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 COPYRIGHT l8S6 BY PllII.IP M. JUSTICE.
 
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 77/5^ 
 
 CONTENTS OF THE FOURTH VOLUME. 
 
 CONTINUATION OF SINDBAD THE SEAMAN AND SINDBAD 
 
 THE LANDSMAN i 
 
 (Lane, Vol. III., Chapt. XXII. Story of Es Sindbad of the Sea and 
 Es Sindbad of the Land : pp. 1-78-) 
 
 e. The Fifth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman — Continuation. 
 
 f. The Sixth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman . , 5 
 
 g. The Seventh Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman . 15 
 The Seventh Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman 
 
 (according to the Version of the Calcutta Edition) . . 25 
 
 112. THE CITY OF BRASS 31 
 
 [Chapt. XXIII. Story of the City of Brass : pp. I18-152.) 
 
 113. THE CRAFT AND MALICE OF WOMEN ... 66 
 
 {Chapt. XXI. Abstract of the Story of the King and his Son 
 
 and the Damsel and the Seven Wezccrs : pp. 158-183.) 
 
 a. The King and his Wazir's Wife 
 
 b. The Confectioner, his Wife, and the Parrot 
 
 c. The Fuller and his Son ..... 
 
 d. The Miser and the Loaves of Bread . 
 
 e. The Lady and her Lovers .... 
 /. The King's Son and the Ogress 
 
 g. The Drop of Honey 
 
 //. The Woman who made her Husband Sift Dust 
 
 i. The Enchanted Spring 
 
 /. The Wife's Device to Cheat her Husband . 
 k. The Goldsmith and the Cashmere Singing-Girl 
 /. The Man who Never Laughed during the rest 
 
 of his Days 
 
 ni. The King's Son and the Merchant's Wife 
 
 n. The Page who feigned to know the Speech of 
 
 Birds 
 
 0. The Lady and her Five Suitors 
 p. The Three Wishes, or the Man who longed to 
 
 SEE THE Night of Power 
 
 q. The Stolen Necklace 
 
 r. The Two Pigeons 
 
 72 
 
 75 
 76 
 
 77 
 
 78 
 
 79 
 
 82 
 
 84 
 89 
 93 
 
 96 
 103 
 
 IDS 
 108 
 
 114 
 116 
 117 

 
 iv Alf Laylah zva Layiah. 
 
 113. THE CRAFT AND MALICE OF WOMEN— C^«z'wm,?(/. 
 
 J. Prince Behram and the Princess Al-Datma. . 118 
 
 t. The House with the Belvedere .... 122 
 
 u. The King's .Son and the Ifrit's Mistress . • 130 
 
 V. The Sandal-Wood Merchant and the Sharpers . 133 
 
 TV. The Debauchee and the Three-Year-Old Child 138 
 
 X. The Stolen Purse 139 
 
 y. The Fox and the Folk 142 
 
 114. JUDAR AND ins BRETHREN 143 
 
 {Lane, Vol. III., Chapt. XXII., Story of Joodar. fp. 183-233.) 
 
 1x5. THE HISTORY OF GHARIB AND HIS BROTHER AJIE. 184 
 
 116. 0TB AH AND RAYYA 303 
 
 117. HIND DAUGHTER OF AL-NU'MAN AND AL-HAJJAJ . 308 
 
 118. KHUZAYMAH BIN BISHR AND IKRIMAT AL-FAYYAZ . 310 
 
 119. YUNUS THE SCRIBE AND THE CALIPH WALID BIN SAHL 315 
 
 120. HARUN AL-RASHID AND THE ARAB GIRL ... 319 
 
 121. IBRAHIM OF MOSUL AND THE DEVIL .... 321 
 
 ( Vol. I. p. 223.) 
 
 122. THE LOVERS OF THE BANU OZRAH .... 324 
 
 123. THE BADAWI AND HIS WIFE 331 
 
 {Vol. I. p. 521.) 
 
 124. THE LOVERS OF BASSORAH 336 
 
 125. ISHAK OF MOSUL AND HIS MISTRESS AND THE DEVIL 341 
 
 126. THE LOVERS OF AL-MEDINAH 344 
 
 {Vol. III. p. 252.) Another Anecdote of Tivo Loz'eis,. 
 
 127. AL-MALIK AL-NASIR AND HIS WAZIR .... 347 
 
 128. THE ROGUERIES OF DALILAH THE CRAFTY AND 
 
 HER DAUGHTER ZAYNAB THE CONEY-CATCHER . 349 
 
 {Lane omits.) 
 
 129. THE ADVENTURES OF MERCURY ALI OF CAIRO . 374 
 
 {Lane omits.) 
 
 130. ARDASHIR AND HAYAT AL-NUFUS .... 406 
 
 (Lane omits.) 
 
 131. JULNAR THE SEA-BORN AND HER SON KING BADR 
 
 BASIM OF PERSIA 456 
 
 {Lane, III. 255, The Story of Jullanar of the Sea.) 
 
 132. KING MOHAMMED BIN SABAIK AND THE MERCHANT 
 
 HASAN 496 
 
 (///. 373, Notes to Chapt. XXIV.) 
 
 a. Story of Prince Sayf Al-Muluk and the Princess 
 
 Badi'a Al-Jamal .... 501 
 
 (///. 308, The Story of Self El- Miilook and Badeea El-Javtal, -with the 
 Introduction- transferred to a note, p. 372.)
 
 The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night. 
 
 TSToh) tobcrt it bjns tfj£ dFtbc ll^untiieli aixK jFiftij-cigfjtfj Ni'sM, 
 
 She said, it hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the 
 Seaman continued : — So I threw the devil off my shoulders, hardly 
 crediting my deliverance from him and fearing lest he should shake 
 off his drunkenness and do me a mischief. Then I took up a great 
 stone from among the trees and coming up to him smote him there- 
 with on the head with all my might and crushed in his skull as he 
 lay dead drunk. Thereupon his flesh and fat and blood being in a 
 pulp, he died and went to his deserts. The Fire, — no mercy of Allah 
 be upon him ! I then returned, with a heart at ease, to my former 
 station on the sea-shore and abode in that island many days, eating 
 of its fruits and drinking of its waters and keeping a look-out for 
 passing ships ; till one day, as I sat on the beach recalling all that 
 had befallen me and saying, " I wonder if Allah will save me alive 
 and restore me to my home and family and friends ! " behold, a ship 
 was making for the island through the dashing sea and clashing 
 surges. Presently, it cast anchor and the passengers landed ; so I 
 made for them, and when they saw me all hastened up to me and 
 gathering round me questioned me of my case and how I came 
 thither. I told them all that had betided me, whereat they marvelled 
 with exceeding marvel and said, " He who rode on thy shoulder is 
 called the ' Shaykh al-Bahr ' or Old Man of the Sea,^ and none ever 
 felt his legs on neck and came off alive but thou ; and those who 
 die under him he devoureth : so praised be Allah for thy safety ! " 
 Then they set somewhat of food before me, whereof I ate my fill, 
 and gave me somewhat of clothes wherewith I clad myself anew and 
 covered my body 3 after which they took me up into the ship, and 
 we sailed days and nights, till fate brought us to a place called the 
 City of Apes, builded with lofty houses, all of which gave upon the 
 sea, and it had a single gate studded and strengthened with iron nails. 
 Now every night, as soon as it is dusk, the dwellers in this city use 
 
 • More literally " The Chief of the Sea (-Coast)," Shaykh being here a chief 
 rather than an elder (eoldermann, alderman). So the " Old Man of the Moun- 
 tain," famous in crusadini^ days, was the Chief who lived on the Nusayriyah or 
 Ansari range, a northern prolongation of the Libanus. Our "old man" of the 
 text may have been suggested by ihe Koranic commentators on cha])t. vi. When 
 an Intidel rises from the grave, a hideous figure meets him and says, Why won- 
 derest thou at my loathsomeness? I am thine Evil Deeds: thou didst ride 
 upon me in the world and now I will ride upon thee (suiting the action to the 
 words). 
 
 VOL. IV. A
 
 2 Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 to come forth of the gates and, putting out to sea in boats and ships, 
 pass the night upon the waters in their fear lest the apes should 
 come down on them from the mountains. Hearing this I was sore 
 troubled remembering what I had before suffered from the ape-kind. 
 Presently I landed to solace myself in the city, but meanwhile the 
 ship set sail without me and I repented of having gone ashore, and 
 calling to mind my companions and what had befallen me with the 
 apes, first and after, sat down and fell a-weeping and lamenting. 
 Presently one of the townsfolk accosted me and said to me, " O my 
 lord, meseemeth thou art a stranger to these parts?" "Yes," 
 answered I, " I am indeed a stranger and a poor one, who came 
 hither in a ship which cast anchor here, and I landed to visit the 
 town ; but when I would have gone on board again, I found they 
 had sailed without me." Quoth he, " Come and embark with 
 us, for if thou lie the night in the city, the apes will destroy 
 thee." "Hearkening and obedience," replied I, and rising, straight- 
 way embarked with him in one of the boats, whereupon they 
 pushed off from shore and anchoring a mile or so from the 
 shore, there passed the night. At daybreak they rowed back to 
 the city, and landing, went each about his business. Thus they 
 did every night, for if any tarried in the town by night the apes 
 came down on him and slew him. As soon as it was day, the 
 apes left the place and ate of the fruits of the gardens, then went 
 back to the mountains and slept there till nightfall, when they 
 again came down upon the city. Now this place was in the 
 farthest part of the Country of the Blacks, and one of the strangest 
 things that befel me during my sojourn in the city was on this 
 wise. One of the company with whom I passed the night in the 
 boat, asked me, " O my lord, thou art apparently a stranger in 
 these parts ; hast thou any craft whereat thou canst work ? " and 
 I answered, " By Allah, O my brother, I have no trade nor know I 
 any handicraft, for I was a merchant and a man of money and 
 substance and had a ship of my own, laden with great store of 
 goods and merchandise; but it foundered at sea and all were 
 drowned excepting me who saved myself on a piece of plank which 
 Allah vouchsafed to me of His favour." Upon this he brought me a 
 cotton bag and giving it to me, said, " Take this bag and fill it with 
 pebbles from the beach and go forth with a company of the towns- 
 folk to whom I will give a charge respecting thee. Do as they do 
 and belike thou shalt gain what may further thy return voyage to thy 
 native land." Then he carried me to the beach, where I filled my 
 bag with pebbles large and small, and presently we saw a company 
 of folk issue from the town, each bearing a bag like mine, filled with
 
 The Fifth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman. 3 
 
 pebbles. To these he committed me, commending me to their care, 
 and saying, "This man is a stranger, so take him with you and teach 
 him how to gather, that he may get his daily bread, and you will 
 earn your reward and recompense in Heaven." " On our head and 
 eyes be it ! " answered they, and bidding me welcome, fared on with 
 me till we came to a spacious Wady, full of lofty trees with trunks 
 so smooth that none might climb them. Now sleeping under these 
 trees were many apes, which when they saw us rose and fled from us 
 and swarmed up among the branches ; whereupon my companions 
 began to pelt them with what they had in their bags, and the apes 
 fell to plucking of the fruit of the trees and casting them at the folk. 
 I looked at the fruits they cast at us and found them to be Indian ^ 
 or cocoa nuts ; so I chose out a great tree, full of apes, and going 
 up to it, began to pelt them with stones, and they in return 
 pelted me with nuts, which I collected, as did the rest ; so that 
 even before I had made an end of my bagful of pebbles, I had 
 gotten great plenty of nuts 5 and as soon as my companions had in 
 like manner come by as many nuts as they could carry, we returned 
 to the city, where we arrived at the fag-end of day. Then I went in 
 to the kindly man who had brought me in company with the nut- 
 gatherers and gave him all I had gotten, thanking him for his 
 kindness ; but he would not accept them, saying, " Sell them and 
 make profit by the price ; " and presently he added (giving me the 
 key of a closet in his house), " Store thy nuts in this safe place and 
 go thou forth every morning and gather them as thou hast done 
 to-day, and choose out the worst for sale and supplying thyself; but 
 lay up the rest here, so haply thou mayst collect enough to serve 
 thee for thy return home." " Allah requite thee," answered I and 
 did as he advised me, going out daily with the cocoa-nut gatherers, 
 who commended me to one another and showed me the best-stocked 
 trees. 2 Thus did I for some time, till I had laid up great store of 
 excellent nuts, besides a large sum of money, the price of those I 
 had sold. I became thus at my ease and bought all I saw and had 
 a mind to, and passed my time pleasantly, greatly enjoying my stay 
 in the city, till, as I stood on the beach one day, a great ship steering 
 through the heart of the sea presently cast anchor by the shore and 
 
 ' Arab. " Janz al-IIindi ; " our word cocoa is from the Port. "Coco," meaning 
 a "bug" (bugbear) in allusion to its caricature of the human face, hair, eyes and 
 mouth. I may here note that a cocoa-tree is easily climbed with a bit of rope or 
 a handkerchief, giving a purchase to the feet. 
 
 '■* Tomb-pictures in Egypt show tame monkeys gathering fruits, and Grossier 
 (Description of China, quoted by Hole and Lane) mentions a similar mode of 
 harvesting tea by irritating the monkeys of the Middle Kingdom.
 
 4 -A If Laylah wa Lay/ah. 
 
 landed a company of merchants, who proceeded to sell and buy and 
 barter their goods for cocoa-nuts and other commodities. Then I 
 went to my friend and told him of the coming of the ship and how I 
 had a mind to return to my own country; and he said, '"Tis for 
 thee to decide." So I thanked him for his bounties and took leave 
 of him ; then, going to the captain of the ship, I agreed with him for 
 my passage and embarked my cocoa-nuts and what else I possessed. 
 
 We weighed anchor And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn 
 
 of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 Notn bjjbm ft toas tfie dFibc l^unUrfti anli Jpiftg-nintlb ^iQ^t, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sinibad the 
 Seaman continued : — So I left the City of the Apes and embarked 
 my cocoa-nuts and what else I possessed. We weighed anchor the 
 same day and sailed from island to island and sea to sea ; and when- 
 ever we stopped, I sold and traded with my cocoa-nuts, and the 
 Lord requited me more than I erst had and lost. Amongst other 
 places, we came to an island abounding in cloves^ and cinnamon 
 and pepper ; and the country people told me that by the side of each 
 pepper-bunch groweth a great leaf which shadeth it from the sun and 
 casteth the water off it in the wet season ; but, when the rain ceaseth 
 the leaf turneth over and droopeth down by the side of the bunch. ^ 
 Here I took in great store of pepper and cloves and cinnamon, in 
 exchange for cocoa-nuts, and we passed thence to the island of 
 Al-Usirat,^ whence cometh the Comorin aloes-wood, and thence to 
 another island, five days' journey in length, where grows the Chinese 
 lign-aloes, which is better than the Comorin ; but the people of this 
 island^ are fouler of condition and religion than those of the othen 
 for that they love riot and wine-bibbing, and know nor prayer nor 
 
 ^ Bresl. Edit. Cloves and cinnamon in those days grew in widely distant 
 places. 
 
 ^ In pepper plantations it is usual to set bananas (Musa Paradisiac^) for shading 
 the young shrubs which bear bunches like ivy-fruit, not pods. 
 
 3 The Bresl. Edit, has " Al-Ma'arat." Langl^s calls it the Island of Al- 
 Kamari. See Lane iii. 86. 
 
 * Insula, pro peninsula. "Comorin" is a corrupt, of " Kanya "(= Virgo, 
 the goddess Durga) and " Kumari " (a maid, a princess) ; from a temple of 
 Shiva's wife : hence Ptolemy's Kwpu aKpov, and near it to the N. East 
 K.ofxapLa aKpov kol ttoAis, " Promontorium Cori quod Comorini caput insulse 
 vocant," says Maffaeus (Hist. Indie, i. p. i&). In the text " Al 'lid " refers to 
 the eagle-wood (Aloexylon Agallochum) so called because spotted like the bird's 
 plume. That of Champa (Cochin-China, mentioned by Camoens,The Lus. x. 129) 
 is still famous.
 
 The Sixth Voyage of Sindhad the Scama7i. 5 
 
 call to prayer. Thence we came to the pearl-fisheries, and I gave 
 the divers some of my cocoa-nuts and said to them, " Dive for my 
 luck and lot ! " They did so and brought up from the deep bight ^ 
 great store of large and priceless pearls ; and they said to me, " By 
 Allah, O my master, thy luck is a lucky ! " Then we sailed on, 
 with the blessing of Allah (whose name be exalted !) ; and ceased 
 not sailing till we arrived safely at Bassorah. There I abode a little 
 and presently went on to Baghdad, where I entered my quarter and 
 found my house and foregathered with my family and saluted my 
 friends who gave me joy of my safe return, and I laid up all my 
 goods and valuables in my storehouses. Then I distributed alms 
 and largesse and clothed the widow and the orphan and made 
 presents to my relations and comrades ; for the Lord had requited 
 me fourfold that I had lost. After which I returned to my old 
 merry way of life and forgot all I had suffered in the great profit and 
 gain I had made. Such, then, is the history of my fifth Voyage 
 and its wonderments, and now to supper ; and to-morrow, come 
 again and I will tell you what befel me in my sixth Voyage ; for it 
 was still more wonderful than this. (Saith he who telleth the tale) 
 Then he called for food ; and the servants spread the table, and 
 when they had eaten the evening-meal, he bade give Sindbad the 
 porter an hundred golden dinars, and the Landsman returned home 
 and lay him down to sleep, much marvelling at all he had heard. 
 Next morning, as soon as it was light, he prayed the dawn-prayer ; 
 and, after blessing Mohammed the Cream of all Creatures, betook 
 himself to the house of Sindbad the Seaman and wished him a 
 good day. The merchant bade him sit and talked with him, till 
 the rest of the company arrived. Then the servants spread the 
 table and when they had well eaten and drunken and were mirth- 
 ful and merry, Sindbad the Seaman began in these words the 
 narrative of 
 
 THE SIXTH VOYAGE OF SINDBAD THE SEAMAN. 
 
 Know, O my brothers and friends and companions all, that I 
 abode some time, after my return from my fifth Voyage, in great 
 solace and satisfaction and mirth and merriment, joyance and enjoy- 
 ment ; and I forgot what I had suffered, seeing the great gain and 
 
 ^ Arab. " liirkah " = tank, pool, reach, bight. Hence Birkat Far'aun in the 
 Suez Gulf (Pilgrimage i. 297).
 
 6 Alf LaylaJi iva Lay i ah. 
 
 profit I had made, till one day as I sat making merry and enjoying 
 myself with my friends, there came in to me a company of merchants 
 whose case told tales of travel, and talked with me of voyage and 
 adventure and greatness of pelf and lucre. Hereupon I remem- 
 bered the days of my return from abroad, and my joy at once more 
 seeing my native land and foregathering with my family and friends ; 
 and my soul yearned for travel and traffic. Accordingly, compelled 
 by Fate and Fortune, I resolved to undertake another voyage ; and, 
 buying me fine and costly merchandise meet for foreign trade, made 
 it up into bales, with which I journeyed from Baghdad to Bassorah. 
 Here I found a great ship ready for sea and full of merchants and 
 notables, who had with them goods of price ; so I embarked my 
 bales therein. And we left Bassorah in safety and good spirits 
 
 under the safeguard of the King, the Preserver. And Shahrazad 
 
 perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 :^Cofo tui)en it iuas \\z jpibc ll^uutrulj anti ^fxti£ti) I^vTigfit, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad 
 the Seaman continued : — And after embarking my bales and leaving 
 Bassorah in safety and good spirits, we continued our voyage from 
 place to place and from city to city, buying and selling and profiting 
 and diverting ourselves with the sight of countries where strange folk 
 dwell. And Fortune and the voyage smiled upon us, till one day, 
 as we went along, behold, the captain suddenly cried with a great 
 cry and cast his turband on the deck. Then he buffeted his face 
 like a woman and plucked out his beard and fell down in the waist 
 of the ship well nigh fainting for stress of grief and rage, and crying, 
 "Oh and alas for the ruin of my house and the orphanship of my 
 poor children ! " So all the merchants and sailors came roundabout 
 him and asked him, "O master, what is the matter?" for the light 
 had become night before their sight. And he answered, saying, 
 " Know, O folk, that we have wandered from our course and left the 
 sea whose ways we wot, and come into a sea whose ways I know 
 not ; and unless Allah vouchsafe us a means of escape, we are all 
 dead men ; wherefore pray ye to the Most High, that He deliver us 
 from this strait. Haply amongst you is one righteous whose prayers 
 the Lord will accept." Then he arose and clomb the mast to see an 
 there were any escape from that strait ; and he would have loosed the 
 sails ; but the wind redoubled upon the ship and whirled her round 
 thrice and drave her backwards ; whereupon her rudder brake and 
 she fell off towards a high mountain. With this the captain came
 
 The Sixth Voyage of S'mdbad the Seainan. 7 
 
 down from the mast, saying, "There is no Majesty and there is 
 no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great ; nor can man pre- 
 vent that which is fore-ordained of Fate ! By x\llah, we are fallen on 
 a place of sure destruction, and there is no way of escape for us, nor 
 can any of us be saved ! " Then we all fell a-weeping over ourselves 
 and bidding one another farewell for that our days were come to 
 an end, and we had lost all hopes of life. Presently the ship struck 
 the mountain and broke up, and all and everything on board of 
 her were plunged into the sea. Some of the merchants were 
 drowned and others made shift to reach the shore and save them- 
 selves upon the mountain ; I amongst the number, and when we 
 got ashore, we found a great island, or rather peninsula,* whose 
 base was strewn with wreckage of crafts and goods and gear cast 
 up by the sea from broken ships whose passengers had been 
 drowned ; and the quantity confounded count and calculation. 
 So I climbed the cliffs into the inward of the isle and walked on 
 inland, till I came to a stream of sweet water, that welled up at the 
 nearest foot of the mountains and disappeared in the earth under 
 the range of hills on the opposite side. But all the other pas- 
 sengers went over the mountains to the inner tracts ; and, dis- 
 persing hither and thither, were confounded at what they saw and 
 became like madmen at the sight of the wealth and treasures 
 wherewith the shores were strewn. As for me I looked into the 
 bed of the stream aforesaid and saw therein great plenty of rubies 
 and great royal pearls ^ and all kinds of jewels and precious stones 
 which were as gravel in the beds of the rivulets that ran through 
 the fields, and the sands sparkled and glittered with gems and 
 precious ores. Moreover we found in the island abundance of 
 the finest lign-aloes, both Chinese and Comorin ; and there also 
 is a spring of crude ambergris ^ which floweth like wax or gum 
 
 ^ Probably Cape Comorin ; to judge from the river, but the text names Sarandib 
 (Ceylon Island) famous for gems. This was noticed by INIarco Polo, iii. cap. 19 ; 
 and ancient authors relate the same of " Taprobanc." 
 
 " I need hardly trouble the reader with a note on j)carl-fisheries ; the descrip- 
 tions of travellers are continuous from the days of Pliny (ix. 35), Solinus (cap. 56) 
 and Marco Polo (iii. 23). Maximilian of Transylvania, in his narrative of 
 Magellan's voyage (Novus Orbis, p. 532) says, that the Celebes produce pearls 
 big as turtle-doves' eggs ; and the King of Pome (Borneo) had two unions as 
 great as goose's eggs. Pigafetta (in Purchas) reduces this to hen's eggs and Sir 
 Thomas llerbert to dove's eggs. 
 
 ^ Arab. " Anbar" pronounced " Ambar ;" wherein I would derive " Ambro- 
 sia." Ambergris was long supposed to be a fossil, a vegetable which grew upon 
 the sea-bottom or rose in springs ; or a " substance produced in the water like 
 naphtha or bitumen " (!) : now it is known to be the egesta of a whale. It is 
 found in lumps weighing several pounds upon the Zanzibar Coast and is sold at a 
 high price. A small hollow is drilled in the bottom of the cup and the coffee
 
 8 Alf Lay la h wa Lay la h. 
 
 over the stream-banks, for the great heat of the sun, and runneth 
 down to the sea-shore, where the monsters of the deep come up 
 and swallowing it, return into the sea. But it burneth in their 
 bellies ; so they cast it up again and it congealeth on the surface 
 of the water, whereby its colour and qualities are changed ; and 
 at last, the waves cast it ashore, and the travellers and merchants 
 who know it, collect it and sell it. But as to the raw ambergris 
 which is not swallowed, it floweth over the channel and congealeth 
 on the banks and when the sun shineth on it, it melteth and 
 scenteth the whole valley with a musk-like fragrance : then, when 
 the sun ceaseth from it, it congealeth again. But none can get to 
 this place where is the crude ambergris, because of the mountains 
 which enclose the island on all sides and which foot of man cannot 
 ascend.^ We continued thus to explore the island, marvelling at 
 the wonderful works of Allah and the riches we found there, but 
 sore troubled for our own case, and dismayed at our prospects. 
 Now we had picked up on the beach some small matter of victual 
 from the wreck and husbanded it carefully, eating but once every 
 day or two, in our fear lest it should fail us and we die miserably of 
 famine and affright. Moreover, we were weak for colic brought on 
 by sickness and low diet, and my companions deceased, one after 
 other, till there was but a small company of us left. Each that died 
 we washed and shrouded in some of the clothes and linen cast 
 ashore by the tides ; and after a little, the rest of my fellows perished, 
 one by one, till I had buried the last of the party and abode alone 
 on the island, with but a little provision left, I who was wont to have 
 so much. And I wept over myself, saying, " Would Heaven I had 
 died before my companions and they had washed me and buried 
 me ! It had been better than I should perish than have none to 
 bathe me and shroud me and bury me ! But there is no Majesty 
 and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great ! " 
 
 And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day, and ceased 
 
 saying her permitted say. 
 
 is poured upon the bit of ambergris it contains ; when the oleaginous matter 
 shows in clots amidst the " Kaymagli " (coffee-cream), the bubbly froth which 
 floats upon the surface and which an expert " coffee servant " distributes equally 
 among the guests. Argensola mentions in Ceylon, "springs of liquid bitumen 
 thicker than our oil and some of pure balsam." 
 
 1 The tale-teller forgets that Sindbad and his companions have just ascended 
 it ; but this inconsequence is a characteristic of the Eastern Saga. I may note 
 that the description of crude ambergris in the text tells us admirably well what 
 it is not.
 
 The Sixth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman. 
 
 NotD bjfjcn it lufls i^z $\\m ^^untrrctf nntr ^fxtij-first :JCigf)t, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the 
 Seaman continued in these words : — Now after I had buried the last 
 of my party and abode alone on the island, I arose and dug me a deep 
 grave on the sea-shore, saying to myself, "When I grow weak and 
 know that death cometh to me, I will cast myself into the grave and 
 die there, so the wind may drift the sand over me and cover me and 
 I be buried therein." Then I fell to reproaching myself for my 
 little wit in leaving my native land and betaking me again to travel, 
 after all I had suffered during my first five Voyages, and when I had 
 not made a single one without suffering more horrible perils and 
 more terrible hardships than in its forerunner and having no hope of 
 escape from my present stress ; and I repented me of my folly and 
 bemoaned myself, especially as I had no need of money, seeing that 
 I had enough and more than enough and could not spend what I had, 
 no, nor a half of it in all my life. However, after a while the Lord 
 sent me a thought and I said to myself, " By Allah, needs must this 
 stream have an end as well as a beginning ; therefore an issue is some- 
 where, and belike its course may lead to some inhabited place ; so 
 my best plan is to make me a little boat - big enough to sit in, and 
 carry it and launching it on the river, embark therein and drop down 
 the stream. If I escape, I escape by God's leave ; and if I perish, 
 better die in the river than here." Then, sighing for myself, I set to 
 work collecting a number of pieces of Chinese and Comorin aloes- 
 wood and I bound them together with ropes from the wreckage ; 
 then I chose out from the broken-up ships straight planks of even 
 size and fixed them firmly upon the aloes-wood, making me a boat- 
 raft a little narrower than the channel of the stream ; and I tied it 
 tightly and firmly as though it were nailed. Then I loaded it with 
 the goods, precious ores and jewels : and the union pearls which 
 were like gravel and the best of the ambergris, crude and pure, 
 together with what I had collected upon the island and what was 
 left me of victual and wild herbs. Lastly I lashed a piece of wood 
 on either side, to serve me as oars ; and launched my raft, and 
 embarking, did according to the saying of the poet : — 
 
 ' This custom is alhulcd to by Lane (Mod. Egypt, ch. xv.) : it is the rule of 
 pilgrims to Mcccah when too ill to walk or ride (Pilgrimage i. iSo). Hence all 
 men carry their shrouds : mine, after ])cing dipped in the Holy Water of Zemzem, 
 was stolen from me by the rascally Soma) of Bcrberah. 
 
 - Arab. " Fulk ; " some Edits, read " Kalak " and " Ramaz " (= a raft).
 
 lo Alf Lay /ah wa Lay la h. 
 
 Fly, fly with life whenas evils threat ; * Leave the house to tell of its builder's 
 
 fate ! 
 Land after land shalt thou seek and find * But none other life on thy wish shall 
 
 wait : 
 Fret not thy soul in thy thoughts o' night ; * All woes shall end or sooner or 
 
 late. 
 Whoso is born in one land to die, » There and only there shall gang his 
 
 gait: 
 Nor trust great things to another wight, * Soul hath only soul for confederate.^ 
 
 My boat-raft drifted with the stream, I pondering the issue of my 
 affair ; and the drifting ceased not till I came to the place where 
 it disappeared beneath the mountain. I rowed my conveyance into 
 the place, which was intensely dark ; and the current carried the 
 raft with it down the underground channel.^ The thin stream bore 
 me on through a narrow tunnel where the raft touched either side 
 and my head rubbed against the roof, return therefrom being im- 
 possible. Then I blamed myself for having thus risked my life, 
 and said, "If this passage grow any straiter, the raft will hardly 
 pass, and I cannot turn back ; so I shall inevitably perish miserably 
 in this place." And I threw myself down upon my face on the raft, 
 by reason of the narrowness of the channel, whilst the stream 
 ceased not to carry me along, knowing not night from day, for the 
 excess of the gloom which encompassed me about and my terror 
 and concern for myself lest I should perish. And in such condition 
 my course continued down the channel which now grew wider and 
 then straiter till, sore aweary by reason of the darkness which could 
 be felt, I fell asleep, as I lay prone on the raft, and I slept knowing not 
 whether the time were long or short. When I awoke at last, I found 
 myself in the light of Heaven and opening my eyes I saw myself 
 in a broad of the stream and the raft moored to an island in the 
 midst of a number of Indians and Abyssinians. As soon as these 
 blackamoors ^ saw that I was awake, they came up to me and 
 bespoke me in their speech ; but I understood not what they said 
 
 ^ These lines occur in modified form in Night xi. 
 
 '■* These underground rivers (which Dr. Livingstone derided) are familiar to 
 every geographer from Spenser's "Mole" to the Poika of Adelberg and the 
 Timavo near Trieste. Hence " Peter Wilkins " borrowed his cavern which led 
 him to Grandevolet. I have some experience of Sindbad's sorrows, having once 
 attempted to descend the Poika on foot. The Classics had the Alpheus (Pliny 
 v. 31 ; and Seneca, Nat. Qua;, vi.), and the Tigris-Euphrates supposed to flow 
 underground ; and the Medisevals knew the Abana of Damascus and the Zenderiid 
 of Isfahan. 
 
 ^ Abyssinians can hardly be called "blackamoors," but the arrogance of the 
 white skin shows itself in Easterns {e.g. Turks and Brahmans) as much as, if not 
 more than, among Europeans. Southern India at the time it was explored by 
 Vasco da Gama was crowded with Abyssinian slaves imported by the Arabs.
 
 The Sixth Voyage of Sindbad the Seamaii. 1 1 
 
 and thought that this was a dream and a vision which had betided 
 me for stress of concern and chagrin. Yet was I dehghted at my 
 escape from the river. When they saw I understood them not and 
 made them no answer, one of them came forward and said to me 
 in Arabic, "Peace be with thee, O my brother ! Who art thou and 
 whence faredst thou hither ? How earnest thou into this river and 
 what manner of land Hes behind yonder mountains, for never knew 
 we anyone make his way thence to us ? " Quoth I, " And upon 
 thee be peace and the ruth of Allah and his blessing ! Who are ye 
 and what country is this ? " " O my brother," answered he, " we are 
 husbandmen and tillers of the soil, who came out to water our fields 
 and plantations ; and, finding thee asleep on this raft, laid hold of 
 it and made it fast by us, against thou shouldst av/ake at thy leisure. 
 So tell us how thou camest hither ! " I answered, " For Allah's sake, 
 O my lord, ere I speak give me somewhat to eat, for I am starving, 
 and after ask me what thou wilt." So he hastened to fetch me food 
 and I ate my fill, till I was refreshed and my fear was calmed and 
 my life returned to me. Then I rendered thanks to the Most High 
 for mercies great and small, glad to be out of the river and rejoicing 
 to be amongst them, and I told them all my adventures from first to 
 
 last, especially my troubles in the narrow channel. And Shahrazad 
 
 perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 i^oto b)]bcn It fcons tijc jfibc |Dunl3rctf antr ^{.xtn-scconti iltgljt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the 
 Seaman continued : — When I landed and found myself amongst 
 the Indians and Abyssinians and had taken some rest, they con- 
 sulted among themselves and said to one another, "There is no 
 help for it but we carry him with us and present him to our 
 King, that he may acquaint him with his adventures." So they took 
 me, together with the raft-boat and its lading of monies and mer- 
 chandise, jewels, minerals and golden gear, and brought me to 
 their King, who was King of Sarandib,' telling him what had 
 
 1 "Sarandib" and "Ceylon" (the Taprobane of Ptolemy and Diodorus 
 Siculus) derive from the Pali " Sihalam" not the Sansk. " Sinhala " shortened to 
 Silam and 11am in old Tanuil. Van der Tunk would find it in the Malay " Pulo 
 Selam "= Isle of Gems (the Ratna-dwipa or Jewel-Isle of the Hindus and the 
 Jazirat al-Yakut or Ruby Island of the Arabs ; and the learned Colonel Yule 
 (Marco Polo, ii. 296) remarks that we have adopted many Malayan names, e.g. 
 Pegu, China and Japan. Sarandib is clearly " Selan-dwipa," which Mandeville 
 reduced to " Silha."
 
