer, contemning him because
+of his tender age, and he repeated his question a second time and a
+third time till, at last, she told him all that had passed,[FN#254] not
+forgetting the condition that she was to keep the purse until all four
+had demanded it of her. Said the boy, “Give me a dirham to buy
+sweetmeats withal and I will tell the how thou mayst acquit thyself.”
+So she gave him a silver and said to him, “What hast thou to say?”
+Quoth he, “Return to the Kazi, and say to him, It was agreed between
+myself and them that I should not give them the purse, except all four
+of them were present. Let them all four come and I will give them the
+purse, as was agreed.” So she went back to the Kazi and said to him as
+the boy had counselled; and he asked the merchants, “Was it thus agreed
+between you and this woman?”; and they answered, “Yes.” Quoth the Kazi,
+“Then bring me your comrade and take the purse.” So they went in quest
+of their fellow, whilst the keeper came off scot-free and went her way
+without let or hindrance. And Allah is Omniscient![FN#255] When the
+King and his Wazir and those present in the assembly heard the Prince’s
+words they said to his father, “O our lord the King, in very sooth thy
+son is the most accomplished man of his time;” and they called down
+blessings upon the King and the Prince. Then the King strained his son
+to his bosom and kissed him between the eyes and questioned him of what
+had passed between the favourite and himself; and the Prince sware to
+him, by Almighty Allah and by His Holy Prophet that it was she who had
+required him of love which he refused, adding, “Moreover, she promised
+me that she would give thee poison to drink and kill thee, so should the
+kingship be mine; whereupon I waxed wroth and signed to her, ‘O
+accursed one, whenas I can speak I will requite thee!’ So she feared me
+and did what she did.” The King believed his words and sending for the
+favourite said to those present, “How shall we put this damsel to
+death?” Some counselled him to cut out her tongue and other some to
+burn it with fire; but, when she came before the King, she said to him,
+“My case with thee is like unto naught save the tale of the fox and the
+folk.” “How so?” asked he; and she said, “I have heard, O King, tell a
+
+
+Story of the Fox and the Folk.[FN#256]
+
+A fox once made his way into a city by the wall and, entering a
+currier’s store-house, played havoc with all therein and spoiled the
+skins for the owner. One day, the currier set a trap for him and taking
+him, beat him with the hides, till he fell down senseless, whereupon
+the man deeming him to be dead, cast him out into the road by the
+city-gate. Presently, an old woman who was walking by, seeing the fox
+said, “This is a fox whose eye, hung about a child’s neck, is salutary
+against weeping.” So she pluckt out his right eye and went away. Then
+passed a boy, who said, “What does this tail on this fox?”; and cut off
+his brush. After a while, up came a man and saying, “This is a fox
+whose gall cleareth away film and dimness from the eyes, if they be
+anointed therewith like kohl,” took out his knife to slit up the fox’s
+paunch. But Reynard said in himself, “We bore with the plucking out of
+the eye and the cutting off of the tail; but, as for the slitting of
+the paunch, there is no putting up with that!” So saying, he sprang up
+and made off through the gate of the city, hardly believing in his
+escape. Quoth the King, “I excuse her, and in my son’s hands be her
+doom. If he will, let him torture her, and if he will, let him kill
+her.” Quoth the Prince, “Pardon is better than vengeance and mercy is
+of the quality of the noble;” and the King repeated, “’Tis for thee to
+decide, O my son.” So the Prince set her free, saying, “Depart from our
+neighbourhood and Alla pardon what is past!” Therewith the King rose
+from his throne of estate and seating his son thereon, crowned him with
+his crown and bade the Grandees of his realm swear fealty and commanded
+them do homage to him. And he said, “O folk, indeed, I am stricken in
+years and desire to withdraw apart and devote myself only to the
+service of my Lord; and I call you to witness that I divest myself of
+the kingly dignity, even as I have divested myself of my crown and set
+it on my son’s head.” So the troops and officers swore fealty to the
+Prince, and his father gave himself up to the worship of his Lord nor
+stinted from this, whilst his son abode in his kingship, doing justice
+and righteousness; and his power was magnified and his sultanate
+strengthened and he abode in all delight and solace of life, till there
+came to him the Certainty.
+
+
+
+
+JUDAR[FN#257] AND HIS BRETHREN.
+
+
+There was once a man and a merchant named Omar and he had for issue
+three sons, the eldest called Sálim, the youngest Júdar and the cadet
+Salím. He reared them all till they came to man’s estate, but the
+youngest he loved more than his brothers, who seeing this, waxed
+jealous of Judar and hated him. Now when their father, who was a man
+shotten in years, saw that his two eldest sons hated their brother, he
+feared lest after his death trouble should befall him from them. So he
+assembled a company of his kinsfolk, together with divers men of
+learning and property distributors of the Kazi’s court, and bidding
+bring all his monies and cloth, said to them, “O folk, divide ye this
+money and stuff into four portions according to the law.” They did so,
+and he gave one part to each of his sons and kept the fourth himself,
+saying, “This was my good and I have divided it among them in my
+lifetime; and this that I have kept shall be for my wife, their mother,
+wherewithal to provide for her subsistence whenas she shall be a
+widow.”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
+permitted say.
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Seventh Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the merchant
+had divided his money and stuff into four portions he said, “This share
+shall be for my wife, their mother, wherewithal to provide for her
+subsistence whenas she shall be a widow.” A little while after this he
+died, and neither of the two elder brothers was content with his
+share,[FN#258] but sought more of Judar, saying, “Our father’s wealth
+is in thy hands.” So he appealed to the judges; and the Moslems who had
+been present at the partition came and bore witness of that which they
+knew, wherefore the judge forbade them from one another; but Judar and
+his brothers wasted much money in bribes to him. After this, the twain
+left him awhile; presently, however, they began again to plot against
+him and he appealed a second time to the magistrate, who once more
+decided in his favour; but all three lost much money which went to the
+judges. Nevertheless Sálim and Salím forbore not to seek his hurt and
+to carry the case from court to court,[FN#259] he and they losing till
+they had given all their good for food to the oppressors and they
+became poor, all three. Then the two elder brothers went to their
+mother and flouted her and beat her, and seizing her money crave her
+away. So she betook herself to her son Judar and told him how his
+brothers had dealt with her and fell to cursing the twain. Said he, “O
+my mother, do not curse them, for Allah will requite each of them
+according to his deed. But, O mother mine, see, I am become poor, and
+so are my brethren, for strife occasioneth loss ruin rife, and we have
+striven amain, and fought, I and they, before the judges, and it hath
+profited us naught: nay, we have wasted all our father left us and are
+disgraced among the folk by reason of our testimony one against other.
+Shall I then con tend with them anew on thine account and shall we
+appeal to the judges? This may not be! Rather do thou take up thine
+abode with me, and the scone I eat I will share with thee. Do thou pray
+for me and Allah will give me the means of thine alimony. Leave them to
+receive of the Almighty the recompense of their deed, and console
+thyself with the saying of the poet who said,
+
+‘If a fool oppress thee bear patiently; * And from Time expect
+     thy revenge to see:
+Shun tyranny; for if mount oppressed * A mount, ’twould be
+     shattered by tyranny.’”
+
+
+And he soothed and comforted her till she consented and took up her
+dwelling with him. Then he get him a net and went a fishing every day
+in the river or the banks about Bulák and old Cairo or some other place
+in which there was water; and one day he would earn ten
+coppers,[FN#260] another twenty and another thirty, which he spent upon
+his mother and himself, and they ate well and drank well. But, as for
+his brothers, they plied no craft and neither sold nor bought; misery
+and ruin and overwhelming calamity entered their houses and they wasted
+that which they had taken from their mother and became of the wretched
+naked beggars. So at times they would come to their mother, humbling
+themselves before her exceedingly and complaining to her of hunger; and
+she (a mother’s heart being pitiful) would give them some mouldy, sour
+smelling bread or, if there were any meat cooked the day before, she
+would say to them, “Eat it quick and go ere your brother come; for
+’twould be grievous to him and he would harden his heart against me,
+and ye would disgrace me with him.” So they would eat in haste and go.
+One day among days they came in to their mother, and she set cooked
+meat and bread before them. As they were eating, behold, in came their
+brother Judar, at whose sight the parent was put to shame and
+confusion, fearing lest he should be wroth with her; and she bowed her
+face earthwards abashed before her son. But he smiled in their faces,
+saying, “Welcome, O my brothers! A blessed day![FN#261] How comes it
+that ye visit me this blessed day?” Then he embraced them both and
+entreated them lovingly, saying to them, “I thought not that ye would
+have left me desolate by your absence nor that ye would have forborne
+to come and visit me and your mother.” Said they, “By Allah, O our
+brother, we longed sore for thee and naught withheld us but abashment
+because of what befell between us and thee; but indeed we have repented
+much. ’Twas Satan’s doing, the curse of Allah the Most High be upon
+him! And now we have no blessing but thyself and our mother.”—And
+Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted
+say.
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Eighth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Judar
+entered his place and saw his brothers, he welcomed them both, saying,
+“And I have no blessing but you twain.” And his mother exclaimed,
+“Allah whiten thy face, and increase thy prosperity, for thou art the
+most generous of us all, O my son!” Then he said “Welcome to you both!
+Abide with me; for the Lord is bountiful and good aboundeth with me.”
+So he made peace with them, and they supped and righted with him; and
+next morning, after they had broken their fast, Judar shouldered his
+net and went out, trusting in The Opener[FN#262] whilst the two others
+also went forth and were absent till midday, when they returned and
+their mother set the noon meal before them. At nightfall Judar came
+home, bearing meat and greens, and they abode on this wise a month’s
+space, Judar catching fish and selling it and spending their price on
+his mother and his brothers, and these eating and frolicking till, one
+day, it chanced he went down to the river bank and throwing his net,
+brought it up empty. He cast it a second time, but again it came up
+empty and he said in himself, “No fish in this place!” So he removed to
+another and threw the net there, but without avail. And he ceased not
+to remove from place to place till night fall, but caught not a single
+sprat[FN#263] and said to himself, “Wonderful! Hath the fish fled the
+river or what?” Then he shouldered the net and made for home,
+chagrined, concerned, feeling for his mother and brothers and knowing
+not how he should feed them that night. Presently, he came to a baker’s
+oven and saw the folk crowding for bread, with silver in their hands,
+whilst the baker took no note of them. So he stood there sighing, and
+the baker said to him, “Welcome to thee, O Judar! Dost thou want
+bread?” But he was silent and the baker continued, “An thou have no
+dirhams, take thy sufficiency and thou shalt get credit.” So Judar
+said, “Give me ten coppers’ worth of bread and take this net in
+pledge.” Rejoined the baker, “Nay, my poor fellow, the net is thy gate
+of earning thy livelihood, and if I take it from thee, I shall close up
+against thee the door of thy subsistence. Take thee ten Nusfs’ worth of
+bread and take these other ten, and to morrow bring me fish for the
+twenty.” “On my head and eyes be it!” quoth Judar and took the bread
+and money saying, “To morrow the Lord will dispel the trouble of my
+case and will provide me the means of acquittance.” Then he bought meat
+and vegetables and carried them home to his mother, who cooked them and
+they supped and went to bed. Next morning he arose at daybreak and took
+the net, and his mother said to him, “Sit down and break thy fast.” But
+he said, “Do thou and my brothers break fast,” and went down to the
+river about Bulak where he ceased not to cast once, twice, thrice; and
+to shift about all day, without aught falling to him, till the hour of
+mid afternoon prayer, when he shouldered his net and went away sore
+dejected. His way led him perforce by the booth of the baker who, when
+he saw him counted out to him the loaves and the money, saying, “Come,
+take it and go; an it be not to-day, ’twill be to-morrow.” Judar would
+have excused himself, but the baker said to him, “Go! There needeth no
+excuse; an thou had netted aught, it would be with thee; so seeing thee
+empty handed, I knew thou hadst gotten naught; and if to-morrow thou
+have no better luck, come and take bread and be not abashed, for I will
+give thee credit.” So Judar took the bread and money and went home. On
+the third day also he sallied forth and fished from tank to tank until
+the time of afternoon prayer, but caught nothing; so he went to the
+baker and took the bread and silver as usual. On this wise he did seven
+days running, till he became disheartened and said in himself, “To day
+I go to the Lake Kárún.”[FN#264] So he went thither and was about to
+cast his net, when there came up to him unawares a Maghrabí, a Moor,
+clad in splendid attire and riding a she mule with a pair of gold
+embroidered saddle bags on her back and all her trappings also
+orfrayed. The Moor alighted and said to him, “Peace be upon thee, O
+Judar, O son of Omar!” “And on thee likewise be peace, O my lord the
+pilgrim!” replied the fisherman. Quoth the Maghrabi, “O Judar, I have
+need of thee and, given thou obey me, thou shalt get great good and
+shalt be my companion and manage my affairs for me.” Quoth Judar, “O my
+lord, tell me what is in thy mind and I will obey thee, without demur.”
+Said the Moor, “Repeat the Fatihah, the Opening Chapter of the
+Koran.”[FN#265] So he recited it with him and the Moor bringing out a
+silken cord, said to Judar, “Pinion my elbows behind me with this cord,
+as fast as fast can be, and cast me into the lake; then wait a little
+while; and, if thou see me put forth my hands above the water, raising
+them high ere my body show, cast thy net over me and drag me out in
+haste; but if thou see me come up feet foremost, then know that I am
+dead; in which case do thou leave me and take the mule and saddle bags
+and carry them to the merchants’ bazaar, where thou wilt find a Jew by
+name Shamáyah. Give him the mule and he will give thee an hundred
+dinars, which do thou take and go thy ways and keep the matter secret
+with all secrecy.” So Judar tied his arms tightly behind his back and
+he kept saying, “Tie tighter.” Then said he “Push me till I fall into
+the lake:” so he pushed him in and he sank. Judar stood waiting some
+time till, behold, the Moor’s feet appeared above the water, whereupon
+he knew that he was dead. So he left him and drove the mule to the
+bazaar, where seated on a stool at the door of his storehouse he saw
+the Jew who spying the mule, cried, “In very sooth the man hath
+perished,” adding, “and naught undid him but covetise.” Then he took
+the mule from Judar and gave him an hundred dinars, charging him to
+keep the matter secret. So Judar went and bought what bread he needed,
+saying to the baker, “Take this gold piece!”; and the man summed up
+what was due to him and said, “I still owe thee two days’ bread”—And
+Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted
+say.
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Ninth Night,
+
+She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Judar, when
+the baker after summing up what was due to him said, “I still owe thee
+two days’ bread,” replied, “Good,” and went on to the butcher, to whom
+he gave a gold piece and took meat, saying, “Keep the rest of the dinar
+on account.” Then he bought vegetables and going home, found his
+brothers importuning their mother for victual, whilst she cried, “Have
+patience till your brother come home, for I have naught.” So he went in
+to them and said, “Take and eat;” and they fell on the food like
+cannibals. Then he gave his mother the rest of his gold saying, “If my
+brothers come to thee, give them wherewithal to buy food and eat in my
+absence.” He slept well that night and next morning he took his net and
+going down to Lake Karun stood there and was about to cast his net,
+when behold, there came up to him a second Maghribi, riding on a she
+mule more handsomely accoutred than he of the day before and having
+with him a pair of saddle bags of which each pocket contained a casket.
+“Peace be with thee, O Judar!” said the Moor: “And with thee be peace,
+O my lord, the pilgrim!” replied Judar. Asked the Moor, “Did there come
+to thee yesterday a Moor riding on a mule like this of mine?” Hereat
+Judar was alarmed and answered, “I saw none,” fearing lest the other
+say, “Whither went he?” and if he replied, “He was drowned in the
+lake,” that haply he should charge him with having drowned him;
+wherefore he could not but deny. Rejoined the Moor, “Hark ye, O
+unhappy![FN#266] this was my brother, who is gone before me.” Judar
+persisted, “I know naught of him.” Then the Moor enquired, “Didst thou
+not bind his arms behind him and throw him into the lake, and did he
+not say to thee, ‘If my hands appear above the water first, cast thy
+net over me and drag me out in haste; but, if my feet show first, know
+that I am dead and carry the mule to the Jew Shamayah, who shall give
+thee an hundred dinars?’” Quoth Judar, “Since thou knowest all this why
+and wherefore dost thou question me?”; and quoth the Moor, “I would
+have thee do with me as thou didst with my brother.” Then he gave him a
+silken cord, saying, “Bind my hands behind me and throw me in, and if I
+fare as did my brother, take the mule to the Jew and he will give thee
+other hundred dinars.” Said Judar, “Come on;” so he came and he bound
+him and pushed him into the lake, where he sank. Then Judar sat
+watching and after awhile, his feet appeared above the water and the
+fisher said, “He is dead and damned! Inshallah, may Maghribis come to
+me every day, and I will pinion them and push them in and they shall
+die; and I will content me with an hundred dinars for each dead man.”
+Then he took the mule to the Jew, who seeing him asked, “The other is
+dead?” Answered Judar, “May thy head live!”; and the Jew said, “This is
+the reward of the covetous!” Then he took the mule and gave Judar an
+hundred dinars, with which he returned to his mother. “O my son,” said
+she, “whence hast thou this?” So he told her, and she said, “Go not
+again to Lake Karun, indeed I fear for thee from the Moors.” Said he,
+“O my mother, I do but cast them in by their own wish, and what am I to
+do? This craft bringeth me an hundred dinars a day and I return
+speedily; wherefore, by Allah, I will not leave going to Lake Karun,
+till the race of the Magháribah[FN#267] is cut off and not one of them
+is left.” So, on the morrow which was the third day, he went down to
+the lake and stood there, till there came up a third Moor, riding on a
+mule with saddle bags and still more richly accoutred than the first
+two, who said to him, “Peace be with thee, O Judar, O son of Omar!” And
+the fisherman saying in himself, “How comes it that they all know me?”
+returned his salute. Asked the Maghribi, “Have any Moors passed by
+here?” “Two,” answered Judar. “Whither went they?” enquired the Moor,
+and Judar replied, “I pinioned their hands behind them and cast them
+into the lake, where they were drowned, and the same fate is in store
+for thee.” The Moor laughed and rejoined, saying, “O unhappy! Every
+life hath its term appointed.” Then he alighted and gave the fisherman
+the silken cord, saying, “Do with me, O Judar, as thou didst with
+them.” Said Judar, “Put thy hands behind thy back, that I may pinion
+thee, for I am in haste, and time flies.” So he put his hands behind
+him and Judar tied him up and cast him in. Then he waited awhile;
+presently the Moor thrust both hands forth of the water and called out
+to him, saying, “Ho, good fellow, cast out thy net!” So Judar threw the
+net over him and drew him ashore, and lo! in each hand he held a fish
+as red as coral. Quoth the Moor, “Bring me the two caskets that are in
+the saddle bags.” So Judar brought them and opened them to him, and he
+laid in each casket a fish and shut them up. Then he pressed Judar to
+his bosom and kissed him on the right cheek and the left, saying,
+“Allah save thee from all stress! By the Almighty, hadst thou not cast
+the net over me and pulled me out, I should have kept hold of these two
+fishes till I sank and was drowned, for I could not get ashore of
+myself.” Quoth Judar, “O my lord the pilgrim, Allah upon thee, tell me
+the true history of the two drowned men and the truth anent these two
+fishes and the Jew.”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
+to say her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Tenth Night,
+
+She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Judar
+asked the Maghribi, saying, “Prithee tell me first of the drowned
+men,” the Maghribi answered, “Know, O Judar, that these drowned men
+were my two brothers, by name Abd al-Salám and Abd al-Ahad. My own
+name is Abd al-Samad, and the Jew also is our brother; his name is Abd
+al-Rahim and he is no Jew but a true believer of the Maliki school. Our
+father, whose name was Abd al-Wadúd,[FN#268] taught us magic and the
+art of solving mysteries and bringing hoards to light, and we applied
+ourselves thereto, till we compelled the Ifrits and Marids of the Jinn
+to do us service. By and by, our sire died and left us much wealth,
+and we divided amongst us his treasures and talismans, till we came to
+the books, when we fell out over a volume called ‘The Fables of the
+Ancients,’ whose like is not in the world, nor can its price be paid of
+any, nor is its value to be evened with gold and jewels; for in it are
+particulars of all the hidden hoards of the earth and the solution of
+every secret. Our father was wont to make use of this book, of which we
+had some small matter by heart, and each of us desired to possess it,
+that he might acquaint himself with what was therein. Now when we fell
+out there was in our company an old man by name Cohen Al-Abtan,[FN#269]
+who had reared our sire and taught him divination and gramarye, and he
+said to us, ‘Bring me the book.’ So we gave it him and he continued,—Ye
+are my son’s sons, and it may not be that I should wrong any of you.
+So whoso is minded to have the volume, let him address himself to
+achieve the treasure of Al-Shamardal[FN#270] and bring me the celestial
+planisphere and the Kohl phial and the seal ring and the sword. For the
+ring hath a Marid that serveth it called Al-Ra’ad al-Kásif;[FN#271]
+and whoso hath possession thereof, neither King nor Sultan may prevail
+against him; and if he will, he may therewith make himself master of
+the earth, in all the length and breadth thereof. As for the brand, if
+its bearer draw it and brandish it against an army, the army will be
+put to the rout; and if he say the while, ‘Slay yonder host,’ there
+will come forth of that sword lightning and fire, that will kill the
+whole many. As for the planisphere, its possessor hath only to turn
+its face toward any country, east or west, with whose sight he hath a
+mind to solace himself, and therein he will see that country and its
+people, as they were between his hands and he sitting in his place;
+and if he be wroth with a city and have a mind to burn it, he hath but
+to face the planisphere towards the sun’s disc, saying, ‘Let such a
+city be burnt,’ and that city will be consumed with fire. As for the
+Kohl phial, whoso pencilleth his eyes therefrom, he shall espy all
+the treasures of the earth. And I make this condition with you which
+is that whoso faileth to hit upon the hoards shall forfeit his right;
+and that none save he who shall achieve the treasure and bring me the
+four precious things which be therein shall have any claim to take this
+book.’ So we all agreed to this condition, and he continued, ‘O my
+sons, know that the treasure of Al-Shamardal is under the commandment
+of the sons of the Red King, and your father told me that he had
+himself essayed to open the treasure, but could not; for the sons of
+the Red King fled from him into the land of Egypt and took refuge in a
+lake there, called Lake Karun, whither he pursued them, but could not
+prevail over them, by reason of their stealing into that lake, which
+was guarded by a spell.’ ”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
+ceased saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Eleventh Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Cohen
+al-Abtan had told the youths this much, he continued his tale as
+follows, “So your father returned empty handed and unable to win to his
+wish; and after failing he complained to me of his ill-success,
+whereupon I drew him an astrological figure and found that the treasure
+could be achieved only by means of a young fisherman of Cairo, highs
+Judar bin Omar, the place of foregathering with whom was at Lake Karun,
+for that he should be the means of capturing the sons of the Red King
+and that the charm would not be dissolved, save if he should bind the
+hands of the treasure seeker behind him and cast him into the lake,
+there to do battle with the sons of the Red King. And he whose lot it
+was to succeed would lay hands upon them; but, if it were not destined
+to him he should perish and his feet appear above water. As for him who
+was successful, his hands would show first, whereupon it behoved that
+Judar should cast the net over him and draw him ashore.” Now quoth my
+brothers Abd al-Salam and Abd al-Ahad, “We will wend and make trial,
+although we perish;” and quoth I, “And I also will go;” but my brother
+Abd al-Rahim (he whom thou sawest in the habit of a Jew) said, “I have
+no mind to this.” Thereupon we agreed with him that he should repair to
+Cairo in the disguise of a Jewish merchant, so that, if one of us
+perished in the lake, he might take his mule and saddle bags and give
+the bearer an hundred dinars. The first that came to thee the sons of
+the Red King slew, and so did they with my second brother; but against
+me they could not prevail and I laid hands on them. Cried Judar, “And
+where is thy catch?” Asked the Moor, “Didst thou not see me shut them
+in the caskets?” “Those were fishes,” said Judar. “Nay,” answered the
+Maghribi, “they are Ifrits in the guise of fish. But, O Judar,”
+continued he, “thou must know that the treasure can be opened only by
+thy means: so say, wilt thou do my bidding and go with me to the city
+Fez and Mequinez[FN#272] where we will open the treasure?; and after I
+will give thee what thou wilt and thou shalt ever be my brother in the
+bond of Allah and return to thy family with a joyful heart.” Said
+Judar, “O my lord the pilgrim, I have on my neck a mother and two
+brothers,”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say
+her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Twelfth Night,
+
+She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Judar said
+to the Maghribi, “I have on my neck a mother and two brothers, whose
+provider I am; and if I go with thee, who shall give them bread to
+eat?” Replied the Moor, “This is an idle excuse! if it be but a matter
+of expenditure, I will give thee a thousand ducats for thy mother,
+wherewith she may provide her self till thou come back: and indeed thou
+shalt return before the end of four months.” So when Judar heard
+mention of the thousand diners, he said, “Here with them, O Pilgrim,
+and I am thy man;” and the Moor, pulling out the money, gave it to him,
+whereupon he carried it to his mother and told her what had passed
+between them, saying, “Take these thousand diners and expend of them
+upon thyself and my brothers, whilst I journey to Marocco with the
+Moor, for I shall be absent four months, and great good will betide me;
+so bless me, O my mother!” Answered she, “O my son, thou desolatest me
+and I fear for thee.” “O my mother,” rejoined he, “no harm can befall
+him who is in Allah’s keeping, and the Maghribi is a man of worth;” and
+he went on to praise his condition to her. Quoth she, “Allah incline
+his heart to thee! Go with him, O my son; peradventure, he will give
+thee somewhat.” So he took leave of his mother and rejoined the Moor
+Abd al-Samad, who asked him, “Hast thou consulted thy mother?” “Yes,”
+answered Judar; “and she blessed me.” “Then mount behind me,” said the
+Maghribi. So Judar mounted the mule’s crupper and they rode on from
+noon till the time of mid afternoon prayer, when the fisherman was an
+hungered; but seeing no victual with the Moor, said to him, “O my lord
+the pilgrim, belike thou hast forgotten to bring us aught to eat by the
+way?” Asked the Moor, “Art thou hungry?” and Judar answered, “Yes.” So
+Abd al-Samad alighted and made Judar alight and take down the saddle
+bage[FN#273]; then he said to him, “What wilt thou have, O my brother?”
+“Anything.” “Allah upon thee, tell me what thou hast a mind to.” “Bread
+and cheese.” “O my poor fellow! bread and cheese besit thee not; wish
+for some thing good.” “Just now everything is good to me.” “Dost thou
+like nice browned chicken?” “Yes!” “Dost thou like rice and honey?”
+“Yes!” And the Moor went on to ask him if he liked this dish and that
+dish till he had named four and twenty kinds of meats; and Judar
+thought to himself, “He must be daft! Where are all these dainties to
+come from, seeing he hath neither cook nor kitchen? But I’ll say to
+him, ‘’Tis enough!’” So he cried, “That will do: thou makest me long
+for all these meats, and I see nothing.” Quoth the Moor, “Thou art
+welcome, O Judar!” and, putting his hand into the saddle bags, pulled
+out a golden dish containing two hot browned chickens. Then he thrust
+his hand a second time and drew out a golden dish, full of
+kabobs[FN#274]; nor did he stint taking out dishes from saddle bags,
+till he had brought forth the whole of the four and twenty kinds he had
+named, whilst Judar looked on. Then said the Moor, “Fall to poor
+fellow!”, and Judar said to him, “O my lord, thou carriest in yonder
+saddle bags kitchen and kitcheners!” The Moor laughed and replied,
+“These are magical saddle bags and have a servant, who would bring us a
+thousand dishes an hour, if we called for them.” Quoth Judar, “By
+Allah, a meat thing in saddle bags’” Then they ate their fill and threw
+away what was left; after which the Moor replaced the empty dishes in
+the saddle bags and putting in his hand, drew out an ewer. They drank
+and making the Wuzu ablution, prayed the mid afternoon prayer; after
+which Abd al-Samad replaced the ewer and the two caskets in the saddle
+bags and throwing them over the mule’s back, mounted and cried “Up with
+thee and let us be off,” presently adding, “O Judar, knowest thou how
+far we have come since we left Cairo?” “Not I, by Allah,” replied he,
+and Abd al-Samad, “We have come a whole month’s journey.” Asked Judar,
+“And how is that?”; and the Moor answered, “Know, O Judar, that this
+mule under us is a Marid of the Jinn who every day performeth a year’s
+journey; but, for thy sake, she hath gone an easier pace.” Then they
+set out again and fared on westwards till nightfall, when they halted
+and the Maghribi brought out supper from the saddle bags, and in like
+manner, in the morning, he took forth wherewithal to break their fast.
+So they rode on four days, journeying till midnight and then alighting
+and sleeping until morning, when they fared on again; and all that
+Judar had a mind to, he sought of the Moor, who brought it out of the
+saddle bags. On the fifth day, they arrived at Fez and Mequinez and
+entered the city, where all who met the Maghribi saluted him and kissed
+his hands; and he continued riding through the streets, till he came to
+a certain door, at which he knocked, whereupon it opened and out came a
+girl like the moon, to whom said he, “O my daughter, O Rahmah,[FN#275]
+open us the upper chamber.” “On my head and eyes, O my papa!” replied
+she and went in, swaying her hips to and fro with a graceful and
+swimming gait like a thirsting gazelle, movements that ravished Judar’s
+reason, and he said, “This is none other than a King’s daughter.” So
+she opened the upper chamber, and the Moor, taking the saddle bags from
+the mule’s back, said, “Go, and God bless thee!” when lo! the earth
+clove asunder and swallowing the mule, closed up again as before. And
+Judar said, “O Protector! praised be Allah, who hath kept us in safety
+on her back!” Quoth the Maghribi, “Marvel not, O Judar. I told thee
+that the mule was an Ifrit; but come with us into the upper chamber.”
+So they went up into it, and Judar was amazed at the profusion of rich
+furniture and pendants of gold and silver and jewels and other rare and
+precious things which he saw there. As soon as they were seated, the
+Moor bade Rahmah bring him a certain bundle[FN#276] and opening it,
+drew out a dress worth a thousand diners, which he gave to Judar,
+saying, “Don this dress, O Judar, and welcome to thee!” So Judar put it
+on and became a fair en sample of the Kings of the West. Then the
+Maghribi laid the saddle bags before him, and, putting in his hand,
+pulled out dish after dish, till they had before them a tray of forty
+kinds of meat, when he said to Judar, “Come near, O my master! eat and
+excuse us”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying
+her permitted say,
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Thirteenth Night,
+
+She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Maghribi
+having served up in the pavilion a tray of forty kinds of meat, said to
+Judar, “Come near, O my master, and excuse us for that we know not what
+meats thou desirest; but tell us what thou hast a mind to, and we will
+set it before thee without delay.” Replied Judar, “By Allah, O my lord
+the pilgrim, I love all kinds of meat and unlove none; so ask me not of
+aught, but bring all that cometh to thy thought, for save eating to do
+I have nought.” After this he tarried twenty days with the Moor, who
+clad him in new clothes every day, and all this time they ate from the
+saddle bags; for the Maghribi bought neither meat nor bread nor aught
+else, nor cooked, but brought everything out of the bags, even to
+various sorts of fruit. On the twenty first day, he said, “O Judar up
+with thee; this is the day appointed for opening the hoard of
+Al-Shamardal.” So he rose and they went afoot[FN#277] without the city,
+where they found two slaves, each holding a she mule. The Moor mounted
+one beast and Judar the other, and they ceased not riding till noon,
+when they came to a stream of running water, on whose banks Abd
+al-Samad alighted saying, “Dismount, O Judar!” Then he signed with his
+hand to the slaves and said, “To it!” So they took the mules and going
+each his own way, were absent awhile, after which they returned, one
+bearing a tent, which he pitched, and the other carpets, which he
+spread in the tent and laid mattresses, pillows and cushions there
+around. Then one of them brought the caskets containing the two fishes;
+and another fetched the saddle bags; whereupon the Maghribi arose and
+said, “Come, O Judar!” So Judar followed him into the tent and sat down
+beside him; and he brought out dishes of meat from the saddle bags and
+they ate the undurn meal. Then the Moor took the two caskets and
+conjured over them both, whereupon there came from within voices that
+said’ “Adsumus, at thy service, O diviner of the world! Have mercy upon
+us!” and called aloud for aid. But he ceased not to repeat conjurations
+and they to call for help, till the two caskets flew in sunder, the
+fragments flying about, and there came forth two men, with pinioned
+hands saying, “Quarter, O diviner of the world! What wilt thou with
+us?” Quoth he, “My will is to burn you both with fire, except ye make a
+covenant with me, to open to me the treasure of Al-Shamardal.” Quoth
+they, “We promise this to thee, and we will open the tree sure to thee,
+so thou produce to us Judar bin Omar, the fisherman, for the hoard may
+not be opened but by his means, nor can any enter therein save Judar.”
+Cried the Maghribi “Him of whom ye speak, I have brought, and he is
+here, listening to you and looking at you.” Thereupon they covenanted
+with him to open the treasure to him, and he released them. Then he
+brought out a hollow wand and tablets of red carnelian which he laid on
+the rod; and after this he took a chafing dish and setting charcoal
+thereon, blew one breath into it and it kindled forthwith. Presently he
+brought incense and said, “O Judar, I am now about to begin the
+necessary conjurations and fumigations, and when I have once begun, I
+may not speak, or the charm will be naught; so I will teach thee first
+what thou must do to win thy wish.” “Teach me,” quoth Judar. “Know,”
+quoth the Moor, “that when I have recited the spell and thrown on the
+incense, the water will dry up from the river’s bed and discover to
+thee, a golden door, the bigness of the city gate, with two rings of
+metal thereon; whereupon do thou go down to the door and knock a light
+knock and wait awhile; then knock a second time a knock louder than the
+first and wait another while; after which give three knocks in rapid
+succession, and thou wilt hear a voice ask, ‘Who knocketh at the door
+of the treasure, unknowing how to solve the secrets?’ Do thou answer,
+‘I am Judar the fisherman son of Omar’: and the door will open and
+there will come forth a figure with a brand in hand who will say to
+thee: ‘If thou be that man, stretch forth thy neck, that I may strike
+off thy head.’ Then do thou stretch forth thy neck and fear not; for,
+when he lifts his hand and smites thee with the sword, he will fall
+down before thee, and in a little thou wilt see him a body sans soul;
+and the stroke shall not hurt thee nor shall any harm befall thee; but,
+if thou gainsay him, he will slay thee. When thou hast undone his
+enchantment by obedience, enter and go on till thou see another door,
+at which do thou knock, and there will come forth to thee a horseman
+riding a mare with a lance on his shoulder and say to thee, ‘What
+bringeth thee hither, where none may enter ne man ne Jinni?’ And he
+will shake his lance at thee. Bare thy breast to him and he will smite
+thee and fall down forthright and thou shalt see him a body without a
+soul; but if thou cross him he will kill thee. Then go on to the third
+door, whence there will come forth to thee a man with a bow and arrows
+in his hand and take aim at thee. Bare thy breast to him and he will
+shoot at thee and fall down before thee, a body without a soul; but if
+thou oppose him, he will kill thee. Then go on to the fourth door”—And
+Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her per misted
+say.
