M 
 
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 ^h^ 
 
 NOTICE. 
 
 H. S. Nichols, Ltd., respectfully be^ to call 
 the attention of purchasers to the fact that all Books 
 issued by them are intenrled to be sold at the net 
 advertised prices without deduction, and that they 
 are supplied to Booksellers on terms which will not 
 allow of any discount being given by them to the 
 public.
 
 '^ll
 
 THE LIBRARY EDITION 
 
 The Arabian Nights' Entertainments 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 VOLUME I
 
 } J^ J^ J^J^ 
 
 "TO THE PURE ALL THLNGS ARE PURE" 
 (Paris omnia pura). 
 
 — Ayah Proverb. 
 
 " Niuna corrotta mente intese mai sanamente parole." 
 
 — " Decameron " — conclusion. 
 
 " Erubuit, posuitque meum Lucretia librum 
 
 Sed coram Bruto. Brute ! recede, leget." 
 
 —Martial. 
 
 Mieulx est de ris que de larmes escripre, 
 
 Pour ce que rire est le propre des hommes." 
 
 — Rabelais. 
 
 " The pleasure we derive from perusing the Thousand-and-One Stories 
 makes us regret that we possess only a comparatively small part of these 
 truly enchanting fictions." 
 
 — Crichton's "History of Arabia."
 
 I i< i~ t li II I y (J lif niiiwMi^ ' iftir -■ r^^.-
 
 No. I. 
 Captain Sir Richard F. Burton, 
 
 K.C.M.G., F.R.G.S., etc., etc.
 
 The Book of the 
 
 Thousand Nights and a Night 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE ARABIC BY 
 
 CAPTAIN SIR R. F. BURTON 
 
 K.C.M.G. F.R.G, S. &c. &c. &c, 
 REPRINTED FROM THE ORIGINAL EDITION AND EDITED BY 
 
 LEONARD C. SMITHERS 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY A SERIES OF SE]-ENTY-0\E ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 REPRODUCED FROM THE ORIGINAL PICTURES IN OILS 
 
 SPECIALLY PAINTED BY 
 
 ALBERT LETCHFORD 
 
 IN TWELVE VOLUMES—VOLUME I 
 H. S. NICHOLS Ltd. 
 
 39 CHARING CROSS ROAD LONDON W.C, 
 
 MDCCCXCVII 
 
 (All rights reserved)
 
 REGISTERED 
 
 TRA DE f^M 
 
 MARK 
 
 
 COPYRIGHTED IN GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES, 1^97 
 
 PRINTED BY H. S. NICHOLS, I.TD., 39 CHARINO CROSS ROAD, LONDON, W.C.
 
 EDITOR'S NOTE 
 
 This Library Edition of Sir Richard Burton's Translation 
 of " The Arabian Nights " has been printed with a close and 
 careful collation of his own copy of the original issue, and all 
 his corrections and additional notes have been inserted. 
 
 In dealing with certain gross passages in the text and 
 with a few of the translator's " anthropological " notes, I have 
 borne in mind that the Book is not only a classic but also a 
 scientific and ethnographical work, and that therefore greater 
 latitude of expression is properly allowable than would be the 
 case with a mere story book of to-day. 
 
 In Lady Burton's edition, which was a reprint of the first 
 ten volumes only of the original issue, it was thought advisable 
 to omit no fewer than 215 pages; in this edition, which 
 comprises the ivhole sixteen volumes (the entire work), more than 
 four-fifths of these omitted passages have been restored. 
 
 These few omissions are also rendered necessary by the 
 pledge which Sir Richard gave to his Subscribers that no cheaper 
 edition of the entire work should be issued ; but in all other 
 respects the original text has been reproduced with scrupulous 
 fidelity. 
 
 The reader has here, therefore, the most complete English 
 edition of The Nights that can ever be published, the extreme 
 grossness of the few words and passages omitted absolutely 
 precluding their appearance. It cannot, however, be reasonably 
 said that these slight excisions in any way damage the Book ;
 
 viii Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 on the contrary, they enable this great monument of Eastern 
 literature — an acknowledged masterpiece of translation — to 
 be freed from the burdensome restriction of being kept under 
 lock and key, and to take its proper place on the library shelf 
 alongside Cervantes and Shakespeare. 
 
 Leonard C. Smithers. 
 
 October loth, 1894.
 
 BENARES: MDCCCLXXXV : PRINTED BY THE K AM ASH ASTl^\ 
 
 SOCIE'l'^' FOR PRIVATE SUBSCRIBERS ONLY. 
 
 V O L U M E I. 
 
 PLAIN AND LITERAL TRANSLATION OF THE 
 ARABIAN NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENTS, NOW 
 
 E NT ITU LED 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE 
 
 WITH INTRODUCTION ENPLANATORY NOTES ON THE 
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF MOSLEM MEN AND A 
 TERMINAL ESSAY UPON THE HISTORY OF THE 
 
 NIGH TS 
 
 RICHARD F. BURTON
 
 SfnficrjieU to tlje pernor? 
 
 OF 
 
 MY LAMENTED FRIEND 
 
 (CIVIL SURGEON, ADEN) 
 
 A QUARTER OF A CENTURY AGO 
 
 ASSISTED ME IN THIS TRANSLATION.
 
 SRLF 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS TO THE 
 FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 (LIBRARY EDITION. 
 
 Xn. I. CAPTAIN SIR RICHARD F. BURTON, K.C.M.G., 
 F.R.G.S., etc., etc {frontispiece) 
 
 „ 2. STORY OF KING SHAHRYAR AND HIS 
 BROTHER. 
 
 " The Jinni seated her under the tree. . . . 
 Presently she raised her gracious head towards the 
 tree-top and saw the two kings " . . . . lo 
 
 „ 3. TALE OF THE ENSORCELLED PRINCE. 
 
 " I climbed upon the roof. . . . And lo ! my 
 fair cousin had gone in to a hideous negro slave " 06 
 
 ,. 4. THE PORTER AND THE THREE LADIES OF 
 
 BAGHDAD. 
 " Then she came up out of the cistern, and 
 throwing herself upon the Porter's lap, said, ' O 
 my lord, O my love, what callest thou this ? ' " . S3 
 
 „ 5. TALE OF THE PORTRESS. 
 
 " He put his mouth to my cheek. . . . But, 
 while kissing me, he bit me so hard a bite that 
 it tore the flesh from my cheek " . . . . 165 
 
 „ 6. TALE OF NUR AL-DIN ALI AND HIS SON. 
 
 " Then the singing-girls beat their tabrets. . . . 
 And the bride was as the full moon when at fullest. 
 . . . Thus they displayed the bride . . . wholly 
 neglecting the Gobbo, who sat moping alone "' . 199
 
 Illustrations 
 
 PAGE 
 
 No. 7. TALE OF THE TAILOR. 
 
 " So I bade the page open the box and the 
 Barber laid down the astrolabe, leaving the greater 
 part of my head unpolled ; and, sitting on the 
 ground, turned over the scents and incense and 
 aloes-wood and essences till I was well-nigh dis- 
 traught " 286 
 
 „ 8. THE BARBER'S TALE OF HIS SECOND 
 
 BROTHER. 
 •' Then she set out at a run, and he ran after 
 her while she rushed into room after room and 
 rushed out of room after room, my brother scam- 
 pering after her in a rage of desire " . . . 302 
 
 „ 9. NUR AL-DIN ALI AND THE DAMSEL ANIS 
 
 AL-JALIS. 
 " Next he kissed her lips and she kissed his 
 and . . . when the two little slave-girls saw their 
 young master go in unto the damsel, Anis al-Jalis, 
 they cried out " 334 
 
 „ 10. TALE OF GHANIM BIN AYVUB. 
 
 " One night as he laid by her side . . . she 
 awoke and sat upright. . . . When Ghanim heard 
 her words and knew that she was a concubine of 
 the Caliph, he drew back " 383 
 
 „ II. TALE OF KING OMAR } N AL-NU'UMAN 
 AND HIS ' 
 
 " He set his breast agaii.. ..ers ; but when he 
 felt waist touch waist his strength failed him, and 
 she . . . threw him to the ground" . . . 412
 
 CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 THE TRANSLATOR'S FOREWORD . : 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 STORY OF KING SHAIIRYAR AND IIIS BROTHER 
 
 a. Tale of the Bull and the Ass ...... 
 
 (Lane, vol. I., i - 1 6. J 
 
 I TALE OF THE TRADER AND THE JINNI .... 
 
 (Lane — Chapl. /. Story of the Merchant and the Jinnee: p. \\) 
 
 a. The First Shaykh's Story 
 
 (Lane — Story of the First Sheykh and the Gazelle : p. 48^ 
 
 b. The Second Shaykh's Story 
 
 (Lane — Story of the Second Sheykh and the two Black Hounds : p. ^z) 
 
 c. The Third Shaykh's Story 
 
 (Lane — Story of the Third Sheykh and the Mule : p. 56^ 
 
 2. THE FISHERMAN AND THE JINNI 
 
 (Lane — Chapt. LI. Story of the Fisher/nan : p. ySJ 
 
 a. Tale ok the Wazir and the Sage Duban .... 
 
 (Lane — Story of I^ing Yoonan and the Sage Doohau : p. 84^ 
 
 al>. Story of King Sindibad and his Falcon 
 
 ac. Tale of the Husband and the Parrot 
 
 (Lane — Story of the LIusband and the Parrot: p. 89^ 
 
 ad. Tale of the Prince and the Ogress .... 
 (Lane — Story of the Envious Wezeer and the Prince and t lie Ghoolah : p. 9 
 
 b. Tale of the Ensorcelled Prince ...... 
 
 (L.ane — Story of the Young King of the Black Islands : p. 106 J 
 
 3. THE PORTER AND THE THREE LADIES OF BAGHDAD. 
 
 (Lane — Chapt. LI I. Story of the Porter aiul the Ladies of Baghdad, and of 
 the three Royal Mendicants, etc. : p. 136^ 
 
 14 
 
 22 
 
 25 
 29 
 
 33 
 
 34 
 41 
 
 46 
 48 
 
 50 
 64
 
 xiv Alf Lay/ah 7va Laylah. 
 
 FAGE 
 
 a. The First Kalanuar's Tale . 96 
 
 (Lane — Story of the First Royal Mendicant : p. 150^ 
 
 b. The Second Kalandar's Tale , 104 
 
 (Lane — Story of the Second Royal Mendicant : p. i^yj 
 
 da. Tale of the Envier and the Envied 113 
 
 (Lane — Story of the Envier and the Envied: p. 166 J 
 
 c. The Third Kalandar's Tale 128 
 
 (Lane — Story of the Third Royal Mendicant : p. lySJ 
 
 d. The Eldest Lady's Tale .149 
 
 <?. Tale of the Portress 160 
 
 Conclusion of the Story of the Porter and the Three Ladies 169 
 
 4. TALE OF THE THREE APPLES 171 
 
 (Lane — Chapt. LV. Story of the Three Apples, etc. : p. 250^ 
 
 5. TALE OF NUR AL-DIN ALI AND HIS SON BAUR AL-DIN 
 
 HASAN 179 
 
 (Lane — Story of Noor ed-Dccn and his Son, and of Sheins cd-Dccn and 
 his Daughter : p. 253^ 
 
 6. THE HUNCHBACK'S TALE .234 
 
 (Lane — Chap. V. Story of the Humpback. : p. 328^ 
 
 a. The Nazarene Broker's Story . . . . . , ,241 
 
 (Lane — Story told by the Christian Broker : p. 334^ 
 
 b. The Reeve's Tale 256 
 
 (Lane — Story told by the Sultan's Steward : p. 348 j 
 
 c. Tale of the Jewish Doctor .... ... 265 
 
 (Lane — Story told by the Jewish Physician : p. 359^ 
 
 d. Tale of the Tailor 276 
 
 (Lane — Story told by the Tailor : p. 368^ 
 
 e. The Barber's Tale of Himself 292 
 
 (Lane—The Barber's Story of Himself : p. 383^ 
 
 ea. The Barber's Tale of his First Brother .... 294 
 
 (Lane— The Barber's Story of His First Brother: p. 385^ 
 
 eb. The Barber's Tale of his Second Brother. . . .299 
 
 (Lane — The Barber's Story of His Second Brother : p. 389^ 
 
 tc. The Barber's Tale of his Third Brother , . . .303 
 (Lane— The Barber's Story of His Third Brother : p. 392^ 
 
 ed. The Barber's Tale of his Fourth Brother. ... 306 
 (Lane— The Barber's Story of His Fourth Brother: p. 396 j
 
 Cofifenfs. XV 
 
 PA(iE 
 
 ee. The Barber's Tale of his Fifth Brother .... 309 
 
 (Lane — The Barber's Story of His Fifth Brother : p. 440^ 
 
 ef. The Barber's Tale of his Sixth Brother .... 317 
 
 (Lane — The Barber'' s Story of LLis Sixth Brother.) 
 
 The End of the Tailor's Tale 321 
 
 7. NUR AL-DIN ALI AND THE DAMSEL ANIS AL-JALIS . . 329 
 
 (Lane — Chapt. VL. Story of Noor ed-Deen and Enees el-Jelees : p. 4 56 J 
 
 8. TALE OF GHANIM BIN AYYUB, THE DISTRAUGHT, THE 
 
 THRALL O' LOVE 369 
 
 (Lane — Chapt. VLL. Story of Ghanim the Son of Eiyoob, the Distracted 
 Slave of Love: p. 487^ 
 
 a. Tale of the First Eunuch, Bukhayt , 372 
 
 //. Tale of the Second Eunuch, Kafur 374 
 
 (Lane — Story of the Slave Kafoor : p. 491^ 
 
 9. TALE OF KING OMAR BIN AL-NU'UMAN AND HIS SONS 
 
 SHARRKAN AND ZAU AL-MAKAN 398
 
 THE TRANSLATOR'S FOREWORD. 
 
 \ 
 
 THIS work, laborious as it may appear, has been to me a 
 labour of love, an unfailing source of solace and satisfac- 
 tion. During my long years of official exile to the 
 luxuriant and deadly deserts of Africa, Eastern and Western, 
 and to the dull and dreary half-clearings of . South America, it 
 proved itself a talisman against ennui and despondency. Im- 
 possible even now to open the pages without a vision starting 
 into view ; without drawing a picture from the pinacothek of the 
 brain ; without reviving a host of memories and reminiscences 
 which are not the common property of travellers, however widely 
 they may have travelled. From my dull and commonplace and 
 " respectable " surroundings, the Jinn bore me off at once to the 
 land of my predilection, Arabia, a region so familiar to my mind 
 that even when I cast my first glance at the scene, it seemed a 
 reminiscence of some by-gone metempsychic life in the far distant 
 Past. Again I stood under the diaphanous skies, in air glorious 
 as aether, whose every breath causes men's spirits to bubble like 
 sparkling wine. Once more I saw the evening star hanging like a 
 golden lamp from the pure front of the western firmament ; and 
 the after-glow transfiguring and transforming as by magic, the 
 gazelle-brown and tawny-clay tints and the homely and rugsjed 
 features of the scene into a fairy-land lit with a light which never 
 shines on other soils or seas. Then would appear the woollen 
 tents, long, low, and black, of the true Badawin, mere dots in the 
 boundless waste, and the camp-fire dotting like a glow-worm 
 the village centre. Presently, sweetened by distance, would be 
 
 VOL. I. I)
 
 xviii Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 heard the wild weird songs of lads and lasses driving, or rather 
 pelting, through the gloaming their sheep and goats ; and the 
 measured chant of the spearsmen gravely stalking behind their 
 charge, the camels ; mingled with the bleating of the flocks and 
 the bellowing of the humpy herds ; while the rcremouse flitted 
 overhead with his tiny shriek, and the rave of the jackal re- 
 sounded through deepening glooms, and — most musical of music 
 — the palm-trees answered the whispers of the night-breeze with 
 the softest tones of falling water. 
 
 And then a shift of scene. As the giant grey shadow rises 
 slowly in the East and the vagueness of evening waxes wan in the 
 West and night comes on without a shade of gloaming, and, as it 
 were, with a single stride, and Earth looks old, and pallid, and 
 cold, alt, kalt, and iingcstalt, the spectre of her former self, the 
 camp forgathers. The Shaykhs and " white-beards " of the tribe 
 gravely take their places, sitting with outspread skirts like hillocks 
 on the plain, as the Arabs say, around the camp-iue, whilst 1 
 reward their hospitality and secure its continuance by reading or 
 reciting a few pages of their favourite tales. The women and 
 children stand motionless as silhouettes outside the ring ; and all are 
 breathless with attention ; they seem to drink in the words with 
 eyes and mouth as well as with ears. The most fantastic flights 
 of fancy, the wildest improbabilities, the most impossible of im- 
 possibilities, appear to them utterly natural, mere matters of every- 
 day occurrence. They enter thoroughly into each phase of feeling 
 touched upon by the author : they take a personal pride in the 
 chivalrous nature and knightly prowess of Taj al-Muluk ; they are 
 touched with tenderness by the self-sacrificing love of Azizah ; 
 their mouths water as they hear of heaps of untold gold given 
 away in largesse like clay by the mighty Harun al-Rashid — 
 Aaron the Orthodox : they chuckle with delight every time a 
 Kazi or a Fakir (a judge or a reverend) is scurvily entreated by 
 some Pantagruelist of the Wilderness ; and despite their normal 
 solemnity and impassibility, all roar with laughter, sometimes 
 rolling upon the ground till the reader's gravity is sorely tried, 
 at the tales of the garrulous Barber, and of Ali with the Kurdish 
 Sharper. To this magnetising mood the sole exception is when 
 a Badawi of superior accomplishments, who sometimes says his
 
 The Translator's Fo/rword. xix 
 
 prayers, ejaculates a startling " Astaghfaru'llah " — L pray Allah's 
 pardon ! — for listening, not to Carlyle's " downright lies," but to 
 light mention of the sex whose name is never heard amongst the 
 nobility of the Desert, 
 
 Nor was it only in Arabia that the immortal Nights did me 
 such notable service : I found the wildlings of Somali-land 
 equally amenable to its discipline ; no one was deaf to the charm, 
 and the two women-cooks of my caravan, on its way to Harar, 
 were incontinently dubbed by my men " Shahrazad " and 
 ' Dinazad." 
 
 It may be permitted me also to note that this translation is a 
 natural outcome of my Pilgrimage to Al-lN'Iadinah and Meccah. 
 Arriving at Aden in the (so-called) winter of 1852, I put up with 
 my old and dear friend, Steinhaeuser, to whose memory <this 
 volume is inscribed ; and when talking over Arabia and the 
 Arabs, w^e at once came to the same conclusion that, while the 
 name of this wondrous treasury of Moslem folk-lore is familiar to 
 almost every English child, no general reader is aware of the 
 valuables it contains, nor indeed will the door open to any but 
 Arabists. Before parting, we agreed to " collaborate " and pro- 
 duce a full, complete, unvarnished, uncastrated copy of the great 
 original, my friend taking the prose and I the metrical part ; and 
 we corresponded upon the subject for years. But whilst I was in 
 the Brazil, Steinhaeuser died suddenly of apoplexy at Berne in 
 Switzerland and, after the fashion of Anglo-India, his valuable 
 MSS. left at Aden were dispersed, and very little of his labours 
 came into my hands. 
 
 Thus I was left alone to my work, which progressed fitfully 
 amid a host of obstructions. At length, in the spring of 1879, 
 the tedious process of copying began and the book commenced 
 to take finished form. But. during the winter of 1 88 1-82, I saw 
 in the literary journals a notice of a new version by Mr. John 
 Payne, well known to scholars for his prowess in English verse, 
 .especially for his translation of "The Poems of Master Francis 
 Villon, of Paris." Being then engaged on an expedition to the 
 •Gold Coast (for gold), which' seemed likely to cover some months, 
 I wrote to the "Athenaeum " (Nov. 13, 1881) and to Mr. Payne, 
 who was wholly unconscious that we were engaged on the same 
 
 h 2
 
 Xx Alf Ltiy/ah 7va Laylah. 
 
 work, and freely offered him precedence and possession of the 
 field till no longer wanted. He accepted my offer as frankly, and 
 his priority entailed another delay lasting till the spring of 1885. 
 
 These details will partly account for the lateness of my 
 appearing, but there is yet another cause. Professional ambition 
 suggested that literary labours, of a kind unpopular with the vulgar 
 and the half-educated, are not likely to help a man up the ladder of 
 promotion. But common sense presently suggested to me that, 
 professionally speaking, I was not a success ; and, at the same 
 time, that I had no cause to be ashamed of my failure. In our 
 day, when we live under a despotism of the lower "middle- 
 class " Philister who can pardon anything but superiority, the 
 prizes of competitive services are monopolised by certain " pets" 
 of the Mediocvatie, and prime favourities of that jealous and potent 
 majority — the Mediocrities, who know " no nonsense about 
 merit." It is hard for an outsider to realise how perfect is the 
 monopoly of commonplace, and to comprehend how fatal a 
 stumbling-stone that man sets in the way of his own advance- 
 ment who dares to think for himself, or who knows more or who 
 does more than the mob of gentlemen-employes w^ho know very 
 little and who do even less. 
 
 Yet, however behindhand I may be, there is still ample room 
 and verge for an English version of the "Arabian Nights' Enter- 
 tainments." 
 
 Our century of translations, popular and vernacular, from 
 (Professor Antoine) Galland's delightful abbreviation and adapta- 
 tion (A.D. 1704), in no wise represent the eastern original. The 
 best and latest, the Rev. Mr. Foster's, which is diffuse and verbose, 
 and Mr. G. Moir Bussey's, which is a re-correction, abound in 
 gallicisms of style and idiom ; and one and all degrade a chef- 
 d'ceuvre of the highest anthropological and ethnographical interest 
 and importance to a mere fairy-book, a nice present for little 
 boys. 
 
 After nearly a century had elapsed. Dr. Jonathan Scott 
 (LL.D. H.E.I.C.'s S., Persian Secretary to the G. G. Bengal; 
 Oriental Professor, etc., etc.), printed his " Tales, Anecdotes, and 
 Letters, translated from the Arabic and Persian " (Cadell and 
 Davies, London, A.D. 1800); and followed in iSii with an
 
 The Trans /a tor's Fore7Vord. xxi 
 
 edition of " The Arabian Nights' Entertainments" from the IMS. 
 of Edward Wortley Montague (in 6 vols., small 8vo, London : 
 Longmans, etc.). This work he (and he only) describes as 
 "Carefully revised and occasionally corrected from the Arabic." 
 The reading public did not wholly reject it, sundry texts were 
 founded upon the Scott version, and it has been imperfectly 
 reprinted (4 vols., 8vo, Nimmo a"nd Bain, London, 1883). But 
 most men, little recking what a small portion of the original 
 they were reading, satisfied themselves with the Anglo-French 
 epitome and metaphrase. At length in 1838, Mr. Henry 
 Torrens, B.i-V., Irishman, lawyer (" of the Inner Temple ") and 
 Bengal Civilian, took a step in the right direction ; and began 
 to translate, " The Book of the Thousand Nights and One 
 Night " (i vol., 8vo, Calcutta : W. Thacker and Co.) from the 
 Arabic of the Egyptian (!) MS. edited by Mr. (afterwards Sir) 
 William H. Macnaghten. The attempt, or rather the intention, 
 was highly creditable ; the copy was carefully moulded upon the 
 model and offered the best example of the vcvhatim et literatim 
 style. But the plucky author knew little of Arabic, and least of 
 what is most wanted, the dialect of Egypt and Syria. His prose 
 is so conscientious as to offer up spirit at the shrine of letter ; 
 and his verse, always whimsical, has at times a manner of 
 Hibernian whoop which is comical when it should be pathetic. 
 Lastly he printed only one volume of a series which if completed 
 would have contained nine or ten. 
 
 That amiable and devoted Arabist, the late Edward William 
 Lane, does not score a success in his " New Translation of the 
 Tales of a Thousand and One Nights " (London : Charles Knight 
 and Co., mdcccxxxix-xli.), of which there have been four English 
 editions, besides American, two edited by E. S. Poole. He chose 
 the abbreviating Bulak Edition ; and, of its two hundred talcs, 
 he has omitted about half and by far the more characteristic 
 half: the work was intended for " the drawing-room table " ; and 
 consequently, the workman was compelled to avoid the " objec- 
 tionable " and aught " approaching to licentiousness." He con- 
 verts the Arabian Nights into the Arabian Chapters, arbitrarily 
 changing the division and, worse still, he converts some chapters 
 into notes. He renders poetry by prose and apologises for not
 
 xxii Alf Lay/a/i iva Laylali. 
 
 omitting it altogether: he neglects assonance and he is at once 
 too Oriental and not Oriental enough. He had small store of 
 Arabic at the time — Lane of the Nights is not Lane of the 
 Dictionary — and his pages are disfigured by many childish 
 mistakes. Worst of all, the three handsome volumes are 
 rendered unreadable as Sale's Koran by their anglicised Latin, 
 their sesquipedalian un-English words, and the stiff and stilted 
 style of half a century ago when our prose was, perhaps, the 
 worst in Europe. Their cargo of Moslem learning was most 
 valuable to the student, but utterly out of place for readers of 
 "The Nights" ; re-published, as these notes have been separately 
 (London, Chatto, 1883). they are an ethnological text-book. 
 
 INIr. John Payne has printed, for the Villon Society and for 
 private circulation only, the first and sole complete translation of 
 the great compendium, " comprising about four times as much 
 matter as that of Galland, and three times as much as that of 
 any other translator " ; and I cannot but feel proud that he has 
 honoured me with the dedication of " The Book of The Thou- 
 sand Nights and One Night." His version is most readable: his 
 English, with a sub-flavour of the Mabinogionic archaicism, is 
 admirable ; and his style gives life and light to the nine volumes 
 whose matter is frequently heavy enough. He succeeds admirably 
 in the most difficult passages, and he often hits upon choice and 
 special terms and the exact vernacular equivalent of the foreign 
 word so happily and so picturesquely that all future translators 
 must perforce use the same expression under pain of falling far 
 short. But the learned and versatile author bound himself to 
 issue only five hundred copies, and ''not to reproduce the work in 
 its complete and uncastrated form." Consequently his excel- 
 lent version is caviaire to the general — practically unprocurable. 
 And here I hasten to confess that ample use has been made of 
 the three versions above noted, the whole being blended by a 
 callida jnnctura into a homogeneous mass. But in the presence 
 of so many predecessors a writer is bound to show some raison 
 d'etre for making a fresh attempt, and this I proceed to do 
 with due reserve. 
 
 Brieliy, the object of this version is to show what " The Thou- 
 sand Nights and a Night" really is. Not, however, for reasons to
 
 The Translator s Farc7i'ord. xxiii 
 
 be more fully stated in the Terminal Essay, by strainin,t^ vcvbuiii 
 rcddcye verba, but by writing as the Arab would have written in 
 English. On this point I am all with Saint Jerome (Pref. in Jobum), 
 " Vel verbum e verbo, vel sensum e sensu, vel ex utroque commix- 
 tum, et media temperatuni genus translationis." My work claims 
 to be a faithful copy of the great Eastern Saga-book, by preserving 
 intact, not only the spirit, but even the mccaniquc, the manner and 
 the matter. Hence, however prosy and long-drawn out be the 
 formula, it retains the scheme of the Nights because they are a 
 prime feature in the original. The Rawi or reciter, to whose wits 
 the task of supplying details is left, well knows their value: the 
 openings carefully repeat the names of the dramatis persona and 
 thus fix them in the hearer's memory. Without the Nights no 
 Arabian Nights! Moreover, it is necessary to retain the whole 
 apparatus : nothing more ill-advised than Dr. Jonathan Scott's 
 strange device of garnishing The Nights with fancy head-pieces 
 and tail-pieces or the splitting-up of Galland's narrative by 
 merely prefixing " Nuit," etc., ending, moreover, with ccxxxivth 
 Night : yet this has been done, apparently with the consent of 
 the great Arabist Sylvestre de Sacy (Paris, Ernest Bourdin). 
 Moreover, holding that the translator's glory is to add something 
 to his native tongue, while avoiding the hideous hag-like naked- 
 ness of Torrens and the bald literalism of Lane, I have carefully 
 Englished the picturesque turns and novel expressions of the 
 original in all their outlandishness ; for instance, when the dust- 
 cloud raised by a tramping host is described as "walling the 
 horizon." Hence peculiar attention has been paid to the tropes 
 and figures which the Arabic language often packs into a single 
 term ; and I have never hesitated to coin a word when wanted, 
 such as "she snorted and snarked," fully to represent the original. 
 These, like many in Rabelais, are mere barbarisms unless 
 generally adopted, in which case they become civilised and 
 common currency. 
 
 Despite objections manifold and manifest, I have preserved 
 the balance of sentences and the prose rhyme and rhythm which 
 Easterns look upon as mere music. This " Saj'a," or cadence 
 of the cooing dove, has in Arabic its special duties. It adds a 
 sparkle to description and a point to proverb, epigram ana
 
 xxiv Alf Layhih wa Laylah. 
 
 dialogue; it corresponds with our "artful alliteration" (which 
 in places I have substituted for it) and, generally, it defines the 
 boundaries between the classical and the popular styles which 
 jostle each other in The Nights. If at times it appear strained 
 and forced, after the wont of rhymed prose, the scholar will 
 observe that, despite the immense copiousness of assonants and 
 consonants in Arabic, the strain is often put upon it intentionally, 
 like the Rims cars of Dante and the Troubadours. This rhymed 
 prose may be "un-English" and unpleasant, even irritating to the 
 British ear; still I look upon it as a sine qua non for a com- 
 plete reproduction of the original. In the Terminal Essay I 
 shall revert to the subject. 
 
 On the other hand when treating the versical portion, which 
 may represent a total of ten thousand lines, I have not always 
 bound myself by the metrical bonds of the Arabic, Avhich are 
 artificial in the extreme, and which in English can be made 
 bearable only by a tour de force. I allude especially to the 
 monorhyme, Rim continiiat or tirade monoriuie, whose monotonous 
 simplicity was preferred by the Troubadours for threnodies. It 
 may serve well for three or four couplets, but when it extends, 
 as in the Ghazal-canzon, to eighteen, and in the Kasidah, elegy 
 or ode, to more, it must either satisfy itself with banal rhyme- 
 words, when the assonants should as a rule be expressive and 
 emphatic ; or it must display an ingenuity, a smell of the oil, 
 which assuredly does not add to the reader's pleasure. It can 
 perhaps be done and it should be done ; but for me the task 
 has no attractions: I can fence better in shoes than in sabots. 
 Finally, I print the couplets in Arab form separating the 
 hemistichs by asterisks. 
 
 And now to consider one matter of special importance in the 
 book — its turpiloquium. This stumbling-block is of two kinds, 
 completely distinct. One is the simple, naive, and child-like 
 indecency which, from Tangier to Japan, occurs throughout 
 general conversation of high and low in the present day. It 
 uses, like the holy books of the Hebrews, expressions " plainly 
 descriptive of natural situation"; and it treats in an unconven- 
 tionally free and naked manner of subjects and matters which 
 are usually, by common consent, left undescribed. As Sir
 
 The Translator s Foi-eword. xxv 
 
 William Jones observed long ago, "that anything natural can be 
 offensively obscene never seems to have occurred to the Indians 
 or to their legislators; a singularity (?) pervading their writings 
 and conversation, but no proof of moral depravity." Another 
 justly observes, Lcs pciiplcs friiiiififs n'y entcndent pas malice : Us 
 appdlent lcs clioses par Icitrs noins ct nc tvouvcnt pas condamnahle 
 cc qui est imtnvcl. And they are prying as children. For instance, 
 the European novelist marries off his hero and heroine and leaves 
 them to consummate marriage in privacy ; even Tom Jones has 
 the decency to bolt the door. But the Eastern story-teller, espec- 
 ially this unknown "prose Shakespeare," must usher you, with a 
 flourish, into the bridal chamber and narrate to you, with infinite 
 gusto, everything he sees and hears. Again we must remember 
 that grossness and indecency, in fact lcs turpitudes, are matters 
 of time and place ; what is offensive in England is not so in 
 Egypt ; what scandalises us now would have been a tame joke 
 tempore Elisor. Withal The Nights will not be found in this 
 matter coarser than many passages of Shakespeare, Sterne, 
 and Swift, and their uncleanliness rarely attains the perfection 
 of Alcofribas Nasier, " divin maitre et atroce cochon." The 
 other element is absolute obscenity, sometimes, but not always, 
 tempered by wit, humour and drollery ; here we have an exag- 
 geration of Petronius Arbiter, the handiwork of writers whose 
 ancestry, the most religious and the most debauched of mankind, 
 practised every abomination before the shrine of the Canopic 
 Gods. 
 
 In accordance with my purpose of reproducing the Nights, 
 not virginibiis piierisquc, but in as perfect a picture as my powers 
 permit, I have carefully sought out the English equivalent of 
 every Arabic word, however low it may be or "shocking" to 
 ears polite ; preserving, on the other hand, all possible delicacy 
 where the indecency is not intentional ; and, as a friend advises 
 me to state, not exaggerating the vulgarities and the indecencies 
 which, indeed, can hardly be exaggerated.^ For the coarseness 
 and crassness are but the shades of a picture which would 
 otherwise be all lights. The general tone of The Nights is 
 
 ' See the Editor's note, ante.
 
 xxvi Alf Lay/ah 7C'a Laylah. 
 
 exceptionally hip^h and pure. The devotional fervour often 
 rises to the boiling-point of fanaticism. The pathos is sweet, 
 deep and genuine ; tender, simple and true, utterly unlike much 
 of our modern tinsel. Its life, strong, splendid and multitudinous, 
 is everywhere flavoured with that unaffected pessimism and 
 constitutional melancholy which strike deepest root under the 
 brightest skies and which sigh in the face of heaven : — 
 
 Vita quid est hoiiiinis ? Viridis floriscula mortis ; 
 Sole Oriciite oriens, solo cadente cadens. 
 
 Poetical justice is administered by the literary Kazi with exemplary 
 impartiality and severity ; " denouncing evil doers and eulogising 
 deeds admirably achieved." The morale is sound and healthy ; 
 and at times we descry, through the voluptuous and libertine 
 picture, vistas of a transcendental morality, the morality of 
 Socrates in Plato. Subtle corruption and covert licentiousness 
 are utterly absent ; we find more " real vice " in many a short 
 French roman, say La Dame aux Camelias, and in not a few 
 English novels of our day than in the thousands of pages of the 
 Arab. Here we have nothing of that most immodest modern 
 modesty which sees covert implication where nothing is implied, 
 and "improper" allusion when propriety is not outraged; nor 
 do we meet with the Nineteenth Century refinement ; innocence 
 of the word not of the thought ; morality of the tongue not of 
 the heart, and the sincere homage paid to virtue in guise of 
 perfect hypocrisy. It is, indeed, this unique contrast of a quaint 
 element, childish crudities and nursery indecencies and "vain and 
 amatorious " phrase jostling the finest and highest views of life 
 and character, shown in the kaleidoscopic shiftings of the mar- 
 vellous picture with many a " rich truth in a tale's pretence"; 
 pointed by a rough dry humour which compares well with 
 " wut " ; the alternations of strength and weakness, of pathos 
 and bathos, of the boldest poetry (the diction of Job) and the 
 baldest prose (the Egyptian of to-day) ; the contact of religion 
 and morality with the orgies of African Apuleius and Petronius 
 Arbiter — at times taking away the reader's breath — and, finally, 
 the whole dominated everywhere by that marvellous Oriental 
 fancy, wherein the spiritual and the supernatural are as common 
 as the material and the natural ; it is this contrast, I say, which
 
 TJic Translator s^ Foi-ezvord. xxvii 
 
 forms the chiefest charm of The Nights, which gives it the most 
 striking originahty, and which makes it a perfect expositor of the 
 mediaeval Moslem mind. 
 
 Explanatory notes did not enter into Mr. Payne's plan. 
 They do into mine: I can hardly imagine The Nights being 
 read to any profit by men of the West without commentary. 
 My annotations avoid only one subject, parallels of European 
 folk-lore and fabliaux which, however interesting, would over- 
 swell the bulk of a book whose speciality is anthropology. The 
 accidents of my life, it may be said without undue presumption, 
 my long dealings with Arabs and other Moliamniedans, and 
 my familiarity not only with their idiom but with their turn 
 of thought, and with that racial individuality which baffles 
 description, ha\'e given me certain advantages over the 
 average student, however deeply he may have studied. These 
 volumes, moreover, afford me a long-sought opportunity of 
 noticing practices and customs which interest all mankind 
 and which " Society " will not hear mentioned, Grote the 
 historian, and Thackeray the novelist, both lamented that the 
 hegmtilerie of their countrymen compelled them to keep silence 
 where publicity was required ; and that they could not even claim 
 the partial licence of a Fielding or a Smollett. Hence a score of 
 years ago I lent my best help to the late Dr. James Hunt in found- 
 ing the Anthropological Society, whose presidential chair I first 
 occupied (pp. 2-4 Anthropologia ; London, Bailliere, vol. i. No. i, 
 1873). My motive was to supply travellers with an organ which 
 would rescue their observations from the outer darkness of manu- 
 script, and print their curious information on social and sexual 
 matters out of place in the popular book intended for the Nipptisch, 
 and indeed better kept from public view. But, hardly had we 
 begun when " Respectability," that whited sepulchre full of all 
 uncleanness, rose up against us. " Propriety " cried us down with 
 her brazen blatant voice, and the weak-kneed brethren fell away. 
 Yet the organ was much wanted and is wanted still. All now 
 know barbarous tribes in Inner Africa, America and Australia, 
 whose instincts have not been overlaid by reason, have a ceremony 
 which they call " making men." As soon as the boy shows proofs 
 of puberty, he and his coe\'als are taken in hand by the mediciner
 
 xxviii Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 and the Fetisheer; and, under priestly tuition, they spend months 
 in the "bush," enduring hardships and tortures which impress the 
 memory till they have mastered the "theorick and practick" of 
 social and sexual relations. Amongst the civilised this fruit of 
 the knowledge-tree must be bought at the price of the bitterest 
 experience, and the consequences of ignorance are peculiarly cruel. 
 Here, then, I find at last an opportunity of noticing in explanatory 
 notes many details of the text which would escape the reader's 
 observation, and I am confident that they will form a repertory of 
 Eastern knowledge in its esoteric phase. 1 he student who adds 
 the notes of Lane (" Arabian Society," etc., before quoted) to mine 
 will know as much of the Moslem East and more than many 
 Europeans wdio have spent half their lives in Orient lands. 
 For facility of reference indexes of anthropological notes are 
 appended. 
 
 The reader will kindly bear with the following technical 
 details. Steinhaeuser and I began and ended our work with the 
 first Bulak (" Bui.") Edition printed at the port of Cairo in A.H. 
 i25i=A.D. 1S35. But when preparing my MS. for print I found 
 the text incomplete, many of the stories being given in epitome 
 and not a few ruthlessly mutilated with head or feet wanting. 
 Like most Eastern scribes the Editor could not refrain from 
 " improvements," which only debased the book ; and his sole title 
 to excuse is that the second Bulak Edition (4 vols. A.H. 1279 =. 
 A.D. 1863), despite it being "revised and corrected by Sheik 
 Mahommed Qotch Al-Adewi," is even worse; and the same may 
 be said of the Cairo Edit. (4 vols. A.H. i297==A.D. iSSi). The 
 Calcutta (" Calc") Edition, with ten lines of Persian preface by 
 the Editor, Ahmed al-Shirwani (A.D. 1S14), was cut short at the 
 end of the first two hundred Nights, and thus made room for 
 Sir William Hay Macnaghten's Edition (4 vols, royal 4to) of 
 1839-42. This (" Mac"), as by far the least corrupt and the 
 most complete, has been assumed for my basis with occasional 
 reference to the Breslau Edition (" Bres.") wretchedly edited 
 from a hideous Egyptian MS. by Dr. Maximilian Habicht 
 (1825-43). The Bayrut Text " Alif- Leila we Leila" (4 vols. gt. 
 8vo, Beirut, 1881-83) is a melancholy specimen of The Nights 
 taken entirely from the Bulak Edition by one Khalil Sarkis and
 
 The TraiisIato)''s Fomvord. xxix 
 
 converted to Christianity ; beginning without Bismilhih, con- 
 tinued with scrupulous castration, and ending in ennui and 
 disappointment. I have not used this missionary production. 
 
 As regards the transliteration of Arabic words I deliberately 
 reject the artful and complicated system, ugly and clumsy withal, 
 affected by scientific modern Orientalists. Nor is my sympathy 
 with their prime object, namely, to fit the Roman alphabet for 
 supplanting all others. Those who learn languages, and many do 
 so, by the eye as well as by the ear, well know the advantages of 
 a special character to distinguish, for instance, Syriac from Arabic, 
 Gujrati from Marathi. Again this Roman hand bewitched may 
 have its use in purely scientific and literary works ; but it would 
 be wholly out of place in one whose purpose is that of the novel, 
 to amuse rather than to instruct. Moreover, the devices perplex the 
 simple and teach nothing to the learned. Either the reader knows 
 Arabic, in which case Greek letters, italics and " upper case," 
 diacritical points and similar typographic oddities are, as a rule, 
 with some exceptions, unnecessary ; or he does not know Arabic, 
 when none of these expedients will be of the least use to him. 
 Indeed, it is a matter of secondary consideration what system we 
 prefer, provided that we mostly adhere to one and the same, for 
 the sake of a consistency which saves confusion to the reader. I 
 have especially avoided that of Mr. Lane, adopted by Mr. Payne 
 for special reasons against which it was vain to protest : it 
 represents the debased brogue of Egypt or rather of Cairo ; 
 and such a word as Kemer (ez-Zeman) would be utterly 
 unpronounceable to a Badawi. Nor have I followed the 
 practice of my learned friend. Reverend G. P. Badger, in 
 mixing bars and acute accents; the former unpleasantly re- 
 mind man of those hateful dactyls and spondees, and the 
 latter should, in my humble opinion, be applied to long 
 vowels which in Arabic double, or should double, the length 
 of the shorts. Dr. Badger uses the acute symbol to denote 
 accent or stress of voice; but such appoggio is unknown to 
 those who speak with purest articulation ; for instance, whilst 
 the European pronounces Mus-cat', and the Arab villager 
 Mas'-kat ; the Children of the Waste, "on whose tongues 
 Allah descended," articulate Mas-kat ; hence in poetry we
 
 XXX Alf Layhih 7va Laylah. 
 
 have longs and shorts, but no accent as in EngHsh. I 
 have therefore followed the simple system adopted in my 
 " Pilgrimage," and have accented Arabic words only when 
 first used, thinking it unnecessary to preserve throughout 
 what is an eyesore to the reader and a distress to the printer. 
 In the main I follow " Johnson on Richardson," a work known 
 to every Anglo-Orientalist as the old and trusty companion 
 of his studies early and late ; but even here I have made 
 sundry deviations for reasons which will be explained in the 
 Terminal Essay. As words are the embodiment of ideas and 
 w^riting is of words, so the word is the spoken word ; and we 
 should write it as pronounced. Strictly speaking, the ^-sound 
 and the o-sound (viz. the Italian o-sound, not the English 
 which is peculiar to us and unknown to any other tongue), 
 are not found in Arabic, except when the figure Imalah or 
 umlaut obliges: hence they are called " Ya al-Majhul " and 
 " Waw al-AIajhuI," the unknown y (i) and u. But in all 
 tongues vowel-sounds, the flesh which clothes the bones (con- 
 sonants) of language, are affected by the consonants which 
 precede and more especially by those which follow them, hardening 
 and softening the articulation; and deeper sounds accompany 
 certain letters as the sad (^) compared with the sin (^). None 
 save a defective ear would hold, as Lane does, " Maulid " 
 (= birth-festival), " more properly pronounced ' IMolid.' " Yet 
 I prefer Khokh (peach) and Jokh (broad-cloth) to Khukh and 
 Jukh ; Ohod (mount) to Uhud ; Obayd (a little slave) to 
 Ubayd ; and Hosayn (a fortlet, not the P. N. Al-Husayn) to 
 Husayn. As for the short e in such words as " Memluk " for 
 "Mamluk" (a white slave), " Eshe " for " Asha " (supper), and 
 *' Yemen " for " Al-Yaman," I consider it a flat Egyptianism, 
 insufferable to an ear which admires the Badawi pronuncia- 
 tion. Yet I prefer " Shelebi " (a dandy) from the Turkish 
 Chelebi to "Shalabi"; "'Zebdani" (the Syrian village) to 
 *' Zal)dani " and " Fes and Miknes " (by the figure Imalah) 
 to " Fas and jSIiknas," our " Fez and ]\Iequinez." 
 
 With respect to proper names and untranslated Arabic 
 words I have rejected all system in fa\our of common sense. 
 When a term is incorporated in our tongue, I refuse to
 
 The Translator's Tirtivord. xxxi 
 
 follow the purist and mortify the reader by startling inno- 
 vation. For instance, Aleppo, Cairo and Bassorah are pre- 
 ferred to Halab, Kahirah and Al- Basrah ; when a word is 
 half-naturalised, like Alcoran or Koran, Bashaw or Pasha, 
 which the French write Pacha ; and Mahomet or Moham- 
 med (for Muhammad), the modern form is adopted because 
 the more familiar. But I see no advantage in retaining, 
 simply because they are the mistakes of a past generation, 
 such words as " Roc " (for Rukh), Khalif (a pretentious 
 blunder for Khalifah and better written Caliph) and "genie" 
 (= Jinn) a mere Gallic corruption not so terrible, ho\ve\er, 
 as " a Bedouin " {= Badawi). As little too would I fol- 
 low Mr. Lane in foisting upon the public such Arabisms 
 as "Khuff" (a riding-boot), " Mikra'ah (a palm-rod) and a 
 host of others for which we have good English equivalents. 
 •On the other hand I would use, but use sparingly, certain 
 Arabic exclamations, as " Bismillah " ( = in the name of 
 Allah!) and "Inshallah' (= if Allah please!), which have 
 special applications and which have been made familiar to 
 English ears by the genius of Eraser and Morier. 
 
 I here end these desultory but necessary details to address 
 ihe reader in a few final words. He will not think lightly 
 .of my work when I repeat to him that with the aid of my 
 .annotations supplementing Lane's, the student will readily and 
 pleasantly learn more of the Moslem's manners and customs, 
 laws and religion, than is known to the average Orientalist ; 
 .and if my labours induce him to attack the text of The Nights, 
 he will become master of much more Arabic than the ordinary 
 Arab owns. This book is indeed a legacy which I bequeath to 
 my fellow-countrymen in their hour of need. Over-devotion 
 to Hindu, and especially to Sanskrit literature, has led them 
 .astray from those (so-called) " Semitic " studies, which are the 
 more requisite for us, as they teach us to deal successfully 
 with a race more powerful than any pagans — the Moslem. 
 Apparently England is ever forgetting that she is at present 
 the greatest ]\Iohammedan empire in the world. Of late years 
 she has systematically neglected Arabism and, indeed, actively 
 xiiscoura'xed it in examinations for the Indian Civil Ser\ice.
 
 xxxii Alf Laylah 'iva Laylah. 
 
 where it is incomparably more valuable than Greek and Latin, 
 Hence, when suddenly compelled to assume the reins of govern- 
 ment in Moslem lands, as Afghanistan in times past and Egypt 
 at present, she fails after a fashion which scandalises her 
 few (very few) friends ; and her crass ignorance concerning 
 the Oriental peoples which should most interest her, exposes 
 her to the contempt of Europe as well as of the Eastern w^orld. 
 \\^hen the regretable raids of 1883-84, culminating in the 
 miserable aflairs of Tokar, Teb and Tamasi, were made upon 
 the gallant Sudani negroids, the Bisharin outlying Sawakin, 
 who were battling for the holy cause of liberty and religion, 
 and for escape from Turkish task-masters and Egyptian tax- 
 gatherers, not an English official in camp, after the death of 
 the gallant and lamented INIajor Morice, w^as capable of 
 speaking Arabic. Now INIoslems are not to be ruled by raw 
 youths who should be at school and college instead of holding 
 positions of trust and emolument. He who would deal with them 
 successfully must be, firstly, honest and truthful; and, secondly, 
 familiar with and favourably inclined to their manners and 
 customs if not to their law and religion. We may, perhaps, 
 find it hard to restore to England those pristine virtues, that 
 tone and temper, which made her what she is ; but at any 
 rate we (myself and a host of others) can offer her the means 
 of dispelling her ignorance concerning the Eastern races with 
 whom she is continually in contact. 
 
 In conclusion I must not forget to notice that the Arabic 
 ornamentations of these volumes were designed by my excellent 
 friend Yacoub Artin Pasha, of the INIinistry of Instruction,. 
 Cairo, with the aid of the well-known writing-artist, Shaykh 
 Mohammed INIuunis the Cairene. My name, Al-Hajj Abdullah 
 {= the Pilgrim Abdallah) was written by an English calligrapher,. 
 the lamented Professor Palmer, who found a premature death, 
 almost wdthin sight of Suez. 
 
 RICHARD F. BURTON. 
 
 Waxderers' Club, August 15, 18S5.
 
 r 
 
 THI-: BOOK OF THE 
 
 THOUSAND NIGHTS AND A NIGHT, 
 
 (ALF LAYLAII WA LAY LA II.) 
 
 Jn Hjc jf^amc of ^llnlj, 
 tljf aTompnsstonating, tljc (Tompasst'onate! 
 
 ^RAISE BE rO ALLAH » THE BENEFICENT KING * 
 
 7 HE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE * LORD OF THE 
 ■^■^^ THREE WORLDS * WHO SET UP THE FIRMAMENT 
 WITHOUT PILLARS IN ITS STEAD * AND WHO STRETCHED 
 OUT THE EARTH EVEN AS A BED « AND GRACE, AND 
 PRAYER- BLESSING BE UPON OUR LORD MOHAMMED * 
 LORD OF APOSTOLIC MEN * AND UPON HIS FAMILY AND 
 COMPANION-TRAIN * PRAYER AND BLESSINGS ENDURING 
 AND GRACE WHICH UNTO THE DAY OF DOOM SHALL 
 REMAIN * AMENl * O THOU OF THE THREE WORLDS 
 SOVEREIGN! 
 
 And afterwards. Verily the works and words of those gone 
 before us have become instances and examples to men of our 
 modern day, that folk may view what admonishing chances befel 
 other folk and may therefrom take warning ; and that they may 
 peruse the annals of antique peoples and all that hath betided them, 
 and be thereby ruled and restrained : — Praise, therefore, be to Him 
 who haih made the histories of the Past an admonition unto the 
 Present! Now of such instances are the tales called "A 'J'housnnd 
 VOL. 1. ' A
 
 2 Alf Laylali iva Layiah. 
 
 Nights and a Night," together with their far-famed legends and 
 wonders. Therein it is related (but Allah is All-knowing of His 
 hidden things and All-ruling and All-honoured and All-giving and 
 All-gracious and All-merciful !') that, in tide of yore and in time long 
 gone before, there was a King of the Kings of the Ranu Sasan in the 
 Islands of India and China, a Lord of armies and guards and servants 
 and dependents.^ He left only two sons, one in the prime of man- 
 hood and the other yet a youth, while both were Knights and Braves, 
 albeit the elder was a doughtier horseman than the younger. So he 
 succeeded to the empire ; when he ruled the land and lorded it over 
 his lieges with justice so exemplary that he was beloved by all the 
 peoples of his capital and of his kingdom. His name was King 
 Shahryar,^ and he made his younger brother, called Shah Zamdn, 
 Lord of Samarcand in Barbarian-land. These two ceased not to 
 abide in their several kingdoms and the law was ever carried out 
 in their dominions; and each ruled his own realm with equity and 
 fi^ir-dealing to his subjects, in extreme solace and enjoyment ; and 
 this condition continually endured for a score of years. But at the 
 end of the twentieth twelvemonth the elder King yearned for a sight 
 of his younger brother and felt that he must look upon him once 
 more. So he took counsel with his Wazi'r'' about visiting him, but 
 the Minister, finding the project unadvisable, recommended that a 
 letter be written and a present be sent under his charge to the 
 younger brother with an invitation to visit the elder. Having 
 accepted this advice the King forthwith bade prepare handsome gifts, 
 
 ' AU.iho A'alani, a deprecatory formula, used because the writer is going to 
 indulge in a series of what may possibly be unfacts. 
 
 - Tlie " Sons of Sasan " are the famous Sassmides whose dynasty ended with 
 the Arabian Conquest (a.d. 641). "Island" (Jazirah) in Ar ibic also means 
 " Peninsula," and causes much confusion in geographical matters. 
 
 ^ Sliahryar not Shahriyai (Persian) =: " City-friend." The Bulak edition 
 corrupts it to Shahrbaz (City-hawk), and the Breslau to Shahrban or " Defendei 
 of the City," like Marz-ban := Waiden of the Marches. Shah Zam.an (Persian) 
 = ■' King of the Age:" Galland i)refers .Shah Zenan, or " King of women," 
 and the Bui. edit, changes it tn Shah Runiman, " Pometirnnate King." Al-Ajam 
 denotes all regions TiOt Arab (Gentiles opposed to Jews, Mlechchhas to Hindus, 
 Tajiks to Turks, etc., etc.), and especially Persia; Ajami (a man of Ajam) being 
 an equivalent of the Gr. Bap/3apos. See notes to p. 13, and to Night 34, post. 
 
 * Galland writes "Vizier," a wretched frenchification of a mincing Turkish 
 mispronunciation ; Torrens, "Wuzeer" (Anglo-Intlian and Gilchiisiian) ; Lane, 
 '• Wezeer" (Egypiian or rather Cairene); Payne, " Vizier," accord ng to his system ; 
 Murckhardt (I'roverbs) and Mr. Keith-Falconer (Kalilah, etc.), "Vizir." The 
 root is popularly suppcsed to be " wizr " (burden) and the meaning " Minister ;" 
 Wazir al-\Vuzara being '"Premier." In the Koran (chapt. xx. 30) Moses says,- 
 " Give me a Wazir of my family, Harun (Aaron) my brother." Sale, followed by 
 the excellent ver^ion of ihe Kev. J. M. Kodwell, translators a "Counsellor," and 
 exjilains by " One whohas the chi' f administration ofaflairs under a prince " But 
 hoth learnett Koranisls learnt tl eir Oiientalism in London, ar.d, hke such siudents 
 generally, fail only upon the easiest po;n s, lamiliar to all old dwellers in the East.
 
 S/ory of King Shahryar and his Brother. 3 
 
 such as horses with saddles of gem-encrusted gold ; Mame- 
 lukes, or white slaves; beautiful handmaids, high-breasted virgins, 
 and splendid stuffs and costly. He then wrote a letter to 
 Shah Zaman expressing his warm love and strong wish to see 
 him, ending with these words, "We therefore hope of the 
 favour and affection of the beloved brother that he will con- 
 descend to bestir himself and turn his face uswards. Furthermore 
 we have sent our Wazir to make all ordinance for the march, and our 
 one and only desire is to see thee ere we die ; but if thou delay or 
 disappoint us we shall not survive the blow. Wherewith peace be 
 upon thee ! " Then King Shahryar, having sealed the missive and 
 given it to the Wazir with the offerings aforementioned, commanded 
 him to shorten his skirts and strain his strength and make all 
 expedition in going and returning. "Hearkening and obedience!" 
 quoth the Minister, who fell to making ready without stay and packed 
 up his loads and prepared all his requisites without delay. This 
 occupied him three days, and on the dawn of the fourth he took leave 
 of his King and marched right away, over desert and hill-way, stony 
 waste and pleasant lea without halting by night or by day. But 
 whenever he entered a realm whose ruler was subject to his Suzerain, 
 where he was greeted with magnificent gifts of gold and silver and 
 all manner of presents fair and rare, he would tarry there three days,' 
 the term of the guest-rite ; and, when he left on the fourth, he would 
 be honourably escorted for a whole day's march. As soon as the 
 Wazir drew near Shah Zaman's court in Samarcand he despatched to 
 report his arrival one of his high officials, who presented himself 
 before the King ; and, kissing ground between his hands, delivered 
 his message. Hereupon the King commanded sundry of his 
 Grandees and Lords of his land to fare forth and meet his brother's 
 Wazir at the distance of a full day's journey ; which they did, greeting 
 him respectfully and wishing him all prosperity and forming an escort 
 and a procession. When he entered the city he proceeded straight- 
 way to the palace, where he presented himself in the royal presence; 
 and, after kissing ground and praying for the King's health and 
 happiness and for victory over all his foes, he informed him that his 
 brother was yearning to see him, and prayed for the pleasure of a 
 visit. He then delivered the letter which Shah Zaman took from his 
 hand and read : it contained sundry hints and allusions which 
 required thought; but, when the King had fully comprehended its 
 import, he said, " I hear and I obey the commands of the beloved 
 brother ! " adding to the Wazir, " But we will not march till after the 
 
 ' This three-days term (ie>;t-clay, drest-day and de]3arture-day) seems to be an 
 
 •instinci-made rule in ho>i)itality. Among Mcslems itisaSunnat or practice of 
 ..1,., I. u„. 
 
 the I'rDphet.
 
 4 A If Lay la h zva Lay/ah. 
 
 third day's hosi)itality." He appointed for the Minister fitting 
 ([uarters in the pahice ; and, pitching tents for the troops, rationed 
 them with whatever they might require of meat and drink and other 
 necessaries. On the fourth day he made ready for wayfare and got 
 together sumptuous presents befitting his elder brother's majesty, and 
 stabUshed his chief Wazir viceroy of the land during his absence. 
 Then he caused his tents and camels and mules to be brought forth 
 and encamped, with their bales and loads, attendants and guards, 
 within sight of the city, in readiness to set out next morning for his 
 brother's capital. But when the night was half spent he bethought 
 him that he had forgotten in his palace somewhat which he should havo 
 brought with him, so he returned privily and entered his apartments, 
 where he found the Queen, his wife, asleep on his own carpet-bed, 
 embracing with both arms a black cook of loathsome aspect and 
 foul with kitchen grease and grime. When he saw this the world 
 waxed black before his sight and he said, " If such case happen 
 while I am yet within sight of the city what will be the doings of 
 this damned whore during my long absence at my brother's court?" 
 So he drew his scymitar and, cutting the two into four pieces with 
 a single blow, left them on the carpet and returned presently 
 to his camp without letting anyone know of what had happened. 
 Then he gave orders for immediate departure and set out at once 
 and began his travel ; but he could not help thinking over his wife's 
 conduct and he kept ever saying to himself, " How could she do this 
 deed by me ? How could she work her own death ? " till excessive 
 grief seized him, his colour changed to yellow, his body waxed 
 weak and he was threatened with a dangerous malady, such an 
 one as bringeth men to die. So the Wazir shortened his stages and 
 tarried long at the watering-stations and did his best to solace 
 the King. Now when Shah Zaman drew near the capital of his 
 brother he despatched vaunt-couriers and messengers of glad 
 tidings to announce his arrival, find Shahryar came forth to meet 
 him with his Wazirs and Emirs and Lords and Grandees of his 
 realm ; and saluted him and joyed with exceeding joy and caused 
 the city to be decorated in his honour. When, however, the brothers 
 met, the elder could not but see the change of complexion in the 
 younger and questioned him of his case whereto he replied, '"Tis 
 caused by the travails of travel and wayfare and my case needeth care, 
 for I have suffered from the change of water and air ! but Allah be " 
 [)raised for reuniting me with a brother so dear and so rare ! " On 
 this wise he dissembled and kept his secret, adding, " O King of 
 the time and Caliph of the tide, only toil and moil have tinged my 
 face yellow with bile and hath made my eyes sink deep in my 
 head." Then the two entered the capital in all honour ; and the
 
 Stoty of King SliaJiryar and //is Brother. 5 
 
 elder brother lodged the younger in a palace overhanging the 
 pleasure garden , and, after a time, seeing his condition still un- 
 c!;anged, he attributed it to his separation from his country and 
 kmgdom. So he let him wend his own ways and asked no questions 
 of him till one day when he again said, " O my brother, I see thou 
 ait grown weaker of body and yellower of colour." " O my brother," 
 replied Shah Zaman, " I have an internal wound : "^ still he would 
 not tell hmi what he had witnessed in his wife. Thereupon Shahryar 
 summoned doctors and surgeons and bade them treat his brother 
 according to the rules of art, which they did for a whole month ; but 
 their sherbets and potions naught availed, for he would dwell upon 
 the deed of his wife, and despondency, instead of diminishing, pre- 
 vailed, and leach-craft treatment utterly failed. One day his elder 
 brother said to him, " I am going forth to hunt and course and to 
 take my pleasure and pastime ; maybe this would lighten thy heart." 
 Shah Zaman, however, refused, saying, " O my brother, my soul 
 yearneth for naught of this sort and I entreat thy favour to suffer me 
 tarry quietly in this place, being wholly taken up with my malady." 
 So King Shah Zaman passed his night in the palace and, next 
 morning, when his brother had gone forth, he removed from his 
 room and sat him down at one of the lattice-windows overlooking 
 the pleasure grounds ; and there he abode thinlcing with saddest 
 thought over his wife's betrayal and burning sighs issued from his 
 tortured breast. And as he continued in this case lo ! a postern of 
 the palace, which was carefully kept private, swung open and out of 
 it came twenty slave girls surrounding his brother's wife who was 
 wondrous fair, a model of beauty and comeliness and symmetry and 
 perfect loveliness and who paced with the grace of a gazelle which 
 panielh for the cooling stream. Thereupon Shah Zaman drew back 
 from the window, but he kept the bevy in sight espying them from a 
 place whence he could not be espied. They walked under the very 
 lattice and advanced a little way into the garden till they came to a 
 jettmg fountain amiddlemost a great basin of water, then they 
 stripped off their clothes and behold, ten of them were women, 
 concubines of the King, and the other ten were white slaves. 
 Then they all paired off, each with each : but the Queen, who 
 was left alone, presently cried out in a loud voice, " Here to me, 
 O my lord Saeed ! " and there sprang with a drop-leap from one 
 of the trees a big slobbering blackamoor with rolling eyes which 
 showed the whites, a truly hideous sight.^ He walked boldly up 
 to her and threw his arms round her neck, while she embraced 
 him as warmly. On like wise did the other slaves with the girls 
 till all had satisfied their passions, and they ceased not from kissing 
 
 ' i.e., I am sick at heart. 
 
 ' Debauched women prefer negroes as lovers.
 
 6 Alf Layhih wa Laylah. 
 
 and clipping, and carousing till day began to wane ; when the men 
 resumed their disguises and all, except the negro who swarmed up 
 the tree, entered the palace and closed the postern-door as before. 
 Now, when Shah Zaman saw this conduct of his sister-in-law he 
 said in himself, " By Allah, my calamity is lighter than this ! My 
 brother is a greater King among the kings than I am, yet this 
 infiimy goeth on in his very palace, and his wife is in love with 
 that filthiest of filthy slaves. But this only showeth that they 
 all do it, and that there is no woman but who cuckoldeth her 
 husband ; then the curse of Allah upon one and all and 
 upon the fools who lean agai'nst them for support or who 
 place the reins of conduct in their hands." So he put away 
 his melancholy and despondency, regret and repine, and allayed 
 his sorrow by constantly repeating those words, adding, " 'Tis 
 my conviction that no man in this world is safe from their 
 malice ! " When supper-time came they brought him the trays and 
 he ate with voracious appetite, for he had long refrained from meat, 
 feehng unable to touch any dish however dainty. Then he returned 
 grateful thanks to Almighty Allah, praising Him and blessing Him, 
 and he spent a most restful night, it having been long since he had 
 savoured the sweet food of sleep. Next day he broke his fast 
 heartily and began to recover health and strength, and presently 
 regained excellent condition. His brother came back from the 
 chase ten days after, when he rode out to meet him and they saluted 
 each other ; and when King Shahryar looked at King Shah Zaman 
 he saw how the hue of health had returned to him, how his face 
 had waxed ruddy and how he ate with an appetite after his late scanty 
 diet. He wondered much and said, " O my brother, I was so 
 anxious that thou wouldst join me in hunting and chasing, and 
 wo'jldst take thy pleasure and pastime in my dominion ! " He 
 thanked him and excused himself; then the two took horse and 
 rode into the city and, when they were seated at their ease in the 
 palace, the food-trays were set before them and they ate their suffi- 
 ciency. After the meats were removed and they had washed theii 
 hands. King Shahryar turned to his brother and said, " My mind is 
 overcome with wonderment at thy condition. I was desirous to 
 carry thee with me to the chase but I saw thee changed in hue, 
 pale and wan to view, and in sore trouble of mind too. But now 
 Alhamdolillah — glory be to God ! — I see thy natural colour hath 
 returned to thy face and that thou art again in the best of case. 
 It was my belief that thy sickness came of severance from thy famil\ 
 and friends, and absence from capital and country, so I refrained 
 from troubling thee with further questions. But now I beseech 
 thee to expound to me the cause of thy complauit and thy change
 
 Sio?j of King S/iah/yar and his Brother. 7 
 
 of colour, and to explain the reason of thy recovery and the return 
 to the ruddy hue of health which I am wont to view. So speak 
 out and hide naught ! " When Shah Zaman heard this he bowed 
 groundwards awhile his head, then raised it and said, " I will tell 
 thee what caused my complaint and my loss of colour ; but excuse 
 my acquainting thee with the cause of its return to me and the reason 
 of my complete recovery : indeed I pray thee not to press me for a 
 reply." Said Shahryar, who was much surprised by these words, " Let 
 me hear first what produced thy pallor and thy poor condition." 
 " Know, then, O my brother," rejoined Shah Zaman, " that when 
 thou sentest thy Wazir with the invitation to place myself between 
 thy hands, I made ready and marched out of my city ; but presently 
 I minded me having left behind me ir] the palace a string of jewels 
 intended as a gift to thee. I returned for it alone and found my wife on 
 my carpet bed and in the arms of a hideous black cook. Accordingly 
 I slew the twain and came to thee, yet my thoughts brooded over this 
 business and I lost my bloom and became weak. But excuse me 
 if I still refuse to tell thee what was the reason of my complexion 
 returning." Shahryar shook his head, marvelling with extreme 
 marvel, and with the fire of wrath flaming up from his heart, he 
 cried, " Indeed, the malice of woman is mighty ! " Then he took 
 refuge from them with Allah and said, " In very sooth, O my 
 brother, thou hast escaped many an evil by putting thy wife to 
 death,^ and right excusable were thy wrath and grief for such mis- 
 hap which never yet befel crowned King like unto thee. By Allah, 
 had the case been mine, I would not have been satisfied without 
 slaying a thousand women and that way madness lies ! But non- 
 praise be to Allah who hath tempered to thee thy tribulation, and 
 needs must thou acquaint me with that which so suddenly restored 
 to thee complexion and health, and explain to me what causeth this 
 concealment." " O King of the Age, again I pray thee excuse my 
 so doing ! " " Nay, but thou must." " I fear, O my brother, lest 
 the recital cause thee more anger and sorrow than afflicted me." 
 "That were but a better reason," quoth Shahryar, "for telling me 
 the whole history, and I conjure thee by Allah not to keep back 
 aught from me." Thereupon Shah Zaman told him all he had seen, 
 from commencement to conclusion, ending with these w^ords, "When 
 I beheld thy calamity and the treason of thy wife, O my brother, 
 and I reflected that thou art in years my senior and in sovereignty 
 my superior, mine own sorrow was belittled by the comparison, 
 and my mind recovered tone and temper : so throwing off melan- 
 
 Thc Arab's Tue la !
 
 S ./// Lay/ah wa Laylah. 
 
 choly and despondency, I was able to eat and drink and sleep, and 
 thus I speedily regained health and strength. Such is the truth 
 and the whole truth." When King Shahryar heard this he waxed 
 wroth with exceeding wrath, and rage was like to strangle him ; but 
 presently he recovered himself and said, " O my brother, I would 
 not give thee the lie in this matter, but I cannot credit it till I see it 
 with mine own eyes." ''An thou wouldst look upon thy calamity," 
 quoth Shah Zaman, " rise at once and make ready again for hunting 
 and coursing,^ and then hide thyself with me, so shalt thou witness 
 it and thine eyes shall verify it." "True," quoth the King; where- 
 upon he let make proclamation of his intent to travel, and the troops 
 and tents went forth the city, camping within sight, and Shahryar 
 sallied out with them and took seat amidmost his host, bidding the 
 sla\es admit no man to him. When night came on he summoned 
 his A\'azir and said to him, " Sit thou in my stead and let none wot 
 of my absence till the term of three days." Then the brothers 
 disguised themselves and returned by night with all secrecy to the 
 palace, where they passed the dark hours : and at dawn they seated 
 themselves at the lattice overlooking the pleasure grounds, when 
 presently the Queen and her handmaids came out as before, and 
 passing under the windows made for the fountain. Here they 
 stripped, ten of them being men and ten women, and the King's 
 wife cried out, "Where art thou, O Saeed?" The hideous blacka- 
 moor dropped from the tree straightway ; and, rushing into her 
 arms without stay or delay, cried out, "I am Sa'ad al-Din Saood^!" 
 The lady laughed heartily, and all fell to satisfying themselves and 
 remained so occupied for a couple of hours ; then they went into the 
 basin and, after performing the Ghusl, or complete ablution, donned 
 their dresses and retired as they ! ad done before. When King Shahryar 
 saw this infamy of his wife and concubines he became as one distraught 
 and he cried out, " Only in utter solitude can man be safe from the 
 doings of this vile world ! By Allah, life is naught but one great 
 wrong." Presently he added, " Do not thwart me, O my brother, 
 in what I propose ; " and the other answered, " I will not." So he 
 said, " Let us up as we are and forthright depart hence, for we have 
 no concern with Kingship, and let us overwander Allah's earth, 
 worshii)i)ing the Almighty till we find some one to whom the like 
 
 ' Arab. " Sayd wa kanas " : the former usually applied to fishing; hence 
 Sayda (Sidon) = fish-town. But noble Arabs (except the Caliph Al-Amfn) do 
 not fish , so here it means simply "sport," chasing, coursing, birding (oiselcr), 
 and so forth. 
 
 ' In the Mac. Edit, the negro is called " Mas'ud " ; here he utters a kind of 
 war-cry and plays upon the name, " Sa'ad, Sa'id, Sa'ud,"and "Mas'ud," all being 
 derived from one root, " Sa'ad" = auspiciousness, prosperity.
 
 Story of King Shahryar and /lis Brother. 9 
 
 calamity hath happened ; and if we find none then will death be 
 more welcome to us than life." So the two brothers issued from a 
 second private postern of the palace ; and they never stinted way- 
 faring by day and by night, until they reached a tree a-middle of a 
 meadow hard by a spring of sweet water on the shore of the sclt 
 sea. Both drank of it and sat down to take their rest ; and when an 
 hour of the day had gone by, lo ! they heard a mighty roar and 
 uproar in the middle of the main as though the heavens were falling 
 upon the earth ; and the sea brake with waves before them, and 
 from it towered a black pillar, which grew and grew till it rose sky- 
 wards and began making for that meadow. Seeing it, they waxed 
 fearful exceedingly and climbed to the top of the tree, which was a 
 lofty; whence they gazed to see Avhat might be the matter. And 
 behold, it was a Jinni,^ huge of height and burly of breast and bulk, 
 broad of brow and black of bice bearing on his head a coffer of 
 crystal. He strode to land, wading through the deep, and coming 
 to the tree whereupon were the two Kings, seated himself beneath 
 it. He then set down the coffer on its bottom and out of it drew a 
 casket, with seven padlocks of steel, which he unlocked with seven 
 keys of steel he took from beside his thigh, and out of it a young 
 lady to come was seen, white-skinned and of winsomest mien, of 
 statuie fine and thin, and bright as though a moon of the fourteenth 
 night she had been, or the sun raining lively sheen. Even so the 
 poet Utayyah hath excellently said : — 
 
 She rose like the morn as she shone tlirough the night, * And she gilded the grove 
 
 with her gracious sight : 
 From her radiance the sun taketh increase, when • She unveileth and shamelh 
 
 the moonshine bright. 
 
 ^ The Arab singular (whence the French "genie") ; fern. Jinniyah ; the Div 
 and Rakshah of old Guebre-land and the " Rakshasa," or " Yaksha," of 
 Hinduism. It would be interesting to trace the evident connection, by no means 
 "accidental," of "Jinn" with the " Genius" who came to the Romans through 
 the Asiatic Etruscans, and whose name I cannot derive from " gignomai " or 
 " genitus." He was unknown to the Greeks, who had the Daimon {haijxwv), 
 a family which separated, like the Jinn and the Genius, into two categories, the 
 good (Aga'.ho-dismons) and tlie bad (K?iko-diEmons). We know nothing con- 
 cerning the status of the Jinn amongst the pre-Moslemitic or pagan Arabs; the 
 Moslems made him a supernatural anthropoid being, created of subtile fire 
 (Koran, chnpts. xv. 27 ; Iv. 14), not of earth like man, propigating Ins kind, 
 Idled by mighty kings, tiie last being Jan bin Jan, missionarised hy Prophets and 
 subject to dt-ath and judgment. From the same root are " funiin "r= madness 
 (i.e., possession or obsession by the Jinn) and " Majiiun " == a madmr.n. 
 According to R. Jeremiah bin Eliazar in Psalm xli. 5, Adam was excommunicated 
 for one hundred and thirty years, during which he begat children in his own 
 image (Gen. v. 3) and these were Mazikcen or Shedeem— Jinns. Further details 
 concerning the Jinu will presently occur.
 
 1 Alf Laylah rca Laylah. 
 
 Eow down all bcIiiLjs between her hands • As slie showeth charms wit'i her veil 
 
 undight. 
 And she flooded cities' with torrent tears » When she fla^lielh her look of 
 
 levcn-light. 
 
 The Jinni seated her under the tree by his side and gazing at her 
 said, " O choicest love of this heart of mine ! O dame of noblest 
 line, whom I snatched away on thy bride-night that none might 
 pre\"ent me taking thy first love, and whom none save myself hath 
 loved or hath enjoyed : O my sweetheart ! I would lief sleep a little 
 while." He then laid his head upon the lady's thighs, and stretching 
 out his legs which extended down to the sea, slept and snored and 
 snarked like the roll of thunder. Presently she raised her gracious 
 head towards the tree-top and saw the two Kings perched near the 
 summit ; then she softly lifted off her lap the Jinni's pate which she 
 was tired of supporting and placed it upon the ground ; then 
 standing upright under the tree signed to the Kings, " Come ye 
 down, ye two, and fear naught from this Ifrit."^ They were in a 
 terrible fright when they found that she had seen them and answered 
 her in the same manner, " Allah upon thee ® and by thy modesty, 
 
 lady, excuse us from coming down ! " But she rejoined by 
 saying, "Allah upon you both that ye come down forthright, and if 
 ye come not, I will rouse upon you my husband, this Ifrit, and he 
 shall do you to die by the illest of deaths;" and she continued 
 making signals to them. So, being afraid, they came down to her 
 and she rose before them, and urged them, saying " Do this without 
 stay or delay, otherwise will I arouse and set upon you this Ifrit who 
 shall slay you straightway." They said to her, " O our lady, we con- 
 jure thee by Allah, let us off this work, for we are fugitives from such 
 and in extreme dread and terror of this thy husband. How then can 
 we do in such a way as thou desirest ? " " Leave this talk : it needs 
 must be so," quoth she, and she swore them by Him * Avho raised the 
 
 ' Arab. "Amsar" (cities) : in Bui. Edit. " Amtar " (rains), as in Mac. Edit. 
 So Mr. Payne (I., 5) translates : — 
 
 And when she flashes forth the lightning of her glance, She maketh 
 eyes to rain, like showers, with many a tear. 
 
 1 would render it, " She makes whole cities shed tears ; " and prefer it for a 
 reason which will generally influence me — its superior exaggeration and impossi- 
 bility. 
 
 - Not " A-frit," pronounced Aye-frit, as our poets have it. This variety of 
 the Jinn, who, as will be shown, are divided into two races like mankind, is 
 generally, but not always, a malignant being, hostile and injurious to mankind 
 (Koran xxvii. 39). 
 
 3 i.e., "I conjure thee by Allah ; " the formula is technically called " Inshad." 
 ■t This introducing the name of Allah into such a tale is essentially Egyptian and 
 Caireae. But see Boccaccio, ii. 6 ; and vii. 9.
 
 No. 2. 
 
 Story of King Shahryar and his 
 Brother. 
 
 "The Jinni seated her under the tree. . . . 
 Presently she raised her gracious head towards 
 the tree-top and saw the two kings."
 
 Story of King Skahryar and his Brother. \ \ 
 
 skies on high, without prop or pillar, that, if they worked not her will, 
 she would cause them to be slain and cast into the sea. Whereupon 
 out of fear King Shahryar said to King Shah Zanian, "O my brother, 
 do thou what she biddeth thee do ; " but he replied, " I will not do 
 it till thou do it before I do." And they began disputing about her. 
 Then quoth she to the twain, " How is it I see you disputing and 
 demurring; if ye do not come forward like men, I will arouse upon 
 you the Ifrit." At this, by reason of their sore dread of the 
 Jinni, both did as she bade them; and she said, '.'Well done!" 
 She then took from her pocket a purse and drew out a knotted 
 string, whereon were strung five hundred and seventy^ seal rings, and 
 asked, "Know ye what be these?" They answered her saying, 
 "We know not!" Then quoth she, "These be the signets of five 
 hundred and seventy men who have all embraced me upon the horns of 
 this foul, this foolish, this filthy Ifrit ; so give me also your two seal 
 rings, ye pair of brothers." When they had drawn their two rings 
 from their hands and given them to her, she said to them, " Of a 
 truth this Ifrit bore me off on my bride-night, and put me into a 
 casket and set the casket in a coffer and to the coffer he affixed 
 seven strong padlocks of steel and deposited me on the deep bottom 
 of the sea that raves, dashing and clashing with waves ; and guarded 
 me so that I might remain chaste and honest, quotha ! that none 
 save himself might have connexion with me. But I have embraced 
 as many of my kind as I please, and this wretched Jinni wotteth not 
 that Destiny may not be averted nor hindered by aught, and that 
 whatso woman willeth the same she fulfiUeth however man nilleth. 
 Even so saith one of them : — 
 
 Rely not on women ; * Trust not to their hearts, 
 
 Whose joys and whose sorrows * Are hung to their parts ! 
 Lying love they will swear thee * Whence guile ne'er departs ; 
 Take Yi'isuf ^ for sample » 'Ware sleights and 'ware smarts I 
 
 Iblis 3 ousted Adam • (See ye not ?) thro' their arts. 
 
 ' So in the Mac. Edit. ; in others "ninety." I prefer the greater number as 
 exaggeration is a part of the humour. In the Hindu " Katha Sarit Sagara " (Sea 
 of the Streams of Story), the rings are one hundred and the catastrophe is more 
 moral ; the good youth Yashodluua rejects the wicked one's advances ; she awakes 
 the water-sprite, who is about to slay him, but the rings are brought as testimony 
 and the improper young person's nose is duly cut off. (Chap. Ixiii., p. 8o, of the 
 excellent translation by Prof. C. H. Tawney : for the Bibliothcca Indica : 
 Calcutta, 1881.) The Katha, etc., by Somadeva (century xi), is a poetical 
 version of the prose compendium, the " Vrihat Katha" (Great Story) by Gunadhya 
 (cent. vi. ) 
 
 ^ The Joseph of the Koran, very different from him of Genesis. We shall 
 meet him often enough in The Nights. 
 
 3 " Iblis," vulgarly written " Eblis," from a root meaning The Despairer,
 
 12 Ai'J LdvUili uui J. ay /ah. 
 
 And another haith : — 
 
 Slim l!iy blame, man ! 'T«ill drive to a pas^inn without bound ; * My fault is 
 not so heavy as fault in it hast found. 
 
 If true lover I become, then to me there cometh not * Save what happened 
 unto many in the by-qone stound. 
 
 For wonderful is he and right worthy of our ))raise « Who from wiles of female- 
 wits kept him safe and kept him sound." 
 
 Hearing these words they marvelled with exceeding marvel, and she 
 went from them to the Ifrit and, taking up his head on her thigh as 
 before, said to them softlj', "Now wend your ways and bear your- 
 selves beyond the bounds of his malice." So they fared forth saying 
 either to other, " Allah ! Allah ! " and, " There be no Majesty and 
 there be no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great ; and with 
 Him we seek refuge from women's malice and sleight, for of a truth 
 it hath no mate in might. Consider, O my brother, the ways of this 
 marvellous lady with an Ifrit who is so much more powerful than we 
 are. Now since there hath happened to him a greater mishap than 
 that which befel us and which should bear us abundant consolation, 
 so return we to our countries and capitals, and let us decide never to 
 intermarry with womankind and presently we will show them what 
 will be our action." Thereupon they rode back to the tents of King 
 Shahryar, which they reached on the morning of the third day ; and, 
 having mustered the Wazirs and Emirs, the Chamberlains and high 
 officials, he gave a robe of honour to his Viceroy and issued orders 
 for an immediate return to the city. There he sat him upon his 
 throne and sending for the Chief Minister, the father of the two 
 damsels who (Inshallah :) will presently be mentioned, he said, " 1 
 command thee to take my wife and smite her to death ; for she hath 
 broken her plight and her faith." So he carried her to the place o*' 
 execution and did her die. Then King Shahryar took brand in hand 
 and repairing to the Serraglio slew all the concubines and their 
 Mamelukes.^ He also sware himself by a binding oath that whatever 
 
 with a suspicious likeness to Diabolos ; possibly from "Balas," a profligate. 
 Some translate it The Calumniator, as Satan is the Hater. Iblis (who appears in 
 the Arab, version of the N. Testament) succeeded another revolting angel Al- 
 Haris ; and his story of pride, refusing to worship Adam, is told four times in 
 the Koran from the Talmud (Sanhedrim 29). He caused Adam and Eve to lose 
 Paradise (ii. 34) ; he siill betrays mankind (xxv. 31), and at the end of time he, 
 with the ether devils, will be "gathered together on their knees round Hell" 
 (\ix. 69). 
 
 » A similar tale is still told at Akka (St. John d'Acre) concerning the terrible 
 " butcher " — Jazzar (Djezzar) Pasha. According to Frizzi, Niccolo, Marquis of 
 Lste, after beheading Parisina, ordered all the faithless wives of Ferrara to be 
 treated in like manner.
 
 Tale oj the Bull and the Ass. 13 
 
 wife he married he would abate her virginity at night and slay her 
 next morning to make sure of his honour : " for," said he, " there 
 never was nor is there one chaste woman upon the face of earth." 
 Then Shah Zaman prayed for permission to fare homewards ; and 
 he went forth equipped and escorted and travelled till he reached 
 his own country. Meanwhile Sliahryar commanded his Wazir to 
 bring him the bride of the night that he might go to her ; so he 
 produced a most beautiful girl, the daughter of one of the Emirs 
 and the King went unto her at eventide and when morning 
 dawned he bade his Minister strike off her head ; and the Wazir did 
 accordingly for fear of the Sultan. On this wise he continued for 
 the space of three years ; marrying a maiden every night and kilhng 
 her the next morning, till folk raised an outcry against him and 
 cursed him, praying Allah utterly to destroy him and his rule ; and 
 women made an uproar and mothers wept and parents fled with 
 their daughters till there remained not in the city a young person of 
 a sufficient age for marriage. Presently the Kmg ordered his Chief 
 Wazir, the same who was charged with the executions, to bring him 
 a virgin as was his wont ; and the Minister went forth and searched 
 and found none ; so he returned home in sorrow and anxiety fearing 
 for his life from the King iSlow he had two daughters, named 
 Shahrazad and Dunyazad,' of whom the elder had perused the books, 
 annals and legends of preceding Kings, and the stories, examples, 
 and instances of by-gone men and things ; indeed it was said that 
 she had collected a thousand books of histories relating to antique 
 races and departed rulevs. She had perused the works of the poets 
 and knew them by heart ; she had studied philosophy and the 
 sciences, arts and accomplishments ; and she was pleasant and 
 polite, wise and witty, well read and well bred, Now on that day 
 she said to her father, " Why do I see thee thus changed and laden 
 with cark and care? Concerning this matter quoth one of the 
 poets : — 
 
 Tell whoso hath so :o\v * Gaef never shall last ; 
 
 E'en as joy hath no muirow * So woe shall go past." 
 
 When the Wazir heard from his daughter these words he related to 
 her, from beginning to end, all that had happened between him and 
 the King. Thereupon said she, "By Allah, O my father, how long 
 
 ' Shahrazad (Persian) = City-freer ; in the older version Scheherazade (probably) 
 both from Shirzad = lion-born). Dunyazad = World-freer. The Bres. Edit, 
 corrupts the former to Shahrzad or Shahrazad ; and the Mac. and Calc. to 
 Shahrzad or Shehrzad. I have ventured to restore the name as it should be. 
 Calland for the second prefers Dinarzade (?) and Richardson Dinazade (Dinazad = 
 I\.eligion-freer) ; here I have followed Lane and Payne ; though in " First 
 Footsteps" I was misled by Galland. See Notes to p. i, ante, and to Night 34. 
 post.
 
 1 4 A/f Laylali wa Laylu/i. 
 
 shall this slaughter of women endure? Shall I tell thee what is in 
 my mind in order to save both sides from destruction?" "Say on, 
 O my daughter," quoth he, and quoth she, " I wish thou would.st 
 give me in marriage to this King Shahryar ; either I shall live or 1 
 shall be a ransom for the virgin daughters of Moslems and the cause 
 of their deliverance from his hands and thine." ' " Allah upon thee ! " 
 cried he in wrath exceeding that lacked no feedmg, " O scanty of 
 wit, expose not thy life to such peril ! How durst thou address me 
 in words so wide from wisdom and unfar from foolishness? Knoiv 
 that one who lacketh experience in worldly matters readily falleth 
 into misfortune ; and whoso considereth not the end keepeth not the 
 world to friend, and the vulgar say : — I was lying at mine ease : 
 naught but my officiousness brought me unease." " Needs must 
 thou," she broke in, "make me a doer of this good deed, and let 
 him kill me an he will : I shall only die a ransom for others " " O 
 my daughter," asked he, "and how shall that profit thee when thou 
 shalt have thrown away thy life ? " and she answered, " O my father 
 It must be, come of it what will !" The Wazir was again moved to 
 fury and blamed and reproached her, ending with, " In very deed I 
 fear lest the same befal thee which befel the Bull and the Ass wjth 
 the Husbandman." " And what," asked she, " befel them, O my 
 father ? " Whereupon the Wazir began the 
 
 TALE OB THE DULL^ AND THE ASS. 
 
 Know, O my daughter, that there was once a merchant who owned 
 much money and many men, and who was rich in cattle and camels ; 
 he had also a wife and family and he dwelt in the country, being 
 experienced in husbandry and devoted to agriculture. Now Allah 
 Most High had endowed him with understanding the tongues of 
 beasts and birds of every kind, but under pain of death if he divulged 
 the gift to any. So he kept it secret for very fear. He had in his 
 cowhouse a Bull and an Ass each tethered in his own stall one hard 
 by the other. As the merchant was sitting near hand one day with 
 his servants and his children were playing about him, he heard the 
 
 ' Probably she proposed to "Judith" the King. These learned and clever 
 young ladies are very dangerous in the East. 
 
 - In Egy]:)t, etc., the bull takes the place ol" the Western ox. The Arab, word 
 is "Taur" (Thaur, Saur) ; in old Persian " Tora " and Lat. " Taurus," a vei er- 
 able remnant of the da\s before the " Scniiiic" and "Aryan" families of speech 
 liad split into'two distinct giovvths. "Taur" ei.ds in the Saxon "ttcor" and the 
 English " Steer."
 
 Tale of the BkU and the Ass. 15 
 
 Bull say to the Ass, " Hail and health to thee, O Father of Waking,^ 
 for that thou enjoyest rest and good ministering ; all under thee is 
 clean-swept and fresh-sprinkled ; men wait upon thee and feed thee, 
 and thy provaunt is sifted barley and thy drink pure spring-water, 
 while I (unhappy creature !) am led forth in the middle of the night, 
 when they set on my neck the plough and a something called Yoke ; 
 and I tire at cleaving the earth from dawn of day till set of sun. I 
 am forced to do more than I can and to bear all manner of ill- 
 treatment from night to night ; after which they take me back with 
 my sides torn, my neck flayed, my legs aching and mine eyelids sored 
 with tears. Then they shut me up in the byre and throw me beans 
 and crushed straw,' mixed with dirt and chaff; and I lie in dung and 
 filth and stinks through the livelong night. But thou art ever in a 
 place swept and sprinkled and cleansed, and thou art always lying at 
 ease, save when it happeneth (and seldom enough !) that the master 
 hath some business, when he mounteth thee and rideth thee to town 
 and returneth with thee forthright. So it fortuneth that I am toiling 
 and distrest while thou takest thine ease and thy rest : tliou sleepest 
 while I am sleepless ; I hunger still while thou eatest thy fill, and I 
 win contempt while thou winnest good will." When the Bull ceased 
 s])eaking, the Ass turned towards him and said, " O Broad-o'-Brow,^ 
 O thou lost one ! he lied not who dubbed thee Bull-head, for thou, 
 O father of a Bull, hast neither forethought nor contrivance ; thou 
 art the simplest of simpletons,^ and thou knowest naught of good 
 advisers. Hast thou not heard the saying of the wise : — 
 
 For others these h irtl^liips and labours I bear ; * And theirs is the pleasure 
 
 and mine is ihe care ; 
 As tile bleacher who blacketh his br(j\v in the sun * To whiten tlie raiment 
 
 which other men wear.^ 
 
 But thou, O fool, art full of zeal and thou toilest and moilest before 
 the master ; and thou tearest and wearest and slayest thyself for the 
 comfort of another. Hast thou never heard the saw that saith, 
 None to guide and from the way go wide? Thou wendest forth 
 .at the call to dawn-prayer and thou returnest not till sundown ; and 
 
 ^ Arab. " Abii Yakzan " :^ the Wakener ; becauNe the ass brays at dawn. 
 
 - Arab. " Tibn "; straw crushed under the sledge: the hay of Egypt, Arabia, 
 ■Syria, etc. The oKl country custom is to pull up the corn by handfuls from the 
 roots, leaving the land perfectly bare: hence the ' plucking up" of Holy Writ. 
 The object is to preserve every atom of "Tibn.'' 
 
 2 Arab. " Ya Afiah " : Al-Aftah is an epithet of the bull, also of Ihe chame- 
 ;leon. 
 
 ^ Arab. " I5alid," a favourite Egyptianism often pleasantly confounded with 
 -•' Wali" (a Santon) ; hence the latter comes to mean " an innocent," a '• ninny." 
 
 * From the Calc. Edit., vol. i. p. 29.
 
 1 6 AIJ Lay la h wa Laylak. 
 
 through the livelong day thou endurest all manner hardships; to wit, 
 beating and belabouring and bad language. Now hearken to me, 
 Sir Bull ! when they tie thee to thy stinking manger, thou pawest 
 the ground with thy forehand and lashest out with thy hind hoofs 
 and pushest with thy horns and bellowest aloud, so they deem thee 
 contented. And when they throw thee thy fodder thou fallest on 
 it with greed and hastenest to line thy fair fat paunch. But if thou 
 accept my advice 'twill be better for thee and thou wilt lead an 
 easier life even than mine. When thou goest afield and they lay 
 the thing called Yoke on thy neck, lie down and rise not again 
 though haply they swinge thee ; and, if thou rise, lie down a second 
 time ; and when they bring thee home and offer thee thy beans, 
 fall backwards and only sniif at thy meat and withdraw thee and 
 taste it not, and be satisfied with thy crushed straw and chaff; and 
 on this wise feign thou art sick, and cease not doing thus for a day 
 or two days or even three days, so shalt thou have rest from toil 
 and moil." When the Bull heard these words he knew the Ass to 
 be his friend and thanked him, saying, " Right is thy recking " ; and 
 prayed that all blessings might requite him, and cried, " O Father 
 Wakener!^ thou hast made up for my failings." (Now^the merchant, 
 O my daughter, understood all that passed between them.) Next 
 day the driver took the Bull, and setting the plough on his neck,"* 
 made him work as wont ; but the Bull began to shirk his ploughing, 
 according to the advice of the Ass, and the ploughman drubbed him 
 till he broke the yoke and made off; but the man caught him up 
 and leathered him till he despaired of his life. Not the less, how- 
 ever, would he do nothing but stand still and drop down till the 
 evening. Then the herd led him home and stabled him in his 
 stall : but he drew back from his manger and neither stamped nor 
 ramped nor butted nor bellowed as he was wont to do ; whereat 
 the man wondered. He brought him the beans and husks, but he 
 sniffed at them and left them and lay down as far from them as he 
 could and passed the whole night fasting. The peasant came next 
 morning ; and, seeing the manger full of beans, the crushed straw 
 untasted and the ox lying on his back in sorriest plight, with legs 
 outstretched and swollen belly, he was concerned for him, and 
 said to himself, " By Allah, he hath assuredly sickened and this is 
 the cause why he would not plough yesterday." Then he went to 
 the merchant and reported, " O my master, the Bull is ailing ; he 
 
 ' Arab. ''Abu Yakzan " is hardly equivalent with " Pere I'Eveille." 
 
 * In Arab, the wa ('») is the sign of parenthesis. 
 
 ^ In the nearer East the Hght liule plough is carried afield by the Lull or ass.
 
 Tale of the Bull and the Ass. 1 7 
 
 refused his fodder last ni-ht ; nay more, he hath not tasted a scrap 
 of it this morning." Now the merchant-farmer understood what all 
 this meant, because he had overheard the talk between the Bull and 
 the Ass, so quoth he, "Take that rascal donkey, and set the yoke 
 on his neck, and bind him to the plough and make him do Bull's 
 work." Thereupon the ploughman took the Ass, and worked him 
 through the livelong day at the Bull's task ; and, when he failed for 
 weakness, he made him eat stick till his ribs were sore and his sides 
 were sunken and his neck was flayed by the yoke ; and when he 
 came home in the evening he could hardly drag his limbs along, 
 either forehand or hind-legs. But as for the Bull, he had passed the 
 day lying at full length and had eaten his fodder with an excellent 
 appetite, and he ceased not calhng down blessings upon the Ass for 
 his good advice, unknowing what had come to him on his account. 
 So when night set in and the Ass returned to the cowhouse, the Bull 
 rose up before him in honour, and said, " May good tidings gladden 
 thy heart, O Father Wakener ! through thee I have rested all this day 
 and I have eaten my meat in peace and quiet." But the Ass returned 
 no reply, for wrath and heart-burning and fatigue and the beating 
 he had gotten ; and he repenied with the most grievous of repent- 
 ance ; and quoth he to himself : " This cometh of my folly in giving 
 good counsel ; as the saw saith, I was in joy and gladness, naught 
 save my officiousness brought me this sadness. But I will bear in 
 mind my innate worth and the nobility of my nature ; for what sailh 
 the poet ? 
 
 Shall the beautiful hue of the 1-asii' fail * Tlio' the beetle's foot over ihe Basil 
 
 crawl ? 
 And though spider and fly be its denizens • Shall disgrace attach ^o the 
 
 royal hall? 
 The cowrie,- I ken, shall have currency, « But the pea'l's clear diop, — sha'l its 
 
 value fall ? 
 
 And now I must take thought and put a trick upon him and return 
 him to his place, else I die." Then he went aweary to his manger, 
 while the Bull thanked him and blessed him. And even so, O my 
 daughter, said the Wazir, thou wilt die for lack of wits ; therefore 
 
 ^ Ocymum basilicum, the "royal herb," so much prized all over the East, 
 especially in India, where, under the name of " Tulsi," it is a shrub sacred to the 
 merry god Krishna. I found the verses in a MS. copy of The Nights. 
 
 - Arab. " Sadaf," the Kauri, or cowrie, bioui,ht from the Maldive and Lakdive 
 Archipelago. The Kamus describes this " Wada' " or Concha Veneris as " a 
 while shell [whence to " shell out "] which is taken out of the sea, the fissure of 
 which is white like that of the date-stone. It is hung about the necl< to avert the 
 evil eye." The pearl in Arab, is " Muiwarid," hi.nce evidently " Maigarita '' 
 and Margaris (woman's name). 
 
 vor,. I. B
 
 1 8 Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 sit thee still and say naught and expose not thy life to such stress ; 
 for, by Allah, I offer thee the best advice, which cometh of my 
 affection and kindly solicitude for thee. " O my father," she replied, 
 " needs must I go up to this King and be married to him." Quoth 
 he, " Do not this deed " ; and quoth she, " Of a truth I will " : 
 whereat he rejoined, " If thou be not silent and bide not still, I will 
 do with thee even what the merchant did with his wife." "And what 
 did he ? " asked she. Know then, answered the Wazir, that after 
 the return of the Ass the merchant came out on the terrace-roof with 
 his wife and family, for it was a moonlit night and the moon at its 
 full. Now the terrace overlooked the cowhouse, and presently, as 
 he sat there with his children playing about him, the trader heard 
 the Ass say to the Bull, "Tell me, O father Broad o' Brow, what 
 thou purposest to do to-morrow ?" The Bull answered, " What but 
 continue to follow thy counsel, O Aliboron ? Indeed it was as good 
 as good could be and it hath given me rest and repose ; nor will I 
 now depart from it one tittle : so, when they bring me my meat, I 
 will refuse it and puff out my belly and counterfeit crank." The 
 Ass shook his head and said, " Beware of so doing, O Father of a 
 Bull ! " The Bull asked, " Why," and the Ass answered, " Know 
 that I am about to give thee the best of counsel, for verily I heard 
 our owner say to the herd: — If the Bull rise not from his place to do 
 his work this morning, and if he retire from his fodder this day, 
 make him over to the butcher that he may slaughter him and give 
 his flesh to the poor, and fashion a bit of leather^ from his hide. 
 Now I fear for thee on account of this. So take my advice ere a 
 calamity befall thee ; and when they bring thee thy fodder eat it and 
 rise up and bellow and paw the ground, or our master will assuredly 
 slay thee : and peace be with thee ! " Thereupon the Bull arose 
 and lowed aloud and thanked the Ass, and said, "To-morrow I will 
 readily go forth with them " ; and he at once ate up all his meat and 
 even licked the manger. (Now all this took place and the owner 
 was listening to their talk.) Next morning the trader and his 
 wife went to the Bull's crib and sat down, and the driver came 
 and led forth the Bull who, seeing his owner, whisked his tail 
 and brake wind and frisked about so lustily that the merchant 
 laughed a loud laugh and kept laughing till he fell on his 
 back. His wife asked him, "Whereat laughest thou with such 
 loud laughter as this ? " and he answered her, " I laughed at 
 a secret something which I have heard and seen but cannot say lest 
 I die my death." She returned, " Perforce thou must discover it to 
 
 ' Arab. " Kat'a" (bit of leather) : some read " Nat'a," a leather used by way 
 of table-cloth, and forming a bag for victuals ; but it is never made of bull's hide.
 
 Tale of the Bull and the Ass. 19 
 
 me, and disclose the cause of thy laughing even if thou come by thy 
 death ! " But he rejoined, "I cannot reveal what beasts and birds say 
 in their lingo for fear I die." Then quoth she, "By Allah, 
 thou liest ! this is a mere pretext : thou laughest at none save 
 me, and now thou wouldest hide somewhat from me. But 
 by the Lord of the Heavens ! if thou disclose not the cause 
 I will no longer cohabit with thee : I will leave thee at 
 once." And she sat down and cried. Whereupon quoth the 
 merchant, "Woe betide thee! what meaneth thy weeping? Fear 
 Allah and leave these words and query me no more questions." 
 " Needs must thou tell me the cause of that laugh," said she, and 
 said he, " Thou wottest that when I prayed Allah to vouchsafe me 
 understanding of the tongues of beasts and birds, I made a vow never 
 to disclose the secret to any under pain of dying on the spot." "No 
 matter," cried she, " tell me what secret passed between the Bull and 
 the Ass, and die this very hour if thou be so minded " ; and she 
 ceased not to importune him till he was worn out and clean dis- 
 traught. So at last he said, " Summon thy father and thy mother, 
 and our kith and kin and sundry of our neighbours," which she did ; 
 and he sent for the Kazi ^ and his assessors, intending to make his 
 will and reveal to her his secret and die the death ; for he loved her 
 with love exceeding because she was his cousin, the daughter of his 
 father's brother, and the mother of his children, and he had lived 
 with her a life of an hundred and twenty years. Then, having 
 assembled all the family and the folk of his neighbourhood, he said 
 to them, " By me there hangeth a strange story, and 'tis such that if 
 I discover the secret to any, I am a dead man." Therefore quoth 
 every one of those present to the woman, "Allah upon thee, leave 
 this sinful obstinacy and recognise the right of this matter, lest haply 
 thy husband and the father of thy children die." But she rejoined, 
 " I will not turn from it till he tell me, even though he come by his 
 death." So they ceased to urge her ; and the trader rose from 
 amongst them and repaired to an outhouse to perform the Wuzu- 
 ablution,^ and he purposed thereafter to return and to tell them his 
 secret and to die. Now, daughter Shahrazad, that merchant had in 
 his out-house some fifty hens under one cock, and whilst making 
 ready to farewell his folk he heard one of his many farm-dogs thus 
 address in his own tongue the cock, who was flapping his wings and 
 crowing lustily and jumping from one hen's back to another and tread- 
 ing them all in turn, saying, "O Chanticleer! how mean is thy wit and 
 
 ' The older " Cadi," a judge in religious matters. The Shuhud, or Assessors, 
 or officers of the Mahkamah or Kazi's Court. 
 
 * Of which more in a future page. He thus purified himself ceremonially 
 before death.
 
 20 Alf Laylak wa Lay/ah. 
 
 how shameless is thy conduct I Be he disappointed who brought 
 
 thee up ! ^ Art thou not asliamed of thy doings on such a day as 
 
 this?" "And what," asked the Rooster, " liath occurred this day?" 
 
 when the Dog answered, " Dost thou not know that our master 
 
 is this day making ready for his death ? His wife is resolved 
 
 ihat he shall disclose the secret taught to him by Allah, and 
 
 ihe moment he so doeth he shall surely die. We dogs are 
 
 all a-mourning ; but thou clappest thy wings and clarionest thy 
 
 loudest and treadest hen after hen. Art thou not ashamed of 
 
 thyself?"^ "Then by Allah," quoth the Cock, "is our master a 
 iack-wit and a man scanty of sense : if he cannot manage matters 
 
 V. ith a single wife, his life is not worth prolonging. Now I have 
 some fifiy Dame Partlets ; and I please this and provoke that and 
 starve one and stuff another ; and through my good governance tliey 
 are all well under my control. This our master pretendeth to wit 
 and wisdom, and he hath but one wife, and yet knoweth not how t ) 
 manage her." Asked the Dog, " What, then, O Cock, should the 
 master do to win clear of his strait?" "He should arise forthright," 
 answered the Cock, " and take some twigs from yon mulberry-tree 
 and give her a regular back-basting and rib roasting till she cry : — • 
 I repent, O my lord ! I will never ask thee a question as long as 
 I live ! Then let him beat her once more and soundly, and when 
 he shall have done this he shall sleep free from care and enjoy life. 
 Hut this master of ours owns neither sense nor judgment." "Now, 
 daughter Shahrazad," continued the Wazir, " I will do to thee as 
 (lid that husband to that wife." Said Shahrazad, " And what did 
 he do ? " He said, " When the merchant heard the wise words 
 sfioken by his Cock to his Dog, he arose in haste and sought his 
 wife's chamber, after cutting for her some mulberry-twigs and hiding 
 them there ; and then he called to her, " Come into the closet that 
 I may tell thee the secret while no one seeth me and then die." She 
 entered with him and he locked the door and came down upon her 
 with so sound a beating of back and shoulders, ribs, arms and legs, 
 saying the while, " Wilt thou ever be asking questions about what 
 concerneth thee not ? " that she was well nigh senseless. Presently 
 she cried out, " I am of the repentant ! By Allah, I will ask thee no 
 more questions, and indeed I repent sincerely and wholesomely " 
 Then she kissed his hand and feet and he led her out of the room 
 submissive as a wife should be. Her parents and all the company 
 rejoiced and sadness and mourning were changed into joy and glad- 
 ness. Thus the merchant learnt family discipline from his Cock and 
 
 ' This is Christian rather than Moslem : a favourite Maltese curse is "Valuak 
 Kiddi^ak man rabba-k ! " =:r burn the Saint who brought thee up ! 
 * A popular Egyptian phrase : the dog and the cock speak like Fellahs.
 
 Tale of the Bull and the Ass. 2 1 
 
 he and his wife lived together the happiest of lives until death. "And 
 thou also, O my daughter!" continued the Wazir, "unless thou turn 
 from this matter I will do by thee as that trader did to his wife." 
 But she answered him with much decision, " I will never desist, O 
 my father, nor shall this tale change my purpose. Leave such talk 
 and tattle. I will not listen to thy words and, if thou deny me, I will 
 marry myself to him despite the nose of thee. And first I will go up 
 to the King myself and alone, and I will say to him : — I prayed 
 my father to wive me with thee, but he refused, being resolved to 
 disappoint his lord, grudging the like of me to the like of thee." 
 Her father asked, " Must this needs be? " and she answered, " Even 
 so." Hereupon the Wazir, being weary of lamenting and contend- 
 ing, persuading and dissuading her, all to no purpose, went up to 
 King Shahryar and, after blessing him and kissing of ground before 
 him, told him all about his dispute with his daughter from first to 
 last, and how he desired to bring her to him that night. The King 
 wondered with exceeding wonder; for he had made an especial excep- 
 tion of the Wazir's daughter, and said to him, "O most faithful of 
 Counsellors, how is this? Thou wottest that I have sworn by the Raiser 
 of the Heavens that after this night I shall say to thee on the morrow's 
 morning : — Take her and slay her ! and, if thou slay her not, I will 
 slay thee in her stead without fail." " Allah guide thee to glory and 
 lengthen thy life, O King of the Age," answered the Wazir, "'tis she 
 who hath so determined : all this have I told her and more ; but she 
 will not hearken to me, and she persisteth in passing this coming night 
 with the King's Highness." So Shahryar rejoiced greatly and said, 
 " 'Tis well ; go get her ready and this night bring her to me." The 
 Wazir returned to his daughter and reported to her the command 
 saying, " Allah make not thy father desolate by thy loss ! " But 
 Shahrazad rejoiced with exceeding joy and gat ready all she required 
 and said to her younger sister, Dunyazad, " Note well what directions 
 I entrust to thee 1 When I have gone in to the King I will send for thee, 
 and when thou comest to me and seest that he hath had his will of me, 
 do thou say to me : — O my sister, an thou be not sleepy, relate to me 
 some new story, delectable and delightsome, the better to speed our 
 waking hours ; and I will tell thee a tale which shall be our deliver- 
 ance, if so Allah please, and which shall turn the King from his 
 blood-thirsty custom." Dunyazad answered, " With love and glad- 
 ness." So when it was night their father the Wazir carried Shahrazad 
 to the King, who was gladdened at the sight and asked, " Hast thou 
 brought me my need ? " and he answered, " I have." But when the 
 King took her to his bed she wept ; which made him ask, " What 
 aileth thee?" She replied, "O King of the Age, I have a younger sister
 
 22 Alf Lay hi h wa Lay /ah. 
 
 and lief would I take leave of her this night before I see the dawn." 
 So he sent at once for Dunyazad and she came and kissed the ground 
 between his hands, when he permitted her to take her seat near the 
 foot of the couch. Then the King arose and abated his bride's virginity, 
 and the three fell asleep. But when it was midnight Shahrazad awoke 
 and signalled to her sister Dunyazad who sat up and said, " Allah 
 upon thee, O my sister, recite to us some new story, delightsome and 
 delectable, wherewith to while away the waking hours of our latter 
 night." ^ "With joy and goodly gree," answered Shahrazad, "if this 
 pious and auspicious King permit me." "Tell on," quoth the King 
 who chanced to be sleepless and restless, and therefore was pleased 
 with the prospect of hearing her story. So Shahrazad rejoiced ; and 
 thus, on the first night of the Thousand Nights and a Night, she 
 began with the 
 
 TALE OF THE TRADER AND THE JINNI. 
 
 It is related, O auspicious King, that there was a merchant of the 
 merchants who had much wealth, and business in various cities. 
 Now on a day he mounted horse and went forth to recover 
 monies in certain towns, and the heat sore oppressed him ; so he 
 sat beneath a tree and, putting his hand into his saddle-bags, took 
 thence some broken bread and dry dates and began to break his 
 fast. When he had ended eating the dates he threw away the 
 st )nes with force and lo ! an Ifrit appeared, huge of stature and 
 brandishing a drawn sword, wherewith he approached the merchant 
 and said, "Stand up that I may slay thee, even as thou slewest my 
 son ! " Asked the merchant, " Hov,- have I slain thy son } " and he 
 answered, " When thou atest dates and threwest away the stones 
 they struck my son full in the breast as he was walking by, so that 
 he died forthwith." ' Quoth the merchant, " Verily from Allah we 
 proceede 1 and unto Allah are we returning. There is no Majesty, 
 and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great ! If 
 I slew thy son, I slew him by chance medley : I pray thee now 
 pardon me." Rejoined the Jinni, "There is no help but I slay 
 thee." Then he seized him and dragged him along and, casting 
 him to the earth, rai-ed the sword to strike him; whereupon the 
 merchant wept, and said, " I commit my case to Allah," and began 
 repeating these couplets : — 
 
 ' I.e. between the last sleep and dawn when tliey would rise to wash and pray. 
 
 * Travellers tell of a peculiar knack of jerking the date-ston", which mnkos it 
 strike with great force: I never saw this " Inwa " practised, but it reminds me 
 of the water-splashing with one hand in the German baths.
 
 Tale of the Trade)- and the Jinni. 23 
 
 Containeth Time a twain of clays, this of Ijlessing that of bane ; * And holdeth 
 
 Life a twain of halves, this of pleasure that of pain. 
 See'st not when blows the hurricane, sweeping stark and striking strong * None 
 
 save the forest giant feels the suffering of the strain? 
 How many trees earth nourisheth of the dry and of the green, * Yet none but 
 
 those which bear the fruits for cast of stone complain. 
 See'st not how corpses rise and float on the surface of the tide * While pearls 
 
 o' price lie hitlden in the deepest of the main ? 
 Ill Heaven are unnumbered the many of the stars, * Yet ne'er a star but Sun 
 
 and Moon by eclipse is overta'en. 
 Well judgedst thou the days that saw thy faring sound and well * And countedit 
 
 not the pangs and pain whereof Fate is ever fain. 
 The nights have kept thee safe and the safety brought thee pride, « But bliss and 
 
 blessings of the night are 'genderers of bane ! 
 
 AVhen the merchant ceased repeating his verses the Jinni said to 
 him, " Cut thy words short, by Allah ! needs must I slay thee." But 
 the merchant spake hint thus, "Know, O thou Ifrit, that I have 
 debts due to me and much wealth and children and a wife and 
 many pledges in hand ; so permit me to go home and discharge to 
 every claimant his claim ; and I will come back to thee at the head 
 of the new year. Allah be my testimony and surety that I will 
 return to thee; and then thou mayest do with me as thou wilt and 
 Allah is witness to what I say." The Jinni took sure promise of 
 him and let him go ; so he returned to his own city and transacted 
 his business and rendered to all men tlieir dues and after informing 
 his wife and children of what had betided him, he appointed a 
 guardian and dwelt with them for a full year. Then he arose, and 
 made the Wuzii-ablution to purify himself before death and took his 
 shroud under his arm and bide farewell to his people, his neighbours 
 and all his kith and kin, and went forth despite his own nose.^ They 
 then began weeping and wailing and beating their breasts over him ; 
 but he travelled until he arrived at the same garden, and the day of 
 Ills arrival was the head of the New Year. As he sat weeping over 
 what had befallen him, behold, a Shaykh,^ a very ancient man, drew 
 
 ' i.e., sorely against his will. 
 
 "^ Arab. " Shaykh " = an old man (primarily), an elder, a chief (of the tribe, 
 guild, etc ) ; and honourably addressed to any man. Comp. among the neo- 
 Latins " Sieur," " Signore," " Senor," " St-nhor," etc. from Lat. "Senior," 
 which gave our " Sire" and "Sir." Like many in Arabic the word has a 1 ost 
 of diflerent meanings and most of them will occur in the course of The Nights. 
 Ibraliim (Abraham) was the first Shaykh or man who became grey. Seeing his 
 hairs whiten he cried, " O Allah what is this?" and the answer came that it 
 was a sign of dignified gravity. Hereujion h.e exclaimed, " O Lord increase this 
 to me ! " and so it happened till his locks waxtd snowy white at the age of one 
 hundred and fifty. He was the fiist who parted his liair, trimmed his mustachii s, 
 cleaned his teetti with the Miswak (tooth-stick), pared his nails, snufied up 
 water, and wore a shirt ( Tabari).
 
 24 '^if Laylak wa Laylah. 
 
 near leading a chained gazelle ; and he saluted that merchant and 
 wishing him long life said, "What is the cause of thy sitting in this 
 place and thou alone and this be a resort of evil spirits ? " The 
 merchant related to him what had come to pass with the Ifrit, and 
 the old man, the owner of the gazelle, wondered and said, " By Allah, 
 O brother, thy faith is none other than exceeding faith, and thy story 
 right strange; were it graven with needle-gravers upon the eye-corners, 
 it were a warner to whoso would be warned." Then seating himself 
 near the merchant he said, "By Allah, O my brother, I will not 
 leave thee until I see what may come to pass with thee and this 
 Ifrit." And presently as he sat and the two were at talk the mer- 
 chant began to feel fear and terror and exceeding grief and sorrow 
 beyond relief and ever-growing care and extreme despair. And the 
 owner of the gazelle was hard by his side ; when behold, a second 
 Shaykh approached them, and with him were two dogs both of 
 greyhound-breed and both black. The second old man after saluting 
 them with the salam, also asked them of their tidings and said, 
 " what causeth you to sit in this place, a dwelling of the Jann ^ ? " 
 So they told him the tale from beginning to end, and their stay 
 there had not lasted long before there came up a third Shaykh, and 
 with him a she-mule of bright bay coat ; and he saluted them and 
 asked them why they were seated in that place. So they told him 
 the story from first to last : and of no avail, O my master, is a twice- 
 told tale ! There he sat down with them, and lo ! a dust-cloud 
 advanced and a mighty sand-devil appeared amidmost of the waste. 
 Presently the cloud opened, and behold, widiin it was that Jinni 
 bending in hand a drawn sword, while his eyes were shooting fire- 
 sparks of rage. He came up to them and, haling away the merchant 
 from among them, cried to him, " Arise that I may slay thee, as thou 
 slewest my son, the life-stuff of my liver.^" The merchant wailed 
 and wept, and the three old men began sighing and crying and 
 weeping and wailing with their companion. Presently the first old 
 man (the owner of the gazelle) came out from among them and 
 kissed the hand of the Ifrit and said, " O Jinni, thou Crown of the 
 Kings of the Jann ! were I to tell thee the story of me and this 
 gazelle, and thou shouldst consider it wondrous, wouldst thou give me 
 a third part of this merchant's blood ? " Then quoth the Jinni, 
 " Even so, O Shaykh ! if thou tell me this tale, and I hold it a 
 
 ' The word is mostly plural = Jinnis : it is also singular = a demon ; and 
 Jan bin Jan has been noticed. 
 
 ^ With lis moderns "liver" suggests nothing but malady: in Arabic and 
 Persian, as in the classic literature of Europe, it is the seat of passion, the heart 
 being that of affection. Of this more presently.
 
 The First Shay Mis Story. 25 
 
 marvellous, then will I give thee a third of his blood." Thereupon 
 the old man began to tell 
 
 THE FIRST SHA YKH'S STOR V. 
 
 Know, O Jinni ! that this gazelle is the daughter of my paternal 
 uncle, my own flesh and blood, and I married her when she was a 
 young maid, and I lived with her well-nigh thirty years, yet was I not 
 blessed with issue by her. So I took me a concubine,^ who brought to 
 me the boon of a male child fair as the full moon, with eyes of lovely 
 shine, and eyebrows which formed one line, and limbs of perfect 
 design. Little by little he grew in stature and waxed tall ; and when 
 he was a lad fifteen years old, it became needful I should journey to 
 certain cities, and I travelled with great store of goods. But the daughter 
 of my uncle (this gazelle) had learned gramarye and egromancy 
 and clerkly craft ^ from her childhood ; so she bewitched that son of 
 mine to a calf, and my handmaid (his mother) to a heifer, and made 
 them over to the herdsman's care. Now when I returned after a 
 long time from my journey, and asked for my son and his mother, 
 she answered me saying, " Thy slave-girl is dead, and thy son hath 
 fled and I know not whither he is sped." So I remained for a whole 
 year with grieving heart and streaming eyes, until the time came for 
 the Great Festival of Allah.^ Then sent I to my herdsman bidding 
 him choose for me a fat heifer ; and he brought me one which was 
 the damsel, my handmaid, whom this gazelle had ensorcelled. I 
 tucked up my sleeves and skirt and, taking a knife, proceeded to cut 
 her throat, but she lowed aloud and wept bitter tears. Thereat I 
 
 ' Originally in Al-Islam the concubine (Surriyat, etc.) was a captive taken in 
 war, and the Koran says nothing about buying slave-girls. But if the captives 
 were true believers the Moslem was ordered to marry, not to keep them. In modern 
 days concubinage has become an extensive subject. Practically the disadvantage 
 is that the slave-girls, knowing themselves to be the master's property, consider 
 him bound to have marital relations with them ; which is by no means the 
 mistress's view. Some wives, however, when old and childless, insist, after the 
 fashion of Sarah, upon the husband taking a young concubine, and treat her like a 
 daughter — which is rare. The Nights abound in tales of concubines, but these 
 are chiefly owned by the Caliphs and high officials who did much as they pleased. 
 The only redeeming point in the system is that it obviates the necessity of prosti- 
 tution, which is, perhaps, the greatest evil known to modern society. 
 
 " Arab. " Al-Kahanah" = the craft of a " Kahin " (Heb. Cohen) a diviner, 
 soothsayer, etc. 
 
 3 Arab. " Id al-kabir " = The Great Festival; the Turkish Bayram and Indian 
 Bakar-eed (Kine-fete), the pilgrimage-time, also termed " Festival of the 
 Kurban" (sacrifice) because victims are slain; Al-Zuha (of forenoon), Al-Azha 
 (of serene night), and Al-Nahr (of throat-stabbing). For full details I must refer 
 readers to my " Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-AIedinah and Meccah " 
 (3 vols. 8vo. London : Longmans, 1S55). I shall have often to refer to it.
 
 2 5 Alf Lay /ah wa I.aylah. 
 
 marvelled and j;ity sci/.cd me and I held my Iiand, saying to the 
 herd, " Bring me other than this" Then cried my cousin, "Slay 
 her, tor I have not a fatter nor a fi^irer ! " Once more I went forward 
 to sacrifice her, but she again lowed aloud, upon which in ruth I 
 refrained and commanded the herdsman to slay her and flay her. 
 He l-.illed her and skinned her but found in her neither fat nor flesh, 
 only hide and bone ; and I repented when penitence availed me 
 naiught. I gave lier to the herdsman and said to him, " Fetch me a 
 fat calf;" so he brought my son ensorcclled. When the calf saw 
 mc, he brake his tether and ran to me, and fawned upon me and 
 wailed and shed tears ; so that I took pity on him and said to the 
 lierdsman, " Bring me a heifer and let this calf go ! " Thereupon 
 my cousin (this gazelle) called aloud at me saying, " Needs must 
 ihou kill this calf; this is a holy day and a blessed, whereon naught 
 is slain save what be perfect -pure ; and we have not amongst our 
 calves any fatter or foirer than this ! " Quoth I, " Look thou upon 
 the condition of the heifer which I slaughtered at thy bidding and 
 how we turn from her in disappointment and she profited us on no 
 wise, and I repent with an exceeding repentance of having killed 
 ii5r : so this time I will not obey thy bi Iding for the sacrifice of this 
 calf." Quoth she, " By Allah the Most Great, the Compassionating, 
 the Compassionate ! there is no help for it ; thou must kill him on 
 this holy day, and if thou kill him not, to me thou art no man and 
 I to thee am no wife." Now when I heard those hard words, not 
 
 knowing her object I went up to the calf, knife in hand And 
 
 Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her per- 
 mitted say.^ Then quoth her sister to her, " How fair is thy tale, 
 and how grateful, and how sweet and how tasteful ! " And Shahrazad 
 answered her, "What is this to that I could tell thee on the coming 
 night, were I to live and the King would spare me." Then said the 
 King in himself, " By Allah, I will not slay her, until I have heard 
 the rest of her tale." So they slept the rest of that night in mutual 
 embrace till day fully brake. Then the King went forth to his 
 audience-hall-^ and the Wazir went up with his daughter's shroud 
 
 1 Arab. " Kalam al-mubah," i.e., that allowed or pcimilted to her by the King, 
 her husband. 
 
 ^ Moslem Kings are expected, like the old Guebre Monarchs, to hold " Darbar " 
 {i.e., give public audience) at least twice a day, morning and evening. Neglect 
 of this practice caused the ruin of the Caliphaie and of the Persian and Moghu! 
 Empires: the great lords were left uncontrolled and the lieges revolted to obtain 
 justice. The Guebre Kings had two levee-places, the Rozistan (day-station) and 
 theShabistan (night-station— istan or stan biing a nominal form of istadan, lo 
 stand, as Ilindo-stan). Moreover one day in the week the sovereign acted as 
 " Mufti" or Supreme Judge.
 
 Tlie First Shayklis Story. 2"} 
 
 up.der his arm. The King issued his orders, and promoted this 
 and deposed that, until the end of the day ; and he told the Wazir 
 no whit of what had happened. But the Minister wondered thereat 
 with exceeding wonder; and when the Court broke up King Shahryar 
 entered his palace. 
 
 "Ndbj M)tn It iivis the ^rconb Kigljt, 
 
 said Dunyazad to her sister Shahrazad, "O my sister, finish for us 
 that story of the Merchant and the Jinni ; " and she answered, 
 " With joy and goodly gree, if the King permit me." Then quoth 
 the King, "Tell thy tale;" and Shahrazad began in these words : — 
 It hath reached me, O auspicious King and Heaven-directed Ruler ! 
 that when the merchant purposed the sacrifice of the calf but saw it 
 weeping, his heart relented and he said to the herdsmen, " Keep the 
 calf among my cattle." All this the old Shaykh told the Jinni who 
 marvelled much at such strange words. Then the owner of the 
 gazelle continued : — O Lord of the Kings of the Jann, this much 
 took place and my uncle's daughter, this gazelle, looked on and saw 
 it, and said, "Butcher me this calf, for surely 'tis a fat one;" but I 
 bade the herdsman take it away and he took it and turned his face 
 homewards. On the next day as I was sitting in my own house, lo ! 
 the herdsman came and, standing before me said, " O my master, I 
 will tell thee a thing which shall gladden thy soul and shall gain me 
 t'ie gift of good tidings."' I answered " Even so." Then said he, 
 " O merchant, I have a daughter, and she learned magic in her 
 childhood from an old woman who lived with us. Yesterday when 
 thou gavest me the calf, I went into the house to her, and she looked 
 upon it and veiled her face ; then she wept and laughed alternately 
 and at last she said .• — O my father, hath mine honour become so 
 cheap to thee that thou bringest in to me strange men ? I asked 
 her, Where be these strange men and why wast thou laughing, and 
 crying ? and she answered, " Of a truth this calf which is with thee 
 is the son of our master, the merchant; but he is ensorcelled by his 
 stepdame who bewitched both him and his mother : such is the 
 cause of my laughing; but the reason of my weeping is his mother, 
 for that his father slew her unawares. Then I marvelled at this with 
 
 ^ Arab. " Al-Basbarah," the gif' everywhere claimed in the East and in 
 Boccaccio's Italy by one wIto brings good news. Those who do the reverse expose 
 themselves to a sound strnppado.
 
 28 A If Lay la h wa Lay /ah. 
 
 exceeding marvel and hardly made sure that day had dawned before 
 I came to tell thee." When I heard, O Jinni, my herdsman's words, 
 I went out with him, and I was drunken without wine from the 
 excess of joy and gladness which came upon me, until I reached his 
 house. There his daughter welcomed me and kissed my hand, and 
 forthwith the calf came and fawned upon me as before. Quoth I to 
 the herdsman's daughter, " Is this true that thou sayest of this 
 calf?" Quoth she, "Yea, O my master, he is thy son, the very core 
 of thy heart." I rejoiced and said to her, " O maiden, if thou 
 wilt release him, thine shall be whatever cattle and property of 
 mine are under thy father's hand." She smiled and answered, " O 
 my master, I have no greed for the goods, nor will I take them save 
 on two conditions ; the first that thou marry me to thy son and the 
 second that I may bewitch her who bewitched him and imprison 
 her, otherwise I cannot be safe from her malice and malpractices." 
 Now when I heard, O Jinni, these, the words of the herdsman's 
 daughter, I replied, " Beside what thou askest all the cattle and the 
 household stuff in thy father's charge are thine and, as for the 
 daughter of my uncle, her blood is lawful to thee." When I had 
 spoken, she took a cup and filled it with water : then she recited a 
 spell over it and sprinkled it upon the calf, saying, "If Almighty 
 Allah created thee a calf, remain so shaped, and change not ; but if 
 thou be enchanted, return to thy whilom form, by command of Allah 
 Most Highest ! " and lo ! he trembled and became a man. Then I 
 fell on his neck and said, " Allah upon thee, tell me all that the 
 daughter of my uncle did by thee and by thy mother." And when 
 he told me what had come to pass between them, I said, " O my 
 son, Allah favoured thee with one to restore thee, and thy right 
 hath returned to thee." Then, O Jinni, I married the herdsman's 
 daughter to him, and she transformed my wife into this gazelle, 
 saying : — Her shape is a comely and by no means loathsome. After 
 this she abode with us night and day, day and night, till the Almighty 
 took her to Himself. When she deceased, my son fared forth to 
 the cities of Hind, even to the city of this man who hath done to thee 
 what hath been done^ ; and I also took this gazelle (my cousin) and 
 wandered with her from town to town seeking tidings of my son, till 
 Destiny drove me to this place where I saw the merchant sitting in 
 tears. Such is my tale ! Quoth the Jinni, " This story is indeed 
 strange, and therefore I grant thee the third part of his blood." 
 
 ' A euphemistic formula, to avoid mentioning unpleasant matters. I shall 
 note these idioms for the benefit of students who would honestly prepare for the 
 public service in Moslem lands.
 
 The Second ShaykJis Story. 29 
 
 Thereupon the second old man, who owned the two greyhounds, 
 came up and said, " O Jinni, if I recount to thee what befel me from 
 my brothers, these two hounds, and thou see that it is a tale even 
 more wondrous and marvellous than what thou hast heard, wilt thou 
 grant to me also the third of this man's blood ? " Replied the Jinni, 
 "Thou hast my word for it, if thine adventures be more marvellous 
 and wondrous." Thereupon he thus began 
 
 THE SECOND SIIAYKH'S STORY. 
 
 Know, O lord of the Kings of the Jann ! that these two dogs are 
 my brothers and I am the third. Now when our father died and 
 left us a capital of three thousand gold pieces,' I opened a shop with 
 my share, and bought and sold therein, and in like guise did my 
 brothers, each setting up a shop. But I had been in business no long 
 while before the elder sold his stock for a thousand dinars, and after 
 buying outfit and merchandise, went his ways to foreign parts. He 
 was absent one whole year with the caravan ; but one day as I sat 
 in my shop, behold, a beggar stood before me asking alms, and I 
 said to him, " Allah open thee another door ! " ^ Whereupon he 
 answered, weeping the while, " Am I so changed that thou knowest 
 me not ? " Then I looked at him narrowly, and lo ! 'twas my 
 brother, so I rose to him and welcomed him ; then I seated him in 
 my shop and put questions concerning his case. " Ask me not," 
 answered he ; " my wealth is awaste and my state hath waxed 
 un-stated I " So I took him to the Hammam-bath ^ and clad him in 
 a suit of my own and gave him lodging in my house. Moreover, 
 after looking over the accounts of my stock-in-trade and the profits 
 of my business, I found that industry had gained me one thousand 
 dinars, while my principal the head of mv wealth, amounted to two 
 
 ' Arab. " Dinar," from ihe Latin denarius (a silver coin worth ten ounces of 
 Ijrass) through the Greek hrjidjHov -. it is a Koranic woid (cliapt. iii.) though its 
 Aral) equivalent is " Miskal." It also occurs in the Katha Sarit Sagara, clearly 
 showing tlie derivation. In the '■ Book of Kalilah and Dimnah " it is repiesentcd 
 by the Daric or Persian Dinar, SapeiKos, from Dara = a King (whence Darius). 
 'Ihe Dinar, sequin or ducat, contained at different times fiom lo and 12 (Al u 
 Ilanifah's day) to 20 and even 25 dirhams or drachmas ; and, as a weight, 
 represented a drachma and a lialf. Its value greatly varied, but we may assume 
 it here at nine shillings or ten francs to half a sovrreign. For an elaborate article 
 on the Dinar see Yule's " Calhay anJ the Way Thither" (ii- pp. 439-443). 
 
 * Thr, foimula used in refusing alms to an " asker " or in rejecting an insufficient 
 offer: " Allah will open to thee!" (s-me door of gain— not mine.) Another 
 favourite ejaculation is "Allah Karim " (which Turks pronounce "Kyereem") = 
 •\llah is All-beneficent ! meaning Ask Him, not me. 
 
 * The public bath. London knows the word through "The Hummums."
 
 30 Alf Lay/ah cva Layiah. 
 
 thousand. So I shared the whole with him, saying, "Assume that 
 thou hast made no journey abroad but hast remained at home ; and 
 be not cast down by thine ill-luck." He took the share in great 
 glee and opened for himself a shop ; and matters went on quietly 
 for a few nights and days. But presently my second brother (yon 
 other dog), also setting his heart upon travel, sold off what goods and 
 stock-in-trade he had, and albeit we tried to stay him he would not 
 be stayed ; he laid in an outfit for the journey and fored forth with 
 certain wayfarers. After an absence of a whole year he came back 
 to me, even as my elder brother had come back; and when I said to 
 him, " O my brother, did I not dissuade thee from travel ? " he shed 
 tears and cried, " O my brother, this be the decree of Destiny : here 
 am I a mere beggar, penniless,^ and without a shirt to my back." So 
 I led him to the bath, O Jinni, and clothing him in new clothes of 
 my own wear, I went with him to my shop and served him with meat 
 and drink. Furthermore I said to him, " O my brother, I am wont 
 to cast up my shop-accounts at the head of every year, and whatso I 
 shall find of surplusage is between me and thee.'^" So I proceeded, 
 O Ifrit, to strike a balance and, finding two thousand dinars of profit, I 
 returned praises to the Creator (be He extolled and exalted !) and 
 made over one half to my brother, keeping the other to myself. 
 Thereupon he busied himself with opening a shop, and on this wise 
 we abode many days. After a time my brothers began pressing me 
 to travel with them ; but I refused, saying, " What gained ye by your 
 voyage that I should gain thereby ? " As I would not give ear to 
 them we went back each to his own shop, where we bought and sold 
 as before. They kept urging me to travel for a whole twelvemonth, 
 but I refused to do so till full six years were past and gone when I 
 consented with these words, " O my brothers, here am I, your com- 
 panion of travel : now let me see what monies you have by you." I 
 found, however, that they had not a doit, having squandered their 
 substance in high diet and drinking and carnal delights. Yet I spoke 
 not a word of reproach ; so far from it I looked over my shop- 
 accounts once more, and sold what goods and stock-in-trade were 
 
 ' Arab. " Dirham " (Plur. dirahim, also vised in the sense of money, " siller"), 
 the Gr. SpaXfJij and the drachuma of Plautus (Trin. 2, 4, 23). The word occurs 
 in the Panchatantra also showing the derivation ; and in the Syriac Kalilah wa 
 Dimnah it is " Zuz." This silver piece was = 6 obols (Q^d. )and as a weight = 
 66.V grains. The Dirham of The Nights was worth six " Daiiik," the Persian 
 "Dang," each of these being a fraction over a penny. The modern Greek 
 Drachma is = one franc. 
 
 ^ In Arabic the speaker always puts himself first, even if he address the King, 
 without intending incivility or the pretension of Wolsey's " jE^v et Rex vieiis."
 
 The Second Shay kit's Slory. 31 
 
 mine ; and, finding myself the owner of six thousand ducats, I gladly 
 proceeded to divide that sum into halves, saying to my brothers, 
 " These three thousand gold pieces are for me and for you to trade 
 withal," adding, " Let us bury the other moiety underground that it 
 mav be of service should any harm befal us, in which case each shall 
 take a thousand wherewith to open shop." Both replied, " Right is 
 thy recking ; " and I gave to each one his thousand gold pieces, 
 keeping the same sum for myself, to wit, a thousand dinars. We 
 then got ready suitable goods and hired a ship and, having embarked 
 our merchandise, proceeded on our voyage, day following day, a full 
 month, after which we arrived at a city, where we sold our venture ; 
 and for every piece of gold we gained ten. And as we turned again 
 to our voyage we found on the shore of the sea a maiden clad in worn 
 and ragged gear, and she kissed my hand and said, " O master, is 
 there kindness in thee and charity ? I can make thee a fitting return 
 for them." I answered, " Even so ; truly in me are benevolence and 
 good works, even though thou render me no return." Then she 
 said, " Take me to wife, O my master, and carry me to thy city, for 
 I have given myself to thee ; so do me a kindness and I am of those 
 who be meet for good works and charity ; 1 will make thee a fitting 
 return for these and be thou not shamed by my condition." ^Vhen 
 I heard her words, my heart yearned towards her, in such sort as willed 
 it Allah (be He exiolled and exalted !) ; and look her and clothed her 
 and made ready for her a fair resting-place in the vessel, and honourably 
 entreated her. So we voyaged on, and my heart became attached to 
 her with exceeding attachment, and I was separated from her neither 
 night nor day, and I paid more regard to her than to my brothers. 
 Then they were estranged from me, and waxed jealous of my wealth 
 and the quantity of merchandise I had, and their eyes were opened 
 covetously upon all my property. So they took counsel to muider 
 me and seize my wealth, saying, " Let us slay our brother and all his 
 monies will be ours ;" and Satan made this deed seem fair in their 
 sight ; so when they found me in privacy (and I sleeping by the side 
 of my spouse) they took us both up and cast us into the sea. My 
 wife awoke startled from her sleep and, forthright becoming 
 an Ifritah,' she bore me up and carried me to an island and 
 disappeared for a short time ; but she returned in the morning 
 and, said " Here am I, thy faithful slave, who hath made 
 thee due recompense ; for I bore thee up in the waters and saved 
 
 * A she-Krit, not necessarily an evil spirit.
 
 32 A If Laytah iva Laylah. 
 
 thee from death by command of the Almighty. Know that I am 
 a Jinniyah, and as I saw thee my heart loved thee by will of the 
 Lord, for I am a believer in Allah and in His Apostle (whom 
 Heaven bless and preserve !). Thereupon I came to thee con- 
 ditioned as thou sawest me and thou didst marry me, and see now 
 I have saved thee from sinking. But I am angered against thy 
 brothers and assuredly I must slay them." When I heard her story 
 I was surprised and, thanking her for all she had done, I said, " But 
 as to slaying my brothers this must not be." Then I told her the 
 tale of what had come to pass with them from the beginning of our 
 lives to the end, and on hearing it quoth she, " This night will I fly 
 as a bird over them, and will sink their ship and slay them." Quoth 
 I, " Allah upon thee, do not thus, for the proverb saith, O thou who 
 doest good to him that doth evil, leave the evil doer to his evil 
 deeds. Moreover they are still my brothers." But she rejoined, 
 " By Allah, there is no help for it but I slay them." I humbled 
 myself before her for their pardon, whereupon she bore me up and 
 flew away with me till at last she set me down on the terrace-roof of 
 my own house. I opened the doors and took up what I had hidden 
 in the ground ; and after I had saluted the folk I opened my shop 
 and bought me merchandise. Now when night came on I went 
 home, and there I saw these two hounds tied up ; and, when they 
 sighted me, they arose and whined and fawned upon me ; but ere 
 I knew what happened my wife said, " These two dogs be thy 
 brothers ! " I answered, "And who hath done this thing by them ? " 
 and she rejoined, " I sent a message to my sister and she entreated 
 them on this wise, nor shall these two be released from their present 
 shape till ten years shall have passed." And now I have arrived at 
 this place on my way to my wife's sister that she may deliver them 
 from this condition, after their having endured it for half a score of 
 years. As I was wending onwards I saw this young man, who 
 acquainted me with what had befallen him, and I determined not to 
 fare hence until I should see what might occur between thee and 
 him. Such is my tale ! Then said the Jinni, " Surely this is a 
 strange story, and therefor I give thee the third portion of his blood 
 and his crime." Thereupon quoth the third Shaykh, the master of 
 the mare-mule, to the Jinni, " I can tell thee a tale more wondrous 
 than these two, and do thou grant me the remainder of his blood 
 and of his offence," and the Jinni answered, " So be it ! " Then the 
 old man beiian
 
 The Third Shavkh's Storv. 33 
 
 THE THIRD SHAYKHS STORY. 
 
 Know, O Sultan and head of the Jann, that this mule was my wife. 
 Now it so happened that I went forth and was absent one whole year ; 
 and when I returned from my journey I came to her by night, and saw 
 a black slave lying with her on the carpet-bed, and they were talking, 
 and dallying, and laughing, and kissing and embracing. When she saw 
 me, she rose and came hurriedly at me with a gugglet' of water; and, 
 muttering spells over it, she besprinkled me and said, " Come forth 
 from this thy shape into the shape of a dog " ; and I became on that 
 instant a dog. She drove me out of the house, and I ran through 
 the doorway nor ceased running until I came to a butcher's stall, 
 where I stopped and began to eat what bones were there. When 
 the stall-owner saw me, he took me and led me into his house, but 
 as soon as his daughter had sight of me she veiled her face from me, 
 crying out, "Dost thou bring men to me and dost thou come in with 
 them to me ? " Her father asked, " Where is the man ? " and she 
 answered, " This dog is a man whom his wife hath ensorcelled and I 
 am able to release him." When her father heard her words, he said, 
 "Allah upon thee, O my daughter, release him." So she took a 
 gugglet of water and, after uttering words over it, sprinkled upon me 
 a few drops, saying, " Come forth from that form into thy former 
 form." And I returned to my natural shape. Then I kissed her 
 hand and said, " I wish thou wouldest transform my wife even as she 
 transformed me." Thereupon she gave me some water, saying, "As 
 soon as thou see her asleep, sprinkle this liquid upon her and speak 
 what words thou heardest me utter, so shall she become whatsoever 
 thou desirest." I went to my wife and found her fast asleep ; and, 
 while sprinkling the water upon her, I said, " Come forth from that 
 form into the form of a mare-mule." So she became on the instant 
 a she-mule, and she it is whom thou seest with thine eyes, O Sultan 
 and head of the Kings of the Jann ! Then the Jinni turned towards 
 her and said, "Is this sooth?" And she nodded her head and 
 replied by signs, " Indeed, 'tis the truth : for such is my tale and 
 
 ' Arab. " Kullah " (in Egypt pron. "gulleh"), the wide-mouthed jug, called in 
 the Hijaz " baradiyah " ; " daurak " being the narrow. They are used either for 
 water or sherbet and, being made of porous clay, they "sweat," and keep the 
 contents cool ; hence all old Anglo-Egyptians drink from them, not from glass. 
 Sometimes they are perfumed with smoke of incense, mastich or Kafal ( Amyris 
 R'afal). For their graceful shapes see Lane's "Account of the Manners and 
 Customs of the Modern Egyptians " (chapt. v. ) : I quote, here and elsewhere, 
 from the fifth edition, London, Murray, 1S60. 
 
 VOL. I. C
 
 34 -^{f Laylah iva Lay/ah. 
 
 this is what hath befallen me." Now when the old man had ceased 
 speaking, the Jinni shook with pleasure and gave him the third of 
 
 the merchant's blood. And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn 
 
 of day, and ceased saying her permitted say. Then quoth Dunyazad, 
 " O, my sister, how pleasant is thy tale, and how tasteful ; how sweet 
 and how grateful!" She replied, "And what is this compared with that 
 I could tell thee, the night to come, if I live and the King spare me'?" 
 Then thought the King, ''By Allah, I will not slay her until I hear the 
 rest of her tale, for truly 'tis wondrous." So they rested that night 
 in mutual embrace until the dawn. After this the King went forth to 
 his Hall of Estate, and the Wazir and the troops came in and the 
 court was crowded, and the King gave orders and judged and 
 appointed and deposed, bidding and forbidding, during the rest of 
 the day. Then the Diwan broke up, and King Shahryar entered 
 his palace. 
 
 iltlcto tef)cn it toad t\)t CI)irti S^\%])t, 
 
 And the King had had his will of the Wazir's daughter, Dunyazad, 
 her sister, said to her, "Finish for us that tale of thine"; and 
 she replied, "With joy and goodly gree ! " It hath reached 
 me, O auspicious King, that when the third old man told a tale to 
 the Jinni more wondrous than the two preceding, the Jinni marvelled 
 with exceeding marvel ; and, shaking with delight, cried, " Lo ! I 
 have given thee the remainder of the merchant's punishment and for 
 thy sake have I released him." Thereupon the merchant embraced 
 the old men and thanked them, and these Shaykhs wished him joy 
 on being saved, and fared forth each one for his own city. Yet this 
 tale is not more wondrous than the Fisherman's story." Asked the 
 King, "What is the Fisherman's story?" And she answered by 
 relating the tale of 
 
 THE FISHERMAN AND THE JINNI. 
 
 It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that there was a Fisherman 
 well stricken in years v.ho had a wife and three children, and withal 
 was of pcor ccndition.^ Now it was his custom to cast his net every 
 
 ' "And what is?" etc. A popular way of expressing great difference. So 
 in India : — " Where is Rajah iihoj (the great King) and where is Ganga the 
 oilman ?" 
 
 ^ Compare the Poor Woodcv.tter of La Fontaine (Fable i. i6).
 
 Tale of the I'isherman and the /iiini. 35 
 
 day four times, and no more. On a day of the days he went forth 
 about noon-tide to the sea shore, where he laid down his basket ; 
 and, tucking up his shirt and wading into the water, made a cast 
 with his net and waited till it settled to the bottom. Then he 
 gathered the cords together and haled away at it, but found it 
 weighty ; and however much he drew it landwards, he could not 
 pull it up ; so he carried the ends ashore and drave a stake into 
 the ground and made the net fast to it. Then he stripped and 
 dived into the water all about the net, and left not off working hard 
 until he had brought it up. He rejoiced thereat and, donning his 
 clothes, went to the net, when he found in it a dead jackass which 
 had torn the meshes. Now when he saw it, he exclaimed in his 
 grief, " There is no Majesty, and there is no Might save in Allah, 
 the Glorious, the Great!" Then quoth he, "This is a strange 
 manner of daily bread " ; and he began reciting in extempore 
 verse : — 
 
 O toiler through the glooms of night in peril and in pain, « Thy toiling stint for 
 
 daily bread comes not by might and main ! 
 Seest thou not the fisher seek afloat upon the sea * His bread, while glimmer 
 
 stars of night as set in tangled skein ? 
 Anon he plungeth in despite the buffet of the waves « The while to sight the 
 
 bellying net his eager glances strain ; 
 Till joying at the night's success, a fish he bringeth home * Whose gullet by the 
 
 hook of Fate was caught and cut in twain : 
 \Vlien buys that fish of him a man who spent the hours of night * Reckless of 
 
 cold and wet and gloom and ease and comfort fain, 
 Laud to the Lord who gives to this, to that denies his wishes * And dooms one 
 
 toil and catch the prey and other eat the fishes.' 
 
