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                            1850

                    THE ARABIAN NIGHTS

                   by Sir Richard Burton


             THE ARABIAN NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENTS

                  (ALF LAYLAH WA LAYLAH)

           STORY OF KING SHAHRYAR AND HIS BROTHER


                  In the Name of Allah,

          the Compassionating, the Compassionate!

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


AND AFTERWARD. Verily the works and words of those gone before us
have become instances and examples to men of our modern day, that folk
may view what admonishing chances befell other folk and may
therefrom take warning; and that they may peruse the annals of antique
peoples and all that hath betided them, and be thereby ruled and
restrained. Praise, therefore, be to Him who hath made the histories
of the past an admonition unto the present! Now of such instances
are the tales called "A Thousand Nights and a Night," together with
their far-famed legends and wonders.

Therein it is related (but Allah it is All-knowing of His hidden
things and All-ruling and All-honored and All-giving and
All-gracious and All-merciful!) that in tide of yore and in time
long gone before, there was a King of the Kings of the Banu Sasan in
the islands of India and China, a Lord of armies and guards and
servants and dependents. He left only two sons, one in the prime of
manhood and the other yet a youth, while both were knights and braves,
albeit the elder was a doughtier horseman than the younger. So he
succeeded to the empire, when he ruled the land and lorded it is
over his lieges with justice so exemplary that he was beloved by all
the peoples of his capital and of his kingdom. His name was King
Shahryar, and he made his younger brother, Shah Zaman hight, King of
Samarkand in Barbarian land. These two ceased not to abide in their
several realms and the law was ever carried out in their dominions.
And each ruled his own kingdom with equity and fair dealing to his
subjects, in extreme solace and enjoyment, and this condition
continually endured for a score of years.

But at the end of the twentieth twelvemonth the elder King yearned
for a sight of his younger brother and felt that he must look upon him
once more. So he took counsel with his Wazir about visiting him, but
 the Minister, finding the project unadvisable, recommended that a
letter be written and a present be sent under his charge to the
younger brother, with an invitation to visit the elder. Having
accepted this advice, the King forthwith bade prepare handsome
gifts, such as horses with saddles of gem-encrusted gold; Mamelukes,
or white slaves; beautiful handmaids, high-breasted virgins, and
splendid stuffs and costly. He then wrote a letter to Shah Zaman
expressing his warm love and great wish to see him, ending with
these words: "We therefore hope of the favor and affection of the
beloved brother that he will condescend to bestir himself and turn his
face usward. Furthermore, we have sent our Wazir to make all ordinance
for the march, and our one and only desire it is to see thee ere we
die. But if thou delay or disappoint us, we shall not survive the
blow. Wherewith peace be upon thee!"

Then King Shahryar, having sealed the missive and given it is to the
Wazir with the offerings aforementioned, commanded him to shorten
his skirts and strain his strength and make all expedition in going
and returning. "Harkening and obedience!" quoth the Minister, who fell
to making ready without stay and packed up his loads and prepared
all his requisites without delay. This occupied him three days, and on
the dawn of the fourth he took leave of his King and marched right
away, over desert and hallway, stony waste and pleasant lea, without
halting by night or by day. But whenever he entered a realm whose
ruler was subject to his suzerain, where he was greeted with
magnificent gifts of gold and silver and all manner of presents fair
and rare, he would tarry there three days, the term of the guest rite.
And when he left on the fourth, he would be honorably escorted for a
whole day's march.

As soon as the Wazir drew near Shah Zaman's court in Samarkand he
dispatched to report his arrival one of his high officials, who
presented himself before the King and, kissing ground between his
hands, delivered his message. Hereupon the King commanded sundry of
his grandees and lords of his realm to fare forth and meet his
brother's Wazir at the distance of a full day's journey. Which they
did, greeting him respectfully and wishing him all prosperity and
forming an escort and a procession. When he entered the city, he
proceeded straightway to the palace, where he presented himself in the
royal presence; and after kissing ground and praying for the King's
health and happiness and for victory over all his enemies, he
informed him that his brother was yearning to see him, and prayed
for the pleasure of a visit.

He then delivered the letter, which Shah Zaman took from his hand
and read. It contained sundry hints and allusions which required
thought, but when the King had fully comprehended its import, he said,
"I hear and I obey the commands of the beloved brother!" adding to the
Wazir, "But we will not march till after the third day's hospitality."
He appointed for the Minister fitting quarters of the palace and
pitching tents for the troops, rationed them with whatever they
might require of meat and drink and other necessaries. On the fourth
day he made ready for wayfare and got together sumptuous presents
befitting his elder brother's majesty, and stablished his chief
Wazir Viceroy of the land during his absence. Then he caused his tents
and camels and mules to be brought forth and encamped, with their
bales and loads, attendants and guards, within sight of the city, in
readiness to set out next morning for his brother's capital.

But when the night was half-spent he bethought him that he had
forgotten in his palace somewhat which he should have brought with
him, so he returned privily and entered his apartments, where he found
the Queen, his wife, asleep on his own carpet bed embracing with
both arms a black cook of loathsome aspect and foul with kitchen
grease and grime. When he saw this the world waxed black before his
sight and he said: "If such case happen while I am yet within sight of
the city, what will be the doings of this damned whore during my
long absence at my brother's court?" So he drew his scimitar, and
cutting the two in four pieces with a single blow, left them on the
carpet and returned presently to his camp without letting anyone
know of what had happened. Then he gave orders for immediate departure
and set out at once and began his travel; but he could not help
thinking over his wife's treason, and he kept ever saying to
himself: "How could she do this deed by me? How could she work her own
death?" till excessive grief seized him, his color changed to
yellow, his body waxed weak, and he was threatened with a dangerous
malady, such a one as bringeth men to die. So the Wazir shortened
his stages and tarried long at the watering stations, and did his best
to solace the King.

Now when Shah Zaman drew near the capital of his brother, he
dispatched vaunt-couriers and messengers of glad tidings to announce
his arrival, and Shahryar came forth to meet him with his wazirs and
emirs and lords and grandees of his realm, and saluted him and joyed
with exceeding joy and caused the city to be decorated in his honor.
When, however, the brothers met, the elder could not but see the
change of complexion in the younger and questioned him of his case,
whereto he replied: "'Tis caused by the travails of wayfare and my
case needs care, for I have suffered from the change of water and air!
But Allah be praised for reuniting me with a brother so dear and so
rare!" On this wise he dissembled and kept his secret, adding: "O King
of the Time and Caliph of the Tide, only toil and moil have tinged
my face yellow with bile and hath made my eyes sink deep in my head."

Then the two entered the capital in all honor, and the elder brother
lodged the younger in a palace overhanging the pleasure garden. And
after a time, seeing his condition still unchanged, he attributed it
is to his separation from his country and kingdom. So he let him
wend his own ways and asked no questions of him till one day when he
again said, "O my brother, I see thou art grown weaker of body and
yellower of color." "O my brother," replied Shah Zaman, "I have an
internal wound." Still he would not tell him what he had witnessed
in his wife. Thereupon Shahryar summoned doctors and surgeons and bade
them treat his brother according to the rules of art, which they did
for a whole month. But their sherbets and potions naught availed,
for he would dwell upon the deed of his wife, and despondency, instead
of diminishing, prevailed, and leechcraft treatment utterly failed.

One day his elder brother said to him: "I am going forth to hunt and
course and to take my pleasure and pastime. Maybe this would lighten
thy heart." Shah Zaman, however, refused, saying: "O my brother, my
soul yearneth for naught of this sort, and I entreat thy favor to
stiffer me tarry quietly in this place, being wholly taken up with
my malady." So King Shah Zaman passed his night in the palace, and
next morning when his brother had fared forth, he removed from his
room and sat him down at one of the lattice windows overlooking the
pleasure grounds. And there he abode thinking with saddest thought
over his wife's betrayal, and burning sighs issued from his tortured
breast.

And as he continued in this case lo! a postern of the palace,
which was carefully kept private, swung open, and out of it is came
twenty slave girls surrounding his brother's wife, who was wondrous
fair, a model of beauty and comeliness and symmetry and perfect
loveliness, and who paced with the grace of a gazelle which panteth
for the cooling stream. Thereupon Shah Zaman drew back from the
window, but he kept the bevy in sight, espying them from a place
whence he could not be espied. They walked under the very lattice
and advanced a little way into the garden till they came to a
jetting fountain a-middlemost a great basin of water. Then they
stripped off their clothes, and behold, ten of them were women,
concubines of the King, and the other ten were white slaves. Then they
all paired off, each with each. But the Queen, who was left alone,
presently cried out in a loud voice, "Here to me, O my lord Saeed!"

And then sprang with a drop leap from one of the trees a big
slobbering blackamoor with rolling eyes which showed the whites, a
truly hideous sight. He walked boldly up to her and threw his arms
round her neck while she embraced him as warmly. Then he bussed her
and winding his legs round hers, as a button loop clasps a button,
he threw her and enjoyed her. On like wise did the other slaves with
the girls till all had satisfied their passions, and they ceased not
from kissing and clipping, coupling and carousing, till day began to
wane, when the Mamelukes rose from the damsels' bosoms and the
blackamoor slave dismounted from the Queen's breast. The men resumed
their disguises and all except the Negro, who swarmed up the tree,
entered the palace and closed the postern door as before.

Now when Shah Zaman saw this conduct of his sister-in-law, he said
to himself: "By Allah, my calamity is lighter than this! My brother is
a greater King among the Kings than I am, yet this infamy goeth on
in his very palace, and his wife is in love with that filthiest of
filthy slaves. But this only showeth that they all do it and that
there is no woman but who cuckoldeth her husband. Then the curse of
Allah upon one and all, and upon the fools who lean against them for
support or who place the reins of conduct in their hands!" So he put
away his melancholy and despondency, regret and repine, and allayed
his sorrow by constantly repeating those words, adding, "'Tis my
conviction that no man in this world is safe from their malice!"

When suppertime came, they brought him the trays and he ate with
voracious appetite, for he had long refrained from meat, feeling
unable to touch any dish, however dainty. Then he returned grateful
thanks to Almighty Allah, praising Him and blessing Him, and he
spent a most restful night, it having been long since he had savored
the sweet food of sleep. Next day he broke his fast heartily and began
to recover health and strength, and presently regained excellent
condition. His brother came back from the chase ten days after, when
he rode out to meet him and they saluted each other. And when King
Shahryar looked at King Shah Zaman, he saw how the hue of health had
returned to him, how his face had waxed ruddy, and how he ate with
an appetite after his late scanty diet. He wondered much and said:
"O my brother, I was no anxious that thou wouldst join me in hunting
and chasing, and wouldst take thy pleasure and pastime in my
dominion!" He thanked him and excused himself.

Then the two took horse and rode into the city, and when they were
seated at their ease in the palace, the food trays were set before
them and they ate their sufficiency. After the meats were removed
and they had washed their hands, King Shahryar turned to his brother
and said: "My mind is overcome with wonderment at thy condition. I was
desirous to carry thee with me to the chase, but I saw thee changed in
hue, pale and wan to view, and in sore trouble of mind too. But now,
Alhamdolillah- glory be to God!- I see thy natural color hath returned
to thy face and that thou art again in the best of case. It was my
belief that thy sickness came of severance from thy family and
friends, and absence from capital and country, so I refrained from
troubling thee with further questions. But now I beseech thee to
expound to me the cause of thy complaint and thy change of color,
and to explain the reason of thy recovery and the return to the
ruddy hue of health which I am wont to view. So speak out and hide
naught!"

When Shah Zaman heard this, he bowed groundward awhile his head,
then raised it and said: "I will tell thee what caused my complaint
and my loss of color. But excuse my acquainting thee with the cause of
its return to me and the reason of my complete recovery. Indeed I pray
thee not to press me for a reply." Said Shahryar, who was much
surprised by these words, "Let me hear first what produced thy
pallor and thy poor condition." "Know, then, O my brother," rejoined
Shah Zaman, "that when thou sentest thy Wazir with the invitation to
place myself between thy hands, I made ready and marched out of my
city. But presently I minded me having left behind me in the palace
a string of jewels intended as a gift to thee. I returned for it
alone, and found my wife on my carpet bed and in the arms of a hideous
black cook. So I slew the twain and came to thee, yet my thoughts
brooded over this business and I lost my bloom and became weak. But
excuse me if I still refuse to tell thee what was the reason of my
complexion returning."

Shahryar shook his head, marveling with extreme marvel, and with the
fire of wrath flaming up from his heart, he cried, "Indeed, the malice
of woman is mighty!" Then he took refuge from them with Allah and
said: "In very sooth, O my brother, thou hast escaped many an evil
by putting thy wife to death, and right excusable were thy wrath and
grief for such mishap, which never yet befell crowned king like
thee. By Allah, had the case been mine, I would not have been
satisfied without slaying a thousand women, and that way madness lies!
But now praise be to Allah Who hath tempered to thee thy
tribulation, and needs must thou acquaint me with that which so
suddenly restored to thee complexion and health, and explain to me
what causeth this concealment." "O King of the Age, again I pray
thee excuse my so doing!" "Nay, but thou must." "I fear, O my brother,
lest the recital cause thee more anger and sorrow than afflicted
me." "That were but a better reason," quoth Shahryar, "for telling
me the whole history, and I conjure thee by Allah not to keep back
aught from me."

Thereupon Shah Zaman told him all he had seen, from commencement
to conclusion, ending with these words: "When I beheld thy calamity
and the treason of thy wife, O my brother, and I reflected that thou
art in years my senior and in sovereignty my superior, mine own sorrow
was belittled by the comparison, and my mind recovered tone and
temper. So, throwing off melancholy and despondency, I was able to eat
and drink and sleep, and thus I speedily regained health and strength.
Such is the truth and the whole truth." When King Shahryar heard
this he waxed wroth with exceeding wrath, and rage was like to
strangle him. But presently he recovered himself and said, "O my
brother, I would not give thee the lie in this matter, but I cannot
credit it till I see it with mine own eyes." "And thou wouldst look
upon thy calamity," quoth Shah Zaman, "rise at once and make ready
again for hunting and coursing, and then hide thyself with me. So
shalt thou witness it and thine eyes shall verify it." "True," quoth
the King. Whereupon he let make proclamation of his intent to
travel, and the troops and tents fared forth without the city, camping
within sight, and Shahryar sallied out with them and took seat
a-midmost his host, bidding the slaves admit no man to him. When night
came on, he summoned his Wazir and said to him, "Sit thou in my stead,
and let none wot of my absence till the term of three days."

Then the brothers disguised themselves and returned by night with
all secrecy to the palace, where they passed the dark hours. And at
dawn they seated themselves at the lattice overlooking the pleasure
grounds, when presently the Queen and her handmaids came out as
before, and passing under the windows, made for the fountain. Here
they stripped, ten of them being men to ten women, and the King's wife
cried out, "Where art thou, O Saeed?" The hideous blackamoor dropped
from the tree straightway, and rushing into her arms without stay or
delay, cried out, "I am Sa'ad al-Din Saood!" The lady laughed
heartily, and all fell to satisfying their lusts, and remained so
occupied for a couple of hours, when the white slaves rose up from the
handmaidens' breasts and the blackamoor dismounted from the Queen's
bosom. Then they went into the basin and after performing the ghusl,
or complete ablution, donned their dresses and retired as they had
done before.

When King Shahryar saw this infamy of his wife and concubines, he
became as one distraught, and he cried out: "Only in utter solitude
can man be safe from the doings of this vile world! By Allah, life
is naught but one great wrong." Presently he added, "Do not thwart me,
O my brother, in what I propose." And the other answered, "I will
not." So he said: "Let us up as we are and depart forthright hence,
for we have no concern with kingship, and let us overwander Allah's
earth, worshiping the Almighty till we find someone to whom the like
calamity hath happened. And if we find none then will death be more
welcome to us than life."

So the two brothers issued from a second private postern of the
palace, and they never stinted wayfaring by day and by night until
they reached a tree a-middle of a meadow hard by a spring of sweet
water on the shore of the salt sea. Both drank of it and sat down to
take their rest. And when an hour of the day had gone by, lo! they
heard a mighty roar and uproar in the middle of the main as though the
heavens were falling upon the earth, and the sea brake with waves
before them and from it towered a black pillar, which grew and grew
till it rose skyward and began making for that meadow. Seeing it, they
waxed fearful exceedingly and climbed to the top of the tree, which
was a lofty, whence they gazed to see what might be the matter. And
behold, it was a Jinni, huge of height and burly of breast and bulk,
broad of brow and black of blee, bearing on his head a coffer of
crystal. He strode to land, wading through the deep, and coming to the
tree whereupon were the two Kings, seated himself beneath it. He
then set down the coffer on its bottom and out of it drew a casket
with seven padlocks of steel, which he unlocked with seven keys of
steel he took from beside his thigh, and out of it a young lady to
come was seen, whiteskinned and of winsomest mien, of stature fine and
thin, and bright as though a moon of the fourteenth night she had
been, or the sun raining lively sheen. Even so the poet Utayyah
hath excellently said:-

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

The Jinni seated her under the tree by his side and looking at
her, said: "O choicest love of this heart of mine! O dame of noblest
line, whom I snatched away on thy bride night that none might
prevent me taking thy maidenhead or tumble thee before I did, and whom
none save myself hath loved or hath enjoyed. O my sweetheart! I
would lief sleep a little while." He then laid his head upon the
lady's thighs, and, stretching out hip legs, which extended down to
the sea, slept and snored and snarked like the roll of thunder.
Presently she raised her head toward the treetop and saw the two Kings
perched near the summit. Then she softly lifted off her lap the
Jinni's pate, which she was tired of supporting, and placed it upon
the ground, then, standing upright under the tree, signed to the
Kings, "Come ye down, ye two, and fear naught from this Ifrit." They
were in a terrible fright when they found that she had seen them,
and answered her in the same manner, "Allah upon thee and by thy
modesty, O lady, excuse us from coming down!" But she rejoined by
saying: "Allah upon you both that ye come down forthright. And if ye
come not, I will rouse upon you my husband, this Ifrit, and he shall
do you to die by the illest of deaths." And she continued making
signals to them.

So, being afraid, they came down to her, and she rose before them
and said, "Stroke me a strong stroke, without stay or delay, otherwise
will I arouse and set upon you this Ifrit, who shall slay you
straightway." They said to her: "O our lady, we conjure thee by Allah,
let us off this work, for we are fugitives from such, and in extreme
dread and terror of this thy husband. How then can we do it in such
a way as thou desirest?" "Leave this talk. It needs must be so," quoth
she, and she swore them by Him who raised the skies on high without
prop or pillar that if they worked not her will, she would cause
them to be slain and cast into the sea. Whereupon out of fear King
Shahryar said to King Shah Zaman, "O my brother, do thou what she
biddeth thee do." But he replied, "I will not do it till thou do it
before I do." And they began disputing about futtering her.

Then quoth she to the twain: "How is it I see you disputing and
demurring? If ye do not come forward like men and do the deed of kind,
ye two, I will arouse upon you the Ifrit." At this, by reason of their
sore dread of the Jinni, both did by her what she bade them do, and
when they had dismounted from her, she said, "Well done!" She then
took from her pocket a purse and drew out a knotted string whereon
were strung five hundred and seventy seal rings, and asked, "Know ye
what be these?" They answered her saying, "We know not!" Then quoth
she: "These be the signets of five hundred and seventy men who have
all futtered me upon the horns of this foul, this foolish, this filthy
Ifrit. So give me also your two seal rings, ye pair of brothers."

When they had drawn their two rings from their hands and given
them to her, she said to them: "Of a truth this Ifrit bore me off on
my bride night, and put me into a casket and set the casket in a
coffer, and to the coffer he affixed seven strong padlocks of steel
and deposited me on the deep bottom of the sea that raves, dashing and
clashing with waves, and guarded me so that I might remain chaste
and honest, quotha! that none save himself might have connection
with me. But I have lain under as many of my kind as I please, and
this wretched Jinni wotteth not that Destiny may not be averted nor
hindered by aught, and that whatso woman willeth, the same she
fulfilleth however man nilleth. Even so saith one of them:

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

Hearing these words, they marveled with exceeding marvel, and she
went from them to the Ifrit, and taking up his head on her thigh as
before, said to them softly, "Now wend your ways and bear yourselves
beyond the bounds of his malice." So they fared forth saying either to
other, "Allah! Allah!" and: "There be no Majesty and there be no Might
save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great, and with Him we seek refuge
from women's malice and sleight, for of a truth it hath no mate in
might. Consider, O my brother, the ways of this marvelous lady with an
Ifrit, who is so much more powerful than we are. Now since there
hath happened to him a greater mishap than that which befell us and
which should bear us abundant consolation, so return we to our
countries and capitals, and let us decide never to intermarry with
womankind, and presently we will show them what will be our action."

Thereupon they rode back to the tents of King Shahryar, which they
reached on the morning of the third day. And having mustered the
wazirs and emirs, the chamberlains and high officials, he gave a
robe of honor to his Viceroy and issued orders for an immediate return
to the city. There he sat him upon his throne and, sending for the
Chief Minister, the father of the two damsels who (Inshallah!) will
presently be mentioned, he said, "I command thee to take my wife and
smite her to death, for she hath broken her plight and her faith."
So he carried her to the place of execution and did her die. Then King
Shahryar took brand in hand and, repairing to the seraglio, slew all
the concubines and their Mamelukes. He also sware himself by a binding
oath that whatever wife he married he would abate her maidenhead at
night and slay her next morning, to make sure of his honor. "For,"
said he, "there never was nor is there one chaste woman upon the
face of earth."

Then Shah Zaman prayed for permission to fare homeward, and he
went forth equipped and escorted and traveled till he reached his
own country. Meanwhile Shahryar commanded his Wazir to bring him the
bride of the night that he might go in to her. So he produced a most
beautiful girl, the daughter of one of the emirs, and the King went in
unto her at eventide. And when morning dawned, he bade his Minister
strike off her head, and the Wazir did accordingly, for fear of the
Sultan. On this wise he continued for the space of three years,
marrying a maiden every night and killing her the next morning, till
folk raised an outcry against him and cursed him, praying Allah
utterly to destroy him and his rule. And women made an uproar and
mothers wept and parents fled with their daughters till there remained
not in the city a young person fit for carnal copulation.

