{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_51252/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_51252","id":"gutenberg_51252","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51252","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Adventure","Category: Classics of Literature","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Romance","Fairy tales -- Arab countries","Folklore -- Arab countries"],"text":"[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n \"TO THE PURE ALL THINGS ARE PURE.\"\n (Puris omnia para)\n\n \u2014_Arab Proverb._\n\n \"Niuna corrotta mente intese mai sanamente parole.\"\n\n \u2014\"_Decameron_\"\u2014_conclusion_.\n\n \"Erubuit, posuitque meum Lucretia librum\n Sed coram Bruto. Brute! recede, leget.\"\n\n \u2014_Martial._\n\n \"Mieulx est de ris que de larmes escripre,\n Pour ce que rire est le propre des hommes.\"\n\n \u2014RABELAIS.\n\n\"The pleasure we derive from perusing the Thousand-and-One Stories makes\nus regret that we possess only a comparatively small part of these truly\nenchanting fictions.\"\n\n \u2014CRICHTON'S \"_History of Arabia_.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n_A PLAIN AND LITERAL TRANSLATION OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS ENTERTAINMENTS.\nNOW ENTITULED_\n\n\n\n\n _THE BOOK OF THE_\n =Thousand Nights and a Night=\n\n _WITH INTRODUCTION EXPLANATORY NOTES ON THE\n MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF MOSLEM MEN AND A\n TERMINAL ESSAY UPON THE HISTORY OF THE\n NIGHTS_\n\n VOLUME I.\n\n\n BY\n RICHARD F. BURTON\n\n[Illustration]\n\n PRINTED BY THE BURTON CLUB FOR PRIVATE\n SUBSCRIBERS ONLY\n\n Shammar Edition\n\nLimited to one thousand numbered sets, of which this is\n\n Number _547_\n\n\n\n\n PRINTED IN U. S. A.\n\n =Inscribed to the Memory=\n\n OF\n\n MY LAMENTED FRIEND\n\n =John Frederick Steinhaeuser,=\n\n (CIVIL SURGEON, ADEN)\n\n WHO\n\n A QUARTER OF A CENTURY AGO\n\n ASSISTED ME IN THIS TRANSLATION.\n\n\n\n\n THE TRANSLATOR'S FOREWORD.\n\n\nThis work, laborious as it may appear, has been to me a labour of love,\nan unfailing source of solace and satisfaction. During my long years of\nofficial banishment to the luxuriant and deadly deserts of Western\nAfrica, and to the dull and dreary half-clearings of South America, it\nproved itself a charm, a talisman against ennui and despondency.\nImpossible even to open the pages without a vision starting into view;\nwithout drawing a picture from the pinacothek of the brain; without\nreviving a host of memories and reminiscences which are not the common\nproperty of travellers, however widely they may have travelled. From my\ndull and commonplace and \"respectable\" surroundings, the Jinn bore me at\nonce to the land of my predilection, Arabia, a region so familiar to my\nmind that even at first sight, it seemed a reminiscence of some by-gone\nmetempsychic life in the distant Past. Again I stood under the\ndiaphanous skies, in air glorious as \u00e6ther, whose every breath raises\nmen's spirits like sparkling wine. Once more I saw the evening star\nhanging like a solitaire from the pure front of the western firmament;\nand the after-glow transfiguring and transforming, as by magic, the\nhomely and rugged features of the scene into a fairy-land lit with a\nlight which never shines on other soils or seas. Then would appear the\nwoollen tents, low and black, of the true Badawin, mere dots in the\nboundless waste of lion-tawny clays and gazelle-brown gravels, and the\ncamp-fire dotting like a glow-worm the village centre. Presently,\nsweetened by distance, would be heard the wild weird song of lads and\nlasses, driving or rather pelting, through the gloaming their sheep and\ngoats; and the measured chant of the spearsmen gravely stalking behind\ntheir charge, the camels; mingled with the bleating of the flocks and\nthe bellowing of the humpy herds; while the rere-mouse flitted overhead\nwith his tiny shriek, and the rave of the jackal resounded through\ndeepening glooms, and\u2014most musical of music\u2014the palm-trees answered the\nwhispers of the night-breeze with the softest tones of falling water.\n\nAnd then a shift of scene. The Shaykhs and \"white-beards\" of the tribe\ngravely take their places, sitting with outspread skirts like hillocks\non the plain, as the Arabs say, around the camp-fire, whilst I reward\ntheir hospitality and secure its continuance by reading or reciting a\nfew pages of their favourite tales. The women and children stand\nmotionless as silhouettes outside the ring; and all are breathless with\nattention; they seem to drink in the words with eyes and mouths as well\nas with ears. The most fantastic flights of fancy, the wildest\nimprobabilities, the most impossible of impossibilities, appear to them\nutterly natural, mere matters of every-day occurrence. They enter\nthoroughly into each phase of feeling touched upon by the author: they\ntake a personal pride in the chivalrous nature and knightly prowess of\nTaj al-Mul\u00fak; they are touched with tenderness by the self-sacrificing\nlove of Az\u00edzah; their mouths water as they hear of heaps of untold gold\ngiven away in largesse like clay; they chuckle with delight every time a\nK\u00e1zi or a Fak\u00edr\u2014a judge or a reverend\u2014is scurvily entreated by some\nPantagruelist of the Wilderness; and, despite their normal solemnity and\nimpassibility, all roar with laughter, sometimes rolling upon the ground\ntill the reader's gravity is sorely tried, at the tales of the garrulous\nBarber and of Ali and the Kurdish Sharper. To this magnetising mood the\nsole exception is when a Badawi of superior accomplishments, who\nsometimes says his prayers, ejaculates a startling \"Astaghfaru'llah\"\u2014I\npray Allah's pardon!\u2014for listening, not to Carlyle's \"downright lies,\"\nbut to light mention of the sex whose name is never heard amongst the\nnobility of the Desert.\n\nNor was it only in Arabia that the immortal Nights did me such notable\nservice: I found the wildlings of Somali-land equally amenable to its\ndiscipline; no one was deaf to the charm and the two women-cooks of my\ncaravan, on its way to Harar, were incontinently dubbed by my men\n\"Shahrazad\" and \"Dinazad.\"\n\nIt may be permitted me also to note that this translation is a natural\noutcome of my Pilgrimage to Al-Medinah and Meccah. Arriving at Aden in\nthe (so-called) winter of 1852, I put up with my old and dear friend,\nSteinhaeuser, to whose memory this volume is inscribed; and, when\ntalking over Arabia and the Arabs, we at once came to the same\nconclusion that, while the name of this wondrous treasury of Moslem\nfolk-lore is familiar to almost every English child, no general reader\nis aware of the valuables it contains, nor indeed will the door open to\nany but Arabists. Before parting we agreed to \"collaborate\" and produce\na full, complete, unvarnished, uncastrated copy of the great original,\nmy friend taking the prose and I the metrical part; and we corresponded\nupon the subject for years. But whilst I was in the Brazil, Steinhaeuser\ndied suddenly of apoplexy at Berne in Switzerland and, after the fashion\nof Anglo-India, his valuable MSS. left at Aden were dispersed, and very\nlittle of his labours came into my hands.\n\nThus I was left alone to my work, which progressed fitfully amid a host\nof obstructions. At length, in the spring of 1879, the tedious process\nof copying began and the book commenced to take finished form. But,\nduring the winter of 1881-82, I saw in the literary journals a notice of\na new version by Mr. John Payne, well known to scholars for his prowess\nin English verse, especially for his translation of \"The Poems of Master\nFrancis Villon, of Paris.\" Being then engaged on an expedition to the\nGold Coast (for gold), which seemed likely to cover some months, I wrote\nto the \"Athen\u00e6um\" (Nov. 13, 1881) and to Mr. Payne, who was wholly\nunconscious that we were engaged on the same work, and freely offered\nhim precedence and possession of the field till no longer wanted. He\naccepted my offer as frankly, and his priority entailed another delay\nlasting till the spring of 1885. These details will partly account for\nthe lateness of my appearing, but there is yet another cause.\nProfessional ambition suggested that literary labours, unpopular with\nthe vulgar and the half-educated, are not likely to help a man up the\nladder of promotion. But common sense presently suggested to me that,\nprofessionally speaking, I was not a success; and, at the same time,\nthat I had no cause to be ashamed of my failure. In our day, when we\nlive under a despotism of the lower \"middle-class\" Philister who can\npardon anything but superiority, the prizes of competitive services are\nmonopolised by certain \"pets\" of the _M\u00e9diocratie_, and prime favourites\nof that jealous and potent majority\u2014the Mediocrities who know \"no\nnonsense about merit.\" It is hard for an outsider to realise how perfect\nis the monopoly of commonplace, and to comprehend how fatal a\nstumbling-stone that man sets in the way of his own advancement who\ndares to think for himself, or who knows more or who does more than the\nmob of gentlemen-employ\u00e9s who know very little and who do even less.\n\nYet, however behindhand I may be, there is still ample room and verge\nfor an English version of the \"Arabian Nights' Entertainments.\"\n\nOur century of translations, popular and vernacular, from (Professor\nAntoine) Galland's delightful abbreviation and adaptation (A.D. 1704),\nin no wise represent the eastern original. The best and latest, the Rev.\nMr. Foster's, which is diffuse and verbose, and Mr. G. Moir Bussey's,\nwhich is a re-correction, abound in gallicisms of style and idiom; and\none and all degrade a chef-d'\u0153uvre of the highest anthropological and\nethnographical interest and importance to a mere fairy-book, a nice\npresent for little boys.\n\nAfter nearly a century had elapsed, Dr. Jonathan Scott (LL.D. H.E.I.C.'s\nS., Persian Secretary to the G. G. Bengal; Oriental Professor, etc.,\netc.), printed his \"Tales, Anecdotes, and Letters, translated from the\nArabic and Persian,\" (Cadell and Davies, London, A.D. 1800); and\nfollowed in 1811 with an edition of \"The Arabian Nights' Entertainments\"\nfrom the MS. of Edward Wortley Montague (in 6 vols., small 8vo, London:\nLongmans, etc.). This work he (and he only) describes as \"Carefully\nrevised and occasionally corrected from the Arabic.\" The reading public\ndid not wholly reject it, sundry texts were founded upon the Scott\nversion and it has been imperfectly reprinted (4 vols., 8vo, Nimmo and\nBain, London, 1883). But most men, little recking what a small portion\nof the original they were reading, satisfied themselves with the\nAnglo-French epitome and metaphrase. At length in 1838, Mr. Henry\nTorrens, B.A., Irishman, lawyer (\"of the Inner Temple\") and Bengal\nCivilian, took a step in the right direction; and began to translate,\n\"The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night,\" (1 vol., 8vo, Calcutta:\nW. Thacker and Co.) from the Arabic of the \u00c6gyptian (!) MS. edited by\nMr. (afterwards Sir) William H. Macnaghten. The attempt, or rather the\nintention, was highly creditable; the copy was carefully moulded upon\nthe model and offered the best example of the _verbatim et literatim_\nstyle. But the plucky author knew little of Arabic, and least of what is\nmost wanted, the dialect of Egypt and Syria. His prose is so\nconscientious as to offer up spirit at the shrine of letter; and his\nverse, always whimsical, has at times a manner of Hibernian whoop which\nis comical when it should be pathetic. Lastly he printed only one volume\nof a series which completed would have contained nine or ten.\n\nThat amiable and devoted Arabist, the late Edward William Lane does not\nscore a success in his \"New Translation of the Tales of a Thousand and\nOne Nights\" (London: Charles Knight and Co., MDCCCXXXIX.) of which there\nhave been four English editions, besides American, two edited by E. S.\nPoole. He chose the abbreviating Bulak Edition; and, of its two hundred\ntales, he has omitted about half and by far the more characteristic\nhalf: the work was intended for \"the drawing-room table;\" and,\nconsequently, the workman was compelled to avoid the \"objectionable\" and\naught \"approaching to licentiousness.\" He converts the Arabian Nights\ninto the Arabian Chapters, arbitrarily changing the division and, worse\nstill, he converts some chapters into notes. He renders poetry by prose\nand apologises for not omitting it altogether: he neglects assonance and\nhe is at once too Oriental and not Oriental enough. He had small store\nof Arabic at the time\u2014Lane of the Nights is not Lane of the\nDictionary\u2014and his pages are disfigured by many childish mistakes. Worst\nof all, the three handsome volumes are rendered unreadable as Sale's\nKoran by their anglicised Latin, their sesquipedalian un-English words,\nand the stiff and stilted style of half a century ago when our prose\nwas, perhaps, the worst in Europe. Their cargo of Moslem learning was\nmost valuable to the student, but utterly out of place for readers of\n\"The Nights;\" re-published, as these notes have been separately (London,\nChatto, 1883), they are an ethnological text-book.\n\nMr. John Payne has printed, for the Villon Society and for private\ncirculation only, the first and sole complete translation of the great\ncompendium, \"comprising about four times as much matter as that of\nGalland, and three times as much as that of any other translator;\" and\nI cannot but feel proud that he has honoured me with the dedication of\n\"The Book of The Thousand Nights and One Night.\" His version is most\nreadable: his English, with a sub-flavour of the Mabinogionic\narchaicism, is admirable; and his style gives life and light to the\nnine volumes whose matter is frequently heavy enough. He succeeds\nadmirably in the most difficult passages and he often hits upon choice\nand special terms and the exact vernacular equivalent of the foreign\nword, so happily and so picturesquely that all future translators must\nperforce use the same expression under pain of falling far short. But\nthe learned and versatile author bound himself to issue only five\nhundred copies, and \"not to reproduce the work in its complete and\nuncastrated form.\" Consequently his excellent version is caviaire to\nthe general\u2014practically unprocurable.\n\nAnd here I hasten to confess that ample use has been made of the three\nversions above noted, the whole being blended by a _callida junctura_\ninto a homogeneous mass. But in the presence of so many predecessors a\nwriter is bound to show some _raison d'\u00eatre_ for making a fresh attempt\nand this I proceed to do with due reserve.\n\nBriefly, the object of this version is to show what \"The Thousand Nights\nand a Night\" really is. Not, however, for reasons to be more fully\nstated in the terminal Essay, by straining _verbum reddere verbo_, but\nby writing as the Arab would have written in English. On this point I am\nall with Saint Jerome (Pref. in Jobum) \"Vel verbum e verbo, vel sensum e\nsensu, vel ex utroque commixtum, et medie temperatum genus\ntranslationis.\" My work claims to be a faithful copy of the great\nEastern Saga-book, by preserving intact, not only the spirit, but even\nthe _m\u00e9canique_, the manner and the matter. Hence, however prosy and\nlong-drawn out be the formula, it retains the scheme of the Nights\nbecause they are a prime feature in the original. The R\u00e1w\u00ed or reciter,\nto whose wits the task of supplying details is left, well knows their\nvalue: the openings carefully repeat the names of the _dramatis person\u00e6_\nand thus fix them in the hearer's memory. Without the Nights no Arabian\nNights! Moreover it is necessary to retain the whole apparatus: nothing\nmore ill-advised than Dr. Jonathan Scott's strange device of garnishing\nThe Nights with fancy head-pieces and tail-pieces or the splitting-up of\nGalland's narrative by merely prefixing \"Nuit,\" etc., ending moreover,\nwith the ccxxxiv^{th} Night: yet this has been done, apparently with the\nconsent of the great Arabist Sylvestre de Sacy (Paris, Ernest Bourdin).\nMoreover, holding that the translator's glory is to add something to his\nnative tongue, while avoiding the hideous hag-like nakedness of Torrens\nand the bald literalism of Lane, I have carefully Englished the\npicturesque turns and novel expressions of the original in all their\noutlandishness; for instance, when the dust-cloud raised by a tramping\nhost is described as \"walling the horizon.\" Hence peculiar attention has\nbeen paid to the tropes and figures which the Arabic language often\npacks into a single term; and I have never hesitated to coin a word when\nwanted, such as \"she snorted and snarked,\" fully to represent the\noriginal. These, like many in Rabelais, are mere barbarisms unless\ngenerally adopted; in which case they become civilised and common\ncurrency.\n\nDespite objections manifold and manifest, I have preserved the balance\nof sentences and the prose rhyme and rhythm which Easterns look upon as\nmere music. This \"Saj'a,\" or cadence of the cooing dove, has in Arabic\nits special duties. It adds a sparkle to description and a point to\nproverb, epigram and dialogue; it corresponds with our \"artful\nalliteration\" (which in places I have substituted for it) and,\ngenerally, it defines the boundaries between the classical and the\npopular styles which jostle each other in The Nights. If at times it\nappear strained and forced, after the wont of rhymed prose, the scholar\nwill observe that, despite the immense copiousness of assonants and\nconsonants in Arabic, the strain is often put upon it intentionally,\nlike the _Rims cars_ of Dante and the Troubadours. This rhymed prose may\nbe \"un-English\" and unpleasant, even irritating to the British ear;\nstill I look upon it as a _sine qu\u00e2 non_ for a complete reproduction of\nthe original. In the terminal Essay I shall revert to the subject.\n\nOn the other hand when treating the versicle portion, which may\nrepresent a total of ten thousand lines, I have not always bound myself\nby the metrical bonds of the Arabic, which are artificial in the\nextreme, and which in English can be made bearable only by a _tour de\nforce_. I allude especially to the monorhyme, _Rim continuat_ or _tirade\nmonorime_, whose monotonous simplicity was preferred by the Troubadours\nfor threnodies. It may serve well for three or four couplets but, when\nit extends, as in the Ghazal-canzon, to eighteen, and in the Kasidah,\nelegy or ode, to more, it must either satisfy itself with banal\nrhyme-words, when the assonants should as a rule be expressive and\nemphatic; or, it must display an ingenuity, a smell of the oil, which\nassuredly does not add to the reader's pleasure. It can perhaps be done\nand it should be done; but for me the task has no attractions: I can\nfence better in shoes than in sabots. Finally I print the couplets in\nArab form separating the hemistichs by asterisks.\n\nAnd now to consider one matter of special importance in the book\u2014its\n_turpiloquium_. This stumbling-block is of two kinds, completely\ndistinct. One is the simple, na\u00efve and child-like indecency which, from\nTangiers to Japan, occurs throughout general conversation of high and\nlow in the present day. It uses, like the holy books of the Hebrews,\nexpressions \"plainly descriptive of natural situations;\" and it treats\nin an unconventionally free and naked manner of subjects and matters\nwhich are usually, by common consent, left undescribed. As Sir William\nJones observed long ago, \"that anything natural can be offensively\nobscene never seems to have occurred to the Indians or to their\nlegislators; a singularity (?) pervading their writings and\nconversation, but no proof of moral depravity.\" Another justly observes,\n_Les peuples primitifs n'y entendent pas malice: ils appellent les\nchoses par leurs noms et ne trouvent pas condamnable ce qui est\nnaturel._ And they are prying as children. For instance the European\nnovelist marries off his hero and heroine and leaves them to consummate\nmarriage in privacy; even Tom Jones has the decency to bolt the door.\nBut the Eastern story-teller, especially this unknown \"prose\nShakespeare,\" must usher you, with a flourish, into the bridal chamber\nand narrate to you, with infinite gusto, everything he sees and hears.\nAgain we must remember that grossness and indecency, in fact _les\nturpitudes_, are matters of time and place; what is offensive in England\nis not so in Egypt; what scandalises us now would have been a tame joke\n_tempore Elis\u00e6_. Withal The Nights will not be found in this matter\ncoarser than many passages of Shakspeare, Sterne, and Swift, and their\nuncleanness rarely attains the perfection of Alcofribas Nasier, \"divin\nma\u00eetre et atroce cochon.\" The other element is absolute obscenity,\nsometimes, but not always, tempered by wit, humour and drollery; here we\nhave an exaggeration of Petronius Arbiter, the handiwork of writers\nwhose ancestry, the most religious and the most debauched of mankind,\npractised every abomination before the shrine of the Canopic Gods.\n\nIn accordance with my purpose of reproducing the Nights, not _virginibus\npuerisque_, but in as perfect a picture as my powers permit, I have\ncarefully sought out the English equivalent of every Arabic word,\nhowever low it may be or \"shocking\" to ears polite; preserving, on the\nother hand, all possible delicacy where the indecency is not\nintentional; and, as a friend advises me to state, not exaggerating the\nvulgarities and the indecencies which, indeed, can hardly be\nexaggerated. For the coarseness and crassness are but the shades of a\npicture which would otherwise be all lights. The general tone of The\nNights is exceptionally high and pure. The devotional fervour often\nrises to the boiling-point of fanaticism. The pathos is sweet, deep and\ngenuine; tender, simple and true, utterly unlike much of our modern\ntinsel. Its life, strong, splendid and multitudinous, is everywhere\nflavoured with that unaffected pessimism and constitutional melancholy\nwhich strike deepest root under the brightest skies and which sigh in\nthe face of heaven:\u2014\n\n Vita quid est hominis? Viridis floriscula mortis;\n Sole Oriente oriens, sole cadente cadens.\n\nPoetical justice is administered by the literary K\u00e1z\u00ed with exemplary\nimpartiality and severity; \"denouncing evil doers and eulogising deeds\nadmirably achieved.\" The morale is sound and healthy; and at times we\ndescry, through the voluptuous and libertine picture, vistas of a\ntranscendental morality, the morality of Socrates in Plato. Subtle\ncorruption and covert licentiousness are utterly absent; we find more\nreal \"vice\" in many a short French roman, say La Dame aux Camelias, and\nin not a few English novels of our day than in the thousands of pages of\nthe Arab. Here we have nothing of that most immodest modern modesty\nwhich sees covert implication where nothing is implied, and \"improper\"\nallusion, when propriety is not outraged; nor do we meet with the\nNineteenth Century refinement; innocence of the word not of the thought;\nmorality of the tongue not of the heart, and the sincere homage paid to\nvirtue in guise of perfect hypocrisy. It is, indeed, this unique\ncontrast of a quaint element, childish crudities and nursery indecencies\nand \"vain and amatorious\" phrase jostling the finest and highest views\nof life and character, shown in the kaleidoscopic shiftings of the\nmarvellous picture with many a \"rich truth in a tale's pretence\";\npointed by a rough dry humour which compares well with \"wut;\" the\nalternations of strength and weakness, of pathos and bathos, of the\nboldest poetry (the diction of Job) and the baldest prose (the Egyptian\nof to-day); the contact of religion and morality with the orgies of\nAfrican Apuleius and Petronius Arbiter\u2014at times taking away the reader's\nbreath\u2014and, finally, the whole dominated everywhere by that marvellous\nOriental fancy, wherein the spiritual and the supernatural are as common\nas the material and the natural; it is this contrast, I say, which forms\nthe chiefest charm of The Nights, which gives it the most striking\noriginality and which makes it a perfect expositor of the medieval\nMoslem mind.\n\nExplanatory notes did not enter into Mr. Payne's plan. They do with\nmine: I can hardly imagine The Nights being read to any profit by men of\nthe West without commentary. My annotations avoid only one subject,\nparallels of European folk-lore and fabliaux which, however interesting,\nwould overswell the bulk of a book whose speciality is anthropology. The\naccidents of my life, it may be said without undue presumption, my long\ndealings with Arabs and other Mahommedans, and my familiarity not only\nwith their idiom but with their turn of thought, and with that racial\nindividuality which baffles description, have given me certain\nadvantages over the average student, however deeply he may have studied.\nThese volumes, moreover, afford me a long-sought opportunity of noticing\npractices and customs which interest all mankind and which \"Society\"\nwill not hear mentioned. Grote, the historian, and Thackeray, the\nnovelist, both lamented that the _b\u00e9gueulerie_ of their countrymen\ncondemned them to keep silence where publicity was required; and that\nthey could not even claim the partial licence of a Fielding and a\nSmollett. Hence a score of years ago I lent my best help to the late Dr.\nJames Hunt in founding the Anthropological Society, whose presidential\nchair I first occupied (pp. 2-4 Anthropologia; London, Balliere, vol.\ni., No. 1, 1873). My motive was to supply travellers with an organ which\nwould rescue their observations from the outer darkness of manuscript,\nand print their curious information on social and sexual matters out of\nplace in the popular book intended for the Nipptisch and indeed better\nkept from public view. But, hardly had we begun when \"Respectability,\"\nthat whited sepulchre full of all uncleanness, rose up against us.\n\"Propriety\" cried us down with her brazen blatant voice, and the\nweak-kneed brethren fell away. Yet the organ was much wanted and is\nwanted still. All now known barbarous tribes in Inner Africa, America\nand Australia, whose instincts have not been overlaid by reason, have a\nceremony which they call \"making men.\" As soon as the boy shows proofs\nof puberty, he and his coevals are taken in hand by the mediciner and\nthe Fetisheer; and, under priestly tuition, they spend months in the\n\"bush,\" enduring hardships and tortures which impress the memory till\nthey have mastered the \"theorick and practick\" of social and sexual\nrelations. Amongst the civilised this fruit of the knowledge-tree must\nbe bought at the price of the bitterest experience, and the consequences\nof ignorance are peculiarly cruel. Here, then, I find at last an\nopportunity of noticing in explanatory notes many details of the text\nwhich would escape the reader's observation, and I am confident that\nthey will form a repertory of Eastern knowledge in its esoteric phase.\nThe student who adds the notes of Lane (\"Arabian Society,\" etc., before\nquoted) to mine will know as much of the Moslem East and more than many\nEuropeans who have spent half their lives in Orient lands. For facility\nof reference an index of anthropological notes is appended to each\nvolume.\n\nThe reader will kindly bear with the following technical details.\nSteinhaeuser and I began and ended our work with the first Bulak\n(\"Bul.\") Edition printed at the port of Cairo in A.H. 1251=A.D. 1835.\nBut when preparing my MSS. for print I found the text incomplete, many\nof the stories being given in epitome and not a few ruthlessly mutilated\nwith head or feet wanting. Like most Eastern scribes the Editor could\nnot refrain from \"improvements,\" which only debased the book; and his\nsole title to excuse is that the second Bulak Edition (4 vols. A.H.\n1279=A.D. 1863), despite its being \"revised and corrected by Sheik\nMahommed Qotch Al-Adewi,\" is even worse; and the same may be said of the\nCairo Edit. (4 vols. A.H. 1297=A.D. 1881). The Calcutta (\"Calc.\")\nEdition, with ten lines of Persian preface by the Editor, Ahmed\nal-Shirwani (A.D. 1814), was cut short at the end of the first two\nhundred Nights, and thus made room for Sir William Hay Macnaghten's\nEdition (4 vols, royal 4to) of 1839-42. This (\"Mac.\"), as by far the\nleast corrupt and the most complete, has been assumed for my basis with\noccasional reference to the Breslau Edition (\"Bres.\") wretchedly edited\nfrom a hideous Egyptian MS. by Dr. Maximilian Habicht (1825-43). The\nBayrut Text \"Alif-Leila we Leila\" (4 vols. gt. 8vo, Beirut. 1881-83) is\na melancholy specimen of The Nights taken entirely from the Bulak\nEdition by one Khalil Sarkis and converted to Christianity; beginning\nwithout Bismillah, continued with scrupulous castration and ending in\nennui and disappointment. I have not used this missionary production.\n\nAs regards the transliteration of Arabic words I deliberately reject the\nartful and complicated system, ugly and clumsy withal, affected by\nscientific modern Orientalists. Nor is my sympathy with their prime\nobject, namely to fit the Roman alphabet for supplanting all others.\nThose who learn languages, and many do so, by the eye as well as by the\near, well know the advantages of a special character to distinguish, for\ninstance, Syriac from Arabic, Gujrati from Marathi. Again this Roman\nhand bewitched may have its use in purely scientific and literary works;\nbut it would be wholly out of place in one whose purpose is that of the\nnovel, to amuse rather than to instruct. Moreover the devices perplex\nthe simple and teach nothing to the learned. Either the reader knows\nArabic, in which case Greek letters, italics and \"upper case,\"\ndiacritical points and similar typographic oddities are, as a rule with\nsome exceptions, unnecessary; or he does not know Arabic, when none of\nthese expedients will be of the least use to him. Indeed it is a matter\nof secondary consideration what system we prefer, provided that we\nmostly adhere to one and the same, for the sake of a consistency which\nsaves confusion to the reader. I have especially avoided that of Mr.\nLane, adopted by Mr. Payne for special reasons against which it was vain\nto protest: it represents the debased brogue of Egypt or rather of\nCairo; and such a word as Kemer (ez-Zeman) would be utterly\nunpronounceable to a Badawi. Nor have I followed the practice of my\nlearned friend, Reverend G. P. Badger, in mixing bars and acute accents;\nthe former unpleasantly remind man of those hateful dactyls and\nspondees, and the latter should, in my humble opinion, be applied to\nlong vowels which in Arabic double, or should double, the length of the\nshorts. Dr. Badger uses the acute symbol to denote accent or stress of\nvoice; but such appoggio is unknown to those who speak with purest\narticulation; for instance whilst the European pronounces Mus-cat\u00b4, and\nthe Arab villager Mas\u00b4-kat; the Children of the Waste, \"on whose tongues\nAllah descended,\" articulate Mas-kat. I have therefore followed the\nsimple system adopted in my \"Pilgrimage,\" and have accented Arabic words\nonly when first used, thinking it unnecessary to preserve throughout\nwhat is an eyesore to the reader and a distress to the printer. In the\nmain I follow \"Johnson on Richardson,\" a work known to every\nAnglo-Orientalist as the old and trusty companion of his studies early\nand late; but even here I have made sundry deviations for reasons which\nwill be explained in the terminal Essay. As words are the embodiment of\nideas and writing is of words, so the word is the spoken word; and we\nshould write it as pronounced. Strictly speaking, the _e_-sound and the\n_o_-sound (viz. the Italian _o_-sound not the English which is peculiar\nto us and unknown to any other tongue) are not found in Arabic, except\nwhen the figure Im\u00e1lah obliges: hence they are called \"Y\u00e1 al-Majh\u00fal\" and\n\"Waw al-Majh\u00fal\" the unknown y (\u00ed) and u. But in all tongues\nvowel-sounds, the flesh which clothes the bones (consonants) of\nlanguage, are affected by the consonants which precede and more\nespecially which follow them, hardening and softening the articulation;\nand deeper sounds accompany certain letters as the s\u00e1d (\u0635) compared with\nthe s\u00edn (\u0633). None save a defective ear would hold, as Lane does,\n\"Maulid\" (=birth-festival) \"more properly pronounced 'Molid.'\" Yet I\nprefer Khokh (peach) and Jokh (broad-cloth) to Khukh and Jukh; Ohod\n(mount) to Uhud; Obayd (a little slave) to Ubayd; and Hosayn (a fortlet,\nnot the P. N. Al-Husayn) to Husayn. As for the short _e_ in such words\nas \"Meml\u00fak\" for \"Maml\u00fak\" (a white slave), \"Eshe\" for \"Asha\" (supper),\nand \"Yemen\" for \"Al-Yaman,\" I consider it a flat Egyptianism,\ninsufferable to an ear which admires the Badawi pronunciation. Yet I\nprefer \"Shelebi\" (a dandy) from the Turkish Chelebi, to \"Shalabi;\"\n\"Zebdani\" (the Syrian village) to \"Zabdani,\" and \"Fes and Miknes\" (by\nthe figure Im\u00e1lah) to \"F\u00e1s and Mikn\u00e1s,\" our \"Fez and Mequinez.\"\n\nWith respect to proper names and untranslated Arabic words I have\nrejected all system in favour of common sense. When a term is\nincorporated in our tongue, I refuse to follow the purist and mortify\nthe reader by startling innovation. For instance, Aleppo, Cairo and\nBassorah are preferred to Halab, Kahirah and Al-Basrah; when a word is\nhalf-naturalised, like Alcoran or Koran, Bashaw or Pasha, which the\nFrench write Pacha; and Mahomet or Mohammed (for Muhammad), the modern\nform is adopted because the more familiar. But I see no advantage in\nretaining, simply because they are the mistakes of a past generation,\nsuch words as \"Roc\" (for Rukh), Khalif (a pretentious blunder for\nKhal\u00edfah and better written Caliph) and \"genie\" (=Jinn) a mere Gallic\ncorruption not so terrible, however, as \"a Bedouin\" (=Badawi). As little\ntoo would I follow Mr. Lane in foisting upon the public such Arabisms as\n\"Khuff\" (a riding-boot), \"Mikra'ah\" (a palm-rod) and a host of others\nfor which we have good English equivalents. On the other hand I would\nuse, but use sparingly, certain Arabic exclamations, as \"Bismillah\" (=in\nthe name of Allah!) and \"Inshallah\" (=if Allah please!), which have\nspecial applications and which have been made familiar to English ears\nby the genius of Fraser and Morier.\n\nI here end these desultory but necessary details to address the reader\nin a few final words. He will not think lightly of my work when I repeat\nto him that with the aid of my annotations supplementing Lane's, the\nstudent will readily and pleasantly learn more of the Moslem's manners\nand customs, laws and religion than is known to the average Orientalist;\nand, if my labours induce him to attack the text of The Nights he will\nbecome master of much more Arabic than the ordinary Arab owns. This book\nis indeed a legacy which I bequeath to my fellow-countrymen in their\nhour of need. Over devotion to Hindu, and especially to Sanskrit\nliterature, has led them astray from those (so-called) \"Semitic\"\nstudies, which are the more requisite for us as they teach us to deal\nsuccessfully with a race more powerful than any pagans\u2014the Moslem.\nApparently England is ever forgetting that she is at present the\ngreatest Mohammedan empire in the world. Of late years she has\nsystematically neglected Arabism and, indeed, actively discouraged it in\nexaminations for the Indian Civil Service, where it is incomparably more\nvaluable than Greek and Latin. Hence, when suddenly compelled to assume\nthe reins of government in Moslem lands, as Afghanistan in times past\nand Egypt at present, she fails after a fashion which scandalises her\nfew (very few) friends; and her crass ignorance concerning the Oriental\npeoples which should most interest her, exposes her to the contempt of\nEurope as well as of the Eastern world. When the regretable raids of\n1883-84, culminating in the miserable affairs of Tokar, Teb and Tamasi,\nwere made upon the gallant Sudani Negroids, the Bisharin outlying\nSawakin, who were battling for the holy cause of liberty and religion\nand for escape from Turkish task-masters and Egyptian tax-gatherers, not\nan English official in camp, after the death of the gallant and lamented\nMajor Morice, was capable of speaking Arabic. Now Moslems are not to be\nruled by raw youths who should be at school and college instead of\nholding positions of trust and emolument. He who would deal with them\nsuccessfully must be, firstly, honest and truthful and, secondly,\nfamiliar with and favourably inclined to their manners and customs if\nnot to their law and religion. We may, perhaps, find it hard to restore\nto England those pristine virtues, that tone and temper, which made her\nwhat she is; but at any rate we (myself and a host of others) can offer\nher the means of dispelling her ignorance concerning the Eastern races\nwith whom she is continually in contact.\n\nIn conclusion I must not forget to notice that the Arabic ornamentations\nof these volumes were designed by my excellent friend Yacoub Artin\nPasha, of the Ministry of Instruction, Cairo, with the aid of the\nwell-known writing-artist, Shaykh Mohammed Muunis the Cairene. My name,\nAl-Hajj Abdullah (=the Pilgrim Abdallah) was written by an English\ncalligrapher, the lamented Professor Palmer who found a premature death\nalmost within sight of Suez.\n\n RICHARD F. BURTON.\n\n WANDERERS' CLUB, _August 15, 1885_.\n\n\n\n\n CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.\n\n\n PAGE\n\n INTRODUCTION 1\n\n STORY OF KING SHAHRYAR AND HIS BROTHER 2\n\n _a._ TALE OF THE BULL AND THE ASS 16\n\n (_Lane, vol. I._, 1-16.)\n\n\n 1. TALE OF THE TRADER AND THE JINNI 24\n\n (_Chapt. I. Story of the Merchant and the Jinnee: p. 43._)\n\n _a._ THE FIRST SHAYKH'S STORY 27\n\n (_Story of the First Sheykh and the Gazelle: p. 48._)\n\n _b._ THE SECOND SHAYKH'S STORY 32\n\n (_Story of the Second Sheykh and the two Black Hounds: p. 52._)\n\n _c._ THE THIRD SHAYKH'S STORY 36\n\n (_Story of the Third Sheykh and the Mule: p. 56._)\n\n\n 2. THE FISHERMAN AND THE JINNI 38\n\n (_Chapt. II. Story of the Fisherman: p. 78._)\n\n _a._ TALE OF THE WAZIR AND THE SAGE DUBAN 45\n\n (_Story of King Yoonan and the Sage Dooban: p. 84._)\n\n _ab._ STORY OF KING SINDIBAD AND HIS FALCON 50\n\n _ac._ TALE OF THE HUSBAND AND THE PARROT 52\n\n (_Story of the Husband and the Parrot: p. 89._)\n\n _ad._ TALE OF THE PRINCE AND THE OGRESS 54\n\n (_Story of the Envious Wezeer and the Prince and the Ghoolah:\n p. 91._)\n\n _b._ TALE OF THE ENSORCELLED PRINCE 69\n\n (_Story of the Young King of the Black Islands: p. 106._)\n\n\n\n 3. THE PORTER AND THE THREE LADIES OF BAGHDAD 82\n\n (_Chapt. III. Story of the Porter and the Ladies of Baghdad,\n and of the three Royal Mendicants, etc.: p. 136._)\n\n _a._ THE FIRST KALANDAR'S TALE 104\n\n (_Story of the First Royal Mendicant: p. 150._)\n\n _b._ THE SECOND KALANDAR'S TALE 113\n\n (_Story of the Second Royal Mendicant: p. 157._)\n\n _ba._ TALE OF THE ENVIER AND THE ENVIED 123\n\n (_Story of the Envier and the Envied: p. 166._)\n\n _c._ THE THIRD KALANDAR'S TALE 139\n\n (_Story of the Third Royal Mendicant: p. 178._)\n\n _d._ THE ELDEST LADY'S TALE 162\n\n _e._ TALE OF THE PORTRESS 173\n\n CONCLUSION OF THE STORY OF THE PORTER AND THREE LADIES 184\n\n\n 4. TALE OF THE THREE APPLES 186\n\n (_Chapt. IV. Story of the Three Apples, etc.: p. 250._)\n\n\n 5. TALE OF NUR AL-DIN ALI AND HIS SON BADR AL-DIN HASAN 195\n\n (_Story of Noor ed-Deen and his Son, and of Shems ed-Deen and\n his Daughter: p. 253._)\n\n\n 6. THE HUNCHBACK'S TALE 255\n\n (_Chapt. V. Story of the Humpback: p. 238._)\n\n _a._ THE NAZARENE BROKER'S STORY 262\n\n (_Story told by the Christian Broker: p. 334._)\n\n _b._ THE REEVE'S TALE 278\n\n (_Story told by the Sultan's Steward: p. 348._)\n\n _c._ TALE OF THE JEWISH DOCTOR 288\n\n (_Story told by the Jewish Physician: p. 359._)\n\n _d._ TALE OF THE TAILOR 300\n\n (_Story told by the Tailor: p. 368._)\n\n _e._ THE BARBER'S TALE OF HIMSELF 317\n\n (_The Barber's Story of Himself: p. 383._)\n\n _ea._ THE BARBER'S TALE OF HIS FIRST BROTHER 319\n\n (_The Barber's Story of His First Brother: p. 385._)\n\n _eb._ THE BARBER'S TALE OF HIS SECOND BROTHER 324\n\n (_The Barber's Story of His Second Brother: p. 389._)\n\n _ec._ THE BARBER'S TALE OF HIS THIRD BROTHER 328\n\n (_The Barber's Story of His Third Brother: p. 392_)\n\n _ed._ THE BARBER'S TALE OF HIS FOURTH BROTHER 331\n\n (_The Barber's Story of His Fourth Brother: p. 396._)\n\n _ee._ THE BARBER'S TALE OF HIS FIFTH BROTHER 335\n\n (_The Barber's Story of His Fifth Brother: p. 400._)\n\n _ef._ THE BARBER'S TALE OF HIS SIXTH BROTHER 343\n\n (_The Barber's Story of His Sixth Brother._)\n\n THE END OF THE TAILOR'S TALE 348\n\n\n\n\n THE BOOK OF THE\n THOUSAND NIGHTS AND A NIGHT.\n (_ALF LAYLAH WA LAYLAH._)\n\n\n In the Name of Allah,\n the Compassionating, the Compassionate!\n\n _PRAISE BE TO ALLAH \u273f THE BENEFICENT KING \u273f THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE\n \u273f LORD OF THE THREE WORLDS \u273f WHO SET UP THE FIRMAMENT WITHOUT PILLARS\n IN ITS STEAD \u273f AND WHO STRETCHED OUT THE EARTH EVEN AS A BED \u273f AND\n GRACE, AND PRAYER-BLESSING BE UPON OUR LORD MOHAMMED \u273f LORD OF\n APOSTOLIC MEN \u273f AND UPON HIS FAMILY AND COMPANION-TRAIN \u273f PRAYER AND\n BLESSINGS ENDURING AND GRACE WHICH UNTO THE DAY OF DOOM SHALL REMAIN \u273f\n AMEN! \u273f O THOU OF THE THREE WORLDS SOVEREIGN!_\n\n * * * * *\n\n And afterwards. Verily the works and words of those gone before us have\n become instances and examples to men of our modern day, that folk may\n view what admonishing chances befel other folk and may therefrom take\n warning; and that they may peruse the annals of antique peoples and all\n that hath betided them, and be thereby ruled and restrained:\u2014Praise,\n therefore, be to Him who hath made the histories of the Past an\n admonition unto the Present! Now of such instances are the tales called\n \"A Thousand Nights and a Night,\" together with their far-famed legends\n and wonders. Therein it is related (but Allah is All-knowing of His\n hidden things and All-ruling and All-honoured and All-giving and\n All-gracious and All-merciful![1]) that, in tide of yore and in time\n long gone before, there was a King of the Kings of the Banu S\u00e1s\u00e1n in\n the Islands of India and China, a Lord of armies and guards and\n servants and dependents.[2] He left only two sons, one in the prime of\n manhood and the other yet a youth, while both were Knights and Braves,\n albeit the elder was a doughtier horseman than the younger. So he\n succeeded to the empire; when he ruled the land and lorded it over his\n lieges with justice so exemplary that he was beloved by all the peoples\n of his capital and of his kingdom. His name was King Shahry\u00e1r,[3] and\n he made his younger brother, Shah Zam\u00e1n hight, King of Samarcand in\n Barbarian-land. These two ceased not to abide in their several realms\n and the law was ever carried out in their dominions; and each ruled his\n own kingdom, with equity and fair-dealing to his subjects, in extreme\n solace and enjoyment; and this condition continually endured for a\n score of years. But at the end of the twentieth twelvemonth the elder\n King yearned for a sight of his younger brother and felt that he must\n look upon him once more. So he took counsel with his Wazir[4] about\n visiting him, but the Minister, finding the project unadvisable,\n recommended that a letter be written and a present be sent under his\n charge to the younger brother with an invitation to visit the elder.\n Having accepted this advice the King forthwith bade prepare handsome\n gifts, such as horses with saddles of gem-encrusted gold; Mamelukes, or\n white slaves; beautiful handmaids, high-breasted virgins, and splendid\n stuffs and costly. He then wrote a letter to Shah Zaman expressing his\n warm love and great wish to see him, ending with these words, \"We\n therefore hope of the favour and affection of the beloved brother that\n he will condescend to bestir himself and turn his face us-wards.\n Furthermore we have sent our Wazir to make all ordinance for the march,\n and our one and only desire is to see thee ere we die; but if thou\n delay or disappoint us we shall not survive the blow. Wherewith peace\n be upon thee!\" Then King Shahryar, having sealed the missive and given\n it to the Wazir with the offerings aforementioned, commanded him to\n shorten his skirts and strain his strength and make all expedition in\n going and returning. \"Harkening and obedience!\" quoth the Minister, who\n fell to making ready without stay and packed up his loads and prepared\n all his requisites without delay. This occupied him three days, and on\n the dawn of the fourth he took leave of his King and marched right\n away, over desert and hill-way, stony waste and pleasant lea without\n halting by night or by day. But whenever he entered a realm whose ruler\n was subject to his Suzerain, where he was greeted with magnificent\n gifts of gold and silver and all manner of presents fair and rare, he\n would tarry there three days,[5] the term of the guest-rite; and, when\n he left on the fourth, he would be honourably escorted for a whole\n day's march. As soon as the Wazir drew near Shah Zaman's court in\n Samarcand he despatched to report his arrival one of his high\n officials, who presented himself before the King; and, kissing ground\n between his hands, delivered his message. Hereupon the King commanded\n sundry of his Grandees and Lords of his realm to fare forth and meet\n his brother's Wazir at the distance of a full day's journey; which they\n did, greeting him respectfully and wishing him all prosperity and\n forming an escort and a procession. When he entered the city he\n proceeded straightway to the palace, where he presented himself in the\n royal presence; and, after kissing ground and praying for the King's\n health and happiness and for victory over all his enemies, he informed\n him that his brother was yearning to see him, and prayed for the\n pleasure of a visit. He then delivered the letter which Shah Zaman took\n from his hand and read: it contained sundry hints and allusions which\n required thought; but, when the King had fully comprehended its import,\n he said, \"I hear and I obey the commands of the beloved brother!\"\n adding to the Wazir, \"But we will not march till after the third day's\n hospitality.\" He appointed for the Minister fitting quarters of the\n palace; and, pitching tents for the troops, rationed them with whatever\n they might require of meat and drink and other necessaries. On the\n fourth day he made ready for wayfare and got together sumptuous\n presents befitting his elder brother's majesty, and stablished his\n chief Wazir viceroy of the land during his absence. Then he caused his\n tents and camels and mules to be brought forth and encamped, with their\n bales and loads, attendants and guards, within sight of the city, in\n readiness to set out next morning for his brother's capital. But when\n the night was half spent he bethought him that he had forgotten in his\n palace somewhat which he should have brought with him, so he returned\n privily and entered his apartments, where he found the Queen, his wife,\n asleep on his own carpet-bed, embracing with both arms a black cook of\n loathsome aspect and foul with kitchen grease and grime. When he saw\n this the world waxed black before his sight and he said, \"If such case\n happen while I am yet within sight of the city what will be the doings\n of this damned whore during my long absence at my brother's court?\" So\n he drew his scymitar and, cutting the two in four pieces with a single\n blow, left them on the carpet and returned presently to his camp\n without letting anyone know of what had happened. Then he gave orders\n for immediate departure and set out at once and began his travel; but\n he could not help thinking over his wife's treason and he kept ever\n saying to himself, \"How could she do this deed by me? How could she\n work her own death?,\" till excessive grief seized him, his colour\n changed to yellow, his body waxed weak and he was threatened with a\n dangerous malady, such an one as bringeth men to die. So the Wazir\n shortened his stages and tarried long at the watering-stations and did\n his best to solace the King. Now when Shah Zaman drew near the capital\n of his brother he despatched vaunt-couriers and messengers of glad\n tidings to announce his arrival, and Shahryar came forth to meet him\n with his Wazirs and Emirs and Lords and Grandees of his realm; and\n saluted him and joyed with exceeding joy and caused the city to be\n decorated in his honour. When, however, the brothers met, the elder\n could not but see the change of complexion in the younger and\n questioned him of his case whereto he replied, \"'Tis caused by the\n travails of wayfare and my case needs care, for I have suffered from\n the change of water and air! but Allah be praised for reuniting me with\n a brother so dear and so rare!\" On this wise he dissembled and kept his\n secret, adding, \"O King of the time and Caliph of the tide, only toil\n and moil have tinged my face yellow with bile and hath made my eyes\n sink deep in my head.\" Then the two entered the capital in all honour;\n and the elder brother lodged the younger in a palace overhanging the\n pleasure garden; and, after a time, seeing his condition still\n unchanged, he attributed it to his separation from his country and\n kingdom. So he let him wend his own ways and asked no questions of him\n till one day when he again said, \"O my brother, I see that art grown\n weaker of body and yellower of colour.\" \"O my brother,\" replied Shah\n Zaman \"I have an internal wound:\"[6] still he would not tell him what\n he had witnessed in his wife. Thereupon Shahryar summoned doctors and\n surgeons and bade them treat his brother according to the rules of art,\n which they did for a whole month; but their sherbets and potions naught\n availed, for he would dwell upon the deed of his wife, and despondency,\n instead of diminishing, prevailed, and leechcraft treatment utterly\n failed. One day his elder brother said to him, \"I am going forth to\n hunt and course and to take my pleasure and pastime; maybe this would\n lighten thy heart.\" Shah Zaman, however, refused, saying, \"O my\n brother, my soul yearneth for naught of this sort and I entreat thy\n favour to suffer me tarry quietly in this place, being wholly taken up\n with my malady.\" So King Shah Zaman passed his night in the palace and,\n next morning, when his brother had fared forth, he removed from his\n room and sat him down at one of the lattice-windows overlooking the\n pleasure grounds; and there he abode thinking with saddest thought over\n his wife's betrayal and burning sighs issued from his tortured breast.\n And as he continued in this case lo! a postern of the palace, which was\n carefully kept private, swung open and out of it came twenty slave\n girls surrounding his brother's wife who was wondrous fair, a model of\n beauty and comeliness and symmetry and perfect loveliness and who paced\n with the grace of a gazelle which panteth for the cooling stream.\n Thereupon Shah Zaman drew back from the window, but he kept the bevy in\n sight espying them from a place whence he could not be espied. They\n walked under the very lattice and advanced a little way into the garden\n till they came to a jetting fountain amiddlemost a great basin of\n water; then they stripped off their clothes and behold, ten of them\n were women, concubines of the King, and the other ten were white\n slaves. Then they all paired off, each with each: but the Queen, who\n was left alone, presently cried out in a loud voice, \"Here to me, O my\n lord Saeed!\" and then sprang with a drop-leap from one of the trees a\n big slobbering blackamoor with rolling eyes which showed the whites, a\n truly hideous sight.[7] He walked boldly up to her and threw his arms\n round her neck while she embraced him as warmly; then he bussed her and\n winding his legs round hers, as a button-loop clasps a button, he threw\n her and enjoyed her. On like wise did the other slaves with the girls\n till all had satisfied their passions, and they ceased not from kissing\n and clipping, coupling and carousing till day began to wane; when the\n Mamelukes rose from the damsels' bosoms and the blackamoor slave\n dismounted from the Queen's breast; the men resumed their disguises and\n all, except the negro who swarmed up the tree, entered the palace and\n closed the postern-door as before. Now, when Shah Zaman saw this\n conduct of his sister-in-law he said in himself, \"By Allah, my calamity\n is lighter than this! My brother is a greater King among the kings than\n I am, yet this infamy goeth on in his very palace, and his wife is in\n love with that filthiest of filthy slaves. But this only showeth that\n they all do it[8] and that there is no woman but who cuckoldeth her\n husband, then the curse of Allah upon one and all and upon the fools\n who lean against them for support or who place the reins of conduct in\n their hands. So he put away his melancholy and despondency, regret and\n repine, and allayed his sorrow by constantly repeating those words,\n adding \"'Tis my conviction that no man in this world is safe from their\n malice!\" When supper-time came they brought him the trays and he ate\n with voracious appetite, for he had long refrained from meat, feeling\n unable to touch any dish however dainty. Then he returned grateful\n thanks to Almighty Allah, praising Him and blessing Him, and he spent a\n most restful night, it having been long since he had savoured the sweet\n food of sleep. Next day he broke his fast heartily and began to recover\n health and strength, and presently regained excellent condition. His\n brother came back from the chase ten days after, when he rode out to\n meet him and they saluted each other; and when King Shahryar looked at\n King Shah Zaman he saw how the hue of health had returned to him, how\n his face had waxed ruddy and how he ate with an appetite after his late\n scanty diet. He wondered much and said, \"O my brother, I was so anxious\n that thou wouldst join me in hunting and chasing, and wouldst take thy\n pleasure and pastime in my dominion!\" He thanked him and excused\n himself; then the two took horse and rode into the city and, when they\n were seated at their ease in the palace, the food-trays were set before\n them and they ate their sufficiency. After the meats were removed and\n they had washed their hands, King Shahryar turned to his brother and\n said, \"My mind is overcome with wonderment at thy condition. I was\n desirous to carry thee with me to the chase but I saw thee changed in\n hue, pale and wan to view, and in sore trouble of mind too. But now\n Alhamdolillah\u2014glory be to God!\u2014I see thy natural colour hath returned\n to thy face and that thou art again in the best of case. It was my\n belief that thy sickness came of severance from thy family and friends,\n and absence from capital and country, so I refrained from troubling\n thee with further questions. But now I beseech thee to expound to me\n the cause of thy complaint and thy change of colour, and to explain the\n reason of thy recovery and the return to the ruddy hue of health which\n I am wont to view. So speak out and hide naught! When Shah Zaman heard\n this he bowed ground-wards awhile his head, then raised it and said, \"I\n will tell thee what caused my complaint and my loss of colour; but\n excuse my acquainting thee with the cause of its return to me and the\n reason of my complete recovery: indeed I pray thee not to press me for\n a reply.\" Said Shahryar, who was much surprised by these words, \"Let me\n hear first what produced thy pallor and thy poor condition.\" \"Know,\n then, O my brother,\" rejoined Shah Zaman, \"that when thou sentest thy\n Wazir with the invitation to place myself between thy hands, I made\n ready and marched out of my city; but presently I minded me having left\n behind me in the palace a string of jewels intended as a gift to thee.\n I returned for it alone and found my wife on my carpet-bed and in the\n arms of a hideous black cook. So I slew the twain and came to thee, yet\n my thoughts brooded over this business and I lost my bloom and became\n weak. But excuse me if I still refuse to tell thee what was the reason\n of my complexion returning.\" Shahryar shook his head, marvelling with\n extreme marvel, and with the fire of wrath flaming up from his heart,\n he cried, \"Indeed, the malice of woman is mighty!\" Then he took refuge\n from them with Allah and said, \"In very sooth, O my brother, thou hast\n escaped many an evil by putting thy wife to death,[9] and right\n excusable were thy wrath and grief for such mishap which never yet\n befel crowned King like thee. By Allah, had the case been mine, I would\n not have been satisfied without slaying a thousand women and that way\n madness lies! But now praise be to Allah who hath tempered to thee thy\n tribulation, and needs must thou acquaint me with that which so\n suddenly restored to thee complexion and health, and explain to me what\n causeth this concealment.\" \"O King of the Age, again I pray thee excuse\n my so doing!\" \"Nay, but thou must.\" \"I fear, O my brother, lest the\n recital cause thee more anger and sorrow than afflicted me.\" \"That were\n but a better reason,\" quoth Shahryar, \"for telling me the whole\n history, and I conjure thee by Allah not to keep back aught from me.\"\n Thereupon Shah Zaman told him all he had seen, from commencement to\n conclusion, ending with these words, \"When I beheld thy calamity and\n the treason of thy wife, O my brother, and I reflected that thou art in\n years my senior and in sovereignty my superior, mine own sorrow was\n belittled by the comparison, and my mind recovered tone and temper: so\n throwing off melancholy and despondency, I was able to eat and drink\n and sleep, and thus I speedily regained health and strength. Such is\n the truth and the whole truth.\" When King Shahryar heard this he waxed\n wroth with exceeding wrath, and rage was like to strangle him; but\n presently he recovered himself and said, \"O my brother, I would not\n give thee the lie in this matter, but I cannot credit it till I see it\n with mine own eyes.\" \"An thou wouldst look upon thy calamity,\" quoth\n Shah Zaman, \"rise at once and make ready again for hunting and\n coursing,[10] and then hide thyself with me, so shalt thou witness it\n and thine eyes shall verify it.\" \"True,\" quoth the King; whereupon he\n let make proclamation of his intent to travel, and the troops and tents\n fared forth without the city, camping within sight, and Shahryar\n sallied out with them and took seat amidmost his host, bidding the\n slaves admit no man to him. When night came on he summoned his Wazir\n and said to him, \"Sit thou in my stead and let none wot of my absence\n till the term of three days.\" Then the brothers disguised themselves\n and returned by night with all secrecy to the palace, where they passed\n the dark hours: and at dawn they seated themselves at the lattice\n overlooking the pleasure grounds, when presently the Queen and her\n handmaids came out as before, and passing under the windows made for\n the fountain. Here they stripped, ten of them being men to ten women,\n and the King's wife cried out, \"Where art thou, O Saeed?\" The hideous\n blackamoor dropped from the tree straightway; and, rushing into her\n arms without stay or delay, cried out, \"I am Sa'ad al-Din Saood!\"[11]\n The lady laughed heartily, and all fell to satisfying their lusts, and\n remained so occupied for a couple of hours, when the white slaves rose\n up from the handmaidens' breasts and the blackamoor dismounted from the\n Queen's bosom: then they went into the basin and, after performing the\n Ghusl, or complete ablution, donned their dresses and retired as they\n had done before. When King Shahryar saw this infamy of his wife and\n concubines he became as one distraught and he cried out, \"Only in utter\n solitude can man be safe from the doings of this vile world! By Allah,\n life is naught but one great wrong.\" Presently he added, \"Do not thwart\n me, O my brother, in what I propose;\" and the other answered, \"I will\n not.\" So he said, \"Let us up as we are and depart forthright hence, for\n we have no concern with Kingship, and let us over-wander Allah's earth,\n worshipping the Almighty till we find some one to whom the like\n calamity hath happened; and if we find none then will death be more\n welcome to us than life.\" So the two brothers issued from a second\n private postern of the palace; and they never stinted wayfaring by day\n and by night, until they reached a tree a-middle of a meadow hard by a\n spring of sweet water on the shore of the salt sea. Both drank of it\n and sat down to take their rest; and when an hour of the day had gone\n by, lo! they heard a mighty roar and uproar in the middle of the main\n as though the heavens were falling upon the earth; and the sea brake\n with waves before them, and from it towered a black pillar, which grew\n and grew till it rose sky-wards and began making for that meadow.\n Seeing it, they waxed fearful exceedingly and climbed to the top of the\n tree, which was a lofty; whence they gazed to see what might be the\n matter. And behold, it was a Jinni,[12] huge of height and burly of\n breast and bulk, broad of brow and black of blee, bearing on his head a\n coffer of crystal. He strode to land, wading through the deep, and\n coming to the tree whereupon were the two Kings, seated himself beneath\n it. He then set down the coffer on its bottom and out of it drew a\n casket, with seven padlocks of steel, which he unlocked with seven keys\n of steel he took from beside his thigh, and out of it a young lady to\n come was seen, white-skinned and of winsomest mien, of stature fine and\n thin, and bright as though a moon of the fourteenth night she had been,\n or the sun raining lively sheen. Even so the poet Utayyah hath\n excellently said:\u2014\n\n She rose like the morn as she shone through the night \u273f And she gilded\n the grove with her gracious sight:\n From her radiance the sun taketh increase when \u273f She unveileth and\n shameth the moonshine bright.\n Bow down all beings between her hands \u273f As she showeth charms with her\n veil undight.\n And she floodeth cities[13] with torrent tears \u273f When she flasheth her\n look of leven-light.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n The Jinni seated her under the tree by his side and looking at her\n said, \"O choicest love of this heart of mine! O dame of noblest line,\n whom I snatched away on thy bride night that none might prevent me\n taking thy maidenhead or tumble thee before I did, and whom none save\n myself hath loved or hath enjoyed: O my sweetheart! I would lief sleep\n a little while.\" He then laid his head upon the lady's thighs; and,\n stretching out his legs which extended down to the sea, slept and\n snored and snarked like the roll of thunder. Presently she raised her\n head towards the tree-top and saw the two Kings perched near the\n summit; then she softly lifted off her lap the Jinni's pate which she\n was tired of supporting and placed it upon the ground; then standing\n upright under the tree signed to the Kings, \"Come ye down, ye two, and\n fear naught from this Ifr\u00edt.\"[14] They were in a terrible fright when\n they found that she had seen them and answered her in the same manner,\n \"Allah upon thee[15] and by thy modesty, O lady, excuse us from coming\n down!\" But she rejoined by saying, \"Allah upon you both that ye come\n down forthright, and if ye come not, I will rouse upon you my husband,\n this Ifrit, and he shall do you to die by the illest of deaths;\" and\n she continued making signals to them. So, being afraid, they came down\n to her and she rose before them and said, \"Stroke me a strong stroke,\n without stay or delay, otherwise will I arouse and set upon you this\n Ifrit who shall slay you straightway.\" They said to her, \"O our lady,\n we conjure thee by Allah, let us off this work, for we are fugitives\n from such and in extreme dread and terror of this thy husband. How then\n can we do it in such a way as thou desirest?\" \"Leave this talk: it\n needs must be so;\" quoth she, and she swore them by Him[16] who raised\n the skies on high, without prop or pillar, that, if they worked not her\n will, she would cause them to be slain and cast into the sea. Whereupon\n out of fear King Shahryar said to King Shah Zaman, \"O my brother, do\n thou what she biddeth thee do;\" but he replied, \"I will not do it till\n thou do it before I do.\" And they began disputing about futtering her.\n Then quoth she to the twain, \"How is it I see you disputing and\n demurring; if ye do not come forward like men and do the deed of kind\n ye two, I will arouse upon you the Ifrit.\" At this, by reason of their\n sore dread of the Jinni, both did by her what she bade them do; and,\n when they had dismounted from her, she said, \"Well done!\" She then took\n from her pocket a purse and drew out a knotted string, whereon were\n strung five hundred and seventy[17] seal rings, and asked, \"Know ye\n what be these?\" They answered her saying, \"We know not!\" Then quoth\n she; \"These be the signets of five hundred and seventy men who have all\n futtered me upon the horns of this foul, this foolish, this filthy\n Ifrit; so give me also your two seal rings, ye pair of brothers. When\n they had drawn their two rings from their hands and given them to her,\n she said to them, \"Of a truth this Ifrit bore me off on my bride-night,\n and put me into a casket and set the casket in a coffer and to the\n coffer he affixed seven strong padlocks of steel and deposited me on\n the deep bottom of the sea that raves, dashing and clashing with waves;\n and guarded me so that I might remain chaste and honest, quotha! that\n none save himself might have connexion with me. But I have lain under\n as many of my kind as I please, and this wretched Jinni wotteth not\n that Destiny may not be averted nor hindered by aught, and that whatso\n woman willeth the same she fulfilleth however man nilleth. Even so\n saith one of them:\u2014\n\n Rely not on women; \u273f Trust not to their hearts,\n Whose joys and whose sorrows \u273f Are hung to their parts!\n Lying love they will swear thee \u273f Whence guile ne'er departs:\n Take Yusuf[18] for sample \u273f 'Ware sleights and 'ware smarts!\n Iblis[19] ousted Adam \u273f (See ye not?) thro' their arts.\n\n And another saith:\u2014\n\n \"Stint thy blame, man! 'Twill drive to a passion without bound; \u273f My\n fault is not so heavy as fault in it hast found.\n If true lover I become, then to me there cometh not \u273f Save what\n happened unto many in the by-gone stound.\n For wonderful is he and right worthy of our praise \u273f Who from wiles of\n female wits kept him safe and kept him sound.\"\n\n Hearing these words they marvelled with exceeding marvel, and she went\n from them to the Ifrit and, taking up his head on her thigh as before,\n said to them softly, \"Now wend your ways and bear yourselves beyond the\n bounds of his malice.\" So they fared forth saying either to other,\n \"Allah! Allah!\" and, \"There be no Majesty and there be no Might save in\n Allah, the Glorious, the Great; and with Him we seek refuge from\n women's malice and sleight, for of a truth it hath no mate in might.\n Consider, O my brother, the ways of this marvellous lady with an Ifrit\n who is so much more powerful than we are. Now since there hath happened\n to him a greater mishap than that which befel us and which should bear\n us abundant consolation, so return we to our countries and capitals,\n and let us decide never to intermarry with womankind and presently we\n will show them what will be our action.\" Thereupon they rode back to\n the tents of King Shahryar, which they reached on the morning of the\n third day; and, having mustered the Wazirs and Emirs, the Chamberlains\n and high officials, he gave a robe of honour to his Viceroy and issued\n orders for an immediate return to the city. There he sat him upon his\n throne and sending for the Chief Minister, the father of the two\n damsels who (Inshallah!) will presently be mentioned, he said, \"I\n command thee to take my wife and smite her to death; for she hath\n broken her plight and her faith.\" So he carried her to the place of\n execution and did her die. Then King Shahryar took brand in hand and\n repairing to the Serraglio slew all the concubines and their\n Mamelukes.[20] He also sware himself by a binding oath that whatever\n wife he married he would abate her maidenhead at night and slay her\n next morning to make sure of his honour; \"For,\" said he, \"there never\n was nor is there one chaste woman upon the face of earth.\" Then Shah\n Zaman prayed for permission to fare homewards; and he went forth\n equipped and escorted and travelled till he reached his own country.\n Meanwhile Shahryar commanded his Wazir to bring him the bride of the\n night that he might go in to her; so he produced a most beautiful girl,\n the daughter of one of the Emirs and the King went in unto her at\n eventide and when morning dawned he bade his Minister strike off her\n head; and the Wazir did accordingly for fear of the Sultan. On this\n wise he continued for the space of three years; marrying a maiden every\n night and killing her the next morning, till folk raised an outcry\n against him and cursed him, praying Allah utterly to destroy him and\n his rule; and women made an uproar and mothers wept and parents fled\n with their daughters till there remained not in the city a young person\n fit for carnal copulation. Presently the King ordered his Chief Wazir,\n the same who was charged with the executions, to bring him a virgin as\n was his wont; and the Minister went forth and searched and found none;\n so he returned home in sorrow and anxiety fearing for his life from the\n King. Now he had two daughters, Shahr\u00e1z\u00e1d and Duny\u00e1z\u00e1d hight,[21] of\n whom the elder had perused the books, annals and legends of preceding\n Kings, and the stories, examples and instances of by-gone men and\n things; indeed it was said that she had collected a thousand books of\n histories relating to antique races and departed rulers. She had\n perused the works of the poets and knew them by heart; she had studied\n philosophy and the sciences, arts and accomplishments; and she was\n pleasant and polite, wise and witty, well read and well bred. Now on\n that day she said to her father, \"Why do I see thee thus changed and\n laden with cark and care? Concerning this matter quoth one of the\n poets:\u2014\n\n Tell whoso hath sorrow \u273f Grief never shall last:\n E'en as joy hath no morrow \u273f So woe shall go past.\"\n\n When the Wazir heard from his daughter these words he related to her,\n from first to last, all that had happened between him and the King.\n Thereupon said she, \"By Allah, O my father, how long shall this\n slaughter of women endure? Shall I tell thee what is in my mind in\n order to save both sides from destruction?\" \"Say on, O my daughter,\"\n quoth he, and quoth she, \"I wish thou wouldst give me in marriage to\n this King Shahryar; either I shall live or I shall be a ransom for the\n virgin daughters of Moslems and the cause of their deliverance from his\n hands and thine.\"[22] \"Allah upon thee!\" cried he in wrath exceeding\n that lacked no feeding, \"O scanty of wit, expose not thy life to such\n peril! How durst thou address me in words so wide from wisdom and\n un-far from foolishness? Know that one who lacketh experience in\n worldly matters readily falleth into misfortune; and whoso considereth\n not the end keepeth not the world to friend, and the vulgar say:\u2014I was\n lying at mine ease: nought but my officiousness brought me unease.\"\n \"Needs must thou,\" she broke in, \"make me a doer of this good deed, and\n let him kill me an he will: I shall only die a ransom for others.\" \"O\n my daughter,\" asked he, \"and how shall that profit thee when thou shalt\n have thrown away thy life?\" and she answered, \"O my father it must be,\n come of it what will!\" The Wazir was again moved to fury and blamed and\n reproached her, ending with, \"In very deed I fear lest the same befal\n thee which befel the Bull and the Ass with the Husbandman.\" \"And what,\"\n asked she, \"befel them, O my father?\" Whereupon the Wazir began the\n\n\n _TALE OF THE BULL[23] AND THE ASS._\n\n Know, O my daughter, that there was once a merchant who owned much\n money and many men, and who was rich in cattle and camels; he had also\n a wife and family and he dwelt in the country, being experienced in\n husbandry and devoted to agriculture. Now Allah Most High had endowed\n him with understanding the tongues of beasts and birds of every kind,\n but under pain of death if he divulged the gift to any. So he kept it\n secret for very fear. He had in his cowhouse a Bull and an Ass each\n tethered in his own stall one hard by the other. As the merchant was\n sitting near hand one day with his servants and his children were\n playing about him, he heard the Bull say to the Ass, \"Hail and health\n to thee O Father of Waking![24] for that thou enjoyest rest and good\n ministering; all under thee is clean-swept and fresh-sprinkled; men\n wait upon thee and feed thee, and thy provaunt is sifted barley and thy\n drink pure spring-water, while I (unhappy creature!) am led forth in\n the middle of the night, when they set on my neck the plough and a\n something called Yoke; and I tire at cleaving the earth from dawn of\n day till set of sun. I am forced to do more than I can and to bear all\n manner of ill-treatment from night to night; after which they take me\n back with my sides torn, my neck flayed, my legs aching and mine\n eyelids sored with tears. Then they shut me up in the byre and throw me\n beans and crushed-straw,[25] mixed with dirt and chaff; and I lie in\n dung and filth and foul stinks through the livelong night. But thou art\n ever in a place swept and sprinkled and cleansed, and thou art always\n lying at ease, save when it happens (and seldom enough!) that the\n master hath some business, when he mounts thee and rides thee to town\n and returns with thee forthright. So it happens that I am toiling and\n distrest while thou takest thine ease and thy rest; thou sleepest while\n I am sleepless; I hunger still while thou eatest thy fill, and I win\n contempt while thou winnest good will.\" When the Bull ceased speaking,\n the Ass turned towards him and said, \"O Broad-o'-Brow,[26] O thou lost\n one! he lied not who dubbed thee Bull-head, for thou, O father of a\n Bull, hast neither forethought nor contrivance; thou art the simplest\n of simpletons,[27] and thou knowest naught of good advisers. Hast thou\n not heard the saying of the wise:\u2014\n\n For others these hardships and labours I bear \u273f And theirs is the\n pleasure and mine is the care;\n As the bleacher who blacketh his brow in the sun \u273f To whiten the\n raiment which other men wear.\"[28]\n\n But thou, O fool, art full of zeal and thou toilest and molest before\n the master; and thou tearest and wearest and slayest thyself for the\n comfort of another. Hast thou never heard the saw that saith, None to\n guide and from the way go wide? Thou wendest forth at the call to\n dawn-prayer and thou returnest not till sundown; and through the\n livelong day thou endurest all manner hardships; to wit, beating and\n belabouring and bad language. Now hearken to me, Sir Bull! when they\n tie thee to thy stinking manger, thou pawest the ground with thy\n forehand and lashest out with thy hind hoofs and pushest with thy horns\n and bellowest aloud, so they deem thee contented. And when they throw\n thee thy fodder thou fallest on it with greed and hastenest to line thy\n fair fat paunch. But if thou accept my advice it will be better for\n thee and thou wilt lead an easier life even than mine. When thou goest\n a-field and they lay the thing called Yoke on thy neck, lie down and\n rise not again though haply they swinge thee; and, if thou rise, lie\n down a second time; and when they bring thee home and offer thee thy\n beans, fall backwards and only sniff at thy meat and withdraw thee and\n taste it not, and be satisfied with thy crushed straw and chaff; and on\n this wise feign thou art sick, and cease not doing thus for a day or\n two days or even three days, so shalt thou have rest from toil and\n moil.\" When the Bull heard these words he knew the Ass to be his friend\n and thanked him, saying, \"Right is thy rede;\" and prayed that all\n blessings might requite him, and cried, \"O Father Wakener![29] thou\n hast made up for my failings.\" (Now[30] the merchant, O my daughter,\n understood all that passed between them.) Next day the driver took the\n Bull, and settling the plough on his neck,[31] made him work as wont;\n but the Bull began to shirk his ploughing, according to the advice of\n the Ass, and the ploughman drubbed him till he broke the yoke and made\n off; but the man caught him up and leathered him till he despaired of\n his life. Not the less, however, would he do nothing but stand still\n and drop down till the evening. Then the herd led him home and stabled\n him in his stall: but he drew back from his manger and neither stamped\n nor ramped nor butted nor bellowed as he was wont to do; whereat the\n man wondered. He brought him the beans and husks, but he sniffed at\n them and left them and lay down as far from them as he could and passed\n the whole night fasting. The peasant came next morning; and, seeing the\n manger full of beans, the crushed-straw untasted and the ox lying on\n his back in sorriest plight, with legs outstretched and swollen belly,\n he was concerned for him, and said to himself, \"By Allah, he hath\n assuredly sickened and this is the cause why he would not plough\n yesterday.\" Then he went to the merchant and reported, \"O my master,\n the Bull is ailing; he refused his fodder last night; nay more, he hath\n not tasted a scrap of it this morning.\" Now the merchant-farmer\n understood what all this meant, because he had overheard the talk\n between the Bull and the Ass, so quoth he, \"Take that rascal donkey,\n and set the yoke on his neck, and bind him to the plough and make him\n do Bull's work.\" Thereupon the ploughman took the Ass, and worked him\n through the livelong day at the Bull's task; and, when he failed for\n weakness, he made him eat stick till his ribs were sore and his sides\n were sunken and his neck was flayed by the yoke; and when he came home\n in the evening he could hardly drag his limbs along, either forehand or\n hind-legs. But as for the Bull, he had passed the day lying at full\n length and had eaten his fodder with an excellent appetite, and he\n ceased not calling down blessings on the Ass for his good advice,\n unknowing what had come to him on his account. So when night set in and\n the Ass returned to the byre the Bull rose up before him in honour, and\n said, \"May good tidings gladden thy heart, O Father Wakener! through\n thee I have rested all this day and I have eaten my meat in peace and\n quiet.\" But the Ass returned no reply, for wrath and heart-burning and\n fatigue and the beating he had gotten; and he repented with the most\n grievous of repentance; and quoth he to himself: \"This cometh of my\n folly in giving good counsel; as the saw saith, I was in joy and\n gladness, nought save my officiousness brought me this sadness. But I\n will bear in mind my innate worth and the nobility of my nature; for\n what saith the poet?\n\n Shall the beautiful hue of the Basil[32] fail \u273f Tho' the beetle's foot\n o'er the Basil crawl?\n And though spider and fly be its denizens \u273f Shall disgrace attach to\n the royal hall?\n The cowrie,[33] I ken, shall have currency \u273f But the pearl's clear\n drop, shall its value fall?\n\n And now I must take thought and put a trick upon him and return him to\n his place, else I die.\" Then he went aweary to his manger, while the\n Bull thanked him and blessed him. And even so, O my daughter, said the\n Wazir, thou wilt die for lack of wits; therefore sit thee still and say\n naught and expose not thy life to such stress; for, by Allah, I offer\n thee the best advice, which cometh of my affection and kindly\n solicitude for thee. \"O my father,\" she answered, \"needs must I go up\n to this King and be married to him.\" Quoth he, \"Do not this deed;\" and\n quoth she, \"Of a truth I will:\" whereat he rejoined, \"If thou be not\n silent and bide still, I will do with thee even what the merchant did\n with his wife.\" \"And what did he?\" asked she. Know then, answered the\n Wazir, that after the return of the Ass the merchant came out on the\n terrace-roof with his wife and family, for it was a moonlit night and\n the moon at its full. Now the terrace overlooked the cowhouse and\n presently, as he sat there with his children playing about him, the\n trader heard the Ass say to the Bull, \"Tell me, O father Broad o' Brow,\n what thou purposest to do to-morrow?\" The Bull answered, \"What but\n continue to follow thy counsel, O Aliboron? Indeed it was as good as\n good could be and it hath given me rest and repose; nor will I now\n depart from it one tittle: so, when they bring me my meat, I will\n refuse it and blow out my belly and counterfeit crank.\" The Ass shook\n his head and said, \"Beware of so doing, O Father of a Bull!\" The Bull\n asked, \"Why,\" and the Ass answered, \"Know that I am about to give thee\n the best of counsel, for verily I heard our owner say to the herd, If\n the Bull rise not from his place to do his work this morning and if he\n retire from his fodder this day, make him over to the butcher that he\n may slaughter him and give his flesh to the poor, and fashion a bit of\n leather[34] from his hide. Now I fear for thee on account of this. So\n take my advice ere a calamity befal thee; and when they bring thee thy\n fodder eat it and rise up and bellow and paw the ground, or our master\n will assuredly slay thee: and peace be with thee!\" Thereupon the Bull\n arose and lowed aloud and thanked the Ass, and said, \"To-morrow I will\n readily go forth with them;\" and he at once ate up all his meat and\n even licked the manger. (All this took place and the owner was\n listening to their talk.) Next morning the trader and his wife went to\n the Bull's crib and sat down, and the driver came and led forth the\n Bull who, seeing his owner, whisked his tail and brake wind, and\n frisked about so lustily that the merchant laughed a loud laugh and\n kept laughing till he fell on his back. His wife asked him, \"Whereat\n laughest thou with such loud laughter as this?\"; and he answered her,\n \"I laughed at a secret something which I have heard and seen but cannot\n say lest I die my death.\" She returned, \"Perforce thou must discover it\n to me, and disclose the cause of thy laughing even if thou come by thy\n death!\" But he rejoined, \"I cannot reveal what beasts and birds say in\n their lingo for fear I die. Then quoth she, \"By Allah, thou liest! this\n is a mere pretext: thou laughest at none save me, and now thou wouldest\n hide somewhat from me. But by the Lord of the Heavens! an thou disclose\n not the cause I will no longer cohabit with thee: I will leave thee at\n once.\" And she sat down and cried. Whereupon quoth the merchant, \"Woe\n betide thee! what means thy weeping? Fear Allah and leave these words\n and query me no more questions.\" \"Needs must thou tell me the cause of\n that laugh,\" said she, and he replied, \"Thou wottest that when I prayed\n Allah to vouchsafe me understanding of the tongues of beasts and birds,\n I made a vow never to disclose the secret to any Under pain of dying on\n the spot.\" \"No matter,\" cried she, \"tell me what secret passed between\n the Bull and the Ass and die this very hour an thou be so minded;\" and\n she ceased not to importune him till he was worn out and clean\n distraught. So at last he said, \"Summon thy father and thy mother and\n our kith and kin and sundry of our neighbours,\" which she did; and he\n sent for the Kazi[35] and his assessors, intending to make his will and\n reveal to her his secret and die the death; for he loved her with love\n exceeding because she was his cousin, the daughter of his father's\n brother, and the mother of his children, and he had lived with her a\n life of an hundred and twenty years. Then, having assembled all the\n family and the folk of his neighbourhood, he said to them, \"By me there\n hangeth a strange story, and 'tis such that if I discover the secret to\n any, I am a dead man.\" Therefore quoth every one of those present to\n the woman, \"Allah upon thee, leave this sinful obstinacy and recognise\n the right of this matter, lest haply thy husband and the father of thy\n children die.\" But she rejoined, \"I will not turn from it till he tell\n me, even though he come by his death.\" So they ceased to urge her; and\n the trader rose from amongst them and repaired to an outhouse to\n perform the Wuzu-ablution,[36] and he purposed thereafter to return and\n to tell them his secret and to die. Now, daughter Shahrazad, that\n merchant had in his out-houses some fifty hens under one cock, and\n whilst making ready to farewell his folk he heard one of his many\n farm-dogs thus address in his own tongue the Cock, who was flapping his\n wings and crowing lustily and jumping from one hen's back to another\n and treading all in turn, saying \"O Chanticleer! how mean is thy wit\n and how shameless is thy conduct! Be he disappointed who brought thee\n up?[37] Art thou not ashamed of thy doings on such a day as this?\" \"And\n what,\" asked the Rooster, \"hath occurred this day?,\" when the Dog\n answered, \"Dost thou not know that our master is this day making ready\n for his death? His wife is resolved that he shall disclose the secret\n taught to him by Allah, and the moment he so doeth he shall surely die.\n We dogs are all a-mourning; but thou clappest thy wings and clarionest\n thy loudest and treadest hen after hen. Is this an hour for pastime and\n pleasuring? Art thou not ashamed of thyself?\"[38] \"Then by Allah,\"\n quoth the Cock, \"is our master a lack-wit and a man scanty of sense: if\n he cannot manage matters with a single wife, his life is not worth\n prolonging. Now I have some fifty Dame Partlets; and I please this and\n provoke that and starve one and stuff another; and through my good\n governance they are all well under my control. This our master\n pretendeth to wit and wisdom, and he hath but one wife, and yet knoweth\n not how to manage her.\" Asked the Dog, \"What then, O Cock, should the\n master do to win clear of his strait?\" \"He should arise forthright,\"\n answered the Cock, \"and take some twigs from yon mulberry-tree and give\n her a regular back-basting and rib-roasting till she cry:\u2014I repent, O\n my lord! I will never ask thee a question as long as I live! Then let\n him beat her once more and soundly, and when he shall have done this he\n shall sleep free from care and enjoy life. But this master of ours owns\n neither sense nor judgment.\" \"Now, daughter Shahrazad,\" continued the\n Wazir, \"I will do to thee as did that husband to that wife.\" Said\n Shahrazad, \"And what did he do?\" He replied, \"When the merchant heard\n the wise words spoken by his Cock to his Dog, he arose in haste and\n sought his wife's chamber, after cutting for her some mulberry-twigs\n and hiding them there; and then he called to her, \"Come into the closet\n that I may tell thee the secret while no one seeth me and then die.\"\n She entered with him and he locked the door and came down upon her with\n so sound a beating of back and shoulders, ribs, arms and legs, saying\n the while, \"Wilt thou ever be asking questions about what concerneth\n thee not?\" that she was well nigh senseless. Presently she cried out,\n \"I am of the repentant! By Allah, I will ask thee no more questions,\n and indeed I repent sincerely and wholesomely.\" Then she kissed his\n hand and feet and he led her out of the room submissive as a wife\n should be. Her parents and all the company rejoiced and sadness and\n mourning were changed into joy and gladness. Thus the merchant learnt\n family discipline from his Cock and he and his wife lived together the\n happiest of lives until death. And thou also, O my daughter! continued\n the Wazir, \"Unless thou turn from this matter I will do by thee what\n that trader did to his wife.\" But she answered him with much decision,\n \"I will never desist, O my father, nor shall this tale change my\n purpose. Leave such talk and tattle. I will not listen to thy words\n and, if thou deny me, I will marry myself to him despite the nose of\n thee. And first I will go up to the King myself and alone and I will\n say to him:\u2014I prayed my father to wive me with thee, but he refused,\n being resolved to disappoint his lord, grudging the like of me to the\n like of thee.\" Her father asked, \"Must this needs be?\" and she\n answered, \"Even so.\" Hereupon the Wazir being weary of lamenting and\n contending, persuading and dissuading her, all to no purpose, went up\n to King Shahryar and, after blessing him and kissing the ground before\n him, told him all about his dispute with his daughter from first to\n last and how he designed to bring her to him that night. The King\n wondered with exceeding wonder; for he had made an especial exception\n of the Wazir's daughter, and said to him, \"O most faithful of\n Counsellors, how is this? Thou wottest that I have sworn by the Raiser\n of the Heavens that after I have gone into her this night I shall say\n to thee on the morrow's morning:\u2014Take her and slay her! and, if thou\n slay her not, I will slay thee in her stead without fail.\" \"Allah guide\n thee to glory and lengthen thy life, O King of the age,\" answered the\n Wazir, \"it is she that hath so determined: all this have I told her and\n more; but she will not hearken to me and she persisteth in passing this\n coming night with the King's Majesty.\" So Shahryar rejoiced greatly and\n said, \"'Tis well; go get her ready and this night bring her to me.\" The\n Wazir returned to his daughter and reported to her the command saying,\n \"Allah make not thy father desolate by thy loss!\" But Shahrazad\n rejoiced with exceeding joy and gat ready all she required and said to\n her younger sister, Dunyazad, \"Note well what directions I entrust to\n thee! When I have gone into the King I will send for thee and when thou\n comest to me and seest that he hath had his carnal will of me, do thou\n say to me:\u2014O my sister, an thou be not sleepy, relate to me some new\n story, delectable and delightsome, the better to speed our waking\n hours;\" and I will tell thee a tale which shall be our deliverance, if\n so Allah please, and which shall turn the King from his blood-thirsty\n custom.\" Dunyazad answered \"With love and gladness.\" So when it was\n night their father the Wazir carried Shahrazad to the King who was\n gladdened at the sight and asked, \"Hast thou brought me my need?\" and\n he answered, \"I have.\" But when the King took her to his bed and fell\n to toying with her and wished to go in to her she wept; which made him\n ask, \"What aileth thee?\" She replied, \"O King of the age, I have a\n younger sister and lief would I take leave of her this night before I\n see the dawn.\" So he sent at once for Dunyazad and she came and kissed\n the ground between his hands, when he permitted her to take her seat\n near the foot of the couch. Then the King arose and did away with his\n bride's maidenhead and the three fell asleep. But when it was midnight\n Shahrazad awoke and signalled to her sister Dunyazad who sat up and\n said, \"Allah upon thee, O my sister, recite to us some new story,\n delightsome and delectable, wherewith to while away the waking hours of\n our latter night.\"[39] \"With joy and goodly gree,\" answered Shahrazad,\n \"if this pious and auspicious King permit me.\" \"Tell on,\" quoth the\n King who chanced to be sleepless and restless and therefore was pleased\n with the prospect of hearing her story. So Shahrazad rejoiced; and\n thus, on the first night of the Thousand Nights and a Night, she began\n with the\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 1:\n\n Ailaho A'alam, a deprecatory formula, used because the writer is\n going to indulge in a series of what may possibly be untruths.\n\nFootnote 2:\n\n The \"Sons of S\u00e1s\u00e1n\" are the famous Sassanides whose dynasty ended\n with the Arabian Conquest (A.D. 641). \"Island\" (Jaz\u00edrah) in Arabic\n also means \"Peninsula,\" and causes much confusion in geographical\n matters.\n\nFootnote 3:\n\n Shahry\u00e1r not Shahriyar (Persian)=\"City-friend.\" The Bulak edition\n corrupts it to Shahrb\u00e1z (City-hawk), and the Breslau to Shahrb\u00e1n or\n \"Defender of the City,\" like Marz-ban=Warden of the Marshes. Shah\n Zam\u00e1n (Persian)=\"King of the Age:\" Galland prefers Shah Zenan, or\n \"King of women,\" and the Bul. edit. changes it to Shah Rumm\u00e1n,\n \"Pomegranate King.\" Al-Ajam denotes all regions not Arab (Gentiles\n opposed to Jews, Mlechchhas to Hindus, Tajiks to Turks, etc., etc.),\n and especially Persia; Ajami (a man of Ajam) being an equivalent of\n the Gr. \u0392\u03ac\u03c1\u03b2\u03b1\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2. See Vol. ii., p. 1.\n\nFootnote 4:\n\n Galland writes \"Vizier,\" a wretched frenchification of a mincing\n Turkish mispronunciation; Torrens, \"Wuzeer\" (Anglo-Indian and\n Gilchristian); Lane, \"Wezeer\" (Egyptian or rather Cairene); Payne,\n \"Vizier,\" according to his system; Burckhardt (Proverbs), \"Viz\u00edr;\"\n and Mr. Keith-Falconer, \"Vizir.\" The root is popularly supposed to be\n \"wizr\" (burden) and the meaning \"Minister;\" Waz\u00edr al-Wuzar\u00e1 being\n \"Premier.\" In the Koran (chapt. xx., 30) Moses says, \"Give me a Wazir\n of my family, Harun (Aaron) my brother.\" Sale, followed by the\n excellent version of the Rev. J. M. Rodwell, translates a\n \"Counsellor,\" and explains by \"One who has the chief administration\n of affairs under a prince.\" But both learned Koranists learnt their\n Orientalism in London, and, like such students generally, fail only\n upon the easiest points, familiar to all old dwellers in the East.\n\nFootnote 5:\n\n This three-days term (rest-day, drest-day and departure day) seems to\n be an instinct-made rule in hospitality. Among Moslems it is a Sunnat\n or practice of the Prophet.\n\nFootnote 6:\n\n _i.e._, I am sick at heart.\n\nFootnote 7:\n\n Debauched women prefer negroes on account of the size of their parts.\n I measured one man in Somali-land who, when quiescent, numbered\n nearly six inches. This is a characteristic of the negro race and of\n African animals: _e.g._ the horse; whereas the pure Arab, man and\n beast, is below the average of Europe; one of the best proofs by the\n by, that the Egyptian is not an Asiatic, but a negro partially\n whitewashed. Moreover, these imposing parts do not increase\n proportionally during erection; consequently, the \"deed of kind\"\n takes a much longer time and adds greatly to the woman's enjoyment.\n In my time no honest Hindi Moslem would take his womenfolk to\n Zanzibar on account of the huge attractions and enormous temptations\n there and thereby offered to them. Upon the subject of\n Ims\u00e1k=retention of semen and \"prolongation of pleasure,\" I shall find\n it necessary to say more.\n\nFootnote 8:\n\n The very same words were lately spoken in England proving the eternal\n truth of The Nights which the ignorant call \"downright lies.\"\n\nFootnote 9:\n\n The Arab's _Tue la!_\n\nFootnote 10:\n\n Arab. \"Sayd wa kanas\": the former usually applied to fishing; hence\n Sayda (Sidon)=fish-town. But noble Arabs (except the Caliph Al-Amin)\n do not fish; so here it means simply \"sport,\" chasing, coursing,\n birding (oiseler), and so forth.\n\nFootnote 11:\n\n In the Mac. Edit, the negro is called \"Mas'\u00fad\"; here he utters a kind\n of war-cry and plays upon the name, Sa'\u00e1d, Sa'\u00edd, Sa'\u00fad, and Mas'ud,\n all being derived from one root, \"Sa'ad\"=auspiciousness, prosperity.\n\nFootnote 12:\n\n The Arab singular (whence the French \"g\u00e9nie\"); fem. Jinniyah; the Div\n and Rakshah of old Guebre-land and the \"Rakshasa,\" or \"Yaksha,\" of\n Hinduism. It would be interesting to trace the evident connection, by\n no means \"accidental,\" of \"Jinn\" with the \"Genius\" who came to the\n Romans through the Asiatic Etruscans, and whose name I cannot derive\n from \"gignomai\" or \"genitus.\" He was unknown to the Greeks, who had\n the Daimon (\u03b4\u03b1\u03af\u03bc\u03bf\u03bd), a family which separated, like the Jinn and the\n Genius, into two categories, the good (Agatho-d\u00e6mons) and the bad\n (Kako-d\u00e6mons). We know nothing concerning the status of the Jinn\n amongst the pre-Moslemitic or pagan Arabs: the Moslems made him a\n supernatural anthropoid being, created of subtile fire (Koran,\n chapts. xv. 27; lv. 14), not of earth like man, propagating his kind,\n ruled by mighty kings, the last being J\u00e1n bin J\u00e1n, missionarised by\n Prophets and subject to death and Judgment. From the same root are\n \"Jun\u00fan\"=madness (_i.e._, possession or obsession by the Jinn) and\n \"Majn\u00fan\"=a madman. According to R. Jeremiah bin Eliazar in Psalm xli.\n 5, Adam was excommunicated for one hundred and thirty years, during\n which he begat children in his own image (Gen. v. 3) and these were\n Mazikeen or Shedeem\u2014Jinns. Further details anent the Jinn will\n presently occur.\n\nFootnote 13:\n\n Arab \"Ams\u00e1r\" (cities): in Bul. Edit. \"Amt\u00e1r\" (rains), as in Mac.\n Edit. So Mr. Payne (I., 5) translates:\u2014\n\n And when she flashes forth the lightning of her glance, She maketh\n eyes to rain, like showers, with many a tear.\n\n I would render it, \"She makes whole cities shed tears;\" and prefer it\n for a reason which will generally influence me\u2014its superior\n exaggeration and impossibility.\n\nFootnote 14:\n\n Not \"A-frit,\" pronounced Aye-frit, as our poets have it. This variety\n of the Jinn, who, as will be shown, are divided into two races like\n mankind, is generally, but not always, a malignant being, hostile and\n injurious to mankind (Koran xxvii. 39).\n\nFootnote 15:\n\n _i.e._, \"I conjure thee by Allah;\" the formula is technically called\n \"Insh\u00e1d.\"\n\nFootnote 16:\n\n This introducing the name of Allah into an indecent tale is\n essentially Egyptian and Cairene. But see Boccacio ii. 6; and vii. 9.\n\nFootnote 17:\n\n So in the Mac. Edit.; in others \"ninety.\" I prefer the greater number\n as exaggeration is a part of the humour. In the Hindu \"Kath\u00e1 S\u00e1rit\n S\u00e1gara\" (Sea of the Streams of Story), the rings are one hundred and\n the catastrophe is more moral; the good youth Yashodhara rejects the\n wicked one's advances; she awakes the water-sprite, who is about to\n slay him, but the rings are brought as testimony and the improper\n young person's nose is duly cut off. (Chapt. lxiii.; p. 80, of the\n excellent translation by Prof. C. H. Tawney: for the Bibliotheca\n Indica: Calcutta, 1881.) The Kath\u00e1, etc., by Somadeva (century xi),\n is a poetical version of the prose compendium, the \"Vrihat Kath\u00e1\"\n (Great Story) by Gunadhya (cent. vi).\n\nFootnote 18:\n\n The Joseph of the Koran, very different from him of Genesis. We shall\n meet him often enough in The Nights.\n\nFootnote 19:\n\n \"Iblis,\" vulgarly written \"Eblis,\" from a root meaning The Despairer,\n with a suspicious likeness to Diabolos; possibly from \"Balas,\" a\n profligate. Some translate it The Calumniator, as Satan is the Hater.\n Iblis (who appears in the Arab. version of the N. Testament)\n succeeded another revolting angel Al-Haris; and his story of pride,\n refusing to worship Adam, is told four times in the Koran from the\n Talmud (Sanhedrim 29). He caused Adam and Eve to lose Paradise (ii.\n 34); he still betrays mankind (xxv. 31), and at the end of time he,\n with the other devils, will be \"gathered together on their knees\n round Hell\" (xix. 69). He has evidently had the worst of the game and\n we wonder, with Origen, Tillotson, Burns and many others, that he\n does not throw up the cards.\n\nFootnote 20:\n\n A similar tale is still told at Akk\u00e1 (St. John d'Acre) concerning the\n terrible \"butcher\"\u2014Jazz\u00e1r (Djezzar) Pasha. One can\u00b7hardly pity women\n who are fools enough to run such risks. According to Frizzi, Niccol\u00f2,\n Marquis of Este, after beheading Parisina, ordered all the faithless\n wives of Ferrara to be treated in like manner.\n\nFootnote 21:\n\n \"Shahr\u00e1z\u00e1d (Persian)=City-freer; in the older version Scheherazade\n (probably both from Shirz\u00e1d=lion-born). \"Duny\u00e1z\u00e1d=World-freer. The\n Bres. Edit. corrupts the former to Sh\u00e1hrz\u00e1d or Sh\u00e1hraz\u00e1d; and the\n Mac. and Calc. to Shahrz\u00e1d or Shehrz\u00e1d. I have ventured to restore\n the name as it should be. Galland for the second prefers Dinarzade\n (?) and Richardson Dinazade (Din\u00e1z\u00e1d=Religion-freer): here I have\n followed Lane and Payne; though in \"First Footsteps\" I was misled by\n Galland. See Vol. ii. p. 1.\n\nFootnote 22:\n\n Probably she proposed to \"Judith\" the King. These learned and clever\n young ladies are very dangerous in the East.\n\nFootnote 23:\n\n In Egypt, etc., the bull takes the place of the Western ox. The Arab.\n word is \"Taur\" (Thaur, Saur); in old Persian \"Tora\" and Lat.\n \"Taurus,\" a venerable remnant of the days before the \"Semitic\" and\n \"Aryan\" families of speech had split into two distinct growths.\n \"Taur\" ends in the Saxon \"Steor\" and the English \"Steer.\"\n\nFootnote 24:\n\n Arab. \"Ab\u00fa Yakz\u00e1n\"=the Wakener; because the ass brays at dawn.\n\nFootnote 25:\n\n Arab. \"Tibn\"; straw crushed under the sledge: the hay of Egypt,\n Arabia, Syria, etc. The old country custom is to pull up the corn by\n handfuls from the roots, leaving the land perfectly bare: hence the\n \"plucking up\" of Hebrew Holy Writ. The object is to preserve every\n atom of \"Tibn.\"\n\nFootnote 26:\n\n Arab. \"Y\u00e1 Aftah\": Al-Aftah is an epithet of the bull, also of the\n chameleon.\n\nFootnote 27:\n\n Arab. \"Balid,\" a favourite Egyptianism often pleasantly confounded\n with \"Wali\" (a Santon); hence the latter comes to mean \"an innocent,\"\n a \"ninny.\"\n\nFootnote 28:\n\n From the Calc. Edit., Vol. I., p. 29.\n\nFootnote 29:\n\n Arab. \"Abu Yakz\u00e1n\" is hardly equivalent with \"P\u00e8re l'Eveill\u00e9.\"\n\nFootnote 30:\n\n In Arab. the wa (\u0648\u064e) is the sign of parenthesis.\n\nFootnote 31:\n\n In the nearer East the light little plough is carried a-field by the\n bull or ass.\n\nFootnote 32:\n\n Ocymum basilicum, the \"royal herb,\" so much prized all over the East,\n especially in India, where, under the name of \"Tulsi,\" it is a shrub\n sacred to the merry god Krishna. I found the verses in a MS. copy of\n the Nights.\n\nFootnote 33:\n\n Arab. \"Sadaf,\" the Kauri, or cowrie, brought from the Maldive and\n Lakdive Archipelago. The K\u00e1m\u00fas describes this \"Wada'\" or Concha\n Veneris as \"a white shell [whence to \"shell out\"] which is taken out\n of the sea, the fissure of which is white like that of the\n date-stone. It is hung about the neck to avert the evil eye.\" The\n pearl in Arab. is \"Murwarid,\" hence evidently \"Margarita\" and\n Margaris (woman's name).\n\nFootnote 34:\n\n Arab. \"Kat'a\" (bit of leather): some read \"Nat'a,\" a leather used by\n way of table-cloth, and forming a bag for victuals; but it is never\n made of bull's hide.\n\nFootnote 35:\n\n The Older \"Cadi,\" a judge in religious matters. The Shuh\u00fad, or\n Assessors, are officers of the Mahkamah or Kazi's Court.\n\nFootnote 36:\n\n Of which more in a future page. He thus purified himself ceremonially\n before death.\n\nFootnote 37:\n\n This is Christian rather than Moslem: a favourite Maltese curse is\n \"Yahrak Kidd\u00edsak man rabba-k!\"=burn the Saint who brought thee up!\n\nFootnote 38:\n\n A popular Egyptian phrase: the dog and the cock speak like Fellahs.\n\nFootnote 39:\n\n _i.e._ between the last sleep and dawn when they would rise to wash\n and pray.\n\n\n\n\n TALE OF THE TRADER AND THE JINNI.\n\n\n It is related, O auspicious King, that there was a merchant of the\n merchants who had much wealth, and business in various cities. Now on a\n day he mounted horse and went forth to recover monies in certain towns,\n and the heat sore oppressed him; so he sat beneath a tree and, putting\n his hand into his saddle-bags, took thence some broken bread and dry\n dates and began to break his fast. When he had ended eating the dates\n he threw away the stones with force and lo! an Ifrit appeared, huge of\n stature and brandishing a drawn sword, wherewith he approached the\n merchant and said, \"Stand up that I may slay thee, even as thou slewest\n my son!\" Asked the merchant, \"How have I slain thy son?\" and he\n answered, \"When thou atest dates and threwest away the stones they\n struck my son full in the breast as he was walking by, so that he died\n forthwith.\"[40] Quoth the merchant, \"Verily from Allah we proceeded and\n unto Allah are we returning. There is no Majesty, and there is no Might\n save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great! If I slew thy son, I slew him\n by chance medley. I pray thee now pardon me.\" Rejoined the Jinni,\n \"There is no help but I must slay thee.\" Then he seized him and dragged\n him along and, casting him to the earth, raised the sword to strike\n him; whereupon the merchant wept, and said, \"I commit my case to\n Allah,\" and began repeating these couplets:\u2014\n\n Containeth Time a twain of days, this of blessing that of bane \u273f And\n holdeth Life a twain of halves, this of pleasure that of pain.\n See'st not when blows the hurricane, sweeping stark and striking strong\n \u273f None save the forest giant feels the suffering of the strain?\n How many trees earth nourisheth of the dry and of the green \u273f Yet none\n but those which bear the fruits for cast of stone complain.\n See'st not how corpses rise and float on the surface of the tide \u273f\n While pearls o' price lie hidden in the deepest of the main!\n In Heaven are unnumber\u00e8d the many of the stars \u273f Yet ne'er a star but\n Sun and Moon by eclipse is overta'en.\n Well judgest thou the days that saw thy faring sound and well \u273f And\n countedst not the pangs and pain whereof Fate is ever fain.\n The nights have kept thee safe and the safety brought thee pride \u273f But\n bliss and blessings of the night are 'genderers of bane!\n\n When the merchant ceased repeating his verses the Jinni said to him,\n \"Cut thy words short, by Allah! needs must I slay thee.\" But the\n merchant spake him thus, \"Know, O thou Ifrit, that I have debts due to\n me and much wealth and children and a wife and many pledges in hand; so\n permit me to go home and discharge to every claimant his claim; and I\n will come back to thee at the head of the new year. Allah be my\n testimony and surety that I will return to thee; and then thou mayest\n do with me as thou wilt and Allah is witness to what I say.\" The Jinni\n took sure promise of him and let him go; so he returned to his own city\n and transacted his business and rendered to all men their dues and\n after informing his wife and children of what had betided him, he\n appointed a guardian and dwelt with them for a full year. Then he\n arose, and made the Wuzu-ablution to purify himself before death and\n took his shroud under his arm and bade farewell to his people, his\n neighbours and all his kith and kin, and went forth despite his own\n nose.[41] They then began weeping and wailing and beating their breasts\n over him; but he travelled until he arrived at the same garden, and the\n day of his arrival was the head of the New Year. As he sat weeping over\n what had befallen him, behold, a Shaykh,[42] a very ancient man, drew\n near leading a chained gazelle; and he saluted that merchant and\n wishing him long life said, \"What is the cause of thy sitting in this\n place and thou alone and this be a resort of evil spirits?\" The\n merchant related to him what had come to pass with the Ifrit, and the\n old man, the owner of the gazelle, wondered and said, \"By Allah, O\n brother, thy faith is none other than exceeding faith and thy story\n right strange; were it graven with gravers on the eye-corners, it were\n a warner to whoso would be warned.\" Then seating himself near the\n merchant he said, \"By Allah, O my brother, I will not leave thee until\n I see what may come to pass with thee and this Ifrit.\" And presently as\n he sat and the two were at talk the merchant began to feel fear and\n terror and exceeding grief and sorrow beyond relief and ever-growing\n care and extreme despair. And the owner of the gazelle was hard by his\n side; when behold, a second Shaykh approached them, and with him were\n two dogs both of greyhound breed and both black. The second old man\n after saluting them with the salam, also asked them of their tidings\n and said \"What causeth you to sit in this place, a dwelling of the\n J\u00e1nn?\"[43] So they told him the tale from beginning to end, and their\n stay there had not lasted long before there came up a third Shaykh, and\n with him a she-mule of bright bay coat; and he saluted them and asked\n them why they were seated in that place. So they told him the story\n from first to last: and of no avail, O my master, is a twice-told tale!\n There he sat down with them, and lo! a dust-cloud advanced and a mighty\n sand-devil appeared amidmost of the waste. Presently the cloud opened\n and behold, within it was that Jinni hending in hand a drawn sword,\n while his eyes were shooting fire-sparks of rage. He came up to them\n and, haling away the merchant from among them, cried to him, \"Arise\n that I may slay thee, as thou slewest my son, the life-stuff of my\n liver.\"[44] The merchant wailed and wept, and the three old men began\n sighing and crying and weeping and wailing with their companion.\n Presently the first old man (the owner of the gazelle) came out from\n among them and kissed the hand of the Ifrit and said, \"O Jinni, thou\n Crown of the Kings of the Jann! were I to tell thee the story of me and\n this gazelle and thou shouldst consider it wondrous wouldst thou give\n me a third part of this merchant's blood?\" Then quoth the Jinni \"Even\n so, O Shaykh! if thou tell me this tale, and I hold it a marvellous,\n then will I give thee a third of his blood.\" Thereupon the old man\n began to tell\n\n\n _THE FIRST SHAYKH'S STORY._\n\n Know O Jinni! that this gazelle is the daughter of my paternal uncle,\n my own flesh and blood, and I married her when she was a young maid,\n and I lived with her well-nigh thirty years, yet was I not blessed with\n issue by her. So I took me a concubine,[45] who brought to me the boon\n of a male child fair as the full moon, with eyes of lovely shine and\n eyebrows which formed one line, and limbs of perfect design. Little by\n little he grew in stature and waxed tall; and when he was a lad fifteen\n years old, it became needful I should journey to certain cities and I\n travelled with great store of goods. But the daughter of my uncle (this\n gazelle) had learned gramarye and egromancy and clerkly craft[46] from\n her childhood; so she bewitched that son of mine to a calf, and my\n handmaid (his mother) to a heifer, and made them over to the herdsman's\n care. Now when I returned after a long time from my journey and asked\n for my son and his mother, she answered me, saying \"Thy slave-girl is\n dead, and thy son hath fled and I know not whither he is sped.\" So I\n remained for a whole year with grieving heart, and streaming eyes until\n the time came for the Great Festival of Allah.[47] Then sent I to my\n herdsman bidding him choose for me a fat heifer; and he brought me one\n which was the damsel, my handmaid, whom this gazelle had ensorcelled. I\n tucked up my sleeves and skirt and, taking a knife, proceeded to cut\n her throat, but she lowed aloud and wept bitter tears. Thereat I\n marvelled and pity seized me and I held my hand, saying to the herd,\n \"Bring me other than this.\" Then cried my cousin, \"Slay her, for I have\n not a fatter nor a fairer!\" Once more I went forward to sacrifice her,\n but she again lowed aloud, upon which in ruth I refrained and commanded\n the herdsmen to slay her and flay her. He killed her and skinned her\n but found in her neither fat nor flesh, only hide and bone; and I\n repented when penitence availed me naught. I gave her to the herdsman\n and said to him, \"Fetch me a fat calf;\" so he brought my son\n ensorcelled. When the calf saw me, he brake his tether and ran to me,\n and fawned upon me and wailed and shed tears; so that I took pity on\n him and said to the herdsman, \"Bring me a heifer and let this calf go!\"\n Thereupon my cousin (this gazelle) called aloud at me, saying, \"Needs\n must thou kill this calf; this is a holy day and a blessed, whereon\n naught is slain save what be perfect-pure; and we have not amongst our\n calves any fatter or fairer than this!\" Quoth I, \"Look thou upon the\n condition of the heifer which I slaughtered at thy bidding and how we\n turn from her in disappointment and she profited us on no wise; and I\n repent with an exceeding repentance of having killed her: so this time\n I will not obey thy bidding for the sacrifice of this calf.\" Quoth she,\n \"By Allah the Most Great, the Compassionating, the Compassionate! there\n is no help for it; thou must kill him on this holy day, and if thou\n kill him not to me thou art no man and I to thee am no wife.\" Now when\n I heard those hard words, not knowing her object I went up to the calf,\n knife in hand\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to\n say her permitted say.[48] Then quoth her sister to her, \"How fair is\n thy tale, and how grateful, and how sweet and how tasteful!\" And\n Shahrazad answered her, \"What is this to that I could tell thee on the\n coming night, were I to live and the King would spare me?\" Then said\n the King in himself, \"By Allah, I will not slay her, until I shall have\n heard the rest of her tale.\" So they slept the rest of that night in\n mutual embrace till day fully brake. Then the King went forth to his\n audience-hall[49] and the Wazir went up with his daughter's shroud\n under his arm. The King issued his orders, and promoted this and\n deposed that, until the end of the day; and he told the Wazir no whit\n of what had happened. But the Minister wondered thereat with exceeding\n wonder; and when the Court broke up King Shahryar entered his palace.\n\n Now when it was the Second Night,\n\n said Dunyazad to her sister Shahrazad, \"O my sister, finish for us that\n story of the Merchant and the Jinni;\" and she answered, \"With joy and\n goodly gree, if the King permit me.\" Then quoth the King, \"Tell thy\n tale;\" and Shahrazad began in these words: It hath reached me, O\n auspicious King and Heaven-directed Ruler! that when the merchant\n purposed the sacrifice of the calf but saw it weeping, his heart\n relented and he said to the herdsman, \"Keep the calf among my cattle.\"\n All this the old Shaykh told the Jinni who marvelled much at these\n strange words. Then the owner of the gazelle continued:\u2014O Lord of the\n Kings of the Jann, this much took place and my uncle's daughter, this\n gazelle, looked on and saw it, and said, \"Butcher me this calf, for\n surely it is a fat one;\" but I bade the herdsman take it away and he\n took it and turned his face homewards. On the next day as I was sitting\n in my own house, lo! the herdsman came and, standing before me said, \"O\n my master, I will tell thee a thing which shall gladden thy soul, and\n shall gain me the gift of good tidings.\"[50] I answered, \"Even so.\"\n Then said he, \"O merchant, I have a daughter, and she learned magic in\n her childhood from an old woman who lived with us. Yesterday when thou\n gavest me the calf, I went into the house to her, and she looked upon\n it and veiled her face; then she wept and laughed alternately and at\n last she said:\u2014O my father, hath mine honour become so cheap to thee\n that thou bringest in to me strange men? I asked her:\u2014Where be these\n strange men and why wast thou laughing, and crying?; and she answered,\n Of a truth this calf which is with thee is the son of our master, the\n merchant; but he is ensorcelled by his stepdame who bewitched both him\n and his mother: such is the cause of my laughing; now the reason of his\n weeping is his mother, for that his father slew her unawares. Then I\n marvelled at this with exceeding marvel and hardly made sure that day\n had dawned before I came to tell thee.\" When I heard, O Jinni, my\n herdsman's words, I went out with him, and I was drunken without wine,\n from the excess of joy and gladness which came upon me, until I reached\n his house. There his daughter welcomed me and kissed my hand, and\n forthwith the calf came and fawned upon me as before. Quoth I to the\n herdsman's daughter, \"Is this true that thou sayest of this calf?\"\n Quoth she, \"Yea, O my master, he is thy son, the very core of thy\n heart.\" I rejoiced and said to her, \"O maiden, if thou wilt release him\n thine shall be whatever cattle and property of mine are under thy\n father's hand.\" She smiled and answered, \"O my master, I have no greed\n for the goods nor will I take them save on two conditions; the first\n that thou marry me to thy son and the second that I may bewitch her who\n bewitched him and imprison her, otherwise I cannot be safe from her\n malice and malpractices.\" Now when I heard, O Jinni, these, the words\n of the herdsman's daughter, I replied, \"Beside what thou askest all the\n cattle and the household stuff in thy father's charge are thine and, as\n for the daughter of my uncle, her blood is lawful to thee.\" When I had\n spoken, she took a cup and filled it with water: then she recited a\n spell over it and sprinkled it upon the calf, saying, \"If Almighty\n Allah created thee a calf, remain so shaped, and change not; but if\n thou be enchanted, return to thy whilom form, by command of Allah Most\n Highest!\" and lo! he trembled and became a man. Then I fell on his neck\n and said, \"Allah upon thee, tell me all that the daughter of my uncle\n did by thee and by thy mother.\" And when he told me what had come to\n pass between them I said, \"O my son, Allah favoured thee with one to\n restore thee, and thy right hath returned to thee.\" Then, O Jinni, I\n married the herdsman's daughter to him, and she transformed my wife\n into this gazelle, saying:\u2014Her shape is a comely and by no means\n loathsome. After this she abode with us night and day, day and night,\n till the Almighty took her to Himself. When she deceased, my son fared\n forth to the cities of Hind, even to the city of this man who hath done\n to thee what hath been done;[51] and I also took this gazelle (my\n cousin) and wandered with her from town to town seeking tidings of my\n son, till Destiny drove me to this place where I saw the merchant\n sitting in tears. Such is my tale! Quoth the Jinni, \"This story is\n indeed strange, and therefore I grant thee the third part of his\n blood.\" Thereupon the second old man, who owned the two greyhounds,\n came up and said, \"O Jinni, if I recount to thee what befel me from my\n brothers, these two hounds, and thou see that it is a tale even more\n wondrous and marvellous than what thou hast heard, wilt thou grant to\n me also the third of this man's blood?\" Replied the Jinni, \"Thou hast\n my word for it, if thine adventures be more marvellous and wondrous.\"\n Thereupon he thus began\n\n\n _THE SECOND SHAYKH'S STORY._\n\n Know, O lord of the Kings of the Jann! that these two dogs are my\n brothers and I am the third. Now when our father died and left us a\n capital of three thousand gold pieces,[52] I opened a shop with my\n share, and bought and sold therein, and in like guise did my two\n brothers, each setting up a shop. But I had been in business no long\n while before the elder sold his stock for a thousand dinars, and after\n buying outfit and merchandise, went his ways to foreign parts. He was\n absent one whole year with the caravan; but one day as I sat in my\n shop, behold, a beggar stood before me asking alms, and I said to him,\n \"Allah open thee another door!\"[53] Whereupon he answered, weeping the\n while, \"Am I so changed that thou knowest me not?\" Then I looked at him\n narrowly, and lo! it was my brother, so I rose to him and welcomed him;\n then I seated him in my shop and put questions concerning his case.\n \"Ask me not,\" answered he; \"my wealth is awaste and my state hath waxed\n un-stated!\" So I took him to the Hamm\u00e1m-bath[54] and clad him in a suit\n of my own and gave him lodging in my house. Moreover, after looking\n over the accounts of my stock-in-trade and the profits of my business,\n I found that industry had gained me one thousand dinars, while my\n principal, the head of my wealth, amounted to two thousand. So I shared\n the whole with him, saying, \"Assume that thou hast made no journey\n abroad but hast remained at home; and be not cast down by thine\n ill-luck.\" He took the share in great glee and opened for himself a\n shop; and matters went on quietly for a few nights and days. But\n presently my second brother (yon other dog), also setting his heart\n upon travel, sold off what goods and stock-in-trade he had, and albeit\n we tried to stay him he would not be stayed: he laid in an outfit for\n the journey, and fared forth with certain wayfarers. After an absence\n of a whole year he came back to me, even as my elder brother had come\n back; and when I said to him, \"O my brother, did I not dissuade thee\n from travel?\" he shed tears and cried, \"O my brother, this be destiny's\n decree: here I am a mere beggar, penniless[55] and without a shirt to\n my back.\" So I led him to the bath, O Jinni, and clothing him in new\n clothes of my own wear, I went with him to my shop and served him with\n meat and drink. Furthermore I said to him, \"O my brother, I am wont to\n cast up my shop-accounts at the head of every year, and whatso I shall\n find of surplusage is between me and thee.\"[56] So I proceeded, O\n Ifrit, to strike a balance and, finding two thousand dinars of profit,\n I returned praises to the Creator (be He extolled and exalted!) and\n made over one half to my brother, keeping the other to myself.\n Thereupon he busied himself with opening a shop and on this wise we\n abode many days. After a time my brothers began pressing me to travel\n with them; but I refused, saying, \"What gained ye by your voyage that I\n should gain thereby?\" As I would not give ear to them we went back each\n to his own shop where we bought and sold as before. They kept urging me\n to travel for a whole twelvemonth, but I refused to do so till full six\n years were past and gone when I consented with these words, \"O my\n brothers, here am I, your companion of travel: now let me see what\n monies you have by you.\" I found, however, that they had not a doit,\n having squandered their substance in high diet and drinking and carnal\n delights. Yet I spoke not a word of reproach; so far from it I looked\n over my shop accounts once more, and sold what goods and stock-in trade\n were mine; and, finding myself the owner of six thousand ducats, I\n gladly proceeded to divide that sum into halves, saying to my brothers,\n \"These three thousand gold pieces are for me and for you to trade\n withal,\" adding, \"Let us bury the other moiety underground that it may\n be of service in case any harm befal us, in which case each shall take\n a thousand wherewith to open shops.\" Both replied, \"Right is thy\n recking;\" and I gave to each one his thousand gold pieces, keeping the\n same sum for myself, to wit, a thousand dinars. We then got ready\n suitable goods and hired a ship and, having embarked our merchandise,\n proceeded on our voyage, day following day, a full month, after which\n we arrived at a city, where we sold our venture; and for every piece of\n gold we gained ten. And as we turned again to our voyage we found on\n the shore of the sea a maiden clad in worn and ragged gear, and she\n kissed my hand and said, \"O master, is there kindness in thee and\n charity? I can make thee a fitting return for them.\" I answered, \"Even\n so; truly in me are benevolence and good works, even though thou render\n me no return.\" Then she said, \"Take me to wife, O my master, and carry\n me to thy city, for I have given myself to thee; so do me a kindness\n and I am of those who be meet for good works and charity: I will make\n thee a fitting return for these and be thou not shamed by my\n condition.\" When I heard her words, my heart yearned towards her, in\n such sort as willed it Allah (be He extolled and exalted!); and took\n her and clothed her and made ready for her a fair resting-place in the\n vessel, and honourably entreated her. So we voyaged on, and my heart\n became attached to her with exceeding attachment, and I was separated\n from her neither night nor day, and I paid more regard to her than to\n my brothers. Then they were estranged from me, and waxed jealous of my\n wealth and the quantity of merchandise I had, and their eyes were\n opened covetously upon all my property. So they took counsel to murder\n me and seize my wealth, saying, \"Let us slay our brother and all his\n monies will be ours;\" and Satan made this deed seem fair in their\n sight; so when they found me in privacy (and I sleeping by my wife's\n side) they took us both up and cast us into the sea. My wife awoke\n startled from her sleep and, forthright becoming an Ifritah,[57] she\n bore me up and carried me to an island and disappeared for a short\n time; but she returned in the morning and said \"Here am I, thy faithful\n slave, who hath made thee due recompense; for I bore thee up in the\n waters and saved thee from death by command of the Almighty. Know that\n I am a Jinniyah, and as I saw thee my heart loved thee by will of the\n Lord, for I am a believer in Allah and in His Apostle (whom Heaven\n bless and preserve!). Thereupon I came to thee conditioned as thou\n sawest me and thou didst marry me, and see now I have saved thee from\n sinking. But I am angered against thy brothers and assuredly I must\n slay them.