The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 3
by
Richard F. Burton
Part 7 out of 8
And As'ad em braced his brother, sobbing and repeating these
couplets,
"O Thou to whom sad trembling wights in fear complain! *
O ever ready whatso cometh to sustain!
The sole resource for me is at Thy door to knock, *
At whose door knock an Thou to open wilt not deign?
O Thou whose grace is treasured in the one word, Be![FN#365] *
Favour me, I beseech, in Thee all weals contain."
Now when Amjad heard his brother's weeping he wept also and
pressing him to his bosom repeated these two couplets,
"O Thou whose boons to me are more than one! *
Whose gifts and favours have nor count nor bound!
No stroke of all Fate's strokes e'er fell on me, *
But Thee to take me by the hand I found."
Then said Amjad to the treasurer, "I conjure thee by the One,
Omnipotent, the Lord of Mercy, the Beneficent! slay me before my
brother As'ad, so haply shall the fire be quencht in my heart's
core and in this life burn no more." But As'ad wept and
exclaimed, "Not so: I will die first;" whereupon quoth Amjad, "It
were best that I embrace thee and thou embrace me, so the sword
may fall upon us and slay us both at a single stroke." Thereupon
they embraced, face to face and clung to each other straitly,
whilst the treasurer tied up the twain and bound them fast with
cords, weeping the while. Then he drew his blade and said to
them, "By Allah, O my lords, it is indeed hard to me to slay you!
But have ye no last wishes that I may fulfil or charges which I
may carry out, or message which I may deliver?" Replied Amjad,
"We have no wish; and my only charge to thee is that thou set my
brother below and me above him, that the blow may fall on me
first, and when thou hast killed us and returnest to the King and
he asketh thee, 'What heardest thou from them before their
death?'; do thou answer, 'Verily thy sons salute thee and say to
thee, Thou knewest not if we were innocent or guilty, yet hast
thou put us to death and hast not certified thyself of our sin
nor looked into our case.' Then do thou repeat to him these two
couplets,
'Women are Satans made for woe o' men; *
I fly to Allah from their devilish scathe:
Source of whatever bale befel our kind, *
In wordly matters and in things of Faith.'"
Continued Amjad, "We desire of thee naught but that thou repeat
to our sire these two couplets."--And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was ad the Two Hundred and Twenty-second Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Amjad
added, speaking to the treasurer, "We desire of thee naught but
that thou repeat to our sire these two couplets which thou hast
just now heard; and I conjure thee by Allah to have patience with
us, whilst I cite to my brother this other pair of couplets."
Then he wept with sore weeping and began,
"The Kings who fared before us showed *
Of instances full many a show:
Of great and small and high and low *
How many this one road have trod!"
Now when the treasurer heard these words from Amjad, he wept till
his beard was wet, whilst As'ad's eyes brimmed with tears and he
in turn repeated these couplets,
"Fate frights us when the thing is past and gone; *
Weeping is not for form or face alone[FN#366]:
What ails the Nights?[FN#367] Allah blot out our sin, *
And be the Nights by other hand undone!
Ere this Zubayr-son[FN#368] felt their spiteful hate, *
Who fled for refuge to the House and Stone:
Would that when Kharijah was for Amru slain[FN#369] *
They had ransomed Ali with all men they own."
Then, with cheeks stained by tears down railing he recited also
these verses,
"In sooth the Nights and Days are charactered *
By traitor falsehood and as knaves they lie;
The Desert-reek[FN#370] recalls their teeth that shine; *
All horrid blackness is their K of eye:
My sin anent the world which I abhor *
Is sin of sword when sworders fighting hie."
Then his sobs waxed louder and he said,
"O thou who woo'st a World[FN#371] unworthy, learn *
'Tis house of evils, 'tis Perdition's net:
A house where whoso laughs this day shall weep *
The next: then perish house of fume and fret!
Endless its frays and forays, and its thralls *
Are ne'er redeemed, while endless risks beset.
How many gloried in its pomps and pride, *
Till proud and pompous did all bounds forget,
Then showing back of shield she made them swill[FN#372] *
Full draught, and claimed all her vengeance debt.
For know her strokes fall swift and sure, altho' *
Long bide she and forslow the course of Fate:
So look thou to thy days lest life go by *
Idly, and meet thou more than thou hast met;
And cut all chains of world-love and desire *
And save thy soul and rise to secrets higher."
Now when As'ad made an end of these verses, he strained his
brother Amjad in his arms, till they twain were one body, and the
treasurer, drawing his sword, was about to strike them, when
behold, his steed took fright at the wind of his upraised hand,
and breaking its tether, fled into the desert. Now the horse had
cost a thousand gold pieces and on its back was a splendid saddle
worth much money; so the treasurer threw down his sword, and ran
after his beast.--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Twenty-third Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when his
horse ran away, the treasurer ran after it in huge concern, and
ceased not running to catch the runaway till it entered a
thicket. He followed it whilst it dashed through the wood,
smiting the earth with its hoofs till it raised a dust-cloud
which towered high in air; and snorting and puffing and neighing
and waxing fierce and furious. Now there happened to be in this
thicket a lion of terrible might; hideous to sight, with eyes
sparkling light: his look was grim and his aspect struck fright
into man's sprite. Presentry the treasurer turned and saw the
lion making towards him; but found no way of escape nor had he
his sword with him. So he said in himself, "There is no Majesty
and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great!
This strait is come upon me for no other cause but because of
Amjad and As'ad; and indeed this journey was unblest from the
first!" Meanwhile the two Princes were grievously oppressed by
the heat and grew sore athirst, so that their tongues hung out
and they cried for succour, but none came to their relief and
they said, "Would to Heaven we had been slain and were at peace
from this pain! But we know not whither the horse hath fled, that
the treasurer is gone and hath left us thus pinioned. If he would
but come back and do us die, it were easier to us than this
torture to aby." Said As'ad, "O my brother, be patient, and the
relief of Allah (extolled and exalted be He!) shall assuredly
come to us; for the horse started not away save of His favour
towards us, and naught irketh us but this thirst." Upon this he
stretched and shook himself and strained right and left, till he
burst his pinion-bonds; then he rose and unbound his brother and
catching up the Emir's sword, said, "By Allah, we will not go
hence, till we look after him and learn what is become of him."
Then they took to following on the trail till it led them to the
thicket and they said to each other, "Of a surety, the horse and
the treasurer have not passed out of this wood." Quoth As'ad,
"Stay thou here, whilst I enter the thicket and search it;" and
Amjad replied, "I will not let thee go in alone: nor will we
enter it but together; so if we escape, we shall escape together
and if we perish, we shall perish together." Accordingly both
entered and found that the lion had sprang upon the treasurer,
who lay like a sparrow in his grip, calling upon Allah for aid
and signing with his hands to Heaven. Now when Amjad saw this, he
took the sword and, rushing upon the lion, smote him between the
eyes and laid him dead on the ground. The Emir sprang up,
marvelling at this escape and seeing Amjad and As'ad, his
master's sons, standing there, cast himself at their feet and
exclaimed, "By Allah, O my lords, it were intolerable wrong in me
to do you to death. May the man never be who would kill you!
Indeed, with my very life, I will ransom you."--And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Twenty-fourth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that quoth the
treasurer to Amjad and As'ad, "With my life will I ransom you
both!" Then he hastily rose and, at once embracing them, enquired
how they had loosed their bonds and come thither; whereupon they
told him how the bonds of one of them had fallen loose and he had
unbound the other, whereto they were helped by the purity of
their intentions, and how they had tracked his trail till they
came upon him. So he thanked them for their deed and went with
them forth of the thicket; and, when they were in the open
country, they said to him, "O uncle, do our father's bidding." He
replied, "Allah forbid that I should draw near to you with hurt!
But know ye that I mean to take your clothes and clothe you with
mine; then will I fill two vials with the lion's blood and go
back to the King and tell him I have out vou to death. But as for
you two, fare ye forth into the lands, for Allah's earth is wide;
and know, O my lords, that it paineth me to part from you." At
this, they all fell a-weeping; then the two youths put off their
clothes and the treasurer habited them with his own. Moreover he
made two parcels of their dress and, filling two vials with the
lion's blood, set the parcels before him on his horse's back.
Presently he took leave of them and, making his way to the city,
ceased not faring till he went in to King Kamar al-Zaman and
kissed the ground between his hands. The King saw him changed in
face and troubled (which arose from his adventure with the lion)
and, deeming this came of the slaughter of his two sons, rejoiced
and said to him, "Hast thou done the work?" "Yes, O our lord,"
replied the treasurer and gave him the two parcels of clothes and
the two vials full of blood. Asked the King, "What didst thou
observe in them; and did they give thee any charge?" Answered the
treasurer, "I found them patient and resigned to what came down
upon them and they said to me, 'Verily, our father is excusable;
bear him our salutation and say to him, 'Thou art quit of our
killing. But we charge thee repeat to him these couplets,
'Verily women are devils created for us. We seek refuge with God
from the artifice of the devils.
They are the source of all the misfortunes that have appeared
among mankind in the affairs of the world and of
religion.'''[FN#373]
When the King heard these words of the treasurer, he bowed his
head earthwards, a long while and knew his sons' words to mean
that they had been wrongfully put to death. Then he bethought
himself of the perfidy of women and the calamities brought about
by them; and he took the two parcels and opened them and fell to
turning over his sons' clothes and weeping,--And Shahrazed
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Twenty-fifth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when King
Kamar la-Zaman opened the two bundles and fell to turning over
his sons' clothes and weeping, it so came to pass that he found,
in the pocket of his son As'ad's raiment, a letter in the hand of
his wife enclosing her hair strings; so he opened and read it and
understanding the contents knew that the Prince had been falsely
accused and wrongously. Then he searched Amjad's parcel of dress
and found in his pocket a letter in the handwriting of Queen
Hayat al-Nufus enclosing also her hair-strings; so he opened and
read it and knew that Amjad too had been wronged; whereupon he
beat hand upon hand and exclaimed, "There is no Majesty and there
is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great! I have slain
my sons unjustly." And he buffeted his face, crying out, "Alas,
my sons! Alas, my long grief!" Then he bade them build two tombs
in one house, which he styled "House of Lamentations," and had
graved thereon his sons' names; and he threw himself on Amjad's
tomb, weeping and groaning and lamenting, and improvised these
couplets,
"O moon for ever set this earth below, *
Whose loss bewail the stars which stud the sky!
O wand, which broken, ne'er with bend and wave *
Shall fascinate the ravisht gazer's eye;
These eyne for jealousy I 'reft of thee, *
Nor shall they till next life thy sight descry:
I'm drowned in sea of tears for insomny *
Wherefore, indeed in Sahirah-stead[FN#374] I lie."
Then he threw himself on As'ad's tomb, groaning and weeping and
lamenting and versifying with these couplets,
"Indeed I longed to share unweal with thee, *
But Allah than my will willed otherwise:
My grief all blackens 'twixt mine eyes and space, *
Yet whitens all the blackness from mine eyes:[FN#375]
Of tears they weep these eyne run never dry, *
And ulcerous flow in vitals never dries:
Right sore it irks me seeing thee in stead[FN#376] *
Where slave with sovran for once levelled lies."
