Arabian Nights

I find no friend to bear my weight of woe?

How sleep upon a fire that flames unquenches?

Upon the flames to rest were hard enow!’

Asked her husband, ‘And what shall I do with him?’ and she answered, ‘Rise and take him in thine arms and spread a silken kerchief over him; then I will fare forth, with thee following me, this very night and if thou meet anyone say: “This is my son, and his mother and I are carrying him to the doctor that he may look at him.”’ So he rose and taking the Hunchback in his arms bore him along the streets, preceded by his wife who kept crying, ‘O my son, Allah keep thee! what part paineth thee and where hath this small-pox attacked thee?’ So all who saw them said, ‘’Tis a child sick of small-pox.’ They went along asking for the physician’s house till folk directed them to that of a leech which was a Jew.

They knocked at the door, and there came down to them a black slave-girl who opened and, seeing a man bearing a babe, and a woman with him, said to them, ‘What is the matter?’ ‘We have a little one with us,’ answered the Tailor’s wife, ‘and we wish to show him to the physician: so take this quarter-dinar and give it to thy master and let him come down and see my son who is sore sick.’ The girl went up to tell her master, whereupon the Tailor’s wife walked into the vestibule and said to her husband, ‘Leave the Hunchback here and let us fly for our lives.’ So the Tailor carried the dead man to the top of the stairs and propped him upright against the wall and ran away, he and his wife. Meanwhile the girl went in to the Jew and said to him, ‘At the door are a man and a woman with a sick child and they have given me a quarter-dinar for thee, that thou mayest go down and look at the little one and prescribe for it.’

As soon as the Jew saw the quarter-dinar he rejoiced and rose quickly in his greed of gain and went forth hurriedly in the dark; but hardly had he made a step when he stumbled on the corpse and threw it over, when it rolled to the bottom of the staircase. So he cried out to the girl to hurry up with the light, and she brought it, whereupon he went down and examining the Hunchback found that he was stone dead. So he cried out, ‘O for Esdras! O for Moses! O for Aaron! O for Joshua, son of Nun! O the Ten Commandments! I have stumbled against the sick one and he hath fallen downstairs and he is dead! How shall I get this man I have killed out of my house? O by the hoofs of the ass of Esdras!’ Then he took up the body and, carrying it into the house, told his wife what had happened and she said to him, ‘Why dost thou sit still? If thou keep him here till daybreak we shall both lose our lives. Let us two carry him to the terrace-roof and throw him over into the house of our neighbour, the Moslem, for if he abide there a night the dogs will come down on him from the adjoining terraces and eat him up.’

Now his neighbour was a Reeve, the controller of the Sultan’s kitchen, and was wont to bring back great store of oil and fat and broken meats; but the cats and rats used to eat it, or, if the dogs scented a fat sheep’s tail they would come down from the nearest roofs and tear at it; and on this wise the beasts had already damaged much of what he brought home. So the Jew and his wife carried the Hunchback up to the roof; and, letting him down by his hands and feet through the wind-shaft into the Reeve’s house, propped him up against the wall and went their ways. Hardly had they done this when the Reeve, who had been passing an evening with his friends hearing a recitation of the Koran, came home and opened the door and, going up with a lighted candle, found a son of Adam standing in the corner under the ventilator. When he saw this, he said, ‘Wah! By Allah, very good forsooth! He who robbeth my stuff is none other than a man.’ Then he turned to the Hunchback and said, ‘So ’tis thou that stealest the meat and the fat! I thought it was the cats and dogs, and I kill the dogs and cats of the quarter and sin against them by killing them. And all the while ’tis thou comest down from the house terrace through the wind-shaft. But I will avenge myself upon thee with my own hand!’

So he snatched up a heavy hammer and set upon him and smote him full on the breast and he fell down. Then he examined him and, finding that he was dead, cried out in horror, thinking that he had killed him, and said, ‘There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great!’ And he feared for his life, and added, ‘Allah curse the oil and the meat and the grease and the sheep’s tails to boot! How hath fate given this man his quietus at my hand!’ Then he looked at the body and seeing it was that of a Gobbo, said, ‘Was it not enough for thee to be a hunchback, but thou must likewise be a thief and prig flesh and fat! O thou Veiler, deign to veil me with Thy curtain of concealment!’ So he took him upon his shoulders and, going forth with him from his house about the latter end of the night, carried him to the nearest end of the bazar, where he set him up on his feet against the wall of a shop at the head of a dark lane, and left him and went away.

