The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night 2 – Burton · Verses Across
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The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night 2Nur Al-Din Ali and the Damsel Anis Al-Jalis (part 2)
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Literature · Adventure
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night 2
Nur Al-Din Ali and the Damsel Anis Al-Jalis (part 2)
BurtonEnglish
O ye that can aid me, a wretched lover, ✿ Whom longing burns nor can rest restore me! Though all you have done I have well deserved, ✿ I take refuge with you, so exult not o'er me: True, I am weak and low and vile, ✿ But I'll bear your will and whatso you bore me: My death at your hands what brings it of glory? ✿ I fear but your sin which of life forlore me!
Quoth the Caliph, "By Allah, good! O Ja'afar, never in my life have I heard a voice so enchanting as this." "Then haply the Caliph's wrath hath passed away," said Ja'afar, and he replied, "Yes, 'tis gone." Thereupon they descended from the tree, and the Caliph said to Ja'afar, "I wish to go in and sit with them and hear the damsel sing before me." "O Commander of the Faithful," replied Ja'afar, "if thou go in to them they will be terribly troubled, and Shaykh Ibrahim will assuredly die of fright." But the Caliph answered, "O Ja'afar, thou must teach me some device wherewith to delude them and whereby I can foregather with them without their knowing me." So they walked towards the Tigris pondering the matter, and presently came upon a fisherman who stood fishing under the pavilion windows. Now some time before this, the Caliph (being in the pavilion) had called to Shaykh Ibrahim and asked him, "What noise is this I hear under the windows?" and he had answered, "It is voices of fisher folk catching fish:" so quoth the Caliph, "Go down and forbid them this place;" and he forbade them accordingly. However that night a fisherman named Karim, happening to pass by and seeing the garden gate open, said to himself, "This is a time of negligence; and I will take advantage of it to do a bit of fishing." So he took his net and cast it, but he had hardly done so when behold, the Caliph came up single-handed and, standing hard by, knew him and called aloud to him, "Ho, Karim!" The fisherman, hearing himself named, turned round, and seeing the Caliph, trembled and his side-muscles quivered, as he cried, "By Allah, O Commander of the Faithful, I did it not in mockery of the mandate; but poverty and a large family drove me to what thou seest!" Quoth the Caliph, "Make a cast in my name." At this the fisherman was glad and going to the bank threw his net, then waiting till it had spread out at full stretch and settled down, hauled it up and found in it various kinds of fish. The Caliph was pleased and said, "O Karim, doff thy habit." So he put off a gaberdine of coarse woollen stuff patched in an hundred places whereon the lice were rampant, and a turband which had never been untwisted for three years but to which he had sewn every rag he came upon. The Caliph also pulled off his person two vests of Alexandrian and Ba'lbak silk, a loose inner robe and a long-sleeved outer coat, and said to the fisherman, "Take them and put them on," while he assumed the foul gaberdine and filthy turband and drew a corner of the head-cloth as a mouth-veil before his face. Then said he to the fisherman, "Get thee about thy business!"; and the man kissed the Caliph's feet and thanked him and improvised the following couplets:—
Thou hast granted more favours than ever I craved; ✿ Thou hast satisfied needs which my heart enslaved: I will thank thee and thank whileas life shall last, ✿ And my bones will praise thee in grave engraved!
Hardly had the fisherman ended his verse, when the lice began to crawl over the Caliph's skin, and he fell to catching them on his neck with his right and left and throwing them from him, while he cried, "O fisherman, woe to thee! what be this abundance of lice on thy gaberdine." "O my lord," replied he, "they may annoy thee just at first, but before a week is past thou wilt not feel them nor think of them." The Caliph laughed and said to him, "Out on thee! Shall I leave this gaberdine of thine so long on my body?" Quoth the fisherman, "I would say a word to thee but I am ashamed in presence of the Caliph!"; and quoth he, "Say what thou hast to say." "It passed through my thought, O Commander of the Faithful," said the fisherman, "that, since thou wishest to learn fishing so thou mayest have in hand an honest trade whereby to gain thy livelihood, this my gaberdine besitteth thee right well." The Commander of the Faithful laughed at this speech, and the fisherman went his way. Then the Caliph took up the basket of fish and, strewing a little green grass over it, carried it to Ja'afar and stood before him. Ja'afar thinking him to be Karim the fisherman feared for him and said, "O Karim, what brought thee hither? Flee for thy life, for the Caliph is in the garden to-night and, if he see thee, thy neck is gone." At this the Caliph laughed and Ja'afar recognized him and asked, "Can it be thou, our lord the Sultan?"; and he answered, "Yes, O Ja'afar, and thou art my Wazir and I and thou came hither together; yet thou knowest me not; so how should Shaykh Ibrahim know me, and he drunk? Stay here, till I come back to thee." "To hear is to obey," said Ja'afar. Then the Caliph went up to the door of the pavilion and knocked a gentle knock, whereupon said Nur al-Din, "O Shaykh Ibrahim, some one taps at the door." "Who goes there?" cried the Shaykh and the Caliph replied, "It is I, O Shaykh Ibrahim!" "Who art thou," quoth he, and quoth the other, "I am Karim the fisherman: I hear thou hast a feast, so I have brought thee some fish, and of a truth 'tis good fish."
When Nur al-Din heard the mention of fish, he was glad, he and the damsel, and they both said to the Shaykh, "O our lord, open the door and let him bring us his fish." So Shaykh Ibrahim opened and the Caliph came in (and he in fisherman guise), and began by saluting them. Said Shaykh Ibrahim, "Welcome to the blackguard, the robber, the dicer! Let us see thy fish." So the Caliph showed them his catch and behold, the fishes were still alive and jumping, whereupon the damsel exclaimed, "By Allah! O my lord, these are indeed fine fish: would they were fried!" and Shaykh Ibrahim rejoined, "By Allah, O my lady, thou art right." Then said he to the Caliph, "O fisherman, why didst thou not bring us the fish ready fried? Up now and cook them and bring them back to us." "On my head be thy commands!" said the Caliph, "I will fry thee a dish and bring it." Said they, "Look sharp." Thereupon he went out and ran till he came up to Ja'afar when he called to him, "Hallo, Ja'afar!"; and he replied, "Here am I, O Commander of the Faithful, is all well?" "They want the fish fried," said the Caliph, and Ja'afar answered, "O Commander of the Faithful, give it to me and I'll fry it for them." "By the tombs of my forbears," quoth the Caliph, "none shall fry it but I, with mine own hand!" So he went to the gardener's hut, where he searched and found all that he required, even to salt and saffron and wild marjoram and else besides. Then he turned to the brasier and, setting on the frying-pan, fried a right good fry. When it was done, he laid it on a banana-leaf, and gathering from the garden wind-fallen fruits, limes and lemons, carried the fish to the pavilion and set the dish before them. So the youth and the damsel and Shaykh Ibrahim came forward and ate; after which they washed their hands and Nur al-Din said to the Caliph, "By Allah, O fisherman, thou hast done us a right good deed this night." Then he put hand in pouch and, taking out three of the dinars which Sanjar had given him, said, "O fisherman, excuse me.