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Fourteenth Night,
+
+She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Maghribi
+said to Judar, “Go on to the fourth door and knock and it shall be
+opened to thee, when there will come forth to thee a lion huge of bulk
+which will rush upon thee, opening his mouth and showing he hath a mind
+to devour thee. Have no fear of him, neither flee from him: but when he
+cometh to thee, give him thy hand and he will bite at it and fall down
+straightway, nor shall aught of hurt betide thee. Then enter the fifth
+door, where thou shalt find a black slave, who will say to thee, ‘Who
+art thou?’ Say, ‘I am Judar!’ and he will answer, ‘If thou be that man,
+open the sixth door.’ Then do thou go up to the door and say, ‘O Isa,
+tell Musa to open the door’; whereupon the door will fly open and thou
+wilt see two dragons, one on the left hand and another on the right,
+which will open their mouths and fly at thee, both at once. Do thou put
+forth to them both hands and they will bite each a hand and fall down
+dead; but an thou resist them, they will slay thee. Then go on to the
+seventh door and knock, whereupon there will come forth to thee thy
+mother and say, ‘Welcome, O my son! Come, that I may greet thee!’ But
+do thou reply, ‘Hold off from me and doff thy dress.’ And she will make
+answer, ‘O my son, I am thy mother and I have a claim upon thee for
+suckling thee and for rearing thee: how then wouldst thou strip me
+naked?’ Then do thou say, ‘Except thou put off thy clothes, I will kill
+thee!’ and look to thy right where thou wilt see a sword hanging up.
+Take it and draw it upon her, saying, ‘Strip!’ where upon she will
+wheedle thee and humble herself to thee; but have thou no ruth on her
+nor be beguiled, and as often as she putteth off aught, say to her,
+‘Off with the rave’; nor do thou cease to threaten her with death, till
+she doff all that is upon her and fall down, whereupon the enchantment
+will be dissolved and the charms undone, and thou wilt be safe as to
+thy life. Then enter the hall of the treasure, where thou wilt see the
+gold lying in heaps; but pay no heed to aught thereof, but look to a
+closet at the upper end of the hall, where thou wilt see a curtain
+drawn. Draw back the curtain and thou wilt descry the enchanter,
+Al-Shamardal, lying upon a couch of gold, with something at his head
+round and shining like the moon, which is the celestial planisphere. He
+is baldrick’d with the sword[FN#278]; his finger is the ring and about
+his neck hangs a chain, to which hangs the Kohl phial. Bring me the
+four talismans, and beware lest thou forget aught of that which I have
+told thee, or thou wilt repent and there will be fear for thee.” And he
+repeated his directions a second and a third and a fourth time, till
+Judar said, “I have them by heart: but who may face all these
+enchantments that thou namest and endure against these mighty terrors?”
+Replied the Moor, “O Judar, fear not, for they are semblances without
+life;” and he went on to hearten him, till he said, “I put my trust in
+Allah.” Then Abd al-Samad threw perfumes on the chafing dish, and
+addressed himself to reciting conjurations for a time when, behold, the
+water disappeared and uncovered the river bed and discovered the door
+of the treasure, whereupon Judar went down to the door and knocked.
+Therewith he heard a voice saying, “Who knocketh at the door of the
+treasure, unknowing how to solve the secrets?” Quoth he, “I am Judar
+son of Omar;” whereupon the door opened and there came forth a figure
+with a drawn sword, who said to him, “Stretch forth thy neck.” So he
+stretched forth his neck and the species smote him and fell down,
+lifeless. Then he went on to the second door and did the like, nor did
+he cease to do thus, till he had undone the enchantments of the first
+six doors and came to the seventh door, whence there issued forth to
+him his mother, saying, “I salute thee, O my son!” He asked, “What art
+thou?”, and she answered, “O my son, I am thy mother who bare thee nine
+months and suckled thee and reared thee.” Quoth he, “Put off thy
+clothes.” Quoth she, “Thou art my son, how wouldst thou strip me
+naked?” But he said “Strip, or I will strike off thy head with this
+sword;” and he stretched out his hand to the brand and drew it upon her
+saying, “Except thou strip, I will slay thee.” Then the strife became
+long between them and as often as he redoubled on her his threats, she
+put off somewhat of her clothes and he said to her, “Doff the rest,”
+with many menaces; while she removed each article slowly and kept
+saying, “O my son, thou hast disappointed my fosterage of thee,” till
+she had nothing left but her petticoat trousers Then said she, “O my
+son, is thy heart stone? Wilt thou dishonour me by discovering my
+shame? Indeed, this is unlawful, O my son!” And he answered, “Thou
+sayest sooth; put not off thy trousers.” At once, as he uttered these
+words, she cried out, “He hath made default; beat him!” Whereupon there
+fell upon him blows like rain drops and the servants of the treasure
+flocked to him and dealt him a funding which he forgot not in all his
+days; after which they thrust him forth and threw him down without the
+treasure and the hoard doors closed of themselves, whilst the waters of
+the river returned to their bed.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
+day and ceased saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Fifteenth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the servants
+of the treasure beat Judar and cast him out and the hoard doors closed
+of themselves, whilst the river waters returned to their bed, Abd
+al-Samad the Maghribi took Judar up in haste and repeated conjurations
+over him, till he came to his senses but still dazed as with drink,
+when he asked him, “What hast thou done, O wretch?” Answered Judar, “O
+my brother, I undid all the opposing enchantments, till I came to my
+mother and there befell between her and myself a long contention. But I
+made her doff her clothes, O my brother, till but her trousers remained
+upon her and she said to me, ‘Do not dishonour me; for to discover
+one’s shame is forbidden.’ So I left her her trousers out of pity, and
+behold, she cried out and said, ‘He hath made default; beat him!’
+Whereupon there came out upon me folk, whence I know not, and funding
+me with a belabouring which was a Sister of Death, thrust me forth; nor
+do I know what befell me after this.” Quoth the Moor, “Did I not warn
+thee not to swerve from my directions? Verily, thou hast injured me and
+hast injured thyself: for if thou hadst made her take off her petticoat
+trousers, we had won to our wish; but now thou must abide with me till
+this day next year.” Then he cried out to the two slaves, who struck
+the tent forthright and loaded it on the beasts; then they were absent
+awhile and presently returned with the two mules; and the twain mounted
+and rode back to the city of Fez, where Judar tarried with the
+Maghribi, eating well and drinking well and donning a grand dress every
+day, till the year was ended and the anniversary day dawned. Then the
+Moor said to him, “Come with me, for this is the appointed day.” And
+Judar said, “’Tis well.” So the Maghribi carried him without the city,
+where they found the two slaves with the mules, and rode on till they
+reached the river. Here the slaves pitched the tent and furnished it;
+and the Moor brought forth the tray of food and they ate the morning
+meal; after which Abd al-Samad brought out the wand and the tablets as
+before and, kindling the fire in the chafing dish, made ready the
+incense. Then said he, “O Judar, I wish to renew my charge to thee.” “O
+my lord the pilgrim,” replied he, “if I have forgotten the bastinado, I
+have forgotten the injunctions.”[FN#279] Asked the Moor, “Dost thou
+indeed remember them?” and he answered, “Yes.” Quoth the Moor, “Keep
+thy wits, and think not that the woman is thy very mother; nay, she is
+but an enchantment in her semblance, whose purpose is to find thee
+defaulting. Thou camest off alive the first time; but, an thou trip
+this time, they will slay thee.” Quoth Judar, “If I slip this time, I
+deserve to be burnt of them.” Then Abd al-Samad cast the perfumes into
+the fire and recited the conjurations, till the river dried up;
+whereupon Judar descended and knocked. The door opened and he entered
+and undid the several enchantments, till he came to the seventh door
+and the semblance of his mother appeared before him, saying,
+“Welcome,[FN#280] O my son!” But he said to her, “How am I thy son, O
+accursed? Strip!” And she began to wheedle him and put off garment
+after garment, till only her trousers remained; and he said to her,
+“Strip, O accursed!” So she put off her trousers and became a body
+without a soul. Then he entered the hall of the treasures, where he saw
+gold lying in heaps, but paid no heed to it and passed on to the closet
+at the upper end, where he saw the enchanter Al-Shamardal lying on a
+couch of gold, baldrick’d with the sword, with the ring on his finger,
+the Kohl phial on his breast and the celestial planisphere hanging over
+his head. So he loosed the sword and taking the ring, the Kohl phial
+and the planisphere, went forth, when behold, a band of music sounded
+for him and the servants of the treasure cried out, saying, “Mayest
+thou be assained with that thou hast gained, O Judar!” Nor did the
+music leave sounding, till he came forth of the treasure to the
+Maghribi, who gave up his conjurations and fumigations and rose up and
+embraced him and saluted him. Then Judar made over to him the four
+hoarded talismans, and he took them and cried out to the slaves, who
+carried away the tent and brought the mules. So they mounted and
+returned to Fez-city, where the Moor fetched the saddle bags and
+brought forth dish after dish of meat, till the tray was full, and
+said, “O my brother, O Judar, eat!” So he ate till he was satisfied,
+when the Moor emptied what remained of the meats and other dishes and
+returned the empty platters to the saddle bags. Then quoth he, “O
+Judar, thou hast left home and native land on our account and thou hast
+accomplished our dearest desire; wherefore thou hast a right to require
+a reward of us. Ask, therefore, what thou wilt, it is Almighty Allah
+who giveth unto thee by our means.[FN#281] Ask thy will and be not
+ashamed, for thou art deserving.” “O my lord,” quoth Judar, “I ask
+first of Allah the Most High and then of thee, that thou give me yonder
+saddle bags.” So the Maghribi called for them and gave them to him,
+saying, “Take them, for they are thy due; and, if thou hadst asked of
+me aught else instead, I had given it to thee. Eat from them, thou and
+thy family; but, my poor fellow, these will not profit thee, save by
+way of provaunt, and thou hast wearied thyself with us and we promised
+to send thee home rejoicing. So we will join to these other saddle
+bags, full of gold and gems, and forward thee back to thy native land,
+where thou shalt become a gentleman and a merchant and clothe thyself
+and thy family; nor shalt thou want ready money for thine expenditure.
+And know that the manner of using our gift is on this wise. Put thy
+hand therein and say, ‘O servant of these saddle bags, I conjure thee
+by the virtue of the Mighty Names which have power over thee, bring me
+such a dish!’ And he will bring thee whatsoever thou askest, though
+thou shouldst call for a thousand different dishes a day.” So saying,
+he filled him a second pair of saddle bags half with gold and half with
+gems and precious stones; and, sending for a slave and a mule, said to
+him, “Mount this mule, and the slave shall go before thee and show thee
+the way, till thou come to the door of thy house, where do thou take
+the two pair of saddle bags and give him the mule, that he may bring it
+back. But admit none into thy secret; and so we commend thee to Allah!”
+“May the Almighty increase thy good!” replied Judar and, laying the two
+pairs of saddle bags on the mule’s back, mounted and set forth. The
+slave went on before him and the mule followed him all that day and
+night, and on the morrow he entered Cairo by the Gate of
+Victory,[FN#282] where he saw his mother seated, saying, “Alms, for the
+love of Allah!” At this sight he well nigh lost his wits and alighting,
+threw himself upon her: and when she saw him she wept. Then he mounted
+her on the mule and walked by her stirrup,[FN#283] till they came to
+the house, where he set her down and, taking the saddle bags, left the
+she mule to the slave, who led her away and returned with her to his
+master, for that both slave and mule were devils. As for Judar, it was
+grievous to him that his mother should beg; so, when they were in the
+house, he asked her, “O my mother, are my brothers well?”; and she
+answered, “They are both well.” Quoth he, “Why dost thou beg by the
+wayside?” Quoth she, “Because I am hungry, O my son,” and he, “Before I
+went away, I gave thee an hundred dinars one day, the like the next and
+a thousand on the day of my departure.” “O my son, they cheated me and
+took the money from me, saying, ‘We will buy goods with it.’ Then they
+drove me away, and I fell to begging by the wayside, for stress of
+hunger.” “O my mother, no harm shall befall thee, now I am come; so
+have no concern, for these saddle bags are full of gold and gems, and
+good aboundeth with me.” “Verily, thou art blessed, O my son! Allah
+accept of thee and increase thee of His bounties! Go, O my son, fetch
+us some victual, for I slept not last night for excess of hunger,
+having gone to bed supperless.” “Welcome to thee, O my mother! Call for
+what thou wilt to eat, and I will set it before thee this moment; for I
+have no occasion to buy from the market, nor need I any to cook. “O my
+son, I see naught with thee.” “I have with me in these saddle bags all
+manner of meats.” “O my son, whatever is ready will serve to stay
+hunger.” “True, when there is no choice, men are content with the
+smallest thing; but where there is plenty, they like to eat what is
+good: and I have abundance; so call for what thou hast a mind to.” “O
+my son, give me some hot bread and a slice of cheese.” “O my mother,
+this befitteth not thy condition.” “Then give me to eat of that which
+besitteth my case, for thou knowest it.” “O my mother,” rejoined he,
+“what suit thine estate are browned meat and roast chicken and peppered
+rice and it becometh thy rank to eat of sausages and stuffed cucumbers
+and stuffed lamb and stuffed ribs of mutton and vermicelli with broken
+almonds and nuts and honey and sugar and fritters and almond cakes.”
+But she thought he was laughing at her and making mock of her; so she
+said to him, “Yauh! Yauh![FN#284] what is come to thee? Dost thou dream
+or art thou daft?” Asked he, “Why deemest thou that I am mad?” and she
+answered, “Because thou namest to me all manner rich dishes. Who can
+avail unto their price, and who knoweth how to dress them?” Quoth he,
+“By my life! thou shalt eat of all that I have named to thee, and that
+at once;” and quoth she, “I see nothing;” and he, “Bring me the saddle
+bags.” So she fetched them and feeling them, found them empty. However,
+she laid them before him and he thrust in his hand and pulled out dish
+after dish, till he had set before her all he had named. Whereupon
+asked she, “O my son, the saddle bags are small and moreover they were
+empty; yet hast thou taken thereout all these dishes. Where then were
+they all?”; and he answered, “O my mother, know that these saddle bags,
+which the Moor gave me, are enchanted and they have a servant whom, if
+one desire aught, he hath but to adjure by the Names which command him,
+saying, ‘O servant of these saddle bags, bring me such a dish!’ and he
+will bring it.” Quoth his mother, “And may I put out my hand and ask of
+him?” Quoth he, “Do so.” So she stretched out her hand and said, “O
+servant of the saddle bags, by the virtue of the Names which command
+thee, bring me stuffed ribs.” Then she thrust in her hand and found a
+dish containing delicate stuffed ribs of lamb. So she took it out, and
+called for bread and what else she had a mind to: after which Judar
+said to her, “O my mother, when thou hast made an end of eating, empty
+what is left of the food into dishes other than these, and restore the
+empty platters to the saddle bags carefully.” So she arose and laid
+them up in a safe place. “And look, O mother mine, that thou keep this
+secret,” added he; “and whenever thou hast a mind to aught, take it
+forth of the saddle bags and give alms and feed my brothers, whether I
+be present or absent.” Then he fell to eating with her and behold,
+while they were thus occupied, in came his two brothers, whom a son of
+the quarter[FN#285] had apprised of his return, saying, “Your brother
+is come back, riding on a she mule, with a slave before him, and
+wearing a dress that hath not its like.” So they said to each other,
+“Would to Heaven we had not evilly entreated our mother! There is no
+hope but that she will surely tell him how we did by her, and then, oh
+our disgrace with him!” But one of the twain said, “Our mother is soft
+hearted, and if she tell him, our brother is yet tenderer over us than
+she; and, given we excuse ourselves to him, he will accept our excuse.”
+So they went in to him and he rose to them and saluting them with the
+friendliest salutation, bade them sit down and eat. So they ate till
+they were satisfied, for they were weak with hunger; after which Judar
+said to them, “O my brothers, take what is left and distribute it to
+the poor and needy.” “O brother,” replied they, “let us keep it to sup
+withal.” But he answered, “When supper time cometh, ye shall have more
+than this.” So they took the rest of the victual and going out, gave it
+to every poor man who passed by them, saying, “Take and eat,” till
+nothing was left. Then they brought back the dishes and Judar said to
+his mother, “Put them in the saddle bags.”—And Shahrazad perceived the
+dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Sixteenth Night,
+
+She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Judar, when
+his brethren had finished their under meal, said to his mother, “Put
+back the platters in the saddle bags.” And when it was eventide, he
+entered the saloon and took forth of the saddle bags a table of forty
+dishes; after which he went up to the upper room and, sitting down
+between his brothers, said to his mother, “Bring the supper.”[FN#286]
+So she went down to the saloon and, finding there the dishes ready,
+laid the tray and brought up the forty dishes, one after other. Then
+they ate the evening meal, and when they had done, Judar said to his
+brothers, “Take and feed the poor and needy.” So they took what was
+left and gave alms thereof, and presently he brought forth to them
+sweetmeats, whereof they ate, and what was left he bade them give to
+the neighbours. On the morrow, they brake their fast after the same
+fashion, and thus they fared ten days, at the end of which time quoth
+Sálim to Salím, “How cometh it that our brother setteth before us a
+banquet in the morning, a banquet at noon, and a banquet at sundown,
+besides sweetmeats late at night, and all that is left he giveth to the
+poor? Verily, this is the fashion of Sultans. Yet we never see him buy
+aught, and he hath neither kitchener nor kitchen, nor doth he light a
+fire. Whence hath he this great plenty? Hast thou not a mind to
+discover the cause of all this?” Quoth Salím, “By Allah, I know not:
+but knowest thou any who will tell us the truth of the case?” Quoth
+Sálim, “None will tell us save our mother.” So they laid a plot and
+repairing to their mother one day, in their brother’s absence, said to
+her, “O our mother, we are hungry.” Replied she, “Rejoice, for ye shall
+presently be satisfied;” and going into the saloon, sought of the
+servant of the saddle bags hot meats, which she took out and set before
+her sons. “O our mother,” cried they, “this meat is hot; yet hast thou
+not cooked, neither kindled a fire.” Quoth she, “It cometh from the
+saddle bags;” and quoth they, “What manner of thing be these saddle
+bags?” She answered, “They are enchanted; and the required is produced
+by the charm:” she then told her sons their virtue, enjoining them to
+secrecy. Said they, “The secret shall be kept, O our mother, but teach
+us the manner of this.” So she taught them the fashion thereof and they
+fell to putting their hands into the saddle bags and taking forth
+whatever they had a mind to. But Judar knew naught of this. Then quoth
+Sálim privily to Salím, “O my brother, how long shall we abide with
+Judar servant wise and eat of his alms? Shall we not contrive to get
+the saddle bags from him and make off with them?” “And how shall we
+make shift to do this?” “We will sell him to the galleys.” “How shall
+we do that?” “We two will go to the Raís, the Chief Captain of the Sea
+of Suez and bid him to an entertainment, with two of his company. What
+I say to Judar do thou confirm, and at the end of the night I will show
+thee what I will do.” So they agreed upon the sale of their brother and
+going to the Captain’s quarters said to him, “O Rais, we have come to
+thee on an errand that will please thee.” “Good,” answered he; and they
+continued, “We two are brethren, and we have a third brother, a lewd
+fellow and good for nothing. When our father died, he left us some
+money, which we shared amongst us, and he took his part of the
+inheritance and wasted it in frowardness and debauchery, till he was
+reduced to poverty, when he came upon us and cited us before the
+magistrates, avouching that we had taken his good and that of his
+father, and we disputed the matter before the judges and lost the
+money. Then he waited awhile and attacked us a second time, until he
+brought us to beggary; nor will he desist from us, and we are utterly
+weary of him; wherefore we would have thee buy him of us.” Quoth the
+Captain, “Can ye cast about with him and bring him to me here? If so, I
+will pack him off to sea forthright.” Quoth they “We cannot manage to
+bring him here; but be thou our guest this night and bring with thee
+two of thy men, not one more; and when he is asleep, we will aid one
+another to fall upon him, we five, and seize and gag him. Then shalt
+thou carry him forth the house, under cover of the night, and after do
+thou with him as thou wilt.” Rejoined the Captain, “With all my heart!
+Will ye sell him for forty dinars?” and they, “Yes, come after
+nightfall to such a street, by such a mosque, and thou shalt find one
+of us awaiting thee.” And he replied, “Now be off.” Then they repaired
+to Judar and waited awhile, after which Sálim went up to him and kissed
+his hand. Quoth Judar, “What ails thee, O my brother?” And he made
+answer, saying, “Know that I have a friend, who hath many a time bidden
+me to his house in thine absence and hath ever hospitably entreated me,
+and I owe him a thousand kindnesses, as my brother here wotteth. I met
+him to day and he invited me to his house, but I said to him, ‘I cannot
+leave my brother Judar.’ Quoth he, ‘Bring him with thee’; and quoth I,
+‘He will not consent to that; but if ye will be my guests, thou and thy
+brothers’[FN#287] * * * * * (for his brothers were sitting with him);
+and I invited them thinking that they would refuse. But he accepted my
+invitation for all of them, saying, ‘Look for me at the gate of the
+little mosque,[FN#288] and I will come to thee, I and my brothers.’ And
+now I fear they will come and am ashamed before thee. So wilt thou
+hearten my heart and entertain them this night, for thy good is
+abundant, O my brother? Or if thou consent not, give me leave to take
+them into the neighbours’ houses.” Replied Judar, “Why shouldst thou
+carry them into the neighbours’ houses? Is our house then so strait or
+have we not wherewith to give them supper? Shame on thee to consult me!
+Thou hast but to call for what thou needest and have rich viands and
+sweetmeats and to spare. Whenever thou bringest home folk in my
+absence, ask thy mother, and she will set before thee victual more than
+enough. Go and fetch them; blessings have descended upon us through
+such guests.” So Sálim kissed his hand and going forth, sat at the gate
+of the little mosque till after sundown, when the Captain and his men
+came up to him, and he carried them to the house. When Judar saw them
+he bade them welcome and seated them and made friends of them, knowing
+not what the future had in store for him at their hands. Then he called
+to his mother for supper, and she fell to taking dishes out of the
+saddlebags, whilst he said, “Bring such and such meats,” till she had
+set forty different dishes before them. They ate their sufficiency and
+the tray was taken away, the sailors thinking the while that this
+liberal entertainment came from Sálim. When a third part of the night
+was past, Judar set sweetmeats before them and Sálim served them,
+whilst his two brothers sat with the guests, till they sought to sleep.
+Accordingly Judar lay down and the others with him, who waited till he
+was asleep, when they fell upon him together and gagging and pinioning
+him, before he was awake, carried him forth of the house,[FN#289] under
+cover of the night,—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
+saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Seventeenth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that they seized Judar
+and carrying him forth of the house under cover of the night, at once
+packed him off to Suez, where they shackled him and set him to work as
+a galley slave; and he ceased not to serve thus in silence a whole
+year.[FN#290] So far concerning Judar; but as for his brothers, they
+went in next morning to his mother and said to her, “O our mother, our
+brother Judar is not awake.” Said she, “Do ye wake him.” Asked they,
+“Where lieth he?” and she answered, “With the guests.” They rejoined,
+“Haply he went away with them whilst we slept, O mother. It would seem
+that he had tasted of strangerhood and yearned to get at hidden hoards;
+for we heard him at talk with the Moors, and they said to him, ‘We will
+take thee with us and open the treasure to thee.’” She enquired, “Hath
+he then been in company with Moors?;” and they replied, saying, “Were
+they not our guests yester night?” And she, “Most like he hath gone
+with them, but Allah will direct him on the right way; for there is a
+blessing upon him and he will surely come back with great good.” But
+she wept, for it was grievous to her to be parted from her son. Then
+said they to her, “O accursed woman, dost thou love Judar with all this
+love, whilst as for us, whether we be absent or present, thou neither
+joyest in us nor sorrowest for us? Are we not thy sons, even as Judar
+is thy son?” She said, “Ye are indeed my sons: but ye are reprobates
+who deserve no favour of me, for since your father’s death I have never
+seen any good in you; whilst as for Judar, I have had abundant good of
+him and he hath heartened my heart and entreated me with honour;
+wherefore it behoveth me to weep for him, because of his kindness to me
+and to you.” When they heard this, they abused her and beat her; after
+which they sought for the saddle bags, till they found the two pairs
+and took the enchanted one and all the gold from one pouch and jewels
+from the other of the unenchanted, saying, “This was our father’s
+good.” Said their mother, “Not so, by Allah!, it belongeth to your
+brother Judar, who brought it from the land of the Magharibah.” Said
+they, “Thou liest, it was our father’s property; and we will dispose of
+it, as we please.” Then they divided the gold and jewels between them;
+but a brabble arose between them concerning the enchanted saddle bags,
+Sálim saying, “I will have them;” and Salím, saying, “I will take
+them;” and they came to high words. Then said she, “O my sons, ye have
+divided the gold and the jewels, but this may not be divided, nor can
+its value be made up in money; and if it be cut in twain, its spell
+will be voided; so leave it with me and I will give you to eat from it
+at all times and be content to take a morsel with you. If ye allow me
+aught to clothe me, ’twill be of your bounty, and each of you shall
+traffic with the folk for himself. Ye are my sons and I am your mother;
+wherefore let us abide as we are, lest your brother come back and we be
+disgraced.” But they accepted not her words and passed the night,
+wrangling with each other. Now it chanced that a Janissary[FN#291] of
+the King’s guards was a guest in the house adjoining Judar’s and heard
+them through the open window. So he looked out and listening, heard all
+the angry words that passed between them and saw the division of the
+spoil. Next morning he presented himself before the King of Egypt,
+whose name was Shams al-Daulah,[FN#292] and told him all he had heard,
+whereupon he sent for Judar’s brothers and put them to the question,
+till they confessed; and he took the two pairs of Saddle bags from them
+and clapped them in prison, appointing a sufficient daily allowance to
+their mother. Now as regards Judar, he abode a whole year in service at
+Suez, till one day, being in a ship bound on a voyage over the sea, a
+wind arose against them and cast the vessel upon a rock projecting from
+a mountain, where she broke up and all on board were drowned and none
+get ashore save Judar. As soon as he landed he fared on inland, till he
+reached an encampment of Badawi, who questioned him of his case, and he
+told them he had been a sailor.[FN#293] Now there was in camp a
+merchant, a native of Jiddah, who took pity on him and said to him,
+“Wilt thou take service with me, O Egyptian, and I will clothe thee and
+carry thee with me to Jiddah?” So Judar took service with him and
+accompanied him to Jiddah, where he showed him much favour. After
+awhile, his master the merchant set out on a pilgrimage to Meccah,
+taking Judar with him, and when they reached the city, the Cairene
+repaired to the Haram temple, to circumambulate the Ka’abah. As he was
+making the prescribed circuits,[FN#294] he suddenly saw his friend Abd
+al-Samad the Moor doing the like;— And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
+day and ceased to say her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Eighteenth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Judar, as he was
+making the circuits, suddenly saw his friend Abd al-Samad also
+circumambulating; and when the Maghribi caught sight of him, he saluted
+him and asked him of his state; whereupon Judar wept and told him all
+that had befallen him. So the Moor carried him to his lodging and
+entreated him with honour, clothing him in a dress of which the like
+was not, and saying to him, “Thou hast seen the end of thine ills, O
+Judar.” Then he drew out for him a geomantic figure, which showed what
+had befallen Sálim and Salím and said to Judar, “Such and such things
+have befallen thy brothers and they are now in the King of Egypt’s
+prison; but thou art right welcome to abide with me and accomplish
+thine ordinances of pilgrimage and all shall be well.” Replied Judar,
+“O my lord, let me go and take leave of the merchant with whom I am and
+after I will come back to thee.” “Dost thou owe money?” asked the Moor,
+and he answered, “No.” Said Abd al-Samad, “Go thou and take leave of
+him and come back forth right, for bread hath claims of its own from
+the ingenuous.” So Judar returned to the merchant and farewelled him,
+saying, “I have fallen in with my brother.”[FN#295] “Go bring him
+here,” said the merchant, “and we will make him an entertainment.” But
+Judar answered, saying, “He hath no need of that; for he is a man of
+wealth and hath many servants.” Then the merchant gave Judar twenty
+dinars, saying, “Acquit me of responsibility”;[FN#296] and he bade him
+adieu and went forth from him. Presently, he saw a poor man, so he gave
+him the twenty ducats and returned to the Moor, with whom he abode till
+they had accomplished the pilgrimage rites when Abd al-Samad gave him
+the seal ring, that he had taken from the treasure of Al-Shamardal,
+saying, “This ring will win thee thy wish, for it enchanteth and hath a
+servant, by name Al-Ra’ad al-Kásif; so whatever thou hast a mind to of
+the wants of this world, rub this ring and its servant will appear and
+do all thou biddest him.” Then he rubbed the ring before him, whereupon
+the Jinni appeared, saying, “Adsum, O my lord! Ask what thou wilt and
+it shall be given thee. Hast thou a mind to people a ruined city or
+ruin a populous one? to slay a king or to rout a host?” “O Ra’ad,” said
+Abd al-Samad, “this is become thy lord; do thou serve him faithfully.”
+Then he dismissed him and said to Judar, “Rub the ring and the servant
+will appear and do thou command him to do whatever thou desirest, for
+he will not gainsay thee. Now go to thine own country and take care of
+the ring, for by means of it thou wilt baffle thine enemies; and be not
+ignorant of its puissance.” “O my lord,” quoth Judar, “with thy leave,
+I will set out homewards.” Quoth the Maghribi, “Summon the Jinni and
+mount upon his back; and if thou say to him, ‘Bring me to my native
+city this very day,’ he will not disobey thy commandment.” So he took
+leave of Moor Abd al-Samad and rubbed the ring, whereupon Al-Ra’ad
+presented himself, saying, “Adsum; ask and it shall be given to thee.”
+Said Judar, “Carry me to Cairo this day;” and he replied, “Thy will be
+done;” and, taking him on his back, flew with him from noon till
+midnight, when he set him down in the courtyard of his mother’s house
+and disappeared. Judar went in to his mother, who rose weeping, and
+greeted him fondly, and told him how the King had beaten his brothers
+and cast them into gaol and taken the two pairs of saddle bags; which
+when he heard, it was no light matter to him and he said to her,
+“Grieve not for the past; I will show thee what I can do and bring my
+brothers hither forth right.” So he rubbed the ring, whereupon its
+servant appeared, saying, “Here am I! Ask and thou shalt have.” Quoth
+Judar, “I bid thee bring me my two brothers from the prison of the
+King.” So the Jinni sank into the earth and came not up but in the
+midst of the gaol where Sálim and Salím lay in piteous plight and sore
+sorrow for the plagues of prison,[FN#297] so that they wished for
+death, and one of them said to the other, “By Allah, O my brother,
+affliction is longsome upon us! How long shall we abide in this prison?
+Death would be relief.” As he spoke, behold, the earth clove in sunder
+and out came Al-Ra’ad, who took both up and plunged with them into the
+earth. They swooned away for excess of fear, and when they recovered,
+they found themselves in their mother’s house and saw Judar seated by
+her side. Quoth he, “I salute you, O my brothers! you have cheered me
+by your presence.” And they bowed their heads and burst into tears.
+Then said he, “Weep not, for it was Satan and covetise that led you to
+do thus. How could you sell me? But I comfort myself with the thought
+of Joseph, whose brothers did with him even more than ye did with me,
+because they cast him into the pit.”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn
+of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Nineteenth Night,
+
+She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Judar said
+to his brothers, “How could you do with me thus? But repent unto Allah
+and crave pardon of Him, and He will forgive you both, for He is the
+Most Forgiving, the Merciful. As for me, I pardon you and welcome you:
+no harm shall befall you.” Then he comforted them and set their hearts
+at ease and related to them all he had suffered, till he fell in with
+Shaykh Abd al-Samad, and told them also of the seal ring. They replied,
+“O our brother, forgive us this time; and, if we return to our old
+ways, do with us as thou wilt.” Quoth he, “No harm shall befall you;
+but tell me what the King did with you.” Quoth they, “He beat us and
+threatened us with death and took the two pairs of saddle bags from
+us.” “Will he not care?”[FN#298] said Judar, and rubbed the ring,
+whereupon Al-Ra’ad appeared. When his brothers saw him, they were
+frighted and thought Judar would bid him slay them; so they fled to
+their mother, crying, “O our mother, we throw our selves on thy
+generosity; do thou intercede for us, O our mother!” And she said to
+them, “O my sons, fear nothing!” Then said Judar to the servant, “I
+command thee to bring me all that is in the King’s treasury of goods
+and such; let nothing remain and fetch the two pairs of saddle bags he
+took from my brothers.” “I hear and I obey,” replied Al-Ra’ad; and,
+disappearing straight way gathered together all he found in the
+treasury and returned with the two pairs of saddle bags and the
+deposits therein and laid them before Judar, saying, “O my lord, I have
+left nothing in the treasury.” Judar gave the treasure to his mother
+bidding her keep it and laying the enchanted saddle bags before him,
+said to the Jinni, “I command thee to build me this night a lofty
+palace and overlay it with liquid gold and furnish it with magnificent
+furniture: and let not the day dawn, ere thou be quit of the whole
+work.” Replied he, “Thy bidding shall be obeyed;” and sank into the
+earth. Then Judar brought forth food and they ate and took their ease
+and lay down to sleep. Meanwhile, Al-Ra’ad summoned his attendant Jinn
+and bade them build the palace. So some of them fell to hewing stones
+and some to building, whilst others plastered and painted and
+furnished; nor did the day dawn ere the ordinance of the palace was
+complete; whereupon Al-Ra’ad came to Judar and said to him, “O my lord,
+the palace is finished and in best order, an it please thee to come and
+look on it.” So Judar went forth with his mother and brothers and saw a
+palace, whose like there was not in the whole world; and it confounded
+all minds with the goodliness of its ordinance. Judar was delighted
+with it while he was passing along the highway and withal it had cost
+him nothing. Then he asked his mother, “Say me, wilt thou take up thine
+abode in this palace?” and she answered, “I will, O my son,” and called
+down blessings upon him. Then he rubbed the ring and bade the Jinni
+fetch him forty handsome white hand maids and forty black damsels and
+as many Mamelukes and negro slaves. “Thy will be done,” answered
+Al-Ra’ad and betaking himself, with forty of his attendant Genii to
+Hind and Sind and Persia, snatched up every beautiful girl and boy they
+saw, till they had made up the required number. Moreover, he sent other
+four score, who fetched comely black girls, and forty others brought
+male chattels and carried them all to Judar’s house, which they filled.