After a while up came a Nazarene, the Sultan’s Broker who, much bemused with liquor, was purposing for the Hammambath as his drunkenness whispered in his ear, ‘Verily the call to matins is nigh.’ He came plodding along and staggering about till he drew near the Hunchback and squatted down to make water over against him; when he happened to glance around and saw a man standing against the wall. Now some person had snatched off the Christian’s turband in the first of the night; so when he saw the Hunchback hard by he fancied that he also meant to steal his head-dress.

There upon he clenched his fist and struck him on the neck, felling him to the ground, and called aloud to the watchman of the bazar, and came down on the body in his drunken fury and kept on belabouring and throttling the corpse. Presently the Charley came up and, finding a Nazarene kneeling on a Moslem and frapping him, asked, ‘What harm hath this one done?’ And the Broker answered, ‘The fellow meant to snatch off my turband.’ ‘Get up from him,’ quoth the watchman. So he arose and the Charley went up to the Hunchback and finding him dead, exclaimed, ‘By Allah, good indeed! A Christian killing a Mahometan!’

Then he seized the Broker and, tying his hands behind his back, carried him to the Governor’s house, and all the while the Nazarene kept saying to himself, ‘O Messiah! O Virgin! how came I to kill this fellow? And in what a hurry he must have been to depart this life when he died of a single blow!’ Presently, as his drunkenness fled, came dolour in its stead. So the Broker and the body were kept in the Governor’s place till morning morrowed, when the Wali came out and gave order to hang the supposed murderer and commanded the executioner make proclamation of the sentence.

Forthwith they set up a gallows under which they made the Nazarene stand and the torch-bearer, who was hangman, threw the rope round his neck and passed one end through the pulley, and was about to hoist him up when lo! the Reeve, who was passing by, saw the Broker about to be hanged; and, making his way through the people, cried out to the executioner, ‘Hold! Hold! I am he who killed the Hunchback!’ Asked the Governor. ‘What made thee kill him?’ and he answered. ‘I went home last night and there found this man who had come down the ventilator to steal my property; so I smote him with a hammer on the breast and he died forthright. Then I took him up and carried him to the bazar and set him up against the wall in such a place near such a lane’; adding, ‘Is it not enough for me to have killed a Moslem without also killing a Christian? So hang none other but me.’

When the Governor heard these words he released the Broker and said to the torchbearer, ‘Hang up this man on his own confession.’ So he loosed the cord from the Nazarene’s neck and threw it round that of the Reeve and, making him stand under the gallows-tree, was about to string him up when behold, the Jewish physician pushed through the people and shouted to the executioner, ‘Hold! Hold! It was I and none else killed the Hunchback! Last night I was sitting at home when a man and a woman knocked at the door carrying this Gobbo who was sick, and gave my handmaid a quarter-dinar, bidding her hand me the fee and tell me to come down and see him. Whilst she was gone the man and the woman brought him into the house and, setting him on the stairs, went away: and presently I came down and not seeing him, for I was in the dark, stumbled over him and he fell to the foot of the staircase and died on the moment. Then we took him up, I and my wife, and carried him on to the top terrace; and, the house of this Reeve being next door to mine, we let the body down through the ventilator. When he came home and found the Hunchback in his house, he fancied he was a thief and struck him with a hammer, so that he fell to the ground, and our neighbour made certain that he had slain him. Now it is not enough for me to have killed one Moslem unwittingly, without burdening myself with taking the life of another Moslem wittingly?’