 12 Alf Laylah wa Layiah. 
 
 happened ; whereupon he saluted me and bade me welcome. Then 
 he questioned me of my condition and adventures through the man 
 who had spoken Arabic and I repeated to him my story from 
 beginning to end, whereat he marvelled exceedingly and gave me 
 joy of my deliverance ; after which I arose and fetched from the 
 raft great store of precious ores and jewels and ambergris and 
 lign-aloes and presented them to the King, who accepted them and 
 entreated me with the utmost honour, appointing me a lodging in 
 his own palace. So I consorted with the chief of the islanders, and 
 they paid me the utmost respect ; and I quitted not the royal 
 palace. Now the island Sarandib lieth under the equinoctial line, 
 its night and day both numbering twelve hours. It measureth eighty 
 leagues long by a breadth of thirty and its width is bounded by a 
 lofty mountain^ and a deep valley. The mountain is conspicious 
 from a distance of three days and it containeth many kinds of rubies 
 and other minerals, and spice-trees of all sorts. The surface is 
 covered with emery wherewith gems are cut and fashioned ; 
 diamonds are in its rivers and pearls are in its valleys. I ascended 
 that mountain and solaced myself with a view of its marvels which 
 are indescribable and afterwards I returned to the King.^ There- 
 upon, all the travellers and merchants who came to the place 
 questioned me of the affairs of my native land and of the Caliph 
 Harun al-Rashid and his rule, and I told them of him and of that 
 wherefor he was renowned, and they praised him because of this ; 
 whilst I in turn questioned them of the manners and customs of 
 their own countries and got the knowledge I desired. One day, the 
 King himself asked me of the fashions and form of government of 
 my own country, and I acquainted him with the circumstance of the 
 Caliph's sway in the city of Baghdad and the justice of his rule. 
 The King marvelled at my account of his appointments and said, 
 " By Allah, the Caliph's ordinances are indeed wise and his fashions 
 of praiseworthy guise and thou hast made me love him by what 
 thou tellest me ; wherefore I have a mind to make him a present 
 and send it by thee." Quoth I, " Hearkening and obedience, O 
 my lord ; I will bear thy gift to him and inform him that thou art 
 his sincere lover and true friend." Then I abode with the King in 
 great honour and regard and consideration for a long while till, one 
 day, as I sat in his palace, I heard news of a company of merchants 
 
 ^ This is the well-known Adam's Peak, the Jabal al-Ramun of the Arabs where 
 Adam fell when cast out of Eden in the lowest or lunar sphere. Eve fell at 
 Jeddah (a modern myth) and the unhappy pair met at Mount Arafat {i.e. recogni- 
 tion) near Meccah. (Pilgrimage iii. 259). 
 
 ^ He is the Alcinous of our Arabian Odyssey.
 
 The Sixth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman. 13 
 
 that were fitting out a ship for Bassorah, and said to myself, " I 
 cannot do better than voyage with these men." So I rose without 
 stay or delay and kissed the King's hand and acquainted him with 
 my longing to set out with the merchants, for that I pined after my 
 people and mine own land. Quoth he, " Thou art thine own 
 master ; yet, if it be thy will to abide with us, on our head and eyes 
 be it, for thou gladdenest us with thy company." " By Allah, O 
 my lord," answered I, " thou hast indeed overwhelmed me with thy 
 favours and well-doings ; but I weary for a sight of my friends and 
 family and native country." When he heard this, he summoned the 
 merchants in question and commended me to their care, paying my 
 freight and passage-money. Then he bestowed on me great riches 
 from his treasuries and charged me with a magnificent present for the 
 Caliph Harun al-Rashid. Moreover he gave me a sealed letter, saying, 
 " Carry this with thine own hand to the Commander of the Faithful 
 and give him many salutations from us ! " " Hearing and obedience," 
 I replied. The missive was written on the skin of the Khawi^ (which 
 is finer than lamb-parchment and of yellow colour), with ink of ultra- 
 marine and the contents were as follows. "Peace be with thee from 
 the King of Al-Hind, before whom are a thousand elephants and 
 upon whose palace-crenelles are a thousand jewels. But after (laud 
 to the Lord and praises to his Prophet !) : we send thee a trifling 
 gift which be thou pleased to accept. Thou art to us a brother and 
 a sincere friend ; and great is the love we bear for thee in heart : 
 favour us therefore with a reply. The gift besetteth not thy dignity : 
 but we beg of thee, O our brother, graciously to accept it, and peace 
 be with thee." And the present was a cuj) of ruby a span high - 
 the inside of which was adorned with precious pearls ; and a bed 
 covered with the skin of the serpent which swalloweth the elephant, 
 which skin hath spots each like a dinar and whoever sitteth upon 
 it never sickeneth ; ^ and an hundred thousand miskals of Indian 
 lign-aloes and a slave-girl like a shining moon. Then I took leave 
 of him and of all my intimates and acquaintances in the island and 
 
 ' This word is not in the dictionaries; Hole (p. 192) anil Lane understand it 
 to mean the hog-deer ; but why, one cannot imagine. The animal is neither 
 *' beautiful " nor " uncommon," and most Bombayites of my day have shot dozens 
 in the Shikargahs of Sind. 
 
 - M. Polo speaks of a ruby in Seilan (Ceylon) a palm long and three fingers 
 thick : William of Tyre mentions a ruby weighing twelve Egyptian drams 
 (Gibbon ii. 123), and Mandeville makes the King of Mammera wear about his 
 neck a " rubye orient " one foot long by five fingers large. 
 
 The fable is from Al-Kazwini and Ibn Al-Wardi, who place the serpent (an 
 animal sacred to yEsculapius, Pliny, xxix. 4) " in the sea of Zanj " (/.f. 
 Zanzibar). In the " Garrow hills " of N. Eastern Bengal the skin of the 
 snake Burrawar (?) is held to cure pain (Asiat. Res. vol. iii.).
 
 14 Alf Laylah wa Lay la h. 
 
 embarked with the merchants aforesaid. We sailed with a fair wind, 
 committing ourselves to the care of Allah (be He extolled and 
 exalted !) and by His permission arrived at Bassorah, where I passed 
 a few days and nights equipping myself and packing up my bales. 
 Then I went on to Baghdad-city, the House of Peace, where I 
 sought an audience of the Caliph and laid the King's presents before 
 him. He asked me whence they came and I said to him, " By 
 Allah, O Commander of the Faithful, I know not the name of the 
 city nor the way thither ! " He then asked me, " O Sindbad, is this 
 true which the King writeth?" and I answered, after kissing the 
 ground, " O my lord, I saw in his kingdom much more than he hath 
 written in his letter. For state processions a throne is set for him 
 upon a huge elephant, eleven cubits high : and upon this he sitteth 
 having his great lords and officers and guests standing in two ranks, 
 on his right hand and on his left. At his head is a man bending in 
 hand a golden javelin and behind him another with a great mace of 
 gold whose head is an emerald^ a span long and as thick as a man's 
 thumb. And when he mounteth horse there mount with him a 
 thousand horsemen clad in gold brocade and silk ; and as the King 
 proceedeth a man precedeth him, crying. This is the King of great 
 dignity, of high authority ! And he continueth to repeat his praises 
 in words I remember not, saying at the end of his panegyric. This is 
 the King owning the crown whose like nor Solomon nor the Mihraj ^ 
 ever possessed. Then he is silent and one behind him proclaimeth, 
 saying, He will die ! Again I say he will die ! and the other addeth, 
 Extolled be the perfection of the Living who dieth not ! ^ More- 
 over by reason of his justice and ordinance and intelligence, there is 
 no Kazi in his city, and all his lieges distinguish between Truth and 
 Falsehood." Quoth the Caliph, " How great is this King ! His 
 letter hath shown me this ; and as for the mightiness of his dominion 
 thou hast told us what thou hast eye-witnessed. By Allah, he hath 
 been endowed with wisdom as wuth wide rule." Then I related to 
 the Commander of the Faithful all that had befallen me in my last 
 
 1 For " Emerald," Hole (p. 177) would read emery or adamantine spar. 
 
 ■■* Evidently Maharaj = Great Rajah, Rajah in Chief, an Hindu title common 
 to the three potentates before alluded to, the Narsinga, Balhara and Samiry. 
 
 ^ This is probably classical. So the page said to Philip of Macedon every 
 morning, "Remember, Philip, thou art mortal;" also the slave in the Roman 
 Triumph, 
 
 Respice post te : hominem te esse memento ! 
 
 And the dying Severus, " Urnlet, soon shalt thou enclose what hardly a whole 
 world could contain." But the custom may also have been Indian : the contrast 
 of external pomp with the real vanity of human life suggests itself to all.
 
 The Seventh Voyage of SiJidbad the Seaman. 1 5 
 
 Voyage ; at which he wondered exceedingly and bade his historians 
 record my story and store it up in his treasuries, for the edification 
 of all who might see it. Then he conferred on me exceeding great 
 favours, and I repaired to my quarter and entered my home, where 
 I warehoused all my goods and possessions. Presently, my friends 
 came to me and I distributed presents among my family and gave 
 alms and largesse; after which I yielded myself to joyance and 
 enjoyment, mirth and merry-making, and forgot all that I had 
 suffered. Such, then, O brothers, is the history of what befel me 
 in my sixth Voyage, and to-morrow, Inshallah ! I will tell you the 
 story of my seventh and last Voyage, which is still more wondrous 
 and marvellous than that of the first six. (Saith he who telleth the 
 tale) Then he bade lay the table, and the company supped with him : 
 after which he gave the Porter an hundred dinars, as of wont, and 
 they all went their ways, marvelling beyond measure at that which 
 
 they had heard. And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of 
 
 day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 Noto Inljcn it tons t!jc jpibt |L^untJrctf nnti SM'."ttri=tfjttti Nig!)t, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Sindbad 
 the Seaman had related the history of what befel him in his sixth 
 Voyage, and all the company had dispersed, Sindbad the Landsman 
 went home and slept as of wont. Next day he arose and prayed the 
 dawn-prayer and repaired to his namesake's house where, after the 
 company was all assembled, the host began to relate the 
 
 SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINDBAD THE SEAMAN. 
 
 Know, O company, that after my return from my sixth Voyage, 
 which brought me abundant profit, I resumed my former life in all 
 possible joyance and enjoyment and mirth and making merry day 
 and night ; and I tarried some time in this solace and satisfaction 
 till my soul began once more to long to sail the seas and see foreign 
 countries and company with merchants and hear new things. So 
 having made up my mind, I packed up in bales a quantity of precious 
 stuffs suited for sea-trade and repaired with them from Baghdad-city 
 to Bassorah-town, where I found a ship ready for sea, and in her a 
 company of considerable merchants. I shipped with them and be- 
 coming friends, we set forth on our venture, in health and safety ;
 
 1 6 Alf Lay la h wa Laylah. 
 
 and sailed with a fair gale, till we came to a city called Madinat al- 
 Sin ; but after we had left it, as we fared on in all cheer and confi- 
 dence, devising of traffic and travel, behold, there sprang up a violent 
 head-wind and a tempest of rain fell on us and drenched us and our 
 goods. So we covered the bales with our cloaks and garments and 
 drugget and canvas lest they be spoiled by rain, and betook ourselves 
 to prayer and supplication to Almighty Allah and humbled ourselves 
 before Him for deliverance from the peril that was upon us. But 
 the captain arose and tightening his girdle tucked up his skirts and, 
 after taking refuge with Allah from Satan the Stoned, clomb to the 
 mast-head, whence he looked out right and left and gazing at the 
 passengers and crew fell to buffeting his face and plucking out his 
 beard. So we cried to him, "O Rais, what is the matter?" and 
 he replied saying, " Seek ye deliverance of the Most High from the 
 strait into which we have fallen and bemoan yourselves and take 
 leave of one another ; for know that the wind hath gotten the mastery 
 of us and hath driven us into the uttermost of the seas of the 
 world." Then he came down from the mast-head and, opening his 
 sea-chest, pulled out a bag of blue cotton, from which he took a 
 powder like ashes. This he set in [a saucer wetted with a httle 
 water and, after waiting a short time, smelt and tasted it ; and then 
 he took out of the chest a booklet, wherein he read awhile and said 
 weeping, " Know, O ye passengers, that in this book is a marvellous 
 matter, denoting that whoever cometh hither shall surely die, without 
 hope of escape ; for that this ocean is called the Sea of the Clime of 
 the King, wherein is the sepulchre of our lord Solomon, son of 
 David (on both be peace !) and therein are serpents of vast bulk and 
 fearsome aspect ; and what ship soever cometh to these climes there 
 riseth to her a great fish ^ out of the sea and swalloweth her up with 
 all and everything on board her." Hearing these words from the 
 captain great was our wonder, but hardly had he made an end of 
 speaking, when the ship was lifted out of the water and let fall again 
 and we applied to praying the death-prayer ^ and committing our 
 souls to Allah. Presently we heard a terrible great cry like the 
 loud-pealing thunder, whereat we were terror-struck and became as 
 dead men, giving ourselves up for lost. Then behold, there came 
 up to us a' huge fish, as big as a tall mountain, at whose sight we 
 became wild with affright and, weeping sore, made ready for death, 
 marvelling at its vast size and gruesome semblance ; when lo ! a 
 
 ^ Arab. " Hut " ; a term applied to Jonah's whale and to monsters of the deep, 
 " Samak" being the common fishes. 
 - Usually a two-bow prayer.
 
 The Seventh Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman, 1 7 
 
 second fish made its appearance than which we had seen naught 
 more monstrous. So we bemoaned ourselves of our lives and fare- 
 welled one another ; but suddenly up came a third fish bigger than 
 the two first ; whereupon we lost the power of thought and reason 
 and were stupefied for the excess of our fear and horror. Then the 
 three fish began circling round about the ship and the third and 
 biggest opened his mouth to swallow it, and we looked into its mouth 
 and behold, it was wider than the gate of a city and its throat was 
 like a long valley. So we besought the Almighty and called for 
 succour upon His Apostle (on whom be blessing and peace !), when 
 suddenly a violent squall of wind arose and smote the ship, which 
 rose out of the water and settled upon a great reef, the haunt of sea- 
 monsters, where it broke up and fell asunder into planks, and all and 
 everything on board were plunged into the sea. As for me, I tore 
 off all my clothes but my gown and swam a little way, till I hap- 
 pened upon one of the ship's planks whereto I clung and bestrode 
 it like a horse, whilst the winds and the waters sported with me and 
 the waves carried me up and cast me down ; and I was in most 
 piteous plight for fear and distress and hunger and thirst. Then I 
 reproached myself for what I had done and my soul was weary after 
 a life of ease and comfort : and I said to myself, " O Sindbad, O 
 Seaman, thou repentest not and still thou art ever suffering hardships 
 and travails ; yet wilt thou not renounce sea-travel ; or, if thou say 
 'I renounce,' thou liest in thy renouncement. Endure then with 
 patience that which thou sufferest, for verily thou deservest all that 
 
 betideth thee ! " And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and 
 
 ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 i^oti) luf)cn it luas t^c Jpt'bc llluntircti anti ^i.xtij-fouitlj iligDt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the 
 Seaman continued : — But when I had bestridden the plank, quoth I 
 to myself, " Thou deservest all that betideth thee ! The whole of this 
 is decreed to me of Allah (whose name be exalted !), to turn me from 
 my greed of gain, whence ariseth all that I endure, for I have wealth 
 enough." Then I returned to my senses and said, " In very sooth, 
 this time I repent to the Most High, with a sincere repentance, of 
 my greed for gain and venture ; and never will I again name travel 
 with tongue or in thought." And I ceased not to humble myself 
 before Almighty Allah and weep and bewail myself, recalling my 
 former estate of solace and satisfaction and mirth and merriment 
 and joyance ; and thus I abode two days, at the end of which time 
 
 VOL. IV. B
 
 1 8 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 I came to a great island abounding in trees and streams. There I 
 landed and ate of the fruits of the island and drank of its waters, 
 till I was refreshed and my life returned to me and my strength and 
 spirits were restored and I recited : — 
 
 Oft when thy case shows knotty and tangled skein, « Fate downs from Heaven 
 
 and straightens every ply : 
 In patience keep thy soul till clear thy lot * For He who ties the knot can eke 
 
 untie. 
 
 Then I walked about, till I found on the further side a great river 
 of sweet water, running with a strong current ; whereupon I called 
 to mind the boat-raft I had made aforetime, and said to myself, 
 " Needs must I make another ; haply I may free me from this strait. 
 If I escape, I have my desire and I vow to Allah Almighty to for- 
 swear travel ; and if I perish I shall be at peace and shall rest from 
 toil and moil." So I rose up and gathered together great store of 
 pieces of wood from the trees (which were all of the finest sanders- 
 wood, whose like is nowhere, albeit I knew it not), and made shift to 
 twist creepers and tree-twigs into a kind of rope, with which I bound 
 the billets together and so contrived a raft. Then saying, " If I be 
 saved, 'tis of God's grace," I embarked thereon and committed 
 myself to the current, and it bore me on for the first day and the 
 second and the third after leaving the island ; whilst I lay upon the 
 raft, eating not, and drinking when I was athirst, of the water of 
 the river, till I was weak and giddy as a chicken, for stress of fatigue 
 and famine and fear. At the end of this time I came to a high 
 mountain, whereunder ran the river; which when I saw, I feared 
 for my hfe by reason of the straitness I had suffered in my former 
 journey, and I would fain have stayed the raft and landed on the 
 mountain-side ; but the current overpowered me and drew it into 
 the subterranean passage like an archway ; whereupon I gave myself 
 up for lost and said, " There is no Majesty and there is no Might 
 save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great ! " However, after a litde, 
 the raft glided into open air and I saw before me a wide valley, 
 whereinto the river fell with a noise like the rolling of thunder and 
 a swiftness as the rushing of the wind. I held on to the raft, for 
 fear of falling off it, whilst the waves tossed me right and left ; and 
 the craft continued to descend with the current nor could I avail to 
 stay it or turn it shorewards, till it stopped with me at a great and 
 goodly city, grandly built and containing much people. And when 
 the townsfolk saw me on the raft, dropping down with the current, 
 they threw me out ropes which I had not strength enough to hold ; 
 then they tossed a net over the craft and drew it ashore with me,
 
 The Seventh Voyage of Siiidbad the Seafnan. 19 
 
 whereupon I fell to the ground amidst them, as I were a dead man, 
 for stress of fear and hunger and lack of sleep. After a while, 
 there came up to me out of the crowd an old man of reverend 
 aspect, well stricken in years, who welcomed me and threw over me 
 abundance of handsome clothes, with which I covered my limbs. 
 Then he carried me to the Hammam-bath and brought me cordial 
 sherbets and dehcious perfumes ; moreover, when I came out, he 
 bore me to his house, where his people made much of me and, 
 seating me in a pleasant place, set rich food before me, whereof I 
 ate my fill and returned thanks to God the Most High for my 
 deliverance. Thereupon his pages fetched me hot water, and I 
 washed my hands, and his handmaids brought me silken napkins, 
 with which I dried them and wiped my mouth. Also the Shaykh set 
 apart for me an apartment in a part of his house and charged his 
 pages and slave-girls to wait upon me and do my will and supply 
 my wants. They were assiduous in my service, and I abode with 
 him in the guest-chamber three days, taking my ease of good eating 
 and good drinking and good scents till life returned to me and my 
 terrors subsided and my heart was calmed and my mind was eased. 
 On the fourth day the Shaykh, my host, came in to me and said, 
 " Thou cheerest us with thy company, O my son, and praised be 
 Allah for thy safety ! Say : wilt thou now come down with me to 
 the beach and the bazar and sell thy goods and take their price ? 
 Belike thou mayst buy thee wherewithal to traffic. I have ordered 
 my servants to remove thy stock-in-trade from the sea and they 
 have piled it on the shore." I was silent awhile and said to myself, 
 " AVhat mean these words and what goods have I ?" Then said he, 
 " O my son, be not troubled nor careful, but come with me to the 
 market and if any offer for thy goods what price contcnteth thee, 
 take it ; but, an thou be not satisfied, I will lay them up for thee 
 in my warehouse against a fitting occasion for sale." So I bethought 
 me of my case and said to myself, " Do his bidding and see what 
 are these goods !" and I said to him, " O my uncle the Shaykh, I 
 hear and I obey; I may not gainsay thee in aught, for Allah's 
 blessing is on all thou dost." Accordingly he guided me to the 
 market-street, where I found that he had taken in pieces the raft 
 which carried me and which was of sandal-wood and I heard the 
 
 broker crying it for sale. And Shahrazad was surprised by the 
 
 dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
 
 20 
 
 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 i^ofo hjfien It teas tl^e Jibe l^unlftcH anti ^i.xtn-fift^ i^ig^t, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the 
 Seaman thus resumed his tale : — I found that the Shaykh had taken 
 to pieces my raft which lay on the beach and the broker was crying 
 the sandal-wood for sale. Then the merchants came and opened the 
 gate of bidding for the wood and bid against one another till its 
 price reached a thousand dinars, when they left bidding and my host 
 said to me, " Hear, O my son, this is the current price of thy goods 
 in hard times like these : wilt thou sell them for this or shall I lay 
 them up for thee in my storehouses till such time as prices rise ?" 
 "O my lord," answered I, "the business is in thy hands: do as 
 thou wilt." Then asked he, " Wilt thou sell the wood to me, O my 
 son, for an hundred gold pieces over and above what the merchants 
 have bidden for it?" and I answered, " Yes : I have sold it to thee 
 for monies received."' So he bade his servants transport the wood 
 to his storehouses and, carrying me back to his house, seated me 
 and counted out to me the purchase money ; after which he laid it 
 in bags and setting them in a privy place, locked them up with an 
 iron padlock and gave me its key. Some days after this, the Shaykh 
 said to me, " O my son, I have somewhat to propose to thee, 
 wherein I trust thou wilt do my bidding." Quoth I, " What is it ?" 
 Quoth he, " I am a very old man and have no son ; but I have a 
 daughter who is young in years and fair of favour and endowed with 
 abounding wealth and winsomeness. Now I have a mind to marry 
 her to thee, that thou mayst abide with her in this our country, and I 
 will make thee master of all I have in hand for I am an old man 
 and thou shalt stand in my stead." I was silent for shame and made 
 him no answer, whereupon he continued, " Do my desire in this, O 
 my son, for I wish but thy weal ; and if thou wilt but do as I say, 
 thou shalt wed her at once and be as my son ; and all that is under 
 my hand or that cometh to me shall be thine. If thou have a mind 
 to traffic and travel to thy native land, none shall hinder thee, and 
 thy property will be at thy sole disposal ; so do as thou wilt." " By 
 Allah, O my uncle," replied I, " thou art become to me even as my 
 father, and I am a stranger and have undergone many hardships : 
 while for stress of that which I have suffered naught of judgment or 
 knowledge is left to me. It is for theCj therefore, to decide what I 
 shall do." Hereupon he sent his servants for the Kazi and the 
 witnesses and married me to his daughter, making for us a noble 
 
 ^ This is the recognised formula of Moslem sales.
 
 The Seventh Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman. 21 
 
 marriage-feast^ and high festival. When I saw her, I found her 
 perfect in beauty and lovehness and symmetry and grace, clad in 
 rich raiment and covered with a profusion of ornaments and neck- 
 laces and other trinkets of gold and silver and precious stones, 
 worth a mint of money, a price none could pay. She pleased me 
 and we loved each other ; and I abode with her in all solace and 
 delight of life, till her father was taken to the mercy of Allah 
 Almighty. So we shrouded him and buried him, and I laid hands 
 on the whole of his property and all his servants and slaves became 
 mine. Moreover, the merchants installed me in his office, for 
 he was their Shaykh and their Chief; and none of them pur- 
 chased aught except with his knowledge and by his leave. And now 
 his rank passed on to me. When I became acquainted with the 
 townsfolk, I found that at the beginning of each month they 
 were transformed, in that their faces changed and they became 
 like unto birds and they put forth wings wherewith they flew 
 unto the upper regions of the firmament and none remained in 
 the city save the women and children ; and I said in my mind, 
 "When the first of the month cometh, I will ask one of them to 
 carry me with them whither they go." So when the time came and 
 their complexion changed and their forms altered, I went in to one 
 of the townsfolk and said to him, "Allah upon thee! carry me with 
 thee, that I might divert myself with the rest and return with you." 
 "This may not be," answered he; but I ceased not to solicit him 
 and I importuned him till he consented. Then I went out in his 
 company, without telling any of my family - or servants or friends, 
 and he took me on his back and flew up with me so high in air, that 
 I heard the angels glorifying God in the heavenly dome, whereat I 
 wondered and exclaimed, " Praised be Allah ! Extolled be the per- 
 fection of Allah ! " Hardly had I made an end of pronouncing the 
 Tasbfh — praised be Allah ! — when there came out a fire from heaven 
 and all but consumed the company ; whereupon they fled from it 
 and descended with curses upon me and, casting me down on a high 
 mountain, went away, exceeding wroth with me, and left me there 
 alone. As I found myself in this plight, I repented of what I had 
 done and reproached myself for having undertaken that for which I 
 was unable, saying, " There is no Majesty and there is no Might 
 
 ^ Arab. " Walimah"; like our wedding-breakfast but a much more ceremonious 
 and important afTair. 
 
 ^ i.e. his wifc (euphemistically.) I remember an Italian lady being much hurt 
 when a Maltese said to her " Mia moglie — con rispetto parlando " (my wife, 
 saving your presence). "What," she cried, "he speaks of his wife as he would 
 of the sweepings ! "
 
 2 2 A If Lay la h wa Lay I ah. 
 
 save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great ! No sooner am I delivered 
 from one affliction than I fall into a worse." And I continued in 
 this case knowing not whither I should go, when lo ! there came up 
 two young men, as they were moons, each using as a staff a rod of 
 red gold. So I approached them and saluted them ; and when they 
 returned my salam, I said to them, " Allah upon you twain ; who are 
 ye and what are ye ? " Quoth they, " We are of the servants of the 
 Most High Allah, abiding in this mountain ; " and, giving me a rod 
 of red gold they had with them, went their ways and left me. I 
 walked on along the mountain-ridge staying my steps with the staff 
 and pondering the case of the two youths, when behold, a serpent 
 came forth from under the mountain, with a man in her ^ jaws, whom 
 she had swallowed even to below his waist, and he was crying out 
 and saying, " Whoever delivereth me, Allah will deliver him from all 
 adversity ! " So I went up to the serpent and smote her on the head 
 with the golden staff, whereupon she cast the man forth of her 
 
 mouth. And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased 
 
 to say her permitted say. 
 
 Woto fef)cn it tons tj^c jfibe l^imtfrctr anU ^{.xtg^sfxtj^ ^NTi's^t, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the 
 Seaman thus continued : — When I smote the serpent on the head 
 with my golden staff she cast the man forth of her mouth. Then I 
 smote her a second time, and she turned and fled ; whereupon he 
 came up to me and said, " Since my deliverance from yonder ser- 
 pent hath been at thy hands I will never leave thee, and thou shalt 
 be my comrade on this mountain." " And welcome," answered I ; 
 so we fared on along the mountain, till we fell in with a company of 
 folk, and I looked and saw amongst them the very man who had 
 carried me and cast me down there. I went up to him and spake 
 him fair, excusing myself to him and saying, " O my comrade, it is 
 not thus that friend should deal with friend." Quoth he, " It was 
 thou who well-nigh destroyed us by thy Tasbih and thy glorifying 
 God on my back." Quoth I, " Pardon me, for I had no knowledge 
 of this matter ; but, if thou wilt take me with thee, I swear not to say 
 a word." So he relented and consented to carry me with him, but 
 he made an express condition that, so long as I abode on his back, 
 I should abstain from pronouncing the Tasbih or otherwise glorifying 
 
 ^ The serpent in Arabic is mostly feminine.
 
 The Seventh Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman. 23 
 
 God. Then I gave the wand of gold to him whom I had deHvered 
 from the serpent and bade him farewell, and my friend took me on 
 his back and flew with me as before, till he brought me to the city 
 and set me down in my own house. My wife came to meet me and 
 saluting me gave me joy of my safety and then said, " Beware of 
 going forth hereafter with yonder folk, neither consort with them, for 
 they are brethren of the devils, and know not how to mention the 
 name of Allah Almighty ; neither worship they Him." " And how 
 did thy father with them ? " asked I ; and she answered, " My father 
 was not of them, neither did he as they ; and as now he is dead me- 
 thinks thou hadst better sell all we have and with the price buy 
 merchandise and journey to thine own country and people, and I 
 with thee ; for I care not to tarry in this city, my father and my 
 mother being dead. So I sold all the Shaykh's property piecemeal, 
 and looked for one who should be journeying thence to Bassorah 
 that I might join myself to him. And while thus doing I heard of 
 a company of townsfolk who had a mind to make the voyage, but 
 could not find them a craft ; so they bought wood and built them a 
 great ship wherein I took passage with them, and paid them all the 
 hire. Then we embarked, I and my wife, with all our moveables, 
 leaving our houses and domains and so forth, and set sail, and ceased 
 not sailing from island to island and from sea to sea, with a fair 
 wind and a favouring, till we arrived at Bassorah safe and sound. 
 I made no stay there, but freighted another vessel and, transferring 
 my goods to her, set out forthright for Baghdad-city, where I arrived 
 in safety, and entering my quarter and repairing to my house, fore- 
 gathered with my family and friends and familiars and laid up my 
 goods in my warehouses. When my people who, reckoning the 
 period of my absence on this my seventh Voyage, had found it to 
 be seven-and-twenty years, and had given up all hope of me, heard 
 of my return, they came to welcome me and to give me joy of my 
 safety ; and I related to them all that had befallen me ; whereat 
 they marvelled with exceeding marvel. Then I forswore travel and 
 vowed to Allah the Most High I would venture no more by land or 
 sea, for that this seventh and last Voyage had surfeited me of travel 
 and adventure ; and I thanked the Lord (be He praised and glori- 
 fied !), and blessed Him for having restored me to my kith and kin 
 and country and home. " Consider, therefore, O Sindbad, O Lands- 
 man," continued Sindbad the Seaman, "what sufferings I have 
 undergone and what perils and hardships I have endured before 
 coming to my present state." •* Allah upon thee, O my Lord ! " 
 answered Sindbad the Landsman, " pardon me the wrong I did
 
 24 -A^f Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 thee." ^ And they ceased not from friendship and fellowship, 
 abiding in all cheer and pleasures and solace of life, till there came 
 to them the Destroyer of delights and the Sunderer of societies, 
 and the Shatterer of palaces and the Caterer for cemeteries, to wit, 
 the Cup of Death, and glory be to the Living One who dieth 
 not ! " 2 
 
 ^ i.e. in envying his wealth, with the risk of the evil eye. 
 
 " I subjoin a translation of the Seventh Voyage from the Calc. Edit, of the two 
 hundred Nights (1814-1818) which differs in essential points from the above. 
 All respecting Sindbad the Seaman has an especial interest. In one point this 
 world-famous tale is badly ordered. The most exciting adventures are the earliest 
 and the falling off of the interest has a somewhat depressing effect. The Rukh, 
 the Ogre and the Old Man o' the Sea should come last.
 
 NOTE. 
 
 THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINDBAD THE SEAMAN 
 {According to the Calcutta Edition).
 
 Sindbad the Seaman and Sindbad the Lands fiian. 27 
 
 THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OE SINDBAD THE SEAMAN 
 
 (According to the Calcutta Edition). 
 
 Know, O my brothers and friends and companions all, that 
 when I left voyaging and commercing, I said in myself, " Sufificeth 
 me that hath befallen me ; " and I spent my time in solace and 
 pleasure. One day as I sat at home there came a knock at the door, 
 and when the porter opened, a page entered and said, " The Caliph 
 biddeth thee to him." I went with him to the King's majesty and 
 kissed ground and saluted him ; whereupon he welcomed me and 
 entreated me with honour and said, " O Sindbad, I have an occasion 
 for thee: wilt thou do it?" So I kissed his hand and asked him, 
 saying, " O my lord, what occasion hath the master for the slave ?" 
 whereto he answered me, " I am minded that thou travel to the 
 King of Sarandib and carry to him our writ and our gift, for that he 
 hath sent to us a present and a letter. I trembled at these words 
 and rejoined, " By Allah the Omnipotent, O my lord, I have taken 
 a loathing to wayfare, and when I hear the words 'Voyage ' or 
 'Travel,' my limbs tremble for what hath befallen me of hardships 
 and horrors. Indeed I have no desire whatever for this ; more by 
 token as I have bound myself by oath not to quit Baghdad." Then 
 I informed the Caliph of all I had passed through from first to last, 
 and he marvelled with exceeding marvel and said, " By the 
 Almighty, O Sindbad, from ages of old such mishaps as happened to 
 thee were never known to happen to any, and thou dost only right 
 never even to talk of travel. For our sake, however, thou wilt go 
 this time and carry our present and our letter to him of Sarandib ; 
 and Inshallah — by God's leave ! — thou slialt return (quickly ; and on 
 this wise we shall be under no obligation to the said King." I 
 replied that I heard and obeyed, being unable to oppose his 
 command ; so he gave me the gifts and the missive with money to 
 pay my way and I kissed hands and left the presence. Then I 
 dropped down from Baghdad to the Gulf, and with other merchants 
 embarked, and our ship sailed before a fair wind many days and 
 nights till, by Allah's aid, we reached the island of Sarandib. As 
 soon as we had made fast we landed and I took the present and the 
 letter ; and, going in with them to the King, kissed ground before 
 him. When he saw me, he said, " Well come, O Sindbad ! By 
 Allah Omnipotent we were longing to see thee, and glory be to God 
 who hath again shown us thy face !" Then taking me by the hand 
 he made me sit by his side, rejoicing, and ho welcomed me with
 
 28 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 familiar kindness again and entreated me as a friend. After this he 
 began to converse with me and courteously addressed me and 
 asked, " What was the cause of thy coming to us, O Sindbad ?" So 
 after kissing his hand and thanking him I answered, " O my lord, I 
 have brought thee a present from my master, the Caliph Harun Al- 
 Rashid ;" and offered him the gift and the letter which he read and 
 at which he rejoiced with passing joy. The present consisted of a 
 mare worth ten thousand ducats, bearing a golden saddle set with 
 jewels ; a book ; a sumptuous suit of clothes and an hundred 
 different kinds of white Cairene cloths and silks of Suez,^ Cufa and 
 Alexandria ; Greek carpets and an hundred maunds" weight of linen 
 and raw silk. Moreover there was a wondrous rarity, a marvellous 
 cup of crystal middlemost of which was the figure of a Hon faced by 
 a kneeling man grasping a bow with arrow drawn to the very head, 
 together with the food-tray^ of Sulayman the son of David (on whom 
 be peace !). The missive ran as follows : — Peace from King Al- 
 Rashid, the aided of Allah (who hath vouchsafed to him and his 
 forefathers noble rank and wide-spread glory), be on the fortunate 
 Sultan ! But after. Thy letter came to our hands and we rejoiced 
 thereat ; and we have sent the book entituled " Delight of the 
 Intelligent and for Friends the Rare Present,"'^ together with sundry 
 curiosities suitable for Kings ; so do thou favour us by accepting 
 them : and peace be with thee ! Then the King lavished upon me 
 much wealth and entreated me with all honour ; so I prayed for him 
 and thanked him for his munificence. Some days after I craved his 
 leave to depart, but could not obtain it except by great pressing, 
 whereupon I bade him farewell and fared forth from his city, with 
 merchants and other companions, homewards-bound without any 
 desire for travel or trade. We continued voyaging and coasting along 
 many islands ; but, when we were half-way, we were surrounded by a 
 number of canoes, wherein were men like devils armed with bows 
 and arrows, swords and daggers ; and habited in mail-coats and other 
 armoury. They fell upon us and wounded and slew all who opposed 
 them ; then, having captured the ship and her contents, carried us 
 to an island, where they sold us at the meanest price. Now I was 
 
 ^ Arab. Al-Suways : this successor of ancient Arsinoe was, according to local 
 tradition, founded by a Santon from Al-Sus in Marocco who called it after his 
 name "Little Siis" (the wormlet). 
 