Presently the King ordered his Chief Wazir, the same who was charged
with the executions, to bring him a virgin, as was his wont, and the
Minister went forth and searched and found none. So he returned home
in sorrow and anxiety, fearing for his life from the King. Now he
had two daughters, Scheherazade and Dunyazade, hight, of whom the
elder had perused the books, annals, and legends of preceding kings,
and the stories, examples, and instances of bygone men and things.
Indeed it was said that she had collected a thousand books of
histories relating to antique races and departed rulers. She had
purused the works of the poets and knew them by heart, she had studied
philosophy and the sciences, arts, and accomplishments. And she was
pleasant and polite, wise and witty, well read and well bred. Now on
that day she said to her father: "Why do I see thee thus changed and
laden with cark and care? Concerning this matter quoth one of the
poets:

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

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

              THE TALE OF THE BULL AND THE ASS


KNOW, O my daughter, that there was once a merchant who owned much
money and many men, and who was rich in cattle and camels. He had also
a wife and family, and he dwelt in the country, being experienced in
husbandry and devoted to agriculture. Now Allah Most High had
endowed him with understanding the tongues of beasts and birds of
every kind, but under pain of death if he divulged the gift to any. So
he kept it secret for very fear. He had in his cow house a bull and an
ass, each tethered in his own stall, one hard by the other. As the
merchant was sitting near-hand one day with his servans and his
children were playing about him, he heard and bull say to the ass:

"Hail and health to thee O Father of Waking! for that thou
enjoyest rest and good ministering. All under thee is clean-swept
and fresh-sprinkled. Men wait upon thee and feed thee, and thy
provaunt is sifted barley and thy drink pure spring water, while I
(unhappy creature!) am led forth in the middle of the night, when they
set on my neck the plow and a something called yoke, and I tire at
cleaving the earth from dawn of day till set of sun. I am forced to do
more than I can and to bear all manner of ill-treatment from night to
night. After which they take me back with my sides torn, my neck
flayed, my legs aching, and mine eyelids sored with tears. Then they
shut me up in the byre and throw me beans and crushed straw mixed with
dirt and chaff, and I lie in dung and filth and foul stinks through
the livelong night. But thou art ever in a place swept and sprinkled
and cleansed, and thou art always lying at ease, save when it
happens (and seldom enough!) that the master hath some business,
when he mounts thee and rides thee to town and returns with thee
forthright. So it happens that I am toiling and distrest while thou
takest thine ease and thy rest. Thou sleepest while I am sleepless,
I hunger still while thou eatest thy fill, and I win contempt while
thou winnest goodwill."

When the bull ceased speaking, the ass turned toward him and said:
"O Broad-o'-Brow, O thou lost one! He lied not who dubbed thee
bullhead, for thou, O father of a bull, hast neither forethought nor
contrivance. Thou art the simplest of simpletons, and thou knowest
naught of good advisers. Hast thou not heard the saying of the wise?

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

But thou, O fool, art full of zeal, and thou toilest and moilest
before the master, and thou tearest and wearest and slayest thyself
for the comfort of another. Hast thou never heard the saw that saith
'None to guide and from the way go wide'? Thou wendest forth at the
call to dawn prayer and thou returnest not till sundown, and through
the livelong day thou endurest all manner hardships: to wit, beating
and belaboring and bad language.

"Now hearken to me, Sir Bull! When they tie thee to thy stinking
manger, thou pawest the ground with thy forehand and lashest out
with thy hind hoofs and pushest with thy horns and bellowest aloud, so
they deem thee contented. And when they throw thee thy fodder, thou
fallest on it with greed and hastenest to line thy fair fat paunch.
But if thou accept any advice, it will be better for thee, and thou
wilt lead an easier life even than mine. When thou goest afield and
they lay the thing called yoke on thy neck, be down and rise not
again, though haply they swings thee. And if thou rise, lie down a
second time. And when they bring thee home and offer thee thy beans,
fall backward and only sniff at thy meat and withdraw thee and taste
it not, and be satisfied with thy crushed straw and chaff. And on this
wise feign thou art sick, and cease not doing thus for a day or two
days or even three days; so shalt thou have rest from toil and moil."

When the Bull heard these words, he knew the ass to be his friend
and thanked him, saying, "Right is thy rede," and prayed that all
blessings might requite him, and cried: "O Father Wakener! Thou hast
made up for my failings." (Now the merchant, O my daughter, understood
all that passed between them.) Next day the driver took the bull
and, settling the plow on his neck, made him work as wont. But the
bull began to shirk his plowing, according to the advice of the ass,
and the plowman drubbed him till he broke the yoke and made off. But
the man caught him up and leathered him till he despaired of his life.
Not the less, however, would he do nothing but stand still and drop
down till the evening. Then the herd led him home and stabled him in
his stall, but he drew back from his manger and neither stamped nor
ramped nor butted nor bellowed as he was wont to do, whereat the man
wondered. He brought him the beans and husks, but he sniffed at them
and left them and lay down as far from them as he could and passed the
whole night fasting. The peasant came next morning and, seeing the
manger full of beans, the crushed straw untasted, and the ox lying
on his back in sorriest plight, with legs outstretched and swollen
belly, he was concerned for him, and said to himself, "By Allah, he
hath assuredly sickened, and this is the cause why he would not plow
yesterday."

Then he went to the merchant and reported: "O my master, the bull is
ailing. He refused his fodder last night- nay, more, he hath not
tasted a scrap of it this morning." Now the merchant-farmer understood
what all this meant, because he had overheard the talk between the
bull and the ass, so quoth he, "Take that rascal donkey, and set the
yoke on his neck, and bind him to the plow and make him do bull's
work." Thereupon the plowman took the ass, and worked him through the
livelong day at the bull's task. And when be failed for weakness, he
made him eat stick till his ribs were sore and his sides were sunken
and his neck was rayed by the yoke. And when he came home in the
evening he could hardly drag his limbs along, either forehand or
hind legs. But as for the bull, he had passed the day lying at full
length, and had eaten his fodder with an excellent appetite, and he
ceased not calling down blessings on the ass for his good advice,
unknowing what had come to him on his account.

So when night set in and the ass returned to the byre, the bull rose
up before him in honor, and said: "May good tidings gladden thy heart,
O Father Wakener! Through thee I have rested all this day, and I
have eaten my meat in peace and quiet." But the ass returned no reply,
for wrath and heartburning and fatigue and the beating he had
gotten. And he repented with the most grievous of repentance, and
quoth he to himself: "This cometh of my folly in giving good
counsel. As the saw saith, I was in joy and gladness, naught save my
officiousness brought me this sadness. And now I must take thought and
put a trick upon him and return him to his place, else I die." Then he
went aweary to his manger while the bull thanked him and blessed him.

And even so, O my daughter (said the Wazir) thou wilt die for lack
of wits. Therefore sit thee still and say naught and expose not thy
life to such stress, for, by Allah, I offer thee the best advice,
which cometh of my affection and kindly solicitude for thee. "O my
father," she answered, "needs must I go up to this King and be married
to him." Quoth he, "Do not this deed," and quoth she, "Of a truth I
will." Whereat he rejoined, "If thou be not silent and bide still, I
will do with thee even what the merchant did with his wife." "And what
did be?" asked she.

Know then (answered the Wazir) that after the return of the ass
the merchant came out on the terrace roof with his wife and family,
for it was a moonlit night and the moon at its full. Now the terrace
overlooked the cow house, and presently as he sat there with his
children playing about him, the trader heard the ass say to the
bull, "Tell me, O Father Broad-o'-Brow, what thou purposest to do
tomorrow." The bull answered: "What but continue to follow thy
counsel, O Aliboron? Indeed it was as good as good could be, and it
hath given me rest and repose, nor will I now depart from it one
tittle. So when they bring me my meat, I will refuse it and blow out
my belly and counterfeit crank." The ass shook his head and said,
"Beware of so doing, O Father of a Bull!" The buff asked, "Why?" and
the ass answered, "Know that I am about to give thee the best of
counsel, for verily I heard our owner say to the herd, 'If the bull
rise not from his place to do his work this morning and if he retire
from his fodder this day, make him over to the butcher that he may
slaughter him and give his flesh to the poor, and fashion a bit of
leather from his hide.' Now I fear for thee on account of this. So
take my advice ere a calamity befall thee, and when they bring thee
thy fodder, eat it and rise up and bellow and paw the ground, or our
master will assuredly slay thee. And peace be with thee!"

Thereupon the bull arose and lowed aloud and thanked the ass, and
said, "Tomorrow I will readily go forth with them." And he at once ate
up all his meat and even licked the manger. (All this took place and
the owner was listening to their talk.) Next morning the trader and
his wife went to the bull's crib and sat down, and the driver came and
led forth the bull, who, seeing his owner, whisked his tail and
brake wind, and frisked about so lustily that the merchant laughed a
loud laugh and kept laughing till he fell on his back. His wife
asked him, "Whereat laughest thou with such loud laughter as this?"
and he answered her, "I laughed at a secret something which I have
heard and seen but cannot say lest I die my death." She returned,
"Perforce thou must discover it to me, and disclose the cause of thy
laughing even if thou come by thy death!" But he rejoined, "I cannot
reveal what beasts and birds say in their lingo for fear I die."
Then quoth she: "By Allah, thou liest! This is a mere pretext. Thou
laughest at none save me, and now thou wouldest hide somewhat from me.
But by the Lord of the Heaven, an thou disclose not the cause I will
no longer cohabit with thee, I will leave thee at once." And she sat
down and cried.

Whereupon quoth the merchant: "Woe betide thee! What means thy
weeping? Fear Allah, and leave these words and query me no more
questions." "Needs must thou tell me the cause of that laugh," said
she, and he replied: "Thou wettest that when I prayed Allah to
vouchsafe me understanding of the tongues of beasts and birds, I
made a vow never to disclose the secret to any under pain of dying
on the spot." "No matter!" cried she. "Tell me what secret passed
between the bull and the ass and die this very hour an thou be so
minded." And she ceased not to importune him till he was worn-out
and clean distraught. So at last he said, "Summon thy father and thy
mother and our kith and kin and sundry of our neighbors." Which she
did, and he sent for the kazi and his assessors, intending to make his
will and reveal to her his secret and die the death; for he loved
her with love exceeding because she was his cousin, the daughter of
his father's brother, and the mother of his children, and he had lived
with her a life of a hundred and twenty years.

Then, having assembled all the family and the folk of his
neighborhood, he said to them, "By me there hangeth a strange story,
and 'tis such that if I discover the secret to any, I am a dead
man." Therefore quoth every one of those present to the woman,
"Allah upon thee, leave this sinful obstinacy and recognize the
right of this matter, lest haply thy husband and the father of thy
children die." But she rejoined, "I will not turn from it till he tell
me, even though he come by his death." So they ceased to urge her, and
the trader rose from amongst them and repaired to an outhouse to
perform the wuzu ablution, and he purposed thereafter to return and to
tell them his secret and to die.

Now, Daughter Scheherazade, that merchant had in his outhouses
some fifty hens under one cock, and whilst making ready to farewell
his folk he heard one of his many farm dogs thus address in his own
tongue the cock, who was flapping his wings and crowing lustily and
jumping from one hen's back to another and treading all in turn,
saying: "O Chanticleer! How mean is thy wit and how shameless is thy
conduct! Be he disappointed who brought thee up. Art thou not
ashamed of thy doings on such a day as this?" "And what," asked the
rooster, "hath occurred this day?" when the dog answered; "Dost thou
not know that our master is this day making ready for his death? His
wife is resolved that he shall disclose the secret taught to him by
Allah, and the moment he so doeth he shall surely die. We dogs are all
a-mourning, but thou clappest thy wings and clarionest thy loudest and
treadest hen after hen. Is this an hour for pastime and pleasuring?
Art thou not ashamed of thyself?"

"Then by Allah," quoth the cock, "is our master a lackwit and a
man scanty of sense. If he cannot manage matters with a single wife,
his life is not worth prolonging. Now I have some fifty dame partlets,
and I please this and provoke that and starve one and stuff another,
and through my good governance they are all well under my control.
This our master pretendeth to wit and wisdom, and she hath but one
wife and yet knoweth not how to manage her." Asked the dog, "What
then, O Cock, should the master do to will clear of his strait?" "He
should arise forthright," answered the cock, "and take some twigs from
yon mulberry tree and give her a regular back-basting and
ribroasting till she cry: 'I repent, O my lord! I will never ask
thee a question as Ion, as I live!' Then let him beat her once more
and soundly, and when he shall have done this, he shall sleep free
from care and enjoy life. But this master of ours owns neither sense
nor judgment."

"Now, Daughter Scheherazade," continued the Wazir, "I will do to
thee as did that husband to that wife." Said Scheherazade, "And what
did he do?" He replied, "When the merchant heard the wise words spoken
by his cock to his dog, he arose in haste and sought his wife's
chamber, after cutting for her some mulberry twigs and hiding them
there. And then he called to her, "Come into the closet, that I may
tell thee the secret while no one seeth me, and then die." She entered
with him and he locked the door and came down upon her with so sound a
beating of back and shoulders, ribs, arms, and legs, saying the
while "Wilt thou ever be asking questions about what concerneth thee
not?" that she was well-nigh senseless. Presently she cried out: "I am
of the repentant! By Allah, I will ask thee no more questions, and
indeed I repent sincerely and wholesomely." Then she kissed his hand
and feet and he led her out of the room submissive, as a wife should
be. Her parents and all the company rejoiced and sadness and
mourning were changed into joy and gladness.

Thus the merchant learnt family discipline from his cock and he
and his wife lived together the happiest of lives until death. And
thou also, O my daughter! continued the Wazir, unless thou turn from
this matter I will do by thee what that trader did to his wife. But
she answered him with much decision: "I will never desist, O my
father, nor shall this tale change my purpose. Leave such talk and
tattle. I will not listen to thy words and if thou deny me, I will
marry myself to him despite the nose of thee. And first I will go up
to the King myself and alone and I will say to him: 'I prayed my
father to wive me with thee, but he refused, being resolved to
disappoint his lord, grudging the like of me to the like of thee'."
Her father asked, "Must this needs be?" and she answered, "Even so."

Hereupon the Wazir, being weary of lamenting and contending,
persuading and dissuading her, all to no purpose, went up to King
Shahryar and, after blessing him and kissing the ground before him,
told him all about his dispute with his daughter from first to last
and how he designed to bring her to him that night. The King
wondered with exceeding wonder, for he had made an especial
exception of the Wazir's daughter, and said to him: "O most faithful
of counsellors, how is this? Thou wettest that I have sworn by the
Raiser of the Heavens that after I have gone into her this night I
shall say to thee on the morrow's 'Take her and slay her!' And if thou
slay her not, I will slay thee in her stead without fail." "Allah
guide thee to glory and lengthen thy life, O King of the Age,"
answered the Wazir. "It is she that hath so determined. All this
have I told her and more, but she will not hearken to me and she
persisteth in passing this coming night with the King's Majesty." So
Shahryar rejoiced greatly and said, "'Tis well. Go get her ready,
and this night bring her to me." The Wazir returned to his daughter
and reported to her the command, saying, "Allah make not thy father
desolate by thy loss!"

But Scheherazade rejoiced with exceeding joy and get ready all she
required and said to her younger sister, Dunyazade: "Note well what
directions I entrust to thee! When I have gone into the King I will
send for thee, and when thou comest to me and seest that he hath had
his carnal will of me, do thou say to me: 'O my sister, an thou be
not sleepy, relate to me some new story, delectable and delightsome,
the better to speed our waking hours.' And I will tell thee a tale
which shall be our deliverance, if so Allah please, and which shall
turn the King from his bloodthirsty custom." Dunyazade answered
"With love and gladness."

So when it was night, their father the Wazir carried Scheherazade to
the King, who was gladdened at the sight and asked, "Hast thou brought
me my need?" And he answered, "I have." But when the King took her
to his bed and fell to toying with her and wished to go in to her, she
wept, which made him ask, "What aileth thee?" She replied, "O King
of the Age, I have a younger sister, and lief would I take leave of
her this night before I see the dawn." So he sent at once for
Dunyazade and she came and kissed the ground between his hands, when
he permitted her to take her seat near the foot of the couch. Then the
King arose and did away with his bride's maidenhead and the three fell
asleep.

But when it was midnight Scheherazade awoke and signaled to her
sister Dunyazade, who sat up and said, "Allah upon thee, O my
sister, recite to us some new story, delightsome and delectable,
wherewith to while away the waking hours of our latter night." "With
joy and goodly gree," answered Scheherazade, "if this pious and
auspicious King permit me." "Tell on," quoth the King, who chanced
to be sleepless and restless and therefore was pleased with the
prospect of hearing her story. So Scheherazade rejoiced, and thus,
on the first night of the Thousand Nights and a Night, she began her
recitations.

               THE FISHERMAN AND THE JINNI


IT hath reached me, O auspicious King, that there was a fisherman
well stricken in years who had a wife and three children, and withal
was of poor condition. Now it was his custom to cast his net every day
four times, and no more. On a day he went forth about noontide to
the seashore, where he laid down his basket and, tucking up his
shirt and plunging into the water, made a cast with his net and waited
till it settled to the bottom. Then he gathered the cords together and
haled away at it, but found it weighty. And however much he drew it
landward, he could not pull it up, so he carried the ends ashore and
drove a stake into the ground and made the net fast to it. Then he
stripped and dived into the water all about the net, and left not
off working hard until he had brought it up.

He rejoiced thereat and, donning his clothes, went to the net,
when he found in it a dead jackass which had torn the meshes. Now
when he saw it, he exclaimed in his grief, "There is no Majesty and
there is no Might save in Allah the Glorious, the Great!" Then quoth
he, "This is a strange manner of daily bread," and he began reciting
in extempore verse:

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

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

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

The fisherman, when he had looked at the dead ass, got it free of
the toils and wrung out and spread his net. Then he plunged into the
sea, saying, "In Allah's name!" and made a cast and pulled at it,
but it grew heavy and settled down more firmly than the first time.
Now he thought that there were fish in it, and he made it fast and,
doffing his clothes, went into the water, and dived and haled until he
drew it up upon dry land. Then found he in it a large earthern pitcher
which was full of sand and mud, and seeing this, he was greatly
troubled. So he prayed pardon of Allah and, throwing away the jar,
wrung his net and cleansed it and returned to the sea the third time
to cast his net, and waited till it had sunk. Then he pulled at it and
found therein potsherds and broken glass. Then, raising his eyes
heavenward, he said: "O my God! Verily Thou wettest that I cast not my
net each day save four times. The third is done and as yet Thou hast
vouchsafed me nothing. So this time, O my God, deign give me my
daily bread."

Then, having called on Allah's name, he again threw his net and
waited its sinking and settling, whereupon he haled at it but could
not draw it in for that it was entangled at the bottom. He cried out
in his vexation, "There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in
Allah!" and he began reciting:

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

Thereupon he stripped and, diving down to the net, busied himself
with it till it came to land. Then he opened the meshes and found
therein a cucumber-shaped jar of yellow copper, evidently full of
something, whose mouth was made fast with a leaden cap stamped with
the seal ring of our Lord Solomon, son of David (Allah accept the
twain!). Seeing this, the fisherman rejoiced and said, "If I sell it
in the brass bazaar, 'tis worth ten golden dinars." He shook it, and
finding it heavy, continued: "Would to Heaven I knew what is herein.
But I must and will open it and look to its contents and store it in
my bag and sell it in the brass market." And taking out a knife, he
worked at the lead till he had loosened it from the jar. Then he
laid the cup on the ground and shook the vase to pour out whatever
might be inside. He found nothing in it, whereat he marveled with an
exceeding marvel. But presently there came forth from the jar a
smoke which spired heavenward into ether (whereat he again marveled
with mighty marvel), and which trailed along earth's surface till
presently, having reached its full height, the thick vapor
condensed, and became an Ifrit huge of bulk, whose crest touched the
clouds while his feet were on the ground. His head was as a dome,
his hands like pitchforks, his legs long as masts, and his mough big
as a cave. His teeth were like large stones, his nostrils ewers, his
eyes two lamps, and his look was fierce and lowering.

Now when the fisherman saw the Ifrit, his side muscles quivered, his
teeth chattered, his spittle dried up, and he became blind about
what to do. Upon this the Ifrit looked at him and cried, "there is
no god but the God, and Solomon is the prophet of God," presently
adding: "O Apostle of Allah, slay me not. Never again will I gainsay
thee in word nor sin against thee in deed." Quoth the fisherman, "O
Marid, diddest thou say Solomon the Apostle of Allah? And Solomon is
dead some thousand and eight hundred years ago, and we are now in
the last days of the world! What is thy story, and what is thy account
of thyself, and what is the cause of thy entering into this cucurbit?"

Now when the Evil Spirit heard the words of the fisherman, quoth he:
"There is no god but the God. Be of good cheer, O Fisherman!" Quoth
the fisherman, "Why biddest thou me to be of good cheer?" And he
replied, "Because of thy having to die an ill death in this very
hour." Said the fisherman, "Thou deservest for thy good tidings the
withdrawal of Heaven's protection, O thou distant one! Wherefore
shouldest thou kill me, and what thing have I done to deserve death, I
who freed thee from the jar, and saved thee from the depths of the
sea, and brought thee up on the dry land?" Replied the Ifrit, "Ask
of me only what mode of death thou wilt die, and by what manner of
slaughter shall I slay thee." Rejoined the fisherman, "What is my
crime, and wherefore such retribution?" Quoth the Ifrit, "Hear my
story, O Fisherman!" And he answered, "Say on, and be brief in thy
sayinig, for of very sooth my life breath is in my nostrils."

Thereupon quoth the Jinni: "Know that I am one among the heretical
Jann, and I sinned against Solomon, David-son (on the twain be
peace!), I together with the famous Sakhr al-Jinni, whereupon the
Prophet sent his Minister, Asaf son of Barkhiya, to seize me. And this
Wazir brought me against my will and led me in bonds to him (I being
downcast despite my nose), and he placed me standing before him like a
suppliant. When Solomon saw me, he took refuge with Allah and bade
me embrace the True Faith and obey his behests. But I refused, so,
sending for this cucurbit, he shut me up therein and stopped it over
with lead, whereon he impressed the Most High Name, and gave his
orders to the Jann, who carried me off and cast me into the midmost of
the ocean. There I abode a hundred years, during which I said in my
heart, 'Whoso shall release me, him will I enrich forever and ever.'