And his weeping and wailing redoubled; and, after he had ended
his lamentations and his verse, he forsook his friends and
intimates, and denying himself to his women and his family, cut
himself off from the world in the House of Lamentations, where he
passed his time in weeping for his sons. Such was his case; but
as regards Amjad and As'ad they fared on into the desert eating
of the fruits of the earth and drinking of the remnants of the
rain for a full month, till their travel brought them to a
mountain of black flint[FN#377] whose further end was unknown;
and here the road forked, one line lying along the midway height
and the other leading to its head. They took the way trending to
the top and gave not over following it five days, but saw no end
to it and were overcome with weariness, being unused to walking
upon the mountains or elsewhere.[FN#378] At last, despairing of
coming to the last of the road, they retraced their steps and,
taking the other, that led over the midway heights,--And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Twenty-sixth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Princes
Amjad and As'ad returned from the path leading to the Mountain-
head and took that which ran along the midway heights, and walked
through all that day till nightfall, when As'ad, weary with much
travel, said to Amjad, "O my brother, I can walk no farther, for
I am exceeding weak." Replied Amjad, "O my brother, take courage!
May be Allah will send us relief." So they walked on part of the
night, till the darkness closed in upon them, when As'ad became
weary beyond measure of weariness and cried out, "O my brother, I
am worn out and spent with walking," and threw himself upon the
ground and wept. Amjad took him in his arms and walked on with
him, bytimes sitting down to rest till break of day, when they
came to the mountain-top and found there a stream of running
water and by it a pomegranate-tree and a prayer-niche.[FN#379]
They could hardly believe their eyes when they saw it; but,
sitting down by that spring, drank of its water and ate of the
fruit of that granado-tree; after which they lay on the ground
and slept till sunrise, when they washed and bathed in the spring
and, eating of the pomegranates, slept again till the time of
mid-afternoon prayer. Then they thought to continue their
journey, but As'ad could not walk, for both his feet were
swollen. So they abode there three days till they were rested,
after which they set out again and fared on over the mountain
days and nights, tortured by and like to die of thirst, till they
sighted a city gleaming afar off, at which they rejoiced and made
towards it. When they drew near it, they thanked Allah (be His
Name exalted!) and Amjad said to As'ad, "O my brother, sit here,
whilst I go to yonder city and see what it is and whose it is and
where we are in Allah's wide world, that we may know through what
lands we have passed in crossing this mountain, whose skirts had
we followed, we had not reached this city in a whole year. So
praised be Allah for safety!" Replied As'ad, "By Allah, O my
brother, none shall go down into that city save myself, and may I
be thy ransom! If thou leave me alone, be it only for an hour, I
shall imagine a thousand things and be drowned in a torrent of
anxiety on shine account, for I cannot brook shine absence from
me." Amjad rejoined, "Go then and tarry not. So As'ad took some
gold pieces, and leaving his brother to await him, descended the
mountain and ceased not faring on till he entered the city. As he
threaded the streets he was met by an old man age-decrepit, whose
beard flowed down upon his breast and forked in twain;[FN#380] he
bore a walking-staff in his hand and was richly clad, with a
great red turband on his head. When As'ad saw him, he wondered at
his dress and his mien; nevertheless, he went up to him and
saluting him said, "Where be the way to the market, O my master?"
Hearing these words the Shaykh smiled in his face and replied, "O
my son, meseemeth thou art a stranger?" As'ad rejoined, "Yes, I
am a stranger."--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Twenty-seventh Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Shaykh
who met As'ad smiled in his face and said to him, "O my son,
meseemeth thou art a stranger?" and As'ad replied, "Yes, I am a
stranger." Then rejoined the old man, "Verily, thou gladdenest
our country with thy presence, O my son, and thou desolatest
shine own land by reason of shine absence. What wantest thou of
the market?" Quoth As'ad, "O uncle, I have a brother, with whom I
have come from a far land and with whom I have journeyed these
three months; and, when we sighted this city, I left him, who is
my elder brother, upon the mountain and came hither, purposing to
buy victual and what else, and return therewith to him, that we
might feed thereon." Said the old man, "Rejoice in all good, O my
son, and know thou that to-day I give a marriage-feast, to which
I have bidden many guests, and I have made ready plenty of meats,
the best and most delicious that heart can desire. So if thou
wilt come with me to my place, I will give thee freely all thou
lackest without asking thee a price or aught else. Moreover I
will teach thee the ways of this city; and, praised be Allah, O
my son, that I, and none other have happened upon thee." "As thou
wilt," answered As'ad, "do as thou art disposed, but make haste,
for indeed my brother awaiteth me and his whole heart is with
me." The old man took As'ad by the hand and carried him to a
narrow lane, smiling in his face and saying, "Glory be to Him who
hath delivered thee from the people of this city!" And he ceased
not walking till he entered a spacious house, wherein was a
saloon and behold, in the middle of it were forty old men, well
stricken in years, collected together and forming a single ring
as they sat round about a lighted fire, to which they were doing
worship and prostrating themselves.[FN#381] When As'ad saw this,
he was confounded and the hair of his body stood on end though he
knew not what they were; and the Shaykh said to them, "O Elders
of the Fire, how blessed is this day!" Then he called aloud,
saying, "Hello, Ghazban!" Whereupon there came out to him a tall
black slave of frightful aspect, grim-visaged and flat nosed as
an ape who, when the old man made a sign to him, bent As'ad's
arms behind his back and pinioned them; after which the Shaykh
said to him, "Let him down into the vault under the earth and
there leave him and say to my slave girl Such-an-one, 'Torture
him night and day and give him a cake of bread to eat morning and
evening against the time come of the voyage to the Blue Sea and
the Mountain of Fire, whereon we will slaughter him as a
sacrifice.'" So the black carried him out at another door and,
raising a flag in the floor, discovered a flight of twenty steps
leading to a chamber[FN#382] under the earth, into which he
descended with him and, laying his feet in irons, gave him over
to the slave girl and went away. Meanwhile, the old men said to
one another, "When the day of the Festival of the Fire cometh, we
will sacrifice him on the mountain, as a propitiatory offering
whereby we shall pleasure the Fire." Presently the damsel went
down to him and beat him a grievous beating, till streams of
blood flowed from his sides and he fainted; after which she set
at his head a scone of bread and a cruse of brackish water and
went away and left him. In the middle of the night, he revived
and found himself bound and beaten and sore with beating: so he
wept bitter tears; and recalling his former condition of honour
and prosperity, lordship and dominion, and his separation from
his sire and his exile from his native land.--And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say,
When it was the Two Hundred and Twenty-eighth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when As'ad
found himself bound and beaten and sore with beating he recalled
his whilome condition of honour and prosperity and dominion and
lordship, and he wept and groaned aloud and recited these
couplets,
"Stand by the ruined stead and ask of us; *
Nor deem we dwell there as was state of us:
The World, that parter, hath departed us; *
Yet soothes not hate-full hearts the fate of us:
With whips a cursed slave girl scourges us, *
And teems her breast with rancorous hate of us:
Allah shall haply deign to unpart our lives, *
Chastise our foes, and end this strait of us."
And when As'ad had spoken his poetry, he put out his hand towards
his head and finding there the crust and the cruse full of
brackish water he ate a bittock, just enough to keep life in him,
and drank a little water, but could get no sleep till morning for
the swarms of bugs[FN#383] and lice. As soon as it was day, the
slave girl came down to him and changed his clothes, which were
drenched with blood and stuck to him, so that his skin came off
with the shirt; wherefor he shrieked aloud and cried, "Alas!" and
said, "O my God, if this be Thy pleasure, increase it upon me! O
Lord, verily Thou art not unmindful of him that oppresseth me; do
Thou then avenge me upon him!" And he groaned and repeated the
following verses,
"Patient, O Allah! to Thy destiny *
I bow, suffice me what Thou deign decree:
Patient to bear Thy will, O Lord of me, *
Patient to burn on coals of Ghaza-tree:
They wrong me, visit me with hurt and harm; *
Haply Thy grace from them shall set me free:
Far be's, O Lord, from thee to spare the wronger *
O Lord of Destiny my hope's in Thee!"
And what another saith,
"Bethink thee not of worldly state, *
Leave everything to course of Fate;
For oft a thing that irketh thee *
Shall in content eventuate;
And oft what strait is shall expand, *
And what expanded is wax strait.
Allah will do what wills His will *
So be not thou importunate!
But 'joy the view of coming weal *
Shall make forget past bale and bate."
And when he had ended his verse, the slave-girl came down upon
him with blows till he fainted again; and, throwing him a flap of
bread and a gugglet of saltish water, went away and left him sad
and lonely, bound in chains of iron, with the blood streaming
from his sides and far from those he loved. So he wept and called
to mind his brother and the honours he erst enjoyed.--And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Twenty-ninth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that As'ad
called to mind his brother and the honours he erst enjoyed; so he
wept and groaned and complained and poured forth tears in floods
and improvised these couplets,
"Easy, O Fate! how long this wrong, this injury, *
Robbing each morn and eve my brotherhood fro' me?
Is't not time now thou deem this length sufficiency *
Of woes and, O thou Heart of Rock, show clemency?
My friends thou wrongedst when thou madst each enemy *
Mock and exult me for thy wrongs, thy tyranny:
My foeman's heart is solaced by the things he saw *
In me, of strangerhood and lonely misery:
Suffice thee not what came upon my head of dole, *
Friends lost for evermore, eyes wan and pale of blee?
But must in prison cast so narrow there is naught *
Save hand to bite, with bitten hand for company;
And tears that tempest down like goodly gift of cloud, *
And longing thirst whose fires weet no satiety.
Regretful yearnings, singulfs and unceasing sighs, *
Repine, remembrance and pain's very ecstacy:
Desire I suffer sore and melancholy deep, *
And I must bide a prey to endless phrenesy:
I find me ne'er a friend who looks with piteous eye, *
And seeks my presence to allay my misery:
Say, liveth any intimate with trusty love *
Who for mine ills will groan, my sleepless malady?
To whom moan I can make and, peradventure, he *
Shall pity eyes that sight of sleep can never see?
The flea and bug suck up my blood, as wight that drinks *
Wine from the proffering hand of fair virginity:
Amid the lice my body aye remindeth me *
Of orphan's good in Kazi's claw of villainy:
My home's a sepulchre that measures cubits three, *
Where pass I morn and eve in chained agony:
My wines are tears, my clank of chains takes music's stead, *
Cares my dessert of fruit and sorrows are my bed."
And when he had versed his verse and had prosed his prose, he
again groaned and complained and remembered he had been and how
he had been parted from his brother. Thus far concerning him; but
as regards his brother Amjad, he awaited As'ad till mid-day yet
he returned not to him: whereupon Amjad's vitals fluttered, the
pangs of parting were sore upon him and he poured forth abundant
tears,--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say
her permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Thirtieth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Amjad
awaited his brother As'ad till mid-day and he returned not to
him, Amjad's vitals fluttered; the pangs of parting were sore
upon him and he poured forth abundant tears, exclaiming, "Alas,
my brother! Alas, my friend! Alas my grief! How I feared me we
should be separated!" Then he descended from the mountain-top
with the tears running down his cheeks; and, entering the city,
ceased not walking till he made the market. He asked the folk the
name of the place and concerning its people and they said, "This
is called the City of the Magians, and its citizens are mostly
given to Fire-worshipping in lieu of the Omnipotent King." Then
he enquired of the City of Ebony and they answered, "Of a truth
it is a year's journey thither by land and six months by sea: it
was governed erst by a King called Armanus; but he took to son-
in-law and made King in his stead a Prince called Kamar al-Zaman
distinguished for justice and munificence, equity and
benevolence." When Amjad heard tell of his father, he groaned and
wept and lamented and knew not whither to go. However, he bought
a something of food and carried it to a retired spot where he sat
down thinking to eat; but, recalling his brother, he fell a-
weeping and swallowed but a morsel to keep breath and body
together, and that against his will. Then he rose and walked
about the city, seeking news of his brother, till he saw a Moslem
tailor sitting in his shop so he sat down by him and told him his
story; whereupon quoth the tailor, "If he have fallen into the
hands of the Magians, thou shalt hardly see him again: yet it may
be Allah will reunite you twain. But thou, O my brother," he
continued wilt thou lodge with me?" Amjad answered, "Yes"; and
the tailor rejoiced at this. So he abode with him many days, what
while the tailor comforted him and exhorted him to patience and
taught him tailoring, till he became expert in the craft. Now one
day he went forth to the sea-shore and washed his clothes; after
which he entered the bath and put on clean raiment; then he
walked about the city, to divert himself with its sights and
presently there met him on the way a woman of passing beauty and
loveliness, without peer for grace and comeliness. When she saw
him she raised her face-veil and signed to him by moving her
eyebrows and her eyes with luring glances, and versified these
couplets,
"I drooped my glance when seen thee on the way *
As though, O slim-waist! felled by Sol's hot ray:
Thou art the fairest fair that e'er appeared, *
Fairer to-day than fair of yesterday:[FN#384]
Were Beauty parted, a fifth part of it *
With Joseph or a part of fifth would stay;
The rest would fly to thee, shine ownest own; *
Be every soul thy sacrifice, I pray!"