 - Arab. " Mann," a weight varying from two to six pounds : even this common 
 term is not found in the tables of Lane's Mod. Egyptians, Appendix B. The 
 " Maund" is a well-known Anglo-Indian weight. 
 
 ■' This article is not mentioned elsewhere in The Nights. It is supposed to 
 have been found by the Saracen conquerors at Toledo, and is mentioned by Al- 
 Mas'udi and other credible historians. 
 
 * Apparently a fancy title.
 
 Sindbad the Seaman a?id Sifidi>ad the Landsman. 29 
 
 bought by a wealthy man who, taking me to his house, gave me 
 meat and drink and clothing and treated me in the friendliest 
 manner ; so I was heartened and rested a little. One day he asked 
 me, "Dost thou know any art or craft?" and I answered him, "O 
 my lord, I am a merchant, and know nothing but trade and traffic." 
 "Dost thou know," rejoined he, "how to use bow and arrow?" 
 "Yes," replied I, " I know that much." Thereupon he brought me 
 a bow and arrows and iiiounted me behind him upon an elephant : 
 then he set out as night was well nigh over and, passing through a 
 forest of huge growths, came to a tall and sturdy tree up which he 
 made me climb. Then he gave me the bow and arrows, saying, 
 " Sit here now, and when the elephants troop hither in early morning, 
 shoot at them ; belike thou wilt hit one ; and, if he fall, come and 
 tell me." With this he left me. I hid myself in the tree being in 
 sore terror and trembled till the sun arose ; and, when the elephants 
 appeared and wandered about among the trees, I shot my arrows at 
 them and continued till I had shot down one of them. In the 
 evening I reported my success to my master who was delighted in me 
 and entreated me with high honour ; and next morning he removed 
 the slain elephant. On this wise I continued, every morning shooting 
 an elephant which my master would remove till, one day, as I was 
 perched in hiding on the tree there came on suddenly and unex- 
 pectedly an innumerable host of elephants whose screaming and 
 trumpeting were such that I imagined the earth trembled under 
 them. All surrounded my tree, whose circumference was some fifty 
 cubits,^ and one enormous monster came up to it and winding his 
 trunk round the bole haled it up by the roots, and dashed it to the 
 ground. I fell down fainting amongst the beasts when the monster 
 elephant wound his trunk about me and, setting me on his back, 
 went off with me, the others accompanying us. He carried me still 
 unconscious till he reached the place for which he was making, 
 when he rolled me off his back and presently went his ways followed 
 by the others. So I rested a little ; and, when my terror had sub- 
 sided, I looked about me and I found myself among the bones of 
 elephants, whereby I concluded that this was their burial-place, and 
 that the monster elephant had led me thither on account of the 
 tusks.2 So I arose and walked a whole day and night till I arrived 
 
 ' The island is evidently Ceylon, long famed for elephants, and the tree is the 
 well-known " T.anyan " (Ficus Indica). According to Linschoten and \Volf, the 
 elephants of all lands do reverence and honour to those of Ceylon. 
 
 '^ " Tusks " not "teeth" which are not valued. As Hole remarks, the 
 elephants of Pliny and Sindbad are equally conscious of the value of ivory. 
 Pliny (viii. 3) quotes Herodotus about the buying of ivories and relates how 
 elephants, when hunted, break their " cornua " (asjuba called them) against
 
 30 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 at the house of my master, who saw my colour changed by stress of 
 affright and famine. He rejoiced in my return and said to me, " By 
 Allah, thou hast made my heart sore ! I went when thou wast missing 
 and found the tree torn up, and thought that the elephants had slain 
 thee. Tell me how it was with thee." I acquainted him with all 
 that had betided me ; whereat he wondered greatly, and rejoiced 
 and at last asked me, " Dost thou know the place ? " whereto I 
 answered, " Yes, O my master ! " So we mounted an elephant and 
 fared until we came to the spot ; and, when my master beheld the 
 heaps of tusks, he rejoiced greatly ; then carrying away as many as 
 he wanted he returned with me home. After this, he entreated me 
 with increased favour and said, "O my son, thou hast shown us the 
 way to great gain, wherefore Allah requite thee ! Thou art freed 
 for the Almighty's sake and before His face ! The elephants used 
 to destroy many of us on account of our hunting them for their 
 ivories and scrivellos ; but Allah hath preserved thee from them, 
 and thou hast profited us by the heaps to which thou hast led us." 
 " O my master," replied I, " God free thy neck from the fire ! And 
 do thou grant me, O my master, thy gracious leave to return to my 
 own country." "Yes," quoth he, "thou shalt have that permis- 
 sion. But we have a yearly fair, when merchants come to us from 
 various quarters to buy up these ivories. The time is drawing 
 near; and when they shall have done their business, I will send 
 thee under their charge and will give thee wherewithal to reach 
 thy home." So I blessed. and thanked him and remained with 
 him, treated with respect and honour, for some days, when the 
 merchants came as he had foretold, and bought and sold and 
 bartered ; and when they had made their preparations to return, 
 my master came to me and said, "Rise and get thee ready to 
 travel with the traders en route to thy country." They had bought 
 a number of tusks which they had bound together in loads and were 
 embarking them when my master sent me with them, paying for my 
 passage and settling all my debts ; besides which he gave me a large 
 present in goods. We set out and voyaged from island to island till 
 we had crossed the sea and landed on the shores of the Persian 
 Gulf, when the merchants brought out and sold their stores : I also 
 sold what I had at a high profit ; and I bought some of the prettiest 
 things in the place for presents and beautiful rarities and everything 
 
 tree-trunk by way of ransom. ^Elian, Plutarch, and Philostratus speak of the 
 linguistic intelligence and religious worship of the "half-reason with the hand," 
 which the Hindus term " Hathi " = unimanus. Finally, Topsell's Gesner (p. 
 152) makes elephants bury their tusks, "which commonly drop out every tenth 
 year." In Arabian literature the elephant is always connected with India.
 
 The City of Brass. 31 
 
 else I wanted. I likewise bought for myself a beast and we fared 
 forth and crossed the deserts from country to country till I reached 
 Baghdad. Here I went in to the Caliph and, after saluting him and 
 kissing hands, informed him of all that had befallen me 3 whereupon 
 he rejoiced in my safety and thanked Almighty Allah ; and he bade 
 my story be written in letters of gold. I then entered my house and 
 met my family and brethren ; and such is the history that happened 
 to me during my seven Voyages. Praise be to Allah, the One, the 
 
 Creator, the Maker of all things in Heaven and Earth ! Now 
 
 when Shahrazad had ended her story of the two Sindbads, Dinarzad 
 exclaimed, " O my sister, how pleasant is thy tale and how taste- 
 ful ! How sweet and how grateful!" She rephed, "And what 
 is this compared with that I could tell thee to-morrow night?" 
 Quoth the King, " What may it be ? " And she said : — It is a 
 tale touching 
 
 THE CITY OF BRASS) 
 
 It is related that there was, in tide of yore and in times and years 
 long gone before, at Damascus of Syria, a Caliph known as Abd 
 al-Malik bin Marwan, the fifth of the Ommiade house. As this 
 Commander of the Faithful was seated one day in his palace, con- 
 versing with his Sultans and Kings and the Grandees of his empire, 
 the talk turned upon the legends of past peoples and the traditions 
 of our Lord Solomon, David's son (on the twain be peace !), and on 
 that which Allah Almighty had bestowed on him of lordship and 
 dominion over men and Jinn and birds and beasts and reptiles and 
 the Wind and other created things ; and quoth the Caliph, " Of a 
 truth we hear from those who forewent us that the Lord (extolled 
 and exalted be He !) vouchsafed unto none the like of that which 
 He vouchsafed unto our lord Solomon and that he attained unto 
 that whereto never attained other than he, in that he was wont to 
 imprison Jinns and ]\Lirids and Satans in cucurbites of copper and 
 
 to stop them with lead and seaP them with his ring." And 
 
 Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her 
 permitted say. 
 
 ' This is a true " City of Erass " (Nuhas asfar = yellow copper), as we learn 
 in Night dcclxxii. It is situate in the "Maghrib" (Mauritania), the region of 
 magic and mystery ; and the idea was prol)al)ly suggested by the grand Roman 
 ruins which rise abruptly from what has become a sandy waste. Compare with 
 this tale "The City of Brass' (Night cclxxii.). In Egypt Nuhas is vulg. pro- 
 nounced Nihas. 
 
 2 The Bresl. Edit, adds that the seal-ring was of stamped stone and iron, copper 
 and lead. I have borrowed copiously from its vol. vi. pp. 343, et seq.
 
 32 Alf Laylah tva Laylah. 
 
 Koto tof)cix it feas tibt Jpibc f^unliretr anti ^ixtp=stbtnt]^ Niglbt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 CaHph Abd al-MaUk bin Marwan sat conversing with his Grandees 
 concerning our lord Solomon, and these noted what Allah had 
 bestowed upon him of lordship and dominion, quoth the Com- 
 mander of the Faithful, " Indeed he attaineth unto that whereto 
 never attained other than he, in that he was wont to imprison Jinns 
 and Marids and Satans in cucurbites of copper and stop them with 
 lead and seal them with his ring." Then said Talib bin Sahl (who 
 was a seeker after treasures and had books that discovered to him 
 hoards and wealth hidden under the earth), " O Commander of the 
 Faithful, — Allah make thy dominion to endure and exalt thy dignity 
 here and hereafter ! — my father told me of my grandfather, that he 
 once took ship with a company, intending for the island of Sikiliyah 
 or Sicily, and sailed until there arose against them a contrary wind, 
 which drove them from their course and brought them, after a 
 month, to a great mountain in one of the lands of Allah the Most I 
 High, but where that land was they wot not. Quoth my grand- | 
 father : — This was in the darkness of the night and as soon as it was 
 day, there came forth to us, from the caves of the mountain, folk i 
 black of colour and nude of body, as they were wild beasts, undc 
 standing not one word of what was addressed to them ; nor was ther 
 any of them who knew Arabic, save their King who was of their 
 own kind. When he saw the ship, he came down to it with a 
 company of his followers and saluting us, bade us welcome and 
 questioned us of our case and our faith. We told him all concern- 
 ing ourselves and he said, Be of good cheer for no harm shall befal 
 you. And when we, in turn, asked them of their faith, we founc 
 that each was of one of the many creeds prevailing before tht 
 preaching of Al-Islam and the mission of Mohammed, whom may 
 Allah bless and keep ! So my shipmates remarked, We wot not 
 what thou sayest. Then quoth the King, No Adam-son hath ever 
 come to our land before you : but fear not and rejoice in the assu- 
 rance of safety and of return to your own country. Then he enter- 
 tained us three days, feeding us on the flesh of birds and wild beasts 
 and fishes, than which they had no other meat ; and, on the fourth 
 day, he carried us down lo the beach, that we might divert ourselves 
 by looking upon the fisher-folk. There we saw a man casting his 
 nets to catch fish, and presently he pulled them up and behold, in 
 them was a cucurbite of copper, stopped with lead and sealed with 
 the signet of Solomon, son of David, on whom be peace ! He
 
 The City of Brass. 33 
 
 brought the vessel to land and broke it open, when there came forth 
 a smoke, which rose a-twisting blue to the zenith, and we heard a 
 horrible voice saying, I repent ! I repent ! Pardon, O Prophet of 
 Allah ! I will never return to that which I did aforetime. Then the 
 smoke became a terrible Giant frightful of form, whose head was 
 level with the mountain tops, and he vanished from our sight, whilst 
 our hearts were well nigh torn out for terror ; but the blacks thought 
 nothing of it. Then we returned to the King and questioned him 
 of the matter ; whereupon quoth he. Know that this was one of the 
 Jinns whom Solomon, son of David, being wroth with them, shut up 
 in these vessels and cast into the sea, after stopping the mouths with 
 melted lead. Our fishermen ofttimes, in casting their nets, bring 
 up such bottles, which being broken open, there come forth of them 
 Jinnis who, deeming that Solomon is still alive and can pardon 
 them, make their submission to him and say, I repent, O Prophet of 
 Allah ! " The Caliph marvelled at Talib's story and said, " Glory 
 be to God ! Verily, unto Solomon was given a mighty dominion." 
 Now Al-Nabighat al-Zubyani ^ was present, and he said, " Talib hath 
 spoken soothly as is proven by the saying of the All-wise, the 
 Primaeval One : — 
 
 nd Solomon, when Allah to him said, * ' Rise, be thou Caliph, rule with 
 
 righteous sway. 
 Dnour obedience for obeying thee ; * And who rebels imprison him for 
 
 aye.' 
 
 Wherefore he used to put them into copper-bottles and cast them 
 into the sea." The poet's words seemed good to the Caliph, and 
 he said, " By Allah, I long to look upon some of these Solomonic 
 vessels, which must be a warning to whoever will be warned." " O 
 ^ommander of the Faithful," replied Talib, " it is in thy power to do 
 ,0, without stirring abroad. Send to thy brother Abd al-Aziz bin 
 iVlarwan, so he may write to Miisa bin Nusayr,* Governor of the 
 Maghrib or Marocco, bidding him take horse thence to the moun- 
 tains whereof I spoke and fetch thee therefrom as many of such 
 cucurbites as thou hast a mind to ; for those mountains adjoin the 
 frontiers of his province." The Caliph approved his counsel and 
 said, " Thou hast spoken sooth, O Talib, and I desire that, touching 
 this matter, thou be my messenger to Musa bin Nusayr ; wherefore 
 
 ^ As this was a well-known prc-Islamitic bard, his appearance here is decidedly 
 anachronistic, probably by intention. 
 
 ■ The first IMoslem conqueror of Spain whose lieutenant, Tarik, the gallant and 
 unfortunate, named Gibraltar (Jalal al-Tarik). 
 
 VOL. IV. C
 
 34 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 thou shalt have the White Flag ^ and all thou hast a mind to of 
 monies and honour and so forth ; and I will care for thy family 
 during thine absence." "With love and gladness, O Commander 
 of the Faithful ! " answered Talib. " Go, with the blessing of Allah 
 and His aid," quoth the Caliph, and bade write a letter to his 
 brother, Abd al-Aziz, his viceroy in Egypt, and another to Musa bin 
 Nusayr, his viceroy in North-Western Africa, bidding him go himself 
 in quest of the Solomonic bottles, leaving his son to govern in his 
 stead. Moreover, he charged him to engage guides and to spare 
 neither men nor money, nor to be remiss in the matter as he would 
 take no excuse. Then he sealed the two letters and committed 
 them to Talib bin Sahl, bidding him advance the royal ensigns 
 before him and make his utmost speed ; and he gave him treasure 
 and horsemen and footmen, to further him on his way, and made 
 provision for the wants of his household during his absence. So 
 Talib set out and arrived in due course at Cairo.^— — And Shah- 
 razad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted 
 say. 
 
 Noto toJjcn It foas tbt Jpibt ^unUwti anti ^i.xtg-n'gf)t5 :tCia!)t, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Talib bin 
 Sahl set out with his escort and crossed the desert country between 
 Syria and Egypt, where the Governor came out to meet him and 
 entreated him and his company with high honour whilst they tarried 
 with him. Then he gave them a guide to conduct them to the Sa'id 
 or Upper Egypt, where the Emir Musa had his abiding-place; and 
 when the son of Nusayr heard of Talib's coming, he went forth to 
 meet him and rejoiced in him. Talib gave him the Caliph's letter, 
 and he took it reverently and, laying it on his head, cried, " I hear 
 and I obey the Prince of the Faithful." Then he deemed it best to 
 assemble his chief officers and when all were present he acquainted 
 them with the contents of the Caliph's writ and sought counsel of 
 them how he should act. " O Emir," answered they, " if thou seek 
 one who shall guide thee to the place, summon the Shaykh 'Abd al- 
 
 ^ The colours of the Banu Umayyah (Ommiade) Caliphs were white ; of the 
 Banii Abbas (Abbasides) black, and of the Fatimites green. Carrying the royal 
 flag denoted the generalissimo or plenipotentiary. 
 
 * i.e. Old Cairo, or Fustat : the present Cairo was then a Coptic village 
 founded on an old Egyptian settlement called Lui-Tkeshroma, to which belonged 
 the tanks on the hill and the great well, Bir Yusuf, absurdly attributed, even in 
 this day, to Joseph the Patriarch.
 
 The City of Brass. 35 
 
 Samad ibn 'Abd al-Kuddus al-Samiidi ■} for he is a man of varied 
 knowledge, wlio hath travelled much and knoweth by experience all 
 the seas and wastes and wolds and countries of the world and the 
 inhabitants and wonders thereof; wherefore send thou for him and 
 he will surely guide thee to thy desire." So Musa sent for him, and 
 behold, he was a very ancient man stricken in years and broken 
 down with lapse of days. The Emir saluted him and said, " O 
 Shaykh Abd al-Samad, our lord the Commander of the Faithful, 
 Abd al-Malik bin Marwan, hath commanded me thus and thus. I 
 have small knowledge of the land wherein is that which the Caliph 
 desireth ; but it is told me that thou knowest it well and the ways 
 thither. Wilt thou, therefore, go with me and help me to accomplish 
 the Caliph's need? So it please Allah the Most High, thy trouble 
 and travail shall not go waste." Replied the Shaykh, " I hear and I 
 obey the bidding of the Commander of the Faithful ; but know, O 
 Emir, that the road thither is long and difficult and the ways few." 
 " How far is it ? " asked Musa, and the Shaykli answered, " It is a 
 journey of two years and some months going and the like returning ; 
 and the way is full of hardships and terrors and things wondrous 
 and marvellous. Now thou art a champion of the Faith^ and our 
 country is hard by that of the enemy ; and peradventure the 
 Nazarenes may come out upon us in thine absence ; wherefore it 
 behoveth thee to leave one to rule thy government in thy stead." 
 " It is well," answered the Emir and appointed his son Hariin 
 Governor during his absence, requiring the troops to take the oath 
 of fealty to him and bidding them obey him in all he should com- 
 mand. And they heard his word and promised obedience. Now 
 this Harun was a man of great prowess and a renowned warrior and 
 a doughty knight, and the Shaykh Abd al-Samad feigned to him that 
 the place they sought was distant but four months' journey along the 
 shore of the sea, with camping-places all the way, adjoining one 
 another, and grass and springs, adding, " Allah will assuredly make 
 the matter easy to us through thy blessing, O Lieutenant of the 
 Commander of the Faithful ! " Quoth the Emir Musa, " Knowest 
 thou if any of the Kings have trodden this land before us ? " and 
 quoth the Shaykh, " Yes, it belonged aforetime to Darius the Greek, 
 
 ' I cannot but suspect that this is a clerical error for " Al-Samanhudi," a 
 native of Samanhi'id (Wilkinson's " Semenootl,'') in the Delta on the Damietta 
 branch, the old Scbenn) tus (in Coptic Jem-nuti — Jem the God, a town which 
 has produced many distinguished men in Moslem times. But there is also a 
 Samhud lying a few miles down stream from Denderah and, as its mounds prove, 
 it is an ancient site. 
 
 '' ^gypt had not then been conquered from the Christians.
 
 36 Alf Laylah wa LaylaJi. 
 
 King of Alexandria." But he said to Musa privily, " O Emir, take 
 with thee a thousand camels laden with victual and store of gugglets."^ 
 The Emir asked, " And what shall we do with these ? " and the Shaykh 
 answered, " On our way is the desert of Kayrawan or Cyrene, the 
 which is a vast wold four days' journey long, and lacketh water ; nor 
 therein doth sound of voice ever sound nor is soul at any time to be 
 seen. Moreover, there bloweth the Simoon^ and other hot winds called 
 Al-Juwayb, which dry up the water-skins ; but if the water be in 
 gugglets, no harm can come to it." " Right," said Musa, and sending 
 to Alexandria, let bring thence great plenty of gugglets. Then he 
 took with him his Wazir and two thousand cavalry, clad in mail 
 cap-k-pie and set out, without other to guide them but Abd al-Samad 
 who went before them, riding on his hackney. The party fared on 
 diligently, now passing through inhabited lands, then ruins and anon 
 traversing frightful wolds and thirsty wastes and then mountains 
 which spired high in air ; nor did they leave journeying a whole 
 year's space till, one morning, when the day broke, after they had 
 travelled all night, behold, the Shaykh found himself in a land he 
 knew not and said, " There is no Majesty and there is no Might save 
 in Allah, the Glorious, the Great ! " Quoth the Emir, " What is to 
 do, O Shaykh ? " and he answered, saying, " By the Lord of the 
 Ka'abah, we have wandered from our road ! " " How cometh that ?" 
 asked Musa, and Abd al-Samad rephed, "The stars were over- 
 clouded and I could not guide myself by them." " Where on God's 
 earth are we now? " enquired the Emir, and the Shaykh replied, " I 
 know not ; for I never set eyes on this land till this moment." 
 Said Musa, " Guide us back to the place where we went astray ; " 
 but the other, "I know it no more." Then Musa, "Let us push 
 on ; haply Allah will guide us to it or direct us aright of His power." 
 So they rode on till the hour of noon-prayer, when they came to a 
 fair champaign, and wide and level and smooth as it were the sea 
 when calm, and presently there appeared to them, on the horizon, 
 some great thing, high and black, in whose midst was what seemed to 
 be smoke rising to the confines of the sky. They made for this, and 
 stayed not in their course till they drew near thereto, when lo ! it 
 was a high castle, firm of foundations and great and gruesome, as it 
 were a towering mountain, builded all of black stone, with frowning 
 crenelles and a door of gleaming China steel, that dazzled the eyes 
 and dazed the wits. Round about it were a thousand steps and 
 
 ^ Arab. " Kizan fukka'a," i.e. thin and slightly porous earthenware jars used 
 for Fukka'a, a fermented drink, made of barley or raisins. 
 
 * I retain this venerable blunder : the right form is Samiim (from Samm, poison, 
 venom), = the poison-wind.
 
 The City of Brass. 37 
 
 that which appeared afar off likest to smoke was a central dome of 
 lead an hundred cubits high. When the Emir saw this, he mar- 
 velled thereat with exceeding marvel and how this place was void of 
 inhabitants ; and the Shaykh, after he had certified himself thereof, 
 said, " There is no god but the God, and Mohammed is the Apostle 
 of God ! " Quoth Musa, " I hear thee praise the Lord and hallow 
 Him, and meseemeth thou rejoicest." " O Emir," answered Abd 
 al-Samad, " rejoice, for Allah (extolled and exalted be He !) hath 
 delivered us from the frightful wolds and thirsty wastes." " How 
 knowest thou that ? " said Musa ; and the other, " I know it for that 
 my father told me of my grandfather that he said : — We were once 
 journeying in this land ; and, straying from the road, we came to this 
 palace and thence to the City of Brass ; between which and the 
 place thou seekest is two full months' travel ; but thou must take to 
 the sea-shore and leave it not, for there be watering-places and wells 
 and camping-grounds established by King Zu al-Karnayn Iskandar 
 who, when he went to the conquest of Mauritania, found by the way 
 thirsty deserts and wastes and wilds and dug therein water-pits and 
 built cisterns." Quoth Musa, " Allah rejoice thee with good news ! " 
 and quoth the Shaykh, " Come let us go look upon yonder palace 
 and its marvels, for it is an admonition to whoever will be ad- 
 monished." So the Emir went up to the palace, with the Shaykh 
 and his officers, and coming to the gate, found it open. Now this 
 gate was builded with lofty columns and porticoes whose walls and 
 ceilings were inlaid with gold and silver and precious stones ; and 
 there led up to it flights of steps, among which were two wide stairs 
 of coloured marble, never was seen their like ; and over the door- 
 way was a tablet whereon were graven letters of gold in the ancient 
 Ionian character. "O Emir," asked the Shaykh, "shall I read?" 
 and Musa answered, " Read and God bless thee ! for all that 
 betideth us in this journey dependeth upon thy blessing." So the 
 Shaykh, who was a very learned man and versed in all tongues and 
 characters, went up to the tablet and read whatso was thereon and it 
 was verse like this : — 
 
 The signs that here their mighty works protray * Warn us that all must tread the 
 
 self-same way : 
 O thou who standest in this stead to hear * Tidings of folk, whose power hath 
 
 passed for aye, 
 Enter this palace-gate and ask the news « Of <;reatness fallen into dust and 
 
 clay : 
 Death has destroyed them and dispersed their might * And in the dust they 
 
 lost their rich dis[)lay ; 
 As had ihcy only set thoir burdens down * To rest awhile, and then had rode 
 
 away.
 
 38 A If Laylah wa Lay I ah. 
 
 When the Emir Musa heard these couplets, he wept till he lost his 
 senses and said, " There is no god but the God, the Living, the 
 Eternal, who ceaseth not ! " Then he entered the palace and was 
 confounded at its beauty and the goodliness of its construction. 
 He diverted himself awhile by viewing the pictures and images 
 therein, till he came to another door, over which also were written 
 verses, and said to the Shaykh, " Come, read me these ! " So he 
 advanced and read as follows : — • 
 
 Under these domes how many a company * Halted of old and fared withouten 
 
 stay : 
 See thou what might displays on other wights * Time with his shifts which could 
 
 such lords waylay : 
 They shared together what they gathered * And left their joys and fared to 
 
 Death -decay : 
 What joys they joyed ! what food they ate ! and now * In dust they're eaten, for 
 
 the worm a prey. 
 
 At this the Emir Musa wept bitter tears ; and the world waxed 
 yellow before his eyes and he said, "Verily, we were created for 
 a mighty matter ! " ^ Then they proceeded to explore the palace 
 and found it desert and void of living thing, its courts desolate and 
 dwelling-places waste laid. In the midst stood a lofty pavilion 
 with a dome rising high in air, and about it were four hundred 
 tombs, builded of yellow marble. The Emir drew near unto these 
 and behold, amongst them was a great tomb, wide and long ; and 
 at its head stood a tablet of white marble, whereon were graven 
 these couplets : — 
 
 How oft have I fought ! and how many have slain ! * How much have I witnessed 
 
 of blessing and bane ! 
 How much have I eaten ! how much have I drunk ! * How oft have I hearkened 
 
 to singing-girl's strain ! 
 How much have I bidden ! how oft have forbid ! * How many a castle and 
 
 castellain 
 I have 'sieged and have searched, and the cloistered maids * In the depths of its 
 
 walls for my captives were ta'en ! 
 But of ignorance sinned I to win me the meeds • Which won proved naught and 
 
 brought nothing of gain : 
 Then reckon thy reck'ning, O man, and be wise * Ere the goblet of death and of 
 
 doom thou shalt drain ; 
 For yet but a little the dust on thy head * They shall strew, and thy life shall go 
 
 down to the dead. 
 
 The Emir and his companions wept ; then, drawing near unto the 
 * i.e. for worship and to prepare for futurity.
 
 The City of Brass. 39 
 
 pavilion, they saw that it had eight doors of sandal-wood, studded 
 with nails of gold and stars of silver and inlaid with all manner 
 precious stones. On the first door were written these verses : — 
 
 What I left, I left it not for nobility of soul * But through sentence and decree 
 
 that to every man are dight. 
 What while I lived happy, with a temper haught and high, * My hoarding-place 
 
 defending like a lion in the fight, 
 I took no rest, and greed of gain forbad me give a grain * Of mustard-seed to 
 
 save from the fires of Hell my sprite. 
 Until stricken on a day, as with arrow, by decree * Of the Maker, the Fashioner, 
 
 the Lord of Might and Right. 
 When my death was appointed, my life I could _ not keep * By the many of my 
 
 stratagems, my cunning and my sleight : 
 My troops I had collected availed me not, and none * Of my friends and of my 
 
 neighbours had power to mend my plight : 
 Through my life I was wearied in journeying to death * In stress or in solace, in 
 
 joyance or despight : 
 So when money-bags are bloated, and dinar unto dinar * Thou addest, all may 
 
 leave thee with fleeting of the night ; 
 And the driver of a camel and the digger of a grave^ * Are what thine heirs shall 
 
 bring ere the morning dawneth bright : 
 And on Judgment Day alone shalt tlioii stand before thy Lord, * Overladen 
 
 with thy sins and thy crimes and thine affright : 
 Let the world not seduce thee with lurings, but behold * What measure to 
 
 thy family and neighbours it hath doled. 
 
 When Musa heard these verses, he wept with such weeping that 
 he swooned away ; then, coming to himself, he entered the pavilion 
 and saw therein a long tomb, awesome to look upon, whereon was 
 a tablet of China steel and Shaykh Abd al-Samad drew near it and 
 read this inscription : " In the name of Everlasting Allah, the 
 Never-beginning, the Never-ending ; in the name of Allah who 
 begetteth not nor is He begot and unto whom the like is not ; in 
 the name of Allah the Lord of Majesty and Might ; in the name of 
 
 the Living One who to death is never dight ! " And Shahrazad 
 
 was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted 
 say. 
 
 JlotD tuljcit It luas tijc jpi'bc ^Duntircti anK ^i.xtn--nintlj_^iligljt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Shaykh 
 Abd al-Samad, having read the aforesaid, also found the follow- 
 
 ' The camel carries the liadavvi's corpse to the cemetery which is often distant 
 hence to dream of a camel is an omen of death.
 
 40 A If Laylah wa Lay /ah. 
 
 ing : — O thou who comest to this place, take warning by that 
 which thou seest of the accidents of Time and the vicissitudes of 
 Fortune and be not deluded by the world and its pomps and vanities 
 and fallacies and falsehoods and vain allurements, for that it is 
 flattering, deceitful and treacherous, and the things thereof are but a 
 loan to us which it will borrow back from all borrowers. It is like 
 unto the dreams of the dreamer and the sleep-visions of the sleeper 
 or as the mirage of the desert, which the thirsty take for water -^ and 
 Satan maketh it fair for men even unto death. These are the ways 
 of the world; wherefore put not thou thy trust therein neither 
 incline thereto, for it bewrayeth him who leaneth upon it and who 
 committeth himself thereunto in his affairs. Fall not thou into its 
 snares neither take hold upon its skirts, but be warned by my 
 example. I possessed four thousand bay horses and a haughty 
 palace, and I had to wife a thousand daughters of kings, high- 
 bosomed maids, as they were moons : I was blessed with a thousand 
 sons as they were fierce lions, and I abode a thousand years, glad of 
 heart and mind, and I amassed treasures beyond the competence of 
 all the Kings of the regions of the earth, deeming that joyance 
 would still endure to me. But there fell on me unawares the 
 Destroyer of delights and the Sunderer of societies, the Desolator 
 of domiciles and the Spoiler of inhabited spots, the Murderer of 
 great and small, babes and children and mothers, he who hath no 
 ruth on the poor for his poverty, or feareth the King for all his bidding 
 or forbidding. Verily, we abode safe and secure in this palace, till 
 there descended upon us the judgment of the Lord of the Three Worlds, 
 Lord of the Heavens and Lord of the Earths : the vengeance of 
 the Manifest Truth^ overtook us, when there died of us every day 
 two, till a great company of us had perished. When I saw' that 
 destruction had entered our dwellings and had homed with us and 
 in the sea of deaths had drowned us, I summoned a writer and bade 
 him indite these verses and instances and admonitions, the which I 
 let grave, with rule and compass, on these doors and tablets and 
 tombs. Now I had an army of a thousand thousand bridles, men 
 of warrior mien with forearms strong and keen, armed with spears 
 and mail-coats sheen and swords that gleam ; so I bade them don 
 their long-hanging hauberks and gird on their biting blades and 
 
 ' Koran xxiv. 39. The word "Sarab" (mirage) is found in Isaiah (xxxv. 7) 
 where the passage should be rendered "And the mirage (sharab) shall become a 
 lake "(not, "and the parched ground shall become a poor'). The Hindus 
 prettily call it " Mrigatrishna" = the thirst of the deer. 
 
 ^ A name of Allah.
 
 The City of Brass. 41 
 
 mount their high-mettled steeds and level their dreadful lances ; and 
 when there fell on us the doom of the Lord of heaven and earth, I 
 said to them, " Ho, all ye soldiers and troopers, can ye avail to ward 
 off that which is fallen on me from the Omnipotent King?" But 
 troopers and soldiers availed not unto this and said, " How shall we 
 battle with Him to whom no chamberlain barreth access, the Lord 
 of the door which hath no doorkeeper ?" Then quoth I to them, 
 " Bring me my treasures." Now I had in my treasuries a thousand 
 cisterns in each of which were a thousand quintals' of red gold and 
 the like of white silver, besides pearls and jewels of all kinds and 
 other things of price, beyond the attainment of the kings of the 
 earth. So they did that and when they had laid all the treasure in 
 my presence, I said to them, " Can ye ransom me with all this 
 treasure or buy me one day of life therewith ?" But they could not ! 
 So they resigned themselves to fore-ordained Fate and Fortune and 
 I submitted to the judgment of Allah, enduring patiently that which 
 He decreed unto me of affliction, till He took my soul and made me 
 to dwell in my grave. And if thou ask of my name, I am Kush, 
 the son of Shaddad son of 'Ad the Greater. And upon the tablets 
 were engraved these lines : — 
 
 An thou wouklst learn my name, whose day is done * With shifts of time and 
 
 changes 'neath the sun, 
 Know I am Shaddad's son, who ruled mankind * And o'er all earth upheld 
 
 dominion ! 
 All stubborn peoples abject were to me ; * And Sham to Cairo and to Adnan- 
 
 wone ;'" 
 I reigned in glory conquering many kings ; * And peoples feared my mischief 
 
 every one. 
 Yea, tribes and armies in my hand I saw ; * The world all dreaded me, both 
 
 friends and fone, 
 \Vlien I took horse, I viewed my numbered troops, * Bridles on neighing steeds 
 
 a million. 
 And I had wealth that none could tell or count, * Against misfortune treasuring 
 
 all I won ; 
 Fain had I bought my life with all my wealth, * And for a moment's space my 
 
 death to shun ; 
 But God would naught save what His purpose willed : * So from my brethren cut 
 
 I 'bode alone : 
 And Death, that sunders man, exchanged my lot * To pauper hut from gran- 
 deur's mansion, 
 
 ^ Arab. " Kintar " = a hundredweight {i.e. 100 lbs.), about 9SI lbs. avoir. 
 Hence the French quintal s.nd its conveners (Littre). 
 
 - i.e. " from Sham (Syria) to (the land of) Adnan, ancestor of the Naturalized 
 Arabs that is, to Arabia.
 
 42 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 When found I all mine actions gone and past * Wherefor I'm pledged ^ and by 
 
 my sin undone. 
 Then fear O man, who by a brink dost range, * The shifts of Fortune and the 
 
 chance of Change. 
 