"But the full century went by and, when no one set me free, I
entered upon the second fivescore saying, 'Whoso shall release me, for
him I will open the hoards of the earth.' Still no one set me free,
and thus four hundred years passed away. Then quoth I, 'Whoso shall
release me, for him will I fulfill three wishes.' Yet no one set me
free. Thereupon I waxed wroth with exceeding wrath and said to myself,
'Whoso shall release me from this time forth, him will I slay, and I
will give him choice of what death he will die.' And now, as thou hast
released me, I give thee full choice of deaths."

The fisherman, hearing the words of the Ifrit, said, "O Allah! The
wonder of it that I have not come to free thee save in these days!"
adding, "Spare my life, so Allah spare thine, and slay me not, lest
Allah set one to slay thee." Replied the Contumacious One, "There is
no help for it. Die thou must, so ask by way of boon what manner of
death thou wilt die." Albeit thus certified, the fisherman again
addressed the Ifrit, saying, "Forgive me this my death as a generous
reward for having freed thee," and the Ifrit, "Surely I would not slay
thee save on account of that same release." "O Chief of the Ifrits,"
said the fisherman, "I do thee good and thou requitest me with evil!
In very sooth the old saw lieth not when it saith:

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

Now when the Ifrit heard these words he answered: "No more of this
talk. Needs must I kill thee." Upon this the fisherman said to
himself: "This is a Jinni, and I am a man to whom Allah hath given a
passably cunning wit, so I will now cast about to compass his
destruction by my contrivance and by mine intelligence, even as he
took counsel only of his malice and his frowardness." He began by
asking the Ifrit, "Hast thou indeed resolved to kill me?" And,
receiving for all answer "Even so," he cried, "Now in the Most Great
Name, graven on the seal ring of Solomon the son of David (peace be
with the holy twain!), an I question thee on a certain matter, wilt
thou give me a true answer?" The Ifrit replied "Yea," but, hearing
mention of the Most Great Name, his wits were troubled and he said
with trembling, "Ask and be brief."

Quoth the fisherman: "How didst thou fit into this bottle which
would not hold thy hand- no, nor even thy foot- and how came it to be
large enough to contain the whole of thee?" Replied the Ifrit,
"What! Dost not believe that I was all there?" And the fisherman
rejoined, "Nay! I will never believe it until I see thee inside with
my own eyes." The Evil Spirit on the instant shook and became a vapor,
which condensed and entered the jar little and little, till all was
well inside, when lo! the fisherman in hot haste took the leaden cap
with the seal and stoppered therewith the mouth of the jar and
called out to the Ifrit, saying: "Ask me by way of boon what death
thou wilt die! By Allah, I will throw thee into the sea before us
and here will I build me a lodge, and whoso cometh hither I will
warn him against fishing and will say: 'In these waters abideth an
Ifrit who giveth as a last favor a choice of deaths and fashion of
slaughter to the man who saveth him!"'

Now when the Ifrit heard this from the fisherman and saw himself
in limbo, he was minded to escape, but this was prevented by Solomon's
seal. So he knew that the fisherman had cozened and outwitted him, and
he waxed lowly and submissive and began humbly to say, "I did but jest
with thee." But the other answered, "Thou liest, O vilest of the
Ifrits, and meanest and filthiest!" And he set off with the bottle for
the seaside, the Ifrit calling out, "Nay! Nay!" and he calling out,
"Aye! Aye!" Thereupon the Evil Spirit softened his voice and
smoothed his speech and abased himself, saying, "What wouldest thou do
with me. O Fisherman?" "I will throw thee back into the sea," he
answered, "Where thou hast been housed and homed for a thousand and
eight hundred years. And now I will leave thee therein till Judgment
Day. Did I not say to thee, `Spare me and Allah shall spare thee,
and slay me not lest Allah slay thee'? yet thou spurnedst my
supplication and hadst no intention save to deal ungraciously by me,
and Allah hath now thrown thee into my hands, and I am cunninger
that thou." Quoth the Ifrit, "Open for me that I may bring thee weal."
Quoth the fisherman: "Thou liest, thou accursed! Nothing would satisfy
thee save my death, so now I will do thee die by hurling thee into
this sea." Then the Marid roared aloud and cried: "Allah upon thee,
O Fisherman, don't! Spare me, and pardon my past doings, and as I have
been tyrannous, so be thou generous, for it is said among sayings that
go current: 'O thou who doest good to him who hath done thee evil,
suffice for the ill-doer his ill deeds, and do not deal with me as did
Umamah to 'Atikah.'"

Asked the fisherman, "And what was their case?" And the Ifrit
answered, "This is not the time for storytelling and I in this prison,
but set me free and I will tell thee the tale." Quoth the fisherman:
"Leave this language. There is no help but that thou be thrown back
into the sea, nor is there any way for thy getting out of it forever
and ever. Vainly I placed myself under thy protection, and I humbled
myself to thee with weeping, while thou soughtest only to slay me, who
had done thee no injury deserving this at thy hands. Nay, so far
from injuring thee by any evil act, I worked thee naught but weal in
releasing thee from that jail of thine. Now I knew thee to be an
evil-doer when thou diddest to me what thou didst, and know that when
I have cast thee back into this sea, I will warn whosoever may fish
thee up of what hath befallen me with thee, and I will advise him to
toss thee back again. So shalt thou abide here under these waters till
The End of Time shall make an end of thee." But the Ifrit cried aloud:
"Set me free. This is a noble occasion for generosity, and I make
covenant with thee and vow never to do thee hurt and harm- nay, I
will help thee to what shall put thee out of want."

The fisherman accepted his promises on both conditions, not to
trouble him as before, but on the contrary to do him service, and
after making firm the plight and swearing him a solemn oath by Allah
Most Highest, he opened the cucurbit. Thereupon the pillar of smoke
rose up till all of it was fully out, then it thickened and once
more became an Ifrit of hideous presence, who forthright
administered a kick to the bottle and sent it flying into the sea. The
fisherman, seeing how the cucurbit was treated and making sure of
his own death, piddled in his clothes and said to himself, "This
promiseth badly," but he fortified his heart, and cried: "O Ifrit,
Allah hath said: 'Perform your covenant, for the performance of your
covenant shall be inquired into hereafter.' Thou hast made a vow to me
and hast sworn an oath not to play me false lest Allah play thee
false, for verily He is a jealous God who respiteth the sinner but
letteth him not escape. I say to thee as said the Sage Duban to King
Yunan, 'Spare me so Allah may spare thee!'" The Ifrit burst into
laughter and stalked away, saying to the fisherman, "Follow me."

And the man paced after him at a safe distance (for he was not
assured of escape) till they had passed round the suburbs of the city.
Thence they struck into the uncultivated grounds and, crossing them,
descended into a broad wilderness, and lo! in the midst of it stood
a mountain tarn. The Ifrit waded in to the middle and again cried,
"Follow me," and when this was done he took his stand in the center
and bade the man cast his net and catch his fish. The fisherman looked
into the water and was much astonished to see therein varicolored
fishes, white and red, blue and yellow. However, he cast his net
and, hauling it in, saw that he had netted four fishes, one of each
color. Thereat he rejoiced greatly, and more when the Ifrit said to
him: "Carry these to the Sultan and set them in his presence, then
he will give thee what shall make thee a wealthy man. And now accept
my excuse, for by Allah, at this time I wot none other way of
benefiting thee, inasmuch I have lain in this sea eighteen hundred
years and have not seen the face of the world save within this hour.
But I would not have thee fish here save once a day." The Ifrit then
gave him Godspeed, saying, "Allah grant we meet again," and struck the
earth with one foot, whereupon the ground clove asunder and
swallowed him up.

The fisherman, much marveling at what had happened to him with the
Ifrit, took the fish and made for the city, and as soon as he
reached home he filled an earthen bowl with water and therein threw
the fish, which began to struggle and wriggle about. Then he bore
off the bowl upon his head and, repairing to the King's palace (even
as the Ifrit had bidden him) laid the fish before the presence. And
the King wondered with exceeding wonder at the sight, for never in his
lifetime had he seen fishes like these in quality or in
conformation. So he said, "Give those fish to the stranger slave
girl who now cooketh for us," meaning the bondmaiden whom the King
of Roum had sent to him only three days before, so that he had not yet
made trial of her talents in the dressing of meat.

Thereupon the Wazir carried the fish to the cook and bade her fry
them, saying: O damsel, the King sendeth this say to thee: 'I have not
treasured thee, O tear o' me! save for stress time of me.' Approve,
then, to us this day thy delicate handiwork and thy savory cooking,
for this dish of fish is a present sent to the Sultan and evidently
a rarity." The Wazir, after he had carefully charged her, returned
to the King, who commanded him to give the fisherman four hundred
dinars. He gave them accordingly, and the man took them to his bosom
and ran off home stumbling and falling and rising again and deeming
the whole thing to be a dream. However, he bought for his family all
they wanted, and lastly he went to his wife in huge joy and
gladness. So far concerning him.

But as regards the cookmaid, she took the fish and cleansed them and
set them in the frying pan, basting them with oil till one side was
dressed. Then she turned them over and behold, the kitchen wall
clave asunder, and therefrom came a young lady, fair of form, oval
of face, perfect in grace, with eyelids which kohl lines enchase.
Her dress was a silken headkerchief fringed and tasseled with blue.
A large ring hung from either ear, a pair of bracelets adorned her
wrists, rings with bezels of priceless gems were on her fingers, and
she hent in hand a long rod of rattan cane which she thrust into the
frying pan, saying, "O fish! O fish! Be ye constant to your
convenant?" When the cookmaiden saw this apparition she swooned
away. The young lady repeated her words a second time and a third
time, and at last the fishes raised their heads from the pan, and
saying in articulate speech, "Yes! Yes!" began with one voice to
recite:

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

After this the young lady upset the frying pan and went forth by the
way she came in and the kitchen wall closed upon her. When the
cookmaiden recovered from her fainting fit, she saw the four fishes
charred black as charcoal, and crying out, "His staff brake in his
first bout," she again fell swooning to the ground. Whilst she was
in this case the Wazir came for the fish, and looking upon her as
insensible she lay, not knowing Sunday from Thursday, shoved her
with his foot and said, "Bring the fish for the Sultan!" Thereupon,
recovering from her fainting fit, she wept and informed him of her
case and all that had befallen her. The Wazir marveled greatly and
exclaiming, "This is none other than a right strange matter!" he
sent after the fisher-man and said to him, "Thou, O Fisherman, must
needs fetch us four fishes like those thou broughtest before."

Thereupon the man repaired to the tarn and cast his net, and when he
landed it, lo! four fishes were therein exactly like the first.
These he at once carried to the Wazir, who went in with them to the
cookmaiden and said, "Up with thee and fry these in my presence,
that I may see this business." The damsel arose and cleansed the fish,
and set them in the frying pan over the fire. However, they remained
there but a little while ere the wall clave asunder and the young lady
appeared, clad as before and holding in hand the wand which she
again thrust into the frying pan, saying, "O fish! O fish! Be ye
constant to your olden convenant?" And behold, the fish lifted their
heads and repeated "Yes! Yes!" and recited this couplet:

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

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

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

Then the huge blackamoor approached the frying pan and upset it with
the branch and went forth by the way he came in. When he vanished from
their sight, the King inspected the fish, and finding them all charred
black as charcoal, was utterly bewildered, and said to the Wazir:
"Verily this is a matter whereanent silence cannot be kept. And as for
the fishes, assuredly some marvelous adventure connects with them." So
he bade bring the fisherman and asked him, saying: "Fie on thee,
fellow! Whence come these fishes?" And he answered, "From a tarn
between four heights lying behind this mountain which is in sight of
thy city." Quoth the King, "How many days' march?" Quoth he, "O our
Lord the Sultan, a walk of half-hour." The King wondered, and
straightway ordering his men to march and horsemen to mount, led off
the fisherman, who went before as guide, privily damning the Ifrit.

They fared on till they had climbed the mountain and descended
unto a great desert which they had never seen during all their
lives. And the Sultan and his merry men marveled much at the wold
set in the midst of four mountains, and the tarn and its fishes of
four colors, red and white, yellow and blue. The King stood fixed to
the spot in wonderment and asked his troops and an present, "Hath
anyone among you ever seen this piece of water before now?" And all
made answer, "O King of the Age, never did we set eyes upon it
during an our days." They also questioned the oldest inhabitants
they met, men well stricken in years, but they replied, each and
every, "A lakelet like this we never saw in this place." Thereupon
quoth the King, "By Allah, I will neither return to my capital nor sit
upon the throne of my forebears till I learn the truth about this tarn
and the fish therein."

He then ordered his men to dismount and bivouac all around the
mountain, which they did, and summoning his Wazir, a Minister of
much experience, sagacious, of penetrating wit and well versed in
affairs, said to him: "'Tis in my mind to do a certain thing,
whereof I will inform thee. My heart telleth me to fare forth alone
this night and root out the mystery of this tarn and its fishes. Do
thou take thy scat at my tent door, and say to the emirs and wazirs,
the nabobs and the chamberlains, in fine, to all who ask thee, 'The
Sultan is ill at ease, and he hath ordered me to refuse all
admittance.' And be careful thou let none know my design." And the
Wazir could not oppose him. Then the King changed his dress and
ornaments and, slinging his sword over his shoulder, took a path which
led up one of the mountains and marched for the rest of the night till
morning dawned, nor did he cease wayfaring till the heat was too
much for him. After his long walk he rested for a while, and then
resumed his march and fared on through the second night till dawn,
when suddenly there appeared a black point in the far distance. Hereat
he rejoiced and said to himself, "Haply someone here shall acquaint me
with the mystery of the tarn and its fishes."

Presently, drawing near the dark object, he found it a palace
built of swart stone plated with iron, and while one leaf of the
gate stood wide-open, the other was shut. The King's spirits rose high
as he stood before the gate and rapped a light rap, but hearing no
answer, he knocked a second knock and a third, yet there came no sign.
Then he knocked his loudest, but still no answer, so he said,
"Doubtless 'tis empty." There upon he mustered up resolution and
boldly walked through the main gate into the great hall, and there
cried out aloud: "Holloa, ye people of the palace! I am a stranger and
a wayfarer. Have you aught here of victual?" He repeated his cry a
second time and a third, but still there came no reply.

So, strengthening his heart and making up his mind, he stalked
through the vestibule into the very middle of the palace, and found no
man in it. Yet it was furnished with silken stuffs gold-starred, and
the hangings were let down over the doorways. In the midst was a
spacious court off which sat four open saloons, each with its raised
dais, saloon facing saloon. A canopy shaded the court, and in the
center was a jetting fount with four figures of lions made of red
gold, spouting from their mouths water clear as pearls and
diaphanous gems. Round about the palace birds were let loose, and over
it stretched a net of golden wire, hindering them from flying off.
In brief, there was everything but human beings. The King marveled
mightily thereat, yet felt he sad at heart for that he saw no one to
give him an account of the waste and its tarn, the fishes, the
mountains, and the palace itself. Presently as he sat between the
doors in deep thought behold, there came a voice of lament, as from
a heart griefspent, and he heard the voice chanting these verses:

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

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

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

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

Thereupon the youth began, "Right wondrous and marvelous is my
case and that of these fishes, and were it graven with gravers upon
the eye corners it were a warner to whoso would be warned." "How is
that?" asked the King, and the young man began to tell

             THE TALE OF THE ENSORCELED PRINCE


KNOW then, O my lord, that whilom my sire was King of this city, and
his name was Mahmud, entitled Lord of the Black Islands, and owner
of what are now these four mountains. He ruled threescore and ten
years, after which he went to the mercy of the Lord and I reigned as
Sultan in his stead. I took to wife my cousin, the daughter of my
paternal uncle, and she loved me with such abounding love that
whenever I was absent she ate not and she drank not until she saw me
again. She cohabited with me for five years till a certain day when
she went forth to the hammam bath, and I bade the cook hasten to get
ready all requisites for our supper. And I entered this palace and lay
down on the bed where I was wont to sleep and bade two damsels to
fan my face, one sitting by my head and the other at my feet.

But I was troubled and made restless by my wife's absence and
could not sleep, for although my eyes were closed, my mind and
thoughts were wide-awake. Presently I heard the slave girl at my
head say to her at my feet: "O Mas'udah, how miserable is our master
and how wasted in his youth, and oh! the pity of his being so betrayed
by our mistress, the accursed whore!" The other replied: "Yes
indeed. Allah curse all faithless women and adulterous! But the like
of our master, with his fair gifts, deserveth something better than
this harlot who lieth abroad every night." Then quoth she who sat by
my head, "Is our lord dumb or fit only for bubbling that he
questioneth her not!" and quoth the other: "Fie on thee! Doth our lord
know her ways, or doth she allow him his choice? Nay, more, doth she
not drug every night the cup she giveth him to drink before sleeptime,
and put bhang into it? So he sleepeth and wotteth not whither she
goeth, nor what she doeth, but we know that after giving him the
drugged wine, she donneth her richest raiment and perfumeth herself
and then she fareth out from him to be away till break of day. Then
she cometh to him and burneth a pastille under his nose and he awaketh
from his death-like sleep." When I heard the slave girls' words, the
light became black before my sight and I thought night would never
fall.

Presently the daughter of my uncle came from the baths, and they set
the table for us and we ate and sat together a fair half-hour quaffing
our wine, as was ever our wont. Then she called for the particular
wine I used to drink before sleeping and reached me the cup, but,
seeming to drink it according to my wont, I poured the contents into
my bosom and, lying down, let her hear that I was asleep. Then,
behold, she cried: "Sleep out the night, and never wake again! By
Allah, I loathe thee and I loathe thy whole body, and my soul
turneth in disgust from cohabiting with thee, and I see not the moment
when Allah shall snatch away thy life!" Then she rose and donned her
fairest dress and perfumed her person and slung my sword over her
shoulder, and opening the gates of the palace, went her ill way.

I rose and followed her as she left the palace and she threaded
the streets until she came to the city gate, where she spoke words I
understood not and the padlocks dropped of themselves as if broken and
the gate leaves opened. She went forth (and I after her without her
noticing aught) till she came at last to the outlying mounds and a
reed fence built about a round-roofed hut of mud bricks. As she
entered the door, I climbed upon the roof, which commanded a view of
the interior, And lo! my fair cousin had gone in to a hideous Negro
slave with his upper lip like the cover of a pot and his lower like an
open pot, lips which might sweep up sand from the gravel floor of
the cot. He was to boot a leper and a paralytic, lying upon a strew of
sugar-cane trash and wrapped in an old blanket and the foulest rags
and tatters.

She kissed the earth before him, and he raised his head so as to see
her and said: "Woe to thee! What call hadst thou to stay away all this
time? Here have been with me sundry of the black brethren, who drank
their wine and each had his young lady, and I was not content to drink
because of thine absence." Then she: "O my lord, my heart's love and
coolth of my eyes, knowest thou not that I am married to my cousin,
whose very look I loathe, and hate myself when in his company? And did
not I fear for thy sake, I would not let a single sun arise before
making his city a ruined heap wherein raven should croak and howlet
hoot, and jackal and wolf harbor and loot- nay, I had removed its
very stones to the back side of Mount Kaf." Rejoined the slave:
"Thou liest, damn thee! Now I swear an oath by the valor and honor
of blackamoor men (and deem not our manliness to be the poor manliness
of white men), from today forth if thou stay away till this hour, I
will not keep company with thee nor will I glue my body with thy body.
Dost play fast and loose with us, thou cracked pot, that we may
satisfy thy dirty lusts, O vilest of the vile whites?"

When I heard his words, and saw with my own eyes what passed between
these two wretches, the world waxed dark before my face and my soul
knew not in what place it was. But my wife humbly stood up weeping
before and wheedling the slave, and saying: "O my beloved, and very
fruit of my heart, there is none left to cheer me but thy dear self,
and, if thou cast me off, who shall take me in, O my beloved, O
light of my eyes?" And she ceased not weeping and abasing herself to
him until he deigned be reconciled with her. Then was she right glad
and stood up and doffed her clothes, even to her petticoat trousers,
and said, "O my master, what hast thou here for thy handmaiden to
eat?" "Uncover the basin," he grumbled, "and thou shalt find at the
bottom the broiled bones of some rats we dined on. Pick at them, and
then go to that slop pot, where thou shalt find some leavings of
beer which thou mayest drink." So she ate and drank and washed her
hands, and went and lay down by the side of the slave upon the cane
trash and crept in with him under his foul coverlet and his rags and
tatters.

When I saw my wife, my cousin, the daughter of my uncle, do this
deed, I clean lost my wits, and climbing down from the roof, I entered
and took the sword which she had with her and drew it, determined to
cut down the twain. I first struck at the slave's neck and thought
that the death decree had fallen on him, for he groaned a loud hissing
groan, but I had cut only the skin and flesh of the gullet and the two
arteries! It awoke the daughter of my uncle, so I sheathed the sword
and fared forth for the city, and entering the palace, lay upon my bed
and slept till morning, when my wife aroused me and I saw that she had
cut off her hair and had donned mourning garments. Quoth she: "O son
of my uncle, blame me not for what I do. It hath just reached me
that my mother is dead and my father hath been killed in holy war, and
of my brothers one hath lost his life by a snake sting and the other
by falling down some precipice, and I can and should do naught save
weep and lament."

When I heard her words I refrained from all reproach and said
only: "Do as thou list. I certainly will not thwart thee." She
continued sorrowing, weeping and wailing one whole year from the
beginning of its circle to the end, and when it was finished she
said to me: "I wish to build me in thy palace a tomb with a cupola,
which I will set apart for my mourning and will name the House of
Lamentations." Quoth I again: "Do as thou list!" Then she builded
for herself a cenotaph wherein to mourn, and set on its center a
dome under which showed a tomb like a santon's sepulcher. Thither
she carried the slave and lodged him, but he was exceeding weak by
reason of his wound, and unable to do her love service. He could
only drink wine, and from the day of his hurt he spake not a word, yet
he lived on because his appointed hour was not come. Every day,
morning and evening, my wife went to him and wept and wailed over
him and gave him wine and strong soups, and left not off doing after
this manner a second year. And I bore with her patiently and paid no
heed to her.