By Allah had I known thee before that which hath lately befallen me, I had done away the bitterness of poverty from thy heart; but take thou this as the best I can do for thee." Then he threw the gold pieces to the Caliph, who took them and kissed them and put them in pouch. Now his sole object in doing all this was to hear the damsel sing; so he said to Nur al-Din, "Thou hast rewarded me most liberally, but I beg of thy boundless bounty that thou let this damsel sing an air, that I may hear her." So Nur al-Din said, "O Anis al-Jalis!" and she answered "Yes!" and he continued, "By my life, sing us something for the sake of this fisherman who wisheth so much to hear thee." Thereupon she took the lute and struck the strings, after she had screwed them tight and tuned them, and sang these improvised verses:—
The fawn of a maid hent her lute in hand ✿ And her music made us right mettlesome: For her song gave hearing to ears stone-deaf, ✿ While Brava! Brava! exclaimed the dumb.
Then she played again and played so ravishingly, that she charmed their wits and burst out improvising and singing these couplets:—
You have honoured us visiting this our land, ✿ And your splendour illumined the glooms that blent: So 'tis due that for you I perfume my place ✿ With rose-water, musk and the camphor-scent!
Hereupon the Caliph was agitated, and emotion so overpowered him that he could not command himself for excess of pleasure, and he exclaimed, "By Allah, good! by Allah, good! by Allah, good!" Asked Nur al-Din, "O fisherman, doth this damsel please thee?" and the Caliph answered, "Ay, by Allah!" Whereupon said Nur al-Din, "She is a gift to thee, a gift of the generous who repenteth him not of his givings and who will never revoke his gift!" Then he sprang to his feet and, taking a loose robe, threw it over the fisherman and bade him receive the damsel and be gone. But she looked at him and said, "O my lord, art thou faring forth without farewell? If it must be so, at least stay till I bid thee good-bye and make known my case." And she began versifying in these verses:—
When love and longing and regret are mine, ✿ Must not this body show of ills a sign? My love! say not, "Thou soon shalt be consoled"; ✿ When state speaks state none shall allay my pine. If living man could swim upon his tears, ✿ I first should float on waters of these eyne: O thou, who in my heart infusedst thy love, ✿ As water mingles in the cup with wine, This was the fear I feared, this parting blow. ✿ O thou whose love my heart-core ne'er shall tyne! O Bin Khákán! my sought, my hope, my will, ✿ O thou whose love this breast made wholly thine! Against thy lord the King thou sinn'dst for me, ✿ And winnedst exile in lands peregrine: Allah ne'er make my lord repent my loss ✿ To cream o' men thou gavest me, one right digne.
When she had ended her verses, Nur al-Din answered her with these lines:—
She bade me farewell on our parting day, ✿ And she wept in the fire of our bane and pains: "What wilt thou do when fro' thee I'm gone?" ✿ Quoth I, "say this to whom life remains!"
When the Caliph heard her saying in her verse:—
To Karim, the cream of men thou gavest me;
his inclination for her redoubled and it seemed a hard matter and a grievous to part them; so quoth he to the youth, "O my lord, truly the damsel said in her verses that thou didst transgress against her master and him who owned her; so tell me, against whom didst thou transgress and who is it hath a claim on thee?" "By Allah, O fisherman," replied Nur al-Din, "there befel me and this damsel a wondrous tale and a marvellous matter: an 'twere graven with needle-gravers on the eye-corners it would be a warner to whoso would be warned." Cried the Caliph, "Wilt thou not tell me thy story and acquaint me with thy case? Haply it may bring thee relief, for Allah's aid is ever nearhand." "O fisherman," said Nur al-Din, "wilt thou hear our history in verse or in prose?" "Prose is a wordy thing, but verses," rejoined the Caliph, "are pearls on string." Then Nur al-Din bowed his head, and made these couplets:—
O my friend! reft of rest no repose I command, ✿ And my grief is redoubled in this far land: Erst I had a father, a kinder ne'er was; ✿ But he died and to Death paid the deodand: When he went from me, every matter went wrong ✿ Till my heart was nighbroken, my nature unmanned: He bought me a handmaid, a sweeting who shamed ✿ A wand of the willow by Zephyr befanned: I lavisht upon her mine heritage, ✿ And spent like a nobleman puissant and grand: Then to sell her compelled, my sorrow increased; ✿ The parting was sore but I mote not gainstand: Now as soon as the crier had called her, there bid ✿ A wicked old fellow, a fiery brand: So I raged with a rage that I could not restrain, ✿ And snatched her from out of his hireling's hand; When the angry curmudgeon made ready for blows, ✿ And the fire of a fight kindled he and his band, I smote him in fury with right and with left, ✿ And his hide, till well satisfied, curried and tanned: Then in fear I fled forth and lay hid in my house, ✿ To escape from the snares which my foeman had spanned: So the King of the country proclaimed my arrest; ✿ When access to me a good Chamberlain fand: And warned me to flee from the city afar, ✿ Disappear, disappoint what my enemies planned: Then we fled from our home 'neath the wing of the night, ✿ And sought us a refuge by Baghdad strand: Of my riches I've nothing on thee to bestow, ✿ O Fisher, except the fair gift thou hast scanned: The loved of my soul, and when I from her part, ✿ Know for sure that I give thee the blood of my heart.