+Then he showed them to Judar, who was pleased with them and said,
+“Bring for each a dress of the finest.” “Ready!” replied the servant.
+Then quoth he, “Bring a dress for my mother and another for myself, and
+also for my brothers.” So the Jinni fetched all that was needed and
+clad the female slaves, saying to them, “This is your mistress: kiss
+her hands and cross her not, but serve her, white and black.” The
+Mamelukes also dressed them selves and kissed Judar’s hands; and he and
+his brothers arrayed themselves in the robes the Jinni had brought them
+and Judar became like unto a King and his brothers as Wazirs. Now his
+house was spacious; so he lodged Sálim and his slave girls in one part
+thereof and Salím and his slave girls in another, whilst he and his
+mother took up their abode in the new palace; and each in his own place
+was like a Sultan. So far concerning them; but as regards the King’s
+Treasurer, thinking to take something from the treasury, he went in and
+found it altogether empty, even as saith the poet,
+
+“’Twas as a hive of bees that greatly thrived; * But, when the bee
+swarm fled, ’twas clean unhived.”[FN#299]
+
+So he gave a great cry and fell down in a fit. When he came to himself,
+he left the door open and going in to King Shams al-Daulah, said to
+him, “O Commander of the Faithful,[FN#300] I have to inform thee that
+the treasury hath become empty during the night.” Quoth the King, “What
+hast thou done with my monies which were therein?” Quoth he, “By Allah,
+I have not done aught with them nor know I what is come of them! I
+visited the place yesterday and saw it full; but to day when I went in,
+I found it clean empty, albeit the doors were locked, the walls were
+unpierced[FN#301] and the bolts[FN#302] are unbroken; nor hath a thief
+entered it.” Asked the King, “Are the two pairs of saddle bags gone?”
+“Yes,” replied the Treasurer; whereupon the King’s reason flew from his
+head,—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
+permitted say.
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Twentieth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
+Treasurer informed the King that all in the treasury had been
+plundered, including the two pairs of saddlebags, the King’s reason
+flew from his head and he rose to his feet, saying, “Go thou before
+me.” Then he followed the Treasurer to the treasury and he found
+nothing there, whereat he was wroth with him; and he said to them, “O
+soldiers! know that my treasury hath been plundered during the night,
+and I know not who did this deed and dared thus to outrage me, without
+fear of me.” Said they, “How so?”; and he replied, “Ask the Treasurer.”
+So they questioned him, and he answered, saying, “Yesterday I visited
+the treasury and it was full, but this morning when I entered it I
+found it empty, though the walls were unpierced and the doors
+unbroken.” They all marvelled at this and could make the King no
+answer, when in came the Janissary, who had denounced Sálim and Salím,
+and said to Shams al-Daulah, “O King of the age, all this night I have
+not slept for that which I saw.” And the King asked, “And what didst
+thou see?” “Know, O King of the age,” answered the Kawwás, “that all
+night long I have been amusing myself with watching builders at work;
+and, when it was day, I saw a palace ready edified, whose like is not
+in the world. So I asked about it and was told that Judar had come back
+with great wealth and Mamelukes and slaves and that he had freed his
+two brothers from prison, and built this palace, wherein he is as a
+Sultan.” Quoth the King, “Go, look in the prison.” So they went thither
+and not finding Sálim and Salím, returned and told the King, who said,
+“It is plain now who be the thief; he who took Sálim and Salím out of
+prison it is who hath stolen my monies.” Quoth the Wazir, “O my lord,
+and who is he?”; and quoth the King, “Their brother Judar, and he hath
+taken the two pairs of saddle bags; but, O Wazir do thou send him an
+Emir with fifty men to seal up his goods and lay hands on him and his
+brothers and bring them to me, that I may hang them.” And he was sore
+enraged and said, “Ho, off with the Emir at once, and fetch them, that
+I may put them to death.” But the Wazir said to him, “Be thou merciful,
+for Allah is merciful and hasteth not to punish His servants, whenas
+they sin against Him. More over, he who can build a palace in a single
+night, as these say, none in the world can vie with him; and verily I
+fear lest the Emir fall into difficulty for Judar. Have patience,
+therefore, whilst I devise for thee some device of getting at the truth
+of the case, and so shalt thou win thy wish, O King of the age.” Quoth
+the King, “Counsel me how I shall do, O Wazir.” And the Minister said,
+“Send him an Emir with an invitation; and I will make much of him for
+thee and make a show of love for him and ask him of his estate; after
+which we will see. If we find him stout of heart, we will use sleight
+with him, and if weak of will, then do thou seize him and do with him
+thy desire.” The King agreed to this and despatched one of his Emirs,
+Othman highs, to go and invite Judar and say to him, “The King biddeth
+thee to a banquet;” and the King said to him, “Return not, except with
+him.” Now this Othman was a fool, proud and conceited; so he went forth
+upon his errand, and when he came to the gate of Judar’s palace, he saw
+before the door an eunuch seated upon a chair of gold, who at his
+approach rose not, but sat as if none came near, though there were with
+the Emir fifty footmen. Now this eunuch was none other than Al-Ra’ad
+al-Kasif, the servant of the ring, whom Judar had commanded to put on
+the guise of an eunuch and sit at the palace gate. So the Emir rode up
+to him and asked him, “O slave, where is thy lord?”; whereto he
+answered, “In the palace;” but he stirred not from his leaning posture;
+whereupon the Emir Othman waxed wroth and said to him, “O pestilent
+slave, art thou not ashamed, when I speak to thee, to answer me,
+sprawling at thy length, like a gallows bird?” Replied the eunuch “Off
+and multiply not words.” Hardly had Othman heard this, when he was
+filled with rage and drawing his mace[FN#303] would have smitten the
+eunuch, knowing not that he was a devil; but Al-Ra’ad leapt upon him
+and taking the mace from him, dealt him four blows with it. Now when
+the fifty men saw their lord beaten, it was grievous to them; so they
+drew their swords and ran to slay the slave; but he said, “Do ye draw
+on us, O dogs?” and rose at them with the mace, and every one whom he
+smote, he broke his bones and drowned him in his blood. So they fell
+back before him and fled, whilst he followed them, beating them, till
+he had driven them far from the palace gate; after which he returned
+and sat down on his chair at the door, caring for none.—And Shahrazad
+perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Twenty-first Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the eunuch having
+put to flight the Emir Othman, the King’s officer, and his men, till
+they were driven far from Judar’s gate, returned and sat down on his
+chair at the door, caring for none. But as for the Emir and his
+company, they returned, discomfited and funded, to King Shams
+al-Daulah, and Othman said, “O King of the age, when I came to the
+palace gate, I espied an eunuch seated there in a chair of gold and he
+was passing proud for, when he saw me approach, he stretched himself at
+full length albeit he had been sitting in his chair and entreated me
+contumeliously, neither offered to rise to me. So I began to speak to
+him and he answered without stirring, whereat wrath get hold of me and
+I drew the mace upon him, thinking to smite him. But he snatched it
+from me and beat me and my men therewith and overthrew us. So we fled
+from before him and could not prevail against him.” At this, the King
+was wroth and said, “Let an hundred men go down to him.” Accordingly,
+the hundred men went down to attack him; but he arose and fell upon
+them with the mace and ceased not smiting them till he had put them to
+the rout; when he regained his chair; upon which they returned to the
+King and told him what had passed, saying, “O King of the age, he beat
+us and we fled for fear of him.” Then the King sent two hundred men
+against him, but these also he put to the rout, and Shams Al-Daulah
+said to his Minister, “I charge thee, O Wazir, take five hundred men
+and bring this eunuch in haste, and with him his master Judar and his
+brothers.” Replied the Wazir, “O King of the age, I need no soldiers,
+but will go down to him alone and unarmed.” “Go,” quoth the King, “and
+do as thou seest suitable.” So the Wazir laid down his arms and donning
+a white habit,[FN#304] took a rosary in his hand and set out afoot
+alone and unattended. When he came to Judar’s gate, he saw the slave
+sitting there; so he went up to him and seating himself by his side
+courteously, said to him, “Peace be with thee!”; whereto he replied,
+“And on thee be peace, O mortal! What wilt thou?” When the Wazir heard
+him say “O mortal,” he knew him to be of the Jinn and quaked for fear;
+then he asked him, “O my lord, tell me, is thy master Judar here?”
+Answered the eunuch, “Yes, he is in the palace.” Quoth the Minister, “O
+my lord, go thou to him and say to him, ‘King Shams Al-Daulah saluteth
+thee and biddeth thee honour his dwelling with thy presence and eat of
+a banquet he hath made for thee;’” Quoth the eunuch, “Tarry thou here,
+whilst I consult him.” So the Wazir stood in a respectful attitude,
+whilst the Marid went up to the palace and said to Judar, “Know, O my
+lord, that the King sent to thee an Emir and fifty men, and I beat them
+and drove them away. Then he sent an hundred men and I beat them also;
+then two hundred, and these also I put to the rout. And now he hath
+sent thee his Wazir unarmed, bidding thee visit him and eat of his
+banquet. What sayst thou?” Said Judar, “Go, bring the Wazir hither.” So
+the Marid went down and said to him, “O Wazir, come speak with my
+lord.” “On my head be it.”, replied he and going in to Judar, found him
+seated, in greater state than the King, upon a carpet, whose like the
+King could not spread, and was dazed and amazed at the goodliness of
+the palace and its decoration and appointments, which made him seem as
+he were a beggar in comparison. So he kissed the ground before Judar
+and called down blessings on him; and Judar said to him, “What is thy
+business, O Wazir?” Replied he, “O my lord, thy friend King Shams
+Al-Daulah saluteth thee with the salaam and longeth to look upon thy
+face; wherefore he hath made thee an entertainment. So say, wilt thou
+heal his heart and eat of his banquet?” Quoth Judar, “If he be indeed
+my friend, salute him and bid him come to me.” “On my head be it,”
+quoth the Minister. Then Judar bringing out the ring rubbed it and bade
+the Jinni fetch him a dress of the best, which he gave to the Wazir
+saying, “Don this dress and go tell the King what I say.” So the Wazir
+donned the dress, the like whereof he had never donned, and returning
+to the King told him what had passed and praised the palace and that
+which was therein, saying, “Judar biddeth thee to him.” So the King
+called out, “Up, ye men; mount your horses and bring me my steed, that
+we may go to Judar!” Then he and his suite rode off for the Cairene
+palace. Meanwhile Judar summoned the Marid and said to him, “It is my
+will that thou bring me some of the Ifrits at thy command in the guise
+of guards and station them in the open square before the palace, that
+the King may see them and be awed by them; so shall his heart tremble
+and he shall know that my power and majesty be greater than his.”
+Thereupon Al-Ra’ad brought him two hundred Ifrits of great stature and
+strength, in the guise of guards, magnificently armed and equipped, and
+when the King came and saw these tall burly fellows his heart feared
+them. Then he entered the palace, and found Judar sitting in such state
+as nor King nor Sultan could even. So he saluted him and made his
+obeisance to him, yet Judar rose not to him nor did him honour nor said
+“Be seated,” but left him standing,—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
+day and ceased to say her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Twenty-second Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the King
+entered, Judar rose not to him, nor did him honour nor even said “Be
+seated!”; but left him standing,[FN#305] so that fear entered into him
+and he could neither sit nor go away and said to himself, “If he feared
+me, he would not leave me thus unheeded peradventure he will do me a
+mischief, because of that which I did with his brothers.” Then said
+Judar, “O King of the age, it beseemeth not the like of thee to wrong
+the folk and take away their good.” Replied the King, “O my lord, deign
+excuse me, for greed impelled me to this and fate was thereby
+fulfilled; and, were there no offending, there would be no forgiving.”
+And he went on to excuse himself for the past and pray to him for
+pardon and indulgence till he recited amongst other things this poetry,
+
+“O thou of generous seed and true nobility, * Reproach me not for
+     that which came from me to thee
+We pardon thee if thou have wrought us any wrong * And if I
+     wrought the wrong I pray thee pardon me!”
+
+
+And he ceased not to humble himself before him, till he said, “Allah
+pardon thee!” and bade him be seated. So he sat down and Judar invested
+him with garments of pardon and immunity and ordered his brothers
+spread the table. When they had eaten, he clad the whole of the King’s
+company in robes of honour and gave them largesse; after which he bade
+the King depart. So he went forth and thereafter came every day to
+visit Judar and held not his Divan save in his house: wherefore
+friendship and familiarity waxed great between them, and they abode
+thus awhile, till one day the King, being alone with his Minister, said
+to him, “O Wazir, I fear lest Judar slay me and take the kingdom away
+from me.” Replied the Wazir, “O King of the age, as for his taking the
+kingdom from thee, have no fear of that, for Judar’s present estate is
+greater than that of the King, and to take the kingdom would be a
+lowering of his dignity; but, if thou fear that he kill thee, thou hast
+a daughter: give her to him to wife and thou and he will be of one
+condition.” Quoth the King, “O Wazir, be thou intermediary between us
+and him”; and quoth the Minister, “Do thou invite him to an
+entertainment and pass the night with him in one of thy saloons. Then
+bid thy daughter don her richest dress and ornaments and pass by the
+door of the saloon. When he seeth her, he will assuredly fall in love
+with her, and when we know this, I will turn to him and tell him that
+she is thy daughter and engage him in converse and lead him on, so that
+thou shalt seem to know nothing of the matter, till he ask her to thee
+to wife. When thou hast married him to the Princess, thou and he will
+be as one thing and thou wilt be safe from him; and if he die, thou
+wilt inherit all he hath, both great and small.” Replied the King,
+“Thou sayst sooth, O my Wazir,” and made a banquet and invited thereto
+Judar who came to the Sultan’s palace and they sat in the saloon in
+great good cheer till the end of the day. Now the King had commanded
+his wife to array the maiden in her richest raiment and ornaments and
+carry her by the door of the saloon. She did as he told her, and when
+Judar saw the Princess, who had not her match for beauty and grace, he
+looked fixedly at her and said, “Ah!”; and his limbs were loosened; for
+love and longing and passion and pine were sore upon him; desire and
+transport get hold upon him and he turned pale. Quoth the Wazir, “May
+no harm befall thee, O my lord! Why do I see thee change colour and in
+suffering?” Asked Judar, “O Wazir, whose daughter is this damsel?
+Verily she hath enthralled me and ravished my reason.” Replied the
+Wazir, “She is the daughter of thy friend the King; and if she please
+thee, I will speak to him that he marry thee to her.” Quoth Judar, “Do
+so, O Wazir, and as I live, I will bestow on thee what thou wilt and
+will give the King whatsoever he shall ask to her dowry; and we will
+become friends and kinsfolk.” Quoth the Minister, “It shall go hard but
+thy desire be accomplished.” Then he turned to the King and said in his
+ear, “O King of the age, thy friend Judar seeketh alliance with thee
+and will have me ask of thee for him the hand of thy daughter, the
+Princess Asiyah; so disappoint me not, but accept my intercession, and
+what dowry soever thou askest he will give thee.” Said the King, “The
+dowry I have already received, and as for the girl, she is his
+handmaid; I give her to him to wife and he will do me honour by
+accepting her.”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
+saying her permitted say.
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Twenty-third Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Wazir
+whispered the King, “Judar seeketh alliance with thee by taking thy
+daughter to wife,” the other replied, “The dowry I have already
+received, and the girl is his handmaid: he will do me honour by
+accepting her.” So they spent the rest of that night together and on
+the morrow the King held a court, to which he summoned great and small,
+together with the Shaykh al-Islam.[FN#306] Then Judar demanded the
+Princess in marriage and the King said, “The dowry I have received.”
+Thereupon they drew up the marriage contract and Judar sent for the
+saddle bags containing the jewels and gave them to the King as
+settlement upon his daughter. The drums beat and the pipes sounded and
+they held high festival, whilst Judar went in unto the girl.
+Thenceforward he and the King were as one flesh and they abode thus for
+many days, till Shams al-Daulah died; whereupon the troops proclaimed
+Judar Sultan, and he refused; but they importuned him, till he
+consented and they made him King in his father in law’s stead. Then he
+bade build a cathedral mosque over the late King’s tomb in the
+Bundukániyah[FN#307] quarter and endowed it. Now the quarter of Judar’s
+house was called Yamániyah; but, when he became Sultan he built therein
+a congregational mosque and other buildings, wherefore the quarter was
+named after him and was called the Judariyah[FN#308] quarter. Moreover,
+he made his brother Sálim his Wazir of the right and his brother Salím
+his Wazir of the left hand; and thus they abode a year and no more;
+for, at the end of that time, Sálim said to Salím, “O my brother, how
+long is this state to last? Shall we pass our whole lives in slavery to
+our brother Judar? We shall never enjoy luck or lordship whilst he
+lives,” adding, “so how shall we do to kill him and take the ring and
+the saddle bags?” Replied Salím, “Thou art craftier than I; do thou
+devise, whereby we may kill him.” “If I effect this,” asked Sálim,
+“wilt thou agree that I be Sultan and keep the ring and that thou be my
+right hand Wazir and have the saddle bags?” Salím answered, “I consent
+to this;” and they agreed to slay Judar their brother for love of the
+world and of dominion. So they laid a snare for Judar and said to him,
+“O our brother, verily we have a mind to glory in thee and would fain
+have thee enter our houses and eat of our entertainment and solace our
+hearts.” Replied Judar, “So be it, in whose house shall the banquet
+be?” “In mine,” said Sálim “and after thou hast eaten of my victual,
+thou shalt be the guest of my brother.” Said Judar, “’Tis well,” and
+went with him to his house, where he set before him poisoned food, of
+which when he had eaten, his flesh rotted from his bones and he
+died.[FN#309] Then Sálim came up to him and would have drawn the ring
+from his finger, but it resisted him; so he cut off the finger with a
+knife. Then he rubbed the ring and the Marid presented himself, saying,
+“Adsum! Ask what thou wilt.” Quoth Sálim, “Take my brother Salím and
+put him to death and carry forth the two bodies, the poisoned and the
+slaughtered, and cast them down before the troops.” So the Marid took
+Salím and slew him; then, carrying the two corpses forth, he cast them
+down before the chief officers of the army, who were sitting at table
+in the parlour of the house. When they saw Judar and Salím slain, they
+raised their hands from the food and fear get hold of them and they
+said to the Marid, “Who hath dealt thus with the Sultan and the Wazir?”
+Replied the Jinni, “Their brother Sálim.” And behold, Sálim came up to
+them and said, “O soldiers, eat and make merry, for Judar is dead and I
+have taken to me the seal ring, whereof the Marid before you is the
+servant; and I bade him slay my brother Salím lest he dispute the
+kingdom with me, for he was a traitor and I feared lest he should
+betray me. So now I am become Sultan over you; will ye accept of me? If
+not, I will rub the ring and bid the Marid slay you all, great and
+small.”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
+permitted say.
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Twenty-fourth Night,
+
+She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Sálim
+said to the officers, “Will ye accept me as your Sultan, otherwise I
+will rub the ring and the Marid shall slay you all, great and small?”;
+they replied, “We accept thee to King and Sultan.” Then he bade bury
+his brothers and summoned the Divan; and some of the folk followed the
+funeral, whilst others forewent him in state procession to the audience
+hall of the palace, where he sat down on the throne and they did homage
+to him as King; after which he said, “It is my will to marry my brother
+Judar’s wife.” Quoth they, “Wait till the days of widowhood are
+accomplished.”[FN#310] Quoth he, “I know not days of widowhood nor aught
+else. As my head liveth, I needs must go in unto her this very night.”
+So they drew up the marriage contract and sent to tell the Princess
+Asiyah, who replied, “Bid him enter.” Accordingly, he went in to her
+and she received him with a show of joy and welcome; but by and by she
+gave him poison in water and made an end of him. Then she took the ring
+and broke it, that none might possess it thenceforward, and tore up the
+saddle bags; after which she sent to the Shaykh al-Islam and other
+great officers of state, telling them what had passed and saying to
+them, “Choose you out a King to rule over you.” And this is all that
+hath come down to us of the Story of Judar and his Brethren.[FN#311]
+But I have also heard, O King, a tale called the
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF GHARIB AND HIS BROTHER AJIB.[FN#312]
+
+
+There was once in olden time a King of might, Kundamir highs, who had
+been a brave and doughty man of war, a Kahramán,[FN#313] in his day,
+but was grown passing old and decrepit. Now it pleased Allah to
+vouchsafe him, in his extreme senility, a son, whom he named
+Ajíb[FN#314]—the Wonderful—because of his beauty and loveliness; so he
+committed the babe to the midwives and wet-nurses and handmaids and
+serving-women, and they reared him till he was full seven years old,
+when his father gave him in charge to a divine of his own folk and
+faith. The priest taught him the laws and tenets of their Misbelief and
+instructed him in philosophy and all manner of other knowledge, and it
+needed but three full told years ere he was proficient therein and his
+spirit waxed resolute and his judgment mature; and he became learned,
+eloquent and philosophic[FN#315]; consorting with the wise and
+disputing with the doctors of the law. When his father saw this of him,
+it pleased him and he taught him to back the steed and stab with spear
+and smite with sword, till he grew to be an accomplished cavalier,
+versed in all martial exercises; and, by the end of his twentieth year,
+he surpassed in all things all the folk of his day. But his skill in
+weapons made him grow up a stubborn tyrant and a devil arrogant, using
+to ride forth a-hunting and a-chasing amongst a thousand horsemen and
+to make raids and razzias upon the neighbouring knights, cutting off
+caravans and carrying away the daughters of Kings and nobles; wherefore
+many brought complaints against him to his father, who cried out to
+five of his slaves and when they came said, “Seize this dog!” So they
+seized Prince Ajib and, pinioning his hands behind him, beat him by his
+father’s command till he lost his senses; after which the King
+imprisoned him in a chamber so dark one might not know heaven from
+earth or length from breadth; and there he abode two days and a night.
+Then the Emirs went in to the King and, kissing the ground between his
+hands, interceded with him for the Prince, and he released him. So Ajib
+bore with his father for ten days, at the end of which he went in to
+him as he slept by night and smote his neck. When the day rose, he
+mounted the throne of his sire’s estate and bade his men arm themselves
+cap-à-pie in steel and stand with drawn swords in front of him and on
+his right hand and on his left. By and by, the Emirs and Captains
+entered and finding their King slain and his son Ajib seated on the
+throne were confounded in mind and knew not what to do. But Ajib said
+to them, “O folk, verily ye see what your King hath gained. Whoso
+obeyeth me, I will honour him, and whoso gainsayeth me I will do with
+him that which I did with my sire.” When they heard these words they
+feared lest he do them a mischief; so they replied, “Thou art our King
+and the son of our King;” and kissed ground before him; whereupon he
+thanked them and rejoiced in them. Then he bade bring forth money and
+apparel and clad them in sumptuous robes of honour and showered
+largesse upon them, wherefore they all loved him and obeyed him. In
+like manner he honoured the governors of the Provinces and the Shaykhs
+of the Badawin, both tributary and independent, so that the whole
+kingdom submitted to him and the folk obeyed him and he reigned and
+bade and forbade in peace and quiet for a time of five months. One
+Night, however, he dreamed a dream as he lay slumbering; whereupon he
+awoke trembling, nor did sleep visit him again till the morning. As
+soon as it was dawn he mounted his throne and his officers stood before
+him, right and left. Then he called the oneiromants and the astrologers
+and said to them “Expound to me my dream!” “What was the dream?” asked
+they; and he answered, “As I slept last Night, I saw my father standing
+before me, with his yard uncovered, and there came forth of it a thing
+the bigness of a bee, which grew till it became as a mighty lion, with
+claws like hangers. As I lay wondering at this lo! it ran upon me and
+smiting me with its claws, rent my belly in sunder; whereupon I awoke
+startled and trembling. So expound ye to me the meaning of this dream.”
+The interpreters looked one at other; and, after considering, said, “O
+mighty King, this dream pointeth to one born of thy sire, between whom
+and thee shall befal strife and enmity, wherein he shall get the better
+of thee: so be on thy guard against him, by reason of this thy vision.”
+When Ajib heard their words, he said, “I have no brother whom I should
+fear; so this your speech is mere lying.” They replied, “We tell thee
+naught save what we know;” but he was an angered with them and
+bastinadoed them. Then he rose and, going in to the paternal palace,
+examined his father’s concubines and found one of them seven months
+gone with child; whereupon he gave an order to two of his slaves,
+saying, “Take this damsel, ye twain, and carry her to the sea-shore and
+drown her.” So they took her forthright and, going to the sea-shore,
+designed to drown her, when they looked at her and seeing her to be of
+singular beauty and loveliness said to each other, “Why should we drown
+this damsel? Let us rather carry her to the forest and live with her
+there in rare love-liasse.” Then they took her and fared on with her
+days and nights till they had borne her afar off and had brought her to
+a bushy forest, abounding in fruit-trees and streams, where they both
+thought at the same time to win their will of her; but each said, “I
+will have her first.” So they fell out one with the other concerning
+this, and while so doing a company of blackamoors came down upon them,
+and they drew their swords and both sides fell to laying on load. The
+mellay waxed hot with cut and thrust; and the two slaves fought their
+best; but the blacks slew them both in less than the twinkling of an
+eye. So the damsel abode alone and wandered about the forest, eating of
+its fruits and drinking of its founts, till in due time she gave birth
+to a boy, brown but clean limbed and comely, whom she named Gharíb, the
+Stranger, by reason of her strangerhood. Then she cut his navel-string
+and wrapping him in some of her own clothes, gave him to suck, harrowed
+at heart, and with vitals sorrowing for the estate she had lost and its
+honour and solace. And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
+saying her permitted say,
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Twenty-fifth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the damsel abode
+in the bush harrowed at heart and a-sorrowed; but she suckled her babe
+albeit she was full of grief and fear for her loneliness. Now behold,
+one day, there came horsemen and footmen into the forest with hawks and
+hounds and horses laden with partridges and cranes and wild geese and
+divers and other waterfowl; and young ostriches and hares and gazelles
+and wild oxen and lynxes and wolves and lions.[FN#316] Presently, these
+Arabs entered the thicket and came upon the damsel, sitting with her
+child on her breast a-suckling him: so they drew near and asked her,
+“Say art thou a mortal or a Jinniyah?” Answered she, “I am a mortal, O
+Chiefs of the Arabs.” Thereupon they told their Emir, whose name was
+Mardás, Prince of the Banú Kahtán,[FN#317] and who had come forth that
+day to hunt with five hundred of his cousins and the nobles of his
+tribe, and who in the course of the chase had happened upon her. He
+bade them bring her before him, which they did and she related to him
+her past from first to last, whereat he marvelled. Then he cried to his
+kinsmen and escort to continue the chase, after which they took her and
+returned to their encampment, where the Emir appointed her a separate
+dwelling-place and five damsels to serve her; and he loved her with
+exceeding love and went in to her and lay with her. She conceived by
+him straightway, and, when her months were accomplished, she bare a man
+child and named him Sahím al-Layl.[FN#318] He grew up with his brother
+Gharib among the nurses and throve and waxed upon the lap of the Emir
+Mardas who, in due time committed the two boys to a Fakih for
+instruction in the things of their faith; after which he gave them in
+charge to valiant knights of the Arabs, for training them to smite with
+sword and lunge with lance and shoot with shaft; so by the time they
+reached the age of fifteen, they knew all they needed and surpassed
+each and every brave of their tribe; for Gharib would undertake a
+thousand horse and Sahim al-Layl no fewer. Now Mardas had many enemies,
+and the men of his tribe were the bravest of all the Arabs, being
+doughty cavaliers, none might warm himself at their fire.[FN#319] In
+his neighbourhood was an Emir of the Arabs, Hassan bin Sábit hight, who
+was his intimate friend; and he took to wife a noble lady of his tribe
+and bade all his friends to the wedding, amongst them Mardas lord of
+the Banu Kahtan, who accepted his invitation and set forth with three
+hundred riders of his tribe, leaving other four hundred to guard the
+women. Hassan met him with honour and seated him in the highest stead.
+Then came all the cavaliers to the bridal and he made them bride-feasts
+and held high festival by reason of the marriage, after which the Arabs
+departed to their dwelling-places. When Mardas came in sight of his
+camp, he saw slain men lying about and birds hovering over them right
+and left; and his heart sank within him at the sight. Then he entered
+the camp and was met by Gharib, clad in complete suit of ring-mail, who
+gave him joy of his safe return. Quoth Mardas, “What meaneth this case,
+O Gharib?”; and quoth Gharib, “Al-Hamal bin Májid attacked us with five
+hundred horsemen of his tribe.” Now the reason of this was that the
+Emir Mardas had a daughter called Mahdíyah, seer never saw fairer than
+she, and Al-Hamal, lord of the Banu Nabhán,[FN#320] heard of her
+charms; whereupon he took horse with five hundred of his men and rode
+to Mardas to demand her hand; but he was not accepted and was sent away
+disappointed.[FN#321] So he awaited till Mardas was absent on his visit
+to Hassan, when he mounted with his champions and, falling upon the
+camp of the Banu Kahtan, slew a number of their knights and the rest
+fled to the mountains. Now Gharib and his brother had ridden forth
+a-hunting and chasing with an hundred horse and returned not till midday,
+when they found that Al-Hamal had seized the camp and all therein and
+had carried off the maidens, among whom was Mahdiyah, driving her away
+with the captives. When Gharib saw this, he lost his wits for rage and
+cried out to Sahim, saying, “O my brother, O son of an accursed
+dam,[FN#322] they have plundered our camp and carried off our women and
+children! Up and at the enemy, that we may deliver the captives!” So
+Gharib and Sahim and their hundred horse rushed upon the foe, and
+Gharib’s wrath redoubled, and he reaped a harvest of heads slain,
+giving the champions death-cup to drain, till he won to Al-Hamal and
+saw Mahdiyah among the captives. Then he drave at the lord of the Banu
+Nabhan braves; with his lance lunged him and from his destrier hurled
+him; nor was the time of mid-afternoon prayer come before he had slain
+the most part of the foe and put to rout the rest and rescued the
+captives; whereupon he returned to the camp in triumph, bearing the
+head of Al-Hamal on the point of his lance and improvising these
+couplets,
+
+“I am he who is known on the day of fight, * And the Jinn of
+     earth at my shade take fright:
+And a sword have I when my right hand wields, * Death hastens
+     from left on mankind to alight;
+I have eke a lance and who look thereon * See a crescent head of
+     the liveliest light.[FN#323]
+And Gharib I’m highs of my tribe the brave * And if few my men I
+     feel naught affright.”
+
+
+Hardly had Gharib made an end of these verses when up came Mardas who,
+seeing the slain and the vultures, was sore troubled and with
+fluttering heart asked the cause. The youth, after due greetings,
+related all that had befallen the tribe in his step-sire’s absence. So
+Mardas thanked him and said, “Thou hast well requited our
+fosterage-pains in rearing thee, O Gharib!”; then he alighted and
+entered his pavilion, and the men stood about him, all the tribe
+praising Gharib and saying, “O our Emir, but for Gharib, not one of the
+tribe had been saved!” And Mardas again thanked him.—And Shahrazad
+perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say,
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Twenty-sixth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Mardas, hearing
+the tribesmen’s praises of Gharib, again thanked him for his
+derring-do. But the youth, when he had delivered Mahdiyah from Al-Hamal
+whom he slew, was smitten by the shaft of her glances and fell into the
+nets of her allurements, wherefore his heart could not forget her and
+he became drowned in love and longing and the sweets of sleep forsook
+him and he had no joy of drink or meat. He would spur his horse up to
+the mountain tops, where he would spend the day in composing verses and
+return at nightfall; and indeed manifest upon him were the signs of
+affection and distraction. He discovered his secret to one of his
+companions and it became noised abroad in the camp, till it reached the
+ears of Mardas, who thundered and lightened and rose up and sat down
+and sparked and snorted and reviled the sun and the moon, saying, “This
+is the reward of him who reareth the sons of adultery! But except I
+kill Gharib, I shall be put to shame.”[FN#324] Then he consulted one
+of the wise men of his tribe and after telling his secret took counsel
+with him of killing the youth. Quoth the elder, “O Emir, ’twas but
+yesterday that he freed thy daughter from captivity. If there be no
+help for it but thou must slay him, let it be by the hand of another
+than thyself, so none of the folk may misdoubt of thee.” Quoth Mardas,
+“Advise me how I may do him die, for I look to none but to thee for his
+death.” “O Emir,” answered the other, “wait till he go forth to hunt
+and chase, when do thou take an hundred horse and lie in wait for him
+in some cave till he pass; then fall upon him unawares and cut him in
+pieces, so shalt thou be quit of his reproach.” Said Mardas, “This
+should serve me well;” and chose out an hundred and fifty of his
+furious knights and Amalekites[FN#325] whom he lessoned to his will.
+Then he watched Gharib till one day, he went forth to hunt and rode far
+away amongst the dells and hills; whereupon Mardas followed him with
+his men, ill-omened wights, and lay in wait for him by the way against
+he should return from the chase that they might sally forth and slay
+him. But as they lay in ambush among the trees behold, there fell upon
+them five hundred true Amalekites, who slew sixty of them and made
+fourscore and ten prisoners and trussed up Mardas with his arms behind
+his back. Now the reason of this was that when Gharib put Al-Hamal and
+his men to the sword, the rest fled and ceased not flying till they
+reached their lord’s brother and told him what had happened, whereat
+his Doom-day rose and he gathered together his Amalekites and choosing
+out five hundred cavaliers, each fifty ells high,[FN#326] set out with
+them in quest of blood-revengement for his brother. By the way he fell
+in with Mardas and his companions and there happened between them what
+happened; after which he bade his men alight and rest, saying, “O folk,
+the idols have given us an easy brood-wreak; so guard ye Mardas and his
+tribesmen, till I carry them away and do them die with the foulest of
+deaths.” When Mardas saw himself a prisoner, he repented of what he had
+done and said, “This is the reward of rebelling against the Lord!” Then
+the enemy passed the night rejoicing in their victory, whilst Mardas
+and his men despaired of life and made sure of doom. So far concerning
+them; but as regards Sahim al-Layl, who had been wounded in the fight
+with Al-Hamal, he went in to his sister Mahdiyah, and she rose to him
+and kissed his hands, saying, “May thy two hands ne’er wither nor thine
+enemies have occasion to be blither! But for thee and Gharib, we had
+not escaped captivity among our foes. Know, however, O my brother, that
+thy father hath ridden forth with an hundred and fifty horse, purposing
+to slaughter Gharib; and thou wottest it would be sore loss and foul
+wrong to slay him, for that it was he who saved your shame and rescued
+your good.” When Sahim heard this, the light in his sight became Night,
+he donned his battle-harness; and, mounting steed, rode for the place
+where Gharib was a-hunting. He presently came up with him and found
+that he had taken great plenty of game; so he accosted him and saluted
+him and said, “O my brother, why didst thou go forth without telling
+me?” Replied Gharib, “By Allah, naught hindered me but that I saw thee
+wounded and thought to give thee rest.” Then said Sahim, “O my brother,
+beware of my sire!” and told him how Mardas was abroad with an hundred
+and fifty men, seeking to slay him. Quoth Gharib, “Allah shall cause
+his treason to cut his own throat.” Then the brothers set out
+campwards, but night overtook them by the way and they rode on in the
+darkness, till they drew near the Wady wherein the enemy lay and heard
+the neighing of steeds in the gloom; whereupon said Sahim, “O my
+brother, my father and his men are ambushed in yonder valley; let us
+flee from it.” But Gharib dismounted and throwing his bridle to his
+brother, said to him, “Stay in this stead till I come back to thee.”