One day, however, I went in to her unawares, and I found her weeping
and beating her face and crying: "Why art thou absent from my sight, O
my heart's delight? Speak to me, O my life, talk with me, O my
love." When she had ended for a time her words and her weeping I
said to her, "O my cousin, let this thy mourning suffice, for in
pouring forth tears there is little profit!" "Thwart me not," answered
she, "in aught I do, or I will lay violent hands on myself!" So I held
my peace and left her to go her own way, and she ceased not to cry and
keen and indulge her affliction for yet another year. At the end of
the third year I waxed aweary of this longsome mourning, and one day I
happened to enter the cenotaph when vexed and angry with some matter
which had thwarted me, and suddenly I heard her say: "O my lord, I
never hear thee vouchsafe a single word to me! Why dost thou not
answer me, O my master?" and she began reciting:

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

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

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

When she heard my words she sprang to her feet crying: "Fie upon thee,
thou cur! All this is of thy doings. Thou hast wounded my heart's
darling and thereby worked me sore woe, and thou hast wasted his youth
so that these three years he hath lain abed more dead than alive!"
In my wrath I cried: "O thou foulest of harlots and filthiest of
whores ever futtered by Negro slaves who are hired to have at thee!
Yes, indeed it was I who did this good deed." And snatching up my
sword, I drew it and made at her to cut her down. But she laughed my
words and mine intent to scorn, crying: "To heel, hound that thou art!
Alas for the past which shall no more come to pass, nor shall anyone
avail the dead to raise. Allah hath indeed now given into my hand
him who did to me this thing, a deed that hath burned my heart with
a fire which died not a flame which might not be quenched!"

Then she stood up, and pronouncing some words to me
unintelligible, she said, "By virtue of my egromancy become thou
half stone and half man!" Whereupon I became what thou seest, unable
to rise or to sit, and neither dead nor alive. Moreover, she
ensorceled the city with all its streets and garths, and she turned by
her gramarye the four islands into four mountains around the tarn
whereof thou questionest me. And the citizens, who were of four
different faiths, Moslem, Nazarene, Jew, and Magian, she transformed
by her enchantments into fishes. The Moslems are the white, the
Magians red, the Christians blue, and the Jews yellow. And every day
she tortureth me and scourgeth me with a hundred stripes, each of
which draweth floods of blood and cutteth the skin of my shoulders
to strips. And lastly she clotheth my upper half with a haircloth
and then throweth over them these robes. Hereupon the young man
again shed tears and began reciting:

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

After this the Sultan turned toward the young Prince and said: "O
youth, thou hast removed one grief only to add another grief. But now,
O my friend, where is she, and where is the mausoleum wherein lieth
the wounded slave?" "The slave lieth under yon dome," quoth the
young man, "and she sitteth in the chamber fronting yonder door. And
every day at sunrise she cometh forth, and first strippeth me, and
whippeth me with a hundred strokes of the leathern scourge, and I weep
and shriek, but there is no power of motion in my lower limbs to
keep her off me. After ending her tormenting me she visiteth the
slave, bringing him wine and boiled meats. And tomorrow at an early
hour she will be here." Quoth the King: "By Allah, O youth, I will
assuredly do thee a good deed which the world shall not willingly
let die, and an act of derring-do which shall be chronicled long after
I am dead and gone by."

Then the King sat him by the side of the young Prince and talked
till nightfall, when he lay down and slept. But as soon as the false
dawn showed, he arose and, doffing his outer garments, bared his blade
and hastened to the place wherein lay the slave. Then was he ware of
lighted candles and lamps, and the perfume of incenses and unguents,
and directed by these, he made for the slave and struck him one
stroke, killing him on the spot. After which he lifted him on his back
and threw him into a well that was in the palace. Presently he
returned and, donning the slave's gear, lay down at length within
the mausoleum with the drawn sword laid close to and along his side.
After an hour or so the accursed witch came, and first going to her
husband, she stripped off his clothes and, taking a whip, flogged
him cruelly while he cried out: "Ah! Enough for me the case I am in!
Take pity on me, O my cousin!" But she replied, "Didst thou take
pity on me and spare the life of my truelove on whom I doated?"

Then she drew the cilice over his raw and bleeding skin and threw
the robe upon all and went down to the slave with a goblet of wine and
a bowl of meat broth in her hands. She entered under the dome
weeping and wailing, "Wellaway!" and crying: "O my lord! Speak a
word to me! O my master! Talk awhile with me!" and began to recite
these couplets:

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

Then she wept again and said: "O my lord! Speak to me, talk with
me!" The King lowered his voice and, twisting his tongue, spoke
after the fashion of the blackamoors and said "'Lack, 'lack! There
be no Majesty and there be no Might save in Allauh, the Gloriose,
the Great!"

Now when she heard these words she shouted for joy, and fell to
the ground fainting, and when her senses returned she asked, "O my
lord, can it be true that thou hast power of speech?" And the King,
making his voice small and faint, answered: "O my cuss! Dost thou
deserve that I talk to thee and speak with thee?" "Why and wherefore?"
rejoined she, and he replied: "The why is that all the livelong day
thou tormentest thy hubby, and he keeps calling on 'eaven for aid
until sleep is strange to me even from evenin' till mawnin', and he
prays and damns, cussing us two, me and thee, causing me disquiet
and much bother. Were this not so, I should long ago have got my
health, and it is this which prevents my answering thee." Quoth she,
"With thy leave I will release him from what spell is on him," and
quoth the King, "Release him, and let's have some rest!" She cried,
"To hear is to obey," and, going from the cenotaph to the palace,
she took a metal bowl and filled it with water and spake over it
certain words which made the contents bubble and boil as a caldron
seetheth over the fire. With this she sprinkled her husband saying,
"By virtue of the dread words I have spoken, if thou becamest thus
by my spells, come forth out of that form into thine own former form."

And lo and behold! the young man shook and trembled, then he rose to
his feet and, rejoicing at his deliverance, cried aloud, "I testify
that there is no god but the God, and in very truth Mohammed is His
Apostle, whom Allah bless and keep!" Then she said to him, "Go forth
and return not hither, for if thou do I will surely slay thee,"
screaming these words in his face. So he went from between her
hands, and she returned to the dome and, going down to the
sepulcher, she said, "O my lord, come forth to me that I may look upon
thee and thy goodliness!" The King replied in faint low words: "What
thing hast thou done? Thou hast rid me of the branch, but not of the
root." She asked: "O my darling! O my Negroling! What is the root?"
And he answered: "Fie on thee, O my cuss! The people of this city
and of the four islands every night when it's half-passed lift their
heads from the tank in which thou hast turned them to fishes and cry
to Heaven and call down its anger on me and thee, and this is the
reason why my body's balked from health. Go at once and set them free,
then come to me and take my hand, and raise me up, for a little
strength is already back in me."

When she heard the King's words (and she still supposed him to be
the slave) she cried joyously: "O my master, on my head and on my eyes
be thy command. Bismillah!" So she sprang to her feet and, full of joy
and gladness, ran down to the tarn and took a little of its water in
the palm of her hand and spake over it words not to be understood, and
the fishes lifted their heads and stood up on the instant like men,
the spell on the people of the city having been removed. What was
the lake again became a crowded capital. The bazaars were thronged
with folk who bought and sold, each citizen was occupied with his
own calling, and the four hills became islands as they were whilom.

Then the young woman, that wicked sorceress, returned to the King
and (still thinking he was the Negro) said to him: "O my love! Stretch
forth thy honored hand that I may assist thee to rise." "Nearer to
me," quoth the King in a faint and feigned tone. She came close as
to embrace him, when he took up the sword lying hid by his side and
smote her across the breast, so that the point showed gleaming
behind her back. Then he smote her a second time and cut her in
twain and cast her to the ground in two halves. After which he fared
forth and found the young man, now freed from the spell, awaiting
him and gave him joy of his happy release while the Prince kissed
his hand with abundant thanks.

Quoth the King, "Wilt thou abide in this city, or go with me to my
capital?" Quoth the youth, "O King of the Age, wettest thou not what
journey is between thee and thy city?" "Two days and a half," answered
he, whereupon said the other: "An thou be sleeping, O King, awake!
Between thee and thy city is a year's march for a well-girt walker,
and thou haddest not come hither in two days and a half save that
the city was under enchantment. And I, O King, will never part from
thee- no, not even for the twinkling of an eye." The King rejoiced at
his words and said: "Thanks be to Allah, Who hath bestowed thee upon
me! From this hour thou art my son and my only son, for that in all my
life I have never been blessed with issue." Thereupon they embraced
and joyed with exceeding great joy. And, reaching the palace, the
Prince who had been spellbound informed his lords and his grandees
that he was about to visit the Holy Places as a pilgrim, and bade them
get ready all things necessary for the occasion.

The preparations lasted ten days, after which he set out with the
Sultan, whose heart burned in yearning for his city, whence he had
been absent a whole twelvemonth. They journeyed with an escort of
Mamelukes carrying all manners of precious gifts and rarities, nor
stinted they wayfaring day and night for a full year until they
approached the Sultan's capital, and sent on messengers to announce
their coming. Then the Wazir and the whole army came out to meet him
in joy and gladness, for they had given up all hope of ever seeing
their King, and the troops kissed the ground before him and wished him
joy of his safety. He entered and took seat upon his throne and the
Minister came before him and, when acquainted with all that had
befallen the young Prince, he congratulated him on his narrow escape.

When order was restored throughout the land, the King gave largess
to many of his people, and said to the Wazir, "Hither the fisherman
who brought us the fishes!" So he sent for the man who had been the
first cause of the city and the citizens being delivered from
enchantment, and when he came into the presence, the Sultan bestowed
upon him a dress of honor, and questioned him of his condition and
whether he had children. The fisherman gave him to know that he had
two daughters and a son, so the King sent for them and, taking one
dauhter to wife, gave the other to the young Prince and made the son
his head treasurer. Furthermore, he invested his Wazir with the
Sultanate of the City in the Black Islands whilom belonging to the
young Prince, and dispatched with him the escort of fifty armed
slaves, together with dresses of honor for all the emirs and grandees.
The Wazir kissed hands and fared forth on his way, while the Sultan
and the Prince abode at home in all the solace and the delight of
life, and the fisherman became the richest man of his age, and his
daughters wived with the Kings until death came to them.

And yet, O King! this is not more wondrous than the story of

        THE PORTER AND THE THREE LADIES OF BAGHDAD


ONCE upon a time there was a porter in Baghdad who was a bachelor
and who would remain unmarried. It came to pass on a certain day, as
he stood about the street leaning idly upon his crate, behold, there
stood before him an honorable woman in a mantilla of Mosul silk
broidered with gold and bordered with brocade. Her walking shoes
were also purred with gold, and her hair floated in long plaits. She
raised her face veil and, showing two black eyes fringed with jetty
lashes, whose glances were soft and languishing and whose perfect
beauty was ever blandishing, she accosted the porter and said in the
suavest tones and choicest language, "Take up thy crate and follow
me."

The porter was so dazzled he could hardly believe that he heard
her aright, but he shouldered his basket in hot haste, saying in
himself, "O day of good luck! O day of Allah's grace!" and walked
after her till she stopped at the door of a house. There she rapped,
and presently came out to her an old man, a Nazarene, to whom she gave
a gold piece, receiving from him in return what she required of
strained wine clear as olive oil, and she set it safely in the hamper,
saying, "Lift and follow." Quoth the porter, "This, by Allah, is
indeed an auspicious day, a day propitious for the granting of all a
man wisheth." He again hoisted up the crate and followed her till
she stopped at a fruiterer's shop and bought from him Shami apples and
Osmani quinces and Omani peaches, and cucumbers of Nile growth, and
Egyptian limes and Sultani oranges and citrons, besides Aleppine
jasmine, scented myrtle berries, Damascene nenuphars, flower of privet
and camomile, blood-red anemones, violets, and pomegranate bloom,
eglantine, and narcissus, and set the whole in the porter's crate,
saying, "Up with it."

So he lifted and followed her till she stopped at a butcher's
booth and said, "Cut me off ten pounds of mutton." She paid him his
price and he wrapped it in a banana leaf, whereupon she laid it in the
crate and said, "Hoist, O Porter." He hoisted accordingly, and
followed her as she walked on till she stopped at a grocer's, where
she bought dry fruits and pistachio kernels, Tihamah raisins,
shelled almonds, and all wanted for dessert, and said to the porter,
"Lift and follow me." So he up with his hamper and after her till
she stayed at the confectioner's, and she bought an earthen platter,
and piled it with all kinds of sweetmeats in his shop, open-worked
tarts and fritters scented with musk, and "soap cakes," and lemon
loaves, and melon preserves, and "Zaynab's combs," and "ladies'
fingers," and "Kazi's titbits," and goodies of every description,
and placed the platter in the porter's crate. Thereupon quoth he
(being a merry man), "Thou shouldest have told me, and I would have
brought with me a pony or a she-camel to carry all this market stuff."
She smiled and gave him a little cuff on the nape, saying, "Step out
and exceed not in words, for (Allah willing!) thy wage will not be
wanting."

Then she stopped at a perfumer's and took from him ten sorts of
waters, rose scented with musk, orange-flower, water-lily,
willow-flower, violet and five others. And she also bought two
loaves of sugar, a bottle for perfume-spraying, a lump of male
incense, aloe wood, ambergris, and musk, with candles of Alexandria
wax, and she put the whole into the basket, saying, "Up with thy crate
and after me." He did so and followed until she stood before the
greengrocer's, of whom she bought pickled sallower and olives, in
brine and in oil, with tarragon and cream cheese and hard Syrian
cheese, and she stowed them away in the crate, saying to the porter,
"Take up thy basket and follow me." He did so and went after her
till she came to a fair mansion fronted by a spacious court, a tall,
fine place to which columns gave strength and grace. And the gate
thereof had two leaves of ebony inlaid with plates of red gold. The
lady stopped at the door and, turning her face veil sideways,
knocked softly with her knuckles whilst the porter stood behind her,
thinking of naught save her beauty and loveliness.

Presently the door swung back and both leaves were opened, whereupon
he looked to see who had opened it, and behold, it was a lady of
tall figure, some five feet high, a model of beauty and loveliness,
brilliance and symmetry and perfect grace. Her forehead was
flower-white, her cheeks like the anemone ruddy-bright. Her eyes were
those of the wild heifer or the gazelle, with eyebrows like the
crescent moon which ends Sha'aban and begins Ramazan. Her mouth was
the ring of Solomon, her lips coral-red, and her teeth like a line
of strung pearls or of camomile petals. Her throat recalled the
antelope's, and her breasts, like two pomegranates of even size, stood
at bay as it were. Her body rose and fell in waves below her dress
like the rolls of a piece of brocade, and her navel would hold an
ounce of benzoin ointment. In fine, she was like her of whom the
poet said:

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

When the porter looked upon her, his wits were waylaid and his
senses were stormed so that his crate went nigh to fall from his head,
and he said to himself, "Never have I in my life seen a day more
blessed than this day!" Then quoth the lady portress to the lady
cateress, "Come in from the gate and relieve this poor man of his
load." So the provisioner went in, followed by the portress and the
porter, and went on till they reached a spacious ground-floor hall,
built with admirable skill and beautified with all manner colors and
carvings, with upper balconies and groined arches and galleries and
cupboards and recesses whose curtains hung before them. In the midst
stood a great basin full of water surrounding a fine fountain, and
at the upper end on the raised dais was a couch of juniper wood set
with gems and pearls, with a canopy like mosquito curtains of red
satin-silk looped up with pearls as big as filberts and bigger.

Thereupon sat a lady bright of blee, with brow beaming brilliancy,
the dream of philosophy, whose eyes were fraught with Babel's gramarye
and her eyebrows were arched as for archery. Her breath breathed
ambergris and perfumery and her lips were sugar to taste and carnelian
to see. Her stature was straight as the letter l and her face shamed
the noon sun's radiancy; and she was even as a galaxy, or a dome
with golden marquetry, or a bride displayed in choicest finery, or a
noble maid of Araby. The third lady, rising from the couch, stepped
forward with graceful swaying gait till she reached the middle of
the saloon, when she said to her sisters: "Why stand ye here? Take
it down from this poor man's head!" Then the cateress went and stood
before him and the portress behind him while the third helped them,
and they lifted the load from the porter's head, and, emptying it of
all that was therein, set everything in its place. Lastly they gave
him two gold pieces, saying, "Wend thy ways, O Porter."

But he went not, for he stood looking at the ladies and admiring
what uncommon beauty was theirs, and their pleasant manners and kindly
dispositions (never had he seen goodlier). And he gazed wistfully at
that good store of wines and sweet-scented flowers and fruits and
other matters. Also he marveled with exceeding marvel, especially to
see no man in the place, and delayed his going, whereupon quoth the
eldest lady: "What aileth thee that goest not? Haply thy wage be too
little?" And, turning to her sister, the cateress, she said, "Give him
another dinar!" But the porter answered: "By Allah, my lady, it is not
for the wage, my hire is never more than two dirhams, but in very
sooth my heart and my soul are taken up with you and your condition. I
wonder to see you single with ne'er a man about you and not a soul
to bear you company. And well you wot that the minaret toppleth o'er
unless it stand upon four, and you want this same fourth, and
women's pleasure without man is short of measure, even as the poet
said:

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

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

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

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

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

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


          "Sans hope of gain

          Love's not worth a grain"?

Whereto the lady portress added, "If thou bring anything, thou art a
something; if no thing, be off with thee, thou art a nothing." But the
procuratrix interposed, saying: "Nay, O my sisters, leave teasing him,
for by Allah he hath not failed us this day, and had he been other
he never had kept patience with me, so whatever be his shot and scot I
will take it upon myself."

The porter, overjoyed, kissed the ground before her and thanked her,
saying, "By Allah, these moneys are the first fruits this day hath
given me." Hearing this, they said, "Sit thee down and welcome to
thee," and the eldest lady added: "By Allah, we may not suffer thee to
join us save on one condition, and this it is, that no questions be
asked as to what concerneth thee not, and frowardness shall be soundly
flogged." Answered the porter: "I agree to this, O my lady. On my head
and my eyes be it! Look ye, I am dumb, I have no tongue." Then arose
the provisioneress and, tightening her girdle, set the table by the
fountain and put the flowers and sweet herbs in their jars, and
strained the wine and ranged the flasks in rows and made ready every
requisite. Then sat she down, she and her sisters, placing amidst them
the porter, who kept deeming himself in a dream. And she took up the
wine flagon and poured out the first cup and drank it off, and
likewise a second and a third. After this she filled a fourth cup,
which she handed to one of her sisters, and lastly, she crowned a
goblet and passed it to the porter, saying:

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

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

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

Adding:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Then the lady took the cup and drank it off to her sisters'
health, and they ceased not drinking (the porter being in the midst of
them) and dancing and laughing and reciting verses and singing ballads
and ritornellos. All this time the porter was carrying on with them,
kissing, toying, biting, handling, groping, fingering whilst one
thrust a dainty morsel in his mouth and another slapped him, and
this cuffed his cheeks, and that threw sweet flowers at him. And he
was in the very paradise of pleasure, as though he were sitting in the
seventh sphere among the houris of Heaven. And they ceased not to be
after this fashion till night began to fall. Thereupon said they to
the porter, "Bismillah, O our master, up and on with those sorry old
shoes of thine and turn thy face and show us the breadth of thy
shoulders!" Said he: "By Allah, to part with my soul would be easier
for me than departing from you. Come, let us join night to day, and
tomorrow morning we will each wend our own way." "My life on you,"
said the procuratrix, "suffer him to tarry with us, that we may
laugh at him. We may live out our lives and never meet with his
like, for surely he is a right merry rogue and a witty." So they said:
"Thou must not remain with us this night save on condition that thou
submit to our commands, and that whatso thou seest, thou ask no
questions thereanent, nor inquire of its cause." "All right," rejoined
he, and they said, "Go read the writing over the door."

So he rose and went to the entrance and there found written in
letters of gold wash: WHOSO SPEAKETH OF WHAT CONCERNETH HIM NOT
SHALL HEAR WHAT PLEASETH HIM NOT! The porter said, "Be ye witnesses
against me that I will not speak on whatso concerneth me not." Then
the cateress arose and set food before them and they ate. After
which they changed their drinking place for another, and she lighted
the lamps and candles and burned ambergris and aloe wood, and set on
fresh fruit and the wine service, when they fell to carousing and
talking of their lovers. And they ceased not to eat and drink and
chat, nibbling dry fruits and laughing and playing tricks for the
space of a full hour, when lo! a knock was heard at the gate.

The knocking in no wise disturbed the seance, but one of them rose
and went to see what it was and presently returned, saying, "Truly our
pleasure for this night is to be perfect." "How is that?" asked
they, and she answered: "At the gate be three Persian Kalandars with
their beards and heads and eyebrows shaven, and all three blind of the
left eye- which is surely a strange chance. They are foreigners from
Roumland with the mark of travel plain upon them. They have just
entered Baghdad, this being their first visit to our city, and the
cause of their knocking at our door is simply because they cannot find
a lodging. Indeed one of them said to me: 'Haply the owner of this
mansion will let us have the key of his stable or some old outhouse
wherein we may pass this night.' For evening had surprised them and,
being strangers in the land, they knew none who would give them
shelter. And, O my sisters, each of them is a figure o' fun after
his own fashion, and if we let them in we shall have matter to make
sport of." She gave not over persuading them till they said to her:
"Let them in, and make thou the usual condition with them that they
speak not of what concerneth them not, lest they hear what pleased
them not."