 Then quoth he, " Up and to it ; I am sure of His beneficence, 
 Inshallah ! " So he continued : — 
 
 When thou art seized of Evil Fate, assume « The noble soul's long-suffering : 
 
 'tis thy best : 
 Complain not to the creature ; this be plaint « From one most Ruthful to the 
 
 ruthlessest. 
 
 The Fisherman, when he had looked at the dead ass, got it free of 
 the toils and wrung out and spread his net ; then he plunged into 
 the sea, saying, " In Allah's name ! " and made a cast and pulled at 
 it, but it grew heavy and settled down more firmly than the first 
 time. Now he thought that there were fishes in it, and he made it 
 fast, and doffing his dress went into the water, and dived and haled 
 until he drew it up upon dry land. Then found he in it a large 
 
 ' Here, as in other places, I have not preserved the monorhyme, but have 
 ended like the English sonnet with a coujilet ; as a rule the last two lines contain 
 a " Husn makta' " or climax. 
 
 C 2
 
 35 Alf Laylah wa Lay/ah. 
 
 earthen pitcher which was full of sand and mud ; and seeing this he 
 was greatly troubled and began repeating these verses ^ : — 
 
 Toiberir, O troubles of the world, • And pardon an ye nill forbear : 
 1 went to seek my daily bread, • I find that breadless I must fare : 
 I'or neither handcraft brings me aught * Nor fate allots to me a share : 
 How many fools the Pleiads reach * While darkness whelms the wise and 
 ware. 
 
 fo he prayed pardon of Allah and, throwing away the jar, wrung 
 his net and cleansed it and returned to the sea the third time to 
 cast his net and waited till it had sunk. Then he pulled at it and 
 found therein potsherds and broken glass ; whereupon he began to 
 speak these verses : — 
 
 He is to thee that daily bread thou canst nor loose nor bind ; * Nor pen nor writ 
 
 avails thee aught thy daily bread to find : 
 For joy and daily bread are what Fate deigneth to allow ; * This soil is sad and 
 
 sterile ground, while that makes glad the hind. 
 The shafts of Time and Life bear down full many a man of worth * While 
 
 bearing up to high degree wights of ignoble mind. 
 So come thou, Death ! for verily Life is not worth a straw « When low the falcon 
 
 falls withal the mallard wings the wind : 
 No wonder 'tis thou seest how the great of mind and soul « Are poor, and many 
 
 a losel carle to height of luck designed. 
 This bird shall overfly the world from east to furthest west ; » And that shall win 
 
 her ever)' wish though ne'er she leave the nest. 
 
 'I'hen raising his eyes heavenwards he said, " O my God ^ ! verily 
 Thou wottest that I cast not my net each day save four times ^ ; the 
 third is done and as yet Thou hast vouchsafed me nothing. So this 
 
 ' Lit. "he began to say (or speak) poetry," such improvising being still common 
 amongst the Badawin as I shall afterwards note. And although Mohammed 
 severely censured profane poets, who "rove as bereft of their senses through every 
 valley," and were directly inspired by devils (Koran xxvi.), it is not a little curious 
 to note that .he himself spoke in " Rajaz " (iambics) and that the first four Caliphs 
 all " spoke poetry." In early ages the verse would not be written, if written at 
 all, till after the maker's death. I translate " inshad " by " versifying " or 
 " repeating" or " reciting," leaving it doubtful if the composition be or be not 
 original : in places, however, it is clearly improvised, and then, as a rule, it is 
 model doggrel. 
 
 ^ Arab. " Allahumma " = Ya Allah (O Allah) but with emphasis; the Fath 
 l)eing a' substitute for the voc. part. Some connect it with the Heb. " Alihim," 
 but that fancy is not Arab. In Al-Hariri and the rhetoricians it sometimes menns 
 "to be sure"; "of course"; "unless indeed"; "unless possibly " = Greek 
 1 7) 8ta. 
 
 3 Probably in consequence of a vow. These superstitious practices, which 
 have many a parallel amongst ourselves, are nut confined to the lower orders in 
 I he East.
 
 Tale of the Fishen)ui)i ami the Jijini. 37 
 
 time, O my God, deign give me my daily bread." Then, having 
 called on Allah's name,^ he again threw his net and waited its 
 sinking and settling ; whereupon he haled at it but could not draw 
 it in for that it was entangled at the bottom. He cried out in his 
 vexation, "There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in 
 Allah ! " and he began reciting : — 
 
 I"ie on this wretched world, an so it be » I must be vvhehned by grief and 
 
 misery : 
 Tho' gladsome be man's lot when dawns the morn, • He drains the cup of woe 
 
 ere eve he see : 
 Yet was I one of whom the World when asked » " Whiose lot is happiest?" oft 
 
 would say, " 'Tis he ! " 
 
 Thereupon he stripped and, diving down to the net, busied himself 
 with it till it came to land. Then he opened the meshes and found 
 therein a cucumber-shaped jar of yellow copper,^ evidently full of 
 something, whose mouth was made fast with a leaden cap, stamped 
 with the seal-ring of our Lord Sulayman son of David (Allah accept 
 the twain !). Seeing this the Fisherman rejoiced and said, " If I 
 sell it in the brass-bazar 'tis worth ten golden dinars." He shook 
 it and finding it heavy continued, "Would to Heaven I knew what 
 is herein. But I must and will open it and look to its contents and 
 store it in my bag and sell it in the brass-market." And taking out 
 a knife he worked at the lead till he had loosened it from the jar ; 
 then he laid the cap on the ground and shook the cucurbit'^ to pour 
 out whatever might be inside. He found nothing in it ; whereat he 
 marvelled with exceeding marvel. But presently there came forth 
 from the jar a smoke which spired heavenwards into aether (whereat 
 he again marvelled with mighty marvel), and which trailed along 
 earth's surface till presently, having reached its full height, the thick 
 vapour condensed, and became an Ifrit, huge of bulk, whose crest 
 touched the clouds while his feet were on the ground. His head 
 was as a dome, his hands like pitchforks, his legs long as masts and 
 his mouth big as a cave ; his teeth were like large stones, his nostrils 
 ewers, his eyes two lamps and his look was fierce and lowering. 
 Now when the Fisherman saw the Ifrit his side muscles quivered, his 
 teeth chattered, his spittle dried up, and he became blind about what 
 to do. Upon this the Ifrit looked at him and cried, "There is no 
 
 ' i.e., saying " Bismillah !" the pious ejaculation which should precede every 
 act. In Boccaccio (viii. 9) it is " remembering Iddio e' Santi." 
 
 ^ Arab. Nahas asfar = brass, opposed to "Nahas" and "Nahas ahmar " = 
 copper. 
 
 3 Arab. " Kumkum," a gourd-shaped bottle, of metal, china or glass, still 
 used for sprinkling scents. Lane gives an illustration (chapt. viii., Mod. Egypt.).
 
 3S Alf Lay hi h zmi Laylah. 
 
 god but the God, and Sulayman is the prophet of God " ; presently 
 adding, " O Apostle of Allah, slay me not ; never again will I gain- 
 say thee in word nor sin against thee in deed.^ " Quoth the Fisher- 
 man, "O Marid," diddest thou say, Sulayman the Apostle of Allah? 
 and Sulayman is dead some thousand and eight hundred years ago,* 
 and we are now in the last days of the world ! ^^'hat is thy story, and 
 what is thy account of thyself, and what is the cause of thy entering 
 into this cucurbit ? " Now when the Evil Spirit heard the words of 
 the Fisherman, quoth he, " There is no god but the God : be of 
 good cheer, O Fisherman ! " Quoth the Fisherman, " Why biddest 
 thou me to be of good cheer ? " and he replied, " Because of thy 
 having to die an ill death in this very hour." Said the Fisherman, 
 " Thou deservest for thy good tidings the withdrawal of Heaven's 
 protection, O thou distant one * ! Wherefore shouldest thou kill me 
 and what thing have I done to deserve death, I who freed thee from 
 the jar, and saved thee from the depths of the sea, and brought thee 
 up on the dry land ? " Replied the Ifrit, " Ask of me only what 
 mode of death thou wilt die, and by what manner of slaughter shall 
 I slay thee." Rejoined the Fisherman, " What is my crime and 
 wherefore such retribution ? " Quoth the Ifrit, " Hear my story, O 
 Fisherman !" and he answered, "Say on, and be brief in thy saying, 
 for of very sooth my life-breath is in my nostrils.^" Thereupon 
 quoth the Jinni : — Know that I am one among the heretical Jann 
 and I sinned against Sulayman, David-son (on the twain be peace !) 
 I, together with the famous Sakhr al-Jinni" ; whereupon the Prophet 
 
 ' This alludes to the legend of Sakhr al-Jinni, a famous fiend cast by Solomon 
 David-son into Lake Tiberias, whose storms make it a suilal^le place. Hence 
 the " Bottle imp," a world-wide fiction of folk-lore : we shall find it in the 
 " Book of SindilDad," and I need hardly remind the reader of Le Sage's " Diable 
 Boiteux," borrowed from " El Diablo Cojuelo," the Spanish novel by Luiz Velez 
 de Guevara. 
 
 ^ Marid (lit. " contumacious," from the Heb. root Marad to rebel, whence 
 " Nimrod " in late Semitic) is one of the tribes of the Jinn, generally but not 
 always hostile to man. His female is Maridah. 
 
 3 As Solomon began to reign (according to vulgar chronometrj') in B.C. 1015, 
 the text would place the tale circ. A.D. 7S5 = A. H. 169. But we can lay no 
 stress on this date, which may be merely fanciful. Professor Tawney very justly 
 compares this Moslem Solomon with the Hindu King, \'ikramaditya, who ruled 
 over the seven divisions of the world, and who had as many devils to serve him 
 as he wanted. 
 
 '* Arab. " Ya Ba'id " ; a euphemism here adopted to prevent using grossly 
 abusive language. Others will occur in the course of these pages. 
 
 5 i.e., about to fly out ; " My heart is in my mouth." The Fisherman speaks 
 with the dry humour of a Fellah. 
 
 * " Sulayman," when going out to the closet, entrusted his seal-ring, upon 
 which his kingdom depended, to a concubine " Aminah " (the "Faithful"), 
 when Sakhr, transformed to the Iving's likeness, came in and took i! ihe
 
 Tale of the Fisher/nan and ilic Jinni. 39 
 
 sent his minister, Asaf, son of Barkhiya, to seize me ; and thi 5 Wazir 
 brought me against my will and led me in bonds to him (I being 
 downcast despite my nose) and he placed me standing before him 
 like a suppliant. When Sulayman saw me, he took refuge with 
 Allah and bade me embrace the True Faith and obey his behests ; 
 but I refused, so sending for this cucurbit, he shut me up therein, 
 and stopped it over with lead, whereon he impressed the Most High 
 Name, and gave his orders to the Jann who carried me ofi", and cast 
 me into the midmost of the ocean. There I abode an hundred 
 years, during which I said in my heart, " Whoso shall release me, 
 him will I enrich for ever and ever." But the full century went 
 by and, when no one set me free, I entered upon the second 
 five score saying, "Whoso shall release me, for him I will open 
 the hoards of the earth." Still no one set me free, and thus lour 
 hundred years passed away. Then quoth I, "Whoso shall release 
 me, for him will I fulfil three wishes." Yet no one set me free. 
 Thereupon I waxed wroth with exceeding wrath and said to myself, 
 "Whoso shall release me from this time forth, him will I slay 
 and I will give him choice of what death he will die ; and now 
 as thou hast released me, I give thee full choice of deaths." 
 The Fisherman, hearing the words of the Ifrit, said, " O Allah I 
 the wonder of it that I have not come to free thee save in these 
 days ! " adding, " Spare my life, so Allah spare thine ; and slay me 
 not, lest Allah set one to slay thee." Replied the Contumacious 
 One, "There is no help for it ; die thou must ; so ask me by way of 
 boon what manner of death thou wilt die." Albeit thus certified, 
 the Fisherman again addressed the Ifrit saying, " Forgive me this 
 my death as a generous reward for having freed thee " ; and the Ifrit, 
 " Surely I would not slay thee save on account of that same release." 
 "O Chief of the Ifrits," said the Fisherman, "I do thee good and 
 thou requitest me with evil ! in very sooth the old saw lieth not when 
 it saith : — 
 
 prophet was reduced to beggary, but after forty days the demon fled, 
 throwing into the sea the ring, which was swallowed by a fish and eventually 
 returned to Sulayman. This Talmudic fable is hinted at in the Koran (chapt. 
 xxxviii. ), and commentators have extensively embroidered it. Asaf, son of 
 Barkhiya, was Wazir to Sulayman, and is supposed to be the "one with whom .was 
 the knowledge of the Scriptures" (Koran, chapt. xxxvii.), i.e., who knew the 
 Inefiable Name of Allah. See the manifest descendant of the Talmudic-Koranic 
 fiction in the " Tale 01 the Emperor Jovinian " (No. lix.) of the Gesta Roman 
 orum, the most popular book of medireval Europe composed in England (or 
 Germany) about the end of the thirteenth century
 
 40 Alf Lixylah wa Laylah. 
 
 We wrought them weal, they met our weal with ill ; » Such, by my life' is every 
 
 had man's labour : 
 To him who benefits unworlhy wiL;lUs • Shall hap wliat hapt to Ummi-Amir's 
 
 neighbour.' " 
 
 Now when the Ifrit heard these words he answered, "No more of 
 this talk ; needs must I kill thee." Upon this the Fisherman said 
 to himself, "This is a Jinni; and I am a man to whom Allah hatli 
 given a passably cunning wit, so I will now cast at)Out to compass 
 his destruction by my contrivance and by mine intelligence; even as 
 he took counsel only of his malice and his frowardness.^" He began 
 by asking the Ifrit, " Hast thou indeed resolved to kill me ? " and, 
 receiving for all answer, " Even so " ; he cried. " Now in the Most 
 Cireat Name, graven on the seal-ring of Sulayman the Son of David 
 (peace be with the holy twain!) if I question thee on a certain matter 
 wilt thou give me a true answer ?" The Ifrit replied, " Yea" ; but, 
 hearing mention of the Most Great Name, his wits were troubled 
 and he said with trembling, " Ask and be brief." Quoth the Fisher- 
 man, " How didst thou fit into this bottle, which would not hold thy 
 hand ; no, nor even thy foot, and how came it to be large enough to 
 contain the whole of thee ? " Replied the Ifrit, " What ! dost thou 
 not believe that I was all there ? " and the Fisherman rejoined, 
 " Nay ! I will never believe it until I see thee inside with mine own 
 
 eyes." And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to 
 
 say her permitted say. 
 
 BtilD lal;rn it tons tl)f Jouitl) Ji*)t2:()t, 
 
 Her sister said to her, " Please fuiish us this tale, if thou be not 
 sleepy ! " so she resumed : It hath reached me, O auspicious King, 
 that when the Fisherman said to the Ifrit, " I will never and nowise 
 believe thee until I see thee inside it with mine own eyes"; the Evil 
 Spirit on the instant shook ^ and became a vapour, which condensed, 
 and entered the jar little and little, till all was well inside, when lo ! 
 the Fisherman in hot haste took the leaden cap with the seal and 
 stoppered therewith the mouth of the jar and called out to the Ifrit, 
 saying, " Aslc me by way of boon what death thou wilt die ! By 
 
 ' Arab., meaning " the Mother of Amir," a nickname for the hyena, which 
 bites the hand that feeds it. 
 
 - The intellect of man is stronger than that of the Jinni ; the Tfrit, however, 
 enters the jar because he has been adjured by the Most Great Name, and not from 
 mere stupidity. The seal-ring of Solomon, according to the Rabbis, contained a 
 chased stone which told him everything he wanted to know. 
 
 3 The Mesmerist will notice this shudder, which is familiar to him as preceding 
 the " magnetic " trance.
 
 Tale of the W^azir and the Sage Dithau. 41 
 
 Allah, I will throw thee into the sea before us, and here will I build 
 me a lodge ; and whoso cometh hither I will warn him against fish- 
 ing and will say : — In these waters abideth an Ifrit who giveth as a 
 last favour a choice of deaths and fashion of slaughter to the man 
 who saveth him ! " Now when the Ifrit heard this from the Fisher- 
 man and saw himself in limbo, he was minded to escape, but this 
 was prevented by Solomon's seal ; so he knew that the Fisherman 
 had cozened and outwitted him, and he waxed lowly and submissive 
 and began humbly to say, " I did but jest with thee." But the 
 other answered, " Thou liest, O vilest of the Ifrits, and meanest and 
 filthiest ! " and he set off with the bottle for the sea side ; the Ifrit 
 calling out, " Nay ! Nay ! " and he calling out, " Aye ! Aye ! " There- 
 upon the Evil Spirit softened his voice and smoothed his speech and 
 abased himself, saying, " What wouldest thou do with me, O Fisher- 
 man?" "I will throw thee back into the sea,^" he answered, 
 "where thou hast been housed and homed for a thousand and eight 
 hundred years; and now I will leave thee therein till Judgment-day: 
 did I not say to thee : — Spare me, and Allah shall spare thee ; and 
 slay me not lest Allah slay thee ? Yet thou spurnedst my supplication 
 and hadst no intention save to deal ungraciously by me, and Allah 
 hath now thrown thee into my hands and I am cunninger than thou." 
 Quoth the Ifrit, " Open for me that I may bring the weal." Quoth 
 the Fisherman, " Thou liest, thou accursed ! My case with thee is 
 that of the Wazir of King Yunan with the sage Duban.^" "And who 
 was the Waz'r of King Yunan and who was the sage Duban ; and 
 what was the story about them ? " quoth the Ifrit, whereupon the 
 Fisherman began to tell the 
 
 TALE OF THE WAZIR AND THE SAGE DUBAN. 
 
 Know, O thou Ifrit, that in days of yore and in ages long gone 
 before, a King called Yunan reigned over the city of Fars of the 
 land of the Roum.'' He was a powerful ruler and a wealthy, who 
 
 ' Arab. " Bahr " which means a sea, a large river, a sheet of water, etc., lit. 
 water cut or trenched in the earth. Bahri in Egypt means Northern ; so Yamm 
 ( = Sea, Mediterranean) in Hebrew is West. 
 
 ^ In the Bui. Edit. " Ruyan," evidently a clerical error. The name is fanciful, 
 not significant. 
 
 3 The geography is ultra-Shakspearean. "Ears" (whence "Persia") is the 
 central Province of the grand old Empire now a mere wreck ; " Rum " (which I 
 write Roum, in order to avoid Jamaica) is the neo-Roman or Byzantine Empire ; 
 while " Yunan " is the classical Arab term for Greece (lona) which unlearned 
 Moslems believe to be now under water.
 
 ^ 2 Alf Laylah wn Laylah. 
 
 had armies and guards and allies of all nations of men ; but his 
 body was afflicted with a leprosy which leaches and men of science 
 failed to heal. He drank potions and he swallowed powders and 
 he used unguents, but naught did him good and none among the 
 host of physicians availed to procure him a cure. At last there 
 came to his city a mighty healer of men and one well stricken in 
 years, the Sage Duban hight. This man was a reader of books, 
 Greek, Persian, Roman, Arabian, and Syrian ; and he was skilled in 
 astronomy and in leachcraft, the theorick as well as the practick ; 
 he was experienced in all that healeth and that hurteth the body ; 
 conversant with the virtues of every plant, grass and herb, and their 
 benefit and bane ; and he understood philosophy, and had -com- 
 passed the whole range of medical science and other branches of the 
 knowledge-tree. Now this physician passed but few days in the 
 city ere he heard of the King's malady, and all his bodily sufferings 
 through the leprosy with which Allah had smitten him ; and how all 
 the doctors and wise men had failed to heal him. Upon this he sat 
 up through the night in deep thought; and, when broke the dawn and 
 appeared the morn and light was again born, and the Sun greeted 
 the Good whose beauties the world adorn, ^ he donned his hand- 
 somest dress and going in to King Yunan, he kissed the ground 
 before him : then he prayed for the endurance of his honour and 
 prosperity in fairest language and made himself known, saying, 
 " O King, tidings have reached me of what befell thee through that 
 which is in thy person ; and how the host of physicians hath proved 
 unavailing to abate it ; and lo ! I can cure thee, O King ; and 
 yet will I not make thee drink of draught or anoint thee with oint- 
 ment." Now when King Yunan heard his words he said in huge 
 surprise, " How wilt thou do this ? By Allah, if thou make me 
 whole I will enrich thee even to thy son's son, and I will give 
 thee sumptuous gifts ; and whatso thou wishest shall be thine and 
 thou shalt be to me a cup-companion ' and a friend." The King 
 then robed him with a robe of honour, and entreated him graciously 
 and asked him, "Canst thou indeed cure me of this complaint 
 without drug and unguent?" and he answered, "Yes! I will heal 
 thee without the pains and penalties of medicine." The King 
 marvelled with exceeding marvel and said, " O physician, when shall 
 be this whereof thou speakest, and in how many days shall it take 
 
 ' The Sun greets Mohammed every morning even as it dances on Easter-Day 
 for Christendom. 
 
 = Arab. " Nadim," a term often occurring. It denotes one who was intimate 
 enough to drink with the Caliph, a very high honour and a dangerous. The last 
 who sat with " Nudama " was Al-Razi bi'llah, A.H. 329 = 940. See Al-Siyuti's 
 famous " History of the Caliphs," translated and admirably annotated by Major 
 II. S. Tarrett, for the Bibliotheca Indica, Calcutta, 18S0.
 
 2ale of the Wazir and the Sage Duban. 43 
 
 place ? Haste thee, O my son ! " He replied, " I hear and I obey ; 
 the cure shall begin to-morrow." So saying he went forth from the 
 presence, and hired himself a house in the city for the belter storage 
 of his books and scrolls, his medicines and his aromatic roots. Then 
 he set to work at choosing the fittest drugs and simples, and he 
 fashioned a bat hollow within, and furnished with a handle without, 
 for which he made a ball ; the two being prepared with consummate 
 art. On the next day, when both were ready for use and wanted 
 nothing more, he went up to the King ; and, kissing the ground 
 between his hands bade him ride forth on the parade ground,^ there 
 to play at the pall and mall. He was accompanied by his suite, 
 Emirs and Chamberlains, Wazirs and Lords of the realm and, ere he 
 was seated, the Sage Duban came up to him and, handing him the 
 bat, said, " Take this mall and grip it as I do ; so ! and now push for 
 the plain, and leaning well over thy horse drive the ball with all thy 
 might until thy palm be moist and thy body perspire : then the 
 medicine will penetrate through thy palm and will permeate thy 
 person. When thou hast done with playing, and thou feelest the 
 effects of the medicine, return to thy palace, and make the Ghusl- 
 ablution'^ in the Hammam-bath, and lay thee down to sleep ; so shalt 
 thou become whole ; and now peace be with thee ! " Thereupon 
 King Yunan took the bat from the Sage and grasped it firmly ; then, 
 mounting steed, he drove the ball before him and galloped after it 
 till he reached it, when he struck it with all his might, his palm 
 gripping the bat-handle the while ; and he ceased not mailing the 
 ball till his hand waxed moist and his skin, perspiring, imbibed the 
 medicine from the wood. Then the Sage Duban knew that the 
 drugs had penetrated his person and bade him return to the palace 
 and enter the Hammam without stay or delay ; so King Yunan 
 forthright returned and ordered them to clear for him the bath. 
 They did so, the carpet spreaders making all haste and the slaves 
 all hurry, and got ready a change of raiment for the Kino-. He 
 entered the bath and made the total ablution long and thorouo-hly • 
 then donned his clothes within the Hammam and rode therefrom to 
 
 ' Arab. Maydan (from Persian); Lane generally translates it " horse course " 
 and Payne " tilting-yard." It is both and something more; an open space in 
 or near the city, used for reviewing troops, races, playing the Jerid (cane-spear) 
 and other sports and exercises: thus Al-]\Iaydan = Gr. hippodrome. The o-ame 
 here alluded to is our "polo," or hockey on horseback, a favourite with'the 
 Persian Kings, as all old illustrations of the Shahnamah show. Maydan is also a 
 natural plain for which copious Arabic has many terms ; Fayhah or Sath (a plain 
 generally), Khabt (a low lying plain), Bat'ha (a low sandy fiat), Mahattah(a plaia 
 fit for halting), and so forth. (Pilgrimage, iii. 11.) 
 
 ^ For details concerning the " Ghusl " or complete bath, see night xliv.
 
 44 - /// I.aylah 7va Laylah. 
 
 his palace, where he lay him down and slept. Such was the aise 
 with King Yunan ; but as regards the Sage Duban, he returned home 
 and slept as usual, and when morning dawned he repaired to the 
 palace and craved audience. The King ordered him to be admitted; 
 then, having kissed ground between his hands, in allusion to the 
 King he recited these couplets with solemn intonation : — 
 
 I lappy is Eloquence when thou art name! licr sire; • But mourns she when as 
 
 other man the title claimed. 
 O Lord of fairest presence, whose illumine; rays « Clear off the fogs of doubt 
 
 aye veiling deeds high famed, 
 Ne'er cease thy face to shine like Dawn and rise of Morn ; * And never show 
 
 Time's face with heat of ire inflamed ! 
 Thy grace hath favoured us with gifts that worked such wise * As rain-clouds 
 
 raining on the hills by wolds enframed : 
 Freely thou lavishedst thy wealth to rise on high « Till won from Time the 
 
 heights whereat thy grandeur aimed. 
 
 Now when the Sage ceased reciting, the King rose quickly to his 
 feet and fell on his neck ; then seating him by his side he bade 
 dress him in a sumptuous dress ; for it had so happened that when 
 the King left the Hammam he looked on his body and saw no trace 
 of leprosy : the skin was all clean as virgin silver. He joyed thereat 
 with exceeding joy, his breast broadened ^ with delight and he felt 
 thoroughly happy. Presently, when it was full day he entered his 
 audience-hall and sat upon the throne of his kingship; whereupon his 
 Chamberlains and Grandees flocked to the presence and with them 
 the Sage Duban. Seeing the leach the King rose to him in honour 
 and seated him by his side ; then the food-trays furnished with the 
 daintiest viands were brought and the physician ate with the Sovran, 
 nor did he cease companying him all that day. Moreover, at night- 
 fall he gave the physician Duban two thousand gold pieces, besides 
 the usual dress of honour and other gifts galore, and sent him home 
 on his own steed. After the Sage had gone forth. King Yunan 
 again expressed his amazement at the leach's art, saying, " This man 
 medicined my body from without, nor anointed me with aught of 
 ointments : by Allah, surely this is none other than consummate 
 skill ! I am bound to honour such a mail with reward and distinc- 
 tion, and take him to my companion and my friend during the 
 remainder of my days." So King Yunan passed the night in joy 
 and gladness for that his body had been made whole, and had thrown 
 off so pernicious a malady. On the morrow the King went forth 
 
 ' A popular idiom and highly expressive, contrasting the upright bearing of the 
 self-satisfied man with the slouch of the miserable and the skirt-trailing of the 
 woman in grief. I do not see the necessity of such Latinisms as "dilated" or 
 " expanded."
 
 Ta 'c of the Wazir and the Sage Di/baii. 45 
 
 from his Serraglio and sat upon his throne, and the Lords of Estate 
 stood about him, and the Emirs and Wazirs sat, as was their wont, on 
 his right hand and on his left. Then he asked for the Sage Duban, 
 who came in and kissed ground before him, when the King rose 
 to greet him and, seating him by his side, ate with him and wished 
 him long life. Moreover, he robed him and gave him gifts, and 
 ceased not conversing with him until night approached. Then the 
 King ordered him, by way of salary, five dresses of honour and a 
 thousand dinars.^ The physician returned to his own house full of 
 gratitude to the Sovran. And when next morning dawned the King 
 repaired to his audience-hall, and his Lords and nobles surrounded 
 him and his Chamberlains and his Ministers, as the white encloseth 
 the black of the eye.'^ Now the King had a Wazir among his 
 Wazirs, unsightly to look upon, an ill-omened spectacle ; sordid, 
 ungenerous, full of envy and evil will. When this Minister saw the 
 King place the physician near him and give him all these gifts, he 
 jaloused him and planned to do him a harm, as in the saying on 
 such subject, "Envy lurks in everybody"; and the saw, "Oppression 
 hideth in every heart : power revealeth it, and weakness concealeth 
 it." Then the Minister came before the King and, kissing ground 
 between his hands, said, " O King of the age and of all time, thou in 
 whose benefits I have grown to manhood, I have weighty advice to 
 offer thee, and if I withhold it I were a son of adultery, no true-born 
 man ; wherefore an thou order me to disclose it I will so do forth- 
 with." Quoth the King (and he was troubled at the words of the 
 Minister), "And what is this counsel of thine?" Quoth he, "O 
 glorious monarch, the wise of old have said : — Whoso regardeth not 
 the end, hath not Fortune to friend ; and indeed I have lately seen 
 the King on far other than the right way ; for he lavisheth largesse 
 on his enemy, on one whose object is the decline and downfall of his 
 kingship : to this man he hath shown favour, honouring him with 
 over-honour and making of him an intimate. Wherefore I fear for 
 the King's life." The King, who was much troubled and changed 
 colour, asked, "Whom dost thou suspect and anent whom dost thou 
 hint ? " and the Minister answ^ered, " O King, an thou be asleep, 
 wake up ! I point to the physician Duban." Rejoined the King, 
 " Fie upon thee ! This is a true friend who is favoured by me 
 above all men, because he cured rne with something which I held in 
 
 ' All these highest signs of favour foreshow, in Eastern tales and in Eastern 
 life, an approaching downfall of the heaviest ; they are so great that they arouse 
 general jealousy. Many of us have seen this at native courts. 
 
 - This phrase is contained in the word " ihdak " = encompassing, as the con- 
 junctiva does the pupil.
 
 46 AIJ Lay/ah wa Laylah. 
 
 my hand, and he healed my leprosy which had baffled all ])hysicians : 
 indeed he is one whose like may not be found in these days — no, 
 not in the whole world from furthest east to utmost west ! And it is 
 of such a man thou sayest such hard sayings. Now from this day 
 forward I allot him a settled solde and allowances, every month a 
 thousand gold pieces ; and, were I to share with him my realm 
 'twere but a little matter. Perforce I must suspect that thou speakest 
 on this wise from mere envy and jealousy as they relate of the King 
 
 Sindibad." And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of da}-, 
 
 and ceased saying her permitted say. Then quoth Dunyazad, " O 
 my sister, how pleasant is thy tale, and how tasteful, how sweet, and 
 how grateful!" She replied, "And where is this compared with 
 what I could tell thee on the coming night if the King deign spare 
 my life ?" Then said the King in himself, " By Allah, I will not slay 
 her until I hear the rest of her tale, for truly it is wondrous." So 
 they rested that night in mutual embrace until the dawn. Then the 
 King went forth to his Hall of Rule, and the Wazir and the troops 
 came in, and the audience-chamber was thronged ; and the King 
 gave orders and judged and appointed and deposed and bade and 
 forbade during the rest of that day till the Court broke up, and 
 King Shahryar returned to his palace. 
 
 Bcto to|)tn it toas X\t f tftf) I^Jiirljt, 
 
 Her sister said, " Do finish for us thy story if thou be not sleepy " ; 
 and she resumed : — It hath reached me, O auspicious King and 
 mighty Monarch, that King Yunan said to his Minister, " O Wazir, 
 thou art one whom the evil spirit of envy hath possessed because of 
 this physician, and thou plottest for my putting him to death, after 
 which I should repent me full sorely, even as repented King Sindibad 
 for killing his falcon." Quoth the Wazir, " Pardon me, O King of 
 the age, how was that ? " So the King began the story of 
 
 KING SINDIBAD AND HIS FA ICON. 
 
 It is said (but Allah is All-knowing' !) that there was a King of the 
 Kings of Fars, who was fond of pleasuring and diversion, especially of 
 coursing and hunting. He had reared a falcon which he carried all 
 
 ' I have noted this formula, which is used even in conversation when 
 to relate some great unfacr.
 
 Tale oj King Shidibad and his Fa/con. 47 
 
 night on his fist, and whenever he went a-chasing he took with him 
 this bird ; and he bade make for her a golden cuplet hung round 
 her neck to give her drink therefrom. One day as the King was 
 sitting quietly in his palace, behold the high falconer of the house- 
 hold suddenly addressed him, " O King of the age, this is indeed a 
 day fit for birding." The King gave orders accordingly, and set out 
 taking the hawk on fist ; and they rode merrily forwards till they 
 made a Wady^ where they planted a circle of nets for the chase; 
 when lo ! a gazelle came within the toils and the King cried, 
 "Whoso alloweth yon gazelle to spring over his head and loseth her, 
 that man will I surely slay." They narrowed the nets about the 
 gazelle when she drew near the King's station ; and, planting herself 
 on her hind quarter, crossed her forehand over her breast, as if 
 about to kiss the earth before the King. He bowed his brow low 
 in acknowledgment to the beast ; when she bounded high over 
 his head and took the way of the waste. Thereupon the King 
 turned towards his troops and, seeing them winking and pointing at 
 him, he asked, " O Wazir, what are my men saying?" and the 
 Minister answered, "They say thou didst proclaim that whoso 
 alloweth the gazelle to spring over his head, that man shall be put to 
 death." Quoth the King, " Now, by the life of my head ! I will 
 follow her up till I bring her back." So he set off galloping on the 
 gazelle's trail and gave not over tracking till he reached the foot- 
 hills of a mountain chain where the quarry made for a cave. Then 
 the King cast off at it the falcon which presently caught it up and, 
 swooping down, drove her talons into its eyes, bewildering and 
 blinding it ^ ; and the King drew his mace and struck a blow which 
 rolled the game over. He then dismounted ; and, after cutting 
 the antelope's throat and flaying the body, hung it to the pommel 
 of his saddle. Now the time was that of the siesta," and 
 the wold was parched and dry, nor was any water to be found 
 anywhere ; and the King thirsted and his horse also ; so he went 
 about searching till he saw a tree dropping water, as it were melted 
 butter, from its boughs. Thereupon the King, who wore gauntlets 
 of skin to guard him against poisons, took the cup from the hawk's 
 
 ' We are obliged to English the word by " valley," which is about as 
 correct as the " brook Kedron," applied to the grisliest of ravines. The Wady 
 in old Coptic wah, oah (whence "Oasis"), is the bed of a watercourse which 
 flows only after rains. I have rendered it by " Fiumara " (Pilgrimage, i. 5, and 
 ii. 196, etc.), an Italian or rather a Sicilian word which exactly describes the 
 " wady." 
 
 ^ I have described this scene which Mr. T. Wolf illustrated by an excellent 
 litho;n-aph in " Falconry, etc." (London, Van Voorst, MDCCCLll). 
 
 ■' Arab. " Kaylulah," mid-day sleep ; called siesta from the sLxth canonical 
 hour.
 
 48 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 neck, and filling it with the water set it before the bird, and lo ! the 
 falcon struck it with her pounces and upset the liquid. The King 
 filled it a second time with the dripping drops, thinking his hawk 
 was thirsty ; but the bird again struck at the cup with her talons and 
 overturned it. Then the King waxed wroth with the hawk, and 
 filling the cup a third time offered it to his horse : but the hawk 
 upset it with a flirt of wings. Quoth the King, "Allah confound 
 thee, thou unluckiest of flying things ! thou keepest me from drinking, 
 and thou deprivest thyself also, and the horse." So he struck the 
 falcon with his sword and cut off her wing j but the bird raised her 
 head and said by signs, " Look at that which hangeth on the tree ! " 
 The King Hfted up his eyes accordingly and caught sight of a brood 
 of vipers, whose poison-drops he mistook for water ; thereupon he 
 repented him of having struck off his falcon's wing, and mounting 
 horse, rode on with the dead gazelle till he arrived at the camp, 
 his starting place. He threw the quarry to the cook, saying, " Take 
 and broil it," and sat down on his chair, the falcon being still on his 
 fist when suddenly the bird gasped and died ; whereupon the King 
 cried out in sorrow and remorse for having slain that falcon which 
 had saved his life. " Now this is what occurred in the case of King 
 Sindibad ; and I am assured that were I to do as thou desirest, I 
 should repent even as the man who killed his parrot." Quoth the 
 Wazir, " And how was that ? " And the King began to tell 
 
 THE TALE OF THE HUSBAND AND THE PARROT} 
 
 A CERTAIN man and a merchant to boot had married a fair wife, a 
 woman of perfect beauty and grace, symmetry and loveliness, of 
 whom he was mad-jealous, and who contrived successfully to keep him 
 from travel. At last an occasion compelling him to leave her, he 
 went to the bird-market and bought him for one hundred gold 
 pieces a she-parrot which he set in his house to act as duenna, 
 expecting her to acquaint him on his return with what had passed 
 during the whole time of his absence ; for the bird was kenning and 
 
 ' This parrot-story is world-wide in folk-lore, and the belief in metempsy- 
 chosis, which prevails more or less all over the East, there lends it probability. 
 The "Book of Sindibad" (see night dlxxix., and "The Academy," Sept. 20, 
 18S4, No. 646), converts it into the " Story of the Confectioner, his Wife, and 
 the Parrot" ; and it is the base of the Hindostani text-book, " Tota-kahani " 
 Parrot-chat), an abridgement of the Tuti-namah (Parrot-book) of Nakhshabi 
 (cir. A.D. 1300), a congener of the Sanskrit " Suka Saptati," or Seventy 
 Parrot-stories. The Tale is not in the Bui. or Mac. Edits, but occurs in the 
 Bresl. (i. pp. 90, 91) much mutilated ; and better in the Calc. Edit. I cannot here 
 refrain from noticing how vilely the twelve vols, of the Breslau Edit, have been 
 edited ; even a table of contents being absent from the first four volumes.
 
 Tale of the Husband aiid the Parrot. 49 
 
 cunning and never forgot what she had seen and heard. Now his 
 fair wife had fallen in love with a young Turk,^ who used to visit 
 her, and she feasted him by day and lay with him by night. When 
 the man had made his journey and won his wish he came home ; 
 and, at once causing the Parrot to be brought to him, questioned 
 her concerning the conduct of his consort whilst he was in foreign 
 parts. Quoth she, "Thy wife hath a man friend who passed 
 every night with her during thine absence." Thereupon the husband 
 went to his wife in a violent rage, and bashed her with a bashing 
 severe enough to satisfy anybody. The woman, suspecting that one 
 of the slave-girls had been tattling to the master, called them together 
 and questioned them upon their oaths, when all swore that they had 
 kept the secret, but that the Parrot had not, adding, " And we heard 
 her with our own ears." Upon this the woman bade one of the 
 girls set a hand-mill under the cage and grind therewith, and a 
 second to sprinkle water through the cage-roof, and a third to run 
 about, right and left, flashing a mirror of bright steel through the 
 livelong night. Next morning, when the husband returned home 
 after being entertained by one of his friends, he bade bring the 
 Parrot before him, and asked what had taken place whilst he was 
 away. " Pardon me, O my master," quoth the bird, " I could 
 neither hear nor see aught by reason of the exceeding murk and 
 the thunder and hghtning which lasted throughout the night." As 
 it happened to be the summer-tide the master was astounded and 
 cried, "But we are now in mid-Tammuz,^ and this is not the time 
 for rains and storms." " Ay, by Allah," rejoined the bird, " I saw 
 with these eyes what my tongue hath told thee." Upon this the 
 man, not knowing the case nor smoking the plot, waxed exceeding 
 wroth ; and, holding that his wife had been wrongously accused, put 
 forth his hand and pulling the Parrot from her cage dashed her 
 upon the ground with such force that he killed her on the spot. 
 Some days afterwards one of his slave-girls confessed to him the 
 whole truth,^ yet w^ould he not believe it till he saw the yomig Turk, 
 
 ' The young " Turk " is probably a late addition, as it does not appear in many 
 of the MSS., e.g., the Bresl. Edit. The wife usually spreads a cloth over the 
 cage ; this in the Turkish translation becomes a piece of leather. 
 
 ^ The Hebrew-Syrian month July used to express the height of summer. As 
 Herodotus tells us (ii. 4) the Egyptians claimed to be the discoverers of the solar 
 year, and the portioners of its course into twelve parts. 
 
 3 This proceeding is thoroughly characteristic of the servile class ; they con- 
 scientiously conceal everything from the master till he finds a clew ; after which 
 they tell him everything and something more. 
 
 VOL, I. D
 
 50 A If Layliih iva Laylah. 
 
 his wife's lover, coming out of licr chainl)cr, wlieii he bnrcd his hlade^ 
 and slew him by a blow on the back of the neck ; and he did the 
 same by the adulteress , and thus the twain, laden with mortal sin, 
 went straightways to Eternal Fire Then the merchant knew that 
 the Parrot had told him the truth anent all she had seen, and he 
 mourned grievously for her loss when mourning availed him not. 
 The Minister, hearing the words of King Yunan, rejoined, "O 
 Monarch, high in dignity, and what harm have I done him, or what 
 evil have I seen from him, that I should compass his death ? I 
 would not do this thing save to serve thee, and soon shalt thou 
 sight that it is right ; and if thou accept my advice thou shalt be 
 saved, otherwise thou shalt be destroyed even as a certain Wazir 
 who acted treacherously by the young Prince." Asked the King, 
 " How was that ? " and the Minister thus began 
 
 THE TALE OF THE TRINCE AND THE OGRESS. 
 
 A CERTAIN King, who had a son over much given to hunting and 
 coursing, ordered one of his Wazirs to be in attendance upon him 
 whithersoever he might wend. One day the youth set out for the 
 chase accompanied by his father's Minister; and, as they jogged 
 on together, a big wild beast came in sight. Cried the Wazir to the 
 King's son, " Up and at yon noble quarry ! " So the Prince followed 
 it until he was lost to every eye, and the chase got away from him in 
 the waste ; whereby he was confused and he knew not which way to 
 turn, when lo ! a damsel appeared ahead and she was in tears. The 
 King's son asked, " Who art thou ? " and she answered, " I am 
 daughter to a King among the Kings of Hind, and I was travelling 
 with a caravan in the desert when drowsiness overcame me, and I 
 fell from my beast unwittingly ; whereby I am cut off from my people 
 and sore bewildered." The Prince, hearing these words, pitied her 
 case and, mounting her on his horse's crupper, travelled until he 
 passed by an old ruin," when the damsel said to him, " O my master, 
 I wish to obey a call of nature " : he therefore set her down at 
 the ruin, where she delayed so long that the King's son thought 
 that she was only wasting time ; so he followed her wdthout her 
 knowledge and behold, she was a Ghulah,^ a wicked Ogress, who 
 
 ' Until late years, merchants and shopkeepers in the nearer East all carried 
 .vords. and held it a disgrace to leave the house unarmed. 
 => The Brcsl. Edit, absurdly has Jazirah (an island). 
 3 The Ghulah (fem. of Ghul) is the Ileb. Lilith or Lilis ; the classical Lamia;
 
 Tale of the Ffi/ice and the Ogress. 5 i 
 
 was saying to her brood, " O my children, this day I bring you a 
 fine fat youth^ for dinner"; whereto they answered, "Bring him 
 quick to us, O our mother, that we may browse upon him our belhes 
 full." The prince hearing their talk made sure of death, and his 
 side-muscles quivered in fear for his life, so he turned away and was 
 about to fly. The Ghulah came out and seeing him in sore affright 
 (for he was trembling in every limb) cried, "Wherefore art thou 
 afraid ?" and he replied, "I have hit upon an enemy whom I greatly 
 fear." Asked the Ghulah, " Diddest thou not say : — I am a King's 
 son ? " and he answered, "' Even so." Then quoth she, " Why dost 
 not give thine enemy something of money and so satisfy him ? " 
 Quoth he, " He will not be satisfied with my purse but only with my 
 life, and I mortally fear him and am a man under oppression." She 
 replied, " If thou be so distressed, as thou deemest, ask aid against 
 him from Allah, who will surely protect thee from his ill-doing and 
 from the evil whereof thou art afraid." Then the Prince raised his 
 eyes heavenwards and cried, "O Thou who answerest the necessitous 
 when he calleth upon Thee and dispellest his distress ; O my God ! 
 grant me victory over my foe and stay him from me, for Thou over 
 all things art Almighty." The Ghulah, hearing his prayer, turned 
 away from him, and the Prince returned to his father, and told him 
 the tale of the Wazir ; whereupon the King summoned the Minister 
 to his presence and then and there slew him. Thou likewise, O 
 King, if thou continue to trust this leach, shalt be made to die the 
 worst of deaths. He verily thou madest much of, and whom thou 
 entreatedest as an intimate, will work thy destruction. Seest thou 
 not how he healed the disease from outside thy body by something 
 grasped in thy hand ? Be not assured that he will not destroy thee 
 by something held in like manner ! Replied King Yunan, " Thou 
 hast spoken sooth, O Wazir, it may well be as thou hintest, O my 
 well-advising Minister ; and belike this Sage hath come as a spy 
 searching to put me to death ; for assuredly if he cured me by a 
 something held in my hand, he can kill me by a something given me 
 to smell." . Then asked King Yunan, " O Minister, what must be 
 done with him?" and the Wazir answered, "Send after him this very 
 instant and summon him to thy presence ; and when he shall come 
 
 the Hindu Yogini and Dakini ; the Chaldean Utug and Gigim (desert-demons) 
 as opposed to the Mas (hill-demon) and Tela! (who steal into towns) ; the Ogress 
 of our tales and the Bala yaga (Granny-witch) of Russian folk-lore. Etymo- 
 logically " Ghul " is a calamity, a panic fear ; and the monster is evidently the 
 embodied horror of the grave and the graveyard. 
 
 ' Arab. " Shabb " (Lat. juvenis) between puberty and forty, or according to 
 some fifty; when the patient becomes a " Rajul ikhtiyar " (man of free will) 
 politely termed, and then a Sb.aykh or Shaybah (grey-beard, oldster). 
 
 ■0 -^
 
 52 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 strike him across the neck ; and thus shalt thou rid thjself of him 
 and his wickedness, and deceive him ere he can deceive thee." 
 " Thou hast again spoken sooth, O Wazir," said the King, and sent 
 one to call the Sage who came in joyful mood, for he knew not what 
 had appointed for him the Compassionate ; as a certain poet saith by 
 v.ay of illustration : — 
 
 Tliuu who fearest Fate, confidintj fare, • Trust all to Him who built the world, 
 
 and wait : 
 What Fate saith " Be," perforce must be, my lord ! « And safe art thou from 
 th' undecrced of Fate. 
 
 As Duban the physician entered he addressed the King in these 
 lines : — 
 
 An fail I of my thanks to thee nor thank thee day by da}' « For w hom composed 
 
 I prose and verse, for whom my say and lay ? 
 Thou lavishedst thy generous gifts ere they were craved by me ; « Thou lavishedst 
 
 thy boons unsought sans pretext or delay : 
 How shall I stint my praise of thee, how shall I cease to laud « The grace of 
 
 thee in secresy and patentest display ? 
 Nay ; I will thank thy benefits, for aye thy favours lie * Light on my thought 
 
 and tongue, though heavy on my back they weigh. 
 
 And he said further on the same theme : — 
 
 Turn thee from grief nor care a jot ! * Commit thy needs to Fate and Lot ! 
 Enjoy the Present passing well « And let the Past be clean forgot : 
 For .whatso haply seemeth worse * Shall work thy weal as Allah wot : 
 Allah shall do whate'cr He wills * And in His will oppose Him not. 
 
 And further still : — 
 
 To th' All-wise Subtle One trust worldly things ; * Rest thee from all whereto 
 
 the worldling clings : 
 Learn wisely well naught cometh by thy will « But e'en as willcth Allah, 
 
 King of Kings. 
 
 And lastly : — 
 
 Gladsome and gay forget thine every grief ; « Full often grief the wisest hearts 
 
 outwore : 
 Thought is but folly in the feeble slave ; « Shun it and so be saved evermore. 
 
 .Said the King for sole return, " Knowest thou why I have summoned 
 thee ? " and the Sage replied, " Allah Most Highest alone kenneth 
 hidden things ! " But the King rejoined, " I summoned thee only 
 to take thy life and utterly to destroy thee." Duban the Wise won- 
 dered at this strange address with exceeding wonder and asked, 
 "O King, and wherefore wouldst thou slay me, and what ill have 
 
 1 done thee ? " and the King answered, " Men tell me thou art a
 
 Tale of the Wazir and the Sage Duban. 55 
 
 spy sent liithcr with intent to slay me ; and lo ! I will kill thee ere 
 I be killed by thee " ; then he called to his Sworder, and said, 
 "Strike me off the head of this traitor and deliver us from his evil 
 practices." Quoth the Sage, " Spare me and Allah will spare thee ; 
 slay me not or Allah shall slay thee." And he repeated to him these 
 very words, even as I to thee, O I frit, and yet thou wouldst not let 
 me go, being bent upon my death. King Yunan only rejoined, 
 " I shall not be safe without slaying thee ; for, as thou healedst me 
 by something held in hand, so am I not secure against thy killing me 
 by something given me to smell or otherwise." Said the physician, 
 " This then, O King, is thy requital and this thy reward ; thou returnest 
 only evil for good." The King replied, " There is no help for it ; die 
 thou must and sans delay." Now when the physician was certified 
 that the King would slay him without waiting, he wept and regretted 
 the good he had done to other than the good. As one hath said 
 on this subject : — - 
 
 Of wit and wisdom is Maymunah ' bare, * Whose sire in wisdom all the wits 
 
 outstrippeth : 
 Man may not tread on mud or dust or clay * Save by good sense, else trippeth he 
 
 and slippeth. 
 
 Hereupon the Sworder stepped forward and bound the Sage Duban's 
 eyes and bared his blade, saying to the King, " By thy leave " ; while 
 the physician wept and cried, " Spare me and Allah will spare thee, 
 and slay me not or Allah shall slay thee," and began repeating : — 
 
 I was kind and 'scaped not, they were cruel and escaped ; * And my kindness only 
 
 led me to Ruination Hall ; 
 If I live I'll ne'er be kind ; if I die, then all be damned * Who follow me, and 
 
 curses their kindliness befall. 
 
 " Is this," continued Duban, " the return I meet from thee ? Thou 
 givest me, meseems, but crocodile-boon." Quoth the King, "What 
 is the tale of the crocodile?" and quoth the physician, " Impossible 
 for me to tell it in this my state ; Allah upon thee, spare me, as thou 
 hopest Allah shall spare thee." And he wept with exceeding weeping. 
 Then one of the King's kxvourites stood up and said, " O King ! 
 grant me the blood of this physician ; we have never seen him sin 
 against thee, or doing aught save healing thee from a disease which 
 bafQed every leach and man of science." Said the King, " Ye weet 
 not the cause of my putting to death this physician, and this it is. 
 If I spare him, I doom myself to certain death ; for one who healed 
 me of such a malady by something held in my hand, surely can slay 
 
 ' Some proverbial name now forgotten. Torrens (p. 48) translates it " the 
 giglot" (Fortune?) but " cannot discover the drift."
 
 54 Alf Layhih wa Laylah. 
 
 me by something held to my nose ; and I fear lest he kill me ft)r a 
 price, since haply he is some spy whose sole purpose in coming hither 
 was to compass my destruction. So there is no help for it ; die he 
 must, and then only shall I be sure of my own life." Again cried Duban, 
 " Spare me and Allah shall spare thee ; and slay me not or Allah 
 shall slay thee." But it was all in vain. Now when the physician, 
 O Ifrit, knew for certain that the King would kill him, he said, 
 "O King, if there be no help but I must die, grant me some little 
 delay that I may go down to my house and release myself from mine 
 obligations and direct my folk and my neighbours where to bury me 
 and distribute my books of medicine. Amongst these I have one, 
 the rare of rarities, which I would present to thee as an offering : 
 keep it as a treasure in thy treasury." "And what is in the book ?" 
 asked the King, and the Sage answered, " Things beyond compt ; and 
 the least of secrets is that if, directly after thou hast cut off my head, 
 thou open three leaves and read three lines of the page to thy left 
 hand, my head shall speak and answer every question thou deignest 
 ask of it." The King wondered with exceeding wonder and shaking* 
 with delight at the novelty, said, " O physician, dost thou really tell 
 me that when I cut off thy head it will speak to me ? " He replied, 
 " Yes, O King ! " Quoth the King, " This is indeed a strange 
 matter ! " and forthwith sent him closely guarded to his house, 
 and Duban then and there settled all his obligations. Next day 
 he went up to the King's audience-hall, where Emirs and Wazirs, 
 Chamberlains and Nabobs, Grandees and Lords of Estate were 
 gathered together, making the presence-chamber gay as a garden 
 of flower-beds. And lo I the physician came up and stood before 
 the King, bearing a worn old volume and a little etui of metal full 
 of powder, like that used for the e)es.- Then he sat down and 
 
 ' Arab. " Ihtizaz," that natural and instinctive movement caused by good news 
 suddenly given, etc. 
 
 - Arab. " Kohl," in India, Surmah, not a " collyrium,"' but powdered antimony 
 for the eyelids. That sold in the bazars is not the real grey ore of antimony, but 
 a galena or sulphuret of lead. Its use arose as follows. When Allah showed 
 Himself to Moses on Sinai through an opening the size of a needle, the Projihet 
 fainted and the Mount took fire : thereupon Allah said, " Henceforth shalt thou 
 and thy seed grind the earth of this mountain and apply it to your eyes ! " The 
 powder is kept in an etui called Makhalah, and ap])lied with a thick blunt needle 
 lo the inside of the eyelid, drawing it along the rim. ^Vomen mostly use a pre- 
 paration of soot or lamp-black (Hind. Kajala, Kajjal) whose colour is easily 
 tlistinguished from that of Kohl. The latter word, with the article (Al-Kohl) 
 is the origin of our "alcohol"; though even M. Littre fails to show how 
 "fine powder" became "spirits of wine." I found this powder (wherewith 
 Jezebel "painted" her eyes) a great preservative from ophthalmia in desert- 
 travelling : the use in India was universal, but now European example is 
 gradually abolishing it.
 
 Tale of the JVazir and the Sage Diihan. 55 
 
 said, " Give me a tray." So they brought him one and he poured 
 the powder upon it and levelled it and lastly spake as follows : " O 
 King take this book, but do not open it till my head fall ; then set 
 it upon this tray, and bid press it down upon the powder, when 
 forthright the blood will cease flowing. That is the time to open 
 the book." The King thereupon took the book and made a sign 
 to the Sworder, who arose and struck off the physician's head, and 
 placing it on the middle of the tray, pressed it down upon the 
 powder. The blood stopped flowing, and the Sage Duban unclosed 
 his eyes and said, " Now open the book, O King ! " The King 
 opened the book, and found the leaves stuck together; so he put 
 his finger to his mouth and, by moistening it, he easily turned over 
 the first leaf, and in like way the second, and the third, each leaf 
 opening with much trouble ; and when he had unstuck six leaves 
 he looked over them and, finding nothing written thereon, said, 
 " O physician, there is no writing here ! " Duban replied, " Turn 
 over yet more " ; and he turned over three others in the same way. 
 Now the book was poisoned ; and belore long the venom penetrated 
 his system, and he fell into strong convulsions and he cried out, 
 "" The poison hath done its work ! " Whereupon the Sage Duban's 
 head began to improvise : — 
 
 There be rulers who have ruled with a foul tyrannic sway, * But they soon 
 
 became as though they had never, never been : 
 Just, they had won justice : they oppressed and were opprest * By Fortune, who 
 
 requited them with ban and bane and teen : 
 So they faded like the morn, and the tongue of things repeats, * "Take this for 
 
 that, nor vent upon Fortune's ways thy spleen." 
 
 No sooner had the head ceased speaking than the King rolled over 
 dead. Now I would have thee know, O Ifrit, that if King Yunan 
 had spared the Sage Duban, Allah would have spared him ; but he 
 refused so to do and decreed to do him dead, w-herefore Allah slew 
 him ; and thou too, O Ifrit, if thou hadst spared me, Allah would 
 
 have spared thee. And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day 
 
 and ceased saying her permitted say : then quoth Dunyazad, " O my 
 sister, how pleasant is thy tale and how tasteful ; how sweet, and 
 how grateful ! " She replied, " And where is this compared with 
 what I could tell thee this coming night, if I live and the King 
 spare me ? " Said the King in himself, " By Allah, I will not slay 
 her until I hear the rest of her story, for truly it is wondrous." 
 They rested that night in mutual embrace until dawn : then the 
 King went forth to his Darbar ; the Wazirs and troops came in 
 and the audience-hall w^as crowded ; so the Kin.q; gave orders and
 
 56 Alf Laylah 7va Laylah. 
 
 judged and appointed and deposed and bade and forbade the rest 
 of that day, when the Court broke up, and King Shahryar entered 
 his palace. 
 
 J13oto luf)fn it iuas tl)c §>t^t() ^\^X, 
 
 Her sister, Dunyazad, said to her, " Pray finish for us thy story " ; 
 and she answered, "I will, if the King give me leave." "Say on," 
 quoth the King. And she continued : — It hath reached me, O 
 auspicious King, that when the Fisherman said to the Ifrit, " If 
 thou hadst spared me I would have spared thee, but nothing 
 would satisfy thee save my death ; so now I will do thee die by 
 jailing thee m this jar, and I will hi,irl thee into this sea " ; then 
 the Marid roared aloud and cried, "Allah upon thee, O Fisherman, 
 don't ! Spare me, and pardon my past doings ; and, as I have been 
 tyrannous, so be thou generous, for it is said among sayings that go 
 current : — O thou who doest good to him who hath done thee evil, 
 suffice for the ill-doer his ill-deeds, and do not deal with me as did 
 Umamah to 'Atikah.^ " Asked the Fisherman, " And what was their 
 case ? " and the Ifrit answered, " This is not the time for story-telling 
 and I in this prison ; but set me free and I will tell thee the tale." 
 Quoth the Fisherman, " Leave this language : there is no help but 
 that thou be thrown back into the sea, nor is there any way for thy 
 getting out thereof for ever and ever. Vainly I placed myself under thy 
 protection,^ and I humbled myself to thee with weeping, while thou 
 soughtest only to slay me, who had done thee no injury deserving 
 this at thy hands ; nay, so far from injuring thee by any evil act, I 
 worked thee naught but weal in releasing thee from that jail of thine. 
 Now I knew thee to be an evil-doer when thou diddest to me what 
 thou didst, and know, that when I have cast thee back into this sea, 
 I will warn whomsoever may fish thee up of what hath befallen me 
 with thee, and I will advise him to toss thee back again ; so shalt 
 thou abide here under these waters till the End of Time shall make 
 an end of thee." But the Ifrit cried aloud, " Set me free : this is a 
 noble occasion for generosity, and I make covenant with thee and 
 vow never to do thee hurt and harm ; nay, I will help thee to what 
 shall put thee out of want." The Fisherman accepted his promises 
 
 ' The tale of these two women is now forgotten. 
 
 = Arab. " Atadakhkhal. " When danger threatens it is customary to seize a 
 man's skirt and cry " Dakhil-ak !" ( = under thy protection) ; and among noble 
 tribes the Badawi thus invoked will defend the stranger with his life. Foreigners 
 have brought themselves into contempt by thus applying to women or to mere 
 youths.
 
 Tale of the Fisherman and the Jintii. 5 7 
 
 on both conditions, not to trouble him as before, but on the contrary 
 to do him service ; and after making firm the plight and swearing 
 him a solemn oath by Allah Most High he opened the cucurbit. 
 Thereupon the pillar of smoke rose up till all of it was fully out ; 
 then it thickened and once more became an Ifrit of hideous presence, 
 who forthright administered a kick to the bottle and sent it flying into 
 the sea. The Fisherman, seeing how the cucurbit was treated and 
 making sure of his own death, piddled in his clothes, and said to him- 
 self, "This promiseth badly"; but he fortified his heart, and cried, "O 
 Ifrit, Allah hath .said^: — Perform your covenant; for the performance 
 of your covenant shall be enquired into hereafter. Thou hast 
 made a vow to me, and hast sworn an oath not to play me false 
 lest Allah play thee false, for verily He is a jealous God who 
 respiteth the sinner, but letteth him not escape. I say to thee 
 as said the Sage Duban to King Yunan, Spare me so Allah 
 may spare thee ! " The Ifrit burst into laughter and stalked 
 away; saying to the Fisherman, "Follow me"; and the man paced 
 after him at a safe distance (for he was not assured of escape) till 
 they had passed round the suburbs of the city. Thence they struck 
 into the uncultivated grounds, and crossing them descended into a 
 broad wilderness, and lo ! in the midst thereof stood a mountain-tarn. 
 The Ifrit waded in to the middle and again cried, "Follow me" ; and 
 when this was done he took his stand in the centre and bade the man 
 cast his net and catch his fish. The Fisherman looked into the 
 water, and was much astonished to see therein vari-coloured fishes, 
 white and red, blue and yellow ; however, he cast his net, and hauling 
 it in saw that he had netted four fishes, one of each colour. 
 Thereat he rejoiced greatly and more when the Ifrit said to him, 
 " Carry these to the Sultan and set them in his presence ; then he 
 will give thee what shall make thee a wealthy man ; and now 
 accept my excuse, for, by Allah, at this time! weet none other way 
 of benefiting thee, inasmuch I have lain in this sea eighteen hundred 
 years and have not seen the face of the world save within this hour. 
 But I would not have thee fish here save once a day." The Ifrit 
 then gave him Godspeed, saying, "Allah grant we meet again^"; and 
 struck the earth with one foot, whereupon the ground clove asunder 
 and swallowed him up. The Fisherman, much marvelling at what 
 
 ' The formula of quoting from the Koran. 
 
 ^ Lit. "Allah not desolate me" (by thine absence). This is still a popular 
 phrase — La tawahishna = Do not make me desolate, i.e., by staying away too long ; 
 and friends meeting after a term of days exclaim, " Auhashtani ! " = thou hast made 
 me desolate. Je sttis d^sole.
 
 58 Alj Layhih wa Lay/ah. 
 
 had happened to him with the Ifrit, took the fish and made for the 
 city ; and as soon as he reached hone he filled an earthen bowl with 
 water and therein threw the fish, which began to struggle and wriggle 
 about. Then he bore off the bowl upon his head and, repairing 
 to the King's palace (even as the Ifrit had bidden him), laid the 
 fish before the presence ; and the King wondered with exceeding 
 wonder at the sight, for never in his lifetime had he seen fishes 
 like these in quality or in conformation. So he said, " Give 
 yon fish to the stranger slave-girl who now cooketh for us, 
 meaning the bond-maiden whom the King of Roum had sent to 
 him only three days before, so that he had not yet made trial 
 of her talents in the dressing of meat. Thereupon tlie Wazir carried 
 the fish to the cook and bade her fry them ^ saying, "O damsel, the 
 King sendeth this say to thee : — I have not treasured thee, O tear o' 
 me ! save for stress-time o' me ; approve, then, to us this day thy 
 delicate handiwork and thy savoury cooking : for this dish of fish is 
 a present sent to the Sultan and evidently a rarity." The Wazir, after 
 he had carefully charged her, returned to the King, who commanded 
 him to give the Fisherman four hundred dinars : he gave them 
 accordingly, and the man took them to his bosom and ran off home 
 stumbling and falling and rising again, and deeming the whole thing 
 to be a dream. However, he bought for his family all they wanted, 
 and lastly he went to his wife in huge joy and gladness. So far 
 concerning him ; but as regards the cook-maid, she took the fish and 
 cleansed them and set them in the frying-pan, basting them with oil 
 till one side was dressed. Then she turned them over and, behold 
 the kitchen wall clave asunder, and therefrom came a young lady, 
 fair of form, oval of face, perfect in grace, with eyelids which Kohl- 
 lines enchase.^ Her dress was a silken head-kerchief fringed and 
 tasselled with blue ; a large ring hung from either ear ; a pair of 
 bracelets adorned her wrists ; rings with bezels of priceless gems were 
 on her fingers ; and she hent in hand a long rod of rattan-cane which 
 she thrust into the frying-pan, saying, " O Fish ! O Fish ! be ye con- 
 
 ' Charming simplicity of manners when the Prime Minister carries the fish 
 (shade of Vattel ! ) to the cook-maid. The " Gesta Romanorum " is nowhere 
 more naif. 
 
 " Arab. " Kahilat al-taraf" = lit. eyelids lined with Kohl; and figuratively 
 " with black lashes and languorous look." This is a phrase which frequently 
 occurs in The Nights, and which, as will appear, applies to the " lower animals" 
 as well as to men. Moslems in Central Africa apply Kohl not to the 
 thickness of the eye-lid but upon both outer lids, fixing it with some greasy 
 substance. The peculiar Eg)q3tian (and .S)'rian) eye with its thick fringes of 
 jet-black lashes, looking like lines of black drawn with soot, easily suggests 
 the simile. In England I have seen the .<:ame apjxarance amongst miners 
 fresh from the collier>'.
 
 Tale of the FisJierman and the ji>i7ii. 59 
 
 stant to your covenant ? " When the cook-maiden saw this apparition 
 she swooned away. The young lady repe.ited her words a second 
 time and a third time, and at last the fishes raised their heads from 
 the pan, and saying in articulate speech, " Yes ! Yes ! " began with 
 one voice to recite : — 
 
 Come back and so will I ! Keep faith and so will I ! » And if ye fain fjrsake, 
 I'll requite till quits we cry ! 
 
 After this the young lady upset the frying-pan and went forth by the 
 way she came in and the kitchen wall closed upon her. When the 
 cook-maiden recovered from her fainting fit, she saw the four fishes 
 charred black as charcoal, and crying out, " His staff brake in his 
 first bout,^ " she again fell swooning to the ground. Whilst she was 
 in this case the Wazir came for the fish, and looking upon her as 
 insensible she lay, not knowing Sunday from Thursday, shoved her 
 with his foot and said, " Bring the fish for the Sultan ! " Thereupon 
 recovering from her fainting fit she wept and informed him of her 
 case and all that had befallen her. The Wazir marvelled greatly and 
 exclaiming, " This is none other than a right strange matter ! " he sent 
 after the Fisherman and said to him, " Thou, O Fisherman, must needs 
 fetch us four fishes like those thou broughtest before." Thereupon 
 the man repaired to the tarn and cast his net ; and when he landed 
 it, lo ! four fishes w^ere therein exactly like the first. These he at 
 once carried to the Wazir, who went in with them to the cook-maiden 
 and said, " Up with thee and fry these in my presence, that I may 
 see this business." The damsel arose and cleaned the fish, and set 
 them in the frying-pan over the fire ; however, they remained there 
 but a little while ere the wall clave asunder and the young lady 
 appeared, clad as before and holding in hand the wand which she 
 again thrust into the frying-pan, saying, " O Fish ! O Fish ! be ye con- 
 stant to your olden covenant ? " And behold, the fish lifted their 
 heads, and repeated, " Yes ! Yes ! " and recited this couplet : — 
 
 Come back and so will I ! Keep faith and so wil! i i » But if ye fain forsake, 
 
 I'll requite till quits we cry ! 
 
 And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying 
 her permitted say. 
 
 £ioiu tofjcn it tuns tl)c ^clicntj) Jl^iff^t, 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 the fishes spoke, and the young lady upset the frying-pan with her 
 
 ' Of course applying to her own case.
 
 6o Alf Laylah tva Laylah. 
 
 rod, and went forth by the way she came and the wall closed up, the 
 Wazir cried out, " This is a thing not to be hidden from the King." 
 So he went and told him what had happened, whereupon quoth the 
 King, "There is no help for it but that I see this with mine own 
 eyes." Then he sent for the Fisherman and commanded him to 
 bring four other fish like the first, and to take with him three men 
 as witnesses. The Fisherman at once brought the fish : and the 
 King, after ordering them to give him four hundred gold pieces, 
 turned to the Wazir and said, " Up and fry me the fishes here 
 before me ! " The Minister, replying, " To hear is to obey," bade 
 bring the frying-pan, threw therein the cleansed fish and set it over 
 the fire ; when lo ! the wall clave asunder, and out burst a black 
 slave like a huge rock or a remnant of the tribe Ad^ bearing in 
 hand a branch of a green tree ; and he cried in loud and terrible 
 tones, "O Fish ! O Fish ! be ye all constant to your antique covenant?" 
 whereupon the fishes lifted their heads from the frying-pan and 
 said, " Yes ! Yes ! we be true to our vow " ; and they again recited 
 the couplet : — - 
 
 Come back and so will I ! Keep faith and so will I ! * But if ye fain forsake, I'll 
 requite till quits we cry ! 
 
 Then the huge blackamoor approached the frying-pan and upset it 
 with the branch and went forth by the way he came in. When he 
 A'anished from their sight the King inspected the fish ; and, finding 
 them all charred black as charcoal, was utterly bewildered and said 
 to the Wazir, "Verily this is a matter whereanent silence can- 
 not be kept, and as for the fishes, assuredly some marvellous adven- 
 ture connects with them." So he bade summon the Fisherman and 
 asked him, saying, " Fie on thee, fellow ! whence come these fishes ? " 
 and he answered, " From a tarn between four heights lying behind 
 this mountain which is in sight of thy city." Quoth the King, " How 
 many days' march ? " Quoth he, " O our lord the Sultan, a walk of 
 half-an-hour." The King wondered and, straightway ordering his 
 men to march and horsemen to mount, led off the Fisherman, who 
 w'ent before as guide, privily damning the Ifrit. They fared on till 
 they had climbed the mountain and descended unto a great desert 
 which they had never seen during all their lives ; and the Sultan and 
 his merry men marvelled much at the wold set in the midst of four 
 mountains, and the tarn and its fishes of four colours, red and white, 
 yellow and blue. The King stood fixed to the spot in wonderment 
 
 ' Prehistoric Arabs who measured from 60 to 100 cubiiw high : Koran, chapt. 
 xxvi., etc. They will often be mentioned in The Nights. 
 
 ^
 
 Tale of ihe Fisherinati and the Jinn i. 6i 
 
 and asked his troops and all present, " Hath anyone among you 
 ever seen this piece of water before now?" and all made answer, 
 "O King of the age, never did we set eyes upon it during all our 
 days." They also questioned the oldest inhabitants they met, men 
 well stricken in years, but they replied, each and every, " A lakelet 
 like this we never saw in this place." Thereupon quoth the King, 
 " By Allah, I will neither return to my capital nor sit upon the throne 
 of my forbears till I learn the truth about this tarn and the fish 
 therein." He then ordered his men to dismount and bivouac all 
 around the mountain ; which they did ; and summoning his Wazir, a 
 Minister of much experience, sagacious, of penetrating wit and well 
 versed in affairs, said to him, " 'Tis in my mind to do a certain 
 thing whereof I will inform thee ; my heart telleth me to fare forth 
 alone this night and root out the mystery of this tarn and its fishes. 
 Do thou take thy seat at my tent-door, and say to the Emirs and 
 Wazirs, the Nabobs and the Chamberlains, in fine to all who ask 
 thee : — The Sultan is ill at ease, and he hath ordered me to refuse 
 all admittance^ ; and be careful thou let none know of my design." 
 And the Wazir could not oppose him. Then the King changed his 
 dress and ornaments and, slinging his sword over his shoulder, took 
 a path which led up one of the mountains and marched for the rest 
 of the night till morning dawned ; nor did he cease wayfaring till the 
 heat was too much for him. After his long walk he rested for a while, 
 and then resumed his march and fared on through the second night 
 till dawn, when suddenly there appeared a black point in the far dis- 
 tance. Hereat he rejoiced and said to himself, " Haply someone here 
 shall acquaint me with the mystery of the tarn and its fishes." Pre- 
 sently, drawing near the dark object, he found it a palace built of swart 
 stone plated with iron ; and, while one leaf of the gate stood wide 
 open, the other was shut. The King's spirits rose high as he stood 
 before the gate and rapped a light rap ; but hearing no answer he 
 knocked a second knock and a third ; yet there came no sign. Then 
 he knocked his loudest but still no answer, so he said, " Doubtless 
 
 • Arab. " Dastur " (from Persian) = leave, permission. The word has two 
 meanings (see Burckhardt, Arab. Prov. No. 6og) and is much used, (?.^., before 
 walking up stairs or entering a room where strange women might be met. So 
 " Tarik" = Clear the way (Pilgrimage, iii. 319). The old Persian occupation 01 
 Egypt, not to speak of the Persian-speaking Circassians and other rulers, has left 
 many such traces in popular language. One of them is that horror of travellers 
 — "Bakhshish" pron. bakh-sheesh and shortened to shish, from the Pers. 
 "bakhshish." Our " Christmas i5(?x " has been most unnecessarily derived from 
 the same, despite our reading : — 
 
 Gladly the boy, with Christmas box in hand. 
 And, as will be seen, Persians have bequeathed to the outer world worse things 
 than bad language, e.g., heresy and paederasty.
 
 62 Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 'tis empty." Thereupon he mustered up resolution, and boldly 
 walked through the main gate into the great hall and there cried out 
 aloud, " Holla, ye people of the palace ! I am a stranger and a way- 
 farer ; have you aught here of victual ? " He repeated his cry a 
 second time and a third, but still there came no reply ; so heart- 
 ening his heart and making up his mind he stalked through the 
 vestibule into the very middle of the palace and found no man in it. 
 Yet it was furnished with silken stuffs gold-starred, and the hangings 
 were let down over the doorways. In the midst was a spacious 
 court off which set four open saloons each with its raised dais, saloon 
 facing saloon ; a canopy shaded the court, and in the centre was a 
 jetting fount with four figures of lions made of red gold, spouting 
 from their mouths water clear as pearls and diaphanous gems. 
 Round about the palace birds were let loose, and over it stretched a 
 net of golden wire hindering them from flying away ; in brief there 
 was everything but human beings. The King marvelled mightily 
 thereat, yet felt he sad at heart for that he saw no one to give him an 
 account of the waste and its tarn, the fishes, the mountains and the 
 palace itself. Presently, as he sat between the doors in deep thought, 
 behold, there came a voice of lament, as from a heart grief-spent, 
 and he heard the voice chanting these verses : — 
 
 I hid what I cndiired of him' and yet it came lo hght « And nightly sleep 
 
 mine eyelids fled and changed to sleepless night : 
 Oh world ! Oh Fate ! withhold thy hand and cease thy hurt and harm ; « Look 
 
 and behold my hapless sprite in dolour and affright : 
 Wilt ne'er show ruth to highborn youth who lost him on the way « Of love, and 
 
 fell from wealth and fame to lowest basest wight. 
 Jealous of Zephyr's breath was I as en your form he breathed * But whenas 
 
 Destiny descends she blindeth human sight, - 
 What shall the hapless archer do who when he fronts his foe * And bends his 
 
 bow to shoot the shaft shall find his string undight ? 
 When cark and care so heavy bear on youth 3 of generous soul * How shall he 
 
 'scape his lot and where from Fate his place of flight ? 
 
 Now when the Sultan heard the mournful voice he sprang to his 
 feet : and, following the sound, found a curtain let down over a 
 chamber-door. He raised it and saw behind it a young man sitting 
 upon a couch about a cubit above the ground ; and he fair to the 
 sight, a well-shaped wight, with eloquence dight ; his forehead was 
 
 ' lie speaks of his wife, but euphemistically in the masculine. 
 
 = A popular saying throughout Al-Islam. 
 
 3 Arab. "Fata": lit. = a youth; a generous man, one of noble mind (as 
 youthtide should be). It corresponds with the Lat. "vir,"and has nuich the 
 meaning of the Ital. " Giovane," the Genn. "Junker" and our "gentleman."
 
 Tate of the JFiskeri/ian and the Jinni. 63 
 
 flower-white, his cheek rosy bright, and a mole on his cheek-breadth 
 hke an ambergris-mite ; even as the poet doth indite : — 
 
 A youth slim-waisted from whose locks and brow * The world in blackness and 
 
 in light is scu 
 Throughout Creation's round no fairer show, » No rarer sight thine eyes hath 
 
 ever met : 
 A nut-brown mole sits throned upon a cheek * Of rosiest red beneath an eye 
 
 of jet.' 
 
 The King rejoiced and saluted him, but he remained sitting in his 
 caftan of silken stuff purfled with Egyptian gold, and his crown 
 studded with gems of sorts ; but his face was sad with the traces of 
 sorrow. He returned the royal salute in most courteous wise, adding, 
 " O my lord, thy dignity demandeth my rising to thee ; and my sole 
 excuse is to crave thy pardon.'^ " Quoth the King, " Thou art 
 excused, O youth ; so look upon me as thy guest come hither on an 
 especial object I would thou acquaint me with the secrets of this 
 tarn and its fishes and of this palace and thy loneliness therein and 
 the cause of thy groaning and wailing." When the young man heard 
 these words he wept with sore weeping^; till his bosom was drenched 
 with tears and began reciting : — 
 
 Say him who careless sleeps what while the shaft of Fortune flies » How many 
 
 doth this shifting world lay low and raise to rise ? 
 Although thine eyes be sealed in sleep, sleep not th' Almighty's eyes ; * And who 
 
 hath found Time ever fair, or Fate in constant guise ? 
 
 Then he sighed a long-fetched sigh and recited : — - 
 
 Confide thy case to Him, the Lord who made mankind ; « Quit cark and 
 
 care and cultivate content of mind. 
 Ask not the Past, or how or why it came to pass : * All human things by Fate 
 
 and Destiny were designed ! 
 
 The Kmg marvelled and asked him, " What maketh thee weep, O 
 young man ? " and he answered, " How should I not weep, when 
 this is my case ! " Thereupon he put out his hand and raised the 
 skirt of his garment, when lo ! the lower half of him appeared stone 
 down to his feet, while from his navel to the hair of his head he was 
 man. The King, seeing this his plight, grieved with sore grief and 
 of his compassion cried, " A'ack and well-away! in very sooth, O 
 youth, thou heapest sorrow upon my sorrow. I was minded to ask 
 
 ' From the Bui. Edit. 
 
 = The vagueness of his statement is euphemistic. 
 
 3 This readiness of shedding tears contrasts strongly with the external stoicism 
 of modern civilization ; but it is true to Arab character ; and Easterns, like the 
 heroes of Homer and Italians of Boccaccio, are not ashamed of what we look 
 upon as the result of feminine hysteria — " a good cry."
 
 64 Alf Lay/ah 7va Laylali. 
 
 thee the mystery of the fishes only : whereas now I am concerned to 
 learn thy story as well as theirs. But there is no Majesty and there 
 is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great ^ ! Lose no 
 time, O youth, but tell me forthright thy whole tale." Quoth he, 
 "Lend me thine ears, thy sight and thine insight"; and quoth the 
 King, " All are at thy service ! " Thereupon the youth began, 
 "Right wondrous and marvellous is my case and that of these 
 fishes ; and were it graven with gravers upon the eye-corners it 
 were a warner to whoso would be warned." " How is that ? " 
 asked the King, and the young man began to tell 
 
 THE TALE OF THE ENSORCELLED PRINCE. 
 
 Know^ then, O my lord, that whilome my sire was King of this city, 
 and his name was Mahmiid, entitled Lord of the Black Islands, and 
 owner of what are now these four mountains. He ruled threescore 
 and ten years, after which he went to the mercy of the Lord, and I 
 reigned as Sultan in his stead. I took to wife my cousin, the daughter 
 of my paternal uncle,^ and she loved me with such abounding love 
 that whenever I was absent she ate not and she drank not until she 
 saw me again. She cohabited with me for five years till a certain day 
 when she went forth to the Hammam-bath ; and I bade the cook 
 hasten to get ready all requisites for our supper. And I entered this 
 palace and lay down on the bed where I was wont to sleep and bade 
 two damsels to fan my face, one sitting by my head and the other at 
 my feet. But I was troubled and made restless by my wife's absence 
 and could not sleep ; for although my eyes were closed my mind and 
 thoughts were wide awake. Presently I heard the slave-girl at my 
 head say to her at my feet, "O Mas'itdah, how miserable is our 
 
 • The fonnula (constantly used by Moslems) here denotes displeasure, doubt 
 how to act and so forth. Pronounce, " La haula wa la kuwwata ilia bi 'llahi 
 'I-Ali\7i '1-Azim." As a rule mistakes are marvellous: Mandeville (chapt. xii. ) 
 for "La ilaha ilia 'llahu wa Muhammadun Rasulu 'llah " writes " La ellec sila, 
 Machomete rores alia." The former (la haula, etc.), on account of the four 
 peculiar Arabic letters, is everywhere pronounced differently ; and the exclamation 
 is called " Haulak " or " Ilaukal." 
 
 ^ An Arab holds that he has a right to marry his first cousin, the daughter 01 
 his father's brother, and if any win her from him a death and a blood-feud may 
 result. It was the same in a modified form amongst the Jews, and in both races 
 the consanguineous marriage was not attended by the evil results (idiotcy, 
 congenital deafness, etc.) observed in mixed races like the English and the 
 Anglo-American. When a Badawi speaks of "the daughter of my uncle," he 
 means wife ; and the former is the dearer title, as a wife can be divorced, but 
 blood is thicker than water.
 
 Tale of the EnsoncIIed Prince. 65 
 
 master and how wasted in his youth, and oh ! the pity of his being so 
 betrayed by our mistress, the accursed whore M" The other repHed, 
 "Yes, indeed: Allah curse all faithless women and adulterous ; but 
 the like of our master, with his fair gifts, deserveth something better 
 than this harlot who lieth abroad every night." Then quoth she who 
 sat by my head, " Is our lord dumb or fit only for bubbling that he 
 questioneth her not ? " and quoth the other, " P'ie on thee ! doth our 
 lord know her ways or doth she allow him his choice ? Nay, more, 
 doth she not drug every night the cup she giveth him to drink before 
 sleep-time, and put Bhang- thereinto ? So he sleepeth and wotteth 
 not whither she goeth nor what she doeth ; but we know that, after 
 giving him the drugged wine, she donneth her richest raiment and 
 perfumeth herself, and then she fareth out from him to be away till 
 break of day ; then she cometh to him, and burnetii a pastile under 
 his nose and he awaketh from his death-like sleep." When I heard the 
 slave-girls' words, the light became black before my sight and I thought 
 night would never fall. Presently the daughter of my uncle came from 
 the baths ; and they set the table for us, and we ate and sat together a 
 fair half-hour quaffing our wine as was ever our wont. Then she called 
 for the particular wine I used to drink before sleeping, and reached 
 me the cup ; but, seeming to drink it according to my wont, I 
 poured the contents into my bosom ; and, lying down, let her hear 
 that I was asleep. Then, behold, she cried, " Sleep out the night, 
 
 ^ Arab. " Kahlmh " ; the coarsest possible term. Hence the unhappy 
 "Cava" of Don Roderick the Goth, which simply means The Wborc. 
 
 ^ The Arab. " Banj " and Hindu " Bhang" (which I use as most famiHar) both 
 derive from the old Coptic " Nibanj," meaning a preparation of 1 emp (Cannabis 
 saliva seu Indica) ; and here it is easy to recognise the Homeric " Nepenthe." 
 Al-Kazwini explains the term by " garden hemp" (Kinnab bostani or Shahdanaj. 
 On the other hand, not a few apply the word to the henbane ( hyoscyainus niger) 
 so much used in medieval Europe. The Kamus evidently means henbane, 
 distinguishing it from Hashish al harafish = rascals' grass, i.e., the herb Panta- 
 gruelion. The " Alfaz Adwiya " (French translation) explains " Tabannuj " by 
 " Endormir quelqu'un en lui faisant avaler de la jusquiame." In modern parlance 
 Tabannuj is = our ancesthetic administered before an operation, a deadener of 
 pain, like myrrh and a number of other drugs. For this purpose hemp is always 
 used (at least I never heard of henbane) ; and various preparations of the drug 
 are sold at an especial bazar in Cairo. See the " powder of marvellous virtue" 
 in Boccaccio, iii. 8 ; and iv. 10. Of these intoxicants, properly so termed, I 
 shall have something to say in a future page. 
 
 The use of Bhang doubtless dates from the dawn of civilisation, whose earliest 
 social pleasures would be inebriants. Flerodotus (iv. c. 75) shows the Scythians 
 burning the seeds (leaves and capsules) in worship and becoming drunken with 
 the fumes, as do the S. African Bushmen of the present day. This would be the 
 earliest form of smoking : it is still doubtful whether the pipe was used or not. 
 Galen also mentions intoxication by hemp. Amongst Moslems, the Persians 
 adopted the drink as an ecstatic, and about our thirteenth century Egypt, which 
 began the practice, introduced a number of preparations to be noticed in the course 
 of The Nights. 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 66 AIJ Laylah 7va Laylah. 
 
 and never wake again : by Allah, I loatlie thee and I loathe thy 
 whole body, and my soul turneth in disgust from cohabiting with 
 thee ; and I see not the moment when Allah shall snatch away thy 
 life ! " Then she rose and donned her fairest dress and perfumed 
 her person and slung my sword over her shoulder ; and, opening the 
 gates of the palace, went her ill way. I rose and followed her as she 
 left the palace, and she threaded the streets until she came to the city 
 gate, where she spoke words I understood not, and the padlocks 
 dropped of themselves as if broken and the gate-leaves opened. 
 She w-ent forth (and I after her without her noticing aught) till she 
 came at last to the outlying mounds^ and a reed fence built about a 
 round-roofed hut of mud-bricks. As she entered the door, I climbed 
 upon the roof which commanded a view of the interior. And lo ! 
 mv fair cousin had gone in to a hideous negro slave with his upper 
 lip like the cover of a pot, and his lower like an open pot ; lips which 
 might sweep up sand from the gravel-floor of the cot. He was to 
 boot a leper and a paralytic, lying upon a strew of sugar-cane trash 
 and wrapped in an old blanket and the foulest rags and tatters. She 
 kissed the earth before him, and he raised his head so as to see her and 
 said, " Woe to thee ! what call hadst thou to stay away all this time ? 
 Here have been with me sundry of the black brethren, who drank 
 their wine and each had his young lady, and I was not content to 
 drink because of thine absence." Then she, " O my lord, my heart's 
 love and coolth of my eyes,'^ knowest thou not that I am married 
 to my cousin, whose very look I loathe, and hate myself when in his 
 company ? And did not I fear for thy sake, I would not let a single 
 sun arise before making his city a ruined heap wherein raven should 
 croak and howlet hoot, and jackal and wolf harbour and loot ; nay, 
 I had removed its very stones to the back side of INIount Kaf.^" 
 Rejoined the slave, " Thou liest, damn thee ! Now I swear an oath 
 by the valour and honour of blackamoor men (and deem not our 
 manliness to be the poor manliness of white men), from to-day forth 
 
 ' The rubbish heaps which outlie Eastern cities ; some (as near Cairo) are over 
 a hundred feet high. 
 
 ^ Arab. " Kurrat al-ayn " ; coolness of eyes as opposed to a hot eye (" sakhin ") 
 i.e. , one red with tears. The term is true and picturesque, so I translate it literally. 
 All coolness is pleasant to dwellers in burning lands : thus in Al-Hariri, Abu Zayd 
 says of BasEorah, " I found there whatever could fill the eye with coolness." And 
 a " cool booty" (or prize) is one which has been secured without plunging into 
 the flames of war, or simply a pleasant prize. 
 
 3 Popularly rendered Caucasus : it corresponds so far with the Hindu " Udaya" 
 that the sun rises behind it ; and the " false dawn" is caused by a hole or gap. It 
 is also the Persian Alborz, the Indian Meru (Sumeru), the Greek Olympus, 
 and the Rhiphsean Range (Veliki Camenypoys) or great starry girdle of the 
 world, etc.
 
 No. 3. 
 Tale of the Ensorcelled Prince. 
 
 "I climbed upon the roof. . . . And lo ! my 
 fair cousin had ^rone in to a hideous negro slave."
 
 Tale of the Ensonclled Prince, 67 
 
 if thou stay away till this hour, I will not keep company with thee. 
 Dost play fast and loose with us, thou cracked pot, that we may satisfy 
 thy dirty lusts ? Stinkard! bitch! vilest of the vile whites!" When I 
 heard his words, and saw with my own eyes what passed between 
 these two wretches, the world waxed dark before my face and my 
 soul knew not in what place it was. But my wife humbly stood up 
 weeping before and wheedling the slave, and saying, " O my beloved, 
 and very fruit of my heart, there is none left to cheer me but thy 
 dear self ; and, if thou cast me off, who shall take me in, O my be- 
 loved, O light of my eyes ? " And she ceased not weeping and 
 abasing herself to him until he deigned be reconciled with her. 
 Then was she right gUd and stood up and doffed her clothes, even to 
 her petticoat-trousers, and said, " O my master, what hast thou here 
 for thy handmaiden to eat ? " " Uncover the basin," he grumbled, 
 *' and thou shalt find at the bottom the broiled bones of some rats 
 we dined on ; pick at them, and then go to that slop-pot where thou 
 shalt find some leavings of beer ^ which thou mayest drink." So she 
 ate and drank and washed her hands, and went and lay down by the 
 side of the slave, upon the cane-trash, and crept in with him under 
 his foul coverlet and his rags and tatters. When I saw my wife, rny 
 cousin, the daughter of my uncle do this deed^ I clean lost my 
 wits, and climbing down from the roof I entered and took the 
 sword which she had with her and drew it, determined to cut down 
 
 ' Arab. " Mizr " or " Mizar" ; vulg. Buzah ; hence the medical Lat. Buza, the 
 Russian Buza (millet beer), our " booze," the O. Dutch " buyzen " and the German 
 " Busen." This is the old ttotos ^e60S of negro and negroid Africa ; the beer of 
 Osiris, of which dried remains have been found in jars amongst Eg}'ptian tombs. 
 In Equatorial Africa it is known as " Pombe " ; on the Upper Nile, "Merissa" 
 or " Mirisi," and amongst the Kafirs (Caffers) " Tshuala," " Oala " or " Boyala." 
 I have also heard of " Buswa " in Central Africa, which may be the origin of 
 "Buzah." In the West it became {"u^os (Romaic irippa), Xythum and cerevisia 
 or cervisia, the humor ex hordeo, long before the days of King Gambrinus. 
 Central Africans drink it in immense quantities : in Unyamwezi the standing 
 bedsteads, covered with bark-slabs, are all made sloping so as to drain off the 
 liquor. A chief lives wholly on beef and Pombe, which is thick as gruel below. 
 Hops are unknown : the grain, mostly Holcus, is made to germinate, then 
 pounded, boiled and left to ferment. In Egypt the drink is affected chiefly by 
 Berbers, Nubians and slaves from the Upper Nile ; but it is a superior article 
 and more like that of Europe than the "Pombe." I have given an account 
 of the manufacture in The Lake Regions of Central Africa, vol. ii. p. 286. 
 There are other preparations, Umm-bulbul (mother nightingale), Dinzayah 
 and Subiyah, for which I must refer to the Shaykh El-Tounsy. 
 
 - This reminds us of the noble dame who preferred to her handsome husband 
 the jialefrenier laid, ord et infame of Queen Margaret nf Navarre (lleptameron 
 No. XX.). 
 
 E 2
 
 68 Alf Laylah wa Layljh. 
 
 the twain. I first struck at the slave's neck and thought that the 
 
 death decree had fallen on him : And Shahrazad pert:ei\ed tlie 
 
 dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 Jilotu tul)rn it tuns tf)f Ciffljtl) J^ijrljt, 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the 
 young ensorcelled Prince said to the King : — When I smote the 
 slave with intent to strike off his head, I thought that I had slain 
 him, for he groaned a loud hissing groan ; but I had cut only the 
 skin and flesh of the gullet and the two arteries ! It awoke the 
 daughter of my uncle, so I sheathed the sword and fared forthwards 
 the city ; and, entering the palace, lay upon my bed and slept till 
 morning, when my wife aroused me and I saw that she had cut off 
 her hair and had donned mourning garments. Quoth she, " O son 
 of my uncle, blame me not for what I do ; it hath just reached me 
 that my mother is dead, and my father hath been killed in holy war, 
 and of my brothers one hath lost his life by a snake-sting and the 
 other by falling down some precipice ; and I can and should do 
 naught save weep and lament." ^Vhen I heard her words I refrained 
 from all reproach and said only, " Do as thou list ; I certainly will 
 not thwart thee." She continued sorrowing, weeping and wailing 
 one whole year from the beginning of its circle to the end, and when 
 it was finished she said to me, " I wish to build me in thy palace a 
 tomb with a cupola, which I will set apart for my mourning and will 
 name the House of Lamentations.^" Quoth I again, " Do as thou 
 list ! " Then she builded for herself a cenotaph wherein to mourn, 
 and set on its centre a dome under which showed a tomb like a 
 Santon's sepulchre. Thither she carried the slave and. lodged him; 
 but he was exceeding weak by reason of his wound, and unable to 
 do her love-service ; he could only drink wine, and from the day 
 of his hurt he spake not a word, yet he lived on because his 
 
 ' Every Moslem burial-ground has a place of the kind where honourable women 
 may sit and weep unseen by the multitude. These visits are enjoined by the 
 Apostle : — Frequent the cemetery, 'twill make you think of futurity ! Also : — 
 Whoever visiteth the graves of his parents (or one of them) every Friday, he shall 
 be written a pious son, even though he might have been in the world, before that, 
 a disobedient. (Pilgrimage, ii. 71.) The buildings resemble our European 
 "mortuary chapels." Said, Pasha of Egypt, was kind enough 10 erect one on 
 the island off Suez, for the " use of P2nglish ladies who would like shelter whilst 
 weeping and wailing for their dead." Uut I never heard that any of the ladies 
 went there.
 
 Talc of the Eiisorccllcd Prince. 69 
 
 appointed hoiir^ was not come. Everyday, morning and evening, 
 my wife went to him and wept and wailed over him and gave him 
 wine and strong soups, and left not off doing after this manner a 
 second year ; and I bore with her patiently and paid no heed to her. 
 One day, however, I went in to her unawares, and I found her 
 weeping and beating her face and crying, " Why art thou absent fronn 
 my sight, O my heart's delight ? Speak to me, O my life ; talk with 
 me, O my love." Then she recited these verses : — 
 
 For your love my patience fails and albeit you forget * I may not ; nor to other 
 
 love my heart can make reply : 
 Bear my body, bear my soul, wheresoever you may fare, * And where you pitch 
 
 the camp let my body buried lie : 
 Cry my name above my grave, and an answer shall return « The moaning of my 
 
 bones responsive to your cry.^ 
 
 Then she recited, weeping bitterly the while : — 
 
 The day of my delight is the day when draw you near ; » And the day of mine 
 
 affright is the day you turn away : 
 Though I tremble through the night in my bitter dread of death » When I hold 
 
 you in my arms I am free from all affray. 
 
 Once more she began reciting : — 
 
 Though a-morn 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 
 
 ' Arab. " Ajal " = the period of life, the appointed time of death : the word is 
 of constant recurrence and is also applied to sudden death. See Lane's 
 Dictionary, s.v. 
 
 = " The dying Badawi to his tribe " (and lover) appears to me highly pathetic. 
 The wild people love to be buried upon hill slopes whence they can look down 
 upon the camp ; and they still call out the names of kinsmen and friends as 
 they pass by the grave-yards. A similar piece occurs in Wetzstein (p. 27, 
 " Reisebericht ueber Hauran," etc.) : — 
 
 bear with you my bones where the camel bears his load, » And Ijury me beforj 
 
 you, if buried I must be ; 
 And let me not be buried 'neath the burden of the vine, * But high upon the hill 
 
 whence your sight I ever see ! 
 As you pass along my grave cry aloud and name your names ; » The cryin^ of 
 
 your names shall revive the bones of me : 
 
 1 have fasted through my life with my friends, and in my death * I will feast 
 
 when we meet on that day of joy and glee. 
 3 The Akasirah (plur. of Kasra = Chosroes) is here a title of the four great 
 dynasties of Persian Kings : i. The Peshdadian or Assyrian race, proto-historics 
 for whom dates fail ; 2. The Kayanian (Medes and Persians) who ended with the 
 Alexandrian invasion in B.C. 331 ; 3. The Ashkanian (Parthenians or Arsacides) 
 who ruled till A. D. 202 ; and 4. The Sassanides, which have already been men- 
 tioned. But strictly speaking, " Kisri " and " Kasra " are titles ajDjDlied only to
 
 70 Alf Laylah wa Lav/ah. 
 
 forth tears there is Httle profit." " Thwart nie not," answered she, 
 " in aught I do, or I will lay violent hands on myself ! " So I held 
 my peace and left her to go her own way ; and she ceased not to 
 cry and keen and indulge her affliction for yet another year. At the 
 end of the third year I waxed aweary of this longsome mourning, 
 and one day I happened to enter the cenotaph when vexed and 
 angry with some matter which had thwarted me, and suddenly I 
 heard her say, " O my lord, I never hear thee vouchsafe a single 
 word to me ! Why dost thou not answer me, O my master ? " and 
 she began reciting : — - 
 
 O thou tomb ! O thou tomb ! be his beauty set in shade ? * Hast thou darkened 
 that countenance all-sheeny as the noon ? 
 
 thou tomb ! neither earth nor yet heaven art to me ; » Then how comclh it in 
 
 thee are conjoined my sun and moon ? 
 
 When I heard such verses as these rage was heaped upon my rage ; 
 
 1 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 ! nerther cess-pool nor pipkin art to me ; « Then liow comelh 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, "Othou foulest of harlots and filthiest of 
 whores ever embraced by negro slaves who are hired to have at theeM" 
 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 
 
 the latter dynasty and especially to the great King Anushirwan. They must not 
 be confounded with " Khusrau " (P. N. Cyrus, Ahasuerus ? Chosroes ?) ; and yet 
 the three seem to have combined in " Cresar," Kaysar and Czar. For details 
 especially connected with Zoroaster, see vol. i. p. 380 of the Dabistan or School of 
 Manners, translated by David Shea and Anthony Troyer, Paris, 1843. The book is 
 most valuable, but the proper names are so carelessly and incorrectly printed that 
 the student is led into perpetual error. 
 
 ' The words in the original are the very lowest and coarsest ; but the scene is 
 true to Arab life. 
 
 ^ Arab. " Hayhat " : the word, written in a variety of ways, is onomatopoetic, 
 like our "heigh-ho!" it sometimes means "far from me (or you) be it !" but in 
 popular usage it is simply " Alas."
 
 Tale of tJie Eiiso/rc/led Prince 71 
 
 rny 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 l)e 
 quenched ! " Then she stood up ; and, pronouncing some words to 
 me unintelHgible, 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 shoulders 
 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 nie ; 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 
 
 ' Lane (i. 134) finds a date for the book in this passage. The Soldan of Egypt, 
 Mohammed ibn Kala'un, in the early eighth century (Hijrah = our fourteenth) 
 issued a sumptuary law compelling Christians and Jews to wear indigo-blue and 
 saffron-yellow turbands, the white being reserved for Moslems. But the custom 
 was much older, and Mandeville (chapt. ix. ) describes it in A.D. 1322, when it had 
 become the rule. And it still endures ; although abolished in the cities it is kept 
 up by Christians in the country parts of Egypt and Syria, and in Algerine and 
 Tunisian cities. I may here remark that such detached passages as these are 
 absolutely useless for chronology : they may be simply the additions of editors 
 or mere copyists. 
 
 ^ The ancient " Mustapha " = the Chosen (prophet, i.e., Mohammed), also 
 titled Al-Mujtaba, the Accepted (Pilgrimage, ii. 309). " Murtaza" = theElect, 
 i.e., the Caliph Ali, is the older " Mortada " or " Mortadi " of Ockley and his 
 day, meaning "one pleasing to (or acceptable to) Allah." Still older writers 
 corrupted it to " Mortis Ali," and readers supposed this to be the Caliph's name.
 
 72 AlJ Laylah wa Lay Ink. 
 
 tormenting me she visiteth the slave, bringing him wine and boiled 
 meats. And to-morrow 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 dcrring-do 
 which shall be chronicled long after I am dead and gone by." Then 
 the King sat him by the side of the young Prince and talked till 
 nightfall, when he lay down and slept ; but, as soon as the false 
 dawn ^ showed, he arose and doffing his outer garments ^ bared his 
 blade, and hastened to the place wherein lay the slave. Then was 
 he ware of lighted candles and lamps, and the perfume of incenses 
 and unguents ; and, directed by these, he made for the slave and 
 struck him one stroke, killing him on the spot : after which he lifted 
 him on his back and threw him into a well that was in the palace. 
 Presently he returned and, donning the slave's gear, lay down at 
 length within the mausoleum with the drawn sword laid close to 
 and along his side. After an hour or so the accursed witch came ; 
 and, first going to her husband, she stripped off his clothes and, 
 taking a whip, flogged him cruelly, while he cried out, " Ah ! enough 
 for me the case I am in ! take pity on me, O my cousin ! " But she 
 replied, " Didst thou take pity on me and spare the life of my 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 : — 
 
 IIow 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't 
 
 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 Alluah, 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 
 
 ' The gleam (zodiacal light) preceding the true dawn ; the Persians call the 
 former Subh-i-kazib (false or lying dawn) opposed to Subh-i-sadik (true dawn), 
 and suppose that it is caused by the sun shining through a hole in the world- 
 encircling Mount Kaf. 
 
 * So the Heb. " Aran " = naked, means wearing the lower robe only = our 
 " in his shirt."
 
 Tale of the Ensor celled Prince. y;^ 
 
 cuss ! dost thou deserve that I talk to thee and speak with thee?" 
 "Why and wherefore ? " rejoined she; and he rephed "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 dimns, cussing us two, 
 me and thee, causing me disquiet and much bother : were this not so. 
 I should 1 )ng 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 soetheth over the fire. With 
 this she sprinkled her husband saying, " By virtue of the dread 
 words I have spoken, if thou becamest thus by my spells, come 
 forth out of that form into thine own former form." And lo and 
 behold ! the young man shook and trembled ; then he rose to 
 his feet and, rejoicing at his deliverance, cried aloud, " I testify 
 that there is no god but the God, and in very truth Mohammed 
 is His Apostle, whom Allah bless and keep ! " Then she said to 
 him, " Go forth and return not hither, for if thou do I will surely 
 slay thee ; " screaming these words in his face. So he went from 
 between her hands ; and she returned to the dome and, going down 
 to the sepulchre, she said, " O my lord, come forth to me that I 
 may look upon thee and thy goodliness ! " The King replied in 
 faint low words, " What • thing hast thou done ? Thou hast rid 
 me of the branch but not of the root." She asked, " O my darling ! 
 O my negroling ! what is the root ? " And he answered, " Fie on 
 thee, O my cuss 1 The people of this city and of the four islands 
 every night when it's half passed hft their heads from the tank in 
 which thou hast turned them to fishes and cry to Heaven and call 
 down its anger on me and thee ; and this is the reason why my 
 body's baulked from health. Go at once and set them free ; then 
 come to me and take my hand, and raise me up, for a little strength 
 is already back in me." When she heard the King's words (and 
 she still supposed him to be the slave) she cried joyously, " O my 
 master, on my head and on my eyes be thy command, Bismillah - ! " 
 So she sprang to her feet and, full of joy and gladness, ran down 
 to the tarn and took a little of its water in the palm of her hand 
 
 ' Here we have ihe vulgar Egyptian colloquialism ' Aysli " {= Ayyu sliayyin) 
 (or the classical " Ma " r= wliat. 
 * " ]n the name of Allah ! " here said before taking action.
 
 74 A If Lay la h wa Laylah. 
 
 And Shahrazad was surprised by tlie dawn of day and ceased 
 
 saying her permitted say. 
 
 'Xo(m luljcn ft tuns l^c Nintlj Is'x^yi, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 young woman, the sorceress, took in hand some of the tarn-water 
 and spake over it words not to be understood, the fishes lifted 
 their heads and stood up on the instant hke men, the spell on the 
 people of the city having been removed. What was the lake again 
 became a crowded capital; the bazars were thronged with folk who 
 bought and sold ; each citizen was occupied with his own calling 
 and the four hills became islands as they were whilome. Then the 
 young woman, that wicked sorceress, returned to the King and 
 (still thinking he was the negro) said to him, " O my love ! stretch 
 forth thy honoured hand that I may assist thee to rise." " Nearer 
 to me," quoth the King in a faint and feigned tone. She came 
 close as to embrace him when he took up the sword lying hid by 
 his side and smote her across the breast, so that the point showed 
 gleaming behind her back. Then he smote her a second time and 
 cut her in twain and cast her to the ground in two halves. After 
 which he went forth and found the young man, now freed from 
 the spell, awaiting him and gave him joy of his happy release 
 while the Prince kissed his hand with abundant thanks. Quoth 
 the King, " Wilt thou abide in this city or go with me to my 
 capital ? " Quoth the youth, " O King of the age, wottest thou 
 not what journey is between thee and thy city ? " " Two days 
 and a half," answered he ; whereupon said the other, " An thou 
 be sleeping, O King, awake ! Between thee and thy city is a 
 year's march for a well-girt walker, and thou haddest not come 
 hither in two days and a half save that the city was under en- 
 chantment. And I, O King, will never part from thee ; no, not 
 even for the twinkling of an eye." The King rejoiced at his words 
 and said, " Thanks be to Allah who hath bestowed thee upon me ! 
 From this hour thou art my son and my only son, for that in all my 
 life I have never been blessed with issue." Thereupon they 
 embraced and joyed with joy exceeding great ; and, reaching the 
 palace, the Prince who had been spell-bound informed his lords and 
 his grandees that he was about to visit the Holy Places as a pilgrim 
 and bade them get ready all things necessary for the occasion. The 
 preparations lasted ten days, after which he set out with the Sultan, 
 whose heart burned in yearning for his city whence he had been 
 absent a whole twelvemonth They journeyed with an escort of
 
 The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad. 75 
 
 Mamelukes^ carrying all manners of precious gifts and rarities, nor 
 stinted they wayfaring day and night for a full year until they 
 approached the Sultan's capital, and sent on messengers to announce 
 their coming. Then the Wazir and the whole army came out to 
 meet him in joy and gladness, for they had given up all hope of 
 ever seeing their King ; and the troops kissed the ground before him 
 and wished him joy of his safety. He entered and took seat upon 
 his throne and the Minister came before him and, when acquainted 
 with all that had befallen the young Prince, he congratulated him on 
 his narrow escape. When order was restored throughout the land 
 the King gave largesse to many of his people, and said to the Wazir, 
 " Hither the Fisherman who brought us the fishes ! " So he sent 
 for the man who had been the first cause of the city and the citizens 
 being delivered from enchantment and, when he came into the 
 presence, the Sultan bestowed upon him a dress of honour, and 
 questioned him of his condition and whether he had children. The 
 Fisherman gave him to know that he had two daughters and a son, 
 so the King sent for them and, taking one daughter to wife, gave 
 the other to the young Prince and made the son his head-treasurer. 
 Furthermore, he invested his Wazir with the Sultanate of the City in 
 the Black Islands whilome belonging to the young Prince, and 
 despatched with him the escort of fifty armed slaves, together with 
 dresses of honour for all the Emirs and Grandees. The Wazir kissed 
 hands and fared forth on his way ; while the Sultan and the Prince 
 abode at home in all the solace and the delight of life ; and the 
 Fisherman became the richest man of his age, and his daughters 
 wived with the Kings, until death came to them. And yet, O King ' 
 this is not more wondrous than the story of 
 
 THE PORTER AND THE THREE LADIES 
 OF BAGHDAD. 
 
 Once upon a time there was a Porter in Baghdad, who was a 
 bachelor and who would remain unmarried. It came to pass on a 
 
 ' Arab. " Mamluk" (plur. Mamalik) lit. a chattel ; and in The Nights a white 
 slave trained to arms. The " Mameluke Beys " of Egypt were locally called the 
 " Ghuzz " : I use the convenient word in its old popular sense ; 
 
 'Tis sung, there's a valiant Mameluke 
 
 In foreign lands ycleped (Sir Luke) — 
 
 HUDIBRAS. 
 
 And hence, probably, Moliere's " Mamamouchi " ; and the modern French use 
 " Mamaluc." See Savary's Letters, No. xl.
 
 yS A/f Lay la k 7va Laylah. 
 
 certain day, as he stood about the streets 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 worked 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 Christian, to whom she gave a gold piece, receiving from him 
 in return what she required of strained wine clear as olive oil ; and 
 she set it safely in the hamper, saying, " Lift and follow." Quoth the 
 Porter, "This, by Allah, is indeed an auspicious day, a day propitious 
 for the granting of all a man wisheth." He again hoisted up the 
 crate and followed her ; till she stopped at a fruiterer's shop and 
 bought from him Shami ^ apples and Osmani quinces and Omani ^ 
 peaches, and cucumbers of Nile growth, and Egyptian limes and 
 Sultani oranges and citrons; besides Aleppine jasmine, scented 
 myrde berries. Damascene nenuphars, flower of privet ^ and 
 
 ' The name of this celebrated successor of Nineveh, where some suppose The 
 Nights were written, is orig. MecroTruXai (middle-gates) because it stood on the 
 way where four great highways meet. The Arab, form " Mausil " (the vulgar 
 " Mosul") is also significant, alluding to the "junction" of Assyria and Babylonia. 
 Hence our "muslin." 
 
 ''' This is Mr. Thackeray's " nose-bag." 1 translate by " walking-shoes " the 
 Arab " Khuft" which are a manner of loose boot covering the ankle ; they are 
 not usually embroidered, the ornament being reserved for the inner shoe. 
 
 ^ i.e. Syria (says Abulfeda) the " land on the left " (of one facing the east) as 
 opposed to Al-Yaman the "land on the right." Osmani would mean Turkish, 
 Ottoman. When Bernard the Wise (Bohn, p. 24) speaks of " Bagada and 
 Axiam " (Mabillon's text) or " Axinarri " (still worse), he means Baghdad and 
 Ash-Sham (Syria, Damascus), the latter word puzzling his Editor. Richardson 
 (Dissert. Ixxii.) following Al-Mas'iidi (chapt. xli.) seems to support a hideous 
 attempt to derive Sha;ii from Shamat, a mole or wart, because the country is 
 studded with hillocks ! Al-Sham is often applied to Damascus-city whose proper 
 name Dimishk belongs to books : this term is generally derived from Dimashik 
 b. Kali b. Malik b. Sham (Shem). Lee (Ibn Batutah, 29) denies that ha-Dimishki 
 means " Eliezer of Damascus." 
 
 * From Oman = Eastern Arabia. 
 
 ^ Arab. " Tamar Hanna " lit. date of Henna, but applied to the flower of the 
 eastern privet (Lawsonia inennis) which has the sweet scent of freshly mown 
 hay. The use of Henna as a dye is known even in England. The "myrtle" 
 alluded to may either have been for a perfume (asjt is held an anti-intoxicant) or 
 for eating, the bitter aromatic berries of the "As" being supposed to flavour 
 wine and especially Raki (raw brandy).
 
 The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad. ^ 7 
 
 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, where- 
 upon 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 sweet- 
 meats in his shop, open-worked tarts and fritters scented with musk 
 and " soap cakes," and lemon-loaves and melon-preserves,^ and 
 " Zaynab's combs," and " ladies' fingers," and " Kazi's 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 thy 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 
 
 ^ Lane (i. 211) pleasantly remarks, "A list of these sweets is given in my 
 original, but I have thought it better to omit the names "(!) Dozy does not 
 shirk his duty, but he is not much more satisfactory in explaining words interesting 
 to students because they are unfound in dictionaries and forgotten by the people. 
 " Akras " (cakes) " Laymuniyah (of limes) wa Maymuniyah " appears in the Bresl. 
 Edit, as " Ma'aniuniyah " which may mean " Ma'amun's cakes " or "delectable 
 cakes." " Amshat " ( = conibs) perhaps refers to a fine kind of Kunafah (vermicelli) 
 known in Egypt and Syria as " Ghazl al-banat ":= girls' spinning.
 
 78 Alf Laylah 7va Layhih. 
 
 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 benzoin 
 ointment. In fine, she was like her of whom the poet said : — 
 
 On Sun and Moon of palace cast thy sight, * Enjoy her flower-Hke 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 :!Aim, * Though fail her name whose 
 
 beauties we indite : 
 As sways her gait I smile at hips so big * And weep to see the waist they bear 
 
 so slight. 
 
 When the Porter looked upon her his wits were waylaid, and his 
 senses were stormed so that his crate went nigh to fall from his 
 head, and he said to himself, " Never have I in my life seen a day 
 more blessed than this day ! " Then quoth the lady-portress to the 
 lady-cateress, "Ccm^ in from the gate and relieve this poor man of 
 his load." So the provisioner went in followed by the portress and 
 the Porter, and went on till they reached a spacious ground-floor hall,^ 
 built with admirable skill, and beautified with all manner colours and 
 carvings ; with upper balconies and groined arches and galleries and 
 cupboards and recesses whose curtains hung before them. In the 
 midst stood a great basin full of water surrounding a fine fountain, and 
 at the upper end on the raised dais was a couch of juniper wood set with 
 
 ' The new moon carefully looked for by all Moslems because it begins the 
 Uamazan-last. 
 
 ^ Solomon's signet-ring has before been noticed. 
 
 3 The " high-bosomed" damsel, M'ith breasts finn as a cube, is a favourite with 
 Arab tale-tellers. Fanno barnffa is the Italian term for hard breasts pointing 
 outwards. 
 
 "t A large hollow navel is looked upon not only as a beauty, but in children it is 
 held a promise of good growth. 
 
 5 Arab. " Ka'ah," a high hall opening upon the central court: we shall find 
 the word used for a mansion, barrack, men's quarters, etc.
 
 The Porter mid the I'hrce Ladies of Baghdad, 79 
 
 gems and pearls, with a canopy like mosquito-curtains of red satin- 
 silk looped up with pearls as big as filberts and bigger. There- 
 upon sat a lady bright of blee, with brow beaming brilliancy, the 
 dream of philosophy, whose eyes were fraught with Babel's gramarye,^ 
 and her eyebrows were arched as for archery ; her breath breathed 
 ambergris and perfumery, and her lips were sugar to taste and car- 
 nelian to see. Her stature was straight as the letter \^ and her face 
 shamed the noon-sun's radiancy ; and she was even as a galaxy, or a 
 dome with golden marquetry or a bride displayed in choicest finery 
 or a noble maid of Araby.** Right well of her sang the bard when 
 he said : — 
 
 Her smiles twin rows of pearls display * Chamomile-buds or riniey spray : 
 Ilcr tresses stray as night let down * And shames her light the dawn o' day. 
 
 ^ The third lady rising from the couch stepped forward with graceful 
 swaying gait till she reached the middle of the saloon, when she said 
 to her sisters, "Why stand ye here? take it down from this poor 
 man's head ! " Then the cateress went and stood before him, and 
 the portress behind him, while the third helped them, and they lifted 
 the load from the Porter's head ; and, emptying it of all that was 
 therein, set everything in its place. Lastly, they gave him two gold 
 pieces, saying, " Wend thy ways, O Porter." But he went not, for 
 he stood looking at the ladies, and admiringwhat uncommon beauty was 
 theirs and their pleasant manners and kindly dispositions (never had 
 he seen goodlier) ; and he gazed wistfully at that good store of 
 wines and sweet-scented flowers and fruits and other matters. Also 
 he marvelled with exceeding marvel, especially to see no man in the 
 place, and delayed his going ; whereupon quoth the eldest lady, 
 " What aileth thee that thou goest not ; haply thy wage be too little?" 
 
 • Babel = Gate of God (El), or Gate of Ilu (P.N. of God), which the Jews 
 ironically interpreted "Confusion." The tradition of Babylonia being the very 
 centre of witchcraft and enchantment by means of its Seven Deadly .Spirits, has 
 survived in Al-Islam ; the two fallen angels (whose names will occur) being con- 
 fined in a well ; Nimrod attempting to reach Heaven from the Tower in a magical 
 car drawn by monstrous birds, and so forth. Seep. 1 14, Francois Lenormant's 
 *' Chaldean Magic," London, Bagsters. 
 
 - Arab. " Kamat Alfiyyah " = like the letter Alif, a straight perpendicular 
 stroke. In the Egyptian hieroglyphs, the origin of every alphabet (not sylla- 
 barium) known to man, one form was a flag or leaf of water-plant standing upright. 
 Hence probably the Arabic Alif-shape ; while other nations preferred other modi- 
 fications of the letter (ox's head, etc.), which in Egyptian number some thirty- 
 six varieties, simple and compound. 
 
 3 I have not attempted to order this marvellous confusion of metaphors so 
 characteristic of The Nights and the exigencies of Al-Saj'a = rhymed prose. 
 
 * Here and elsewhere I omit the "\;.a.\3. (dice Turpiiio)" of the original: 
 Torrens preserves "Thus goes the tale" (which it only interrupts). This is 
 simply letter-wise and sense-foolish.
 
 So Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 And, turning to her sister the cateress, she said, " Give him another 
 dinar ! " But the Porter answered, " By Allah, my lady, it is not for 
 the wage ; my hire is never more than two dirhams ; but in very 
 sooth my heart and my soul are taken up with you and your condi- 
 tion. I wonder to see you single with ne'er a man about you and 
 not a soul to bear you company ; and well you wot that the minaret 
 toppleth o'er unless it stand upon four, and you want this same 
 fourth ; and women's pleasure without man is short of measure, even 
 as the poet said : — 
 
 Seest not we want for joy four things all tolcl, » The harp and lute, the flute 
 
 and flageolet ; 
 And be they companicd with scents four-fold, • Rose, myrtle, anemone and 
 
 violet ; 
 Nor please all eight an four thou wouldst with-hold * Good wine and youth and 
 
 gold and pretty pet. 
 
 You be three and want a fourth who shall be a person of good sense 
 and prudence ; smart witted, and one apt to keep careful counsel." 
 His words pleased and amused them much ; and they laughed at 
 him and said, "And who is to assure us of that? We are maidens, 
 and we fear to entrust our secret where it may not be kept, 
 for we have read in a certain chronicle the lines of one Ibn 
 al-Sumam : — 
 
 Hold fast thy secret and to none unfold, * Lost is a secret when that secret's told : 
 An fail thy breast thy secret to conceal, « How canst thou hope another's breast 
 shall hold ? 
 
 And Abu Nowas^ said well on the same subject :— 
 
 Who trusteth secret to another's hand » Upon his brow deserveth burn of 
 brand ! " 
 
 When the Porter heard their words he rejoined, ." By your lives ! 
 I am a man of sense and a discreet, who hath read books and 
 perused chronicles ; I reveal the fair and conceal the foul, and I act 
 as the poet adviseth : — 
 
 None but the good a secret keep, » And good men keep it unrevealed : 
 
 It is to me a well-shut house » With keyless locks and door ensealed.^ " 
 
 When the maidens heard his verse and its poetical application 
 addressed to them they said, " Thou knowest that we have laid out 
 all our moneys on this place. Now say, hast thou aught to offer us 
 
 ' Of this worthy more at a future time. 
 
 ' i.e., scaled with the Kazi or legal authority's seal of oflice.
 
 The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad. 8i 
 
 in return for entertainment ? For surely we will not suffer thee to 
 sit in our company and be our cup-companion, and gaze upon our 
 faces so fair and so rare, without paying a round sum.^ Wottest thou 
 not the saying : — 
 
 Sans hope of gain 
 
 Love's not worth a grain " T 
 
 Whereto the lady-portress added, " If thou bring anything thou art a 
 something ; if no thing, be off with thee, thou art a nothing " ; but 
 the procuratrix interposed, saying, " Nay, O my sisters, leave teasing 
 him, for by Allah he hath not failed us this day, and had he been 
 other he never had kept patience with me, so whatever be his shot 
 and scot I will take it upon myself" The Porter, overjoyed, kissed 
 ground before her and thanked her, saying, " By Allah, these 
 coins are the first fruits this day hath given me." Hearing this 
 they said, " Sit thee down and welcome to thee," and the eldest 
 lady added, " By Allah, we may not suffer thee to join us save on 
 one condition, and this it is, that no questions be asked as to what 
 concerneth thee not, and frowardness shall be soundly flogged." 
 Answered the Porter, " I agree to this, O my lady, on my head and 
 my eyes be it ! Lookyc, I am dumb, I have no tongue." Then 
 arose the provisioneress, and tightening her girdle set the table by the 
 fountain, and put the flowers and sweet herbs in their jars, and 
 strained the wine and ranged the flasks in row, and made ready every 
 requisite. Then sat she down, she and her sisters, placing amidst 
 them the Porter who kept deeming himself in a dream ; and she 
 took up the wine flagon, and poured out the first cup and drank it 
 off, and likewise a second and a third.^ After this she filled a fourth 
 cup which she handed to one of her sisters ; and, lastly, she crowned 
 a goblet and passed it to the Porter, saying : — 
 
 Drink the dear draught, drink free and fain » What healeth every grief and pain. 
 
 Pie took the cup in his band and, louting low, returned his best 
 thanks and improvised : — 
 
 ' " Nothing for nothing " is a fixed idea with the Eastern woman : not so much 
 for greed as for a sexual pohit cChoniieitr when deahng with the adversary — man. 
 
 ^ She drinks first, the custom of the universal East, to show that the wine she 
 had bought was unpoisoned. Easterns, who utterly ignore the "social glass" of 
 Western civilization, drink honestly to get drunk ; and when far gone are addicted 
 to horse-play (in Pers. " Badmasti" = /£ vin maitvais) which leads to quarrels and 
 bloodshed. Hence it is held highly irreverent to assert of patriarchs, prophets 
 and saints that they " drank wine " ; and Moslems agree with our " Teatotallers " 
 in denying that, except in the case of Noah, inebriatives are anywhere mentioned 
 in Holy Writ 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 82 Alf Lciylah wa Laylah. 
 
 Drain not the bowl, except with trusty friend, » A man of worth whose good old 
 
 blood all know : 
 For wine, like wind, sucks sweetness from the sweet, • And slinks when over 
 
 stench it haply blow : 
 
 adding :— 
 
 Drain not the bowl, save from dear hand like thine : • The ci'.p recalls thy gifts ; 
 thou, gifts of wine. 
 
 Aucr repeating this couplet he kissed their hands, and drank and was 
 clriink, and sat swaying from side to side and pursued : — 
 
 All ni inks wherein is blood the Law unclean » Doth hold, save one, the blood- 
 shed of the vine : 
 Fill ! fill ! take all my wealth bequeathed or won • Thou fawn ! a willing ransom 
 
 for those eyne. 
 
 Then the cateress crowned a cup and gave it to the portress, who 
 took it from her hand and thanked her and drank. Thereupon she 
 Doured a<?ain and passed to the eldest lady who sat on the couch, 
 and filled yet another and handed it to the Porter. He kissed 
 ground before them ; and, after drinking and thanking them, he 
 .igain began to recite : — 
 
 Here ! Here ! by Allah, here ! » Cups of the sweet, the dear ! 
 Fill me a brimming bowl » The Fount o' Life I speer. 
 
 Theii the Porter stood up before the mistress of the house and said, 
 •■' O lady, I am thy slave, thy Mameluke, thy white thrall, thy very 
 bondsman " ; and he began reciting : — 
 
 A slave of slaves there standclh at thy door * Lauding thy generous boons and 
 
 gifts galore : 
 Bec.uty I may b.e come in awhile to 'joy » Thy charms ? for love and I part 
 
 nevern:ore I 
 She said to him, " Drink ; and health and happiness attend thy 
 drink." So he took the cup and kissed her hand and recited these 
 lines in sing-song : — 
 
 I gave her brave old wine that, like her cheeks, » Blushed red or flame from 
 
 furnace flaring up : 
 She bussed the brim and said, w^ith many a smile, » " How durst thou deal folk's 
 
 cheek for folk to sup ? " 
 " Drink !" (said I) "these are tears of mine, whose tinct * Is heart-blood sighs 
 
 have boiled m the cup." 
 
 She ansv/ered in the following couplet : — 
 
 "An tears of blood for me, fiiend, thou hast shed, * Suffer me sup them, by thy 
 eyes and head ! " 
 Then the lady took the cup, and drank it off to her sisters' health ; 
 and they ceased not drinking (the Porter being in the midst of them),
 
 No. 4. 
 
 The Porter and the Three Ladies 
 of Baghdad. 
 
 "Then she came up out of the cistern, and 
 throwing herself upon the Porter's hij), said, ' O 
 my lord, O my love, what callest thou this ? ' "
 
 The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad. 83 
 
 and dancing and laughing and reciting verses and singing ballads 
 and ritornellos. All this time the Porter was carrying on with them, 
 kissing, toying, biting, handling, fingering; whilst one thrust a dainty 
 morsel into his mouth, and another slapped him ; this cuffed his 
 cheeks and then threw sweet flowers at him ; and he was in the very 
 paradise of pleasure, as though he were sitting in the seventh sphere 
 among the Houris^ of Heaven. They ceased not doing after this 
 fashion until the wine played tricks in their heads and worsted their 
 wits ; and, when the drink got the better of them, the portress stood 
 up and doffed her clothes till she was mothernaked. However, she 
 let down her hair about her body by way of shift and, throwing her- 
 self into the basin disported herself and dived like a duck and swam 
 up and down, and took water into her mouth, and spurted it all over 
 the Porter, and washed her limbs, and between her breasts, and all 
 around her navel. Then she came up out of the cistern and throw- 
 ing herself on the Porter's lap said, " O my lord, O my love, what 
 callcst thou this ? " Quoth the Porter an impudent reply, and she 
 rejoined, " Wah ! wah ! art thou not ashamed to use such a word ? '' 
 and she caught him by the collar and soundly cuffed him. He spake 
 .igain, and she struck him a second slap, crying, " O fie, O fie, this is 
 .another ugly word ; is there no shame in thee ? " Quoth he a third 
 ugly word, and she cried, " O thou, art wholly destitute of modesty ? " 
 and thumped him and bashed him. Then cried out the Porter 
 again, whereat the eldest lady came down upon him with a yet sorer 
 beating, and said, "No"; and he said, '"Tis so," and the Porter 
 went on calling the same by sundry other names, but whatever he 
 Said they beat him more and more till his neck ached and swelled 
 with the blows he had gotten; and on this wise they made him a butt 
 and a laughing-stock. At last he turned upon them, asking, '' hvA 
 what do you women call this?" Whereto the damsel made answer, 
 ^'The basil of the bridges.-" Cried the Porter, "Thank Allah for my 
 safety ; aid me and be thou propitious, O basil of the bridges ! " They 
 passed round the cup and tossed off the bowl again, when the second 
 Jady stood up ; and, stripping off all her clothes, cast herself into the 
 
 ' Arab. " H;ir a!-'Ayn," (lit. maids) wiih eyes of lively white and black, 
 applied to the virgins of Paradise wh<j will wive with the happy Faithful. I 
 retain our vulgar " Ilouri," warning the reader that it is a masc. for a fem. 
 {" Iluriyah") in Arab, although accepted in Persian, a genderless speech. 
 
 ^ Ocymum basilicum noticed in Introduction ; the bassilico of Boccaccio, iv. 5, 
 The Book of Kalilah and Dimnah represents it as "sprouting with something else 
 whose smell is foul and disgusting, and the sower at once sets to gather it and burn 
 it with fire." (The Fables of Bidpai translated from the later Syriac version by 
 I. G. M. Keith-Falconer, etc., etc., etc., Cambridge University Press, 18S5.) 
 Jlere, however, llabk is a pennyroyal ( iiientha pitli^ium). 
 
 F 2
 
 84 Alf Lay/ah 7va Lav/ah. 
 
 cistern and did as the first had done; then she came out of the water 
 and throwing her naked form on the Porter's lap, said, " O hght of 
 mine eyes, do tell me what is the name of this ? " He replied as 
 before, and she rejoined, "Hath such term no shame for thee?" and 
 cuffed him and buffeted him till the saloon rang with the blows. 
 Then quoth she, " O fie ! O he ! how canst thou say this without 
 blushing?" He suggested, "The basil of the bridges"; but she 
 would not have it, and she said, " No ! no ! " and struck him and 
 slapped him on the back of the neck. Then he began calling out 
 all the names he knew, and the girls kept on saying, " No ! no ! " 
 So he said, " I stick to the basil of the bridges " ; and all the three 
 laughed till they fell on their backs and laid slaps on his neck and 
 said, " No ! no ! that's not its proper name." Thereupon he cried, 
 ■' O my sisters, what is its name ? " and they replied, " What sayest 
 *.hou to the husked sesame-seed ? " Then the cateress donned her 
 •:lothes and they fell again to carousing, but the Porter kept moaning, 
 ' Oh ! and Oh ! " for his neck and shoulders, and the cup passed 
 merrily round and round again for a full hour. After that time the 
 eldest and handsomest lady stood up and stripped off her garments, 
 whereupon the Porter took his neck in hand, and rubbed and 
 shampoo'd it, saying, " My neck and shoulders are on the way of 
 Allah ^ ! " Then she threw herself into the basin, and swam and 
 dived, sported and washed ; and the Porter looked at her naked 
 figure as though she had been a slice of the moon,^ and at her face 
 with the sheen of Luna when at full, or like the dawn when it 
 brighteneth, and he noted her noble stature aad shape, and those 
 glorious forms that quivered as she went ; for she was naked as the 
 Lord made her. Then he cried, " Alack ! Alack ! " and began to 
 address her, versifying in these couplets : — 
 
 " If I liken ihy shape to the bough when green » My likeness errs and I sore 
 mistake it ; 
 
 For the bough is fairest when clad the most * And thou art fairest when mother- 
 naked." 
 
 When the lady heard his verses she came up out of the basin and, 
 seating herself upon his lap and knees, said, " O my lordling, what 
 be the name of this ? " Quoth he, " The basil of the bridges " ; but 
 she said, "Bah, bah!" Quoth he, "The husked sesame"; quoth 
 she, " Pooh, pooh ! " Then said he again, and she cried, " Fie, 
 fie ! art thou not ashamed of thyself ? " and cuffed him on the nape 
 
 ' i.e., common property for all to beat. 
 
 ' " A digit of the moon " is the Hindu equivalent.
 
 The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad. 85 
 
 of the neck. And whatever name he gave, declaring " 'Tis so," she 
 beat him and cried " No ! no ! " till at last he said, " O my sisters, 
 and what is its name?" She replied, "It is entitled the Khan ^ of 
 Abu MansLir " ; whereupon the Porter replied, " Ha ! ha ! O Allah 
 be praised for safe deliverance ! O Khan of Abu Mansur ! " Then 
 she came forth and dressed and the cup went round a full hour. 
 At last the Porter rose up and, stripping off all his clothes, jumped 
 into the tank and swam about and washed under his bearded chin 
 and armpits, even as they had done. Then he came out and threw 
 himself into the first lady's lap and rested his arms upon the lap of 
 the portress, and reposed his legs in the lap of the cateress, and said, 
 " O my mistresses what is the name of this ? " All laughed at his 
 words till they fell on their backs, and one said, so and so. But he 
 replied, " No ! " and gave each one of them a bite by way of forfeit. 
 Then spake they again, but he cried, " No ! " and gave each of them 
 
 a hug ; And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased 
 
 saying her permitted say. 
 
 jQotD tD|)ejt \X Inns ti)c (JTcutlj lv).\^)\. 
 
 Quoth her sister Dunyazad, " Finish for us thy story " ; and she 
 answered, "With joy and goodly gree." It liath reached me, O 
 auspicious King, that the damsels stinted not guessing and talking 
 and laughing with the Porter, and he ceased not kissing and biting 
 and hugging until his heart was satisfied, and they laughed on till 
 they could no more. At last one said, " O our brother, what, then, 
 is it called?" Quoth he, "Know ye not?" Quoth they, "No!" 
 " It's veritable name," said he, " is mule Burst-all, which browseth 
 on the babil of the bridges, and muncheth the husked sesame, and 
 nighteth in the Khan of Abu Mansur." Then laughed they till they 
 fell on their backs, and returned to their carousal, and ceased not to 
 be after this fashion till night began to fail. Thereupon said they to 
 the Porter, " Bismillah,^ O our master, up and on with those sorry 
 old shoes of thine and turn thy face and show us the breadth of thy 
 shoulders ! " Said he, " By Allah, to part with my soul would be 
 easier for me than departing from you : come let us join night to 
 
 ' Better known to us as Caravanserai, the "Travellers' Bungalow" of India ; 
 in the Khan, however, shelter is to be had, but neither bed nor board. The tale- 
 teller's evident object is to accentuate the contrast of these jocularities with the 
 tragical stories to follow. 
 
 ^ " In the name of Allah," is here a civil form of dismissal.
 
 86 Alf Lay/ah iva Lay/a/i. 
 
 day, and to-morrow morning we will each wend our own way." " My 
 life on you," said the procuratrix, "suffer him to tarry with us, that we 
 may laugh at him : we may live out our lives and never meet wiih his 
 like, for surely he is a right merry rogue and a witty.^" So they said, 
 "Thou must not remain with us this night save on condition that 
 thou submit to our commands, and that whatso thou seest, thou ask 
 no questions thereanent, nor enquire of its cause." " All right," 
 rejoined he, and they said, "Go read the writing over the door." 
 So he rose and went to the entrance and there found written in 
 letters of gold wash: "whoso speaketh of what concerneth him 
 
 NOT, SHALL HEAR WHAT PLEASETH HIM NOT '■' ! " The PortCr Said, 
 
 " Be ye witnesses against me that I will not speak on whatso 
 concerneth me not," Then the cateress arose, and set food before 
 them and they ate ; after which they changed their drinking-place for 
 another, and she lighted the lamps and candles and burned ambergris 
 and aloes-wood, and set on fresh fruit and the wine service, when 
 they fell to carousing and talking of their lovers. Ai'id they ceased 
 not to eat and drink and chat, nibbling dry fruits aiul laughing and 
 playing tricks for the space of a full hour, when lo ! a knock was 
 heard at the gate. The knocking in no wise disturbed the seance, 
 but one of them rose and went to see what it was and presently 
 returned, saying, " Truly our pleasure for this night is to be perfect." 
 "How is that?" asked they; and she answered, "At the gate be 
 three Persian Kalandars^ with their beards and heads and 
 
 ' I.ane (i. 124) is scandalized, and naturally enough, by this scene, which is 
 the only blot in an admirable tale admirably told. Yet even in the original the 
 grossness is but little more ]ironounced than what we find in our old drama 
 (iJ.C"., Shakespeare's King Henry V.) written for the stage, whereas tales 
 like The Nights are not read or recited before both sexes. Lastly, "nothing 
 follows all this palming work " : in Europe the orgie would end very 
 differently. These "nuns of Theleme " are phy.'iically pure: their debauchery 
 is of the mind, not the body. Galland makes them five, including the two 
 doggesses. 
 
 ^ So Sir Francis Walsingham's "They which do that they should not, should 
 hear that they would not." 
 
 3 The old " Calendar," pleasantly associated with that form of almanac. The 
 Mac. Edit, has " Karandaliyah," a vile corniption, like Ibn Batutah's 
 "Karandar" and Torrens' " Kurundul " : so in English we have the accepted 
 vulgarism of " Kernel " for Colonel. The Bui. Edit, uses for synonym " Su'uluk " 
 = an asker, a beggar. Of these mendicant monks, for such they are, much like 
 the Sarabaites of mediaeval Europe, I have treated, and of their institutions and 
 founder, Shaykh Sharif Bu Ali Kalandar (ob. A. II. 724= 1323-24), at some 
 length in my " History of Sindh," chapt. viii. See also the Dabistan (i. 136), 
 where the good Kalandar exclaims : 
 
 If the thorn break in my body, how trifiing the pain ! 
 But how sorely I feel for the poor broken thorn ! 
 
 D'llerbelot is right when he says that the Kalandar is not generally approved by
 
 The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad. 87 
 
 e3^ebrows shaven ; and all three blind of the left eye — which is 
 surely a strange chance. They are foreigners from Roum-land 
 with the mark of travel plain upon them ; they have just entered 
 Baghdad, this being their first visit to our city ; and the cause 
 of their knocking at our door is simply because they cannot 
 find a lodging. Indeed one of them said to me : — Haply the 
 owner of this mansion will let us have the key of his stable or 
 some old out-house wherein we may pass this night ; for evening 
 had surprised them and, being strangers in the land, they knew 
 none who would give them shelter. And, O my sisters, each 
 of them is a figure o' fun after his own fashion ; and if we let 
 them in we shall have matter to make sport of." She gave not 
 over persuading them till they said to her, " Let them in, and 
 make thou the usual condition with them that they speak not 
 of what concerneth them not, lest they hear what pleaseth them 
 not." So she rejoiced and going to the door presently returned 
 with the three monoculars, whose beards and mustachioes were 
 clean shaven.^ They salam'd and stood afar off by way of 
 respect ; but the three ladies rose up to them and welcomed 
 them, and wished them joy of their safe arrival and made them 
 sit down. The Kalandars looked at the room and saw that it 
 was a pleasant place, clean swept and garnished with flowers ; 
 and the lamps were burning and the smoke of perfumes was 
 spireing in air ; and beside the dessert and fruits and wine, 
 there were three fair girls who might be maidens ; so they 
 exclaimed with one voice, " By Allah, 'tis good ! " Then they 
 turned to the Porter and saw that he was a merry-faced wight, 
 albeit he was by no means sober and was sore after his slappings. 
 So they thought that he was one of them^selves and said, " A 
 mendicant like us ! whether Arab or foreigner ' ? " But when the 
 Porter heard these words, he rose up and, fixing his eyes fiercely 
 upon them, said, " Sit ye here without exceeding in talk ! Have 
 you not read what is writ over the door? surely it befitteth not 
 fellows who come to us like paupers to wag your tongues at us." 
 " We crave thy pardon, O Fakir,^ " rejoined they, " and our heads are 
 
 Moslems ; he labours to win free from every form and observance, and he 
 
 approaches the Malamati who conceals all his good deeds and boasts of his evil 
 
 doings — our " Devil's hypocrite." 
 
 ' The " Kalandar" disfigures himself in this manner to show " mortification." 
 ^ Arab. " Gharib " : the porter is offended because the word implies "poor 
 
 devil " ; esp. one out of his own country. 
 3 A religious mendicant generally.
 
 88 A If Lay la h wa Lay /ah. 
 
 between thy hands." The ladies laughed consumedly at the squabble ; 
 and, making peace between the Kalandars and the Porter, seated the 
 new guests before meat and they ate. Then they sat together, and 
 the portress served them with drink ; and, as the cup went round 
 merrily, quoth the Porter to the askcrs, " And you, O brothers mine, 
 have ye no story or rare adventure to amuse us withal ? " Now the 
 warmth of wine having mounted to their heads they called for musical 
 instruments ; and the portress brought them a tambourine of Mosul, 
 and a lute of Irak, and a Persian harp ; and each mendicant took 
 one and tuned it ; this the tambourine and those the lute and the 
 harp, and struck up a merry tune while the ladies sang so lustily that 
 there was a great noise.^ And whilst they were carrying on, behold, 
 some one knocked at the gate, and the portress went to see what 
 was the matter there. Now the cause of that knocking, O King 
 (quoth Shahrazad) was this. The Caliph, Harun al-Rashid, h.adgone 
 forth from the palace, as was his wont now and then, to solace him- 
 self in the city that night, and to see and hear what new thing was 
 stirring ; he was in merchant's gear, and he was attended by Ja'afar, 
 his Wazir, and by Masrur his Sworder of Vengeance.^ As they 
 walked about the city, their way led them towards the house of the 
 three ladies where they heard the loud noise of musical instruments 
 and singing and merriment ; so quoth the Caliph to Ja'afar, " I long 
 to enter this house and hear those songs and see who sing them." 
 Quoth Ja'afar, "O Prince of the Faithful; these folk are surely 
 drunken with wine, and I fear some mischief betide us if we get 
 amongst them." " There is no help but that I go in there," replied 
 the Caliph, "and I desire thee to contrive some pretext for our 
 appearing among them." Ja'afar replied, " I hear and I obey ;"^ and 
 knocked at the door, whereupon the portress came out and opened. 
 Then Ja'afar came forward and kissing the ground before her said, 
 " O my lady, we be merchants from Tiberias-town : we arrived at 
 Baghdad ten days ago ; and alighting at the merchants' caravanserai, 
 we sold all our merchandise. Now a certain trader invited us to an 
 entertainment this night ; so we went to his house and he set food 
 before us and we ate : then we sat at wine and wassail with him for 
 
 ^ Very scandalous to Moslem " respectability " : Mohammed said the house 
 was accursed vvlien the voices of women could be heard out of doors. Moreover 
 the neighbours have a right to interfere and abate the scandal. 
 
 ^ I need hardly say that these are both lii^torical perscnnges : they will often be 
 mentioned, and Ja'afar will be noticed in the terminal Essay. 
 
 * Arab. " Sama 'an wa ta'atan ;" a popular phrase of assent generally trans- 
 lated " to hear is to obey ;" but this formula may be and must be Ljreatly varied. 
 In places it means " Hearing (the word of Allah) and obeying " (His prophet, 
 viceiegent, etc.).
 
 The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad. 89 
 
 an hour or so when he gave us leave to depart ; and we went out 
 from him in the shadow of the night, and, being strangers, we could 
 not find our way back to our Khan. So haply of your kindness and 
 courtesy you will suffer us to tarry with you this night, and Heaven 
 will reward you ! " ^ The portress looked upon them and seeing 
 them dressed like merchants and men of grave looks and solid, she 
 returned to her sisters and repeated to them Ja'afar's story ; and they 
 took compassion upon the strangers .and said to her, "Let them 
 enter." She opened the door to them, when quoth they to her, 
 "Have we thy leave to come in?" "Come in," quoth she; and 
 the Caliph entered followed by j a'afar aiid Masrur ; and when the 
 girls saw them they stood up to them in respect and made them 
 sit down and looked to their wantS; saying, "Welcome, 
 and well come and good cheer to the guests, but with one 
 condition!" "What is that?" asked they, and one of the ladies 
 answered, "Speak not of what concerneth you not, lest ye hear what 
 pleaseth you not." "Even so," said they; and sat down to their 
 wine and drank deep. Presently the Caliph looked on the three 
 Kalandars and, seeing them each and every blind of the left eye, 
 wondered at the sight ; then he gazed upon the girls and he was 
 startled and he marvelled with exceeding marvel at their beauty and 
 loveliness. They continued to carouse and to converse and said to 
 the Caliph, " Drink ! " but he replied, " I am vowed to Pilgrimage ; " ^ 
 and drew back from the wine. Thereupon the portress rose and 
 spreading before him a table-cloth worked with gold, set thereon a 
 porcelain bowl into which she poured willow-flower water with a lump 
 of snow and a spoonful of sugar-candy. The Caliph thanked her and 
 said in himself, " By Allah, 1 will recompense her to-morrow for the 
 kind deed she hath done." The others again addressed themselves 
 to conversing and carousing ; and, when the wine gat the better of 
 them, the eldest lady who ruled the house rose and making obeisance 
 to them took the cateress by the hand, and said, " Rise, O my sister, 
 and let us do what is our devoir." Both answered " Even so ! " 
 Then the portress stood up and proceeded to remove the table -service 
 and the remnants of the banquet ; and renewed the pastiles and 
 cleared the middle of the saloon. Then she made the Kalandars 
 sit upon a sofa at the side of the estrade, and seated the Caliph and 
 
 ' Arab. " Sawab "= reward in Heaven. This word for which we have no 
 equivalent has been naturahsed in all tongues [e.g. Hindostani) spoken by 
 Moslems. 
 