When he had ended his verse, the Caliph said to him, "O my lord Nur al-Din, explain to me thy case more fully." So he told him the whole story from beginning to end, and the Caliph said to him, "Whither dost thou now intend?" "Allah's world is wide," replied he. Quoth the Caliph, "I will write thee a letter to carry to the Sultan Mohammed bin Sulayman al-Zayni, which when he readeth, he will not hurt nor harm thee in aught."—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Thirty-eighth Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Caliph said to Nur al-Din Ali, "I will write thee a letter to carry to the Sultan Mohammed bin Sulayman al-Zayni, which when he readeth, he will not hurt nor harm thee in aught," Nur al-Din asked "What! is there in the world a fisherman who writeth to Kings? Such a thing can never be!"; and the Caliph answered, "Thou sayest sooth, but I will tell thee the reason. Know that I and he learnt in the same school under one schoolmaster, and that I was his monitor. Since that time Fortune befriended him and he is become a Sultan, while Allah hath abased me and made me a fisherman; yet I never send to him to ask aught but he doeth my desire; nay, though I should ask of him a thousand favours every day, he would comply." When Nur al-Din heard this he said, "Good! write that I may see." So the Caliph took ink-case and reed-pen and wrote as follows,—"In the name of Allah, the Compassionating, the Compassionate! But after. This letter is written by Harun al-Rashid, son of Al-Mahdi, to his highness Mohammed bin Sulayman al-Zayni, whom I have encompassed about with my favour and made my viceroy in certain of my dominions. The bearer of these presents is Nur al-Din Ali, son of Fazl bin Khakan the Wazir. As soon as they come to thy hand divest thyself forthright of the kingly dignity and invest him therewith; so oppose not my commandment and peace be with thee." He gave the letter to Nur al-Din, who took it and kissed it, then put it in his turband and set out at once on his journey. So far concerning him; but as regards the Caliph, Shaykh Ibrahim stared at him (and he still in fisher garb) and said, "O vilest of fishermen, thou hast brought us a couple of fish worth a score of half-dirhams, and hast gotten three dinars for them; and thinkest thou to take the damsel to boot?" When the Caliph heard this, he cried out at him, and signed to Masrur who discovered himself and rushed in upon him. Now Ja'afar had sent one of the gardener-lads to the doorkeeper of the palace to fetch a suit of royal raiment for the Prince of the Faithful; so the man went and, returning with the suit, kissed the ground before the Caliph and gave it him. Then he threw off the clothes he had on and donned kingly apparel. Shaykh Ibrahim was still sitting upon his chair and the Caliph tarried to behold what would come next. But seeing the Fisherman become the Caliph, Shaykh Ibrahim was utterly confounded and he could do nothing but bite his finger-ends and say, "Would I knew whether am I asleep or am I awake!" At last the Caliph looked at him and cried, "O Shaykh Ibrahim, what state is this in which I see thee?" Thereupon he recovered from his drunkenness and, throwing himself upon the ground, repeated these verses:—
Pardon the sinful ways I did pursue; ✿ Ruth from his lord to every slave is due: Confession pays the fine that sin demands; ✿ Where, then, is that which grace and mercy sue?
The Caliph forgave him and bade carry the damsel to the city-palace, where he set apart for her an apartment and appointed slaves to serve her, saying to her, "Know that we have sent thy lord to be Sultan in Bassorah and, Almighty Allah willing, we will dispatch him the dress of investiture and thee with it." Meanwhile, Nur al-Din Ali ceased not travelling till he reached Bassorah, where he repaired to the Sultan's palace and he shouted a loud shout. The Sultan heard him and sent for him; and when he came into his presence, he kissed the ground between his hands and, producing the letter, presented it to him. Seeing the superscription in the writing of the Commander of the Faithful, the Sultan rose to his feet and kissed it three times; and after reading it said, "I hear and I obey Allah Almighty and the Commander of the Faithful!" Then he summoned the four Kazis and the Emirs and was about to divest himself of the rule royal, when behold, in came Al-Mu'in bin Sawi. The Sultan gave him the Caliph's letter and he read it, then tore it to pieces and putting it into his mouth, chewed it and spat it out. "Woe to thee," quoth the Sultan (and indeed he was sore angered); "what induced thee to do this deed?" "Now by thy life! O our lord the Sultan," replied Mu'in, "this man hath never foregathered with the Caliph nor with his Wazir; but he is a gallows-bird, a limb of Satan, a knave who, having come upon a written paper in the Caliph's hand, some idle scroll, hath made it serve his own end. The Caliph would surely not send him to take the Sultanate from thee without the imperial autograph and the diploma of investiture, and he certainly would have despatched with him a Chamberlain or a Minister. But he hath come alone and he never came from the Caliph, no, never! never! never!" "What is to be done?" asked the Sultan, and the Minister answered, "Leave him to me and I will take him and keep him away from thee, and send him in charge of a Chamberlain to Baghdad-city. Then, if what he says be sooth, they will bring us back autograph and investiture; and if not, I will take my due out of this debtor."
When the Sultan heard the Minister's words he said, "Hence with thee and him too." Al-Mu'in took trust of him from the King and, carrying him to his own house, cried out to his pages who laid him flat and beat him till he fainted. Then he let put upon his feet heavy shackles and carried him to the jail, where he called the jailor, one Kutayt, who came and kissed the ground before him. Quoth the Wazir, "O Kutayt, I wish thee to take this fellow and throw him into one of the underground cells in the prison and torture him night and day." "To hear is to obey," replied the jailor and, taking Nur al-Din into the prison, locked the door upon him. Then he gave orders to sweep a bench behind the door and, spreading on it a sitting-rug and a leather-cloth, seated Nur al-Din thereon and loosed his shackles and entreated him kindly. The Wazir sent every day enjoining the jailor to beat him, but he abstained from this, and so continued to do for forty days. On the forty-first day there came a present from the Caliph; which when the Sultan saw, it pleased him and he consulted his Ministers on the matter, when one of them said, "Perchance this present was for the new Sultan." Cried Al-Mu'in, "We should have done well had we put him to death at his first coming;" and the Sultan cried "By Allah, thou hast reminded me of him! Go down to the prison and fetch him, and I will strike off his head." "To hear is to obey," replied Al-Mu'in: then he stood up and said, "I will make proclamation in the city:—Whoso would solace himself with seeing the beheading of Nur al-Din bin al-Fazl bin Khakan, let him repair to the palace! So follower and followed, great and small will flock to the spectacle, and I shall heal my heart and harm my foe." "Do as thou wilt," said the Sultan. The Wazir went off (and he was glad and gay), and ordered the Chief of Police to make the aforementioned proclamation. When the people heard the crier, they all sorrowed and wept, even the little ones at school and the traders in their shops; and some strove to get places for seeing the sight, whilst others went to the prison with the object of escorting him thence.
Presently, the Wazir came with ten Mamelukes to the jail and Kutayt the jailor asked him, "Whom seekest thou, O our lord the Wazir?"; whereto he answered, "Bring me out that gallows-bird." But the jailor said, "He is in the sorriest of plights for the much beating I have given him." Then he went into the prison and found Nur al-Din repeating these verses:—
Who shall support me in calamities, ✿ When fail all cures and greater cares arise? Exile hath worn my heart, my vitals torn; ✿ The World to foes hath turned my firm allies. O folk, will not one friend amidst you all ✿ Wail o'er my woes, and cry to hear my cries? Death and its agonies seem light to me, ✿ Since life has lost all joys and jollities: O Lord of Mustafá, that Science-sea ✿ Sole Intercessor, Guide all-ware, all-wise! I pray thee free me and my fault forego, ✿ And from me drive mine evil and my woe.
The jailor stripped off his clean clothes and, dressing him in two filthy vests, carried him to the Wazir. Nur al-Din looked at him and saw it was his foe that sought to compass his death; so he wept and said, "Art thou, then, so secure against the World? Hast thou not heard the saying of the poet:—
Kisras and Cæsars in a bygone day ✿ Stored wealth; where is it, and ah! where are they?"
"O Wazir," he continued, "know that Allah (be He extolled and exalted!) will do whatso He will!" "O Ali," replied he, "thinkest thou to frighten me with such talk? I mean this very day to smite thy neck despite the noses of the Bassorah folk and I care not; let the days do as they please; nor will I turn me to thy counsel but rather to what the poet saith:—
Leave thou the days to breed their ban and bate, ✿ And make thee strong t' upbear the weight of Fate.