So she rejoiced and, going to the door, presently returned with
the three monoculars whose beards and mustachios were clean-shaven.
They salaamed and stood afar off by way of respect, but the three
ladies rose up to them and welcomed them and wished them joy of
their safe arrival and made them sit down. The Kalandars looked at the
room and saw that it was a pleasant place, clean-swept and garnished
with flowers, and the lamps were burning and the smoke of perfumes was
spiring in air, and beside the dessert and fruits and wine, there were
three fair girls who might be maidens. So they exclaimed with one
voice, "By Allah, 'tis good!" Then they turned to the porter and saw
that he was a merry-faced wight, albeit he was by no means sober and
was sore after his slappings. So they thought that he was one of
themselves and said, "A mendicant like us, whether Arab or foreigner!"

But when the porter heard these words, he rose up and, fixing his
eyes fiercely upon them, said: "Sit ye here without exceeding in talk!
Have you not read what is writ over the door? Surely it befitteth
not fellows who come to us like paupers to wag your tongues at us."
"We crave thy pardon, O Fakir," rejoined they, "and our heads are
between thy hands." The ladies laughed consumedly at the squabble and,
making peace between the Kalandars and the porter, seated the new
guests before meat, and they ate. Then they sat together, and the
portress served them with drink, and as the cup went round merrily,
quoth the porter to the askers, "And you, O brothers mine, have ye
no story or rare adventure to amuse us withal?"

Now the warmth of wine having mounted to their heads, they called
for musical instruments, and the portress brought them a tambourine of
Mosul, and a lute of Irak, and a Persian harp. And each mendicant took
one and tuned it, this the tambourine and those the lute and the harp,
and struck up a merry tune while the ladies sang so lustily that there
was a great noise. And whilst they were carrying on, behold, someone
knocked at the gate, and the portress went to see what was the
matter there.

Now the cause of that knocking, O King (quoth Scheherazade) was
this, the Caliph Harun al-Rashid had gone forth from the palace, as
was his wont now and then, to solace himself in the city that night,
and to see and hear what new thing was stirring. He was in
merchant's gear, and he was attended by Ja'afar, his Wazir, and by
Masrur, his Sworder of Vengeance. As they walked about the city, their
way led them toward the house of the three ladies, where they heard
the loud noise of musical instruments and singing and merriment. So
quoth the Caliph to Ja'afar, "I long to enter this house and hear
those songs and see who sing them." Quoth Ja'afar, "O Prince of the
Faithful, these folk are surely drunken with wine, and I fear some
mischief betide us if we get amongst them." "There is no help but that
I go in there," replied the Caliph, "and I desire thee to contrive
some pretext for our appearing among them." Ja'afar replied, "I hear
and I obey," and knocked at the door, whereupon the portress came
out and opened. Then Ja'afar came forward and, kissing the ground
before her, said, "O my lady, we be merchants from Tiberias town. We
arrived at Baghdad ten days ago and, alighting at the merchants'
caravanserai, we sold all our merchandise. Now a certain trader
invited us to an entertainment this night, so we went to his house and
he set food before us and we ate. Then we sat at wine and wassail with
him for an hour or so when he gave us leave to depart. And we went out
from him in the shadow of the night and, being strangers, we could not
find our way back to our khan. So haply of your kindness and
courtesy you will suffer us to tarry with you this night, and Heaven
will reward you!"

The portress looked upon them and, seeing them dressed like
merchants and men of gave looks and solid, she returned to her sisters
and repeated to them Ja'afar's story, and they took compassion upon
the strangers and said to her, "Let them enter." She opened the door
to them, when said they to her, "Have we thy leave to come in?"
"Come in," quoth she, and the Caliph entered, followed by Ja'afar
and Masrur. And when the girls saw them they stood up to them in
respect and made them sit down and looked to their wants, saying,
"Welcome, and well come and good cheer to the guests, but with one
condition!" "What is that?" asked they, and one of the ladies
answered, "Speak not of what concerneth you not, lest ye hear what
pleaseth you not." "Even so," said they, and sat down to their wine
and drank deep.

Presently the Caliph looked on the three Kalandars and, seeing them,
each and every blind of the left eye, wondered at the sight. Then he
gazed upon the girls, and he was startled and he marveled with
exceeding marvel at their beauty and loveliness. They continued to
carouse and to converse, and said to the Caliph, "Drink!" But he
replied, "I am vowed to pilgrimage," and drew back from the wine.
Thereupon the portress rose and, spreading before him a tablecloth
worked with gold, set thereon a porcelain bowl into which she poured
willow-flower water with a lump of snow and a spoonful of sugar candy.
The Caliph thanked her and said in himself, "By Allah, I will
recompense her tomorrow for the kind deed she hath done." The others
again addressed themselves to conversing and carousing, and when the
wine gat the better of them, the eldest lady, who ruled the house,
rose and, making obeisance to them, took the cateress by the hand
and said, "Rise, O my sister, and let us do what is our devoir."
Both answered "Even so!"

Then the portress stood up and proceeded to remove the table service
and the remnants of the banquet, and renewed the pastilies and cleared
the middle of the saloon. Then she made the Kalandars sit upon a
sofa at the side of the estrade, and seated the Caliph and Ja'afar and
Masrur on the other side of the saloon, after which she called the
porter, and said: "How scant is thy courtesy! Now thou art no
stranger- nay, thou art one of the household." So he stood up and,
tightening his waistcloth, asked, "What would ye I do?" And she
answered, "Stand in thy place." Then the procuratrix rose and set in
the midst of the saloon a low chair and, opening a closet, cried to
the porter, "Come help me."

So he went to help her and saw two black bitches with chains round
their necks, and she said to him, "Take hold of them," and he took
them and led them into the middle of the saloon. Then the lady of
the house arose and tucked up her sleeves above her wrists and,
seizing a scourge, said to the porter, "Bring forward one of the
bitches." He brought her forward, dragging her by the chain, while the
bitch wept and shook her head at the lady, who, however, came down
upon her with blows on the sconce. And the bitch howled and the lady
ceased not beating her till her forearm failed her. Then, casting
the scourge from her hand, she pressed the bitch to her bosom and,
wiping away her tears with her hands, kissed her head. Then said she
to the porter, "Take her away and bring the second." And when he
brought her, she did with her as she had done with the first.

Now the heart of the Caliph was touched at these cruel doings. His
chest straitened and he lost all patience in his desire to know why
the two bitches were so beaten. He threw a wink at Ja'afar, wishing
him to ask, but the Minister, turning toward him, said by signs, "Be
silent!" Then quoth the portress to the mistress of the house, "O my
lady, arise and go to thy place, that I in turn may do my devoir." She
answered, "Even so," and, taking her seat upon the couch of juniper
wood, pargetted with gold and silver, said to the portress and
cateress, "Now do ye what ye have to do." Thereupon the portress sat
upon a low seat by the couch side, but the procuratrix, entering a
closet, brought out of it a bag of satin with green fringes and two
tassels of gold. She stood up before the lady of the house and,
shaking the bag, drew out from it a lute which she tuned by tightening
its pegs; and when it was in perfect order, she began to sing these
quatrains:

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

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

Then said the portress, "By Allah, O my sister, come to me and
complete this service for me." Replied the procuratrix, "With joy
and goodly gree." So she took the lute and leaned it against her
breasts and swept the strings with her finger tips, and began singing:

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

Then she quoted from the same ode:

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

After a pause she resumed:

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

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

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

When the portress heard the third song, she cried aloud and,
laying hands on her garments, rent them down to the very skirt and
fell to the ground fainting a third time, again showing the scars of
the scourge. Then said the three Kalandars, "Would Heaven we had never
entered this house, but had rather nighted on the mounds and heaps
outside the city! For verily our visit hath been troubled by sights
which cut to the heart." The Caliph turned to them and asked, "Why
so?" and they made answer, "Our minds are sore troubled by this
matter." Quoth the Caliph, "Are ye not of the household?" and quoth
they, "No, nor indeed did we ever set eyes on the place till within
this hour." Hereat the Caliph marveled and rejoined, "This man who
sitteth by you, would he not know the secret of the matter?" And so
saying he winked and made signs at the porter. So they questioned
the man, but he replied: "By the All-might of Allah, in love all are
alike! I am the growth of Baghdad, yet never in my born days did I
darken these doors till today, and my companying with them was a
curious matter." "By Allah," they rejoined, "we took thee for one of
them and now we see thou art one like ourselves."

Then said the Caliph: "We be seven men, and they only three women
without even a fourth to help them, so let us question them of their
case. And if they answer us not, fain we will be answered by force."
All of them agreed to this except Ja'afar, who said, "This is not my
recking. Let them be, for we are their guests and, as ye know, they
made a compact and condition with us which we accepted and promised to
keep. Wherefore it is better that we be silent concerning this matter,
and as but little of the night remaineth, let each and every of us
gang his own gait." Then he winked at the Caliph and whispered to him,
"There is but one hour of darkness left and I can bring them before
thee tomorrow, when thou canst freely question them all concerning
their story." But the Caliph raised his head haughtily and cried out
at him in wrath, saying: "I have no patience left for my longing to
hear of them. Let the Kalandars question them forthright." Quoth
Ja'afar, "This is not my rede."

Then words ran high and talk answered talk, and they disputed as
to who should first put the question, but at last all fixed upon the
porter. And as the jangle increased the house mistress could not but
notice it and asked them, "O ye folk! On what matter are ye talking so
loudly?" Then the porter stood up respectfully before her and said: "O
my lady, this company earnestly desire that thou acquaint them with
story of the two bitches and what maketh thee punish them so
cruelly, and then thou fallest to weeping over them and kissing
them. And lastly, they want to hear the tale of thy sister and why she
hath been bastinadoed with palm sticks like a man. These are the
questions they charge me to put, and peace be with thee." Thereupon
quoth she who was the lady of the house to the guests, "Is this true
that he saith on your part?" and all replied, "Yes!" save Ja'afar, who
kept silence.

When she heard these words she cried: "By Allah, ye have wronged us,
O our guests, with grievous wronging, for when you came before us we
made compact and condition with you that whoso should speak of what
concerneth him not should hear what pleaseth him not. Sufficeth ye not
that we took you into our house and fed you with our best food? But
the fault is not so much yours as hers who let you in." Then she
tucked up her sleeves from her wrists and struck the floor thrice with
her hand, crying, "Come ye quickly!" And lo! a closet door opened
and out of it came seven Negro slaves with drawn swords in hand, to
whom she said, "Pinion me those praters' elbows and bind them each
to each." They did her bidding and asked her: "O veiled and
virtuous! Is it thy high command that we strike off their heads?"
But she answered, "Leave them awhile that I question them of their
condition before their necks feel the sword." "By Allah, O my lady!"
cried the porter, "slay me not for other's sin. All these men offended
and deserve the penalty of crime save myself. Now, by Allah, our night
had been charming had we escaped the mortification of those
monocular Kalandars whose entrance into a populous city would
convert it into a howling wilderness." Then he repeated these verses:

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

When the porter ended his verse, the lady laughed despite her wrath,
and came up to the party and spake thus: "Tell me who ye be, for ye
have but an hour of life. And were ye not men of rank and perhaps
notables of your tribes, you had not been so froward and I had
hastened your doom." Then said the Caliph: "Woe to thee, O Ja'afar,
tell her who we are lest we be slain by mistake, and speak her fair
before some horror befall us." "'Tis part of thy deserts," replied he,
whereupon the Caliph cried out at him, saying, "There is a time for
witty words and there is a time for serious work." Then the lady
accosted the three Kalandars and asked them, "Are ye brothers?" when
they answered, "No, by Allah, we be naught but fakirs and foreigners."
Then quoth she to one among them, "Wast thus born blind of one eye?"
and quoth he, "No, by Allah, 'twas a marvelous matter and a wondrous
mischance which caused my eye to be torn out, and mine is a tale
which, if it were written upon the eye corners with needle gravers,
were a warner to whoso would be warned." She questioned the second and
third Kalandar, but all replied like the first, "By Allah, O our
mistress, each one of us cometh from a different country, and we are
all three the sons of kings, sovereign princes ruling over suzerains
and capital cities."

Thereupon she turned toward them and said: "Let each and every of
you tell me his tale in due order and explain the cause of his
coming to our place, and if his story please us, let him stroke his
head and wend his way." The first to come forward was the hammal,
the porter, who said: "O my lady, I am a man and a porter. This
dame, the cateress, hired me to carry a load and took me first to
the shop of a vintner, then to the booth of a butcher, thence to the
stall of a fruiterer, thence to a grocer who also sold dry fruits,
thence to a confectioner and a perfumer-cum-druggist, and from him
to this place, where there happened to me with you what happened. Such
is my story, and peace be on us all!" At this the lady laughed and
said, "Rub thy head and wend thy ways!" But he cried, "By Allah, I
will not stump it till I hear the stories of my companions!" Then came
forward one of the monoculars and began to tell her
FIRST

                  THE FIRST KALANDAR'S TALE


KNOW, O my lady, that the cause of my beard being shorn and my eye
being outtorn was as follows: My father was a king and he had a
brother who was a king over another city; and it came to pass that I
and my cousin, the son of my paternal uncle, were both born on one and
the same day. And years and days rolled on and as we grew up I used to
visit my uncle every now and then and to spend a certain number of
months with him. Now my cousin and I were sworn friends, for he ever
entreated me with exceeding kindness. He killed for me the fattest
sheep and strained the best of his wines, and we enjoyed long
conversing and carousing. One day when the wine had gotten the
better of us, the son of my uncle said to me, "O my cousin, I have a
great service to ask of thee, and I desire that thou stay me not in
whatso I desire to do!" And I replied, "With joy and goodly will."

Then he made me swear the most binding oaths and left me, but
after a little while he returned leading a lady veiled and richly
appareled, with ornaments worth a large sum of money. Presently he
turned to me (the woman being still behind him) and said, "Take this
lady with thee and go before me to such a burial ground" (describing
it, so that I knew the place) "and enter with her into such a
sepulcher and there await my coming." The oaths I swore to him made me
keep silence and suffered me not to oppose him, so I led the woman
to the cemetery and both I and she took our seats in the sepulcher.
And hardly had we sat down when in came my uncle's son, with a bowl of
water, a bag of mortar, and an adze somewhat like a hoe. He went
straight to the tomb in the midst of the sepulcher and, breaking it
open with the adze, set the stones on one side. Then he fell to
digging into the earth of the tomb till he came upon a large iron
plate, the size of a wicket door, and on raising it there appeared
below it a staircase vaulted and winding. Then he turned to the lady
and said to her, "Come now and take thy final choice!"

She at once went down by the staircase and disappeared, then quoth
he to me, "O son of my uncle, by way of completing thy kindness,
when I shall have descended into this place, restore the trapdoor to
where it was, and heap back the earth upon it as it lay before. And
then of thy great goodness mix this unslaked time which is in the
bag with this water which is in the bowl and, after building up the
stones, plaster the outside so that none looking upon it shall say:
'This is a new opening in an old tomb'. For a whole year have I worked
at this place whereof none knoweth but Allah, and this is the need I
have of thee," presently adding, "May Allah never bereave thy
friends of thee nor make them desolate by thine absence, O son of my
uncle, O my dear cousin!" And he went down the stairs and
disappeared for ever.

When he was lost to sight, I replaced the iron plate and did all his
bidding till the tomb became as it was before, and I worked almost
unconsciously, for my head was heated with wine. Returning to the
palace of my uncle, I was told that he had gone forth a-sporting and
hunting, so I slept that night without seeing him. And when the
morning dawned, I remembered the scenes of the past evening and what
happened between me and my cousin. I repented of having obeyed him
when penitence was of no avail. I still thought, however, that it
was a dream. So I fell to asking for the son of my uncle, but there
was none to answer me concerning him, and I went out to the
graveyard and the sepulchers, and sought for the tomb under which he
was, but could not find it. And I ceased not wandering about from
sepulcher to sepulcher, and tomb to tomb, all without success, till
night set in. So I returned to the city, yet I could neither eat nor
drink, my thoughts being engrossed with my cousin, for that I knew not
what was become of him. And I grieved with exceeding grief and
passed another sorrowful night, watching until the morning. Then
went I a second time to the cemetery, pondering over what the son of
mine uncle had done and, sorely repenting my hearkening to him, went
round among all the tombs, but could not find the tomb I sought. I
mourned over the past, and remained in my mourning seven days, seeking
the place and ever missing the path.

Then my torture of scruples grew upon me till I well-nigh went
mad, and I found no way to dispel my grief save travel and return to
my father. So I set out and journeyed homeward, but as I was
entering my father's capital a crowd of rioters sprang upon me and
pinioned me. I wondered thereat with all wonderment, seeing that I was
the son of the Sultan, and these men were my father's subjects and
amongst them were some of my own slaves. A great fear fell upon me,
and I said to my soul, "Would Heaven I knew what hath happened to my
father!" I questioned those that bound me of the cause of their so
doing, but they returned me no answer. However, after a while one of
them said to me (and he had been a hired servant of our house),
"Fortune hath been false to thy father. His troops betrayed him, and
the Wazir who slew him now reigneth in his stead, and we lay in wait
to seize thee by the bidding of him." I was well-nigh distraught and
felt ready to faint on hearing of my father's death, when they carried
me off and placed me in presence of the usurper.

Now between me and him there was an olden grudge, the cause of which
was this: I was fond of shooting with the stone bow, and it befell one
day, as I was standing on the terrace roof of the palace, that a
bird lighted on the top of the Wazir's house when he happened to be
there. I shot at the bird and missed the mark, but I hit the Wazir's
eye and knocked it out, as fate and fortune decreed. Now when I
knocked out the Wazir's eye, he could not say a single word, for
that my father was King of the city, but he hated me ever after, and
dire was the grudge thus caused between us twain. So when I was set
before him hand-bound and pinioned, he straightway gave orders for
me to be beheaded. I asked, "For what crime wilt thou put me to
death?" Whereupon he answered, "What crime is greater than this?"
pointing the while to the place where his eye had been. Quoth I, "This
I did by accident, not of malice prepense," and quoth he, "If thou
didst it by accident, I will do the like by thee with intention." Then
cried he, "Bring him forward," and they brought me up to him, when
he thrust his finger into my left eye and gouged it out, whereupon I
became one-eyed as ye see me.

Then he bade bind me hand and foot, and put me into a chest, and
said to the sworder, "Take charge of this fellow, and go off with
him to the wastelands about the city. Then draw thy scimitar and
slay him, and leave him to feed the beasts and birds." So the headsman
fared forth with me, and when he was in the midst of the desert, he
took me out of the chest (and I with both hands pinioned and both feet
fettered) and was about to bandage my eyes before striking off my
head. But I wept with exceeding weeping until I made him weep with
me and, looking at him I began to recite these couplets:

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

And I also quoted:

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

When the headsman heard my lines (he had been sworder to my sire and
he owed me a debt of gratitude), he cried, "O my lord, what can I
do, being but a slave under orders?" presently adding, "Fly for thy
life and nevermore return to this land, or they will slay thee and
slay me with thee." Hardly believing in my escape, I kissed his hand
and thought the loss of my eye a light matter in consideration of my
escaping from being slain. I arrived at my uncle's capital, and
going in to him, told him of what had befallen my father and myself,
whereat he wept with sore weeping and said: "Verily thou addest
grief to my grief, and woe to my woe, for thy cousin hath been missing
these many days. I wot not what hath happened to him, and none can
give me news of him." And he wept till he fainted. I sorrowed and
condoled with him, and he would have applied certain medicaments to my
eye, but he saw that it was become as a walnut with the shell empty.
Then said he, "O my son, better to lose eye and keep life!"

After that I could no longer remain silent about my cousin, who
was his only son and one dearly loved, so I told him all that had
happened. He rejoiced with extreme joyance to hear news of his son and
said, "Come now and show me the tomb." But I replied, "By Allah, O
my uncle, I know not its place, though I sought it carefully full many
times, yet could not find the site." However, I and my uncle went to
the graveyard and looked right and left, till at last I recognized the
tomb, and we both rejoiced with exceeding joy. We entered the
sepulcher and loosened the earth about the grave, then, upraising
the trapdoor, descended some fifty steps till we came to the foot of
the staircase, when lo! we were stopped by a blinding smoke. Thereupon
said my uncle that saying whose sayer shall never come to shame:
"There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the
Glorious, the Great!" and we advanced till we suddenly came upon a
saloon, whose floor was strewed with flour and grain and provisions
and all manner necessaries, and in the midst of it stood a canopy
sheltering a couch. Thereupon my uncle went up to the couch and,
inspecting it, found his son and the lady who had gone down with him
into the tomb, lying in each other's embrace.

But the twain had become black as charred wood. It was as if they
had been cast into a pit of fire. When my uncle saw this spectacle, he
spat in his son's face and said: "Thou hast thy deserts, O thou hog!
This is thy judgment in the transitory world, and yet remaineth the
judgment in the world to come, a durer and a more enduring." I
marveled at his hardness of heart and, grieving for my cousin and
the lady, said: "By Allah, O my uncle, calm thy wrath. Dost not see
that all my thoughts are occupied with this misfortune, and how
sorrowful I am for what hath befallen thy son, and how horrible it
is that naught of him remaineth but a black heap of charcoal? And is
not that enough, but thou must smite him with thy slipper?" Answered
he: "O son of my brother, this youth from his boyhood was madly in
love with his own sister, and often and often I forbade him from
her, saying to myself, 'They are but little ones.' However, when
they grew up sin befell between them, and although I could hardly
believe it, I confined him and chided him and threatened him with
the severest threats, and the eunuchs and servants said to him:
'Beware of so foul a thing which none before thee ever did, and
which none after thee will ever do, and have a care lest thou be
dishonored and disgraced among the kings of the day, even to the end
of time.' And I added: 'Such a report as this will be spread abroad by
caravans, and take heed not to give them cause to talk or I will
assuredly curse thee and do thee to death.'

After that I lodged them apart and shut her up, but the accursed
girl loved him with passionate love, for Satan had got the mastery
of her as well as of him and made their foul sin seem fair in their
sight. Now when my son saw that I separated them, he secretly built
this souterrain and furnished it and transported to it victuals,
even as thou seest, and when I had gone out a-sporting, came here with
his sister and hid from me. Then His righteous judgment fell upon
the twain and consumed them with fire from Heaven, and verily the Last
Judgment will deal them durer pains and more enduring!" Then he wept
and I wept with him, and he looked at me and said, "Thou art my son in
his stead." And I bethought me awhile of the world and of its chances,
how the Wazir had slain my father and had taken his place and had
put out my eye, and how my cousin had come to his death by the
strangest chance. And I wept again and my uncle wept with me.