 The Emir Musa was hurt to his heart and loathed his hfe for what 
 he saw of the slaughtering-places of the folk ; and, as they went 
 about the highways and byeways of the palace, viewing its sitting- 
 chambers and pleasaunces, behold they came upon a table of yellow 
 onyx, upborne on four feet of juniper-wood, ^ and thereon these 
 words graven, — " At this table have eaten a thousand kings blind 
 of the right eye and a thousand blind of the left and yet other 
 thousand sound of both eyes, all of whom have departed the world 
 and have taken up their sojourn in the tombs and the catacombs." 
 All this the Emir wrote down and left the palace, carrying off with 
 him naught save the table aforesaid. Then he fared on with his 
 host three days' space, under the guidance of the Shaykh Abd 
 al-Samad, till they came to a high hill, whereon stood a horseman of 
 brass. In his hand he held a lance with a broad head; in brightness 
 like blinding leven, whereon was graven : — " O thou that comest unto 
 me, if thou know not the way to the City of Brass^ rub the hand of 
 this rider and he will turn round and presently stop. Then take the 
 direction whereto he faceth and fare fearless, for it will bring thee, 
 without hardship, to the city aforesaid." ^And Shahrazad per- 
 ceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 ]Srofo totfn it tuas tije jpibc l^untitclr anti ^cbentietlb Nigi^t, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 Emir Musa rubbed the horseman's hand he revolved like the dazzling 
 lightning, and stopped facing in a direction other than that wherein 
 they were journeying. So they took the road to that which he 
 pointed (which was the right way) and, finding it a beaten track, 
 pushed on through their days and nights till they had covered a wide 
 tract of country. Then they came upon a pillar of black stone like 
 a furnace-chimney wherein was one sunken up to his armpits. He 
 
 ^ Koran lii. 21. " Every man is given in pledge for that which he shall 
 have wrought." 
 
 ^ There is a constant clerical confusion in the texts between " Arar " (Juni- 
 perus Oxycedrus used by the Greeks for the images of their gods) and " Marmar " 
 marble or alabaster, in the Talmud "Marmora" = marble, evidently froin 
 fxapfiapo^ = brilliant, the brilliant stone.
 
 The City of Bi-ass. 43 
 
 had two great wings and four arms, two of them hke the arms of the 
 sons of Adam and other two as they were hon's paws, with claws of 
 iron, and he was black and tall and frightful of aspect, with hair 
 like horses' tails and eyes like blazing coals, slit upright in his face. 
 Moreover, he had in the middle of his forehead a third eye, as it 
 were that of a lynx, from which flew sparks of fire, and he cried out 
 saying, " Glory to my Lord, who hath adjudged unto me this grievous 
 torment and sore punishment until the Day of Doom ! " When the 
 folk saw him, they lost their reason for affright and turned to flee ; 
 so the Emii Musa asked the Shaykh Abd al-Samad, "What is this?" 
 and he answered, " I know not." Whereupon quoth Musa, " Draw 
 near and question him of his condition ; haply he will discover to 
 thee his case." " Allah preserve thee, Emir ! Indeed, I am afraid 
 of him ; " replied the Shaykh ; but the Emir rejoined, saying, " Fear 
 not ; he is hindered from thee and from all others by that wherein he 
 is." So Abd al-Samad drew near to the pillar and said to him which 
 was therein, " O creature, what is thy name and what art thou and 
 how earnest thou here in this fashion?" "I am an Ifrit of the 
 Jinn," replied he, by name Dahish, son of Al-A'amash,' and am 
 confined here by the All-might, prisoned here by the Providence and 
 punished by the judgment of Allah, until it please him, to whom 
 belong Might and Majesty, to release me." Then said Musa, " Ask 
 him why he is in durance of this column ? " So the Shaykh asked 
 him of this, and the Ifrit replied, saying : — Verily my tale is 
 wondrous and my case marvellous, and it is this. One of the 
 sons of Iblis had an idol of red carnelian, whereof I was guardian, 
 and there served it a King of the Kings of the sea, a Prince of 
 puissant power and i)row of prowess, over-ruling a thousand thousand 
 warriors of the Jann who smote with swords before him and answered 
 his summons in time of need. All these were under my command- 
 ment and obeyed my behest, being each and every rebels against 
 Solomon, son of David, on whom be peace ! And I used to enter 
 the body of the idol and thence bid and forbid them. Now this 
 King's daughter loved the idol and was frequent in prostration to it 
 and assiduous in its service ; and she was the fairest woman of her 
 day, accomplished in beauty and loveliness, elegance and grace. 
 She was described unto Solomon and he sent to her father, saying, 
 "Give me thy daughter to wife and break thine idol of carnelian and 
 testify saying, There is no god but the God and Solomon is tlic 
 Prophet of Allah ! an thou do this, our due shall be thy due and thy 
 
 ' These Ifritical names are chosen for (heir hizanrric. " Al- Dahish "= the 
 Amazed j and " Al-A"amash"— one wiih weak eyes always watering.
 
 44 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 debt shall be our debt ; but, if thou refuse, make ready to answer the 
 summons of the Lord and don thy grave-gear, for I will come upon 
 thee with an irresistible host, which shall fill the waste places of 
 earth and make thee as yesterday that is passed away and hath no 
 return for aye." When this message reached the King, he waxed 
 insolent and rebellious, pride-full and contumacious and he cried to 
 his Wazirs, " What say ye of this ? Know ye that Solomon son of 
 David hath sent requiring me to give him my daughter to wife, and 
 break my idol of carnelian and enter his faith ! " And they replied, 
 " O mighty King, how shall Solomon do thus with thee ? Even 
 could he come at thee in the midst of this vast ocean, he could not 
 prevail against thee, for the Marids of the Jann will fight on thy side 
 and thou wilt ask succour of thine idol whom thou servest, and he 
 will help thee and give thee victory over him. So thou wouldst do 
 well to consult on this matter thy Lord " (meaning the idol aforesaid) 
 " and hear what he saith. If he say, Fight him, fight him, and if 
 not, not." So the King went in without stay or delay to his idol 
 and offered up sacrifices and slaughtered victims ; after which he fell 
 down before him, prostrate and weeping, and repeated these 
 verses : — 
 
 " O my lord, well I weet thy puissant hand : * Sulayman would break thee and 
 
 see Ihee bann'd. 
 O my Lord, to crave succour here I stand * Command and I bow to thy high 
 
 commaud ! " 
 
 Then I (continued the Ifrit, addressing the Shaykh and those about 
 him), of my ignorance and want of wit and recklessness of the com- 
 mandment of Solomon and lack of knowledge anent his power, 
 entered the body of the idol and made answer as follows : — 
 
 "As for me, of him I feel naught affright; * For my lore and my wisdom are 
 
 infinite : 
 If he wish for warfare I'll show him war * And out of his body I'll tear his 
 
 sprite!" 
 
 When the King heard my boastful reply, he hardened his heart and 
 resolved to wage war upon the Prophet and to offer him battle ; 
 wherefore he beat the messenger with a grievous beating and returned 
 a foul answer to Solomon, threatening him and saying, " Of a truth, 
 thy soul hath suggested to thee a vain thing ; dost thou menace me 
 with mendacious words ? But gird thyself for battle ; for, an thou 
 come not to me, I will assuredly come to thee." So the messenger 
 returned to Solomon and told him all that had passed and what had 
 befallen him, which when the Prophet heard, he raged like Dooms-
 
 The City of Brass. 45 
 
 day and addressed himself to the fray and levied armies of men and 
 Jann and birds and reptiles. He commanded his Wazir Al-Dimir- 
 yat, King of the Jann, to gather together the Marids of the Jinn 
 from all parts, and he collected for him six hundred thousand 
 thousand of devils.^ Moreover, by his order, his Wazir Asaf bin 
 Barkhiya levied him an army of men, to the number of a thousand 
 thousand or more. These all he furnished with arms and armour, 
 and, mounting with his host upon his carpet, took flight through air, 
 while the beasts fared under him and the birds flew overhead, till he 
 lighted down on the island of the refractory King, and encompassed 
 
 it about, filling earth with his hosts. And Shahrazad was surprised 
 
 by the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 iSofo tolbcn It tons tljc jfibc il^untircU antr ^cfatnti.i--first iSigJbt, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Ifrit 
 continued : — So when Solomon the Prophet (with whom be peace !) 
 lighted down with his host on the island he sent to our King, saying, 
 '• Behold, I am come : defend thy life against that which is fallen upon 
 thee, or else make thy submission to me and confess my apostleship 
 and give me thy daughter to lawful wife and break thine idol, and wor- 
 ship the one God, the alone Worshipful ; and testify, thou and thine, 
 and say, There is no god but the God, and Solomon is the Apostle 
 of Allah ! * This if thou do, thou shalt have pardon and peace ; but 
 if not, it will avail thee nothing to fortify thyself in this island, for 
 Allah (extolled and exalted be He !) hath bidden the Wind obey 
 me ; so I will bid it bear lue to thee on my carpet and make thee a 
 warning and an example to deter others." But the King made 
 answer to his messenger, saying, " It may not on any wise be as he 
 requireth of me ; so tell him I come forth to him." With this reply 
 the messenger returned to Solomon, who thereupon gathered to- 
 gether all the Jinn that were under his hand, to the number of a 
 thousand thousand, and added to them other than they of Marids 
 and Satans from the islands of the sea and the tops of the mountains 
 and, drawing them up on parade, opened his armouries and dis- 
 
 * The Arabs have no word for million ; so Messer Marco Miglione could not 
 have learned it from them. On the other hand the Hindus have more quadrillions 
 than modern Europe. 
 
 * This formula, according to Moslems, would begin with the beginning " There 
 is no ilah but Allah and Adam is the Apostle (rasul = one sent, a messenger ; not 
 nabi = prophet) of Allah." And so on with Noah, Moses, David (not Solomon 
 as a rule) and Jesus to Mohammed.
 
 46 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 tributed to them arms and armour. Then the Prophet drew out his 
 host in battle array, dividing the beasts into two bodies, one on the 
 right wing of the men and the other on the left, and bidding them 
 tear the enemies' horses in sunder. Furthermore, he ordered the 
 birds which were in the island to hover over their heads and, whenas 
 the assault should be made, that they should swoop down and tear 
 out the eyes of the foe with their beaks and buffet their faces with their 
 wings ; and they answered, saying, " We hear and we obey Allah and 
 thee, O Prophet of Allah ! " Then Solomon seated himself on a 
 throne of alabaster, studded with precious stones and plated with 
 red gold ; and, commanding the wind to bear him aloft, set his 
 Wazir Asaf bin Barkhiya^ and the kings of mankind on his right 
 and his Wazir Al-Dim.iryat and the kings of the Jinn on his left, 
 arraying the beasts and vipers and serpents in the van. Thereupon 
 they all set on us together, and we gave them battle two days over a 
 vast plain ; but, on the third day, disaster befel us, and the judgment 
 of Allah the Most High was executed upon us. Now the first to 
 •charge upon them were I and my troops, and I said to my com- 
 panions, " Abide in your places, whilst I sally forth to them and 
 provoke Al-Dimiryat to combat singular." And behold, he came 
 fortli to the duello as he were a vast mountain, with his fires flaming 
 and his smoke spireing, and shot at me a falling star of fire ; but I 
 swerved from it and it missed me. Then I cast at him in my turn a 
 flame of fire, and it smote him ; but his shaft ^ overcame my fire and 
 he cried out at me so terrible a cry that meseemed the skies were 
 fallen flat upon me, and the mountains trembled at his voice. Then 
 he commanded his hosts to charge ; accordingly they rushed on us 
 and we rushed on them, each crying out upon other, and battle 
 reared its crest rising in volumes and smoke ascending in columns 
 and hearts well nigh cleaving. The birds and the flying Jinn fought 
 in the air and the beasts and men and the foot-faring Jann in the 
 dust ; and I fought with Al-Dimiryat, till I was aweary and he not less 
 so. At last, I grew weak and turned to flee from him, whereupon 
 my companions and tribesmen likewise took to flight and my hosts 
 were put to the rout, and Solomon cried out, saying, " Take yonder 
 furious tyrant, the accursed, the infamous ! " Then man fell upon 
 
 ' This son of Barachia has been noticed before. The text embroiders the 
 Koranic chapter No. xxvii. 
 
 - The Bresl. Edit. (vi. 371) reads " Samm-hu " = his poison, prob. a clerical 
 error for " Sahmhu '' = his shaft. It was a duel with the "Shihab"or falling 
 stars, the meteors which are popularly supposed, I have said, to be the arrows shot 
 by the angels against devils and evil spirits when they approach too near Heaven 
 in order to overhear divine secrets.
 
 The City of Brass. 47 
 
 man and Jinn upon Jinn and the armies of the Prophet charged 
 down upon us, with the wild beasts and Hons on their right hand 
 and on their left, rending our horses and tearing our men ; whilst the 
 birds hovered over-head in air pecking out our eyes with their claws 
 and beaks and beating our faces with their wings, and the serpents 
 struck us with their fangs, till the most of our folk lay prone upon 
 the face of the earth, like the trunks of date-trees. Thus defeat 
 befel our King and we became a spoil unto Solomon. As to me, I 
 fled from before Al-Dimiryat ; but he followed me three months' 
 journey, till I fell down for weariness and he overtook me, and 
 pouncing upon me, made me prisoner. Quoth I, " By the virtue of 
 Him who hath exalted thee and abased me, spare me and bring me 
 into the presence of Solomon, on whom be peace ! " So he carried 
 me before Solomon, who received me after the foulest fashion and 
 bade bring this pillar and hollow it out. Then he set me herein 
 and chained me and sealed me with his signet-ring, and Al-Dimiryat 
 bore me to this place wherein thou seest me. Moreover, he charged 
 a great angel to guard me, and this pillar is my prison until Judg- 
 ment-day. And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased 
 
 to say her permitted say. 
 
 Noh) toj^tn It tons tijc jpibc pjuntirct anti S'Cbcntij--sccontr XiQljt 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 Jinni who was prisoned in the pillar had told them his tale, from 
 first to last, the folk marvelled at his story and at the frightfulness 
 of his favour, and the Emir Musa said, " There is no God but the 
 God ! Soothly was Solomon gifted with a mighty dominion." Then 
 said the Shaykh Abd al-Samad to the Jinni, " Ho there ! I would 
 fain ask thee of a thing, whereof do thou inform us." "Ask what 
 thou wilt," answered the Ifrit Dahish, and the Shaykh said, " Are 
 there hereabouts any of the I frits imprisoned in bottles of brass 
 from the time of Solomon (on whom be peace !) ? " " Yes," replied 
 the Jinni ; "there be such in the sea of Al-Karkar,^ on the shores 
 whereof dwell a people of the lineage of Noah (on whom be peace !) 
 for their country was not reached by the Deluge and they are cut off 
 there from the other sons of Adam." Quoth Abd al-Samad, " And 
 which is the way to the City of Brass and the place wherein are the 
 cucurbites of Solomon, and what distance lieth between us and it ? " 
 
 ' A fancy sea from the Lat. "Career" {?).
 
 48 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 Quoth the Ifrit, " It is near at hand," and directed them in the way 
 thither. So they left him and fared forward till there appeared to 
 them afar off a great blackness and therein two fires facing each 
 other, and the Emir Musa asked the Shaykh, " What is yonder vast 
 blackness and its twin fires ? " and the guide answered, '' Rejoice O 
 Emir, for this is the City of Brass, as it is described in the Book of 
 Hidden Treasures which I have by me. Its walls are of black stone 
 and it hath two towers of Andalusian brass, ^ which appear to the 
 beholder in the distance as they were twin fires, and hence is it 
 named the City of Brass." Then they fared on without ceasing till 
 they drew near the city, and behold, it was as it were a piece of a 
 mountain or a mass of iron cast in a mould and impenetrable for 
 the height of its walls and bulwarks ; while nothing could be more 
 beautiful than its buildings and its ordmance. So they dismounted 
 and sought an entrance but espied none, neither found any trace of 
 opening in the walls, albeit there were five-and-twenty portals to the 
 city, but none of them was visible from without. Then quoth the 
 Emir, " O Shaykh, I see to this city no sign of any gate ; " and 
 quoth he, " O Emir, thus is it described in my Book of Hidden 
 Treasures ; it hath five-and-twenty portals ; but none thereof may 
 be opened save from within the city." Asked Musa, " And how 
 shall we do to enter the city and view its wonders ? " and Talib son 
 of Sahl, his Wazir, answered, " Allah preserve the Emir ! let us rest 
 here two or three days and, God willing, we will make shift to come 
 within the walls." Then said Musa to one of his men, " Mount 
 thy camel and ride round about the city, so haply thou may light 
 upon a gate or a place somewhat lower than this fronting us, or 
 Inshallah ! upon a breach whereby we can enter." Accordingly he 
 mounted his beast, taking water and victuals with him, and rode 
 round the city two days and two nights, without drawing rein to rest, 
 but found the wall thereof as it were one block, without breach or 
 way of ingress ; and on the third day, he came again in sight of his 
 companions, dazed and amazed at what he had seen of the extent 
 and loftiness of the place, and said, " O Emir, the easiest place of 
 access is this where you have alighted." Then Musa took Talib 
 and Abd al-Samad and ascended the highest hill which overlooked 
 the city. When they reached the top, they beheld beneath them a 
 city, never saw eyes a greater or a goodlier, with dwelling-places 
 and mansions of towering height, and palaces and pavilions and 
 domes gleaming gloriously bright, and sconces and bulwarks of 
 
 ^ Andalusian = Spanish, the Vandal-land, a term accepted by the Moslem 
 invader.
 
 The City of Brass. 49 
 
 strength infinite ; and its streams were a-flowing and flowers 
 a-blowing and fruits a-glowing. It was a city with gates impregnable ; 
 but void and still, without a voice or a cheering inhabitant. The 
 owl hooted in its quarters ; the bird skimmed circling over its 
 squares and the raven croaked in its great thoroughfares weeping 
 and bewailing the dwellers who erst made it their dwelling.^ The 
 Emir stood awhile, marvelling and sorrowing for the desolation of 
 the city and saying, " Glory to Him whom nor ages nor changes nor 
 times can blight, Him who created all things of His Might !" 
 Presently, he chanced to look aside and caught sight of seven 
 tablets of white marble afar off. So he drew near them and finding 
 inscriptions graven thereon, called the Shaykh and bade him read 
 these. Accordingly he came forward and, examining the inscriptions, 
 found that they contained matter of admonition and warning and 
 instances and restraint to those of understanding. On the first 
 tablet was inscribed, in the ancient Greek character, " O son of 
 Adam, how heedless art thou of that which is before thee ! Verily, 
 thy years and months and days have diverted thee therefrom. 
 Knowest thou not that the cup of death is filled for thy bane 
 which in a little while to the dregs thou shalt drain ? Look to thy 
 doom ere thou enter thy tomb. Where be the Kings who held 
 dominion over the lands and abased Allah's servants and built these 
 palaces and had armies under their commands? By Allah, the 
 Destroyer of delights and the Severer of societies and the 
 Devastator of dwelling-places came down upon them and trans- 
 ported them from the spaciousness of their palaces to the straitness 
 of their burial-places." And at the foot of the tablet were written 
 the following verses :— 
 
 Where are the Kings earth-peopling, where are they? * The built and peopled 
 
 left they e'er and aye ! 
 They're tombed yet pledged to actions past away * And after death upon them 
 
 came decay. 
 Where are their troops ? They failed to ward and guard ! * Where are the 
 
 wealth and hoards in treasuries lay ? 
 Th' Empyrean's Lord surprised them with one word, « Nor wealth nor refuge 
 
 could their doom delay ! 
 
 When the Emir heard this, he cried out and tlic tears ran down his 
 
 ^ This fine description will remind the traveller of the ol<l Haurani towns 
 deserted since the sixth century, wliich a silly writer miscalled the " Giant Cities 
 of Bashan." I have never seen anything weirder than a moonlight niglil in one 
 of these strong places whose masonry is perfect as when first built, the snowy 
 light pouring on the jet-black basalt and the breeze sighing and the jackal 
 wailing in the desert around. 
 
 VOL. IV. D
 
 50 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 cheeks and he exclaimed, " By Allah, from the world abstaining is 
 the wisest course and the sole assaining!" And he called for pen- 
 case and paper and wrote down what was graven on the first tablet. 
 Then he drew near the second tablet and found these words carven 
 thereon, " O son of Adam, what hath seduced thee from the service 
 of the Ancient of Days and made thee forget that one day thou 
 must defray the debt of death? Wottest thou not that it is a 
 transient dwelling wherein for none there is abiding; and yet thou 
 takest thought unto the world and cleavest fast thereto ? Where be 
 the Kings who Irak peopled and the four quarters of the globe 
 possessed ? Where be they who abode in Ispahan and the land of 
 Khorasan ? The voice of the Summoner of Death summoned them 
 and they answered him, and the Herald of Destruction hailed them 
 and they replied, Here are we ! Verily, that which they builded and 
 fortified profited them naught ; neither did what they had gathered 
 and provided avail for their defence." And at the foot of the tablet 
 were graven the following verses : — 
 
 Where be the men who built and fortified * High places never man their like 
 
 espied ? 
 In fear of Fate they levied troops and hosts, * Availing naught when came the 
 
 time and tide, 
 Where be the Kisras homed in strongest walls? * As though they ne'er had been 
 
 from home they hied ! 
 
 The Emir Musa wept and exclaimed, " By Allah, we are indeed 
 created for a grave matter !" Then he copied the inscription and 
 
 passed on to the third tablet, And Shahrazad was surprised by 
 
 the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 :N'oh3 tol^cn It tons tljc Jpib£ l^untircU antt ^tbcnty-tljirti Nigtt, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Emir 
 Musa passed on to the third tablet, whereon was written, " O son of 
 Adam, the things of this world thou lovest and prizest and the hest 
 of thy Lord thou spurnest and despisest. All the days of thy life 
 pass by and thou art content thus to aby. Make ready thy viaticum 
 against the day appointed for thee to see and prepare to answer the 
 Lord of every creature that be !" And at the foot were written these 
 verses : — 
 
 Where is the wight who peopled in the past * Hind -land and Sind ; and there 
 the tyrant played ?
 
 The City of Brass. 5 r 
 
 Who Zanj ' and Habash bound beneath his yoke, * And Nubia curbed and low- 
 its puissance laid. 
 
 I.ook not for news of what is in his grave. * Ah, he is far who can thy vision 
 aid ! 
 
 The stroke of death fell on him sharp and sure ; * Nor saved him palace, nor the 
 lands he swayed. 
 
 At this Musa wept with sore weeping and, going on to the fourth 
 tablet, he read inscribed thereon, " O son of Adam, how long shall 
 thy Lord bear with thee and thou every day sunken in the sea of 
 thy folly ? Hath it then been stablished unto thee that thou shalt 
 not die some day ? O son of Adam, let not the deceits of thy days 
 and nights and times and hours delude thee with their delights ; but 
 remember that Death lieth ready for thee ambushing, fain on thy 
 shoulders to spring, nor doth a day pass but he morneth with thee 
 in the morning and nighteth with thee by night. Beware, then, of 
 his onslaught and make provision there-against. As was with me, 
 so it is with thee ; thou wastest thy whole life and squanderest the 
 joys in which thy days are rife. Hearken, therefore, to my words 
 and put thy trust in the Lord of Lords ; for in the world there is no 
 stability ; it is but as a spider's web to thee." And at the foot of 
 the tablet were written these couplets : — 
 
 Where is the man who did those labours ply » And based and built and reared 
 
 these walls on high ? 
 Where be the castles' lords? Who therein dwelt * Fared forth and left them in 
 
 decay to lie. 
 All are entombed, in pledge against the day * When every sin shall show to 
 
 every eye. 
 None but the Lord Most High endurance hath, « Whose Might and Majest 
 
 shall never die. 
 
 When the Emir read this, he swooned away and presently coming 
 to himself marvelled exceedingly and wrote it down. Then he drew 
 near the fifth tablet and behold, thereon was graven, " O son of 
 Adam, what is it that distracteth thee from obedience of thy Creator 
 and the Author of thy being, Him who reared thee whenas thou 
 wast a little one, and fed thee whenas thou wast full-grown ? Thou 
 art ungrateful for His bounty, albeit He watcheth over thee with 
 His favours, letting down the curtain of His protection over thee. 
 Needs must there be for thee an hour bitterer than aloes and hotter 
 than live coals. Provide thee, therefore, against it ; for who shall 
 
 * "Zanj," I have said, is the Arab, form of the Persian "Zang-bar" ( = 
 Black-land), our Zanzibar. Those who would know more of the etymology will 
 consult my "Zanzibar," etc., chapt. i.
 
 52 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 sweeten its gall or quench its fires ? Bethink thee who forewent 
 thee of peoples and heroes, and take warning by them ere thou 
 perish." And at the foot of the tablet were graven these couplets : — 
 
 Where be the Earth-kings who from where they 'bode * Sped, and to graveyards 
 
 with their hoardings yode : 
 Erst on their mounting-days there hadst beheld * Hosts that concealed the 
 
 ground whereon they rode : 
 How many a king they humbled in their day ! * How many a host they led and 
 
 laid on load ! 
 But from th' Empyrean's Lord in haste there came * One word, and joy waxed 
 
 grief ere morning glowed. 
 
 The Emir marvelled at this and wrote it down ; after which he 
 passed on to the sixth tablet and behold, was inscribed thereon, " O 
 son of Adam, think not that safety will endure for ever and aye, 
 seeing that death is sealed to thy head alway. Where be thy fathers, 
 where be thy brethren, where thy friends and dear ones? They 
 have all gone to the dust of the tombs and presented themselves 
 before the Glorious, the Forgiving, as if they had never eaten nor 
 drunken, and they are a pledge for that which they have earned. So 
 look to thyself, ere thy tomb come upon thee." And at the foot of 
 the tablet were these couplets : — ■ 
 
 Where be the Kings who ruled the Franks of old ? * Where be the King who 
 
 peopled Tingis-wold ' ? 
 Their works are written in a book which He, * The One, th' All- father shall as 
 
 witness hold. 
 
 At this the Emir Musa marvelled and wrote it down, saying, "There 
 is no god but the God ! Indeed, how goodly were these folk ! " 
 Then he went up to the seventh tablet and behold, thereon was written, 
 " Glory to Him who fore-ordaineth death to all He createth, the Living 
 One, who dieth not ! O son of Adam, let not thy days and their 
 delights delude thee, neither thine hours and the joys of their time, 
 and know that death to thee cometh and upon thy shoulder sitteth. 
 Beware, then, of his assault and make ready for his onslaught. As it 
 was with me, so it is with thee ; thou wastest the sweet of thy life and 
 the joyance of thine hours. Give ear, then, to my counsel and set thy 
 trust on the Lord of Lords, and know that in the world is no stability, 
 but it is as it were a spider's web to thee and all that is therein shall 
 die and cease to be. Where is he who laid the foundation of Amid- 
 
 ^ Arab. " Tanjah " = Strabo Ttyyis;(<is"'^^tion uncertain), Tingitania, Tangiers. 
 But why the terminal s ? 
 
 ^ Or Amidah, by the Turks called "Kara (black) Amid" from the colour of 
 the stones ; and the Arabs "Diyar-bakr" (Diarbekir), a name which they also 
 give to the whole province — Mesopotamia,
 
 The City of Brass. 53 
 
 and builded it and builded Farikin ^ and exalted it ? Where be the 
 peoples of the strong places ? Whenas them they had inhabited, 
 after their might into the tombs they descended. They have been 
 carried off by death and we shall in like manner be afflicted by 
 doom. None abideth save Allah the Most High, for He is Allali 
 the Forgiving One." The Emir Musa wept and copied all this, 
 and indeed the world was belittled in his eyes. Then he descended 
 the hill and rejoined his host, with whom he passed the rest of the 
 day, 'casting about for a means of access to the city. And he 
 said to his Wazir Talib bin Sahl and to the chief officers about him, 
 "How shall we contrive to enter this city and view its marvels? 
 haply we shall find therein wherewithal to win the favour of the 
 Commander of the Faithful. " Allah prolong the Emir's fortune ! " 
 replied Talib, " let us make a ladder and mount the wall therewith, 
 so peradventure we may come at the gate from within." Quoth the 
 Emir, " This is what occurred to my thought also, and admirable is 
 the advice ! " Then he called for carpenters and blacksmiths and 
 bade them fashion wood and build a ladder plated and banded with 
 iron. So they made a strong ladder and many men wrought at it 
 a whole month. Presently all the company laid hold of it and set 
 it up against the wall, and it reached the top as truly as if it had 
 been built for it before that time. The Emir marvelled and said, 
 " The blessing of Allah be upon you. It seemeth as though ye had 
 taken the measure of the wall, so excellent is your work." Then 
 said he to his men, " Which of you will mount the ladder and walk 
 along the wall and cast about for a way of descending into the city, 
 so to see how the case stands and let us know how we may open the 
 gate ? " Whereupon quoth one of them, " I will go up, O Emir, 
 and descend and open to you ? " and Musa answered, saying, " Go, 
 and the blessing of Allah go with tlice ! " So the man mounted 
 the ladder ; but, when he came to tlie top of the wall, he stood up 
 and gazed fixedly down into the city, then clapped his hands and 
 crying out, at the top of his voice, " By Allah, thou art fair ! " cast 
 himself down into the place, and Musa cried, " By Allah, he is a 
 dead man ! " But another came up to him and said, " O Emir, 
 this was a madman, and doubtless his madness got the better of him 
 and destroyed him. I will go u]) and open the gate to you, if it 
 be the will of Allah the Most High." "Go up," replied Musa, 
 "and Allah be with thee! But beware lest thou lose thy head, 
 even as did thy comrade." Then the man mounted the ladder, 
 
 * Mayyafarikfn, an episcopal city in Diyar-bakr : the natives are called Fariki ; 
 hence the abbreviation in the text.
 
 54 -^If Lay! ah wa Lay la h. 
 
 but no sooner had he reached the top of the wall than he laughed 
 aloud, saying, " Well done ! well done ! " and clapping palms cast 
 himself down into the city and died forthright. When the Emir saw 
 this, he said, " An such be the action of a reasonable man, what is 
 that of the madman ? If all our men do on this wise, we shall 
 have none left and shall fail of our errand and that of the Com- 
 mander of the Faithful. Get ye ready for the march : verily we 
 have no concern with this city." But a third one of the company 
 said, " Haply another may be steadier than they." So a third 
 mounted the wall and a fourth and a fifth and all cried out and 
 cast themselves down, even as did the first ; nor did they leave 
 to do thus, till a dozen had perished in like fashion. Then the 
 Shaykh Abd al-Samad came forward and heartened himself and 
 said, "This affair is reserved to none other than myself; for the 
 experienced is not like the inexperienced." Quoth the Emir, 
 " Indeed thou shalt not do that nor will I have thee go up : an thou 
 perish, we shall all be cut off to the last man since thou art our 
 guide." But he answered, saying, " Peradventure, that which we 
 seek may be accomplished at my hands, by the grace of God Most 
 High ! " So the folk all agreed to let him mount the ladder, and he 
 arose and heartening himself, said, " In the name of Allah, the 
 Compassionating, the Compassionate ! " and mounted the ladder, 
 calling on the name of the Lord and reciting the Verses of Safety.^ 
 When he reached the top of the wall, he clapped his hands and 
 gazed fixedly down into the city ; whereupon the folk below cried 
 out to him with one accord, saying, " O Shaykh Abd al-Samad, for 
 the Lord's sake, cast not thyself down ! " and they added, " Verily 
 we are Allah's and unto Him we are returning ! If the Shaykh fall, 
 we be dead men one and all." Then he laughed beyond all measure 
 and sat a long hour, reciting the names of Allah Almighty and repeat- 
 ing the Verses of Safety ; then he rose and cried out at the top of his 
 voice, saying, " O Emir, have no fear ; no hurt shall betide you, for 
 Allah (to whom belong Might and Majesty !) hath averted from me 
 the wiles and malice of Satan, by the blessing of the words, ' In the 
 name of Allah the Compassionating, the Compassionate ! ' " Asked 
 Musa, "What didst thou see, O Shaykh?" and Abd al-Samad 
 answered, " I saw ten maidens, as they were Houris of Heaven 
 
 calling to me with their hands" And Shahrazad perceived the 
 
 dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 ^ Arab. " Ayat al-Najat," certain Koranic verses which act as talismans, such 
 as, *' And wherefore should we not put our trust in Allah?" (xiv. 15); "Say 
 thou, ' Naught shall befal us save what Allah hath decreed for us.' " (ix. 51), and 
 sundry others.
 
 The City of Brass. 55 
 
 i^oh) toijctt it toag tfjc jFibc fi^unJjrctr nnti ^cbcntg-fourtf) i^igibt 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Shaykh 
 Abd al-Samad answered, " I saw ten maidens Hke Houris of Heaven,^ 
 and they calHng and signing " : — Come hither to us ; and meseemed 
 there was below me a lake of water. So I thought to throw myself 
 down, when behold, I espied my twelve companions lying dead ; so 
 I restrained myself and recited somewhat of Allah's Book, whereupon 
 He dispelled from me the damsels' witchlike wiles and malicious 
 guiles and they disappeared. And doubtless this was an enchant- 
 ment devised by the people of the city, to repel any who should seek 
 to gaze upon or to enter the place ; and it hath succeeded in slay- 
 ing our companions." Then he walked on along the wall, till he 
 came to the two towers of brass aforesaid and saw therein two gates 
 of gold, without padlocks or visible means of opening. Hereat he 
 paused as long as Allah pleased ^ and gazed about him awhile, till 
 he espied in the middle of one of the gates, a horseman of brass with 
 hand outstretched as if pointing, and in his palm was somewhat 
 written. So he went up to it and read these words, " O thou who 
 comest to this place, an thou wouldst enter turn the pin in my 
 middle twelve times and the gate will open. Accordingly, he 
 examined the horseman and finding in his waist a pin of gold, strong 
 set and fast fixed, he turned it twelve times, whereupon the horse- 
 man revolved like the blinding lightning and the gate swung open 
 with a noise like thunder. He entered and found himself in a long 
 passage,* which brought him down some steps into a guard-room 
 furnished with goodly wooden benches, whereon sat men dead, over 
 whose heads hung fine shields and keen blades and bent bows and 
 shafts ready notched. Thence, he came to the main gate of the 
 city ; and, finding it secured with iron bars and curiously wrought 
 locks and bolts and chains and other fastenings of wood and metal, 
 said to himself, " Belike the keys are with yonder dead folk." So 
 
 ' These were the " Brides of the Treasure," alluded to in the story of Hasan of 
 Bassorah and elsewhere. 
 
 '■* Arab. ** Isharah," which may also mean beckoning. Easterns reverse our 
 process : we wave hand or finger towards ourselves ; they towards the object ; and 
 our fashion represents to them, Go away ! 
 
 "^ i.e. musing a long time and a longsome. 
 
 * Arab. " Dihiiz," from the Persian. This is the long dark passage which leads 
 to the inner or main gate of an Eastern city, and which is built up before a siege. 
 It is usually furnislied with Mastabah-benches of wood and masonry, and forms a 
 favourite lounge in hot weather. Hence Lot and Moses sat and stood in the gate, 
 and here man speaks with his enemies.
 