And also how excellently saith another:—
Whoso shall see the death-day of his foe, ✿ One day surviving, wins his bestest wish."
Then he ordered his attendants to mount Nur al-Din upon the bare back of a mule; and they said to the youth (for truly it was irksome to them), "Let us stone him and cut him down though our lives go for it." But Nur al-Din said to them, "Do not so: have ye not heard the saying of the poet?—
Needs must I bear the term by Fate decreed, ✿ And when that day be dead needs must I die: If lions dragged me to their forest-lair, ✿ Safe should I live till draw my death-day nigh."
Then they proceeded to proclaim before Nur al-Din, "This is the least of the retribution for him who imposeth upon Kings with forgeries." And they ceased not parading him round about Bassorah, till they made him stand beneath the palace-windows and set him upon the leather of blood, and the sworder came up to him and said, "O my lord, I am but a slave commanded in this matter: an thou have any desire, tell it me that I may fulfil it, for now there remaineth of thy life only so much as may be till the Sultan shall put his face out of the lattice." Thereupon Nur al-Din looked to the right and to the left, and before him and behind him and began improvising:—
The sword, the sworder and the blood-skin waiting me I sight, ✿ And cry, Alack, mine evil fate! ah, my calamity! How is't I see no loving friend with eye of sense or soul? ✿ What! no one here? I cry to all: will none reply to me? The time is past that formed my life, my death term draweth nigh, ✿ Will no man win the grace of God showing me clemency; And look with pity on my state, and clear my dark despair, ✿ E'en with a draught of water dealt to cool death's agony?
The people fell to weeping over him; and the headsman rose and brought him a draught of water; but the Wazir sprang up from his place and smote the gugglet with his hand and broke it: then he cried out at the executioner and bade him strike off Nur al-Din's head. So he bound the eyes of the doomed man and folk clamoured at the Wazir and loud wailings were heard and much questioning of man and man. At this moment behold, rose a dense dust-cloud filling sky and wold; and when the Sultan, who was sitting in the palace, descried this, he said to his suite, "Go and see what yon cloud bringeth:" Replied Al-Mu'in, "Not till we have smitten this fellow's neck;" but the Sultan said, "Wait ye till we see what this meaneth." Now the dust-cloud was the dust of Ja'afar the Barmecide, Wazir to the Caliph, and his host; and the cause of his coming was as follows. The Caliph passed thirty days without calling to mind the matter of Nur al-Din Ali, and none reminded him of it, till one night, as he passed by the chamber of Anis al-Jalis, he heard her weeping and singing with a soft sweet voice these lines of the poet:—
In thought I see thy form when farthest far or nearest near; ✿ And on my tongue there dwells a name which man shall ne'er unhear.
Then her weeping redoubled; when lo! the Caliph opened the door and, entering the chamber, found Anis al-Jalis in tears. When she saw him she fell to the ground and kissing his feet three times repeated these lines:—
O fertile root and noble growth of trunk; ✿ Ripe-fruitful branch of never sullied race; I mind thee of what pact thy bounty made; ✿ Far be't from thee thou should'st forget my case!
Quoth the Caliph, "Who art thou?" and she replied, "I am she whom Ali bin Khakan gave thee in gift, and I wish the fulfilment of thy promise to send me to him with the robe of honour; for I have now been thirty days without tasting the food of sleep." Thereupon the Caliph sent for Ja'afar and said to him, "O Ja'afar, 'tis thirty days since we have had news of Nur al-Din bin Khakan, and I cannot but suppose that the Sultan hath slain him; but, by the life of my head and by the sepulchres of my forefathers, if aught of foul play hath befallen him, I will surely make an end of him who was the cause of it, though he be the dearest of all men to myself! So I desire that thou set out for Bassorah within this hour and bring me tidings of my cousin, King Mohammed bin Sulayman al-Zayni, and how he hath dealt with Nur al-Din Ali bin Khakan;" adding, "If thou tarry longer on the road than shall suffice for the journey, I will strike off thy head. Furthermore, do thou tell the son of my uncle the whole story of Nur al-Din, and how I sent him with my written orders; and if thou find, O my cousin, that the King hath done otherwise than as I commanded, bring him and the Wazir Al-Mu'in bin Sawi to us in whatsoever guise thou shalt find them." "Hearing and obedience," replied Ja'afar and, making ready on the instant, he set out for Bassorah where the news of his coming had foregone him and had reached to the ears of King Mohammed. When Ja'afar arrived and saw the crushing and crowding of the lieges, he asked, "What means all this gathering?" so they told him what was doing in the matter of Nur al-Din; whereupon he hastened to go to the Sultan and saluting him, acquainted him with the cause why he came and the Caliph's resolve, in case of any foul play having befallen the youth, to put to death whoso should have brought it about. Then he took into custody the King and the Wazir and laid them in ward and, giving order for the release of Nur al-Din Ali, enthroned him as Sultan in the stead of Mohammed bin Sulayman. After this Ja'afar abode three days in Bassorah, the usual guest-time, and on the morning of the fourth day, Nur al-Din Ali turned to him and said, "I long for the sight of the Commander of the Faithful." Then said Ja'afar to Mohammed bin Sulayman, "Make ready to travel, for we will say the dawn-prayer and mount Baghdad-wards;" and he replied, "To hear is to obey." Then they prayed and they took horse and set out, all of them, carrying with them the Wazir, Al-Mu'in bin Sawi, who began to repent him of what he had done. Nur al-Din rode by Ja'afar's side and they stinted not faring on till they arrived at Baghdad, the House of Peace, and going in to the Caliph told him how they had found Nur al-Din nigh upon death. Thereupon the Caliph said to the youth, "Take this sword and smite with it the neck of thine enemy." So he took the sword from his hand and stepped up to Al-Mu'in who looked at him and said, "I did according to my mother's milk, do thou according to thine." Upon this Nur al-Din cast the sword from his hand and said to the Caliph, "O Commander of the Faithful, he hath beguiled me with his words;" and he repeated this couplet:—
By craft and sleight I snared him when he came; ✿ A few fair words aye trap the noble-game!