Then we mounted the steps and let down the iron plate and heaped
up the earth over it, and after restoring the tomb to its former
condition, we returned to the palace. But hardly had we sat down ere
we heard the tom-toming of the kettledrum and tantara of trumpets
and clash of cymbals, and the rattling of war men's lances, and the
clamors of assailants and the clanking of bits and the neighing of
steeds, while the world was canopied with dense dust and sand clouds
raised by the horses' hoofs. We were amazed at sight and sound,
knowing not what could be the matter. So we asked, and were told us
that the Wazir who had usurped my father's kingdom had marched his
men, and that after levying his soldiery and taking a host of wild
Arabs into service, he had come down upon us with armies like the
sands of the sea. Their number none could tell, and against them
none could prevail. They attacked the city unawares, and the citizens,
being powerless to oppose them, surrendered the place. My uncle was
slain and I made for the suburbs, saying to myself, "If thou fall into
this villain's hands, he will assuredly kill thee."

On this wise all my troubles were renewed, and I pondered all that
had betided my father and my uncle and I knew not what to do; for if
the city people or my father's troops had recognized me, they would
have done their best to will favor by destroying me. And I could think
of no way to escape save by shaving off my beard and my eyebrows. So I
shore them off and, changing my fine clothes for a Kalandar's rags,
I fared forth from my uncle's capital and made for this city, hoping
that peradventure someone would assist me to the presence of the
Prince of the Faithful, and the Caliph who is the Viceregent of
Allah upon earth. Thus have I come hither that I might tell him my
tale and lay my case before him. I arrived here this very night, and
was standing in doubt whither I should go when suddenly I saw this
second Kalandar. So I salaamed to him, saying, 'I am a stranger'
and he answered,- 'I too am a stranger!' And as we were conversing,
behold, up came our companion, this third Kalandar, and saluted us
saying, 'I am a stranger!' And we answered, `We too be strangers!'

Then we three walked on and together till darkness overtook us and
Destiny drave us to your house. Such, then. is the cause of the
shaving of my beard and mustachios and eyebrows, and the manner of
my losing my left eye. They marveled much at this tale, and the Caliph
said to Ja'afar, "By Allah, I have not seen nor have I heard the
like of what hath happened to this Kalandar!" Quoth the lady of the
house, "Rub thy head and wend thy ways." But he replied, "I will not
go till I hear the history of the two others." Thereupon the second
Kalandar came forward and, kissing the ground, began to tell
SECOND

                THE SECOND KALANDAR'S TALE


KNOW, O my lady, that I was not born one-eyed, and mine is a strange
story. And it were graven with needle graver on the eye corners, it
were a warner to whoso would be warned. I am a king, son of a king,
and was brought up like a prince. I learned intoning the Koran
according the seven schools, and I read all manner books, and held
disputations on their contents with the doctors and men of science.
Moreover, I studied star lore and the fair sayings of poets, and I
exercised myself in all branches of learning until I surpassed the
people of my time. My skill in calligraphy exceeded that of all the
scribes, and my fame was bruited abroad over all climes and cities,
and all the kings learned to know my name.

Amongst others, the King of Hind heard of me and sent to my father
to invite me to his court, with offerings and presents and rarities
such as befit royalties. So my father fitted out six ships for me
and my people, and we put to sea and sailed for the space of a full
month till we made the land. Then we brought out the horses that
were with us in the ships, and after loading the camels with our
presents for the Prince, we set forth inland. But we had marched
only a little way when behold, a dust cloud up flew, and grew until it
walled the horizon from view. After an hour or so the veil lifted
and discovered beneath it fifty horsemen, ravening lions to the sight,
in steel armor dight. We observed them straightly and lo! they were
cutters-off of the highway, wild as wild Arabs. When they saw that
we were only four and had with us but the ten camels carrying the
presents, they dashed down upon us with lances at rest. We signed to
them with our fingers, as it were saying, "We be messengers of the
great King of Hind, so harm us not!" But they answered on like wise,
"We are not in his dominions to obey nor are we subject to his sway."

Then they set upon us and slew some of my slaves and put the lave to
flight. And I also fled after I had gotten a wound, a grievous hurt,
whilst the Arabs were taken up with the money and the presents which
were with us. I went forth unknowing whither I went, having become
mean as I was mighty, and I fared on until I came to the crest of a
mountain, where I took shelter for the night in a cave. When day arose
I set out again, nor ceased after this fashion till I arrived at a
fair city and a well filled. Now it was the season when winter was
turning away with his rime and to greet the world with his flowers
came prime, and the young blooms were springing and the streams flowed
ringing, and the birds were sweetly singing, as saith the poet
concerning a certain city when describing it:

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

I was glad of my arrival, for I was wearied with the way, and yellow
of face for weakness and want, but my plight was pitiable and I knew
not whither to betake me. So I accosted a tailor sitting in his little
shop and saluted him. He returned my salaam, and bade me kindly
welcome and wished me well and entreated me gently and asked me of the
cause of my strangerhood. I told him all my past from first to last,
and he was concerned on my account and said: "O youth, disclose not
thy secret to any. The King of this city is the greatest enemy thy
father hath, and there is blood wite between them and thou hast
cause to fear for thy life." Then he set meat and drink before me, and
I ate and drank and he with me, and we conversed freely till
nightfall, when he cleared me a place in a corner of his shop and
brought me a carpet and a coverlet. I tarried with him three days,
at the end of which time he said to me, "Knowest thou no calling
whereby to will thy living, O my son?" "I am learned in the law," I
replied, "and a doctor of doctrine, an adept in art and science, a
mathematician, and a notable pen-man." He rejoined, "Thy calling is of
no account in our city, where not a soul understandeth science or even
writing, or aught save money-making." Then said I, "By Allah, I know
nothing but what I have mentioned," and he answered, "Gird thy
middle and take thee a hatchet and a cord, and go and hew wood in
the wold for thy daily bread till Allah send thee relief, and tell
none who thou art lest they slay thee."

Then he bought me an ax and a rope and gave me in charge to
certain woodcutters, and with these guardians I went forth into the
forest, where I cut fuel wood the whole of my day and came back in the
evening bearing my bundle on my head. I sold it for half a dinar, with
part of which I bought provision, and laid by the rest. In such work I
spent a whole year, and when this was ended, I went out one day, as
was my wont, into the wilderness and, wandering away from my
companions, I chanced on a thickly grown lowland in which there was an
abundance of wood. So I entered and I found the gnarled stump of a
great tree and loosened the ground about it and shoveled away the
earth. Presently my hatchet rang upon a copper ring, so I cleared away
the soil and behold, the ring was attached to a wooden trapdoor.
This I raised, and there appeared beneath it a staircase.

I descended the steps to the bottom and came to a door, which I
opened and found myself in a noble hall strong of structure and
beautifully built, where was a damsel like a pearl of great price,
whose favor banished from my heart an grief and cark and care, and
whose soft speech healed the soul in despair and captivated the wise
and ware. Her figure measured five feet in height, her breasts were
firm and upright, her cheek a very garden of delight, her color lively
bright, her face gleamed like dawn through curly tresses which gloomed
like night, and above the snows of her bosom glittered teeth of a
pearly white. When I looked upon her I prostrated myself before Him
who had created her, for the beauty and loveliness He had shaped in
her, and she looked at me and said, "Art thou man or Jinni?" "I am a
man," answered I, and she, "Now who brought thee to this place where I
have abided five-and-twenty years without even yet seeing man in
it?" Quoth I (and indeed I found her words wondersweet, and my heart
was melted to the core by them), "O my lady, my good fortune led me
hither for the dispelling of my cark and care."

Then I related to her all my mishap from first to last, and my
case appeared to her exceeding grievous, so she wept and said: "I will
tell thee my story in my turn. I am the daughter of the King Ifitamus,
lord of the Islands of Abnus, who married me to my cousin, the son
of my paternal uncle. But on my wedding night an Ifrit named Jirjis
bin Rajmus, first cousin- this is, mother's sister's son- of Iblis,
the Foul Fiend, snatched me up and, flying away with me like a bird,
set me down in this place, wither he conveyed all I needed of fine
stuffs, raiment and jewels and furniture, and meat and drink and other
else. Once in every ten days he comes here and lies a single night
with me, and then wends his way, for he took me without the consent of
his family. And he hath agreed with me that if ever I need him by
night or by day, I have only to pass my hand over yonder two lines
engraved upon the alcove and he will appear to me before my fingers
cease touching. Four days have now passed since he was here, and as
there remain six days before he come again, say me, wilt thou abide
with me five days, and go hence the day before his coming?" I
replied "Yes, and yes again! O rare, if all this be not a dream!"

Hereat she was glad and, springing to her feet, seized my hand and
carried me through an arched doorway to a hammam bath, a fair hall and
richly decorate. I doffed my clothes, and she doffed hers, then we
bathed and she washed me. And when this was done we left the bath, and
she seated me by her side upon a high divan, and brought me sherbet
scented with musk. When we felt cool after the bath, she set food
before me and we ate and fell to talking, but presently she said to
me, "Lay thee down and take thy rest, for surely thou must be
weary." So I thanked her, my lady, and lay down and slept soundly,
forgetting all that happened to me. When I awoke I found her subbing
and shampooing my feet, so I again thanked her and blessed her and
we sat for a while talking. Said she, "By Allah, I was sad at heart,
for that I have dwelt alone underground for these five-and-twenty
years, and praise be to Allah Who hath sent me someone with whom I can
converse!" Then she asked, "O youth, what sayest thou to wine?" and
I answered, "Do as thou wilt." Whereupon she went to a cupboard and
took out a sealed flask of right old wine and set off the table with
flowers and scented herbs and began to sing these lines:

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

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

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

And these also:

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

I heard her verse but paid no heed to her words- nay, I raised my
foot and administered to the alcove a mighty kick, and behold, the air
starkened and darkened and thundered and lightened, the earth trembled
and quaked, and the world became invisible. At once the fumes of
wine left my head. I cried to her, "What is the matter?" and she
replied: "The Ifrit is upon us! Did I not warn thee of this? By Allah,
thou hast brought ruin upon me, but fly for thy life and go up by
the way thou camest down!" So I fled up the staircase, but in the
excess of my fear I forgot sandals and hatchet. And when I had mounted
two steps I turned to look for them, and lo! I saw the earth cleave
asunder, and there arose from it an Ifrit, a monster of hideousness,
who said to the damsel: "What trouble and pother be this wherewith
thou disturbest me? What mishap hath betided thee?" "No mishap hath
befallen me," she answered, "save that my breast was straitened and my
heart heavy with sadness. So I drank a little wine to broaden it and
to hearten myself, then I rose to obey a call of nature, but the
wine had gotten into my head and I fell against the alcove." "Thou
liest, like the whore thou art!" shrieked the Ifrit, and he looked
around the hall right and left till he caught sight of my ax and
sandals and said to her, "What be these but the belongings of some
mortal who hath been in thy society?" She answered: "I never set
eyes upon them till this moment. They must have been brought by thee
hither cleaving to thy garments." Quoth the Ifrit, "These words are
absurd, thou harlot! thou strumpet!"

Then he stripped her stark-naked and, stretching her upon the floor,
bound her hands and feet to four stakes, like one crucified, and set
about torturing and trying to make her confess. I could not bear to
stand listening to her cries and groans, so I climbed the stair on the
quake with fear, and when I reached the top I replaced the trapdoor
and covered it with earth. Then repented I of what I had done with
penitence exceeding, and thought of the lady and her beauty and
loveliness, and the tortures she was suffering at the hands of the
accursed Ifrit, after her quiet life of five-and-twenty years, and how
all that had happened to her was for cause of me. I bethought me of my
father and his kingly estate and how I had become a woodcutter, and
how, after my time had been awhile serene, the world had again waxed
turbid and troubled to me. So I wept bitterly and repeated this
couplet:

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

Then I walked till I reached the home of my friend the tailor,
whom I found most anxiously expecting me. Indeed he was, as the saying
goes, on coals of fire for my account. And when he saw me he said:
"All night long my heart hath been heavy, fearing for thee from wild
beasts or other mischances. Now praise be to Allah for thy safety!"
I thanked him for his friendly solicitude and, retiring to my
corner, sat pondering and musing on what had befallen me, and I blamed
and chided myself for my meddlesome folly and my frowardness in
kicking the alcove. I was calling myself to account when behold, my
friend the tailor came to me and said: "O youth, in the shop there
is an old man, a Persian, who seeketh thee. He hath thy hatchet and
thy sandals, which he had taken to the woodcutters, saying, I was
going out at what time the muezzin began the call to dawn prayer, when
I chanced upon these things and know not whose they are, so direct
me to their owner. Tie woodcutters recognized thy hatchet and directed
him to thee. He is sitting in my shop, so fare forth to him and
thank him and take thine ax and sandals."

When I heard these words I turned yellow with fear and felt
stunned as by a blow, and before I could recover myself, lo! the floor
of my private room clove asunder, and out of it rose the Persian,
who was the Ifrit. He had tortured the lady with exceeding tortures,
natheless she would not confess to him aught, so he took the hatchet
and sandals and said to her, "As surely as I am Jirjis of the seed
of Iblis, I will bring thee back the owner of this and these!" Then he
went to the woodcutters with the pretense aforesaid and, being
directed to me, after waiting a while in the shop till the fact was
confirmed, he suddenly snatched me up as a hawk snatcheth a mouse
and flew high in air, but presently descended and plunged with me
under the earth (I being a-swoon the while), and lastly set me down in
the subterranean palace wherein I had passed that blissful night.

And there I saw the lady stripped to the skin, her limbs bound to
four stakes and blood welling from her sides. At the sight my eyes ran
over with tears, but the Ifrit covered her person and said, "O wanton,
is not this man thy lover?" She looked upon me and replied, "I wot him
not, nor have I ever seen him before this hour!" Quoth the Ifrit,
"What! This torture and yet no confessing?" And quoth she, "I never
saw this man in my born days, and it is not lawful in Allah's sight to
tell lies on him." "If thou know him not," said the Ifrit to her,
"take this sword and strike off his head." She hent the sword in
hand and came close up to me, and I signaled to her with my
eyebrows, my tears the while flowing a-down my cheeks. She
understood me and made answer, also by signs, "How couldest thou bring
all this evil upon me?" And I rejoined after the same fashion, "This
is the time for mercy and forgiveness." And the mute tongue of my case
spake aloud saying:

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

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

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

Then my eyes filled with tears to overflowing and I cast the sword
from my hand, saying: "O mighty Ifrit and hero, if a woman lacking
wits and faith deem it unlawful to strike off my head, how can it be
lawful for me, a man, to smite her neck whom I never saw in my whole
life? I cannot do such misdeed, though thou cause me drink the cup
of death and perdition." Then said the Ifrit, "Ye twain show the
good understanding between you, but I will let you see how such doings
end." He took the sword and struck off the lady's hands first, with
four strokes, and then her feet, whilst I looked on and made sure of
death and she farewelled me with her dying eyes. So the Ifrit cried at
her, "Thou whorest and makest me a wittol with thine eyes," and struck
her so that her head went flying. Then turned he to me and said: "O
mortal, we have it in our law that when the wife committeth
advowtry, it is lawful for us to slay her. As for this damsel, I
snatched her away on her bride night when she was a girl of twelve and
she knew no one but myself. I used to come to her once in every ten
days and lie with her the night, under the semblance of a man, a
Persian, and when I was well assured that she had cuckolded me, I slew
her. But as for thee, I am not well satisfied that thou hast wronged
me in her. Nevertheless I must not let thee go unharmed, so ask a boon
of me and I will grant it."

Then I rejoiced, O my lady, with exceeding joy and said, "What
boon shall I crave of thee?" He replied, "Ask me this boon- into what
shape I shall bewitch thee? Wilt thou be a dog, or an ass, or an ape?"
I rejoined (and indeed I had hoped that mercy might be shown me),
"By Allah, spare me, that Allah spare thee for sparing a Moslem and
a man who never wronged thee." And I humbled myself before him with
exceeding humility, and remained standing in his presence, saying,
"I am sore oppressed by circumstance." Said the Ifrit: "Lengthen not
thy words! As to my slaying thee, fear it not, and as to my
pardoning thee, hope it not, but from my bewitching thee there is no
escape." Then he tore me from the ground, which closed under my
feet, and flew with me into the firmament till I saw the earth as a
large white cloud or a saucer in the midst of the waters. Presently he
set me down on a mountain, and taking a little dust, over which he
muttered some magical words, sprinkled me therewith, saying, "Quit
that shape and take thou the shape of an ape!" And on the instant I
became an ape, a tailless baboon, the son of a century.

Now when he had left me and I saw myself in this ugly and hateful
shape, I wept for myself, but resigned my soul to the tyranny of
Time and Circumstance, well weeting that Fortune is fair and
constant to no man. I descended the mountain and found at the foot a
desert plain, long and broad, over which I traveled for the space of a
month till my course brought me to the brink of the briny sea. After
standing there awhile, I was ware of a ship in the offing which ran
before a fair wind making for the shore. I hid myself behind a rock on
the beach and waited till the ship drew near, when I leaped on
board. I found her full of merchants and passengers, and one of them
cried, "O Captain, this ill-omened brute will bring us ill luck!"
And another said, "Turn this ill-omened beast out from among us."
The Captain said, "Let us kill it!" Another said, "Slay it with the
sword," a third, "Drown it," and a fourth, "Shoot it with an arrow."

But I sprang up and laid hold of the rais's skirt, and shed tears
which poured down my chops. The Captain took pity on me, and said,
"O merchants, this ape hath appealed to me for protection and I will
protect him. Henceforth he is under my charge, so let none do him
aught hurt or harm, otherwise there will be bad blood between us."
Then he entreated me kindly, and whatsoever he said I understood,
and ministered to his every want and served him as a servant, albeit
my tongue would not obey my wishes, so that he came to love me. The
vessel sailed on, the wind being fair, for the space of fifty days, at
the end of which we cast anchor under the walls of a great city
wherein was a world of people, especially learned men. None could tell
their number save Allah. No sooner had we arrived than we were visited
by certain Mameluke officials from the King of that city, who, after
boarding us, greeted the merchants and, giving them joy of safe
arrival, said: "Our King welcometh you, and sendeth you this roll of
paper, whereupon each and every of you must write a line. For ye shall
know that the King's Minister, a calligrapher of renown, is dead,
and the King hath sworn a solemn oath that he will make none Wazir
in his stead who cannot write as well as he could."

He then gave us the scroll, which measured ten cubits long by a
breadth of one, and each of the merchants who knew how to write
wrote a line thereon, even to the last of them, after which I stood up
(still in the shape of an ape) and snatched the roll out of their
hands. They feared lest I should tear it or throw it overboard, so
they tried to stay me and scare me, but I signed to them that I
could write, whereat all marveled, saying, "We never yet saw an ape
write." And the Captain cried: "Let him write, and if he scribble
and scrabble we will kick him out and kill him. But if he write fair
and scholarly, I will adopt him as my son, for surely I never yet
saw a more intelligent and well-mannered monkey than he. Would
Heaven my real son were his match in morals and manners!"

I took the reed and, stretching out my paw, dipped it in ink and
wrote, in the hand used for letters, these two couplets:

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

And I wrote in Rayhani or larger letters elegantly curved:

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

Then I wrote in the Suls character:

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

Then I wrote in the character of Naskh:

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

Then I gave the scroll to the officials, and after we all had
written our line, they carried it before the King. When he saw the
paper, no writing pleased him save my writing, and he said to the
assembled courtiers: "Go seek the writer of these lines and dress
him in a splendid robe of honor. Then mount him on a she-mule, let a
band of music precede him, and bring him to the presence." At these
words they smiled and the King was wroth with them and cried "O
accursed! I give you an order and you laugh at me?" "O King,"
replied they, "if we laugh 'tis not at thee and not without a
cause." "And what is it?" asked he, and they answered, "O King, thou
orderest us to bring to thy presence the man who wrote these lines.
Now the truth is that he who wrote them is not of the sons of Adam,
but an ape, a tailless baboon, belonging to the ship Captain." Quoth
he, "Is this true that you say?" Quoth they, "Yea! by the rights of
thy munificence!" The King marveled at their words and shook with
mirth and said, "I am minded to buy this ape of the Captain."

Then he sent messengers to the ship with the mule, the dress, the
guard, and the state drums, saying, "Not the less do you clothe him in
the robe of honor and mount him on the mule, and let him be surrounded
by the guards and preceded by the band of music." They came to the
ship and took me from the Captain and robed me in the robe of honor
and, mounting me on the she-mule, carried me in state procession
through the streets whilst the people were amazed and amused. And folk
said to one another: "Halloo! Is our Sultan about to make an ape his
Minister?" and came all agog crowding to gaze at me, and the town
was astir and turned topsy-turvy on my account. When they brought me
up to the King and set me in his presence, I kissed the ground
before him three times, and once before the High Chamberlain and great
officers, and he bade me be seated, and I sat respectfully on shins
and knees, and all who were present marveled at my fine manners, and
the King most of all.

Thereupon he ordered the lieges to retire, and when none remained
save the King's Majesty, the eunuch on duty, and a little white slave,
he bade them set before me the table of food, containing all manner of
birds, whatever hoppeth and flieth and treadeth in nest, such as quail
and sand grouse. Then he signed to me to eat with him, so I rose and
kissed ground before him, then sat me down and ate with him. Presently
they set before the King choice wines in flagons of glass and he
drank. Then he passed on the cup to me, and I kissed the ground and
drank and wrote on it:

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

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

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

The King read these lines with wonder and delight and said to his
eunuch, "O Mukbil, go to thy mistress, Sitt al-Husn, and say her,
'Come, speak the King, who biddeth thee hither to take thy solace in
seeing this right wondrous ape!"' So the eunuch went out, and
presently returned with the lady, who when she saw me veiled her
face and said: "O my father, hast thou lost all sense of honor? How
cometh it thou art pleased to send for me and show me to strange men?"
"O Sitt al-Husn," said he, "no man is here save this little foot
page and the eunuch who reared thee and I, thy father. From whom,
then, dost thou veil thy face?" She answered, "This whom thou
deemest an ape is a young man, a clever and polite, a wise and
learned, and the son of a king. But he is ensorceled, and the Ifrit
Jirjaris, who is of the seed of Iblis, cast a spell upon him, after
putting to death his own wife, the daughter of King Ifitamus lord of
the Islands of Abnus." The King marveled at his daughter's words
and, turning to me, said, "Is this true that she saith of thee?" and I
signed by a nod of my head the answer "Yea, verily," and wept sore.