\" When I heard her story I was surprised and, thanking her\n for all she had done, I said, \"But as to slaying my brothers this must\n not be.\" Then I told her the tale of what had come to pass with them\n from the beginning of our lives to the end, and on hearing it quoth\n she, \"This night will I fly as a bird over them and will sink their\n ship and slay them.\" Quoth I, \"Allah upon thee, do not thus, for the\n proverb saith, O thou who doest good to him that doth evil, leave the\n evil doer to his evil deeds. Moreover they are still my brothers.\" But\n she rejoined, \"By Allah, there is no help for it but I slay them.\" I\n humbled myself before her for their pardon, whereupon she bore me up\n and flew away with me till at last she set me down on the terrace-roof\n of my own house. I opened the doors and took up what I had hidden in\n the ground; and after I had saluted the folk I opened my shop and\n bought me merchandise. Now when night came on I went home, and there I\n saw these two hounds tied up; and, when they sighted me, they arose and\n whined and fawned upon me; but ere I knew what happened my wife said,\n \"These two dogs be thy brothers!\" I answered, \"And who hath done this\n thing by them?\" and she rejoined, \"I sent a message to my sister and\n she entreated them on this wise, nor shall these two be released from\n their present shape till ten years shall have passed.\" And now I have\n arrived at this place on my way to my wife's sister that she may\n deliver them from this condition, after their having endured it for\n half a score of years. As I was wending onwards I saw this young man,\n who acquainted me with what had befallen him, and I determined not to\n fare hence until I should see what might occur between thee and him.\n Such is my tale! Then said the Jinni, \"Surely this is a strange story\n and therefor I give thee the third portion of his blood and his crime.\"\n Thereupon quoth the third Shaykh, the master of the mare-mule, to the\n Jinni, \"I can tell thee a tale more wondrous than these two, so thou\n grant me the remainder of his blood and of his offence,\" and the Jinni\n answered, \"So be it!\" Then the old man began\n\n\n _THE THIRD SHAYKH'S STORY._\n\n Know, O Sultan and head of the Jann, that this mule was my wife. Now it\n so happened that I went forth and was absent one whole year; and when I\n returned from my journey I came to her by night, and saw a black slave\n lying with her on the carpet-bed, and they were talking, and dallying,\n and laughing, and kissing and playing the close-buttock game. When she\n saw me, she rose and came hurriedly at me with a gugglet[58] of water;\n and, muttering spells over it, she besprinkled me and said, \"Come forth\n from this thy shape into the shape of a dog;\" and I became on the\n instant a dog. She drove me out of the house, and I ran through the\n doorway nor ceased running until I came to a butcher's stall, where I\n stopped and began to eat what bones were there. When the stall-owner\n saw me, he took me and led me into his house, but as soon as his\n daughter had sight of me she veiled her face from me, crying out, \"Dost\n thou bring men to me and dost thou come in with them to me?\" Her father\n asked, \"Where is the man?\"; and she answered, \"This dog is a man whom\n his wife hath ensorcelled and I am able to release him.\" When her\n father heard her words, he said, \"Allah upon thee, O my daughter,\n release him.\" So she took a gugglet of water and, after uttering words\n over it, sprinkled upon me a few drops, saying, \"Come forth from that\n form into thy former form.\" And I returned to my natural shape. Then I\n kissed her hand and said, \"I wish thou wouldest transform my wife even\n as she transformed me.\" Thereupon she gave me some water, saying, \"As\n soon as thou see her asleep, sprinkle this liquid upon her and speak\n what words thou heardest me utter, so shall she become whatsoever thou\n desirest.\" I went to my wife and found her fast asleep; and, while\n sprinkling the water upon her, I said, \"Come forth from that form into\n the form of a mare-mule.\" So she became on the instant a she-mule, and\n she it is whom thou seest with thine eyes, O Sultan and head of the\n Kings of the Jann! Then the Jinni turned towards her and said, \"Is this\n sooth?\" And she nodded her head and replied by signs, \"Indeed, 'tis the\n truth: for such is my tale and this is what hath befallen me.\" Now when\n the old man had ceased speaking the Jinni shook with pleasure and gave\n him the third of the merchant's blood.\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad perceived the\n dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. Then quoth Dunyazad,\n \"O, my sister, how pleasant is thy tale, and how tasteful; how sweet\n and how grateful!\" She replied, \"And what is this compared with that I\n could tell thee, the night to come, if I live and the King spare\n me?\"[59] Then thought the King, \"By Allah, I will not slay her until I\n hear the rest of her tale, for truly it is wondrous.\" So they rested\n that night in mutual embrace until the dawn. After this the King went\n forth to his Hall of Estate, and the Wazir and the troops came in and\n the court was crowded, and the King gave orders and judged and\n appointed and deposed, bidding and forbidding during the rest of the\n day. Then the Divan broke up, and King Shahryar entered his palace.\n\n Now when it was the Third Night,\n\n And the King had had his will of the Wazir's daughter, Dunyazad, her\n sister, said to her, \"Finish for us that tale of thine;\" and she\n replied, \"With joy and goodly gree! It hath reached me, O auspicious\n King, that when the third old man told a tale to the Jinni more\n wondrous than the two preceding, the Jinni marvelled with exceeding\n marvel; and, shaking with delight, cried, \"Lo! I have given thee the\n remainder of the merchant's punishment and for thy sake have I released\n him.\" Thereupon the merchant embraced the old men and thanked them, and\n these Shaykhs wished him joy on being saved and fared forth each one\n for his own city. Yet this tale is not more wondrous than the\n fisherman's story.\" Asked the King, \"What is the fisherman?s story?\"\n And she answered by relating the tale of\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 40:\n\n Travellers tell of a peculiar knack of jerking the date-stone, which\n makes it strike with great force: I never saw this \"Inw\u00e1\" practised,\n but it reminds me of the water-splashing with one hand in the German\n baths.\n\nFootnote 41:\n\n _i.e._, sorely against his will.\n\nFootnote 42:\n\n Arab. \"Shaykh\"=an old man (primarily), an elder, a chief (of the\n tribe, guild, etc.); and honourably addressed to any man. Comp. among\n the neo-Latins \"Sieur,\" \"Signore,\" \"Se\u00f1or,\" \"Senhor,\" etc. from Lat.\n \"Senior,\" which gave our \"Sire\" and \"Sir.\" Like many in Arabic the\n word has a host of different meanings and most of them will occur in\n the course of The Nights. Ibrahim (Abraham) was the first Shaykh or\n man who became grey. Seeing his hairs whiten he cried, \"O Allah what\n is this?\" and the answer came that it was a sign of dignified\n gravity. Hereupon he exclaimed, \"O Lord increase this to me!\" and so\n it happened till his locks waxed snowy white at the age of one\n hundred and fifty. He was the first who parted his hair, trimmed his\n mustachios, cleaned his teeth with the Misw\u00e1k (tooth-stick), pared\n his nails, shaved his pecten, snuffed up water, used ablution after\n stool and wore a shirt (Tabari).\n\nFootnote 43:\n\n The word is mostly plural=Jinn\u00eds: it is also singular=a demon; and\n J\u00e1n bin J\u00e1n has been noticed.\n\nFootnote 44:\n\n With us moderns \"liver\" suggests nothing but malady: in Arabic and\n Persian as in the classic literature of Europe it is the seat of\n passion, the heart being that of affection. Of this more presently.\n\nFootnote 45:\n\n Originally in Al-Islam the concubine (Surriyat, etc.) was a captive\n taken in war and the Koran says nothing about buying slave-girls. But\n if the captives were true believers the Moslem was ordered to marry\n not to keep them. In modern days concubinage has become an extensive\n subject. Practically the disadvantage is that the slave-girls,\n knowing themselves to be the master's property, consider him bound to\n sleep with them; which is by no means the mistress's view. Some\n wives, however, when old and childless, insist, after the fashion of\n Sarah, upon the husband taking a young concubine and treat her like a\n daughter\u2014which is rare. The Nights abound in tales of concubines, but\n these are chiefly owned by the Caliphs and high officials who did\n much as they pleased. The only redeeming point in the system is that\n it obviated the necessity of prostitution which is, perhaps, the\n greatest evil known to modern society.\n\nFootnote 46:\n\n Arab. \"Al-Kah\u00e1nah\"=the craft of a \"K\u00e1hin\" (Heb. Cohen) a diviner,\n soothsayer, etc.\n\nFootnote 47:\n\n Arab. \"Id al-kab\u00edr\"=The Great Festival; the Turkish Bayr\u00e1m and Indian\n Bakar-eed (Kine-f\u00eate), the pilgrimage-time, also termed \"Festival of\n the Kurb\u00e1n\" (sacrifice) because victims are slain; Al-Zuha (of Undurn\n or forenoon), Al-Azh\u00e1 (of serene night) and Al-Nahr (of\n throat-cutting). For full details I must refer readers to my\n \"Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah\" (3\n vols. 8vo. London, Longmans, 1855). I shall have often to refer to\n it.\n\nFootnote 48:\n\n Arab. \"Kal\u00e1m al-mub\u00e1h,\" _i.e._, that allowed or permitted to her by\n the King, her husband.\n\nFootnote 49:\n\n Moslem Kings are expected, like the old Guebre Monarchs, to hold\n \"Darbar\" (_i.e._, give public audience) at least twice a day, morning\n and evening. Neglect of this practice caused the ruin of the\n Caliphate and of the Persian and Moghul Empires: the great lords were\n left uncontrolled and the lieges revolted to obtain justice. The\n Guebre Kings had two lev\u00e9e places, the Rozistan (day station) and the\n Shabistan (night-station\u2014ist\u00e1n or st\u00e1n being a nominal form of\n ist\u00e1dan, to stand, as Hindo-st\u00e1n). Moreover one day in the week the\n sovereign acted as \"Mufti\" or Supreme Judge.\n\nFootnote 50:\n\n Arab. \"Al-Bash\u00e1rah,\" the gift everywhere claimed in the East and in\n Boccaccio's Italy by one who brings good news. Those who do the\n reverse expose themselves to a sound strappado.\n\nFootnote 51:\n\n A euphemistic formula, to avoid mentioning unpleasant matters. I\n shall note these for the benefit of students who would honestly\n prepare for the public service in Moslem lands.\n\nFootnote 52:\n\n Arab. \"Din\u00e1r,\" from the Latin denarius (a silver coin worth ten\n ounces of brass) through the Greek \u03b4\u03b7\u03bd\u03ac\u03c1\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd: it is a Koranic word\n (chapt. iii.) though its Arab equivalent is \"Misk\u00e1l.\" It also occurs\n in the Kath\u00e1 before quoted, clearly showing the derivation. In the\n \"Book of Kalilah and Dimnah\" it is represented by the Daric or\n Persian Din\u00e1r, \u03b4\u03b1\u03c1\u03b5\u03b9\u03ba\u03cc\u03c2, from D\u00e1r\u00e1=a King (whence Darius). The Dinar,\n sequin or ducat, contained at different times from 10 and 12 (Abu\n Hanifah's day) to 20 and even 25 dirhams or drachmas; and, as a\n weight, represented a drachma and a half. Its value greatly varied,\n but we may assume it here at nine shillings or ten francs to half a\n sovereign. For an elaborate article on the Dinar see Yule's \"Cathay\n and the Way Thither\" (ii., pp. 439-443).\n\nFootnote 53:\n\n The formula used in refusing alms to an \"asker\" or in rejecting an\n insufficient offer: \"Allah will open to thee!\" (some door of gain\u2014not\n mine)! Another favourite ejaculation is \"Allah Karim\" (which Turks\n pronounce \"Kyereem\")=Allah is All-beneficent: meaning Ask Him, not\n me.\n\nFootnote 54:\n\n The public bath. London knows the word through \"The Hummums.\"\n\nFootnote 55:\n\n Arab. \"Dirham\" (Plur. dir\u00e1him, also used in the sense of money,\n \"siller\"), the Gr. \u03b4\u03c1\u03b1\u03c7\u03bc\u03ae and the drachuma of Plautus (Trin. 2, 4,\n 23). The word occurs in the Panchatantra also showing the derivation;\n and in the Syriac Kalilah wa Dimnah it is \"Z\u00faz.\" This silver piece\n was=6 obols (9\u00bed.) and as a weight=66\u00bd grains. The Dirham of The\n Nights was worth six \"D\u00e1nik,\" each of these being a fraction over a\n penny. The modern Greek Drachma is=one franc.\n\nFootnote 56:\n\n In Arabic the speaker always puts himself first, even if he address\n the King, without intending incivility.\n\nFootnote 57:\n\n A she-Ifrit, not necessarily an evil spirit.\n\nFootnote 58:\n\n Arab. \"Kullah\" (in Egypt pron. \"gulleh\"), the wide-mouthed jug,\n called in the Hijaz \"baradiyah;\" \"daurak\" being the narrow. They are\n used either for water or sherbet and, being made of porous clay,\n \"sweat,\" and keep the contents cool; hence all old Anglo-Egyptians\n drink from them, not from bottles. Sometimes they are perfumed with\n smoke of incense, mastich or Kafal (Amyris Kafal). For their graceful\n shapes See Lane's \"Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern\n Egyptians\" (chapt. v). I quote, here and elsewhere, from the fifth\n edition, London, Murray, 1860.\n\nFootnote 59:\n\n \"And what is?\" etc. A popular way of expressing great difference. So\n in India:\u2014\"Where is Rajah Bhoj (the great King) and where is Gang\u00e1\n the oilman?\"\n\n\n\n\n THE FISHERMAN AND THE JINNI.\n\n\n It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that there was a Fisherman well\n stricken in years who had a wife and three children, and withal was of\n poor condition. Now it was his custom to cast his net every day four\n times, and no more. On a day he went forth about noontide to the sea\n shore, where he laid down his basket; and, tucking up his shirt and\n plunging into the water, made a cast with his net and waited till it\n settled to the bottom. Then he gathered the cords together and haled\n away at it, but found it weighty; and however much he drew it\n landwards, he could not pull it up; so he carried the ends ashore and\n drove a stake into the ground and made the net fast to it. Then he\n stripped and dived into the water all about the net, and left not off\n working hard until he had brought it up. He rejoiced thereat and,\n donning his clothes, went to the net, when he found in it a dead\n jackass which had torn the meshes. Now when he saw it, he exclaimed in\n his grief, \"There is no Majesty, and there is no Might save in Allah\n the Glorious, the Great!\" Then quoth he, \"This is a strange manner of\n daily bread;\" and he began reciting in extempore verse:\u2014\n\n O toiler through the glooms of night in peril and in pain \u273f Thy toiling\n stint for daily bread comes not by might and main!\n Seest thou not the fisher seek afloat upon the sea \u273f His bread, while\n glimmer stars of night as set in tangled skein.\n Anon he plungeth in despite the buffet of the waves \u273f The while to\n sight the bellying net his eager glances strain;\n Till joying at the night's success, a fish he bringeth home \u273f Whose\n gullet by the hook of Fate was caught and cut in twain.\n When buys that fish of him a man who spent the hours of night \u273f\n Reckless of cold and wet and gloom in ease and comfort fain,\n Laud to the Lord who gives to this, to that denies his wishes \u273f And\n dooms one toil and catch the prey and other eat the fishes.[60]\n\n Then quoth he, \"Up and to it; I am sure of His beneficence, Inshallah!\"\n So he continued:\u2014\n\n When thou art seized of Evil Fate, assume \u273f The noble soul's\n long-suffering: 'tis thy best:\n Complain not to the creature; this be 'plaint \u273f From one most Ruthful\n to the ruthlessest.\n\n The Fisherman, when he had looked at the dead ass, got it free of the\n toils and wrung out and spread his net; then he plunged into the sea,\n saying, \"In Allah's name!\" and made a cast and pulled at it, but it\n grew heavy and settled down more firmly than the first time. Now he\n thought that there were fish in it, and he made it fast, and doffing\n his clothes went into the water, and dived and haled until he drew it\n up upon dry land. Then found he in it a large earthen pitcher which was\n full of sand and mud; and seeing this he was greatly troubled and began\n repeating these verses[61]:\u2014\n\n Forbear, O troubles of the world, \u273f And pardon an ye nill forbear:\n I went to seek my daily bread \u273f I find that breadless I must fare:\n For neither handcraft brings me aught \u273f Nor Fate allots to me a share:\n How many fools the Pleiads reach \u273f While darkness whelms the wise and\n ware.\n\n So he prayed pardon of Allah and, throwing away the jar, wrung his net\n and cleansed it and returned to the sea the third time to cast his net\n and waited till it had sunk. Then he pulled at it and found therein\n potsherds and broken glass; whereupon he began to speak these verses:\u2014\n\n He is to thee that daily bread thou canst nor loose nor bind \u273f Nor pen\n nor writ avail thee aught thy daily bread to find:\n For joy and daily bread are what Fate deigneth to allow; \u273f This soil is\n sad and sterile ground, while that makes glad the hind.\n The shafts of Time and Life bear down full many a man of worth \u273f While\n bearing up to high degree wights of ignoble mind.\n So come thou, Death! for verily life is not worth a straw \u273f When low\n the falcon falls withal the mallard wings the wind:\n No wonder 'tis thou seest how the great of soul and mind \u273f Are poor,\n and many a losel carle to height of luck designed.\n This bird shall overfly the world from east to furthest west \u273f And that\n shall win her every wish though ne'er she leave the nest.\n\n Then raising his eyes heavenwards he said, \"O my God!\"[62] verily Thou\n wottest that I cast not my net each day save four times;[63] the third\n is done and as yet Thou hast vouchsafed me nothing. So this time, O my\n God, deign give me my daily bread. Then, having called on Allah's\n name,[64] he again threw his net and waited its sinking and settling;\n whereupon he haled at it but could not draw it in for that it was\n entangled at the bottom. He cried out in his vexation \"There is no\n Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah!\" and he began reciting:\u2014\n\n Fie on this wretched world, an so it be \u273f I must be whelmed by grief\n and misery:\n Tho' gladsome be man's lot when dawns the morn \u273f He drains the cup of\n woe ere eve he see:\n Yet was I one of whom the world when asked \u273f \"Whose lot is happiest?\"\n oft would say \"'Tis he!\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n Thereupon he stripped and, diving down to the net, busied himself with\n it till it came to land. Then he opened the meshes and found therein a\n cucumber-shaped jar of yellow copper,[65] evidently full of something,\n whose mouth was made fast with a leaden cap, stamped with the seal-ring\n of our Lord Sulayman son of David (Allah accept the twain!). Seeing\n this the Fisherman rejoiced and said, \"If I sell it in the brass-bazar\n 'tis worth ten golden dinars.\" He shook it and finding it heavy\n continued, \"Would to Heaven I knew what is herein. But I must and will\n open it and look to its contents and store it in my bag and sell it in\n the brass-market.\" And taking out a knife he worked at the lead till he\n had loosened it from the jar; then he laid the cup on the ground and\n shook the vase to pour out whatever might be inside. He found nothing\n in it; whereat he marvelled with an exceeding marvel. But presently\n there came forth from the jar a smoke which spired heavenwards into\n \u00e6ther (whereat he again marvelled with mighty marvel), and which\n trailed along earth's surface till presently, having reached its full\n height, the thick vapour condensed, and became an Ifrit, huge of bulk,\n whose crest touched the clouds while his feet were on the ground. His\n head was as a dome, his hands like pitchforks, his legs long as masts\n and his mouth big as a cave; his teeth were like large stones, his\n nostrils ewers, his eyes two lamps and his look was fierce and\n lowering. Now when the fisherman saw the Ifrit his side muscles\n quivered, his teeth chattered, his spittle dried up and he became blind\n about what to do. Upon this the Ifrit looked at him and cried, \"There\n is no god but _the_ God, and Sulayman is the prophet of God;\" presently\n adding, \"O Apostle of Allah, slay me not; never again will I gainsay\n thee in word nor sin against thee in deed.\"[66] Quoth the Fisherman, \"O\n M\u00e1rid,[67] diddest thou say, Sulayman the Apostle of Allah; and\n Sulayman is dead some thousand and eight hundred years ago,[68] and we\n are now in the last days of the world! What is thy story, and what is\n thy account of thyself, and what is the cause of thy entering into this\n cucurbit?\" Now when the Evil Spirit heard the words of the Fisherman,\n quoth he; \"There is no god but _the_ God: be of good cheer, O\n Fisherman!\" Quoth the Fisherman, \"Why biddest thou me to be of good\n cheer?\" and he replied, \"Because of thy having to die an ill death in\n this very hour.\" Said the Fisherman, \"Thou deservest for thy good\n tidings the withdrawal of Heaven's protection, O thou distant one![69]\n Wherefore shouldest thou kill me and what thing have I done to deserve\n death, I who freed thee from the jar, and saved thee from the depths of\n the sea, and brought thee up on the dry land?\" Replied the Ifrit, \"Ask\n of me only what mode of death thou wilt die, and by what manner of\n slaughter shall I slay thee.\" Rejoined the Fisherman, \"What is my crime\n and wherefore such retribution?\"\n\n Quoth the Ifrit, \"Hear my story, O Fisherman!\" and he answered, \"Say\n on, and be brief in thy saying, for of very sooth my life-breath is in\n my nostrils.\"[70] Thereupon quoth the Jinni, \"Know, that I am one among\n the heretical Jann and I sinned against Sulayman, David-son (on the\n twain be peace!) I together with the famous Sakhr al-Jinni;[71]\n whereupon the Prophet sent his minister, Asaf son of Barkhiy\u00e1, to seize\n me; and this Wazir brought me against my will and led me in bonds to\n him (I being downcast despite my nose) and he placed me standing before\n him like a suppliant. When Sulayman saw me, he took refuge with Allah\n and bade me embrace the True Faith and obey his behests; but I refused,\n so sending for this cucurbit[72] he shut me up therein, and stopped it\n over with lead whereon he impressed the Most High Name, and gave his\n orders to the Jann who carried me off, and cast me into the midmost of\n the ocean. There I abode an hundred years, during which I said in my\n heart, \"Whoso shall release me, him will I enrich for ever and ever.\"\n But the full century went by and, when no one set me free, I entered\n upon the second five score saying, \"Whoso shall release me, for him I\n will open the hoards of the earth.\" Still no one set me free and thus\n four hundred years passed away. Then quoth I, \"Whoso shall release me,\n for him will I fulfil three wishes.\" Yet no one set me free. Thereupon\n I waxed wroth with exceeding wrath and said to myself, \"Whoso shall\n release me from this time forth, him will I slay and I will give him\n choice of what death he will die; and now, as thou hast released me, I\n give thee full choice of deaths.\" The Fisherman, hearing the words of\n the Ifrit, said, \"O Allah! the wonder of it that I have not come to\n free thee save in these days!\" adding, \"Spare my life, so Allah spare\n thine; and slay me not, lest Allah set one to slay thee.\" Replied the\n Contumacious One, \"There is no help for it; die thou must; so ask me by\n way of boon what manner of death thou wilt die.\" Albeit thus certified\n the Fisherman again addressed the Ifrit saying, \"Forgive me this my\n death as a generous reward for having freed thee;\" and the Ifrit,\n \"Surely I would not slay thee save on account of that same release.\" \"O\n Chief of the Ifrits,\" said the Fisherman, \"I do thee good and thou\n requitest me with evil! in very sooth the old saw lieth not when it\n saith:\u2014\n\n We wrought them weal, they met our weal with ill; \u273f Such, by my life!\n is every bad man's labour:\n To him who benefits unworthy wights \u273f Shall hap what hapt to\n Ummi-Amir's neighbour.[73]\n\n Now when the Ifrit heard these words he answered, \"No more of this\n talk, needs must I kill thee.\" Upon this the Fisherman said to himself,\n \"This is a Jinni; and I am a man to whom Allah hath given a passably\n cunning wit, so I will now cast about to compass his destruction by my\n contrivance and by mine intelligence; even as he took counsel only of\n his malice and his frowardness.\"[74] He began by asking the Ifrit,\n \"Hast thou indeed resolved to kill me?\" and, receiving for all answer,\n \"Even so,\" he cried, \"Now in the Most Great Name, graven on the\n seal-ring of Sulayman the Son of David (peace be with the holy twain!),\n an I question thee on a certain matter wilt thou give me a true\n answer?\" The Ifrit replied \"Yea;\" but, hearing mention of the Most\n Great Name, his wits were troubled and he said with trembling, \"Ask and\n be brief.\" Quoth the Fisherman, \"How didst thou fit into this bottle\n which would not hold thy hand; no, nor even thy foot, and how came it\n to be large enough to contain the whole of thee?\" Replied the Ifrit,\n \"What! dost not believe that I was all there?\" and the Fisherman\n rejoined, \"Nay! I will never believe it until I see thee inside with my\n own eyes.\"\u2014And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say\n her permitted say.\n\n Now when it was the Fourth Night,\n\n Her sister said to her, \"Please finish us this tale, an thou be not\n sleepy!\" so she resumed:\u2014It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that\n when the Fisherman said to the Ifrit, \"I will never and nowise believe\n thee until I see thee inside it with mine own eyes;\" the Evil Spirit on\n the instant shook[75] and became a vapour, which condensed, and entered\n the jar little and little, till all was well inside when lo! the\n Fisherman in hot haste took the leaden cap with the seal and stoppered\n therewith the mouth of the jar and called out to the Ifrit, saying,\n \"Ask me by way of boon what death thou wilt die! By Allah, I will throw\n thee into the sea[76] before us and here will I build me a lodge; and\n whoso cometh hither I will warn him against fishing and will say:\u2014In\n these waters abideth an Ifrit who giveth as a last favour a choice of\n deaths and fashion of slaughter to the man who saveth him!\" Now when\n the Ifrit heard this from the Fisherman and saw himself in limbo, he\n was minded to escape, but this was prevented by Solomon's seal; so he\n knew that the Fisherman had cozened and outwitted him, and he waxed\n lowly and submissive and began humbly to say, \"I did but jest with\n thee.\" But the other answered, \"Thou liest, O vilest of the Ifrits, and\n meanest and filthiest!\" and he set off with the bottle for the sea\n side; the Ifrit calling out \"Nay! Nay!\" and he calling out \"Aye! Aye!\"\n Thereupon the Evil Spirit softened his voice and smoothed his speech\n and abased himself, saying, \"What wouldest thou do with me, O\n Fisherman?\" \"I will throw thee back into the sea,\" he answered; \"where\n thou hast been housed and homed for a thousand and eight hundred years;\n and now I will leave thee therein till Judgment-day: did I not say to\n thee:\u2014Spare me and Allah shall spare thee; and slay me not lest Allah\n slay thee? yet thou spurnedst my supplication and hadst no intention\n save to deal ungraciously by me, and Allah hath now thrown thee into my\n hands and I am cunninger than thou.\" Quoth the Ifrit, \"Open for me that\n I may bring thee weal.\" Quoth the Fisherman, \"Thou liest, thou\n accursed! my case with thee is that of the Wazir of King Y\u00fan\u00e1n with the\n sage D\u00fab\u00e1n.\"[77] \"And who was the Wazir of King Yunan and who was the\n sage Duban; and what was the story about them?\" quoth the Ifrit,\n whereupon the Fisherman began to tell\n\n\n _THE TALE OF THE WAZIR AND THE SAGE DUBAN._\n\n \"Know, O thou Ifrit, that in days of yore and in ages long gone before,\n a King called Yunan reigned over the city of Fars of the land of the\n Roum.\"[78] He was a powerful ruler and a wealthy, who had armies and\n guards and allies of all nations of men; but his body was afflicted\n with a leprosy which leaches and men of science failed to heal. He\n drank potions and he swallowed powders and he used unguents, but naught\n did him good and none among the host of physicians availed to procure\n him a cure. At last there came to his city a mighty healer of men and\n one well stricken in years, the sage Duban hight. This man was a reader\n of books, Greek, Persian, Roman, Arabian, and Syrian; and he was\n skilled in astronomy and in leechcraft, the theorick as well as the\n practick; he was experienced in all that healeth and that hurteth the\n body; conversant with the virtues of every plant, grass and herb, and\n their benefit and bane; and he understood philosophy and had compassed\n the whole range of medical science and other branches of the\n knowledge-tree. Now this physician passed but few days in the city, ere\n he heard of the King's malady and all his bodily sufferings through the\n leprosy with which Allah had smitten him; and how all the doctors and\n wise men had failed to heal him. Upon this he sat up through the night\n in deep thought and, when broke the dawn and appeared the morn and\n light was again born, and the Sun greeted the Good whose beauties the\n world adorn,[79] he donned his handsomest dress and going in to King\n Yunan, he kissed the ground before him: then he prayed for the\n endurance of his honour and prosperity in fairest language and made\n himself known saying, \"O King, tidings have reached me of what befel\n thee through that which is in thy person; and how the host of\n physicians have proved themselves unavailing to abate it; and lo! I can\n cure thee, O King; and yet will I not make thee drink of draught or\n anoint thee with ointment.\" Now when King Yunan heard his words he said\n in huge surprise, \"How wilt thou do this? By Allah, if thou make me\n whole I will enrich thee even to thy son's son and I will give thee\n sumptuous gifts; and whatso thou wishest shall be thine and thou shalt\n be to me a cup-companion[80] and a friend.\" The King then robed him\n with a dress of honour and entreated him graciously and asked him,\n \"Canst thou indeed cure me of this complaint without drug and unguent?\"\n and he answered, \"Yes! I will heal thee without the pains and penalties\n of medicine.\" The King marvelled with exceeding marvel and said, \"O\n physician, when shall be this whereof thou speakest, and in how many\n days shall it take place? Haste thee, O my son!\" He replied, \"I hear\n and I obey; the cure shall begin to-morrow.\" So saying he went forth\n from the presence, and hired himself a house in the city for the better\n storage of his books and scrolls, his medicines and his aromatic roots.\n Then he set to work at choosing the fittest drugs and simples and he\n fashioned a bat hollow within, and furnished with a handle without, for\n which he made a ball; the two being prepared with consummate art. On\n the next day when both were ready for use and wanted nothing more, he\n went up to the King; and, kissing the ground between his hands bade him\n ride forth on the parade ground[81] there to play at pall and mall. He\n was accompanied by his suite, Emirs and Chamberlains, Wazirs and Lords\n of the realm and, ere he was seated, the sage Duban came up to him, and\n handing him the bat said, \"Take this mall and grip it as I do; so! and\n now push for the plain and leaning well over thy horse drive the ball\n with all thy might until thy palm be moist and thy body perspire: then\n the medicine will penetrate through thy palm and will permeate thy\n person. When thou hast done with playing and thou feelest the effects\n of the medicine, return to thy palace, and make the Ghusl-ablution[82]\n in the Hammam-bath, and lay thee down to sleep; so shalt thou become\n whole; and now peace be with thee!\" Thereupon King Yunan took the bat\n from the Sage and grasped it firmly; then, mounting steed, he drove the\n ball before him and gallopped after it till he reached it, when he\n struck it with all his might, his palm gripping the bat handle the\n while; and he ceased not malling the ball till his hand waxed moist and\n his skin, perspiring, imbibed the medicine from the wood. Then the sage\n Duban knew that the drugs had penetrated his person and bade him return\n to the palace and enter the Hammam without stay or delay; so King Yunan\n forthright returned and ordered them to clear for him the bath. They\n did so, the carpet spreaders making all haste, and the slaves all hurry\n and got ready a change of raiment for the King. He entered the bath and\n made the total ablution long and thoroughly; then donned his clothes\n within the Hammam and rode therefrom to his palace where he lay him\n down and slept. Such was the case with King Yunan, but as regards the\n sage Duban, he returned home and slept as usual and when morning dawned\n he repaired to the palace and craved audience. The King ordered him to\n be admitted; then, having kissed the ground between his hands, in\n allusion to the King he recited these couplets with solemn intonation:\u2014\n\n Happy is Eloquence when thou art named her sire \u273f But mourns she whenas\n other man the title claimed.\n O Lord of fairest presence, whose illuming rays \u273f Clear off the fogs of\n doubt aye veiling deeds high famed,\n Ne'er cease thy face to shine like Dawn and rise of Morn \u273f And never\n show Time's face with heat of ire inflamed!\n Thy grace hath favoured us with gifts that worked such wise \u273f As\n rain-clouds raining on the hills by wolds enframed:\n Freely thou lavishedst thy wealth to rise on high \u273f Till won from Time\n the heights whereat thy grandeur aimed.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n Now when the Sage ceased reciting, the King rose quickly to his feet\n and fell on his neck; then, seating him by his side he bade dress him\n in a sumptuous dress; for it had so happened that when the King left\n the Hammam he looked on his body and saw no trace of leprosy: the skin\n was all clean as virgin silver. He joyed thereat with exceeding joy,\n his breast broadened[83] with delight and he felt thoroughly happy.\n Presently, when it was full day he entered his audience-hall and sat\n upon the throne of his kingship whereupon his Chamberlains and Grandees\n flocked to the presence and with them the sage Duban. Seeing the leach\n the King rose to him in honour and seated him by his side; then the\n food trays furnished with the daintiest viands were brought and the\n physician ate with the King, nor did he cease companying him all that\n day. Moreover, at nightfall he gave the physician Duban two thousand\n gold pieces, besides the usual dress of honour and other gifts galore,\n and sent him home on his own steed. After the Sage had fared forth King\n Yunan again expressed his amazement at the leach's art, saying, \"This\n man medicined my body from without nor anointed me with aught of\n ointments: by Allah, surely this is none other than consummate skill! I\n am bound to honour such a man with rewards and distinction, and take\n him to my companion and my friend during the remainder of my days.\" So\n King Yunan passed the night in joy and gladness for that his body had\n been made whole and had thrown off so pernicious a malady. On the\n morrow the King went forth from his Serraglio and sat upon his throne,\n and the Lords of Estate stood about him, and the Emirs and Wazirs sat\n as was their wont on his right hand and on his left. Then he asked for\n the Sage Duban, who came in and kissed the ground before him, when the\n King rose to greet him and, seating him by his side, ate with him and\n wished him long life. Moreover he robed him and gave him gifts, and\n ceased not conversing with him until night approached. Then the King\n ordered him, by way of salary, five dresses of honour and a thousand\n dinars.[84] The physician returned to his own house full of gratitude\n to the King. Now when next morning dawned the King repaired to his\n audience-hall, and his Lords and nobles surrounded him and his\n Chamberlains and his Ministers, as the white encloseth the black of the\n eye.[85] Now the King had a Wazir among his Wazirs, unsightly to look\n upon, an ill-omened spectacle; sordid, ungenerous, full of envy and\n evil will. When this Minister saw the King place the physician near him\n and give him all these gifts, he jaloused him and planned to do him a\n harm, as in the saying on such subject, \"Envy lurks in every body;\" and\n the saying, \"Oppression hideth in every heart: power revealeth it and\n weakness concealeth it.\" Then the Minister came before the King and,\n kissing the ground between his hands, said, \"O King of the age and of\n all time, thou in whose benefits I have grown to manhood, I have\n weighty advice to offer thee, and if I withhold it I were a son of\n adultery and no true-born man; wherefore an thou order me to disclose\n it I will so do forthwith.\" Quoth the King (and he was troubled at the\n words of the Minister), \"And what is this counsel of thine?\" Quoth he,\n \"O glorious monarch, the wise of old have said:\u2014Whoso regardeth not the\n end, hath not Fortune to friend; and indeed I have lately seen the King\n on far other than the right way; for he lavisheth largesse on his\n enemy, on one whose object is the decline and fall of his kingship: to\n this man he hath shown favour, honouring him with over honour and\n making of him an intimate. Wherefore I fear for the King's life.\" The\n King, who was much troubled and changed colour, asked, \"Whom dost thou\n suspect and anent whom doest thou hint?\" and the Minister answered, \"O\n King, an thou be asleep, wake up! I point to the physician Duban.\"\n Rejoined the King, \"Fie upon thee! This is a true friend who is\n favoured by me above all men, because he cured me with something which\n I held in my hand, and he healed my leprosy which had baffled all\n physicians; indeed he is one whose like may not be found in these\n days\u2014no, not in the whole world from furthest east to utmost west! And\n it is of such a man thou sayest such hard sayings. Now from this day\n forward I allot him a settled solde and allowances, every month a\n thousand gold pieces; and, were I to share with him my realm 'twere but\n a little matter. Perforce I must suspect that thou speakest on this\n wise from mere envy and jealousy as they relate of the King\n Sindibad.\"\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day, and ceased saying\n her permitted say.\n\n Then quoth Dunyazad, \"O my sister, how pleasant is thy tale, and how\n tasteful, how sweet, and how grateful!\" She replied, \"And where is this\n compared with what I could tell thee on the coming night if the King\n deign spare my life?\" Then said the King in himself, \"By Allah, I will\n not slay her until I hear the rest of her tale, for truly it is\n wondrous.\" So they rested that night in mutual embrace until the dawn.\n Then the King went forth to his Hall of Rule, and the Wazir and the\n troops came in, and the audience-chamber was thronged; and the King\n gave orders and judged and appointed and deposed and bade and forbade\n during the rest of that day till the Court broke up, and King Shahryar\n returned to his palace.\n\n Now when it was the Fifth Night,\n\n Her sister said, \"Do finish for us thy story if thou be not sleepy,\"\n and she resumed:\u2014It hath reached me, O auspicious King and mighty\n Monarch, that King Yunan said to his Minister, \"O Wazir, thou art one\n whom the evil spirit of envy hath possessed because of this physician,\n and thou plottest for my putting him to death, after which I should\n repent me full sorely, even as repented King Sindibad for killing his\n falcon.\" Quoth the Wazir, \"Pardon me, O King of the age, how was that?\"\n So the King began the story of\n\n\n _KING SINDIBAD AND HIS FALCON._\n\n It is said (but Allah is All-knowing![86]) that there was a King of the\n Kings of Fars, who was fond of pleasuring and diversion, especially\n coursing and hunting. He had reared a falcon which he carried all night\n on his fist, and whenever he went a-chasing he took with him this bird;\n and he bade make for her a golden cup-let hung round her neck to give\n her drink therefrom. One day as the King was sitting quietly in his\n palace, behold, the high falconer of the household suddenly addressed\n him, \"O King of the age, this is indeed a day fit for birding.\" The\n King gave orders accordingly and set out taking the hawk on fist; and\n they fared merrily forwards till they made a Wady[87] where they\n planted a circle of nets for the chase; when lo! a gazelle came within\n the toils and the King cried, \"Whoso alloweth yon gazelle to spring\n over his head and loseth her, that man will I surely slay.\" They\n narrowed the nets about the gazelle when she drew near the King's\n station; and, planting herself on her hind quarter, crossed her\n forehand over her breast, as if about to kiss the earth before the\n King. He bowed his brow low in acknowledgment to the beast; when she\n bounded high over his head and took the way of the waste. Thereupon the\n King turned towards his troops and, seeing them winking and pointing at\n him, he asked, \"O Wazir, what are my men saying?\" and the Minister\n answered, \"They say thou didst proclaim that whoso alloweth the gazelle\n to spring over his head, that man shall be put to death.\" Quoth the\n King, \"Now, by the life of my head! I will follow her up till I bring\n her back.\" So he set off gallopping on the gazelle's trail and gave not\n over tracking till he reached the foot-hills of a mountain-chain where\n the quarry made for a cave. Then the King cast off at it the falcon\n which presently caught it up and, swooping down, drove her talons into\n its eyes, bewildering and blinding it;[88] and the King drew his mace\n and struck a blow which rolled the game over. He then dismounted; and,\n after cutting the antelope's throat and flaying the body, hung it to\n the pommel of his saddle. Now the time was that of the siesta[89] and\n the wold was parched and dry, nor was any water to be found anywhere;\n and the King thirsted and his horse also; so he went about searching\n till he saw a tree dropping water, as it were melted butter, from its\n boughs. Thereupon the King who wore gauntlets of skin to guard him\n against poisons took the cup from the hawk's neck, and filling it with\n the water set it before the bird, and lo! the falcon struck it with her\n pounces and upset the liquid. The King filled it a second time with the\n dripping drops, thinking his hawk was thirsty; but the bird again\n struck at the cup with her talons and overturned it. Then the King\n waxed wroth with the hawk and filling the cup a third time offered it\n to his horse: but the hawk upset it with a flirt of wings. Quoth the\n King, \"Allah confound thee, thou unluckiest of flying things! thou\n keepest me from drinking, and thou deprivest thyself also, and the\n horse.\" So he struck the falcon with his sword and cut off her wing;\n but the bird raised her head and said by signs, \"Look at that which\n hangeth on the tree!\" The King lifted up his eyes accordingly and\n caught sight of a brood of vipers, whose poison-drops he mistook for\n water; thereupon he repented him of having struck off his falcon's\n wing, and mounting horse, fared on with the dead gazelle, till he\n arrived at the camp, his starting place. He threw the quarry to the\n cook saying, \"Take and broil it,\" and sat down on his chair, the falcon\n being still on his fist when suddenly the bird gasped and died;\n whereupon the King cried out in sorrow and remorse for having slain\n that falcon which had saved his life. Now this is what occurred in the\n case of King Sindibad; and I am assured that were I to do as thou\n desirest I should repent even as the man who killed his parrot. Quoth\n the Wazir, \"And how was that?\" And the King began to tell\n\n\n _THE TALE OF THE HUSBAND AND THE PARROT._[90]\n\n A certain man and a merchant to boot had married a fair wife, a woman\n of perfect beauty and grace, symmetry and loveliness, of whom he was\n mad-jealous, and who contrived successfully to keep him from travel. At\n last an occasion compelling him to leave her, he went to the\n bird-market and bought him for one hundred gold pieces a she-parrot\n which he set in his house to act as duenna, expecting her to acquaint\n him on his return with what had passed during the whole time of his\n absence; for the bird was kenning and cunning and never forgot what she\n had seen and heard. Now his fair wife had fallen in love with a young\n Turk,[91] who used to visit her, and she feasted him by day and lay\n with him by night. When the man had made his journey and won his wish\n he came home; and, at once causing the Parrot be brought to him,\n questioned her concerning the conduct of his consort whilst he was in\n foreign parts. Quoth she, \"Thy wife hath a man-friend who passed every\n night with her during thine absence.\" Thereupon the husband went to his\n wife in a violent rage and bashed her with a bashing severe enough to\n satisfy any body. The woman, suspecting that one of the slave-girls had\n been tattling to the master, called them together and questioned them\n upon their oaths, when all swore that they had kept the secret, but\n that the Parrot had not, adding, \"And we heard her with our own ears.\"\n Upon this the woman bade one of the girls to set a hand-mill under the\n cage and grind therewith and a second to sprinkle water through the\n cage-roof and a third to run about, right and left, flashing a mirror\n of bright steel through the livelong night. Next morning when the\n husband returned home after being entertained by one of his friends, he\n bade bring the Parrot before him and asked what had taken place whilst\n he was away. \"Pardon me, O my master,\" quoth the bird, \"I could neither\n hear nor see aught by reason of the exceeding murk and the thunder and\n lightning which lasted throughout the night.\" As it happened to be the\n summer-tide the master was astounded and cried, \"But we are now in mid\n Tamm\u00faz,[92] and this is not the time for rains and storms.\" \"Ay, by\n Allah,\" rejoined the bird, \"I saw with these eyes what my tongue hath\n told thee.\" Upon this the man, not knowing the case nor smoking the\n plot, waxed exceeding wroth; and, holding that his wife had been\n wrongously accused, put forth his hand and pulling the Parrot from her\n cage dashed her upon the ground with such force that he killed her on\n the spot. Some days afterwards one of his slave-girls confessed to him\n the whole truth,[93] yet would he not believe it till he saw the young\n Turk, his wife's lover, coming out of her chamber, when he bared his\n blade[94] and slew him by a blow on the back of the neck; and he did\n the same by the adulteress; and thus the twain, laden with mortal sin,\n went straightways to Eternal Fire. Then the merchant knew that the\n Parrot had told him the truth anent all she had seen and he mourned\n grievously for her loss, when mourning availed him not. The Minister,\n hearing the words of King Yunan, rejoined, \"O Monarch, high in dignity,\n and what harm have I done him, or what evil have I seen from him that I\n should compass his death? I would not do this thing, save to serve\n thee, and soon shalt thou sight that it is right; and if thou accept my\n advice thou shalt be saved, otherwise thou shalt be destroyed even as a\n certain Wazir who acted treacherously by the young Prince.\" Asked the\n King, \"How was that?\" and the Minister thus began\n\n\n _THE TALE OF THE PRINCE AND THE OGRESS._\n\n A certain King, who had a son over much given to hunting and coursing,\n ordered one of his Wazirs to be in attendance upon him whithersoever he\n might wend. One day the youth set out for the chase accompanied by his\n father's Minister; and, as they jogged on together, a big wild beast\n came in sight. Cried the Wazir to the King's son, \"Up and at yon noble\n quarry!\" So the Prince followed it until he was lost to every eye and\n the chase got away from him in the waste; whereby he was confused and\n he knew not which way to turn, when lo! a damsel appeared ahead and she\n was in tears. The King's son asked, \"Who art thou?\" and she answered,\n \"I am daughter to a King among the Kings of Hind, and I was travelling\n with a caravan in the desert when drowsiness overcame me, and I fell\n from my beast unwittingly; whereby I am cut off from my people and sore\n bewildered.\" The Prince, hearing these words, pitied her case and,\n mounting her on his horse's crupper, travelled until he passed by an\n old ruin,[95] when the damsel said to him, \"O my master, I wish to obey\n a call of nature\": he therefore set her down at the ruin where she\n delayed so long that the King's son thought that she was only wasting\n time; so he followed her without her knowledge and behold, she was a\n Gh\u00falah,[96] a wicked Ogress, who was saying to her brood, \"O my\n children, this day I bring you a fine fat youth[97] for dinner;\"\n whereto they answered, \"Bring him quick to us, O our mother, that we\n may browse upon him our bellies full.\" The Prince hearing their talk,\n made sure of death and his side-muscles quivered in fear for his life,\n so he turned away and was about to fly. The Ghulah came out and seeing\n him in sore affright (for he was trembling in every limb) cried,\n \"Wherefore art thou afraid?\" and he replied, \"I have hit upon an enemy\n whom I greatly fear.\" Asked the Ghulah, \"Diddest thou not say:\u2014I am a\n King's son?\" and he answered, \"Even so.\" Then quoth she, \"Why dost not\n give thine enemy something of money and so satisfy him?\" Quoth he, \"He\n will not be satisfied with my purse but only with my life, and I\n mortally fear him and am a man under oppression.\" She replied, \"If thou\n be so distressed, as thou deemest, ask aid against him from Allah, who\n will surely protect thee from his ill-doing and from the evil whereof\n thou art afraid.\" Then the Prince raised his eyes heavenwards and\n cried, \"O Thou who answerest the necessitous when he calleth upon Thee\n and dispellest his distress; O my God! grant me victory over my foe and\n turn him from me, for Thou over all things art Almighty.\" The Ghulah,\n hearing his prayer, turned away from him, and the Prince returned to\n his father, and told him the tale of the Wazir; whereupon the King\n summoned the Minister to his presence and then and there slew him.\n \"Thou likewise, O King, if thou continue to trust this leach, shalt be\n made to die the worst of deaths. He verily thou madest much of and whom\n thou entreatedest as an intimate, will work thy destruction. Seest thou\n not how he healed the disease from outside thy body by something\n grasped in thy hand? Be not assured that he will not destroy thee by\n something held in like manner!\" Replied King Yunan, \"Thou hast spoken\n sooth, O Wazir, it may well be as thou hintest O my well-advising\n Minister; and belike this Sage hath come as a spy searching to put me\n to death; for assuredly if he cured me by a something held in my hand,\n he can kill me by a something given me to smell.\" Then asked King\n Yunan, \"O Minister, what must be done with him?\" and the Wazir\n answered, \"Send after him this very instant and summon him to thy\n presence; and when he shall come strike him across the neck; and thus\n shalt thou rid thyself of him and his wickedness, and deceive him ere\n he can deceive thee.\" \"Thou hast again spoken sooth, O Wazir,\" said the\n King and sent one to call the Sage who came in joyful mood for he knew\n not what had appointed for him the Compassionate; as a certain poet\n saith by way of illustration:\u2014\n\n O Thou who fearest Fate, confiding fare, \u273f Trust all to Him who built\n the world, and wait:\n What Fate saith \"Be\" perforce must be, my lord! \u273f And safe art thou\n from th' undecreed of Fate.\n\n As Duban the physician entered he addressed the King in these lines:\u2014\n\n An fail I of my thanks to thee nor thank thee day by day \u273f For whom\n composed I prose and verse, for whom my say and lay?\n Thou lavishedst thy generous gifts ere they were craved by me \u273f Thou\n lavishedst thy boons unsought sans pretext or delay\n How shall I stint my praise of thee, how shall I cease to laud \u273f The\n grace of thee in secresy and patentest display?\n Nay; I will thank thy benefits, for aye thy favours lie \u273f Light on my\n thought and tongue, though heavy on my back they weigh.\n\n And he said further on the same theme:\u2014\n\n Turn thee from grief nor care a jot! \u273f Commit thy needs to Fate and\n Lot!\n Enjoy the Present passing well \u273f And let the Past be clean forgot;\n For whatso haply seemeth worse \u273f Shall work thy weal as Allah wot:\n Allah shall do whate'er He wills \u273f And in His will oppose Him not.\n\n And further still:\u2014\n\n To th' All-wise Subtle One trust worldly things \u273f Rest thee from all\n whereto the worldling clings:\n Learn wisely well naught cometh by thy will \u273f But e'en as willeth\n Allah, King of Kings.\n\n And lastly:\u2014\n\n Gladsome and gay forget thine every grief \u273f Full often grief the wisest\n hearts outwore:\n Thought is but folly in the feeble slave \u273f Shun it and so be sav\u00e8d\n evermore.\n\n Said the King for sole return, \"Knowest thou why I have summoned thee?\"\n and the Sage replied, \"Allah Most Highest alone kenneth hidden things!\"\n But the King rejoined, \"I summoned thee only to take thy life and\n utterly to destroy thee.\" Duban the Wise wondered at this strange\n address with exceeding wonder and asked, \"O King, and wherefore\n wouldest thou slay me, and what ill have I done thee?\" and the King\n answered, \"Men tell me thou art a spy sent hither with intent to slay\n me; and lo! I will kill thee ere I be killed by thee;\" then he called\n to his Sworder, and said, \"Strike me off the head of this traitor and\n deliver us from his evil practices.\" Quoth the Sage, \"Spare me and\n Allah will spare thee; slay me not or Allah shall slay thee.\" And he\n repeated to him these very words, even as I to thee, O Ifrit, and yet\n thou wouldst not let me go, being bent upon my death. King Yunan only\n rejoined, \"I shall not be safe without slaying thee; for, as thou\n healedst me by something held in hand, so am I not secure against thy\n killing me by something given me to smell or otherwise.\" Said the\n physician, \"This then, O King, is thy requital and reward; thou\n returnest only evil for good.\" The King replied, \"There is no help for\n it; die thou must and without delay.\" Now when the physician was\n certified that the King would slay him without waiting, he wept and\n regretted the good he had done to other than the good. As one hath said\n on this subject:\u2014\n\n Of wit and wisdom is Maym\u00fanah[98] bare \u273f Whose sire in wisdom all the\n wits outstrippeth:\n Man may not tread on mud or dust or clay \u273f Save by good sense, else\n trippeth he and slippeth.\n\n Hereupon the Sworder stepped forward and bound the Sage Duban's eyes\n and bared his blade, saying to the King, \"By thy leave;\" while the\n physician wept and cried, \"Spare me and Allah will spare thee, and slay\n me not or Allah shall slay thee,\" and began repeating:\u2014\n\n I was kind and 'scap\u00e8d not, they were cruel and escaped; \u273f And my\n kindness only led me to Ruination Hall;\n If I live I'll ne'er be kind; if I die, then all be damned \u273f Who follow\n me, and curses their kindliness befal.\n\n \"Is this,\" continued Duban, \"the return I meet from thee? Thou givest\n me, meseems, but crocodile-boon.\" Quoth the King, \"What is the tale of\n the crocodile?\", and quoth the physician, \"Impossible for me to tell it\n in this my state; Allah upon thee, spare me, as thou hopest Allah shall\n spare thee.\" And he wept with exceeding weeping. Then one of the King's\n favourites stood up and said, \"O King! grant me the blood of this\n physician; we have never seen him sin against thee, or doing aught save\n healing thee from a disease which baffled every leach and man of\n science.\" Said the King, \"Ye wot not the cause of my putting to death\n this physician, and this it is. If I spare him, I doom myself to\n certain death; for one who healed me of such a malady by something held\n in my hand, surely can slay me by something held to my nose; and I fear\n lest he kill me for a price, since haply he is some spy whose sole\n purpose in coming hither was to compass my destruction. So there is no\n help for it; die he must, and then only shall I be sure of my own\n life.\" Again cried Duban, \"Spare me and Allah shall spare thee; and\n slay me not or Allah shall slay thee.\" But it was in vain. Now when the\n physician, O Ifrit, knew for certain that the King would kill him, he\n said, \"O King, if there be no help but I must die, grant me some little\n delay that I may go down to my house and release myself from mine\n obligations and direct my folk and my neighbours where to bury me and\n distribute my books of medicine. Amongst these I have one, the rarest\n of rarities, which I would present to thee as an offering: keep it as a\n treasure in thy treasury.\" \"And what is in the book?\" asked the King\n and the Sage answered, \"Things beyond compt; and the least of secrets\n is that if, directly after thou hast cut off my head, thou open three\n leaves and read three lines of the page to thy left hand, my head shall\n speak and answer every question thou deignest ask of it.\" The King\n wondered with exceeding wonder and shaking[99] with delight at the\n novelty, said, \"O physician, dost thou really tell me that when I cut\n off thy head it will speak to me?\" He replied, \"Yes, O King!\" Quoth the\n King, \"This is indeed a strange matter!\" and forthwith sent him closely\n guarded to his house, and Duban then and there settled all his\n obligations. Next day he went up to the King's audience hall, where\n Emirs and Wazirs, Chamberlains and Nabobs, Grandees and Lords of Estate\n were gathered together, making the presence-chamber gay as a garden of\n flower-beds. And lo! the physician came up and stood before the King,\n bearing a worn old volume and a little \u00e9tui of metal full of powder,\n like that used for the eyes.[100] Then he sat down and said, \"Give me a\n tray.\" So they brought him one and he poured the powder upon it and\n levelled it and lastly spake as follows: \"O King, take this book but do\n not open it till my head falls; then set it upon this tray, and bid\n press it down upon the powder, when forthright the blood will cease\n flowing. That is the time to open the book.\" The King thereupon took\n the book and made a sign to the Sworder, who arose and struck off the\n physician's head, and placing it on the middle of the tray, pressed it\n down upon the powder. The blood stopped flowing, and the Sage Duban\n unclosed his eyes and said, \"Now open the book, O King!\" The King\n opened the book, and found the leaves stuck together; so he put his\n finger to his mouth and, by moistening it, he easily turned over the\n first leaf, and in like way the second, and the third, each leaf\n opening with much trouble; and when he had unstuck six leaves he looked\n over them and, finding nothing written thereon, said, \"O physician,\n there is no writing here!\" Duban replied, \"Turn over yet more;\" and he\n turned over three others in the same way. Now the book was poisoned;\n and before long the venom penetrated his system, and he fell into\n strong convulsions and he cried out, \"The poison hath done its work!\"\n Whereupon the Sage Duban's head began to improvise:\u2014\n\n There be rulers who have ruled with a foul tyrannic sway \u273f But they\n soon became as though they had never, never been:\n Just, they had won justice: they oppressed and were opprest \u273f By\n Fortune, who requited them with ban and bane and teen:\n So they faded like the morn, and the tongue of things repeats \u273f \"Take\n this for that, nor vent upon Fortune's ways thy spleen.\"\n\n No sooner had the head ceased speaking than the King rolled over dead.\n Now I would have thee know, O Ifrit, that if King Yunan had spared the\n Sage Duban, Allah would have spared him; but he refused so to do and\n decreed to do him dead, wherefore Allah slew him; and thou too, O\n Ifrit, if thou hadst spared me, Allah would have spared thee.\u2014\u2014And\n Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted\n say: then quoth Dunyazad, \"O my sister, how pleasant is thy tale and\n how tasteful; how sweet, and how grateful!\" She replied, \"And where is\n this compared with what I could tell thee this coming night, if I live\n and the King spare me?\" Said the King in himself, \"By Allah, I will not\n slay her until I hear the rest of her story, for truly it is wondrous.\"\n They rested that night in mutual embrace until dawn: then the King went\n forth to his Darbar; the Wazirs and troops came in and the\n audience-hall was crowded; so the King gave orders and judged and\n appointed and deposed and bade and forbade the rest of that day, when\n the court broke up, and King Shahryar entered his palace.\n\n Now when it was the Sixth Night,\n\n Her sister, Dunyazad, said to her. \"Pray finish for us thy story;\" and\n she answered, \"I will if the King give me leave.\" \"Say on,\" quoth the\n King. And she continued:\u2014It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that\n when the Fisherman said to the Ifrit, \"If thou hadst spared me I would\n have spared thee, but nothing would satisfy thee save my death; so now\n I will do thee die by jailing thee in this jar, and I will hurl thee\n into this sea.\" Then the Marid roared aloud and cried, \"Allah upon\n thee, O Fisherman don't! Spare me, and pardon my past doings; and, as I\n have been tyrannous, so be thou generous, for it is said among sayings\n that go current:\u2014O thou who doest good to him who hath done thee evil,\n suffice for the ill-doer his ill-deeds, and do not deal with me as did\n Umamah to 'Atikah.\"[101] Asked the Fisherman, \"And what was their\n case?\" and the Ifrit answered, \"This is not the time for story-telling\n and I in this prison; but set me free and I will tell thee the tale.\"\n Quoth the Fisherman, \"Leave this language: there is no help but that\n thou be thrown back into the sea nor is there any way for thy getting\n out of it for ever and ever. Vainly I placed myself under thy\n protection,[102] and I humbled myself to thee with weeping, while thou\n soughtest only to slay me, who had done thee no injury deserving this\n at thy hands; nay, so far from injuring thee by any evil act, I worked\n thee nought but weal in releasing thee from that jail of thine. Now I\n knew thee to be an evil-doer when thou diddest to me what thou didst,\n and know, that when I have cast thee back into this sea, I will warn\n whomsoever may fish thee up of what hath befallen me with thee, and I\n will advise him to toss thee back again; so shalt thou abide here under\n these waters till the End of Time shall make an end of thee.\" But the\n Ifrit cried aloud, \"Set me free; this is a noble occasion for\n generosity and I make covenant with thee and vow never to do thee hurt\n and harm; nay, I will help thee to what shall put thee out of want.\"\n The Fisherman accepted his promises on both conditions, not to trouble\n him as before, but on the contrary to do him service; and, after making\n firm the plight and swearing him a solemn oath by Allah Most Highest he\n opened the cucurbit. Thereupon the pillar of smoke rose up till all of\n it was fully out; then it thickened and once more became an Ifrit of\n hideous presence, who forthright administered a kick to the bottle and\n sent it flying into the sea. The Fisherman, seeing how the cucurbit was\n treated and making sure of his own death, piddled in his clothes and\n said to himself, \"This promiseth badly;\" but he fortified his heart,\n and cried, \"O Ifrit, Allah hath said\"[103]:\u2014Perform your covenant; for\n the performance of your covenant shall be inquired into hereafter. Thou\n hast made a vow to me and hast sworn an oath not to play me false lest\n Allah play thee false, for verily he is a jealous God who respiteth the\n sinner, but letteth him not escape. I say to thee as said the Sage\n Duban to King Yunan, \"Spare me so Allah may spare thee!\" The Ifrit\n burst into laughter and stalked away, saying to the Fisherman, \"Follow\n me;\" and the man paced after him at a safe distance (for he was not\n assured of escape) till they had passed round the suburbs of the city.\n Thence they struck into the uncultivated grounds, and crossing them\n descended into a broad wilderness, and lo! in the midst of it stood a\n mountain-tarn. The Ifrit waded in to the middle and again cried,\n \"Follow me;\" and when this was done he took his stand in the centre and\n bade the man cast his net and catch his fish. The Fisherman looked into\n the water and was much astonished to see therein vari-coloured fishes,\n white and red, blue and yellow; however he cast his net and, hauling it\n in, saw that he had netted four fishes, one of each colour. Thereat he\n rejoiced greatly and more when the Ifrit said to him, \"Carry these to\n the Sultan and set them in his presence; then he will give thee what\n shall make thee a wealthy man; and now accept my excuse, for by Allah\n at this time I wot none other way of benefiting thee, inasmuch I have\n lain in this sea eighteen hundred years and have not seen the face of\n the world save within this hour. But I would not have thee fish here\n save once a day.\" The Ifrit then gave him Godspeed, saying, \"Allah\n grant we meet again;\"[104] and struck the earth with one foot,\n whereupon the ground clove asunder and swallowed him up. The Fisherman,\n much marvelling at what had happened to him with the Ifrit, took the\n fish and made for the city; and as soon as he reached home he filled an\n earthen bowl with water and therein threw the fish which began to\n struggle and wriggle about. Then he bore off the bowl upon his head\n and, repairing to the King's palace (even as the Ifrit had bidden him)\n laid the fish before the presence; and the King wondered with exceeding\n wonder at the sight, for never in his lifetime had he seen fishes like\n these in quality or in conformation. So he said, \"Give those fish to\n the stranger slave-girl who now cooketh for us,\" meaning the\n bond-maiden whom the King of Roum had sent to him only three days\n before, so that he had not yet made trial of her talents in the\n dressing of meat. Thereupon the Wazir carried the fish to the cook and\n bade her fry them,[105] saying, \"O damsel, the King sendeth this say to\n thee:\u2014I have not treasured thee, O tear o' me! save for stress-time of\n me; approve, then, to us this day thy delicate handiwork and thy\n savoury cooking; for this dish of fish is a present sent to the Sultan\n and evidently a rarity.\" The Wazir, after he had carefully charged her,\n returned to the King, who commanded him to give the Fisherman four\n hundred dinars: he gave them accordingly, and the man took them to his\n bosom and ran off home stumbling and falling and rising again and\n deeming the whole thing to be a dream. However, he bought for his\n family all they wanted and lastly he went to his wife in huge joy and\n gladness. So far concerning him; but as regards the cookmaid, she took\n the fish and cleansed them and set them in the frying-pan, basting them\n with oil till one side was dressed. Then she turned them over and,\n behold, the kitchen wall clave asunder, and therefrom came a young\n lady, fair of form, oval of face, perfect in grace, with eyelids which\n Kohl-lines enchase.[106] Her dress was a silken head-kerchief fringed\n and tasseled with blue: a large ring hung from either ear; a pair of\n bracelets adorned her wrists; rings with bezels of priceless gems were\n on her fingers; and she hent in hand a long rod of rattan-cane which\n she thrust into the frying-pan, saying, \"O fish! O fish! be ye constant\n to your covenant?\" When the cook-maiden saw this apparition she swooned\n away. The young lady repeated her words a second time and a third time,\n and at last the fishes raised their heads from the pan, and saying in\n articulate speech \"Yes! Yes!\" began with one voice to recite:\u2014\n\n Come back and so will I! Keep faith and so will I! \u273f And if ye fain\n forsake, I'll requite till quits we cry!\n\n After this the young lady upset the frying-pan and went forth by the\n way she came in and the kitchen wall closed upon her. When the\n cook-maiden recovered from her fainting-fit, she saw the four fishes\n charred black as charcoal, and crying out, \"His staff brake in his\n first bout,\"[107] she again fell swooning to the ground. Whilst she was\n in this case the Wazir came for the fish, and looking upon her as\n insensible she lay, not knowing Sunday from Thursday, shoved her with\n his foot and said, \"Bring the fish for the Sultan!\" Thereupon\n recovering from her fainting-fit she wept and informed him of her case\n and all that had befallen her. The Wazir marvelled greatly and\n exclaiming, \"This is none other than a right strange matter!\", he sent\n after the Fisherman and said to him, \"Thou, O Fisherman, must needs\n fetch us four fishes like those thou broughtest before.\" Thereupon the\n man repaired to the tarn and cast his net; and when he landed it, lo!\n four fishes were therein exactly like the first. These he at once\n carried to the Wazir, who went in with them to the cook-maiden and\n said, \"Up with thee and fry these in my presence, that I may see this\n business.\" The damsel arose and cleansed the fish, and set them in the\n frying-pan over the fire; however they remained there but a little\n while ere the wall clave asunder and the young lady appeared, clad as\n before and holding in hand the wand which she again thrust into the\n frying-pan, saying, \"O fish! O fish! be ye constant to your olden\n covenant?\" And behold, the fish lifted their heads, and repeated \"Yes!\n Yes!\" and recited this couplet:\n\n Come back and so will I! Keep faith and so will I! \u273f But if ye fain\n forsake, I'll requite till quits we cry!\n\n And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted\n say.\n\n Now when it was the Seventh Night,\n\n She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the\n fishes spoke, and the young lady upset the frying-pan with her rod, and\n went forth by the way she came and the wall closed up, the Wazir cried\n out, \"This is a thing not to be hidden from the King,\" So he went and\n told him what had happened, whereupon quoth the King, \"There is no help\n for it but that I see this with mine own eyes.\" Then he sent for the\n Fisherman and commanded him to bring four other fish like the first and\n to take with him three men as witnesses. The Fisherman at once brought\n the fish: and the King, after ordering them to give him four hundred\n gold pieces, turned to the Wazir and said, \"Up and fry me the fishes\n here before me!\" The Minister, replying \"To hear is to obey,\" bade\n bring the frying-pan, threw therein the cleansed fish and set it over\n the fire; when lo! the wall clave asunder, and out burst a black slave\n like a huge rock or a remnant of the tribe Ad[108] bearing in hand a\n branch of a green tree; and he cried in loud and terrible tones, \"O\n fish! O fish! be ye all constant to your antique covenant?\" whereupon\n the fishes lifted their heads from the frying-pan and said, \"Yes! Yes!\n we be true to our vow;\" and they again recited the couplet:\n\n Come back and so will I! Keep faith and so will I! \u273f But if ye fain\n forsake, I'll requite till quits we cry!\n\n Then the huge blackamoor approached the frying-pan and upset it with\n the branch and went forth by the way he came in. When he vanished from\n their sight the King inspected the fish; and, finding them all charred\n black as charcoal, was utterly bewildered and said to the Wazir,\n \"Verily this is a matter whereanent silence cannot be kept, and as for\n the fishes, assuredly some marvellous adventure connects with them.\" So\n he bade bring the Fisherman and asked him, saying \"Fie on thee, fellow!\n whence come these fishes?\" and he answered, \"From a tarn between four\n heights lying behind this mountain which is in sight of thy city.\"\n Quoth the King, \"How many days' march?\" Quoth he, \"O our lord the\n Sultan, a walk of half hour.\" The King wondered and, straightway\n ordering his men to march and horsemen to mount, led off the Fisherman\n who went before as guide, privily damning the Ifrit. They fared on till\n they had climbed the mountain and descended unto a great desert which\n they had never seen during all their lives; and the Sultan and his\n merry men marvelled much at the wold set in the midst of four\n mountains, and the tarn and its fishes of four colours, red and white,\n yellow and blue. The King stood fixed to the spot in wonderment and\n asked his troops and all present, \"Hath any one among you ever seen\n this piece of water before now?\" and all made answer, \"O King of the\n age, never did we set eyes upon it during all our days.\" They also\n questioned the oldest inhabitants they met, men well stricken in years,\n but they replied, each and every, \"A lakelet like this we never saw in\n this place.\" Thereupon quoth the King, \"By Allah I will neither return\n to my capital nor sit upon the throne of my forbears till I learn the\n truth about this tarn and the fish therein.\" He then ordered his men to\n dismount and bivouac all around the mountain; which they did; and\n summoning his Wazir, a Minister of much experience, sagacious, of\n penetrating wit and well versed in affairs, said to him, \"'Tis in my\n mind to do a certain thing, whereof I will inform thee; my heart\n telleth me to fare forth alone this night and root out the mystery of\n this tarn and its fishes. Do thou take thy seat at my tent-door, and\n say to the Emirs and Wazirs, the Nabobs and the Chamberlains, in fine\n to all who ask thee:\u2014The Sultan is ill at ease, and he hath ordered me\n to refuse all admittance;[109] and be careful thou let none know my\n design.\" And the Wazir could not oppose him. Then the King changed his\n dress and ornaments and, slinging his sword over his shoulder, took a\n path which led up one of the mountains and marched for the rest of the\n night till morning dawned; nor did he cease wayfaring till the heat was\n too much for him. After his long walk he rested for a while, and then\n resumed his march and fared on through the second night till dawn, when\n suddenly there appeared a black point in the far distance. Hereat he\n rejoiced and said to himself, \"Haply some one here shall acquaint me\n with the mystery of the tarn and its fishes.\" Presently, drawing near\n the dark object he found it a palace built of swart stone plated with\n iron; and, while one leaf of the gate stood wide open, the other was\n shut. The King's spirits rose high as he stood before the gate and\n rapped a light rap; but hearing no answer he knocked a second knock and\n a third; yet there came no sign. Then he knocked his loudest but still\n no answer, so he said, \"Doubtless 'tis empty.\" Thereupon he mustered up\n resolution, and boldly walked through the main gate into the great hall\n and there cried out aloud, \"Holla, ye people of the palace! I am a\n stranger and a wayfarer; have you aught here of victual?\" He repeated\n his cry a second time and a third but still there came no reply; so\n strengthening his heart and making up his mind he stalked through the\n vestibule into the very middle of the palace and found no man in it.\n Yet it was furnished with silken stuffs gold-starred; and the hangings\n were let down over the door-ways. In the midst was a spacious court off\n which set four open saloons each with its raised da\u00efs, saloon, facing\n saloon; a canopy shaded the court and in the centre was a jetting fount\n with four figures of lions made of red gold, spouting from their mouths\n water clear as pearls and diaphanous gems. Round about the palace birds\n were let loose and over it stretched a net of golden wire, hindering\n them from flying off; in brief there was everything but human beings.\n The King marvelled mightily thereat, yet felt he sad at heart for that\n he saw no one to give him an account of the waste and its tarn, the\n fishes, the mountains and the palace itself. Presently as he sat\n between the doors in deep thought behold, there came a voice of lament,\n as from a heart grief-spent and he heard the voice chanting these\n verses:\u2014\n\n I hid what I endured of him[110] and yet it came to light, \u273f And\n nightly sleep mine eyelids fled and changed to sleepless night:\n Oh world! Oh Fate! withhold thy hand and cease thy hurt and harm \u273f Look\n and behold my hapless sprite in dolour and affright:\n Wilt ne'er show ruth to highborn youth who lost him on the way \u273f Of\n Love, and fell from wealth and fame to lowest basest wight.\n Jealous of Zephyr's breath was I as on your form he breathed \u273f But\n whenas Destiny descends she blindeth human sight,[111]\n What shall the hapless archer do who when he fronts his foe \u273f And bends\n his bow to shoot the shaft shall find his string undight?\n When cark and care so heavy bear on youth[112] of generous soul \u273f How\n shall he 'scape his lot and where from Fate his place of flight?\n\n Now when the Sultan heard the mournful voice he sprang to his feet;\n and, following the sound, found a curtain let down over a chamber-door.\n He raised it and saw behind it a young man sitting upon a couch about a\n cubit above the ground; and he fair to the sight, a well shaped wight,\n with eloquence dight; his forehead was flower-white, his cheek rosy\n bright, and a mole on his cheek-breadth like an ambergris-mite; even as\n the poet doth indite:\u2014\n\n A youth slim-waisted from whose locks and brow \u273f The world in blackness\n and in light is set.\n Throughout Creation's round no fairer show \u273f No rarer sight thine eye\n hath ever met:\n A nut-brown mole sits throned upon a cheek \u273f Of rosiest red beneath an\n eye of jet.[113]\n\n The King rejoiced and saluted him, but he remained sitting in his\n caftan of silken stuff purfled with Egyptian gold and his crown studded\n with gems of sorts; but his face was sad with the traces of sorrow. He\n returned the royal salute in most courteous wise adding, \"O my lord,\n thy dignity demandeth my rising to thee; and my sole excuse is to crave\n thy pardon.\"[114] Quoth the King, \"Thou art excused, O youth; so look\n upon me as thy guest come hither on an especial object. I would thou\n acquaint me with the secrets of this tarn and its fishes and of this\n palace and thy loneliness therein and the cause of thy groaning and\n wailing.\" When the young man heard these words he wept with sore\n weeping;[115] till his bosom was drenched with tears and began\n reciting:\u2014\n\n Say him who careless sleeps what while the shaft of Fortune flies \u273f How\n many doth this shifting world lay low and raise to rise?\n Although thine eye be sealed in sleep, sleep not th' Almighty's eyes \u273f\n And who hath found Time ever fair, or Fate in constant guise?\n\n Then he sighed a long-fetched sigh and recited:\u2014\n\n Confide thy case to Him, the Lord who made mankind; \u273f Quit cark and\n care and cultivate content of mind;\n Ask not the Past or how or why it came to pass: \u273f All human things by\n Fate and Destiny were designed!\n\n The King marvelled and asked him, \"What maketh thee weep, O young man?\"\n and he answered, \"How should I not weep, when this is my case!\"\n Thereupon he put out his hand and raised the skirt of his garment, when\n lo! the lower half of him appeared stone down to his feet while from\n his navel to the hair of his head he was man. The King, seeing this his\n plight, grieved with sore grief and of his compassion cried, \"Alack and\n well-away! in very sooth, O youth, thou heapest sorrow upon my sorrow.\n I was minded to ask thee the mystery of the fishes only: whereas now I\n am concerned to learn thy story as well as theirs. But there is no\n Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the\n Great.[116] Lose no time, O youth, but tell me forthright thy whole\n tale.\" Quoth he, \"Lend me thine ears, thy sight and thine insight;\" and\n quoth the King, \"All are at thy service!\" Thereupon the youth began,\n \"Right wondrous and marvellous is my case and that of these fishes; and\n were it graven with gravers upon the eye-corners it were a warner to\n whoso would be warned.\" \"How is that?\" asked the King, and the young\n man began to tell\n\n\n _THE TALE OF THE ENSORCELLED PRINCE._\n\n Know then, O my lord, that whilome my sire was King of this city, and\n his name was Mahm\u00fad, entitled Lord of the Black Islands, and owner of\n what are now these four mountains. He ruled threescore and ten years,\n after which he went to the mercy of the Lord and I reigned as Sultan in\n his stead. I took to wife my cousin, the daughter of my paternal\n uncle,[117] and she loved me with such abounding love that whenever I\n was absent she ate not and she drank not until she saw me again. She\n cohabited with me for five years till a certain day when she went forth\n to the Hammam bath; and I bade the cook hasten to get ready all\n requisites for our supper. And I entered this palace and lay down on\n the bed where I was wont to sleep and bade two damsels to fan my face,\n one sitting by my head and the other at my feet. But I was troubled and\n made restless by my wife's absence and could not sleep; for although my\n eyes were closed my mind and thoughts were wide awake. Presently I\n heard the slave-girl at my head say to her at my feet, \"O Mas'\u00fadah, how\n miserable is our master and how wasted in his youth and oh! the pity of\n his being so betrayed by our mistress, the accursed whore!\"[118] The\n other replied, \"Yes indeed: Allah curse all faithless women and\n adulterous; but the like of our master, with his fair gifts, deserveth\n something better than this harlot who lieth abroad every night.\" Then\n quoth she who sat by my head, \"Is our lord dumb or fit only for\n bubbling that he questioneth her not!\" and quoth the other, \"Fie on\n thee! doth our lord know her ways or doth she allow him his choice?\n Nay, more, doth she not drug every night the cup she giveth him to\n drink before sleep-time, and put Bhang[119] into it? So he sleepeth and\n wotteth not whither she goeth, nor what she doeth; but we know that,\n after giving him the drugged wine, she donneth her richest raiment and\n perfumeth herself and then she fareth out from him to be away till\n break of day; then she cometh to him, and burneth a pastile under his\n nose and he awaketh from his deathlike sleep.\" When I heard the\n slave-girls' words, the light became black before my sight and I\n thought night would never fall. Presently the daughter of my uncle came\n from the baths; and they set the table for us and we ate and sat\n together a fair half-hour quaffing our wine as was ever our wont. Then\n she called for the particular wine I used to drink before sleeping and\n reached me the cup; but, seeming to drink it according to my wont, I\n poured the contents into my bosom; and, lying down, let her hear that I\n was asleep. Then, behold, she cried, \"Sleep out the night, and never\n wake again: by Allah, I loathe thee and I loathe thy whole body, and my\n soul turneth in disgust from cohabiting with thee; and I see not the\n moment when Allah shall snatch away thy life!\" Then she rose and donned\n her fairest dress and perfumed her person and slung my sword over her\n shoulder; and, opening the gates of the palace, went her ill way. I\n rose and followed her as she left the palace and she threaded the\n streets until she came to the city gate, where she spoke words I\n understood not, and the padlocks dropped of themselves as if broken and\n the gate-leaves opened. She went forth (and I after her without her\n noticing aught) till she came at last to the outlying mounds[120] and a\n reed fence built about a round-roofed hut of mud-bricks. As she entered\n the door, I climbed upon the roof which commanded a view of the\n interior. And lo! my fair cousin had gone in to a hideous negro slave\n with his upper lip like the cover of a pot, and his lower like an open\n pot; lips which might sweep up sand from the gravel-floor of the cot.\n He was to boot a leper and a paralytic, lying upon a strew of\n sugar-cane trash and wrapped, in an old blanket and the foulest rags\n and tatters. She kissed the earth before him, and he raised his head so\n as to see her and said, \"Woe to thee! what call hadst thou to stay away\n all this time? Here have been with me sundry of the black brethren, who\n drank their wine and each had his young lady, and I was not content to\n drink because of thine absence.\" Then she, \"O my lord, my heart's love\n and coolth of my eyes,[121] knowest thou not that I am married to my\n cousin whose very look I loathe, and hate myself when in his company?\n And did not I fear for thy sake, I would not let a single sun arise\n before making his city a ruined heap wherein raven should croak and\n howlet hoot, and jackal and wolf harbour and loot; nay I had removed\n its very stones to the back side of Mount K\u00e1f.\"[122] Rejoined the\n slave, \"Thou liest, damn thee! Now I swear an oath by the valour and\n honour of blackamoor men (and deem not our manliness to be the poor\n manliness of white men), from to-day forth if thou stay away till this\n hour, I will not keep company with thee nor will I glue my body with\n thy body and strum and belly-bump. Dost play fast and loose with us,\n thou cracked pot, that we may satisfy thy dirty lusts? stinkard! bitch!\n vilest of the vile whites!\" When I heard his words, and saw with my own\n eyes what passed between these two wretches, the world waxed dark\n before my face and my soul knew not in what place it was. But my wife\n humbly stood up weeping before and wheedling the slave, and saying, \"O\n my beloved, and very fruit of my heart, there is none left to cheer me\n but thy dear self; and, if thou cast me off who shall take me in, O my\n beloved, O light of my eyes?\" And she ceased not weeping and abasing\n herself to him until he deigned be reconciled with her. Then was she\n right glad and stood up and doffed her clothes, even to her\n petticoat-trousers, and said, \"O my master what hast thou here for thy\n handmaiden to eat?\" \"Uncover the basin,\" he grumbled, \"and thou shalt\n find at the bottom the broiled bones of some rats we dined on; pick at\n them, and then go to that slop-pot where thou shalt find some leavings\n of beer[123] which thou mayest drink.\" So she ate and drank and washed\n her hands, and went and lay down by the side of the slave, upon the\n cane-trash and, stripping herself stark naked, she crept in with him\n under his foul coverlet and his rags and tatters. When I saw my wife,\n my cousin, the daughter of my uncle, do this deed[124] \"I clean lost my\n wits, and climbing down from the roof, I entered and took the sword\n which she had with her and drew it, determined to cut down the twain. I\n first struck at the slave's neck and thought that the death decree had\n fallen on him:\"\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to\n say her permitted say.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n Now when it was the Eighth Night,\n\n She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young\n ensorcelled Prince said to the King, \"When I smote the slave with\n intent to strike off his head, I thought that I had slain him; for he\n groaned a loud hissing groan, but I had cut only the skin and flesh of\n the gullet and the two arteries! It awoke the daughter of my uncle, so\n I sheathed the sword and fared forth for the city; and, entering the\n palace, lay upon my bed and slept till morning when my wife aroused me\n and I saw that she had cut off her hair and had donned mourning\n garments. Quoth she:\u2014O son of my uncle, blame me not for what I do; it\n hath just reached me that my mother is dead, and my father hath been\n killed in holy war, and of my brothers one hath lost his life by a\n snake-sting and the other by falling down some precipice; and I can and\n should do naught save weep and lament. When I heard her words I\n refrained from all reproach and said only:\u2014Do as thou list; I certainly\n will not thwart thee. She continued sorrowing, weeping and wailing one\n whole year from the beginning of its circle to the end, and when it was\n finished she said to me:\u2014I wish to build me in thy palace a tomb with a\n cupola, which I will set apart for my mourning and will name the House\n of Lamentations.\"[125] Quoth I again:\u2014Do as thou list! Then she builded\n for herself a cenotaph wherein to mourn, and set on its centre a dome\n under which showed a tomb like a Santon's sepulchre. Thither she\n carried the slave and lodged him; but he was exceeding weak by reason\n of his wound, and unable to do her love-service; he could only drink\n wine and from the day of his hurt he spake not a word, yet he lived on\n because his appointed hour[126] was not come. Every day, morning and\n evening, my wife went to him and wept and wailed over him and gave him\n wine and strong soups, and left not off doing after this manner a\n second year; and I bore with her patiently and paid no heed to her. One\n day, however, I went in to her unawares; and I found her weeping and\n beating her face and crying:\u2014Why art thou absent from my sight, O my\n heart's delight? Speak to me, O my life; talk with me, O my love? Then\n she recited these verses:\u2014\n\n For your love my patience fails and albeit you forget \u273f I may not; nor\n to other love my heart can make reply:\n Bear my body, bear my soul wheresoever you may fare \u273f And where you\n pitch the camp let my body buried lie:\n Cry my name above my grave, and an answer shall return \u273f The moaning of\n my bones responsive to your cry.[127]\n\n Then she recited, weeping bitterly the while:\u2014\n\n The day of my delight is the day when draw you near \u273f And the day of\n mine affright is the day you turn away:\n Though I tremble through the night in my bitter dread of death \u273f When I\n hold you in my arms I am free from all affray.\n\n Once more she began reciting:\u2014\n\n Though a-morn I may awake with all happiness in hand \u273f Though the world\n all be mine and like Kisra-kings[128] I reign;\n To me they had the worth of the winglet of the gnat \u273f When I fail to\n see thy form, when I look for thee in vain.\n\n When she had ended for a time her words and her weeping I said to\n her:\u2014O my cousin, let this thy mourning suffice, for in pouring forth\n tears there is little profit! Thwart me not, answered she, in aught I\n do, or I will lay violent hands on myself! So I held my peace and left\n her to go her own way; and she ceased not to cry and keen and indulge\n her affliction for yet another year. At the end of the third year I\n waxed aweary of this longsome mourning, and one day I happened to enter\n the cenotaph when vexed and angry with some matter which had thwarted\n me, and suddenly I heard her say:\u2014O my lord, I never hear thee\n vouchsafe a single word to me! Why dost thou not answer me, O my\n master? and she began reciting:\u2014\n\n O thou tomb! O thou tomb! be his beauty set in shade \u273f Hast thou\n darkened that countenance all-sheeny as the noon?\n O thou tomb! neither earth nor yet heaven art to me \u273f Then how cometh\n it in thee are conjoined my sun and moon?\n\n When I heard such verses as these rage was heaped upon my rage; I cried\n out:\u2014Well-away! how long is this sorrow to last? and I began\n repeating:\u2014\n\n O thou tomb! O thou tomb! be his horrors set in blight? \u273f Hast thou\n darken\u00e8d his countenance that sickeneth the soul?\n O thou tomb! neither cess-pool nor pipkin art to me \u273f Then how cometh\n it in thee are conjoin\u00e8d soil and coal?\n\n When she heard my words she sprang to her feet crying:\u2014Fie upon thee,\n thou cur! all this is of thy doings; thou hast wounded my heart's\n darling and thereby worked me sore woe and thou hast wasted his youth\n so that these three years he hath lain abed more dead than alive! In my\n wrath I cried:\u2014O thou foulest of harlots and filthiest of whores ever\n futtered by negro slaves who are hired to have at thee![129] Yes indeed\n it was I who did this good deed; and snatching up my sword I drew it\n and made at her to cut her down. But she laughed my words and mine\n intent to scorn crying: To heel, hound that thou art! Alas[130] for the\n past which shall no more come to pass nor shall any one avail the dead\n to raise. Allah hath indeed now given into my hand him who did to me\n this thing, a deed that hath burned my heart with a fire which died not\n and a flame which might not be quenched! Then she stood up; and,\n pronouncing some words to me unintelligible, she said:\u2014By virtue of my\n egromancy become thou half stone and half man; whereupon I became what\n thou seest, unable to rise or to sit, and neither dead nor alive.\n Moreover she ensorcelled the city with all its streets and garths, and\n she turned by her gramarye the four islands into four mountains around\n the tarn whereof thou questionest me; and the citizens, who were of\n four different faiths, Moslem, Nazarene, Jew and Magian, she\n transformed by her enchantments into fishes; the Moslems are the white,\n the Magians red, the Christians blue and the Jews yellow.[131] \"And\n every day she tortureth me and scourgeth me with an hundred stripes,\n each of which draweth floods of blood and cutteth the skin of my\n shoulders to strips; and lastly she clotheth my upper half with a\n hair-cloth and then throweth over them these robes.\" Hereupon the young\n man again shed tears and began reciting:\u2014\n\n In patience, O my God, I endure my lot and fate; \u273f I will bear at will\n of Thee whatsoever be my state:\n They oppress me; they torture me; they make my life a woe \u273f Yet haply\n Heaven's happiness shall compensate my strait:\n Yea, straitened is my life by the bane and hate o' foes \u273f But Mustapha\n and Murtaz\u00e1[132] shall ope me Heaven's gate.\n\n After this the Sultan turned towards the young Prince and said, \"O\n youth, thou hast removed one grief only to add another grief; but now,\n O my friend, where is she; and where is the mausoleum wherein lieth the\n wounded slave?\" \"The slave lieth under yon dome,\" quoth the young man,\n \"and she sitteth in the chamber fronting yonder door. And every day at\n sunrise she cometh forth, and first strippeth me, and whippeth me with\n an hundred strokes of the leathern scourge, and I weep and shriek; but\n there is no power of motion in my lower limbs to keep her off me. After\n ending her tormenting me she visiteth the slave, bringing him wine and\n boiled meats. And to-morrow at an early hour she will be here.\" Quoth\n the King, \"By Allah, O youth, I will assuredly do thee a good deed\n which the world shall not willingly let die, and an act of derring-do\n which shall be chronicled long after I am dead and gone by.\" Then the\n King sat him by the side of the young Prince and talked till nightfall,\n when he lay down and slept; but, as soon as the false dawn[133] showed,\n he arose and doffing his outer garments[134] bared his blade and\n hastened to the place wherein lay the slave. Then was he ware of\n lighted candles and lamps, and the perfume of incenses and unguents;\n and, directed by these, he made for the slave and struck him one stroke\n killing him on the spot: after which he lifted him on his back and\n threw him into a well that was in the palace. Presently he returned\n and, donning the slave's gear, lay down at length within the mausoleum\n with the drawn sword laid close to and along his side. After an hour or\n so the accursed witch came; and, first going to her husband, she\n stripped off his clothes and, taking a whip, flogged him cruelly while\n he cried out, \"Ah! enough for me the case I am in! take pity on me, O\n my cousin!\" But she replied, \"Didst thou take pity on me and spare the\n life of my true love on whom I doated?\" Then she drew the cilice over\n his raw and bleeding skin and threw the robe upon all and went down to\n the slave with a goblet of wine and a bowl of meat-broth in her hands.\n She entered under the dome weeping and wailing, \"Well-away!\" and\n crying, \"O my lord! speak a word to me! O my master! talk awhile with\n me!\" and began to recite these couplets:\u2014\n\n How long this harshness, this unlove, shall bide? \u273f Suffice thee not\n tear-floods thou hast espied?\n Thou dost prolong our parting purposely \u273f And if wouldst please my foe,\n thou'rt satisfied!\n\n Then she wept again and said, \"O my lord! speak to me, talk with me!\"\n The King lowered his voice and, twisting his tongue, spoke after the\n fashion of the blackamoors and said \"'lack! 'lack! there be no Ma'esty\n and there be no Might save in Allauh, the Gloriose, the Gre\u00e4t!\" Now\n when she heard these words she shouted for joy, and fell to the ground\n fainting; and when her senses returned she asked, \"O my lord, can it be\n true that thou hast power of speech?\" and the King making his voice\n small and faint answered, \"O my cuss! dost thou deserve that I talk to\n thee and speak with thee?\" \"Why and wherefore?\" rejoined she; and he\n replied \"The why is that all the livelong day thou tormentest thy\n hubby; and he keeps calling on 'eaven for aid until sleep is strange to\n me even from evenin' till mawnin', and he prays and damns, cussing us\n two, me and thee, causing me disquiet and much bother: were this not\n so, I should long ago have got my health; and it is this which prevents\n my answering thee.\" Quoth she, \"With thy leave I will release him from\n what spell is on him;\" and quoth the King, \"Release him and let's have\n some rest!\" She cried, \"To hear is to obey;\" and, going from the\n cenotaph to the palace, she took a metal bowl and filled it with water\n and spake over it certain words which made the contents bubble and boil\n as a cauldron seetheth over the fire. With this she sprinkled her\n husband saying, \"By virtue of the dread words I have spoken, if thou\n becamest thus by my spells, come forth out of that form into thine own\n former form.\" And lo and behold! the young man shook and trembled; then\n he rose to his feet and, rejoicing at his deliverance, cried aloud, \"I\n testify that there is no god but _the_ God, and in very truth Mohammed\n is His Apostle, whom Allah bless and keep!\" Then she said to him, \"Go\n forth and return not hither, for if thou do I will surely slay thee;\"\n screaming these words in his face. So he went from between her hands;\n and she returned to the dome and, going down to the sepulchre, she\n said, \"O my lord, come forth to me that I may look upon thee and thy\n goodliness!\" The King replied in faint low words, \"What[135] thing hast\n thou done? Thou hast rid me of the branch but not of the root.\" She\n asked, \"O my darling! O my negroling! what is the root?\" And he\n answered, \"Fie on thee, O my cuss! The people of this city and of the\n four islands every night when it's half passed lift their heads from\n the tank in which thou hast turned them to fishes and cry to Heaven and\n call down its anger on me and thee; and this is the reason why my\n body's baulked from health. Go at once and set them free; then come to\n me and take my hand, and raise me up, for a little strength is already\n back in me.\" When she heard the King's words (and she still supposed\n him to be the slave) she cried joyously, \"O my master, on my head and\n on my eyes be thy command, Bismillah[136]!\" So she sprang to her feet\n and, full of joy and gladness, ran down to the tarn and look a little\n of its water In the palm of her hand\u2014And Shahrazad perceived the dawn\n of day and ceased to say her permitted say.\n\n Now when it was the Ninth Night,\n\n She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the young\n woman, the sorceress, took in hand some of the tarn-water and spake\n over it words not to be understood, the fishes lifted their heads and\n stood up on the instant like men, the spell on the people of the city\n having been removed. What was the lake again became a crowded capital;\n the bazars were thronged with folk who bought and sold; each citizen\n was occupied with his own calling and the four hills became islands as\n they were whilome. Then the young woman, that wicked sorceress,\n returned to the King and (still thinking he was the negro) said to him,\n \"O my love! stretch forth thy honoured hand that I may assist thee to\n rise.\" \"Nearer to me,\" quoth the King in a faint and feigned tone. She\n came close as to embrace him when he took up the sword lying hid by his\n side and smote her across the breast, so that the point showed gleaming\n behind her back. Then he smote her a second time and cut her in twain\n and cast her to the ground in two halves. After which he fared forth\n and found the young man, now freed from the spell, awaiting him and\n gave him joy of his happy release while the Prince kissed his hand with\n abundant thanks. Quoth the King, \"Wilt thou abide in this city or go\n with me to my capital?\" Quoth the youth, \"O King of the age, wottest\n thou not what journey is between thee and thy city?\" \"Two days and a\n half,\" answered he; whereupon said the other, \"An thou be sleeping, O\n King, awake! Between thee and thy city is a year's march for a\n well-girt walker, and thou haddest not come hither in two days and a\n half save that the city was under enchantment. And I, O King, will\n never part from thee; no, not even for the twinkling of an eye.\" The\n King rejoiced at his words and said, \"Thanks be to Allah who hath\n bestowed thee upon me! From this hour thou art my son and my only son,\n for that in all my life I have never been blessed with issue.\"\n Thereupon they embraced and joyed with exceeding great joy; and,\n reaching the palace, the Prince who had been spell-bound informed his\n lords and his grandees that he was about to visit the Holy Places as a\n pilgrim, and bade them get ready all things necessary for the occasion.\n The preparations lasted ten days, after which he set out with the\n Sultan, whose heart burned in yearning for his city whence he had been\n absent a whole twelvemonth. They journeyed with an escort of\n Mamelukes[137] carrying all manners of precious gifts and rarities, nor\n stinted they wayfaring day and night for a full year until they\n approached the Sultan's capital, and sent on messengers to announce\n their coming. Then the Wazir and the whole army came out to meet him in\n joy and gladness, for they had given up all hope of ever seeing their\n King; and the troops kissed the ground before him and wished him joy of\n his safety. He entered and took seat upon his throne and the Minister\n came before him and, when acquainted with all that had befallen the\n young Prince, he congratulated him on his narrow escape. When order was\n restored throughout the land the King gave largesse to many of his\n people, and said to the Wazir, \"Hither the Fisherman who brought us the\n fishes!\" So he sent for the man who had been the first cause of the\n city and the citizens being delivered from enchantment and, when he\n came into the presence, the Sultan bestowed upon him a dress of honour,\n and questioned him of his condition and whether he had children. The\n Fisherman gave him to know that he had two daughters and a son, so the\n King sent for them and, taking one daughter to wife, gave the other to\n the young Prince and made the son his head-treasurer. Furthermore he\n invested his Wazir with the Sultanate of the City in the Black Islands\n whilome belonging to the young Prince, and dispatched with him the\n escort of fifty armed slaves together with dresses of honour for all\n the Emirs and Grandees. The Wazir kissed hands and fared forth on his\n way; while the Sultan and the Prince abode at home in all the solace\n and the delight of life; and the Fisherman became the richest man of\n his age, and his daughters wived with the Kings, until death came to\n them. And yet, O King! this is not more wondrous than the story of\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 60:\n\n Here, as in other places, I have not preserved the monorhyme, but\n have ended like the English sonnet with a couplet; as a rule the last\n two lines contain a \"Husn makta'\" or climax.\n\nFootnote 61:\n\n Lit. \"he began to say (or speak) poetry,\" such improvising being\n still common amongst the Badawin as I shall afterwards note. And\n although Mohammed severely censured profane poets, who \"rove as\n bereft of their senses through every valley\" and were directly\n inspired by devils (Koran xxvi.), it is not a little curious to note\n that he himself spoke in \"Rajaz\" (which see) and that the four first\n Caliphs all \"spoke poetry.\" In early ages the verse would not be\n written, if written at all, till after the maker's death. I translate\n \"insh\u00e1d\" by \"versifying\" or \"repeating\" or \"reciting,\" leaving it\n doubtful if the composition be or be not original. In places,\n however, it is clearly improvised and then as a rule it is model\n doggrel.\n\nFootnote 62:\n\n Arab. \"Allahumma\"=Y\u00e1 Allah (O Allah) but with emphasis; the Fath\n being a substitute for the voc. part. Some connect it with the Heb.\n \"Alih\u00edm,\" but that fancy is not Arab. In Al-Hariri and the\n rhetoricians it sometimes means to be sure; of course; unless indeed;\n unless possibly=Greek \u03bd\u1f74 \u03b4\u1f30\u03b1.\n\nFootnote 63:\n\n Probably in consequence of a vow. These superstitious practices,\n which have many a parallel amongst ourselves, are not confined to the\n lower orders in the East.\n\nFootnote 64:\n\n _i.e._, saying \"Bismillah!\" the pious ejaculation which should\n precede every act. In Boccaccio (viii., 9) it is \"remembering Iddio\n e' Sant\u00ed.\"\n\nFootnote 65:\n\n Arab. Nah\u00e1s asfar=brass, opposed to \"Nah\u00e1s\" and \"Nah\u00e1s\n ahmar,\"=copper.\n\nFootnote 66:\n\n This alludes to the legend of Sakhr al-Jinni, a famous fiend cast by\n Solomon David-son into Lake Tiberias whose storms make it a suitable\n place. Hence the \"Bottle imp,\" a world-wide fiction of folk-lore: we\n shall find it in the \"Book of Sindibad,\" and I need hardly remind the\n reader of Le Sage's \"Diable Boiteux,\" borrowed from \"El Diablo\n Cojuelo,\" the Spanish novel by Luiz Velez de Guevara.\n\nFootnote 67:\n\n M\u00e1rid (lit. \"contumacious\" from the Heb. root Marad to rebel, whence\n \"Nimrod\" in late Semitic) is one of the tribes of the Jinn, generally\n but not always hostile to man. His female is \"M\u00e1ridah.\"\n\nFootnote 68:\n\n As Solomon began to reign (according to vulgar chronometry) in B.C.\n 1015, the text would place the tale circ. A.D. 785,=A.H. 169. But we\n can lay no stress on this date which may be merely fanciful.\n Professor Tawney very justly compares this Moslem Solomon with the\n Hindu King, Vikram\u00e1ditya, who ruled over the seven divisions of the\n world and who had as many devils to serve him as he wanted.\n\nFootnote 69:\n\n Arab. \"Y\u00e1 Ba'\u00edd\" a euphemism here adopted to prevent using grossly\n abusive language. Others will occur in the course of these pages.\n\nFootnote 70:\n\n _i.e._ about to fly out; \"My heart is in my mouth.\" The Fisherman\n speaks with the dry humour of a Fellah.\n\nFootnote 71:\n\n \"Sulayman,\" when going out to ease himself, entrusted his seal-ring\n upon which his kingdom depended to a concubine \"Am\u00ednah\" (the\n \"Faithful\"), when Sakhr, transformed to the King's likeness, came in\n and took it. The prophet was reduced to beggary, but after forty days\n the demon fled throwing into the sea the ring which was swallowed by\n a fish and eventually returned to Sulayman. This Talmudic fable is\n hinted at in the Koran (chapt. xxxviii.), and commentators have\n extensively embroidered it. Asaf, son of Barkhiya, was Wazir to\n Sulayman and is supposed to be the \"one with whom was the knowledge\n of the Scriptures\" (Koran, chapt. xxxvii.), _i.e._ who knew the\n Ineffable Name of Allah. See the manifest descendant of the\n Talmudic-Koranic fiction in the \"Tale of the Emperor Jovinian\" (No.\n lix.) of the Gesta Romanorum, the most popular book of medi\u00e6val\n Europe composed in England (or Germany) about the end of the\n thirteenth century.\n\nFootnote 72:\n\n Arab. \"Kumkum,\" a gourd-shaped bottle, of metal, china or glass,\n still used for sprinkling scents. Lane gives an illustration (chapt.\n viii., Mod. Egypt.).\n\nFootnote 73:\n\n Arab. meaning \"the Mother of Amir,\" a nickname for the hyena, which\n bites the hand that feeds it.\n\nFootnote 74:\n\n The intellect of man is stronger than that of the Jinni; the Ifrit,\n however, enters the jar because he has been adjured by the Most Great\n Name and not from mere stupidity. The seal-ring of Solomon according\n to the Rabbis contained a chased stone which told him everything he\n wanted to know.\n\nFootnote 75:\n\n The Mesmerist will notice this shudder which is familiar to him as\n preceding the \"magnetic\" trance.\n\nFootnote 76:\n\n Arab. \"Bahr\" which means a sea, a large river, a sheet of water,\n etc., lit. water cut or trenched in the earth. Bahri in Egypt means\n Northern; so Yamm (Sea, Mediterranean) in Hebrew is West.\n\nFootnote 77:\n\n In the Bul. Edit. \"Ruy\u00e1n,\" evidently a clerical error. The name is\n fanciful not significant.\n\nFootnote 78:\n\n The geography is ultra-Shakspearean. \"Fars\" (whence \"Persia\") is the\n central Province of the grand old Empire now a mere wreck; \"R\u00fam\"\n (which I write Roum, in order to avoid Jamaica) is the neo-Roman or\n Byzantine Empire; while \"Yunan\" is the classical Arab term for Greece\n (Ionia) which unlearned Moslems believe to be now under water.\n\nFootnote 79:\n\n The Sun greets Mohammed every morning even as it dances on Easter-Day\n for Christendom. Risum teneatis?\n\nFootnote 80:\n\n Arab. \"Nad\u00edm,\" a term often occurring. It denotes one who was\n intimate enough to drink with the Caliph, a very high honour and a\n dangerous. The last who sat with \"Nudam\u00e1\" was Al-Razi bi'llah A.H.\n 329=940. See Al-Siyuti's famous \"History of the Caliphs\" translated\n and admirably annotated by Major H. S. Jarrett, for the Bibliotheca\n Indica, Calcutta, 1880.\n\nFootnote 81:\n\n Arab. Mayd\u00e1n (from Persian); Lane generally translates it\n \"horse-course,\" and Payne \"tilting-yard.\" It is both and something\n more; an open space, in or near the city, used for reviewing troops,\n races, playing the Jer\u00edd (cane-spear) and other sports and exercises:\n thus Al-Maydan=Gr. hippodrome. The game here alluded to is our\n \"polo,\" or hockey on horseback, a favourite with the Persian Kings,\n as all old illustrations of the Shahnamah show. Maydan is also a\n natural plain for which copious Arabic has many terms; Fayhah or Sath\n (a plain generally), Khabt (a low lying plain), Bat'h\u00e1 (a low sandy\n flat), Mahattah (a plain fit for halting) and so forth. (Pilgrimage\n iii., 11.)\n\nFootnote 82:\n\n For details concerning the \"Ghusl\" see Night xliv.\n\nFootnote 83:\n\n A popular idiom and highly expressive, contrasting the upright\n bearing of the self-satisfied man with the slouch of the miserable\n and the skirt-trailing of the woman in grief. I do not see the\n necessity of such Latinisms as \"dilated\" or \"expanded.\"\n\nFootnote 84:\n\n All these highest signs of favour foreshow, in Eastern tales and in\n Eastern life, an approaching downfall of the heaviest; they are so\n great that they arouse general jealousy. Many of us have seen this at\n native courts.\n\nFootnote 85:\n\n This phrase is contained in the word \"ihd\u00e1k\"=encompassing, as the\n conjunctiva does the pupil.\n\nFootnote 86:\n\n I have noted this formula, which is used even in conversation when\n about to relate some great unfact.\n\nFootnote 87:\n\n We are obliged to English the word by \"valley,\" which is about as\n correct as the \"brook Kedron,\" applied to the grisliest of ravines.\n The Wady (in old Coptic wah, oah, whence \"Oasis\") is the bed of a\n watercourse which flows only after rains. I have rendered it by\n \"Fiumara\" (Pilgrimage i., 5, and ii., 196, etc.), an Italian or\n rather a Sicilian word which exactly describes the \"wady.\"\n\nFootnote 88:\n\n I have described this scene which Mr. T. Wolf illustrated by an\n excellent lithograph in \"Falconry, etc.\" (London, Van Voorst,\n MDCCCLII.).\n\nFootnote 89:\n\n Arab. \"Kayl\u00falah,\" midday sleep; called siesta from the sixth\n canonical hour.\n\nFootnote 90:\n\n This parrot-story is world-wide in folk-lore and the belief in\n metempsychosis, which prevails more or less over all the East, there\n lends it probability. The \"Book of Sindibad\" (see Night dlxxix. and\n \"The Academy,\" Sept. 20, 1884, No. 646) converts it into the \"Story\n of the Confectioner, his Wife and the Parrot;\" and it is the base of\n the Hindostani text-book, \"Tota-Kah\u00e1ni\" (Parrot-chat), an abridgement\n of the Tutin\u00e1mah (Parrot-book) of Nakhshabi (circ. A.D. 1300), a\n congener of the Sanskrit \"Suka Saptati,\" or Seventy Parrot-stories.\n The tale is not in the Bul. or Mac. Edit. but occurs in the Bresl.\n (i., pp. 90, 91) much mutilated; and better in the Calc. Edit. I\n cannot here refrain from noticing how vilely the twelve vols. of the\n Breslau Edit. have been edited; even a table of contents being absent\n from the first four volumes.\n\nFootnote 91:\n\n The young \"Turk\" is probably a late addition, as it does not appear\n in many of the MSS., _e.g._ the Bresl. Edit. The wife usually spreads\n a cloth over the cage; this in the Turkish translation becomes a\n piece of leather.\n\nFootnote 92:\n\n The Hebrew-Syrian month July used to express the height of summer. As\n Herodotus tells us (ii. 4) the Egyptians claimed to be the\n discoverers of the solar year and the portioners of its course into\n twelve parts.\n\nFootnote 93:\n\n This proceeding is thoroughly characteristic of the servile class;\n they conscientiously conceal everything from the master till he finds\n a clew; after which they tell him everything and something more.\n\nFootnote 94:\n\n Until late years, merchants and shopkeepers in the nearer East all\n carried swords, and held it a disgrace to leave the house unarmed.\n\nFootnote 95:\n\n The Bresl. Edit. absurdly has Jaz\u00edrah (an island).\n\nFootnote 96:\n\n The Gh\u00falah (fem. of Gh\u00fal) is the Heb. Lilith or Lilis; the classical\n Lamia; the Hindu Yogini and Dakini; the Chaldean Utug and Gigim\n (desert-demons) as opposed to the Mas (hill-demon) and Telal (who\n steal into towns); the Ogress of our tales and the Bala yaga\n (Granny-witch) of Russian folk-lore. Etymologically \"Ghul\" is a\n calamity, a panic fear; and the monster is evidently the embodied\n horror of the grave and the grave-yard.\n\nFootnote 97:\n\n Arab. \"Sh\u00e1bb\" (Lat. juvenis) between puberty and forty or according\n to some fifty; when the patient becomes a \"Rajul ikhtiy\u00e1r\" (man of\n free will) politely termed, and then a Shaykh or Shaybah (grey-beard,\n oldster).\n\nFootnote 98:\n\n Some proverbial name now forgotten. Torrens (p. 48) translates it\n \"the giglot\" (Fortune?) but \"cannot discover the drift.\"\n\nFootnote 99:\n\n Arab. \"Ihtiz\u00e1z,\" that natural and instinctive movement caused by good\n news suddenly given, etc.\n\nFootnote 100:\n\n Arab \"Kohl,\" in India, Surmah, not a \"collyrium,\" but powdered\n antimony for the eyelids. That sold in the bazars is not the real\n grey ore of antimony but a galena or sulphuret of lead. Its use arose\n as follows. When Allah showed Himself to Moses on Sinai through an\n opening the size of a needle, the Prophet fainted and the Mount took\n fire: thereupon Allah said, \"Henceforth shalt thou and thy seed grind\n the earth of this mountain and apply it to your eyes!\" The powder is\n kept in an \u00e9tui called Makhalah and applied with a thick blunt needle\n to the inside of the eyelid, drawing it along the rim; hence etui and\n probe denote the sexual _rem in re_ and in cases of adultery the\n question will be asked, \"Didst thou see the needle in the Kohl-pot?\"\n Women mostly use a preparation of soot or lamp-black (Hind. Kajala,\n Kajjal) whose colour is easily distinguished from that of Kohl. The\n latter word, with the article (Al-Kohl) is the origin of our\n \"alcohol;\" though even M. Littr\u00e9 fails to show how \"fine powder\"\n became \"spirits of wine.\" I found this powder (wherewith Jezebel\n \"painted\" her eyes) a great preservative from ophthalmia in\n desert-travelling: the use in India was universal, but now European\n example is gradually abolishing it.\n\nFootnote 101:\n\n The tale of these two women is now forgotten.\n\nFootnote 102:\n\n Arab. \"Atadakhkhal\". When danger threatens it is customary to seize a\n man's skirt and cry \"Dakh\u00edl-ak!\" (=under thy protection). Among noble\n tribes the Badawi thus invoked will defend the stranger with his\n life. Foreigners have brought themselves into contempt by thus\n applying to women or to mere youths.\n\nFootnote 103:\n\n The formula of quoting from the Koran.\n\nFootnote 104:\n\n Lit. \"Allah not desolate me\" (by thine absence). This is still a\n popular phrase\u2014L\u00e1 taw\u00e1hishn\u00e1=Do not make me desolate, _i.e._ by\n staying away too long; and friends meeting after a term of days\n exclaim \"Auhashtani!\"=thou hast made me desolate, _Je suis d\u00e9sol\u00e9_.\n\nFootnote 105:\n\n Charming simplicity of manners when the Prime Minister carries the\n fish (shade of Vattel!) to the cookmaid. The \"Gesta Romanorum\" is\n nowhere more naive.\n\nFootnote 106:\n\n Arab. \"Kah\u00edlat al-taraf\"=lit. eyelids lined with Kohl; and\n figuratively \"with black lashes and languorous look.\" This is a\n phrase which frequently occurs in The Nights and which, as will\n appear, applies to the \"lower animals\" as well as to men. Moslems In\n Central Africa apply Kohl not to the thickness of the eyelid but upon\n both outer lids, fixing it with some greasy substance. The peculiar\n Egyptian (and Syrian) eye with its thick fringes of jet-black lashes,\n looking like lines of black drawn with soot, easily suggests the\n simile. In England I have seen the same appearance amongst miners\n fresh from the colliery.\n\nFootnote 107:\n\n Of course applying to her own case.\n\nFootnote 108:\n\n Prehistoric Arabs who measured from 60 to 100 cubits high: Koran,\n chapt. xxvi., etc. They will often be mentioned in The Nights.\n\nFootnote 109:\n\n Arab. \"Dast\u00far\" (from Persian)=leave, permission. The word has two\n meanings (see Burckhardt, Arab. Prov. No. 609) and is much used,\n _e.g._ before walking up stairs or entering a room where strange\n women might be met. So \"Tar\u00edk\"=Clear the way (Pilgrimage, iii., 319).\n The old Persian occupation of Egypt, not to speak of the\n Persian-speaking Circassians and other rulers has left many such\n traces in popular language. One of them is that horror of\n travellers\u2014\"Bakhsh\u00edsh\" pron. bakh-sheesh and shortened to sh\u00edsh from\n the Pers. \"baksheesh.\" Our \"Christmas _box_\" has been most\n unnecessarily derived from the same, despite our reading:\u2014\n\n Gladly the boy, with Christmas box in hand.\n\n And, as will be seen, Persians have bequeathed to the outer world\n worse things than bad language, _e.g._ heresy and sodomy.\n\nFootnote 110:\n\n He speaks of his wife, but euphemistically in the masculine.\n\nFootnote 111:\n\n A popular saying throughout Al-Islam.\n\nFootnote 112:\n\n Arab. \"Fata\": lit=a youth; a generous man, one of noble mind (as\n youth-tide should be). It corresponds with the Lat. \"vir,\" and has\n much the meaning of the Ital. \"Giovane,\" the Germ. \"Junker\" and our\n \"gentleman.\"\n\nFootnote 113:\n\n From the Bul. Edit.\n\nFootnote 114:\n\n The vagueness of his statement is euphemistic.\n\nFootnote 115:\n\n This readiness of shedding tears contrasts strongly with the external\n stoicism of modern civilization; but it is true to Arab character;\n and Easterns, like the heroes of Homer and Italians of Boccaccio, are\n not ashamed of what we look upon as the result of feminine\n hysteria\u2014\"a good cry.\"\n\nFootnote 116:\n\n The formula (constantly used by Moslems) here denotes displeasure,\n doubt how to act and so forth. Pronounce, \"L\u00e1 haula wa l\u00e1 kuwwata\n ill\u00e1 bi 'll\u00e1hi 'l-Aliyyi 'l-Azim.\" As a rule mistakes are marvellous:\n Mandeville (chapt. xii.) for \"L\u00e1 il\u00e1ha illa 'll\u00e1hu wa Muhammadun\n Ras\u00falu 'llah\" writes \"La ellec sila, Machomete rores alla.\" The\n former (l\u00e1 haula, etc.), on account of the four peculiar Arabic\n letters, is everywhere pronounced differently; and the exclamation is\n called \"Haulak\" or \"Haukal.\"\n\nFootnote 117:\n\n An Arab holds that he has a right to marry his first cousin, the\n daughter of his father's brother, and if any win her from him a death\n and a blood-feud may result. It was the same in a modified form\n amongst the Jews and in both races the consanguineous marriage was\n not attended by the evil results (idiotcy, congenital deafness, etc.)\n observed in mixed races like the English and the Anglo-American. When\n a Badawi speaks of \"the daughter of my uncle\" he means wife; and the\n former is the dearer title, as a wife can be divorced, but blood is\n thicker than water.\n\nFootnote 118:\n\n Arab. \"Kahbah;\" the coarsest possible term. Hence the unhappy \"Cava\"\n of Don Roderick the Goth, which simply means The Whore.\n\nFootnote 119:\n\n The Arab \"Banj\" and Hind\u00fa \"Bhang\" (which I use as most familiar) both\n derive from the old Coptic \"Nibanj\" meaning a preparation of hemp\n (_Cannabis sativa_ seu _Indica_); and here it is easy to recognise\n the Homeric \"Nepenthe.\" Al-Kazwini explains the term by \"garden hemp\"\n (Kinnab bost\u00e1ni or Sh\u00e1hd\u00e1naj). On the other hand not a few apply the\n word to the henbane (_hyoscyamus niger_) so much used in medi\u00e6val\n Europe. The K\u00e1m\u00fas evidently means henbane distinguishing it from\n \"Hashish al har\u00e1f\u00edsh\"=rascals' grass, _i.e._ the herb Pantagruelion.\n The \"Alf\u00e1z Adwiya\" (French translation) explains \"Tabannuj\" by\n \"Endormir quelqu'un en lui faisant avaler de la jusquiame.\" In modern\n parlance Tabannuj is=our an\u00e6sthetic administered before an operation,\n a deadener of pain like myrrh and a number of other drugs. For this\n purpose hemp is always used (at least I never heard of henbane); and\n various preparations of the drug are sold at an especial bazar in\n Cairo. See the \"powder of marvellous virtue\" in Boccaccio, iii., 8;\n and iv., 10. Of these intoxicants, properly so termed, I shall have\n something to say in a future page.\n\n The use of Bhang doubtless dates from the dawn of civilisation, whose\n earliest social pleasures would be inebriants. Herodotus (iv. c. 75)\n shows the Scythians burning the seeds (leaves and capsules) in\n worship and becoming drunken with the fumes, as do the S. African\n Bushmen of the present day. This would be the earliest form of\n smoking: it is still doubtful whether the pipe was used or not. Galen\n also mentions intoxication by hemp. Amongst Moslems, the Persians\n adopted the drink as an ecstatic, and about our thirteenth century\n Egypt, which began the practice, introduced a number of preparations\n to be noticed in the course of The Nights.\n\nFootnote 120:\n\n The rubbish heaps which outlie Eastern cities, some (near Cairo) are\n over a hundred feet high.\n\nFootnote 121:\n\n Arab. \"Kurrat al-ayn;\" coolness of eyes as opposed to a hot eye\n (\"sakhin\") _i.e._ one red with tears. The term is true and\n picturesque so I translate it literally. All coolness is pleasant to\n dwellers in burning lands: thus in Al-Hariri Abu Zayd says of\n Bassorah, \"I found there whatever could fill the eye with coolness.\"\n And a \"cool booty\" (or prize) is one which has been secured without\n plunging into the flames of war, or simply a pleasant prize.\n\nFootnote 122:\n\n Popularly rendered Caucasus (see Night cdxcvi): it corresponds so far\n with the Hindu \"Udaya\" that the sun rises behind it; and the \"false\n dawn\" is caused by a hole or gap. It is also the Persian Alborz, the\n Indian Meru (Sumeru), the Greek Olympus, and the Rhiph\u00e6an Range\n (Veliki Camenypoys) or great starry girdle of the world, etc.\n\nFootnote 123:\n\n Arab. \"Mizr\" or \"Mizar;\" vulg. B\u00fazah; hence the medical Lat. Buza,\n the Russian Buza (millet beer), our \"booze,\" the O. Dutch \"buyzen\"\n and the German \"busen.\" This is the old \u03c0\u03bf\u03b8\u1f78\u03c2 \u03b8\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bf\u03c2 of negro and\n negroid Africa; the beer of Osiris, of which dried remains have been\n found in jars amongst Egyptian tombs. In Equatorial Africa it is\n known as \"Pombe;\" on the Upper Nile \"Merissa\" or \"Mirisi\" and amongst\n the Kafirs (Caffers) \"Tshuala,\" \"Oala\" or \"Boyala:\" I have also heard\n of \"Buswa\" in Central Africa which may be the origin of \"Buzah.\" In\n the West it became \u03b6\u1fe6\u03b8\u03bf\u03c2, (Romaic \u03c0\u03af\u1fe4\u1fe5\u03b1), Xythum and cerevisia or\n cervisia, the humor ex hordeo, long before the days of King\n Gambrinus. Central Africans drink it in immense quantities: in\n Unyamwezi the standing bedsteads, covered with bark-slabs, are all\n made sloping so as to drain off the liquor. A chief lives wholly on\n beef and Pombe which is thick as gruel below. Hops are unknown: the\n grain, mostly Holcus, is made to germinate, then pounded, boiled and\n left to ferment. In Egypt the drink is affected chiefly by Berbers,\n Nubians and slaves from the Upper Nile; but it is a superior article\n and more like that of Europe than the \"Pombe.