 ^6 AIJ Laylali wa Laylah. 
 
 he turned back to the guard-room and seeing amongst the dead an 
 old man seated upon a high wooden bench, who seemed the chiefest 
 of them, said in his mind, "Who knows but they are with this 
 Shaykh ? Doubtless he was the warder of the city, and these others 
 were under his hand." So he went up to him and lifting his gown, 
 behold, the keys were hanging to his girdle ; whereat he joyed with 
 exceeding joy and was like to fly for gladness. Then he took them 
 and going up to the portal, undid the padlocks and drew back the 
 bolts and bars, whereupon the great leaves flew open with a crash 
 like the pealing thunder by reason of its greatness and terribleness. 
 At this he cried out, saying, " Allaho Akbar — God is most great ! " 
 And the folk without answered him with the same words, rejoicing 
 and thanking him for his deed. The Emir Musa also was delighted 
 at the Shaykh's safety and the opening of the city-gate, and the troops 
 all pressed forward to enter ; but Musa cried out to them, saying, 
 " O folk, if we all go in at once we shall not be safe from some ill- 
 chance that may betide us. Let half enter and other half tarry with- 
 out." So he pushed forwards with a moiety of his men, bearing their 
 weapons of war, and finding their comrades lying dead, they buried 
 them ; and they saw the doorkeepers and eunuchs and chamberlains 
 and officers reclining on couches of silk and all were corpses. Then 
 they fared on till they came to the chief market-place, full of lofty 
 buildings whereof none overpassed the others, and found all its 
 shops open, with the scales hung out and the brazen vessels ordered 
 and the caravanserais full of all manner goods ; and they beheld the 
 merchants sitting on the shop-boards dead, with shrivelled skin and 
 rotted bones, a warning to those who can take warning ; and here 
 they saw four separate markets all replete with wealth. Then they 
 left the great bazar and went on till they came to the silk market, 
 where they found silks and brocades, orfrayed with red gold and 
 diapered with white silver upon all manner of colours, and the 
 owners lying dead upon mats of scented goats'-leather, and look- 
 ing as if they would speak ; after which they traversed the market- 
 street of pearls and rubies and other jewels and came to that 
 of the Shroffs and money-changers whom they saw sitting dead 
 upon carpets of raw silk and dyed stuffs in shops full of gold and silver. 
 Thence they passed to the perfumers' bazar where they found the 
 shops filled with drugs of all kinds and bladders of musk and amber- 
 gris and Nadd-scent and camphor and other perfumes, in vessels of 
 ivory and ebony and Khalanj-wood and Andalusian copper, the 
 which is equal in value to gold ; and various kinds of rattan and 
 Indian cane ; but the shopkeepers all lay dead, nor was there with 
 them aught of food. And hard by this drug-market they came upon
 
 The City of Brass. 57 
 
 a palace, imposingly edified and magnificently decorated; so they 
 entered therein and found banners displayed and drawn sword- 
 blades and strung bows and bucklers hanging by chains of gold and 
 silver and helmets gilded with red gold. In the vestibules stood 
 benches of ivory plated with glittering gold and covered with silken 
 stuffs, whereon lay men whose skin had dried up on their bones ; 
 the fool had deemed them sleeping ; but, for lack of food, they had 
 perished and tasted the cup of death. Now when the Emir Musa 
 saw this, he stood still, glorifying Allah the Most High and hallowing 
 Him and contemplating the beauty of the palace and the massivc- 
 ness of its masonry and fair perfection of its ordinance, for it was 
 builded after the goodliest and stablest fashion and the most part of 
 its adornment was of green ^ lapis-lazuli ; and on the inner door, 
 which stood open, were written in characters of gold and ultra- 
 marine, these couplets : — 
 
 Consider thou, O man, what these places to thee showed * And be upon thy 
 
 guard ere thou travel the same road : 
 And prepare thee good provision some day may serve thy turn * For each dweller 
 
 in the house needs must yede wi' those who yode. 
 Consider how this people their palaces adorned * And in dust have been pledged 
 
 for the seed of acts they sowed : 
 They built but their building availed them not, and hoards ; * Nor saved their 
 
 lives nor day of Destiny foreslowed : 
 I low often did they hope for what things were undecreed, « And passed unto 
 
 their tombs before Hope the bounty showed ; 
 And from high and awful stale all a-sudden they were sent * To the straitness of 
 
 the grave and oh ! base is their abode : 
 Then came to them a Crier after burial and cried, * What booted thrones or 
 
 crowns or the gold on you bestowed : 
 \Miere now are gone the faces hid by curtain and by veil, * Whose charms were 
 
 told in proverbs, those beauties a-la-mode ? 
 The tombs reply aloud to the questioners and cry, * " Death's canker and decay 
 
 those rosy cheeks corrode ! " 
 Long time they ate and drank, but their joyaunce had a term : • And the 
 
 eater eke was eaten, and was eaten by the worm. 
 
 When the Emir read this, he wept, till he was like to swoon away, 
 
 And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased 
 
 saying her permitted say. 
 
 ' The names of colours are as loosely used by the Arabs as by the Classics of 
 Europe ; for instance, a light grey is called a " blue or a green horse." Much 
 nonsense has been written upon the colours in Homer by men who imagine that 
 the semi civilised determine tints as we do. They sec them but they do not 
 name them, having no occasion for the words. As I have noticed, however, the 
 Arabs have a complete terminology for the varieties of horse-hues. In our day 
 we have witnessed the birth of colours, named by the dozen, because required by 
 women's dress.
 
 58 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 INTofo bten it toas tjbe ^\^^ f^untiulr antr ^tbtntg-fift]^ :isrigf)t, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Emir 
 wept till he was like to swoon away, and bade write down the 
 verses, after which he passed on into the outer palace and came to 
 a vast hall, at each of whose four corners stood a pavilion lofty and 
 spacious, washed with gold and silver and painted in various colours. 
 In the heart of the hall was a great jetting-fountain of alabaster, 
 surmounted by a canopy of brocade, and in each pavilion was a 
 sitting-place and each place had its richly-wrought fountain and tank 
 paved with marble and streams flowing in channels along the floor 
 and meeting in a great and grand cistern of many-coloured marbles. 
 Quoth the Emir to the Shaykh Abd al-Samad, " Come, let us visit 
 yonder pavilion ! " So they entered the first and found it full ot 
 gold and silver and pearls and jacinths and other precious stones 
 and metals, besides chests filled with brocades, red and yellow and 
 white. Then they repaired to the second pavilion, and, opening a 
 closet there, found it full of arms and armour, such as gilded helmets 
 and Davidean ^ hauberks and Hindi swords and Arabian spears and 
 Chorasmian ^ maces and other gear of fight and fray. Thence they 
 passed to the third pavilion, wherein they saw closets padlocked and 
 covered with curtains wrought with all manner of embroidery. They 
 opened one of these and found it full of weapons curiously adorned 
 with open work and with gold and silver, damascene and jewels. 
 Then they entered the fourth pavilion and unlocking one of the closets 
 there, beheld in it great store of eating and drinking vessels of gold 
 and silver, with platters of crystal and goblets set with fine pearls 
 and cups of carnelian and so forth. So they all fell to taking that 
 which suited their tastes and each of the soldiers carried off what he 
 could. When they left the pavilions, they saw in the midst of the 
 palace a door of teak-wood marquetried with ivory and ebony and 
 plated with glittering gold, over which hung a silken curtain purfled 
 with all manner of embroideries : and on this door were locks of 
 white silver, that opened by artifice without a key. The Shaykh 
 Abd al-Samad went valiantly up thereto and by the aid of his know- 
 ledge and skill opened the locks, whereupon the door admitted them 
 
 ^ David's miracles of metallurgy already referred to. 
 
 - Arab. "Khwarazm," the land of the Chorasmioi, who are mentioned by 
 Herodotus (iii. 93) and a host of classical geographers. They place it in Sogdiana 
 (hod. Sughd) and it corresponds with the Khiva country.
 
 The City of Brass. 59 
 
 into a corridor paved with marble and hung with veil-like^ tapestries 
 embroidered with figures of all manner beasts and birds, whose 
 bodies were of red gold and white silver and their eyes of pearls and 
 rubies, amazing all who looked upon them. Passing onwards they 
 came to a saloon builded all of polished marble, inlaid with jewels, 
 which seemed to the beholder as though the floor were flowing 
 water " and whoever walked thereon slipped. The Emir bade the 
 Shaykh strew somewhat upon it, that they might walk over it ; which 
 being done, they made shift to fare forwards till they came to a great 
 domed pavilion of stone, gilded with red gold and crowned with a 
 cupola of alabaster, about which were set lattice-windows carved and 
 jewelled with rods of emerald,^ beyond the competence of any King. 
 Under this dome was a canopy of brocade, reposing upon pillars of 
 red gold and wrought with figures of birds whose feet were of 
 smaragd, and beneath each bird was a network of fresh-hued pearls. 
 The canopy was spread above a jetting fountain of ivory and 
 carnelian, plated with glittering gold and thereby stood a couch set 
 with pearls and rubies and other jewels, and beside the couch a pillar 
 of gold. On the capital of the column stood a bird fashioned of red 
 rubies and holding in his bill a pearl which shone like a star ; and 
 on the couch lay a damsel, as she were the shining sun, eyes never 
 saw a fairer. She wore a tight-fitting body-robe of fine pearls, with 
 a crown of red gold on her head, filleted with gems, and on her fore- 
 head were two great jewels, whose light was as the light of the sun. 
 On her breast she wore a jewelled amulet, filled with musk and 
 ambergris and worth the empire of the Caesars ; and around her neck 
 hung a collar of rubies and great pearls, hollowed and filled with 
 odoriferous musk ; and it seemed as if she gazed on them to the 
 
 right and to the left. And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of da}- 
 
 and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 ' Arab. "Burka'," usually applied to a woman's face-veil and hence to the 
 eovering of the Ka'abah. which is the " Bride of Meccah." 
 
 ^ Alluding to the trick jilayed upon IJilkis by Solomon who had heard that her 
 legs were hairy like those of an ass ; he laid down a pavement of glass over flowing 
 water in which fish were swimming and thus she raised her skirts as she approached 
 him and he saw that the report was true. Hence, as I have said, the depilatory 
 (Koran xxvii.). 
 
 ^ I understand the curiously carved windows cut in arabesque-work of marble 
 (India) or basalt (the llauran) and provided with small panes of glass set in 
 emeralds where tin-foil would be used by the vulgar.
 
 6o Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 jloto toljtn It toas tlbe Jptfac f^untircti antr ^cbtntB=sut]b i^igi)t, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the damsel 
 seemed to be gazing at the folk to the right and to the left. The 
 Emir Musa marvelled at her exceeding beauty and was confounded 
 at the blackness of her hair and the redness of her cheeks, which 
 made the beholder deem her alive and not dead, and said to her, 
 " Peace be with thee, O damsel ! " But Talib ibn Sahl said to him, 
 "Allah preserve thee, O Emir, verily this damsel is dead and there 
 is no life in her ; so how shall she return thy salam ? " adding, 
 "Indeed, she is but a corpse embalmed with exceeding art; her 
 eyes were taken out after her death and quicksilver set under them, 
 after which they were restored to their sockets. Wherefore they 
 glisten and when the air moveth the lashes, she seemeth to wink 
 and it appeareth to the beholder as though she looked at him, for 
 all she is dead." At this the Emir marvelled beyond measure and 
 said, " Glory be to God who subjugateth His creatures to the 
 dominion of Death ! " Nowj the couch on which the damsel lay, 
 had steps, and thereon stood two statues of Andalusian copper re- 
 presenting slaves, one white and the other black. The first held a 
 mace of steel ^ and the second a sword of watered steel which 
 dazzled the eye ; and between them, on one of the steps of the 
 couch, lay a golden tablet, whereon were written, in characters of 
 white silver, the following words : " In the name of God, the Com- 
 passionating, the Compassionate ! Praise be to Allah, the Creator 
 of mankind ; and He is the Lord of Lords, the Causer of Causes ! 
 In the name of Allah, the Never-beginning, the Everlasting, the 
 Ordainer of Fate and Fortune ! O son of Adam ! what hath be- 
 fooled thee in this long esperance ? What hath unminded thee of 
 the Death-day's mischance ? Knowest thou not that Doom calleth 
 for thee and hasteneth to seize upon the soul of thee ? Be ready, 
 therefore, for the way and provide thee for thy departure from the 
 world ; for, assuredly, thou shalt leave it without delay. Where is 
 Adam, first of humanity ? Where is Noah with his progeny ? Where 
 be the Kings of Hind and Irak-plain and they who over earth's 
 widest regions reign ? Where do the Amalekites abide and the 
 giants and tyrants of olden tide ? Indeed, the dwelling-places are 
 void of them and they have departed from kindred and home. 
 
 * Arab. " Bulad," from the Pers. " Pulad." Hence the name of the famous 
 Druze family " Jumblat," a corruption of " Jan-pulad "= Life o' Steel.
 
 The City of Brass. 6 1 
 
 Where be the Kings of Arab and Ajem? They are dead, all of 
 them, and gone and are become rotten bones. Where be the lords 
 so high in stead ? They are all done dead. Where are Korah and 
 Haman ? Where is Shaddad son of Ad ? Where be Canaan and 
 the Lord of Stakes, Zu al-Autad?' By Allah, the Reaper of lives hath 
 reaped them and made void the lands of them. Did they provide 
 them against the Day of Resurrection or make ready to answer the 
 Lord of men ? O thou, if thou know me not, I will acquaint thee 
 with my name. I am Tadmurah,- daughter of the Kings of the 
 Amalekites, of those who held dominion over the lands in equity 
 and brought low the necks of humanity. I possessed that which 
 never King possessed and was righteous in my rule and did justice 
 among my lieges ; yea, I gave gifts and largesse and freed bondsmen 
 and bondswomen. Thus lived I many years in all ease and delight 
 of life, till Death knocked at my door and to me and to my folk 
 befel calamities sore ; and it was on this wise. There betided us 
 seven successive years of drought, wherein no drop of rain fell on us 
 from the skies and no green thing sprouted for us on the face of 
 earth ; ^ so we ate what was with us of victual, then we fell upon the 
 cattle and devoured them, until nothing was left. Thereupon I let 
 bring my treasures and meted them with measures and sent out 
 trusty men to buy food. They circuited all the lands in quest 
 thereof and left no city unsought, but found it not to be bought and 
 returned to us with the treasure after a long absence ; and gave us to 
 know that they could not succeed in bartering fine pearls for poor 
 wheat, bushel for bushel, weight for weight. So, when we despaired 
 of succour, w£ displayed all our riches and things of price and, shut- 
 ting the gates of the city and its strong places, resigned ourselves to 
 the deme of our Lord and committed our case to our King. Then 
 we all died, as thou scest us, and left what we had builded and what- 
 
 ' Pharaoh, so called in Koran (xxxviii. ii) because he tortured men by fasten- 
 ing them to four stakes driven into the ground. Sale translates *' the contriver 
 of the stakes" and adds, "Some understand the word figuratively, of the firm 
 establishment of Pharaoh's kingdom, because the Arabs fix their tents with stakes : 
 but they may possibly intend that prince's obstinac} and hardness of heart." I 
 may note that in "Tasawwuf," or Moslem Gnosticism, Pharaoh represents, like 
 Prometheus and Job, the typical creature who upholds his ow-n dignity and rights 
 in presence and despight of the Creator. Sahib the Siifi declares that the secret of 
 man's soul (i.e. its emanation) was first revealed when Pharaoh declared himself 
 god ; and Al-Ghazali sees in his claim the most noble aspiration to the divine, 
 innate in the human spirit (Dabislan, vol. iii.). 
 
 - In the Calc. Edit. " Tarmuz, son of the daughter," etc. According to the 
 Arabs, Tadmur (Palmyra) was built by Queen Tadriiurah, daughter of Llassan bin 
 Uzaynah. 
 
 ^ It is only by some such drought that I can account for the sun'ival of those 
 marvellous Hauranic cities in the great valley S. E. of Damascus.
 
 62 A If Lay la h zva Laylah. 
 
 ever we had hoarded. This, then, is our story, and after the 
 substance naught abideth but the trace." Then they looked at the 
 foot of the tablet and read these couplets : — ■ 
 
 child of Adam, let not Hope make mock and flyte at thee, * From all thy 
 
 hands have hoarded, removed thou shall be ; 
 
 1 see thou covetest the world and fleeting worldly charms, * And races past and 
 
 gone have done the same as thou I see. 
 Lawful and lawless wealth they got ; but all their heaped store, * Their term 
 
 accomplished, naught delayed of Destiny's decree. 
 Armies they led and puissant men and gained them gold galore ; * Then left 
 
 their wealth and palaces by Fate compelled to flee 
 To straitness of the grave-yard and humble bed of dust * Whence, pledged 
 
 for every word and deed, they never more win free : 
 As a company of travellers had unloaded in the night * At house that lacketh 
 
 food nor is fain of company ; 
 Whose owner saith, ' O folk, here no lodging is for you ;' * So packed they 
 
 who erst unpacked and fared they hurriedly, 
 Misliking much the march ; nor the journey nor the halt * Had aught of pleasant 
 
 chance or had aught of goodly gree. 
 Then prepare thou good provision for to-morrow's journey stored * Naught but 
 
 righteous honest life shall avail thee with the Lord ! 
 
 And the Emir Musa wept as he read, " By Allah, the fear of the 
 Lord is the best of all property, the pillar of certainty and the sole 
 sure stay. Verily, Death is the truth manifest and the sure behest, 
 and therein, O thou, is the goal and return-place evident. Take 
 warning, therefore, by those who to the dust did wend and hastened 
 on the way of the predestined end. Seest thou not that hoary hairs 
 summon thee to the tomb and that the whiteness of thy locks 
 maketh moan of thy doom ? Wherefore be thou on the wake, ready 
 for thy departure and thine account to make. O son of Adam, 
 what hath hardened thy heart in mode abhorred? What hath 
 seduced thee from the service of thy Lord ? Where be the 
 peoples of old time ? They are a warning to whoever will be 
 warned ! Where be the Kings of Al-Si'n and the lords of majestic 
 mien? Where is Shaddad bin Ad and all he built and he 
 stablished ? Where is Nimrod who revolted against Allah and 
 defied Him ? Where is Pharaoh who rebelled against God and 
 denied Him? Death followed hard upon the trail of them all, 
 and laid them low, sparing neither great nor small, male nor 
 female ; and the Reaper of Mankind cut them off, yea, by Him 
 who maketh night to return upon day ! Know, O thou who comest 
 to this place, that she whom thou seest here was not deluded by 
 the world and its frail delights, for it is faithless, perfidious, a house 
 of ruin, vain and treacherous ; and salutary to the creature is the 
 remembrance of his sins ; wherefore she feared her Lord and made 
 
 I
 
 The City of Brass. 63 
 
 fair her dealings and provided herself with provision against the 
 appointed marching-day. Whoever cometh to our city and Allah 
 vouchsafeth him competence to enter it, let him take of the treasure 
 all he can, but touch not aught that is on my body, for it is the 
 outfit for the last journey ; wherefore let him fear Allah and despoil 
 naught thereof; else shall he destroy his own self This have I set 
 forth to him for a warning from me and a solemn trust to be ; 
 wherewith, peace be with ye and I pray Allah to keep you from 
 
 sickness and calamity." And Shahrazad was surprised by the 
 
 dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 i^o&j tDften it toas ti^c jpibc l^untircti anli ^cbcntg^scbentt) i^igtt 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 Emir Musa read this, he wept with exceeding weeping till he 
 swooned away and presently coming to himself, wrote down all 
 he had seen and was admonished by all he had witnessed. Then 
 he said to his men, "Fetch the camels and load them with these 
 treasures and vases and jewels." " O Emir," asked Talib, "shall we 
 leave our damsel with what is upon her, things which have no equal 
 and whose like is not to he found and more perfect than aught 
 else thou takest ; nor couldst thou find a goodlier offering where- 
 withal to propitiate the favour of the Commander of the Faithful ? " 
 But Musa answered, " O man, heardest thou not what the dame saith 
 on this tablet ? More by token that she giveth it in trust to us 
 who are no traitors." " And shall we," rejoined the U'azir Talib, 
 " because of these words, leave all these riches and jewels, seeing 
 that she is dead ? What should she do with these that are the 
 adornments of the world and the ornament of the worldling, seeing 
 that one garment of cotton would suffice for her covering ? We have 
 more right to them than she." So saying, he mounted the steps of 
 the couch between the pillars, but when he came within reach of the 
 two slaves, lo ! the macebearer smote him on the back and the other 
 struck him with the sword he held in his hand and lopped off his head, 
 and he dropped down dead. Quoth the Emir," Allah have no mercy 
 on thy resting-place ! Indeed there was enough in these treasures ; 
 and greed of gain assuredly degradcth a man." Then he bade admit 
 the troops ; so they entered and loaded the camels with those 
 hoards and precious ores ; after which they went forth and the 
 Emir commanded them to shut the gate as before. They fared on 
 along the sea-shore a whole month, till they came in sight of a 
 high mountain overlooking the sea and full of caves, wherein dwelt
 
 64 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 a tribe of blacks, clad in hides, with burnooses also of hide and 
 speaking an unknown tongue. When they saw the troops they 
 were startled like shying steeds and fled into the caverns, whilst 
 their women and children stood at the cave-doors, looking on the 
 strangers. "O Shaykh Abd al-Samad," asked the Emir, "what are 
 these folk?" and he answered, " They are those whom we seek for the 
 Commander of the Faithful." So they dismounted and setting down 
 their loads, pitched their tents ; whereupon, almost before they had 
 done, down came the King of the Blacks from the mountain and drew 
 near the camp. Now he understood the Arabic tongue ; so, when 
 he approached the Emir he saluted him with the salam and Musa 
 returned his greeting and entreated him. with honour. Then quoth 
 he to the Emir, " Are ye men or Jinn ? " "Well, we are men," quoth 
 Musa ; " but doubtless ye are Jinn, to judge by your dwelling apart 
 in this mountain which is cut off from mankind, and by your inor- 
 dinate bulk." " Nay," rejoined the black ; " we also are children of 
 Adam, of the lineage of Ham son of Noah (with whom be peace !), 
 and this sea is known as Al-Karkar." Asked Musa, " O King, what 
 is your religion and what worship ye ? " and he answered, saying, 
 "We worship the God of the heavens, and our religion is that of 
 Mohammed, whom Allah bless and preserve ! " " And how came 
 ye by the knowledge of this," questioned the Emir, " seeing that no 
 prophet was inspired to visit this country ? " " Know, O Emir," re- 
 plied the King, " that there appeared to us whilere from out the sea 
 a man, from whom issued a light that illumined the horizons and 
 he cried out, in a voice which was heard of mortals far and near, say- 
 ing : — O children of Ham, reverence to Him who seeth and is not 
 seen, and say ye. There is no god but the God, and Mohammed is 
 the messenger of God ! And he added : — I am Abu al-Abbas 
 al-Khizr. Before this we were wont to worship one another, but he 
 summoned us to the service of the Lord of all creatures ; and he 
 taught us to repeat these words, There is no god save the God alone, 
 who hath for partner none, and His is the kingdom and His is the 
 praise. He giveth life and death and He over all things is Almighty. 
 Nor do we draw near unto Allah (be He exalted and extolled !) 
 except with these words, for we know none other ; but every eve 
 before Friday^ we see a light upon the face of earth and we hear a 
 
 ^ Arab. " Jum'ah" (= the assembly) so called because the General Resurrec- 
 tion will take place on that day and it witnessed the creation of Adam. Both 
 these reasons are evidently after-thoughts ; as the Jews received a divine order to 
 keep Saturday, and the Christians, at their own sweet will, transferred the 
 weekly rest-day to Sunday, wherefore the Moslem preferred Friday. Sabbatarian- 
 ism, however, is unknown to Al-Islam and business is interrupted, by Koranic
 
 The City of Brass. 65 
 
 voice saying, Holy and glorious, Lord of the Angels and the Spirit ! 
 What He willeth is, and what He willeth not, is not. Every boon is 
 of His grace and there is neither Majesty nor is there Might save in 
 Allah, the Glorious, the Great! But ye," quoth the King, "who 
 and what are ye and what bringeth you to this land ? " Quoth 
 Musa, "We are officers of the Sovereign of Al-Islam, the Com- 
 mander of the Faithful, Abd al-Malik bin Marwan, who hath heard 
 tell of the lord Solomon, son of David (on whom be peace !) and 
 of that which the Most High bestowed upon him of supreme 
 dominion ; how he held sway over Jinn and beast and bird and 
 was wont when he was wroth with one of the Marids, to shut him 
 in a cucurbite of brass and, stopping its mouth on him with lead, 
 whereon he impressed his seal-ring, to cast him into the sea of 
 Al-Karkar. Now we have heard tell that this sea is nigh your 
 land ; so the Commander of the Faithful hath sent us hither, to 
 bring him some of these cucurbites, that he may look thereon and 
 solace himself with their sight. Such, then, is our case and what 
 we seek of thee, O King, and we desire that thou further us in the 
 accomplishment of our errand commanded by the Commander of 
 the Faithful." "With love and gladness," replied the black King, 
 and carrying them to the guest-house, entreated them with the 
 utmost honour and furnished them with all they needed, feeding 
 them upon fish. They abode thus three days, when he bade his 
 divers fetch from out the sea some of the vessels of Solomon. So 
 they dived and brought up twelve cucurbites, whereat the Emir 
 and the Shaykh and all the company rejoiced in the accomplish- 
 ment of the Caliph's need. Then Musa gave the King of the 
 Blacks n~any and great gifts ; and he, in turn, made him a present 
 of the wonders of the deep, being fishes in human form,^ saying 
 "Your entertainment these three days hath been of the meat of 
 these fish." Quoth the Emir, " Needs must we carry some of these 
 to the Caliph, for the sight of them will please him more than the 
 cucurbites of Solomon." Then they took leave of the black King 
 and, setting out on their homeward journey, travelled till they came 
 to Damascus, where Musa went in to the Commander of the Faithful 
 
 order (Ixii. 9- 10), only during congregational prayers in the Mosque. Tlic most 
 a Mohammedan docs is not to work or travel till after public service. But the 
 Moslem hardly wants a " day of rest ; " whereas a Christian, especially in the 
 dull routine of daily life and toil, without a gleam of light to break the dark- 
 ness of his civilised and most unhappy existence, distinctly requires it. 
 
 ' Mankind, which sees itself everywhere and in everything, must create its own 
 analogues in all the elements, air (Sylphs), fire (Jinns), water (Mermen and 
 Mermaids) and earth (Kobolds). These merwomcn were of course seals or 
 manatees, as the wild women of Ilanno were gorillas. 
 
 VOL. IV. E
 
 66 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 and told him all that he had sighted and heard of verses and legends 
 and instances, together with the manner of the death of Talib bin 
 Sahl; and the Caliph said, "Would I had been with you, that I 
 might have seen what you saw !" Then he took the brazen vessels 
 and opened them, cucurbite after cucurbite, whereupon the devils 
 came forth of them, saying, " We repent, O Prophet of Allah ! 
 Never again will we return to the like of this thing ; no never !" 
 And the Caliph marvelled at this. As for the daughters of the deep 
 presented to them by the black King, they made them cisterns of 
 planks, full of water, and laid them therein ; but they died of the 
 great heat. Then the Caliph sent for the spoils of the Brazen City 
 
 and divided them among the Faithful, And Shahrazad perceived 
 
 the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 iEofo toftcn It toas tlje jpibe l^unUretr anti ^ebtntg-n'gftt^ iEiQl^t 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Caliph 
 marvelled much at the cucurbites and their contents ; then he sent 
 for the spoils and divided them among the Faithful, saying, " Never 
 gave Allah unto any the like of that which he bestowed upon 
 Solomon the son of David !" Thereupon the Emir Musa sought 
 leave of him to appoint his son Governor of the Province in his 
 stead, that he might betake himself to the Holy City of Jerusalem, 
 there to worship Allah. So the Commander of the Faithful invested 
 his son Harun with the government and Musa repaired to the 
 Glorious and Holy City, where he died. This, then, is all that hath 
 come down to us of the story of the City of Brass, and God is All- 
 knowing ! Now (continued Shahrazad) I have another tale to tell 
 
 anent the 
 
 CRAFT AND MALICE OF WOMEN,^ OR THE TALE OF 
 THE KING, HIS SON, HIS CONCUBINE 
 AND THE SEVEN VVAZIRS. 
 
 There was, in days of yore and in ages and times long gone before, 
 a puissant King among the Kings of China, the crown of crowned 
 heads, who ruled over many men of war and vassals with wisdom 
 and justice, might and majesty ; equitable to his Ryots, liberal to his 
 
 ^ Here begins the Sindibad-nameh, the origin of Dolopathos (thirteenth century 
 by the Trouvere Harbers) ; of the " Seven Sages " (John Holland in 1575) ; the
 
 The Craft and Malice of Women. 67 
 
 lieges and dearly beloved by the hearts of his subjects. He wps 
 wealthy as he was powerful, but he had grown old without being 
 blessed with a son, and this caused him sore affliction. He could 
 only brood over the cutting off of his seed and the oblivion that 
 would bury his name and the passing of his realm into the stranger's 
 hands. So he secluded himself in his palace, never going in and 
 out or rising and taking rest till the lieges lost all tidings of him and 
 were sore perplexed and began to talk about their King. Some 
 said, " He is dead ;" others said, " No, he's not ;" but all resolved 
 to find a ruler who could reign over them and carry out the customs 
 of government. At last, utterly despairing of male issue, he sought 
 the intercession of the Prophet (whom Allah bless and keep !) with 
 the Most High and implored Him, by the glory of His Prophets 
 and Saints and Martyrs and others of the Faithful who were accept- 
 able to Heaven that he would grant him a son, to be the cooling 
 of his eyes and heir to the kingdom after him. Then he rose 
 forthright and, withdrawing to his sitting-saloon, sent for his wife 
 who was the daughter of his uncle. Now this Queen was of sur- 
 passing beauty and loveliness, the fairest of all his wives and the 
 dearest to him as she was the nearest : and to boot a woman of 
 excellent wit and passing judgment. She found the King dejected 
 and sorrowful, tearful-eyed and heavy-hearted ; so she kissed ground 
 between his hands and said, " O King, may my life ransom thy life ! 
 may Time never prove thy foe, nor the shifts of Fortune prevail 
 over thee ; may Allah grant thee every joy and ward off from thee all 
 annoy ! How is it I see thee brooding over thy case and tormented 
 by the displeasures of memory?" He replied, "Thou wottest well 
 that I am a man now shotten in years, who hath never been blessed 
 with a son, a sight to cool his eyes ; so I know that my kingdom 
 shall pass away to the stranger in blood and my name and memory 
 will be blotted out amongst men. 'Tis this causeth me to grieve 
 with excessive grief." "Allah do away with thy sorrows," quoth 
 she. " God willing ! " cried the King. Thereupon she soothed and 
 consoled him, and they took counsel together and prayed till he 
 
 " Seven Wise Masters " and a host of minor romances. The Persian Sinflibdd- 
 Nameh assumed its present shape in A.D. 1375 : Professor Falconer printed an 
 abstract of it in the Orient. Journ. (xxxv. and xxxvi. 1841), and Mr. W. A. 
 Clouston reissued the " Book of Sindibad," with useful notes, in 1884. An 
 abstract of the Persian work is found in all edits, of The Nights ; but they differ 
 greatly, especially that in the Bresl. Kdit. xii. pp. 237-377, from which I borrow 
 the introduction. According to Uamzah Isfahan! (ch. xli.) the Reguli who 
 succeeded Alexander the Great and preceded King Sapor caused some seventy 
 books to be composed, amongst which were the Liber Maruc, Liber Barsinas, 
 Liber Sindibad, Liber Shimas, etc., etc.
 
 68 Alf Laylah wa Laylah 
 
 forgot his sorrows and he went forth amongst the Heges and sat, as 
 of wont, upon his throne of estate. All rejoiced to see him once 
 more and especially the Lords of his realm. Now in course of time 
 Allah Almighty blessed their prayers, and she bare a male child 
 whose face was as the rondure of the moon on its fourteenth night. 
 The lieges of the realm congratulated one another thereanent and 
 the King commanded an assembly of his Olema and philosophers, 
 astrologers and horoscopists, whom he thus addressed, " I desire you 
 to forecast the fortune of my son and to determine his ascendant' 
 and whatever is shown by his nativity." They replied, " 'Tis well, 
 in Allah's name, let us do so ! " and cast his nativity with all dili- 
 gence. After ascertaining his ascendant, they pronounced judgment 
 in these words, "We see his lot favourable and his life durable ; save 
 that a danger awaiteth his youth." The father was sore concerned 
 at this saying, when they added " But, O King, he shall escape from 
 it nor shall aught of injury accrue to him ! " Hereupon the King 
 cast aside all cark and care and robed the wizards and dismissed 
 them with splendid honoraria ; and he resigned himself to the will 
 of Heaven and acknowledged that the decrees of Destiny may not 
 be countervailed. He committed his boy to wet nurses and dry 
 nurses, handmaids and eunuchs, leaving him to grow and fill out in 
 the Harim till he reached the age of seven. Then he addressed 
 letters to his Viceroys and Governors in every clime, and by their 
 means gathered together Olema and philosophers and doctors of law 
 and religion, from all countries, to a number of three hundred and 
 three score. He held an especial assembly for them and, when they 
 were in presence, he bade them draw near him and be at their ease 
 while he sent for the food-trays and all ate their sufficiency. And 
 as soon as the banquet ended and the wizards had taken seats in their 
 several degrees, the King asked them, " Wot ye wherefore I have 
 gathered you together?" whereto all answered, "We wot not, O 
 King ! " He continued, " It is my wish that you select from amongst 
 you fifty men, and from these fifty ten, and from these ten one, that 
 he may teach my son omnem rem scibilem ; for when I see the 
 youth perfect in all science, I will share my dignity with the Prince 
 and make him partner with me in my possessions." " Know, O King," 
 they replied, " that among us none is more learned or more excellent 
 than Al-Sindibad,^ hight the Sage, who dwelleth in thy capital 
 
 ^ Eusebius, De Proep. Evang. iii. 4, quotes Prophesy concerning the 
 Egyptian belief in the Lords of the Ascendant, whose names are given 
 'cv TOts 'aX^cvt^iaKots : in these " Almerichiaka" we have the first almanac, 
 as the first newspaper in the Roman " Acta Diurna." 
 