 ^ Wine-drinking, at all times forbidden to Moslems, vitiates the Pilgrimage- 
 rite : the Pilgrim is vowed to a strict observance of the ceremonial law and many 
 men date their " reformation" from the " Hajj." (Pilgrimage, iii. 126.)
 
 Qo A If Lay la h wa Lay la h. 
 
 Ja'afar and Masrur on tlie other side of the saloon ; after which she 
 called the Porter, and said, " How scant is thy courtesy ! now thou 
 art no stranger ; nay, thou art one of the household." So he stood 
 up and, tightening his waist-cloth, asked, " What would ye I do ? " 
 and she answered, " Stand in thy place." Then the procuratrix rose 
 and set in the midst of the saloon a low chair and, opening a closet, 
 cried to the Porter, " Come help me." So he went to help her and 
 saw two black bitches with chains round their necks ; and she said to 
 him, " Take hold of them " ; and he took them and led them into 
 the middle of the saloon. Then the lady of the house arose and 
 tucked up her sleeves above her wrists and, seizing a scourge, said 
 to the Porter, " Bring forward one of the bitches." He brought her 
 forward, dragging her by the chain, while the bitch wept, and shook 
 her head at the lady who, however, came down upon her with blows 
 on the sconce ; and the bitch howled and the lady ceased not 
 beating her till her forearm failed her. Presently, casting the scourge 
 from her hand, she pressed the bitch to her bosom and, wiping away 
 her tears with her hands, kissed her head. Then, said she to the 
 Porter, "Take her away and bring the second"; and, when he brought 
 her, she did with her as she had done with the first. Now the heart 
 of the Caliph was touched at these cruel doings; his chest straitened, 
 and he lost all patience in his desire to know why the two bitches were 
 so beaten. He threw a wink at Ja'afar wishing him to ask, but the 
 Minister turning towards him said by signs, " Be silent ! " Then 
 quoth the portress to the mistress of the house, " O my lady, arise 
 and go to thy place that I in turn may do my devoir.^" She answered 
 " Even so " ; and, taking her seat upon the couch of juniper-wood, 
 pargetted with gold and silver, said to the portress and cateress, 
 " Now do ye what ye have to do." Thereupon the portress sat upon 
 a low seat by the couch side ; but the procuratrix, entering a closet, 
 brought out of it a bag of satin with green fringes and two tassels of 
 gold. She stood up before the lady of the house and, shaking the 
 bag, drew out from it a lute which she tuned by tightening its 
 pegs, and when it was in perfect order sht: began to sing these 
 quatrains : — 
 
 Ye are the wish, the aim of me, « And when, O love, thy sight I see ' 
 The heavenly mansion openeth ^ ; » Eut Hell I see when lost thy sight. 
 
 ' Here some change has been necessary ; as the original text confuses the three 
 "ladies." 
 
 ^ In Arab, the plural masc. is used by way of modesty when a girl addresses 
 her lover ; and for the same reason she speaks of herself as a man. 
 
 3 Arab. " Al-Na'im " ; in full " Jannat al-Na'im '' = the Garden of Delights, 
 i.e., the fifth Heaven made of white silver. The generic name of Heaven (the
 
 The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad. 9i 
 
 From thee comes madness ; nor the less * Comes highest joy, comes ecstacy : 
 Nor in my love for thee I fear • Or shame and blame, or hate and spite. 
 
 When Love was throned within my heart » I rent the veil of modesty ; 
 
 And stints not Love to rend that veil « Garring disgrace on grace t' alight ; 
 
 The robe of sickness then I donned « Dut rent to rags was secrecy : 
 Wherefore my love and longing heart • Proclaim your high supremest might ; 
 
 The tear-drop railing adown my cheek * Telleth my tale of ignomy : 
 And all the hid was seen by all, * And all my riddle ree'd aright. 
 
 Heal then my malady, for thou « Art malady and remedy! 
 
 But she whose cure is in thy hand * Shall ne'er be free of bane and blight ; 
 
 Burn me those eyne that radiance rain ; *• Slay me the swords of phantasy ; 
 How many hath the sword of Love « Laid low, their high degree despite ? 
 
 Vet will I never cease to pine * Nor to oblivion will I flee. 
 
 Love is my health, my faith, my joy * Public and private, wrong or right. 
 
 happy eyes that sight thy charms * That gaze upon thee at their gree I 
 Yea, of my purest wish and will » The slave of Love I'll aye be hight. 
 
 When the damsel heard this elegy in quatrains she cried out, " Alas ! 
 Alas ! " and rent her raiment, and fell to the ground fainting ; and 
 the Caliph saw scars of the palm-rod' on her back and welts of the 
 whip ; and marvelled with exceeding wonder. Then the portress 
 arose and sprinkled water on her and brought her a fresh and very 
 fine dress and put it on her. But when the company beheld these 
 doings their minds were troubled, for they had no inkling of the case 
 noi knew the story thereof; so the Caliph said to Ja'afar, " Didst 
 thou not see the scars upon the damsel's body ? I cannot keep silence 
 or be at rest till I learn the truth of her condition and the story of 
 this other maiden and the secret of the two black dogs." But Ja'afar 
 answered, " O our lord, they made it a condition with us that we 
 speak not of what concerneth us not, lest we happen to hear what 
 pleaseth us not." Then said the portress, " By Allah, O my sister, 
 come to me and complete this service for me." Replied the cateress, 
 "With joy and goodly gree;" so she took the lute and swept the 
 strings with her finger-tips, and began singing : — 
 
 Give back mine eyes their sleep long ravished • And say me whither be my 
 reason fled : 
 
 1 learnt that lending to thy love a place * Sleep to mine eyelids mortal foe was 
 
 made. 
 
 place of reward) is " Jannat," lit. a garden ; " Firdaus" being evidently derived 
 from the Persian through the Greek irapaoeLaos, and meaning a chase, a hun.ing 
 park. Writers on this subject should bear in mind Mandeville's modesty, " Of 
 Paradise I cannot speak propeily for I was not there." 
 
 ^ Arab. " Mikra'ah," the dried mid- rib of a date-frond used for many purposes, 
 especially the bastinado.
 
 92 Alf Lay la h iva Laylah. 
 
 They said, " We held thee righteous, who waylaid • Thy soul?" "Go ask his 
 
 glorious eyes," I said. 
 I pardon all my blood he pleased to spill • Owning his troubles drove him 
 
 blood to shed. 
 On my mind's mirror sun-like sheen he cast • Whose keen reflection fire in 
 
 vitals bred : 
 Waters of Life let Allah waste at will * Suffice my wage those lips of dewy red : 
 An thou address my love thou'lt find a cause » For plaint and tears or ruth or 
 
 lustihcd. 
 In water pure his form shall greet your eyne ■ » When fails the bowl nor need 
 
 ye drink of wine.' 
 
 Then she quoted from the same ode : — 
 
 I drank, but the draught of his glance, not wine ; • And his swaying gait swayed 
 
 to sleep these eyne : 
 'Twas not grape-juice gript me but grasp of Past « 'Twas not bowl o'erbowled me 
 
 but gifts divine : 
 His coiling curl-lets my soul ennetted, « And his cruel will all my wits outwitted.* 
 
 After a pause she resumed : — 
 
 If we 'plain of absence what shall we say ? » Or if pain afflict us where wend 
 
 our way ? 
 An I hire a truchman^ to tell my tale « The lovers' plaint is not told for pay : 
 If I put on patience, a lover's life * After loss of love will not last a day : 
 Naught is left me now but regret, repine * And tears flooding cheeks for ever 
 
 and aye : 
 O thou who the babes of these eyes'* hast fled, * Thou art homed in heart thai 
 
 shall never stray ; 
 Would heaven I wot hast thou kept cur pact * Long as stream shall flow, to 
 
 have firmest fay ? 
 Or hast forgotten the weeping slave * Whom groans afflict and whom griefs 
 
 waylay ? 
 Ah, when severance ends, and we side by side * Couch, I'll blame thy rigours 
 
 and chide thy pride ! 
 
 Now when the portress heard her second ode she shrieked aloud 
 and said, " By Allah ! 'tis right good ! " and laying hands on her 
 garments tore them, as she did the first time, and fell to the 
 
 ' According to Lane (i. 229) these and the immediately following verses are 
 from an ode by Ibn Sahl al-Ishbili. They are in the Bui Edit, not the Mac 
 Edit. 
 
 ^ The original is full of conceits and plays on words which are not easily 
 rendered in English. 
 
 3 Arab. " Tarjuman," same root as Chald. Targum (=a translation), the old 
 " Truchman," and through the Ital. "tcrgomano" our "Dragoman"; here a 
 messenger. 
 
 ^ Lit. the "person of the eyes," our "babe of the eyes," a favourite poetical 
 conceit in all tongues ; much used by the Elizabethans, but now neglected as a 
 silly kind of conceit. See vol. iii. night ccix.
 
 The Porter a?id the Three Ladies of Baghdad. 93 
 
 ground fainting. Thereupon the procuratrix rose and brought her 
 a second change of clothes after she had sprinkled water on her. 
 She recovered and sat upright, and said to her sister the cateress, 
 " Onwards, and help me in my duty, for there remains but this one 
 song." So the provisioneress again brought out the lute and began 
 to sing these verses : — ■ 
 
 How long shall last, how long this rigour rife of woe » May not suffice tl-ee all 
 
 these tears thou seest flow ? 
 Our parting thus with purpose fell thou dost prolong * Is't not enough to glad the 
 
 heart of envious foe ? 
 Were but this lying world once true to lover-heart * He had not watcl ed the 
 
 weary night in tears of woe : 
 Oh pity me whom overwhelmed thy cruel will » My lord, mv king, 'tis time some 
 
 ruth to me thou show : 
 To whom reveal my wrongs, O thou who murdered me ? * Sad, who of broke 
 
 troth the pangs must undergo ! 
 Increase wild love for thee and phrenzy hour by hour * And days of exile minute 
 
 by so long, so slow ; 
 O Moslems, claim vendetta ' for this slave of Love » Whose sleep Love ever 
 
 wastes, whose patience Love lays low : 
 Doth law of Love allow thee, O my wish ! to lie « Lapt in another's arms ad 
 
 unto me cry " Go ? " 
 Yet in thy presence, say, what joys shall I enjoy » When he I love but wcrks my 
 
 love to overthrow ? 
 
 When the portress heard the third song she cried aloud ; and, 
 laying hands on her garments, rent them down to the very skirt 
 and fell to the ground fainting a third time, again showing the scars 
 of the scourge. Then said the three Kalandars, "Would Heaven 
 we had never entered this house, but had rather nighted on the 
 mounds and heaps outside the city ! for verily our visit hath been 
 troubled by sights which cut to the heart." The Caliph turned to 
 them and asked, "Why so?" and they made answer, "Our minds 
 are sore troubled by this matter." Quoth the Caliph, " Are ye not 
 of the household ?" and quoth they, "Noj nor indeed did we ever 
 set eyes on the place till within this hour." Hereat the Caliph 
 marvelled and rejoined, " This man who sitteth by you, would he not 
 know the secret of the matter ? " and so saying he winked and made 
 signs at the Porter. So they questioned the man, but he replied, 
 " By the All-might of Allah in love all are alike ^ ! I am the growth 
 of Baghdad, yet never in my born days did I darken these doors till 
 to-day, and my companying with them, was a curious matter." " By 
 
 ' Arab. ' ' Sar " (Thar) the revenge-right recognized by law and custom 
 (Pilgrimage, iii. 69). 
 
 " That is, " We all swim in the same boat."
 
 94 A^f Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 Allah," tiiey rejoir.ed, "we took thee for one of them and now we see 
 thou art one hko ourselves." Then said the Caliph, " We be seven 
 men, and they only three women without even a fourth to help them ; 
 so let us question them of their case ; and, if they answer us not, fain 
 we \\\\\ be answered by force." All of them agreed to this except 
 Ja'afar, who said,' " This is not my recking ; let them be ; for we are 
 their guests and, as ye know, they made a compact and condition 
 with us which we accepted and promised to keep ; wherefore it is 
 better that we be silent concerning this matter ; and, as but little of 
 the night remaineth, let each and every of us gang his own gait." 
 Then he winked at the Caliph and whispered to him, "There is but 
 one hour of darkness left and I can bring them before thee to-morrow, 
 when thou canst freely question them all concerning their story." 
 But the Caliph raised his head haughtily and cried out at him in 
 wrath, saying, " I have no patience left for my longing to hear of 
 them : let the Kalandars question them forthright." Quoth Ja'afar, 
 " This is not my rede." Then words ran high and talk answered 
 talk ; and they disputed as to who should first put the question, but 
 at last all fixed upon the Porter. And as the jangle increased the 
 house-mistress could not but notice it and asked them, " O ye folk ! 
 on what matter are ye talking so loudly?" Then the Porter stood 
 up respectfully before her and said, " O my lady, this company 
 earnestly desire that thou acquaint them with the story of the two 
 bitches, and what maketh thee punish them so cruelly; and then thou 
 fallest to weeping over them and kissing them ; and lastly, they want 
 to hear the tale of thy sister and why she hath been bastinado'd with 
 palm-sticks like a man. These are the questions they charge me to 
 put, and peace be with thee.-" Thereupon quoth she who was the 
 lady of the house to the guests, " Is this true that he saith on your 
 part ? " and all replied, " Yes ! " save Ja'afar who kept silence. When 
 she heard these words she cried, " By Allah, ye have Avronged us, O 
 our guests, with grievous wronging ; for when you came before us we 
 made compact and condition with you, that whoso should speak of 
 what concerneth him not should hear what pleaseth. him not. 
 Sufificeth ye not that we took you into our house and fed you with 
 our best food ? But the fault is not so much yours as hers who let 
 you in." Then she tucked up her sleeves from her wrists and struck 
 
 ' Ja'afar ever acts, on such occasions, the part of a wise and sensible man 
 com]X'lled to join in a foolish frolic. He contrasts strongly with the Caliph, a 
 headstrong despot who will not be gainsaid, whatever be the whim of the moment. 
 But Easterns would look upon this as a proof of his " kingliness. " 
 
 ^ Arab. " Wa'1-Salam " (pronounce \Vas-Salam) ; meaning " and here ends the 
 matter." In our slang we say, " All right, and the child's name is Antony."
 
 Tiie Po}-tt:r and the Three Ladies of Baghdad. 95 
 
 the floor thn'ce with her hand crying, "Come ye quickly" ; and lo! a 
 closet door opened and out of it came seven negro slaves with drawn 
 swords in hand, to whom she said, " Pinion me those praters' elbows 
 and bind them each to each." They did her bidding and asked 
 her, " O veiled and virtuous ! is it thy high command that we strike 
 off their heads ? " but she answered, "■' Leave them awhile that I 
 question them of their condition, before their necks feel the sword." 
 '"By Allah, O my lady !" cried the Porter, "slay me not for other's 
 sin ; all these men offended and deserve the penalty of crime save 
 myself. Now by Allah, our night had been charming had we escaped 
 the mortification of those monocular Kalandars whose entrance into a 
 populous city would convert it into a howling wilderness." Then he 
 repeated these verses : — ■ 
 
 I low fair is ruth the strong man deigns not smother ! « And fairest fair when 
 
 shown to weakest brother : 
 By Love's own holy tie between us twain, * Let one not suffer for the sin of 
 
 other. 
 
 When the Porter ended his verse the lady laughed And Shah- 
 
 razad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 Beta) tajljtn '\\ tajas \\t (!£lctacnt^ Bjcrljt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the lady, after 
 laughing at the Porter despite her wrath, came up to the party and 
 spake thus : " Tell me who ye be, for ye have but an hour of life ; 
 and were ye not men of rank and, perhaps, notables of your tribes, 
 you had not been so froward and I had hastened your doom." Then 
 said the Caliph, " Woe to thee, O Ja'afar, tell her who we are lest we 
 be slain by mistake; and speak her fair before some horror befall us." 
 " 'Tis part of thy deserts," replied he ; whereupon the Caliph cried 
 out at him saying, " There is a time for witty words and there is a time 
 for serious work." Then the lady accosted the three Kalandars and 
 asked them, "Are ye brothers?" when they answered, "No, by 
 Allah, we be naught but Fakirs and foreigners." Then quoth she to 
 one among them, " Wast thou born blind of one eye?" and quoth 
 he, "No, by Allah, 'twas a marvellous matter and a wondrous 
 mischance which caused my eye to be torn out, and mine is a tale 
 which, if it were graven upon the eye-corners with needle-gravers, 
 were awarner to whoso would be warned.^" She questioned the 
 
 ' This is a favourite jingle ; the play being upon " ibrat " (a needle-graver) and 
 *' 'ibrat " (an example, a warning).
 
 96 Aif Lay/ah wa Laylah 
 
 second and third Kalandar ; but all replied like the first, " By Allah, 
 O our mistress, each one of us cometh from a difl'erent country, and 
 we are all three the sons of Kings, sovereign Princes ruling over 
 suzerains and capital cities." Thereupon she turned towards them 
 and said, " Let each and every of you tell me his tale in due order, 
 and explain the cause of his coming to our place ; and if his story 
 please us let hii)i stroke his head ^ and wend his way." The first to 
 come forward was the Hammdl, the Porter, who said, " O my lady, I 
 am a man and a porter. This dame, the cateress, hired me to carry 
 a load and took me first to the shop of a vintner ; then to the booth 
 of a butcher ; thence to the stall of a fruiterer ; thence to a grocer 
 who also sold dry fruits ; thence to a confectioner and a pcrfumer- 
 cum-druggist and from him to this place, where there happened to me 
 with you what happened. Such is my story and peace be upon us all !" 
 At this the lady laughed and said, " Rub thy head and wend thy 
 ways ! " but he cried, " By Allah, I will not stump it till I hear the 
 stories of my companions." Then came forward one of the Monoculars 
 and began to tell her 
 
 THE FIRST KALANDARS TALE 
 
 Know, O my lady, that the cause of my beard being shorn and my 
 eye being out-torn was as follows. My father was a King and he had 
 a brother who was a King over another city ; and it came to pass 
 that I and my cousin, the son of my paternal uncle, were both born 
 on one and the same day. And years and days rolled on ; and, as 
 we grew up, I used to visit my uncle every now and then, and to 
 spend a certain number of months with him. Now my cousin and I 
 Avere sworn friends ; for he ever entreated me with exceeding 
 kindness ; he killed for me the fattest sheep and strained the best of 
 his wines, and we enjoyed long conversing and carousing. One day 
 when the wine had gotten the better of us, the son of my uncle said 
 to me, " O my cousin, I have a great service to ask of thee ; and I 
 desire that thou stay me not in whatso I desire to do ! " And I 
 replied, " With joy and goodly will." Then he made me swear the 
 most binding oaths and left me ; but after a little while he returned 
 leading a lady veiled and richly apparalled with ornaments worth a 
 
 " That is " make his bow " ; as the English peasant pulls his forelock. Lane 
 (i. 249) suggests, as an afterthought, that it means: — "Recover thy senses; in 
 allusion to a person's drawing his hand over his head after sleep or a fit." But it 
 occurs elsewhere in the sense of " cut thy stick."
 
 The First Kalaitdar's Tale. 97 
 
 large sum of money. Prescnll) he turned to me (the woman being 
 still behind him) and said, " Take this lady with thee and go before 
 me to such a burial ground" (describing it, so that I knew the place), 
 " and enter with her into such a sepulchre ^ and there await my 
 coming." The oaths I swore to him made me keep silence and 
 suffered me not to oppose him ; so I led the woman to the cemetery, 
 and both I and she took our scats in the sepulchre ; and hardly had 
 we sat down when in came my uncle's son, with a bowl of water, a 
 bag of mortar, and an adze somewhat like a hoe. He went straight 
 to the tomb in the midst of the sepulchre and, breaking it open with 
 the adze,, set the stones on one side ; then he fell to digging into the 
 earth of the tomb tin he came upon a large iron plate, the size of a 
 wicket-door; and on raising it there appeared below it a staircase 
 vaulted and winding. Then he turned to the lady and said to her, 
 " Come now and take thy final choice ! " She at once went down 
 by the staircase and disappeart'cl ; then quoth he to me, " O son of 
 my uncle, by way of completing thy kindness, when I shall have 
 descended into this place, restore the trap-door to where it was, and 
 heap back the earth upon it as it lay before ; and then of thy great 
 goodness mix this unslaked lime which is in the bag with this water 
 which is in the bowl and, after building up the stones, plaster the 
 outside so that none looking upon it shah say : — This is a new 
 opening in an old tomb. For a whole year have I worked at this 
 place whereof none knoweth but Allah, and this is the need I have 
 of thee " ; presently adding, " May Allah never bereave thy friends 
 of thee nor make them desolate by thine absence, O son of my 
 uncle, O my dear cousin ! " And he went down the stairs and 
 disappeared for ever. ^Vhen he was lost to sight I replaced the iron 
 plate and did all his bidding till the tomb became as it was before ; 
 and I worked almost unconsciously, for my head was heated with 
 wine. Returning to the palace of my uncle, I was told that he had 
 goue forth a-sporting and hunting ; so I slept that night without 
 seeing him ; and, when the morning dawned, I remembered the 
 scenes of the past evening and what happened between me and my 
 cousin ; I repented of having obeyed him when penitence was of no 
 avail, I still thought, however, that it was a dream. So I fell to 
 asking for the son of my uncle ; but there was none to answer me 
 
 ' This would be a separate building like our family tomb and probably domed, 
 resembling that mentioned in "The King of the Black Islands." Europeans 
 usually call it "a little Wall" ; or, as they write it, " Wely " ; the contained for 
 the container ; the "Santon" for the " Santon's tomb." I have noticed this 
 curious confusion (which begins with Robinson, i. 322) in " Unexplored Syria," 
 i. 161. 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 1)8 Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 concerning him ; and I went out to the grave-yard and the sepulchres, 
 and souglit for the tomb under which he was, but could not find it \ 
 and I ceased not wandering about from sepulchre to sepulchre, and 
 tomb to tomb, all without success, till night set in. So I returned 
 to the city, yet I could neither eat nor drink ; my thoughts being 
 engrossed with my cousin, for that I knew not what was become of 
 him ; and I grieved with exceeding grief and ])assed another sorrowful 
 night, watching until the morning. Then went I a second time to 
 the cemetery, pondering over what the son of mine uncle had done ; 
 and, sorely repenting my hearkening to him, went round among all 
 the tombs, but could not find the tomb I sought. I mourned over 
 the past, and remained in my mourning seven days, seeking the place 
 and ever missing the path. Then my torture of scruples^ grew upon 
 me till I well nigh went mad, and I found no way to dispel my grief 
 save travel and return to my fiither. So I set out and journeyed 
 homeward ; but as I was entering my father's capital a crowd of 
 rioters sprang upon me and pinioned me.^ I wondered thereat with 
 all wonderment, seeing that I was the son of the Sultan, and these 
 men were my father's subjects and amongst them were some of 
 my own slaves. A great fear fell upon me, and I said to my 
 soul,^ " Would Heaven I knew what hath happened to my father ! " 
 I questioned those who bound me concerning the cause of theirso doing, 
 but they returned me no answer. However, after a while one of them 
 said to me (and he had been a hired servant of our house), " Fortune 
 hath been false to thy father ; his troops betrayed him, and the Wazir 
 who slew him now reigneth in his stead, and we lay in wait to seize 
 thee by the bidding of him." I was well-nigh distraught and felt 
 ready to faint on hearing of my father's death ; when they carried me 
 off and placed me in presence of the usurper. Now between me and 
 him there was an olden grudge, the cause of which was this : I was 
 fond of shooting with the stone-bow,^ and it befell one day, as I was 
 standing on the terrace-roof of the palace, that a bird lighted on the 
 top of the Wazir's house when he happened to be there. I shot at 
 
 ' Arab. " Wiswas" = diabolical temptation or suggestion. The "Wiswasi" 
 is a man with scruples (scmpulus, a pebble in the shoe), e.g., one who fears that his 
 ablutions were deficient, etc. 
 
 " Arab. " Katf" = pinioning by tying the arms behind the back and shoulders 
 (Kitf), a dire disgrace to free-born men. 
 
 3 Arab. "Nafs" = Iiebr. Nephcsh (Nafash) = sou], life; as opposed to " Ruach" = 
 spirit and breath. In these places it is equivalent to "I said to myself." Another 
 form of the root is " Nafas," breath, with an idea of inspiration: so "Sahib Nafas" 
 ( = master of breath) is a minor saint who heals by expiration, a matter familiar to 
 mesmerists (Pilgrimage, i. 86). 
 
 •* Arab. " Kaus al-Banduk " ; the "pellet-bow" of modern India; with two 
 strings joined by a bit of cloth which supports a ball of dry clay or stone. It is 
 chiefly used for birding.
 
 77^1? First Kalaiidars Tale. (;»j 
 
 the bird and missed the mark; but 1 hit the W'azir's eye and knocked 
 it out as Fate and Fortune decreed. Fven so snith the poet : — 
 
 We tread the path where Fate hath led, * The path Fate writ we fain must 
 
 tread : 
 And man in one land doomed to die * Death no wliere else shall do him 
 
 dead. 
 
 And on Hke wise saith another : — 
 
 Let Fortune have her wanton way, * Take heart, and all her words obey : 
 Nor joy nor mourn at anything, « For all things pass and no things stay. 
 
 Now when I knocked out the Wazir's eye he could not say a single 
 word, for that my father was King of the city ; but he hated me ever 
 after and dire was the grudge thus caused between us twain. So 
 when I was set before him hand-bound and pinioned, he straightway 
 gave orders for me to be beheaded. I asked, " For what crime wilt 
 thou put me to death ? " whereupon he answered, " \Vhat crime is 
 greater than this ? " pointing the while to the place where his eye had 
 been. Quoth I, " This I did by accident not of malice prepense " ; 
 and quoth he, " If thou didst it by accident, I will do the like by 
 thee with intention.^ " Then cried he, " Bring him forward," and 
 they brought me up to him, when he thrust his finger into my left eye 
 and gouged it out ; whereupon I became one-eyed as ye see me 
 Then he bade bind me hand and foot, and put me into a chest and 
 said to the sworder, " Take charge of this fellow, and go off with him 
 to the waste lands about the city ; then draw thy scymitar and slay 
 him, and leave him to feed the beasts and birds." So the headsman 
 fared forth with me, and when he was in the midst of the desert he 
 took me out of the chest (and I with both hands pinioned and both 
 feet fettered) and was about to bandage my eyes before striking off 
 my head. But I wept with exceeding weeping until I made him 
 Aveep with me and, looking at him, I began to recite these couplets : — 
 
 I deemed you coat-o'-miil that should wilhslund * The foeman's shafts ; and 
 
 you proved foeman's brand ; 
 I hoped your aidance in mine every chance, * Though fail my left to aid 
 
 my dexter hand : 
 Aloof you stand and hear the railer's gibe, « While rain their sliafts on 
 
 me the giber-band : 
 
 ' In the East blinding was a common practice, esjiecially in the case of junior 
 princes not required as heirs. A deep perpendicular incision was made down each 
 •corner of the eyes ; the lids were lifted and the balls removed by cutting the optic 
 nerve and the muscles. The later Caliphs blinded their victims by passing a red- 
 hot sword blade close to the orbit, or a needle over the eye-ball. About the same 
 lime in Europe the operation was performed with a heated metal basin — tlie well- 
 1<nown bacinare (used by Ariosto), as happened to Pier dellc \"igne (Petrus de 
 X'inea), the "godfather of modern Italian.'"' 
 
 G 2
 
 lOO -/// Lay /ah uhi Laylah. 
 
 But an ye will not yiiard me from my foes, • Suind clear, and succour 
 
 neither these nor those ! 
 
 And I also quoted : — 
 
 I deemed my brethren mail of strongest steel, • And so they were— from foes 
 
 to fend my dart ! 
 I deemed their arrows surest of their aim ; • And so they were — when 
 
 aiming at my heart ! 
 
 When the headsman heard my hnes (he had been sworder to my 
 sire, and he owed me a debt of gratitude) he cried, "O my lord, 
 what can I do, being but a slave under orders ? " presently adding, 
 " Fly for thy life and nevermore return to this land, or they will 
 slay thee and slay me with thee, even as the poet said " : — 
 
 Take thy life and fly whenas evils threat ; * Let the ruined house tell its 
 
 owner's fate : 
 New land for the old thou shall seek and find, * But to find new life thou must 
 
 not await. 
 Strange that men sliould sit in the stead of shame, » When Allah's world is so 
 
 wide and great ! 
 And trust not other, in matters grave * Life itself must act for a life beset : 
 Ne'er would prowl the lion with maned neck, * Did he reckon on aid or of 
 
 others reck. 
 
 Hardly believing in my escape, I kissed his hand and thought the 
 loss of my eye a light matter in consideration of my escaping from 
 being slain. I arrived at my uncle's capital ; and, going in to him, 
 told him of what had befallen my father and myself; whereat he 
 wept with sore weeping and said, "Verily thou addest grief to my 
 grief, and woe to my woe ; for thy cousin hath been missing these 
 many days ; I wot not what hath happened to him, and none can 
 o-ive me news of him." And he wept till he fainted. I sorrowed 
 and condoled with him ; and he would have applied certain medi- 
 caments to my eye, but he saw that it was become as a Avalnut with 
 tlie shell empty. Then said he, " O my son, better to lose eye and 
 keep life ! " After that I could no longer remain silent about my 
 cousin, who was his only son and one dearly loved ; so I told him 
 all that had happened. He rejoiced with extreme joyance to hear 
 news of his son and said, "Come now and show me the tomb"; 
 but I replied, " By Allah, O my uncle, I know not its place, though 
 I sought it carefully full many times, yet I could not find the site." 
 However, I and my uncle went to the graveyard and looked right 
 and left, till at last I recognized the tomb and we both rejoiced with 
 exceeding joy. We entered the sepulchre and loosened the earth 
 about the grave ; then, upraising the trap-door, descended some fifty 
 steps till we came to the foot of the staircase, when lo ! w'e were
 
 The First Kalaiidar's Talc. loi 
 
 stopped by a blinding smoke. Thereupon said my uncle that say- 
 iiig wliose sayer shall never come to shame, " There is no Majesty 
 and there is no Might, save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great ! " and 
 we advanced till we suddenly came upon a saloon, whose floor was 
 strewed with flour and graui and provisions, and all manner neces- 
 saries ; and in the midst of it stood a canopy sheltering a couch. 
 Thereupon my uncle went up to the couch and, inspecting it, found 
 his son and the lady who had gone down with him into the tomb 
 lying in each other's embrace ; but the twain had become black as 
 charred w'ood ; it was as if they had been cast into a pit of fire. 
 When my uncle saw this spectacle, he spat in his son's face and said, 
 " Thou hast thy deserts, O thou hog^ ! this is thy judgment in the 
 transitory world, and yet remaineth the judgment in the world to 
 
 come, a durer and a more enduring." ^\.nd vShahrazad perceived 
 
 the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 BoU) U)I)cii it ujag tfje CTtuelftl) J^ijlji, 
 
 She continued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the 
 Kalandar thus went on with his story before the lady and the 
 Caliph and Ja'afar : — My uncle struck his son with his slipper '^ as 
 he lay there a black heap of coal. I marvelled at his hardness of 
 heart, and, grieving for my cousin and the lady, said, "By Allah, 
 O my uncle, calm thy wrath : dost thou not see that all my 
 thoughts are occupied with this misfortune, and how sorrowful I 
 am for what hath befallen thy son, and how horrible it is that 
 naught of him remaineth but a black heap of charcoal ? And is not 
 that enough, but thou must smite him with thy slipper?" Answered 
 he, " O son of my brother, this youth from his boyhood was madly 
 
 ' Arab. " Khinzir" (by Europeans pronounced " Hanzir "), prop, a uikl-boar ; 
 but popularly used like our " you pig ! " 
 
 ^ Striking with the shoe, the pipe-stick and similar articles is higiily insulting, 
 because they are not made, like whips and scourges, for such purpose. Here 
 the East and the West differ diametrically. " Wounds which are given by 
 instruments which are in one's hands by chance do not disgrace a man," says 
 Cervantes (D. Q. i. chapt. 15), and goes on to [irove that if a Zapatero (cobbler) 
 cudgel another with ids form or last, the latter must not consider himself 
 cudgelled. The reverse in the East, where a blow of a pipe-stick cost Ixlohammed 
 Ali Pasha's son Ids life : Ishmaii Pasha was burned to death by Malik Nimr, chief 
 of Shendy (Pilgrimage, i. 203). Moreover, (he actual wound is less considered in 
 Moslem law than the instrument which caused it : so sticks and stones are venial 
 weapons, whilst sword and dagger, gun and ])istol, are felonious. See ibid. (i. 336) 
 for a note upon the weapons with which nati-ms are puliced.
 
 102 A if Laylali wa Lay/a/i. 
 
 in love witli his own sister'; and often and often I forbade him 
 from her, saying to myself :—'l'hey are but Httle ones. However, 
 when they grew up sin befell between them ; and, although I could 
 hardly believe it, I confined him and chided him and threatened 
 him with the severest threats ; and the eunuchs and servants said 
 to him : — Beware of so foul a thing which none before thee ever 
 did, and which none after thee will ever do ; and have a care lest 
 thou be dishonoured and disgraced among the Kings of the day, 
 even to the end of time. And I added : — Such a report as this will 
 be spread abroad by caravans, and take heed not to give them cause 
 to talk, or I will assuredly curse thee and do thee to death. After 
 that I lodged them apart and shut her up ; but the accursed girl 
 loved him with passionate love, for Satan had got the mastery of her 
 as well as of him, and made their foul sin seem fair in their sight. 
 Now when my son saw that I separated them, he secretly built this 
 souterrain and furnished it, and transported to it victuals, even as 
 thou seest ; and, when I had gone out a-sporting, came here with his 
 sister and hid from me. Then His righteous judgment fell upon the 
 twain and consumed them with fire from heaven ; and verily the 
 last judgment will deal them durer pains and more enduring ! " 
 Then he wept and I wept with him ; and he looked at me and said, 
 " Thou art my son in his stead."' And I bethought me awhile of the 
 world and of its chances, how the Wazir had slain my father and had 
 taken his place and had put out my eye ; and how my cousin had 
 come to his death by the strangest chance ; and I wept again and m>- 
 uncle wept with me. Then we mounted the steps and let down the 
 iron plate and heaped up the earth over it ; and, after restoring the 
 tomb to its former condition, we returned to the palace. But hardly 
 had we sat down ere we heard the tomtoming of the kettle-drum and 
 tantara of trumpets and clash of cymbals ; and the rattling of war-men's 
 lances ; and the clamours of assailants and the clanking of bits and 
 the neighing of steeds ; while the world was canopied with dense 
 dust and sand-clouds raised by the horses' hoofs.^ We were amazed 
 at sight and sound, knowing not what could be the matter ; so we 
 asked and were told that the ^V'azir who had usurped my father's 
 kingdom b.ad marched his men ; and that after levying his soldiery 
 
 ' Incest is now abominable cvcrjwliere except amongst the overcrowded poor 
 of great and civilized cities. Yet such unions were common and lawful amongst 
 ancient and highly cultivated peoples, as the Egyptians (Isis and Osiris), Assyrians 
 and ancient Persians. 
 
 ^ Dwellers in the Northern Temperates can hardly imagine what a dust-storm is 
 in sun-parched, tropical lands. In Sind we were often obliged to use candles at 
 mid-dav, while above the dust was a sun that would roa^^t an ecg.
 
 The First Kalandar's Tale. 103 
 
 and taking a host of wild Arabs' into service, he had come down 
 upon us with armies like the sands of the sea ; their number none 
 could tell and against them none could prevail. They attacked the 
 city unawares; and the citizens, being powerless to oppose them, 
 surrendered the place : my uncle was slain and I made for the suburbs, 
 saying to myself, " If thou fall into this villain's hands he will 
 assuredly kill thee." On this wise all my troubles were renewed ; 
 and I pondered all that had betided my father and my uncle, and 
 I knew not what to do ; for if the city people or my father's troops 
 had recognised me they would have done their best to win favour 
 by destroying me ; and I could think of no way to escape save by 
 shaving off my beard and my eyebrows. So I shore them off and, 
 changing my line clothes for a Kalandar's rags, I fared forth from 
 my uncle's capital and made for this city ; hoping that peradven- 
 ture some one would assist me to the presence of the Prince of 
 the Faithful,^ and the Caliph, who is the Viceregent of Allah upon 
 earth. Thus have I come hither that I might tell him my tale and 
 lay my case before him. I arrived here this very night, and was 
 standing in doubt whither I should go, when suddenly I saw this 
 
 ' Arab. " 'Urban," now always used of the wild people, whom the French have 
 taught us to call /fj- BeJoiiiiis ; " Badw " being a waste or desert; and Badawi 
 (fern. Badawiyah, plur. Badaw in and Bidwan), a man of the waste. Europeans 
 have also learnt to miscall the Egyptians " Arabs " ; the difference is as great as 
 between an Englishman and a Spaniard. Arabs proper divide their race into 
 sundry successive families. "The Arab al-Araba " (or al-Aribah, or al-Urubi- 
 yat) are the autochthones, pre-historic, proto-historic and extinct tribes ; for 
 instance, a few of the Adites who being at Meccah escaped the destruction of their 
 wicked nation, but mingled with other classes. The "Arab al-Muta'arribah " 
 (Arabised Arabs) are the first advente represented by such noble strains as the 
 Koraysh (Koreish), some still surviving. The "Arab al-Musta'aribah " (insititious, 
 naturalised or instituted Arabs, men who claim to be Arabs) are Arabs like the 
 Sinaites, the Egyptians and the Maroccans, descended by intermarriage with other 
 races. Hence our "Mosarabians" and the " Marrabais " of Rabelais (not " a word 
 compounded of JNIaurus and Arabs"). Some genealogists, however, make the 
 Muta'arribah descendants of Kahtan (possibly the Joktan of Genesis x., a com- 
 paratively modern document, B.C. 700?) ; and the Musta'aribah, those descended 
 from Adnan the origin of Arab genealogy. And, lastly, are the " Arab al-Musta- 
 'ajimah," barbarised Arabs, like the present population of Meccah and Al-Madinah. 
 ■ Besides these there are other tribes whose origin is still unknown ; such as the 
 Mahrah tribes of Hazramaut, the " Akhdam " ( = serviles) of Oman (Maskat) ; and 
 the " Ebna " of Al-Yaman : Ibn Ishak supposes the latter to be descended from the 
 Persian soldiers of Anushirwan, who expelled the Abyssinian invader from Southern 
 Arabia. (Pilgrimage, iii. 31, etc.) 
 
 ^ Arab. " Amir al-Muuminin." The title was assumed by the Caliph Omar to 
 obviate the inconvenience of calling himself" Khalifah " (successor) of the Khalifah 
 of the Apostle of Allah {i.e., Abu Baler); which after a few generations would 
 become impossible. It means " Emir (chief or prince) of the Muumins " ; men 
 who hold to the (true Moslem) faith, the " Iman " (theory, fundamental articles) 
 as opposed to the " Din," ordinance or practice of the religion. It once became 
 a Wazirial title conferred by Sultan Malikshah (King King-king) on his Ni/am al- 
 Mulk. (Richardson's Dissert. Iviii. )
 
 T04 AlJ I.aylah wa Laylah'. 
 
 second Kalandar ; so I salam'd to him, saying : — I am a straiijjer ! 
 and he answered : — I too am a stranger ! And as we were con- 
 versing behold, lip came our companion, this third Kalandar, 
 and saluted us saying : — I am a stranger ! And we answered : — 
 We too be strangers ! Then v.-e tliree walked on and together 
 till darkness overlook us, antl Destiny drave us to your house. 
 Such, then, is the cause of the shaving of my beard and mustachioes 
 and eyebrows ; and the manner of my losing my right eye. 
 They marvelled much at this tale, and the Caliph said to Ja'afar, 
 " By Allah, I have not seen nor have I heard the like of what 
 hath happened to, this Kalandar!" Quoth the lady of the house, 
 " Rub thy head and wend thy ways " ; but he replied, " I will 
 not go till I hear the history of the two others." Thereupon 
 the second Kalandar came forward ; and, kissing the ground, began 
 to tell 
 
 THE SECOND KALANDARS TALE. 
 
 Know, O my lady, that I was not born one-eyed and mine is a 
 strange story ; an it were graven with needle-graver on the eye- 
 corners, it were a warner to whoso would be warned. I am a King, 
 son of a King, and was brought up like a Prince. I learned in- 
 toning the Koran according to the seven schools^ ; and I read all 
 manner books, and held disputations on their contents with the 
 doctors and men of science ; moreover, I studied star-lore and the 
 fair sayings of poets, and I exercised myself in all branches of 
 learning until I surpassed the people of my time ; my skill in calli- 
 graphy exceeded that of all the scribes ; and my fame was bruited 
 abroad over all climes and cities, and all the kings learned to know 
 my name. j\.mongst others the King of Hind heard of me and 
 sent to my father to invite me to his court, with offerings and 
 presents and rarities such as befit royalties. So my father fitted 
 out six ships for me and my people ; and we put to sea and sailed 
 for the space of a full month till we made the land. Then we 
 brought out the horses that were with us in the ships ; and, after 
 loading the camels with our presents for the Prince, we set forth 
 
 ' This may also mean " according to the seven editions of the Koran," the old 
 revisions and so forth (Sale, Sect. iil. and D'Herbelot "Alcoran."). The schools 
 of the " Mukri," who teach the right pronunciation wherein a mistake might be 
 sinful, are seven, Hamzah, Il^n Katir, Ya'alcub, \h\\ Amir, Kisai, Asim and Hafs, 
 t]ie latter being the favourite with the Hanafis and the only one now generally 
 known in Al-Islam
 
 The Second Kala/idar's Tale. 105 
 
 inland. But we had marched only a little way, when behold, a 
 dust-cloud up-flew, and grew until it walled^ the horizon from 
 view. After an hour or so the veil lifted and discovered beneath 
 it fifty horsemen, ravening lions to tl;e sight, in steel armour dight. 
 We observed them straitly, and lo ! they were cutters-off of the 
 highway, wild as wild Arabs. When they saw that we were only 
 four and had with us but the ten camels carrying the presents, 
 they dashed down upon us with lances at rest. We signed to 
 them, with our fingers, as it were saying, " We be messengers 
 of the great King of Hind, so harm us not ! '"' but they answered 
 on like wise, "We are not in his dominions to obey, nor are we 
 subject to his sway." Then they set upon us and slew some 
 of my slaves and put the lave to flight ; and I also fled after I had 
 gotten a wound, a grievous hurt, whilst the Arabs were taken up 
 with the money and the presents which were with us. I went forth 
 unknowing whither I went, having become mean as I was mighty ; 
 and I fared on until I came to the crest of a mountain, where I took 
 shelter for the night in a cave. When day arose I set out again, 
 nor ceased after this fashion till I arrived at a fair city and a well- 
 filled. Now it M'as the season when Winter was turning away 
 with his rime and to greet the world with his flowers came Prime, 
 and the young blooms were springing and the streams flowed 
 ringing, and the birds were sweetly singing, as saith the poet 
 concerning a certain city when describing it : — 
 
 A place secure from every thought ot fear, * Safety and peace for ever lord it 
 
 here : 
 Its beauties seem to beautify its sor.s, * And (as in Heaven) its happy folk 
 
 appear. 
 
 I was glad of my arrival for 1 was wearied with the way, and yellow 
 of face for weakness and want ; but my plight was pitiable and I 
 knew not whether to betake me. So I accosted a Tailor sitting in 
 his little shop and saluted him ; he returned my salam, and bade me 
 
 ' Arab. "Sadd" = wall, dyke, etc., the "bund" or "band" of Anglo-India. 
 Hence the " Sadd " on the Nile, the banks of grass and floating islands which 
 " wall" the stream. There are few sights more appalling than a sandstorm in the 
 desert, the " Zauba'ah," as the Arabs call it. Devils, or pillars of sand, vertical 
 and inclined, measuring a thousand feet high, rush over the plain lashing the sand 
 at their base like a sea surging under a furious whirlwind; shearing the grass clean 
 away from the roots, tearing up trees, which are whirled like leaves and sticks in 
 air, and sweeping away tents and houses as if they were bits of paper. At last the 
 columns join at the top and form, perhaps three thousand feet above tlie earth, a 
 gigantic cloud of yellow sand which obliterates not only the horizon but even the 
 mid-day sun. These sand-spouts are the terror of travellers. In Sind and the 
 Punjab we have the dust-storm which for darkness, I have said, beats the blackest 
 London fog.
 
 io6 A /J Layhxh wa Laylah. 
 
 kindly welcome and wished nic well and entreated me gently, and 
 asked me concerning the cause of my strangerhood. I told him all 
 my past from first to last ; and he was consterned on my account 
 and said, " O youth, disclose not thy secret to any : the King of this city 
 is the greatest enemy thy father hath, and there is blood-wit ^ between 
 them and thou hast cause lo fear for thy life." Then he set meat and 
 drink before me ; and I ate and drank and he with me ; and we con- 
 versed freely till night-fall, when he cleared me a place in a corner of 
 his shop and brought me a carpet and a coverlet. I tarried witli him 
 three days ; at the end of which time he said to me, " Knowcst thou 
 no calling whereby to win thy living, O my son ? " "I am learned in 
 the law," I replied, "and a doctor of doctrine ; an adept in art and 
 science, a mathematician and a notable penman." He rejoined, 
 " Thy calling is of no account in our city, where not a soul under- 
 standeth science or even writing or aught save money-making." Then 
 said I, " By Allah, I know nothing but what I have mentioned " ; 
 and he answered, " Gird thy middle and take thee a hatchet and a 
 cord, and go and hew wood in the wold for thy daily bread, till Allah 
 send thee relief ; and tell none what thou art lest they slay thee." 
 Then he bought me an axe and a rope, and gave me in charge to 
 certain wood-cutters ; and with these guardians I went forth into the 
 forest, where I cut fuel-wood the whole of my day and came back in 
 the evening bearing my bundle on my head. I sold it for half a 
 dinar, with part of which I bought provisions and laid by the rest. 
 In such work I spent a whole year, and when this was ended I went 
 out ©ne day, as was my wont, into the wilderness ; and, wandering 
 away from my companions, I chanced on a thickly grown lowland ^ 
 whereon there was an abundance of wood. So. I entered and I 
 found the gnarled stump of a great tree and loosened the ground 
 about it and shovelled away the earth. Presently my hatchet rang 
 upon a copper ring ; so I cleared away the soil and behold, the 
 ring was attached to a wooden trap-door. This I raised and there 
 appeared beneath it a staircase. I descended the steps to the 
 
 ' Arab. Sar = the vendetta, before mentioned, as dreaded in Arabia as in 
 Corsica. 
 
 - Arab. " Ghiitah," usually a place where irrigation is abundant. ' It especially 
 applies (in books) to the Damascus-plain, because "it abounds with water and 
 fruit trees." Bochart (Geog. Sacra, p. 90) derives HD^i? (utah) from |*iy Uz, 
 son of Arab, who (he says) founded Damascus. The Ghutah is one of the four 
 earthly paradises, the others being Basrah (Bassorah), Shiraz and Samarcand. Its 
 peculiarity is the likeness to a seaport ; the Desert, which rolls up almost to its 
 doors, being the sea, and its ships l)L-ing the camels. The first Arab to whom we 
 owe this admirable term for the " Companion of Job" is " Tarafah," one of the 
 poets of the Suspended Poems : he likens (vv. 3, 4) the camels which bore away 
 his beloved to ships sailing from Aduli. But " ships of the desert" is doubtless a 
 term of the highest antiquity.
 
 The Second Kalandixr s Tale. 107 
 
 bottom and came to a door, wliich I opened and found myself in a 
 noble hall strong of structure and beautifully built, where was a 
 damsel like a pearl of great price, whose favour banished from ni)- 
 heart all grief and cark and care ; and whose soft speech healed 
 the soul in despair and captivated the wise and ware. Her fiL^urc 
 measured five feet in height ; her breasts were firm and upright ; her 
 cheek a very garden of delight ; her colour lively bright ; her face 
 gleamed like dawn through curly tresses which gloomed like night, 
 and above the snows of her bosom glittered teeth of a pearl\- 
 white.^ As the poet said of one like her : — 
 
 Slim-waisted leveling, jetty hair-enciowned, * A w„!id 01 willow on a sandy 
 mound : 
 
 And as saith another : — 
 
 Four things that meet not, save they here unite « To shed my heart-Mood and 
 
 to rape my sprite : 
 Brilliantest forehead ; tresses jetty bright ; » Cheeks rosy red and stature 
 
 beauty-dight. 
 
 When I looked upon her I prostrated myself before Him who had 
 created her, for the beauty and loveliness He had shaped in her ; 
 and she looked at me and said, " Art thou man or Jinni ? " "I am 
 a man," answered I, and she, " Now who brought thee to this 
 place, where I have abided five-and-twenty years without even yet 
 seeing man in it." Quoth I (and indeed I found her words wonder- 
 sweet, and my heart was melted to the core by them), "O my lady, 
 my good fortune led me hither for the dispelling of my cark and 
 care." Then I related to her all my mishap, from first to last, and 
 my case appeared to her exceeding grievous ; so she wept and said, 
 " I will tell thee my story in my turn. I am the daughter of the 
 King Ifitamus, lord of the Islands of Abnils,^ who married me to 
 my cousin, the son of my paternal uncle ; but on my wedding 
 night an Ifrit named Jirji's ' bin Rajnu'is, first cousin, that is mother's 
 sister's son, of Ibli's, the Foul Fiend, snatched me up and, flying away 
 with me like a bird, set mc down in this place, whither he conveyed 
 all I needed of fine stuffs, raiment and jewels and furniture, and meat 
 and drink and other else. Once in every ten days he comes here 
 and lies a single night with me, and then wer.ds his way, for he took 
 me without the consent of his family ; and lie hath agreed with me 
 that if ever I need him by night or by day, I have only to pass my 
 
 ' The exigencies of the " Saj'a," or rhymed prose, disjoint this and many similar 
 passages. 
 
 ^ The " Ebony" Islands ; Scott's " Isle of Ebene," i. 217. 
 3 " Jarjaris " in the Bui. Edit.
 
 io8 AIJ Lay /ah wa Layiah. 
 
 hand over yonder two lines engraved iipoii the alcove, and he will 
 appear to me before my fingers ceaie touching. Four days have now 
 passed since he was here ; and, as there remain six days before he 
 come again, say me, wilt thou abide with me five days, and go hence 
 the day before his coming?" I replied *' Ves, and yes again, O rare, 
 if all this be not a dream?" Hereat she was glad and, springing to 
 her feet, seized my hand and carried me through an arched doorway 
 to a Hammam-bath, a fair hall and richly decorate. I doffed my 
 clothes, and she doffed hers ; then we balhcd and she washed me; 
 and when this was done we left the baih, and she seated me by her 
 side upon a high divan, and brouglit me sherbet scented with musk. 
 When we felt cool after the bath, she set food before me and we ate 
 and fell to talking ; but presently she said to me, " Lay thee down 
 and take thy rest, for surely thou must be a-weary." So I thanked her, 
 my lady, and lay down and slept soundly, forgetting all that had 
 happened to me. When I awoke I found her rubbing and sham- 
 pooing my feet ^ ; so I again thanked her and blessed her and we sat 
 for a while talking. Said she, " By Allah, I was sad at heart, for 
 that I have dwelt alone underground for these five-and-twenty years ; 
 and praise be to Allah, who hath sent me some one with whom I can 
 converse ! " Then she asked, " O youth, what sayest thou to wine ?" 
 and I answered, " Do as thou wilt." Whereupon she went to a cup- 
 board and took out a sealed flask of right old wine, and set off the 
 table v.ith flowers and scented herbs, and began to sing these lines : — 
 
 Had we known of thy coming we fain had dispread * The cores of our hearts or 
 
 the balls of our eyes ; 
 Our cheeks as a carpet to greet thee had thrown » And our eyelids had strown 
 
 for thy feet to betread. 
 
 Now when she finished her verse I thanked her, for indeed love of 
 her had gotten hold of my heart and my grief and anguish were gone. 
 We sat at converse and carousal till night-fall, and with her I spent the 
 night — such night never spent I in all my life ! On the morrow 
 delight followed delight till mid-day, by which time I had drunken 
 wine so freely that I had lost my wits, and stood up, staggering to the 
 right and to the left, and said, " Come, O my charmer, and I will 
 carry thee up from this underground vault and deliver thee from the 
 spell of thy Jinni." She laughed and replied, "Content thee and hold 
 thy peace : of every ten days one is for the Ifrit and the other nine 
 are thine." Quoth I (and in good sooth drink had got the better of 
 me), "This very instant will I break down the alcove whereon is 
 
 ' Arab. "Takbis." ISIany Easterns can hardly sleep without this kneading of 
 the muscles, this " rubbing," whose hygienic properties England is now learning.
 
 1 he Stioiid Kalandar s Tale. 109 
 
 graven the talisman and summon the Ifrit that I may slay him, for it 
 is a practice of mine to slay Ifrits ! " When she heard my words her 
 colour waxed wan and she said, " By Allah, do not ! " and she began 
 repeating : — 
 
 This is a thing wherein destruction lies, » I rede thee shun it an thy wils be 
 wise. 
 
 And these also : — 
 
 thou who seekest severance, draw the rein * Of thy swift steed nor seek 
 
 o'ermuch t' advance ; 
 Ah stay ! for treachery is the rule of life, * And sweets of meeting end 
 
 in severance. 
 
 1 heard her verse but paid no heed to her words : nay, I raised my 
 
 foot and administered to the alcove a mighty kick, And Shahrazad 
 
 perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 Bcto te^cn it teas t^c C^irtccntf) J'ijjrljt, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the second 
 Kalandar thus continued his tale to the lady : — But when, O my 
 mistress, I kicked that alcove with a mighty kick, behold, the air 
 starkened and darkened and thundered and lightened ; the earth 
 trembled and quaked and the world became invisible. At once the 
 fumes of wine left my head : I cried to her, " What is the matter ? " 
 and she replied, " The Ifrit is upon us ! did I not warn thee of 
 this ? By Allah, thou hast brought ruin upon me ; but fly for thy 
 life and go up by the way thou camest down ! " So I fled up the 
 staircase ; but, in the excess of my fear, I forgot sandals and hatchet. 
 And when I had mounted two steps I turned to look for them, and 
 Id ! I saw the earth cleave asunder, and there arose from it an Ifrit, a 
 monster of hideousness, who said to the damsel, "What trouble and 
 pother be this wherewith thou disturlicst me ? What mishap hath 
 betided thee?" "No mishap hath befallen me," she answered, 
 " save that my breast was straitened ^ and my heart heavy with sadness : 
 so I drank a little wine to broaden it and to hearten myself; then I 
 rose to obey a call of Nature, but the wine had gotten into my head 
 and I fell against the alcove." " I'hou liest, like the whore thou 
 art !" shrieked the Ifrit ; and he looked around the hall right and 
 left till he caught sight of my axe and sandals and said to her, "What 
 be these but the belongings of some mortal who hath been in thy 
 
 ' The converse of the breast being broadened, the drooping, "draggle-tail" gait 
 compared with the head held high and the chest inflated.
 
 no A if Lay hi h ica Laylah. 
 
 society?" She answered, "I never set eyes upon them till this 
 moment : they must have been brought by thee hither cleaving 
 to thy garments." Quoth the Ifrit, " These words are absurd ; thou 
 harlot! thou strumpet!" Then he stripped her stark naked and, 
 stretching her upon the floor, bound her hands and feet to four 
 stakes, like one crucified^ ; and set about torturing and trying to make 
 her confess. I could not bear to stand listening to her cries and 
 groans ; so I climbed the stair on the riuake with fear ; and when I 
 reached the top I replaced the trap-door and covered it with earth. 
 Then repented I of what I had done with penitence exceeding ; and 
 thought of the lady and her beauty and loveliness, and the tortures 
 she was suffering at the hands of the accursed Ifrit, after her quiet 
 life of five-and-twenty years ; and how all that had happened to her 
 was for cause of me. I bethought me of my father and his kingly 
 estate, and how I had become a woodcutter ; and how, after my time 
 had been awhile serene, the world had again waxed turbid and 
 troubled to me. So I wept bitterly and repeated this couplet : — 
 
 Wliat lime Fate's tyranny shall most oppress thee * Perpend ! one day shall joy 
 ihee, one distress thee ! 
 
 Then I walked till I reached the home of my friend, the Tailor, 
 whom I found most anxiously expecting me ; indeed he was, as the 
 saying goes, on coals of fire for my account. And when he saw me 
 he said, " All night long my heart hath been heavy, fearing for thee 
 from wild beasts or other mischances. Now praise be to Allah for 
 thy safety ! " I thanked him for his friendly solicitude and, retiring 
 to my corner, sat pondering and musing on what had befallen me ; 
 and I blamed and chided myself for my meddlesome folly and my 
 frowardness in kicking the alcove. I was calling myself to account 
 when behold, my friend, the Tailor, came to me and said, " O youth, 
 in the shop there is an old man, a Persian,^ who seeketh thee : he 
 hath thy hatchet and thy sandals, which he had taken to the wood- 
 cutters,^ saying, I was going out at what time the Muezzin began the 
 call to dawn-prayer, when I chanced upon these things and know not 
 
 ' This penalty is mentioned in the Koran (chapt. v.) as fit for those who fight 
 against Allah and his Apostle ; but commentators are not agreed if the sinners are 
 first to be put to death or to hang on the cross till they die. Pharaoh (chapt. xx. ) 
 threatens to crucify his magicians on palm-trees, and is held to be the first 
 crucifier. 
 
 ^ Arab. '"Ajami " = foreigner, esp. a Persian : the latter in The Nights is mostly 
 a villain. I must here remark that the contemptible condition of Persians in 
 Al-Iiijaz (which I noted in 1852, Pilgrimage, i. 327) has completely changed. 
 They are no longer "the slippers of Ali and hounds of Omar": they have 
 learned the force of union and now, instead of being bullied, they bully. 
 
 3 The Calc. Edit, turns them into Tailors (Khayyati'n) and Torrens does not see 
 the misprint.
 
 The Second KakDidars Tale. in 
 
 whose they are ; so direct me to their owner. The woodcutters 
 recognised thy hatchet and directed him to thee : he is sitting in my 
 shop, so fare forth to him and thank him and take thine axe and 
 sandals." When I heard these words I turned yellow with fear and 
 felt stunned as by a blow ; and, before I could recover myself, lo ! the 
 floor of my private room clove asunder, and out of it rose the Persian 
 who was the Ifrit. He had tortured the lady with exceeding tortures, 
 natheless she would not confess to him aught ; so he took the hatchet 
 and sandals and said to her, " As surely as I am Jirjis of the seed of 
 Iblis, I will bring thee back the owner of this and these^!" Then 
 he went to the woodcutters with the pretence aforesaid and, being 
 directed to me, after waiting a while in the shop till the fact was 
 confirmed, he suddenly snatched me up as a hawk snatcheth a mouse 
 and flew high in air ; but presently descended and plunged with me 
 under the earth (I being aswoon the while), and lastly set me down 
 in the subterranean palace wherein I had passed that blissful night. 
 And there I saw the lady stripped to the skin, her limbs bound to 
 four stakes, and blood welling from her sides. At the sight my eyes 
 ran over with tears ; but the Ifrit covered her person and said, " O 
 wanton, is not this man thy lover ? " She looked upon me and 
 replied, " I wot him not nor have I ever seen him before this hour ! " 
 Quoth the Ifrit, "What! this torture and yet no confessing"; and 
 quoth she, "I never saw this man in my born days, and it is not lawful 
 in Allah's sight to tell lies on him." " If thou know him not," said 
 the Ifrit to her, " take this sword and strike off his head.^" She hent 
 the sword in hand and came close up to me ; and I signalled to her 
 with my eyebrows, my tears the while flowing adown my cheeks. She 
 understood me and made answer, also by signs, " How couldest 
 thou bring all this evil upon me ? " and I rejoined, after the same 
 fashion, " This is the time for mercy and forgiveness." And the 
 mute tongue of my case^ spake aloud saying : — 
 
 Mine eyes were dragomans foi my tongue belied, * And told full clear the love I 
 
 fain would hide : 
 When last we met and tears in torrents railed * For tongue struck dumb my 
 
 glances testified : 
 She signed with eye-glance while her lips were mute, ♦ I signed with fingers and 
 
 she kenned th' implied : 
 Our eyebrows did all duty 'twixt us twain ; * And we being speechless Love spake 
 
 loud and plain. 
 
 ' i.e., axe and sandals. 
 * Lit., "Strike his neck." 
 
 3 A phrase which will frequently recur ; meaning the situation suggested such 
 words as these.
 
 1 1 2 Alf Layhih uhx Laylah. 
 
 Then, O my mistress, the lady threw away the sword and said, " How 
 shall I strike the neck of one I wot not, and who hath done me no 
 evil ? Such deed were not lawful in my law ! " and she held her 
 hand. Said the Ifrit, " 'Tis grievous to thee to slay thy lover ; and, 
 because he hath lain with thee, thou endurest these torments and 
 obstinately refusest to confess. After this it is clear to me that only 
 like loveth and pitieth like." Then he turned to me and asked me, 
 " O man, haply thou also dost not know this woman " ; whereto I 
 answered, "And pray who may she be? assuredly I never saw her 
 till this instant." " Then take the sword," said he, " and strike off 
 her head and I will beheve that thou wottest her not and will leave 
 thee free to go, and will not deal hardly with thee." I replied, "That 
 will I do " ; and, taking the sword, went forward sharply and raised 
 my hand to smite. But she signed to me with her eyebrows, " Have 
 I failed thee in aught of love ; and is it thus that thou requitest me?" 
 I understood what her looks signified and answered her with an 
 eye-glance, " I will sacrifice my soul for thee." And the tongue of 
 the case wrote in our hearts these lines : — 
 
 How many a lover with his eyebrows spcaketh » To liis beloved, as his passion 
 
 pleadeth : 
 With flashing eynchis passion he inspireth, * And well sheseelh what his pleading 
 
 needeth : 
 How sweet the look when each on olher gazetli ; * And wilh what swiftness and 
 
 how sure it speedeth : 
 And this with eyebrows all his passion writeth ; « And that with eyeballs all his 
 
 passion readetli. 
 
 Then my eyes filled with tears to overflowing and I cast the sword 
 from my hand saying, "O mighty Ifrit and hero, if a woman lacking 
 wits and faith deem it unlawful to strike off my head, how can it be 
 lawful for me, a man, to smite her neck whom I never saw in my 
 whole life? I cannot do such misdeed though thou cause me drink 
 the cup of death and perdition." Then said the Ifrit, " Ye twain 
 show the good understanding between you ; but I will let you see 
 how such doings end." He took the sword, and struck off the lady's 
 hands first, with four strokes, and then her feet ; whilst I looked on 
 and made sure of death and she farewelled me with her dying eyes. 
 So the Ifrit cried at her, " Thou whorest and makest me a Avittol with 
 thine eyes " ; and struck her so that her head went flying. Then 
 turned he to me and said, " O mortal, we have it in our law that, 
 when the wife committeth advowtry it is lawful for us to slay her. As 
 for this damsel, I snatched her away on her bride-night when she was 
 a girl of twelve and she knew no one but myself. I used to come to 
 her once in every ten days and lie with her the night, under the
 
 The Tale of the Envier and tlie Envied. 1 1 3 
 
 semblance of a man, a Persian ; and when I was well assured that 
 she had cuckolded me, I slew her. But as for thee, I am not well 
 satisfied that thou hast wronged me in her ; nevertheless, I must not 
 let thee go unharmed ; so ask a boon of me and I will grant it." 
 Then I rejoiced, O my lady, with exceeding joy and said, "What 
 boon shall I crave of thee ? " He replied, " Ask me this boon ; into 
 what shape I shall bewitch thee ; wilt thou be a dog, or an ass, 
 or an ape ? " I rejoined (and indited I had hoped that mercy 
 might be shown me), " By Allah, spare me, that Allah spare thee 
 for sparing a Moslem and a man who never wronged thee." And 
 I humbled myself before him with exceeding humility, and re- 
 mained standing in his presence, saying, " I am sore oppressed by 
 circumstance." He replied, " Talk me no long talk, it is in my power 
 to slay thee ; but I give thee instead thy choice." Quoth I, " O thou 
 Ifrit, it would besit thee to pardon me even as the Envied pardoned 
 the Envier." Quoth he, " And how was that ? " and I began to tell 
 him 
 
 THE TALE OF THE ENVIER AND THE ENVIED. 
 
 They relate, O Ifrit, that in a certain city were two men who dwelt 
 in adjoining houses, having a common party-wall \ and one of them 
 envied the other and looked on him with an evil eye,^ and did his 
 utmost endeavour to injure him ; and, albeit at all times he was 
 jealous of his neighbour, his malice at last grew on him till he could 
 hardly eat or enjoy the sweet pleasures of sleep. But the Envied 
 did nothing save prosper ; and the more the other strove to injure 
 him, the more he got and gained and throve. At last the malice of 
 his neighbour and the man's constant endeavour to work him a harm 
 came to his knowledge ; so he said, " By Allah ! God's earth is wide 
 enough for its people " ; and, leaving the neighbourhood, he repaired 
 to another city where he bought himself a piece of land in which was 
 a dried up draw-well,^ old and in ruinous condition. Here he built 
 him an oratory and, furnishing it with a few necessaries, took up his 
 abode therein, and devoted himself to prayer and worshipping Allah 
 
 ' The smiler wilh the evil eye is called "A'in" aad the person smitten " Ma'in" 
 or " Ma'un." 
 
 - Arab. " Sakiyah" the well-known Persian wheel with pots and buckets 
 attached to the tire. It is of many kinds, the boxed, etc., etc. ; and it is possibly 
 alluded to in the '' pitcher broken at the fountain " (Ecclesiastes xii. 6) an accident 
 often occurring to the modern "Noria." Travellers mostly abuse its "dismal 
 creaking" and "mournful monotony" : I have defended the music of the water- 
 wheel in Pilgrimage, ii. 19S. 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 114 Alf Liiylali ^i'a Laylah. 
 
 AlmiMity ; and Fakirs and holy mendicants flocked to him from all 
 quarters ; and his fame went abroad through the city and that 
 country side. Presently the news reached his envious neighbour, of 
 what good fortune had befallen him, and how the city notables had 
 become his disciples ; so he travelled to the place and presented 
 himself at the holy man's hermitage, and was met by the Envied with 
 welcome and greeting and all honour. Then quoth the Envier, " I 
 have a word to say to thee ; and this is the cause of my faring hither, 
 and I wish to give thee a piece of good news ; so come with me to 
 thy cell." Thereupon the Envied arose and took the Envier by the 
 hand, and they went in to the inmost part of the hermitage ; but the 
 Envier said, " Bid thy Fakirs retire to their cells, for I will not tell 
 thee what I have to say, save in secret where none may hear us." 
 Accordingly the Envied said to his Fakirs, " Retire to your private 
 cells " ; and, when all had done as he bade them, he set out with his 
 visitor and walked a little way until the twain reached the ruinous old 
 well. And as they stood upon the brink the Envier gave the Envied 
 a push which tumbled him headlong into it, unseen of any ; where- 
 upon he fared forth, and went his ways, thinking he had slain 
 him. Now this well happened to be haunted by the Jann who, 
 seeing the case, bore him up and let him down little by little, till he 
 reached the bottom, when they seated him upon a large stone. Then 
 one of them asked his fellows, " Wot ye who be this man ? " and they 
 answered, "Nay." ''This man," continued the speaker, "is the 
 Envied hight who, flying from the Envier, came to dwell in our city, 
 and here founded this holy house, and he hath edified us by his 
 litanies,^ and his lections of the Koran ; but the Envier set out and 
 journeyed till he rejoined him, and cunningly contrived to deceive 
 him and cast him into the well where we now are. But the fame of 
 this good man hath this very night come to the Sultan of our city 
 who designeth to visit him. on the morrow on account of his 
 daughter." " What aileth his daughter ? " asked one, and another 
 answered, "She is possessed of a spirit; for Maymun, son of Damdam, 
 is madly in love with her ; but, if this pious man knew the remedy, 
 her cure would be as easy as could be." Hereupon one of them 
 
 ' Arab. "Zikr" lit. remembering, mentioning (?'.^., the names of Allah), here 
 refers to the meetings of religious for devotional exercises ; the " Zikkirs," as they 
 are called, mostly standing or sitting in a circle while they ejaculate the Holy 
 Name. These " rogations" are much affected by Darwayshes, or begging friars, 
 whom Europe politely divides into "dancing" and "howling"; and, on one 
 occasion, greatly to the scandal of certain EnglJinderinns to whom I was showing 
 the Azbakiyah, I joined the ring of " howlers." Lane (Mod. Egypt, see index) is 
 profuse upon the subject of "Zikrs"and "Zikkirs." It must not be supposed 
 that they are uneducated men : the better class, however, prefers more privacy.
 
 The Tale of the Envier and the Envied. 115 
 
 inquired, "And what is the medicine?" and he replied, "The black 
 tom-cat which is with him in the oratory hath, on the end of his tail, 
 a white spot, the size of a dirham ; let him pluck seven white hairs 
 from the spot, them let him fumigate her therewith, and the Marid will 
 flee from her and not return ; so she shall be sane for the rest of her 
 life." All this took place, O Ifrit, within earshot of the Envied, who 
 listened readily. When dawn broke and morn arose in sheen and 
 shone, the Fakirs went to seek the Shaykh and found him climbing 
 up the wall of the well ; whereby he was magnified in their eyes.^ 
 Then, knowing that naught save the black tom-cat could supply 
 him with the remedy required, he plucked the seven tail-hairs from 
 the white spot and laid them by him ; and hardly had the sun risen 
 ere the Sultan entered the hermitage, with the great lords of his 
 estate, bidding the rest of his retinue to remain standing outside. 
 The Envied gave him a hearty welcome, and seating him by his 
 side asked him, "Shall I tell thee the cause of thy coming?" The 
 King answered, "Yes." He continued, ''Thou hast come upon pre- 
 text of a visitation ^ ; but it is in thy heart to question me of thy 
 daughter." Replied the King, "'Tis even so, O thou holy Shaykh " ; 
 and the Envied continued, " Send and fetch her, and I trust to heal 
 her forthright (an such it be the will of Allah !)." The King in great 
 joy sent for his daughter, and they brought her pinioned and 
 fettered. The Envied made her sit down behind a curtain and 
 taking out the hairs fumigated her therewith ; whereupon that 
 which was in her head cried out and departed from her. The girl 
 was at once restored to her right mind and, veili: g her face, said, 
 " What hath happened and who brought me hither ? " The Sultan 
 rejoiced with a joy which nothing could exceed, and kissed his 
 daughter's eyes,^ and the holy man's hand ; then, turning to his 
 great lords, he asked, " How say ye ! What fee deserveth he who 
 hath made my daughter whole ? " and all answered, " He deserveth 
 her to wife " ; and the King said, " Ye speak sooth ! " So he 
 married him to her and the Envied thus became son-in-law to the 
 King. And after a little the Wazir died and the King said, 
 "Whom can I make Minister in his stead?" "Thy son-in-law," 
 replied the courtiers. So the Envied became a Wazir ; and after a 
 while the Sultan also died and the lieges said, "Whom shall we 
 make King ? " and all cried, " The ^\'azir." So the ^\'azir was 
 
 ' As they thought he had been there for prayer or penance. 
 ^ Arab. " Ziyarat," a visit to a pious person or place. 
 
 3 This is a paternal salute in the East, where they are particular aoout the parr 
 kissed. 
 
 li 2
 
 Ii6 A// Lay /ah wa Layl.iJi. 
 
 forlhright made Sultan, and he became King regnant, a true ruler of 
 men. One day as he had mounted his horse, and in the eminence 
 of his kinglihood was riding amidst his Emirs and Wazirs and the 
 (irandecs of his realm, his eye fell upon his old neighbour, the 
 Envier, who stood afoot on his path ; so he turned to one of his 
 Ministers, and said, "Bring hither that man and cause him no 
 affright." The Wazir brought him and the King said, " Give him 
 a thousand miskals ^ of gold from the treasury, and load him ten 
 camels \\\\\\ goods for trade, and send him under escort to his own 
 town." Then he bade his enemy fiarewell and sent him away and 
 forbore to punish him for the many and great evils he had done. 
 See, O Ifrit, the mercy of the Envied to the Envier, who had hated 
 him from the beginning and had borne him such bitter malice and 
 never met him without causing him trouble ; and had driven him 
 from house and home, and then had journeyed for the sole purpose 
 of taking his Ufe by throwing him into the well. Yet he did not 
 requite his injurious dealing, but forgave him and was bountiful to 
 him.- Then I wept before him, O my lady, with sore weeping, 
 never was there sorer, and I recited : — 
 
 Pardon my fault, for 'lis the wise man's wont * All faults to pardon and revenge 
 
 forego : 
 In sooth all manner faults in ine contain » Then deign of goodness, mercy-grace 
 
 to show : 
 VVlioso imploreth pardon from on High * Should hold his hand from sinners here 
 belovs'. 
 
 Said the Ifrit, " Lengthen not thy words ! As to my slaying thee 
 fear it not, and as to my pardoning thee hope it not ; but from my 
 bewitching thee there is no escape." Then he tore me from the 
 ground, which closed under my feet, and flew with me into the 
 firmament till I saw the earth as a large white cloud or a saucer* 
 in the midst of the waters. Presently he set me down on a mountain, 
 and taking a little dust, over which he muttered some magical 
 words, sprinkled me therewith, saying, " Quit that shape and 
 take thou the shape of an ape ! " And on the instant I became an 
 ape, a tail-less baboon, the son of a century.^ Now when he had 
 left me and I saw myself in this ugly and hateful shape, I bewept 
 me, but resigned my soul to the tyranny of Time and Circum- 
 stance, well weeting that Fortune is fair and constant to no man. I 
 
 ' A weight of 71-72 English grains in gold ; here equivalent to the dinar. 
 '■^ Compare the tale of The Three Crows in Gammer Grethel, Evening ix. 
 3 The comparison is peculiarly apposite ; the earth seen from above appears- 
 hollow with a raised rim. 
 ■* An hundred years old.
 
 The Second Kalaudar's Tale. ii-j 
 
 descended the mountain and found at the foot a desert plain, long 
 and broad, over which I travelled for the space of a month till my 
 course brought me to the brink of the briny sea.^ After standing 
 there awhile, I was ware of a ship in the ofifing which ran before a 
 fair wind making for the shore : I hid myself behind a rock on the 
 beach and waited till the ship drev/ near, when I leaped on board. 
 I found her full of merchants and passengers, and one of thjni 
 cried, " O Captain, this ill-omened brute will bring us ill-luck ! " 
 and another said, " Turn this ill-omened beast out from among us " ; 
 the Captain said, " Let us kill it ! " another said, " Slay it with the 
 sword " ; a third, " Drown it " ; and a fourth, " Shoot it with an 
 arrow." But I sprang up and laid hold of the Rais's' skirt, and 
 shed tears which poured down my chops. The Captain took pity 
 on me, and said, " O merchants ! this ape hath appealed to me for 
 protection and I will protect him ; henceforth he is under my 
 charge : so let none do him aught hurt or harm, otherwise there will 
 be bad blood between us." Then he entreated me kindly, and what- 
 soever he said I understood and ministered to his every want and 
 served him as a servant, albeit my tongue would not obey my 
 wishes ; so that he came to love me. The vessel sailed on, the wind 
 being fair, for the space of fifty days ; at the end of which we cast 
 anchor under the walls of a great city wherein was a world of 
 people, especially learned men, none could tell their number save 
 Allah. No sooner had we arrived than we were visited by certain 
 Mameluke-officials from the King of that city ; who, after boarding 
 us, greeted the merchants, and giving them joy of safe arrival, said, 
 "Our King welcometh you, and sendeth you this roll of paper, 
 whereupon each and every of you must write a line. For ye shall 
 know that the King's Minister, a calligrapher of renown, is dead, 
 and the King hath sworn a solemn oath that he will make none 
 Wazir in his stead who cannot write as well as he could." He then 
 gave us the scroll, which measured ten cubits long by a breadth of 
 one, and each of .the merchants who knew how to write wrote a line 
 thereon, even to the last of them ; after which I stood up (still in 
 the shape of an ape) and snatched the roll out of their hands. 
 They feared lest I should tear it or throv^^ it overboard ; so they 
 tried to stay me and scare me, but I signed to them that I could 
 write, whereat all marvelled, saying, " We never yet saw an ape 
 
 ' "Bahr" in Arab, means sea, river, piece of water; hence the adjective is 
 needed. 
 
 ^ The Captain or Master of the ship (not the owner). In Al-Yaman the word 
 also means a " barber," in virtue of the root, Raas, a liead.
 
 ii8 At/ Laytlia wa Lay/ah. 
 
 write." And the Captain cried, " Let him write ; and if he scribble 
 and scrabble we will kick him out and kill him ; but if he write 
 fair and scholarly I will adopt him as my son ; for surely I never 
 yet saw a more intelligent and well-mannered monkey than he. 
 Would Heaven my real son were his match in morals and manners." 
 I took the reed, and stretching out my paw, dipped it in ink and 
 wrote, in the hand used for letters,^ these two couplets : — 
 
 Time hath recorded gifts she gave the great ; » But none recorded thine whicli be 
 
 far higher ; 
 Allah ne'er orphan men by loss of thee • Who be of Cioodness mother. 
 
 Bounty's sire. 
 
 And I wrote in Rayhani or larger letters elegantly curved" : — 
 
 Thou hast a reed ^ of rede to every land, » Whose driving causeth all the world to 
 
 thrive ; 
 Nil is the Nile of Misrairn by thy boons » Who makest misery smile with fingers 
 
 five. 
 
 Then I wrote in the Suls^ character : — 
 
 There be no writer who from Death shall fleet, * But what his hand hath writ 
 
 men shall repeat : 
 Write, therefore, naught save what shall serve thee when « Thou see't on 
 
 Judgment-Day an so thou see't ! 
 
 Then I wrote in the character Naskh'^ : — 
 
 When to sore parting Fate our love shall doom, » To distant life by Destiny 
 
 decreed. 
 We cause the inkhorn's lips to 'plain our pair.s, * And tongue our utterance with 
 
 the talking reed. 
 
 ' The text has "in the character Ruka'i," or Rika'i, the correspondence -hand. 
 
 ^ A curved character supposed to be like the basil-leaf (rayhdn). Richarclsua 
 calls it " Rohani." 
 
 3 I need hardly say that Easterns use a reed, a Calamus (Kalam applied only to 
 the cut reed) for our quills and steel pens. 
 
 '• Famous for being inscribed on the Kiswah (cover) of Mohammed's tomb ; a 
 large and more formal hand still used for engrossing and for mural inscriptions. 
 Only seventy-two varieties of it are known (Pilgrimage, ii. 82). 
 
 5 The copying and transcribing hand which is either Arabi or Ajami. A great 
 discovery has lately been made which upsets all our old ideas of Cufic, etc. Mr. 
 Loytved, of Bayrut, has found, amongst the Hauranic inscriptions, one in pure 
 Naskhi, dating A.D. 568, or fifty years before the Hijrah ; and it is accepted as 
 authentic by my learned friend M. Ch. Clermont-Ganneau (p. 193, Pal. Explor. 
 Fund ; July, 1S84). In D'llerbelot and Sale's day the Koran was supposed to 
 have been written in rude characters, like those subsequently called " Cufic," 
 invented shortly before Mohammed's birth by Muramir ibn Murrah of Anbar in 
 Irak, introduced into Meccah by Bashar the Kindian, and perfected by Ibn Muklah 
 (Al-Wazir, ob. A. H. 328 = 940). We must now change all that. See Catalogue 
 01 Oriental Caligraphs, etc., by G. P. Badger, London, Whiteley, 1885.
 
 The Second Kalandar's Tale. t 1 9 
 
 And I wrote in the Tiimar character ' : — 
 
 ICingdom with none endures ; if thou deny » This truth, where be the Kings of 
 
 earlier earth ? 
 Set trees of goodhness while rule endures, * And when thou art lallen they shall 
 
 tell thy worth. 
 
 And I wrote in the character Muhakkak - : — 
 
 When oped the inkhorn of thy wealth and fame » Take ink of generous heart and 
 
 gracious hand ; 
 Write brave and noble deeds while write thou can, » And win thee praise fron! 
 
 point of pen and brand. 
 
 Then I gave the scroll to the officials and, after we all had written 
 our line, they carried it before the King. When he saw the paper 
 no writing pleased him save my writing ; and he said to the 
 assembled courtiers, " Go seek the writer of these lines and dress 
 him in a splendid robe of honour ; then mount him on a she-mule,^ 
 let a band of music precede him and bring him to the presence." 
 At these words they smiled and the King was wroth with them and 
 cried, " O accursed ! I give you an order and you laugh at me ? " 
 " O King," replied they, " if we laugh 'tis not at thee and not without 
 a cause." "And what is it?" asked he; and they answered, "O 
 King, thou orderest us to bring to thy presence the man who wrote 
 these lines ; now the truth is that he who wrote them is not of the 
 
 ' Capital and uncial letters , the hand in which the Ka'abah veil is inscribed 
 (Pilgrimage, iii. 299, 300). 
 
 ^ A "Court hand," says Mr. Payne (i. 112): I know nothing of it. Other 
 hands are : the Ta'alik ; hangnig or oblique, used for tiner MSS. and having, 
 according to Richardson, " the same analogy to the Naskhi as our Italic has to 
 the Roman." The Nasta'lik (not Naskh-Ta'alik) much used in India, is, as the 
 name suggests, a mixture ot the Naskhi (writing of transactions) and the Ta'alik. 
 The Shikastah (broken hand) everywhere represt^nts our running hand and 
 becomes a hard task to the reader. The Kirma is another cursive character, 
 mostly confined to the receipts and disbursements of the Turkish Treasury. The 
 Divani, or Court (of Justice) is the official hand, bold and round, a business 
 character, the lines often rising with a sweep or curve towards the (left) end. The 
 Jali or polished has a variety, the Jali-Ta'alik : the Sulsi (known in many books) 
 is adopted for titles of volumes, royal edicts, diplomas and so forth ; " answering 
 much the same purpose as capitals with us, or the flourished letters in illuminated 
 manuscripts" (Richardson). The Tughrai is that of the Tughra, the Prince's 
 cypher or flourishing signature in ceremonial writings, and containing some such 
 sentence as : Let this be executed. There are others, e.g., Yakuti and Sirenkil 
 known only by name. Finally, the Maghribi (Moorish) hand differs in form and 
 diacritical points from the characters used further east almost as much as German 
 running hand does from English. It is curious that Richardson omits the Jali 
 (intricate and convoluted) and the divisions of the Sulusi, Sulsi or Sulus (Thuluth) 
 character, the Sulus al-Khafif, etc. 
 
 3 Arab. " Baghlah " ; the male (Baghl) is used only for loads. This is 
 everj'where the rule : nothing is more unmanageable than a restive "Macho" ; 
 and he knows that he can always get you off his back when so minded. From 
 " Baghlah " is derived the name of the native craft AngloTndice, a " Bug"-alow."
 
 I20 Alf Laylah 7va Laylah. 
 
 sons of Adam,^ but an ape, a tail-less baboon, belonging to the ship- 
 Captain." Quoth he, "Is this true that you say?" Quoth they, 
 " Yea ! by the rights of thy munificence ! " The King marvelled at 
 their words and shook with mirth and said, " I am minded to buy 
 this ape of the Captain." Then he sent messengers to the ship with 
 the mule, the dress, the guard and the state-drums, saying, " Not the 
 less do you clothe him in the robe of honou.- and mount him on the 
 mule and let him be surrounded by the guards and preceded by the 
 band of music." They came to the ship and took me from the 
 Captain and robed me in the robe of honour and, mounting me on 
 the she-mule, carried me in state procession through the streets ; 
 whilst the people were amazed and amused. And folk said to one 
 another, " Halloo! is our Sultan about to make an ape his Minister?" 
 and came all agog crowding to gaze at me, and the town was astir 
 and turned topsy-turvy on my account. When they brought me up 
 to the King and set me in his presence, I kissed the ground before 
 him three times, and once before the High Chamberlain and great 
 officers, and he bade me be seated, and I sat respectfully on shins 
 and knees,^ and all who v.ere present marvelled at my fine manners, 
 and the King most of all. Thereupon he ordered the lieges to 
 retire ; and, when none remained save the King's majesty, the 
 Eunuch on duty and a little white slave, he bade them set before 
 me the table of food, containing all manner of birds, whatever 
 hoppeth and flieth and treadeth in nest, such as quail and sand- 
 grouse. Then he signed to me to eat with him ; so I rose and 
 kissed ground before him, then sat me do^vn and ate with him. 
 i\nd when the table was removed I washed my hands in seven 
 waters and took the reed-case and reed ; and wrote instead of 
 speaking these couplets : — 
 
 Wail for the little partridges on porringer and plate ; * Cry for the ruin of the fries 
 
 and stews well marinate : 
 Keen as I keen for loved, lost daughters of the Kata-grouse,3 » And omelette 
 
 round the fair enbrowned fowls agglomerate : 
 O fire in heart of me for fish, those deitx poissons I saw, » Bedded on new-made 
 
 scones'* and cakes in piles to laniate. 
 
 ^ In Heb. "Ben-Adam" is any man opp. to " Beni ish " (Psalm iv. 3) = 
 filii viri, not homines. 
 
 ^ This posture is terribly trying to European legs ; and few white men (unless 
 brought up to it) can squat for any time on their heels. The " tailor-fashion," 
 with crossed legs, is held to be free and easy. 
 
 3 Arab. " Kata" = Pterocles Alchata, the well-known sand-grouse of the desert. 
 It is very poor white flesh. 
 
 '• Arab. "Khubz," which I do not translate "cake" or "bread," as that would 
 sucTgest the idea of our loaf. The staff of life in the East is a thin flat circle of 
 doucrh baked in the oven or on the griddle, and corresponding with the Scotch 
 "scone," or " bannock," the Spanish "tortilla " and the Australian "flap-jack."
 
 The Second Kalandar's Tale. 1 2 i 
 
 For thee, O vermicelli ! aches my very maw ! I hold * Without thee every taste 
 
 and joy are clean annihilate. 
 Those eggs have rolled their yellow eyes in torturing pains of fire ♦ Ere served 
 
 with hash and fritters hot, that delicatest cate. 
 Praised be Allah for His baked and roast, and ah ! how good * This pulse, these 
 
 pot-herbs steeped in oil with eysill combinate ! 
 When hunger sated was, I elbow-propt fell back upon « Meat-pudding' wherein 
 
 gleamed the bangles that my wits amate. 
 Then woke I sleeping appetite to eat as though in sport » Sweets from brocaded 
 
 trays and kickshaws most elaborate. 
 Be patient, soul of me! Time is a haughty, jealous wight; * To-day he seem 
 
 dark-lowering and to-morrow fair to sight. * 
 
 Then I rose and seated myself at a respectful distance while the 
 King read what I had written, and marvelled, exclaiming, "O the 
 miracle, that an ape should be gifted with this graceful style and 
 this power of penmanship ! By Allah, 'tis a wonder of wonders ! " 
 Presently they set before the King choice wines in flagons of glass, 
 and he drank : then he passed on the cup to me ; and I kissed the 
 ground and drank and waote on it : — 
 
 With fire they boiled me to loose my tongue, 3 » And jDain and patience gave for 
 
 fellowship : 
 Hence comes it hands of men upbear me high » And honey-dew from lips of 
 
 maid I sip ! 
 
 And these also : — 
 
 Morn saith to Night, "Withdraw and let me shine"; » So drain we draughts that 
 
 dull all pain and pinC*: 
 I doubt, so fine the glass, the wine so clear, * If 'tis the wine in glass 
 
 or glass in wine. 
 
 ' Arab. "Harisah," a favourite dish of wheat (or rice) boiled and reduced to 
 a paste with shredded meat, spices and condiments. The "bangles" is a pretty 
 girl eating with him. 
 
 ^ These lines are repeated with a difference in vol. iii. night cccxxx. They affect 
 Rims cars, cut of the way, hea\-y rhymes: e.g., here Sakarij (plur. of Sakri'ij, 
 platters, porringers); Tayahij (plur. of Tayhuj, the smaller caccabis-partridge); 
 Tabahij (Persian Tabahjah, an omelet or a stew of meat, onions, eggs, etc.). 
 Ma'arij ("in stepped piles" like the pyramids; which Lane, ii. 495, renders "on 
 the stairs"); Makarij (plur. of Makraj, a small pot); Damalij (plur. of dumliij, a 
 bracelet, a bangle) ;Dayabij (brocades) andTafarij (openings, enjoyments). In vol. iii. 
 night cccxxx. we find also Sikabij (plur. of Sikbaj, marinated meat elsewhere ex- 
 plained); Fararij (plur. of farriij, a chicken, vulg. farkh) and Dakakij (plur. of 
 dakiijah, a small jar). In the first line we have also (though not a rhyme) Gharanik, 
 Gr. Fepavo?, a crane, preserved in Romaic. The weeping and wailing are caused 
 by the remembrance that all these delicacies have been demolished like a Badawi 
 camp, 
 
 3 This is the vinum coctum, the boiled wine, still a favourite in Southern Italy 
 and Greece. 
 
 ■* Eastern topers delight in drinking at dawn: upon this subject I shall have 
 more to say in other Nights.
 
 122 A If Lay I ah wa Laylah. 
 
 The King read my verse and said with a sigh, "Were these gifts ^ 
 in a man, he would excel all the folk of his time and age ! " Then 
 he called for the chess-board, and said, " Say, wilt thou play with 
 me ? " and I signed with my head, " Yes." Then I came forward 
 and ordered the pieces and played with him two games, both of 
 which I won. lie was speechless with surprise; so I took the pen- 
 case and, drawing forth a reed, wrote on the board these two 
 couplets : — 
 
 Two hosts fare fighting thro' the livelong clay • Nor is their battling ever 
 
 finished 
 Until, when darkness girdcth them about, • The twain go sleei^ing in a 
 
 single bed.^ 
 
 The King read these lines with wonder and delight and said to his 
 Eunuch,^ " O Mukbil, go to thy mistress, Sitt al-Husn,^ and say to 
 her, " Come, speak to the King who biddeth thee hither to take thy 
 solace in seeing this right wondrous ape ! " So the Eunuch went 
 out and presently returned with the lady who, when she saw me, 
 veiled her face and said, " O my father ? hast thou lost all sense of 
 honour? How cometh it thou art pleased to send for me and show 
 me to strange men ? " " O Sitt al-Husn," said he, " no man is 
 here save this little foot-page and the Eunuch who reared thee and 
 I, thy father. From whom, then, dost thou veil thy face?" She 
 answered, " This whom thou deemest an ape is a young man, a 
 clever and polite, a wise and learned, and the son of a King ; but 
 he is ensorcelled, and the Ifrit Jirjaris, who is of the seed of Iblis, 
 cast a spell upon him, after putting to death his own wife, the 
 daughter of King Ifitamus, lord of the Islands of Abniis." The 
 King marvelled at his daughter's words and, turning to me, said, 
 " Is this true that she saith of thee ? " and I signed by a nod of my 
 head the answer, "Yea, verily"; and wept sore. Then he asked 
 his daughter, " Whence knewest thou that he is ensorcelled ? " and 
 she answered, " O my dear papa, there was with me in my childhood 
 an old woman, a wily one and a wise and a witch to boot, and she 
 
 ' Arab. "Adab," a crux to translators, meaning anything between good educa- 
 tion and good manners. In mod. Turk. "Edibiyyet" (Adabiyat) = belles lettres 
 and "Edebi" or "Edib" = a litterateur. 
 
 ^ The Caliph Al-Maamiin, who was a bad player, used to say, "I have the 
 administration of the world and am equal to it, whereas I am straitened in the 
 ordering of a space of two spans by two spans." The "board" was then "a 
 square field of well-dressed leather." 
 
 3 The Rabbis (after Matth. xix. 12) count three kinds of Eunuchs; (i) Seris 
 chammah = of the sun, ?>., natural ; (2) Seris Adam = manufactured ^6';- /ww?;/,?j-; 
 and (3) Seris Chammayim = of God {/.<?. , religious abstainer). Seris (castrated) or 
 Alxl (slave) is the general Hebrew name. 
 
 "■ The "Eady of Beauty."
 
 The Second Kalandai' s Tale. 
 
 123 
 
 taught me the theory of magic and its practice ; and I took notes 
 in writing and therein waxed perfect, and have committed to 
 memory an hundred and seventy chapters of egromantic formulas, 
 by the least of which I could transport the stones of thy city behind 
 the Mountain Kaf and the Circumambient Main,^ or make its site 
 an abyss of the sea and its people fishes swimming in the midst of 
 it." " O my daughter," said her father, " I conjure thee, by my 
 life, disenchant this young man, that I may make him my ^^'azir 
 and marry thee to him, for indeed he is an ingenious youth and a 
 deeply learned." "With joy and goodly gree," she repUed and, 
 bending in hand an iron knife whereon was inscribed the name of 
 
 Allah in Hebrew characters, she described a wide circle. And 
 
 Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her per- 
 mitted say. 
 
 JBJoto tu5?n it tons t^e jFou^tccnt{) Bigl^t, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Kalandar 
 continued his tale thus : — O my lady, the King's daughter bent in 
 hand a knife whereon were inscribed Hebrew characters, and 
 described a wide circle in the midst of the palace-hall, and therein 
 wrote in Cufic letters mysterious names and talismans ; and she 
 uttered words and muttered charms, some of which we understood 
 and others we understood not. Presently the world waxed dark 
 before our sight till we thought that the sky was falling upon our 
 heads, and lo ! the Ifrit piesented himself in his own shape and 
 aspect. His hands were like many-pronged pitch-forks, his legs 
 like the masts of great ships, and his eyes like cressets of gleaming 
 fire. We were in terrible fear of him but the King's daughter 
 cried at him, " No welcome to thee and no greeting, O dog ! " 
 whereupon he changed to the form of a lion and said, " O traitress, 
 how is it thou hast broken the oath we sware that neither should 
 contraire other!" "O accursed one," answered she, "how could 
 there be a compact between me and the like of thee ? " Then said 
 he, "Take what thou hast brought on thyself"; and the lion opened 
 his jaws and rushed upon her ; but she was too quick for him ; and, 
 plucking a hair from her head, waved it in the air muttering over it 
 the while ; and the hair straightway became a trenchant sword- 
 blade, wherewith she smote the lion and cut him in twain. Then 
 
 ' " Kaf" has been noticed as the mountain which surrounds earth as a rin'^ 
 does the finger: it is popularly used like our Alp and Alpine. The " Circum- 
 ambient Ocean" (Bahr al-muhit) is the Homeric Ocean-stream.
 
 124 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 the two halves flew away in air and the head changed to a scorpion, 
 and the Princess became a huge serpent and set upon the accursed 
 scorpion, and the two fought, coiUng and uncoiUng, a stiff fight for 
 an hour at least. Then the scorpion changed to a vulture, and the 
 serpent became an eagle which set upon the vulture, and hunted 
 him for an hour's time, till he became a black tom.-cat, which 
 miauled and grinned and spat. Thereupon the eagle changed into 
 a piebald wolf, and these two battled in the palace for a long time, 
 when the cat, seeing himself overcome, changed into a worm and 
 crept into a huge red pomegranate,^ which lay beside the jetting 
 fountain in the midst of the palace-hall. Whereupon the pome- 
 granate swelled in air to the size of a water-melon ; and, falling upon 
 the marble pavement of the palace, broke to pieces, and all the 
 grains fell out and were scattered about till they covered the whole 
 floor. Then the wolf shook himself and became a snow-white 
 cock, which fell to picking up the grains purposing not to leave 
 one ; but by doom of destiny one seed rolled to the fountain-edge 
 and there lay hid. The cock fell to crowing and clapping his wings, 
 and signing to us with his beak as if to ask, " Are any grains left ? " 
 But we understood not what he meant, and he cried to us with so 
 loud a cry that we thought the palace would fall upon us. Then he 
 ran over all the floor till he saw the grain which had rolled to the 
 fountain edge, and rushed eagerly to pick it up when, behold, it 
 sprang into the midst of the water and became a fish and dived to the 
 bottom of the basin. Thereupon the cock changed to a whale, and 
 plunged in after the other, and the two disappeared for a while, and 
 lo ! we heard loud shrieks and cries of pain which made us tremble. 
 After this the I frit rose out of the water, and he was as a burning 
 flame ; casting fire and smoke from his mouth and eyes and nostrils. 
 And immediately the Princess likewise came forth from the basin, and 
 she was one live coal of flaming lowe ; and these two, she and he, 
 battled for the space of an hour, until their fires entirely compassed 
 them about and their thick smoke filled the palace. As for us we 
 panted for breath, being well-nigh suffocated, and we longed to 
 plunge into the water fearing lest we be burnt up and utterly 
 destroyed ; and the King said, " There is no Majesty and there is no 
 Might save in Allah the Glorious, the Great ! Verily we are Allah's 
 and unto Him are we returning ! Would Heaven I had not urged 
 
 ' The pomegranate is probably chosen here because each fruit is supposed to 
 contain one seed from Eden-garden. Hence a host of superstitions (Pilgrimage, 
 iii. 104) possibly connected with the Chaldaic-Babylonian god Rimmon or 
 Ramanu. Hence Persephone or Ishtar tasted the "rich pomegranate's seed." 
 Lenormant, loc. cit. pp. 166, 182.
 
 The Second Kalandaf-'' s Tale. 125 
 
 my daughter to attempt the disenchantment of this ape-fellow, 
 whereby I have imposed upon her the terrible task of fighting yon 
 accursed Ifrit against whom all the Ifrits in the world could not 
 prevail. And would Heaven we had never seen this ape, Allah never 
 assain nor bless the day of his coming ! We thought to do a good 
 deed by him before the face of AUah,^ and to release him from 
 enchantment, and now we have brought this trouble and travail upon 
 our heart." But I, O my lady, was tongue-tied and powerless to say 
 a word to him. Suddenly, ere we were ware of aught, the Ifrit yelled 
 out from under the flames and, coming up to us as v.'e stood on the 
 estrade, blew fire in our faces. The damsel overtook him and 
 breathed blasts of fire at his face and the sparks from her and from 
 him rained down upon us, and her sparks did us no harm, but one 
 of his sparks alighted upon my eye and destroyed it, making me a 
 monocular ape ; and another fell on the King's face scorching the 
 lower half, burning off his beard and mustachioes and causing his 
 under teeth to fall out ; while a third alighted on the Castrato's 
 breast, killing him on the spot. So we despaired of life and made 
 sure of death when lo ! a voice repeated the saying, " Allah is most 
 Highest ! Allah is most Highest ! Aidance and victory to all who 
 the Truth believe ; and disappointment and disgrace to all who the 
 religion of Mohammed, the Moon of Faith, unbelieve." The speaker 
 was the Princess, who had burnt the Ifrit, and he was become a heap 
 of ashes. Then she came up to us and said, " Reach me a cup of 
 w'ater," They brought it to her and she spoke over it words we 
 understood not, and sprinkling me with it cried, " By virtue of the 
 Truth, and by the Most Great Name of Allah, I charge thee return to 
 thy former shape." And behold, I shook and became a man as 
 before, save that I had utterly lost an eye. Then she cried out, 
 " The fire ! The fire ! O my dear papa, an arrow from the accursed 
 hath wounded me to the death, for I am not used to fight with the Jann; 
 had he been a man I had slain him in the beginning. I had no 
 trouble till the time when the pomegranate burst and the grains 
 scattered, but I overlooked the seed wherein was the very life of the 
 Jinni. Had I picked it up he had died on the spot, but as Fate and 
 Fortune decreed, I saw it not ; so he came upon me all unawares 
 and there befell between him and me a sore struggle under the earth 
 and high in air and in the water ; and, as often as I opened on him 
 a gate,^ he opened on me another gate and a stronger, till at last he 
 
 ' i.e., for the love of God — a favourite Moslem phrase. 
 
 ^ Arab. "Bab," also meaning a chapter (of magic, of war, etc.), cor- 
 responding with the Persian " Dar " as in Sad-dar, the Hundred Doors. Here, 
 however, it is figurative, "I tried a new mode." This scene is in the Mabinogion.
 
 126 A If Lay hi h wa Laylah. 
 
 opened on me the gate of fire, and few are saved upon whom the 
 door of fire openeth. But Destiny willed that my cunning prevail 
 over his cunning ; and I burned him to death after I vainly exhorted 
 him to embrace the religion of Al-Islam. As for me I am a dead 
 woman ; Allah supply my place to you ! " Then she called upon 
 Heaven for help and ceased not to implore relief from the fire ; when 
 lo ! a black spark shot up from her robed feet to her thighs ; then it 
 flew to her bosom and thence to her face. When it reached her face 
 she wept and said, " I testify that there is no god but the God, and 
 that Mohammed is the Apostle of God ! " And we looked at her 
 and saw naught but a heap of ashes by the side of the heap that had 
 been the Ifrit. We mourned for her and I wished I had been in her 
 place, so had I not seen her lovely face, who had worked me such 
 weal, become ashes ; but there is no gainsaying the will of Allah. 
 When the King saw his daughter's terrible death, he plucked out 
 what was left of his beard and beat his face and rent his raiment; and 
 I did as he did and we both wept over her. Then came in the 
 Chamberlains and Grandees and were amazed to find two heaps of 
 ashes and the Sultan in a fainting fit ; so they stood round him till he 
 revived, and told them what had befallen his daughter from the Ifrit ; 
 whereat their grief was right grievous, and the women and the slave- 
 girls shrieked and keened,^ and they continued their lamentations for 
 the space of seven days. Moreover, the King bade build over his 
 daughter's ashes a vast vaulted tomb, and burn therein wax tapers 
 and sepulchral lamps : but as for the Ifrit's ashes they scattered them 
 on the winds, speeding them to the curse of Allah. Then the Sultan 
 fell sick of a sickness that well-nigh brought him to his death for a 
 month's space ; and, when health returned to him and his beard grew 
 again and he had been converted by the mercy of Allah to Al-Islam, 
 he sent for me and said, " O youth, Fate had decreed for us the 
 happiest of lives, safe from all the chances and changes of Time, till 
 thou earnest to us, when troubles fell upon us. Would to Heaven we 
 had never seen thee and the foul face of thee ! For we took pity on 
 thee and thereby we have forfeited our all. I have on thy account first 
 lost my daughter, who to me was well worth an hundred men ; 
 
 ' I use this Irish term = crying for the dead ; as English wants the word for 
 the prDefica or myrialogist. The practice is not encouraged in Al-Isla.m ; and 
 Caliph Abu Bakr said, "Verily a corpse is sprinkled with boiling water by reason 
 of the lamentations of the living," i.e., punished for not having taken measures to 
 prevent their profitless lamentations. I5ut the practice is from Negroland whence 
 it reached Egypt ; and the people have there developed a curious system in the 
 "weeping-song": I have noted this in "The Lake-Regions of Central Africa." 
 In Zoroastrianism (Dabistan, chap', xcvii. ) tears shed for the dead torm a river in 
 hell, black and frigid ; and in No.lhern Europe it is still a popular idea that the 
 dead suffer from the lamentations of their friends.
 
 The Second Kahuidat^s Tale. 127 
 
 secondly, I have suffered that which befell me by reason of the fire 
 and the destruction of my teeth, and my Eunuch also was slain. 
 I blame thee not, for it was out of thy power to prevent this : the 
 doom of Allah was on thee as well as on us, and thanks be to the 
 Almighty for that my daughter delivered thee, albeit thereby she 
 ended her own life ! Go forth now, O my son, from this my city, 
 and suffice thee what hath befallen us through thee, even although 
 'twas decreed for us. Go forth in peace; and if I ever see thee again 
 I will surely slay thee." And he cried out at me. So I went forth 
 from his presence, O my lady, weeping bitterly and hardly believing in 
 my escape, and knowing not whither I should wend. And I recalled 
 all that had befallen me, my meeting the tailor, my love for the damsel 
 in the palace beneath the earth, and my narrow escape from the Ifrit, 
 even after he had determined to do me die ; and how I had entered 
 the city as an ape and was now leaving it a man once more. Then I 
 gave thanks to Allah and said, " IMy eye and not my life ! " and 
 before leaving the place I entered the bath and shaved my poll and 
 beard and mustachioes and eyebrows ; and cast ashes on my heail 
 and donned the coarse black woollen robe of a Kalandar. Then I 
 fared forth, O my lady, and every day I pondered all the calamities 
 which had betided me, and I wept and repeated these couplets : — 
 I am distraught, yet verily His ruth abides with me, » Tho' round me gather 
 
 hosts of ills, whence come I cannot see : 
 Patient I'll be till Patience' self with me impatient wax ; « Patient for ever till tiie 
 
 Lord fulfil my destiny : 
 Patient I'll bide without complaint, a wronged and vanquish! man ; • Patier.l as 
 
 sun-parcht wight that spans the desert's sandy sea : 
 Patient I'll be till Aloe's' self unwittingly allow » I'm patient under LilLcrer 
 
 things than bitterest aloe : 
 No bitterer things than aloes or than patience for mankind ; * Yet bitterer than 
 
 the twain to me were Patience' treachery : 
 i.Iy sere and seamed and seared brow would dragoman my sore, • If soul could 
 
 search my sprite and there unsecret secrecy : 
 Were hills to bear the load I bear they'd crumble 'neath the weight ; * 'Twoukl 
 
 still the roaring wind, 'twould quench the flame-tongue's fiagrancy. 
 And whoso saith the world is sweet ccrtts a day he'll see • With more than aloes' 
 
 bitterness and aloes' pungency. 
 
 ' These lines are hardly translateablc. Arab. "Sabr" means "patience" as 
 well as "aloes," hereby lending itself to a host of puns and double entendres 
 n-iOre or less vile. The aloe, according to Burckhardt, is planted in gravevards as 
 a lesson of patience : it is also slung, lilce the dried crocodile, over house-doors to 
 prevent evil spirits entering: "thus hung without earth and water," says Lane 
 (M.E., chapt. xi. ), " it will live for several years and even blossom. Hence (?) it 
 is called Sabr, which signifies patience." But Sibr as well as Sabr (a root) means 
 " long-sufferance." I hold the practice to be one of the many Inner African 
 superstitions. The wild Gallas to the present day plant aloes on graves, and 
 suppose that when the plant sprouts the deceased has been admitted to the "hardens 
 of Wak, the Creator (Pilgrimage, iii. 350).
 
 128 Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 Then I journeyed through many regions and saw many a city, 
 intending for Baghdad, that I might seek audience, in the House 
 of Peace,^ with the Commander of the Faithful and tell him all that 
 had befallen me. I arrived here this very night and found my 
 brother in Allah, this first Kalandar, standing about as one per- 
 plexed ; so I saluted him with " Peace be upon thee," and entered 
 into discourse with him. Presently up came our brother, this third 
 Kalandar, and said to us, " Peace be with you ! I am a stranger " ; 
 whereto we replied, "And we too be strangers, who have come 
 hither this blessed night." So we all three walked on together, 
 none of us knowing the other's history, till Destiny drave us to this 
 door and we came in to you. Such, then, is my story and my 
 reason for shaving my beard and mustachioes, and this is what 
 caused the loss of my eye. Said the house-mistress " Thy tale 
 is indeed a rare ; so rub thy head and wend thy ways " ; but 
 he replied, " I will not budge till I hear my companions' stories." 
 Then came forward the third Kalandar, and said, " O illustrious 
 lady ! my history is not like that of these my comrades, but more 
 wondrous and far more marvellous. In their case Fate and 
 Fortune came down on them unawares ; but I drew down destiny 
 upon my own head and brought sorrow on mine own soul, and 
 shaved ray own beard and lost my own eye. Hear, then, 
 
 THE THIRD KALANDARS TALE. 
 
 Know, O my lady, that I also am a King and the son of a King, 
 and my name is Ajib, son of Khazib. When my father died I 
 succeeded him ; and I ruled and did justice and dealt fairly by all 
 my lieges. I delighted in sea trips, for my capital stood on the 
 shore, before which the ocean stretched far and wide ; and near- 
 hand were many great islands with sconces and garrisons in the 
 midst of the main. My fleet numbered fifty merchantmen, and as 
 many yachts for pleasance, and an hundred and fifty sail ready fitted 
 for holy war with the Unbelievers. It fortuned that I had a mind 
 to enjoy myself on the islands aforesaid, so I took ship with my 
 people in ten keel ; and, carrying with me a month's victual, I set out 
 on a twenty days' voyage. But one night a head wind struck us, 
 and the sea rose against us with huge waves ; the billows sorely 
 buffeted us and a dense darkness settled round us. We gave our- 
 
 ' Every city in the East has its specific title : this was given to Baghdad either 
 on account of its superior police or simply because it was the Capital of the 
 Caliphate. The Tigris was also called the " River of Peace (or Security)."
 
 77/1? Third Kalandar's Tale. 129 
 
 selves up for lost, and I said, " Whoso endangereth his days, e'en 
 an he 'scape deserveth no praise." Then we prayed to Allah and 
 besought Him ; but the storm-blasts ceased not to blow against us 
 nor the breakers to buffet us till morning broke, when the gale fell, 
 the seas sank to mirrory stillness and the sun shone upon us kindly 
 clear. Presently we made an island where we landed and cooked 
 somewhat of food, and ate heartily and took our rest for a couple of 
 days. Then we set out again and sailed other twenty days, the 
 seas broadening and the land shrinking. Presently the current ran 
 counter to us, and we found ourselves in strange waters, where the 
 Captain had lost his reckoning, and was wholly bewildered in this 
 sea ; so said we to the look-out man,^ " Get thee to the mast-head 
 and keep thine eyes open." He swarmed up the mast and looked 
 out and cried aloud, " O Rais, I espy to starboard something dark, 
 very like a fish floating on the face of the sea, and to larboard there is 
 a loom in the midst of the main, now black and now bright." When 
 the Captain heard the look-out's words he dashed his turband on 
 the deck and plucked out his beard and beat his face saying, " Good 
 news indeed ! we be all dead men j not one of us can be saved." 
 And he fjU to weeping, and all of us wept for his weeping and also 
 for our lives ; and I said, " O Captain, tell us what it is the look-out 
 saw." "O my Prince," answered he, "know that we lost our 
 course on the night of the storm, which was followed on the morrow 
 by a two-days' calm during which we made no way ; and we have 
 gone astray eleven days reckoning from that night, with ne'er a 
 wind to bring us back to our true course. To-morrow by the end 
 of the day we shall come to a mountain of black stone, hight the 
 Magnet Mountain ^ ; for thither the currents carry us willy-nilly. 
 As soon as we are under its lea, the ship's sides will open and every 
 
 ' This is very characteristic : the passengers finding themselves in difficulties a( 
 once take command. See in my rilgrimage (i. chapt. xi. ) how we beat and 
 otherwise maltreated the Captain of the " Golden Wire." 
 
 ^ The fable is probably based on the currents which, as in Eastern Africa, will 
 carry a ship fifty miles a day out of her course. We first find it in Ptolemy (vii. 2) 
 whose Maniolai Islands, of India extra Gangem, cause iron nails to fly out of 
 ships, the effect of the Lapis Ilerculeus (Loadstone). Rabelais (v. c. yi) alludes 
 to it and to the vulgar idea of magnetism being counteracted by Skordon {Scordon 
 or garlic). Ilence, too, the Adamant (Loadstone) Mountains of Mandeville (chapt. 
 xxvii.), and the "Magnetic Rock" in Mr. Pultock's clever " Peter Wilkins." I 
 presume that the myth also arose from seeing craft built, as on the East African 
 Coast, without iron nails. We shall meet with the legend again. The word 
 Jabal (" Jebel " in Egypt) often occurs in these pages. The Arabs apply it to any 
 rising ground or heap of rocks ; so it is not always = our mountain. It has found 
 its way to Europe, e.g., Gibraltar and Monte Gibello (or Mongibel in poetry) = 
 " Mt. Ethne that men clepen Mounte Gybelle. Other special senses of Jabal will 
 occur. 
 
 VOL. I. 'I
 
 130 Alf Lay la h wa Laylah. 
 
 nail in plank will fly out and cleave fast to the mountain ; for that 
 Almighty Allah hath gifted the loadstone with a mysterious virtue and 
 a love for iron, by reason whereof all which is iron travelleth towards 
 it ; and on this mountain is much iron, how much none knoweth save 
 the Most High, from the many vessels which have been lost there 
 since the days of yore. The bright spot upon its summit is a dome 
 of yellow laton from Andalusia, vaulted upon ten columns ; and on 
 its crown is a horseman who rideth a horse of brass, and holdeth in 
 hand a lance of laton ; and there hangeth on his bosom a tablet of 
 lead graven with names and talismans." And he presently added, 
 " And, O King, none destroyeth folk save the rider on that steed, nor 
 will the egromancy be dispelled till he fall from his horse.^ " Then, O 
 my lady, the Captain wept with exceeding weeping, and we all made 
 sure of death-doom, and each and every one of us farewelled his 
 friend and charged him with his last will and testament in case he 
 might be saved. ^Ve slept not that night, and in the morning we 
 found ourselves much nearer the Loadstone Mountain, whither the 
 waters drave us with a violent send. When the ships were close 
 under its lea they opened and the nails flew out, and all the iron in 
 them sought the Magnet Mountain and clove to it like a network ; so 
 that by the end of the day we were all struggling in the waves round 
 about the mountain. Some of us were saved, but more were drowned, 
 and even those who had escaped knew not one another, so stupefied 
 were they by the beating of the billows and the howling of the hurri- 
 cane. As for me, O my lady, Allah (be His name exalted !) preserved 
 my life that I might suffer whatso He willed to me of hardship, 
 misfortune and calamity ; for I scrambled upon a plank from one of 
 the ships, and the wind and waters threw it at the feet of the 
 Mountain. There I found a practicable path leading by steps carven 
 out of the rock to the summit, and I called on the name of Allah 
 
 Almighty^ And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased 
 
 to say her permitted say. 
 
 ' As we learn from the Nubian Geographer the Arabs in early ages explored the 
 Fortunate Islands, Jazirat al-Khalidat = Eternal Isles), or Canaries, on one of 
 which were reported a horse and horseman in bronze, with his spear pointing 
 west. Ibn al-Wardi notes "two images of hard stone, each an hundred cubits 
 high, and upon the top of each a figure of copper pointing with its hand backwards, 
 as though it would say : — Return, for there is nothing behind me !" But this legend 
 attaches to older doings. The 23rd Tobba (who succeeded Bilkis), Malik bin 
 Sharhabil (or Sharabil or Sharahil) surnamed Nashir al-Ni'am=scatterer of bless- 
 ings, lost an army in attempting the Western sands and set up a statue of copper 
 upon whose breast was inscribed in antique characters : — 
 
 There is no access behind me. 
 
 Nothing beyond, 
 
 (Saith) The Son of SharabiL 
 ^ i.e., I exclaimed, "Bismillah!"
 
 The Third Kala/idar's Tale. 131 
 
 ii5oto iriicn it teas tf)r jfiftccnt^ ii^iff^t, 
 
 -She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the third 
 Kalandar said to the lady (the rest of the party sitting fast bound and 
 the slaves standing with swords drawn over their heads) : — And after 
 calling on the name of Almighty Allah and passionately beseeching 
 Him, I breasted the ascent, clinging to the steps and notches hewn 
 in the stone, and mounted little by little. And the Lord stilled the 
 wind and aided me in the ascent, so that I succeeded in reaching the 
 summit. There I found no resting-place save the dome, which I 
 entered, joying with exceeding joy at my escape ; and made the 
 Wazu-ablution^ and prayed a two-bow prayer,'^ a thanksgiving to God 
 for my preservation. Then I fell asleep under the dome, and heard 
 in my dream a mysterious Voice ^ saying, " O son of Khazib ! when 
 thou wakest from thy sleep dig under thy feet and thou shalt find a 
 bow of brass and three leaden arrows, inscribed with talismans and 
 characts. Take the bow and shoot the arrows at the horseman on 
 the dome-top and free mankind from this sore calamity. When thou 
 hast shot him he shall fall into the sea, and the horse will also drop 
 at thy feet : then bury it in the place of the bow. This done, the 
 main will swell and rise till it is level with the mountain-head, and 
 there will appear on it a skiff carrying a man of laton (other than he 
 thou shalt have shot) holding in his hand a pair of paddles. He will 
 come to thee and do thou embark with him, but beware of 
 saying Bismillah or of otherwise naming Allah Almighty. He 
 will row thee for a space of ten days, till he bring thee to 
 certain Islands called the Islands of Safety, and thence thou 
 shalt easily reach a port, and find those who will convey thee 
 to thy native land ; and all this shall be fulfilled to thee so thou 
 call not on the name of Allah." Then I started up from my 
 sleep in joy and gladness, and, hastening to do the bidding of the 
 mysterious Voice, found the bow and arrows and shot at the 
 horseman, and tumbled him into the main, whilst the horse dropped 
 at my feet; so I took it and buried it. Presently the sea surged 
 up and rose till it reached the top of the mountain; nor had I 
 
 ' The lesser ablution of hands, face and feet; a kind of "washing the points," 
 More in vol. iv. night ccccxl. 
 
 '^ Arab. " Ruka'tayn" ; the number of these bows, which are followed by the 
 prostrations, distinguishes the five daily prayers. 
 
 3 The "Beth Kol" of the Hebrews; also called by the Moslems "Ilatif"; for 
 which ask the Spiritualists. It is the Hindu "voice divine" or "voice from 
 heaven." 
 
 1 2
 
 132 AIJ Laylah wa Lay la h. 
 
 long to wait ere I saw a skiff in the offing coming towards me. I 
 gave thanks to Allah; and, when the skiff came up to me, I saw 
 therein a man of brass with a tablet of lead on his breast inscribed 
 with talismans and characts; and I embarked without uttering a 
 word. The boatman rowed on with me through the first day, and 
 the second, and the third, in all ten whole days, till I caught sight of 
 the Islands of Safety; whereat I joyed with exceeding joy, and for 
 stress of gladness exclaimed, "Allah! Allah! In the name of 
 Allah! There is no god but the God, and Allah is Almighty.^" 
 Thereupon the skiff forthwith upset, and cast me upon the sea; 
 then it righted and sank deep into the depths. Now I am a 
 fair swimmer, so I swam the whole day till nightfall, when my 
 forearms and shoulders were numbed with fatigue, and I felt 
 like to die; so I testified to my faith, expecting naught but death. 
 The sea was still surging under the violence of the winds, and 
 presently there came a billow like a hillock; and, bearing me up 
 high in the air, threw me with a long cast on dry land, that His will 
 might be fulfilled. I crawled up the beach, and, doffing my raiment, 
 wrung it out to dry and spread it in the sunshine; then I lay me 
 down and slept the whole night. As soon as it was day I donned 
 my clothes, and rose to look whither I should walk. Presently I 
 came to a thicket of low trees; and, making a cast round it, found 
 that the spot whereon I stood was an islet, a mere holm, girt on 
 all sides by the ocean ; whereupon I said to myself, "Whatso 
 freeth me from one great calamity casteth me into a greater ! " 
 But while I was pondering my case and longing for death behold, 
 I saw afar off a ship making for the island ; so I clomb a tree and 
 hid myself among the branches. Presently the ship anchored and 
 landed ten slaves, blackamoors, bearing iron hoes and baskets, who 
 walked on till they reached the middle of the island. Here they 
 dug deep into the ground, until they uncovered a plate of metal 
 which they lifted, thereby opening a trap-door. After this they 
 returned to the ship, and thence brought bread and flour, honey 
 and fruits, clarified butter,^ leather bottles containing liquors and 
 
 • These formulae are technically called Tasniiyah, Tahlil (before noted) and Takbir : 
 the "testifying" is Tashhid. 
 
 '^ Arab. "Samn" (Pers. " Raughan," Hind. "Ghi") the "single sauce" of the 
 East; fresh butter set upon the fire, skimmed and kept (for a century if required) ii 
 leather bottles and demijohns. Then it becomes a hard black mass, considered a 
 panacea for wounds and diseases. It is very "filling": you say jocosely to an 
 Eastern threatened with a sudden inroad of guests, "Go, swamp thy rice with 
 Raughan." I once tried training, like a Hindu Pahlawan or athlete, on Gur (raw 
 sugar), milk and Ghi ; and the result was being blinded by bile before the week 
 cndetl.
 
 The Third Ka/a/idars Talt. 133 
 
 many household stuffs; also furniture, table-service, and mirrors; 
 rugs, carpets, and, in fact, all needed to furnish a dwelling; and they 
 kept going to and fro, and descending by the trap-door, till they had 
 transported into the dwelling all that was in the ship. Afi:er this the 
 slaves again went on board and brought back with them garments as 
 rich as may be, and in the midst of them came an old, old man, of whom 
 very little was left, for Time had dealt hardly and harshly with him, 
 and all that remained of him was a bone wrapped in a rag of blue 
 stuff, through which the winds whistled west and east. As saith the 
 poet of him : — 
 
 Time gars me tremble, Ah, how sore the baulk ! « While Time in pride of strength 
 
 doth ever stalk : 
 Time was I walked nor ever felt I tired; » Now am I tired albe I never 
 
 walk ! 
 
 And the Shaykh held by the hand a youth cast in beauty's mould, 
 all elegance and perfect grace ; so fair that his comeliness deserved 
 to be proverbial ; for he was as a green bough or the tender young 
 of the roe, ravishing every heart with his loveliness and subduing 
 every soul with his coquetry and amorous ways. It was of him the 
 poet spake when he said : — 
 
 Beauty they brought with him to make compare ; » But Beauty hung her head in 
 
 shame and care : 
 Quoth they, "O Beauty, hast thou seen his like?" * And Beauty cried, "Ilislike? 
 
 not anywhere !" 
 
 They stinted not their going, O my lady, till all went down by the 
 trap- door and did iiot reappear for an hour, or rather more ; at the 
 end of which time the slaves and the old man came up without 
 the youth and, replacing the iron plate and carefully closing the 
 door-slab, as it was before, they returned to the ship and made sail 
 and were lost to my sight. When they turned away to depart, I came 
 down from the tree and, going to the place I had seen them fill up, 
 scraped off and removed the earth ; and in patience possessed my 
 soul till I had cleared the whole of it away. Then appeared the 
 trap-door, which was of wood, in shape and size like a millstone ; and 
 when I lifted it up it disclosed a winding staircase of stone. At this 
 I marvelled and, descending the steps till I reached the last, found a 
 fair hall, spread with various kinds of carpets and silk stuffs, wherein 
 was a youth sitting upon a raised couch and leaning back on a round 
 cushion wdth a fan in his hand and nosegays and posies of sweet- 
 scented herbs and flowers before him ^ ; but he was alone and not a 
 
 ' The Bui. Edit. (i. 43) reads otherwise : — I found a garden, and a second, and 
 a third, and so on till they numbered thirty and nine ; and in each rarden I saw
 
 134 Alf Laylah wa Laxlah, 
 
 soul near him in the great vault. When he saw me he turned pale ; 
 but I saluted him courteously and said, " Set thy mind at ease and 
 calm thy fears ; no harm shall come near thee ; I am a man like 
 thyself and the son of a King to boot ; whom the decrees of Destiny 
 have sent to bear thee company and cheer thee in thy loneliness. 
 But now tell me, what is thy story and what causeth thee to dwell 
 thus in solitude under the ground ? " When he was assured that I 
 was of his kind and no Jinni, he rejoiced, and his fine colour returned; 
 and, making me draw near to him he said, " O my brother, my story 
 is a strange story and 'tis this. My father is a merchant-jeweller 
 possessed of great wealth, who hath white and black slaves travelling 
 and trading on his account in ships and on camels, and trafficking 
 with the most distant cities ; but he was not blessed with a child, not 
 even one. Now on a certain night he dreamed a dream that he 
 should be favoured with a son, who would be short lived ; so the 
 morning dawned on my father bringing him woe and weeping. On 
 the following night my mother conceived, and my father noted down 
 the date of her becoming pregnant. Her time being fulfilled she 
 bare me ; whereat my father rejoiced and made banquets and called 
 together the neighbours, and fed the Fakirs and the poor, for that he 
 had been blessed with issue near the end of his days. Then he 
 assembled the astrologers and astronomers who knew the places of 
 the planets, and the wizards and wise ones of the time, and men 
 learned in horoscopes and nativities ^ ; and they drew out my birth 
 scheme and said to my father :■ — Thy son shall live to fifteen years, 
 but in his fifteenth there is a sinister aspect ; an he safely tide it 
 over he shall attain a great age. And the cause that threateneth him 
 
 what praise will not express, of trees and rills and fruits and treasures. At the end 
 of the last I sighted a door and said to myself, "What may be in this place? 
 needs must I open it and look in ! " I did so accordingly, and saw a courser ready 
 saddled and bridled and picketed ; so I loosed and mounted him ; and he flew with 
 me like a bird till he set me down on a terrace-roof ; and, having landed me, he 
 struck me a whisk with his tail and put out mine eye, and fled from me. There- 
 upon I descended from the roof and found ten youths, all blind of one eye, who 
 when they saw me exclaimed, "No welcome to thee, and no good cheer!" I 
 asked them, " Do ye admit me to your home and society?" and they answered, 
 " No, by Allah, thou shalt not live amongst us." So I went forth with weeping 
 eyes and grieving heart, but Allah had written my safety on the Guarded Tablet, 
 so I reached Baghdad in safety, etc. This is a fair specimen of how the work has 
 been curtailed in that issue. 
 
 ' This is contrary to the commands of Al-Islam ; Mohammed expressly said, 
 " The Astrologers are liars, by the Lord of the Ka'abah ! " and his saying is 
 known to almost all Moslems, lettered or unlettered. Yet the further we go East 
 (Iiidiawards) the more we find these practices held in honour. Turning westwards 
 we have : 
 
 luridicis, Erebo, Fisco, fas vivere rapto : 
 Militibus, Medicis, Tortori occidere ludo est ; 
 Mentiri Astronomis, Pictoribus atque Poetis.
 
 The Third Kalandar'' s Tale. 135 
 
 with death is this. In the Sea of Peril standeth the Mountain 
 Magnet hight ; on whose summit is a horseman of yellow laton 
 seated on a horse also of brass, and bearing on his breast a tablet of 
 lead. Fifty days after this rider shall fall from his steed, thy son will 
 die, and his slayer will be he who shoots down the horseman, a Prince 
 named Ajib,.son of King Khazib. My father grieved with exceeding 
 grief to hear these words ; but reared me in tenderest fashion and 
 educated me excellently well till my fifteenth year was told. Ten 
 days ago news came to him that the horseman had fallen into the sen, 
 and he who shot him down was named Ajib son of King Khazib. 
 My father thereupon wept bitter tears at the need of parting with me, 
 and became like one possessed of a Jinni. However, being in mortal 
 fear for me, he built me this place under the earth ; and, stocking it 
 with all required for the few days still remaining, he brought me 
 hither in a ship and left me here. Ten are already past and, when 
 the forty shall have gone by without danger to me, he will come 
 and take me away; for he hath done all this only in fear of Prince 
 Ajib. Such, then, is my story, and the cause of my loneliness." 
 When I heard his history I marvelled, and said in my mind, "I am the 
 Prince Ajib who hath done all this; but as Allah is with me I will 
 surely not slay him!" So said I to him, "O my lord, far from thee 
 be this hurt and harm, and then, please Allah, thou shalt not suffer 
 cark nor care nor aught disquietude, for I will tarry with thee and 
 serve thee as a servant, and then wend my ways; and, after having 
 borne thee company during the forty days, I will go with thee to thy 
 home, where thou shalt give me an escort of some of thy Mamelukes, 
 with whom I may journey back to my own city; and the Almight)- 
 shall requite thee for me." He was glad to hear these v.'ords, when I 
 rose and lighted a large wax-candle and trimmed the lamps and the 
 three lanterns; and I set on meat and drink and sweetmeats. We 
 ate and drank, and sat talking over various matters, till the greater 
 part of the night was gone, when he lay down to rest, and I covered 
 him up and went to sleep myself. Next morning I arose and warmed 
 a little water; then lifted him gently so as to awake him, and 
 brought him the warm water, wherewith he washed his face,' and 
 said to me, " Heaven requite thee for me with every blessing, O 
 youth! By Allah, if I get quit of this danger, and am saved 
 from him whose name is Ajib bin Khazib, I will make my father 
 reward thee, and send thee home healthy and wealthy ; and if I 
 die then my blessing be upon thee." I answered, " May the day 
 
 ' He does not perform the Wuzu or lesser abkuion because he neglects his dawn 
 prayers.
 
 136 AlJ Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 never dawn on which evil shall betide thee; and may Allah make 
 my last day before thy last day!" Then I set before him 
 somewhat of food, and we ate, and I got ready perfumes for 
 fumigating the hall, wherewith he was pleased. Moreover, I made 
 him a Mankalah-cloth^; and we played and ate sweetmeats, and we 
 played again and took our pleasure till nightfall, when I rose and 
 lighted the lamps, and set before him somewhat to eat, and sat 
 telling him stories till the hours of darkness were far spent. 
 Then he lay down to rest, and I covered him up and rested also. 
 And thus I continued to do, O my lady, for days and nights, 
 and affection for him took root in my heart, and my sorrow was 
 soothed, and I said to myself. The astrologers lied - when they pre- 
 dicted that he should be slain by Ajib bin Khazib : by Allah, I will 
 not slay him. I ceased not ministering to him and conversing and 
 carousing with him and telling him all manner tales for thirty-nine 
 days. On the fortieth night ® the youth rejoiced and said, " O my 
 brother, Alhamdolillah ! — praise be to Allah ! — Who hath preserved 
 me from death, and this is by thy blessing and the blessing of thy 
 coming to me ; and I pray God that He restore thee to thy native 
 land. But now, O my brother, I would thou warm me some water 
 for the Ghusl-ablution, and do thou kindly bathe me and change ray 
 clothes." I replied, "With love and gladness" ; and I heated 
 water in plenty and carrying it in to him washed his body all over, 
 the washing of health,^ with meal of lupins* and rubbed him well 
 and changed his clothes and spread him a high bed whereon he lay 
 down to rest, being drowsy after bathing. Then said he, " O my 
 brother, cut me up a water-melon, and sweeten it with a little 
 sugar-candy." So I went to the store-room and bringing out a fine 
 water-melon I found there, set it on a platter and laid it before 
 him saying, " O my master, hast thou not a knife ? " " Here it is," 
 answered he, " over my head upon the high shelf." So I got up in 
 haste, and taking the knife drew it from its sheath ; but my foot 
 
 * For this game see Lane (M. E. chapt. xvii.). It is usually played on a 
 checked cloth, not on a board like our draughts ; and Easterns are fond of eating, 
 drinking and smoking, between and even during the games. Torrens (p. 142) 
 translates " I made up some dessert," confounding " Mankalah " with " JS'ukl" 
 (dried fruit, quatre-mendiants). 
 
 ^ Quoted from Mohammed, whose saying has been given. 
 3 We should say, " the night of the thirty-ninth." 
 
 * The bath first taken after sickness. 
 
 5 Arab. " Dikak " used by way of soap, or rather to soften the skin : the meal is 
 usually of lupins, " Adas" = " Kevalcnta Arabica,^' which costs a penny in Egypt 
 and half-a-crown in England. 
 
 * Arab. " Sukkar-nabiit." During my day (1S42-49) we had no other sugar in 
 the Bombay Presidency.
 
 The Third Kalandat^s Tale. 137 
 
 slipped in stepping down and I. fell heavily upon the youth, holding 
 in my hand the knife which hastened to fulfil what had been 
 written on the Day that decided the destinies of man, and buried 
 itself, as if planted, in the youth's heart. He died on the instant. 
 When I saw that he was slain and knew that I had slain him, 
 maugre myself, I cried out with an exceeding loud and bitter cry, 
 and beat my face and rent my raiment, and said, " Verily we be 
 Allah's, and unto Him Ave be returning, O Moslems! O folk fain 
 of Allah! there remained for this youth but one day of the forty 
 dangerous days which the astrologers and the learned had foretold 
 for him; and the predestined death of this beautiful one was to be 
 at my hand. Would Heaven I had not tried to cut the water- 
 melon. What dire misfortune is this I must bear lief or loath ? 
 What a disaster ! What an affliction ! O Allah mine, I implore Thy 
 pardon, and declare to Thee my innocence of his death. But what 
 
 God willeth let that come to pass.^" And Shahrazad perceived 
 
 the dawn of day, and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 jQoh) lKl;rn it toas t|)e ^ijrtccixt^ iTiitjIjt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Ajib thus 
 continued his tale to the lady: — When I was certified that I had 
 slain him, I arose, and ascending the stairs, replaced the trap-door 
 and covered it with earth as before. Then I looked out seawards 
 and saw the ship cleaving the waters and making for the island; 
 wherefore I was afeard, and said, " The moment they come and 
 see the youth done to death they will know 'twas I who slew him, 
 and will slay me without respite." So I climbed up into a high tree, 
 and concealed myself among its leaves; and hardly had I done so 
 when the ship anchored, and the slaves landed with the ancient man, 
 the youth's father, and made direct for the place, and when they 
 removed the earth they were surprised to see it soft.^ Then they 
 raised the trap-door and went down, and found the youth lying 
 at full length, clothed in fair new garments, with a face beaming 
 after the bath, and the knife deep in his heart. At the sight they 
 shrieked and wept and beat their faces, loudly cursing the murderer; 
 whilst a swoon came over the Shaykh, so that the slaves deemed 
 
 ' This is one of the myriad Arab instances that the decrees of " Anagke," Fate, 
 Destiny, Weird, are inevitable. The situation is highly dramatic; and indeed The 
 Nights, as will appear in the Terminal Essay, have already suggested a national 
 drama. 
 
 ^ Having lately been moved by Ajib.
 
 J 38 Alf Lay kill iva Laylah. 
 
 him dead, unable to survive his son. At last they wrapped the 
 slain youth in his clothes and carried him up and laid him on the 
 ground, covering him with a shroud of silk. Whilst they were 
 making for the ship the old man revived; and, gazing on his son, 
 who was stretched out, fell on the ground and strewed dust over 
 his head and smote his face and plucked out his beard; and his 
 weeping redoubled as he thought of his murdered son, and he 
 swooned away once more. After awhile a slave went and fetched 
 a strip of silk whereupon they lay the old man and sat down at his 
 head. All this took place, and I was on the tree above them 
 watching everything that came to pass ; and my heart became hoary 
 before my head waxed grey, for the hard lot which Avas mine, and for 
 the distress and anguish I had undergone, and I fell to reciting : — 
 
 How many a joy by Allah's will hath fled « With flight escaping sight of wisest 
 
 head ! 
 How many a sadness shall begin the day, * Yet grow right gladsome ere the 
 
 day is sped ! 
 How many a weal trips on the heels of ill, * Causing the mourner's heart with 
 
 joy to thrill ' ! 
 
 But the old man, O my lady, ceased not from his swoon till near 
 sunset, when he came to himself and, looking upon his dead son, he 
 recalled what had happened, and how what he had dreaded had 
 come to pass ; and he beat his face and head and recited these 
 couplets : — • 
 
 Racked is my heart by parting fro' my friends » And two rills ever fro' my eye- 
 lids flow : 
 With them'' went forth my hopes, Ah, well-away ! * What shift remaincth me to 
 
 say or do ? 
 Would I had never looked upon their sight, • What shift, fair sirs, when paths e'er 
 
 straiter grow ? 
 What charm shall calm my pangs when such wise burn * Longings of love which 
 
 in my vitals glow ? 
 Would I had trod with them the road of death ! * Ne'er had befell us twain this 
 
 parting-blow : 
 Allah : I pray the Ruthful show me ruth • And mix our lives, nor part them 
 
 evermo'e ! 
 How blest were we as 'neath one roof we dwelt » Conjoined in joys nor recking 
 
 aught of woe ; 
 Till Fortune shot us with the severance shaft ; * Ah, who shall patient bear such 
 
 parting throe ? 
 And dart of Death struck down amid the tribe, » The age's pearl that Morn saw 
 
 brightest show : 
 
 ' Mr. Payne (i. 131) omits these hnes, which appear out of place; but this mode 
 of inappropriate quotation is a characteristic of Eastern tales. 
 " Anglice, " him."
 
 The Third Kalaudar''s Tale. 
 
 f39 
 
 I cried the while his case took speech and said : * Would Heaven, niy son, Death 
 mote his doom fcreslow ! 
 
 Which be the readiest road wi' thee to meet » My Son ! for wliom I would my 
 soul bestow ? 
 
 If sun I call him, no ! the sun doth set ; » If moon I call liini, wane tlu- moons ; 
 Ah no ! 
 
 O sad mischance o' thee, O doom of days, * Thy place none other love shall ever 
 know : 
 
 Thy sire distracted sees thee, but despairs • By wit or wisdom Fate to over- 
 throw : 
 
 Some evil eye this day hath cast its spell, » And foul befall him as it foul 
 befell ! 
 
 Then he sobbed a single sob and his soul fled his flesh. The slaves 
 shrieked aloud, "Alas, our lord ! " and sliowered dust on their heads 
 and redoubled their weeping and wailing. Presently they carried 
 their dead master to the ship side by side with his dead son and, 
 having transported all the stuff from the dwelling to the vessel, set 
 sail and disappeared from mine eyes. I descended from the tree and, 
 raising the trap-door, went down into the underground dwelling where 
 everything reminded me of the youth ; and I looked upon the poor 
 remains of him and began repeating these verses : — 
 
 Their tracks I see, f.nd pine with pain and pang * And on deserted hearths I weep 
 
 and yearn : 
 And Him I pray who doomed them depart « Some day vouchsafe them boon of safe 
 
 return.' 
 
 I'hen, O my lady, I went up again by the trap-door, and every day I 
 used to wander round about the island and every night I returned to 
 the underground hall. Thus I lived for a month, till at last, looking 
 at the western side of the island, I observed that every day the tide 
 ebbed, leaving shallow water for which the flow did not compensate ; 
 and by the end of the month the sea showed dry land in that 
 direction. At this I rejoiced, making certain of my safety ; so I arose 
 and, fording what little was left of the water, got me to the main land, 
 where I fell in with great heaps of loose sand in which even a camel's 
 hoof would sink up to the knee.^ However, I emboldened my soul 
 and wading through the sand behold, a fire shone from afar burning 
 with a blazing light.^ So I made for it hoping haply to find succour, 
 and broke out into these verses : — 
 
 ' This march of the tribe is a lieu coiniiiuii of Arab verse, e.g., the poet Labid's 
 noble elegy on the " Deserted Camp." We shall find scores of instances in The 
 Nights. 
 
 ^ I have heard of such sands in the Desert east of Damascus which can be 
 crossed only on boards or camel furniture; and the same is reported of the infamous 
 Region " Al-Ahkaf " (" Unexplored Syria "). 
 
 3 Hence the Arab saying, " The bark of a dog and not the gleam of a fire" ; 
 the tired traveller knows from the former that the camp is ne.ar, whereas the latter 
 shows from great distances.
 
 14° Alf Lay/ah wa Lay la h. 
 
 Belike my Fortune may her bridle turn * And Time bring weal although he's 
 
 jealous hight ; 
 Forward my hopes, and further ail my needs, » And passed ills with present weals 
 
 requite. 
 
 And when I drew near the fire aforesaid, lo ! it was a palace with 
 gates of copper burnished red which, when the rising sun shone 
 thereon, gleamed and glistened from afar showing what had seemed 
 to me a fire. I rejoiced in the sight, and sat down over against the 
 gate, but I was hardly settled in my seat before there met me ten 
 young men clothed in sumptuous gear and all were blind of the left 
 eye, which appeared as plucked out. They were accompanied by a 
 Shaykh, an old, old man, and much I marvelled at their appearance, 
 and their all being blind of the same eye. When they saw me, they 
 saluted me with the Salam and asked me of my case and my history ; 
 whereupon I related to them all what had befallen me, and what full 
 measure of misfortune was mine. Marvelling at my tale they took 
 me to the mansion, where I saw ranged round the hall ten couches 
 each with its blue bedding and coverlet of blue stuff ^ and amiddlemost 
 stood a smaller couch furnished like them with blue and nothing 
 else. As we entered, each of the youths took his seat on his own 
 couch, and the old man seated himself upon the smaller one in the 
 middle, saying to me, " O youth, sit thee down on the floor and ask 
 not of our case nor of the loss of our eyes." Presently he rose up and 
 set before each young man some meat in a charger and drink in a 
 large mazer, treating me in like manner ; and after that they sat 
 questioning me concerning my adventures and what had betided me : 
 and I kept telling them my tale till the night was far spent. Then 
 said the young men, " O our Shaykh, wilt not thou set before us our 
 ordinary ? The time is come." He replied, " With love and glad- 
 ness," and rose and entering a closet disappeared, but presently 
 returned bearing on his head ten trays each covered with a strip of 
 blue stuff. He set a tray before each youth and, lighting ten wax 
 candles, he stuck one upon each tray, and drew off the covers, and lo ! 
 under them was naught but ashes and powdered charcoal and kettle 
 soot. Then all the young men tucked up their sleeves to the elbows 
 
 ' Dark blue is the colour of mourning in Egypt as it was of the Roman Republic. 
 The Persians hold that this tint was introduced by Kay Kawus (B.C. 600) when 
 mourning for his son Siyawush. It was continued till the death of Husayn on 
 the loth of Muharram (the first month, then representing the vernal equinox) when 
 it was changed for black. As a rule Moslems do not adopt this symbol of sorrow 
 (called " Hidrid "), looking upon the practice as somewhat idolatrous and foreign 
 to Arab manners. In Egypt, and especially on the Upper Nile, women dye their 
 hands with indigo and stain their faces black or blacker.
 