Then he asked his daughter, "Whence knewest thou that he is
ensorceled?" and she answered: "O my dear Papa, there was with me in
my childhood an old woman, a wily one and a wise and a witch to
boot, and she taught me the theory of magic and its practice, and I
took notes in writing and therein waxed perfect, and have committed to
memory a hundred and seventy chapters of egromantic formulas, by the
least of which I could transport the stones of thy city behind the
Mountain Kaf and the Circumambient Main, or make its site an abyss
of the sea and its people fishes swimming in the midst of it." "O my
daughter," said her father, "I conjure thee, by my life, disenchant
this young man, that I may make him my Wazir and marry thee to him,
for indeed he is an ingenious youth and a deeply learned." "With joy
and goodly gree," she replied and, hending in hand an iron knife
whereon was inscribed the name of Allah in Hebrew characters she
described a wide circle in the midst of the palace hall, and therein
wrote in Kufic letters mysterious names and talismans. And she uttered
words and muttered charms, some of which we understood and others we
understood not.

Presently the world waxed dark before our sight till we thought that
the sky was falling upon our heads, and lo! the Ifrit presented
himself in his own shape and aspect. His hands were like
many-pronged pitchforks, his legs like the masts of great ships, and
his eyes like cressets of gleaming fire. We were in terrible fear of
him, but the King's daughter cried at him, "No welcome to thee and
no greeting, O dog!" Whereupon he changed to the form of a lion and
said, "O traitress, how is it thou hast broken the oath we sware
that neither should contraire other?" "O accursed one," answered
she, "how could there be a compact between me and the like of thee?"
Then said he, "Take what thou hast brought on thyself." And the lion
open his jaws and rushed upon her, but she was too quick for him, and,
plucking a hair from her head, waved it in the air muttering over it
the while. And the hair straightway became a trenchant sword blade,
wherewith she smote the lion and cut him in twain. Then the two halves
flew away in air and the head changed to a scorpion and the Princess
became a huge serpent and set upon the accursed scorpion, and the
two fought, coiling and uncoiling, a stiff fight for an hour at least.

Then the scorpion changed to a vulture and the serpent became an
eagle, which set upon the vulture and hunted him for an hour's time,
till he became a black tomcat, which miauled and grinned and spat.
Thereupon the eagle changed into a piebald wolf and these two
battled in the palace for a long time, when the cat, seeing himself
overcome, changed into a worm and crept into a huge red pomegranate
which lay beside the jetting fountain in the midst of the palace hall.
Whereupon the pomegranate swelled to the size of a watermelon in air
and, falling upon the marble pavement of the palace, broke to
pieces, and all the grains fell out and were scattered about till they
covered the whole floor. Then the wolf shook himself and became a
snow-white cock, which fell to picking up the grains, purposing not to
leave one, but by doom of destiny one seed rolled to the fountain edge
and there lay hid.

The cock fell to crowing and clapping his wings and signing to us
with his beak as if to ask, "Are any grains left?" But we understood
not what he meant, and he cried to us with so loud a cry that we
thought the palace would fall upon us. Then he ran over all the
floor till he saw the grain which had rolled to the fountain edge, and
rushed eagerly to pick it up when behold, it sprang into the midst
of the water and became a fish and dived to the bottom of the basin.
Thereupon the cock changed to a big fish, and plunged in after the
other, and the two disappeared for a while and lo! we heard loud
shrieks and cries of pain which made us tremble. After this the
Ifrit rose out of the water, and he was as a burning flame, casting
fire and smoke from his mouth and eyes and nostrils. And immediately
the Princess likewise came forth from the basin, and she was one
live coal of flaming lowe, and these two, she and he, battled for
the space of an hour, until their fires entirely compassed them
about and their thick smoke filled the palace.

As for us, we panted for breath, being well-nigh suffocated, and
we longed to plunge into the water, fearing lest we be burnt up and
utterly destroyed. And the King said: "There is no Majesty and there
is no Might save in Allah the Glorious, the Great! Verily we are
Allah's and unto Him are we returning! Would Heaven I had not urged my
daughter to attempt the disenchantment of this ape fellow, whereby I
have imposed upon her the terrible task of fighing yon accursed Ifrit,
against whom all the Ifrits in the world could not prevail. And
would Heaven we had never seen this ape, Allah never assain nor
bless the day of his coming! We thought to do a good deed by him
before the face of Allah, and to release him from enchantment, and now
we have brought this trouble and travail upon our heart." But I, O
my lady, was tonguetied and powerless to say a word to him.

Suddenly, ere we were ware of aught, the Ifrit yelled out from under
the flames and, coming up to us as we stood on the estrade, blew
fire in our faces. The damsel overtook him and breathed blasts of fire
at his face, and the sparks from her and from him rained down upon us,
and her sparks did us no harm. But one of his sparks alighted upon
my eye and destroyed it, making me a monocular ape. And another fell
on the King's face, scorching the lower half, burning off his beard
and mustachios and causing his underteeth to fall out, while a third
lighted on the castrato's breast, killing him on the spot. So we
despaired of life and made sure of death when lo! a voice repeated the
saying: "Allah is Most Highest! Allah is Most Highest! Aidance and
victory to all who the Truth believe, and disappointment and
disgrace to all who the religion of Mohammed, the Moon of Faith,
unbelieve." The speaker was the Princess, who had burnt the Ifrit, and
he was become a heap of ashes. Then she came up to us and said, "Reach
me a cup of water." They brought it to her and she spoke over it words
we understood not and, sprinkling me with it, cried, "By virtue of the
Truth, and by the Most Great Name of Allah, I charge thee return to
thy former shape!" And behold, I shook and became a man as before,
save that I had utterly lost an eye.

Then she cried out: "The fire! The fire! O my dear Papa, an arrow
from the accursed hath wounded me to the death, for I am not used to
fight with the Jann. Had he been a man, I had slain him in the
beginning. I had no trouble till the time when the pomegranate burst
and the grains scattered, but I overlooked the seed wherein was the
very life of the Jinni. Had I picked it up, he had died on the spot,
but as Fate and Fortune decreed, I saw it not, so he came upon me
all unawares and there befell between him and me a sore struggle under
the earth and high in air and in the water. And as often as I opened
on him a gate, he opened on me another gate and a stronger, till at
last he opened on me the gate of fire, and few are saved upon whom the
door of fire openeth. But Destiny willed that my cunning prevail
over his cunning, and I burned him to death after I vainly exhorted
him to embrace the religion of Al-Islam. As for me, I am a dead woman.
Allah supply my place to you!"

Then she called upon Heaven for help and ceased not to implore
relief from the fire, when lo! a black spark shot up from her robed
feet to her thighs, then it flew to her bosom and thence to her
face. When it reached her face, she wept and said, "I testify that
there is no god but the God and that Mohammed is the Apostle of
God!" And we looked at her and saw naught but a heap of ashes by the
side of the heap that had been the Ifrit. We mourned for her, and I
wished I had been in her place, so had I not seen her lovely face
who had worked me such weal become ashes, but there is no gainsaying
the will of Allah.

When the King saw his daughter's terrible death, he plucked out what
was left of his beard and beat his face and rent his raiment, and I
did as he did and we both wept over her. Then came in the chamberlains
and grandees, and were amazed to find two heaps of ashes and the
Sultan in a fainting fit. So they stood round him till he revived
and told them what had befallen his daughter from the Ifrit, whereat
their grief was right grievous and the women and the slave girls
shrieked and keened, and they continued their lamentations for the
space of seven days. Moreover, the King bade build over his daughter's
ashes a vast vaulted tomb, and burn therein wax tapers and
sepulchral lamps. But as for the Ifrit's ashes, they scattered them on
the winds, speeding them to the curse of Allah.

Then the Sultan fell sick of a sickness that well-nigh brought him
to his death for a month's space, and when health returned to him
and his beard grew again and he had been converted by the mercy of
Allah to Al-Islam, he sent for me and said: "O youth, Fate had decreed
for us the happiest of lives, safe from all the chances and changes of
Time, till thou camest to us, when troubles fell upon us. Would to
Heaven we had never seen thee and the foul face of thee! For we took
pity on thee, and thereby we have lost our all. I have on thy
account first lost my daughter, who to me was well worth a hundred
men, secondly, I have suffered that which befell me by reason of the
fire and the loss of my teeth, and my eunuch also was slain. I blame
thee not, for it was out of thy power to prevent this. The doom of
Allah was on thee as well as on us, and thanks be to the Almighty
for that my daughter delivered thee, albeit thereby she lost her own
life! Go forth now, O my son, from this my city, and suffice thee what
hath befallen us through thee, even although 'twas decreed for us.
Go forth in peace, and if I ever see thee again I will surely slay
thee." And he cried out at me.

So I went forth from his presence, O my lady, weeping bitterly and
hardly believing in my escape and knowing not whither I should wend.
And I recalled all that had befallen me, my meeting the tailor, my
love for the damsel in the palace beneath the earth, and my narrow
escape from the Ifrit, even after he had determined to do me die,
and how I had entered the city as an ape and was now leaving it a
man once more. Then I gave thanks to Allah and said, "My eye and not
my life!" And before leaving the place I entered the bath and shaved
my poll and beard and mustachios and eyebrows, and cast ashes on my
head and donned the coarse black woolen robe of a Kalandar.

Then I journeyed through many regions and saw many a city, intending
for Baghdad, that I might seek audience in the House of Peace with the
Commander of the Faithful, and tell him all that had befallen me. I
arrived here this very night and found my brother in Allah, this first
Kalandar, standing about as one perplexed, so I saluted him with
"Peace be upon thee," and entered into discourse with him. Presently
up came our brother, this third Kalandar, and said to us: "Peace be
with you! I am a stranger," whereto we replied, "And we too be
strangers, who have come hither this blessed night."

So we all three walked on together, none of us knowing the other's
history, till Destiny drave us to this door and we came in to you.
Such then is my story and my reason for shaving my beard and
mustachios, and this is what caused the loss of my eye. Said the house
mistress, "Thy tale is indeed a rare, so rub thy head and wend thy
ways." But he replied, "I will not budge till I hear my companions'
stories."

Then came forward the third Kalandar, and said, "O illustrious lady,
my history is not like that of these my comrades, but more wondrous
and far more marvelous. In their case Fate and Fortune came down on
them unawares, but I drew down Destiny upon my own head and brought
sorrow on mine own soul, and shaved my own beard and lost my own
eye. Hear then
THIRD

                 THE THIRD KALANDAR'S TALE


KNOW, O my lady, that I also am a king and the son of a king and
my name is Ajib son of Khazib. When my father died I succeeded him,
and I ruled and did justice and dealt fairly by all my lieges. I
delighted in sea trips, for my capital stood on the shore, before
which the ocean stretched far and wide, and near hand were many
great islands with sconces and garrisons in the midst of the main.
My fleet numbered fifty merchantmen, and as many yachts for pleasance,
and a hundred and fifty sail ready fitted for holy war with the
unbelievers.

It fortuned that I had a mind to enjoy myself on the islands
aforesaid, so I took ship with my people in ten keel and, carrying
with me a month's victual, I set out on a twenty days' voyage. But one
night a head wind struck us, and the sea rose against us with huge
waves. The billows sorely buffeted us and a dense darkness settled
round us. We gave ourselves up for lost, and I said, "Whoso
endangereth his days, e'en an he 'scape deserveth no praise." Then
we prayed to Allah and besought Him, but the storm blasts ceased not
to blow against us nor the surges to strike us till morning broke,
when the gale fell, the seas sank to mirrory stillness, and the sun
shone upon us kindly clear. Presently we made an island, where we
landed and cooked somewhat of food, and ate heartily and took our rest
for a couple of days. Then we set out again and sailed other twenty
days, the seas broadening and the land shrinking.

Presently the current ran counter to us, and we found ourselves in
strange waters, where the Captain had lost his reckoning, and was
wholly bewildered in this sea, so said we to the lookout man, "Get
thee to the masthead and keep thine eyes open." He swarmed up the mast
and looked out and cried aloud, "O Rais, I espy to starboard something
dark, very like a fish floating on the face of the sea, and to
larboard there is a loom in the midst of the main, now black and now
bright." When the Captain heard the lookout's words, he dashed his
turban on the deck and plucked out his beard and beat his face,
saying: "Good news indeed! We be all dead men, not one of us can be
saved." And he fell to weeping and all of us wept for his weeping
and also for our lives, and I said, "O Captain, tell us what it is the
lookout saw."

"O my Prince," answered he, "know that we lost our course on the
night of the storm, which was followed on the morrow by a two days'
calm during which we made no way, and we have gone astray eleven days'
reckoning from that night, with ne'er a wind to bring us back to our
true course. Tomorrow by the end of the day we shall come to a
mountain of black stone hight the Magnet Mountain, for thither the
currents carry us willy-nilly. As soon as we are under its lea, the
ship's sides will open and every nail in plank will fly out and cleave
fast to the mountain, for that Almighty Allah hath gifted the
loadstone with a mysterious virtue and a love for iron, by reason
whereof all which is iron traveleth toward it. And on this mountain is
much iron, how much none knoweth save the Most High, from the many
vessels which have been lost there since the days of yore. The
bright spot upon its summit is a dome of yellow laton from
Andalusia, vaulted upon ten columns. And on its crown is a horseman
who rideth a horse of brass and holdeth in hand a lance of laton,
and there hangeth on his bosom a tablet of lead graven with names
and talismans." And he presently added, "And, O King, none
destroyeth folk save the rider on that steed, nor will the egromancy
be dispelled till he fall from his horse."

Then, O my lady, the Captain wept with exceeding weeping and we
all made sure of death doom and each and every one of us farewelled
his friend and charged him with his last will and testament in case he
might be saved. We slept not that night, and in the morning we found
ourselves much nearer the Loadstone Mountain, whither the waters drave
us with a violent send. When the ships were close under its lea,
they opened and the nails flew out and all the iron in them sought the
Magnet Mountain and clove to it like a network, so that by the end
of the day we were all struggling in the waves round about the
mountain. Some of us were saved, but more were drowned, and even those
who had escaped knew not one another, so stupefied were they by the
beating of the billows and the raving of the winds.

As for me, O my lady, Allah (be His name exalted!) preserved my life
that I might suffer whatso He willed to me of hardship, misfortune,
and calamity, for I scrambled upon a plank from one of the ships and
the wind and waters threw it at the feet of the mountain. There I
found a practicable path leading by steps carven out of the rock to
the summit, and I called on the name of Allah Almighty and breasted
the ascent, clinging to the steps and notches hewn in the stone, and
mounted little by little. And the Lord stilled the wind and aided me
in the ascent, so that I succeeded in reaching the summit. There I
found no resting place save the dome, which I entered, joying with
exceeding joy at my escape, and made the wudu ablution and prayed a
two-bow prayer, a thanksgiving to God for my preservation.

Then I fell asleep under the dome, and heard in my dream a
mysterious voice saying, "O son of Khazib! When thou wakest from thy
sleep, dig under thy feet and thou shalt find a bow of brass and three
leaden arrows inscribed with talismans and characts. Take the bow
and shoot the arrows at the horseman on the dome top and free
mankind from this sore calamity. When thou hast shot him he shall fall
into the sea, and the horse will also drop at thy feet. Then bury it
in the place of the bow. This done, the main will swell and rise
till it is level with the mountain head, and there will appear on it a
skiff carrying a man of laton (other than he thou shalt have shot)
holding in his hand a pair of paddles. He will come to thee, and do
thou embark with him, but beware of saying Bismillah or of otherwise
naming Allah Almighty. He will row thee for a space of ten days,
till he bring thee to certain islands called the Islands of Safety,
and thence thou shalt easily reach a port and find those who will
convey thee to thy native land. And all this shall be fulfilled to
thee so thou call not on the name of Allah."

Then I started up from my sleep in joy and gladness and, hastening
to do the bidding of the mysterious voice, found the bow and arrows
and shot at the horseman and tumbled him into the main, whilst the
horse dropped at my feet, so I took it and buried it. Presently the
sea surged up and rose till it reached the top of the mountain, nor
had I long to wait ere I saw a skiff in the offing coming toward me. I
gave thanks to Allah, and when the skiff came up to me, I saw
therein a man of brass with a tablet of lead on his breast inscribed
with talismans and characts, and I embarked without uttering a word.
The boatman rowed on with me through the first day and the second
and the third, in all ten whole days, till I caught sight of the
Islands of Safety, whereat I joyed with exceeding joy and for stress
of gladness exclaimed, "Allah! Allah! In the name of Allah! There is
no god but the God and Allah is Almighty." Thereupon the skiff
forthwith upset and cast me upon the sea, then it righted and sank
deep into the depths.

Now I am a fair swimmer, so I swam the whole day till nightfall,
when my forearms and shoulders were numbed with fatigue and I felt
like to die, so I testified to my faith, expecting naught but death.
The sea was still surging under the violence of the winds, and
presently there came a billow like a hillock and, bearing me up high
in air, threw me with a long cast on dry land, that His will might
be fulfilled. I crawled upon the beach and doffing my raiment, wrung
it out to dry and spread it in the sunshine. Then I lay me down and
slept the whole night. As soon as it was day, I donned my clothes
and rose to look whither I should walk. Presently I came to a
thicket of low trees and, making a cast round it, found that the
spot whereon I stood was an islet, a mere holm, girt on all sides by
the ocean, whereupon I said to myself, "Whatso freeth me from one
great calamity casteth me into a greater!"

But while I was pondering my case and longing for death, behold, I
saw afar off a ship making for the island, so I clomb a tree and hid
myself among the branches. Presently the ship anchored and landed
ten slaves, blackamoors, bearing iron hoes and baskets, who walked
on till they reached the middle of the island. Here they dug deep into
the ground until they uncovered a plate of metal, which they lifted,
thereby opening a trapdoor. After this they returned to the ship and
thence brought bread and flour, honey and fruits, clarified butter,
leather bottles containing liquors, and many household stuffs; also
furniture, table service, and mirrors; rugs, carpets, and in fact
all needed to furnish a dwelling. And they kept going to and fro,
and descending by the trapdoor, till they had transported into the
dwelling all that was in the ship.

After this the slaves again went on board and brought back with them
garments as rich as may be, and in the midst of them came an old old
man, of whom very little was left, for Time had dealt hardly and
harshly with him, and all that remained of him was a bone wrapped in a
rag of blue stuff, through which the winds whistled west and east.
As saith the poet of him:

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

And the Sheikh held by the hand a youth cast in beauty's mold, all
elegance and perfect grace, so fair that his comeliness deserved to be
proverbial, for he was as a green bough or the tender young of the
roe, ravishing every heart with his loveliness and subduing every soul
with his coquetry and amorous ways. They stinted not their going, O my
lady, till all went down by the trapdoor and did not reappear for an
hour, or rather more; at the end of which time the slaves and the
old man came up without the youth and, replacing the iron plate and
carefully closing the door slab as it was before, they returned to the
ship and made sail and were lost to my sight.

When they turned away to depart, I came down from the tree and,
going to the place I had seen them fin up, scraped off and removed the
earth, and in patience possessed my soul till I had cleared the
whole of it away. Then appeared the trapdoor, which was of wood, in
shape and size like a millstone, and when I lifted it up, it disclosed
a winding staircase of stone. At this I marveled and, descending the
steps tier I reached the last, found a fair hall, spread with
various kinds of carpets and silk stuffs, wherein was a youth
sitting upon a raised couch and leaning back on a round cushion with a
fan in his hand and nosegays and posies of sweet scented herbs and
flowers before him. But he was alone and not a soul near him in the
great vault. When he saw me he turned pale, but I saluted him
courteously and said: "Set thy mind at ease and calm thy fears. No
harm shall come near thee. I am a man like thyself and the son of a
king to boot, whom the decrees of Destiny have sent to bear thee
company and cheer thee in thy loneliness. But now tell me, what is thy
story and what causeth thee to dwell thus in solitude under the
ground?"

When he was assured that I was of his kind and no Jinni, he rejoiced
and his fine color returned, and, making me draw near to him, he said:
"O my brother, my story is a strange story and 'tis this. My father is
a merchant jeweler possessed of great wealth, who hath white and black
slaves traveling and trading on his account in ships and on camels,
and trafficking with the most distant cities, but he was not blessed
with a child, not even one. Now on a certain night he dreamed a
dream that he should be favored with a son, who would be
short-lived, so the morning dawned on my father, bringing him woe
and weeping. On the following night my mother conceived and my
father noted down the date of her becoming pregnant. Her time being
fulfilled, she bare me, whereat my father rejoiced and made banquets
and called together the neighbors and fed the fakirs and the poor, for
that he had been blessed with issue near the end of his days. Then
he assembled the astrologers and astronomers who knew the places of
the planets, and the wizards and wise ones of the time, and men
learned in horoscopes and nativities, and they drew out my birth
scheme and said to my father: "Thy son shall live to fifteen years,
but in his fifteenth there is a sinister aspect. An he safely tide
it over, he shall attain a great age. And the cause that threateneth
him with death is this. In the Sea of Peril standeth the Mountain
Magnet hight, on whose summit is a horseman of yellow laton seated
on a horse also of brass and bearing on his breast a tablet of lead.
Fifty days after this rider shall fall from his steed thy son will die
and his slayer will be he who shoots down the horseman, a Prince named
Ajib son of King Khazib."