 ^ " Al-Mas'udi," the " Herodotus of the Arabs," thus notices Sindibad the 
 Sage (in his Muruj, etc., written about A.D. 934). " During the reign of Kuriish 

 
 The Craft atid Malice of Women. 69 
 
 under thy protection. If such be thy design, summon him and bid 
 him do thy will." The King acted upon their advice and the Sage, 
 standing in the presence, expressed his loyal sentiments with his 
 salutation, whereupon his Sovereign bade him draw nigh and thus 
 raised his rank, saying, " I would have thee to know, O Sage, that 1 
 summoned this assembly of the learned and bade them choose me 
 out a man to teach my son all knowledge ; w^hen they selected thee 
 without dissenting thought or voice. If, then, thou feel capable of 
 what they claimed for thee, come thou to the task and understand 
 that a man's son and heir is the very fruit of his vitals and core of 
 his heart and liver. My desire of thee is thine instruction of him ; 
 and to happy issue Allah guideth ! " The King presently sent for 
 his son and committed him to Al-Sindibad, conditioning the Sage 
 to finish his education in three years. He did accordingly but, at 
 the end of that time, the young Prince had learned nothing, his 
 mind being wholly occupied with play and disport ; and when 
 summoned and examined by his sire, behold, his knowledge was as 
 nil. Thereupon the King turned his attention to the learned once 
 more and bade them elect a tutor for his youth ; so they asked, 
 "And what hath his governor, Al-Sindibad, been doing? " and when 
 the King answered, " He hath taught my son naught ; " the Olema 
 and philosophers and high officers summoned the instructor and 
 said to him, " O Sage, what prevented thee from teaching the King's 
 son during this length of days? " " O wise men," he replied, " the 
 Prince's mind is wholly occupied with disport and play ; yet, an the 
 King will make with me three conditions and keep to them, I will 
 teach him in seven months what he would not learn (nor indeed could 
 any other lesson him) within seven years." "I hearken to thee," 
 quoth the King, " and I submit myself to thy conditions ; " and quoth 
 Al-Sindibad, " Hear from me. Sire, and bear in mind these three 
 sayings, whereof the first is : — Do not to others what thou wouldest 
 not they do unto thee ; ^ and second : — Do naught hastily without 
 consulting the experienced ; and thirdly : — Where thou hast power 
 show pity.^ In teaching this lad I require no more of thee but to 
 
 (Cyrus) lived Al-Sindil;ad who wrote the Seven \Vazirs, etc." Al-Va'akiibi had 
 also named him circ. A.D. 880. For notes on the name Sindibad, see Sindbad 
 the Seaman, Night dxxx\'i. I need not enter into the history of the " Seven 
 Sages," a book as old as, if not older than The Nights in present form ; but 
 refer the reader to Mr. Clouston, of whom more in a future page. 
 
 ' Evidently borrowed from the Christians, although the latter borrowed from 
 writers of the most remote antiquity. The saying is the basis of all morality and 
 in few words contains the highest wisdom. 
 
 '" It is curious to compare the dry and business-like tone of the Arab style 
 with the rhetorical luxuriance of the Persian : p. 10 of Mr. Clouston's " Book of 
 Sindibad."
 
 70 A If Laylah wa Lay la h. 
 
 accept these three sayings and adhere thereto." Cried the King, "Bear 
 ye witness against me, O all ye here assembled, that I stand firm by 
 these conditions ; " and caused a writing thereof to be drawn up with 
 his personal security and the testimony of his courtiers. Thereupon 
 the Sage, taking the Prince's hand, led him to his place, and the 
 King sent them all requisites of food and kitchen-batteries, carpets 
 and other furniture. Moreover, the tutor bade build a house whose 
 walls he lined with the whitest stucco painted over with ceruse,^ and, 
 lastly, he delineated thereon all the objects concerning which he 
 proposed to lecture his pupil. When the place was duly furnished, 
 he took the lad's hand and installed him in the apartment which 
 was amply furnished with provisions ; and, after stablishing him 
 therein, went forth and fastened the door with seven padlocks. 
 Nor did he visit the Prince save every third day when he lessoned 
 him on the knowledge to be extracted from the wall-pictures and 
 renewed his provision of meat and drink, after which he left him 
 again to solitude. So whenever the youth was straitened in breast 
 by the tedium and ennui of loneliness, he applied himself dihgently 
 to his object-lessons and mastered all the deductions therefrom. 
 His governor seeing this, turned his mind into other channels and 
 taught him the inner meanings of the external objects ; and in a 
 little time the pupil mastered every requisite. Then the Sage took 
 him from the house and taught him horsemanship and Jerid-play 
 and archery. When the pupil had thoroughly mastered these arts, 
 the tutor sent to the King informing him that the Prince was perfect 
 and complete in all things required to figure favourably amongst his 
 peers. Hereat the King rejoiced ; and, summoning his Wazirs and 
 Lords of estate to be present at the examination, commanded the 
 Sage to send his son into the presence. Thereupon Al-Sindibad 
 consulted his pupil's horoscope and found it barred by an inauspicious 
 conjunction, which would last seven days ; so, in sore affright for the 
 youth's life, he said, " Look into thy nativity-scheme." The Prince 
 did so and, recognising the portent, feared for himself and presently 
 asked the Sage, saying, " What dost thou bid me do ? " "I bid 
 thee," he answered, "remain silent and speak not a word during this 
 se'nnight : even though thy sire slay thee with scourging. An thou 
 pass safely through this period, thou shalt win to high rank and 
 succeed to thy sire's reign ; but an things go otherwise, then the 
 behest is with Allah from the beginning to the end thereof." Quoth 
 
 ^ In the text " Isfidaj," the Pers. Isped (or Safed) ab, lit.=: white water, ceruse 
 used for women's faces suggesting our "Age of Bismuth," Blanc Rosati, Creme 
 de rimperatrice, Perline, Opaline, Milk ol Beauty, etc., etc., etc.
 
 The Craft and Malice of Women. 71 
 
 the pupil, "Thou art in fault, O preceptor, and thou hast shown 
 undue haste in sending that message to the King before looking into 
 my horoscope. Hadst thou delayed till the week had passed, all 
 had been well." Quoth the tutor, " O my son, what was to be was ; 
 and the sole defaulter therein was my delight in thy scholarship. 
 But now be firm in thy resolve : rely upon Allah Almighty and 
 determine not to utter a single word." Thereupon the Prince fared 
 for the presence and was met by the Wazirs who led him to his 
 father. The King accosted him and addressed him but he answered 
 not ; and sought speech of him but he spake not. Whereupon the 
 courtiers were astounded and the monarch, sore concerned for his 
 son, summoned Al-Sindibad. But the tutor so hid himself that none 
 could hit upon his trace nor gain tidings of him ; and folk said, " He 
 was ashamed to appear before the King's majesty and the cour- 
 tiers." Under these conditions the Sovereign heard some of those 
 present saying, " Send the lad to the Serraglio where he will talk 
 with the women and soon set aside this bashfulness ;" and, approv- 
 ing their counsel, gave orders accordingly. So the Prince was led 
 into the palace, which was compassed about by a running stream 
 whose banks were planted with all manner of fruit-trees and sweet- 
 smelling flowers. Furthermore, in this palace were forty chambers 
 and in every chamber ten slave-girls, each skilled in some instrument 
 of music, so that whenever one of them played, the palace danced to 
 her melodious strains. Here the Prince passed one night ; but, on 
 the following morning, the King's favourite concubine happened to 
 cast eyes upon his beauty and loveliness, his symmetrical stature, his 
 brilliancy and his perfect grace, and love gat hold of her heart and 
 she was ravished with his charms. Presently she went up to him and 
 spoke to him, but he made her no response ; whereupon, being dazed 
 by his beauty, she cried out to him and told him of her love ; then 
 she clasped him to her bosom, kissing him and saying, " O King's 
 son, grant me thy love and I will set thee in thy father's stead ; I 
 will give him to drink of poison, so he may die and thou shalt enjoy 
 his realm and wealth." When the Prince heard these words, he was 
 sore enraged against her and said to her by signs, "O accursed one, 
 so it please Almighty Allah, I will assuredly requite thee this thy 
 deed, when I can speak ; for I will go forth to my father and will tell 
 him, and he shall kill thee." So signing, he arose in rage, and went 
 out from her chamber ; whereat she feared for herself. Thereupon 
 she buffeted her face and rent her raiment and tare her hair and 
 bared her head, then went in to the King and cast herself at his feet, 
 weeping and wailing. When he saw her in this plight, he was sore 
 concerned and asked her, " What aileth thee, O damsel ? How is it
 
 72 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 with thy lord, my son? Is he not well?" and she answered, "O 
 King, this thy son, whom thy courtiers avouch to be dumb, wooed 
 me and I repelled him, whereupon he did with me as thou seest and 
 would have slain me ; so I fled from him, nor will I ever return to 
 him nor to the palace again; no, never again!" When the King 
 heard this, he was wroth with exceeding wrath and, calling his seven 
 Wazirs, bade them put the Prince to death. However, they said one 
 to other, " If we do the King's commandment, he will surely repent 
 of having ordered his son's death, for he is passing dear to him, and 
 this child came not to him save after despair ; and he will round 
 upon us and blame us, saying : — Why did ye not contrive to dis- 
 suade me from slaying him?" So they took counsel together, to 
 turn him from his purpose, and the chief Wazir said, " I will warrant 
 you from the King's mischief this day." Then he went in to the 
 presence and prostrating himself craved leave to speak. The King 
 gave him permission, and he said, " O King, though thou hadst a 
 thousand sons, yet were it no light matter to thee to put one of them 
 to death on the report of a woman, be she true or be she false ; and 
 belike this is a lie and a trick of her against thy son ; for indeed, O 
 King, I have heard tell great plenty of stories of the malice, the 
 wiles and the perfidy of women." Quoth the King, " Tell me some- 
 what of that which hath come to thy knowledge thereof." And the 
 Wazir answered, saying : — Yes ; there hath reached me, O King, 
 a tale entituled 
 
 THE KING AND HIS WAZIR' S WIFE> 
 
 There was once a King of the Kings, a potent man and a proud, 
 and one day being in the privacy of his palace, he espied a beautiful 
 woman on the terrace-roof of her house and could not contain him- 
 self from falling deeply in love with her.^ He asked his folk to 
 whom the house and the damsel belonged and they said, " This is 
 the dwelling of the Wazir Such-an-one and she is his wife." So he 
 called the Minister in question and despatched him on an errand to 
 
 ^ Another version of this tale is given in the Eresl. Edit, (vol viii. pp. 273-8 : 
 Night 675-6). It is the " Story of the King and the Virtuous Wife " in the book 
 of Sindibad. In the versions Arabic and Greek (Syntipas) tlie King forgets his 
 ring ; in the Hebrew Mishle Sandabar his staff, and his sandals in the old Spanish 
 Libro de los Engannos et los Asayamientos de las Mugeres. 
 
 ^ One might fancy that this is Biblical, Bathsheba and Uriah. But such episodes 
 must often have occurred in the East, at different times and places, without 
 requiring direct derivation.
 
 The King and his IVazir's Wife. 73 
 
 a distant part of the kingdom, where he was to collect information 
 and to return ; but, as soon as he obeyed and was gone, the King 
 contrived by a trick to gain access to his house and his spouse. 
 When the Wazir's wife saw him, she knew him and springing up, 
 kissed his hands and feet and welcomed him. Then she stood afar 
 off, busying herself in his service, and said to him, " O our lord, 
 what is the cause of thy gracious coming? Such an honour is not 
 for the like of me." Quoth he, " The cause of it is that love of thee 
 has moved me to this." Whereupon she kissed ground before him 
 a second time and said, " By Allah, O our lord, I am not worthy to 
 be the handmaid of one of the King's servants ; whence then have I 
 the great good fortune to be in such high honour and favour with 
 thee?" Then the King told her of his love and she said, "O my 
 King, abide with thy handmaid all this day, that she may make 
 ready for thee somewhat to eat and drink." So the King sat down 
 on his Minister's couch and she went in haste and brought him a 
 book wherein he might read, whilst she made ready the food. He 
 took the book and, beginning to read, found therein moral instances 
 and exhortations, such as restrained him from evil and broke his 
 courage to commit sin and crime. After awhile, she returned and 
 set before him some ninety dishes of different kinds and colours, 
 and he ate a mouthful of each and found that, while the number 
 was many, the taste of them was one. At this he marvelled with 
 exceeding marvel and said to her, " O damsel, I see these meats to 
 be manifold and various, but the taste of them is simple and the 
 same." " Allah prosper the King ! " replied she, " this is a parable 
 1 have set for thee, that thou mayst be admonished thereby." He 
 asked, "And what is its meaning?" and she answered, "Allah 
 amend the case of our lord the King! evil deeds are of various 
 colours, but their sorrow is one." When the King heard this, he was 
 ashamed and rising hastily, went out and returned to his palace ; 
 but, in his haste and confusion, he forgot his signet-ring and left it 
 under the cushion where he had been sitting, and albeit he remem- 
 bered he was ashamed to send for it. Now hardly had he reached 
 home when the Wazir returned and, presenting himself before the 
 King, kissed the ground and made his report to him of the state of 
 the province in question. Then he repaired to his own house and 
 sat down on his couch and, chancing to put his hand under the 
 cushion, behold, he found the King's seal-ring. So he knew it and 
 taking the matter to heart, held aloof in great grief from his wife for 
 a whole year, never speaking to her, whilst she knew not the reason 
 
 of his anger. And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day 
 
 and ceased saying her permitted say.
 
 74 AIJ Laylah wa LaylaJi. 
 
 Noh) b)I)cn it tuns tjbc Jpibc l^untiwti anti ^cbcntp--nintt Nigtt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir 
 held aloof from his wife, whilst she knew not the cause of his wrath. 
 At last, being weary of the long neglect, she sent for her sire and 
 told him the case ; whereupon quoth he, " I will complain of him to 
 the King, at some time when he is in the presence." So, one day, 
 he went in to the King and, finding the Wazir and the Kazi of the 
 Army^ before him, complained thus saying, " Almighty Allah amend 
 the King's case ! I had a fair flower-garden, which I planted with 
 mine own hand and thereon spent my substance till it bear fruit ; 
 when I gave it to this thy Wazir, who kept it awhile, then deserted 
 it and heeded it not, so that its bloom wilted and withered and its 
 sheen departed and its state changed." Then said the Wazir, " O 
 my King, this man saith sooth. I did indeed care for and guard 
 the garden and kept it in good condition and ate thereof, till one 
 day I went thither and I saw the trail of the lion there, wherefore I 
 feared for my life and withdrew from the garden." The King 
 understood him that the trail of the lion meant his own seal-ring 
 which he had forgotten in the woman's house ; so he said, " Return, 
 O Wazir, to thy flower-garden and fear nothing, for the lion came 
 not near it. It hath reached me that he went thither ; but, by the 
 honour of my fathers and forefathers, he offered it no hurt." 
 " Hearkening and obedience," answered the Minister and, returning 
 home sent for his wife and made his peace with her and thenceforth 
 l)ut faith in her. This I tell thee, O King (continued the Wazir), 
 for no other purpose save to let thee know how great is their craft 
 and how precipitancy bequeatheth repentance.^ And I have also 
 heard the following 
 
 ^ The great legal authority of the realm. 
 
 '" In all editions the Wazir here tells the Tale of the Merchant's Wife and the 
 Parrot which, following Lane, I have transferred to vol. i. But not to 
 break the tradition I here introduce the Persian version of the story from the 
 "Book of Sindibad." In addition to the details given in the note to vol. i., I 
 may quote the two talking-birds left to watch over his young wife by Rajah 
 Rasalu (son of Shalivahana the great Indian monarch circ. A.l3. 8i), who is to 
 the Punjab what Rustam is to Persia and Antar to Arabia. In the " Seven Wise 
 Masters " the parrot becomes a magpie and Mr. Clouston, in some clever papers 
 on " Popular Tales and Fictions," contributed to the Glasgow Eve7iing Times 
 (1884), compares it with the history, in the Gesta Romanorum, of the Lady, the 
 Abigail, and the Three Cocks, two of which crowed during the meeting of the 
 lady and her lover. All these evidently belong to the Sindibad cycle.
 
 The Confectioner, his Wife, and the Parrot. 75 
 
 STORY OF THE CONFECTIONER, HIS WIFE, AND 
 
 THE PARROT 
 
 Once upon a time there dwelt in Egypt a confectioner who had a 
 wife famed for beauty and loveHness, and a parrot which, as occasion 
 required, did the office of watchman and guard, bell and spy, and 
 Happed her wings did she but hear a fly buzzing about the sugar. 
 This parrot caused abundant trouble to the wife, always teUing her 
 husband what took place in his absence. Now one evening, before 
 going out to visit certain friends, the confectioner gave the bird strict 
 injunctions to watch all night and bade his wife make all fast, as he 
 should not return until morning. Hardly had he left the door than 
 the woman went for her old lover, who returned with her and they 
 passed the night together in mirth and merriment, while the parrot 
 observed all. Betimes in the morning the lover fared forth and the 
 husband, returning, was informed by the parrot of what had taken 
 place ; whereupon he hastened to his wife's room and beat her with 
 a painful beating. She thought in herself, " Who could have informed 
 against me ? " and she asked a woman that was in her confidence 
 whether it was she. The woman protested by the worlds visible and 
 invisible that she had not betrayed her mistress ; but informed her 
 that on the morning of his return home, the husband had stood some 
 time before the cage listening to the parrot's talk. When the wife 
 heard this, she resolved to contrive the destruction of the bird. Some 
 days after, the husband was again invited to the house of a friend 
 where he was to pass the night ; and, before departing, he enjoined 
 the parrot with the same injunctions as before ; wherefore his heart 
 was free from care, for he had his spy at home. The wife and her 
 confidante then ])lanned how they might destroy the credit of the 
 parrot with the master. For such purpose they resolved to counter- 
 feit a storm ; and this they did by placing over the parrot's head 
 a hand-mill (which the lover worked by pouring water upon a 
 l)iece of hide), by waving a fan and by suddenly uncovering a candle 
 hidden under a dish. Thus did they raise such a tempest of rain and 
 lightning, that the parrot was drenched and half-drowned in a deluge. 
 Now rolled the thunder, then flashed the lightning ; that from the 
 noise of the hand-mill, this from the reflection of the candle ; wlien 
 thought the parrot to herself, " In very sooth the Flood hath come 
 on, such an one as belike Noah himself never witnessed." So 
 saying she buried her head under her wing, a prey to terror. The
 
 t3 
 
 76 Alf Lay la h wa Laylah. 
 
 husband, on his return, hastened to the parrot to ask what had 
 happened during his absence ; and the bird answered that she found 
 it impossible to describe the deluge and tempest of the last night ; 
 and that years would be required to explain the uproar of the 
 hurricane and storm. When the shopkeeper heard the parrot talk 
 of last night's deluge, he said, " Surely, O bird, thou art gone clean 
 daft ! Where was there, even in a dream, rain or lightning last night ? 
 Thou hast utterly ruined my house and ancient family. My wife 
 is the most virtuous woman of the age and all thine accusations of 
 her are lies." So in his wrath he dashed the cage upon the ground, 
 tore off the parrot's head, and threw it from the window. Presently 
 his friend, coming to call upon him, saw the parrot in this condition 
 with head torn off, and without wings or plumage. Being informed 
 of the circumstances he suspected some trick on the part of the 
 woman, and said to the husband, " When your wife leaves home to 
 go to the Hammam-bath. compel her confidante to disclose the 
 secret." So as soon as his wife went out, the husband entered his 
 Harim and insisted on the woman telling him the truth : she re- 
 counted the whole story and the husband now bitterly repented 
 having killed the parrot, of whose innocence he had proof. This I 
 tell thee, O King (continued the Wazir), that thou mayst know how 
 great are the craft and malice of women and that to act in haste 
 leadeth to repent at leisure. So the King turned from slaying his 
 son ; but next day, the favourite came in to him and, kissing the 
 ground before him, said, " O King, why dost thou delay to do me 
 justice? Indeed, the Kings have heard that thou commandest a 
 thing and thy Wazir countermandeth it. Now the obedience of 
 Kings is in the fulfilment of their commandments, and everyone 
 knoweth thy justice and equity : so do thou justice for me on the 
 Prince. I also have heard tell a tale concerning 
 
 THE FULLER AND HLS SON. 
 
 There was once a man which was a fuller, and he used every day 
 to go forth to the Tigris-bank a-cleaning clothes ; and his son was 
 wont to go with him that he might swim whilst his father was fulling, 
 nor was he forbidden from this. One day, as the boy was swimming,^ 
 
 1 In the days of the Cahph Al-Mustakfi bi 'llah (A. H. 333 = 944) the youth 
 of Baghdad studied swimming, and it is said that they could swim holding 
 chafing-dishes upon which were cooking-pots and keep afloat till the meat was 
 dressed. The story is that of " The Washerman and his Son who were drowned 
 in the Nile," of the Book of Sindibad.
 
 The Miser and the Loaves of Bread. 77 
 
 he was taken with cramp in the forearms and sank, whereupon the 
 fuller plunged into the water and caught hold of him ; but the boy 
 clung about him and pulled him down, and so father and son were 
 both drowned. Thus it is with thee, O King. Except thou prevent 
 thy son and do me justice on him, I fear lest both of you sink 
 
 together, thou and he." And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of 
 
 day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 NotD toljcn It toas tfjc jpibc l^untirttr nnti lEictttfctf) Kigbt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 favourite had told her tale of the Fuller and his son, she ended 
 with, " I fear lest both of you sink together, thou and he. More- 
 over," continued she, "for an instance of the malice of men, I 
 have heard tell a tale concerning 
 
 THE MISER AND THE LOAVES OF BREAD. 
 
 There was once a merchant, who was a niggard and miserly in 
 his eating and drinking. One day, he went on a journey to a 
 certain town and as he walked into the market-streets, behold, he 
 met an old trot with two scones of bread which looked sound and 
 fair. He asked her, "Are these for sale?" and she answered "Yes." 
 So he beat her down and bought them at the lowest price and took 
 them home to his lodging, where he ate them that day. When 
 morning morrowed, he returned to the same place and, finding the 
 old woman there with other two scones, bought these also, and thus 
 he ceased not during twenty-five days' space when the old wife dis- 
 appeared. He made enrjuiry for her, but could hear no tidings of 
 her, till, one day as he was walking about the high streets, he 
 chanced upon her : so he accosted her and, after the usual salutation 
 and with much i)raise and politeness, asked why she had disap- 
 peared from the market and ceased to supply the two cakes of 
 bread? Hearing this, at first she evaded giving him a reply; but 
 he conjured her to tell him her case ; so she said, " Hear my 
 excuse, O my lord, which is that I was attending \\\)on a man who 
 had a corroding ulcer on his spine, and his doctor bade us knead 
 flour with butter into a plaster and lay it on the place of pain, 
 where it abode all night. In the morning, I used to take that 
 flour and turn it into dough and make it into two scones, which
 
 78 A If Lay la h wa Laylah. 
 
 I cooked and sold to thee or to another ; but presently the man 
 died and I was cut off from making cakes. "^ When the merchant 
 heard this, he repented whenas repentance availed him naught, 
 saying, " Verily, we are Allah's and verily unto Him we are return- 
 ing ! There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Him, 
 
 the Glorious, the Great ! " And Shahrazad was surprised by the 
 
 dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 i^ohj tof)cn a tons t!)e Jibe l^untirctf antr 15ici1^ti.i-fivst i^igftt, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 ■old trot told the merchant the provenance of the scones, he cried, 
 " There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the 
 Glorious, the Great ! " And he repeated the saying of the Most 
 High, "Whatever evil falleth to thee it is from thyself; "2 and 
 vomited till he fell sick and repented whenas repentance availed 
 him naught. Moreover, O King (continued the second Wazir), I 
 have heard tell, of the malice of women, a tale of 
 
 THE LADY AND HER THREE LOVERS. 
 
 Once upon a time there was a damsel of the common sort, who had 
 three suitors, each unknown to the other. One day, one of them 
 came to her and sat down with her and talked with her. As the 
 two were thus, lo ! the second suitor knocked at the door. So she 
 pushed the first through a trap-door into an underground chamber 
 there and opened the door to the new-comer, who sat and talked 
 with her. Presently, the third knocked at the door and the gallant 
 asked her, "Who is that ?" whereto she answered, "My brother." 
 Quoth he, " How shall I do ? " Quoth she, " Draw thy sword and 
 stand in the vestibule and abuse me and revile me ; and when my 
 brother comes in to thee, do thou go forth and wend thy ways." 
 He did as she bade him ; and, when the third entered, he saw the 
 gallant standing with naked brand in hand, abusing and threatening 
 the girl ; but when the lover saw him, he was ashamed, and sheathing 
 his scymitar, went forth the house. Said the new-comer to the girl, 
 
 ^ This nauseous Joe Miller has often been told in the hospitals of London and 
 Paris. It is as old as the Hitopadesa. 
 
 2 Koran iv. 81, "All is from Allah;" but the evil which befals mankind, 
 though ordered by Allah, is yet the consequence of their own wickedness.
 
 The Kings Son and the Ogress. 79 
 
 " What means this ? " and she repHed, " O man, how blessed is the 
 hour of thy coming ! Thou hast saved a True BeUever from slaughter, 
 and it happed after this fashion. I was on the house-terrace, spinning,^ 
 when behold, there came up to me a youth, distracted and panting 
 for fear of death, fleeing from yonder man, who followed upon him 
 as hard as he could with his drawn sword. The young man fell 
 down before me, and kissed my hands and feet, saying, "O Protec- 
 tor, of thy mercy, save me from him who would slay me wrongously ! " 
 So I hid him in that underground chamber of ours and presently in 
 came yonder man to me, naked brand in hand, demanding the 
 youth. But I denied him to him, whereupon he fell to abusing and 
 threatening me as thou sawest. And praised be Allah who sent thee 
 to me, for I was distraught and had none to deliver me ! " " Well 
 hast thou done, O woman ! " answered the man. " Thy reward is 
 with Allah the Almighty, and may He abundantly requite thy good 
 deed 1 " Then he went to the trap door and called to the first- 
 comer, saying, " Come forth and fear not ; no harm shall befal thee." 
 So he came out, trembling for fear, and the man said, " Be of good 
 cheer : none shall hurt thee ; " condoling with him on what had be- 
 fallen him ; whilst the first called down blessings on his head. Then 
 they both went forth, nor were any aware of that which the woman 
 had contrived. " This, then, O King," said the Wazir, "' is one of 
 the wiles of women ; so beware lest thou rely upon their words." 
 The King was persuaded and turned from putting his son to death ; 
 but, on the third day, the favourite came in to him and, kissing the 
 ground before him, cried, " O King, do me justice on thy son and be 
 not turned from thy purpose by thy Ministers' prate, for there is no 
 good in wicked Wazirs; and be not as the King of Baghdad, who 
 relied on the word of a certain wicked counsellor of his." Quoth he, 
 " And how was that ? " Quoth she : — There hath been told me, 
 O auspicious and well-advised King, a tale of 
 
 THE KING'S SON AND THE OGRESS.'^ 
 
 A CERTAIN King had a son, whom he loved and favoured with 
 exceeding favour, over all his other children ; and this son said to 
 him one day, " O my father, I have a mind to fare a-coursing and 
 
 * The Bresl. Edit. (xii. 266) says "l^alhin^'." 
 
 - This tale is much Hke that told in the Fifth Night (vol. i.). It is the story of 
 the Prince and the Lamia in the Book of Sindibad, wherein it is given with Persian 
 rhetoric and difTusencss.
 
 So Alf Laylah wa Lay/ah. 
 
 a-hunting." So the King bade furnish him and commanded one of 
 his Wazirs to bear him company and do all the service he needed 
 during his trip. The Minister accordingly took everything that was 
 necessary for the journey and they set out with a retinue of eunuchs 
 and officers and pages, and rode on, sporting as they went, till they 
 came to a green and well-grassed champaign abounding in pasture 
 and water and game. Here the Prince turned to the Minister and 
 told him that the place pleased him and he purposed to halt there. 
 So they sat down in that site and they loosed the falcons and lynxes 
 and dogs and caught great plenty of game, whereat they rejoiced and 
 abode there some days, in all joyance of life and its delight. Then 
 the King's son gave the signal for departure ; but, as they went along, 
 a beautiful gazelle, as if the sun rose shining from between her horns, 
 that had strayed from her mate, sprang up before the Prince, where- 
 upon his soul longed to make prize of her and he coveted her. So 
 he said to the Wazir, " I have a mind to follow that gazelle ; " and 
 the Minister replied, " Do what seemeth good to thee." Thereupon 
 the Prince rode single-handed after the gazelle, till he lost sight of 
 his companions, and chased her all that day till dusk, when she took 
 refuge in a bit of rocky ground,^ and darkness closed in upon him. 
 Then he would have turned back, but knew not the way ; whereat he 
 was sore concerned and said, " There is no Majesty and there is no 
 Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great ! " He sat his mare all 
 night till morning dawned, in quest of relief, but found none ; and, 
 when the day appeared, he fared on at hazard, fearful, famished, 
 thirsty, and knowing not whither to wend till it was noon and the 
 sun beat down upon him with burning heat. By that time he came 
 in sight of a great city, with massive base and lofty bulwarks ; but it 
 was ruined and desolate, nor was there any live thing therein save 
 owl and raven. As he stood among the buildings, marvelling at 
 their ordinance, lo ! his eyes fell on a damsel, young, beautiful, and 
 lovely, sitting under one of the city walls wailing and weeping copious 
 tears. So he drew nigh to her and asked, " Who art thou and who 
 brought thee hither ? " She answered, " I am called Bint al-Tamimah, 
 daughter of Al-Tiyakh, King of the Gray Country. I went out one 
 day to the bath,^ when an Ifrit of the Jinn snatched me up and 
 soared with me between heaven and earth ; but as he flew, there 
 
 ^ Arab. "Wa'ar"= rocky, hilly, tree-less ground unfit for riding. I have 
 noted that the three Heb. words "Year" e.g. Kiryath-Yearim = City of forest), 
 " Choresh" (now Ilirsh, a scrub), and " Pardes " (TrapaSetcros a chase, a hunting- 
 park opposed toK^TToS) an orchard) are preserved in Arabic and are intelligible in 
 Palestine (Unexplored Syria, i. 207). 
 
 - The baths are favourite haunts of the Jinns.
 
 The King's Son and the Ogress. 8i 
 
 fell on him a shooting-star in the form of a flame of fire and burned 
 him, and I dropped here, where these three days I have hungered 
 
 and thirsted; but when I saw thee I longed for life." -And 
 
 Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her per- 
 mitted say. 
 
 NotD toj^cn It tons Wyz Jfibc f^uuUreti nnti IStgljin-SECoutf Wig!)t, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Prince, 
 when addressed by the daughter of King Al-Tiyakh who said to him, 
 "When I saw thee I longed for life," was smitten with ruth and grief 
 for her and took her up on his courser's crupper, saying, " Be of good 
 cheer and keep thine eyes cool and clear ; for, if Allah (extolled and 
 exalted be He !) restore me to my people and family, I will send 
 thee back to thine own folk." Then he rode on, praying for de- 
 liverance, and presently the damsel said to him, " O King's son, set 
 me down, that I may rest under this wall." So he drew bridle and 
 she alighted. He waited for her a long while as she hid herself 
 behind the wall ; and she came forth, with the foulest of favours ; 
 which when he saw, his hair stood on end and he quaked for fear of 
 her and he turned deadly pale. Then she sprang up on his steed, 
 behind him, wearing the most loathly of aspects, and presently she 
 said to him, " O King's son, what ails thee, that I see thee troubled 
 and thy favour changed ? " "I have bethought me of somewhat that 
 troubles me." " Seek aid against it of thy father's troops and his 
 braves." " He whom I fear careth naught for troops, neither can 
 braves affright him." "Aid thyself against him with thy father's 
 monies and treasures." " He whom I fear will not be satisfied with 
 wealth." " Ye hold that ye have in Heaven a God who seeth and 
 is not seen and is Omnipotent and Omniscient." " Yes, we have 
 none but Him." "Then pray thou to Him; haply he will deliver 
 thee from me thine enemy ! " So the King's son raised his eyes to 
 heaven and began to pray with his whole heart, saying, " O my God, 
 I implore Thy succour against that which troubleth me." Then he 
 pointed to her with his hand, and she fell to the ground, burnt black 
 as charred coal. Therewith he thanked Allah and praised Him and 
 ceased not to fare forwards ; and the Almighty (extolled and exalted 
 be He !) of His grace made the way easy to him and guided him 
 into the right road, so that he reached his own land and came upon 
 his father's capital, after he iiad despaired of life. Now all this befel 
 by the contrivance of tlic Wa/.ir, wlio travelled with him, to the end 
 that he might cause him to perish on the way; hut Almighty Allah 
 
 VOL. IV. V
 
 82 A If Laylah wa Lay la h. 
 
 succoured him. " And this " (said the damsel) " have I told thee, 
 O King, that thou mayst know that wicked Wazirs deal not honestly 
 by nor counsel with sincere intent their Kings ; wherefore be thou 
 wise and ware of them in this matter." The King gave ear to 
 her speech and bade put his son to death ; but the third Wazir 
 came in and said to his brother Ministers, " I will warrant you from 
 the King's mischief this day;" and, going in to him, kissed the 
 ground between his hands and said, " O King, I am thy true 
 counsellor and solicitous for thee and for thine estate, and indeed I 
 give thee the best of counsel ; it is that thou hasten not to slay thy 
 son, the coolness of thine eyes and the fruit of thy vitals. Haply his 
 sin is but a slight slip, which this damsel hath made great to thee ; 
 and indeed I have heard tell that the people of two villages once 
 destroyed one another, because of a drop of honey." Asked the 
 King, " How was that ? " and the Wazir answered, saying : — Know, 
 O King, that I have heard this story anent 
 
 THE DROP OF HONE ¥> 
 
 A CERTAIN hunter used to chase wild beasts in wold, and one day 
 he came upon a grotto in the mountains, where he found a hollow 
 full of bees' honey. So he took somewhat thereof in a water-skin he 
 had with him and, throwing it over his shoulder, carried it to the 
 city, followed by a hunting dog which was dear to him. He stopped 
 at the shop of an oilman and offered him the honey for sale and he 
 bought it. Then he emptied it out of the skin, that he might see it, 
 and in the act a drop fell to the ground, whereupon the flies flocked 
 to it and a bird swooped down upon the flies. Now the oilman had 
 a cat, which sprang upon the bird, and the hunter's dog, seeing 
 the cat, sprang upon it and slew it ; whereupon the oilman sprang 
 upon the dog and slew it, and the hunter in turn sprang upon the 
 oilman and slew him. Now the oilman was of one village and the 
 hunter of another ; and when the people of the two places heard 
 what had passed, they took up arms and weapons and rose one on 
 other in wrath and the two lines met ; nor did the sword leave to 
 play amongst them, till there died of them much people, none 
 
 1 Arab history is full of petty wars caused by trifles. In Egypt the clans Sa'ad 
 and Haram and in Syria the Kays and Yaman (which remain to the present day) 
 were as pugnacious as Highland Caterans. The tale bears some likeness to the 
 accumulative nursery rhymes in "The House that Jack Built," and "The Old 
 Woman and the Crooked Sixpence;" which find their indirect original in an 
 allegorical Talmudic hymn. Cf. The "Story of the Braying," in Don Quixote.
 