 The Third Kalaudars Tale. 141 
 
 and fell a-weeping and wailing, and they blackened their faces and 
 smeared their clothes, and buffeted their brows and beat their breasts, 
 continually exclaiming, " We were sitting at our ease but our froward- 
 ness brought us unease ! " They ceased not to do thus till dawn 
 drew nigh, when the old man rose and heated water for them ; and 
 they washed their faces, and donned other and clean dresses. Now 
 when I saw this, O my lady, for very wonderment my senses left me 
 and my wits went wild, and heart and head were full of thought, till I 
 forgot wl"iat had betided me and I could not keep silence, feeling 
 I fain must speak out and question them of these strangenesses; so I 
 said to them, " How come ye to do this after we have been so open- 
 hearted and froHcksome ? Thanks be to Allah ye be all sound and 
 sane, yet actions such as these befit none but mad men or those 
 possessed of an evil spirit. I conjure you by all that is dearest to 
 you, why stint ye to tell me your history, and the cause of your losing 
 your eyes, and your blackening your faces with ashes and soot ? " 
 Hereupon they turned to me and said, " O young man, hearken not 
 to thy youth-tide's suggestions and question us no question." Then 
 they slept and I with them, and when they awoke the old man brought 
 us somewhat of food ; and, after we had eaten and the plates and 
 goblets had been removed, they sat conversing till nightfall, when the 
 old man rose and lit the wax candles and lamps and set meat and 
 drink before us. After we had eaten and drunken we sat conversing 
 and carousing in companionage till the noon of night, when they said 
 to the old man, " Bring us our ordinary, for the hour of sleep is at 
 hand ! " So he rose and brought them the trays of soot and ashes ; 
 and they did as they had done on the preceding night, nor more nor 
 less. I abode with them after this fashion for the space of a month, 
 during which time they used to blacken their faces with ashes every 
 night, and to wash and change their raiment when the morn was 
 young ; and I but marvelled the more and my scruples and curiosity 
 increased to such a point that I had to forego even food and drink. 
 At last I lost command of myself, for my heart was aflame with fire 
 unquenchable and lowe unconcealable, and I said, " O young men, 
 v\ill ye not relieve my trouble and acquaint me with the rt ason of 
 thus blackening your faces and the meaning of your words : — AVe 
 were sitting at our ease but our frowardness brought us unease ? " 
 Quoth they, " 'Twere better to keep these things secret." Still I was 
 bewildered by their doings to the point of abstaining from eating and 
 drinking and, at last wholly losing patience, quoth I to them, " There 
 is no help for it : ye must acquaint me with what is the reason of 
 these doings." They replied, "We kept oui secret only for thy good: 
 to gratify thee will bring down evil upon thee and thou wilt become a
 
 142 Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 monocular even as we are." I repeated, "There is no help for it 
 and, if ye will not, let me leave you and return to mine own people 
 and be at rest from seeing these things, for the proverb saith : — 
 
 Belter ye 'bide and I lake my leave : » For what eye sees not heart shall never 
 t;rieve. 
 
 Thereupon they said to me, " Remember, O youth, that should ill 
 befall thee we will not again harbour thee nor suffer thee to abide 
 amongst us "; and bringing a ram •they slaughtered it and skinned it. 
 Lastly, they gave me a knife, saying, "Take this skin and stretch 
 thyself upon it and we will sew it around thee ; presently there shall 
 come to thee a certain bird, hight Rukh,^ that will catch thee up in 
 his pounces and tower high in air and then set thee down on a 
 mountain. When thou feelest he is no longer flying, rip open the 
 pelt with this b'ad and come out of it : the bird will be scared 
 a'-id will fly away and leave thee free. After this fare for half a 
 day, and the march will place thee at a palace wondrous fair to 
 behold, towering high in air and builded of Khalanj,*^ lign-aloes and 
 sandal-wood, plated with red gold, and studded with all manner 
 emeralds and costly gems fit for seal rings. Enter it and thou 
 shalt win to thy wish for we have all entered that palace ; and such 
 is the cause of our losing our eyes and of our blackening our faces. 
 Were we now to tell thee our stories it would take too long a time ; 
 for each and every of us lost his left eye by an adventure of his 
 own." I rejoiced at their words, and they did with me as they 
 said ; and the bird Rukh bore me off and set me down on the 
 mountain. Then I came out of the skin and walked on till I 
 reached the palace. The door stood open as I entered and I found 
 myself in a spacious and goodly hall, wide exceedingly, even as a 
 horse-course; and around it were an hundred chambers, with doors 
 of sandal and aloes-woods, plated with red gold and furnished with 
 silver rings by way of knockers.'^ At the head or upper end^ of the 
 hall I saw forty damsels, sumptuously dressed and ornamented, and 
 
 ' The older Roc, of which more in the Tale of Sindbad. Meanwhile, the reader 
 curious about the Persian Simurgh (thirty bird), will consult the Dabistan, i. 55, 
 191, and iii. 237, and Richardson's Diss. p. xlviii. For the Anka (Enka or 
 Unka = long-necked bird) see Dab. iii. 249, and for the Huma (bird of Paradise) 
 Richardson, Ixix. We still lack details concerning the Ben or Bennu (nycticorax) 
 of I'-gypt, which with the Article pi gave rise to the Greek " phoenix." 
 
 ^ Probably the Halcdj of Forskal (p. xcvi. Flor. j^gv'pt. Arab.), "lignum 
 tenax, durum, obscuri generis." The Bres. Edit, has " akiil " = teak wood, 
 vulg. " Saj." 
 
 3 The knocker ring is an invention well known to the Romans. 
 
 ^ Arab. " Sadr " ; the place of honour ; hence the " Sudder Adawhit" (Supreme 
 Court) in the Anglo-Indian jargon.
 
 The Third Kahindar's Tale. 14-5 
 
 one and all bright as moons ; none could ever tire of gazing upon 
 them, and all so lovely that the most ascetic devotee on seeing 
 them would become their slave and obey their will. When they 
 espied me the whole bevy came up to me, and said, " Welcome, and 
 well come and good cheer^ to thee, O our lord! This whole month 
 have we been expecting thee. Praised be Allah, Who hath sent us 
 one who is worthy of us, even as we are worthy of him !" Then they 
 made me sit down upon a high divan, and said to me, "This day 
 thou art our lord and master, and we are thy servants and thy 
 handmaids, so order us as thou wilt." And I marvelled at their 
 case. Presently one of them arose and set meat before me, and I ate 
 and they ate with mej whilst others warmed water and washed my 
 hands and feet and changed my clothes, and others made ready 
 sherbets and gave us to drink; and all gathered around me, being full 
 of joy and gladness at my coming. Then they sat down and con- 
 versed with me till nightfall, when five of them arose and laid the trays 
 and spread them with flowers and fragrant herbs and fruits, fresh 
 and dried, and confections in profusion. At last they brought out 
 a fine wine-service with rich old wine ; and we sat down to drink, 
 and some sang songs and others played the lute and psaltery and 
 recorders and other instruments, and the bowl went merrily round. 
 Hereupon such gladness possessed me that I forgot the sorrows of 
 the world one and all, and said, " This is indeed life ; O sad that 
 'tis fleeting ! " I enjoyed their company till the time came for rest ; 
 and our heads were all warm with wine, when they said, "O our 
 lord, choose from amongst us her who shall be thy bed-fellow this 
 night and not lie with thee again till forty days be past." So I 
 chose a girl fair of face and perfect in shape, with eyes Kohl-edgcd 
 by Nature's hand ^ ; hair long and jet black with slightly parted teeth ^ 
 and joining brows : 'twas as if she were some limber graceful 
 branchlet or the slender stalk of sweet basil to amaze and to 
 bewilder man's fancy ; even as the poet said of such an one : — 
 
 To even her with greeny bough, were vain » Fool he who finds her beauties in tlie 
 
 roe : 
 When hath the roe those lively lovely limbs * Or honey dews those lips alone 
 
 bestow ? 
 
 ' Arab. " Ahlan wa sahlan wa marhabd," the words still popularly addressed to 
 a guest : lit. the words mean ; as one of the family, and at ease and in a spacious 
 abode. 
 
 ^ This may mean " liquid black eyes" ; but also, as I have noticed, that the 
 lashes were long and thick enough to make the eyelids ajipear as if Kohl-powdei 
 had been applied to the inner rims. 
 
 3 A slight parting between the two front incisors, the upper only, is considered a 
 beauty by Arabs ; why it is hard to say, except for the racial love of variety. 
 "Sughr" (Thugr) in the text means, primarily, the opening of the mouth, the gape: 
 hence the front teeth.
 
 144 ^V Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 Those eyne, soul-piercing eyne, which slay with love, » Which bind the victim by 
 
 their shafts laid low ? 
 ■ My heart to second childhood they beguiled, * No wonder : love-sick man again is 
 child ! 
 
 And I repeated to her the maker's words, who said : — • 
 
 None other charms but thine shall greet mine eyes, » Nor other image can my 
 
 heart surprize : 
 Thy love, my lady, captives all my thoughts * And on that love I'll die and I'll 
 
 arise. 
 
 So I lay with her that night ; none fairer I ever knew ; and, when 
 it was morning, the damsels carried me to the Hammam-bath and 
 bathed me and robed me in fairest apparel. Then they served up 
 food, and we ate and drank, and the cup went round till nightfall 
 when I chose from among them one fair of form and face, soft- 
 sided and a model of grace, such an oiie as the poet described 
 when he said : — 
 
 On her fair bosom caskets twain I scanned, » Sealed fast with musk-seals lovers to 
 
 withstand ; 
 With arrowy glances stand on guard her eyes, * Whose shafts would shoot who 
 
 dares put forth a hand. 
 
 With her I spent a most goodly night ; and, to be brief, O my 
 mistress, I remained with them in all solace and delight of life, 
 eating and drinking, conversing and carousing, and every night 
 lying with one or other of them. But at the head of the new year 
 they came to me in tears and bade me farewell, weeping and crying 
 out and clinging about me; whereat I wondered, and said, "What 
 may be the matter? Verily ye break my heart!" They exclaimed, 
 "Would Heaven we had never known thee; for, though we have 
 companied with many, yet never saw we a pleasanter than thou, or a 
 more courteous." And they wept again. "But tell me more 
 clearly," asked I, "what causeth this weeping which maketh my 
 gall-bladder' like to burst ?" And they answered, "O our lord and 
 master, it is severance which maketh us weep; and thou, and thou 
 only, art the cause of our tears. If thou hearken to us we need 
 never be parted, and if thou hearken not we part for ever; but our 
 hearts tell us that thou wilt not listen to our words, and this is the 
 cause of our tears and cries." "Tell me how the case standeth?" 
 "Know, O our lord, that we are the daughters of Kings who have 
 met here and have lived together for years; and once in every year 
 we are perforce absent for forty days, and afterwards we return and 
 
 ■ i.e.^ makes me taste the bitterness of death, "bursting the gall-bladder" 
 (Mararah) being our " breaking the heart."
 
 The Third Ka/afida/^s Tale. 
 
 M5 
 
 abide here for the rest of the twelvemonth, eating and drinking, 
 and taking our pleasure and enjoying delights. We are about to 
 depart according to our custom, and we fear lest, after we be gone, 
 thou contraire our charge and disobey our injunctions. Here now 
 we commit to thee the keys of the palace, which containeth forty 
 chambers, and thou mayest open of these thirty and nine, but 
 beware (and we conjure thee by Allah and by the lives of us!) lest 
 thou open the fortieth door, for therein is that which shall 
 separate us for ever.^" Quoth I, "xVssuredly I will not open it, if 
 it contain the cause of severance from you." Then one among 
 them came up to me, and, falling on my neck, wept, and recited 
 these verses: — 
 
 If Time unite us after absent-while, * The world liarsh t'rowning on our lot shall 
 
 smile ; 
 And if thy semblance deign adorn mine eyes,* » I'll pardon Time past wrongs and 
 
 by-gone guile. 
 
 And I recited the following : — 
 
 When drew she near to bid adieu with heart unstrung, « Wliile care and longing 
 
 on that day her bosom wrung ; 
 Wet pearls she wept and mine like red carnclian;; i oiled * And, joined in sad 
 
 riviere, around her neck they hung. 
 
 When I saw her weeping I said, " By Allah, I will never open that 
 fortieth door, never and no wise ! " and I bade her farewell. 
 Thereupon all departed flying away like birds, signalling with 
 their hands farewells as they went and leaving me alone in the 
 palace. When evening drew near I opened the door of the first 
 chamber, and entering' it found myself in a place like one of the 
 pleasaunces of Paradise. It was a garden with trees of freshest 
 green and ripe fruits of yellow sheen ; and its birds were singing 
 clear and keen and rills ran wimpling through the fair terrene. 
 The sight and sounds brought solace to my sprite ; and I walked 
 among the trees, and I smelt the breath of the flowers on the 
 breeze ; and heard the birdies sing their melodies hymning the 
 One, the Almighty, in sweetest litanies ; and I looked upon the 
 apple whose hue is parcel red and parcel yellow ; as said the 
 poet : — ■ 
 
 Apple whose hue combines in union mellow * My fair's red cheek, her hapless 
 lover's yellow. 
 
 ' Almost needless to say that forbidden doors and rooms form a lieu-comimin in 
 Faerie : they are found in the Hindu Katha Sarit Sagara and became familiar to our 
 childhood by " Bluebeard." 
 
 - Lit. " apply Kohl to my eyes," even as Jezebel " painted her face," in Heb 
 put her eyes in painting (2 Kings ix. 30). 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 146 Alf Laylah wa Lay/ah. 
 
 Then I looked upon the ([uince, and inhaled its fragrance which 
 putteth to shame musk and ambergris, even as the poet hath 
 said : — 
 
 Quince every taste conjoins ; in her are found ♦ Gifts which for queen of fruits the 
 
 Quince have crowned ; 
 Her taste is wine, her scent the waft of musk | ♦ Pure gold her hue, her shape the 
 
 moon's fair round. 
 
 Then I looked upon the pear whose taste surpasseth sherbet and 
 sugar ; and the apricot ^ whose beauty striketh the eye with admira- 
 tion, as if she were a polished ruby. Then I went out of the place 
 and locked the door as it was before, ^^'hen it was the morrow I 
 opened the second door ; and entering found myself in a spacious 
 plain set with tall date-palms and watered by a running stream whose 
 banks were shrubbed with bushes of rose and jasmine, while privet 
 and eglantine, oxe-eye, violet and lily, narcissus, origane and the 
 winter gilliflower carpeted the borders ; and the breath of the breeze 
 swept over these sweet-smelling growths, diffusing their delicious 
 odours right and left, perfuming the world and filling my soul with 
 delight. After taking my pleasure there awhile I went from it and, 
 having closed the door as it was before, opened the third door, 
 wherein I saw a high open hall pargetted with parti-coloured marbles 
 and pietra dura of price, and other precious stones, and hung with 
 cages of sandal-wood and eagle-wood : full of birds which made sweet 
 music, such as the " Thousand-voiced,-" and the cushat, the merle, 
 the turtle-dove, and the Nubian ring-dove. INIy heart was filled with 
 pleasure thereby ; my grief was dispelled and I slept in that aviary 
 till dawn. Then I unlocked the door of the fourth chamber and 
 therein found a grand saloon with forty smaller chambers giving upon 
 it. All their doors stood open : so I entered and found them full of 
 pearls and jacinths and beryls and emeralds and corals and car- 
 buncles, and all manner precious gems and jewels, such as tongue of 
 man may not describe. My thought was stunned at the sight and I 
 said to myself, " These be things methinks united which could not 
 be found save in the treasuries of a King of Kings, nor could the 
 monarchs of the world have collected the like of these ! " And my 
 heart dilated and my sorrows ceased, " For," quoth I, " now verily 
 am I the monarch of the age, since by Allah's grace this enormous 
 wealth is mine ; and I have forty damsels under my hand, nor is there 
 any to claim them save myself." Then I gave not over opening place 
 
 ' Arab. " Al-Barkuk," whence our older " Apricock." Classically it is 
 " Burkiik" and Pers. for Arab. " Mishmish," and it also denotes a small plum or 
 damson. In Syria the " side next the sun " shows a glow in j red flush. 
 
 = Arab. " Hazar " (in Persian, a thousand) = a kind of mocking bird.
 
 The Third Kalaiidar's Tale. 147 
 
 after place until nine and thirty days were passed, and in that time I 
 had entered every chamber except that one whose door the Princesses 
 had charged me not to open. But my thoughts, O my mistress, ever 
 ran on that forbidden fortieth^ and Satan urged me to open it for my 
 own undoing \ nor had I patience to forbear, albeit there wanted of 
 the trysting time but a single day. So I stood before the chamber 
 aforesaid and, after a moment's hesitation, opened the door which was 
 plated with red gold, and entered. I was met by a perfume whose 
 like I had never before smelt; and so sharp and subtle was the odour 
 that it made my senses drunken as with strong wine, and I fell to the 
 ground in a fainting fit which lasted a full hour. \Vhen I came to 
 myself I strengthened my heart and, entering, found myself in a 
 chamber whose floor was bespread with saffron and blazing with Hght 
 from branched candelabra of gold and lamj)s fed with costly oils, 
 which diffused the scent of musk and ambergris. I saw there also 
 two great censers each big as a mazer-bowl,- flaming with lign-aloes, 
 nadd-perfume,3 ambergris and honied scents ; and the place was full 
 of their fragrance. Presently, O my lady, I espied a noble steed, 
 black as the murks of night when murkiest, standing, ready saddled 
 and bridled (and his saddle was of red gold) before two mangers, one 
 of clear crystal wherein was husked sesame, and the other also of 
 crystal containing water of the rose scented with musk. \A' hen I saw 
 this I marvelled and said to myself, " Doubtless in this animal must 
 be some wondrous mystery " ; and Satan cozened me, so I led him 
 without the palace and mounted him ; but he would not stir from his 
 place. So I hammered his sides with my heels, but he moved not, 
 and then I took the rein-whip'* and struck him withal. When he felt 
 the blow, he neighed a neigh with a sound like deafening thunder 
 and, opening a pair of wings" flew up with me in the firmament of 
 heaven far beyond the eyesight of man. After a full hour of flight he 
 descended and alighted on a terrace roof and, shaking me off his back, 
 lashed me on the face with his tail and gouged out my left eye, 
 causing it roll along my cheek. Then he flew away. I went down 
 from the terrace and found myself again amongst the ten one-eyed 
 youths sitting upon their ten couches with blue covers : and they 
 
 ' Some Edits, make the doors numljcr a hundred, but the Princesses were foity, 
 and these coincidences, which seem to have significance and have none save lor 
 Arab symmetromania, are common in Arab stories. 
 
 - Arab. " Majiir " : hence possibly our "mazer," which is popularly derived 
 from Masarn, a maple. 
 
 3 A compound scent of ambergris, musk and aloes. 
 
 •* The ends of the bridle-reins forming the whip. 
 
 5 The flying horse is Pegasus, which is a Greek travesty of an Egyptian myth, 
 developed in India. 
 
 K 2
 
 148 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 cried out when they saw me, "No welcome to thee, nor aught of 
 good cheer ! We all lived of lives the happiest and we ate and drank 
 of the best ; upon brocades and cloths of gold we took our rest, and 
 we slept with our heads on beauty's breast, but we could not await 
 one day to gain the delights of a year ! " Quoth I, " Behold I have 
 become one like unto you, and now I would have you bring me a tray 
 full of blackness wherewith to blacken my face, and receive me into 
 your society." " No, by Allah," quoth they, " thou shalt not sojourn 
 with us, and now get thee hence." So they drove me away. Finding 
 them reject me thus, I foresaw that matters would go hard with 
 me, and I remembered the many miseries which Destiny had 
 written upon my forehead; and I fared forth from among them 
 heavy-hearted and tearful-eyed, repeating to myself these words : " I 
 was sitting at mine ease, but my forwardness brought me to 
 unease." Then I shaved beard and mustachioes and eyebrows, 
 renouncing the world, and wandered in Kalandar-garb about Allah's 
 earth; and the Almighty decreed safety for me till I arrived at 
 Baghdad, which was on the evening of this very night. Here I met 
 these two other Kalandars standing bewildered; so I saluted them, 
 saying, " I am a stranger," and they answered, "And we likewise be 
 strangers ! " By the freak of Fortune we were like to like — three 
 Kalandars and three monoculars all blind of the left eye. Such, 
 O, my lady, is the cause of the shearing of my beard and the 
 manner of my losing an eye. Said the lady to him, " Rub thy 
 head and wend thy ways"; but he answered, "By Allah, I will 
 not go until I hear the stories of these others." Then the lady, 
 turning towards the Caliph and Ja'afar and Masrur, said to them, 
 "Do ye also give an account of yourselves, you men !" Whereupon 
 Ja'afar stood forth and told her what he had told the portress as 
 they w^ere entering the house ; and when she heard his story of their 
 being merchants and Mosul-men who had outrun the watch, she 
 said, "I grant you your lives each for each sake, and now away 
 with you all." So they all went out, and when they were in the 
 street, quoth the Caliph to the Kalandars, "O company, whither go 
 ye now, seeing that the morning hath not yet dawned ? " Quoth 
 they, "By Allah, O our lord, we know not where to go." "Come 
 and pass the rest of the night with us," said the Caliph, and, turning 
 to Ja'afar, " Take them home with thee, and to-morrow bring 
 them to my presence, that we may chronicle their adventures." 
 Ja'afar did as the Caliph bade him, and the Commander of 
 the Faithful returned to his palace ; but sleep gave no 
 sign of visiting him that night, and he lay awake pondering the 
 mishaps of the three Kalandar-princes and impatient to know the
 
 The Eldest Ladfs Tale. 149 
 
 history of the ladies and the two black bitches. No sooner had 
 morning dawned than he went forth and sat upon the throne of his 
 sovereignty; and, turning to Ja'afar, after all his Grandees and 
 Officers of state were gathered together, he said, "Bring me the 
 three ladies and the two bitches and the three Kalandars." So 
 Ja'afar fared forth and brought them all before him (and the ladies 
 were veiled) ; then the Minister turned to them and said in the 
 Caliph's name, " We pardon you your maltreatment of us and your 
 want of courtesy, in consideration of the kindness which forewent 
 it, and for that ye knew us not : now, however, I would have you 
 to know that ye stand in presence of the fifth ^ of the sons of Abbas, 
 Harun al-Rashid, brother of Caliph Musi al-Hadi, son of Al-Mansur, 
 son of INIohammed the brother of Al-Saffah bin Mohammed, who was 
 first of the royal house. Speak ye therefore before him the truth and 
 the whole truth ! " When tRe ladies heard Ja'afar's words touching 
 the Commander of the Faithful, the eldest came forward and said, 
 " O Prince of True Believers, my story is one which, were it graven 
 with needle-gravers upon the eye-corners were a warner for whoso 
 would be warned, and an example for whoso can take profit from 
 
 example." And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased 
 
 to say her permitted say. 
 
 iI5oto tDljen it teas tj&e g)rtentcent() ^i^l^t, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that she stood 
 forth before the Commander of tlie Faithful and began to tell 
 
 THE ELDEST LAD Y'S TALE. 
 
 Verily a strange tale be mine and 'tis this : — Yon two black bitches 
 are my eldest sisters by one mother and father; and these two others, 
 she who beareth upon her the signs of stripes, and the third our 
 procuratrix, are my sisters by another mother. When my father 
 died, each took her share of the heritage and, after a while my 
 mother also deceased, leaving me and my sisters-german three 
 thousand dinars ; so each daughter received her portion of a 
 thousand dinars, and I the same, albe the youngest. In due 
 course of time my sisters married with the usual festivities and 
 lived with their husbands, who bought merchandise with their 
 
 ' The Bres. Edit, wrongly says "the seventh."
 
 150 Alf Lay la h wa Laylah. 
 
 wives' moneys and set out on their travels together. Thus they 
 threw me off. My brothers-in-law were absent with their wives 
 five years, during which period they spent all the money they 
 had and, becoming bankrupt, deserted my sisters in foreign parts 
 amid stranger folk. After five years my eldest sister returned to 
 me in beggar's gear with her clothes in rags and tatters^ and a dirty 
 old mantilla^; and truly she was in the foulest and sorriest plight. At 
 first sight I did not know my own sister ; but presently I recognised 
 her and said, "What state is this?" "O our sister," she replied, 
 " words cannot undo the done ; and the reed-pen of Destiny hath 
 run through what Allah decreed." Then I sent her to the bath and 
 dressed her in a suit of mine own, and boiled for her a bouillon, and 
 brought her some good wine and said to her, " O my sister, thou art 
 the eldest, who still standest to us in the stead of father and mother ; 
 and as for the inheritance which came to me as to you twain, Allah 
 hath blessed it and prospered it to me with increase; and my circum- 
 stances are easy, for I have made much money by spinning and 
 cleaning silk ; so I and you will share my wealth alike." I entreated 
 her with all kindliness and she abode with me a whole year, during 
 which our thoughts and fancies were always full of our other sister. 
 Shortly after she too came home in yet fouler and sorrier plight than 
 that of my eldest sister ; and I dealt by her still more honourably than 
 I had done by the first, and each of them had a share of my 
 substance. After a time they said to me, " O our sister, we desire to 
 marry again, for indeed we have not patience to drag on our days 
 without husbands and to lead the lives of widows bewitched " ; and I 
 replied, " O eyes of me ^ ! ye have hitherto seen scanty weal in 
 wedlock, for now-a-days good men and true are become rareties and 
 curiosities ; nor do I deem your projects advisable, as ye have already 
 made trial of matrimony and have failed." But they would not 
 accept my advice and married without my consent : nevertheless I 
 gave them outfit and dowries out of my money ; and they fared forth 
 with their mates. In a mighty little time their husbands played them 
 false and, taking whatever they could lay hands upon, levanted and 
 
 ' Arab. " Sharmutah " (plan Shanimi't) from " Sharmat " = to shred, a 
 favourite Egyptian word, also applied in vulgai speech to a strumpet, a punk, a 
 ]iiece. It is also the popular term for strips of jerked or boucaned meat hung up 
 in the sun to dry, and classically called " Kadid." 
 
 - Arab. " Izar," the man's waistcloth opposed to the Rida or shoulder-cloth, is 
 also the sheet of white calico worn by the poorer Egyptian women out of doors 
 and covering head and hands. See Lane (M. E., chapt. i.). The rich prefer 
 a " Habarah" of black silk, and the poor, when they have nothing else, use a 
 bed-sheet. 
 
 3 i.e., " my dears."
 
 Tlie Eldest Lady's Tale. 151 
 
 left them in the lurch. Thereupon they came to me a&liamed and in 
 abject case and made their excuses to me, saying, " Pardon our fault 
 and be not wroth with us^; for although thou be younger in years yet 
 art thou older in wit ; henceforth we will never make mention of 
 marriage ; so take us back as thy hand-maidens that we may eat our 
 mouthful." Quoth I, "Welcome to you, O my sisters, there is naught 
 dearer to me than you." And I took them m and redoubled my 
 kindness to them. We ceased not to live after this loving fashion 
 for a full year, when I resolved to sell my wares abroad and first to 
 fit me a conveyance for Bassorah ; so I equipped a large ship, and 
 loaded her with merchandise and valuable goods for traffic, and with 
 provaunt and all needful for a voyage, and said to my sisters, " Will 
 ye abide at home whilst I travel, or would ye prefer to accompany me 
 on the voyage?" "We will fare with thee," answered they, "for 
 we cannot bear to be parted from thee." So I divided my moneys 
 into two parts, one to accompany me and the other to be left in 
 charge of a trusty person, for, as I said to myself, "Haply some 
 accident may happen to the ship and yet we remain alive ; in which 
 case we shall find on our return what may stand us in good stead." I 
 took my two sisters and we went a-voyaging some days and nights ; 
 but the master was careless enough to miss his course, and the ship 
 went astray with us and entered a sea other than the sea we sought. 
 For a time we knew naught of this ; and the wind blew fair for us ten 
 days, after which the look-out man went aloft to see about him and 
 cried, "Good news!" Then he came down rejoicing and said, "I have 
 seen what seemeth to be a city as 'twere a pigeon." Hereat we 
 rejoiced and, ere an hour of the day had passed, the buildings showed 
 plain in the offing and we asked the Captain, " What is the name of 
 yonder city " ; and he answered, " By Allah I wot not, for I never 
 saw it before and never sailed these seas in my life : but, since our 
 troubles have ended in safety, remains for you only to land there 
 with your mercliandise and, if you find selling profitable, sell and 
 make your market of what is there ; and if not, we will rest here two 
 days and provision ourselves and fare away." So we entered the port 
 and the Captain went up town and was absent awhile, after which he 
 returned to us and said, " Arise ; go up into the city and marvel at the 
 works of Allah with His creatures and pray to be preserved from His 
 righteous wrath ! " So we landed, and going up into the city, saw at 
 the gate men bending staves in hand j but when we drew near them, 
 
 ' Arab. "La tawakhizna " : lit. "do not chastise (or blame) us"; the pop. 
 expression for, "excuse (or pardon) us."
 
 152 Alf Lay/ah wa Laylah. 
 
 behold, they had been translated' by the anger of Allah and had 
 become stones. Then we entered the city and found all who therein 
 woned into black stones enstoned : not an inhabited house appeared 
 to the espier, nor was there a blower of fire.^ ^^^e were awe-struck at 
 the sight, and llireaded the market streets where we found the goods 
 and gold and silver left lying in their places ; and we were glad and 
 said, " Doubtless there is some mystery in all this." Then we 
 dispersed about the thoroughfares, and each busied himself with 
 collecting the wealth and money and rich stuffs, taking scanty heed 
 of friend or comrade. As for myself I went up to the castle, which 
 was strongly fortified ; and entering the King's palace by its gate of 
 red gold, found all the vaiselle of gold and silver, and the King 
 himself seated in the niidst of his Chamberlains and Nabobs and 
 Emirs and Wazirs, all clad in raiment which confounded man's art. 
 I drew nearer and saw him sitting on a throne incrusted and inlaid 
 with pearls and gems ; and his robes were of gold-cloth adorned with 
 jewels of every kind, each one flashing like a star. Around him 
 stood fifty Mamelukes, white slaves, clothed in silks of divers sorts 
 holding their drawn swords in their hands ; but when I drew near to 
 them, lo ! all were black stones. My understanding was confounded 
 at the sight, but I walked on and entered the great hall of the 
 Harim,'' whose walls I foun d hung with tapestries of gold-striped silk, 
 and spread with silken carpets embroidered with golden flowers. 
 Here I saw the Queen lying at full length arrayed in robes purfled 
 with fresh young ^ pearls ; on her head was a diadem set with many 
 sorts of gems each fit for a ring"' and around her neck hung collars 
 and necklaces. All her raiment and her ornaments were in natural 
 state, but she had been turned into a black stone by Allah's wrath. 
 Presently I espied an open door for which I made straight and found 
 leading to it a flight of seven steps. So I walked up and came upon 
 a place pargetted with marble, and spread and hung with gold-worked 
 
 ' Arab. " Maskhut," mostly applied to change of shape, as man enchanted to 
 monkey, and in vulgar parlance applied to a statue (of stone, etc.). Tiie list of 
 metamorphoses in Al-Islam is longer than that known to Ovid. Those who have 
 seen Petra, the Greek town of the Ilauran, and the Roman ruins in Northern 
 Africa, will readily detect the basis upon which these stories are built. I shall 
 return to this suliject in The City of Irani (vol. iii. night cclxxvi.) and The City of 
 Brass (vol. iv. night dlxvii. ). 
 
 ^ A picturesque phrase enough to express a deserted site, a spectacle familiar to 
 the Nomades and always abounding in pathos to the citizens. 
 
 3 The olden " Ilarem " (or gynreceum, Pcrs. Zenanah, Serraglio); Ilarim is also 
 used by synecdoche for the inmates ; especially the wife. 
 
 ■t The pearl is supposed in the East to lose 1% per ann. of its splenddur and 
 value. 
 
 5 Arab. " Pass," properly the bezel of a ring ; also a gem cut en taboclwit, and 
 generally the conteiiant for the conlenii.
 
 The Eldest LacNs Tale. 153 
 
 carpets and tapestry, aniiddlemost of which stood a throne of junii)cr- 
 wood inlaid with pearls and precious stones and set with bosses of 
 emeralds. In the further wall was an alcove whose curtains, bestrung 
 with pearls, were let down, and I saw a light issuing therefrom; so I 
 drew near and perceived that the light came from a precious stone as 
 big as an ostrich-egg, set at the upper end of the alcove upon a little 
 chryselephantine couch of ivory and gold ; and this jewel, blazing like 
 the sun, cast its rays wide and side. The couch also was spread 
 with all maimer of silken stuffs amazing the gazer with their 
 richness and beauty. I marvelled much at all this, especially when 
 seeing in that place candles ready lighted ; and I said in my mind, 
 "Needs must some one have lighted these candles." Then I went 
 forth and came to the kitchen and thence to the buttery and the King's 
 treasure-chambers; and continued to explore the palace and to pace 
 from place to place ; I forgot myself in my awe and marvel at these 
 matters, and I was drowned in thought till the night came on. Then 
 I would have gone forth, but knowing not the gate I lost my way, so 
 I returned to the alcove whither the lighted candles directed me, and 
 sat down upon the couch ; and wrapping myself in a coverlet, after 1 
 had repeated somewhat from the Koran, I would have slept but could 
 not, for restlessness possessed me. When night was at its noon I heard 
 a voice chanting the Koran in sweetest accents, but the tone thereof 
 was weak ; so I rose, glad to hear the silence broken, and followed 
 the sound until I reached a closet whose door stood ajar. Then 
 peeping through a chink I considered the place, and lo ! it was an 
 oratory wherein was a prayer-niche^ with two wax candles burning: 
 and lamps hanging from the ceiling. In it, too, was spread a prayer- 
 carpet, whereupon sat a youth fair to see; and before him on its 
 stand'^ was a copy of the Koran, from which he was reading. I 
 
 ' Arab. " Mihrab " = the arch-headed niche in the Mosque- wall facing Meccah- 
 wards. Here, with his back to the people and fronting the Ka'abali or Square 
 House of Meccah (hence called the " Kiblah" = direction of prayer), stations him- 
 self the Imam, antistes or fugleman, lit. " one who stands before others " ; and his 
 bows and prostrations give the time to the congregation. I have derived the 
 Mihrab from the niche in which the Egyptian God was shrined : the Jews ignored 
 it, but the Christians preserved it for their statues and altars. Maundrcll suggests 
 that the empty niche denotes an invisible God. As the niche (symbol of Venus), 
 . and the minaret (symbol of Priapus), date only from the days of the tenth Caliph, 
 Al-Walid (A.H. 86 — 96=105 — 115), the Hindus charge the Moslems with 
 having borrowed the two from their favourite idols — The Linga-Yoni or Cunnus- 
 phallus (Pilgrimage, ii. 140), and plainly call the Mihrab a Bhaga=Cunnus 
 (Dabistan, ii. 152). The Guebres further term Meccah, " Mah-gah," locus 
 Lum-e, and Al-Madinah, " Mahdiaah," = Moon of religion. See Dal)istan, i. 
 49, etc. 
 
 ^ Arab. " Kursi," a stool of palm-fronds, etc., X-shaped (see Lane's illustration 
 Nights i. 197), before which the reader sits. Good Moslems will not hold the 
 Holy Volume below the waist nor open it, except when ceremonially pure. English- 
 men in the East should remember, this, for to neglect the "Adab al-Kuran " 
 (rcsiiect due to Holy Writ) gives great scandal.
 
 154 A If Lay la h wa Laylah. 
 
 marvelled to see him alone alive amongst the people of the city, and 
 entering saluted him; whereupon he raised his eyes and returned 
 my salam. Quoth I, "Now by the Truth of what thou readest 
 in Allah's Holy Book, I conjure thee to answer my question." 
 He looked upon me with a smile, and said, "O handmaid of Allah, 
 first tell me the cause of thy coming hither, and I in turn will tell 
 what hath befallen both me and the people of this city, and what 
 was the reason of my escaping their doom." So I told him my 
 story, whereat he wondered; and I questioned him of the people 
 of the city, when he replied, " Have patience with me for awhile, O 
 my sister!" and, reverently closing the Holy Book, he laid it up in 
 a satin bag. Then he seated me by his side ; and I looked at him, 
 and behold he was as the moon at its full, fair of face and rare 
 of form, soft-sided and slight, of well-proportioned height, and 
 cheek smoothly bright and diffusing light ; in brief, a sweeting, a 
 sugar-stick,^ even as saith the poet of the like of him in these 
 couplets :— 
 That night th' astrologer a scheme of planets drew, » And lo ! a graceful shape of 
 
 youth appeared in view : 
 Saturn had stained his locks with Saturniest jet, » And spots of nut-brown musk 
 
 on rosy side-face blew^: 
 Mars tinctured either cheek with tinct of martial red ; » Sagittal shots from eyelids 
 
 Sagittarius threw : 
 Dowered him Mercury with bright mercurial wit ; * Bore off the Bear^ what all 
 
 man's evil glances grew : 
 Amazed stood Astrophil to sight the marvel-birth » When louted low the Moon at 
 
 full to buss the Earth. 
 
 And of a truth Allah the Most High had robed him in the raiment 
 of perfect grace, and had purfled and fringed it with a cheek all 
 beauty and loveliness, even as the poet saith of such an one : — 
 By his eyelids shedding perfume, and his fine slim waist I swear, * By the shooting 
 
 of his shafts barbed with sorcery passing rare ; 
 By the softness of his sides,* and glances' lingering light ; » And brow of dazzling 
 
 day-tide ray and night within his hair ; 
 By his eyebrows which deny to who look upon them rest, * Now bidding, now 
 
 forbidding, ever dealing joy and care ; 
 By the rose that decks his cheek, and the myrtle of its moss^ ; » By jacinths bedded 
 
 in his lips and pearl his smile lays bare ; 
 
 ' Mr. Payne (i. 148) quotes the German Zuckerplippchen. 
 
 ^ The Persian poets have a thousand conceits in praise of the " mole" (Khal or 
 Shamah) for which Hafiz offered " Samarkand and Bokhara" (they not being his, 
 as his friends remarked). Another " topic " is the flight of arrows shot by eye- 
 lashes. 
 
 3 Arab. " Suha " a star in the Great Bear introduced only to balance " wushat " 
 = spies, enviers, enemies, whose "evil eye" it will ward off. 
 
 * In Arab tales beauty is always '•'soft-sided," and a smooth skin is valued in 
 proportion to its rarety. 
 
 5 The myrtle is the young hair upon the side-face.
 
 The Eldest Ladfs Tale. 155 
 
 By his graceful bending neck and the curving of his breasl. ; » WhooC polished sur- 
 face beareth those granadoes, lovely pair ; 
 
 By his heavy hips that quiver as he passeth in his pride ; * Or he restcth with that 
 waist which is slim beyond compare ; 
 
 By the satin of his skin, by that fine unsullied sprite; * By the beauty that con 
 taineth all things bright and debonnair ; 
 
 By that ever-open hand ; by the candour of his tongue ; » By noble blood and 
 high degree, whereof he's hope and heir ; 
 
 Musk from him borrows muskiness she loveth to exhale, » And all the airs of 
 ambergris through him perfume the air ; 
 
 The sun, methinks, the broad bright sun, before my love would pale * And sans 
 his splendour would appear a paring of his nail.' 
 
 I glanced at him with one glance of eyes which caused me a 
 thousand sighs ; and my heart was at once taken captive-wise ; so 
 I asked him, "O my lord and my love, tell me that whereof I 
 questioned thee " ; and he answered, " Hearing is obeying ! Know, 
 O handmaid of Allah, that this city was the capital of my father, 
 who is the King thou sawest on the throne transfigured by Allah's 
 wrath to a black stone, and the Queen thou foundest in the alcove 
 is my mother. They and all the people of the city were Magians 
 who fire adored in lieu of the Omnipotent Lord, '"' and were wont to 
 swear by lowe and heat and shade and light, and the spheres 
 revolving day and night. My father had ne'er a son till he was 
 blest with me near the last of his days ; and he reared me till I 
 grew up and prosperity anticipated me in all things. Now it so 
 fortuned there was with us an old woman well stricken in years, a 
 Moslemah who, inwardly believing in Allah and His Apostle, 
 conformed outwardly with the religion of my people; and my father 
 placed thorough confidence in her, for that he knew her to be 
 trustworthy and virtuous; and he treated her with ever-increasing 
 kindness, believing her to be of his own belief. So when I was 
 well-nigh grown up my father committed me to her charge, saying : — 
 Take him and educate him and teach him the rules of our faith; let 
 him have the best instructions, and cease not thy fostering care of him. 
 Wherefore she took me and taught me the tenets of Al-Islam with the 
 divine ordinances^ of the Wuzu-ablution and the five daily prayers, 
 
 • In other copies of these verses the fourth couplet swears, "by the scorpions of 
 his brow," i.e., the accrochc-arnrs, the beau-catchers, bell-ropes, or " aggravators," 
 as the B. P. calls them. In couplet eight the poet alludes to his love's " Unsur," 
 or element, his nature made up of the four classicals, and in the last couplet he 
 makes the nail-paring refer to the moon, not the sun. 
 
 ^ This is regular formula when speaking of Guebres. 
 
 3 Arab. " Faraiz " ; the orders expressly given in the Koran which, the reader 
 will remember, is Uncreate and Eternal. In India " Farz " is applied to in- 
 junctions thrice repeated ; and "Wajib" to those given twice over. Elsewhere 
 scanty difference is made between them.
 
 156 A If Lay la h wa Laylah. 
 
 and she made me learn the Koran by rote, often repeating: — Serve 
 none save Allah Almighty ! Vv'hen I had mastered this much of 
 knowledge, she said to me : — O my son, keep this matter concealed 
 from thy sire, and reveal naught to him lest he slay thee. So I hid 
 it from him, and I abode on this wise for a term of days when the 
 old woman died, and the people of the city redoubled in their 
 impiety^ and arrogance and the error of their ways. One day, 
 while they were as wont, behold! they heard a loud and terrible 
 sound, and a crier crying out with a voice like roaring thunder so 
 every ear could hear, far and near: — O folk of this city, leave ye 
 your fire-worshipping, and adore Allah the All-compassionate King! 
 Whereat fear and terror fell upon the citizens, and they crowded to 
 my father (he being King of the city) and asked him: — What is 
 this awesome voice we have heard, for it hath confounded us with 
 the excess of its terror ? And he answered : — -Let not a voice fright 
 you nor shake your steadfast sprite, nor turn you back from the 
 faith which is right. Their hearts inclined to his words, and 
 they ceased not to worship the fire, and they persisted in rebel- 
 lion for a full year from the time they heard the first voice ; and 
 on the anniversary came a second cry and a third at the head of the 
 third year, each year once. Still they persisted in their malpractices 
 till one day, at break of dawn, judgment and the wrath of Heaven 
 descended upon them with all suddenness, and by the visitation of 
 Allah all were metamorphosed into black stones,^ they and their 
 beasts and their cattle ; and none was saved save myself who at the 
 time was engaged in my devotions. From that day to this I am in 
 the case thou seest, constant in prayer and fasting and reading and 
 reciting the Koran ; but I am indeed grown weary by reason of my 
 loneliness, having none to bear me company." Then said I to him 
 {for in very sooth he had won my heart and was the lord of my life 
 and soul), " O youth, wilt thou fare with me to Baghdad city and 
 visit the Olema and men learned in the law and doctors of divinity, 
 
 ^ Arab. " Kufr" = rejecting the True Religion, i.e., Al-Islam, such rejection 
 bein<T " Tughyan," or rebellion against the Lord. The " terrible sound " is taken 
 fronithe legend of the prophet Salih and the jiroto-historic tribe of Thamiid, which 
 for its impiety, was struck dead by an earthquake and a noise from heaven. The 
 latter, according to some commentators, was the voice of the Archangel Gabriel 
 crying, "Die all of you " (Koran, chapts. vii. xviii., etc.). We shall hear more 
 of it in the " City of many-columned Iram." According to some, Salih, a mysterious 
 Badawi prophet, is buried in the Wady al-Shaykh of the mis-called Sinaitic 
 Penmsula. 
 
 - Yet they kept the semblance of man, showing that the idea arose from the 
 basaltic statues found in Hauranic ruins. Mohammed in his various marches to 
 Syria must have seen remnants of Greek and Roman settlements ; and as has been 
 noticed, " Seostris " left his mark near Meccah (Pilgrimage, iii. 137).
 
 The Eldest Lady's Talc. 157 
 
 and get thee increase of wisdom and understanding and theology ? 
 And know that she who standeth in tliy presence will be thy hand- 
 maid, albeit she be head of her family and mistress over men and 
 eunuchs and servants and slaves. Indeed my life was no life before 
 it fell in with thy youth. I have here a ship laden with merchandise ; 
 and in very truth Destiny drove me to this city that I might come to 
 the knowledge of these matters, for it was fated that we should meet." 
 And I ceased not to persuade him and speak him fair, and use every 
 
 art till he consented And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day 
 
 and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 iI5oto to{)cn it toas i^z ©tt];l)teent5 iQtgljt, 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the 
 lady oeased not persuading with soft speech the youth to depart with 
 her till he consented, and said, " Yes." She slept that night lying 
 at his feet, and hardly knowing where she was for excess of joy. As 
 soon as the next morning dawned (she pursued, addressing the 
 Caliph), I arose, and we entered the treasuries and took thence 
 whatever was light in weight and great in worth ; then we went down 
 side by side from the castle to the city, where we were met by 
 the Captain and my sisters and slaves who had been seeking for 
 me. When they saw me they rejoiced and asked what had stayed 
 me, and I told them all I had seen and related to them the story 
 of the young Prince, and the transformation wherewith the citizens 
 had been justly visited. Hereat all marvelled, but when my two 
 sisters (these two bitches, O Commander of the Faithful !) saw me 
 by the side of my young lover, they jaloused me on his account, 
 and were wroth and plotted mischief against me. We awaited a 
 fair wind, and went on board rejoicing and ready to fly for joy by 
 reason of the goods we had gotten, but my own greatest joyance 
 was in the youth ; and we waited awhile till the wind blew fair for 
 us, and then we set sail and fared forth. Now as we sat talking, 
 my sisters asked me, " And what wilt thou do with this handsome 
 young man ? " and I answered, " I purpose to make him my 
 husband ! " Then I turned to him and said, " O my lord, I have 
 that to propose to thee wherein thou must not cross me ; and this 
 it is that, when we reach Baghdad, my native city, I offer thee my 
 life as thy handmaiden in holy m.atrimony, and thou shalt be to me 
 baron and I will be femme to thee." He answered, " I hear and I 
 obey ! thou art my lady and my mistress, and whatso thou doest 
 I will not gainsay." Then I turned to my sisters and said, " This is
 
 158 Alf Laylah 7va Laylah. 
 
 my gain ; I content me with this youth, and those who have gotten 
 aught of my property let them keep it as their gain with my 
 good will." " Thou sayest and doest well," answered the twain, but 
 they imagined mischief against me. We ceased not spooning 
 before a fair wind till we exchanged the sea of peril for the seas of 
 safety and, in a few days, we made Bassorah-city, whose buildings 
 loomed clear before us as evening fell. But after we had retired to 
 rest and were sound asleep, my two sisters arose and took me up, bed 
 and all, and threw me into the sea : they did the same with the 
 young Prince who, as he could not swim, sank and was drowned, and 
 Allah enrolled him in the noble army of Martyrs.^ As for me would 
 Heaven I had been drowned with him, but Allah deemed that I 
 should be of the saved; so when I awoke and found myself in the sea 
 and saw the ship making off like a flash of lightning. He threw in my 
 way a piece of timber which I bestrided, and the waves tossed me to 
 and fro till they cast me upon an island-coast, a high land and an 
 uninhabited. I landed and walked about the island the rest of the 
 night and, when morning dawned, I saw a rough track barely fit for 
 child of Adam to tread, leading to what proved a shallow ford 
 connecting island with mainland. As soon as the sun had risen I 
 spread my garments to dry in its rays ; and ate of the fruits of the 
 island and drank of its waters ; then I set out along the foot-track 
 and ceased not walking till I reached the mainland. Now when 
 there remained between me and the city but a two hours' journey, 
 behold, a great serpent, the bigness of a date-palm, came fleeing 
 towards me in all haste, gliding along now to the right then to 
 the left till she was close upon me, whilst her tongue lolled 
 ground-wards a span long and swept the dust as she went. She 
 was pursued by a Dragon^ who was not longer than two lances, 
 and of slender build about the bulk of a spear and, although her 
 terror lent her speed, and she kept wriggling from side to side, he 
 overtook her and seized her by the tail, whereat her tears streamed 
 down and her tongue was thrust out in her agony. I took pity 
 on her and, picking up a stone and calling upon Allah for aid, 
 
 ' Arab. " Shuhada" ; highly respected by Moslems as by other religionists. The 
 Martyrs-category is extensive, including those killed by falling walls ; victims to 
 the plague, pleurisy and pregnancy ; travellers drowned or otherwise lost when 
 journeying honestly, and chaste lovers who die of " broken hearts." Their souls 
 are at once stowed away in the crops of green birds where they remain till Resur- 
 rection Day, "eating of the fruits and drinking of the streams of Paradise," a place 
 however, whose topography is wholly uncertain. Thus the young Prince was 
 rewarded with a manner of anti-Purgatory, a preparatory heaven. 
 
 " Arab. " Su'uban " : the Badawin give the name to a variety of serpents all 
 held to be venomous ; but in tales the word, like " Tannin," expresses our 
 "dragon, " or " cockatrice."
 
 The Eldest Lady's Tale. 159 
 
 threw it at the Dragon's head with such force that he died then 
 and there ; and the serpent opening a pair of wings flew into the 
 Hft and disappeared from before my eyes. I sat down marvelhng 
 over that adventure, but I was weary and, drowsiness overcoming 
 me, I slept where I was for a while. When I awoke I found a 
 jet-black damsel sitting at my feet shampooing them ; and by her 
 side stood two black bitches (my sisters, O Commander of the 
 Faithful !). I was ashamed before her^ and, sitting up, asked 
 her, "O my sister, who and what art thou?" and she answered, 
 " How soon hast thou forgotten me ! I am she for whom thou 
 wroughtest a good deed and sowedest the seed of gratitude and 
 slewest her foe ; for I am the serpent whom by Allah's aidance 
 thou didst just now deliver from the Dragon. I am a Jinniyah and 
 he was a Jinn who hated me, and none saved my life from him save 
 thou. As soon as thou freedest me from him I flew on the wind to 
 the ship whence thy sisters threw thee, and removed all that was 
 therein to thy house. Then I ordered my attendant Marids to sink 
 the ship, and I transformed thy two sisters into these black bitches ; 
 for I know all that hath passed between them and thee ; but as for 
 the youth, of a truth he is drowned. So saying she flew up with me 
 and the bitches, and presently set us down on the terrace-roof of my 
 house, wherein I found ready stored the whole of what property was 
 in my ship, nor was aught of it missing. Now (continued the serpent 
 that was), I swear by all engraven on the seal-ring of Solomon ^ (with 
 whom be peace !) unless thou deal to each, of these bitches three 
 hundred stripes every day I will come and imprison thee for ever 
 under the earth." I answered, " Hearkening and obedience ! " and 
 away she flew. But before going she again charged me saying, " I 
 again swear by Him who made the two seas flow ^ (and this be my 
 second oath), if thou gainsay me I will come and transform thee like 
 thy sisters." Since then I have never failed, O Commander of the 
 Faithful, to beat them with that number of blows till their blood flows 
 with my tears, I pitying them the while, and well they wot that their 
 being scourged is no fault of mine, and they accept my excuses. And 
 this is my tale and my history ! The Caliph mar^-e^ed at her 
 
 ' She was ashamed to see ihe lady doing servile duty by rubbing her feet. This 
 massage, which B. de la Brocquiere describes in 1452 as " kneading and pinching," 
 has already been noticed. The French term is apparently derived from the Arab. 
 " Mas-h." 
 
 ^ Alluding to the Most High Name, the hundredth name of God, the Heb. 
 Shem hamphorash, unknown save to a favoured few who by using it perform all 
 manner of miracles. 
 
 3 i.e., the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean.
 
 i6o AlJ Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 adventures, and then signed to Ja'afar who said to the second lady, 
 the Portress, " And thou, how earnest thou by the welts and wheals 
 upon thy body ? " So she began the 
 
 TALE OF THE FORTRESS. 
 
 Know, O Commander of the Faithful, that I had a father who, after 
 fulfilling his time, deceased and left me great store of wealth. I 
 remained single for a short time, and presently married one of the 
 richest of his day. I abode with him a year when he also died, and 
 my share of his property amounted to eighty thousand dinars in gold 
 according to the holy law of inheritance.^ Thus I became passing 
 rich and my reputation spread far and wide, for I had made me ten 
 changes of raiment, each worth a thousand dinars. One day as I 
 was sitting at home, behold, there came in to me an old woman "- with 
 lantern jaws and cheeks sucked in, and eyes rucked up, and eyebrows 
 scant and scald, and head bare and bald ; and teeth broken by time 
 and mauled, and back bending and neck-nape nodding, and face 
 blotched, and rheum running, and hair like a snake black-and-white- 
 speckled, in complexion a very fright, even as saith the poet of the 
 like of her : — 
 
 Ill-omened hag ! unshriven be her sins » Nor mercy visit her on dying bed : 
 Thousand head-strongest he-mules would her guiles, * Despite their bolting, lead 
 with spider-thread. 
 
 And as saith another : — 
 
 A hag to whom th' unlawful lawfullest * And witchcraft wisdom in her sight are 
 
 grown : 
 A mischief-making brat, a demon-maid, * A whorish woman, and a pimping 
 
 crone. 
 
 When the old woman entered she salamed to me and kissing the 
 ground before me, said, " I have at home an orphan daughter, and 
 this night are her wedding and her displaying.^ We be poor folks 
 
 ' i.e., settled by the Koran. 
 
 ^ The uglier the old woman the better procuress she is supposed to make. See 
 the Santa Verdiana in Boccaccio v. lo. In Arab. " Ajiiz " (old woman) is highly 
 insulting, and if addressed to an Egyptian, whatever be her age, she will turn fiercely 
 and resent it. The polite term is Shay bah (Pilgrimage, iii. 200). 
 
 3 Arab. " Jila " (the Hindostani Julwa) = the displaying of the bride before the 
 bridegroom for the first time, in different dresses, to the number of seven, which 
 are often borrowed for the occasion. The happy man must pay a fee called " the 
 tax of face-unveiling," before he can see her features. Amongst Syrian Christians 
 he sometimes tries to lift the veil by a sharp movement of the sword which is 
 parried by the women present, and the blade remains entangled in the cloth. At 
 last he succeeds, the bride sinks to the ground covering her face with her hands and 
 the robes of her friends : presently she is raised up, her veil is readjusted, and her 
 face is left bare.
 
 Tale of the Portress. i6i 
 
 and strangers in this city, knowing none inhabitant, and we are 
 broken-hearted. So do thou earn for thyself a recompense and a 
 reward in Heaven by being present at her displaying and, when 
 the ladies of this city shall hear that thou art to make act of 
 presence, they also will present themselves ; so shalt thou comfort 
 her affliction, for she is sore bruised in spirit and she hath none to 
 look to save Allah the Most High." Then she wept and kissed my 
 feet, reciting these couplets : — 
 
 Thy presence bringeth us a grace, * We own before thy winsome face : 
 And wert thou absent ne'er an one * Could stand in stead or take thy place. 
 
 So pity gat hold on me and compassion, and I said, "Hearing is 
 consenting, and, please Allah, I will do somewhat more for her; nor 
 shall she be shown to her bridegroom save in my raiment and 
 ornaments and jewelry," At this the old woman rejoiced, and 
 bowed her head to my feet and kissed them, saying, " Allah requite 
 thee weal, and comfort thy heart, even as thou hast comforted mine. 
 But, O my lady, do not trouble thyself to do me this service at this 
 hour; be thou ready by supper-time,^ when I will come and fetch 
 thee." So saying, she kissed my hand, and went her ways. I set 
 about stringing my pearls and donning my brocades and making my 
 toilette, little recking what Fortune had in womb for me, when 
 suddenly the old woman stood before me, simpering and smiling till 
 she showed every tooth-stump, and quoth she, "O, my mistress, the 
 city madams have arrived, and when I apprized them that thou 
 promisedst to be present they were glad, and they are now awaiting 
 thee, and looking eagerly for thy coming and for the honour of 
 meeting thee." So I threw on my mantilla, and, making the old 
 crone walk before me and my handmaidens behind me, I fared till 
 we came to a street well watered and swept neat, where the 
 winnowing breeze blew cool and sweet. Here we were stopped by a 
 gate arched over with a dome of marble-stone firmly seated on 
 solidest foundation, and leading to a Palace whose walls from earth 
 rose tall and proud, and whose pinnacle was crowned by the clouds," 
 and over the doorway were writ these couplets : — 
 
 I am the wone where Mirth shall ever smile ; * The home of Joyance through my 
 
 lasting while : 
 And 'mid my court a fountain jets and flows, » Nor tears, nor troubles, shall that 
 
 fount defile : 
 
 ' Arab. " 'Isha" = the first watch of the night, twilight, supper-time, supper. 
 Moslems have borrowed the four watches of the Romans from 6 (a.m. or p.m.) to 
 6 ; and ignore the three original watches of the Jews, even, midnight, and cockcrow, 
 (Sam. ii. 19, Judges vii. 19, and Exodus xiv. 24). 
 
 * A popular Arab hyperbole. 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 1 62 Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 The marge with royal Nu'umaa's' bloom is dight. » Myrtle, Narcissus-flower and 
 Chamomile. 
 
 Arrived at the gate, before which hung a black curtain, the old 
 woman knocked and it was opened to us ; when we entered and 
 found a vestibule spread with carpets and hung around with lamps 
 all alight and wax candles in candelabra adorned with pendants of 
 precious geins and noble ores. We passed on through this passage 
 till we entered a saloon, wdiose like for grandeur and beauty is not 
 to be found in this world. It was hung and carpeted with silken 
 stuffs, and was illuminated with branches, sconces, and tapers ranged 
 in double row, an avenue abutting on the upper or noble end of the 
 saloon, where stood a couch of juniper-wood encrusted with pearls 
 and gems, and surmounted by a baldaquin with mosquito-curtains of 
 satin looped up with margarites. And hardly had we taken note of 
 this when there came forth from the baldaquin a young lady and 
 I looked, O Commander of the Faithful, upon a face and form more 
 perfect than the moon when fullest, with a favour brighter than the 
 dawn gleaming with safifron-hued light, even as the poet sang when 
 he said : — 
 
 Thou pacest the palace a marvel-sight, * A bride for a Kisra's or Kaisar's 
 night ! 
 
 Wantons the rose on thy roseate cheek, * O cheek as the blood of the dragon ^ 
 bright ! 
 
 Slim-waisted, languorous, sleepy-eyed, * With charms which promise all love- 
 delight : 
 
 And the tire which attires thy tiara'd brow » Is a night of woe on a morn's glad 
 light. 
 
 The fair young girl came down from the estrade and said to me, 
 " Welcome and well come and good cheer to my sister, the dearly- 
 beloved, the illustrious, and a thousand greetings ! " Then she 
 recited these couplets : — 
 
 An but the house could know who cometh 'twould rejoice, » And kiss the very 
 
 dust whereon thy foot was placed ; 
 And with the tongue of circumstance the walls would say, « " Welcome and hail 
 
 to one with generous gifts engraced ! " 
 
 Then sat she down and said to me, "O my sister, I have a brother 
 who hath had sight of thee at sundry wedding-feasts and festive 
 seasons : he is a youth handsomer than I, and he hath fallen 
 
 ' Arab. " Shakaik al-Nu'uman," lit. the fissures of Nu'uman, the beautiful 
 anemone, which a tyrannical King of Hirah, Nu'uman ibn al-Munzir, a contem- 
 porary oi Mohammed, attempted to monopolize. 
 
 ^ Arab. "Andam" = here the gum called dragon's blood; in other places the 
 dye-wood known as brazil.
 
 Tale of the Portress. 163 
 
 desperately in love ^vith thee, for that bounteous Destiny hath 
 garnered in thee all beauty and perfection; and he hath given 
 silver to this old woman that she might visit thee; and she hath 
 contrived on this wise to forgather us twain. He hath heard that 
 thou art one of the nobles of thy tribe, nor is he aught less in 
 liis. And, being desirous to ally his lot with thy lot, he hath 
 I'ractised this device to bring me in company with thee; for he is 
 fain to marry thee after the ordinance of Allah and His Apostle, and 
 in what is lawful and right there is no shame." When I heard 
 these words, and saw myself fairly entrapped in the house, I said, 
 "Hearing is consenting." She was delighted at this, and clapped 
 her hands ^; whereupon a door opened, and out of it came a young 
 man blooming in the prime of life, exquisitely dressed, a model of 
 beauty and loveliness and symmetry and perfect grace, with gentle 
 winning manners, and eyebrows like a bended bow and shaft on 
 cord, and eyes which bewitched all hearts with sorcery lawful in the 
 sight of the Lord; even as saith some rhymer describing the like of 
 him : — 
 
 His face as the face of the young moon shines * And Fortune stamps him with 
 pearls for signs. ^ 
 
 And Allah favour him who said : — 
 
 Blest be his beauty ; blest the Lord's decree * Who cast and shaped a thing so 
 
 bright of blee : 
 All gilts of beauty he conjoins in one ; * Lost in his love is all humanity ; 
 For Beauty's self inscribed on his brow « " I testify there be no Good but he 3 ! " 
 
 When I looked at him my heart inclined to him, and I loved him; 
 and he sat by my side and talked with me a while, when the young 
 lady again clapped her hands, and, behold! a side-door opened, and 
 out of it came the Kazi, with his four assessors as witnesses; and 
 they saluted us, and, sitting down, drew up and wrote out the 
 marriage-contract between me and the youth and retired. Then he 
 turned to me, and said, "Be our night blessed," presently adding, 
 " O my lady, I have a condition to lay on thee." Quoth I, " O 
 my lord, what be that ? " Whereupon he arose, and fetching a copy 
 of the Holy Book presented it to me, saying, " Swear hereon 
 thou wilt never look at any other than myself, nor incline thy body 
 or thy heart to him." I swore readily enough to this, and he joyed 
 
 ' I need hardly say that in the East, where bells are unused, clapping the hands 
 summons the servants. In India men cry " Quy hye " (Koi hai ?) and in the Brazil 
 whistle, " Pst ! " after the fashion of Spain and Portugal. 
 
 ^ The moles are here compared with pearls ; a simile by no means common or 
 iippropriate. 
 
 3 A parody on the testification of Allah's Unity. 
 
 L 2
 
 164 Alj Lay/ah wa Lay /ah. 
 
 with exoccdi'ig joy, and embraced me round the neck, while love 
 for him possessed my whole heart. Then they set the table ^ before 
 us and we ale and drank till we were satisfied ; but I was dying 
 for the coiuijig of the night. And when night did come he led me 
 to the bride-chamber and slept with me on the bed and continued 
 to kiss and embrace me till the morning—such a night I had never 
 seen in my dreams. 1 lived with him a lile of happiness and 
 delight for a full month, at the end of which I asked his leave ^ to 
 fare on foot to the bazar and buy me certain especial stuffs, and 
 he gave me permission. .So I donned my mantilla and, taking 
 with me the old woman and a slave-girl,* I went to the khan of 
 the silk-mercers, where T seated myself in the shop-front of a 
 young merchant whom the old woman recommended, saying to 
 me, "This youth's father died when he was a boy and left him 
 great store of wealth: he hath by liiui a mighty fine* stock of 
 goods, and thou wilt find what thou scekest with him, for none in 
 the bazar hath better stuffs timii he." Then she said to him, 
 "Show this lady the most costly staffs thou hast by thee"; and he 
 rci)lied, " Hearkening and obedience ! " Then she whispered me, 
 " Say a civil word to him ! " but I replied, " I am pledged to address 
 no man save my lord." And as she began to sound his praise I 
 said sharply to her, " We want naught of tiiy sweet speeches ; our 
 wish is to buy of him whatsoever we need, and return home." So 
 he brought me all I sought, and I offered him his money; but he 
 refused to take it, saying, "Let it be a gift offered to my guest this 
 day." Then quoth I to the old woman, "If he will not take the 
 money, give him back his stuff." "By Allah," cried he, "not a 
 thing will I take from thee 1 I sell it not for gold or for silver; but I 
 give it all as a gift for a single kiss — a kiss more precious to me 
 than everything the shop containeth." Asked the old woman, 
 "What will the kiss profit thee?" And, turning to me, whispered, 
 
 ' .A.rab. " Simat" (prop. " Sumat ") ; the "dinner-table," composed of a round 
 v/oodcn stool supporting a large metal tray, the two being called " Sufrah " (or 
 "Simat"): tints, "Sufrah hazirah?" means dinner is on the table. After the 
 meal they are at once removed. 
 
 " Ir. the text " Dastur," the Persian word before noticed ; " Izn" would be the 
 proper Arabic equivalent. 
 
 3 In the r.Ioslem East a young woman, single or married, is not allowed to 
 appear alone h'. the streets ; and the police has a right to arrest delinquents. As a 
 preventive of intrigues the precaution is excellent. During the Crimean war 
 hundreds of ofticers, English, French, and Italian, became familiar with Constanti- 
 nonle ; and not a I'ew flattered themselves on their success with Turkish women. 
 I do not believe that a single bona fide case occurred ; the " conquests " were all 
 Greeks. Wallachians, Armenians, or Jewesses. 
 
 •* Arab. *' Azim ■• : lr.T.nslators do not seem to know that this word in The Nights 
 often bears ir? Egv]).lian ar.d slang sense, somewhat equivalent lo our " deuced " or 
 " mighty " or " awlV.lly fine."
 
 No. 5. 
 Tale of the Portress. 
 
 " He put his mouth to my cheek. . . . But, 
 while kissing me, he bit me so hard a bite that 
 it tore the flesh from my cheek."
 
 Tale of the Portress. 165 
 
 "O my daughter, thou hearest what this young fellow saith ? What 
 harm will it do thee if he get a kiss from thee, and thou gettest 
 what thou seekest at that price?" Replied I, "I take refuge with 
 Allah from such action. Knowest thou not that I am bound by 
 an oath^?" But she answered, "Now \vhist ! Just let him kiss 
 thee, and neither speak to him nor lean over him, so shalt thou 
 keep thine oath and thy silver, and no harm whatever shall befall 
 thee." And she ceased not to persuade me and importune me and 
 make light of the matter till evil entered into my mind, and I put 
 my head in the poke,^ and, declaring I would ne'er consent, 
 consented. So I veiled my eyes and held up the edge of my 
 mantilla between me and the people passing, and he put his 
 mouth to my cheek under the veil. But, while kissing me, he bit 
 me so hard a bite that it tore the flesh from my cheek,^ and blood 
 flowed fast, and faintness came over me. The old woman caught me 
 in her arms, and, when I came to myself, I found the shop shut up, 
 and her sorrowing over me, and saying, " Thank Allah for averting 
 what might have been worse !" Then she said to me, "Come, take 
 heart and let us go home before the matter become public, and thou 
 be dishonoured. And when thou art safe inside the house feign 
 sickness, and lie down and cover thyself up ; and I will bring 
 thee powders and plasters to cure this bite withal, and thy 
 wound will be healed at the latest in three days." So after a 
 while I arose, and I was in extreme distress, and terror came 
 full upon me ; but I went on little by little till I reached the house, 
 when I pleaded illness and lay me down. When it was night my 
 husband came in to me and said, " What hath befallen thee, O my 
 dearling, in this excursion of thine ? " and I replied, " I am not 
 well : my head acheth badly." Then he lighted a candle and 
 drew near me and looked hard at me and asked, "What is that 
 wound I see on thy cheek, and in the tenderest part too ? " And I 
 answered, "When I went out to-day with thy leave to buy stuffs, 
 a camel laden with firewood jostled me, and one of the pieces tore 
 my veil and wounded my cheek as thou seest ; for indeed the ways 
 of this city are strait." "To-morrow," cried he, "I will go com- 
 plain to the Governor, so shall he gibbet every fuel-seller in 
 Baghdad." "Allah upon thee," said I, "burden not thy soul with 
 
 ' This is a very serious thing amongst Moslems, and scrupulous men often make 
 great sacrifices to avoid taking an oath. 
 
 ^ We should say " into the noose." 
 
 3 The man had fallen in love with her and determined to mark her so that she 
 might be his.
 
 1 66 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 such sin against any man. The fact is, I was riding on an ass, and 
 it stumbled, throwing me to the ground; and my cheek Hghted upon 
 a stick or a bit of glass, and got this wound." " Then," said he, 
 "to-morrow I will go up to Ja'afar the Barmaki and tell him the 
 story, so shall he kill every donkey-boy in Baghdad." " Wouldst 
 thou destroy all these men because of my wound," said I, "when 
 this which befell me was by decree of Allah and his destiny?" But 
 he answered, "There is no help for it." And, springing to his feet, 
 pHed me with words, and pressed me till I was perplexed and 
 frightened; and I stuttered and stammered and my speech waxed 
 thick, and I said, "This is a mere accident by decree of Allah." 
 Then, O Commander of the Faithful, he guessed my case, and said, 
 "Thou hast been false to thine oath." He at once cried out with a 
 loud cry, whereupon a door opened, and in came seven black 
 slaves, whom he commanded to drag me from my bed and throw me 
 down in the middle of the room. Furthermore, he ordered one of 
 them to pinion my elbows and squat upon my head, and a second to 
 sit upon my knees and secure my feet; and, drawing his sword, he 
 gave it to a third, and said, "Strike her, O Sa'ad, and cut her in 
 twain, and let each one take half and cast it into the Tigris that the 
 fish may eat her; for such is the retribution due to those who violate 
 their vows and are unfaithful to their love." And he redoubled in 
 wrath, and recited these couplets : — 
 
 An there be one who shares with me her love, * I'd strangle Love tho' life Ijy 
 
 Love were slain ; 
 Saying, O Soul, Death were the nobler choice, » For ill is Love when shared 
 
 'twixt partners twain. 
 
 Then he repeated to the slave, " Smite her, O Sa'ad !" And when 
 the slave, who was sitting upon me, made sure of the command he 
 bent down to me and said, " O my mistress, repeat the profession 
 of Faith, and bethink thee if there be anything thou wouldst have 
 done ; for verily this is the last hour of thy life." " O good slave," 
 said I, " wait but a little while and get off my head that I may 
 charge thee with my last injunctions." Then I raised my head 
 and saw the state I was in; how I had fallen from high degree into 
 lowest disgrace ; and into death after life (and such life !) and how 
 I had brought my punishment on myself by my own sin;- whereupon 
 the tears streamed from mine eyes, and I wept with exceeding 
 weeping. But he looked on me with eyes of wrath, and began 
 repeating : — 
 
 Tell her who turneth from our love to work it injury sore, * And taketh her a fine 
 new love the old love tossing o'er :
 
 Tale of the Portress. 167 
 
 We ciy enough o' thee ere thou enough of us shalt cry ! * What past between us 
 doth sullice and haply something more.' 
 
 When I heard this, O Commrnder of the Faithful, I wept, and 
 looked at him, and began repeating these couplets : — 
 
 To severance you doom my love and all unmoved remain ; » My tear-sore lids you 
 
 sleepless make aud sleep while I complain : 
 You make firm friendship reign between mine eyes and insomny ; « Yet can my 
 
 heart forget you not, nor tears can I restrain : 
 You made me swear with many an oath my troth to hold for aye ; * But when you 
 
 reigned my bosom's lord you wrought me traitor-bane : 
 I loved you like a silly child who wots not what is Love ; * Then spare the 
 
 learner, be she but by hand of master slain ! 
 By Allah's name I pray you write, when I am dead and gone, » Upon my tomlj, 
 
 This died of Love whose senses Love had ta'en : 
 Then haply one shall pass that way who fire of Love hath felt, « And treading on 
 
 a lover's heart with ruth and woe shall melt. 
 
 When I ended my verses tears came again; but the poetry and the 
 weeping only added fury to his fury, and he recited: — 
 
 'Twas not satiety bade me leave the dearling of my soul, * But that she sinned a 
 
 mortal sin which dipt me in its clip ; 
 She sought to let another share the love between us twain, * But my True Faith 
 
 of Unity refuseth partnership.- 
 
 When he ceased reciting, I wept again, and prayed his pardon, and 
 humbled myself before him, and spoke him softly, saying to myself, 
 "I will work on him with words; so haply he will refrain from slaying 
 me, even though he take all I have." So I complained of my 
 sufferings, and began to repeat these couplets : — 
 
 Now, by thy life and wert thou just my life thou hadst not ta'en, » But who can 
 
 break the severance-law which parteth lovers twain ! 
 Thou loadest me with heavy weight of longing love, when I * Can hardly bear 
 
 my chemisette for weakness and for pain : 
 I marvel not to see my life and soul in ruin lain : » I marvel much to see my frame 
 
 such severance-pangs sustain. 
 
 When I ended my verse I wept again ; and he looked at me, and 
 reviled me in abusive language,^ repeating these couplets: — 
 
 Thou wast all taken up with love of other man, not me ; » 'Twas thine to show 
 me severance-face, 'twas only mine to see : 
 
 ' Such an execution would be contrary to Moslem law : but people would look 
 leniently upon the peccadillo of beheading or sacking a faithless wife. Moreover, 
 the youth was of the blood royal and A qitoi bon et re prince ? as was said by a boy 
 of viceroyal family in Egypt to his tutor, who reproached him for unnecessarily 
 shooting down a poor old man. 
 
 * Arab. " Shirk," partnership, evening or associating gods with God ; poly- 
 theism : especially levelled at the Hindu triadism, Guebre dualism, and Christian 
 Trinitarianism. 
 
 3 Arab. " Shatm " = abuse, generally couched in foulest language with especial 
 reference to the bodies of female relatives.
 
 i6<> Alf Laylah zva LaylaJi. 
 
 I'll leave thee for that first thou wast of me to take thy leave « And patient bear 
 
 that parting blow thou borest so patiently : 
 E'en as thou soughtest other love, so other love I'll seek, * And make the crime 
 of murdering love thine own atrocity. 
 
 When he had ended his verses he again cried out to the slave, " Cut 
 her in half and free us from her, for we have no profit of her." So 
 the slave drew near me, O Commander of the Faithful, and I ceased 
 bandying verses and made sure of death and, despairing of life, 
 committed my affairs to Almighty Allah, when, behold ! the old 
 woman rushed in and threw herself at my husband's feet and kissed 
 them, and wept and said, "O my son, by the rights of my fosterage 
 and by my long service to thee, I conjure thee pardon this young 
 lady, for indeed she hath done nothing deserving such doom. Thou 
 art a very young man, and I fear lest her death be laid at thy door; 
 for it is said : — Whoso slayeth shall be slain. As for this wanton 
 (since thou deemcst her such) drive her out from thy doors, from 
 thy love, and from thy heart." And she ceased not to weep and 
 importune him till he relented, and said, " I pardon her, but needs 
 must I set on her my mark which shall show upon her all her life." 
 Then he bade the slaves drag me along the ground and lay me out 
 at full length, after stripping me of all my clothes ^ ; and when the 
 slaves had so sat upon me that I could not move, he fetched in a rod 
 of quince-tree and came down with it upon my body, and continued 
 beating me on the back and sides till I lost consciousness from excess 
 of pain, and I despaired of life. Then he commanded the slaves to 
 take me away as soon as it was dark, together with the old woman to 
 show them the way, and throw me upon the floor of the house 
 wherein I dwelt before my marriage. They did their lord's bidding 
 and cast me down in my old home and went their ways. I did not 
 revive from my swoon till dawn appeared, when I applied myself to 
 the dressing of my wounds with ointments and other medicaments ; 
 and I medicined myself, but my sides and ribs still showed signs of 
 the rod as thou hr.3t seen. I lay in weakly case and confined to my 
 bed for four months before I Avas able to rise and health returned to 
 me. At the end of that time I went to the house where all this had 
 happened and found it a ruin ; the street had been pulled down 
 endlong and rubbish-heaps rose where the building erst was ; nor 
 could I learn how this had come about. Then I betook myself to 
 this my sister on my father's side, and found with her these two black 
 
 ^ When a woman is bastinadoed in the East they leave her some portion of dress 
 and i^our over her sundry buckets of water for a delicate consideration. When the 
 hands are beaten they are passed through holes in the curtain separating the sufterer 
 from mankind, and made fast to a " falakah " or pole.
 
 Tale of the Fortress. 169 
 
 bitches. I saluted her and told her what had betided me and the 
 whole of my story and she said, " O niy sister, who is safe from the 
 despite of Time and secure ? Thanks be to Allah who hath brought 
 thee off safely " ; and she began to say : — 
 
 Such is the World, so bear a patient heart * When riches leave thee and when 
 friends depart ! 
 
 Then she told me her own story, and what had happened to her with 
 her two sisters, and how matters had ended ; so we abode together 
 and the subject of marriage was never on our tongues for all these 
 years. After a while we were joined by our other sister, the 
 procuratrix, who goeth out every morning and buyeth all we require 
 for the day and night ; and we continued in such condition till this 
 last night. In the morning our sister went out, as usual, to make her 
 market and then befell us what befell from bringing the Porter into the 
 bouse and admitting these three Kalandar-men. We entreated them 
 kindly and honourably, and a quarter of the night had not passed ere 
 three grave and respectable merchants from Mosul joined us and 
 told us their adventures. We sat talking with them but on one con- 
 dition which they violated, whereupon we treated them as sorted with 
 their breach of promise, and made them repeat the account they had 
 given of themselves. They did our bidding, and we forgave their 
 offence ; so they departed from us and this morning we were 
 unexpectedly summoned to thy presence. And such is our story ! 
 The Caliph wondered at her words and bade the tale be recorded 
 
 and chronicled and laid up in his muniment-chambers. And 
 
 Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her 
 permitted say. 
 
 Boto tobcn it linfi X\z BxcxXm\\\ Bicfibt, 
 
 She continued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the 
 Caliph commanded this story and those of the sister and the 
 Kalandars to be recorded in the archives and be set in the royal 
 muniment-chambers. Then he asked the eldest lady, the mistress ot 
 . the house, "Knowest thou the whereabouts of the Ifritahwho spelled 
 thy sisters?" and she answered, "O Commander of the Faithful, 
 she gave me a ringlet of her hair, saying : — Whenas thou wouldest see 
 me, burn a couple of these hairs and I will be with thee forthright, 
 even though I w^ere beyond Caucasus-mountain." Quoth the Caliph, 
 " Bring me hither the hair." So she brought it, and he threw the 
 whole lock upon the fire. As soon as the odour of the burning hair 
 dispread itself, the palace shook and trembled, and all present heard
 
 170 Alf Laylah wa Layiah. 
 
 a rumbling and rolling of thunder and a noise as of wings, and lo ! 
 the Jinniyah who had been a serpent stood in the Caliph's presence. 
 Now she was a Moslemah, so she saluted him and said, "Peace be 
 with thee O Vicar ^ of Allah " ; whereto he replied, "And with thee 
 also be peace and the ruth of Allah and His blessing." Then she 
 continued, " Know that this damsel sowed for me the seed of 
 kindness, wherefor I cannot enough requite her, in that she delivered 
 me from death and destroyed mine enemy. Now I had seen how 
 her sisters dealt with her and felt myself bound to avenge her on 
 them. At first I was minded to slay them, but I feared it would be 
 grievous to her, so I transformed them to bitches ; but if thou desire 
 their release, O Commander of the Faithful, I will release them to 
 pleasure thee and her, for I am of the Moslems." Quoth the Caliph, 
 "Release them, and after we will look into the affair of the beaten 
 lady and consider her case carefully ; and if the truth of her story be 
 evidenced, I will exact retaliation^ from him who wronged her." 
 Said the Ifritah, "O Commander of the Faithful, I will forthwith 
 release them and will discover to thee the man who did that deed 
 by this lady and wronged her and took her property, and he is the 
 nearest of all men to thee ! " So saying she took a cup of water 
 and muttered a spell over it and uttered words there was no under- 
 standing ; then she sprinkled some of the water over the faces of the 
 two bitches, saying, " Return to your former human shape ! " 
 whereupon they were restored to their natural forms and fell to 
 praising their Creator. Then said the Ifritah, " O Commander of 
 the Faithful, of a truth he who scourged this lady with rods is thy 
 son Al-Ami'n, brother of Al-Maamun ^ ; for he had heard of her 
 beauty and loveliness and he played a lover's stratagem with her and 
 married her according to the law and committed the crime (such as it 
 is) of scourging her. Yet indeed he is not to be blamed for beating 
 her, for he laid a condition on her and swore her by a solemn oath not 
 to do a certain thing ; however, she was false to her vow and he was 
 minded to put her to death, but he feared Almighty Allah and 
 contented himself with scourging her, as thou hast seen, and with 
 sending her back to her own place. Such is the story of the second 
 lady, and the Lord knoweth all." When the Caliph heard these 
 words of the Ifritah, and knew who had beaten the damsel, he 
 
 ' Arab. " Khalifah," Caliph. The word is also used for the successor of a 
 Santon or holy man. _ , , , 
 
 2 Arab. " Sar "' ; here the Koranic word for carrying out the venerable and 
 undying /ex talionis, the original basis of all criminal jurisprudence. Its main 
 fault is that justice repeats the oflence. 
 
 3 Both these sons of Harun became Caliphs, as we shall see m The Nights.
 
 The Tale of the Three Apples. 171 
 
 marvelled with mighty marvel and said, "Praise be to Allah, the 
 Most High, the Almighty, who hath shown His exceeding mercy 
 towards me, enabling me to deliver these two damsels from sorcery 
 and torture, and vouchsafing to let me know the secret of this lady's 
 history ! And now by Allah we will do a deed which shall be re- 
 corded of us after we are no more." Then he summoned his son 
 Al-Amin and questioned him of the story of the second lady, the 
 portress ; and he told it in the face of truth ; whereupon the Caliph 
 bade call into presence the Kazis and their witnesses, and the three 
 Kalandars, and the first lady with her sisters-german who had been 
 ensorcelled ; and he married the three to the three Kalandars 
 whom he knew to be princes and sons of Kings, and he appointed 
 them chamberlains about his person, assigning to them stipends 
 and allowances and all that they required, and lodging them in his 
 palace at Baghdad. He returned the beaten lady to his son, 
 Al-Am.in, renewing the marriage-contract between them and gave 
 her great wealth, and bade rebuild the house fairer than it was 
 before. As for himself he took to wife the procuratrix and lay with 
 her that night : and next day he set apart for her an apartment in 
 his Serraglio, with handmaidens for her service and a fixed d.uly 
 allowance. And the people marvelled at their Caliph's generosity 
 and natural beneficence and princely wisdom ; nor did he forget 
 to send all these histories to be recorded in his annals. When 
 Shahrazad ceased speaking Dunyazad exclaimed, " O my own 
 sister, by Allah in very sooth this is a right pleasant tale and a 
 delectable ; never was heard the like of it, but prithee tell me now 
 another story to while away what yet remaineth of the waking 
 hours of this our night." She replied, "With love and gladness it 
 the King give me leave"; and he said, "Tell thy tale and tell it 
 quickly." So she began, in these words, 
 
 THE TALE OF THE THREE APPLES. 
 
 They relate, O King of the age and lord of the time and of these 
 days, that the Caliph Harun al-Rashid summoned his Wazir Ja'afar 
 one night and said to him, " I desire to go down into the city and 
 question the common folk concerning the conduct of those charged 
 with its governance ; and those of whom they complain we will 
 depose from ofifice, and those whom they commend we will pro- 
 mote." Quoth Ja'afar, " Hearkening and obedience ! " So the
 
 172 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 Caliph went down with Ja'afar and Eunuch Masrur to the town and 
 walked about the streets and markets and, as they were threading a 
 narrow alley, they came upon a very old man with a fishing net and 
 crate to carry small fish on his head, and in his hand a staff; and, as 
 he walked at a leisurely pace, he repeated these lines : — 
 
 They say me : — Thou shinest a light to mankind » With thy lore as the night 
 
 which the Moon doth uplight ! 
 I answer, " A truce to your jests and your gibes ; * Without kick what is learn- 
 ing? — a poor-devil wight ! 
 If they take nie to pawn with my lore in my pouch, * With my volumes to read 
 
 and my ink-case to write. 
 For one day's provision they never could pledge me ; * As likely on Doomsday to 
 
 draw bill at sight " : 
 IIow poorly, indeed, doth it fare wi' the poor, * With his pauper existence and 
 
 beggarly plight : 
 In summer he faileth provision to find ; * In winter the fire-pot's his only 
 
 delight : 
 The street-dogs with bite and with bark at him rise, * And each losel receives him 
 
 with bark and with bite : 
 If he lift up his voice and complain of his wrong, « None pities or heeds him, 
 
 however he's right ; 
 And when sorrows and evils like these he must brave * His happiest homestead 
 
 were down in the grave. 
 
 When the Caliph heard his verses he said to Ja'afar, " See this 
 poor man and note his verses, for surely they point to his neces- 
 sities." Then he accosted him and asked, " O Shaykh, what be 
 thine occupation?'' and the poor man answered, "O my lord, I 
 am a fisherman with a family to keep and I have been out between 
 mid-day and this time ; and not a thing hath Allah made my portion 
 wherewithal to feed my family. I cannot even pawn myself to buy 
 them a supper, and I hate and disgust my life and I hanker after 
 death." Quoth the Caliph, " Say me, wilt thou return with us to 
 Tigris' bank and cast thy net on my luck, and whatsoever turneth 
 up I will buy of thee for an hundred gold pieces?" The man 
 rejoiced when he heard these words and said, " On my head be it ! 
 I will go back with you " ; and, returning with them river-wards, 
 made a cast and waited a while ; then he hauled in the rope and 
 dragged the net ashore and there appeared in it a chest padlocked 
 and heavy. The Caliph examined it and lifted, it finding it 
 weighty ; so he gave the fisherman two hundred dinars and sent 
 him about his business : whilst Masrur, aided by the Caliph, carried 
 the chest to the palace and set it down and lighted the candles. 
 Ja'afar and Masrur then broke it open and found therein a basket 
 of palm-leaves corded with red worsted. This they cut open and 
 saw within it a piece of carpet which they lifted out, and under it
 
 The Tale of the Three Apples. 173 
 
 was a woman's mantilla folded in four, which tliey pulled out ; and at 
 the bottom of the chest they came upon a young lady, fair as a silver 
 ingot, slain and cut into nineteen pieces. W'iien the Caliph looked 
 upon her he cried, "Alas!" and tears ran down his cheeks, and 
 turning to Ja'afar he cried, " O dog of Wazirs,^ shall folk be 
 murdered in our reign and be cast into the river to be a burden 
 and a responsibility for us on the Day of Doom ? By Allah, we 
 must avenge this woman on her murderer, and he shall be made 
 die the worst of derahs ! " And presently he added, *' Now, as 
 surely as we are desce.idcd from the Sons of Abbas," if thou bring 
 us not him who skw her, that we do her justice on him, 1 will hang 
 thee at the gate of my palace, thee and forty of thy kith and kin 
 by thy side." And the Caliph was wroth with exceeding rage. 
 Quoth Ja'afar, "Grant me three days' delay"; and quoth the 
 Caliph, "We grant thee this." So Ja'afar went out from before 
 him and returned to his own house, full of sorrow, and saying to 
 himself, " How shall I find him who murdered this damsel, that I 
 may bring him before the Cali{)h ? If I bring other than the 
 murderer, it will be laid to my charge by the Lord : in very sooth I 
 wot not what to do." He kept his house three days, and on the 
 fourth day the Caliph sent one of the Chamberlains for him and, 
 as he came into the presence, asked him, "Where is the murderer 
 of the damsel?" to which answered Ja'afar, "O Commander of 
 the Faithful, am I inspector of murdered folk that I should ken 
 who killed her?" The Caliph was furious at his answer, and 
 bade hang him before the palace -gate and commanded that 
 a crier cry through the streets of Baghdad, "Whoso would see 
 the hanging of Ja'afar, the Barmaki, Wazir of the Caliph, with 
 forty of the Barmecides,^ his cousins and kinsmen, before the 
 palace-gate, let him come and let him look ! " The people flocked 
 out from all the quarters of the city to witness the execution of 
 
 ' " Dog" and "hog" are still highly popular terms of abuse. The Rabljis will 
 not defile their lips with " pig" ; but say, " Dabhar akhir " = " another thing." 
 
 ^ The "hero eponymus " of the Ablmside dynasty, Abbas having been the 
 brother of Abdullah, the father of Mohammed. He is a famous personage in 
 Al- Islam. 
 
 3 Europe translates the word "Barmecides." It is Persian from /'(;;• (up) ;iucl 
 viakidan (to suck). The vulgar legend is that Ja'afar, the first of the tiame, 
 appeared before the Caliph Alxl al-Malik with a ring poisoned for his own need : 
 and that the Caliph, warned of it Ijy the clapping of two stones which he wore 
 ad hoc, charged the visitor with intention to murder him. He excused himseif, and 
 in his speech occurred the Persian word " Barmakam," which may mean " I shall 
 sup it up," or, " I am a Barniok,'" that is, a lu'gh priest among tiie rhiLlirei. Sec 
 D'Herbelot s.v.
 
 1 74 ^ Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 ja'afar and his kinsmen, not knowing the cause. Then they set 
 up the gallows and made Ja'afar and the others stand underneath 
 in readiness for execution ; but whilst every eye was looking for 
 the Caliph's signal, and the crowd wept for Ja'afar and his cousins 
 of the Barmecides, lo and behold ! a young man, fair of face and 
 neat of dress and of favour like the moon raining light, with eyes 
 black and bright, and brow flower-white, and cheeks red as rose 
 and young down where the beard grows, and a mole like a grain 
 of ambergris, pushed his way through the people till he stood 
 immediately before the Wazir, and said to him, "Safety to thee 
 from this strait, O Prince of the Emirs and Asylum of the poor ! 
 I am the man who slew the woman ye found in the chest ; so hang 
 me for her and do her justice on me ! " When Ja'afar heard the 
 youth's confession he rejoiced at his own deliverance, but grieved 
 and sorrowed for the fair youth ; and whilst they were yet talking, 
 behold ! another man well stricken in years pressed forwards 
 through the people and thrust his way through the populace till he 
 came to Ja'afar and the youth, whom he saluted, saying, "Ho 
 thou the Wazir and Prince sans-peer ! believe not the words of 
 this youth. Of a surety none murdered the damsel but I ; take 
 her wreak on me this moment ; for, an thou do not thus, I will 
 require it of thee before Almighty Allah." Then quoth"* the young 
 man, "O Wazir, this is an old man in his dotage who wotteth not 
 whatso he saith ever, and I am he who murdered her, so do thou 
 avenge her on me ! " Quoth the old man, " O my son, thou art 
 young and desirest the joys of the world, and I am old and weary 
 and surfeited with the world : I will offer my life as a ransom for 
 thee and for the Wazir and his cousins. No one murdered the 
 damsel but I, so Allah upon thee, make haste to hang me, for no 
 life is left in me now that hers is gone." The Wazir marvelled 
 much at all this strangeness and taking the young man and the 
 old man carried them before the Caliph ; where, after kissing 
 ground seven times between his hands, he said, "O Commander of 
 the Faithful, I bring thee the murderer of the damsel ! " " Where 
 is he?" asked the Caliph, and Ja'afar answered, "This young 
 man saith, I am the murderer, and this old man giving him the lie 
 saith, I am the murderer ! and behold ; here are the twain standing 
 before thee." The Caliph looked at the old ma:> and the young 
 man and asked, " Which of you killed the girl ? " The young man 
 replied, " No one slew her save I " ; and the old man answered, 
 "Indeed none killed her but myself" Then said the Caliph to 
 Ja'afar, "Take the twain and hang them both"; but Ja'afar 
 rejoined, " Since one of them was the murderer, to hang the other
 
 llie Talc of the Three Apples. 175 
 
 were mere injustice.^ " " By Him who raised the firmament and 
 dispread the earth Uke a carpet," cried the youth, " I am he who 
 slew the damsel " ; and he went on to describe the manner of her 
 murder and the basket, the mantilla and the bit of carpet, in fact 
 all that the Caliph had found upon her. So the Caliph was 
 certified that the young man was the murderer ; whereat he 
 wondered and asked him, "What was the cause of thy wrongfully 
 doing this damsel to die, and what made thee confess the murder 
 without the bastinado, and what brought thee here to yield up thy 
 life, and what made thee say. Do her wreak upon me?" The 
 )'Outh answered, " Know, O Commander of the Faithful, that this 
 woman was my wife and the mother of my children ; also my first 
 cousin and the daughter of my paternal uncle, this old man who is 
 my father's own brother. When I married her she was a maid- 
 and Allah blessed mc with three male children by her ; she loved 
 me and served me and I saw no evil in her, for I also loved her 
 with fondest love. Now on the first day of this month she fell ill 
 with grievous sickness, and I fetched in physicians to her; but 
 recovery came to her little by little and, when I wished her to go 
 to the Hammam-bath, she said : — There is a something I long for 
 before I go to the bath, and 1 long for it with an exceeding longing. 
 To hear is !o comply, said I, and what is it.' Quoth she, I have 
 a queasy craving for an apple, to smell it and bite a bit of it. I 
 replied : — Hadst thou a thousand longings I would try to satisfy 
 them ! So I went on the instant into the city and sought for apples 
 but could not find none ; yet, had they cost a gold piece each, would 
 I have bought them. I was vexed at this and went home and said : — 
 O daughter of my uncle, by Allah I can find none ! She was dis- 
 tressed, being yet very weakly, and her weakness increased greatly 
 ■on her that night, and I felt anxious and alarmed on her account. 
 As soon as morning dawned I went out again and made the round 
 of the gardens, one by one, but found no apples anywhere. At last 
 there met me an old gardener, of whom I asked about them, and 
 he answered : — O my son, this fruit is a rarity with us and is not 
 now to be found save in the garden of the Commander of the 
 Faithful at Bassorah, where the gardener keepeth it for the Caliph's 
 
 ^ Arab. " Zulm," the deadliest of monarch's sins. One of the sayings of 
 Mohammed, properly quoted, is, "Kingdom endureth with Kufr or infidelity 
 {i.e., without accepting Al-Islam), but endureth not with Zulm, or injustice." 
 Hence the good Moslem will not complain of the rule of Kafirs or Unbelievers, 
 like the English, so long as they rule him righteously and according to his own 
 Jaw. 
 
 ^ All this aggravates his crime : had she been a widow she would not have had 
 upon him " the claims of virginity," the premio della verginita of Boccaccio, x. 10.
 
 176 Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 eating. I returned to my house troubled by my ill-success; and my 
 love for my v.ife and my affection moved me to undertake the 
 journey. So I gat me ready and set out, and travelled fifteen days 
 and nights, going and coming, and brought her three apples which I 
 bought from the gardener for three dinars. But when I went in to 
 my wife and set them before her, she took no pleasure in them, and 
 let them lie by her side; for her weakness and fever had increased 
 on her, and her malady lasted without abating ten days, after which 
 time she began to recover health. So I left my house, and betaking 
 me to my shop sat there buying and selling. And about mid-day, 
 behold ! a great ugly black slave, long as a lance and broad as a 
 bench, passed by my shop, holding in hand one of the three apples, 
 wherewith he was playing. Quoth I, — O my good slave, tell me 
 whence thou tookest that apple, that I may get the like of it. He 
 laughed, and answered: — I got it from my mistress, for I had been 
 absent, and on my return I found her lying ill, with three apples 
 by her side, and she said to me : — INIy horned wittol of a husband 
 made a journey for them to Bassorah, and bought them for three 
 dinars. So I ate and drank with her, and took this one from 
 her.^ When I heard such words from the slave, O Commander 
 of the Faithful, the world grew black before my face, and I 
 arose and locked up my shop, and went home beside myself for 
 excess of rage. I looked for the apples, and, finding only two of 
 the three, asked my wife : — O n.y cousin, where is the third apple? 
 And, raising her head languidly, she answered: — I wot not, O son 
 of my uncle, where 'tis gone. This convinced me that the slave 
 had spoken the truth; so I took a knife and, coming behind her, 
 got upon her breast without a word said, and cut her throat. 
 Then I hewed off her head and her limbs in pieces, and, 
 wrapping her in her mantilla and a rag of carpet, hurriedly sewed 
 up the whole, which I set in a chest, and, locking it tight, loaded 
 it on my he-mule and threw it into the Tigris with my own hands. 
 So Allah upon thee, O Commander of the Faithful, make haste to- 
 hang me, as I fear lest she appeal for vengeance on Resurrection 
 Day. For when I had thrown her into the river and none knew 
 aught of it, as I went back home I found my eldest son crying, and 
 
 ' It is supposed that slaves cannot help telling these fatal lies. Arab story-books 
 are full of ancient and modern instances, and some have become "Joe Millers." 
 Moreover it is held unworthy of a free-born man to take over-notice of these servile 
 villanics ; hence the scoundrel in the story escapes unpunished. I have already 
 noticed the predilection of debauched women for these " skunks of the human 
 race " ; and the young man in the text evidently suspected that his wife had passed 
 herself this " little caprice." The excuse which the Caliph would find for him is the 
 fundottor shown in killing one he loved so fondly.
 
 The Tale of the Three Apples. 177 
 
 yet he knew naught of what I had done with his mother. I asked 
 him : — AVhat hath made thee weep, my boy ? and he answered : — 
 I took one of the three apples which were by my mammy and 
 went down into the lane to play with my brethren when, -behold ! a 
 big long black slave snatched it from my hand and said. Whence 
 hadst thou this? Quoth I, My father travelled far for it, and 
 brought it from Bassorah for my mother who was ill, and two other 
 apples for which he paid three ducats. He took no heed of my 
 words, and I asked for the apple a second and a third time, but he 
 cuffed me and kicked me and went off with it. I was afraid lest 
 my mother should swinge me on account of the apple, so for fear 
 of her I went with my brother outside the city and stayed there till 
 evening closed in upon us ; and indeed I am in fear of her ; and 
 now by Allah, O my father, say nothing to her of this or it may 
 add to her ailment ! When I heard what my child said I knew 
 that the slave was he who had foully slandered my wife, the 
 daughter of my uncle, and was certified that I had slain her 
 wrongfully. So I wept with exceeding weeping, and presently this 
 old man, my paternal uncle and her father, came in; and I told him 
 what had happened, and he sat down by my side and wept, and we 
 ceased not weeping till midnight. We have kept up mourning for 
 her these last five days, and we lamented her in the deepest sorrow, 
 for that she was unjustly done to die. This came from the 
 gratuitous lying of the slave, the blackamoor, and this was the 
 manner of my killing her; so I conjure thee, by the honour of thine 
 ancestors, make haste to kill me, and do her justice upon me, as 
 there is no living for me after her." The Caliph marvelled at his 
 words, and said, "By Allah, the young man is excusable. I will 
 hang none but the accursed slave, and I will do a deed which shall 
 comfort the ill-at-ease and suffering, and which shall please the 
 
 All-glorious King. And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day 
 
 and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 JQoto h3{)en \X teas tijc Ctocntict^ iiiltsljt. 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Caliph 
 swore he would hang none but the slave, for the youth was excusable. 
 Then he turned to Ja'afar and said to him, "Bring before me 
 this accursed slave who was the sole cause of this calamity ; and, if 
 thou bring him not before me within three days, thou shalt be slain 
 in his stead." So Ja'afar fared forth weeping and saying, "Two 
 deaths have already beset me, nor shall the crock come off safe froni 
 voi. ; M
 
 I'jS Aif Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 every shock. ^ In this matter craft and cunning are of no avail ; 
 but He Who preserved my Hfe the first time can preserve it a second 
 time. By Allah, I will not leave my house during the three days 
 of life which remain to me, and let the Truth (whose perfection be 
 praised !) do e'en as He will." So he kept his house three days, 
 and on the fourth day he summoned the Kazis and legal witnesses 
 and made his last will and testament, and took leave of his children 
 weeping. Presently in came a messenger from the Caliph, and said 
 to him, " The Commander of the Faithful is in the most violent 
 rage that can be, and he sendeth to seek thee and he sweareth that 
 the day shall certainly not pass without thy being hanged unless 
 the slave be forthcoming." When Ja'afar heard this he wept, and 
 his children and slaves, and all who were in the house, wept with 
 him. After he had bidden adieu to everybody except his youngest 
 daughter, he proceeded to farewell her ; for he loved this wee one, 
 who was a beautiful child, more than all his other children ; and he 
 pressed her to his breast and kissed her, and wept bitterly at part- 
 ing from her ; when he felt something round inside the bosom of 
 her dress and asked her, " O my little maid, what is in thy bosom 
 pocket ? " " O my father," she replied, " it is an apple with the 
 name of our Lord the Caliph written upon it. Rayhan our slave 
 brought it to me four days ago, and would not let me have it till I 
 gave him two dinars for it." When Ja'afar heard speak of the 
 slave and the apple, he was glad and put his hand into his child's 
 pocket^ and drew out the apple and knew it and rejoiced saying, 
 "O ready Dispeller of trouble^!" Then he bade them bring the 
 slave and said to him, " Fie upon thee, Rayhan ! whence haddest 
 thou this apple ? " " By Allah, O my master," he replied, " though 
 a lie may get a man once off, yet may truth get him off, and well 
 off, again and again. I did not steal this apple from thy palace 
 nor from the gardens of the Commander of the Faithful. The 
 fact is that, five days ago, as I was walking along one of the alleys of 
 this city, I saw some little ones at play and this apple in hand of one 
 of them. So I snatched it from him, and beat him, and he cried 
 and said, O youth this apple is my mother's, and she is ill. She told 
 my father how she longed for an apple, so he travelled to Bassorah 
 and bought her three apples for three gold pieces, and I took one of 
 them to play withal. He wept again, but I paid no heed to what 
 he said and carried it off and brought it here, and my little lady 
 
 ' The Arab equivalent of our pitcher and well. 
 * i.e., where the dress sits loosely about the buit. 
 3 He had trusted in Allah and his trust was justified.
 
 2\xle of Nur al-Diii All and his So)i. 179 
 
 bought it of me for two dinars of gold. And this is the whole 
 story." When Ja'afar heard his words he marvelled that the murder 
 of the damsel and all this misery should have been caused by his 
 slave; he grieved for the relation of the slave to himself, while rejoicing 
 over his own deliverance, and he repeated these lines : — 
 
 If ill betide thee through thy slave, * Make him forthright thy sacrifice : 
 For many serviles thou shalt find, * But hfe comes once and never twice. 
 
 Then he took the slave's hand and, leading him to the Caliph, 
 related the story from first to last, and the Caliph marvelled with 
 extreme astonishment, and laughed till he fell on his back and ordered 
 that the story be recorded and be made public amongst the people. 
 But Ja'afar said, " Marvel not, O Commander of the Faithful, at this 
 adventure, for it is not more wondrous than the History of the ^Vazir 
 Niir al-Din Ali of Egypt and his brother Shams al-Di'n Mohammed." 
 Quoth the Caliph, "Out with it; but what can be stranger than this 
 story?" And Ja'afar answered, "O Commander of the Faithful, I 
 will not tell it thee, save on condition that thou pardon my slave " ; 
 and the Caliph rejoined, " If it be mdeed more wondrous than that 
 of the three apples, I grant thee his blood, and if not I will surely 
 slay thy slave." So Ja'afar began in these words the 
 
 TALE OF NUR AL-DIN ALI &- HIS SON BADE 
 AL-DIN HASAN 
 
 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 
 
 ' Arab. " Khila'h" prop, what a man strips from his person : gen. an honorary 
 gift. It is something more tlian the " robe of honour " of our chivalrous romances, 
 as it includes a horse, a sword (often gold-hilted), a black turband (amongst tlie 
 Abbasides) embroidered with gold, a violet-coloured mantle, a waist-shawl, and a 
 gold neck-cliain and shoe-buckles. 
 
 M 2
 
 i8o Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 stand in your father's stead, and be joint Ministers of Egypt." At 
 this they rejoiced, and kissed 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 
 mto 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, 
 'tis 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 dowry is this thou wouldest 
 impose upon 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 
 
 ' Arab. " 'Iza," i.e., the visits of condolence and so forth, which are long and 
 terribly wearisome in the Moslem East. 
 
 - Arab. " IMahr," the money settled by the man before marriage on the woman 
 and without which the contract is not valid. Usually half of it is paid down on 
 the marriage-day and the other half when the husband dies or divorces his wife. 
 But if she take a divorce she forfeits her right to it, and obscene fellows, especially 
 Persians, often compel her to demand divorce by unnatural and preposterous 
 practices.
 
 Talc of Nur al-Din Ali and his Son. i8i 
 
 to the saying : — An thou fliin bhiff off a buyer, ask him high price 
 and higher ; or as did a man wl.o, they say, went to a friend and 
 asked something of him being in necessity, and was answered : — 
 BismiHah,^ in the name of Allah, I will do all what thou requirest 
 but come to-morrow ! Whereupon the other replied in this verse : — 
 
 Wien he who is asked a favour saith " To-morrow," * 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 Avill 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 wrath 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 fury against the other. As soon as morning dawned 
 the Sultan fared forth in state and crossed over from Cairo * to Ji'zah ® 
 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 
 
 * Bismillah here means " Tliou art welcome to it." 
 
 = Arab. " Bassak," half Pers. (bas = enough) and, ak = thou ; for thee. 
 "Bas" sounds like our "buss" (to kiss) and there are sundry good old Ano-lo- 
 Indian jokes of feminine mistakes on the subject. 
 
 3 This saving clause makes the threat worse. The scene between the two 
 brothers is written with characteristic Arab humour ; and it is true to nature. In 
 England we have heard of a man who separated from his wife because he wished 
 to dine at six and she preferred half-past six. 
 
 4 Arab. " Misr " (vulg. Masr). The word, which comes of a very ancient house, 
 was applied to the present Capital about the time of its conquest by the Osmanli 
 Turks A. H. 923=1517. 
 
 5 The Arab. "Jizah" = skirt, edge ; the modern village is the site of an ancient 
 Egyptian city, as the " Ghizah inscription" proves (Brugsch, History of Eg)'pt, ii. 
 415)-
 
 1 82 AIj Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 passed the night in sore anger, 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 hiunan life by toil and moil are found : 
 The stay-at-home no honour wins nor aught attains but want ; * So leave thy 
 
 place of birth 1 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 ungoaled ; * 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 Chosroes, 
 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. ^Mlen this was done he 
 sent to his pages and slaves, "I purpose going forth a-pleasuring 
 outside the city on the road to Kalyiib-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 lying around it.* About 
 
 ' Arab. " Watan " literally meaning "birth-place" but also used for " patria, 
 native country " ; thus " Hubb al-VVaian " = patriotism. The Turks pronounce it 
 " Vatan," which the French have turned into Va-t'en ! 
 
 " Arak " Zarzariyah " = the colour of a stare or starling (Zurziir). 
 
 3 Now a Railway Station on the Alexandria-Cairo line. 
 
 ■* Even as late as 1852, when I first saw Cairo, the city was girt by waste lands 
 and the climate was excellent. Now cultivation comes up to the house walls ; 
 while the Mahmudiyah Canal, the planting the streets with avenues and over- 
 watering have seriously injured it ; those who want the air of former Cairo must 
 go to Thebes. Gout, rheumatism and hydrophobia (bei'ore unknown) have become 
 common of late years.
 
 Tale of Nur al-Din AH and his Son. 183 
 
 noontide he entered Bilbays-city/ where he dismounted and stayed 
 awhile to rest himself and his mule and eat 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 night-fall 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 the 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 goodly 
 beast fit for the riding of Wazirs or even of royalties ; and the more 
 he looked the more was he perplexed till at last he said to one of his 
 pages, " Bring hither yon door-keeper." The page went and returned 
 
 ' This is the popular pronunciation : Yakut calls it " Bilbis." 
 
 " An outlying village on the '• Loaj Desert," between Cairo and Talestine. 
 
 3 Arab. "Al-Kuds" = holiness. There are few cities which in our day have 
 less claim to this title than Jerusalem; and, curious to say, the "Holy Land" 
 shows Jews, Christians and Moslems all in their worst form. The only reli"-ion 
 (if it can be called one) which produces men in Syria is the Dius;. " Heili^en- 
 landes Jtiden " are proverbial, and nothing can be meaner than the Christians, 
 while the Moslems are famed for treachery. 
 
 ■* Arab. " Shamm al-hawa." In vulgar parlance to " smell the air " is to take a 
 walk, especially out of town. There is a peculiar Egyptian festival called " Shamm 
 al Nasim (smelling the Zephyr) which begins on Easter Monday (O.S.), thus 
 corresponding with the Persian Nau-roz, vernal equinox, and introducing the fifty 
 days of " Khammasin " or " Mirisi " (hot desert winds). On awaking, the people 
 smell and bathe their temples with vinegar in which an onion has been soaked, and 
 break their fastwith a " fisikh " or dried " biiri " = mullet from Lake Manza'lah : 
 the late Ilekekiyan Bey had the fish heads counted in one public garden and found 
 70,000. The rest of the day is spent out of doors " Gypsying," and families 
 
 other winds, in the Land of Midian, i. 2
 
 184 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 to the Wazir with the porter who kissed ground between his 
 hands, and the jNIinister 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 doubtless 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 ruth 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 in 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 
 
 ' So in the days of the " Mameluke Bej-s," in Egypt a man of rank would not 
 cross the street on foot. 
 
 ^ Arab. Basrah. The city now in decay and not to flourish again till the advent 
 of the Euphrates Valley R.R., is a modern place, founded in A.H. 15, by the 
 Caliph Omar upon the Aylah, a feeder of the Tigris. Here, according to Al- 
 Hariri, the " whales and the lizards meet " ; and, as the tide affects the river, 
 
 Its stream shows prodig}', ebbing and flowing. 
 In its far-famed market-place, Al-Marbad, poems used to be recited ; and the city 
 was famous for its mosques and Saint-shrines, fair women and school of Grammar, 
 which rivalled that of Kiifah. But already in Al-IIariri's day (nat. A.H. 446 = 
 A.D. 1030) Baghdad had drawn off much of its population.
 
 Tale of Niir al-Din AH and his Son. 185 
 
 stricken in years and aweary." \Mien 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 mariiages 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 Shahrazad 
 
 perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 Jl^oto tohen it teas X\z STtecntp^firet M\z\\, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir 
 stood up to him, and welcoming him said, "Arise and go in to thy 
 wife this night, and on the morrow I will carry thee to the Sultan, 
 
 ^ This fumigation (Bukhur) is still used. A little incense or perfumed wood is 
 burnt upon an open censer (Mibkharah) of earthenware or metal, and passed round, 
 each guest holding it for a few moments under his beard. In the Somali Country, 
 the very home of incense, both sexes fumigate the whole person after intercourse. 
 Lane (Mod. Egypt, chapt. viii. ) gives an illustration of the Mibkharah.
 
 1 85 Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 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 w^e 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 
 despatches 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 
 v'hat 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 scantiness 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 w^ere 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 : — 
 
 ' The reader of The Nights will remark that the merchant is often a merchant- 
 prince, consorting and mating with the highest dignitaries. Even amongst the 
 Romans, a race of soldiers, statesmen, and lawyers, " mercatura " on a large scale 
 was "not to be vituperated." In Boccaccio (x. 19) they arc netti e delicati 
 iiomini.
 
 Tak of Niir al-Din AU and Ids SiUi. 1S7 
 
 That jetty hair, that glossy brow, 
 
 My slender waisted youth, of thine, 
 Can darkness round creation throw, 
 
 Or make it brightly shine. 
 The dusky mcle that faintly shows 
 
 Upon his check, ah ! blame it not ; 
 The tulip-flower never blows 
 
 Undarkened by its spot.' 
 
 And as another also said : — 
 
 His scent was musk and his cheek was rose ; * His teeth are pearls and his lips 
 
 His 1Z liTl^and and his hips a hill ; . His hair is night and his face moon- 
 shine. 
 
 They na..ed the boy Badr al-Din Hasan, and his grandfather the 
 W Jr of Bassorah, rejoiced in him and, on the seventh day after 
 h s birth, made entertainments and spread banquets whieh would 
 beat the birth of Kings' sons and heirs. Then he took Nur al-Dtn 
 and went up with him to the Sultan, and his son-m- aw, when he 
 came before the presence of the King, kissed ground between hts 
 hands and repeated these verses, for he was ready of speech, firm 
 of sprite, and hearty of heart as he was formous in form :- 
 The world's best joys long be thy lot, my lord ! * And last while darkness and the 
 
 O tho:^o:S;:t, when we greet thy gifts, . The world to dance and Thne his 
 
 palms to clap.- 
 Then the Sultan rose up to honour them and, thanking Nur 
 al-Dtn for his fine compliment, asked the Wazir, "Who may be 
 this young man?" And the Minister answered This is my 
 brother's son," and related his tale from first to last. Quoth the 
 Sultan, "And how comes he to be thy nepheu', and we have never 
 heard speak of him ?" Quoth the Minister, " O our lord the &u tan 
 I had a brother who was Wazir in the land of Egypt, and he died 
 leaving two sons, whereof the elder hath taken his father's place, and 
 the younger, whom thou seest, came to me. I had sworn I would 
 not marry my daughter to any but to him; so when he came I 
 wedded him with her.^ Now he i s young and I am old; my hearing 
 
 X These lines in the Calc. and Cul. Edits, have already occurred (night vii.), 
 
 mmMmmm 
 
 ■■"rr&^S'J"""; ,™,-,ics a,,d .„e „o™„ i. ,.,.„Hcd : „,c,e is no s.ch 
 distinction in Auibia.
 
 1 88 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 is dulled and my judgment is easily fooled. Wherefore I would 
 solicit our lord the Sultan^ to set him in my stead, for he is my 
 brother's son and my daughter's husband ; and he is fit for the Wazirate, 
 being a man of good counsel and ready contrivance." The Sultan 
 looked at Nur al-Din and liked him, so he stablished him in office 
 as the Wazir had requested and formally appointed him, presenting 
 him with a splendid dress of honour and a she-mule from his private 
 stud ; and assigning to him solde, stipends and supplies. Nur al-Dm 
 kissed the Sultan's hand and went home, he and his father-m-law, 
 joying with exceeding joy and saying, " All this foUoweth on the 
 heels of the boy Hasan's birth!" Next day he presented himself 
 before the King, and, kissing ground, began repeating : — 
 
 Grow thy weal and thy welfare day by day : * And thy luck prevail o'er the 
 
 envier's spite ; 
 And ne'er cease thy days to be white as day, » And thy foeman's day to be black 
 
 as night ! 
 
 The Sultan bade him be seated on the Wazir's seat; so he sat 
 down and applied himself to the business of his office, and went 
 into the cases of the lieges and their suits, as is the wont of 
 Ministers ; while the Sultan watched him and wondered at his 
 wit and* good sense, judgment and insight. Wherefor he loved 
 him and took him into intimacy. When the Diwan was dis- 
 missed, Nur al-Din returned to his house and related what had 
 passed to his father-in-law, who rejoiced. And thenceforward Nur 
 al-Din ceased not so to administer the Wazirate that the Sultan 
 would not be parted from him night or day ; and increased his 
 stipends and supplies till his means were ample, and he became 
 the owner of ships that made trading voyages at his command, as 
 well as of Mamelukes and blackamoor slaves; and he laid out 
 many estates and set up Persian wheels and planted gardens. 
 When his son Hasan was four years of age the old Wazir deceased, 
 and he made for his father-in-law a sumptuous funeral ceremony 
 ere he was laid in the dust. Then he occupied himself with the 
 education of this son and, when the boy waxed strong and came 
 
 ' " Sultan" (and its corruption " Soldan ") etymologically means lord, victorious, 
 ruler, ruling over. In Arabia it is a not uncommon proper name ; and as a title 
 it is taken by a host of petty kinglets. The Ahbaside Caliphs (as Al-Wasik who 
 has been noticed) formally created these Sultans as their regents. Al-Ta'i bi'Ilah 
 (regn. A.H. 363 = 974), invested the famous Sabuktagin with the office; and, as 
 Alexander-Sikandar was wont to do, fastened for him two flags, one of silver, after 
 the fashion of nobles, and the other of gold, as Viceroy-designate. Sabuktagin's 
 son, the famous Mahmiid of the Ghaznavite dynasty in A.H. 393=1002, was the 
 first to adopt " Sultan " as an independent title some two hundred years after the 
 death of Ilarun al-Rashid. In old writers we have the Soldan of Egypt, the 
 Soudan of Persia, and the Sowdan of Babylon ; three modifications of one word.
 
 Tale of Niir al-Din AH and his Son. 189 
 
 to the age of seven, he brought him a Fakih, a doctor of law and 
 religion to teach him in his own house and charged him to give 
 him a good education and instruct him in politeness and good 
 manners. So the tutor made the boy read and retain all varieties 
 of useful knowledge, after he had spent some ye^rs in learning the 
 Koran by heart ^; and he ceased not to grow in beauty and stature 
 and symmetry, even as saith the poet : — ■ 
 
 In his face-sky shines the fullest moon ; » In his cheeks' anemone glows tiu- 
 
 sun : 
 He so conquered Beauty that he hath won * All charms of humanity one by 
 
 one. 
 
 The professor brought him up in his father's palace, teaching him 
 reading, writing and cyphering, theology and belles lettres. His 
 grandfather the old Wazir had bequeathed to him the whole of his 
 property when he was but four years of age. Now during all the time 
 of his earliest youth he had never left the house, till on a certain 
 day his father, the Wazir Nur al-Din, clad him in his best clothes 
 and, mounting him on a she-mule of the finest, went up with him to 
 the Sultan. The King gazed at Badr al-Din Hasan and marvelled 
 at his comeliness and loved him. As for the city-folk, when he first 
 passed before them with his father, they wondered at his exceeding 
 beauty and sat down on the road expecting his return, that they 
 might look their fill on his beauty and loveliness and symmetry and 
 perfect grace ; even as the poet said in these verses : — 
 
 As the sage watched the stars, the semblance clear 
 Of a fair youth on 's scroll he saw appear. 
 Those jetty locks Canopus o'er him threw, 
 And tinged his temple curls a musky hue ; 
 Mars dyed his ruddy cheek ; and from his eyes 
 The Archer-star his glittering arrow flies ; 
 His wit from Hermes came ; and Soha's care, 
 (The half-seen star that dimly haunts the Bear) 
 Kept off all evil eyes that threaten and ensnare, 
 The sage stood mazed to see such fortunes meet. 
 And Luna kissed the earth beneath his feet.^ 
 
 And they blessed him aloud as he passed, and called upon Almighty 
 
 ' i.e., he was a " Haf.z," one who commits to memory the whole of the Koran. 
 It is a serious task and must be begun early. I learnt by rote the last " Juzw" (or 
 thirtieth part), and found that quite enough. This is the vulgar use of " Hafiz," 
 technically and theologically it means the third order of Traditionists (the total being 
 five), who know by heart 300,000 traditions of the Prophet with their ascriptions. 
 A curious " spiritualist " book calls itself, " Hafed, Prince of Persia," proving by 
 the very title that the Spirits are equally ignorant of Arabic and Persian. 
 
 ^ Here again the Cairo Edit, repeats the six couplets already given in night xvii. 
 I take them from Torrens (p. 163).
 
 1 90 Aif Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 Allah to bless him.^ The Sultan entreated the lad ■with especial 
 favour, and said to his father, " O Wazir, thou must needs bring 
 him daily to my presence " ; whereupon he replied, " I hear and 
 I obey." Then the Wazir returned home with his son, and ceased 
 not to carry him ,to court till he reached the age of twenty. At 
 that time the Minister sickened and, sending for Badr al-Din Hasan, 
 said to him, " Know, O my son, that the world of the Present is 
 but a house of mortality, while that of the Future is a house of 
 eternity. I wish, before I die, to bequeath thee certain charges 
 and do thou take heed of what I say and incline thy heart to my 
 words." Then he gave him his last instructions as to the proporest 
 way of dealing with his neighbours and the due management of his 
 affairs ; after which he called to mind his brother and his home 
 and his native land, and wept over his separation from those he had 
 first loved. Then he wiped away his tears and, turning to his son, 
 said to him, " Before I proceed, O my son, to my Iast_ charges and 
 injunctions, know that I have a brother, and thou hast an uncle, 
 Shams al-Din hight, the Wazir of Cairo, from whom I parted, 
 leaving him against his will. Now take thee a sheet of paper and 
 write upon it whatso I say to thee." Badr al-Din took a fair leaf 
 and set about doing his father's bidding, and he wrote thereon a 
 full account of what had happened to his sire first and last ; the 
 dates of his arrival at Bassorah and of his forgathering with the 
 Wazir ; of his marri:ige, of his going in to the Minister's daughter 
 and of the birth of his son ; brief, his life of forty years from the 
 day of his dispute with his brother, adding the words, " And this is 
 written at my dictation, and may Almighty Allah be with him 
 when I am gone 1 " Then he folded the paper and sealed it and 
 said, " O Hasan, O my son, keep this paper with all care ; for it 
 will enable thee to stablish thine origin and rank and lineage and, 
 if anything contrary befall thee, set out for Cairo and ask for thine 
 uncle and show him this paper, and say to him that I died a 
 stranger far from mine own people, and full of yearning to see him 
 and them." So Badr al-Din Hasan took the document and folded 
 it ; and, wrapping it up in a piece of waxed cloth, sewed it like a 
 talisman between the inner and outer cloth of his skull-cap, and 
 wound his light turband^ round it. And he fell to weeping over 
 
 ' This naive admiration of beauty in either sex characterised our chivahous 
 times. Now it is mostly confined to "professional beauties" of what is conven- 
 tionally called the " fair sex " ; as if there could be any comparison between the 
 Ijeauty of man and the beauty of woman, the Apollo Belvidere with the Venus 
 de jNIedici. 
 
 * Arab. " Shash " (in Pcrs. urine), a light turband generally of muslin.
 
 Tale of Alir al-Din All and his So?i. 191 
 
 his father and at parting with him, and he but a boy. Then Nur 
 al-Din lapsed into a swoon, the forerunner of death; but presently 
 recovering himself, he said, " O Hasan ! O my son ! I will now 
 bequeath to thee five last behests. The First Behest is. Be over- 
 intimate with none, nor frequent any, nor be familiar with any ; so 
 shalt thou be safe from his mischief; for security lieth in seclusion of 
 thought and a certain retirement from the society of thy fellows ; and 
 I have heard it said by a poet : — 
 
 In this world there is none thou mayst count upon * To befriend thy case in the 
 
 nick of need : 
 So live for thyself nursing hope of none * Such counsel I give thee: enow, take 
 
 heed ! 
 
 The Second Behest is, O my son : Deal harshly with none lest 
 fortune with thee deal hardly ; for the fortune of this world is 
 one day with thee and another day against thee, and all worldly 
 goods are but a loan to be repaid. And I have heard a poet say : — 
 
 Take thought nor haste to win the thing thou wilt ; * Have ruth on man for ruth 
 
 thou may'st require : 
 No hand is there but Allah's hand is higher ; * No tyrant but shall rue worse 
 
 tyrant's ire ! 
 
 The Third Behest is. Learn to be silent in society and let thine 
 own faults distract thine attention from the faults of other men : 
 for it is said : — In silence dwelleth safety, and thereon I have heard 
 the lines that tell us : — 
 
 Reserve's a jewel, Silence safety is ; * Whenas thou speakest many a wor I 
 
 withhold : 
 For an of Silence thou repent thee once, * Of speech thou shalt repent times 
 
 manifold. 
 
 The Fourth Behest, O my son, is Beware of wine-bibbing, for wine 
 is the head of all frowardness, and a fine solvent of human wits. So 
 shun, and again I say, shun mixing strong liquor, for I have heard a 
 poet say^ : — 
 
 From wine'' I turn and whoso wine-cups swill ; * Becoming one of those who deem 
 it ill : 
 
 ' The lines are attributed to the famous Al-I\hitanabbi = the claimant lo 
 " Prophecy," of whom I have given a few details in my I'ilgrimage (iii. 60, G2]. 
 He led the life of a true poet, somewhat Chauvinistic withal ; and, rather than run 
 away, was killed in A.H. 354 = 965- 
 
 ^ Arab. " Nab!z" = wine of raisins or dates ; any fermented liquor ; from a root 
 to " press out," in Syriac, like the word " Talmiz " (or Tilmiz, says the Kaslu" 
 al-Ghurrah), a pupil, student, Date-wine (fermented from the fruit, not the Tadi, 
 or juice of the stem, our " toddy ") is called Fazikh : hence the Masjid al-Fazikh 
 at Al-Madinah, wliere the Ansar or Auxiliaries of that city were sitting cup in hand 
 when they heard of the revelation forbidding inebriants, and poured the liquor upoii 
 the ground (I'ilgrimage ii. 322).
 
 192 A If Lay I ah zva Lay la h. 
 
 Wine driveth man to miss salvation -way ' » And opes the gateway wide to sins 
 that kill. 
 
 The Fifth Behest, O my son, is Keep thy wealth, and it will keep 
 thee; guard thy money, and it will guard thee; and waste not thy 
 substance lest haply thou come to want, and must fare a-begging 
 from the meanest of mankind. Save thy dirhams, and deem them the 
 sovereignest salve for the wounds of the world. And here again I 
 have heard that one of the poets said : — • 
 
 When fails my wealth, no friend will deign befriend : » Wlien wealth abounds all 
 
 friends their friendship tender : 
 How many friends lent aid my wealth to spend ; » But friends to lack of wealth 
 
 no friendship render. 
 
 On this wise Nur al-Din ceased not to counsel his son Badr al-Din 
 Hasan till his hour came and, sighing one sobbing sigh, his life 
 went forth. Then the -voice of mourning and keening rose high in 
 his house and the Sultan and all the grandees grieved for him and 
 buried him ; but his son ceased not lamenting his loss for two 
 months, during which he never mounted horse, nor attended the 
 Diwan, nor presented himself before the Sultan. At last the 
 King, being wroth with him, stablished in his stead one of his 
 Chamberlains, and made him Wazir, giving orders to seize and set 
 seals on all Nur al-Din's houses and goods and domains. So the 
 new Wazir went forth with a mighty posse of Chamberlains and 
 people of the Diwan, and watchmen and a host of idlers to do this 
 and to seize Badr al-Din Hasan and carry him before the King, 
 who would deal with him as he deemed fit. Now there was among 
 the crowd of followers a Mameluke of the deceased Wazir who, 
 when he had heard this order, urged his horse and rode at full 
 speed to the house of Badr al-Din Hasan ; for he could not endure 
 to see the ruin of his old master's son. He found him sitting at the 
 gate with head hung down and sorrowing, as was his wont, for the 
 loss of his father ; so he dismounted and, kissing his hand, said to 
 him, " O my lord and son of my lord, haste ere ruin come and lay 
 waste ! " When Hasan heard this he trembled and asked, " What 
 may be the matter?" and the man answered, "The Sultan is 
 angered with thee and hath issued a warrant against thee, and evil 
 cometh hard upon my track ; so flee with thy life ! " At these words 
 Hasan's heart flamed with the fire of bale, and his rose-red cheek 
 
 ' Arab. " Hudti " = direction (to the right way), salvation, a word occurring in 
 the Opening Chapter of the Koran. Hence to a Kafir who offers the Salam- 
 salutalion many Moslems reply " Allah yahdik " = Allah direct thee! (/.f. , make 
 thee a Moslem), instead of Allah yusallimak = Allah lead thee to salvation. It is 
 the root word of the Mahdi and Mohdi.
 
 Tale of Nur al-Din AH a?id his Son. 193 
 
 turned pale, and he said to the Mameluke, " O my brother, is there 
 time for me to go in and get me some worldly gear which may stand 
 me in stead during my strangerhood?" But the slave replied, "O my 
 lord, up at once and save thyself and leave this house, while it is yet 
 time." And he quoted these Hnes :— 
 
 Escape with thy life, if oppression betide thee, * And let the house tell of its 
 
 builder's fate ! 
 Country for country thou'It find, if Ihou seek it ; * Life for life never, early or 
 
 late. 
 It is strange men should dwell in the house of abjection, » When the plain of God's 
 
 earth is so wide and so great ' .' 
 
 At these words of the Mameluke, Badr al-Din covered his head 
 with the skirt of his garment and went forth on foot till he stood 
 outside of the city, where he heard folk saying, " The Sultan hath 
 sent his new Wazir to the house of the old Wazir, now no more, to 
 seal his property, and seize his son Badr al-Din Hasan and take 
 him before the presence, that he may put him to death"; and all 
 cried, " Alas for his beauty and his loveliness ! " When he heard 
 this he fled forth at hazard, knowing not whither he was going, and 
 gave not over hurrying onwards till Destiny drove him to his 
 father's tomb. So he entered the cemetery and, threading his way 
 through the graves, at last he reached the sepulchre where he sat 
 down and let fall from his head the skirt of his long robe' which 
 was made of brocade with a gold-embroidered hem whereon were 
 worked these couplets : — ■ 
 
 thou whose forehead, like the radiant East, » Tells of the stars of Heaven and 
 
 bounteous dews : 
 Endure thine honour to the latest day, » And Time thy growth of glory ne'er 
 refuse ! 
 
 While he was sitting by his father's tomb, behold ! there came to 
 him a Jew as he were a Shroff,^ a money-changer, with a pair of 
 saddle-bags containing much gold, who accosted him and kissed 
 his hand, saying, " Whither bound, O my lord : 'tis late in the day 
 and thou art clad but lightly, and I read signs of trouble in thy 
 face?" "I was sleeping within this very hour," answered Hasan, 
 " when my father appeared to me and chid me for not having 
 visited his tomb; so I awoke trembling and came hither forthright 
 lest the day should go by without my visiting him, which would 
 
 ' These lines have already occurred in the First Kalandar's Story (vol. i. nit^ht xi.). 
 
 1 quote by way of change and with permission Mr. Payne's version (i. 93). 
 
 * Arab. " Farajiyah," a long-sleeved robe worn by the learned (Lane, M. E., 
 chapt. i.). 
 
 3 Arab. "Sarraf" (vulg. Sayrafi), whence the Anglo-Indian " Shroff," a familiar 
 corruption. 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 1 54 Alf Laylah zva Laylah. 
 
 have been grievous to me." " O my lord," rejoined the Jew,^ " thy 
 father had many merchantmen at sea and, as some of them are 
 now due, it is my wish to buy of thee the cargo of the first ship 
 that Cometh into port with this thousand dinars of gold." "I 
 consent," quoth Hasan, whereupon the Jew took out a bag full 
 of gold and counted out a thousand sequins which he gave to 
 Hasan, the son of the Wazir, saying, "Write me a letter of sale 
 and seal it." So Hasan took a pen and paper and wrote these 
 words in duplicate: "The writer, Hasan Cadr al-Din, son of Wazir 
 Nur al-Din, hath sold to Isaac the Jew all the cargo of the first of 
 his father's ships which cometh into port, for a thousand dinars, 
 and he hath received the price in advance." And after he had 
 taken one copy the Jew put it into his pouch and went av\ay ; but 
 Hasan fell a-weeping as he thought of the dignity and prosperity 
 which had erst been his, and he began reciting : — 
 
 This house, my lady, since you left is now a home no more * For me, nor neigh- 
 bours, since you left, prove kind and neighbourly : 
 
 The friend, whilere I took to heart, alas ! no more to me * Is friend ; and even 
 Luna's self displayeth lunacy : 
 
 You left, and by your going left the world a waste, a wold, * And lies a gloomy 
 murk upon the face of hill and lea : 
 
 O may the raven-bird whose cry our hapless parting croaked * Find ne'er a nesty 
 home and eke shed all his plumery ! 
 
 At length my patience fails me ; and this absence wastes my flesh ; « How many 
 a veil by severance rent our eyes are doomed see : 
 
 Ah ! shall I ever sight again cur fair past nights of yore ; • And shall a single 
 house become a home for me once more ? 
 
 Then he wept with exceeding weeping, and night came upon him ; 
 so he leant his head against his father's grave and sleep overcame 
 him : Glory to Him who sleepeth not ! He ceased not slumbering 
 till the moon rose, when his head slipped from off the tomb and he 
 lay on his back, with limbs outstretched, his face shining bright in 
 the moonlight. Now the cemetery was haunted day and night by 
 Jinns who were of the True Believers, and presently came out a 
 Jinniyah who, seeing Hasan asleep, marvelled at his beauty and 
 loveliness and cried, " Glory to God ! this youth can be none other 
 than one of the Wuldan of Paradise.^" Then she flew firmament- 
 wards to circle it, as was her custom, and met an Ifrit on the wing, 
 who saluted her, and she said to him, "Whence comest thou?" 
 
 ' Arab. " Yahudi," which is less polite tb.an " Banii Isrdil"=Children of Israel. 
 So in Christendom, " Israelite" when in favour, and "Jew " (with an adjective or 
 a participle) when notliing is wanted of him. 
 
 * Also called " Ghilmaa " = the beautiful youths appointed to serve the True 
 Believers in Paradise. The Koran says (chapt. Ivi. 9, etc.) "Youths, which shall 
 continue in their bloom for ever, shall go round about to attend them, with goblets, 
 and beakers, and a cup of flowing wine," etc.
 
 Tale of Nur al-Di/i Ail and his Son. 195 
 
 "From Cairo," he replied. "Wilt thou come with me and look 
 upon the beauty of a youth who sleepeth in yonder burial place?" 
 she asked ; and he answered, " I will." So they flew till they lighted 
 at the tomb, and she showed him the youth and said, " Now diddest 
 thou ever in thy born days see aught like this?" The Ifrit looked 
 upon him and exclaimed, "Praise be to Him that hath no equal! 
 But, O my sister, shall I tell thee what I have seen this day?" 
 Asked she, " What is that ? " and he answered, " I have seen the 
 counterpart of this youth in the land of Eg}'pt. She is the 
 daughter of the Wazir Shams al-Uin, and she is a model of beauty 
 and loveliness, of fairest favour and fornious form, and dight with 
 symmetry and perfect grace. When she had reached the age of 
 nineteen,^ the Sultan, of Egypt heard of her and, sending for the 
 Wazir her father, said to him : — Hear me, O Wazir : it hath 
 reached mine ear that thou hast a daughter, and I wish to demand 
 her of thee in marriage. The Wazir replied : — O our Lord the 
 Sultan, deign accept my excuses and take compassion on my 
 sorrows, for thou knowest that my brother, who was partner with 
 me in the Wazirate, disappeared from amongst us many years ago, 
 and we wot not where he is. Now the cause of his departure was 
 that one night, as we were sitting together and talking of wives 
 and children to come, we had words on the matter and he went off 
 in high dudgeon. But I swore that I would marry my daughter 
 to none save to the son of my brother on the day her mother gave 
 her birth, which was nigh upon nineteen years ago. I have lately 
 heard that my brother died at Bassorah, where he had married the 
 daughter of the Wazir, and that she bare him a son ; and I will not 
 marry my daughter t)ut to him in honour of my brother's memory. 
 I recorded the date of my marriage and the conception of my wife 
 and the birth of my daughter ; and from her horoscope I find that 
 her name is conjoined with that of her cousin ^ ; and there are 
 
 ' Which, by-the-by, is the age of an oldish old maid in Egypt. I much doubt 
 piiberty being there earlier than in England, where our grandmothers married at 
 fourteen. But Orientals are aware thai the period of especial feminine devilry is 
 between twelve years and twenty, when, according to some, every girl is ;i 
 ^' possible murderess." So they wisely marry her and get rid of what is called the 
 ■" lump of grief," the " domestic calamity " — a daughter. 
 
 ^ This prognostication of destiny by the stars and a host of follies that end in 
 -mancy is an intricate and extensive subject. Those who would study it are 
 referred to chapter xiv. of the " Qanoon-e-Islam, or the Customs of the Mussul- 
 inans of India," etc. , etc. , by Jafiur Shurreeff, and translated by G. A. Ilerklots, 
 M.D., of Madras. This excellent work first appeared in 1832 (Allen and Co., 
 London) and thus it showed the way to Lane's "Modern Egyptians " (1833-35). 
 The name was unfortunate as " Kuzzilbash " (which rhymed to guzzle and h.ash), ' 
 and kept the book back till a second edition appeared in 1S63 (Madras: J. Iliggiii- 
 botham). 
 
 N 2
 
 196 Alf Laylah iva Lay/ah. 
 
 damsels in foison for our lord the Sultan. The King, hearing his 
 Minister's answer and refusal, waxed wroth with exceeding wrath 
 and cried : — -When the like of me asketh a girl in marriage of the like 
 of thee, he conferreth an honour, and thou rejectest me and puttest 
 me off with cold^ excuses ! Now, by the life of my head I will 
 marry her to the meanest of my men in spite of the nose of thee'^! 
 There was in the palace a horse-groom which was a Gobbo with a 
 bunch to his breast and a hunch to his back ; and the Sultan sent 
 for him and married him to the daughter of the Wazir, lief or 
 loath, and hath ordered a pompous marriage procession for him 
 and that he go in to his bride this very night. I have now just 
 flown hither from Cairo, where I left the Hunchback at the door of 
 the Hammam bath amidst the Sultan's white slaves, who were waving 
 lighted flambeaux about him. As for the Minister's daughter, she 
 sitteth among her nurses and tire-women, weeping and wailing ; for 
 they have forbidden her father to come near her. Never have I 
 seen, O my sister, more hideous being than this Hunchback,'' whilst 
 the young lady is the likest of all folk to this young man, albeit even 
 
 fairer than he." And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and 
 
 ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 moto toj&cix it tuas t^e CtDcntpgrconlJ Jl^licrfit, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 Jinni narrated to the Jinniyah how the King had caused the wedding 
 contract to be drawn up between the hunchbacked groom and the 
 lovely young lady, who was heart-broken for sorrow ; and how she 
 was the fairest of created things, and even more beautiful than this 
 youth, the Jinniyah cried at him, " Thou liest ! This youth is 
 handsomer than any one of his day." The Ifrit gave her the lie 
 again, adding, " By Allah, O my sister, the damsel I speak of is fairer 
 than this ; yet none but he descrveth her, for they resemble each 
 other like brother and sister, or at least cousins. And, well-away I 
 how she is wasted upon that Hunchback ! " Then she said, " O my 
 brother, let us get under him and lift him up and carry him to Cairo,. 
 that we may compare him with the damsel of whom thou speakest, 
 and so determine which of the twain is the fairer." " To hear is tO' 
 
 ' Arab. " Barid," lit. cold : metapli. vain, foolish, insipid. 
 
 ^ Not to " spite thee " but " in spite of thee." The phrase is still used by high 
 and low. 
 
 3 Arab. " Ahdab," the common hunchback : in classical language the Gobbo in 
 t!ie text would be termed " A'kas" from " Ka's," one with protruding back and 
 breast : sometimes used for hollow back and protruding breast.
 
 Tale of Nur al-Difi AH and his Son. 197 
 
 obey," replied he. " Thou speakest to the point. Nor is there a 
 righter recking than this of thine, and I myself will carry him." So 
 he raised him from the ground, and fiew with him like a bird 
 soaring in upper air, the Ifritah keeping close by his side at equal 
 speed, till he alighted with him in the city of Cairo, and set him 
 down on a stone bench and woke him up. He roused himself, and 
 finding that he was no longer at his fathers tomb in Bassorah-city 
 he looked right and left and saw that he was in a strange place ; and 
 he would have cried out ; but the Ifrit gave him a cuff which 
 persuaded him to keep silence. Then he brought him rich raiment 
 and clothed him therein and, giving him a lighted flambeau, said, 
 " Know that I have brought thee hither, meaning to do thee a good 
 turn for the love of Allah : so take this torch and mingle with the 
 people at the Hammam-door and walk on with them without 
 stopping till thou reach the house of the wedding-festival ; then go 
 boldly forward and enter the great saloon ; and fear none, but take 
 thy stand at the right hand of the Hunchback bridegroom ; and, 
 as often as any of the nurses and tire-women and singing-girls come 
 up to thee,^ put thy hand inlj thy pocket, which thou wilt find filled 
 with gold. Take it out and throw to them and spare not ; for as 
 often as thou thrusteth fingers in pouch thou shalt find it full of 
 coin. Give largesse by handsful and fear nothing, but set thy trust 
 upon Him Who created thee, for this is not by thine own strength 
 but by that of Allah Almighty, that His decrees may take effect 
 upon His creatures." When Badr al-Din Hasan heard these words 
 from the Ifrit he said to himself, " Would Heaven I knew what all 
 this means and what is the cause of such kindness ! " However, he 
 mingled with the people and, lighting his flambeau, moved on with 
 the bridal procession till he came to the bath where he found the 
 Hunchback already on horseback. Then he pushed his way in 
 
 ' This is the custom with such gentry, who, when they see a likely man sitting, 
 are allowed by custom to ride astraddle upon his knees till he buys them oH'. 
 These Ghawazi are mostly Gypsies who pretend to be Moslems ; and they 
 have been confused with the Almahs or jMoslem dancing-girls proper (Awalim, 
 plur. of Alimah, a learned feminine) by a host of travellers. They call them- 
 selves Baramikah or Barmecides only to affect Persian origin. Under native 
 rule they were perpetually being banished from and returning to Cairo (Pil- 
 grimage, i. 202). Lane (M. E., chapts. xviii. and xix.) discusses the subject, 
 and would derive Al'mah, often so pronounced, from Heb. Almah, girl, virgin, 
 singing-girl, hence he would translate Al-Alamoth shir (Psalm xlvi.) and Nebalim 
 al-alamoth (l Chron. xv. 20) by a "song for singing-girls" and "harps for 
 singing-girls." He quotes also St. Jerome as authority that Alma in Punic 
 (Phoenician) signified a virgin, not a common article, I may observe, amongst 
 singing-girls. I shall notice in a future page Burckhardt's description of the 
 Ghawazi, p. 173, "Arabic Proverbs," etc., etc. Second Edition. London: 
 Quaritch, 1875.
 
 198 Alf Lay/ah wa LaylaJi. 
 
 among the crowd, a veritable beauty of a man in the finest apparel, 
 wearing tarbush^ and turband and a long-sleeved robe purfled with 
 gold ; and, as often as the singing women stopped for the people to 
 give them largesse, he thrust his hand into his pocket and, finding it 
 full of gold, took out a handful and threw it on the tambourine''' till he 
 had filled it with gold pieces for the music-girls and the tire-women. 
 The singers were amazed by his bounty, and the people marvelled at 
 his beauty and loveliness and the splendour of his dress. He ceased 
 not to do thus till he reached the mansion of the Wazir (who was 
 his uncle), where the Chamberlains drove back the people and for- 
 bade them to go forward ; but the singing-girls and the tire-women 
 said, "By Allah we will not enter unless this young man enter with 
 us, for he hath given us length o' life v.'ith his largesse and we will 
 p.ot display the bride unless he be present." Iherewith they carried 
 him into the bridal hall and made him sit down defying the evil 
 glances of the hunchbacked bridegroom. The wives of the Emirs 
 and Wazirs and Chamberlains and Courtiers all stood in double 
 line, each holding a massy cierge ready lighted ; all wore thin face- 
 veils and the two rows right and left extended from the bride's 
 throne ^ to the head of the hall adjoining the chamber whence she 
 was to come forth. When the ladies saw Badr al-Din Hasan and 
 noted his beauty and loveliness, and his face that shone like the new 
 moon, their hearts inclined to him and the singing-girls said to all 
 that were present, " Know that this beauty crossed our hands with 
 naught but red gold ; so be not chary to do him womanly service 
 and comply with all he says, no matter what he ask."* " So all the 
 women crowded round Hasan with their torches, and gazed on his 
 loveliness and envied him his beauty ; and one and all would gladly 
 have lain on his bosom an hour or rather a year. Their hearts were 
 so troubled that they let fall their veils from before their faces and 
 said, " Happy she who belcngeth to this youth or to whom he 
 belongeth ! " and they called down curses on the crooked groom and 
 on him who was the cause of his marriage to the girl-beauty ; and 
 
 ' I need hardly describe the Tarbusli, a corruptiiin of the Pers. " Sar-piish " 
 (head-cover), also called "Fez," from its old home; and "Tarbrush" by the 
 travelling Briton. In old days it was a calotte worn under the turband ; and it was 
 protected from scalp-perspiration by an " Arakiyah " (Pers. Arak-chin), a white 
 skull-cap. Now it is worn without either and as a head-dress nothing can be worse 
 (Pilgrimage, ii. 275). 
 