\" I have given an\n account of the manufacture in The Lake Regions of Central Africa,\n vol. ii., p. 286. There are other preparations, Umm-bulbul (mother\n nightingale), Dinz\u00e1yah and S\u00fabiyah, for which I must refer to the\n Shaykh El-Tounsy.\n\nFootnote 124:\n\n There is a terrible truth in this satire, which reminds us of the\n noble dame who preferred to her handsome husband the palefrenier\n laid, ord et inf\u00e2me of Queen Margaret of Navarre (Heptameron No. xx.)\n We have all known women who sacrificed everything despite themselves,\n as it were, for the most worthless of men. The world stares and\n scoffs and blames and understands nothing. There is for every woman\n one man and one only in whose slavery she is \"ready to sweep the\n floor.\" Fate is mostly opposed to her meeting him but, when she does,\n adieu husband and children, honour and religion, life and \"soul.\"\n Moreover Nature (human) commands the union of contrasts, such as fair\n and foul, dark and light, tall and short; otherwise mankind would be\n like the canines, a race of extremes, dwarf as toy-terriers, giants\n like mastiffs, bald as Chinese \"remedy dogs,\" or hairy as\n Newfoundlands. The famous Wilkes said only a half-truth when he\n backed himself, with an hour's start, against the handsomest man in\n England; his uncommon and remarkable ugliness (he was, as the\n Italians say, _un bel brutto_), was the highest recommendation in the\n eyes of very beautiful women.\n\nFootnote 125:\n\n Every Moslem burial-ground has a place of the kind where honourable\n women may sit and weep unseen by the multitude. These visits are\n enjoined by the Apostle:\u2014Frequent the cemetery, 'twill make you think\n of futurity! Also:\u2014Whoever visiteth the graves of his parents (or one\n of them) every Friday, he shall be written a pious son, even though\n he might have been in the world, before that, a disobedient.\n (Pilgrimage ii., 71.) The buildings resemble our European \"mortuary\n chapels.\" Sa\u00edd, Pasha of Egypt, was kind enough to erect one on the\n island off Suez, for the \"use of English ladies who would like\n shelter whilst weeping and wailing for their dead.\" But I never heard\n that any of the ladies went there.\n\nFootnote 126:\n\n Arab. \"Ajal\"=the period of life, the appointed time of death: the\n word is of constant recurrence and is also applied to sudden death.\n See Lane's Dictionary, s.v.\n\nFootnote 127:\n\n \"The dying Badawi to his tribe\" (and lover) appears to me highly\n pathetic. The wild people love to be buried upon hill-slopes whence\n they can look down upon the camp; and they still call out the names\n of kinsmen and friends as they pass by the grave-yards. A similar\n piece occurs in Wetzstein (p. 27, \"Reisebericht ueber Hauran,\"\n etc.):\u2014\n\n O bear with you my bones where the camel bears his load \u273f And bury me\n before you, if buried I must be;\n And let me not be buried 'neath the burden of the vine \u273f But high\n upon the hill whence your sight I ever see!\n As you pass along my grave cry aloud and name your names \u273f The crying\n of your names shall revive the bones of me:\n I have fasted through my life with my friends, and in my death, \u273f I\n will feast when we meet, on that day of joy and glee.\n\nFootnote 128:\n\n The Ak\u00e1sirah (plur. of Kasr\u00e1=Chosro\u00ebs) is here a title of the four\n great dynasties of Persian Kings. 1. The Peshdadian or Assyrian race,\n proto-historics for whom dates fail; 2. The K\u00e1y\u00e1ni\u00e1n (Medes and\n Persians) who ended with the Alexandrian invasion in B.C. 331; 3. The\n Ashk\u00e1ni\u00e1n (Parthenians or Arsacides) who ruled till A.D. 202; and 4.\n The Sassanides which have already been mentioned. But strictly\n speaking \"Kisri\" and \"Kasra\" are titles applied only to the latter\n dynasty and especially to the great King Anushirwan. They must not be\n confounded with \"Khusrau\" (P.N. Cyrus, Ahasuerus? Chosro\u00ebs?); and yet\n the three seem to have combined in \"C\u00e6sar,\" Kaysar and Czar. For\n details especially connected with Zoroaster see vol. I, p. 380 of the\n Dabistan or School of Manners, translated by David Shea and Anthony\n Troyer, Paris, 1843. The book is most valuable, but the proper names\n are so carelessly and incorrectly printed that the student is led\n into perpetual error.\n\nFootnote 129:\n\n The words are the very lowest and coarsest; but the scene is true to\n Arab life.\n\nFootnote 130:\n\n Arab. \"Hayh\u00e1t:\" the word, written in a variety of ways is\n onomatopoetic, like our \"heigh-ho!\" it sometimes means \"far from me\n (or you) be it!\" but in popular usage it is simply \"Alas.\"\n\nFootnote 131:\n\n Lane (i., 134) finds a date for the book in this passage. The Soldan\n of Egypt, Mohammed ibn Kala'\u00fan, in the early eighth century\n (Hijrah=our fourteenth), issued a sumptuary law compelling Christians\n and Jews to wear indigo-blue and saffron-yellow turbans, the white\n being reserved for Moslems. But the custom was much older and\n Mandeville (chapt. ix.) describes it in A.D. 1322 when it had become\n the rule. And it still endures; although abolished in the cities it\n is the rule for Christians, at least in the country parts of Egypt\n and Syria. I may here remark that such detached passages as these are\n absolutely useless for chronology: they may be simply the additions\n of editors or mere copyists.\n\nFootnote 132:\n\n The ancient \"Mustapha\"=the Chosen (prophet, _i.e._ Mohammed), also\n titled Al-Mujtab\u00e1, the Accepted (Pilgrimage, ii., 309). \"Murtaz\u00e1\"=the\n Elect, _i.e._ the Caliph Ali is the older \"Mortada\" or \"Mortadi\" of\n Ockley and his day, meaning \"one pleasing to (or acceptable to)\n Allah.\" Still older writers corrupted it to \"Mortis Ali\" and readers\n supposed this to be the Caliph's name.\n\nFootnote 133:\n\n The gleam (zodiacal light) preceding the true dawn; the Persians call\n the former Subh-i-k\u00e1zib (false or lying dawn) opposed to Subh-i-s\u00e1dik\n (true dawn) and suppose that it is caused by the sun shining through\n a hole in the world-encircling Mount Kaf.\n\nFootnote 134:\n\n So the Heb. \"Ar\u00fan\"=naked, means wearing the lower robe only;=our \"in\n his shirt.\"\n\nFootnote 135:\n\n Here we have the vulgar Egyptian colloquialism \"Aysh\" (= Ayyu\n shayyin) for the classical \"M\u00e1\" = what.\n\nFootnote 136:\n\n \"In the name of Allah!\" here said before taking action.\n\nFootnote 137:\n\n Arab. \"Maml\u00fak\" (plur. Mam\u00e1lik) lit. a chattel; and in The Nights a\n white slave trained to arms. The \"Mameluke Beys\" of Egypt were\n locally called the \"Ghuzz.\" I use the convenient word in its old\n popular sense;\n\n 'Tis sung, there's a valiant Mameluke\n In foreign lands ycleped (_Sir Luke_)\u2014\n\n HUDIBRAS.\n\n And hence, probably, Moli\u00e8re's \"Mamamouchi\"; and the modern French\n use \"Mamaluc.\" See Savary's Letters, No. xl.\n\n\n\n\n THE PORTER AND THE THREE LADIES OF BAGHDAD.\n\n\n Once upon a time there was a Porter in Baghdad, who was a bachelor and\n who would remain unmarried. It came to pass on a certain day, as he\n stood about the street leaning idly upon his crate, behold, there stood\n before him an honourable woman in a mantilla of Mosul[138] silk,\n broidered with gold and bordered with brocade; her walking-shoes were\n also purfled with gold and her hair floated in long plaits. She raised\n her face-veil[139] and, showing two black eyes fringed with jetty\n lashes, whose glances were soft and languishing and whose perfect\n beauty was ever blandishing, she accosted the Porter and said in the\n suavest tones and choicest language, \"Take up thy crate and follow me.\"\n The Porter was so dazzled he could hardly believe that he heard her\n aright, but he shouldered his basket in hot haste saying in himself, \"O\n day of good luck! O day of Allah's grace!\" and walked after her till\n she stopped at the door of a house. There she rapped, and presently\n came out to her an old man, a Nazarene, to whom she gave a gold piece,\n receiving from him in return what she required of strained wine clear\n as olive oil; and she set it safely in the hamper, saying, \"Lift and\n follow.\" Quoth the Porter, \"This, by Allah, is indeed an auspicious\n day, a day propitious for the granting of all a man wisheth.\" He again\n hoisted up the crate and followed her; till she stopped at a\n fruiterer's shop and bought from him Sh\u00e1mi[140] apples and Osm\u00e1ni\n quinces and Omani[141] peaches, and cucumbers of Nile growth, and\n Egyptian limes and Sult\u00e1ni oranges and citrons; besides Aleppine\n jasmine, scented myrtle berries, Damascene nenuphars, flower of\n privet[142] and camomile, blood-red anemones, violets, and\n pomegranate-bloom, eglantine and narcissus, and set the whole in the\n Porter's crate, saying, \"Up with it.\" So he lifted and followed her\n till she stopped at a butcher's booth and said, \"Cut me off ten pounds\n of mutton.\" She paid him his price and he wrapped it in a banana-leaf,\n whereupon she laid it in the crate and said \"Hoist, O Porter.\" He\n hoisted accordingly, and followed her as she walked on till she stopped\n at a grocer's, where she bought dry fruits and pistachio-kernels,\n Tih\u00e1mah raisins, shelled almonds and all wanted for dessert, and said\n to the Porter, \"Lift and follow me.\" So he up with his hamper and after\n her till she stayed at the confectioner's, and she bought an earthen\n platter, and piled it with all kinds of sweetmeats in his shop,\n open-worked tarts and fritters scented with musk and \"soap-cakes,\" and\n lemon-loaves and melon-preserves,[143] and \"Zaynab's combs,\" and\n \"ladies' fingers,\" and \"Kazi's tit-bits\" and goodies of every\n description; and placed the platter in the Porter's crate. Thereupon\n quoth he (being a merry man), \"Thou shouldest have told me, and I would\n have brought with me a pony or a she-camel to carry all this\n market-stuff.\" She smiled and gave him a little cuff on the nape\n saying, \"Step out and exceed not in words for (Allah willing!) thy wage\n will not be wanting.\" Then she stopped at a perfumer's and took from\n him ten sorts of waters, rose scented with musk, orange-flower,\n water-lily, willow flower, violet and five others; and she also bought\n two loaves of sugar, a bottle for perfume-spraying, a lump of male\n incense, aloe-wood, ambergris and musk, with candles of Alexandria wax;\n and she put the whole into the basket, saying, \"Up with thy crate and\n after me.\" He did so and followed until she stood before the\n greengrocer's, of whom she bought pickled safflower and olives, in\n brine and in oil; with tarragon and cream-cheese and hard Syrian\n cheese; and she stowed them away in the crate saying to the Porter,\n \"Take up thy basket and follow me.\" He did so and went after her till\n she came to a fair mansion fronted by a spacious court, a tall, fine\n place to which columns gave strength and grace: and the gate thereof\n had two leaves of ebony inlaid with plates of red gold. The lady\n stopped at the door and, turning her face-veil sideways, knocked softly\n with her knuckles whilst the Porter stood behind her, thinking of\n naught save her beauty and loveliness. Presently the door swung back\n and both leaves were opened, whereupon he looked to see who had opened\n it; and behold, it was a lady of tall figure, some five feet high; a\n model of beauty and loveliness, brilliance and symmetry and perfect\n grace. Her forehead was flower-white; her cheeks like the anemone ruddy\n bright; her eyes were those of the wild heifer or the gazelle, with\n eyebrows like the crescent-moon which ends Sha'ab\u00e1n and begins\n Ramaz\u00e1n;[144] her mouth was the ring of Sulayman,[145] her lips\n coral-red, and her teeth like a line of strung pearls or of camomile\n petals. Her throat recalled the antelope's, and her breasts, like two\n pomegranates of even size, stood at bay as it were;[146] her body rose\n and fell in waves below her dress like the rolls of a piece of brocade,\n and her navel[147] would hold an ounce of benzoin ointment. In fine she\n was like her of whom the poet said:\u2014\n\n On Sun and Moon of palace cast thy sight \u273f Enjoy her flower-like face,\n her fragrant light:\n Thine eyes shall never see in hair so black \u273f Beauty encase a brow so\n purely white:\n The ruddy rosy cheek proclaims her claim \u273f Though fail her name whose\n beauties we indite:\n As sways her gait I smile at hips so big \u273f And weep to see the waist\n they bear so slight.\n\n When the Porter looked upon her his wits were waylaid, and his senses\n were stormed so that his crate went nigh to fall from his head, and he\n said to himself, \"Never have I in my life seen a day more blessed than\n this day!\" Then quoth the lady-portress to the lady-cateress, \"Come in\n from the gate and relieve this poor man of his load.\" So the\n provisioner went in followed by the portress and the Porter and went on\n till they reached a spacious ground-floor hall,[148] built with\n admirable skill and beautified with all manner colours and carvings;\n with upper balconies and groined arches and galleries and cupboards and\n recesses whose curtains hung before them. In the midst stood a great\n basin full of water surrounding a fine fountain, and at the upper end\n on the raised dais was a couch of juniper-wood set with gems and\n pearls, with a canopy like mosquito-curtains of red satin-silk looped\n up with pearls as big as filberts and bigger. Thereupon sat a lady\n bright of blee, with brow beaming brilliancy, the dream of philosophy,\n whose eyes were fraught with Babel's gramarye[149] and her eyebrows\n were arched as for archery; her breath breathed ambergris and perfumery\n and her lips were sugar to taste and carnelian to see. Her stature was\n straight as the letter \u0627[150] and her face shamed the noon-sun's\n radiancy; and she was even as a galaxy, or a dome with golden marquetry\n or a bride displayed in choicest finery or a noble maid of Araby.[151]\n Right well of her sang the bard when he said:\u2014\n\n Her smiles twin rows of pearls display \u273f Chamomile-buds or rimey spray\n Her tresses stray as night let down \u273f And shames her light the dawn o'\n day.\n\n [152] The third lady rising from the couch stepped forward with\n graceful swaying gait till she reached the middle of the saloon, when\n she said to her sisters, \"Why stand ye here? take it down from this\n poor man's head!\" Then the cateress went and stood before him, and the\n portress behind him while the third helped them, and they lifted the\n load from the Porter's head; and, emptying it of all that was therein,\n set everything in its place. Lastly they gave him two gold pieces,\n saying, \"Wend thy ways, O Porter.\" But he went not, for he stood\n looking at the ladies and admiring what uncommon beauty was theirs, and\n their pleasant manners and kindly dispositions (never had he seen\n goodlier); and he gazed wistfully at that good store of wines and\n sweet-scented flowers and fruits and other matters. Also he marvelled\n with exceeding marvel, especially to see no man in the place and\n delayed his going; whereupon quoth the eldest lady, \"What aileth thee\n that goest not; haply thy wage be too little?\" And, turning to her\n sister the cateress, she said, \"Give him another dinar!\" But the Porter\n answered, \"By Allah, my lady, it is not for the wage; my hire is never\n more than two dirhams; but in very sooth my heart and my soul are taken\n up with you and your condition. I wonder to see you single with ne'er a\n man about you and not a soul to bear you company; and well you wot that\n the minaret toppleth o'er unless it stand upon four, and you want this\n same fourth; and women's pleasure without man is short of measure, even\n as the poet said:\u2014\n\n Seest not we want for joy four things all told \u273f The harp and lute, the\n flute and flageolet;\n And be they companied with scents four-fold \u273f Rose, myrtle, anemone and\n violet;\n Nor please all eight an four thou wouldst withhold \u273f Good wine and\n youth and gold and pretty pet.\n\n You be three and want a fourth who shall be a person of good sense and\n prudence; smart witted, and one apt to keep careful counsel.\" His words\n pleased and amused them much; and they laughed at him and said, \"And\n who is to assure us of that? We are maidens and we fear to entrust our\n secret where it may not be kept, for we have read in a certain\n chronicle the lines of one Ibn al-Sumam:\u2014\n\n Hold fast thy secret and to none unfold \u273f Lost is a secret when that\n secret's told:\n An fail thy breast thy secret to conceal \u273f How canst thou hope\n another's breast shall hold?\n\n And Abu Now\u00e1s[153] said well on the same subject:\u2014\n\n Who trusteth secret to another's hand \u273f Upon his brow deserveth burn of\n brand!\"\n\n When the Porter heard their words he rejoined, \"By your lives! I am a\n man of sense and a discreet, who hath read books and perused\n chronicles; I reveal the fair and conceal the foul and I act as the\n poet adviseth:\u2014\n\n None but the good a secret keep \u273f And good men keep it unrevealed:\n It is to me a well-shut house \u273f With keyless locks and door\n ensealed.\"[154]\n\n When the maidens heard his verse and its poetical application addressed\n to them they said, \"Thou knowest that we have laid out all our monies\n on this place. Now say, hast thou aught to offer us in return for\n entertainment? For surely we will not suffer thee to sit in our company\n and be our cup-companion, and gaze upon our faces so fair and so rare\n without paying a round sum.[155] Wottest thou not the saying:\u2014\n\n Sans hope of gain\n Love's not worth a grain?\"\n\n Whereto the lady-portress added, \"If thou bring anything thou art a\n something; if no thing, be off with thee, thou art a nothing;\" but the\n procuratrix interposed, saying, \"Nay, O my sisters, leave teasing him,\n for by Allah he hath not failed us this day, and had he been other he\n never had kept patience with me, so whatever be his shot and scot I\n will take it upon myself.\" The Porter, overjoyed, kissed the ground\n before her and thanked her saying, \"By Allah, these monies are the\n first fruits this day hath given me.\" Hearing this they said, \"Sit thee\n down and welcome to thee,\" and the eldest lady added, \"By Allah, we may\n not suffer thee to join us save on one condition, and this it is, that\n no questions be asked as to what concerneth thee not, and frowardness\n shall be soundly flogged.\" Answered the Porter, \"I agree to this, O my\n lady, on my head and my eyes be it! Lookye, I am dumb, I have no\n tongue.\" Then arose the provisioneress and tightening her girdle set\n the table by the fountain and put the flowers and sweet herbs in their\n jars, and strained the wine and ranged the flasks in row and made ready\n every requisite. Then sat she down, she and her sisters, placing amidst\n them the Porter who kept deeming himself in a dream; and she took up\n the wine flagon, and poured out the first cup and drank it off, and\n likewise a second and a third.[156] After this she filled a fourth cup\n which she handed to one of her sisters; and, lastly, she crowned a\n goblet and passed it to the Porter, saying:\u2014\n\n Drink the dear draught, drink free and fain \u273f What healeth every grief\n and pain.\n\n He took the cup in his hand and, louting low, returned his best thanks\n and improvised:\u2014\n\n Drain not the bowl save with a trusty friend \u273f A man of worth whose\n good old blood all know:\n For wine, like wind, sucks sweetness from the sweet \u273f And stinks when\n over stench it haply blow:\n\n Adding:\u2014\n\n Drain not the bowl, save from dear hand like thine \u273f The cup recalls\n thy gifts; thou, gifts of wine.\n\n After repeating this couplet he kissed their hands and drank and was\n drunk and sat swaying from side to side and pursued:\u2014\n\n All drinks wherein is blood the Law unclean \u273f Doth hold save one, the\n bloodshed of the vine:\n Fill! fill! take all my wealth bequeathed or won \u273f Thou fawn! a willing\n ransom for those eyne.\n\n Then the cateress crowned a cup and gave it to the portress, who took\n it from her hand and thanked her and drank. Thereupon she poured again\n and passed to the eldest lady who sat on the couch, and filled yet\n another and handed it to the Porter. He kissed the ground before them;\n and, after drinking and thanking them, he again began to recite:\u2014\n\n Here! Here! by Allah, here! \u273f Cups of the sweet, the dear!\n Fill me a brimming bowl \u273f The Fount o' Life I speer\n\n Then the Porter stood up before the mistress of the house and said, \"O\n lady, I am thy slave, thy Mameluke, thy white thrall, thy very\n bondsman;\" and he began reciting:\u2014\n\n A slave of slaves there standeth at thy door \u273f Lauding thy generous\n boons and gifts galore:\n Beauty! may he come in awhile to 'joy \u273f Thy charms? for Love and I part\n nevermore!\n\n She said to him, \"Drink; and health and happiness attend thy drink.\" So\n he took the cup and kissed her hand and recited these lines in\n sing-song:\u2014\n\n I gave her brave old wine that like her cheeks \u273f Blushed red or flame\n from furnace flaring up:\n She bussed the brim and said with many a smile \u273f How durst thou deal\n folk's cheek for folk to sup?\n \"Drink!\" (said I) \"these are tears of mine whose tinct \u273f Is heart-blood\n sighs have boil\u00e8d in the cup.\"\n\n She answered him in the following couplet:\u2014\n\n \"An tears of blood for me, friend, thou hast shed \u273f Suffer me sup them,\n by thy head and eyes!\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n Then the lady took the cup, and drank it off to her sisters' health,\n and they ceased not drinking (the Porter being in the midst of them),\n and dancing and laughing and reciting verses and singing ballads and\n ritornellos. All this time the Porter was carrying on with them,\n kissing, toying, biting, handling, groping, fingering; whilst one\n thrust a dainty morsel in his mouth, and another slapped him; and this\n cuffed his cheeks, and that threw sweet flowers at him; and he was in\n the very paradise of pleasure, as though he were sitting in the seventh\n sphere among the Houris[157] of Heaven. They ceased not doing after\n this fashion until the wine played tricks in their heads and worsted\n their wits; and, when the drink got the better of them, the portress\n stood up and doffed her clothes till she was mother-naked. However, she\n let down her hair about her body by way of shift, and throwing herself\n into the basin disported herself and dived like a duck and swam up and\n down, and took water in her mouth, and spurted it all over the Porter,\n and washed her limbs, and between her breasts, and inside her thighs\n and all around her navel. Then she came up out of the cistern and\n throwing herself on the Porter's lap said, \"O my lord, O my love, what\n callest thou this article?\" pointing to her slit, her solution of\n continuity. \"I call that thy cleft,\" quoth the Porter, and she\n rejoined, \"Wah! wah! art thou not ashamed to use such a word?\" and she\n caught him by the collar and soundly cuffed him. Said he again, \"Thy\n womb, thy vulva;\" and she struck him a second slap crying, \"O fie, O\n fie, this is another ugly word; is there no shame in thee?\" Quoth he,\n \"Thy coynte;\" and she cried, \"O thou! art wholly destitute of modesty?\"\n and thumped him and bashed him. Then cried the Porter, \"Thy\n clitoris,\"[158] whereat the eldest lady came down upon him with a yet\n sorer beating, and said, \"No;\" and he said, \"'Tis so,\" and the Porter\n went on calling the same commodity by sundry other names, but whatever\n he said they beat him more and more till his neck ached and swelled\n with the blows he had gotten; and on this wise they made him a butt and\n a laughing-stock. At last he turned upon them asking, \"And what do you\n women call this article?\" Whereto the damsel made answer, \"The basil of\n the bridges.\"[159] Cried the Porter, \"Thank Allah for my safety: aid me\n and be thou propitious, O basil of the bridges!\" They passed round the\n cup and tossed off the bowl again, when the second lady stood up; and,\n stripping off all her clothes, cast herself into the cistern and did as\n the first had done; then she came out of the water and throwing her\n naked form on the Porter's lap pointed to her machine and said, \"O\n light of mine eyes, do tell me what is the name of this concern?\" He\n replied as before, \"Thy slit;\" and she rejoined, \"Hath such term no\n shame for thee?\" and cuffed him and buffeted him till the saloon rang\n with the blows. Then quoth she, \"O fie! O fie! how canst thou say this\n without blushing?\" He suggested, \"The basil of the bridges;\" but she\n would not have it and she said, \"No! no!\" and struck him and slapped\n him on the back of the neck. Then he began calling out all the names he\n knew, \"Thy slit, thy womb, thy coynte, thy clitoris;\" and the girls\n kept on saying, \"No! no!\" So he said, \"I stick to the basil of the\n bridges;\" and all the three laughed till they fell on their backs and\n laid slaps on his neck and said, \"No! no! that's not its proper name.\"\n Thereupon he cried, \"O my sisters, what _is_ its name?\" and they\n replied, \"What sayest thou to the husked sesame-seed?\" Then the\n cateress donned her clothes and they fell again to carousing, but the\n Porter kept moaning, \"Oh! and Oh!\" for his neck and shoulders, and the\n cup passed merrily round and round again for a full hour. After that\n time the eldest and handsomest lady stood up and stripped off her\n garments, whereupon the Porter took his neck in hand, and rubbed and\n shampoo'd it, saying, \"My neck and shoulders are on the way of\n Allah!\"[160] Then she threw herself into the basin, and swam and dived,\n sported and washed; and the Porter looked at her naked figure as though\n she had been a slice of the moon[161] and at her face with the sheen of\n Luna when at full, or like the dawn when it brighteneth, and he noted\n her noble stature and shape, and those glorious forms that quivered as\n she went; for she was naked as the Lord made her. Then he cried \"Alack!\n Alack!\" and began to address her, versifying in these couplets:\u2014\n\n \"If I liken thy shape to the bough when green \u273f My likeness errs and I\n sore mistake it;\n For the bough is fairest when clad the most \u273f And thou art fairest when\n mother-naked.\"\n\n When the lady heard his verses she came up out of the basin and,\n seating herself upon his lap and knees, pointed to her genitory and\n said, \"O my lordling, what be the name of this?\" Quoth he, \"The basil\n of the bridges;\" but she said, \"Bah, bah!\" Quoth he, \"The husked\n sesame;\" quoth she, \"Pooh, pooh!\" Then said he, \"Thy womb;\" and she\n cried, \"Fie, Fie! art thou not ashamed of thyself?\" and cuffed him on\n the nape of the neck. And whatever name he gave declaring \"'Tis so,\"\n she beat him and cried \"No! no!\" till at last he said, \"O my sisters,\n and what _is_ its name?\" She replied, \"It is entitled the Khan[162] of\n Abu Mansur;\" whereupon the Porter replied, \"Ha! ha! O Allah be praised\n for safe deliverance! O Khan of Abu Mansur!\" Then she came forth and\n dressed and the cup went round a full hour. At last the Porter rose up,\n and stripping off all his clothes, jumped into the tank and swam about\n and washed under his bearded chin and armpits, even as they had done.\n Then he came out and threw himself into the first lady's lap and rested\n his arms upon the lap of the portress, and reposed his legs in the lap\n of the cateress and pointed to his prickle[163] and said, \"O my\n mistresses, what is the name of this article?\" All laughed at his words\n till they fell on their backs, and one said, \"Thy pintle!\" But he\n replied, \"No!\" and gave each one of them a bite by way of forfeit. Then\n said they, \"Thy pizzle!\" but he cried \"No,\" and gave each of them a\n hug;\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her\n permitted say.\n\n Now when it was the Tenth Night,\n\n Quoth her sister Dunyazad, \"Finish for us thy story;\" and she answered,\n \"With joy and goodly gree.\" It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that\n the damsels stinted not saying to the Porter \"Thy prickle, thy pintle,\n thy pizzle,\" and he ceased not kissing and biting and hugging until his\n heart was satisfied, and they laughed on till they could no more. At\n last one said, \"O our brother, what, then, is it called?\" Quoth he,\n \"Know ye not?\" Quoth they, \"No!\" \"Its veritable name,\" said he, \"is\n mule Burst-all, which browseth on the basil of the bridges, and\n muncheth the husked sesame, and nighteth in the Khan of Abu Mansur.\"\n Then laughed they till they fell on their backs, and returned to their\n carousal, and ceased not to be after this fashion till night began to\n fall. Thereupon said they to the Porter, \"Bismillah,[164] O our master,\n up and on with those sorry old shoes of thine and turn thy face and\n show us the breadth of thy shoulders!\" Said he, \"By Allah, to part with\n my soul would be easier for me than departing from you: come let us\n join night to day, and to-morrow morning we will each wend our own\n way.\" \"My life on you,\" said the procuratrix, \"suffer him to tarry with\n us, that we may laugh at him: we may live out our lives and never meet\n with his like, for surely he is a right merry rogue and a witty.\"[165]\n So they said, \"Thou must not remain with us this night save on\n condition that thou submit to our commands, and that whatso thou seest,\n thou ask no questions thereanent, nor enquire of its cause.\" \"All\n right,\" rejoined he, and they said, \"Go read the writing over the\n door.\" So he rose and went to the entrance and there found written in\n letters of gold wash; \"WHOSO SPEAKETH OF WHAT CONCERNETH HIM NOT, SHALL\n HEAR WHAT PLEASETH HIM NOT!\"[166] The Porter said, \"Be ye witnesses\n against me that I will not speak on whatso concerneth me not.\" Then the\n cateress arose, and set food before them and they ate; after which they\n changed their drinking-place for another, and she lighted the lamps and\n candles and burned ambergris and aloes-wood, and set on fresh fruit and\n the wine service, when they fell to carousing and talking of their\n lovers. And they ceased not to eat and drink and chat, nibbling dry\n fruits and laughing and playing tricks for the space of a full hour\n when lo! a knock was heard at the gate. The knocking in no wise\n disturbed the seance, but one of them rose and went to see what it was\n and presently returned, saying, \"Truly our pleasure for this night is\n to be perfect.\" \"How is that?\" asked they; and she answered, \"At the\n gate be three Persian Kalandars[167] with their beards and heads and\n eyebrows shaven; and all three blind of the left eye\u2014which is surely a\n strange chance. They are foreigners from Roum-land with the mark of\n travel plain upon them; they have just entered Baghdad, this being\n their first visit to our city; and the cause of their knocking at our\n door is simply because they cannot find a lodging. Indeed one of them\n said to me:\u2014Haply the owner of this mansion will let us have the key of\n his stable or some old outhouse wherein we may pass this night; for\n evening had surprised them and, being strangers in the land, they knew\n none who would give them shelter. And, O my sisters, each of them is a\n figure o' fun after his own fashion; and if we let them in we shall\n have matter to make sport of.\" She gave not over persuading them till\n they said to her, \"Let them in, and make thou the usual condition with\n them that they speak not of what concerneth them not, lest they hear\n what pleaseth them not.\" So she rejoiced and going to the door\n presently returned with the three monoculars whose beards and\n mustachios were clean shaven.[168] They salam'd and stood afar off by\n way of respect; but the three ladies rose up to them and welcomed them\n and wished them joy of their safe arrival and made them sit down. The\n Kalandars looked at the room and saw that it was a pleasant place,\n clean swept and garnished with flowers; and the lamps were burning and\n the smoke of perfumes was spiring in air; and beside the dessert and\n fruits and wine, there were three fair girls who might be maidens; so\n they exclaimed with one voice, \"By Allah, 'tis good!\" Then they turned\n to the Porter and saw that he was a merry-faced wight, albeit he was by\n no means sober and was sore after his slappings. So they thought that\n he was one of themselves and said, \"A mendicant like us! whether Arab\n or foreigner.\"[169] But when the Porter heard these words, he rose up,\n and fixing his eyes fiercely upon them, said, \"Sit ye here without\n exceeding in talk! Have you not read what is writ over the door? surely\n it befitteth not fellows who come to us like paupers to wag your\n tongues at us.\" \"We crave thy pardon, O Fak\u00edr,\"[170] rejoined they,\n \"and our heads are between thy hands.\" The ladies laughed consumedly at\n the squabble; and, making peace between the Kalandars and the Porter,\n seated the new guests before meat and they ate. Then they sat together,\n and the portress served them with drink; and, as the cup went round\n merrily, quoth the Porter to the askers, \"And you, O brothers mine,\n have ye no story or rare adventure to amuse us withal?\" Now the warmth\n of wine having mounted to their heads they called for musical\n instruments; and the portress brought them a tambourine of Mosul, and a\n lute of Ir\u00e1k, and a Persian harp; and each mendicant took one and tuned\n it; this the tambourine and those the lute and the harp, and struck up\n a merry tune while the ladies sang so lustily that there was a great\n noise.[171] And whilst they were carrying on, behold, some one knocked\n at the gate, and the portress went to see what was the matter there.\n Now the cause of that knocking, O King (quoth Shahrazad) was this, the\n Caliph, H\u00e1r\u00fan al-Rash\u00edd, had gone forth from the palace, as was his\n wont now and then, to solace himself in the city that night, and to see\n and hear what new thing was stirring; he was in merchant's gear, and he\n was attended by Ja'afar, his Wazir, and by Masr\u00far his Sworder of\n Vengeance.[172] As they walked about the city, their way led them\n towards the house of the three ladies; where they heard the loud noise\n of musical instruments and singing and merriment; so quoth the Caliph\n to Ja'afar, \"I long to enter this house and hear those songs and see\n who sing them.\" Quoth Ja'afar, \"O Prince of the Faithful; these folk\n are surely drunken with wine, and I fear some mischief betide us if we\n get amongst them.\" \"There is no help but that I go in there,\" replied\n the Caliph, \"and I desire thee to contrive some pretext for our\n appearing among them.\" Ja'afar replied, \"I hear and I obey;\"[173] and\n knocked at the door, whereupon the portress came out and opened. Then\n Ja'afar came forward and kissing the ground before her said, \"O my\n lady, we be merchants from Tiberias-town: we arrived at Baghdad ten\n days ago; and, alighting at the merchants' caravanserai, we sold all\n our merchandise. Now a certain trader invited us to an entertainment\n this night; so we went to his house and he set food before us and we\n ate: then we sat at wine and wassail with him for an hour or so when he\n gave us leave to depart; and we went out from him in the shadow of the\n night and, being strangers, we could not find our way back to our Khan.\n So haply of your kindness and courtesy you will suffer us to tarry with\n you this night, and Heaven will reward you!\"[174] The portress looked\n upon them and seeing them dressed like merchants and men of grave looks\n and solid, she returned to her sisters and repeated to them Ja'afar's\n story; and they took compassion upon the strangers and said to her,\n \"Let them enter.\" She opened the door to them, when said they to her,\n \"Have we thy leave to come in?\" \"Come in,\" quoth she; and the Caliph\n entered followed by Ja'afar and Masrur; and when the girls saw them\n they stood up to them in respect and made them sit down and looked to\n their wants, saying, \"Welcome, and well come and good cheer to the\n guests, but with one condition!\" \"What is that?\" asked they, and one of\n the ladies answered, \"Speak not of what concerneth you not, lest ye\n hear what pleaseth you not.\" \"Even so,\" said they; and sat down to\n their wine and drank deep. Presently the Caliph looked on the three\n Kalandars and, seeing them each and every blind of the left eye,\n wondered at the sight; then he gazed upon the girls and he was startled\n and he marvelled with exceeding marvel at their beauty and loveliness.\n They continued to carouse and to converse and said to the Caliph,\n \"Drink!\" but he replied, \"I am vowed to Pilgrimage;\"[175] and drew back\n from the wine. Thereupon the portress rose and spreading before him a\n table-cloth worked with gold, set thereon a porcelain bowl into which\n she poured willow flower water with a lump of snow and a spoonful of\n sugar-candy. The Caliph thanked her and said in himself, \"By Allah, I\n will recompense her to-morrow for the kind deed she hath done.\" The\n others again addressed themselves to conversing and carousing; and,\n when the wine gat the better of them, the eldest lady who ruled the\n house rose and making obeisance to them took the cateress by the hand,\n and said, \"Rise, O my sister and let us do what is our devoir.\" Both\n answered \"Even so!\" Then the portress stood up and proceeded to remove\n the table-service and the remnants of the banquet; and renewed the\n pastiles and cleared the middle of the saloon. Then she made the\n Kalandars sit upon a sofa at the side of the estrade, and seated the\n Caliph and Ja'afar and Masrur on the other side of the saloon; after\n which she called the Porter, and said, \"How scant is thy courtesy! now\n thou art no stranger; nay, thou art one of the household.\" So he stood\n up and, tightening his waist-cloth, asked, \"What would ye I do?\" and\n she answered, \"Stand in thy place.\" Then the procuratrix rose and set\n in the midst of the saloon a low chair and, opening a closet, cried to\n the Porter, \"Come help me,\" So he went to help her and saw two black\n bitches with chains round their necks; and she said to him, \"Take hold\n of them;\" and he took them and led them into the middle of the saloon.\n Then the lady of the house arose and tucked up her sleeves above her\n wrists and, seizing a scourge, said to the Porter, \"Bring forward one\n of the bitches.\" He brought, her forward, dragging her by the chain,\n while the bitch wept, and shook her head at the lady who, however, came\n down upon her with blows on the sconce; and the bitch howled and the\n lady ceased not beating her till her forearm failed her. Then, casting\n the scourge from her hand, she pressed the bitch to her bosom and,\n wiping away her tears with her hands, kissed her head. Then said she to\n the Porter, \"Take her away and bring the second;\" and, when he brought\n her, she did with her as she had done with the first. Now the heart of\n the Caliph was touched at these cruel doings; his chest straitened and\n he lost all patience in his desire to know why the two bitches were so\n beaten. He threw a wink at Ja'afar wishing him to ask, but the Minister\n turning towards him said by signs, \"Be silent!\" Then quoth the portress\n to the mistress of the house, \"O my lady, arise and go to thy place\n that I in turn may do my devoir.\"[176] She answered, \"Even so\"; and,\n taking her seat upon the couch of juniper-wood, pargetted with, gold\n and silver, said to the portress and cateress, \"Now do ye what ye have\n to do.\" Thereupon the portress sat upon a low seat by the couch side;\n but the procuratrix, entering a closet, brought out of it a bag of\n satin with green fringes and two tassels of gold. She stood up before\n the lady of the house and shaking the bag drew out from it a lute which\n she tuned by tightening its pegs; and when it was in perfect order, she\n began to sing these quatrains:\u2014\n\n Ye are the wish, the aim of me \u273f And when, O love, thy sight I see[177]\n The heavenly mansion openeth;[178] \u273f But Hell I see when lost thy\n sight.\n From thee comes madness; nor the less \u273f Comes highest joy, comes\n ecstasy:\n Nor in my love for thee I fear \u273f Or shame and blame, or hate and spite.\n When Love was throned within my heart \u273f I rent the veil of modesty;\n And stints not Love to rend that veil \u273f Garring disgrace on grace to\n alight;\n The robe of sickness then I donned \u273f But rent to rags was secrecy:\n Wherefore my love and longing heart \u273f Proclaim your high supremest\n might;\n The tear-drop railing adown my cheek \u273f Telleth my tale of ignomy:\n And all the hid was seen by all \u273f And all my riddle ree'd aright.\n Heal then my malady, for thou \u273f Art malady and remedy!\n But she whose cure is in thy hand \u273f Shall ne'er be free of bane and\n blight;\n Burn me those eyne that radiance rain \u273f Slay me the swords of phantasy;\n How many hath the sword of Love \u273f Laid low, their high degree despite?\n Yet will I never cease to pine \u273f Nor to oblivion will I flee.\n Love is my health, my faith, my joy \u273f Public and private, wrong or\n right.\n O happy eyes that sight thy charms \u273f That gaze upon thee at their gree!\n Yea, of my purest wish and will \u273f The slave of Love I'll aye be hight.\n\n When the damsel heard this elegy in quatrains she cried out \"Alas!\n Alas!\" and rent her raiment, and fell to the ground fainting; and the\n Caliph saw scars of the palm-rod[179] on her back and welts of the\n whip; and marvelled with exceeding wonder. Then the portress arose and\n sprinkled water on her and brought her a fresh and very fine dress and\n put it on her. But when the company beheld these doings their minds\n were troubled, for they had no inkling of the case nor knew the story\n thereof; so the Caliph said to Ja'afar, \"Didst thou not see the scars\n upon the damsel's body? I cannot keep silence or be at rest till I\n learn the truth of her condition and the story of this other maiden and\n the secret of the two black bitches.\" But Ja'afar answered, \"O our\n lord, they made it a condition with us that we speak not of what\n concerneth us not, lest we come to hear what pleaseth us not.\" Then\n said the portress, \"By Allah, O my sister, come to me and complete this\n service for me.\" Replied the procuratrix, \"With joy and goodly gree;\"\n so she took the lute; and leaned it against her breasts and swept the\n strings with her finger-tips, and began singing:\u2014\n\n Give back mine eyes their sleep long ravish\u00e8d \u273f And say me whither be\n my reason fled:\n I learnt that lending to thy love a place \u273f Sleep to mine eyelids\n mortal foe was made.\n They said, \"We held thee righteous, who waylaid \u273f Thy soul?\" \"Go ask\n his glorious eyes,\" I said.\n I pardon all my blood he pleased to spill \u273f Owning his troubles drove\n him blood to shed.\n On my mind's mirror sun-like sheen he cast \u273f Whose keen reflection fire\n in vitals bred\n Waters of Life let Allah waste at will \u273f Suffice my wage those lips of\n dewy red:\n An thou address my love thou'lt find a cause \u273f For plaint and tears or\n ruth or lustihed.\n In water pure his form shall greet your eyne \u273f When fails the bowl nor\n need ye drink of wine.[180]\n\n Then she quoted from the same ode:\u2014\n\n I drank, but the draught of his glance, not wine; \u273f And his swaying\n gait swayed to sleep these eyne:\n 'Twas not grape-juice gript me but grasp of Past \u273f 'Twas not bowl\n o'erbowled me but gifts divine:\n His coiling curl-lets my soul ennetted \u273f And his cruel will all my wits\n outwitted.[181]\n\n After a pause she resumed:\u2014\n\n If we 'plain of absence what shall we say? \u273f Or if pain afflict us\n where wend our way?\n An I hire a truchman[182] to tell my tale \u273f The lovers' plaint is not\n told for pay:\n If I put on patience, a lover's life \u273f After loss of love will not last\n a day:\n Naught is left me now but regret, repine \u273f And tears flooding cheeks\n for ever and aye:\n O thou who the babes of these eyes[183] hast fled \u273f Thou art homed in\n heart that shall never stray;\n Would heaven I wot hast thou kept our pact \u273f Long as stream shall flow,\n to have firmest fay?\n Or hast forgotten the weeping slave \u273f Whom groans afflict and whom\n griefs waylay?\n Ah, when severance ends and we side by side \u273f Couch, I'll blame thy\n rigours and chide thy pride!\n\n Now when the portress heard her second ode she shrieked aloud and said,\n \"By Allah! 'tis right good!\"; and laying hands on her garments tore\n them, as she did the first time, and fell to the ground fainting.\n Thereupon the procuratrix rose and brought her a second change of\n clothes after she had sprinkled water on her. She recovered and sat\n upright and said to her sister the cateress, \"Onwards, and help me in\n my duty, for there remains but this one song.\" So the provisioneress\n again brought out the lute and began to sing these verses:\u2014\n\n How long shall last, how long this rigour rife of woe \u273f May not suffice\n thee all these tears thou seest flow?\n Our parting thus with purpose fell thou dost prolong \u273f Is't not enough\n to glad the heart of envious foe?\n Were but this lying world once true to lover-heart \u273f He had not watched\n the weary night in tears of woe:\n Oh pity me whom overwhelmed thy cruel will \u273f My lord, my king, 'tis\n time some ruth to me thou show:\n To whom reveal my wrongs, O thou who murdered me? \u273f Sad, who of broken\n troth the pangs must undergo!\n Increase wild love for thee and phrenzy hour by hour \u273f And days of\n exile minute by so long, so slow;\n O Moslems, claim _vendetta_[184] for this slave of Love \u273f Whose sleep\n Love ever wastes, whose patience Love lays low:\n Doth law of Love allow thee, O my wish! to lie \u273f Lapt in another's arms\n and unto me cry \"Go!\"?\n Yet in thy presence, say, what joys shall I enjoy \u273f When he I love but\n works my love to overthrow?\n\n When the portress heard the third song she cried aloud; and, laying\n hands on her garments, rent them down to the very skirt and fell to the\n ground fainting a third time, again showing the scars of the scourge.\n Then said the three Kalandars, \"Would Heaven we had never entered this\n house, but had rather nighted on the mounds and heaps outside the city!\n for verily our visit hath been troubled by sights which cut to the\n heart.\" The Caliph turned to them and asked, \"Why so?\" and they made\n answer, \"Our minds are sore troubled by this matter.\" Quoth the Caliph,\n \"Are ye not of the household?\" and quoth they, \"No; nor indeed did we\n ever set eyes on the place till within this hour.\" Hereat the Caliph\n marvelled and rejoined, \"This man who sitteth by you, would he not know\n the secret of the matter?\" and so saying he winked and made signs at\n the Porter. So they questioned the man but he replied, \"By the\n All-might of Allah, in love all are alike![185] I am the growth of\n Baghdad, yet never in my born days did I darken these doors till to-day\n and my companying with them was a curious matter.\" \"By Allah,\" they\n rejoined, \"we took thee for one of them and now we see thou art one\n like ourselves.\" Then said the Caliph, \"We be seven men, and they only\n three women without even a fourth to help them; so let us question them\n of their case; and, if they answer us not, fain we will be answered by\n force.\" All of them agreed to this except Ja'afar who said,[186] \"This\n is not my recking; let them be; for we are their guests and, as ye\n know, they made a compact and condition with us which we accepted and\n promised to keep: wherefore it is better that we be silent concerning\n this matter; and, as but little of the night remaineth, let each and\n every of us gang his own gait.\" Then he winked at the Caliph and\n whispered to him, \"There is but one hour of darkness left and I can\n bring them before thee to-morrow, when thou canst freely question them\n all concerning their story.\" But the Caliph raised his head haughtily\n and cried out at him in wrath, saying, \"I have no patience left for my\n longing to hear of them: let the Kalandars question them forthright.\"\n Quoth Ja'afar, \"This is not my rede.\" Then words ran high and talk\n answered talk; and they disputed as to who should first put the\n question, but at last all fixed upon the Porter. And as the jangle\n increased the house-mistress could not but notice it and asked them, \"O\n ye folk! on what matter are ye talking so loudly?\" Then the Porter\n stood up respectfully before her and said, \"O my lady, this company\n earnestly desire that thou acquaint them with the story of the two\n bitches and what maketh thee punish them so cruelly; and then thou\n fallest to weeping over them and kissing them; and lastly they want to\n hear the tale of thy sister and why she hath been bastinado'd with\n palm-sticks like a man. These are the questions they charge me to put,\n and peace be with thee.\"[187] Thereupon quoth she who was the lady of\n the house to the guests, \"Is this true that he saith on your part?\" and\n all replied, \"Yes!\" save Ja'afar who kept silence. When she heard these\n words she cried, \"By Allah, ye have wronged us, O our guests, with\n grievous wronging; for when you came before us we made compact and\n condition with you, that whoso should speak of what concerneth him not\n should hear what pleaseth him not. Sufficeth ye not that we took you\n into our house and fed you with our best food? But the fault is not so\n much yours as hers who let you in.\" Then she tucked up her sleeves from\n her wrists and struck the floor thrice with her hand crying, \"Come ye\n quickly;\" and lo! a closet door opened and out of it came seven negro\n slaves with drawn swords in hand to whom she said, \"Pinion me those\n praters' elbows and bind them each to each.\" They did her bidding and\n asked her, \"O veiled and virtuous! is it thy high command that we\n strike off their heads?\"; but she answered, \"Leave them awhile that I\n question them of their condition, before their necks feel the sword.\"\n \"By Allah, O my lady!\" cried the Porter, \"slay me not for other's sin;\n all these men offended and deserve the penalty of crime save myself.\n Now by Allah, our night had been charming had we escaped the\n mortification of those monocular Kalandars whose entrance into a\n populous city would convert it into a howling wilderness.\" Then he\n repeated these verses:\u2014\n\n How fair is ruth the strong man deigns not smother! \u273f And fairest fair\n when shown to weakest brother:\n By Love's own holy tie between us twain, \u273f Let one not suffer for the\n sin of other.\n\n When the Porter ended his verse the lady laughed\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad\n perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.\n\n Now when it was the Eleventh Night,\n\n She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the lady, after\n laughing at the Porter despite her wrath, came up to the party and\n spake thus, \"Tell me who ye be, for ye have but an hour of life; and\n were ye not men of rank and, perhaps, notables of your tribes, you had\n not been so froward and I had hastened your doom.\" Then said the\n Caliph, \"Woe to thee, O Ja'afar, tell her who we are lest we be slain\n by mistake; and speak her fair before some horror befal us.\" \"'Tis part\n of thy deserts,\" replied he; whereupon the Caliph cried out at him\n saying, \"There is a time for witty words and there is a time for\n serious work.\" Then the lady accosted the three Kalandars and asked\n them, \"Are ye brothers?\"; when they answered, \"No, by Allah, we be\n naught but Fakirs and foreigners.\" Then quoth she to one among them,\n \"Wast thou born blind of one eye?\"; and quoth he, \"No, by Allah, 'twas\n a marvellous matter and a wondrous mischance which caused my eye to be\n torn out, and mine is a tale which, if it were written upon the\n eye-corners with needle-gravers, were a warner to whoso would be\n warned.\"[188] She questioned the second and third Kalandar; but all\n replied like the first, \"By Allah, O our mistress, each one of us\n cometh from a different country, and we are all three the sons of\n Kings, sovereign Princes ruling over suzerains and capital cities.\"\n Thereupon she turned towards them and said, \"Let each and every of you\n tell me his tale in due order and explain the cause of his coming to\n our place; and if his story please us let him stroke his head[189] and\n wend his way.\" The first to come forward was the Hamm\u00e1l, the Porter,\n who said, \"O my lady, I am a man and a porter. This dame, the cateress,\n hired me to carry a load and took me first to the shop of a vintner;\n then to the booth of a butcher; thence to the stall of a fruiterer;\n thence to a grocer who also sold dry fruits; thence to a confectioner\n and a perfumer-cum-druggist and from him to this place where there\n happened to me with you what happened. Such is my story and peace be on\n us all!\" At this the lady laughed and said, \"Rub thy head and wend thy\n ways!\"; but he cried, \"By Allah, I will not stump it till I hear the\n stories of my companions.\" Then came forward one of the Monoculars and\n began to tell her\n\n\n _THE FIRST KALANDAR'S TALE._\n\n Know, O my lady, that the cause of my beard being shorn and my eye\n being out-torn was as follows. My father was a King and he had a\n brother who was a King over another city; and it came to pass that I\n and my cousin, the son of my paternal uncle, were\u00b7 both born on one and\n the same day. And years and days rolled on; and, as we grew up, I used\n to visit my uncle every now and then and to spend a certain number of\n months with him. Now my cousin and I were sworn friends; for he ever\n entreated me with exceeding kindness; he killed for me the fattest\n sheep and strained the best of his wines, and we enjoyed long\n conversing and carousing. One day when the wine had gotten the better\n of us, the son of my uncle said to me, \"O my cousin, I have a great\n service to ask of thee; and I desire that thou stay me not in whatso I\n desire to do!\" And I replied, \"With joy and goodly will.\" Then he made\n me swear the most binding oaths and left me; but after a little while\n he returned leading a lady veiled and richly apparelled with ornaments\n worth a large sum of money. Presently he turned to me (the woman being\n still behind him) and said, \"Take this lady with thee and go before me\n to such a burial ground\" (describing it, so that I knew the place),\n \"and enter with her into such a sepulchre[190] and there await my\n coming.\" The oaths I swore to him made me keep silence and suffered me\n not to oppose him; so I led the woman to the cemetery and both I and\n she took our seats in the sepulchre; and hardly had we sat down when in\n came my uncle's son, with a bowl of water, a bag of mortar and an adze\n somewhat like a hoe. He went straight to the tomb in the midst of the\n sepulchre and, breaking it open with the adze set the stones on one\n side; then he fell to digging into the earth of the tomb till he came\n upon a large iron plate, the size of a wicket-door; and on raising it\n there appeared below it a staircase vaulted and winding. Then he turned\n to the lady and said to her, \"Come now and take thy final choice!\" She\n at once went down by the staircase and disappeared; then quoth he to\n me, \"O son of my uncle, by way of completing thy kindness, when I shall\n have descended into this place, restore the trap-door to where it was,\n and heap back the earth upon it as it lay before; and then of thy great\n goodness mix this unslaked lime which is in the bag with this water\n which is in the bowl and, after building up the stones, plaster the\n outside so that none looking upon it shall say:\u2014This is a new opening\n in an old tomb. For a whole year have I worked at this place whereof\n none knoweth but Allah, and this is the need I have of thee;\" presently\n adding, \"May Allah never bereave thy friends of thee nor make them\n desolate by thine absence, O son of my uncle, O my dear cousin!\" And he\n went down the stairs and disappeared for ever. When he was lost to\n sight I replaced the iron plate and did all his bidding till the tomb\n became as it was before; and I worked almost unconsciously for my head\n was heated with wine. Returning to the palace of my uncle, I was told\n that he had gone forth a-sporting and hunting; so I slept that night\n without seeing him; and, when the morning dawned, I remembered the\n scenes of the past evening and what happened between me and my cousin;\n I repented of having obeyed him when penitence was of no avail, I still\n thought, however, that it was a dream. So I fell to asking for the son\n of my uncle; but there was none to answer me concerning him; and I went\n out to the grave-yard and the sepulchres, and sought for the tomb under\n which he was, but could not find it; and I ceased not wandering about\n from sepulchre to sepulchre, and tomb to tomb, all without success,\n till night set in. So I returned to the city, yet I could neither eat\n nor drink; my thoughts being engrossed with my cousin, for that I knew\n not what was become of him; and I grieved with exceeding grief and\n passed another sorrowful night, watching until the morning. Then went I\n a second time to the cemetery, pondering over what the son of mine\n uncle had done; and, sorely repenting my hearkening to him, went round\n among all the tombs, but could not find the tomb I sought. I mourned\n over the past, and remained in my mourning seven days, seeking the\n place and ever missing the path. Then my torture of scruples[191] grew\n upon me till I well nigh went mad, and I found no way to dispel my\n grief save travel and return to my father. So I set out and journeyed\n homeward; but as I was entering my father's capital a crowd of rioters\n sprang upon me and pinioned me.[192] I wondered thereat with all\n wonderment, seeing that I was the son of the Sultan, and these men were\n my father's subjects and amongst them were some of my own slaves. A\n great fear fell upon me, and I said to my soul,[193] \"Would heaven I\n knew what hath happened to my father!\" I questioned those that bound me\n of the cause of their so doing, but they returned me no answer.\n However, after a while one of them said to me (and he had been a hired\n servant of our house), \"Fortune hath been false to thy father; his\n troops betrayed him and the Wazir who slew him now reigneth in his\n stead and we lay in wait to seize thee by the bidding of him.\" I was\n well-nigh distraught and felt ready to faint on hearing of my father's\n death; when they carried me off and placed me in presence of the\n usurper. Now between me and him there was an olden grudge, the cause of\n which was this. I was fond of shooting with the stone-bow,[194] and it\n befel one day, as I was standing on the terrace-roof of the palace,\n that a bird lighted on the top of the Wazir's house when he happened to\n be there. I shot at the bird and missed the mark; but I hit the Wazir's\n eye and knocked it out as fate and fortune decreed. Even so saith the\n poet:\u2014\n\n We tread the path where Fate hath led \u273f The path Fate writ we fain must\n tread:\n And man in one land doomed to die \u273f Death no where else shall do him\n dead.\n\n And on like wise saith another:\u2014\n\n Let Fortune have her wanton way \u273f Take heart and all her words obey:\n Nor joy nor mourn at anything \u273f For all things pass and no things stay.\n\n Now when I knocked out the Wazir's eye he could not say a single word,\n for that my father was King of the city; but he hated me ever after and\n dire was the grudge thus caused between us twain. So when I was set\n before him hand-bound and pinioned, he straightway gave orders for me\n to be beheaded. I asked, \"For what crime wilt thou put me to death?\";\n whereupon he answered, \"What crime is greater than this?\" pointing the\n while to the place where his eye had been. Quoth I, \"This I did by\n accident not of malice prepense;\" and quoth he, \"If thou didst it by\n accident, I will do the like by thee with intention.\"[195] Then cried\n he, \"Bring him forward,\" and they brought me up to him, when he thrust\n his finger into my left eye and gouged it out; whereupon I became\n one-eyed as ye see me. Then he bade bind me hand and foot, and put me\n into a chest and said to the sworder, \"Take charge of this fellow, and\n go off with him to the waste lands about the city; then draw thy\n scymitar and slay him, and leave him to feed the beasts and birds.\" So\n the headsman fared forth with me and when he was in the midst of the\n desert, he took me out of the chest (and I with both hands pinioned and\n both feet fettered) and was about to bandage my eyes before striking\n off my head. But I wept with exceeding weeping until I made him weep\n with me and, looking at him I began to recite these couplets:\u2014\n\n I deemed you coat-o'-mail that should withstand \u273f The foeman's shafts;\n and you proved foeman's brand;\n I hoped your aidance in mine every chance \u273f Though fail my left to aid\n my dexter hand:\n Aloof you stand and hear the railer's gibe \u273f While rain their shafts on\n me the giber-band:\n But an ye will not guard me from my foes \u273f Stand clear, and succour\n neither these nor those!\n\n And I also quoted:\u2014\n\n I deemed my brethren mail of strongest steel \u273f And so they were\u2014from\n foes to fend my dart!\n I deemed their arrows surest of their aim; \u273f And so they were\u2014when\n aiming at my heart!\n\n When the headsman heard my lines (he had been sworder to my sire and he\n owed me a debt of gratitude) he cried, \"O my lord, what can I do, being\n but a slave under orders?\" presently adding, \"Fly for thy life and\n nevermore return to this land, or they will slay thee and slay me with\n thee, even as the poet said:\u2014\n\n Take thy life and fly whenas evils threat; \u273f Let the ruined house tell\n its owner's fate:\n New land for the old thou shalt seek and find \u273f But to find new life\n thou must not await.\n Strange that men should sit in the stead of shame, \u273f When Allah's world\n is so wide and great!\n And trust not other, in matters grave \u273f Life itself must act for a life\n beset:\n Ne'er would prowl the lion with maned neck, \u273f Did he reckon on aid or\n of others reck.\"\n\n Hardly believing in my escape, I kissed his hand and thought the loss\n of my eye a light matter in consideration of my escaping from being\n slain. I arrived at my uncle's capital; and, going in to him, told him\n of what had befallen my father and myself; whereat he wept with sore\n weeping and said, \"Verily thou addest grief to my grief, and woe to my\n woe; for thy cousin hath been missing these many days; I wot not what\n hath happened to him, and none can give me news of him.\" And he wept\n till he fainted. I sorrowed and condoled with him; and he would have\n applied certain medicaments to my eye, but he saw that it was become as\n a walnut with the shell empty. Then said he, \"O my son, better to lose\n eye and keep life!\" After that I could no longer remain silent about my\n cousin, who was his only son and one dearly loved, so I told him all\n that had happened. He rejoiced with extreme joyance to hear news of his\n son and said, \"Come now and show me the tomb;\" but I replied, \"By\n Allah, O my uncle, I know not its place, though I sought it carefully\n full many times, yet could not find the site.\" However, I and my uncle\n went to the grave-yard and looked right and left, till at last I\n recognised the tomb and we both rejoiced with exceeding joy. We entered\n the sepulchre and loosened the earth about the grave; then, upraising\n the trap-door, descended some fifty steps till we came to the foot of\n the staircase when lo! we were stopped by a blinding smoke. Thereupon\n said my uncle that saying whose sayer shall never come to shame, \"There\n is no Majesty and there is no Might, save in Allah, the Glorious, the\n Great!\" and we advanced till we suddenly came upon a saloon, whose\n floor was strewed with flour and grain and provisions and all manner\n necessaries; and in the midst of it stood a canopy sheltering a couch.\n Thereupon my uncle went up to the couch and inspecting it found his son\n and the lady who had gone down with him into the tomb, lying in each\n other's embrace; but the twain had become black as charred wood; it was\n as if they had been cast into a pit of fire. When my uncle saw this\n spectacle, he spat in his son's face and said, \"Thou hast thy deserts,\n O thou hog![196] this is thy judgment in the transitory world, and yet\n remaineth the judgment in the world to come, a durer and a more\n enduring.\"\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying\n her permitted say.\n\n Now when it was the Twelfth Night,\n\n She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Kalandar\n thus went on with his story before the lady and the Caliph and\n Ja'afar:\u2014My uncle struck his son with his slipper[197] as he lay there\n a black heap of coal. I marvelled at his hardness of heart, and\n grieving for my cousin and the lady, said, \"By Allah, O my uncle, calm\n thy wrath: dost thou not see that all my thoughts are occupied with\n this misfortune, and how sorrowful I am for what hath befallen thy son,\n and how horrible it is that naught of him remaineth but a black heap of\n charcoal? And is not that enough, but thou must smite him with thy\n slipper?\" Answered he, \"O son of my brother, this youth from his\n boyhood was madly in love with his own sister;[198] and often and often\n I forbade him from her, saying to myself:\u2014They are but little ones.\n However, when they grew up sin befel between them; and, although I\n could hardly believe it, I confined him and chided him and threatened\n him with the severest threats; and the eunuchs and servants said to\n him:\u2014Beware of so foul a thing which none before thee ever did, and\n which none after thee will ever do; and have a care lest thou be\n dishonoured and disgraced among the Kings of the day, even to the end\n of time. And I added:\u2014Such a report as this will be spread abroad by\n caravans, and take heed not to give them cause to talk or I will\n assuredly curse thee and do thee to death. After that I lodged them\n apart and shut her up; but the accursed girl loved him with passionate\n love, for Satan had got the mastery of her as well as of him and made\n their foul sin seem fair in their sight. Now when my son saw that I\n separated them, he secretly built this souterrain and furnished it and\n transported to it victuals, even as thou seest; and, when I had gone\n out a-sporting, came here with his sister and hid from me. Then His\n righteous judgment fell upon the twain and consumed them with fire from\n Heaven; and verily the last judgment will deal them durer pains and\n more enduring!\" Then he wept and I wept with him; and he looked at me\n and said, \"Thou art my son in his stead.\" And I bethought me awhile of\n the world and of its chances, how the Wazir had slain my father and had\n taken his place and had put out my eye; and how my cousin had come to\n his death by the strangest chance: and I wept again and my uncle wept\n with me. Then we mounted the steps and let down the iron plate and\n heaped up the earth over it; and, after restoring the tomb to its\n former condition, we returned to the palace. But hardly had we sat down\n ere we heard the tom-toming of the kettle-drum and tantara of trumpets\n and clash of cymbals; and the rattling of war-men's lances; and the\n clamours of assailants and the clanking of bits and the neighing of\n steeds; while the world was canopied with dense dust and sand-clouds\n raised by the horses' hoofs.[199] We were amazed at sight and sound,\n knowing not what could be the matter; so we asked and were told us that\n the Wazir who had usurped my father's kingdom had marched his men; and\n that after levying his soldiery and taking a host of wild Arabs[200]\n into service, he had come down upon us with armies like the sands of\n the sea; their number none could tell and against them none could\n prevail. They attacked the city unawares; and the citizens, being\n powerless to oppose them, surrendered the place: my uncle was slain and\n I made for the suburbs saying to myself, \"If thou fall into this\n villain's hands he will assuredly kill thee.\" On this wise all my\n troubles were renewed; and I pondered all that had betided my father\n and my uncle and I knew not what to do; for if the city people or my\n father's troops had recognised me they would have done their best to\n win favour by destroying me; and I could think of no way to escape save\n by shaving off my beard and my eyebrows. So I shore them off and,\n changing my fine clothes for a Kalandar's rags, I fared forth from my\n uncle's capital and made for this city; hoping that peradventure some\n one would assist me to the presence of the Prince of the Faithful,[201]\n and the Caliph who is the Viceregent of Allah upon earth. Thus have I\n come hither that I might tell him my tale and lay my case before him. I\n arrived here this very night, and was standing in doubt whither I\n should go, when suddenly I saw this second Kalandar; so I salam'd to\n him, saying:\u2014I am a stranger! and he answered:\u2014I too am a stranger! And\n as we were conversing behold, up came our companion, this third\n Kalandar, and saluted us saying:\u2014I am a stranger! And we answered:\u2014We\n too be strangers! Then we three walked on and together till darkness\n overtook us and Destiny drave us to your house. Such, then, is the\n cause of the shaving of my beard and mustachios and eyebrows; and the\n manner of my losing my right eye. They marvelled much at this tale and\n the Caliph said to Ja'afar, \"By Allah, I have not seen nor have I heard\n the like of what hath happened to this Kalandar!\" Quoth the lady of the\n house, \"Rub thy head and wend thy ways;\" but he replied, \"I will not\n go, till I hear the history of the two others.\" Thereupon the second\n Kalandar came forward; and, kissing the ground, began to tell\n\n\n _THE SECOND KALANDAR'S TALE._\n\n Know, O my lady, that I was not born one-eyed and mine is a strange\n story; an it were graven with needle-graver on the eye-corners, it were\n a warner to whoso would be warned. I am a King, son of a King, and was\n brought up like a Prince. I learned intoning the Koran according the\n seven schools;[202] and I read all manner books, and held disputations\n on their contents with the doctors and men of science; moreover I\n studied star-lore and the fair sayings of poets and I exercised myself\n in all branches of learning until I surpassed the people of my time; my\n skill in calligraphy exceeded that of all the scribes; and my fame was\n bruited abroad over all climes and cities, and all the kings learned to\n know my name. Amongst others the King of Hind heard of me and sent to\n my father to invite me to his court, with offerings and presents and\n rarities such as befit royalties. So my father fitted out six ships for\n me and my people; and we put to sea and sailed for the space of a full\n month till we made the land. Then we brought out the horses that were\n with us in the ships; and, after loading the camels with our presents\n for the Prince, we set forth inland. But we had marched only a little\n way, when behold, a dust-cloud up-flew, and grew until it walled[203]\n the horizon from view. After an hour or so the veil lifted and\n discovered beneath it fifty horsemen, ravening lions to the sight, in\n steel armour dight. We observed them straightly and lo! they were\n cutters-off of the highway, wild as wild Arabs. When they saw that we\n were only four and had with us but the ten camels carrying the\n presents, they dashed down upon us with lances at rest. We signed to\n them, with our fingers, as it were saying, \"We be messengers of the\n great King of Hind, so harm us not!\" but they answered on like wise,\n \"We are not in his dominions to obey nor are we subject to his sway.\"\n Then they set upon us and slew some of my slaves and put the lave to\n flight; and I also fled after I had gotten a wound, a grievous hurt,\n whilst the Arabs were taken up with the money and the presents which\n were with us. I went forth unknowing whither I went, having become mean\n as I was mighty; and I fared on until I came to the crest of a mountain\n where I took shelter for the night in a cave. When day arose I set out\n again, nor ceased after this fashion till I arrived at a fair city and\n a well-filled. Now it was the season when Winter was turning away with\n his rime and to greet the world with his flowers came Prime, and the\n young blooms were springing and the streams flowed ringing, and the\n birds were sweetly singing, as saith the poet concerning a certain city\n when describing it:\u2014\n\n A place secure from every thought of fear \u273f Safety and peace for ever\n lord it here:\n Its beauties seem to beautify its sons \u273f And as in Heaven its happy\n folk appear.\n\n I was glad of my arrival for I was wearied with the way, and yellow of\n face for weakness and want; but my plight was pitiable and I knew not\n whither to betake me. So I accosted a Tailor sitting in his little shop\n and saluted him; he returned my salam, and bade me kindly welcome and\n wished me well and entreated me gently and asked me of the cause of my\n strangerhood. I told him all my past from first to last; and he was\n concerned on my account and said, \"O youth, disclose not thy secret to\n any: the King of this city is the greatest enemy thy father hath, and\n there is blood-wit[204] between them and thou hast cause to fear for\n thy life.\" Then he set meat and drink before me; and I ate and drank\n and he with me; and we conversed freely till nightfall, when he cleared\n me a place in a corner of his shop and brought me a carpet and a\n coverlet. I tarried with him three days; at the end of which time he\n said to me, \"Knowest thou no calling whereby to win thy living, O my\n son?\" \"I am learned in the law,\" I replied, \"and a doctor of doctrine;\n an adept in art and science, a mathematician and a notable penman.\" He\n rejoined, \"Thy calling is of no account in our city, where not a soul\n understandeth science or even writing or aught save money-making.\" Then\n said I, \"By Allah, I know nothing but what I have mentioned;\" and he\n answered, \"Gird thy middle and take thee a hatchet and a cord, and go\n and hew wood in the wold for thy daily bread, till Allah send thee\n relief; and tell none who thou art lest they slay thee.\" Then he bought\n me an axe and a rope and gave me in charge to certain woodcutters; and\n with these guardians I went forth into the forest, where I cut\n fuel-wood the whole of my day and came back in the evening bearing my\n bundle on my head. I sold it for half a dinar, with part of which I\n bought provision and laid by the rest. In such work I spent a whole\n year and when this was ended I went out one day, as was my wont, into\n the wilderness; and, wandering away from my companions, I chanced on a\n thickly grown lowland[205] in which there was an abundance of wood. So\n I entered and I found the gnarled stump of a great tree and loosened\n the ground about it and shovelled away the earth. Presently my hatchet\n rang upon a copper ring; so I cleared away the soil and behold, the\n ring was attached to a wooden trap-door. This I raised and there\n appeared beneath it a staircase. I descended the steps to the bottom\n and came to a door, which I opened and found myself in a noble hall\n strong of structure and beautifully built, where was a damsel like a\n pearl of great price, whose favour banished from my heart all grief and\n cark and care; and whose soft speech healed the soul in despair and\n captivated the wise and ware. Her figure measured five feet in height;\n her breasts were firm and upright; her cheek a very garden of delight;\n her colour lively bright; her face gleamed like dawn through curly\n tresses which gloomed like night, and above the snows of her bosom\n glittered teeth of a pearly white.[206] As the poet said of one like\n her:\u2014\n\n Slim-waisted loveling, jetty hair-encrowned \u273f A wand of willow on a\n sandy mound:\n\n And as saith another:\u2014\n\n Four things that meet not, save they here unite \u273f To shed my\n heart-blood and to rape my sprite:\n Brilliantest forehead; tresses jetty bright; \u273f Cheeks rosy red and\n stature beauty-dight.\n\n When I looked upon her I prostrated myself before Him who had created\n her, for the beauty and loveliness He had shaped in her, and she looked\n at me and said, \"Art thou man or Jinni?\" \"I am a man,\" answered I, and\n she, \"Now who brought thee to this place where I have abided\n five-and-twenty years without even yet seeing man in it.\" Quoth I (and\n indeed I found her words wonder-sweet, and my heart was melted to the\n core by them), \"O my lady, my good fortune led me hither for the\n dispelling of my cark and care.\" Then I related to her all my mishap\n from first to last, and my case appeared to her exceeding grievous; so\n she wept and said, \"I will tell thee my story in my turn. I am the\n daughter of the King Ifitamus, lord of the Islands of Abn\u00fas,[207] who\n married me to my cousin, the son of my paternal uncle; but on my\n wedding night an Ifrit named Jirj\u00eds[208] bin Rajm\u00fas, first cousin that\n is, mother's sister's son, of Ibl\u00eds, the Foul Fiend, snatched me up\n and, flying away with me like a bird, set me down in this place,\n whither he conveyed all I needed of fine stuffs, raiment and jewels and\n furniture, and meat and drink and other else. Once in every ten days he\n comes here and lies a single night with me, and then wends his way, for\n he took me without the consent of his family; and he hath agreed with\n me that if ever I need him by night or by day, I have only to pass my\n hand over yonder two lines engraved upon the alcove, and he will appear\n to me before my fingers cease touching. Four days have now passed since\n he was here; and, as there remain six days before he come again, say\n me, wilt thou abide with me five days, and go hence the day before his\n coming?\" I replied \"Yes, and yes again! O rare, if all this be not a\n dream!\" Hereat she was glad and, springing to her feet, seized my hand\n and carried me through an arched doorway to a Hammam-bath, a fair hall\n and richly decorate. I doffed my clothes, and she doffed hers; then we\n bathed and she washed me; and when this was done we left the bath, and\n she seated me by her side upon a high divan, and brought me sherbet\n scented with musk. When we felt cool after the bath, she set food\n before me and we ate and fell to talking; but presently she said to me,\n \"Lay thee down and take thy rest, for surely thou must be weary.\" So I\n thanked her, my lady, and lay down and slept soundly, forgetting all\n that had happened to me. When I awoke I found her rubbing and\n shampooing my feet;[209] so I again thanked her and blessed her and we\n sat for a while talking. Said she, \"By Allah, I was sad at heart, for\n that I have dwelt alone underground for these five-and-twenty years;\n and praise be to Allah, who hath sent me some one with whom I can\n converse!\" Then she asked, \"O youth, what sayest thou to wine?\" and I\n answered, \"Do as thou wilt.\" Whereupon she went to a cupboard and took\n out a sealed flask of right old wine and set off the table with flowers\n and scented herbs and began to sing these lines:\u2014\n\n Had we known of thy coming we fain had dispread \u273f The cores of our\n hearts or the balls of our eyes;\n Our cheeks as a carpet to greet thee had thrown \u273f And our eyelids had\n strown for thy feet to betread.\n\n Now when she finished her verse I thanked her, for indeed love of her\n had gotten hold of my heart and my grief and anguish were gone. We sat\n at converse and carousal till nightfall, and with her I spent the\n night\u2014such night never spent I in all my life! On the morrow delight\n followed delight till midday, by which time I had drunken wine so\n freely that I had lost my wits, and stood up, staggering to the right\n and to the left, and said \"Come, O my charmer, and I will carry thee up\n from this underground vault and deliver thee from the spell of thy\n Jinni.\" She laughed and replied \"Content thee and hold thy peace: of\n every ten days one is for the Ifrit and the other nine are thine.\"\n Quoth I (and in good sooth drink had got the better of me), \"This very\n instant will I break down the alcove whereon is graven the talisman and\n summon the Ifrit that I may slay him, for it is a practise of mine to\n slay Ifrits!\" When she heard my words her colour waxed wan and she\n said, \"By Allah, do not!\" and she began repeating:\u2014\n\n This is a thing wherein destruction lies \u273f I rede thee shun it an thy\n wits be wise.\n\n And these also:\u2014\n\n O thou who seekest severance, draw the rein \u273f Of thy swift steed nor\n seek o'ermuch t' advance;\n Ah stay! for treachery is the rule of life, \u273f And sweets of meeting end\n in severance.\n\n I heard her verse but paid no heed to her words, nay, I raised my foot\n and administered to the alcove a mighty kick\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad perceived\n the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.\n\n Now when it was the Thirteenth Night,\n\n She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the second\n Kalandar thus continued his tale to the lady:\u2014But when, O my mistress,\n I kicked that alcove with a mighty kick, behold, the air starkened and\n darkened and thundered and lightened; the earth trembled and quaked and\n the world became invisible. At once the fumes of wine left my head: I\n cried to her, \"What is the matter?\" and she replied, \"The Ifrit is upon\n us! did I not warn thee of this? By Allah, thou hast brought ruin upon\n me; but fly for thy life and go up by the way thou camest down!\" So I\n fled up the staircase; but, in the excess of my fear, I forgot sandals\n and hatchet. And when I had mounted two steps I turned to look for\n them, and lo! I saw the earth cleave asunder, and there arose from it\n an Ifrit, a monster of hideousness, who said to the damsel, \"What\n trouble and pother be this wherewith thou disturbest me? What mishap\n hath betided thee?\" \"No mishap hath befallen me\" she answered, \"save\n that my breast was straitened[210] and my heart heavy with sadness: so\n I drank a little wine to broaden it and to hearten myself; then I rose\n to obey a call of Nature, but the wine had gotten into my head and I\n fell against the alcove.\" \"Thou liest, like the whore thou art!\"\n shrieked the Ifrit; and he looked around the hall right and left till\n he caught sight of my axe and sandals and said to her, \"What be these\n but the belongings of some mortal who hath been in thy society?\" She\n answered, \"I never set eyes upon them till this moment: they must have\n been brought by thee hither cleaving to thy garments.\" Quoth the Ifrit,\n \"These words are absurd; thou harlot! thou strumpet!\" Then he stripped\n her stark naked and, stretching her upon the floor, bound her hands and\n feet to four stakes, like one crucified;[211] and set about torturing\n and trying to make her confess. I could not bear to stand listening to\n her cries and groans; so I climbed the stair on the quake with fear;\n and when I reached the top I replaced the trap-door and covered it with\n earth. Then repented I of what I had done with penitence exceeding; and\n thought of the lady and her beauty and loveliness, and the tortures she\n was suffering at the hands of the accursed Ifrit, after her quiet life\n of five-and-twenty years; and how all that had happened to her was for\n cause of me. I bethought me of my father and his kingly estate and how\n I had become a woodcutter; and how, after my time had been awhile\n serene, the world had again waxed turbid and troubled to me. So I wept\n bitterly and repeated this couplet:\u2014\n\n What time Fate's tyranny shall most oppress thee \u273f Perpend! one day\n shall joy thee, one distress thee!\n\n Then I walked till I reached the home of my friend, the Tailor, whom I\n found most anxiously expecting me; indeed he was, as the saying goes,\n on coals of fire for my account. And when he saw me he said, \"All night\n long my heart hath been heavy, fearing for thee from wild beasts or\n other mischances. Now praise be to Allah for thy safety!\" I thanked him\n for his friendly solicitude and, retiring to my corner, sat pondering\n and musing on what had befallen me; and I blamed and chided myself for\n my meddlesome folly and my frowardness in kicking the alcove. I was\n calling myself to account when behold, my friend, the Tailor, came to\n me and said, \"O youth, in the shop there is an old man, a Persian,[212]\n who seeketh thee: he hath thy hatchet and thy sandals which he had\n taken to the woodcutters,[213] saying, I was going out at what time the\n Mu'azzin began the call to dawn-prayer, when I chanced upon these\n things and know not whose they are; so direct me to their owner. The\n woodcutters recognised thy hatchet and directed him to thee: he is\n sitting in my shop, so fare forth to him and thank him and take thine\n axe and sandals.\" When I heard these words I turned yellow with fear\n and felt stunned as by a blow; and, before I could recover myself, lo!\n the floor of my private room clove asunder, and out of it rose the\n Persian who was the Ifrit. He had tortured the lady with exceeding\n tortures, natheless she would not confess to him aught; so he took the\n hatchet and sandals and said to her, \"As surely as I am Jirjis of the\n seed of Iblis, I will bring thee back the owner of this and\n these!\"[214] Then he went to the woodcutters with the pretence\n aforesaid and, being directed to me, after waiting a while in the shop\n till the fact was confirmed, he suddenly snatched me up as a hawk\n snatcheth a mouse and flew high in air; but presently descended and\n plunged with me under the earth (I being aswoon the while), and lastly\n set me down in the subterranean palace wherein I had passed that\n blissful night. And there I saw the lady stripped to the skin, her\n limbs bound to four stakes and blood welling from her sides. At the\n sight my eyes ran over with tears; but the Ifrit covered her person and\n said, \"O wanton, is not this man thy lover?\" She looked upon me and\n replied, \"I wot him not nor have I ever seen him before this hour!\"\n Quoth the Ifrit, \"What! this torture and yet no confessing;\" and quoth\n she, \"I never saw this man in my born days, and it is not lawful in\n Allah's sight to tell lies on him.\" \"If thou know him not,\" said the\n Ifrit to her, \"take this sword and strike off his head.\"[215] She hent\n the sword in hand and came close up to me; and I signalled to her with\n my eyebrows, my tears the while flowing adown my cheeks. She understood\n me and made answer, also by signs, \"How couldest thou bring all this\n evil upon me?\" and I rejoined after the same fashion, \"This is the time\n for mercy and forgiveness.\" And the mute tongue of my case[216] spake\n aloud saying:\u2014\n\n Mine eyes were dragomans for my tongue betied \u273f And told full clear the\n love I fain would hide:\n When last we met and tears in torrents railed \u273f For tongue struck dumb\n my glances testified:\n She signed with eye-glance while her lips were mute \u273f I signed with\n fingers and she kenned th' implied:\n Our eyebrows did all duty 'twixt us twain; \u273f And we being speechless\n Love spake loud and plain.\n\n Then, O my mistress, the lady threw away the sword and said, \"How shall\n I strike the neck of one I wot not, and who hath done me no evil? Such\n deed were not lawful in my law!\" and she held her hand. Said the Ifrit,\n \"'Tis grievous to thee to slay thy lover; and, because he hath lain\n with thee, thou endurest these torments and obstinately refusest to\n confess. After this it is clear to me that only like loveth and pitieth\n like.\" Then he turned to me and asked me, \"O man, haply thou also dost\n not know this woman;\" whereto I answered, \"And pray who may she be?\n assuredly I never saw her till this instant.\" \"Then take the sword,\"\n said he \"and strike off her head and I will believe that, thou wottest\n her not and will leave thee free to go, and will not deal hardly with\n thee.\" I replied, \"That will I do;\" and, taking the sword went forward\n sharply and raised my hand to smite. But she signed to me with her\n eyebrows, \"Have I failed thee in aught of love; and is it thus that\n thou requitest me?\" I understood what her looks implied and answered\n her with an eye-glance, \"I will sacrifice my soul for thee.\" And the\n tongue of the case wrote in our hearts these lines:\u2014\n\n How many a lover with his eyebrows speaketh \u273f To his beloved, as his\n passion pleadeth:\n With flashing eyne his passion he inspireth \u273f And well she seeth what\n his pleading needeth.\n How sweet the look when each on other gazeth; \u273f And with what swiftness\n and how sure it speedeth:\n And this with eyebrows all his passion writeth; \u273f And that with\n eyeballs all his passion readeth.\n\n Then my eyes filled with tears to overflowing and I cast the sword from\n my hand saying, \"O mighty Ifrit and hero, if a woman lacking wits and\n faith deem it unlawful to strike off my head, how can it be lawful for\n me, a man, to smite her neck whom I never saw in my whole life. I\n cannot do such misdeed though thou cause me drink the cup of death and\n perdition.\" Then said the Ifrit, \"Ye twain show the good understanding\n between you; but I will let you see how such doings end.\" He took the\n sword, and struck off the lady's hands first, with four strokes, and\n then her feet; whilst I looked on and made sure of death and she\n farewelled me with her dying eyes. So the Ifrit cried at her, \"Thou\n whorest and makest me a wittol with thine eyes;\" and struck her so that\n her head went flying. Then turned he to me and said, \"O mortal, we have\n it in our law that, when the wife committeth advowtry it is lawful for\n us to slay her. As for this damsel I snatched her away on her\n bride-night when she was a girl of twelve and she knew no one but\n myself. I used to come to her once in every ten days and lie with her\n the night, under the semblance of a man, a Persian; and when I was well\n assured that she had cuckolded me, I slew her. But as for thee I am not\n well satisfied that thou hast wronged me in her; nevertheless I must\n not let thee go unharmed; so ask a boon of me and I will grant it.\"\n Then I rejoiced, O my lady, with exceeding joy and said, \"What boon\n shall I crave of thee?\" He replied, \"Ask me this boon; into what shape\n I shall bewitch thee; wilt thou be a dog, or an ass or an ape?\" I\n rejoined (and indeed I had hoped that mercy might be shown me), \"By\n Allah, spare me, that Allah spare thee for sparing a Moslem and a man\n who never wronged thee.\" And I humbled myself before him with exceeding\n humility, and remained standing in his presence, saying, \"I am sore\n oppressed by circumstance.\" He replied \"Talk me no long talk, it is in\n my power to slay thee; but I give thee instead thy choice.\" Quoth I, \"O\n thou Ifrit, it would besit thee to pardon me even as the Envied\n pardoned the Envier.\" Quoth he, \"And how was that?\" and I began to tell\n him\n\n\n _THE TALE OF THE ENVIER AND THE ENVIED._\n\n They relate, O Ifrit, that in a certain city were two men who dwelt in\n adjoining houses, having a common party-wall; and one of them envied\n the other and looked on him with an evil eye,[217] and did his utmost\n endeavour to injure him; and, albeit at all times he was jealous of his\n neighbour, his malice at last grew on him till he could hardly eat or\n enjoy the sweet pleasures of sleep. But the Envied did nothing save\n prosper; and the more the other strove to injure him, the more he got\n and gained and throve. At last the malice of his neighbour and the\n man's constant endeavour to work him a harm came to his knowledge; so\n he said, \"By Allah! God's earth is wide enough for its people;\" and,\n leaving the neighbourhood, he repaired to another city where he bought\n himself a piece of land in which was a dried up draw-well,[218] old and\n in ruinous condition. Here he built him an oratory and, furnishing it\n with a few necessaries, took up his abode therein, and devoted himself\n to prayer and worshipping Allah Almighty; and Fakirs and holy\n mendicants flocked to him from all quarters; and his fame went abroad\n through the city and that country side. Presently the news reached his\n envious neighbour, of what good fortune had befallen him and how the\n city notables had become his disciples; so he travelled to the place\n and presented himself at the holy man's hermitage, and was met by the\n Envied with welcome and greeting and all honour. Then quoth the Envier,\n \"I have a word to say to thee; and this is the cause of my faring\n hither, and I wish to give thee a piece of good news; so come with me\n to thy cell.\" Thereupon the Envied arose and took the Envier by the\n hand, and they went in to the inmost part of the hermitage; but the\n Envier said, \"Bid thy Fakirs retire to their cells, for I will not tell\n thee what I have to say, save in secret where none may hear us.\"\n Accordingly the Envied said to his Fakirs, \"Retire to your private\n cells;\" and, when all had done as he bade them, he set out with his\n visitor and walked a little way until the twain reached the ruinous old\n well. And as they stood upon the brink the Envier gave the Envied a\n push which tumbled him headlong into it, unseen of any; whereupon he\n fared forth, and went his ways, thinking to have had slain him. Now\n this well happened to be haunted by the Jann who, seeing the case, bore\n him up and let him down little by little, till he reached the bottom,\n when they seated him upon a large stone. Then one of them asked his\n fellows, \"Wot ye who be this man?\" and they answered, \"Nay.\" \"This\n man,\" continued the speaker, \"is the Envied hight who, flying from the\n Envier, came to dwell in our city, and here founded this holy house,\n and he hath edified us by his litanies[219] and his lections of the\n Koran; but the Envier set out and journeyed till he rejoined him, and\n cunningly contrived to deceive him and cast him into the well where we\n now are. But the fame of this good man hath this very night come to the\n Sultan of our city who designeth to visit him on the morrow on account\n of his daughter.\" \"What aileth his daughter?\" asked one, and another\n answered \"She is possessed of a spirit; for Maymun, son of Damdam, is\n madly in love with her; but, if this pious man knew the remedy, her\n cure would be as easy as could be.\" Hereupon one of them inquired, \"And\n what is the medicine?\" and he replied, \"The black tom-cat which is with\n him in the oratory hath, on the end of his tail, a white spot, the size\n of a dirham; let him pluck seven white hairs from the spot, then let\n him fumigate her therewith and the Marid will flee from her and not\n return; so she shall be sane for the rest of her life. All this took\n place, O Ifrit, within earshot of the Envied who listened readily. When\n dawn broke and morn arose in sheen and shone, the Fakirs went to seek\n the Shaykh and found him climbing up the wall of the well; whereby he\n was magnified in their eyes.[220] Then, knowing that naught save the\n black tom-cat could supply him with the remedy required, he plucked the\n seven tail-hairs from the white spot and laid them by him; and hardly\n had the sun risen ere the Sultan entered the hermitage, with the great\n lords of his estate, bidding the rest of his retinue to remain standing\n outside. The Envied gave him a hearty welcome, and seating him by his\n side asked him, \"Shall I tell thee the cause of thy coming?\" The King\n answered \"Yes.\" He continued, \"Thou hast come upon pretext of a\n visitation;[221] but it is in thy heart to question me of thy\n daughter.\" Replied the King, \"'Tis even so, O thou holy Shaykh;\" and\n the Envied continued, \"Send and fetch her, and I trust to heal her\n forthright (an such it be the will of Allah!). The King in great joy\n sent for his daughter, and they brought her pinioned and fettered. The\n Envied made her sit down behind a curtain and taking out the hairs\n fumigated her therewith; whereupon that which was in her head cried out\n and departed from her. The girl was at once restored to her right mind\n and veiling her face, said, \"What hath happened and who brought me\n hither?\" The Sultan rejoiced with a joy which nothing could exceed, and\n kissed his daughter's eyes,[222] and the holy man's hand; then, turning\n to his great lords, he asked, \"How say ye! What fee deserveth he who\n hath made my daughter whole?\" and all answered \"He deserveth her to\n wife;\" and the King said, \"Ye speak sooth!\" So he married him to her\n and the Envied thus became son-in-law to the King. And after a little\n the Wazir died and the King said, \"Whom can I make Minister in his\n stead?\" \"Thy son-in-law,\" replied the courtiers. So the Envied became a\n Wazir; and after a while the Sultan also died and the lieges said,\n \"Whom shall we make King?\" and all cried, \"The Wazir.\" So the Wazir was\n forthright made Sultan, and he became King regnant, a true ruler of\n men. One day as he had mounted his horse; and, in the eminence of his\n kinglihood, was riding amidst his Emirs and Wazirs and the Grandees of\n his realm his eye fell upon his old neighbour, the Envier, who stood\n afoot on his path; so he turned to one of his Ministers, and said,\n \"Bring hither that man and cause him no affright.\" The Wazir brought\n him and the King said, \"Give him a thousand misk\u00e1ls[223] of gold from\n the treasury, and load him ten camels with goods for trade, and send\n him under escort to his own town.\" Then he bade his enemy farewell and\n sent him away and forbore to punish him for the many and great evils he\n had done. See, O Ifrit, the mercy of the Envied to the Envier, who had\n hated him from the beginning and had borne him such bitter malice and\n never met him without causing him trouble; and had driven him from\n house and home, and then had journeyed for the sole purpose of taking\n his life by throwing him into the well. Yet he did not requite his\n injurious dealing, but forgave him and was bountiful to him.[224] Then\n I wept before him, O my lady, with sore weeping, never was there sorer,\n and I recited:\u2014\n\n Pardon my fault, for 'tis the wise man's wont \u273f All faults to pardon\n and revenge forgo:\n In sooth all manner faults in me contain \u273f Then deign of goodness\n mercy-grace to show:\n Whoso imploreth pardon from on High \u273f Should hold his hand from sinners\n here below.\n\n Said the Ifrit, \"Lengthen not thy words! As to my slaying thee fear it\n not, and as to my pardoning thee hope it not; but from my bewitching\n thee there is no escape.\" Then he tore me from the ground which closed\n under my feet and flew with me into the firmament till I saw the earth\n as a large white cloud or a saucer[225] in the midst of the waters.\n Presently he set me down on a mountain, and taking a little dust, over\n which he muttered some magical words, sprinkled me therewith, saying,\n \"Quit that shape and take thou the shape of an ape!\" And on the instant\n I became an ape, a tail-less baboon, the son of a century[226]. Now\n when he had left me and I saw myself in this ugly and hateful shape, I\n wept for myself, but resigned my soul to the tyranny of Time and\n Circumstance, well weeting that Fortune is fair and constant to no man.\n I descended the mountain and found at the foot a desert plain, long and\n broad, over which I travelled for the space of a month till my course\n brought me to the brink of the briny sea.[227] After standing there\n awhile, I was ware of a ship in the offing which ran before a fair wind\n making for the shore: I hid myself behind a rock on the beach and\n waited till the ship drew near, when I leaped on board. I found her\n full of merchants and passengers and one of them cried, \"O Captain,\n this ill-omened brute will bring us ill-luck!\" and another said, \"Turn\n this ill-omened beast out from among us;\" the Captain said, \"Let us\n kill it!\" another said, \"Slay it with the sword;\" a third, \"Drown it;\"\n and a fourth, \"Shoot it with an arrow.\" But I sprang up and laid hold\n of the Rais's[228] skirt, and shed tears which poured down my chops.\n The Captain took pity on me, and said, \"O merchants! this ape hath\n appealed to me for protection and I will protect him; henceforth he is\n under my charge: so let none do him aught hurt or harm, otherwise there\n will be bad blood between us.\" Then he entreated me kindly and\n whatsoever he said I understood and ministered to his every want and\n served him as a servant, albeit my tongue would not obey my wishes; so\n that he came to love me. The vessel sailed on, the wind being fair, for\n the space of fifty days; at the end of which we cast anchor under the\n walls of a great city wherein was a world of people, especially learned\n men, none could tell their number save Allah. No sooner had we arrived\n than we were visited by certain Mameluke-officials from the King of\n that city; who, after boarding us, greeted the merchants and giving\n them joy of safe arrival said, \"Our King welcometh you, and sendeth you\n this roll of paper, whereupon each and every of you must write a line.\n For ye shall know that the King's Minister, a calligrapher of renown,\n is dead, and the King hath sworn a solemn oath that he will make none\n Wazir in his stead who cannot write as well as he could.\" He then gave\n us the scroll which measured ten cubits long by a breadth of one, and\n each of the merchants who knew how to write wrote a line thereon, even\n to the last of them; after which I stood up (still in the shape of an\n ape) and snatched the roll out of their hands. They feared lest I\n should tear it or throw it overboard; so they tried to stay me and\n scare me, but I signed to them that I could write, whereat all\n marvelled, saying, \"We never yet saw an ape write.\" And the Captain\n cried, \"Let him write; and if he scribble and scrabble we will kick him\n out and kill him; but if he write fair and scholarly I will adopt him\n as my son; for surely I never yet saw a more intelligent and\n well-mannered monkey than he. Would Heaven my real son were his match\n in morals and manners.\" I took the reed, and stretching out my paw,\n dipped it in ink and wrote, in the hand used for letters,[229] these\n two couplets:\u2014\n\n Time hath recorded gifts she gave the great; \u273f But none recorded thine\n which be far higher;\n Allah ne'er orphan men by loss of thee \u273f Who be of Goodness mother,\n Bounty's sire.\n\n And I wrote in Rayh\u00e1ni or larger letters elegantly curved:\u2014[230]\n\n Thou hast a reed[231] of rede to every land, \u273f Whose driving causeth\n all the world to thrive;\n Nil is the Nile of Misraim by thy boons \u273f Who makest misery smile with\n fingers five.\n\n Then I wrote in the Suls[232] character:\u2014\n\n There be no writer who from Death shall fleet, \u273f But what his hand hath\n writ men shall repeat:\n Write, therefore, naught save what shall serve thee when \u273f Thou see't\n on Judgment-Day an so thou see't!\n\n Then I wrote in the character Naskh:\u2014[233]\n\n When to sore parting Fate our love shall doom, \u273f To distant life by\n Destiny decreed,\n We cause the inkhorn's lips to 'plain our pains, \u273f And tongue our\n utterance with the talking reed.\n\n And I wrote in the T\u00fam\u00e1r character[234]:\u2014\n\n Kingdom with none endures; if thou deny \u273f This truth, where be the\n Kings of earlier earth?\n Set trees of goodliness while rule endures, \u273f And when thou art fallen\n they shall tell thy worth.\n\n And I wrote in the character Muhakkak[235]:\u2014\n\n When oped the inkhorn of thy wealth and fame \u273f Take ink of generous\n heart and gracious hand;\n Write brave and noble deeds while write thou can \u273f And win thee praise\n from point of pen and brand.\n\n Then I gave the scroll to the officials and, after we all had written\n our line, they carried it before the King. When he saw the paper no\n writing pleased him save my writing; and he said to the assembled\n courtiers, \"Go seek the writer of these lines and dress him in a\n splendid robe of honour; then mount him on a she-mule,[236] let a band\n of music precede him and bring him to the presence.\" At these words\n they smiled and the King was wroth with them and cried \"O accursed! I\n give you an order and you laugh at me?\" \"O King,\" replied they, \"if we\n laugh 'tis not at thee and not without a cause.\" \"And what is it?\"\n asked he; and they answered, \"O King, thou orderest us to bring to thy\n presence the man who wrote these lines; now the truth is that he who\n wrote them is not of the sons of Adam,[237] but an ape, a tail-less\n baboon, belonging to the ship-Captain.\" Quoth he, \"Is this true that\n you say?\" Quoth they \"Yea! by the rights of thy munificence!\" The King\n marvelled at their words and shook with mirth and said, \"I am minded to\n buy this ape of the Captain.\" Then he sent messengers to the ship with\n the mule, the dress, the guard and the state-drums, saying, \"Not the\n less do you clothe him in the robe of honour and mount him on the mule\n and let him be surrounded by the guards and preceded by the band of\n music.\" They came to the ship and took me from the Captain and robed me\n in the robe of honour and, mounting me on the she-mule, carried me in\n state-procession through the streets; whilst the people were amazed and\n amused. And folk said to one another \"Halloo! is our Sultan about to\n make an ape his Minister?\"; and came all agog crowding to gaze at me,\n and the town was astir and turned topsy-turvy on my account. When they\n brought me up to the King and set me in his presence, I kissed the\n ground before him three times, and once before the High Chamberlain and\n great officers, and he bade me be seated, and I sat respectfully on\n shins and knees,[238] and all who were present marvelled at my fine\n manners, and the King most of all. Thereupon he ordered the lieges to\n retire; and, when none remained save the King's majesty, the Eunuch on\n duty and a little white slave, he bade them set before me the table of\n food, containing all manner of birds, whatever hoppeth and flieth and\n treadeth in nest, such as quail and sand-grouse. Then he signed to me\n to eat with him; so I rose and kissed ground before him, then sat me\n down and ate with him. And when the table was removed I washed my hands\n in seven waters and took the reed-case and reed; and wrote instead of\n speaking these couplets:\u2014\n\n Wail for the little partridges on porringer and plate; \u273f Cry for the\n ruin of the fries and stews well marinate:\n Keen as I keen for loved, lost daughters of the Kat\u00e1-grouse,[239] \u273f And\n omelette round the fair enbrown\u00e8d fowls agglomerate:\n O fire in heart of me for fish, those _deux poissons_ I saw, \u273f Bedded\n on new made scones[240] and cakes in piles to laniate.\n For thee, O vermicelli! aches my very maw! I hold \u273f Without thee every\n taste and joy are clean annihilate.\n Those eggs have rolled their yellow eyes in torturing pains of fire \u273f\n Ere served with hash and fritters hot, that delicatest cate,\n Prais\u00e8d be Allah for His baked and roast and ah! how good \u273f This pulse,\n these pot-herbs steeped in oil with eysill combinate!\n When hunger sated was, I elbow-propt fell back upon \u273f Meat-pudding[241]\n wherein gleamed the bangles that my wits amate.\n Then woke I sleeping appetite to eat as though in sport \u273f Sweets from\n brocaded trays and kickshaws most elaborate.\n Be patient, soul of me! Time is a haughty, jealous wight; \u273f To-day he\n seems dark-lowering and to-morrow fair to sight.[242]\n\n Then I rose and seated myself at a respectful distance while the King\n read what I had written, and marvelled, exclaiming, \"O the miracle,\n that an ape should be gifted with this graceful style and this power of\n penmanship! By Allah, 'tis a wonder of wonders!\"\n\n Presently they set before the King choice wines in flagons of glass and\n he drank: then he passed on the cup to me; and I kissed the ground and\n drank and wrote on it:\u2014\n\n With fire they boil\u00e8d me to loose my tongue,[243] \u273f And pain and\n patience gave for fellowship:\n Hence comes it hands of men upbear me high \u273f And honey-dew from lips of\n maid I sip!\n\n And these also:\u2014\n\n Morn saith to Night, \"withdraw and let me shine;\" \u273f So drain we\n draughts that dull all pain and pine:[244]\n I doubt, so fine the glass, the wine so clear, \u273f If 'tis the wine in\n glass or glass in wine.\n\n The King read my verse and said with a sigh, \"Were these gifts[245] in\n a man, he would excel all the folk of his time and age!\" Then he called\n for the chess-board, and said, \"Say, wilt thou play with me?\"; and I\n signed with my head, \"Yes.\" Then I came forward and ordered the pieces\n and played with him two games, both of which I won. He was speechless\n with surprise; so I took the pen-case and, drawing forth a reed, wrote\n on the board these two couplets:\u2014\n\n Two hosts fare fighting thro' the livelong day \u273f Nor is their battling\n ever finish\u00e8d,\n Until, when darkness girdeth them about, \u273f The twain go sleeping in a\n single bed.[246]\n\n The King read these lines with wonder and delight and said to his\n Eunuch,[247] \"O Mukbil, go to thy mistress, Sitt al-Husn,[248] and say\n her, Come, speak the King who biddeth thee hither to take thy solace in\n seeing this right wondrous ape!\" So the Eunuch went out and presently\n returned with the lady who, when she saw me veiled her face and said,\n \"O my father! hast thou lost all sense of honour? How cometh it thou\n art pleased to send for me and show me to strange men?\" \"O Sitt\n al-Husn,\" said he, \"no man is here save this little foot-page and the\n Eunuch who reared thee and I, thy father. From whom, then, dost thou\n veil thy face?\" She answered, \"This whom thou deemest an ape is a young\n man, a clever and polite, a wise and learned and the son of a King; but\n he is ensorcelled and the Ifrit Jirjaris, who is of the seed of Iblis,\n cast a spell upon him, after putting to death his own wife the daughter\n of King Ifitamus lord of the Islands of Abnus.\" The King marvelled at\n his daughter's words and, turning to me, said, \"Is this true that she\n saith of thee?\"; and I signed by a nod of my head the answer \"Yea,\n verily;\" and wept sore. Then he asked his daughter \"Whence knewest thou\n that he is ensorcelled?\"; and she answered \"O my dear papa, there was\n with me in my childhood an old woman, a wily one and a wise and a witch\n to boot, and she taught me the theory of magic and its practice; and I\n took notes in writing and therein waxed perfect, and have committed to\n memory an hundred and seventy chapters of egromantic formulas, by the\n least of which I could transport the stones of thy city behind the\n Mountain Kaf and the Circumambient Main,[249] or make its site an abyss\n of the sea and its people fishes swimming in the midst of it.\" \"O my\n daughter,\" said her father, \"I conjure thee, by my life, disenchant\n this young man, that I may make him my Wazir and marry thee to him, for\n indeed he is an ingenious youth and a deeply learned.\" \"With joy and\n goodly gree,\" she replied and, hending in hand an iron knife whereon\n was inscribed the name of Allah in Hebrew characters, she described a\n wide circle\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying\n her permitted say.\n\n Now when it was the Fourteenth Night,\n\n[Illustration]\n\n She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Kalandar\n continued his tale thus:\u2014O my lady, the King's daughter hent in hand a\n knife whereon were inscribed Hebrew characters and described a wide\n circle in the midst of the palace-hall, and therein wrote in Cufic\n letters mysterious names and talismans; and she uttered words and\n muttered charms, some of which we understood and others we understood\n not. Presently the world waxed dark before our sight till we thought\n that the sky was falling upon our heads, and lo! the Ifrit presented\n himself in his own shape and aspect. His hands were like many-pronged\n pitchforks, his legs like the masts of great ships, and his eyes like\n cressets of gleaming fire. We were in terrible fear of him but the\n King's daughter cried at him, \"No welcome to thee and no greeting, O\n dog!\" whereupon he changed to the form of a lion and said, \"O\n traitress, how is it thou hast broken the oath we sware that neither\n should contraire other!\" \"O accursed one,\" answered she, \"how could\n there be a compact between me and the like of thee?\" Then said he,\n \"Take what thou has brought on thyself;\" and the lion opened his jaws\n and rushed upon her; but she was too quick for him; and, plucking a\n hair from her head, waved it in the air muttering over it the while;\n and the hair straightway became a trenchant sword-blade, wherewith she\n smote the lion and cut him in twain. Then the two halves flew away in\n air and the head changed to a scorpion and the Princess became a huge\n serpent and set upon the accursed scorpion, and the two fought, coiling\n and uncoiling, a stiff fight for an hour at least. Then the scorpion\n changed to a vulture and the serpent became an eagle which set upon the\n vulture, and hunted him for an hour's time, till he became a black\n tom-cat, which miauled and grinned and spat. Thereupon the eagle\n changed into a piebald wolf and these two battled in the palace for a\n long time, when the cat, seeing himself overcome, changed into a worm\n and crept into a huge red pomegranate,[250] which lay beside the\n jetting fountain in the midst of the palace hall. Whereupon the\n pomegranate swelled to the size of a water-melon in air; and, falling\n upon the marble pavement of the palace, broke to pieces, and all the\n grains fell out and were scattered about till they covered the whole\n floor. Then the wolf shook himself and became a snow-white cock, which\n fell to picking up the grains purposing not to leave one; but by doom\n of destiny one seed rolled to the fountain-edge and there lay hid. The\n cock fell to crowing and clapping his wings and signing to us with his\n beak as if to ask, \"Are any grains left?\" But we understood not what he\n meant, and he cried to us with so loud a cry that we thought the palace\n would fall upon us. Then he ran over all the floor till he saw the\n grain which had rolled to the fountain edge, and rushed eagerly to pick\n it up when behold, it sprang into the midst of the water and became a\n fish and dived to the bottom of the basin. Thereupon the cock changed\n to a big fish, and plunged in after the other, and the two disappeared\n for a while and lo! we heard loud shrieks and cries of pain which made\n us tremble. After this the Ifrit rose out of the water, and he was as a\n burning flame; casting fire and smoke from his mouth and eyes and\n nostrils. And immediately the Princess likewise came forth from the\n basin and she was one live coal of flaming lowe; and these two, she and\n he, battled for the space of an hour, until their fires entirely\n compassed them about and their thick smoke filled the palace. As for us\n we panted for breath, being well-nigh suffocated, and we longed to\n plunge into the water fearing lest we be burnt up and utterly\n destroyed; and the King said, \"There is no Majesty and there is no\n Might save in Allah the Glorious, the Great! Verily we are Allah's and\n unto Him are we returning! Would Heaven I had not urged my daughter to\n attempt the disenchantment of this ape-fellow, whereby I have imposed\n upon her the terrible task of fighting yon accursed Ifrit against whom\n all the Ifrits in the world could not prevail. And would Heaven we had\n never seen this ape, Allah never assain nor bless the day of his\n coming! We thought to do a good deed by him before the face of\n Allah,[251] and to release him from enchantment, and now we have\n brought this trouble and travail upon our heart.\" But I, O my lady, was\n tongue-tied and powerless to say a word to him. Suddenly, ere we were\n ware of aught, the Ifrit yelled out from under the flames and, coming\n up to us as we stood on the estrade, blew fire in our faces. The damsel\n overtook him and breathed blasts of fire at his face and the sparks\n from her and from him rained down upon us, and her sparks did us no\n harm, but one of his sparks alighted upon my eye and destroyed it\n making me a monocular ape; and another fell on the King's face\n scorching the lower half, burning off his beard and mustachios and\n causing his under teeth to fall out; while a third alighted on the\n Castrato's breast, killing him on the spot. So we despaired of life and\n made sure of death when lo! a voice repeated the saying, \"Allah is most\n Highest! Allah is most Highest! Aidance and victory to all who the\n Truth believe; and disappointment and disgrace to all who the religion\n of Mohammed, the Moon of Faith, unbelieve,\" The speaker was the\n Princess who had burnt the Ifrit, and he was become a heap of ashes.\n Then she came up to us and said, \"Reach me a cup of water.\" They\n brought it to her and she spoke over it words we understood not, and\n sprinkling me with it cried, \"By virtue of the Truth, and by the Most\n Great name of Allah, I charge thee return to thy former shape.\" And\n behold, I shook and became a man as before, save that I had utterly\n lost an eye. Then she cried out, \"The fire! The fire! O my dear papa an\n arrow from the accursed hath wounded me to the death, for I am not used\n to fight with the Jann; had he been a man I had slain him in the\n beginning. I had no trouble till the time when the pomegranate burst\n and the grains scattered, but I overlooked the seed wherein was the\n very life of the Jinni. Had I picked it up he had died on the spot, but\n as Fate and Fortune decreed, I saw it not; so he came upon me all\n unawares and there befel between him and me a sore struggle under the\n earth and high in air and in the water; and, as often as I opened on\n him a gate,[252] he opened on me another gate and a stronger, till at\n last he opened on me the gate of fire, and few are saved upon whom the\n door of fire openeth. But Destiny willed that my cunning prevail over\n his cunning; and I burned him to death after I vainly exhorted him to\n embrace the religion of Al-Islam. As for me I am a dead woman; Allah\n supply my place to you!\" Then she called upon Heaven for help and\n ceased not to implore relief from the fire; when lo! a black spark shot\n up from her robed feet to her thighs; then it flew to her bosom and\n thence to her face. When it reached her face she wept and said, \"I\n testify that there is no god but _the_ God and that Mahommed is the\n Apostle of God!\" And we looked at her and saw naught but a heap of\n ashes by the side of the heap that had been the Ifrit. We mourned for\n her and I wished I had been in her place, so had I not seen her lovely\n face who had worked me such weal become ashes; but there is no\n gainsaying the will of Allah. When the King saw his daughter's terrible\n death, he plucked out what was left of his beard and beat his face and\n rent his raiment; and I did as he did and we both wept over her. Then\n came in the Chamberlains and Grandees and were amazed to find two heaps\n of ashes and the Sultan in a fainting fit; so they stood round him till\n he revived and told them what had befallen his daughter from the Ifrit;\n whereat their grief was right grievous and the women and the\n slave-girls shrieked and keened,[253] and they continued their\n lamentations for the space of seven days. Moreover the King bade build\n over his daughter's ashes a vast vaulted tomb, and burn therein wax\n tapers and sepulchral lamps: but as for the Ifrit's ashes they\n scattered them on the winds, speeding them to the curse of Allah. Then\n the Sultan fell sick of a sickness that well nigh brought him to his\n death for a month's space; and, when health returned to him and his\n beard grew again and he had been converted by the mercy of Allah to\n Al-Islam, he sent for me and said, \"O youth, Fate had decreed for us\n the happiest of lives, safe from all the chances and changes of Time,\n till thou camest to us, when troubles fell upon us. Would to Heaven we\n had never seen thee and the foul face of thee! For we took pity on thee\n and thereby we have lost our all. I have on thy account first lost my\n daughter who to me was well worth an hundred men; secondly I have\n suffered that which befel me by reason of the fire and the loss of my\n teeth, and my Eunuch also was slain. I blame thee not, for it was out\n of thy power to prevent this: the doom of Allah was on thee as well as\n on us and thanks be to the Almighty for that my daughter delivered\n thee, albeit thereby she lost her own life! Go forth now, O my son,\n from this my city, and suffice thee what hath befallen us through thee,\n even although 'twas decreed for us. Go forth in peace; and if I ever\n see thee again I will surely slay thee.\" And he cried out at me. So I\n went forth from his presence, O my lady, weeping bitterly and hardly\n believing in my escape and knowing not whither I should wend. And I\n recalled all that had befallen me, my meeting the tailor, my love for\n the damsel in the palace beneath the earth, and my narrow escape from\n the Ifrit, even after he had determined to do me die; and how I had\n entered the city as an ape and was now leaving it a man once more. Then\n I gave thanks to Allah and said, \"My eye and not my life!\" and before\n leaving the place I entered the bath and shaved my poll and beard and\n mustachios and eyebrows; and cast ashes on my head and donned the\n coarse black woollen robe of a Kalandar. Then I fared forth, O my lady,\n and every day I pondered all the calamities which had betided me, and I\n wept and repeated these couplets:\u2014\n\n \"I am distraught, yet verily His ruth abides with me, \u273f Tho' round me\n gather hosts of ills, whence come I cannot see:\n Patient I'll be till Patience self with me impatient wax; \u273f Patient for\n ever till the Lord fulfil my destiny:\n Patient I'll bide without complaint, a wronged and vanquisht man; \u273f\n Patient as sunparcht wight that spans the desert's sandy sea:\n Patient I'll be till Aloe's[254] self unwittingly allow \u273f I'm patient\n under bitterer things than bitterest alo\u00eb:\n No bitterer things than aloes or than patience for mankind; \u273f Yet\n bitterer than the twain to me were Patience' treachery:\n My sere and seamed and seared brow would dragoman my sore \u273f If soul\n could search my sprite and there unsecret secrecy:\n Were hills to bear the load I bear they'd crumble 'neath the weight; \u273f\n 'Twould still the roaring wind, 'twould quench the flame-tongue's\n flagrancy,\n And whoso saith the world is sweet cert\u00e8s a day he'll see \u273f With more\n than aloes' bitterness and aloes' pungency.\"\n\n Then I journeyed through many regions and saw many a city intending for\n Baghdad, that I might seek audience, in the House of Peace,[255] with\n the Commander of the Faithful and tell him all that had befallen me. I\n arrived here this very night and found my brother in Allah, this first\n Kalandar, standing about as one perplexed; so I saluted him with \"Peace\n be upon thee,\" and entered into discourse with him. Presently up came\n our brother, this third Kalandar, and said to us, \"Peace be with you! I\n am a stranger;\" whereto we replied, \"And we too be strangers, who have\n come hither this blessed night.\" So we all three walked on together,\n none of us knowing the other's history, till Destiny drave us to this\n door and we came in to you. Such then is my story and my reason for\n shaving my beard and mustachios, and this is what caused the loss of my\n eye. Said the house-mistress \"Thy tale is indeed a rare; so rub thy\n head and wend thy ways;\" but he replied, \"I will not budge till I hear\n my companions' stories.\" Then came forward the third Kalandar, and\n said, \"O illustrious lady! my history is not like that of these my\n comrades, but more wondrous and far more marvellous. In their case Fate\n and Fortune came down on them unawares; but I drew down destiny upon my\n own head and brought sorrow on mine own soul, and shaved my own beard\n and lost my own eye. Hear then\"\n\n\n _THE THIRD KALANDAR'S TALE._\n\n Know, O my lady, that I also am a King and the Son of a King and my\n name is Aj\u00edb son of Khaz\u00edb. When my father died I succeeded him; and I\n ruled and did justice and dealt fairly by all my lieges. I delighted in\n sea trips, for my capital stood on the shore, before which the ocean\n stretched far and wide; and nearhand were many great islands with\n sconces and garrisons in the midst of the main. My fleet numbered fifty\n merchantmen, and as many yachts for pleasance, and an hundred and fifty\n sail ready fitted for holy war with the Unbelievers. It fortuned that I\n had a mind to enjoy myself on the islands aforesaid, so I took ship\n with my people in ten keel; and, carrying with me a month's victual, I\n set out on a twenty days voyage. But one night a head wind struck us,\n and the sea rose against us with huge waves; the billows sorely\n buffetted us and a dense darkness settled round us. We gave ourselves\n up for lost and I said, \"Whoso endangereth his days, e'en an he 'scape\n deserveth no praise.\" Then we prayed to Allah and besought Him; but the\n storm-blasts ceased not to blow against us nor the surges to strike us\n till morning broke, when the gale fell, the seas sank to mirrory\n stillness and the sun shone upon us kindly clear. Presently we made an\n island where we landed and cooked somewhat of food, and ate heartily\n and took our rest for a couple of days. Then we set out again and\n sailed other twenty days, the seas broadening and the land shrinking.