My father grieved with exceeding grief to hear these words, but
reared me in tenderest fashion and educated me excellently well till
my fifteenth year was told. Ten days ago news came to him that the
horseman had fallen into the sea and he who shot him down was named
Ajib son of King Khazib." My father thereupon wept bitter tears at the
need of parting with me and became like one possessed of a Jinni.
However, being in mortal fear for me, he built me this place under the
earth, and stocking it with all required for the few days still
remaining, he brought me hither in a ship and left me here. Ten are
already past, and when the forty shall have gone by without danger
to me, he will come and take me away, for he hath done all this only
in fear of Prince Ajib. Such, then, is my story and the cause of my
loneliness."

When I heard his history I marveled and said in my mind, "I am the
Prince Ajib who hath done all this, but as Allah is with me I will
surely not slay him!" So said I to him: "O my lord, far from thee be
this hurt and harm and then, please Allah, thou shalt not suffer
cark nor care nor aught disquietude, for I will tarry with thee and
serve thee as a servant, and then wend my ways. And after having borne
thee company during the forty days, I will go with thee to thy home,
where thou shalt give me an escort of some of thy Mamelukes with
whom I may journey back to my own city, and the Almighty shall requite
thee for me." He was glad to hear these words, when I rose and lighted
a large wax candle and trimmed the lamps and the three lanterns, and I
set on meat and drink and sweetmeats. We ate and drank and sat talking
over various matters till the greater part of the night was gone, when
he lay down to rest and I covered him up and went to sleep myself.

Next morning I arose and warmed a little water, then lifted him
gently so as to awake him and brought him the warm water, wherewith he
washed his face, and said to me: "Heaven requite thee for me with
every blessing, O youth! By Allah, if I get quit of this danger and am
saved from him whose name is Ajib bin Khazib, I will make my father
reward thee and send thee home healthy and wealthy. And if I die, then
my blessing be upon thee." I answered, "May the day never dawn on
which evil shall betide thee, and may Allah make my last day before
thy last day!" Then I set before him somewhat of food and we ate,
and I got ready perfumes for fumigating the hall, wherewith he was
pleased. Moreover I made him a mankalah cloth; and we played and ate
sweetmeats and we played again and took our pleasure till nightfall,
when I rose and lighted the lamps, and set before him somewhat to eat,
and sat telling him stories till the hours of darkness were far spent.
Then he lay down to rest and I covered him up and rested also.

And thus I continued to do, O my lady, for days and nights, and
affection for him took root in my heart and my sorrow was eased, and I
said to myself: "The astrologers lied when they predicted that he
should be slain by Ajib bin Khazib. By Allah, I will not slay him."
I ceased not ministering to him and conversing and carousing with
him and telling him all manner tales for thirty-nine days. On the
fortieth night the youth rejoiced and said: "O my brother,
Alhamdolillah!- praise be to Allah- who hath preserved me from death,
and this is by thy blessing and the blessing of thy coming to me,
and I prayed God that He restore thee to thy native land. But now, O
my brother, I would thou warm me some water for the ghusl ablution and
do thou kindly bathe me and change my clothes." I replied, "With
love and gladness," and I heated water in plenty and carrying it in to
him, washed his body all over, the washing of health, with meal of
lupins, and rubbed him well and changed his clothes and spread him a
high bed whereon he lay down to rest, being drowsy after bathing.

Then said he, "O my brother, cut me up a watermelon, and sweeten
it with a little sugar candy." So I went to the storeroom and bringing
out a fine watermelon, I found there, set it on a platter and laid
it before him saying, "O my master, hast thou not a knife?" "Here it
is," answered he, "over my head upon the high shelf." So I got up in
haste and, and, taking the knife, drew it from its sheath, but my foot
slipped in stepping down and I fell heavily upon the youth holding
in my hand the knife, which hastened to fulfill what had been
written on the Day that decided the destinies of man, and buried
itself, as if planted, in the youth's heart. He died on the instant.
When I saw that he was slain and knew that I had slain him, mauger
myself I cried out with an exceeding loud and bitter cry and beat my
face and rent my raiment and said: "Verily we be Allah's and unto
Him we be returning, O Moslems! O folk fain of Allah! There remained
for this youth but one day of the forty dangerous days which the
astrologers and the learned had foretold for him, and the
predestined death of this beautiful one was to be at my hand. Would
Heaven I had not tried to cut the watermelon! What dire misfortune
is this I must bear, lief or loath? What a disaster! What an
affliction! O Allah mine, I implore thy pardon and declare to Thee
my innocence of his death. But what God willeth, let that come to
pass."

When I was certified that I had slain him, I arose and, ascending
the stairs, replaced the trapdoor and covered it with earth as before.
Then I looked out seaward and saw the ship cleaving the waters and
making for the island, wherefore I was afeard and said, "The moment
they come and see the youth done to death, they will know 'twas I
who slew him and will slay me without respite." So I climbed up into a
high tree and concealed myself among its leaves, and hardly had I done
so when the ship anchored and the slaves landed with the ancient
man, the youth's father, and made direct for the place, and when
they removed the earth they were surprised to see it soft. Then they
raised the trapdoor and went down and found the youth lying at full
length, clothed in fair new garments, with a face beaming after the
bath, and the knife deep in his heart. At the sight they shrieked
and wept and beat their faces, loudly cursing the murderer, whilst a
swoon came over the Sheikh so that the slaves deemed him dead,
unable to survive his son. At last they wrapped the slain youth in his
clothes and carried him up and laid him on the ground, covering him
with a shroud of silk.

Whilst they were making for the ship the old man revived, and,
gazing on his son who was stretched out, fell on the ground and
strewed dust over his head and smote his face and plucked out his
beard, and his weeping redoubled as he thought of his murdered son and
he swooned away once more. After a while a slave went and fetched a
strip of silk whereupon they lay the old man and sat down at his head.
All this took place and I was on the tree above them watching
everything that came to pass, and my heart became hoary before my head
waxed gray, for the hard lot which was mine, and for the distress
and anguish I had undergone, and I fell to reciting:

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

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

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

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

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

And when I drew near the fire aforesaid, lo! it was a palace with
gates of copper burnished red which, when the rising sun shone
thereon, gleamed and glistened from afar, showing what had seemed to
me a fire. I rejoiced in the sight, and sat down over against the
gate, but I was hardly settled in my seat before there met me ten
young men clothed in sumptuous gear, and all were blind of the left
eye, which appeared as plucked out. They were accompanied by a Sheikh,
an old, old man, and much I marveled at their appearance, and their
all being blind in the same eye. When they saw me, they saluted me
with the salaam and asked me of my case and my history, whereupon I
related to them all what had befallen me and what full measure of
misfortune was mine. Marveling at my tale, they took me to the
mansion, where I saw ranged round the hall ten couches each with its
blue bedding and coverlet of blue stuff and a-middlemost stood a
smaller couch furnished like them with blue and nothing else.

As we entered each of the youths took his seat on his own couch
and the old man seated himself upon the smaller one in the middle,
saying to me, "O youth, sit thee down on the floor, and ask not of our
case nor of the loss of our eyes." Presently he rose up and set before
each young man some meat in a charger and drink in a larger mazer,
treating me in like manner, and after that they sat questioning me
concerning my adventures and what had betided me. And I kept telling
them my tale till the night was far spent. Then said the young men: "O
our Sheikh, wilt not thou set before us our ordinary? The time is
come." He replied, "With love and gladness," and rose and, entering
a closet, disappeared, but presently returned bearing on his head
ten trays each covered with a strip of blue stuff. He set a tray
before each youth and, lighting ten wax candles, he stuck one upon
each tray, and drew off the covers and lo! under them was naught but
ashes and powdered charcoal and kettle soot. Then all the young men
tucked up their sleeves to the elbows and fell a-weeping and wailing
and they blackened their faces and smeared their clothes and
buffeted their brows and beat their breasts, continually exclaiming,
"We were sitting at our ease, but our frowardness brought us
unease!" They ceased not to do thus till dawn drew nigh, when the
old man rose and heated water for them, and they washed their face and
donned other and clean clothes.

Now when I saw this, O my lady, for very wonderment my senses left
me and my wits went wild and heart and head were full of thought, till
I forgot what had betided me and I could not keep silence, feeling I
fain must speak out and question them of these strangenesses. So I
said to them: "How come ye to do this after we have been so
openhearted and frolicsome? Thanks be to Allah, ye be all sound and
sane, yet actions such as these befit none but madmen or those
possessed of an evil spirit. I conjure you by all that is dearest to
you, why stint ye to tell me your history, and the cause of your
losing your eyes and your blackening your faces with ashes and
soot?" Hereupon they turned to me and said, "O young man, hearken
not to thy youthtide's suggestions, and question us no questions."
Then they slept and I with them, and when they awoke the old man
brought us somewhat oi food. And after we had eaten and the plates and
goblets had been removed, they sat conversing till nightfall, when the
old man rose and lit the wax candles and lamps and set meat and
drink before us.

After we had eaten and drunken we sat conversing and carousing in
companionage till the noon of night, when they said to the old man,
"Bring us our ordinary, for the hour of sleep is at hand!" So he
rose and brought them the trays of soot and ashes, and they did as
they had done on the preceding night, nor more, nor less. I abode with
them after this fashion for the space of a month, during which time
they used to blacken their faces with ashes every night, and to wash
and change their raiment when the morn was young, and I but marveled
the more and my scruples and curiosity increased to such a point
that I had to forgo even food and drink.

At last I lost command of myself, for my heart was aflame with
fire unquenchable and lowe unconcealable, and I said, "O young men,
will ye not relieve my trouble and acquaint me with the reason of thus
blackening your faces and the meaning of your words, 'We were
sitting at our ease, but our frowardness brought us unease'?" Quoth
they, "'Twere better to keep these things secret." Still I was
bewildered by their doings to the point of abstaining from eating
and drinking and at last wholly losing patience, quoth I to them:
"There is no help for it. Ye must acquaint me with what is the
reason of these doings." They replied: "We kept our secret only for
thy good. To gratify thee will bring down evil upon thee and thou wilt
become a monocular even as we are." I repeated, "There is no help
for it, and if ye will not, let me leave you and return to mine own
people and be at rest from seeing these things, for the proverb saith:

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

Thereupon they said to me, "Remember, O youth, that should ill
befall thee, we will not again harbor thee nor suffer thee to abide
amongst us." And bringing a ram, they slaughtered it and skinned it.
Lastly they gave me a knife, saying: "Take this skin and stretch
thyself upon it and we will sew it around thee. Presently there
shall come to thee a certain bird, hight roe, that will catch thee
up in his pounces and tower high in air and then set thee down on a
mountain. When thou feelest he is no longer flying, rip open the
pelt with this blade and come out of it. The bird will be scared and
will fly away and leave thee free. After this fare for half a day, and
the march will place thee at a palace wondrous fair to behold,
towering high in air and builded of khalanj, lign aloes and
sandalwood, plated with red gold, and studded with all manner emeralds
and costly gems fit for seal rings. Enter it and thou shalt will to
thy wish, for we have all entered that palace, and such is the cause
of our losing our eyes and of our blackening our faces. Were we now to
tell thee our stories it would take too long a time, for each and
every of us lost his left eye by an adventure of his own."

I rejoiced at their words, and they did with me as they said, and
the bird roc bore me off and set me down on the mountain. Then I
came out of the skin and walked on till I reached the palace. The door
stood open as I entered and found myself in a spacious and goodly
hall, wide exceedingly, even as a horse course. And around it were a
hundred chambers with doors of sandal and aloe woods plated with red
gold and furnished with silver rings by way of knockers. At the head
or upper end of the hall I saw forty damsels, sumptuously dressed
and ornamented and one and all bright as moons. None could ever tire
of gazing upon them, and all so lovely that the most ascetic devotee
on seeing them would become their slave and obey their will. When they
saw me the whole bevy came up to me and said: "Welcome and well come
and good cheer to thee, O our lord! This whole month have we been
expecting thee. Praised be Allah Who hath sent us one who is worthy of
us, even as we are worthy of him!"

Then they made me sit down upon a high divan and said to me, "This
day thou art our lord and master, and we are thy servants and thy
handmaids, so order us as thou wilt." And I marveled at their case.
Presently one of them arose and set meat before me and I ate and
they ate with me whilst others warmed water and washed my hands and
feet and changed my clothes, and others made ready sherbets and gave
us to drink, and all gathered around me, being full of joy and
gladness at my coming. Then they sat down and conversed with me till
nightfall, when five of them arose and laid the trays and spread
them with flowers and fragrant herbs and fruits, fresh and dried,
and confections in profusion. At last they brought out a fine wine
service with rich old wine, and we sat down to drink and some sang
songs and others played the lute and psaltery and recorders and
other instruments, and the bowl went merrily round. Hereupon such
gladness possessed me that I forgot the sorrows of the world one and
all and said: "This is indeed life. O sad that 'tis fleeting!"

I enjoyed their company till the time came for rest, and our heads
were all warm with wine, when they said, "O our lord, choose from
amongst us her who shall be thy bedfellow this night and not lie
with thee again till forty days be past." So I chose a girl fair of
face and perfect in shape, with eyes kohl-edged by nature's hand, hair
long and jet-black, with slightly parted teeth and joining brows.
'Twas as if she were some limber graceful branchlet or the slender
stalk of sweet basil to amaze and to bewilder man's fancy. So I lay
with her that night. None fairer I ever knew. And when it was morning,
the damsels carried me to the hammam bath and bathed me and robed me
in fairest apparel. Then they served up food, and we ate and drank and
the cup went round till nightfall, when I chose from among them one
fair of form and face, soft-sided and a model of grace, such a one
as the poet described when he said:

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

With her I spent a most goodly night, and, to be brief, O my
mistress, I remained with them in all solace and delight of life,
eating and drinking, conversing and carousing, and every night lying
with one or other of them. But at the head of the New Year they came
to me in tears and bade me farewell, weeping and crying out and
clinging about me, whereat I wondered and said: "What may be the
matter? Verily you break my heart!" They exclaimed, "Would Heaven we
had never known thee, for though we have companied with many, yet
never saw we a pleasanter than thou or a more courteous." And they
wept again. "But tell me more clearly," asked I, "what causeth this
weeping which maketh my gall bladder like to burst?" And they
answered: "O lord and master, it is severance which maketh us weep,
and thou, and thou only, art the cause of our tears. If thou hearken
to us we need never be parted, and if thou hearken not we part
forever, but our hearts tell us that thou wilt not listen to our words
and this is the cause of our tears and cries." "Tell me how the case
standeth."

"Know, O our lord, that we are the daughters of kings who have met
here and have lived together for years, and once in every year we
are perforce absent for forty days. And afterward we return and
abide here for the rest of the twelvemonth eating and drinking and
taking our pleasure and enjoying delights. We are about to depart
according to our custom, and we fear lest after we be gone thou
contraire our charge and disobey our injunctions. Here now we commit
to thee the keys of the palace, which containeth forty chambers, and
thou mayest open of these thirty and nine, but beware (and we
conjure thee by Allah and by the lives of us!) lest thou open the
fortieth door, for therein is that which shall separate us for
ever." Quoth I, "Assuredly I will not open it if it contain the
cause of severance from you." Then one among them came up to me and
falling on my neck wept and recited these verses:

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

And I recited the following:

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

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

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

Then I looked upon the pear whose taste surpasseth sherbet and
sugar, and the apricot whose beauty striketh the eye with
admiration, as if she were a polished ruby.

Then I went out of the place and locked the door as it was before.
When it was the morrow I opened the second door, and entering found
myself in a spacious plain set with tall date palms and watered by a
running stream whose banks were shrubbed with bushes of rose and
jasmine, while privet and eglantine, oxeye, violet and lily,
narcissus, origane, and the winter gilliflower carpeted the borders.
And the breath of the breeze swept over these sweet-smelling growths
diffusing their delicious odors right and left, perfuming the world
and filling my soul with delight. After taking my pleasure there
awhile I went from it and, having closed the door as it was before,
opened the third door, wherein I saw a high open hall pargetted with
particolored marbles and pietra dura of price and other precious
stones, and hung with cages of sandalwood and eagle wood, full of
birds which made sweet music, such as the "thousand-voiced," and the
cushat, the merle, the turtledove, and the Nubian ringdove. My heart
was filled with pleasure thereby, my grief was dispelled, and I
slept in that aviary till dawn.

Then I unlocked the door of the fourth chamber, and therein found
a grand saloon with forty smaller chambers giving upon it. All their
doors stood open, so I entered and found them full of pearls and
jacinths and beryls and emeralds and corals and carbuncles, and all
manner precious gems and jewels, such as tongue of man may not
describe. My thought was stunned at the sight and I said to myself,
"These be things methinks united which could not be found save in
the treasuries of a King of Kings, nor could the monarchs of the
world have collected the like of these!" And my heart dilated and my
sorrows ceased. "For," quoth I, "now verily am I the Monarch of the
Age, since by Allah's grace this enormous wealth is mine, and I have
forty damsels under my hand, nor is there any to claim them save
myself." Then I gave not over opening place after place until nine and
thirty days were passed, and in that time I had entered every
chamber except that one whose door the Princesses had charged me not
to open.

But my thoughts, O my mistress, ever ran on that forbidden fortieth,
and Satan urged me to open it for my own undoing, nor had I patience
to forbear, albeit there wanted of the trusting time but a single day.
So I stood before the chamber aforesaid and, after a moment's
hesitation, opened the door, which was plated with red gold, and
entered. I was met by a perfume whose like I had never before smelt,
and so sharp and subtle was the odor that it made my senses drunken as
with strong wine, and I fell to the ground in a fainting fit which
lasted a full hour. When I came to myself I strengthened my heart, and
entering, found myself in a chamber whose floor was bespread with
saffron and blazing with light from branched candelabra of gold and
lamps fed with costly oils, which diffused the scent of musk and
ambergris. I saw there also two great censers each big as a mazer
bowl, flaming with lign aloes, nadd perfume, ambergris, and honeyed
scents, and the place was full of their fragrance.

Presently, O my lady, I espied a noble steed, black as the murks
of night when murkiest, standing ready saddled and bridled (and his
saddle was of red gold) before two mangers, one of clear crystal
wherein was husked sesame, and the other also of crystal containing
water of the rose scented with musk. When I saw this I marveled and
said to myself, "Doubtless in this animal must be some wondrous
mystery." And Satan cozened me so I led him without the palace and
mounted him, but he would not stir from his place. So I hammered his
sides with my heels, but he moved not, and then I took the rein whip
and struck him withal. When he felt the blow, he neighed a neigh
with a sound like deafening thunder and, opening a pair of wings, flew
up with me in the firmament of heaven far beyond the eyesight of
man. After a full hour of flight he descended and alighted on a
terrace roof and shaking me off his back, lashed me on the face with
his tad and gouged out my left eye, causing it roll along my cheek.

Then he flew away. I went down from the terrace and found myself
again amongst the ten one-eyed youths sitting upon their ten couches
with blue covers, and they cried out when they saw me: "No welcome
to thee, nor aught of good cheer! We all lived of lives the happiest
and we ate and drank of the best. Upon brocades and cloths of gold
we took our rest, and we slept with our heads on beauty's breast,
but we could not await one day to gain the delights of a year!"
Quoth I, "Behold, I have become one like unto you and now I would have
you bring me a tray full of blackness, wherewith to blacken my face,
and receive me into your society." "No, by Allah," quoth they, "thou
shalt not sojourn with us, and now get thee hence!" So they drove me
away.

Finding them reject me thus, I foresaw that matters would go hard
with me, and I remembered the many miseries which Destiny had
written upon my forehead, and I fared forth from among them
heavy-hearted and tearful-eyed, repeating to myself these words: "I
was sitting at mine ease, but my frowardness brought me to unease."
Then I shaved beard and mustachios and eyebrows, renouncing the world.
and wandered in Kalandar garb about Allah's earth, and the Almighty
decreed safety for me till I arrived at Baghdad, which was on the
evening of this very night. Here I met these two other Kalandars
standing bewildered, so I saluted them saying, "I am a stranger!"
and they answered, "And we likewise be strangers!" By the freak of
Fortune we were like to like, three Kalandars and three monoculars all
blind of the left eye.

Such, O my lady, is the cause of the shearing of my beard and the
manner of my losing an eye. Said the lady to him, "Rub thy head and
wend thy ways," but he answered, "By Allah, I will not go until I hear
the stories of these others." Then the lady, turning toward the Caliph
and Ja'afar and Masrur, said to them, "Do ye also give an account of
yourselves, you men!" Whereupon Ja'afar stood forth and told her
what he had told the portress as they were entering the house, and
when she heard his story of their being merchants and Mosul men who
had outrun the watch, she said, "I grant you your lives each for
each sake, and now away with you all." So they all went out, and
when they were in the street, quoth the Caliph to the Kalandars, "O
company, whither go ye now, seeing that the morning hath not yet
dawned?" Quoth they, "By Allah, O our lord, we know not where to
go." "Come and pass the rest of the night with us," said the Caliph
and, turning to Ja'afar, "Take them home with thee, and tomorrow bring
them to my presence that we may chronicle their adventures."

Ja'afar did as the Caliph bade him and the Commander of the Faithful
returned to his palace, but sleep gave no sign of visiting him that
night and he lay awake pondering the mishaps of the three Kalandar
Princes, and impatient to know the history of the ladies and the two
black bitches. No sooner had morning dawned than he went forth and sat
upon the throne of his sovereignty and, turning to Ja'afar, after
all his grandees and officers of state were gathered together, he
said, "Bring me the three ladies and the two bitches and the three
Kalandars."

So Ja'afar fared forth and brought them all before him (and the
ladies were veiled). Then the Minister turned to them and said in
the Caliph's name: "We pardon you your maltreatment of us and your
want of courtesy, in consideration of the kindness which forewent
it, and for that ye knew us not. Now however I would have you to
know that ye stand in presence of the fifth of the sons of Abbas,
Harun al-Rashid, brother of Caliph Musa al-Hadi, son of Al-Mansur, son
of Mohammed the brother of Al-Saffah bin Mohammed who was first of the
royal house. Speak ye therefore before him the truth and the whole
truth!" When the ladies heard Ja'afar's words touching the Commander
of the Faithful, the eldest came forward and said, "O Prince of True
Believers, my story is one which were it graven with needle gravers
upon the eye corners, were a warner for whoso would be warned and an
example for whoso can take profit from example." And she began to tell
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