 ^ Arab. " Tar " : the custom still prevails. Lane (M. E. , chapt. xviii. ) describes 
 and figures this hoop-drum. 
 
 3 The couch on which she sits while being displayed. It is her throne, for she 
 is the Queen of the occasion, with all the Majesty of Virginity. 
 
 * This is a solemn "chaff"; such liberties being permitted at weddings and 
 fesiive occasions
 
 No. 6. 
 
 Tale of Nur al-Dm Ah and his 
 
 Son. 
 
 " Then the singing-girls beat their tabrets. . . . 
 And the bride was as the full moon when at fullest. 
 . . . Thus they displayed the bride . . . wholly 
 neglecting the Gobbo, who sat moping alone."
 
 Tale of Nur al-Din Ali and his Son. 199 
 
 as often as they blessed Badr al-Din Hasan they damned the 
 Hunchback, saying, "Verily this youth and none else deserveth our 
 Bride : ah, well-away for such a lovely one with this hideous Quasi- 
 modo ; Allah's curse light on his head and on the Sultan who con- 
 manded the marriage ! " Then the singing-girls beat their tabrets 
 and luUiloo'd with joy, announcing the appearing of the bride ; 
 and the Wazir's daugliter came in surrounded by her tire-women 
 who had made her goodly to look upon ; for they had perfumed 
 her and incensed her and adorned her hair ; and they had robed her 
 in raiment and ornaments befitting the mighty Chosroes Kings. 
 The most notable part of her dress was a loose robe worn over her 
 other garments : it was diapered in red gold with figures of wild 
 beasts, and birds whose eyes and beaks were of gems, and claws of 
 red rubies and green beryl ; and her neck was graced with a neck- 
 lace of Yamani work, worth thousands of gold pieces, whose bezels 
 were great round jewels of sorts, the like of which was never owned 
 by Kaysar or by Tobba King.^ And the bride was as the full moon 
 when at fullest on fourteenth night ; and as she paced into the hall 
 she was like one of the Houris of Heaven — praise be to Him who 
 created her in such splendour of beauty ! The ladies encompassed 
 her as the white contains the black of the eye, they clustering like 
 stars whilst she shone amongst them like the moon when it eats up 
 the clouds. Now Badr al-Din Hasan of Bassorah was sitting in 
 full gaze of the folk, when the bride came forward with her graceful 
 swaying and swimming gait, and her hunchbacked bridegroom stood 
 up to meet "^ and receive her : she, however, turned away from the 
 wight, and walked forward till she stood before her cousin Hasan, 
 the son of her uncle. Whereat the people laughed. But when the 
 wedding-guests saw her thus attracted towards Badr al-Din they 
 made a mighty clamour, and the singing-women shouted their 
 loudest ; whereupon he put his hand into his pocket and, pulling 
 out a handful of gold, cast it into their tambourines, and the girls 
 
 ^ The pre-lslamitic dynasty of Al-Yaman in Arabia Fe.lix, a region formerly 
 famed for wealth and luxury. Hence the mention of Yamani work. The caravans 
 from Sana'a, the capital, used to carry patterns of vases to be made in China and 
 bring back the porcelains at the end of the third year : these are the Arabic inscrip- 
 tions which have puzzled so many collectors. The Tobba, or Successors, were the 
 old Himyarite Kings, a dynastic name like Pliaraoh, Kisra (Persia), Negush 
 (Abyssinia), Khakan or Khan (Tartary), etc., who claimed to have extended their 
 conquests to Samarcand and made war on China. Any history of Arabia (as 
 Crichton I. , chapt. iv. ) may be consulted for their names and annals. I have been 
 told by Arabs that " Tobba " (or Tubba) is still used in the old Himyar-land = the 
 Great or the Chief. 
 
 * Lane and Payne (as well as the Bres. Edit.) both render the word " to kiss 
 her," but this would be clean contrary to Moslem usage.
 
 200 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 rejoiced and said, " Could we win our wish this bride were thine ! " 
 At this he smiled and the folk came round him, flambeaux in hand 
 like the eyeball round the pupil, while the Gobbo bridegroom was 
 left sitting alone much like a tail-less baboon ; for every time they 
 lighted a candle for him it went out wiily-nilly, so he was left in 
 darkness and silence and looking at naught but himself.^ When 
 Badr al-Din Hasan saw the bridegroom sitting lonesome in the dark, 
 and all the wedding-guests with their fxambeaux and wax candles 
 crowding about himself, he was bewildered and marvelled much , 
 but as he looked at his cousin, the daughter of his uncle, he re- 
 joiced and felt an inward delight : he longed to greet her and gazed 
 intently on her face, which was radiant with light and brilliancy. 
 Then the tire-women took off her vale and displayed her in the first 
 bridal dress, which was of scarlet satin ; and Hasan had a view of 
 her which dazzled his sight and dazed his wits, as she moved to and 
 fro, swaying with graceful gait ^ ; and she turned the heads of all the 
 guests, women as well as men, for she was even as saith the sur- 
 passing poet : — 
 A sun on wand in knoll of sand she showed, * Clad in her cramoisy-hued 
 
 chemisette : 
 Of her lips' honey-dew she gave me drink, » And with her rosy cheeks quencht 
 
 fire she set. 
 
 Then they changed that dress, and displayed her in a robe of azure ; 
 and she reappeared like the full moon when it riseth over the horizon, 
 with her coal-black hair and cheeks delicately fair ; and teeth shown 
 in sweet smiling and breasts firm rising, and crowning sides of the 
 softest and waist of the roundest. And in this second suit she was 
 as a certain master of high conceits saith of the like of her : — 
 
 She came apparelled in an azure vest, » Ultramarine, as skies are deckt and 
 
 dight : 
 I view'd th' unparallel'd sight, which show'd niy eyes « A Summer-moon upon a 
 
 Winter-night. 
 
 Then they changed that suit for another and, veiling her face in the 
 luxuriance of her hair, loosed her lovelocks, so dark, so long that 
 their darkness and length outvied the darkest nights, and she shot 
 through all hearts with the magical shaft of her eye-babes. They 
 displayed her in the third dress, and she was as said of her the 
 sayer : — 
 
 Veiling her cheeks wilb ha;r a-morn she comes » And I her mischiefo with the 
 cloud compare : 
 
 ' i.e., he was full of rago which he concealed. 
 
 = The Hindus (as the Katha shows) compare this swimming gait with an 
 elephant's roll.
 
 Tale of Nur al-Dhi AH attd his Son. 201 
 
 Saying, " Thou veilest morn with night ! "' "Ah no!" » Quoth she, " I shroud 
 full moon with darkling air ! " 
 
 Then they displayed her in the fourth bridal dress, and she came 
 forward shining Hke the rising sun and swaying to and fro with 
 lovesome grace and supple ease like a gazelle-fawn. And she 
 clave all hearts with the arrows of her eyelasheS; even as saith 
 one who described a charmer like her: — 
 
 The sun of beauty she to sight appears » And, lovely-coy, she mocks all loveli- 
 ness ; 
 
 And when he fronts her favour and her smile * A-morn, the Sun of day in clouds 
 must dress. 
 
 Then she came forth in the fifth dress, a very light of loveliness like a 
 wand of waving willow or a gazelle of the thirsty wold. Those locks 
 which stung like scorpions along her cheeks were bent, and her neck 
 was bowed in blandishment, and her hips quivered as she went. As 
 saith one of the poets describing her in verse : — 
 
 She comes like fullest moon on happy night ; * Taper of waist, with shape of 
 
 magic might : 
 She hath an eye whose glances quell mankind » And ruby on her cheeks reflects 
 
 his light : 
 Enveils her hips the blackness of her hair ; * Beware of curls that bite with viper- 
 bite ! 
 Her sides are silken soft, what while the heart » Mere rock behind that surface 
 
 'scapes from sight : 
 From the fringed curtains of her eyne she shoots * Shafts which at farthest range 
 
 on mark alight : 
 When round her neck or waist I throw my arms * Her breasts repel me with 
 
 their hardened height. 
 Ah, how her beauty all excels ! ah how * That shape transcends the graceful 
 
 waving bough ! 
 
 Then they adorned her with the sixth toilette, a dress which was 
 green. And now she shamed in her slender straightness the 
 nut-brown spear; her radiant face dimmed the brightest beams of full 
 moon, and she outdid the bending branches in gentle movement 
 and flexile grace. Her loveliness exalted the beauties of earth's 
 four quarters, and she broke men's hearts by the significance of her 
 semblance ; for she was even as saith one of the poets in these 
 lines : — 
 
 A damsel 'twas the tirer's art had decked with snares and sleight ' : « And robed 
 
 in rays as though the sun from her had borrowed light : 
 She came before us wondrous clad in chemisette of green, * As veiled by its 
 
 leafy screen pomegranate hides from sight : 
 
 ' Arab. " Fitnah," a word almost as troublesome as "Adab. " Primarily, 
 revolt, seduction, mischief: then a beautiful girl (or boy), and lastly a certain 
 aphrodisiac perfume extracted from mimosa-flowers (Pilgrimage, i. iiS).
 
 202 A If Lay la h zva Laylah. 
 
 And when he said, "How callest thou the manner of thy dress?" * She 
 
 answered us in pleasant way with double meaning dight ; 
 " We call this garment a-cve-cceur ; and rightly is it hight, « For many a heart 
 wi' this we brake ' and harried many a sprite ! " 
 
 Then they displayed her in the seveiith dress, coloured between 
 safflower ^ and saffron, even as one of the poets saith : — 
 
 In vest of saffron pale and safflower red » Musk'd sarrdal'd, ambergris'd, she 
 
 came to front : 
 " Rise ! " cried her youth, " go forth and show thyself ! " • " Sit ! "' said her hips, 
 
 " we cannot bear the brunt ! " 
 And when I craved a bout, her Beauty said ♦ " Do, do ! " and said her pretty 
 
 shame, "Don't, don't ! " 
 
 Thus they displayed the bride in all her seA'en toilettes before Hasan 
 al-Basri, wholly neglecting the Gobbo, who sat moping alone. And 
 when she opened her eyes,'^ she said, " O Allah, make this man my 
 goodman, and deliver me from the evil of this hunchbacked groom." 
 As soon as they had made an end of this part of the ceremony, 
 they dismissed the wedding guests, who went forth, women, children, 
 and all^ and none remained save Hasan and the Hunchback, 
 whilst the tire-women led the bride into an inner room to change 
 her garb and gear and get her ready for the bridegroom. Thereupon 
 Quasimodo came up to Badr al-Din^ Hasan, and said, " O my lord, 
 thou hast cheered us this night with thy good company and 
 overwhelmed us with thy kindness and courtesy; but now why not 
 get thee up and go?" " Bismillah," he answered, " in Allah's name 
 so be it." And rising he went forth by the door, where the Ifrit met 
 him, and said, " Stay in thy stead, O Badr al-Din, and when the 
 Hunchback goes out to the closet of ease go in without losing time 
 and seat thyself in the alcove ; and when the bride comes say to 
 her : — 'Tis I am thy husband, for the King devised this trick only 
 fearing for thee the evil eye, and he whom thou sawest is but a 
 Syce, a groom, one of our stablemen. Then walk boldly up to 
 her and unveil her face ; for jealousy hath taken us of this matter." 
 \\'hile Hasan was still talking with the Ifrit, behold the groom fored 
 forth from the hall, and entering the closet of ease sat down on 
 the stool. Hardly had he done this when the Ifrit came out of 
 
 ' Lit. b\n-st the " gall-bladder " : in this and in the " li.-er " -allusions I dare 
 not be baldly literal. ^ 
 
 - Arab. " Usfur," the seeds of Carthamus tinctorius = Safflower (Forskal, Flora, 
 etc. Iv. ). The seeds are crushed for oil and the flowers, which must be gathered 
 by virgins or the colour will fail, are extensively used for dyeing in Southern 
 Arabia and Eastern Africa. 
 
 3 On such occasions Miss Modesty shuts her eyes.
 
 Tale of Nur al-Din AH and his Son. 203 
 
 the tank/ wherein the water was, in semblance of a mouse, and 
 squeaked out " Zeek ! " Quoth the Hunchback, " Wliat ails 
 thee ? " and the mouse grew and grew till it became a coal- 
 black cat and caterwauled " Meeao ! Meeao ^ ! " Then it grew 
 still more and more till it became a dog, and barked out "Owh! 
 Owh ! " When the bridegroom saw this he was frightened and 
 exclaimed, " Out with thee, O unlucky one ® ! " But the dog grew 
 and swelled till it became an ass-colt that brayed and snorted in 
 his face, "HaukM Haukl" Whereupon the Hunchback quaked 
 and cried, "Come to my aid, O people of the house!" But 
 behold, the ass-colt grew and became big as a buffalo and walled 
 the way before him and spake with the voice of the sons of Adam, 
 saying, "Woe to thee, O thou Bunch-back, thou stinkard, O thou 
 filthiest of grooms ! " Hearing this the groom was seized with 
 I colic, and he sat down on the jakes in his clothes with teeth 
 chattering and knocking together. Quoth the Ifrit, "Is the world 
 so strait to thee thou findest none to marry save my lady-love ? '' 
 But as he was silent the Ifrit continued, " Answer me or I will do 
 thee dwell in the dust!" "By Allah," rephed the Gobbo, "O 
 King of the Buffaloes, this is no fault of mine, for they forced me 
 to wed her; and verily I wot not that she had a lover amongst the 
 buffaloes ; but now I repent, first before Allah and then before 
 thee." Said the Ifrit to him, " I swear to thee that if thou fare 
 forth from this place, or thou utter a word before sunrise, I 
 assuredly will wring thy neck. When the sun rises wend thy 
 way and never more return to this house." So saying, tiie Ifrit 
 took up the Gobbo bridegroom and set him head downwards and 
 
 ' After either evacuation the Moslem is bound to wash or sand the part ; first, 
 however, he should apply three pebbles, or potsherds, or clods of earth. Hence 
 the allusion in the Koran (chapt. ix.), " men who love to be purified." When the 
 Prophet was questioning the men of Kuba, where he founded a mosque (Pilgrimage, 
 ii. 215), he asked them about their legal a!)lutions, especially after evacuation ; 
 and they told him that they used three stones before washing. Moslems and 
 Hindus (who prefer water mixed with earth) abhor the unclean and unhealthy 
 use of paper without ablution ; and the people of India call Europeans draught - 
 houses, by way of opprobrium, " Kaghaz-khanah " = paper closets. Most old 
 Anglo-Indians, however, learn to use water. 
 
 ^ " Miao" or " Mau " is the generic name of the cat in the Egyptian of tin. 
 hieroglyphs. 
 
 3 Arab. " Ya Mash'iim " addressed to an evil spirit. 
 
 '» " Heehaw ! " as we should say. The Bresl. Edit, makes the cat cry, " Nauh \ 
 Nauh ! " and the ass-colt " Manu ! Manu ! " I leave these onomatopceics as they 
 are in Arabic ; they are curious, showing the unity in variety of hearing inarticulate 
 sounds. The bird, which is called " VVhip-poor-Will "in the U.S., is known to the 
 Brazilians as " Joam corta pao " (John cut wood) ; so differently do they hear the 
 same notes.
 
 204 A If Laylah wa Lay/ah. 
 
 feet upwards in the slit of the privy,^ and said to him, "I will 
 leave thee here, but I shall be on the look-out for thee till sunrise ; 
 and, if thou stir before then, I will seize thee by the feet and dash 
 out thy brains against the wall : so look out for thy life ! " Thus 
 far concerning the Hunchback, but as regards Badr al-Din Hasan 
 of Bassorah, he left the Gobbo and the Ifrit jangling and wrangling 
 and, going into the house, sat him down in the very middle of the 
 alcove ; and behold ! in came the bride attended by an old woman 
 who stood at the door and said, " O Father of Uprightness,'^ 
 arise and take what God giveth thee." Then the old woman went 
 away and the bride, Sitt al-Husn or the Lady of Beauty hight, 
 entered the inner part of the alcove broken-hearted, and saying in 
 herself, " By Allah, I will never yield my person to him ; no, not 
 even were he to take my life ! " But as she came to the further 
 end she saw Badr al-Din Hasan and she said, "Dearling ! art thou 
 still sitting here ? By Allah, I was wishing that thou wert my 
 bridegroom or, at least, that thou and the hunchbacked horse- 
 groom were partners in me." He replied, "O beautiful lady, how 
 should the Syce have access to thee, and how should he share in 
 thee with me?" "Then," quoth she, "who is my husband, thou 
 or he?" "Sitt al-Husn," rejoined Hasan, "we have not done 
 this for mere fun,'' but only as a device to ward off the evil eye 
 from thee ; for when the tire-women and singers and wedding 
 guests saw thy beauty being displayed to me, they feared fascina- 
 tion and thy father hired the horse-groom for ten dinars and a 
 porringer of meat to take the evil eye off us ; and now he hath 
 received his hire and gone his gait." When the Lady of Beauty 
 heard these words she smiled and rejoiced and laughed a pleasant 
 laugh. Then she whispered him, " By the Lord thou hast 
 quenched a fire which tortured me and now, by Allah, O my little 
 dark-haired darling, take me to thee and press me to thy bosom!" 
 Then she began singing : — 
 
 By Allah, set thy foot i:pon my soul ; » Since long, long years fur this alone I 
 long: 
 
 ' It is usually a slab of marble with a long slit in front-and a round hole behind. 
 The text speaks of a Kursi ( = stool) ; but this is now unknown to native houses 
 which have not adopted European fashions. 
 
 - This again is chaff as she addresses the Hunchback. The Bui. Edit, has " O 
 Abu Shihab" (Father of the shooting-star = evil spirit); the Bresl. Edit. " O son 
 of a heap ! O son of a Something ! " (al-Afsh, a vulgarism). 
 
 3 As the reader will see, Arab ideas of " fun" and practical jokes are of the 
 largest, putting the Hibernian to utter rout, and comparing favourably with those 
 recorded in Don Quixote.
 
 Tale oj Nur al-Din Ali and his Son. 205 
 
 And whisper tale of love in ear of me ; * To me 'tis sweeter than the sweetest 
 
 song ! 
 No other youth upon my heart shall lie ; » So do it often, dear, and do it long. 
 
 Then she stripped off her outer gear and Badr al-Din arose and doffed 
 his clothes, and wrapping up in his bag-trousers^ the purse of gold 
 which he had taken from the Jew, and which contained the thousand 
 dinars, he laid it under the edge of the bedding. Then he took 
 off his turband and set it upon the settle''^ atop of his other clothes, 
 remaining in his skull-cap and fine shirt of blue silk laced with 
 gold. Whereupon the Lady of Beauty drew him to her and he 
 did likewise. Then he took her to his embrace and he found her 
 a pearl unpierced and unthridden, and he abated her virginity, and 
 had joyance of her youth in his virility, and she conceived by him 
 that very night. Then he laid his hand under her head, and she 
 did the same, and they embraced and fell asleep in each other's 
 arms, as a certain poet said of such lovers in these couplets : — 
 Visit thy lover, spurn what envy told ; » No envious churl shall smile on love 
 
 ensouled ; 
 Merciful Allah made no fairer sight « Than coupled lovers single couch doth 
 
 hold; 
 Breast pressing breast and robed in joys their own, « With pillowed forearms cast 
 
 in finest mould : 
 And when heart speaks to heart with tongue of Love, * Folk who would part 
 
 them hammer steel ice-cold : 
 If a fair friend^ thou find who cleaves to thee, * Live for that friend, that friend 
 
 in heart enfold. 
 O ye who blame for love us lovekind » Say, can ye minister to diseased mind ? 
 
 This much concerning Badr al-Din Hasan and Sitt al Husn, his 
 cousin ; but as regards the Ifrit, as soon as he saw the twain asleep, 
 he said to the Ifritah, " Arise ; slip thee under the youth, and let 
 us carry him back to his place ere dawn overtake us ; for the day 
 is nearhand." Thereupon she came forward and, getting under 
 
 'Arab. " Sarawil " a corruption of the Pers. "Sharwal"; popularly called 
 " libas," which, however, may also mean clothing in general, and especially outer- 
 clothing. I translate " bag trousers" and " petticoat-trousers," the latter being 
 the divided skirt of our future. In the East, where Common Sense, not Fashion, 
 rules dress, men wear petticoats, and women wear trousers. This feminine article 
 is mostly baggy, but sometimes, as in India, and amongst the Jewesses of Tunis 
 fi,'/Az«/- tight. A quasi-sacred part of it is the inkle,, tape or string, often a most 
 magnificent affair, with tassels of pearl and precious stones; and " laxity in the 
 trouser-string " is equivalent to the loosest conduct. Upon the subject of 
 "libas," "sarwal" and its variants, the curious render will consult Dr. Dozy's 
 " Dictionnaire Detaille des Noms des Vetements chez les Arabes," a most 
 valuable work. 
 
 '^ The turband out of respect is not put upon the ground (Lane, M. E., chapt. i.). 
 
 3 In Arab, the "he" is a "she"; and Habib (" friend ") is the Attic 'J>tAos 
 a euphemism for lover. This will occur throughout The Nights. So the Arabs 
 use a phrase corresponding with the Stoic <i:>6Aei, i.e., is wont, is fain.
 
 2o6 Alf Laylah %va Luyiah. 
 
 him as he lay asleep, took him up clad only in his fine blue shirt, 
 leaving the rest of his garmer;ts ; and ceased not flying (and the 
 Ifrit vying with her in flight) till the dawn advised them that it 
 had come upon them mid-way, and the Muezzin began his call 
 from the Minaretj " Haste ye to salvation ^ ! Haste ye to salvation ! " 
 Then Allah suffered His angelic host to shoot down the Ifrit with 
 a shooting star,^ so he v/as consumed, but the Ifritah escaped, and 
 she descended with Badr al-Din at the place where the Ifrit was 
 burnt, and did not carry him back to Bassorah, fearing lest he 
 come to harm. Now by the order of Him Who predestineth all 
 things, they alighted at Damascus of Syria, and the Ifritah set down 
 her burden at one of the city-gates and flew away. When day 
 arose and the doors were opened, the folk who came forth saw a 
 handsome youth, with no other raiment but his blue shirt of gold- 
 embroidered silk and skull-cap,'' lying upon the ground drowned in 
 sleep after the hard labour of the night, which had not suffered him 
 to take his rest. So the folk, looking at him, said, " O her luck with 
 whom this one spent the night ! But would he had waited to 
 don his garments." Quoth another, " A sorry lot are the sons of 
 great families ! Haply he but now came forth of the tavern on some 
 occasion of his own, and his wine flew to his head,^ whereby he hath 
 missed the place he was making for and strajed till he came to 
 the gate of the city, and, finding it shut, lay him down and 
 went to by-by." As the people were bandying guesses about him, 
 suddenly the morning breeze blew upon Badr al-Din and, raising 
 his shirt to his middle, showed a stomach and navel, and legs 
 and thighs clear as cryL-tal and smooth as cream. Cried the 
 people, "By Allah, he is a pretty fellow!" And at this 
 cry Badr al-Din awoke, and found himself lying at a city-gate with 
 a crowd gathered around him. At this he greatly marvelled and 
 asked, " Where am I, O good folk ; and what causeth you thus to 
 gather round me, and what have I had to do with you ? " and they 
 answered, " We found thee lying here asleep during the call to dawn- 
 prayer, and this is all we knovv' of the matter, but where diddest 
 
 ' Part of the Azan, or call to prayer. 
 
 " Arab. " Shihab " ; these meteors being the llyirkg shafts shot at evil spirits 
 who approach too near Heaven. The idea doubtless arose from the showers of 
 August and November meteors (The Perseides and Taurides) which suggest a 
 battle ragmg in upper air. Christendom also has its superstition concerning them, 
 and called those of August the "fiery tears of St. Lawrence," whose festival was 
 on August loth. 
 
 3 Arab. " Takiyah " = Pers. Arak-chin ; the calotte worn under the Fez. It is, 
 I have said, now obsolete and the red woollen cap (mostly made in Europe) is 
 worn over the hair ; an unclean practice. 
 
 ■* Often the effect of cold air after a heated room.
 
 Tale of Nur al-Din Ali and his Son. 207 
 
 thou lie last night ^ ? " " By Allah, O good people," replied he, " I 
 lay last night in Cairo." Said somebody, "Thou hast surely been 
 eating Hashish ^ " ; and another, " He is a fool " ; and a third, " He 
 is a citroiiille " ; and a fourth asked him, " Art thou out of thy 
 mind ? thou sleepest in Cairo and thou wakcst in the morning at 
 ihe gate of Damascus-city " ! " Cried he, " By Allah, my good 
 people, one and all, I lie not to you; indeed, I lay yesternight in 
 the land of Egypt and yesternoon I was at Bassorah." Quoth 
 one, " Well ! well ! " and quoth another, " Ho ! ho ! " and a third 
 " So ! so ! " and a fourth cried, " This youth is mad, is possessed 
 of the Jinni ! " So they clapped hands at him, and said to one 
 another, " Alas, the pity of it for his youth : by Allah, a madman ! 
 and madness is no respecter of persons." Then said they to him, 
 " Collect thy wits and return to thy reason ! How couldest thou 
 be in Bassorah yesterday and in Cairo yesternight, and withal 
 awake in Damascus this morning ? " But he persisted, " Indeed I 
 was a bridegroom in Cairo last night." " Belike thou hast been 
 dreaming," rejoined they, " and sawest all this in thy sleep." So 
 Hasan took thought for a while and said to them, " By Allah, this 
 is no dream ; nor vision-like does it seem ! I certainly was in 
 Cairo, where they displayed the bride before me, in the presence of a 
 third person, the Hunchback groom who was sitting hard by. By 
 Allah, O my brother, this be no dream ; and if it were a dream, 
 where is the bag of gold I bore with me, and where are my turband 
 and my robe, and my trousers?" Then he rose and entered the 
 city, threading its highways and by-ways and bazar-streets ; and 
 the people pressed upon him and jeered at him, crying out " Mad- 
 man ! madman ! " till he, beside himself with rage, took refuge in 
 a cook's shop. Now that Cook had been a trifle too clever, that 
 is, a rogue and thief; but Allah had made him repent and turn 
 from his evil ways and open a cook-shop; and all the people of 
 Damascus stood in fear of his boldness and his mischief So when 
 the crowd saw ibe youth enter his shop they dispersed, being afraid 
 of him, and went their ways. The Cook looked at Badr al-Din and, 
 noting his beauty and loveliness, fell in love with him forthright, and 
 said, " Whence comest thou, O youth? Tell me at once thy tale, for 
 thou art become dearer to me than my soul." So Hasan recounted 
 
 ^ In Arab, " this night" for the reason before given. 
 
 ^ Meaning especially the drink prepared of the young leaves and florets of 
 Cannabis Sativa. The word literally means " dry grass" or " herbage." This 
 intoxicant was much used by magicians to produce ecstacy and thus to " deify 
 themselves and receive the homage of the genii and spirits of nature." 
 
 3 Torrens, being an Irishman, translates " and woke m the morning sleeping at 
 Damascus."
 
 2o8 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 to him aii that had befallen him from beginning to end (but in 
 repetition there is no fruition) and the Cook said, " O my lord Badr 
 al-Din, doubtless thou knowest that this case is wondrous and this 
 story marvellous ; therefore, O my son, hide what hath betided thee, 
 till Allah dispel what ills be thine ; and tarry with me here the 
 meanwhile, for I have no child and I will adopt thee." Badr al-Din 
 replied, "Be it as thou wilt, O my uncle!" Whereupon the Cook 
 went to the bazar and bought him a fine suit of clothes and made 
 him don it ; then fared with him to the Kazi, and formally declared 
 that he was his son. So Badr al-Din Hasan became known in 
 Damascus city as the Cook's son, and he sat with him in the shop 
 to take the silver, and on this wise he sojourned there for a time. 
 Thus far concerning him ; but as regards his cousin, the Lady of 
 Beauty, when morning dawned she awoke and missed Badr al-Din 
 Hasan from her side ; but she thought that he had gone to the 
 privy and she sat expecting him for an hour or so ; when behold, 
 entered her father Shams ai-Din Mohammed, Wazir of Egypt. Now 
 he was disconsolate by reason of what had befallen him through 
 the Sultan, who had entreated him harshly and had married his 
 daughter by force to the lowest of his menials, and he too a lump 
 of a groom bunch-backed withal, and he said to himself, " I will 
 slay this daughter of mine if of her own free will she have yielded 
 her person to this accursed carle." So he came to the door of the 
 bride's private chamber, and said, " Ho ! Sitt al-Husn." She 
 answered him, " Here am I ! here am I M O my Lord," and came 
 out unsteady of gait after the pains and pleasures of the night ; and 
 she kissed his hand, her face showing redoubled brightness and 
 beauty for having lain in the arms of that gazelle, her cousin. 
 When her father, the Wazir, saw her in such case, he asked her, 
 "O thou accursed ! art thou rejoicing because of this horse-groom?" 
 and Sitt al-Husn smiled sweetly, and answered, "By Allah, don't 
 ridicule me. Enough of what passed yesterday, when folk laughed 
 at me, and evened me with that groom fellow, who is not worthy 
 to bring my husband's shoes or slippers — nay, who is not worth the 
 paring of my husband's nails. By the Lord, never in my life have I 
 
 ' Arab. " Labbayka," the cry technically called "Talbiyah," and used by those 
 entering Meccah (Pilgrimage, iii. 125 — 232). I shall tianslate it also by "Adsum." 
 The full cry is : — 
 
 Here am I, O Allah, here am I ! 
 
 No partner hast Thou, here am I : 
 
 Verily the praise and the grace and the kingdom are thine : 
 
 No partner hast Thou : here am I ! 
 A single Talbiyah is a " Shart " or positive condition : and its repetition is a 
 Sunnat or Custom of the Prophet. See vol. ii. night xci.
 
 Tale of Nur al-Diii AH and his Son. 209 
 
 nighted a night so sweet as yesternight ! So don't mock by reminding 
 me of the Gobbo." Vtlien her parent heard her words, he was 
 filled with fury, and his eyes glared and stared, so that little of 
 them showed save the whites, and he cried, " Fie upon thee ! What 
 words are these? 'Twas the hunchbacked horse-groom who 
 passed the night with thee !" "Allah upon thee !" replied the Lady 
 of Beauty, "do not worry me about the Gobbo, Allah damn his 
 father^; and leave jesting with me; for this groom was only 
 hired for ten dinars and a porringer of meat, and he took his wage 
 and went his way. As for me I entered the bridal-cliamber, where 
 I found my true bridegroom sitting, after the singer-women had 
 displayed me to him ; the same who had crossed their hands with 
 red gold till every pauper that was present waxed wealthy ; and 1 
 passed the night on the breast of my bonny man, a most lively 
 darling, with his black eyes and joined eyebrov/s.^ " Vv'hen her 
 parent heard these words the light before his face became night, 
 and he cried out at her saying, " O thou whore ! What is this 
 thou tellest me ? Where be thy wits ? " " O my father," she 
 rejoined, " thou breakest my heart. Enough for thee that thou 
 hast been so hard upon me. Indeed, my husband, who took my 
 virginity, is but just now gone to the draught-house, and I feel that 
 I have conceived by him." The Wazir rose in much marvel, and 
 entered the privy, where he found the hunchbacked horse-groom 
 with his head in the hole and his heels in the air. At this sight he 
 was confounded, and said, " This is none other than he, the rascal 
 Hunchback!" So he called to him, "Ho, Hunchback!" The 
 Gobbo grunted out, '■'• Ta\;hu!ii 1 Tagkuni^l" thinking it was the 
 Ifrit spoke to him. So the Wazir shouted at him, and said, " Speak 
 out, or I'll strike off thy pate with this sword!" Then quoth the 
 Hunchback, "By Allah, O Shaykh of the Ifrits, ever since thou 
 
 ' The staple abuse of the vulgar is cursing parents and relatives, especially 
 feminine, with specific allusions to their " shame." 
 
 - A great beauty in Arabia and the reverse in Denmark, Germany and Slav-land, 
 where it is a sign of being a were-wolf or a vampire. In Greece also it denotes a 
 " Brukolak," or vampire. 
 
 3 Torrens (Notes, xxiv. ) quotes " Fleisher " upon the word "Ghamghama" 
 (Diss. Grit, de Glossis Habichtionis), which he compares with " Dumduma " and 
 "Humbuma," determining them to be onomatopoeics, "an incomplete and an 
 obscure murmur of a sentence as it were lingering between the teeth and lips, and 
 therefore difficult to be understood." Of this family is " Taghum " ; not used in 
 modern days. In my Pilgrimage, i. 313, I have noticed another, " Khyas', 
 Khyas' ! " occurring in a Hizb al-Eahr (Spell of the Sea). Herklots gives a host 
 of them ; and their sole characteristics are harshness and strangeness of sound, 
 uniting consonants which are not joined in Arabic. The old Egj-ptians and 
 Chaldeans had many such words composed at will for theurgic operations.
 
 2IO Alf Lay la h wa Lay la h. 
 
 settest me in this place, I have not lifted my head; so Allah upon 
 thee, take pity and entreat me kindly !" When the Wazir heard this 
 he asked, "What is this thou sayest? I'm the bride's father, and no 
 Ifrit." " Enough for thee that thou hast well-nigh done me die," 
 answered Quasimodo; "Now go thy ways before he come upon 
 thee who hath served me thus. Could ye not marry me to any 
 save the lady-love of buffaloes and the beloved of Ifrits ? Allah 
 curse her and curse him who married me to her, and was the 
 
 cause of this my case ! " And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of 
 
 day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 Botu to|)en it tDaei t^e Ctoentp--t|)ivU JrJisbt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the hunch- 
 backed groom spake to the bride's father saying, " Allah curse him 
 who was the cause of this my case ! " Then said the Wazir to 
 him, " Up and out of this place !" "Am I mad," cried the groom, 
 " that I should go with thee without leave of the Ifrit, whose last 
 words to me were : — When the sun rises, arise and go thy gait ? 
 So hath the sun risen or no ? for I dare not budge from this place 
 till then." Asked the Wazir, " Who brought thee hither ? " and 
 he answered, " I came here yesternight for a call of nature, and to 
 do what none can do for me, when lo ! a mouse came out of the 
 water, and squeaked at me and swelled and waxed gross till it was 
 big as a buffalo, and spoke to me words that entered my ears. 
 Then he left me here and went away, Allah curse the bride and 
 him who married me to her ! " The Wazir walked up to him and 
 lifted his head out of the cesspool hole ; and he fared forth run- 
 ning for dear life, and hardly crediting that the sun had risen ; and 
 repaired to the Sultan to whom he told all that had befallen him 
 with the Ifrit. But the Wazir returned to the bride's private 
 chamber, sore troubled in spirit about her, and said to her, " O my 
 daughter, explain this strange matter to me!" Quoth she, "'Tis 
 simply this. The bridegroom to whom they displayed me yester-eve 
 lay with me all night, and took my virginity, and I am with 
 child by him. He is my husband, and if thou believe me not, there 
 are his turband, twisted as it was, lying on the settle and his dagger 
 and his trousers beneath the bed with a something, I wot not 
 what, wrapped up in them." When her father heard this he 
 entered the private chamber, and found the turband which had been 
 left there by Badr al-Din Hasan, his brother's son, and he took it 
 in hand, and turned it over, saying, " This is the turband worn by
 
 Tale of Niir al-Din All and his Son. 211 
 
 Wazirs, save that it is of Mosul stuff.^" So he opened it and find! 
 ing what seemed to be an amulet sewn up in the Fez, he unsewed 
 the lining and took it out ; then he lifted up the trousers wherein 
 was the purse of the thousand gold pieces and, opening that also, 
 found in it a written paper. This he read, and it was the sale- 
 receipt of the Jew in the name of Badr al-Din Hasan, son of 
 Nur al-Din Ali, the Egyptian ; and the thousand dinars were also 
 there. No sooner had Shams al-Din read this than he cried out 
 with a loud cry and fell to the ground fainting; and as soon as he 
 revived and understood the gist of the matter he marvelled and 
 said, "There is no god but the God, whose All-might is over all 
 things ! Knowest thou, O my daughter, who it was that became 
 the husband of thy virginity?" "No," answered she, and he said, 
 " Verily he is the son of my brother, thy cousin, and this thousand 
 dinars is thy dowry. Praise be to Allah ! and would I wot how 
 this matter came about ! " Then opened he the amulet, which was 
 sewn up, and found therein a paper in the hand-writing of his 
 deceased brother, Nur al-Din, the Egyptian, father of Badr al-Din 
 Hasan ; and, when he saw the hand-writing, he kissed it again and 
 .again ; and he wept and wailed over his dead brother and improvised 
 these lines : — 
 
 I see their traces and with pain I melt, « And on their whilome homes I 
 
 weep and yearn : 
 And riim I pray who dealt this parting blow, * Some day lie deign vouchsafe a 
 
 safe return.^ 
 
 When he ceased versifying he read the scroll, and found in it 
 recorded the dates of his brother's marriage with the daughter of 
 the Wazir of Bassorah, and of his going in to her, and her conception 
 and the birth of Badr al-Din Hasan, and all his brother's history 
 and doings up to his dying day. So he marvelled much and shook 
 with joy and, comparing the dates with his own marriage and 
 going in unto his wife and the birth of his daughter, Sitt al-Husn, 
 he found that they perfecdy agreed. So he took the document 
 and, repairing with it to the Sultan, acquainted him with what 
 had passed, from first to last ; whereat the King marvelled and 
 
 ^ This may mean either " it is of Mosul fashion," or it is of musHn. 
 
 ^ To the English reader these lines would appear the reverse of apposite ; but 
 Orientals have their own ways of application, and all allusions to Badawi partings 
 are effective and affecting. The civilised poets of Arab cities throw the charm of 
 the Desert over their verse by images borrowed from its scenery, the dromedary, 
 -the mirage and the well, as naturally as certain of our bards who hated the country 
 babbled of purling rills, etc. Thoroughly to feel Arabic poetry one must know the 
 X)esert (Pilgrimage, iii. 63). 
 
 O 2
 
 2 12 A If Lay hi h wa Laylah. 
 
 crimmanded the case to be at once recordcd.'^ The Wazir abode 
 that day expecting to see his brother's son, but he came 
 not ; and he waited a second day, a third day, and so on to the 
 seventh day, without any tidings of him. So he said, " By Allah, I 
 will do a deed,[such as none hath ever done before me ! " And he 
 took reed-pen and ink and drevN^ upon a sheet of paper the plan of 
 the whole house, showing whereabouts was the private chamber 
 with the curtain in such a place, and the furniture in such another, 
 and so on with all that was in the room. Then he folded up the 
 sketch and, causing all the furniture to be collected, he took Badr 
 al-Din's garments and the turband and Fez and robe and purse, 
 and carried the whole to his house and locked them up, against the 
 coming of his nephew, Badr al-Din Hasan, the son of his lost 
 brother, with an iron padlock on which he set his seal. As for the 
 Wazir's daughter, when her tale of months was fulfilled, she bare a 
 son like the full moon, the image of his father in beauty and loveli- 
 ness and fair proportions and perfect grace. They cut his navel- 
 string '-^ and Kohl'd his eyelids to strengthen his eyes, and gave 
 him over to the nurses and nursery governesses,^ naming him Ajib, 
 the Wonderful. His day was as a month and his month was as a 
 year " ; and, when seven years had passed over him, his grandfather 
 sent him to school, enjoining the master to teach him Koran- 
 reading, and to educate him well. He remained at the school four 
 years, till he began to bully his schoolfellows and abuse them and 
 bash them and thrash them and say, "Who among you is like me? 
 I am the son of the Wazir of Egypt ! " At last the boys came in 
 a body to complain to the Monitor ^ of v;hat hard usage they were 
 wont to have from Ajib, and he said to them, "I will tell you 
 somewhat you may do to him so that he shall leave off coming 
 to the school, and it is this. When he enters to-morrow, sit ye 
 dov.n about him and say some one of you to some other : — By 
 Allah ! none shall play with us at this game except he tell us the 
 names of his mamma and his papa ; for he who knows not the 
 
 ' In those days the Arabs and the Portuguese recorded every-thing which struck 
 them, as the Chinese and Japanese do in our times. And yet we complain of the 
 amount of our modern writing ! 
 
 = This is mentioned because it is the act preliminary to naming the babe. 
 
 3 Arab. " Kahramanat '' from Kahraman, an old Persian hero who conversed 
 with the Simurgh-Griflbn. Usually the word is applied to women-at-arms who 
 defend the llarem, like the Urdu begani of India, whose services were lately 
 ofi'ered to England (1SS5), or the "Amazons" of Dahome. 
 
 ■* Meaning he grew as fast in one day as other children in a month. 
 
 5 Arab. Al-Arif ; the tutor, the assistant-master.
 
 Tale of Nin- al-Din AH and his Son. 2\-\ 
 
 names of his mother and his father is a bastard, a son of adultery/ 
 and he shall not play with us." When morning dawned the boys 
 came to school, Ajib being one of them, and all flocked round him 
 saying, " We will play a game wherein none shall join save he can 
 tell the name of his mamma and his papa." And they all cried, 
 " By Allah, good ! " Then quoth one of them, " My name is Mdjid, 
 and my mammy's name is Alawiyah, and my daddy's Izz al-Din." 
 Another spoke in like guise and yet a third, till Ajib's turn came, 
 and he said, " My name is Ajib, and my mother's is Sitt al-Husn, 
 and my father's Shams al-Din, the Wazir of Cairo." " By Allah," 
 cried they, " the Wazir is not thy true father ! " Ajib answered, 
 " The Wazir is my father in very deed." Then the boys all laughed 
 and clapped their hands at him saying, " He does not know who is 
 his papa : get out from among us, for none shall play with us except 
 he know his father's name." Thereupon they dispersed from around 
 him and laughed him to scorn ; so his breast was straitened and he 
 well nigh choked with tears and hurt feelings. Then said the 
 Monitor to him, " We know that the Wazir is thy grandfather, the 
 father of thy mother Sitt al-Husn, and not thy father. As for thy 
 father, neither dost thou know him not yet do we ; for the Sultan 
 married thy mother to the hunchbacked horse-groom ; but the Jinni 
 came and slept with her and thou hast no known father. Leave, 
 then, comparing thyself too advantageously with the little ones of 
 the school till thou know that thou hast a lawful father ; for until 
 then thou wilt pass for a child of adultery amongst them. Seest 
 thou not that even a huckster's son knoweth his own sire ? Thy 
 grandfather is the Wazir of Egypt ; but as for thy father we wot 
 him not, and we say indeed that thou hast none. So return to thy 
 sound senses ! " When Ajib heard these insulting words from the 
 Monitor and the school-boys, and understood the reproach they 
 put upon him, he went out at once and ran to his mother Sitt 
 al-Husn to complain; but he Avas crying so bitterly that his tears 
 prevented his speech for a while. When she heard his sobs and 
 saw his tears her heart burned as though with fire for him, and she 
 said, " O my son, why dost thou weep ? Allah keep the tears from 
 thine eyes ! Tell me what hath betided thee ? " So he told her all 
 that he heard from the boys and from the Monitor and ended with 
 asking, " And who, O my mother, is my father ? " She answered, 
 " Thy father is the Wazir of Egypt " ; but he said, " Do not lie to 
 me. The Wazir is thy father, not mine ! who, then, is my father ? 
 
 ' Arab. " Ibn haram," a common term of abuse ; and not a factual reflection "on 
 the parent. I have heard a mother apply the term to her own son.
 
 214 Alf Laylah wa Lay /ah. 
 
 Except thou tell me tlie very truth I will kill myself with this 
 hanger.^ " When his mother heard him speak of his father she 
 wept, remembering her cousin and her bridal night with him, 
 and all that occurred there and then, and she repeated these 
 couplets : — 
 
 Love in my heart they lit and went their ways, » And all I love to furthest lands 
 
 withdrew ; 
 And when they left me sufferance also left, * And when we parted Patience bade 
 
 adieu : 
 They fled and flying with my joys they fled, ♦ In very constancy my spirit flew : 
 They made my eyelids flow with severance tears, * And to the parting-pang these 
 
 drops are due : 
 And when I long to see reunion-day, » My groans prolonging sore for ruth I sue : 
 Then in my heart of hearts their shapes I trace * And love and longing care and 
 
 cark renew : 
 O ye, whose names cling round me like a cloak, » Whose love yet closer than a 
 
 shirt I drew. 
 Beloved ones ! how long this hard despite ? • How long this severance and 
 
 this coy shy flight ? 
 
 Then she wailed and shrieked aloud, and her son did the like. 
 And, behold ! in came the Wazir, whose heart burnt within him at 
 the sight of their lamentations, and he said, "What makes you 
 weep ?" So the Lady of Beauty acquainted him with what happened 
 between her son and the school-boys; and he also wept, calling to 
 mind his brother and what had passed between them, and what had 
 betided his daughter, and how he had failed to find out what 
 mystery there was in the matter. Then he rose at once and, 
 repairing to the audience-hall, went straight to tha King and told 
 his tale, and craved his permission^ to travel eastward to the city 
 of Bassorah, and ask after his brother's son. Furthermore, he 
 besought the Sultan to write for him letters patent, authorising him 
 to seize upon Badr al-Din, his nephew and son-in-law, wheresoever 
 he might find him. And he wept before the King, who had pity on 
 him, and wrote royal autographs] to his deputies in all climes ^ and 
 countries and cities ; whereat the Wazir rejoiced and prayed for 
 blessings on him. Then, taking leave of his Sovereign, he returned 
 to his house, where he equipped himself and his daughter and his 
 adopted child Ajib with all things meet for a long march ; and set 
 
 ' Arab. " Khanjar " from the Persian, a syn. with the Arab. "Jamhiyah." It is 
 noticed in my Pilgrimage (iii., pp. 72,75). To "silver Ihe dagger," means to 
 become a rich man. From "Khanjar," not from its tringed loop or strap, 1 derive 
 our silly word "hanger." Dr. Steingass would connect it with Germ, t" Linger, 
 e.g., Hirschfanger. 
 
 ^ Again we have " Dastur " for " Izn." 
 
 3 Arab. " Iklim " ; the seven climates ot Ptolemy.
 
 Tale of N'l/r al-Din Ali and his Son. 215 
 
 out and travelled the first day and the second and the third, and so 
 forth till he arrived at Damascus-city. He found it a fair place 
 abounding in trees and streams, even as the poet said of it : — 
 
 When I nighted and dayed in Damascus-town, » Time sware such another he 
 
 ne'er should view : 
 And careless we slept under wing of night, « Till dappled Morn 'gan her 
 
 smiles renew : 
 And dew-drops on branch in their beauty hung » Like pearls to be dropt whei 
 
 the Zephyr blew : 
 And the Lake " was the page where birds read and note, « And the clouds set 
 
 points to what breezes wrote. 
 
 The Wazir encamped on the open space called Al-Hasa,^ and, 
 after pitching tents, said to his servants, " A halt here for two 
 days!" So they went into the city upon their several occasions, 
 this to sell and that to buy; this to go to the Hammam and that 
 to visit the Cathedral-mosque of the Banu Umayyah, the Ommiades, 
 whose like is not in this world." Ajib also went, with his attendant 
 eunuch, for solace and diversion to the city, and the servant 
 followed with a quarter-staff^ of almond-wood so heavy that if he 
 struck a camel therewith the beast would never rise again. ^ When 
 the people of Damascus saw Ajib's beauty and brilliancy and 
 perfect grace and symmetry (for he was a marvel of coineliness 
 and winning loveliness, softer than the cool breeze of the North, 
 sweeter than limpid waters to a man in drowth, and pleasanter 
 than the health for which sick man sueth), a mighty many 
 followed him, whilst others ran on before and sat down on the 
 road until he should come up, that they might gaze on him, till, 
 as Destiny had decreed, the Eunuch stopped opposite the shop 
 of Ajib's father, Badr al-Din Hasan. Now his beard had grown 
 long and thick, and his wits had ripened during the twelve years 
 which had passed over him, and the Cook and ex-rogue having 
 died, the so-called Hasan of Eassorah had succeeded to his goods 
 and shop, for that he had been formally adopted before the Kazi 
 and witnesses. When his son and the Eunuch stopped before him 
 
 ' Arab. "Al-Ghadir," lit. a place where water sinks, a lowland: here the 
 drainage-lakes east of Damascus into which tlie Baradah (Abana?) discharges. 
 ■ The higher eastern plain is " Al-Ghutah " before noticed. 
 
 ^ The " Plain of Pebbles," still so termed at Damascus ; an open space west of 
 the city. 
 
 3 Every Guide-book, even the Reverend Porter's "Murray," gives a long 
 account of this Christian Church 'verted to a Mosque. 
 
 "* Arab. " Nabiit " ; Pilgrimage, i. 336. 
 
 s The Bres. Edit, says, "' would have knocked him into Al-Yaman '' (Southern 
 Arabia), something like our slang phrase, " into the middle of next week."
 
 2i6 A If Lay la h wa Laylah. 
 
 he gazed on Ajib and, seeing how very beautiful he was, his heart 
 fluttered and throbbed, and blood drew to blood, and natural 
 affection spake out and his bowels yearned over him. He had 
 just dressed a conserve of pomegranate-grains with sugar, and 
 Heaven-implanted love wrought within him ; so he called to his 
 son Ajib and said, " O my lord, O thou who hast gotten the 
 mastery of my heart and my very vitals, and to whom my bowels 
 yearn, say me, wilt thou enter m.y house and solace my soul by 
 eating of my meat ? " Then his eyes streamed with tears which 
 he could not stay, for he bethought him of what he had been and 
 what he had become. When Ajib heard his father's words his 
 heart also yearned himwards and he looked at the Eunuch and said 
 to him, " Of a truth, O my good guard, my heart yearns to this 
 cook ; he is as one that hath a son far away from him ; so let us 
 enter and gladden his heart by tasting of his hospitality. Per- 
 chance for our so doing Allah may reunite me with my father." 
 When the Eunuch heard these words he cried, " A fine thing this, 
 by Allah ! Shall the sons of Wazirs be seen eating in a common 
 cook-shop ? Indeed, I keep off the folk from thee with this quarter- 
 staff lest they even look upon thee ; and I dare not suffer thee to 
 enter this shop at all." When Hasan of Bassorah heard his speech 
 he marvelled and turned to the Eunuch with the tears pouring 
 down his cheeks ; and Ajib said, " Verily my heart loves him ! " 
 But he answered, " Leave this talk, thou shalt not go in." There- 
 upon the father turned to the Eunuch and said, " O worthy sir, 
 why wilt thou not gladden my soul by entering my shop ? O thou 
 who art like a chestnut, dark without, but white of heart within ! 
 
 O thou of the like of whom a certain poet said " The 
 
 Eunuch burst out a-laughing and asked — " Said what ? Speak out, 
 by Allah ! and be quick about it." So Hasan the Bassorite began 
 reciting these couplets : — 
 
 If not master of manners or aught but discreet * In the household of Kings 
 
 no trust could he take : 
 And then for the Harem ! What Servant Ms he * Whom angels would serve 
 
 for his service sake. 
 
 The Eunuch marvelled and was pleased at these words, so he 
 took Ajib by the hand and went into the cook's shop : whereupon 
 Hasan the Bassorite ladled into a saucer some conserve of 
 pomeg»anate-grains wonderfully good, dressed with almonds and 
 
 ' Arab. " Khadim " : lit. a servant, politely applied (like Agha = master) to a 
 castrato. These gentry wax furious if baldly called " Tawashi " = Eunuch. A 
 mauvais plaisant in Egypt used to call me The Agha because a friend had placed 
 his wife under my charge.
 
 Tale of Ahir al-Din Aii and his Son. 217 
 
 sugar, saying, " You have honoured nie with your comj)any : cat, 
 then, and heahh and happiness to you ! " Thereupon Ajib said to 
 his sire, " Sit thee down and eat with us ; so perchance Allah 
 may unite us with him we long for." Quoth Hasan, " O my son, 
 hast thou then been afflicted in thy tender years with parting from 
 those thou lovest ? " Quoth Ajib, "Even so, O nuncle mine; my 
 heart burns for the loss of a beloved one who is none other than 
 my father ; and indeed I come forth, I and my grandfather,^ to 
 circle and search the world for him. Oh, the pity of it, and how 
 I long to meet him ! " Then he wept with exceeding weeping, and 
 his father also wept seeing him weep and for his own bereavement, 
 which recalled to him his long separation from dear friends and 
 from his mother ; and the Eunuch was moved to pity for him. 
 Then they ate together till they were satisfied ; and Ajib and the 
 slave rose and left the shop. Hereat Hasan the Bassorite felt as 
 though his soul had departed his body and had gone with them ; 
 for he could not lose sight of the boy during the twinkling of an 
 eye, albeit he knew not that Ajib was his son. So he locked up 
 his shop and hastened after them ; and he walked so fast that he 
 came up with them before they had gone out of the western gate. 
 The Eunuch turned and asked him, "What ails thee?" and IJadr 
 al-!)in answered, " When ye went from me, meseemed my soul 
 had gone with you ; and, as I had business without the city-gate, 
 I purposed to bear you company till my matter was ordered and 
 so return." The Eunuch was angered and said to Ajib, "This is 
 just what I feared ! We ate that unlucky mouthful (which we are 
 bound to respect), and here is the fellow following us from place 
 to place ; for the vulgar are ever the vulgar." Ajib, turning and 
 seeing the Cook just behind him, was wroth and his face reddened 
 with rage and he said to the servant, " Let him walk the highway 
 of the Moslems ; but, when we turn off it to our tents, and find 
 that he still follows us, we will send him about his business with a 
 flc-a in his ear." Then he bowed his head and walked on, the 
 Eunuch walking behind him. But Hasan of Bassorah followed 
 them to the plain Al-Hasa ; and, as they drew near to the tents, 
 they turned round and saw him close on their heels ; so Ajib 
 was very angry, fearing that the Eunuch might tell his grand- 
 father what had happened. His indignation was the hotter for 
 apprehension lest any say that after he had entered a cook-shop 
 the Cook had followed him. So he turned and looked at Hasan 
 
 ' This sounds absurd enough in English, but Easterns always put themselves 
 first for respect.
 
 2i8 A If Lay la k iva Laylah. 
 
 of Bassorah and found his eyes fixed on his own, for the father 
 had become a body without a soul ; and it seemed to Ajib that 
 his eye was a treacherous eye or that he was some lewd fellow. 
 So his rage redoubled and, stooping down, he took up a stone 
 weighing half a pound and threw it at his father. It struck him 
 on the forehead, cutting it open from eyebrow to eyebrow, and 
 causing the blood to stream down; and Hasan fell to the ground in 
 a swoon, whilst Ajib and the Eunuch made for the tents. When 
 the father came to himself, he wiped away the blood and tore off a 
 strip from his turband and bound up his head, blaming himself the 
 while, and saying, " I wronged the lad by shutting up my shop and 
 following, so that he thought I was some evil-minded fellow." Then 
 he returned to his place, where he busied himself with the sale of his 
 sweetmeats; and he yearned after his mother at Bassorah, and wept 
 over her, and broke out repeating : — 
 
 Unjust it were to bid the World " be just « And blame her not : She ne'er was 
 
 made for justice : 
 Take what she gives thee, leave all grief aside, • For now to fair and then to foul 
 
 her lust is. 
 
 So Hasan of Bassorah set himself steadily to sell his sweetmeats ; 
 but the Wazir, his uncle, halted in Damascus three days, and then 
 marched upon Emesa, and passing through that town he made 
 enquiry there and at every place where he rested. Thence he fared 
 on by way of Hamah and Aleppo, and thence through Diyar Bakr 
 and Maridin and Mosul, still enquiring, till he arrived at Bassorah- 
 city. Here, as soon as he had secured a lodging, he presented 
 himself before the Sultan, who entreated him with high honour and 
 the respect due to his rank, and asked the cause of his coming. The 
 Wazir acquainted him with his history, and told him that the Minister 
 Nui al-Din was his brother ; whereupon the Sultan exclaimed, 
 " Allah have mercy upon him ! " and added, " My good Sahib ^ ! 
 he was my Wazir for fifteen years, and I loved him exceedingly. 
 Then he died leaving a son who abode only a single month after his 
 father's death ; since which time he has disappeared, and we could 
 gain no tidings of him. But his mother, who is the daughter of 
 my former Minister, is still among us." When the Wazir Shams 
 
 ' In Arabic the World is feminine. 
 
 ^ Arab. " Sahib " = lit. a companion ; also a friend and especially applied to the 
 Companions of Mohammed. Hence the Sunnis claim for them the honour of 
 " friendship " with the Apostle ; but the Shi'ahs reply that the Arab says 
 " Sahaba-hu'l-hlniar " (the Ass was his Sahib or companion). In the text it is a 
 Wazirial title, in modern India it is = gentlenian, e.g., "Sahib log" (the Sahib 
 people) means their white conquerors, who, by-the-by, mostly mispronounce the 
 word " Sab."
 
 Tale of Nil r al-Din All and his So?i. 219 
 
 al-Din heard that his nephew's mother was alive and well, he rejoiced 
 and said, " O King I much desire to meet her." The King on the 
 instant gave him leave to visit her; so he betook himself to the 
 mansion of his brother Nur al-Din, and cast sorrowful glances on 
 all things in and around it, and kissed the threshold. Then he 
 bethought him of his brother, Nur al-Din Ali, and how he had died 
 in a strange land far from kith and kin and friends, and he wept, and 
 repeated these lines: — 
 
 I wander 'mid these walls, my Layla's walls, * And kissing this and other wall I 
 
 roam : 
 'Tis not the walls or roof my heart so loves, * But those who in this house had 
 
 made their home. 
 
 Then he passed through the gate into a courtyard, and found a 
 vaulted doorway builded of hardest syenite ^ inlaid with sundry kinds 
 of multi-coloured marble. Into this he walked and wandered about 
 the house and, throwing many a glance around, saw the name of 
 his brother Nur al-Din written in gold wash upon the walls. So 
 he went up to the inscription, and kissed it and wept and thought of 
 how he had been separated from his brother, and had now lost him 
 for ever, and he recited these couplets : — 
 
 I ask of you from every rising sun, * And eke I ask when flasheth leven-light : 
 Restless I pass my nights in passion-pain, * Yet ne'er I 'plain me of my painful 
 
 plight : 
 My love ! if longer last this parting throe « Little by little shall it waste my sprite. 
 An thou wouldst bless these eyne with sight of thee » One day on earth, I crave 
 
 none other sight : 
 Think not another could possess my mind » Nor length nor breadth for other love 
 
 I find. 
 
 Then he walked on till he came to the apartment of his brother's 
 widow, the mother of Badr al-Din Hasan, the Egyptian. Now 
 from the time of her son's disappearance she had never ceased 
 weeping and wailing through the light hours and the dark ; and, 
 when the years grew longsome with her, she built for him a tomb 
 of marble in the midst of the saloon, and there used to w^eep for him 
 day and night, never sleeping save thereby. When the Wazir drew 
 near her apartment he heard her voice and stood behind the door 
 while she addressed the sepulchre in verse, and said : — 
 
 Answer, by Allah ! Sepulchre, are all his beauties gone ? * Hath change the power 
 
 to blight his charms, that Beauty's paragon ? 
 Thou art not earth, O Sepulchre ! nor art ihou sky to me ; * How comes it, then, 
 
 in thee I see conjoint the branch and moon ? 
 
 ' Arab. " Suwan," prop. Syenite, from Syene (Al-Suwan), but applied to flint 
 and any hard stone.
 
 2 20 Alf Laylah 7va Laylah. 
 
 While she was bemoaning herself after this fashion, behold, the 
 Wazir went in to her and saluted her, and informed her that he was 
 her husband's brother ; and, telling her all that had passed between 
 them, laid open before her the whole story, how her son Badr al-Din 
 Hasan had spent a whole night with his daughter full ten years ago, 
 but had disappeared in the morning. And he ended with saying, 
 " My daughter conceived by thy son and bare a male child who is 
 now with me, and he is thy son and thy son's son by my daughter." 
 When she heard the tidings that her boy, Badr al-Din, was still 
 alive and saw her brother-in-law, she rose up to him and threw 
 herself at his feet and kissed them, reciting these lines : — 
 
 Allah be good to him that gives glad tidings of thy steps ; * In very sooth for 
 
 better news mine ears would never sue : 
 V/ere he content with worn-out robe, upon his back I'd throw * A heart to pieces 
 
 rent and torn when heard the word Adieu. 
 
 Then the Wazir sent for Ajib, and his grandmother stood up and 
 fell on his neck and wept ; but Shams al-Din said to her, " This is 
 no time for weeping ; this is the time to get thee ready for travelling 
 with us to the land of Egypt ; haply All-ah will reunite me and thee 
 with thy son and my nephew." Replied she, " Hearkening and 
 obedience " ; and, rising at once, collected her baggage and trea- 
 sures and her jewels, and equipped herself and her slave-girls for the 
 march, whilst the Wazir went to take his leave of the Sultan of 
 Bassorah, who sent by him presents and rarities for the Soldan of 
 Egypt. Then he set out at once upon his homeward march and 
 journeyed till he came to Damascus-city, where he alighted in the 
 usual place and pitched tents, and said to his suite, " We will halt 
 a se'nnight here to buy presents and rare things for the Soldan." 
 Now Ajib bethought him of the past, so he said to the Eunuch, " O 
 Ldik, I lack a little diversion ; come, let us go down to the great 
 bazar of Damascus,^ and see what has become of the cook whose 
 sweetmeats we ate and whose head we broke, for indeed he was kind 
 to us and we entreated him scurvily." The Eunuch answered, 
 " Hearing is obeying ! " So they went forth from the tents ; and the 
 tie of blood drew Ajib towards his father, and forthwith they 
 passed through the gateway, Bab al-Faradis ^ hight, and entered 
 the city, and ceased not walking through the streets till they 
 reached tlie cook-shop, where they found Hasan of Bassorah 
 
 ' It was famous in the middle ages, and even now it is, perhaps, the most 
 interesting to travellers after that " Sentina Gentium," the " Bhendi Bazar" of 
 imromantic Bombay. 
 
 ^ "The Gate of the Gardens," in the northern wall, a Roman archway of the 
 usual solid construction, shaming not only our modern shams but our finest masonry.
 
 Tale of Niir al-Din AH and his Son. 221 
 
 standliig at the door. It was near the time of mid-aflernoon 
 prayer,^ and it so fortuned that he had just dressed a confection 
 of pomegranate-grains. When the twain drew near to him and 
 Ajib saw him, his heart yearned towards him and, noticing the 
 scar of the blow, which time had darkened on his brow, he said 
 to him, " Peace be on thee, O man - ! know that my heart is 
 with tliee." But when Badr al-Din looked upon his son his vitals 
 yearned and his heart fluttered, and he hung his head earthwards, 
 and sought to make his tongue give utterance to his words but he 
 could not. Then he raised his head humbly and suppliant-wise 
 towards his boy and repeated these couplets : — 
 
 I longed for my beloved but when I saw his face, « Abashed I held my tongue 
 
 and stood with downcast eye ; 
 And hung my head in dread and would have hid my love, * But do whatso I 
 
 would hidden it would not lie : 
 Volumes of plaints I had prepared, reproach and blame, * But when we met no 
 
 single word remembered I. 
 
 And then said he to them, " Heal my broken heart and eat of my 
 sweetmeats ; for, by Allah ! I cannot look at thee but my heart 
 flutters. Indeed I should not have followed thee the other day 
 but that I was beside myself." " By Allah," answered Ajib, " thou 
 dost indeed love us ! We ate in thy house a mouthful when we 
 were here before and thou madest us repent of it, for that thou 
 followedst us and wouldst have disgraced us ; so now we will not 
 eat aught with thee save on condition that thou make oath not to 
 go out after us nor dog us. Otherwise we will not visit thee again 
 during our present stay ; for we shall halt a week here, whilst my 
 grandfather buys certain presents for the King." Quoth Hasan of 
 Bassorah, " I promise you this." So Ajib and the Eunuch entered 
 the shop, and his father set before them a saucerful of conserve of 
 pomegranate-grains. Said Ajib, " Sit thee down and eat with us, 
 so haply shall Allah dispel our sorrows." Hasan the Bassorite was 
 joyful and sat down and ate with them; but his eyes kept gazing 
 fixedly on Ajib's face, for his very heart and vitals clove to him ; 
 and at last the boy said to him, " Did I not tell thee thou "art a 
 most noyous dotard ? so do stint thy staring in my flice I " But 
 when Hasan of Bassorah heard his son's words he repeated these 
 lines : — 
 
 ' Arab. " Al-Asr," which may mean either the hour or the prayer. It is also 
 the moment at which the Guardian Angels relieve each other (Sale's Koran, 
 chapt. v.). 
 
 ^ Arab. " Ya haza " = this (one) ! a somewhat slighting address equivalent to 
 " Heus tu ! O thou, whoever thou art." Another form is " Ya hu " = he ! Can 
 this have originated Swift's " Yahoo ! "
 
 222 Alj Lay/ah wa Lay /ah. 
 
 Thou hast some art the hearts of men to clip ; ♦ Close-veiled, far-hidden mystery 
 dark and deep : 
 
 thou whose beauties shame the lustrous moon, « Wherewith the saffron Morn 
 
 fears rivalship ! 
 Thy beauty is a shrine shall ne'er decay ; » Whose signs shall grow until they all 
 
 outstrip' ; 
 Must I be thirst-burnt by that Eden-brow » And die of pine to taste that 
 
 Kausar =-lip ? 
 
 Hasan kept putting morsels into Ajib's mouth at one time and at 
 another time did the same by the Eunuch, and they ate till they 
 were satisfied and could no more. Then all rose up and the cook 
 poured water on their hands ^ ; and, loosing a silken waist-shawl, 
 dried them and sprinkled them with rose-water from a casting- 
 bottle he had by him. Then he went out and presently returned 
 with a gugglet of sherbet flavoured with rose-water, scented with 
 musk and cooled with snow ; and he set this before them saying, 
 " Complete your kindness to me ! " So Ajib took the gugglet and 
 drank and passed it to the Eunuch ; and it went round till their 
 stomachs were full, and they were surfeited with a meal larger than 
 their wont. Then they went away and made haste in walking till 
 they reached the tents, and Ajib went in to his grandmother, who 
 kissed him and, thinking of her son, Badr al-Din Hasan, groaned 
 aloud and wept, and recited these lines : — 
 
 1 still had hoped to see thee and enjoy thy sight, » For in thine absence life had 
 
 lost its kindly light : 
 I swear my vitals wot none other love but thine. * By Allah, who can read the 
 secrets of the sprite ! 
 
 Then she asked Ajib, " O my son ! where hast thou been ? " and 
 he answered, " In Damascus-city." Whereupon she rose and set 
 before him a bit of scone and a saucer of conserve of pomegranate- 
 grains (which was too little sweetened), and she said to the Eunuch, 
 " Sit down with thy master ! " Said the servant to himself, " By 
 Allah ! we have no mind to eat : I cannot bear the smell of bread " ; 
 
 ' Alluding to the TXjpaTa (" minor miracles which cause surprise") performed 
 by Saints' tombs, the mildest form of thaumaturgy. 
 
 ^ The River of Paradise, a iieu coninucn of poets (Koran, chapt. cviii. ) : the 
 water is whiter than milk or silver, sweeter than honey, smoother than cream, 
 more odorous than musk ; its banks are of chrysolite and it is drunk out of silver 
 cups set around it thick as stars. Two pipes conduct it to the Prophet's Pond, 
 which is an exact square, one month's journey in compass. Kausar is spirituous 
 like wine ; Salsabil sweet like clarilied honey ; the Fount of Mildness is like milk 
 and the Fount of Mercy like liquid crystal. 
 
 3 The Moslem does not use the European basin because water which has 
 touched an impure skin becomes impure. Hence it is poured out from a ewer 
 {'"ibrik," Pers. Abriz) upon the hands and falls into a basin (" tisht ") with an 
 open -worked cover.
 
 Tale of Niir al-Din Ali and his Son. 223 
 
 but he sat down and so did Ajib, though his stomach was full of 
 what he had eaten already and drunken. Nevertheless, he took a 
 bit of the bread and dipped it in the pomegranate-conserve and 
 made shift to eat it, but he found it too little sweetened, for he was 
 cloyed and surfeited, so he said, "Faugh; what be this wild-beast ^ 
 stuff?" "0 my son," cried his grandmother, "dost thou find 
 fault with my cookery ? I cooked this myself and none can cook 
 it as nicely as I can save thy father Badr al-Din Hasan." " By 
 Allah, O my lady!" Ajib answered, "this dish is nasty stuff; for we 
 saw but now in the city of Bassorah a cook who so dresseth pome- 
 granate-grains that the very smell openeth a way to the heart and 
 the taste would make a full man long to eat ; and, as for this mess 
 compared with his, 'tis not worth either much or little." When his 
 grandmother heard his w^ords she waxed wroth with exceeding 
 
 wrath and looked at the servant And Shahrazad perceived the 
 
 dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Ajib's 
 grandmother heard his words, she waxed wroth and looked at the 
 servant and said, " Woe to thee ! dost thou spoil my son,^ and 
 dost take him into common cook-shops ? " The Eunuch was 
 frightened and denied, saying, " We did not go into the shop ; we 
 only passed by it." " By Allah," cried Ajib, " but we did go in, 
 and we ate till it came out of our nostrils, and the dish was better 
 than thy dish ! " Then his grandmother rose and went and told 
 her brother-in-law, who was incensed against the Eunuch, and 
 sending for him asked him, " Why didst thou take my son into a 
 cook-shop ? " and the Eunuch being frightened answered, " We did 
 not go in." But Ajib said, " We did go inside and ate conserve of 
 pomegranate-grains till we were full ; and the cook gave us to drink 
 of iced and sugared sherbet." At this the Wazir's indignation 
 redoubled, and he questioned the Castrato; but, as he still denied, 
 the Wazir said to him, " If thou speak sooth, sit down and eat before 
 
 ' Arab. " Wahsh," a word of many meaninp;s ; nasty, insipid, savage, etc. The 
 off-side of a horse is called Wahshi opposed to Insi, the near side. The Amir 
 Taymur (" Lord Iron ") whom Europeans unwittingly call after his Persian 
 enemies' nickname, " Tamerlane," i.e., Taymur-i-lang, or limping Taymur, is still 
 known as " Al-Wahsh" (the wild beast) at Damascus, where his Tartars used to 
 bury men up to their necks and play at bowls with their heads for ninepins. 
 
 ^ For " grandson," as being more affectionate. Easterns have not yet learned 
 that clever Western saying : — The enemies of our enemies are our friends.
 
 2 24 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 us." So he came forward and tried to eat, but could not, and 
 threw away the mouthful, crying, " O my lord, I am surfeited since 
 yesterday." By this the Wazir was certified that he had eaten at 
 the cook's, and bade the slaves throw him,^ which they did. Then 
 they came down on him with a rib-basting, which burned him till he 
 cried for mercy and help from Allah, saying, " O my master, beat me 
 no more, and I will tell thee the truth." Whereupon the Wazir 
 stopped the bastinado, and said, " Now speak thou sooth." Quoth 
 the Eunuch, " Know then that we did enter the shop of a cook while 
 he was dressing conserve of pomegranate-grains, and he set some of 
 it before us. By Allah ! I never ate in my life its like, nor tasted 
 aught nastier than this stuff which is now before us.^ " Badr al-Din 
 Hasan's mother was angry at this, and said, " Needs must thou 
 go back to the cook and bring me a saucer of conserved 
 pomegranate-grains from that which is in his shop and show it to 
 thy master, that he may say which be the better and the nicer, 
 mine or his." Said the unsexed, " I will." So on the instant she 
 gave him a saucer and a half dinar, and he returned to the shop 
 and said to the cook, " O Shaykh of all Cooks ^ ! we have laid a 
 wager concerning thy cookery in my lord's house, for they have 
 conserve of pomegranate-grains there also ; so give me this half- 
 dinar's worth and look to it ; for I have eaten a full meal of stick 
 on account of thy cookery, and so do not let me eat aught more 
 thereof." Hasan of Bassorah laughed and answered, " By Allah, 
 none can dress this dish as it should be dressed save myself and 
 my mother, and she at this time is in a far country." Then he 
 ladled out a saucerful; and, finishing it off with musk and rose- 
 water, put it in a cloth which he sealed * and gave it to the Eunuch, 
 who hastened back with it. No sooner had Badr al-Din Hasan's 
 mother tasted it, and perceived its fine flavour and the excellence of 
 the cookery, than she knew who had dressed it, and she screamed 
 and fell down fainting. The Wazir, sorely startled, sprinkled 
 rose-water upon her, and after a time she recovered, and said, " If 
 my son be yet of this world, none dressed this conserve of 
 pomegranate-grains but he ; and this cook is my very son, Badr 
 al-Din Hasan ; there is no doubt of it, nor can there be any mistake, 
 
 ' This was a simple bastinado on the back, not the more ceremonious affair of 
 beating the feet-soles. But it is surprising what the Egyptians can bear ; some of 
 the rods used in the time of the Mameluke Beys are nearly as thick as a man's 
 wrist. 
 
 - The woman-like spile of the eunuch, intended to hurt the grandmother's 
 feelings. 
 
 3 The usual Cairene " cliaff." 
 
 •* A necessary precaution against poison (Pilgrimage, i. S4, and iii. 43).
 
 Tale of Nit)' a I- Din AH and his Son. 225 
 
 for only I and he knew how to prepare it, and I taught him." When 
 the Wazir heard her words, he joyed with exceeding joy, and said, 
 " Oh, the longing of me for a sight of my brother's son ! I wonder 
 if the days will ever unite us with him ? Yet it is to Almighty 
 Allah alone that we look for bringing about this meeting." Then 
 he rose without stay or delay and, going to his suite, said to them, 
 " Be off, some fifty of you with sticks and staves to the cook's 
 shop and demolish it. Then pinion his arms behind him with his 
 own turband, saying : — It was thou madest that foul mess of 
 f)omegranate-grain3 ! and drag him here perforce, but without doing 
 him a harm." And they replied, " It is well." Then the Wazir rode 
 off without losing an instant to the palace, and forgathering with 
 the Viceroy of Damascus showed him the Sultan's orders. After 
 careful perusal he kissed the letter, and placing it upon his head 
 said to his visitor, "Who is this offender of thine?" Quoth the 
 Wazir, "A man which is a cook." So the Viceroy at once sent 
 his apparitors to the shop ; which they found demolished and 
 everything in it broken to pieces ; for whilst the Wazir was riding 
 to the palace his men had done his bidding. Then they awaited 
 his return from the audience, and Hasan of Bassorah, w^ho was their 
 prisoner, kept saying, " I wonder what they have found in the 
 conserve of pomegranate-grains to bring things to this pass ^ ! " 
 When the Wazir returned to them after his visit to the Viceroy, 
 who had given him formal permission to take up his debtor and 
 depart with him, on entering the tents he called for the Cook 
 They brought him forward pinioned with his turband ; and, whei 
 Badr al-Din Hasan saw his uncle, he wept with exceeding weeping 
 and said, " O my lord, what is my offence against thee ? " " Art 
 thou the man who dressed that conserve of pomegranate-grains ? " 
 asked the Wazir, and he answered, " Yes ! didst thou find in it 
 aught to call for the cutting off of my head ? " Quoth the Wazir, 
 " That were the least of thy deserts ! " Quoth the cook, " O my 
 lord, wilt thou not tell me my crime and what aileth the conserve of 
 pomegranate-grains ? " " Presently," replied the Wazir ; and called 
 aloud to his men, saying, " Bring hither the camels." So they 
 struck the tents and by the Wazir's orders the servants took Badr 
 al-Din Hasan, and set him in a chest, which they padlocked and 
 put on a camel. Then they departed and stinted not journeying 
 till nightfall, when they halted and ate some victual, and took 
 Badr al-Din Hasan out of his chest and gave him a meal and 
 locked him up again. They set out once more and travelled till 
 
 ' The Bresl. Edit (ii. loS) describes the scene at greater length. 
 VOL. I, P
 
 2 26 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 they reached Kimrah, where they took him out of the box and 
 brought him before the Wazir, who asked him, "Art thou he 
 who dressed that conserve of pomegranate-grains ? " He answered, 
 " Yes, O my lord ! " and the Wazir said, " Fetter him ! " So they 
 fettered him and returned him to the chest and fared on again 
 till they reached Cairo and lighted at the corner called Al- 
 Raydaniyah,^ Then the Wazir gave order to take Badr al-Din 
 Hasan out of the chest and sent for a carpenter, and said to him, 
 " Make me a cross of wood ^ for this fellow ! " Cried Badr al- 
 Din Hasan, "And what wilt thou do with it?" and the Wazir 
 replied, " I mean to crucify thee thereon, and nail thee thereto 
 and parade thee all about the city." " And why wilt thou use me 
 after this fashion ? " " Because of thy villanous cookery of con- 
 served pomegranate-grains ; how durst thou dress it and sell it 
 lacking pepper ? " " And for that it lacked pepper wilt thou do 
 all this to me ? Is it not enough that thou hast broken my shop 
 and smashed my gear and boxed me up in a chest and fed me 
 only once a day ? " " Too little pepper ! too little pepper ! this 
 is a crime which can be expiated only upon the cross ! " Then 
 Badr al-Din Hasan marvelled and fell a-mourning for his Hfe ; 
 whereupon the Wazir asked him, " Of what thinkest thou ? " and 
 he answered him, " Of maggoty heads hke thine ^ ; for an thou hadst 
 one ounce of sense thou hadst not treated me thus." Quoth the 
 -^Vazir, " It is our duty to punish thee lest thou do the like 
 again." Quoth Badr al-Din Hasan, " Of a truth my offence were 
 over-punished by the least of what thou hast already done to me; 
 and Allah damn all conserve of pomegranate-grains and curse the 
 hour when I cooked it, and would I had died ere this ! " But the 
 Wazir rejoined, '' There is no help for it : I must crucify a man 
 who sells conserve of pomegranate-grains lacking pepper." All this 
 time the carpenter was shaping the wood and Badr al-Din looked 
 on ; and thus they did till night, when his uncle took him and 
 clapped him into the chest, saying, "The thing shall be done to- 
 morrow!" Then he wailed till he knew Badr al-Din Hasan to be 
 
 ■ The Bui. Edit gives by mistake of diacritical points, " Zabdaniyah " : Ray- 
 daniyan is or rather was a camping ground to the North of Cairo. 
 
 ^ Arab. " La'abat " = a plaything, a puppet, a lay figure. Lane (i. 326) con- 
 iectures that the cross is so called because it resembles a man with arms extended. 
 But Moslems never heard of the fanciful ideas of medieval Christian divines, who 
 saw the cross everywhere and in everything. The former hold that Pharaoh 
 invented the painful and ignominious punishment. (Koran, chapt. vii. ) 
 
 3 Here good blood, driven to bay, speaks out boldly. But, as a rule, the 
 humblest and mildest Eastern when in despair turns round upon his oppressors 
 like a wild cat.
 
 Tale of Nil r al-Din AH and his Son. 227 
 
 asleep, when he mounted ; and, taking the chest up before him, 
 entered the city and rode on to his own house, where he alighted 
 and said to his daughter, Sitt al-Husn, " Praised be Allah who 
 hath re-united thee with thy husband, the son of thine uncle ! Up 
 now, and order the house as it was on thy bridal night." So the 
 servants arose and lit the candles ; and the Wazir took out his 
 plan of the nuptial chamber, and directed them what to do till 
 they had set everything in its stead, so that whoever saw it 
 would have no doubt but it was the very night of the marriage. 
 Then he bade them put down Badr al-Din Hasan's turband on the 
 settle, as he had deposited it with his own hand, and in like manner 
 his bag -trousers and the purse which were under the mattrass ; 
 and told his daughter to undress herself and go to bed in the 
 private chamber as on her wedding-night, adding, " When the son 
 of thine uncle comes in to thee, say to him : — Thou hast loitered 
 while going to the privy ; and call him to lie by thy side and keep 
 him in converse till daybreak, when we will explain the whole 
 matter to him." Then he bade take Badr al-Din Hasan out of the 
 chest, after loosing the fetters from his feet and stripping off all 
 that was on him save the fine shirt of blue silk in which he had 
 slept on his wedding-night ; so that he was well-nigh naked and 
 trouscrless. All this was done whilst he was sleeping on utterly 
 unconscious. Then, by doom of Destiny, Badr al-Din Hasan 
 turned over and awoke ; and, finding himself in a lighted vestibule, 
 said to himself, '• Surely I am in the mazes of some dream." So he 
 rose and went on a little to an inner door and looked in, and lo ! 
 he was in the very chamber wherein the bride had been displayed 
 to him ; and there he saw the bridal alcove and the settle, and his 
 turband and all his clothes. When he saw this he was confounded 
 and kept advancing with one foot and retiring with the other, 
 saying, " Am I sleeping or waking ? " And he began rubbing his 
 forehead and saying (for indeed he was thoroughly astounded), 
 "By Allah! verily this is the chamber of the bride who was 
 displayed before me ! Where am I, then ? I was surely but now 
 in a box ! " Whilst he was talking with himself, Sitt al-Husn 
 suddenly lifted the corner of the chamber-curtain, and said, " O my 
 lord, wilt thou not come in ? Indeed thou hast loitered long in the 
 closet." When he heard her words and saw her face he burst out 
 laughing, and said, " Of a truth this is a very nightmare among 
 dreams ! " Then he went in sighing, and pondered what had come 
 to pass with him and was perplexed about his case, and his affair 
 became yet more obscure to him when he saw his turband and 
 bag-trousers and when, feeling the pocket, lie found the purse con- 
 
 p 2
 
 2 28 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 taining the thousand gold pieces. So he stood still and muttered, 
 " Allah is all-knowing ! Assuredly I am dreaming a wild waking 
 dream ! " Then said the Lady of Beauty to him, " What ails thee to 
 look puzzled and perplexed ? " adding, " Thou wast a very different 
 man during the first of the night ! " He laughed and asked her 
 " How long have I been av/ay from thee ? " and she answered him, 
 " Allah preserve thee and His Holy Name be about thee ! Thou 
 didst but go out an hour ago for an occasion and return. Are thy 
 v-its clean gone ? " When Badr al-Din Hasan heard this he laughed,^ 
 and said, " Thou hast spoken truth ; but, when I went out from 
 thee, I forgot myself awhile in the draught-house and dreamed that 
 I was a cook at Damascus and abode there ten years \ and there 
 came to me a boy who was of the sons of the great, and with him 
 an Eunuch." Here he passed his hand over his forehead and, 
 feeling the scar, cried, "By Allah, O my lady! it must have been 
 true, for he struck my forehead with a stone and cut it open from 
 eyebrow to eyebrow ; and here is the mark ; so it must have been 
 on wake." Then he added, " But perhaps I dreamt it when we fell 
 asleep, I and thou, in each other's arms, for meseems it was as 
 though I travelled to Damascus without tarbush and trousers and 
 set up as a cook there." Then he was perplexed and considered 
 for awhile, and said, " By Allah ! I also fancied that I dressed a 
 conserve of pomegranate-grains and put too little pepper in it. By 
 Allah ! I must have slept in the numero-cent and have seen the 
 whole of this in a dream ; but how long was that dream ? " 
 " Allah upon thee ! " said Sitt al-Husn, " and what more sawest 
 thou?" So he related all to her; and presently said, "By Allah! 
 had I not woke up they would have nailed me to a cross of 
 wood ! " " Wherefore ? " asked she ; and he answered, " For putting 
 too little pepper in the conserve of pomegranate-grains, and me- 
 seemed they demolished my shop and dashed to pieces my pots 
 and pans, destroyed all my stuff and put me in a box ; then they 
 sent for the carpenter to fashion a cross for me and would have 
 crucified me thereon. Now Alhamdolillah ! thanks be to Allah ! 
 for all that this happened to me in sleep, and not on wake ! " Sitt 
 nl-Husn laughed and clasped him to her bosom and he her to his : 
 then he thought again and said, " By Allah ! it could not be save- 
 while I was awake : truly I know not what to think of it." Then 
 he lay him down and all the night he was bewildered about his 
 
 ' These repeated " laughs " prove the trouble of his spirit. Noble Arabs "show 
 their back teeth" so rarely that their laughter is held worthy of being recorded, 
 by their biographers.
 
 Tale of Nil r al-Din All and his Sou. 229 
 
 case, now saying, "I was dreaming!" and then saying, "I was 
 awake ! " till morning, when his uncle vShams al-Din, the Wazir, 
 came to him and saluted him. When Badr al-Din Hasan saw him 
 he said, "By Allah! art thou not he who bade bind my hands 
 behind me and smash my shop and nail me to a cross on a matter of 
 conserved pomegranate-grains because the dish lacked a sufficiency 
 of pepper?" Whereupon the 'Wazir said to him, " Know, O my son, 
 that truth hath shown it soothfast, and the concealed hath been 
 revealed^ ! Thou arc the son of my brother, and I did all this with 
 thee to certify myself that thou wast indeed he who went in unto my 
 daughter that night. I could not be sure of this till I saw that thou 
 knewest the chamber, and thy turband, and thy trousers, and thy 
 gold, and the papers in thy writing and in that of thy father, my 
 brother, for I had never seen thee afore that, and knew thee not. 
 And as to thy mother, I have prevailed upon her to come with 
 me from Bassorah." So saying, he threw himself on his nephew's 
 breast and wept for joy; and Badr al-Din Hasan, hearing these 
 words from his uncle, marvelled with exceeding marvel, and fell 
 on his neck, and also shed tears for excess of delight. Then 
 said the Wazir to him, " O my son, the sole cause of all this is 
 what passed between me and thy sire " ; and he told him the 
 manner of his father wayfaring to Bassorah, and all that had 
 occurred to part them. Lastly, the Wazir sent for Ajib ; and when 
 his father saw him he cried, " And this is he who struck me with 
 the stone!" Quoth the Wazir, "This is thy son!" And Badr 
 al-Din Hasan threw himself upon his boy and began repeating : — 
 
 Long have I wept o'er severance' ban and bane, * Long from mine eyelids tear- 
 rills rail and rain : 
 
 And vowed I if Time re-union bring * My tongue from name of " Severance " I'll 
 restrain : 
 
 Joy hath o'ercome me to this stress that I * From joy's revulsioa to shed tears am 
 fain : 
 
 Ye are so trained to tears, O eyne of me ! » You weep with pleasure as ycu weep 
 with pain.^ 
 
 When he had ended his verse his mother cam.e in and threw herself 
 upon him and began reciting : — - 
 
 When we met we complained, * Our hearts were sore wrung ; 
 But plaint is not pleasant « Fro' messenger's tongue. 
 
 * A popular phrase, derived from the Koranic "Truth is come, and falsehood is 
 vanished : for falsehood is of short continuance" (chapt. xvii.). It is an equivalent 
 of our adaptation from i Esdras iv. 41, " Magna est Veritas et praevalebit." 
 
 ^ In vol. li. ni"ht Ixxv. tliese lines \siH occur with variants.
 
 230 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 Then she wept and related to him what had befallen her since his 
 departure, and he told her what he had suffered, and they thanked 
 Allah Almighty for their reunion. Two days after his arrival the 
 Wazir Shams al-Din went in to the Sultan, and, kissing the ground 
 between his hands, greeted him with the greeting due to Kings. 
 The Sultan rejoiced at his return, and his face brightened, and, 
 placing him hard by his side,^ asked him to relate all he had seen 
 in his wayfaring and whatso had betided him in his going and 
 coming. So the Wazir told him all that had passed from first to 
 last, and the Sultan said, " Thanks be to Allah for thy victory^ 
 and the winning of thy wish and thy safe return to thy children and 
 thy people ! And now I needs must see the son of thy brother, 
 Hasan of Bassorah, so bring him to the audience-hall to-morrow." 
 Shams al-Din replied, "Thy slave shall stand in thy presence to- 
 morrow, Inshallah, if it be God's will." Then he saluted him and, 
 returning to his own house, informed his nephew of the Sultan's 
 desire to see him, whereto replied Hasan, whilome the Bassorite, 
 " The slave is obedient to the orders of his lord." And the result 
 was that next day he accompanied his uncle Shams al-Din to the 
 Diwan ; and, after saluting the Sultan, and doing him reverence in 
 most ceremonious obeisance, and with most courtly obsequiousness, 
 he began improvising these verses : — 
 
 The first in rank to kiss the ground shall deign * Before you, and all ends and 
 
 aims attain : 
 You are Honour's fount ; and all that hope of you » Shall gain more honour than 
 
 Hope hoped to gain. 
 
 The Sultan smiled and signed to him to sit down. So he took a 
 seat close to his uncle Shams al-Din, and the King asked him his 
 name. Quoth Badr al-Din Hasan, "The meanest of thy slaves is 
 known as Hasan the Bassorite, who is instant in prayer for thee 
 day and night." The Sultan was pleased at his words and, being 
 minded to test his learning and prove his good breeding, asked 
 him, " Dost thou remember any verses in praise of the mole on the 
 cheek ? " He answered, " I do," and began reciting :^ 
 
 WTien I think of my love and our parting-smart, « My groans go forth and my tears 
 
 upstart : 
 He's a mole that reminds me in colour and charms » O' the black o' the eye and 
 
 the grain 3 of the heart. 
 
 ' This is always mentioned : the nearer the seat, the higher the honour. 
 
 = Alluding to the phrase " Al-safar zafar " = voyaging is victory (Pilgrimage, 
 i. 127). 
 
 3 Arab. " Habb" ; alluding to the black drop in the human heart, which the 
 Archangel Gabriel removed from Mohammed by opening his breast.
 
 Tale of Nur al-Diii Ali and his Son. 231 
 
 The King admired and pmised the two couplets and said to him, 
 " Quote something else ; Allah bless thy sire and may thy tongue 
 never tire ! " So he began : — 
 
 That cheek-mole's spot they evened with a grain * Of musk, nor did they here 
 
 the simile strain : 
 Xay, marvel at the face comprising all * Beauty, nor falling short by single grain. 
 
 The King shook with pleasure "■ and said to him, " Say more : Allah 
 bless thy days ! " So he began : — 
 
 O you whose mole on cheek enthroned recalls * A dot of musk upon a stone of 
 
 ruby, 
 Grant me your favours ! Be not stone at heart ! * Core of my heart whose only 
 
 sustenance yon be ! 
 
 Quoth the King, " Fair comparison, O Hasan ^ ! thcu hast spoken 
 excellently well and hast proved thyself accomplished in every 
 accomplishment I Now explain to me how many meanings be 
 there in the Arabic language* for the word Khdl or mole." He 
 replied, " Allah keep the King ! Seven and fifty and some by 
 tradition say fifty." Said the Sultan, " Thou sayest sooth," presently 
 adding, " Hast thou knowledge as to the points of excellence in 
 beauty ? " " Yes, " answered Badr al-Din Hasan, " Beauty consisteth 
 in brightness of face, clearness of complexion, shapeliness of nose, 
 gentleness of eyes, sweetness of mouth, cleverness of speech, slender- 
 ness of shape, and seemliness of all attributes. But the acme of 
 beauty is in the hair and, indeed, Al-Shihab the Hijazi hath brought 
 together all these items in his doggrel verse of the metre Rajaz ^ and 
 it is this : — 
 
 Say thou to skin, " Be soft," to tace, " Be fair" ; * And gaze, nor shall they blame 
 
 howso thou stare ; 
 Fine nose in Beauty's list is high esteemed ; « Nor less an eye full, bright and 
 
 debonnair : 
 
 ' This phrase, I have said, often occurs : it alludes to the horripilation (Arab. 
 Kush'arirah), horror or gooseflesh which, in Arab, as in Hindu fables, is a 
 symptom of great joy. So Boccaccio's " pelo arriciato," v. 8: Germ. Gansehaut. 
 
 ^ Arab. " Hasanta ya Hasan " = Bene detto, Benedetto I the usual word-jilay 
 vulgarly called "pun": Hasan (not Hassan, as we 7vin write it) meaning 
 " beautiful." 
 
 3 Arab. " Loghah " also = a vocabulary, a dictionary; the Arabs had them by 
 camel -loads. 
 
 ■» The seventh of the sixteen " Bahr " (metres) in Arabic prosody; the easiest 
 because allowing the most licence, and, consequenlly, a favourite for didactic, 
 homilctic, and gnomic themes. It means literally " agitated," and was originally 
 applied to the rude song of the Cameleer. De Sacy calls this doggrel " the poet's 
 ass" (Torrens, Notes xxvi. ). It was the only metre in which Mohammed the 
 Apostle ever spoke : he was no poet (Koran, xxxvi. 69) but he occasionally 
 recited a verse and recited it wrongly (Dabistan, iii. 212). In Persian prosody 
 Rajaz is the seventh of nineteen and has six distinct varieties ([)p. 79-81 
 "Gladwin's Dissertations on Rhetoric," etc., Calcutta, 1801). I shall have more 
 to say about it in the Terminal Ivssay.
 
 232 Alf Laylah iva Lay/ah. 
 
 Eke did they well to laud the lovely lips • (Which e'en the sleep of me will never 
 
 spare) ; 
 A winning tongue, a stature tall and straight ; * A seemly union of gifts rarest 
 
 rare : 
 But Beauty's acme in the hair one views it ; * So hear my strain and with some 
 
 few excuse it ! 
 
 The Sultan was captivated by his converse and, regarding him as 
 a friend, asked, " What meaning is there in the saw, " Shurayh is 
 foxier than the fox ? " And he answered, " Know, O King (whom 
 Ahnighty Allah keep !) that the legist Shurayh ^ was Vv'ont, during 
 the days of the plague, to make a visitation to Al-Najaf ; and, when- 
 ever he stood up to pray, there came a fox which would plant himself 
 facing him and which, by mimicking his movements, distracted 
 him from his devotions. Now when this became longsome to him, 
 one day he doffed his shirt and set it upon a cane and shook out 
 the sleeves ; then placing his turband on the top and girding its 
 middle with a shawl, he stuck it up in the place where he used to 
 pray. Presently up trotted the fox according to his custom and 
 stood over against the figure, whereupon Shurayh came behind 
 him, and took him. Hence the sayer saith, Shurayh is foxier than 
 the fox." When the Sultan heard Badr al-Din Hasan's explanation 
 he said to his uncle, Shams al-Din, "Truly this the son of thy 
 brother is perfect in courtly breeding and I do not think that his 
 like can be found in Cairo." At this Hasan arose and kissed 
 ground before him and sat down again as a Mameluke should sit 
 before his master. When the Sultan had thus assured himself of 
 his courtly breeding and bearing, and his knowledge of the liberal 
 arts and belles-lettres, he joyed with exceeding joy and invested 
 him with a splendid robe of honour and promoted him to an 
 office whereby he might better his condition.^ Then Badr al-Din 
 
 ' A worthy who was Kazi of Kufah (Cufa) in the seventh century. AI-Najaf, 
 generally entitled " Najafal-Ashraf" (the Venerand) is the place where Ali, the 
 son-in-law of Mohanuned, lies or is supposed to lie buried, and has ever been a 
 holy place to the Shi'ahs. I am not certain whether to translate "Sa'alab" by 
 fox or jackal ; the Arabs make scant distinction between them. " Abu Hosayn " 
 (Father of the Foitlet) is certainly the fox, and as certainly " Sha'rhar " is the 
 jackal from the Pehlevi Shagal or Shaghal. 
 
 - Usually by all manner of extortions and robbery, corruption and bribery, the 
 ruler's motto being 
 
 Fiat ?';/justitia luat Ccelum. 
 There is no more honest man than the Turkish peasant or the private soldier ; but 
 the [irocess of deterioration begins when he is made a corporal and culminates in 
 the Pasha. Moreover, official dishonesty is permitted by public opinion, because 
 it belongs to the condition of society. A man buys a place (as ir. England two 
 centuries ago) and retains it by presents to the heads of offices. Consequently he 
 must recoup himself in some way, and Jie mostly does so by grinding the faces of 
 the poor and by spoiling the widow and the orphan. The radical cure is high 
 pay ; but that jihase of society refuses to afford it.
 
 Tale of Niir al-Di/i AH and his Son. 233 
 
 Hasan arose and, kissing ground before the King, wished him 
 continuance of glory, and asked leave to retire with his uncle, the 
 Wazir Shams al-Din. The Sultan gave him leave, and he issued 
 forth and the two returned home, where food v.-as set before them 
 and they ate what Allah had given them. After finishing his meal 
 Hasan repaired to the sitting-chamber of his wife, the Lady of Beauty, 
 and told her what had passed between him and the Sultan ; where- 
 upon quoth she, " He cannot fail to make thee a cup-companion 
 and give thee largesse in excess and load thee with favours and 
 bounties; so shalt thou, by Allah's blessing, dispread, like the greater 
 light, the rays of thy perfection wherever thou be, on shore or on 
 sea." Said he to her, " I purpose to recite a Kasidah, an ode, in 
 his praise, that he may redouble in affection for me." "Thou art 
 right in thine intent," she answered, "so gather thy wits together 
 and weigh thy words, and I shall surely see my husband favoured 
 with his highest favour." Thereupon Hasan shut himself up and 
 composed these couplets on a solid base and abounding in inner 
 grace and copied them out in a hand-writing of the nicest taste. 
 They are as follows : — 
 
 Mine is a Chief who reached most haught estate, « Treading the pathways of the 
 
 good and great : 
 His justice makes all regions safe and sure, * And against froward foes bars every 
 
 gate: 
 Bold lion, hero, saint, e'en if you call * Seraph or Sovran ' he with all may rate ! 
 The poorest suppliant rich from him returns, * All words to praise him were 
 
 inadequate. 
 He to the day of peace is saffron Morn, * And murky Night in furious warfare's 
 
 bate. 
 Bow 'neath his gifts our necks, and by his deeds » As King of freeborn^ souls 
 
 he 'joys his state : 
 Allah increase for us his term of years, « And from his lot avert all risks and 
 
 fears ! 
 
 When he had finished transcribing the lines, he despatched them, 
 in charge of one of his uncle's slaves, to the Sultan, who perused 
 them, and his fancy was pleased ; so he read them to those present, 
 and all praised them with the highest praise. Thereupon he sent 
 for the writer to his sitting chamber, and said to him, " Thou art 
 from this day forth my boon-companion, and I appoint to thee a 
 monthly solde of a thousand dirhams over and above that I 
 
 ' Arab. "Malik" (King) and " Malak " (angel) the words being written the 
 same when lacking vowels and justifying the jingle. 
 
 ^ Arab. " Hurr " ; the Latin " ingenuus," lit. freeborn ; metaph. noble, as opp. 
 to a slave who is not expected to do great or good deeds. In pop. use it 
 corresponds, like "P'ata," with our "gentleman."
 
 234 -^^f Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 bestowed on thee aforetime." So Hasan rose, and, kissing 
 ground before the King several times, prayed for the continuance 
 of his greatness and glory and length of life and strength. Thus 
 Badr al-Din Hasan, the Bassorite, waxed high in honour, and his 
 fame flew forth to many regions, and he abode in all comfort and 
 solace and delight of life with his uncle and his own folk till death 
 overtook him. When the Caliph Harun al-Rashid heard this story 
 from the mouth of his Wazir, Ja'afar the Barmecide, he marvelled 
 much and said, " It behoves that these stories be written in letters of 
 liquid gold." Then he set the slave at liberty, and assigned to the 
 yOuth who had slain his wife such a monthly stipend as sufficed to 
 make his life easy ; he also gave him a concubine from amongst 
 his own slave-girls, and the young man became one of his cup- 
 companions. "Yet this story (continued Shahrazad) is in no wise 
 stranger than the tale of the Tailor and the Hunchback, and the 
 Jew and the Reeve and the Nazarene, and what betided them." 
 Quoth the King, " And what may that be ? " So Shahrazad began, 
 in these words,^ 
 
 THE HUNCHBACK'S TALE. 
 
 It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that there dwelt during 
 times of yore, and years and ages long gone before, in a certain 
 city of China,^ a Tailor who was an open-handed man that loved 
 pleasuring and merry-making; and who was wont, he and his 
 wife, to solace themselves from time to time with public diversions 
 and amusements. One day they went out with the first of the 
 light and were returning in the evening when they fell in with a 
 Hunchback, whose semblance would draw a laugh from care and 
 dispel the horrors of despair. So they went up to enjoy looking 
 at him and invited him to go home with them and converse and 
 carouse with them that night. He consented and accompanied 
 them afoot to their home ; whereupon the Tailor fared forth to the 
 bazar (night having just set in) and bought a fried fish and bread 
 and lemons and dry sweetmeats for dessert ; and set the victuals 
 
 ' This is one of the best tales for humour and movement, and Douce and 
 Madden show what a rich crop of falsHaux, whose leading incident was the 
 dis]:)osal of a dead body, it produced. 
 
 ^ Other editions read, "at Bassorah," and the Bresl. (ii. 123), "at Bassorah 
 and Kajkar " (Kashghdr) ; somewhat like in Dover and Sebastopol. I prefer 
 China, because further off and making the improbabilities more notable.
 
 The Hunchback's Tale. 235 
 
 before the Hunchback and they ate. Presently the Tailor's wife 
 took a great fid of fish and gave it in a gobbet to the Gobbo, 
 stopping his mouth with her hand and saying, " By Allah ! thou 
 must down with it at a single gulp ; and I will not give thee time 
 to chew it." So he bolted it ; but therein was a stiff bone which 
 
 stuck in his gullet and, his hour being come, he died. And 
 
 Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her per- 
 mitted say. 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 Tailor's wife gave the Hunchback that mouthful of fish which 
 ended his term of days he died on the instant. Seeing this the 
 Tailor cried aloud, "There is no ISIajesty and there is no Might 
 save in Allah ! Alas, that this poor wretch should have died in 
 so foolish fashion at our hands ! " and the woman rejoined, " Why 
 this idle talk ? Hast thou not heard his saying, who said ? — 
 Why then waste I my time in grief, until * I find no friend to bear my weight of 
 
 woe ? 
 How sleep upon a fire that flames unquenched ? * 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 any one 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 leach 
 
 ' Arab. "Judri," lit. "small stones," from the hard gravelly feeling of the 
 pustules (Rodwell, p. 20). The disease is generally supposed to be the growth of 
 Central Africa, where it is still a plague, and passed over to Arabia about the birth- 
 time of Mohammed. Thus is usually explained the " war of the elephant " (Koran, 
 chapt. cv. ), when the Abyssinian army of Abrahah, the Christian, was destroyed 
 by swallows (Ababil which Major Price makes the plural of Abilah = a vesicle) 
 which dropped upon them "stones of baked clay," like vetches (Pilgrimage, 
 ii. 175). See for details Sale (in loco), who seems to accept the miraculous 
 defence of the Ka'abah. For the horrors of small-pox in Central Intertropical 
 Africa, the inoculation, known also to the P>adawin of Al-IIijaz and other 
 details, readers will consult "The Lake Regions of Central Africa" (ii. 318). 
 The Hindus " take the bull by the horns " and boldly make " Sitla " (smallpox) 
 a goddess, an incarnation of Bhawani, deess of destruction-reproduction. In 
 China small-pox is believed to date from B.C. 1200; but the chronology of the 
 Middle ICingdom still awaits the sceptic.
 
 236 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 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 ere 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 EsdrasM 
 
 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 
 
 1 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 
 
 ' Arab. " Uzayr." Esdras was a r.iar.ner of Rip van Winkle. He was riding 
 over the ruins of Jerusalem when it had been destroyed by the Chaldeans, and he 
 doubted by what means Allah would restore it ; whereupon he died and at the end 
 of a hundred years he revived. He found his basket of figs and cruse of wine as 
 they were ; but of his ass only the bones remained. These were raised to life as 
 Ezra looked on, and the ass began at once to bray. Which was a lesson to Es<lras. 
 (Koran, chap. ii. ) The oath by the ass's hoofs is to ridicule the Jew. Mohammed 
 seems to have had an idee fixe that "the Jews say, Ezra is the Son of God" 
 (Koran i.\. ) ; it may have arisen from the heterodox Jewish belief that Ezra, when 
 the Law was utterly lost, dictated the whole anew to the scribes of his own 
 memory. His tomb with the huge green dome is still visited by the Jews of 
 Baghdad.
 
 Stoty of the Hiauhback. 237 
 
 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 dov.n by his hands and feet through 
 the wind-shaft ^ into the Reeve's house, propped him up against 
 the wall and went their v/ays. Hardly had they done this when 
 the Rec\e, 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 
 stayjding in the corner under the ventilator. When he saw this, 
 he said, " Wah 1 by Allah, very good, forsooth ! He who robbcth 
 my stuff is none other than a man." Then he turned to the Hunch- 
 back 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 up on 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 
 
 ' Arab. " Badharij , " the Pers. Bad ( wind )-g'ir (catcher) : a wooden pent-house 
 on the terrace-roof universal in the nearer East. 
 
 ^ The hunchback, in Arabia as in Southern Europe, is looked upon by the 
 vulgar with fear and aversion. The reason is that he is usually sharper-witted 
 than his neighbours. 
 
 ' Arab. " Ya Sattar " = Thou who veilest the discreditable secrets of Thy 
 creatures.
 
 238 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 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 Hammam-bath, 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. Thereupon 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 exclamied, " 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 
 
 ' Arab. " Nasiani," a follower of Ilim of Nazareth, and an older name than 
 " Christian," wliich (Acts xi. 26) was first given at Antioch about A.D. 43. The 
 cry in Alexandria used to be, " Ya Nasrani, Kalb awani ! " = Nazarene, O dog 
 obscene ! (Pilgrimage, i. 160.) "Christian" in Arabic can be expressed only by 
 " Masihi" = follower of the Messiah. 
 
 ^ Arab. " Tasbih," = saluting in the Subh (morning). 
 
 3 In the East women stand on minor occasions while men squat on their hunkers 
 in a way hardly possible to an untrained European. The custom is old. 
 Herodotus (ii. 35) says, "The women stand up when they make water, but the 
 men sit down." Will it be believed that Canon Rawlinson was too modest to 
 leave this passage in his translation ? The custom was perpetuated by Al-Islam 
 because the position prevents the ejection touching the clothes and making them 
 ceremonially impure ; possibly they borrowed it from the Guebres. Dabistan 
 (Gate xvi. ) says, " It is improper, whilst in an erect posture, to make water ; it is 
 therefore necessary to sit at squat and force it to some distance, repeating the 
 Avesta mentally." 
 
 "^ This is still a popular form of the " Kinchin-lay," and as the turbands are often 
 of fine stuff, the petite inJiistrie pays well. 
 
 5 Arab. " Wali " = Governor ; the term still in use for the Governor-General of a 
 Province as opposed to the " Muhafiz," or district-governor. In Eastern Arabia 
 the ^Yali is the Civil Governor opposed to the Amir or Military Commandant, 
 Under the Caliphate the Wali acted also as Prefect of Police (the Indian 
 Faujdar), who is now called "Zabit." The older name for the latter was 
 "Sahib al-Shartah " ( = chief of the watch) or " Mutawalli " ; and it was his 
 duty to go the rounds in person. The old " Charley," with his lantern and 
 cudgel, still guards the bazars in Damascus.
 
 Sfof-y of the Hunchback. 239 
 
 have been to depart this Hfe 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 Wall came out and gave order to hang the 
 supposed murderer and commanded the executioner ^ make pro- 
 clamation 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 Brolcer about to be hanged ; 
 and, making his way through the people, cried out to the execu- 
 tioner, " Hold ! hold ! I am iie 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 torch- 
 bearer, " 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 ot 
 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 
 
 ' Arab. " Al-Masha'ili " = the bearer of a cresset (Mash'al) who was also Jack 
 Kelch. In Anglo-India the name is given to a lower body-servant. The 
 " Mash'al " which Lane (M. E., chapt. vi. ) calls " Mesh'al " and illustrates, must 
 not be confounded with its congener the " Sha'ilah," or link (also lamp, wick, etc.). 
 
 ^ I need hardly say that the civilised " drop " is unknown to the East, where men 
 are strung up as to a yardarm. This greatly prolongs the suffering.
 
 240 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 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 is it 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 tx.e 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 Hunch- 
 back, 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 
 
 ' Arab. ' ' Lulvinah " = a mouthful. It is Still the fashion amongst Easterns of 
 primilive manners to lake up a handful of rice, etc. , ball it, and put it into a friend's 
 mouth honoris causa. When the friend is a European, the expression of his face is 
 generally a study.
 
 The JVazarcne Broke f^s Story. 241 
 
 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 hang- 
 man 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 l:e 
 came into the presence, he kissed ground and acquainted the ruler 
 with the whole story, which it is needless to relate for, as they 
 say : — There is none 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 ? " 
 Thereupon the Nazarene broker came forward and said, " O King 
 of the Age, with thy leave I will tell thee a thing which happened to 
 myself and which is still more wondrous and marvellous and 
 pleasurable and delectable than the tale of the Hunchback." Quoth 
 the King, " Tell us what thou hast to say ! " So he began in these 
 words : — 
 
 THE NAZARENE BROKERS STORY. 
 
 O Kix\G of the Age, I came to this thy country with merchandise 
 and Destiny stayed me here with you : but my place of birth was 
 Cairo, in Egypt, where also I was brought up, for I am one of the 
 Copts and my father was a broker before me. When I came to 
 man's estate he departed this life and I succeeded to his business. 
 One day, as I was sitting in my shop, behold ! there came up to me 
 a youth as handsome as could be, wearing sumptuous raiment and 
 riding a fine ass.^ When he saw me he saluted me, and I stood up 
 
 ' I need hardly note that this is an old Biblical practice. The ass is used for 
 city-work as the horse for fighting and travelling, the mule for burdens, and the 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 242 Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 to do him honour : then he took out a kerchief containing a sample 
 of sesame and asked, " How much is this worth per Ardabb ^ ? " 
 ■whereto I answered, "An hundred dirhams." Quoth he, "Take 
 porters and gangers and metesmen and come to-morrow to the 
 Khan al-JawaU,^ by the Gate of Victory quarter where thou wilt 
 find me." Then he fared forth leaving with me the sample of 
 sesame in his kerchief ; and I went the round of my customers and 
 ascertained that every Ardabb would fetch an hundred and twenty 
 dirhams. Next day I took four metesmen and walked with them to 
 the Khan, where I found him awaiting me. As soon as he saw me 
 he rose and opened his magazine, when we measured the grain till 
 the store was empty ; and we found the contents fifty Ardabbs, 
 making five thousand pieces of silver. Then said he, " Let ten 
 dirhams on every Ardabb be thy brokerage ; so take the price and 
 keep in deposit four thousand and five hundred dirhams for me ; 
 and, when I have made an end of selling the other wares in my 
 warehouses, I will come to thee and receive the amount." " I will 
 well," replied I, and, kissing his hand, went away, having made that 
 day a profit of a thousand dirhams. He was absent a month, at 
 the end of which he came to me, and asked, "Where be the 
 dirhams?" I rose and saluted him, and answered to him, "Wilt 
 thou not eat somewhat in my house ? " But he refused, with the 
 remark, " Get the moneys ready, and I will presently return and take 
 them." Then he rode away. So I brought out the dirhams, and 
 sat down to await him; but he stayed away for another month, 
 when he came back, and said to me, "Where be the dirhams?" 
 I rose, and saluting him asked, "Wilt thou not eat something in my 
 house ? " But he again refused, adding, " Get me the moneys ready, 
 and I will presently return and take them." Then he rode off. So 
 I brought out the dirhams, and sat down to await his return ; but 
 he stayed away from me a third month, and I said, " Verily this 
 young man is liberality in incarnate form." At the end of the 
 month he came up, riding a mare-mule, and wearing a suit of 
 
 dromedary for the desert. But the Badawi, like the Indian, despises the monture 
 and sings : — 
 
 The back of the steed is a noble place ; 
 But the mule's dishonour, the ass disgrace ! 
 The fine white asses, often thirteen hands high, sold by the Banu Salib and other 
 Badawi tribes, will fetch ;i^ioo, and more. I rode a little brute from Meccah to 
 leddah (42 miles) in one night and it came in with me cantering. 
 
 ' A dry measure of about five bushels (Cairo). The classical pronunciation is 
 Irdabb, and it measured 24 sa'a (gallons), each filling four outstretched hands. 
 
 ^ " Al-Tawali " should be Al-Jawali (Al-IMakrizi) and the Bab al-Nasr (Gate of 
 Victory) is that leading to Suez. I lived in that quarter, as is shown by my 
 Pilgrimage (i. 62).
 
 The Nazarcne Brokcf^s Story. 243 
 
 sumptuous raiment ; he was as the moon on the night of fuhiess, 
 and he seemed as if fresh from the baths, with his cheeks rosy 
 bright, and his brow flower-white, and a mole-spot hke a grain of 
 ambergris dehghting the sight, even as was said by such an one by 
 the poet : — ■ 
 
 Full moon with sun in single mansion * In brightest sheen and fortune rose 
 and shone. 
 
 With happy splendour changing every sprite : » Hail to what guerdons prayer 
 with blissful boon ! 
 
 Their charms and grace have gained perfection's height, * All hearts have con- 
 quered and all wits have won. 
 
 Laud to the Lord for works so wonder-strange, « And what th' Almighty wills 
 ?Iis hand hath done ! 
 
 When I saw him I rose to him and invoking blessings on him 
 asked, "O my lord, wilt thou not take thy moneys?" "Whence the 
 hurry ^ ? " quoth he, " Wait till I have made an end of my business 
 and then I will come and take them." Again he rode away, and I 
 said to myself, " By Allah ! when he comes next time needs must 
 I make him my guest ; for I have traded with his dirhams and 
 have gotten large gains thereby." At the end of the year he came 
 again, habited in a suit of clothes more sumptuous than the former ; 
 and, when I conjured him by the Evangel to alight at my house, 
 and eat of my guest-food, he said, " I consent, on condition that 
 what thou expendest on me shall be of my moneys still in thy 
 hands." I answered, " So be it," and made him sit down whilst I 
 got ready what was needful of meat and drink and else besides, 
 and set the tray before him, with the invitation, " Bismillah.'^ " 
 Then he drew near the tray, and put out his left hand** and ate 
 with me ; and I marvelled at his not using the right hand. When 
 we had done eating, I poured water on his hand and gave him 
 wherewith to wipe it. Upon this we sat down to converse after I 
 had set before him some sweetmeats; and I said to him, "O my 
 master, prithee relieve me by telling me why thou eatest with thy 
 
 ' Arab. " Al-'ajalah," referring to a saying in every Moslem mouth, " Patience 
 is from the Protector (Allah): Hurry is from Hell." That, and " Inshallah 
 bukra ! " (Please God to morrow !) are the traveller's bi'les noires. 
 
 ' Here it is a polite equivalent for " fall to ! " 
 
 3 The left hand is used throughout the East for purposes of ablution and is con- 
 sidered unclean. To offer the left hand would be most insulting, and no man 
 ever strokes his beard with it or eats with it : hence, probably, one never sees a 
 left-handed man throughout the Moslem east. In the Brazil for the same reason 
 old-fashioned people will not take snuff with the right hand. And it is related of 
 the Khataians that they prefer the left hand, " Because the heart, which is the 
 Sultan of the city of the Body, hath his mansion on that side " (Rauzat al-Safa). 
 
 Q 2
 
 244 -^If Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 left hand ? Perchance somethnig aileth thy other hand ? " When 
 he heard my words, he repeated these verses : — 
 
 Dear friend, ask not what burneth in my breast, * Lest thou see fiery pangs eye 
 
 never saw : 
 Wills not my heart to harbour Salma in stead * Of Layla's' love, but need hath 
 
 ne'er a law ! 
 
 And he put out his right arm from his sleeve and behold ! the hand 
 was cut off, a wrist without a fist. I was astounded at this but he 
 said, " Marvel not, and think not that I ate with my left hand for 
 conceit and insolence, but from necessity ; and the cutting off my 
 right hand was caused by an adventure of the strangest." Asked I, 
 " And what caused it ? " and he answered : — Know that I am of the 
 sons of Baghdad, and my father was among the notables of that city. 
 Whien I came to man's estate I heard the pilgrims and wayfarers, 
 travellers and merchants, talk of the land of Egypt, and' their words 
 sank deep into my mind till my parent died, when I took a large 
 sum of money and furnished myself for trade with stuffs of Baghdad 
 and Mosul and, packing them up in bales, set out on my wanderings, 
 and Allah decreed me safety till I entered this your city. — Then he 
 wept and began repeating : — 
 
 The blear-eyed 'scapes the pits * Wherein the lynx-eyed fall : 
 
 A word the wise man slays » And saves the natural : 
 
 The Moslem fails of food • The Kafir feasts in hall : 
 
 What art or act is man's ? » God's will obligeth all ! 
 
 Now when he had ended his verse he said, — So I entered Cairo and 
 took off my loads and stored my stuffs in the Khan "Al-Masriir.- " 
 Then I gave the servant a few silvers wherewith to buy me some 
 food, and lay down to sleep awhile. When I awoke I went to the 
 street called " Bayn al-Kasriyn " — Between the two Palaces — and 
 presently returned and rested my night in the Khan. When it was 
 morning I opened a bale and took out some stuff, saying to myself, 
 " I will be off and go through some of the bazars and see the state 
 of the market." So I loaded the stuff on some of my slaves and 
 fared forth till I reached the Kaysariyah, or Exchange of Jaharkas,* 
 
 ' Two feminine names ; as we might say Mary and Martha. 
 
 * It was near the Caliph's two Palaces (Al-Kasrayn) ; and was famous in the 
 15th century A.D. The Kazi's Mahkamah (Court-house) now occupiLS the place 
 of the Two Palaces. 
 
 3 A Kaysariyah is a superior kind of bazar, a ' ' bezestein. ' ' That in the text stood 
 to the east of the principal street in Cairo, and was built in A. H. 502 (=1108-9) 
 by a Circassian Emir, known as Fakhr al-Din Jaharkas, a corruption of the Persian 
 " Cheharkas "= four persons (Lane, i. 422, from Al-Makrizi and Ibn Khallikan). 
 For Jaharkas the Mac. Edit, has Jirjis (George), a common Christian name. I once 
 lodged in a " Wakalah (the modern Khan) Jirjis " (Pilgrimage, i. 255).
 
 The Nazarene Broker's Story. 245 
 
 where the brokers who knew of my coming came to meet'me. They 
 took the stuffs and cried them for sale, but could not get the 
 prime cost of them. I was vexed at this. However, the Shaj'kh 
 of the brokers said to me, " O my lord, I will tell thee how thou 
 mayest make a profit of thy goods. Thou shouldest do as the 
 merchants do, and sell thy merchandise at credit for a fixed period, 
 on a contract drawn up by a notary and duly witnessed; and employ 
 a Shroff to take thy dues every Monday and Thursday. So shalt 
 thou gain two dirhams and more for every one, and thou shalt solace 
 and divert thyself by seeing Cairo and the Nile." Quoth I, " This is 
 sound advice," and carried the brokers to the Khan. They took my 
 stuffs and went with them on 'Change, where I sold them well, taking 
 bonds for the value. These bonds I deposited with a Shroff, a 
 banker, who gave me a receipt, with which I returned to the Khan. 
 Here I stayed a whole month, every morning breaking my fast with a 
 cup of wine and making my meals on pigeon's meat, mutton, and 
 sweetmeats, till the time came when my receipts began to fall 
 due. So every Monday and Thursday I used to go on 'Change 
 and sit in the shop of one or other of the merchants, whilst the 
 notary and money-changer went round to recover the moneys from 
 the traders, till after the time of mid-afternoon prayer, when 
 they brought me the amount, and I counted it and, sealing the 
 bags, returned with them to the Khan. On a certain day, which 
 happened to be a Monday, I went to the Hammam, and thence 
 back to my Khan, and sitting in my own room ^ broke my fast 
 with a cup of wine, after which I slept a little. "When I awoke 
 I ate a chicken and, perfuming my person, repaired to the shop of 
 a merchant hight Badr al-Din al-Bostani, or the Gardener,^ who 
 welcomed me ; and we sat talking awhile till the bazar should 
 open. Presently, behold ! up came a lady of stately figure wearing 
 a head-dress of the most magnificent, perfumed with the sweetest 
 of scents and walking with graceful, swaying gait ; and seeing me 
 she raised her mantilla, allowing me a glimpse of her beautiful 
 black eyes. She saluted Badr al-Din, who returned her salutation 
 and stood up, and talked with her ; and the moment I heard her 
 speak, the love of her gat hold of my heart. Presently she said 
 to Badr al-Din, " Hast thou by thee a cut piece of stuff woven 
 with thread of pure gold ? " So he brought out to her a piece from 
 those he had bought of me and sold it to her for one thousand two 
 
 ' Readers who wish to know how a traveller is lodged in a Wakalah, Khan, or 
 Caravanserai, will consult my Pilgrimage (i. 60). 
 
 ^ The original occupation of the family had given it a name, as amongst us.
 
 246 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 hundred dirhams ; when she said, " I will take the piece home with 
 me and send thee its price." ' That is impossible, O my lady,' 
 the merchant replied, " for here is the owner of the stuff and I owe ' 
 him a share of profit." " Fie upon thee ! " she cried, " Am I not 
 used to take from thee entire rolls of costly stuff, and give thee a 
 greater profit than thou expectest, and send thee the money ? " 
 "Yes," rejoined he; "but I stand in pressing need of the price 
 this very day." Hereupon she took up the piece and threw it 
 back upon his lap, saying, " Out on thee ! Allah confound the 
 tribe of you which estimates none at the right value " ; and she 
 turned to go. I felt my very soul going with her ; so I stood 
 up and stayed her, saying, "I conjure thee by the Lord, O my 
 lady, favour me by retracing thy gracious steps ! " She turned back 
 with a smile and said, " For thy sake I return," and took a seat 
 opposite me in the shop. Then quoth I to Badr al-Din, " What is 
 the price they asked thee for this piece ? " and quoth he, " Eleven 
 hundred dirhams." I rejoined, "The odd hundred shall be thy 
 profit : bring me a sheet of paper and I will write thee a discharge 
 for it." Then I wrote him a receipt in my own handwriting and 
 gave the piece to the lady, saying, "Take it away with thee and, 
 if thou wilt, bring me its price next bazar-day ; or better still, 
 accept it as my guest-gift to thee." "Allah requite thee with 
 good," answered she, "and make thee my husband and lord and 
 master of all I have ^ ! " And Allah favoured her prayer. I saw 
 the Gates of Paradise swing open before me, and said, " O my lady, 
 let this piece of stuff be now thine and another like it is ready for 
 thee ; only let me have one look at thy face." So she raised her 
 veil and I saw a face the sight of which bequeathed to me a thou- 
 sand sighs, and my heart was so captivated by her love that I was 
 no longer ruler of my reason. Then she let fall her face-veil and 
 taking up the piece of stuff said, " O my lord make me not desolate 
 by thine absence ! " and turned away and disappeared from my 
 sight. I remained sitting on 'Change till past the hour of after- 
 noon prayer, lost to the world by the love which had mastered me ; 
 and the violence of my passion compelled me to make enquiries 
 concerning her of the merchant, who answered me, " This is a 
 lady and a rich ; she is the daughter of a certain Emir who lately 
 died and left her a large fortune." Then I took leave of him and 
 returned home to the Khan where they set supper before me ; but 
 I could not eat for thinking of her, and when I lay down to sleep 
 
 ' The usual "chaff" or banter allowed even to modest women when shopping, 
 and — many a true word is spoken in jest.
 
 The Nazarene Bro kef's Story. 247 
 
 sleep came not near me. So I watched till morning, when I arose 
 and donned a change of raiment and drank a cup of wine ; and, 
 after breaking my fast on some slight matter, I went to the mer- 
 chant's shop, where I saluted him and sat down by him. Presently 
 up came the lady as usual, followed by a slave-girl and wearing a 
 dress more sumptuous than before ; and she saluted me without 
 noticing Badr al-Din, and said in fluent graceful speech (never 
 heard I voice softer or sweeter), "Send one with me to take the 
 thousand and two hundred dirhams, the price of the piece." " Why 
 this hurry?" asked I, and she answered, "May we never lose 
 thee ^ ! " and handed me the money. Then I sat talking with her 
 and presently I signed to her in dumb show, whereby she under- 
 stood that I longed to enjoy her favours, and she rose up in haste 
 with a show of displeasure. My heart clung to her and I went 
 forth from the bazar and followed on her track. As I was walking 
 suddenly a black slave-girl stopped me and said, " O my master, 
 come speak with my mistress." " At this I was surprised and 
 replied, " There is none who knows me here " ; but she rejoined, 
 " O my lord, how soon hast thou forgotten her ! My lady is the 
 same who was this day at the shop of such a merchant." Then I 
 went with her to the Shroff's, where I found the lady, who drew 
 me to her side and said, " O my beloved, thine image is firmly 
 stamped upon my fancy, and love of thee hath gotten hold of my 
 heart : from the hour I first saw thee nor sleep nor food nor drink 
 hath given me aught of pleasure." I replied, " The double of that 
 suffering is mine and my state dispenseth me from complaint." 
 Then said she, "O my beloved, at thy house or at mine?" "I 
 am a stranger here, and have no place of reception save the Khan, 
 so by thy favour it shall be at thy house." " So be it ; but this is 
 Friday^ night, and nothing can be done till to-morrow after public 
 prayers. Go to the Mosque and pray; then mount thine ass, 
 and ask for the Habbdniyah^ quarter, and when there look out 
 for the mansion of Al-Nakib-^ Barakat, popularly known as Abu 
 Shamah, the Syndic, for I live there : so do not delay, as I shall 
 
 ' " La'adamnak " = Heaven deprive us not of thee, i.e., grant I see thee often ! 
 
 ^ The peremptory formula of a slave delivering si c 1 a message. 
 
 3 This would be our Thursday night, preceding the day of public prayers, which 
 can be performed only when in a state of ceremonial purity. Hence many 
 Moslems go to the Hammam on Thursday and have no connection with their 
 wives till Friday night. 
 
 ■* Lane (i. 423) gives ample details concerning the Habbaniyah, or grain-sellers' 
 quarter in the southern part of Cairo ; and shows that when this tale was written 
 (or transcribed ?) the city was almost as extensive as it is now. 
 
 s Nakib is a caravan-leader, a chief, a syndic ; and "Abu Shamah " = Father 
 of a cheek mole, while " Abii Shammah " = Father of a smeller, a nose, a snout. 
 The Kuniyah," bye-name, patronymic or matronymic, is necessary amongst
 
 248 Alf Laylah tva Laylah. 
 
 be expecting thee." I rejoiced with still greater joy at this, and 
 took leave of her and returned to my Khan, where I passed a 
 sleepless night. Hardly was I assured that morning had dawned 
 when I rose, changed my dress, perfumed myself with essences 
 and sweet scents and, taking fifty dinars in a kerchief, went from 
 the Khan Masriir to the Zuwaylah^ gate, where I mounted an ass, 
 and said to its owner, " Take me to the Habbaniyah." So he set 
 off with me and brought up in the twinkling of an eye at a street 
 known as Darb al-Munakkari, where I said to him, "Go in and ask 
 for the Syndic's mansion." He was absent a while, and then 
 returned and said, "Alight." "Go thou before me to the house," 
 qucth I, adding, " Come back with the earliest light and bring me 
 home " ; and he answered, " In Allah's name ! " w^hereupon I gave 
 him a quarter-dinar of gold, and he took it and went his ways. 
 Then I knocked at the door and out came two white slave-girls, 
 both young ; high-bosomed virgins, as they were moons, and said 
 to me, "Enter, for our mistress is expecting thee and she hath not 
 slept the night long for her delight in thee." I passed through the 
 vestibule into a saloon Avith seven doors, floored with parti-coloured 
 marbles and furnished with curtains and hangings of coloured silks : 
 the ceiling was doisomie with gold, and corniced with inscriptions ^ 
 emblazoned in lapis lazuli ; and the walls were stuccoed with Sultan 1 
 gypsum^ which mirrored the beholder's face. Around the saloon 
 were latticed windows overlooking a garden full of all manner 
 fruits ; whose streams were railing and rilling, and whose birds were 
 trilling and shrilling ; and in the heart of the hall was a jetting 
 fountain at whose corners stood birds fashioned in red gold crusted 
 with pearls and gems and spouting water crystal-clear. \\'hen I 
 
 entered and took a seat, And Shahrazad perceived the dawn 
 
 of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 Moslems whose list of names, all connected more or less with religion, is so scanty. 
 Hence Buckingham the traveller was known as Abu Kidr, the Father of a 
 Cooking-pot and Hajj Abdullah (myself) as Abu Shawaril^, leather of Mustachioes 
 ( Pilgrimage, iii. 263). 
 
 ' More correctly Bab Zawilah, from the name of a tribe in Northern Africa. 
 This gate dates from the same age as the Eastern or Desert gate, Bab al-Nasr 
 (A.D. 10S7) and is still much admired. M. Jomard describes it (Description, 
 etc., ii. 670), and lately my good friend Yacoub Artin Pasha has drawn attention 
 to it in the Bulletin de I'lnst. Egj^pt., Deuxieme Serie, No. 4, 18S3. 
 
 - This ornament is still seen in the older saloons of Damascus : the inscription^ 
 are usually religious sentences, extracts from the Koran, etc., in unical characters. 
 They take the place of our frescoes ; and as a work of art are generally far 
 superior. 
 
 3 Arab. " Bayaz al-Sultani," the best kind of gypsum, which shines like polished 
 marble. The stucco on the walls of Alexandria, built by Alexander of the two 
 Horns, was so exquisitely tempered and beautifully polished that men had to wear 
 masks for fear of blindness.
 
 The Nazare7ie B?-o key's Story. 249 
 
 iltJoiu tol&rn it teas t^e Cti]cntp=6ij:tl[) i^ttrfit. 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young 
 merchant continued, When I entered and took a seat, the lady at 
 once came in crowned with a diadem^ of pearls and jewels, her face 
 dotted with artificial moles in indigo,^ her eyebrows pencilled with 
 Kohl, and her hands and feet reddened with Henna. When she 
 saw me she smiled in my face, and took me to her embrace 
 and clasped me to her breast. Then she put her mouth to my 
 mouth and sucked my tongue^ (and I did likewise), and said, 
 " Can it be true, O my little darkling, thou art come to me ? " 
 adding, "Welcome and good cheer to thee! By Allah! from the 
 day I saw thee sleep hath not been sweet to me nor hath food 
 been pleasant." Quoth I, " Such hath also been my case and I 
 am thy slave, thy negro slave." Then we sat down to converse 
 and I hung my head earthwards in bashfulness, but she delayed 
 not long ere she set before me a tray of the most exquisite viands, 
 marinated meats, fritters soaked in bee's honey,* and chickens 
 stuffed with sugar and pistachio-nuts, whereof we ate till we were 
 satisfied. Then they brought basin and ewer and I washed my 
 hands and we scented ourselves with rose-water musk'd, and sat 
 down again to converse. So she began repeating these couplets ^ : — 
 
 Had we wist of thy coming, thy way had been strown 
 With the blood of our heart and the balls of our sight : 
 
 Our cheek as a foot-cloth to greet thee been thrown, 
 That thy step on our eyelids should softly alight. 
 
 And she kept plaining of what had befallen her and I of what 
 had betided me ; and love of her gat so firm hold of my heart 
 
 ' This Iklil, a complicated affair, is now obsolete, its place having been taken by 
 the " Kurs," a gold plate, some five inches in diameter, set with jewels, etc. Lane 
 (M. E. Appendix A) figures it. 
 
 ^ The woman artist who applies the dye is called " IVIunakkishah." 
 
 3 " Kissing with th' inner lip," as Shakespeare calls it ; the French langue 
 fotim'e, and Sanskrit " Samputa." The subject of kissing is extensive in the East. 
 Ten different varieties are duly enumerated in the " Ananga-Ranga," or The 
 Hindu Art of Love (Ars Amoris Indica) translated from the Sanscrit, and 
 annotated by A. F. F. and B. F. R. (F. F. Arbuthnot and R. F. Burton). 
 It is also connected with unguiculation, cr impressing the nails, of which there 
 are seven kinds ; morsication (seven kinds) ; hantlling the hair and tappings or 
 pattings with the fingers and palm (eight kinds). 
 
 '' Arab, "asal-nahl," to distinguish it from "honey," i.e., syrup of sugar-cane 
 and fruits. 
 
 5 The lines have occurred in vol. i. night xii. By way of variety I give Torrens' 
 version, p. 273.
 
 250 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 that all my wealth seemed a thing of naught in comparison with 
 her. Then we fell to toying and clipping and kissing till night- 
 fall, when the handmaidens set before us meats and a complete 
 wine service, and we sat carousing till the noon of night ; when 
 we lay down and I lay with her, never in my life saw I a night 
 like that night. When morning morrowed I arose and took leave 
 of her, throwing under the carpet-bed the kerchief wherein were 
 the dinars,^ and as I went out she wept and said, "O my lord, 
 when shall I look upon that lovely face again ? " "I will be with 
 thee at sunset," answered I, and going out found the donkey-boy, 
 who had brought me the day before, awaiting at the door. So I 
 mounted ass and rode to the Khan of Masrur, where I alighted 
 and gave the man a half-dinar, saying, " Return at sunset " ; and 
 he said, " I will." Then I breakfasted and went out to seek the 
 price of my stuffs ; after which I returned, and taking a roast lamb 
 and some sweet-meats, called the porter and put the provision in his 
 crate, and sent it to the lady, paying the man his hire.^ I went 
 back to my business till sunset, when the ass-driver came to me ; 
 and I took fifty dinars in a kerchief and rode to her house where 
 I found the marble floor swept, the brasses burnisht, the branch- 
 lights burning, the wax-candles ready lighted, the meat served up 
 and the wine strained.^ When my lady saw me she threw her 
 arms about my neck, and cried, "Thou hast desolated me by thine 
 absence." Then she set the tables before me and we ate till we 
 were satisfied, when the slave-girls carried off the trays and served 
 up wine. We gave not over drinking till half the night was 
 past ; and, being well warmed with drink, we went to the sleeping 
 chamber and lay there till morning. I then arose and fared forth 
 from her, leaving the fifty dinars with her as before ; and, finding 
 the donkey-boy at the door, rode to the Khan and slept awhile. 
 After that I went out to make ready the evening meal and took a 
 brace of geese with gravy on two platters of dressed and peppered 
 rice, and got ready colocasia ^-roots fried and soaked in honey, and 
 wax-candles and fruits and conserves and nuts and almonds and 
 sweet-scented flowers ; and I sent them all to her. As soon as it 
 was night I again tied up fifty dinars in a kerchief and, mounting 
 the ass as usual, rode to the mansion where we ate and drank and 
 
 ' The way of carr}'ing money in the comer of a pocket-handkerchief is still 
 common. 
 
 ^ He sent the provisions not to be under an obligation to her in this matter. 
 And she received them to judge thereby of his liberality. 
 
 3 Those who have seen the process of wine-making in the Libanus will readily 
 understand why it is always strained. 
 
 < Arab. " Kulkasa, a kind of arum or yam, eaten boiled like our potatoes.
 
 The Nazarene Brokers Story. 251 
 
 lay together till morning when I threw the ke-^-^f/^^^'^'/.^^ 
 her and rode back to the Khan. I ceased not doing after tha fashion 
 till after a sweet night I woke one fine n.ornmg -^ ^^^f ->- 
 becrgared, dinar-less and dirham-less. So said I to myself, All this 
 be Satan's work " ; and began to recite these couplets :- 
 Poverty dims the sheen of man whate'er his wealth has been * E'en as the sun 
 about to set shines with a yellowing light : ,,,,,. 
 
 Absentt falls from memory, forgotten by his friends; . Present he shareth not 
 
 their iovs for none in him delight : ^ , . 1 
 
 He walks Ihe market shunned of all too glad to hide his head ; * In desert places 
 
 tears he sheds and moans his bitter plight : 
 By Allah ! 'mid his kith and kin a man, however good, * Waylaid by want and 
 
 penury is but a stranger-wight ! 
 I fared forth from the Khan and walked down " Between-the-Palaces" 
 street till I came to the Zuwaylah Porte, where I found the people 
 cl^wding and the gateway blocked for the much folk And by the 
 decree of Destiny I saw there a trooper, against whom I pressed 
 unintentionally, so that my hand came upon his bosom-pocket, and 1 
 felt a purse inside it. I looked and seeing a string of green silk 
 hanging from the pocket, knew it for a purse. And the crush gre._ 
 gr"ter%very minute, and just then a camel, laden with a load of 
 fuel happened to jostle the trooper on the opposite side, and he 
 turr;ed round to fend it off from him lest it tear his clothes And 
 Satan tempted me, so I pulled the string and drew out a httle bag 
 of blue silk containing something which chinked like coin But the 
 soldier feeling his pocket suddenly hghtened, put his hand to it, and 
 found 'it empty. Whereupon he turned to me and snatching up 
 h°s mace from his saddle-bow struck me with it on the head. 
 I fell to the ground, whilst the people came round us and, 
 eiiing the troop's mare by the bridle, said to ^i- ^' trik.st 
 thou this youth such a blow as this for a mere push? But 
 the trooper cried out at them, "This fellow is an accursed 
 thief" Whereupon I came to myself and stood up, and the 
 people looked at me and said, "Nay, he is a comely youth: he 
 would not steal anything"; and some of them took my par and 
 others were against me, and question and answer waxed loud and 
 warm The people pulled at me and would have rescued rne 
 from his clutches; but as Fate decreed, behold! the Governor, the 
 Chief of Police, and the watch ^ entered the Zuwaylah Gate at this 
 
 ^ At first he slipped the money into the bed-clothes ; now he gives it openly and 
 *3 S Abg;^S;TS. = tyrants, oPl-ssors. applied totheyxjlice and generally 
 to the employes of Government. It is a word which tells a hi.toiy.
 
 252 A If Lay la h wa Laylah. 
 
 moment and, seeing the people gathered together around me and 
 the soldier, the Governor asked, "What is the matter?" "By 
 Allah ! O Emir," ans\vered the trooper, " this is a thief ! I had 
 in my pocket a purse of blue silk lined with twenty good gold 
 pieces, and he took it whilst I was in the crush." Quoth the 
 Governor, " Was anyone by thee at the time ? " and quoth the 
 soldier, " No." Thereupon the Governor cried out to the Chief of 
 Police, who seized me, and on this wise the curtain of the Lord's 
 protection was withdrawn from me. Then he said, "Strip him"; 
 and, when they stripped me, they found the purse in my clothes. 
 The Wali took it, opened it and counted it ; and, finding in it 
 twenty dinars as the soldier had said, waxed exceeding wroth, and 
 bade his guard bring me before him. Then said he to me, " Now, 
 
 youth, speak trul)'. Didst thou steal this purse^?" At this I 
 hung my head to the ground, and said to myself, " If I deny 
 having stolen it I shall get myself into terrible trouble." So I 
 raised my head, and said, "Yes, I took it." When the Governor 
 heard these words, he wondered, and summoned witnesses, who 
 came forward and attested my confession. All this happened at 
 the Zuwaylah Gate. Then the Governor ordered the link-bearer to 
 cut off my right hand, and he did so ; after which he would have 
 struck off my left foot also. But the heart of the soldier softened, 
 and he took pity on me and interceded for me with the Governor 
 that I should not be slain.'^ Thereupon the Wali left me, and 
 went away, and the folk remained round me and gave me a cup 
 of wine to drink. As for the trooper he pressed the purse upon 
 me, and said, " Thou art a comely youth and it befitteth not thou 
 be a thief." So I repeated these verses : — 
 
 1 swear by Allah's name, fair sir ! no thief was I, » Nor, O thou best of men ! 
 
 was I a bandit bred : 
 But Fortune's change and chance o'erthrew me suddenly, « And cark and care 
 and penury my course misled : 
 
 ' Moslem law is never completely satisfied till the criminal confess. It also 
 utterly ignores circumstantial evidence, and for the best of reasons : among so 
 sharp-witted a people the admission would lead to endless abuses. I greatly 
 surprised a certain Governor-General of India by giving him this simple infor- 
 mation. 
 
 ^ Cutting off the right hand is the Koranic punishment (chapt. v.) for one who 
 robs an article worth four dinars, about 40 francs to shillings. The left foot is to 
 be cut off at the ankle for a second ofience and so on ; but death is reserved for 
 a hardened criminal. The practice is now obsolete, and theft is punished by 
 the bastinado, fine, or imprisonment. The old Guebres were as severe. For 
 stealing one dirham's worth they took a fine of two, cut off the ear-lobes, gave 
 ten stick-blows and dismissed the criminal, who had been subjected to an hour's 
 imprisonment. A second theft caused the penalties to be doubled ; and after that 
 the right hand was cut off or death w'as inflicted according to the proportion stolen.
 
 The Nazarene Broker's Story. 
 
 ):> 
 
 I shot it not, indeed, 'twas Allah shot the shaft » That rolled in dust the Kingl)- 
 diadem from my head.' 
 
 The soldier turned away after giving me the purse ; and I also 
 went my ways having wrapped my hand in a piece of rag and 
 thrust it into my bosom. My whole semblance had changed, and 
 my colour had waxed yellow from the shame and pain which had 
 befallen me. Yet I went on to my mistress's house where, in 
 extreme perturbation of spirit, I threw myself down on the carpet- 
 bed. She saw me in this state and asked me, "What aileth thee 
 and why do I see thee so changed in looks ? " and I answered, 
 " My head paineth me and I am far from well." Whereupon she was 
 vexed and was concerned on my account and said, " Burn not my 
 heart, O my lord, but sit up and raise thy head and recount to me 
 what hath happened to thee to-day, for thy face tells me a tale." 
 " Leave this talk," replied I. But she wept and said, " Meseems 
 thou art tired of me, for I see thee contrary to thy wont." But I 
 was silent ;, and she kept on talking to me albeit I gave her no 
 answer, till night came on. Then she set food before me, but I 
 refused it fearing lest she see me eating with my left hand, and said 
 to her, " I have no stomach to eat at present." Quoth she, " Tell 
 me what hath befallen thee to-day, and why art thou so sorrowful 
 and broken in spirit and heart ? " Quoth I, " Wait awhile ; I will 
 tell thee all at my leisure." Then she brought me wine, saying, 
 " Down with it, this will dispel thy grief : thou must indeed drink 
 and tell me of thy tidings." I asked her, "Perforce must I tell 
 thee?" and she answered, "Yes." Then said I, " If it needs must 
 be so, then give me to drink with thine own hand." She filled and 
 drank,^ and filled again and gave me the cup, which I took from her 
 with my left hand and wiped the tears from my eyelids and began 
 repeating : — 
 
 When Allah willeth aught befall a man * Who hath of ears and eyes and wits full 
 
 share ; 
 His ears He deafens and his eyes He blinds * And draws his wits e'en as we draw 
 
 a hair, 3 
 Till, having wrought His purpose, He restores * Man's wits, that warned, more 
 
 circumspect he fare. 
 