"Leave him then," cried the Caliph and, turning to Masrur said, "Rise thou and smite his neck." So Masrur drew his sword and struck off his head. Then quoth the Caliph to Nur al-Din Ali, "Ask a boon of me." "O my lord," answered he, "I have no need of the Kingship of Bassorah; my sole desire is to be honoured by serving thee and by seeing thy countenance." "With love and gladness," said the Caliph. Then he sent for the damsel, Anis al-Jalis, and bestowed plentiful favours upon them both and gave them one of his palaces in Baghdad, and assigned stipends and allowances, and made Nur al-Din Ali bin Fazl bin Khakan, one of his cup-companions; and he abode with the Commander of the Faithful enjoying the pleasantest of lives till death overtook him. "Yet (continued Shahrazad) is not his story in any wise more wondrous than the history of the merchant and his children." The King asked "And what was that?" and Shahrazad began to relate the
Supplementary to note 2, p. 2, and note 2, p. 14, vol. i., I may add that "Shahrazad," in the Shams al-Loghat, is the P.N. of a King. L. Langlès (Les Voyages de Sindibâd Le Marin et La Ruse des Femmes, first appended to Savary's Grammar and reprinted 12mo. pp. 161 + 113, Imprimerie Royale, Paris, M.D.CCC.XIV) explains it by Le cyprès, la beauté de la ville; and he is followed by (A. de Biberstein) Kazimirski (Enis el-Djelis, Paris, Barrois, 1847). Ouseley (Orient. Collect.) makes Shahrzád=town-born; and others an Arabisation of Chehr-ázád (free of face, ingenuous of countenance) the petit nom of Queen Humay, for whom see the terminal Essay. The name of the sister, whom the Fihrist converts into a Kahramánah, or nurse, vulgarly written Dínár-zád, would=child of gold pieces, freed by gold pieces, or one who has no need of gold pieces: Dinzád=child of faith and Daynázád, proposed by Langlès, "free from debt(!)" I have adopted Macnaghten's Dunyazad. "Shahryar," which Scott hideously writes "Shier-ear," is translated by the Shams, King of the world, absolute monarch and the court of Anushirwan while the Burhán-i-Káti'a renders it a King of Kings, and P.N. of a town. Shahr-báz is also the P.N. of a town in Samarcand.
Arab. "Malik," here used as in our story-books: "Pompey was a wise and powerful King" says the Gesta Romanorum. This King is, as will appear, a Regent or Governor under Harun al-Rashid. In the next tale he is Viceroy of Damascus, where he is also called "Sultan."
The Bul. Edit. gives the lines as follows:—
The lance was his pen, and the hearts of his foes ✿ His paper, and dipped he in blood for ink; Hence our sires entitled the spear Khattíyah, ✿ Meaning that withal man shall write, I think.
The pun is in "Khattíyah" which may mean a writer (feminine) and also a spear, from Khatt-Hajar, a tract in the province Al-Bahrayn (Persian Gulf), and Oman, where the best Indian bamboos were landed and fashioned into lances. Imr al-Kays (Mu'allakah v. 4.) sings of "our dark spears firmly wrought of Khattiyan cane;" Al-Busírí of "the brown lances of Khatt;" also see Lebid v. 50 and Hamásah pp. 26, 231: Antar notes the "Spears of Khatt" and "Rudaynian lances." Rudaynah is said to have been the wife of one Samhár, the Ferrara of lances; others make her the wife of Al-Ka'azab and hold Samhár to be a town in Abyssinia where the best weapons were manufactured. The pen is the Calamus or Kalam (reed cut for pen) of which the finest and hardest are brought from Java: they require the least nibbing. The rhetorical figure in the text is called Husn al-Ta'alíl, our ætiology; and is as admirable to the Arabs as it appears silly to us.
"He loves folk" is high praise, meaning something more than benevolence and beneficence. Like charity it covers a host of sins.
The sentence is euphuistic.
Arab. "Rubb"=syrup a word Europeanised by the "Rob Laffecteur."
The Septentriones or four oxen and their wain.
The list fatally reminds us of "astronomy and the use of the globes" ... "Shakespeare and the musical glasses."
The octave occurs in Night xv. I quote Torrens (p. 360) by way of variety.
A courteous formula of closing with the offer.
To express our "change of climate" Easterns say, "change of water and air," water coming first.
"The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night" (Psalm cxxi. 6). Easterns still believe in the blighting effect of the moon's rays, which the Northerners of Europe, who view it under different conditions, are pleased to deny. I have seen a hale and hearty Arab, after sitting an hour in the moonlight, look like a man fresh from a sick bed; and I knew an Englishman in India whose face was temporarily paralysed by sleeping with it exposed to the moon.
The negroids and negroes of Zanzibar.
i.e. Why not make thy heart as soft as thy sides! The converse of this was reported at Paris during the Empire, when a man had by mistake pinched a very high personage: "Ah, Madame! if your heart be as hard as (what he had pinched) I am a lost man."
"Na'íman" is said to one after bathing or head-shaving: the proper reply, for in the East every sign of ceremony has its countersign, is "Allah benefit thee!" (Pilgrimage i. II, iii. 285; Lane M. E. chapt. viii.; Caussin de Perceval's Arabic Grammar, etc., etc.). I have given a specimen (Pilgrimage i., 122) not only of sign and countersign, but also of the rhyming repartee which rakes love. Hanien! (pleasant to thee! said when a man drinks). Allah pleasure thee (Allah yuhanník which Arnauts and other ruffians perverted to Allah yaník, Allah copulate with thee); thou drinkest for ten!—I am the cock and thou art the hen! (i.e. a passive catamite)—Nay, I am the thick one (the penis which gives pleasure) and thou art the thin! And so forth with most unpleasant pleasantries.
In the old version she is called "The Fair Persian," probably from the owner: her name means "The Cheerer of the Companion."
Pronounce "Nooraddeen." I give the name as written in Arabic.
Amongst Moslems, I have said, it is held highly disgraceful when the sound of women's cries can be heard by outsiders.
In a case like this, the father would be justified by Rasm (or usage) not by Koranic law, in playing Brutus with his son. The same would be the case in a detected intrigue with a paternal concubine and, in very strict houses, with a slave-girl.
Orientals fear the "Zug" or draught as much as Germans; and with even a better reason. Draughts are most dangerous in hot climates.
The Unity of the Godhead and the Apostleship of Mohammed.
This would be done only in the case of the very poor.
Prayers over the dead are not universal in Al-Islam; but when they are recited they lack the "sijdah" or prostration.
Or, "Of the first and the last," i.e. Mohammed, who claimed (and claimed justly) to be the "Seal" or head and end of all Prophets and Prophecy. For note that whether the Arab be held inspired or a mere impostor, no man making the same pretension has moved the world since him. Mr. J. Smith the Mormon (to mention one in a myriad) made a bold attempt and failed.
i.e. flatterers.
In one matter Moslems contrast strongly with Christians, by most scrupulously following the example of their law-giver: hence they are the model Conservatives. But (European) Christendom is here, as in other things, curiously contradictory: for instance, it still keeps a "Feast of the Circumcision," and practically holds circumcision in horror. Eastern Christians, however, have not wholly abolished it, and the Abyssinians, who find it a useful hygienic precaution, still practise it. For ulcers, syphilis and other venereals which are readily cured in Egypt become dangerous in the Highlands of Ethiopia.
Arab. "Sabab," the orig. and material sense of the word; hence "a cause," etc.
Thus he broke his promise to his father, and it is insinuated that retribution came upon him.