+Then he went on till he drew in sight of the folk, when he saw that
+they were not of his tribe and heard them naming Mardas and saying, “We
+will not slay him, save in his own land.” Wherefore he knew that nuncle
+Mardas was their prisoner, and said, “By the life of Mahdiyah, I will
+not depart hence till I have delivered her father, that she may not be
+troubled!” Then he sought and ceased not seeking till he hit upon
+Mardas and found him bound with cords; so he sat down by his side and
+said to him, “Heaven deliver thee, O uncle, from these bonds and this
+shame!” When Mardas saw Gharib his reason fled, and he said to him, “O
+my son, I am under thy protection: so deliver me in right of my
+fosterage of thee!” Quoth Gharib, “If I deliver thee, wilt thou give me
+Mahdiyah?” Quoth the Emir, “O my son, by whatso I hold sacred, she is
+thine to all time!” So he loosed him, saying, “Make for the horses, for
+thy son Sahim is there:” and Mardas crept along like a snake till he
+came to his son, who rejoiced in him and congratulated him on his
+escape. Meanwhile, Gharib unbound one after another of the prisoners,
+till he had freed the whole ninety and they were all far from the foe.
+Then he sent them their weapons and war horses, saying to them, “Mount
+ye and scatter yourselves round about the enemy and cry out, Ho, sons
+of Kahtan! And when they awake, do ye remove from them and encircle
+them in a thin ring.”[FN#327] So he waited till the last and third
+watch of the Night, when he cried out, “Ho, sons of Kahtan!” and his
+men answered in like guise, crying, “Ho, sons of Kahtan,” as with one
+voice; and the mountains echoed their slogan, so that it seemed to the
+raiders as though the whole tribe of Banu Kahtan were assailing them;
+wherefore they all snatched up their arms and fell upon one
+another,—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
+permitted say,
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Twenty-seventh Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
+raiders[FN#328] awoke from sleep and heard Gharib and his men crying
+out, “Ho, sons of Kahtan!”; they imagined that the whole tribe was
+assailing them; wherefore they snatched up their arms and fell one upon
+other with mighty slaughter. Gharib and his men held aloof, and they
+fought one another till daybreak, when Gharib and Mardas and their
+ninety warriors came down upon them and killed some of them and put the
+rest to flight. Then the Banu Kahtan took the horses of the fugitives
+and the weapons of the slain and returned to their tribal camp, whilst
+Mardas could hardly credit his deliverance from the foe. When they
+reached the encampment, the stay-at-home folk all came forth to meet
+them and rejoiced in their safe return. Then they alighted and betook
+them to their tents; and all the youths of the tribe flocked to
+Gharib’s stead and great and small saluted him and did him honour. But
+when Mardas saw this and the youths encircling his stepson he waxed
+more jealous of Gharib than before and said to his kinsfolk, “Verily,
+hatred of Gharib groweth on my heart, and what irketh me most is that I
+see these flocking about him! And to-morrow he will demand Mahdiyah of
+me.” Quoth his confidant, “O Emir, ask of him somewhat he cannot avail
+to do.” This pleased Mardas who passed a pleasant night and on the
+morrow, as he sat on his stuffed carpet, with the Arabs about him,
+Gharib entered, followed by his men and surrounded by the youth of the
+tribe, and kissed the ground before Mardas who, making a show of joy,
+rose to do him honour and seated him beside himself. Then said Gharib,
+“O uncle, thou madest me a promise; do thou fulfil it.” Replied the
+Emir, “O my son, she is thine to all time; but thou lackest wealth.”
+Quoth Gharib, “O uncle, ask of me what thou wilt, and I will fall upon
+the Emirs of the Arabs in their houses and on the Kings in their towns
+and bring thee fee[FN#329] enough to fence the land from East to West.”
+“O my son,” quoth Mardas, “I have sworn by all the Idols that I would
+not give Mahdiyah save to him who should take my blood-wite of mine
+enemy and do away my reproach.” “O uncle,” said Gharib, “tell me with
+which of the Kings thou hast a feud, that I may go to him and break his
+throne upon his pate.” “O my son,” replied Mardas, “I once had a son, a
+champion of champions, and he went forth one day to chase and hunt with
+an hundred horse. They fared on from valley to valley, till they had
+wandered far away amongst the mountains and came to the Wady of
+Blossoms and the Castle of Hám bin Shays bin Shaddád bin Khalad. Now in
+this place, O my son, dwelleth a black giant, seventy cubits high, who
+fights with trees from their roots uptorn; and when my son reached his
+Wady, the tyrant sallied out upon him and his men and slew them all,
+save three braves, who escaped and brought me the news. So I assembled
+my champions and fared forth to fight the giant, but could not prevail
+against him; wherefore I was baulked of my revenge and swore that I
+would not give my daughter in marriage save to him who should avenge me
+of my son.” Said Gharib, “O uncle, I will go to this Amalekite and take
+the wreak of thy son on him with the help of Almighty Allah.” And
+Mardas answered, saying, “O Gharib, if thou get the victory over him,
+thou wilt gain of him such booty of wealth and treasures as fires may
+not devour.” Cried Gharib, “Swear to me before witnesses thou wilt give
+me her to wife, so that with heart at ease I may go forth to find my
+fortune.” Accordingly, Mardas swore this to him and took the elders of
+the tribe to witness; whereupon Gharib fared forth, rejoicing in the
+attainment of his hopes, and went in to his mother, to whom he related
+what had passed. “O my son,” said she, “know that Mardas hateth thee
+and doth but send thee to this mountain, to bereave me of thee; then
+take me with thee and let us depart the tents of this tyrant.” But he
+answered, “O my mother, I will not depart hence till I win my wish and
+foil my foe.” Thereupon he slept till morning arose with its sheen and
+shone, and hardly had he mounted his charger when his friends, the
+young men, came up to him; two hundred stalwart knights armed cap-à-pie
+and cried out to him, saying, “Take us with thee; we will help thee and
+company thee by the way.” And he rejoiced in them and cried, “Allah
+requite you for us with good!” adding, “Come, my friends, let us go.”
+So they set out and fared on the first day and the second day till
+evening, when they halted at the foot of a towering mount and baited
+their horses. As for Gharib, he left the rest and walked on into that
+mountain, till he came to a cave whence issued a light. He entered and
+found, at the higher facing end of the cave a Shaykh, three hundred and
+forty years old, whose eyebrows overhung his eyes and whose moustachios
+hid his mouth. Gharib at this sight was filled with awe and veneration,
+and the hermit said to him, “Methinks thou art of the idolaters, O my
+son, stone-worshipping[FN#330] in the stead of the All-powerful King,
+the Creator of Night and Day and of the sphere rolling on her way.”
+When Gharib heard his words, his side muscles quivered and he said, “O
+Shaykh, where is this Lord of whom thou speakest, that I may worship
+him and take my fill of his sight?” Replied the Shaykh, “O my son, this
+is the Supreme Lord, upon whom none may look in this world. He seeth
+and is not seen. He is the Most High of aspect and is present
+everywhere in His works. He it is who maketh all the made and ordereth
+time to vade and fade; He is the Creator of men and Jinn and sendeth
+the Prophets to guide His creatures into the way of right. Whoso
+obeyeth Him, He bringeth into Heaven, and whoso gainsayeth Him, He
+casteth into Hell.” Asked Gharib, “And how, O uncle, saith whoso
+worshippeth this puissant Lord who over all hath power?” “O my son,”
+answered the Shaykh, “I am of the tribe of Ad, which were transgressors
+in the land and believed not in Allah. So He sent unto them a Prophet
+named Húd, but they called him liar and he destroyed them by means of a
+deadly wind; but I believed together with some of my tribe, and we were
+saved from destruction.[FN#331] Moreover, I was present with the tribe
+of Thamúd and saw what befel them with their Prophet Sálih. After
+Salih, the Al-mighty sent a prophet, called Abraham the Friend,[FN#332]
+to Nimrod son of Canaan, and there befel what befel between them. Then
+my companions died in the Saving Faith and I continued in this cave to
+serve Allah the Most High, who provideth my daily bread without my
+taking thought.” Quoth Gharib, “O uncle, what shall I say, that I may
+become of the troop of this mighty Lord?” “Say,” replied the old
+man,—“There is no god but _the_ God and Abraham is the Friend of God.” So
+Gharib embraced the Faith of Submission[FN#333] with heart and tongue
+and the Shaykh said to him, “May the sweetness of belief and devotion
+be stablished in thy heart!” Then he taught him somewhat of the
+biblical ordinances and scriptures of Al-Islam and said to him, “What
+is thy name?”; and he replied, “My name is Gharib.” Asked the old man,
+“Whither art thou bound, O Gharib?” So he told him all his history,
+till he came to the mention of the Ghúl of the Mountain whom he
+sought,—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
+permitted say,
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Twenty-eighth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Gharib
+became a Moslem and told the Shaykh his past, from first to last, till
+he came to the mention of the Mountain-Ghul whom he sought, the old man
+asked him, “O Gharib, art thou mad that thou goest forth against the
+Ghul of the Mountain single handed?”; and he answered, “O my lord, I
+have with me two hundred horse.” “O Gharib,” rejoined the hermit,
+“hadst thou ten thousand riders yet shouldst thou not prevail against
+him, for his name is The-Ghul-who-eateth-men-we-pray-Allah-for-safety,
+and he is of the children of Ham. His father’s name was Hindi who
+peopled Hind and named it, and he left this son after him, whom he
+called Sa’adan the Ghul. Now the same was, O my son, even in his sire’s
+lifetime, a cruel tyrant and a rebellious devil and had no other food
+than flesh of the sons of Adam. His father when about to die forbade
+him from this, but he would not be forbidden and he redoubled in his
+forwardness, till Hindi banished him and drove him forth the Land of
+Hind, after battles and sore travail. Then he came to this country and
+fortifying himself herein, established his home in this place, whence
+he is wont to sally forth and cut the road of all that come and go,
+presently returning to the valley he haunteth. Moreover, he hath
+begotten five sons, warlike warlocks, each one of whom will do battle
+with a thousand braves, and he hath flocked the valley with his booty
+of treasure and goods besides horses and camels and cattle and sheep.
+Wherefore I fear for thee from him; so do thou implore Almighty Allah
+to further thee against him by the Tahlíl, the formula of Unity, and
+when thou drivest at the Infidels, cry, God is most Great!’ for,
+saying, There is no god but the God’ confoundeth those who misbelieve.”
+Then the Shaykh gave him a steel mace, an hundred pounds in weight,
+with ten rings which clashed like thunder whenas the wielder brandished
+it, and a sword forged of a thunderbolt,[FN#334] three ells long and
+three spans broad, wherewith if one smote a rock, the stroke would
+cleave it in sunder. Moreover he gave him a hauberk and target and a
+book and said to him, “Return to thy tribe and expound unto them
+Al-Islam.” So Gharib left him, rejoicing in his new Faith, and fared
+till he found his companions, who met him with salams, saying, “What
+made thee tarry thus?” Whereupon he related to them that which had
+befallen him and expounded to them Al-Islam, and they all islamised.
+Early next morning, Gharib mounted and rode to the hermit to farewell
+him, after which he set out to return to his camp when behold, on his
+way, there met him a horseman cap-à-pie armed so that only his eyes
+appeared, who made at him, saying, “Doff what is on thee, O
+scum[FN#335] of the Arabs; or I will do thee die!” Therewith Gharib
+crave at him and there befel between them a battle such as would make a
+new-born child turn grey and melt the flinty rock with its sore affray;
+but presently the Badawi did off his face-veil, and lo! it was Gharib’s
+half-brother Sahim al-Layl. Now the cause of his coming thither was
+that when Gharib set out in quest of the Mountain-Ghul, Sahim was
+absent and on his return, not seeing his brother, he went in to his
+mother, whom he found weeping. He asked the reason of her tears and she
+told him what had happened of his brother’s journey, whereupon, without
+allowing himself aught of rest, he donned his war-gear and mounting
+rode after Gharib, till he overtook him and there befel between them
+what befel. When, therefore. Sahim discovered his face, Gharib knew him
+and saluted him, saying, “What moved thee to do this?” Quoth Sahim, “I
+had a mind to measure myself with thee in the field and make trial of
+my lustihood in cut and thrust.” Then they rode together and on the way
+Gharib expounded Al-Islam to Sahim, who embraced the Faith; nor did
+they cease riding till they were hard upon the valley. Meanwhile, the
+Mountain-Ghul espied the dust of their horses’ feet and said to his
+sons, “O my sons, mount and fetch me yonder loot.” So the five took
+horse and made for the party. When Gharib saw the five Amalekites
+approaching, he plied shovel-iron upon his steed’s flank and cried out,
+saying, “Who are ye, and what is your race and what do ye require?”
+Whereupon Falhún bin Sa’adan, the eldest of the five, came out and
+said, “Dismount ye and bind one another[FN#336] and we will drive you
+to our father, that he may roast various of you and boil various, for
+it is long since he has tasted the flesh of Adam-son.” When Gharib
+heard these words he drove at Falhun, shaking his mace, so that the
+rings rang like the roaring thunder and the giant was confounded. Then
+he smote him a light blow with the mace between the shoulders, and he
+fell to the ground like a tall-trunked palm-tree; whereupon Sahim and
+some of his men fell upon him and pinioned him; then, putting a rope
+about his neck, they haled him along like a cow. Now when his brothers
+saw him a prisoner they charged home upon Gharib, who took
+three[FN#337] of them captive and the fifth fled back to his sire, who
+said to him, “What is behind thee and where are the brothers of thee?”
+Quoth he “Verily, a beardless youth, forty cubits high, hath taken them
+prisoner.” Quoth Sa’adan, “May the sun pour no blessing on you!” and,
+going down from his hold, tore up a huge tree, with which he went in
+quest of Gharib and his folk; and he was on foot, for that no horse
+might carry him, because of the bigness of his body. His son followed
+him and the twain went on till they came up with Gharib and his
+company, when the Ghul fell upon them, without word said, and slew five
+men with his club. Then he made at Sahim and struck at him with his
+tree, but Sahim avoided the blow and it fell harmless; whereat Sa’adan
+was wroth and throwing down the weapon, sprang upon Sahim and caught
+him in his pounces as the sparrow hawk catcheth up the sparrow. Now
+when Gharib saw his brother in the Ghul’s clutches, he cried out,
+saying, “Allaho Akbar God is most Great! Oh the favour of Abraham the
+Friend, the Muhammad,[FN#338] the Blessed One (whom Allah keep and
+assain!)”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying
+her permitted say,
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Twenty-ninth Night,
+
+She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Gharib
+saw his brother in the clutches of the Ghul, he cried out, saying “Oh
+the favour of Ibrahim, the Friend, the Blessed One (whom Allah keep
+and assain!) ”; and crave his charger at Sa’adan, shaking his mace,
+till the rings loud rang. Then he cried out again, “God is most Great!”
+and smote the Ghul on the flat of the ribs with his mace, whereupon he
+fell to the ground, insensible, and loosed his grip on Sahim; nor did
+he come to himself ere he was pinioned and shackled. When his son saw
+this, he turned and fled; but Gharib drove steed after him and smiting
+him with his mace between the shoulders, threw him from his horse. So
+they bound him with his father and brethren and haltering them with
+ropes, haled them all six along like baggage-camels, till they reached
+the Ghul’s castle, which they found full of goods and treasures and
+things of price; and there they also came upon twelve hundred Ajamis,
+men of Persia, bound and shackled. Gharib sat down on Sa’adan’s chair,
+which had aforetime belonged to Sásá[FN#339] bin Shays bin Shaddad
+bin Ad causing Sahim to stand on his right and his companions on his
+either hand, and sending for the Ghul of the Mountain, said to him,
+“How findest thou thyself, O accursed?” Replied Sa’adan, “O my lord, in
+the sorriest of plights for abasement and mortification; my sons and
+I, we are bound with ropes like camels.” Quoth Gharib, “It is my will
+that you enter my faith, the faith Al-Islam highs, and acknowledge
+the Unity of the All knowing King whose All-might created Light and
+Night and every thing, there is no God but He, the Requiting King! and
+confess the mission and prophethood of Abraham the Friend (on whom be
+peace!).” So the Ghul and his sons made the required profession after
+the goodliest fashion, and Gharib bade loose their bonds; whereupon
+Sa’adan wept and would have kissed his feet, he and his sons: but
+Gharib forbade them and they stood with the rest who stood before him.
+Then said Gharib, “Harkye, Sa’adan!”; and he replied, “At thy service,
+O my lord!” Quoth Gharib, “What are these captives?” “O my lord,”
+quoth the Ghul, “these are my game from the land of the Persians and
+are not the only ones.” Asked Gharib, “And who is with them?”; and
+Sa’adan answered, “O my lord, there is with them the Princess Fakhr
+Táj, daughter of King Sabúr of Persia,[FN#340] and an hundred damsels
+like moons.” When Gharib heard this, he marvelled and said, “O Emir,
+how came ye by these?” Replied Sa’adan, “I went forth one night with
+my sons and five of my slaves in quest of booty, but finding no spoil
+in our way, we dispersed over wilds and words and fared on, hoping
+we might happen on somewhat of prey and not return emptyhanded, till
+we found ourselves in the land of the Persians. Presently, we espied
+a dust cloud and sent on to reconnoitre one of our slaves, who was
+absent a while and presently returned and said, O my lord, this is the
+Princess Fakhr Taj, daughter of Sabur, King of the Persians, Turcomans
+and Medes; and she is on a journey, attended by two thousand horse.’
+Quoth I, Thou hast gladdened us with good news! We could have no finer
+loot than this.’ Then I and my sons fell upon the Persians and slew
+of them three hundred men and took the Princess and twelve hundred
+cavaliers prisoners, together with all that was with her of treasure
+and riches and brought them to this our castle.” Quoth Gharib, “Hast
+thou offered any violence to the Princess Fakhr Taj?” Quoth Sa’adan,
+“Not I, as thy head liveth and by the virtue of the Faith I have but
+now embraced!” Gharib replied “It was well done of thee, O Sa’adan,
+for her father is King of the world and doubtless he will despatch
+troops in quest of her and lay waste the dwellings of those who took
+her. And whoso looketh not to issue and end hath not Fate to friend.
+But where is the damsel?” Said Sa’adan, “I have set apart a pavilion
+for her and her damsels;” and said Gharib, “Show me her lodging,”
+whereto Sa’adan rejoined, “Hearkening and obedience!” So he carried
+him to the pavilion, and there he found the Princess mournful and cast
+down, weeping for her former condition of dignity and delight. When
+Gharib saw her, he thought the moon was near him and magnified Allah,
+the All-hearing, the All-seeing. The Princess also looked at him and
+saw him a princely cavalier, with velour shining from between his eyes
+and testifying for him and not against him; so she rose and kissed his
+hands, then fell at his feet, saying, “O hero of the age, I am under
+thy protection; guard me from this Ghul, for I fear lest he do away my
+maidenhead and after devour me. So take me to serve thine handmaidens.”
+Quoth Gharib, “Thou art safe and thou shalt be restored to thy father
+and the seat of thy worship.” Whereupon she prayed that he might
+live long and have advancement in rank and honour. Then he bade
+unbind the Persians and, turning to the Princess, said to her, “What
+brought thee forth of thy palace to the wilds and wastes, so that the
+highway-robbers made prize of thee?” She replied, “O my lord, my father
+and all the people of his realm, Turks and Daylamites, are Magians,
+worshipping fire, and not the All-powerful King. Now in our country is
+a monastery called the Monastery of the Fire, whither every year the
+daughters of the Magians and worshippers of the Fire resort at the time
+of their festival and abide there a month, after which they return to
+their houses. So I and my damsels set out, as of wont, attended by two
+thousand horse, whom my father sent with me to guard me; but by the
+way this Ghul came out against us and slew some of us and, taking the
+rest captive, imprisoned us in this hold. This, then, is what befel
+me, O valiant champion, whom Allah guard against the shifts of Time!”
+And Gharib said, “Fear not; for I will bring thee to thy palace and
+the seat of thy honours.” Wherefore she blessed him and kissed his
+hands and feet. Then he went out from her, after having commanded
+to treat her with respect, and slept till morning, when he made the
+Wuzu-ablution and prayed a two-bow prayer, after the rite of our father
+Abraham the Friend (on whom be peace!), whilst the Ghul and his sons
+and Gharib’s company all did the like after him. Then he turned to the
+Ghul and said to him, “O Sa’adan, wilt thou not show me the Wady of
+Blossoms?”[FN#341] “I will, O my lord,” answered he. So Gharib and his
+company and Princess Fakhr Taj and her maidens all rose and went forth,
+whilst Sa’adan commanded his slaves and slave-girls to slaughter and
+cook and make ready the morning-meal and bring it to them among the
+trees. For the Giant had an hundred and fifty handmaids and a thousand
+chattels to pasture his camels and oxen and sheep. When they came to
+the valley, they found it beautiful exceedingly and passing all degree;
+and birds on tree sang joyously and the mocking-nightingale trilled out
+her melody, and the cushat filled with her moan the mansions made by
+the Deity,—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say
+her permitted say,
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Thirtieth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Gharib and
+his merry men and the Giant and his tribe reached the Wady of Blossoms
+they found birds flying free; the cushat filling with her moan the
+mansions made by the Deity, the bulbul singing as if ’twere human
+harmony and the merle whom to describe tongue faileth utterly; the
+turtle, whose plaining maddens men for loveecstasy and the ringdove and
+the popinjay answering her with fluency. There also were trees laden
+with all manner of fruitery, of each two kinds,[FN#342] the
+pomegranate, sweet and sour upon branches growing luxuriantly, the
+almond-apricot,[FN#343] the camphor-apricot[FN#344] and the almond
+Khorasan highs; the plum, with whose branches the boughs of the
+myrobalan were entwined tight; the orange, as it were a cresses flaming
+light, the shaddock weighed down with heavy freight; the lemon, that
+cures lack of appetite, the citron against jaundice of sovereign might,
+and the date, red and yellow-bright, the especial handiwork of Allah
+the Most High. Of the like of this place saith the enamoured poet,
+
+“When its birds in the lake make melody, * The lorn lover
+     yearneth its sight to see:
+’Tis as Eden breathing a fragrant breeze, * With its shade and
+     fruits and rills flowing free.”
+
+
+Gharib marvelled at the beauty of that Wady and bade them set up there
+the pavilion of Fakhr Taj the Chosroite; so they pitched it among the
+trees and spread it with rich tapestries. Then he sat down and the
+slaves brought food and they ate their sufficiency; after which quoth
+Gharib, “Harkye, Sa’adan!”: and quoth he, “At thy service, O my lord.”
+“Hast thou aught of wine?” asked Gharib, and Sa’adan answered, “Yes, I
+have a cistern full of old wine.” Said Gharib, “Bring us some of it.”
+So Sa’adan sent ten slaves, who returned with great plenty of wine, and
+they ate and drank and were mirthful and merry. And Gharib bethought
+him of Mahdiyah and improvised these couplets,
+
+“I mind our union days when ye were nigh, * And flames my heart
+     with love’s consuming lowe.
+By Allah, Ne’er of will I quitted you: * But shifts of Time from
+     you compelled me go:
+Peace and fair luck and greetings thousand-fold * To you, from
+     exiled lover’s pining woe.”
+
+
+They abode eating and drinking and taking their pleasure in the valley
+for three days, after which they returned to the castle. Then Gharib
+called Sahim and said to him, “Take an hundred horse and go to thy
+father and mother and thy tribe, the Banu Kahtan, and bring them all to
+this place, here to pass the rest of their days, whilst I carry the
+Princess of Persia back to her father. As for thee, O Sa’adan, tarry
+thou here with thy sons, till I return to thee.” Asked Sa’adan, “And
+why wilt thou not carry me with thee to the land of the Persians?”; and
+Gharib answered, “Because thou stolest away King Sabur’s daughter and
+if his eye fall on thee, he will eat thy flesh and drink thy blood.”
+When the Ghul heard this, he laughed a loud laugh, as it were the
+pealing thunder, and said, “O my lord, by the life of thy head, if the
+Persians and Medes united against me, I would make them quaff the cup
+of annihilation.” Quoth Gharib, “’Tis as thou sayest;[FN#345] but
+tarry thou here in fort till I return to thee;” and quoth the Ghul, “I
+hear and I obey.” Then Sahim departed with his comrades of the Banu
+Kahtan for the dwelling places of their tribe, and Gharib set out with
+Princess Fakhr Taj and her company, intending for the cities of Sabur,
+King of the Persians. Thus far concerning them; but as regards King
+Sabur, he abode awaiting his daughter’s return from the Monastery of
+the Fire, and when the appointed time passed by and she came not,
+flames raged in his heart. Now he had forty Wazirs, whereof the oldest,
+wisest and chiefest was highs Daydán: so he said to him, “O Minister,
+verily my daughter delayeth her return and I have no news of her though
+the appointed time is past; so do thou send a courier to the Monastery
+of the Fire to learn what is come of her.” “Hearkening and obedience,”
+replied Daydan; and, summoning the chief of the couriers, said to him,
+“Wend thou forthright to the Monastery.” So he lost no time and when he
+reached it, he asked the monks of the King’s daughter, but they said,
+“We have not seen her this year.” So the courier returned to the city
+of Isbánír[FN#346] and told the Wazir, who went in to the King and
+acquainted him with the message. Now when Sabur heard this, he cast his
+crown on the ground, tore his beard and fell down in a trance. They
+sprinkled water upon him, and presently he came to himself,
+tearful-eyed and heavy-hearted, and repeated the words of the poet,
+
+“When I far-parted patience call and tears, * Tears came to call
+     but Patience never hears:
+What, then, if Fortune parted us so far? * Fortune and Perfidy
+     are peers
+
+
+Then he called ten of his captains and bade them mount with a thousand
+horse and ride in different directions, in quest of his daughter. So
+they mounted forthright and departed each with his thousand; whilst
+Fakhr Taj’s mother clad herself and her women in black and strewed
+ashes on her head and sat weeping and lamenting. Such was their
+case;—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
+permitted say.
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Thirty-first Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that King Sabur sent
+his troops in quest of his daughter, whose mother clad herself and her
+women in black. Such was their case; but as regards the strange
+adventures of Gharib and the Princess, they journeyed on ten days, and
+on the eleventh day, appeared a dust cloud which rose to the confines
+of the sky; whereupon Gharib called the Emir of the Persians and said
+to him, “Go learn the cause thereof.” “I hear and obey,” replied he and
+crave his charger, till he came under the cloud of dust, where he saw
+folk and enquired of them. Quoth one of them, “We are of the Banu
+Hattál and are questing for plunder; our Emir is Samsam bin Al-Jiráh
+and we are five thousand horse.” The Persians returned in haste and
+told their saying to Gharib, who cried out to his men of the Banu
+Kahtan and to the Persians, saying, “Don your arms!” They did as he
+bade them and presently up came the Arabs who were shouting, “A
+plunder! a plunder!” Quoth Gharib, “Allah confound you, O dogs of
+Arabs!” Then he loosed his horse and drove at them with the career of a
+right valiant knight, shouting, “Allaho Akbar! Ho for the faith of
+Abraham the Friend, on whom be peace!” And there befel between them
+great fight and sore fray and the sword went round in sway and there
+was much said and say; nor did they leave fighting till fled the day
+and gloom came, when they drew from one another away. Then Gharib
+numbered his tribesmen and found that five of the Banu Kahtan had
+fallen and three-and-seventy of the Persians; but of the Banu Hattal
+they had slain more than five hundred horse. As for Samsam, he alighted
+and sought nor meat nor sleep, but said, “In all my life I never saw
+such a fighter as this youth! Anon he fighteth with the sword and anon
+with the mace; but, to-morrow I will go forth on champion wise and defy
+him to combat of twain in battle plain where edge and point are fain
+and I will cut off these Arabs.” Now, when Gharib returned to his camp,
+the Princess Fakhr Taj met him, weeping and affrighted for the terror
+of that which had befallen, and kissed his foot in the stirrup, saying,
+“May thy hands never wither nor thy foes be blither, O champion of the
+age! Alhamdolillah—Praise to God—who hath saved thee alive this day!
+Verily, I am in fear for thee from yonder Arabs.” When Gharib heard
+this, he smiled in her face and heartened and comforted her, saying,
+“Fear not, O Princess! Did the enemy fill this wild and wold yet would
+I scatter them, by the might of Allah Almighty.” She thanked him and
+prayed that he might be given the victory over his foes; after which
+she returned to her women and Gharib went to his tent, where he
+cleansed himself of the blood of the Infidels, and they lay on guard
+through the night. Next morning, the two hosts mounted and sought the
+plain where cut and thrust ruled sovereign. The first to prick into the
+open was Gharib, who crave his charger till he was near the Infidels
+and cried out, “Who is for jousting with me? Let no sluggard or
+weakling come out to me!” Whereupon there rushed forth a giant
+Amalekite of the lineage of the tribe of Ad, armed with an iron flail
+twenty pounds in weight, and drove at Gharib, saying, “O scum of the
+Arabs, take what cometh to thee and learn the glad tidings that thy
+last hour is at hand!” So saying, he aimed a blow at Gharib, but he
+avoided it and the flail sank a cubit into the ground. Now the badawi
+was bent double with the blow, so Gharib smote him with his mace and
+clove his forehead in sunder and he fell down dead and Allah hurried
+his soul to Hell-fire. Then Gharib charged and wheeled and called for
+champions; so there came out to him a second and a third and a fourth
+and so on, till ten had come forth to him and he slew them all. When
+the Infidels saw his form of fight and his smashing blows they hung
+back and forebore to fare forth to him, whereupon Samsam looked at them
+and said, “Allah never bless you! I will go forth to him.” So he donned
+his battle-gear and driving his charger into mid-field where he fronted
+the foe and cried out to Gharib saying, “Fie on thee, O dog of the
+Arabs! hath thy strength waxed so great that thou shouldst defy me in
+the open field and slaughter my men?” And Gharib replied, “Up and take
+bloodrevenge for the slaughter of thy braves!” So Samsam ran at Gharib
+who awaited him with broadened breast and heart enheartened, and they
+smote each at other with maces, till the two hosts marvelled and every
+eye was fixed on them. Then they wheeled about in the field and struck
+at each other two strokes; but Gharib avoided Samsam’s stroke which
+wreak had wroke and dealt with a buffet that beat in his breastbone and
+cast him to the ground—stone dead. Thereupon all his host ran at Gharib
+as one man, and he ran at them, crying, “God is most Great! Help and
+Victory for us and shame and defeat for those who misbelieve the faith
+of Abraham the Friend, on whom be peace!”—And Shahrazad perceived the
+dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say,
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Thirty-second Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Sam sam’s
+tribesmen rushed upon Gharib as one man, he ran at them crying, “God is
+most Great! Help and Victory for us and shame and defeat for the
+Miscreant!” Now when the Infidels heard the name of the All-powerful
+King, the One, the All-conquering, whom the sight comprehendeth not,
+but He comprehendeth the sight,[FN#347] they looked at one another and
+said, “What is this say that maketh our side-muscles tremble and
+weakeneth our resolution and causeth the life to fail in us? Never in
+our lives heard we aught goodlier than this saying!” adding, “Let us
+leave fighting, that we may ask its meaning.” So they held their hands
+from the battle and dismounted; and their elders assembled and held
+counsel together, seeking to go to Gharib and saying, “Let ten of us
+repair to him!” So they chose out ten of their best, who set out for
+Gharib’s tents. Now he and his people had alighted and returned to
+their camp, marvelling at the withdrawal of the Infidels from the
+fight. But, presently, lo and behold! the ten came up and seeking
+speech of Gharib, kissed the earth before him and wished him glory and
+lasting life. Quoth he to them, “What made you leave fighting?”; and
+quoth they, “O, my lord, thou didst affright us with the words thou
+shoutest out at us.” Then asked Gharib, “What calamity do ye worship?”;
+and they answered, “We worship Wadd and Suwá’a and Yaghús,[FN#348]
+lords of the tribe of Noah”; and Gharib, “We serve none but Allah
+Almighty, Maker of all things and Provider of all livings. He it is who
+created the heavens and the earth and stablished the mountains, who
+made water to well from the stones and the trees to grow and feedeth
+wild beasts in word; for He is Allah, the One, the All-powerful Lord.”
+When they heard this, their bosoms broadened to the words of
+Unity-faith, and they said, “Verily, this be a Lord high and great,
+compassionating and compassionate!”; adding, “And what shall we say, to
+become of the Moslems, of those which submit themselves to Him?” Quoth
+Gharib, “Say, There is no god but the God and Abraham is the Friend of
+God.’” So the ten made veracious profession of the veritable religion
+and Gharib said to them, “An the sweet savour of Al-Islam be indeed
+stablished in your hearts, fare ye to your tribe and expound the faith
+to them; and if they profess, they shall be saved, but if they refuse
+we will burn them with fire.” So the ten elders returned and expounded
+Al-Islam to their people and set forth to them the path of truth and
+creed, and they embraced the Faith of Submission with heart and tongue.