\n Presently the current ran counter to us, and we found ourselves in\n strange waters, where the Captain had lost his reckoning, and was\n wholly bewildered in this sea; so said we to the look-out man,[256]\n \"Get thee to the mast-head and keep thine eyes open.\" He swarmed up the\n mast and looked out and cried aloud, \"O Rais, I espy to starboard\n something dark, very like a fish floating on the face of the sea, and\n to larboard there is a loom in the midst of the main, now black and now\n bright.\" When the Captain heard the look-out's words he dashed his\n turband on the deck and plucked out his beard and beat his face saying,\n \"Good news indeed! we be all dead men; not one of us can be saved.\" And\n he fell to weeping and all of us wept for his weeping and also for our\n lives; and I said, \"O Captain, tell us what it is the look-out saw.\" \"O\n my Prince,\" answered he, \"know that we lost our course on the night of\n the storm, which was followed on the morrow by a two-days' calm during\n which we made no way; and we have gone astray eleven days reckoning\n from that night, with ne'er a wind to bring us back to our true course.\n To-morrow by the end of the day we shall come to a mountain of black\n stone, hight the Magnet Mountain;[257] for thither the currents carry\n us willy-nilly. As soon as we are under its lea, the ship's sides will\n open and every nail in plank will fly out and cleave fast to the\n mountain; for that Almighty Allah hath gifted the loadstone with a\n mysterious virtue and a love for iron, by reason whereof all which is\n iron travelleth towards it; and on this mountain is much iron, how much\n none knoweth save the Most High, from the many vessels which have been\n lost there since the days of yore. The bright spot upon its summit is a\n dome of yellow laton from Andalusia, vaulted upon ten columns; and on\n its crown is a horseman who rideth a horse of brass and holdeth in hand\n a lance of laton; and there hangeth on his bosom a tablet of lead\n graven with names and talismans.\" And he presently added, \"And, O King,\n none destroyeth folk save the rider on that steed, nor will the\n egromancy be dispelled till he fall from his horse.\"[258] Then, O my\n lady, the Captain wept with exceeding weeping and we all made sure of\n death-doom and each and every one of us farewelled his friend and\n charged him with his last will and testament in case he might be saved.\n We slept not that night and in the morning we found ourselves much\n nearer the Loadstone Mountain, whither the waters drave us with a\n violent send. When the ships were close under its lea they opened and\n the nails flew out and all the iron in them sought the Magnet Mountain\n and clove to it like a network; so that by the end of the day we were\n all struggling in the waves round about the mountain. Some of us were\n saved, but more were drowned and even those who had escaped knew not\n one another, so stupefied were they by the beating of the billows and\n the raving of the winds. As for me, O my lady, Allah (be His name\n exalted!) preserved my life that I might suffer whatso He willed to me\n of hardship, misfortune and calamity; for I scrambled upon a plank from\n one of the ships, and the wind and waters threw it at the feet of the\n Mountain. There I found a practicable path leading by steps carven out\n of the rock to the summit, and I called on the name of Allah\n Almighty[259]\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to\n say her permitted say.\n\n Now when it was the Fifteenth Night,\n\n She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the third\n Kalandar said to the lady (the rest of the party sitting fast bound and\n the slaves standing with swords drawn over their heads):\u2014And after\n calling on the name of Almighty Allah and passionately beseeching Him,\n I breasted the ascent, clinging to the steps and notches hewn in the\n stone, and mounted little by little. And the Lord stilled the wind and\n aided me in the ascent, so that I succeeded in reaching the summit.\n There I found no resting-place save the dome, which I entered, joying\n with exceeding joy at my escape; and made the Wuzu-ablution[260] and\n prayed a two-bow prayer[261] a thanksgiving to God for my preservation.\n Then I fell asleep under the dome, and heard in my dream a mysterious\n Voice[262] saying, \"O son of Khazib! when thou wakest from thy sleep\n dig under thy feet and thou shalt find a bow of brass and three leaden\n arrows, inscribed with talismans and characts. Take the bow and shoot\n the arrows at the horseman on the dome-top and free mankind from this\n sore calamity. When thou hast shot him he shall fall into the sea, and\n the horse will also drop at thy feet: then bury it in the place of the\n bow. This done, the main will swell and rise till it is level with the\n mountain-head, and there will appear on it a skiff carrying a man of\n laton (other than he thou shalt have shot) holding in his hand a pair\n of paddles. He will come to thee and do thou embark with him but beware\n of saying Bismillah or of otherwise naming Allah Almighty. He will row\n thee for a space of ten days, till he bring thee to certain Islands\n called the Islands of Safety, and thence thou shalt easily reach a port\n and find those who will convey thee to thy native land; and all this\n shall be fulfilled to thee so thou call not on the name of Allah.\" Then\n I started up from my sleep in joy and gladness and, hastening to do the\n bidding of the mysterious Voice, found the bow and arrows and shot at\n the horseman and tumbled him into the main, whilst the horse dropped at\n my feet; so I took it and buried it. Presently the sea surged up and\n rose till it reached the top of the mountain; nor had I long to wait\n ere I saw a skiff in the offing coming towards me. I gave thanks to\n Allah; and, when the skiff came up to me, I saw therein a man of brass\n with a tablet of lead on his breast inscribed with talismans and\n characts; and I embarked without uttering a word. The boatman rowed on\n with me through the first day and the second and the third, in all ten\n whole days, till I caught sight of the Islands of Safety; whereat I\n joyed with exceeding joy and for stress of gladness exclaimed, \"Allah!\n Allah! In the name of Allah! There is no god but _the_ God and Allah is\n Almighty.\"[263] Thereupon the skiff forthwith upset and cast me upon\n the sea; then it righted and sank deep into the depths. Now I am a fair\n swimmer, so I swam the whole day till nightfall, when my forearms and\n shoulders were numbed with fatigue and I felt like to die; so I\n testified to my Faith, expecting naught but death. The sea was still\n surging under the violence of the winds, and presently there came a\n billow like a hillock; and, bearing me up high in air, threw me with a\n long cast on dry land, that His will might be fulfilled. I crawled up\n the beach and doffing my raiment wrung it out to dry and spread it in\n the sunshine: then I lay me down and slept the whole night. As soon as\n it was day, I donned my clothes and rose to look whither I should walk.\n Presently I came to a thicket of low trees; and, making a cast round\n it, found that the spot whereon I stood was an islet, a mere holm, girt\n on all sides by the ocean; whereupon I said to myself, \"Whatso freeth\n me from one great calamity casteth me into a greater!\" But while I was\n pondering my case and longing for death behold, I saw afar off a ship\n making for the island; so I clomb a tree and hid myself among the\n branches. Presently the ship anchored and landed ten slaves,\n blackamoors, bearing iron hoes and baskets, who walked on till they\n reached the middle of the island. Here they dug deep into the ground,\n until they uncovered a plate of metal which they lifted, thereby\n opening a trap-door. After this they returned to the ship and thence\n brought bread and flour, honey and fruits, clarified butter,[264]\n leather bottles containing liquors and many household stuffs; also\n furniture, table-service and mirrors; rugs, carpets and in fact all\n needed to furnish a dwelling; and they kept going to and fro, and\n descending by the trap-door, till they had transported into the\n dwelling all that was in the ship. After this the slaves again went on\n board and brought back with them garments as rich as may be, and in the\n midst of them came an old old man, of whom very little was left, for\n Time had dealt hardly and harshly with him, and all that remained of\n him was a bone wrapped in a rag of blue stuff, through which the winds\n whistled west and east. As saith the poet of him:\u2014\n\n Time gars me tremble Ah, how sore the baulk! \u273f While Time in pride of\n strength doth ever stalk:\n Time was I walked nor ever felt I tired, \u273f Now am I tired albe I never\n walk!\n\n And the Shaykh held by the hand a youth cast in beauty's mould, all\n elegance and perfect grace; so fair that his comeliness deserved to be\n proverbial; for he was as a green bough or the tender young of the roe,\n ravishing every heart with his loveliness and subduing every soul with\n his coquetry and amorous ways.[265] It was of him the poet spake when\n he said:\u2014\n\n Beauty they brought with him to make compare; \u273f But Beauty hung her\n head in shame and care:\n Quoth they, \"O Beauty, hast thou seen his like?\" \u273f And Beauty cried,\n \"His like? not anywhere!\"\n\n They stinted not their going, O my lady, till all went down by the\n trap-door and did not reappear for an hour, or rather more; at the end\n of which time the slaves and the old man came up without the youth and,\n replacing the iron plate and carefully closing the door-slab, as it was\n before, they returned to the ship and made sail and were lost to my\n sight. When they turned away to depart, I came down from the tree and,\n going to the place I had seen them fill up, scraped off and removed the\n earth; and in patience possessed my soul till I had cleared the whole\n of it away. Then appeared the trap-door which was of wood, in shape and\n size like a millstone; and when I lifted it up it disclosed a winding\n staircase of stone. At this I marvelled and, descending the steps till\n I reached the last, found a fair hall, spread with various kinds of\n carpets and silk stuffs, wherein was a youth sitting upon a raised\n couch and leaning back on a round cushion with a fan in his hand and\n nosegays and posies of sweet scented herbs and flowers before him;[266]\n but he was alone and not a soul near him in the great vault. When he\n saw me he turned pale; but I saluted him courteously and said, \"Set thy\n mind at ease and calm thy fears; no harm shall come near thee; I am a\n man like thyself and the son of a King to boot; whom the decrees of\n Destiny have sent to bear thee company and cheer thee in thy\n loneliness. But now tell me, what is thy story and what causeth thee to\n dwell thus in solitude under the ground?\" When he was assured that I\n was of his kind and no Jinni, he rejoiced and his fine colour returned;\n and, making me draw near to him he said, \"O my brother, my story is a\n strange story and 'tis this. My father is a merchant-jeweller possessed\n of great wealth, who hath white and black slaves travelling and trading\n on his account in ships and on camels, and trafficking with the most\n distant cities; but he was not blessed with a child, not even one. Now\n on a certain night he dreamed a dream that he should be favoured with a\n son, who would be short lived; so the morning dawned on my father\n bringing him woe and weeping. On the following night my mother\n conceived and my father noted down the date of her becoming\n pregnant.[267] Her time being fulfilled she bare me; whereat my father\n rejoiced and made banquets and called together the neighbours and fed\n the Fakirs and the poor, for that he had been blessed with issue near\n the end of his days. Then he assembled the astrologers and astronomers\n who knew the places of the planets, and the wizards and wise ones of\n the time, and men learned in horoscopes and nativities;[268] and they\n drew out my birth scheme and said to my father:\u2014Thy son shall live to\n fifteen years, but in his fifteenth there is a sinister aspect; an he\n safely tide it over he shall attain a great age. And the cause that\n threateneth him with death is this. In the Sea of Peril standeth the\n Mountain Magnet hight; on whose summit is a horseman of yellow laton\n seated on a horse also of brass and bearing on his breast a tablet of\n lead. Fifty days after this rider shall fall from his steed thy son\n will die and his slayer will be he who shoots down the horseman, a\n Prince named Ajib son of King Khazib. My father grieved with exceeding\n grief to hear these words; but reared me in tenderest fashion and\n educated me excellently well till my fifteenth year was told. Ten days\n ago news came to him that the horseman had fallen into the sea and he\n who shot him down was named Ajib son of King Khazib. My father\n thereupon wept bitter tears at the need of parting with me and became\n like one possessed of a Jinni. However, being in mortal fear for me, he\n built me this place under the earth; and, stocking it with all required\n for the few days still remaining, he brought me hither in a ship and\n left me here. Ten are already past and, when the forty shall have gone\n by without danger to me, he will come and take me away; for he hath\n done all this only in fear of Prince Ajib. Such, then, is my story and\n the cause of my loneliness.\" When I heard his history I marvelled and\n said in my mind, \"I am the Prince Ajib who hath done all this; but as\n Allah is with me I will surely not slay him!\" So said I to him, O my\n lord, far from thee be this hurt and harm and then, please Allah, thou\n shalt not suffer cark nor care nor aught disquietude, for I will tarry\n with thee and serve thee as a servant, and then wend my ways; and,\n after having borne thee company during the forty days, I will go with\n thee to thy home where thou shalt give me an escort of some of thy\n Mamelukes with whom I may journey back to my own city; and the Almighty\n shall requite thee for me. He was glad to hear these words, when I rose\n and lighted a large wax-candle and trimmed the lamps and the three\n lanterns; and I set on meat and drink and sweetmeats. We ate and drank\n and sat talking over various matters till the greater part of the night\n was gone; when he lay down to rest and I covered him up and went to\n sleep myself. Next morning I arose and warmed a little water, then\n lifted him gently so as to awake him and brought him the warm water\n wherewith he washed his face[269] and said to me, \"Heaven requite thee\n for me with every blessing, O youth! By Allah, if I get quit of this\n danger and am saved from him whose name is Ajib bin Khazib, I will make\n my father reward thee and send thee home healthy and wealthy; and, if I\n die, then my blessing be upon thee.\" I answered, \"May the day never\n dawn on which evil shall betide thee; and may Allah make my last day\n before thy last day!\" Then I set before him somewhat of food and we\n ate; and I got ready perfumes for fumigating the hall, wherewith he was\n pleased. Moreover I made him a Mankalah-cloth;[270] and we played and\n ate sweetmeats and we played again and took our pleasure till\n nightfall, when I rose and lighted the lamps, and set before him\n somewhat to eat, and sat telling him stories till the hours of darkness\n were far spent. Then he lay down to rest and I covered him up and\n rested also. And thus I continued to do, O my lady for days and nights,\n and affection for him took root in my heart and my sorrow was eased,\n and I said to myself, The astrologers lied[271] when they predicted\n that he should be slain by Ajib bin Khazib: by Allah, I will not slay\n him. I ceased not ministering to him and conversing and carousing with\n him and telling him all manner tales for thirty-nine days. On the\n fortieth night[272] the youth rejoiced and said, \"O my brother,\n Alhamdolillah!\u2014praise be to Allah\u2014who hath preserved me from death and\n this is by thy blessing and the blessing of thy coming to me; and I\n pray God that He restore thee to thy native land. But now, O my\n brother, I would thou warm me some water for the Ghusl-ablution and do\n thou kindly bathe me and change my clothes.\" I replied, \"With love and\n gladness;\" and I heated water in plenty and carrying it in to him\n washed his body all over, the washing of health,[273] with meal of\n lupins[274] and rubbed him well and changed his clothes and spread him\n a high bed whereon he lay down to rest, being drowsy after bathing.\n Then said he, \"O my brother, cut me up a water-melon, and sweeten it\n with a little sugar-candy.\"[275] So I went to the store-room and\n bringing out a fine water-melon I found there, set it on a platter and\n laid it before him saying, \"O my master hast thou not a knife?\" \"Here\n it is,\" answered he, \"over my head upon the high shelf.\" So I got up in\n haste and taking the knife drew it from its sheath; but my foot slipped\n in stepping down and I fell heavily upon the youth holding in my hand\n the knife which hastened to fulfil what had been written on the Day\n that decided the destinies of man, and buried itself, as if planted, in\n the youth's heart. He died on the instant. When I saw that he was slain\n and knew that I had slain him, maugre myself, I cried out with an\n exceeding loud and bitter cry and beat my face and rent my raiment and\n said, \"Verily we be Allah's and unto Him we be returning, O Moslems! O\n folk fain of Allah! there remained for this youth but one day of the\n forty dangerous days which the astrologers and the learned had foretold\n for him; and the predestined death of this beautiful one was to be at\n my hand. Would Heaven I had not tried to cut the water-melon. What dire\n misfortune is this I must bear lief or loath? What a disaster! What an\n affliction! O Allah mine, I implore thy pardon and declare to Thee my\n innocence of his death. But what God willeth let that come to\n pass.\"[276]\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say\n her permitted say.\n\n Now when it was the Sixteenth Night,\n\n She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Ajib thus\n continued his tale to the lady:\u2014When I was certified that I had slain\n him, I arose and ascending the stairs replaced the trap-door and\n covered it with earth as before. Then I looked out seawards and saw the\n ship cleaving the waters and making for the island, wherefore I was\n afeard and said, \"The moment they come and see the youth done to death,\n they will know 'twas I who slew him and will slay me without respite.\"\n So I climbed up into a high tree and concealed myself among its leaves;\n and hardly had I done so when the ship anchored and the slaves landed\n with the ancient man, the youth's father, and made direct for the place\n and when they removed the earth they were surprised to see it\n soft.[277] Then they raised the trap-door and went down and found the\n youth lying at full length, clothed in fair new garments with a face\n beaming after the bath, and the knife deep in his heart. At the sight\n they shrieked and wept and beat their faces, loudly cursing the\n murderer; whilst a swoon came over the Shaykh so that the slaves deemed\n him dead, unable to survive his son. At last they wrapped the slain\n youth in his clothes and carried him up and laid him on the ground\n covering him with a shroud of silk. Whilst they were making for the\n ship the old man revived; and, gazing on his son who was stretched out,\n fell on the ground and strewed dust over his head and smote his face\n and plucked out his beard; and his weeping redoubled as he thought of\n his murdered son and he swooned away once more. After awhile a slave\n went and fetched a strip of silk whereupon they lay the old man and sat\n down at his head. All this took place and I was on the tree above them\n watching everything that came to pass; and my heart became hoary before\n my head waxed grey, for the hard lot which was mine, and for the\n distress and anguish I had undergone, and I fell to reciting:\u2014\n\n \"How many a joy by Allah's will hath fled \u273f With flight escaping sight\n of wisest head!\n How many a sadness shall begin the day, \u273f Yet grow right gladsome ere\n the day is sped!\n How many a weal trips on the heels of ill, \u273f Causing the mourner's\n heart with joy to thrill!\"[278]\n\n But the old man, O my lady, ceased not from his swoon till near sunset,\n when he came to himself and, looking upon his dead son, he recalled\n what had happened, and how what he had dreaded had come to pass; and he\n beat his face and head and recited these couplets:\u2014\n\n \"Racked is my heart by parting fro' my friends \u273f And two rills ever\n fro' my eyelids flow:\n With them[279] went forth my hopes, Ah, well away! \u273f What shift\n remaineth me to say or do?\n Would I had never looked upon their sight, \u273f What shift, fair sirs,\n when paths e'er straiter grow?\n What charm shall calm my pangs when this wise burn \u273f Longings of love\n which in my vitals glow?\n Would I had trod with them the road of Death! \u273f Ne'er had befel us\n twain this parting-blow:\n Allah: I pray the Ruthful show me ruth \u273f And mix our lives nor part\n them evermo'e!\n How blest were we as 'neath one roof we dwelt \u273f Conjoined in joys nor\n recking aught of woe;\n Till Fortune shot us with the severance shaft; \u273f Ah who shall patient\n bear such parting throe?\n And dart of Death struck down amid the tribe \u273f The age's pearl that\n Morn saw brightest show:\n I cried the while his case took speech and said:\u2014\u273f Would Heaven, my\n son, Death mote his doom foreslow!\n Which be the readiest road wi' thee to meet \u273f My Son! for whom I would\n my soul bestow?\n If sun I call him no! the sun doth set; \u273f If moon I call him, wane the\n moons; Ah no!\n O sad mischance o' thee, O doom of days, \u273f Thy place none other love\n shall ever know:\n Thy sire distracted sees thee, but despairs \u273f By wit or wisdom Fate to\n overthrow:\n Some evil eye this day hath cast its spell \u273f And foul befal him as it\n foul befel!\"\n\n Then he sobbed a single sob and his soul fled his flesh. The slaves\n shrieked aloud \"Alas, our lord!\" and showered dust on their heads and\n redoubled their weeping and wailing. Presently they carried their dead\n master to the ship side by side with his dead son and, having\n transported all the stuff from the dwelling to the vessel, set sail and\n disappeared from mine eyes. I descended from the tree and, raising the\n trap-door, went down into the underground dwelling where everything\n reminded me of the youth; and I looked upon the poor remains of him and\n began repeating these verses:\u2014\n\n Their tracks I see, and pine with pain and pang \u273f And on deserted\n hearths I weep and yearn:\n And Him I pray who doom\u00e8d them depart \u273f Some day vouchsafe the boon of\n safe return.[280]\n\n Then, O my lady, I went up again by the trap-door, and every day I used\n to wander round about the island and every night I returned to the\n underground hall. Thus I lived for a month, till at last, looking at\n the western side of the island, I observed that every day the tide\n ebbed, leaving shallow water for which the flow did not compensate; and\n by the end of the month the sea showed dry land in that direction. At\n this I rejoiced making certain of my safety; so I arose and fording\n what little was left of the water got me to the main land, where I fell\n in with great heaps of loose sand in which even a camel's hoof would\n sink up to the knee.[281] However I emboldened my soul and wading\n through the sand behold, a fire shone from afar burning with a blazing\n light.[282] So I made for it hoping haply to find succour and broke out\n into these verses:\u2014\n\n \"Belike my Fortune may her bridle turn \u273f And Time bring weal although\n he's jealous hight;\n Forward my hopes, and further all my needs, \u273f And pass\u00e8d ills with\n present weals requite.\"\n\n And when I drew near the fire aforesaid lo! it was a palace with gates\n of copper burnished red which, when the rising sun shone thereon,\n gleamed and glistened from afar showing what had seemed to me a fire. I\n rejoiced in the sight, and sat down over against the gate, but I was\n hardly settled in my seat before there met me ten young men clothed in\n sumptuous gear and all were blind of the left eye which appeared as\n plucked out. They were accompanied by a Shaykh, an old, old man, and\n much I marvelled at their appearance, and their all being blind of the\n same eye. When they saw me, they saluted me with the Salam and asked me\n of my case and my history; whereupon I related to them all what had\n befallen me, and what full measure of misfortune was mine. Marvelling\n at my tale they took me to the mansion, where I saw ranged round the\n hall ten couches each with its blue bedding and coverlet of blue\n stuff[283] and amiddlemost stood a smaller couch furnished like them\n with blue and nothing else. As we entered each of the youths took his\n seat on his own couch and the old man seated himself upon the smaller\n one in the middle saying to me, \"O youth, sit thee down on the floor\n and ask not of our case nor of the loss of our eyes.\" Presently he rose\n up and set before each young man some meat in a charger and drink in a\n large mazer, treating me in like manner; and after that they sat\n questioning me concerning my adventures and what had betided me: and I\n kept telling them my tale till the night was far spent. Then said the\n young men, \"O our Shaykh, wilt not thou set before us our ordinary? The\n time is come.\" He replied, \"With love and gladness,\" and rose and\n entering a closet disappeared, but presently returned bearing on his\n head ten trays each covered with a strip of blue stuff. He set a tray\n before each, youth and, lighting ten wax candles, he stuck one upon\n each tray, and drew off the covers and lo! under them was naught but\n ashes and powdered charcoal and kettle soot. Then all the young men\n tucked up their sleeves to the elbows and fell a-weeping and wailing\n and they blackened their faces and smeared their clothes and buffetted\n their brows and beat their breasts, continually exclaiming, \"We were\n sitting at our ease but our frowardness brought us unease!\" They ceased\n not to do thus till dawn drew nigh, when the old man rose and heated\n water for them; and they washed their faces, and donned other and clean\n clothes. Now when I saw this, O my lady, for very wonderment my senses\n left me and my wits went wild and heart and head were full of thought,\n till I forgot what had betided me and I could not keep silence feeling\n I fain must speak out and question them of these strangenesses; so I\n said to them, \"How come ye to do this after we have been so\n open-hearted and frolicksome? Thanks be to Allah ye be all sound and\n sane, yet actions such as these befit none but mad men or those\n possessed of an evil spirit. I conjure you by all that is dearest to\n you, why stint ye to tell me your history, and the cause of your losing\n your eyes and your blackening your faces with ashes and soot?\" Hereupon\n they turned to me and said, \"O young man, hearken not to thy\n youthtide's suggestions and question us no questions.\" Then they slept\n and I with them and when they awoke the old man brought us somewhat of\n food; and, after we had eaten and the plates and goblets had been\n removed, they sat conversing till nightfall when the old man rose and\n lit the wax candles and lamps and set meat and drink before us. After\n we had eaten and drunken we sat conversing and carousing in\n companionage till the noon of night, when they said to the old man,\n \"Bring us our ordinary, for the hour of sleep is at hand!\" So he rose\n and brought them the trays of soot and ashes; and they did as they had\n done on the preceding night, nor more, nor less. I abode with them\n after this fashion for the space of a month during which time they used\n to blacken their faces with ashes every night, and to wash and change\n their raiment when the morn was young; and I but marvelled the more and\n my scruples and curiosity increased to such a point that I had to\n forego even food and drink. At last, I lost command of myself, for my\n heart was aflame with fire unquenchable and lowe unconcealable and I\n said, \"O young men, will ye not relieve my trouble and acquaint me with\n the reason of thus blackening your faces and the meaning of your\n words:\u2014We were sitting at our ease but our frowardness brought us\n unease?\" Quoth they \"'Twere better to keep these things secret.\" Still\n I was bewildered by their doings to the point of abstaining from eating\n and drinking and, at last wholly losing patience, quoth I to them,\n \"There is no help for it: ye must acquaint me with what is the reason\n of these doings.\" They replied, \"We kept our secret only for thy good:\n to gratify thee will bring down evil upon thee and thou wilt become a\n monocular even as we are.\" I repeated, \"There is no help for it and, if\n ye will not, let me leave you and return to mine own people and be at\n rest from seeing these things, for the proverb saith:\u2014\n\n Better ye 'bide and I take my leave: \u273f For what eye sees not heart\n shall never grieve.\"\n\n Thereupon they said to me, \"Remember, O youth, that should ill befal\n thee we will not again harbour thee nor suffer thee to abide amongst\n us;\" and bringing a ram they slaughtered it and skinned it. Lastly they\n gave me a knife saying, \"Take this skin and stretch thyself upon it and\n we will sew it around thee; presently there shall come to thee a\n certain bird, hight Rukh,[284] that will catch thee up in his pounces\n and tower high in air and then set thee down on a mountain. When thou\n feelest he is no longer flying, rip open the pelt with this blade and\n come out of it; the bird will be scared and will fly away and leave\n thee free. After this fare for half a day, and the march will place\n thee at a palace wondrous fair to behold, towering high in air and\n builded of Khalanj,[285] lign-aloes and sandal-wood, plated with red\n gold, and studded with all manner emeralds and costly gems fit for\n seal-rings. Enter it and thou shalt win to thy wish for we have all\n entered that palace; and such is the cause of our losing our eyes and\n of our blackening our faces. Were we now to tell thee our stories it\n would take too long a time; for each and every of us lost his left eye\n by an adventure of his own.\" I rejoiced at their words and they did\n with me as they said; and the bird Rukh bore me off and set me down on\n the mountain. Then I came out of the skin and walked on till I reached\n the palace. The door stood open as I entered and found myself in a\n spacious and goodly hall, wide exceedingly, even as a horse-course; and\n around it were an hundred chambers with doors of sandal and aloes woods\n plated with red gold and furnished with silver rings by way of\n knockers.[286] At the head or upper end[287] of the hall I saw forty\n damsels, sumptuously dressed and ornamented and one and all bright as\n moons; none could ever tire of gazing upon them and all so lovely that\n the most ascetic devotee on seeing them would become their slave and\n obey their will. When they saw me the whole bevy came up to me and said\n \"Welcome and well come and good cheer[288] to thee, O our lord! This\n whole month have we been expecting thee. Praised be Allah who hath sent\n us one who is worthy of us, even as we are worthy of him!\" Then they\n made me sit down upon a high divan and said to me, \"This day thou art\n our lord and master, and we are thy servants and thy handmaids, so\n order us as thou wilt.\" And I marvelled at their case. Presently one of\n them arose and set meat before me and I ate and they ate with me;\n whilst others warmed water and washed my hands and feet and changed my\n clothes, and others made ready sherbets and gave us to drink; and all\n gathered around me being full of joy and gladness at my coming. Then\n they sat down and conversed with me till nightfall, when five of them\n arose and laid the trays and spread them with flowers and fragrant\n herbs and fruits, fresh and dried, and confections in profusion. At\n last they brought out a fine wine-service with rich old wine; and we\n sat down to drink and some sang songs and others played the lute and\n psaltery and recorders and other instruments, and the bowl went merrily\n round. Hereupon such gladness possessed me that I forgot the sorrows of\n the world one and all and said, \"This is indeed life; O sad that 'tis\n fleeting!\" I enjoyed their company till the time came for rest; and our\n heads were all warm with wine, when they said, \"O our lord, choose from\n amongst us her who shall be thy bed-fellow this night and not lie with\n thee again till forty days be past.\" So I chose a girl fair of face and\n perfect in shape, with eyes Kohl-edged by nature's hand;[289] hair long\n and jet black with slightly parted teeth[290] and joining brows: 'twas\n as if she were some limber graceful branchlet or the slender stalk of\n sweet basil to amaze and to bewilder man's fancy; even as the poet said\n of such an one:\u2014\n\n To even her with greeny bough were vain \u273f Fool he who finds her\n beauties in the roe:\n When hath the roe those lively lovely limbs \u273f Or honey dews those lips\n alone bestow?\n Those eyne, soul-piercing eyne, which slay with love, \u273f Which bind the\n victim by their shafts laid low?\n My heart to second childhood they beguiled \u273f No wonder: love-sick man\n again is child!\n\n And I repeated to her the maker's words who said:\u2014\n\n None other charms but thine shall greet mine eyes, \u273f Nor other image\n can my heart surprize:\n Thy love, my lady, captives all my thoughts \u273f And on that love I'll die\n and I'll arise.\n\n So I lay with her that night; none fairer I ever knew; and, when it was\n morning, the damsels carried me to the Hammam-bath and bathed me and\n robed me in fairest apparel. Then they served up food, and we ate and\n drank and the cup went round till nightfall when I chose from among\n them one fair of form and face, soft-sided and a model of grace, such\n an one as the poet described when he said:\u2014\n\n On her fair bosom caskets twain I scanned, \u273f Sealed fast with\n musk-seals lovers to withstand;\n With arrowy glances stand on guard her eyes, \u273f Whose shafts would shoot\n who dares put forth a hand.\n\n With her I spent a most goodly night; and, to be brief, O my mistress,\n I remained with them in all solace and delight of life, eating and\n drinking, conversing and carousing and every night lying with one or\n other of them. But at the head of the new year they came to me in tears\n and bade me farewell, weeping and crying out and clinging about me;\n whereat I wondered and said, \"What may be the matter? verily you break\n my heart!\" They exclaimed, \"Would Heaven we had never known thee; for,\n though we have companied with many, yet never saw we a pleasanter than\n thou or a more courteous.\" And they wept again. \"But tell me more\n clearly,\" asked I, \"what causeth this weeping which maketh my\n gall-bladder[291] like to burst;\" and they answered, \"O our lord and\n master, it is severance which maketh us weep; and thou, and thou only,\n art the cause of our tears. If thou hearken to us we need never be\n parted and if thou hearken not we part for ever; but our hearts tell us\n that thou wilt not listen to our words and this is the cause of our\n tears and cries.\" \"Tell me how the case standeth?\" \"Know, O our lord,\n that we are the daughters of Kings who have met here and have lived\n together for years; and once in every year we are perforce absent for\n forty days and afterwards we return and abide here for the rest of the\n twelvemonth eating and drinking and taking our pleasure and enjoying\n delights: we are about to depart according to our custom; and we fear\n lest after we be gone thou contraire our charge and disobey our\n injunctions. Here now we commit to thee the keys of the palace which\n containeth forty chambers and thou mayest open of these thirty and\n nine, but beware (and we conjure thee by Allah and by the lives of us!)\n lest thou open the fortieth door, for therein is that which shall\n separate us for ever.\"[292] Quoth I, \"Assuredly I will not open it, if\n it contain the cause of severance from you.\" Then one among them came\n up to me and falling on my neck wept and recited these verses:\u2014\n\n \"If Time unite us after absent-while, \u273f The world harsh frowning on our\n lot shall smile;\n And if thy semblance deign adorn mine eyes,[293] \u273f I'll pardon Time\n past wrongs and by-gone guile.\"\n\n And I recited the following:\u2014\n\n \"When drew she near to bid adieu with heart unstrung, \u273f While care and\n longing on that day her bosom wrung;\n Wet pearls she wept and mine like red carnelians rolled \u273f And, joined\n in sad _rivi\u00e8re_, around her neck they hung.\"\n\n When I saw her weeping I said, \"By Allah I will never open that\n fortieth door, never and no wise!\" and I bade her farewell. Thereupon\n all departed flying away like birds; signalling with their hands\n farewells as they went and leaving me alone in the palace. When evening\n drew near I opened the door of the first chamber and entering it found\n myself in a place like one of the pleasaunces of Paradise. It was a\n garden with trees of freshest green and ripe fruits of yellow sheen;\n and its birds were singing clear and keen and rills ran wimpling\n through the fair terrene. The sight and sounds brought solace to my\n sprite; and I walked among the trees, and I smelt the breath of the\n flowers on the breeze; and heard the birdies sing their melodies\n hymning the One, the Almighty in sweetest litanies; and I looked upon\n the apple whose hue is parcel red and parcel yellow; as said the poet:\u2014\n\n Apple whose hue combines in union mellow \u273f My fair's red cheek, her\n hapless lover's yellow.\n\n Then I looked upon the quince, and inhaled its fragrance which putteth\n to shame musk and ambergris, even as the poet hath said:\u2014\n\n Quince every taste conjoins; in her are found \u273f Gifts which for queen\n of fruits the Quince have crowned;\n Her taste is wine, her scent the waft of musk; \u273f Pure gold her hue, her\n shape the Moon's fair round.\n\n Then I looked upon the pear whose taste surpasseth sherbet and sugar;\n and the apricot[294] whose beauty striketh the eye with admiration, as\n if she were a polished ruby. Then I went out of the place and locked\n the door as it was before. When it was the morrow I opened the second\n door; and entering found myself in a spacious plain set with tall\n date-palms and watered by a running stream whose banks were shrubbed\n with bushes of rose and jasmine, while privet and eglantine, oxe-eye,\n violet and lily, narcissus, origane and the winter gilliflower carpeted\n the borders; and the breath of the breeze swept over these\n sweet-smelling growths diffusing their delicious odours right and left,\n perfuming the world and filling my soul with delight. After taking my\n pleasure there awhile I went from it and, having closed the door as it\n was before, opened the third door wherein I saw a high open hall\n pargetted with particoloured marbles and _pietra dura_ of price and\n other precious stones, and hung with cages of sandal-wood and\n eagle-wood; full of birds which made sweet music, such as the\n \"Thousand-voiced,\"[295] and the cushat, the merle, the turtle-dove and\n the Nubian ring-dove. My heart was filled with pleasure thereby; my\n grief was dispelled and I slept in that aviary till dawn. Then I\n unlocked the door of the fourth chamber and therein found a grand\n saloon with forty smaller chambers giving upon it. All their doors\n stood open: so I entered and found them full of pearls and jacinths and\n beryls and emeralds and corals and carbuncles, and all manner precious\n gems and jewels, such as tongue of man may not describe. My thought was\n stunned at the sight and I said to myself, \"These be things methinks\n united which could not be found save in the treasuries of a King of\n Kings, nor could the monarchs of the world have collected the like of\n these!\" And my heart dilated and my sorrows ceased, \"For,\" quoth I,\n \"now verily am I the monarch of the age, since by Allah's grace this\n enormous wealth is mine; and I have forty damsels under my hand nor is\n there any to claim them save myself.\" Then I gave not over opening\n place after place until nine and thirty days were passed and in that\n time I had entered every chamber except that one whose door the\n Princesses had charged me not to open. But my thoughts, O my mistress,\n ever ran on that forbidden fortieth[296] and Satan urged me to open it\n for my own undoing; nor had I patience to forbear, albeit there wanted\n of the trysting time but a single day. So I stood before the chamber\n aforesaid and, after a moment's hesitation, opened the door which was\n plated with red gold, and entered. I was met by a perfume whose like I\n had never before smelt; and so sharp and subtle was the odour that it\n made my senses drunken as with strong wine, and I fell to the ground in\n a fainting fit which lasted a full hour. When I came to myself I\n strengthened my heart and, entering, found myself in a chamber whose\n floor was bespread with saffron and blazing with light from branched\n candelabra of gold and lamps fed with costly oils, which diffused the\n scent of musk and ambergris. I saw there also two great censers each\n big as a mazer-bowl,[297] flaming with lign-aloes, nadd-perfume,[298]\n ambergris and honied scents; and the place was full of their fragrance.\n Presently, O my lady, I espied a noble steed, black as the murks of\n night when murkiest, standing, ready saddled and bridled (and his\n saddle was of red gold) before two mangers, one of clear crystal\n wherein was husked sesame, and the other also of crystal containing\n water of the rose scented with musk. When I saw this I marvelled and\n said to myself, \"Doubtless in this animal must be some wondrous\n mystery;\" and Satan cozened me, so I led him without the palace and\n mounted him; but he would not stir from his place. So I hammered his\n sides with my heels, but he moved not, and then I took the\n rein-whip[299] and struck him withal. When he felt the blow, he neighed\n a neigh with a sound like deafening thunder and, opening a pair of\n wings[300] flew up with me in the firmament of heaven far beyond the\n eyesight of man. After a full hour of flight he descended and alighted\n on a terrace roof and shaking me off his back lashed me on the face\n with his tail and gouged out my left eye causing it roll along my\n cheek. Then he flew away. I went down from the terrace and found myself\n again amongst the ten one-eyed youths sitting upon their ten couches\n with blue covers; and they cried out when they saw me, \"No welcome to\n thee, nor aught of good cheer! We all lived of lives the happiest and\n we ate and drank of the best; upon brocades and cloths of gold we took\n our rest, and we slept with our heads on beauty's breast, but we could\n not await one day to gain the delights of a year!\" Quoth I, \"Behold I\n have become one like unto you and now I would have you bring me a tray\n full of blackness, wherewith to blacken my face, and receive me into\n your society.\" \"No, by Allah,\" quoth they, \"thou shalt not sojourn with\n us and now get thee hence!\" So they drove me away. Finding them reject\n me thus I foresaw that matters would go hard with me, and I remembered\n the many miseries which Destiny had written upon my forehead; and I\n fared forth from among them heavy-hearted and tearful-eyed, repeating\n to myself these words, \"I was sitting at mine ease but my frowardness\n brought me to unease.\" Then I shaved beard and mustachios and eyebrows,\n renouncing the world, and wandered in Kalandar-garb about Allah's\n earth; and the Almighty decreed safety for me till I arrived at\n Baghdad, which was on the evening of this very night. Here I met these\n two other Kalandars standing bewildered; so I saluted them saying, \"I\n am a stranger!\" and they answered, \"And we likewise be strangers!\" By\n the freak of Fortune we were like to like, three Kalandars and three\n monoculars all blind of the left eye. Such, O my lady, is the cause of\n the shearing of my beard and the manner of my losing an eye. Said the\n lady to him, \"Rub thy head and wend thy ways;\" but he answered, \"By\n Allah, I will not go until I hear the stories of these others.\" Then\n the lady, turning towards the Caliph and Ja'afar and Masrur, said to\n them, \"Do ye also give an account of yourselves, you men!\" Whereupon\n Ja'afar stood forth and told her what he had told the portress as they\n were entering the house; and when she heard his story of their being\n merchants and Mosul-men who had outrun the watch, she said, \"I grant\n you your lives each for each sake, and now away with you all.\" So they\n all went out and when they were in the street, quoth the Caliph to the\n Kalandars, \"O company, whither go ye now, seeing that the morning hath\n not yet dawned?\" Quoth they, \"By Allah, O our lord, we know not where\n to go.\" \"Come and pass the rest of the night with us,\" said the Caliph\n and, turning to Ja'afar, \"Take them home with thee and to-morrow bring\n them to my presence that we may chronicle their adventures.\" Ja'afar\n did as the Caliph bade him and the Commander of the Faithful returned\n to his palace; but sleep gave no sign of visiting him that night and he\n lay awake pondering the mishaps of the three Kalandar-princes and\n impatient to know the history of the ladies and the two black bitches.\n No sooner had morning dawned than he went forth and sat upon the throne\n of his sovereignty; and, turning to Ja'afar, after all his Grandees and\n Officers of state were gathered together, he said, \"Bring me the three\n ladies and the two bitches and the three Kalandars.\" So Ja'afar fared\n forth and brought them all before him (and the ladies were veiled);\n then the Minister turned to them and said in the Caliph's name, \"We\n pardon you your maltreatment of us and your want of courtesy, in\n consideration of the kindness which forewent it, and for that ye knew\n us not: now however I would have you to know that ye stand in presence\n of the fifth[301] of the sons of Abbas, Harun al-Rashid, brother of\n Caliph M\u00fas\u00e1 al-H\u00e1di, son of Al-Mans\u00far; son of Mohammed the brother of\n Al-Saff\u00e1h bin Mohammed who was first of the royal house. Speak ye\n therefore before him the truth and the whole truth!\" When the ladies\n heard Ja'afar's words touching the Commander of the Faithful, the\n eldest came forward and said, \"O Prince of True Believers, my story is\n one which, were it graven with needle-gravers upon the eye-corners were\n a warner for whoso would be warned and an example for whoso can take\n profit from example.\"\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and\n ceased to say her permitted say.\n\n Now when it was the Seventeenth Night,\n\n She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that she stood forth\n before the Commander of the Faithful and began to tell\n\n\n _THE ELDEST LADY'S TALE._\n\n Verily a strange tale is mine and 'tis this:\u2014Yon two black bitches are\n my eldest sisters by one mother and father; and these two others, she\n who beareth upon her the signs of stripes and the third our procuratrix\n are my sisters by another mother. When my father died, each took her\n share of the heritage and, after a while my mother also deceased,\n leaving me and my sisters-german three thousand dinars; so each\n daughter received her portion of a thousand dinars and I the same, albe\n the youngest. In due course of time my sisters married with the usual\n festivities and lived with their husbands, who bought merchandise with\n their wives' monies and set out on their travels together. Thus they\n threw me off. My brothers-in-law were absent with their wives five\n years, during which period they spent all the money they had and,\n becoming bankrupt, deserted my sisters in foreign parts amid stranger\n folk. After five years my eldest sister returned to me in beggar's gear\n with her clothes in rags and tatters[302] and a dirty old\n mantilla;[303] and truly she was in the foulest and sorriest plight. At\n first sight I did not know my own sister; but presently I recognised\n her and said \"What state is this?\" \"O our sister,\" she replied, \"Words\n cannot undo the done; and the reed of Destiny hath run through what\n Allah decreed.\" Then I sent her to the bath and dressed her in a suit\n of mine own, and boiled for her a bouillon and brought her some good\n wine and said to her, \"O my sister, thou art the eldest, who still\n standest to us in the stead of father and mother; and, as for the\n inheritance which came to me as to you twain, Allah hath blessed it and\n prospered it to me with increase; and my circumstances are easy, for I\n have made much money by spinning and cleaning silk; and I and you will\n share my wealth alike.\" I entreated her with all kindliness and she\n abode with me a whole year, during which our thoughts and fancies were\n always full of our other sister. Shortly after she too came home in yet\n fouler and sorrier plight than that of my eldest sister; and I dealt by\n her still more honorably than I had done by the first, and each of them\n had a share of my substance. After a time they said to me, \"O our\n sister, we desire to marry again, for indeed we have not patience to\n drag on our days without husbands and to lead the lives of widows\n bewitched;\" and I replied, \"O eyes of me![304] ye have hitherto seen\n scanty weal in wedlock, for now-a-days good men and true are become\n rareties and curiosities; nor do I deem your projects advisable, as ye\n have already made trial of matrimony and have failed.\" But they would\n not accept my advice and married without my consent: nevertheless I\n gave them outfit and dowries out of my money; and they fared forth with\n their mates. In a mighty little time their husbands played them false\n and, taking whatever they could lay hands upon, levanted and left them\n in the lurch. Thereupon they came to me ashamed and in abject case and\n made their excuses to me, saying, \"Pardon our fault and be not wroth\n with us;[305] for although thou art younger in years yet art thou older\n in wit; henceforth we will never make mention of marriage; so take us\n back as thy handmaidens that we may eat our mouthful.\" Quoth I,\n \"Welcome to you, O my sisters, there is naught dearer to me than you.\"\n And I took them in and redoubled my kindness to them. We ceased not to\n live after this loving fashion for a full year, when I resolved to sell\n my wares abroad and first to fit me a conveyance for Bassorah; so I\n equipped a large ship, and loaded her with merchandise and valuable\n goods for traffic, and with provaunt and all needful for a voyage, and\n said to my sisters, \"Will ye abide at home whilst I travel, or would ye\n prefer to accompany me on the voyage?\" \"We will travel with thee,\"\n answered they, \"for we cannot bear to be parted from thee.\" So I\n divided my monies into two parts, one to accompany me and the other to\n be left in charge of a trusty person, for, as I said to myself, \"Haply\n some accident may happen to the ship and yet we remain alive; in which\n case we shall find on our return what may stand us in good stead.\" I\n took my two sisters and we went a-voyaging some days and nights; but\n the master was careless enough to miss his course, and the ship went\n astray with us and entered a sea other than the sea we sought. For a\n time we knew naught of this; and the wind blew fair for us ten days,\n after which the look-out man went aloft to see about him and cried,\n \"Good news!\" Then he came down rejoicing and said, \"I have seen what\n seemeth to be a city as 'twere a pigeon.\" Hereat we rejoiced and, ere\n an hour of the day had passed, the buildings showed plain in the offing\n and we asked the Captain, \"What is the name of yonder city?\" and he\n answered, \"By Allah I wot not, for I never saw it before and never\n sailed these seas in my life: but, since our troubles have ended in\n safety, remains for you only to land there with your merchandise and,\n if you find selling profitable, sell and make your market of what is\n there; and if not, we will rest here two days and provision ourselves\n and fare away.\" So we entered the port and the Captain went up town and\n was absent awhile, after which he returned to us and said, \"Arise; go\n up into the city and marvel at the works of Allah with His creatures\n and pray to be preserved from His righteous wrath!\" So we landed and\n going up into the city, saw at the gate men hending staves in hand; but\n when we drew near them, behold, they had been translated[306] by the\n anger of Allah and had become stones. Then we entered the city and\n found all who therein woned into black stones enstoned: not an\n inhabited house appeared to the espier, nor was there a blower of\n fire.[307] We were awe struck at the sight and threaded the market\n streets where we found the goods and gold and silver left lying in\n their places; and we were glad and said, \"Doubtless there is some\n mystery in all this.\" Then we dispersed about the thoroughfares and\n each busied himself with collecting the wealth and money and rich\n stuffs, taking scanty heed of friend or comrade. As for myself I went\n up to the castle which was strongly fortified; and, entering the King's\n palace by its gate of red gold, found all the vaiselle of gold and\n silver, and the King himself seated in the midst of his Chamberlains\n and Nabobs and Emirs and Wazirs; all clad in raiment which confounded\n man's art. I drew nearer and saw him sitting on a throne incrusted and\n inlaid with pearls and gems; and his robes were of gold-cloth adorned\n with jewels of every kind, each one flashing like a star. Around him\n stood fifty Mamelukes, white slaves, clothed in silks of divers sorts\n holding their drawn swords in their hands; but when I drew near to them\n lo! all were black stones. My understanding was confounded at the\n sight, but I walked on and entered the great hall of the Har\u00edm,[308]\n whose walls I found hung with tapestries of gold-striped silk and\n spread with silken carpets embroidered with golden flowers. Here I saw\n the Queen lying at full length arrayed in robes purfled with fresh\n young[309] pearls; on her head was a diadem set with many sorts of gems\n each fit for a ring[310] and around her neck hung collars and\n necklaces. All her raiment and her ornaments were in natural state but\n she had been turned into a black stone by Allah's wrath. Presently I\n espied an open door for which I made straight and found leading to it a\n flight of seven steps. So I walked up and came upon a place pargetted\n with marble and spread and hung with gold-worked carpets and tapestry,\n amiddlemost of which stood a throne of juniper-wood inlaid with pearls\n and precious stones and set with bosses of emeralds. In the further\n wall was an alcove whose curtains, bestrung with pearls, were let down\n and I saw a light issuing therefrom; so I drew near and perceived that\n the light came from a precious stone as big as an ostrich-egg, set at\n the upper end of the alcove upon a little chryselephantine couch of\n ivory and gold; and this jewel, blazing like the sun, cast its rays\n wide and side. The couch also was spread with all manner of silken\n stuffs amazing the gazer with their richness and beauty. I marvelled\n much at all this, especially when seeing in that place candles ready\n lighted; and I said in my mind, \"Needs must some one have lighted these\n candles.\" Then I went forth and came to the kitchen and thence to the\n buttery and the King's treasure-chambers; and continued to explore the\n palace and to pace from place to place; I forgot myself in my awe and\n marvel at these matters and I was drowned in thought till the night\n came on. Then I would have gone forth, but knowing not the gate I lost\n my way, so I returned to the alcove whither the lighted candles\n directed me and sat down upon the couch; and wrapping myself in a\n coverlet, after I had repeated somewhat from the Koran, I would have\n slept but could not, for restlessness possessed me. When night was at\n its noon I heard a voice chanting the Koran in sweetest accents; but\n the tone thereof was weak; so I rose, glad to hear the silence broken,\n and followed the sound until I reached a closet whose door stood ajar.\n Then peeping through a chink I considered the place and lo! it was an\n oratory wherein was a prayer-niche[311] with two wax candles burning\n and lamps hanging from the ceiling. In it too was spread a\n prayer-carpet whereupon sat a youth fair to see; and before him on its\n stand[312] was a copy of the Koran, from which he was reading. I\n marvelled to see him alone alive amongst the people of the city and\n entering saluted him; whereupon he raised his eyes and returned my\n salam. Quoth I, \"Now by the Truth of what thou readest in Allah's Holy\n Book, I conjure thee to answer my question.\" He looked upon me with a\n smile and said, \"O handmaid of Allah, first tell me the cause of thy\n coming hither, and I in turn will tell what hath befallen both me and\n the people of this city, and what was the reason of my escaping their\n doom.\" So I told him my story whereat he wondered; and I questioned him\n of the people of the city, when he replied, \"Have patience with me for\n awhile, O my sister!\" and, reverently closing the Holy Book, he laid it\n up in a satin bag. Then he seated me by his side; and I looked at him\n and behold, he was as the moon at its full, fair of face and rare of\n form, soft-sided and slight, of well-proportioned height, and cheek\n smoothly bright and diffusing light; in brief a sweet, a\n sugar-stick,[313] even as saith the poet of the like of him in these\n couplets:\u2014\n\n That night th' astrologer a scheme of planets drew, \u273f And lo! a\n graceful shape of youth appeared in view:\n Saturn had stained his locks with Saturninest jet, \u273f And spots of\n nut-brown musk on rosy side-face blew:[314]\n Mars tinctured either cheek with tinct of martial red; \u273f Sagittal shots\n from eyelids Sagittarius threw:\n Dowered him Mercury with bright mercurial wit; \u273f Bore off the Bear[315]\n what all man's evil glances grew:\n Amazed stood Astrophil to sight the marvel-birth \u273f When louted low the\n Moon at full to buss the Earth.\n\n And of a truth Allah the Most High had robed him in the raiment of\n perfect grace and had purfled and fringed it with a cheek all beauty\n and loveliness, even as the poet saith of such an one:\u2014\n\n By his eyelids shedding perfume and his fine slim waist I swear, \u273f By\n the shooting of his shafts barbed with sorcery passing rare;\n By the softness of his sides,[316] and glances' lingering light; \u273f And\n brow of dazzling day-tide ray and night within his hair;\n By his eyebrows which deny to who look upon them rest, \u273f Now bidding\n now forbidding, ever dealing joy and care;\n By the rose that decks his cheek, and the myrtle of its moss;[317] \u273f By\n jacinths bedded in his lips and pearl his smile lays bare;\n By his graceful bending neck and the curving of his breast; \u273f Whose\n polished surface beareth those granados, lovely pair;\n By his heavy hips that quiver as he passeth in his pride; \u273f Or he\n resteth with that waist which is slim beyond compare;\n By the satin of his skin, by that fine unsullied sprite; \u273f By the\n beauty that containeth all things bright and debonnair;\n By that ever-open hand; by the candour of his tongue; \u273f By noble blood\n and high degree whereof he's hope and heir;\n Musk from him borrows muskiness she loveth to exhale; \u273f And all the\n airs of ambergris through him perfume the air;\n The sun, methinks, the broad bright sun, before my love would pale; \u273f\n And sans his splendour would appear a paring of his nail.[318]\n\n I glanced at him with one glance of eyes which caused me a thousand\n sighs; and my heart was at once taken captive-wise; so I asked him, \"O\n my lord and my love, tell me that whereof I questioned thee;\" and he\n answered, \"Hearing is obeying! Know, O handmaid of Allah, that this\n city was the capital of my father who is the King thou sawest on the\n throne transfigured by Allah's wrath to a black stone, and the Queen\n thou foundest in the alcove is my mother. They and all the people of\n the city were Magians who fire adored in lieu of the Omnipotent\n Lord[319] and were wont to swear by lowe and heat and shade and light,\n and the spheres revolving day and night. My father had ne'er a son till\n he was blest with me near the last of his days; and he reared me till I\n grew up and prosperity anticipated me in all things. Now it so fortuned\n there was with us an old woman well stricken in years, a Moslemah who,\n inwardly believing in Allah and His Apostle, conformed outwardly with\n the religion of my people; and my father placed thorough confidence in\n her for that he knew her to be trustworthy and virtuous; and he treated\n her with ever-increasing kindness believing her to be of his own\n belief. So when I was well-nigh grown up my father committed me to her\n charge saying:\u2014Take him and educate him and teach him the rules of our\n faith; let him have the best instructions and cease not thy fostering\n care of him. So she took me and taught me the tenets of Al-Islam with\n the divine ordinances[320] of the Wuzu-ablution and the five daily\n prayers and she made me learn the Koran by rote, often repeating:\u2014Serve\n none save Allah Almighty! When I had mastered this much of knowledge\n she said to me:\u2014O my son, keep this matter concealed from thy sire and\n reveal naught to him lest he slay thee. So I hid it from him and I\n abode on this wise for a term of days when the old woman died, and the\n people of the city redoubled in their impiety[321] and arrogance and\n the error of their ways. One day, while they were as wont, behold, they\n heard a loud and terrible sound and a crier crying out with a voice\n like roaring thunder so every ear could hear, far and near:\u2014O folk of\n this city leave ye your fire-worshipping and adore Allah the\n All-compassionate King! At this, fear and terror fell upon the citizens\n and they crowded to my father (he being King of the city) and asked\n him:\u2014What is this awesome voice we have heard, for it hath confounded\n us with the excess of its terror?; and he answered:\u2014Let not a voice\n fright you nor shake your steadfast sprite nor turn you back from the\n faith which is right. Their hearts inclined to his words and they\n ceased not to worship the fire and they persisted in rebellion for a\n full year from the time they heard the first voice; and on the\n anniversary came a second cry and a third at the head of the third\n year, each year once. Still they persisted in their malpractices till\n one day at break of dawn, judgment and the wrath of Heaven descended\n upon them with all suddenness, and by the visitation of Allah all were\n metamorphosed into black stones,[322] they and their beasts and their\n cattle; and none was saved save myself who at the time was engaged in\n my devotions. From that day to this I am in the case thou seest,\n constant in prayer and fasting and reading and reciting the Koran; but\n I am indeed grown weary by reason of my loneliness, having none to bear\n me company.\" Then said I to him (for in very sooth he had won my heart\n and was the lord of my life and soul), \"O youth, wilt thou fare with me\n to Baghdad city and visit the Olema and men learned in the law and\n doctors of divinity and get thee increase of wisdom and understanding\n and theology? And know that she who standeth in thy presence will be\n thy handmaid, albeit she be head of her family and mistress over men\n and eunuchs and servants and slaves. Indeed my life was no life before\n it fell in with thy youth. I have here a ship laden with merchandise;\n and in very truth Destiny drove me to this city that I might come to\n the knowledge of these matters, for it was fated that we should meet.\n And I ceased not to persuade him and speak him fair and use every art\n till he consented.\"\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased\n to say her permitted say.\n\n Now when it was the Eighteenth Night,\n\n She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the lady\n ceased not persuading with soft speech the youth to depart with her\n till he consented and said \"Yes.\" She slept that night lying at his\n feet and hardly knowing where she was for excess of joy. As soon as the\n next morning dawned (she pursued, addressing the Caliph), I arose and\n we entered the treasuries and took thence whatever was light in weight\n and great in worth; then we went down side by side from the castle to\n the city, where we were met by the Captain and my sisters and slaves\n who had been seeking for me. When they saw me they rejoiced and asked\n what had stayed me, and I told them all I had seen and related to them\n the story of the young Prince and the transformation wherewith the\n citizens had been justly visited. Hereat all marvelled, but when my two\n sisters (these two bitches, O Commander of the Faithful!) saw me by the\n side of my young lover they jaloused me on his account and were wroth\n and plotted mischief against me. We awaited a fair wind and went on\n board rejoicing and ready to fly for joy by reason of the goods we had\n gotten, but my own greatest joyance was in the youth; and we waited\n awhile till the wind blew fair for us and then we set sail and fared\n forth. Now as we sat talking, my sisters asked me, \"And what wilt thou\n do with this handsome young man?\"; and I answered, \"I purpose to make\n him my husband!\" Then I turned to him and said, \"O my lord, I have that\n to propose to thee wherein thou must not cross me; and this it is that,\n when we reach Baghdad, my native city, I offer thee my life as thy\n handmaiden in holy matrimony, and thou shalt be to me baron and I will\n be femme to thee.\" He answered, \"I hear and I obey!; thou art my lady\n and my mistress and whatso thou doest I will not gainsay.\" Then I\n turned to my sisters and said, \"This is my gain; I content me with this\n youth and those who have gotten aught of my property let them keep it\n as their gain with my good will.\" \"Thou sayest and doest well,\"\n answered the twain, but they imagined mischief against me. We ceased\n not spooning before a fair wind till we had exchanged the sea of peril\n for the seas of safety and, in a few days, we made Bassorah-city, whose\n buildings loomed clear before us as evening fell. But after we had\n retired to rest and were sound asleep, my two sisters arose and took me\n up, bed and all, and threw me into the sea: they did the same with the\n young Prince who, as he could not swim, sank and was drowned and Allah\n enrolled him in the noble army of Martyrs.[323] As for me would Heaven\n I had been drowned with him, but Allah deemed that I should be of the\n saved; so when I awoke and found myself in the sea and saw the ship\n making off like a flash of lightning, He threw in my way a piece of\n timber which I bestrided, and the waves tossed me to and fro till they\n cast me upon an island coast, a high land and an uninhabited. I landed\n and walked about the island the rest of the night and, when morning\n dawned, I saw a rough track barely fit for child of Adam to tread,\n leading to what proved a shallow ford connecting island and mainland.\n As soon as the sun had risen I spread my garments to dry in its rays;\n and ate of the fruits of the island and drank of its waters; then I set\n out along the foot-track and ceased not walking till I reached the\n mainland. Now when there remained between me and the city but a two\n hours' journey behold, a great serpent, the bigness of a date-palm,\n came fleeing towards me in all haste, gliding along now to the right\n then to the left till she was close upon me, whilst her tongue lolled\n ground-wards a span long and swept the dust as she went. She was\n pursued by a Dragon[324] who was not longer than two lances, and of\n slender build about the bulk of a spear and, although her terror lent\n her speed, and she kept wriggling from side to side, he overtook her\n and seized her by the tail, whereat her tears streamed down and her\n tongue was thrust out in her agony. I took pity on her and, picking up\n a stone and calling upon Allah for aid, threw it at the Dragon's head\n with such force that he died then and there; and the serpent opening a\n pair of wings flew into the lift and disappeared from before my eyes. I\n sat down marvelling over that adventure, but I was weary and,\n drowsiness overcoming me, I slept where I was for a while. When I awoke\n I found a jet-black damsel sitting at my feet shampooing them; and by\n her side stood two black bitches (my sisters, O Commander of the\n Faithful!). I was ashamed before her[325] and, sitting up, asked her,\n \"O my sister, who and what art thou?\"; and she answered, \"How soon hast\n thou forgotten me! I am she for whom thou wroughtest a good deed and\n sowedest the seed of gratitude and slewest her foe; for I am the\n serpent whom by Allah's aidance thou didst just now deliver from the\n Dragon. I am a Jinniyah and he was a Jinn who hated me, and none saved\n my life from him save thou. As soon as thou freedest me from him I flew\n on the wind to the ship whence thy sisters threw thee, and removed all\n that was therein to thy house. Then I ordered my attendant Marids to\n sink the ship and I transformed thy two sisters into these black\n bitches; for I know all that hath passed between them and thee; but as\n for the youth, of a truth he is drowned. So saying she flew up with me\n and the bitches, and presently set us down on the terrace-roof of my\n house, wherein I found ready stored the whole of what property was in\n my ship, nor was aught of it missing. Now (continued the serpent that\n was), I swear by all engraven on the seal-ring of Solomon[326] (with\n whom be peace!) unless thou deal to each of these bitches three hundred\n stripes every day I will come and imprison thee for ever under the\n earth.\" I answered, \"Hearkening and obedience!\"; and away she flew. But\n before going she again charged me saying, \"I again swear by Him who\n made the two seas flow[327] (and this be my second oath) if thou\n gainsay me I will come and transform thee like thy sisters.\" Since then\n I have never failed, O Commander of the Faithful, to beat them with\n that number of blows till their blood flows with my tears, I pitying\n them the while, and well they wot that their being scourged is no fault\n of mine and they accept my excuses. And this is my tale and my history!\n The Caliph marvelled at her adventures and then signed to Ja'afar who\n said to the second lady, the Portress, \"And thou, how camest thou by\n the welts and wheals upon thy body?\" So she began the\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n _TALE OF THE PORTRESS._\n\n Know, O Commander of the Faithful, that I had a father who, after\n fulfilling his time, deceased and left me great store of wealth. I\n remained single for a short time and presently married one of the\n richest of his day. I abode with him a year when he also died, and my\n share of his property amounted to eighty thousand dinars in gold\n according to the holy law of inheritance.[328] Thus I became passing\n rich and my reputation spread far and wide, for I had made me ten\n changes of raiment, each worth a thousand dinars. One day as I was\n sitting at home, behold, there came in to me an old woman[329] with\n lantern jaws and cheeks sucked in, and eyes rucked up, and eyebrows\n scant and scald, and head bare and bald; and teeth broken by time and\n mauled, and back bending and neck-nape nodding, and face blotched, and\n rheum running, and hair like a snake black-and-white-speckled, in\n complexion a very fright, even as saith the poet of the like of her:\u2014\n\n Ill-omened hag! unshriven be her sins \u273f Nor mercy visit her on dying\n bed:\n Thousand head-strongest he-mules would her guiles, \u273f Despite their\n bolting, lead with spider thread.\n\n And as saith another:\u2014\n\n A hag to whom th' unlawful lawfullest \u273f And witchcraft wisdom in her\n sight are grown:\n A mischief-making brat, a demon-maid, \u273f A whorish woman and a pimping\n crone.[330]\n\n When the old woman entered she salamed to me and kissing the ground\n before me, said, \"I have at home an orphan daughter and this night are\n her wedding and her displaying.[331] We be poor folks and strangers in\n this city knowing none inhabitant and we are broken-hearted. So do thou\n earn for thyself a recompense and a reward in Heaven by being present\n at her displaying and, when the ladies of this city shall hear that\n thou art to make act of presence, they also will present themselves; so\n shalt thou comfort her affliction, for she is sore bruised in spirit\n and she hath none to look to save Allah the Most High.\" Then she wept\n and kissed my feet reciting these couplets:\u2014\n\n Thy presence bringeth us a grace \u273f We own before thy winsome face:\n And wert thou absent ne'er an one \u273f Could stand in stead or take thy\n place.\n\n So pity gat hold on me and compassion and I said, \"Hearing is\n consenting and, please Allah, I will do somewhat more for her; nor\n shall she be shown to her bridegroom save in my raiment and ornaments\n and jewelry.\" At this the old woman rejoiced and bowed her head to my\n feet and kissed them, saying, \"Allah requite thee weal, and comfort thy\n heart even as thou has comforted mine! But, O my lady, do not trouble\n thyself to do me this service at this hour; be thou ready by\n supper-time,[332] when I will come and fetch thee.\" So saying she\n kissed my hand and went her ways. I set about stringing my pearls and\n donning my brocades and making my toilette, little recking what Fortune\n had in womb for me, when suddenly the old woman stood before me,\n simpering and smiling till she showed every tooth stump, and quoth she,\n \"O my mistress, the city madams have arrived and when I apprized them\n that thou promisedst to be present, they were glad and they are now\n awaiting thee and looking eagerly for thy coming and for the honour of\n meeting thee.\" So I threw on my mantilla and, making the old crone walk\n before me and my handmaidens behind me, I fared till we came to a\n street well watered and swept neat, where the winnowing breeze blew\n cool and sweet. Here we were stopped by a gate arched over with a dome\n of marble stone firmly seated on solidest foundation, and leading to a\n Palace whose walls from earth rose tall and proud, and whose pinnacle\n was crowned by the clouds,[333] and over the doorway were writ these\n couplets:\u2014\n\n I am the wone where Mirth shall ever smile; \u273f The home of Joyance\n through my lasting while:\n And 'mid my court a fountain jets and flows, \u273f Nor tears nor troubles\n shall that fount defile:\n The marge with royal Nu'uman's[334] bloom is dight, \u273f Myrtle,\n Narcissus-flower and Chamomile.\n\n Arrived at the gate, before which hung a black curtain, the old woman\n knocked and it was opened to us; when we entered and found a vestibule\n spread with carpets and hung around with lamps all alight and wax\n candles in candelabra adorned with pendants of precious gems and noble\n ores. We passed on through this passage till we entered a saloon, whose\n like for grandeur and beauty is not to be found in this world. It was\n hung and carpeted with silken stuffs, and was illuminated with\n branches, sconces and tapers ranged in double row, an avenue abutting\n on the upper or noble end of the saloon, where stood a couch of\n juniper-wood encrusted with pearls and gems and surmounted by a\n baldaquin with mosquito-curtains of satin looped up with margarites.\n And hardly had we taken note of this when there came forth from the\n baldaquin a young lady and I looked, O Commander of the Faithful, upon\n a face and form more perfect than the moon when fullest, with a favour\n brighter than the dawn gleaming with saffron-hued light, even as the\n poet sang when he said:\u2014\n\n Thou pacest the palace a marvel-sight, \u273f A bride for a Kisr\u00e1's or\n Kaisar's night!\n Wantons the rose on thy roseate cheek, \u273f O cheek as the blood of the\n dragon[335] bright!\n Slim-waisted, languorous, sleepy-eyed, \u273f With charms which promise all\n love-delight:\n And the tire which attires thy tiara'd brow \u273f Is a night of woe on a\n morn's glad light.\n\n The fair young girl came down from the estrade and said to me, \"Welcome\n and well come and good cheer to my sister, the dearly-beloved, the\n illustrious, and a thousand greetings!\" Then she recited these\n couplets:\u2014\n\n An but the house could know who cometh 'twould rejoice, \u273f And kiss the\n very dust whereon thy foot was placed;\n And with the tongue of circumstance the walls would say, \u273f \"Welcome and\n hail to one with generous gifts engraced!\"\n\n Then sat she down and said to me, \"O my sister, I have a brother who\n hath had sight of thee at sundry wedding-feasts and festive seasons: he\n is a youth handsomer than I, and he hath fallen desperately in love\n with thee, for that bounteous Destiny hath garnered in thee all beauty\n and perfection; and he hath given silver to this old woman that she\n might visit thee; and she hath contrived on this wise to foregather us\n twain. He hath heard that thou art one of the nobles of thy tribe nor\n is he aught less in his; and, being desirous to ally his lot with thy\n lot, he hath practised this device to bring me in company with thee;\n for he is fain to marry thee after the ordinance of Allah and his\n Apostle; and in what is lawful and right there is no shame.\" When I\n heard these words and saw myself fairly entrapped in the house, I said,\n \"Hearing is consenting.\" She was delighted at this and clapped her\n hands;[336] whereupon a door opened and out of it came a young man\n blooming in the prime of life, exquisitely dressed, a model of beauty\n and loveliness and symmetry and perfect grace, with gentle winning\n manners and eyebrows like a bended bow and shaft on cord, and eyes\n which bewitched all hearts with sorcery lawful in the sight of the\n Lord; even as saith some rhymer describing the like of him:\u2014\n\n His face as the face of the young moon shines \u273f And Fortune stamps him\n with pearls for signs.[337]\n\n And Allah favour him who said:\u2014\n\n Blest be his beauty; blest the Lord's decree \u273f Who cast and shaped a\n thing so bright of blee:\n All gifts of beauty he conjoins in one; \u273f Lost in his love is all\n humanity;\n For Beauty's self inscribed on his brow \u273f \"I testify there be no Good\n but he!\"[338]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n When I looked at him my heart inclined to him and I loved him; and he\n sat by my side and talked with me a while, when the young lady again\n clapped her hands and behold, a side-door opened and out of it came the\n Kazi with his four assessors as witnesses; and they saluted us and,\n sitting down, drew up and wrote out the marriage-contract between me\n and the youth and retired. Then he turned to me and said, \"Be our night\n blessed,\" presently adding, \"O my lady, I have a condition to lay on\n thee.\" Quoth I, \"O my lord, what is that?\" Whereupon he arose and\n fetching a copy of the Holy Book presented it to me saying, \"Swear\n hereon thou wilt never look at any other than myself nor incline thy\n body or thy heart to him.\" I swore readily enough to this and he joyed\n with exceeding joy and embraced me round the neck while love for him\n possessed my whole heart. Then they set the table[339] before us and we\n ate and drank till we were satisfied; but I was dying for the coming of\n the night. And when night did come he led me to the bride-chamber and\n slept with me on the bed and continued to kiss and embrace me till the\n morning\u2014such a night I had never seen in my dreams. I lived with him a\n life of happiness and delight for a full month, at the end of which I\n asked his leave[340] to go on foot to the bazar and buy me certain\n especial stuffs and he gave me permission. So I donned my mantilla and,\n taking with me the old woman and a slave-girl,[341] I went to the khan\n of the silk-mercers, where I seated myself in the shop-front of a young\n merchant whom the old woman recommended, saying to me, \"This youth's\n father died when he was a boy and left him great store of wealth: he\n hath by him a mighty fine[342] stock of goods and thou wilt find what\n thou seekest with him, for none in the bazar hath better stuffs than\n he.\" Then she said to him, \"Show this lady the most costly stuffs thou\n hast by thee;\" and he replied, \"Hearkening and obedience!\" Then she\n whispered me, \"Say a civil word to him!\"; but I replied, \"I am pledged\n to address no man save my lord.\" And as she began to sound his praise I\n said sharply to her, \"We want nought of thy sweet speeches; our wish is\n to buy of him whatsoever we need, and return home.\" So he brought me\n all I sought and I offered him his money, but he refused to take it\n saying, \"Let it be a gift offered to my guest this day!\" Then quoth I\n to the old woman, \"If he will not take the money, give him back his\n stuff.\" \"By Allah,\" cried he, \"not a thing will I take from thee: I\n sell it not for gold or for silver, but I give it all as a gift for a\n single kiss; a kiss more precious to me than everything the shop\n containeth.\" Asked the old woman, \"What will the kiss profit thee?\";\n and, turning to me, whispered, \"O my daughter, thou hearest what this\n young fellow saith? What harm will it do thee if he get a kiss from\n thee and thou gettest what thou seekest at that price?\" Replied I, \"I\n take refuge with Allah from such action! Knowest thou not that I am\n bound by an oath?\"[343] But she answered, \"Now whist! just let him kiss\n thee and neither speak to him nor lean over him, so shalt thou keep\n thine oath and thy silver, and no harm whatever shall befal thee.\" And\n she ceased not to persuade me and importune me and make light of the\n matter till evil entered into my mind and I put my head in the\n poke[344] and, declaring I would ne'er consent, consented. So I veiled\n my eyes and held up the edge of my mantilla between me and the people\n passing and he put his mouth to my cheek under the veil. But while\n kissing me he bit me so hard a bite that it tore the flesh from my\n cheek,[345] and blood flowed fast and faintness came over me. The old\n woman caught me in her arms and, when I came to myself, I found the\n shop shut up and her sorrowing over me and saying \"Thank Allah for\n averting which might have been worse!\" Then she said to me, \"Come, take\n heart and let us go home before the matter become public and thou be\n dishonoured. And when thou art safe inside the house feign sickness and\n lie down and cover thyself up; and I will bring thee powders and\n plasters to cure this bite withal, and thy wound will be healed at the\n latest in three days.\" So after a while I arose and I was in extreme\n distress and terror came full upon me; but I went on little by little\n till I reached the house when I pleaded illness and lay me down. When\n it was night my husband came in to me and said, \"What hath befallen\n thee, O my darling, in this excursion of thine?\"; and I replied, \"I am\n not well: my head acheth badly.\" Then he lighted a candle and drew near\n me and looked hard at me and asked, \"What is that wound I see on thy\n cheek and in the tenderest part too?\" And I answered, \"When I went out\n to-day with thy leave to buy stuffs, a camel laden with firewood\n jostled me and one of the pieces tore my veil and wounded my cheek as\n thou seest; for indeed the ways of this city are strait.\" \"To-morrow,\"\n cried he, \"I will go complain to the Governor, so shall he gibbet every\n fuel-seller in Baghdad.\" \"Allah upon thee,\" said I, \"burden not thy\n soul with such sin against any man. The fact is I was riding on an ass\n and it stumbled, throwing me to the ground; and my cheek lighted upon a\n stick or a bit of glass and got this wound.\" \"Then,\" said he,\n \"to-morrow I will go up to Ja'afar the Barmaki and tell him the story,\n so shall he kill every donkey-boy in Baghdad.\" \"Wouldst thou destroy\n all these men because of my wound,\" said I, \"when this which befel me\n was by decree of Allah and His destiny?\" But he answered, \"There is no\n help for it;\" and, springing to his feet, plied me with words and\n pressed me till I was perplexed and frightened; and I stuttered and\n stammered and my speech waxed thick and I said, \"This is a mere\n accident by decree of Allah.\" Then, O Commander of the Faithful, he\n guessed my case and said, \"Thou hast been false to thine oath.\" He at\n once cried out with a loud cry, whereupon a door opened and in came\n seven black slaves whom he commanded to drag me from my bed and throw\n me down in the middle of the room. Furthermore, he ordered one of them\n to pinion my elbows and squat upon my head; and a second to sit upon my\n knees and secure my feet; and drawing his sword he gave it to a third\n and said, \"Strike her, O Sa'ad, and cut her in twain and let each one\n take half and cast it into the Tigris[346] that the fish may eat her;\n for such is the retribution due to those who violate their vows and are\n unfaithful to their love.\" And he redoubled in wrath and recited these\n couplets:\u2014\n\n An there be one who shares with me her love, \u273f I'd strangle Love tho'\n life by Love were slain;\n Saying, O Soul, Death were the nobler choice, \u273f For ill is Love when\n shared 'twixt partners twain.\n\n Then he repeated to the slave, \"Smite her, O Sa'ad!\" And when the slave\n who was sitting upon me made sure of the command he bent down to me and\n said, \"O my mistress, repeat the profession of Faith and bethink thee\n if there be any thing thou wouldst have done; for verily this is the\n last hour of thy life.\" \"O good slave,\" said I, \"wait but a little\n while and get off my head that I may charge thee with my last\n injunctions.\" Then I raised my head and saw the state I was in, how I\n had fallen from high degree into lowest disgrace; and into death after\n life (and such life!) and how I had brought my punishment on myself by\n my own sin; whereupon the tears streamed from mine eyes and I wept with\n exceeding weeping. But he looked on me with eyes of wrath, and began\n repeating:\u2014\n\n Tell her who turneth from our love to work it injury sore, \u273f And taketh\n her a fine new love the old love tossing o'er:\n We cry enough o' thee ere thou enough of us shalt cry! \u273f What past\n between us doth suffice and haply something more.[347]\n\n When I heard this, O Commander of the Faithful, I wept and looked at\n him and began repeating these couplets:\u2014\n\n To severance you doom my love and all unmoved remain; \u273f My tear-sore\n lids you sleepless make and sleep while I complain:\n You make firm friendship reign between mine eyes and insomny; \u273f Yet can\n my heart forget you not, nor tears can I restrain:\n You made me swear with many an oath my troth to hold for aye; \u273f But\n when you reigned my bosom's lord you wrought me traitor-bane:\n I loved you like a silly child who wots not what is Love; \u273f Then spare\n the learner, let her not be by the master slain!\n By Allah's name I pray you write, when I am dead and gone, \u273f Upon my\n tomb, This died of Love whose senses Love had ta'en:\n Then haply one shall pass that way who fire of Love hath felt, \u273f And\n treading on a lover's heart with ruth and woe shall melt.\n\n When I ended my verses tears came again; but the poetry and the weeping\n only added fury to his fury, and he recited:\u2014\n\n 'Twas not satiety bade me leave the dearling of my soul, \u273f But that she\n sinned a mortal sin which clipt me in its clip:\n She sought to let another share the love between us twain, \u273f But my\n True Faith of Unity refuseth partnership.[348]\n\n When he ceased reciting I wept again and prayed his pardon and humbled\n myself before him and spoke him softly, saying to myself, \"I will work\n on him with words; so haply he will refrain from slaying me, even\n though he take all I have.\" So I complained of my sufferings and began\n to repeat these couplets:\u2014\n\n Now, by thy life and wert thou just my life thou hadst not ta'en, \u273f But\n who can break the severance-law which parteth lovers twain!\n Thou loadest me with heavy weight of longing love, when I \u273f Can hardly\n bear my chemisette for weakness and for pain:\n I marvel not to see my life and soul in ruin Iain \u273f I marvel much to\n see my frame such severance-pangs sustain.\n\n When I ended my verse I wept again; and he looked at me and reviled me\n in abusive language,[349] repeating these couplets:\u2014\n\n Thou wast all taken up with love of other man, not me; \u273f 'Twas thine to\n show me severance-face, 'twas only mine to see:\n I'll leave thee for that first thou wast of me to take thy leave \u273f And\n patient bear that parting blow thou borest so patiently:\n E'en as thou soughtest other love, so other love I'll seek, \u273f And make\n the crime of murdering love thine own atrocity.\n\n When he had ended his verses he again cried out to the slave, \"Cut her\n in half and free us from her, for we have no profit of her.\" So the\n slave drew near me, O Commander of the Faithful, and I ceased bandying\n verses and made sure of death and, despairing of life, committed my\n affairs to Almighty Allah, when behold, the old woman rushed in and\n threw herself at my husband's feet and kissed them and wept and said,\n \"O my son, by the rights of my fosterage and by my long service to\n thee, I conjure thee pardon this young lady, for indeed she hath done\n nothing deserving such doom. Thou art a very young man and I fear lest\n her death be laid at thy door; for it is said:\u2014Whoso slayeth shall be\n slain. As for this wanton (since thou deemest her such) drive her out\n from thy doors, from thy love and from thy heart.\" And she ceased not\n to weep and importune him till he relented and said, \"I pardon her, but\n needs must I set on her my mark which shall show upon her all her\n life.\" Then he bade the slaves drag me along the ground and lay me out\n at full length, after stripping me of all my clothes;[350] and when the\n slaves had so sat upon me that I could not move, he fetched in a rod of\n quince-tree and came down with it upon my body, and continued beating\n me on the back and sides till I lost consciousness from excess of pain,\n and I despaired of life. Then he commanded the slaves to take me away\n as soon as it was dark, together with the old woman to show them the\n way and throw me upon the floor of the house wherein I dwelt before my\n marriage. They did their lord's bidding and cast me down in my old home\n and went their ways. I did not revive from my swoon till dawn appeared,\n when I applied myself to the dressing of my wounds with ointments and\n other medicaments; and I medicined myself, but my sides and ribs still\n showed signs of the rod as thou hast seen. I lay in weakly case and\n confined to my bed for four months before I was able to rise and health\n returned to me. At the end of that time I went to the house where all\n this had happened and found it a ruin; the street had been pulled down\n endlong and rubbish-heaps rose where the building erst was; nor could I\n learn how this had come about. Then I betook myself to this my sister\n on my father's side and found with her these two black bitches. I\n saluted her and told her what had betided me and the whole of my story\n and she said, \"O my sister, who is safe from the despite of Time and\n secure? Thanks be to Allah who hath brought thee off safely;\" and she\n began to say:\u2014\n\n Such is the World, so bear a patient heart \u273f When riches leave thee and\n when friends depart!\n\n Then she told me her own story, and what had happened to her with her\n two sisters and how matters had ended; so we abode together and the\n subject of marriage was never on our tongues for all these years. After\n a while we were joined by our other sister, the procuratrix, who goeth\n out every morning and buyeth all we require for the day and night; and\n we continued in such condition till this last night. In the morning our\n sister went out, as usual, to make her market and then befel us what\n befel from bringing the Porter into the house and admitting these three\n Kalandar-men.\n\n We entreated them kindly and honourably and a quarter of the night had\n not passed ere three grave and respectable merchants from Mosul joined\n us and told us their adventures. We sat talking with them but on one\n condition which they violated, whereupon we treated them as sorted with\n their breach of promise, and made them repeat the account they had\n given of themselves. They did our bidding and we forgave their offence;\n so they departed from us and this morning we were unexpectedly summoned\n to thy presence. And such is our story! The Caliph wondered at her\n words and bade the tale be recorded and chronicled and laid up in his\n muniment-chambers.\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased\n saying her permitted say.\n\n Now when it was the Nineteenth Night,\n\n She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Caliph\n commanded this story and those of the sister and the Kalandars to be\n recorded in the archives and be set in the royal muniment-chambers.\n Then he asked the eldest lady, the mistress of the house, \"Knowest thou\n the whereabouts of the Ifritah who spelled thy sisters?\"; and she\n answered, \"O Commander of the Faithful, she gave me a ringlet of her\n hair saying:\u2014Whenas thou wouldest see me, burn a couple of these hairs\n and I will be with thee forthright, even though I were beyond\n Caucasus-mountain.\" Quoth the Caliph, \"Bring me hither the hair.\" So\n she brought it and he threw the whole lock upon the fire. As soon as\n the odour of the burning hair dispread itself, the palace shook and\n trembled, and all present heard a rumbling and rolling of thunder and a\n noise as of wings and lo! the Jinniyah who had been a serpent stood in\n the Caliph's presence. Now she was a Moslemah, so she saluted him and\n said, \"Peace be with thee O Vicar[351] of Allah;\" whereto he replied,\n \"And with thee also be peace and the mercy of Allah and His blessing.\"\n Then she continued, \"Know that this damsel sowed for me the seed of\n kindness, wherefor I cannot enough requite her, in that she delivered\n me from death and destroyed mine enemy. Now I had seen how her sisters\n dealt with her and felt myself bound to avenge her on them. At first I\n was minded to slay them, but I feared it would be grievous to her, so I\n transformed them to bitches; but if thou desire their release, O\n Commander of the Faithful, I will release them to pleasure thee and her\n for I am of the Moslems.\" Quoth the Caliph, \"Release them and after we\n will look into the affair of the beaten lady and consider her case\n carefully; and if the truth of her story be evidenced I will exact\n retaliation[352] from him who wronged her.\" Said the Ifritah, \"O\n Commander of the Faithful, I will forthwith release them and will\n discover to thee the man who did that deed by this lady and wronged her\n and took her property, and he is the nearest of all men to thee!\" So\n saying she took a cup of water and muttered a spell over it and uttered\n words there was no understanding; then she sprinkled some of the water\n over the faces of the two bitches, saying, \"Return to your former human\n shape!\" whereupon they were restored to their natural forms and fell to\n praising their Creator. Then said the Ifritah, \"O Commander of the\n Faithful, of a truth he who scourged this lady with rods is thy son\n Al-Amin brother of Al-Maamun;[353] for he had heard of her beauty and\n loveliness and he played a lover's stratagem with her and married her\n according to the law and committed the crime (such as it is) of\n scourging her. Yet indeed he is not to be blamed for beating her, for\n he laid a condition on her and swore her by a solemn oath not to do a\n certain thing; however, she was false to her vow and he was minded to\n put her to death, but he feared Almighty Allah and contented himself\n with scourging her, as thou hast seen, and with sending her back to her\n own place. Such is the story of the second lady and the Lord knoweth\n all.\" When the Caliph heard these words of the Ifritah, and knew who\n had beaten the damsel, he marvelled with mighty marvel and said,\n \"Praise be to Allah, the Most High, the Almighty, who hath shown His\n exceeding mercy towards me, enabling me to deliver these two damsels\n from sorcery and torture, and vouchsafing to let me know the secret of\n this lady's history! And now by Allah, we will do a deed which shall be\n recorded of us after we are no more.\" Then he summoned his son Al-Amin\n and questioned him of the story of the second lady, the portress; and\n he told it in the face of truth; whereupon the Caliph bade call into\n presence the Kazis and their witnesses and the three Kalandars and the\n first lady with her sisters german who had been ensorcelled; and he\n married the three to the three Kalandars whom he knew to be princes and\n sons of Kings and he appointed them chamberlains about his person,\n assigning to them stipends and allowances and all that they required,\n and lodging them in his palace at Baghdad. He returned the beaten lady\n to his son, Al-Amin, renewing the marriage-contract between them and\n gave her great wealth and bade rebuild the house fairer than it was\n before. As for himself he took to wife the procuratrix and lay with her\n that night: and next day he set apart for her an apartment in his\n Serraglio, with handmaidens for her service and a fixed daily\n allowance. And the people marvelled at their Caliph's generosity and\n natural beneficence and princely wisdom; nor did he forget to send all\n these histories to be recorded in his annals. When Shahrazad ceased\n speaking Dunyazad exclaimed, \"O my own sister, by Allah in very sooth\n this is a right pleasant tale and a delectable; never was heard the\n like of it, but prithee tell me now another story to while away what\n yet remaineth of the waking hours of this our night.\" She replied,\n \"With love and gladness if the King give me leave;\" and he said, \"Tell\n thy tale and tell it quickly.\" So she began, in these words,\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 138:\n\n The name of this celebrated successor of Nineveh, where some suppose\n The Nights were written, is orig. \u039c\u03b5\u03c3\u03bf\u03c0\u03cd\u03bb\u03b1\u03b9 (middle-gates) because it\n stood on the way where four great highways meet. The Arab. form\n \"Mausil\" (the vulgar \"Mosul\") is also significant, alluding to the\n \"junction\" of Assyria and Babylonia. Hence our \"muslin.\"\n\nFootnote 139:\n\n This is Mr. Thackeray's \"nose-bag.\" I translate by \"walking-shoes\"\n the Arab \"Khuff\" which are a manner of loose boot covering the ankle;\n they are not usually embroidered, the ornament being reserved for the\n inner shoe.\n\nFootnote 140:\n\n _i.e._ Syria (says Abulfeda) the \"land on the left\" (of one facing\n the east) as opposed to Al-Yaman the \"land on the right.\" Osmani\n would mean Turkish, Ottoman. When Bernard the Wise (Bohn, p. 24)\n speaks of \"Bagada and Axiam\" (Mabillon's text) or \"Axinarri\" (still\n worse), he means Baghdad and Ash-Sh\u00e1m (Syria, Damascus), the latter\n word puzzling his Editor. Richardson (Dissert. lxxii) seems to\n support a hideous attempt to derive Sh\u00e1m from Sh\u00e1mat, a mole or wart,\n because the country is studded with hillocks! Al-Sh\u00e1m is often\n applied to Damascus-city whose proper name Dimishk belongs to books:\n this term is generally derived from Dim\u00e1shik b. K\u00e1li b. M\u00e1lik b. Sham\n (Shem). Lee (Ibn Bat\u00fatah, 29) denies that ha-Dimishki means \"Eliezer\n of Damascus.\"\n\nFootnote 141:\n\n From Oman=Eastern Arabia.\n\nFootnote 142:\n\n Arab. \"Tamar Hann\u00e1\" lit. date of Henna, but applied to the flower of\n the eastern privet (_Lawsonia inermis_) which has the sweet scent of\n freshly mown hay. The use of Henna as a dye is known even in England.\n The \"myrtle\" alluded to may either have been for a perfume (as it is\n held an anti-intoxicant) or for eating, the bitter aromatic berries\n of the \"\u00c1s\" being supposed to flavour wine and especially Raki (raw\n brandy).\n\nFootnote 143:\n\n Lane. (i. 211) pleasantly remarks, \"A list of these sweets is given\n in my original, but I have thought it better to omit the names\" (!)\n Dozy does not shirk his duty, but he is not much more satisfactory in\n explaining words interesting to students because they are unfound in\n dictionaries and forgotten by the people \"Akr\u00e1s\" (cakes) Laymun\u00edyah\n (of limes) wa \"Maymun\u00edyah\" appears in the Bresl. Edit. as\n \"Ma'amuniyah\" which may mean \"Ma'amun's cakes\" or \"delectable cakes.\"\n \"Amsh\u00e1t\"=(combs) perhaps refers to a fine kind of Kun\u00e1fah\n (vermicelli) known in Egypt and Syria as \"Ghazl al-ban\u00e1t\"=girl's\n spinning.\n\nFootnote 144:\n\n The new moon carefully looked for by all Moslems because it begins\n the Ramaz\u00e1n-fast.\n\nFootnote 145:\n\n Solomon's signet ring has before been noticed.\n\nFootnote 146:\n\n The \"high-bosomed\" damsel, with breasts firm as a cube, is a\n favourite with Arab tale-tellers. _Fanno baruffa_ is the Italian term\n for hard breasts pointing outwards.\n\nFootnote 147:\n\n A large hollow navel is looked upon not only as a beauty, but in\n children it is held a promise of good growth.\n\nFootnote 148:\n\n Arab. \"Ka'ah,\" a high hall opening upon the central court: we shall\n find the word used for a mansion, barrack, men's quarters, etc.\n\nFootnote 149:\n\n Babel=Gate of God (El), or Gate of Ilu (P.N. of God), which the Jews\n ironically interpreted \"Confusion.\" The tradition of Babylonia being\n the very centre of witchcraft and enchantment by means of its Seven\n Deadly Spirits, has survived in Al-Islam; the two fallen angels\n (whose names will occur) being confined in a well; Nimrod attempting\n to reach Heaven from the Tower in a magical car drawn by monstrous\n birds and so forth. See p. 114, Francois Lenormant's \"Chaldean\n Magic,\" London, Bagsters.\n\nFootnote 150:\n\n Arab. \"K\u00e1mat Alfiyyah\"=like the letter Alif, a straight perpendicular\n stroke. In the Egyptian hieroglyphs, the origin of every alphabet\n (not syllabarium) known to man, one form was a flag or leaf of\n water-plant standing upright. Hence probably the Arabic Alif-shape;\n while other nations preferred other modifications of the letter (ox's\n head, etc.), which in Egyptian number some thirty-six varieties,\n simple and compound.\n\nFootnote 151:\n\n I have not attempted to order this marvellous confusion of metaphors\n so characteristic of The Nights and the exigencies of Al-Saj'a=rhymed\n prose.\n\nFootnote 152:\n\n Here and elsewhere I omit the \"k\u00e1la (_dice Turpino_)\" of the\n original: Torrens preserves \"Thus goes the tale\" (which it only\n interrupts). This is simply letter-wise and sense-foolish.\n\nFootnote 153:\n\n Of this worthy more at a future time.\n\nFootnote 154:\n\n _i.e._, sealed with the Kazi or legal authority's seal of office.\n\nFootnote 155:\n\n \"Nothing for nothing\" is a fixed idea with the Eastern woman: not so\n much for greed as for a sexual _point d'honneur_ when dealing with\n the adversary\u2014man.\n\nFootnote 156:\n\n She drinks first, the custom of the universal East, to show that the\n wine she had bought was unpoisoned. Easterns, who utterly ignore the\n \"social glass\" of Western civilisation, drink honestly to get drunk;\n and, when far gone are addicted to horseplay (in Pers. \"Badmasti\"=_le\n vin mauvais_) which leads to quarrels and bloodshed. Hence it is held\n highly irreverent to assert of patriarchs, prophets and saints that\n they \"drank wine;\" and Moslems agree with our \"Teatotallers\" in\n denying that, except in the case of Noah, inebriatives are anywhere\n mentioned in Holy Writ.\n\nFootnote 157:\n\n Arab. \"H\u00far al-Ayn,\" lit. (maids) with eyes of lively white and black,\n applied to the virgins of Paradise who will wive with the happy\n Faithful. I retain our vulgar \"Houri,\" warning the reader that it is\n a masc. for a fem. (\"Hur\u00edyah\") in Arab, although accepted in Persian,\n a genderless speech.\n\nFootnote 158:\n\n Arab. \"Zamb\u00far,\" whose head is amputated in female circumcision. See\n Night cccclxxiv.\n\nFootnote 159:\n\n Ocymum basilicum noticed in Introduction; the bassilico of Boccaccio\n iv. 5. The Book of Kalilah and Dimnah represents it as \"sprouting\n with something also whose smell is foul and disgusting and the sower\n at once sets to gather it and burn it with fire.\" (The Fables of\n Bidpai translated from the later Syriac version by I. G. N.\n Keith-Falconer, etc., etc., etc., Cambridge University Press, 1885).\n Here, however, Habk is a pennyroyal (_mentha puligium_), and probably\n alludes to the pecten.\n\nFootnote 160:\n\n _i.e._ common property for all to beat.\n\nFootnote 161:\n\n \"A digit of the moon\" is the Hind\u00fa equivalent.\n\nFootnote 162:\n\n Better known to us as Caravanserai, the \"Travellers' Bungalow\" of\n India: in the Khan, however, shelter is to be had, but neither bed\n nor board.\n\nFootnote 163:\n\n Arab. \"Zubb.\" I would again note that this and its synonyms are the\n equivalents of the Arabic, which is of the lowest. The tale-teller's\n evident object is to accentuate the contrast with the tragical\n stories to follow.\n\nFootnote 164:\n\n \"In the name of Allah,\" is here a civil form of dismissal.\n\nFootnote 165:\n\n Lane (i. 124) is scandalized and naturally enough by this scene,\n which is the only blot in an admirable tale admirably told. Yet even\n here the grossness is but little more pronounced than what we find in\n our old drama (_e.g._, Shakspeare's King Henry V.) written for the\n stage, whereas tales like The Nights are not read or recited before\n both sexes. Lastly \"nothing follows all this palming work:\" in Europe\n the orgie would end very differently. These \"nuns of Theleme\" are\n physically pure: their debauchery is of the mind, not the body.\n Galland makes them five, including the two doggesses.\n\nFootnote 166:\n\n So Sir Francis Walsingham's \"They which do that they should not,\n should hear that they would not.\"\n\nFootnote 167:\n\n The old \"Calendar,\" pleasantly associated with that form of almanac.\n The Mac. Edit. has \"Karandaliyah,\" a vile corruption, like Ibn\n Batutah's \"Karandar\" and Torrens' \"Kurundul:\" so in English we have\n the accepted vulgarism of \"Kernel\" for Colonel. The Bul. Edit. uses\n for synonym \"Su'ul\u00fak\"=an asker, a beggar. Of these mendicant monks,\n for such they are, much like the Sarabaites of medi\u00e6val Europe, I\n have treated, and of their institutions and its founder, Shaykh\n Sharif Bu Ali Kalandar (ob. A.H. 724=1323-24), at some length in my\n \"History of Sindh,\" chapt. viii. See also the Dabistan (i, 136) where\n the good Kalandar exclaims:\u2014\n\n If the thorn break in my body, how trifling the pain!\n But how sorely I feel for the poor broken thorn!\n\n D'Herbelot is right when he says that the Kalandar is not generally\n approved by Moslems: he labours to win free from every form and\n observance and he approaches the Mal\u00e1mati who conceals all his good\n deeds and boasts of his evil doings\u2014our \"Devil's hypocrite.\"\n\nFootnote 168:\n\n The \"Kalandar\" disfigures himself in this manner to show\n \"mortification.\"\n\nFootnote 169:\n\n Arab. \"Ghar\u00edb:\" the porter is offended because the word implies \"poor\n devil;\" esp. one out of his own country.\n\nFootnote 170:\n\n A religious mendicant generally.\n\nFootnote 171:\n\n Very scandalous to Moslem \"respectability\": Mohammed said the house\n was accursed when the voices of women could be heard out of doors.\n Moreover the neighbours have a right to interfere and abate the\n scandal.\n\nFootnote 172:\n\n I need hardly say that these are both historical personages; they\n will often be mentioned, and Ja'afar will be noticed in the terminal\n Essay.\n\nFootnote 173:\n\n Arab. \"Sama'an wa t\u00e1'atan;\" a popular phrase of assent generally\n translated \"to hear is to obey;\" but this formula may be and must be\n greatly varied. In places it means \"Hearing (the word of Allah) and\n obeying\" (His prophet, viceregent, etc.)\n\nFootnote 174:\n\n Arab. \"Saw\u00e1b\"=reward in Heaven. This word for which we have no\n equivalent has been naturalised in all tongues (_e.g._ Hindostani)\n spoken by Moslems.\n\nFootnote 175:\n\n Wine-drinking, at all times forbidden to Moslems, vitiates the\n Pilgrimage-rite: the Pilgrim is vowed to a strict observance of the\n ceremonial law and many men date their \"reformation\" from the \"Hajj.\"\n Pilgrimage, iii., 126.\n\nFootnote 176:\n\n Here some change has been necessary; as the original text confuses\n the three \"ladies.\"\n\nFootnote 177:\n\n In Arab-the plural masc. is used by way of modesty when a girl\n addresses her lover; and for the same reason she speaks of herself as\n a man.\n\nFootnote 178:\n\n Arab. \"Al-Na'im;\" in full \"Jannat al-Na'im\"=the Garden of Delights,\n _i.e._ the fifth Heaven made of white silver. The generic name of\n Heaven (the place of reward) is \"Jannat,\" lit. a garden; \"Firdaus\"\n being evidently derived from the Persian through the Greek\n \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03ac\u03b4\u03b5\u03b9\u03c3\u03bf\u03c2, and meaning a chase, a hunting-park. Writers on this\n subject should bear in mind Mandeville's modesty, \"Of Paradise I\n cannot speak properly, for I was not there.\"\n\nFootnote 179:\n\n Arab. \"Mikra'ah,\" the dried mid-rib of a date-frond used for many\n purposes, especially the bastinado.\n\nFootnote 180:\n\n According to Lane (i., 229) these and the immediately following\n verses are from an ode by Ibn Sahl al-Ishbili. They are in the Bul.\n Edit. not the Mac. Edit.\n\nFootnote 181:\n\n The original is full of conceits and plays on words which are not\n easily rendered in English.\n\nFootnote 182:\n\n Arab. \"Tarjum\u00e1n,\" same root as Chald. Targum (=a translation), the\n old \"Truchman,\" and through the Ital. \"tergomano\" our \"Dragoman;\"\n here a messenger.\n\nFootnote 183:\n\n Lit. the \"person of the eyes,\" our \"babe of the eyes,\" a favourite\n poetical conceit in all tongues; much used by the Elizabethans, but\n now neglected as a silly kind of conceit. See Night ccix.\n\nFootnote 184:\n\n Arab. \"S\u00e1r\" (Th\u00e1r) the revenge-right recognised by law and custom\n (Pilgrimage, iii., 69)\n\nFootnote 185:\n\n That is \"We all swim in the same boat.\"\n\nFootnote 186:\n\n Ja'afar ever acts, on such occasions, the part of a wise and sensible\n man compelled to join in a foolish frolic. He contrasts strongly with\n the Caliph, a headstrong despot who will not be gainsaid, whatever be\n the whim of the moment. But Easterns would look upon this as a proof\n of his \"kingliness.\"\n\nFootnote 187:\n\n Arab. \"Wa'l-Sal\u00e1m\" (pronounce Was-Sal\u00e1m); meaning \"and here ends the\n matter.\" In our slang we say, \"All right, and the child's name is\n Antony.\"\n\nFootnote 188:\n\n This is a favourite jingle; the play being upon \"ibrat\" (a\n needle-graver) and \"'ibrat\" (an example, a warning).\n\nFootnote 189:\n\n That is \"make his bow;\" as the English peasant pulls his forelock.\n Lane (i., 249) suggests, as an afterthought, that it means:\u2014\"Recover\n thy senses; in allusion to a person's drawing his hand over his head\n after sleep or a fit.\" But it occurs elsewhere in the sense of \"cut\n thy stick.\"\n\nFootnote 190:\n\n This would be a separate building like our family tomb and probably\n domed, resembling that mentioned in \"The King of the Black Islands.\"\n Europeans usually call it \"a little Wali;\" or, as they write it,\n \"Wely;\" the contained for the container; the \"Santon\" for the\n \"Santon's tomb.\" I have noticed this curious confusion (which begins\n with Robinson, i. 322) in \"Unexplored Syria,\" i. 161.\n\nFootnote 191:\n\n Arab. \"Wisw\u00e1s;\"=diabolical temptation or suggestion. The \"Wisw\u00e1s\u00ed\" is\n a man with scruples (scrupulus, a pebble in the shoe), _e.g._ one who\n fears that his ablutions were deficient, etc.\n\nFootnote 192:\n\n Arab. \"Katf\"=pinioning by tying the arms behind the back and\n shoulders (Kitf), a dire disgrace to freeborn men.\n\nFootnote 193:\n\n Arab. \"Nafs.\"=Heb. Nephesh (Nafash)=soul, life; as opposed to\n \"Ruach\"=spirit and breath. In these places it is equivalent to \"I\n said to myself.\" Another form of the root is \"Nafas,\" breath, with an\n idea of inspiration: so \"S\u00e1hib Nafas\" (=master of breath) is a minor\n saint who heals by expiration, a matter familiar to mesmerists\n (Pilgrimage, i. 86).\n\nFootnote 194:\n\n Arab. \"Kaus al-Banduk;\" the \"pellet-bow\" of modern India; with two\n strings joined by a bit of cloth which supports a ball of dry clay or\n stone. It is chiefly used for birding.\n\nFootnote 195:\n\n In the East blinding was a common practice, especially in the case of\n junior princes not required as heirs. A deep perpendicular incision\n was made down each corner of the eyes; the lids were lifted and the\n balls removed by cutting the optic nerve and the muscles. The later\n Caliphs blinded their victims by passing a red-hot sword blade close\n to the orbit or a needle over the eyeball. About the same time in\n Europe the operation was performed with a heated metal basin\u2014the\n well-known _bacinare_ (used by Ariosto), as happened to Pier delle\n Vigne (Petrus de Vine\u00e2), the \"godfather of modern Italian.\"\n\nFootnote 196:\n\n Arab. \"Khinz\u00edr\" (by Europeans pronounced \"Hanz\u00edr\"), prop. a\n wild-boar; but popularly used like our \"you pig!\"\n\nFootnote 197:\n\n Striking with the shoe, the pipe-stick and similar articles is highly\n insulting, because they are not made, like whips and scourges, for\n such purpose. Here the East and the West differ diametrically.\n \"Wounds which are given by instruments which are in one's hands by\n chance do not disgrace a man,\" says Cervantes (D. Q. i., chapt. 15),\n and goes on to prove that if a Zapatero (cobbler) cudgel another with\n his form or last, the latter must not consider himself cudgelled. The\n reverse in the East where a blow of a pipe-stick cost Mahommed Ali\n Pasna's son his life: Ishmail Pasha was burned to death by Malik\n Nimr, chief of Shendy (Pilgrimage, i., 203). Moreover, the actual\n wound is less considered in Moslem law than the instrument which\n caused it: so sticks and stones are venial weapons, whilst sword and\n dagger, gun and pistol are felonious. See _ibid._ (i., 336) for a\n note upon the weapons with which nations are policed.\n\nFootnote 198:\n\n Incest is now abominable everywhere except amongst the overcrowded\n poor of great and civilised cities. Yet such unions were common and\n lawful amongst ancient and highly cultivated peoples, as the\n Egyptians (Isis and Osiris), Assyrians and ancient Persians.\n Physiologically they are injurious only when the parents have\n constitutional defects: if both are sound, the issue, as amongst the\n so-called \"lower animals,\" is viable and healthy.\n\nFootnote 199:\n\n Dwellers in the Northern Temperates can hardly imagine what a\n dust-storm is in sun-parched tropical lands. In Sind we were often\n obliged to use candles at midday, while above the dust was a sun that\n would roast an egg.\n\nFootnote 200:\n\n Arab. \"'Urban,\" now always used of the wild people, whom the French\n have taught us to call _les Bedouins_; \"Badw\" being a waste or\n desert; and Badawi (fem. Badaw\u00edyah, plur. Bad\u00e1wi and Bidw\u00e1n), a man\n of the waste. Europeans have also learnt to miscall the Egyptians\n \"Arabs\": the difference is as great as between an Englishman and a\n Spaniard. Arabs proper divide their race into sundry successive\n families. \"The Arab al-Arab\u00e1\" (or al-Aribah, or al-Urub\u00edyat) are the\n autochthones, prehistoric, proto-historic and extinct tribes; for\n instance, a few of the Adites who being at Meccah escaped the\n destruction of their wicked nation, but mingled with other classes.\n The \"Arab al-Muta'arribah,\" (Arabised Arabs) are the first adven\u00e6\n represented by such noble strains as the Koraysh (Koreish), some\n still surviving. The \"Arab al-Musta'aribah,\" (insititious,\n naturalised or instituted Arabs, men who claim to be Arabs) are Arabs\n like the Sinaites, the Egyptians and the Maroccans descended by\n intermarriage with other races. Hence our \"Mosarabians\" and the\n \"Marrabais\" of Rabelais (not, \"a word compounded of Maurus and\n Arabs\"). Some genealogists, however, make the Muta'arribah\n descendants of Kahtan (possible the Joktan of Genesis x., a\n comparatively modern document, B.C. 700?); and the Musta'aribah those\n descended from Adn\u00e1n the origin of Arab genealogy. And, lastly, are\n the \"Arab al-Musta'ajimah,\" barbarised Arabs, like the present\n population of Meccah and Al-Medinah. Besides these there are other\n tribes whose origin is still unknown; such as the Mahrah tribes of\n Hazramaut, the \"Akhd\u00e1m\" (=serviles) of Oman (Maskat); and the \"Ebn\u00e1\"\n of Al-Yaman: Ibn Ishak supposes the latter to be descended from the\n Persian soldiers of Anushirwan who expelled the Abyssinian invader\n from Southern Arabia. (Pilgrimage, iii., 31, etc.).\n\nFootnote 201:\n\n Arab. \"Am\u00edr al-Muumin\u00edn.\" The title was assumed by the Caliph Omar to\n obviate the inconvenience of calling himself \"Khal\u00edfah\" (successor)\n of the Khal\u00edfah of the Apostle of Allah (_i.e._ Abu Bakr); which\n after a few generations would become impossible. It means \"Emir\n (chief or prince) of the Muumins;\" men who hold to the (true Moslem)\n Faith, the \"Im\u00e1n\" (theory, fundamental articles) as opposed to the\n \"D\u00edn,\" ordinance or practice of the religion. It once became a\n Wazirial title conferred by Sultan Malikshah (King King-king) on his\n Niz\u00e1m al-Mulk. (Richardson's Dissert. lviii).\n\nFootnote 202:\n\n This may also mean \"according to the seven editions of the Koran,\"\n the old revisions and so forth (Sale, Sect. iii. and D'Herbelot\n \"Alcoran.\") The schools of the \"Mukri,\" who teach the right\n pronunciation wherein a mistake might be sinful, are seven, Hamzah,\n Ibn Kat\u00edr, Ya'ak\u00fab, Ibn Amir, Kis\u00e1i, Asim and Hafs, the latter being\n the favourite with the Hanafis and the only one now generally known\n in Al-Islam.\n\nFootnote 203:\n\n Arab. \"Sadd\"=wall, dyke, etc. the \"bund\" or \"band\" of Anglo-India.\n Hence the \"Sadd\" on the Nile, the banks of grass and floating islands\n which \"wall\" the stream. There are few sights more appalling than a\n sandstorm in the desert, the \"Zauba'ah\" as the Arabs call it. Devils,\n or pillars of sand, vertical and inclined, measuring a thousand feet\n high, rush over the plain lashing the sand at their base like a sea\n surging under a furious whirlwind; shearing the grass clean away from\n the roots, tearing up trees, which are whirled like leaves and sticks\n in air, and sweeping away tents and houses as if they were bits of\n paper. At last the columns join at the top and form, perhaps three\n thousand feet above the earth, a gigantic cloud of yellow sand which\n obliterates not only the horizon but even the midday sun. These\n sand-spouts are the terror of travellers. In Sind and the Punjab we\n have the dust-storm which for darkness, I have said, beats the\n blackest London fog.\n\nFootnote 204:\n\n Arab. S\u00e1r=the vendetta, before mentioned, as dreaded in Arabia as in\n Corsica.\n\nFootnote 205:\n\n Arab. \"Gh\u00fatah,\" usually a place where irrigation is abundant. It\n especially applies (in books) to the Damascus-plain because \"it\n abounds with water and fruit trees.\" Bochart (Geog. Sacra, p. 90)\n derives \u05e2\u05d5\u05d8\u05d4 (utah) from \u05e2\u05d5\u05e5 Uz, son of Arab, who (he says) founded\n Damascus. The Ghutah is one of the four earthly paradises, the others\n being Basrah (Bassorah), Shiraz and Samarcand. Its peculiarity is the\n likeness to a seaport; the Desert which rolls up almost to its doors\n being the sea and its ships being the camels. The first Arab to whom\n we owe this admirable term for the \"Companion of Job\" is \"Tarafah\"\n one of the poets of the Suspended Poems: he likens (v.v. 3, 4) the\n camels which bore away his beloved to ships sailing from Aduli. But\n \"ships of the desert\" is doubtless a term of the highest antiquity.\n\nFootnote 206:\n\n The exigencies of the \"Saj'a,\" or rhymed prose, disjoint this and\n many similar passages.\n\nFootnote 207:\n\n The \"Ebony\" Islands; Scott's \"Isle of Ebene,\" i., 217.\n\nFootnote 208:\n\n \"Jarjar\u00eds\" in the Bul. Edit.\n\nFootnote 209:\n\n Arab. \"Takb\u00eds.\" Many Easterns can hardly sleep without this kneading\n of the muscles, this \"rubbing\" whose hygienic properties England is\n now learning.\n\nFootnote 210:\n\n The converse of the breast being broadened, the drooping,\n \"draggle-tail\" gait compared with the head held high and the chest\n inflated.\n\nFootnote 211:\n\n This penalty is mentioned in the Koran (chapt. v.) as fit for those\n who fight against Allah and his Apostle; but commentators are not\n agreed if the sinners are first to be put to death or to hang on the\n cross till they die. Pharaoh (chapt xx.) threatens to crucify his\n magicians on palm-trees, and is held to be the first crucifier.\n\nFootnote 212:\n\n Arab. \"'Ajami\"=foreigner, esp. a Persian: the latter in The Nights is\n mostly a villain. I must here remark that the contemptible condition\n of Persians in Al-Hij\u00e1z (which I noted in 1852, Pilgrimage i. 327)\n has completely changed. They are no longer, \"The slippers of Ali and\n hounds of Omar:\" they have learned the force of union and now,\n instead of being bullied, they bully.\n\nFootnote 213:\n\n The Calc. Edit. turns them into Tailors (Khayy\u00e1t\u00edn) and Torrens does\n not see the misprint.\n\nFootnote 214:\n\n _i.e._ Axe and sandals.\n\nFootnote 215:\n\n Lit. \"Strike his neck.\"\n\nFootnote 216:\n\n A phrase which will frequently recur; meaning the situation suggested\n such words as these.\n\nFootnote 217:\n\n The smiter with the evil eye is called \"A'in\" and the person smitten\n \"Ma'\u00edn\" or \"Ma'\u00fan.\"\n\nFootnote 218:\n\n Arab. \"S\u00e1kiyah,\" the well-known Persian wheel with pots and buckets\n attached to the tire. It is of many kinds, the boxed, etc., etc.; and\n it is possibly alluded to in the \"pitcher broken at the fountain\"\n (Ecclesiastes xii. 6) an accident often occurring to the modern\n \"Noria.\" Travellers mostly abuse its \"dismal creaking\" and \"mournful\n monotony\": I have defended the music of the water-wheel in Pilgrimage\n ii. 198.\n\nFootnote 219:\n\n Arab. \"Zikr\" lit. remembering, mentioning (_i.e._ the names of\n Allah), here refers to the meetings of religious for devotional\n exercises; the \"Zikk\u00edrs,\" as they are called, mostly standing or\n sitting in a circle while they ejaculate the Holy Name. These\n \"rogations\" are much affected by Darwayshes, or begging friars, whom\n Europe politely divides into \"dancing\" and \"howling\"; and, on one\n occasion, greatly to the scandal of certain Engl\u00e4nderinns to whom I\n was showing the Ezbekiyah I joined the ring of \"howlers.\" Lane (Mod.\n Egypt, see index) is profuse upon the subject of \"Zikrs\" and Zikk\u00edrs.\n It must not be supposed that they are uneducated men: the better\n class, however, prefers more privacy.\n\nFootnote 220:\n\n As they thought he had been there for prayer or penance.\n\nFootnote 221:\n\n Arab. \"Ziy\u00e1rat,\" a visit to a pious person or place.\n\nFootnote 222:\n\n This is a paternal salute in the East where they are particular about\n the part kissed. A witty and not unusually gross Persian book, called\n the \"Al-N\u00e1mah\" because all questions begin with \"Al\" (the Arab\n article) contains one \"Al-Wajib al-bus\u00eddan?\" (what best deserves\n bussing?) and the answer is \"Kus-i-nau-pashm,\" (a bobadilla with a\n young bush).\n\nFootnote 223:\n\n A weight of 71-72 English grains in gold; here equivalent to the\n dinar.\n\nFootnote 224:\n\n Compare the tale of The Three Crows in Gammer Grethel, Evening ix.\n\nFootnote 225:\n\n The comparison is peculiarly apposite; the earth seen from above\n appears hollow with a raised rim.\n\nFootnote 226:\n\n A hundred years old.\n\nFootnote 227:\n\n \"Bahr\" in Arab. means sea, river, piece of water; hence the adjective\n is needed.\n\nFootnote 228:\n\n The Captain or Master of the ship (not the owner). In Al Yaman the\n word also means a \"barber,\" in virtue of the root, Raas, a head.\n\nFootnote 229:\n\n The text has \"in the character Ruk\u00e1'\u00ed,\" or Rik\u00e1'\u00ed, the\n correspondence-hand.\n\nFootnote 230:\n\n A curved character supposed to be like the basil-leaf (rayh\u00e1n).\n Richardson calls it \"Rohani.\"\n\nFootnote 231:\n\n I need hardly say that Easterns use a reed, a Calamus (Kalam applied\n only to the cut reed) for our quills and steel pens.\n\nFootnote 232:\n\n Famous for being inscribed on the Kiswah (cover) of Mohammed's tomb;\n a large and more formal hand still used for engrossing and for mural\n inscriptions. Only seventy-two varieties of it are known (Pilgrimage,\n ii., 82).