"O Pilgrim" (Ya Hájj) is a polite address even to those who have not pilgrimaged. The feminine "Hájjah" (in Egypt pronounced "Hággeh") is similarly used.
Arab. usúl=roots, i.e. I have not forgotten my business.
Moslems from Central and Western North Africa. (Pilgrimage i. 261; iii. 7, etc.); the "Jabarti" is the Moslem Abyssinian.
This is a favourite bit of chaff and is to be lengthened out almost indefinitely e.g. every brown thing is not civet nor every shining thing a diamond; every black thing is not charcoal nor every white chalk; every red thing is not a ruby nor every yellow a topaz; every long-necked thing is not a camel, etc., etc., etc.
He gives him the name of his grandfather; a familiar usage.
Arab. "Ma'janah," a place for making unbaked bricks (Tob=Span. Adobe) with chaff and bruised or charred straw. The use of this article in rainless lands dates from ages immemorial, and formed the outer walls of the Egyptian temple.
Arab. "Barsh," a bit of round matting used by the poor as a seat. The Wazir thus showed that he had been degraded to the condition of a mat-maker.
The growth (a Poa of two species) which named Wady Halfá (vulg. "Halfah"), of which the home public has of late heard perhaps a trifle too much. Burckhardt (Prov. 226) renders it "dry reeds"—incorrectly enough.
This "Háshimi" vein, as they call it, was an abnormal development between the eyes of the house of Abbas, inherited from the great grandfather of the Prophet; and the latter had it remarkably large, swelling in anger and battle-rage. The text, however, may read "The sweat of wrath," etc.
Torrens and Payne prefer "Ilm"=knowledge. Lane has more correctly "Alam"=a sign, a flag.
The lines were in Night xi: I have quoted Torrens (p. 379) for a change.
Still customary in Tigris-Euphrates land, where sea-craft has not changed since the days of Xisisthrus-Noah, and long before.
To cool the contents.
Hence the Khedivial Palace near Cairo "Kasr al-Nuzhah;" literally "of Delights;" one of those flimsy new-Cairo buildings which contrast so marvellously with the architecture of ancient and even of mediæval Egypt, and which are covering the land with modern ruins. Compare Mohammed Ali's mosque in the citadel with the older Sultan Hasan. A popular tale is told that, when the conquering Turk, Yáwúz Sultan Selim, first visited Cairo, they led him to Mosque Al-Ghúri. "This is a splendid Ká'ah (saloon)!" quoth he. When he entered Sultan Hasan, he exclaimed, "This is a citadel!"; but after inspecting the Mosque Al-Mu'ayyad he cried, "'Tis a veritable place of prayer, a fit stead for the Faithful to adore the Eternal!"
Arab. gardeners are very touchy on this point. A friend of mine was on a similar occasion addressed, in true Egyptian lingo, by an old Adam-son, "Ya ibn al-Kalb! beta'mil ay?" (O dog-son, what art thou up to?).
"The green palm-stick is of the trees of Paradise;" say the Arabs in Solomonic style but not Solomonic words: so our "Spare the rod," etc.
Wayfarers, travellers who have a claim on the kindness of those at home: hence Abd al-Rahman al-Burai sings in his famous Ode:—
He hath claim on the dwellers in the places of their birth, Whoso wandereth the world, for he lacketh him a home.
It is given in my "First Footsteps in East Africa" (pp. 53-55).
The good old man treated the youth like a tired child.
In Moslem writings the dove and turtle-dove are mostly feminine, whereas the female bird is always mute and only the male sings to summon or to amuse his mate.
An unsavoury comparison of the classical Narcissus with the yellow white of a nigger's eyes.
A tree whose coals burn with fierce heat: Al-Hariri (Vth Séance). This Artemisia is like the tamarisk but a smaller growth and is held to be a characteristic of the Arabian Desert. A Badawi always hails with pleasure the first sight of the Ghazá, after he has sojourned for time away from his wilds. Mr. Palgrave (i. 38) describes the "Ghadá" as an Euphorbia with a woody stem often 5-6 feet high and slender flexible green twigs (?), "forming a feathery tuft, not ungraceful to the eye, while it affords some shelter to the traveller, and food to his camels."
Arab. Sal'am=S(alla) A(llah) a(layhi) wa S(allam); A(llah) b(less) h(im) a(nd) k(eep)=Allah keep him and assain!
The ass is held to be ill-omened. I have noticed the braying elsewhere. According to Mandeville the Devil did not enter the Ark with the Ass, but he left it when Noah said "Benedicite." In his day (A.D. 1322) and in that of Benjamin of Tudela, people had seen and touched the ship on Ararat, the Judi (Gordiæi) mountains; and this dates from Berosus (S.C. 250) who, of course, refers to the Ark of Xisisthrus. See Josephus Ant. i. 3, 6; and Rodwell (Koran, pp. 65, 530).
As would happen at a "Zikr," rogation or litany. Those who wish to see how much can be made of the subject will read "Pearls of the Faith, or Islam's Rosary, being the ninety-nine beautiful names of Allah" (Asmá-el-Husna) etc. by Edwin Arnold: London. Trübner, 1883.
i.e. the Sáki, cup-boy or cup-bearer. "Moon-faced," as I have shown elsewhere, is no compliment in English, but it is in Persian and Arabic.
He means we are "Záhirí," plain honest Moslems, not "Bátiní" gnostics (ergò reprobates) and so forth, who disregard all appearances and external ordinances. This suggests his opinion of Shaykh Ibrahim and possibly refers to Ja'afar's suspected heresy.
This worthy will be noticed in a subsequent page.
Arab. "Lisám," the end of the "Kúfiyah," or head-kerchief passed over the face under the eyes and made fast on the other side. This mouth-veil serves as a mask (eyes not being recognisable) and defends from heat, cold and thirst. I also believe that hooding the eyes with this article, Badawi-fashion, produces a sensation of coolness, at any rate a marked difference of apparent temperature; somewhat like a pair of dark spectacles or looking at the sea from a sandy shore. Pilgrimage i., 210 and 346. The woman's "Lisám" (chin-veil) or Yashmak is noticed in i., 337.
Most characteristic is this familiarity between the greatest man then in the world and his pauper subject. The fisherman alludes to a practise of Al-Islam, instituted by Caliph Omar, that all rulers should work at some handicraft in order to spare the public treasure. Hence Sultan Mu'ayyad of Cairo was a calligrapher who sold his handwriting, and his example was followed by the Turkish Sultans Mahmúd, Abd al-Majíd and Abd al-Aziz. German royalties prefer carpentering and Louis XVI. watch-making.
There would be nothing singular in this request. The democracy of despotism levels all men outside the pale of politics and religion.
"Wa'lláhi tayyib!" an exclamation characteristic of the Egyptian Moslem.
The pretended fisherman's name Karím=the Generous.
