Arabian Nights

‘Though a-mourn I may awake with all happiness in hand

Though the world all be mine and like Kisra-kings I reign;

To me they had the worth of the winglet of the gnat

When I fail to see thy form, when I look for thee in vain.’

When she had ended for a time her words and her weeping I said to her: ‘O my cousin, let this thy mourning suffice, for in pouring forth tears there is little profit!’ ‘Thwart me not,’ answered she, ‘in aught I do, or I will lay violent hands on myself!’ So I held my peace and left her to go her own way; and she ceased not to cry and keen and indulge her affliction for yet another year. At the end of the third year I waxed weary of this longsome mourning, and one day I happened to enter the cenotaph when vexed and angry with some matter which had thwarted me, and suddenly I heard her say: ‘O lord, I never hear thee vouchsafe a single word to me! Why dost thou not answer me, O my master?’ and she began reciting:

‘O thou tomb! O thou tomb! be his beauty set in shade?

Hast thou darkened that countenance all sheeny as the noon?

O thou tomb! neither earth nor yet heaven art to me

Then how cometh it in thee are conjoined my sun and moon?’

When I heard such verses as these rage was heaped upon my rage; I cried out: ‘Well-away! how long is this sorrow to last?’ and I began repeating:

‘O thou tomb! O thou tomb! be his horrors set in blight?

Hast thou darkened his countenance that sickeneth the soul?

O thou tomb! neither cess-pool nor pipkin art to me

Then how cometh it in thee are conjoined soil and coal?’

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

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

Hereupon the young man again shed tears and began reciting:

‘In patience, O my God, I endure my lot and fate;

I will bear at will of Thee whatsoever be my state:

They oppress me; they torture me; they make my life a woe

Yet haply Heaven’s happiness shall compensate my strait:

Yea, straitened is my life by the bane and hate o’ foes

But Mustafa and Murtaza shall ope me Heaven’s gate.’

After this the Sultan turned towards the young Prince and said, ‘O youth, thou hast removed one grief only to add another grief; but now, O my friend, where is she; and where is the mausoleum wherein lieth the wounded slave?’ ‘The slave lieth under yon dome,’ quoth the young man, ‘and she sitteth in the chamber fronting yonder door. And every day at sunrise she cometh forth, and first strippeth me, and whippeth me with an hundred strokes of the leathern scourge, and I weep and shriek; but there is no power of motion in my lower limbs to keep her off me. After ending her tormenting me she visiteth the slave, bringing him wine and boiled meats. And tomorrow at an early hour she will be here.’

Quoth the King, ‘By Allah, O youth I will assuredly do thee a good deed which the world shall not willingly let die, and an act of derring-do which shall be chronicled long after I am dead and gone by.’ Then the King sat him by the side of the young Prince and talked till nightfall, when he lay down and slept; but, as soon as the false dawn showed, he arose and doffing his outer garments bared his blade and hastened to the place wherein lay the slave. Then was he ware of lighted candles and lamps, and perfume of incenses and unguents; and, directed by these, he made for the slave and struck him one stroke killing him on the spot: after which he lifted him on his back and threw him into a well that was in the palace.

Presently he returned and, donning the slave’s gear, lay down at length within the mausoleum with the drawn sword laid close to and along his side. After an hour or so the accursed witch came; and, first going to her husband, she stripped off his clothes and, taking a whip, flogged him cruelly while he cried out, ‘Ah! enough for me the case I am in! take pity on me, O my cousin!’ But she replied, ‘Didst thou take pity on me and spare the life of my true love on whom I doated?’ Then she drew the cilice over his raw and bleeding skin and threw the robe upon all and went down to the slave with a goblet of wine and a bowl of meat-broth in her hands. She entered under the dome weeping and wailing, ‘Well-away!’ and crying, ‘O my lord! speak a word to me! O my master! talk awhile with me!’ and began to recite these couplets:

‘How long this harshness, this unlove, shall bide?

Suffice thee not tear-floods thou hast espied?

Thou dost prolong our parting purposely

And if wouldst please my foe, thou’rt satisfied!’

Then she wept again and said, ‘O my lord! speak to me, talk with me!’ The King lowered his voice and, twisting his tongue, spoke after the fashion of the blackamoors and said, ‘’Lack! ’lack! there be no Ma’esty and there be no Might save in Allauh, the Gloriose, the Great!’ Now when she heard these words she shouted for joy, and fell to the ground fainting; and when her senses returned she asked, ‘O my lord, can it be true that thou hast power of speech?’ and the King making his voice small and faint answered, ‘O my cuss! dost thou deserve that I talk to thee and speak with thee?’ ‘Why and wherefore?’ rejoined she; and he replied, ‘The why is that all the livelong day thou tormentest thy hubby; and he keeps calling on ’eaven for aid until sleep is strange to me even from evenin’ till mawnin’, and he prays and damns, cussing us two, me and thee, causing me disquiet and much bother: were this not so, I should long ago have got my health; and it is this which prevents my answering thee.’ Quoth she, ‘With thy leave I will release him from what spell is on him;’ and quoth the King, ‘Release him and let’s have some rest!’

She cried, ‘To hear is to obey;’ and, going from the cenotaph to the palace, she took a metal bowl and filled it with water and spake over it certain words which made the contents bubble and boil as a cauldron seetheth over the fire. With this she sprinkled her husband saying, ‘By virtue of the dread words I have spoken, if thou became thus by my spells, come forth out of that form into thine own former form.’ And lo and behold! the young man shook and trembled; then he rose to his feet and, rejoicing at his deliverance, cried aloud, ‘I testify that there is no god but the God, and in very truth Mohammed is His Apostle, whom Allah bless and keep!’ Then she said to him, ‘Go forth and return not hither, for if thou do I will surely slay thee;’ screaming these words in his face. So he went from between her hands.