\n\nFootnote 233:\n\n The copying and transcribing hand which is either Arabi or Ajami. A\n great discovery has lately been made which upsets all our old ideas\n of Cufic, etc. Mr. L\u00f6ytved of Bayrut has found, amongst the Hauranic\n inscriptions, one in pure Naskhi, dating A.D. 568, or fifty years\n before the Hijrah; and it is accepted as authentic by my learned\n friend M. Ch. Clermont-Ganneau (p. 193, Pal. Explor. Fund; July\n 1884). In D'Herbelot and Sale's day the Koran was supposed to have\n been written in rude characters, like those subsequently called\n \"Cufic,\" invented shortly before Mohammed's birth by Mur\u00e1mir ibn\n Murrah of Anbar in Ir\u00e1k, introduced into Meccah by Bashar the\n Kindian, and perfected by Ibn Muklah (Al-Wazir, ob. A.H. 328=940). We\n must now change all that. See Catalogue of Oriental Caligraphs, etc.,\n by G. P. Badger, London, Whiteley, 1885.\n\nFootnote 234:\n\n Capital and uncial letters; the hand in which the Ka'abah veil is\n inscribed (Pilgrimage iii. 299, 300).\n\nFootnote 235:\n\n A \"Court hand\" says Mr. Payne (i. 112): I know nothing of it. Other\n hands are: the Ta'al\u00edk; hanging or oblique, used for finer MSS. and\n having, according to Richardson, \"the same analogy to the Naskhi as\n our Italic has to the Roman.\" The Nasta' l\u00edk (not Naskh-Ta'al\u00edk) much\n used in India, is, as the name suggests, a mixture of the Naskhi\n (writing of transactions) and the Ta'al\u00edk. The Shikastah (broken\n hand) everywhere represents our running hand and becomes a hard task\n to the reader. The Kirm\u00e1 is another cursive character, mostly\n confined to the receipts and disbursements of the Turkish treasury.\n The Div\u00e1ni, or Court (of Justice) is the official hand, bold and\n round, a business character, the lines often rising with a sweep or\n curve towards the (left) end. The J\u00e1li or polished has a variety, the\n Jali-Ta'alik: the Sulsi (known in many books) is adopted for titles\n of volumes, royal edicts, diplomas and so forth; \"answering much the\n same purpose as capitals with us, or the flourished letters in\n illuminated manuscripts\" (Richardson). The Tughr\u00e1i is that of the\n Tughr\u00e1, the Prince's cypher or flourishing signature in ceremonial\n writings, and containing some such sentence as: Let this be executed.\n There are others _e.g._ Y\u00e1kuti and Sirenkil known only by name.\n Finally the Maghribi (Moorish) hand differs in form and diacritical\n points from the characters used further east almost as much as German\n running hand does from English. It is curious that Richardson omits\n the Jali (intricate and convoluted) and the divisions of the Sulus\u00ed,\n Sulsi or Sulus (Thuluth) character, the Sulus al-Khaf\u00edf, etc.\n\nFootnote 236:\n\n Arab. \"Baghlah\"; the male (Baghl) is used only for loads. This is\n everywhere the rule: nothing is more unmanageable than a restive\n \"Macho\"; and he knows that he can always get you off his back when so\n minded. From \"Baghlah\" is derived the name of the native craft\n Anglo-Indic\u00e8 a \"Buggalow.\"\n\nFootnote 237:\n\n In Heb. \"Ben-Adam\" is any man opp. to \"Beni ish\" (Psalm iv. 3)=_filii\n viri_, not _homines_.\n\nFootnote 238:\n\n This posture is terribly trying to European legs; and few white men\n (unless brought up to it) can squat for any time on their heels. The\n \"tailor-fashion,\" with crossed legs, is held to be free and easy.\n\nFootnote 239:\n\n Arab. \"Kat\u00e1\"=Pterocles Alchata, the well-known sand-grouse of the\n desert. It is very poor white flesh.\n\nFootnote 240:\n\n Arab. \"Khubz\" which I do not translate \"cake\" or \"bread,\" as that\n would suggest the idea of our loaf. The staff of life in the East is\n a thin flat circle of dough baked in the oven or on the griddle, and\n corresponding with the Scotch \"scone,\" the Spanish \"tortilla\" and the\n Australian \"flap-jack.\"\n\nFootnote 241:\n\n Arab. \"Har\u00edsah,\" a favourite dish of wheat (or rice) boiled and\n reduced to a paste with shredded meat, spices and condiments. The\n \"bangles\" is a pretty girl eating with him.\n\nFootnote 242:\n\n These lines are repeated with a difference in Night cccxxx. They\n affect _Rims cars_, out of the way, heavy rhymes: _e.g._ here Sak\u00e1r\u00edj\n (plur. of Sakr\u00faj, platters, porringers); Tay\u00e1h\u00edj (plur. of Tayh\u00faj,\n the smaller caccabis-partridge); Tab\u00e1h\u00edj (Persian Tabahjah, an omelet\n or a stew of meat, onions, eggs, etc.) Ma'\u00e1r\u00edj (\"in stepped piles\"\n like the pyramids; which Lane ii. 495, renders \"on the stairs\");\n Mak\u00e1r\u00edj (plur. of Makraj, a small pot); Dam\u00e1l\u00edj (plur. of duml\u00faj, a\n bracelet, a bangle); Day\u00e1b\u00edj (brocades) and Taf\u00e1r\u00edj (openings,\n enjoyments). In Night cccxxx. we find also Sik\u00e1b\u00edj (plur. of Sikb\u00e1j,\n marinated meat elsewhere explained); Far\u00e1r\u00edj (plur. of farr\u00faj, a\n chicken, vulg. farkh) and Dak\u00e1k\u00edj (plur. of dak\u00fajah, a small jar). In\n the first line we have also (though not a rhyme) Ghar\u00e1nik Gr.\n \u03a4\u03b5\u03c1\u03b1\u03bd\u1f78\u03c2, a crane, preserved in Romaic. The weeping and wailing are\n caused by the remembrance that all these delicacies have been\n demolished like a Badawi camp.\n\nFootnote 243:\n\n This is the _vinum coctum_, the boiled wine, still a favourite in\n Southern Italy and Greece.\n\nFootnote 244:\n\n Eastern topers delight in drinking at dawn: upon this subject I shall\n have more to say in other Nights.\n\nFootnote 245:\n\n Arab. \"Adab,\" a _crux_ to translators, meaning anything between good\n education and good manners. In mod. Turk. \"Edibiyyet\"\n (Adabiyat)=belles lettres and \"Edebi\" or \"Ed\u00edb\"=a litt\u00e9rateur.\n\nFootnote 246:\n\n The Caliph Al-Maam\u00fan, who was a bad player, used to say, \"I have the\n administration of the world and am equal to it, whereas I am\n straitened in the ordering of a space of two spans by two spans.\" The\n \"board\" was then \"a square field of well-dressed leather.\"\n\nFootnote 247:\n\n The Rabbis (after Matth. xix. 12) count three kinds of Eunuchs; (1)\n Seris chammah=of the sun, _i.e._ natural: (2) Seris Adam=manufactured\n _per homines_; and (3) Seris Chammayim=of God (_i.e._ religious\n abstainer). Seris (castrated) or Abd (slave) is the general Hebrew\n name.\n\nFootnote 248:\n\n The \"Lady of Beauty.\"\n\nFootnote 249:\n\n \"K\u00e1f\" has been noticed as the mountain which surrounds earth as a\n ring does the finger: it is popularly used like our Alp and Alpine.\n The \"circumambient Ocean\" (Bahr al-muh\u00edt) is the Homeric\n Ocean-stream.\n\nFootnote 250:\n\n The pomegranate is probably chosen here because each fruit is\n supposed to contain one seed from Eden-garden. Hence a host of\n superstitions (Pilgrimage iii., 104) possibly connected with the\n Chaldaic-Babylonian god Rimmon or Ramanu. Hence Persephone or Ishtar\n tasted the \"rich pomegranate's seed.\" Lenormant, loc. cit. pp.\n 166,182.\n\nFootnote 251:\n\n _i.e._ for the love of God\u2014a favourite Moslem phrase.\n\nFootnote 252:\n\n Arab. \"B\u00e1b,\" also meaning a chapter (of magic, of war, etc.),\n corresponding with the Persian \"Dar\" as in Sad-dar, the Hundred\n Doors. Here, however, it is figurative \"I tried a new mode.\" This\n scene is in the Mabinogion.\n\nFootnote 253:\n\n I use this Irish term=crying for the dead; as English wants the word\n for the pr\u00e6fica or myrialogist. The practice is not encouraged in\n Al-Islam; and Caliph Abu Bakr said, \"Verily a corpse is sprinkled\n with boiling water by reason of the lamentations of the living,\"\n _i.e._ punished for not having taken measures to prevent their\n profitless lamentations. But the practice is from Negroland whence it\n reached Egypt; and the people have there developed a curious system\n in the \"weeping-song\": I have noted this in \"The Lake-Regions of\n Central Africa.\" In Zoroastrianism (Dabistan, chapt. xcvii.) tears\n shed for the dead form a river in hell, black and frigid.\n\nFootnote 254:\n\n These lines are hardly translateable. Arab. \"Sabr\" means \"patience\"\n as well as \"aloes,\" hereby lending itself to a host of puns and\n double entendres more or less vile. The aloe, according to\n Burckhardt, is planted in grave-yards as a lesson of patience: it is\n also slung, like the dried crocodile, over house-doors to prevent\n evil spirits entering; \"thus hung without earth and water,\" says Lane\n (M. E., chapt. xi.), \"it will live for several years and even\n blossom. Hence (?) it is called _Sabr_, which signifies patience.\"\n But Sibr as well as Sabr (a root) means \"long-sufferance.\" I hold the\n practise to be one of the many Inner African superstitions. The wild\n Gallas to the present day plant aloes on graves, and suppose that\n when the plant sprouts the deceased has been admitted to the gardens\n of W\u00e1k, the Creator. (Pilgrimage iii. 350).\n\nFootnote 255:\n\n Every city in the East has its specific title: this was given to\n Baghdad either on account of its superior police or simply because it\n was the Capital of the Caliphate. The Tigris was also called the\n \"River of Peace (or Security).\"\n\nFootnote 256:\n\n This is very characteristic: the passengers finding themselves in\n difficulties at once take command. See in my Pilgrimage (I. chapt.\n xi.) how we beat and otherwise maltreated the Captain of the \"Golden\n Wire.\"\n\nFootnote 257:\n\n The fable is probably based on the currents which, as in Eastern\n Africa, will carry a ship fifty miles a day out of her course. We\n first find it in Ptolemy (vii. 2) whose Mani\u00f3lai Islands, of India\n extra Gangem, cause iron nails to fly out of ships, the effect of the\n Lapis Herculeus (Loadstone). Rabelais (v. c. 37) alludes to it and to\n the vulgar idea of magnetism being counteracted by Skordon (_Scordon_\n or garlic). Hence too the Adamant (Loadstone) Mountains of Mandeville\n (chapt. xxvii.) and the \"Magnetic Rock\" in Mr. Puttock's clever\n \"Peter Wilkins.\" I presume that the myth also arose from seeing craft\n built, as on the East African Coast, without iron nails. We shall\n meet with the legend again. The word Jabal (\"Jebel\" in Egypt) often\n occurs in these pages. The Arabs apply it to any rising ground or\n heap of rocks; so it is not always=our mountain. It has found its way\n to Europe _e.g._ Gibraltar and Monte Gibello (or Mongibel in\n poetry)=\"Mt. Ethne that men clepen Mounte Gybelle.\" Other special\n senses of Jabal will occur.\n\nFootnote 258:\n\n As we learn from the Nubian Geographer the Arabs in early ages\n explored the Fortunate Islands, Jaz\u00edr\u00e1t al-Kh\u00e1lid\u00e1t (=Eternal Isles),\n or Canaries, on one of which were reported a horse and horseman in\n bronze with his spear pointing west. Ibn al-Wardi notes \"two images\n of hard stone, each an hundred cubits high, and upon the top of each\n a figure of copper pointing with its hand backwards, as though it\n would say:\u2014Return for there is nothing behind me!\" But this legend\n attaches to older doings. The 23rd Tobba (who succeeded Bilkis),\n Malik bin Sharhab\u00edl, (or Sharab\u00edl or Sharah\u00edl) surnamed N\u00e1shir\n al-Ni'\u00e1m=scatterer of blessings, lost an army in attempting the\n Western sands and set up a statue of copper upon whose breast was\n inscribed in antique characters:\u2014\n\n There is no access behind me,\n Nothing beyond,\n (Saith) The Son of Sharab\u00edl.\n\nFootnote 259:\n\n _i.e._ I exclaimed \"Bismillah!\"\n\nFootnote 260:\n\n The lesser ablution of hands, face and feet; a kind of \"washing the\n points.\" More in Night ccccxl.\n\nFootnote 261:\n\n Arab. \"Ruka'tayn\"; the number of these bows which are followed by the\n prostrations distinguishes the five daily prayers.\n\nFootnote 262:\n\n The \"Beth Kol\" of the Hebrews; also called by the Moslems \"H\u00e1tif\";\n for which ask the Spiritualists. It is the Hindu \"voice divine\" or\n \"voice from heaven.\"\n\nFootnote 263:\n\n These formul\u00e6 are technically called Tasmiyah, Tahl\u00edl (before noted)\n and Takb\u00edr: the \"testifying\" is Tashh\u00edd.\n\nFootnote 264:\n\n Arab. \"Samn,\" (Pers. \"Raughan\" Hind. \"Ghi\") the \"single sauce\" of the\n East; fresh butter set upon the fire, skimmed and kept (for a century\n if required) in leather bottles and demijohns. Then it becomes a hard\n black mass, considered a panacea for wounds and diseases. It is very\n \"filling\": you say jocosely to an Eastern threatened with a sudden\n inroad of guests, \"Go, swamp thy rice with Raughan.\" I once tried\n training, like a Hindu Pahlawan or athlete, on Gur (raw sugar), milk\n and Ghi; and the result was being blinded by bile before the week\n ended.\n\nFootnote 265:\n\n These handsome youths are always described in the terms we should\n apply to women.\n\nFootnote 266:\n\n The Bul. Edit. (i. 43) reads otherwise:\u2014I found a garden and a second\n and a third and so on till they numbered thirty and nine; and, in\n each garden, I saw what praise will not express, of trees and rills\n and fruits and treasures. At the end of the last I sighted a door and\n said to myself, \"What may be in this place?; needs must I open it and\n look in!\" I did so accordingly and saw a courser ready saddled and\n bridled and picketed; so I loosed and mounted him; and he flew with\n me like a bird till he set me down on a terrace-roof; and, having\n landed me, he struck me a whisk with his tail and put out mine eye\n and fled from me. Thereupon I descended from the roof and found ten\n youths all blind of one eye who, when they saw me exclaimed, \"No\n welcome to thee, and no good cheer!\" I asked them, \"Do ye admit me to\n your home and society?\" and they answered, \"No, by Allah, thou shalt\n not live amongst us.\" So I went forth with weeping eyes and grieving\n heart, but Allah had written my safety on the Guarded Tablet so I\n reached Baghdad in safety, etc. This is a fair specimen of how the\n work has been curtailed in that issue.\n\nFootnote 267:\n\n Arabs date pregnancy from the stopping of the menses, upon which the\n f\u0153tus is supposed to feed. Kalilah wa Dimnah says, \"The child's navel\n adheres to that of his mother and thereby he sucks\" (i. 263).\n\nFootnote 268:\n\n This is contrary to the commands of Al-Islam; Mohammed expressly said\n \"The Astrologers are liars, by the Lord of the Ka'abah!\"; and his\n saying is known to almost all Moslems, lettered or unlettered. Yet,\n the further we go East (Indiawards) the more we find these practises\n held in honour. Turning westwards we have:\n\n Iuridicis, Erebo, Fisco, fas vivere rapto;\n Militibus, Medicis, Tortori occidere ludo est;\n Mentiri Astronomis, Pictoribus atque Poetis.\n\nFootnote 269:\n\n He does not perform the Wuzu or lesser ablution because he neglects\n his dawn prayers.\n\nFootnote 270:\n\n For this game see Lane (M. E. Chapt. xvii.) It is usually played on a\n checked cloth not on a board like our draughts; and Easterns are fond\n of eating, drinking and smoking between and even during the games.\n Torrens (p. 142) translates \"I made up some dessert,\" confounding\n \"Mankalah\" with \"Nukl\" (dried fruit, quatre-mendiants).\n\nFootnote 271:\n\n Quoted from Mohammed whose saying has been given.\n\nFootnote 272:\n\n We should say \"the night of the thirty-ninth.\"\n\nFootnote 273:\n\n The bath first taken after sickness.\n\nFootnote 274:\n\n Arab. \"Dik\u00e1k\" used by way of soap or rather to soften the skin: the\n meal is usually of lupins, \"Adas\"=\"_Revalenta Arabica_,\" which costs\n a penny in Egypt and half-a-crown in England.\n\nFootnote 275:\n\n Arab. \"Sukkar-nab\u00e1t.\" During my day (1842-49) we had no other sugar\n in the Bombay Presidency.\n\nFootnote 276:\n\n This is one of the myriad Arab instances that the decrees of\n \"Anagk\u00e9,\" Fate, Destiny, Weird, are inevitable. The situation is\n highly dramatic; and indeed The Nights, as will appear in the\n terminal Essay, have already suggested a national drama.\n\nFootnote 277:\n\n Having lately been moved by Ajib.\n\nFootnote 278:\n\n Mr. Payne (i. 131.) omits these lines which appear out of place; but\n this mode of inappropriate quotation is a characteristic of Eastern\n tales.\n\nFootnote 279:\n\n Anglic\u00e8 \"him.\"\n\nFootnote 280:\n\n This march of the tribe is a _lieu commun_ of Arab verse _e.g._ the\n poet Labid's noble elegy on the \"Deserted Camp.\" We shall find scores\n of instances in The Nights.\n\nFootnote 281:\n\n I have heard of such sands in the Desert east of Damascus which can\n be crossed only on boards or camel furniture; and the same is\n reported of the infamous Region \"Al-Ahk\u00e1f\" (\"Unexplored Syria\").\n\nFootnote 282:\n\n Hence the Arab. saying \"The bark of a dog and not the gleam of a\n fire;\" the tired traveller knows from the former that the camp is\n near, whereas the latter shows from great distances.\n\nFootnote 283:\n\n Dark blue is the colour of mourning in Egypt as it was of the Roman\n Republic. The Persians hold that this tint was introduced by Kay\n Kaw\u00fas (B.C. 600) when mourning for his son Siy\u00e1wush. It was continued\n till the death of Husayn on the 10th of Muharram (the first month,\n then representing the vernal equinox) when it was changed for black.\n As a rule Moslems do not adopt this symbol of sorrow (called\n \"Hid\u00e1d\"), looking upon the practice as somewhat idolatrous and\n foreign to Arab manners. In Egypt and especially on the Upper Nile\n women dye their hands with indigo and stain their faces black or\n blacker.\n\nFootnote 284:\n\n The older Roc, of which more in the Tale of Sindbad. Meanwhile the\n reader curious about the Persian S\u00edmurgh (thirty bird) will consult\n the Dabistan, i., 55, 191 and iii., 237, and Richardson's Diss. p.\n xlviii. For the Anka (Enka or Unka=long-necked bird) see Dab. iii.,\n 249 and for the Hum\u00e1 (bird of Paradise) Richardson lxix. We still\n lack details concerning the Ben or Bennu (nycticorax) of Egypt which\n with the Article pi gave rise to the Greek \"ph\u0153nix.\"\n\nFootnote 285:\n\n Probably the _Haledj_ of Forskal (p. xcvi. Flor. \u00c6gypt. Arab.),\n \"lignum tenax, durum, obscuri generis.\" The Bres. Edit, has\n \"\u00e1k\u00fal\"=teak wood, vulg. \"S\u00e1j.\"\n\nFootnote 286:\n\n The knocker ring is an invention well known to the Romans.\n\nFootnote 287:\n\n Arab. \"Sadr\"; the place of honour; hence the \"Sudder Adawlut\"\n (Supreme Court) in the Anglo-Indian jargon.\n\nFootnote 288:\n\n Arab. \"Ahlan wa sahlan wa marhab\u00e1,\" the words still popularly\n addressed to a guest.\n\nFootnote 289:\n\n This may mean \"liquid black eyes\"; but also, as I have noticed, that\n the lashes were long and thick enough to make the eyelids appear as\n if Kohl-powder had been applied to the inner rims.\n\nFootnote 290:\n\n A slight parting between the two front incisors, the upper only, is\n considered a beauty by Arabs; why it is hard to say except for the\n racial love of variety. \"Sughr\" (Thugr) in the text means, primarily,\n the opening of the mouth, the gape: hence the front teeth.\n\nFootnote 291:\n\n _i.e._ makes me taste the bitterness of death, \"bursting the\n gall-bladder\" (Mar\u00e1rah) being our \"breaking the heart.\"\n\nFootnote 292:\n\n Almost needless to say that forbidden doors and rooms form a _lieu\n commun_ in Fairie: they are found in the Hindu Katha Sarit Sagara and\n became familiar to our childhood by \"Bluebeard.\"\n\nFootnote 293:\n\n Lit. \"apply Kohl to my eyes,\" even as Jezebel \"painted her face,\" in\n Heb. put her eyes in painting (2 Kings ix., 30).\n\nFootnote 294:\n\n Arab. \"Al-Bark\u00fak,\" whence our older \"Apricock.\" Classically it is\n \"Burk\u00fak\" and Pers. for Arab. \"Mishmish,\" and it also denotes a small\n plum or damson. In Syria the \"side next the sun\" shows a glowing red\n flush.\n\nFootnote 295:\n\n Arab. \"Haz\u00e1\u1e59\" (in Persian, a thousand)=a kind of mocking bird.\n\nFootnote 296:\n\n Some Edit. make the doors number a hundred, but the Princesses were\n forty and these coincidences, which seem to have significance and\n have none save for Arab symmetromania, are common in Arab stories.\n\nFootnote 297:\n\n Arab. \"M\u00e1j\u00far\": hence possibly our \"mazer,\" which is popularly derived\n from Masarn, a maple.\n\nFootnote 298:\n\n A compound scent of ambergris, musk and aloes.\n\nFootnote 299:\n\n The ends of the bridle-reins forming the whip\n\nFootnote 300:\n\n The flying horse is Pegasus which is a Greek travesty of an Egyptian\n myth developed in India.\n\nFootnote 301:\n\n The Bres. Edit. wrongly says \"the seventh.\"\n\nFootnote 302:\n\n Arab. \"Sharmutah\" (plur. Shar\u00e1m\u00edt) from the root Sharmat, to shred, a\n favourite Egyptian word also applied in vulgar speech to a strumpet,\n a punk, a piece. It is also the popular term for strips of jerked or\n boucaned meat hung up in the sun to dry, and classically called\n \"Kad\u00edd.\"\n\nFootnote 303:\n\n Arab. \"Iz\u00e1r,\" the man's waist-cloth opposed to the Rid\u00e1 or\n shoulder-cloth, is also the sheet of white calico worn by the poorer\n Egyptian women out of doors and covering head and hands. See Lane (M.\n E., chapt. i). The rich prefer a \"Hab\u00e1rah\" of black silk, and the\n poor, when they have nothing else, use a bed-sheet.\n\nFootnote 304:\n\n _i.e._ \"My dears.\"\n\nFootnote 305:\n\n Arab. \"L\u00e1 taw\u00e1khizn\u00e1:\" lit. \"do not chastise (or blame) us;\" the pop.\n expression for, \"excuse (or pardon) us.\"\n\nFootnote 306:\n\n Arab. \"Maskh\u00fat,\" mostly applied to change of shape as man enchanted\n to monkey, and in vulgar parlance applied to a statue (of stone,\n etc.). The list of metamorphoses in Al-Islam is longer than that\n known to Ovid. Those who have seen Petra, the Greek town of the\n Haur\u00e1n and the Roman ruins in Northern Africa will readily detect the\n basis upon which these stories are built. I shall return to this\n subject in The City of Iram (Night cclxxvi.) and The City of Brass\n (dlxvii.).\n\nFootnote 307:\n\n A picturesque phrase enough to express a deserted site, a spectacle\n familiar to the Nomades and always abounding in pathos to the\n citizens.\n\nFootnote 308:\n\n The olden \"Harem\" (or gyn\u00e6ceum, Pers. Zenanah, Serraglio): Har\u00edm is\n also used by synecdoche for the inmates; especially the wife.\n\nFootnote 309:\n\n The pearl is supposed in the East to lose 1% per ann. of its\n splendour and value.\n\nFootnote 310:\n\n Arab. \"Fass,\" properly the bezel of a ring; also a gem cut _en\n cabochon_ and generally the _contenant_ for the _contenu_.\n\nFootnote 311:\n\n Arab. \"Mihr\u00e1b\"=the arch-headed niche in the Mosque-wall facing\n Meccah-wards. Here, with his back to the people and fronting\n the Ka'abah or Square House of Meccah (hence called the\n \"Kiblah\"=direction of prayer), stations himself the Im\u00e1m, antistes or\n fugleman, lit. \"one who stands _before_ others;\" and his bows and\n prostrations give the time to the congregation. I have derived the\n Mihrab from the niche in which the Egyptian God was shrined: the Jews\n ignored it, but the Christians preserved it for their statues and\n altars. Maundrell suggests that the empty niche denotes an invisible\n God. As the niche (symbol of Venus) and the minaret (symbol of\n Priapus) date only from the days of the tenth Caliph, Al-Walid (A.H.\n 86-96=105-115), the Hindus charge the Moslems with having borrowed\n the two from their favourite idols\u2014The Linga-Yoni or Cunnus-phallus\n (Pilgrimage ii. 140), and plainly call the Mihrab a Bhaga=Cunnus\n (Dabistan ii. 152.) The Guebres further term Meccah \"Mah-gah,\" locus\n Lun\u00e6, and Al-Medinah, \"Mahdinah,\"=Moon of religion. See Dabistan i.,\n 49, etc.\n\nFootnote 312:\n\n Arab. \"Kursi,\" a stool of palm-fronds, etc., \u274c-shaped (see Lane's\n illustration, Nights i., 197), before which the reader sits. Good\n Moslems will not hold the Holy Volume below the waist nor open it\n except when ceremonially pure. Englishmen in the East should remember\n this, for to neglect the \"Adab al-K\u00faran\" (respect due to Holy Writ)\n gives great scandal.\n\nFootnote 313:\n\n Mr. Payne (i. 148) quotes the German Zuckerp\u00fcppchen.\n\nFootnote 314:\n\n The Persian poets have a thousand conceits in praise of the \"mole,\"\n (Kh\u00e1l or Sh\u00e1mah) for which Hafiz offered \"Samarkand and Bokhara\"\n (they not being his, as his friends remarked). Another \"topic\" is the\n flight of arrows shot by eyelashes.\n\nFootnote 315:\n\n Arab. \"Suh\u00e1\" a star in the Great Bear introduced only to balance\n \"wush\u00e1t\"=spies, enviers, enemies, whose \"evil eye\" it will ward off.\n\nFootnote 316:\n\n In Arab tales beauty is always \"soft-sided,\" and a smooth skin is\n valued in proportion to its rarety.\n\nFootnote 317:\n\n The myrtle is the young hair upon the side-face.\n\nFootnote 318:\n\n In other copies of these verses the fourth couplet swears \"by the\n scorpions of his brow\" _i.e._ the _accroche-c\u0153urs_, the\n beau-catchers, bell-ropes or \"aggravators,\" as the B.P. calls them.\n In couplet eight the poet alludes to his love's \"Unsur,\" or element,\n his nature made up of the four classicals, and in the last couplet he\n makes the nail-paring refer to the moon not the sun.\n\nFootnote 319:\n\n This is regular formula when speaking of Guebres.\n\nFootnote 320:\n\n Arab. \"Far\u00e1iz\"; the orders expressly given in the Koran which the\n reader will remember, is Uncreate and Eternal. In India \"Farz\" is\n applied to injunctions thrice repeated; and \"W\u00e1jib\" to those given\n twice over. Elsewhere scanty difference is made between them.\n\nFootnote 321:\n\n Arab. \"Kufr\"=rejecting the True Religion, _i.e._ Al-Islam, such\n rejection being \"Tughy\u00e1n\" or rebellion against the Lord. The\n \"terrible sound\" is taken from the legend of the prophet S\u00e1lih and\n the proto-historic tribe of Th\u00e1m\u00fad which for its impiety was struck\n dead by an earthquake and a noise from heaven. The latter, according\n to some commentators, was the voice of the Archangel Gabriel crying\n \"Die all of you\" (Koran, chapts. vii. xviii., etc.). We shall hear\n more of it in the \"City of many-coloured Iram.\" According to some,\n Salih, a mysterious Badawi prophet, is buried in the Wady al-Shaykh\n of the so-called Sinaitic Peninsula.\n\nFootnote 322:\n\n Yet they kept the semblance of man, showing that the idea arose from\n the basaltic statues found in Hauranic ruins. Mohammed in his various\n marches to Syria must have seen remnants of Greek and Roman\n settlements; and as has been noticed \"Sesostris\" left his mark near\n Meccah. (Pilgrimage iii. 137).\n\nFootnote 323:\n\n Arab. \"Shuhad\u00e1\"; highly respected by Moslems as by other\n religionists; although their principal if not only merit seems as a\n rule to have been intense obstinacy and devotion to one idea for\n which they were ready to sacrifice even life. The Martyrs-category is\n extensive including those killed by falling walls; victims to the\n plague, pleurisy and pregnancy; travellers drowned or otherwise lost\n when journeying honestly, and chaste lovers who die of \"broken\n hearts\" _i.e._ impaired digestion. Their souls are at once stowed\n away in the crops of green birds where they remain till Resurrection\n Day, \"eating of the fruits and drinking of the streams of Paradise,\"\n a place however, whose topography is wholly uncertain. Thus the young\n Prince was rewarded with a manner of anti-Purgatory, a preparatory\n heaven.\n\nFootnote 324:\n\n Arab. \"Su 'ub\u00e1n:\" the Badawin give the name to a variety of serpents\n all held to be venomous; but in tales the word, like \"Tann\u00edn.\"\n expresses our \"dragon\" or \"cockatrice.\"\n\nFootnote 325:\n\n She was ashamed to see the lady doing servile duty by rubbing her\n feet. This _massage_, which B. de la Brocqui\u00e8re describes in 1452 as\n \"kneading and pinching,\" has already been noticed. The French term is\n apparently derived from the Arab. \"Mas-h.\"\n\nFootnote 326:\n\n Alluding to the Most High Name, the hundredth name of God, the Heb.\n Shem hamphorash, unknown save to a favoured few who by using it\n perform all manner of miracles.\n\nFootnote 327:\n\n _i.e._ the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean.\n\nFootnote 328:\n\n _i.e._ Settled by the Koran.\n\nFootnote 329:\n\n The uglier the old woman the better procuress she is supposed to\n make. See the Santa Verdiana in Boccaccio v., 10. In Arab. \"Ajuz\"\n (old woman) is highly insulting and if addressed to an Egyptian,\n whatever be her age she will turn fiercely and resent it. The polite\n term is Shaybah (Pilgrimage iii., 200).\n\nFootnote 330:\n\n The four ages of woman, considered after Demosthenes in her\n three-fold character, prostitute for pleasure, concubine for service\n and wife for breeding.\n\nFootnote 331:\n\n Arab. \"Jil\u00e1\" (the Hindostani Julwa)=the displaying of the bride\n before the bridegroom for the first time, in different dresses, to\n the number of seven which are often borrowed for the occasion. The\n happy man must pay a fee called \"the tax of face-unveiling\" before he\n can see her features. Amongst Syrian Christians he sometimes tries to\n lift the veil by a sharp movement of the sword which is parried by\n the women present, and the blade remains entangled in the cloth. At\n last he succeeds, the bride sinks to the ground covering her face\n with her hands and the robes of her friends: presently she is raised\n up, her veil is readjusted and her face is left bare.\n\nFootnote 332:\n\n Arab. \"Ish\u00e1\"=the first watch of the night, twilight, supper-time,\n supper. Moslems have borrowed the four watches of the Romans from 6\n (a.m. or p.m.) to 6; and ignore the three original watches of the\n Jews, even, midnight and cockcrow (Sam. ii. 19, Judges vii. 19, and\n Exodus xiv. 24).\n\nFootnote 333:\n\n A popular Arab hyperbole.\n\nFootnote 334:\n\n Arab. \"Shak\u00e1ik al-Nu'um\u00e1n,\" lit. the fissures of Nu'uman, the\n beautiful anemone, which a tyrannical King of Hirah, Nu'uman ibn\n Al-Munzir, a contemporary of Mohammed, attempted to monopolize.\n\nFootnote 335:\n\n Arab. \"Andam\"=here the gum called dragon's blood; in other places the\n dye-wood known as brazil.\n\nFootnote 336:\n\n I need hardly say that in the East, where bells are unused, clapping\n the hands summons the servants. In India men cry \"Quy hye\" (Koi h\u00e1i?)\n and in the Brazil whistle \"Pst!\" after the fashion of Spain and\n Portugal.\n\nFootnote 337:\n\n The moles are here compared with pearls; a simile by no means common\n or appropriate.\n\nFootnote 338:\n\n A parody on the testification of Allah's Unity.\n\nFootnote 339:\n\n Arab. \"Sim\u00e1t\" (prop. \"Sum\u00e1t\"); the \"dinner-table,\" composed of a\n round wooden stool supporting a large metal tray, the two being\n called \"Sufrah\" (or \"Simat\"): thus, \"Sufrah h\u00e1zirah!\" means dinner is\n on the table. After the meal they are at once removed.\n\nFootnote 340:\n\n In the text \"Dast\u00far,\" the Persian word before noticed; \"Izn\" would be\n the proper Arabic equivalent.\n\nFootnote 341:\n\n In the Moslem East a young woman, single or married, is not allowed\n to appear alone in the streets; and the police has a right to arrest\n delinquents. As a preventive of intrigues the precaution is\n excellent. During the Crimean war hundreds of officers, English,\n French and Italian, became familiar with Constantinople; and not a\n few flattered themselves on their success with Turkish women. I do\n not believe that a single _bon\u00e2 fide_ case occurred; the \"conquests\"\n were all Greeks, Wallachians, Armenians or Jewesses.\n\nFootnote 342:\n\n Arab. \"Az\u00edm\": translators do not seem to know that this word in The\n Nights often bears its Egyptian and slang sense, somewhat equivalent\n to our \"deuced\" or \"mighty\" or \"awfully fine.\"\n\nFootnote 343:\n\n This is a very serious thing amongst Moslems and scrupulous men often\n make great sacrifices to avoid taking an oath.\n\nFootnote 344:\n\n We should say \"into the noose.\"\n\nFootnote 345:\n\n The man had fallen in love with her and determined to mark her so\n that she might be his.\n\nFootnote 346:\n\n Arab. \"Dajlah,\" in which we find the Heb. Hid-dekel.\n\nFootnote 347:\n\n Such an execution would be contrary to Moslem law: but people would\n look leniently upon the peccadillo of beheading or sacking a\n faithless wife. Moreover the youth was of the blood royal and _A quoi\n bon \u00eatre prince?_ as was said by a boy of viceroyal family in Egypt\n to his tutor who reproached him for unnecessarily shooting down a\n poor old man.\n\nFootnote 348:\n\n Arab. \"Shirk,\" partnership, evening or associating gods with God;\n polytheism: especially levelled at the Hindu triadism, Guebre dualism\n and Christian Trinitarianism.\n\nFootnote 349:\n\n Arab. \"Shatm\"=abuse, generally couched in foulest language with\n especial reference to the privy parts of female relatives.\n\nFootnote 350:\n\n When a woman is bastinadoed in the East they leave her some portion\n of dress and pour over her sundry buckets of water for a delicate\n consideration. When the hands are beaten they are passed through\n holes in the curtain separating the sufferer from mankind, and made\n fast to a \"falakah\" or pole.\n\nFootnote 351:\n\n Arab. \"Khalifah,\" Caliph. The word is also used for the successor of\n a Santon or holy man.\n\nFootnote 352:\n\n Arab. \"S\u00e1r;\" here the Koranic word for carrying out the venerable and\n undying _lex talionis_, the original basis of all criminal\n jurisprudence. Its main fault is that justice repeats the offence.\n\nFootnote 353:\n\n Both these sons of Harun became Caliphs, as we shall see in The\n Nights.\n\n\n\n\n _THE TALE OF THE THREE APPLES._\n\n\n They relate, O King of the age and lord of the time and of these days,\n that the Caliph Harun al-Rashid summoned his Wazir Ja'afar one night\n and said to him, \"I desire to go down into the city and question the\n common folk concerning the conduct of those charged with its\n governance; and those of whom they complain we will depose from office\n and those whom they commend we will promote.\" Quoth Ja'afar,\n \"Hearkening and obedience!\" So the Caliph went down with Ja'afar and\n Eunuch Masrur to the town and walked about the streets and markets and,\n as they were threading a narrow alley, they came upon a very old man\n with a fishing-net and crate to carry small fish on his head, and in\n his hand a staff; and, as he walked at a leisurely pace, he repeated\n these lines:\u2014\n\n They say me:\u2014Thou shinest a light to mankind \u273f With thy lore as the\n night which the Moon doth uplight!\n I answer, \"A truce to your jests and your gibes; \u273f Without luck what is\n learning?\u2014a poor-devil wight!\n If they take me to pawn with my lore in my pouch, \u273f With my volumes to\n read and my ink-case to write,\n For one day's provision they never could pledge me; \u273f As likely on\n Doomsday to draw bill at sight:\"\n How poorly, indeed, doth it fare wi' the poor, \u273f With his pauper\n existence and beggarly plight:\n In summer he faileth provision to find; \u273f In winter the fire-pot's his\n only delight:\n The street-dogs with bite and with bark to him rise, \u273f And each losel\n receives him with bark and with bite:\n If he lift up his voice and complain of his wrong, \u273f None pities or\n heeds him, however he's right;\n And when sorrows and evils like these he must brave \u273f His happiest\n homestead were down in the grave.\n\n When the Caliph heard his verses he said to Ja'afar, \"See this poor man\n and note his verses, for surely they point to his necessities.\" Then he\n accosted him and asked, \"O Shaykh, what be thine occupation?\" and the\n poor man answered, \"O my lord, I am a fisherman with a family to keep\n and I have been out between midday and this time; and not a thing hath\n Allah made my portion wherewithal to feed my family. I cannot even pawn\n myself to buy them a supper and I hate and disgust my life and I hanker\n after death.\" Quoth the Caliph, \"Say me, wilt thou return with us to\n Tigris' bank and cast thy net on my luck, and whatsoever turneth up I\n will buy of thee for an hundred gold pieces?\" The man rejoiced when he\n heard these words and said, \"On my head be it! I will go back with\n you;\" and, returning with them river-wards, made a cast and waited a\n while; then he hauled in the rope and dragged the net ashore and there\n appeared in it a chest padlocked and heavy. The Caliph examined it and\n lifted it finding it weighty; so he gave the fisherman two hundred\n dinars and sent him about his business; whilst Masrur, aided by the\n Caliph, carried the chest to the palace and set it down and lighted the\n candles. Ja'afar and Masrur then broke it open and found therein a\n basket of palm-leaves corded with red worsted. This they cut open and\n saw within it a piece of carpet which they lifted out, and under it was\n a woman's mantilla folded in four, which they pulled out; and at the\n bottom of the chest they came upon a young lady, fair as a silver\n ingot, slain and cut into nineteen pieces. When the Caliph looked upon\n her he cried, \"Alas!\" and tears ran down his cheeks and turning to\n Ja'afar he said, \"O dog of Wazirs,[354] shall folk be murdered in our\n reign and be cast into the river to be a burden and a responsibility\n for us on the Day of Doom? By Allah, we must avenge this woman on her\n murderer and he shall be made die the worst of deaths!\" And presently\n he added, \"Now, as surely as we are descended from the Sons of\n Abbas,[355] if thou bring us not him who slew her, that we do her\n justice on him, I will hang thee at the gate of my palace, thee and\n forty of thy kith and kin by thy side.\" And the Caliph was wroth with\n exceeding rage. Quoth Ja'afar, \"Grant me three days delay;\" and quoth\n the Caliph, \"We grant thee this.\" So Ja'afar went out from before him\n and returned to his own house, full of sorrow and saying to himself,\n \"How shall I find him who murdered this damsel, that I may bring him\n before the Caliph? If I bring other than the murderer, it will be laid\n to my charge by the Lord: in very sooth I wot not what to do.\" He kept\n his house three days and on the fourth day the Caliph sent one of the\n Chamberlains for him and, as he came into the presence, asked him,\n \"Where is the murderer of the damsel?\" to which answered Ja'afar, \"O\n Commander of the Faithful, am I inspector of murdered folk that I\n should ken who killed her?\" The Caliph was furious at his answer and\n bade hang him before the palace-gate and commanded that a crier cry\n through the streets of Baghdad, \"Whoso would see the hanging of\n Ja'afar, the Barmaki, Wazir of the Caliph, with forty of the\n Barmecides,[356] his cousins and kinsmen, before the palace-gate, let\n him come and let him look!\" The people flocked out from all the\n quarters of the city to witness the execution of Ja'afar and his\n kinsmen, not knowing the cause. Then they set up the gallows and made\n Ja'afar and the others stand underneath in readiness for execution, but\n whilst every eye was looking for the Caliph's signal, and the crowd\n wept for Ja'afar and his cousins of the Barmecides, lo and behold! a\n young man fair of face and neat of dress and of favour like the moon\n raining light, with eyes black and bright, and brow flower-white, and\n cheeks red as rose and young down where the beard grows, and a mole\n like a grain of ambergris, pushed his way through the people till he\n stood immediately before the Wazir and said to him, \"Safety to thee\n from this strait, O Prince of the Emirs and Asylum of the poor! I am\n the man who slew the woman ye found in the chest, so hang me for her\n and do her justice on me!\" When Ja'afar heard the youth's confession he\n rejoiced at his own deliverance, but grieved and sorrowed for the fair\n youth, and whilst they were yet talking behold, another man well\n stricken in years pressed forwards through the people and thrust his\n way amid the populace till he came to Ja'afar and the youth, whom he\n saluted saying, \"Ho thou the Wazir and Prince sans-peer! believe not\n the words of this youth. Of a surety none murdered the damsel but I;\n take her wreak on me this moment; for, an thou do not thus, I will\n require it of thee before Almighty Allah.\" Then quoth the young man, \"O\n Wazir, this is an old man in his dotage who wotteth not whatso he saith\n ever, and I am he who murdered her, so do thou avenge her on me!\" Quoth\n the old man, \"O my son, thou art young and desirest the joys of the\n world and I am old and weary and surfeited with the world: I will offer\n my life as a ransom for thee and for the Wazir and his cousins. No one\n murdered the damsel but I, so Allah upon thee, make haste to hang me,\n for no life is left in me now that hers is gone.\" The Wazir marvelled\n much at all this strangeness and, taking the young man and the old man,\n carried them before the Caliph, where, after kissing the ground seven\n times between his hands, he said, \"O Commander of the Faithful, I bring\n thee the murderer of the damsel!\" \"Where is he?\"; asked the Caliph and\n Ja'afar answered, \"This young man saith, I am the murderer, and this\n old man giving him the lie saith, I am the murderer, and behold, here\n are the twain standing before thee.\" The Caliph looked at the old man\n and the young man and asked, \"Which of you killed the girl?\" The young\n man replied, \"No one slew her save I;\" and the old man answered,\n \"Indeed none killed her but myself.\" Then said the Caliph to Ja'afar,\n \"Take the twain and hang them both;\" but Ja'afar rejoined, \"Since one\n of them was the murderer, to hang the other were mere injustice.\"[357]\n \"By Him who raised the firmament and dispread the earth like a carpet,\"\n cried the youth, \"I am he who slew the damsel;\" and he went on to\n describe the manner of her murder and the basket, the mantilla and the\n bit of carpet, in fact all that the Caliph had found upon her. So the\n Caliph was certified that the young man was the murderer; whereat he\n wondered and asked him, \"What was the cause of thy wrongfully doing\n this damsel to die and what made thee confess the murder without the\n bastinado, and what brought thee here to yield up thy life, and what\n made thee say Do her wreak upon me?\" The youth answered, \"Know, O\n Commander of the Faithful, that this woman was my wife and the mother\n of my children; also my first cousin and the daughter of my paternal\n uncle, this old man who is my father's own brother. When I married her\n she was a maid[358] and Allah blessed me with three male children by\n her; she loved me and served me and I saw no evil in her, for I also\n loved her with fondest love. Now on the first day of this month she\n fell ill with grievous sickness and I fetched in physicians to her; but\n recovery came to her little by little and, when I wished her to go to\n the Hammam-bath, she said:\u2014There is a something I long for before I go\n to the bath and I long for it with an exceeding longing. To hear is to\n comply, said I. And what is it? Quoth she, I have a queasy craving for\n an apple, to smell it and bite a bit of it. I replied:\u2014Hadst thou a\n thousand longings I would try to satisfy them! So I went on the instant\n into the city and sought for apples but could find none; yet, had they\n cost a gold piece each, would I have bought them. I was vexed at this\n and went home and said:\u2014O daughter of my uncle, by Allah I can find\n none! She was distressed, being yet very weakly, and her weakness\n increased greatly on her that night and I felt anxious and alarmed on\n her account. As soon as morning dawned I went out again and made the\n round of the gardens, one by one, but found no apples anywhere. At last\n there met me an old gardener, of whom I asked about them and he\n answered:\u2014O my son, this fruit is a rarity with us and is not now to be\n found save in the garden of the Commander of the Faithful at Bassorah,\n where the gardener keepeth it for the Caliph's eating. I returned to my\n house troubled by my ill-success; and my love for my wife and my\n affection moved me to undertake the journey. So I gat me ready and set\n out and travelled fifteen days and nights, going and coming, and\n brought her three apples which I bought from the gardener for three\n dinars. But when I went in to my wife and set them before her, she took\n no pleasure in them and let them lie by her side; for her weakness and\n fever had increased on her and her malady lasted without abating ten\n days, after which time she began to recover health. So I left my house\n and betaking me to my shop sat there buying and selling; and about\n midday behold, a great ugly black slave, long as a lance and broad as a\n bench, passed by my shop holding in hand one of the three apples\n wherewith he was playing. Quoth I:\u2014O my good slave, tell me whence thou\n tookest that apple, that I may get the like of it? He laughed and\n answered:\u2014I got it from my mistress, for I had been absent and on my\n return I found her lying ill with three apples by her side, and she\n said to me:\u2014My horned wittol of a husband made a journey for them to\n Bassorah and bought them for three dinars. So I ate and drank with her\n and took this one from her.[359] When I heard such words from the\n slave, O Commander of the Faithful, the world grew black before my\n face, and I arose and locked up my shop and went home beside myself for\n excess of rage. I looked for the apples and finding only two of the\n three asked my wife:\u2014O my cousin, where is the third apple?; and\n raising her head languidly she answered:\u2014I wot not, O son of my uncle,\n where 'tis gone! This convinced me that the slave had spoken the truth,\n so I took a knife and coming behind her got upon her breast without a\n word said and cut her throat. Then I hewed off her head and her limbs\n in pieces and, wrapping her in her mantilla and a rag of carpet,\n hurriedly sewed up the whole which I set in a chest and, locking it\n tight, loaded it on my he-mule and threw it into the Tigris with my own\n hands. So Allah upon thee, O Commander of the Faithful, make haste to\n hang me, as I fear lest she appeal for vengeance on Resurrection Day.\n For, when I had thrown her into the river and none knew aught of it, as\n I went back home I found my eldest son crying and yet he knew naught of\n what I had done with his mother. I asked him:\u2014What hath made thee weep,\n my boy?; and he answered:\u2014I took one of the three apples which were by\n my mammy and went down into the lane to play with my brethren when\n behold, a big long black slave snatched it from my hand and said,\n Whence hadst thou this? Quoth I, My father travelled far for it, and\n brought it from Bassorah for my mother who was ill and two other apples\n for which he paid three ducats. He took no heed of my words and I asked\n for the apple a second and a third time, but he cuffed me and kicked me\n and went off with it. I was afraid lest my mother should swinge me on\n account of the apple, so for fear of her I went with my brother outside\n the city and stayed there till evening closed in upon us; and indeed I\n am in fear of her; and now by Allah, O my father, say nothing to her of\n this or it may add to her ailment! When I heard what my child said I\n knew that the slave was he who had foully slandered my wife, the\n daughter of my uncle, and was certified that I had slain her\n wrongfully. So I wept with exceeding weeping and presently this old\n man, my paternal uncle and her father, came in; and I told him what had\n happened and he sat down by my side and wept and we ceased not weeping\n till midnight. We have kept up mourning for her these last five days\n and we lamented her in the deepest sorrow for that she was unjustly\n done to die. This came from the gratuitous lying of the slave, the\n blackamoor, and this was the manner of my killing her; so I conjure\n thee, by the honour of thine ancestors, make haste to kill me and do\n her justice upon me, as there is no living for me after her!\" The\n Caliph marvelled at his words and said, \"By Allah the young man is\n excusable: I will hang none but the accursed slave and I will do a deed\n which shall comfort the ill-at-ease and suffering, and which shall\n please the All-glorious King.\"\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day\n and ceased saying her permitted say.\n\n Now when it was the Twentieth Night,\n\n She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Caliph swore\n he would hang none but the slave, for the youth was excusable. Then he\n turned to Ja'afar and said to him, \"Bring before me this accursed slave\n who was the sole cause of this calamity; and, if thou bring him not\n before me within three days, thou shalt be slain in his stead.\" So\n Ja'afar fared forth weeping and saying, \"Two deaths have already beset\n me, nor shall the crock come off safe from every shock.[360] In this\n matter craft and cunning are of no avail; but He who preserved my life\n the first time can preserve it a second time. By Allah, I will not\n leave my house during the three days of life which remain to me and let\n the Truth (whose perfection be praised!) do e'en as He will.\" So he\n kept his house three days, and on the fourth day he summoned the Kazis\n and legal witnesses and made his last will and testament, and took\n leave of his children weeping. Presently in came a messenger from the\n Caliph and said to him, \"The Commander of the Faithful is in the most\n violent rage that can be, and he sendeth to seek thee and he sweareth\n that the day shall certainly not pass without thy being hanged unless\n the slave be forthcoming.\" When Ja'afar heard this he wept, and his\n children and slaves and all who were in the house wept with him. After\n he had bidden adieu to everybody except his youngest daughter, he\n proceeded to farewell her; for he loved this wee one, who was a\n beautiful child, more than all his other children; and he pressed her\n to his breast and kissed her and wept bitterly at parting from her;\n when he felt something round inside the bosom of her dress and asked\n her, \"O my little maid, what is in thy bosom pocket?\"; \"O my father,\"\n she replied, \"it is an apple with the name of our Lord the Caliph\n written upon it. Rayh\u00e1n our slave brought it to me four days ago and\n would not let me have it till I gave him two dinars for it.\" When\n Ja'afar heard speak of the slave and the apple, he was glad and put his\n hand into his child's pocket[361] and drew out the apple and knew it\n and rejoiced saying, \"O ready Dispeller of trouble!\"[362] Then he bade\n them bring the slave and said to him, \"Fie upon thee, Rayhan! whence\n haddest thou this apple?\" \"By Allah, O my master,\" he replied, \"though\n a lie may get a man once off, yet may truth get him off, and well off,\n again and again. I did not steal this apple from thy palace nor from\n the gardens of the Commander of the Faithful. The fact is that five\n days ago, as I was walking along one of the alleys of this city, I saw\n some little ones at play and this apple in hand of one of them. So I\n snatched it from him and beat him and he cried and said, O youth this\n apple is my mother's and she is ill. She told my father how she longed\n for an apple, so he travelled to Bassorah and bought her three apples\n for three gold pieces, and I took one of them to play withal. He wept\n again, but I paid no heed to what he said and carried it off and\n brought it here, and my little lady bought it of me for two dinars of\n gold. And this is the whole story.\" When Ja'afar heard his words he\n marvelled that the murder of the damsel and all this misery should have\n been caused by his slave; he grieved for the relation of the slave to\n himself, while rejoicing over his own deliverance, and he repeated\n these lines:\u2014\n\n If ill betide thee through thy slave, \u273f Make him forthright thy\n sacrifice:\n A many serviles thou shalt find, \u273f But life comes once and never twice.\n\n Then he took the slave's hand and, leading him to the Caliph, related\n the story from first to last and the Caliph marvelled with extreme\n astonishment, and laughed till he fell on his back and ordered that the\n story be recorded and be made public amongst the people. But Ja'afar\n said, \"Marvel not, O Commander of the Faithful, at this adventure, for\n it is not more wondrous than the History of the Wazir N\u00far al-D\u00edn Ali of\n Egypt and his brother Shams al-D\u00edn Mohammed.\" Quoth the Caliph, \"Out\n with it; but what can be stranger than this story?\" And Ja'afar\n answered, \"O Commander of the Faithful, I will not tell it thee, save\n on condition that thou pardon my slave;\" and the Caliph rejoined, \"If\n it be indeed more wondrous than that of the three apples, I grant thee\n his blood, and if not I will surely slay thy slave.\" So Ja'afar began\n in these words the\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 354:\n\n \"Dog\" and \"hog\" are still highly popular terms of abuse. The Rabbis\n will not defile their lips with \"pig;\" but say \"Dabhar\n akhir\"=\"another thing.\"\n\nFootnote 355:\n\n The \"hero eponymus\" of the Abbaside dynasty, Abbas having been the\n brother of Abdullah, the father of Mohammed. He is a famous personage\n in Al-Islam (D'Herbelot).\n\nFootnote 356:\n\n Europe translates the word \"Barmecides.\" It is Persian from _bar_\n (up) and _mak\u00eddan_ (to suck). The vulgar legend is that Ja'afar, the\n first of the name, appeared before the Caliph Abd al-Malik with a\n ring poisoned for his own need; and that the Caliph, warned of it by\n the clapping of two stones which he wore _ad hoc_, charged the\n visitor with intention to murder him. He excused himself and in his\n speech occurred the Persian word \"Barmakam,\" which may mean \"I shall\n sup it up,\" or, \"I am a Barmak,\" that is, a high priest among the\n Guebres. See D'Herbelot s.v.\n\nFootnote 357:\n\n Arab. \"Zulm,\" the deadliest of monarch's sins. One of the sayings of\n Mohammed, popularly quoted, is, \"Kingdom endureth with Kufr or\n infidelity (_i.e._ without accepting Al-Islam) but endureth not with\n Zulm or injustice.\" Hence the good Moslem will not complain of the\n rule of Kafirs or Unbelievers, like the English, so long as they rule\n him righteously and according to his own law.\n\nFootnote 358:\n\n All this aggravates his crime: had she been a widow she would not\n have had upon him \"the claims of maidenhead,\" the premio della\n verginit\u00e0 of Boccaccio, x. 10.\n\nFootnote 359:\n\n It is supposed that slaves cannot help telling these fatal lies. Arab\n story-books are full of ancient and modern instances and some have\n become \"Joe Millers.\" Moreover it is held unworthy of a freeborn man\n to take over-notice of these servile villanies; hence the scoundrel\n in the story escapes unpunished. I have already noticed the\n predilection of debauched women for these \"skunks of the human race;\"\n and the young man in the text evidently suspected that his wife had\n passed herself this \"little caprice.\" The excuse which the Caliph\n would find for him is the _pundonor_ shown in killing one he loved so\n fondly.\n\nFootnote 360:\n\n The Arab equivalent of our pitcher and well.\n\nFootnote 361:\n\n _i.e._ Where the dress sits loosely about the bust.\n\nFootnote 362:\n\n He had trusted in Allah and his trust was justified.\n\n\n\n\n _TALE OF N\u00daR AL-D\u00cdN AL\u00cd & HIS SON BADR AL-D\u00cdN HASAN_\n\n\n Know, O Commander of the Faithful, that in times of yore the land of\n Egypt was ruled by a Sultan endowed with justice and generosity, one\n who loved the pious poor and companied with the Olema and learned men;\n and he had a Wazir, a wise and an experienced, well versed in affairs\n and in the art of government. This Minister, who was a very old man,\n had two sons, as they were two moons; never man saw the like of them\n for beauty and grace, the elder called Shams al-Din Mohammed and the\n younger Nur al-Din Ali; but the younger excelled the elder in\n seemliness and pleasing semblance, so that folk heard his fame in far\n countries and men flocked to Egypt for the purpose of seeing him. In\n course of time their father, the Wazir, died and was deeply regretted\n and mourned by the Sultan, who sent for his two sons and, investing\n them with dresses of honour,[363] said to them, \"Let not your hearts be\n troubled, for ye shall stand in your father's stead and be joint\n Ministers of Egypt.\" At this they rejoiced and kissed the ground before\n him and performed the ceremonial mourning[364] for their father during\n a full month; after which time they entered upon the Wazirate, and the\n power passed into their hands as it had been in the hands of their\n father, each doing duty for a week at a time. They lived under the same\n roof and their word was one; and whenever the Sultan desired to travel\n they took it by turns to be in attendance on him. It fortuned one night\n that the Sultan purposed setting out on a journey next morning, and the\n elder, whose turn it was to accompany him, was sitting conversing with\n his brother and said to him, \"O my brother, it is my wish that we both\n marry, I and thou, two sisters; and go in to our wives on one and the\n same night.\" \"Do, O my brother, as thou desirest,\" the younger replied,\n \"for right is thy recking and surely I will comply with thee in whatso\n thou sayest.\" So they agreed upon this and quoth Shams al-Din, \"If\n Allah decree that we marry two damsels and go in to them on the same\n night, and they shall conceive on their bride-nights and bear children\n to us on the same day, and by Allah's will thy wife bear thee a son and\n my wife bear me a daughter, let us wed them either to other, for they\n will be cousins.\" Quoth Nur al-Din, \"O my brother, Shams al-Din, what\n dower[365] wilt thou require from my son for thy daughter?\" Quoth Shams\n al-Din, \"I will take three thousand dinars and three pleasure gardens\n and three farms; and it would not be seemly that the youth make\n contract for less than this.\" When Nur al-Din heard such demand he\n said, \"What manner of dower is this thou wouldest impose upon my son?\n Wottest thou not that we are brothers and both by Allah's grace Wazirs\n and equal in office? It behoveth thee to offer thy daughter to my son\n without marriage settlement; or, if one need be, it should represent a\n mere nominal value by way of show to the world: for thou knowest that\n the masculine is worthier than the feminine, and my son is a male and\n our memory will be preserved by him, not by thy daughter.\" \"But what,\"\n said Shams al-Din, \"is she to have?\"; and Nur al-Din continued,\n \"Through her we shall not be remembered among the Emirs of the earth;\n but I see thou wouldest do with me according to the saying:\u2014An thou\n wouldst bluff off a buyer, ask him high price and higher; or as did a\n man who, they say, went to a friend and asked something of him being in\n necessity and was answered:\u2014Bismillah,[366] in the name of Allah, I\n will do all what thou requirest but come to-morrow!\" Whereupon the\n other replied in this verse:\u2014\n\n When he who is asked a favour saith \"To-morrow,\" \u273f The wise man wots\n 'tis vain to beg or borrow.\n\n Quoth Shams al-Din, \"Basta![367] I see thee fail in respect to me by\n making thy son of more account than my daughter; and 'tis plain that\n thine understanding is of the meanest and that thou lackest manners.\n Thou remindest me of thy partnership in the Wazirate, when I admitted\n thee to share with me only in pity for thee, and not wishing to mortify\n thee; and that thou mightest help me as a manner of assistant. But\n since thou talkest on this wise, by Allah, I will never marry my\n daughter to thy son; no, not for her weight in gold!\" When Nur al-Din\n heard his brother's words he waxed wroth and said, \"And I too, I will\n never, never marry my son to thy daughter; no, not to keep from my lips\n the cup of death.\" Shams al-Din replied, \"I would not accept him as a\n husband for her, and he is not worth a paring of her nail. Were I not\n about to travel I would make an example of thee; however when I return\n thou shalt see, and I will show thee, how I can assert my dignity and\n vindicate my honour. But Allah doeth whatso He willeth.\"[368] When Nur\n al-Din heard this speech from his brother, he was filled with fury and\n lost his wits for rage; but he hid what he felt and held his peace; and\n each of the brothers passed the night in a place far apart, wild with\n wrath against the other. As soon as morning dawned the Sultan fared\n forth in state and crossed over from Cairo[369] to J\u00edzah[370] and made\n for the Pyramids, accompanied by the Wazir Shams al-Din, whose turn of\n duty it was, whilst his brother Nur al-Din, who passed the night in\n sore rage, rose with the light and prayed the dawn-prayer. Then he\n betook himself to his treasury and, taking a small pair of saddle-bags,\n filled them with gold; and he called to mind his brother's threats and\n the contempt wherewith he had treated him, and he repeated these\n couplets:\u2014\n\n Travel! and thou shalt find new friends for old ones left behind; \u273f\n Toil! for the sweets of human life by toil and moil are found:\n The stay-at-home no honour wins nor aught attains but want; \u273f So leave\n thy place of birth[371] and wander all the world around!\n I've seen, and very oft I've seen, how standing water stinks, \u273f And\n only flowing sweetens it and trotting makes it sound:\n And were the moon for ever full and ne'er to wax or wane, \u273f Man would\n not strain his watchful eyes to see its gladsome round:\n Except the lion leave his lair he ne'er would fell his game; \u273f Except\n the arrow leave the bow ne'er had it reached its bound:\n Gold-dust is dust the while it lies untravelled in the mine, \u273f And\n aloes-wood mere fuel is upon its native ground:\n And gold shall win his highest worth when from his goal ungoal'd; \u273f And\n aloes sent to foreign parts grows costlier than gold.\n\n When he ended his verse he bade one of his pages saddle him his Nubian\n mare-mule with her padded selle. Now she was a dapple-grey,[372] with\n ears like reed-pens and legs like columns and a back high and strong as\n a dome builded on pillars; her saddle was of gold-cloth and her\n stirrups of Indian steel, and her housing of Ispahan velvet; she had\n trappings which would serve the Chosro\u00ebs, and she was like a bride\n adorned for her wedding night. Moreover he bade lay on her back a piece\n of silk for a seat, and a prayer-carpet under which were his\n saddle-bags. When this was done he said to his pages and slaves, \"I\n purpose going forth a-pleasuring outside the city on the road to\n Kaly\u00fab-town,[373] and I shall lie three nights abroad; so let none of\n you follow me, for there is something straiteneth my breast.\" Then he\n mounted the mule in haste; and, taking with him some provaunt for the\n way, set out from Cairo and faced the open and uncultivated country\n lying around it.[374] About noontide he entered Bilbays-city,[375]\n where he dismounted and stayed awhile to rest himself and his mule and\n ate some of his victual. He bought at Bilbays all he wanted for himself\n and forage for his mule and then fared on the way of the waste. Towards\n nightfall he entered a town called Sa'adiyah[376] where he alighted and\n took out somewhat of his viaticum and ate; then he spread his strip of\n silk on the sand and set the saddle-bags under his head and slept in\n the open air; for he was still overcome with anger. When morning dawned\n he mounted and rode onward till he reached the Holy City,[377]\n Jerusalem, and thence he made Aleppo, where he dismounted at one of the\n caravanserais and abode three days to rest himself and the mule and to\n smell the air.[378] Then, being determined to travel afar and Allah\n having written safety in his fate, he set out again, wending without\n wotting whither he was going; and, having fallen in with certain\n couriers, he stinted not travelling till he had reached Bassorah-city\n albeit he knew not what the place was. It was dark night when he\n alighted at the Khan, so he spread out his prayer-carpet and took down\n the saddle-bags from the back of the mule and gave her with her\n furniture in charge of the door-keeper that he might walk her about.\n The man took her and did as he was bid. Now it so happened that the\n Wazir of Bassorah, a man shot in years, was sitting at the\n lattice-window of his palace opposite the Khan and he saw the porter\n walking the mule up and down. He was struck by her trappings of price\n and thought her a nice beast fit for the riding of Wazirs or even of\n royalties; and the more he looked the more was he perplexed till at\n last he said to one of his pages, \"Bring hither yon door-keeper.\" The\n page went and returned to the Wazir with the porter who kissed the\n ground between his hands, and the Minister asked him, \"Who is the owner\n of yonder mule and what manner of man is he?\"; and he answered, \"O my\n lord, the owner of this mule is a comely young man of pleasant manners,\n withal grave and dignified, and doubtless one of the sons of the\n merchants.\" When the Wazir heard the door-keeper's words he arose\n forthright; and, mounting his horse, rode to the Khan[379] and went in\n to Nur al-Din who, seeing the Minister making towards him, rose to his\n feet and advanced to meet him and saluted him. The Wazir welcomed him\n to Bassorah and dismounting, embraced him and made him sit down by his\n side and said, \"O my son, whence comest thou and what dost thou seek?\"\n \"O my lord,\" Nur al-Din replied, \"I have come from Cairo-city of which\n my father was whilome Wazir; but he hath been removed to the grace of\n Allah;\" and he informed him of all that had befallen him from beginning\n to end, adding, \"I am resolved never to return home before I have seen\n all the cities and countries of the world.\" When the Wazir heard this,\n he said to him, \"O my son, hearken not to the voice of passion lest it\n cast thee into the pit; for indeed many regions be waste places and I\n fear for thee the turns of Time.\" Then he let load the saddle-bags and\n the silk and prayer-carpets on the mule and carried Nur al-Din to his\n own house, where he lodged him in a pleasant place and entreated him\n honourably and made much of him, for he inclined to love him with\n exceeding love. After a while he said to him, \"O my son, here am I left\n a man in years and have no male children, but Allah hath blessed me\n with a daughter who eveneth thee in beauty; and I have rejected all her\n many suitors, men of rank and substance. But affection for thee hath\n entered into my heart; say me, then, wilt thou be to her a husband? If\n thou accept this, I will go up with thee to the Sultan of Bassorah[380]\n and will tell him that thou art my nephew, the son of my brother, and\n bring thee to be appointed Wazir in my place that I may keep the house\n for, by Allah, O my son, I am stricken in years and aweary.\" When Nur\n al-Din heard the Wazir's words, he bowed his head in modesty and said,\n \"To hear is to obey!\" At this the Wazir rejoiced and bade his servants\n prepare a feast and decorate the great assembly-hall, wherein they were\n wont to celebrate the marriages of Emirs and Grandees. Then he\n assembled his friends and the notables of the reign and the merchants\n of Bassorah and when all stood before him he said to them, \"I had a\n brother who was Wazir in the land of Egypt, and Allah Almighty blessed\n him with two sons, whilst to me, as well ye wot, He hath given a\n daughter. My brother charged me to marry my daughter to one of his\n sons, whereto I assented; and, when my daughter was of age to marry, he\n sent me one of his sons, the young man now present, to whom I purpose\n marrying her, drawing up the contract and celebrating the night of\n unveiling with due ceremony: for he is nearer and dearer to me than a\n stranger and, after the wedding, if he please he shall abide with me,\n or if he desire to travel I will forward him and his wife to his\n father's home.\" Hereat one and all replied, \"Right is thy recking;\" and\n they looked at the bridegroom and were pleased with him. So the Wazir\n sent for the Kazi and legal witnesses and they wrote out the marriage\n contract, after which the slaves perfumed the guests with incense,[381]\n and served them with sherbet of sugar and sprinkled rose-water on them\n and all went their ways. Then the Wazir bade his servants take Nur\n al-Din to the Hammam-baths and sent him a suit of the best of his own\n especial raiment, and napkins and towelry and bowls and perfume-burners\n and all else that was required. And after the bath, when he came out\n and donned the dress, he was even as the full moon on the fourteenth\n night; and he mounted his mule and stayed not till he reached the\n Wazir's palace. There he dismounted and went in to the Minister and\n kissed his hands, and the Wazir bade him welcome.\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad\n perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.\n\n Now when it was the Twenty-First Night,\n\n She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir stood\n up to him and welcoming him said, \"Arise and go in to thy wife this\n night, and on the morrow I will carry thee to the Sultan, and pray\n Allah bless thee with all manner of weal.\" So Nur al-Din left him and\n went in to his wife the Wazir's daughter. Thus far concerning him, but\n as regards his elder brother, Shams al-Din, he was absent with the\n Sultan a long time and when he returned from his journey he found not\n his brother; and he asked of his servants and slaves who answered, \"On\n the day of thy departure with the Sultan, thy brother mounted his mule\n fully caparisoned as for state procession saying:\u2014I am going towards\n Kalyub-town and I shall be absent one day or at most two days; for my\n breast is straitened, and let none of you follow me.\" Then he fared\n forth and from that time to this we have heard no tidings of him. Shams\n al-Din was greatly troubled at the sudden disappearance of his brother\n and grieved with exceeding grief at the loss and said to himself, \"This\n is only because I chided and upbraided him the night before my\n departure with the Sultan; haply his feelings were hurt and he fared\n forth a-travelling; but I must send after him.\" Then he went in to the\n Sultan and acquainted him with what had happened and wrote letters and\n dispatches, which he sent by running footmen to his deputies in every\n province. But during the twenty days of his brother's absence Nur\n al-Din had travelled far and had reached Bassorah; so after diligent\n search the messengers failed to come at any news of him and returned.\n Thereupon Shams al-Din despaired of finding his brother and said,\n \"Indeed I went beyond all bounds in what I said to him with reference\n to the marriage of our children. Would that I had not done so! This all\n cometh of my lack of wit and want of caution.\" Soon after this he\n sought in marriage the daughter of a Cairene merchant[382] and drew up\n the marriage contract and went in to her. And it so chanced that, on\n the very same night when Shams al-Din went in to his wife, Nur al-Din\n also went in to his wife the daughter of the Wazir of Bassorah; this\n being in accordance with the will of Almighty Allah, that He might deal\n the decrees of Destiny to His creatures. Furthermore, it was as the two\n brothers had said; for their two wives became pregnant by them on the\n same night and both were brought to bed on the same day; the wife of\n Shams al-Din, Wazir of Egypt, of a daughter, never in Cairo was seen a\n fairer; and the wife of Nur al-Din of a son, none more beautiful was\n ever seen in his time, as one of the poets said concerning the like of\n him:\u2014\n\n That jetty hair, that glossy brow,\n My slender waisted youth, of thine,\n Can darkness round creation throw,\n Or make it brightly shine.\n The dusky mole that faintly shows\n Upon his cheek, ah! blame it not;\n The tulip-flower never blows\n Undarkened by its spot.[383]\n\n And as another also said:\u2014\n\n His scent was musk and his cheek was rose; \u273f His teeth are pearls and\n his lips drop wine;\n His form is a brand and his hips a hill; \u273f His hair is night and his\n face moonshine.\n\n They named the boy Badr al-Din Hasan and his grandfather, the Wazir of\n Bassorah, rejoiced in him and, on the seventh day after his birth, made\n entertainments and spread banquets which would befit the birth of\n Kings' sons and heirs. Then he took Nur al-Din and went up with him to\n the Sultan, and his son-in-law, when he came before the presence of the\n King, kissed the ground between his hands and repeated these verses,\n for he was ready of speech, firm of sprite and good in heart as he was\n goodly in form:\u2014\n\n The world's best joys long be thy lot, my lord! \u273f And last while\n darkness and the dawn o'erlap:\n O thou who makest, when we greet thy gifts, \u273f The world to dance and\n Time his palms to clap.[384]\n\n Then the Sultan rose up to honour them and, thanking Nur al-Din for his\n fine compliment, asked the Wazir, \"Who may be this young man?\"; and the\n Minister answered, \"This is my brother's son,\" and related his tale\n from first to last. Quoth the Sultan, \"And how comes he to be thy\n nephew and we have never heard speak of him?\" Quoth the Minister, \"O\n our lord the Sultan, I had a brother who was Wazir in the land of Egypt\n and he died, leaving two sons, whereof the elder hath taken his\n father's place and the younger, whom thou seest, came to me. I had\n sworn I would not marry my daughter to any but to him; so when he came\n I married him to her.[385] Now he is young and I am old; my hearing is\n dulled and my judgment is easily fooled; wherefore I would solicit our\n lord the Sultan[386] to set him in my stead, for he is my brother's son\n and my daughter's husband; and he is fit for the Wazirate, being a man\n of good counsel and ready contrivance.\" The Sultan looked at Nur al-Din\n and liked him, so he stablished him in office as the Wazir had\n requested and formally appointed him, presenting him with a splendid\n dress of honour and a she-mule from his private stud; and assigning to\n him solde, stipends and supplies. Nur al-Din kissed the Sultan's hand\n and went home, he and his father-in-law, joying with exceeding joy and\n saying, \"All this followeth on the heels of the boy Hasan's birth!\"\n Next day he presented himself before the King and, kissing the ground,\n began repeating:\u2014\n\n Grow thy weal and thy welfare day by day: \u273f And thy luck prevail o'er\n the envier's spite;\n And ne'er cease thy days to be white as day, \u273f And thy foeman's day to\n be black as night!\n\n The Sultan bade him be seated on the Wazir's seat, so he sat down and\n applied himself to the business of his office and went into the cases\n of the lieges and their suits, as is the wont of Ministers; while the\n Sultan watched him and wondered at his wit and good sense, judgment and\n insight. Wherefor he loved him and took him into intimacy. When the\n Divan was dismissed Nur al-Din returned to his house and related what\n had passed to his father-in-law who rejoiced. And thenceforward Nur\n al-Din ceased not so to administer the Wazirate that the Sultan would\n not be parted from him night or day; and increased his stipends and\n supplies till his means were ample and he became the owner of ships\n that made trading voyages at his command, as well as of Mamelukes and\n blackamoor slaves; and he laid out many estates and set up Persian\n wheels and planted gardens. When his son Hasan was four years of age,\n the old Wazir deceased, and he made for his father-in-law a sumptuous\n funeral ceremony ere he was laid in the dust. Then he occupied himself\n with the education of this son and, when the boy waxed strong and came\n to the age of seven, he brought him a Fakih, a doctor of law and\n religion, to teach him in his own house and charged him to give him a\n good education and instruct him in politeness and good manners. So the\n tutor made the boy read and retain all varieties of useful knowledge,\n after he had spent some years in learning the Koran by heart;[387] and\n he ceased not to grow in beauty and stature and symmetry, even as saith\n the poet:\u2014\n\n In his face-sky shines the fullest moon; \u273f In his cheeks' anemone glows\n the sun:\n He so conquered Beauty that he hath won \u273f All charms of humanity one by\n one.\n\n The professor brought him up in his father's palace teaching him\n reading, writing and cyphering, theology and belles lettres. His\n grandfather the old Wazir had bequeathed to him the whole of his\n property when he was but four years of age. Now during all the time of\n his earliest youth he had never left the house, till on a certain day\n his father, the Wazir Nur al-Din, clad him in his best clothes and,\n mounting him on a she-mule of the finest, went up with him to the\n Sultan. The King gazed at Badr al-Din Hasan and marvelled at his\n comeliness and loved him. As for the city-folk, when he first passed\n before them with his father, they marvelled at his exceeding beauty and\n sat down on the road expecting his return, that they might look their\n fill on his beauty and loveliness and symmetry and perfect grace; even\n as the poet said in these verses:\u2014\n\n As the sage watched the stars, the semblance clear\n Of a fair youth on's scroll he saw appear.\n Those jetty looks Canopus o'er him threw,\n And tinged his temple curls a musky hue;\n Mars dyed his ruddy cheek; and from his eyes\n The Archer-star his glittering arrow flies;\n His wit from Hermes came; and Soha's care,\n (The half-seen star that dimly haunts the Bear)\n Kept off all evil eyes that threaten and ensnare,\n The sage stood mazed to see such fortunes meet,\n And Luna kissed the earth beneath his feet.[388]\n\n And they blessed him aloud as he passed and called upon Almighty Allah\n to bless him.[389] The Sultan entreated the lad with especial favour\n and said to his father, \"O Wazir, thou must needs bring him daily to my\n presence;\" whereupon he replied, \"I hear and I obey.\" Then the Wazir\n returned home with his son and ceased not to carry him to court till he\n reached the age of twenty. At that time the Minister sickened and,\n sending for Badr al-Din Hasan, said to him, \"Know, O my son, that the\n world of the Present is but a house of mortality, while that of the\n Future is a house of eternity. I wish, before I die, to bequeath thee\n certain charges and do thou take heed of what I say and incline thy\n heart to my words.\" Then he gave him his last instructions as to the\n properest way of dealing with his neighbours and the due management of\n his affairs; after which he called to mind his brother and his home and\n his native land and wept over his separation from those he had first\n loved. Then he wiped away his tears and, turning to his son, said to\n him, \"Before I proceed, O my son, to my last charges and injunctions,\n know that I have a brother, and thou hast an uncle, Shams al-Din hight,\n the Wazir of Cairo, with whom I parted, leaving him against his will.\n Now take thee a sheet of paper and write upon it whatso I say to thee.\n Badr al-Din took a fair leaf and set about doing his father's bidding\n and he wrote thereon a full account of what had happened to his sire\n first and last; the dates of his arrival at Bassorah and of his\n foregathering with the Wazir; of his marriage, of his going in to the\n Minister's daughter and of the birth of his son; brief, his life of\n forty years from the day of his dispute with his brother, adding the\n words, \"And this is written at my dictation and may Almighty Allah be\n with him when I am gone!\" Then he folded the paper and sealed it and\n said, \"O Hasan, O my son, keep this paper with all care; for it will\n enable thee to stablish thine origin and rank and lineage and, if\n anything contrary befal thee, set out for Cairo and ask for thine uncle\n and show him this paper and say to him that I died a stranger far from\n mine own people and full of yearning to see him and them.\" So Badr\n al-Din Hasan took the document and folded it; and, wrapping it up in a\n piece of waxed cloth, sewed it like a talisman between the inner and\n outer cloth of his skull-cap and wound his light turband[390] round it.\n And he fell to weeping over his father and at parting with him, and he\n but a boy. Then Nur al-Din lapsed into a swoon, the forerunner of\n death; but presently recovering himself he said, \"O Hasan, O my son, I\n will now bequeath to thee five last behests. The FIRST BEHEST is, Be\n over-intimate with none, nor frequent any, nor be familiar with any; so\n shalt thou be safe from his mischief;[391] for security lieth in\n seclusion of thought and a certain retirement from the society of thy\n fellows; and I have heard it said by a poet:\u2014\n\n In this world there is none thou mayst count upon \u273f To befriend thy\n case in the nick of need:\n So live for thyself nursing hope of none \u273f Such counsel I give thee:\n enow, take heed!\n\n The SECOND BEHEST is, O my son: Deal harshly with none lest fortune\n with thee deal hardly; for the fortune of this world is one day with\n thee and another day against thee and all worldly goods are but a loan\n to be repaid. And I have heard a poet say:\u2014\n\n Take thought nor haste to win the thing thou wilt; \u273f Have ruth on man\n for ruth thou may'st require:\n No hand is there but Allah's hand is higher; \u273f No tyrant but shall rue\n worse tyrant's ire!\n\n The THIRD BEHEST is, Learn to be silent in society and let thine own\n faults distract thine attention from the faults of other men: for it is\n said:\u2014In silence dwelleth safety, and thereon I have heard the lines\n that tell us:\u2014\n\n Reserve's a jewel, Silence safety is; \u273f Whenas thou speakest many a\n word withhold:\n For an of Silence thou repent thee once, \u273f Of speech thou shalt repent\n times manifold.\n\n The FOURTH BEHEST, O my son, is Beware of wine-bibbing, for wine is the\n head of all frowardness and a fine solvent of human wits. So shun, and\n again I say, shun mixing strong liquor; for I have heard a poet\n say:\u2014[392]\n\n From wine[393] I turn and whoso wine-cups swill; \u273f Becoming one of\n those who deem it ill:\n Wine driveth man to miss salvation-way,[394] \u273f And opes the gateway\n wide to sins that kill.\n\n The FIFTH BEHEST, O my son, is Keep thy wealth and it will keep thee;\n guard thy money and it will guard thee; and waste not thy substance\n lest haply thou come to want and must fare a-begging from the meanest\n of mankind. Save thy dirhams and deem them the sovereignest salve for\n the wounds of the world. And here again I have heard that one of the\n poets said:\u2014\n\n When fails my wealth no friend will deign befriend: \u273f When wealth\n abounds all friends their friendship tender:\n How many friends lent aid my wealth to spend; \u273f But friends to lack of\n wealth no friendship render.\n\n On this wise Nur al-Din ceased not to counsel his son Badr al-Din Hasan\n till his hour came and, sighing one sobbing sigh, his life went forth.\n Then the voice of mourning and keening rose high in his house and the\n Sultan and all the grandees grieved for him and buried him; but his son\n ceased not lamenting his loss for two months, during which he never\n mounted horse, nor attended the Divan nor presented himself before the\n Sultan. At last the King, being wroth with him, stablished in his stead\n one of his Chamberlains and made him Wazir, giving orders to seize and\n set seals on all Nur al-Din's houses and goods and domains. So the new\n Wazir went forth with a mighty posse of Chamberlains and people of the\n Divan, and watchmen and a host of idlers to do this and to seize Badr\n al-Din Hasan and carry him before the King, who would deal with him as\n he deemed fit. Now there was among the crowd of followers a Mameluke of\n the deceased Wazir who, when he had heard this order, urged his horse\n and rode at full speed to the house of Badr al-Din Hasan; for he could\n not endure to see the ruin of his old master's son. He found him\n sitting at the gate with head hung down and sorrowing, as was his wont,\n for the loss of his father; so he dismounted and kissing his hand said\n to him, \"O my lord and son of my lord, haste ere ruin come and lay\n waste!\" When Hasan heard this he trembled and asked, \"What may be the\n matter?\"; and the man answered, \"The Sultan is angered with thee and\n hath issued a warrant against thee, and evil cometh hard upon my track;\n so flee with thy life!\" At these words Hasan's heart flamed with the\n fire of bale, and his rose-red cheek turned pale, and he said to the\n Mameluke, \"O my brother, is there time for me to go in and get me some\n worldly gear which may stand me in stead during my strangerhood?\" But\n the slave replied, \"O my lord, up at once and save thyself and leave\n this house, while it is yet time.\" And he quoted these lines:\u2014\n\n Escape with thy life, if oppression betide thee, \u273f And let the house\n tell of its builder's fate!\n Country for country thou'lt find, if thou seek it; \u273f Life for life\n never, early or late.\n It is strange men should dwell in the house of abjection, \u273f When the\n plain of God's earth is so wide and so great![395]\n\n At these words of the Mameluke, Badr al-Din covered his head with the\n skirt of his garment and went forth on foot till he stood outside of\n the city, where he heard folk saying, \"The Sultan hath sent his new\n Wazir to the house of the old Wazir, now no more, to seal his property\n and seize his son Badr al-Din Hasan and take him before the presence,\n that he may put him to death;\" and all cried, \"Alas for his beauty and\n his loveliness!\" When he heard this he fled forth at hazard, knowing\n not whither he was going, and gave not over hurrying onwards till\n Destiny drove him to his father's tomb. So he entered the cemetery and,\n threading his way through the graves, at last he reached the sepulchre\n where he sat down and let fall from his head the skirt of his long\n robe[396] which was made of brocade with a gold-embroidered hem whereon\n were worked these couplets:\u2014\n\n O thou whose forehead, like the radiant East, \u273f Tells of the stars of\n Heaven and bounteous dews:\n Endure thine honour to the latest day, \u273f And Time thy growth of glory\n ne'er refuse!\n\n While he was sitting by his father's tomb behold, there came to him a\n Jew as he were a Shroff,[397] a money-changer, with a pair of\n saddle-bags containing much gold, who accosted him and kissed his hand,\n saying, \"Whither bound, O my lord: 'tis late in the day and thou art\n clad but lightly and I read signs of trouble in thy face?\" \"I was\n sleeping within this very hour,\" answered Hasan, \"when my father\n appeared to me and chid me for not having visited his tomb; so I awoke\n trembling and came hither forthright lest the day should go by without\n my visiting him, which would have been grievous to me.\" \"O my lord,\"\n rejoined the Jew[398] \"thy father had many merchantmen at sea and, as\n some of them are now due, it is my wish to buy of thee the cargo of the\n first ship that cometh into port with this thousand dinars of gold.\" \"I\n consent,\" quoth Hasan, whereupon the Jew took out a bag full of gold\n and counted out a thousand sequins which he gave to Hasan, the son of\n the Wazir, saying, \"Write me a letter of sale and seal it.\" So Hasan\n took a pen and paper and wrote these words in duplicate, \"The writer,\n Hasan Badr al-Din, son of Wazir Nur al-Din, hath sold to Isaac the Jew\n all the cargo of the first of his father's ships which cometh into\n port, for a thousand dinars, and he hath received the price in\n advance.\" And after he had taken one copy the Jew put it into his pouch\n and went away; but Hasan fell a-weeping as he thought of the dignity\n and prosperity which had erst been his and he began reciting:\u2014\n\n This house, my lady, since you left is now a home no more \u273f For me, nor\n neighbours, since you left, prove kind and neighbourly:\n The friend, whilere I took to heart, alas! no more to me \u273f Is friend;\n and even Luna's self displayeth lunacy:\n You left and by your going left the world a waste, a wold, \u273f And lies a\n gloomy murk upon the face of hill and lea:\n O may the raven-bird whose cry our hapless parting croaked \u273f Find ne'er\n a nesty home and eke shed all his plumery!\n At length my patience fails me; and this absence wastes my flesh; \u273f How\n many a veil by severance rent our eyes are doom\u00e8d see:\n Ah! shall I ever sight again our fair past nights of yore; \u273f And shall\n a single house become a home for me once more?\n\n Then he wept with exceeding weeping and night came upon him; so he\n leant his head against his father's grave and sleep overcame him: Glory\n to Him who sleepeth not! He ceased not slumbering till the moon rose,\n when his head slipped from off the tomb and he lay on his back, with\n limbs outstretched, his face shining bright in the moonlight. Now the\n cemetery was haunted day and night by Jinns who were of the True\n Believers, and presently came out a Jinniyah who, seeing Hasan asleep,\n marvelled at his beauty and loveliness and cried, \"Glory to God! this\n youth can be none other than one of the Wuld\u00e1n of Paradise.\"[399] Then\n she flew firmament-wards to circle it, as was her custom, and met an\n Ifrit on the wing who saluted her and she said to him, \"Whence comest\n thou?\" \"From Cairo,\" he replied. \"Wilt thou come with me and look upon\n the beauty of a youth who sleepeth in yonder burial place?\" she asked,\n and he answered, \"I will.\" So they flew till they lighted at the tomb\n and she showed him the youth and said, \"Now diddest thou ever in thy\n born days see aught like this?\" The Ifrit looked upon him and\n exclaimed, \"Praise be to Him that hath no equal! But, O my sister,\n shall I tell thee what I have seen this day?\" Asked she, \"What is\n that?\" and he answered, \"I have seen the counterpart of this youth in\n the land of Egypt. She is the daughter of the Wazir Shams al-Din and\n she is a model of beauty and loveliness, of fairest favour and formous\n form, and dight with symmetry and perfect grace. When she had reached\n the age of nineteen,[400] the Sultan of Egypt heard of her and, sending\n for the Wazir her father, said to him:\u2014Hear me, O Wazir: it hath\n reached mine ear that thou hast a daughter and I wish to demand her of\n thee in marriage. The Wazir replied:\u2014O our lord the Sultan, deign\n accept my excuses and take compassion on my sorrows, for thou knowest\n that my brother, who was partner with me in the Wazirate, disappeared\n from amongst us many years ago and we wot not where he is. Now the\n cause of his departure was that one night, as we were sitting together\n and talking of wives and children to come, we had words on the matter\n and he went off in high dudgeon. But I swore that I would marry my\n daughter to none save to the son of my brother on the day her mother\n gave her birth, which was nigh upon nineteen years ago. I have lately\n heard that my brother died at Bassorah, where he had married the\n daughter of the Wazir and that she bare him a son; and I will not marry\n my daughter but to him in honour of my brother's memory I recorded the\n date of my marriage and the conception of my wife and the birth of my\n daughter; and from her horoscope I find that her name is conjoined with\n that of her cousin;[401] and there are damsels in foison for our lord\n the Sultan. The King, hearing his Minister's answer and refusal, waxed\n wroth with exceeding wrath and cried:\u2014When the like of me asketh a girl\n in marriage of the like of thee, he conferreth an honour, and thou\n rejectest me and puttest me off with cold[402] excuses! Now, by the\n life of my head I will marry her to the meanest of my men in spite of\n the nose of thee![403] There was in the palace a horse-groom which was\n a Gobbo with a bunch to his breast and a hunch to his back; and the\n Sultan sent for him and married him to the daughter of the Wazir, lief\n or loath, and hath ordered a pompous marriage procession for him and\n that he go in to his bride this very night. I have now just flown\n hither from Cairo, where I left the Hunchback at the door of the\n Hammam-bath amidst the Sultan's white slaves who were waving lighted\n flambeaux about him. As for the Minister's daughter she sitteth among\n her nurses and tirewomen, weeping and wailing; for they have forbidden\n her father to come near her. Never have I seen, O my sister, more\n hideous being than this Hunchback[404] whilst the young lady is the\n likest of all folk to this young man, albeit even fairer than he.\"\u2014\u2014And\n Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted\n say.\n\n Now when it was the Twenty-Second Night,\n\n She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Jinni\n narrated to the Jinniyah how the King had caused the wedding contract\n to be drawn up between the hunchbacked groom and the lovely young lady\n who was heart-broken for sorrow; and how she was the fairest of created\n things and even more beautiful than this youth, the Jinniyah cried at\n him \"Thou liest! this youth is handsomer than any one of his day.\" The\n Ifrit gave her the lie again, adding, \"By Allah, O my sister, the\n damsel I speak of is fairer than this; yet none but he deserveth her,\n for they resemble each other like brother and sister or at least\n cousins. And, well-away! how she is wasted upon that Hunchback!\" Then\n said she, \"O my brother, let us get under him and lift him up and carry\n him to Cairo, that we may compare him with the damsel of whom thou\n speakest and so determine whether of the twain is the fairer.\" \"To hear\n is to obey!\" replied he, \"thou speakest to the point; nor is there a\n righter recking than this of thine, and I myself will carry him.\" So he\n raised him from the ground and flew with him like a bird soaring in\n upper air, the Ifritah keeping close by his side at equal speed, till\n he alighted with him in the city of Cairo and set him down on a stone\n bench and woke him up. He roused himself and finding that he was no\n longer at his father's tomb in Bassorah-city he looked right and left\n and saw that he was in a strange place; and he would have cried out;\n but the Ifrit gave him a cuff which persuaded him to keep silence. Then\n he brought him rich raiment and clothed him therein and, giving him a\n lighted flambeau, said, \"Know that I have brought thee hither, meaning\n to do thee a good turn for the love of Allah: so take this torch and\n mingle with the people at the Hammam-door and walk on with them without\n stopping till thou reach the house of the wedding-festival; then go\n boldly forward and enter the great saloon; and fear none, but take thy\n stand at the right hand of the Hunchback bridegroom; and, as often as\n any of the nurses and tirewomen and singing-girls come up to thee,[405]\n put thy hand into thy pocket which thou wilt find filled with gold.\n Take it out and throw to them and spare not; for as often as thou\n thrustest fingers in pouch thou shalt find it full of coin. Give\n largesse by handsful and fear nothing, but set thy trust upon Him who\n created thee, for this is not by thine own strength but by that of\n Allah Almighty, that His decrees may take effect upon his creatures.\"\n When Badr al-Din Hasan heard these words from the Ifrit he said to\n himself, \"Would Heaven I knew what all this means and what is the cause\n of such kindness!\" However, he mingled with the people and, lighting\n his flambeau, moved on with the bridal procession till he came to the\n bath where he found the Hunchback already on horseback. Then he pushed\n his way in among the crowd, a veritable beauty of a man in the finest\n apparel, wearing tarbush[406] and turband and a long-sleeved robe\n purfled with gold; and, as often as the singing women stopped for the\n people to give them largesse, he thrust his hand into his pocket and,\n finding it full of gold, took out a handful and threw it on the\n tambourine[407] till he had filled it with gold pieces for the\n music-girls and the tirewomen. The singers were amazed by his bounty\n and the people marvelled at his beauty and loveliness and the splendour\n of his dress. He ceased not to do thus till he reached the mansion of\n the Wazir (who was his uncle), where the Chamberlains drove back the\n people and forbade them to go forward; but the singing-girls and the\n tirewomen said, \"By Allah we will not enter unless this young man enter\n with us, for he hath given us length o' life with his largesse and we\n will not display the bride unless he be present.\" Therewith they\n carried him into the bridal hall and made him sit down defying the evil\n glances of the hunchbacked bridegroom. The wives of the Emirs and\n Wazirs and Chamberlains and Courtiers all stood in double line, each\n holding a massy cierge ready lighted; all wore thin face-veils and the\n two rows right and left extended from the bride's throne[408] to the\n head of the hall adjoining the chamber whence she was to come forth.\n When the ladies saw Badr al-Din Hasan and noted his beauty and\n loveliness and his face that shone like the new moon, their hearts\n inclined to him and the singing-girls said to all that were present,\n \"Know that this beauty crossed our hands with naught but red gold; so\n be not chary to do him womanly service and comply with all he says, no\n matter what he ask.\"[409] So all the women crowded round Hasan with\n their torches and gazed on his loveliness and envied him his beauty;\n and one and all would gladly have lain on his bosom an hour or rather a\n year. Their hearts were so troubled that they let fall their veils from\n before their faces and said, \"Happy she who belongeth to this youth or\n to whom he belongeth!\"; and they called down curses on the crooked\n groom and on him who was the cause of his marriage to the girl-beauty;\n and as often as they blessed Badr al-Din Hasan they damned the\n Hunchback, saying, \"Verily this youth and none else deserveth our\n Bride: ah, well-away for such a lovely one with this hideous Quasimodo;\n Allah's curse light on his head and on the Sultan who commanded the\n marriage!\" Then the singing-girls beat their tabrets and lulliloo'd\n with joy, announcing the appearing of the bride; and the Wazir's\n daughter came in surrounded by her tirewomen who had made her goodly to\n look upon; for they had perfumed her and incensed her and adorned her\n hair; and they had robed her in raiment and ornaments befitting the\n mighty Chosroes Kings. The most notable part of her dress was a loose\n robe worn over her other garments: it was diapered in red gold with\n figures of wild beasts, and birds whose eyes and beaks were of gems,\n and claws of red rubies and green beryl; and her neck was graced with a\n necklace of Yamani work, worth thousands of gold pieces, whose bezels\n were great round jewels of sorts, the like of which was never owned by\n Kaysar or by Tobba King.[410] And the bride was as the full moon when\n at fullest on fourteenth night; and as she paced into the hall she was\n like one of the Houris of Heaven\u2014praise be to Him who created her in\n such splendour of beauty! The ladies encompassed her as the white\n contains the black of the eye, they clustering like stars whilst she\n shone amongst them like the moon when it eats up the clouds. Now Badr\n al-Din Hasan of Bassorah was sitting in full gaze of the folk, when the\n bride came forward with her graceful swaying and swimming gait, and her\n hunchbacked bridegroom stood up to meet[411] and receive her: she,\n however, turned away from the wight and walked forward till she stood\n before her cousin Hasan, the son of her uncle. Whereat the people\n laughed. But when the wedding-guests saw her thus attracted towards\n Badr Al-Din they made a mighty clamour and the singing-women shouted\n their loudest; whereupon he put his hand into his pocket and, pulling\n out a handful of gold, cast it into their tambourines and the girls\n rejoiced and said, \"Could we win our wish this bride were thine!\" At\n this he smiled and the folk came round him, flambeaux in hand like the\n eyeball round the pupil, while the Gobbo bridegroom was left sitting\n alone much like a tail-less baboon; for every time they lighted a\n candle for him it went out willy-nilly, so he was left in darkness and\n silence and looking at naught but himself.[412] When Badr al-Din Hasan\n saw the bridegroom sitting lonesome in the dark, and all the\n wedding-guests with their flambeaux and wax candles crowding about\n himself, he was bewildered and marvelled much; but when he looked at\n his cousin, the daughter of his uncle, he rejoiced and felt an inward\n delight: he longed to greet her and gazed intently on her face which\n was radiant with light and brilliancy. Then the tirewomen took off her\n veil and displayed her in the first bridal dress which was of scarlet\n satin; and Hasan had a view of her which dazzled his sight and dazed\n his wits, as she moved to and fro, swaying with graceful gait;[413] and\n she turned the heads of all the guests, women as well as men, for she\n was even as saith the surpassing poet:\u2014\n\n A sun on wand in knoll of sand she showed, \u273f Clad in her cramoisy-hued\n chemisette:\n Of her lips honey-dew she gave me drink, \u273f And with her rosy cheeks\n quencht fire she set.\n\n Then they changed that dress and displayed her in a robe of azure; and\n she reappeared like the full moon when it riseth over the horizon, with\n her coal-black hair and cheeks delicately fair; and teeth shown in\n sweet smiling and breasts firm rising and crowning sides of the softest\n and waist of the roundest. And in this second suit she was as a certain\n master of high conceits saith of the like of her:\u2014\n\n She came apparelled in an azure vest, \u273f Ultramarine, as skies are deckt\n and dight:\n I view'd th' unparallel'd sight, which show'd my eyes \u273f A moon of\n Summer on a Winter-night.\n\n Then they changed that suit for another and, veiling her face in the\n luxuriance of her hair, loosed her lovelocks, so dark, so long that\n their darkness and length outvied the darkest nights, and she shot\n through all hearts with the magical shaft of her eye-babes. They\n displayed her in the third dress and she was as said of her the sayer:\u2014\n\n Veiling her cheeks with hair a-morn she comes, \u273f And I her mischiefs\n with the cloud compare:\n Saying, \"Thou veilest morn with night!\" \"Ah no!\" \u273f Quoth she, \"I shroud\n full moon with darkling air!\"\n\n Then they displayed her in the fourth bridal dress and she came forward\n shining like the rising sun and swaying to and fro with lovesome grace\n and supple ease like a gazelle-fawn. And she clave all hearts with the\n arrows of her eyelashes, even as saith one who described a charmer like\n her:\u2014\u00b7\n\n The sun of beauty she to sight appears \u273f And, lovely-coy, she mocks all\n loveliness;\n And when he fronts her favour and her smile \u273f A-morn, the Sun of day in\n clouds must dress.\n\n Then she came forth in the fifth dress, a very light of loveliness like\n a wand of waving willow or a gazelle of the thirsty wold. Those locks\n which stung like scorpions along her cheeks were bent, and her neck was\n bowed in blandishment, and her hips quivered as she went. As saith one\n of the poets describing her in verse:\u2014\n\n She comes like fullest moon on happy night; \u273f Taper of waist, with\n shape of magic might:\n She hath an eye whose glances quell mankind, \u273f And Ruby on her cheeks\n reflects his light:\n Enveils her hips the blackness of her hair; \u273f Beware of curls that bite\n with viper-bite!\n Her sides are silken-soft, the while the heart \u273f Mere rock behind that\n surface lurks from sight:\n From the fringed curtains of her eyne she shoots \u273f Shafts which at\n farthest range on mark alight:\n When round her neck or waist I throw my arms \u273f Her breasts repel me\n with their hardened height.\n Ah, how her beauty all excels! ah how \u273f That shape transcends the\n graceful waving bough!\n\n Then they adorned her with the sixth toilette, a dress which was green.\n And now she shamed in her slender straightness the nut-brown spear; her\n radiant face dimmed the brightest beams of full moon and she outdid the\n bending branches in gentle movement and flexile grace. Her loveliness\n exalted the beauties of earth's four quarters and she broke men's\n hearts by the significance of her semblance; for she was even as saith\n one of the poets in these lines:\u2014\n\n A damsel 'twas the tirer's art had decked with snares and sleight:[414]\n \u273f And robed in rays as though the sun from her had borrowed light:\n She came before us wondrous clad in chemisette of green, \u273f As veil\u00e8d by\n its leafy screen pomegranate hides from sight:\n And when he said \"How callest thou the manner of thy dress?\" \u273f She\n answered us in pleasant way with double meaning dight;\n \"We call this garment _cr\u00e8ve-c\u0153ur_; and rightly is it hight, \u273f For many\n a heart wi' this we broke[415] and conquered many a sprite!\"\n\n Then they displayed her in the seventh dress, coloured between\n safflower[416] and saffron, even as one of the poets saith:\u2014\n\n In vest of saffron pale and safflower red \u273f Musk'd, sandal'd,\n ambergris'd, she came to front:\n \"Rise!\" cried her youth, \"go forth and show thyself!\" \u273f \"Sit!\" said her\n hips, \"we cannot bear the brunt!\"\n And when I craved a bout, her Beauty said \u273f \"Do, do!\" and said her\n pretty shame, \"Don't, don't!\"\n\n Thus they displayed the bride in all her seven toilettes before Hasan\n al-Basri, wholly neglecting the Gobbo who sat moping alone; and, when\n she opened her eyes[417] she said, \"O Allah make this man my goodman\n and deliver me from the evil of this hunchbacked groom.\" As soon as\n they had made an end of this part of the ceremony they dismissed the\n wedding guests who went forth, women children and all, and none\n remained save Hasan and the Hunchback, whilst the tirewomen led the\n bride into an inner room to change her garb and gear and get her ready\n for the bridegroom. Thereupon Quasimodo came up to Badr al-Din Hasan\n and said, \"O my lord, thou hast cheered us this night with thy good\n company and overwhelmed us with thy kindness and courtesy; but now why\n not get thee up and go?\" \"Bismillah;\" he answered, \"In Allah's name so\n be it!\"; and rising, he went forth by the door, where the Ifrit met him\n and said, \"Stay in thy stead, O Badr al-Din, and when the Hunchback\n goes out to the closet of ease go in without losing time and seat\n thyself in the alcove; and when the bride comes say to her:\u2014'Tis I am\n thy husband, for the King devised this trick only fearing for thee the\n evil eye, and he whom thou sawest is but a Syce, a groom, one of our\n stablemen. Then walk boldly up to her and unveil her face; for jealousy\n hath taken us of this matter.\" While Hasan was still talking with the\n Ifrit behold, the groom fared forth from the hall and entering the\n closet of ease sat down on the stool. Hardly had he done this when the\n Ifrit came out of the tank,[418] wherein the water was, in semblance of\n a mouse and squeaked out \"Zeek!\" Quoth the Hunchback, \"What ails\n thee?\"; and the mouse grew and grew till it became a coal-black cat and\n caterwauled \"Meeao! Meeao[419]\"! Then it grew still more and more till\n it became a dog and barked out \"Owh! Owh!\" When the bridegroom saw this\n he was frightened and exclaimed \"Out with thee, O unlucky one!\"[420]\n But the dog grew and swelled till it became an ass-colt that brayed and\n snorted in his face \"Hauk![421] Hauk!\" Whereupon the Hunchback quaked\n and cried, \"Come to my aid, O people of the house!\" But behold, the\n ass-colt grew and became big as a buffalo and walled the way before him\n and spake with the voice of the sons of Adam, saying, \"Woe to thee, O\n thou Bunch-back, thou stinkard, O thou filthiest of grooms!\" Hearing\n this the groom was seized with a colic and he sat down on the jakes in\n his clothes with teeth chattering and knocking together. Quoth the\n Ifrit, \"Is the world so strait to thee thou findest none to marry save\n my lady-love?\" But as he was silent the Ifrit continued, \"Answer me or\n I will do thee dwell in the dust!\" \"By Allah,\" replied the Gobbo, \"O\n King of the Buffaloes, this is no fault of mine, for they forced me to\n wed her; and verily I wot not that she had a lover amongst the\n buffaloes; but now I repent, first before Allah and then before thee.\"\n Said the Ifrit to him, \"I swear to thee that if thou fare forth from\n this place, or thou utter a word before sunrise, I assuredly will wring\n thy neck. When the sun rises wend thy went and never more return to\n this house.\" So saying, the Ifrit took up the Gobbo bridegroom and set\n him head downwards and feet upwards in the slit of the privy,[422] and\n said to him, \"I will leave thee here but I shall be on the look-out for\n thee till sunrise; and, if thou stir before then, I will seize thee by\n the feet and dash out thy brains against the wall: so look out for thy\n life!\" Thus far concerning the Hunchback, but as regards Badr al-Din\n Hasan of Bassorah he left the Gobbo and the Ifrit jangling and\n wrangling and, going into the house, sat him down in the very middle of\n the alcove; and behold, in came the bride attended by an old woman who\n stood at the door and said, \"O Father of Uprightness,[423] arise and\n take what God giveth thee.\" Then the old woman went away and the bride,\n Sitt al-Husn or the Lady of Beauty hight, entered the inner part of the\n alcove broken-hearted and saying in herself, \"By Allah I will never\n yield my person to him; no, not even were he to take my life!\" But as\n she came to the further end she saw Badr al-Din Hasan and she said,\n \"Dearling! art thou still sitting here? By Allah I was wishing that\n thou wert my bridegroom or, at least, that thou and the hunchbacked\n horse-groom were partners in me.\" He replied, \"O beautiful lady, how\n should the Syce have access to thee, and how should he share in thee\n with me?\" \"Then,\" quoth she, \"who _is_ my husband, thou or he?\" \"Sitt\n al-Husn,\" rejoined Hasan, \"we have not done this for mere fun,[424] but\n only as a device to ward off the evil eye from thee; for when the\n tirewomen and singers and wedding guests saw thy beauty being displayed\n to me, they feared fascination and thy father hired the horse-groom for\n ten dinars and a porringer of meat to take the evil eye off us; and now\n he hath received his hire and gone his gait.\" When the Lady of Beauty\n heard these words she smiled and rejoiced and laughed a pleasant laugh.\n Then she whispered him, \"By the Lord thou hast quenched a fire which\n tortured me and now, by Allah, O my little dark-haired darling, take me\n to thee and press me to thy bosom!\" Then she began singing:\u2014\n\n By Allah, set thy foot upon my soul; \u273f Since long, long years for this\n alone I long:\n And whisper tale of love in ear of me; \u273f To me 'tis sweeter than the\n sweetest song!\n No other youth upon my heart shall lie; \u273f So do it often, dear, and do\n it long.\n\n Then she stripped off her outer gear and she threw open her chemise\n from the neck downwards and showed her parts genital and all the\n rondure of her hips. When Badr al-Din saw the glorious sight his\n desires were roused, and he arose and doffed his clothes, and wrapping\n up in his bag-trousers[425] the purse of gold which he had taken from\n the Jew and which contained the thousand dinars, he laid it under the\n edge of the bedding. Then he took off his turband and set it upon the\n settle[426] atop of his other clothes, remaining in his skull-cap and\n fine shirt of blue silk laced with gold. Whereupon the Lady of Beauty\n drew him to her and he did likewise. Then he took her to his embrace\n and set her legs round his waist and point-blanked that cannon[427]\n placed where it battereth down the bulwark of maidenhead and layeth it\n waste. And he found her a pearl unpierced and unthridden and a filly by\n all men save himself unridden; and he abated her virginity and had\n joyance of her youth in his virility and presently he withdrew sword\n from sheath; and then returned to the fray right eath; and when the\n battle and the siege had finished, some fifteen assaults he had\n furnished and she conceived by him that very night. Then he laid his\n hand under her head and she did the same and they embraced and fell\n asleep in each other's arms, as a certain poet said of such lovers in\n these couplets:\u2014\n\n Visit thy lover, spurn what envy told; \u273f No envious churl shall smile\n on love ensoul'd\n Merciful Allah made no fairer sight \u273f Than coupled lovers single couch\n doth hold;\n Breast pressing breast and robed in joys their own, \u273f With pillowed\n forearms cast in finest mould:\n And when heart speaks to heart with tongue of love, \u273f Folk who would\n part them hammer steel ice-cold:\n If a fair friend[428] thou find who cleaves to thee, \u273f Live for that\n friend, that friend in heart enfold.\n O ye who blame for love us lover kind \u273f Say, can ye minister to\n diseas\u00e8d mind?\n\n This much concerning Badr al-Din Hasan and Sitt al-Husn his cousin; but\n as regards the Ifrit, as soon as he saw the twain asleep, he said to\n the Ifritah, \"Arise; slip thee under the youth and let us carry him\n back to his place ere dawn overtake us; for the day is nearhand.\"\n Thereupon she came forward and, getting under him as he lay asleep,\n took him up clad only in his fine blue shirt, leaving the rest of his\n garments; and ceased not flying (and the Ifrit vying with her in\n flight) till the dawn advised them that it had come upon them mid-way,\n and the Muezzin began his call from the Minaret, \"Haste ye to\n salvation![429] Haste ye to salvation!\" Then Allah suffered His angelic\n host to shoot down the Ifrit with a shooting star,[430] so he was\n consumed, but the Ifritah escaped and she descended with Badr al-Din at\n the place where the Ifrit was burnt, and did not carry him back to\n Bassorah, fearing lest he come to harm. Now by the order of Him who\n predestineth all things, they alighted at Damascus of Syria, and the\n Ifritah set down her burden at one of the city-gates and flew away.\n When day arose and the doors were opened, the folk who came forth saw a\n handsome youth, with no other raiment but his blue shirt of\n gold-embroidered silk and skull-cap,[431] lying upon the ground drowned\n in sleep after the hard labour of the night which had not suffered him\n to take his rest. So the folk looking at him said, \"O her luck with\n whom this one spent the night! but would he had waited to don his\n garments.\" Quoth another, \"A sorry lot are the sons of great families!\n Haply he but now came forth of the tavern on some occasion of his own\n and his wine flew to his head,[432] whereby he hath missed the place he\n was making for and strayed till he came to the gate of the city; and\n finding it shut lay him down and went to by-by!\" As the people were\n bandying guesses about him suddenly the morning breeze blew upon Badr\n al-Din and raising his shirt to his middle showed a stomach and navel\n with something below it,[433] and legs and thighs clear as crystal and\n smooth as cream. Cried the people, \"By Allah he is a pretty fellow!\";\n and at the cry Badr al-Din awoke and found himself lying at a city-gate\n with a crowd gathered around him. At this he greatly marvelled and\n asked, \"Where am I, O good folk; and what causeth you thus to gather\n round me, and what have I had to do with you?\"; and they answered, \"We\n found thee lying here asleep during the call to dawn-prayer and this is\n all we know of the matter, but where diddest thou lie last night?\"[434]\n \"By Allah, O good people,\" replied he, \"I lay last night in Cairo.\"\n Said somebody, \"Thou hast surely been eating Hash\u00edsh;\"[435] and\n another, \"He is a fool;\" and a third, \"He is a _citrouille_;\" and a\n fourth asked him, \"Art thou out of thy mind? thou sleepest in Cairo and\n thou wakest in the morning at the gate of Damascus-city!\"[436] Cried\n he, \"By Allah, my good people, one and all, I lie not to you: indeed I\n lay yesternight in the land of Egypt and yesternoon I was at Bassorah.\"\n Quoth one, \"Well! well!\"; and quoth another, \"Ho! ho!\"; and a third,\n \"So! so!\"; and a fourth cried, \"This youth is mad, is possessed of the\n Jinni!\" So they clapped hands at him and said to one another, \"Alas,\n the pity of it for his youth: by Allah a madman! and madness is no\n respecter of persons.\" Then said they to him, \"Collect thy wits and\n return to thy reason! How couldest thou be in Bassorah yesterday and in\n Cairo yesternight and withal awake in Damascus this morning?\" But he\n persisted, \"Indeed I was a bridegroom in Cairo last night.\" \"Belike\n thou hast been dreaming,\" rejoined they, \"and sawest all this in thy\n sleep.\" So Hasan took thought for a while and said to them, \"By Allah,\n this is no dream; nor vision-like doth it seem! I certainly was in\n Cairo where they displayed the bride before me, in presence of a third\n person, the Hunchback groom who was sitting hard by. By Allah, O my\n brother, this be no dream, and if it were a dream, where is the bag of\n gold I bore with me and where are my turband and my robe, and my\n trousers?\" Then he rose and entered the city, threading its highways\n and by-ways and bazar-streets; and the people pressed upon him and\n jeered at him, crying out \"Madman! madman!\" till he, beside himself\n with rage, took refuge in a cook's shop. Now that Cook had been a\n trifle too clever, that is, a rogue and thief; but Allah had made him\n repent and turn from his evil ways and open a cook-shop; and all the\n people of Damascus stood in fear of his boldness and his mischief. So\n when the crowd saw the youth enter his shop, they dispersed being\n afraid of him, and went their ways. The Cook looked at Badr al-Din and,\n noting his beauty and loveliness, fell in love with him forthright and\n said, \"Whence comest thou, O youth? Tell me at once thy tale, for thou\n art become dearer to me than my soul.\" So Hasan recounted to him all\n that had befallen him from beginning to end (but in repetition there is\n no fruition) and the Cook said, \"O my lord Badr al-Din, doubtless thou\n knowest that this case is wondrous and this story marvellous;\n therefore, O my son, hide what hath betided thee, till Allah dispel\n what ills be thine; and tarry with me here the meanwhile, for I have no\n child and I will adopt thee.\" Badr al-Din replied, \"Be it as thou wilt,\n O my uncle!\" Whereupon the Cook went to the bazar and bought him a fine\n suit of clothes and made him don it; then fared with him to the Kazi,\n and formally declared that he was his son. So Badr al-Din Hasan became\n known in Damascus-city as the Cook's son and he sat with him in the\n shop to take the silver, and on this wise he sojourned there for a\n time. Thus far concerning him; but as regards his cousin, the Lady of\n Beauty, when morning dawned she awoke and missed Badr al-Din Hasan from\n her side; but she thought that he had gone to the privy and she sat\n expecting him for an hour or so; when behold, entered her father Shams\n al-Din Mohammed, Wazir of Egypt. Now he was disconsolate by reason of\n what had befallen him through the Sultan, who had entreated him harshly\n and had married his daughter by force to the lowest of his menials and\n he too a lump of a groom hunchbacked withal, and he said to himself, \"I\n will slay this daughter of mine if of her own free will she have\n yielded her person to this accursed carle.\" So he came to the door of\n the bride's private chamber, and said, \"Ho! Sitt al-Husn.\" She answered\n him, \"Here am I! here am I![437] O my lord,\" and came out unsteady of\n gait after the pains and pleasures of the night; and she kissed his\n hand, her face showing redoubled brightness and beauty for having lain\n in the arms of that gazelle, her cousin. When her father, the Wazir,\n saw her in such case, he asked her, \"O thou accursed, art thou\n rejoicing because of this horse-groom?\", and Sitt al-Husn smiled\n sweetly and answered, \"By Allah, don't ridicule me: enough of what\n passed yesterday when folk laughed at me, and evened me with that\n groom-fellow who is not worthy to bring my husband's shoes or slippers;\n nay who is not worth the paring of my husband's nails! By the Lord,\n never in my life have I nighted a night so sweet as yesternight!, so\n don't mock by reminding me of the Gobbo.\" When her parent heard her\n words he was filled with fury, and his eyes glared and stared, so that\n little of them showed save the whites and he cried, \"Fie upon thee!\n What words are these? 'Twas the hunchbacked horse-groom who passed the\n night with thee!\" \"Allah upon thee,\" replied the Lady of Beauty, \"do\n not worry me about the Gobbo, Allah damn his father;[438] and leave\n jesting with me; for this groom was only hired for ten dinars and a\n porringer of meat and he took his wage and went his way. As for me I\n entered the bridal-chamber, where I found my true bridegroom sitting,\n after the singer-women had displayed me to him; the same who had\n crossed their hands with red gold, till every pauper that was present\n waxed wealthy; and I passed the night on the breast of my bonny man, a\n most lively darling, with his black eyes and joined eyebrows.\"[439]\n When her parent heard these words the light before his face became\n night, and he cried out at her saying, \"O thou whore! What is this thou\n tellest me? Where be thy wits?\" \"O my father,\" she rejoined, \"thou\n breakest my heart; enough for thee that thou hast been so hard upon me!\n Indeed my husband who took my virginity is but just now gone to the\n draught house and I feel that I have conceived by him.\"[440] The Wazir\n rose in much marvel and entered the privy where he found the\n hunchbacked horse-groom with his head in the hole and his heels in the\n air. At this sight he was confounded and said, \"This is none other than\n he, the rascal Hunchback!\" So he called to him, \"Ho, Hunchback!\" The\n Gobbo grunted out, \"_Tagh\u00fam! Tagh\u00fam!_\"[441] thinking it was the Ifrit\n spoke to him; so the Wazir shouted at him and said, \"Speak out, or I'll\n strike off thy pate with this sword.\" Then quoth the Hunchback, \"By\n Allah, O Shaykh of the Ifrits, ever since thou settest me in this\n place, I have not lifted my head; so Allah upon thee, take pity and\n entreat me kindly!\" When the Wazir heard this he asked, \"What is this\n thou sayest? I'm the bride's father and no Ifrit.\" \"Enough for thee\n that thou hast well nigh done me die,\" answered Quasimodo; \"now go thy\n ways before he come upon thee who hath served me thus. Could ye not\n marry me to any save the lady-love of buffaloes and the beloved of\n Ifrits? Allah curse her and curse him who married me to her and was the\n cause of this my case.\"\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day, and\n ceased to say her permitted say.\n\n Now when it was the Twenty-third Night,\n\n She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the hunchbacked\n groom spake to the bride's father saying, \"Allah curse him who was the\n cause of this my case!\" Then said the Wazir to him, \"Up and out of this\n place!\" \"Am I mad,\" cried the groom, \"that I should go with thee\n without leave of the Ifrit whose last words to me were:\u2014When the sun\n rises, arise and go thy gait. So hath the sun risen or no?; for I dare\n not budge from this place till then.\" Asked the Wazir, \"Who brought\n thee hither?\"; and he answered \"I came here yesternight for a call of\n nature and to do what none can do for me, when lo! a mouse came out of\n the water, and squeaked at me and swelled and waxed gross till it was\n big as a buffalo, and spoke to me words that entered my ears. Then he\n left me here and went away, Allah curse the bride and him who married\n me to her!\" The Wazir walked up to him and lifted his head out of the\n cess-pool hole; and he fared forth running for dear life and hardly\n crediting that the sun had risen; and repaired to the Sultan to whom he\n told all that had befallen him with the Ifrit. But the Wazir returned\n to the bride's private chamber, sore troubled in spirit about her, and\n said to her, \"O my daughter, explain this strange matter to me!\" Quoth\n she, \"'Tis simply this. The bridegroom to whom they displayed me\n yester-eve lay with me all night, and took my virginity and I am with\n child by him. He is my husband and if thou believe me not, there are\n his turband, twisted as it was, lying on the settle and his dagger and\n his trousers beneath the bed with a something, I wot not what, wrapped\n up in them.\" When her father heard this he entered the private chamber\n and found the turband which had been left there by Badr al-Din Hasan,\n his brother's son, and he took it in hand and turned it over, saying,\n \"This is the turband worn by Wazirs, save that it is of Mosul\n stuff.\"[442] So he opened it and, finding what seemed to be an amulet\n sewn up in the Fez, he unsewed the lining and took it out; then he\n lifted up the trousers wherein was the purse of the thousand gold\n pieces and, opening that also, found in it a written paper. This he\n read and it was the sale-receipt of the Jew in the name of Badr al-Din\n Hasan, son of Nur al-Din Ali, the Egyptian; and the thousand dinars\n were also there. No sooner had Shams al-Din read this than he cried out\n with a loud cry and fell to the ground fainting; and as soon as he\n revived and understood the gist of the matter he marvelled and said,\n \"There is no god, but _the_ God, whose All-might is over all things!\n Knowest thou, O my daughter, who it was that became the husband of thy\n virginity?\" \"No,\" answered she, and he said, \"Verily he is the son of\n my brother, thy cousin, and this thousand dinars is thy dowry. Praise\n be to Allah! and would I wot how this matter came about!\" Then opened\n he the amulet which was sewn up and found therein a paper in the\n handwriting of his deceased brother, Nur al-Din the Egyptian, father of\n Badr al-Din Hasan; and, when he saw the handwriting, he kissed it again\n and again; and he wept and wailed over his dead brother and improvised\n these lines:\u2014\n\n I see their traces and with pain I melt, \u273f And on their whilome homes I\n weep and yearn:\n And Him I pray who dealt this parting-blow \u273f Some day he deign\n vouchsafe a safe return.