+Then they repaired on foot to Gharib’s tent and kissing ground between
+his hands wished him honour and high rank, saying, “O our lord, we are
+become thy slaves; so command us what thou wilt, for we are to thee
+audient and obedient and we will never depart from thee, since Allah
+hath guided us into the right way at thy hands.” Replied he, “Allah
+abundantly requite you! Return to your dwellings and march forth with
+your good and your children and forego me to the Wady of Blossoms and
+the castle of Sásá bin Shays,[FN#349] whilst I carry the Princess Fakhr
+Taj, daughter of Sabur, King of the Persians, back to her father and
+return to you.” “Hearkening and obedience,” said they and straightway
+returned to their encampment, rejoicing in Al-Islam, and expounded the
+True Faith to their wives and children, who became Believers. Then they
+struck their tents and set forth, with their good and cattle, for the
+Wady of Blossoms. When they came in sight of the castle of Shays,
+Sa’adan and his sons sallied forth to them, but Gharib had charged
+them, saying, “If the Ghul of the Mountain come out to you and offer to
+attack you, do ye call upon the name of Allah the All-creator, and he
+will leave his hostile intent and receive you hospitably.” So when he
+would have fallen upon them they called aloud upon the name of Almighty
+Allah and straightway he received them kindly and asked them of their
+case. They told him all that had passed between Gharib and themselves,
+whereupon he rejoiced in them and lodged them with him and loaded them
+with favours. Such was their case; but as regards Gharib, he and his,
+escorting the Princess fared on five days’ journey towards the City of
+Isbanir, and on the sixth day they saw a dust-cloud. So Gharib sent one
+of the Persians to learn the meaning of this and he went and returned,
+swiftlier than bird in flight, saying, “O my lord, these be a thousand
+horse of our comrades, whom the King hath sent in quest of his daughter
+Fakhr Taj.” When Gharib heard this, he commanded his company to halt
+and pitch the tents. So they halted and waited till the new comers
+reached them, when they went to meet them and told Túmán, their
+captain, that the Princess was with them; whereupon he went in to
+Gharib and kissing the ground before him, enquired for her. Gharib sent
+him to her pavilion, and he entered and kissed her hands and feet and
+acquainted her with what had befallen her father and mother. She told
+him in return all that had betided her and how Gharib had delivered her
+from the Ghul of the Mountain,—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day
+and ceased saying her permitted say,
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Thirty-third Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the King’s
+daughter, Fakhr Taj, had told Tuman all that had befallen her from the
+Mountain-Ghul, and how he had imprisoned her and would have devoured
+her but for Gharib, adding, “And indeed, it behoveth my sire to give
+him the half of his reign,” Tuman arose and returned to Gharib and
+kissed his hands and feet and thanked him for his good dealing, saying,
+“With thy leave, O my lord, I will return to Isbanir City and deliver
+to our King the good news of his daughter’s approach.” “Go,” replied
+Gharib, “and take of him the gift of glad tidings.” So Tuman returned
+with all diligence to Isbanir, the Cities, and entering the palace,
+kissed ground before the King, who said to him, “What is there of new,
+O bringer of good news?” Quoth Tuman, “I will not speak thee, till thou
+give me the gift of glad tidings.” Quoth the King, “Tell me thy glad
+tidings and I will content thee.” So Tuman said, “O King, I bring thee
+joyful intelligence of the return of Princess Fakhr Taj.” When Sabur
+heard his daughter’s name, he fell down fainting and they sprinkled
+rose-water on him, till he recovered and cried to Tuman, “Draw near to
+me and tell me all the good which hath befallen her.” So he came
+forward and acquainted him with all that had betided the Princess; and
+Sabur beat hand upon hand, saying, “Unhappy thou, O Fakhr
+Taj!”[FN#350] And he bade give Tuman ten thousand gold pieces and
+conferred on him the government of Isfáhán City and its dependencies.
+Then he cried out to his Emirs, saying, “Mount, all of you, and fare we
+forth to meet the Princess Fakhr Taj!”; and the Chief Eunuch went in to
+the Queen-mother and told her and all the Harim the good news, whereat
+she rejoiced and gave him a robe of honour and a thousand dinars.
+Moreover, the people of the city heard of this and decorated the market
+streets and houses. Then the King and Tuman took horse and rode till
+they had sight of Gharib, when Sabur footed it and made some steps
+towards Gharib, who also dismounted and advanced to meet him; and they
+embraced and saluted each other, and Sabur bent over Gharib’s hand and
+kissed it and thanked him for his favours.[FN#351] They pitched their
+pavilions in face of each other and Sabur went in to his daughter, who
+rose and embracing him told him, all that had befallen her and how
+Gharib had rescued her from the clutches of the Ghul of the Mountain.
+Quoth the King, “By thy life, O Princess of fair ones, I will overwhelm
+him with gifts!”; and quoth she, “O my papa, make him thy son-in-law,
+that he may be to thee a force against thy foes, for he is passing
+valiant.” Her father replied, “O my daughter, knowest thou not that King
+Khirad Sháh seeketh thee in marriage and that he hath cast the
+brocade[FN#352] and hath given an hundred thousand dinars in
+settlement, and he is King of Shiraz and its dependencies and is lord
+of empire and horsemen and footmen?” But when the Princess heard these
+words she said, “O my papa! I desire not that whereof thou speakest,
+and if thou constrain me to that I have no mind to, I will slay
+myself.” So Sabur left her and went in to Gharib, who rose to him; and
+they sat awhile together; but the King could not take his fill of
+looking upon him; and he said in his mind, “By Allah, my daughter is
+excusable if she love this Badawi!” Then he called for food and they
+ate and passed the night together. On the morrow, they took horse and
+rode till they arrived at the City of Isbanir and entered, stirrup to
+stirrup, and it was for them a great day. Fakhr Taj repaired to her
+palace and the abiding-place of her rank, where her mother and her
+women received her with cries of joy and loud lullilooings. As for King
+Sabur, he sat down on his throne and seated Gharib on his right hand,
+whilst the Princes and Chamberlains, the Emirs, Wazirs and Nabobs stood
+on either hand and gave him joy of the recovery of his daughter. Said
+Sabur, “Whoso loveth me let him bestow a robe of honour on Gharib,” and
+there fell dresses of honour on him like drops of rain. Then Gharib
+abode the King’s guest ten days, when he would have departed, but Sabur
+clad him in an honourable robe and swore him by his faith that he
+should not march for a whole month. Quoth Gharib, “O King, I am
+plighted to one of the girls of the Arabs and I desire to go in to
+her.” Quoth the King, “Whether is the fairer, thy betrothed or Fakhr
+Taj?” “O King of the age,” replied Gharib, “what is the slave beside
+the lord?” And Sabur said, “Fakhr Taj is become thy handmaid, for that
+thou didst rescue her from the pounces of the Ghul, and she shall have
+none other husband than thyself.” Thereupon Gharib rose and kissed
+ground, saying, “O King of the age, thou art a sovereign and I am but a
+poor man, and belike thou wilt ask a heavy dowry.” Replied the King, “O
+my son, know that Khirad Shah, lord of Shiraz and dependencies thereof,
+seeketh her in marriage and hath appointed an hundred thousand dinars
+to her dower; but I have chosen thee before all men, that I may make
+thee the sword of my kingship and my shield against
+vengeance.”[FN#353] Then he turned to his Chief Officers and said to
+them, “Bear witness[FN#354] against me, O Lords of mine Empire, that I
+marry my daughter Fakhr Taj to my son Gharib.”—And Shahrazad perceived
+the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say,
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Thirty-fourth Night,
+
+She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sabur, King
+of Ajam-land said to his Chief Officers, “Bear ye witness against me
+that I marry my daughter Fakhr Taj, to my son Gharib!” With that he
+joined palms[FN#355] with him and she became his wife. Then said
+Gharib, “Appoint me a dower and I will bring it to thee, for I have in
+the Castle of Sasa wealth and treasures beyond count.” Replied Sabur,
+“O my son, I want of thee neither treasure nor wealth and I will take
+nothing for her dower save the head of Jamrkán King of Dasht and the
+city of Ahwáz.[FN#356]” Quoth Gharib, “O King of the age, I will fetch
+my folk forthright and go to thy foe and spoil his realm.” Quoth Sabur,
+“Allah requite thee with good!” and dismissed the lords and commons,
+thinking, “If Gharib go forth against Jamrkan, he will never more
+return.” When morning morrowed the King mounted with Gharib and bidding
+all his troops take horse rode forth to the plain, where he said to his
+men, “Do ye tilt with spears and gladden my heart.” So the champions of
+Persia land played one against other, and Gharib said, “O King of the
+age, I have a mind to tilt with the horsemen of Ajam-land, but on one
+condition.” Asked the King, “What is that?”; and answered Gharib, “It
+is that I shall don a light tunic and take a headless lance, with a
+pennon dipped in saffron, whilst the Persian champions sally forth and
+tilt against me with sharp spears. If any conquer me, I will render
+myself to him: but, if I conquer him I will mark him on the breast and
+he shall leave the plain.” Then the King cried to the commander of the
+troops to bring forward the champions of the Persians; so he chose out
+from amongst the Princes one thousand two hundred of his stoutest
+champions, and the King said to them, in the Persian tongue, “Whoso
+slayeth this Badawi may ask of me what he will.” So they strove with
+one another for precedence and charged down upon Gharib and truth was
+distinguished from falsehood and jest from earnest. Quoth Gharib, “I
+put my trust in Allah, the God of Abraham the Friend, the Deity who
+hath power over all and from whom naught is hidden, the One, the
+Almighty, whom the sight comprehendeth not!” Then an Amalekite-like
+giant of the Persian champions rushed out to him, but Gharib let him
+not stand long before him ere he marked him and covered his breast with
+saffron and as he turned away, he smote him on the nape with the shaft
+of his lance, and he fell to the ground and his pages bore him from the
+lists.[FN#357] Then a second champion came forth against him and he
+overcame him and marked him on the breast; and thus did he with a third
+and a fourth and a fifth; and there came out against him champion after
+champion till he had overcome them all and marked them on the breast;
+for Almighty Allah gave him the victory over them and they fared forth
+vanquish from the plain. Then the servants set food and strong wine
+before them! and they ate and drank, till Gharib’s wits were dazed by
+the drink. By and by, he went out to obey a call of Nature and would
+have returned, but lost his way and entered the palace of Fakhr Taj.
+When she saw him, her reason fled and she cried out to her women
+saying, “Go forth from me to your own places!” So they withdrew and she
+rose and kissed Gharib’s hand, saying “Welcome to my lord, who
+delivered me from the Ghul! Indeed I am thine handmaid for ever and
+ever.” Then she drew him to her bed and embraced him, whereupon desire
+was hot upon him and he broke her seal and lay with her till the
+morning. Meanwhile the King thought that he had departed; but on the
+morrow he went in to him and Sabur rose to him and made him sit by his
+side. Then entered the tributary kings and kissing the ground stood
+ranged in rows on the right and left and fell to talking of Gharib’s
+velour and saying, “Extolled be He who gave him such prowess albeit he
+is so young in years!” As they were thus engaged, behold all espied
+from the palace-windows the dust of horse approaching and the King
+cried out to his scouts, saying, “Woe to you! Go and bring me news of
+yonder dust!” So a cavalier took horse and riding off, returned after a
+while, and said “O King, we found under that dust an hundred horse
+belonging to an Emir highs Sahim al-Layl.” Gharib hearing these words,
+cried out, “O my lord, this is my brother, whom I had sent on an
+errand, and I will go forth to meet him.” So saying, he mounted, with
+his hundred men of the Banu Kahtan and a thousand Persians, and rode to
+meet his brother in great state, but greatness belongeth to God
+alone.[FN#358] When the two came up with each other, they dismounted
+and embraced, and Gharib said to Sahim, “O my brother, hast thou
+brought our tribe to the Castle of Sasa and the Wady of Blossoms?” “O
+my brother,” replied Sahim, “when the perfidious dog Mardas heard that
+thou hadst made thee master of the stronghold belonging to the
+Mountain-Ghul, he was sore chagrined and said, Except I march hence,
+Gharib will come and carry off my daughter Mahdiyah without dower.’ So
+he took his daughter and his goods and set out with his tribe for the
+land of Irak, where he entered the city of Cufa and put himself under
+the protection of King Ajib, seeking to give him his daughter to wife.”
+When Gharib heard his brother’s story, he well-nigh gave up the ghost
+for rage and said, “By the virtue of the faith of Al-Islam, the faith
+of Abraham the Friend, and by the Supreme Lord, I will assuredly go to
+the land of Irak and fierce war upon it I will set on foot.” Then they
+returned to the city and going in to the King, kissed ground before
+him. He rose to Gharib and saluted Sahim; after which the elder brother
+told him what had happened and he put ten captains at his commandment,
+under each one’s hand ten thousand horse of the doughtiest of the Arabs
+and the Ajams, who equipped themselves and were ready to depart in
+three days. Then Gharib set out and journeyed till he reached the
+Castle of Sasa whence the Ghul and his sons came forth to meet him and
+dismounting, kissed his feet in the stirrups. He told them all that had
+passed and the giant said, “O my lord, do thou abide in this thy
+castle, whilst I with my sons and servants repair to Irak and lay waste
+the city Al-Rusták[FN#359] and bring to thy hand all its defenders
+bound in straitest bond.” But Gharib thanked him and said, “O Sa’adan,
+we will all go.” So he made him ready and the whole body set out for
+Irak, leaving a thousand horse to guard the Castle. Thus far concerning
+them; but as regards Mardas, he arrived with his tribe in the land of
+Irak bringing with him a handsome present and fared for Cufa-city which
+he entered. Then, he presented himself before Ajib and kissed ground
+between his hands and, after wishing him what is wished to kings, said,
+“O my lord, I come to place myself under thy protection.”—And Shahrazad
+perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say,
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Thirty-fifth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King that Mardas coming into
+the presence of Ajib, said to him, “I come to place myself under thy
+protection!” Quoth Ajib, “Tell me who hath wronged thee, that I may
+protect thee against him, though it were Sabur, King of the Persians
+and Turcomans and Daylamites.” Quoth Mardas, “O King of the Age, he who
+hath wronged me is none other than a youth whom I reared in my bosom. I
+found him in his mother’s lap in a certain valley and took her to wife
+She brought me a son, whom I named Sahim al-Layl, and her own son,
+Gharib highs, grew up on my knees and became a blasting thunderbolt and
+a lasting calamity,[FN#360] for he smote Al-Hamal,[FN#361] Prince of
+the Banu Nabhan, and slew footmen and threw horsemen. Now I have a
+daughter, who befitteth thee alone, and he sought her of me; so I
+required of him the head of the Ghul of the Mountain, wherefore he went
+to him and, after engaging him in singular combat, made the master his
+man and took the Castle of Sasa bin Shays bin Shaddad bin Ad, wherein
+are the treasures of the ancients and the hoards of the moderns.
+Moreover, I hear that, become a Moslem, he goeth about, summoning the
+folk to his faith. He is now gone to bear the Princess of Persia, whom
+he delivered from the Ghul, back to her father, King Sabur, and will
+not return but with the treasures of the Persians.” When Ajib heard the
+story of Mardas he changed colour to yellow and was in ill case and
+made sure of his own destruction; then he said, “O Mardas, is the
+youth’s mother with thee or with him?”; and Mardas replied, “She is
+with me in my tents.” Quoth Ajib, “What is her name?”; quoth Mardas,
+“Her name is Nusrah.” “’Tis very she,” rejoined Ajib and sent for her
+to the presence. Now when she came before him, he looked on her and
+knew her and asked her, “O accursed, where are the two slaves I sent
+with thee?”; and she answered, “They slew each other on my account;”
+whereupon Ajib bared his blade and smote her and cut her in twain. Then
+they dragged her away and cast her out; but trouble and suspicion
+entered Ajib’s heart and he cried, “O Mardas, give me thy daughter to
+wife.” He rejoined, “She is one of thine handmaids: I give her to thee
+to wife, and I am thy slave.” Said Ajib, “I desire to look upon this
+son of an adulteress, Gharib, that I may destroy him and cause him
+taste all manner of torments.” Then he bade give Mardas, to his
+daughter’s dowry, thirty thousand dinars and an hundred pieces of
+silk-brocaded and fringed with gold and an hundred pieces of silk
+bordered stuffs and kerchiefs and golden collars. So he went forth with
+this mighty fine dowry and set himself to equip Mahdiyah in all
+diligence. Such was their case; but as regards Gharib, he fared on till
+he came to Al-Jazírah, which is the first town of Al-Irak[FN#362] and
+is a walled and fortified city and he hard by it called a halt. When
+the townsfolk saw his army encamped before it, they bolted the gates
+and manned the walls, then went to the King of the city, who was called
+Al-Dámigh, the Brainer, for that he used to brain the champions in the
+open field of fight, and told him what was come upon them. So he looked
+forth from the battlements of the palace and seeing a conquering host,
+all of them Persians, encamped before the city, said to the citizens,
+“O folk, what do yonder Ajams want?”; and they replied, “We know not.”
+Now Al-Damigh had among his officers a man called Saba’ al-Kifár, the
+Desert-lion, keen of wit and penetrating as he were a flame of fire; so
+he called him and said to him, “Go to this stranger host and find out
+who they be and what they want and return quickly.” Accordingly, he
+sped like the wind to the Persian tents, where a company of Arabs rose
+up and met him saying, “Who art thou and what dost thou require?” He
+replied, “I am a messenger and an envoy from the lord of the city to
+your chief.” So they took him and carried him through the lines of
+tents, pavilions and standards, till they came to Gharib’s Shahmiyánah
+and told him of the mission. He bade them bring him in and they did so,
+whereupon he kissed ground before Gharib and wished him honour and
+length of days. Quoth Gharib, “What is thine errand?” and quoth Saba’
+al-Kifar, “I am an envoy from the lord of the city of Al-Jazirah,
+Al-Damigh, brother of King Kundamir, lord of the city of Cufa and the
+land of Irak.” When Gharib heard his father’s name, the tears railed
+from his eyes in rills and he looked at the messenger and said, “What
+is thy name?”; and he replied, “My name is Saba’ al-Kifar.” Said
+Gharib, “Return to thy lord and tell him that the commander of this
+host is called Gharib, son of Kundamir, King of Cufa, whom his son Ajib
+slew, and he is come to take blood-revenge for his sire on Ajib the
+perfidious hound.” So Saba’ al-Kifar returned to the city and in great
+joy kissed the ground, when Al-Damigh said, “What is going on there, O
+Saba’ al-Kifar?” He replied, “O my master, the leader of yon host is
+thy nephew, thy brother’s son,” and told him all. The King deemed
+himself in a dream and asked the messenger, “O Saba’ al-Kifar, is this
+thou tellest me true?” and the Desert-lion answered, “As thy head
+liveth, it is sooth!” Then Al-Damigh bade his chief officers take horse
+forthright and all rode out to the camp, whence Gharib came forth and
+met him and they embraced and saluted each other; after which Gharib
+carried him to his tents and they sat down on beds of estate. Al-Damigh
+rejoiced in Gharib, his brother’s son, and presently turning to him,
+said, “I also have yearned to take blood-revenge for thy father, but
+could not avail against the dog thy brother; for that his troops are
+many and my troops are few.” Replied Gharib, “O uncle, here am I come
+to avenge my sire and blot out our shame and rid the realm of Ajib.”
+Said Al-Damigh, “O son of my brother, thou hast two blood-wreaks to
+take, that of thy father and that of thy mother.” Asked Gharib, “And
+what aileth my mother?” and Al-Damigh answered, “Thy brother Ajib hath
+slain her.”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say
+her permitted say,
+
+When it was the Six Hundred and Thirty-sixth Night,
+
+She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Gharib heard
+these words of his uncle Al-Damigh, “Verily thy brother Ajib hath slain
+her!”, he asked what was the cause thereof and was told of all that had
+happened, especially how Mardas had married his daughter to Ajib who
+was about to go into her. Thereupon Gharib’s reason fled from his head
+and he swooned away and was nigh upon death. No sooner did he come to
+himself than he cried out to the troops, saying, “To horse!” But
+Al-Damigh said to him, “O son of my brother, wait till I make ready
+mine affairs and mount among my men and fare with thee at thy stirrup.”
+Replied Gharib “I have no patience to wait; do thou equip thy troops
+and join me at Cufa.” Thereupon Gharib mounted with his troops and
+rode, till he came to the town of Babel,[FN#363] whose folk took fright
+at him. Now there was in this town a King called Jamak, under whose
+hand were twenty thousand horsemen, and there gathered themselves
+together to him from the villages other fifty thousand horse, who
+pitched their tents facing the city. Then Gharib wrote a letter and
+sent it to King Jamak by a messenger, who came up to the city-gate and
+cried out, saying, “I am an envoy;” whereupon the Warder of the Gate
+went in and told Jamak, who said, “Bring him to me.” So he led in the
+messenger, who kissing the ground before the King, gave him the letter,
+and Jamak opened it and read its contents as follows: “Praise be to
+Allah, Lord of the Three Worlds, Lord of all things, who giveth to all
+creatures their daily bread and who over all things is Omnipotent!
+These from Gharib, son of King Kundamir, lord of Irak and Cufa, to
+Jamak. Immediately this letter reacheth thee, let not thy reply be
+other than to break thine idols and confess the unity of the
+All-knowing King, Creator of light and darkness, Creator of all things,
+the All-powerful; and except thou do as I bid thee, I will make this
+day the blackest of thy days. Peace be on those who follow in the way
+of Salvation, fearing the issues of fornication, and obey the hest of
+the Most High King, Lord of this world and the next, Him who saith to a
+thing, Be’; and it becometh!” Now when Jamak read this letter, his eyes
+paled and his colour failed and he cried out to the messenger, “Go to
+thy lord and say to him, To-morrow, at daybreak there shall be fight
+and conflict and it shall appear who is the conquering hero.’” So he
+returned and told Gharib, who bade his men make ready for battle,
+whilst Jamak commanded his tents to be pitched in face of Gharib’s
+camp; and his troops poured forth like the surging sea and passed the
+night with intention of slaughter. As soon as dawned the day, the two
+hosts mounted and drew up in battle array and beat their drums amain
+and drave their steeds of swiftest strain; and they filled the whole
+earthly plain; and the champions to come out were fain. Now the first
+who sallied forth a championing to the field was the Ghul of the
+Mountain, bearing on shoulder a terrible tree, and he cried out between
+the two hosts, saying, “I am Sa’adan the Ghul! Who is for fighting, who
+is for jousting? Let no sluggard come forth to me nor weakling.” And he
+called out to his sons, saying, “Woe to you! Bring me fuel and fire,
+for I am an-hungered.” So they cried upon their slaves who brought
+firewood and kindled a fire in the heart of the plain. Then there came
+out to him a man of the Kafirs, an Amalekite of the unbelieving
+Amalekites, bearing on his shoulder a mace like the mast of a ship, and
+drove at Sa’adan the Ghul, saying, “Woe to thee, O Sa’adan!” When the
+giant heard this, he waxed furious beyond measure and raising his tree
+club, aimed at the Infidel a blow, that hummed through the air. The
+Amalekite met the stroke with his mace, but the tree beat down his
+guard and descending with its own weight, together with the weight of
+the mace upon his head, beat in his brain pan, and he fell like a
+long-stemmed palm-tree. Thereupon Sa’adan cried to his slaves, saying,
+“Take this fatted calf and roast him quickly.” So they hastened to skin
+the Infidel and roasted him and brought him to the Ghul, who ate his
+flesh and crunched his bones.[FN#364] Now when the Kafirs saw how
+Sa’adan did with their fellow, their hair and pile stood on end; their
+skins quaked, their colour changed, their hearts died within them and
+they said to one another, “Whoso goeth out against this Ghul, he eateth
+him and cracketh his bones and causeth him to lack the zephyr-wind of
+the world.” Wherefore they held their hands, quailing for fear of the
+Ghul and his sons and turned to fly, making for the town; but Gharib
+cried out to his troops, saying, “Up and after the runaways!” So the
+Persians and the Arabs crave after the King of Babel and his host and
+caused sword to smite them, till they slew of them twenty thousand or
+more. Then the fugitives crowded together in the city gate and they
+killed of them much people; and they could not avail to shut the gate.
+So the Arabs and the Persians entered with them, fighting, and Sa’adan,
+snatching a mace from one of the slain, wielded it in the enemy’s face
+and gained the city race-course. Thence he fought his way through the
+foe and broke into the King’s palace, where he met with Jamak and so
+smote him with the mace, that he toppled senseless to the ground. Then
+he fell upon those who were in the palace and pounded them into pieces,
+till all that were left cried out, “Quarter! Quarter!” and Sa’adan said
+to them, “Pinion your King.”—And Shahrazad saw the dawn of day and
+ceased saying her permitted say,
+
+End of Vol 6.
+
+                    Arabian Nights, Volume 6
+                           Footnotes
+
+
+[FN#1] Lane (vol. iii. 1) calls our old friend “Es-Sindibád of the
+Sea,” and Benfey derives the name from the Sanskrit “Siddhapati”=lord
+of sages. The etymology (in Heb. Sandabar and in Greek Syntipas) is
+still uncertain, although the term often occurs in Arab stories; and
+some look upon it as a mere corruption of “Bidpai” (Bidyápati). The
+derivation offered by Hole (Remarks on the Arabian Nights’
+Entertainments, by Richard Hole, LL.D. London, Cadell, 1797) from the
+Persian ábád (a region) is impossible. It is, however, not a little
+curious that this purely Persian word (=a “habitation”) should be found
+in Indian names as early as Alexanders’ day, e.g. the “Dachina bades”
+of the Periplus is “Dakhsin-ábád,” the Sansk. being “Dakshinapatha.”
+
+[FN#2] A porter like the famous Armenians of Constantinople. Some
+edits, call him “Al-Hindibád.”
+
+[FN#3] Arab. “Karawán” (Charadrius dicnemus, Linn.): its shrill note is
+admired by Egyptians and hated by sportsmen.
+
+[FN#4] This ejaculation, still popular, averts the evil eye. In
+describing Sindbad the Seaman the Arab writer seems to repeat what one
+reads of Marco Polo returned to Venice.
+
+[FN#5] Our old friend must not be confounded with the eponym of the
+“Sindibád-námah;” the Persian book of Sindbad the Sage. See Night
+dlxxviii.
+
+[FN#6] The first and second are from Eccles. chaps. vii. 1, and ix. 4.
+The Bul. Edit. reads for the third, “The grave is better than the
+palace.” None are from Solomon, but Easterns do not “verify
+quotations.”
+
+[FN#7] Arab. “Kánún”; a furnace, a brasier before noticed (vol. v., p.
+272); here a pot full of charcoal sunk in the ground, or a little
+hearth of clay shaped like a horseshoe and opening down wind.
+
+[FN#8] These fish-islands are common in the Classics, e.g. the Pristis
+of Pliny (xvii. 4), which Olaus Magnus transfers to the Baltic (xxi. 6)
+and makes timid as the whales of Nearchus. C. J. Solinus (Plinii Simia)
+says, “Indica maria balćnas habent ultra spatia quatuor jugerum.” See
+also Bochart’s Hierozoicon (i. 50) for Job’s Leviathan (xli. 16–17).
+Hence deemed an island. A basking whale would readily suggest the
+Krakan and Cetus of Olaus Magnus (xxi. 25). Al-Kazwíni’s famous
+treatise on the “Wonders of the World” (Ajáib al-Makhlúkát) tells the
+same tale of the “Sulahfah” tortoise, the colossochelys, for which see
+Night dl.
+
+[FN#9] Sindbad does not say that he was a shipwrecked man, being a
+model in the matter of “travellers’ tales,” i.e. he always tells the
+truth when an untruth would not serve him.
+
+[FN#10] Lane (iii. 83) would make this a corruption of the Hindu
+“Maharáj”=great Rajah: but it is the name of the great autumnal fęte of
+the Guebres; a term composed of two good old Persian words “Mihr” (the
+sun, whence “Mithras”) and “ján”=life. As will presently appear, in the
+days of the Just King Anushirwán, the Persians possessed Southern
+Arabia and East Africa south of Cape Guardafui (Jird Háfún). On the
+other hand, supposing the word to be a corruption of Maharaj, Sindbad
+may allude to the famous Narsinga kingdom in Mid-south India whose
+capital was Vijaya-nagar; or to any great Indian Rajah even he of
+Kachch (Cutch), famous in Moslem story as the Balhará (Ballaba Rais,
+who founded the Ballabhi era; or the Zamorin of Camoens, the Samdry
+Rajah of Malabar). For Mahrage, or Mihrage, see Renaudot’s “Two
+Mohammedan Travellers of the Ninth Century.” In the account of Ceylon
+by Wolf (English Transl. p. 168) it adjoins the “Ilhas de Cavalos” (of
+wild horses) to which the Dutch merchants sent their brood-mares. Sir
+W. Jones (Description of Asia, chapt. ii.) makes the Arabian island
+Soborma or Mahráj=Borneo.
+
+[FN#11] Arab. “Sáis”; the well-known Anglo-Indian word for a groom or
+rather a “horse-keeper.”
+
+[FN#12] Arab. “Darakah”; whence our word.
+
+[FN#13] The myth of mares being impregnated by the wind was known to
+the Classics of Europe; and the “sea-stallion” may have arisen from the
+Arab practice of picketing mare asses to be covered by the wild ass.
+Colonel J. D. Watson of the Bombay Army suggests to me that Sindbad was
+wrecked at the mouth of the Ran of Kachch (Cutch) and was carried in a
+boat to one of the Islands there formed during the rains and where the
+wild ass (Equus Onager, Khar-gadh, in Pers. Gor-khar) still breeds.
+This would explain the “stallions of the sea” and we find traces of the
+ass blood in the true Kathiawár horse, with his dun colour, barred legs
+and dorsal stripe.
+
+[FN#14] The second or warrior caste (Kshatriya), popularly supposed to
+have been annihilated by Battle-axe Ramá (Parashu Ráma); but several
+tribes of Rajputs and other races claim the honourable genealogy.
+Colonel Watson would explain the word by “Shakháyát” or noble Káthis
+(Kathiawar-men), or by “Shikári,” the professional hunter here acting
+as stable-groom.
+
+[FN#15] In Bul. Edit. “Kábil.” Lane (iii. 88) supposes it to be the
+“Bartail” of Al-Kazwini near Borneo and quotes the Spaniard B. L. de
+Argensola (History of the Moluccas), who places near Banda a desert
+island, Poelsatton, infamous for cries, whistlings, roarings and
+dreadful apparitions, suggesting that it was peopled by devils
+(Stevens, vol. i., p. 168).
+
+[FN#16] Some texts substitute for this last phrase, “And the sailors
+say that Al-Dajjál is there.” He is a manner of Moslem Antichrist, the
+Man of Sin per excellentiam, who will come in the latter days and lay
+waste the earth, leading 70,000 Jews, till encountered and slain by
+Jesus at the gate of Lud. (Sale’s Essay, sect. 4.)
+
+[FN#17] Also from Al-Kazwini: it is an exaggerated description of the
+whale still common off the East African Coast. My crew was dreadfully
+frightened by one between Berberah and Aden. Nearchus scared away the
+whales in the Persian Gulf by trumpets (Strabo, lib. xv.). The
+owl-faced fish is unknown to me: it may perhaps be a seal or a manatee.
+Hole says that Father Martini, the Jesuit (seventeenth century), placed
+in the Canton Seas, an “animal with the head of a bird and the tail of
+a fish,”—a parrot-beak?
+
+[FN#18] The captain or master (not owner) of a ship.
+
+[FN#19] The kindly Moslem feeling, shown to a namesake, however humble.
+
+[FN#20] A popular phrase to express utter desolation.
+
+[FN#21] The literature of all peoples contains this physiological
+perversion. Birds do not sing hymns; the song of the male is simply to
+call the female and when the pairing-season ends all are dumb.
+
+[FN#22] The older “roc.” The word is Persian, with many meanings, e.g.
+a cheek (Lalla “Rookh”); a “rook” (hero) at chess; a rhinoceros, etc.
+The fable world-wide of the wundervogel is, as usual, founded upon
+fact: man remembers and combines but does not create. The Egyptian
+Bennu (Ti-bennu=phoenix) may have been a reminiscence of gigantic
+pterodactyls and other winged monsters. From the Nile the legend fabled
+by these Oriental “putters out or five for one” overspread the world
+and gave birth to the Eorosh of the Zend, whence the Pers. “Símurgh”
+(=the “thirty-fowl-like”), the “Bar Yuchre” of the Rabbis, the
+“Garuda” of the Hindus; the “Anká” (“long-neck”) of the Arabs; the
+“Hathilinga bird,” of Buddhagosha’s Parables, which had the strength of
+five elephants; the “Kerkes” of the Turks; the “Gryps” of the Greeks;
+the Russian “Norka”; the sacred dragon of the Chinese; the Japanese
+“Pheng” and “Kirni”; the “wise and ancient Bird” which sits upon the
+ash-tree yggdrasil, and the dragons, griffins, basilisks, etc. of the
+Middle Ages. A second basis wanting only a superstructure of
+exaggeration (M. Polo’s Ruch had wing-feathers twelve paces long) would
+be the huge birds but lately killed out. Sindbad may allude to the
+Ćpyornus of Madagascar, a gigantic ostrich whose egg contains 2.35
+gallons. The late Herr Hildebrand discovered on the African coast,
+facing Madagascar, traces of another huge bird. Bochart (Hierozoicon
+ii. 854) notices the Avium Avis Ruch and taking the pulli was followed
+by lapidation on the part of the parent bird. A Persian illustration in
+Lane (iii. 90) shows the Rukh carrying off three elephants in beak and
+pounces with the proportions of a hawk and field mice: and the Rukh
+hawking at an elephant is a favourite Persian subject. It is possible
+that the “Twelve Knights of the Round Table” were the twelve Rukhs of
+Persian story. We need not go, with Faber, to the Cherubim which
+guarded the Paradise-gate. The curious reader will consult Dr. H. H.
+Wilson’s Essays, edited by my learned correspondent, Dr. Rost,
+Librarian of the India House (vol. i. pp. 192–3).
+
+[FN#23] It is not easy to explain this passage unless it be a garbled
+allusion to the steel-plate of the diamond-cutter. Nor can we account
+for the wide diffusion of this tale of perils unless to enhance the
+value of the gem. Diamonds occur in alluvial lands mostly open and
+comparatively level, as in India, the Brazil and the Cape. Archbishop
+Epiphanius of Salamis (ob. A.D. 403) tells this story about the jacinth
+or ruby (Epiphanii Opera, a Petaio, Colonić 1682); and it was
+transferred to the diamond by Marco Polo (iii. 29, “of Eagles bring up
+diamonds”) and Nicolo de Conti, whose “mountain Albenigaras” must be
+Vijayanagar in the kingdom of Golconda. Major Rennel places the famous
+mines of Pauna or Purna in a mountain-tract of more than 200 miles
+square to the southwest of the Jumna. Al-Kazwini locates the “Chaos” in
+the “Valley of the Moon amongst the mountains of Serendib” (Ceylon);
+the Chinese tell the same tale in the campaigns of Hulaku; and it is
+known in Armenia. Col. Yule (M. P. ii. 349) suggests that all these are
+ramifications of the legend told by Herodotus concerning the Arabs and
+their cinnamon (iii. 3). But whence did Herodotus borrow the tale?
+
+[FN#24] Sindbad correctly describes the primitive way of extracting
+camphor, a drug unknown to the Greeks and Romans, introduced by the
+Arabs and ruined in reputation by M. Raspail. The best Laurus Camphora
+grows in the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo: although Marsden
+(Marco Polo) declares that the tree is not found South of the Equator.
+In the Calc. Edit. of two hundred Nights the camphor-island (or
+peninsula) is called “Al-Ríhah” which is the Arab name for
+Jericho-town.