 The Woman who made her Husband Sift Dust. 8 
 
 o 
 
 knoweth their number save Almighty Allah. And amongst other 
 stories of the malice of women (continued the Wazir) I have heard 
 tell, O King, one concerning 
 
 THE WOMAN WHO MADE HER HUSBAND SIFT 
 
 DUST} 
 
 A MAN once gave his wife a dirham to buy rice ; so she took it and 
 went to the rice-seller, who gave her the rice and began to jest with 
 her and ogle her, for she was dowered with beauty and loveliness, 
 saying, "Rice is not good but with sugar which if thou wilt have, 
 come in and sit with me for an hour." So, saying " Give me sugar," 
 she went in with him into his shop and they talked together, and he 
 said to his slave, " Weigh her out a dirham's worth of sugar." But 
 he made the slave a privy sign, and the boy, taking the napkin, in 
 which was the rice, emptied it out and stored earth and dust in its 
 stead, and for the sugar set stones, after which he again knotted up 
 the napkin and left it by her. His object, in doing this, was that 
 she should come to him a second time ; so, when she went forth of 
 the shop, he gave her the napkin and she took it, thinking to have 
 in it rice and sugar, and went her vvay ; but when she returned home 
 and, setting it before her husband, went for a cooking-pot, he found 
 in it earth and stones. So, as soon as she came back bringing the 
 pot, he said to her, " Did I tell thee I had aught to build, that thou 
 bringest me earth and stones ? " When she saw this, she knew 
 that the rice-seller's slave had tricked her ; so she said to her hus- 
 band, " O man, in my trouble of mind for what hath befallen me, I 
 went to fetch the sieve and brought the cooking-pot." " What hath 
 troubled thee?" asked he; and she answered, "O husband, I 
 dropped the dirham thou gavest me in the market-street and was 
 ashamed to search for it before the folk ; yet I grudged to lose the 
 silver, so I gathered up the earth from the place where it fell and 
 brought it away, thinking to sift it at home. Wherefore I went to 
 fetch the sieve, Init brought the cooking-pot instead." Then she 
 fetched the sieve and gave it to her husband, saying, " Do thou sift 
 it ; for thine eyes are sharper than mine." Accordingly he sat 
 sifting the clay, till his face and beard were covered with dust ; and 
 he discovered not her trick, neither knew what had befallen her. 
 
 ' This is the story of " The Old Man who sent his Young Wife to the Market to 
 buy Rice," told with Persian reflections in the " Book of ijindibad."
 
 84 Alf Lay la h wa Lay /ah. 
 
 " This then, O King," said the Wazir, " is an instance of the malice 
 of women, and consider the saying of Allah Almighty : — Surely 
 the cunning of you (women) is great ! ^ And again : — Indeed, the 
 malice of Satan is weak in comparison with the malice of 
 women ? " ^ The King gave ear to his Wazir's speech and was 
 persuaded thereby and was satisfied by what he cited to him of 
 the signs of Allah ; ^' and the lights of good counsel arose and 
 shone in the firmament of his understanding and he turned from 
 his purpose of slaying his son. But on the fourth day, the favourite 
 came in to him weeping and waihng and, kissing the ground before 
 him, said, " O auspicious King, and lord of good counsel, I have 
 made plainly manifest to thee my grievance and thou hast dealt 
 unjustly by me and hast forborne to avenge me on him who hath 
 wronged me, because he is thy son and the darling of thy heart ; 
 but Allah (extolled and exalted be He !) will presently succour me 
 against him, even as He succoured the King's son against his father's 
 Wazir," " And how was that ? " asked the King ; and she answered : — 
 I have heard tell, O King, a tale of 
 
 THE ENCHANTED SPRINC^ 
 
 There was once in times gone by a King who had one son and 
 none other ; and, when the Prince grew up to man's estate, he con- 
 tracted him in marriage to another King's daughter. Now the 
 damsel was a model of beauty and grace and her uncle's son had 
 sought her in wedlock of her sire, but she would none of him. So,, 
 when he knew that she was to be married to another, envy and 
 jealousy gat hold of him and he bethought himself and sent a noble 
 present to the Wazir of the bridegroom's father and much treasure, 
 desiring him to use craft for slaying the Prince or contrive to make 
 him leave his intent of espousing the girl, and adding, " O Wazir, 
 indeed jealousy moveth me to this for she is my cousin."^ The 
 Wazir accepted the present and sent an answer, saying, " Be of good 
 cheer and of eyes cool and clear, for I will do all that thou wishest." 
 
 ^ Koran xii. 28. The words were spoken by Potiphar to Joseph. 
 " Koran iv. 78. A mis-quotation, the words are, " Fight therefore against the 
 friends of Satan, for the craft of Satan shall be weak." 
 ^ i.e. Koranic versets. 
 
 * In the Book of Sindibad this is the "Story of the Prince who went out to 
 hunt and the stratagem which the Wazir practised on him." 
 
 * I have noted that it is a dire affront to an Arab if his first cousin marry any 
 save himself without his formal consent.
 
 The Enchanted Spring. 85 
 
 Presently, the bride's father wrote to the Prince, bidding him to his 
 capital, that he might go woo his daughter ; whereupon the King 
 his father gave him leave to wend his way thither, sending with him 
 the bribed Wazir and a thousand horse, besides presents and litters, 
 tents and pavilions. The Minister set out with the Prince, plotting 
 the while in his heart to do him a mischief ; and when they came 
 into the desert, he called to mind a certain spring of running water 
 in the mountains there, called Al-Zahra,^ whereof whosoever drank 
 from a man became a woman. So he called a halt of the troo])S 
 near the fountain and presently mounting steed again, said to the 
 Prince, " Hast thou a mind to go with me and look upon a spring 
 of water near hand?" The Prince mounted, knowing not what 
 should befal him in the future,- and they rode on, unattended by 
 any, and without stopping till they came to the spring. The Prince 
 being thirsty said to the Wazir, "O Minister, I am suffering from 
 drouth," and the other answered, " Get thee down and drink of this 
 spring ! " So he alighted and washed his hands and drank, when 
 behold, he straightway became a woman. As soon as he knew what 
 had befallen him, he cried out and wept till he fainted away, and 
 the Wazir came up to him as if to learn what had befallen him and 
 cried, " What aileth thee ?" Therewith he told him what had hap- 
 pened, and the Minister feigned to condole with him and weep for his 
 aflliction, saying, " Allah Almighty be thy refuge in thine affliction ! 
 How came this calamity upon thee and this great misfortune to 
 betide thee, and we carrying thee with joy and gladness, that thou 
 mightest go woo the King's daughter? Verily, now I know not 
 whether we shall go to her or not ; but the counsel'' is thine. What 
 dost thou command me to do?" Quoth the Prince, " Go back to 
 my sire and tell him what hath betided me, for I will not stir hence 
 till this matter be removed from me or I die in my regret." So he 
 wrote a letter to his father, telling him what had happened, and the 
 Wazir took it and set out on his return to the city, leaving what 
 troops he had with the Prince and inwardly exulting for the success 
 of his plot. As soon as he reached the King's capital, he went in 
 to him and, telling him what had passed, dehvercd the letter. Tlie 
 
 ' i.e. the flowery, the splendid ; an epithet of Fatimah, the daughter of the 
 Apostle " the Ijright blooming." Fatimah is an old Arab name of good omen, 
 "the weaner : " in Egypt it becomes Fatti'imah (an incremcnlative =" great 
 weaner ") ; and so Aminah, Khadijah and Naf isah on the banks of the Nile are 
 barbarised to Ammunah, Khaddiigah and Natfiisah. 
 
 - i.e. his coming misfortune, the phrase being euphemistic. 
 
 ^ Arab, kdy : in theology it means " private judgment " and Rayi (act. partic.) 
 is a Rationalist. The llanafi School is called " Ashab al-Ray " because it allows 
 more liberty of thought than the other three orthodox.
 
 86 AIJ Laylah 7va Laylah. 
 
 King mourned for his son with sore mourning and sent for the wise 
 men and masters of esoteric science, that they might discover and 
 explain to him this thing which had befallen his son, but none could 
 give him an answer. Then the Wazir wrote to the lady's cousin, con- 
 veying to him the glad news of the Prince's misfortune, and he when 
 he read the letter rejoiced with great joy and thought to marry the 
 Princess and answered the Minister sending him rich presents and 
 great store of treasure and thanking him exceedingly. Meanwhile, the 
 Prince abode by the stream three days and three nights, eating not 
 nor drinking and committing himself, in his strait, unto Allah (extolled 
 and exalted be He !) who disappointeth not whoever reheth on him. 
 On the fourth night, lo ! there came to him a cavalier on a bright-bay 
 steed ^ with a crown on his head, as he were of the sons of the Kings, 
 and said to him, "Who brought thee hither, O youth?" The Prince 
 told him of his mishap, how he was wending to his wedding, and 
 how the Wazir had led him to a spring whereof he drank and 
 incurred what had occurred ; and as he spoke his speech was 
 broken by tears. Having heard him the horseman pitied his case 
 and said, " It was thy father's Wazir who cast thee into this strait, 
 for no man alive save he knoweth of this spring ; " presently adding, 
 '• Mount thee behind me and come with me to my dwelling, for 
 thou art my guest this night." "Acquaint me who thou art ere I 
 fare with thee," quoth the Prince; and quoth the other, "I am a 
 King's son of the Jann, as thou a King's son of mankind ! so be of 
 good cheer and keep thine eyes clear of tear, for I will surely do 
 away thy cark and care ; and this is a slight thing unto me." So the 
 Prince mounted him behind the stranger, and they rode on, leaving 
 the troops, from the first of the day till midnight, when the King's 
 son of the Jinn asked the Prince, " Knowest thou how many days' 
 march we have covered in this time?" " Not I." "We have come 
 a full year's journey for a diligent horseman." The Prince marvelled 
 at this and said, "How shall I do to return to my people?" "That 
 is not thine affair, but my business. As soon as thou art quit of thy 
 complaint, thou shalt return to thy people in less than the twinkling 
 of an eye ; for that is an easy matter to me," When the Prince heard 
 these words he was ready to fly for excess of joy ; it seemed to him 
 as he were in the imbroglio of a dream and he exclaimed, " Glory be 
 
 to him who can restore the unhappy to happiness ! " And Shah- 
 
 razad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her per- 
 mitted say. 
 
 ^ The angels in Al- Islam ride pie-balds.
 
 The Enchanted Spr'uig. 87 
 
 iloto b)I)cn tt teas \\i Jpibe ^^untircti anti I5tgf)tr)^ti)iiti iii'crfjt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Prince 
 of the Jinn said to the Prince of mankind, " When thou art quit of 
 thy complaint, thou shalt return to thy folk in less than the twinkling 
 of an eye ; " and the King's son rejoiced. They fared on all that 
 night till the morning morrowed, when lo ! they found themselves in 
 a green and smiling country, full of trees spireing and birds quiring 
 and garths fruit-growing and palaces high-showing and waters a-flowing 
 and odoriferous flowers a-blowing. Here the King's son of the Jinn 
 alighted from his steed and, bidding the Prince do the like, took 
 him by the hand and carried him into one of the palaces, where he 
 found a great King and puissant Sultan ; and abode with him all that 
 day eating and drinking, till nightfall. Then the King's son of the 
 Jinn mounted his courser and taking the Prince up behind him, 
 fared on swiftly through the murks and glooms until morning, when 
 lo, they found themselves in a dark land and a desert, full of black 
 rocks and stones, as it were a piece of Hell ; and the Prince asked 
 the Jinni, "What is the name of this land?" Answered the other, 
 " It is called the Black Country, and belongs to one of the Kings of 
 the Jinn, by name Zu al-Janahayn, against whom none of the other 
 Kings may prevail, neither may any enter his dominions save by his 
 permit ; so tarry thou here, whilst I go ask leave." So saying, he 
 went away and, returning after awhile, they fared on again, till they 
 ended at a spring of water welling forth of a black rock, and the 
 King's son of the Jinn said to the King's son of men, "Alight!" 
 He dismounted and the other cried, " Drink of this water." So he 
 drank of the spring without stay or delay ; and, no sooner had he 
 done so than, by grace of Allah, he became a man as before. At 
 this he joyed with exceeding joy and asked the Jinni, " O my brother, 
 how is this spring called ? " Answered the other, " It is called the 
 Women's Spring, for that no woman drinketh thereof but she be- 
 cometh a man : wherefore do thou praise Allah the Most High and 
 thank Him for thy restoration and mount." The Prince prostrated 
 himself in gratitude to the Almighty, after which he mounted again 
 and they fared on diligently all that day, till they returned to the 
 Jinni's home, where the Prince passed the night in all solace of life, 
 They spent the next day in eating and drinking till nightfall, when 
 the King's son of the Jinn asked the Prince, "Hast thou a mind to 
 return to thy people this very night?" "Yes," he answered; "for 
 indeed I long for them." Then the Jinni called one of his father's
 
 88 Alf Laylah %va Lay /ah. 
 
 slaves, Rajiz^ hight, and said to him, " Take this young man mounted 
 on thy shoulders, and let not the day dawn ere he be with his father- 
 in-law and his wife." Replied the slave, " Hearkening and obedi- 
 ence, and with love and gladness, and upon my head and eyes ! " 
 then, withdrawing awhile, re-appeared in the form of an Ifrit. 
 When the Prince saw this, he lost his senses for affright, but the 
 Jinni said to him, " Fear not ; no harm shall befal thee. Mount thy 
 horse and leap him on to the Ifrit's shoulders." " Nay," answered 
 he, " I will leave my horse with thee and bestride his shouders 
 myself." So he bestrode the Ifrit's shoulders and, when the Jinni 
 cried, " Close thine eyes, O my lord, and be not a craven ! " he 
 strengthened his heart and shut his eyes. Thereupon the Ifrit rose 
 with him into the air and ceased not to fly between sky and earth, 
 whilst the Prince was unconscious, nor was the last third of the night 
 come before he lighted down with him on the terrace-roof of his 
 father-in-law's palace. Then said the Ifrit, " Dismount and open 
 thine eyes ; for this is the palace of thy father-in-law and his 
 daughter." So he came down and the Ifrit flew away and left him 
 on the roof of the palace. When the day broke and the Prince 
 recovered from his troubles, he descended into the palace and as 
 his father-in-law caught sight of him, he came to meet him and 
 marvelled to see him descend from the roof of the palace, saying, 
 "We see folk enter by the doors; but thou comest from the 
 skies." Quoth the Prince, " Whatso Allah (may He be extolled and 
 exalted !) willeth, that cometh to pass." And he told him all that 
 had befallen him, from first to last, whereat the king marvelled and 
 rejoiced in his safety ; and, as soon as the sun rose, bade his Wazir 
 make ready splendid bride-feasts. So did he and they held the 
 marriage festival : after which the Prince abode with his bride two 
 months, then departed with her for his father's capital. As for the 
 damsel's cousin, he died forthright of envy and jealousy. When the 
 Prince and his bride drew near his father's city, the King came out 
 to meet them with his troops and Wazirs, and so Allah (blessed and 
 exalted be He !) enabled the Prince to prevail against his bride's 
 cousin and his father's Minister. " And I pray the Almighty " 
 (added the damsel) " to aid thee against thy Wazirs, O King, and I 
 beseech thee to do me justice on thy son ! " When the King heard 
 
 this, he bade put his son to death. And Shahrazad perceived the 
 
 dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 1 In the Bresl. Edit. "Zajir" (xii. 286).
 
 The Wife's Device to Cheat her Husband. 89 
 
 :Nrolu lufjcn tt [uns tTje Jibe l^untrrcti anti ISig^ty-fourtD Wigfjt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 favourite had told her tale to the King she said, " I beseech thee 
 to do me justice by putting thy son to death." Now this was the 
 fourth day, so the fourth Wazir entered and, kissing the ground 
 before him, said, " Allah stablish and protect the King ! O King, 
 be deliberate in doing this thou art resolved upon, for the wise man 
 doth naught till he hath considered the issue thereof, and the proverb 
 saith : — Whoso looketh not to his actions' end, hath not the world 
 to friend ; and whoso acteth without consideration, evil befalleth 
 him. " Moreover, O King " (continued the Wazir), " there hath 
 reached me another story of the malice of women." " What is 
 that ?" asked the King, and the Wazir said: — Know, O King, that 
 it is anent 
 
 THE WIFE'S DEVICE TO CHEAT HER HUSBAND. 
 
 There was once a woman who had no e(iual in her day for beauty 
 and loveliness and grace and perfection ; and a certain youth setting 
 eyes on her, fell in love with her and loved her with exceeding 
 love, but she was good and would not hearken to him. It chanced 
 one day that her husband went on a journey to a certain town, 
 whereupon the young man fell to sending to her many times a 
 day ; but she made him no reply. At last, he resorted to an old 
 woman, who dwelt hard by, and after saluting her he sat down and 
 complained to her of his love. Quoth she, "I will warrant thee 
 this ; no harm shall befal thee, for I will surely bring thee to meet 
 her, Inshallah,— an it please Allah the Most High ! " At these 
 words he gave her a dinar and went his way. When the morning 
 morrowed she appeared before the woman and, renewing an old 
 acquaintance with her, fell to visiting her daily, eating the undertime 
 with ,her and the evening meal and carrying away food for her 
 children. Moreover she used to sport and jest with her, till the wife 
 could not endure an hour without her company. Now she was 
 wont, when she left the lady's house, to take bread and fat where- 
 with she mixed a little pepper to feed a dog, that was in that 
 quarter; and thus she did day by day, till the dog became fond of 
 her and followed her wherever she went. One day she took a cake 
 of dough and, putting therein an overdose of pepper, gave it to the 
 dog to eat, whereupon the beast's eyes began to shed tears, for the
 
 90 AIJ Laylali zva Laylali. 
 
 heat of the pepper, and she followed the old woman, weeping. 
 When the lady saw this, she was amazed and asked the ancient, " O 
 my mother, what ails this dog to weep?" Answered she, "Learn, 
 O my heart's love, that hers is a strange story. Know that she was 
 once a close friend of mine, a lovely and accomplished young lady, 
 a model of comeliness and perfect grace. A young Nazarene of the 
 quarter fell in love with her and his affection and pining increased on 
 him, till he took to his pillow, and he sent to her times manifold, 
 begging her to have compassion on him and show him mercy, but 
 she refused, albeit I gave her good counsel, saying : — O my daughter, 
 have pity on him. She gave no heed to my advice, until, the young 
 man's patience failing him, he complained at last to one of his 
 friends, who cast an enchantment on her and changed her human 
 shape into canine form. When she saw what transformation had 
 befallen her and that there was none to pity her case save myself, 
 she came to my house and began to fawn on me and kiss my hands 
 and feet and whine and shed tears, till I recognised her and said to 
 her :■ — How often did I not warn thee ? but my advice profited thee 
 
 naught." And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and 
 
 ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 ISToto tojbcn it toas t]^c Jfibe |^unt(ixK antr eBigjbtK-fi'ftlj :Nfigi)t, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the old trot 
 related to the young lady the tale of the dog and recounted the case 
 in her cunning and deceit, with the view to gain her consent and 
 said to her, " When the enchanted beast came to me and wept I 
 reminded her : — How often did I not warn thee ; but my advice 
 profited thee naught. However, O my daughter, seeing her misery, 
 I had compassion on her case and kept her by me ; and as often as 
 she bethinketh herself of her former estate, she weepeth thus, in 
 pity for herself" When the lady heard this, she was taken with 
 great alarm and said, " O my mother, by Allah, thou affrightest me 
 with this thy story." " Why so ? " asked the old woman. Answered 
 the lady, " Because a certain handsome young man fell in love with 
 me and hath sent many times to me, but hitherto I have repelled 
 him ; and now I fear lest there befal me the like of what befel this 
 dog." " O my daughter," rejoined the old woman, " look thou to 
 what I counsel thee and beware of crossing me, for I am in great 
 fear for thee. If thou know not his abiding-place, describe his sem- 
 blance to me, that I may fetch him to thee, and let not anyone's 
 heart be angered against thee." So the lady described him to her,
 
 The Wife's Device to Cheat her Husbaiid. 91 
 
 and she feigned not to know him and said, " When I go out, I will 
 ask after him." But when she left the lady, she went straight to the 
 young man and said to him, " Be of good cheer, for I have played 
 with the girl's wits ; so to-morrow at noon wait thou at the head of 
 the street, till I come and carry thee to her house, where thou shall 
 meet with her." At this the young man rejoiced with exceeding joy 
 and gave her two dinars, saying, "When I have won speech of her, 
 I will give thee ten gold pieces." Then she returned to the lady and 
 said to her, " I have seen him and spoken with him on this matter. 
 I found him exceeding wroth with thee and minded to do thee a 
 harm, but I plied him with fair words till he agreed to come to- 
 morrow at the time of the call to noon-prayer." When the lady 
 heard this she rejoiced exceedingly and said, " O my mother, if he 
 keep his promise, I will give thee ten dinars." Quoth the old 
 woman, " Look to his coming from none but from me." When the 
 next morn morrowed she said to the lady, " Make ready the early 
 meal and forget not the wine and adorn thyself and don thy richest 
 dress and decoration, whilst I go and fetch him to thee." So she 
 clad herself in her finest finery and prepared food, whilst the old 
 woman went out to look for the young man, who came not. So she 
 went around searching for him, but could come by no news of him, 
 and she said to herself, "What is to be done? Shall the food and 
 drink she hath gotten ready be wasted and I lose the gold pieces 
 she promised me ? Indeed, I will not allow my cunning contrivance 
 to come to naught, but will look her out another man and carry him 
 to her." So she walked about the highways till her eyes fell on a 
 pretty fellow, young and distinguished-looking, to whom the folk 
 bowed and who bore in his face the traces of travel. She went up 
 to him and saluting him asked, " Hast thou a mind to meat and 
 drink in a fair house ? " Answered he, "Where is this to be had ? " 
 " At home, in my house," rejoined she and carrying him to his own 
 house, knocked at the door. The lady opened to them and ran in 
 again, to make an end of her dressing and perfuming ; whilst the 
 wicked old woman brought the man, who was the husband and 
 house-master, into the saloon and made him sit down, congratulating 
 herself on her cunning contrivance. Presently in walked the lady, 
 who no sooner set eyes on her husband sitting by the old trot than 
 she knew him and guessed how the case stood ; nevertheless, she 
 was not taken aback and without stay or delay bethought her of a 
 device to hoodwink him. So she pulled off her outer boot and cried 
 at her husband, " Is this how thou keepcst the contract between us? 
 How canst thou betray me and deal thus with me ? Know that, 
 when I heard of thy coming, 1 sent this old woman to try thee
 
 92 Alf Lay la h wa Lay la h. 
 
 and she hath made thee fall into that against which I warned thee : 
 so now I am certified of thine affair and that thou hast broken faith 
 with me. I thought thee virtuous till I saw thee with my own eyes 
 in this old woman's company." So saying, she fell to beating him 
 with her slipper about the head, and crying out, " Divorce me ! 
 Divorce me ! " whilst he excused himself and swore to her, by Allah 
 the Most High, that he had never in his life been untrue to her nor 
 done aught whereof she suspected him. But she stinted not to 
 weep and scream and bash him, crying out, " Come to my help, O 
 Moslems ! " till he lay hold of her mouth with his hand and she bit 
 it. Moreover, he humbled himself to her and kissed her hands and 
 feet, whilst she would not be appeased and continued to cuff him. 
 At last, she winked at the old woman to come and hold her hand 
 from him. So she came up to her and kissed her hands and feet, 
 till she made peace between them and they sat down together : where- 
 upon the husband began to kiss her hands, saying, " Allah Almighty 
 requite thee with all good, for that thou hast delivered me from 
 her ! " And the old woman marvelled at the wife's cunning and 
 ready wit. " This, then, O King " (said the Wazir) " is one of many 
 instances of the craft and malice and perfidy of women." When the 
 King heard this story, he was persuaded by it and turned from his 
 
 purpose to slay his son ; And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of 
 
 day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 iSob) tnjbcn it tons t]^e Jpibc f^untirctr nnti lEigl^ts-sixtf) iafgljt, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 fourth Wazir had told his tale, the King turned from his purpose 
 to slay his son ; but, on the fifth day, the damsel came in to him 
 holding a bowl of poison in hand, calling on Heaven for help and 
 buffeting her cheeks and face, and said to him, " O King, either 
 thou shalt do me justice and avenge me on thy son, or I will 
 drink up this poison-cup and die, and the sin of my blood shall 
 be on thy head at the Day of Doom. These thy Ministers accuse 
 me of malice and perfidy, but there be none in the world more 
 perfidious than men. Hast thou not heard the story of the 
 Goldsmith and the Cashmere^ singing-girl?" "What befel the 
 
 ^ The Kashmir people have a very bad name in Eastern tales for treachery. 
 A Persian distich says ; 
 
 If folk be scarce as food in dearth ne'er let three lots come near ye : 
 First Sindi, second Jat, and third a rascally Kashmeeree.
 
 The Goldsmith and the Cash/iierc Singmg-Girl. . 93 
 
 twain, O damsel ? " asked the King ; and she answered, say- 
 ing : — There hath come to my knowledge, O august King, a tale 
 of the 
 
 GOLDSMITH AND THE CASHMERE SINGING-GIRL. 
 
 There lived once, in a city of Persia, a goldsmith who delighted in 
 
 singing-girls and in drinking wine. One day, being in the house 
 
 of one of his intimates, he saw painted on the wall the figure of a 
 
 lutanist, a beautiful damsel, beholder never beheld a fairer or a more 
 
 I)leasant. He looked at the picture again and again, marvelling at 
 
 its beauty, and fell so desperately in love with it, that he sickened 
 
 for love and came near to die. It chanced that one of his friends 
 
 came to visit him and sitting down by his side, asked him how he 
 
 did and what ailed him, whereto the goldsmith answered, " O my 
 
 brother, that which ails me is love, and it befel me on this wise. I 
 
 saw the figure of a woman painted on the house-wall of my brother 
 
 Such-an-one and became enamoured of it." Hereupon the other 
 
 fell to blaming him and said, " This was of thy lack of wit ; how 
 
 couldst thou fall in love with a painted figure on a wall, that can 
 
 neither harm nor profit, that seeth not neither heareth, that neither 
 
 taketh nor withholdeth." Said the sick man, " He who painted 
 
 yonder picture never could have limned it save after the likeness of 
 
 some beautiful woman." " Haply," rejoined his friend, " he painted 
 
 it from imagination." " In any case," replied the goldsmith, " here 
 
 am I dying for love of the picture, and if there live the original 
 
 thereof in the world, I pray Allah Most High to protect my life till I 
 
 see her." When those who were present went out, they asked for the 
 
 painter of the picture and, finding that he had travelled to another 
 
 town, wrote him a letter, complaining of their comrade's case and 
 
 enquiring whether he had drawn the figure of his own inventive 
 
 talents or copied it from a living model ; to which he replied, " I 
 
 painted it after a certain singing-girl belonging to one of the Wazirs 
 
 in the city of Cashmere in the land of Hind. When the goldsmith 
 
 heard this, he left Persia for Cashmere-city, where he arrived after 
 
 much travail. He tarried awhile there till one day he went and 
 
 clapped up an acquaintance with a certain of the citizens who was 
 
 a druggist, a fellow of a sharp wit, keen, crafty ; and, being one 
 
 even-tide in company with him, asked him of their King and his 
 
 polity ; to which the other answered, saying, " Well, our King is just 
 
 and righteous in his governance, equitable to his lieges and beneficent 
 
 to his commons and abhorreth nothing in the world save sorcerers ;
 
 "94 A if Layiah wa Laylah. 
 
 but, whenever a sorcerer or sorceress falls into his hands, he casteth 
 them into a pit without the city and there leaveth them in hunger to 
 die." Then he questioned him of the King's Wazirs, and the druggist 
 told him of each Minister, his fashion and condition, till the talk 
 came round to the singing-girl and he told him, " She belongeth to 
 such a Wazir." The goldsmith took note of the Minister's abiding- 
 place and waited some days, till he had devised a device to his 
 desire ; and one night of rain and thunder and stormy winds, he 
 provided himself with thieves' tackle and repaired to the house of 
 the Wazir who owned the damsel. Here he hanged a rope-ladder 
 with grappling-irons to the battlements and climbed up to the terrace- 
 roof of the palace. Thence he descended to the inner court and 
 making his way into the Harem, found all the slave-girls lying asleep, 
 each on her own couch ; and amongst them reclining on a couch of 
 alabaster and covered with a coverlet of cloth-of-gold a damsel, as 
 she were the moon rising on a fourteenth night. At her head stood 
 a candle of ambergris, and at her feet another, each in a candlestick 
 of glittering gold, her brilliancy dimming them both ; and under her 
 pillow lay a casket of silver, wherein were her jewels. He raised 
 the coverlet and drawing near her, considered her straitly, and 
 behold, is was the lutanist, of whom he was come in quest. So he 
 took out a knife and wounded her in the arm, a palpable outer 
 wound, whereupon she awoke in terror ; but, when she saw him, she 
 was afraid to cry out, thinking he came to steal her goods. So she 
 said to him, "Take the box and what is therein, but slay me not, 
 for I am in thy protection and under thy safeguard^ and my death 
 will profit thee nothing." Accordingly, he took the box and went 
 
 away. And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and 
 
 ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 KToti) folbcn ft teas \^i jpfbc l^untircK anli 1Efgfjty=scb£nt]^ Nigl^t, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 goldsmith had entered the Wazir's palace he wounded the damsel 
 slightly in the arm and, taking the box which contained her jewels, 
 wended his way. And when morning morrowed he donned clothes 
 after the fashion of men of learning and doctors of the law and, 
 taking the jewel-case, went in therewith to the King of the city, 
 before whom he kissed the ground and said to him, "O King, I am 
 
 ' By these words she appealed to his honour.
 
 The Golds fiiith and the Cashmere Singing-Girl. 95 
 
 a devout man ; withal a loyal well-wisher to thee and come hither 
 a pilgrim to thy court from the land of Khorasan, attracted by the 
 report of thy just governance and righteous dealing with thy subjects 
 and minded to be under thy standard. I reached this city at the 
 last of the day and finding the gate locked and barred, threw me 
 down to sleep without the walls ; but, as I lay betwixt sleep and 
 wake, behold, I saw four women come up ; one riding on a broom- 
 stick, another on a wine-jar, a third on an oven-peel and a fourth 
 on a black hound,^ and I knew that they were witches making for 
 thy city. One of them came up to me and kicked me with her 
 foot and beat me with a fox's tail she had in her hand, hurting me 
 grievously, whereat I was wroth and smote her with a knife I had 
 with me, wounding her in the arm, as she turned to flee from me. 
 AVhen she felt the wound, she fled before me and in her flight let 
 drop this casket, which I picked up and opening, found these costly 
 jewels therein. So do thou take it, for I have no need thereof, 
 being a wanderer on the mountains,^ who hath rejected the world 
 from my heart and renounced it and all that is in it, seeking only 
 the face of Allah the Most High." Then he set the casket before 
 the King and fared forth. The King opened the box and emptying 
 out all the trinkets it contained, fell to turning them over with his 
 hand, till he chanced upon a necklace whereof he had made gift to 
 the Wazir to whom the girl belonged. Seeing this, he called the 
 Minister in question and said to him, " This is the necklace I gave 
 thee ?" He knew it at first sight and answered, " It is ; and I gave 
 it to a singing-girl of mine." Quoth the King, " Fetch that girl to me 
 forthwith." So he fetched her to him, and he said, " Uncover her 
 arm and see if there be a wound therein or no." The Wazir 
 accordingly bared her arm and finding a knife-wound there, said, 
 "Yes, O my lord, there is a wound." Then said the King, ''This 
 is the witch of whom tlie devotee told me, and there can be 
 no doubt of it," and bade cast her into the witches' well. So 
 they carried her thither at once. As soon as it was night and the 
 goldsmith knew that his plot had succeeded, he repaired to the ]jit, 
 taking with him a purse of a thousand dinars, and, entering into 
 converse with the warder, sat talking with him till a third part of the 
 night was passed, when he broached the matter to him, saying, 
 " Know, O my brother, that this girl is innocent of that they lay to 
 her charge and that it was I brought this calamity upon her." Then 
 
 ^ These vehicles suggest derivation from European witchery. In the Rresl. 
 Edit. (xii. 304) one of the women rides a " Miknasah " or broom. 
 '" i.e. a rechisc who avoids society.
 
 g6 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 he told him the whole story, first and last, adding, " Take, O my 
 brother, this purse of a thousand dinars and give me the damsel, 
 that I may carry her to my own land, for these gold pieces will 
 profit thee more than keeping her in prison ; moreover Allah will 
 requite thee for as, and we too will both offer up prayers for thy 
 prosperity and safety." When the warder heard this story, he 
 marvelled with exceeding marvel at that device and its success ; then 
 taking the money, he delivered the girl to the goldsmith, conditioning 
 that he should not abide one hour with her in the city. Thereupon 
 the goldsmith took the girl and fared on with her, without ceasing, 
 till he reached his own country and so he won his wish. " See, then, 
 O King " (said the damsel), " the malice of men and their wiles.'' 
 Now thy Wazirs hinder thee from doing me justice on thy son ; but 
 to-morrow we shall stand, both thou and I, before the Just Judge 
 and He shall do me justice on thee, O King." When the King 
 heard this, he commanded to put his son to death ; but the fifth 
 Wazir came in to him and kissing the ground before him, said, " O 
 mighty King, delay and hasten not to slay thy son : speed will often- 
 times repentance breed ; and I fear for thee lest thou repent, even as 
 did the man who never laughed for the rest of his days." " And how 
 was that, O Wazir ?" asked the King. Quoth he : — I have heard 
 tell, O King, this tale concerning 
 
 THE MAN WHO NEVER LAUGHED DURING THE 
 REST OF HIS DA YS. 
 