When Amjad heard these her words, they gladdened his heart which
inclined to her and his bowels yearned towards her and the hands
of love sported with him; so he sighed to her in reply and spoke
these couplets,
"Above the rose of cheek is thorn of lance;[FN#385] *
Who dareth pluck it, rashest chevisance?
Stretch not thy hand towards it, for night long *
Those lances marred because we snatched a glance!
Say her, who tyrant is and tempter too *
(Though justice might her tempting power enhance):--
Thy face would add to errors were it veiled; *
Unveiled I see its guard hath best of chance!
Eye cannot look upon Sol's naked face; *
But can, when mist-cloud dims his countenance:
The honey-hive is held by honey-bee;[FN#386] *
Ask the tribe-guards what wants their vigilance?
An they would slay me, let them end their ire *
Rancorous, and grant us freely to advance:
They're not more murderous, an charge the whole *
Than charging glance of her who wears the mole."
And hearing these lines from Amjad she sighed with the deepest
sighs and, signing to him again, repeated these couplets,
"'Tis thou hast trodden coyness path not I: *
Grant me thy favours for the time draws nigh:
O thou who makest morn with light of brow, *
And with loosed brow-locks night in lift to stye!
Thine idol-aspect made of me thy slave, *
Tempting as temptedst me in days gone by:
'Tis just my liver fry with hottest love: *
Who worship fire for God must fire aby:
Thou sellest like of me for worthless price; *
If thou must sell, ask high of those who buy."
When Amjad heard these her words he said to her, "Wilt thou come
to my lodging or shall I go with thee to shine?" So she hung her
head in shame to the ground and repeated the words of Him whose
Name be exalted, "Men shall have the pre-eminence above women,
because of those advantages wherein Allah hath caused the one of
them to excel the other."[FN#387] Upon this, Amjad took the
hint.--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying
her permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Thirty-first Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Amjad took
the woman's hint and understood that she wished to go with him
whither he was going; he felt himself bounder to find a place
wherein to receive her, but was ashamed to carry her to the house
of his host, the tailor. So he walked on and she walked after
him, and the two ceased not walking from street to street and
place to place, till she was tired and said to him, "O my lord,
where is thy house?" Answered he, "Before us a little way." Then
he turned aside into a handsome by-street, followed by the young
woman, and walked on till he came to the end, when he found it
was no thoroughfare and exclaimed, "There is no Majesty and there
is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great!" Then raising
his eyes, he saw, at the upper end of the lane a great doer with
two stone benches; but it was locked. So Amjad sat down on one of
the benches and she on the other; and she said to him, "O my
lord, wherefore waitest thou?" He bowed his head awhile to the
ground then raised it and answered, "I am awaiting my Mameluke
who hath the key; for I bade him make me ready meat and drink and
flowers, to deck the wine-service against my return from the
bath." But he said to himself, "Haply the time will be tedious to
her and she will go about her business, leaving me here, when I
will wend my own way." However, as soon as she was weary of long
waiting, she said, "O my lord, thy Mameluke delayeth; and here
are we sitting in the street;" and she arose and took a stone and
went up to the lock. Said Amjad, "Be not in haste, but have
patience till the servant come." However, she hearkened not to
him, but smote the wooden bolt with the stone and broke it in
half, whereupon the door opened. Quoth he, "What possessed thee
to do this deed?" Quoth she, "Pooh, pooh, my lord! what matter
it? Is not the house thy house and thy place?" He said, "There
was no need to break the bolt." Then the damsel entered, to the
confusion of Amjad, who knew not what to do for fear of the
people of the house; but she said to him, "Why dost thou not
enter, O light of mine eyes and core of my heart?" Replied he, "I
hear and obey; but my servant tarrieth long and I know not if he
have done aught of what I bade him and specially enjoined upon
him, or not." Hereupon he entered, sore in fear of the people of
the house, and found himself in a handsome saloon with four
dais'd recesses, each facing other, and containing closets and
raised seats, all bespread with stuffs of silk and brocade; and
in the midst was a jetting fountain of costly fashion, on whose
margin rested a covered tray of meats, with a leather tablecloth
hanging up and gem-encrusted dishes, full of fruits and sweet-
scented flowers. Hard by stood drinking vessels and a candlestick
with a single wax-candle therein; and the place was full of
precious stuffs and was ranged with chests and stools, and on
each seat lay a parcel of clothes upon which was a purse full of
monies, gold and silver. The floor was paved with marble and the
house bore witness in every part to its owner's fortune. When
Amjad saw all this, he was confounded at his case and said to
himself, "I am a lost man! Verily we are Allah's and to Allah we
are returning!" As for the damsel, when she sighted the place she
rejoiced indeed with a joy nothing could exceed, and said to him,
"By Allah, O my lord, thy servant hath not failed of his duty;
for see, he hath swept the place and cooked the meat and set on
the fruit; and indeed I come at the best of times." But he paid
no heed to her, his heart being taken up with fear of the house-
folk; and she said, "Fie, O my lord, O my heart! What aileth thee
to stand thus?" Then she sighed and, giving him a buss which
sounded like the cracking of a walnut, said, "O my lord, an thou
have made an appointment with other than with me, I will gird my
middle and serve her and thee. Amjad laughed from a heart full of
rage and wrath and came forwards and sat down, panting and saying
to himself, "Alack, mine ill death and doom when the owner of the
place shall return!" Then she seated herself by him and fell to
toying and laughing, whilst Amjad sat careful and frowning,
thinking a thousand thoughts and communing with himself,
"Assuredly the master of the house cannot but come, and then what
shall I say to him? he needs must kill me and my life will be
lost thus foolishly." Presently she rose and, tucking up her
sleeves, took a tray of food on which she laid the cloth and then
set it before Amjad and began to eat, saying, "Eat, O my lord."
So he came forward and ate; but the food was not pleasant to him;
on the contrary he ceased not to look towards the door, till the
damsel had eaten her fill, when she took away the tray of the
meats and, setting on the dessert, fell to eating of the dried
fruits. Then she brought the wine service and opening the jar,
filled a cup and handed it to Amjad, who took it from her hand
saying to him self, ' Ah, ah! and well away, when the master of
the house cometh and seeth me!"; and he kept his eyes fixed on
the threshold, even with cup in hand. While he was in this case,
lo! in came the master of the house, who was a white slave, one
of the chief men of the city, being Master of the Horse[FN#388]
to the King. He had fitted up this saloon for his pleasures, that
he might make merry therein and be private with whom he would,
and he had that day bidden a youth whom he loved and had made
this entertainment for him. Now the name of this slave was
Bahadur,[FN#389] and he was open of hand, generous, munificent
and fain of alms-giving and charitable works.--And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it wad the Two Hundred and Thirty-second Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when
Bahadur, the Master of the Horse and the owner of the house, came
to the door of the saloon and found it open, he entered slowly
and softly and looking in, with head advanced and out stretched
neck, saw Amjad and the girl sitting before the dish of fruit and
the wine-jar in front of them. Now Amjad at that moment had the
cup in his hand and his face turned to the door; and when his
glance met Bahadur's eyes his hue turned pale yellow and his
side-muscles quivered, so seeing his trouble Bahadur signed to
him with his finger on his lips, as much as to say, "Be silent
and come hither to me." Whereupon he set down the cup and rose
and the damsel cried, "Whither away?" He shook his head and,
signing to her that he wished to make water, went out into the
passage barefoot. Now when he saw Bahadur he knew him for the
master of the house; so he hastened to him and, kissing his
hands, said to him, "Allah upon thee, O my lord, ere thou do me a
hurt, hear what I have to say." Then he told him who he was from
first to last and acquainted him with what caused him to quit his
native land and royal state, and how he had not entered his house
of his free will, but that it was the girl who had broken the
lock-bolt and done all this.[FN#390] When Bahadur heard his story
and knew that he was a King's son, he felt for him and, taking
compassion on him, said, "Hearken to me, O Amjad, and do what I
bid thee and I will guarantee thy safety from that thou fearest;
but, if thou cross me, I will kill thee." Amjad replied, "Command
me as thou wilt: I will not gainsay thee in aught; no, never, for
I am the freedman of thy bounty." Rejoined Bahadur, "Then go back
forthwith into the saloon, sit down in thy place and be at peace
and at shine ease; I will presently come in to thee, and when
thou seest me (remember my name is Bahadur) do thou revile me and
rail at me, saying, 'What made thee tarry till so late?' And
accept no excuse from me; nay, so far from it, rise and beat me;
and, if thou spare me, I will do away thy life. Enter now and
make merry and whatsoever thou seekest of me at this time I will
bring thee forthwith; and do thou spend this night as thou wilt
and on the morrow wend thy way. This I do in honour of thy
strangerhood, for I love the stranger and hold myself bounder to
do him devoir." So Amjad kissed his hand, and, returning to the
saloon with his face clad in its natural white and red, at once
said to the damsel, "O my mistress, thy presence hath gladdened
this shine own place and ours is indeed a blessed night." Quoth
the girl, "Verily I see a wonderful change in thee, that thou now
welcomest me so cordially!" So Amjad answered, "By Allah, O my
lady, methought my servant Bahadur had robbed me of some
necklaces of jewels, worth ten thousand diners each; however,
when I went out but now in concern for this, I sought for them
and found them in their place. I know not why the slave tarrieth
so long and needs must I punish him for it." She was satisfied
with his answer, and they sported and drank and made merry and
ceased not to be so till near sundown, when Bahadur came in to
them, having changed his clothes and girt his middle and put on
shoes, such as are worn of Mamelukes. He saluted and kissed the
ground; then held his hands behind him and stood, with his head
hanging down, as one who confesseth to a fault. So Amjad looked
at him with angry eyes and asked, "Why hast thou tarried till
now, O most pestilent of slaves?" Answered Bahadur, "O my lord, I
was busy washing my clothes and knew not of thy being here; for
our appointed time was nightfall and not day-tide." But Amjad
cried out at him, saying, "Thou liest, O vilest of slaves! By
Allah, I must needs beat thee." So he rose and, throwing Bahadur
prone on the ground, took a stick and beat him gently; but the
damsel sprang up and, snatching the stick from his hand, came
down upon Bahadur so lustily, that in extreme pain the tears ran
from his eyes and he ground his teeth together and called out for
succour; whilst Amjad cried out to the girl "Don't"; and she
cried out, "Let me satisfy my anger upon him!" till at last he
pulled the stick out of her hand and pushed her away. So Bahadur
rose and, wiping away his tears from his cheeks, waited upon them
the while, after which he swept the hall and lighted the lamps;
but as often as he went in and out, the lady abused him and
cursed him till Amjad was wroth with her and said, "For Almighty
Allah's sake leave my Mameluke; he is not used to this." Then
they sat and ceased not eating and drinking (and Bahadur waiting
upon them) till midnight when, being weary with service and
beating, he fell asleep in the midst of the hall and snored and
snorted; whereupon the damsel, who was drunken with wine, said to
Amjad, "Arise, take the sword hanging yonder and cut me off this
slave's head; and, if thou do it not, I will be the death of
thee!" "What possesseth thee to slay my slave?" asked Amjad; and
she answered, "Our joyaunce will not be complete but by his
death. If thou wilt not kill him, I will do it myself." Quoth
Amjad, "By Allah's rights to thee, do not this thing!" Quoth she,
"It must perforce be;" and, taking down the sword, drew it and
made at Bahadur to kill him; but Amjad said in his mind, "This
man hath entreated us courteously and sheltered us and done us