 When I ended my verses I wept, and she cried out with an exceed- 
 ing loud cry, " What is the cause of thy tears ? Thou burnest my 
 heart ! What makes thee take the cup with thy left hand ? " Quoth 
 
 ' Koran, viii. 17. 
 
 ^ A universal custom in the East, the object being originally to show that the 
 draught was not poisoned. 
 3 Out of paste or pudding.
 
 2 54 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 I, "Truly I have on my right hand aboil"; and quoth she, "Put 
 it out and I will open it for thee.^ " " It is not yet time to open it," 
 I replied, " so worry me not with thy words, for I will not take it 
 out of the bandage at this hour." Then I drank off the cup, and 
 she gave not over plying me with drink until drunkenness overcame 
 me and I fell asleep in the place Avhere I was sitting ; whereupon 
 she looked at my right hand, and saw a wrist without a fist. So she 
 searched me closely and found with me the purse of gold and my 
 severed hand wrapped up in the bit of rag.^ With this such sorrow 
 came upon her as never overcame any and she ceased not lamenting 
 on my account till the morning. When I awoke I found that 
 she had dressed me a dish of broth of four boiled chickens, which 
 she brought to me together with a cup of wine. I ate and drank 
 and, laying down the purse, would have gone out ; but she said to 
 me, "Whither away?" and I answered, "Where my business calleth 
 me " ; and said she, " Thou shalt not go : sit thee down." So I sat 
 down and she resumed, " Hath thy love for me so overpowered 
 thee that thou hast wasted all thy wealth and hast lost thine hand 
 on my account ? I take thee to witness against me and also Allah 
 be my witness that I will never part with thee, but will die under 
 thy feet ; and soon thou shalt see that my words are true." Then 
 she sent for the Kazi and witnesses and said to them, " Write my 
 contract of marriage with this young man, and bear ye witness that 
 I have received the marriage-settlement.^" When they had drawn 
 up the document she said, " Be witness that all my moneys which 
 are in this chest and all I have in slaves and handmaidens and 
 other property is given in free gift to this young man." So they 
 made a note of this statement enabling me to assume possession in right 
 of marriage ; and then withdrew after receiving their fees. There- 
 upon she took me by the hand and, leading me to a closet, opened 
 a large chest and said to me, " See what is herein " ; and I looked 
 and behold, it was full of kerchiefs. Quoth she, " This is the money 
 I had from thee and every kerchief thou gavest me, containing 
 fifty dinars, I wrapped up and cast into this chest ; so now take 
 
 ' Boils and pimples are supposed to be caused by broken hair-roots and in 
 Hindostani are called Bal-tor. 
 
 2 He intended to bury it decently, a respect which Moslems always show even 
 to the exuvix of the body, as hair and nail parings. Amongst Guebres the latter 
 were collected and carried to some mountain. The practice was intensified by fear 
 of demons or wizards getting possession of the spoils. 
 
 3 Without which the marriage was not valid. The minimum is ten dirhams 
 (drachmas), now valued at about five francs to shillings ; and if a man many with- 
 out namiii" the sum, the woman, after consummation, can compel him to pay this
 
 The Nazmrne Broker's Story. 255 
 
 thine own, for it returns to thee, and this day thou art become of 
 high estate. Fortune and Fate afQicted thee so that thou didst 
 lose thy right hand for my sake ; and I can never requite thee ; 
 nay, although I gave my life 'twere but little and I should still 
 remain thy debtor." Then she added, " Take charge of thy pro- 
 perty " ; so I transferred the contents of her chest to my chest, 
 and added my wealth to her wealth which I had given her, and 
 my heart was eased and my sorrow ceased. I stood up and kissed 
 her and thanked her ; and she said, " Thou hast given thy hand 
 for love of me and how am I able to give thee an equivalent ? 
 By Allah ! if I offered my life for thy love it were indeed but little, 
 and would not do justice to thy claim upon me." Then she made 
 over to me by deed all that she possessed in clothes and ornaments 
 of gold and pearls, and goods and farms and chattels, and lay not 
 down to sleep that night, being sorely grieved for my grief, till 
 I told her the whole of what had befallen me. I passed the night 
 with her. But before we had lived together a month's time she 
 fell sorely sick and illness increased upon her, by reason of her 
 grief for the loss of my hand, and she endured but fifty days 
 before she was numbered among the folk of futurity and heirs ot 
 immortality. So I laid her out and buried her body in mother 
 earth and let make a pious perlection of the Koran ^ for the 
 health of her soul, and gave much money in alms for her; after 
 which I turned me from the grave and returned to the house. 
 There I found that she had left much substance in ready money 
 and slaves, mansions, lands and domains, and among her store- 
 houses was a granary of sesame-seed, whereof I sold part to thee; 
 and I had neither time nor inclination to take count with thee till I 
 had sold the rest of the stock in store ; nor, indeed, even now have 
 I made an end of receiving the price. So I desire thou baulk 
 me not in what I am about to say to thee : twice have I eaten of 
 thy food and I wish to give thee as a present the moneys for the 
 sesame which are by thee. Such is the cause of the cutting off of 
 my right hand and my eating with my left. " Indeed," said I, 
 "thou hast shown me the utmost kindness and liberality." Then 
 he asked me, "Why shouldst thou not travel with me to my native 
 country, whither I am about to return with Cairene and Alex- 
 andrian stuffs ? Say me, wilt thou accompany me ? " and I 
 answered, "I will." So I agreed to go with him at the head of 
 
 ' Arab. " Khatniah " = reading or reciting the whole Koran, by one or more 
 persons, usually in the house, not over the tomb. Like the " Zikr," Litany or 
 Rogation, it is a pious act confined to certain occasions.
 
 256 Alf Laylah tva Laylah. 
 
 the month, and I sold all I had and bought other merchandise ; 
 then we set out and travelled, I and the young man, to this country 
 of yours, where he sold his venture and bought other investment 
 of country stuffs and continued his journey to Egypt. But it 
 was my lot to abide here, so that these things befell me in my 
 strangerhood which befell last night, and is not this tale, O King 
 of the Age, more wondrous and marvellous than the story of the 
 Hunchback ? " Not so," quoth the King, " I cannot accept 
 it : there is no help for it but that you be hanged, every one of 
 
 you." And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased 
 
 saying her permitted say. 
 
 Bob) ttl)fn it tens t|)E ditDcntp^ficbcntl) fXx^CjX, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 King of China declared, "There is no help for it but that you be 
 han"-ed," the Reeve of the Sultan's Kitchen came forward and said, 
 " If thou permit me I will tell thee a tale of what befell me just 
 before I found this Gobbo ; and, if it be more wondrous than hij 
 story, do thou grant us our lives." And when the King answered 
 " Yes," he began to recount 
 
 THE REEVES TALE. 
 
 Know, O King, that last night I was at a party where they made 
 a perlection of the Koran and got together doctors of law and 
 religion skilled in recitation and intoning ; and, when the readers 
 ended, the table was spread and amongst other things they set 
 before us was a marinated ragout * flavoured with cumin-seed. So 
 we sat down, but one of our number held back and refused to 
 touch it. We conjured him to eat of it but he swore he would 
 not ; and, when we again pressed him, he said, " Be not instant with 
 me ; sufificeth me that which hath already befallen me through 
 eating it " ; and he began reciting : — 
 
 Shoulder thy tray and go straight to thy goal ; * And, if suit the» this Kohl 
 why, — use this Kohl - ! 
 
 ' Arab. " Zirbajah " = meat dressed with vinegar, cumin-seed (Pers. Zir) and 
 hot spices. More of it in the sequel of the tale. Weil reads " .Sir\-adj," and offers 
 thereon a wonderful note, telling us it is not garlic. 
 
 ^ A sayintT not uncommon, meaning, let each man do as he deems fit ; also 
 = "age quod agis " : and at times corresponding with our saw about the cap- 
 fiuinii.
 
 The Reeve's Talc. 257 
 
 When he ended his verse we said to him, "Allah upon thee! tell 
 us thy reason for refusing to eat of the cumin-ragout ? " " If so it 
 be," he repHed, "and needs must I eat of it, I will not do so except 
 I wash my hand forty times with soap, forty times with potash, 
 and forty times with galangale,^ the total being one hundred and 
 tvrenty washings." Thereupon the hospitable host bade his slaves 
 bring water and whatso he required ; and the young man washed 
 his hand as afore mentioned. Then he sat down, as if disgusted 
 and frightened withal, and dipping his hand in the ragout began 
 eating, and at the same time showing signs of anger. And we 
 wondered at him with extreme wonderment, for his hand trembled 
 and the morsel in it shook, and we saw that his thumb had been 
 cut off, and he ate with his four fingers only. So we said to him, 
 " Allah upon thee ! what happened to thy thumb ? Is thy hand 
 thus by the creation of God, or hath some accident befallen it ? " 
 " O my brothers," he answered, "it is not only thus with this thumb, 
 but also with my other thumb and with both my great toes, as 
 you shall see." So saying he uncovered his left hand and his feet, 
 and we saw that the left hand was even as the right, and in like 
 manner that each of his feet lacked its great toe. When we saw 
 him after this fashion our amazement wazed still greater, and we 
 said to him, "We have hardly patience enough to await thy history, 
 and to hear the manner of the cutting off of thy thumbs, and the 
 reason of thy washing both hands one hundred and twenty times." — 
 Know, then, said he, that my father was chief of the merchants and 
 the wealthiest of them all in Baghdad-city during the reign of the 
 Caliph Harun al-Rashid. And he was much given to wine drinking 
 and listening to the lute and the other instruments of pleasaunce ; so 
 that when he died he left nothing. I buried him, and had perlections 
 of the Koran made for him, and mourned for him days and nights. 
 Then I opened his shop, and found that he had left in it few goods, 
 v.hile his debts were many. However, I compounded with his 
 creditors for time to settle their demands, and betook myself to 
 buying and selling, paying them something from week to week on 
 account ; and I gave not over doing this till I had cleared off his 
 obligations in full and began adding to my principal. One day, as I 
 sat in my shop, suddenly and unexpectedly there appeared before me a 
 young lady, than whom I never saw a fairer, wearing the richest 
 raiment and ornaments, and riding a she-mule, with one negro slave 
 walking before her and another behind her. She drew rein at the 
 
 ^ Arab. " Su'ud, an Alpinia with pungent rhizome Hke ginger; here used as a 
 counter-odour. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 258 Alf Laylah wa LaylaJi. 
 
 head of the exchange-bazar and entered, followed by an eunuch, who 
 said to her, " O my lady, come out and away without telling any one, 
 lest thou light a fire which will burn us all up." Moreover, he stood 
 before her guarding her from view whilst she looked at the merchants' 
 shops. She found none open but mine ; so she came up with the 
 eunuch behind her, and, sitting down in my shop, saluted me. Never 
 heard I aught fairer than her speech, or sweeter than her voice. 
 Then she unveiled her face, and I saw that she was like the moon, 
 and I stole a glance at her whose sight caused me a thousand sighs, 
 and my heart was captivated with love of her, and I kept looking 
 again and again upon her face, repeating these verses :— 
 
 Say to the charmer in the dove-hued veil, » Death would be welcome to abate thy 
 
 bale! 
 Favour me with thy favours that I live : * See, I stretch forth my palm to take thy 
 
 vail ! 
 
 When she heard my verse she answered me, saying : — 
 
 I've lost all patience by despite of you ; » My heart knows nothing save love- 
 plight to you ! 
 If aught I sight save charms so bright of 3'ou ; « My parting end not in the sight 
 
 of you ! 
 I swear I'll ne'er forget the right of you ; » And fain tliis breast would soar to 
 
 height of you : 
 You made me drain the love-cup, and I lief • A love-cup tender for delight of 
 
 you : 
 Take this my form where'er you go, and when » You die, entomb me in the site of 
 
 you : 
 Call on me in my grave, and hear my bones * Sigh their responses to the shrighl 
 
 of you : 
 And were I asked, "Of God what wouldst thou see?" • I answer, "first His 
 
 will, then Thy decree ! " 
 
 When she ended her verse she asked me, " O youth, hast thou any 
 fair stuffs by thee?" and I answered, "O my lady, thy slave is 
 poor ; but have patience till the merchants open their shops, and 
 I will suit thee with what thou wilt." Then we sat talking, I and 
 she (and I was drowned in the sea of her love, dazed in the desert ^ 
 of my passion for her), till the merchants opened their shops ; when 
 I rose and fetched her all she sought to the tune of five thousand 
 dirhams. She gave the stuff to the eunuch and, going forth by 
 the door of the Exchange, she mounted mule and went away, 
 without telling me whence she came, and I was ashamed to speak 
 of such trifle. When the merchants dunned me for the price, I 
 
 ' Arab. "Ta'ih" = lost in the " Tih," a desert wherein man ;//<zy lose himself, 
 translated in our maps, " The Desert of the Wanderings," scil. of the children of 
 Israel.
 
 The Reeve's Tale. 259 
 
 made myself answerable for five thousand dirhams and went home 
 drunken with the love of her. They set supper before me and I 
 ate a mouthful, thinking only of her beauty and lovelu.ess, and 
 sought to sleep, but sleep came not to me. And such was my 
 condition for a whole week, when the merchants required their 
 moneys of me, but I persuaded them to have patience for another 
 ■week, at the end of which time she again appeared momited on a 
 6he-mule and attended by her eunuch and two slaves She saluted 
 me and said, "O my master, we have been long m bringing thee 
 the price of the stuffs; but now fetch the Shroff and take thy 
 moneys " So I sent for the money-changer, and the eunuch counted 
 .out the coin before him and made it over to me. Then we sat 
 talkincr I and she, till the market opened, when she said to me, 
 " Get me this and that." So I got her from the merchants whatso 
 she wanted, and she took it and went away without saying a word 
 to me about the price. As soon as she was out of sight, I repen ed 
 me of what I had done; for the worth of the stuffs bought or her 
 amounted to a thousand dinars, and I said m my soul What 
 manner of love is this? She hath brought me five thousand 
 .dirhams, and hath taken goods for a thousand dinars I feared 
 
 lest I should be beggared through having to pay the merchants 
 their money, and I said, "They know none other but me; this 
 lovely lady is naught but a cheat and a swindler, who hath diddled 
 me with her beauty and grace; for she saw that I was a mere 
 youth and laughed at me for not asking her address. I ceased 
 not to be troubled by these doubts and fears, as she was absent 
 more than a month, till the merchants pestered me for their money 
 ^nd were so hard upon me that I put up my property for sale and 
 stood on the very brink of ruin. However, as I was sitting in 
 my shop one day, drowned in melancholy musings, she suddenly 
 rode up and, dismounting at the bazar-gate, came straight towards 
 me When I saw her all my cares fell from me and I forgot every 
 trouble. She came close up to me and greeted me with her sweet 
 voice and pleasant speech, and presently said, "Fetch me the Shroff 
 and wei-h thy money.^" So she gave me the price of what goods 
 I had gotten for her and more, and fell to talking freely with me, 
 till I was like to die of joy and dehght. Presently she asked me, 
 "Hast thou a wafe ? " and I answered, " No, indeed : 1 have never 
 
 3 A YaS'sunfwffweighed by a professional instead of being counted, the 
 reason being tLt the coin^s mostly old and worn : hence our words "pound 
 .and " pension" (or what is weighed out). 
 
 R 2
 
 26o Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 known \Yonian " ; and began to shed tears. Quoth she, " Why 
 weepest thou ? " Quoth I, " It is nothing ! " Then giving the eunuch 
 some of the gold pieces, I begged him to be go-between ^ in the 
 matter; but he laughed and said, "She is more in love with thee 
 than thou with her : she hath no occasion for the stuffs she hath 
 bought of thee and did all this only for the love of thee ; so ask 
 of her w^hat thou wilt and she will deny thee nothing." When she 
 saw me giving the dinars to the eunuch she returned, and sat down 
 again ; and I said to her, " Be charitable to thy slave and pardon 
 him what he is about to say." Then I told her what was in my 
 mind, and she assented and said to the eunuch, " Thou shalt carry 
 my message to him," adding to me, " And do thou whatso the 
 eunuch biddeth thee." Then she got up and went away, and I paid 
 the merchants their moneys and they all profited ; but as for me, 
 regret of the breaking off of our intercourse was all my gain ; and 
 I slept not the whole of that night. However, before many days 
 passed her eunuch came to me, and I entreated him honourably 
 and asked him after his mistress. " Truly she is sick with love of 
 thee," he replied, and I rejoined, "Tell me who and what she is." 
 Quoth he, "The Lady Zubaydah, queen-consort of Harun al-Rashid, 
 bought her up as a rearling ^ and hath advanced her to be stewardess 
 of the Harim, and gave her the right of going in and out of her 
 own sweet will. She spoke to her lady of thee and begged her to 
 marry her to thee ; but she said : — I will not do this, till I see the 
 young man ; and, if he be worthy of thee, I will marry thee to him. 
 So now we look for the moment to smuggle thee into the Palace and 
 if thou succeed in entering privily thou wilt win thy wish to wed 
 her ; but if the affair get wind the Lady Zubaydah will strike off 
 thy head.* AV'hat sayest thou to this ? " I answered, " I will go 
 with thee and abide the risk whereof thou speakest." Then said 
 he, "As soon as it is night, go to the Mosque built by the Lady 
 Zubaydah on the Tigris, and pray the night-prayers and sleep 
 there." "With love and gladness," cried I. So at nightfall I re- 
 paired to the Mosque, where I prayed and passed the night. With 
 earliest dawn, behold ! came sundry eunuchs in a skiff with a number 
 
 ' The eunuch is the best possih'le go-between on account of his ahiiost unlimited 
 power over the Harem. 
 
 * i.e., a slave-girl brought up in the house and never sold except for some 
 especial reason, as habitual drunkenness, etc. 
 
 3 Smuggling men into the Harem is a stock "topic" of Eastern tales. "By 
 means of their female attendants, the ladies of the royal harem generally get men 
 into their apartments in the disguise of women," says Vatsyayana in the Kama 
 Sutra, Part V. (London : Printed for the Hindoo Kamashastra Society, i£S3. 
 For private circulation only.)
 
 The Reeve's Tale. 261 
 
 of empty chests which they deposited in the Mosque ; then all of 
 them went their ways but one, and looking curiously at him I saw 
 he was our go-between. Presently in came the handmaiden, my 
 mistress, walking straight up to us ; and I rose to her and embraced 
 her while she kissed me and shed tears.i We talked awhile ; after 
 which she made me get into one of the chests which she locked 
 upon me. Presently the other eunuchs came back with a quantity 
 of packages, and she fell to stowing them in the chests, which 
 she locked down, one by one, till all were shut. When this 
 was done the eunuchs embarked the chests in the boat and made 
 for the Lady Zubaydah's palace. Herewith, thought began to beset 
 me, and I said to myself, " Verily thy lust and wantonness will be 
 the death of thee; and the question is, after all, shalt thou win to 
 thy wish or not ? " And I began to weep, boxed up as I was in 
 the box and suffering from cramp ; and I prayed Allah that He 
 deliver me from the dangerous strait I was in, whilst the boat gave 
 not over going on till it reached the palace-gate, where they lifted out 
 the chests, and amongst them that wherein I was. Then they 
 carried them in, passing through a troop of eunuchs, guardians of the 
 Harim and of the ladies behind the curtain, till they came to the 
 post of the Eunuch-in-Chief,^ who started up from his slumbers and 
 shouted to the damsel, "What is in those chests?" "They are full 
 of wares for the Lady Zubaydah." " Open them, one by one, that I 
 may see what is in them." "And wherefore wouldst thou open 
 them ? " " Give me no words, and exceed not in talk. These chests 
 must and shall be opened." So saying he sprang to his feet, and the 
 first which they brought to him to open was that wherein I was. 
 And when I felt his hands upon it my senses failed me, and I 
 urined myself in my funk, the water running out of the box. 
 Then said she to the Eunuch-in-Chief, " O steward ! thou wilt cause 
 me to be killed and thyself too, for thou hast damaged goods worth 
 
 ' These tears are shed over past separation. So the "Indians" of the New 
 World never meet after long parting without beweeping mutual friends they have 
 lost. 
 
 ^ A most important Jack in office, whom one can see with his smooth chin and 
 blubber lips, starting up from his lazy snooze in the shade and delivering his 
 orders more peremptorily than any Dogberry. These epicenes are as curious 
 and exceptional in character as in external conformation. Disconnected, after a 
 fashion, from humanity, they are brave, fierce, and capable of any villany or 
 barbarity (as Agha Mohammed Khan in Persia 1795-9S). The frame is unnaturally 
 long and lean, especially the arms and legs ; with high, flat, thin shoulders ; big 
 protruding joints, and a face by contrast extraordinarily large, a veritable mask : 
 the Castrato is expert in the use of weapons and sits his horse admirably, riding 
 well "home" in the saddle, for the best of reasons ; and his coarse, thick voice, 
 which apparently does not break, as in the European " Cappone," invests him 
 with all the circumstance of command.
 
 262 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 ten thousand dinars. This chest contains coloured dresses and four 
 gallon flasks of Zemzem water ^ ; and now one of them hath got 
 unstoppered, and the water is running out over the clothes, and it 
 will spoil their colours." The eunuch answered, " Take up thy boxes 
 and get thee gone to the curse of God!" So the slaves carried 
 off all the chests, including mine, and hastened on with them, till 
 suddenly I heard the voice of one saying, "Alack and alack! 
 The Caliph ! the Caliph ! " When that cry struck mine ears I 
 died in my skin, and said a saying which never yet shamed the 
 sayer, " There is no IMajesty, and there is no Might save in Allah, 
 the Glorious, the Great ! I and only I have brought this calamity 
 upon myself." Presently I heard the Caliph say to my mistress, 
 "A plague on thee, what is in those boxes?" and she answered, 
 "Dresses for the Lady Zubaydah^"; whereupon he, "Open them 
 before me ! " When I heard this I died my death outright, and 
 said to myself, " By Allah ! to-day is the very last of my days in 
 this world : if I come safe out of this I am to marry her and no 
 more words, but detection stares me in the face, and my head is 
 as good as stricken off." Then I repeated the profession of Faith, 
 saying, " There is no god but the God, and Mohammed is the 
 
 Apostle of God ! " And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of daj- 
 
 and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 JBoto toj&cn \i teas t[)e Ctucntp=cl(3:I)t() !B^\^X, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young 
 merchant continued as follows : Now when I testified, I bear 
 witness that there is no god save the God, I heard my mistress the 
 handmaid declare to the Caliph, " These chests, O Commander of the 
 Faithful, have been committed to my charge by the Lady Zubaydah, 
 and she does not wish their contents to be seen by any one." " No 
 matter ! " quoth the Caliph, " needs must they be opened, I uhII see 
 what is in them " ; and he cried aloud to the eunuchs, " Bring the 
 chests here before me." At this I made sure of death (without 
 benefit of a doubt) and swooned away. Then the eunuchs brought 
 the chests up to him one after another, and he fell to inspecting the 
 contents, but he saw in them only ottars and stuffs and fine dresses ; 
 and they ceased not opening the chests and he ceased not looking 
 
 ' From the Weccan well used by Moslems, much like Eau de Lourdes by 
 Christians ; the water is saltish, hence the touch of Arab humour (Pilgrimage, iii. 
 201-202). 
 
 ^ Such articles would be sacred from Moslem eyes.
 
 The Reeve's Tale. 263 
 
 to see what was in them, finding only clothes and such matters, till 
 
 "ec .■ When he heard this he gave orders to carry rn the chesfcs 
 so they took up that wherein I was and bore ,t with the rest rnto 
 he Harim and set it down in the rrridst of the saloon; and indeed 
 nyfp^was dried up for very fear.' Then -X "-'-- "P^f/^ 
 "he box and took me out, saying, " Fear not : no harm =haU bet.de 
 hee now nor dread; but broaden thy breast and hearten thy 
 eart and sit thee do,™ till the Lady Zubaydah come, and sur ly 
 hou Shalt win thy wish of me." So I sat down and, after a while, 
 * cat . n haiidmaidens. virgins like moons, and ranged then- 
 in came e _^^^^^ ^^^^^ j^^.^„jy other 
 
 dtrels" h ;! omervh iX suJrounding the Lady Zubaydah 
 w-ho ctuld liardly walk for the weight of her raiment and ornaments^ 
 iTs elJew near, the slave-girls dispersed from -™^ ^er, and I 
 1 A anrl kissed ground between her hands. bhe signea 
 
 JoTe to tXt^Z\ sat down before her chair, she began 
 cue onin. me of my forbears and family and condition, to which I 
 made such answers that pleased her, and she said to my mis.res 
 "our nurturing of thee, O damsel, hath not disappointed us. The, 
 ZlZ to ml "Know that this handmaiden ,s 'o us even a om 
 , .l,;irl and she is a trust committed to thee by Allah. 1 agam 
 kised round before her, well pleased that I fo"'d "-^ J^ 
 m tress ^nd she bade me abide ten days in the palace. So I abode 
 "here ten days, during which time I saw not my mistress nor ay 
 bodv save one of ,he concubines, who brought me the mornmg and 
 evenin" meals After this the Lady Zubaydah took counsel with he 
 Cali* on the marriage of her favourite handmaid, and he gave leave 
 and asstned to her a wedding portion of ten thousand gold pieces 
 So thelldy Zubaydah sent for the Kazi and witnesses w-ho wrote 
 'our ma^iage-contrac, after which the women -"y sw.et; 
 meats and rich viands, and distributed them among all the Odahs 
 r?he Harim. Thus did they other ten days, at the end of which 
 le mrmistress wen. to the b.aths. Meanwhile, they set befor 
 r^S a tray of food whereon were various meats, and among those 
 Sles, lich were enough .0 da.e the wits, was a bowl of cumin- 
 
 T.. -1 • 11 . tntP hut not generally mentioned in describing the emotions. 
 : ?::;ety'" ul» the «"nfi"0-.-ch " 0<la.is,ue,» or concubine, h,v.„g 
 
 her own.
 
 264 Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 ragout containing chickens' breasts, fricandoed ^ and flavoured 
 with sugar, pistachioes, musk and rose-water. Then, by Allah ! fair 
 sirs, I did not long hesitate ; but took my seat before the ragout 
 and fell to and ate of it till I could no more. After this I wiped 
 my hands, but forgot to wash them ; and sat till it grew dark, when 
 the wax-candles were lighted and the singing-women came in with 
 their tambourines and proceeded to display the bride in various 
 dresses, and to carry her in procession from room to room all round 
 the palace, getting their palms crossed with gold. Then they 
 brought her to me and disrobed her. When I found myself alone 
 with her on the bed I embraced her, hardly believing in our union ; 
 but she smelt the strong odours of the ragout upon my hands and 
 forthwith cried out with an exceeding loud cry, at which the slave- 
 girls came running to her from all sides. I trembled with alarm, 
 unknowing what was the matter, and the girls asked her, " What 
 aileth thee, O our sister?" She answered them, "Take this madman 
 away from me : I had thought he was a man of sense ! " Quoth 
 I to her, " \\'hat makes thee think me mad ? " Quoth she, 
 " Thou madman ! what made thee eat of cumin-ragout and 
 forget to wash thy hand ? By Allah ! I will requite thee for thy 
 misconduct. Shall the like of thee come to bed with the like of 
 me with unclean hands - ? " Then she took from her side a plaited 
 scourge and came down with it on my back and the place where I 
 sit till her forearms were benumbed and I fainted away from the 
 much beating ; when she said to the handmaids, " Take him and 
 carry him to the Chief of Police that he may strike off the hand 
 wherewith he ate of the cumin-ragout, and which he did not wash." 
 When I heard this, I said, "There is no Majesty and there is no 
 Might save in Allah ! Wilt thou cut off my hand because I ate of a 
 cumin-ragout, and did not wash ? " The handmaidens also inter- 
 ceded v»ith her, and kissed her hand, saying, " O our sister, this man 
 is a simpleton. Punish him not for what he hath done this nonce." 
 But she answered, " By Allah ! there is no help but that I dock him 
 of somewhat, especially the offending member." Then she went 
 away, and I saw no more of her for ten days, during which time she 
 sent me meat and drink by a slave-girl, who told me that she had 
 fallen sick from the smell of the cumin-ragout. After that time she 
 came to me, and said, "O black of face'' ! I will teach thee how to 
 
 » Arab. " Muhanimarah" = either browned before the fire or artificially reddened. 
 
 * The insolence and licence of these palace -girls was (and is) unlimited ; especially 
 when, as in the present case, they have to deal with a " softy." On this subject 
 n\Miiberless stories are current throughout the East. 
 
 3 i.e., blackened by the fires of Jahannam.
 
 Tale of the Jeivish Doctor. 265 
 
 eat cumin-ragout without washing thy hands!" Then she cried 
 out to the handmaids, who pinioned me; and she took a sharp 
 razor and cut off my thumbs and great toes, even as you see, 
 O fair assembly ! Thereupon I swooned away, and she sprmkled 
 some powder of heahng herbs upon the stumps, and when the 
 blood was staunched I said, " Never again will I eat of cumm- 
 ra-out without washing my hands forty times with potash 
 and forty times with galangale and forty times with soap ! ' And 
 she took of me an oath, and bound me by a covenant to that effect. 
 When, therefore, you brought me the cumin-ragout my colour 
 changed, and I said to myself, " It was this very dish that caused 
 the cutting off of my thumbs and great toes": and, when you 
 forced me, I said, " Needs must I fulfil the oath I have sworn." 
 "And what befell thee after this?" asked those present; and he 
 answered. When I swore to her, her anger was appeased, and I 
 slept with her that night. We abode thus awhile till she said to 
 me one day, "Verily the Palace of the Caliph is not a pleasant 
 place for us to live in, and none ever entered it save thyself; and 
 thou only by grace of the Lady Zubaydah. Now she hath given 
 me fifty thousand dinars," adding, " Take this money and go out 
 and buy us a fair dwelling-house." So I fared forth and bought a 
 fine and spacious mansion, whither she removed all the wealth she 
 owned and what riches I had gained in stuffs and costly rarities 
 Such is the cause of the cutting off of my thumbs and great toes. 
 We ate (continued the Reeve), and were returning to our homes 
 when there befell me with the Hunchback that thou wottest of. 
 This, then, is my story, and peace be with thee ! Quoth the King, 
 " This story is on no wise more delectable than the story of the 
 Hunchback ; nay, it is even less so, and there is no help for the 
 hanging of the whole of you." Then came forward the Jewish 
 physician and, kissing ground, said, "O King of the Age, I will 
 tell thee an history more wonderful than that of the Hunchback. 
 " Tell on," said the King of China ; so he began the 
 
 TALE OF THE JEWISH DOCTOR. 
 
 Right marvellous was a matter which came to pass to me in my 
 youth. I lived in Damascus of Syria studying my art and, one 
 day as I was sitting at home, behold ! there came to me a Mameluke 
 from the household of the Sahib, and said to me, "Speak with my 
 lord ! " So I followed him to the Viceroy's house and entering 
 the great hall saw at its head a couch of cedar plated with gold
 
 266 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 whereon lay a sickly youth, beautiful withal; fairer than he one 
 could not see. I sat down by his head and prayed to Heaven for 
 a cure; and he made me a sign with his eyes, so I said to him, "O 
 my lord, favour me with thy hand, and safety be with thee.-' " Then 
 he put forth his left hand, and I marvelled thereat, and said, " By 
 Allah ! strange that this handsome youth, the son of a great house, 
 should so lack good manners. This can be nothing but pride and 
 conceit." However, I felt his pulse and wrote him a prescription, 
 and continued to visit him for ten days, at the end of which time 
 he recovered and went to the Hammam,^ whereupon the Viceroy 
 gave me a handsome dress of honour and appointed me super- 
 intendent of the hospital which is in Damascus.^ I accompanied 
 him to the baths, the whole of which they had kept private for his 
 * accommodation ; and the servants came in with him and took 
 off his clothes within the bath, and when he was stripped I 
 saw that his right hand had been newly cut off, and this was 
 the cause of his weakliness. At this I was amazed and grieved 
 for him : then, looking at his body, I saw on it the scars of 
 scourge-stripes whereto he had applied unguents. I was troubled at 
 the sight and my concern appeared in my face. The young man 
 looked at me and, comprehending the matter, said, " O Physician 
 of the age, marvel not at my case ; I will tell thee my story as soon 
 as we quit the baths." Then we washed and, returning to his house, 
 ate somewhat of food and took rest awhile ; after which he asked 
 
 ' Arab. " Bi'l-Salamah" = in safety (to avert the evil eye). When visiting the 
 sick it is usual to say something civil: "The Lord heal thee ! No evil befall 
 thee ! " etc. 
 
 ^ Washing during sickness is held dangerous by Arabs; and "going to the 
 Hannnani " is, I have said, equivalent to convalescence. 
 
 3 Arab. " Maristan" (pronounced Miiristan) a corruption of the Pers. " Bima- 
 ristiin = place of sickness, a hospital, much aftected by the old Guebres (Dabistan, 
 i. 165, 166). That of Damascus was the first Moslem hospital, founded by Al- 
 Walid, son of Abd al-Malik the Ommiade, in A.H. 88 = 706-7. Benjamin of 
 Tudela (A.D. 1164) calls it " Dar-al-Maraphtan," which his latest Editor explains 
 by " Dar-al-Morabittan " (abode of those who require being chained). Al-Makrizi 
 (Khilat) ascribes the invention of "Spitals"to Hippocrates; another historian 
 to an early Pharaoh, " Manakiyush " ; thus ignoring the Persian Kings, Saint 
 Ephrem (or Ephraim) Syrus, etc. In modern parlance " Maristan" is amadhouse 
 where the maniacs are treated with all the horrors which were universal in Europe 
 till the last few years, and of which occasional traces occur to this day. In 
 A.D. 1399 Katherine de la Court held a " hospital in the Court called Robert de 
 Paris " ; but the first madhouse in Christendom was built by the legate Ortiz in 
 Toledo, A.D. 1483, and was therefore called Casa del Nuncio. The Damascus 
 " Maristan" was described by ever)' traveller of the last century ; and it showed 
 a curious contrast between the treatment of the maniac and the idiot or omadhaun, 
 who is humanely allowed to wander about unharmed, if not held a Saint. Wlien 
 I saw it last (1870) it was all but empty and mostly in ruins. As far as my 
 experience goes, the United States is the only country where the insane are 
 rationally treated by the sane.
 
 Tale of the Jeivish Doctor. 267 
 
 me, " What sayest thou to solacing thee by inspecting the supper- 
 hall ? " and I answered, " So let it be." Thereupon he ordered the 
 slaves to carry out the carpets and cushions required and roast a 
 lamb and bring us some fruit. They did his bidding and we ate 
 together, he using the left hand for the purpose. After a while I 
 said to him, " Now tell me thy tale." O Physician of the age, 
 replied he, Hear what befell me. Know that I am of the sons of 
 Mosul, where my grandfather died, leaving nine children of whom 
 my father was the eldest. All grew up and took to them Avives, 
 but none of them was blessed with offspring except my father, to 
 whom Providence vouchsafed me. So I grew up amongst my 
 uncles who rejoiced in me with exceeding joy, till I came to man's 
 estate. One day, which happened to be a Friday, I went to the 
 Cathedral-mosque of Mosul with my father and my uncles, and we 
 prayed the congregational prayers, after which the folk went forth, 
 except my father and uncles, w'ho sat talking of wondrous things in 
 foreign parts and the marvellous sights of strange cities. At last 
 they mentioned Egypt, and one of my uncles said, " Travellers tell 
 us that there is not on earth's face aught fairer than Cairo and her 
 Nile " ; and these words made me long to see Cairo. Quoth my 
 father, " Whoso hath not seen Cairo hath not seen the world. Her 
 dust is golden and her Nile a miracle holden ; and her women are 
 as Houris fair ; puppets, beautiful pictures ; her houses are palaces 
 rare ; her water is sweet and light ^ and her mud a commodity and a 
 medicine beyond compare, even as said the poet in this his poetry : — 
 
 The Nile^-flood this day is the gain you own ; * You alone in such gain and 
 
 bounties wone : 
 The Nile is my tear-flood of severance, » And here none is forlorn but I alone. 
 
 Moreover, temperate is her air, and with fragrance blent, which sur- 
 passeth aloes-wood in scent ; and how should it be otherwise, she 
 being the Mother of the AVorld ? And Allah favour him who wrote 
 these lines : — - 
 
 And I quit Cairo and her pleasaunces, « Where can I wend to find so gladsome 
 
 ways ? 
 Shall I desert that site, whose grateful scents * Joy every soul and call for loudest 
 
 praise ? 
 
 ' Hence the trite saying, " Whoso drinks the water of the Nile will ever long 
 to drink it again." " Light " means easily-digested water ; and the great test is 
 being able to drink it at night between the sleeps, without indigestion. 
 
 * "Nil" in popular parlance is the Nile in flood, although also used for the 
 River as a proper name. Egyptians (modern as well as ancient) have three 
 seasons: Al-Shita (winter), Al-Sayf (summer), and Al-Nil (the Nile, i.e., flood 
 season, our midsummer) ; corresponding with the Growth-months, Housing (or 
 granary) months, and Flood-months of the older race.
 
 268 Alf Laylah tva Laylah. 
 
 Where every palace, as another Eden, * Carpets and cushions richly wrought 
 
 displays ; 
 A city wooing sight and sprite to glee, * Wliere Saint meets Sinner and each 'joys 
 
 his craze ; 
 Where friend meets friend, by Providence united * In greeny garden and in palmy 
 
 maze : 
 People of Cairo, an by Allah's doom » I fare, with you in thoughts I wone 
 
 always ! 
 Whisper not Cairo in the ear of Zephyr, » Lest for her like of garden scents he 
 
 reave her. ' 
 
 And if your eyes saw her earth, and the adornment thereof with 
 bloom, and the purfling of it with all manner blossoms, and the 
 islands of the Nile and how much is therein of wide-spread and 
 goodly prospect, and if you bent your sight upon the Abyssinian 
 Pond,^ your glance would not revert front the scene quit of wonder ; 
 for nowhere would you behold the fellow of that lovely view ; and 
 indeed the two arms of the Nile embrace most luxuriant verdure,* 
 as the white of the eye encompasseth its black, or like filagree'd 
 silver surrounding chrysolites. And divinely gifted was the poet 
 who thereanent said these couplets : — 
 
 By th' Abyssinian Pond, O day divine ! » In morning twilight and in sunny 
 
 shine : 
 The water prisoned in its verdurous walls, » Like sabre flashes before shrinking 
 
 eyne : 
 And in The Garden sat we while it drains • Slow draught, with purfled sides dyed 
 
 finest fine : 
 The stream is rippled by the hands of clouds ; » We too, a-rippling, on our rugs 
 
 recline. 
 Passing pure wine, and whoso leaves us there » Shall ne'er arise from fall his woes 
 
 design : 
 Draining long draughts from large and brimming bowls, » Administ'ring thirst's 
 
 only medicine — wine. 
 
 And what is there to compare with the Rasad, the Observatory, and 
 its charms whereof every viewer as he approacheth saith: — Verily 
 this spot is specialised with all manner of excellence ! And if thou 
 speak of the Night of Nile-full,^ give the rainbow and distribute it*! 
 
 ' These lines are in the Mac. Edit. 
 
 ^ Arab. " Birkat al-Habash," a tank formerly existing in Southern Cairo; 
 Galland (night 12S) says " en remontant vers I'Ethiopie." 
 
 3 The Bres. Edit. (ii. 190) from which I borrow this description, here alludes to 
 the well-known Island, Al-Rauzah (Rodah) = The Garden. 
 
 ■' Arab. " Laylat al-Wafa," the night of the completion or abundance of the Nile 
 (-flood), usually between August 6th and i6th, when the government proclaims 
 that the Nilometer shows a rise of 16 cubits. Of course it is a great festival and a 
 high ceremony, for Egypt is still the gift of the Nile (Lane, M. E. chapt. xxvi. — a 
 work which would be much improved by a better index). 
 
 5 i.e., admiration will be complete.
 
 Tale of the Jewish Doctor. 269 
 
 And if thou behold The Garden at eventide, with the cool shades 
 sloping far and wide, a marvel thou wouldst see, and wouldst incline 
 to Egypt in ecstacy. And wert thou by Cairo's river-side,^ when the 
 sun is sinking and the stream dons mail-coat and habergeon^ over its 
 other vestments, thou wouldst be quickened to new life by its gentle 
 zephyrs and by its all-sufficient shade." So spake he, and the rest 
 fell to describing Egypt and her Nile. As I heard their accounts, 
 my thoughts dwelt upon the subject, and when, after talking their 
 fill, all arose and went their ways, I lay down to sleep that night, but 
 sleep came not because of my violent longing for Egypt ; and neither 
 meat pleased me nor drink. After a few days my uncles equipped 
 themselves for a trade-journey to Egj'pt ; and I wept before my father 
 till he made ready for me fitting merchandise, and he consented 
 to my going with them, saying, however, " Let him not enter 
 Cairo, but leave him to sell his wares at Damascus." So I took 
 leave of my father, and we fared forth from Mosul, and gave not 
 over travelling till we reached Aleppo,^ where we halted certain 
 days. Then we marched onwards till we made Damascus, and 
 we found her a city as though she were a Paradise, abounding 
 in trees and streams and birds and fruits of all kinds. We alighted 
 at one of the Khans, where my uncles tarried awhile selling and 
 buying ; and they bought and sold also on my account, each 
 dirham turning a profit of five on prime cost, which pleased me 
 mightily. After this they left me alone, and set their faces 
 Egyptwards; whilst I abode at Damascus, where I had hired from a 
 jeweller, for two dinars a month, a mansion,^ whose beauties would 
 beggar the tongue. Here I remained, eating and drinking and 
 spending what moneys I had in hand, till one day, as I was 
 sitting at the door of my house, behold! there came up a young 
 lady clad in costliest raiment — never saw my eyes richer. I 
 winked^ at her, and she stepped inside without hesitation and stood 
 within. I entered with her, and shut the door upon myself and 
 her. Whereupon she raised her face-veil and threw off her mantilla, 
 when I found her like a pictured moon of rare and marvellous 
 
 ' Arab. " Sahil Masr " (Misr) : hence I suppose Galland's villes niariliincs. 
 
 ^ A favourite simile, suggested by the broken ghtter and shimmer of the stream 
 under the level rays and the breeze of eventide. 
 
 3 Arab. " Halab," derived by Moslems from " lie (Abraham) milked (hataba) 
 the white and dun cow." But the name of the city occurs in the Cuneiforms as 
 Halbun or Khalbun, and the classics knew it as Be/jota, Beroca, written with 
 variants. 
 
 '' Arab. " Ka'ah," usually a saloon ; but also applied to a fine house here and 
 elsewhere in The Nights. 
 
 5 Arab. " Ghamz " = winking, signing with the eye, which amongst Moslems is 
 not held " vulvar."
 
 270 Alf Laylah tva Laylah. 
 
 loveliness, and love of her gat hold of my heart. So I rose 
 and brought a tray of the most delicate eatables and fruits and 
 whatso befitted the occasion, and we ate and played, and after that 
 we drank till the wine turned our heads. Then I lay with her the 
 sweetest of nights, and in the morning I offered her ten gold 
 pieces ; when her face lowered and her eyebrows wrinkled and 
 shaking with wrath she cried, " Fie upon thee, O my sweet com- 
 panion ! dost thou deem that I covet thy money ? " Then she 
 took out from the bosom of her shift ^ fifteen dinars and, laying 
 them before me, said, " By Allah ! unless thou take them I will 
 never come back to thee." So I accepted them and she said to 
 me, " O my beloved ! expect me again in three days' time, when I 
 will be with thee between sunset and supper-tide ; and- do thou 
 prepare for us with these dinars the same entertainment as yester- 
 night." So saying, she took leave of me and went away, and all 
 my senses went with her. On the third day she came again, clad 
 in stuff weft with gold wire, and wearing raiment and ornaments 
 finer than before. I had prepared the place for her ere she arrived, 
 and the repast was ready; so we ate and drank and lay together, 
 as we had done, till the morning, when she gave me other fifteen 
 gold pieces and promised to come again after three days. Ac- 
 cordingly, I made ready for her and at the appointed time she 
 presented herself more richly dressed than on the first and second 
 occasion, and said to me, " O my lord, am I not beautiful ? " " Yea, 
 by Allah thou art ! " answered I, and she went on, " Wilt thou allow 
 me to bring with me a young lady fairer than I, and younger in years, 
 that she may play with us and thou and she may laugh and make 
 merry and rejoice her heart, for she hath been very sad this long 
 time past, and hath asked me to take her out and let her spend the 
 night abroad with me?" "Yea, by Allah!" I replied; and we 
 drank till the wine turned our heads and slept till the morning, when 
 she gave me other fifteen dinars, saying, "Add something to thy 
 usual provision on account, of the young lady who will come with 
 me." Then she went away, and on the fourth day I made ready the 
 house as usual, and soon after sunset behold, she came, accompanied 
 by another damsel carefully wrapped in her mantilla. They entered 
 and sat down ; and when I saw them I repeated these verses : — 
 
 How dear is our day and how lucky our lot, » When the cynic's away with his 
 tongue malign 1 
 
 ^ Arab. " Kamis," from low Lat. " Camicia," first found in St. Jerome : — 
 "Solent militantes habere lineas, quas Camicias vocant." Our shirt (chemise, 
 diemisette, etc.) was unknown to the Ancients of Europe.
 
 Tale of the Jewish Doctor. 271 
 
 When love and delight and the swimming of head * Send cleverness trotting, — 
 
 the best boon of wine. 
 Wlien the full moon shines from the cloudy veil, * And the branchlet sways in 
 
 her greens that shine : 
 Wlien the red rose mantles in freshest cheek, « And Narcissus' opeth his love-sicl- 
 
 eyne : 
 Wlien pleasure with those I love is so sweet, » When friendship with those I 
 
 love is complete ! 
 
 I rejoiced to see them, and lighted the candles after receiving them 
 with gladness and delight. They doffed their heavy outer dresses 
 and the new damsel uncovered her face when I saw that she was 
 like the moon at its full — never beheld I aught more beautiful. 
 Then I rose and set meat and drink before them, and we ate and 
 drank ; and I kept giving mouthfuls to the new comer, crowning 
 her cup and drinking with her, till the first damsel, waxing inwardl}- 
 jealous, asked me, " By Allah, is she not more delicious than I ? " 
 whereto I answered, " Ay, by the Lord ! " " It is my wish that 
 thou lie with her this night ; for I am thy mistress but she is our 
 visitor." " Upon my head be it, and my eyes." Then she rose and 
 spread the carpets for our bed "' and I took the young lady and lay 
 witTi her that night till morning, when I awoke and found myself 
 wet, as I thought, with sweat. I sat up and tried to arouse the 
 damsel ; but when I shook her by the shoulders my hand became 
 crimson with blood and her head rolled off the pillow. Thereupon 
 my senses fled and I cried aloud, saying, " O All-powerful Protector, 
 grant me Thy protection ! " Then finding her neck had been 
 severed, I sprang up and the world waxed black before my eyes, 
 and I looked for the lady, my former love, but could not find her. 
 So I knew that it was she who had murdered the damsel in her 
 jealousy,^ and said, "There is no Majesty and there is no IMic^ht 
 
 ' Arab. " Narjis." The Arabs borrowed nothing, but the Persians much, from 
 Greek Mythology. Hence the eye of Narcissus, an idea hardly suggested by the look 
 of the daffodil (or asphodel) flower, is at times a glance of a spy and at times the die- 
 away look of a mistress. Some scholars explain it by the form of the flower the 
 internal calyx resembling the iris, and the stalk being bent just below the pe'tals. 
 suggesting drooping eyelids and langiiid eyes. Hence a poet addresses the 
 Narcissus : — 
 
 O Narjis, look away ! Before those eyes * I may not kiss her as a-brcast she lies. 
 What ! shall the lover close his eyes in sleep * While thine watch all things 
 
 between earth and skies ? 
 The fashionable lover in the East must affect a frantic jealousy if he does not feel it. 
 
 " In Egypt there are neither bedsteads nor bed-rooms ; the carpets and 
 mattresses, pillows, and cushions (sheets being unknown) are spread out when 
 wanted, and during the day are put into chests or cupboards, or only rolled up in 
 2. corner of the room (Pilgrimage, i. 53). 
 
 3 The women of Damascus have always been famed for the sanguinary jealousv 
 -with which European story-books and novels credit the " Spanish lady." The 
 ■men were as celebrated for intolerance and fanaticism, which we first read of in the
 
 272 A If Lay la h zva Lay I ah. 
 
 save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great ! What is to be done now ? " 
 I considered awhile, then, doffing my clothes, dug a h:)le in the 
 middle of the court-yard, wherein I laid the murdered girl with her 
 jewellery and golden ornaments ; and, throwing back the earth on 
 her, replaced the slabs of the marble ^ pavement. After this I made 
 the Ghusl or total ablution,^ and put on pure clothes ; then, taking 
 what money I had left, locked up the house and summoned courage 
 and went to its owner to whom I paid a year's rent, saying, " I am 
 about to join my uncles in Cairo." Presently I set out, and 
 journeying to Egypt forgathered with my uncles who rejoiced 
 in me, and I found that they had made an end of selling their 
 merchandise. They asked me, " What is the cause of thy coming ?" 
 and I answered, " I longed for a sight of you " ; but did not let them 
 know that I had any money with me. I abode with them a year, 
 enjoying the pleasures of Cairo and her Nile,^ and squandering the 
 rest of my money in feasting and carousing till the time drew near 
 for the departure of my uncles, when I fled from them and hid 
 myself They made enquiries and sought for me, but, hearing no 
 tidings, they said, " He will have gone back to Damascus." When 
 they departed I came forth from my hiding-place and abode in 
 Cairo three years, until naught remained of my money. Nov, 
 every year I used to send the rent of the Damascus house to its 
 owner, until at last I had nothing left but enough to pay him for 
 one year's rent, and my breast was straitened. So I travelled to 
 Damascus, and alighted at the house, whose owner, the jeweller, was 
 glad to see me, and I found everything locked up as I had left it. 
 I opened the closets and took out my clothes and necessaries, 
 and beneath the carpet-bed whereon I had lain that night with 
 the girl who had been beheaded, came upon a golden necklace set 
 with ten gems of passing beauty. I took it up and, cleansing it of 
 the blood, sat gazing upon it and wept awhile. Then I abode in 
 the house two days, and on the third I entered the Hammam and 
 changed my clothes. I had no money by me now ; so Satan 
 whispered temptation to me that the Decree of Destiny be carried 
 
 days of Berlrandon de la Brocquiere, and which cuhiiinated in the massacre of 
 1S60. Yet they are a notoriously timid race, and make, physically, and morally, 
 the worst of soldiers : we proved that under my late friend Fred. Walpole in the 
 Bashi-Buzuks during the old Crimean war. The men looked very fine fellows and 
 after a month in camp fell off to the condition of old women. 
 
 * Arab. " Rukham," properly = alabaster, and " Marmar " = marble ; but the 
 two are often confounded. 
 
 ^ He was ceremonially impure after touching a corpse. 
 
 3 The phrase is perfectly appropriate: Cairo without "her Nile" would be 
 nothing.
 
 Tale of the Jctvish Doctor. 273 
 
 out. Next day I took the jewelled necklace to the bazar and handed 
 it to a broker, who made me sit down in the shop of the jeweller, my 
 landlord, and bade me have patience till the market was full,^ when 
 he carried off the ornament and proclaimed it for sale, privily 
 and without my knowledge. The necklet was priced as worth two 
 thousand dinars, but the broker returned to me, and said, "This 
 collar is of copper, a mere counterfeit after the fashion of the 
 Franks,^ and a thousand dirhams have been bidden for it." "Yes," 
 I answered, " I knew it to be copper, as we had it made for a certain 
 person that we might mock her. Now my wife hath inherited it, and 
 
 we wish to sell it ; so go and take over the thousand dirhams " ; 
 
 And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her 
 permitted say. 
 
 jQotD tcfien it tuais t^z Ctotntp^nintK) Jl^icrj&t, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the beautiful 
 youth said to the broker, "Take over the thousand dirhams"; and 
 when the broker heard this, he knew that the case was suspicious. 
 So he carried the collar to the Syndic of the bazar, and the Syndic 
 took it to the Governor, who was also prefect of police, and said to 
 him, falsely enough, " This necklet was stolen from my house, and 
 we have found the thief in trader's dress." So before I was aware 
 of it the watch got round me and, making me their prisoner, carried 
 me before the Governor who questioned me of the collar. I told 
 him the tale I had told to the broker ; but he laughed and said, 
 " These words are not true." Then, before I knew what was doing, 
 the guard stripped off my clothes, and came down with palm-rods 
 upon my ribs, till for the smart of the stick I confessed, " It was I 
 who stole it"; saying to myself, "'Tis better for thee to say, I stole 
 it, than to let them know that its owner was murdered in thy 
 house, for then would they slay thee to avenge her." So they 
 wrote down that I had stolen it, and they cut off my hand and 
 scalded the stump in oil,^ when I swooned away for pain ; but they 
 gave me wine to drink and I recovered and, taking up my hand, was 
 going to my fine house, when my landlord said to me, " Inasmuch, 
 
 ' " The market was hot," say the Ilindostan's. This would begin between 
 7 and 8 a.m. 
 
 ^ Arab. Al-Faranj, Europeans generally. It is derived from " Gens Francorum," 
 and dates from Crusading days when the French played the leading part. Hence 
 the lingua Franca, the Levantine jargon, of which Moliere has left such a witty 
 specimen. 
 
 3 A process familiar to European surgery of the same date. 
 
 VOL. I. S
 
 2'y4 -^^f Laylah iva Lay/ah. 
 
 my son, as this hath befallen thee, thou must leave my house and 
 look out for another lodging for thee, since thou art convicted of 
 theft. Thou art a handsome youth, but who will pity thee after 
 this?" "O my master," said I, "bear with me but two days or 
 three, till I find me another place." He answered, " So be it," and 
 went away and left me. I returned to the house where I sat weeping 
 and saying, " How shall I go back to my own people with my 
 hand lopped off and they know not that I am innocent ? Perchance 
 even after this Allah may order some matter for me." And I 
 wept with exceeding weeping; grief beset me and I remained in 
 sore trouble for two days ; but on the third day my landlord came 
 suddenly in to me, and with him some of the guard and the Syndic 
 of the bazar, who had falsely charged me with stealing the necklet. 
 
 1 went up to them and asked, " What is the matter ? " however, they 
 pinioned me without further parley and threw a chain about my 
 neck, saying, " The necklet which was with thee hath proved to be 
 the property of the ^^'azir of Damascus, who is also her Viceroy " ; 
 and they added, " It was missing from his house three years ago 
 at the same time as his younger daughter." ^^'hen I heard these 
 words my heart sank within me, and I said to myself, "Thy life is 
 gone beyond a doubt ! By Allah, needs must I tell the Chief my 
 etory ; and, if he will, let him kill me, and if he please, let him 
 pardon me." So they carried me to the Wazir's house and made 
 me stand between his hands. When he saw me he glanced at 
 me out of the corner of his eye and said to those present, " Why 
 did ye lop off his hand ? This man is unfortunate, and there is no 
 fault in him ; indeed ye have wronged him in cutting off his hand." 
 When I heard this, I took heart and, my soul presaging good, I 
 said to him, " By Allah, O my lord ! I am no thief ; but they calum- 
 niated me with a vile calumny, and they scourged me midmost 
 the market, bidding me confess till, for the pain of the rods, I lied 
 against myself and confessed the theft, albeit I am altogether 
 innocent of it." " Fear not," quoth the Viceroy, " no harm shall 
 come to thee." Then he ordered the Syndic of the bazar to be 
 imprisoned, and said to him, " Give this man the blood-money for 
 his hand ; and if thou delay, I will hang thee and seize all thy 
 property." Moreover, he called to his guards who took him and 
 dragged him away, leaving me with the Chief. Then they loosed 
 by his command the chain from my neck and unbound my arms ; 
 and he looked at me and said, "O my son, be true with me, and 
 tell me how this necklace came to thee." And he repeated this 
 verse : —
 
 Tale of the Jcivish Doctor. 275 
 
 Truth best befits thee, albeit truth * Shall bring thee to burn on the threatened 
 fire. 
 
 " By Allah, O my lord ! " answered I, " I will tell thee nothing but 
 the truth." Then I related to him all that had passed between me 
 and the first lady, and how she had brought me the second and had 
 slain her out of jealousy, and I detailed for him the tale to its full. 
 AMien he heard my story he shook his head, and struck his right 
 hand upon the left,^ and putting his kerchief over his face wept 
 awhile and then repeated : — 
 
 I see the woes of the world abound, » And worldlings sick with spleen and teen ; 
 There's One who the meeting of two shall part, * And who part not are few and 
 far between ! 
 
 Then he turned to me and said, " Know, O my son, that the elder 
 damsel who first came to thee was my daughter whom I used to 
 keep closely guarded. When she grew up, I sent her to Cairo 
 and married her to her cousin, my brother's son. After a while he 
 died and she came back : but she had learnt wantonness and 
 ungraciousness from the people of Cairo ^ , so she visited thee four 
 times, and at last brought her younger sister. Now they were 
 sisters german and much attached to each other; and, when that 
 adventure happened to the elder, she disclosed her secret to her 
 sister who desired to go out with her. So she asked thy leave and 
 carried her to thee ; after which she returned alone and, finding her 
 weeping, I questioned her of her sister, but she said : — I know 
 nothing of her. However, she presently told her mother privily 
 of what had happened and how she had cut off her sister's head, 
 and her mother told me. Then she ceased not to weep and say: 
 By Allah ! I shall cry for her till I die. Nor did she give over 
 mourning till her heart broke and she died ; and things fell out 
 after that fashion. See then, O my son, what hath come to pass ; 
 and now I desire thee not to thwart me in what I am about to 
 offer thee, and it is that I purpose to marry thee to my youngest 
 daughter ; for she is a virgin and born of another mother ^ ; and I 
 
 ' In sign of disappointment, regret, vexation ; a gesture still common amongst 
 Moslems and corresponding in significance to a certain extent with our stamping, 
 wringing the hands, and so forth. It is not mentioned in the Koran, where, 
 however, we find " biting fingers' ends out of wrath " against a man (chapt. iii.). 
 
 ^ This is no unmerited scandal. The Cairenes, especially the feminine half (for 
 reasons elsewhere given), have always been held exceedingly debauched. Even 
 the modest Lane gives a story of a woman enjoying her lover under the nose of 
 her husband and confining the latter in a madhouse (chapt. xiii. ). With civilisation, 
 which objects to the old remedy, the sword, they become worse : and the Kazi's 
 court is crowded with would-be divorcees. Under English rule the evil has 
 reached its acme because it goes unpunished. 
 
 3 So that he might not have to do with three sisters german. Moreover, 
 amongst Moslems a girl's conduct is presaged by that of her mother ; and if one 
 sister goes wrong, the other is expected to follow suit. 
 
 ii 2
 
 276 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 will take no dower of thee but, on the contrary, will appoint thee 
 an allowance, and thou shalt abide with me in my house in the 
 stead of my son." "So be it," I answered, "and how could I 
 hope for such good fortune ? " Then he sent at once for the Kazi 
 and witnesses, and let write my marriage-contract with his daughter 
 and I went in to her. Moreover, he got me from the Syndic of the 
 bazar a large sum of money, and I became in high favour with 
 him. During this year news came to me that my father was dead, 
 and the Wazir despatched a courier, with letters bearing the 
 royal sign-manual, to fetch me the money which my father had left 
 behind him, and now I am living in all the solace of life. Such 
 was the manner of the cutting off my right hand." "I marvelled at 
 his story (continued the Jew), and I abode with him three days, 
 after which he gave me much wealth, and I set out and travelled 
 Eastward till I rerxhed this your city and the sojourn suited me 
 right well ; so I took up my abode here and there befell me what 
 thou knowest with the Hunchback." Thereupon the King of 
 China shook his head^ and said, "This story of thine is not 
 stranger and more wondrous and marvellous and delectable than 
 the tale of the Hunchback ; and so needs must I hang the whole 
 number of you. However, there yet remains the Tailor who is the 
 head of all the offence " ; and he added, " O Tailor, if thou canst 
 tell me any thing more wonderful than the story of the Hunchback, 
 I will pardon you all your offences." Thereupon the man came 
 forward and began to tell the 
 
 TALE OF THE TAILOR. 
 
 Know, O King of the Age, that most marvellous was that which 
 befell me but yesterday, before I forgathered with the Hunchback. 
 It so chanced that in the early day I was at the marriage-feast of 
 one of my comi)anions, who had gotten together in his house some 
 twenty of the handicraftsmen of this city, amongst them tailors and 
 silk-spinners and carpenters, and others of the same kidney. As 
 soon as the sun had risen, they set food ^ before us that we might 
 eat when, behold ! the master of the house entered, and with him a 
 
 ' In sign of dissent ; as opposed to nodding the head which signifies assent. 
 These are two items, apparently instinctive and universal, of man's gesture- 
 language which has been so highly cultivated by sundry North American tribes 
 and by the surdo-mute establishments of Europe. 
 
 = This " Futiir" is the real " breakfast" of the East, the "Chhoti hazri" (petit 
 dejeuner) of India, a bit of bread, a cup of cofi'ee or tea, and a pipe on rising. In 
 the text, however, it is a ceremonious affair."
 
 Tale of the Tailor. 277 
 
 foreign youth and a well-favoured of the people of Baghdad, 
 wearing clothes as handsome as handsome could be ; and he was 
 of right comely presence save that he was lame of one leg. He 
 came and saluted us, and we stood up to receive him ; but when he 
 was about to sit down he espied amongst us a certain man which 
 was a Barber ; whereupon he refused to be seated and would have 
 c^one away. But we stopped him and our host also stayed him, 
 making oath that he should not leave us, and asked him, " What is 
 the reason of thy coming in and going out again at once ? " whereto 
 he answered, "By Allah, O my lord! do not hinder me; for the 
 cause of my turning back is yon Barber of bad omen,^ yon black 
 o'face, yon ne'er-do-well!" When the house-master heard these 
 words he marvelled vdth extreme marvel and said, "How cometh 
 this young man, who haileth from Baghdad, to be so troubled 
 and perplexed about this Barber ? " Then we looked at the 
 stranger and said, "Explain the cause of thine anger against the 
 Barber." " O fair company," quoth the youth, "there befell me a 
 strange adventure with this Barber in Baghdad (which is my 
 native city) ; he was the cause of the breaking of my leg and of 
 my lameness, and I have sworn never to sit in the same place 
 with him, nor even tarry in any town where he happens to abide ; 
 and I have bidden adieu to Baghdad and travelled far from it and 
 came to stay in this your city, yet I have hardly passed one night 
 before I meet him again. But not another day shall go by ere I 
 fare forth from here." Said we to him, " Allah upon thee, tell us 
 the tale." And the youth replied (the Barber changing colour from 
 brown to yellow as he spoke) :— Know, O my fair company, that my 
 father was one of the chief merchants of Baghdad, and Almighty Allah 
 had blessed him with no son but myself When I grew up and 
 reached man's estate, my father was received into the mercy of 
 Allah (whose Name be exalted !) and left me money and eunuchs, 
 servants and slaves, and I used to dress well and diet well. Now 
 Allah had made me a hater of women-kind, and one day, as I was 
 walking along a street in Baghdad, a party of females met me face 
 to face in the footway; so I fled from them and, entering an 
 alley which was no thoroughfare, sat down upon a stone bench 
 at its other end. I had not sat there long before the latticed 
 window of one of the houses opposite was thrown open, and there 
 appeared at it a young lady, as she were the full moon at its 
 
 I Arab " Nahs," a word of many meanings ; a sinister aspect of the stars (as ni 
 Hebr. and Aram.) or, adjcctively, sinister, of ill-omen. Vulgarly it is used as the 
 reverse of nice, and corresponds after a fashion with our " nasty."
 
 278 Alf Laylah zva Laylah. 
 
 fullest ; never in my life saw I her like ; and she began to water 
 some flowers on the window-sill.^ She turned right and left and 
 seeing me watching her, shut the window and went away. There- 
 upon fire was suddenly enkindled in my heart ; my mind was 
 possessed with her and my woman-hate turned to woman-love. 
 I continued sitting there, lost to the world, till sunset, when lo ! 
 the Kazi of the city came riding by with his slaves before him 
 and his eunuchs behind him, and dismounting entered the house 
 in which the damsel had appeared. By this I knew that he was 
 her father ; so I went home sorrowful and cast myself upon my 
 carpet-bed in grief. Then my handmaids flocked in and sat about 
 me, unknowing what ailed me ; but I addressed no speech to them, 
 and they wept and wailed over me. Presently in came an old 
 woman who looked at me and saw with a glance what was the 
 matter with me : so she sat down by my head and spoke me fair, 
 saying, " O my son, tell me all about it and I will be the means of 
 thy union with her." So I related to her what had happened and 
 she answered, "O my son, this one is the daughter of the Kazi 
 of Baghdad who keepeth her in the closest seclusion ; and the 
 window where thou sawest her is her floor, whilst her father 
 occupies the large saloon in the lower story. She is often there 
 alone, and I am wont to visit at the house ; so thou shalt not 
 win to her save through me. Now set thy wits to work, and be of 
 good cheer." With these words she went away, and I took heart 
 at what she said, and my people rejoiced that day, seeing me rise 
 in the morning safe and sound. By-and-by the old woman returned, 
 looking chopfallen, and said, "O my son, do not ask me how 
 I fared with her ! AVhen I told her that, she cried at me : — 
 If thou hold not thy peace, O hag of ill-omen, and leave not 
 such talk, I will entreat thee as thou deservcst, and do thee die by 
 the foulest of deaths. But needs must I have at her a second 
 time."" When I heard this it added ailment to my ailment, 
 and the neighbours visited me, and judged that I was not long 
 for this world ; but after some days the old w^oman came to me, 
 and, putting her mouth close to my ear, whispered, " O my son, 
 I claim from thee the gift of good news." With this my soul 
 returned to me, and I said, "Whatever thou wilt shall be thine." 
 Thereupon she began, "Yesterday I went to the young lady who, 
 seeing me broken in spirit and shedding tears from reddened eyes, 
 
 ' " Window -gardening," new in England, is an oUl practice in the East. 
 * The writer means that the old woman's account was all false, to increase 
 apparent difficulties ^nd, pour sefaire va/oir.
 
 Tale of the Tailor. 279 
 
 asked me : — O naunty ^ mine, what ails thee, that I see thy breast 
 so straitened?" and I answered her, weeping bitterly, "O my lady, 
 I am just come from the house of a youth who loves thee and who 
 is about to die for sake of thee ! " Quoth she (and her heart was 
 softened), " And who is this youth of whom thou speakest ? " and 
 quoth I, " He is to me as a son and the fruit of my vitals. He saw 
 thee, some days ago at the window watering thy flowers, and espying 
 thy face and wrists he fell in love at first sight. I let him know 
 what happened to me the last time I was with thee, whereupon his 
 ailment increased, he took to the pillow and he is naught now but 
 a dead man, and no doubt whatever of it." At this she turned 
 pale and asked, "All this for my sake?" and I answered, "Ay, by 
 Allah ^! what wouldst thou have me do?" Said she, "Go back to 
 him and greet him for me, and tell him that I am twice more heart- 
 sick than he is. And on Friday, before the hour of public prayer, 
 bid him here to the house, and I will come down and open the 
 door for him. Then I will carry him up to my chamber and for- 
 gather with him for awhile, and let him depart before my father 
 return from the Mosque." When I heard the old woman's words, 
 all my sickness suddenly fell from me, my anguish ceased and my 
 heart was comforted ; I took off what clothes were on me and gave 
 them to her and, as she turned to go, she said, " Keep a good 
 heart ! " "I have not a jot of sorrow left," I replied. My household 
 and intimates rejoiced in my recovery and I abode thus till Friday, 
 when, behold! the old woman came in and asked me how I did, to 
 which I answered that I was well and in good case. Then I 
 donned my clothes and perfumed myself and sat down to await the 
 congregation going in to prayers, that I might betake myself to 
 her, but the old woman said to me, " Thou hast time and to 
 spare : so thou wouldst do well to go to the Ham mam and have 
 thy hair shaven off (especially after thy ailment), so as not to show 
 traces of sickness." " This w^ere the best way," answered I, " I 
 have just now bathed in hot water ; but I will have my head 
 shaved." Then I said to my page, "Go to the bazar and bring 
 rae a barber, a discreet fellow, and one not inclined to meddling 
 
 ' Arab. " Ya I'Qialati"= mother's sister ; a familiar address to the old, as uncle 
 or nuncle (father's brother) to a man. The Arabs also hold that as a girl resembles 
 her mother, so a boy follows his uncle (mother's brother) : hence the address, " Ya 
 tayyib al-Khal ! " = thou nephew of a good uncle. I have noted that physically 
 this is often fact. 
 
 ^ " Ay, w' Allahi," contracted popularly to Aywa, a word in every Moslem 
 mouth, and shunned by Christians because against orders Hebrew and Christian. 
 The better educated Turks now eschew that eternal reference to Allah which 
 appears in The Nights, and which is still the custom of the vulgar throughout the 
 world of Al-Islam.
 
 280 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 or impertinent curiosity, or likely to split my head with his excessive 
 talk.^ " The boy went out at once and brought back with him this 
 wretched old man, this Shaykh of ill-omen. When he came in he 
 saluted me, and I returned his salutation ; then quoth he, " Of a 
 truth I see thee thin of body " ; and quoth I, " I have been ailing." 
 He continued, "Allah drive far away from thee thy woe and thy 
 sorrow and thy trouble and thy distress." "Allah grant thy 
 prayer!" said I. He pursued, "All gladness to thee, O my 
 master, for indeed recovery is come to thee. Dost thou wish to be 
 polled or to be blooded ? Indeed it was a tradition of Ibn Abbas ^ 
 (Allah accept of him !) that the Apostle said : — Whoso cutteth his 
 hair on a Friday, the Lord shall avert from him threescore and ten 
 calamities ; and again is related of him also that he said : — Cupping 
 on a Friday keepeth from loss of sight and a host of diseases." 
 ■"Leave this talk," I cried; "come, shave me my head at once for 
 I can't stand it." So he rose and put forth his hand in most 
 leisurely way and took out a kerchief and unfolded it, and lo ! it 
 contained an astrolabe^ with seven parallel plates mounted in 
 silver. Then he went to the middle of the court and raised head 
 and instrument towards the sun's rays and looked for a long while. 
 When this was over he came back and said to me, " Know that 
 there have elapsed of this our day, which be Friday, and this 
 Friday be the tenth of the month Safar in the six hundred and 
 fifty-third year since the Hagirah or Flight of the Apostle (on whom 
 be the bestest of blessings and peace ! ) and the seventh thousand 
 three hundred aud twentieth year of the era of Alexander, eight 
 degrees and six minutes. Furthermore the ascendant of this our 
 day is, according to the exactest science of computation, the planet 
 Mars ; and it so happeneth that Mercury is in conjunction with 
 him, denoting an auspicious moment for hair-shaving ; and this also 
 makcth manifest to me that thou desirest union with a certain person 
 and that your intercourse will not be propitious. But after this 
 there occurreth a sign respecting a matter which will befall thee 
 
 * The " Muza\7in," or barber in the East, brings his basin and budget under his 
 arm : he is not content only to shave, he must scrape the forehead, trim the eye- 
 brows, pass the blade lightly over the nose, and correct the upper and lower lines 
 of the mustachioes, opening the central parting and so forth. He is not a whit 
 less a tattler and a scandal-monger than the old Roman tonsor, or Figaro his 
 confrere in Southern Europe. The whole scene of the Barber is admirable, an 
 excellent specimen of Arab humour, and not over-caricatured. We all have met 
 him. 
 
 ^ Abdullah ibn Abbas was a cousin and a companion of the Apostle ; also a well- 
 known Commentator on the Koran, and conserver of the traditions of Mohammed. 
 
 3 I have noticed the antiquity of this father of our sextant, a fragment of w'hich 
 was found in the Palace of Sennacherib. More concerning the " Arstaliie " (as 
 Chaucer calls it) is given in my " Camoens : his Life and his Lusiads," p. 3S1.
 
 Tale of the Tailor. 281 
 
 and whereof I will not speak." "O thou," cried I, "by Allah! thou 
 weariest me and scatterest my wits and thy forecast is other than 
 good ; I sent for thee to poll my head and naught else : so up and 
 shave me and prolong not thy speech." " By Allah!" replied he, "if 
 thou but knew what is about to befall thee, thou wouldst do nothing 
 this day, and I counsel thee to act as I tell thee by computation of 
 the constellations." " By Allah!" said I, "never did I see a barber 
 who excelled in judicial astrology save thyself : but I think and I 
 know that thou art most prodigal of frivolous talk. I sent for thee 
 only to shave my head, but thou comest and pesterest me with this 
 sorry prattle." "What more wouldst thou have?" replied he. 
 "Allah hath bounteously bestowed on thee a Barber, who is an 
 astrologer, one learned in alchemy and white magic ^ ; syntax, 
 grammar, and lexicology; the arts of logic, rhetoric, and elocution; 
 mathematics, arithmetic, and algebra ; astronomy, astromancy, and 
 geometry ; theology, the Traditions of the Apostle and the 
 Commentaries on the Koran. Furthermore, I have read books 
 galore and digested them, and have had experience of affairs and 
 comprehended them. In short, I have learned the theorick and the 
 practick of all the arts and sciences ; I know everything of them by 
 rote, and I am a past master /;/ iota re scibili. Thy father loved me 
 for my lack of officiousness, argal, to serve thee is a religious duty 
 incumbent on me. I am no busy-body, as thou seemest to suppose, 
 and on this account I am known as The Silent Man, also. The 
 Modest Man. Wherefore, it behoveth thee to render thanks to 
 Allah Almighty, and not cross me, for I am a true counsellor to 
 thee and benevolently minded towards thee. Would that I were 
 in thy service a whole year that thou mightest do me justice, and I 
 would ask thee no wage for all this." When I heard his flow of 
 words, I said to him, " Doubtless thou wilt be my death this day ! " 
 
 And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her 
 
 permitted say. 
 
 ^ Arab. " Simiya " to rhyme with Kimiya (alchemy proper). It is a subordinate 
 branch of tlie Ihn al-Ruhani, which I would translate " Spiritualism," and which 
 is divided into two great branches. " 'Ilwi or Rahmani " (the high or related to the 
 Deity) and Sifli or Shaytani (low, Satanic). To the latter belongs Al-Sahr, magic 
 or the black art proper, gramarye, egromancy, while Al-Simiya is white magic, 
 electro-biology, a kind of natural and deceptive magic, in which drugs and per- 
 fumes exercise an important action. One of its principal branches is the Darlj 
 al-Mandal, or magic mirror, of which more in a future page. See Boccaccio's 
 Day X. Novel 5
 
 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 Bote ^x^^tw. it teas X\^z CJ)trtlet{) BX^i, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young 
 man said to the Barber, "Thou certainly wilt be the death of me 
 this very day ! " " O master mine," replied he, " I am he, The 
 Silent Man hight, by reason of the fewness of my words, to 
 distinguish me from my six brothers. For the eldest is called 
 Al-Bakbiik, the prattler ; the second Al-Haddar, the babbler ; the 
 third Al-Fakik, the gabbler ; the fourth, his name is Al-Kuz 
 al-aswani, the long-necked Gugglet, from his eternal chattering ; 
 the fifth is Al-Nashshar, the tattler and tale-teller j the sixth 
 Shakashik, or many-clamours ; and the seventh is famous as 
 Al-Samit, the Silent Man, and this is my noble self!" Whilst he 
 redoubled his talk, I thought my gall-bladder would have burst ; 
 so I said to the servant, "Give him a quarter-dinar and dismiss 
 him, and let him go from me in the name of God who made him. 
 I won't have my head shaved to-day." "What words be these, O 
 my lord ? " cried he. " By Allah ! I will accept no hire of thee till 
 I have served thee and have ministered to thy wants ; and I care not 
 if I never take money of thee. If thou know not my quality, I know 
 thine ; and I owe thy father, honest man, on whom Allah Almighty 
 have mercy ! many a kindness, for he was a liberal soul and a 
 generous. By Allah ! he sent for me one day, as it were this blessed 
 day, and I went in to him and found a party of his intimates about 
 him. Quoth he to me. Let me blood ; so I pulled out my 
 astrolabe and taking the sun's altitude for him, I ascertained that 
 the ascendant was inauspicious and the hour unfavourable for 
 blooding. I told him of this, and he did according to my bidding 
 and awaited a better opportunity. So I made these lines in honour 
 of him : — 
 
 I went to my patron some blood to let him, « But found that the moment was far 
 
 from good : 
 So I sat and I talked of all strangenesses, » And with jests and jokes his good will 
 
 I wooed : 
 They pleased him, and cried he, O man of wit, « Thou hast proved thee perfect 
 
 in merry mood ! " 
 Quoth I, O thou Lord of men, save thou * Lend me art and wisdom I'm fou 
 
 and wood : 
 In thee gather grace, boon, bounty, suavity ; » And I guerdon the world with lore, 
 
 science, and gravity. 
 
 Thy father was delighted, and cried out to the servant. Give him 
 an hundred and three gold pieces with a robe of honour ! " The
 
 Tale of the Tailor. 283 
 
 man obeyed his orders, and I awaited an auspicious moment, when 
 I blooded him ; and he did not baulk me ; nay, he thanked me and 
 I was also thanked and praised by all present. When the blood- 
 letting was over I had no power to keep silence and asked him, 
 By Allah, O my lord ! what made thee say to the servant : — Give 
 him an hundred and thi-ee dinars ? and he answered, One dinar 
 was for the astrological observation, another for thy pleasant con- 
 versation, the third for the phlebotomisation, and the remaining 
 hundred and the dress were for thy verses in my commendation.'" 
 May Allah show small mercy to my father," exclaimed I, "for 
 knowing the like of thee." He laughed and ejaculated, " There is 
 no god but the God and Mohammed is the Apostle of God \ 
 Glory to Him that changeth and is changed not ! I took thee 
 for a man of sense, but I see thou babblest and dotest for illness. 
 Allah hath said in the Blessed Book ^ : — Paradise is prepared for 
 the goodly who bridle their anger and forgive men, and so forth ; 
 and in any case thou art excused. Yet I cannot conceive the 
 cause of thy hurry and flurry ; and thou must know that thy 
 father and thy grandfather did nothing without consulting me, 
 and indeed it hath been said truly enough : — Let the adviser be 
 prized ; and : — There is no vice in advice ; and it is also said in 
 certain saws, Whoso hath no counsellor elder than he, will never 
 himself an elder be "- \ and the poet says : — 
 
 Whatever needful thing thou undertake, » Consult th' experienced and contraire 
 him not. 
 
 And indeed thou shalt never And a man better versed in affairs 
 than I, and I am here standing on my feet to serve thee. 1 am 
 not vexed with thee : why shouldest thou be vexed with me ? But 
 whatever happen I will bear patiently with thee in memory of the 
 much kindness thy father shewed me." "By Allah!" cried I, "O 
 thou with tongue long as the tail of a jackass, thou persistest in 
 pestering me with thy prate and thou becomest more longsome in 
 thy long speeches, when all I want of thee is to shave my head and 
 wend thy way ! " Then he lathered my head, saying, " I perceive 
 thou art vexed with me, but I will not take it ill of thee, for thy wit 
 is weak and thou art but a laddy : it was only yesterday I used to 
 take thee on my shoulder ^ and carry thee to school." " O my 
 
 ' Chapt. iii. 128. See Sale (in loco) for the noble application of this text by the 
 Imam Hasan, son of the Caliph Ali. 
 
 ^ These proverbs at once remind us of our old friend Sancho Panza, and are 
 equally true to nature in the mouth of the Arab and of the Spaniard. 
 
 3 Our nurses always carry in the arms : Arabs place the children astraddle upon 
 the hip, and, when older, on the shoulder.
 
 284 -Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 brother," said I, " for Allah's sake do what I want and go thy 
 gait ! " And I rent my garments.^ When he saw me do this he 
 took the razor and fell to sharpening it and gave not over stropping 
 it until my senses were well nigh leaving me. Then he came up to 
 me and shaved part of my head ; then he held his hand and then he 
 said, " O my lord, haste is Satan's gait whilst patience is of Allah the 
 Compassionate. But thou, O my master, I ken thou knowest not my 
 rank ; for verily this hand alighteth upon the heads of Kings and 
 Emirs and Wazirs, and sages and doctors learned in the law, and the 
 poet said of one like me : — 
 
 All crafts are like necklaces strung on a string, » But this Barber's the union pearl 
 
 of the band : 
 High over all craftsmen he ranketh, and why ? » The heads of the Kings are 
 
 under his hand^ ! 
 
 Then said I, " Do leave off talking about what concerneth thee not : 
 indeed thou hast straitened my breast and distracted my mind." 
 Quoth he, " JSIeseems thou art a hasty man " ; and quoth I, " Yes ! 
 yes ! yes ! " and he, " I rede thee practise restraint of self, for haste is 
 Satan's pelf which bequeatheth only repentance and ban and bane, 
 and He (upon whom be blessings and peace ! ) hath said, The best 
 of works is that wherein deliberation lurks : but I, by Allah ! have 
 some doubt about thine affair ; and so I should like thee to let me 
 know what it is thou art in such haste to do ; for I fear me it is other 
 than good." Then he continued, " It wanted three hours yet to 
 
 ' Eastern clothes allow this Biblical display of sorrow and vexation, which with 
 our European garb would look absurd ; we must satisfy ourselves with maltreating 
 our hats. 
 
 ^ Koran, xlviii. 8. It may be observed that according to the Ahadis (sayings of 
 the Proi^hot) and the Sunnat (sayings and doings of Mohammed), all the hair 
 should lie allowed to grow or the whole head be clean shaven. Hence the 
 " Shiishah," or top-knot supposed to be left as a handle for drawing the wearer 
 into Paradise ; and the Zulf, or side-locks, somewhat like the ringlets of the Polish 
 Jews, are both vain " Bida't," or innovations, and therefore technically termed 
 "Makriih," a practice not laudable, neither " Halal " (perfectly lawful), nor 
 " Haram " (forbidden by the law). WTien boys are first shaved, generally in the 
 second or third year, a tuft is left on the crown ami another over the forehead ; 
 but this is not the fashion amongst adults. Abu Haiiifah, if I am rightly informed, 
 wrote a treatise on the Shushah or long lock growing from the Nasiyah (head-poll) 
 which is also a precaution lest the decapitated Moslem's mouth be defiled by an 
 impure hand ; and thus it would resemble the chivalry-lock by which the Redskin 
 brave (and even the " cowboy" of better times) facilitated the removal of his own 
 scalp. Possibly the Turks had learned the practice from the Chinese and intro- 
 duced it into Baghdad (Pilgrimage, i. 240). The Badawin plait their locks in Kurun 
 (horns) or Jadail (ringlets), which are undone only to be washed with the water of 
 the she-camel. The wild Sharifs wear Haffah, long elf-locks hanging down both 
 sides of the throat, and shaved away about a finger's breadth round the forehead 
 and behind the neck (Pil<:rimage, iii. 35-36). I have elsewhere noted the accroche- 
 i(c:irs, the " idiot-fringe, ' etc.
 
 - Tale of the Tailor. 2S5 
 
 prayer-time ; but I do not wish to be in doubt upon this matter ; nay, 
 I must know the moment exactly, for truly : — A guess shot in times 
 of doubt, oft brings harm about ; especially in the like of me, a 
 superior person whose merits are famous amongst mankind at large ; 
 and it doth not befit me to talk at random, as do the common sort 
 of astrologers." So saying, he threw down the razor and taking up 
 the astrolabe, went forth under the sun and stood there a long 
 time ; after which he returned and counting on his fingers, said to 
 me, " There remain still to prayer-time three full hours and complete, 
 neither more nor yet less, according to the most learned astro- 
 nomicals and the wisest makers of almanacks ! " " Allah upon thee," 
 cried I, " hold thy tongue with me, for thou breakest my liver in 
 pieces." So he took the razor and, after sharpening it as before and 
 shaving other two hairs of my head, he again held his hand and said, 
 " I am concerned about thy hastiness, and indeed thou wouldst 
 do well to let me into the cause of it ; 'twere the better for thee, as 
 thou knowest that neither thy father nor thy grandfather ever did a 
 single thing save by my advice." When I saw that there was no 
 escape from him I said to myself, " The time for prayer draws near, 
 and I wish to go to her before the folk come out of the mosque. If 
 I am delayed much longer, I know not how to come at her." Then 
 said I aloud, " Be quick and stint this talk and impertinence, for T 
 have to go to a party at the house of some of my intimates." 
 When he heard me speak of the party, he said, " This thy day is a 
 blessed day for me ! In very sooth it was but yestesday I invited 
 a company of my friends, and I have forgotten to provide anything 
 for them to eat. This very moment I was thinking of it : Alas, 
 how I shall be disgraced in their eyes ! " " Be not distressed about 
 this matter," answered I ; " have I not told thee that I am bidden 
 to an entertainment this day ? So everything in my house, eatable 
 and drinkable, shall be thine, if thou wilt only get through thy 
 work and make haste to shave my head." He replied, "Allah 
 requite thee with good ! Specify to me what is in thy house for my 
 guests that I may be ware of it." Quoth I, " Five dishes of meat 
 and ten chickens with reddened breasts ^ and a roasted lamb." 
 "Set them before me," quoth he, "that I may see them." So I 
 told my people to buy, borrow, or steal them, and bring them in 
 
 ' Meats are rarely coloured in modern days ; but Persian cooks are great adepts 
 in staining rice for the Pulao (which we call after its Turkish corruption" pilaff") : 
 it sometimes appears in rainbow colours, red, yellow, and blue ; and in India is 
 covered with gold and silver leaf. Europe retains the practice in tinting Pasch 
 (Easter) eggs, the survival of the mundane ovum which was hatched at Easter-tide ;. 
 and they are dyed red in allusion to the Blood of Redemption.
 
 286 Alf Laylah wa Lay/ah. 
 
 anywise, and had all this set before him. When he saw it he cried, 
 " The wine is wanting " ; and I replied, " I have a flagon or two of 
 good old grape-juice in the house " ; and he said, " Have it brought 
 out ! " So I sent for it and he exclaimed, " Allah bless thee for a 
 generous disposition ! But there are still the essences and per- 
 fumes." So I bade them set before him a box containing 
 Nadd,^ the best of compound perfumes, together with fine lign- 
 aloes, ambergris and musk unmixed, the whole worth fifty dinars. 
 Now the time waxed strait and my heart straitened with it ; so I said 
 to him, "Take it all and finish shaving my head by the life of 
 Mohammed (whom Allah bless and keep ! )." " By Allah ! " said he, 
 " I will not take it till I see all that is in it." So I bade the page 
 open the box and the Barber laid down the astrolabe, leaving the 
 greater part of my head unpolled ; and, sitting on the ground, turned 
 over the scents and incense and aloes-wood and essences till I was 
 well-nigh distraught. Then he took the razor and coming up to 
 me shaved off some few hairs and repeated these lines : — 
 
 The boy like his father shall surely show, * As ihc tree from its parent root shall 
 grow.^ 
 
 Then said he, " By Allah ! O my son, I know not whether to thank 
 thee or thy father ; for my entertainment this day is all due to thy 
 bounty and beneficence ; and, although none of my company be 
 worthy of it, yet I have a set of honourable men, to wit Zantiit, 
 the bath-keeper and Sali'a, the corn-chandler ; and Silat, the bean- 
 seller ; and Akrashah, the greengrocer; and Humayd, the scavenger; 
 and Sa'i'd, the camel-man; and Suwayd, the porter; and Abu 
 Makarish, the bathman^ ; and Kasim, the watchman ; and Kan'm, 
 the groom. There is not among the whole of them a bore or a 
 bully in his cups, nor a meddler nor a miser of his money, and each 
 and every hath some dance wliich he danceth and some of his 
 own couplets which he caroleth; and the best of them is that, like 
 thy servant, thy slave here, they know not what much talking is 
 nor what forwardness means. The bath-keeper sings to the tom-tom* 
 a song which enchants, and he stands up and dances and 
 chants, 
 
 I am going, O mammy, to fill up my pot. 
 
 ' As I have noticed, this is a mixture. 
 
 ^ We say : — 'Tis rare the father in the son we see : 
 
 lie sometimes rises in the third degree. 
 3 Arab. " Ballan," i.e., the body-servant : " Ballanah " is a tire-woman. 
 " Arab. " Darabukkah," a drum made of wood or earthen-ware (Lane, M.E., 
 vvi!i.), and used by all in Egypt.
 
 No. 7. 
 Tale of the Tailor. 
 
 " So I bade the page open the box and the 
 Barber laid down the astrolabe, leaving the greater 
 part of my head unpolled ; and, sitting on the 
 ground, turned over the scents and incense and 
 aloes-wood and essences till I was well-nigh dis- 
 traught."
 
 Tale of the Tailor. 287 
 
 As for the corn-chandler he brings more skill to it than any ; he 
 dances and sings, 
 
 O Keener,' O sweetheart, thou fallest not short ; 
 
 and he leaves no one's vitals sound for laughing at him. But the 
 scavenger sings so that the birds stop to listen to him and dances 
 and sings, 
 
 News my wife wots is not locked in a box * ! 
 
 And he hath privilege, for 'tis a shrewd rogue and a witty ^; and 
 speaking of his excellence I am wont to say : — • 
 
 My life for the scavenger ! right well I love him, » Like a waving bough he is 
 
 sweet to my sight : 
 Fate joined us one night, when to him quoth I » (The while I grew weak and 
 
 love gained more might), 
 " Thy love burns my heart !" "And no wonder," quoth he, » " When the drawer 
 
 of dung turns a stoker wight.'*" 
 
 And indeed each is perfect in whatso can charm the wit with joy 
 and jollity "; adding presently, " But hearing is not seeing, and indeed 
 if thou make up thy mind to join us and put off going to thy 
 friends 'twill be better for us and for thee. The traces of illness 
 are yet upon thee, and haply thou art going among folk who be 
 mighty talkers — men who commune together of what concerneth 
 them not : or there may be amongst them some forward fellow who 
 will split thy head, and thou half thy size from sickness." " This 
 shall be for some other day," answered I, and laughed with heart 
 
 ' Arab. " Naihah," more generally " Naddabah," Lat. pnxfica or carina, a 
 hired mourner, the Irish " Keener" at the conclamatio or coronach, where the 
 Hullabaloo, liulululu, or Ululoo showed the survivors' sorrow. 
 
 ^ These doggrels, which are like our street melodies, are now forgotten, and 
 others have taken their place. A few years ago one often heard, " Dus ya lalli " 
 (tread, O my joy) and " Nazil il'al-Ganinah " (Down into the garden), and these 
 in due turn became obsolete. Lane (ALE., chapt. xviii.) gives the former, e.g.. 
 Tread, O my joy ! Tread, O my joy ! 
 Love of my love brings sore annoy. 
 A chorus to such stanzas as : — 
 
 Alexandrian damsels rare ! » Daintily o'er the floor ye fare : 
 
 Your lips are sweet, are sugar-sweet, * And purfled Cashmere shawls ye wear ! 
 It may be noted that "humming " is not a favourite practice with Moslems ; if one 
 of the company begin, another will say, " Go to the Kahwah " (the coffee-house, 
 the proper music-hall) " and sing there ! " I have elsewhere observed their dislike 
 to Al-sifr, or whistling. 
 
 3 Arab. Khali'a = worn out, crafty, an outlaw ; used like Span. " Perdido." 
 
 ♦ " Zabbal " is the scavenger, lit. a dung-drawer, especially for the use of the 
 Ilammam, which is heated with the droppings of animals. " Wakkad " (stoker) 
 is the servant who turns the fire. The verses are mere nonsense, to suit the Barber's 
 humour.
 
 288 A!f Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 angered. " Finish thy work and go, in AUali Almighty's guard, to 
 thy friends, for they will be expecting thy coming." " O my lord," 
 replied he, " I seek only to introduce thee to these fellows of 
 infinite mirth, the sons of men of worth, amongst whom there is 
 neither procacity, nor dicacity, nor loquacity; for never, since I grew 
 to years of discretion, could I endure to consort with one who asketh 
 questions concerning what concerneth him not, nor have I ever 
 frequented any save those who are, like myself, men of few words. 
 In sooth, if thou were to company with them, or even to see them 
 once, thou wouldst forsake all thy intimates." " Allah fulfil thy 
 joyance with them!" said I, "needs must I come amongst them 
 some day or other." But he said, " Would it were this very day, 
 for I had set my heart upon thy making one of us ; yet if thou must 
 go to thy friends to-day, I will take these good things, wherewith 
 thou hast honoured and favoured me, to my guests and leave 
 them to eat and drink and not wait for me ; whilst I will return to 
 thee in haste and accompany thee to thy little party ; for there is 
 no ceremony between me and my intimates to prevent my leaving 
 them. Fear not, I will soon be back with thee and wend with thee 
 whithersoever thou wendest. There is no Majesty and there is no 
 Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great ! " I shouted, " Go 
 thou to thy friends and make merry with them ; and do let me go 
 to mine and be with them this day, for they expect me." But the 
 Barber cried, "I will not let thee go alone"; and I replied, "The 
 truth is none can enter where I am going save myself." He 
 rejoined, " I suspect that to-day thou art for an assignation with 
 some woman, else thou hadst taken me with thee ; yet am I the 
 right man to take, one who could aid thee to the end thou wishest. 
 But I fear me thou art running after strange women and thou wilt 
 lose thy life; for in this our city of Baghdad one cannot do any 
 thing in this line, especially on a day like Friday ; our Governor is 
 an angry man and a mighty sharp blade." " Shame on thee, thou 
 Avicked, bad, old man ! " cried I. " Be off ! what words are these 
 thou givest me?" "O cold of wit,^ " cried he, "thou sayest to me 
 what is not true and thou hidest thy mind from me, but I know the 
 whole business for certain, and I seek only to help thee this day 
 with my best endeavour." I was fearful lest my people or my 
 neighbours should hear the Barber's talk, so I kept silence for a 
 long time whilst he finished shaving my head ; by which time the 
 hour of prayer was come and the Khutbah, or sermon, was about 
 to follow. When he had done, I said to him, " Go to thy friends 
 
 ' Arab. " Ya barid " = O fool.
 
 Tale of the Tailor. 289 
 
 with their meat and drink, and I will await thy return. Then we 
 will fare together." In this way I hoped to pour oil on troubled 
 waters and to trick the accursed loon, so haply I might get quit of 
 him ; but he said, " Thou art cozening me and thou wouldst go 
 alone to thy appointment and cast thyself into jeopardy, whence 
 there will be no escape for thee. Now, by Allah ! and again by 
 Allah ! do not go till I return, that I may accompany thee and 
 watch the issue of thine affair." " So be it," I replied, " do not be 
 long absent." Then he took all the meat and drink I had given 
 him and the rest of it and went out of my house ; but the accursed 
 carle gave it in charge of a porter to carry to his home but hid 
 himself in one of the alleys. As for me I rose on the instant, for 
 the Mu'ezzins had already called the Salam of Friday, the salutation 
 to the Apostle ^ ; and I dressed in haste and went out alone, and 
 hurrying to the street took my stand by the house wherein I had 
 seen the young lady. I found the old woman on guard at the door 
 awaiting me, and went up with her to the upper story, the damsel's 
 apartment. Hardly had I reached it when behold, the master of 
 the house returned from prayers, and entering the great saloon 
 closed the door. I looked down from the window and saw this 
 Barber (Allah's curse upon him !) sitting over against the door and 
 said, " How did this devil find me out ? " At this very moment, as 
 Allah had decreed it for rending my veil of secrecy, it so happened 
 that a handmaid of the house-master committed some offence for 
 which he beat her. She shrieked out, and his slave ran in to inter- 
 cede for her, whereupon the Kazi beat him to boot, and he also 
 roared out. The damned Barber fancied that it was I who was 
 being beaten ; so he also fell to shouting and tore his garments and 
 scattered dust on his head and kept on shrieking and crying " Help ! 
 help ! " So the people came round about him and he went on 
 yelling, "My master is being murdered in the Kazi's house!" 
 
 ' This form of blessing is chaunted from the Minaret about half-an-hour before 
 mid-day, when the worshippers take their places in the mosque. At noon there is 
 the usual Azan, or prayer-call, and each man performs a two-bow, in honour of the 
 mosque and its gathering, as it were. The Prophet is then blessed, and a second 
 Salam is called from the raised ambo, or platform (" dikkah "), by the divines who 
 repeat the mid-day-call. Then an Imam recites the first Khutbah, or sermon " of 
 praise "; and the congregation worships in silence. This is followed by the second 
 exhortation "of Wa'az," dispensing the words of wisdom. The Imam now stands 
 up before the Mihrab (prayer niche) and recites the Ikamah, which is the common 
 Azan with one only difference : after " Hie ye to salvation," it adds, " Come is the 
 time of supplication"; whence the name, "causing (prayer) to stand (/.^., to 
 begin). Hereupon the worshippers recite the Farz, or Koran-commanded noon- 
 prayer of Friday ; and the unco' guid add a host of superogatories. Those who 
 would study the subject may consult Lane (M. E. chapt. iii., and its abstract in his 
 " Arabian Nights," i. p. 430, or note 69 to chapt. v.). 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 2 go Alf Lay la h 2va Laylah. 
 
 Then he ran clamouring to my place with the folk after him, and 
 told my people and servants and slaves ; and, before I knew what 
 was doing, up they came tearing their clothes and letting loose 
 their hair,^ and shouting, " Alas, our master ! " and this Barber 
 leading the rout with his clothes rent and in sorriest plight ; and he 
 also shouting like a madman and saying, "Alas for our murdered 
 master ! " And they all made an assault upon the house in which 
 I was. The Kazi, hearing the yells and uproar at his door, 
 said to one of his servants, " See what is the matter " ; and the man 
 Avent forth and returned and said, " O my master, at the gate there 
 are more than ten thousand souls, what with men and women, and 
 all crying out, Alas for our murdered master ! and they keep 
 pointing to our house." When the Kazi heard this, the matter 
 seemed serious and he waxed wroth ; so he rose and opening the 
 door saw a great crowd of people ; whereat he was astounded and 
 said, "O folk, what is there to do?" "O accursed! O dog! O 
 hog ! " my servants replied. " 'Tis thou who hast killed our master." 
 Quoth he, " O good folk, and what hath your master done to me that 
 
 I should kill him?" And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day 
 
 and ceased saying her permitted sa)'. 
 
 ji^iotu tol)cn it toac X^z Cbirtp^ftrst ^\^X, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Kazi 
 said to the servants, "What hath your master done to me that I 
 should kill him? This is my house, and it is open to you all." 
 Then quoth the Barber, "Thou didst beat him, and I heard him 
 cry out." And quoth the Ka^i, " But what was he doing that I 
 should beat him, and what brought him in to my house ? And 
 whence came he and whither went he?" "Be not a wicked, 
 perverse old man!" cried the Barber, "for I know the whole story; 
 and the long and the short of it is that thy daughter is in love with 
 him and he loves her, and when thou knewest that he had entered 
 the house thou badest thy servants beat him, and they did so. By 
 Allah! none shall judge betv,een us and thee but the Caliph, or 
 else do thou bring out our master that his folk may take him, 
 before they go in and save him perforce from thy house, and thou 
 be put to shame." Then said the Kazi (and his tongue was bridled 
 and his mouth was stopped by confusion before the people), "An 
 
 ' i.e., the women loosed their hair ; an immodesty sanctioned only by a great 
 calamity.
 
 Tale of the Tailor. 291 
 
 thou say sooth, do thou come in and fetch him out." Whereupon 
 the Barber pushed forward and entered the house. When I saw 
 this I looked about for a means of escape and flight, but saw no 
 hiding-place except a great chest in the upper chamber where I 
 was. So I got into it and pulled the lid down upon myself and 
 held my breath. The Barber was hardly in the room before he 
 began to look about for me, then turned him right and left, and 
 came straight to the place where I was, and stepped up to the chest 
 and lifting it on his head made off as fast as he could. At this 
 my reason forsook me, for I knew that he would not let m.e be ; so 
 I took courage and opening the chest threw myself to the ground. 
 My leg was broken in the fall, and the door being open I saw a 
 great concourse of people looking in. Now I carried in my sleeve 
 much gold and some silver, which I had provided for an ill day 
 like this and the like of such occasion ; so I kept scattering it 
 amongst the folk to divert their attention from me, and whilst 
 they were busy scrambling for it, I set off, hopping as fast as I 
 could, through the by-streets of Baghdad, shifting and turning right 
 and left. But whithersoever I went this damned Barber would go 
 in after me, crying aloud, "They would have bereft nie of my 
 maa-a-ster ! They would have slain him who was a benefactor to 
 me and my family and my friends ! Praised be Allah, who made me 
 prevail against them and delivered my lord from their hands ! " 
 Then to me, " Where wilt thou go now? Thou wouldst persist in 
 following thine own evil devices, till thou broughtest thyself to this 
 ill pass ; and, had not Allah vouchsafed me to thee, ne'er hadst 
 thou escaped this strait into which thou hast fallen, for they would 
 have cast thee into a calamity whence thou never couldest have 
 won free. But I will not call thee to account for thine ignorance, 
 as thou art so little of wit and inconsequential, and addicted to 
 hastiness ! " Said I to him, " Doth not what thou hast brought 
 upon me suffice thee, but thou must run after me and talk me such 
 talk in the bazar-streets ? " And I well-nigh gave up the ghost for 
 excess of rage against him. Then I took refuge in the shop of a weaver 
 amiddlemost of the market, and sought protection of the owner, who 
 drove the Barber away; and, sitting in the backroom,^ I said to 
 myself, " If I return home I shall never be able to get rid of this 
 curse of a Barber, who will be with me night and day, and I cannot 
 endure the sight of him even for a breathing space." So I sent 
 out at once for witnesses and made a will, dividing the greater part 
 
 Tliese small shops are composed of a " but " and a " ben " (Pilgrimage, i. 99). 
 
 T 2
 
 292 Alf Laylah wa Lay la h. 
 
 of my property among my people, and appointed a guardian over 
 them, to whom I committed the charge of great and small, directing 
 him to sell my houses and domains. Then I set out on my travels 
 that I might be free of this pimp,^ and I came to settle in your 
 town, where I have lived some time. When you invited me, 
 and I came hither, the first thing I saw was this accursed pander 
 seated in the place of honour. How, then, can my heart be glad 
 and my stay be pleasant in company with this fellow, who brought 
 all this upon me, and who was the cause of the breaking of my leg 
 and of my exile from home and native land? And the youth 
 refused to sit down, and went away. "When we heard his story 
 (continued the Tailor) we were amazed beyond measure and 
 amused, and said to the Barber, " By Allah ! is it true what this 
 young man saith of thee?" "By Allah !" replied he, "I dealt thus 
 by him of my courtesy and sound sense and generosity. Had it 
 not been for me he had perished, and none but I was the cause of 
 his escape. Well it was for him that he suffered in his leg and not 
 in his life ! Had I been a man of many words, a meddler, a busy 
 body, I had not acted thus kindly by him ; but now I will tell you a 
 tale which befell me, that you may be well assured I am a man 
 sparing of speech in whom is no forwardness and a very different 
 person from those six Brothers of mine ; and this it is. 
 
 THE BARBER'S TALE OF HLMSELR 
 
 I WAS living in Baghdad during the times of Al-Mustansir bi'llah, 
 son of Al-Mustazi bi'llah, the then Caliph, a prince who loved the 
 poor and needy and companied with the learned and pious. One day 
 it happened to him that he was wroth with ten persons, highwaymen 
 who robbed on the Caliph's highway, and he ordered the Prefect of 
 Baghdad to bring them into the presence on the anniversary of the 
 Great Festival.-^ So the Prefect sallied out and making them his 
 
 ' Arab. " Kawwad," a popular term of alnise ; hence the Span, and Port. 
 " Alcoviteiro." The Italian " Galeotto" is from Galahalt, not Galahad. 
 
 = Arab. " Yaum al-Id," the Kurban Bairam of the Turks, the Pilgrimage festival. 
 The story is historical. In the " Akd," a miscellany compiled by Ibn Abd Rabbuh 
 (vulg. Rabbi-hi) of Cordova, who ob. A.H. 328 = 940 we read : — A spunger found 
 ten criminals and followed them, imagining they were going to a feast ; but lo, 
 they were going to their deaths. And when they were slain and he remained, he 
 was brought before the Khalifah (Al-Maamun) and Ibrahim son of Al-Mahdi 
 related a tale to procure pardon for the man, whereupon the Khalifah pardoned 
 him. Lane, ii. 506.
 
 The Barho^s Tale of Himself. 293 
 
 prisoners, embarked with them in a boat. I caught sight of them 
 as they were embarking and said to myself, "These are surely 
 assembled for a marriage-feast; methinks they are spending their 
 day in that boat eating and drinking, and none shall be companion 
 of their cups but I myself." So I rose, O fair assembly ; and, of 
 the excess of my courtesy and the gravity of my understanding, I 
 embarked with them and entered into conversation with them. 
 They rode across to the opposite bank, where they landed and 
 there came up the watch and guardians of the peace with chains, 
 which they put round the robbers' necks. They chained me among 
 the rest of them ; and, O people, is it not a proof of my courtesy 
 and spareness of speech that I held my peace and did not please 
 to speak? Then they took us away in bilboes and next morning 
 carried us all before Al-Mustansir bi'llah. Commander of the 
 Faithful, who bade smite the necks of the ten robbers. So the 
 Sworder came forward after they were seated on the leather of 
 blood ^; then drawing his blade struck off one head after another 
 until he had smitten the neck of the tenth ; and I alone remained. 
 The Caliph looked at me and asked the Headsman, saying, 
 "What ails thee that thou hast struck off only nine heads?" and 
 he answered, "Allah forbid that I should behead only nine, when 
 thou biddest me behead ten ! " Quoth the Caliph, " Meseems thou 
 hast smitten the necks of only nine, and this man before thee is 
 the tenth." " By thy beneficence ! " replied the Headsman, " I have 
 beheaded ten." "Count them!" cried the Caliph, and whenas 
 they counted heads, lo ! there were ten. The Caliph looked at me 
 and said, "What made thee keep silence at a time like this, and 
 how camest thou to company with these men of blood. Tell me 
 the cause of all this, for albeit thou art a very old man, assuredly 
 thy wits are weak." Now when I heard these words from the 
 Caliph I sprang to my feet and replied, " Know, O Prince of the 
 Faithful, that I am the Silent Shaykh, and am thus called to dis- 
 tinguish me from my six brothers. I am a man of immense 
 learning whilst, as for the gravity of my understanding, the 
 wiliness of my wits and the spareness of my speech, there is no 
 end to them; and my calling is that of a barber. I went out 
 early on yesterday morning and saw these men making for a skiff; 
 
 ^ Arab. " Nata' al-Dam " ; the former word was noticed in the Tale of the Bull 
 and the Ass. The leather of blood was not unlike the Sufrah, and could be folded 
 into a bag by a string running through rings round the edges. Mosleni executioners 
 were very expert, and seldom failed to strike off the head with a single blow of 
 the thin narrow blade with razor-edge, hard as diamond withal, which contrasted 
 so strongly with the great coarse chopper of the European headsman.
 
 294 ^V Laylah zva Laylah. 
 
 and, fancying they were bound for a marriage-feasl, I joined them 
 and mixed with them. After a while up came the watch and 
 guardians of the peace, who put chains round their necks and 
 round mine with the rest ; but in the excess of my courtesy I 
 held my peace and spake not a word ; nor was this other but 
 generosity on my part. They brought us into thy presence, and 
 thou gavest an order to smite the necks of the ten ; yet did I not 
 make myself known to thee, and remained silent before the 
 Sworder, purely of my great generosity and courtesy which led 
 me to share with them in their death. But all my life long have I 
 dealt thus nobly with mankind, and they requite me the foulest 
 and evillest requital I " When the Caliph heard my words and 
 knew that I was a man of exceeding generosity and of very few 
 words, one in whom is no forwardness (as this youth would have 
 it whom I rescued from mortal risk, and who hath so scurvily 
 repaid me), he laughed with excessive laughter till he fell upon 
 his back. Then said he to me, " O Silent Man, do thy six brothers 
 favour thee in wisdom and knowledge and spareness of speech ? " 
 I replied, " Never were they like me ! Thou puttest reproach upon 
 me, O Commander of the Faithful, and it becomes thee not to even 
 my brothers with me; for, of the abundance, of their speech and 
 their deficiency of courtesy and gravity, each one of them hath 
 gotten some maim or other. One is a monocular, another palsied, 
 a third stone-blind, a fourth cropped of ears and nose, and a fifth 
 shorn of both lips, while the sixth is a hunchback and a crij)ple. 
 And conceive not, O Commander of the Faithful, that I am prodigal 
 of speech ; but I must perforce explain to thee that I am a man 
 of greater worth and fewer words than any of them. From 
 each one of my brothers hangs a tale of how he came by his 
 i«odily defect, and these I will relate to thee." So the Caliph gave 
 ear to 
 
 THE BARBERS TALE OF HIS FIRST BROTHER. 
 
 Know then, O Commander of the Faithful, that my first brother^ 
 Al-Bakbiik, the prattler, is a Hunchback, who took to tailoring in 
 Baghdad, and he used to sew in a shop hired from a man of much 
 rt-ealth, who dwelt over the shop,^ and there was also a flour-mill 
 in the basement. One day, as my brother, the Hunchback, was 
 
 ' The ground floor, which in all hot countries is held, and rightly so, unwhole- 
 some during sleep, is usually let for shojis. This is also the case throughout 
 Southern Europe, and extends to the Canaiy Islands and the Brazil.
 
 The Barber's Tale of his First Brother. 295 
 
 sitting in his shop a-tailoring, he chanced to raise his head, and 
 saw a lady like the rising full moon at a balconied window of his 
 landlord's house, engaged in looking out at the passers-by.^ When 
 my brother beheld her his heart was taken with love of her, and he 
 passed his whole day gazing at her and neglected his tailoring till 
 eventide. Next morning he opened his iliDp and sat him down to 
 sew; but as often as he stitched a stitch he looked to the window 
 and saw her as before, and his passion and infatuation for her 
 increased. On the third day, as he was sitting in his usual place, 
 gazing on her, she caught sight of him, and, perceiving that he had 
 been captivated with love of her, laughed in his face,^ and he 
 smiled back at her. Then she disappeared, and presently sent her 
 slave-girl to him with a bundle containing a piece of red flowered 
 silk. The handmaid accosted him, and said, " My lady salameth to 
 thee, and desireth thee of thy skill and good will to fashion for her 
 a shift of this piece, and to sew it handsomely with thy best sewing." 
 He replied, " Hearkening and obedience," and shaped for her 
 a chemise, and finished sewing it the same day. When the morning 
 morrowed the girl came back, and said to him, " My lady salameth 
 to thee, and asks how thou hast passed yesternight ; for she hath 
 not tasted sleep by reason of her heart being taken up with thee." 
 Then she laid before him a piece of yellow satin, and said, " My 
 lady biddeth thee cut her two pair of petticoat trousers out 
 of this piece, and sew them this very day." " Hearkening and 
 obedience ! " replied he, " greet her for me with many greetings 
 and say to her. Thy slave is obedient to thine order ; jo command 
 him as thou wilt." Then he applied himself to cutting out and 
 worked hard at sewing the trousers ; and after an hour the lady 
 appeared at the lattice and saluted him by signs, now casting down 
 her eyes, then smiling in his face, and he began to assure himself 
 that he would soon make a conquest. She did not let him stir 
 till he had finished the two pair of trousers, when she withdrew 
 and sent the handmaid to whom he delivered them ; and she took 
 them and went her ways. Vv'hen it was night, he threw himself on 
 his carpet-bed, and lay tossing about from side to side till morning, 
 when he rose and sat down in his place. Presently the damsel 
 came to him and said, " My master calleth for thee." Hearing 
 these words he feared with exceeding fear ; but the slave-girl, 
 seeing his affright, said to him, " No evil is meant to thee : naught 
 
 ' This serious contemplation of street-scenery is one of the pleasures of the 
 Harems. 
 
 * We should say, " smiled at him " ; the laugh was not intended as an affront.
 
 296 Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 but good awaiteth thee. My lady would have thee make acquaint- 
 ance with my lord." So my brother the tailor, rejoicing with great 
 joy, went with her ; and when he came into the presence of his 
 landlord, the lady's husband, he kissed ground before him, 
 and the master of the house returned his greeting and gave 
 him a great piece of linen, saying, "Shape me shirts out of this 
 stuff and sew them well " ; and my brother answered, " To hear is 
 to obey." Thereupon he fell to work at once, snipping, shaping, 
 and sewing till he had finished twenty shirts by supper time, 
 without stopping to taste food. The house-master asked him, 
 " How much the wage for this ? " and he answered, " Twenty 
 dirhams." So the gentleman cried out to the slave-girl, "Bring 
 me twenty dirhams," and my brother spake not a word; but the 
 lady signed, " Take nothing from him " ; whereupon my brother 
 said, " By Allah ! I will take naught from thy hand." And he 
 carried off his tailor's gear and returned to his shop, although he 
 was destitute even to a red cent,^ Then he applied himself to do 
 their work ; eating, in his zeal and diligence, but a bit of bread 
 and drinking only a little water for three days. At the end of this 
 time came the handmaid and said to him, "What hast thou 
 done?" Quoth he, "They are finished,"~and carried the shirts to 
 the lady's husband, who would have paid him his hire : but he 
 said, "I will take nothing," for fear of her and returning to his 
 shop, passed the night without sleep because of his hunger. Now 
 the dame had informed her husband how the case stood (my 
 brother knowing naught of this) ; and the two had agreed to make 
 him tailor for nothing, the better to mock and laugh at him. Next 
 morning he went to his shop, and as he sat there the handmaid 
 came to him and said, "Speak with my master." So he accom- 
 panied her to the husband who said to him, " I wish thee to cut 
 out for me five long-sleeved robes."" So he cut them out^ and 
 took the stuff and went away. Then he sewed them and carried 
 them to the gentleman, who praised his sewing and offered him a 
 purse of silver. He put out his hand to take it, but the lady 
 
 ' Arab. " Fals alimar." Fals is a fish-scale, also the smaller coin, and the plural 
 " Fuliis " is the vulgar term for money ( = Ital. quaHrini) without specifying the 
 coin. It must not be confounded with the " Fazzah," alias " Nuss," alias 
 " Parah " (Turk.); the latter being made, not of "red copper," but of a vile 
 alloy containing, like the Greek " Asper," some silver ; and representing, when 
 at par, the fortieth of a piastre, the latter being = 2d. 2-5ths. 
 
 ^ Arab. " Farajiyah," a long-sleeved robe ; Lane's " Farageeyeh," M.E., 
 chapt. i. 
 
 3 The tailor in the East, as in Southern Europe, is made to cut out the cloth in 
 presence of its owner to prevent " cabbaging."
 
 The Ba?'l?er's Tale of his First Brother. 297 
 
 signed to him from behind her husband not to do so, and he 
 replied, O my lord, there is no hurry, we have time enough for 
 this." Then he went forth from the house meaner and meeker 
 than a donkey, for verily five things were gathered together in him, 
 viz. : — love, beggary, hunger, nakedness, and hard labour. Never- 
 theless, he heartened himself with the hope of gaining the lady's 
 favours. When he had made an end of all their jobs, they played 
 him another trick and married him to their slave-girl ; but, on the 
 night when he thought to go in to her, they said to him, " Lie this 
 night in the mill ; and to-morrow all will go well." My brother 
 concluded tllht there was some good cause for this and nighted 
 alone in the mill. Now the husband had set on the miller to make 
 the tailor turn the mill : so when night was half spent the man 
 came into him and began to say, " This bull of ours hath become 
 useless and standeth still instead of going round : he will not turn 
 the mill this night, and yet we have great store of corn to be 
 ground. However, I'll yoke him perforce, and make him finish 
 grinding it before morning, as the folk are impatient for their 
 flour." So he filled the hoppers with grain and going up to my 
 brother with a rope in his hand, tied it round his neck and said to 
 him, " Gee up 1 Round with the mill ! thou, O bull, wouldst do 
 nothing but grub and stale and dung ! " Then he took a whip and 
 laid it on the shoulders and calves of my brother, who began to 
 howl and bellow ; but none came to help him ; and he was forced 
 to grind the wheat till hard upon dawn, when the house-master 
 came in and seeing my brother still tethered to the yoke and the 
 man flogging him, went away. At day-break the miller returned 
 home and left him still yoked and half dead ; and soon after in 
 came the slave-girl who unbound him, and said to him, " I and my 
 lady are right sorry for what hath happened, and we have borne 
 thy grief with thee." But he had no tongue wherewith to answer 
 her from excess of beating and mill-turning. Then he retired to 
 his lodging, and behold ! the clerk who had drawn up the marriage- 
 deed came to him ^ and saluted him, saying, " Allah give thee long 
 life ! ]\Iay thy espousal be blessed ! This face telleth of pleasant 
 doings and dalliance and kissing and clipping from dusk to dawn." 
 " Allah grant the liar no peace, O thou thousandfold cuckold ! " 
 my brother replied, " By Allah ! I did nothing but turn the mill in 
 the place of the bull all night till morning !" "Tell me thy tale," 
 quoth he ; and my brother recounted what had befallen him and 
 he said, " Thy star agrees not with her star ; but an thou wilt I can 
 
 * Expecting a present.
 
 298 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 alter the contract for thee," adding, '"Ware lest another cheat be 
 not in store for thee." And my brother answered him, "See if 
 thou have not another contrivance." Then the clerk left him and 
 he sat in his shop, looking for some one to bring him a job whereby 
 he might earn his day's bread. Presently the handmaid came to 
 him and said, "Speak with my lady." "Begone, O my good girl," 
 replied he; "there shall be no more dealings between me and thy 
 lady." The handmaid returned to her mistress and told her what 
 my brother had said, and presently she put her head out of the 
 window, weeping and saying, " Why, O my beloved, are there to be 
 no more dealings 'twixt me and thee ? " But he made her no answer. 
 Then she wept and conjured him, swearing that all which had 
 befallen him in the mill was not sanctioned by her, and that she 
 was innocent of the whole matter. When he looked upon her 
 beauty and loveliness, and heard the sweetness of her speech, the 
 sorrow which had possessed him passed from his heart ; he accepted 
 her excuse and he rejoiced in her sight. So he saluted her and 
 talked with her and sat tailoring awhile, after which the hand- 
 maid came to him and said, " My mistress greeteth thee and 
 informeth thee that her husband purposeth to lie abroad this night 
 in the house of some intimate friends of his; so, when he is gone, 
 do thou come to us and spend the night with my lady in 
 dclightsomest joyance till the morning." Now her husband had 
 asked her, "How shall we manage to turn him away from thee?" 
 And she answered, " Leave me to play him another trick and make 
 him a laughing-stock for all the town." But my brother knew 
 naught of the malice of women. As soon as it was dusk the 
 slave-girl came to him and carried him to the house, and when the 
 lady saw him, she said to him, "By Allah, O my lord! I have been 
 longing exceedingly for thee." "By Allah!" cried he, "kiss me quick 
 before thou give me aught else." Hardly had he spoken, when the lady's 
 husband came in from the next room,^ and seized him, saying, " By 
 Allah ! I will not let thee go till I delivei thee to the chief of the 
 town watch." My brother humbled himself to him; but he would 
 not listen to him, and carried him before the Prefect, who gave him 
 an hundred lashes with a whip and mounting him on a camel 
 promenaded him round about the city, whilst the guards proclaimed 
 aloud, "This is his reward who violateth the Harims of honourable 
 men." IMoreover, he fell off the camel and broke his leg, and so 
 became lame. Then the Prefect banished him from the city, and he 
 
 ' The "panel-dodge" is fatally common throughout the East, where a man 
 found in the house of another is helpless.
 
 The Barhct's Tale of Jiis Second Brothei\ 299 
 
 went forth unknowing whither he should wend; but I heard of him, 
 and fearing for him, went out after him and brought him back 
 secretly to the city, and restored him to health and took him into my 
 house, where he still liveth." The Caliph laughed at my story, and 
 said, "Thou hast done well, O Samit, O Silent Man, O spare of 
 speech ! " And he bade me take a present and go away. But I 
 said, " I will accept naught of thee except I tell thee what befell all 
 my other brothers, and do not think me a man of many words." So 
 the Caliph gave ear to 
 
 THE BARBERS TALE OF HIS SECOND BROTHER. 
 
 Know, O Commander of the Faithful, that my second brother's 
 name was Al-Haddar — that is, the babbler — and he was the paralytic. 
 Now it happened to him one day, as he was going about his business, 
 that an old woman accosted him, and said, " Stop a little, my good 
 man, that I may tell thee of somewhat which, if it be to th) 
 liking, thou shalt do for me, and I will pray Allah to give thee 
 good of it ! " My brother stopped and she went on, " I will put 
 thee in the way of a certain thing, so thou be not prodigal of 
 speech." " On with thy talk," quoth he ; and she, " What sayest 
 thou to handsome quarters and a fair garden with waters flowing, 
 flowers blooming, and fruit growing, and old wine going, and a 
 pretty young face whose owner thou mayest embrace from dark 
 till dawn ? If thou do whatso I bid thee thou shalt see something 
 greatly to thy advantage." " And is all this in the world ? " asked 
 my brother ; and she answered, " Yes, and it shall be thine, so thou 
 be reasonable and leave idle curiosity and niany words, and do my 
 bidding." "I will indeed, O my lady," said he; "how is it thou 
 hast preferred me in this matter before all men, and what is it that 
 so much pleaseth thee in me ? " Quoth she, " Did I not bid thee 
 be spare of speech ? Hold thy peace and follow me. Know that 
 the young lady to whom I shall carry thee loveth to have her own 
 way and hateth being thwarted and all who gainsay ; so, if thou 
 humour her, thou shalt come to thy desire of her." And my 
 brother said, " I will not cross her in anything." Then .she went on 
 and my brother followed her, an-hungering after what she described 
 to him till they entered a fine large house, handsome and choicely 
 furnished, full of eunuchs and servants and showing signs of pros- 
 perity from top to bottom. And she was carrying him to the 
 upper story when the people of the house said to him, " What dost 
 thou here ? " But the old woman answered them, " Hold your
 
 300 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 peace and trouble him not : he is a workman and we have occasion 
 for him." Then she brought him into a fine great pavilion, with a 
 garden in its midst, never eyes saw a fairer ; and made him sit upon 
 a handsome couch. He had not sat long, before he heard a loud 
 noise and in came a troop of slave-girls surrounding a lady like the 
 moon on the night of its fullest. When he saw her, he rose up and 
 made an obeisance to her, whereupon she welcomed him and bad^ 
 him be seated. So he sat down and she said to him, "Allah 
 advance thee to honour ! Is all well with thee ? " " O my lady," 
 he answered, " all with me is right well." Then she bade bring in 
 food, and they set before her delicate viands ; so she sat down to 
 eat, making a show of affection to my brother and jesting with him, 
 though all the while she could not refrain from laughing ; but as 
 often as he looked at her, she signed towards her handmaidens as 
 though she were laughing at them. ]\Iy brother (the ass !) under- 
 stood nothing ; but, in the excess of his ridiculous passion, he fancied 
 that the lady was in love with him, and that she^ would soon grant 
 him his desire, ^^'hen they had done eating, they set on the wine 
 and there came in ten maidens like moons, with lutes ready strung 
 in their hands, and fell to singing with full voices, sweet and sad, 
 whereupon delight gat hold upon him and he took the cup from 
 the lady's hands and drank it standing. Then she drank a cup of 
 wine and my brother (still standing) said to her, "Health," and 
 bowed to her. She handed him another cup and he drank it off, 
 when she slapped him hard on the nape of his neck.^ Upon this 
 my brother would have gone out of the house in anger ; but the 
 old woman followed him and winked to him to return. So he 
 came back and the lady bade him sit and he sat down without a 
 word. Then she again slapped him on the nape of his neck ; and 
 the second slapping did not suffice her, she must needs make all 
 her handmaidens also slap and cuff him, while he kept saying to 
 the old woman, " I never saw aught nicer than this." She on her 
 side ceased not exclaiming, " Enough, enough, I conjure thee, O 
 my mistress!" but the women slapped him till he well-nigh 
 swooned away. Presently my brother rose and went out to obey a 
 call of nature, but the old woman overtook him, and said, "Be 
 patient a little and thou shalt win to thy wish." " How much 
 longer have I to wait ? " my brother replied, " this slapping hath 
 made me feel faint." "As soon as she is warm with wine," answered 
 she, " thou shalt have thy desire." So he returned to his place and 
 sat down, whereupon all the handmaidens stood up and the lady 
 
 ' This was the beginning of horseplay which often ends in a bastinado.
 
 The Barber's Tale of his Second Brother. 301 
 
 bade them perfume him with pastiles and besprinkle his face with 
 rose-water. Then said she to him, " Allah advance thee to honour ! 
 Thou hast entered my house and hast borne with my conditions ; 
 for whoso thwarteth me I turn him away, and whoso is patient hath 
 his desire." " O mistress mine," said he, " I am thy slave and in the 
 hollow of thine hand I " " Know, then," continued she, " that Allah 
 hath made me passionately fond of frolic ; and whoso falleth in with 
 my humour cometh by whatso he wisheth." Then she ordered 
 her maidens to sing with loud voices till the whole company was 
 delighted ; after which she said to one of them, " Take thy lord, 
 and do what is needful for him and bring him back to me forth- 
 right." So the damsel took my brother (and he not knowing what 
 she would do with him) ; but the old woman overtook him and 
 said, " Be patient ; there remaineth but little to do." At this his face 
 brightened and he stood up before the lady while the old woman 
 kept saying, "Be patient; thou wilt now at once win to thy wish !" 
 till he said, "Tell me what she would have the maiden do with 
 me?" "Nothing but good," replied she, "as I am thy sacrifice! 
 She wisheth only to dye thy eyebrows and pluck out thy mus- 
 tachioes." Quoth he, " As for the dying of my eyebrows, that will 
 come off with washing,^ but for the plucking out of my mustachioes 
 that indeed is a somewhat painful process." " Be cautious how 
 thou cross her," cried the old woman ; "for she hath set her heart 
 on thee." So my brother patiently suffered her to dye his eye- 
 brows and pluck out his mustachioes ; after which the maiden 
 returned to her mistress and told her, Quoth she, " Remaineth now 
 only one other thing to be done ; thou must shave his beard and 
 make him a smooth o' face.^ " So the maiden went back and told 
 him what her mistress had bidden her do ; and my brother (the 
 blockhead !) said to her, " How shall I do what will disgrace me 
 before the folk?" But the old woman said, "She would do on 
 this wise only that thou mayst be as a beardless youth and that no 
 hair be left on thy face to scratch and prick her delicate cheeks ; 
 for indeed she is passionately in love with thee. So be patient, and 
 thou shalt attain thine object." My brother was patient and did 
 her bidding and let shave off his beard, and when he was brought 
 
 1 Hair-dyes in the East are all of vegetalile matter, henna, indigo-leaves, galls, etc. : 
 our mineral dyes are, happily for them, unknown. Herklots will supply a host of 
 recipes. The Egyptian mixture which I quoted in Pilgrimage (ii. 274), is sulphate 
 of iron and ammoniure of iron one part and gall nuts two parts, infused in eight 
 parts of distilled water. It is innocuous, but very poor as a dye. 
 
 " Arab. Amrad, etymologically " beardless and handsome" ; but often used in a 
 bad sense, to denote an effeminate, a catamite.
 
 302 Alf Lay/ah iva Lay la h. 
 
 back to the lady, lo ! he appeared dyed red as to his eyebrows, 
 plucked of both mustachioes, shorn of his beard, rouged on both 
 cheeks. At first she was affrighted at him ; then she made 
 mockery of him, and laughing till she fell upon her back, said, 
 *'0 my lord, thou hast indeed won my heart by thy good nature!" 
 Then she conjured him, by her life, to stand up and dance, and he 
 arose, and capered about, and there was not a cushion in the house 
 but she threw it at his head, and in like manner did all her women, 
 who also kept pelting him with oranges and lemons and citrons 
 till he fell down senseless from the cuffing on the nape of the neck, 
 the pillowing, and the fruit-pelting. "Now thou hast attained thy 
 wish," said the old woman when he came round ; " there are no 
 more blows in store for thee, and there remaineth but one little 
 thing to do. It is her wont, when she is in her cups, to let no one 
 sport with her until she put off her dress and trousers and remain 
 stark naked.^ Then she will bid thee doff thy clothes and run, and 
 she will run before thee as if she were flying from thee, and do thou 
 follow her from place to place till she will yield to thee," adding, 
 " Strip off thy clothes at once." So he rose, well-nigh lost in ecstacy, 
 
 and, doffing his raiment, showed himself mother-naked. And 
 
 Shahrazad perceived" the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted 
 say. 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 old woman said to the Barber's second brother, " Doff thy clothes," 
 he rose, well-nigh lost in ecstacy; and, stripping off his raiment, 
 showed himself mother-naked. Whereupon the lady stripped also, 
 and said to my brother, " If thou want anything, run after me till 
 thou catch me." Then she set out at a run, and he ran after her 
 while she rushed into room after room and rushed out of room after 
 room, my brother scampering after her in a rage of desire like a 
 veritable madman. After much of this kind she dashed into a 
 darkened place, and he dashed after her; but suddenly he trod 
 upon a yielding spot, which gave way under his weight, and before 
 he was aware where he was, he found himself in the midst 
 of a crowded market, part of the bazar of the leather-sellers, 
 who were crying the prices of skins and hides, and buying 
 
 ' The Hindus prefer " having the cardinal points as her sole garment." Vetu 
 de climat, says Madame de Stael. In Paris nude statues are "draped in cerulean 
 blue." Rabelais (iv. 29) robes King Shrovetide in grey and gold of a comical cut, 
 nothing before, nothing behind, with sleeves of the same.
 
 No. 8. 
 
 The Barber's Tale of his Second 
 Brother. 
 
 "Then she set out at a run, and he ran after 
 her while she rushed into room after room and 
 rushed out of room after room, my brother scam- 
 pering after her in a rage of desire."
 
 The Barber's Tale of his Third Brother. 303 
 
 and selling. When they saw him in his plight, naked, 
 shorn of beard and mustachioes, with eyebrows dyed red, and 
 cheeks ruddled with rouge, they shouted and clapped their hands 
 at him, and set to flogging him with skins upon his bare body 
 till a swoon came over him. Then they threw him on the back 
 of an ass, and carried him to the Chief of Police. Quoth the 
 Chief, "What is this?" Quoth they, "This fellow fell suddenly 
 upon us out of the Wazir's house ^ in this state." So the Prefect 
 gave him an hundred lashes and then banished him from Baghdad. 
 However, I went out after him and brought him back secretly into 
 the city and made him a daily allowance for his living : although, 
 were it not for my generous humour, I could not have put up with 
 the like of him. Then tl.'e Caliph gave ear to 
 
 THE BARBER'S TALE OF HIS THIRD BROTHER. 
 
 My third brother's name was Al-Fakik, the Gabbler, who was 
 blind. One day Fate and Fortune drove him to a fine large house, 
 and he knocked at the door, desiring speech of its owner that he 
 might beg somewhat of him. Quoth the master of the house, 
 " AVho is at the door ? " But my brother spake not a word and 
 presently he heard him repeat with a loud voice, "Who be this?" 
 Still he made no answer and immediately heard the master walk 
 to the door and open it and say, "What dost thou want?" My 
 brother answered, "Something for Allah Almighty's sake.'^" "Art 
 thou blind ? " asked the man, and my brother answered, " Yes." 
 Quoth the other, " Stretch me out thy hand." So my brother put 
 out his hand thinking- that he would give him something; but he 
 took it and drawing him into the house, carried him up from stair 
 to stair till they reached the terrace on the house-top, my brother 
 thinking the while that he would surely give him something of 
 food or coin. Then he asked my brother, "What dost thou 
 want, O blind man ? " and he answered, " Something for the 
 Almighty's sake." " Allah open for thee some other door ! " " O 
 thou ! why not say so when I was below stairs ? " "0 cadger, 
 why not answer me when I first called to thee ? " " And what 
 meanest thou to do for me now?" "There is nothing in the. 
 house to give thee," " Then take me down the stair." " The path 
 is before thee." So my brother rose and made his way downstairs, 
 
 ' Meaning that the trick had been played by the Wazir's wife or daughter. I 
 could mention sundry names at Cairo whose charming owners have done worse 
 things than this unseemly frolic. 
 
 ^ Arab. " Shayyun li'llahi," a beggar's formula = per amor di Dio.
 
 304 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 till he came w'thm twenty steps of the door, when his foot slipped 
 and he rolled to the bottom and broke his head. Then he went 
 out, unknowing whither to turn, and presently fell in with two other 
 blind men, companions of his, who said to him, " What didst thou 
 gain to-day ? " He told them what had befallen him and added, 
 "O my brothers, I Avish to take some of the money in my hands 
 and provide myself with it." Now the master of the house had 
 followed him and was listening to what they said ; but neither my 
 brother nor his comrades knew of this. So my brother went to hi; 
 lodging and sat down to await his companions, and the house-ownei 
 entered after him without being perceived. When the other blind 
 men arrived, my brother said to them, "Bolt the door and search 
 the house lest any stranger have followed us. The man, hearing 
 this, caught hold of a cord that hung from the ceiling and clung to 
 it, whilst they went round about the house and searched but found 
 no one. So they came back and sitting beside my brother, brought 
 out their money which they counted, and lo ! it was twelve thousand 
 dirhams. Each took what he wanted and they buried the rest in 
 a corner of the room. Then they set on food and sat down to eat. 
 Presently my brother, hearing a strange pair of jaws munching by 
 his side,^ said to his friends, "There is a stranger amongst us"; 
 and, putting forth his hand, caught hold of that of the house-master. 
 Thereupon all fell on him and beat him ^ ; and when tired of 
 belabouring him they shouted, " O ye Moslems ! a thief is come in 
 to us, seeking to take our money ! " A crowd gathered around 
 them, whereupon the intruder hung on to them ; and complained 
 with them as they complained ; and shutting his eyes like them, so 
 that none might doubt his blindness, cried out, " O Moslems, I take 
 refuge with Allah and the Governor, for I have a matter to make 
 knov.'n to hi""' ! " Suddenly up came the watch and laying hands 
 
 ' Noting how sharp-eared the blind become. 
 
 * The bhnd in l'^g}'pt are notorious for insolence and violence, fanaticism and 
 ra]iacity. Not a few foreigners have sufi'cred from them (Pilgrimage, i. 148). In 
 former times many were blinded in infancy by their mothers, and others blinded 
 themselves to escape conscription or honest hard work. They could always obtain 
 food, especially as Alu'ezzins ; and were preferred because they could not take advan- 
 tage of the minaret by spying into their neighbours' households. The Egyptian 
 race is chronically weak-eyed, the effect of the damp hot climate of the valley, 
 where ophthalmia prevailed even during the pre-Pharaohnic days. The great 
 Sesostris died stone-blind, and his successor lost his sight for ten years (Pilgrimage, 
 ii. 176). That the Fellahs are now congenitally weak-eyed may be seen by 
 comparing them with negroes imported from Central Africa. Ophthalmia rages, 
 especially during the damp season, in the lower Nile-valley ; and the best cure for 
 it is a fortnight's trip lo the Desert, where, despite glare, sand and wind, the eye 
 readily reco\ crs tone.
 
 The Barbe/s Tale of his Third Brother. 305 
 
 on the whole lot (my brother being amongst them), drove them^ to 
 the Governor's, who set them before him and asked, " What news 
 with you ? " Quolh the intruder, " Look and find out for thyself, 
 not a word shall be wrung from us save by torture, so begin by 
 beating me and after me beat this man our leader.^ " And he pointed 
 to my brother. So they threw the man at full length and gave 
 him four hundred sticks on his backside. The beating pained 
 him, whereupon he opened one eye and, as they redoubled their 
 blows, he opened the other eye. When the Governor saw this 
 he said to him, "What have we here, O accursed?" whereto 
 he replied, " Give me the seal-ring of pardon ! We four have 
 shammed blind, and we impose upon people that we may enter 
 houses and look upon the unveiled faces of the women and con- 
 trive for their corruption. In this way we have gotten great gain, 
 and our store amounts to twelve thousand dirhams. Said I to my 
 company : — Give me ray share, three thousand ; but they rose antl 
 beat me and took away my money, and I seek refuge with Allah 
 and with thee ; better thou have my share than they. So, if thou 
 wouldst know the truth of my words, beat one and every of the 
 others more than thou' hast beaten me, and he will surely open his 
 eyes." The Governor gave orders for the question to begin with 
 my brother, and they bound him to the whipping-post,^ and the 
 Governor said, "O scum of the earth, do ye abuse the gracious 
 gifts of Allah, and make as if ye were blind ? " " Allah ! Allah ! " 
 cried my brother, " by Allah, there is none among us who can 
 see." Then they beat him till he swooned away and the Governor 
 cried, " Leave him till he come to and then beat him again." 
 After this he caused each of the companions to receive more than 
 three hundred sticks, whilst the sham-abraham kept saying to them, 
 " Open your eyes or you will be beaten afresh." At last the man 
 said to the Governor, " Despatch some one with me to bring thee 
 the money ; for these fellows will not open their eyes, lest they 
 incur disgrace before the folk." So the Governor sent to fetch 
 the money and gave the man his pretended share, three thousand 
 dirhams ; and, keeping the rest for himself, banished the three 
 blind men from the city. But I, O Commander of the Faithful, 
 went out and overtaking my brother questioned him of his case ; 
 whereupon he told me of what I have told thee ; so I brought hiiii 
 
 ' i.e. with kicks and cuffs, and blows, as is the custom. (Pilgrimage, i. 174.) 
 * Arab. Kaid (whence " Alcayde"), a word still much used in North Western 
 
 Africa. 
 
 3 Arab. "Sullam" = lit. a ladder; a frame-work of sticks, used by way of our 
 
 triangles or whipping-posts, 
 
 VOL. I. U
 
 3o5 Alf Laylah wa Lay/ah. 
 
 secretly into the city, and appointed him (in the strictest privacy) 
 an allowance for meat and drink. The Caliph laughed at my 
 story and said, " Give him a gift and let him go " ; but I said, " By 
 Allah ! I will take naught till I have made known to the Com- 
 mander of the Faithful w'hat came to pass with the rest of my 
 brothers ; for truly I am a man of few words and spare of speech." 
 Then the Caliph gave ear to 
 
 THE BARBER'S TALE OF HIS FOURTH BROTHER. 
 
 Now as for my fourth brother, O Commander of the Faithful, Al-Kuz 
 al-aswani, or the long-necked Gugglet of Syene hight, from his 
 brimming over with words, the same who became blmd of one eye, he 
 became a butcher in Baghdad and he sold flesh and fattened rams : 
 and great men and rich bought their meat of him, so that he 
 amassed much wealth and got him cattle and houses. He fared 
 thus a long while, till one day as he was sitting in his shop, there 
 came up an old man and long o' the beard, who laid down 
 some silver and said, " Give me meat for this." He gave him his 
 money's worth of flesh, and the oldster went his ways. My brother 
 examined the Shaykh's silver and seeing that the dirhams were 
 white and bright, he set them in a place apart. The greybeard 
 continued to return to the shop regularly for five months, and my 
 brother ceased not to lay up all the coin he received from him in its 
 own box. At last he thought to take out the money to buy sheep ; 
 so he opened the box and found in it nothing, save bits of white 
 paper cut round to look like coin ^ ; so he buffeted his face and 
 cried aloud till the folk gathered about him, whereupon he told 
 them his tale which made them marvel exceedingly. Then he 
 rose as was his wont, and slaughtering a ram hung it up inside his 
 shop ; after which he cut off some of the flesh, and hanging it 
 outside kept saying to himself, "O Allah, would the ill-omened 
 old fellow but come ! " And an hour had not passed before the 
 Shaykh came with his silver in hand ; whereupon my brother rose 
 and caught hold of him calling out, "Come aid me, O Moslems, and 
 learn my story with this villain ! " When the old man heard this, 
 he quietly said to him, " Which will be the better for thee, to let 
 go of me or to be disgraced by me amidst the folk ? " " In what 
 wilt thou disgrace me?" "In that thou sellest man's flesh for 
 mutton ! " " Thou liest, thou accursed ! " " Nay, he is the accursed 
 
 ^ This is one of the feats of Al-Simiya = white magic ; fascinating the eyes. In 
 Europe it has lately taken the name of " Electro-biology."
 
 77/1? Barhet's Tale of Jtis Fourth Brother. 307 
 
 who hath a man hanging up by way of meat in his shop." " If 
 the matter be as thou sayest, I give thee lawful leave to take my 
 money and my life." Then the old man cried out aloud, " Ho, ye 
 people ! if you would prove the truth of my words, enter this man's 
 shop." The folk rushed in and found that the ram was become 
 a dead man ^ hung up for sale. So they set upon my brother 
 crying out, " O Infidel ! O villain ! " and his best friends fell to 
 cuffing and kicking him and kept saying, " Dost thou make us eat 
 flesh of the sons of Adam?" Furthermore, the old man struck 
 him on the eye and put it out. Then they carried the carcass, with 
 the throat cut, before the Chief of the city-watch, to whom the old 
 man said, "O Emir, this fellow butchers men and sells their 
 flesh for mutton, and we have brought him to thee; so arise and 
 execute the judgments of Allah (to whom be honour and glory !)." 
 My brother would have defended himself, but the Chief refused to 
 hear him, and sentenced him to receive five hundred sticks and to 
 forfeit the whole of his property. And, indeed, had it not been for 
 that same property, which he expended in bribes, they would have 
 surely slain him. Then the Chief banished him from Baghdad, 
 and my brother fared forth at a venture, till he came to a great 
 town, where he thought it best to set up as a cobbler ; so he opened 
 a shop, and sat there doing what he could for his livelihood. One 
 day, as he went forth on his business, he heard the distant tramp 
 of horses, and asking the cause was told that the King was going 
 out to hunt and course; so my brother stopped to look at the fine 
 suite. It so fortuned that the King's eye met my brother's, where- 
 upon the King hung down his head, and said, "I seek refuge with 
 Allah from the evil of this day '^ ! " and turned the reins of his steed 
 and returned home with all his retinue. Then he gave orders to 
 his guards, who seized my brother and beat him with a beating so 
 painful that he was well-nigh dead ; and my brother knew not what 
 could be the cause of his maltreatment, after which he returned to 
 his place in sorriest plight. Soon afterwards he went to one of the 
 King's household and related what had happened to him ; and the 
 man laughed till he fell upon his back and cried, " O brother mine, 
 know that the King cannot bear to look at a monocular, especially 
 if he be blind of the right eye, in which case he doth not let him 
 
 ' Again by means of the " Slmiya " or power of fascination possessed by the old 
 scoundrel. 
 
 ^ A formula for averting " Al-Ayn," the evil eye. It is always unlucky to meet 
 a one-eyed man, especially the first thing in the morning and when setting out on 
 any errand. The idea is that the fascinated one will suffer from some action of the 
 physical eye. Monoculars also are held to be rogues : so the Sanskrit saying, "Few 
 one-eyed men be honest men." 
 