[443]\n\n When he ceased versifying, he read the scroll and found in it recorded\n the dates of his brother's marriage with the daughter of the Wazir of\n Bassorah, and of his going in to her, and her conception, and the birth\n of Badr al-Din Hasan and all his brother's history and doings up to his\n dying day. So he marvelled much and shook with joy and, comparing the\n dates with his own marriage and going in unto his wife and the birth of\n his daughter, Sitt al-Husn, he found that they perfectly agreed. So he\n took the document and, repairing with it to the Sultan, acquainted him\n with what had passed, from first to last; whereat the King marvelled\n and commanded the case to be at once recorded.[444] The Wazir abode\n that day expecting to see his brother's son but he came not; and he\n waited a second day, a third day and so on to the seventh day, without\n any tidings of him. So he said, \"By Allah, I will do a deed such as\n none hath ever done before me!\"; and he took reed-pen and ink and drew\n upon a sheet of paper the plan of the whole house, showing whereabouts\n was the private chamber with the curtain in such a place and the\n furniture in such another and so on with all that was in the room. Then\n he folded up the sketch and, causing all the furniture to be collected,\n he took Badr al-Din's garments and the turband and Fez and robe and\n purse, and carried the whole to his house and locked them up, against\n the coming of his nephew, Badr al-Din Hasan, the son of his lost\n brother, with an iron padlock on which he set his seal. As for the\n Wazir's daughter, when her tale of months was fulfilled, she bare a son\n like the full moon, the image of his father in beauty and loveliness\n and fair proportions and perfect grace. They cut his navel-string[445]\n and Kohl'd his eyelids to strengthen his eyes, and gave him over to the\n nurses and nursery governesses,[446] naming him Aj\u00edb, the Wonderful.\n His day was as a month and his month was as a year;[447] and, when\n seven years had passed over him, his grandfather sent him to school,\n enjoining the master to teach him Koran-reading, and to educate him\n well. He remained at the school four years, till he began to bully his\n schoolfellows and abuse them and bash them and thrash them and say,\n \"Who among you is like me? I am the son of the Wazir of Egypt!\" At last\n the boys came in a body to complain to the Monitor[448] of what hard\n usage they were wont to have from Ajib, and he said to them, \"I will\n tell you somewhat you may do to him so that he shall leave off coming\n to the school, and it is this. When he enters to-morrow, sit ye down\n about him and say some one of you to some other:\u2014By Allah none shall\n play with us at this game except he tell us the names of his mamma and\n his papa; for he who knows not the names of his mother and his father\n is a bastard, a son of adultery,[449] and he shall not play with us.\"\n When morning dawned the boys came to school, Ajib being one of them,\n and all flocked round him saying, \"We will play a game wherein none\n shall join save he can tell the name of his mamma and his papa.\" And\n they all cried, \"By Allah, good!\" Then quoth one of them, \"My name is\n M\u00e1jid and my mammy's name is Alawiyah and my daddy's Izz al-Din.\"\n Another spoke in like guise and yet a third, till Ajib's turn came, and\n he said, \"My name is Ajib, and my mother's is Sitt al-Husn, and my\n father's Shams al-Din, the Wazir of Cairo.\" \"By Allah,\" cried they,\n \"the Wazir is not thy true father.\" Ajib answered, \"The Wazir is my\n father in very deed.\" Then the boys all laughed and clapped their hands\n at him, saying \"He does not know who is his papa: get out from among\n us, for none shall play with us except he know his father's name.\"\n Thereupon they dispersed from around him and laughed him to scorn; so\n his breast was straitened and he well nigh choked with tears and hurt\n feelings. Then said the Monitor to him, \"We know that the Wazir is thy\n grandfather, the father of thy mother, Sitt al-Husn, and not thy\n father. As for thy father, neither dost thou know him nor yet do we;\n for the Sultan married thy mother to the hunchbacked horse-groom; but\n the Jinni came and slept with her and thou hast no known father. Leave,\n then, comparing thyself too advantageously with the little ones of the\n school, till thou know that thou hast a lawful father; for until then\n thou wilt pass for a child of adultery amongst them. Seest thou not\n that even a huckster's son knoweth his own sire? Thy grandfather is the\n Wazir of Egypt; but as for thy father we wot him not and we say indeed\n that thou hast none. So return to thy sound senses!\" When Ajib heard\n these insulting words from the Monitor and the school boys and\n understood the reproach they put upon him, he went out at once and ran\n to his mother, Sitt al-Husn, to complain; but he was crying so bitterly\n that his tears prevented his speech for a while. When she heard his\n sobs and saw his tears her heart burned as though with fire for him,\n and she said, \"O my son, why dost thou weep? Allah keep the tears from\n thine eyes! Tell me what hath betided thee?\" So he told her all that he\n heard from the boys and from the Monitor and ended with asking, \"And\n who, O my mother, is my father?\" She answered, \"Thy father is the Wazir\n of Egypt;\" but he said, \"Do not lie to me. The Wazir is thy father, not\n mine! who then is my father? Except thou tell me the very truth I will\n kill myself with this hanger.\"[450] When his mother heard him speak of\n his father she wept, remembering her cousin and her bridal night with\n him and all that occurred there and then, and she repeated these\n couplets:\u2014\n\n Love in my heart they lit and went their ways, \u273f And all I love to\n furthest lands withdrew;\n And when they left me sufferance also left, \u273f And when we parted\n Patience bade adieu:\n They fled and flying with my joys they fled, \u273f In very constancy my\n spirit flew:\n They made my eyelids flow with severance tears \u273f And to the\n parting-pang these drops are due:\n And when I long to see reunion-day, \u273f My groans prolonging sore for\n ruth I sue:\n Then in my heart of hearts their shapes I trace, \u273f And love and longing\n care and cark renew:\n O ye, whose names cling round me like a cloak, \u273f Whose love yet closer\n than a shirt I drew,\n Belov\u00e8d ones! how long this hard despite? \u273f How long this severance and\n this coy shy flight?\n\n Then she wailed and shrieked aloud and her son did the like; and\n behold, in came the Wazir whose heart burnt within him at the sight of\n their lamentations and he said, \"What makes you weep?\" So the Lady of\n Beauty acquainted him with what happened between her son and the school\n boys; and he also wept, calling to mind his brother and what had past\n between them and what had betided his daughter and how he had failed to\n find out what mystery there was in the matter. Then he rose at once\n and, repairing to the audience-hall, went straight to the King and told\n his tale and craved his permission[451] to travel eastward to the city\n of Bassorah and ask after his brother's son. Furthermore he besought\n the Sultan to write for him letters patent, authorising him to seize\n upon Badr al-Din, his nephew and son-in-law, wheresoever he might find\n him. And he wept before the King, who had pity on him and wrote royal\n autographs to his deputies in all climes[452] and countries and cities;\n whereat the Wazir rejoiced and prayed for blessings on him. Then,\n taking leave of his Sovereign, he returned to his house, where he\n equipped himself and his daughter and his adopted child Ajib, with all\n things meet for a long march; and set out and travelled the first day\n and the second and the third and so forth till he arrived at\n Damascus-city. He found it a fair place abounding in trees and streams,\n even as the poet said of it:\u2014\n\n When I nighted and dayed in Damascus-town, \u273f Time sware such another he\n ne'er should view:\n And careless we slept under wing of night, \u273f Till dappled Morn 'gan her\n smiles renew:\n And dew-drops on branch in their beauty hung, \u273f Like pearls to be dropt\n when the Zephyr blew:\n And the Lake[453] was the page where birds read and note, \u273f And the\n clouds set points to what breezes wrote.\n\n The Wazir encamped on the open space called Al-Has\u00e1;[454] and, after\n pitching tents, said to his servants, \"A halt here for two days!\" So\n they went into the city upon their several occasions, this to sell and\n that to buy; this to go to the Hammam and that to visit the\n Cathedral-mosque of the Banu Umayyah, the Ommiades, whose like is not\n in this world.[455] Ajib also went, with his attendant eunuch, for\n solace and diversion to the city and the servant followed with a\n quarter-staff[456] of almond-wood so heavy that if he struck a camel\n therewith the beast would never rise again.[457] When the people of\n Damascus saw Ajib's beauty and brilliancy and perfect grace and\n symmetry (for he was a marvel of comeliness and winning loveliness,\n softer than the cool breeze of the North, sweeter than limpid waters to\n man in drowth, and pleasanter than the health for which sick man\n sueth), a mighty many followed him, whilst others ran on before and sat\n down on the road until he should come up, that they might gaze on him,\n till, as Destiny had decreed, the Eunuch stopped opposite the shop of\n Ajib's father, Badr al-Din Hasan. Now his beard had grown long and\n thick and his wits had ripened during the twelve years which had passed\n over him, and the Cook and ex-rogue having died, the so-called Hasan of\n Bassorah had succeeded to his goods and shop, for that he had been\n formally adopted before the Kazi and witnesses. When his son and the\n Eunuch stepped before him he gazed on Ajib and, seeing how very\n beautiful he was, his heart fluttered and throbbed, and blood drew to\n blood and natural affection spake out and his bowels yearned over him.\n He had just dressed a conserve of pomegranate grains with sugar, and\n Heaven-implanted love wrought within him; so he called to his son Ajib\n and said, \"O my lord, O thou who hast gotten the mastery of my heart\n and my very vitals and to whom my bowels yearn; say me, wilt thou enter\n my house and solace my soul by eating of my meat?\" Then his eyes\n streamed with tears which he could not stay, for he bethought him of\n what he had been and what he had become. When Ajib heard his father's\n words his heart also yearned himwards and he looked at the Eunuch and\n said to him, \"Of a truth, O my good guard, my heart yearns to this\n cook; he is as one that hath a son far away from him: so let us enter\n and gladden his heart by tasting of his hospitality. Perchance for our\n so doing Allah may reunite me with my father.\" When the Eunuch heard\n these words he cried, \"A fine thing this, by Allah! Shall the sons of\n Wazirs be seen eating in a common cook-shop? Indeed I keep off the folk\n from thee with this quarter-staff lest they even look upon thee; and I\n dare not suffer thee to enter this shop at all.\" When Hasan of Bassorah\n heard his speech he marvelled and turned to the Eunuch with the tears\n pouring down his cheeks; and Ajib said, \"Verily my heart loves him!\"\n But he answered, \"Leave this talk, thou shalt not go in.\" Thereupon the\n father turned to the Eunuch and said, \"O worthy sir, why wilt thou not\n gladden my soul by entering my shop? O thou who art like a chesnut,\n dark without but white of heart within! O thou of the like of whom a\n certain poet said * * *\" The Eunuch burst out a-laughing and\n asked\u2014\"Said what? Speak out by Allah and be quick about it.\" So Hasan\n the Bassorite began reciting these couplets:\u2014\n\n If not master of manners or aught but discreet \u273f In the household of\n Kings no trust could he take:\n And then for the Harem! What Eunuch[458] is he \u273f Whom angels would\n serve for his service sake.\n\n The Eunuch marvelled and was pleased at these words, so he took Ajib by\n the hand and went into the cook's shop: whereupon Hasan the Bassorite\n ladled into a saucer some conserve of pomegranate-grains wonderfully\n good, dressed with almonds and sugar, saying, \"You have honoured me\n with your company: eat then and health and happiness to you!\" Thereupon\n Ajib said to his father, \"Sit thee down and eat with us; so perchance\n Allah may unite us with him we long for.\" Quoth Hasan, \"O my son, hast\n thou then been afflicted in thy tender years with parting from those\n thou lovest?\" Quoth Ajib, \"Even so, O nuncle mine; my heart burns for\n the loss of a beloved one who is none other than my father; and indeed\n I come forth, I and my grandfather,[459] to circle and search the world\n for him. Oh, the pity of it, and how I long to meet him!\" Then he wept\n with exceeding weeping, and his father also wept seeing him weep and\n for his own bereavement, which recalled to him his long separation from\n dear friends and from his mother; and the Eunuch was moved to pity for\n him. Then they ate together till they were satisfied; and Ajib and the\n slave rose and left the shop. Hereat Hasan the Bassorite felt as though\n his soul had departed his body and had gone with them; for he could not\n lose sight of the boy during the twinkling of an eye, albeit he knew\n not that Ajib was his son. So he locked up his shop and hastened after\n them; and he walked so fast that he came up with them before they had\n gone out of the western gate. The Eunuch turned and asked him, \"What\n ails thee?\"; and Badr al-Din answered, \"When ye went from me, meseemed\n my soul had gone with you; and, as I had business without the\n city-gate, I purposed to bear you company till my matter was ordered\n and so return.\" The Eunuch was angered and said to Ajib, \"This is just\n what I feared! we ate that unlucky mouthful (which we are bound to\n respect), and here is the fellow following us from place to place; for\n the vulgar are ever the vulgar.\" Ajib, turning and seeing the Cook just\n behind him, was wroth and his face reddened with rage and he said to\n the servant, \"Let him walk the highway of the Moslems; but, when we\n turn off it to our tents, and find that he still follows us, we will\n send him about his business with a flea in his ear.\" Then he bowed his\n head and walked on, the Eunuch walking behind him. But Hasan of\n Bassorah followed them to the plain Al-Hasa; and, as they drew near to\n the tents, they turned round and saw him close on their heels; so Ajib\n was very angry, fearing that the Eunuch might tell his grandfather what\n had happened. His indignation was the hotter for apprehension lest any\n say that after he had entered a cook-shop the cook had followed him. So\n he turned and looked at Hasan of Bassorah and found his eyes fixed on\n his own, for the father had become a body without a soul; and it seemed\n to Ajib that his eye was a treacherous eye or that he was some lewd\n fellow. So his rage redoubled and, stooping down, he took up a stone\n weighing half a pound and threw it at his father. It struck him on the\n forehead, cutting it open from eye-brow to eye-brow and causing the\n blood to stream down: and Hasan fell to the ground in a swoon whilst\n Ajib and the Eunuch made for the tents. When the father came to himself\n he wiped away the blood and tore off a strip from his turband and bound\n up his head, blaming himself the while, and saying, \"I wronged the lad\n by shutting up my shop and following, so that he thought I was some\n evil-minded fellow.\" Then he returned to his place where he busied\n himself with the sale of his sweetmeats; and he yearned after his\n mother at Bassorah, and wept over her and broke out repeating:\u2014\n\n Unjust it were to bid the World[460] be just \u273f And blame her not: She\n ne'er was made for justice:\n Take what she gives thee, leave all grief aside, \u273f For now to fair and\n then to foul her lust is.\n\n So Hasan of Bassorah set himself steadily to sell his sweetmeats; but\n the Wazir, his uncle, halted in Damascus three days and then marched\n upon Emesa, and passing through that town he made enquiry there and at\n every place where he rested. Thence he fared on by way of Hamah and\n Aleppo and thence through Diy\u00e1r Bakr and M\u00e1ridin and Mosul, still\n enquiring, till he arrived at Bassorah-city. Here, as soon as he had\n secured a lodging, he presented himself before the Sultan, who\n entreated him with high honour and the respect due to his rank, and\n asked the cause of his coming. The Wazir acquainted him with his\n history and told him that the Minister Nur al-Din was his brother;\n whereupon the Sultan exclaimed, \"Allah have mercy upon him!\" and added,\n \"My good S\u00e1hib![461]; he was my Wazir for fifteen years and I loved him\n exceedingly. Then he died leaving a son who abode only a single month\n after his father's death; since which time he has disappeared and we\n could gain no tidings of him. But his mother, who is the daughter of my\n former Minister, is still among us.\" When the Wazir Shams al-Din heard\n that his nephew's mother was alive and well, he rejoiced and said, \"O\n King I much desire to meet her.\" The King on the instant gave him leave\n to visit her; so he betook himself to the mansion of his brother, Nur\n al-Din, and cast sorrowful glances on all things in and around it and\n kissed the threshold. Then he bethought him of his brother, Nur al-Din\n Ali, and how he had died in a strange land far from kith and kin and\n friends; and he wept and repeated these lines:\u2014\n\n I wander 'mid these walls, my Lavla's walls, \u273f And kissing this and\n other wall I roam:\n 'Tis not the walls or roof my heart so loves, \u273f But those who in this\n house had made their home.\n\n Then he passed through the gate into a courtyard and found a vaulted\n doorway builded of hardest syenite[462] inlaid with sundry kinds of\n multi-coloured marble. Into this he walked and wandered about the house\n and, throwing many a glance around, saw the name of his brother, Nur\n al-Din, written in gold wash upon the walls. So he went up to the\n inscription and kissed it and wept and thought of how he had been\n separated from his brother and had now lost him for ever, and he\n recited these couplets:\u2014\n\n I ask of you from every rising sun, \u273f And eke I ask when flasheth\n leven-light:\n Restless I pass my nights in passion-pain, \u273f Yet ne'er I 'plain me of\n my painful plight:\n My love! if longer last this parting throe \u273f Little by little shall it\n waste my sprite.\n An thou wouldst bless these eyne with sight of thee \u273f One day on earth,\n I crave none other sight:\n Think not another could possess my mind \u273f Nor length nor breadth for\n other love I find.\n\n Then he walked on till he came to the apartment of his brother's widow,\n the mother of Badr al-Din Hasan, the Egyptian. Now from the time of her\n son's disappearance she had never ceased weeping and wailing through\n the light hours and the dark; and, when the years grew longsome with\n her, she built for him a tomb of marble in the midst of the saloon and\n there used to weep for him day and night, never sleeping save thereby.\n When the Wazir drew near her apartment, he heard her voice and stood\n behind the door while she addressed the sepulchre in verse and said:\u2014\n\n Answer, by Allah! Sepulchre, are all his beauties gone? \u273f Hath change\n the power to blight his charms, that Beauty's paragon?\n Thou art not earth, O Sepulchre! nor art thou sky to me; \u273f How comes\n it, then, in thee I see conjoint the branch and moon?\n\n While she was bemoaning herself after this fashion, behold, the Wazir\n went in to her and saluted her and informed her that he was her\n husband's brother; and, telling her all that had passed between them,\n laid open before her the whole story, how her son Badr al-Din Hasan had\n spent a whole night with his daughter full ten years ago but had\n disappeared in the morning. And he ended with saying, \"My daughter\n conceived by thy son and bare a male child who is now with me, and he\n is thy son and thy son's son by my daughter.\" When she heard the\n tidings that her boy, Badr al-Din, was still alive and saw her\n brother-in-law, she rose up to him and threw herself at his feet and\n kissed them, reciting these lines:\u2014\n\n Allah be good to him that gives glad tidings of thy steps; \u273f In very\n sooth for better news mine ears would never sue:\n Were he content with worn-out robe, upon his back I'd throw \u273f A heart\n to pieces rent and torn when heard the word Adieu.\n\n Then the Wazir sent for Ajib and his grandmother stood up and fell on\n his neck and wept; but Shams al-Din said to her, \"This is no time for\n weeping; this is the time to get thee ready for travelling with us to\n the land of Egypt; haply Allah will reunite me and thee with thy son\n and my nephew.\" Replied she, \"Hearkening and obedience;\" and, rising at\n once, collected her baggage and treasures and her jewels, and equipped\n herself and her slave-girls for the march, whilst the Wazir went to\n take his leave of the Sultan of Bassorah, who sent by him presents and\n rarities for the Soldan of Egypt. Then he set out at once upon his\n homeward march and journeyed till he came to Damascus-city where he\n alighted in the usual place and pitched tents, and said to his suite,\n \"We will halt a se'nnight here to buy presents and rare things for the\n Soldan.\" Now Ajib bethought him of the past so he said to the Eunuch,\n \"O L\u00e1ik, I want a little diversion; come, let us go down to the great\n bazar of Damascus,[463] and see what hath become of the cook whose\n sweetmeats we ate and whose head we broke, for indeed he was kind to us\n and we entreated him scurvily.\" The Eunuch answered, \"Hearing is\n obeying!\" So they went forth from the tents; and the tie of blood drew\n Ajib towards his father, and forthwith they passed through the gateway,\n B\u00e1b al-Far\u00e1d\u00eds[464] hight, and entered the city and ceased not walking\n through the streets till they reached the cook-shop, where they found\n Hasan of Bassorah standing at the door. It was near the time of\n mid-afternoon prayer[465] and it so fortuned that he had just dressed a\n confection of pomegranate-grains. When the twain drew near to him and\n Ajib saw him, his heart yearned towards him, and noticing the scar of\n the blow, which time had darkened on his brow, he said to him, \"Peace\n be on thee, O man![466]; know that my heart is with thee.\" But when\n Badr al-Din looked upon his son his vitals yearned and his heart\n fluttered, and he hung his head earthwards and sought to make his\n tongue give utterance to his words, but he could not. Then he raised\n his head humbly and suppliant-wise towards his boy and repeated these\n couplets:\u2014\n\n I longed for my beloved but when I saw his face, \u273f Abashed I held my\n tongue and stood with downcast eye;\n And hung my head in dread and would have hid my love, \u273f But do whatso I\n would hidden it would not lie:\n Volumes of plaints I had prepared, reproach and blame, \u273f But when we\n met, no single word remembered I.\n\n And then said he to them, \"Heal my broken heart and eat of my\n sweetmeats; for, by Allah, I cannot look at thee but my heart flutters.\n Indeed I should not have followed thee the other day, but that I was\n beside myself.\" \"By Allah,\" answered Ajib, \"thou dost indeed love us!\n We ate in thy house a mouthful when we were here before and thou madest\n us repent of it, for that thou followedst us and wouldst have disgraced\n us; so now we will not eat aught with thee save on condition that thou\n make oath not to go out after us nor dog us. Otherwise we will not\n visit thee again during our present stay; for we shall halt a week\n here, whilst my grandfather buys certain presents for the King.\" Quoth\n Hasan of Bassorah, \"I promise you this.\" So Ajib and the Eunuch entered\n the shop, and his father set before them a saucer-full of conserve of\n pomegranate-grains. Said Ajib, \"Sit thee down and eat with us, so haply\n shall Allah dispel our sorrows.\" Hasan the Bassorite was joyful and sat\n down and ate with them; but his eyes kept gazing fixedly on Ajib's\n face, for his very heart and vitals clove to him; and at last the boy\n said to him, \"Did I not tell thee thou art a most noyous dotard?; so do\n stint thy staring in my face!\" But when Hasan of Bassorah heard his\n son's words he repeated these lines:\u2014\n\n Thou hast some art the hearts of men to clip; \u273f Close-veiled,\n far-hidden mystery dark and deep:\n O thou whose beauties shame the lustrous moon, \u273f Wherewith the saffron\n Morn fears rivalship!\n Thy beauty is a shrine shall ne'er decay; \u273f Whose signs shall grow\n until they all outstrip;[467]\n Must I be thirst-burnt by that Eden-brow \u273f And die of pine to taste\n that Kausar[468]-lip?\n\n Hasan kept putting morsels into Ajib's mouth at one time and at another\n time did the same by the Eunuch and they ate till they were satisfied\n and could no more. Then all rose up and the cook poured water on their\n hands;[469] and, loosing a silken waist-shawl, dried them and sprinkled\n them with rose-water from a casting-bottle he had by him. Then he went\n out and presently returned with a gugglet of sherbet flavoured with\n rose-water, scented with musk and cooled with snow; and he set this\n before them saying, \"Complete your kindness to me!\" So Ajib took the\n gugglet and drank and passed it to the Eunuch; and it went round till\n their stomachs were full and they were surfeited with a meal larger\n than their wont. Then they went away and made haste in walking till\n they reached the tents, and Ajib went in to his grandmother, who kissed\n him and, thinking of her son, Badr al-Din Hasan, groaned aloud and wept\n and recited these lines:\u2014\n\n I still had hoped to see thee and enjoy thy sight, \u273f For in thine\n absence life had lost its kindly light:\n I swear my vitals wot none other love but thine \u273f By Allah, who can\n read the secrets of the sprite!\n\n Then she asked Ajib, \"O my son! where hast thou been?\"; and he\n answered, \"In Damascus-city;\" Whereupon she rose and set before him a\n bit of scone and a saucer of conserve of pomegranate-grains (which was\n too little sweetened), and she said to the Eunuch, \"Sit down with thy\n master!\" Said the servant to himself, \"By Allah, we have no mind to\n eat: I cannot bear the smell of bread;\" but he sat down and so did\n Ajib, though his stomach was full of what he had eaten already and\n drunken. Nevertheless he took a bit of the bread and dipped it in the\n pomegranate-conserve and made shift to eat it, but he found it too\n little sweetened, for he was cloyed and surfeited, so he said, \"Faugh;\n what be this wild-beast[470] stuff?\" \"O my son,\" cried his grandmother,\n \"dost thou find fault with my cookery? I cooked this myself and none\n can cook it as nicely as I can save thy father, Badr al-Din Hasan.\" \"By\n Allah, O my lady,\" Ajib answered, \"this dish is nasty stuff; for we saw\n but now in the city of Bassorah a cook who so dresseth\n pomegranate-grains that the very smell openeth a way to the heart and\n the taste would make a full man long to eat; and, as for this mess\n compared with his, 'tis not worth either much or little.\" When his\n grandmother heard his words she waxed wroth with exceeding wrath and\n looked at the servant\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and\n ceased to say her permitted say.\n\n Now when it was the Twenty-Fourth Night,\n\n She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Ajib's\n grandmother heard his words, she waxed wroth and looked at the servant\n and said, \"Woe to thee! dost thou spoil my son,[471] and dost take him\n into common cookshops?\" The Eunuch was frightened and denied, saying,\n \"We did not go into the shop; we only passed by it.\" \"By Allah,\" cried\n Ajib, \"but we _did_ go in and we ate till it came out of our nostrils,\n and the dish was better than thy dish!\" Then his grandmother rose and\n went and told her brother-in-law, who was incensed against the Eunuch,\n and sending for him asked him, \"Why didst thou take my son into a\n cook-shop?\"; and the Eunuch being frightened answered, \"We did not go\n in.\" But Ajib said, \"We _did_ go inside and ate conserve of\n pomegranate-grains till we were full; and the cook gave us to drink of\n iced and sugared sherbet.\" At this the Wazir's indignation redoubled\n and he questioned the Castrato but, as he still denied, the Wazir said\n to him, \"If thou speak sooth, sit down and eat before us.\" So he came\n forward and tried to eat, but could not and threw away the mouthful\n crying \"O my lord! I am surfeited since yesterday.\" By this the Wazir\n was certified that he had eaten at the cook's and bade the slaves throw\n him[472] which they did. Then they came down on him with a rib-basting\n which burned him till he cried for mercy and help from Allah, saying,\n \"O my master, beat me no more and I will tell thee the truth;\"\n whereupon the Wazir stopped the bastinado and said, \"Now speak thou\n sooth.\" Quoth the Eunuch, \"Know then that we did enter the shop of a\n cook while he was dressing conserve of pomegranate-grains and he set\n some of it before us: by Allah! I never ate in my life its like, nor\n tasted aught nastier than this stuff which is now before us.\"[473] Badr\n al-Din Hasan's mother was angry at this and said, \"Needs must thou go\n back to the cook and bring me a saucer of conserved pomegranate-grains\n from that which is in his shop and show it to thy master, that he may\n say which be the better and the nicer, mine or his.\" Said the unsexed\n \"I will.\" So on the instant she gave him a saucer and a half dinar and\n he returned to the shop and said to the cook, \"O Shaykh of all\n Cooks,[474] we have laid a wager concerning thy cookery in my lord's\n house, for they have conserve of pomegranate-grains there also; so give\n me this half-dinar's worth and look to it; for I have eaten a full meal\n of stick on account of thy cookery, and so do not let me eat aught more\n thereof.\" Hasan of Bassorah laughed and answered, \"By Allah, none can\n dress this dish as it should be dressed save myself and my mother, and\n she at this time is in a far country.\" Then he ladled out a\n saucer-full; and, finishing it off with musk and rose-water, put it in\n a cloth which he sealed[475] and gave it to the Eunuch, who hastened\n back with it. No sooner had Badr al-Din Hasan's mother tasted it and\n perceived its fine flavour and the excellence of the cookery, than she\n knew who had dressed it, and she screamed and fell down fainting. The\n Wazir, sorely startled, sprinkled rose-water upon her and after a time\n she recovered and said, \"If my son be yet of this world, none dressed\n this conserve of pomegranate-grains but he; and this Cook is my very\n son Badr al-Din Hasan; there is no doubt of it nor can there be any\n mistake, for only I and he knew how to prepare it and I taught him.\"\n When the Wazir heard her words he joyed with exceeding joy and said,\n \"Oh the longing of me for a sight of my brother's son! I wonder if the\n days will ever unite us with him! Yet it is to Almighty Allah alone\n that we look for bringing about this meeting.\" Then he rose without\n stay or delay and, going to his suite said to them, \"Be off, some fifty\n of you with sticks and staves to the Cook's shop and demolish it; then\n pinion his arms behind him with his own turband, saying:\u2014It was thou\n madest that foul mess of pomegranate-grains! and drag him here perforce\n but without doing him a harm.\" And they replied, \"It is well.\" Then the\n Wazir rode off without losing an instant to the Palace and,\n foregathering with the Viceroy of Damascus, showed him the Sultan's\n orders. After careful perusal he kissed the letter, and placing it upon\n his head said to his visitor, \"Who is this offender of thine?\" Quoth\n the Wazir, \"A man which is a cook.\" So the Viceroy at once sent his\n apparitors to the shop; which they found demolished and everything in\n it broken to pieces; for whilst the Wazir was riding to the palace his\n men had done his bidding. Then they awaited his return from the\n audience, and Hasan of Bassorah who was their prisoner kept saying, \"I\n wonder what they have found in the conserve of pomegranate-grains to\n bring things to this pass!\"[476] When the Wazir returned to them, after\n his visit to the Viceroy who had given him formal permission to take up\n his debtor and depart with him, on entering the tents he called for the\n Cook. They brought him forward pinioned with his turband; and, when\n Badr al-Din Hasan saw his uncle, he wept with exceeding weeping and\n said, \"O my lord, what is my offence against thee?\" \"Art thou the man\n who dressed that conserve of pomegranate-grains?\"; asked the Wazir, and\n he answered \"Yes! didst thou find in it aught to call for the cutting\n off of my head?\" Quoth the Wazir, \"That were the least of thy deserts!\"\n Quoth the cook, \"O my lord, wilt thou not tell me my crime and what\n aileth the conserve of pomegranate-grains?\" \"Presently,\" replied the\n Wazir and called aloud to his men, saying \"Bring hither the camels.\" So\n they struck the tents and by the Wazir's orders the servants took Badr\n al-Din Hasan, and set him in a chest which they padlocked and put on a\n camel. Then they departed and stinted not journeying till nightfall,\n when they halted and ate some victual, and took Badr al-Din Hasan out\n of his chest and gave him a meal and locked him up again. They set out\n once more and travelled till they reached Kimrah, where they took him\n out of the box and brought him before the Wazir who asked him, \"Art\n thou he who dressed that conserve of pomegranate-grains?\" He answered\n \"Yes, O my lord!\"; and the Wazir said \"Fetter him!\" So they fettered\n him and returned him to the chest and fared on again till they reached\n Cairo and lighted at the quarter called Al-Raydaniyah.[477] Then the\n Wazir gave order to take Badr al-Din Hasan out of the chest and sent\n for a carpenter and said to him, \"Make me a cross of wood[478] for this\n fellow!\" Cried Badr al-Din Hasan, \"And what wilt thou do with it?\"; and\n the Wazir replied, \"I mean to crucify thee thereon, and nail thee\n thereto and parade thee all about the city.\" \"And why wilt thou use me\n after this fashion?\" \"Because of thy villanous cookery of conserved\n pomegranate-grains; how durst thou dress it and sell it lacking\n pepper?\" \"And for that it lacked pepper wilt thou do all this to me? Is\n it not enough that thou hast broken my shop and smashed my gear and\n boxed me up in a chest and fed me only once a day?\" \"Too little pepper!\n too little pepper! this is a crime which can be expiated only upon the\n cross!\" Then Badr al-Din Hasan marvelled and fell a-mourning for his\n life; whereupon the Wazir asked him, \"Of what thinkest thou?\"; and he\n answered him, \"Of maggoty heads like thine;[479] for an thou had one\n ounce of sense thou hadst not treated me thus.\" Quoth the Wazir, \"It is\n our duty to punish thee lest thou do the like again.\" Quoth Badr al-Din\n Hasan, \"Of a truth my offence were over-punished by the least of what\n thou hast already done to me; and Allah damn all conserve of\n pomegranate-grains and curse the hour when I cooked it and would I had\n died ere this!\" But the Wazir rejoined, \"There is no help for it: I\n must crucify a man who sells conserve of pomegranate-grains lacking\n pepper.\" All this time the carpenter was shaping the wood and Badr\n al-Din looked on; and thus they did till night, when his uncle took him\n and clapped him into the chest, saying, \"The thing shall be done\n to-morrow!\" Then he waited till he knew Badr al-Din Hasan to be asleep,\n when he mounted; and, taking the chest up before him, entered the city\n and rode on to his own house, where he alighted and said to his\n daughter, Sitt al-Husn, \"Praised be Allah who hath reunited thee with\n thy husband, the son of thine uncle! Up now, and order the house as it\n was on thy bridal night.\" So the servants arose and lit the candles;\n and the Wazir took out his plan of the nuptial chamber, and directed\n them what to do till they had set everything in its stead, so that\n whoever saw it would have no doubt but it was the very night of the\n marriage. Then he bade them put down Badr al-Din Hasan's turband on the\n settle, as he had deposited it with his own hand, and in like manner\n his bag-trousers and the purse which were under the mattress; and told\n his daughter to undress herself and go to bed in the private chamber as\n on her wedding-night, adding, \"When the son of thine uncle comes in to\n thee, say to him:\u2014Thou hast loitered while going to the privy; and call\n him to lie by thy side and keep him in converse till day-break, when we\n will explain the whole matter to him.\" Then he bade take Badr al-Din\n Hasan out of the chest, after loosing the fetters from his feet and\n stripping off all that was on him save the fine shirt of blue silk in\n which he had slept on his wedding-night; so that he was well nigh naked\n and trouserless. All this was done whilst he was sleeping on utterly\n unconscious. Then, by doom of Destiny, Badr al-Din Hasan turned over\n and awoke; and, finding himself in a lighted vestibule, said to\n himself, \"Surely I am in the mazes of some dream.\" So he rose and went\n on a little to an inner door and looked in and lo! he was in the very\n chamber wherein the bride had been displayed to him; and there he saw\n the bridal alcove and the settle and his turband and all his clothes.\n When he saw this he was confounded and kept advancing with one foot,\n and retiring with the other, saying, \"Am I sleeping or waking?\" And he\n began rubbing his forehead and saying (for indeed he was thoroughly\n astounded), \"By Allah, verily this is the chamber of the bride who was\n displayed before me! Where am I then? I was surely but now in a box!\"\n Whilst he was talking with himself, Sitt al-Husn suddenly lifted the\n corner of the chamber-curtain and said, \"O my lord, wilt thou not come\n in? Indeed thou hast loitered long in the water-closet.\" When he heard\n her words and saw her face he burst out laughing and said, \"Of a truth\n this is a very nightmare among dreams!\" Then he went in sighing, and\n pondered what had come to pass with him and was perplexed about his\n case, and his affair became yet more obscure to him when he saw his\n turband and bag-trousers and when, feeling the pocket, he found the\n purse containing the thousand gold pieces. So he stood still and\n muttered, \"Allah is all knowing! Assuredly I am dreaming a wild waking\n dream!\" Then said the Lady of Beauty to him, \"What ails thee to look\n puzzled and perplexed?\"; adding, \"Thou wast a very different man during\n the first of the night!\" He laughed and asked her, \"How long have I\n been away from thee?\"; and she answered him, \"Allah preserve thee and\n His Holy Name be about thee! Thou didst but go out an hour ago for an\n occasion and return. Are thy wits clean gone?\" When Badr al-Din Hasan\n heard this, he laughed,[480] and said, \"Thou hast spoken truth; but,\n when I went out from thee, I forgot myself awhile in the draught-house\n and dreamed that I was a cook at Damascus and abode there ten years;\n and there came to me a boy who was of the sons of the great, and with\n him an Eunuch.\" Here he passed his hand over his forehead and, feeling\n the scar, cried, \"By Allah, O my lady, it must have been true, for he\n struck my forehead with a stone and cut it open from eye-brow to\n eye-brow; and here is the mark: so it must have been on wake.\" Then he\n added, \"But perhaps I dreamt it when we fell asleep, I and thou, in\n each other's arms, for meseems it was as though I travelled to Damascus\n without tarbush and trousers and set up as a cook there.\" Then he was\n perplexed and considered for awhile, and said, \"By Allah, I also\n fancied that I dressed a conserve of pomegranate-grains and put too\n little pepper in it. By Allah, I must have slept in the numero-cent and\n have seen the whole of this in a dream; but how long was that dream!\"\n \"Allah upon thee,\" said Sitt al-Husn, \"and what more sawest thou?\" So\n he related all to her; and presently said, \"By Allah, had I not woke up\n they would have nailed me to a cross of wood!\" \"Wherefore?\" asked she;\n and he answered, \"For putting too little pepper in the conserve of\n pomegranate-grains, and meseemed they demolished my shop and dashed to\n pieces my pots and pans, destroyed all my stuff and put me in a box;\n then they sent for the carpenter to fashion a cross for me and would\n have crucified me thereon. Now Alhamdolillah! thanks be to Allah, for\n that all this happened to me in sleep, and not on wake.\" Sitt al-Husn\n laughed and clasped him to her bosom and he her to his: then he thought\n again and said, \"By Allah, it could not be save while I was awake:\n truly I know not what to think of it.\" Then he lay him down and all the\n night he was bewildered about his case, now saying, \"I was dreaming!\"\n and then saying, \"I was awake!\", till morning, when his uncle Shams\n al-Din, the Wazir, came to him and saluted him. When Badr al-Din Hasan\n saw him he said, \"By Allah, art thou not he who bade bind my hands\n behind me and smash my shop and nail me to a cross on a matter of\n conserved pomegranate-grains because the dish lacked a sufficiency of\n pepper?\" Whereupon the Wazir said to him, \"Know, O my son, that truth\n hath shown it soothfast and the concealed hath been revealed![481] Thou\n art the son of my brother, and I did all this with thee to certify\n myself that thou wast indeed he who went in unto my daughter that\n night. I could not be sure of this, till I saw that thou knewest the\n chamber and thy turband and thy trousers and thy gold and the papers in\n thy writing and in that of thy father, my brother; for I had never seen\n thee afore that and knew thee not; and as to thy mother I have\n prevailed upon her to come with me from Bassorah.\" So saying, he threw\n himself on his nephew's breast and wept for joy; and Badr al-Din Hasan,\n hearing these words from his uncle, marvelled with exceeding marvel and\n fell on his neck and also shed tears for excess of delight. Then said\n the Wazir to him, \"O my son, the sole cause of all this is what passed\n between me and thy sire;\" and he told him the manner of his father\n wayfaring to Bassorah and all that had occurred to part them. Lastly\n the Wazir sent for Ajib; and when his father saw him he cried, \"And\n this is he who struck me with the stone!\" Quoth the Wazir \"This is thy\n son!\" And Badr al-Din Hasan threw himself upon his boy and began\n repeating:\u2014\n\n Long have I wept o'er severance' ban and bane, \u273f Long from mine eyelids\n tear-rills rail and rain:\n And vow\u00e8d I if Time re-union bring \u273f My tongue from name of \"Severance\"\n I'll restrain:\n Joy hath o'ercome me to this stress that I \u273f From joy's revulsion to\n shed tears am fain:\n Ye are so trained to tears, O eyne of me! \u273f You weep with pleasure as\n you weep with pain.[482]\n\n When he had ended his verse his mother came in and threw herself upon\n him and began reciting:\u2014\n\n When we met we complained, \u273f Our hearts were sore wrung:\n But plaint is not pleasant \u273f Fro' messenger's tongue.\n\n Then she wept and related to him what had befallen her since his\n departure, and he told her what he had suffered, and they thanked Allah\n Almighty for their reunion. Two days after his arrival the Wazir Shams\n al-Din went in to the Sultan and, kissing the ground between his hands,\n greeted him with the greeting due to Kings. The Sultan rejoiced at his\n return and his face brightened and, placing him hard by his side,[483]\n asked him to relate all he had seen in his wayfaring and whatso had\n betided him in his going and coming. So the Wazir told him all that had\n passed from first to last and the Sultan said, \"Thanks be to Allah for\n thy victory[484] and the winning of thy wish and thy safe return to thy\n children and thy people! And now I needs must see the son of thy\n brother, Hasan of Bassorah, so bring him to the audience-hall\n to-morrow.\" Shams al-Din replied, \"Thy slave shall stand in thy\n presence to-morrow, Inshallah, if it be God's will.\" Then he saluted\n him and, returning to his own house, informed his nephew of the\n Sultan's desire to see him, whereto replied Hasan, whilome the\n Bassorite, \"The slave is obedient to the orders of his lord.\" And the\n result was that next day he accompanied his uncle, Shams al-Din, to the\n Divan; and, after saluting the Sultan and doing him reverence in most\n ceremonious obeisance and with most courtly obsequiousness, he began\n improvising these verses:\u2014\n\n The first in rank to kiss the ground shall deign \u273f Before you, and all\n ends and aims attain:\n You are Honour's fount; and all that hope of you, \u273f Shall gain more\n honour than Hope hoped to gain.\n\n The Sultan smiled and signed to him to sit down. So he took a seat\n close to his uncle, Shams al-Din, and the King asked him his name.\n Quoth Badr al-Din Hasan, \"The meanest of thy slaves is known as Hasan\n the Bassorite, who is instant in prayer for thee day and night.\" The\n Sultan was pleased at his words and, being minded to test his learning\n and prove his good breeding, asked him, \"Dost thou remember any verses\n in praise of the mole on the cheek?\" He answered, \"I do,\" and began\n reciting:\u2014\n\n When I think of my love and our parting-smart, \u273f My groans go forth and\n my tears upstart:\n He's a mole that reminds me in colour and charms \u273f O' the black o' the\n eye and the grain[485] of the heart.\n\n The King admired and praised the two couplets and said to him, \"Quote\n something else; Allah bless thy sire and may thy tongue never tire!\" So\n he began:\u2014\n\n That cheek-mole's spot they evened with a grain \u273f Of musk, nor did they\n here the simile strain:\n Nay, marvel at the face comprising all \u273f Beauty, nor falling short by\n single grain.\n\n The King shook with pleasure[486] and said to him, \"Say more: Allah\n bless thy days!\" So he began:\u2014\n\n O you whose mole on cheek enthroned recalls \u273f A dot of musk upon a\n stone of ruby,\n Grant me your favours! Be not stone at heart! \u273f Core of my heart whose\n only sustenance _you_ be!\n\n Quoth the King, \"Fair comparison, O Hasan![487] thou hast spoken\n excellently well and hast proved thyself accomplished in every\n accomplishment! Now explain to me how many meanings be there in the\n Arabic language[488] for the word _Kh\u00e1l_ or _mole_.\" He replied, \"Allah\n keep the King! Seven and fifty and some by tradition say fifty.\" Said\n the Sultan, \"Thou sayest sooth,\" presently adding, \"Hast thou knowledge\n as to the points of excellence in beauty?\" \"Yes,\" answered Badr al-Din\n Hasan, \"Beauty consisteth in brightness of face, clearness of\n complexion, shapeliness of nose, gentleness of eyes, sweetness of\n mouth, cleverness of speech, slenderness of shape and seemliness of all\n attributes.\" But the acme of beauty is in the hair and, indeed,\n al-Shih\u00e1b the Hijazi hath brought together all these items in his\n doggrel verse of the metre Rajaz[489] and it is this:\u2014\n\n Say thou to skin \"Be soft,\" to face \"Be fair;\" \u273f And gaze, nor shall\n they blame howso thou stare:\n Fine nose in Beauty's list is high esteemed; \u273f Nor less an eye full,\n bright and debonnair\n Eke did they well to laud the lovely lips \u273f (Which e'en the sleep of me\n will never spare);\n A winning tongue, a stature tall and straight;[490] \u273f A seemly union of\n gifts rarest rare:\n But Beauty's acme in the hair one views it; \u273f So hear my strain and\n with some few excuse it!\n\n The Sultan was captivated by his converse and, regarding him as a\n friend, asked, \"What meaning is there in the saw \"Shurayh is foxier\n than the fox\"?\" And he answered, \"Know, O King (whom Almighty Allah\n keep!) that the legist Shurayh[491] was wont, during the days of the\n plague, to make a visitation to Al-Najaf; and, whenever he stood up to\n pray, there came a fox which would plant himself facing him and which,\n by mimicking his movements, distracted him from his devotions. Now when\n this became longsome to him, one day he doffed his shirt and set it\n upon a cane and shook out the sleeves; then placing his turband on the\n top and girding its middle with a shawl, he stuck it up in the place\n where he used to pray. Presently up trotted the fox according to his\n custom and stood over against the figure, whereupon Shurayh came behind\n him, and took him.\" Hence the sayer saith, \"Shurayh is foxier than the\n fox.\" When the Sultan heard Badr al-Din Hasan's explanation he said to\n his uncle, Shams al-Din, \"Truly this the son of thy brother is perfect\n in courtly breeding and I do not think that his like can be found in\n Cairo.\" At this Hasan arose and kissed the ground before him and sat\n down again as a Mameluke should sit before his master. When the Sultan\n had thus assured himself of his courtly breeding and bearing and his\n knowledge of the liberal arts and belles-lettres, he joyed with\n exceeding joy and invested him with a splendid robe of honour and\n promoted him to an office whereby he might better his condition.[492]\n Then Badr al-Din Hasan arose and, kissing the ground before the King,\n wished him continuance of glory and asked leave to retire with his\n uncle, the Wazir Shams al-Din. The Sultan gave him leave and he issued\n forth and the two returned home, where food was set before them and\n they ate what Allah had given them. After finishing his meal Hasan\n repaired to the sitting-chamber of his wife, the Lady of Beauty, and\n told her what had past between him and the Sultan; whereupon quoth she,\n \"He cannot fail to make thee a cup-companion and give thee largesse in\n excess and load thee with favours and bounties; so shalt thou, by\n Allah's blessing, dispread, like the greater light, the rays of thy\n perfection wherever thou be, on shore or on sea.\" Said he to her, \"I\n purpose to recite a Kas\u00eddah, an ode, in his praise, that he may\n redouble in affection for me.\" \"Thou art right in thine intent,\" she\n answered, \"so gather thy wits together and weigh thy words, and I shall\n surely see my husband favoured with his highest favour.\" Thereupon\n Hasan shut himself up and composed these couplets on a solid base and\n abounding in inner grace and copied them out in a handwriting of the\n nicest taste. They are as follows:\u2014\n\n Mine is a Chief who reached most haught estate, \u273f Treading the pathways\n of the good and great:\n His justice makes all regions safe and sure, \u273f And against froward foes\n bars every gate:\n Bold lion, hero, saint, e'en if you call \u273f Seraph or Sovran[493] he\n with all may rate!\n The poorest suppliant rich from him returns, \u273f All words to praise him\n were inadequate.\n He to the day of peace is saffron Morn, \u273f And murky Night in furious\n warfare's bate.\n Bow 'neath his gifts our necks, and by his deeds \u273f As King of\n freeborn[494] souls he 'joys his state:\n Allah increase for us his term of years, \u273f And from his lot avert all\n risks and fears!\n\n When he had finished transcribing the lines, he despatched them, in\n charge of one of his uncle's slaves, to the Sultan, who perused them\n and his fancy was pleased; so he read them to those present and all\n praised them with the highest praise. Thereupon he sent for the writer\n to his sitting chamber and said to him, \"Thou art from this day forth\n my boon-companion and I appoint to thee a monthly solde of a thousand\n dirhams, over and above that I bestowed on thee aforetime.\" So Hasan\n rose and, kissing the ground before the King several times, prayed for\n the continuance of his greatness and glory and length of life and\n strength. Thus Badr al-Din Hasan the Bassorite waxed high in honour and\n his fame flew forth to many regions and he abode in all comfort and\n solace and delight of life with his uncle and his own folk till Death\n overtook him. When the Caliph Harun al-Rashid heard this story from the\n mouth of his Wazir, Ja'afar the Barmecide, he marvelled much and said,\n \"It behoves that these stories be written in letters of liquid gold.\"\n Then he set the slave at liberty and assigned to the youth who had\n slain his wife such a monthly stipend as sufficed to make his life\n easy; he also gave him a concubine from amongst his own slave-girls and\n the young man became one of his cup-companions. \"Yet this story\"\n (continued Shahrazad) \"is in no wise stranger than the tale of the\n Tailor and the Hunchback and the Jew and the Reeve and the Nazarene,\n and what betided them.\" Quoth the King, \"And what may that be?\" So\n Shahrazad began, in these words,[495]\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 363:\n\n Arab. \"Khila'ah\" prop. what a man strips from his person: gen. an\n honorary gift. It is something more than the \"robe of honour\" of our\n chivalrous romances, as it includes a horse, a sword (often\n gold-hilted), a black turban (amongst the Abbasides) embroidered with\n gold, a violet-coloured mantle, a waist-shawl and a gold neck-chain\n and shoe-buckles.\n\nFootnote 364:\n\n Arab. \"Iz\u00e1,\" _i.e._ the visits of condolence and so forth which are\n long and terribly wearisome in the Moslem East.\n\nFootnote 365:\n\n Arab. \"Mahr,\" the money settled by the man before marriage on the\n woman and without which the contract is not valid. Usually half of it\n is paid down on the marriage-day and the other half when the husband\n dies or divorces his wife. But if she take a divorce she forfeits her\n right to it, and obscene fellows, especially Persians, often compel\n her to demand divorce by unnatural and preposterous use of her\n person.\n\nFootnote 366:\n\n Bismillah here means \"Thou art welcome to it.\"\n\nFootnote 367:\n\n Arab. \"Bassak,\" half Pers. (bas=enough) and\u2014ak=thou; for thee. \"Bas\"\n sounds like our \"buss\" (to kiss) and there are sundry good old\n Anglo-Indian jokes of feminine mistakes on the subject.\n\nFootnote 368:\n\n This saving clause makes the threat worse. The scene between the two\n brothers is written with characteristic Arab humour; and it is true\n to nature. In England we have heard of a man who separated from his\n wife because he wished to dine at six and she preferred half-past\n six.\n\nFootnote 369:\n\n Arab. \"Misr\" (vulg. Masr). The word, which comes of a very ancient\n house, was applied to the present Capital about the time of its\n conquest by the Osmanli Turks A.H. 923=1517.\n\nFootnote 370:\n\n The Arab. \"J\u00edzah,\"=skirt, edge; the modern village is the site of an\n ancient Egyptian city, as the \"Ghizah inscription\" proves (Brugsch,\n History of Egypt, ii. 415).\n\nFootnote 371:\n\n Arab. \"Watan\" literally meaning \"birth-place\" but also used for\n \"patria, native country\"; thus \"Hubb al-Watan\"=patriotism. The Turks\n pronounce it \"Vatan,\" which the French have turned into Va-t'en!\n\nFootnote 372:\n\n Arab. \"Zarzariyah\"=the colour of a stare or starling (Zurz\u00far).\n\nFootnote 373:\n\n Now a Railway Station on the Alexandria-Cairo line.\n\nFootnote 374:\n\n Even as late as 1852, when I first saw Cairo, the city was girt by\n waste lands and the climate was excellent. Now cultivation comes up\n to the house walls; while the Mahmudiyah Canal, the planting the\n streets with avenues and over-watering have seriously injured it;\n those who want the air of former Cairo must go to Thebes. Gout,\n rheumatism and hydrophobia (before unknown) have become common of\n late years.\n\nFootnote 375:\n\n This is the popular pronunciation: Y\u00e1k\u00fat calls it \"Bilb\u00eds.\"\n\nFootnote 376:\n\n An outlying village on the \"Long Desert,\" between Cairo and\n Palestine.\n\nFootnote 377:\n\n Arab. \"Al-Kuds\"=holiness. There are few cities which in our day have\n less claim to this title than Jerusalem; and, curious to say, the\n \"Holy Land\" shows Jews, Christians and Moslems all in their worst\n form. The only religion (if it can be called one) which produces men\n in Syria is the Druse. \"Heiligen-landes J\u00fcden\" are proverbial and\n nothing can be meaner than the Christians while the Moslems are famed\n for treachery.\n\nFootnote 378:\n\n Arab. \"Shamm al-haw\u00e1.\" In vulgar parlance to \"smell the air\" is to\n take a walk especially out of town. There is a peculiar Egyptian\n festival called \"Shamm al-Nas\u00edm\" (smelling the Zephyr) which begins\n on Easter-Monday (O.S.), thus corresponding with the Persian Nau-roz,\n vernal equinox and introducing the fifty days of \"Khammas\u00edn\" or\n \"Mirisi\" (hot desert winds). On awaking, the people smell and bathe\n their temples with vinegar in which an onion has been soaked and\n break their fast with a \"fisikh\" or dried \"b\u00fari\"=mullet from Lake\n Menzalah: the late Hekekiyan Bey had the fish-heads counted in one\n public garden and found 70,000. The rest of the day is spent out of\n doors \"Gypsying,\" and families greatly enjoy themselves on these\n occasions. For a longer description see a paper by my excellent\n friend Yacoub Artin Pasha, in the Bulletin de l'Institut \u00c9gyptien,\n 2nd series, No. 4, Cairo, 1884. I have noticed the Mirisi\n (Southwester) and other winds in the Land of Midian, i., 23.\n\nFootnote 379:\n\n So in the days of the \"Mameluke Beys\" in Egypt a man of rank would\n not cross the street on foot.\n\nFootnote 380:\n\n Arab. Basrah. The city now in decay and not to flourish again till\n the advent of the Euphrates Valley R.R., is a modern place, founded\n in A.H. 15, by the Caliph Omar upon the Aylah, a feeder of the\n Tigris. Here, according to Al-Hariri, the \"whales and the lizards\n meet;\" and, as the tide affects the river,\n\n Its stream shows prodigy, ebbing and flowing.\n\n In its far-famed market-place, Al-Marbad, poems used to be recited;\n and the city was famous for its mosques and Saint-shrines, fair women\n and school of Grammar which rivalled that of K\u00fafah. But already in\n Al-Hariri's day (nat. A.H. 446=A.D. 1030) Baghdad had drawn off much\n of its population.\n\nFootnote 381:\n\n This fumigation (Bukh\u00far) is still used. A little incense or perfumed\n wood is burnt upon an open censer (Mibkharah) of earthenware or\n metal, and passed round, each guest holding it for a few moments\n under his beard. In the Somali Country, the very home of incense,\n both sexes fumigate the whole person after carnal intercourse. Lane\n (Mod. Egypt, chapt. viii.) gives an illustration of the Mibkharah.\n\nFootnote 382:\n\n The reader of The Nights will remark that the merchant is often a\n merchant-prince, consorting and mating with the highest dignitaries.\n Even amongst the Romans, a race of soldiers, statesmen and lawyers,\n \"mercatura\" on a large scale was \"not to be vituperated.\" In\n Boccaccio (x. 19) they are netti e delicati uomini. England is\n perhaps the only country which has made her fortune by trade, and\n much of it illicit trade, like that in slaves which built Liverpool\n and Bristol, and which yet disdains or affects to disdain the trader.\n But the unworthy prejudice is disappearing with the last generation,\n and men who formerly would have half starved as curates and ensigns,\n barristers and _carabins_ are now only too glad to become merchants.\n\nFootnote 383:\n\n These lines in the Calc. and Bul. Edit. have already occurred (Night\n vii.) but such carelessness is characteristic despite the proverb,\n \"In repetition is no fruition.\" I quote Torrens (p. 60) by way of\n variety. As regards the anemone (here called a tulip) being named\n \"Shak\u00edk\"=fissure, I would conjecture that it derives from the flower\n often forming long lines of red like stripes of blood in the\n landscape. Travellers in Syria always observe this.\n\nFootnote 384:\n\n Such an address to a royalty (Eastern) even in the present day, would\n be a passport to future favours.\n\nFootnote 385:\n\n In England the man marries and the woman is married: there is no such\n distinction in Arabia.\n\nFootnote 386:\n\n \"Sultan\" (and its corruption \"Soldan\") etymologically means lord,\n victorious, ruler, ruling over. In Arabia it is a not uncommon proper\n name; and as a title it is taken by a host of petty kinglets. The\n Abbaside Caliphs (as Al-W\u00e1sik who has been noticed) formally created\n these Sultans as their regents. Al-T\u00e1'i bi'llah (regn. A.H. 363=974),\n invested the famous Sabuktagin with the office; and, as\n Alexander-Sikandar was wont to do, fastened for him two flags, one of\n silver, after the fashion of nobles, and the other of gold, as\n Viceroy-designate. Sabuktagin's son, the famous Mahm\u00fad of the\n Ghaznavite dynasty in A.H. 393=1002, was the first to adopt \"Sultan\"\n as an independent title some two hundred years after the death of\n Harun al-Rashid. In old writers we have the Soldan of Egypt, the\n Soudan of Persia, and the Sowdan of Babylon; three modifications of\n one word.\n\nFootnote 387:\n\n _i.e._ he was a \"H\u00e1fiz,\" one who commits to memory the whole of the\n Koran. It is a serious task and must be begun early. I learnt by rote\n the last \"Juzw\" (or thirtieth part) and found that quite enough. This\n is the vulgar use of \"Hafiz\": technically and theologically it means\n the third order of Traditionists (the total being five) who know by\n heart 300,000 traditions of the Prophet with their ascriptions. A\n curious \"spiritualist\" book calls itself \"Hafed, Prince of Persia,\"\n proving by the very title that the Spirits are equally ignorant of\n Arabic and Persian.\n\nFootnote 388:\n\n Here again the Cairo Edit. repeats the six couplets already given in\n Night xvii. I take them from Torrens (p. 163).\n\nFootnote 389:\n\n This na\u00efve admiration of beauty in either sex characterised our\n chivalrous times. Now it is mostly confined to \"professional\n beauties\" of what is conventionally called the \"fair sex\"; as if\n there could be any comparison between the beauty of man and the\n beauty of woman, the Apollo Belvidere with the Venus de Medici.\n\nFootnote 390:\n\n Arab. \"Sh\u00e1sh\" (in Pers. urine), a light turband generally of muslin.\n\nFootnote 391:\n\n This is a _lieu commun_ of Eastern worldly wisdom. Quite true! Very\n unadvisable to dive below the surface of one's acquaintances, but\n such intimacy is like marriage of which Johnson said, \"Without it\n there is no pleasure in life.\"\n\nFootnote 392:\n\n The lines are attributed to the famous Al-Mutanabbi=the claimant to\n \"Prophecy,\" of whom I have given a few details in my Pilgrimage (iii.\n 60, 62). He led the life of a true poet, somewhat Chauvinistic\n withal; and, rather than run away, was killed in A.H. 354=965.\n\nFootnote 393:\n\n Arab. \"Nab\u00edz\"=wine of raisins or dates; any fermented liquor; from a\n root to \"press out\" in Syriac, like the word \"Talmiz\" (or Tilmiz,\n says the Kashf al-Ghurrah) a pupil, student. Date-wine (fermented\n from the fruit, not the T\u00e1di, or juice of the stem, our \"toddy\") is\n called Fazikh. Hence the Masjid al-Fazikh at Al-Medinah where the\n Ansar or Auxiliaries of that city were sitting cup in hand when they\n heard of the revelation forbidding inebriants and poured the liquor\n upon the ground (Pilgrimage ii. 322).\n\nFootnote 394:\n\n Arab. \"Huda\"=direction (to the right way), salvation, a word\n occurring in the Opening Chapter of the Koran. Hence to a Kafir who\n offers the Salam-salutation many Moslems reply \"Allah yahd\u00edk\"=Allah\n direct thee! (_i.e._ make thee a Moslem), instead of Allah\n yusallimak=Allah lead thee to salvation. It is the root word of the\n Mahdi and Mohdi.\n\nFootnote 395:\n\n These lines have already occurred in The First Kalandar's Story\n (Night xi). I quote by way of change and with permission Mr. Payne's\n version (i. 93).\n\nFootnote 396:\n\n Arab. \"Faraj\u00edyah,\" a long-sleeved robe worn by the learned (Lane, M.\n E., chapt. i.)\n\nFootnote 397:\n\n Arab. \"Sarr\u00e1f\" (vulg. Sayrafi), whence the Anglo-Indian \"Shroff,\" a\n familiar corruption.\n\nFootnote 398:\n\n Arab. \"Yah\u00fad\u00ed\" which is less polite than \"Ban\u00fa Isr\u00e1\u00edl\"=Children of\n Israel. So in Christendom \"Israelite\" when in favour and \"Jew\" (with\n an adjective or a participle) when nothing is wanted of him.\n\nFootnote 399:\n\n Also called \"Ghilm\u00e1n\"=the beautiful youths appointed to serve the\n True Believers in Paradise. The Koran says (chapt. lvi. 9 etc.)\n \"Youths, which shall continue in their bloom for ever, shall go round\n about to attend them, with goblets, and beakers, and a cup of flowing\n wine,\" etc. Mohammed was an Arab (not a Persian, a born pederast) and\n he was too fond of women to be charged with love of boys: even\n Tristram Shandy (vol. vii. chapt. 7; \"No, quoth a third; the\n gentleman has been committing\u2014\u2014\") knew that the two tastes are\n incompatibles. But this and other passages in the Koran have given\n the Chevaliers de la Paille a hint that the use of boys, like that of\n wine, here forbidden, will be permitted in Paradise.\n\nFootnote 400:\n\n Which, by the by, is the age of an oldish old maid in Egypt. I much\n doubt puberty being there earlier than in England where our\n grandmothers married at fourteen. But Orientals are aware that the\n period of especial feminine devilry is between the first menstruation\n and twenty when, according to some, every girl is a \"possible\n murderess.\" So they wisely marry her and get rid of what is called\n the \"lump of grief,\" the \"domestic calamity\"\u2014a daughter. Amongst them\n we never hear of the abominable egotism and cruelty of the English\n mother, who disappoints her daughter's womanly cravings in order to\n keep her at home for her own comfort; and an \"old maid\" in the house,\n especially a stout, plump old maid, is considered not \"respectable.\"\n The ancient virgin is known by being lean and scraggy; and perhaps\n this diagnosis is correct.\n\nFootnote 401:\n\n This prognostication of destiny by the stars and a host of follies\n that end in-mancy is. an intricate and extensive subject. Those who\n would study it are referred to chapt. xiv. of the \"Qanoon-e-Islam, or\n the Customs of the Mussulmans of India; etc., etc., by Jaffur\n Shurreeff and translated by G. A. Herklots, M.D. of Madras.\" This\n excellent work first appeared in 1832 (Allen and Co., London) and\n thus it showed the way to Lane's \"Modern Egyptians\" (1833-35). The\n name was unfortunate as \"Kuzzilbash\" (which rhymed to guzzle and\n hash), and kept the book back till a second edition appeared in 1863\n (Madras: J. Higginbotham).\n\nFootnote 402:\n\n Arab. \"B\u00e1rid,\" lit. cold: metaph. vain, foolish, insipid.\n\nFootnote 403:\n\n Not to \"spite thee\" but \"in spite of thee.\" The phrase is still used\n by high and low.\n\nFootnote 404:\n\n Arab. \"Ahdab,\" the common hunchback: in classical language the Gobbo\n in the text would be termed \"Ak'as\" from \"Ka'as,\" one with protruding\n back and breast; sometimes used for hollow back and protruding\n breast.\n\nFootnote 405:\n\n This is the custom with such gentry, who, when they see a likely man\n sitting, are allowed by custom to ride astraddle upon his knees with\n most suggestive movements, till he buys them off. These Ghaw\u00e1z\u00ed are\n mostly Gypsies who pretend to be Moslems; and they have been confused\n with the Almahs or Moslem dancing-girls proper (Aw\u00e1lim, plur. of\n Alimah, a learned feminine) by a host of travellers. They call\n themselves Bar\u00e1mikah or Barmecides only to affect Persian origin.\n Under native rule they were perpetually being banished from and\n returning to Cairo (Pilgrimage i., 202). Lane (M. E., chapts. xviii.\n and xix.) discusses the subject, and would derive Al'mah, often so\n pronounced, from Heb. Almah, girl, virgin, singing girl, hence he\n would translate Al-Alamoth shir (Psalm xlvi.) and Nebalim al-alamoth\n (1 Chron., xv. 20) by a \"song for singing-girls\" and \"harps for\n singing-girls.\" He quotes also St. Jerome as authority that Alma in\n Punic (Ph\u0153nician) signified a virgin, not a common article, I may\n observe, amongst singing-girls. I shall notice in a future page\n Burckhardt's description of the Ghawazi, p. 173, \"Arabic Proverbs;\"\n etc., etc. Second Edition. London: Quaritch, 1875.\n\nFootnote 406:\n\n I need hardly describe the Tarb\u00fash, a corruption of the Pers.\n \"Sar-p\u00fash\" (head-cover) also called \"Fez,\" from its old home; and\n \"Tarbrush\" by the travelling Briton. In old days it was a calotte\n worn under the turban; and it was protected from scalp-perspiration\n by an \"Arakiyah\" (Pers. Arak-ch\u00edn), a white skull-cap. Now it is worn\n without either and as a head-dress nothing can be worse (Pilgrimage\n ii. 275.)\n\nFootnote 407:\n\n Arab. \"T\u00e1r.\": the custom still prevails. Lane (M. E., chapt. xviii.)\n describes and figures this hoop-drum.\n\nFootnote 408:\n\n The couch on which she sits while being displayed. It is her throne,\n for she is the Queen of the occasion, with all the Majesty of\n Virginity.\n\nFootnote 409:\n\n This is a solemn \"chaff;\" such liberties being permitted at weddings\n and festive occasions.\n\nFootnote 410:\n\n The pre-Islam\u00edtic dynasty of Al-Yaman in Arabia Felix, a region\n formerly famed for wealth and luxury. Hence the mention of Yamani\n work. The caravans from Sana'\u00e1, the capital, used to carry patterns\n of vases to be made in China and bring back the porcelains at the end\n of the third year: these are the Arabic inscriptions which have\n puzzled so many collectors. The Tobba, or Successors, were the old\n Himyarite Kings, a dynastic name like Pharaoh, Kisra (Persia), Negush\n (Abyssinia), Khakan or Khan (Tartary), etc., who claimed to have\n extended their conquests to Samarcand and made war on China. Any\n history of Arabia (as Crichton I., chapt iv.) may be consulted for\n their names and annals. I have been told by Arabs that \"Tobba\" (or\n Tubba) is still used in the old Himyar-land=the Great or the Chief.\n\nFootnote 411:\n\n Lane and Payne (as well as the Bres. Edit.) both render the word \"to\n kiss her,\" but this would be clean contrary to Moslem usage.\n\nFootnote 412:\n\n _i.e._ he was full of rage which he concealed.\n\nFootnote 413:\n\n The Hindus (as the Katha shows) compare this swimming gait with an\n elephant's roll.\n\nFootnote 414:\n\n Arab. \"Fitnah,\" a word almost as troublesome as \"Adab.\" Primarily,\n revolt seduction, mischief: then a beautiful girl (or boy), and\n lastly a certain aphrodisiac perfume extracted from mimosa-flowers\n (Pilgrimage i., 118).\n\nFootnote 415:\n\n Lit. burst the \"gall-bladder:\" In this and in the \"liver\" allusions I\n dare not be baldly literal.\n\nFootnote 416:\n\n Arab. \"Usfur\" the seeds of Carthamus tinctorius=Safflower (Forsk\u00e5l,\n Flora, etc. lv.). The seeds are crushed for oil and the flowers,\n which must be gathered by virgins or the colour will fail, are\n extensively used for dyeing in Southern Arabia and Eastern Africa.\n\nFootnote 417:\n\n On such occasions Miss Modesty shuts her eyes and looks as if about\n to faint.\n\nFootnote 418:\n\n After either evacuation the Moslem is bound to wash or sand the part;\n first however he should apply three pebbles, or potsherds or clods of\n earth. Hence the allusion in the Koran (chapt. ix.), \"men who love to\n be purified.\" When the Prophet was questioning the men of Kuba, where\n he founded a mosque (Pilgrimage ii., 215), he asked them about their\n legal ablutions, especially after evacuation; and they told him that\n they used three stones before washing. Moslems and Hindus (who prefer\n water mixed with earth) abhor the unclean and unhealthy use of paper\n without ablution; and the people of India call Europeans\n draught-houses, by way of opprobrium, \"K\u00e1ghaz-kh\u00e1nah\"=paper closets.\n Most old Anglo-Indians, however, learn to use water.\n\nFootnote 419:\n\n \"Miao\" or \"Mau\" is the generic name of the cat in the Egyptian of the\n hieroglyphs.\n\nFootnote 420:\n\n Arab. \"Ya Mash'\u00fam\" addressed to an evil spirit.\n\nFootnote 421:\n\n \"Heehaw!\" as we should say. The Bresl. Edit. makes the cat cry \"Nauh!\n Nauh!\" and the ass-colt \"Manu! Manu!\" I leave these onomatopoeics as\n they are in Arabic; they are curious, showing the unity in variety of\n hearing inarticulate sounds. The bird which is called \"Whip poor\n Will\" in the U.S., is known to the Brazilians as \"Joam corta p\u00e1o\"\n (John cut wood); so differently do they hear the same notes.\n\nFootnote 422:\n\n It is usually a slab of marble with a long slit in front and a round\n hole behind. The text speaks of a Kursi (=stool); but this is now\n unknown to native houses which have not adopted European fashions.\n\nFootnote 423:\n\n This again is chaff as she addresses the Hunchback. The Bul. Edit.\n has \"O Abu Shih\u00e1b\" (Father of the shooting-star=evil spirit); the\n Bresl. Edit. \"O son of a heap! O son of a Something!\" (al-A\u00edsh, a\n vulgarism).\n\nFootnote 424:\n\n As the reader will see, Arab ideas of \"fun\" and practical jokes are\n of the largest, putting the Hibernian to utter rout, and comparing\n favourably with those recorded in Don Quixote.\n\nFootnote 425:\n\n Arab. \"Sar\u00e1wil\" a corruption of the Pers. \"Sharw\u00e1l\"; popularly called\n \"lib\u00e1s\" which, however, may also mean clothing in general and\n especially outer-clothing. I translate \"bag-trousers\" and\n \"petticoat-trousers,\" the latter being the divided skirt of our\n future. In the East, where Common Sense, not Fashion, rules dress,\n men, who have a protuberance to be concealed, wear petticoats and\n women wear trousers. The feminine article is mostly baggy but\n sometimes, as in India, _collant_-tight. A quasi-sacred part of it is\n the inkle, tape or string, often a most magnificent affair, with\n tassels of pearl and precious stones; and \"laxity in the\n trouser-string\" is equivalent to the loosest conduct. Upon the\n subject of \"lib\u00e1s,\" \"sarw\u00e1l\" and its variants the curious reader will\n consult Dr. Dozy's \"Dictionnaire D\u00e9taill\u00e9 des Noms des V\u00eatements chez\n les Arabes,\" a most valuable work.\n\nFootnote 426:\n\n The turban out of respect is not put upon the ground (Lane, M. E.,\n chapt. i.).\n\nFootnote 427:\n\n Arab. \"Madfa'\" showing the modern date or the modernization of the\n tale. In Lebid \"Mad\u00e1fi'\" (plur. of Madfa') means water-courses or\n leats.\n\nFootnote 428:\n\n In Arab, the \"he\" is a \"she;\" and Hab\u00edb (\"friend\") is the Attic\n \u03c6\u03af\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2, a euphemism for lover. This will occur throughout The Nights.\n So the Arabs use a phrase corresponding with the Stoic \u03c6\u03b9\u03bb\u03b5~\u03b9 _i.e._\n is wont, is fain.\n\nFootnote 429:\n\n Part of the Az\u00e1n, or call to prayer.\n\nFootnote 430:\n\n Arab. \"Shih\u00e1b,\" these meteors being the flying shafts shot at evil\n spirits who approach too near Heaven. The idea doubtless arose from\n the showers of August and November meteors (The Perseides and\n Taurides) which suggest a battle raging in upper air. Christendom\n also has its superstition concerning them and called those of August\n the \"fiery tears of Saint Lawrence,\" whose festival was on August 10.\n\nFootnote 431:\n\n Arab. \"T\u00e1kiyah\"=Pers. Arak-chin; the calotte worn under the Fez. It\n is, I have said, now obsolete and the red woollen cap (mostly made in\n Europe) is worn over the hair; an unclean practice.\n\nFootnote 432:\n\n Often the effect of cold air after a heated room.\n\nFootnote 433:\n\n _i.e._ He was not a Eunuch, as the people guessed.\n\nFootnote 434:\n\n In Arab, \"this night\" for the reason before given.\n\nFootnote 435:\n\n Meaning especially the drink prepared of the young leaves and florets\n of Cannabis Sativa. The word literally means \"dry grass\" or\n \"herbage.\" This intoxicant was much used by magicians to produce\n ecstacy and thus to \"deify themselves and receive the homage of the\n genii and spirits of nature.\"\n\nFootnote 436:\n\n Torrens, being an Irishman, translates \"and woke in the morning\n sleeping at Damascus.\"\n\nFootnote 437:\n\n Arab. \"Labbayka,\" the cry technically called \"Talbiyah\" and used by\n those entering Meccah (Pilgrimage iii. 125-232). I shall also\n translate it by \"Adsum.\" The full cry is:\u2014\n\n Here am I, O Allah, here am I!\n No partner hast Thou, here am I:\n Verily the praise and the grace and the kingdom are thine:\n No partner hast Thou: here am I!\n\n A single Talbiyah is a \"Shart\" or positive condition: and its\n repetition is a Sunnat or Custom of the Prophet. See Night xci.\n\nFootnote 438:\n\n The staple abuse of the vulgar is cursing parents and relatives,\n especially feminine, with specific allusions to their \"shame.\" And\n when dames of high degree are angry, Nature, in the East as in the\n West, sometimes speaks out clearly enough, despite Mistress Chapone\n and all artificial restrictions.\n\nFootnote 439:\n\n A great beauty in Arabia and the reverse in Denmark, Germany and\n Slav-land, where it is a sign of being a were-wolf or a vampire. In\n Greece also it denotes a \"Brukolak\" or vampire.\n\nFootnote 440:\n\n This is not physiologically true: a bride rarely conceives the first\n night, and certainly would not know that she had conceived. Moreover\n the number of courses furnished by the bridegroom would be against\n conception. It is popularly said that a young couple often undoes in\n the morning what it has done during the night.\n\nFootnote 441:\n\n Torrens (Notes, xxiv.) quotes \"Fleisher\" upon the word \"Ghamghama\"\n (Diss. Crit. de Glossis Habichtionis), which he compares with\n \"Dumduma\" and \"Humbuma\" determining them to be onomatopoeics, \"an\n incomplete and an obscure murmur of a sentence as it were lingering\n between the teeth and lips and therefore difficult to be understood.\"\n Of this family is \"Tagh\u00fam\"; not used in modern days. In my Pilgrimage\n (i. 313) I have noticed another, \"Khyas, Khyas!\" occurring in a Hizb\n al-Bahr (Spell of the Sea). Herklots gives a host of them; and their\n sole characteristics are harshness and strangeness of sound, uniting\n consonants which are not joined in Arabic. The old Egyptians and\n Chaldeans had many such words composed at will for theurgic\n operations.\n\nFootnote 442:\n\n This may mean either \"it is of Mosul fashion\" or, it is of muslin.\n\nFootnote 443:\n\n To the English reader these lines would appear the reverse of\n apposite; but Orientals have their own ways of application, and all\n allusions to Badawi partings are effective and affecting. The\n civilised poets of Arab cities throw the charm of the Desert over\n their verse by images borrowed from its scenery, the dromedary, the\n mirage and the well, as naturally as certain of our bards who hated\n the country, babbled of purling rills, etc. Thoroughly to feel Arabic\n poetry one must know the Desert (Pilgrimage iii., 63).\n\nFootnote 444:\n\n In those days the Arabs and the Portuguese recorded everything which\n struck them, as the Chinese and Japanese do in our times. And yet we\n complain of the amount of our modern writing!\n\nFootnote 445:\n\n This is mentioned because it is the act preliminary to naming the\n babe.\n\nFootnote 446:\n\n Arab. \"Kahram\u00e1n\u00e1t\" from Kahram\u00e1n, an old Persian hero who conversed\n with the Simurgh-Griffon. Usually the word is applied to\n women-at-arms who defend the Harem, like the Urdu-begani of India,\n whose services were lately offered to England (1885), or the\n \"Amazons\" of Dahome.\n\nFootnote 447:\n\n Meaning he grew as fast in one day as other children in a month.\n\nFootnote 448:\n\n Arab. Al-Ar\u00edf; the tutor, the assistant-master.\n\nFootnote 449:\n\n Arab. \"Ibn har\u00e1m,\" a common term of abuse; and not a factual\n reflection on the parent. I have heard a mother apply the term to her\n own son.\n\nFootnote 450:\n\n Arab. \"Khanjar\" from the Persian, a syn. with the Arab. \"Jambiyah.\"\n It is noticed in my Pilgrimage iii., pp. 72, 75. To \"silver the\n dagger,\" means to become a rich man. From \"Khanjar,\" not from its\n fringed loop or strap, I derive our silly word \"hanger.\" Dr.\n Steingass would connect it with Germ. F\u00e4nger, _e.g._, Hirschf\u00e4nger.\n\nFootnote 451:\n\n Again we have \"Dastur\" for \"Izn.\"\n\nFootnote 452:\n\n Arab. \"Ikl\u00edm\"; the seven climates of Ptolemy.\n\nFootnote 453:\n\n Arab. \"Al-Ghadir,\" lit. a place where water sinks, a lowland: here\n the drainage-lakes east of Damascus into which the Baradah (Abana?)\n discharges. The higher eastern plain is \"Al-Ghutah\" before noticed.\n\nFootnote 454:\n\n The \"Plain of Pebbles\" still so termed at Damascus; an open space\n west of the city.\n\nFootnote 455:\n\n Every Guide-book, even the Reverend Porter's \"Murray,\" gives a long\n account of this Christian Church 'verted to a Mosque.\n\nFootnote 456:\n\n Arab. \"Nab\u00fat\"; Pilgrimage i. 336.\n\nFootnote 457:\n\n The Bres. Edit. says, \"would have knocked him into Al-Yaman\"\n (Southern Arabia) something like our slang phrase \"into the middle of\n next week.\"\n\nFootnote 458:\n\n Arab. \"Kh\u00e1dim\": lit. a servant, politely applied (like Agh\u00e1=master)\n to a castrato. These gentry wax furious if baldly called\n \"Taw\u00e1shi\"=Eunuch. A mauvais plaisant in Egypt used to call me The\n Agha because a friend had placed his wife under my charge.\n\nFootnote 459:\n\n This sounds absurd enough in English, but Easterns always put\n themselves first for respect.\n\nFootnote 460:\n\n In Arabic the World is feminine.\n\nFootnote 461:\n\n Arab. \"S\u00e1hib\"=lit. a companion; also a friend and especially applied\n to the Companions of Mohammed. Hence the Sunnis claim for them the\n honour of \"friendship\" with the Apostle; but the Shia'hs reply that\n the Arab says \"Sahaba-hu'l-him\u00e1r\" (the Ass was his Sahib or\n companion). In the text it is a Wazirial title, in modern India it\n is=gentleman, _e.g._ \"Sahib log\" (the Sahib people) means their white\n conquerors, who, by the by, mostly mispronounce the word \"S\u00e1b.\"\n\nFootnote 462:\n\n Arab. \"Suw\u00e1n,\" prop. Syenite, from Syene (Al-Suwan) but applied to\n flint and any hard stone.\n\nFootnote 463:\n\n It was famous in the middle ages, and even now it is, perhaps, the\n most interesting to travellers after that \"Sentina Gentium,\" the\n \"Bhendi Bazar\" of unromantic Bombay.\n\nFootnote 464:\n\n \"The Gate of the Gardens,\" in the northern wall, a Roman archway of\n the usual solid construction shaming not only our modern shams, but\n our finest masonry.\n\nFootnote 465:\n\n Arab. \"Al-Asr,\" which may mean either the hour or the prayer. It is\n also the moment at which the Guardian Angels relieve each other\n (Sale's Koran, chapt. v.).\n\nFootnote 466:\n\n Arab. \"Ya h\u00e1z\u00e1\"=O this (one)! a somewhat slighting address equivalent\n to \"Heus tu! O thou, whoever thou art.\" Another form is \"Y\u00e1 h\u00fa\"=O he!\n Can this have originated Swift's \"Yahoo?\"\n\nFootnote 467:\n\n Alluding to the \u03c4\u03ae\u03c1\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1 (\"minor miracles which cause surprise\")\n performed by Saints' tombs, the mildest form of thaumaturgy. One of\n them gravely recorded in the Dabistan (ii. 226) is that of the holy\n Jamen, who opened the S\u00e1mran or bead-bracelet from the arm of the\n beautiful Chist\u00e1p\u00e1 with member erect, \"thus evincing his manly\n strength and his command over himself\"(!)\n\nFootnote 468:\n\n The River of Paradise, a _lieu commun_ of poets (Koran, chapt.\n cviii.): the water is whiter than milk or silver, sweeter than honey,\n smoother than cream, more odorous than musk; its banks are of\n chrysolite and it is drunk out of silver cups set around it thick as\n stars. Two pipes conduct it to the Prophet's Pond which is an exact\n square, one month's journey in compass. Kausar is spirituous like\n wine; Salsabil sweet like clarified honey; the Fount of Mildness is\n like milk and the Fount of Mercy like liquid crystal.\n\nFootnote 469:\n\n The Moslem does not use the European basin because water which has\n touched an impure skin becomes impure. Hence it is poured out from a\n ewer (\"ibr\u00edk\" Pers. Abr\u00edz) upon the hands and falls into a basin\n (\"tisht\") with an open-worked cover.\n\nFootnote 470:\n\n Arab. \"Wahsh,\" a word of many meanings; nasty, insipid, savage, etc.\n The offside of a horse is called Wahshi opposed to Insi, the near\n side. The Amir Taymur (\"Lord Iron\") whom Europeans unwittingly call\n after his Persian enemies' nickname, \"Tamerlane,\" _i.e._\n Taymur-i-lang, or limping Taymur, is still known as \"Al-Wahsh\" (the\n wild beast) at Damascus, where his Tartars used to bury men up to\n their necks and play at bowls with their heads for ninepins.\n\nFootnote 471:\n\n For \"grandson\" as being more affectionate. Easterns have not yet\n learned that clever Western saying:\u2014The enemies of our enemies are\n our friends.\n\nFootnote 472:\n\n This was a simple bastinado on the back, not the more ceremonious\n affair of beating the feet-soles. But it is surprising what the\n Egyptians can bear; some of the rods used in the time of the Mameluke\n Beys are nearly as thick as a man's wrist.\n\nFootnote 473:\n\n The woman-like spite of the eunuch intended to hurt the grandmother's\n feelings.\n\nFootnote 474:\n\n The usual Cairene \"chaff.\"\n\nFootnote 475:\n\n A necessary precaution against poison (Pilgrimage i. 84, and iii.\n 43).\n\nFootnote 476:\n\n The Bresl. Edit. (ii. 108) describes the scene at greater length.\n\nFootnote 477:\n\n The Bul. Edit. gives by mistake of diacritical points, \"Zabdaniyah:\"\n Raydaniyah is or rather was a camping ground to the North of Cairo.\n\nFootnote 478:\n\n Arab. \"La'abat\"=a plaything, a puppet, a lay figure. Lane (i. 326)\n conjectures that the cross is so called because it resembles a man\n with arms extended. But Moslems never heard of the fanciful ideas of\n medi\u00e6val Christian divines who saw the cross everywhere and in\n everything. The former hold that Pharaoh invented the painful and\n ignominious punishment. (Koran, chapt. vii.)\n\nFootnote 479:\n\n Here good blood, driven to bay, speaks out boldly. But, as a rule the\n humblest and mildest Eastern when in despair turns round upon his\n oppressors like a wild cat. Some of the criminals whom Fath Ali Shah\n of Persia put to death by chopping down the fork, beginning at the\n scrotum, abused his mother till the knife reached their vitals and\n they could no longer speak.\n\nFootnote 480:\n\n These repeated \"laughs\" prove the trouble of his spirit. Noble Arabs\n \"show their back-teeth\" so rarely that their laughter is held worthy\n of being recorded by their biographers.\n\nFootnote 481:\n\n A popular phrase, derived from the Koranic \"Truth is come, and\n falsehood is vanished: for falsehood is of short continuance\" (chapt.\n xvii.). It is an equivalent of our adaptation from 1 Esdras iv. 41,\n \"Magna est veritas et pr\u00e6valebit.\" But the great question still\n remains, What is Truth?\n\nFootnote 482:\n\n In Night lxxv. these lines will occur with variants.\n\nFootnote 483:\n\n This is always mentioned: the nearer the seat the higher the honour.\n\nFootnote 484:\n\n Alluding to the phrase \"Al-safar zafar\"=voyaging is victory\n (Pilgrimage i., 127).\n\nFootnote 485:\n\n Arab. \"Habb;\" alluding to the black drop in the human heart which the\n Archangel Gabriel removed from Mohammed by opening his breast.\n\nFootnote 486:\n\n This phrase, I have said, often occurs: it alludes to the\n horripilation (Arab. Kush'ar\u00edrah), horror or gooseflesh which, in\n Arab as in Hindu fables, is a symptom of great joy. So Boccaccio's\n \"pelo arriciato\" v., 8: Germ. G\u00e4nsehaut.\n\nFootnote 487:\n\n Arab. \"Hasanta ya Hasan\"=Bene detto, Benedetto! the usual word-play\n vulgarly called \"pun:\" Hasan (not Hassan, as we _will_ write it)\n meaning \"beautiful.\"\n\nFootnote 488:\n\n Arab. \"Loghah\" also=a vocabulary, a dictionary; the Arabs had them by\n camel-loads.\n\nFootnote 489:\n\n The seventh of the sixteen \"Bahr\" (metres) in Arabic prosody; the\n easiest because allowing the most licence and, consequently, a\n favourite for didactic, homiletic and gnomic themes. It means\n literally \"agitated\" and was originally applied to the rude song of\n the Cameleer. De Sacy calls this doggrel \"the poet's ass\" (Torrens,\n Notes xxvi.). It was the only metre in which Mohammed the Apostle\n ever spoke: he was no poet (Koran xxxvi., 69) but he occasionally\n recited a verse and recited it wrongly (Dabistan iii., 212). In\n Persian prosody Rajaz is the seventh of nineteen and has six distinct\n varieties (pp. 79-81, \"Gladwin's Dissertations on Rhetoric,\" etc.\n Calcutta, 1801). I shall have more to say about it in the terminal\n Essay.\n\nFootnote 490:\n\n \"Her stature tall\u2014I hate a dumpy woman\" (Don Juan).\n\nFootnote 491:\n\n A worthy who was Kazi of Kufah (Cufa) in the seventh century.\n Al-Najaf, generally entitled \"Najaf al-Ashraf\" (the Venerand) is the\n place where Ali, the son-in-law of Mohammed, lies or is supposed to\n lie buried, and has ever been a holy place to the Shi'ahs. I am not\n certain whether to translate \"Sa'alab\" by fox or jackal; the Arabs\n make scant distinction between them. \"Abu Hosayn\" (Father of the\n Fortlet) is certainly the fox, and as certainly \"Sha'arhar\" is the\n jackal from the Pehlevi Shag\u00e1l or Shagh\u00e1l.\n\nFootnote 492:\n\n Usually by all manner of extortions and robbery, corruption and\n bribery, the ruler's motto being\n\n Fiat _in_justitia ruat C\u0153lum.\n\n There is no more honest man than the Turkish peasant or the private\n soldier; but the process of deterioration begins when he is made a\n corporal and culminates in the Pasha. Moreover official dishonesty is\n permitted by public opinion, because it belongs to the condition of\n society. A man buys a place (as in England two centuries ago) and\n retains it by presents to the heads of offices. Consequently he must\n recoup himself in some way, and he mostly does so by grinding the\n faces of the poor and by spoiling the widow and the orphan. The\n radical cure is high pay; but that phase of society refuses to afford\n it.\n\nFootnote 493:\n\n Arab. \"Malik\" (King) and \"Malak\" (angel) the words being written the\n same when lacking vowels and justifying the jingle.\n\nFootnote 494:\n\n Arab. \"Hurr\"; the Latin \"ingenuus,\" lit. freeborn; metaph. noble as\n opp. to a slave who is not expected to do great or good deeds. In\n pop. use it corresponds, like \"Fat\u00e1,\" with our \"gentleman.\"\n\nFootnote 495:\n\n This is one of the best tales for humour and movement, and Douce and\n Madden show what a rich crop of fabliaux, whose leading incident was\n the disposal of a dead body, it produced.\n\n\n\n\n _THE HUNCHBACK'S TALE._\n\n\n It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that there dwelt during times of\n yore, and years and ages long gone before, in a certain city of\n China,[496] a Tailor who was an open-handed man that loved pleasuring\n and merry making; and who was wont, he and his wife, to solace\n themselves from time to time with public diversions and amusements. One\n day they went out with the first of the light and were returning in the\n evening when they fell in with a Hunchback, whose semblance would draw\n a laugh from care and dispel the horrors of despair. So they went up to\n enjoy looking at him and invited him to go home with them and converse\n and carouse with them that night. He consented and accompanied them\n afoot to their home; whereupon the Tailor fared forth to the bazar\n (night having just set in) and bought a fried fish and bread and lemons\n and dry sweetmeats for dessert; and set the victuals before the\n Hunchback and they ate. Presently the Tailor's wife took a great fid of\n fish and gave it in a gobbet to the Gobbo, stopping his mouth with her\n hand and saying, \"By Allah, thou must down with it at a single gulp;\n and I will not give thee time to chew it.\" So he bolted it; but therein\n was a stiff bone which stuck in his gullet and, his hour being come, he\n died.\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her\n permitted say.\n\n Now when it was the Twenty-Fifth Night,\n\n She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Tailor's\n wife gave the Hunchback that mouthful of fish which ended his term of\n days he died on the instant. Seeing this the Tailor cried aloud, \"There\n is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah! Alas, that this poor\n wretch should have died in so foolish fashion at our hands!\" and the\n woman rejoined, \"Why this idle talk? Hast thou not heard his saying who\n said?\u2014\n\n Why then waste I my time in grief, until \u273f I find no friend to bear my\n weight of woe?\n How sleep upon a fire that flames unquenched? \u273f Upon the flames to rest\n were hard enow!\"\n\n Asked her husband, \"And what shall I do with him?\"; and she answered,\n \"Rise and take him in thine arms and spread a silken kerchief over him;\n then I will fare forth, with thee following me, this very night and if\n thou meet any one say:\u2014This is my son, and his mother and I are\n carrying him to the doctor that he may look at him.\" So he rose and\n taking the Hunchback in his arms bore him along the streets, preceded\n by his wife who kept crying, \"O my son, Allah keep thee! what part\n paineth thee and where hath this small-pox[497] attacked thee?\" So all\n who saw them said \"'Tis a child sick of small-pox.\"[498] They went\n along asking for the physician's house till folk directed them to that\n of a leach which was a Jew. They knocked at the door, and there came\n down to them a black slave-girl who opened and, seeing a man bearing a\n babe, and a woman with him, said to them, \"What is the matter?\" \"We\n have a little one with us,\" answered the Tailor's wife \"and we wish to\n show him to the physician: so take this quarter dinar and give it to\n thy master and let him come down and see my son who is sore sick.\" The\n girl went up to tell her master, whereupon the Tailor's wife walked\n into the vestibule and said to her husband, \"Leave the Hunchback here\n and let us fly for our lives.\" So the Tailor carried the dead man to\n the top of the stairs and propped him upright against the wall and ran\n away, he and his wife. Meanwhile the girl went in to the Jew and said\n to him, \"At the door are a man and a woman with a sick child and they\n have given me a quarter-dinar for thee, that thou mayest go down and\n look at the little one and prescribe for it.\" As soon as the Jew saw\n the quarter-dinar he rejoiced and rose quickly in his greed of gain and\n went forth hurriedly in the dark; but hardly had he made a step when he\n stumbled on the corpse and threw it over, when it rolled to the bottom\n of the staircase. So he cried out to the girl to hurry up with the\n light, and she brought it, whereupon he went down and examining the\n Hunchback found that he was stone dead. So he cried out, \"O for\n Esdras![499] O for Moses! O for Aaron! O for Joshua, son of Nun! O the\n Ten Commandments! I have stumbled against the sick one and he hath\n fallen downstairs and he is dead! How shall I get this man I have\n killed out of my house? O by the hoofs of the ass of Esdras!\" Then he\n took up the body and, carrying it into the house, told his wife what\n had happened and she said to him, \"Why dost thou sit still? If thou\n keep him here till day-break we shall both lose our lives. Let us two\n carry him to the terrace-roof and throw him over into the house of our\n neighbour, the Moslem, for if he abide there a night the dogs will come\n down on him from the adjoining terraces and eat him up.\" Now his\n neighbour was a Reeve, the controller of the Sultan's kitchen, and was\n wont to bring back great store of oil and fat and broken meats; but the\n cats and rats used to eat it, or, if the dogs scented a fat sheep's\n tail they would come down from the nearest roofs and tear at it; and on\n this wise the beasts had already damaged much of what he brought home.\n So the Jew and his wife carried the Hunchback up to the roof; and,\n letting him down by his hands and feet through the wind-shaft[500] into\n the Reeve's house, propped him up against the wall and went their ways.\n Hardly had they done this when the Reeve, who had been passing an\n evening with his friends hearing a recitation of the Koran, came home\n and opened the door and, going up with a lighted candle, found a son of\n Adam standing in the corner under the ventilator. When he saw this, he\n said, \"Wah! by Allah, very good forsooth! He who robbeth my stuff is\n none other than a man.\" Then he turned to the Hunchback and said, \"So\n 'tis thou that stealest the meat and the fat! I thought it was the cats\n and dogs, and I kill the dogs and cats of the quarter and sin against\n them by killing them. And all the while 'tis thou comest down from the\n house terrace through the wind-shaft. But I will avenge myself upon\n thee with my own hand!\" So he snatched up a heavy hammer and set upon\n him and smote him full on the breast and he fell down. Then he examined\n him and, finding that he was dead, cried out in horror, thinking that\n he had killed him, and said, \"There is no Majesty and there is no Might\n save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great!\" And he feared for his life,\n and added, \"Allah curse the oil and the meat and the grease and the\n sheep's tails to boot! How hath fate given this man his quietus at my\n hand!\" Then he looked at the body and seeing it was that of a Gobbo,\n said, \"Was it not enough for thee to be a hunchback,[501] but thou must\n likewise be a thief and prig flesh and fat! O thou Veiler,[502] deign\n to veil me with Thy curtain of concealment!\" So he took him up on his\n shoulders and, going forth with him from his house about the latter end\n of the night, carried him to the nearest end of the bazar, where he set\n him up on his feet against the wall of a shop at the head of a dark\n lane, and left him and went away. After a while up came a\n Nazarene,[503] the Sultan's broker who, much bemused with liquor, was\n purposing for the Hammam-bath as his drunkenness whispered in his ear,\n \"Verily the call to matins[504] is nigh.\" He came plodding along and\n staggering about till he drew near the Hunchback and squatted down to\n make water[505] over against him; when he happened to glance around and\n saw a man standing against the wall. Now some person had snatched off\n the Christian's turband[506] in the first of the night; so when he saw\n the Hunchback hard by he fancied that he also meant to steal his\n head-dress. Thereupon he clenched his fist and struck him on the neck,\n felling him to the ground, and called aloud to the watchman of the\n bazar, and came down on the body in his drunken fury and kept on\n belabouring and throttling the corpse. Presently the Charley came up\n and, finding a Nazarene kneeling on a Moslem and frapping him, asked,\n \"What harm hath this one done?\"; and the Broker answered, \"The fellow\n meant to snatch off my turband.\" \"Get up from him,\" quoth the watchman.\n So he arose and the Charley went up to the Hunchback and finding him\n dead, exclaimed, \"By Allah, good indeed! A Christian killing a\n Mahometan!\" Then he seized the Broker and, tying his hands behind his\n back, carried him to the Governor's house,[507] and all the while the\n Nazarene kept saying to himself, \"O Messiah! O Virgin! how came I to\n kill this fellow? And in what a hurry he must have been to depart this\n life when he died of a single blow!\" Presently, as his drunkenness\n fled, came dolour in its stead. So the broker and the body were kept in\n the Governor's place till morning morrowed, when the Wali came out and\n gave order to hang the supposed murderer and commanded the\n executioner[508] make proclamation of the sentence. Forthwith they set\n up a gallows under which they made the Nazarene stand and the\n torch-bearer, who was hangman, threw the rope round his neck and passed\n one end through the pulley, and was about to hoist him up[509] when lo!\n the Reeve, who was passing by, saw the Broker about to be hanged; and,\n making his way through the people, cried out to the executioner, \"Hold!\n Hold! I am he who killed the Hunchback!\" Asked the Governor, \"What made\n thee kill him?\"; and he answered, \"I went home last night and there\n found this man who had come down the ventilator to steal my property;\n so I smote him with a hammer on the breast and he died forthright. Then\n I took him up and carried him to the bazar and set him up against the\n wall in such a place near such a lane;\" adding, \"Is it not enough for\n me to have killed a Moslem without also killing a Christian? So hang\n none other but me.\" When the Governor heard these words he released the\n Broker and said to the torch-bearer, \"Hang up this man on his own\n confession.\" So he loosed the cord from the Nazarene's neck and threw\n it round that of the Reeve and, making him stand under the\n gallows-tree, was about to string him up when behold, the Jewish\n physician pushed through the people and shouted to the executioner,\n \"Hold! Hold! It was I and none else killed the Hunchback! Last night I\n was sitting at home when a man and a woman knocked at the door carrying\n this Gobbo who was sick, and gave my handmaid a quarter-dinar, bidding\n her hand me the fee and tell me to come down and see him. Whilst she\n was gone the man and the woman brought him into the house and, setting\n him on the stairs, went away; and presently I came down and not seeing\n him, for I was in the dark, stumbled over him and he fell to the foot\n of the staircase and died on the moment. Then we took him up, I and my\n wife, and carried him on to the top terrace; and, the house of this\n Reeve being next door to mine, we let the body down through the\n ventilator. When he came home and found the Hunchback in his house, he\n fancied he was a thief and struck him with a hammer, so that he fell to\n the ground, and our neighbour made certain that he had slain him. Now\n is it not enough for me to have killed one Moslem unwittingly, without\n burdening myself with taking the life of another Moslem wittingly?\"\n When the Governor heard this he said to the hangman, \"Set free the\n Reeve, and hang the Jew.\"\n\n Thereupon the torch-bearer took him and slung the cord round his neck\n when behold, the Tailor pushed through the people, and shouted to the\n executioner, \"Hold! Hold! It was I and none else killed the Hunchback;\n and this was the fashion thereof. I had been out a-pleasuring yesterday\n and, coming back to supper, fell in with this Gobbo, who was drunk and\n drumming away and singing lustily to his tambourine. So I accosted him\n and carried him to my house and bought a fish, and we sat down to eat.\n Presently my wife took a fid of fish and, making a gobbet of it,[510]\n crammed it into his mouth; but some of it went down the wrong way or\n stuck in his gullet and he died on the instant. So we lifted him up, I\n and my wife, and carried him to the Jew's house where the slave-girl\n came down and opened the door to us and I said to her:\u2014Tell thy master\n that there are a man and a woman and a sick person for thee to see! I\n gave her a quarter-dinar and she went up to tell her master; and,\n whilst she was gone, I carried the Hunchback to the head of the\n staircase and propped him up against the wall, and went off with my\n wife. When the Jew came down he stumbled over him and thought that he\n had killed him.\" Then he asked the Jew, \"Is this the truth?\"; and the\n Jew answered, \"Yes.\" Thereupon the Tailor turned to the Governor, and\n said, \"Leave go the Jew and hang me.\" When the Governor heard the\n Tailor's tale he marvelled at the matter of this Hunchback and\n exclaimed, \"Verily this is an adventure which should be recorded in\n books!\" Then he said to the hangman, \"Let the Jew go and hang the\n Tailor on his own confession.\" The executioner took the Tailor and put\n the rope around his neck and said, \"I am tired of such slow work: we\n bring out this one and change him for that other, and no one is hanged\n after all!\" Now the Hunchback in question was, they relate, jester to\n the Sultan of China who could not bear him out of his sight; so when\n the fellow got drunk and did not make his appearance that night or the\n next day till noon, the Sultan asked some of his courtiers about him\n and they answered, \"O our lord, the Governor hath come upon him dead\n and hath ordered his murderer to be hanged; but, as the hangman was\n about to hoist him up there came a second and a third and a fourth and\n each one said:\u2014It is I, and none else killed the Hunchback!; and each\n gave a full and circumstantial account of the manner of the jester\n being killed.\" When the King heard this he cried aloud to the\n Chamberlain-in-waiting, \"Go down to the Governor and bring me all four\n of them.\" So the Chamberlain went down at once to the place of\n execution, where he found the torch-bearer on the point of hanging the\n Tailor and shouted to him, \"Hold! Hold!\" Then he gave the King's\n command to the Governor who took the Tailor, the Jew, the Nazarene and\n the Reeve (the Hunchback's body being borne on men's shoulders) and\n went up with one and all of them to the King. When he came into the\n presence, he kissed the ground and acquainted the ruler with the whole\n story which it is needless to relate for, as they say:\u2014There is no\n avail in a thrice-told tale. The Sultan hearing it marvelled and was\n moved to mirth and commanded the story to be written in letters of\n liquid gold, saying to those present, \"Did ye ever hear a more wondrous\n tale than that of my Hunchback?\" Thereupon the Nazarene broker came\n forward and said, \"O King of the age, with thy leave I will tell thee a\n thing which happened to myself and which is still more wondrous and\n marvellous and pleasurable and delectable than the tale of the\n Hunchback.\" Quoth the King, \"Tell us what thou hast to say!\" So he\n began in these words\n\n\n _THE NAZARENE BROKER'S STORY._\n\n O King of the age, I came to this thy country with merchandise and\n Destiny stayed me here with you: but my place of birth was Cairo, in\n Egypt, where I also was brought up, for I am one of the Copts and my\n father was a broker before me. When I came to man's estate he departed\n this life and I succeeded to his business. One day, as I was sitting in\n my shop, behold, there came up to me a youth as handsome as could be,\n wearing sumptuous raiment and riding a fine ass.[511] When he saw me he\n saluted me, and I stood up to do him honour: then he took out a\n kerchief containing a sample of sesame and asked, \"How much is this\n worth per Ardabb[512]?\"; whereto I answered, \"An hundred dirhams.\"\n Quoth he, \"Take porters and gaugers and metesmen and come to-morrow to\n the Khan al-Jaw\u00e1li,[513] by the Gate of Victory quarter where thou wilt\n find me.\" Then he fared forth leaving with me the sample of sesame in\n his kerchief; and I went the round of my customers and ascertained that\n every Ardabb would fetch an hundred and twenty dirhams. Next day I took\n four metesmen and walked with them to the Khan, where I found him\n awaiting me. As soon as he saw me he rose and opened his magazine, when\n we measured the grain till the store was empty; and we found the\n contents fifty Ardabbs, making five thousand pieces of silver. Then\n said he, \"Let ten dirhams on every Ardabb be thy brokerage; so take the\n price and keep in deposit four thousand, and five hundred dirhams for\n me; and, when I have made an end of selling the other wares in my\n warehouses, I will come to thee and receive the amount.\" \"I will well,\"\n replied I and kissing his hand went away, having made that day a profit\n of a thousand dirhams. He was absent a month, at the end of which he\n came to me and asked, \"Where be the dirhams?\" I rose and saluted him\n and answered to him, \"Wilt thou not eat somewhat in my house?\" But he\n refused with the remark, \"Get the monies ready and I will presently\n return and take them.\" Then he rode away. So I brought out the dirhams\n and sat down to await him, but he stayed away for another month, when\n he came back and said to me, \"Where be the dirhams?\" I rose and\n saluting him asked, \"Wilt thou not eat something in my house?\" But he\n again refused adding, \"Get me the monies ready and I will presently\n return and take them.\" Then he rode off. So I brought out the dirhams\n and sat down to await his return; but he stayed away from me a third\n month, and I said, \"Verily this young man is liberality in incarnate\n form.\" At the end of the month he came up, riding a mare-mule and\n wearing a suit of sumptuous raiment; he was as the moon on the night of\n fullness, and he seemed as if fresh from the baths, with his cheeks\n rosy bright, and his brow flower-white, and a mole-spot like a grain of\n ambergris delighting the sight; even as was said of such an one by the\n poet:\u2014\n\n Full moon with sun in single mansion \u273f In brightest sheen and fortune\n rose and shone,\n With happy splendour changing every sprite: \u273f Hail to what guerdons\n prayer with blissfull boon!\n Their charms and grace have gained perfection's height, \u273f All hearts\n have conquered and all wits have won.\n Laud to the Lord for works so wonder-strange, \u273f And what th' Almighty\n wills His hand hath done!\n\n When I saw him I rose to him and invoking blessings on him asked, \"O my\n lord, wilt thou not take thy monies?\" \"Whence the hurry?\"[514] quoth\n he, \"Wait till I have made an end of my business and then I will come\n and take them.\" Again he rode away and I said to myself, \"By Allah,\n when he comes next time needs must I make him my guest; for I have\n traded with his dirhams and have gotten large gains thereby.\" At the\n end of the year he came again, habited in a suit of clothes more\n sumptuous than the former; and, when I conjured him by the Evangel to\n alight at my house and eat of my guest-food, he said, \"I consent, on\n condition that what thou expendest on me shall be of my monies still in\n thy hands.\" I answered, \"So be it,\" and made him sit down whilst I got\n ready what was needful of meat and drink and else besides; and set the\n tray before him, with the invitation \"Bismillah\"![515] Then he drew\n near the tray and put out his left hand[516] and ate with me; and I\n marvelled at his not using the right hand. When we had done eating, I\n poured water on his hand and gave him wherewith to wipe it. Upon this\n we sat down to converse after I had set before him some sweetmeats; and\n I said to him, \"O my master, prithee relieve me by telling me why thou\n eatest with thy left hand? Perchance something aileth thy other hand?\"\n When he heard my words, he repeated these verses:\u2014\n\n Dear friend, ask not what burneth in my breast, \u273f Lest thou see fiery\n pangs eye never saw:\n Wills not my heart to harbour Salm\u00e1 in stead \u273f Of Layl\u00e1's[517] love,\n but need hath ne'er a law!\n\n And he put out his right arm from his sleeve and behold, the hand was\n cut off, a wrist without a fist. I was astounded at this but he said,\n \"Marvel not, and think not that I ate with my left hand for conceit and\n insolence, but from necessity; and the cutting off my right hand was\n caused by an adventure of the strangest.\" Asked I, \"And what caused\n it?\"; and he answered:\u2014Know that I am of the sons of Baghdad and my\n father was of notables of that city. When I came to man's estate I\n heard the pilgrims and wayfarers, travellers and merchants talk of the\n land of Egypt and their words sank deep into my mind till my parent\n died, when I took a large sum of money and furnished myself for trade\n with stuffs of Baghdad and Mosul and, packing them up in bales, set out\n on my wanderings; and Allah decreed me safety till I entered this your\n city. Then he wept and began repeating:\u2014\n\n The blear-eyed scapes the pits \u273f Wherein the lynx-eyed fall:\n A word the wise man slays \u273f And saves the natural:\n The Moslem fails of food \u273f The K\u00e1fir feasts in hall:\n What art or act is man's? \u273f God's will obligeth all!\n\n Now when he had ended his verse he said, So I entered Cairo and took\n off my loads and stored my stuffs in the Khan \"Al-Masr\u00far.\"[518] Then I\n gave the servant a few silvers wherewith to buy me some food and lay\n down to sleep awhile. When I awoke I went to the street called \"Bayn\n al-Kasrayn\"\u2014Between the two Palaces\u2014and presently returned and rested\n my night in the Khan. When it was morning I opened a bale and took out\n some stuff saying to myself, \"I will be off and go through some of the\n bazars and see the state of the market.\" So I loaded the stuff on some\n of my slaves and fared forth till I reached the Kaysariyah or Exchange\n of Jah\u00e1rkas;[519] where the brokers who knew of my coming came to meet\n me. They took the stuffs and cried them for sale, but could not get the\n prime cost of them. I was vexed at this, however the Shaykh of the\n brokers said to me, \"O my lord, I will tell thee how thou mayest make a\n profit of thy goods. Thou shouldest do as the merchants do and sell thy\n merchandise at credit for a fixed period, on a contract drawn up by a\n notary and duly witnessed; and employ a Shroff to take thy dues every\n Monday and Thursday. So shalt thou gain two dirhams and more, for every\n one; and thou shalt solace and divert thyself by seeing Cairo and the\n Nile.\" Quoth I, \"This is sound advice,\" and carried the brokers to the\n Khan. They took my stuffs and went with them on 'Change where I sold\n them well taking bonds for the value. These bonds I deposited with a\n Shroff, a banker, who gave me a receipt with which I returned to the\n Khan. Here I stayed a whole month, every morning breaking my fast with\n a cup of wine and making my meals on pigeon's meat, mutton and\n sweetmeats, till the time came when my receipts began to fall due. So,\n every Monday and Thursday I used to go on 'Change and sit in the shop\n of one or other of the merchants, whilst the notary and money-changer\n went round to recover the monies from the traders, till after the time\n of mid-afternoon prayer, when they brought me the amount, and I counted\n it and, sealing the bags, returned with them to the Khan. On a certain\n day which happened to be a Monday,[520] I went to the Hammam and thence\n back to my Khan, and sitting in my own room[521] broke my fast with a\n cup of wine, after which I slept a little. When I awoke I ate a chicken\n and, perfuming my person, repaired to the shop of a merchant hight Badr\n al-Din al-Bost\u00e1ni, or the Gardener,[522] who welcomed me; and we sat\n talking awhile till the bazar should open. Presently, behold, up came a\n lady of stately figure wearing a head-dress of the most magnificent,\n perfumed with the sweetest of scents and walking with graceful swaying\n gait; and seeing me she raised her mantilla allowing me a glimpse of\n her beautiful black eyes. She saluted Badr al-Din who returned her\n salutation and stood up, and talked with her; and the moment I heard\n her speak, the love of her gat hold of my heart. Presently she said to\n Badr al-Din \"Hast thou by thee a cut piece of stuff woven with thread\n of pure gold?\" So he brought out to her a piece from those he had\n bought of me and sold it to her for one thousand two hundred dirhams;\n when she said, \"I will take the piece home with me and send thee its\n price.\" \"That is impossible, O my lady,\" the merchant replied, \"for\n here is the owner of the stuff and I owe him a share of profit.\" \"Fie\n upon thee!\" she cried, \"Do I not use to take from thee entire rolls of\n costly stuff, and give thee a greater profit than thou expectest, and\n send thee the money?\" \"Yes,\" rejoined he; \"but I stand in pressing need\n of the price this very day.\" Hereupon she took up the piece and threw\n it back upon his lap, saying \"Out on thee! Allah confound the tribe of\n you which estimates none at the right value;\" and she turned to go. I\n felt my very soul going with her; so I stood up and stayed her, saying,\n \"I conjure thee by the Lord, O my lady, favour me by retracing thy\n gracious steps.\" She turned back with a smile and said, \"For thy sake I\n return,\" and took a seat opposite me in the shop. Then quoth I to Badr\n al-Din \"What is the price they asked thee for this piece?\"; and quoth\n he, \"Eleven hundred dirhams.\" I rejoined, \"The odd hundred shall be thy\n profit: bring me a sheet of paper and I will write thee a discharge for\n it.\" Then I wrote him a receipt in my own handwriting and gave the\n piece to the lady, saying, \"Take it away with thee and, if thou wilt,\n bring me its price next bazar-day; or better still, accept it as my\n guest-gift to thee.\" \"Allah requite thee with good,\" answered she, \"and\n make thee my husband and lord and master of all I have!\"[523] And Allah\n favoured her prayer. I saw the Gates of Paradise swing open before me\n and said, \"O my lady, let this piece of stuff be now thine and another\n like it is ready for thee; only let me have one look at thy face.\" So\n she raised her veil and I saw a face the sight of which bequeathed to\n me a thousand sighs, and my heart was so captivated by her love that I\n was no longer ruler of my reason. Then she let fall her face-veil and\n taking up the piece of stuff said, \"O my lord make me not desolate by\n thine absence!\" and turned away and disappeared from my sight. I\n remained sitting on 'Change till past the hour of afternoon prayer,\n lost to the world by the love which had mastered me; and the violence\n of my passion compelled me to make enquiries concerning her of the\n merchant, who answered me, \"This is a lady and a rich: she is the\n daughter of a certain Emir who lately died and left her a large\n fortune.\" Then I took leave of him and returned home to the Khan where\n they set supper before me; but I could not eat for thinking of her and\n when I lay down to sleep, sleep came not near me. So I watched till\n morning, when I arose and donned a change of raiment and drank a cup of\n wine; and, after breaking my fast on some slight matter, I went to the\n merchant's shop where I saluted him and sat down by him. Presently up\n came the lady as usual, followed by a slave-girl and wearing a dress\n more sumptuous than before; and she saluted me without noticing Badr\n al-Din and said in fluent graceful speech (never heard I voice softer\n or sweeter), \"Send one with me to take the thousand and two hundred\n dirhams, the price of the piece.\" \"Why this hurry?\" asked I and she\n answered, \"May we never lose thee!\"[524] and handed me the money. Then\n I sat talking with her and presently I signed to her in dumb show,\n whereby she understood that I longed to enjoy her person,[525] and she\n rose up in haste with a show of displeasure. My heart clung to her and\n I went forth from the bazar and followed on her track. As I was walking\n suddenly a black slave-girl stopped me and said, \"O my master, come\n speak with my mistress.\"[526] At this I was surprised and replied,\n \"There is none who knows me here;\" but she rejoined, \"O my lord, how\n soon hast thou forgotten her! My lady is the same who was this day at\n the shop of such a merchant.\" Then I went with her to the Shroff's,\n where I found the lady who drew me to her side and said, \"O my beloved,\n thine image is firmly stamped upon my fancy, and love of thee hath\n gotten hold of my heart: from the hour I first saw thee nor sleep nor\n food nor drink hath given me aught of pleasure.\" I replied, \"The double\n of that suffering is mine and my state dispenseth me from complaint.\"\n Then said she, \"O my beloved, at thy house, or at mine?\" \"I am a\n stranger here and have no place of reception save the Khan, so by thy\n favour it shall be at thy house.\" \"So be it; but this is Friday[527]\n night and nothing can be done till to-morrow after public prayers; go\n to the Mosque and pray; then mount thine ass, and ask for the\n Habb\u00e1niyah[528] quarter; and, when there, look out for the mansion of\n Al-Nakib[529] Barak\u00e1t, popularly known as Abu Sh\u00e1mah the Syndic; for I\n live there: so do not delay as I shall be expecting thee.\" I rejoiced\n with still greater joy at this; and took leave of her and returned to\n my Khan, where I passed a sleepless night. Hardly was I assured that\n morning had dawned when I rose, changed my dress, perfumed myself with\n essences and sweet scents and, taking fifty dinars in a kerchief, went\n from the Khan Masr\u00far to the Zuwaylah[530] gate, where I mounted an ass\n and said to its owner, \"Take me to the Habbaniyah.\" So he set off with\n me and brought up in the twinkling of an eye at a street known as Darb\n al-Munkari, where I said to him, \"Go in and ask for the Syndic's\n mansion.\" He was absent a while and then returned and said, \"Alight.\"\n \"Go thou before me to the house,\" quoth I, adding, \"Come back with the\n earliest light and bring me home;\" and he answered, \"In Allah's name;\"\n whereupon I gave him a quarter-dinar of gold, and he took it and went\n his ways. Then I knocked at the door and out came two white\n slave-girls, both young; high-bosomed virgins, as they were moons, and\n said to me, \"Enter, for our mistress is expecting thee and she hath not\n slept the night long for her delight in thee.\" I passed through the\n vestibule into a saloon with seven doors, floored with particoloured\n marbles and furnished with curtains and hangings of coloured silks: the\n ceiling was _cloisonn\u00e9_ with gold and corniced with inscriptions[531]\n emblazoned in lapis lazuli; and the walls were stuccoed with Sult\u00e1n\u00ed\n gypsum[532] which mirrored the beholder's face. Around the saloon were\n latticed windows overlooking a garden full of all manner of fruits;\n whose streams were railing and rilling and whose birds were trilling\n and shrilling; and in the heart of the hall was a jetting fountain at\n whose corners stood birds fashioned in red gold crusted with pearls and\n gems and spouting water crystal-clear. When I entered and took a\n seat,\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her\n permitted say.\n\n Now when it was the Twenty-Sixth Night,\n\n She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young\n merchant continued, When I entered and took a seat, the lady at once\n came in crowned with a diadem[533] of pearls and jewels; her face\n dotted with artificial moles in indigo,[534] her eyebrows pencilled\n with Kohl and her hands and feet reddened with Henna. When she saw me\n she smiled in my face and took me to her embrace and clasped me to her\n breast; then she put her mouth to my mouth and sucked my tongue[535]\n (and I did likewise) and said, \"Can it be true, O my little darkling,\n thou art come to me?\" adding, \"Welcome and good cheer to thee! By\n Allah, from the day I saw thee sleep hath not been sweet to me nor hath\n food been pleasant.\" Quoth I, \"Such hath also been my case: and I am\n thy slave, thy negro slave.\" Then we sat down to converse and I hung my\n head earthwards in bashfulness, but she delayed not long ere she set\n before me a tray of the most exquisite viands, marinated meats,\n fritters soaked in bee's honey[536] and chickens stuffed with sugar and\n pistachio-nuts, whereof we ate till we were satisfied. Then they\n brought basin and ewer and I washed my hands and we scented ourselves\n with rose-water musk'd and sat down again to converse. So she began\n repeating these couplets:[537]\u2014\n\n Had we wist of thy coming, thy way had been strown\n With the blood of our heart and the balls of our sight:\n Our cheek as a foot-cloth to greet thee been thrown,\n That thy step on our eyelids should softly alight.\n\n And she kept plaining of what had befallen her and I of what had\n betided me; and love of her gat so firm hold of my heart that all\n my wealth seemed a thing of naught in comparison with her. Then we\n fell to toying and groping and kissing till nightfall, when the\n handmaidens set before us meats and a complete wine service, and we\n sat carousing till the noon of night; when we lay down and I lay\n with her, never in my life saw I a night like that night. When\n morning morrowed I arose and took leave of her, throwing under the\n carpet-bed the kerchief wherein were the dinars[538] and as I went\n out she wept and said, \"O my lord, when shall I look upon that\n lovely face again?\" \"I will be with thee at sunset,\" answered I,\n and going out found the donkey-boy, who had brought me the day\n before, awaiting at the door. So I mounted ass and rode to the Khan\n of Masrur where I alighted and gave the man a half-dinar, saying,\n \"Return at sunset;\" and he said \"I will.\" Then I breakfasted and\n went out to seek the price of my stuffs; after which I returned,\n and taking a roast lamb and some sweetmeats, called a porter and\n put the provision in his crate, and sent it to the lady paying the\n man his hire.[539] I went back to my business till sunset, when the\n ass-driver came to me; and I took fifty dinars in a kerchief and\n rode to her house where I found the marble floor swept, the brasses\n burnisht, the branch-lights burning, the wax-candles ready lighted,\n the meat served up and the wine strained.[540] When my lady saw me\n she threw her arms about my neck, and cried, \"Thou hast desolated\n me by thine absence.