Such an act of generosity would appear to Europeans well-nigh insanity, but it is quite in Arab manners. Witness the oft-quoted tale of Hátim and his horse. As a rule the Arab is the reverse of generous, contrasting badly, in this point, with his cousin the Jew: hence his ideal of generosity is of the very highest. "The generous (i.e. liberal) is Allah's friend, aye, though he be a sinner; and the miser is Allah's foe, aye, though he be a saint!" Indian Moslems call a skin-flint Makhi-chús=fly-sucker (Pilgrimage i. 242).
Arab. Ammá ba'ad (or Wa ba'ad), an initiatory formula attributed to Koss ibn Sa'idat al-Iyadi, bishop of Najrán (the town in Al-Yaman which D'Herbelot calls Negiran and a famous preacher in Mohammed's day) hence "more eloquent than Koss" (Maydáni, Arab. Prov., 189). He was the first who addressed letters with the incept, "from A. to B."; and the first who preached from a pulpit and who leant on a sword or a staff when discoursing. Many Moslems date Ammá ba'ad from the Prophet David, relying upon a passage of the Koran (xxxviii. 19).
Arab. "Nusf"=half (a dirham): vulgarly pronounced "nuss," and synonymous with the Egypt. "Faddah" (=silver), the Greek Asper, and the Turkish "paráh." It is the smallest Egyptian coin, made of very base metal and, there being forty to the piastre, it is worth nearly a quarter of a farthing.
The too literal Torrens and Lane make the Caliph give the gardener-lad the clothes in which he was then clad, forgetting, like the author or copier, that he wore the fishermen's lousy suit.
In sign of confusion, disappointment and so forth: not "biting his nails," which is European and utterly un-Asiatic.
See lines like these in Night xiii. (i. 136); the sentiment is trite.
The Arab will still stand under his ruler's palace and shout aloud to attract his attention. Sayyid Sa'id known as the "Imán of Muskat" used to encourage the patriarchal practice. Mohammed repeatedly protested against such unceremonious conduct (Koran xciv. 11, etc.). The "three times of privacy" (Koran cv. 57) are before the dawn prayer, during the Siesta (noon) and after the even-prayer.
The Judges of the four orthodox schools.
That none might see it or find it ever after.
Arab. "Khatt Sharif"=a royal autographical letter: the term is still preserved in Turkey, but Europeans will write "Hatt."
Meaning "Little tom-cat"; a dim. of "Kitt" vulg. Kutt or Gutt.
Arab. "Matmúrah"—the Algerine "Matamor"—a "silo," made familiar to England by the invention of "Ensilage."
The older "Mustapha"=Mohammed. This Intercession-doctrine is fiercely disputed. Pilgrimage ii. 77. The Apostle of Al-Islam seems to have been unable to make up his mind upon the subject: and modern opinion amongst Moslems is apparently borrowed from the Christians.
Lane (i. 486) curiously says, "The place of the stagnation of blood:" yet he had translated the word aright in the Introduction (i. 41). I have noticed that the Nat'a is made like the "Sufrah," of well-tanned leather, with rings in the periphery, so that a thong passed through turns it into a bag. The Sufrah used for provisions is usually yellow, with a black border and small pouches for knives or spoons (Pilgrimage i. 111).
This improbable detail shows the Caliph's greatness.
"Cousin" is here a term of familiarity, our "coz."
i.e. without allowing them a moment's delay to change clothes.
i.e. according to my nature, birth, blood, de race.
_TALE OF GHANIM BIN AYYUB, THE DISTRAUGHT,
THE THRALL O' LOVE._
It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that in times of yore and in years and ages long gone before, there lived in Damascus a merchant among the merchants, a wealthy man who had a son like the moon on the night of his fullness and withal sweet of speech, who was named Ghanim bin 'Ayyúb surnamed the Distraught, the Thrall o' Love. He had also a daughter, own sister to Ghanim, who was called Fitnah, a damsel unique in beauty and loveliness. Their father died and left them abundant wealth,—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Thirty-ninth Night,
She said, it hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the merchant left his two children abundant wealth and amongst other things an hundred loads of silks and brocades, musk-pods and mother o' pearl; and there was written on every bale, "This is of the packages intended for Baghdad," it having been his purpose to make the journey thither, when Almighty Allah took him to Himself, which was in the time of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid. After a while his son took the loads and, bidding farewell to his mother and kindred and townsfolk, went forth with a company of merchants, putting his trust in Allah Almighty, who decreed him safety, so that he arrived without let or stay at Baghdad. There he hired for himself a fair dwelling house which he furnished with carpets and cushions, curtains and hangings; and therein stored his bales and stabled his mules and camels, after which he abode a while resting. Presently the merchants and notables of Baghdad came and saluted him, after which he took a bundle containing ten pieces of costly stuffs, with the prices written on them, and carried it to the merchants' bazar, where they welcomed and saluted him and showed him all honour; and, making him dismount from his beast, seated him in the shop of the Syndic of the market, to whom he delivered the package. He opened it and drawing out the pieces of stuff, sold them for him at a profit of two dinars on every dinar of prime cost. At this Ghanim rejoiced and kept selling his silks and stuffs one after another, and ceased not to do on this wise for a full year. On the first day of the following year he went, as was his wont, to the Exchange which was in the bazar, but found the gate shut; and enquiring the reason was told, "One of the merchants is dead and all the others have gone to follow his bier, and why shouldst thou not win the meed of good deeds by walking with them?" He replied "Yes," and asked for the quarter where the funeral was taking place, and one directed him thereto.
So he purified himself by the Wuzu-ablution and repaired with the other merchants to the oratory, where they prayed over the dead, then walked before the bier to the burial-place, and Ghanim, who was a bashful man, followed them being ashamed to leave them. They presently issued from the city, and passed through the tombs until they reached the grave where they found that the deceased's kith and kin had pitched a tent over the tomb and had brought thither lamps and wax-candles. So they buried the body and sat down while the readers read out and recited the Koran over the grave; and Ghanim sat with them, being overcome with bashfulness and saying to himself "I cannot well go away till they do." They tarried listening to the Koranic perlection till nightfall, when the servants set supper and sweetmeats before them and they ate till they were satisfied; then they washed their hands and again took their places. But Ghanim's mind was preoccupied with his house and goods, being in fear of robbers, and he said to himself, "I am a stranger here and supposed to have money: if I pass the night abroad the thieves will steal my money-bags and my bales to boot." So when he could no longer control his fear he arose and left the assembly, having first asked leave to go about some urgent business; and following the signs of the road he soon came to the city-gate. But it was midnight and he found the doors locked and saw none going or coming nor heard aught but the hounds baying and the wolves howling. At this he exclaimed, "There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah! I was in fear for my property and came back on its account, but now I find the gate shut and I am in mortal fear for my life!" Then he turned back and, looking out for a place where he could sleep till morning, presently found a Santon's tomb, a square of four walls with a date-tree in the central court and a granite gateway. The door was wide open; so he entered and would fain have slept, but sleep came not to him; and terror and a sense of desolation oppressed him, for that he was alone amidst the tombs. So he rose to his feet and, opening the door, looked out and lo!