 U 2
 
 3o8 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 go without killing him." When my brother heard this, he lesolved 
 to fly from that city; so he went forth from it to another, wherein 
 none knew him, and therein he abode a long while. One day, 
 being full of sorrowful thought for what had befallen him, he 
 sallied out to solace himself; and as he was walking along, he 
 heard the distant tramp of horses behind him and said, "The 
 judgment of Allah is upon me ! " and looked about for a hiding- 
 place but found none. At last he saw a closed door which he 
 pushed hard : it yielded, and he entered a long gallery in which he 
 took refuge, but hardly had he done so when two men set upon 
 him crying out, "Allah be thanked for having delivered thee into 
 our hands, O enemy of God ! These three nights thou hast robbed 
 us of our rest and sleep, and verily thou hast made us taste of the 
 death-cup." My brother asked, " O folk, what ails you ? " and they 
 answered, " Thou givest us the change and goest about to disgrace 
 us and plannest some plot to cut the throat of the house- master ! 
 Is it not enough that thou hast brought him to beggary, thou 
 and thy fellows? But now give us up the knife wherewith thou 
 threatenest us every night." Then they searched him and found 
 in his waist-belt the knife used for his shoe-leather; and he said, 
 "O people, have the fear of Allah before your eyes and maltreat 
 me not, for know that my story is a right strange ! " " And what 
 is thy story?" said they: so he told them what had befallen him, 
 hoping they would let him go ; however, they paid no heed to 
 what he said, and, instead of showing some regard, beat him 
 grievously, and tore off his clothes. Then, finding on his sides the 
 scars of beating with rods, they said, " O accursed ! These marks 
 are the manifest signs of thy guilt." They carried him before the 
 Governor, whilst he said to himself, " I am now punished for my 
 sins, and none can deliver me save Allah Almighty." The Governor, 
 addressing my brother, asked him, " O villain ! what led thee to 
 enter their house with intention to murther?" And my brother 
 answered, " I conjure thee by Allah, O Emir, hear my words, and 
 be not hasty in condemning me ! " But the Governor cried, " Shall 
 we listen to the words of a robber who hath beggared these people 
 and who beareth on his back the scar of his stripes?" Add'ng, 
 " They surely had not done this to thee save for some great crime." 
 So he sentenced him to receive an hundred cuts with the scourge, 
 after which they set him on a camel and paraded him about the city, 
 proclaiming, " This is the requital, and only too little to requite him 
 who breaketh into people's houses." Then they thrust him out of 
 the city, and my brother wandered at random, till I heard what had 
 befallen him ; and going in search of him questioned him of his.
 
 The Barhet's Tale of his Fifth Brother. 309 
 
 case ; so he acquainted me with his story and all his mischances, 
 and I carried him secretly to the city where I made him an allowance 
 for his meat and drink. Then the Caliph gave ear to 
 
 THE BARBERS TALE OF HIS FIFTH BROTHER. 
 
 My fifth brother Al-Nashshar,^ the Babbler, the same who was 
 cropped of both ears, O Commander of the Faithful, was an asker 
 wont to beg of folk by night and live on their alms by day. Now 
 when our father, who was an old man well stricken in years, 
 sickened and died, he left us seven hundred dirhams whereof 
 each son took his hundred ; but, as my fifth brother received his 
 portion, he was perplexed and knew not what to do with it. 
 While in this uncertainty he bethought him to lay it out on glass- 
 ware of all sorts and turn an honest penny on its price. So he 
 bought an hundred dirhams' worth of verroterie and putting it into 
 a big tray, sat down to sell it on a bench at the foot of a wall 
 against which he leant back. As he sat with the tray before him 
 he fell to musing and said to himself, " Know, O my good Self, 
 that the head of my wealth, my principal invested in this glass-ware, 
 is an hundred dirhams. I will assuredly sell it for two hundred, 
 with which I will forthright buy other glass and make by it four 
 hundred ; nor will I cease to sell and buy on this wise, till I have 
 gotten four thousand and soon find myself the master of much 
 money. With these coins I will purchase merchandise and jewels 
 and ottars ^ and gain great profit on them ; till, Allah willing, I will 
 make my capital an hundred thousand dirhams. Then I will 
 purchase a fine house with white slaves and eunuchs and horses ; 
 and I will eat and drink and disport myself; nor will I leave a 
 singing man or a singing woman in the city, but I will summon 
 
 ' Al-Nashshar from 'Nashr = sawing : so the fiddler in Italian is called the 
 " village-saw" (Stxa dclvillaggio). He is the Alnaschar of the English Galland 
 and Richardson. The tale is very old. It appears as the Brahman and the Pot of 
 Rice in the Panchatantra ; and Professor Benfey believes (as usual with him) that 
 this, with many others, comes from a Buddhist source. But I would distinctly 
 derive it from ^sop's market-woman who kicked over her eggs ; whence the Lat. 
 prov. Ante victoriam canere triumphum = to sell the skin before you have caught 
 the bear. In the " Kalilah and Dimnah," and its numerous ofispring, it is the 
 " Ascetic with his Jar of oil and honey " ; in Rabelais (i. 33), Echejihron's shoe- 
 maker sj)ills his milk, and so La Perette in La Fontaine. See M. Max Miiller's 
 "Chips," vol. iii. , appendix. The curious reader will compare my version with 
 that which appears at the end of Richardson's Arabic Grammar (Edit, of iSil): he 
 had a better, or rather a fuller MS. (p. 199) than any yet printed. 
 
 ^ Arab. "'Atr " = any perfume, especially oil of roses; whence our word "Ottar," 
 through the Turkish corruptioia.
 
 3EO A// Lay la h iva Laylah. 
 
 them to my palace and make them perform before me." All this 
 lie counted over in his mind, while the tray of glass-ware, worth an 
 hundred dirhams, stood on the bench before him; and, after 
 looking at it, he continued, " And when, Inshallah ! my capital shall 
 have become one hundred thousand^ dinars, I will send out 
 marriagebrokeresses to require for me in wedlock the daughters of 
 Kings and Wazirs ; and I will demand to wife the eldest daughter 
 of the Prime Minister ; for it hath reached me that she is perfect 
 in beauty and prime in loveliness and rare in accomplishments. I 
 will give a marriage-settlement of one thousand dinars ; and, if her 
 father consent, well ; but if not I will take her by force from under 
 his very nose. When she is safely homed in my house, I will buy 
 ten Uttle eunuchs ^ and for myself a robe of the robes of Kings and 
 Sultans ; and get me a saddle of gold and a bridle set thick with 
 gems of price. Then I will mount with the Mamelukes preceding 
 me and surrounding me, and I will make the round of the city, 
 whilst the folk salute me and bless me ; after which I will repair to 
 the Wazir (he that is father of the girl), with armed white slaves 
 before and behind me and on my right and on my left. When he 
 sees me, the Wazir stands up, and seating me in his own place sits 
 down much below me ; for that I am to be his son-in-law. Now I 
 have with me two eunuchs carrying purses, each containing a 
 thousand dinars ; and of these I deliver to him the thousand, his 
 daughter's marriage-settlement, and make him a free gift of the 
 other thousand, that he may have reason to know my generosity 
 and liberality and my greatness of spirit and the litdeness of the 
 world in my eyes. x\nd for ten words he addresses to me I answer 
 him two. Then back I go to my house, and if one come to me on 
 the bride's part I make him a present of money and throw on him 
 a dress of honour ; but if he bring me a gift, I give it back to him 
 and refuse to accept it,^ that they may learn what a proud spirit is 
 mine which never condescends to derogate. Thus I establish my 
 rank and status. When this is done I appoint her wedding night 
 and adorn my house showily ! gloriously ! And as the time for 
 parading the bride is come, I don my finest dress and sit down on 
 a mattress of gold brocade, propping up my elbow with a pillow, 
 
 » The texts give "dirhams" (100,000 = 5,000 dinars) for "dinars," a clerical 
 error, as the sequel shows. 
 
 * " Young slaves," says Richardson, losing " colour." 
 
 3 Nothing more calculated to give affront than such a refusal. Richardson 
 (p. 204), who, however, doubts his own version (p. 20S), here translates, " and I 
 will not give liberty to my soul (spouse) but in her apartments." The Arabic or 
 rather Cairene, is " wa la akhalli ruhi" = I will not let myself go, i.e., be my 
 everyday self. etc.
 
 The Barha's Tale of his Fifth Brother. 311 
 
 and turning neither to the right nor to the left; but looking only 
 straight in front for the haughtiness of my mind and the gravity of 
 my understanding. And there before me stands my wife in her 
 raiment and ornaments, lovely as the full moon; and I, m my 
 loftiness and dread lordliness/ will not glance at her till those 
 present say to me, O our lord and our master, thy wife, thy 
 handmaid, standeth before thee ; vouchsafe her one look for 
 standing weaiieth her. Then they kiss ground before me many 
 times; whereupon I raise my eyes and cast at her one single 
 -lance and turn my face earth-wards again. Then they bear her 
 off to the bride-chamber,'^ and I arise and change my clothes for a 
 far finer suit ; and, when they bring in the bride a second time, I 
 deign not to throw her a look till they have begged me many times ; 
 after which I glance at her out of the corner of one eye, and then 
 bend down my head. I continue acting after this fashion till the 
 
 parading and displaying are completed.' And Shahrazad perceived 
 
 the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 jQoto to^cn it teas \\z er()irtp4l)irli ^\^i. 
 
 She said It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Barbers 
 fifth brother proceeded :— Then I bend down my head and continue 
 acting after this fashion till her parading and displaying are 
 completed. Thereupon I order one of my eunuchs to bring me a 
 bag of five hundred dinars which I give as largesse to the tire- 
 women present, and bid them one and all lead me to the 
 bride-chamber. When they leave me alone with her I neither look 
 at her nor speak to her, but lie^ by her side with my face to the wall 
 showing my contempt, that each and every may again remark how 
 high and haughty I am. Presently her mother comes in to me, and, 
 kissing^ my head and hand, says to me,— O my lord, look upon thine 
 handmaid who longs for thy favour; so heal her broken spirit. 
 I give her no answer, and when she sees this she rises and busses 
 my feet many times, and says,— O my lord, in very sooth my 
 daughter is a beautiful maid, who hath never known man, and il 
 thou show her this backwardness and aversion her heart will break ; 
 so do thou incline to her and speak to her and soothe her mind and 
 
 1 " Whilst she is in astonishment and terror." (Richardson ) ^ ^^ 
 
 2 " Chamber of robes," Richardson, whose text has " ^am for Manam. 
 
 3 " Till I compleat her distress," Richardson, whose text is corrupt. 
 
 4 " Sleep by her side," R. the word " Nama," bearmg both senses. 
 
 5 «' Will take my hand," R. " takabbal," being also ambiguous.
 
 312 A If Lay! ah wa Laylah. 
 
 spirit. Then she rises and fetches a cup of wine, and says to her 
 daughter, — Take it and hand it to thy lord. But as she approaches 
 me I leave her standing between my hands and sit, propping my 
 elbow on a round cushion purfled with gold thread, leaning lazily 
 back, and without looking at her in the majesty of my spirit, so that 
 she may deem me indeed a Sultan and a mighty man. Then she 
 says to me, — O my lord, Allah upon thee ! do not refuse to take 
 the cup from the hand of thine handmaid, for verily I am thy 
 bondswoman. But I do not speak to her, and she presses me, 
 saying, — There is no help but that thou drink it, and she puts 
 it to my lips. Then I shake my fist in her face and kick her 
 with my foot thus." So he let out with his toe and knocked 
 over the tray of glass-ware, which fell to the ground, and falling 
 from the bench, all that was on it was broken to bits. " O 
 foulest of pimps,^ this comes from the pride of my spirit ! " 
 cried my brother ; and then, O Commander of the Faithful, he 
 buffeted his face and rent his garments, and kept on weeping and 
 beating himself. The folk who were flocking to their Friday prayers 
 saw him ; and some of them looked at him and pitied him, whilst 
 others paid no heed to him, and in this way my brother lost both 
 capital and profit. He remained weeping a long while, and at last 
 up came a beautiful lady, the scent of musk exhaling from her, 
 who was going to Friday prayers riding a mule with a golden saddle 
 and followed by several eunuchs. When she saw the broken 
 glass and my brother weeping, her kind heart was moved to pity 
 for him, and she asked w'hat ailed him, and was told that he had 
 a tray full of glass-ware by the sale of which he hoped to gain his 
 living, but it was broken, and (said they), " there befell him 
 what thou seest." Thereupon she called up one of her eunuchs 
 and said to him, " Give what thou hast with thee to this poor 
 fellow ! " And he gave my brother a purse in which he found five 
 hundred dinars ; and when it touched his hand he was well-nigh 
 dying for excess of joy and he offered up blessings for her. Then 
 he returned to his abode a substantial man ; and, as he sat con 
 sidering, some one rapped at the door. So he rose and opened, 
 and saw an old woman whom he had never seen. " O my son,'' 
 said she, " know that prayer-tide is near and I have not yet made 
 my Wuzu-ablution ^ ; so kindly allow me the use of thy lodging for 
 
 ' Arab. " Mu'arras," one who brings about *' 'Ars," marriages, etc. So the 
 Germ. " Kupplcrinn," a Coujileress. It is one of tlie many synonyms for a pimp, 
 and a word in general use (I'ilgrimage, i. 276). The most insulting term, like 
 Dayyiis, insinuates that the man panders for his own wife. 
 Of hands and face, etc. See night cccclxiv.
 
 The Bai-her's Tale of his Fifth Brother. 313 
 
 the purpose." My brother answered, " To hear is to comply " ; and 
 going in bade her follow him. So she entered and he brought hei 
 an ewer wherewith to wash, and sat down like to fly with jo}' 
 because of the dinars which he had tied up in his belt for a purse. 
 When the old woman had made an end of her ablution, she came 
 up to where he sat, and prayed a two-bow prayer ; after which she 
 blessed my brother with a godly benediction, and he while thanking 
 her put his hand to the dinars and gave her two, saying to 
 himself, " These are my voluntaries.^ " When she saw the gold she 
 cried, " Praise be to Allah ! why dost thou look on one who loveth 
 thee as if she were a beggar? Take back thy money: I have no 
 need of it ; or, if thou want it not, return it to her who gave it thee 
 when th} glass-ware was broken. Moreover, if thou wish to be 
 united with her, I can manage the matter, for she is my mistress." 
 "O my mother," asked my brother, "by what manner of means 
 can I get at her?" and she answered, "O my son! she hath an 
 inclination for thee, but she is the wife of a wealthy man ; so take 
 the whole of thy money with thee and follow me, that I may guide 
 thee to thy desire : and when thou art in her company spare 
 neither persuasion nor fair words, but bring them all to bear 
 upon her ; so shalt thou enjoy her beauty and wealth to thy heart's 
 content." My brother took all his gold and rose and followed the 
 old woman, hardly believing in his luck. She ceased not faring 
 on and my brother following her, till they came to a tall gate at 
 which she knocked, and a Roumi slave-girl ^ came out and opened 
 to them. Then the old woman led my brother into a great sitting- 
 room spread with wondrous fine carpets and hung with curtains, 
 where he sat down with his gold before him, and his turband on his 
 knee.'' He had scarcely taken seat before there came to him a 
 young lady (never eye saw fairer) clad in garments of the most 
 sumptuous ; whereupon my brother rose to his feet, and she smiled 
 in his face and welcomed him, signing to him to be seated. Then 
 she bade shut the door and when it was shut she turned to my 
 brother, and taking his hand conducted him to a private chamber 
 
 ' Arab. " Sadakah " (sincerity), voluntary or superogatory alms, opposed to 
 " Zakat " (purification), legal alms which are indispensable. "Prayer carries us 
 half-way to Allah ; fasting brings us to the door of His palace, and alms-deeds 
 (Sadakah) causes us to enter." For "Zakat" no especial rate is fixed; but it 
 should not be less than one-fortieth of property or two and a half per cent. 
 
 ^ A Greek girl. 
 
 3 This was making himself very easy ; and the idea is that the gold in pouch 
 caused him to be so bold. Lane's explanation (in loco) is all wrong. The pride 
 engendered by sudden possession of money is a lieit coininun amongst Eastern 
 story-tellers ; even in the beast-fables the mouse which has stolen a few gold jiieces 
 becomes confident and stout-hearted.
 
 314 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 furnished with various kinds of brocades and gold-cloths. Here he 
 sat down and she sat by his side and toyed with him awhile ; after 
 which she rose and saying, "Stir not from thy seat till I come back 
 to thee," disappeared. Meanwhile, as he was on this wise, lo ! 
 there came in to him a black slave big of body and bulk and holding 
 a drawn sword in hand, who said to him, " Woe to thee ! Who 
 brought thee hither and what dost thou want here ? " My brother 
 could not return him a reply, being tongue-tied for terror ; so the 
 blackamoor seized him and stripped him of his clothes and bashed 
 him with the flat of his sword-blade till he fell to the ground, 
 swooning from excess of belabouring. The ill-omened nigger 
 fancied that there was an end of him and my brother heard him 
 cry, " Where is the salt-wench ^ ? " Whereupon in came a handmaid 
 holding in hand a large tray of salt, and the slave kept rubbing it 
 into my brother's wounds "" ; but he did not stir fearing lest the 
 slave might fmd out that he was not dead, and kill him outright. 
 Then the salt-girl went away, and the slave cried, "AVhere is the 
 souterrain^ -guardianess ? " Hereupon in came the old woman and 
 dragged my brother by his feet to a souterrain and threw him down 
 upon a heap of dead bodies. In this place he lay two full days, 
 but Allah made the salt the means of preserving his life by staunch- 
 ing the blood and staying its flow. Presently feeling himself able 
 to move, Al-Nashshar rose and opened the trap-door in fear and 
 trembling, and crept out into the open ; and Allah protected him, 
 so that he went on in the darkness and hid himself in the vestibule 
 till dawn, when he saw the accursed beldam sally forth in quest of 
 other quarry. He followed in her wake without her knowing it, 
 and made for his own lodging, where he dressed his wounds and 
 medicined himself till he was whole. Meanwhile, he used to watch 
 the old woman, tracking her at all times and seasons, and saw her 
 accost one man after another and carry them to the house. 
 However, he uttered not a word; but, as soon as he waxed hale 
 and hearty, he took a piece of stuff and made it into a bag, which 
 he filled with broken glass and bound about his middle. He also 
 disguised himself as a Persian, that none might know him, and hid a 
 sword under his clothes of foreign cut. Then he went out, and 
 presently, falling in with the old woman, said to her, speaking 
 
 'Arab. " Al-Malihah " also means the beautiful (fern.), from "Milh" = salt, 
 splendour, etc., the Mac. Eilit. has " Mumallihah " = a salt-vessel. 
 
 " i.e. to see if he felt the smart. 
 
 3 Arab. " Sardabeh " ( Persian) = an underground room used for coolness in the 
 hot season. It is unknown in Cairo, but every house in Baghdad, in fact, through- 
 out the Mesopotaniian cities, has one. It is on the principle of the underground 
 cellar, without which wint will not keep : Lane (i. 406) calls it a " vault."
 
 The Barber's Tale of his Fifth Brother. 315 
 
 Arabic with a Persian accent, "Venerable lady,^ I am a stranger 
 arrived but this day here, where I know no one. Hast thou a pair 
 of scales wherein I may weigh eleven hundred dinars. I will give 
 thee somewhat of them for thy pains." " I have a son, a money- 
 changer, who keepeth all kinds of scales," she answered ; "so come 
 with me to him before he goeth out and he will weigh thy gold." 
 My brother answered, " Lead the way ! " She led him to the house 
 and the young lady herself came out and opened it, whereupon the 
 old woman smiled in her face and said, " I bring thee fat meat 
 to-day.^ " Then the damsel took my brother by the hand, and led 
 him to the same chamber as before ; where she sat with him awhile, 
 then rose and went forth saying, " Stir not from thy seat till I come 
 back to thee." Presently in came the accursed slave with the drawn 
 sword, and cried to my brother, " Up and be damned to thee ! " 
 So he rose, and as the slave walked on before him he drew the 
 sword from under his clothes and smote him with it, making head 
 fly from body. Then he dragged the corpse by the feet to the 
 souterrain and called out, " Where is the salt-wench ? " Up came 
 the girl carrying the tray of salt and, seeing my brother sword in 
 hand, turned to fly ; but he followed her and struck off" her head. 
 Then he called out, " Where' is the souterrain-guardianess ? " and 
 in came the old woman to whom he said, " Dost know me again, O 
 ill-omened hag?" " No my lord," she replied; and he said, "I am the 
 owner of the five hundred gold pieces, whose house thou enteredst 
 to make the ablution and to pray, and whom thou didst snare 
 hither and betray." "Fear Allah and spare me!" cried she; but 
 he regarded her not and struck her with the sword till he had cut 
 her in four. Then he went to look for the young lady ; and when 
 she saw him her reason fled, and she cried out piteously, " Aman ^ ! 
 Mercy 1 " So he spared her and asked, " What made thee consort 
 with this blackamoor ? " and she answered, " I was slave to a 
 certain merchant, and the old woman used to visit me till I took 
 a liking to her. One day she said to me : — We have a marriage 
 festival at our house the like of which was never seen, and I wish 
 thee to enjoy the sight. To hear is to obey, answered I, and rising 
 arrayed myself in my finest raiment and ornaments, and took 
 with me a purse containing an hundred gold pieces. Then she 
 brought me hither, and hardly had I entered the house when the 
 
 ' In the orig. " O old woman ! " which is insulting. 
 
 ' So the Italians say, " a quail to skin." 
 
 3 " Aman " is the word used for quarter on the battle-field ; and there are 
 Joe Millers about our soldiers in India mistaking it for " a man,'' or ( Scotlict'.) " a 
 mon."
 
 3i6 Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 black seized on me, and I have remained in this case three whole 
 years through the perfidy of the accursed beldam." Then my 
 brother asked her, "Is there anything of his in the house?" 
 Whereto she answered, " Great store of wealth, and if thou art able 
 to carry it away do so, and Allah give thee good of it ! " My brother 
 went with her, and she opened to him sundry chests, wherein were 
 money bags, at which he was astounded. Then she said to him, 
 " Go now and leave me here, and fetch men to remove the money." 
 He went out and hired ten men, but when he returned he found the 
 door wide open, the damsel gone, and nothing left but some small 
 matter of coin and the household stuffs.^ By this he knew that the 
 girl had over-reached him ; so he opened the store rooms, and seized 
 what was in them, together with the rest of the money, leaving 
 nothing in the house. He passed the night rejoicing, but when 
 morning dawned he found at the door some twenty troopers, who 
 laid hands on him, saying, " The Governor wants thee." My 
 brother implored them hard to let him return to his house, and even 
 offered them a large sum of money ; but they refused, and binding 
 him fast with cords carried him off. On the way they met a friend 
 of my brother and clung to his skirt and implored his protection, 
 begging him to stand by him and help to deliver him out of their 
 hands. The man stopped, and asked them what was the matter, 
 and they answered, " The Governor hath ordered us to bring this 
 fellow before him and, look ye, we arc doing so." My brother's 
 friend urged them to release him, and offered them five hundred 
 dinars to let him go, saying, " When ye return to the Governor tell 
 him that you were unable to find him." But they would not listen 
 to his words and took my brother, dragging him along on his face, 
 and set him before the Governor, who asked him, " Whence gottest 
 thou these stuffs and moneys ? " and he answered, " I pray for 
 mercy ! " So the Governor gave him the kerchief of mercy ^ ; and 
 he told him all that had befallen him from first to last with the old 
 woman and the Right of the damsel ; ending with, " Whatso I have 
 taken, take of it as thou wilt, so thou leave me sufficient to 
 support life.*" But the Governor took the whole of the stuffs and 
 all the money for himself ; and, fearing lest the affair come to the 
 Sultan's ears, he summoned my brother and said, " Depart from this 
 city, else I will hang thee." " Hearing and obedience," quoth my 
 
 ' Illustrating the Persian saying, " Allah Himself cannot help a fool." 
 
 ^ Any article taken from the jjerson and given to a criminal is a promise or 
 
 pardon, of course on the implied condition of plenary confession and of becoming 
 
 " King's evidence." 
 3 A naive proposal to share the plunder.
 
 The Ba?-ber's Tale of Ids Sixth Brother. 317 
 
 brother, and set out for another town. On the way thieves fell foul 
 of him and stripped and beat him and docked his ears ; but I 
 heard tidings of his misfortunes and went out after him taking him 
 clothes ; and brought him secretly into the city where I assigned 
 to him an allowance for meat and drink. And presently the Caliph 
 gave ear to 
 
 THE BARBERS TALE OF HIS SIXTH BROTHER. 
 
 My sixth brother, O Commander of the Faithful, Shakashik,^ or 
 Many-clamours, the shorn of both lips, was once rich and became 
 poor ; so one day he went out to beg somewhat to keep life in him. 
 As he was on the road he suddenly caught sight of a large and 
 handsome mansion, with a detached building wide and lofty at the 
 entrance, where sat sundry eunuchs bidding and forbidding.^ INIy 
 brother enquired of one of those idling there, and he replied, " The 
 palace belongs to a scion of the Barmaki house " ; so he stepped up 
 to the door-keepers and asked an alms of them. " Enter," said 
 they, " by the great gate and thou shalt get what thou seekest from 
 the Wazir our master." Accordingly he went in and passing 
 through the outer entrance walked on a while and pres(intly came 
 to a mansion of the utmost beauty and elegance, paved with 
 marble, hung with hangings, and having in the midst of it a 
 flower garden whose like he had never seen.^ My brother stood 
 awhile as one bewildered, not knowing whither to turn his steps ; 
 then, seeing the farther end of the sitting-chamber tenanted, he 
 walked up to it and there found a man of handsome presence and 
 comely beard. When this personage saw my brother he stood up 
 to him and welcomed him and asked him of his case ; whereto he 
 replied that he was in want and needed charity. Hearing these 
 words the grandee showed great concern and putting his hand to 
 his fine robe rent it exclaiming, " What ! am I in a city, and thou 
 here an-hungered ? I have not patience to bear such disgrace ! " 
 Then he promised him all manner of good cheer and said, "There 
 is no help but that thou stay with me and eat of my salt.^ " " O 
 
 ' In popular literature " Schacabac." And from this tale comes our saying, " a 
 Barmecide's Feast," i.e. an illusion. 
 
 ^ The Castrato at the door is still (I have said) the fashion of Cairo, and he acts 
 " Suisse " with a witness. 
 
 3 As usual in the East, the mansion was a hollow square surrounding what in 
 Spain is called Patio : the outer entrance w as far from the inner, showing the extent 
 of the grounds. 
 
 ■* " Nahnu malihin" = we are on terms of salt, said and say the Arabs. But the 
 traveller must not trust in these days to the once sacred tie ; there are tribes which
 
 3i8 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 my lord," answered my brother, " I can wait no longer ; for I am 
 indeed dying of hunger." So he cried, " Ho boy ! bring basin and 
 ewer " ; and, turning to my brother, said, " O my guest come for- 
 ward and wash thy hands." My brother rose to do so but he saw 
 neither ewer nor basin ; yet his host kept washing his hands with 
 invisible soap in imperceptible water and cried, " Bring the table ! " 
 But my brother again saw nothing. Then said the host, " Honour 
 me by eating of this meat and be not ashamed." And he kept 
 moving his hand to and fro as if he ate, and saying to my brother, 
 "I wonder to see thee eating thus sparely : do not stint thyself, for 
 I am sure thou art famished." So my brother began to make as 
 though he were eating whilst his host kept saying to him, " Fall 
 to, and note especially the excellence of this bread and its white- 
 ness ! " But still my brother saw nothing. Then said he to 
 himself, " This man is fond of poking fun at people " ; and replied, 
 " O my lord, in all my days I never knew aught more winsome than 
 its whiteness or sweeter than its savour." The Barmecide said, 
 "This bread was baked by a handmaid of mine whom I bought 
 for five hundred dinars." Then he called out, " Ho boy, bring in 
 the meat-pudding ^ for our first dish, and let there be plenty of fat 
 in it " ; and, turning to my brother, said, " O my guest, Allah upon 
 thee ! hast ever seen anything better than this meat-pudding. 
 Now by my life, eat and be not abashed." Presently he cried out 
 again, " Ho boy, serve up the marinated stew ^ with the fatted sand- 
 grouse in it " ; and he said to my brother, " Up and eat, O my 
 guest, for truly thou art hungry and needest food." So my 
 brother began wagging his jaws and made as if champing and 
 chewing,'* whilst the host continued calling for one dish after 
 another, and yet produced nothing save orders to eat. Presently 
 he cried out, "Ho boy, bring us the chickens stuffed with pistachio 
 nuts"; and said to my brother, "By thy life, O my guest! I have 
 fattened these chickens upon pistachios ; eat, for thou hast never 
 eaten their like." "O my lord," replied my brother, "they are 
 
 w ill fjive bread with one hand and stab with the other. The Eastern use of salt is 
 i\ curious contrast witli that of Westerns, who made it an invidious and inhospitable 
 distinclion, e.g. to sit above the salt-cellar and below the salt. Amongst the 
 ancients, however, " he took bread and salt " means he swore, the food being 
 eaten when an oath was taken. Hence the "Bride cake" of salt, water and 
 flour. 
 
 ' Arab. " Ilarisah," the meat-pudding before explained. 
 
 - Arab. " Sikbaj," before explained ; it is held to be a lordly dish, invented 
 by Khusraw Parwiz. " Fatted duck," says the Bresl. Edit. ii. 308, with more 
 
 reason. 
 
 ■5 I was reproved in Southern Abyssinia for eating without this champing, 
 " Thou feedest like a beggar, who numcheth silently in his corner " ; and 
 presently found that it was a sign of good breeding to eat as noisily as possible.
 
 The Barber's Tale of his S/'x/h Brother. 3 1 9 
 
 indeed first-rate." Then the host began motioning with his hand 
 as though he were giving my brother a mouthful ; and ceased not 
 to enumerate and expatiate upon the various dishes to the hungry 
 man, whose hunger waxed still more violent, so that his soul lusted 
 after a bit of bread, even a barley-scone.^ Quoth the Barmecide, 
 " Didst thou ever taste anything more delicious than the seasoning 
 of these dishes?" and quoth my brother, "Never, O my lord!" 
 " Eat heartily and be not ashamed," said the host ; and the guest, 
 " I have eaten my fill of meat." So the entertainer cried, " Take 
 away, and bring in the sweets " ; and turning to my brother said, 
 " Eat of this almond conserve for it is prime, and of these honey 
 fritters ; take this one; by my life, the syrup runs out of it!" " May 
 I never be bereaved of thee, O my lord," replied the hungry one, 
 and began to ask him about the abundance of musk in the fritters. 
 " Such is my custom," he answered : " they put me a dinar-weight 
 of musk in every honey-fritter and half that quantity of amber- 
 gris." All this time my brother kept wagging head and jaws till 
 the master cried, " Enough of this. Bring us the dessert I " Then 
 said he to him, " Eat of these almonds and walnuts and raisins ; 
 and of this and that (naming divers kinds of dried fruits), and be 
 not abashed." But my brother replied, " O my lord, indeed I am 
 full : I can eat no more." " O my guest," repeated the host, " if 
 thou have a mind to these good things eat ; Allah ! Allah ^ ! do not 
 remain hungry " ; but my brother rejoined, " O my lord, he who hath 
 eaten of all these dishes, how can he be hungry ? " Then he con- 
 sidered and said to himself, " I will do that shall make him repent 
 of these pranks." Presently the entertainer called out, "Bring me 
 the wine " ; and moving his hands in the air as though they had 
 set it before them, he gave my brother a cup and said, " Take this 
 cup and, if it please thee, let me know." " O my lord," he replied, 
 "it is notable good as to nose, but I am wont to drink wine some 
 twenty years old." " Knock, then, at this door,^ " quoth the host, 
 " for thou canst not drink of aught better." "By thy kindness," 
 said my brother, motioning with his hand as though he were 
 drinking. "Health and joy to thee," exclaimed the house-master, 
 and feigned to fill a cup and drink it off; then he handed another 
 to my brother, who quaffed it and made as if he were drunken. 
 Presently he took the host unawares ; and raising his arm till the 
 white of his armpit appeared, dealt him such a cuff on the nape 
 
 ' Barley in Arabia is, like our oats, food for horses : it fattens at the same time 
 that it cools them. 
 
 ^ i.e. " I conjure thee by God." 
 
 3 i.e. " this is the very thing for thee."
 
 320 Alf Layhih wa Laylah. 
 
 of his neck that the palace echoed to it. Then he came down 
 upon him with a second cuff, and the entertainer cried aloud, 
 " What is this, O thou scum of the earth ? " " O my lord," 
 replied my brother, " thou hast shown much kindness to thy slave, 
 and admitted him into thine abode and given him to eat of thy 
 victual ; then thou madest him drink of thine old wine till he 
 became drunken and boisterous ; but thou art too noble not to bear 
 with his ignorance and pardon his offence." When the Barmaki 
 heard my brother's words he laughed his loudest, and said, " Long 
 have I been wont to make mock of men and play the madcap 
 among my intimates, but n^ve: yet have I come across a single 
 one who had the patience and the wit to enter into all my humours 
 save thyself : so I forgive thee, and thou shalt be my boon- 
 co:npanion in very sooth, and never leave me." Then he ordered 
 the servants to lay the table in earnest, and they set on all the 
 dishes of which he had spoken in sport ; and he and my brother 
 ate till they were satisfied ; after which they removed to the 
 drinking-chamber, where they found damsels like moons who sang 
 all manner songs and played on all manner instruments. There 
 they remained drinking till their wine got the better of them 
 and the host treated my brother like a familiar friend, so that 
 he became as it were his brother, and he bestowed on him a robe 
 of he nour and loved him with exceeding love. Next morning 
 the two fell again to feasting and carousing, and ceased not to 
 lead this life for a term of twenty years, at the end of which the 
 Barmecide died, and the Sultan took possession of all his wealth, 
 and squeezed my brother of his savings, till he was left a pauper 
 without a penny to handle. So he quitted the city and fled forth 
 following his face^ ; but when he was half way between two towns 
 the wild Arabs fell on him and bound him and carried him to 
 their camp, where his captor proceeded to torture him, saying, 
 " Buy thy life of me with thy money, else I will slay thee ! " My 
 brother began to weep, and replied " By Allah ! I have nothing, 
 neither gold nor silver ; but I am thy prisoner, so do with me what 
 thou wilt." Then the Badawi drew a knife, broad-bladed and so 
 sharp-grided that if plunged into a camel's throat^ it would sever it 
 clean across from one jugular to the other, and cut off my brother's 
 lips, and waxed more instant in requiring money. Now this Badawi 
 had a fair wife, who, in her husband's absence, used to make 
 
 ' i.e. at random. 
 
 ^ This is the way of slaughtering the camel, whose throat is never cut on account 
 of the thickness of the muscles. "Egorger un chameau " is a mistake often made 
 in French books.
 
 The End oj the Tailors Tale. 32 r 
 
 advances to my bj-otiicr and orfcr him her favours, Ijiit lie held 
 off from her. One day she began to tempt him as usual, and he 
 {ilayed with her, and made her sit on his lap, when, behold, in came 
 the Badawi, who, seeing this, cried out, "Woe to thee, O accursed 
 villain ! Wouldest thou debauch my wife for me ? " Then he took 
 out a knife and castrated my brother, after which he bound him on 
 the back of a camel, and carrying him to a mountain left him 
 there. He was at last found by some who recognised him, and 
 gave him meat and drink and acquainted me with his condition; 
 whereupon I went forth to him and brought him back to Baghdad, 
 where I made him an allowance sufficient to live on. This, then, 
 
 Commander of the Faithful, is the history of my six brothers, and 
 
 1 feared to go away without relating it all to thee, and leave thee 
 in the eiror of judging me to be like them. And now thou 
 knowest that I have six brothers upon my hands, and, being more 
 upright than they, I support the whole family. ^Vhen the Calijjh 
 heard my story and all I told him concerning my brothers, he 
 laughed, and said, " Thou sayest sooth, O Silent Man ! Thou art 
 indeed spare of speech, nor is there aught of forwardness in thee ; 
 but now go forth out of this city and settle in some other." And he 
 banished me under edict. I left Baghdad and travelled in foreign 
 parts till I heard of his death and the accession of another to the 
 Caliphate. Then I returned to Baghdad, where I found all my 
 brothers dead, and chanced upon this young man, to whom I 
 rendered the kindliest service, for without me he had surely been 
 killed. Indeed he slanders me and accuses me of a fault which 
 is not in my nature ; and what he reports concerning impudence 
 and meddling and forwardness is idle and false ; for verily on his 
 account I left Baghdad and travelled about full many a country 
 till I came to this city and met him here in your company. And 
 was not this, O worthy assemblage, of the generosity of my nature ? 
 
 THE END OF THE TAILORS TALE. 
 
 Then quoth the Tailor to the King of China : — When we heard 
 the Barber's tale and saw the excess of his loquacity and the way 
 in which he had wronged this young man, we laid hands on him 
 and shut him up, after which we sat down in peace, and ate and 
 drank and enjoyed the good things of the marriage-feast till the 
 time of the call to mid-afternoon prayer, when I left the party and 
 returned home. My wife received me with sour looks and said, 
 "Thou goest a-pleasuring among thy friends and thou leavest mc 
 
 •VOL. I. X
 
 32 2 Alf Laylali 7va Laylah. 
 
 to sit sorrowing here alone. So now, unless thou take me abroad 
 and let me have some amusement for the rest of the day, I will 
 cut the rope ^ and it will be the cause of my separation from 
 thee." So I took her out and we amused ourselves till supper 
 time, when we returned home and fell in with this Hunchback 
 who was brimful of drink and trolling out these rhymes : — 
 
 Clear's the wine, the cup's fine ; * Like to like they combine : 
 It is wine and not cup ! ♦ 'Tis a cup and not wine ! 
 
 So I invited him to sup with us and went out to buy fried fish ; 
 after which we sat down to eat ; and presently my wife took a 
 piece of bread and a fid of fish and stuffed them into his mouth 
 and he choked ; and, though I slapped him long and hard between 
 the shoulders, he died. Then I carried him off and contrived to 
 throw him into the house of this leach, the Jew ; and the leach 
 contrived to throw him into the house of the Reeve ; and the 
 Reeve contrived to throw him on the way of the Nazarene broker. 
 This, then, is my adventure which befell me but yesterday. Is not 
 it more wondrous than the story of the Hunchback? \Vhen the 
 King of China heard the Tailor's tale he shook his head for 
 pleasure ; and, showing great surprise, said, " This that passed 
 between the young man and the busy-body of a Barber is indeed 
 more pleasant and wonderful than the story of my lying knave of 
 a Hunchback." Then he bade one of his Chamberlains go with 
 the Tailor and bring the Barber out of jail, saying, " I wish to hear 
 the talk of this Silent Man and it shall be the cause of )our de- 
 liverance one and all : then we will bury the Hunchback, for that 
 
 he is dead since yesterday, and set up a tomb over him." And 
 
 Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her per- 
 mitted say. 
 
 Jl^oto tubtn it toas X\t ^()ii-tp=fouit() Bicrl)t, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the King of 
 (Jhina bade, " liring mc the Barber who shall be the cause of your 
 deliverance ; then we will bur)- this Hunchback, for that he is dead 
 since yesterday and set up a tomb over him." So the Chamberlain 
 and the Tailor went to the jail and releasing the Barber presently 
 returned with him to the King. The Sultan of China looked at 
 him and considered him carefully and lo, and behold, he was an 
 ancient man, past his ninetieth year ; swart of face, white of beard, 
 and hoar of eyebrows ; lop-eared and proboscis-nosed, with a vacant, 
 
 ' i.e. I will break bounds.
 
 7'Iic End of the Tailor s Talc. 323 
 
 silly, and conceited expression of countenance. The King laughed 
 at iliis figure o' fun and said to him, " O Silent Man, I desire thee 
 to tell me somewhat of thy history." Quoth the Barber, " O King 
 of the Age, allow me first to ask thee what is the tale of this Naza- 
 rene and this Jew and this Moslem and this Hunchback (the 
 corpse) I see among you ? And prithee what may be the object 
 of this assemblage?" Quoth the King of China, "And why dost 
 thou ask?" "I ask," he replied, "in order that the King's majesty 
 may know that I am no forward fellow or busy-body or impertinent 
 meddler ; and that I am innocent of their calumnious charges of 
 overmuch talk ; for I am he whose name is the Silent Man, and 
 indeed peculiarly happy is my sobriquet, as saith the poet : — 
 
 When a nickname or little name men design, * Know that nature with name shall 
 full oft combine." 
 
 Then said the King, " Explain to the Barber the case of this 
 Hunchback and what befell him at supper-time ; also repeat to him 
 the stories told by the Nazarene, the Jew, the Reeve, and the 
 Tailor ; and of no avail to me is a twice told tale." They did his 
 bidding, and the Barber shook his head and said, " By Allah, this 
 is a marvel of marvels ! Now uncover me the corpse of yonder 
 Hunchback." They undid the winding-sheet and he sat down, and 
 taking the Hunchback's head in his lap, looked at his face, and 
 laughed and guffaw'd ^ till he fell upon his back and said, " 'Inhere 
 is w^onder in every death," but the death of this Hunchback is 
 worthy to be written and recorded in letters of liquid gold ! " The 
 bystanders were astounded at his words, and the King marvelled 
 and said to him, " What ails thee, O Silent Man ? Explain to us 
 thy words !" "O King of the Age," said the Barber, -'I swear by 
 thy beneficence that there is still life in this Gobbo Golightly ! " 
 Thereupon he pulled out of his waist-belt a barber's budget, whence 
 he took a pot of ointment and anointed therewith the neck of the 
 Hunchback and its arteries. Then he took a pair of iron tweezers, 
 and inserting them into the Hunchback's throat drew out the fid 
 of fish with its bone ; and when it came to sight, behold, it was 
 soaked in blood. Thereupon the Hunchback sneezed a hearty 
 sneeze and jumped up as if nothing had happened and passing his 
 hand over his face said, " I testify that there is no god but the God, 
 and I testify that Mohammed is the Apostle of God." At this 
 sight all present wondered ; the King of China laughed till he 
 
 ' Arab. " Kahkahah," a very low proceeding. 
 
 ^ Or, "for ever)' death there is a cause" ; but the older Arabs had a saying 
 corresponding with " Dcus non fecit mortem."
 
 324 Alf Lay/ah wa Lay/ah. 
 
 fainted and in like manner did the others. Then said the Sultan, 
 " By Allah, of a truth this is the most marvellous thing I ever saw ! 
 O Moslems ! O soldiers all ! did you ever in the lives of you see a 
 man die and be quickened again ? Verily had not Allah vouchsafed 
 to him this Barber he had been a dead man!" Quoth they, "By 
 Allah, 'tis a marvel of marvels ! " Then the King of China bade 
 record this tale; so they recorded it, and placed it in the royal 
 muniment-rooms. After which he bestowed costly robes of honour 
 upon the Jew, the Nazarene, and the Reeve, and bade them depart 
 in all esteem. Then he gave the Tailor a sumptuous dress, and 
 appointed him his own tailor, with suitable pay and allowances, and 
 made peace between him and the Hunchback, to whom also he 
 presented a splendid and expensive suit, with a suitable stipend. 
 He did as generously with the Barber, giving him a gift and a dress 
 of honour ; moreover, he settled on him a handsome solde, and 
 created him Barber-surgeon' of state and made him one of his 
 cup-companions. So they ceased not to live the most pleasurable 
 life and the most delectable, till there came to them the Destroyer of 
 all delights and the Sunderer of all societies, the Depopulator ot 
 palaces, and the Garnercr for graves. Yet, O most auspicious King! 
 (continued Shahrazad), this tale is by no means more wonderful than 
 that of the two Wazirs and Anis al-Jah's. Quoth her sister Dunyazad, 
 "And what may that be?" whereupon she began to relate the 
 following tale of 
 
 ' " The King's barber is usually a man of rank, for the best of reasons that he 
 holds his Sovereign's life between his fingers. One of these noble Figaros in India 
 nianied an Knglish l.idy, who was, they say, unpleasantly surprised to find out what 
 were her husband's official duties. 
 
 EXn OF VOI,. I. 
 
 ^^LJlJ
 
 BENARES: MDCCCLXXXV : PRINTED BY THE KAMASH ASTRA 
 
 SOCIETY F<^^R PRIVATE SUBSCRIBERS ONLY. 
 
 VOLUME II. 
 
 J'LAIN AND LITERAL TRANSLATION OF THE 
 ARABIAN NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENTS, NOW 
 ENTITVLED 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE 
 
 ]VITII INTRODUCTION EXPLANATORY NOTES ON THE 
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF MOSLEM MEN AND A 
 TERMINAL ESSAY UPON THE HISTORY OF THE 
 
 NIGHTS 
 
 RICHARD F. lUIRTON 
 
 .^*.VlO 
 
 imy-
 
 To JOHN PA Y N E, E s n. 
 
 ETC. ETC. ETC. 
 
 Mv UEAK Sir, 
 
 Allow me thus publicly to express my admiration of your 
 magnum opus, "The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night;" 
 and to offer you my cordial thanks for honouring me witli the 
 dedication of that scholar-like and admirable version. 
 
 Ever yours sincerely, 
 
 RICHARD F. BURTON, 
 
 Oieen's College, Oxford. 
 
 August I. 1S85.
 
 JS^ur al-Diii AH mid the Damsel A?iis al-Jalis. 329 
 
 NUR AL-DIN ALI AND THE DAMSEL ANIS 
 AL-JALIS. 
 
 Quoth Shahrazad ^ : — It hath reached me, O auspicious King of 
 intelligence penetrating, that there was, amongst the Kings of 
 Bassorah,^ a King who loved the poor and needy and cherished 
 his lieges, and gave of his wealth to all who believed in Moham- 
 med (whom Allah bless and assain !) and he was even as one of 
 the poets described him : — 
 
 A King who when hosts of the foe invade, « Receives them with lance-hmge and 
 
 sabre sway ; 
 Writes his name on bosoms in thin red lines, * And scatters the horsemen in wild 
 
 dismay. 3 
 
 ' Supplementarily to note 3, p. 2, and note ij p. 13, vol. i. , I may add that 
 "Shahrazad," in the Shams al-Loghat, is the P. N. of a King. L, Langles (Les 
 Voyages de Sindibad Le Marin et La Ruse de.i Femmes, first appended to 
 Savary's Grammar, and reprinted l2mo. pp. 161 + 1 13, Imprimerie Royale, Paris, 
 M.D.ccc.xiv. ) explains it by Le cypres, la beaute de la ville ; and he is followed 
 by (A. de Biberstein) Kazimirski (Enis el-Djelis, Paris, Barrois, 1847). Ouseley 
 (Orient. Collect.) makes Shahrzad = town-born ; and others an Arabisation of 
 Chehr-azad (free of face, ingenuous of countenance) the petit nom of Queen Humay, 
 for whom see the Terminal Essay. The name of the sister, whom the Fihrist con- 
 verts into a Kahramanah, or nurse, vulgarly written DInar-zad, would = child of 
 gold pieces, freed by gold pieces, or one who has no need of gold pieces : Dinzad = 
 child of faith and Daynazad, proposed by Langles, " free from debt (!)." I have 
 adopted Macnaghten's Dunyazad. " Shahryar," which Scott hideously writes 
 " Shier-ear," is translated by the Shams, King of the world, absolute monarch, and 
 the court of Anushirwan, while the Burhan-i-Kati'a renders it a King of Kings, 
 and P. N. of a town. Shahr-baz is also the P. N. of a town in Samarcand. 
 
 " Arab. " Malik," here used as in our story-books : " Pompey was a wise and 
 powerful King," says the Gesta Romanorum. This King is, as will appear, a 
 Regent or Governor under Harun al-Rashid. In the next tale he is Viceroy of 
 Damascus, where he is also called " Sultan." 
 
 3 The Bui. Edit, gives the lines as follows : — 
 The lance was his pen, and the hearts of his foes * His paper, and dipped he in 
 
 blood for ink ; 
 Hence our sires entitled the spear Khattiyah, * Meaning that withal man shall 
 
 write, I think. 
 The pun is in " Khattiyah," which may mean a writer (feminine) and also a spear, 
 from Khatt-Hajar, a tract in the province of Al-Bahrayn (Persian Gulf), and Oman, 
 where the best Indian bamboos where landed and fashioned into lances. Imr al- 
 Kays (Mu'allakah V. 4) sings of "our dark spears firmly wrought of Khattiyan 
 cane" ; Al-Busiri of " the brown lances of Khatt " ; also see Lebid, v. 50, and 
 Hamasah, pp. 26, 231 : Antar notes the "Spears of Khatt" and " Rudaynian 
 lances." Rudaynah is said to have been the wife of one Samhar, the Ferrara of 
 lances ; others make her the wife of Al-Ka'azab, and hold Samhar to be a town in 
 Abyssinia, where the best weapons were manufactured. The pen is the Calamus 
 or Kalam (reed cut for pen) of which the finest and hardest are brought from Java : 
 they require the least nibbing. The rhetorical figure in the text is called Husn 
 al-Ta'alil, our eetiology ; and is as admirable to the Arabs as it appears silly to us.
 
 330 Alf Laylah wa Layfan. 
 
 His name was King Mohammed bin Sulayman al-Zayni, and he 
 had two Wazirs, one called Al-Mu'i'n, son of Sawi and the other 
 Al-Fazl, son of Khakan. Now Al-Fazl was the most generous of 
 the people of his age, upright of life, so that all hearts united in 
 loving him and the wise flocked to him for counsel ; whilst the 
 subjects used to pray for his long life, because he was a compendium 
 of the best qualities, encouraging the good and lief, and preventing 
 evil and mischief. But the Wazir Mu'in bin Sawi on the contrary 
 hated folk ^ and loved not the good and was a mere compound of 
 ill ; even as was said of him : — 
 
 Hold to nobles, sons of nobles ! 'tis ever Nature's test * That nobles born of nobles 
 
 shall excel in noble deed : 
 And shun the mean of soul, meanly bred, for 'tis the law, * Mean deeds come of 
 
 men who are mean of blood and breed. 
 
 And as much as the people loved and fondly loved Al-Fazl bin 
 Khakan, so they hated and thoroughly hated the mean and miserly 
 Mu'in bin Sawi. It befell one day by the decree of the Decreer, 
 that King Mohammed bin Sulayman al-Zayni, being seated on his 
 throne with his officers of state about him, summoned his Wazir 
 Al-Fazl and said to him, " I wish to have a slave girl of passing 
 beauty, perfect in loveliness, exquisite in symmetry, and endowed 
 with all praiseworthy gifts." Said the courtiers, " Such a girl is 
 not to be bought for fewer than ten thousand gold pieces " : where- 
 upon the Sultan called out to his treasurer and said, " Carry ten 
 thousand dinars to the house of Al-Fazl bin Khakan." The trea- 
 surer did the King's bidding ; and the Minister went away after 
 receiving the royal charge to repair to the slave-bazar every day, 
 and entrust to brokers the matter aforesaid. Moreover, the King 
 issued orders that girls worth above a thousand gold pieces should 
 not be bought or sold without being first displayed to the Wazir. 
 Accordingly, no broker purchased a slave-girl ere she had been 
 paraded before the Minister ; but none pleased him, till one day a 
 dealer came to the house, and found him taking horse and intending 
 for the palace. So he caught hold of his stirrup, saying: — 
 
 O thou who givcst to royal state sweet savour, » Thou'rt a Wazir shalt never fail 
 
 of favour ! 
 Dead Bounty thou hast raised to life for men ; » Ne'er fail of Allah's grace such 
 
 high endeavour ! 
 
 Then quoth he, "O my lord, that surpassing object for whom the 
 gracious mandate was issued is at last found^"; and quoth the Wazir, 
 
 ' " He loves folk," is high praise, meaning something more than benevolence 
 and beiitficence. Like charity it covers a host of sins. 
 - The sentence is cuphuislic.
 
 Niir al-D'ui AH and the Damsel An is al-Jalis. 331 
 
 "Here with her to me." So he went away, and returned after a 
 little, bringing a damsel in richest raiment robed, a maid spear 
 straight of stature and five feet tall; budding of bosom, with eyes 
 large and black as by Kohl traced, and dewy lips sweeter than syrup 
 or the sherbet one sips, a virginette smooth cheeked and shapely 
 faced, whose slender waist with massive hips was engraced ; a form 
 more pleasing than branchlet waving upon the topmost trees; and a 
 voice softer and gentler than the morning breeze, even as saith one 
 of those who have described her : — 
 
 Strange is the charm which dights her brows like Luna's disk that shine ; * O 
 
 sweeter taste than sweetest Robb' or raisins of the vine ! 
 A throne th' Empyrean keeps for her in high and glorious state, * For wit and 
 
 wisdom, wand-like form and graceful bending line ; 
 She in the Heaven of her face the seven-fold stars ^ displays * That guard her 
 
 cheeks as satellites against the spy's design : 
 If man should cast a furtive glance or steal far look at her, * His heart is burnt by 
 
 devil-bolts shot by those piercing eyne. 
 
 When the AVazir saw her she made him marvel with excess of 
 admiration, so he turned, perfectly pleased, to the broker and 
 asked, " What is the price of this girl ? " whereto he answered, 
 " Her market-value stands at ten thousand dinars, but her owner 
 swears that this sum will not cover the cost of the chickens she 
 hath eaten, the wine she hath drunken, and the dresses of honour 
 bestowed upon her instructor : for she hath learned calligraphy 
 and syntax and etymology ; the commentaries of the Koran ; the 
 principles of law and religion ; the canons of medicine, and the 
 calendar and the art of playing on musical instruments.^ " Said the 
 Wazir, " Bring me her master." So the broker brought him at once 
 and, behold, he was a Persian of whom there was left only what the 
 days had left ; for he was as a vulture bald and scald, and a wall 
 trembling to its fall. Time had buffeted him with sore smart, yet 
 was he not willing this world to depart ; even as said the poet : — 
 
 Time hath shattered all my frame, * Oh ! how time hath shattered me. 
 
 Time with lordly might can tame * Manly strength and vigour free. 
 
 Time was in my youth, that none * Sped their way more fleet and fast : 
 
 Time is and my strength is gone, » Youth is sped, and speed is past.* 
 
 The Wazir asked him, "Art thou content to sell this slave-girl to 
 the Sultan for ten thousand dinars ? " and the Persian answered, 
 
 ' Arab. "Rubb " = syrup, a word now Europeanised, ^._f. in the "RobLaffecteur," 
 
 ° The Septentriones, or ibur oxen and their wain. 
 
 3 The list fatally reminds us of "astronomy and the use of the globes " 
 " Shakespeare and the musical glasses." 
 
 " The octave occurs in vol. i. night xv. I quote Torrens (p. 360) by way of 
 varietv. 
 
 Y 2
 
 332 Alf Lay/ah wa LaylaJi. 
 
 " By Allah, if I offered her to the King for naught, it were but my 
 devoir.^ " So the Minister bade bring the moneys and saw them 
 weighed out to the Persian, who stood up before him and said, 
 " By the leave of our lord the Wazir, I have somewhat to say " ; 
 and the Wazir replied, " Out with all thou hast ! " " It is my 
 opinion," continued the slave-dealer, " that thou shouldst not 
 carry the maid to the King this day ; for she is newly off a 
 journey, the change of air^ hath affected her and the toils of trouble 
 have fretted her. But keep her quiet in thy palace some ten days, 
 that she may recover her looks and become again as she was. Then 
 send her to the Hammam and clothe her in the richest of clothes, 
 and go up with her to the Sultan ; this will be more to thy profit." 
 The Wazir pondered the Persian's words, and approved their 
 wisdom. So he carried her to his palace, where he appointed her 
 private rooms, and allowed her every day whatever she wanted oi 
 meat and drink and so forth, and on this wise she abode a while. 
 Now the Wazir Al-Fazl had a son like the full moon when sheeniest 
 dight, with face radiant in light, cheeks ruddy bright, and a mole like 
 a dot of ambergris on a downy site, as said of him the poet, and said 
 full right : — 
 
 A moon which blights you^ if you dare beliold ; ♦ A branch which folds you in 
 
 its wavinc; fold : 
 Locks of the Zanj-* and golden glint of hair ; Sweet gait and form a spear to have 
 
 and hold : 
 Ah ! hard of heart, with softest slenderest waist, » That evil to this weal why not 
 
 remould s ? 
 Were thy form's softness placed in thy heart, » Ne'er would thy lover find thee 
 
 harsh and cold : 
 Oh thou accuser ! be my love's c.\cuser, » Nor chide if love-pangs deal me woes 
 
 untold ! 
 I bear no blame ; 'tis all my heart and eyne ; • So leave thy blaming, let me yearn 
 
 and pine. 
 
 Now the handsome youth knew not the affair of the damsel; 
 and his father had enjoined her closely, saying, "Know, O my 
 daughter, that I have bought thee as a bedfellow for our King 
 
 ' A courteous formula of closing with the offer. 
 
 ^ To express our " change of climate," Easterns say, " change of water and air," 
 water coming first. 
 
 ■5 " The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night" (Psalm cxxi. 
 6). Easterns still believe in the blighting effect of the moon's rays, which the 
 Northerners of Europe, who view it under diflerent conditions, are pleased to deny. 
 I have seen a hale and hearty Arab, after sitting an hour in the moonlight, look 
 like a man fresh from a sick bed ; and I knew an Englishman in India whose face 
 was temporarily paralysed by sleeping with it exposed to the moon. 
 
 ♦ The negroids and negroes of Zanzibar. 
 
 s i.e., why not make thy heart as soft as thy sides !
 
 Nur al-Din All and the Damsel Aids al-Jalis. 333 
 
 Mohammed bin Sulayman al-Zayni ; and I have a son who is a 
 Satan for girls and leaves no maid in the neighbourhood without 
 taking her maidenhead ; so be on thy guard against him and beware 
 of letting him see thy face or hear thy voice." " Hearkening and 
 obedience," said the girl ; and he left her and fared forth. Some 
 days after this it happened by decree of Destiny that the damsel 
 repaired to the baths in the house, where some of the slave-women 
 bathed her ; after which she arrayed herself in sumptuous raiment ; 
 and her beauty and loveliness were thereby redoubled. Then she 
 went in to the Wazir's wife and kissed her hand ; and the dame 
 said to her, " Naiman ! May it benefit thee,' O Anis al-Jalis ^ ! 
 are not our baths handsome?" "O my mistress," she replied, 
 " I Licked naught there save thy gracious presence." Thereupon 
 the lady said to her slave-women, " Come with us to the Hammam, 
 for it is some days since we went there": they answered, "To hear 
 is to obey ! " and rose, and all accompanied her. Now she had 
 set two little slave-girls to keep the door of the private chamber 
 wherein was Anis al-Jalis and had said to them, " Suffer none go 
 in to the damsel." Presently, as the beautiful maiden sat resting in 
 her rooms, suddenly came in the Wazir's son, whose name was Nur 
 al-Din Ali,^ and asked after his mother and her women, to which 
 the two little slave-girls replied, " They are in the Hammam." 
 But the damsel Anis al-Jalis had heard from within Nur al-Din 
 All's voice and had said to herself, " O would Heaven I saw what 
 like is this youth against whom the Wazir warned me, saying that 
 he hath not left a virgin in the neighbourhood without taking her 
 virginity : by Allah, I do long to have sight of him ! " So she 
 sprang to her feet with the freshness of the bath on her, and stepping 
 to the door looked at Nur al-Din Ali and saw a youth hke 
 the moon in its full, and the sight bequeathed her a thousand sighs. 
 The young man also glanced at her and the look made him heir to 
 a thousand thoughts of care ; and each fell into Love's ready 
 snare. Then he stepped up to the two little slave-girls and cried 
 aloud at them ; whereupon both fled before him and stood afar off 
 
 ' " Na'iman" is said to one after bathing or head-shaving : the proper reply, for 
 in the East every sign of ceremony has its countersign, is " Allah benefit thee !" 
 (Pilgrimage, i. 11, iii. 285 ; Lane, M. E. , chapt. viii. ; Caussin de Perceval's Arabic 
 Grammar, etc., etc.). I have given a specimen (Pilgrimage, i. 122) not only of 
 sign and countersign, but also of the rhyming repartee which rakes love. JIanien ! 
 (pleasant to thee ! said when a man drinks). Allah pleasure thee (Allah yuhannik 
 which Arnauts and other rufiians perverted to Allah yanik) ; thou drinkest for ten ! 
 
 ^ In the old version she is called " The Fair Persian," probably from the owner: 
 her name means " The Cheerer of the Companion." 
 
 3 Pronounce " Nooraddeen." I give the name as written in Arabic.
 
 334 ^U Laylah zua Laylah. 
 
 to see what he would do. And behold, he walked to the door of 
 the damsel's chamber, and opening it went in and asked her, " Art 
 thou she my father bought for me?" and she answered, "Yes." 
 Thereupon the youth, who was warm with wine, came up to her and 
 embraced her ; and she wound her arms about his neck, and met 
 him with kisses and murmurs of pleasure and amorous toyings. 
 Next he kissed her lips and she kissed his and, lastly, he abated her 
 virginity, ^^'hen the two little slave-girls saw their young master go 
 in unto the damsel, Anis al-Jalis, they cried out and shrieked ; so 
 as soon as the youth had had his wicked will of her, he rose and 
 fled forth fearing the consequences of his ill-doing. When the 
 Wazir's wife heard the slave-girls' cries, she sprang up and came 
 out of the baths with the perspiration pouring from her face, 
 saying, " "\^■ hat is this unseemly clamour in the house ^ ? " Then 
 she came up to the two little slave-girls and asked them saying, 
 " Fie upon you ! what is the matter ? " and both answered, " Verily 
 our lord Nur al-Din came in and beat us, so we fled ; then he went 
 up to Anis al-Jalis and threw his arms round her, and we know not 
 what he did after that ; but when we cried out to thee he ran away." 
 Upon this the lady went to Anis al-Jalis and said to her, "What 
 tidings ? " " O my lady," she answered, " as I was sitting here, lo ! 
 a handsome young man came in and said to me : — Art thou she my 
 father bought for me? and I answered. Yes; for, by Allah, O mistress 
 mine, I believed that his words were true ; and he instantly came 
 in and embraced me." "Did he naught else with thee but this?" 
 quoth the lady, and quoth she, " Indeed he did ! " " He did not 
 leave thee without dishonouring thee ! " cried the Wazir's wife, and 
 fell to weeping and buffeting her face, she and the girl and all the 
 handmaidens, fearing lest Nur al-Din's father should kill him.^ 
 Whilst they were thus, in came the Wazir and asked what was the 
 matter, and his wife said to him, " Swear that whatso I tell thee rnou 
 wilt attend to it." " I will," answered he. So she related to him 
 what his son had done, whereat he was much concerned, and rent 
 his raiment and smote his face till his nose bled, and plucked out his 
 beard by the handful. " Do not kill thyself," said his wife. " I will 
 give thee ten thousand dinars, her price, of my own money." But he 
 raised his head, and cried, " Out upon thee ! I have no need of her 
 
 ' Amongst Moslems, I have said, it is held highly disgraceful when the sound of 
 women's cries can be heard by outsiders. 
 
 - In a case like this the father would be justified by Rasm (or usage) not by 
 Koranic law, in playing Brutus with his son. The same would be the case in a 
 detected intrigue with a paternal concubine, and, in very' strict houses, with a 
 slave-girl. 
 
 '.1\
 
 No. 9. 
 
 Nur al-Dm Ali and the Damsel 
 Anis al-Jalis. 
 
 "Next he kissed her Ups and she kissed his 
 and . . . when the two httle slave-girls saw their 
 young master go in unto the damsel, Anis al-Jalis, 
 they cried out."
 
 ^^m 
 
 ^^SS^-IQ^C^ 
 
 
 
 ~5SESeB3SSS3::
 
 Niir al-Diii Ali and the Damsel Aids al-Jalis. 335 
 
 purchase-money. My fear is lest life as well as money go." " O my 
 lord, and how is that ?" "Wottest thou not that yonder standeth our 
 enemy Al-Mu'in bin Sawi, who, as soon as he shall hear of this 
 
 matter, will go up to the Sultan " And Shahrazad perceived the 
 
 dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 Boto to!)cn it tons X\z Ws^\xi^SXX\ Bx^i, 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the 
 Wazir said to his wife, " Wottest thou not that yonder standeth 
 our enemy, Al-Mu'in bin Sawi, who, as soon as he hears of this 
 matter, will go up to the Sultan, and say to him : — Thy Wazir, 
 who thou wilt have it loveth thee, took from thee ten thousand 
 ducats, and bought therewith a slave-girl, whose like none ever 
 beheld ; but when he saw her she pleased him, and he said to his 
 son : — Take her ; thou art worthier of her than the Sultan. So he 
 took her and did away with her virginity, and she is now in his 
 house. The King will say : — Thou liest ! To which he will 
 reply : — -With thy leave I will fall upon him unawares and bring her 
 to thee. The King will give him warranty for this, and he will come 
 down upon the house, and will take the girl and present her to the 
 Sultan, who will question her, and she will not be able to deny the 
 past. Then mine enemy will say :— O my lord, thou wottest that I 
 give thee the best of counsel, but I have not found favour in thine 
 eyes. Thereupon the Sultan will make an example of me, and I 
 shall be a gazing-stock to all the people, and my life will be lost." 
 Quoth his wife, " Let none know of this thing which hath happened 
 privily, and commit thy case to Allah and trust in Him to save thee 
 from such strait ; for He who knoweth the future shall provide for 
 the future." With this she brought the Wazir a cup of wine, and his 
 heart was quieted, and he ceased to feel wrath and fear. Thus far 
 concerning him ; but as regards his son Nur al-Din Ali, fearing the 
 consequence of his misdeed he abode his day long in the flower 
 garden and came back only at night to his mother's apartment, 
 where he slept ; and, rising before dawn, returned to the gardens. 
 He ceased not to do thus for two whole months without showing 
 his face to his parent, till at last his mother said to his father, "O' 
 my lord, shall we lose our boy as well as the girl? If matters 
 continue long in this way he will flee from us." "And what to 
 do ? " asked he ; and she answered, " Do thou watch this night ; 
 and when he cometh seize on him and frighten him : I will rescue 
 him from thee and do thou make peace with him and give him the 
 damsel to wife, for she loveth him as he loveth her. And I will
 
 33^ Alf Lay/ah wa Laylah. 
 
 pay thee her price." So the Minister sat up that night, and when 
 his son came he seized him, and throwing him down knelt on his 
 breast and showed as though he would cut his throat ; but his 
 mother ran to the youth's succour and asked her husband, " What 
 wouldest thou do with him ? " He answered her, " I will split his 
 weasand." Said the son to the father, " Is my death, then, so light 
 a matter to thee ? " and his father's eyes welled with tears, for natural 
 affection moved him, and he rejoined, " O my son, how light was to 
 thee the loss of my good and my life ! " Quoth Nur al-Din, " Hear, 
 O my father, what the poet hath said : — 
 
 Forgive me ! thee-ward sinned I, but the wise » Ne'er to the sinner shall deny his 
 
 grace : 
 Thy foe may pardon sue when lieth he » In lowest, and thou holdest highest 
 
 place ! ' ' 
 
 Thereupon the Wazir rose from off his son's breast, saying, " I 
 forgive thee ! " for his heart yearned to him ; and the youtli kissed 
 the hand of his sire, who said, " O my son, were I sure that thou 
 wouldest deal justly by Anis al-Jalis, I would give her to thee." 
 *' O my father, what justice am I to do to her ? " "I enjoin thee, 
 
 my son, not to take another wife or concubine to share with her, 
 nor sell her." " O my father ! I swear to thee that verily I will not 
 do her injustice in either way." Having sworn to that effect Nur 
 al-Din went in to the damsel and abode with her a whole year, 
 whilst Allah Almighty caused the King to forget the matter of the 
 maiden ; and Al-Mu'in, though the affair came to his ears, dared 
 not divulge it by reason of the high favour in which his rival stood 
 with the Sultan. At the end of the year Al-Fazl went one day to 
 the public baths ; and, as he came out whilst he was still sweating, 
 the air struck him,^ and he caught a cold which turned to a fever ; 
 then he took to his bed. His malady gained ground, and rest- 
 lessness was longsome upon him and weakness bound him like a 
 chain ; so he called out, " Hither with my son " ; and when Nur 
 al-Din Ali came he said to him, " O my son, know that man's lot 
 and means are distributed and decreed ; and the end of days by all 
 must be dree'd ; and that every soul drain the cup of death is 
 nature's need." Then he repeated these lines : — 
 
 1 die my death, but he alone is great who dieth not ! * And well I wot, soon shall 
 
 I die, for death was made my lot : 
 A King there's not that dies and holds his kingdom in his hand, » For Sovrantr)- 
 the Kingdom is of him who dieth not. 
 
 ' Orientals fear the " Zug" or draught as much as Germans, and with even a 
 better reason. Draughts are most dangerous in hot climates.
 
 Niir al-Din AH and the Damsel Aids al-Jalis. 337 
 
 Then he continued, " O my son, I have no charge to leave thee 
 save that thou fear Allah and look to the issues of thine acts and 
 bear in mind my injunctions anent Anis al-Jalis." " O my father ! " 
 said Nur al-Din, "who is like unto thee? Indeed thou art famed 
 for well-doing, and preachers offer prayers for thee in their pulpits ! " 
 Quoth Al-Fazl, " O my son, I hope that Allah Almighty may grant 
 me acceptance ! " Then he pronounced the Two Testimonies,^ or 
 Professions of the Faith, and was recorded among the blessed. 
 The palace was filled with crying and lamentation, and the news 
 of his death reached the King, and the city-people wept, even those 
 at their prayers and women at household cares, and the school- 
 children shed tears for Bin-Khakan. Then his son Nur al-Din Ali 
 arose and made ready his funeral, and the Emirs and Wazirs and 
 high Officers of State and city-notables were present, amongst 
 them the Wazir Al-Mu'in bin Sawi. And as the bier went forth 
 from the house some one in the crowd of mourners began to chant 
 these lines : — 
 
 On the fifth day I quitted all my friends for evermore, » And they laid me out 
 
 and washed me on a slab without my door^ : 
 They stripped me of the clothes I was ever wont to wear, * And they clothed me 
 
 in the clothes which till then I never wore : 
 On four men's necks they bore me and carried me from home * To chapel ; and 
 
 some prayed for him on neck they bore : 
 They prayed for me a prayer that no prostration knows^ ; They prayed for me who 
 
 praised me and were my friends of yore ; 
 And they laid me in a house with a ceiling vaulted o'er, * And time shall be no 
 
 more ere it ope to me its door. 
 
 When they had shovelled in the dust over him and the crowd had 
 dispersed, Nur al-Din returned home and he lamented with sobs 
 and tears ; and the tongue of the case repeated these couplets : — 
 
 On the fifth day at even-tide they went away from me ; * I farewelled them as 
 
 faring they made farewell my lot : 
 But my spirit as they went, with them went and so I cried, * "Ah return ye ! " 
 
 but replied she, " Alas ! return is not 
 To a framework lere and lorn that lacketh blood and life, * A frame whereof 
 
 remaineth naught but bones that rattle and rot : 
 Mine eyes are blind and cannot see quencht by the flowing tear ! * INIine ears arc 
 
 dull and lost to sense : they have no power to hear ! " 
 
 He abode a long time sorrowing for his father till, one day, as he 
 was sitting at home, there came a knocking at the door ; so he rose 
 
 ' The Unity of the Godhead and the Apostleship of Mohammed. 
 "^ This would be done only in the case of the very poor. 
 
 3 Prayers over the dead are not universal in Al-Islam ; but when they are recite;! 
 they lack the " sijdah" or prostration.
 
 ^^S Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 in haste and opening let in a man, one of his father's intimates and 
 who had been the Wazir's boon-companion. The visitor kissed 
 Nur al-Din's hand and said to him, " O my lord, he who hath left 
 the like of thee is not dead ; and this way went also the Chief of 
 the Ancients and the Moderns.^ O my lord Ali, be comforted 
 and leave sorrowing." Thereupon Nur al-Din rose, and going to 
 the guest-saloon transported thither all he needed. Then he 
 assembled his companions and took his handmaid again ; and, 
 collecting round him ten of the sons of the merchants, began to 
 eat meat and drink wine, giving entertainment after entertain- 
 ment and lavishing his presents and his favours. One day his 
 Stew^ard came to him and said, " O my lord Nur al-Din, hast 
 thou not heard the saying. Whoso spendeth and reckoneth not, 
 to poverty wendeth and recketh not ? " And he repeated what the 
 poet wrote : — - 
 
 I look to my money and keep it with care, » For right well I wot 'tis my buckler 
 
 and brand : 
 Did I lavish my dirhams on hostilest foes,^ • I should truck my good luck by mine 
 
 ill luck trepanned : 
 So I'll eat it and drink it and joy in my wcaUli ; » And no spending my pennies 
 
 on others I'll stand : 
 I will keep my purse close 'gainst whoever he be ; » And a niggard in grain a true 
 
 friend ne'er I fand : 
 Far better deny him than come to say: — " Lend, » And five-fold the loan shall 
 
 return to thy hand ! " 
 And he turns face aside and he sidles away, « While I stand like a dog disap- 
 pointed, unmanned. 
 Oh, the sorry lot his who hath yellow-boys none, » Though his genius and virtues 
 
 shine bright as the sun ! 
 
 " O my master," continued the Steward, " This lavish outlay and 
 these magnificent gifts waste away wealth." When Nur al-Din Ali 
 heard these words he looked at his servant aad cried, " Of all thou 
 hast spoken I will not heed one single word, for I have heard the 
 saying of the poet who saith : — 
 
 An niy palm be full of wealth and my wealth I ne'er bestow, » A palsy take my 
 
 hand and my foot ne'er rise again ! 
 Show me niggard who by niggardise e'er rose to high degree, » Or the generous in 
 
 gifts generosity hath slain." 
 
 And he pursued, " Know, O Steward, it is my desire that so long 
 as thou hast money enough for my breakfast, thou trouble me not 
 with taking thought about my supper." Thereupon the Steward 
 
 ' Or, "Of the first and the last," i.e., Mohammed, who claimed to be the 
 " Seal " or head and end of all Prophets and Prophecy. 
 ^ i.e., flatterers.
 
 Niir al-Din Ali and the Damsel Aids al-Jalis. 339 
 
 asked, " ]\Iust it be thus ? " and he answered, " It must." So the 
 honest man went his way and Nur al-Din Ah devoted himself to 
 extravagance ; and if any of his cup-companions chanced to say, 
 " This is a pretty thing " ; he would reply, " 'Tis a gift to thee ! " 
 or if another said, " O my lord, such a house is handsome " ; he 
 would answer, " Take it : it is thine ! " After this reckless fashion 
 he continued to live for a whole year, giving his friends a banquet 
 in the morning and a banquet in the evening and a banquet at 
 midnight, till one day, as the company was sitting together, the 
 damsel Anis al-Jalis repeated these hnes : — 
 
 Thou dcemedst well of Time when days went well, * And fearedst not what ills 
 
 might deal thee Fate : 
 Thy nights so fair and restful cozened thee, » For peaceful nights bring woes of 
 
 heavy weight. 
 
 When she had ended her verse behold, somebody knocked at the 
 door. So Nur al-Din rose to open it and one of his boon com- 
 panions followed him without being perceived. At the door he 
 found his Steward and asked him, " What is the matter ? " and 
 he answered, "O my Lord, what I dreaded for thee hath come to 
 pass ! " " How so ? " " Know that there remains not a dirham's 
 worth, less or more, in my hands. Here are my Dafters and 
 account books showing both income and outlay and the registers 
 of thine original property." When Nur al-Din heard these words 
 he bowed his head and said, " There is no Majesty and there is no 
 Might save in Allah ! " When the man who had followed him privily 
 to spy on him heard the Steward's words, he returned to his friends 
 and warned them saying, " Look ye well to what ye do : Nur al- 
 Din is penniless " ; and, as the young host came back to his guests, 
 vexation showed itself in his face. Thereupon one of the intimates 
 rose ; and, looking at the entertainer, said to him, " O my lord, 
 may be thou wilt give me leave to retire ? " " And why so early 
 retirement this day?" asked he; and the other answered him, "My 
 wife is in child-birth and I may not be absent from her : indeed I 
 must return and see how she does." So he gave him leave, where- 
 upon another rose and said, " O my lord Nur al-Din, I wish now to 
 go to my brother's for he circumciseth his son to-day." In short, each 
 and every asked permission to retire on some pretence or other, till 
 all the ten were gone leaving Nur al-Din alone. Then he called his 
 slave-girl and said to her, " O Anis al-Jalis, hast thou seen what case 
 is mine ? " And he related to her what the Steward had told him. 
 Then quoth she, " O my lord, for many nights I had it in my mind 
 to speak with thee of this matter, but I heard thee repeating : —
 
 34° Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 When the World heaps favours on thee, pass on « Thy favours to friends ere her 
 
 hand she stay : 
 Largesse never let her when fain she comes, « Nor niggardise kept her from 
 
 turning away ! 
 
 When I heard these verses I held my peace, and cared not to 
 exchange a word with thee." "O Anis al-Jalis," said Nur al-Din, 
 "thou knowest that I have not wasted my wealth save on my 
 friends, especially these ten who have now left me a pauper, and I 
 think they will not abandon and desert me without relief." " By 
 Allah," replied she, " they will not profit thee with aught of aid." 
 Said he, " I will rise at once and go to them, and knock at their 
 doors. It may be I shall get from them somewhat wherewith I 
 may trade and leave pastime and pleasuring." So he rose without 
 stay or delay, and repaired to a street wherein all his ten friends 
 lived. He went up to the nearest door and knocked, whereupon a hand- 
 maid came out, and asked him, "Who art thou ?" And he answered, 
 " Tell thy master that Nur al-Din Ali standeth at the door and saith 
 to him : — Thy slave kisseth thy hand and awaiteth thy bounty.'- 
 The girl went in and told her master, who cried at her, " Go back and 
 say : — My master is not at home." So she returned to Nur al-Din, 
 and said to him, " O my lord, my master is out." Thereupon he 
 turned away and said to himself, " If this one be a whoreson knave 
 and deny himself, another may not prove himself such knave and 
 whoreson." Then he went up to the next door and sent in a like 
 message to the house-master, who denied Iiimself as the first had 
 done, whereupon he began repeating :— 
 
 He is gone who when to his gale thou go'st * Fed thy famisht maw with his 
 boiled and roast. 
 
 When he had ended his verse he said, " By Allah, there is no help 
 but that I make trial of them all : perchance there be one amongst 
 them who will stand me in the stead of all the rest." So he went 
 the round of the ten, but not one of them would open his door to 
 him or show himself or even break a bit of bread before him ; 
 whereupon he recited : — 
 
 Like a tree is he who in wealth doth wone, « And while fruits he, the folk to his 
 
 fruit shall run : 
 But when bared the tree of what fruit it bare, » They leave it to suffer from dust 
 
 and sun. 
 Perdition to all of this age ! I find * Ten rogues for every righteous one. 
 
 Then he returned to his slave-girl, and his grief had grown more 
 grievous, and she said to him, " O my lord, did I not tell thee none 
 would profit thee with aught of aid ? " And he replied, " By Allah,
 
 Nur al-Din Ali and the Damsel Anis al-Jalis. 341 
 
 not one of them would show me his face or know me." " O my 
 lord," quoth she, "sell some of the moveables and household stuff, 
 such as pots and pans, little by little, and expend the proceeds until 
 Allah Almighty shall provide." So he sold all of that was in the 
 house till nothing remained, when he turned to Anis al-Jalis, and 
 asked her, "What shall we do now?" And she answered, "O my 
 lord, it is my advice that thou rise forthwith and take me down to 
 the bazar and sell me. Thou knowest that thy father bought me 
 for ten thousand dinars : haply Allah may open thee a way to get 
 the same price, and if it be His will to bring us once more together, 
 we shall meet again." "O Anis ai-Jalis," cried he, "by Allah, it is 
 no light matter for me to be parted from thee for a single hour ! " 
 " By Allah, O my lord," she replied, " nor is it easy to me either, but 
 Need hath its own law, as the poet said : — 
 
 Need drives a man into devious roads, * And pathways doubtful of trend and 
 
 scope : 
 No man to a rope' will entrust his weight, * Save for cause that calleth for case 
 
 of rope. 
 
 Thereupon he rose to his feet and took her,- whilst the tears rolled 
 down his cheek Hke rain ; and he recited with the tongue of the 
 case these lines : — 
 
 Stay ! grant one parting look before we part, * Nerving my heart this severance to 
 
 sustain : 
 But, an this parting deal thee pain and bane, * Leave me to die of love and spare 
 
 thee pain ! 
 
 Then he went down with her to the bazar and delivered her to 
 the broker and said to him, " O Hajj'^ Hasan, I pray thee note 
 the value of her thou hast to cry for sale." " O my lord Nur 
 al-Din," quoth the broker, " the fundamentals are remembered * " : 
 adding, " Is not this the Anis al-Jalis whom thy father bought of 
 me for ten thousand dinars ? " " Yes," said Nur al-Din. There- 
 upon the broker went round to the merchants, but found that all 
 had not yet assembled. So he waited till the rest had arrived 
 and the market was crowded with slave-girls of all nations, Turks, 
 Franks and Circassians ; Abyssinians, Nubians and Takruris ^ ; 
 
 ' Arab. " Sabab," the orig. and material sense of the word; hence "a 
 cause," etc. 
 
 ^ Thus he broke his promise to his father, and it is insinuated that retribution 
 came upon him. 
 
 3 " O Pilgrim " (Ya Hajj) is a polite address even to those who have not pilgrim- 
 aged. The feminine " Hajjah " (in Egypt pronounced "Hc%geh") is similarly 
 used. 
 
 ■* Arab. usiil = roots, i.e., I have not forgotten my business. 
 
 5 Moslems from Central and Western North Africa. (Pilgrimage, i. 261 ; iii. 7, 
 etc.); the " Jabarli" is the Moslem Abyssinian.
 
 342 Alf Laylah wa TLaylah. 
 
 Tartars, Georgians and others ; when he came forward, and stand- 
 ing cried aloud, " O merchants ! O men of money ! every round 
 thing is not a wahiut, and every long thing a banana is not ; all 
 reds are not meat nor all whites fat, nor is every brown thing a 
 date ^ ! O merchants, I have here this union-pearl that hath no 
 price : at what sum shall I cry her ? " " Cry her at four thousand 
 five hundred dinars," quoth one of the traders. The broker opened 
 the door of sale at the sum named and, as he was yet calling, lo ! 
 the AVazir Al-Mu'in bin Sawi passed through the bazar and, 
 seeing Nur al-Din Ali waiting at one side, said to himself, "Why 
 is Khakan's son '^ standing about here ? Hath this gallows-bird 
 aught remaining wherewith to buy slave-girls ? " Then he looked 
 round and, seeing the broker calling out in the market with all 
 the merchants around him, said to himself, " I am sure that he is 
 penniless and hath brought hither the damsel Anis al-Jalis for 
 sale"; adding, "O how cooling and grateful is this to my heart !" 
 Then he called the crier, who came up and kissed the ground before 
 him ; and he said to him, " I want this slave-girl whom thou art 
 calling for sale." The broker dared not cross him, so he answered, 
 " O my lord, Bismillah ! in Allah's name so be it " ; and led for- 
 ward the damsel and showed her to him. She pleased him much, 
 whereat he asked, " O Hasan, what is bidden for this girl ? " and 
 he answered, " Four thousand five hundred dinars to open the 
 door of sale." Quoth Al-Mu'in, " Four thousand five hundred 
 is my bid." When the merchan::s heard this they held back, 
 and dared not bid another dirham, wotting what they did of the 
 Wazir's tyranny, violence, and treachery. So Al-Mu'in looked at 
 the broker and said to him, " Why stand still ? Go and offer 
 four thousand dinars for me and the five hundred shall be for 
 thyself" Thereupon the broker went to Nur al-Din and said, 
 " O my lord, thy slave is going for nothing ! " " And how so ? " 
 asked he. The broker answered, "We had opened the biddings 
 for her at four thousand five hundred dinars ; when that tyrant, 
 Al-Mu'in bin Sawi, passed through the bazar and, as he saw the 
 damsel she pleased him, so he cried to me : — Call me the buyer 
 at four thousand dinars and thou shalt have five hundred for 
 thyself I doubt not but that he knoweth that the damsel is 
 
 ' This is a favourite bit of cliaffand is to be lengthened out ahiiost indefinitely, 
 e.g. , every brown thing is not civet nor ever)' shining thing a diamond ; every 
 black thing is not cliarcoal nor every white chalk ; every red thing is not a ruby 
 nor every yellow a topaz ; every long-necked thing is not a camel, etc., etc., etc. 
 
 * lie gives him the name of his grandfather ; a familiar usage.
 
 Niir al-Din AH and the Damsel Ants al-Jalis. 343 
 
 thine, and if he would pay thee down her price at once it were 
 well ; but I know his injustice and violence ; he will give thee 
 a written order upon some of his agents and will send after thee 
 to say to them : — Pay him nothing. So as often as thou shalt go 
 in quest of the coin they will say : — We'll pay thee presently ! and 
 they will put thee off day after day, and thou art proud of spirit ; 
 till at last, when they are wearied with thine importunity, they 
 will say :— Show us the cheque. Then as soon as they have got 
 hold of it they will tear it up, and so thou wilt lose the girl's price." 
 When Nur al-Din heard this he looked at the broker and asked 
 him, " How shall this matter be managed ? " and he answered, 
 " I will give thee a counsel which, if thou follow, it shall bring thee 
 complete satisfaction." " And what is that ? " quoth Nur al-Uin. 
 Quoth the broker, " Come thou to me anon when I am standing 
 in the middle of the market and, taking the girl from my hand, 
 give her a sound cuffing and say to her : — Thou baggage, I have 
 kept my vow and brought thee down to the slave-market, because 
 I swore an oath that I ^\ould carry thee from home to the bazar, 
 and make brokers cry thee for sale. If thou do this, perhaps the 
 device will impose upon the Wazir and the people, and they will 
 believe that thou broughtest her not to the bazar but for the 
 quittance of thine oath." He replied, " Such were the best way." 
 Then the broker left him, and, returning into the midst of the 
 market, took the damsel by the hand, and signed to the Wazir, and 
 said, " O my lord, here is her owner." "\^'ith this up came Nur 
 al-Din Ali, and, snatching the girl from the broker's hand, cuffed 
 her soundly, and said to her, " Shame on thee, O thou baggage ! I 
 have brought thee to the bazar for quittance of mine oath. Now 
 get thee home and thwart me no more as is thy wont. U^oe to 
 thee ! Do I need thy price, that I should sell thee ? The furniture 
 of my house would fetch thy value many times over." When 
 Al-Mu'in saw this he said to Nur al-Din, " Out on thee ! Hast 
 Lhou anything left for selling or buying ? " And he would have 
 laid violent hands upon him, but the merchants interposed (for 
 they all loved Nur al-Din), and the young man said to them, 
 " Here am I in your hands and ye all know his tyranny." " By 
 Allah," cried the Wazir, " but for you I had slain him ! " Then 
 all signed with significant eyes to Nur al-Din as much as to say, 
 " Take thy wreak of him ; not one of us will come between thee 
 and him." Thereupon Nur al-Din, who was stout of heart as he 
 was stalwart of limb, went up to the Wazir and, dragging him over 
 the pommel of his saddle, threw hini to the ground. Now there
 
 344 -^^f Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 was in that place a puddling-pit for brick-clay,^ into the midst of 
 which he fell, and Nur al-Din kept pummelling and fisticufifing 
 him, and one of the blows fell full on his teeth, and his beard was 
 dyed with his blood. Also there were with the minister ten armed 
 slaves who, seeing their master entreated after this fashion, laid 
 hand on sword-hilt, and would have bared blades and fallen on 
 Nur al-Din to cut him down ; but the merchants and bystanders 
 said to them, " This is a Wazir, and that is the son of a Wazir ; 
 haply they will make friends some time or other, in which case 
 you will forfeit the favour of both. Or perchance a blow may 
 befall your lord, and you will all die the vilest of deaths ; so it 
 were better for you not to interfere." Accordingly they held aloof 
 and, when Nur al-Din had made an end of thrashing the Wazir, 
 he took his handmaid and fared homewards. Al-Mu'in also went 
 his ways at once, with his raiment dyed of three colours, black with 
 mud, red with blood, and ash-coloured with brick-clay. When he 
 saw himself in this state, he bound a bit of matting^ round his 
 neck, and, taking in hand two bundles of coarse Halfah-grass,* went 
 up to the palace, and, standing under the Sultan's windows, cried 
 aloud, " O King of the age, I am a wronged man ! I am foully 
 wronged ! " So they brought him before the King who looked at 
 him ; and behold, it was the chief Minister ; whereupon he said, 
 " O Wazir, who did this deed by thee ? " Al-Mu'in wept and sobbed 
 and repeated these lines : — 
 
 Shall the World ojipress me when thou art in"t ? • In the lion's presence shall 
 
 wolves devour ? 
 Shall the dry all drink of thy tanks, and I » Unvler rain-cloud lliirst for the cooling 
 
 shower ? 
 
 " O my lord," cried he, " the like will befall every one who loveth 
 and serveth thee well." " Be quick with thee," quoth the Sultan, 
 " and tell me how this came to pass and who did this deed by one 
 whose honour is part of my honour." Quoth the ^\'azir, " Know, O 
 my lord, that I went out this day to the slave-market to buy me 
 a cook-maid, when I saw there a damsel, never in my life long 
 saw I a fairer ; and I designed to buy her for our lord the Sultan ; 
 
 ' Arab. " Ma'janah," a place for making unbaked bricks (Tob = Span. Adobe) 
 with chaff and bruised or charred straw. The use of this article in rainless lands 
 dates from ages innnemorial, and formed the outer walls of the Egyptian temple. 
 
 " Arab. " Barsh," a bit of round matting used by the poor as a seat. The Wazir 
 thus showed that he had been degraded to the condition of a mat-maker. 
 
 3 The growth (a Poa of two species) which named Wady Haifa (vulg. " Halfah") 
 of which the home public has of late heard perhaps a trifle too much. Burckhardt 
 (Prov. 226) renders it "dry reeds " — incorrectly enough.
 
 Kiir al-Diii AH and the Damsel Anis al-Jalis. 345 
 
 so I asked the broker of her and of her owner, and he answered, 
 She belongeth to AU son of Al-Fazl bin Khakan. Some time ago 
 our lord the Sultan gave his father ten thousand dinars wherewith 
 to buy him a handsome slave-girl, and he bought this maiden who 
 pleased him ; so he grudged her to our lord the Sultan and gave 
 her to his own son. When the father died, the son sold all he had 
 of houses and gardens and household gear, and squandered the 
 price till he was penniless. Then he brought the girl to the market 
 that he might sell her, and he handed her over to the broker to 
 cry, and the merchants bid higher and higher on her, until her price 
 reached four thousand dinars ; whereupon quoth I to myself: — I 
 will buy this damsel for our lord the Sultan, whose money was paid 
 for her. So I said to Nur al-Din : — O my son, sell her to me for 
 four thousand dinars. When he heard my words he looked at me 
 and cried : — O ill-omened oldster, I will sell her to a Jew or to a 
 Nazarene, but I will not sell her to thee ! I do not buy her for 
 myself, said I, I buy her for our lord and benefactor the Sultan. 
 Hearing my words he was filled with rage ; and, dragging me off 
 my horse (and I a very old man), beat me unmercifully with his 
 fists and buffeted me with his palms till he left me as thou seest, 
 and all this hath befallen me only because I thought to buy this 
 damsel for thee ! " Then the Wazir threw himself on the ground 
 and lay there weeping and shivering. When the Sultan saw his 
 condition and heard his story, the vein of rage started out between 
 his eyes ^ and he turned to his body-guard who stood before him, 
 forty white slaves, smiters with the sword, and said to them, " Go 
 down forthright to the house built by the son of Khakan and sack 
 it and raze it and bring to me his son Nur al-Din with the damsel; 
 and drag them both on their faces with their arms pinioned behind 
 them." They replied, "To hear is to obey"; and arming them- 
 selves they set out for the house of Nur al-Din Ali. Now about 
 the Sultan was a Chamberlain, 'Alam^ al-Din Sanjar hight, who 
 had aforetime been Mameluke to Al-Fazl ; but he had risen in 
 the world and the Sultan had advanced him to be one of his 
 Chamberlains. When he heard the King's command and saw 
 the enemies make them ready to slay his old master's son, it was 
 grievous to him : so he went out from before the Sultan and 
 
 ' This " Hashimi" vein, as they call it, was an abnormal development between 
 the eyes of the house of Abbas, inherited from the great grandfather of the Prophet; 
 and the latter had it remarkably large, swelling in anger and battle-rage. The text, 
 however, may read, "The sweat of wrath," etc. 
 
 ^ Torrens and Payne prefer " Tim " = knowledge. Lane has more correctly 
 *' 'Alam " = a sign, a ilag.
 
 346 Alf Laylah tva Laylah. 
 
 mounting his beast, rode to Nur al-Din's house and knocked at 
 the door. Nur al-Din came out and knowing him would have 
 saluted him: but he said,"0 my master, this is no time for 
 greeting or treating. Listen to what the poet said : — 
 
 Fly, fly with thy life if by ill overlaken ! 
 
 Let thy house speak thy death by its builder forsaken ! 
 
 For a land else than this land thou may'st reach, my brother, 
 
 But thy life thou'lt ne'er find in this world another.'" 
 
 " O, Alam al-Din, what cheer?" asked Nur al-Din, and he answered, 
 " Rise quickly and fly for thy life, thou and the damsel , for 
 Al-Mu'in hath set a snare for you both ; and if you fall into his 
 hands he will slay you. The Sultan hath despatched forty sworders 
 against you, and I counsel you to flee ere harm can hurt you." 
 Then Sanjar put his hand to his purse, and finding there forty 
 gold pieces took them and gave them to Nur al-Din, saying, " O 
 my lord, receive these and journey with them. Had I more I 
 would give them to thee, but this is not the time to take ex- 
 ception." Thereupon Nur al-Din went in to the damsel and told 
 her what had happened, at which she wrung her hands. Then they 
 fared forth at once from the city, and Allah spread over them His 
 veil of protection, so that they reached the river-bank where they 
 found a vessel ready for sea. Her skipper was standing amidships 
 and crying, "Whoso hath aught to do, whether in the way of pro- 
 visioning or taking leave of his people ; or whoso hath forgotten any 
 needful thing, let him do it at once and return, for we are about to 
 sail " ; and all of them saying, " There is naught left to be done by us, 
 O captain ! " he cried to his crew, " Hallo there ! cast off the cable 
 and pull up the mooring-pole ^ ! " Quoth Nur al-Din, "Whither 
 bound, O captain?" and quoth he, "To the House of Peace, 
 
 Baghdad," And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased 
 
 to say her permitted say. 
 
 Bom lil)cn \X li3?.s tlje (iri;!rtp^sij;t() Bicrfjt, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 skipper answered, "To the House of Peace, Baghdad," Nur al-Din 
 Ali and the damsel went on board, and they launched the craft and 
 shook out the sails, and the ship sped forth as though she were a 
 bird on wing ; even as said one of them and said right well : — 
 
 ' The lines were in vol. i. night xi. : I have quoted Torrens (p. 379) for a change. 
 ^ Still customary in Tigris-Euphrates land, where sea-craft has not changed 
 since the days of Xisislhrus-Noah, and long before.
 
 Niir al-Diii All and the Damsel Aids al-Jalis. 347 
 
 Watch some tall ship, she'll joy the sight of thee, » The breeze outstripping in her 
 
 haste to flee ; 
 As when a bird, with widely-spreading wings, » Leaveth the sky to settle on the 
 
 sea. 
 
 So the vessel sailed on her fastest and the wind to her was fairest. 
 Thus far concerning them ; but as regards the Mamelukes, they 
 went to Nur al-Din's mansion, and breaking open the doors entered 
 and searched the whole place, but could find no trace of him and 
 the damsel ; so they demolished the house, and returning to the 
 Sultan reported their proceedings ; whereupon quoth he, " ]\Iake 
 search for them both, wherever they may be " ; and they answered, 
 " Hearing is obeying." The Wazir Al-Mu'in had also gone home 
 after the Sultan hnd bestowed upon him a robe of honour, and had 
 set his heart at rest by saying, " None shall take blood-wreak for 
 thee save I " ; and he had blessed the King and prayed for his long 
 life and prosperity. Then the Sultan bade proclaim about the 
 city, " Oyez, O ye lieges one and all ! It is the will of our lord 
 the Sultan that whoso happeneth on Nur alDin Ali son of Al-Fazl 
 bin Khakan, and bringeth him to the Sultan, shall receive a robe 
 of honour and one thousand gold pieces ; and he who hideth 
 him or knoweth his abiding place and informeth not, deserveth 
 whatsoever pains and penalties shall befall him." So all began to 
 search for Nur al-Din Ali, but they could find neither trace nor 
 tidings of him. Meanwhile he and his handmaid sailed on with 
 the wind right aft, till they arrived in safety at Baghdad, and the 
 ■captain said to them, " This is Baghdad, and 'tis the city where 
 security is to be had. ^Vinter with his frosts hath turned away 
 xind Prime hath come his roses to display; and the flowers are 
 .a-glowing, and the trees are blowing, and the streams are flowing." 
 So Nur al-Din landed, he and his handmaid, and giving the captain 
 five dinars walked on a little way till the decrees of Destiny brought 
 them among the gardens, and they came to a place swept and 
 •sprinkled, with benches along the walls and hanging jars filled with 
 water.^ Overhead was a trellis of reed-work and canes shading the 
 whole length of the avenue, and at the upper end was a garden 
 gate, but this was locked. " By Allah," quoth Nur al-Din to the 
 damsel, " right pleasant is this place." And she replied, " O my 
 lord, sit with me a while on this bench, and let us take our ease." 
 So they mounted and sat them down on the bench, after which they 
 washed their faces and hands, and the breeze blew cool on them, 
 and they fell asleep, and glory be to Him who never sleepeth. 
 
 ' i o cool the contents. 
 
 Z 2
 
 348 Alf Laylah %va Laylah. 
 
 Now this garden was named the Garden of Gladness/ and therein 
 stood a belvedere hight the Palace of Pleasure and the Pavilion of 
 Pictures, the whole belonging to the Caliph Harun al-Rashid who 
 was wont, when his breast was straitened with care, to frequent 
 garden and palace and there to sit. The palace had eighty latticed 
 windows, and fourscore lamps hanging round a great candelabrum 
 of gold furnished with wax-candles ; and when the Caliph used to 
 enter he would order the handmaids to throw open the lattices 
 and light up the rooms ; and he would bid Ishak bin Ibrahim the 
 cup-companion and the slave-girls to sing till his breast was 
 broadened and his ailments were allayed. Now the keeper of the 
 garden, Shaykh Ibrahim, was a very old man, and he had found 
 from time to time, when he went out on any business, people 
 pleasuring about the garden gate with their bona robas ; at which 
 he was angered with exceeding anger.^ But he took patience till 
 one dgy when the Caliph came to his garden, and he complained of 
 this to Harun al-Rashid, who said, "^Vhomsoever thou surprisest 
 about the door of the garden deal with him as thou wilt." Now 
 on this day the Gardener chanced to be abroad on some occasion, 
 and returning found these two sleeping at the gate covered with a 
 single mantilla. Whereupon .said he, " By Allah, good ! These 
 twain know not that the Caliph hath given me leave to slay anyone 
 I may catch at the door; but I will give this couple a shrewd 
 whipping, that none may come near the gate in future." So he cut 
 a green palm-frond" and went up to them, and, raising his arm till 
 the white of his arm-pit appeared, was about to strike them, when 
 he bethought himself, and said, " O Ibrahim, wilt thou beat them 
 unknowing their case ? Haply they are strangers or of the Sons- 
 of the Road,^ and the decrees of Destiny have thrown them here. 
 
 ' Hence the Khedivial Palace near Cairo, " Kasr al-Nuzhah " ; literally "of 
 Delights " ; one of those flimsy new-Cairo buiUlings, which contrast so marvellously 
 with the architecture of ancient and even of medieval Egypt, and which are 
 covering the land with modern ruins. Compare Mohammed Ali's mosque in the 
 citadel with the older Sultan Hasan. A jiopular tale is told that, when the 
 conquering Turk, Vawuz Sultan Selim, first visited Cairo, they led him to Mosque 
 Al-Ghuri. " This is a splendid Ka'ah (saloon) ! " quoth he. When he entered 
 Sultan Hasan, he exclaimed, " This is a citadel !" but after inspecting the Mosque 
 Al-Mu'ayyad he cried, " 'Tis a veritable place of prayer, a fit stead for the Faithful 
 to adore the Eternal ! " 
 
 ^ Arab, gardeners are very touchy on this point. A friend of mine was on a 
 similar occasion addressed, in true Egyptian lingo, by an old Adam-son, " Ya ibn 
 al-Kalb ! beta'mil ay?" (O dog-son, what art thou up to?). 
 
 3 " The green palm-stick is of the trees of Paradise " ; say the Arabs in Solomonic 
 style but not Solomonic words : so our " Spare the rod," etc. 
 
 ^ Wayfarers, travellers, who have a claim on the kindness of those at home : hence 
 Abd al-Rahman al-Burai sings in his famous Ode : — 
 
 He hath claim on the dwellers in the jilaces of their birth, 
 Whoso wandereth the world, for he lacketh him a home. 
 It is given in my " First Footsteps in East Africa" (pp. 53-55).
 
 Nur al-Din AH and llie Damsel Aiiis al-Jalh. 349 
 
 I will uncover .heir feces and look .t them." So he lilled up the 
 ml, tilla from their heads and said, "They are a handsotne conp^e , 
 " we e no. fitting that I should beat thetn." Then he covered the.r 
 faces acain, and going to Nur al-Din's feet began to rub and 
 s^ranrpoo then,,' wSereupon the youth opened h,s eyes and seenrg 
 an 7d man of'grave and reverend aspect ™bbing h.s ee^, he wa 
 ashamed and drawing them m, sat up Then he o«k Shaykh 
 Ibrahim's hand and kissed it. Quoth the old man O my son, 
 "art thouP" and quoth he, " O my ^o^^^,^ 
 stran.'ers" and the tears started from his eyes. "O my son, sard 
 s'aykh brahim, "know that the Prophet (whom A 'ah bless and 
 n reserve !) hath enjoined honour to the stranger ; and added, \\ It 
 notTou arise, O my son, and pass into the garden and solace th 
 self by looking at it and gladden thy heart?" "O my lord," said 
 Nur al-Din, "to .-hom doth this garden belong?" and the other 
 fepied, "O my son, I have inherited it from my folk." Now his 
 oWect in saying this was to set them at their ease and induce 
 Sn to entir the garden. So Nur al-Din thanked hurr and rose 
 le and the damsel, and followed him into the garden ; and lo! it 
 was a garden, and what a garden! The gate was arched like a 
 "eat hall and over walls and roof ramped vines wUh grapes of 
 many colours ; the red like rubies and the black hke ebonies; and 
 bevclrc it lay a bower of trelliscd boughs growing fruits single and 
 eompo i e and small birds on branches sang with melodious 
 redte ank the thousand-noted nightingale shrilled with her varied 
 hriSttthe turde with her cooing filled the sue; the blackbird 
 Istki like human wight,'- and the ring-dove moaned like a 
 d nker in grievous plight. The trees grew in perfection all edible 
 ™"^s and fruited all manner fruits which in pairs were bipartite 
 wkh the camphor-apricot, the almond-apricot, and the apricot 
 "Khoasani" hight ; the plum, like the face of beauty, smooth and 
 brbhtTthe cheiTy that makes teeth shine clear by her skight, and 
 the fig of three colours, green, purple, and whi.e^ Ihere also 
 blossomed the violet as it were sulphur on fire ^J^'^ 
 orange with buds like pink coral and marguerite; he rose >vhose 
 redness gars the loveliest cheeks blush with despight; and my.tle 
 and g lliflower and lavender with the blood-red anemone from 
 Nuum n hi»ht. The leaves were all gemmed with tears he 
 douds had dight; the chamomi^smile^show^^ 
 
 . In Moslem wntings the dove amUrtle dove »^^^^^ s;,„„„„„ or to amuse his 
 female bird is always mute ami only tne male mii^s 
 mate.
 
 350 Alf Laylah zva Laylah. 
 
 and Narcissus with his negro ^ eyes fixed on Rose his sight ; the 
 citrons shone with fruits embowled and the lemons hke balls of 
 gold ; earth was carpeted with flowers tinctured infinite ; for 
 Spring was come brightening the place with joy and delight ; 
 and the streams ran ringing, to the birds' gay singing, while the 
 rustling breeze upspringing attempered the air to temperance 
 exquisite. Shaykh Ibrahim carried them up into the pavilion, 
 and they gazed on its beauty, and on the lamps aforemen- 
 tioned in the latticed windows ; and Nur al-Din, remembering 
 his entertainments of time past, cried, " By Allah, this is a pleasant 
 place ; it hath quenched in me anguish which burned as a fire 
 of Ghaza-wood.^ " Then they sat down and Shaykh Ibrahim set 
 food before them ; and they ate till they were satisfied, and washed 
 their hands : after wliich Nur al-Din went up to one of the latticed 
 windows and, calling to his handmaid, fell to gazing on the trees 
 laden with all manner fruits. Presently he turned to the Gardener 
 and said to him, " O Shaykh Ibrahim, hast thou no drink here, for 
 folk are v.ont to drink after eating?" Ihe Shaykh brought him 
 sweet water, cool and pleasant, but he said, "This is not the kind 
 of drink I wanted." " Perchance thou wishest for wine ? " " Indeed 
 I do, O Shaykh ! " "I seek refuge from it with Allah : it is thir- 
 teen years since I did this thing, for the Prophet (Abhak^!) cursed 
 its drinker, presser, seller and carrier ! " " Hear two words of me." 
 " Say on." " If yon cursed ass * which standeth there be cursed, 
 will aught of his curse alight upon thee ? " " By no means ! " 
 "Then take this dinar and these two dirhams and mount yonder 
 ass and, halting afar from the wine-shop, call the first man thou 
 seest buying liquor and say to him : — Take these two dirhams for 
 thyself, .nnd with this dinar buy me some wine and set it on the 
 
 ' An unsavoury comparison of the classical Narcissus with the yellow white of a 
 nigger's eyes. 
 
 "" A tree whose coals burn with fierce heat : Al-Hariri (5th Seance). This 
 Artemisia is like the tamarisk but a smaller growth, and is held to be a characteristic 
 of the Arabian Desert. A Badawi always hails with pleasure the first sight of the 
 Ghaza, after he has sojourned for a time away from his wilds. Mr. Palgrave (i. 38) 
 describes the " Ghada," as an Euphorbia with a woody stem, often 5-6 feet high 
 and slender flexible green twigs (?), " forming a feathery tuft, not ungraceful 
 to the eye, while it affords some shelter to the traveller, and food to his 
 camels. " 
 
 3 Arab. Sal'am = S(alla) A(llah) a(layhi) waS(allam); A(llah) b(less) h(im)a(nd) 
 k(eep)= Allah keep him and assain ! 
 
 '» The ass is held to be ill-omened. I have noticed the braying elsewhere. 
 According to Mandeville the Devil did not enter the Ark with the Ass, but he left 
 it when Noah said, " Benedicitc." In his day (A.D. 1322) and in that of Benjamin 
 ofTudela, people had seen and touched the ship on Ararat, the Judi (Gordyivi) 
 mountains ; and this dates from Berosus (S.C. 250) who, of course, refers to the 
 Ark of Xisisthrus. See Josepluis Ant. i. 3, 6 ; and Rodwell (Koran, pp. 65, 530).
 
 Niir a I- Dill Ali and the Damsel Aiiis al-Jalis 35 i 
 
 ass. So shalt thou be neither the presser, nor the buyer, nor the 
 carrier ; and no part of the curse will fall upon thee." At this 
 Shaykh Ibrahim laughed and said, " By Allah, O my son, I never 
 saw one wilier of wit than thou art, nor heard aught sweeter than 
 thy speech." So he did as he was bidden by Nur al-Din, who 
 thanked him and said, " We two are now dependent on thee, and 
 it is only meet that thou comply with our wishes ; so bring us 
 here what we require." " O my son," replied he, " this is my 
 buttery before thee " (and it was the store-room provided for the 
 Commander of the Faithful) ; " so go in, and take whatso thou 
 wilt, for there is over and above what thou wantest." Nur al-Din 
 then entered the pantry, and found therein vessels of gold and silver 
 and crystal set with all kinds of gems, and was amazed and delighted 
 with what he saw. Then he took out what he needed, and set it on 
 and poured the wine into flagons and glass ewers, whilst Shaykh 
 Ibrahim brought them fruit and flowers and aromatic herbs. Then 
 the old man withdrew and sat down at a distance from them, whilst 
 they drank and made merry, till the wine got the better of them, so 
 that their cheeks reddened and their eyes wantoned like the gazelle's, 
 and their locks became dishevelled and their brightness became yet 
 more beautiful. Then said Shaykh Ibrahim to himself, "What aileth 
 me to sit apart from them ? Why should I not sit with them ? When 
 shall I ever find myself in company with the like of these two that 
 favour two moons ? " So he stepped forward and sat down on the 
 edge of the dais, and Nur al-Din said to him, " O my lord, my life 
 on thee, come nearer to us." He came and sat by them, when 
 Nur al-Din filled a cup and looked towards the Shaykh, and said 
 to him, " Drink, that thou mayest try the taste of it." " I take 
 refuge from it with Allah," replied he, " for thirteen years I have 
 not done a thing of the kind." Nur al-Din feigned to forget he was 
 there and drinking off the cup threw himself on the ground, as if 
 the drink had overcome him. Whereupon Anis al-Jalis glanced at 
 him, and said, " O Shaykh Ibrahim, see how this husband of mine 
 treateth me ! " And he answered, " O my lady, w^iat aileth him ? " 
 " This is how he always serveth me," cried she. " He drinketh 
 awhile, then falleth asleep, and leaveth me alone with none to bear 
 me company over my cup, nor any to whom I may sing when the 
 bowl goeth round." Quoth the Shaykh (and his mien unstiffened, 
 for that his soul inclined towards her), " By Allah, this is not well." 
 Then she crowned a cup, and, looking towards him, said, "By my 
 life, thou must take and drink it, and not refuse to heal my sick 
 heart." So he put forth his hand and took it, and drank it off, and 
 she filled a second, and set it on the chandelier, and said, " O master
 
 352 A If Lay la h wa Laylah. 
 
 mine, there is still this one left for thee." " By Allah, I cannot 
 drink it " ; cried he, " what I have already drunk is enough for 
 me " ; but she rejoined, " By Allah, there is no help for it." So he 
 took the cup and drank ; and she filled him a third which he took 
 and was about to drink when behold, Nur al-Din rolled round and 
 
 sat upright And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased 
 
 saying her permitted say. 
 
 JQoto tol^cn it toas X\t C5tvtj)=£scijcnt|& JQIffbt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Nur al-Din 
 sat upright and said, "Ho, Shaykh Ibrahim, what is this? Did 
 I not adjure thee a while ago and thou refusedst, saying : — What, 
 I! 'tis thirteen years ago since I have done such a thing!" "By 
 Allah," quoth the Shaykh (and indeed he was abashed), " no sin 
 of mine this, she forced me to do it." Nur al-Din laughed and 
 they sat down again to wine and wassail, but the damsel turned 
 to her master and said in a whisper, "O my lord, drink and do 
 not press him, that I may show thee some sport with him." 
 Then she began to fill her master's cup and he hers, and so 
 they did time after time, till at last Shaykh Ibrahim looked 
 at them and said, " What fashion of good fellowship is this ? 
 Allah curse the glutton who keepeth the cup to himself ! Why 
 dost thou not give me to drink, O my brother ? What manners 
 are these, O blessed one ? " At this the two laughed until they 
 fell on their backs ; then they drank and gave him to drink, and 
 ceased not their carousal till a third part of the night was past. 
 Then said the damsel, " O Shaj'kh Ibrahim, with thy leave I will 
 get up and light one of these candles." " Do so," he replied, " but 
 light no more than one." So she sprang to her feet, and begin- 
 ning with one candle lighted all the eighty and sat down again. 
 Presently Nur al-Din said, " O Shaykh Ibrahim, in what favour am 
 I with thee? May I not light one of these lamps?" "Light 
 one," replied he, " and bother me no more in thy turn ! " So 
 he rose and lighted one lamp after another, till he had lighted 
 the whole eighty and the palace seemed to dance with brilliancy. 
 Quoth the Shaykh (and indeed intoxication had overcome him), 
 "Ye two are bolder than I am." Then he rose to his feet and 
 opened all the lattices and sat down again ; and they fell to 
 carousing and reciting verses till the place rang with their noisy 
 mirth. Now Allah, the Decreer who decreeth all things, and who 
 for every effect appointeth a cause, had so disposed that the Caliph
 
 Nur al-Diii All a /id the Damsel Aids al-Jalls. 353 
 
 was at that moment sitting in the light of the moon at one of tlie 
 windows of his palace overlooking the Tigris. He saw the blaze 
 of the lamps and wax candles reflected in the river and lifting his 
 eyes, perceived that it came from the Garden Palace, which was all 
 ablaze with brilliancy. So he cried, " Here to me with Ja'afar the 
 Barmaki?" and the last word was hardly spoken ere the Wazir 
 was present before the Commander of the Faithful, who cried at 
 him, " O dog of a Minister, hast thou taken from me this city of 
 Baghdad without saying aught to me?" "What words are these 
 words?" asked Ja'afar; and the Caliph answered, "If Baghdad- 
 city were not taken from me, the Palace of Pictures would not be 
 illuminated with lamps and candles, nor would its windows be 
 thrown open. AVoe to thee ! Avho durst do a deed like this except 
 the Caliphate had been taken from me ? " Quoth Ja'afar (and 
 indeed his side-muscles trembled as he spoke), "Who told thee 
 that the Palace of Pictures was illuminated and the windows 
 thrown open ? " "Come hither and see," replied the Caliph. Then 
 Ja'afar came close to the Caliph, and looking towards the garden 
 saw the palace blazing with illumination that rayed through the 
 gloom of the night; and, thinking that this might have been per- 
 mitted by the keeper for some reason of his own, he wished to 
 make an excuse for him ; so quoth he, " O Commander of the 
 Faithful, Shaykh Ibrahim said to me last week : — O my lord 
 Ja'afar, I much wish to circumcise my sons during the life of the 
 Commander of the Faithful and thy life. I asked : — What dost 
 thou want ? and he answered : — Get me leave from the Caliph to 
 hold the festival in the Garden Palace. So said I to him : — Go 
 circumcise them, and I will see the Caliph and tell him. There- 
 upon he went away and I forgot to let thee know." " O Ja'afar," 
 said the Caliph, " thou hast committed two offences against me ; first, 
 in that thou didst not report to me ; secondly, thou didst not give 
 him what he sought ; for he came and told thee this only as excuse to 
 ask for some small matter of money, to help him with the outlay ; 
 and thou gavest him naught nor toldest me aught." " O Com- 
 mander of the Faithful," said Ja'afar, "I forgot." "Now by the 
 rights of my forefathers and the tombs of my forbears," quoth the 
 Caliph, " I will not pass the rest of this night save in company 
 with him ; for truly he is a pious man who frequenteth the Elders 
 of the Faith and the Fakirs and other religious mendicants, and 
 entertaineth them ; doubtless they are now assembled together 
 and it may be that the prayer of one of them shall work us weal 
 both in this world and in the next. Besides, my presence may 
 profit and at any rate be pleasing to Shaykh Ibrahim." "O Com-
 
 354 -^V Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 mander of the Faithful," quoth Ja'afar, " the greater part of the 
 night is passed, and at this time they will be breaking up." Quoth 
 the Cahph, " It matters not : I needs must go to them." So 
 Ja'afar held his peace, being bewildered and knowing not what 
 to do. Then the Caliph rose to his feet and, taking with him 
 Ja'afar and Masrur the eunuch sworder, the three disguised them- 
 selves in merchants' gear and leaving the City-palace, kept thread- 
 ing the streets till they reached the garden. The Caliph went up 
 to the gate, and finding it wide open was surprised and said, "See, 
 O Ja'afar, how Shaykh Ibrahim hath left the gate open at this 
 hour contrary to his custom ! " They went in and walked on till 
 they came under the pavilion, when the Caliph said, " O Ja'afar, I 
 wish to look in upon them unawares before I show myself, that I 
 may see what they are about and get sight of the Elders ; for 
 hitherto I have heard no sound from them, nor even a Fakir calling 
 upon the name of Allah. ^ " Then he looked about, and seeing a 
 tall walnut-tree said to Ja'afar, " I will climb this tree, for its branches 
 are near the lattices and so look in upon them." Thereupon he 
 mounted the tree and ceased not climbing from branch to branch, 
 till he reached a bough which was right opposite one of the windows, 
 and here he took seat and looked inside the palace. He saw a 
 damsel and a youth as they were two moons (glory be to Him who 
 created them and fashioned them !) and by them Shaykh Ibrahim 
 seated cup in hand and saying, "O Princess of fair ones, drinking 
 without music is nothing worth ; indeed I have heard a poet say : — 
 
 Pass round the cup to the young and old * And take it from hand of a shining 
 
 moon^ : 
 And drain it not sans a song, for I » Have seen horses drink to a whistled 
 
 tunc ! " 
 
 \M-ien the Caliph saw this, the vein of wrath started up between 
 his eyes and he came down and said to the Wazir, " O Ja'afar, 
 never yet beheld I men of piety in such case ; so do thou mount 
 this tree and look upon them, lest the blessings of the blest be 
 lost to thee." Ja'afar, hearing the words of the Commander of the 
 Faithful, and being confounded by them, climbed to the tree-top, 
 and, looking in, saw Nur al-Din and the damsel, and Shaykh Ibrahim 
 holding in his hand a brimming bowl. At this sight he made sure 
 
 ' As would happen at a " Zikr," rogation or litany. Tiiose who wish to see 
 how much can be made of the subject will read " Pearls of the Faith, or Islam's 
 Rosary, being the ninety-nine beautiful names of Allah" (Asma-el-IIusna) etc., by 
 Edwin Arnold. London : Trlibner, 18S3. 
 
 - i.e. the Saki, cup-boy or cup-bearer. " Moon-faced," as I have shown else- 
 where, is no compliment in English, but it is in Persian and Arabic.
 
 Nu7- al-Din Ali and the Dauiscl An is al-Jalis. 355 
 
 of death, and descending, stood before the Commander of the 
 Faithful, who said to him, " O Ja'afar, praise be to Allah who hath 
 made us of those that observe external ordinances of Holy Law, 
 and hath averted from us the sin of disguising ourselves after the 
 manner of hypocrites/ " But Ja'afar could not speak a word for 
 excess of confusion ; so the Caliph looked at him, and said, " I 
 wonder how they came hither, and who admitted them into my 
 pavilion ? But aught like the beauty of this youth and this damsel 
 my eyes never yet saw." "Thou sayest sooth, O our Lord the 
 Sultan," replied Ja'afar (and he hoped to propitiate the Caliph 
 Harun al-Rashid). Then quoth the Caliph, "O Ja'afar, let us 
 both mount the branch opposite the window, that we may amuse 
 ourselves with looking at them." So the two climbed the tree, and 
 peering in, heard Shaykh Ibrahim say, " O my lady, I have cast 
 away all gravity mine by the drinking of wine, but 'tis not sweet save 
 with the soft sounds of the lute-strings it combine." " By Allah," 
 replied Anis al-Jalis, " O Shaykh Ibrahim, an we had but some 
 instrument of music our joyance were complete." Hearing this he 
 rose to his feet, and the Caliph said to Ja'afn-, "I wonder what he 
 is about to do ! " and Ja'afar answered, " I know not." The Shaykh 
 disappeared and presently reappeared bringing a lute ; and the 
 Caliph took note of it and knew it for that of Abu Ishak the Cup- 
 companion.^ " By Allah," said the Caliph, " if this damsel sing ill 
 I will crucify all of you \ but if she sing well I will forgive them and 
 only gibbet thee." " O Allah, cause her to sing vilely ! " quoth 
 Ja'afar. Asked the Caliph, "Why so?" and he answered, "If 
 thou crucify us all together, we shall keep one another company." 
 The Caliph laughed at his speech. Presently the damsel took 
 the lute, and, after looking at it and tuning it, she played a 
 measure which made all hearts yearn to her. Then she sang these 
 lines : — - 
 
 O ye that can aid me, a wretched lover, * Whom longing burns nor can rest 
 
 restore me ! 
 Though all you have done I have well deserved, * I take refuge \\'ithyou, soexuU 
 
 not o'er me : 
 True, I am weak and low and vile, * But I'll bear your will and whatso you 
 
 bore me : 
 My dealh at your hands what brings it of glory ? * I fear but your sin w liicli of life 
 
 forlore me ! 
 
 '■ He means we are"Zahiri," plain honest Moslems, not " Eatini," Gnostics 
 (ergo reprobates) and so forth, who disregard all appearances and external ordi- 
 nances. This suggests his opinion of Shaykh Ibrahim, and possibly refers to 
 Ja'afar's suspected heresy. 
 
 ^ This worthy will be noticed in a subsequent page.
 
 356 Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 Quoth the Caliph, " By Allah, good ! O Ja'afar, never in my life 
 have I heard a ^•oice so enchanting as this." " Then haply the 
 Caliph's wrath hath passed away," said Ja'afar, and he replied, 
 "Yes, 'tis gone." Thereupon they descended from the tree, and 
 the Caliph said to Ja'afar, " I wish to go in and sit with them and 
 hear the damsel sing before me." " O Commander of the Faithful," 
 replied Ja'afar, " if thou go in to them they will be terribly troubled, 
 and Shayhk Ibrahim will assuredly die of fright." But the 
 Caliph answered, "O Ja'afar, thou must teach me some device 
 wherewith to delude them and whereby I can forgather with them 
 without their knowing me." So they walked towards the Tigris 
 pondering the matter, and presently came upon a fisherman who 
 stood fishing under the pavilion windows. Now some time before 
 this the Caliph (being in the pavilion) had called to Shaykh Ibrahim 
 and asked him, "What noise is this I hear under the windows?" 
 and he had answered, " It is voices of fisher folk catching fish " ; so 
 quoth the Caliph, " Go down and forbid them this place " ; and he 
 forbade them accordingly. However, that night a fisherman named 
 Kari'm, happening to pass by and seeing the garden gate open, said 
 to himself, " This is a time of negligence ; and I will take advantage 
 of it to do a bit of fishing." So he took his net and cast it, but he 
 had hardly done so when behold, the Caliph came up single-handed 
 and, standing hard by, knew him and called aloud to him, "Ho, 
 Karim ! " The fisherman, hearing himself named, turned round, 
 and seeing the Caliph, trembled and his side muscles quivered as 
 he cried, " By Allah, O Commander of the Faithful, I did it not in 
 mockery of the mandate ; but poverty and a large family drove 
 me to what thou seest ! " Quoth the Caliph, " Make a cast in my 
 name." At this the fisherman was glad and going to the bank 
 threw his net, then waiting till it had spread out at full stretch and 
 settled down, hauled it up and found therein various kinds of fish. 
 The Caliph was pleased and said, " O Karim, doff thy habit." So 
 he put off a gaberdine of coarse woollen stuff patched in an hun- 
 dred places whereon the lice were rampant, and a turband which 
 had never been untwisted for three years but to which he had sewn 
 every rag he came upon. The Caliph also pulled off his person 
 two vests of Alexandrian and Ba'lbak silk, a loose inner robe and 
 a long-sleeved outer coat, and said to the fisherman, "Take them 
 and put them on," while he assumed the foul gaberdine and filthy 
 turband and drew a corner of the head-cloth as a mouth-veiP 
 
 Arab. " Lisam," the end of the " Kufiyah," or head-kerchief passed over the 
 face under the eyes and made fast on the other side. Tliis mouth-veil serves as a 
 mask (eyes not being recognisable) and defends from heat, cold and thirst. I also
 
 Km- al-Diii AH and the Damsel Anis al-Jalis. 357 
 
 before his face. Then said he to the fisherman, " Get thee about 
 thy business ! " and the man kissed the Cahph's feet and thanked 
 him and improvised the following couplets : — 
 
 Thou hast granted more favours than ever I craved : * Thou hast satisfied needs 
 
 which my heart enslaved : 
 I will ihank thee and thank whileas life shall last, * And my bones will praise 
 
 thee in grave engraved ! 
 
 Hardly had the fisherman ended his verse, when the lice began to 
 crawl over the Caliph's skin, and he fell to catching them on his 
 neck with his right and left and throwing them from him, while he 
 cried, " O fisherman, woe to thee ! what be this abundance of lice 
 on thy gaberdine." "O my lord," replied he, "they may annoy 
 thee just at first, but before a week is past thou wilt not feel them 
 nor think of them." The Caliph laughed and said to him, " Out on 
 thee ! Shall I leave this gaberdine of thine so long on my body?" 
 Quoth the fisherman, " I would say a word to thee but I am 
 ashamed in presence of the Caliph!" and quoth he, "Say what 
 thou hast to say." " It passed through my thought, O Commander 
 of the Faithful," said the fisherman, "that, since thou wishest to 
 learn fishing so thou mayest have in hand an honest trade whereby 
 to gain thy livelihood, this my gaberdine besitteth thee right well.^ " 
 The Commander of the Faithful laughed at this speech, and the 
 fisherman went his way. Then the Caliph took up the basket of 
 fish and strewing a little green gras^ over it, carried it to Ja'afar 
 and stood before him. Ja'afar thinking him to be Karim the 
 fisherman feared for him and said, " O Karim, what brought thee 
 hither? Flee for thy life, for the Caliph is in the garden to-night 
 and if he see thee thy neck is gone." At this the Caliph laughed 
 and Ja'afiir recognised him and asked, " Can it be thou, our lord 
 the Sultan?" and he answered, "Yes, O Ja'afar, and thou art my 
 Wazir, and I and thou came hither together ; yet thou knowest me 
 not ; so how should Shaykh Ibrahim know me, and he drunk ? 
 Stay here, till I come back to thee." "To hear is to obe}'," said 
 
 believe that hooding the eyes with this article, Badawi-fashion, produces a 
 sensation of coolness, at any rate a marked difference of apparent temperature ; 
 somewhat like a pair of dark spectacles or looking at the sea from a sandy shore. 
 Pilgrimage, i. 210 and 346. The woman's " Lisam " (chin-veil), or Yashmak, is 
 noticed in i. 337. 
 
 ' Most characteristic is this familiarity between the greatest man then in the 
 world and his pauper subject. The fisherman alludes to a practice of Al-Islam, 
 instituted by Caliph Omar, that all rulers should work at some handicraft in order 
 to spare the public treasure. Hence Sultan Mu'ayyad of Cairo was a calligrapher 
 who sold his hand-writing, and his example was followed by the Turkish Sultans 
 Mahmud, Abd al-Majid, and Abd al-Aziz. German royalties prefer carpentering 
 and Louis XVI. watch-making.
 
 358 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 Ja'afar. Then the Cahph went up to the door of the pavilion and 
 knocked a gentle knock, whereupon said Nur al-Din, "O Shaykh 
 Ibrahim, some one taps at the door." "Who goes there?" cried 
 the Shaykh, and the Caliph replied, " 'Tis I, O Shaykh Ibrahim!" 
 "Who art thou," quoth he, and quoth the other, "I am Karim the 
 fisherman : I hear thou hast a feast, so I have brought thee some 
 fish, and of a truth 'tis good fish." When Nur al-Din heard the 
 mention of fish, he was glad, he and the damsel, and they both said 
 to the Shaykh, " O our lord, open the door, and let him bring us his 
 fish." So Shaykh Ibrahim opened and the Caliph came in (and 
 he in fisherman guise), and began by saluting them. Said Shaykh 
 Ibrahim, " Welcome to the blackguard, the robber, the dicer ! Let 
 us see thy fish." So the Caliph showed them his catch, and behold, 
 the fishes were still alive and jumping, whereupon the damsel ex- 
 claimed, " By Allah ! O my lord, these are indeed fine fish : would 
 they were fried ! " and Shaykh Ibrahim rejoined, " By Allah, O my 
 lady, thou art right." Then said he to the Caliph, "O fisherman, 
 why didst thou not bring us the fish ready fried ? Up now and 
 cook them and bring them back to us." " On my head be thy 
 commands ! " said the Caliph, "I will fry thee a dish and bring it." 
 Said they, " Look sh::rp " Thereupon he went out and ran till he 
 came up to Ja'afar, when he called to him, " Hallo, Ja'afar ! " and 
 he replied, "Here am I, O Commander of the Faithful, is all well ?" 
 "They want the fish fried," said the Caliph; and Ja'afar answered, 
 " O Commander of the Faithful, give it to me and I'll fry it for 
 them." "By the tombs of my forbears," quoth the Caliph, "none 
 shall fry it but I with mine own hand ! " So he went to the 
 gardener's hut, where he searched and found all that he required, 
 even to salt and saffron and wild marjoram and else besides. 
 Then he turned to the brazier and setting on the frying-pan, fried 
 a right good fry. When it was done he laid it on a banana-leaf, 
 and gathering from the garden wind-fallen fruits, limes and lemons, 
 carried the fish to the pavilion and set the dish before them. So 
 the youth and the damsel and Shaykh Ibrahim came forward and 
 ate ; after which they washed their hands and Nur al-Din said to 
 the Caliph, " By Allah, O fisherman, thou hast done us a right good 
 deed this night." Then he put hand in pouch and, taking out 
 three of the dinars which Sanjar had given him, said, " O fisher- 
 man, excuse me. By Allah, had I known thee before that which 
 hath lately befallen me, I had done away the bitterness of poverty 
 from thy heart ; but take thou this as the best I can do for thee." 
 Then he threw the gold pieces to the Caliph, who took them and 
 kissed them and put them in pouch. Now his sole object in doing
 
 Niir al-Diii AH and the Damsel A/iis a/-/a/is. 359 
 
 all this was to hear the damsel sing; so he said to Nur al-Din, 
 "Thou hast rewarded me inost liberally, but I beg of thy boundless 
 bounty that thou let this damsel sing an air, that I may hear her.' " 
 So Nur al-Din said, "O Anis al-Jalis !" and she answered, "Yes!" 
 and he continued, "By my life, sing us something for the sake of 
 this fisherman who wisheth so much to hear thee." Thereupon 
 she took the lute and struck the strings, after she had screwed them 
 tight and tuned them, and sang these improvised verses : — 
 
 The fawn of a maid henl her kite in hand » And her music made us right mettle- 
 some : 
 
 For her song gave hearing to ears stone-deaf, * While Brava ! Brava ! exclaimed 
 the dumb. 
 
 Then she played again and played so ravishingly, that she charmed 
 their wits and burst out improvising and singing these couplets : — 
 
 You have Ironoured us visiting this our land * And your splendour iUumined the 
 glooms that blent : 
 
 So 'tis due that for you I perfume my place « With rose-water, musk, and camphor- 
 scent ! 
 
 Hereupon the Caliph was agitated, and emotion so overpowered 
 him that he could not command himself for excess of pleasure, and 
 he exclaimed, " By Allah, good ! by Allah, good ! by Allah, good^ ! " 
 Asked Nur al-Din, "O fisherman, doth this damsel please thee?" 
 and the Caliph answered, "Ay, by Allah!" Whereupon said 
 Nur al-Din, " She is a gift to thee, a gift of the generous who 
 repenteth him not of his givings and who will never revoke his 
 gift 1 " Then he sprang to his feet and, taking a loose robe, threw 
 it over the fisherman and bade him receive the damsel and be gone. 
 But she looked at him and said, " O my lord, art thou faring forth 
 without farewell ? If it must be so, at least stay till I bid thee 
 good-bye and make known my case." And she began versifying 
 in these verses : — ■ 
 
 When love and longing and regret are mine, * Must not this body show of ills a 
 
 sign? 
 My love ! say not, "Thou soon shalt be consoled"; * When state speaks state 
 
 none shall allay my pine. 
 If living man could swim upon his tears, * I first should float on waters of these 
 
 eyne : 
 O thou, who in my heart infusedst thy love, * As water mingles in the cup with 
 
 wine. 
 This was the fear I feared, this parting blow, « O thou whose love my heart-core 
 
 ne'er shall tyne ! 
 
 ' There would be nothing singular in this request. The democracy of despotism 
 Jevels all men outside the pale of politics and religion. 
 
 ^ " Wa'Udhi tayyib 1" an exclamation characteristic of the Egyptian Moslem.
 
 360 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 O Bin Khakan ! my sought, my hope, my will, * O thou whose love this breast 
 
 made wholly thine ! 
 Against thy lord the King thou sinn'dst for me, * And winnedst exile in lands 
 
 peregrine : 
 Allah ne'er make my lord repen my loss * To cream' o' men thou gavest me, one 
 
 right digne. 
 
 When she had ended her verses, Nur al-Din answered her with these 
 lines : — 
 
 She bade me farewell on our parting day * And she wept in the fire of our bane 
 
 and pains : 
 " What wilt thou do when fro' thee I'm gone? " * Quoth I, " Say this to whom 
 
 life remains ! " 
 
 When the Caliph heard her saying in her verse : — 
 
 To Karim, the cream of men, thou gavest me ; 
 
 his inclination for her redoubled, and it seemed a hard matter and a 
 grievous to part them ; so quoth he to the youth, " O my lord, truly 
 the damsel said in her verses that thou didst transgress against her 
 master and him who owned her, so tell me against whom didst thou 
 transgress, and who is it hath a claim on thee?" "By Allah, O 
 fisherman," replied Nur al-Din, "there befell me and this damsel a 
 wondrous tale and a marvellous matter, an 'twere graven with 
 needle-gravers on the eye-corners it would be a warner to whoso 
 would be warned." Cried the Caliph, "Wilt thou not tell me thy 
 story and acquaint me with thy case? Haply it may bring thee 
 relief, for Allah's aid is ever nearhand." " O fisherman," said Nur 
 al-Din, "wilt thou hear our history in verse or in prose?" "Prose 
 is a wordy thing, but verses" rejoined the Caliph, "are pearls on 
 string." Then Nur al-Din bowed his head, and made these 
 couplets : — - 
 
 my friend ! reft of rest no repose I command » And my grief is redoubled in 
 
 this far land : 
 Erst I had a father, a kinder ne'er was ; » But he died and to Death paid the 
 
 deodand : 
 When he went from me, every matter went wrong « Till my heart was nigh-broken 
 
 my nature unmanned : 
 He bought me a handmaid, a sweeting who shamed » A wand of the willow by 
 
 Zephyr befanned : 
 
 1 lavisht upon her mine heritage, • And spent like a nobleman puissant and 
 
 grand : 
 Then to sell her compelled, my sorrow increased ; » The parting was sore but I 
 
 mote not gainstand : 
 Now as soon as the crier had called her, there bid » A wicked old fellow, a fiery 
 
 brand : 
 
 ' The pretended fisherman's name Karim = the Generous.
 
 N'ltr al-Din AH and the Damsel A)tis al-Jalis. 361 
 
 So I raged with a rage that I coukl not restrain, » And snatched her from out of 
 
 his hireling's hand ; 
 When the angry curmudgeon made ready for blows * And the fire of a fi'dit 
 
 kindled he and his band, 
 I smote him in fury with right and with left, * And his hide, till well satisfied, 
 
 curried and tanned : 
 Then in fear I fled forth and lay hid in my house, » To escape from the snares 
 
 which my foeman had spanned : 
 So the King of the country proclaimed my arrest ; » When access to me a good 
 
 Chamberlain fand : 
 And warned me to flee from the city afar, » Disappear, disappoint what my 
 
 enemies planned : 
 Then we fled from our home 'neath the wing of the night, <■ And sought us a refuge 
 
 by Baghdad strand : 
 Of my riches I've nothing on thee to bestow, » O Fisher, except the fair gift thou 
 
 hast scanned : 
 The loved of my soul, and when I from her part, * Ki\ow for sure that I give thee 
 
 the blood of my heart. ' 
 
 When he had ended his verse the Caliph said to him, " O my lord 
 Nur al-Din, explain to me thy case more fully." So he told him 
 the whole story from beginning to end, and the Caliph said to him, 
 " Whither dost thou now intend ? " '' Allah's world is wide," replied 
 he. Quoth the Caliph, " I will write thee a letter to carry to the 
 Sultan Mohammed bin Sulayman al-Zayni, which when he readeth, 
 he will not hurt nor harm thee in aught," And Shahrazad per- 
 ceived the da-.vn of day and ceased saying her permitted say 
 
 iQoto to|)cn \i teas X\z C^irtp-ricr^tf) jQitjIjt, 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 the Caliph said to Nur al-Din Ali, " I will write thee a letter to carry 
 to the Sultan Mohammed bin Sulayman al-Zayni, which when he 
 readeth, he will not hurt nor harm thee in aught," Nur al-Din asked, 
 " What ! is there in the world a fisherman who writeth to Kings ? 
 Such a thing can never be ! " and the Caliph answered, " Thou 
 sayest sooth, but I will tell thee the reason. Know that I and he 
 learnt in the same school under one schoolmaster, and that I was 
 his monitor. Since that time Fortune befriended him and he is 
 become a Sultan, while Allah hath abased me and made me a 
 fisherman ; yet I never send to him to ask aught but he doeth my 
 
 ' Such an act of generosity would appear to Europeans well-nigh insanity, but it 
 is quite in Arab manners. Witness the oft-quoted tale of Hatim and his horse. 
 As a rule the Arab is the reverse of generous, contrasting badly, in this point, with 
 his cousin the Jew : hence his ideal of generosity is of the very highest. " The 
 generous {i.e. liberal) is Allah's friend, aye, though he be a sinner ; and the miser 
 is Allah's foe, aye, though he be a saint ! " Indian ]\Ioslems call a skin-flint 
 Makhi-chus = fly-sucker (Pilgrimage, i. 242). 
 
 VOL. I. A A
 
 362 A If Lay /ah wa Lay la h. 
 
 desire ; nay, though I should crave of him a thousand favours every 
 day, he would comply." When Nur al-Din heard this he said, 
 " Good ! Write that I may see." So the Caliph tOvOk ink-case and 
 reed-pen and wrote as follows : " In the name of Allah, the 
 Compassionating, the Compassionate. But after.^ This letter is 
 written by Ilarun al-Rashid, son of Al-Mahdi, to his highness 
 Mohammed bin Sulayman al-Zayni, whom I have encompassed about 
 with my favour and made my viceroy in certain of my dominions. 
 The bearer of these pre3ents is Nur al-Din Ali, son of Fazl bin 
 Khakan, the Wazir. As scon as they come to thy hand divest 
 thyself forthright of the kingly dignity and invest him therewith ; so 
 oppose not my commandment, and peace be with thee." He gave 
 the letter to Nur al-Din, who took it and kissed it, then put it in his 
 turband, and set out at once on his journey. So far concerning him ; 
 but as regards the Caliph, Shaykh Ibrahim stared at him (and he still 
 in fisher garb), and said, " O vilest of fishermen, thou hast brought 
 us a couple of fish worth a score of half-dirhams,^ and hast gotten 
 three dinars for them, and thinkest thou to take the damsel to boot?" 
 When the Caliph heard this, he cried out at him, and signed to 
 Masrur, who discovered himself, and rushed in upon him. Now 
 Ja'afar had sent one of the gardener-lads to the doorkeeper of the 
 palace to fetch a suit of royal raiment for the Prince of the Faithful; 
 so the man went, and returning with the suit, kissed ground before 
 the Caliph and gave it him. Then he threw off the clothes he 
 had on^ and donned kingly apparel. Shaykh Ibrahim was still 
 sitting upon his chair, and the Caliph tarried to behold what would 
 come next. But seeing the Fisherman become the Caliph, Shaykh 
 Ibrahim was utterly confounded, and he could do nothing but bite 
 his finger-ends,* and say, "Would I knew whether am I asleep or 
 am I awake." At last the Caliph looked at him, and cried, " O 
 
 ' Arab. Amma ba'ad (or Wa ba'ad), an initiatory formula attributed to Kossibn 
 Sa'idat al-Iyadi, bishop of Najran (the town in Al-\'aman which D'Herbelot calls 
 Negiran) and a famous preacher in Mohammed's day : hence " more eloquent than 
 Koss " (Maydani, Arab. Trov. , 1S9). lie was the first who addressed letters with 
 the incept, " from A. to B. ," and the first who preached from a pulpit and who 
 leant on a sword or a stafi when discoursing. Many Moslems date Amma ba'ad 
 from the Prophet David, relying upon a passage of the Koran (xxxviii. 19). 
 
 ^ Arab. " Nusf" = half (adirham) : vulgarly pronounced "nuss," and synonymous 
 with the Egypt. " Faddah" ( = silver), the Greek Asper, and the Turkish " parah." 
 It is the smallest Egyptian coin, made of very base metal, and, there being forty 
 to the piastre, it is worth nearly a quarter of a farthing. 
 
 3 The too literal Torrens and Lane make the Caliph give the gardener-lad the 
 clothes in which he was then clad, forgetting, like the author or copier, that he 
 wore the fisherman's lousy suit. 
 
 * In sign of confusion, disappointment, and so forth: not "biting his nails," 
 which is European and utterly un- Asiatic.
 
 Nur al-Din AH and the Damsel A/iis al-Jalis. 363 
 
 Shaykh Ibrahim, what state is this in which I see thee ?" Thereupon 
 he recovered from his drunkenness, and, throwing himself upon the 
 ground, repeated these verses : — 
 
 Pardon the sinful ways I did pursue ; * Ruth from liis lord to every slave is due : 
 Confession pays the fine that sin demands ; * Where, then, is that which grace and 
 mercy sue ' ? 
 
 The Cahph forgave him and bade carry the d.imsel to the city- 
 palace, where he set apart for her an apartment and appointed 
 slaves to serve her, saying to her, " Know that we have sent thy 
 lord to be Sultan in Bassorah and. Almighty Allah willing, we 
 will despatch him the dress of investiture and thee with it." 
 Meanwhile, Nur al-Din Ali ceased not travelling till he reached 
 Bassorah, where he repaired to the Sultan's palace and he shouted 
 a loud shout." The Sultan heard him and sent for him ; and when 
 he came into his presence, he kissed ground between his hands 
 and, producing the letter, presented it to him. Seeing the super- 
 scription in the writing of the Commander of the Faithful, the 
 Sultan rose to his feet and kissed it three times ; and after reading; 
 it said, " I hear and I obey Allah Almighty and the Commander 
 of the Faithful ! " Then he summoned the four Kazis ^ and the 
 Emirs and was about to divest himself of the rule royal, when 
 behold, in came Al-Mu'in bin Sawi. The Sultan gave him the 
 Caliph's letter and he read it, then tore it to pieces and putting it 
 into his mouth chewed it* and spat it out. "Woe to thee," quoth 
 the Sultan (and indeed he was sore angered) ; " what induced thee 
 to do this deed?" "Now by thy life! O our lord the Sultan," 
 replied Mu'in, "this man hath never forgathered with the Caliph 
 nor with his Wazir ; but he is a gallows-bird, a limb of Satan, a 
 knave who having come upon a written paper in the Caliph's 
 hand, some idle scroll, hath made it serve his own end. The 
 Caliph would surely not send him to take the Sultanate from thee 
 without the Imperial autograph ^ and the diploma of investiture, 
 and he certainly would have despatched with him a Chamberlain 
 or a Minister. But he hath come alone and he never came from 
 the Caliph, no, never ! never ! never ! " " What is to be done ? " 
 
 ' See lines like these in night xiii. ; the sentiment is trite. 
 