\" Then she set the tables before me and we ate\n till we were satisfied, when the slave girls carried off the trays\n and served up wine. We gave not over drinking till half the night\n was past; and, being well warmed with drink, we went to the\n sleeping-chamber and lay there till morning. I then arose and fared\n forth from her leaving the fifty dinars with her as before; and,\n finding the donkey-boy at the door, rode to the Khan and slept\n awhile. After that I went out to make ready the evening meal and\n took a brace of geese with gravy on two platters of dressed and\n peppered rice, and got ready colocasia[541]-roots fried and soaked\n in honey, and wax-candles and fruits and conserves and nuts and\n almonds and sweet-scented flowers; and I sent them all to her. As\n soon as it was night I again tied up fifty dinars in a kerchief\n and, mounting the ass as usual, rode to the mansion where we ate\n and drank and lay together till morning when I threw the kerchief\n and dinars[542] to her and rode back to the Khan. I ceased not\n doing after that fashion till, after a sweet night, I woke one fine\n morning and found myself beggared, dinar-less and dirham-less. So\n said I to myself \"All this be Satan's work;\" and began to recite\n these couplets:\u2014\n\n Poverty dims the sheen of man whate'er his wealth has been, \u273f E'en as\n the sun about to set shines with a yellowing light:\n Absent he falls from memory, forgotten by his friends; \u273f Present he\n shareth not their joys for none in him delight:\n He walks the market shunned of all, too glad to hide his head; \u273f In\n desert places tears he sheds and moans his bitter plight:\n By Allah, 'mid his kith and kin a man, however good, \u273f Waylaid by want\n and penury is but a stranger-wight!\n\n I fared forth from the Khan and walked down \"Between the Palaces\"\n street till I came to the Zuwaylah Porte, where I found the people\n crowding and the gateway blocked for the much folk. And by the decree\n of Destiny I saw there a trooper against whom I pressed\n unintentionally, so that my hand came upon his bosom pocket and I felt\n a purse inside it. I looked and seeing a string of green silk hanging\n from the pocket knew it for a purse; and the crush grew greater every\n minute and just then, a camel laden with a load of fuel happened to\n jostle the trooper on the opposite side, and he turned round to fend it\n off from him, lest it tear his clothes; and Satan tempted me, so I\n pulled the string and drew out a little bag of blue silk, containing\n something which chinked like coin. But the soldier, feeling his pocket\n suddenly lightened, put his hand to it and found it empty; whereupon he\n turned to me and, snatching up his mace from his saddle-bow, struck me\n with it on the head. I fell to the ground, whilst the people came round\n us and seizing the trooper's mare by the bridle said to him, \"Strikest\n thou this youth such a blow as this for a mere push!\" But the trooper\n cried out at them, \"This fellow is an accursed thief!\" Whereupon I came\n to myself and stood up, and the people looked at me and said, \"Nay, he\n is a comely youth: he would not steal anything;\" and some of them took\n my part and others were against me and question and answer waxed loud\n and warm. The people pulled at me and would have rescued me from his\n clutches; but as fate decreed behold, the Governor, the Chief of\n Police, and the watch[543] entered the Zuwaylah Gate at this moment\n and, seeing the people gathered together around me and the soldier, the\n Governor asked, \"What is the matter?\" \"By Allah! O Emir,\" answered the\n trooper, \"this is a thief! I had in my pocket a purse of blue silk\n lined with twenty good gold pieces and he took it, whilst I was in the\n crush.\" Quoth the Governor, \"Was any one by thee at the time?\"; and\n quoth the soldier, \"No.\" Thereupon the Governor cried out to the Chief\n of Police who seized me, and on this wise the curtain of the Lord's\n protection was withdrawn from me. Then he said \"Strip him;\" and, when\n they stripped me, they found the purse in my clothes. The Wali took it,\n opened it and counted it; and, finding in it twenty dinars as the\n soldier had said, waxed exceeding wroth and bade his guard bring me\n before him. Then said he to me, \"Now, O youth, speak truly: didst thou\n steal this purse?\"[544] At this I hung my head to the ground and said\n to myself, \"If I deny having stolen it, I shall get myself into\n terrible trouble.\" So I raised my head and said, \"Yes, I took it.\" When\n the Governor heard these words he wondered and summoned witnesses who\n came forward and attested my confession. All this happened at the\n Zuwaylah Gate. Then the Governor ordered the link-bearer to cut off my\n right hand, and he did so; after which he would have struck off my left\n foot also; but the heart of the soldier softened and he took pity on me\n and interceded for me with the Governor that I should not be\n slain.[545] Thereupon the Wali left me, and went away and the folk\n remained round me and gave me a cup of wine to drink. As for the\n trooper he pressed the purse upon me, and said, \"Thou art a comely\n youth and it befitteth not thou be a thief.\" So I repeated these\n verses:\u2014\n\n I swear by Allah's name, fair sir! no thief was I, \u273f Nor, O thou best\n of men! was I a bandit bred:\n But Fortune's change and chance o'erthrew me suddenly, \u273f And cark and\n care and penury my course misled:\n I shot it not, indeed, 'twas Allah shot the shaft \u273f That rolled in dust\n the Kingly diadem from my head.[546]\n\n The soldier turned away after giving me the purse; and I also went my\n ways having wrapped my hand in a piece of rag and thrust it into my\n bosom. My whole semblance had changed, and my colour had waxed yellow\n from the shame and pain which had befallen me. Yet I went on to my\n mistress's house where, in extreme perturbation of spirit I threw\n myself down on the carpet-bed.\n\n She saw me in this state and asked me, \"What aileth thee and why do I\n see thee so changed in looks?\"; and I answered, \"My head paineth me and\n I am far from well.\" Whereupon she was vexed and was concerned on my\n account and said, \"Burn not my heart, O my lord, but sit up and raise\n thy head and recount to me what hath happened to thee to-day, for thy\n face tells me a tale.\" \"Leave this talk,\" replied I. But she wept and\n said, \"Meseems thou art tired of me, for I see thee contrary to thy\n wont.\" But I was silent; and she kept on talking to me albeit I gave\n her no answer, till night came on. Then she set food before me, but I\n refused it fearing lest she see me eating with my left hand and said to\n her, \"I have no stomach to eat at present.\" Quoth she, \"Tell me what\n hath befallen thee to-day, and why art thou so sorrowful and broken in\n spirit and heart?\" Quoth I, \"Wait awhile; I will tell thee all at my\n leisure.\" Then she brought me wine, saying, \"Down with it, this will\n dispel thy grief: thou must indeed drink and tell me of thy tidings.\" I\n asked her, \"Perforce must I tell thee?\"; and she answered, \"Yes.\" Then\n said I, \"If it needs must be so, then give me to drink with thine own\n hand.\" She filled and drank,[547] and filled again and gave me the cup\n which I took from her with my left hand and wiped the tears from my\n eyelids and began repeating:\u2014\n\n When Allah willeth aught befal a man \u273f Who hath of ears and eyes and\n wits full share;\n His ears He deafens and his eyes He blinds \u273f And draws his wits e'en as\n we draw a hair[548]\n Till, having wrought His purpose, He restores \u273f Man's wits, that warned\n more circumspect he fare.\n\n When I ended my verses I wept, and she cried out with an exceeding loud\n cry, \"What is the cause of thy tears? Thou burnest my heart! What makes\n thee take the cup with thy left hand?\" Quoth I, \"Truly I have on my\n right hand a boil;\" and quoth she, \"Put it out and I will open it for\n thee.\"[549] \"It is not yet time to open it,\" I replied, \"So worry me\n not with thy words, for I will not take it out of the bandage at this\n hour.\" Then I drank off the cup, and she gave not over plying me with\n drink until drunkenness overcame me and I fell asleep in the place\n where I was sitting; whereupon she looked at my right hand and saw a\n wrist without a fist. So she searched me closely and found with me the\n purse of gold and my severed hand wrapped up in the bit of rag.[550]\n With this such sorrow came upon her as never overcame any and she\n ceased not lamenting on my account till the morning. When I awoke I\n found that she had dressed me a dish of broth of four boiled chickens,\n which she brought to me together with a cup of wine. I ate and drank\n and laying down the purse, would have gone out; but she said to me,\n \"Whither away?\"; and I answered, \"Where my business calleth me;\" and\n said she, \"Thou shalt not go: sit thee down.\" So I sat down and she\n resumed, \"Hath thy love for me so overpowered thee that thou hast\n wasted all thy wealth and hast lost thine hand on my account? I take\n thee to witness against me and also Allah be my witness that I will\n never part with thee, but will die under thy feet; and soon thou shalt\n see that my words are true.\" Then she sent for the Kazi and witnesses\n and said to them, \"Write my contract of marriage with this young man,\n and bear ye witness that I have received the marriage-settlement.\"[551]\n When they had drawn up the document she said, \"Be witness that all my\n monies which are in this chest and all I have in slaves and handmaidens\n and other property is given in free gift to this young man.\" So they\n took act of this statement enabling me to assume possession in right of\n marriage; and then withdrew, after receiving their fees. Thereupon she\n took me by the hand and, leading me to a closet, opened a large chest\n and said to me, \"See what is herein;\" and I looked and behold, it was\n full of kerchiefs. Quoth she, \"This is the money I had from thee and\n every kerchief thou gavest me, containing fifty dinars, I wrapped up\n and cast into this chest; so now take thine own, for it returns to\n thee, and this day thou art become of high estate. Fortune and Fate\n afflicted thee so that thou didst lose thy right hand for my sake; and\n I can never requite thee; nay, although I gave my life 'twere but\n little and I should still remain thy debtor.\" Then she added, \"Take\n charge of thy property;\" so I transferred the contents of her chest to\n my chest, and added my wealth to her wealth which I had given her, and\n my heart was eased and my sorrow ceased. I stood up and kissed her and\n thanked her; and she said, \"Thou hast given thy hand for love of me and\n how am I able to give thee an equivalent? By Allah, if I offered my\n life for thy love, it were indeed but little and would not do justice\n to thy claim upon me.\" Then she made over to me by deed all that she\n possessed in clothes and ornaments of gold and pearls, and goods and\n farms and chattels, and lay not down to sleep that night, being sorely\n grieved for my grief, till I told her the whole of what had befallen\n me. I passed the night with her. But before we had lived together a\n month's time she fell sorely sick and illness increased upon her, by\n reason of her grief for the loss of my hand, and she endured but fifty\n days before she was numbered among the folk of futurity and heirs of\n immortality. So I laid her out and buried her body in mother earth and\n let make a pious perlection of the Koran[552] for the health of her\n soul, and gave much money in alms for her; after which I turned me from\n the grave and returned to the house. There I found that she had left\n much substance in ready money and slaves, mansions, lands and domains,\n and among her storehouses was a granary of sesame-seed, whereof I sold\n part to thee; and I had neither time nor inclination to take count with\n thee till I had sold the rest of the stock in store; nor, indeed, even\n now have I made an end of receiving the price. So I desire thou baulk\n me not in what I am about to say to thee: twice have I eaten of thy\n food and I wish to give thee as a present the monies for the sesame\n which are by thee. Such is the cause of the cutting of my right hand\n and my eating with my left. \"Indeed,\" said I, \"thou hast shown me the\n utmost kindness and liberality.\" Then he asked me, \"Why shouldst thou\n not travel with me to my native country whither I am about to return\n with Cairene and Alexandrian stuffs? Say me, wilt thou accompany me?;\"\n and I answered \"I will.\" So I agreed to go with him at the head of the\n month, and I sold all I had and bought other merchandise; then we set\n out and travelled, I and the young man, to this country of yours, where\n he sold his venture and bought other investment of country stuffs and\n continued his journey to Egypt. But it was my lot to abide here, so\n that these things befel me in my strangerhood which befel last night,\n and is not this tale, O King of the age, more wondrous and marvellous\n than the story of the Hunchback? \"Not so,\" quoth the King, \"I cannot\n accept it: there is no help for it but that you be hanged, every one of\n you.\"\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day, and ceased saying her\n permitted say.\n\n Now when it was the Twenty-seventh Night,\n\n She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the King of\n China declared \"There is no help for it but that you be hanged,\" the\n Reeve of the Sultan's Kitchen came forward and said, \"If thou permit me\n I will tell thee a tale of what befel me just before I found this\n Gobbo; and, if it be more wondrous than his story, do thou grant us our\n lives.\" And when the King answered \"Yes\" he began to recount\n\n\n _THE REEVE'S TALE._\n\n Know, O King, that last night I was at a party where they made a\n perlection of the Koran and got together doctors of law and religion\n skilled in recitation and intoning; and, when the readers ended, the\n table was spread and amongst other things they set before us was a\n marinated ragout[553] flavoured with cumin-seed. So we sat down, but\n one of our number held back and refused to touch it. We conjured him to\n eat of it but he swore he would not; and, when we again pressed him, he\n said, \"Be not instant with me; sufficeth me that which hath already\n befallen me through eating it\"; and he began reciting:\u2014\n\n Shoulder thy tray and go straight to thy goal; \u273f And, if suit thee this\n Kohl, why,\u2014use this Kohl![554]\n\n When he ended his verse we said to him, \"Allah upon thee, tell us thy\n reason for refusing to eat of the cumin-ragout?\" \"If so it be,\" he\n replied, \"and needs must I eat of it, I will not do so except I wash my\n hand forty times with soap, forty times with potash and forty times\n with galangale,[555] the total being one hundred and twenty washings.\"\n Thereupon the hospitable host bade his slaves bring water and whatso he\n required; and the young man washed his hand as afore mentioned. Then he\n sat down, as if disgusted and frightened withal, and dipping his hand\n in the ragout, began eating and at the same time showing signs of\n anger. And we wondered at him with extreme wonderment, for his hand\n trembled and the morsel in it shook and we saw that his thumb had been\n cut off and he ate with his four fingers only. So we said to him,\n \"Allah upon thee, what happened to thy thumb? Is thy hand thus by the\n creation of God or hath some accident befallen it?\" \"O my brothers,\" he\n answered, \"it is not only thus with this thumb, but also with my other\n thumb and with both my great toes, as you shall see.\" So saying he\n uncovered his left hand and his feet, and we saw that the left hand was\n even as the right and in like manner that each of his feet lacked its\n great toe. When we saw him after this fashion, our amazement waxed\n still greater and we said to him, \"We have hardly patience enough to\n await thy history and to hear the manner of the cutting off of thy\n thumbs, and the reason of thy washing both hands one hundred and twenty\n times.\" Know then, said he, that my father was chief of the merchants\n and the wealthiest of them all in Baghdad-city during the reign of the\n Caliph Harun al-Rashid; and he was much given to wine-drinking and\n listening to the lute and the other instruments of pleasaunce; so that\n when he died he left nothing. I buried him and had perlections of the\n Koran made for him, and mourned for him days and nights: then I opened\n his shop and found that he had left in it few goods, while his debts\n were many. However I compounded with his creditors for time to settle\n their demands and betook myself to buying and selling, paying them\n something from week to week on account; and I gave not over doing this\n till I had cleared off his obligations in full and began adding to my\n principal. One day, as I sat in my shop, suddenly and unexpectedly\n there appeared before me a young lady, than whom I never saw a fairer,\n wearing the richest raiment and ornaments and riding a she mule, with\n one negro-slave walking before her and another behind her. She drew\n rein at the head of the exchange-bazar and entered followed by an\n eunuch who said to her, \"O my lady come out and away without telling\n any one, lest thou light a fire which will burn us all up.\" Moreover he\n stood before her guarding her from view whilst she looked at the\n merchants' shops. She found none open but mine; so she came up with the\n eunuch behind her and sitting down in my shop saluted me; never heard I\n aught fairer than her speech or sweeter than her voice. Then she\n unveiled her face, and I saw that she was like the moon and I stole a\n glance at her whose sight caused me a thousand sighs, and my heart was\n captivated with love of her, and I kept looking again and again upon\n her face repeating these verses:\u2014\n\n Say to the charmer in the dove-hued veil, \u273f Death would be welcome to\n abate thy bale!\n Favour me with thy favours that I live: \u273f See, I stretch forth my palm\n to take thy vail!\n\n When she heard my verse she answered me saying:\u2014\n\n I've lost all patience by despite of you; \u273f My heart knows nothing save\n love-plight to you!\n If aught I sight save charms so bright of you; \u273f My parting end not in\n the sight of you!\n I swear I'll ne'er forget the right of you; \u273f And fain this breast\n would soar to height of you:\n You made me drain the love-cup, and I lief \u273f A love-cup tender for\n delight of you:\n Take this my form where'er you go, and when \u273f You die, entomb me in the\n site of you:\n Call on me in my grave, and hear my bones \u273f Sigh their responses to the\n shright of you:\n And were I asked \"Of God what wouldst thou see?\" \u273f I answer, \"first His\n will then Thy decree!\"\n\n When she ended her verse she asked me, \"O youth, hast thou any fair\n stuffs by thee?\"; and I answered, \"O my lady, thy slave is poor; but\n have patience till the merchants open their shops, and I will suit thee\n with what thou wilt.\" Then we sat talking, I and she (and I was drowned\n in the sea of her love, dazed in the desert[556] of my passion for\n her), till the merchants opened their shops; when I rose and fetched\n her all she sought to the tune of five thousand dirhams. She gave the\n stuff to the eunuch and, going forth by the door of the Exchange, she\n mounted mule and went away, without telling me whence she came, and I\n was ashamed to speak of such trifle. When the merchants dunned me for\n the price, I made myself answerable for five thousand dirhams and went\n home, drunken with the love of her. They set supper before me and I ate\n a mouthful, thinking only of her beauty and loveliness, and sought to\n sleep, but sleep came not to me. And such was my condition for a whole\n week, when the merchants required their monies of me, but I persuaded\n them to have patience for another week, at the end of which time she\n again appeared mounted on a she-mule and attended by her eunuch and two\n slaves. She saluted me and said, \"O my master, we have been long in\n bringing thee the price of the stuffs; but now fetch the Shroff and\n take thy monies.\" So I sent for the money-changer and the eunuch\n counted out the coin before him and made it over to me. Then we sat\n talking, I and she, till the market opened, when she said to me, \"Get\n me this and that.\" So I got her from the merchants whatso she wanted,\n and she took it and went away without saying a word to me about the\n price. As soon as she was out of sight, I repented me of what I had\n done; for the worth of the stuffs bought for her amounted to a thousand\n dinars, and I said in my soul, \"What manner of love is this? She hath\n brought me five thousand dirhams, and hath taken goods for a thousand\n dinars.\"[557] I feared lest I should be beggared through having to pay\n the merchants their money, and I said, \"They know none other but me;\n this lovely lady is naught but a cheat and a swindler, who hath diddled\n me with her beauty and grace; for she saw that I was a mere youth and\n laughed at me for not asking her address. I ceased not to be troubled\n by these doubts and fears, as she was absent more than a month, till\n the merchants pestered me for their money and were so hard upon me that\n I put up my property for sale and stood on the very brink of ruin.\"\n However, as I was sitting in my shop one day, drowned in melancholy\n musings, she suddenly rode up and, dismounting at the bazar-gate, came\n straight towards me. When I saw her all my cares fell from me and I\n forgot every trouble. She came close up to me and greeted me with her\n sweet voice and pleasant speech and presently said, \"Fetch me the\n Shroff and weigh thy money.[558]\" So she gave me the price of what\n goods I had gotten for her and more, and fell to talking freely with\n me, till I was like to die of joy and delight. Presently she asked me,\n \"Hast thou a wife?\"; and I answered \"No, indeed: I have never known\n woman\"; and began to shed tears. Quoth she \"Why weepest thou?\" Quoth I\n \"It is nothing!\" Then giving the eunuch some of the gold pieces, I\n begged him to be go-between[559] in the matter; but he laughed and\n said, \"She is more in love with thee than thou with her: she hath no\n occasion for the stuffs she hath bought of thee and did all this only\n for the love of thee; so ask of her what thou wilt and she will deny\n thee nothing.\" When she saw me giving the dinars to the eunuch, she\n returned and sat down again; and I said to her, \"Be charitable to thy\n slave and pardon him what he is about to say.\" Then I told her what was\n in my mind and she assented and said to the eunuch, \"Thou shalt carry\n my message to him,\" adding to me, \"And do thou whatso the eunuch\n biddeth thee.\" Then she got up and went away, and I paid the merchants\n their monies and they all profited; but as for me, regret at the\n breaking off of our intercourse was all my gain; and I slept not the\n whole of that night. However, before many days passed her eunuch came\n to me, and I entreated him honourably and asked him after his mistress.\n \"Truly she is sick with love of thee,\" he replied and I rejoined, \"Tell\n me who and what she is.\" Quoth he, \"The Lady Zubaydah, queen-consort of\n Harun al-Rashid, bought her up as a rearling[560] and hath advanced her\n to be stewardess of the Harim, and gave her the right of going in and\n out of her own sweet will. She spoke to her lady of thee and begged her\n to marry her to thee; but she said:\u2014I will not do this, till I see the\n young man; and, if he be worthy of thee, I will marry thee to him. So\n now we look for the moment to smuggle thee into the Palace and if thou\n succeed in entering privily thou wilt win thy wish to wed her; but if\n the affair get wind, the Lady Zubaydah will strike off thy head.[561]\n What sayest thou to this?\" I answered, \"I will go with thee and abide\n the risk whereof thou speakest.\" Then said he, \"As soon as it is night,\n go to the Mosque built by the Lady Zubaydah on the Tigris and pray the\n night-prayers and sleep there.\" \"With love and gladness,\" cried I. So\n at nightfall I repaired to the Mosque, where I prayed and passed the\n night. With earliest dawn, behold, came sundry eunuchs in a skiff with\n a number of empty chests which they deposited in the Mosque, then all\n of them went their ways but one, and looking curiously at him, I saw he\n was our go-between. Presently in came the handmaiden, my mistress,\n walking straight up to us; and I rose to her and embraced her while she\n kissed me and shed tears.[562] We talked awhile; after which she made\n me get into one of the chests which she locked upon me. Presently the\n other eunuchs came back with a quantity of packages and she fell to\n stowing them in the chests, which she locked down, one by one, till all\n were shut. When all was done the eunuchs embarked the chests in the\n boat and made for the Lady Zubaydah's palace. With this, thought began\n to beset me and I said to myself, \"Verily thy lust and wantonness will\n be the death of thee; and the question is after all shalt thou win to\n thy wish or not?\" And I began to weep, boxed up as I was in the box and\n suffering from cramp; and I prayed Allah that He deliver me from the\n dangerous strait I was in, whilst the boat gave not over going on till\n it reached the Palace-gate where they lifted out the chests and amongst\n them that in which I was. Then they carried them in, passing through a\n troop of eunuchs, guardians of the Harim and of the ladies behind the\n curtain, till they came to the post of the Eunuch-in-Chief[563] who\n started up from his slumbers and shouted to the damsel \"What is in\n those chests?\" \"They are full of wares for the Lady Zubaydah!\" \"Open\n them, one by one, that I may see what is in them.\" \"And wherefore\n wouldst thou open them?\" \"Give me no words and exceed not in talk!\n these chests must and shall be opened.\" So saying, he sprang to his\n feet, and the first which they brought to him to open was that wherein\n I was; and, when I felt his hands upon it, my senses failed me and I\n bepissed myself in my funk, the water running out of the box. Then said\n she to the Eunuch-in-Chief, \"O steward! thou wilt cause me to be killed\n and thyself too, for thou hast damaged goods worth ten thousand dinars.\n This chest contains coloured dresses, and four gallon flasks of Zemzem\n water;[564] and now one of them hath got unstoppered and the water is\n running out over the clothes and it will spoil their colours.\" The\n eunuch answered, \"Take up thy boxes and get thee gone to the curse of\n God!\" So the slaves carried off all the chests, including mine; and\n hastened on with them till suddenly I heard the voice of one saying,\n \"Alack, and alack! the Caliph! the Caliph!\" When that cry struck mine\n ears I died in my skin and said a saying which never yet shamed the\n sayer, \"There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the\n Glorious, the Great! I and only I have brought this calamity upon\n myself.\" Presently I heard the Caliph say to my mistress, \"A plague on\n thee, what is in those boxes?\"; and she answered, \"Dresses for the Lady\n Zubaydah\";[565] whereupon he, \"Open them before me!\" When I heard this\n I died my death outright and said to myself, \"By Allah, to-day is the\n very last of my days in this world: if I come safe out of this I am to\n marry her and no more words, but detection stares me in the face and my\n head is as good as stricken off.\" Then I repeated the profession of\n Faith, saying, \"There is no god but _the_ God, and Mohammed is the\n Apostle of God!\"\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to\n say her permitted say.\n\n Now when it was the Twenty-Eighth Night,\n\n She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young\n merchant continued as follows: Now when I testified, \"I bear witness\n that there is no god save _the_ God, I heard my mistress the handmaid\n declare to the Caliph, \"These chests, O Commander of the Faithful, have\n been committed to my charge by the Lady Zubaydah, and she doth not wish\n their contents to be seen by any one.\" \"No matter!\" quoth the Caliph,\n \"needs must they be opened, I _will_ see what is in them\"; and he cried\n aloud to the eunuchs, \"Bring the chests here before me.\" At this I made\n sure of death (without benefit of a doubt) and swooned away. Then the\n eunuchs brought the chests up to him one after another and he fell to\n inspecting the contents, but he saw in them only ottars and stuffs and\n fine dresses; and they ceased not opening the chests and he ceased not\n looking to see what was in them, finding only clothes and such matters,\n till none remained unopened but the box in which I was boxed. They put\n forth their hands to open it, but my mistress the handmaid made haste\n and said to the Caliph, \"This one thou shalt see only in the presence\n of the Lady Zubaydah, for that which is in it is her secret.\" When he\n heard this he gave orders to carry in the chests; so they took up that\n wherein I was and bore it with the rest into the Harim and set it down\n in the midst of the saloon; and indeed my spittle was dried up for very\n fear.[566] Then my mistress opened the box and took me out, saying,\n \"Fear not: no harm shall betide thee now nor dread; but broaden thy\n breast and strengthen thy heart and sit thee down till the Lady\n Zubaydah come, and surely thou shalt win thy wish of me.\" So I sat down\n and, after a while, in came ten handmaidens, virgins like moons, and\n ranged themselves in two rows, five facing five; and after them twenty\n other damsels, high-bosomed virginity, surrounding the Lady Zubaydah\n who could hardly walk for the weight of her raiment and ornaments. As\n she drew near, the slave-girls dispersed from around her, and I\n advanced and kissed the ground between her hands. She signed to me to\n sit and, when I sat down before her chair, she began questioning me of\n my forbears and family and condition, to which I made such answers that\n pleased her, and she said to my mistress, \"Our nurturing of thee, O\n damsel, hath not disappointed us.\" Then she said to me, \"Know that this\n handmaiden is to us even as our own child and she is a trust committed\n to thee by Allah.\" I again kissed the ground before her, well pleased\n that I should marry my mistress, and she bade me abide ten days in the\n palace. So I abode there ten days, during which time I saw not my\n mistress nor any body save one of the concubines, who brought me the\n morning and evening meals. After this the Lady Zubaydah took counsel\n with the Caliph on the marriage of her favourite handmaid, and he gave\n leave and assigned to her a wedding portion of ten thousand gold\n pieces. So the Lady Zubaydah sent for the Kazi and witnesses who wrote\n our marriage-contract, after which the women made ready sweetmeats and\n rich viands and distributed them among all the Odahs[567] of the Harim.\n Thus they did other ten days, at the end of which time my mistress went\n to the baths.[568] Meanwhile, they set before me a tray of food whereon\n were various meats and among those dishes, which were enough to daze\n the wits, was a bowl of cumin-ragout containing chickens' breasts,\n fricandoed[569] and flavoured with sugar, pistachios, musk and\n rose-water. Then, by Allah, fair sirs, I did not long hesitate; but\n took my seat before the ragout and fell to and ate of it till I could\n no more. After this I wiped my hands, but forgot to wash them; and sat\n till it grew dark, when the wax-candles were lighted and the singing\n women came in with their tambourines and proceeded to display the bride\n in various dresses and to carry her in procession from room to room all\n round the palace, getting their palms crossed with gold. Then they\n brought her to me and disrobed her. When I found myself alone with her\n on the bed I embraced her, hardly believing in our union; but she smelt\n the strong odours of the ragout upon my hands and forthwith cried out\n with an exceeding loud cry, at which the slave-girls came running to\n her from all sides. I trembled with alarm, unknowing what was the\n matter, and the girls asked her, \"What aileth thee, O our sister?\" She\n answered them, \"Take this madman away from me: I had thought he was a\n man of sense!\" Quoth I to her, \"What makes thee think me mad?\" Quoth\n she, \"Thou madman! what made thee eat of cumin-ragout and forget to\n wash thy hand? By Allah, I will requite thee for thy misconduct. Shall\n the like of thee come to bed with the like of me with unclean\n hands?[570]\" Then she took from her side a plaited scourge and came\n down with it on my back and the place where I sit till her forearms\n were benumbed and I fainted away from the much beating; when she said\n to the handmaids, \"Take him and carry him to the Chief of Police, that\n he may strike off the hand wherewith he ate of the cumin-ragout, and\n which he did not wash.\" When I heard this I said, \"There is no Majesty\n and there is no Might save in Allah! Wilt thou cut off my hand, because\n I ate of a cumin-ragout and did not wash?\" The handmaidens also\n interceded with her and kissed her hand saying, \"O our sister, this man\n is a simpleton, punish him not for what he hath done this nonce;\" but\n she answered, \"By Allah, there is no help but that I dock him of\n somewhat, especially the offending member.\" Then she went away and I\n saw no more of her for ten days, during which time she sent me meat and\n drink by a slave-girl who told me that she had fallen sick from the\n smell of the cumin-ragout. After that time she came to me and said, \"O\n black of face[571]! I will teach thee how to eat cumin-ragout without\n washing thy hands!\" Then she cried out to the handmaids, who pinioned\n me; and she took a sharp razor and cut off my thumbs and great toes;\n even as you see, O fair assembly! Thereupon I swooned away, and she\n sprinkled some powder of healing herbs upon the stumps and when the\n blood was staunched, I said, \"Never again will I eat of cumin-ragout\n without washing my hands forty times with potash and forty times with\n galangale and forty times with soap!\" And she took of me an oath and\n bound me by a covenant to that effect. When, therefore, you brought me\n the cumin-ragout my colour changed and I said to myself, \"It was this\n very dish that caused the cutting off of my thumbs and great toes;\"\n and, when you forced me, I said, \"Needs must I fulfil the oath I have\n sworn.\" \"And what befel thee after this?\" asked those present; and he\n answered, When I swore to her, her anger was appeased and I slept with\n her that night. We abode thus awhile till she said to me one day,\n \"Verily the Palace of the Caliph is not a pleasant place for us to live\n in, and none ever entered it save thyself; and thou only by grace of\n the Lady Zubaydah. Now she hath given me fifty thousand dinars,\"\n adding, \"Take this money and go out and buy us a fair dwelling-house.\"\n So I fared forth and bought a fine and spacious mansion, whither she\n removed all the wealth she owned and what riches I had gained in stuffs\n and costly rarities. Such is the cause of the cutting off of my thumbs\n and great toes.\" We ate, (continued the Reeve) and were returning to\n our homes when there befel me with the Hunchback that thou wottest of.\n\n This then is my story, and peace be with thee! Quoth the King, \"This\n story is on no wise more delectable than the story of the Hunchback;\n nay, it is even less so, and there is no help for the hanging of the\n whole of you.\" Then came forward the Jewish physician and kissing the\n ground said, \"O King of the age, I will tell thee an history more\n wonderful than that of the Hunchback.\" \"Tell on,\" said the King of\n China; so he began the\n\n\n _TALE OF THE JEWISH DOCTOR._\n\n Right marvellous was a matter which came to pass to me in my youth. I\n lived in Damascus of Syria studying my art and, one day, as I was\n sitting at home behold, there came to me a Mameluke from the household\n of the S\u00e1hib and said to me, \"Speak with my lord!\" So I followed him to\n the Viceroy's house and, entering the great hall, saw at its head a\n couch of cedar plated with gold whereon lay a sickly youth beautiful\n withal; fairer than he one could not see. I sat down by his head and\n prayed to Heaven for a cure; and he made me a sign with his eyes, so I\n said to him, \"O my lord! favour me with thy hand, and safety be with\n thee!\"[572] Then he put forth his left hand and I marvelled thereat and\n said, \"By Allah, strange that this handsome youth, the son of a great\n house, should so lack good manners. This can be nothing but pride and\n conceit!\" However I felt his pulse and wrote him a prescription and\n continued to visit him for ten days, at the end of which time he\n recovered and went to the Hammam,[573] whereupon the Viceroy gave me a\n handsome dress of honour and appointed me superintendent of the\n hospital which is in Damascus.[574] I accompanied him to the baths, the\n whole of which they had kept private for his accommodation; and the\n servants came in with him and took off his clothes within the bath, and\n when he was stripped I saw that his right hand had been newly cut off,\n and this was the cause of his weakliness. At this I was amazed and\n grieved for him: then, looking at his body, I saw on it the scars of\n scourge-stripes whereto he had applied unguents. I was troubled at the\n sight and my concern appeared in my face. The young man looked at me\n and, comprehending the matter, said, \"O Physician of the age, marvel\n not at my case; I will tell thee my story as soon as we quit the\n baths.\" Then we washed and, returning to his house, ate somewhat of\n food and took rest awhile; after which he asked me, \"What sayest thou\n to solacing thee by inspecting the supper-hall\"; and I answered \"So let\n it be.\" Thereupon he ordered the slaves to carry out the carpets and\n cushions required and roast a lamb and bring us some fruit. They did\n his bidding and we ate together, he using the left hand for the\n purpose. After a while I said to him, \"Now tell me thy tale.\" \"O\n Physician of the age,\" replied he, \"Hear what befel me. Know that I am\n of the sons of Mosul, where my grandfather died leaving nine children\n of whom my father was the eldest. All grew up and took to them wives,\n but none of them was blessed with offspring except my father, to whom\n Providence vouchsafed me. So I grew up amongst my uncles who rejoiced\n in me with exceeding joy, till I came to man's estate. One day which\n happened to be a Friday, I went to the Cathedral-mosque of Mosul with\n my father and my uncles, and we prayed the congregational prayers,\n after which the folk went forth, except my father and uncles, who sat\n talking of wondrous things in foreign parts and the marvellous sights\n of strange cities. At last they mentioned Egypt, and one of my uncles\n said, \"Travellers tell us that there is not on earth's face aught\n fairer than Cairo and her Nile;\" and these words made me long to see\n Cairo. Quoth my father, \"Whoso hath not seen Cairo hath not seen the\n world. Her dust is golden and her Nile a miracle holden; and her women\n are as Houris fair; puppets, beautiful pictures; her houses are palaces\n rare; her water is sweet and light[575] and her mud a commodity and a\n medicine beyond compare, even as said the poet in this his poetry:\u2014\n\n The Nile[576]-flood this day is the gain you own; \u273f You alone in such\n gain and bounties wone:\n The Nile is my tear-flood of severance, \u273f And here none is forlorn but\n I alone.\n\n Moreover temperate is her air, and with fragrance blent, which\n surpasseth aloes-wood in scent; and how should it be otherwise, she\n being the Mother of the World? And Allah favour him who wrote these\n lines:\u2014\n\n An I quit Cairo and her pleasaunces, \u273f Where can I wend to find so\n gladsome ways?\n Shall I desert that site, whose grateful scents \u273f Joy every soul and\n call for loudest praise?\n Where every palace, as another Eden, \u273f Carpets and cushions richly\n wrought displays;\n A city wooing sight and sprite to glee, \u273f Where Saint meets Sinner and\n each 'joys his craze;\n Where friend meets friend, by Providence united \u273f In greeny garden and\n in palmy maze:\n People of Cairo, an by Allah's doom \u273f I fare, with you in thoughts I\n wone always!\n Whisper not Cairo in the ear of Zephyr, \u273f Lest for her like of garden\n scents he reave her.[577]\n\n And if your eyes saw her earth, and the adornment thereof with bloom,\n and the purfling of it with all manner blossoms, and the islands of the\n Nile and how much is therein of wide-spread and goodly prospect, and if\n you bent your sight upon the Abyssinian Pond[578], your glance would\n not revert from the scene quit of wonder; for nowhere would you behold\n the fellow of that lovely view; and, indeed, the two arms of the Nile\n embrace most luxuriant verdure[579], as the white of the eye\n encompasseth its black or like filagree'd silver surrounding\n chrysolites. And divinely gifted was the poet who thereanent said these\n couplets:\u2014\n\n By th' Abyssinian Pond, O day divine! \u273f In morning twilight and in\n sunny shine:\n The water prisoned in its verdurous walls, \u273f Like sabre flashes before\n shrinking eyne:\n And in The Garden sat we while it drains \u273f Slow draught, with purfled\n sides dyed finest fine:\n The stream is rippled by the hands of clouds; \u273f We too, a-rippling, on\n our rugs recline,\n Passing pure wine, and whoso leaves us there \u273f Shall ne'er arise from\n fall his woes design:\n Draining long draughts from large and brimming bowls, \u273f Administ'ring\n thirst's only medicine\u2014wine.\n\n And what is there to compare with the Rasad, the Observatory, and its\n charms whereof every viewer as he approacheth saith:\u2014\"Verily this spot\n is specialised with all manner of excellence! And if thou speak of the\n Night of Nile-full,[580] give the rainbow and distribute it![581] And\n if thou behold The Garden at eventide, with the cool shades sloping far\n and wide, a marvel thou wouldst see and wouldst incline to Egypt in\n ecstacy. And wert thou by Cairo's river side,[582] when the sun is\n sinking and the stream dons mail-coat and habergeon[583] over its other\n vestments, thou wouldst be quickened to new life by its gentle zephyrs\n and by its all-sufficient shade.\" So spake he and the rest fell to\n describing Egypt and her Nile. As I heard their accounts, my thoughts\n dwelt upon the subject and when, after talking their fill, all arose\n and went their ways, I lay down to sleep that night, but sleep came not\n because of my violent longing for Egypt; and neither meat pleased me\n nor drink. After a few days my uncles equipped themselves for a\n trade-journey to Egypt; and I wept before my father till he made ready\n for me fitting merchandise, and he consented to my going with them,\n saying however, \"Let him not enter Cairo, but leave him to sell his\n wares at Damascus.\" So I took leave of my father and we fared forth\n from Mosul and gave not over travelling till we reached Aleppo[584]\n where we halted certain days. Then we marched onwards till we made\n Damascus and we found her a city as though she were a Paradise,\n abounding in trees and streams and birds and fruits of all kinds. We\n alighted at one of the Khans, where my uncles tarried awhile selling\n and buying; and they bought and sold also on my account, each dirham\n turning a profit of five on prime cost, which pleased me mightily.\n After this they left me alone and set their faces Egyptwards; whilst I\n abode at Damascus, where I had hired from a jeweller, for two dinars a\n month, a mansion[585] whose beauties would beggar the tongue. Here I\n remained, eating and drinking and spending what monies I had in hand\n till, one day, as I was sitting at the door of my house behold, there\n came up a young lady clad in costliest raiment\u2014never saw my eyes\n richer. I winked[586] at her and she stepped inside without hesitation\n and stood within. I entered with her and shut the door upon myself and\n her; whereupon she raised her face-veil and threw off her mantilla,\n when I found her like a pictured moon of rare and marvellous\n loveliness; and love of her gat hold of my heart. So I rose and brought\n a tray of the most delicate eatables and fruits and whatso befitted the\n occasion, and we ate and played and after that we drank till the wine\n turned our heads. Then I lay with her the sweetest of nights and in the\n morning I offered her ten gold pieces; when her face lowered and her\n eyebrows wrinkled and shaking with wrath she cried, \"Fie upon thee, O\n my sweet companion! dost thou deem that I covet thy money?\" Then she\n took out from the bosom of her shift[587] fifteen dinars and, laying\n them before me, said, \"By Allah! unless thou take them I will never\n come back to thee.\" So I accepted them and she said to me, \"O my\n beloved! expect me again in three days' time, when I will be with thee\n between sunset and supper-tide; and do thou prepare for us with these\n dinars the same entertainment as yesternight.\" So saying, she took\n leave of me and went away and all my senses went with her. On the third\n day she came again, clad in stuff weft with gold wire, and wearing\n raiment and ornaments finer than before. I had prepared the place for\n her ere she arrived and the repast was ready; so we ate and drank and\n lay together, as we had done, till the morning, when she gave me other\n fifteen gold pieces and promised to come again after three days.\n Accordingly, I made ready for her and, at the appointed time, she\n presented herself more richly dressed than on the first and second\n occasion, and said to me, \"O my lord, am I not beautiful?\" \"Yea, by\n Allah thou art!\" answered I, and she went on, \"Wilt thou allow me to\n bring with me a young lady fairer than I, and younger in years, that\n she may play with us and thou and she may laugh and make merry and\n rejoice her heart, for she hath been very sad this long time past, and\n hath asked me to take her out and let her spend the night abroad with\n me?\" \"Yea, by Allah!\" I replied; and we drank till the wine turned our\n heads and slept till the morning, when she gave me other fifteen\n dinars, saying, \"Add something to thy usual provision on account of the\n young lady who will come with me.\" Then she went away, and on the\n fourth day I made ready the house as usual, and soon after sunset\n behold, she came, accompanied by another damsel carefully wrapped in\n her mantilla. They entered and sat down; and when I saw them I repeated\n these verses:\u2014\n\n How dear is our day and how lucky our lot, \u273f When the cynic's away with\n his tongue malign!\n When love and delight and the swimming of head \u273f send cleverness\n trotting,\u2014the best boon of wine.\n When the full moon shines from the cloudy veil, \u273f And the branchlet\n sways in her greens that shine:\n When the red rose mantles in freshest cheek, \u273f And Narcissus[588] opeth\n his love-sick eyne:\n When pleasure with those I love is so sweet, \u273f When friendship with\n those I love is complete!\n\n I rejoiced to see them, and lighted the candles after receiving them\n with gladness and delight. They doffed their heavy outer dresses and\n the new damsel uncovered her face when I saw that she was like the moon\n at its full\u2014never beheld I aught more beautiful. Then I rose and set\n meat and drink before them, and we ate and drank; and I kept giving\n mouthfuls to the new comer, crowning her cup and drinking with her till\n the first damsel, waxing inwardly jealous, asked me, \"By Allah, is she\n not more delicious than I?\"; whereto I answered, \"Ay, by the Lord!\" \"It\n is my wish that thou lie with her this night; for I am thy mistress but\n she is our visitor.\" \"Upon my head be it, and my eyes.\" Then she rose\n and spread the carpets for our bed[589] and I took the young lady and\n lay with her that night till morning, when I awoke and found myself\n wet, as I thought, with sweat. I sat up and tried to arouse the damsel;\n but when I shook her by the shoulders my hand became crimson with blood\n and her head rolled off the pillow. Thereupon my senses fled and I\n cried aloud, saying, \"O All-powerful Protector, grant me Thy\n protection!\" Then finding her neck had been severed, I sprung up and\n the world waxed black before my eyes, and I looked for the lady, my\n former love, but could not find her. So I knew that it was she who had\n murdered the damsel in her jealousy[590], and said, \"There is no\n Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great!\n What is to be done now?\" I considered awhile then, doffing my clothes,\n dug a hole in the middle of the courtyard, wherein I laid the murdered\n girl with her jewellery and golden ornaments; and, throwing back the\n earth on her, replaced the slabs of the marble[591] pavement. After\n this I made the Ghusl or total ablution,[592] and put on pure clothes;\n then, taking what money I had left, locked up the house and summoned\n courage and went to its owner to whom I paid a year's rent, saying, \"I\n am about to join my uncles in Cairo.\" Presently I set out and,\n journeying to Egypt, foregathered with my uncles who rejoiced in me,\n and I found that they had made an end of selling their merchandise.\n They asked me, \"What is the cause of thy coming?;\" and I answered \"I\n longed for a sight of you;\" but did not let them know that I had any\n money with me. I abode with them a year, enjoying the pleasures of\n Cairo and her Nile,[593] and squandering the rest of my money in\n feasting and carousing till the time drew near for the departure of my\n uncles, when I fled from them and hid myself. They made enquiries and\n sought for me, but hearing no tidings they said, \"He will have gone\n back to Damascus.\" When they departed I came forth from my hiding-place\n and abode in Cairo three years, until naught remained of my money. Now\n every year I used to send the rent of the Damascus house to its owner,\n until at last I had nothing left but enough to pay him for one year's\n rent and my breast was straitened. So I travelled to Damascus and\n alighted at the house whose owner, the jeweller, was glad to see me and\n I found everything locked up as I had left it. I opened the closets and\n took out my clothes and necessaries and came upon, beneath the\n carpet-bed whereon I had lain that night with the girl who had been\n beheaded, a golden necklace set with ten gems of passing beauty. I took\n it up and, cleansing it of the blood, sat gazing upon it and wept\n awhile. Then I abode in the house two days and on the third I entered\n the Hammam and changed my clothes. I had no money by me now; so Satan\n whispered temptation to me that the Decree of Destiny be carried out.\n Next day I took the jewelled necklace to the bazar and handed it to a\n broker who made me sit down in the shop of the jeweller, my landlord,\n and bade me have patience till the market was full[594], when he\n carried off the ornament and proclaimed it for sale, privily and\n without my knowledge. The necklet was priced as worth two thousand\n dinars but the broker returned to me and said, \"This collar is of\n copper, a mere counterfeit after the fashion of the Franks[595] and a\n thousand dirhams have been bidden for it.\" \"Yes,\" I answered, \"I knew\n it to be copper, as we had it made for a certain person that we might\n mock her: now my wife hath inherited it and we wish to sell it; so go\n and take over the thousand dirhams.\"\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad perceived the dawn\n of day and ceased to say her permitted say.\n\n Now when it was the Twenty-ninth Night,\n\n She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the beautiful\n youth said to the broker, \"Take over the thousand dirhams\"; and when\n the broker heard this, he knew that the case was suspicious. So he\n carried the collar to the Syndic of the bazar, and the Syndic took it\n to the Governor who was also prefect of police, and said to him falsely\n enough, \"This necklet was stolen from my house, and we have found the\n thief in traders' dress.\" So before I was aware of it the watch got\n round me and, making me their prisoner, carried me before the Governor\n who questioned me of the collar. I told him the tale I had told to the\n broker; but he laughed and said, \"These words are not true.\" Then,\n before I knew what was doing, the guard stripped off my clothes and\n came down with palm-rods upon my ribs, till for the smart of the stick\n I confessed, \"It was I who stole it;\" saying to myself, \"'Tis better\n for thee to say, I stole it, than to let them know that its owner was\n murdered in thy house, for then would they slay thee to avenge her.\" So\n they wrote down that I had stolen it and they cut off my hand and\n scalded the stump in oil,[596] when I swooned away for pain; but they\n gave me wine to drink and I recovered and, taking up my hand, was going\n to my fine house, when my landlord said to me, \"Inasmuch, O my son, as\n this hath befallen thee, thou must leave my house and look out for\n another lodging for thee, since thou art convicted of theft. Thou art a\n handsome youth, but who will pity thee after this?\" \"O my master\" said\n I, \"bear with me but two days or three, till I find me another place.\"\n He answered, \"So be it,\" and went away and left me. I returned to the\n house where I sat weeping and saying, \"How shall I go back to my own\n people with my hand lopped off and they know not that I am innocent?\n Perchance even after this Allah may order some matter for me.\" And I\n wept with exceeding weeping; grief beset me and I remained in sore\n trouble for two days; but on the third day my landlord came suddenly in\n to me, and with him some of the guard and the Syndic of the bazar, who\n had falsely charged me with stealing the necklet. I went up to them and\n asked, \"What is the matter?\" however, they pinioned me without further\n parley and threw a chain about my neck, saying, \"The necklet which was\n with thee hath proved to be the property of the Wazir of Damascus who\n is also her Viceroy;\" and they added, \"It was missing from his house\n three years ago at the same time as his younger daughter.\" When I heard\n these words, my heart sank within me and I said to myself, \"Thy life is\n gone beyond a doubt! By Allah, needs must I tell the Chief my story;\n and, if he will, let him kill me, and if he please, let him pardon me.\"\n So they carried me to the Wazir's house and made me stand between his\n hands. When he saw me, he glanced at me out of the corner of his eye\n and said to those present, \"Why did ye lop off his hand? This man is\n unfortunate, and there is no fault in him; indeed ye have wronged him\n in cutting off his hand.\" When I heard this, I took heart and, my soul\n presaging good, I said to him, \"By Allah, O my lord, I am no thief; but\n they calumniated me with a vile calumny, and they scourged me midmost\n the market, bidding me confess till, for the pain of the rods, I lied\n against myself and confessed the theft, albeit I am altogether innocent\n of it.\" \"Fear not,\" quoth the Viceroy, \"no harm shall come to thee.\"\n Then he ordered the Syndic of the bazar to be imprisoned and said to\n him, \"Give this man the blood-money for his hand; and, if thou delay I\n will hang thee and seize all thy property.\" Moreover he called to his\n guards who took him and dragged him away, leaving me with the Chief.\n Then they loosed by his command the chain from my neck and unbound my\n arms; and he looked at me, and said, \"O my son, be true with me, and\n tell me how this necklace came to thee.\" And he repeated these verses:\u2014\n\n Truth best befits thee, albeit truth \u273f Shall bring thee to burn on the\n threatened fire.\n\n \"By Allah, O my lord,\" answered I, \"I will tell thee nothing but the\n truth.\" Then I related to him all that had passed between me and the\n first lady, and how she had brought me the second and had slain her out\n of jealousy, and I detailed for him the tale to its full. When he heard\n my story, he shook his head and struck his right hand upon the\n left,[597] and putting his kerchief over his face wept awhile and then\n repeated:\u2014\n\n I see the woes of the world abound, \u273f And worldings sick with spleen\n and teen;\n There's One who the meeting of two shall part, \u273f And who part not are\n few and far between!\n\n Then he turned to me and said, \"Know, O my son, that the elder damsel\n who first came to thee was my daughter whom I used to keep closely\n guarded. When she grew up, I sent her to Cairo and married her to her\n cousin, my brother's son. After a while he died and she came back: but\n she had learnt wantonness and ungraciousness from the people of\n Cairo[598]; so she visited thee four times and at last brought her\n younger sister. Now they were sisters german and much attached to each\n other; and, when that adventure happened to the elder, she disclosed\n her secret to her sister who desired to go out with her. So she asked\n thy leave and carried her to thee; after which she returned alone and,\n finding her weeping, I questioned her of her sister, but she said:\u2014I\n know nothing of her. However, she presently told her mother privily of\n what had happened and how she had cut off her sister's head and her\n mother told me. Then she ceased not to weep and say:\u2014By Allah! I shall\n cry for her till I die. Nor did she give over mourning till her heart\n broke and she died; and things fell out after that fashion. See then, O\n my son, what hath come to pass; and now I desire thee not to thwart me\n in what I am about to offer thee, and it is that I purpose to marry\n thee to my youngest daughter; for she is a virgin and born of another\n mother[599]; and I will take no dower of thee but, on the contrary,\n will appoint thee an allowance, and thou shalt abide with me in my\n house in the stead of my son.\" \"So be it,\" I answered, \"and how could I\n hope for such good fortune?\" Then he sent at once for the Kazi and\n witnesses, and let write my marriage-contract with his daughter and I\n went in to her. Moreover, he got me from the Syndic of the bazar a\n large sum of money and I became in high favour with him. During this\n year news came to me that my father was dead and the Wazir despatched a\n courier, with letters bearing the royal sign-manual, to fetch me the\n money which my father had left behind him, and now I am living in all\n the solace of life. Such was the manner of the cutting off my right\n hand. \"I marvelled at his story (continued the Jew), and I abode with\n him three days after which he gave me much wealth, and I set out and\n travelled Eastward till I reached this your city and the sojourn suited\n me right well; so I took up my abode here and there befel me what thou\n knowest with the Hunchback.\" Thereupon the King of China shook his\n head[600] and said, \"This story of thine is not stranger and more\n wondrous and marvellous and delectable than the tale of the Hunchback;\n and so needs must I hang the whole number of you. However there yet\n remains the Tailor who is the head of all the offence;\" and he added,\n \"O Tailor, if thou canst tell me any thing more wonderful than the\n story of the Hunchback, I will pardon you all your offences.\" Thereupon\n the man came forward and began to tell the\n\n\n _TALE OF THE TAILOR._\n\n Know, O King of the age, that most marvellous was that which befel me\n but yesterday, before I foregathered with the Hunchback. It so chanced\n that in the early day I was at the marriage-feast of one of my\n companions, who had gotten together in his house some twenty of the\n handicraftsmen of this city, amongst them tailors and silk-spinners and\n carpenters and others of the same kidney. As soon as the sun had risen,\n they set food[601] before us that we might eat when behold, the master\n of the house entered, and with him a foreign youth and a well-favoured\n of the people of Baghdad, wearing clothes as handsome as handsome could\n be; and he was of right comely presence save that he was lame of one\n leg. He came and saluted us and we stood up to receive him; but when he\n was about to sit down he espied amongst us a certain man which was a\n Barber; whereupon he refused to be seated and would have gone away. But\n we stopped him and our host also stayed him, making oath that he should\n not leave us and asked him, \"What is the reason of thy coming in and\n going out again at once?\"; whereto he answered, \"By Allah, O my lord,\n do not hinder me; for the cause of my turning back is yon Barber of bad\n omen,[602] yon black o' face, yon ne'er-do-well!\" When the house-master\n heard these words he marvelled with extreme marvel and said, \"How\n cometh this young man, who haileth from Baghdad, to be so troubled and\n perplexed about this Barber?\" Then we looked at the stranger and said,\n \"Explain the cause of thine anger against the Barber.\" \"O fair\n company,\" quoth the youth, \"there befel me a strange adventure with\n this Barber in Baghdad (which is my native city); he was the cause of\n the breaking of my leg and of my lameness, and I have sworn never to\n sit in the same place with him, nor even tarry in any town where he\n happens to abide; and I have bidden adieu to Baghdad and travelled far\n from it and came to stay in this your city; yet I have hardly passed\n one night before I meet him again. But not another day shall go by ere\n I fare forth from here.\" Said we to him, \"Allah upon thee, tell us the\n tale;\" and the youth replied (the Barber changing colour from brown to\n yellow as he spoke):\u2014Know, O fair company, that my father was one of\n the chief merchants of Baghdad, and Almighty Allah had blessed him with\n no son but myself. When I grew up and reached man's estate, my father\n was received into the mercy of Allah (whose Name be exalted!) and left\n me money and eunuchs, servants and slaves; and I used to dress well and\n diet well. Now Allah had made me a hater of women-kind and one day, as\n I was walking along a street in Baghdad a party of females met me face\n to face in the footway; so I fled from them and, entering an alley\n which was no thoroughfare, sat down upon a stone-bench at its other\n end. I had not sat there long before the latticed window of one of the\n houses opposite was thrown open, and there appeared at it a young lady,\n as she were the full moon at its fullest; never in my life saw I her\n like; and she began to water some flowers on the window-sill.[603] She\n turned right and left and, seeing me watching her, shut the window and\n went away.\n\n Thereupon fire was suddenly enkindled in my heart; my mind was\n possessed with her and my woman-hate turned to woman-love. I continued\n sitting there, lost to the world, till sunset when lo! the Kazi of the\n city came riding by with his slaves before him and his eunuchs behind\n him, and dismounting entered the house in which the damsel had\n appeared. By this I knew that he was her father; so I went home\n sorrowful and cast myself upon my carpet-bed in grief. Then my\n handmaids flocked in and sat about me, unknowing what ailed me; but I\n addressed no speech to them, and they wept and wailed over me.\n Presently in came an old woman who looked at me and saw with a glance\n what was the matter with me: so she sat down by my head and spoke me\n fair, saying, \"O my son, tell me all about it and I will be the means\n of thy union with her.\"[604] So I related to her what had happened and\n she answered, \"O my son, this one is the daughter of the Kazi of\n Baghdad who keepeth her in the closest seclusion; and the window where\n thou sawest her is her floor, whilst her father occupies the large\n saloon in the lower story. She is often there alone and I am wont to\n visit at the house; so thou shalt not win to her save through me. Now\n set thy wits to work and be of good cheer.\" With these words she went\n away and I took heart at what she said and my people rejoiced that day,\n seeing me rise in the morning safe and sound. By and by the old woman\n returned looking chopfallen[605], and said, \"O my son, do not ask me\n how I fared with her! When I told her that, she cried at me:\u2014If thou\n hold not thy peace, O hag of ill-omen, and leave not such talk, I will\n entreat thee as thou deservest and do thee die by the foulest of\n deaths. But needs must I have at her a second time.[606]\" When I heard\n this it added ailment to my ailment and the neighbours visited me and\n judged that I was not long for this world; but after some days, the old\n woman came to me and, putting her mouth close to my ear, whispered, \"O\n my son; I claim from thee the gift of good news.\" With this my soul\n returned to me and I said, \"Whatever thou wilt shall be thine.\"\n Thereupon she began, \"Yesterday I went to the young lady who, seeing me\n broken in spirit and shedding tears from reddened eyes, asked me:\u2014O\n naunty[607] mine, what ails thee, that I see thy breast so\n straitened?\"; and I answered her, weeping bitterly, \"O my lady, I am\n just come from the house of a youth who loves thee and who is about to\n die for sake of thee!\" Quoth she (and her heart was softened), \"And who\n is this youth of whom thou speakest?\"; and quoth I, \"He is to me as a\n son and the fruit of my vitals. He saw thee, some days ago, at the\n window watering thy flowers and espying thy face and wrists he fell in\n love at first sight. I let him know what happened to me the last time I\n was with thee, whereupon his ailment increased, he took to the pillow\n and he is naught now but a dead man, and no doubt whatever of it.\" At\n this she turned pale and asked, \"All this for my sake?\"; and I\n answered, \"Ay, by Allah![608] what wouldst thou have me do?\" Said she,\n \"Go back to him and greet him for me and tell him that I am twice more\n heartsick than he is. And on Friday, before the hour of public prayer,\n bid him here to the house, and I will come down and open the door for\n him. Then I will carry him up to my chamber and foregather with him for\n awhile, and let him depart before my father return from the Mosque.\"\n When I heard the old woman's words, all my sickness suddenly fell from\n me, my anguish ceased and my heart was comforted, I took off what\n clothes were on me and gave them to her and, as she turned to go, she\n said; \"Keep a good heart!\" \"I have not a jot of sorrow left,\" I\n replied. My household and intimates rejoiced in my recovery and I abode\n thus till Friday, when behold, the old woman came in and asked me how I\n did, to which I answered that I was well and in good case. Then I\n donned my clothes and perfumed myself and sat down to await the\n congregation going in to prayers, that I might betake myself to her.\n But the old woman said to me, \"Thou hast time and to spare: so thou\n wouldst do well to go to the Hammam and have thy hair shaven off\n (especially after thy ailment), so as not to show traces of sickness.\"\n \"This were the best way,\" answered I, \"I have just now bathed in hot\n water; but I will have my head shaved.\" Then I said to my page, \"Go to\n the bazar and bring me a barber, a discreet fellow and one not inclined\n to meddling or impertinent curiosity or likely to split my head with\n his excessive talk.\"[609] The boy went out at once and brought back\n with him this wretched old man, this Shaykh of ill-omen. When he came\n in he saluted me and I returned his salutation; then quoth he, \"Of a\n truth I see thee thin of body;\" and quoth I, \"I have been ailing.\" He\n continued, \"Allah drive far away from thee thy woe and thy sorrow and\n thy trouble and thy distress.\" \"Allah grant thy prayer!\" said I. He\n pursued, \"All gladness to thee, O my master, for indeed recovery is\n come to thee. Dost thou wish to be polled or to be blooded? Indeed it\n was a tradition of Ibn Abbas[610] (Allah accept of him!) that the\n Apostle said:\u2014Whoso cutteth his hair on a Friday, the Lord shall avert\n from him threescore and ten calamities; and again is related of him\n also that he said:\u2014Cupping on a Friday keepeth from loss of sight and a\n host of diseases.\" \"Leave this talk,\" I cried; \"come, shave me my head\n at once for I can't stand it.\" So he rose and put forth his hand in\n most leisurely way and took out a kerchief and unfolded it, and lo! it\n contained an astrolabe[611] with seven parallel plates mounted in\n silver. Then he went to the middle of the court and raised head and\n instrument towards the sun's rays and looked for a long while. When\n this was over, he came back and said to me, \"Know that there have\n elapsed of this our day, which be Friday, and this Friday be the tenth\n of the month Safar in the six hundred and fifty-third year since the\n Hegira or Flight of the Apostle (on whom be the bestest of blessings\n and peace!) and the seventh thousand three hundred and twentieth year\n of the era of Alexander, eight degrees and six minutes. Furthermore the\n ascendant of this our day is, according to the exactest science of\n computation, the planet Mars; and it so happeneth that Mercury is in\n conjunction with him, denoting an auspicious moment for hair-cutting;\n and this also maketh manifest to me that thou desirest union with a\n certain person and that your intercourse will not be propitious. But\n after this there occurreth a sign respecting a matter which will befal\n thee and whereof I will not speak.\" \"O thou,\" cried I, \"by Allah, thou\n weariest me and scatterest my wits and thy forecast is other than good;\n I sent for thee to poll my head and naught else: so up and shave me and\n prolong not thy speech.\" \"By Allah,\" replied he, \"if thou but knew what\n is about to befal thee, thou wouldst do nothing this day, and I counsel\n thee to act as I tell thee by computation of the constellations.\" \"By\n Allah,\" said I, \"never did I see a barber who excelled in judicial\n astrology save thyself: but I think and I know that thou art most\n prodigal of frivolous talk. I sent for thee only to shave my head, but\n thou comest and pesterest me with this sorry prattle.\" \"What more\n wouldst thou have?\" replied he. \"Allah hath bounteously bestowed on\n thee a Barber, who is an astrologer, one learned in alchemy and white\n magic[612]; syntax, grammar, and lexicology; the arts of logic,\n rhetoric and elocution; mathematics, arithmetic and algebra; astronomy,\n astromancy and geometry; theology, the Traditions of the Apostle and\n the Commentaries on the Koran. Furthermore, I have read books galore\n and digested them and have had experience of affairs and comprehended\n them. In short I have learned the theorick and the practick of all the\n arts and sciences; I know everything of them by rote and I am a past\n master _in tot\u00e2 re scibili_. Thy father loved me for my lack of\n officiousness, argal, to serve thee is a religious duty incumbent on\n me. I am no busy-body as thou seemest to suppose, and on this account I\n am known as The Silent Man, also, The Modest Man. Wherefore it behoveth\n thee to render thanks to Allah Almighty and not cross me, for I am a\n true counsellor to thee and benevolently minded towards thee. Would\n that I were in thy service a whole year that thou mightest do me\n justice; and I would ask thee no wage for all this.\" When I heard his\n flow of words, I said to him, \"Doubtless thou wilt be my death this\n day!\"\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her\n permitted say.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n Now when it was the Thirtieth Night,\n\n She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young man\n said to the Barber, \"Thou certainly wilt be the death of me this very\n day!\" \"O master mine,\" replied he, \"I am he, The Silent Man hight, by\n reason of the fewness of my words, to distinguish me from my six\n brothers. For the eldest is called Al-Bakb\u00fak, the prattler; the second\n Al-Hadd\u00e1r, the babbler; the third Al-Fak\u00edk, the gabbler; the fourth,\n his name is Al-Kuz al-asw\u00e1ni, the long-necked Gugglet, from his eternal\n chattering; the fifth is Al-Nashsh\u00e1r, the tattler and tale-teller; the\n sixth Shak\u00e1shik, or many-clamours; and the seventh is famous as\n Al-S\u00e1mit, the Silent Man, and this is my noble self!\" Whilst he\n redoubled his talk, I thought my gall-bladder would have burst; so I\n said to the servant, \"Give him a quarter-dinar and dismiss him and let\n him go from me in the name of God who made him. I won't have my head\n shaved to-day.\" \"What words be these, O my lord?\" cried he. \"By Allah!\n I will accept no hire of thee till I have served thee and have\n ministered to thy wants; and I care not if I never take money of thee.\n If thou know not my quality, I know thine; and I owe thy father, honest\n man, on whom Allah Almighty have mercy! many a kindness, for he was a\n liberal soul and a generous. By Allah, he sent for me one day, as it\n were this blessed day, and I went in to him and found a party of his\n intimates about him.\" Quoth he to me, \"Let me blood;\" so I pulled out\n my astrolabe and, taking the sun's altitude for him, I ascertained that\n the ascendant was inauspicious and the hour unfavourable for blooding.\n I told him of this, and he did according to my bidding and awaited a\n better opportunity. So I made these lines in honour of him:\u2014\n\n I went to my patron some blood to let him, \u273f But found that the moment\n was far from good:\n So I sat and I talked of all strangenesses, \u273f And with jests and jokes\n his good will I wooed:\n They pleased him and cried he, 'O man of wit, \u273f Thou hast proved thee\n perfect in merry mood!'\n Quoth I, 'O thou Lord of men, save thou \u273f Lend me art and wisdom I'm\n fou and wood:\n In thee gather grace, boon, bounty, suavity; \u273f And I guerdon the world\n with lore, science and gravity.\n\n Thy father was delighted and cried out to the servant, \"Give him an\n hundred and three gold pieces with a robe of honour!\" The man obeyed\n his orders, and I awaited an auspicious moment, when I blooded him; and\n he did not baulk me; nay he thanked me and I was also thanked and\n praised by all present. When the bloodletting was over I had no power\n to keep silence and asked him, \"By Allah, O my lord, what made thee say\n to the servant:\u2014Give him an hundred and _three_ dinars?\"; and he\n answered, \"One dinar was for the astrological observation, another for\n thy pleasant conversation, the third for the phlebotomisation, and the\n remaining hundred and the dress were for thy verses in my\n commendation.\" \"May Allah show small mercy to my father,\" exclaimed I,\n \"for knowing the like of thee.\" He laughed and ejaculated, \"There is no\n god but _the_ God and Mohammed is the Apostle of God! Glory to Him that\n changeth and is changed not! I took thee for a man of sense, but I see\n thou babblest and dotest for illness. Allah hath said in the Blessed\n Book[613]:\u2014Paradise is prepared for the goodly who bridle their anger\n and forgive men, and so forth; and in any case thou art excused. Yet I\n cannot conceive the cause of thy hurry and flurry; and thou must know\n that thy father and thy grandfather did nothing without consulting me,\n and indeed it hath been said truly enough:\u2014Let the adviser be prized;\n and:\u2014There is no vice in advice; and it is also said in certain saws,\n Whoso hath no counsellor elder than he, will never himself an elder\n be[614]; and the poet says:\u2014\n\n Whatever needful thing thou undertake, \u273f Consult th' experienced and\n contraire him not!\"\n\n And indeed thou shalt never find a man better versed in affairs than I,\n and I am here standing on my feet to serve thee. I am not vexed with\n thee: why shouldest thou be vexed with me? But whatever happen I will\n bear patiently with thee in memory of the much kindness thy father\n shewed me.\" \"By Allah,\" cried I, \"O thou with tongue long as the tail\n of a jackass, thou persistest in pestering me with thy prate and thou\n becomest more longsome in thy long speeches, when all I want of thee is\n to shave my head and wend thy way!\" Then he lathered my head saying, \"I\n perceive thou art vexed with me, but I will not take it ill of thee,\n for thy wit is weak and thou art but a laddy: it was only yesterday I\n used to take thee on my shoulder[615] and carry thee to school.\" \"O my\n brother,\" said I, \"for Allah's sake do what I want and go thy gait!\"\n And I rent my garments.[616] When he saw me do this he took the razor\n and fell to sharpening it and gave not over stropping it until my\n senses were well nigh leaving me. Then he came up to me and shaved part\n of my head; then he held his hand and then he said, \"O my lord, haste\n is Satan's gait whilst patience is of Allah the Compassionate. But\n thou, O my master, I ken thou knowest not my rank; for verily this hand\n alighteth upon the heads of Kings and Emirs and Wazirs, and sages and\n doctors learned in the law, and the poet said of one like me:\u2014\n\n All crafts are like necklaces strung on a string, \u273f But this Barber's\n the union pearl of the band:\n High over all craftsmen he ranketh, and why? \u273f The heads of the Kings\n are under his hand!\"[617]\n\n Then said I, \"_Do_ leave off talking about what concerneth thee not:\n indeed thou hast straitened my breast and distracted my mind.\" Quoth\n he, \"Meseems thou art a hasty man;\" and quoth I, \"Yes! yes! yes!\" and\n he, \"I rede thee practise restraint of self, for haste is Satan's pelf\n which bequeatheth only repentance and ban and bane, and He (upon whom\n be blessings and peace!) hath said, The best of works is that wherein\n deliberation lurks: but I, by Allah! have some doubt about thine\n affair; and so I should like thee to let me know what it is thou art in\n such haste to do; for I fear me it is other than good.\" Then he\n continued, \"It wanteth three hours yet to prayer-time; but I do not\n wish to be in doubt upon this matter; nay, I must know the moment\n exactly, for truly:\u2014A guess shot in times of doubt, oft brings harm\n about; especially in the like of me, a superior person whose merits are\n famous amongst mankind at large; and it doth not befit me to talk at\n random, as do the common sort of astrologers.\" So saying, he threw down\n the razor and taking up the astrolabe, went forth under the sun and\n stood there a long time; after which he returned and counting on his\n fingers said to me, \"There remain still to prayer-time three full hours\n and complete, neither more nor yet less, according to the most learned\n astronomicals and the wisest makers of almanacks.\" \"Allah upon thee,\"\n cried I, \"hold thy tongue with me, for thou breakest my liver in\n pieces.\" So he took the razor and, after sharpening it as before and\n shaving other two hairs of my head, he again held his hand and said, \"I\n am concerned about thy hastiness and indeed thou wouldst do well to let\n me into the cause of it; 'twere the better for thee, as thou knowest\n that neither thy father nor thy grandfather ever did a single thing\n save by my advice.\" When I saw that there was no escape from him I said\n to myself, \"The time for prayer draws near and I wish to go to her\n before the folk come out of the mosque. If I am delayed much longer, I\n know not how to come at her.\" Then said I aloud, \"Be quick and stint\n this talk and impertinence, for I have to go to a party at the house of\n some of my intimates.\" When he heard me speak of the party, he said,\n \"This thy day is a blessed day for me! In very sooth it was but\n yesterday I invited a company of my friends and I have forgotten to\n provide anything for them to eat. This very moment I was thinking of\n it: Alas, how I shall be disgraced in their eyes!\" \"Be not distressed\n about this matter,\" answered I; \"have I not told thee that I am bidden\n to an entertainment this day? So everything in my house, eatable and\n drinkable, shall be thine, if thou wilt only get through thy work and\n make haste to shave my head.\" He replied, \"Allah requite thee with\n good! Specify to me what is in thy house for my guests that I may be\n ware of it.\" Quoth I, \"Five dishes of meat and ten chickens with\n reddened breasts[618] and a roasted lamb.\" \"Set them before me,\" quoth\n he, \"that I may see them.\" So I told my people to buy, borrow or steal\n them and bring them in anywise, and had all this set before him. When\n he saw it he cried, \"The wine is wanting,\" and I replied, \"I have a\n flagon or two of good old grape-juice in the house,\" and he said, \"Have\n it brought out!\" So I sent for it and he exclaimed, \"Allah bless thee\n for a generous disposition! But there are still the essences and\n perfumes.\" So I bade them set before him a box containing Nadd,[619]\n the best of compound perfumes, together with fine lign-aloes, ambergris\n and musk unmixed, the whole worth fifty dinars. Now the time waxed\n strait and my heart straitened with it; so I said to him, \"Take it all\n and finish shaving my head by the life of Mohammed (whom Allah bless\n and keep!).\" \"By Allah,\" said he, \"I will not take it till I see all\n that is in it.\" So I bade the page open the box and the Barber laid\n down the astrolabe, leaving the greater part of my head unpolled; and,\n sitting on the ground, turned over the scents and incense and\n aloes-wood and essences till I was well nigh distraught. Then he took\n the razor and coming up to me shaved off some few hairs and repeated\n these lines:\u2014\n\n The boy like his father shall surely show, \u273f As the tree from its\n parent root shall grow.[620]\n\n Then said he, \"By Allah, O my son, I know not whether to thank thee or\n thy father; for my entertainment this day is all due to thy bounty and\n beneficence; and, although none of my company be worthy of it, yet I\n have a set of honourable men, to wit Zant\u00fat the bath-keeper and Sal\u00ed'a\n the corn-chandler; and S\u00edlat the bean-seller; and Akrashah the\n greengrocer; and Humayd the scavenger; and Sa'\u00edd the camel-man; and\n Suwayd the porter; and Abu Mak\u00e1rish the bathman[621]; and Kas\u00edm the\n watchman; and Kar\u00edm the groom. There is not among the whole of them a\n bore or a bully in his cups; nor a meddler nor a miser of his money,\n and each and every hath some dance which he danceth and some of his own\n couplets which he caroleth; and the best of them is that, like thy\n servant, thy slave here, they know not what much talking is nor what\n forwardness means.\" The bath-keeper sings to the tom-tom[622] a song\n which enchants; and he stands up and dances and chants,\n\n I am going, O mammy, to fill up my pot.\n\n As for the corn-chandler he brings more skill to it than any; he dances\n and sings,\n\n O Keener,[623] O sweetheart, thou fallest not short\n\n and he leaves no one's vitals sound for laughing at him. But the\n scavenger sings so that the birds stop to listen to him and dances and\n sings,\n\n News my wife wots is not locked in a box![624]\n\n And he hath privilege, for 'tis a shrewd rogue and a witty;[625] and\n speaking of his excellence I am wont to say:\u2014\n\n \"My life for the scavenger! right well I love him, \u273f Like a waving\n bough he is sweet to my sight:\n Fate joined us one night, when to him quoth I \u273f (The while I grew weak\n and love gained more might)\n 'Thy love burns my heart!' 'And no wonder,' quoth he \u273f 'When the drawer\n of dung turns a stoker wight.'[626]\n\n And indeed each is perfect in whatso can charm the wit with joy and\n jollity;\" adding presently, \"But hearing is not seeing; and indeed if\n thou make up thy mind to join us and put off going to thy friends,\n 'twill be better for us and for thee. The traces of illness are yet\n upon thee and haply thou art going among folk who be mighty talkers,\n men who commune together of what concerneth them not; or there may be\n amongst them some forward fellow who will split thy head, and thou half\n thy size from sickness.\" \"This shall be for some other day,\" answered\n I, and laughed with heart angered: \"finish thy work and go, in Allah\n Almighty's guard, to thy friends, for they will be expecting thy\n coming.\" \"O my lord,\" replied he, \"I seek only to introduce thee to\n these fellows of infinite mirth, the sons of men of worth, amongst whom\n there is neither procacity nor dicacity nor loquacity; for never, since\n I grew to years of discretion, could I endure to consort with one who\n asketh questions concerning what concerneth him not, nor have I ever\n frequented any save those who are, like myself, men of few words. In\n sooth if thou were to company with them or even to see them once, thou\n wouldst forsake all thy intimates.\" \"Allah fulfil thy joyance with\n them,\" said I, \"needs must I come amongst them some day or other.\" But\n he said, \"Would it were this very day, for I had set my heart upon thy\n making one of us; yet if thou must go to thy friends to-day, I will\n take these good things, wherewith thou hast honoured and favoured me,\n to my guests and leave them to eat and drink and not wait for me;\n whilst I will return to thee in haste and accompany thee to thy little\n party; for there is no ceremony between me and my intimates to prevent\n my leaving them. Fear not, I will soon be back with thee and wend with\n thee whithersoever thou wendest. There is no Majesty and there is no\n Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great!\" I shouted; \"Go thou to\n thy friends and make merry with them; and _do_ let me go to mine and be\n with them this day, for they expect me.\" But the Barber cried, \"I will\n not let thee go alone;\" and I replied, \"The truth is none can enter\n where I am going save myself.\" He rejoined, \"I suspect that to-day thou\n art for an assignation with some woman, else thou hadst taken me with\n thee; yet am I the right man to take, one who could aid thee to the end\n thou wishest. But I fear me thou art running after strange women and\n thou wilt lose thy life; for in this our city of Baghdad one cannot do\n any thing in this line, especially on a day like Friday: our Governor\n is an angry man and a mighty sharp blade.\" \"Shame on thee, thou wicked,\n bad, old man!\" cried I, \"Be off! what words are these thou givest me?\"\n \"O cold of wit,\"[627] cried he, \"thou sayest to me what is not true and\n thou hidest thy mind from me, but I know the whole business for certain\n and I seek only to help thee this day with my best endeavour.\" I was\n fearful lest my people or my neighbours should hear the Barber's talk,\n so I kept silence for a long time whilst he finished shaving my head;\n by which time the hour of prayer was come and the Khutbah, or sermon,\n was about to follow. When he had done, I said to him, \"Go to thy\n friends with their meat and drink, and I will await thy return. Then we\n will fare together.\" In this way I hoped to pour oil on troubled waters\n and to trick the accursed loon, so haply I might get quit of him; but\n he said, \"Thou art cozening me and thou wouldst go alone to thy\n appointment and cast thyself into jeopardy, whence there will be no\n escape for thee. Now by Allah! and again by Allah! do not go till I\n return, that I may accompany thee and watch the issue of thine affair.\"\n \"So be it,\" I replied, \"do not be long absent.\" Then he took all the\n meat and drink I had given him and the rest of it and went out of my\n house; but the accursed carle gave it in charge of a porter to carry to\n his home but hid himself in one of the alleys. As for me I rose on the\n instant, for the Muezzins had already called the Sal\u00e1m of Friday, the\n salutation to the Apostle;[628] and I dressed in haste and went out\n alone and, hurrying to the street, took my stand by the house wherein I\n had seen the young lady. I found the old woman on guard at the door\n awaiting me, and went up with her to the upper story, the damsel's\n apartment. Hardly had I reached it when behold, the master of the house\n returned from prayers and entering the great saloon, closed the door. I\n looked down from the window and saw this Barber (Allah's curse upon\n him!) sitting over against the door and said, \"How did this devil find\n me out?\" At this very moment, as Allah had decreed it for rending my\n veil of secrecy, it so happened that a handmaid of the house-master\n committed some offence for which he beat her. She shrieked out and his\n slave ran in to intercede for her, whereupon the Kazi beat him to boot,\n and he also roared out. The damned Barber fancied that it was I who was\n being beaten; so he also fell to shouting and tore his garments and\n scattered dust on his head and kept on shrieking and crying Help! Help!\n So the people came round about him and he went on yelling, \"My master\n is being murdered in the Kazi's house!\" Then he ran clamouring to my\n place with the folk after him, and told my people and servants and\n slaves; and, before I knew what was doing, up they came tearing their\n clothes and letting loose their hair[629] and shouting, \"Alas, our\n master!\"; and this Barber leading the rout with his clothes rent and in\n sorriest plight; and he also shouting like a madman and saying, \"Alas\n for our murdered master!\" And they all made an assault upon the house\n in which I was. The Kazi, hearing the yells and the uproar at his door\n said to one of his servants, \"See what is the matter\"; and the man went\n forth and returned and said, \"O my master, at the gate there are more\n than ten thousand souls what with men and women, and all crying out,\n Alas for our murdered master!; and they keep pointing to our house.\"\n When the Kazi heard this, the matter seemed serious and he waxed wroth;\n so he rose and opening the door saw a great crowd of people; whereat he\n was astounded and said, \"O folk! what is there to do?\" \"O accursed! O\n dog! O hog!\" my servants replied; \"'Tis thou who hast killed our\n master!\" Quoth he, \"O good folk, and what hath your master done to me\n that I should kill him?\"\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and\n ceased saying her permitted say.\n\n Now when it was the Thirty-first Night,\n\n She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Kazi said to\n the servants, \"What hath your master done to me that I should kill him?\n This is my house and it is open to you all.\" Then quoth the Barber,\n \"Thou didst beat him and I heard him cry out;\" and quoth the Kazi, \"But\n what was he doing that I should beat him, and what brought him in to my\n house; and whence came he and whither went he?\" \"Be not a wicked,\n perverse old man!\" cried the Barber, \"for I know the whole story; and\n the long and short of it is that thy daughter is in love with him and\n he loves her; and when thou knewest that he had entered the house, thou\n badest thy servants beat him and they did so: by Allah, none shall\n judge between us and thee but the Caliph; or else do thou bring out our\n master that his folk may take him, before they go in and save him\n perforce from thy house, and thou be put to shame.\" Then said the Kazi\n (and his tongue was bridled and his mouth was stopped by confusion\n before the people), \"An thou say sooth, do thou come in and fetch him\n out.\" Whereupon the Barber pushed forward and entered the house. When I\n saw this I looked about for a means of escape and flight, but saw no\n hiding-place except a great chest in the upper chamber where I was. So\n I got into it and pulled the lid down upon myself and held my breath.\n The Barber was hardly in the room before he began to look about for me,\n then turned him right and left and came straight to the place where I\n was, and stepped up to the chest and, lifting it on his head, made off\n as fast as he could. At this, my reason forsook me, for I knew that he\n would not let me be; so I took courage and opening the chest threw\n myself to the ground. My leg was broken in the fall, and the door being\n open I saw a great concourse of people looking in. Now I carried in my\n sleeve much gold and some silver, which I had provided for an ill day\n like this and the like of such occasion; so I kept scattering it\n amongst the folk to divert their attention from me and, whilst they\n were busy scrambling for it, I set off, hopping as fast as I could,\n through the by-streets of Baghdad, shifting and turning right and left.\n But whithersoever I went this damned Barber would go in after me,\n crying aloud, \"They would have bereft me of my maa-a-ster! They would\n have slain him who was a benefactor to me and my family and my friends!\n Praised be Allah who made me prevail against them and delivered my lord\n from their hands!\" Then to me, \"Where wilt thou go now? Thou wouldst\n persist in following thine own evil devices, till thou broughtest\n thyself to this ill pass; and, had not Allah vouchsafed me to thee,\n ne'er hadst thou escaped this strait into which thou hast fallen, for\n they would have cast thee into a calamity whence thou never couldest\n have won free. But I will not call thee to account for thine ignorance,\n as thou art so little of wit and inconsequential and addicted to\n hastiness!\" Said I to him, \"Doth not what thou hast brought upon me\n suffice thee, but thou must run after me and talk me such talk in the\n bazar-streets?\" And I well-nigh gave up the ghost for excess of rage\n against him. Then I took refuge in the shop of a weaver amiddlemost of\n the market and sought protection of the owner who drove the Barber\n away; and, sitting in the back-room,[630] I said to myself, \"If I\n return home I shall never be able to get rid of this curse of a Barber,\n who will be with me night and day; and I cannot endure the sight of him\n even for a breathing-space.\" So I sent out at once for witnesses and\n made a will, dividing the greater part of my property among my people,\n and appointed a guardian over them, to whom I committed the charge of\n great and small, directing him to sell my houses and domains. Then I\n set out on my travels that I might be free of this pimp[631]; and I\n came to settle in your town where I have lived some time. When you\n invited me and I came hither, the first thing I saw was this accursed\n pander seated in the place of honour. How then can my heart be glad and\n my stay be pleasant in company with this fellow who brought all this\n upon me, and who was the cause of the breaking of my leg and of my\n exile from home and native land? And the youth refused to sit down and\n went away. When we heard his story (continued the Tailor) we were\n amazed beyond measure and amused and said to the Barber, \"By Allah, is\n it true what this young man saith of thee?\" \"By Allah,\" replied he, \"I\n dealt thus by him of my courtesy and sound sense and generosity. Had it\n not been for me he had perished and none but I was the cause of his\n escape. Well it was for him that he suffered in his leg and not in his\n life! Had I been a man of many words, a meddler, a busy body, I had not\n acted thus kindly by him; but now I will tell you a tale which befel\n me, that you may be well assured I am a man sparing of speech in whom\n is no forwardness and a very different person from those six Brothers\n of mine; and this it is.\"\n\n\n _THE BARBER'S TALE OF HIMSELF._\n\n I was living in Baghdad during the times of Al-Mustansir bi'llah,[632]\n son of Al-Mustazi bi'llah the then Caliph, a prince who loved the poor\n and needy and companied with the learned and pious. One day it happened\n to him that he was wroth with ten persons, highwaymen who robbed on the\n Caliph's highway, and he ordered the Prefect of Baghdad to bring them\n into the presence on the anniversary of the Great Festival.[633] So the\n Prefect sallied out and, making them his prisoners, embarked with them\n in a boat. I caught sight of them as they were embarking and said to\n myself, \"These are surely assembled for a marriage-feast; methinks they\n are spending their day in that boat eating and drinking, and none shall\n be companion of their cups but I myself.\" So I rose, O fair assembly;\n and, of the excess of my courtesy and the gravity of my understanding,\n I embarked with them and entered into conversation with them. They\n rowed across to the opposite bank, where they landed and there came up\n the watch and guardians of the peace with chains, which they put round\n the robbers' necks. They chained me among the rest of them; and, O\n people, is it not a proof of my courtesy and spareness of speech, that\n I held my peace and did not please to speak? Then they took us away in\n bilbos and next morning carried us all before Al-Mustansir bi'llah,\n Commander of the Faithful, who bade smite the necks of the ten robbers.\n So the Sworder came forward after they were seated on the leather of\n blood:[634] then drawing his blade, struck off one head after another\n until he had smitten the neck of the tenth; and I alone remained. The\n Caliph looked at me and asked the Headsman, saying, \"What ails thee\n that thou hast struck off only nine heads?\"; and he answered, \"Allah\n forbid that I should behead only nine, when thou biddest me behead\n ten!\" Quoth the Caliph, \"Meseems thou hast smitten the necks of only\n nine, and this man before thee is the tenth.\" \"By thy beneficence!\"\n replied the Headsman, \"I have beheaded ten.\" \"Count them!\" cried the\n Caliph and whenas they counted heads, lo! there were ten. The Caliph\n looked at me and said, \"What made thee keep silence at a time like this\n and how camest thou to company with these men of blood. Tell me the\n cause of all this, for albeit thou art a very old man, assuredly thy\n wits are weak.\" Now when I heard these words from the Caliph I sprang\n to my feet and replied, \"Know, O Prince of the Faithful, that I am the\n Silent Shaykh and am thus called to distinguish me from my six\n brothers. I am a man of immense learning whilst, as for the gravity of\n my understanding, the wiliness of my wits and the spareness of my\n speech, there is no end to them; and my calling is that of a barber. I\n went out early on yesterday morning and saw these men making for a\n skiff; and, fancying they were bound for a marriage-feast, I joined\n them and mixed with them. After a while up came the watch and guardians\n of the peace, who put chains round their necks and round mine with the\n rest; but, in the excess of my courtesy, I held my peace and spake not\n a word; nor was this other but generosity on my part. They brought us\n into thy presence, and thou gavest an order to smite the necks of the\n ten; yet did I not make myself known to thee and remained silent before\n the Sworder, purely of my great generosity and courtesy which led me to\n share with them in their death. But all my life long have I dealt thus\n nobly with mankind, and they requite me the foulest and evillest\n requital!\" When the Caliph heard my words and knew that I was a man of\n exceeding generosity and of very few words, one in whom is no\n forwardness (as this youth would have it whom I rescued from mortal\n risk and who hath so scurvily repaid me), he laughed with excessive\n laughter till he fell upon his back. Then said he to me, \"O Silent Man,\n do thy six brothers favour thee in wisdom and knowledge and spareness\n of speech?\" I replied, \"Never were they like me! Thou puttest reproach\n upon me, O Commander of the Faithful, and it becomes thee not to even\n my brothers with me; for, of the abundance of their speech and their\n deficiency of courtesy and gravity, each one of them hath gotten some\n maim or other. One is a monocular, another palsied, a third\n stone-blind, a fourth cropped of ears and nose and a fifth shorn of\n both lips, while the sixth is a hunchback and a cripple. And conceive\n not, O Commander of the Faithful, that I am prodigal of speech; but I\n must perforce explain to thee that I am a man of greater worth and\n fewer words than any of them. From each one of my brothers hangs a tale\n of how he came by his bodily defect and these I will relate to thee.\"\n So the Caliph gave ear to\n\n\n _THE BARBER'S TALE OF HIS FIRST BROTHER._\n\n[Illustration]\n\n Know then, O Commander of the Faithful, that my first brother,\n Al-Bakbuk, the prattler, is a Hunchback who took to tailoring in\n Baghdad, and he used to sew in a shop hired from a man of much wealth,\n who dwelt over the shop,[635] and there was also a flour-mill in the\n basement. One day as my brother, the Hunchback, was sitting in his shop\n a-tailoring, he chanced to raise his head and saw a lady like the\n rising full moon at a balconied window of his landlord's house, engaged\n in looking out at the passers-by.[636] When my brother beheld her, his\n heart was taken with love of her and he passed his whole day gazing at\n her and neglected his tailoring till eventide. Next morning he opened\n his shop and sat him down to sew; but, as often as he stitched a\n stitch, he looked to the window and saw her as before; and his passion\n and infatuation for her increased. On the third day as he was sitting\n in his usual place, gazing on her, she caught sight of him and,\n perceiving that he had been captivated with love of her, laughed in his\n face,[637] and he smiled back at her. Then she disappeared and\n presently sent her slave-girl to him with a bundle containing a piece\n of red flowered silk. The handmaid accosted him and said, \"My lady\n salameth to thee and desireth thee, of thy skill and good will, to\n fashion for her a shift of this piece and to sew it handsomely with thy\n best sewing.\" He replied, \"Hearkening and obedience\"; and shaped for\n her a chemise and finished sewing it the same day. When the morning\n morrowed the girl came back and said to him, \"My lady salameth to thee\n and asks how thou hast passed yesternight; for she hath not tasted\n sleep by reason of her heart being taken up with thee.\" Then she laid\n before him a piece of yellow satin and said, \"My lady biddeth thee cut\n her two pair of petticoat-trousers out of this piece and sew them this\n very day.\" Hearkening and obedience!\" replied he, \"greet her for me\n with many greetings and say to her, Thy slave is obedient to thine\n order; so command him as thou wilt.\" Then he applied himself to cutting\n out and worked hard at sewing the trousers; and after an hour the lady\n appeared at the lattice and saluted him by signs, now casting down her\n eyes, then smiling in his face, and he began to assure himself that he\n would soon make a conquest. She did not let him stir till he had\n finished the two pair of trousers, when she withdrew and sent the\n handmaid to whom he delivered them; and she took them and went her\n ways. When it was night, he threw himself on his carpet-bed, and lay\n tossing about from side to side till morning, when he rose and sat down\n in his place. Presently the damsel came to him and said, \"My master\n calleth for thee.\" Hearing these words he feared with exceeding fear;\n but the slave-girl, seeing his affright, said to him, \"No evil is meant\n to thee: naught but good awaiteth thee. My lady would have thee make\n acquaintance with my lord.\" So my brother the tailor, rejoicing with\n great joy, went with her; and when he came into the presence of his\n landlord, the lady's husband, he kissed the ground before him, and the\n master of the house returned his greeting and gave him a great piece of\n linen saying, \"Shape me shirts out of this stuff and sew them well;\"\n and my brother answered, \"To hear is to obey.\" Thereupon he fell to\n work at once, snipping, shaping and sewing till he had finished twenty\n shirts by supper time, without stopping to taste food. The house-master\n asked him, \"How much the wage for this?\"; and he answered, \"Twenty\n dirhams.\" So the gentleman cried out to the slave-girl, \"Bring me\n twenty dirhams,\" and my brother spake not a word; but the lady signed,\n \"Take nothing from him;\" whereupon my brother said, \"By Allah I will\n take naught from thy hand.\" And he carried off his tailor's gear and\n returned to his shop, although he was destitute even to a red\n cent.[638] Then he applied himself to do their work; eating, in his\n zeal and diligence, but a bit of bread and drinking only a little water\n for three days. At the end of this time came the handmaid and said to\n him, \"What hast thou done?\" Quoth he, \"They are finished,\" and carried\n the shirts to the lady's husband, who would have paid him his hire: but\n he said, \"I will take nothing,\" for fear of her and, returning to his\n shop, passed the night without sleep because of his hunger. Now the\n dame had informed her husband how the case stood (my brother knowing\n naught of this); and the two had agreed to make him tailor for nothing,\n the better to mock and laugh at him. Next morning he went to his shop,\n and, as he sat there, the handmaid came to him and said, \"Speak with my\n master.\" So he accompanied her to the husband who said to him, \"I wish\n thee to cut out for me five long-sleeved robes.[639]\" So he cut them\n out[640] and took the stuff and went away. Then he sewed them and\n carried them to the gentleman, who praised his sewing and offered him a\n purse of silver. He put out his hand to take it, but the lady signed to\n him from behind her husband not to do so, and he replied, \"O my lord,\n there is no hurry, we have time enough for this.\" Then he went forth\n from the house meaner and meeker than a donkey, for verily five things\n were gathered together in him viz:\u2014love, beggary, hunger, nakedness and\n hard labour. Nevertheless he heartened himself with the hope of gaining\n the lady's favours. When he had made an end of all their jobs, they\n played him another trick and married him to their slave-girl; but, on\n the night when he thought to go in to her, they said to him, \"Lie this\n night in the mill; and to-morrow all will go well.\" My brother\n concluded that there was some good cause for this and nighted alone in\n the mill. Now the husband had set on the miller to make the tailor turn\n the mill: so when night was half spent the man came into him and began\n to say, \"This bull of ours hath become useless and standeth still\n instead of going round: he will not turn the mill this night, and yet\n we have great store of corn to be ground. However, I'll yoke him\n perforce and make him finish grinding it before morning, as the folk\n are impatient for their flour.\" So he filled the hoppers with grain\n and, going up to my brother with a rope in his hand, tied it round his\n neck and said to him, \"Gee up! Round with the mill! thou, O bull,\n wouldst do nothing but grub and stale and dung!\" Then he took a whip\n and laid it on the shoulders and calves of my brother, who began to\n howl and bellow; but none came to help him; and he was forced to grind\n the wheat till hard upon dawn, when the house-master came in and,\n seeing my brother still tethered to the yoke and the man flogging him,\n went away. At day-break the miller returned home and left him still\n yoked and half dead; and soon after in came the slave-girl who unbound\n him, and said to him, \"I and my lady are right sorry for what hath\n happened and we have borne thy grief with thee.\" But he had no tongue\n wherewith to answer her from excess of beating and mill-turning. Then\n he retired to his lodging and behold, the clerk who had drawn up the\n marriage-deed came to him[641] and saluted him, saying, \"Allah give\n thee long life! May thy espousal be blessed! This face telleth of\n pleasant doings and dalliance and kissing and clipping from dusk to\n dawn.\" \"Allah grant the liar no peace, O thou thousandfold cuckold!\",\n my brother replied, \"by Allah, I did nothing but turn the mill in the\n place of the bull all night till morning!\" \"Tell me thy tale,\" quoth\n he; and my brother recounted what had befallen him and he said, \"Thy\n star agrees not with her star; but an thou wilt I can alter the\n contract for thee,\" adding, \"'Ware lest another cheat be not in store\n for thee.\" And my brother answered him, \"See if thou have not another\n contrivance.\" Then the clerk left him and he sat in his shop, looking\n for some one to bring him a job whereby he might earn his day's bread.\n Presently the handmaid came to him and said, \"Speak with my lady.\"\n \"Begone, O my good girl,\" replied he, \"there shall be no more dealings\n between me and thy lady.\" The handmaid returned to her mistress and\n told her what my brother had said and presently she put her head out of\n the window, weeping and saying, \"Why, O my beloved, are there to be no\n more dealings 'twixt me and thee?\" But he made her no answer. Then she\n wept and conjured him, swearing that all which had befallen him in the\n mill was not sanctioned by her and that she was innocent of the whole\n matter. When he looked upon her beauty and loveliness and heard the\n sweetness of her speech, the sorrow which had possessed him passed from\n his heart; he accepted her excuse and he rejoiced in her sight. So he\n saluted her and talked with her and sat tailoring awhile, after which\n the handmaid came to him and said, \"My mistress greeteth thee and\n informeth thee that her husband purposeth to lie abroad this night in\n the house of some intimate friends of his; so, when he is gone, do thou\n come to us and spend the night with my lady in delightsomest joyance\n till the morning.\" Now her husband had asked her, \"How shall we manage\n to turn him away from thee?;\" and she answered, \"Leave me to play him\n another trick and make him a laughing-stock for all the town.\" But my\n brother knew naught of the malice of women. As soon as it was dusk, the\n slave-girl came to him and carried him to the house, and when the lady\n saw him she said to him, \"By Allah, O my lord, I have been longing\n exceedingly for thee.\" \"By Allah,\" cried he, \"kiss me quick before thou\n give me aught else.[642]\" Hardly had he spoken, when the lady's husband\n came in from the next room[643] and seized him, saying, \"By Allah, I\n will not let thee go, till I deliver thee to the chief of the town\n watch.\" My brother humbled himself to him; but he would not listen to\n him and carried him before the Prefect who gave him an hundred lashes\n with a whip and, mounting him on a camel, promenaded him round about\n the city, whilst the guards proclaimed aloud, \"This is his reward who\n violateth the Harims of honourable men!\" Moreover, he fell off the\n camel and broke his leg and so became lame. Then the Prefect banished\n him from the city; and he went forth unknowing whither he should wend;\n but I heard of him and fearing for him went out after him, and brought\n him back secretly to the city and restored him to health and took him\n into my house where he still liveth.\" The Caliph laughed at my story\n and said, \"Thou hast done well, O Samit, O Silent Man, O spare of\n speech!\"; and he bade me take a present and go away. But I said, \"I\n will accept naught of thee except I tell thee what befel all my other\n brothers; and do not think me a man of many words.\" So the Caliph gave\n ear to,\n\n\n _THE BARBER'S TALE OF HIS SECOND BROTHER._\n\n[Illustration]\n\n Know, O Commander of the Faithful, that my second brother's name was\n Al-Hadd\u00e1r, that is the babbler, and he was the paralytic. Now it\n happened to him one day, as he was going about his business, that an\n old woman accosted him and said, \"Stop a little, my good man, that I\n may tell thee of somewhat which, if it be to thy liking, thou shalt do\n for me and I will pray Allah to give thee good of it!\" My brother\n stopped and she went on, \"I will put thee in the way of a certain\n thing, so thou not be prodigal of speech.\" \"On with thy talk,\" quoth\n he; and she, \"What sayest thou to handsome quarters and a fair garden\n with flowing waters, flowers blooming, and fruit growing, and old wine\n going and a pretty young face whose owner thou mayest embrace from dark\n till dawn? If thou do whatso I bid thee thou shalt see something\n greatly to thy advantage.\" \"And is all this in the world?\" asked my\n brother; and she answered, \"Yes, and it shall be thine, so thou be\n reasonable and leave idle curiosity and many words, and do my bidding,\"\n \"I will indeed, O my lady,\" said he, \"how is it thou hast preferred me\n in this matter before all men and what is it that so much pleaseth thee\n in me?\" Quoth she, \"Did I not bid thee be spare of speech? Hold thy\n peace and follow me. Know, that the young lady, to whom I shall carry\n thee, loveth to have her own way and hateth being thwarted and all who\n gainsay; so, if thou humour her, thou shalt come to thy desire of her.\"\n And my brother said, \"I will not cross her in anything.\" Then she went\n on and my brother followed her, an-hungering after what she described\n to him till they entered a fine large house, handsome and choicely\n furnished, full of eunuchs and servants and showing signs of prosperity\n from top to bottom. And she was carrying him to the upper story when\n the people of the house said to him, \"What dost thou here?\" But the old\n woman answered them, \"Hold your peace and trouble him not: he is a\n workman and we have occasion for him.\" Then she brought him into a fine\n great pavilion, with a garden in its midst, never eyes saw a fairer;\n and made him sit upon a handsome couch. He had not sat long, before he\n heard a loud noise and in came a troop of slave-girls surrounding a\n lady like the moon on the night of its fullest. When he saw her, he\n rose up and made an obeisance to her, whereupon she welcomed him and\n bade him be seated. So he sat down and she said to him, \"Allah advance\n thee to honour! Is all well with thee?\" \"O my lady,\" he answered, \"all\n with me is right well.\" Then she bade bring in food, and they set\n before her delicate viands; so she sat down to eat, making a show of\n affection to my brother and jesting with him, though all the while she\n could not refrain from laughing; but as often as he looked at her, she\n signed towards her handmaidens as though she were laughing at them. My\n brother (the ass!) understood nothing; but, in the excess of his\n ridiculous passion, he fancied that the lady was in love with him and\n that she would soon grant him his desire. When they had done eating,\n they set on the wine and there came in ten maidens like moons, with\n lutes ready strung in their hands, and fell to singing with full\n voices, sweet and sad, whereupon delight gat hold upon him and he took\n the cup from the lady's hands and drank it standing. Then she drank a\n cup of wine and my brother (still standing) said to her \"Health,\" and\n bowed to her. She handed him another cup and he drank it off, when she\n slapped him hard on the nape of his neck.[644] Upon this my brother\n would have gone out of the house in anger; but the old woman followed\n him and winked to him to return. So he came back and the lady bade him\n sit and he sat down without a word. Then she again slapped him on the\n nape of his neck; and the second slapping did not suffice her, she must\n needs make all her handmaidens also slap and cuff him, while he kept\n saying to the old woman, \"I never saw aught nicer than this.\" She on\n her side ceased not exclaiming, \"Enough, enough, I conjure thee, O my\n mistress!\"; but the women slapped him till he well nigh swooned away.\n Presently my brother rose and went out to obey a call of nature, but\n the old woman overtook him, and said, \"Be patient a little and thou\n shalt win to thy wish.\" \"How much longer have I to wait,\" my brother\n replied, \"this slapping hath made me feel faint.\" \"As soon as she is\n warm with wine,\" answered she, \"thou shalt have thy desire.\" So he\n returned to his place and sat down, whereupon all the handmaidens stood\n up and the lady bade them perfume him with pastiles and besprinkle his\n face with rose-water. Then said she to him, \"Allah advance thee to\n honour! Thou hast entered my house and hast borne with my conditions,\n for whoso thwarteth me I turn him away, and whoso is patient hath his\n desire.\" \"O mistress mine,\" said he, \"I am thy slave and in the hollow\n of thine hand!\" \"Know, then,\" continued she, \"that Allah hath made me\n passionately fond of frolic; and whoso falleth in with my humour cometh\n by whatso he wisheth.\" Then she ordered her maidens to sing with loud\n voices till the whole company was delighted; after which she said to\n one of them, \"Take thy lord, and do what is needful for him and bring\n him back to me forthright.\" So the damsel took my brother (and he not\n knowing what she would do with him); but the old woman overtook him and\n said, \"Be patient; there remaineth but little to do.\" At this his face\n brightened and he stood up before the lady while the old woman kept\n saying, \"Be patient; thou wilt now at once win to thy wish!\"; till he\n said, \"Tell me what she would have the maiden do with me?\" \"Nothing but\n good,\" replied she, \"as I am thy sacrifice! She wisheth only to dye thy\n eyebrows and pluck out thy mustachios.\" Quoth he, \"As for the dyeing of\n my eyebrows, that will come off with washing,[645] but for the plucking\n out of my mustachios that indeed is a somewhat painful process.\" \"Be\n cautious how thou cross her,\" cried the old woman; \"for she hath set\n her heart on thee.\" So my brother patiently suffered her to dye his\n eyebrows and pluck out his mustachios; after which the maiden returned\n to her mistress and told her. Quoth she, \"Remaineth now only one other\n thing to be done; thou must shave his beard and make him a smooth o'\n face.[646]\" So the maiden went back and told him what her mistress had\n bidden her do; and my brother (the blockhead!) said to her, \"How shall\n I do what will disgrace me before the folk?\" But the old woman said,\n \"She would do on this wise only that thou mayst be as a beardless youth\n and that no hair be left on thy face to scratch and prick her delicate\n cheeks; for indeed she is passionately in love with thee. So be patient\n and thou shalt attain thine object.\" My brother _was_ patient and did\n her bidding and let shave off his beard and, when he was brought back\n to the lady, lo! he appeared dyed red as to his eyebrows, plucked of\n both mustachios, shorn of his beard, rouged on both cheeks. At first\n she was affrighted at him; then she made mockery of him and, laughing\n till she fell upon her back, said, \"O my lord, thou hast indeed won my\n heart by thy good nature!\" Then she conjured him, by her life, to stand\n up and dance, and he arose, and capered about, and there was not a\n cushion in the house but she threw it at his head, and in like manner\n did all her women who also kept pelting him with oranges and lemons and\n citrons till he fell down senseless from the cuffing on the nape of the\n neck, the pillowing and the fruit-pelting. \"Now thou hast attained thy\n wish,\" said the old woman when he came round; \"there are no more blows\n in store for thee and there remaineth but one little thing to do. It is\n her wont, when she is in her cups, to let no one have her until she put\n off her dress and trousers and remain stark naked.[647] Then she will\n bid thee doff thy clothes and run; and she will run before thee as if\n she were flying from thee; and do thou follow her from place to place\n till thy prickle stands at fullest point, when she will yield to\n thee[648];\" adding, \"Strip off thy clothes at once.\" So he rose, well\n nigh lost in ecstacy and, doffing his raiment, showed himself\n mother-naked.\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to\n say her permitted say.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n Now when it was the Thirty-Second Night,\n\n She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the old\n woman said to the Barber's second brother, \"Doff thy clothes,\" he rose,\n well nigh lost in ecstacy; and, stripping off his raiment, showed\n himself mother-naked. Whereupon the lady stripped also and said to my\n brother, \"If thou want anything run after me till thou catch me.\" Then\n she set out at a run and he ran after her while she rushed into room\n after room and rushed out of room after room, my brother scampering\n after her in a rage of desire like a veritable madman, with yard\n standing terribly tall. After much of this kind she dashed into a\n darkened place, and he dashed after her; but suddenly he trod upon a\n yielding spot, which gave way under his weight; and, before he was\n aware where he was, he found himself in the midst of a crowded market,\n part of the bazar of the leather-sellers who were crying the prices of\n skins and hides and buying and selling. When they saw him in his\n plight, naked, with standing yard, shorn of beard and moustachios, with\n eyebrows dyed red, and cheeks ruddled with rouge, they shouted and\n clapped their hands at him, and set to flogging him with skins upon his\n bare body till a swoon came over him. Then they threw him on the back\n of an ass and carried him to the Chief of Police. Quoth the Chief \"What\n is this?\" Quoth they, \"This fellow fell suddenly upon us out of the\n Wazir's house[649] in this state.\" So the Prefect gave him an hundred\n lashes and then banished him from Baghdad. However I went out after him\n and brought him back secretly into the city and made him a daily\n allowance for his living: although, were it not for my generous humour,\n I could not have put up with the like of him. Then the Caliph gave ear\n to\n\n\n _THE BARBER'S TALE OF HIS THIRD BROTHER._\n\n My third brother's name was Al-Fak\u00edk, the Gabbler, who was blind. One\n day Fate and Fortune drove him to a fine large house, and he knocked at\n the door, desiring speech of its owner that he might beg somewhat of\n him. Quoth the master of the house, \"Who is at the door?\" But my\n brother spake not a word and presently he heard him repeat with a loud\n voice, \"Who is this?\" Still he made no answer and immediately heard the\n master walk to the door and open it and say, \"What dost thou want?\" My\n brother answered \"Something for Allah Almighty's sake.[650]\" \"Art thou\n blind?\" asked the man, and my brother answered \"Yes.\" Quoth the other,\n \"Stretch me out thy hand.\" So my brother put out his hand thinking that\n he would give him something; but he took it and, drawing him into the\n house, carried him up from stair to stair till they reached the terrace\n on the house-top, my brother thinking the while that he would surely\n give him something of food or money. Then he asked my brother, \"What\n dost thou want, O blind man?\" and he answered, \"Something for the\n Almighty's sake.\" \"Allah open for thee some other door!\" \"O thou! why\n not say so when I was below stairs?\" \"O cadger, why not answer me when\n I first called to thee?\" \"And what meanest thou to do for me now?\"\n \"There is nothing in the house to give thee.\" \"Then take me down the\n stair.\" \"The path is before thee.\" So my brother rose and made his way\n downstairs, till he came within twenty steps of the door, when his foot\n slipped and he rolled to the bottom and broke his head. Then he went\n out, unknowing whither to turn, and presently fell in with two other\n blind men, companions of his, who said to him, \"What didst thou gain\n to-day?\" He told them what had befallen him and added, \"O my brothers,\n I wish to take some of the money in my hands and provide myself with\n it.\" Now the master of the house had followed him and was listening to\n what they said; but neither my brother nor his comrades knew of this.\n So my brother went to his lodging and sat down to await his companions,\n and the house-owner entered after him without being perceived. When the\n other blind men arrived, my brother said to them, \"Bolt the door and\n search the house lest any stranger have followed us.\" The man, hearing\n this, caught hold of a cord that hung from the ceiling and clung to it,\n whilst they went round about the house and searched but found no one.\n So they came back, and, sitting beside my brother, brought out their\n money which they counted and lo! it was twelve thousand dirhams. Each\n took what he wanted and they buried the rest in a corner of the room.\n Then they set on food and sat down, to eat. Presently my brother,\n hearing a strange pair of jaws munching by his side,[651] said to his\n friends, \"There is a stranger amongst us;\" and, putting forth his hand,\n caught hold of that of the house-master. Thereupon all fell on him and\n beat him;[652] and when tired of belabouring him they shouted, \"O ye\n Moslems! a thief is come in to us, seeking to take our money!\" A crowd\n gathered around them, whereupon the intruder hung on to them; and\n complained with them as they complained; and, shutting his eyes like\n them, so that none might doubt his blindness, cried out, \"O Moslems, I\n take refuge with Allah and the Governor, for I have a matter to make\n known to him!\" Suddenly up came the watch and, laying hands on the\n whole lot (my brother being amongst them), drove them[653] to the\n Governor's who set them before him and asked, \"What news with you?\"\n Quoth the intruder, \"Look and find out for thyself, not a word shall be\n wrung from us save by torture, so begin by beating me and after me beat\n this man our leader.\"[654] And he pointed to my brother. So they threw\n the man at full length and gave him four hundred sticks on his\n backside. The beating pained him, whereupon he opened one eye and, as\n they redoubled their blows, he opened the other eye. When the Governor\n saw this he said to him, \"What have we here, O accursed?\"; whereto he\n replied, \"Give me the seal-ring of pardon! We four have shammed blind,\n and we impose upon people that we may enter houses and look upon the\n unveiled faces of the women and contrive for their corruption. In this\n way we have gotten great gain and our store amounts to twelve thousand\n dirhams. Said I to my company:\u2014Give me my share, three thousand; but\n they rose and beat me and took away my money, and I seek refuge with\n Allah and with thee; better thou have my share than they. So, if thou\n wouldst know the truth of my words, beat one and every of the others\n more than thou hast beaten me, and he will surely open his eyes.\" The\n Governor gave orders for the question to begin with my brother, and\n they bound him to the whipping-post,[655] and the Governor said, \"O\n scum of the earth, do ye abuse the gracious gifts of Allah and make as\n if ye were blind!\" \"Allah! Allah!\" cried my brother, \"by Allah, there\n is none among us who can see.\" Then they beat him till he swooned away\n and the Governor cried, \"Leave him till he come to and then beat him\n again.\" After this he caused each of the companions to receive more\n than three hundred sticks, whilst the sham-abraham kept saying to them\n \"Open your eyes or you will be beaten afresh.\" At last the man said to\n the Governor, \"Dispatch some one with me to bring thee the money; for\n these fellows will not open their eyes, lest they incur disgrace before\n the folk.