kindness and made himself my slave: shall we requite him by
slaughtering him? This shall never be!" Then he said to the
woman, "If my Mameluke must be killed, better I should kill him
than thou." So saying, he took the sword from her and, raising
his hand, smote her on the neck and made her head fly from her
body. It fell upon Bahadur who awoke and sat up and opened his
eyes, when he saw Amjad standing by him and in his hand the sword
dyed with blood, and the damsel lying dead. He enquired what had
passed, and Amjad told him all she had said, adding, "Nothing
would satisfy her but she must slay thee; and this is her
reward." Then Bahadur rose and, kissing the Prince's hand, said
to him, "Would to Heaven thou hadst spared her! but now there is
nothing for it but to rid us of her without stay or delay, before
the day-break." Then he girded his loins and took the body,
wrapped it in an Aba-cloak and, laying it in a large basket of
palm-leaves, he shouldered it saying, "Thou art a stranger here
and knowest no one: so sit thou in this place and await my return
till day-break. If I come back to thee, I will assuredly do thee
great good service and use my endeavours to have news of thy
brother; but if by sunrise I return not, know that all is over
with me; and peace be on thee, and the house and all it
containeth of stuffs and money are shine." Then he fared forth
from the saloon bearing the basket; and, threading the streets,
he made for the salt sea, thinking to throw it therein: but as he
drew near the shore, he turned and saw that the Chief of Police
and his officers had ranged themselves around him; and, on
recognising him, they wondered and opened the basket, wherein
they found the slain woman. So they seized him and laid him in
bilboes all that night till the morning, when they carried him
and the basket, as it was, to the King and reported the case. The
King was sore enraged when he looked upon the slain and said to
Bahadur, "Woe to thee! Thou art always so doing; thou killest
folk and castest them into the sea and takest their goods. How
many murders hast thou done ere this?" Thereupon Bahadur hung his
head.--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying
her permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Thirty-third Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Bahadur
hung down his head groundwards before the King, who cried out at
him, saying, "Woe to thee! Who killed this girl?" He replied, "O
my lord! I killed her, and there is no Majesty and there is no
Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great!"[FN#391] So the
King in his anger, commanded to hang him; and the hangman went
down with him by the King's commandment, and the Chief of Police
accompanied him with a crier who called upon all the folk to
witness the execution of Bahadur, the King's Master of the Horse;
and on this wise they paraded him through the main streets and
the market-streets. This is how it fared with Bahadur; but as
regards Amjad, he awaited his host's return till the day broke
and the sun rose, and when he saw that he came not, he exclaimed,
"There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the
Glorious, the Great! Would I knew what is become of him?" And, as
he sat musing behold, he heard the crier proclaiming Bahadur's
sentence and bidding the people to see the spectacle of his
hanging at midday; whereat he wept and exclaimed, "Verily, we are
Allah's and to Him we are returning! He meaneth to sacrifice
himself unjustly for my sake, when I it was who slew her. By
Allah, this shall never be!" Then he went from the saloon and,
shutting the door after him, hurriedly threaded the streets till
he overtook Bahadur, when he stood before the Chief of Police and
said to him, "O my lord, put not Bahadur to death, for he is
innocent. By Allah, none killed her but I." Now when the Captain
of Police heard these words, he took them both and, carrying them
before the King, acquainted him with what Amjad had said;
whereupon he looked at the Prince and asked him, "Didst thou kill
the damsel?" He answered, "Yes" and the King said, "Tell me why
thou killedst her, and speak the truth." Replied Amjad, "O King,
it is indeed a marvellous event and a wondrous matter that hath
befallen me: were it graven with needles on the eye-corners, it
would serve as a warner to whoso would be warned!" Then he told
him his whole story and informed him of all that had befallen him
and his brother, first and last; whereat the King was much
startled and surprised and said to him, "Know that now I find
thee to be excusable; but list, O youth! Wilt thou be my Wazir?"
"Hearkening and obedience," answered Amjad whereupon the King
bestowed magnificent dresses of honour on him and Bahadur and
gave him a handsome house, with eunuchs and officers and all
things needful, appointing him stipends and allowances and
bidding him make search for his brother As'ad. So Amjad sat down
in the seat of the Wazirate and governed and did justice and
invested and deposed and took and gave. Moreover, he sent out a
crier to cry his brother throughout the city, and for many days
made proclamation in the main streets and market-streets, but
heard no news of As'ad nor happened on any trace of him. Such was
his case; but as regards his brother, the Magi ceased not to
torture As'ad night and day and eve and morn for a whole year's
space, till their festival drew near, when the old man
Bahram[FN#392] made ready for the voyage and fitted out a ship
for himself.--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
to say her permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Thirty-fourth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Bahram, the
Magian, having fitted out a ship for the voyage, took As'ad and
put him in a chest which he locked and had it transported on
board. Now it so came to pass that, at the very time of shipping
it, Amjad was standing to divert himself by looking upon the sea;
and when he saw the men carrying the gear and shipping it, his
heart throbbed and he called to his pages to bring him his beast.
Then, mounting with a company of his officers, he rode down to
the sea-side and halted before the Magian's ship, which he
commended his men to board and search. They did his bidding, and
boarded the vessel and rummaged in every part, but found nothing;
so they returned and told Amjad, who mounted again and rode back.
But he felt troubled in mind; and when he reached his place and
entered his palace, he cast his eyes on the wall and saw written
thereon two lines which were these couplets,
"My friends! if ye are banisht from mine eyes, *
From heart and mind ye ne'er go wandering:
But ye have left me in my woe, and rob *
Rest from my eyelids while ye are slumbering."
And seeing them Amjad thought of his brother and wept. Such was
his case; but as for Bahram, the Magian, he embarked and shouted
and bawled to his crew to make sail in all haste. So they shook
out the sails and departed and ceased not to fare on many days
and nights; and, every other day, Bahram took out As'ad and gave
him a bit of bread and made him drink a sup of water, till they
drew near the Mountain of Fire. Then there came out on them a
storm-wind and the sea rose against them, so that the ship was
driven out of her course till she took a wrong line and fell into
strange waters; and, at last they came in sight of a city builded
upon the shore, with a castle whose windows overlooked the main.
Now the ruler of this city was a Queen called Marjanah, and the
captain said to Bahram, "O my lord, we have strayed from our
course and come to the island of Queen Marjanah, who is a devout
Moslemah; and, if she know that we are Magians, she will take our
ship and slay us to the last man. Yet needs must we put in here
to rest and refit." Quoth Bahram, "Right is thy recking, and
whatso thou seest fit that will I do!" Said the ship master, "If
the Queen summon us and question us, how shall we answer her?";
and Bahram replied, "Let us clothe this Moslem we have with us in
a Mameluke's habit and carry him ashore with us, so that when the
Queen sees him, she will suppose and say, 'This is a slave.' As
for me I will tell her that I am a slave-dealer[FN#393] who buys
and sells white slaves, and that I had with me many but have sold
all save this one, whom I retained to keep my accounts, for he
can read and write." And the captain said "This device should
serve." Presently they reached the city and slackened sail and
cast the anchors; and the ship lay still, when behold, Queen
Marjanah came down to them, attended by her guards and, halting
before the vessel, called out to the captain, who landed and
kissed the ground before her. Quoth she, "What is the lading of
this thy ship and whom hast thou with thee?"" Quoth he, "O Queen
of the Age, I have with me a merchant who dealeth in slaves." And
she said, "Hither with him to me"; whereupon Bahram came ashore
to her, with As'ad walking behind him in a slave's habit, and
kissed the earth before her. She asked, "What is thy condition?";
and he answered, "I am a dealer in chattels." Then she looked at
As'ad and, taking him for a Mameluke, asked him, "What is thy
name, O youth?" He answered, "Dost thou ask my present or my
former name?" "Hast thou then two names?" enquired she, and he
replied (and indeed his voice was choked with tears), "Yes; my
name aforetime was Al-As'ad, the most happy, but now it is Al-
Mu'tarr--Miserrimus." Her heart inclined to him and she said,
"Canst thou write?" "Yes,'' answered he, and she gave him ink-
case and reed-pen and paper and said to him, "Write somewhat that
I may see it." So he wrote these two couplets,
"What can the slave do when pursued by Fate, *
O justest Judge! whatever be his state?[FN#394]
Whom God throws hand bound in the depths and says, *
Beware lest water should thy body wet?"[FN#395]
Now when she read these lines, she had ruth upon him and said to
Bahram, "Sell me this slave." He replied, "O my lady, I cannot
sell him, for I have parted with all the rest and none is left
with me but he." Quoth the Queen, "I must need have him of thee,
either by sale or way of gift." But quoth Bahram, "I will neither
sell him nor give him." Whereat she was wroth and, taking As'ad
by the hand, carried him up to the castle and sent to Bahram,
saying, "Except thou set sail and depart our city this very
night, I will seize all thy goods and break up thy ship." Now
when the message reached the Magian, he grieved with sore grief
and cried, "Verily this voyage is on no wise to be commended."
Then he arose and made ready and took all he needed and awaited
the coming of the night to resume his voyage, saying to the
sailors, "Provide yourselves with your things and fill your
water-skins, that we may set sail at the last of the night." So
the sailors did their business and awaited the coming of
darkness. Such was their case; but as regards Queen Marjanah,
when she had brought As'ad into the castle, she opened the
casements overlooking the sea and bade her handmaids bring food.
They set food before As'ad and herself and both ate, after which
the Queen called for wine.--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Thirty-fifth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Queen
Marjanah bade her handmaids bring wine and they set it before
her, she fell to drinking with As'ad. Now, Allah (be He extolled
and exalted!) filled her heart with love for the Prince and she
kept filling his cup and handing it to him till his reason fled;
and presently he rose and left the hall to satisfy a call of
nature. As he passed out of the saloon he saw an open door
through which he went and walked on till his walk brought him to
a vast garden full of all manner fruits and flowers; and, sitting
down under a tree, he did his occasion. Then he rose and went up
to a jetting fountain in the garden and made the lesser ablution
and washed his hands and face, after which he would have risen to
go away; but the air smote him and he fell back, with his clothes
undone and slept, and night overcame him thus. So far concerning
him; but as concerns Bahram, the night being come, he cried out
to his crew, saying, "Set sail and let us away!"; and the'
answered, "We hear and obey, but wait till we fill our water-
skins and then we will set sail." So they landed with their water
skins and went round about the castle, and found nothing but
garden-walls: whereupon they climbed over into the garden and
followed the track of feet, which led them to the fountain; and
there they found As'ad lying on his back. They knew him and were
glad to find him; and, after filling their water-skins, they bore
him off and climbed the wall again with him and carried him back
in haste to Bahram to whom they said, "Hear the good tidings of
thy winning thy wish; and gladden thy heart and beat thy drums
and sound thy pipes; for thy prisoner, whom Queen Marjanah took
from thee by force, we have found and brought back to thee"; and
they threw As'ad down before him. When Bahram saw him, his heart
leapt for joy and his breast swelled with gladness. Then he
bestowed largesse on the sailors and bade them set sail in haste.