+
+[FN#25] In Bul. Edit. Kazkazan: Calc. Karkaddan and others Karkand and
+Karkadan; the word being Persian, Karg or Kargadan; the {Greek letters}
+of Ćlian (Hist. Anim. xvi. 21). The length of the horn (greatly
+exaggerated) shows that the white species is meant; and it supplies
+only walking-sticks. Cups are made of the black horn (a bundle of
+fibres) which, like Venetian glass, sweat at the touch of poison. A
+section of the horn is supposed to show white lines in the figure of a
+man, and sundry likenesses of birds; but these I never saw. The
+rhinoceros gives splendid sport and the African is perhaps the most
+dangerous of noble game. It has served to explain away and abolish the
+unicorn among the Scientists of Europe. But Central Africa with one
+voice assures us that a horse-like animal with a single erectile horn
+on the forehead exists. The late Dr. Baikic, of Niger fame, thoroughly
+believed in it and those curious on the subject will read about Abu
+Karn (Father of a Horn) in Preface (pp. xvi.-xviii.) of the Voyage au
+Darfour, by Mohammed ibn Oman al-Tounsy (Al-Tunisi), Paris, Duprat,
+1845.
+
+[FN#26] Ibn al-Wardi mentions an “Isle of Apes” in the Sea of China and
+Al-Idrísi places it two days’ sail from Sukutra (Dwipa Sukhatra,
+Socotra). It is a popular error to explain the Homeric and Herodotean
+legend of the Pygmies by anthropoid apes. The Pygmy fable (Pygmći
+Spithamai=1 cubit=3 spans) was, as usual, based upon fact, as the
+explorations of late years have proved: the dwarfs are homunculi of
+various tribes, the Akka, Doko, Tiki-Tiki, Wambilikimo (“two-cubit
+men”), the stunted race that share the central regions of Intertropical
+Africa with the abnormally tall peoples who speak dialects of the Great
+South African tongue, miscalled the “Bantu.” Hole makes the Pygmies
+“monkeys,” a word we have borrowed from the Italians (monichio à
+mono=ape) and quotes Ptolemy, (Ape-Islands) East of Sunda.
+
+[FN#27] A kind of barge (Arab. Bárijah, plur. Bawárij) used on the Nile
+of sub-pyriform shape when seen in bird’s eye. Lane translates “ears
+like two mortars” from the Calc. Edit.
+
+[FN#28] This giant is distinctly Polyphemus; but the East had giants
+and cyclopes of her own (Hierozoicon ii. 845). The Ajáib al-Hind
+(chapt. cxxii.) makes Polyphemus copulate with the sheep. Sir John
+Mandeville (if such person ever existed) mentions men fifty feet high
+in the Indian Islands; and Al-Kazwini and Al-Idrisi transfer them to
+the Sea of China, a Botany Bay for monsters in general.
+
+[FN#29] Fire is forbidden as a punishment amongst Moslems, the idea
+being that it should be reserved for the next world. Hence the sailors
+fear the roasting more than the eating: with ours it would probably be
+the reverse. The Persian insult “Pidar-sokhtah”=(son of a) burnt
+father, is well known. I have noted the advisability of burning the
+Moslem’s corpse under certain circumstances: otherwise the murderer may
+come to be canonised.
+
+[FN#30] Arab. “Mastabah”=the bench or form of masonry before noticed.
+In olden Europe benches were much more used than chairs, these being
+articles of luxury. So King Horne “sett him abenche;” and hence our
+“King’s Bench” (Court).
+
+[FN#31] This is from the Bresl. Edit. vol. iv. 32: the Calc. Edit gives
+only an abstract and in the Bul. Edit. the Ogre returned “accompanied
+by a female, greater than he and more hideous.” We cannot accept
+Mistress Polyphemus.
+
+[FN#32] This is from Al-Kazwini, who makes the serpent “wind itself
+round a tree or a rock, and thus break to pieces the bones of the
+breast in its belly.”
+
+[FN#33] “Like a closet,” in the Calc. Edit. The serpent is an
+exaggeration of the python which grows to an enormous size. Monstrous
+Ophidia are mentioned in sober history, e.g. that which delayed the
+army of Regulus. Dr. de Lacerda, a sober and sensible Brazilian
+traveller, mentions his servants sitting down upon a tree-trunk in the
+Captaincy of San Paulo (Brasil), which began to move and proved to be a
+huge snake. F. M. Pinto (the Sindbad of Portugal though not so
+respectable) when in Sumatra takes refuge in a tree from “tigers,
+crocodiles, copped adders and serpents which slay men with their
+breath.” Father Lobo in Tigre (chapt. x.) was nearly killed by the
+poison-breath of a huge snake, and healed himself with a bezoar carried
+ad hoc. Maffććus makes the breath of crocodiles suavissimus, but that
+of the Malabar serpents and vipers “adeo teter ac noxius ut afflatu
+ipso necare perhibeantur.”
+
+[FN#34] Arab. “Aurat”: the word has been borrowed by the
+Hindostani jargon, and means a woman, a wife.
+
+
+[FN#35] So in Al-Idrísi and Langlčs: the Bresl. Edit. has
+“Al-Kalásitah”; and Al-Kazwini “Al-Salámit.” The latter notes in it a
+petrifying spring which Camoens (The Lus. x. 104), places in Sunda,
+i.e. Java-Minor of M. Polo. Some read Salabat-Timor, one of the
+Moluccas famed for sanders, cloves, cinnamon, etc. (Purchas ii. 1784.)
+
+[FN#36] Evidently the hippopotamus (Pliny, viii. 25; ix. 3 and xxiii.
+11). It can hardly be the Mulaccan Tapir, as shields are not made of
+the hide. Hole suggests the buffalo which found its way to Egypt from
+India viâ Persia; but this would not be a speciosum miraculum.
+
+[FN#37] The ass-headed fish is from Pliny (ix. cap. 3): all those tales
+are founded upon the manatee (whose dorsal protuberance may have
+suggested the camel), the seal and the dugong or sea calf. I have
+noticed (Zanzibar i. 205) legends of ichthyological marvels current on
+the East African seaboard; and even the monsters of the Scottish waters
+are not all known: witness the mysterious “brigdie.” See Bochart De
+Cetis i. 7; and Purchas iii. 930.
+
+[FN#38] The colossal tortoise is noticed by Ćlian (De Nat. Animal. xvi.
+17), by Strabo (Lib. xv.), by Pliny (ix. 10) and Diodorus Siculus (iv.
+1) who had heard of a tribe of Chelonophagi. Ćlian makes them 16 cubits
+long near Taprobane and serving as house-roofs; and others turn the
+shell into boats and coracles. A colossochelys was first found on the
+Scwalik Hills by Dr. Falconer and Major (afterwards Sir Proby) Cantley.
+In 1867 M. Emile Blanchard exhibited to the Academie des Sciences a
+monster crab from Japan 1.20 metres long (or 2.50 including legs); and
+other travellers have reported 4 metres. These crustaceć seem never to
+cease growing and attain great dimensions under favourable
+circumstances, i.e. when not troubled by man.
+
+[FN#39] Lane suggests (iii. 97), and with some probability, that the
+“bird” was a nautilus; but the wild traditions concerning the
+barnacle-goose may perhaps have been the base of the fable. The
+albatross also was long supposed never to touch land. Possible the
+barnacle, like the barometz of Tartarean lamb, may be a survivor of the
+day when the animal and vegetable kingdoms had not yet branched off
+into different directions.
+
+[FN#40] Arab. “Zahwah,” also meaning a luncheon. The five daily prayers
+made all Moslems take strict account of time, and their nomenclature of
+its division is extensive.
+
+[FN#41] This is the “insane herb.” Davis, who visited Sumatra in 1599
+(Purchas i. 120) speaks “of a kind of seed, whereof a little being
+eaten, maketh a man to turn foole, all things seeming to him to be
+metamorphosed.” Linschoten’s “Dutroa” was a poppy-like bud containing
+small kernels like melons which stamped and administered as a drink
+make a man “as if he were foolish, or out of his wits.” This is Father
+Lobo’s “Vanguini” of the Cafres, called by the Portuguese dutro (Datura
+Stramonium) still used by dishonest confectioners. It may be Dampier’s
+Ganga (Ganjah) or Bang (Bhang) which he justly describes as acting
+differently “according to different constitutions; for some it
+stupefies, others it makes sleepy, others merry and some quite mad.”
+(Harris, Collect. ii. 900.) Dr. Fryer also mentions Duty, Bung and
+Post, the Poust of Bernier, an infusion of poppy-seed.
+
+[FN#42] Arab. “Ghul,” here an ogre, a cannibal. I cannot but regard the
+“Ghul of the waste” as an embodiment of the natural fear and horror
+which a man feels when he faces a really dangerous desert. As regards
+cannibalism, Al-Islam’s religion of common sense freely allows it when
+necessary to save life, and unlike our mawkish modern sensibility,
+never blames those who
+
+     Alimentis talibus usi
+     Produxere animos.
+
+
+[FN#43] For Cannibals, see the Massagetć of Herod (i.), the Padći of
+India (iii.), and the Essedones near Mćotis (iv.); Strabo (lib. iv.) of
+the Luci; Pomponious Mela (iii. 7) and St. Jerome (ad Jovinum) of
+Scoti. M. Polo locates them in Dragvia, a kingdom of Sumatra (iii. 17),
+and in Angaman (the Andamanian Isles?), possibly the ten Maniolai which
+Ptolemy (vii.), confusing with the Nicobars, places on the Eastern side
+of the Bay of Bengal; and thence derives the Heraklian stone (magnet)
+which attracts the iron of ships (See Serapion, De Magnete, fol. 6,
+Edit. of 1479, and Brown’s Vulgar Errors, p. 74, 6th Edit.). Mandeville
+finds his cannibals in Lamaray (Sumatra) and Barthema in the “Isle of
+Gyava” (Java). Ibn Al-Wardi and Al-Kazwini notice them in the Isle
+Saksar, in the Sea of the Zanj (Zanzibar): the name is corrupted
+Persian “Sag-Sar” (Dogs’-heads) hence the dog-descended race of
+Camoens in Pegu (The Lus. x. 122). The Bresl. Edit. (iv. 52) calls them
+“Khawárij”=certain sectarians in Eastern Arabia. Needless to say that
+cocoa-nut oil would have no stupefying effect unless mixed with opium
+or datura, hemp or henbane.
+
+[FN#44] Black pepper is produced in the Goanese but we must go south to
+find the “Bilád al-Filfil” (home of pepper) i.e. Malabar. The
+exorbitant prices demanded by Venice for this spice led directly to the
+discovery of The Cape route by the Portuguese; as the “Grains of
+Paradise” (Amomum Granum Paradisi) induced the English to explore the
+West African Coast.
+
+[FN#45] Arab. “Kazdír.” Sansk. “Kastír.” Gr. “Kassiteron.” Lat.
+“Cassiteros,” evidently derived from one root. The Heb. is “Badih,” a
+substitute, an alloy. “Tanakah” is the vulg. Arab. word, a congener of
+the Assyrian “Anaku,” and “Kala-i” is the corrupt Arab. term used in
+India.
+
+[FN#46] Our Arabian Ulysses had probably left a Penelope or two at home
+and finds a Calypso in this Ogygia. His modesty at the mention of
+womankind is notable.
+
+[FN#47] These are the commonplaces of Moslem consolation on such
+occasions: the artistic part is their contrast with the unfortunate
+widower’s prospect.
+
+[FN#48] Lit. “a margin of stone, like the curb-stone of a well.”
+
+[FN#49] I am not aware that this vivisepulture of the widower is the
+custom of any race, but the fable would be readily suggested by the
+Sati (Suttee)-rite of the Hindus. Simple vivisepulture was and is
+practised by many people.
+
+[FN#50] Because she was weaker than a man. The Bresl. Edit. however,
+has “a gugglet of water and five scones.”
+
+[FN#51] The confession is made with true Eastern sang-froid and
+probably none of the hearers “disapproved” of the murders which saved
+the speaker’s life.
+
+[FN#52] This tale is evidently taken from the escape of Aristomenes the
+Messenian from the pit into which he had been thrown, a fox being his
+guide. The Arabs in an early day were eager students of Greek
+literature. Hole (p. 140) noted the coincidence.
+
+[FN#53] Bresl. Edit. “Khwájah,” our “Howajee,” meaning a schoolmaster,
+a man of letters, a gentleman.
+
+[FN#54] And he does repeat at full length what the hearers must have
+known right well. I abridge.
+
+[FN#55] Island of the Bell (Arab. “Nákús”=a wooden gong used by
+Christians but forbidden to Moslems). “Kala” is written “Kela,”
+“Kullah” and a variety of ways. Baron Walckenaer places it at
+Keydah in the Malay peninsula opposite Sumatra. Renaudot
+identifies it with Calabar, “somewhere about the point of
+Malabar.”
+
+
+[FN#56] Islands, because Arab cosmographers love to place their
+speciosa miracula in such places.
+
+[FN#57] Like the companions of Ulysses who ate the sacred oxen
+(Od. xii.).
+
+
+[FN#58] So the enormous kingfisher of Lucian’s True History (lib. ii.).
+
+[FN#59] This tale is borrowed from Ibn Al-Wardi, who adds that the
+greybeards awoke in the morning after eating the young Rukh with black
+hair which never turned white. The same legend is recounted by
+Al-Dimiri (ob. A.H. 808=1405–6) who was translated into Latin by
+Bochart (Hierozoicon ii. p. 854) and quoted by Hole and Lane (iii.
+103). An excellent study of Marco Polo’s Rukh was made by my learned
+friend the late Prof. G. G. Bianconi of Bologna, “Dell’Uccello Ruc,”
+Bologna, Gamberini, 1868. Prof. Bianconi predicted that other giant
+birds would be found in Madagascar on the East African Coast opposite;
+but he died before hearing of Hildebrand’s discovery.
+
+[FN#60] Arab. “Izár,” the earliest garb of Eastern man; and, as such
+preserved in the Meccan pilgrimage. The “waist-cloth” is either tucked
+in or kept in place by a girdle.
+
+[FN#61] Arab. “Líf,” a succedaneum for the unclean sponge, not unknown
+in the “Turkish Baths” of London.
+
+[FN#62] The Persians have a Plinian monster called
+“Tasmeh-pá”=Strap-legs without bones. The “Old Man” is not an
+ourang-outang nor an Ifrít as in Sayf al-Mulúk, Night dcclxxi., but
+a jocose exaggeration of a custom prevailing in parts of Asia and
+especially in the African interior where the Tsetse-fly prevents
+the breeding of burden-beasts. Ibn Batútah tells us that in Malabar
+everything was borne upon men’s backs. In Central Africa the kinglet
+rides a slave, and on ceremonious occasions mounts his Prime Minister.
+I have often been reduced to this style of conveyance and found man
+the worst imaginable riding: there is no hold and the sharpness of the
+shoulder-ridge soon makes the legs ache intolerably. The classicists
+of course find the Shaykh of the Sea in the Tritons and Nereus, and
+Bochart (Hiero. ii. 858, 880) notices the homo aquaticus, Senex Judćus
+and Senex Marinus. Hole (p. 151) suggests the inevitable ouran-outan
+(man o’ wood), one of “our humiliating copyists,” and quotes “Destiny”
+in Scarron’s comical romance (Part ii. chapt. i) and “Jealousy”
+enfolding Rinaldo. (O.F. lib. 42).
+
+[FN#63] More literally “The Chief of the Sea (-Coast),” Shaykh being
+here a chief rather than an elder (eoldermann, alderman). So the “Old
+Man of the Mountain,” famous in crusading days, was the Chief who lived
+on the Nusayriyah or Ansári range, a northern prolongation of the
+Libanus. Our “old man” of the text may have been suggested by the
+Koranic commentators on chapt. vi. When an Infidel rises from the
+grave, a hideous figure meets him and says, “Why wonderest thou at my
+loathsomeness? I am thine Evil Deeds: thou didst ride upon me in the
+world and now I will ride upon thee.” (Suiting the action to the
+words.)
+
+[FN#64] In parts of West Africa and especially in Gorilla-land there
+are many stories of women and children being carried off by apes, and
+all believe that the former bear issue to them. It is certain that the
+anthropoid ape is lustfully excited by the presence of women and I have
+related how at Cairo (1856) a huge cynocephalus would have raped a girl
+had it not been bayonetted. Young ladies who visited the Demidoff
+Gardens and menagerie at Florence were often scandalised by the vicious
+exposure of the baboons’ parti-coloured persons. The female monkey
+equally solicits the attentions of man and I heard in India from my
+late friend, Mirza Ali Akbar of Bombay, that to his knowledge
+connection had taken place. Whether there would be issue and whether
+such issue would be viable are still disputed points: the produce would
+add another difficulty to the pseudo-science called psychology, as such
+mule would have only half a soul and issue by a congener would have a
+quarter-soul. A traveller well known to me once proposed to breed
+pithecoid men who might be useful as hewers of wood and drawers of
+water: his idea was to put the highest races of apes to the lowest of
+humanity. I never heard what became of his “breeding stables.”
+
+[FN#65] Arab. “Jauz al-Hindi”: our word cocoa is from the Port. “Coco,”
+meaning a “bug” (bugbear) in allusion to its caricature of the human
+face, hair, eyes and mouth. I may here note that a cocoa-tree is easily
+climbed with a bit of rope or a handkerchief.
+
+[FN#66] Tomb-pictures in Egypt show tame monkeys gathering fruits and
+Grossier (Description of China, quoted by Hole and Lane) mentions a
+similar mode of harvesting tea by irritating the monkeys of the Middle
+Kingdom.
+
+[FN#67] Bresl. Edit. Cloves and cinnamon in those days grew in widely
+distant places.
+
+[FN#68] In pepper-plantations it is usual to set bananas (Musa
+Paradisiaca) for shading the young shrubs which bear bunches like
+ivy-fruit, not pods.
+
+[FN#69] The Bresl. Edit. has “Al-Ma’arat.” Langlčs calls it the
+Island of Al-Kamárí. See Lane, iii. 86.
+
+
+[FN#70] Insula, pro. peninsula. “Comorin” is a corrupt. of “Kanyá”
+(=Virgo, the goddess Durgá) and “Kumári” (a maid, a princess); from a
+temple of Shiva’s wife: hence Ptolemy’s {Greek letters} and near it to
+the N. East {Greek letters}, “Promontorium Cori quod Comorini caput
+insulć vocant,” says Maffćus (Hist. Indic. i. p. 16). In the text
+“Al’úd” refers to the eagle-wood (Aloekylon Agallochum) so called
+because spotted like the bird’s plume. That of Champa (Cochin-China,
+mentioned in Camoens, The Lus. x. 129) is still famous.
+
+[FN#71] Arab. “Birkat”=tank, pool, reach, bight. Hence Birkat
+Far’aun in the Suez Gulf. (Pilgrimage i. 297.)
+
+
+[FN#72] Probably Cape Comorin; to judge from the river, but the text
+names Sarandib (Ceylon Island) famous for gems. This was noticed by
+Marco Polo, iii. cap. 19; and ancient authors relate the same of
+“Taprobane.”
+
+[FN#73] I need hardly trouble the reader with a note on
+pearl-fisheries: the descriptions of travellers are continuous from the days
+of Pliny (ix. 35), Solinus (cap. 56) and Marco Polo (iii. 23).
+Maximilian of Transylvania, in his narrative of Magellan’s voyage
+(Novus Orbis, p. 532) says that the Celebes produce pearls big as
+turtle-doves’ eggs; and the King of Porne (Borneo) had two unions as
+great as goose’s eggs. Pigafetta (in Purchas) reduces this to hen’s
+eggs and Sir Thomas Herbert to dove’s eggs.
+
+[FN#74] Arab. “Anbar” pronounced “Ambar;” wherein I would derive
+“Ambrosia.” Ambergris was long supposed to be a fossil, a vegetable
+which grew upon the sea-bottom or rose in springs; or a “substance
+produced in the water like naphtha or bitumen”(!): now it is known to
+be the egesta of a whale. It is found in lumps weighing several pounds
+upon the Zanzibar Coast and is sold at a high price, being held a
+potent aphrodisiac. A small hollow is drilled in the bottom of the cup
+and the coffee is poured upon the bit of ambergris it contains; when
+the oleaginous matter shows in dots amidst the “Kaymagh”
+(coffee-cream), the bubbly froth which floats upon the surface and
+which an expert “coffee servant” distributes equally among the guests.
+Argensola mentions in Ceylon, “springs of liquid bitumen thicker than
+our oil and some of pure balsam.”
+
+[FN#75] The tale-teller forgets that Sindbad and his companions have
+just ascended it; but this inconséquence is a characteristic of the
+Eastern Saga. I may note that the description of ambergris in the text
+tells us admirably well what it is not.
+
+[FN#76] This custom is alluded to by Lane (Mod Egypt, ch. xv.): it is
+the rule of pilgrims to Meccah when too ill to walk or ride (Pilgrimage
+i. 180). Hence all men carry their shrouds: mine, after being dipped in
+the Holy Water of Zemzem, was stolen from me by the rascally Somal of
+Berberah.
+
+[FN#77] Arab. “Fulk;” some Edits. read “Kalak” and “Ramaz” (=a raft).
+
+[FN#78] These lines occur in modified form in Night xi.
+
+[FN#79] These underground rivers (which Dr. Livingstone derided) are
+familiar to every geographer from Spenser’s “Mole” to the Poika of
+Adelberg and the Timavo near Trieste. Hence “Peter Wilkins” borrowed
+his cavern which let him to Grandevolet. I have some experience of
+Sindbad’s sorrows, having once attempted to descend the Poika on foot.
+The Classics had the Alpheus (Pliny v. 31; and Seneca, Nat. Quae. vi.),
+and the Tigris-Euphrates supposed to flow underground: and the
+Medićvals knew the Abana of Damascus and the Zenderúd of Isfahan.
+
+[FN#80] Abyssinians can hardly be called “blackamoors,” but the
+arrogance of the white skin shows itself in Easterns (e.g. Turks and
+Brahmans) as much as, if not more than, amongst Europeans. Southern
+India at the time it was explored by Vasco da Gama was crowded with
+Abyssinian slaves imported by the Arabs.
+
+[FN#81] “Sarandib” and “Ceylon” (the Taprobane of Ptolemy and Diodorus
+Siculus) derive from the Pali “Sihalam” (not the Sansk. “Sinhala”)
+shortened to Silam and Ilam in old Tamul. Van der Tunk would find it in
+the Malay “Pulo Selam”=Isle of Gems (the Ratna-dwípa or Jewel Isle of
+the Hindus and the Jazirat al-Yakút or Ruby-Island of the Arabs); and
+the learned Colonel Yule (Marco Polo ii 296) remarks that we have
+adopted many Malayan names, e.g. Pegu, China and Japan. Sarandib is
+clearly “Selan-dwípa,” which Mandeville reduced to “Silha.”
+
+[FN#82] This is the well-known Adam’s Peak, the Jabal al-Ramun of the
+Arabs where Adam fell when cast out of Eden in the lowest or lunar
+sphere. Eve fell at Jeddah (a modern myth) and the unhappy pair met at
+Mount Arafat (i.e. recognition) near Meccah. Thus their fall was a fall
+indeed. (Pilgrimage iii. 259.)
+
+[FN#83] He is the Alcinous of our Arabian Odyssey.
+
+[FN#84] This word is not in the dictionaries; Hole (p. 192) and Lane
+understand it to mean the hog-deer; but why, one cannot imagine. The
+animal is neither “beautiful” nor “uncommon” and most men of my day
+have shot dozens in the Sind-Shikárgahs.
+
+[FN#85] M. Polo speaks of a ruby in Seilan (Ceylon) a palm long and
+three fingers thick: William of Tyre mentions a ruby weighing twelve
+Egyptian drams (Gibbon ii. 123), and Mandeville makes the King of
+Mammera wear about his neck a “rubye orient” one foot long by five
+fingers large.
+
+[FN#86] The fable is from Al-Kazwini and Ibn Al-Wardi who place the
+serpent (an animal sacred to Ćsculapius, Pliny, xxix. 4) “in the sea of
+Zanj” (i.e. Zanzibar). In the “garrow hills” of N. Eastern Bengal the
+skin of the snake Burrawar (?) is held to cure pain. (Asiat. Res. vol.
+iii.)
+
+[FN#87] For “Emerald,” Hole (p. 177) would read emery or adamantine
+spar.
+
+[FN#88] Evidently Maháráj=Great Rajah, Rajah in Chief, an Hindu title
+common to the three potentates before alluded to, the Narsinga, Balhara
+or Samiry.
+
+[FN#89] This is probably classical. So the page said to Philip of
+Macedon every morning, “Remember, Philip, thou art mortal”; also the
+slave in the Roman Triumph,
+
+“Respice poste te: hominem te esse memento!”
+
+And the dying Severus, “Urnlet, soon shalt thou enclose what hardly a
+whole world could contain.” But the custom may also have been Indian:
+the contrast of external pomp with the real vanity of human life
+suggests itself to all.
+
+[FN#90] Arab. “Hút”; a term applied to Jonah’s whale and to monsters of
+the deep, “Samak” being the common fishes.
+
+[FN#91] Usually a two-bow prayer.
+
+[FN#92] This is the recognised formula of Moslem sales.
+
+[FN#93] Arab. “Walímah”; like our wedding-breakfast but a much more
+ceremonious and important affair.
+
+[FN#94] i.e. his wife (euphemistically). I remember an Italian lady
+being much hurt when a Maltese said to her “Mia moglie con rispetto
+parlando” (my wife, saving your presence). “What,” she cried, “he
+speaks of his wife as he would of the sweepings!”
+
+[FN#95] The serpent in Arabic is mostly feminine.
+
+[FN#96] i.e. in envying his wealth, with the risk of the evil eye.
+
+[FN#97] I subjoin a translation of the Seventh Voyage from the Calc.
+Edit. of the two hundred Nights which differs in essential points from
+the above. All respecting Sindbad the Seaman has an especial interest.
+In one point this world-famous tale is badly ordered. The most exciting
+adventures are the earliest and the falling off of the interest has a
+somewhat depressing effect. The Rukh, the Ogre and the Old Man o’ the
+Sea should come last.
+
+[FN#98] Arab. “Al-Suways:” this successor of ancient Arsinoë was,
+according to local tradition, founded by a Santon from Al-Sús in
+Marocco who called it after his name “Little Sús” (the wormlet).
+
+[FN#99] Arab. “Mann,” a weight varying from two to six pounds: even
+this common term is not found in the tables of Lane’s Mod. Egyptians,
+Appendix B. The “Maund” is a well-known Anglo-Indian weight.
+
+[FN#100] This article is not mentioned elsewhere in The Nights.
+
+[FN#101] Apparently a fancy title.
+
+[FN#102] The island is evidently Ceylon, long famed for elephants, and
+the tree is the well known “Banyan” (Ficus Indica). According to
+Linschoten and Wolf, the elephants of all lands do reverence and honour
+to those of Ceylon.
+
+[FN#103] “Tusks” not “teeth” which are not valued. As Hole remarks, the
+elephants of Pliny and Sindbad are equally conscious of the value of
+ivory. Pliny (viii. 3) quotes Herodotus about the buying of ivories and
+relates how elephants, when hunted, break their “cornua” (as Juba
+called them) against a tree trunk by way of ransom. Ćlian, Plutarch,
+and Philostratus speak of the linguistic intelligence and religious
+worship of the “half-reason with the hand,” which the Hindus term
+“Háthí”=unimanus. Finally, Topsell’s Gesner (p. 152) makes elephants
+bury their tusks, “which commonly drop out every tenth year.” In
+Arabian literature the elephant is always connected with India.
+
+[FN#104] This is a true “City of Brass.” (Nuhás asfar=yellow copper),
+as we learn in Night dcclxxii. It is situated in the “Maghrib”
+(Mauritania), the region of magic and mystery; and the idea was
+probably suggested by the grand Roman ruins which rise abruptly from
+what has become a sandy waste. Compare with this tale “The City of
+Brass” (Night cclxxii.). In Egypt Nuhás is vulg. pronounced Nihás.
+
+[FN#105] The Bresl. Edit. adds that the seal-ring was of stamped stone
+and iron, copper and lead. I have borrowed copiously from its vol. vi.
+pp. 343, et seq.
+
+[FN#106] As this was a well-known pre-Islamitic bard, his appearance
+here is decidedly anachronistic, probably by intention.
+
+[FN#107] The first Moslem conqueror of Spain whose lieutenant,
+Tárik, the gallant and unfortunate, named Gibraltar (Jabal
+al-Tarik).
+
+
+[FN#108] The colours of the Banú Umayyah (Ommiade) Caliphs were white,
+of the Banú Abbás (Abbasides) black, and of the Fatimites green.
+Carrying the royal flag denoted the generalissimo or plenipotentiary.
+
+[FN#109] i.e. Old Cairo, or Fustat: the present Cairo was then a Coptic
+village founded on an old Egyptian settlement called Lui-Tkeshroma, to
+which belonged the tanks on the hill and the great well, Bir Yusuf,
+absurdly attributed to Joseph the Patriarch. Lui is evidently the
+origin of Levi and means a high priest (Brugsh ii. 130) and his son’s
+name was Roma.
+
+[FN#110] I cannot but suspect that this is a clerical error for
+“Al-Samanhúdi,” a native of Samanhúd (Wilkinson’s “Semenood”) in the
+Delta on the Damietta branch, the old Sebennytus (in Coptic
+Jem-nuti=Jem the God), a town which has produced many distinguished men
+in Moslem times. But there is also a Samhúd lying a few miles down
+stream from Denderah and, as its mounds prove, it is an ancient site.
+
+[FN#111] Egypt had not then been conquered from the Christians.
+
+[FN#112] Arab. “Kízán fukká’a,” i.e. thin and slightly porous
+earthenware jars used for Fukká’a, a fermented drink, made of barley or
+raisins.
+
+[FN#113] I retain this venerable blunder: the right form is
+Samúm, from Samm, the poison-wind.
+
+
+[FN#114] i.e. for worship and to prepare for futurity.
+
+[FN#115] The camel carries the Badawi’s corpse to the cemetery which is
+often distant: hence to dream of a camel is an omen of death.
+
+[FN#116] Koran xxiv 39. The word “Saráb” (mirage) is found in Isaiah
+(xxxv. 7) where the passage should be rendered “And the mirage (sharab)
+shall become a lake” (not, “and the parched ground shall become a
+pool”). The Hindus prettily call it “Mrigatrishná” = the thirst of the
+deer.
+
+[FN#117] A name of Allah.
+
+[FN#118] Arab. “Kintár”=a hundredweight (i.e. 100 Ibs.), about 98¾
+Ibs. avoir. Hence the French quintal and its congeners (Littré).
+
+[FN#119] i.e. “from Shám (Syria) to (the land of) Adnan,” ancestor of
+the Naturalized Arabs that is, to Arabia.
+
+[FN#120] Koran lii. 21. “Every man is given in pledge for that which he
+shall have wrought.”
+
+[FN#121] There is a constant clerical confusion in the texts between
+“Arar” (Juniperus Oxycedrus used by the Greeks for the images of their
+gods) and “Marmar” marble or alabaster, in the Talmud “Marmora” =
+marble. evidently from {Greek letters} = brilliant, the brilliant
+stone.
+
+[FN#122] These Ifritical names are chosen for their bizarrerie.
+“Al-Dáhish” = the Amazed; and “Al-A’amash” = one with weak eyes always
+watering.
+
+[FN#123] The Arabs have no word for million; so Messer Marco Miglione
+could not have learned it from them. On the other hand the Hindus have
+more quadrillions than modern Europe.
+
+[FN#124] This formula, according to Moslems, would begin with the
+beginning “There is no iláh but Allah and Adam is the Apostle (rasúl =
+one sent, a messenger, not nabí = prophet) of Allah.” And so on with
+Noah, Moses, David (not Solomon as a rule) and Jesus, to Mohammed.
+
+[FN#125] This son of Barachia has been noticed before. The text
+embroiders the Koranic chapter No. xxvii.
+
+[FN#126] The Bresl. Edit. (vi. 371) reads “Samm-hu”=his poison, prob. a
+clerical error for “Sahmhu”=his shaft. It was a duel with the “Shiháb”
+or falling stars, the meteors which are popularly supposed, I have
+said, to be the arrows shot by the angels against devils and evil
+spirits when they approach too near Heaven in order to overhear divine
+secrets.
+
+[FN#127] A fancy sea from the Lat. “Carcer” (?).
+
+[FN#128] Andalusian = Spanish, the Vandal-land, a term accepted by the
+Moslem invader.
+
+[FN#129] This fine description will remind the traveller of the old
+Haurani towns deserted since the sixth century, which a silly writer
+miscalled the “Giant Cities of Bashan.” I have never seen anything
+weirder than a moonlight night in one of these strong places whose
+masonry is perfect as when first built, the snowy light pouring on the
+jet-black basalt and the breeze sighing and the jackal wailing in the
+desert around.
+
+[FN#130] “Zanj,” I have said, is the Arab. form of the Persian
+“Zang-bar” (=Black-land), our Zanzibar. Those who would know more of
+the etymology will consult my “Zanzibar,” etc., chaps. i.
+
+[FN#131] Arab. “Tanjah”=Strabo {Greek letters} (derivation uncertain),
+Tingitania, Tangiers. But why the terminals?
+
+[FN#132] Or Amidah, by the Turks called “Kara (black) Amid” from the
+colour of the stones and the Arabs “Diyar-bakr” (Diarbekir), a name
+which they also give to the whole province—Mesopotamia.
+
+[FN#133] Mayyáfárikín, an episcopal city in Diyar-bakr: the natives are
+called Fárikí; hence the abbreviation in the text.
+
+[FN#134] Arab. “Ayát al-Naját,” certain Koranic verses which act as
+talismans, such as, “And wherefore should we not put our trust in
+Allah?” (xiv. 15); “Say thou, Naught shall befall us save what Allah
+hath decreed for us,’” (ix. 51), and sundry others.
+
+[FN#135] These were the “Brides of the Treasure,” alluded to in the
+story of Hasan of Bassorah and elsewhere.
+
+[FN#136] Arab. “Ishárah,” which may also mean beckoning. Easterns
+reverse our process: we wave hand or finger towards ourselves; they
+towards the object; and our fashion represents to them, Go away!
+
+[FN#137] i.e. musing a long time and a longsome.
+
+[FN#138] Arab. “Dihlíz” from the Persian. This is the long dark passage
+which leads to the inner or main gate of an Eastern city, and which is
+built up before a siege. It is usually furnished with Mastabah-benches
+of wood and masonry, and forms a favourite lounge in hot weather. Hence
+Lot and Moses sat and stood in the gate, and here man speaks with his
+enemies.
+
+[FN#139] The names of colours are as loosely used by the Arabs as by
+the Classics of Europe; for instance, a light grey is called a “blue or
+a green horse.” Much nonsense has been written upon the colours in
+Homer by men who imagine that the semi-civilised determine tints as we
+do. They see them but they do not name them, having no occasion for the
+words. As I have noticed, however, the Arabs have a complete
+terminology for the varieties of horse-hues. In our day we have
+witnessed the birth of colours, named by the dozen, because required by
+women’s dress.