\" So the Governor sent to fetch the money and gave the man his\n pretended share, three thousand dirhams; and, keeping the rest for\n himself, banished the three blind men from the city. But I, O Commander\n of the Faithful, went out and overtaking my brother questioned him of\n his case; whereupon he told me of what I have told thee; so I brought\n him secretly into the city, and appointed him (in the strictest\n privacy) an allowance for meat and drink! The Caliph laughed at my\n story and said, \"Give him a gift and let him go;\" but I said, \"By\n Allah! I will take naught till I have made known to the Commander of\n the Faithful what came to pass with the rest of my brothers; for truly\n I am a man of few words and spare of speech.\" Then the Caliph gave ear\n to\n\n\n _THE BARBER'S TALE OF HIS FOURTH BROTHER._\n\n Now as for my fourth brother, O Commander of the Faithful, Al-Kuz\n al-asw\u00e1ni, or the long-necked Gugglet hight, from his brimming over\n with words, the same who was blind of one eye, he became a butcher in\n Baghdad and he sold flesh and fattened rams; and great men and rich\n bought their meat of him, so that he amassed much wealth and got him\n cattle and houses. He fared thus a long while, till one day, as he was\n sitting in his shop, there came up an old man and long o' the beard,\n who laid down some silver and said, \"Give me meat for this.\" He gave\n him his money's worth of flesh and the oldster went his ways. My\n brother examined the Shaykh's silver, and, seeing that the dirhams were\n white and bright, he set them in a place apart. The grey-beard\n continued to return to the shop regularly for five months, and my\n brother ceased not to lay up all the coin he received from him in its\n own box. At last he thought to take out the money to buy sheep; so he\n opened the box and found in it nothing, save bits of white paper cut\n round to look like coin[656]; so he buffetted his face and cried aloud\n till the folk gathered about him, whereupon he told them his tale which\n made them marvel exceedingly. Then he rose as was his wont, and\n slaughtering a ram hung it up inside his shop; after which he cut off\n some of the flesh, and hanging it outside kept saying to himself, \"O\n Allah, would the ill-omened old fellow but come!\" And an hour had not\n passed before the Shaykh came with his silver in hand; whereupon my\n brother rose and caught hold of him calling out, \"Come aid me, O\n Moslems, and learn my story with this villain!\" When the old man heard\n this, he quietly said to him, \"Which will be the better for thee, to\n let go of me or to be disgraced by me amidst the folk?\" \"In what wilt\n thou disgrace me?\" \"In that thou sellest man's flesh for mutton!\" \"Thou\n liest, thou accursed!\" \"Nay, he is the accursed who hath a man hanging\n up by way of meat in his shop.\" \"If the matter be as thou sayest, I\n give thee lawful leave to take my money and my life.\" Then the old man\n cried out aloud, \"Ho, ye people! if you would prove the truth of my\n words, enter this man's shop.\" The folk rushed in and found that the\n ram was become a dead man[657] hung up for sale. So they set upon my\n brother crying out, \"O Infidel! O villain!\"; and his best friends fell\n to cuffing and kicking him and kept saying, \"Dost thou make us eat\n flesh of the sons of Adam?\" Furthermore, the old man struck him on the\n eye and put it out. Then they carried the carcass, with the throat cut,\n before the Chief of the city-watch, to whom the old man said, \"O Emir,\n this fellow butchers men and sells their flesh for mutton and we have\n brought him to thee; so arise and execute the judgments of Allah (to\n whom be honour and glory!)\" My brother would have defended himself, but\n the Chief refused to hear him and sentenced him to receive five hundred\n sticks and to forfeit the whole of his property. And, indeed, had it\n not been for that same property which he expended in bribes, they would\n have surely slain him. Then the Chief banished him from Baghdad; and my\n brother fared forth at a venture, till he came to a great town, where\n he thought it best to set up as a cobbler; so he opened a shop and sat\n there doing what he could for his livelihood. One day, as he went forth\n on his business, he heard the distant tramp of horses and, asking the\n cause, was told that the King was going out to hunt and course; so my\n brother stopped to look at the fine suite. It so fortuned that the\n King's eye met my brother's; whereupon the King hung down his head and\n said, \"I seek refuge with Allah from the evil of this day!\"[658]; and\n turned the reins of his steed and returned home with all his retinue.\n Then he gave orders to his guards, who seized my brother and beat him\n with a beating so painful that he was well-nigh dead; and my brother\n knew not what could be the cause of his maltreatment, after which he\n returned to his place in sorriest plight. Soon afterwards he went to\n one of the King's household and related what had happened to him; and\n the man laughed till he fell upon his back and cried, \"O brother mine,\n know that the King cannot bear to look at a monocular, especially if he\n be blind of the right eye, in which case he doth not let him go without\n killing him.\" When my brother heard this, he resolved to fly from that\n city; so he went forth from it to another wherein none knew him and\n there he abode a long while. One day, being full of sorrowful thought\n for what had befallen him, he sallied out to solace himself; and, as he\n was walking along, he heard the distant tramp of horses behind him and\n said, \"The judgment of Allah is upon me!\" and looked about for a\n hiding-place but found none. At last he saw a closed door which he\n pushed hard: it yielded and he entered a long gallery in which he took\n refuge, but hardly had he done so, when two men set upon him crying\n out, \"Allah be thanked for having delivered thee into our hands, O\n enemy of God! These three nights thou hast robbed us of our rest and\n sleep, and verily thou hast made us taste of the death-cup.\" My brother\n asked, \"O folk, what ails you?\"; and they answered, \"Thou givest us the\n change and goest about to disgrace us and plannest some plot to cut the\n throat of the house-master! Is it not enough that thou hast brought him\n to beggary, thou and thy fellows? But now give us up the knife\n wherewith thou threatenest us every night.\" Then they searched him and\n found in his waist-belt the knife used for his shoe-leather; and he\n said, \"O people, have the fear of Allah before your eyes and maltreat\n me not, for know that my story is a right strange!\" \"And what is thy\n story?\" said they; so he told them what had befallen him, hoping they\n would let him go; however they paid no heed to what he said and,\n instead of showing some regard, beat him grievously and tore off his\n clothes: then, finding on his sides the scars of beating with rods,\n they said, \"O accursed! these marks are the manifest signs of thy\n guilt!\" They carried him before the Governor, whilst he said to\n himself, \"I am now punished for my sins and none can deliver me save\n Allah Almighty!\" The Governor addressing my brother asked him, \"O\n villain, what led thee to enter their house with intention to\n murther?\"; and my brother answered, \"I conjure thee by Allah, O Emir,\n hear my words and be not hasty in condemning me!\". But the Governor\n cried, \"Shall we listen to the words of a robber who hath beggared\n these people, and who beareth on his back the scar of his stripes?\"\n adding, \"They surely had not done this to thee, save for some great\n crime.\" So he sentenced him to receive an hundred cuts with the\n scourge, after which they set him on a camel and paraded him about the\n city, proclaiming, \"This is the requital and only too little to requite\n him who breaketh into people's houses.\" Then they thrust him out of the\n city, and my brother wandered at random, till I heard what had befallen\n him; and, going in search of him, questioned him of his case; so he\n acquainted me with his story and all his mischances, and I carried him\n secretly to the city where I made him an allowance for his meat and\n drink. Then the Caliph gave ear to\n\n\n _THE BARBER'S TALE OF HIS FIFTH BROTHER._\n\n My fifth brother Al-Nashsh\u00e1r,[659] the Babbler, the same who was\n cropped of both ears, O Commander of the Faithful, was an asker wont\n to beg of folk by night and live on their alms by day. Now when our\n father, who was an old man well stricken in years, sickened and died,\n he left us seven hundred dirhams whereof each son took his hundred;\n but, as my fifth brother received his portion, he was perplexed and\n knew not what to do with it. While in this uncertainty he bethought\n him to lay it out on glass-ware of all sorts and turn an honest penny\n on its price. So he bought an hundred dirhams worth of verroterie\n and, putting it into a big tray, sat down to sell it on a bench at\n the foot of a wall against which he leant back. As he sat with the\n tray before him he fell to musing and said to himself, \"Know, O my\n good Self, that the head of my wealth, my principal invested in this\n glass-ware, is an hundred dirhams. I will assuredly sell it for two\n hundred, with which I will forthright buy other glass and make by it\n four hundred; nor will I cease to sell and buy on this wise, till I\n have gotten four thousand and soon find myself the master of much\n money. With these coins I will buy merchandize and jewels and\n ottars[660] and gain great profit on them; till, Allah willing, I\n will make my capital an hundred thousand dirhams. Then I will\n purchase a fine house with white slaves and eunuchs and horses; and I\n will eat and drink and disport myself; nor will I leave a singing man\n or a singing woman in the city, but I will summon them to my palace\n and make them perform before me.\" All this he counted over in his\n mind, while the tray of glass-ware, worth an hundred dirhams, stood\n on the bench before him, and, after looking at it, he continued, \"And\n when, Inshallah! my capital shall have become one hundred\n thousand[661] dinars, I will send out marriage-brokeresses to require\n for me in wedlock the daughters of Kings and Wazirs; and I will\n demand to wife the eldest daughter of the Prime Minister; for it hath\n reached me that she is perfect in beauty and prime in loveliness and\n rare in accomplishments. I will give a marriage-settlement of one\n thousand dinars; and, if her father consent, well: but if not I will\n take her by force from under his very nose. When she is safely homed\n in my house, I will buy ten little eunuchs[662] and for myself a robe\n of the robes of Kings and Sultans; and get me a saddle of gold and a\n bridle set thick with gems of price. Then I will mount with the\n Mamelukes preceding me and surrounding me, and I will make the round\n of the city whilst the folk salute me and bless me; after which I\n will repair to the Wazir (he that is father of the girl), with armed\n white slaves before and behind me and on my right and on my left.\n When he sees me, the Wazir stands up, and seating me in his own place\n sits down much below me; for that I am to be his son-in-law. Now I\n have with me two eunuchs carrying purses, each containing a thousand\n dinars; and of these I deliver to him the thousand, his daughter's\n marriage-settlement, and make him a free gift of the other thousand,\n that he may have reason to know my generosity and liberality and my\n greatness of spirit and the littleness of the world in my eyes. And\n for ten words he addresses to me I answer him two. Then back I go to\n my house, and if one come to me on the bride's part, I make him a\n present of money and throw on him a dress of honour; but if he bring\n me a gift, I give it back to him and refuse to accept it,[663] that\n they may learn what a proud spirit is mine which never condescends to\n derogate. Thus I establish my rank and status. When this is done I\n appoint her wedding night and adorn my house showily! gloriously! And\n as the time for parading the bride is come, I don my finest attire\n and sit down on a mattress of gold brocade, propping up my elbow with\n a pillow, and turning neither to the right nor to the left; but\n looking only straight in front for the haughtiness of my mind and the\n gravity of my understanding. And there before me stands my wife in\n her raiment and ornaments, lovely as the full moon; and I, in my\n loftiness and dread lordliness,[664] will not glance at her till\n those present say to me, \"O our lord and our master, thy wife, thy\n handmaid, standeth before thee; vouchsafe her one look for standing\n wearieth her.\" Then they kiss the ground before me many times;\n whereupon I raise my eyes and cast at her one single glance and turn\n my face earthwards again. Then they bear her off to the\n bride-chamber,[665] and I arise and change my clothes for a far finer\n suit; and, when they bring in the bride a second time, I deign not to\n throw her a look till they have begged me many times; after which I\n glance at her out of the corner of one eye, and then bend down my\n head. I continue acting after this fashion till the parading and\n displaying are completed\"[666]\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of\n day and ceased saying her permitted say.\n\n Now when it was the Thirty-Third Night,\n\n She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Barber's\n fifth brother proceeded:\u2014Then I bend down my head and continue acting\n after this fashion till her parading and displaying are completed.\n Thereupon I order one of my eunuchs to bring me a bag of five hundred\n dinars which I give as largesse to the tirewomen present and bid them\n one and all lead me to the bride-chamber. When they leave me alone with\n her I neither look at her nor speak to her, but lie[667] by her side\n with my face to the wall showing my contempt, that each and every may\n again remark how high and haughty I am. Presently her mother comes in\n to me; and kissing[668] my head and hand, says to me, \"O my lord, look\n upon thine handmaid who longs for thy favour; so heal her broken\n spirit!\" I give her no answer; and when she sees this she rises and\n busses my feet many times and says, \"O my lord, in very sooth my\n daughter is a beautiful maid, who hath never known man; and if thou\n show her this backwardness and aversion, her heart will break; so do\n thou incline to her and speak to her and soothe her mind and spirit.\"\n Then she rises and fetches a cup of wine; and says to her daughter,\n \"Take it and hand it to thy lord.\" But as she approaches me I leave her\n standing between my hands and sit, propping my elbow on a round cushion\n purfled with gold thread, leaning lazily back, and without looking at\n her in the majesty of my spirit, so that she may deem me indeed a\n Sultan and a mighty man. Then she says to me, \"O my lord, Allah upon\n thee, do not refuse to take the cup from the hand of thine handmaid,\n for verily I am thy bondswoman.\" But I do not speak to her and she\n presses me, saying, \"There is no help but that thou drink it;\" and she\n puts it to my lips. Then I shake my fist in her face and kick her with\n my foot thus. So he let out with his toe and knocked over the tray of\n glass-ware which fell to the ground and, falling from the bench, all\n that was on it was broken to bits. \"O foulest of pimps,[669] this comes\n from the pride of my spirit!\" cried my brother; and then, O Commander\n of the Faithful, he buffeted his face and rent his garments, and kept\n on weeping and beating himself. The folk who were flocking to their\n Friday prayers saw him; and some of them looked at him and pitied him,\n whilst others paid no heed to him, and in this way my brother lost both\n capital and profit. He remained weeping a long while, and at last up\n came a beautiful lady, the scent of musk exhaling from her, who was\n going to Friday prayers riding a mule with a gold saddle and followed\n by several eunuchs. When she saw the broken glass and my brother\n weeping, her kind heart was moved to pity for him, and she asked what\n ailed him and was told that he had a tray full of glass-ware by the\n sale of which he hoped to gain his living, but it was broken, and (said\n they), \"there befel him what thou seest.\" Thereupon she called up one\n of her eunuchs and said to him, \"Give what thou hast with thee to this\n poor fellow!\" And he gave my brother a purse in which he found five\n hundred dinars; and when it touched his hand he was well-nigh dying for\n excess of joy and he offered up blessings for her. Then he returned to\n his abode a substantial man; and, as he sat considering, some one\n rapped at the door. So he rose and opened and saw an old woman whom he\n had never seen. \"O my son,\" said she, \"know that prayertide is near and\n I have not yet made my Wuzu-ablution[670]; so kindly allow me the use\n of thy lodging for the purpose.\" My brother answered, \"To hear is to\n comply;\" and going in bade her follow him. So she entered and he\n brought her an ewer wherewith to wash, and sat down like to fly with\n joy because of the dinars which he had tied up in his belt for a purse.\n When the old woman had made an end of her ablution, she came up to\n where he sat, and prayed a two-bow prayer; after which she blessed my\n brother with a godly benediction, and he while thanking her put his\n hand to the dinars and gave her two, saying to himself \"These are my\n voluntaries.\"[671] When she saw the gold she cried, \"Praise be to\n Allah! why dost thou look on one who loveth thee as if she were a\n beggar? Take back thy money: I have no need of it; or, if thou want it\n not, return it to her who gave it thee when thy glass-ware was broken.\n Moreover, if thou wish to be united with her, I can manage the matter,\n for she is my mistress.\" \"O my mother,\" asked my brother, \"by what\n manner of means can I get at her?\"; and she answered, \"O my son! she\n hath an inclination for thee, but she is the wife of a wealthy man; so\n take the whole of thy money with thee and follow me, that I may guide\n thee to thy desire: and when thou art in her company spare neither\n persuasion nor fair words, but bring them all to bear upon her; so\n shalt thou enjoy her beauty and wealth to thy heart's content.\" My\n brother took all his gold and rose and followed the old woman, hardly\n believing in his luck. She ceased not faring on, and my brother\n following her, till they came to a tall gate at which she knocked and a\n Roumi slave-girl[672] came out and opened to them. Then the old woman\n led my brother into a great sitting-room spread with wondrous fine\n carpets and hung with curtains, where he sat down with his gold before\n him, and his turband on his knee.[673] He had scarcely taken seat\n before there came to him a young lady (never eye saw fairer) clad in\n garments of the most sumptuous; whereupon my brother rose to his feet,\n and she smiled in his face and welcomed him, signing to him to be\n seated. Then she bade shut the door and, when it was shut, she turned\n to my brother, and taking his hand conducted him to a private chamber\n furnished with various kinds of brocades and gold-cloths. Here he sat\n down and she sat by his side and toyed with him awhile; after which she\n rose and saying, \"Stir not from thy seat till I come back to thee;\"\n disappeared. Meanwhile as he was on this wise, lo! there came in to him\n a black slave big of body and bulk and holding a drawn sword in hand,\n who said to him, \"Woe to thee! Who brought thee hither and what dost\n thou want here?\" My brother could not return him a reply, being\n tongue-tied for terror; so the blackamoor seized him and stripped him\n of his clothes and bashed him with the flat of his sword-blade till he\n fell to the ground, swooning from excess of belabouring. The ill-omened\n nigger fancied that there was an end of him and my brother heard him\n cry, \"Where is the salt-wench?\"[674] Whereupon in came a handmaid\n holding in hand a large tray of salt, and the slave kept rubbing it\n into my brother's wounds;[675] but he did not stir fearing lest the\n slave might find out that he was not dead and kill him outright. Then\n the salt-girl went away, and the slave cried \"Where is the\n souterrain[676]-guardianess?\" Hereupon in came the old woman and\n dragged my brother by his feet to a souterrain and threw him down upon\n a heap of dead bodies. In this place he lay two full days, but Allah\n made the salt the means of preserving his life by staunching the blood\n and staying its flow. Presently, feeling himself able to move,\n Al-Nashsh\u00e1r rose and opened the trap-door in fear and trembling and\n crept out into the open; and Allah protected him, so that he went on in\n the darkness and hid himself in the vestibule till dawn, when he saw\n the accursed beldam sally forth in quest of other quarry. He followed\n in her wake without her knowing it, and made for his own lodging where\n he dressed his wounds and medicined himself till he was whole.\n Meanwhile he used to watch the old woman, tracking her at all times and\n seasons, and saw her accost one man after another and carry them to the\n house. However he uttered not a word; but, as soon as he waxed hale and\n hearty, he took a piece of stuff and made it into a bag which he filled\n with broken glass and bound about his middle. He also disguised himself\n as a Persian that none might know him, and hid a sword under his\n clothes of foreign cut. Then he went out and presently, falling in with\n the old woman, said to her, speaking Arabic with a Persian accent,\n \"Venerable lady,[677] I am a stranger arrived but this day here where I\n know no one. Hast thou a pair of scales wherein I may weigh eleven\n hundred dinars? I will give thee somewhat of them for thy pains.\" \"I\n have a son, a money-changer, who keepeth all kinds of scales,\" she\n answered, \"so come with me to him before he goeth out and he will weigh\n thy gold.\" My brother answered \"Lead the way!\" She led him to the house\n and the young lady herself came out and opened it, whereupon the old\n woman smiled in her face and said, \"I bring thee fat meat to-day.\"[678]\n Then the damsel took my brother by the hand, and led him to the same\n chamber as before; where she sat with him awhile then rose and went\n forth saying, \"Stir not from thy seat till I come back to thee.\"\n Presently in came the accursed slave with the drawn sword and cried to\n my brother, \"Up and be damned to thee!\" So he rose, and as the slave\n walked on before him he drew the sword from under his clothes and smote\n him with it, making head fly from body. Then he dragged the corpse by\n the feet to the souterrain and called out, \"Where is the salt-wench?\"\n Up came the girl carrying the tray of salt and, seeing my brother sword\n in hand, turned to fly; but he followed her and struck off her head.\n Then he called out \"Where is the souterrain-guardianess?\"; and in came\n the old woman to whom he said, \"Dost know me again, O ill-omened hag?\"\n \"No my lord,\" she replied, and he said, \"I am the owner of the five\n hundred gold pieces, whose house thou enteredst to make the ablution\n and to pray, and whom thou didst snare hither and betray.\" \"Fear Allah\n and spare me,\" cried she; but he regarded her not and struck her with\n the sword till he had cut her in four. Then he went to look for the\n young lady; and when she saw him her reason fled and she cried out\n piteously \"Am\u00e1n![679] Mercy!\" So he spared her and asked, \"What made\n thee consort with this blackamoor?;\" and she answered, \"I was slave to\n a certain merchant, and the old woman used to visit me till I took a\n liking to her. One day she said to me:\u2014We have a marriage festival at\n our house the like of which was never seen and I wish thee to enjoy the\n sight. To hear is to obey, answered I and rising arrayed myself in my\n finest raiment and ornaments, and took with me a purse containing an\n hundred gold pieces. Then she brought me hither and hardly had I\n entered the house when the black seized on me, and I have remained in\n this case three whole years through the perfidy of the accursed\n beldam.\" Then my brother asked her, \"Is there anything of his in the\n house?\"; whereto she answered, \"Great store of wealth, and if thou art\n able to carry it away, do so and Allah give thee good of it!\" My\n brother went with her and she opened to him sundry chests wherein were\n money bags, at which he was astounded; then she said to him, \"Go now\n and leave me here, and fetch men to remove the money.\" He went out and\n hired ten men, but when he returned he found the door wide open, the\n damsel gone and nothing left but some small matter of coin and the\n household stuffs.[680] By this he knew that the girl had overreached\n him; so he opened the store rooms and seized what was in them, together\n with the rest of the money, leaving nothing in the house. He passed the\n night rejoicing, but when morning dawned he found at the door some\n twenty troopers who laid hands on him saying, \"The Governor wants\n thee!\" My brother implored them hard to let him return to his house;\n and even, offered them a large sum of money; but they refused and,\n binding him fast with cords, carried him off. On the way they met a\n friend of my brother who clung to his skirt and implored his\n protection, begging him to stand by him and help to deliver him out of\n their hands. The man stopped, and asked them what was the matter, and\n they answered, \"The Governor hath ordered us to bring this fellow\n before him and, look ye, we are doing so.\" My brother's friend urged\n them to release him, and offered them five hundred dinars to let him\n go, saying, \"When ye return to the Governor tell him that you were\n unable to find him.\" But they would not listen to his words and took my\n brother, dragging him along on his face, and set him before the\n Governor who asked him, \"Whence gottest thou these stuffs and monies?\";\n and he answered, \"I pray for mercy!\" So the Governor gave him the\n kerchief of mercy;[681] and he told him all that had befallen him from\n first to last with the old woman and the flight of the damsel; ending\n with, \"Whatso I have taken, take of it what thou wilt, so thou leave me\n sufficient to support life.\"[682] But the Governor took the whole of\n the stuffs and all the money for himself; and, fearing lest the affair\n come to the Sultan's ears, he summoned my brother and said, \"Depart\n from this city, else I will hang thee.\" \"Hearing and obedience\" quoth\n my brother and set out for another town. On the way thieves fell foul\n of him and stripped and beat him and docked his ears; but I heard\n tidings of his misfortunes and went out after him taking him clothes;\n and brought him secretly into the city where I assigned to him an\n allowance for meat and drink. And presently the Caliph gave ear to,\n\n\n _THE BARBER'S TALE OF HIS SIXTH BROTHER._\n\n My sixth brother, O Commander of the Faithful, Shakashik,[683] or\n Many-clamours, the shorn of both lips, was once rich and became poor;\n so one day he went out to beg somewhat to keep life in him. As he was\n on the road he suddenly caught sight of a large and handsome mansion,\n with a detached building wide and lofty at the entrance, where sat\n sundry eunuchs bidding and forbidding.[684] My brother enquired of one\n of those idling there and he replied. \"The palace belongs to a scion of\n the Barmaki house;\" so he stepped up to the door-keepers and asked an\n alms of them. \"Enter,\" said they, \"by the great gate and thou shalt get\n what thou seekest from the Wazir our master.\" Accordingly he went in\n and, passing through the outer entrance, walked on a while and\n presently came to a mansion of the utmost beauty and elegance, paved\n with marble, hung with curtains and having in the midst of it a flower\n garden whose like he had never seen.[685] My brother stood awhile as\n one bewildered not knowing whither to turn his steps; then, seeing the\n farther end of the sitting-chamber tenanted, he walked up to it and\n there found a man of handsome presence and comely beard. When this\n personage saw my brother he stood up to him and welcomed him and asked\n him of his case; whereto he replied that he was in want and needed\n charity. Hearing these words the grandee showed great concern and,\n putting his hand to his fine robe, rent it exclaiming, \"What! am I in a\n city, and thou here an-hungered? I have not patience to bear such\n disgrace!\" Then he promised him all manner of good cheer and said,\n \"There is no help but that thou stay with me and eat of my salt.[686]\"\n \"O my lord,\" answered my brother, \"I can wait no longer; for I am\n indeed dying of hunger.\" So he cried, \"Ho boy! bring basin and ewer;\"\n and, turning to my brother, said, \"O my guest come forward and wash thy\n hands.\" My brother rose to do so but he saw neither ewer nor basin; yet\n his host kept washing his hands with invisible soap in imperceptible\n water and cried, \"Bring the table!\" But my brother again saw nothing.\n Then said the host, \"Honour me by eating of this meat and be not\n ashamed.\" And he kept moving his hand to and fro as if he ate and\n saying to my brother, \"I wonder to see thee eating thus sparely: do not\n stint thyself for I am sure thou art famished.\" So my brother began to\n make as though he were eating whilst his host kept saying to him, \"Fall\n to, and note especially the excellence of this bread and its\n whiteness!\" But still my brother saw nothing. Then said he to himself,\n \"This man is fond of poking fun at people;\" and replied, \"O my lord, in\n all my days I never knew aught more winsome than its whiteness or\n sweeter than its savour.\" The Barmecide said, \"This bread was baked by\n a handmaid of mine whom I bought for five hundred dinars.\" Then he\n called out, \"Ho boy, bring in the meat pudding[687] for our first dish,\n and let there be plenty of fat in it;\" and, turning to my brother said,\n \"O my guest, Allah upon thee, hast ever seen anything better than this\n meat-pudding? Now by my life, eat and be not abashed.\" Presently he\n cried out again, \"Ho boy, serve up the marinated stew[688] with the\n fatted sand-grouse in it;\" and he said to my brother, \"Up and eat, O my\n guest, for truly thou art hungry and needest food.\" So my brother began\n wagging his jaws and made as if champing and chewing,[689] whilst the\n host continued calling for one dish after another and yet produced\n nothing save orders to eat. Presently he cried out, \"Ho boy, bring us\n the chickens stuffed with pistachio nuts;\" and said to my brother, \"By\n thy life, O my guest, I have fattened these chickens upon pistachios;\n eat, for thou hast never eaten their like.\" \"O my lord,\" replied my\n brother, \"they are indeed first-rate.\" Then the host began motioning\n with his hand as though he were giving my brother a mouthful; and\n ceased not to enumerate and expatiate upon the various dishes to the\n hungry man whose hunger waxt still more violent, so that his soul\n lusted after a bit of bread, even a barley-scone.[690] Quoth the\n Barmecide, \"Didst thou ever taste anything more delicious than the\n seasoning of these dishes?\"; and quoth my brother, \"Never O my lord!\"\n \"Eat heartily and be not ashamed,\" said the host, and the guest, \"I\n have eaten my fill of meat.\" So the entertainer cried, \"Take away and\n bring in the sweets;\" and turning to my brother said, \"Eat of this\n almond conserve for it is prime and of these honey fritters; take this\n one, by my life, the syrup runs out of it.\" \"May I never be bereaved of\n thee, O my lord,\" replied the hungry one and began to ask him about the\n abundance of musk in the fritters. \"Such is my custom,\" he answered:\n \"they put me a dinar-weight of musk in every honey-fritter and half\n that quantity of ambergris.\" All this time my brother kept wagging head\n and jaws till the master cried, \"Enough of this. Bring us the dessert!\"\n Then said he to him, \"Eat of these almonds and walnuts and raisins; and\n of this and that (naming divers kinds of dried fruits), and be not\n abashed.\" But my brother replied, \"O my lord, indeed I am full: I can\n eat no more.\" \"O my guest,\" repeated the host, \"if thou have a mind to\n these good things eat: Allah! Allah![691] do not remain hungry;\" but my\n brother rejoined, \"O my lord, he who hath eaten of all these dishes how\n can he be hungry?\" Then he considered and said to himself, \"I will do\n that shall make him repent of these pranks.\" Presently the entertainer\n called out \"Bring me the wine;\" and, moving his hands in the air, as\n though they had set it before them, he gave my brother a cup and said,\n \"Take this cup and, if it please thee, let me know.\" \"O my lord,\" he\n replied, \"it is notable good as to nose but I am wont to drink wine\n some twenty years old.\" \"Knock then at this door,[692]\" quoth the host,\n \"for thou canst not drink of aught better.\" \"By thy kindness,\" said my\n brother, motioning with his hand as though he were drinking. \"Health\n and joy to thee,\" exclaimed the house-master and feigned to fill a cup\n and drink it off; then he handed another to my brother who quaffed it\n and made as if he were drunken. Presently he took the host unawares;\n and, raising his arm till the white of his armpit appeared, dealt him\n such a cuff on the nape of his neck that the palace echoed to it. Then\n he came down upon him with a second cuff and the entertainer cried\n aloud, \"What is this, O thou scum of the earth?\" \"O my lord,\" replied\n my brother, \"thou hast shown much kindness to thy slave, and admitted\n him into thine abode and given him to eat of thy victual; then thou\n madest him drink of thine old wine till he became drunken and\n boisterous; but thou art too noble not to bear with his ignorance and\n pardon his offence.\" When the Barmaki heard my brother's words he\n laughed his loudest and said, \"Long have I been wont to make mock of\n men and play the madcap among my intimates, but never yet have I come\n across a single one who had the patience and the wit to enter into all\n my humours save thyself: so I forgive thee, and thou shalt be my\n boon-companion in very sooth and never leave me.\" Then he ordered the\n servants to lay the table in earnest and they set on all the dishes of\n which he had spoken in sport; and he and my brother ate till they were\n satisfied; after which they removed to the drinking-chamber, where they\n found damsels like moons who sang all manner songs and played on all\n manner instruments. There they remained drinking till their wine got\n the better of them and the host treated my brother like a familiar\n friend, so that he became as it were his brother, and bestowed on him a\n robe of honour and loved him with exceeding love. Next morning the two\n fell again to feasting and carousing, and ceased not to lead this life\n for a term of twenty years; at the end of which the Barmecide died and\n the Sultan took possession of all his wealth and squeezed my brother of\n his savings, till he was left a pauper without a penny to handle. So he\n quitted the city and fled forth following his face;[693] but, when he\n was half way between two towns, the wild Arabs fell on him and bound\n him and carried him to their camp, where his captor proceeded to\n torture him, saying, \"Buy thy life of me with thy money, else I will\n slay thee!\" My brother began to weep and replied, \"By Allah, I have\n nothing, neither gold nor silver; but I am thy prisoner; so do with me\n what thou wilt.\" Then the Badawi drew a knife, broad-bladed and so\n sharp-grinded that if plunged into a camel's throat[694] it would sever\n it clean across from one jugular to the other, and cut off my brother's\n lips and waxed more instant in requiring money. Now this Badawi had a\n fair wife who in her husband's absence used to make advances to my\n brother and offer him her favours, but he held off from her. One day\n she began to tempt him as usual and he played with her and made her sit\n on his lap, when behold, in came the Badawi who, seeing this, cried\n out, \"Woe to thee, O accursed villain, wouldest thou debauch my wife\n for me?\" Then he took out a knife and cut off my brother's yard, after\n which he bound him on the back of a camel and, carrying him to a\n mountain, left him there. He was at last found by some who recognised\n him and gave him meat and drink and acquainted me with his condition;\n whereupon I went forth to him and brought him back to Baghdad where I\n made him an allowance sufficient to live on. This, then, O Commander of\n the Faithful, is the history of my six brothers and I feared to go away\n without relating it all to thee and leave thee in the error of judging\n me to be like them. And now thou knowest that I have six brothers upon\n my hands and, being more upright than they, I support the whole family.\n When the Caliph heard my story and all I told him concerning my\n brothers, he laughed and said, \"Thou sayest sooth, O Silent Man! thou\n art indeed spare of speech nor is there aught of forwardness in thee;\n but now go forth out of this city and settle in some other.\" And he\n banished me under edict. I left Baghdad and travelled in foreign parts\n till I heard of his death and the accession of another to the\n Caliphate. Then I returned to Baghdad where I found all my brothers\n dead and chanced upon this young man, to whom I rendered the kindliest\n service, for without me he had surely been killed. Indeed he slanders\n me and accuses me of a fault which is not in my nature; and what he\n reports concerning impudence and meddling and forwardness is idle and\n false; for verily on his account I left Baghdad and travelled about\n full many a country till I came to this city and met him here in your\n company. And was not this, O worthy assemblage, of the generosity of my\n nature?\n\n\n _THE END OF THE TAILOR'S TALE._\n\n Then quoth the Tailor to the King of China:\u2014When we heard the Barber's\n tale and saw the excess of his loquacity and the way in which he had\n wronged this young man, we laid hands on him and shut him up, after\n which we sat down in peace, and ate and drank and enjoyed the good\n things of the marriage-feast till the time of the call to mid-afternoon\n prayer, when I left the party and returned home. My wife received me\n with sour looks and said, \"Thou goest a-pleasuring among thy friends\n and thou leavest me to sit sorrowing here alone. So now, unless thou\n take me abroad and let me have some amusement for the rest of the day,\n I will cut the rope[695] and it will be the cause of my separation from\n thee.\" So I took her out and we amused ourselves till supper time, when\n we returned home and fell in with this Hunchback who was brimful of\n drink and trolling out these rhymes:\u2014\n\n Clear's the wine, the cup's fine; \u273f Like to like they combine:\n It is wine and not cup! \u273f 'Tis a cup and not wine!\n\n So I invited him to sup with us and went out to buy fried fish; after\n which we sat down to eat; and presently my wife took a piece of bread\n and a fid of fish and stuffed them into his mouth and he choked; and,\n though I slapped him long and hard between the shoulders, he died. Then\n I carried him off and contrived to throw him into the house of this\n leach, the Jew; and the leach contrived to throw him into the house of\n the Reeve; and the Reeve contrived to throw him on the way of the\n Nazarene broker. This, then, is my adventure which befel me but\n yesterday. Is not it more wondrous than the story of the Hunchback?\n When the King of China heard the Tailor's tale he shook his head for\n pleasure; and, showing great surprise, said, \"This that passed between\n the young man and the busy-body of a Barber is indeed more pleasant and\n wonderful than the story of my lying knave of a Hunchback.\" Then he\n bade one of his Chamberlains go with the Tailor and bring the Barber\n out of jail, saying, \"I wish to hear the talk of this Silent Man and it\n shall be the cause of your deliverance one and all: then we will bury\n the Hunchback, for that he is dead since yesterday, and set up a tomb\n over him.\"\u2014\u2014And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say\n her permitted say.\n\n Now when it was the Thirty-fourth Night,\n\n She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the King of China\n bade, \"Bring me the Barber who shall be the cause of your deliverance;\n then we will bury this Hunchback, for that he is dead since yesterday\n and set up a tomb over him.\" So the Chamberlain and the Tailor went to\n the jail and, releasing the Barber, presently returned with him to the\n King. The Sultan of China looked at him and considered him carefully\n and lo and behold! he was an ancient man, past his ninetieth year;\n swart of face, white of beard, and hoar of eyebrows; lop-eared and\n proboscis-nosed,[696] with a vacant, silly and conceited expression of\n countenance. The King laughed at this figure o' fun and said to him, \"O\n Silent Man, I desire thee to tell me somewhat of thy history.\" Quoth\n the Barber, \"O King of the age, allow me first to ask thee what is the\n tale of this Nazarene and this Jew and this Moslem and this Hunchback\n (the corpse) I see among you? And prithee what may be the object of\n this assemblage?\" Quoth the King of China, \"And why dost thou ask?\" \"I\n ask,\" he replied, \"in order that the King's majesty may know that I am\n no forward fellow or busy-body or impertinent meddler; and that I am\n innocent of their calumnious charges of overmuch talk; for I am he\n whose name is the Silent Man, and indeed peculiarly happy is my\n sobriquet, as saith the poet:\u2014\n\n When a nickname or little name men design, \u273f Know that nature with name\n shall full oft combine.\"\n\n Then said the King, \"Explain to the Barber the case of this Hunchback\n and what befel him at supper-time; also repeat to him the stories told\n by the Nazarene, the Jew, the Reeve, and the Tailor; and of no avail to\n me is a twice told tale.\" They did his bidding, and the Barber shook\n his head and said, \"By Allah, this is a marvel of marvels! Now uncover\n me the corpse of yonder Hunchback.\" They undid the winding-sheet and he\n sat down and, taking the Hunchback's head in his lap, looked at his\n face, and laughed and guffaw'd[697] till he fell upon his back and\n said, \"There is wonder in every death,[698] but the death of this\n Hunchback is worthy to be written and recorded in letters of liquid\n gold!\" The by-standers were astounded at his words and the King\n marvelled and said to him, \"What ails thee O Silent Man? Explain to us\n thy words!\" \"O King of the age,\" said the Barber, \"I swear by thy\n beneficence that there is still life in this Gobbo Golightly!\"\n Thereupon he pulled out of his waist-belt a barber's budget, whence he\n took a pot of ointment and anointed therewith the neck of the Hunchback\n and its arteries. Then he took a pair of iron tweezers and, inserting\n them into the Hunchback's throat, drew out the fid of fish with its\n bone; and, when it came to sight, behold, it was soaked in blood.\n Thereupon the Hunchback sneezed a hearty sneeze and jumped up as if\n nothing had happened and passing his hand over his face said, \"I\n testify that there is no god, but _the_ God, and I testify that\n Mohammed is the Apostle of God.\" At this sight all present wondered;\n the King of China laughed till he fainted and in like manner did the\n others. Then said the Sultan, \"By Allah, of a truth this is the most\n marvellous thing I ever saw! O Moslems, O soldiers all, did you ever in\n the lives of you see a man die and be quickened again? Verily had not\n Allah vouchsafed to him this Barber, he had been a dead man!\" Quoth\n they, \"By Allah, 'tis a marvel of marvels.\" Then the King of China bade\n record this tale, so they recorded it and placed it in the royal\n muniment-rooms; after which he bestowed costly robes of honour upon the\n Jew, the Nazarene and the Reeve, and bade them depart in all esteem.\n Then he gave the Tailor a sumptuous dress and appointed him his own\n tailor, with suitable pay and allowances; and made peace between him\n and the Hunchback, to whom also he presented a splendid and expensive\n suit with a suitable stipend. He did as generously with the Barber\n giving him a gift and a dress of honour; moreover he settled on him a\n handsome solde and created him Barber-surgeon[699] of state and made\n him one of his cup-companions. So they ceased not to live the most\n pleasurable life and the most delectable, till there came to them the\n Destroyer of all delights and the Sunderer of all societies, the\n Depopulator of palaces and the Garnerer for graves. Yet, O most\n auspicious King! (continued Shahrazad) this tale is by no means more\n wonderful than that of the two Wazirs and An\u00eds al-Jal\u00eds. Quoth her\n sister Dunyazad, \"And what may that be?\"; whereupon she began to relate\n the following tale of\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 496:\n\n Other editions read, \"at Bassorah\" and the Bresl. (ii. 123) \"at\n Bassorah and K\u00e1jk\u00e1r\" (K\u00e1shgh\u00e1r): somewhat like in Dover and\n Sebastopol. I prefer China because further off and making the\n improbabilities more notable.\n\nFootnote 497:\n\n Arab. \"Judri,\" lit. \"small stones\" from the hard gravelly feeling of\n the pustules (Rodwell, p. 20). The disease is generally supposed to\n be the growth of Central Africa where it is still a plague and passed\n over to Arabia about the birth-time of Mohammed. Thus is usually\n explained the \"war of the elephant\" (Koran, chapt. cv.) when the\n Abyssinian army of Abrahah, the Christian, was destroyed by swallows\n (Ab\u00e1b\u00edl which Major Price makes the plural of Abilah=a vesicle) which\n dropped upon them \"stones of baked clay,\" like vetches (Pilgrimage\n ii. 175). See for details Sale (_in loco_) who seems to accept the\n miraculous defence of the Ka'abah. For the horrors of small-pox in\n Central Intertropical Africa the inoculation, known also to the\n Badawin of Al-Hij\u00e1z and other details, readers will consult \"The Lake\n Regions of Central Africa\" (ii. 318). The Hindus \"take the bull by\n the horns\" and boldly make \"S\u00edtl\u00e1\" (small-pox) a goddess, an\n incarnation of Bhaw\u00e1ni, de\u00ebss of destruction-reproduction. In China\n small pox is believed to date from B.C. 1200; but the chronology of\n the Middle Kingdom still awaits the sceptic.\n\nFootnote 498:\n\n In Europe we should add \"and all fled, especially the women.\" But the\n fatalism inherent in the Eastern mind makes the great difference.\n\nFootnote 499:\n\n Arab. \"Uzayr.\" Esdras was a manner of Ripp van Winkle. He was riding\n over the ruins of Jerusalem when it had been destroyed by the\n Chaldeans and he doubted by what means Allah would restore it;\n whereupon he died and at the end of a hundred years he revived. He\n found his basket of figs and cruse of wine as they were; but of his\n ass only the bones remained. These were raised to life as Ezra looked\n on and the ass began at once to bray. Which was a lesson to Esdras.\n (Koran, chapt. ii). The oath by the ass's hoofs is to ridicule the\n Jew. Mohammed seems to have had an _id\u00e9e fixe_ that \"the Jews say,\n Ezra is the son of God\" (Koran ix.); it may have arisen from the\n heterodox Jewish belief that Ezra, when the Law was utterly lost,\n dictated the whole anew to the scribes of his own memory. His tomb\n with the huge green dome is still visited by the Jews of Baghdad.\n\nFootnote 500:\n\n Arab. \"B\u00e1dhanj,\" the Pers. B\u00e1d (wind)-g\u00edr (catcher): a wooden\n pent-house on the terrace-roof universal in the nearer East.\n\nFootnote 501:\n\n The hunchback, in Arabia as in Southern Europe, is looked upon by the\n vulgar with fear and aversion: The reason is that he is usually\n sharper-witted than his neighbours.\n\nFootnote 502:\n\n Arab. \"Y\u00e1 Satt\u00e1r\"=Thou who veilest the discreditable secrets of Thy\n creatures.\n\nFootnote 503:\n\n Arab. \"Nasr\u00e1ni,\" a follower of Him of Nazareth and an older name than\n \"Christian\" which (Acts xi., 26) was first given at Antioch about\n A.D. 43. The cry in Alexandria used to be \"Ya Nasr\u00e1ni, Kalb aw\u00e1ni!\"=O\n Nazarene! O dog obscene! (Pilgrimage, 1., 160). \"Christian\" in Arabic\n can be expressed only by \"Mas\u00edhi\"=follower of the Messiah.\n\nFootnote 504:\n\n Arab. \"Tasb\u00edh,\"=Saluting in the Subh (morning).\n\nFootnote 505:\n\n In the East women stand on minor occasions while men squat on their\n hunkers in a way hardly possible to an untrained European. The custom\n is old. Herodotus (ii., 35) says, \"The women stand up when they make\n water, but the men sit down.\" Will it be believed that Canon\n Rawlinson was too modest to leave this passage in his translation?\n The custom was perpetuated by Al-Islam because the position prevents\n the ejection touching the clothes and making them ceremonially\n impure; possibly they borrowed it from the Guebres. Dabistan, Gate\n xvi. says, \"It is improper, whilst in an erect posture, to make\n water; it is therefore necessary to sit at squat and force it to some\n distance, repeating the Avesta mentally.\"\n\nFootnote 506:\n\n This is still a popular form of the \"Kinchin lay,\" and as the\n turbands are often of fine stuff, the _petite industrie_ pays well.\n\nFootnote 507:\n\n Arab. \"Wali\"=Governor; the term still in use for the Governor-General\n of a Province as opposed to the \"Muh\u00e1fiz,\" or district-governor. In\n Eastern Arabia the Wali is the Civil Governor opposed to the Amir or\n Military Commandant. Under the Caliphate the Wali acted also as\n Prefect of Police (the Indian Faujd\u00e1r), who is now called \"Z\u00e1bit.\"\n The older name for the latter was \"S\u00e1hib al-Shartah\" (=chief of the\n watch) or \"Mutawalli\"; and it was his duty to go the rounds in\n person. The old \"Charley,\" with his lantern and cudgel, still guards\n the bazars in Damascus.\n\nFootnote 508:\n\n Arab. \"Al-Mash\u00e1 il\u00ed\"=the bearer of a cresset (Mash'al) who was also\n Jack Ketch. In Anglo-India the name is given to a lower body-servant.\n The \"Mash'al\" which Lane (M. E., chapt vi.) calls \"Mesh'al\" and\n illustrates, must not be confounded with its congener the \"Sha'\u00edlah\"\n or link (also lamp, wick, etc.).\n\nFootnote 509:\n\n I need hardly say that the civilised \"drop\" is unknown to the East\n where men are strung up as to a yardarm. This greatly prolongs the\n suffering.\n\nFootnote 510:\n\n Arab. \"Lukmah\":=a mouthful. It is still the fashion amongst Easterns\n of primitive manners to take up a handful of rice, etc., ball it and\n put it into a friend's mouth _honoris caus\u00e2_. When the friend is a\n European the expression of his face is generally a study.\n\nFootnote 511:\n\n I need hardly note that this is an old Biblical practice. The ass is\n used for city-work as the horse for fighting and travelling, the mule\n for burdens and the dromedary for the desert. But the Badawi, like\n the Indian, despises the monture and sings:\u2014\n\n The back of the steed is a noble place;\n But the mule's dishonour, the ass disgrace!\n\n The fine white asses, often thirteen hands high, sold by the Banu\n Sal\u00edb and other Badawi tribes, will fetch \u00a3100, and more. I rode a\n little brute from Meccah to Jedda (42 miles) in one night and it came\n in with me cantering.\n\nFootnote 512:\n\n A dry measure of about five bushels (Cairo). The classical\n pronunciation is Irdabb and it measured 24 sa'a (gallons) each\n filling four outstretched hands.\n\nFootnote 513:\n\n \"Al-Jaw\u00e1li\" should be Al-J\u00e1wali (Al-Makrizi) and the Bab al-Nasr\n (Gate of Victory) is that leading to Suez. I lived in that quarter as\n shown by my Pilgrimage (i. 62).\n\nFootnote 514:\n\n Arab. \"Al-'ajalah,\" referring to a saying in every Moslem mouth,\n \"Patience is from the Protector (Allah): Hurry is from Hell.\" That\n and \"Inshallah bukra!\" (Please God to-morrow!) are the traveller's\n _b\u00eates noires_.\n\nFootnote 515:\n\n Here it is a polite equivalent for \"fall to!\"\n\nFootnote 516:\n\n The left hand is used throughout the East for purposes of ablution\n and is considered unclean. To offer the left hand would be most\n insulting and no man ever strokes his beard with it or eats with it:\n hence, probably, one never sees a left-handed man throughout the\n Moslem east. In the Brazil for the same reason old-fashioned people\n will not take snuff with the right hand. And it is related of the\n Khataians that they prefer the left hand, \"Because the heart, which\n is the Sultan of the city of the Body, hath his mansion on that side\"\n (Rauzat al-Saf\u00e1).\n\nFootnote 517:\n\n Two feminine names; as we might say Mary and Martha.\n\nFootnote 518:\n\n It was near the Caliph's two Palaces (Al-Kasrayn); and was famous in\n the 15th century A.D. The Kazi's Mahkamah (Court-house) now occupies\n the place of the Two Palaces.\n\nFootnote 519:\n\n A Kaysariah is a superior kind of bazar, a \"bezestein.\" That in the\n text stood to the east of the principal street in Cairo and was built\n in A. H. 502 (=1108-9) by a Circassian Emir, known as Fakhr al-Din\n Jah\u00e1rkas, a corruption of the Persian \"Cheh\u00e1r-kas\"=four persons\n (Lane, i. 422, from Al-Makrizi and Ibn Khallikan). For Jah\u00e1rkas the\n Mac. Edit. has Jirj\u00eds (George) a common Christian name. I once lodged\n in a \"Wak\u00e1lah (the modern Khan) Jirjis.\" Pilgrimage, i. 255.\n\nFootnote 520:\n\n Arab. \"Second Day,\" _i.e._ after Saturday, the true Sabbath, so\n marvellously ignored by Christendom.\n\nFootnote 521:\n\n Readers who wish to know how a traveller is lodged in a Wak\u00e1lah,\n Khan, or Caravanserai, will consult my Pilgrimage, i. 60.\n\nFootnote 522:\n\n The original occupation of the family had given it a name, as amongst\n us.\n\nFootnote 523:\n\n The usual \"chaff\" or banter allowed even to modest women when\n shopping, and\u2014many a true word is spoken in jest.\n\nFootnote 524:\n\n \"La adamn\u00e1k\"=Heaven deprive us not of thee, _i.e._ grant I see thee\n often!\n\nFootnote 525:\n\n This is a somewhat cavalier style of advance; but Easterns under such\n circumstances go straight to the point, hating to filer the parfait\n amour.\n\nFootnote 526:\n\n The peremptory formula of a slave delivering such a message.\n\nFootnote 527:\n\n This would be our Thursday night, preceding the day of public prayers\n which can be performed only when in a state of ceremonial purity.\n Hence many Moslems go to the Hammam on Thursday and have no\n connection with their wives till Friday night.\n\nFootnote 528:\n\n Lane (i. 423) gives ample details concerning the Habb\u00e1niyah, or\n grain-sellers' quarter in the southern part of Cairo; and shows that\n when this tale was written (or transcribed?) the city was almost as\n extensive as it is now.\n\nFootnote 529:\n\n Nak\u00edb is a caravan-leader, a chief, a syndic; and \"Ab\u00fa Sh\u00e1mah\"=Father\n of a cheek mole, while \"Ab\u00fa Sh\u00e1mmah\"=Father of a smeller, a nose, a\n snout. The \"Kuniyah,\" bye-name, patronymic or matronymic, is\n necessary amongst Moslems whose list of names, all connected more or\n less with religion, is so scanty. Hence Buckingham the traveller was\n known as Abu Kidr, the Father of a Cooking-pot and Hajj Abdullah as\n Abu Shaw\u00e1rib, Father of Mustachios (Pilgrimage, iii., 263).\n\nFootnote 530:\n\n More correctly Bab Zawilah from the name of a tribe in Northern\n Africa. This gate dates from the same age as the Eastern or Desert\n gate, Bab al-Nasr (A.D. 1087) and is still much admired. M. Jomard\n describes it (Description, etc., ii. 670) and lately my good friend\n Yacoub Artin Pasha has drawn attention to it in the Bulletin de\n l'Inst. Egypt., Deuxi\u00e8me S\u00e9rie, No. 4, 1883.\n\nFootnote 531:\n\n This ornament is still seen in the older saloons of Damascus: the\n inscriptions are usually religious sentences, extracts from the\n Koran, etc., in uncial characters. They take the place of our\n frescos; and, as a work of art, are generally far superior.\n\nFootnote 532:\n\n Arab. \"Bay\u00e1z al-Sult\u00e1n\u00ed,\" the best kind of gypsum which shines like\n polished marble. The stucco on the walls of Alexandria, built by\n Alexander of the two Horns, was so exquisitely tempered and\n beautifully polished that men had to wear masks for fear of\n blindness.\n\nFootnote 533:\n\n This Ikl\u00edl, a complicated affair, is now obsolete, its place having\n been taken by the \"Kurs,\" a gold plate, some five inches in diameter,\n set with jewels, etc. Lane (M. E. Appendix A) figures it.\n\nFootnote 534:\n\n The woman-artist who applies the dye is called \"Munakkishah.\"\n\nFootnote 535:\n\n \"Kissing with th' inner lip,\" as Shakespeare calls it; the French\n _langue fourr\u00e9e_; and Sankrit \"Samputa.\" The subject of kissing is\n extensive in the East. Ten different varieties are duly enumerated in\n the \"Ananga-Ranga;\" or, The Hindu Art of Love (Ars Amoris Indica)\n translated from the Sanscrit, and annotated by A. F. F. and B. F. R.\n It is also connected with unguiculation, or impressing the nails, of\n which there are seven kinds; morsication (seven kinds); handling the\n hair and tappings or pattings with the fingers and palm (eight\n kinds).\n\nFootnote 536:\n\n Arab. \"asal-nahl,\" to distinguish it from \"honey\" _i.e._ syrup of\n sugar-cane and fruits.\n\nFootnote 537:\n\n The lines have occurred in Night xii. By way of variety I give\n Torrens' version p. 273.\n\nFootnote 538:\n\n The way of carrying money in the corner of a pocket-handkerchief is\n still common.\n\nFootnote 539:\n\n He sent the provisions not to be under an obligation to her in this\n matter. And she received them to judge thereby of his liberality.\n\nFootnote 540:\n\n Those who have seen the process of wine-making in the Libanus will\n readily understand why it is always strained.\n\nFootnote 541:\n\n Arab. \"Kulkas\u00e1,\" a kind of arum or yam, eaten boiled like our\n potatoes.\n\nFootnote 542:\n\n At first he slipped the money into the bed-clothes: now he gives it\n openly and she accepts it for a reason.\n\nFootnote 543:\n\n Arab. Al-Zalamah: lit.=tyrants, oppressors, applied to the police and\n generally to the employ\u00e9s of Government. It is a word which tells a\n history.\n\nFootnote 544:\n\n Moslem law is never completely satisfied till the criminal confess.\n It also utterly ignores circumstantial evidence and for the best of\n reasons: amongst so sharp-witted a people the admission would lead to\n endless abuses. I greatly surprised a certain Governor-General of\n India by giving him this simple information.\n\nFootnote 545:\n\n Cutting off the right hand is the Koranic punishment (chapt. v.) for\n one who robs an article worth four dinars, about forty francs to\n shillings. The left foot is to be cut off at the ankle for a second\n offence and so on; but death is reserved for a hardened criminal. The\n practice is now obsolete and theft is punished by the bastinado, fine\n or imprisonment. The old Guebres were as severe. For stealing one\n dirham's worth they took a fine of two, cut off the ear-lobes, gave\n ten stick-blows and dismissed the criminal who had been subjected to\n an hour's imprisonment. A second theft caused the penalties to be\n doubled; and after that the right hand was cut off or death was\n inflicted according to the proportion stolen.\n\nFootnote 546:\n\n Koran viii. 17.\n\nFootnote 547:\n\n A universal custom in the East, the object being originally to show\n that the draught was not poisoned.\n\nFootnote 548:\n\n Out of paste or pudding.\n\nFootnote 549:\n\n Boils and pimples are supposed to be caused by broken hair-roots and\n in Hindostani are called B\u00e1l-tor.\n\nFootnote 550:\n\n He intended to bury it decently, a respect which Moslems always show\n even to the exuvi\u00e6 of the body, as hair and nail parings. Amongst\n Guebres the latter were collected and carried to some mountain. The\n practice was intensified by fear of demons or wizards getting\n possession of the spoils.\n\nFootnote 551:\n\n Without which the marriage was not valid. The minimum is ten dirhams\n (drachmas) now valued at about five francs to shillings; and if a man\n marry without naming the sum, the woman, after consummation, can\n compel him to pay this minimum.\n\nFootnote 552:\n\n Arab. \"Khatmah\"=reading or reciting the whole Koran, by one or more\n persons, usually in the house, not over the tomb. Like the \"Zikr,\"\n Litany or Rogation, it is a pious act confined to certain occasions.\n\nFootnote 553:\n\n Arab. \"Z\u00edrb\u00e1jah\"=meat dressed with vinegar, cumin-seed (Pers. Z\u00edr)\n and hot spices. More of it in the sequel of the tale.\n\nFootnote 554:\n\n A saying not uncommon meaning, let each man do as he seems fit;\n also=\"age quod agis\": and at times corresponding with our saw about\n the cap-fitting.\n\nFootnote 555:\n\n Arab. \"Su'\u00fad,\" an Alpinia with pungent rhizome like ginger; here used\n as a counter-odour.\n\nFootnote 556:\n\n Arab. \"T\u00e1'ih\"=lost in the \"T\u00edh,\" a desert wherein man _may_ lose\n himself, translated in our maps \"The Desert of the Wanderings,\" scil.\n of the children of Israel. \"Credat Jud\u00e6us.\"\n\nFootnote 557:\n\n _i.e._, \u00a3125 and \u00a3500.\n\nFootnote 558:\n\n A large sum was weighed by a professional instead of being counted,\n the reason being that the coin is mostly old and worn: hence our\n words \"pound\" and \"pension\" (or what is weighed out).\n\nFootnote 559:\n\n The eunuch is the best possible go-between on account of his almost\n unlimited power over the Harem.\n\nFootnote 560:\n\n _i.e._ a slave-girl brought up in the house and never sold except for\n some especial reason, as habitual drunkenness, etc.\n\nFootnote 561:\n\n Smuggling men into the Harem is a stock \"topic\" of eastern tales. \"By\n means of their female attendants, the ladies of the royal harem\n generally get men into their apartments in the disguise of women.\"\n Says Vatsyayana in The Kama Sutra, Part V., London: Printed for the\n Hindoo Kamashastra Society, 1883. For private circulation only.\n\nFootnote 562:\n\n These tears are shed over past separation. So the \"Indians\" of the\n New World never meet after long parting without beweeping mutual\n friends they have lost.\n\nFootnote 563:\n\n A most important Jack in office whom one can see with his smooth chin\n and blubber lips, starting up from his lazy snooze in the shade and\n delivering his orders more peremptorily than any Dogberry. These\n epicenes are as curious and exceptional in character as in external\n conformation. Disconnected, after a fashion, with humanity, they are\n brave, fierce and capable of any villany or barbarity (as Agha\n Mohammed Khan in Persia 1795-98). The frame is unnaturally long and\n lean, especially the arms and legs; with high, flat, thin shoulders;\n big protruding joints and a face by contrast extraordinarily large, a\n veritable mask; the Castrato is expert in the use of weapons and sits\n his horse admirably, riding well \"home\" in the saddle for the best of\n reasons; and his hoarse thick voice, which apparently does not break,\n as in the European \"C\u00e1ppone,\" invests him with all the circumstance\n of command.\n\nFootnote 564:\n\n From the Meccan well used by Moslems much like Eau de Lourdes by\n Christians: the water is saltish, hence the touch of Arab humour\n (Pilgrimage III., 201-202.)\n\nFootnote 565:\n\n Such articles would be sacred from Moslem eyes.\n\nFootnote 566:\n\n Physiologically true, but not generally mentioned in describing the\n emotions.\n\nFootnote 567:\n\n Properly \"Uta,\" the different rooms, each \"Odalisque,\" or concubine,\n having her own.\n\nFootnote 568:\n\n Showing that her monthly ailment was over.\n\nFootnote 569:\n\n Arab. \"Muhammarah\"=either browned before the fire or artificially\n reddened.\n\nFootnote 570:\n\n The insolence and licence of these palace-girls was (and is)\n unlimited; especially when, as in the present case, they have to deal\n with a \"softy.\" On this subject numberless stories are current\n throughout the East.\n\nFootnote 571:\n\n _i.e._ blackened by the fires of Jehannam.\n\nFootnote 572:\n\n Arab. \"Bi'l-Sal\u00e1mah\"=in safety (to avert the evil eye). When visiting\n the sick it is usual to say something civil; \"The Lord heal thee! No\n evil befal thee!\" etc.\n\nFootnote 573:\n\n Washing during sickness is held dangerous by Arabs; and \"going to the\n Hammam\" is, I have said, equivalent to convalescence.\n\nFootnote 574:\n\n Arab. \"M\u00e1rist\u00e1n\" (pronounced M\u00faristan) a corruption of the Pers.\n \"B\u00edm\u00e1rist\u00e1n\"=place of sickness, a hospital much affected by the old\n Guebres (Dabistan, i., 165, 166). That of Damascus was the first\n Moslem hospital, founded by Al-Walid Son of Abd al-Malik the Ommiade\n in A.H. 88=706-7. Benjamin of Tudela (A.D. 1164) calls it\n \"Dar-al-Maraphtan\" which his latest Editor explains by\n \"Dar-al-Mora-bittan\" (abode of those who require being chained).\n Al-Makrizi (Khitat) ascribes the invention of \"Spitals\" to\n Hippocrates; another historian to an early Pharaoh \"Man\u00e1kiyush;\" thus\n ignoring the Persian Kings, Saint Ephrem (or Ephraim) Syru etc. In\n modern parlance \"Maristan\" is a madhouse where the maniacs are\n treated with all the horrors which were universal in Europe till\n within a few years and of which occasional traces occur to this day.\n In A.D. 1399 Katherine de la Court held a \"hospital in the Court\n called Robert de Paris;\" but the first madhouse in Christendom was\n built by the legate Ortiz in Toledo A.D. 1483, and was therefore\n called Casa del Nuncio. The Damascus \"Maristan\" was described by\n every traveller of the last century: and it showed a curious contrast\n between the treatment of the maniac and the idiot or omadhaun, who is\n humanely allowed to wander about unharmed, if not held a Saint. When\n I saw it last (1870) it was all but empty and mostly in ruins. As far\n as my experience goes, the United States is the only country where\n the insane are rationally treated by the sane.\n\nFootnote 575:\n\n Hence the trite saying \"Whoso drinks the water of the Nile will ever\n long to drink it again.\" \"Light\" means easily digested water; and the\n great test is being able to drink it at night between the sleeps,\n without indigestion.\n\nFootnote 576:\n\n \"N\u00edl\" in popular parlance is the Nile in flood, although also used\n for the River as a proper name. Egyptians (modern as well as\n ancient), have three seasons Al-Shit\u00e1 (winter), Al-Sayf (summer) and\n Al-N\u00edl (the Nile _i.e._ flood season, our mid-summer); corresponding\n with the Growth-months; Housing (or granary) months and Flood-months\n of the older race.\n\nFootnote 577:\n\n These lines are in the Mac. Edit.\n\nFootnote 578:\n\n Arab. \"Birkat al-Habash,\" a tank formerly existing in Southern Cairo:\n Galland (Night 128) says \"en remontant vers l'\u00c9thiopie.\"\n\nFootnote 579:\n\n The Bres. Edit. (ii., 190) from which I borrow this description, here\n alludes to the well-known Island, Al-Rauzah (Rodah)=The Garden.\n\nFootnote 580:\n\n Arab. \"Laylat al-Waf\u00e1,\" the night of the completion or abundance of\n the Nile (flood), usually between August 6th and 16th, when the\n government proclaims that the Nilometer shows a rise of 16 cubits. Of\n course it is a great festival and a high ceremony, for Egypt is still\n the gift of the Nile (Lane M. E. chapt. xxvi\u2014a work which would be\n much improved by a better index).\n\nFootnote 581:\n\n _i.e._ admiration will be complete.\n\nFootnote 582:\n\n Arab. \"S\u00e1hil Masr\" (Misr): hence I suppose Galland's _villes\n maritimes_.\n\nFootnote 583:\n\n A favourite simile, suggested by the broken glitter and shimmer of\n the stream under the level rays and the breeze of eventide.\n\nFootnote 584:\n\n Arab. \"Halab,\" derived by Moslems from \"He (Abraham) milked\n (_halaba_) the white and dun cow.\" But the name of the city occurs in\n the Cuneiforms as Halbun or Khalbun, and the classics knew it as\n \u0392\u03ad\u03c1\u03bf\u03b9\u03b1, Beroea, written with variants.\n\nFootnote 585:\n\n Arab. \"K\u00e1'ah,\" usually a saloon; but also applied to a fine house\n here and elsewhere in The Nights.\n\nFootnote 586:\n\n Arab. \"Ghamz\"=winking, signing with the eye which, amongst Moslems,\n is not held \"vulgar.\"\n\nFootnote 587:\n\n Arab. \"Kam\u00eds\" from low Lat. \"Camicia,\" first found in St.\n Jerome:\u2014\"Solent militantes habere lineas, quas Camicias vocant.\" Our\n shirt, chemise, chemisette, etc. was unknown to the Ancients of\n Europe.\n\nFootnote 588:\n\n Arab. \"Narj\u00eds.\" The Arabs borrowed nothing, but the Persians much,\n from Greek Mythology. Hence the eye of Narcissus, an idea hardly\n suggested by the look of the daffodil (or asphodel) flower, is at\n times the glance of a spy and at times the die-away look of a\n mistress. Some scholars explain it by the form of the flower, the\n internal calyx resembling the iris, and the stalk being bent just\n below the petals suggesting drooping eyelids and languid eyes. Hence\n a poet addresses the Narcissus:\u2014\n\n O Narjis, look away! Before those eyes \u273f I may not kiss her as\n a-breast she lies.\n What! Shall the lover close his eyes in sleep \u273f While thine watch all\n things between earth and skies?\n\n The fashionable lover in the East must affect a frantic jealousy if\n he does not feel it.\n\nFootnote 589:\n\n In Egypt there are neither bedsteads nor bed-rooms: the carpets and\n mattresses, pillows and cushions (sheets being unknown) are spread\n out when wanted, and during the day are put into chests or cupboards,\n or only rolled up in a corner of the room (Pilgrimage i., 53).\n\nFootnote 590:\n\n The women of Damascus have always been famed for the sanguinary\n jealousy with which European story-books and novels credit the\n \"Spanish lady.\" The men were as celebrated for intolerance and\n fanaticism, which we first read of in the days of Bertrandon de la\n Brocqui\u00e8re and which culminated in the massacre of 1860. Yet they are\n a notoriously timid race and make, physically and morally, the worst\n of soldiers: we proved that under my late friend Fred. Walpole in the\n Bashi-Buzuks during the old Crimean war. The men looked very fine\n fellows and after a month in camp fell off to the condition of old\n women.\n\nFootnote 591:\n\n Arab. \"Rukh\u00e1m,\" properly=alabaster and \"Marmar\"=marble; but the two\n are often confounded.\n\nFootnote 592:\n\n He was ceremonially impure after touching a corpse.\n\nFootnote 593:\n\n The phrase is perfectly appropriate: Cairo without \"her Nile\" would\n be nothing.\n\nFootnote 594:\n\n \"The market was hot\" say the Hindustanis. This would begin between 7\n and 8 a.m.\n\nFootnote 595:\n\n Arab. Al-Faranj, Europeans generally. It is derived from \"Gens\n Francorum,\" and dates from Crusading days when the French played the\n leading part. Hence the Lingua Franca, the Levantine jargon, of which\n Moli\u00e8re has left such a witty specimen.\n\nFootnote 596:\n\n A process familiar to European surgery of the same date.\n\nFootnote 597:\n\n In sign of disappointment, regret, vexation; a gesture still common\n amongst Moslems and corresponding in significance to a certain extent\n with our stamping, wringing the hands and so forth. It is not\n mentioned in the Koran where, however, we find \"biting fingers' ends\n out of wrath\" against a man (chapt. iii).\n\nFootnote 598:\n\n This is no unmerited scandal. The Cairenes, especially the feminine\n half (for reasons elsewhere given), have always been held exceedingly\n debauched. Even the modest Lane gives a \"shocking\" story of a woman\n enjoying her lover under the nose of her husband and confining the\n latter in a madhouse (chapt. xiii.) With civilisation, which objects\n to the good old remedy, the sword, they become worse: and the Kazi's\n court is crowded with would-be divorcees. Under English rule the evil\n has reached its acme because it goes unpunished: in the avenues of\n the new Isma'iliyah Quarter, inhabited by Europeans, women, even\n young women, will threaten to expose their persons unless they\n receive \"bakhsh\u00edsh.\" It was the same in Sind when husbands were\n assured that they would be hanged for cutting down adulterous wives:\n at once after its conquest the women broke loose; and in 1843-50, if\n a young officer sent to the bazar for a girl, half-a-dozen would\n troop to his quarters. Indeed more than once the professional\n prostitutes threatened to memorialise Sir Charles Napier because the\n \"modest women,\" the \"ladies\" were taking the bread out of their\n mouths. The same was the case at Kabul (Caboul) of Afghanistan in the\n old war of 1840; and here the women had more excuse, the husbands\n being notable sodomites as the song has it:\u2014\n\n The worth of slit the Afghan knows;\n The worth of hole the K\u00e1bul-man.\n\nFootnote 599:\n\n So that he might not have to do with three sisters german. Moreover\n amongst Moslems a girl's conduct is presaged by that of her mother;\n and if one sister go wrong, the other is expected to follow suit.\n Practically the rule applies everywhere: \"like mother like daughter.\"\n\nFootnote 600:\n\n In sign of dissent; as opposed to nodding the head which signifies\n assent. These are two items, apparently instinctive and universal, of\n man's gesture-language which has been so highly cultivated by sundry\n North American tribes and by the surdo-mute establishments of Europe.\n\nFootnote 601:\n\n This \"Futur\" is the real \"breakfast\" of the East, the \"Chhoti h\u00e1zri\"\n (petit d\u00e9je\u00fbner) of India, a bit of bread, a cup of coffee or tea and\n a pipe on rising. In the text, however it is a ceremonious affair.\n\nFootnote 602:\n\n Arab. \"Nahs,\" a word of many meanings; a sinister aspect of the stars\n (as in Heb. and Aram.) or, adjectively, sinister, of ill-omen.\n Vulgarly it is used as the reverse of nice and corresponds, after a\n fashion with our \"nasty.\"\n\nFootnote 603:\n\n \"Window-gardening,\" new in England, is an old practise in the East.\n\nFootnote 604:\n\n Her pimping instinct at once revealed the case to her.\n\nFootnote 605:\n\n The usual \"pander-dodge\" to get more money.\n\nFootnote 606:\n\n The writer means that the old woman's account was all false, to\n increase apparent difficulties and _pour se faire valoir_.\n\nFootnote 607:\n\n Arab. \"Y\u00e1 Kh\u00e1lati\"=mother's sister; a familiar address to the old, as\n uncle or nuncle (father's brother) to a man. The Arabs also hold that\n as a girl resembles her mother so a boy follows his uncle (mother's\n brother): hence the address \"Ya tayyib al-Kh\u00e1l!\"=O thou nephew of a\n good uncle. I have noted that physically this is often fact.\n\nFootnote 608:\n\n \"Ay w' All\u00e1hi,\" contracted popularly to Aywa, a word in every Moslem\n mouth and shunned by Christians because against orders Hebrew and\n Christian. The better educated Turks now eschew that eternal\n reference to Allah which appears in The Nights and which is still the\n custom of the vulgar throughout the world of Al-Islam.\n\nFootnote 609:\n\n The \"Muzayyin\" or barber in the East brings his basin and budget\n under his arm: he is not content only to shave, he must scrape the\n forehead, trim the eyebrows, pass the blade lightly over the nose and\n correct the upper and lower lines of the mustachios, opening the\n central parting and so forth. He is not a whit less a tattler and a\n scandalmonger than the old Roman tonsor or Figaro his _confr\u00e8re_ in\n Southern Europe. The whole scene of the Barber is admirable, an\n excellent specimen of Arab humour and not over-caricatured. We all\n have met him.\n\nFootnote 610:\n\n Abdullah ibn Abbas was a cousin and a companion of the Apostle; also\n a well-known Commentator on the Koran and conserver of the traditions\n of Mohammed.\n\nFootnote 611:\n\n I have noticed the antiquity of this father of our sextant, a\n fragment of which was found in the Palace of Sennacherib. More\n concerning the \"Arstable\" (as Chaucer calls it) is given in my\n \"Camoens: his Life and his Lusiads\" p. 381.\n\nFootnote 612:\n\n Arab. \"Simiy\u00e1\" to rhyme with K\u00edmiy\u00e1 (alchemy proper). It is a\n subordinate branch of the Ilm al-Ruh\u00e1ni which I would translate\n \"Spiritualism,\" and which is divided into two great branches, \"Ilw\u00ed\n or Rahm\u00e1ni\" (the high or related to the Deity) and Sifl\u00ed or Shayt\u00e1ni\n (low, Satanic). To the latter belongs Al-Sahr, magic or the black art\n proper, gramarye, egromancy, while Al-Simiy\u00e1 is white magic,\n electro-biology, a kind of natural and deceptive magic, in which\n drugs and perfumes exercise an important action. One of its principal\n branches is the Darb al-Mandal or magic mirror, of which more in a\n future page. See Boccaccio's Day x. Novel 5.\n\nFootnote 613:\n\n Chapt. iii. 128. See Sale (in loco) for the noble application of this\n text by the Imam Hasan, son of the Caliph Ali.\n\nFootnote 614:\n\n These proverbs at once remind us of our old friend Sancho Panza and\n are equally true to nature in the mouth of the Arab and of the\n Spaniard.\n\nFootnote 615:\n\n Our nurses always carry in the arms: Arabs place the children\n astraddle upon the hip and when older on the shoulder.\n\nFootnote 616:\n\n Eastern clothes allow this biblical display of sorrow and vexation,\n which with our European garb would look absurd: we must satisfy\n ourselves with maltreating our hats.\n\nFootnote 617:\n\n Koran xlviii., 8. It may be observed that according to the Ah\u00e1dis\n (sayings of the Prophet) and the Sunnat (sayings and doings of\n Mahommed), all the hair should be allowed to grow or the whole head\n be clean shaven. Hence the \"Sh\u00fashah,\" or topknot supposed to be left\n as a handle for drawing the wearer into Paradise; and the Zulf, or\n side-locks, somewhat like the ringlets of the Polish Jews, are both\n vain \"Bida'at,\" or innovations, and therefore technically termed\n \"Makr\u00fah,\" a practice not laudable, neither \"Hal\u00e1l\" (perfectly lawful)\n nor \"Har\u00e1m\" (forbidden by the law). When boys are first shaved,\n generally in the second or third year, a tuft is left on the crown\n and another over the forehead: but this is not the fashion amongst\n adults. Abu Hanifah, if I am rightly informed, wrote a treatise on\n the Shushah or long lock growing from the N\u00e1siyah (head-poll) which\n is also a precaution lest the decapitated Moslem's mouth be defiled\n by an impure hand; and thus it would resemble the chivalry-lock by\n which the Redskin brave (and even the \"cowboy\" of better times)\n facilitated the removal of his own scalp. Possibly the Turks had\n learned the practice from the Chinese and introduced it into Baghdad\n (Pilgrimage i., 240). The Badawi plait their locks in Kur\u00fan (horns)\n or Jad\u00e1il (ringlets) which are undone only to be washed with the\n water of the she-camel. The wild Sherifs wear Haffah, long elf-locks\n hanging down both sides of the throat, and shaved away about a\n finger's breadth round the forehead and behind the neck (Pilgrimage\n iii., 35-36). I have elsewhere noted the _accroche-c\u0153urs_, the\n \"idiot-fringe,\" etc.\n\nFootnote 618:\n\n Meats are rarely coloured in modern days; but Persian cooks are great\n adepts in staining rice for the \"Pul\u00e1o\" (which we call after its\n Turkish corruption \"pilaff\"): it sometimes appears in\n rainbow-colours, red, yellow and blue; and in India is covered with\n gold and silver leaf. Europe retains the practice in tinting Pasch\n (Easter) eggs, the survival of the mundane ovum which was hatched at\n Easter-tide; and they are dyed red in allusion to the Blood of\n Redemption.\n\nFootnote 619:\n\n As I have noticed this is a mixture.\n\nFootnote 620:\n\n We say:\u2014\n\n 'Tis rare the father in the son we see:\n He sometimes rises in the third degree.\n\nFootnote 621:\n\n Arab. \"Ball\u00e1n\" _i.e._ the body-servant: \"Ball\u00e1nah\" is a tire-woman.\n\nFootnote 622:\n\n Arab. \"Darabukkah\" a drum made of wood or earthenware (Lane, M. E.,\n xviii.), and used by all in Egypt.\n\nFootnote 623:\n\n Arab. \"Naihah\" more generally \"Nadd\u00e1bah\" Lat. pr\u00e6fica or carina, a\n hired mourner, the Irish \"Keener\" at the conclamatio or coronach,\n where the Hullabaloo, Hulululu or Ululoo showed the survivors'\n sorrow.\n\nFootnote 624:\n\n These doggrels, which are like our street melodies, are now forgotten\n and others have taken their place. A few years ago one often heard,\n \"Dus ya lall\u00ed\" (tread, O my joy) and \"N\u00e1zil il'al-Gan\u00ednah\" (Down into\n the garden) and these in due turn become obsolete. Lane (M. E. chapt.\n xviii.) gives the former _e.g._\n\n Tread, O my joy! Tread, O my joy!\n Love of my love brings sore annoy,\n\n A chorus to such stanzas as:\u2014\n\n Alexandrian damsels rare! \u273f Daintily o'er the floor ye fare:\n Your lips are sweet, are sugar-sweet, \u273f And purfled Cashmere shawls\n ye wear!\n\n It maybe noted that \"humming\" is not a favourite practice with\n Moslems; if one of the company begin, another will say, \"Go to the\n Kahwah\" (the coffee-house, the proper music-hall) \"and sing there!\" I\n have elsewhere observed their dislike to Al-sifr or whistling.\n\nFootnote 625:\n\n Arab. Khal\u00ed'a=worn out, crafty, an outlaw; used like Span. \"Perdido.\"\n\nFootnote 626:\n\n \"Zabb\u00e1l\" is the scavenger, lit. a dung-drawer, especially for the use\n of the Hammam which is heated with the droppings of animals. \"Wakk\u00e1d\"\n (stoker) is the servant who turns the fire. The verses are mere\n nonsense to suit the Barber's humour.\n\nFootnote 627:\n\n Arab. \"Y\u00e1 b\u00e1rid\"=O fool.\n\nFootnote 628:\n\n This form of blessing is chaunted from the Minaret about half-an-hour\n before midday, when the worshippers take their places in the mosque.\n At noon there is the usual Az\u00e1n or prayer-call, and each man performs\n a two-bow, in honour of the mosque and its gathering, as it were. The\n Prophet is then blessed and a second Sal\u00e1m is called from the raised\n ambo or platform (\"dikkah\") by the divines who repeat the\n midday-call. Then an Imam recites the first Khutbah, or sermon \"of\n praise\"; and the congregation worships in silence. This is followed\n by the second exhortation \"of Wa'az,\" dispensing the words of wisdom.\n The Imam now stands up before the Mihr\u00e1b (prayer niche) and recites\n the Ik\u00e1mah which is the common Azan with one only difference: after\n \"Hie ye to salvation\" it adds \"Come is the time of supplication\";\n whence the name, \"causing\" (prayer) to stand (_i.e._ to begin).\n Hereupon the worshippers recite the Farz or Koran-commanded\n noon-prayer of Friday; and the unco'guid add a host of\n supererogatories. Those who would study the subject may consult Lane\n (M. E. chapt. iii. and its abstract in his \"Arabian Nights,\" I, p.\n 430, or note 69 to Chapt. v.)\n\nFootnote 629:\n\n _i.e._, The women loosed their hair; an immodesty sanctioned only by\n a great calamity.\n\nFootnote 630:\n\n These small shops are composed of a \"but\" and a \"ben\" (Pilgrimage i.\n 99.)\n\nFootnote 631:\n\n Arab. \"Kaww\u00e1d,\" a popular term of abuse; hence the Span. and Port.\n \"Alcoviteiro.\" The Italian \"Galeotto\" is from Galahalt, not Galahad.\n\nFootnote 632:\n\n _i.e._ \"one seeking assistance in Allah.\" He was the son of Al-Z\u00e1hir\n bi'll\u00e1h (one pre-eminent by the decree of Allah). Lane says (i. 430),\n \"great-grandson of Harun al-Rashid,\" alluding to the first Mustansir\n son of Al-Mutawakkil (regn. A.H. 247-248=861-2). But this is the 56th\n Abbaside and regn. A.H. 623-640 (=1226-1242).\n\nFootnote 633:\n\n Arab. \"Yaum al-Id,\" the Kurban Bairam of the Turks, the Pilgrimage\n festival. The story is historical. In the \"Akd,\" a miscellany\n compiled by Ibn Abd Rabbuh (vulg. Rabbi-hi) of Cordova, who ob. A.H.\n 328=940 we read:\u2014A spunger found ten criminals and followed them,\n imagining they were going to a feast; but lo, they were going to\n their deaths. And when they were slain and he remained, he was\n brought before the Khalifah (Al-Maamun) and Ibrahim son of Al-Mahdi\n related a tale to procure pardon for the man, whereupon the Khalifah\n pardoned him. Lane ii, 506.\n\nFootnote 634:\n\n Arab. \"Nata' al-Dam\"; the former word was noticed in the Tale of the\n Bull and the Ass. The leather of blood was not unlike the Sufrah and\n could be folded into a bag by a string running through rings round\n the edges. Moslem executioners were very expert and seldom failed to\n strike off the head with a single blow of the thin narrow blade with\n razor-edge, hard as diamond withal, which contrasted so strongly with\n the great coarse chopper of the European headsman.\n\nFootnote 635:\n\n The ground floor, which in all hot countries is held, and rightly so,\n unwholesome during sleep, is usually let for shops. This is also the\n case throughout Southern Europe, and extends to the Canary Islands\n and the Brazil.\n\nFootnote 636:\n\n This serious contemplation of street-scenery is one of the pleasures\n of the Harems.\n\nFootnote 637:\n\n We should say \"smiled at him\": the laugh was not intended as an\n affront.\n\nFootnote 638:\n\n Arab. \"Fals ahmar.\" Fals is a fish-scale, also the smaller coin and\n the plural \"Ful\u00fas\" is the vulgar term for money (=Ital. _quattrini_)\n without specifying the coin. It must not be confounded with the\n \"Fazzah,\" alias \"Nuss,\" alias \"P\u00e1r\u00e1h\" (Turk.); the latter being made,\n not of \"red copper\" but of a vile alloy containing like the Greek\n \"Asper,\" some silver; and representing, when at par, the fortieth of\n a piastre, the latter being=2d. \u2156ths.\n\nFootnote 639:\n\n Arab. \"Farajiyah,\" a long-sleeved robe; Lane's \"Farageeyeh,\" M. E.,\n chapt. i.\n\nFootnote 640:\n\n The tailor in the East, as in Southern Europe, is made to cut out the\n cloth in presence of its owner to prevent \"cabbaging.\"\n\nFootnote 641:\n\n Expecting a present.\n\nFootnote 642:\n\n Alluding to the saying, \"Kiss is the key to Kitty.\"\n\nFootnote 643:\n\n The \"panel-dodge\" is fatally common throughout the East, where a man\n found in the house of another is helpless.\n\nFootnote 644:\n\n This was the beginning of horseplay which often ends in a bastinado.\n\nFootnote 645:\n\n Hair-dyes, in the East, are all of vegetable matter, henna,\n indigo-leaves, galls, etc.: our mineral dyes are, happily for them,\n unknown. Herklots will supply a host of recipes. The Egyptian mixture\n which I quoted in Pilgrimage (ii., 274) is sulphate of iron and\n ammoniure of iron one part and gall nuts two parts, infused in eight\n parts of distilled water. It is innocuous but very poor as a dye.\n\nFootnote 646:\n\n Arab. Amrad, etymologically \"beardless and handsome,\" but often used\n in a bad sense, to denote an effeminate, a catamite.\n\nFootnote 647:\n\n The Hindus prefer \"having the cardinal points as her sole garment.\"\n V\u00eatu de climat, says Madame de Stael. In Paris nude statues are\n \"draped in cerulean blue.\" Rabelais (iv., 29) robes King Shrovetide\n in grey and gold of a comical cut, nothing before, nothing behind\n with sleeves of the same.\n\nFootnote 648:\n\n This scene used to be enacted a few years ago in Paris for the\n benefit of concealed spectators, a young American being the victim.\n It was put down when one of the lookers-on lost his eye by a\n pen-knife thrust into the \"crevice.\"\n\nFootnote 649:\n\n Meaning that the trick had been played by the Wazir's wife or\n daughter. I could mention sundry names at Cairo whose charming owners\n have done worse things than this unseemly frolic.\n\nFootnote 650:\n\n Arab. \"Shayyun li'll\u00e1hi,\" a beggar's formula=per amor di Dio.\n\nFootnote 651:\n\n Noting how sharp-eared the blind become.\n\nFootnote 652:\n\n The blind in Egypt are notorious for insolence and violence,\n fanaticism and rapacity. Not a few foreigners have suffered from them\n (Pilgrimage i. 148). In former times many were blinded in infancy by\n their mothers, and others blinded themselves to escape conscription\n or honest hard work. They could always obtain food, especially as\n Mu'ezzins; and were preferred because they could not take advantage\n of the minaret by spying into their neighbours' households. The\n Egyptian race is chronically weak-eyed, the effect of the damp hot\n climate of the valley, where ophthalmia prevailed even during the\n pre-Pharaohnic days. The great Sesostris died stone-blind and his\n successor lost his sight for ten years (Pilgrimage ii., 176). That\n the Fellahs are now congenitally weak-eyed, may by seen by comparing\n them with negroes imported from Central Africa. Ophthalmia rages,\n especially during the damp season, in the lower Nile-valley; and the\n best cure for it is a fortnight's trip to the Desert where, despite\n glare, sand and wind, the eye readily recovers tone.\n\nFootnote 653:\n\n _i.e._ With kicks and cuffs, and blows, as is the custom. (Pilgrimage\n i., 174.)\n\nFootnote 654:\n\n Arab. K\u00e1id (whence \"Alcayde\") a word still much used in North Western\n Africa.\n\nFootnote 655:\n\n Arab. \"Sullam\"=lit. a ladder; a frame-work of sticks, used by way of\n our triangles or whipping-posts.\n\nFootnote 656:\n\n This is one of the feats of Al-Simiy\u00e1=white magic; fascinating the\n eyes. In Europe it has lately taken the name of \"Electro-biology.\"\n\nFootnote 657:\n\n Again by means of the \"Simiy\u00e1\" or power of fascination possessed by\n the old scoundrel.\n\nFootnote 658:\n\n A formula for averting \"Al-Ayn,\" the evil eye. It is always unlucky\n to meet a one-eyed man, especially the first thing in the morning and\n when setting out on any errand. The idea is that the fascinated one\n will suffer from some action of the physical eye. Monoculars also are\n held to be rogues: so the Sanskrit saying \"Few one-eyed men be honest\n men.\"\n\nFootnote 659:\n\n Al-Nashsh\u00e1r from Nashr=sawing: so the fiddler in Italian is called\n the \"village-saw\" (_Sega del villaggio_). He is the Alnaschar of the\n Englished Galland and Richardson. The tale is very old. It appears as\n the Brahman and the Pot of Rice in the Panchatantra; and Professor\n Benfey believes (as usual with him) that this, with many others,\n derives from a Buddhist source. But I would distinctly derive it from\n \u00c6sop's market-woman who kicked over her eggs; whence the Lat. prov.\n Ante victoriam canere triumphum=to sell the skin before you have\n caught the bear. In the \"Kalilah and Dimnah\" and its numerous\n offspring it is the \"Ascetic with his Jar of oil and honey;\" in\n Rabelais (i, 33) Echephron's shoemaker spills his milk, and so La\n Perette in La Fontaine. See M. Max Muller's \"Chips,\" vol. iii.,\n appendix. The curious reader will compare my version with that which\n appears at the end of Richardson's Arabic Grammar (Edit. of 1811): he\n had a better, or rather a fuller MS. (p. 199) than any yet printed.\n\nFootnote 660:\n\n Arab. \"Atr\"=any perfume especially oil of roses; whence our word\n \"Ottar,\" through the Turkish corruption.\n\nFootnote 661:\n\n The texts give \"dirhams\" (100,000=5,000 dinars) for \"dinars,\" a\n clerical error as the sequel shows.\n\nFootnote 662:\n\n \"Young slaves,\" says Richardson, losing \"colour.\"\n\nFootnote 663:\n\n Nothing more calculated to give affront than such a refusal.\n Richardson (p. 204) who, however, doubts his own version (p. 208)\n here translates, \"and I will not give liberty to my soul (spouse) but\n in her apartments.\" The Arabic or rather Cairene, is, \"wa l\u00e1 akhalli\n r\u00fahi\"=I will not let myself go _i.e._ be my every-day self, etc.\n\nFootnote 664:\n\n \"Whilst she is in astonishment and terror.\" (Richardson).\n\nFootnote 665:\n\n \"Chamber of robes,\" Richardson whose text has \"N\u00e1m\" for \"Man\u00e1m.\"\n\nFootnote 666:\n\n \"Till I compleat her distress,\" Richardson, whose text is corrupt.\n\nFootnote 667:\n\n \"Sleep by her side,\" R. the word \"N\u00e1ma\" bearing both senses.\n\nFootnote 668:\n\n \"Will take my hand,\" R. \"takabbal\" being also ambiguous.\n\nFootnote 669:\n\n Arab. \"Mu'arras\" one who brings about \"'Ars,\" marriages, etc. So the\n Germ. \"Kupplerinn,\" a Coupleress. It is one of the many synonyms for\n a pimp, and a word in general use (Pilgrimage i., 276). The most\n insulting term, like Dayy\u00fas, insinuates that the man panders for his\n own wife.\n\nFootnote 670:\n\n Of hands and face, etc. See Night cccclxiv.\n\nFootnote 671:\n\n Arab. \"Sadakah\" (sincerity), voluntary or superogatory alms, opposed\n to \"Zak\u00e1t\" (purification), legal alms which are indispensable.\n \"Prayer carries us half way to Allah; fasting brings us to the door\n of His palace and alms-deeds (Sadakah) causes us to enter.\" For\n \"Zak\u00e1t\" no especial rate is fixed; but it should not be less than\n one-fortieth of property or two and a half per cent. Thus Al-Islam\n is, as far as I know, the only faith which makes a poor-rate (Zak\u00e1t)\n obligatory and which has invented a property-tax, as opposed to the\n unjust and unfair income-tax upon which England prides herself.\n\nFootnote 672:\n\n A Greek girl.\n\nFootnote 673:\n\n This was making himself very easy; and the idea is that the gold in\n pouch caused him to be so bold. Lane's explanation (in loco) is all\n wrong. The pride engendered by sudden possession of money is a _lieu\n commun_ amongst Eastern story-tellers; even in the beast-fables the\n mouse which has stolen a few gold pieces becomes confident and\n stouthearted.\n\nFootnote 674:\n\n Arab. \"Al-M\u00e1lihah\" also means the beautiful (fem.), from \"Milh\"=salt,\n splendour, etc. The Mac. Edit. has \"Mumallihah\"=a salt-vessel.\n\nFootnote 675:\n\n _i.e._ to see if he felt the smart.\n\nFootnote 676:\n\n Arab. \"Sard\u00e1beh\" (Persian)=an underground room used for coolness in\n the hot season. It is unknown in Cairo but every house in Baghdad, in\n fact throughout the Mesopotamian cities, has one. It is on the\n principle of the underground cellar without which wine will not keep:\n Lane (i., 406) calls it a \"vault.\"\n\nFootnote 677:\n\n In the orig. \"O old woman!\" which is insulting.\n\nFootnote 678:\n\n So the Italians say \"a quail to skin.\"\n\nFootnote 679:\n\n \"Am\u00e1n\" is the word used for quarter on the battle-field; and there\n are Joe Millers about our soldiers in India mistaking it for \"a man\"\n or (_Scottic\u00e8_) \"a mon.\"\n\nFootnote 680:\n\n Illustrating the Persian saying \"Allah himself cannot help a fool.\"\n\nFootnote 681:\n\n Any article taken from the person and given to a criminal is a\n promise of pardon, of course on the implied condition of plenary\n confession and of becoming \"King's evidence.\"\n\nFootnote 682:\n\n A naive proposal to share the plunder.\n\nFootnote 683:\n\n In popular literature \"Schacabac.\" And from this tale comes our\n saying \"a Barmecide's Feast,\" _i.e._ an illusion.\n\nFootnote 684:\n\n The Castrato at the door is still (I have said,) the fashion of Cairo\n and he acts \"Suisse\" with a witness.\n\nFootnote 685:\n\n As usual in the East, the mansion was a hollow square surrounding\n what in Spain is called _Patio_: the outer entrance was far from the\n inner, showing the extent of the grounds.\n\nFootnote 686:\n\n \"Nahnu m\u00e1lih\u00edn\"=we are on terms of salt, said and say the Arabs. But\n the traveller must not trust in these days to the once sacred tie;\n there are tribes which will give bread with one hand and stab with\n the other. The Eastern use of salt is a curious contrast with that of\n Westerns, who made it an invidious and inhospitable distinction,\n _e.g._ to sit above the salt-cellar and below the salt. Amongst the\n ancients, however, \"he took bread and salt\" means he swore, the food\n being eaten when an oath was taken. Hence the \"Bride cake\" of salt,\n water and flour.\n\nFootnote 687:\n\n Arab. \"Har\u00edsah,\" the meat-pudding before explained.\n\nFootnote 688:\n\n Arab. \"Sikb\u00e1j,\" before explained; it is held to be a lordly dish,\n invented by Khusraw Parwiz. \"Fatted duck\" says the Bresl. Edit. ii.\n 308, with more reason.\n\nFootnote 689:\n\n I was reproved in Southern Abyssinia for eating without this\n champing, \"Thou feedest like a beggar who muncheth silently in his\n corner;\" and presently found that it was a sign of good breeding to\n eat as noisily as possible.\n\nFootnote 690:\n\n Barley in Arabia is, like our oats, food for horses: it fattens at\n the same time that it cools them. Had this been known to our cavalry\n when we first occupied Egypt in 1883-4 our losses in horse-flesh\n would have been far less; but official ignorance persisted in feeding\n the cattle upon heated oats and the riders upon beef, which is\n indigestible, instead of mutton, which is wholesome.\n\nFootnote 691:\n\n _i.e._ \"I conjure thee by God.\"\n\nFootnote 692:\n\n _i.e._ \"This is the very thing for thee.\"\n\nFootnote 693:\n\n _i.e._, at random.\n\nFootnote 694:\n\n This is the way of slaughtering the camel, whose throat is never cut\n on account of the thickness of the muscles. \"\u00c9gorger un chameau\" is a\n mistake often made in French books.\n\nFootnote 695:\n\n _i.e._ I will break bounds.\n\nFootnote 696:\n\n The Arabs have a saying corresponding with the dictum of the\n Salernitan school:\u2014\n\n Noscitur a labiis quantum sit virginis antrum:\n Noscitur a naso quanta sit hasta viro;\n (A maiden's mouth shows what's the make of her _chose_;\n And man's mentule one knows by the length of his nose.)\n\n Whereto I would add:\u2014\n\n And the eyebrows disclose how the lower wig grows.\n\n The observations are purely empirical but, as far as my experience\n extends, correct.\n\nFootnote 697:\n\n Arab. \"Kahkahah,\" a very low proceeding.\n\nFootnote 698:\n\n Or \"for every death there is a cause;\" but the older Arabs had a\n saying corresponding with \"Deus non fecit mortem.\"\n\nFootnote 699:\n\n The King's barber is usually a man of rank for the best of reasons\n that he holds his Sovereign's life between his fingers. One of these\n noble Figaros in India married an English lady who was, they say,\n unpleasantly surprised to find out what were her husband's official\n duties.\n\n\n\n\n END OF VOL. I.\n\n \u0648\u0622\u0644\u0633\u0644\u0627\u0645\n\n\n\n\n INDEX.\n\n\n Abbas \"hero eponymus\" of the Abbaside dynasty, 188\n\n Abdullah ibn Abbas, companion and traditioner, 304\n\n Ab\u00fa Kidr=father of the cooking-pot, _ib._\n\n Ab\u00fa Sh\u00e1mah=father of a cheek-mole, 269\n\n Ab\u00fa Sh\u00e1mmah=father of a smeller or nose, _ib._\n\n Ab\u00fa Shaw\u00e1rib=father of mustachios, _ib._\n\n Abu Shih\u00e1b, father of the shooting star=evil spirit, 221\n\n Ab\u00fa Yakz\u00e1n=the wakener=ass, 16\n =cock, 18\n\n Ad=tribe of prehistoric Arabs, 65\n\n Adab=anything between good education and good manners, 132\n\n Agh\u00e1=master, politely applied to an Eunuch, 235\n\n Ahdab, hunchback=classical Ak'as, 213\n\n A'in=Smiter with the evil eye, 123\n\n Ajal=appointed period of life, 74\n\n 'Ajami=foreigner, esp. Persian, 120\n\n Ajuz, for old woman, highly insulting; use Shaybah, 174\n\n Ak\u00e1sirah=Kisra-Kings, 75\n\n Akr\u00e1s=cakes, 83\n\n Al-Aftah=Broad-o'-Brow, 17\n\n Al-Ajam=region not Arab, Persia, 2\n\n Al-Amin, son and successor of H\u00e1r\u00fan al-Rash\u00edd, 185\n\n Al-Ar\u00edf=monitor, 231\n\n Al-Asr=time or prayer of mid-afternoon, 240\n\n Al-Bash\u00e1rah=gift of good tidings, guerdon, 30\n\n Al-Bost\u00e1ni=gardener, family name from original occupation, 266\n\n Al-Faranj=European, 296\n\n Al-Has\u00e1=plain of pebbles, west of Damascus, 234\n\n Al-Kah\u00e1nah=the craft of a K\u00e1hin or soothsayer, 28\n\n Al-Maam\u00fan, son and successor of H\u00e1r\u00fan al-Rash\u00edd, 185\n\n Al-M\u00e1lihah=salt-girl; beautiful, 340\n\n Al-Mustansir bi'llah=one seeking help in Allah, 317\n\n Al-Nashsh\u00e1r=sawing, 335\n\n Al-N\u00edl=flood season corresponding to mid-summer, 290\n\n Al-Rauzah=the gardens, 291\n\n Al-Safar Zafar=voyaging is victory, 250\n\n Al-Sahr=magic, black art, 305\n\n Al-Z\u00e1hir bi'llah=one pre-eminent by the decree of Allah, 317\n\n Al-Zalamah (tyrants, oppressors)=police and employ\u00e9s, 273\n\n Allah! Allah!=I conjure thee by God, _Passim_\n\n Allah hath said, formula of quoting the Koran, 61\n\n Allah Kar\u00edm=Allah is all beneficent, 32\n\n Allah will open thee, a formula of refusing, _ib._\n\n Ailaho a'alam=God is all knowing, 2; 50\n\n Allahumma=Y\u00e1 Allah with emphasis, 39\n\n Am\u00e1n=quarter, mercy, 342\n\n Am\u00edr=Military Commandant, 259\n\n Am\u00edr al-Muumin\u00edn=Prince of the Faithful, 112\n\n Amrad=beardless and handsome, effeminate, 327\n\n Ams\u00e1r=cities, 11\n\n Amsh\u00e1t (combs) perhaps=Kun\u00e1fah (vermicelli), 83\n\n Andam=the gum called dragon's blood; brazilwood, 176\n\n Arab al-Arab\u00e1=prehistoric tribes of the Arabs, 112\n\n Arab al-Musta'ajimah=barbarised Arabs, _ib._\n\n Arab al-Musta'aribah=naturalised Arabs, _ib._\n\n Arab al-Muta'arribah=Arabised Arabs, _ib._\n\n Arakiyah=white scull-cap, 215\n\n Ardabb (Irdabb)=about five bushels, 263\n\n Ar\u00fan (Heb.)=in his shirt, 78\n\n Asal-nahl=bee's honey, 271\n\n Ashk\u00e1ni\u00e1n=race of Persian Kings, 78\n\n Astrolabe, father of our sextant, 304\n\n Atr=any perfume, 335\n\n Auhashtani=thou hast made me desolate, 62\n\n Aw\u00e1lim pl. of Alimah=dancing girls, 214\n\n Aysh (Egypt.)=Ayyu shayyin for classical \"M\u00e1\"=what, 79\n\n Aywa (for Ay w' All\u00e1hi)=Ay, by Allah, 303\n\n Azim=\"deuced\" or \"mighty fine\", 178\n\n\n B\u00e1b=gate; chapter, 136\n\n B\u00e1b al-Far\u00e1d\u00eds=gate of the gardens at Damascus, 240\n\n Babel=Gate of God, 85\n\n Babes of the eyes=pupils, 100\n\n Badawi's dying farewell, 75\n\n B\u00e1dhanj=wind-shaft, ventilator, 257\n\n Badmasti=le vin mauvais, 88\n\n Baghlah=she-mule, 129\n\n Bahr=water cut or trenched in the earth, sea, large river, 44\n\n Bahr al-muh\u00edt=circumambient ocean, 133\n\n Balid=simpleton, 17\n\n Ball\u00e1n=body servant, 311\n\n Ball\u00e1nah=tire-woman, _ib._\n\n Banj=Nibanj=Nepenthe, hemp, 70\n\n Baradiyah=wide-mouthed jug, 36\n\n B\u00e1rid=vain, foolish, insipid, 213\n\n Barley, food for horses, 345\n\n Barmecides, 188\n\n Basaltic statues in Hauranic ruins give rise to the idea of men\n metamorphosed into black stones, 170\n\n Basil=the Indian Tulsi, Ocymum basilicum, 19\n\n Basil of the bridges=pennyroyal, 91\n\n Bastinado of women, 183\n\n Bay\u00e1z al-Sult\u00e1ni=the best kind of gypsum, 270\n\n Bazar of Damascus famous in the Middle Ages, 2\n\n Beheading or sacking a faithless wife unlawful but leniently looked\n upon, 181\n\n Before the face of Allah=for the love of God, 135\n\n Bi'l-Sal\u00e1mah=in safety (to avert the evil eye), 288\n\n Birkat al-Habash=Abyssinian pond, 291\n\n Bismillah=in the name of God, 40\n\n \u2014\u2014 said before taking action, 80\n\n \u2014\u2014 a civil form of dismissal, 98\n\n \u2014\u2014=\"fall to!\", 264\n\n Blackamoors preferred by debauched women, 6\n\n Blind notorious for insolence, etc., 330\n\n Blinding a common practice in the East, how done, 108\n\n Blue and yellow turbans prescribed to Christians and Jews, 77\n\n Boils and pimples supposed to be caused by broken hair-roots, 275\n\n Breast broadening with delight, 48\n\n Breast straitened, the converse of breast broadening (48), 119\n\n Bride's throne, 215\n\n B\u00fazah=beer, 72\n\n\n Cairenes held exceedingly debauched, 298\n\n Cairo nothing without the Nile, 295\n\n Camel, how slaughtered, 347\n\n Carpet-beds, 294\n\n Chaff or banter allowed even to modest women, 267\n\n Champing sign of good breeding, 345\n\n Chess-anecdote, 132\n\n Children carried astraddle upon hip or shoulder, 308\n\n Claims of maidenhead, 190\n\n Clapping of hands to summon servants, 177\n\n Clever young ladies dangerous in the East, 15\n\n Conception on the bride-night rare, 227\n\n Confession after concealment a characteristic of the servile class, 53\n\n Confession on the criminal's part required by Moslem Law, 274\n\n Confusion of metaphors characteristic of The Nights, 86\n\n Contemplation of street-scenery one of the pleasures of the Harem, 319\n\n Corpse pollutes him who touches it, 295\n\n Cutting off the right hand Koranic punishment for theft, 274\n\n Cutting of the navel string preliminary to naming the babe, 231\n\n Cutting the rope=breaking bounds, 349\n\n\n Dajlah=Tigris, Heb. Hid-dekel, 180\n\n Dakh\u00edl-ak=under thy protection, 61\n\n Damascus women famed for sanguinary jealousy, 295\n\n Darabukkah=tom-tom, 311\n\n Darbar=public audience, 29\n\n Dast\u00far=leave, permission, 66\n\n Daughter of my uncle=my wife, 69\n\n Daurak=narrow-mouthed jug, 36\n\n Despite his nose=against his will, 26\n\n Destiny blindeth human sight, 67\n\n Din\u00e1r=gold piece, Daric, Misk\u00e1l, 32\n\n Dirham=silver piece, 33\n\n \"Dog\" and \"hog\" popular terms of abuse, 188\n\n Drinking first to show that the draught is not poisoned, 88; 295\n\n \"Drop\" unknown to the Eastern gallows, 260\n\n Duny\u00e1z\u00e1d=world-free, 14\n\n Dust-storm in tropical lands, 111\n\n\n Elephant's roll (to Hindu)=swaying and graceful gait, 217\n\n Erotic inferences drawn from parts of body, 350\n\n Eternal truth of The Nights, 7\n\n Eunuch best go-between, 282\n\n Eunuch employed as porter, 343\n\n Eunuch-in-Chief a most important Jack in office, 283\n\n Eunuchs, different kinds of, 132\n\n Euphemistic formulas to avoid mentioning unpleasant matters, 31\n\n Exaggeration part of humour, 12\n\n Eyebrows joined a great beauty in Arabia, 227\n\n Eyes of me=my dears, 163\n\n\n Face-veil=\"nose-bag\", 82\n\n Fak\u00edr=religious mendicant generally, 95\n\n Falcon=blinding the quarry, 51\n\n Fals ahmar=a red cent, 321\n\n Far\u00e1iz=orders expressly given in the Koran, 169\n\n Faraj\u00edyah=a long sleeved robe, 210, 321\n\n Fass=bezel of a ring, gem cut en cabochon, contenant for contenu, 165\n\n Fata=a youth; generous man, etc., 67\n\n Favours foreshadowing downfall, 48\n\n Female depravity going hand in hand with perversity of taste, 73\n\n Fiat _in_justitia ruat c\u0153lum, 253\n\n First personal pronoun placed first for respect, 237\n\n Fitnah=revolt, seduction, mischief; beautiful girl; aphrodisiac\n perfume, 219\n\n Following one's face=at random, 347\n\n Friday night=our Thursday night, 269\n\n Friday Service described, 313\n\n Frolics of highborn ladies, 328\n\n \"Fun\"=practical jokes of the largest, 20\n\n Futur=breakfast, 300\n\n\n Gall-bladder and liver allusions, 219\n\n Ghadir=a place where water sinks, lowland, 233\n\n Ghamz=winking, signing with the eye, 292\n\n Ghar\u00edb=foreigner, 95\n\n Ghaw\u00e1z\u00ed=singing girls, 214\n\n Ghazl al-ban\u00e1t (spinning of girls)=vermicelli, 83\n\n Ghilm\u00e1n=Wuld\u00e1n, the beautiful youths of Paradise, 211\n\n Gh\u00fatah=thickly grown lowland, 115\n\n Gh\u00falah=ogress, 55\n\n Going straight to the point preferred to filer le parfait amour, 268\n\n Gold makes bold, 340\n\n Ground-floor usually let for shops, 319\n\n\n Habb=grain of the heart, 250\n\n Habb\u00e1niyah=grain-seller's quarter, 269\n\n Hab\u00edb, euphemism for lover, 223\n\n Hayh\u00e1t, onomatopoetic=heigh-ho!, 76\n\n Hair should be allowed all to grow or be shaven off, 308\n\n Hair-dyes all vegetable matter, 326\n\n Halab=Aleppo, 292\n\n Hammam, going to the=convalescence, 288\n\n \u2014\u2014, showing that a woman's monthly ailment is over, 286\n\n Har\u00edm=Harem, used for the inmates, wife, etc., 165\n\n Har\u00edsah, a favourite dish, 131\n\n Hasanta ya Hasan=bene detto, Benedetto!, 251\n\n Hash\u00edsh, intoxicant prepared of hemp, 225\n\n Haste ye to salvation, part of the Az\u00e1n, 224\n\n H\u00e1tif=mysterious voice, 142\n\n Hauk! Hauk!=heehaw!, 221\n\n Head in the poke=into the noose, 179\n\n High-bosomed damsel a favourite with Arab tale-tellers, 84\n\n Hog, popular term of abuse, 188\n\n Horoscopes, etc., 213\n\n Horseplay frequently ending in bastinado, 325\n\n House of Peace=Baghdad, 139\n\n Houses of Lamentation in Moslem burial-grounds, 94\n\n Humming not a favourite practice with Moslems, 311\n\n Hunchback looked upon with fear and aversion, 258\n\n H\u00far al-Ayn=with eyes of lively white and black, 90\n\n Hurr=gentleman, 254\n\n Hurry is from Hell, 264\n\n\n Iblis=Despairer, 13\n\n Ibn Har\u00e1m=son of adultery, abuse not necessarily reflecting on the\n parent, 231\n\n Ibrat=needle-graver and Ibrat=warning, a favourite jingle, 104\n\n Ibr\u00edk=ewer, and Tisht=basin, used for washing the hands, 241\n\n Id al-Kab\u00edr=the Great Festival, 28\n\n Ifr\u00edt, divided into two races like mankind, 11\n\n Ifritah=she-Ifrit, 34\n\n Ihd\u00e1k=encompassing, as the white encloses the black of the eye, 49\n\n Ihtiz\u00e1z=shaking with delight, 50\n\n Ikl\u00edl=diadem, now obsolete, 270\n\n Ikl\u00edm=the seven climates of Ptolemy, 233\n\n Ilm al-Ruh\u00e1ni=Spiritualism, 305\n\n Improvising still common amongst the Badawin, 39\n\n Incest lawful amongst ancient peoples, 110\n\n Inheritance, law of, settled by the Koran, 174\n\n Insh\u00e1d=conjuring by Allah, 11\n\n Insolence and licence of palace girls, 286\n\n Intellect of man stronger than a Jinni's, 43\n\n Internally wounded=sick at heart, 5\n\n Inw\u00e1=jerking the date-stone, 25\n\n Ish\u00e1=the first watch of the night, 175\n\n Iz\u00e1r=sheet worn as veil, 163\n\n\n Ja'afar=contrasting strongly with his master, 102\n\n Jah\u00e1rkas=Pers. Cheh\u00e1r-kas, four persons, 266\n\n Jannat al-Na'\u00edm=The Garden of Delights _i.e._ Heaven, 98\n\n Jaz\u00edrah=Peninsula, Arabia, 2\n\n Jaz\u00edr\u00e1t al-Kh\u00e1lid\u00e1t=Eternal Isles=Canaries, 141\n\n Jil\u00e1=displaying the bride before the bridegroom, 174\n\n Jinn=the French g\u00e9nie, the Hindu Rakshasa or Yaksha, 10\n\n Joseph of the Koran very different from him of Genesis, 13\n\n Judri=small-pox, 256\n\n Jun\u00fan=madness, 10\n\n\n K\u00e1'ah=ground-floor hall, 85\n\n K\u00e1'ah (saloon)=fine house, mansion, 292\n\n K\u00e1bul-men noted for Sodomy, 299\n\n K\u00e1f, popularly=Caucasus, 72, 133\n\n Kahbah=whore, 70\n\n Kah\u00edlat al-taraf=having the eyelids lined with Kohl, 63\n\n Kahkahah=horse-laughter, 350\n\n Kahram\u00e1n\u00e1t=nursery governess, 231\n\n K\u00e1id=leader, 330\n\n Kalam=reed-pen, 128\n\n Kal\u00e1m al-Mub\u00e1h=the permitted say, 29\n\n Kalandar=mendicant monk, 94\n\n K\u00e1mat Alfiyyah=straight stature, 85\n\n Kam\u00eds=shift, etc., 293\n\n Kat'a=bit of leather, 20\n\n Kat\u00e1=sand-grouse, 131\n\n Katf=pinioning, 106\n\n Kath\u00e1-Sarit-S\u00e1gara=poetical version of the Vrihat-Kath\u00e1, 12\n\n Kaus al-Banduk=pellet-bow, 10\n\n Kausar=a lieu commun of poets, 241\n\n Kaww\u00e1d=pimp, 316\n\n K\u00e1y\u00e1ni\u00e1n race of Persian Kings, 75\n\n Kayl\u00falah=siesta, 51\n\n Kaysariyah=superior kind of Bazar, 266\n\n Kazi=judge in religious matters, 21\n\n Kerchief of mercy, 343\n\n Kh\u00e1dim=servant, politely applied to a castrato, 235\n\n Khal\u00ed'a=worn out; wag, 311\n\n Khal\u00edfah=Vicar of Allah; successor of a Santon, 184\n\n Khan=caravanserai, 92\n\n Khan Al-Masr\u00far, in Cairo, famous in the 15th century, 265\n\n Khanjar=hanger, 232\n\n Khatmah=reading or reciting the whole Koran, 277\n\n Khinz\u00edr=hog, 108\n\n Khubz=scones, 131\n\n Khuff=walking shoes, 82\n\n Khyas, Khyas, onomatopoetic, used in a sea-spell, 228\n\n King's barber a man of rank, 351\n\n \"Kiss, key to Kitty\", 323\n\n Kissing the eyes a paternal salute, 125\n\n Kohl=powdered antimony for the eyelids, 89\n\n \u2014\u2014 proverbially used, 278\n\n Koran quoted (xx.), 2\n\n \u2014\u2014 (ii. 34), 13\n\n \u2014\u2014 (xxv. 31), _ib._\n\n \u2014\u2014 (xix. 69), _ib._\n\n \u2014\u2014 (xxvi.), 39\n\n \u2014\u2014 (xxvii.), 42\n\n \u2014\u2014 (v., xx.), 119\n\n \u2014\u2014 (vii., xviii.), 169\n\n \u2014\u2014 (i.), 208\n\n \u2014\u2014 (lvi. 9), 211\n\n \u2014\u2014 (lx.), 220\n\n \u2014\u2014 (v.), 240\n\n \u2014\u2014 (cviii.), 241\n\n \u2014\u2014 (xvii.), 249\n\n \u2014\u2014 (xxxvi. 69), 251\n\n \u2014\u2014 (cv.), 256\n\n \u2014\u2014 (ii., ix.), 257\n\n \u2014\u2014 (v.), 274\n\n \u2014\u2014 (viii. 17), _ib._\n\n \u2014\u2014 (iii.), 298\n\n \u2014\u2014 (iii. 128), 307\n\n Kufr=rejecting the True Religion, 169\n\n Kulkas\u00e1=colocasia roots, 272\n\n Kullah=gugglet, 36\n\n Kumkum=a gourd-shaped bottle for sprinkling scents, 42\n\n K\u00e1ri=teacher of the correct pronunciation of the Koran, 113\n\n Kurrat al-Ayn=coolness of the eye, 72\n\n Kurs has taken the place of Ikl\u00edl, 270\n\n Kursi (choir, throne)=desk or stool for the Koran, 167\n\n Kush'ar\u00edrah=horripilation, symptom of great joy or fear, 251\n\n\n La'abat=a plaything, a puppet, a lay figure, 245\n\n L\u00e1 adamn\u00e1k=Heaven deprive us not of thee, 268\n\n Labbayka=Here am I, called Talbiyah, 226\n\n Laylat al-Waf\u00e1=the night of completion of the Nile-flood, 291\n\n L\u00e1 Haula, etc.=there is no Majesty etc., 69\n\n L\u00e1 taw\u00e1hishn\u00e1=do not make us desolate, 62\n\n L\u00e1 taw\u00e1khizn\u00e1=do not chastise us=excuse us, 164\n\n Latter night=hours between the last sleep and dawn, 24\n\n Laughing in one's face not intended as an affront, 320\n\n Laughter rare and sign of a troubled spirit, 248\n\n Life-breath in the nostrils=heart in the mouth, 42\n\n Like mother like daughter, 299\n\n Liver=seat of passion, 27\n\n Loghah=Arabic language, also a vocabulary, dictionary, 251\n\n Loosening the hair an immodesty in women sanctioned only by a great\n calamity, 314\n\n Lukmah=mouthful, 261\n\n\n Madfa'=cannon, showing modern date, 223\n\n Magnet Mountains, fable probably based on the currents, 140\n\n Mail-coat and habergeon simile for a glittering stream, 291\n\n Ma'\u00edn, Ma'\u00fan=smitten with the evil eye, 123\n\n Majn\u00fan=madman, 10\n\n Making water, 259\n\n Mahkamah=Kazi's Court, 21\n\n Malik or Malak=Seraph or Sovran, 253\n\n Maml\u00fak=white slaves trained to arms, 81\n\n M\u00e1rid=contumacious Jinni, 41\n\n M\u00e1rist\u00e1n (from Pers. B\u00edm\u00e1rist\u00e1n=place of sickness), 288\n\n Marmar=marble, 295\n\n Marriage not valid without receipt of settlement, 276\n\n Mash\u00e1 il\u00ed=bearer of a cresset (Mash'al), 259\n\n Mas\u00edhi=follower of the Messiah, 258\n\n Maskh\u00fat=transformed (mostly into something hideous); a statue, 165\n\n Massage (shampooing), 172\n\n Mausil (Mosul) alluding to the junction of Assyria and Babylonia, 82\n\n Mayd\u00e1n=parade ground, 46\n\n Maym\u00fanah, proverbial name now forgotten, 57\n\n Meat rarely coloured in modern days, 310\n\n Merchants and shopkeepers carrying, swords, 54\n\n Miao or Mau=cat, 220\n\n Mikra'ah=palm-rod, 99\n\n Mihr\u00e1b and Minaret, symbols of Venus and Priapus?, 166\n\n Milh=salt, 340\n\n Miracles performed by Saints' tombs, 241\n\n Misk\u00e1l=71-72 grams in gold, used for dinar, 126\n\n Mizr, Mizar=beer, 72\n\n Moles compared with pearls, 177\n\n Monday=second day, reckoning from Sabbath (Saturday), 266\n\n Money carried in the corner of a handkerchief, 271\n\n Monoculars unlucky to meet, 333\n\n Mosul stuff=muslin, 229\n\n Mounds=rubbish heaps outlying Eastern cities, 71\n\n Mouth compared to the ring of Sulayman, 84\n\n Mu'arras=pimp, 338\n\n Muh\u00e1fiz=district-governor, 259\n\n Muhakkak=\"Court-hand\", 129\n\n Muhammarah=fricandoed, 286\n\n Mujtab\u00e1=the Accepted, 77\n\n Munakkishah=woman who applies the dye to a face, 270\n\n Murtaz\u00e1=the Elect, 77\n\n Mustapha=the Chosen, _ib._\n\n Mutawalli=Prefect of Police, 259\n\n Muzayyin=Figaro of the East, 304\n\n\n Nab\u00fat=quarter-staff, 234\n\n Nadd, a compound perfume, 310\n\n Nadd\u00e1bah=mourning woman, 311\n\n Nad\u00edm=cup-companion, 46\n\n Nafas=breath, 107\n\n Nafs=soul, life, _ib._\n\n Nah\u00e1s asfar=brass, 40\n\n Nah\u00e1s (ahmar)=copper, _ib._\n\n Nahnu m\u00e1lih\u00edn=we are on term of salt, 344\n\n Nahs=nasty, 301\n\n Naihah=keener, hired mourner, 311\n\n Nakedness paraphrased, 327\n\n Nak\u00edb a caravan-leader, chief, syndic, 269\n\n Name of Allah introduced into an indecent tale essentially Egyptian, 12\n\n Narjis=Narcissus, 294\n\n Naskh=copying hand, 128\n\n Nasr\u00e1ni=follower of Him of Nazareth, 258\n\n Nat'a=leather used by way of table-cloth, 20\n\n Nata' al-dam=the leather of blood, 318\n\n Navel as to beauty and health, 84\n\n Nearness of seat a mark of honour, 250\n\n Negroes preferred by debauched women, 6\n\n New-moon beginning Ramaz\u00e1n carefully looked for, 84\n\n Nile-water sweet and light, 290\n\n Nineteen the age of an oldish old maid in Egypt, 212\n\n Noisy merriment scandalous to Moslem \"respectability\", 95\n\n Nothing for nothing a sexual _point d'honneur_, 87\n\n\n Oath a serious thing amongst Moslems, 179\n\n Oman=Eastern Arabia, 83\n\n Oriental orgie different from European, 93\n\n\n Pander-dodge to get more money, 302\n\n Panel-dodge fatally common, 323\n\n Paris Jockey-club scene anticipated, 327\n\n Parody on the testification of Allah's Unity, 177\n\n Parrot-story a world-wide folk-lore, 52\n\n Passengers in difficulties take command, 140\n\n Pearl, supposed to lose one per cent. per ann. of its splendour, 165\n\n Peshdadians, race of Persian Kings, 75\n\n Plain (ground), synonyms for, 46\n\n Plural masc. used by way of modesty when a girl addresses her lover, 98\n\n Poetry of the Arabs requires knowledge of the Desert to be understood,\n 230\n\n Pomegranate fruit supposed to contain seed from Eden garden, 134\n\n Prime Minister carrying fish to the cookmaid, 63\n\n Privy, a slab with slit in front and a round hole behind, 221\n\n Proverbs true to nature, 307\n\n\n Qanoon-e-Islam quoted on the subject of horoscopes, etc., 213\n\n\n Raydaniyah, a camping ground near Cairo, 245\n\n Rayh\u00e1ni=a curved character, 128\n\n Rais=captain of a ship, 127\n\n Rajaz=the seventh Bahr of Arabic prosody, 251\n\n Rajul ikhtiy\u00e1r=middle-aged man, 55\n\n Refusal of a gift greatest affront, 336\n\n Rending of garments as sign of sorrow or vexation, 308\n\n Respect shown to parts of the body, exuvi\u00e6, etc., 276\n\n Riding on the ass an old Biblical practice, 262\n\n Rims cars, 131\n\n Rozistan=day station, 29\n\n Ruk\u00e1'\u00ed=correspondence hand, 128\n\n Rukh\u00e1m=alabaster, 295\n\n Ruka'tayn=two-bow prayer, 142\n\n\n Sa'ad=auspiciousness, prosperity; derivatives, 9\n\n Sabr=patience and aloes, source of puns, 138\n\n Sadaf=cowrie, 19\n\n Sadakah=voluntary alms, opposed to Zak\u00e1t, 339\n\n Sadd=wall, dyke, 114\n\n S\u00e1hib=companion, used as a Wazirial title, 237\n\n S\u00e1hib al-Shartah=chief of the watch (Prefect of Police), 259\n\n S\u00e1hib Nafas=master of breath, a minor saint healing by expiration, 107\n\n S\u00e1hil Masr=the river side (at Cairo), 291\n\n Saj'a=rhymed prose, 116\n\n Sakhr al-Jinni alluded to, 41\n\n S\u00e1kiyah=the Persian water wheel, 123\n\n S\u00e1lih, prophet sent to Th\u00e1m\u00fad, 169\n\n Salm\u00e1 and Layla=our \"Mary and Martha\", 265\n\n Sama'an wa ta atan to be translated variously, 96\n\n Samn=clarified butter, 144\n\n S\u00e1r=vendetta, 101, 114\n\n Sar\u00e1wil=bag or petticoat trousers, 222\n\n Sard\u00e1beh=underground room, 340\n\n Sarr\u00e1f=Anglo-Indian \"Shroff\", 210\n\n Sassanides, 75\n\n Saw\u00e1b=reward in Heaven, 96\n\n Sayd wa Kanas=hunting and coursing, 9\n\n Scalding a stump in oil common surgery practice, 297\n\n Scorpions of the brow=accroche-c\u0153urs, etc., 168\n\n Sealing a covered dish a necessary precaution against poison, 244\n\n Seas, the two=the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, 173\n\n Sepulchre, erroneously called \"a little Wali\", 105\n\n Seven schools or editions of the Koran, 113\n\n Sh\u00e1bb=youth between puberty and forty, 55\n\n Shabistan=night station, 29\n\n Shak\u00e1ik al-Nu'um\u00e1n=anemone, 175\n\n Shahr\u00e1z\u00e1d=city-freer, 14\n\n Shahry\u00e1r=city friend, 2\n\n Shah Zam\u00e1n=King of the Age, _ib._\n\n Shaykh=an old man, elder, chief, 26\n\n Shaykh, Shaybah=grey-beard, oldster, 55\n\n Sha'\u00edlah=link (also lamp, wick, etc.), 259\n\n Shaking and nodding the head, universal items of gesture language, 300\n\n Sh\u00e1m (Syria)=land on the left, opposed to Al-Yaman=land on the right,\n 83\n\n \"Shame\" alluded to in cursing parents of an abused person, 227\n\n Shampooing the feet, 117\n\n Sharmutah=rags, tatters; strumpets; shreds of meat=Kad\u00edd, 163\n\n Sh\u00e1mah=Kh\u00e1l, mole on the cheek, 167\n\n Shart=a single Talbiyah or cry Labbayka, 226\n\n Shatm=obscene abuse, 182\n\n Shayyun li'll\u00e1hi=per amor di Dio, 329\n\n Shedding tears no disgrace for a man, 68\n\n Sham hamphorash=the hundredth name of God, engraved on the seal-ring of\n Solomon, 173\n\n Shih\u00e1b=shooting stars, 224\n\n Shirk (partnership)=Syntheism, Dualism, Trinitarianism, 181\n\n Shops composed of a \"but\" and a \"ben\", 316\n\n Shudder preceding the magnetic trance, 44\n\n Shuhad\u00e1, martyrs, extensive category, 171\n\n Shuh\u00fad=assessors of the Kazi's Court, 21\n\n Shurayh, foxier than the fox, 252\n\n Sh\u00fashah=topknot of hair, 308\n\n Sim\u00e1t=dinner table, 178\n\n Simiy\u00e1=white magic, 305, 332\n\n Sitting on shins and knees a trying posture, 130\n\n Slaves fancied by debauched women, 191\n\n Slice of the moon=digit of the moon, 91\n\n Smuggling men into the Harem, 282\n\n Snatching off the turband a paying industry, 259\n\n Soft-sided, attribute of beauty, 168\n\n Solomon's death fixing the date of a tale, 41\n\n \"Son\" used for \"grandson\" more affectionate, 243\n\n Son of a century=hundred years old, 126\n\n Sons of Adam=men, 130\n\n Sons of S\u00e1s\u00e1n=Sassanides, 2\n\n Speaker puts himself first, 33\n\n Spittle dried up from fear, 285\n\n Staff broken in the first bout=failure in the first attempt, 64\n\n Street melodies changing with fashion, 311\n\n Striking the right hand upon the left sign of vexation, 298\n\n Striking with the shoe, the pipe-stick, etc., highly insulting, 110\n\n Subh-i-k\u00e1zib=false dawn, 78\n\n Subh-i-s\u00e1dik=true dawn, _ib._\n\n Sucking the tongue=\"kissing with th' inner lip\", 270\n\n Sufrah=dinner table, 178\n\n Sugar-stick=German Zuckerp\u00fcppchen, 167\n\n Suh\u00e1, star in the Great Bear, _ib._\n\n Sulayman and Sakhr al-Jinni, 42\n\n Sullam=ladder; whipping-post, 331\n\n Sulus=engrossing hand, 128\n\n Sums of large amount weighed, 281\n\n Sun greeting Mohammed, 45\n\n Superstitious practices not confined to the lower orders, 40\n\n Surriyat=concubine, 27\n\n Su 'ub\u00e1n=dragon, cockatrice=Tann\u00edn, 172\n\n Su'\u00fad used as a counter odour, 279\n\n Suw\u00e1n=syenite, 238\n\n\n Tagh\u00fam a kind of onomatopoetic grunt, 228\n\n Tailor made to cut out the cloth in owner's presence, 321\n\n T\u00e1kiyah, calotte worn under the Fez, scull-cap, 224\n\n Talbiyah=the cry Labbayka, 226\n\n Tamm\u00faz=July, 53\n\n Tamar Hann\u00e1=flower of privet, 83\n\n T\u00e1r=tambourine, 215\n\n Tarb\u00fash=Pers. Sar-p\u00fash, head cover, _ib._\n\n Tar\u00edk=clear the way, 66\n\n Tarjum\u00e1n=truchman, dragoman, 100\n\n Tasb\u00edh=saluting in the Subh, 258\n\n Taur (Thaur, Saur), a venerable remnant of un-split speech, 16\n\n Taw\u00e1shi, obnoxious name for a Eunuch, 235\n\n Tears shed over past separation, 283\n\n Thousand dirhams and thousand dinars=\u00a3125 and \u00a3500 respectively, 281\n\n Three days term of hospitality, 3\n\n Throwing one=bastinado on the back, 243\n\n Tibn=crushed straw, 16\n\n Tobba (Himyaritic)=the Great or Chief, 216\n\n Tongue of the case=words suggested by the circumstances, 121\n\n Tughy\u00e1n=Kufr, rejection of the True Religion, 169\n\n T\u00fam\u00e1r=uncial letters, 129\n\n Turband not put upon the ground out of respect, 223\n\n \"Turk\" probably a late addition, 52\n\n Turning round in despair against an oppressor, 246\n\n\n Odah, properly Uta=private room of a concubine, 286\n\n Ultra-Shakspearean geography, \"Fars of Roum\", 45\n\n Umamah and Atikah, tale of two women now forgotten, 61\n\n Umm Amir=Mother of Amir, nickname for the hyena, 43\n\n 'Urban=wild Arabs, 112\n\n Usfur=safflower, 219\n\n Uzayr=Esdras, 257\n\n\n Varieties of handwriting, 129\n\n\n Wady, Anglic\u00e8 \"valley\", 51\n\n Wahsh=wild-beast and synonyms, 242\n\n Wak\u00e1lah; described in Pilgrimage i. 60, 266\n\n Wakk\u00e1d=stoker, 312\n\n Wali=(civil) Governor, 259\n\n Wa'l-Sal\u00e1m=and here ends the matter, 102\n\n Washings after evacuation, 220\n\n Way of Allah=common property, 91\n\n Wazir=Minister, 2\n\n \"What is it compared with,\" popular way of expressing great difference,\n 37\n\n Wife euphemistically spoken of in the masculine, 67\n\n Window-gardening, old practice in the East, 301\n\n Wine boiled=vinum coctum, 132\n\n Wine-drinking vitiates the Pilgrimage-rite, 97\n\n Wine flying to the head, effect of the cold after a heated room, 224\n\n Wine why strained? 27\n\n Wisw\u00e1s=diabolical temptation or suggestion, 106\n\n Women bastinadoed, 183\n\n Wonder (=cause) in every death, 351\n\n Wuld\u00e1n=Ghilm\u00e1n, the beautiful youths of Paradise, 211\n\n Wuzu-ablution=lesser ablutions, 142\n\n\n Y\u00e1 Ba'\u00edd=O distant one, euphemism for gross abuse, 41\n\n Y\u00e1 b\u00e1rid=O fool, 313\n\n Y\u00e1 h\u00fa=O he! Swift's Yahoo? 240\n\n Yah\u00fad\u00ed for Jew, less polite than Banu Isr\u00e1\u00edl, 210\n\n Y\u00e1 Kh\u00e1lati=mother's sister, in addressing the old, 303\n\n Y\u00e1 Mash'\u00fam=O unlucky one, 221\n\n Y\u00e1 h\u00e1z\u00e1=O this (one), somewhat slightingly, 240\n\n Y\u00e1 Satt\u00e1r=Thou who veilest the discreditable secrets of Thy creatures,\n 258\n\n Y\u00e1 Tayyib al-Kh\u00e1l=O thou nephew of a good uncle, 303\n\n Yaum al-Id=the great festival, 317\n\n Youth described in terms applying to women, 144\n\n\n Z\u00e1bit=Prefect of Police, 259\n\n Zak\u00e1t=legal alms, 339\n\n Zamb\u00far=clitoris, 90\n\n Zemzem=water saltish, 284\n\n Zikr=litanies, 124\n\n Z\u00edrb\u00e1jah=meat dressed with cumin-seed, etc., 278\n\n Ziy\u00e1rat=visit to a pious person or place, 125\n\n Zauba'ah=sandstorm the desert, 114\n\n Zubb=penis, 92\n\n Zabb\u00e1l=scavenger, 312\n\n Zulf=side-lock, 308\n\n Zulm, injustice, tyranny; worst of a monarch's crimes, 190\n\n Zuwaylah gate, more correctly B\u00e1b Zawilah, 269\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES\n\n\n 1. Added missing anchors for footnotes on p. 44, p. 87, p. 181, p.\n 208, and p. 218.\n 2. Corrected footnote numbering on p. 181 and p. 182.\n 3. Corrected footnote anchor numbering on p. 263 and p. 272.\n 4. Added footnote number on p. 297.\n 5. Added missing page number 253 to Index entry \"Malik or Malak=Seraph\n or Sovran\" on p. 358.\n 6. The dates (\"A.H. 86-96=105-115\") on p. 208 are probably incorrect\n as the Caliph lived from 691-743 CE per Wikipedia.\n 7. Silently corrected simple spelling, grammar, and typographical\n errors.\n 8. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.\n 9. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.\n 10. Enclosed bold font in =equals=.","title":"The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night \u2014 Volume 01 (of 10)","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":177814}