So they sailed forthright, intending to make the Mountain of Fire
and stayed not their course till the morning. This is how it
fared with them; but as regards Queen Marjanah, she abode awhile,
after As'ad went down from her, awaiting his return in vain for
he came not; thereupon she rose and sought him, yet found no
trace of him. Then she bade her women light flambeaux and look
for him, whilst she went forth in person and, seeing the garden-
door open, knew that he had gone thither. So she went out into
the garden and finding his sandals lying by the fountain,
searched the place in every part, but came upon no sign of him;
and yet she gave not over the search till morning. Then she
enquired for the ship and they told her, "The vessel set sail in
the first watch of the night"; wherefor she knew that they had
taken As'ad with them, and this was grievous to her and she was
sore an-angered. She bade equip ten great ships forthwith and,
making ready for fight, embarked in one of the ten with her
Mamelukes and slave-women and men-at-arms, all splendidly
accoutred and weaponed for war. They spread the sails and she
said to the captains, "If you overtake the Magian's ship, ye
shall have of me dresses of honour and largesse of money; but if
you fail so to do, I will slay you to the last man." Whereat fear
and great hope animated the crews and they sailed all that day
and the night and the second day and the third day till, on the
fourth they sighted the ship of Bahram, the Magian, and before
evening fell the Queen's squadron had surrounded it on all sides,
just as Bahram had taken As'ad forth of the chest and was beating
and torturing him, whilst the Prince cried out for help and
deliverance, but found neither helper nor deliverer: and the
grievous bastinado sorely tormented him. Now while so occupied,
Bahram chanced to look up and, seeing himself encompassed by the
Queen's ships, as the white of the eye encompasseth the black, he
gave himself up for lost and groaned and said, "Woe to thee, O
As'ad! This is all out of thy head." Then taking him by the hand
he bade his men throw him overboard and cried, "By Allah I will
slay thee before I die myself!" So they carried him along by the
hands and feet and cast him into the sea and he sank; but Allah
(be He extolled and exalted!) willed that his life be saved and
that his doom be deferred; so He caused him to sink and rise
again and he struck out with his hands and feet, till the
Almighty gave him relief, and sent him deliverance; and the waves
bore him far from the Magian's ship and threw him ashore. He
landed, scarce crediting his escape, and once more on land he
doffed his clothes and wrung them and spread them out to dry;
whilst he sat naked and weeping over his condition, and bewailing
his calamities and mortal dangers, and captivity and stranger
hood. And presently he repeated these two couplets,
"Allah, my patience fails: I have no ward; *
My breast is straitened and clean cut my cord;
To whom shall wretched slave of case complain *
Save to his Lord? O thou of lords the Lord!"
Then, having ended his verse, he rose and donned his clothes but
he knew not whither to go or whence to come; so he fed on the
herbs of the earth and the fruits of the trees and he drank of
the streams, and fared on night and day till he came in sight of
a city; whereupon he rejoiced and hastened his pace; but when he
reached it,--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
to say her permitted say.
When it Was the Two Hundred and Thirty-sixth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when he
reached the city the shades of evening closed around him and the
gates were shut. Now by the decrees of Pate and man's lot this
was the very city wherein he had been a prisoner and to whose
King his brother Amjad was Minister. When As'ad saw the gate was
locked, he turned back and made for the burial-ground, where
finding a tomb without a door, he entered therein and lay down
and fell asleep, with his face covered by his long
sleeve.[FN#396] Meanwhile, Queen Marjanah, coming up with
Bahram's ship, questioned him of As'ad. Now the Magian, when
Queen Marjanah overtook him with her ships, baffled her by his
artifice and gramarye; swearing to her that he was not with him
and that he knew nothing of him. She searched the ship, but found
no trace of her friend, so she took Bahram and, carrying him back
to her castle, would have put him to death, but he ransomed
himself from her with all his good and his ship; and she released
him and his men. They went forth from her hardly believing in
their deliverance, and fared on ten days' journey till they came
to their own city and found the gate shut, it being eventide. So
they made for the burial-ground, thinking to lie the night there
and, going round about the tombs, as Fate and Fortune would have
it, saw the building wherein As'ad lay wide open; whereat Bahram
marvelled and said, "I must look into this sepulchre." Then he
entered and found As'ad lying in a corner fast asleep, with his
head covered by his sleeve; so he raised his head, and looking in
his face, knew him for the man on whose account he had lost his
good and his ship, and cried, "What! art thou yet alive?" Then he
bound him and gagged him without further parley, and carried him
to his house, where he clapped heavy shackles on his feet and
lowered him into the underground dungeon aforesaid prepared for
the tormenting of Moslems, and he bade his daughter by name
Bostan,[FN#397] torture him night and day, till the next year,
when they would again visit the Mountain of Fire and there offer
him up as a sacrifice. Then he beat him grievously and locking
the dungeon door upon him, gave the keys to his daughter. By and
by, Bostan opened the door and went down to beat him, but finding
him a comely youth and a sweet-faced with arched brows and eyes
black with nature's Kohl,[FN#398] she fell in love with him and
asked him, "What is thy name?" "My name is As'ad," answered he;
whereat she cried, "Mayst thou indeed be happy as thy
name,[FN#399] and happy be thy days! Thou deservest not torture
and blows, and I see thou hast been injuriously entreated." And
she comforted him with kind words and loosed his bonds. Then she
questioned him of the religion of Al-Islam and he told her that
it was the true and right Faith and that our lord Mohammed had
approved himself by surpassing miracles[FN#400] and signs
manifest, and that fire-worship is harmful and not profitable;
and he went on to expound to her the tenets of Al-Islam till she
was persuaded and the love of the True Faith entered her heart.
Then, as Almighty Allah had mixed up with her being a fond
affection for As'ad, she pronounced the Two Testimonies[FN#401]
of the Faith and became of the people of felicity. After this,
she brought him meat and drink and talked with him and they
prayed together: moreover, she made him chicken stews and fed him
therewith, till he regained strength and his sickness left him
and he was restored to his former health. Such things befel him
with the daughter of Bahram, the Magian; and so it happened that
one day she left him and stood at the house-door when behold, she
heard the crier crying aloud and saying, "Whoso hath with him a
handsome young man, whose favour is thus and thus, and bringeth
him forth, shall have all he seeketh of money; but if any have
him and deny it, he shall be hanged over his own door and his
property shall be plundered and his blood go for naught." Now
As'ad had acquainted Bostan bint Bahram with his whole history:
so, when she heard the crier, she knew that it was he who was
sought for and, going down to him, told him the news. Then he
fared forth and made for the mansion of the Wazir, whom, when
As'ad saw, exclaimed, "By Allah, this Minister is my brother
Amjad!" Then he went up (and the damsel walking behind him) to
the Palace, where he again saw his brother, and threw himself
upon him; whereupon Amjad also knew him and fell upon his neck
and they embraced each other, whilst the Wazir's Mamelukes
dismounted and stood round them. They lay awhile insensible and,
when they came to themselves, Amjad took his brother and carried
him to the Sultan, to whom he related the whole story, and the
Sultan charged him to plunder Bahram's house.--And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Thirty-seventh Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Sultan
ordered Amjad to plunder Bahram's house and to hang its owner. So
Amjad despatched thither for that purpose a company of men, who
sacked the house and took Bahram and brought his daughter to the
Wazir by whom she was received with all honour, for As'ad had
told his brother the torments he had suffered and the kindness
she had done him. Thereupon Amjad related in his turn to As'ad
all that had passed between himself and the damsel; and how he
had escaped hanging and had become Wazir; and they made moan,
each to other, of the anguish they had suffered for separation.
Then the Sultan summoned Bahram and bade strike off his head; but
he said, "O most mighty King, art thou indeed resolved to put me
to death?" Replied the King, "Yes, except thou save thyself by
becoming a Moslem." Quoth Bahram, "O King, bear with me a little
while!" Then he bowed his head groundwards and presently raising
it again, made pro fession of The Faith and islamised at the
hands of the Sultan. They all rejoiced at his conversion and
Amjad and As'ad told him all that had befallen them, whereat he
wondered and said, "O my lords, make ready for the journey and I
will depart with you and carry you back to your father's court in
a ship." At this they rejoiced and wept with sore weeping but he
said, "O my lords, weep not for your departure, for it shall
reunite you with those you love, even as were Ni'amah and Naomi."
"And what befel Ni'amah and Naomi?" asked they. "They tell,"
replied Bahram, "(but Allah alone is All knowing) the following
tale of
End of Vol. 3
Arabian Nights, Volume 3
Footnotes
[FN#1] This "horripilation," for which we have the poetical term
"goose-flesh," is often mentioned in Hindu as in Arab literature.
[FN#2] How often we have heard this in England!
[FN#3] As a styptic. The scene in the text has often been
enacted in Egypt where a favourite feminine mode of murdering men
is by beating and bruising the testicles. The Fellahs are
exceedingly clever in inventing methods of manslaughter. For
some years bodies were found that bore no outer mark of violence,
and only Frankish inquisitiveness discovered that the barrel of a
pistol had been passed up the anus and the weapon discharged
internally Murders of this description are known in English
history; but never became popular practice.
[FN#4] Arab. "Zakar," that which betokens masculinity. At the
end of the tale we learn that she also gelded him; thus he was a
"Sandal)," a rase.
[FN#5] See vol. i. p. 104. {see Volume 1, Note 188}
[FN#6] The purity and intensity of her love had attained to a
something of prophetic strain.
[FN#7] Lane corrupts this Persian name to Shah Zeman (i. 568).
[FN#8] i.e. the world, which includes the ideas of Fate, Time,
Chance.
[FN#9] Arab. "Barid," silly, noyous, contemptible; as in the
proverb
Two things than ice are colder cold:--
An old man young, a young man old.
A "cold-of-countenance"=a fool: "May Allah make cold thy
face!"=may it show want and misery. "By Allah, a cold speech!"=a
silly or abusive tirade (Pilgrimage, ii. 22).
[FN#10] The popular form is, "often the ear loveth before the
eye."
[FN#11] Not the first time that royalty has played this prank,
nor the last, perhaps.
[FN#12] i.e. the Lady Dunya.
[FN#13] These magazines are small strongly-built rooms on the
ground floor, where robbery is almost impossible.
[FN#14] Lit. "approbation," "benediction"; also the Angel who
keeps the Gates of Paradise and who has allowed one of the
Ghilman (or Wuldan) the boys of supernatural beauty that wait
upon the Faithful, to wander forth into this wicked world.
[FN#15] In Europe this would be a plurale majestatis, used only
by Royalty. In Arabic it has no such significance, and even the
lower orders apply it to themselves; although it often has a
soup‡on of "I and thou."
[FN#16] Man being an "extract of despicable water" (Koran xxxii.
7) ex spermate genital), which Mr. Rodwell renders "from germs of
life," "from sorry water."
[FN#17] i.e. begotten by man's seed in the light of salvation
(Nur al-huda).