(#ulink_61f6f1e3-7943-50b9-a29d-3f6fbc126941)An Arab holds that he has a right to marry his first cousin, the daughter of his father’s brother.

(#ulink_a56e2cf9-1a09-5a33-8c83-8760a5a82f73)A preparation of hemp.

(#ulink_7d60706b-4cf4-535c-a2a3-7bb2e6414bfa)The rubbish heaps outside Eastern cities, some of which are over a hundred feet high.

CHAPTER 3 The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad (#ulink_62a73f70-11fd-5186-ae0e-455cb52d04a6)

Once upon a time there was a Porter in Baghdad, who was a bachelor and who would remain unmarried. It came to pass on a certain day, as he stood about the street leaning idly upon his crate, behold, there stood before him an honourable woman in a mantilla of Mosul silk, broidered with gold and bordered with brocade; her walking-shoes were also purfled with gold and her hair floated in long plaits. She raised her face-veil and, showing two black eyes fringed with jetty lashes, whose glances were soft and languishing and whose perfect beauty was ever blandishing, she accosted the Porter and said in the suavest tones and choicest language, ‘Take up thy crate and follow me.’ The Porter was so dazzled he could hardly believe that he heard her aright, but he shouldered his basket in hot haste saying in himself, ‘O day of good luck! O day of Allah’s grace!’ and walked after her till she stopped at the door of a house.

There she rapped, and presently came out to her an old man, a Nazarene, to whom she gave a gold piece, receiving from him in return what she required of strained wine clear as olive oil; and she set it safely in the hamper, saying, ‘Lift and follow.’ Quoth the Porter, ‘This, by Allah, is indeed an auspicious day, a day propitious for the granting of all a man wisheth.’ He again hoisted up the crate and followed her till she stopped at a fruiter’s shop and bought from him Shami apples and Osmani quinces and Omani peaches, and cucumbers of Nile growth, and Egyptian limes and Sultani oranges and citrons; besides Aleppine jasmine, scented myrtle berries, Damascene nenuphars, flower of privet and camomile, blood-red anemones, violets, and pomegranate-bloom, eglantine and narcissus, and set the whole in the Porter’s crate, saying, ‘Up with it.’ So he lifted and followed her till she stopped at a butcher’s booth and said, ‘Cut me off ten pounds of mutton.’

She paid him his price and he wrapped it in a banana-leaf, whereupon she laid it in the crate and said, ‘Hoist, O Porter.’ He hoisted accordingly, and followed her as she walked on till she stopped at a grocer’s, where she bought dry fruits and pistachio-kernels, Tihamah raisins, shelled almonds and all wanted for dessert, and said to the Porter, ‘Lift and follow me.’

So he up with his hamper and after her till she stayed at the confectioner’s, and she bought an earthen platter, and piled it with all kinds of sweetmeats in his shop, open-worked tarts and fritters scented with musk and ‘soap-cakes’, and lemon leaves and melon-preserves, and ‘Zaynab’s combs’, and ‘ladies’ fingers’, and ‘Kazi’s tit-bits’ and goodies of every description; and placed the platter in the Porter’s crate. Thereupon quoth he (being a merry man), ‘Thou shouldest have told me, and I would have brought with me a pony or a she-camel to carry all this market-stuff.’ She smiled and gave him a little cuff on the nape saying, ‘Step out and exceed not in words, for (Allah willing!) thy wage will not be wanting.’

Then she stopped at a perfumer’s and took from him ten sorts of waters, rose scented with musk, orange-flower, water-lily, willow-flower, violet and five others; and she also bought two loaves of sugar, a bottle for perfume-spraying, a lump of male incense, aloe-wood, ambergris and musk, with candles of Alexandria wax; and she put the whole into the basket, saying, ‘Up with they crate and after me.’ He did so and followed until she stood before the greengrocer’s, of whom she bought pickled safflower and olives, in brine and in oil; with tarragon and cream-cheese and hard Syrian cheese; and she stowed them away in the crate saying to the Porter, ‘Take up thy basket and follow me.’

He did so and went after her till she came to a fair mansion fronted by a spacious court, a tall, fine place to which columns gave strength and grace: and the gate thereof had two leaves of ebony inlaid with plates of red gold. The lady stopped at the door and, turning her face-veil sideways, knocked softly with her knuckles whilst the Porter stood behind her, thinking of naught save her beauty and loveliness. Presently the door swung back and both leaves were opened, whereupon he looked to see who had opened it; and behold, it was a lady of tall figure, some five feet high; a model of beauty and loveliness, brilliance and symmetry and perfect grace.

Her forehead was flower-white; her cheeks like the anemone ruddy bright; her eyes were those of the wild heifer or the gazelle, with eyebrows like the crescent-moon which ends Sha’aban and begins Ramazan, her mouth was the ring of Sulayman, her lips coral-red, and her teeth like a line of strung pearls or of camomile petals. Her throat recalled the antelope’s, and her breasts, like two pomegranates of even size, stood at bay as it were, her body rose and fell in waves below her dress like the rolls of a piece of brocade, and her navel would hold an ounce of benezoin ointment. In fine she was like her of whom the poet said:

On Sun and Moon of palace cast thy sight

Enjoy her flower-like face, her fragrant light:

Thine eyes shall never see in hair so black

Beauty encase a brow so purely white:

The ruddy rosy cheek proclaims her claim

Though fail her name whose beauties we indite:

As sways her gait I smile at hips so big