When the Governor heard this he said to the hangman, ‘Set free the Reeve, and hang the Jew.’ Thereupon the torch-bearer took him and slung the cord round his neck when behold, the Tailor pushed through the people, and shouted to the executioner, ‘Hold! Hold! It was I and none else killed the Hunchback; and this was the fashion thereof. I had been out a-pleasuring yesterday and, coming back to supper, fell in with this Gobbo, who was drunk and drumming away and singing lustily to his tambourine. So I accosted him and carried him to my house and bought a fish, and we sat down to eat. Presently my wife took a fid of fish, and, making a gobbet of it crammed it into his mouth; but some of it went down the wrong way or stuck in his gullet and he died on the instant. So we lifted him up, I and my wife, and carried him to the Jew’s house where the slave-girl came down and opened the door to us and I said to her: “Tell thy master that there are a man and a woman and a sick person for thee to see!” I gave her a quarter-dinar and she went up to tell her master; and, whilst she was gone, I carried the Hunchback to the head of the staircase and propped him up against the wall, and went off with my wife. When the Jew came down he stumbled over him and thought that he had killed him.’

Then he asked the Jew, ‘Is this the truth?’ and the Jew answered, ‘Yes.’ Thereupon the Tailor turned to the Governor and said, ‘Leave go the Jew and hang me.’ When the Governor heard the Tailor’s tale he marvelled at the matter of this Hunchback and exclaimed, ‘Verily this is an adventure which should be recorded in books!’ Then he said to the hangman, ‘Let the Jew go and hang the Tailor on his own confession.’ The executioner took the Tailor and put the rope around his neck and said, ‘I am tired of such slow work; we bring out this one and change him for that other, and no one is hanged after all!’

Now the Hunchback in question was, they relate, jester to the Sultan of China who could not bear him out of his sight; so when the fellow got drunk and did not make his appearance that night or the next day till noon, the Sultan asked some of his courtiers about him and they answered, ‘O our lord, the Governor hath come upon him dead and hath ordered his murderer to be hanged; but, as the hangman was about to hoist him up there came a second and a third and a fourth and each one said: “It is I and none else killed the Hunchback!” And each gave a full and circumstantial account of the manner of the jester being killed.’

When the King heard this he cried aloud to the Chamberlain-in-waiting, ‘Go down to the Governor and bring me all four of them.’ So the Chamberlain went down at once to the place of execution, where he found the torch-bearer on the point of hanging the Tailor and shouted to him, ‘Hold! Hold!’ Then he gave the King’s command to the Governor who took the Tailor, the Jew, the Nazarene and the Reeve (the Hunchback’s body being borne on men’s shoulders) and went up with one and all of them to the King. When he came into the presence, he kissed the ground and acquainted the ruler with the whole story which it is needless to relate for, as they say: There is no avail in a thrice-told tale. The Sultan hearing it marvelled and was moved to mirth and commanded the story to be written in letters of liquid gold, saying to those present, ‘Did ye ever hear a more wondrous tale than that of my Hunchback?’

CHAPTER 5 The Tale of Nur Al-Din Ali and His Son Badr Al-Din Hasan (#ulink_1a01f3aa-ccbe-57fa-9a14-62c67ad44322)

Know, O Commander of the Faithful, that in times of yore the land of Egypt was ruled by a Sultan endowed with justice and generosity; one who loved the pious poor and companied with the Olema and learned men; and he had a Wazir, a wise and an experienced, well versed in affairs and in the art of government. This Minister, who was a very old man, had two sons, as they were two moons; never man saw the like of them for beauty and grace, the elder called Shams al-Din Mohammed and the younger Nur al-Din Ali; but the younger excelled the elder in seemliness and pleasing semblance, so that folk heard his fame in far countries and men flocked to Egypt for the purpose of seeing him. In course of time their father, the Wazir died and was deeply regretted and mourned by the Sultan, who sent for his two sons and, investing them with dresses of honour, said to them, ‘Let not your hearts be troubled, for ye shall stand in your father’s stead and be joint Ministers of Egypt.’

At this they rejoiced and kissed the ground before him and performed the ceremonial mourning for their father during a full month; after which time they entered upon the Wazirate, and the power passed into their hands as it had been in the hands of their father, each doing duty for a week at a time. They lived under the same roof and their word was one; and whenever the Sultan desired to travel they took it by turns to be in attendance on him.