[FN#18] The rolls of white (camphor-like) scarf-skin and sordes
which come off under the bathman's glove become by miracle of
Beauty, as brown musk. The Rubber or Shampooer is called in Egypt
"Mukayyis" (vulgarly "Mukayyisati") or "bagman," from his "Kis,"
a bag-glove of coarse woollen stuff. To "Johnny Raws" he never
fails to show the little rolls which come off the body and prove
to them how unclean they are, but the material is mostly dead
scarf-skin
[FN#19] The normal phrase on such occasions (there is always a
"dovetail" de rigueur) "Allah give thee profit!"
[FN#20] i.e. We are forced to love him only, and ignore giving
him a rival (referring to Koranic denunciations of "Shirk," or
attributing a partner to Allah, the religion of plurality,
syntheism not polytheism): see, he walks tottering under the
weight of his back parts wriggling them whilst they are rounded
like the revolving heavens.
[FN#21] Jannat al-Na'im (Garden of Delight); the fifth of the
seven Paradises made of white diamond; the gardens and the
plurality being borrowed from the Talmud. Mohammed's Paradise, by
the by, is not a greater failure than Dante's. Only ignorance or
pious fraud asserts it to be wholly sensual; and a single verse
is sufficient refutation: "Their prayer therein shall be 'Praise
unto thee, O. Allah!' and their salutation therein shall be
'Peace!' and the end of their prayer shall be, 'Praise unto God,
the Lord of all creatures"' (Koran x. 10-11). See also lvi. 24-
26. It will also be an intellectual condition wherein knowledge
will greatly be increased (lxxxviii viii. 17-20). Moreover the
Moslems, far more logical than Christians, admit into Paradise
the so-called "lower animals."
[FN#22] Sed vitam faciunt balnea, vine, Venus! The Hammam to
Easterns is a luxury as well as a necessity; men sit there for
hours talking chiefly of money and their prowess with the fair;
and women pass half the day in it complaining of their husbands'
over-amativeness and contrasting their own chaste and modest
aversion to camel congress.
[FN#23] The frigidarium or cold room, coolness being delightful
to the Arab.
[FN#24] The calidarium or hot room of the bath.
[FN#25] The Angel who acts door-keeper of Hell; others say he
specially presides over the torments of the damned (Koran xliii.
78).
[FN#26] The Door-keeper of Heaven before mentioned who, like the
Guebre Zamiyad has charge of the heavenly lads and lasses, and
who is often charged by poets with letting them slip.
[FN#27] Lane (i. 616), says "of wine, milk, sherbet, or any other
beverage." Here it is wine, a practice famed in Persian poetry,
especially by Hafiz, but most distasteful to a European stomach.
We find the Mu allakah of Imr al-Keys noticing "our morning
draught." Nott (Hafiz) says a "cheerful cup of wine in the
morning was a favourite indulgence with the more luxurious
Persians. And it was not uncommon among the Easterns, to salute
friend by saying."May your morning potation be agreeable to you!"
In the present day this practice is confined to regular
debauchees.
[FN#28] Koran xii. 31. The words spoken by Zulaykha's women
friends and detractors whom she invited to see Beauty Joseph.
[FN#29] A formula for averting fascination. Koran, chaps. cxiii.
1. "Falak" means "cleaving" hence the breaking forth of light
from darkness, a "wonderful instance of the Divine power."
[FN#30] The usual delicate chaff.
[FN#31] Such letters are generally written on a full-sized sheet
of paper ("notes" are held slighting in the East) and folded till
the breadth is reduced to about one inch. The edges are gummed,
the ink, much like our Indian ink, is smeared with the finger
upon the signet ring; the place where it is to be applied is
slightly wetted with the tongue and the seal is stamped across
the line of junction to secure privacy. I have given a specimen
of an original love-letter of the kind in "Scinde, or the Unhappy
Valley," chaps. iv.
[FN#32] Arab. "Salb" which may also mean hanging, but the usual
term for the latter in The Nights is "shanak." Crucifixion,
abolished by the superstitious Constantine, was practised as a
servile punishment as late as the days of Mohammed Ali Pasha the
Great e malefactors were nailed and tied to the patibulum or
cross-piece without any sup pedaneum or foot-rest and left to
suffer tortures from flies and sun, thirst and hunger. They often
lived three days and died of the wounds mortifying and the
nervous exhaustion brought on by cramps and convulsions. In many
cases the corpses were left to feed the kites and crows; and this
added horror to the death. Moslems care little for mere hanging.
Whenever a fanatical atrocity is to be punished, the malefactor
should be hung in pig-skin, his body burnt and the ashes publicly
thrown into a common cesspool.
[FN#33] Arab "Shaytan" the insolent or rebellious one is a common
term of abuse. The word I. Koramc, and borrowed as usual from the
Jews. "Satan" occurs four times in the O.T. of which two are in
Job where, however, he is a subordinate angel.
[FN#34] Arab. "Alak" from the Koran xxii. 5. " O men...consider
that we first created you of dust (Adam); afterwards of seed
(Rodwell's "moist germs of life"); afterwards of a little
coagulated (or clots of) blood." It refers to all mankind except
Adam, Eve and Isa. Also chaps. xcvi. 2, which, as has been said
was probably the first composed at Meccah. Mr. Rodwell (v. 10)
translates by 'Servant of God" what should be "Slave of Allah,"
alluding to Mohammed's original name Abdullah. See my learned
friend Aloys Sprenger, Leben, etc., i.155.
[FN#35] The Hindus similarly exaggerate: "He was ready to leap
out of his skin in his delight" (Katha, etc., p. 443).
[FN#36] A star in the tail of the Great Bear, one of the "Banat
al-Na'ash," or a star close to the second. Its principal use is
to act foil to bright Sohayl (Canopus) as in the beginning of
Jami's Layla-Majnun:--
To whom Thou'rt hid, day is darksome night:
To whom shown, Soha as Sohayl is bright.
See also al-Hariri (xxxii. and xxxvi.). The saying, "I show her
Soha and she shows me the moon" (A. P. i. 547) arose as follows.
In the Ignorance a beautiful Amazon defied any man to take her
maidenhead; and a certain Ibn al-Ghazz won the game by struggling
with her till she was nearly senseless. He then asked her, "How
is thine eye-sight: dost thou see Soha?" and she, in her
confusion, pointed to the moon and said, "That is it!"
[FN#37] The moon being masculine (lupus) and the sun feminine.
[FN#38] The "five Shaykhs" must allude to that number of Saints
whose names are doubtful; it would be vain to offer conjectures.
Lane and his "Sheykh" (i. 617) have tried and failed.
[FN#39] The beauties of nature seem always to provoke hunger in
Orientals, especially Turks, as good news in Englishmen.
[FN#40] Pers. "Lajuward": Arab. "Lazuward"; prob. the origin of
our "azure," through the Romaic and the Ital. azzurro;
and, more evidently still, of lapis lazuli, for which do not see
the Dictionaries.
[FN#41] Arab. "Maurid." the desert-wells where caravans drink:
also the way to water wells.
[FN#42] The famous Avicenna, whom the Hebrews called Aben Sina.
The early European Arabists, who seem to have learned Arabic
through Hebrew, borrowed their corruption, and it long kept its
place in Southern Europe.
[FN#43] According to the Hindus there are ten stages of love-
sickness: (1) Love of the eyes (2) Attraction of the Manas or
mind; (3) Birth of desire; (4) Loss of sleep; (5) Loss of flesh;
(6) Indifference to objects of sense; (7) Loss of shame, (8)
Distraction of thought (9) Loss of consciousness; and (10) Death.
[FN#44] We should call this walk of "Arab ladies" a waddle: I
have never seen it in Europe except amongst the trading classes
of Trieste, who have a "wriggle" of their own.
[FN#45] In our idiom six doors.
[FN#46] They refrained from the highest enjoyment, intending to
marry.
[FN#47] Arab. "Jihad," lit. fighting against something;
Koranically, fighting against infidels non- believers in Al-lslam
(chaps. Ix. 1). But the "Mujahidun" who wage such war are
forbidden to act aggressively (ii. 186). Here it is a war to save
a son.
[FN#48] The lady proposing extreme measures is characteristic:
Egyptians hold, and justly enough, that their women are more
amorous than men.
[FN#49] "O Camphor," an antiphrase before noticed. The vulgar
also say "Ya Talji"=O snowy (our snowball), the polite "Ya Abu
Sumrah !" =O father of brownness.
[FN#50] i.e. which fit into sockets in the threshold and lintel
and act as hinges. These hinges have caused many disputes about
how they were fixed, for instance in caverns without moveable
lintel or threshold. But one may observe that the upper
projections are longer than the lower and that the door never
fits close above, so by lifting it up the inferior pins are taken
out of the holes. It is the oldest form and the only form known
to the Ancients. In Egyptian the hinge is called Akab=the heel,
hence the proverb Wakaf' al-bab ala 'akabin; the door standeth on
its heel; i.e. every thing in proper place.
[FN#51] Hence the addresses to the Deity: Ya Satir and Ya Sattar-
-Thou who veilest the sins of Thy Servants! said e.g., when a
woman is falling from her donkey, etc.
[FN#52] A necessary precaution, for the headsman who would
certainly lose his own head by overhaste.
[FN#53] The passage has also been rendered, "and rejoiced him by
what he said" (Lane i, 600).
[FN#54] Arab. "Hurr"=noble, independent (opp. to 'Abd=a servile)
often used to express animae nobilitas as in Acts xvii.
11; where the Beroeans were "more noble" than the Thessalonians.
The Princess means that the Prince would not lie with her before
marriage.
[FN#55] The Persian word is now naturalized as Anglo-Egypeian.
[FN#56] Arab. "khassat hu" = removed his testicles, gelded him.
[FN#57] Here ends the compound tale of Taj al-Muluk cum Aziz plus
Azizah, and we return to the history of King Omar's sons.
[FN#58] "Zibl" popularly pronounced Zabal, means "dung." Khan is
"Chief," as has been noticed; "Zabbal," which Torrens renders
literally "dung-drawer," is one who feeds the Hammam with bois-
de-vache, etc.
[FN#59] i.e one who fights the Jihad or "Holy War": it is
equivalent to our "good knight."
[FN#60] Arab. "Malik." Azud al Daulah, a Sultan or regent under
the Abbaside Caliph Al-Ta'i li 'llah (regn. A.H. 363-381) was the
first to take the title of "Malik." The latter in poetry is still
written Malik.
[FN#61] A townlet on the Euphrates, in the "awwal Sham," or
frontier of Syria.
[FN#62] i.e., the son would look to that.
[FN#63] A characteristic touch of Arab pathos, tender and true.
[FN#64] Arab. "Mawarid" from "ward" = resorting to pool or water-
pit (like those of "Gakdul") for drinking, as opposed to
"Sadr"=returning after having drunk at it. Hence the "Sadir"
(part. act.) takes precedence of the "Warid" in Al-Hariri (Ass.
of the Badawi).
[FN#65] One of the fountains of Paradise (Koran, chaps. Ixxvi.):
the word lit. means "water flowing pleasantly down the throat."
The same chapter mentions "Zanjabil," or the Ginger-fount, which
to the Infidel mind unpleasantly suggests "ginger pop."
[FN#66] Arab. "Takhil" = adorning with Kohl.
[FN#67] The allusions are far-fetched and obscure as in
Scandinavian poetry. Mr. Payne (ii. 314) translates "Naml" by
"net." I understand the ant (swarm) creeping up the cheeks, a
common simile for a young beard. The lovers are in the Laza
(hell) of jealousy etc., yet feel in the Na'im (heaven) of love
and robe in green, the hue of hope, each expecting to be the
favoured one.