he was ware of a light afar off in the direction of the city-gate; then walking a little way towards it, he saw that it was on the road whereby he had reached the tomb. This made him fear for his life, so he hastily shut the door and climbed to the top of the date-tree where he hid himself in the heart of the fronds. The light came nearer and nearer till it was close to the tomb; then it stopped and he saw three slaves, two bearing a chest and one with a lanthorn, an adze and a basket containing some mortar. When they reached the tomb, one of those who were carrying the case said, "What aileth thee O Sawab?"; and said the other, "What is the matter O Kafur?" Quoth he, "Were we not here at supper-tide and did we not leave the door open?" "Yes," replied the other, "that is true." "See," said Kafur, "now it is shut and barred." "How weak are your wits!" cried the third who bore the adze and his name was Bukhayt, "know ye not that the owners of the gardens use to come out from Baghdad and tend them and, when evening closes upon them, they enter this place and shut the door, for fear lest the wicked blackmen, like ourselves, should catch them and roast 'em and eat 'em." "Thou sayest sooth," said the two others, "but by Allah, however that may be, none amongst us is weaker of wits than thou." "If ye do not believe me," said Bukhayt, "let us enter the tomb and I will rouse the rat for you; for I doubt not but that, when he saw the light and us making for the place, he ran up the date-tree and hid there for fear of us." When Ghanim heard this, he said in himself, "O curstest of slaves! May Allah not have thee in His holy keeping for this thy craft and keenness of wit! There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great! How shall I win free of these blackamoors?" Then said the two who bore the box to him of the adze, "Swarm up the wall and open the gate for us, O Bukhayt, for we are tired of carrying the chest on our necks; and when thou hast opened the gate thou shalt have one of those we catch inside, a fine fat rat which we will fry for thee after such excellent fashion that not a speck of his fat shall be lost."
But Bukhayt answered, "I am afraid of somewhat which my weak wits have suggested to me: we should do better to throw the chest over the gateway; for it is our treasure." "If we throw it 'twill break," replied they; and he said, "I fear lest there be robbers within who murder folk and plunder their goods, for evening is their time of entering such places and dividing their spoil." "O thou weak o' wits," said both the bearers of the box, "how could they ever get in here!" Then they set down the chest and climbing over the wall dropped inside and opened the gate, whilst the third slave (he that was called Bukhayt) stood by them holding the adze, the lanthorn and the hand-basket containing the mortar. After this they locked the gate and sat down; and presently one of them said, "O my brethren, we are wearied with walking and with lifting up and setting down the chest, and with unlocking and locking the gate; and now 'tis midnight, and we have no breath left to open, a tomb and bury the box: so let us rest here two or three hours, then rise and do the job. Meanwhile each of us shall tell how he came to be castrated and all that befel him from first to last, the better to pass away our time while we take our rest." Thereupon the first, he of the lanthorn and whose name was Bukhayt, said, "I'll tell you my tale." "Say on," replied they; so he began as follows the
TALE OF THE FIRST EUNUCH BUKHAYT.
Know, O my brothers, that when I was a little one, some five years old, I was taken home from my native country by a slave-driver who sold me to a certain Apparitor. My purchaser had a daughter three years old, with whom I was brought up, and they used to make mock of me, letting me play with her and dance for her and sing to her, till I reached the age of twelve and she that of ten; and even then they did not forbid me seeing her. One day I went in to her and found her sitting in an inner room, and she looked as if she had just come out of the bath which was in the house; for she was scented with essences and reek of aromatic woods, and her face shone like the circle of the moon on the fourteenth night. She began to sport with me, and I with her. Now I had just reached the age of puberty; so my prickle stood at point, as it were a huge key. Then she threw me on my back and, mounting astraddle on my breast, fell a-wriggling and a-bucking upon me till she had uncovered my yard. When she saw it standing with head erect, she hent it in hand and began rubbing it upon the lips of her little slit outside her petticoat-trousers. Thereat hot lust stirred in me and I threw my arms round her, while she wound hers about my neck and hugged me to her with all her might, till, before I knew what I did, my pizzle split up her trousers and entered her slit and did away her maidenhead. When I saw this, I ran off and took refuge with one of my comrades. Presently her mother came in to her; and, seeing her in this case, fainted clean away. However she managed the matter advisedly and hid it from the girl's father out of good will to me; nor did they cease to call to me and coax me, till they took me from where I was. After two months had passed by, her mother married her to a young man, a barber who used to shave her papa, and portioned and fitted her out of her own monies; whilst the father knew nothing of what had passed. On the night of consummation they cut the throat of a pigeon-poult and sprinkled the blood on her shift. After a while they seized me unawares and gelded me; and, when they brought her to her bridegroom, they made me her Agha, her eunuch, to walk before her wheresoever she went, whether to the bath or to her father's house. I abode with her a long time enjoying her beauty and loveliness by way of kissing and clipping and coupling with her, till she died, and her husband and mother and father died also; when they seized me for the Royal Treasury as being the property of an intestate, and I found my way hither, where I became your comrade. This, then, O my brethren, is the cause of my cullions being cut off; and peace be with you! He ceased and his fellow began in these words the
TALE OF THE SECOND EUNUCH, KAFUR.
Know, O my brothers that, when beginning service as a boy of eight, I used to tell the slave-dealers regularly and exactly one lie every year, so that they fell out with one another, till at last my master lost patience with me and, carrying me down to the market, ordered the brokers to cry, "Who will buy this slave, knowing his blemish and making allowance for it?" He did so and they asked him, "Pray, what may be his blemish?" and he answered, "He telleth me one single lie every year." Now a man that was a merchant came up and said to the broker, "How much do they allow for him with his blemish?" "They allow six hundred dirhams," he replied; and said the other, "Thou shalt have twenty dirhams for thyself." So he arranged between him and the slave-dealer who took the coin from him and the broker carried me to the merchant's house and departed, after receiving his brokerage. The trader clothed me with suitable dress, and I stayed in his service the rest of my twelvemonth, until the new year began happily. It was a blessed season, plenteous in the produce of the earth, and the merchants used to feast every day at the house of some one among them, till it was my master's turn to entertain them in a flower-garden without the city. So he and the other merchants went to the garden, taking with them all that they required of provaunt and else beside, and sat eating and carousing and drinking till mid-day, when my master, having need of some matter from his home, said to me, "O slave, mount the she-mule and hie thee to the house and bring from thy mistress such and such a thing and return quickly." I obeyed his bidding and started for the house but, as I drew near it, I began to cry out and shed tears, whereupon all the people of the quarter collected, great and small; and my master's wife and daughters, hearing the noise I was making, opened the door and asked me what was the matter. Said I, "My master was sitting with his friends beneath an old wall, and it fell on one and all of them; and when I saw what had happened to them, I mounted the mule and came hither in haste to tell you."