+
+[FN#140] For David’s miracles of metallurgy see vol. i. 286.
+
+[FN#141] Arab. “Khwárazm,” the land of the Chorasmioi, who are
+mentioned by Herodotus (iii. 93) and a host of classical geographers.
+They place it in Sogdiana (hod. Sughd) and it corresponds with the
+Khiva country.
+
+[FN#142] Arab. “Burka’,” usually applied to a woman’s face-veil and
+hence to the covering of the Ka’abah, which is the “Bride of Meccah.”
+
+[FN#143] Alluding to the trick played upon Bilkís by Solomon who had
+heard that her legs were hairy like those of an ass: he laid down a
+pavement of glass over flowing water in which fish were swimming and
+thus she raised her skirts as she approached him and he saw that the
+report was true. Hence, as I have said, the depilatory.
+
+[FN#144] I understand the curiously carved windows cut in
+arabesque-work of marble. (India) or basalt (the Haurán) and provided
+with small panes of glass set in emeralds where tin would be used by
+the vulgar.
+
+[FN#145] Arab. “Bulád” from the Pers. “Pulád.” Hence the name of the
+famous Druze family “Jumblat,” a corruption of “Ján-pulád”=Life o’
+Steel.
+
+[FN#146] Pharaoh, so called in Koran (xxxviii. 11) because he tortured
+men by fastening them to four stakes driven into the ground. Sale
+translates “the contriver of the stakes” and adds, “Some understand the
+word figuratively, of the firm establishment of Pharaoh’s kingdom,
+because the Arabs fix their tents with stakes; but they may possibly
+intend that prince’s obstinacy and hardness of heart.” I may note that
+in “Tasawwuf,” or Moslem Gnosticism, Pharaoh represents, like
+Prometheus and Job, the typical creature who upholds his own dignity
+and rights in presence and despight of the Creator. Sáhib the Súfí
+declares that the secret of man’s soul (i.e. its emanation) was first
+revealed when Pharaoh declared himself god; and Al-Ghazálí sees in his
+claim the most noble aspiration to the divine, innate in the human
+spirit. (Dabistan, vol. iii.)
+
+[FN#147] In the Calc. Edit. “Tarmuz, son of the daughter,” etc.
+According to the Arabs Tadmur (Palmyra) was built by Queen
+Tadmurah, daughter of Hassán bin Uzaynah.
+
+
+[FN#148] It is only by some such drought that I can account for the
+survival of those marvellous Haurani cities in the great valley S. E.
+of Damascus.
+
+[FN#149] So Moses described his own death and burial.
+
+[FN#150] A man’s “aurat” (shame) extends from the navel (included) to
+his knees, a woman’s from the top of the head to the tips of her toes.
+I have before noticed the Hindostaní application of the word.
+
+[FN#151] Arab. “Jum’ah” ( = the assembly) so called because the General
+Resurrection will take place on that day and it witnessed the creation
+of Adam. Both these reasons are evidently after-thoughts; as the Jews
+received a divine order to keep Saturday, and the Christians, at their
+own sweet will, transferred the weekly rest-day to Sunday, wherefore
+the Moslem preferred Friday. Sabbatarianism, however, is unknown to
+Al-Islam and business is interrupted, by Koranic order ([xii. 9–10]),
+only during congregational prayers in the Mosque. The most a Mohammedan
+does is not to work or travel till after public service. But the Moslem
+hardly wants a “day of rest;” whereas a Christian, especially in the
+desperately dull routine of daily life and toil, without a gleam of
+light to break the darkness of his civilised and most unhappy
+existence, distinctly requires it.
+
+[FN#152] Mankind, which sees itself everywhere and in everything, must
+create its own analogues in all the elements, air (Sylphs), fire
+(Jinns), water (Mermen and Mermaids) and earth (Kobolds), These
+merwomen were of course seals or manatees, as the wild women of Hanno
+were gorillas.
+
+[FN#153] Here begins the Sindibad-namah, the origin of Dolopathos
+(thirteenth century by the Trouvčre Harbers); of the “Seven Sages”
+(John Holland in 1575); the “Seven Wise Masters” and a host of minor
+romances. The Persian Sindibád-Námah assumed its present shape in A.D.
+1375: Professor Falconer printed an abstract of it in the Orient.
+Journ. (xxxv. and xxxvi. 1841), and Mr. W. A. Clouston reissued the
+“Book of Sindibad,” with useful notes in 1884. An abstract of the
+Persian work is found in all edits. of The Nights; but they differ
+greatly, especially that in the Bresl. Edit. xii. pp. 237–377, from
+which I borrow the introduction. According to Hamzah Isfahání (ch.
+xli.) the Reguli who succeeded to Alexander the Great and preceded
+Sapor caused some seventy books to be composed, amongst which were the
+Liber Maruc, Liber Barsínas, Liber Sindibad, Liber Shimás, etc., etc.
+
+[FN#154] Eusebius De Praep. Evang. iii. 4, quotes Prophesy concerning
+the Egyptian belief in the Lords of the Ascendant whose names are given
+{Greek letters}: in these “Almenichiaka” we have the first almanac, as
+the first newspaper in the Roman “Acta Diurna.”
+
+[FN#155] “Al-Mas’údi,” the “Herodotus of the Arabs,” thus notices
+Sindibad the Sage (in his Murúj, etc., written about A.D. 934). “During
+the reign of Kurúsh (Cyrus) lived Al-Sindibad who wrote the Seven
+Wazirs, etc.” Al-Ya’akúbi had also named him, circ. A.D. 880. For notes
+on the name Sindibad, see Sindbad the Seaman, Night dxxxvi. I need not
+enter into the history of the “Seven Sages,” a book evidently older
+than The Nights in present form; but refer the reader to Mr. Clouston,
+of whom more in a future page.
+
+[FN#156] Evidently borrowed from the Christians, although the latter
+borrowed from writers of the most remote antiquity. Yet the saying is
+the basis of all morality and in few words contains the highest human
+wisdom.
+
+[FN#157] It is curious to compare the dry and business-like tone of the
+Arab style with the rhetorical luxuriance of the Persian: p.10 of Mr.
+Clouston’s “Book of Sindibad.”
+
+[FN#158] In the text “Isfídáj,” the Pers. Isped (or Saféd) áb,
+lit. = white water, ceruse used for women’s faces suggesting our
+“Age of Bismuth,” Blanc Rosati, Cręme de l’Impératrice, Perline,
+Opaline, Milk of Beauty, etc., etc.
+
+
+[FN#159] Commentators compare this incident with the biblical story of
+Joseph and Potiphar’s wife and with the old Egyptian romance and fairy
+tale of the brothers Anapon and Saton dating from the fourteenth
+century, the days of Pharaoh Ramses Miamun (who built Pi-tum and
+Ramses) at whose court Moses or Osarsiph is supposed to have been
+reared (Cambridge Essays 1858). The incident would often occur, e.g.
+Phćdra-cum-Hippolytus; Fausta-cum-Crispus and Lucinian; Asoka’s wife
+and Kunála, etc., etc. Such things happen in every-day life, and the
+situation has recommended itself to the folk lore of all peoples.
+
+[FN#160] Another version of this tale is given in the Bresl. Edit.
+(vol. viii. pp. 273–8: Night 675–6). It is the “Story of the King and
+the Virtuous Wife” in the Book of Sindibad. In the versions Arabic and
+Greek (Syntipas) the King forgets his ring; in the Hebrew Mishlé
+Sandabar, his staff, and his sandals in the old Spanish Libro de los
+Engannos et los Asayamientos de las Mugeres.
+
+[FN#161] One might fancy that this is Biblical, Bathsheba and Uriah.
+But such “villanies” must often have occurred in the East, at different
+times and places, without requiring direct derivation. The learned
+Prof. H. H. Wilson was mistaken in supposing that these fictions
+“originate in the feeling which has always pervaded the East
+unfavourable to the dignity of women.” They belong to a certain stage
+of civilisation when the sexes are at war with each other; and they
+characterise chivalrous Europe as well as misogynous Asia; witness
+Jankins, clerk of Oxenforde; while Ćsop’s fable of the Lion and the Man
+also explains their frequency.
+
+[FN#162] The European form of the tale is “Toujours perdrix,” a
+sentence often quoted but seldom understood. It is the reproach of M.
+l’Abbé when the Count (proprietor of the pretty Countess) made him eat
+partridge every day for a month; on which the Abbé says, “Alway
+partridge is too much of a good thing!” Upon this text the Count
+speaks. A correspondent mentions that it was told by Horace Walpole
+concerning the Confessor of a French King who reproved him for conjugal
+infidelities. The degraded French (for “toujours de la perdrix” or “des
+perdrix”) suggests a foreign origin. Another friend refers me to No. x.
+of the “Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles” (compiled in A.D. 1432 for the
+amusement of the Dauphin, afterwards Louis XI.) whose chief personage
+“un grand seigneur du Royaulme d’Angleterre,” is lectured upon fidelity
+by the lord’s mignon, a “jeune et gracieux gentil homme de son hostel.”
+Here the partridge became pastés d’anguille. Possibly Scott refers to
+it in Redgauntlet (chapt. iv.); “One must be very fond of partridge to
+accept it when thrown in one’s face.” Did not Voltaire complain at
+Potsdam of “toujours perdrix” and make it one of his grievances? A
+similar story is that of the chaplain who, weary of the same diet,
+uttered “grace” as follows:—
+
+          Rabbits hot, rabbits cold,
+             Rabbits tender, and rabbits tough,
+          Rabbits young, and rabbits old
+             I thank the Lord I’ve had enough.
+
+
+And I as cordially thank my kind correspondents.
+
+[FN#163] The great legal authority of the realm.
+
+[FN#164] In all editions the Wazir here tells the Tale of the
+Merchant’s Wife and the Parrot which, following Lane, I have
+transferred to vol. i. p. 52. But not to break the tradition I here
+introduce the Persian version of the story from the “Book of Sindibad.”
+In addition to the details given in the note to vol. i., 52;
+I may quote the two talking-birds left to watch over his young
+wife by Rajah Rasálú (son of Shaliváhana the great Indian monarch circ.
+A.D. 81), who is to the Punjab what Rustam is to Persia and Antar to
+Arabia. In the “Seven Wise Masters” the parrot becomes a magpie and Mr.
+Clouston, in some clever papers on “Popular Tales and Fictions”
+contributed to the Glasgow Evening Times (1884), compares it with the
+history, in the Gesta Romanorum, of the Adulteress, the Abigail, and
+the Three Cocks, two of which crowed during the congress of the lady
+and her lover. All these evidently belong to the Sindibad cycle.
+
+[FN#165] In the days of the Caliph Al-Mustakfí bi llah (A.H. 333=944)
+the youth of Baghdad studied swimming and it is said that they could
+swim holding chafing-dishes upon which were cooking-pots and keep
+afloat till the meat was dressed. The story is that of “The Washerman
+and his Son who were drowned in the Nile,” of the Book of Sindibad.
+
+[FN#166] Her going to the bath suggested that she was fresh from
+coition.
+
+[FN#167] Taken from the life of the Egyptian Mameluke Sultan (No. viii,
+regn. A.H., 825= A.D. 1421) who would not suffer his subjects to
+prostrate themselves or kiss the ground before him. See D’Herbelot for
+details.
+
+[FN#168] This nauseous Joe Miller has often been told in the hospitals
+of London and Paris. It is as old as the Hitopadesa.
+
+[FN#169] Koran iv. 81, “All is from Allah;” but the evil which befals
+mankind, though ordered by Allah, is yet the consequence of their own
+wickedness (I add, which wickedness was created by Allah).
+
+[FN#170] The Bresl. Edit. (xii. 266) says “bathing.”
+
+[FN#171] This tale is much like that told in the Fifth Night (vol. i.
+54). It is the story of the Prince and the Lamia in the Book of
+Sindibad wherein it is given with Persian rhetoric and diffuseness.
+
+[FN#172] Arab. “Wa’ar”= rocky, hilly, tree-less ground unfit for
+riding. I have noted that the three Heb. words “Year” (e.g.
+Kiryath-Yearin=City of forest), “Choresh” (now Hirsh, a scrub), and
+“Pardes” ({Greek letters} a chase, a hunting-park opposed to {Greek
+letters}, an orchard) are preserved in Arabic and are intelligible in
+Palestine. (Unexplored Syria, i. 207.)
+
+[FN#173] The privy and the bath are favourite haunts of the
+Jinns.
+
+
+[FN#174] Arab history is full of petty wars caused by trifles. In Egypt
+the clans Sa’ad and Harám and in Syria the Kays and Yaman (which remain
+to the present day) were as pugnacious as Highland Caterans. The tale
+bears some likeness to the accumulative nursery rhymes in “The House
+that Jack Built,” and “The Old Woman and the Crooked Sixpence;” which
+find their indirect original in an allegorical Talmudic hymn.
+
+[FN#175] This is “The Story of the Old Man who sent his Young Wife to
+the Market to buy Rice,” told with Persian reflections in the “Book of
+Sindibad.”
+
+[FN#176] Koran xii. 28. The words were spoken by Potiphar to
+Joseph.
+
+
+[FN#177] Koran iv. 78. A mis-quotation, the words are, “Fight therefore
+against the friends of Satan, for the craft of Satan shall be weak.”
+
+[FN#178] i.e. Koranic versets.
+
+[FN#179] In the Book of Sindibad this is the “Story of the Prince who
+went out to hunt and the stratagem which the Wazir practised on him.”
+
+[FN#180] I have noted that it is a dire affront to an Arab if his first
+cousin marry any save himself without his formal leave.
+
+[FN#181] i.e. the flowery, the splendid; an epithet of Fatimah, the
+daughter of the Apostle “the bright blooming.” Fátimah is an old Arab
+name of good omen, “the weaner:” in Egypt it becomes Fattúmah (an
+incrementative= “great weaner”); and so Amínah, Khadíjah and Nafísah on
+the banks of the Nile are barbarised to Ammúnah, Khaddúgah and
+Naffúsah.
+
+[FN#182] i.e. his coming misfortune, the phrase being euphemistic.
+
+[FN#183] Arab. “Ráy:” in theology it means “private judgment” and
+“Ráyí” (act. partic.) is a Rationalist. The Hanafí School is called
+“Asháb al-Ráy” because it allows more liberty of thought than the other
+three orthodox.
+
+[FN#184] The angels in Al-Islam ride piebalds.
+
+[FN#185] In the Bresl. Edit. “Zájir” (xii. 286).
+
+[FN#186] This is the “King’s Son and the Merchant’s Wife” of the
+Hitopadesa (chapt. i.) transferred to all the Prakrit versions of
+India. It is the Story of the Bath-keeper who conducted his Wife
+to the Son of the King of Kanuj in the Book of Sindibad.
+
+
+[FN#187] The pious Caliph Al-Muktadi bi Amri llah (A.H. 467=A.D. 1075)
+was obliged to forbid men entering the baths of Baghdad without
+drawers.
+
+[FN#188] This peculiarity is not uncommon amongst the so-called Aryan
+and Semitic races, while to the African it is all but unknown. Women
+highly prize a conformation which (as the prostitute described it) is
+always “either in his belly or in mine.”
+
+[FN#189] Easterns, I have said, are perfectly aware of the fact that
+women corrupt women much more than men do. The tale is the “Story of
+the Libertine Husband” in the Book of Sindibad; blended with the “Story
+of the Go-between and the Bitch” in the Book of Sindibad. It is related
+in the “Disciplina Clericalis” of Alphonsus (A.D. 1106); the fabliau of
+La vieille qui seduisit la jeune fille; the Gesta Romanorum (thirteenth
+century) and the “Cunning Siddhikari” in the Kathá-Sarit-Ságara.
+
+[FN#190] The Kashmir people, men and women, have a very bad name in
+Eastern tales, the former for treachery and the latter for unchastity.
+A Persian distich says:
+
+  If folk be scarce as food in dearth ne’er let three lots come
+near ye:
+  First Sindi, second Jat, and third a rascally Kashmeeree.
+
+
+The women have fair skins and handsome features but, like all living in
+that zone, Persians, Sindis, Afghans, etc., their bosoms fall after the
+first child and become like udders. This is not the case with Hindú
+women, Rajpúts, Maráthís, etc.
+
+[FN#191] By these words she appealed to his honour.
+
+[FN#192] These vehicles suggest derivation from European witchery. In
+the Bresl. Edit. (xii. 304) one of the women rides a “Miknasah” or
+broom.
+
+[FN#193] i.e. a recluse who avoids society.
+
+[FN#194] “Consecrated ground” is happily unknown to Moslems.
+
+[FN#195] This incident occurs in the “Third Kalandar’s Tale.” See vol.
+i. 157 {Vol 1, FN#290}; and note to p. 145. {Vol 1, FN#264}
+
+[FN#196] The Mac. Edit. has “Nahr”= river.
+
+[FN#197] i.e. marked with the Wasm or tribal sign to show their blood.
+The subject of Wasm is extensive and highly interesting, for many of
+these brands date doubtless from prehistoric ages. For instance, some
+of the great Anazah nation (not tribe) use a circlet, the initial of
+their name (an Ayn-letter), which thus shows the eye from which it was
+formed. I have given some specimens of Wasm in The Land of Midian (i.
+320) where, as amongst the “Sinaitic” Badawin, various kinds of crosses
+are preserved long after the death and burial of Christianity.
+
+[FN#198] i.e. from the heights. The “Sayl” is a dangerous feature in
+Arabia as in Southern India, where many officers have lost their lives
+by trying to swim it.
+
+[FN#199] Arab. “’Ujb” I use arrogance in the Spanish sense of
+“arrogante,” gay and gallant.
+
+[FN#200] In this rechauffé Paul Pry escapes without losing an eye.
+
+[FN#201] Eastern tale-tellers always harp upon this theme, the cunning
+precautions taken by mankind and their utter confusion by “Fate and
+Fortune.” In such matters the West remarks, “Ce que femme veut, Dieu
+veut.”
+
+[FN#202] As favourite an occupation in Oriental lands as in Southern
+Europe and the Brazil, where the Quinta or country villa must be built
+by the road-side to please the mistress.
+
+[FN#203] The ink-case would contain the pens; hence called in India
+Kalamdán=reed (pen) box. I have advised travellers to prefer the strong
+Egyptian article of brass to the Persian, which is of wood or
+papier-mâché, prettily varnished, but not to wear it in the waist-belt,
+as this is a sign of being a scribe. (Pilgrimage i. 353.)
+
+[FN#204] The vulgar Eastern idea is that women are quite knowing enough
+without learning to read and write; and at all events they should not
+be taught anything beyond reading the Koran, or some clearly-written
+book. The contrast with modern Europe is great; greater still in
+Anglo-America of our day, and greatest with the new sects which propose
+“biunes” and “bisexuals” and “women robed with the sun.”
+
+[FN#205] In the Bresl. Edit. the Prince ties a key to a second arrow
+and shoots it into the pavilion.
+
+[FN#206] The “box-trick” has often been played with success, by Lord
+Byron amongst a host of others. The readiness with which the Wazir
+enters into the scheme is characteristic of oriental servility: an
+honest Moslem should at least put in a remonstrance.
+
+[FN#207] This story appears familiar, but I have not found it easy to
+trace. In “The Book of Sindibad” (p. 83) it is apparently represented
+by a lacuna. In the Squire’s Tale of Chaucer Canace’s ring enables the
+wearer to understand bird-language, not merely to pretend as does the
+slave-boy in the text.
+
+[FN#208] The crow is an ill-omened bird in Al-lslam and in Eastern
+Christendom. “The crow of cursed life and foul odour,” says the Book of
+Kalilah and Dimna (p. 44). The Hindus are its only protectors, and in
+this matter they follow suit with the Guebres. I may note that the word
+belongs to the days before “Aryan” and “Semitic” speech had parted; we
+find it in Heb. Oreb; Arab. Ghurab; Lat. Corvus; Engl. Crow, etc.
+
+[FN#209] Again in the Hibernian sense of being “kilt.”
+
+[FN#210] Quoted in Night dlxxxii.; said by Kitfír or Itfír (Potiphar)
+when his wife (Ráil or Zulaykha) charged Joseph with attempting her
+chastity and he saw that the youth’s garment was whole in front and
+rent in rear. (Koran, chapt. xii.)
+
+[FN#211] This witty tale, ending somewhat grossly here, has
+over-wandered the world. First we find it in the Kathá (S. S.) where
+Upakoshá, the merry wife of Vararuchi, disrobes her suitors, a family
+priest, a commander of the guard and the prince’s tutor, under plea of
+the bath and stows them away in baskets which suggest Falstaff’s
+“buck-basket.” In Miss Stokes’ “Indian Fairy Tales” the fair wife of an
+absent merchant plays a similar notable prank upon the Kotwal, the
+Wazir, the Kazi and the King; and akin to this is the exploit of Temal
+Rámákistnan, the Madrasi Tyl Eulenspiegel and Scogin who by means of a
+lady saves his life from the Rajah and the High Priest. Mr. G. H.
+Damant (pp. 357–360 of the “Indian Antiquary” of 1873) relates the
+“Tale of the Touchstone,” a legend of Dinahpur, wherein a woman “sells”
+her four admirers. In the Persian Tales ascribed to the Dervish
+“Mokles” (Mukhlis) of Isfahan, the lady Aruyá tricks and exposes a
+Kazi, a doctor and a governor. Boccaccio (viii. 1) has the story of a
+lady who shut up her gallant in a chest with her husband’s sanction;
+and a similar tale (ix. 1) of Rinuccio and Alexander with the corpse of
+Scannadeo (Throkh-god). Hence a Lydgate (circ. A.D. 1430) derived the
+plot of his metrical tale of “The Lady Prioress and her Three Sisters”;
+which was modified in the Netherlandish version by the introduction of
+the Long Wapper, a Flemish Robin Goodfellow. Followed in English the
+metrical tale of “The Wright’s Chaste Wife,” by Adam of Cobham (edited
+by Mr. Furnivall from a MS. of circ. A.D. 1460) where the victims are a
+lord, a steward and a proctor. See also “The Master-Maid” in Dr. (now
+Sir George) Dasent’s “Popular Tales from the Norse,” Mr. Clouston, who
+gives these details more fully, mentions a similar Scottish story
+concerning a lascivious monk and the chaste wife of a miller.
+
+[FN#212]When Easterns sit down to a drinking bout, which means to get
+drunk as speedily and pleasantly as possible, they put off dresses of
+dull colours and robe themselves in clothes supplied by the host, of
+the brightest he may have, especially yellow, green and red of
+different shades. So the lady’s proceeding was not likely to breed
+suspicion: al-though her tastes were somewhat fantastic and like Miss
+Julia’s—peculiar.
+
+[FN#213] Arab. “Najásah,” meaning anything unclean which requires
+ablution before prayer. Unfortunately mucus is not of the number, so
+the common Moslem is very offensive in the matter of nose.
+
+[FN#214] Here the word “la’an” is used which most Moslems express by
+some euphemism. The vulgar Egyptian says “Na’al” (Sapré and Sapristi
+for Sacré and Sacristie), the Hindostani express it “I send him the
+three letters”—lám, ayn and nún.
+
+[FN#215] The Mac. Edit. is here very concise; better the Bresl. Edit.
+(xii. 326). Here we have the Eastern form of the Three Wishes which
+dates from the earliest ages and which amongst us has been degraded to
+a matter of “black pudding.” It is the grossest and most brutal satire
+on the sex, suggesting that a woman would prefer an additional inch of
+penis to anything this world or the next can offer her. In the Book of
+Sindibad it is the story of the Peri and Religious Man; his learning
+the Great Name; and his consulting with his wife. See also La
+Fontaine’s “Trois Souhaits,” Prior’s “Ladle,” and “Les quatre Souhaits
+de Saint-Martin.”
+
+[FN#216] Arab. “Laylat al-Kadr”= Night of Power or of Divine Decrees.
+It is “better than a thousand months” (Koran xcvii. 3), but unhappily
+the exact time is not known although all agree that it is one of the
+last ten in Ramazan. The latter when named by Kiláb ibn Murrah,
+ancestor of Mohammed, about two centuries before Al-lslam, corresponded
+with July-August and took its name from “Ramzá” or intense heat. But
+the Prophet, in the tenth Hijrah year, most unwisely forbade “Nasy”=
+triennial intercalation (Koran ix. 36) and thus the lunar month went
+round all the seasons. On the Night of Power the Koran was sent down
+from the Preserved Tablet by Allah’s throne, to the first or lunar
+Heaven whence Gabriel brought it for opportunest revelation to the
+Apostle (Koran xcvii.). Also during this night all Divine Decrees for
+the ensuing year are taken from the Tablet and are given to the angels
+for execution whilst, the gates of Heaven being open, prayer (as in the
+text) is sure of success. This mass of absurdity has engendered a host
+of superstitions everywhere varying. Lane (Mod. Egypt, chapt. xxv.)
+describes how some of the Faithful keep tasting a cup of salt water
+which should become sweet in the Night of Nights. In (Moslem) India not
+only the sea becomes sweet, but all the vegetable creation bows down
+before Allah. The exact time is known only to Prophets; but the pious
+sit through the Night of Ramazan 27th (our 26th) praying and burning
+incense-pastilles. In Stambul this is officially held to be the Night
+of Power. So in medićval Europe on Christmas Eve the cattle worshipped
+God in their stalls and I have met peasants in France and Italy who
+firmly believed that brute beasts on that night not only speak but
+predict the events of the coming year.
+
+[FN#217] Hence the misfortune befel her; the pious especially avoid
+temporal palaces.
+
+[FN#218] This is our tale of “The Maid and the Magpie;” the Mac. Edit.
+does not specify the “Tayr” (any bird) but the Bresl. Edit. has Ak’ak,
+a pie. The true Magpie (C. Pica) called Buzarái (?) and Zaghzaghán Abú
+Mássah (=the Sweeper, from its tail) is found on the Libanus and
+Anti-Libanus (Unexplored Syria ii. 77–143), but I never saw it in other
+parts of Syria or in Arabia. It is completely ignored by the Reverend
+Mr. Tristram in his painfully superficial book “The Natural History of
+the Bible,” published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
+(or rather Ignorance), London, 1873.
+
+[FN#219] This is “The Story of the Two Partridges,” told at great
+length in the Book of Sindibad. See De Sacy’s text in the Kalilah wa
+Damnah, quoted in the “Book of Kalilah and Damnah” (p. 306).
+
+[FN#220] This extremely wilful young person had rendered rape
+excusable. The same treat-ment is much called for by certain heroines
+of modern fiction—let me mention Princess Napraxine.
+
+[FN#221] The Story of the Hidden Robe, in the Book of Sindibad; where
+it is told with all manner of Persian embellishments.
+
+[FN#222] Now turned into Government offices for local administration; a
+“Tribunal of Commerce,” etc.
+
+[FN#223] Arab. “Bawwáb,” a personage as important as the old French
+concierge and a man of trust who has charge of the keys and with
+letting vacant rooms. In Egypt the Berber from the Upper Nile is the
+favourite suisse; being held more honest or rather less rascally than
+the usual Egyptian. These Berbers, however, are true barbarians,
+overfond of Búzah (the beer of Osiris) and not unfrequently dangerous.
+They are supposed by Moslems to descend from the old Syrians expelled
+by Joshua. For the favourite chaff against them, eating the dog (not
+the puppy-pie), see Pilgrimage i. 93. They are the “paddies’, of Egypt
+to whom all kinds of bulls and blunders are attributed.
+
+[FN#224] Arab. “Juma’ah,” which means either Friday or a week. In
+pre-Moslem times it was called Al-Arúbah (the other week-days being
+Shiyár or Saturday, Bawal, Bahan Jabar, Dabar and Fámunís or Thursday).
+Juma’ah, literally = “Meeting” or Congregation (-day), was made to
+represent the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Sunday because on that
+day Allah ended the work of creation; it was also the date of
+Mohammed’s entering Al-Medinah. According to Al-Bayzáwí, it was called
+Assembly day because Ka’ab ibn Lowa, one of the Prophet’s ancestors,
+used to gather the people before him on Fridays. Moslems are not
+forbidden to do secular work after the congregational prayers at the
+hour when they must “hasten to the commemoration of Allah and leave
+merchandising.” (Koran, chaps. Ixii. 9.)
+
+[FN#225] This is done only by the very pious: if they see a bit of
+bread they kiss it, place it upon their heads and deposit it upon a
+wall or some place where it will not be trodden on. She also removed
+the stones lest haply they prove stumbling-blocks to some Moslem foot.
+
+[FN#226] Arab. “Ashjár,” which may mean either the door-posts or the
+wooden bolts. Lane (iii. 174) translates it “among the trees” in a
+room!
+
+[FN#227] Koran (ix. 51), when Mohammed reproaches the unbelievers for
+not accompanying him to victory or martyrdom.
+
+[FN#228] Arab. “Kiná,” a true veil, not the “Burká” or “nose bag” with
+the peep-holes. It is opposed to the “Tarkah” or “head veil.” Europeans
+inveigh against the veil which represents the loup of Louis Quatorze’s
+day: it is on the contrary the most coquettish of contrivances, hiding
+coarse skins, fleshy noses, wide mouths and vanishing chins, and
+showing only lustrous and liquid black eyes. Moreover a pretty woman,
+when she wishes, will always let you see something under the veil.
+(Pilgrimage i. 337.)
+
+[FN#229] A yellow-flowered artemisia or absinthe whose wood burns like
+holm-oak. (Unexplored Syria ii. 43.) See vol. ii. 24 for further
+details.
+
+[FN#230] The Farz or obligatory prayers, I have noted, must be recited
+(if necessary) in the most impure place; not so the other orisons.
+Hence the use of the “Sajjádah” or prayer-rug an article too well known
+to require description.
+
+[FN#231] Anglicč a stomach-ache, a colic.
+
+[FN#232] Arab. “Al-Háfizah” which has two meanings. Properly it
+signifies the third order of Traditionists out of a total of five or
+those who know 300,000 traditions and their ascriptions. Popularly “one
+who can recite the Koran by rote.” There are six great Traditionists
+whose words are held to be prime authorities; (1) Al-Bokhári, (2)
+Muslim, and these are entitled Al-Sahíhayn, The (two true) authorities.
+After them (3) Al-Tirmidi; and (4) Abu Daúd: these four being the
+authors of the “Four Sunan,” the others are (5) Al-Nasái and (6) Ibn
+Májah (see Jarrett’s Al-Siyuti pp. 2, 6; and, for modern Arab studies,
+Pilgrimage i. 154 et seq.).
+
+[FN#233] Lane (iii. 176) marries the amorous couple, thus making the
+story highly proper and robbing it of all its point.
+
+[FN#234] Arab. “Sabbahat,” i.e. Sabbah-ak’ Allah bi’l khayr =
+Allah give thee good morning: still the popular phrase.
+
+
+[FN#235] Arab. “Ta’rísak,” with the implied hint of her being a
+“Mu’arrisah” or she pander. The Bresl. Edit. (xii. 356) bluntly says
+“Kivádatak” thy pimping.
+
+[FN#236] Arab. “Rafw”: the “Rafu-gar” or fine-drawer in India, who does
+this artistic style of darning, is famed for skill.
+
+[FN#237] The question sounds strange to Europeans, but in the Moslem
+East a man knows nothing, except by hearsay, of the women who visit his
+wife.
+
+[FN#238] Arab. “Ahl al-bayt,” so as not rudely to say “wife.”
+
+[FN#239] This is a mere abstract of the tale told in the Introduction
+(vol. i. 10–12). Here however, the rings are about eighty; there the
+number varies from ninety to five hundred and seventy.
+
+[FN#240] The father suspected the son of intriguing with one of his own
+women.
+
+[FN#241] Arab. and Heb. “Laban” (opp. to “laban-halíb,” or simply
+“halíb” = fresh milk), milk artificially soured, the Dahin of India,
+the Kisainá of the Slavs and our Corstophine cream. But in The Nights,
+contrary to modern popular usage, “Laban” is also applied to Fresh
+milk. The soured form is universally in the East eaten with rice and
+enters into the Salátah or cucumber-salad. I have noted elsewhere that
+all the Galactophagi, the nomades who live on milk, use it in the
+soured never in the fresh form. The Badawi have curious prejudices
+about it: it is a disgrace to sell it (though not to exchange it), and
+“Labbán,” or “milk-vendor,” is an insult. The Bráhni and Beloch pomades
+have the same pundonor possibly learnt from the Arabs (Pilgrimage i.
+363). For Igt (Akit), Mahir, Saribah, Jamídah and other lacteal
+preparations, see ibid. i. 362.
+
+[FN#242] I need hardly say that the poison would have been utterly
+harmless, unless there had been an abrasion of the skin. The
+slave-girl is blamed for carrying the jar uncovered because thus it would
+attract the evil eye. In the Book of Sindibad the tale appears as the
+Story of the Poisoned Guest; and the bird is a stork.
+
+[FN#243] The Prince expresses the pure and still popular Moslem
+feeling; and yet the learned and experienced Mr. Redhouse would confuse
+this absolute Predestination with Providence. A friend tells me that
+the idea of absolute Fate in The Nights makes her feel as if the world
+were a jail.
+
+[FN#244] In the Book of Sindibad this is the Story of the
+Sandal-wood Merchant and the Advice of the Blind Old Man. Mr.
+Clouston (p. 163) quotes a Talmudic joke which is akin to the
+Shaykh’s advice and a reply of Tyl Eulenspiegel, the arch-rogue,
+which has also a family resemblance.
+
+
+[FN#245] Arab. “Sá’a,” a measure of corn, etc., to be given in alms.
+The Kamus makes it = four mudds (each being ⅓ lbs.); the people
+understand by it four times the measure of a man’s two open hands.
+
+[FN#246] i.e. till thou restore my eye to me. This style of prothesis
+without apodosis is very common in Arabic and should be preserved in
+translation, as it adds a naďveté to the style. We find it in Genesis
+iii. 2, “And now lest he put forth his hand,” etc.
+
+[FN#247] They were playing at Muráhanah, like children amongst us. It
+is also called “Hukm wa Rizá” = order and consent. The penalty is
+usually something ridiculous, but here it was villainous.
+
+[FN#248] Every Moslem capital has a “Shaykh of the thieves” who holds a
+regular levées and who will return stolen articles for consideration;
+and this has lasted since the days of Diodorus Siculus (Pilgrimage i.
+91).
+
+[FN#249] This was not the condition; but I have left the text as it is
+characteristic of the writer’s inconsequence.
+
+[FN#250] The idea would readily occur in Egypt where the pulex is still
+a plague although the Sultan is said to hold his court at Tiberias.
+“Male and female” says the rouge, otherwise it would be easy to fill a
+bushel with fleas. The insect was unknown to older India according to
+some and was introduced by strangers. This immigration is quite
+possible. In 1863 the jigger (P. penetrans) was not found in Western
+Africa; when I returned there in 1882 it had passed over from the
+Brazil and had become naturalised on the equatorial African seaboard.