It fortuned one night that the Sultan purposed setting out on a journey next morning, and the elder, whose turn it was to accompany him, was sitting conversing with his brother and said to him, ‘O my brother, it is my wish that we both marry, I and thou, two sisters; and go in to our wives on one and the same night.’ ‘Do, O my brother, as thou desirest,’ the younger replied, ‘for right is thy recking and surely I will comply with thee in whatso thou sayest.’ So they agreed upon this and quoth Shams al-Din, ‘If Allah decree that we marry two damsels and go in to them on the same night, and they shall conceive on their bride-nights and bear children to us on the same day, and by Allah’s will thy wife bear thee a son and my wife bear me a daughter, let us wed them either to other, for they will be cousins.’ Quoth Nur al-Din, ‘O my brother, Shams al-Din, what dower wilt thou require from my son for thy daughter?’

Quoth Shams al-Din, ‘I will take three thousand dinars and three pleasure gardens and three farms; and it would not be seemly that the youth make contract for less than this.’ When Nur al-Din heard such demand he said. ‘What manner of dower is this thou wouldest impose on my son? Wottest thou not that we are brothers and both by Allah’s grace Wazirs and equal in office? It behoveth thee to offer thy daughter to my son without marriage settlement; or, if one need be, it should represent a mere nominal value by way of show to the world: for thou knowest that the masculine is worthier than the feminine, and my son is a male and our memory will be preserved by him not by thy daughter.’ ‘But what,’ said Shams al-Din, ‘is she to have?’ And Nur al-Din continued. ‘Through her we shall not be remembered among the Emirs of the earth; but I see thou wouldest do with me according to the saying: An thou wouldest bluff off a buyer, ask him high price and higher; or as did a man who, they say, went to a friend and asked something of him in necessity and was answered: ‘Bismillah, in the name of Allah, I will do all what thou requirest but come tomorrow!’ Whereupon the other replied in this verse:

‘“When he who is asked a favour saith ‘Tomorrow’,

The wise man wots ’tis vain to beg or borrow.”’

Quoth Shams al-Din, ‘Basta! I see thee fail in respect to me by making thy son of more account than my daughter; and ’tis plain that thine understanding is of the meanest and that thou lackest manners. Thou remindest me of thy partnership in the Wazirate, when I admitted thee to share with me only in pity for thee, and not wishing to mortify thee; and that thou mightest help me as a manner of assistant. But since thou talkest on this wise, by Allah, I will never marry my daughter to thy son; no, not for her weight in gold!’ When Nur al-Din heard his brother’s words he waxed wroth and said, ‘And I too, I will never, never marry my son to thy daughter; no, not to keep from my lips the cup of death.’ Shams al-Din replied, ‘I would not accept him as a husband for her, and he is not worth a paring of her nail. Were I not about to travel I would make an example of thee; however when I return thou shalt see, and I will show thee, how I can assert my dignity and vindicate my honour. But Allah doeth whatso He willeth.’

When Nur al-Din heard this speech from his brother, he was filled with fury and lost his wits for rage; but he hid what he felt and held his peace; and each of the brothers passed the night in a place far apart, wild with wrath against the other. As soon as morning dawned the Sultan fared forth in state and crossed over from Cairo to Jizah and made for the Pyramids, accompanied by the Wazir Shams al-Din, whose turn of duty it was, whilst his brother Nur al-Din, who passed the night in sore rage, rose with the light and prayed the dawn-prayer. Then he betook himself to his treasury and, taking a small pair of saddle-bags, filled them with gold; and he called to mind his brother’s threats and the contempt wherewith he had treated him, and he repeated these couplets:

‘Travel! and thou shalt find new friends for old ones left behind;

Toil! for the sweets of human life by toil and moil are found:

The stay-at-home no honour wins nor aught attains buant;

So leave thy place of birth and wander all the world around!

I’ve seen, and very oft I’ve seen, how standing water stinks,

And only flowing sweetens it and trotting makes it sound:

And were the moon for ever full and ne’er to wax or wane,

Man would not strain his watchful eyes to see its gladsome round:

Except the lion leave his lair he ne’er would fell his game;

Except the arrow leave the bow ne’er had it reached its bound:

Gold-dust is dust the while it lies untravelled in the mine,

And aloes-wood mere fuel is upon its native ground:

And gold shall win his highest worth when from his goal ungoal’d;

And aloes sent to foreign parts grows costlier than gold.’