 ^ The Arab will still stand under his ruler's palace and shout aloud to attract his 
 attention : Sayyid Sa'id, known as the " Imam of Maskat " used to encourage the 
 patriarchal practice. Mohammed repeatedly protested against such unceremonious 
 conduct (Koran, xciv. il, etc.). The " three times of privacy ' (Koran, cv. 57) are 
 before the dawn-prayer, during the Siesta (noon), and after the even-prayer. 
 
 3 The Judges of the four orthodox schools. 
 
 '' That none might see it or find it ever after. 
 
 S Arab. " Khatt Sharif "=a royal autographical letter: the term is still pre- 
 served in Turkey, but Europeans will write " Hatt. " 
 
 AA 2
 
 364 Alf Lay/ah wa Laylah. 
 
 asked the Sultan, and the Mhiister answered, " Leave him to me 
 and I will take him and keep him away from thee, and send him 
 in charge of a Chamberlain to Baghdad-city. Then, if what he 
 says be sooth, they will bring us back autograph and investiture ; 
 and if not, I will take my due out of this debtor." When the 
 Sultan heard the Minister's words he said, " Hence with thee and 
 him too." Al Mu'in took trust of him from the King, and carrying 
 him to his own house cried out to his pages who laid him flat and 
 beat him till he fainted. Then he let put upon his feet heavy 
 shackles and carried him to the jail, where he called the jailor, 
 one Kutayt,^ who came and kissed ground before him. Quoth 
 the Wazir, " O Kutayt, I wish thee to take this fellow and throw 
 him into one of the underground cells ' in the prison and torture 
 him night and day." "To hear is to obey," replied the jailor, and 
 taking Nur al-Din into the prison, locked the door upon him. 
 Then he gave orders to sweep a bench behind the door, and 
 spreading on it a sitting-rug and a leather-cloth, seated Nur al-Uin 
 thereon and loosed his shackles and entreated him kindly. The 
 ^^'azir sent every day enjoining the jailor to beat him, but he 
 abstained from this, and so continued to do for forty days. On the 
 forty-first day there came a present from the Caliph ; which when 
 the Sultan saw, it pleased him and he consulted his Ministers on 
 the matter, when one of them said, " Perchance this present was 
 for the new Sultan." Cried Al-Mu'in, "We should have done well 
 had we put him to death at his fint coming " ; and the Sultan cried 
 " By Allah, thou hast reminded me of him ! Go down to the prison 
 and fetch him, and I will strike off his head." "To hear is to 
 obey,'' replied Al-Mu'in : then he stood up and said, " I will 
 make proclamation in the city : — ^\'hoso would solace himself with 
 seeing the beheading of Nur al-Din bin al-Fazl bin Khakan, let 
 him repair to the palace ! So follower and followed, great and 
 small will flock to the spectacle, and I shall heal my heart and harm 
 my foe." "Do as thou wilt," said the Sultan. The Wazir went off 
 (and he was glad and gay), and ordered the Chief of Police to make 
 the afore-mcntioned proclamation. When the people heard the crier, 
 they all sorrowed and wept, even the little ones at school and the 
 traders in their shops ; and some strove to get places for seeing the 
 sight, whilst others went to the prison with the object of escorting 
 him thence. Presently, the AX'azir came with ten Mamelukes to the 
 jail, and Kutayt the jailor asked him, " Whom seekest thou, O our 
 
 ' Meaning " Little tom-cat " ; a dim. of" Kit," viilg. Kutt or Gutt. 
 - Arab. '' Malnu'iiah" — the Algerino " Matamor " = a "silo," made familiar to 
 England by the invention of " Ensilage."
 
 Nur al-Diii AH and the Damsel A/iis al-Jalis. 365 
 
 lord the ^Vazir ? " whereto he answered, " Bring me that gallows- 
 bird." But the jailor said, " He is in the sorriest of plights for the 
 much beating I have given him." Then he went into the prison and 
 found Nur al-Din repeating these verses : — 
 
 Who shall support me in calamities, * When fail all cures and greater cares arise? 
 Exile hath worn my heart, my vitals torn ; * The World to foes hath turned my 
 
 firm allies. 
 O folk, will not one friend amidst you all * Wail o'er my woes, and cry to hear 
 
 my cries ? 
 Death and its agonies seem light to me, * Since life has lost all joys and jollities : 
 
 Lord of Mustafa,' that Science-sea * Sole Intercessor, Guide all-ware, all-wise ! 
 
 1 pray thee free me and my fault forego, * And from me drive mine evil and my 
 
 woe. 
 
 The jailor stripped off his clean clothes, and dressing him in two 
 filthy vests carried him to the Wazir. Nur al-Din looked at him 
 and saw it was his foe that sought to compass his death ; so he 
 wept and said, " Art thou, then, so secure against the World ? 
 Hast thou not heard the saying of the poet : — 
 
 Kisras and Cassars in a bygone day * Stored wealth ; where is it, and ah ! where 
 are they ? 
 
 O Wazir," he continued, " know that Allah (be He extolled and 
 exalted !) will do whatso He will ! " " O Ali," replied he, " thinkest 
 thou to frighten me with such talk ? I mean this very day to smite 
 thy neck despite the noses of the Bassorah folk, and I care not ; let 
 the days do as they please. Nor will I turn to thy counsel, but 
 rather to what the poet saith : — 
 
 Leave thou the days to breed their ban and bate, * And make thee strong t' upbear 
 the weight of Fate. 
 
 And also how excellently saith another: — 
 
 Whoso shall see the death-day of his foe, * One day surviving, wins his bestest 
 wish." 
 
 Then he ordered his attendants to mount Nur al-Din upon the 
 bare back of a mule ; and they said to the youth (for truly it was 
 irksome to them), " Let us stone him and cut him down, though our 
 lives go for it." But Nur al-Din said to them, " Do not so. Have 
 ye not heard the saying of the poet? — 
 
 Needs must I bear the term by P'ate decreed, * And when that day be dead needs 
 must I die : 
 
 ' The older " Mustapha " = Mohannned. This intercession-doctrine is fiercely 
 disputed. Pilgrimage, ii. 77. The Apostle of Al-Islam seems to have been unable 
 to make up his mind upon the subject ; and modern opinion amongst ]\Ioslems is 
 apparently borrowed from the Christians.
 
 366 Alf Laylah zva Laylah. 
 
 If lions dragged me to their forest-lair, * Safe should I live till draw my death- 
 day nigh." 
 
 Then they proceeded to proclaim before Nur al-Din, " This is the 
 least of the retribution for him who imposeth upon Kings with 
 forgeries." And they ceased not parading him round about 
 Bassorah, till they made him stand beneath the palace windows and 
 set him upon the leather of blood/ and the sworder came up to 
 him, and said, " O my lord, I am but a slave commanded in this 
 matter ; an thou have any desire tell it me, that I may fulfil it, for 
 now there remaineth of thy life only so much as may be till the 
 Sultan shall put his face out of the lattice." Thereupon Nur al-Din 
 looked to the right and to the left, and before him and behind him, 
 and began improvising: — 
 
 The sword, the sworder, and the blood-skin waiting me I sight, * And cry, Alack, 
 
 mine evil fate ! ah, my calamity ! 
 How is't I see no loving friend with eye of sense or soul ? ♦ What ! no one here ? 
 
 I cry to all : will none reply to me ? 
 The time is past that formed my life, my dcatli term draweth nigh, * Will no man 
 
 win the grace of God showing me clemency 
 And look with pity on my state and clear my dark despair, » E'en with a draught 
 
 of water dealt to cool death's agony ? 
 
 The people fell to weeping over him ; and the headsman rose and 
 brought him a draught of water ; but the ^Vazir sprang up from 
 his place and smote the gugglet with his hand and broke it : then 
 he cried out at the executioner and bade him strike off Nur al-Din's 
 head. So he bound the eyes of the doomed man and folk clamoured 
 at the Wazir and loud wailings were heard and much questioning of 
 man and man. At this moment behold, rose a dense dust-cloud 
 filling sky and wold ; and when the Sultan, who was sitting in the 
 palace, descried this, he said to his suite, " Go and see what yon 
 cloud bringeth." Replied Al-Mu'in, "Not till we have smitten this 
 fellow's neck " ; but the Sultan said, " ^^'ait ye till we see what this 
 meaneth." Now the dust-cloud was the dust of Ja'afar the Barmecide, 
 AVazir to the Caliph, and his host, and the cause of his coming was 
 as follows. The Caliph passed thirty days without calling to mind 
 the matter of Nur al-Din Ali,^ and none reminded him thereof, till 
 one night, as he passed by the chamber of Anis al-Jalis, he heard 
 
 ' Lane (i. 4S6) curiously says, " The place of the stagnation of blood " : yet he 
 had translated the word aright in the Introduction (i. 41). I have noticed that the 
 Nai'a is made, like the " Sufrah," of well-tanned leather, with rings in the periphery, 
 so that a thong passed through turns it into a bag. The Sufrah used for provisions 
 is usually yellow, with a black border and small pouches for knives or spoons 
 (Pilgrimage, i. in). 
 
 '^ Tiiis improbable detail shows the Caliph's greatness.
 
 Nur al-Din AH and the Damsel Anis al-Jalis. 367 
 
 her weeping and singing with a soft sweet voice these lines of the 
 poet: — 
 
 In thought I see thy form when farthest far or nearest near ; » And on my tongue 
 there dwells a name which man shall ne'er unhear. 
 
 Then her weeping redoubled, when lo, the Caliph opened the door, 
 and, entering the chamber, found Anis al-Jalis in tears. When she 
 saw him she fell to the ground, and, kissing his feet three times, 
 repeated these lines: — 
 
 fertile root and noble growth of trunk ; * Ripe-fruitful branch of never suilied 
 
 race ; 
 
 1 mind thee of what pact thy bounty made ; » Far be 't from thee forgotten be 
 
 my case ! 
 
 Quoth the Caliph, " Who art thou ? " and she replied, " I am she 
 whom Ali bin Khakan gave thee in gift, and I wish the fulfilment 
 of thy promise to send me to bin with the robe of honour ; for 1 
 have now been thirty days without tasting the food of sleep." 
 Thereupon the Caliph sent for Ja'afar and said to him, " O Ja'afar, 
 'tis thirty days since we have had news of Nur al-Din bin Khakan, 
 and I cannot but suppose that the Sultan hath slain him ; but, by 
 the life of my head and by the sepulchres of my forefathers, if 
 aught of foul play hath befallen him, I will surely make an end of 
 him who was the cause of it, though he be the dearest of all men to 
 myself ! So I desire that thou set out for Bassorah within this 
 hour and bring me tidings of my cousin, King Mohammed bin 
 Sulayman al-Zayni, and how he hath dealt with Nur al-Din Ali 
 bin Khakan " ; adding, " If thou tarry longer on the road than shall 
 suffice for the journey I will strike off thy head. Furthermore, do 
 thou tell the son of my uncle the whole story of Nur al-Din, and 
 how I sent him with my written orders ; and if thou find, O my 
 cousin,^ that the King hath done otherwise than as I commanded, 
 bring him and the Wazir Al-Mu'in bin Sawi to us in whatsoever 
 guise thou shalt find them.^" "Hearing and obedience," replied 
 Ja'afar, and making ready on the instant, he set out for Bassorah 
 where the news of his coming had foregone him and had reached 
 to the ears of King Mohammed. When Ja'afar arrived and saw 
 the crushing and crowding of the lieges, he asked, " What means 
 all this gathering ? " so they told him what was doing in the matter 
 of Nur al-Din ; whereupon he hastened to go to the Sultan and 
 saluting him, acquainted him with the cause why he came and 
 
 ' " Cousin " is here a familiarity, our " coz." 
 
 ^ i.e. without allowing them a moment's delay to change clothes.
 
 368 ' Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 the Caliph's resolve, in case of any foul play having befallen the 
 youth, to put to death whoso should have brought it about. 
 Then he took into custody the King and the Wazir and laid 
 them in ward, and giving order for the release of Nur al-Din Ali, 
 enthroned him as Sultan in the stead of Mohammed bin Sulay- 
 man. After this Ja'afar abode three days in Bassorah, the usual 
 guest-time, and on the morning of the fourth day, Nur al-Din Ali 
 turned to him and said, " I long for the sight of the Commander of 
 the Faithful." Then said Ja'afar to Mohammed bin Sulayman, 
 " Make ready to travel, for we will say the dawn-prayer and mount 
 Baghdad-wards " ; and he replied, " To hear is to obey." Then they 
 prayed and they took horse and set out, all of them, carrying with 
 them the Wazir, Al-Mu'in bin Sawi, who began to repent him of what 
 he had done. Nur al-Din rode by Ja'afar's side, and they stinted not 
 faring on till they arrived at Baghdad, the House of Peace, and going 
 in to the Caliph told him how they had found Nur al-Din nigh 
 upon death. Thereupon the Caliph said to the youth, " Take this 
 sword and smite with it the neck of thine enemy." So he took the 
 sword from his hand and stepped up to Al-Mu'in, \yho looked at him 
 and said, " I did according to my mother's milk, do thou according 
 to thine.^ " Upon this Nur al-Din cast the sword from his hand, 
 and said to the Caliph, " O Commander of the Faithful, he hath 
 beguiled me with his words" ; and he repeated this couplet : — 
 
 By craft and sleight I snared him when he came ; » A few fair words ayctrap the 
 noble game ! 
 
 " Leave him, then," cried the Caliph, and turning to Masrur said, 
 " Rise thou and smite his neck." So Masrur drew his sword and 
 struck off his head. Then quoth the Caliph to Nur al-Din Ali, 
 "Ask a boon of me." "O my lord," answered he, "I have no 
 need of the Kingship of Bassorah j my sole desire is to be honoured 
 by serving thee and by seeing thy countenance." "With love and 
 gladness," said the Caliph. Then he sent for the damsel,' Anis 
 al-Jalis, and bestowed plentiful favours upon them both and ga\e 
 them one of his palaces in Baghdad, and assigned stipends and 
 allowances, and made Nur al-Din Ali bin Fazl bin Khakan one 
 of his cup-companions ; and he abode with the Commander of the 
 Faithful enjoying the pleasantest of lives till death overtook him. 
 "Yet (continued Shahrazad) is not his story in any wise more 
 wondrous than the history of the merchant and his children." The 
 King asked, " And what was that ? " and Shahrazad began to 
 relate the 
 
 ' i.e. according to my nature, birth, blood, de i-ace.
 
 The Tale of Ghanim bin Ay'yub. 369 
 
 TALE OF GHANIM BIN AYYUB,^ THE DISTRAUGHT, 
 THE THRALL a LOVE. 
 
 It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that in times of yore and in 
 years and ages long gone before, there Hved in Damascus a merchant 
 among the merchants, a wealthy man, who had a son like the moon 
 on the night of his fulness,^ and withal sweet of speech, who was 
 named Ghanim bin 'Ayyub, surnamed the Distraught, the Thrall o' 
 Love. He had also a daughter, own sister to Ghanim, who was 
 called Fitnah, a damsel unique in beauty and loveliness. Their father 
 
 died and left them abundant wealth And Shahrazad perceived 
 
 the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 -Boto tof)fn it todfi l^c (<r{)ii-tp--nintl& Jl^itrl^t, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the merchant 
 left his two children abundant wealth and amongst other things an 
 hundred loads ^ of silks and brocades, musk-pods and mother 
 o' pearl ; and there was written on every bale, " This is of the 
 packages intended for Baghdad," it having been his purpose to 
 make the journey thither, when Almighty Allah took him to 
 Himself, which was in the time of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid. 
 After a while his son took the loads and bidding farewell to his 
 mother and kindred and townsfolk, went forth with a company of 
 merchants, putting his trust in Allah Almighty, who decreed him 
 safety, so that he arrived without let or stay at Baghdad. There 
 
 'jOur"Job." The English translators of the bible, who borrowed Luther's 
 system of transliteration (A.D. 1522), transferred into English the German "j," 
 which has the sound of "i" or "y" ; intending us to pronounce Yacob (or 
 Yakob)', Yericho, Yimnites, Yob (or Hiob) and Yudah. Tyndall, who copied 
 Luther (A.D. 1525-26), preserved the true sound by writing lacob, Ben lamin, 
 and ludas. But his successors unfortunately returned to the German ; the initial 
 I, having from the xiii. century been ornamentally lengthened and bent leftwards, 
 became a consonant ; the public adopted the vernacular sound of "j " (dg) and 
 hence our language and our literature are disgraced by such barbarisms as 
 "Jehovah" and "Jesus" — Dgehovah and Dgeesus for Yehovah and Yesus. 
 Future generations of school-teachers may remedy the evil ; meanwhile we are 
 doomed for the rest of our da3-s to hear 
 
 Gee-rusalem ! Gee-rusalem ! etc. 
 Nor is there one word to be said in favour of the corruption except that, like the 
 Protestant mispronunciation of Latin and the Erasmian ill-articulation of Greek, it 
 has become " English," and has lent its little aid in dividing the Britons from the 
 rest of the civilised world. 
 
 " The moon, I repeat, is masculine in the so-called " Semitic " tongues. 
 
 3 i.e. camel-loads about lbs. 300 ; and for long journeys lbs. 250.
 
 37° Alf LaylaJi wa Laylah. 
 
 he hired for himself a fair dwelling house which he furnished with 
 carpets and cushions, curtains and hangings ; and therein stored 
 his bales and stabled his mules and camels, after which he abode 
 a while resting. Presently the merchants and notables of Baghdad 
 came and saluted him ; after which he took a bundle containing 
 ten pieces of costly stuffs, with the prices written on them, and 
 carried it to the merchants' bazar, where they welcomed and 
 saluted him and showed him all honour ; and, making him dismount 
 from his beast, seated him in the shop of the Syndic of the market, 
 to whom he delivered the package. He opened it and drawing out 
 the pieces of stuff, sold them for him at a profit of two dinars on 
 every dinar of prime cost. At this Ghanim rejoiced and kept 
 selling his silks and stuffs one after another, and ceased not to 
 do on this wise for a full year. On the first day of the following 
 year he went, as was his wont, to the Exchange which was in the 
 bazar, but found the gate shut; and, enquiring the reason, was told, 
 "One of the merchants is dead, and all the others have gone to 
 follow his bier,' and why shouldest thou not win the meed of good 
 deeds by walking with them"?" He replied, "Yes," and asked for 
 the quarter where the funeral was taking place, and one directed him 
 thereto. So he purified himself by the Wuzu-ablution,'* and repaired 
 with the other merchants to the oratory, where they prayed over the 
 dead, then walked before the bier to the burial-place, and Ghanim, 
 who was a bashful man, followed them, being ashamed to leave 
 them. They presently issued from the city, and passed through 
 the tombs until they reached the grave, where they found that 
 the deceased's kith and kin had pitched a tent over the tomb, 
 and had brought thither lamps and wax-candles. So they buried 
 the body, and sat down while the readers read out and recited 
 the Koran over the grave ; and Ghanim sat with them, being 
 overcome with bashfulness, and saying to himself, " I cannot 
 well go away till they do." They tarried listening to the 
 Koranic perlection till nightfall, when the servants set supper 
 and sweetmeats^ before them and they ate till they were satisfied; 
 then they washed their hands and again took their places. But 
 Ghanim's mind was preoccupied with his house and goods, being 
 
 ' Arab. " Janazah," so-called only when carrying a corpse ; else Na'ash, Sarir, 
 or Tabut : Iran being the large hearse on which chiefs are borne. It is made of 
 plank or stick-work ; but there are several varieties (Lane, M. E. chapt. xxviii.). 
 
 ^ It is meritorious to accompany the funeral cortege of a Moslem even for a few 
 paces. 
 
 3 Otherwise he could not have joined in ihe prayers. 
 
 * Arab. " Hahva," made of sugar, cream, almonds, etc. That of Maskat is 
 famous throughout the East.
 
 The Tale of Ghiuiim bin Ayyub. 371 
 
 in fear of robbers, and he said to himself, " I am a stranger here and 
 supposed to have money : if I pass the night abroad the thieves " 
 will steal my money-bags and my bales to boot." So when the 
 could no longer control his fear he arose and left the assembly, 
 having first asked leave to go about some urgent business ; and 
 following the signs of the road he soon came to the city-gate. But 
 it was midnight and he found the doors locked and saw none going 
 or coming, or heard aught but the hounds baying and the wolves 
 howling. At this he exclaimed, " There is no Majesty and there 
 is no Might save in Allah ! I was in fear for my property and 
 came back on its account, but now I find the gate shut and 
 I am in mortal fear for my life ! " Then he turned back and 
 looking out for a place where he could sleep till morning, pre- 
 sently found a Santon's tomb, a square of four walls with a date- 
 tree in the central court and a granite gateway. Tlie door was 
 wide open ; so he entered and would fain have slept, but sleep came 
 not to him ; and terror and a sense of desolation oppressed him, 
 for that he was alone amidst the tombs. So he rose to his feet, 
 and opening the door looked out, and lo, he was ware of a light 
 afar off in the direction of the city-gate ; then \valking a little way 
 towards it he saw that it was on the road whereby he had reached 
 the tomb. This made him fear for his life, so he hastily shut 
 the door and climbed to the top of the date-tree, where he hid 
 himself in the heart of the fronds. The light came nearer and 
 nearer till it was close to the tomb ; then it stopped and he saw , 
 three slaves, two bearing a chest and one with a lanthorn, an adze, 
 and a basket containing some mortar. ^Vhen they reached the 
 tomb, one of those who w-ere carrying the case said, " What aileth 
 thee O Sawab ? " and said the other, " What is the matter, O 
 Kafiir^?" Quoth he, "Were we not here at supper-tide and did 
 we not leave the door open?" "Yes," replied the other, "that is 
 true." " See," said Kafur, " now it is shut and barred." " How 
 weak arc your wits ! " cried the third who bore the adze, and his 
 name was Bukhayt,'^ " know ye not that the owners of the gardens be 
 wont to come out from Baghdad and tend them and when evening 
 closes upon them, they enter this place and shut the door, for fear 
 lest the wicked blackmen, like ourselves, should catch them and 
 roast 'em and eat 'em.''" "Thou sayest sooth," said the two others, 
 
 ' i.e., " Camphor " to a negro, as we say " Snowball," by the figure antiphrase. 
 
 ^ "Little Good Luck," a dim. form of " bakht " = luck, a Persian word 
 naturalised in Egypt. 
 
 3 There are, as I have shown, not a few cannibal tribes in Central Africa, and 
 these at times find their way into the slave market.
 
 372 Alf Laylah wa Lay /ah. 
 
 " but by Allah, however that may be, none amongst us is weaker 
 of wits than thou." "If ye do not believe me," said Bukhayt, "let 
 us enter the tomb and I will rouse the rat for you ; for I doubt 
 not but that, when he saw the light and us making for the place, 
 he ran up the date-tree and hid there for fear of us." When 
 Ghanim heard this, he said in himself, " O curstest of slaves ! May 
 Allah not have thee in His holy keeping for this thy craft and 
 keenness of wit ! There is no Majesty and there is no Might save 
 in Allah, the Glorious, the Great ! How shall I win free of these 
 blackamoors ? " Then said the two who bore the box to him of 
 the adze, " Swarm up the wall and open the gate for us, O 
 Bukhayt, for we are tired of carrying the chest on our necks ; 
 and when thou hast opened the gate thou shalt have one of those 
 we catch inside, a fine fat rat which we will fry for thee after such 
 excellent fashion that not a speck of his fat shall be lost." But 
 Bukhayt answered, " I am afraid of somewhat which my weak 
 wits have suggested to me : we should do better to throw the chest 
 over the gateway ; for it is our treasure." " If we throw it 'twill 
 break," replied they; and he said, "I fear lest there be robbers 
 within who murder folk and plunder their goods, for evening ii 
 their time of entering such places and dividing their spoil." " O 
 thou weak o' wits," said both the bearers of the box, "how could 
 they ever get in here^ ! " Then they set down the chest and climb- 
 ing over the wall dropped inside and opened the gate, whilst the 
 third slave (he that was called Bukhayt) stood by them holding 
 the adze, the lanthorn, and the hand-basket containing the mortar. 
 After this they locked the gate and sat down ; and presently one of 
 them said, " O my brethren, we are wearied with walking and with 
 lifting up and setting down the chest, and with unlocking and 
 locking the gate ; and now 'tis midnight, and we have no breath 
 left to open a tomb and bury the box : so let us rest here two or 
 three hours, then rise and do the job. Meanwhile, each of us shall 
 tell how he came to be castrated and all that befell him from first 
 to last, the better to pass away our time while we take our rest." 
 Thereupon the first, he of the lanthorn and whose name was 
 Bukhayt, said, " I'll tell you my tale." " Say on," replied they ; so 
 he began as follows the 
 
 TALE OF TLLE FLRST EUNUCH, BUKHAYT. 
 
 Know, O my brothers, that when I was a little one, some five 
 years old, I was taken home from my native country by a 
 
 ' i.e. after we bar the door.
 
 Tale of the First Eunuch., Bukhaxt. 373 
 
 slave-driver, who sold me to a certain Apparitor/ My purchaser had 
 a daughter three years old, with whom I was brought up, and they 
 used to make mock of me, letting me play with her and dance for 
 her" and sing to her, till I reached the age of twelve and she that of 
 ten ; and even then they did not forbid me seeing her. One day 
 I went in to her and found her sitting in an inner room, and she 
 looked as if she had just come forth the bath which was in the 
 house, for she was scented with essences and reek of aromatic 
 woods, and her face shone like the circle of the moon on the 
 fourteenth night. She began to sport with me, and I with her. 
 Now I had just reached the age of puberty ; and hot lust stirred 
 in me and I threw my arms round her, while she wound hers about 
 my neck and hugged me to her with all her might, till before I knew 
 what I did, there befell that which could not be mended. When 
 I saw this, I ran off and took refuge with one of my comrades. 
 Presently her mother came in to her ; and, seeing her in this case, 
 fainted clean away. However she managed the matter ad\isedly, 
 and hid it from the girl's father out of good wall to me ; nor did they 
 cease to call to me and coax me, till they took me from where I was. 
 After two months had passed by, her mother married her to a young 
 man, a barber who used to shave her papa, and portioned and 
 fitted her out of her own moneys ; whilst the father knew nothing 
 of what had passed. On the night of consummation they cut 
 the throat of a pigeon-poult and sprinkled the blood on her 
 shift. ^ After a while they seized me unawares and gelded me ; 
 and, when they brought her to her bridegroom, they made me 
 her Agha,^ her eunuch, to walk before her wheresoever she went, 
 whether to the bath or to her father's house. I abode with her a 
 long time enjoying her beauty and loveliness by way of kissing and 
 
 ' Arab. " Jawish," from Turk. Chawush, Chiaoosh, a sergeant, poursuivant, 
 royal messenger. I would suggest that this is the word " Shalish " or "Jalish" 
 in Al-Siyuti's History of the Caliphs (p. 501), translated by Carlyle " milites," by 
 Schultens " Sagittarius," and by Jarett " picked troops." 
 
 ^ This familiarity with blackamoor slave-boys is common in Egypt, and often 
 ends as in the story : Egyptian blood is sufficiently mixed with negro to breed 
 inclination for miscegenation. But here the girl was wickedly neglected by her 
 mother at such an age as ten. 
 
 3 This ancient and venerable practice of inspecting the marriage-sheet is still 
 religiously preserved in most parts of the East ; and in old-fashioned Moslem 
 families it is publicly exposed in the Harem, to prove that the "domestic calamity" 
 (the daughter) went to her husband a clean maid. Also the general idea is that no 
 blood will impose upon the experts, or jury of matrons, except that of a pigeon- 
 jjoult, which exactly resembles hymeneal blood — when not subjected to the micro- 
 scope. This belief is universal in Southern Europe, and I have heard of it in 
 England. Further details will be given in vol. iii. night ccxi. 
 
 ■• " Agha," Turk. =sir, gentleman ; is, I have said, politely addressed to a eunuch.
 
 374 ^V Layhih iva Laylah. 
 
 clipping and coupling with her till she died, and her husband and 
 mother and father died also; when they seized me for the Royal 
 Treasury as being the property of an intestate, and I found my way 
 hither, where I became your comrade. This, then, O my brethren, is 
 the cause of my being an eunuch, and peace be with you. He 
 ceased, and his fellow began in these words the 
 
 TALE OF THE SECOND EUNUCH, KAFUR. 
 
 Know, O my brothers that when beginning service as a boy of 
 eight, I used to tell the slave-dealers regularly and exactly one lie 
 every year, so that they fell out with one another, till at last my 
 master lost patience with me and carrying me down to the market, 
 ordered the brokers to cry, " Who will buy this slave, knowing his 
 blemish and naking allowance for it? " He did so, holding me by 
 the ear, and they asked him " Pray, what may be his blemish ? " and he 
 answered, " He telleth me one single lie every year." Now a man 
 that was a merchant came up and said to the broker, " How much 
 do they allow for him with his blemish ? " " They allow six hundred 
 dirhams," he replied; and said the other, "Thou shalt have 
 twenty dirhams for thyself" So he arranged between him and 
 the slave-dealer, who took the coin from him and the broker 
 carried me to the merchant's house and departed, after receiving 
 his brokerage. The trader clothed me with suitable dress, and 
 I stayed in his service the rest of my twelvemonth, until the new 
 year began happily. It was a blessed season, plenteous in the 
 produce of the earth, and the merchants used to feast every day 
 at the house of some one among them, till it was my master's turn 
 to entertain them in a flower-garden without the city. So he and 
 the other merchants went to the garden, taking with them all that 
 they required of provaunt and else beside, and sat eating and 
 carousing and drinking till mid-day, when my master, having need 
 of some matter from his home, said to me, " O slave, mount the 
 she-mule and hie thee to the house and bring from thy mistress 
 such and such a thing and return quickly." I obeyed his bidding 
 and started for the house, but as I drew near it I began to cry out 
 and shed tears, whereupon all the people of the quarter collected, 
 great and small ; and my master's wife and daughters, hearing the 
 noise I was making, opened the door and asked me what was the 
 matter. Said I, " My master was sitting with his friends beneath 
 an old wall, and it fell on one and all of them ; and when I saw 
 what had happened to them, I mounted the mule and came hither
 
 Tale of the Second Euuiich, Kafiir. 375 
 
 in haste to tell you." V/hen my master's daughters and wife heard 
 this, they screamed and rent their raiment and beat their faces, 
 whilst the neighbours came around them. Then the wife over- 
 turned the furniture of the house, one thing upon another, and tore 
 down the shelves and broke the windows and the lattices and 
 smeared the walls with mud and indigo, saying to me, "Woe to 
 thee, O Kafur ! come help me to tear down these cupboards and 
 break up these vessels and this china-ware,^ and the rest of it." 
 So I went to her and aided her to smash all the shelves in the 
 house with whatever stood upon them, after which I went round 
 about the terrace-roofs and every part of the place, spoiling all 
 I could, and leaving no china in the house unbroken till I had laid 
 waste the whole, crying out the while, " Well-away ! my master ! " 
 Then my mistress fared forth bare-faced,^ wearing a head-kerchief 
 and naught else, and her daughters and the children sallied out 
 with her, and said to me, " O Kafur, go thou before us and show us 
 the place where thy master lieth dead, that we may take him from 
 under the fallen wall and lay him on a bier and bear him to the 
 house and give him a fine funeral." So I went forth before them 
 crying out, "Alack, my master!" and they after me with faces 
 and heads bare and all shrieking, " Alas ! Alas for the man ! " Now 
 there remained none in the quarter, neither man nor woman nor 
 epicene nor youth nor maid nor child nor old trot, but went with us 
 smiting their faces and weeping bitterly, and I led them leisurely 
 through the whole city. The folk asked them what was the matter, 
 whereupo.n they told them what they had heard from me, and all 
 exclaimed, "There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in 
 Allah ! " Then said one of them, " He was a personage of con- 
 sequence ; so let us go to the Governor and tell him what hath 
 
 befallen him." When they told the Governor, And Shahrazad 
 
 perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 ifiloiu tof)cn it tons X\z jFortjctJ) Biffj^t, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when they 
 told the Governor, he rose and mounted, and taking with him 
 
 ' It is or rather was the custom in Egypt and Syria to range long rows of fine 
 cliina bowls along the shelves running round the rooms at the height of six or 
 seven feet, and they formed a magnilicent cornice. I bought many of tliem at 
 Damascus till the people, learning their value, asked prohibitive prices. 
 
 ^ The tale is interesting as well as amusing, excellently describing the extrava- 
 gances still practised in middle-class Moslem families on the death of the pater 
 familias. I must again note that Arab women are much more unwilling to expose 
 the back of the head covered by the " Tarhah " (head-veil) than the face, which is 
 hidden by the " Burka " or nose-bag.
 
 376 A If Lay la h wa Laylah. 
 
 labourers, with spades and baskets, went upon my track, with many 
 people behind him ; and I ran before them, howling and casting 
 dust on my head and beating my face, followed by my mistress and 
 her children keening for the dead. But I got ahead of them and 
 entered the garden before them, and when my master saw me in 
 this state, I smiting m.y face and saying, " Well-away ! my mistress ! 
 Alas ! Alas ! Alas ! who is left to take pity on me, now that my 
 mistress is gone ? Would I had been a sacrifice for her ! " he stood 
 aghast and his colour waxed yellow and he said to me, " ^^'hat 
 aileth thee, O Kafur ! What is the matter?" "O my lord," I 
 replied, " when thou sentest me to the house, I found that the 
 saloon-wall had given way and had fallen like a layer upon my 
 mistress and her children ! " " And did not thy mistress escape ? " 
 " No, by Allah, O my master ; not one of them was saved ; the 
 first to die was my mistress, thine elder daughter ! " " And did not 
 my younger daughter escape?" "No, she did not!" "And what 
 became of the mare-mule I used to ride, is she safe ? " " No, by 
 Allah, O my master, the house-walls and the stable-walls buried 
 every living thing that was within doors, even to the sheep and 
 geese and poultry, so that they all became a heap of flesh, and the 
 dogs and cats are eating them, and not one of them is left alive." 
 "And hath not thy master, my elder son, escaped?" "No, by 
 Allah ! not one of them was saved, and now there is naught left of 
 house or household, nor even a sign of them ; and as for the sheep 
 and geese and hens, the cats and dogs have devoured them." When 
 my master heard this the light became night before his sight. His 
 wits were dazed, and he so lost command of his senses that he could 
 not stand firm on his feet ; he was as one struck with a sudden 
 palsy, and his back was like to break. Then he rent his raiment 
 and plucked out his beard, and, casting his turband from off his 
 head, buffeted his face till the blood ran down, and he cried aloud, 
 "Alas, my children ! Alas, my wife ! Alas, my calamity ! To 
 whom ever befell that which hath befallen me ? " The merchants, 
 his friends, also cried aloud at his crying and wept for his weeping 
 and tore their clothes, being moved to pity of his case, and so my 
 master w-ent out of the garden, smiting his face with such violence 
 that from excess of pain he staggered like one drunken with wine. 
 As he and the merchants came forth from the garden-gate, behold! 
 they saw a great cloud of dust and heard a loud noise of crying 
 and lamentation. So they looked, and lo! it was the Governor 
 with his attendants and the townsfolk, a world of people, who had 
 come out to look on, and my master's family following them, all 
 screaming and crying aloud and weeping exceeding sore weeping
 
 Tale of the Second Eunuch, Kafur. 377 
 
 The first to address my owner were his wife and children ; and when 
 he saw them he was confounded and laughed^ and said to them, 
 " How is it with all of you and what befell you in the house and 
 what hath come to pass to you ? " When they saw him they 
 exclaimed, " Praise be to Allah for thy preservation ! " and threw 
 themselves upon him and his children hung about him crying, 
 " Alack, our father ! Thanks to Allah for thy safety, O our father ! " 
 And his wife said to him, " Art thou indeed well ? Laud to Allah 
 who hath shown us thy face in safety ! " And indeed she was con- 
 founded and her reason fled when she saw him, and she asked, " O 
 my lord, how didst thou escape, thou and thy friends the merchants?" 
 and he answered her, "And how fared it with thee in the house?" 
 Quoth they, "We were all well, whole and healthy, nor hath 
 aught of evil befallen us in the house, save that thy slave Kafur 
 came to us, bareheaded with torn garments and howling : — 
 Alas, the master I Alas, the master ! So we asked him : — What 
 tidings, O Kafur ? and he answered : — A wall of the garden hath 
 fallen on ray master and his friends, the merchants, and they are all 
 crushed and dead." " By Allah," said my master, " he came to me 
 but now howling : — Alas, my mistress ! Alas, the children of the 
 mistress ! And said : — My mistress and her children are all dead, 
 every one of them ! " Then he looked round, and seeing me with 
 my turband rent in rags round my neck, howling and weeping with 
 exceeding weeping, and throwing dust upon my head, he cried out at 
 me. So I came to him, and he said, "Woe to thee, O ill-omened 
 slave! O whoreson knave! O thou damned breed! What mischief 
 thou hast wrought? By Allah, I will flog thy skin from thy flesh, 
 and cut thy flesh from thy bones!" I rejoined, "By Allah, thou 
 canst do nothing of the kind with me, O my lord, for thou 
 boughtest me with my blemish, and there are honest men to bear 
 witness against thee that thou didst so accepting the condition, 
 and that thou knewest of my fault, which is to tell one lie every 
 year. Now this is only a half-lie, but by the end of the year 
 I will tell the other half; then will the lie stand whole and 
 complete." " O dog, son of a dog ! " cried my master. " O most 
 accursed of slaves ! Is this all of it but a half-lie ? Verily, if it be 
 a half-lie 'tis a whole calamity ! Get thee from me. Thou art free in 
 the face of Allah!" "By Allah," rejoined I, "if thou free me, I 
 will not free thee till my year is completed and I have told thee the 
 half-lie which is left. When this is done, go down with me to the 
 slave-market and sell me as thou boughtest me to whoso will buy 
 
 * The usual hysterical laughter of tliis nervous race, 
 VOL, I. B B
 
 378 ■ Alf Laylah iva Lay la h. 
 
 me with my blemish ; but thou shalt not manumit me, for I have 
 no handicraft whereby to gain my Uving ^ ; and this my demand is 
 a matter of law which the doctors have laid down in the Chapter of 
 Emancipation." " While we were at these words, up came the crowd 
 of people, and the neighbours of the quarter, men, women, and 
 children, together with the Governor and his suite offering con- 
 dolence. So my master and the other merchants went up to him 
 and informed him of the adventure, and how this was but a half-lie 
 at which all wondered, deeming it a whole lie and a big one. And 
 they cursed me and reviled me, while I stood laughing and grinning 
 at them, till at last I asked, " How shall my master slay me when 
 he bought me with this my blemish?" Then my master returned 
 home and found his house in ruins, and it w^as I who had laid waste 
 the greater part of it,^ having broken things which were worth 
 much money, as also had done his wife, who said to him, " 'Twas 
 Kafur who broke the vessels and chinaware." Thereupon his rage 
 redoubled and he struck hand upon hand exclaiming, " By Allah ! 
 in my life never saw I a whoreson like this slave ; and he saith this 
 is but a half-lie ! How, then, if he had told me a whole :ie He 
 would ruin a city, aye or even two." Then in his fury he went to 
 the Governor, and they gave me a neat thing in the bastinado-line, 
 and made me eat stick- till I was lost to the world and a fainting- 
 fit came on me ; and, whilst I was yet sersjles.s, they brought the 
 barber who docked r. . ^.d gelded me' and cauterised the wound. 
 When I revived I found myself a clean eunuch with nothing left, 
 and my master said to me, " Even as thou hast burned my heart 
 for the things I held dearest, so have I burnt thy heart for that 
 of thy members whereby thou settest most store 1 " Then he took 
 me and sold me at a profit, for that I was become an eunuch. And 
 I ceased not bringing trouble upon all, wherever I was sold, and 
 was shifted from lord to lord and from notable to notable, being 
 sold and being bought, till I entered the palace of the Commander 
 of the Faithful. But now my spirit is broken and my tricks are 
 gone from me, so — alas ! — are my testicles. When the two slaves 
 
 ' Here the slave refuses to be set free and starve. For a master so to do without 
 ample reason is held disgraceful. 
 
 = Manumission, which is founded upon Roman law, is an extensive subject 
 discussed in the Hidayah and other canonical works. The slave here lays down 
 the law incorrectly, but his claim shows his truly " nigger " impudence. 
 
 3 This is quite true to nature. The most remarkable thing in the wild central 
 African is his enormous development of " destructiveness. " At Zanzibar I never 
 saw a slave break a glass or plate without a grin or a chuckle of satisfaction. 
 
 ■• Arab. *' Khassa-ni " ; KJiusyatani (vulg.) being the testicles, also called 
 "bavzatan." In the text the eunuch, Kafur, is made a "Sandali" or smooth- 
 shaven.
 
 The Tale of Glianim bin Ayyiib. 379 
 
 heard his history, they laughed at him and chaffed him and said, 
 " Truly thou art filth ^ and filth-son. Thou Hedest an odious lie." 
 Then quoth they to the third slave, " Tell us thy tale." " O sons 
 of my uncle," quoth he, "all that ye have said is idle: I will tell 
 you the cause of my losing my testicles, and indeed I deserved to lose 
 even more, by cause that I played false with both my mistress and my 
 master's eldest son and heir : but my story is a long one and this is 
 not the time to tell it : for the dawn, O my cousins, draweth near and 
 if morning came upon us with this chest still unburied, we shall get 
 into sore disgrace and our lives will pay for it. So up with you 
 and open the door, and when we get back to the palace, I will 
 tell you my story and the cause of my losing my manhood." 
 Then he swarmed up and dropped down from the wall inside and 
 opened the door, so they entered and setting down the lantern, dug 
 between four tombs a hole as long as the chest and of the same 
 breadth. Kafur plied the spade and Sawab removed the earth by 
 baskets-full till they reached the depth of the stature of a man * ; 
 when they laid the chest in the hole and threw back the earth over 
 it : then they went forth and shutting the door disappeared from 
 Ghanim's eyes. When all was quiet and he felt sure that he was 
 left alone in the place, his thought was busied about what the chest 
 contained, and he said to himself, " Would that I knew the contents 
 of that box ! " However, he waited till day broke, when morning 
 shone and showed her sheen ; whereupon he came down from the 
 date-tree and scooped away the earth with his hands, till the box 
 was laid bare and disengaged from the ground. Then he took a 
 large stone and hammered at the lock till he broke it, and opening 
 the lid, beheld a young lady, a model of beauty and loveliness, clad 
 in the richest of garments and jewels of gold and such necklaces 
 of precious stones that, were the Sultan's country evened with 
 them, it would not pay their price. She had been drugged with 
 Bhang, but her bosom, rising and falling, showed that her breath 
 had not departed. When Ghanim saw her, he knew that some 
 one had played her false and hocussed her ; so he pulled her out 
 of the chest and laid her on the ground with her face upwards. As 
 soon as she smelt the breeze and the air entered her nostrils, 
 mouth and lungs, she sneezed and choked and coughed ; when 
 there fell from out her throat a pill of Cretan Bhang, had an 
 
 ' Arab. " Khara," = faeces, the lowest possible word : Ya Khara ! is the 
 commonest of insults, used also by modest women. I have heard one say it to 
 her son. 
 
 = Arab. " Kamah," a measure of length, a fathom, also called "Ba'a. " Both 
 are omitted in that sadly superficial book. Lane's Modern Egyptians, App. B. 
 
 B B 2
 
 -j8o Alf Laylah zua Laylah. 
 
 elephant smelt it he would have slept from night to night. Then 
 she opened her eyes and glancing around said, in sweet voice and 
 gracious words, "Woe to thee O wind ! there is naught in thee to 
 satisfy the thirsty, nor aught to gratify one whose thirst is satis- 
 fied ! Where is Zahr al-Bostan ? " But no one answered her, so 
 she turned her and cried out, " Ho Sabihah ! Shajarat al-Durr ! 
 Nur al-Huda! Najmat al-Subh ! be ye awake? Shahwah, Nuzhah, 
 Halwa, Zarifah, out on you, speak M" But no one answered; so 
 she looked all around and said, " Woe's me ! have they entombed 
 me in the tombs? O Thou who knowest what man's thought 
 enwombs and who givesc compensation on the Day of Doom, who 
 can have brought me from amid hanging screens and curtains 
 veiling the Harim-rooms and set me down between four tombs?" 
 All this while Ghanim was standing by : then he said to her, " O 
 my lady, here are neither screened rooms nor palace-Harims nor 
 yet tombs ; only the slave henceforth devoted to thy love, Ghanim 
 bin Ayyub, sent to thee by the Omniscient One above, that all 
 thy troubles He may remove and win for thee every wish that 
 doth behove ! " Then he held his peace. She was reassured by 
 his words and cried, "I testify that there is no god but the God, 
 and I testify that Mohammed is the Apostle of God ! " then she 
 turned to Ghanim, and placing her hands before her face, said to 
 him in the sweetest speech, " O blessed youth, who brought me 
 hither? See, I am now come to myself." "O my lady," he 
 replied, " three slave-eunuchs came here bearing this chest " ; and 
 related to her the whole of what had befallen him, and how 
 evening having closed upon him had proved the cause of her pre- 
 servation, otherwise she had died smothered.- Then he asked 
 her who she was and what was her story, and she answered, " O 
 youth, thanks be to Allah who hath cast me into the hands of the 
 like of thee ! But now rise and put me back into the box ; then 
 fare forth upon the road and hire the first camel-driver or muleteer 
 thou findest to carry it to thy house. When I am there all will 
 be well, and I will tell thee my tale and acquaint thee with my 
 adventures, and great shall be thy gain by means of me." At this 
 he rejoiced and went outside the tomb. The day was now dazzling 
 bright and the firmament shone with light and the folk had begun 
 
 ■ Names of her slave-girls, which mean (in order), Garden-bloom, Dawn (or 
 Beautiful), Tree o' Pearl (P.N. of Saladin's wife), Light of (right) Direction, Star 
 o' the Morn, Lewdness ( = Shahwah, I suppose this is a chaft"). Delight, Sweetmeat 
 and Miss Pretty. 
 
 - This mode of disposing of a rival was ver>' common in I larems. But it had its 
 difficulties, and on the whole the river was (and is) preferred.
 
 The Tale of Ghauim bin Avyuh. 38 1 
 
 to circulate ; so he hired a man with a mule and bringing him to 
 the tomb, lifted the chest wherein he had put the damsel and set 
 it on the mule. Her love now engrossed his heart and he fored 
 homeward with her rejoicing, for that she was a girl worth ten 
 thousand gold pieces and her raiment and ornaments would fetch 
 a mint of money. As soon as he arrived at his house he carried in 
 
 the chest and opening it And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of 
 
 day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 iQcto luDm it tons \\t Jovrp ft'vct JRifffit, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Ghanim son of Ayyub arrived with the chest at his house, he 
 opened it and took out the young lady, who looked about her and 
 seeing that the place was handsome, spread with carpets and dight 
 with cheerful colours and other deckings ; and noting the stuffs 
 up-piled and packed bales and other else than that, knew that he 
 was a substantial merchant and a man of much money. There- 
 upon she uncovered her face and looked at him, and lo ! he was a 
 fair youth ; so when she saw him she loved him and said, " O my 
 lord, bring us something to eat." " On my head and mine eyes ! " 
 replied he ; and, going down to the bazar, bought a roasted lamb 
 and a dish of sweetmeats and with these dry fruits and wax-candles, 
 besides wine and whatsoever was required of drinking materials, 
 not forgetting perfumes. With all this gear he returned to the 
 house ; and when the damsel saw him she laughed and kissed 
 him and clasped his neck. Then she began caressing him, which 
 made his love wax hotter till it got the mastery of his heart. They 
 ate and drank and each had conceived the fondest affection ; 
 for indeed the two were one in age and one in loveliness ; 
 and when night came on Ghanim bin Ayyub, the Distraught, 
 the Thrall o' Love, rose and lit the wax-candles and lamps till 
 the place blazed with light ^ ; after which he produced the wine- 
 service and spread the table. Then both sat down again, he and 
 she, and he kept filling and giving her to drink, and she kept 
 filling and giving him to drink, and they played and toyed 
 and laughed and recited verses, whilst their joy increased, and 
 they clove in closer love each to each (glory be to the Uniter 
 of Hearts!). They ceased not to carouse after this fashion till 
 near upon dawn, when drowsiness overcame them and they slept 
 
 ' An Eastern dislikes nothing more than drinking in a dim dingy place : the 
 brightest lights seem to add to his " drinkitite. "
 
 382 Alf Laylah wa Laylah 
 
 where they were, apart each from other, till the morning. Then 
 Ghanim arose, and, going to the market, bought all they required 
 -of meat and vegetables and wine and what not, and brought them 
 to the house ; whereupon both sat down to eat, and ate their 
 sufficiency, when he set on wine. They drank, and each played 
 with each, till their cheeks flushed red and their eyes took a darker 
 hue, and Ghanim's soul longed to kiss the girl and to lie with her, 
 and he said, " O my lady, grant me one kiss of that dear mouth ; 
 perchance 't will quench the fire of my heart." " O Ghanim," replied 
 she, "wait till I am drunk and dead to the world; then steal a kiss 
 of me secretly and on such wise that I may not know that thou hast 
 kissed me." Then she rose, and, taking off her upper dress, sat in 
 a thin shift of fine linen and a silken head-kerchief.^ At this 
 passion inflamed Ghanim and he said to her, "O my lady, wilt 
 thou not vouchsafe me what I asked of thee ? " " By Allah," she 
 replied, "that may not be thine, for there is written upon my 
 trouser-string " a hard word ! " Thereupon Ghanim's heart sank 
 and desire grew on him as its object offered difficulties ; and he 
 improvised these verses : — 
 
 I asked the author of mine ills • To heal the wound with one sweet kiss : 
 
 No ! No ! she cried,^ for ever no ! « But I, soft whispering, urged Yes : 
 
 Quoth she, Then take it by my leave, » When smiles shall pardon thine amiss : 
 
 By force, cried I? Nay, she replied, » With love and gladness eke I wis. 
 
 Now ask me not what next occurred, » Seek grace of God and whist of this ! 
 
 Deem what thou wilt of us, for love « By calumnies the sweeter is : 
 
 Nor after this care I one jot * Whether my foe be known or not. 
 
 Then his affection increased and love-fires rose hotter in his heart, 
 while she refused herself to him saying, " Thou canst not possess 
 me." They ceased not to make love and enjoy their wine and 
 wassail, whilst Ghanim was drowned in the sea of love and longing ; 
 but she redoubled in coyness and cruelty till the night brought on 
 the darkness and let fall on them the skirts of sleep. Thereupon 
 Ghanim rose and lit the lamps and wax-candles, and refreshed the 
 room and removed the table ; then he took her feet and kissed 
 them, and finding them like fresh cream, pressed his face'* on them, 
 and said to her, " O my lady, take pity on one thy love hath ta'en 
 and thine eyes hath slain, for indeed I were heart-whole but for 
 
 ' This is called in Egypt " Aslah" (Lane, M. E., chapt i.). 
 
 ^ It would be a broad ribbon like band upon which the letters could be worked. 
 
 3 In the Arab. " /^i? cried." These "Yes! Yes! and No ! No!" trifles are very 
 common amongst the Arabs. 
 
 ■• Arab. "Maragha" lit. rubbed his face on them like a fawning dog. Ghanim 
 is another "softy" lover, a favourite character in Arab talcs; and by way of 
 contrast, the girl is masterful enough.
 
 No. lo. 
 Tale of Ghanim bin Ayyub. 
 
 " One nip^ht as he laid by her side . . . she 
 awoke and sat upright. . . . When Ghanim heard 
 her words and knew that she was a concubine of 
 the Cahph, he drew back."
 
 The Tale of Ghaniin bin Ayyiib. 383 
 
 thy bane." And he wept somewhat. " O my lord, and hght of my 
 eyes," quoth she, " by Allah, I love thee in very sooth, and I trust 
 to thy truth, but I know that I may not be thine." "And what 
 is the obstacle?" asked he, when she answered, "To-night I will 
 tell thee my tale, that thou mayest accept my excuse." Then she 
 threw herself upon him, and winding her arms like a necklace 
 about his neck, kissed him and caressed him, and promised him 
 her favours; and they ceased not playing and laughing till love 
 gat the firmest hold upon both their hearts. And so i't continued 
 a whole month, both passing the night on a single carpet-bed, but 
 whenever he would enjoy her she put him off; whilst mutual love 
 increased upon them and each could hardly abstain from other. 
 One night, as he lay by her side, and both were warm with wine, 
 Ghanim passed his hand over her breasts and stroked them ; then 
 he slipped it down to her waist as far as her navel, whereupon 
 she awoke and sat upright. Ghanim also sat up by her side and 
 she asked him, " What dost thou want ? " "I want to lie with 
 thee," he answered, " and that we may deal openly and frankly 
 with each other." Quoth she, " I must now declare to thee my 
 case, that thou mayst know my quality ; then will my secret be 
 disclosed to thee and my excuse become manifest to thee." Quoth 
 he, " So be it ! " Thereat she opened the skirt of her shift, and 
 taking up her trouser-string, said to him, "O my lord, read what 
 is worked on the flat of this string"; so he took it in hand, and 
 saw these words broidered on it in gold, " I AM THINE, AND 
 THOU ART MINE, O COUSIN OF THE APOSTLE.M " 
 When he read this he withdrew his hand and said to her, " Tell 
 me who thou art ! " " So be it," answered she ; " know that I 
 am one of the concubines of the Commander of the Faithful, and 
 my name is Kdt al-Kulub — the Food of Hearts. I was brought 
 up in his palace and when I grew to woman's estate, he looked 
 on me and noting what share of beauty and loveliness the Creator 
 had given me, loved me with exceeding love, and assigned me a 
 separate apartment, and gave me ten slave-girls to wait on me 
 and all these ornaments thou seest me wearing. On a certain 
 day he set out for one of his provinces, and the Lady Zubaydah 
 came to one of the slave-girls in my service and said to her : — 
 I have something to require of thee. What is it, O my lady ? 
 asked she and the Caliph's wife answered : — When thy mistress 
 
 ' Because the Abbaside Caliphs descend from Al-Abbas, paternal uncle of 
 Mohammed. The text means more explicitly, " O descendant of the Prophet's 
 uncle ! "
 
 184 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 Kut al-Kulub is asleep, put this piece of Bhang into her nostrils 
 or drop it into her drink, and thou shalt have of me as much money 
 as will satisfy thee. With love and gladness; replied the girl and 
 took the Bhang from her, being a glad woman because of the 
 money and because aforetime she had been one of Zubaydah's 
 slaves. So she put the Bhang into my drink, and when it was night 
 I drank, and the drug had no sooner settled in my stomach than 
 I fell to the ground, my head touching my feet, and knew naught 
 of my life but that I was in another world. When her device 
 succeeded, she bade put me in this chest, and secretly brought in 
 the slaves and the doorkeepers and bribed them ; and on the night 
 when thou wast perched upon the date-tree, she sent the blacks to 
 do with me as thou sawest. So my delivery was at thy hands, and 
 thou broughtest me to this house and hast entreated me honourably 
 and with thy kindest. This is my story, and I wot not what is 
 become of the Caliph during my absence. Know, then, my con- 
 dition and divulge not my case." When Ghanim heard her words 
 and knew that she was a concubine of the Caliph, he drew back, 
 for awe of the Caliphate beset him, and sat apart from her in one 
 of the corners of the place, blaming himself and brooding over his 
 affair and patiencing his heart bewildered for love of one he could 
 not possess. Then he wept for excess of longing, and plained him 
 of Fortune and her injuries, and the world and its enmities (and 
 praise be to Him who causeth generous hearts to be troubled with 
 love and the beloved, and who endoweth not the minds of the mean 
 and miserly with so much of it as eveneth a grain-weight !). So he 
 began repeating : — 
 
 The lover's heart for his beloved must meet • Sad pain, and from her charms bear 
 
 sore defeat : 
 What is Love's taste? They asked, and answered I, » Sweet is the taste, but ah ! 
 
 'tis bitter-sweet. 
 
 Thereupon Kut al-Kulub arose and took him to her bosom and 
 kissed him ; for the love of him was firm fixed in her heart, so that 
 she disclosed to him her secret and all the affection she felt ; 
 and throwing her arms round Ghanim's neck like a collar of pearls, 
 kissed him again and yet again. But he held off from her in awe 
 of the Caliph. Then they talked together a long while (and indeed 
 both were drowned in the sea of their mutual love) ; and as the day 
 broke, Ghan'm rose and donned his clothes and going to the 
 bazar, as was his wont, took what the occasion required and 
 returned home. He found her weeping ; but when she saw him 
 sbo checked herself and smiling through her tears, said, " Thou
 
 The Tale of Ghanim bin Ayyub. 3S5 
 
 hast desolated me, O beloved of my heart. By Allah, this hour 
 of absence hath been to me like a ycarM I have explained to 
 thee my condition in the excess of my eager love for thee ; so come 
 now near me, and forget the past and have thy will of me." But he 
 interrupted her crying, " I seek refuge with Allah ! This thing may 
 never be. How shall the dog sit in the lion's stead? What is the 
 lord's is unlawful to the slave ! " So he withdrew from her, and sat 
 down on a corner of the mat. Her passion for him increased 
 with his forbearance, so she seated herself by his side, and caroused 
 and played with him, till the two were flushed with wine, and 
 she was mad for her own dishonour. Then she sang these 
 verses : — 
 The lover's heart is like to break in twain : * Till when these coy denials, ah ! 
 
 till when ? 
 O thou who fliest me sans fault of mine, * Gazelles are wont at times prove tame 
 
 to men ; 
 Absence, aversion, distance and disdain, . How shall young lover all these ills 
 sustain ? 
 
 Thereupon Ghanim wept, and she wept at his weeping, and they 
 
 ceased not drinking till nightfall, when he arose and spread two 
 
 beds, each in its place. "For whom is the second bed?" asked 
 
 she, 'and he answered her, "One is for me and the other is for 
 
 thee. From this night forth we must not sleep save thus, for that 
 
 which is the thane's is unlawful to the thrall." "O my master," 
 
 cried she, " let us have done with this, for all things come to pass by 
 
 Fate and' Fortune." But he refused, and the fire was lighted in her 
 
 heart, and as the longing waxed fiercer, she clung to him and cried, 
 
 " By Allah, we will not sleep save side by side ! " " Allah forefend ! " 
 
 he replied, and prevailed against her, and lay apart till the morning, 
 
 when love and longing redoubled on her and distraction and eager 
 
 thirst of passion. They abode after this fashion three full-told 
 
 months, which were long and longsome indeed, and every time 
 
 she made advances to him he would refuse himself, and say, 
 
 " Whatever belongeth to the master is unlawful to the man." Now 
 
 when time waxed tiresome and tedious to her and anguish and 
 
 distress grew on her, she burst out from her oppressed heart with 
 
 these verses : — 
 
 How long, rare beauty ! wilt do wrong to me ? * Who was it bade thee not belong 
 
 to me ? ^ . . ■ . c 
 
 With outer charms thou weddest inner grace * Compnsmg every pomt of 
 
 piquancy : 
 
 • The most terrible part qI 2. belle passion in the East is that the beloved will not 
 allow her lover leave of absence for an hour.
 
 386 Alf Lay/ah wa Laylah. 
 
 Passion thou hast infused in every heart, * From eyehds driven sleep by deputy : 
 Erst was (I wot) the spray made thin of leaf * O Capparis-spray ! Unlief thy sin 
 
 I see ' : 
 The heart erst hunted I : how is 't I spy ♦ The hunter hunted (fair my hart !) by 
 
 thee? 
 More wondrous still I tell thee aye that I * Am trapped while never up to 
 
 trap thou be ! 
 Ne'er grant my prayer I For if I grudge thyself * To thee, I grudge my nie more 
 
 jealously ; 
 And cry so long as life belong to me, * Rare beauty how, how long this wrong 
 
 to me ? 
 
 They abode in this state a long time, and fear kept Ghanim aloof 
 from her. So far concerning these two. But as regards the Lady 
 Zubaydah, when, in the Caliph's absence she had done this deed by 
 Kut al-Kulub she became perplexed, saying to herself, "What shall 
 I tell my cousin when he comes back and asks for her? What 
 possible answer can I make to him?" Then she called an old 
 woman, who was about her and discovered her secret to her, 
 saying, " How shall I act, seeing that Kut al-Kulub died by such 
 untimely death?" "O my lady," quoth the old crone, "the time of 
 the Caliph's return is near, so do thou send for a carpenter and 
 bid him make thee a figure of wood in the form of a corpse. We 
 will dig a grave for it midmost the palace and there bury it; then 
 do thou build an oratory over it and set therein lighted candles 
 and lamps, and order each and every in the palace to be clad in 
 black.^ Furthermore command thy handmaids and eunuchs, as 
 soon as they know of the Caliph's returning from his journey, to 
 spread straw over the vestibule-floors and when the Commander of 
 the Faithful enters and asks what is the matter, let them say : — 
 Kut al-Kulub is dead, and may Allah abundantly compensate thee 
 for the loss of her ^ ! and, for the high esteem in which she was 
 held of our mistress, she hath buried her in her own palace. When 
 he hears this he will weep and it shall be grievous to him ; then 
 will he cause perlections of the Koran to be made for her and he 
 will watch by night at her tomb. Should he say to himself : — Verily 
 Zubaydah, the daughter of my uncle, hath compassed in her 
 jealousy the death of Kut al-Kulub ; or, if love-longing overcome 
 
 ' It is hard to preserve these wretched jums. In the original we have " O spray 
 (or branch) of capparis-shrub (ardki) which has been thinned of leaf and fruit 
 (tiijim, i.e., whose fruit, the hymen, has been plucked before and not by me), I 
 see thee (ardka) against me sinning (tajiii). 
 
 ^ Apparently the writer forgets that the Abbaside banners and dress were black, 
 originally a badge of mourning for the Imam Ibrahim bin Mohammed, put to 
 death by the Ommiade Caliph Al-Marwan. The modern Egyptian mourning, 
 like the old Persian, is indigo-blue of the darkest ; but, as before noted, the custom 
 is by no means universal. 
 
 3 Koran, chapt. iv. In the East as elsewhere the Devil quotes Scripture.
 
 The Tale of Ghanim bin Ayyiib. 387 
 
 him and he bid her be taken out of her tomb, fear thou not ; for 
 when they dig down and come to the image in human shape he 
 will see it shrouded in costly grave-clothes : and, if he wish to take 
 ofif the winding-sheet that he may look upon her, do thou forbid 
 him or let some other forbid him, saying :— The sight of her naked- 
 ness is unlawful. The fear of the world to come will restrain him 
 and he will believe that she is dead and will restore the figure to 
 its place and thank thee for thy doings ; and thus thou shalt 
 escape, please Almighty Allah, from this slough of despond." 
 When the Lady Zubaydah heard her words she commended the 
 counsel and gave her a dress of honour and a large sum of money, 
 ordering her to do all she had said. So the old woman set about 
 the business forthright and bade the carpenter make her the afore- 
 said image ; and as soon as it was finished, she brought it to the 
 Lady Zubaydah, who shrouded it and buried it and built a sepulchre 
 over it, wherein they lighted candles and lamps, and laid down 
 carpets about the tomb. Moreover, she donned black and she 
 spread abroad in the Harim that Kut al-Kulub was dead. After 
 a time the Caliph returned from his journey and went up to the 
 palace, thinking only of Kut al-Kulub. He saw all the pages and 
 eunuchs and handmaids habited in sables, whereat his heart 
 fluttered with extreme fear; and when he went in to the Lady 
 Zubaydah, he found her also garbed in black. So he asked the 
 cause of this and they gave him tidings of the death of Kut al- 
 Kulub, whereon he fell a-swooning. As soon as he came to hhia- 
 self, he asked for her tomb, and the Lady Zubaydah said to him, 
 " Know, O Prince of the Faithful, that for especial honour I have 
 buried her in my own palace." Then he repaired in his travelling- 
 garb^ to the tomb that he might wail over her, and found the 
 carpets spread and the candles and lamps lighted. When he saw 
 this, he thanked Zubaydah for her good deed and abode perplexed, 
 halting between belief and unbelief till at last suspicion overcame 
 him and he gave order to open the grave and take out the body. 
 When he saw the shroud and would have removed it to look upon 
 her, the fear of Allah Almighty restrained him, and the old woman 
 (taking advantage of the delay) said, " Restore her to her place." 
 Then he sent at once for Fakirs and Koran-readers, and caused 
 perlections to be made over her tomb and sat by the side of the 
 grave, weeping till he fainted; and he continued to frequent the 
 
 tomb and sit there for a whole month, And Shahrazad perceived 
 
 the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 ' A servant returning from a journey shows his master due honour by appearini^ 
 before him in travelHng suit and uncleaned.
 
 388 Alf Laylah zva Layiah. 
 
 Jlilolu toj&ctt it tens tj&e jFcitp-ficronJ! BiflM, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Cahph 
 ceased not to frequent the tomb for the period of a whole month, 
 at the end of which time it so happened one day that he entered 
 the Serragho, after dismissing the Emirs and Wazirs, and lay down 
 and slept awhile ; and there sat at his head a slave-girl fanning 
 him, and at his feet a second rubbing and shampooing them. 
 Presently he awoke, and opening his eyes, shut them again and 
 heard the handmaid at his head saying to her who was at his feet, 
 " A nice business this, O Khayzaran ! " and the other answered 
 her, "Well, O Khazib al-Ban'?" "Verily," said the first, "our lord 
 knoweth naught of what hath happened and sitteth waking and 
 watching by a ton:ib wherein is only a log of wood carved by the 
 carpenter's art." "And Kut al-Kulub," quoth the other, "what 
 hath befallen her?" She replied, " Know that the Lady Zubaydah 
 sent a pellet of Bhang by one of the slave-women who was bribed 
 to drug her ; and when sleep overpowered her she let put her in a 
 chest, and ordered Sawab and Kafur and Bukhayt to throw her 
 amongst the tombs." "What dost thou say, O Kazib al-Ban ? " 
 asked Khayzaran, "is not the Lady Kut al-Kulub dead?" "Nay, 
 by Allah!" she answered, "and long may her youth be saved 
 from death ! but I have heard the Lady Zubaydah say that she is 
 in the house of a young merchant named Ghanim bin Ayyub of 
 Damascus, hight the Distraught, the Thrall o' Love ; and she hath 
 been with him these four months, whilst our lord is weeping and 
 watching by night at a tomb wherein is no corpse." They kept on 
 talking this sort of talk, and the Caliph gave ear to their words ; 
 and, by the time they had ceased speaking, he knew right well 
 that the tomb was a feint and a fraud, and that Kut al-Kulub had 
 been in Ghanim's house for four months. Whereupon he was 
 angered with exceeding anger and rising up, he summoned the 
 Emirs of his state ; and his Wazir Ja'afar the Barmaki came also 
 and kissed ground between his hands. The Caliph said to him 
 in fury : "Go down, O Ja'afar, with a party of armed men and ask 
 for the house of Ghanim son of Ayyub : fall upon it and spoil it 
 and bring him to me with my slave-girl, Kut al-Kulub, for there 
 is no help but that I punish him ! " " To hear is to obey," said 
 
 ' The first name means "Rattan"; the second "Willow-wand," from the 
 " Ban " or " Khilaf," the Egyptian willow {Salix Algyptiaca, Linn.) vulgarly 
 called " Safsaf." Forskal holds the " Ban " to be a different variety.
 
 The Tale of Ghaniin bin Ayyiib. 389 
 
 Ja'afar ; and setting out with the Governor and the guards and a 
 world of people, repaired to Ghanim's house. Now about that 
 time the youth happened to have brought back a pot of dressed 
 meat and was about to put forth his hand to eat of it, he and Kut 
 al-Kulub, when the lady, happening to look out saw calamity sur- 
 rounding the house on every side ; for the Wazir and the Governor, 
 the night-guard and the Mamelukes with swords drawn had girt it 
 as the white of the eye girdeth the black. At this she knew that 
 tidings of her had reached the Caliph, her lord ; she made sure 
 of ruin, and her colour paled and her fair features changed and her 
 favour faded. Then she turned to Ghanim, and said to him, "O 
 my love, fly for thy life!" "What shall I do," asked he, "and 
 whither shall I go, seeing that my money and means of maintenance 
 are all in this house ? " And she answered, " Delay not, lest 
 thou be slain, and lose life as well as wealth." " O my loved 
 one and light of mine eyes ! " he cried. " How shall I do to get 
 away when they have surrounded the house?" Quoth she, "Fear 
 not," and, stripping off his fine clothes, dressed him in ragged old 
 garments; after which she took the pot, and, putting in it bits of 
 broken bread and a saucer of meat,^ placed the whole in a basket, 
 and, setting it upon his head, said, "Go out in this guise, and fear 
 not for me, who wotteth right well what thing is in my hand for 
 the Caliph.^" So he went out amongst them, bearing the basket 
 with its contents, and the Protector vouchsafed him His protection, 
 and he escaped the snares and perils that beset him, by the blessing 
 of his good conscience and pure conduct. Meanwhile Ja'afar 
 dismounted, and entering the house, saw Kut al-Kulub, who had 
 dressed and decked herself in splendid raiments and ornaments 
 and filled a chest with gold and jewelry and precious stones and 
 rarities and what else was light to bear and of value rare. When 
 she saw Ja'afar come in, she rose and kissing ground before him, 
 said, " O my lord, the Reed hath written of old the rede which Allah 
 decreed.^" " By Allah, O my lady," answered Ja'afar, " he gave me 
 an order to seize Ghanim, son of Ayyub." And she rejoined, "O 
 my lord, he made ready his goods and set out therewith for 
 Damascus, and I know nothing more of him ; but I desire thee take 
 charge of this chest, and deliver it to me in the Harim of the Prince 
 of the Faithful." " Hearing and obedience," said Ja'afar, and bade 
 
 ' Arab. " Ta'am," which has many meanings : in mod. parlance it would signify 
 millet, holcus-seed. 
 
 ^ i.e. " I well know how to deal with him." 
 
 3 The Pen (title of the Koranic chapt. Ixviii. ) and the Preserved Tablet (befo-^ 
 ex))lained).
 
 39° Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 his men bear it away to the headquarters of the Caliphate, together 
 with Kut al-Kulub, commanding them to entreat her with honour as 
 one in high esteem. They did his bidding, after they had wrecked 
 and plundered Ghanim's house. Then Ja'afar went in to the Caliph 
 and told him all that had happened, and he ordered Kut al-Kulub to 
 be lodged in a dark chamber, and appointed an old woman to serve 
 her, feeling convinced that Ghanim had debauched her and slept with 
 her. Then he wrote a mandate to the Emir Mohammed bin 
 Sulayman al-Zayni, his viceroy in Damascus, to this effect : — " The 
 instant thou shalt receive this our letter, seize upon Ghanim bin 
 Ayyub and send him to us." When the missive came to the viceroy, 
 he kissed it and laid it on his head ; then he let proclaim in the 
 bazars, " Whoso is desirous to plunder, away with him to the house 
 of Ghanim son of Ayyub.^" So they flocked thither, when they 
 found that Ghanim's mother and sister had built him a tomb ^ in the 
 midst of the house and sat by it weeping for him ; whereupon they 
 seized the two without telling them the cause and after spoiling 
 the house, carried them before the viceroy. He questioned them 
 concerning Ghanim and both replied, " For a year or more we have 
 had no news of him." So they restored them to their place. Thus 
 far concerning them ; but as regards Ghanim, when he saw his 
 wealth spoiled and his ruin utterest he wept over himself till his 
 heart well-nigh brake. Then he fared on at random till the last 
 of the day, and hunger grew hard on him and walking wearied 
 him. So coming to a village he entered a mosque^ where he sat 
 down upon a mat and propped his back against the wall ; but 
 presently he sank to the ground in his extremity of famine and 
 fatigue. There he lay till dawn, his heart fluttering for want of 
 food ; and, owing to his sweating, the lice ^ coursed over his skin ; 
 his breath waxed fetid and his whole condition was changed. 
 ^^'hen the villagers came to pray the dawn-prayer, they found him 
 
 ' These plunderings were sanctioned by custom. Only a few years ago, when 
 the Turkish soldiers uuilinicd about arrears of jxiy (often delayed for years), the 
 governing I'asha would set fire to the town and allow the men to loot what they 
 l^leased during a stated time. Rochet (soi-disant D'Hericourt) amusingly describes 
 this manoeuvre of the Turkish Governor of Al-Hodaydah in the last generation 
 (Pilgrimage, iii. 3S1). 
 
 * Another cenotaph, whose use was to enable women to indulge in their pet 
 pastime of weeping and wailing in company. 
 
 3 The lodging of pauper travellers, as the chapel in Iceland is of the wealthy. 
 I have often taken benefit of the mosque, but as a rule it is unpleasant, the matting 
 l)eing not only torn but over-populous. Juvenal seems to allude to the Jewish 
 Synagogue similarly used: — "In qua te quKro proseucha?" (iii. 296) and in 
 Acts iii. we find the lame, blind, and impotent in tlie Temple-porch. 
 
 •* This foul sort of vermin is supposed to be bred by perspiration. It is an epoch 
 in the civilised traveller's life when he catches his first louse.
 
 The Tale of Ghaniin hiii Avxiib. 391 
 
 prostrate, ailing, hunger-lean, yet showing evident signs of former 
 affluence. As soon as prayers were over they drew near him ; 
 and understanding that he was starved with hunger and cold, 
 they gave him an old robe with ragged sleeves and said to him, 
 " O stranger, whence art thou and what sickness is upon thee?" 
 He opened his eyes and wept, but returned no answer ; whereupon 
 one of them, who saw that he was starving, brought him a saucer 
 of honey and two barley scones. He ate a little and they sat 
 with him till sun-rise, when they went to their work. He abode 
 with them in this state for a month, whilst sickness and weak- 
 liness grew upon him ; and they wept for him and, pitying his 
 condition, took counsel with one another upon his case and agreed 
 to forward him to the hospital in Baghdad.^ Meanwhile behold, 
 two beggar-women, who were none other than Ghanim's mother 
 and sister,'^ came into the mosque and when he saw them, he gave 
 them the bread that was at his head ; and they slept by his side 
 that night but he knew them not. Next day the villagers brought 
 a camel and said to the cameleer, " Set this sick man on thy beast 
 and carry him to Baghdad and put him down at the Spital-door ; 
 so haply be may be medicined and be healed and thou shalt have 
 thy hire.^" "To hear is to comply," said the man. So they brought 
 Ghanim, who was asleep, out of the mosque and set him, mat and 
 all, on the camel; and his mother and sister came out among the 
 crowd to gaze upon him, but they knew him not. However, after 
 looking at him and considering him carefully they said, "Of a 
 truth he favours our Ghanim, poor boy ! can this sick man be he ? " 
 Presently he awoke and finding himself bound with ropes on a 
 camel's back, he began to weep and complain,* and the village- 
 people saw his mother and sister weeping over him, albeit they 
 knew him not. Then they fared forth for Baglidad, but the 
 camel-man forewent them, and setting Ghanim down at the 
 Spital-gate, went away with his beast. The sick man lay there 
 till dawn, and when the folk began to go about the streets, they 
 saw him and stood gazing on him, for he had become as thin as a 
 toothpick, till the Syndic of the bazar came up and drove them 
 
 * The Moslem peasant is a kind-hearted man and will make many sacrifices for 
 a sick stranger, even of another creed. It is a manner of " pundonor" with the 
 village. 
 
 ^ Such treatment of innocent women was only too common under the Caliphate 
 and in contemporary Europe. 
 
 3 This may also mean, " And Heaven will reward thee " ; but camel-men do not 
 usually accept any drafts upon futurity. 
 
 ^ He felt that he was being treated like a corpse.
 
 292 Alf Lay la h iva Laylah. 
 
 away from him, saying, " I will gain Paradise through this poor 
 creature ; for if they take him into the Hospital, they will kill him 
 in a single day.^ " Then he made his young men carry him to his 
 house, where they spread him a new bed with a new pillow,'^ and 
 he said to his wife, "Tend him carefully " ; and she replied, "Good ! 
 on my head be it ! " Thereupon she tucked up her sleeves and 
 warming some water, washed his hands, feet and body ; after which 
 ghe clothed him in a robe belonging to one of her slave-girls and 
 made him drink a cup of wine and sprinkled rose-water over 
 him. So he revived and complained, and the thought of his 
 beloved Kut al-Kulub made his grief redouble. Thus far con- 
 cerning him ; but as regards Kut al-Kulub, when the Caliph was 
 
 angered against her, And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of 
 
 day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 Boto tofjcn it toas X^t Jci-tp4()ii5 VXx^X, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 Caliph was angered against Kut al-Kulub, he ordered her to a 
 dark chamber where she abode eighty days, at the end of which 
 the Caliph, happening to pass on a certain day the place where she 
 was, heard her repeating poetry, and after she ceased reciting her 
 verse, saying, " O my darling, O my Ghanim ! how great is thy 
 goodness and how chaste is thy nature ! thou didst well by one 
 who did ill by thee and thou guardedst his honour who garred 
 thine become dishonour, and his Harim thou didst protect who to 
 enslave thee and thine did elect ! But thou shalt surely stand, 
 thou and the Commander of the Faithful, before the Just Judge, 
 and thou shalt be justified of him on the Day when the Lord (to 
 whom be honour and glory !) shall be Kazi and the Angels of 
 Heaven shall be witnesses ! " When the Caliph heard her complaint, 
 he knew that she had been wronged, and returning to the palace, 
 sent Masrur the Eunuch for her. She came before him with 
 bowed head and eyes tearful and heart sorrowful ; and he said 
 to her, " O Kut al-Kulub, I find thou accusest me of tyranny and 
 oppression, and thou avouchest that I have done ill by one who 
 did well by me. Who is this who hath guarded my honour while 
 I o-arred his become dishonour? Who protected my Harim and 
 
 • This haired of the Hospital extends throughout Southern Europe, even in 
 places where it is not justified. 
 
 - The importance of the pillow (wisadah or makhaddah) to the sick man is often 
 recot^nised in The Nights. " He took to his pillow " is = took to his bed.
 
 The Tale of Ghanim bin Ayyub. 393 
 
 whose Harim I wrecked ? " " He is Ghanim, son of Ayyub," 
 repHed she, " for he never approached me in wantonness or with 
 lewd intent, I swear by thy munificence, O Commander of the 
 Faithful ! " Then said the Cahph, " There is no Majesty and 
 there is no Might save in Allah ! Ask what thou wilt of me, O 
 Kut aMvulub." "O Prince of the Faithful!" answered she, "I 
 require of thee only my beloved Ghanim son of Ayyub." He did 
 as she desired, whereupon she said, " O Lord of the Moslems, if I 
 bring him to thy presence, wilt thou bestow me on him ? " and he 
 replied, "If he come into my presence, I will give thee to him 
 as the gift of the generous who revoketh not his largesse." "O 
 Prince of True Believers," quoth she, "suffer me to go and seek 
 him ; haply Allah may unite me with him " : and quoth he, " Do 
 even as thou wilt." So she rejoiced and, taking with her a thou- 
 sand dinars in gold, went out and visited the elders of the various 
 faiths and gave alms in Ghanim's name.^ Next day she walked 
 to the merchants' bazar and disclosed her object to the Syndic 
 and gave him money, saying, " Bestow this in charity to the 
 stranger ! " On the following Friday she fared to the bazar (with 
 other thousand dinars) and entering the goldsmiths' and jewellers' 
 market-street, called the Chief and presented to him a thousand 
 dinars with these words, " Bestow this in charity to the stranger ! " 
 The Chief looked at her (and he was the Syndic who had taken in 
 Ghanim) and said, " O my lady, wilt thou come to my house and 
 look upon a youth, a stranger I have there and see how goodly 
 and graceful he is ? " Now the stranger was Ghanim, son of 
 Ayyub, but the Chief had no knowledge of him and thought him 
 to be some wandering pauper, some debtor whose wealth had 
 been taken from him, or some lover parted from his beloved. 
 When she heard his words her heart fluttered ^ and her vitals 
 yearned, and she said to him, " Send with me one who shall 
 guide me to thy house." So he sent a little lad who brought her 
 to the house wherein was the head man's stranger-guest and she 
 thanked him for this. When she reached the house, she went 
 in and saluted the Syndic's wife, who rose and kissed ground 
 between her hands, for she knew her. Then quoth Kut al-Kulub, 
 "Where is the sick man who is with thee?" She wept and 
 replied, " Here is he, O my lady ; by Allah, he is come of good 
 folk, and he beareth the signs of gentle breeding ; you see him 
 
 ' i.e. in order that the reverend men, who do not render such suit and service 
 gratis, might pray for him. 
 
 ^ The reader will notice in The Nights the frequent mention of these physical 
 prognostications, with which mesmerists are familiar.
 
 394 -^^f Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 lying on yonder bed." So she turned and looked at him ; and 
 she saw something like him, but he was worn and wasted till he 
 had become lean as a toothpick, so his identity was doubtful to 
 her and she could not be certain that it was he. Yet pity for him 
 possessed her and she wept, saying, "Verily the stranger is un- 
 happy, even though he be a prince in his own land ! " and his 
 case was grievous to her and her heart ached for him, yet she 
 knew him not to be Ghanim. Then she furnished him with wine 
 and medicines and she sat awhile by his head, after which she 
 mounted and returned to her palace and continued to visit every 
 bazar in quest of her lover. Meanwhile Ghanim's mother and 
 sister Fitnah arrived at Baghdad and met the Syndic, who carried 
 them to Kut al-Kulub and said to her, " O Princess of beneficent 
 ladies, there came to our city this day a woman and her daughter, 
 who are fair of favour and signs of good breeding and dignity are 
 apparent in them, though they be dressed in hair-cloth and have 
 each one a wallet hanging to her neck ; and their eyes are tearful 
 and their hearts are sorrowful. So I have brought them to thee 
 that thou mayst give them refuge, and rescue them from beggary, 
 for they are not of asker-folk and, if it please Allah, we shall enter 
 Paradise through them." " By Allah, O my master," cried she, 
 " thou makest me long to see them ! Where are they ? " adding, 
 " Here with them to me ! " So he bade the eunuch bring them in ; 
 and, when she looked on them and saw that they were both of 
 distinguished beauty, she wept for them and said, " By Allah, 
 these are people of condition and show plain signs of former 
 opulence." " O my lady," said the Syndic's wife, " we love the 
 poor and the destitute, more especially as reward in Heaven will 
 recompense our love ; and, as for these persons, haply the oppressor 
 hath dealt hardly with them and hath plundered their property 
 and harried their houses." Then Ghanim's mother and sister wept 
 with sore weeping, remembering their former prosperity and con- 
 trasting it with tlieir present poverty and miserable plight ; and 
 their thouglits dwelt upon son and brother, whilst Kut al-Kulub 
 wept for their weeping ; and they said, " We beseech Allah to 
 reunite us with him whom we desire, and he is none other but my 
 son named Ghanim bin Ayyub ! " When Kut al-Kulub heard this, 
 she knew them to be the mother and sister of her lover, and wept 
 till a swoon came over her When she revived she turned to them, 
 and said, " Have no fear, and sorrow not, for this day is the 
 
 first of your prosperity and the last of your adversity." And 
 
 Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted 
 say.
 
 The Tale of Ghaniin bin Ayyub. 30 r 
 
 jl^otu toldcii x\ tuafi X^z JFcrtP=fDuvt5 Jl^icrfjt, 
 
 She said, it hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Kut 
 al-Kulub had consoled them she bade the Syndic lead them to his 
 house, and let his wife carry them to the Hammam and dress them 
 in handsome clothes and take care of them and honour them with 
 all honour, and she gave him a sufficient sum of money. Next 
 day she mounted, and, riding to his house, went in to his wife, who 
 rose up and kissed her hands and thanked her for her kindness. 
 There she saw Ghanim's mother and sister, whom the Syndic's wife 
 had taken to the Hammam and clothed afresh, so that the traces 
 of their former condition became manifest upon them. She sat 
 talking with them awhile, after which she asked the wife about the 
 sick youth who was in her house, and she replied, " He is in the 
 same state." Then said Kut al-KuIub, " Come, let us go and visit 
 him." So she arose, she and the Chiefs wife and Ghanim's mother 
 and sister, and went in to the room where he lay, and sat down 
 near him. Presently Ghanim bin Ayyub, the Distraught, the Thrall 
 o' Love, heard them mention the name of Kut al-Kulub, whereupon 
 life returned to him, emaciated and withered as he was, and he 
 raised his head from the pillow, and cried aloud, " O Kut al-Kulub!" 
 She looked at him and made certain it was he, and shrieked rather 
 than said, "Yes, O my beloved!" "Draw near to me," said he. 
 And she replied, "Surely thou art Ghanim bin Ayyub?" And he 
 rejoined, "I am, indeed." Hereupon a swoon came upon her, and 
 as soon as Ghanim's mother and his sister Fitnah heard these 
 words both cried out, " O our joy ! " and fainted clean away. 
 When they all recovered, Kut al-Kulub exclaimed, "Praise be to 
 Allah who hath brought us together again, and who hath reunited 
 thee with thy mother and thy sister ! " And she related to him 
 .all that had befallen her with the Caliph, and said, " I have 
 made known the truth to the Commander of the Faithful, who 
 believed my words, and was pleased with thee, and now he desireth 
 to see thee," adding, "He hath given me to thee." Thereat 
 he rejoiced with extreme joy, when she said, " Quit not this place 
 till I come back," and, rising forthwith, betook herself to her palace. 
 There she opened the chest which she had brought from Ghanim's 
 house, and taking out somq of the dinars, gave them to the Syndic 
 saying, " Buy with this money for each of them four complete suits 
 of the finest stuffs and twenty kerchiefs, and else beside of what- 
 soever they require " ; after which she carried all three to the baths 
 .and had them washed and bathed and made ready for them 
 
 c c 2
 
 396 Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 consommes, and galangale-water and cider against their coming 
 out. When they left the Hammam, they put on the new clothes, 
 and she abode with them three days feeding them with chicken 
 meats and bouillis, and making them drink sherbet of sugar candy. 
 After three days their spirits returned ; and she carried them again 
 to the baths, and when they came out and had changed their 
 raiment, she led them back to the Syndic's house and left them 
 there, whilst she returned to the palace and craved permission to 
 see the Caliph. When he ordered her to come in she entered, and 
 kissing ground between his hands told him the whole story, and 
 how her lord, Ghanim bin Ayyub, yclept the Distraught, the Thrall 
 o' Love, and his mother and sister, were now in Baghdad, ^^^hen 
 the Caliph heard this, he turned to the eunuchs and said, " Here 
 with Ghanim to me." So Ja'afar went to fetch him ; but Kut 
 al-Kulub forewent him and told Ghanim, "The Caliph hath sent to 
 fetch thee before him," and charged him to show readiness of 
 tongue and firmness of heart and sweetness of speech. Then she 
 robed him in a sumptuous dress and gave him dinars in plenty, 
 saying, " Be lavish of largesse to the Caliph's household as thou 
 goest in to him." Presently Ja'afar, mounted on his Nubian 
 mule, came to fetch him ; and Ghanim advanced to welcome the 
 Wazir and wishing him long life, kissed ground before him. Now 
 the star of his good fortune had risen and shone brightly ; and 
 Ja'afar took him ; and they ceased not faring together, he and the 
 Minister, till they went in to the Commander of the Faithful. 
 When he stood in the jiresence, he looked at the Wazirs and Emirs 
 and Chamberlains, and Viceroys and Grandees and Captains, and 
 then at the Caliph. Hereupon he sweetened his speech and his 
 eloquence and, bowing his head to the ground, broke out in these 
 extempore couplets : — 
 
 May that Monarch's life si^an a mighty span, » Whose lavish of largesse all lieges 
 scan : 
 
 None other but he shall be Kaysar hight, » Lord of lordly hall and of haught 
 Divan : 
 
 Kings lay their gems on his threshold dust » As they bow and salam to the mighty 
 man ; 
 
 And his glances foil them and all recoil, » Bowing beards aground and with faces- 
 wan : 
 
 Yet they gain the profit of royal grace, • The rank and station of high 
 Soldan. 
 
 Earth's plain is scant for thy world of men » Camp there in Kaywan's ' 
 Empyrean ! * 
 
 ' Tlie Pars, name of the planet Saturn in the Seventh Heaven. Arab. "Zuhal"j 
 the Kiun or Chiun of Amos, vi. 26.
 
 The Tale of Ghanim bin Ayyiib. 397 
 
 May the King of Kings ever hold thee dear; * Be counsel thine and right stead- 
 fast plan, 
 
 Till thy justice spread o'er the wide-spread earth » And the near and the far be of 
 equal worth. 
 
 When he ended his improvisation the CaHph was pleased by it and 
 marvelled at the eloquence of his tongue and the sweetness of his 
 
 speech, And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased 
 
 to say her permitted say. 
 
 JQoto toi)en it tons X\z iFovtp-ftft|) JQitjIjt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Caliph, 
 after marvelling at his eloquence of tongue and sweetness of speech, 
 said to him, "Draw near to me." So he drew near and quoth the 
 King, "Tell me thy tale and declare to me thy case." So Ghanim 
 sat down and related to him what had befallen him in Baghdad, of 
 his sleeping in the tomb and of his opening the chest after the 
 three slaves had departed, and informed him, in short, of everything 
 that had happened to him from commencement to conclusion— 
 none of which we will repeat for interest fails in twice-told tales. 
 The Caliph was convinced that he was a true man ; so he invested 
 him with a dress of honour, and placed him near himself in token 
 of favour, and said to him, " Acquit me of the responsibiUty I have 
 incurred.^ " And Ghanim so did, saying, " O our lord the Sultan, of 
 a truth thy slave and all things his two hands own are his master's." 
 The Caliph was pleased at this and gave orders to set apart a 
 palace for him and assigned to him pay and allowances, rations and 
 donations, which amounted to somewhat inmiense. So he removed 
 thither with sister and mother ; after which the Caliph, hearing 
 that his sister Fitnah was in beauty a very "frtnah,^" a mere seduc- 
 tion, demanded her in marriage of Ghanim, who replied, " She is thy 
 handmaid as I am thy slave." The Caliph thanked him and gave 
 him an hundred thousand dinars, then summoned the witnesses 
 and the Kazi, and on one and the same day they wrote out the 
 two contracts of marriage between the Caliph and Fitnah and be- 
 tween Ghanim bin Ayyub and Kut al-Kulub ; and the two marriages 
 were consummated on one and the same night. When it was 
 morning, the Caliph gave orders to record the history of what had 
 befallen Ghanim from first to last and to deposit it in the royal 
 muniment-rooms, that those who came after him might read it and 
 
 ' i.e. " Pardon me if I injured thee " — a popular phrase. 
 
 ' A " seduction," a charmer. The doubie-entendre has before been noticed.
 
 398 Alf Laylah 7va Laylah. 
 
 marvel at the dealings of Destiny and put their trust in Him who 
 created the night and the day. Yet, O auspicious King, this story 
 to which thou hast deigned give ear is on no wise more wondrous 
 than the 
 
 TALE OF KING OMAR BIN AL-NU'UMAN 
 AND HIS SONS SHARRKAN AND ZAU 
 
 AL-]\IAKAN, 
 
 AND WHAT BEFELL THEM OF THINGS SELD-SEEN AND 
 
 PEREGRINE.' 
 
 The King asked her, "And what was their story?" and she 
 answered : — It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that there 
 was in the City of Safety, Baghdad, before the Caliphate of Abd 
 al-Malik bin Marvvan,^ a King, Omar bin al-Nu'uman hight, who 
 was of the mighty giants and had subjected the Chosroes of Persia 
 and the Kaysars of Eastern Rome ; for none could warm himself 
 at his fire "^ ; nor could any avail to meet him in the field of foray 
 and fray ; and when he was an-angered, there came forth from his 
 nostrils sparks of flame. He had made himself King over all 
 ciuarters, and Allah had subjected to him all His creatures ; his 
 word went forth to all great cities and his hosts had harried the 
 farthest lands. East and West had come under his command with 
 
 ' This knightly tale, the longest in the nights (xliv. — cxlv. ), about one-eighth of 
 the whole, does not appear in the Bres. Edit. Lane, who finds it " objectionable," 
 reduces it to two of its episodes, Aziz-cum-Azizah and Taj al-Muluk. On the other 
 hand, it has been converted into a volume (Svo., pp. 240) " Scharkan, Conte 
 Arabe " ; etc. Traduit par M. Asselan Riche, etc. Paris : Dondey-Dupre, 1829. 
 It has its longttairs and at times is longsome enough ; but it is interesting as a 
 comparison between the chivalrj' of Al-Islam and European knight-errantry. 
 Although all the characters are fictitious, the period is evidently in the early 
 crusading days. Ccesarea, the second capital of Palestine, taken during the 
 Caliphate of Omar (A. H. 19) and afterwards recovered, was fortified in A. II. 
 353 = 963, as a base against the Arabs by the Emjieror Phocas, the Arab. 
 "Nakfiir" i.e. Niccphorus. In A.H. 498=1104, crusading craft did much injury 
 by plundering merchantmen between Egypt and Syria, to which allusion is found 
 in the romance. But the story-teller has not quite made up his mind about which 
 Ccesarea he is talking, and M. Riche tells us that Cesaree is a " ville de la Mauri- 
 tanie, en Afrique " (p. 20). 
 
 ^ The fifth Ommiade Caliph regn. A.H. 65—86 = 685—704. 
 
 3 Tills does not merely mean that no one was safe from his wrath : or, could 
 approach him in the heat of fight : it is a reminiscence of the masterful " King 
 Kulayb," who established game-laws in his dominions, and would allow no man to 
 approach his camp-fire. Moreover, the Jinn lights a fire to decoy travellers ; but 
 if his victim be bold enough to brave him, he invites him to take advantage of the 
 heat.
 
 Tale of King O/iiar bin al-Nihiman and his Sons. 399 
 
 whatsoever regions lay interspersed between them, Hind and Sind 
 and Sin/ the Holy Land, Al-Hijaz, the rich mountains of Al- 
 Yaman and the archipelagoes of India and China. Moreover, he 
 reigned supreme over the north country and Diyar Bakr, or Meso- 
 potamia, and over Sudan, the Eastern Negro-land and the Islands 
 of the Ocean, and all the far famed rivers of the earth, Sayhun 
 and Jayhiin,^ Nile and Euphrates. He sent envoys and ambas- 
 sadors to capitals the most remote, to provide him with true report ; 
 and they would bring back tidings of justice and peace, with 
 assurance of loyalty and obedience and of prayers in the pulpits for 
 King Omar bin al-Nu'uman ; for he was, O Ruler of the Age, a right 
 noble King ; and there came to him presents of rarities and toll 
 and tribute from all lands of his governing. This mighty monarch 
 had a son yclept Sharrkan,^ who was likest of all men to his father 
 and who proved himself one of the prodigies of his time for subduing 
 the brave and bringing his contemporaries to bane and ban. For 
 this his father loved him with love so great none could be greater, 
 and made him heir to the kingdom after himself. This Prince 
 grew up till he reached man's estate and was twenty years old, and 
 Allah subjected His servants to him, by reason of his great might 
 and prowess in battle. Now his father. King Omar, had four 
 wives legally married, but Allah had vouchsafed him no son by 
 them, save Sharrkan, whom he had begotten upon one of them, 
 and the rest were barren. Moreover he had three hundred and 
 sixty concubines, after the number of days in the Coptic year, who 
 were of all nations ; and he had furnished for each and every a 
 private chamber within his own palace. For he had built twelve 
 pavilions, after the number of the months, each containing thirty 
 private chambers, which thus numbered three hundred and three 
 score, wherein he lodged his handmaids : and he appointed accord- 
 ing to law for each one her night, when he lay with her and came 
 not again to her for a full year * ; and on this wise he abode for a 
 length of time. Meanwhile his son Sharrkan was making himself 
 renowned in all quarters of the world and his father was proud of 
 
 ' China. 
 
 - The Jaxartes and the Bactrus (names very loosely appHed). 
 
 3 In full " Sharrun kana," i.e. an evil (Sharr), has come to being (kana), that 
 is, " bane to the foe" — a pagan and knightly name. The hero of the Romance 
 " Al-Dalhamah," is described as a bitter gourd (colocynth), a viper, a calamity. 
 
 ■* This is a Moslem law (Koran, chapt. iv. , bodily borrowed from the Talmud), 
 which does not allow a man to many one wife unless he can carnally satisfy her. 
 Moreover, he must distribute his honours equally, and each wife has a right to her 
 night unless she herself give it up. This was the case even with the spouses of the 
 Prophet ; and his biography notices several occasions when his wives waived their 
 rights in favour of one another. M. Riche kindly provides the King with la 
 fiqiiaute fraiifaise (p. 15)-
 
 400 Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 him and his might waxed "and grew mightier ; so that he passed 
 all bounds and bore himself masterfully and took by storm castles 
 and cities. Presently, by decree of the Decreer, a handmaid among 
 the handmaids of Omar bin Nu'uman became pregnant ; and, her 
 pregnancy being announced to the Harim, the King was informed 
 thereof ; whereupon he rejoiced with exceeding joy and said, 
 " Haply 'twill be a son, and so all my offspring will be males ! " 
 Then he documented the date of her conception and entreated 
 her with all manner of kindness. But when the tidings came to 
 Sharrkan, he was troubled and the matter seemed to him a sore 
 one and a grievous ; and he said, " Verily one cometh who shall 
 dispute with me the sovereignty " : so quoth he to himself, " If this 
 concubine bear a male child I will kill it " : but he kept that intention 
 hidden in his heart. Such was the case with Sharrkan ; but what 
 happened in the matter of the damsel was as follows. She was a 
 Roumiyah, a Greek girl, by name Sofiyah, or Sophia,^ whom the 
 King of Roum and Lord of C^esarea had sent to King Omar as a 
 present, together with great store of gifts and of rarities. She was 
 the fairest of favour and loveliest of all his handmaids and the most 
 regardful of her honour, and she was gifted with a wit as penetrating 
 as her presence was fascinating. Now she had served the King 
 on the night of his sleeping with her, saying to hira, "O King, 
 I desire of the God of the heavens that He bless thee this night 
 with a male child by me, so I may bring him up with the best 
 of rearing, and enable him to reach man's estate perfect in 
 intelligence, good manners, and prudent bearing- " — a speech which 
 much pleased the King. During her pregnancy she was instant in 
 prayer, fervently supplicating the Lord to bless her with a goodly 
 male child and make his birth easy to her ; and Allah heard her 
 
 ' So the celebrated mosque in Stambul, famed for being the largest church in the 
 world, is known to the Greeks as " Agia (pron. Aya) Sophia," and to Moslems as 
 " Aya Sofiyeh" (Holy Wisdom), i.e. the Logos or Second Person of the Trinity 
 (not a Saintess). The sending a Christian girl as a present to a Moslem would 
 in these days be considered highly scandalous. But it was done by the Mukaukis 
 or Coptic Governor of Egypt (under Heraclius) who of course hated the Greeks. 
 This worthy gave two damsels to Mohammed, one called Sirin and the other 
 Mariyah (Maria), whom the Prophet reserved for his especial use, and whose abode 
 is still shown at Al-Madinah. The Rev. Doctor Badger (loc. cit., p. 972) gives 
 the translation of an epistle by Mohammed to this Mukaukis, written in the Cufic 
 character (??) and sealed "Mohammed, The Apostle of Allah." My friend 
 seems to believe that it is an original, but upon this subject opinions will differ. 
 I note, however, that sundrj' autograph letters of the Apostle are lately reported 
 to have been found in the Fayyum. It is, however, exceedingly interesting, 
 beginning with " Bismillah," etc., and ending (before the signature) with a 
 quotation from the Koran (iii. 57) ; and it may be assumed as a formula addressed 
 to foreign potentates by a Prophet who had become virtually " King of Arabia." 
 
 * This prayer before "doing the deed of kind," is, I have said, Moslem as well 
 as Christian.
 
 Tale of King Omar bin al-Niiuvian ami his Sons. 40 1 
 
 petition so that after her months were accompHshed she sat safely 
 upon the birth-stool.^ Now the King had deputed a eunuch to 
 let him know if the child she should bring forth were male or 
 female ; and in like way his son Sharrkan had sent one to bring 
 him tidings of the same. In due time Sophia was delivered of a 
 child, which the midwives examined and found to be a girl with 
 a face sheenier than the moon. So they announced this to all 
 present in the room, whereupon the King's messenger carried the 
 news to him, and Sharrkan's eunuch did the like with his master, 
 who rejoiced with exceeding joy. But, after the two had departed, 
 quoth Sophia to the midwives, "Wait with me awhile, for I feel as 
 if there were still somewhat in my womb." Then she cried out, and 
 the pains of child-bed again took her, and Allah made it easy to 
 her, and she gave birth to a second child. The wise women 
 looked at it and found it a boy like the full moon, with forehead 
 flower-white, and cheek ruddy bright with rosy light : whereupon 
 the mother rejoiced, as did the eunuchs and attendants and all the 
 company, and Sophia was delivered of the after-birth, whilst all in 
 the palace sent forth the trill of joy.^ The rest of the concubines 
 heard it and envied her lot ; and the tidings reached Omar, son of 
 Al-Nu'uman, who was glad and rejoiced at the excellent news. 
 Then he rose and went to her and kissed her head, after which he 
 looked at the boy ; and, bending over him, kissed him, whilst the 
 damsels struck the tabors and played on instruments of music ; 
 and the King gave order that the boy should be named Zau al- 
 Makan, and his sister Nuzhat al-Zaman.^ They answered, " Hearing 
 
 ' Exodus i. 16, quoted by Lane (M. E., chapt. xxvii.). Torrcns in his Notes 
 cites Drayton's " Moon-calf" : — 
 
 Bring forth the birth-stool — no, let it alone ; 
 
 She is so far beyond all compass grown, 
 
 Some other new device us needs must stead, 
 
 Or else she never can be brought to bed. 
 It is the " groaning-chair " of Poor Robin's Almanac (1676), and we find it alluded 
 to in Boccaccio. This " Kursi al-Wiladah" is of peculiar form on which the 
 patient is seated. A most interesting essay might be written upon the various 
 positions preferred during delivery, e.g., the wild Irish still stand on all fours, like 
 the so-called "lower animals." Amongst the Moslems of Waday, etc., a cord is 
 hung from the top of the hut, and the woman in labour holds on to it standing with 
 her legs apart, till the midwife receives the child. 
 
 * Some Orientalists call " lullilooing" the trilling cry, which is made by raising 
 the voice to its highest pitch and breaking it by a rapid succession of touches on 
 the palate with the tongue-tip, others " Ziraleet" and " Zagaleet," and one traveller 
 tells us that it began at the marriage-feast of Isaac and Rebecca (!). Arabs term 
 it classically Tahlil and vulgarly Zaghriitah (Plur. Zagharit) and Persians " Kil." 
 Finally in Don Quixote we have " Lelilies," the battle-cry of the Moors (Duffield, 
 iii. 289). Dr. Buchanan likens it to a serpent uttering human sounds, but the 
 good missionary heard it at the festival of Jagannath (Pilgrimage, iii. 197). 
 3 i.e. " Light of the Place " (or kingdom) and " Delight of the Age."
 
 402 Alf Laylah %va LaylaJi. 
 
 and obedience," and did his bidding ; so he appointed wet nurses 
 and dry nurses and eunuchs and attendants to serve them ; and 
 assigned them rations of sugar and diet-drinks and unguents and 
 else beside, beyond the power of tongue to rehearse. Moreover, 
 the people of Baghdad, hearing that Allah had blessed their King 
 with issue, decorated the city and make proclamation of the glad 
 tidings with drum and tom-tom ; and the Emirs and Wazirs and 
 high dignitaries came to the palace and wished King Omar bin 
 al-Nu'uman joy of his son Zau aHMakan, and of his daughter Nuzhat 
 al-Zaman, wherefor he thanked them and bestowed on them dresses 
 of honour and further favoured them with gifts, and dealt largesse 
 to all, gentle and simple, who were present. After this fashion he 
 did for four day.'S full told, and he lavished upon Sophia raiment 
 and ornaments and great store of v/ealth ; and every few days he 
 would send a messenger to ask after her and the new-borns. And 
 when four years had gone by, he provided her with the wherewithal 
 to rear the two children carefully and educate them with the best 
 of instructions. All this while his son Sharrkan knew not that a 
 male child had been born to his father, Omar son of Al-Nu'uman, 
 having news only that he had been blessed with the birth 
 of Nuzhat al-Zaman ; and they hid the intelligence from him, 
 until days and years had sped by, whilst he was busied in 
 battling with the brave and fighting single-handed against the 
 knights. One day, as King Omar was sitting in his palace, his 
 Chamberlains came in to him and, kissing ground before him, 
 said, " O King, there be come Ambassadors from the King of 
 Roum, Lord of Constantinople the Great, and they desire admis- 
 sion to thee and submission to thy decree : if the King com- 
 mand us to introduce them we will so do ; and, if not, there is no 
 disputing his behest." He bade them enter and when they came 
 in, he turned to them and courteously receiving them asked them 
 of their case, and what was the cause of their coming. They 
 kissed ground before him and said, " O King glorious and strong ! 
 O lord of the arm that is long ! know that he who despatched 
 us to thee is King Afriddn,^ Lord of Ionia-land" and of the 
 Nazarene armies, the sovereign who is firmly established in the 
 empery of Constantinople, to acquaint thee that he is now waging 
 
 ' It is utterly al^surd to give the old heroic Persian name Afridun or Furaydun, 
 the destroyer of Zohak or Zahhak, to a Greek, but such anachronisms are charac- 
 teristic of The Nights, and are evidently introduced on purpose. See Boccaccio, 
 
 ix. 9- 
 
 * Arab. " Yunan,"lit. Ionia, which applies to all Greece, insular and continental, 
 especially to ancient Greece.
 
 Talc of King Omar bin al-Niniinan and his Sous. 403 
 
 fierce war and fell with a tyrant and a rebel, the Prince of 
 Cresarea ; and the cause of this war is as follows. One of the 
 Kings of the Arabs in past time, during certain of his conquests, 
 chanced upon a hoard of the time of Alexander,^ whence he 
 removed wealth past compute; and, amongst other things, three 
 round jewels, big as ostrich eggs, from a mine of pure white gems 
 whose like was never seen by man. Upon each were graven 
 characts in Ionian characters, and they have many virtues and 
 properties, amongst the rest that if one of these jewels be hung 
 round the neck of a new-born child no evil shall befall him and he 
 shall neither wail, nor shall fever ail him as long as the jewel 
 remain without fail.^ When the Arab King laid hands upon them 
 and learned their secrets, he sent to King Afridun presents of 
 certain rarities, and amongst them the three jewels afore mentioned ; 
 and he equipped for the mission two ships, one bearing the treasure 
 and the other men of might to guard it from any who might offer 
 hindrance on the high seas, albeit well assured that none would 
 dare waylay his vessels, for that he was King of the Arabs, and 
 more by token that their course lay over waters subject to the 
 King of Constantinople and they were bound to his port; nor 
 were there on the shores of that sea any save the subjects of the 
 Great King, Afridun. The two ships set out and voyaged till they 
 drew near our city, when there sallied out on them certain corsairs 
 from that country and amongst them troops from the Prince of 
 Cresarea, who took all the treasures and rarities in the ships, 
 together with the three jewels, and slew the crews. When our 
 King heard of this, he sent an army against them, but they routed 
 it; then he marched a second and a stronger, but they put this 
 also to flight, whereupon the King waxed wroth, and swore that he 
 would not go forth' against them save in his own person at the head 
 of his whole army ; nor would he turn back from them till he had 
 left Ctesarea of Armenia* in ruins, and had laid waste all the lands 
 and cities over which her Prince held sway. So he sent us to the 
 Lord of the age and the time. Sultan Omar bin al-Nu'uman, King of 
 Baghdad and of Khorasan, desiring that he'aid us with an army, so 
 may honour and glory accrue to. him ; and he hath also forwarded by 
 us somewhat of various kinds of presents, and of the King's grace 
 
 ' In 1870, I saw at Sidon, a find of some hundreds of gold " Philippi " and 
 
 "Alexanders." .,,, , . , '^•^,., 
 
 ^ M Riche has (p. 21):— Ces talismans travadles par le ciseau du cclcbie 
 
 Calfaziri, adding in a note :— Je pense que c'est im sculpteur Arabe. 
 
 3 This periphrase, containing what seems to us a useless negative, adds emphasis 
 
 in Arabic. . . -n 1 -r- 1^ 
 
 't This bit of geographical information is not in the liul. £.cUt.
 
 404 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 he beggeth their acceptance and the friendly boon of further- 
 ance." Then the Ambassadors kissed ground before him. And 
 
 Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted 
 say. 
 
 jI3Joto tol&cn it tons tijc jFortP stxtf) JQiff^t, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that, after the 
 Ambassadors and retinue from the ConstantinopoUtan King had 
 kissed ground before Omar and had deUvered their embassage, 
 they brought out the presents, which were fifty damsels of the 
 choicest from Grascia-land, and fifty Mamelukes in tunics of 
 brocade, belted with girdles of gold and silver, each wearing in 
 his ears hoops of gold with pendants of fine pearls costing a 
 thousand ducats everyone. The girls were adorned in like fashion 
 and were clad in stuffs worth a treasury of money. When the 
 King saw them, he rejoiced in them and accepted them ; then he 
 bade the Ambassadors be honourably entreated and summoning 
 his Wazirs, took counsel with them of what he should do. Here- 
 with rose up among them a Wazir, an ancient man, Dandan ^ 
 hight, who kissed ground before Omar and said, " O King, 
 there is nothing better to do in this matter than equip an army 
 valiant and victorious, and set over it thy son Sharrkan with us 
 as his lieutenants ; and this rede commendeth itself to me on 
 two counts ; first, because the King of Roum hath invoked thine 
 assistance and hath sent thee gifts, which thou hast accepted; and, 
 secondly, because while no enemy dareth attack our country, thine 
 army may go forth safely, and, should it succour the King of 
 Grsecia-land and defeat his foe the glory shall be thine. Moreover, 
 the news of it will be noised abroad in all cities and countries, 
 and especially, when the tidings reach the Islands of the Ocean 
 and the Kings of Mauritania hear it, they will send thee offerings 
 of rarities and pay thee tribute of money." The King, pleased by 
 the Wazir's words, and ' approving his rede, gave him a dress of 
 honour, and said to him, " Of the like of thee should Kings ask 
 counsel, and it seemeth fit that thou shouldst conduct the van 
 of our army and our son Sharrkan command the main battle." 
 Then he sent for his son, who came and kissed ground before 
 him and sat down, and he expounded to him the matter, telling 
 him what the Ambassadors and the Wazir Dandan had said, and 
 
 ' In I'ers. =a tooth, the popular word.
 
 Talc of King Omar bin al-Nihiman and his Sons. 405 
 
 he charged him to take arms and equip himself for the campaign, 
 enjoining him not to gainsay Dandan in aught he should do. 
 Moreover, he ordered him to pick out of his army ten thousand 
 horsemen, armed cap-a-pie and inured to onset and stress of war. 
 Accordingly, Sharrkan arose on the instant, and chose out a myriad 
 of horsemen, after which he entered his palace and mustered his 
 host and distributed largesse to them, saying, "Ye have delay of 
 three days." They kissed earth before him in obedience to his 
 commands and began at once to lay in munitions, and provide 
 provisions for the occasion ; whilst Sharrkan repaired to the 
 armouries and took therefrom whatso he ever required of arms and 
 armour, and thence to the stable where he chose horses of choice 
 blood and others. When the appointed three days were ended, the 
 army drew out to the suburbs of Baghdad city ^ ; and King Omar 
 came forth to take leave of his son who kissed ground before him 
 and received from the King seven parcels of money.^ Then he 
 turned to Dandan and commended to his care the army of his son ; 
 and the AVazir kissed ground before him and answered, " I hear and 
 I obey " ; and lastly he charged Sharrkan that he should consult the 
 Wazir on all occasions, which he promised to do. After this the 
 King returned to his city and Sharrkan ordered the officers to 
 muster their troops in battle-array. So they mustered them and their 
 number was ten thousand horsemen, besides footmen and camp- 
 followers. Then they loaded their baggage on their beasts and the 
 war-drums beat and the trumpets blared and the bannerols and 
 standards were unfurled, whilst Sharrkan mounted horse, with the 
 Wazir Dandan by his side, and the colours fluttering over their 
 heads. So the host fared forth and stinted not faring, with the 
 Ambassadors preceding them, till day departed and dusk drew 
 nigh, when they alighted and encamped for the night. And as soon 
 as Allah caused the morn to morrow, they mounted and hied on, 
 guided by the Ambassadors, for a space of twenty days ; and by 
 the night of the twenty-first they came to a fine and spacious "Wady 
 well grown with trees and shrubbery. Here Sharrkan ordered them 
 to alight and commanded a three days' halt, so they dismounted 
 and pitched their tents, spreading their camp over the right and 
 the left slopes of the extensive valley, whilst the Wazir Dandan and 
 
 ^ This preliminary move, called in Persian Nakl-i-Safar, is generally mentioned. 
 So the Franciscan monks in California, when setting out for a long journey through 
 the desert, marched three times round the convent and pitched tents for the night 
 under its walls. 
 
 ^ In Arab. " Khazinah " or " Khaznah," lit. a treasure, representing 1,000 
 " Kis " or purses (each = ;^5). The sum in the text is 7,000 purses x 5 =;i^35,ooo.
 
 4o6 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 the Ambassadors of King Afridun pitched in the sole of the Wady.^ 
 As for Sharrkan, he tarried behind them for awhile till all had dis- 
 mounted and had dispersed themselves over the valley-sides j he 
 then slacked the reins of his steed, being minded to explore the 
 Wady and to mount guard in his own person, because of his father's 
 charge and owing to the fact that they were on the frontier of 
 Graecia-land and in the enemy's country. So he rode out alone 
 after ordering his armed slaves and his body-guard to camp near 
 the Wazir Dandan, and he fared on along the side of the valley till 
 a fourth part of the night was passed, when he felt tired and drowsi- 
 ness overcame him, so that he could no longer urge horse with heel. 
 Now he was accustomed to take rest on horseback ; so when slumber 
 overpowered him, he slept and the steed ceased not going on with 
 him till half the night was spent, and entered one of the thickets ^ 
 which was dense with growth ; but Sharrkan awoke not until his 
 horse stumljled over wooded ground. Then he started from sleep 
 and found himself among the trees ; and the moon arose and shone 
 brightly over the two horizons. Eastern and Western. He was 
 startled when he found himself alone in this place and said the say 
 which ne'er yet shamed its sayer, "There is no Majesty and there 
 is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great!" But as he rode 
 on, in fear of wild beasts, behold, the moon spread her glad light 
 over a meadow as if 'twere of the meads of Paradise ; and he heard 
 pleasant voices and a loud noise of talk and laughter captivating 
 the senses of men. So King Sharrkan alighted and tying his steed 
 to one of the trees, went over a little way till he came upon a stream 
 and heard a woman talking in Arabic and saying, " Now by the 
 truth of the Messiah, this is not well of you I but whoso utters a 
 word, I will throw her and truss her up with her own girdle ^ ! " He 
 kept w-alking in the direction of the sound and when he reached the 
 further side he looked and behold, a stream was gushing and flowing 
 and antelopes at large were frisking and roving, and wild cattle amid 
 the pasture moving, and birds expressed joy and gladness in their 
 divers tongues, and that place was purfled with all manner flowers 
 and green herbs, even as a poet described it in these couplets : — 
 
 ' Travellers often prefer such sites because they are sheltered from the wind, 
 and the ground is soft for pitching tents ; but many have come to grief from sudden 
 torrents following rain. 
 
 * Arab. " Ghabah," not a forest in our sense of the word, but a place where 
 water sinks, and the trees (mostly Mimosas) which elsewhere are widely scattered, 
 form a comparatively dense growth and collect in thickets. These are favourite 
 places for wild beasts during noon-heats. 
 
 3 At various times in the East, Jews and Christians were ordered to wear 
 characteristic garments, especially the Zunnar or girdle.
 
 Tale of King Omar bin al-NiH uiiian and his Sota. 407 
 
 Most beautiful is earth in budding bloom, » When hicid waters course through 
 
 plain and wood : 
 No work but His th' All-great, th' All-glorious, « Giver of all gifts, Giver (jf all 
 
 good f 
 
 And as Sharrkan considered the place, he" Si^^w in it a Christian 
 Monastery within whose enceinte a castle towered high in air 
 catching the light of the moon.' Through the midst of the convent 
 passed a stream, the water flowing amongst its gardens ; and upon 
 the bank sat the woman whose voice he had heard, while before her 
 stood ten handmaids like moons and wearing various sorts of 
 raiment and ornaments that dazed and dazzled the beholder, high- 
 bosomed virgins, as saith of them the poet in these couplets : — 
 
 The mead is bright with what is on"t * Of merry maidens debonnair • 
 
 Double its beauty and its grace » Those trooping damsels slendcr-flur : 
 
 Virgins of graceful swimming gait * Ready with eye and lip to ensnare ; 
 
 And like the tendril'd vine they loose • The rich profusion of their hair : 
 
 Shooting their shafts and arrows from « Beautiful eyes beyond compare ; 
 
 Overpowering and transpiercing * Every froward ad\ersaire. 
 
 Sharrkan gazed upon the ten girls and saw in their midst a lady like 
 the moon at fullest, with ringleted hair and forehead sheeny-white, 
 and eyes wondrous wide and black and bright, and temple-locks like 
 the scorpion's tail ; and she was perfect in essence and attributes, as 
 the poet said of her in these couplets : — 
 
 She beamed on my sight with a wondrous glance, « And her straight slender 
 stature enshamed the lance : 
 
 She burst on my sight with checks rosy-red; » Where all manner of beauties have 
 habitance ; 
 
 And the locks on her forehead were murk) as night * Wiience issues a dawn- 
 tide of happiest chance. 
 
 Then Sharrkan heard her say to the handmaids, " Come ye on, 
 that I may wrestle with you and gravel you ere the moon set and the 
 dawn break." So each came up to her in turn, and the grounded 
 them [forthright, and pinioned them with their girdles, and ceased 
 not wrestling and pitching them until she had overthrown one and 
 all. Then there turned to her an old woman who was before her, 
 and the beldam said, as in wrath, " O strumpet ! dost thou glory in 
 grounding these girls ? Behold ! I am an old woman, yet have I 
 thrown them forty times. So what hast thou to boast of? But if 
 thou have the strength to wrestle with me, stand up that I may grip 
 thee and set thy head between thy heels." The young lady smiled at 
 
 ^ The description is borrowed from the Coptic Convent, which invariably has an 
 inner donjon or keep. The oldest monastery in the world is Mar Anionics (St. 
 Anthony the Hermit) not far from Suez (Gold Mines of Midian, p. 85).
 
 4o8 Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 her words, but she was filled with inward wrath, and she jumped up, 
 and asked, " O my lady Zat al-DawahiV by the truth of the Messiah, 
 wilt thou wrestle with me in very deed, or dost thou jest with me ? " 
 
 And she answered, " Yea," And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of 
 
 day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 Botu tof)cn '\i toad tijc JFortP^Bti)rnt() M\^i, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 young lady asked Zat al-Dawahi, "By the truth of the Messiah, 
 wilt wrestle with me or dost jest ? " and she answered, " Yea, I will 
 wrestle with thee in very deed " (Sharrkan looking on the while), 
 the damsel cried, " Rise up for the fall an thou have spunk so to 
 do." When the old woman heard this, she raged with exceeding 
 rage, and her body-hair stood on end like the bristles of a fretful 
 hedgehog.^ Then she sprang to her feet, whilst the damsel stood 
 up to her, and said, " Now by the truth of the Messiah, I will not 
 wrestle with thee unless I be naked. Mistress whore M " So she 
 loosed her petticoat-trousers and putting her hand under her 
 clothes, tore them off her body ; then twisted up a silken kerchief 
 into cord-shape, girt it round her middle and became as she were 
 a scald-head Ifritah or a spotted snake. With this she inclined 
 towards the damsel and said, " Do thou as I have done." All this 
 time, Sharrkan was gazing at the twain, and laughing at the 
 beldam's loathly semblance. So the damsel leisurely rose and, 
 taking a sash of Yamani stuff, passed it twice round her waist, 
 then she tucked up her trousers and displayed two calves of 
 alabaster carrying a mound of crystal, smooth and rounded, and 
 a stomach which exhaled musk from its dimples, as it were a bed 
 of Nu'uman's anemones ; and breasts like double pomegranates. 
 Then the old woman leant towards her, and the two laid hold 
 either of each, while Sharrkan raised his head Heavenwards and 
 prayed Allah that the belle might beat the beldam. Presently 
 the young woman gat beneath the old woman, and gripping her 
 waist-cloth with the left and circling her neck with the right hand, 
 hoisted her off the ground with both; whereupon the old woman 
 
 ' " Dawahi," plur. of Dahiyah = a mishap. The title means "Mistress of 
 Misfortunes" or Queen of Calamities (to the enemy) ; and the venerable lady, as 
 will be seen, amply deserved her name, which is pronounced Zat ad-Dawahi. 
 
 = Arab. " Kunfuz " = hedgehog or porcupine. 
 
 3 These flowers of speech are mere familiarities, not insults.^ In societies where the 
 sexes are separated, speech becomes exceedingly free. Etourdie que vous etes^ 
 says M. Riche, toning down the text.
 
 Tale of King Omar bin al-Nii'unian and his Sons. 409 
 
 strove to free herself, and in so doing fell on her back arsiversy, 
 with her legs high in air shown manifest in the moonshine. 
 Furthermore, she brake wind twice,^ one of which blew up the 
 dust from the earth's face and the other steamed up to the gate 
 of Heaven. Sharrkan laughed till he fell back upon the ground. 
 Then he arose, and baring his brand, looked right and left, 
 but he saw no one save the old woman sprawling on her 
 back, and said to himself, " He Hed not who named thee Lady of 
 Calamities. Verily thou knewest her prowess by her performance 
 upon the others." So he drew near them to hear what should 
 pass between them. Then the young lady went up to the old 
 one, and throwing a wrapper of thin silk upon her nakedness, 
 helped her to don her dress and made excuses saying, " O my 
 Lady Zat al-Dawahi, I intended only to throw thee and not all 
 this, but thou triedest to twist out of my hands ; so laud to Allah 
 for safety ! " She returned her no answer, but rose in her shame 
 and walked away till out of sight, leaving the handmaids prostrate 
 and pinioned, with the fair damsel standing amongst them. Quoth 
 Sharrkan to himself, " Every luck hath its cause. Sleep did not 
 fall upon me nor the war-horse bear me hither save for my good 
 fortune ; for doubtless this maid and what is with her shall become 
 booty to me." So he made towards his steed and mounted and 
 heeled '^ him on, when he sped as the shaft speeds from the bow, 
 and in his hand he still hent his brand bare of sheath, which he 
 brandished shouting the while his war-cry, "Allah is All-mighty'!" 
 When the damsel saw him she sprang to her feet, and taking firm 
 stand on the bank of the stream, whose breadth was six ells, the 
 normal cubits, made one bound and landed clear on the farther 
 side,^ where she turned and cried out with a loud voice, " Who art 
 thou, O thou fellow, that breakest in upon our privacy and pastime, 
 and that too hanger in hand as if charging a host ? Whence camest 
 thou and whither art thou going? Speak sooth, for truth will 
 stand thee in good stead, and lie not, for lies come of villein-breed. 
 Doubtless thou hast wandered this night from thy way, that thou 
 
 ' Arab. " Zirt," a low word. The superlative " Zarrat," or "Abu Zirt," is a 
 facetious term among the bean-eating Fellahs, and a deadly insult amongst the 
 Badawin (night ccccx.). The latter prefer the word Taggda (Pilgrimage, iii. 84). 
 We did not disdain the word in farthingale = pet en I'air. 
 
 ^ Arab, "kicked" him, i.e. with the sharp corner of the shovel-stirrup. I 
 avoid such expressions as "spurring " and " pricking over the plain," because apt 
 to give a wrong idea. 
 
 3 Arab. " Allaho Akbar ! " the classical Moslem slogan. 
 
 * Arab horses are never taiight to leap, so she was quite safe on the other side of 
 a brook nine feet broad. 
 
 VOL. I. D D
 
 4IO A If Lay /ah wa Lay la h. 
 
 chancedst upon this place whence escape were the greatest of 
 mercies ; for thou art now in an open plain and, did we shout but 
 a single shout, would come to our rescue four thousand knights.^ 
 So tell me what thou wantest ; and if thou wouldest only have 
 us set thee on the right road we will do so." When Sharrkan 
 heard her words he replied, " I am a stranger of the Moslems, who 
 fared forth this night single-handed, seeking for spoil ; nor could 
 this moonlight show me a fairer booty than these ten maidens ; so 
 I shall seize them and rejoin my comrades with them." Quoth 
 she, " I would have thee know that as for the booty thou hast not 
 come at it ; and, as for the handmaids, by Allah, they shall never 
 be thy spoil. Have I not told thee that to lie is villein-vile?" 
 Quoth he, "The wise man is he who taketh warning by others." 
 Thereupon quoth she, " By the truth of the Messiah, did I not fear 
 that thy death would be on my hands, I would shout a shout should 
 fill the mead for thee with war steeds and with men of might, but 
 I take pity upon the stranger. So, if thou seek booty, I require of 
 thee that thou alight from thy steed and swear to me by thy faith 
 that thou wilt not advance against me aught like arms in hand, and 
 we will wrestle, I and thou. If thou throw me, set me on thy 
 steed and take all of us to thy booty ; but if I throw thee, thou 
 shalt become under my command. Swear this to me, for I fear 
 thy treachery ; indeed it hath become a common saw. Where 
 Perfidy is innate there Trust is a weakly mate. Now an thou 
 wilt swear I will return and draw near to thee and tackle thee." 
 Answered Sharrkan (and indeed he lusted to seize her and said 
 in his soul, — Truly she knoweth not that I am a champion of 
 champions!) "Swear me by what oath thou wilt and by what 
 thou deemest most binding, and I will not approach thee with 
 aught till thou hast made thy preparation and sayest : — Draw near 
 that I wrestle with thee. If thou throw me, I have money where- 
 withal to ransom myself; and if I throw thee, 'twill be booty and 
 booty enough for me ! " Rejoined the damsel, " I am content 
 herewith ! " and Sharrkan was astounded at her words and said, 
 " And by the truth of the Apostle (whom Allah bless and keep !) 
 I too am content on the other part ! " Then said she, " Swear to 
 me by Him who spright in body dight and dealt laws to rule man- 
 kind aright, that thou wilt not offer me aught of violence save by 
 way of wrestling ; else mayst thou die without the pale of Al- 
 
 ' " Batrik " (viilg. Bitrik) = patricius, a title given to Christian knights who 
 commanded ten thousand men ; the Tarkhan (or Kobb) heading four thousand, and 
 the Kaumas (Arab. Kaid) two hundred. It must not be confounded with Batrak 
 (or Batrik) = patriarclia (Lane's Lex.).
 
 Tale of King Omar bin al-Nu'i/nian and his Sons. 411 
 
 Islam." Sharrkan replied, " By Allah ! were a Kazi to swear me, 
 even though he were a Kazi of the Kazis,^ he would not impose 
 upon me such an oath as this ! " Then he sware to her by all she 
 named and tied his steed to a tree ; but he was drowned in the sea 
 of thought, saying in himself, " Praise be to Him who fashioned 
 her from dirty water.^ " Then he girt himself and made ready for 
 wrestling, and said to her, " Cross the stream to me " ; but she 
 replied, "It is not for me to come over to thee; if thou wilt, pass 
 thou over here to me." " I cannot do that," quoth he. And quoth 
 she, " O boy, I will come across to thee." So she tucked up her 
 skirts and leaping, landed on the other side of the stream by his 
 side; whereupon he drew near to her and bent him forwards and 
 clapped palms.'* But he was confounded by her beauty and 
 loveliness, for he saw a shape which the Hand of Power had tanned 
 with the dye-leaves of the Jann, which had been fostered by the 
 Hand of Beneficence and fanned by the Zephyrs of fair fortune, and 
 whose birth a propitious ascendant had greeted. Then she called 
 out to him, " O Moslem, come on and let us v/restle ere the break 
 of morning," and tucked up her sleeves from a forearm like fresh 
 curd, which illumined the whole place with its whiteness ; and 
 Sharrkan was dazzled by it. Then he bent forwards and clapped 
 his palms by way of challenge, she doing the like, and caught hold 
 
 * Arab. " Kazi al-Kuzat," a kind of Chief Justice or Chancellor. The oflice was 
 established under the rule of Ilarun al-Rashid, who so entitled Abii Ydsuf Ya'kub 
 al-Ansari : therefore the allusion is anachronistic. The same Caliph also caused Uie 
 Olema to dress as they do still. 
 
 ^ The allusion is Koranic: "O men, if ye be in doubt concerning the resur- 
 rection, consider that he first created you of the dust of the ground (Adam) ; 
 afterwards of seed" (chapt. xxii. ). But the physiological ideas of the Koran are 
 curious. It supposes that the Mani or male seed is in the loins and that of 
 women in the breast-bone (chapt. Ixxxvi. ); that the mingled seed of the two 
 (chapt. Ixxvi.) fructifies the ovary. Barzoi (Kalilah and Dimnah) says: — "Man's 
 seed, falling into the woman's womb, is mixed with her seed and her blood : when 
 it thickens and curdles, the Spirit moves it, and it turns about like liquid cheese, 
 then it solidifies, its arteries are formed, its limbs constructed, and its joints 
 distinguished. If the babe is a male, his face is placed towards his mother's back ; 
 if a female, towards her belly" (p. 262, Mr. I. G. N. Keith-Falconer's translation). 
 But there is a curious prolepsis of the spermatozoa-theory. We read (Koran, 
 chapt. vii. V. 171), "Thy Lord drew forth their posterity from the loins of the sons of 
 Adam" ; and the commentators say that Allah stroked Adam's back and extracted 
 from his loins all his posterity which shall ever be, in the shape of small ants ; 
 these confessed their dependence on God and were dismissed to return whence they 
 came. From this fiction it appears (says Sale) that the doctrine of pre-existence 
 is not unknown to the Mohammedans ; and there is some little conformity between 
 it and the modern theory of generatio ex animalculis in semine marium. The poets 
 call this Yaum-i-Alast = the Day of Am-I-not (-your Lord)? which Sir William 
 Jones most unhappily translated, " Art thou not with thy Lord? " (Alasta bi Rabbi- 
 kum) ; and they produce a grand vision of unembodied spirits appearing in countless 
 inillions before their Creator. 
 
 3 The usual preliminary of a wrestling bout.
 
 412 Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 of her, and the two grappled and gripped and interlocked hands 
 and arms. Presently he shifted his hands to her slender waist, 
 when his finger tips sank into the soft folds of her middle, breeding 
 languishment, and he fell a-trembling like the Persian reed in the 
 roaring gale. So she lifted him up and throwing him to the 
 ground, sat upon his breast with hips and hinder cheeks like 
 mounds of sand, for his soul had lost mastery over his senses. 
 Then she asked him, " O Moslem ! the slaying of Nazarenes is 
 lawful to you folk ; what then hast thou to say about being slain 
 thyself?" and he answered, "O my lady, thy speech as regards 
 slaying me is not other than unlawful ; for our prophet Mohammed 
 (whom Allah bless and preserve !) prohibited the slaying of women 
 and children, old men and monks ! " " As it was thus revealed to 
 your Prophet," she replied, " it behoveth us to render the equivalent 
 of his mercy : so rise, I give thee thy life, for generosity is never 
 lost upon the generous." Then she got off his breast and he 
 rose and stood shaking the dust from his head against the owners 
 of the crooked rib, even women ; and she said to him, " Be not 
 ashamed ; but verily one who entereth the land of Roum in quest 
 of booty, and cometh to assist Kings against Kings, how happeneth 
 it that he hath not strength enough to defend himself from one 
 made out of the crooked rib ? " " 'Twas not for lack of strength in 
 me," he answered, " nor didst thou throw me by thy force ; it was 
 thy loveliness overthrew me. So if thou wilt grant me another bout 
 it will be of thy courtesy." She laughed and said, " I grant thee 
 thy request; but these handmaids have long been pinioned, and 
 their arms and sides are weary, and it were only right I should 
 loose them, for haply this next wrestHng bout will be long." Then 
 she went to the slave-girls, and unbinding them, said to them in 
 the tongue of Greece, " Get ye to some safe place till I foil this 
 Moslem's lust and longing for you." So they went away, whilst 
 Sharrkan kept gazing at them, and they kept turning to look at the 
 two. Then each approached the adversary, and he set his breast 
 against hers ; but when he felt waist touch waist his strength foiled 
 him, and she, waxing ware of this, lifted him with her hands 
 swiftlier than the blinding leven-flash, and threw him to the ground. 
 He fell on his back,^ and then she said to him, " Rise ! I give thee 
 thy life a second time. I spared thee in the first count because 
 of thy Prophet, for that he made unlawful the slaying of women ; 
 and I do so on the second count because of thy weakliness and 
 
 ' In Eastern wrestling this counts as a fair fall. So Ajax fell on his back with 
 Ulysses on his breast {Iliad, xxxii. 700, etc.).
 
 No. II. 
 
 Tale of King Omar bm al-Nu'uman 
 and his Sons. 
 
 " He set his breast against hers ; but when lie 
 felt waist touch waist his strength failed him, and 
 she . . . threw him to the ground."
 
 Tale of King Omar bin al-Nii'iiiiian and his Sons. 4 1 3 
 
 the greenness of thine years and thy strangerhood ; but I charge 
 thee, if there be in the Moslem army sent by Omar bin 
 al-Nu'uman to succour the King of Constantinople a stronger than 
 thou, send him hither and tell him of me ; for in wrestling there 
 are shifts and trips, catches and holds, such as the feint or falsing 
 and the snap or first grip, the hug, the feet-catch, the thigh- 
 bite,^ the jostle and the leg-lock." " By Allah, O my lady," quoth 
 Sharrkan (and indeed he was highly incensed against her), "had I 
 been Master al-Safdi, Master Mohammed Kimal, or Ibn al-Saddi,^ 
 as they were in their prime, I had kept no note of these shifts thou 
 mentionest; for, O my mistress, by Allah, thou hast not grassed 
 me by thy strength, but by the blandishments of thy back-parts ; 
 for we men of Mesopotamia so love a full-formed thigh that nor 
 sense was left me nor foresight. But now, an thou wish, thou shalt 
 try a third fall with me while my wits are about me, and this last 
 match is allowed me by the laws of the game which sayeth the 
 best of three -. moreover, I have regained my presence of mind." 
 When she heard his words she said to him, "Hast thou not had 
 a belly-full of this wrestling, O vanquished one ? However, come 
 on an thou wilt ; but know that this must be the last round." 
 Then she bent forward and challenged him and wSharrkan did 
 likewise, setting to it in real earnest and being right cautious 
 about the throw : so the two strove awhile and the damsel found 
 in him a strength such as she not observed before and said to 
 him, " O Moslem, thou art now on thy mettle." " Yes," he replied, 
 " thou knowest that there remaineth to me but this one round, 
 after which each of us will wend a different way." She laughed 
 and he laughed too •'' ', then she over-reached at his thigh and caught 
 firm hold of it unawares, which made him greet the ground and 
 fall full on his back. She laughed at him and said, " Art thou an 
 eater of bran ? Thou art like a Badawi's bonnet which falleth off 
 with every touch or else the Father of Winds ^ that droppeth 
 before a puff of air. Fie upon thee, O thou poor thing ! " adding, 
 " Get thee back to the Moslem army and send us other than 
 thyself, for thou failesl. of thews , and proclaim for us, among the 
 
 ' So biting was allowed amongst the Greeks in the ai'aKA.ti'OTraAT/, the final 
 struggle on the ground. 
 
 ^ Supposed to be names of noted wrestlers. " Kayim" (not El-Kim as Torrens 
 has it) is a term now applied to a juggler or "professor" of legerdemain who 
 amuses people in the streets with easy tricks (Lane, M. E. , chapt. xx. ). 
 
 3 Lit. "laughed in his face," which has not the unpleasant meaning it bears in 
 English. 
 
 * Arab. "Abu riyah" = a kind of child's toy. It is the " Po'/x/jos " of the 
 Greeks, our " bull-roarer " well known in Australia and parts of Africa.
 
 414 -^^ Lay /ah wa Laylah. 
 
 Arabs and Persians, the Turks and Daylamites,^ whoso hath might 
 in him, let him come to us." Then she made a spring and landed 
 on the other side of the stream and said to Sharrkan, laughing, 
 " Parting with thee is right grievous to me, O my lord ; but get 
 thee to thy mates before dawn, lest the Knights come upon thee 
 and pick thee up on their lance-points. Thou hast no strength to 
 defend thee against a woman, so how couldst thou hold thine own 
 amongst men of might and Knights ? " Sharrkan was confounded 
 and called to her (as she turned from him making towards the 
 convent), " O my lady, wilt thou go away and leave the miserable 
 stranger, the broken-hearted slave of love ? " So she turned to 
 him laughing and said, " What is thy want ? I will grant thee 
 thy prayer." " Have I set foot in thy country and tasted the 
 sweetness of thy courtesy," replied he, " and shall I return without 
 eating of thy victual and tasting thy hospitality ; I who have 
 become one of thy servitors ? " " None baulks kindliness save the 
 base," she rejoined, "honour us in Allah's name, on my head and 
 eyes be it ! Mount thy steed and ride along the brink of the 
 stream over against me, for now thou art my guest." At this 
 Sharrkan was glad and, hastening back to his horse, mounted and 
 walked him abreast of her, and she kept faring on till they came 
 to a drawbridge^ built of beams of the white poplar, hung by 
 pullies and steel-chains and made fast with hooks and padlocks. 
 When Sharrkan looked, he saw awaiting her upon the bridge the 
 same ten handmaids whom she had thrown in the wrestling- 
 bouts ; and as she came up to them, she said to one in the 
 Greek tongue, " Arise and take the reins of his horse and conduct 
 him across into the convent." So she went up to Sharrkan and 
 led him over, much puzzled and perturbed with what he saw, and 
 .saying to himself, "O would that the Wazir Dandan were here 
 with me that his eyes might look upon these fairest of favours." 
 Then he turned to the young lady and said to her, "O marvel of 
 loveliness, now I have two claims upon thee ; first the claim of 
 good-fellowship, and secondly for that thou hast carried me to thy home 
 and offered me thy hospitality. I am now under thy commandance 
 and thy guidance; so do me one last favour by accompanying 
 me to the lands of Al-Islam ; where thou shalt look upon many 
 a lion-hearted warrior and thou shalt learn who I am." AV'hen 
 she heard this she was angered and said to him, " By the truth 
 
 ' The people of the region south of the Caspian, which is called " Sea of 
 Daylam." It has a long history ; for which see D'Hcrl)clot, s.v., " Dilem." 
 ' Coptic convents in Egypt still affect these drawbridges over the keep-moat.
 
 Tale of King Omar bin al-A^iiii/iian and /lis Sons. 415 
 
 of the Messiah, thou liast proved tliyself with nie a man of keen 
 wit ; but now I see what mischief there is in thy heart, and how 
 thou canst permit thyself a speech which proveth thy traitorous 
 intent. How should I do as thou sayest, when I wot that if I came 
 to that King of yours, Omar bin al-Nu'uman, I should never get 
 free from him? For truly he hath not the like of me or behind 
 his city walls or within his palace-halls. Lord of Baghdad and of 
 Khorasan though he be, who hath built for himself twelve pavilions, 
 in number as the months of the year, and in each a concubine after 
 the number of the da}s ; and if I come to him he would not prove 
 shy of me, for your folk believe I am lawful to have and to hold as 
 is said in your writ : — Or those women whom your right hand shall 
 possess as slaves.^ So how canst thou speak thus to me ? As for 
 thy saying : — Thou shalt look upon the braves of the Moslems, by 
 the truth of the Messiah, thou sayest that which is not true, for I 
 saw your army when it reached our land these two days ago, and 
 I did not see that your ordinance was the ordinance of Kings, but 
 I beheld. only a rabble of tribesmen gathered together. And as to 
 thy words : — Thou shalt know who I am. I did not do thee 
 kindness because of thy dignity, but out of pride in myself, and the 
 like of thee should not talk thus to the like of me, even wert thou 
 Sharrkan, Omar bin al-Nu'uman's son, the prowest name in these 
 days." " Knowest thou Sharrkan ? " asked he. And she answered, 
 "Yes; and I know of his coming with an army numbering ten 
 thousand horsemen. Also that he was sent by his sire with this 
 force to gain prevalence for the King of Constantinople." " O my 
 lady," said Sharrkan, "I adjure thee by thy religion, tell me the cause 
 of all this, that sooth may appear to me clear of untruth, and with 
 whom the fault lies." "Now, by the virtue of thy faith," she 
 replied, " did I not fear lest the news of me be bruited abroad that I 
 am of the daughters of Roum, I would adventure myself and sally 
 forth single-handed against the ten thousand horsemen and slay 
 their leader, the Wazir Dandan, and vanquisli their champion 
 Sharrkan.'-^ Nor would aught of shame accrue to me thereby, for I 
 
 ' Koran, iv., xxii., etc., meaning it is lawful to marry women taken in war after 
 the necessary purification, although their husbands be still living. This is not per- 
 mitted with a free woman who is a True Believer. I have noted that the only 
 concubine slave-girls mentioned in the Koran are these " captives possessed by the 
 right hand." 
 
 ^ The Amazonian dame is a favourite in folk-lore and is an ornament to poetry 
 from the Iliad to our modern day. Such heroines, apparently unknown to the 
 Pagan Arabs, were common in the early ages of Al-Islam, as Ockley and Gibbon 
 prove, and that the race is not extinct may be seen in my Pilgrimage (iii. 55), 
 where the sister of Ibn Rumi resolved to take blood revenge for her brother.
 
 4i6 Alf Lay/ah wa Laylah. 
 
 have read books and studied the rules of good breeding in the 
 language of the Arabs. But I have no need to vaunt my own prowess 
 to thee more by token, as thou hast proved in thy proper person my 
 skill and strength in wrestling, and thou hast learnt my superiority 
 over other women. Nor, indeed, had Sharrkan himself been here 
 this night and it were said to him : — Clear this stream ! could he 
 have done it ; and I only long and lust that the Messiah would 
 throw him into my hands in this very convent, that I might go 
 forth to him in the habit of a man and drag him from his saddle- 
 seat and make him my captive and lay him in bilboes,"— And 
 
 Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say hei 
 permitted say. 
 
 END OF VOL. I, 
 
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