+the Arabs call shrimps and prawns “sea-fleas” (bargúth al-bahr) showing
+an inland race. (See Pilgrimage i. 322.)
+
+[FN#251] Submission to the Sultan and the tidings of his well-being
+should content every Eastern subject. But, as Oriental history shows,
+the form of government is a Despotism tempered by assassination. And
+under no rule is man socially freer and his condition contrasts
+strangely with the grinding social tyranny which characterises every
+mode of democracy or constitutionalism, i.e. political equality.
+
+[FN#252] Here the text has “Markúb” = a shoe; elsewhere “Na’al” = a
+sandal, especially with wooden sole. In classical Arabia, however,
+“Na’al” may be a shoe, a horse-shoe (iron-plate, not rim like ours).
+The Bresl. Edit. has “Watá,” any foot-gear.
+
+[FN#253] Water-melons (batáyikh) says the Mac. Edit. a misprint for
+Aruz or rice. Water-melons are served up raw cut into square mouthfuls,
+to be eaten with rice and meat. They serve excellently well to keep the
+palate clean and cool.
+
+[FN#254] The text recounts the whole story over again—more than
+European patience can bear.
+
+
+[FN#255] The usual formula when telling an improbable tale. But here it
+is hardly called for: the same story is told (on weak authority) of the
+Alewife, the Three Graziers and Attorney-General Nay (temp. James II.
+1577–1634) when five years old (Journ. Asiat. Soc. N.S. xxx. 280). The
+same feat had been credited to Thomas Egerton, Lord Chancellor in A.D.
+1540–1617 (Chalmers, Biographical Dictionary xxiii. 267–68). But the
+story had already found its way into the popular jest-books such as
+“Tales and Quick Answers, very Mery and Pleasant to Rede” (1530);
+“Jacke of Dover’s Quest of Inquirie for the Foole of all Fooles” (1604)
+under the title “The Foole of Westchester”, and in “Witty and
+Entertaining Exploits of George Buchanan, commonly called the King’s
+Fool.” The banker-bard Rogers (in Italy) was told a similar story
+concerning a widow of the Lambertini house (xivth century). Thomas
+Wright (Introduction to the Seven Sages) says he had met the tale in
+Latin( xiiith-xivth centuries) and a variant in the “Nouveaux Contes à
+rire” (Amsterdam 1737), under the title “Jugement Subtil du Duc d’Ossone
+contre Deux Marchands.” Its origin is evidently the old Sindibád-namah
+translated from Syriac into Greek (“Syntipas,” xith century); into
+Hebrew (Mishlé Sandabar, xiith century) and from the Arabian version
+into old Castilian, “Libro de los Engannos et los Asayamientos de las
+Mugeres” (A.D. 1255), whereof a translation is appended to Professor
+Comparetti’s Society. The Persian metrical form (an elaboration of one
+much older) dates from 1375; and gave rise to a host of imitations such
+as the Turkish Tales of the Forty Wazirs and the Canarese “Kathá
+Manjari,” where four persons contend about a purse. See also Gladwin’s
+“Persian Moonshee,” No. vi. of “Pleasing Stories;” and Mr. Clouston’s
+paper, “The Lost Purse,” in the Glasgow Evening Times. All are the
+Eastern form of Gavarni’s “Enfants Terribles,” showing the portentous
+precocity for which some children (infant phenomena, calculating boys,
+etc. etc.) have been famous.
+
+[FN#256] From the Bresl. Edit. xii. 381. The Sa’lab or Abu Hosayn
+(Father of the Fortlet) is the fox, in Marocco Akkáb: Talib Yusuf and
+Wa’wi are the jackal. Arabas have not preserved “Jakal” from the Heb.
+Shu’al and Persian Shaghal and Persian Shaghál (not Shagul) as the Rev.
+Mr. Tristram misinforms his readers. (Nat. Hist. p. 85)
+
+[FN#257] The name is old and classical Arabic: in Antar the young
+Amazon Jaydá was called Judar in public (Story of Jaydá and Khálid). It
+is also, as will be seen, the name of a quarter in Cairo, and men are
+often called after such places, e.g. Al-Jubní from the Súk al Jubn in
+Damascus. The story is exceedingly Egyptian and the style abounds in
+Cairene vulgarisms, especially in the Bresl. Edit. ix. 311.
+
+[FN#258] Had the merchant left his property to be divided after his
+death and not made a will he widow would have had only one-eighth
+instead of a fourth.
+
+[FN#259] Lit. “from tyrant to tyrant,” i.e. from official to official,
+Al-Zalamah, the “tyranny” of popular parlance.
+
+[FN#260] The coin is omitted in the text but it is evidently the “Nusf”
+or half-dirham. Lane (iii.235), noting that the dinar is worth 170
+“nusfs” in this tale, thinks that it was written (or copied?) after the
+Osmanh Conquest of Egypt. Unfortunately he cannot tell the precise
+period when the value of the small change fell so low.
+
+[FN#261] Arab “Yaum mubárak!” still a popular exclamation.
+
+[FN#262] i.e. of the door of daily bread.
+
+[FN#263] Arab. “Sírah,” a small fish differently described (De
+Sacy, “Relation de l’Egypte par Abd allatif,” pp. 278–288: Lane,
+Nights iii. 234). It is not found in Sonnini’s list.
+
+
+[FN#264] A tank or lakelet in the southern parts of Cairo, long ago
+filled up; Von Hammer believes it inherited the name of the old
+Charon’s Lake of Memphis, over which corpses were ferried.
+
+[FN#265] Thus making the agreement a kind of religious covenant, as
+Catholics would recite a Pater or an Ave Maria.
+
+[FN#266] Arab. “Yá miskím”=O poor devil; mesquin, meschino, words
+evidently derived from the East.
+
+[FN#267] Plur. of Maghribí a Western man, a Moor. I have already
+derived the word through the Lat. “Maurus” from Maghribiyún. Europeans
+being unable to pronounce the Ghayn (or gh like the modern Cairenes)
+would turn it into “Ma’ariyún.” They are mostly of the Maliki school
+(for which see Sale) and are famous as magicians and treasure-finders.
+Amongst the suite of the late Amir Abd al-Kadir, who lived many years
+and died in Damascus, I found several men profoundly versed in Eastern
+spiritualism and occultism.
+
+[FN#268] The names are respectively, Slave of the Salvation, of the One
+(God), of the Eternal; of the Compassionate; and of the Loving.
+
+[FN#269] i.e. “the most profound”; the root is that of “Bátiní,” a
+gnostic, a reprobate.
+
+[FN#270] i.e. the Tall One.
+
+[FN#271] The loud pealing or (ear-) breaking Thunder.
+
+[FN#272] Arab. “Fás and Miknás” which the writer evidently regards as
+one city. “Fás” means a hatchet, from the tradition of one having been
+found, says Ibn Sa’íd, when digging the base under the founder Idrís
+bin Idrís (A.D. 808). His sword was placed on the pinnacle of the
+minaret built by the Imám Abu Ahmad bin Abi Bakr enclosed in a golden
+étui studded with pearls and precious stones. From the local
+pronunciation “Fes” is derived the red cap of the nearer Moslem East
+(see Ibn Batutah p. 230).
+
+[FN#273] Arab. “Al-Khurj,” whence the Span. Las Alforjas.
+
+[FN#274] Arab. “Kebáb,” mutton or lamb cut into small squares and
+grilled upon skewers: it is the roast meat of the nearer East where, as
+in the West, men have not learned to cook meat so as to preserve all
+its flavour. This is found in the “Asa’o” of the Argentine Gaucho who
+broils the flesh while still quivering and before the fibre has time to
+set. Hence it is perfectly tender, if the animal be young, and has a
+“meaty” taste half lost by keeping
+
+[FN#275] Equivalent to our puritanical “Mercy.”
+
+[FN#276] Arab. “Bukjah,” from the Persian Bukcheh: a favourite way of
+keeping fine clothes in the East is to lay them folded in a piece of
+rough long-cloth with pepper and spices to drive away moths.
+
+[FN#277] This is always specified, for respectable men go out of town
+on horse-back, never on “foot-back,” as our friends the Boers say. I
+have seen a Syrian put to sore shame when compelled by politeness to
+walk with me, and every acquaintance he met addressed him “Anta
+Zalamah!” What! afoot?
+
+[FN#278] This tale, including the Enchanted Sword which slays whole
+armies, was adopted in Europe as we see in Straparola (iv. 3), and the
+“Water of Life” which the Grimms found in Hesse, etc., “Gammer
+Grethel’s German Popular Stories,” Edgar Taylor, Bells, 1878; and now
+published in fuller form as “Grimm’s Household Tales,” by Mrs. Hunt,
+with Introduction by A. Lang, 2 vols. 8vo, 1884. It is curious that so
+biting and carping a critic, who will condescend to notice a misprint
+in another’s book, should lay himself open to general animadversion by
+such a rambling farrago of half-digested knowledge as that which
+composes Mr. Andrew Lang’s Introduction.
+
+[FN#279] These retorts of Judar are exactly what a sharp Egyptian
+Fellah would say on such occasions.
+
+
+[FN#280] Arab. “Salámát,” plur. of Salam, a favourite Egyptian welcome.
+
+[FN#281] This sentence expresses a Moslem idea which greatly puzzles
+strangers. Arabic has no equivalent of our “Thank you” (Kassara ’llah
+Khayr-ak being a mere blessing Allah increase thy weal!), nor can
+Al-lslam express gratitude save by a periphrase. The Moslem
+acknowledges a favour by blessing the donor and by wishing him increase
+of prosperity. “May thy shadow never be less!” means, Mayest thou
+always extend to me thy shelter and protection. I have noticed this
+before but it merits repetition. Strangers, and especially Englishmen,
+are very positive and very much mistaken upon a point, which all who
+have to do with Egyptians and Arabs ought thoroughly to understand. Old
+dwellers in the East know that the theory of ingratitude in no way
+interferes with the sense of gratitude innate in man (and beast) and
+that the “lively sense of favours to come,” is as quick in Orient land
+as in Europe.
+
+[FN#282] Outside this noble gate, the Bab al-Nay, there is a great
+cemetery wherein, by the by, lies Burckhardt, my predecessor as a Hájj
+to Meccah and Al-Medinah. Hence many beggars are always found squatting
+in its neighbourhood.
+
+[FN#283] Friends sometimes walk alongside the rider holding the stirrup
+in sign of affection and respect, especially to the returning pilgrim.
+
+[FN#284] Equivalent to our Alas! It is woman’s word never used by men;
+and foreigners must be most careful of this distinction under pain of
+incurring something worse than ridicule. I remember an officer in the
+Bombay Army who, having learned Hindostani from women, always spoke of
+himself in the feminine and hugely scandalised the Sepoys.
+
+[FN#285] i.e. a neighbour. The “quarters” of a town in the East are
+often on the worst of terms. See Pilgrimage.
+
+[FN#286] In the patriarchal stage of society the mother waits upon her
+adult sons. Even in Dalmatia I found, in many old-fashioned houses, the
+ladies of the family waiting upon the guests. Very pleasant, but
+somewhat startling at first.
+
+[FN#287] Here the apodosis would be “We can all sup together.”
+
+[FN#288] Arab. “Záwiyah” (=oratory), which is to a Masjid what a chapel
+is to a church.
+
+[FN#289] Arab. “Kasr,” prop. a palace: so the Tuscan peasant speaks of
+his “palazzo.”
+
+[FN#290] This sale of a free-born Moslem was mere felony. But many
+centuries later Englishmen used to be sold and sent to the plantations
+in America.
+
+[FN#291] Arab. “Kawwás,” lit. an archer, suggesting les archers de la
+Sainte Hermandade. In former days it denoted a sergeant, an apparitor,
+an officer who executed magisterial orders. In modern Egypt he became a
+policeman (Pilgrimage i. 29). As “Cavass” he appears in gorgeous
+uniform and sword, an orderly attached to public offices and
+Consulates.
+
+[FN#292] A purely imaginary King.
+
+[FN#293] The Bresl. Edit. (ix. 370) here and elsewhere uses the word
+“Nútiyá”=Nauta, for the common Bahríyah or Malláh.
+
+[FN#294] Arab. “Tawaf,” the name given to the sets (Ashwat) of seven
+circuits with the left shoulder presented to the Holy House, that is
+walking “widdershins” or “against the sun” (“with the sun” being like
+the movement of a watch). For the requisites of this rite see
+Pilgrimage iii. 234.
+
+[FN#295] Arab. “Akh”; brother has a wide signification amongst
+Moslems and may be used to and of any of the Saving Faith.
+
+
+[FN#296] Said by the master when dismissing a servant and meaning, “I
+have not failed in my duty to thee!” The answer is, “Allah acquit thee
+thereof!”
+
+[FN#297] A Moslem prison is like those of Europe a century ago; to
+think of it gives gooseflesh. Easterns laugh at our idea of
+penitentiary and the Arabs of Bombay call it “Al-Bistán” (the Garden)
+because the court contains a few trees and shrubs. And with them a
+garden always suggests an idea of Paradise. There are indeed only two
+efficacious forms of punishment all the world over, corporal for the
+poor and fines for the rich, the latter being the severer form.
+
+[FN#298] i.e. he shall answer for this.
+
+[FN#299] A pun upon “Khalíyah” (bee hive) and “Khaliyah” (empty).
+Khalíyah is properly a hive of bees with a honey-comb in the hollow of
+a tree-trunk, opposed to Kawwárah, hive made of clay or earth
+(Al-Hariri; Ass. of Tiflis). There are many other terms, for Arabs are
+curious about honey. Pilgrimage iii. 110.
+
+[FN#300] Lane (iii. 237) supposes by this title that the author
+referred his tale to the days of the Caliphate. “Commander of the
+Faithful” was, I have said, the style adopted by Omar in order to avoid
+the clumsiness of “Caliph” (successor) of the Caliph (Abu Bakr) of the
+Apostle of Allah.
+
+[FN#301] eastern thieves count four modes of housebreaking, (1)picking
+out burnt bricks; (2) cutting through unbaked bricks; (3) wetting a mud
+wall and (4) boring through a wooden wall (Vikram and the Vampire p.
+172).
+
+[FN#302] Arab. “Zabbat,” lit. a lizard (fem.) also a wooden lock, the
+only one used throughout Egypt. An illustration of its curious
+mechanism is given in Lane (M. E. Introduction)
+
+[FN#303] Arab. “Dabbús.” The Eastern mace is well known to English
+collectors, it is always of metal, and mostly of steel, with a short
+handle like our facetiously called “life-preterver” The head is in
+various forms, the simplest a ball, smooth and round, or broken into
+sundry high and angular ridges like a melon, and in select weapons
+shaped like the head of some animal. bull, etc. See Night dcxlvi.
+
+[FN#304] The red habit is a sign of wrath and vengeance and the Persian
+Kings like Fath Al Shah, used to wear it when about to order some
+horrid punishment, such as the “Shakk”; in this a man was hung up by
+his heels and cut in two from the fork downwards to the neck, when a
+turn of the chopper left that untouched. White robes denoted peace and
+mercy as well as joy. The “white” hand and “black” hand have been
+explained. A “white death” is quiet and natural, with forgiveness of
+sins. A “black death” is violent and dreadful, as by strangulation; a
+“green death” is robing in rags and patches like a dervish, and a “red
+death” is by war or bloodshed (A. P. ii. 670). Among the mystics it is
+the resistance of man to his passions.
+
+[FN#305] This in the East is the way “pour se faire valoir”; whilst
+Europeans would hold it a mere “bit of impudence.” aping dignity.
+
+[FN#306] The Chief Mufti or Doctor of the Law, an appointment first
+made by the Osmanli Mohammed II., when he captured Constantinople in
+A.D. 1453. Before that time the functions were discharged by the Kázi
+al-Kuzat (Kazi-in-Chief), the Chancellor.
+
+[FN#307] So called because here lived the makers of crossbows (Arab.
+Bunduk now meaning a fire piece, musket, etc.). It is the modern
+district about the well-known Khan al-Hamzawi.
+
+[FN#308] Pronounced “Goodareeyyah,” and so called after one of the
+troops of the Fatimite Caliphs. The name “Yamániyah” is probably due to
+the story-teller’s inventiveness.
+
+[FN#309] I have noted that as a rule in The Nights poetical justice is
+administered with much rigour and exactitude. Here, however, the
+tale-teller allows the good brother to be slain by the two wicked
+brothers as he permitted the adulterous queens to escape the sword of
+Kamar al-Zaman. Dr. Steingass brings to my notice that I have failed to
+do justice to the story of Sharrkán (vol. ii., p. 172), where I note
+that the interest is injured by the gratuitous incest But this has a
+deeper meaning and a grander artistic effect. Sharrkán begins with most
+unbrotherly feelings towards his father’s children by a second wife.
+But Allah’s decree forces him to love his half-sister despite himself,
+and awe and repentance convert the savage, who joys at the news of his
+brother’s reported death, to a loyal and devoted subject of the same
+brother. But Judar with all his goodness proved himself an arrant softy
+and was no match for two atrocious villains. And there may be overmuch
+of forgiveness as of every other good thing.
+
+[FN#310] In such case the “’iddah” would be four months and ten days.
+
+[FN#311] Not quite true. Weil’s German version, from a MS. in the Ducal
+Library of Gotha gives the “Story of Judar of Cairo and Mahmud of
+Tunis” in a very different form. It has been pleasantly “translated
+(from the German) and edited” by Mr. W. F. Kirby, of the British
+Museum, under the title of “The New Arabian Nights” (London: W. Swan
+Sonnenschein & Co.), and the author kindly sent me a copy. “New Arabian
+Nights” seems now to have become a fashionable title applied without
+any signification: such at least is the pleasant collection of
+Nineteenth Century Novelettes, published under that designation by Mr.
+Robert Louis Stevenson, Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly, 1884.
+
+[FN#312] Von Hammer holds this story to be a satire on Arab
+superstition and the compulsory propagation, the compelle intrare, of
+Al-Islam. Lane (iii. 235) omits it altogether for reasons of his own. I
+differ with great diffidence from the learned Baron whose Oriental
+reading was extensive; but the tale does not seem to justify his
+explanations. It appears to me simply one of the wilder romances, full
+of purposeful anachronisms (e.g. dated between Abraham and Moses, yet
+quoting the Koran) and written by someone familiar with the history of
+Oman. The style too is peculiar, in many places so abrupt that much
+manipulation is required to make it presentable: it suits, however, the
+rollicking, violent brigand-like life which it depicts. There is only
+one incident about the end which justifies Von Hammer’s suspicion.
+
+[FN#313] The Persian hero of romance who converses with the
+Simurgh or Griffin.
+
+
+[FN#314] The word is as much used in Egypt as wunderbar in
+Germany. As an exclamation is equivalent to “mighty fine!”
+
+
+[FN#315] In modern days used in a bad sense, as a freethinker, etc. So
+Dalilah the Wily is noted to be a philosopheress.
+
+[FN#316] The game is much mixed up after Arab fashion. The
+“Tufat” is the Siyáhgosh= Black-ears, of India (Felis caracal),
+the Persian lynx, which gives very good sport with Dachshunds.
+Lynxes still abound in the thickets near Cairo
+
+
+[FN#317] The “Sons of Kahtán,” especially the Ya’arubah tribe, made
+much history in Oman. Ya’arub (the eponymus) is written Ya’arab and
+Ya’arib; but Ya’arub (from Ya’arubu Aorist of ’Aruba) is best, because
+according to all authorities he was the first to cultivate primitive
+Arabian speech and Arabic poetry. (Caussin de Perceval’s Hist. des
+Arabes i. 50, etc.)
+
+[FN#318] He who shooteth an arrow by night. See the death of Antar shot
+down in the dark by the archer Jazár, son of Jábír, who had been
+blinded by a red hot sabre passed before his eyes. I may note that it
+is a mere fiction of Al-Asma’i, as the real ’Antar (or ’Antarah) lived
+to a good old age, and probably died the “straw death.”
+
+[FN#319] See vol. ii., p. 77, for a reminiscence of masterful
+King Kulayb and his Himá or domain. Here the phrase would mean,
+“None could approach them when they were wroth; none were safe
+from their rage.”
+
+
+[FN#320] The sons of Nabhán (whom Mr. Badger calls Nebhán) supplied the
+old Maliks or Kings of Oman. (History of the Imams and Sayyids of Oman,
+etc., London, Hakluyt Soc. 1871.)
+
+[FN#321] This is a sore insult in Arabia, where they have not dreamt of
+a “Jawab-club,” like that of Calcutta in the old days, to which only
+men who had been half a dozen times “jawab’d” (= refused in
+Anglo-lndian jargon) could belong. “I am not a stallion to be struck on
+the nose,” say the Arabs.
+
+[FN#322] Again “inverted speech”: it is as if we said, “Now, you’re a
+damned fine fellow, so,” etc. “Allah curse thee! Thou hast guarded thy
+women alive and dead;” said the man of Sulaym in admiration after
+thrusting his spear into the eye of dead Rabi’ah.
+
+[FN#323] The Badawi use javelins or throw-spears of many kinds,
+especially the prettily worked Mizrák (Pilgrimage i. 349); spears for
+footmen (Shalfah, a bamboo or palm-stick with a head about a hand
+broad), and the knightly lance, a male bamboo some 12 feet long with
+iron heel and a long tapering point often of open work or damascened
+steel, under which are tufts of black ostrich feathers, one or two. I
+never saw a crescent-shaped head as the text suggests. It is a
+“Pundonor” not to sell these weapons: you say, “Give me that article
+and I will satisfy thee!” After which the Sons of the Sand will haggle
+over each copper as if you were cheapening a sheep. (Ibid. iii. 73.)
+
+[FN#324] The shame was that Gharib had seen the girl and had fallen in
+love with her beauty instead of applying for her hand in recognised
+form. These punctilios of the Desert are peculiarly nice and tetchy;
+nor do strangers readily realise them.
+
+[FN#325] The Arabs derive these Noachidć from Imlik, great-grandson of
+Shem, who after the confusion of tongues settled at Sana’a, then moved
+North to Meccah and built the fifth Ka’abah. The dynastic name was
+Arkam, M. C. de Perceval’s “Arcam,” which he would identify with Rekem
+(Numbers xxxi. 8). The last Arkam fell before an army sent by Moses to
+purge the Holy Land (Al-Hijaz) of idolatry. Commentators on the Koran
+(chaps. vii.) call the Pharaoh of Moses Al-Walid and derive him from
+the Amalekites: we have lately ascertained that this Mene-Ptah was of
+the Shepherd-Kings and thus, according to the older Moslems, the Hyksos
+were of the seed of Imlik. (Pilgrimage ii. 116, and iii. 190.) In Syria
+they fought with Joshua son of Nun. The tribe or rather nationality was
+famous and powerful: we know little about it and I may safely predict
+that when the Amalekite country shall have been well explored, it will
+produce monuments second in importance only to the Hittites. “A nomadic
+tribe which occupied the Peninsula of Sinai” (Smith’s Dict. of the
+Bible) is peculiarly superficial, even for that most superficial of
+books.
+
+[FN#326] The Amalekites were giants and lived 500 years.
+(Pilgrimage, loc. cit.)
+
+
+[FN#327] His men being ninety against five hundred.
+
+[FN#328] Arab. “Kaum” (pron. Gúm) here=a razzia, afterwards=a tribe.
+Relations between Badawi tribes are of three kinds; (1) Asháb, allies
+offensive and defensive, friends who intermarry; (2) Kímán (plur. of
+Kaum) when the blood-feud exists, and (3) Akhwan= brothers. The last is
+a complicated affair, “Akháwat” or brotherhood, denotes the tie between
+patron and client (a noble and an ignoble tribe) or between the
+stranger and the tribe which claims an immemorial and unalienable right
+to its own lands. Hence a small fee (Al-Rifkah) must be paid and the
+traveller and his beast become “dakhíl,” or entitled to brother-help.
+The guardian is known in the West as Rafík; Rabí’a in Eastern Arabia;
+Ghafír in “Sinai;” amongst the Somal, Abbán and the Gallas Mogásá.
+Further details are given in Pilgrimage iii. 85–87.
+
+[FN#329] Arab. “Mál,” here=Badawi money, flocks and herds, our “fee”
+from feoh, vieh, cattle; as pecunia from pecus, etc., etc.
+
+[FN#330] The litholatry of the old Arabs is undisputed: Manát the
+goddess-idol was a large rude stone and when the Meccans sent out
+colonies these carried with them stones of the Holy Land to be set up
+and worshipped like the Ka’abah. I have suggested (Pilgrimage iii. 159)
+that the famous Black Stone of Meccah, which appears to me a large
+aerolite, is a remnant of this worship and that the tomb of Eve near
+Jeddah was the old “Sakhrah tawílah” or Long Stone (ibid. iii. 388).
+Jeddah is now translated the grandmother, alluding to Eve, a myth of
+late growth: it is properly Juddah=a plain lacking water.
+
+[FN#331] The First Adites, I have said, did not all perish: a few
+believers retired with the prophet Hud (Heber?) to Hazramaut. The
+Second Adites, who had Márib of the Dam for capital and Lukman for
+king, were dispersed by the Flood of Al-Yaman. Their dynasty lasted a
+thousand years, the exodus taking place according to De Sacy in A.D.
+150–170 or shortly after A.D. 100 (C. de Perceval), and was overthrown
+by Ya’arub bin Kahtán, the first Arabist; see Night dcxxv.
+
+[FN#332] This title has been noticed: it suggests the “Saint Abraham”
+of our medaeval travellers. Every great prophet has his agnomen: Adam
+the Pure (or Elect) of Allah, Noah the Nájiy (or saved) of Allah; Moses
+(Kalím) the Speaker with Allah; Jesus the Rúh (Spirit breath) or Kalám
+(the word) of Allah. For Mohammed’s see Al-Busiri’s Mantle-poem vv.
+31–58.
+
+[FN#333] Koran (chaps. iii. 17), “Verily the true religion in the
+sight of Allah is Islam” i.e. resigning or devoting myself to the
+Lord, with a suspicion of “Salvation” conveyed by the root
+Salima, he was safe.
+
+
+[FN#334] Arab. “Sá’ikah,” which is supposed to be a stone. The allusion
+is to Antar’s sword, “Dhámi,” made of a stone, black, brilliant and
+hard as a rock (an aerolite), which had struck a camel on the right
+side and had come out by the left. The blacksmith made it into a blade
+three feet long by two spans broad, a kind of falchion or chopper,
+cased it with gold and called it Dhámi (the “Trenchant”) from its
+sharpness. But he said to the owner:—
+
+     The sword is trenchant, O son of the Ghalib clan,
+     Trenchant in sooth, but where is the sworder-man?
+
+
+Whereupon the owner struck off the maker’s head, a most satisfactory
+answer to all but one.
+
+[FN#335] Arab. “Kutá’ah”: lit. a bit cut off, fragment, nail-paring,
+and here un diminutif. I have described this scene in Pilgrimage iii.
+68. Latro often says, “Thy gear is wanted by the daughter of my
+paternal uncle” (wife), and thus parades his politeness by asking in a
+lady’s name.
+
+[FN#336] As will appear the two brothers were joined by a party of
+horsemen.
+
+[FN#337] “Four” says the Mac. Edit. forgetting Falhun with
+characteristic inconsequence.
+
+[FN#338] Muhammad (the deserving great praise) is the name used by men;
+Ahmad (more laudable) by angels, and Mahmúd (praised) by devils. For a
+similar play upon the name, “Allah Allah Muhammad ast” (God is God the
+praiseworthy) see Dabistan ii. 416.
+
+[FN#339] The Mac. Edit. here gives “Sás,” but elsewhere “Sásá,” which
+is the correct form
+
+[FN#340] Sapor the Second (A.D. 310–330) was compelled to attack the
+powerful Arab hordes of Oman, most of whom, like the Tayy, Aus and
+Khazraj, the Banu Nabhán and the Hináwi left Al-Yaman A.D. 100–170, and
+settled in the north and northeast of Al-Najd This great exodus and
+dispersion of the tribes was caused, as has been said, by the bursting
+of the Dam of Márib originally built by Abd al-Shams Sabá, father of
+Himyar. These Yamanian races were plunged into poverty and roamed
+northwards, planting themselves amongst the Arabs of Ma’add son of
+Adnán. Hence the kingdom of Ghassan in Syria whose phylarchs under the
+Romans (i.e. Greek Emperors of Constantinople) controlled Palestine
+Tertia, the Arabs of Syria and Palestine, and the kingdom of Hárah,
+whose Lakhmite Princes, dependent upon Persia, managed the Arabs of the
+Euphrates, Oman and Al-Bahrayn. The Ma’addites still continued to
+occupy the central plateau of Arabia, a feature analogous with India
+“above the Ghauts.”
+
+[FN#341] I have described (Pilgrimage i. 370) the grisly spot which a
+Badawi will dignify by the name of Wady al-Ward=Vale of Roses.
+
+[FN#342] Koran xiii. 3, “Of every fruit two different kinds” i.e.
+large and small, black and white, sweet and sour.
+
+[FN#343] A graft upon an almond tree, which makes its kernel sweet
+and gives it an especial delicacy of favour. See Russell’s (excellent)
+Natural History of Aleppo, p. 21.
+
+[FN#344] So called from the flavour of the kernel it is well-known at
+Damascus where a favourite fruit is the dried apricot with an almond by
+way of kernel. There are many preparations of apricots, especially the
+“Mare’s skin” (Jild al-fares or Kamar al-din) a paste folded into
+sheets and exactly resembling the article from which it takes a name.
+When wanted it is dissolved in water and eaten as a relish with bread
+or biscuit (Pilgrimage i. 289).
+
+[FN#345] “Ante Kamá takúl”=the vulgarest Cairene.
+
+[FN#346] This may be Ctesiphon, the ancient capital of the
+Chosroës, on the Tigris below Baghdad; and spoken of elsewhere in
+The Nights; especially as, in Night dclxvii., it is called
+Isbanir Al-Madáin; Madáin Kisrá (the cities of Chosroës) being
+the Arabic name of the old dual city.
+
+
+[FN#347] Koran vi. 103. The translation is Sale’s which I have
+generally preferred, despite many imperfections: Lane renders this
+sentence, “The eyes see not Him, but He seeth the eyes;” and Mr.
+Rodwell, “No vision taketh in Him (?), but He taketh in all vision,”
+and (better) “No eyesight reacheth to Him.”
+
+[FN#348] Sale (sect. 1.) tells us all that was then known of these
+three which with Yá’úk and Nasr and the three “daughters of God,”
+Goddesses or Energies (the Hindu Saktis) Allát Al-Uzzá and Manát
+mentioned in the Koran were the chiefs of the pre-lslamitic Pantheon. I
+cannot but suspect that all will be connected with old Babylonian
+worship. Al-Baydáwi (in Kor. Ixxi. 22) says of Wadd, Suwá’a, Yaghus,
+Ya’úk and Nasr that they were names of pious men between Adam and Noah,
+afterwards deified: Yaghús was the giant idol of the Mazhaj tribe at
+Akamah of Al-Yaman and afterwards at Najrán Al-Uzzá was widely
+worshipped: her idol (of the tree Semurat) belonging to Ghatafán was
+destroyed after the Prophet’s order by Khálid bin Walíd. Allát or
+Al-Lát is written by Pocock (spec. 110) “Ilahat” i.e. deities in
+general. But Herodotus evidently refers to one god when he makes the
+Arabs worship Dionysus as {Greek letters} and Urania as {Greek letters}
+and the “tashdid” in Allát would, to a Greek ear, introduce another
+syllable (Alilat). This was the goddess of the Kuraysh and Thakíf whose
+temple at Taíf was circuited like the Ka’abah before Mohammed destroyed
+it.
+
+[FN#349] Shays (Shayth) is Ab Seth (Father Seth,) of the Hebrews, a
+name containing the initial and terminal letters of the
+Egypto-Phoenico-Hebrew Alphabet and the “Abjad” of the Arabs. Those curious
+about its connection with the name of Allah (El), the Zodiacal signs
+and with the constellations, visions but not wholly uninteresting, will
+consult “Unexplored Syria” (vol. i. 33).
+
+[FN#350] The exclamation of an honest Fellah.
+
+[FN#351] This is Antar with the Chosroë who “kissed the Absian hero
+between the eyes and bade him adieu, giving him as a last token a rich
+robe.” The coarser hand of the story-teller exaggerates everything till
+he makes it ridiculous.
+
+[FN#352] The context suggests thee this is a royal form of “throwing
+the handkerchief;” but it does not occur elsewhere. In face, the
+European idea seems to have arisen from the oriental practice of
+sending presents in napkins or kerchiefs.
+
+[FN#353] i.e. if the disappointed suitor attack me.
+
+[FN#354] i.e. if ever I be tempted to deny it.
+
+[FN#355] Arab. “Musáfahah,” the Arab fashion of shaking hands. The
+right palms are applied flat to each other; then the fingers are
+squeezed and the hand is raised to the forehead (Pilgrimage ii. 332).
+
+[FN#356] A city and province of Khuzistán the old Susiana. Dasht may be
+either the town in Khorasan or the “forests” (dasht) belonging to Ahwáz
+(Ahuaz in D’Herbelot).
+
+[FN#357] This is the contest between “Antar and the Satrap Khosrewan at
+the Court of Monzer.” but without its tragical finish.
+
+[FN#358] Elliptical “he rode out in great state, that is to say if
+greatness can truly be attributed to man,” for, etc.
+
+[FN#359] According to D’Herbelot (s.v. Rostac) it is a name given to
+the villages of Khorasan as “Souad” (Sawád) to those of Irak and
+Makhlaf to those of Al-Yaman: there is, how ever, a well-known
+Al-Rustak (which like Al-Bahrayn always takes the article) in the
+Province of Oman West of Maskat, and as it rhymes with “Irak” it does
+well enough. Mr. Badger calls this ancient capital of the Ya’arubah
+Imams “er-Rasták” (Imams of Oman).
+
+[FN#360] i.e. a furious knight.
+
+[FN#361] In the Mac. Edit. “Hassán,” which may rhyme with Nabhán, but
+it is a mere blunder.
+
+[FN#362] In Classical Arabic Irak (like Yaman, Bahrayn and
+Rusták) always takes the article.
+
+[FN#363] The story-teller goes back from Kufah founded in Omar’s day to
+the times of Abraham.
+
+[FN#364] This manuvre has often been practiced; especially by the first
+Crusaders under Bohemond (Gibbon) and in late years by the Arab slavers
+in Eastern Intertropical Africa. After their skirmishes with the
+natives they quartered and “bristled” the dead like game, roasted and
+boiled the choice pieces and pretended to eat the flesh. The enemy, who
+was not afraid of death, was struck with terror by the idea of being
+devoured, and this seems instinctive to the undeveloped mind.
+
+
+
+
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