[FN#68] Arab. "Ukhuwan," the classical term. There are two
chamomiles, the white (Babunaj) and the yellow (Kaysun), these
however are Syrian names and plants are differently called in
almost every Province of Arabia
[FN#69] In nomadic life the parting of lovers happens so
frequently that it become. a stock topic in poetry and often, as
here, the lover complains of parting when he is not parted. But
the gravamen lies in the word "Wasl" which may mean union,
meeting, reunion Or coition. As Ka'ab ibn Zuhayr began his famous
poem with "Su'ad hath departed," 900 imitators (says Al-Siyuti)
adopted the Nasib or address to the beloved and Su'ad came to
signify a cruel, capricious mistress.
[FN#70] As might be expected from a nation of camel-breeders
actual cautery which can cause only counter-irritation, is a
favourite nostrum; and the Hadis or prophetic saying is "Akhir
al-dawa (or al-tibb) al-Kayy" = cautery is the end of medicine-
cure; and "Fire and sickness cannot cohabit." Most of the Badawi
bear upon their bodies grisly marks Of this heroic treatment,
whose abuse not unfrequently brings on gangrene. The Hadis
(Burckhardt, Proverbs, No. 30) also means "if nothing else avail,
take violent measures.
[FN#71] The Spaniards have the same expression: "Man is fire and
woman is tinder."
[FN#72] Arab. "Bashik" from Persian "Bashah" (accipiter Nisus) a
fierce little species of sparrow-hawk which I have described in
"Falconry in the Valley of the Indus" (p. 14, etc.).
[FN#73] Lit. "Coals (fit) for frying pan."
[FN#74] Arab. "Libdah," the sign of a pauper or religious
mendicant. He is addressed "Ya Abu libdah!" (O father of a felt
calotte!)
[FN#75] In times of mourning Moslem women do not use perfumes or
dyes, like the Henna here alluded to in the pink legs and feet of
the dove.
[FN#76] Koran, chaps. ii. 23. The idea is repeated in some forty
Koranic passages.
[FN#77] A woman's name, often occurring. The "daughters of
Sa'ada" are zebras, so called because "they resemble women in
beauty and graceful agility."
[FN#78] Arab. "Tiryak" from Gr. ć a drug against
venomous bites. It was compounded mainly of treacle, and that of
Baghdad and Irak was long held sovereign. The European
equivalent, "Venice treacle," (Theriaca Andromachi) is an
electuary containing many elements. Badawin eat for counter-
poison three heads of garlic in clarified butter for forty days.
(Pilgrimage iii 77 )
[FN#79] Could Cervantes have read this? In Algiers he might
easily have heard it recited by the tale-tellers. Kanmakan is the
typical Arab Knight, gentle and valiant as Don Quixote Sabbah is
the Grazioso, a "Beduin" Sancho Panza. In the "Romance of Antar"
we have a similar contrast with Ocab who says: "Indeed I am no
fighter: the sword in my hand-palm chases only pelicans ;" and,
"whenever you kill a satrap, I'll plunder him."
[FN#80] i.e. The Comely, son of the Spearman, son of the Lion, or
Hero.
[FN#81] Arab. "Ushari." Old Purchas (vi., i. 9) says there are
three kinds of camels (1 ) Huguin (=Hejin) of tall stature and
able to carry 1,000 lbs. (2) Bechete (=Bukhti) the two-humped
Bactrian before mentioned and, (3) the Raguahill (Rahil) small
dromedaries unfit for burden but able to cover a hundred miles in
a day. The "King of Timbukhtu" (not "Bukhtu's well" pop.
Timbuctoo) had camels which reach Segelmesse (Sijalmas) or Darha,
nine hundred miles in eight days at most. Lyon makes the Maherry
(also called El-Heirie=Mahri) trot nine miles an hour for a long
time. Other travellers in North Africa report the Sabayee
(Saba'i=seven days weeder) as able to get over six hundred and
thirty miles (or thirty-five caravan stages=each eighteen miles)
in five to seven days. One of the dromedaries in the "hamlah" or
caravan of Mr. Ensor (Journey through Nubia and Darfoor--a
charming book) travelled one thousand one hundred and ten miles
in twenty- seven days. He notes that his beasts were better with
water every five to seven days, but in the cold season could do
without drink for sixteen. I found in Al-Hijaz at the end of
August that the camels suffered much after ninety hours without
drink (Pilgrimage iii. 14). But these were "Judi" fine-haired
animals as opposed to "Khawar" (the Khowas of Chesney, p. 333),
coarse-haired, heavy, slow brutes which will not stand great
heat.
[FN#82] i.e. Fortune so willed it (euphemistically).
[FN#83] The "minaret" being feminine is usually compared with a
fair young girl. The oldest minaret proper is supposed to have
been built in Damascus by the Ommiade Caliph (No. X.) Al-Walid
A.H. 86-96 (=705-715). According to Ainsworth (ii. 113) the
second was at Kuch Hisar in Chaldea.
[FN#84] None of the pure Badawi can swim for the best of reasons,
want of waters.
[FN#85] The baser sort of Badawi is never to be trusted: he is a
traitor born, and looks upon fair play as folly or cowardice.
Neither oath nor kindness can bind him: he unites the cruelty of
the cat with the wildness of the wolf. How many Englishmen have
lost their lives by not knowing these elementary truths! The race
has not changed from the days of Mandeville (A.D. 1322) whose
"Arabians, who are called Bedouins and Ascopards (?), are right
felonious and foul, and of a cursed nature." In his day they
"carried but one shield and one spear, without other arm :" now,
unhappily for travellers, they have matchlocks and most tribes
can manufacture a something called by courtesy gunpowder.
[FN#86] Thus by Arab custom they become friends.
[FN#87] Our classical term for a noble Arab horse.
[FN#88] In Arab. "Khayl" is=horse; Husan, a stallion; Hudud, a
brood stallion; Faras, a mare (but sometimes used as a horse and
meaning "that tears over the ground"), Jiyad a steed (noble);
Kadish, a nag (ignoble); Mohr a colt and Mohrah, a filly. There
are dozens of other names but these suffice for conversation
[FN#89] Al-Katul, the slayer; Al-Majnun, the mad; both high
compliments in the style inverted.
[FN#90] This was a highly honourable exploit, which would bring
the doer fame as well as gain.
[FN#91] This is a true and life-like description of horse-
stealing in the Desert: Antar and Burckhardt will confirm every
word. A noble Arab stallion is supposed to fight for his rider
and to wake him at night if he see any sign of danger. The owner
generally sleeps under the belly of the beast which keeps eyes
and ears alert till dawn.
[FN#92] Arab. "Yaum al tanadi," i.e. Resurrection-day.
[FN#93] Arab. "Bilad al-Sudan"=the Land of the Blacks, negro-
land, whence the slaves came, a word now fatally familiar to
English ears. There are, however, two regions of the same name,
the Eastern upon the Upper Nile and the Western which contains
the Niger Valley, and each considers itself the Sudan. And the
reader must not confound the Berber of the Upper Nile, the
Berderino who acts servant in Lower Egypt, with the Berber of
Barbary: the former speaks an African language; the latter a
"Semitic" (Arabic) tongue.
[FN#94] "Him" for "her."
[FN#95] Arab. "Saibah," a she-camel freed from labour under
certain conditions amongst the pagan Arabs; for which see Sale
(Prel. Disc. sect. v.).
[FN#96] Arab. "Marba'." In early spring the Badawi tribes leave
the Rasm or wintering-place (the Turco-Persian "Kishlak") in the
desert, where winter-rains supply them, and make for the Yaylak,
or summer-quarters, where they find grass and water. Thus the
great Ruwala tribe appears regularly every year on the eastern
slopes of the Anti-Libanus (Unexplored Syria, i. 117), and hence
the frequent "partings."
[FN#97] This "renowning it" and boasting of one's tribe (and
oneself) before battle is as natural as the war-cry: both are
intended to frighten the foe and have often succeeded. Every
classical reader knows that the former practice dates from the
earliest ages. It is still customary in Arabia during the furious
tribal fights, the duello on a magnificent scale which often ends
in half the combatants on either side being placed hors-de-
combat. A fair specimen of "renowning it" is Amru's Suspended
Poem with its extravagant panegyric of the Taghlab tribe (p. 64,
"Arabian Poetry for English Readers," etc., by W. A. Clouston,
Glasgow: privately printed MDCCCLXXXI.; and transcribed from Sir
William Jones's translation).
[FN#98] The "Turk" appeared soon amongst the Abbaside Caliphs.
Mohammed was made to prophecy of them under the title Banu
Kanturah, the latter being a slave-girl of Abraham. The Imam Al-
Shafi'i (A.H. 195=A.D. 810) is said to have foretold their rule
in Egypt where an Ottoman defended him against a donkey-boy. (For
details see Pilgrimage i. 216 ) The Caliph Al-Mu'atasim bi'llah
(A.D. 833-842) had more than 10,000 Turkish slaves and was the
first to entrust them with high office; so his Arab subjects
wrote of him:--
A wretched Turk is thy heart's desire;
And to them thou showest thee dam and sire.
His successor Al-Wasik (Vathek, of the terrible eyes) was the
first to appoint a Turk his Sultan or regent. After his reign
they became praetorians and led to the downfall of the Abbasides.
[FN#99] The Persian saying is "First at the feast and last at the
fray."
[FN#100] i.e. a tempter, a seducer.
[FN#101] Arab. "Wayl-ak" here probably used in the sense of
"Wayh-ak" an expression of affectionate concern.
[FN#102] Firdausi, the Homer of Persia, affects the same
magnificent exaggeration. The trampling of men and horses raises
such a dust that it takes one layer (of the seven) from earth and
adds it to the (seven of the) Heavens. The "blaze" on the
stallion's forehead (Arab. "Ghurrah") is the white gleam of the
morning.
[FN#103] A noted sign of excitement in the Arab blood horse, when
the tail looks like a panache covering the hind-quarter.
[FN#104] i.e. Prince Kanmakan.
[FN#105] The "quality of mercy" belongs to the noble Arab,
whereas the ignoble and the Bada win are rancorous and revengeful
as camels.
[FN#106] Arab. "Khanjar," the poison was let into the grooves and
hollows of the poniard.
[FN#107] The Pers. "Bang", Indian "Bhang", Maroccan "Fasukh" and
S. African "Dakha." (Pilgrimage i. 64.) I heard of a "Hashish-
orgie" in London which ended in half the experimentalists being
on their sofas for a week. The drug is useful for stokers, having
the curious property of making men insensible to heat. Easterns
also use it for "Imsak" prolonging coition of which I speak
presently.
[FN#108] Arab. "Hashshashin;" whence De Sacy derived "Assassin."
A notable effect of the Hashish preparation is wildly to excite
the imagination, a kind of delirium imaginans sive phantasticum .
[FN#109] Meaning "Well done!" Mashallah (Ma shaa 'llah) is an
exclamation of many uses, especially affected when praising man
or beast for fear lest flattering words induce the evil eye.
[FN#110] Arab. "Kabkab" vulg. "Kubkab." They are between three
and ten inches high, and those using them for the first time in
the slippery Hammam must be careful.