When he ended his verse he bade one of his pages saddle him his Nubian mare-mule with her padded selle. Now she was a dapple-grey with ears like reed-pens and legs like columns and a back high and strong as a dome builded on pillars; her saddle was of gold-cloth and her stirrups of Indian steel, and her housing of Ispahan velvet; she had trappings which would serve the Chosroës, and she was like a bride adorned for her wedding night. Moreover he bade lay on her back a piece of silk for a seat, and a prayer-carpet under which were his saddle-bags. When this was done he said to his pages and slaves, ‘I purpose going forth apleasuring outside the city on the road to Kalyub-town, and I shall lie three nights abroad; so let none of you follow me, for there is something straiteneth my breast.’

Then he mounted the mule in haste; and, taking with him some provaunt for the way, set out from Cairo and faced the open and uncultivated country laying around it. About noontide he entered Bilbays-city, where he dismounted and stayed a while to rest himself and his mule and ate some of his victual. He bought at Bilbays all he wanted for himself and forage for his mule and then fared on the way of the waste. Towards nightfall he entered a town called Sa’adiyah where he alighted and took out somewhat of his viaticum and ate; then he spread his strip of silk on the sand and set the saddle-bags under his head and slept in the open air; for he was still overcome with anger. When morning dawned he mounted and rode onward till he reached the Holy City, Jerusalem, and thence he made Aleppo, where he dismounted at one of the caravanserais and abode three days to rest himself and the mule and to smell the air. Then, being determined to travel afar and Allah having written safety in his fate, he set out again, wending without wotting whither he was going; and, having fallen in with certain couriers, he stinted not travelling till he had reached Bassorah-city albeit he knew not what the place was.

It was dark night when he alighted at the Khan, so he spread out his prayer-carpet and took down the saddle-bags from the back of the mule and gave her with her furniture in charge of the door-keeper that he might walk her about. The man took her and did as he was bid. Now it so happened that the Wazir of Bassorah, a man shot in years, was sitting at the lattice-window of his palace opposite the Khan and he saw the porter walking the mule up and down. He was struck by her trappings of price and thought her a nice beast fit for the riding of Wazirs or even of royalties; and the more he looked the more he was perplexed till at last he said to one of his pages, ‘Bring hither yon door-keeper.’

The page went and returned to the Wazir with the porter who kissed the ground between his hands, and the Minister asked him, ‘Who is the owner of yonder mule and what manner of man is he?’ and he answered, ‘O my lord, the owner of this mule is a comely young man of pleasant manners, withal grave and dignified, and doutbless one of the sons of the merchants.’ When the Wazir heard the door-keeper’s words he arose forthright; and, mounting his horse, rode to the Khan and went in to Nur al-Din who, seeing the Minister making towards him, rose to his feet and advanced to meet him and saluted him. The Wazir welcomed him to Bassorah and dismounting, embraced him and made him sit down by his side and said, ‘O my son, whence comest thou and what dost thou seek?’ ‘O my lord,’ Nur al-Din replied, ‘I have come from Cairo-city of which my father was whilome Wazir; but he hath been removed to the grace of Allah;’ and he informed him of all that had befallen him from beginning to end, adding, ‘I am resolved never to return home before I have seen all the cities and countries of the world.’ When the Wazir heard this, he said to him, ‘O my son, hearken not to the voice of passion lest it cast thee into the pit; for indeed many regions be waste places and I fear for thee the turns of Time.’ Then he let load the saddle-bags and the silk and prayer-carpets on the mule and carried Nur al-Din to his own house, where he lodged him in a pleasant place and entreated him honourably and made much of him, for he inclined to love him with exceeding love.

After a while he said to him, ‘O my son, here am I left a man in years and have no male children, but Allah hath blessed me with a daughter who eveneth thee in beauty; and I have rejected all her many suitors, men of rank and substance. But affection for thee hath entered into my heart; say me, then, wilt thou be to her a husband? If thou accept this, I will go up with thee to the Sultan of Bassorah and will tell him that thou art my nephew, the son of my brother, and bring thee to be appointed Wazir in my place that I may keep the house for, by Allah, O my son, I am stricken in years and aweary.’ When Nur al-Din heard the Wazir’s words, he bowed his head in modesty and said, ‘To hear is to obey!’

At this the Wazir rejoiced and bade his servants prepare a feast and decorate the great assembly-hall, wherein they were wont to celebrate the marriages of Emirs and Grandees. Then he assembled his friends and the notables of the reign and the merchants of Bassorah and when all stood before him he said to them, ‘I had a brother who was Wazir in the land of Egypt, and Allah Almighty blessed him with two sons, whilst to me, as well ye wot, He hath given a daughter. My brother charged me to marry my daughter to one of his sons, whereto I assented; and, when my daughter was of age to marry, he sent me one of his sons, the young man now present, to whom I purpose marrying her, drawing up the contract and celebrating the night of unveiling with due ceremony: for he is nearer and dearer to me than a stranger and, after the wedding, if he please he shall abide with me, or if he desire to travel I will forward him and his wife to his father’s home.’ Hereat one and all replied, ‘Right is thy recking;’ and they looked at the bridegroom and were pleased with him.

So the Wazir sent for the Kazi and legal witnesses and they wrote out the marriage-contract, after which the slaves perfumed the guests with incense, and served them with sherbet of sugar and sprinkled rose-water on them and all went their ways. Then the Wazir bade his servants take Nur al-Din to the Hammam-baths and sent him a suit of the best of his own especial raiment, and napkins and towelry and bowls and perfume-burners and all else that was required. And after the bath, when he came out and donned the dress, he was even as the full moon on the fourteenth night; and he mounted his mule and stayed not till he reached the Wazir’s palace. There he dismounted and went in to the Minister and kissed his hands, and the Wazir bade him welcome, and said, ‘Arise and go in to thy wife this night, and on the morrow I will carry thee to the Sultan, and pray Allah bless thee with all manner of weal.’

So Nur al-Din left him and went in to his wife the Wazir’s daughter. Thus far concerning him, but as regards his elder brother, Shams al-Din, he was absent with the Sultan a long time and when he returned from his journey he found not his brother; and he asked of his servants and slaves who answered, ‘On the day of thy departure with the Sultan, thy brother mounted his mule fully caparisoned as for state procession saying: “I am going towards Kalyub-town and I shall be absent one day or at most two days; for my breast is straitened, and let none of you follow me.” Then he fared forth and from that time to this we have heard no tidings of him.’ Shams al-Din was greatly troubled at the sudden disappearance of his brother and grieved with exceeding grief at the loss and said to himself, ‘This is only because I chided and upbraided him the night before my departure with the Sultan; haply his feelings were hurt and he fared forth a-travelling; but I must send after him.’ Then he went in to the Sultan and acquainted him with what had happened and wrote letters and dispatches, which he sent by running footmen to his deputies in every province. But during the twenty days of his brother’s absence Nur al-Din had travelled far and had reached Bassorah; so after diligent search the messengers failed to come at any news of him and returned.

Thereupon Shams al-Din despaired of finding his brother and said, ‘Indeed I went beyond all bounds in what I said to him with reference to the marriage of our children. Would that I had not done so! This all cometh of my lack of wit and want of caution.’ Soon after this he sought in marriage the daughter of a Cairene merchant and drew up the marriage contract and went in to her. And it so chanced that, on the very same night when Shams al-Din went in to his wife, Nur al-Din also went in to his wife the daughter of the Wazir of Bassorah; this being in accordance with the will of Almighty Allah, that He might deal the decrees of Destiny to His creatures. Furthermore, it was as the two brothers had said; for their two wives became pregnant by them on the same night and both were brought to bed on the same day; the wife of Shams al-Din, Wazir of Egypt, of a daughter, never in Cairo was seen a fairer; and the wife of Nur al-Din of a son, none more beautiful was ever seen in his time, as one of the poets said concerning the like of him:

That jetty hair, that glossy brow,