[FN#111] Arab. "Majlis"=sitting. The postures of coition,
ethnologically curious and interesting, are subjects so extensive
that they require a volume rather than a note. Full information
can be found in the Ananga-ranga, or Stage of the Bodiless One, a
treatise in Sanskrit verse vulgarly known as Koka Pandit from the
supposed author, a Wazir of the great Rajah Bhoj, or according to
others, of the Maharajah of Kanoj. Under the title Lizzat al-Nisa
(The Pleasures--or enjoying--of Women) it has been translated
into all the languages of the Moslem East, from Hindustani to
Arabic. It divides postures into five great divisions: (1) the
woman lying supine, of which there are eleven subdivisions; (2)
lying on her side, right or left, with three varieties; (3)
sitting, which has ten, (4) standing, with three subdivisions,
and (5) lying prone, with two. This total of twenty- nine, with
three forms of "Purushayit," when the man lies supine (see the
Abbot in Boccaccio i. 4), becomes thirty-two, approaching the
French quarante fa‡ons. The Upavishta, majlis, or sitting
postures, when one or both "sit at squat" somewhat like birds,
appear utterly impossible to Europeans who lack the pliability of
the Eastern's limbs. Their object in congress is to avoid tension
of the muscles which would shorten the period of enjoyment. In
the text the woman lies supine and the man sits at squat between
her legs: it is a favourite from Marocco to China. A literal
translation of the Ananga range appeared in 1873 under the name
of Kama-Shastra; or the Hindoo Art of Love (Ars Amoris Indica);
but of this only six copies were printed. It was re-issued
(printed but not published) in 1885. The curious in such matters
will consult the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (London, privately
printed, 1879) by Pisanus Fraxi (H. S. Ashbee).
[FN#112] i.e. Le Roi Crotte.
[FN#113] This seems to be a punning allusion to Baghdad, which in
Persian would mean the Garden (bagh) of Justice (dad). See
"Biographical Notices of Persian Poets" by Sir Gore Ouseley,
London, Oriental Translation Fund, 1846
[FN#114] The Kardoukhoi (Carduchi) of Xenophon; also called
(Strabo xv.) "Kardakis, from a Persian word signifying
manliness," which would be "Kardak"=a doer (of derring do). They
also named the Montes Gordaei the original Ararat of Xisisthrus-
Noah's Ark. The Kurds are of Persian race, speaking an old and
barbarous Iranian tongue and often of the Shi'ah sect. They are
born bandits, highwaymen, cattle-lifters; yet they have spread
extensively over Syria and Egypt and have produced some glorious
men, witness Sultan Salah al-Din (Saladin) the Great. They claim
affinity with the English in the East, because both races always
inhabit the highest grounds they can find.
[FN#115] These irregular bands who belong to no tribe are the
most dangerous bandits in Arabia, especially upon the northern
frontier. Burckhardt, who suffered from them, gives a long
account of their treachery and utter absence of that Arab
"pundonor" which is supposed to characterise Arab thieves.
[FN#116] An euphemistic form to avoid mentioning the incestuous
marriage.
[FN#117] The Arab form of our "Kinchin lay."
[FN#118] These are the signs of a Shaykh's tent.
[FN#119] These questions, indiscreet in Europe, are the rule
throughout Arabia, as they were in the United States of the last
generation.
[FN#120] Arab. "Khizab" a paste of quicklime and lamp-black
kneaded with linseed oil which turns the Henna to a dark olive.
It is hideously ugly to unaccustomed eyes and held to be
remarkably beautiful in Egypt.
[FN#121] i.e. the God of the Empyrean.
[FN#122] A blow worthy of the Sa'alabah tribe to which he
belonged.
[FN#123] i.e. "benefits"; also the name of Mohammed's Mu'ezzin,
or crier to prayer, who is buried outside the Jabiah gate of
Damascus. Hence amongst Moslems, Abyssinians were preferred as
mosque-criers in the early ages of Al-Islam. Egypt chose blind
men because they were abundant and cheap; moreover they cannot
take note of what is doing on the adjoining roof terraces where
women and children love to pass the cool hours that begin and end
the day. Stories are told of men who counterfeited blindness for
years in order to keep the employment. In Moslem cities the
stranger required to be careful how he appeared at a window or on
the gallery of a minaret: the people hate to be overlooked and
the whizzing of a bullet was the warning to be off. (Pilgrimage
iii. 185.)
[FN#124] His instinct probably told him that this opponent was a
low fellow but such insults are common when "renowning it."
[FN#125] Arab. "Dare' " or "Dira'," a habergeon, a coat of ring-
mail, sometimes worn in pairs. During the wretched "Sudan"
campaigns much naive astonishment was expressed by the English
Press to hear of warriors armed cap-a-pie in this armour like
medieval knights. They did not know that every great tribe has
preserved, possibly from Crusading times, a number of hauberks,
even to hundreds. I have heard of only one English traveller who
had a mail jacket made by Wilkinson of Pall Mall, imitating in
this point Napoleon III. And (according to the Banker-poet,
Rogers) the Duke of Wellington. That of Napoleon is said to have
been made of platinum-wire, the work of a Pole who received his
money and an order to quit Paris. The late Sir Robert Clifton
(they say) tried its value with a Colt after placing it upon one
of his coat-models or mannequins. It is easy to make these
hauberks arrow-proof or sword-proof, even bullet-proof if Arab
gunpowder be used: but against a modern rifle-cone they are worse
than worthless as the fragments would be carried into the wound.
The British serjeant was right in saying that he would prefer to
enter battle in his shirt: and he might even doff that to
advantage and return to the primitive custom of man--gymnomachy.
[FN#126] Arab. "Jamal" (by Badawin pronounced "Gamal" like the
Hebrew) is the generic term for "Camel" through the Gr. ć :
"Ibl" is also the camel-species but not so commonly used. "Hajin"
is the dromedary (in Egypt, "Dalul" in Arabia), not the one-
humped camel of the zoologist (C. dromedarius) as opposed to the
two-humped (C. Bactrianus), but a running i.e. a riding camel.
The feminine is Nakah for like mules females are preferred.
"Bakr" (masc.) and "Bakrah" (fem.) are camel-colts. There are
hosts of special names besides those which are general. Mr.
Censor is singular when he states (p.40) "the male (of the camel)
is much the safer animal to choose ;" and the custom of t e
universal Ease disproves his assertion. Mr. McCoan ("Egypt as it
is") tells his readers that the Egyptian camel has two humps, in
fact, he describes the camel as it is not.
[FN#127] So, in the Romance of Dalhamah (Zat al-Himmah, the
heroine the hero Al-Gundubah ("one locust-man") smites off the
head of his mother's servile murderer and cries, I have taken my
blood-revenge upon this traitor slave'" (Lane, M. E. chaps. xx
iii.)
[FN#128] This gathering all the persons upon the stage before the
curtain drops is highly artistic and improbable.
[FN#129] He ought to have said his dawn prayers.
[FN#130] Here begins what I hold to be the oldest subject matter
in The Nights, the apologues or fables proper; but I reserve
further remarks for the Terminal Essay. Lane has most
objectionably thrown this and sundry of the following stories
into a note (vol. ii., pp. 53-69).
[FN#131] In beast stories generally when man appears he shows to
disadvantage.
[FN#132] Shakespeare's "stone bow" not Lane's "cross-bow" (ii.
53).
[FN#133] The goad still used by the rascally Egyptian donkey-boy
is a sharp nail at the end of a stick; and claims the special
attention of societies for the protection of animals.
[FN#134] "The most ungrateful of all voices surely is the voice
of asses" (Koran xxxi. 18); and hence the "braying of hell"
(Koran Ixvii.7). The vulgar still believe that the donkey brays
when seeing the Devil. "The last animal which entered the Ark
with Noah was the Ass to whose tail Iblis was clinging. At the
threshold the ass seemed troubled and could enter no further when
Noah said to him:--"Fie upon thee! come in." But as the ass was
still troubled and did not advance Noah cried:--"Come in, though
the Devil be with thee!", so the ass entered and with him Iblis.
Thereupon Noah asked:--"O enemy of Allah who brought thee into
the Ark ?", and Iblis answered:--"Thou art the man, for thou
saidest to the ass, 'come in though the Devil be with thee!"
(Kitab al-Unwan fi Makaid al-Niswan quoted by Lane ii. 54).
[FN#135] Arab. "Rihl," a wooden saddle stuffed with straw and
matting. In Europe the ass might complain that his latter end is
the sausage. In England they say no man sees a dead donkey: I
have seen dozens and, unfortunately, my own.
[FN#136] The English reader will not forget Sterne's old mare.
Even Al-Hariri, the prince of Arab rhetoricians, does not distain
to use "pepedit," the effect being put for the cause--terror. But
Mr. Preston (p. 285) and polite men translate by "fled in haste"
the Arabic farted for fear."
[FN#137] This is one of the lucky signs and adds to the value of
the beast. There are some fifty of these marks, some of them
(like a spiral of hair in the breast which denotes that the rider
is a cuckold) so ill-omened that the animal can be bought for
almost nothing. Of course great attention is paid to colours, the
best being the dark rich bay ("red" of Arabs) with black points,
or the flea-bitten grey (termed Azrak=blue or Akhzar=green) which
whitens with age. The worst are dun, cream coloured, piebald and
black, which last are very rare. Yet according to the Mishkat al-
Masabih (Lane 2, 54) Mohammed said, 'The best horses are black
(dark brown?) with white blazes (Arab. "Ghurrah") and upper lips;
next, black with blaze and three white legs (bad, because white-
hoofs are brittle):next, bay with white blaze and white fore and
hind legs." He also said, "Prosperity is with sorrel horses;" and
praised a sorrel with white forehead and legs; but he dispraised
the "Shikal," which has white stockings (Arab. "Muhajjil") on
alternate hoofs (e.g. right hind and left fore). The curious
reader will consult Lady Anne Blunt's "Bedouin Tribes of the
Euphrates, with some Account of the Arabs and their Horses"
(1879); but he must remember that it treats of the frontier
tribes. The late Major Upton also left a book "Gleanings from the
Desert of Arabia" (1881); but it is a marvellous production
deriving e.g. Khayl (a horse generically) from Kohl or antimony
(p. 275). What the Editor was dreaming of I cannot imagine. I
have given some details concerning the Arab horse especially in
Al-Yaman, among the Zu Mohammed, the Zu Husayn and the Banu Yam
in Pilgrimage iii. 270. As late as Marco Polo's day they supplied
the Indian market via Aden; but the "Eye o Al-Yaman" has totally
lost the habit of exporting horses.
[FN#138] The shovel-iron which is the only form of spur.
[FN#139] Used for the dromedary: the baggage-camel is haltered.
[FN#140] Arab. "Harwalah," the pas gymnastique affected when
circumambulating the Ka'abah (Pilgrimage iii. 208).
[FN#141] "This night" would be our "last night": the Arabs, I
repeat, say "night and day," not "day and night."
[FN#142] The vulgar belief is that man's fate is written upon his
skull, the sutures being the writing.
[FN#143] Koran ii. 191.
[FN#144] Arab. "Tasbih"=saying, "Subhan' Allah." It also means a
rosary (Egypt. Sebhah for Subhah) a string of 99 beads divided by
a longer item into sets of three and much fingered by the would-
appear pious. The professional devotee carries a string of wooden
balls the size of pigeons' eggs.
[FN#145] The pigeon is usually made to say, ' "Wahhidu Rabba-kumu
''llazi khalaka-kum, yaghfiru lakum zamba-kum" = "Unify (Assert
the Unity of) your Lord who created you; so shall He forgive your
sin!" As might be expected this "language" is differently
interpreted. Pigeon-superstitions are found in all religions and
I have noted (Pilgrimage iii, 218) how the Hindu deity of
Destruction- reproduction, the third Person of their Triad, Shiva
and his Spouse (or active Energy), are supposed to have dwelt at
Meccah under the titles of Kapoteshwara (Pigeon-god) and
Kapoteshi (Pigeon-goddess).
[FN#146] I have seen this absolute horror of women amongst the
Monks of the Coptic Convents.
[FN#147] After the Day of Doom, when men's actions are
registered, that of mutual retaliation will follow and all
creatures (brutes included) will take vengeance on one another.
Back to Full Books
|