 There was once a man who was rich in lands and houses and 
 monies and goods, eunuchs and slaves, and he died and went to the 
 mercy of Allah the Most High ; leaving a young son, who, when he 
 grew up, gave himself to feasting and carousing and hearing music 
 and singing and the loud laughter of parasites ; and he wasted his 
 substance in gifts and prodigality till he had squandered all the 
 
 money his father left him And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of 
 
 day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 mtu toI)cn It toas ti)c jpibc f^untirctr antr m^\^^i\^\\^ tNTigftt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young 
 man, when he had squandered all the money his father had left him 
 and naught thereof remained to him, betook himself to selling his
 
 TJie Man who never Laughed during the Rest of his Days. 97 
 
 slaves and handmaids, lands and houses, and spent the proceeds on 
 like wise, till he was reduced to beggary and must needs labour for 
 his living. He abode thus a year's space, at the end of which time 
 he was sitting one day under a wall, awaiting who should hire him, 
 when, behold, there came up to him an old man of comely aspect 
 and apparel and saluted him. The young man asked, " O uncle, 
 ha.st thou known me aforetime ?" and the other answered, " Not so, 
 O my son, I know thee not at all, at all ; but I see the trace of 
 gentle breeding on thee despite thy present case." "O uncle," 
 rejoined the poor man, " needs must Fate and Fortune be ac- 
 complished ; but, O uncle, O bright of face, hast thou any occasion 
 wherein thou wouldst employ me ?" Said the other, " I wish, O my 
 son, to employ thee in a slight matter." "What is it?" quoth the 
 young man, and quoth the stranger, " We are eleven old men in one 
 house, but we have none to serve us ; so if thou wilt stay and take 
 service with us, thou shalt have food and clothing to thy heart's 
 content, besides what cometh to thee of coin and other good ; and 
 haply Allah will restore thee thy fortune by our means." Replied the 
 youth, " Hearkening and obedience !" " But I have a condition to 
 impose on thee." " What is that?" " O my son, it is that thou keep 
 our secret in what thou seest us do and, if thou see us weep, that 
 thou question us not of the cause of our weeping." " It is well, O 
 uncle." " Come with me, O my son, with the blessing of Allah 
 Almighty." So he followed him to the bath, where the old man 
 caused cleanse his body of the crusted dirt, after which he sent one 
 to fetch a handsome garment of linen and clad him therewith. Then 
 he carried him to his company which was in his domicile, and the 
 youth found a house lofty and spacious and strongly builded, wherein 
 were sitting-chambers facing one another ; and saloons, in each one 
 a fountain of water with the birds warbling over it, and windows on 
 every side, giving upon a fair garden within the house. The old man 
 brought him into one of the parlours, which was variegated with 
 many-coloured marbles, the ceiling thereof being decorated with 
 ultramarine and glowing gold ; and the floor bespread with silken 
 carpets. Here he found ten Shaykhs in mourning apparel, seated 
 one opposite other, weeping and wailing. He marvelled at their 
 case and purposed to ask the reason, when he remembered the con- 
 dition and held his peace. Then he who had brought him delivered 
 to him a chest containing thirty thousand dinars and said to him, " O 
 my son, spend freely from this chest what is fitting for our entertain- 
 ment and thine own ; and be thou faithful and remember that where- 
 with I charged thee." " I hear and 1 obey," answered he and served 
 them days and nights, till one of them died, whereupon his fellows 
 
 VOL. IV. G
 
 98 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 washed him and shrouded him and buried him in a garden behind 
 the house ; ^ nor did death cease to take them, one after other, till 
 there remained but the Shaykh who had hired the youth for service. 
 Then the two men, old and young, dwelt together in that house 
 alone for years and years, nor was there with them a third save 
 Allah the Most High, till the elder fell sick ; and when the younger 
 despaired of his life, he went up to him and condoling with him> 
 said, " O uncle mine, I have waited upon you twelve years and 
 have not failed of my duties a single hour, but have been loyal 
 and faithful to you and served you with my might and main." 
 " Yes, O my son," answered the old man, " thou hast served us well 
 until all my comrades are gone to the mercy of Allah (to whom 
 belong honour and glory !) and needs must I die also." " O my 
 lord," said the other, "thou art in danger of death and I would 
 fain have thee acquaint me with the cause of your weeping and 
 wailing and of your ceaseless mourning and lamentation and 
 regrets." "O my son," answered the old man, "it concerns thee 
 not to know this, so importune me not of what I may not do ; 
 for I have vowed to Almighty Allah that I would acquaint none 
 of His creatures with this, lest he be afflicted with what befel me 
 and my comrades. If, then, thou desire to be delivered from that 
 into which we fell, look thou open not yonder door," ^ and pointed 
 to a certain part of the house ; " but, if thou have a mind to suffer 
 what we have suffered, then open it and thou shalt learn the cause 
 of that thou hast seen us do ; and whenas thou knowest it, thou 
 
 shalt repent what time repentance will avail thee not." And 
 
 Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her 
 permitted say. 
 
 iSoln \Q^m It toas tl^c Jpibt ^^unUtetr anlr (SiglbtB-ninti^ i^igftt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the sur- 
 viving Shaykh of the ten said to the youth, " Beware how thou 
 open yonder door or thou shalt repent what time repentance will 
 avail thee not." Then his sickness grew on him and he accom- 
 plished his term and departed life to the presence of his Lord ; 
 and the young man washed him with his own hands and shrouded 
 him and buried him by the side of his comrades ; after which he 
 
 ' " Consecrated ground " is unknown to Moslems. 
 
 ''■ This incident occurs in the "Third Kalandar's Tale." The story is used in 
 modern verse in Mr. William Morris's "Earthly Paradise."
 
 The Man who never Laughed during the Rest of his Days. 99 
 
 abode alone in the place and took possession of whatsoever was 
 therein. Withal he was uneasy and troubled concerning the case 
 of the old men, till, one day, as he sat pondering the words of his 
 dead master and his injunction not to open the door, he suddenly 
 bethought himself to go and look for it. So he rose up and 
 repaired to the part whither the dead man had pointed and sought 
 till, in a dark unfrequented corner, he found a little door, over 
 which the spider had spun her \vebs and which was fastened with 
 four padlocks of steel. Seeing this he recalled the old man's 
 warning and restrained himself and went away ; and he held aloof 
 from it seven days, whilst all the time his heart prompted him to 
 open it. On the eighth day his curiosity got the better of him and 
 he said, " Come what ever will, needs must I open the door and see 
 what shall happen to me therefrom. Nothing can avert what is 
 fated and fore-ordained of Allah the Most High ; nor doth aught 
 befal but by His will." So saying, he rose and broke the padlocks 
 and opening the door saw a narrow passage, which he followed for 
 some three hours when lo ! he came out on the shore of a vast 
 ocean^ and fared on along the beach, marvelling at this main, 
 whereof he had no knowledge and turning right and left. Presently, 
 a great eagle swooped down upon him from the lift and seizing him 
 in its talons, flew away with him betwixt heaven and earth till it 
 came to an island in the midst of the sea, where it cast him down 
 and flew away. The youth was dazed and knew not whither he 
 should wend, but after a few days, as he sat pondering his case, he 
 caught sight of the sails of a ship in the middlemost of the main, as 
 it were a star in the sky ; and his heart clave to it, so haply his 
 deliverance might be therein. He continued gazing at the ship 
 until it drew nigh, when he saw that it was a foyst builded all of 
 ivory and ebony, inlaid with glistening gold made fast by nails of 
 steel, with oars of sandal and lign-aloes. In it were ten damsels, 
 high-bosomed maids, as they were moons ; and when they saw him, 
 they came ashore to him and kissed his hands, saying, " Thou art 
 the King, the Bridegroom ! " Then there accosted him a young lady, 
 as she were the sun shining in sky serene, bearing in hand a silken 
 napkin, wherein were a royal robe and a crown of gold set with all 
 manner rubies and pearls. She threw the robe over him and set the 
 crown upon his head, after which the damsels bore him on their 
 arms to the foyst, where he found all kinds of silken carpets and 
 hangings of various colours. Then they spread the sails and 
 stretched out into mid-ocean. Quoth the young man : — Indeed, 
 
 ' The Mac. Edit, has " Nahr " = river. 
 
 :
 
 loo Alf Laylah wa Lay la h. 
 
 when they put to sea with me, meseemed it was a dream and I knew 
 not whither they were wending with me. Presently, we drew near 
 to land, and I saw the shore full of troops, none knoweth their 
 number save Allah (extolled and exalted be He !) and all were 
 magnificently arrayed and clad in complete steel. As soon as the 
 vessel had made fast to the land, they brought me five marked^ 
 horses of noble breeds, housed and saddled with gold, inlaid with all 
 manner pearls and high-priced bezel-stones. I chose out one of 
 them and mounted it, whilst they led the four others before me. 
 Then they raised the banners and the standards over my head, 
 whilst the troops ranged themselves right and left, and we set out, 
 with drums beating and cymbals clashing, and rode on ; whilst 1 
 debated in myself whether I were in sleep or on wake ; and we never 
 ceased faring, I believing not in that my estate, but taking all this 
 for the imbroglio of a dream, till we drew near to the green mead, 
 full of palaces and gardens and trees and streams and blooms and 
 birds chanting the praises of Allah the One, the Victorious. Here- 
 upon, behold, an army sallied out from amid the palaces and gardens, 
 as it were the torrent when it poureth down,^ and the host over- 
 flowed the mead. These troops halted at a little distance from me, 
 and presently there rode forth from amongst them a King, preceded 
 by some of his chief officers on foot. When he came up to the 
 young man (saith the tale-teller) he dismounted also, and the two 
 saluted each other after the goodliest fashion. Then said the King, 
 " Come with us, for thou art my guest." So they took horse again 
 and rode on, stirrup touching stirrup, in great and stately procession, 
 conversing as they went, till they came to the royal palace, where 
 
 they alighted together. And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of 
 
 day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 J^ofco foj^tn ft tons tf)e J^ibc f^untircti nntr iBinetiet]^ iSigibt, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the two rode 
 together in stately procession till they entered the palace, when the 
 
 ' i.e. marked with the Wasm or tribal sign to show their blood. Tlie subject 
 of Wasm is extensive and highly interesting, for many of these brands date doubt- 
 less from prehistoric ages. For instance, some of the great Anazah nation (not 
 tribe) uses a circlet, the initial of their name (an Ayn-letter), which thus shows 
 the eye from which it was formed. I have given some specimens of Wasm in 
 The Land of Midian (i. 320), where, as amongst the " Sinaitic " Badawin, 
 various kinds of crosses are preserved. 
 
 " i.e. from the heights. The " Say! " is a dangerous feature in Arabia as in 
 Southern India, where many officers have lost their lives by trying to swim it.
 
 The Alan 7aho never Laughed during the Rest of his Days. loi 
 
 King taking the young man by the hand, led him into a domed 
 room, followed by his suite, and making him sit down on a throne 
 of gold, seated himself beside him. Then he unbound the swathe 
 from his lower face ; and behold, the King was a young lady, like 
 the splendid sun shining in the sheeny sky, perfect in beauty and 
 loveliness, brilliancy and grace, arrogance' and all perfection. The 
 youth looked upon this singular blessing and embodied boon and 
 was lost in wonder at her charms and comeliness and seemlihead 
 and at the splendour and affluence he saw about him, when she said, 
 " Know, O King, that I am the Queen of this land and that all the 
 troops thou hast seen, whether horse or foot, are women : there is 
 no man amongst them ; for in this our state the men delve and sow 
 and ear and occupy themselves with the tillage of the ground and the 
 building of towns and other mechanical crafts and useful arts, whilst 
 the women govern and fill the great offices of state and bear arms." 
 At this the youth marvelled with exceeding marvel and, as they were 
 in discourse, behold, in came the Wazir who was a tall gray-haired 
 old woman of venerable semblance and majestic aspect, and it was 
 told him that this was the Minister. Quoth the Queen to her, 
 " Bring us the Kazi and witnesses." So she went out to do this, and 
 the Queen, turning to him, conversed with him in friendly fashion, 
 and enforced herself to reassure his awe of her and do away his 
 shame with speech blander than the zephyr, saying, " Art thou con- 
 tent to be to me husband and I to thee wife ? " Thereupon he arose 
 and would have kissed ground between her hands, but she forbade 
 him and he replied, saying, " O my lady, I am the least of thy slaves 
 who serve thee." " Seest thou all these servants and soldiers and 
 riches and hoards and treasures ? " asked she, and he answered, 
 " Yes ! " Quoth she, " All these are at thy commandment to dispose 
 of them and give and bestow as seemeth good to thee." Then she 
 pointed to a closed door and said, " All these things are at thy dis- 
 posal, save yonder door ; that shalt thou not open, and if thou open 
 it thou shalt repent when repentance will avail thee naught. So 
 beware ! and again I say, beware ! " Hardly had she made an end 
 of speaking when the Waziress entered, followed by the Kazi and 
 witnesses, all old women, with their hair streaming over their 
 shoulders and of reverend and majestic presence ; and the Queen 
 bade them draw up the contract of marriage between herself and 
 the young man. Accordingly, they performed the marriage-ceremony 
 and the Queen made a great bride-feast, to which she bade all the 
 
 ' Arab. '"Ujh." I use arrogance in the Spanish sense of " arrogante," gay 
 and gallant.
 
 102 Alf Laylah iva Lay la h. 
 
 troops. He abode with her seven years in all joyance and solace 
 and delight of life, till, one day of the days, he bethought himself of 
 the forbidden door and said in himself, " Except there were therein 
 treasures greater and grander than any I have seen, she had not 
 forbidden me therefrom." So he rose and opened the door, when, 
 lo ! behind it was the very bird which had brought him from the sea- 
 shore to the island, and it said to him, " No welcome to a face that 
 shall never prosper ! " When he saw it and heard what it said, he 
 fled from it ; but it followed him and seizing him in its talons, flew 
 with him an hour's journey betwixt heaven and earth, till it set him 
 down in the place whence it had first carried him off and flew away. 
 When he came to his senses, he remembered his late estate, great, 
 grand and glorious, and the troops which rode before him and his 
 lordly rule and all the honour and fair fortune he had lost, and fell to 
 weeping and wailing.^ He abode two months on the sea-shore, 
 where the bird had set him down, hoping yet to return to his wife, 
 till, as he sat one night wakeful, mourning and musing, behold, he 
 heard one speaking, albeit he saw no one, and saying, " How great 
 were the delights ! Alas, far from thee is the return of that which is 
 past ! " When he heard this, he redoubled in his regrets and 
 despaired of recovering his wife and his fair estate that was ; so he 
 returned, weary and broken-hearted, to the house where he had 
 dwelt with the old men and knew that they had fared even as he, 
 and that this was the cause of their shedding tears and lamenting 
 their lot ; wherefore he ever after held them excused. Then, being 
 overcome with chagrin and concern, he took to his chamber and 
 gave himself up to mourning and lamentation ; and he ceased not 
 crying and complaining and left eating and drinking and pleasant 
 scents and merriment ; nor did he laugh once till the day of his 
 death, when they buried him beside the Shaykhs. " See, then, O 
 King," continued the Wazir, " what cometh of precipitance ; verily, 
 it is unpraiseworthy and bequeatheth repentance : and in this I give 
 thee true advice and loyal counsel." When the King heard this 
 story, he turned from slaying his son ; And Shahrazad was sur- 
 prised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 i^oto tDJbm It fcoas ti)t jpibc l^unUwU anti iEinEtg-first :^Clai)t, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 King heard this story he turned from slaying his son ; but, on the 
 
 ' In this rechauffe Paul Pry escapes without losing an eye.
 
 The Kings Son and the Merchant's Wife. 103 
 
 sixth day the favourite came in to him holding a naked knife in 
 hand, and said to him, " Know, O my lord, that except thou hearken 
 to my complaint and protect thy right and thine honour against these 
 thy Ministers, who are banded together against me to do me wrong, 
 I will kill myself with this knife, and my blood shall testify against 
 thee on the Day of Doom. Indeed, they pretend that women are 
 full of tricks and malice and perfidy ; and they design thereby to 
 defeat me of my due and hinder the King from doing me justice ; 
 but, behold, I will prove to thee that men are more perfidious than 
 women by the story of a King among the Kings and how he gained 
 access to the wife of a certain merchant." " And what passed between 
 them," asked the King, and she answered :— I have heard tell, O 
 august King, a tale of 
 
 THE KING'S SON AND THE MERCHANT'S WIFE. 
 
 A CERTAIN merchant, who was addicted to jealousy, had a wife that 
 was a model of beauty and loveliness ; and of the excess of his fear 
 and jealousy of her, he would not abide with her in any town, but 
 built her a pavilion without the city, apart from all other buildings. 
 And he raised its height and strengthened its doors and provided 
 them with curious locks ; and when he had occasion to go into the 
 city, he locked the doors and hung the keys about his neck.^ One 
 day, when the merchant was abroad, the King's son of that city came 
 forth, to take his pleasure and solace in the open country without the 
 walls, and seeing the solitary pavilion, stood still to examine it for a 
 long while. At last he caught sight of a charming lady looking and 
 leaning out of one of the windows,- and being smitten with amaze- 
 ment at her grace and charms, cast about for a means of getting to 
 her, but could find none. So he called up one of his pages, who 
 brought him ink-case ^ and paper and wrote her a letter, setting forth 
 his condition for love of her. Then he set it on the pile-point of an 
 arrow and shot it at the pavilion, and it fell in the garden, where the 
 lady was then walking with her maidens. She said to one of the 
 
 ' Eastern tale-tellers always harp upon this theme, the cunning precautions taken 
 by mankind and their utter confusion by" Fate and Fortune." 
 
 - As favourite an occupation in Oriental lands as in Southern Europe and the 
 Brazil, where the Quinta or country villa must be built by the road-side to please 
 the mistress. 
 
 ^ The ink-case would contain the pens ; hence called in India Kalamdan := 
 reed (pen) box. I have advised travellers to prefer the strong Egyptian article 
 of brass to the Persian, which is of wood or papier-mache, prettily varnished ; 
 but not to wear it in the waist-belt, as this is a sign of being a scribe 
 (Pilgrimage i. 353).
 
 I04 A If Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 girls, " Hasten and bring me yon letter/' for she could read writing ;^ 
 and, when she had read it and understood what he said in it of his 
 love and passion, yearning and longing, she wrote him a merciful 
 reply, to the effect that she was smitten with love for him ; and then 
 threw the letter down to him from one of the windows of the pavilion. 
 When he saw her, he picked up the reply and, after reading it, came 
 under the window and said to her, " Let me down a thread, that I 
 may send thee this key ; which do thou take and keep by thee." So 
 she let down a thread and he tied the key to it.^ Then he went 
 away and repairing to one of his father's Wazirs, complained to him 
 of his passion for the lady and that he could not live without her ; 
 and the Minister said, " And how dost thou bid me contrive ? " Quoth 
 the Prince, " I would have thee set me in a chest ^ and commit it to 
 the merchant, feigning to him that it is thine and desiring him to 
 keep it for thee in his country house some days, that I may have my 
 will of her; then do thou demand it back from him." The Wazir 
 answered, " With love and gladness." So the Prince returned to 
 his palace and fixing the padlock, the key whereof he had given 
 the lady, on a chest he had by him, entered therein. Then the 
 Wazir locked it upon him and setting it on a mule, carried it 
 to the pavilion of the merchant, who, seeing the Minister, came 
 forth to him and kissed his hands, saying, " Belike our lord the 
 Wazir hath some need or business which we may have the pleasure 
 and honour of accomplishing for him ? " Quoth the Minister, " I 
 would have thee set this chest in the safest and best place within 
 thy house and keep it till I seek it of thee." So the merchant 
 made the porters carry it inside and set it down in one of his store- 
 closets, after which he went out on business. As soon as he was 
 gone, his wife arose and went up to the chest and unlocked it with 
 the key the King's son had given her, whereupon there came forth 
 a youth like the moon. When she saw him, she donned her richest 
 raiment and carried him to her sitting-saloon, where they abode 
 seven days, eating and drinking and making merry : and as often 
 
 ^ The vulgar Eastern idea is that women are quite knowing enough without 
 learning to read and write : and at all events they should not be taught anything 
 beyond reading the Koran, or some clearly- written book. The contrast with 
 modern Europe is great ; greater still in Anglo-America of our day, and greatest 
 with the new sects which propose " biunes" and " bisexuals " and " women robed 
 with the sun." 
 
 - In the Bresl. Edit, the Prince ties a key to a second arrow and shoots it into 
 the pavilion. 
 
 ^ The " box-trick " has often been played with success, by Lord Byron amongst 
 a host of others. The readiness with which the Wazir enters into the scheme is 
 characteristic of Oriental servility : an honest Moslem should at least put in a 
 remonstrance.
 
 The Page who Feigned to Know the Speech of Birds. 105 
 
 as her husband came home, she put the Prince back into the chest 
 and locked it upon him. One day the King asked for his son and 
 the Wazir hurried off to the merchant's place of business and 
 
 sought of him the chest. And Shahrazad perceived the dawn 
 
 of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 :Woto toljcn It tons tijc Jpibe |^untfictr antr ISTincttj-sccontr Nigtt 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 VVazir reached the merchant's counting-house he asked for the box. 
 The man accordingly repaired in haste to the pavilion, contrary to 
 his custom and knocked at the door. When his wife was ware of 
 him, she hurried the Prince back into the chest, but, in her con- 
 fusion, forgot to lock it. The merchant bade the porters take it up 
 and carry it to his house in the town. So they took up the box by 
 the lid, whereupon it flew open, and lo ! the Prince was lying within. 
 When the merchant saw him and knew him for the King's son, he 
 went out to the Wazir and said to him, " Go in, thou, and take the 
 King's son ; for none of us may lay hands on him." So the Minister 
 went in and taking the Prince, went away with him. As soon as 
 they were gone, the merchant put away his wife and swore that he 
 would never marry again. And, continued the damsel, I have heard 
 tell, also, O King, a tale of 
 
 THE PAGE WHO FEIGNED TO KNOW THE 
 SPEECH OF BIRDS. ' 
 
 A CERTAIN man of rank once entered the slave-market and saw a 
 page being cried for sale : so he bought him and carrying him home, 
 .said to his wife, " Take good care of him." The lad abode there 
 for a while till, one day, the man said to his wife, " Go forth to- 
 morrow to the garden and take thy solace therein and amuse thyself 
 and enjoy thyself." And she replied, "With love and gladness ! " 
 Now when the page heard this, he made ready in secret meat and 
 drink and fruits and dessert, and sallied forth with them j)rivily that 
 night to the garden, where he laid the meat under one tree, the wine 
 
 ' This story appears familiar, but I have not found it e.isy to trace. In 
 "The Book of Sindiljad" ^p. 83) it is appire:uly represented by a lacuna. In 
 the Squire's Talc ol Chaucer, Canace's rin^ enables tlie we.irer to understand 
 bird-language, not merely to pretend as does the slave-boy in the text.
 
 io6 Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 under another and the fruit and conserves under a third, in the way 
 his mistress must pass. When morning morrowed the husband 
 bade him accompany the lady to that garden carrying with him all 
 the provisions required for the day ; so she took horse, and riding 
 thither with him, dismounted and entered. Presently, as they were 
 walking about, a crow croaked,' and the page said, "Thou sayst 
 sooth ; " whereupon his mistress asked him, " Dost thou know what 
 the crow said ? " and he answered, " Yes, O my lady, he said. Under 
 yonder tree is meat ; go and eat it." So she said, " I see thou really 
 dost understand them ; " then she went up to the tree and, iinding a 
 dish of meat ready dressed, was assured that the youth told the 
 truth and marvelled with exceeding marvel. They ate of the meat 
 and walked about awhile, taking their pleasure in the garden, till the 
 crow croaked a second time, and the page again replied, " Thou 
 sayst sooth." " What said he ?" quoth the lady, and quoth the page, 
 " O my lady, he saith that under such a tree are a gugglet of water 
 flavoured with musk and a pitcher of old wine." So she went up 
 with him to the tree and, finding the wine and water there, redoubled 
 in wonderment and the page was magnified in her eyes. They sat 
 down and drank, then arose and walked in another part of the 
 garden. Presently the crow croaked again and the page said, " Thou 
 sayst sooth." Said the lady, " What saith he now? " and the page 
 replied, " He saith that under yonder tree are fruits, fresh and 
 dried." So they went thither and found all as he said and sat down 
 and ate. Then they walked about again till the crow croaked a 
 fourth time, whereupon the page took up a stone and threw it at him. 
 Quoth she, "What said he, that thou shouldst stone him?" "O 
 my lady," answered he, "he said what I cannot tell thee." "Say 
 on," rejoined she, "and be not abashed in my presence, for there is 
 naught between me and thee." But he ceased not to say, " No," 
 and she to press him to speak, till at last she conjured him to tell 
 her, and he answered, " The crow said to me : — Ask thy lady for a 
 kiss." When she heard his words she laughed till she fell backward 
 and said, "This is a light matter, and I may not gainsay thee 
 therein," So saying, she went up to a tree and, spreading the 
 carpet under it, sat down, and called to him to come and sit by her, 
 when, lo ! her husband, who had followed them unawares and saw 
 
 ^ The crow is an ill-omened bird in Al-Islam and in Eastern Christendom. 
 " The crow of cursed life and foul odour," says the Book of Kalilah and Dimna 
 (p. 44). The Hindus are its only protectors, and in this matter they follow suit 
 with the Guebres. I may note that the word belongs to the days before "Aryan " 
 and "Semitic" speech had parted; we find it in Heb. Oreb. ; Arab. Ghurab ; 
 Lat. Corvus ; Engl. Crow, etc.
 
 The Page who Feigned to Kiioiv the Speech of Birds. 107 
 
 this, called out to the page, saying, " Harkye, boy ! What ails thy 
 mistress to lie there, weeping ?" Answered the page, " O my lord, 
 she fell off the tree and was killed ;' and none but Allah (be He 
 extolled and exalted !) restored her to thee. Wherefore she lay 
 down awhile to recover herself by rest." When the lady saw her 
 husband standing by her head, she rose and made a show of 
 weakness and pain, saying, " O my back ! O my sides ! Come to 
 my help, O my friends ! I shall never survive this." So her husband 
 was deceived and said to the page, "Fetch thy mistress's horse and 
 set her thereon." Then he carried her home, the boy holding one 
 stirrup and the man the other and saying, "Allah vouchsafe thee 
 ease and recovery !" " These then, O King," (said the damsel) " are 
 some instances of the craft of men and their perfidy ; wherefore let 
 not thy Wazirs turn thee from succouring me and doing me justice." 
 Then she wept, and when the King saw her weeping (for she was the 
 dearest to him of all his slave-girls) he once more commanded to 
 put his son to death ; but the sixth Minister entered and kissing 
 ground before him, said, " May the Almighty advance the King ! 
 Verily I am a loyal counsellor to thee, in that I counsel thee to 
 
 deal deliberately in the matter of thy son ;" And Shahrazad 
 
 was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted 
 say. 
 
 jlofo fajften It fcoas tijc jpfbt fl^untircli antr i^incti)=t]^irti i^igtt, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the sixth 
 Wazir said, " O King, deal deliberately in the matter of thy son ; 
 for falsehood is as smoke and fact is built on base which shall not 
 be broken ; yea, and the light of sooth dispclleth the night of 
 untruth. Know that the perfidy of women is great, even as saith 
 Allah the Most High in His Holy Book, "Verily, the malice of you 
 is much."- And indeed a tale hath reached me that a certain 
 woman befooled the Chiefs of the State on such wise as never did 
 any before her." Asked the King, " And how was that ?" And 
 the Wazir answered : — I have heard tell a tale, O King, as follows 
 concerning 
 
 ' Again in the Hibernian sense of being "kilt." 
 
 2 Quoted in Nit^ht dlx.xxii. ; said by Kitfir or Itfir (Potiphar) when hi.s wife 
 (Rail or Zulaykha) accused Joseph (Koran, chapt. xii.).
 
 ro8 A If Lay 1 ah iva Laylah. 
 
 THE LADY AND HER FLVE SULTORS} 
 
 A WOMAN of the daughters of the merchants was married to a man 
 who was a great traveller. It chanced once that he set out for a far 
 country and was absent so long that his wife, believing him to be 
 dead, fell in love with a handsome young man of the sons of the 
 merchants, and they loved each other with exceeding love. One day, 
 the youth quarrelled with another man, who lodged a complaint 
 against him with the Chief of Police, and he cast him into prison. 
 When the news came to the merchant's wife, she well-nigh lost her 
 wits ; then she arose and donning her richest clothes repaired to 
 the house of the Chief of Police. She saluted him and presented 
 a written petition to this purport : — " He thou hast clapped in jail is 
 my brother. Such-and-such, who fell out with Such-an-one : and 
 those who testified against him bore false witness. He hath been 
 wrongfully imprisoned, and I have none other to protect me nor 
 to provide for my support ; therefore I beseech thee of thy grace to 
 release him." When the magistrate had read the paper, he cast his 
 eyes on her and fell in love with her forthright ; so he said to her, 
 " Go into the house, till I bring him before me ; then I will send for 
 thee and thou shalt take him." " O my lord," repUed she, " I have 
 none to defend me save Almighty Allah ! I am a stranger and may 
 
 ' This witty tale has over- wandered the world. First we find it in the Katha 
 (S.S.) where Upakosha, the merry wife of Vararuchi, disrobes her suitors, a 
 family priest, a commander of the guatd and the prince's tutor, under plea of the 
 bath, and stows them away in baskets which suggest FalstafPs " buck-basket." 
 In Miss Stokes' " Indian Fairy Tales" the fair wife of an absent merchant plays 
 a similar notable prank upon the Kotwal, ihe Wazir, the Kazi and the King ; and 
 akin to this is the exploit of Temal Ramakistnan, the Madras! Tyl Eulenspiegel 
 and Scogin, who by means of a lady ^.aves his life from the Rajah and the High 
 Priest. Mr. G. H. Damant (pp. 357-360 of the " Indian Antiquary" of 1873) 
 relates the "Tale of the Touchstone," a legend of Dinahpur, wherein a woman 
 "sells" her four admirers. In the Persian Tales ascribed to the Dervish 
 " Mokles" (Mukhlis) of Isfahan, the lady Aruya tricks and exposes a Kazi, a 
 doctor and a governor. Boccaccio (viii. i) has the story of a hidy who shut up 
 her gallant in a chest with her husband's sanction ; and a similar tale (ix. i) of 
 Rinuccio and Alexander with the corpse of Scannadeo (Throttle-god). Hence 
 Lydgate (circ. A. L). 1430; derived the plot of his metrical tale of the " Lady 
 Prioress and her Three Sisters "; which was moiiified in the Netherlandish version 
 by the introduction of the LongWapper, a Flemish Robin Goodfellow. Followed 
 in English the metrical tale of " The Wright's Chaste Wife," by Adam of 
 Cobham (edited by Mr. Furnivall from a MS. of circ. A.D. 1460) where the 
 victims are a lord, a steward and a procior. See also "The Master-Maid" in 
 Dr. (now Sir George) Dasent's ♦' Popular Tales from the Norse." Mr. Clouston, 
 who gives these details m(jre fully, mentions a similar Scottish story concerning a 
 monk and the wife of a miller.
 
 The Lady and her Five Suitors. 109 
 
 not enter any man's abode. If thou must needs speak with me 
 thou must needs come to my lodging and sit and sleep the siesta and 
 rest the whole day there." "And where is thy abode?" asked he ; 
 and she answered, " In such a place," and appointed him for such a 
 time. Then she went out from him, leaving his heart taken with 
 love of her, and she repaired to the Kazi of the city, to whom she 
 said, "O our lord the Kazi!" He exclaimed, "Yes!" and she 
 continued, " Look into my case, and thy reward be with Allah the 
 Most High !" Quoth he, " Who hath wronged thee?" and quoth 
 she, "O my lord, I have a brother and I have none but that one, 
 and it is on his account that I come to thee ; because the Wali hath 
 imprisoned him for a criminal and men have borne false witness 
 against him that he is a wrong-doer ; and I beseech thee to intercede 
 for him with the Chief of Police." When the Kazi looked on her, 
 he fell in love with her forthright and implored her love ; and she 
 bade him come to her house as she had the other. Asked the 
 Kazi, " And where is thy house ? " and she answered " In such a 
 place," and appointed him for the same day and time as the Chief 
 of Police. Then she went out from him to the Wazir, to whom she 
 preferred her petition for the release from prison of her brother who 
 was absolutely necessary to her ; but he also made love, and to him 
 also she returned the same reply. Asked he, " Where is thy house ? " 
 " In such a place," answered she and appointed him for the same time 
 as the two others. Then she went out from him to the King of the 
 city and told him her story and sought of him her brother's release. 
 "Who imprisoned him?" encjuired he; and she replied, " 'Twas 
 thy Chief of Police." When the King heard her speech it trans- 
 pierced his heart with the arrows of love and he bade her abide in 
 the palace that he might send to the Kazi and release her brother. 
 Quoth she, " O King, if the King will but come to my house, he 
 will do me the more honour by setting step therein, even as saith 
 the poet : — 
 
 C) my friends, have ye seen or have ye heard « Of his visit wliosc virtues I liold 
 so high?" 
 
 Quoth the King, "We will not cross thee in this." So she appointed 
 him for the same time as the three others, and told him where her 
 
 house was. And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased 
 
 to say her permitted say.
 
 no Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 Koto ttif)en it toas tl^e Jpibc f^untircti anti iainetjJ=fourt]b ^I'sSt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the woman 
 told the King where her house was and appointed him for the same 
 time as the Wah, the Kazi, and the Wazir. Then she left him and 
 betaking herself to a man who was a carpenter, said to him, " I 
 would have thee make me a cabinet with four compartments, one 
 above other, each with its door for locking up. Let me know thy 
 hire and I will give it thee." Replied he, " My price will be four 
 dinars ; but, O noble lady and well-protected, if thou wilt grant me 
 thy love, I will ask nothing of thee." Rejoined she, "An there be 
 no help but that thou have it so, then make thou five compartments 
 with their padlocks ; " and she appointed him to bring it exactly on 
 the day required. Said he, "It is well ; sit down, O my lady, and I 
 will make it for thee forthright, and after I will come to thee at my 
 leisure." So she sat down by him, whilst he fell to work on the 
 cabinet, and when he had made an end of it she chose to see it at 
 once carried home and set up in the sitting-chamber. Then she 
 took four gowns and carried them to the dyer, who dyed them each 
 of a different colour ; after which she applied herself to making ready 
 meat and drink; fruits, flowers, and perfumes. Now when the 
 appointed trysting-day came, she donned her costliest dress and 
 adorned herself and scented herself, then spread the sitting-room 
 with various kinds of rich carpets and sat down to await who should 
 come. And behold, the Kazi was the first to appear, before the rest, 
 and when she saw him, she rose to her feet and kissed the ground 
 before him ; then, taking him by the hand, made him sit down by 
 her on the couch and she said, " O my lord, doff thy clothes and 
 turband and assume this yellow cassock and this head-kerchief,^ 
 whilst I bring thee meat and drink." So saying, she took his 
 clothes and turband and clad him in the cassock and the kerchief; 
 but hardly had she done this, when lo ! there came a knocking at 
 the door. Asked he, " Who is that rapping at the door?" and she 
 answered, "My husband." Quoth the Kazi, "What is to be done 
 and where shall I go ? " Quoth she, " Fear nothing, I will hide 
 thee in this cabinet ; " and he, " Do as seemeth good to thee." So 
 
 ^ When Easterns sit down to a drinking bout, which means to get drunk as 
 speedily and pleasantly as possible, they put off dresses of dull colours and robe 
 themselves in clothes supplied by the host, of the brightest he may have, especially 
 yellow, green and red of different shades. So the lady's proceeding was not likely 
 to breed suspicion.
 
 The Lady and her Five Suitors. 1 1 1 
 
 she took him by the hand and pushing him into the lowest com- 
 partment, locked the door upon him. Then she went to the house- 
 door, where she found the Wali ; so she kissed ground before him 
 and, taking his hand, brought him into the saloon, where she made 
 him sit down and said to him, " O my lord, this house is thy house ; 
 this place is thy place, and I am thy handmaid : thou shalt pass all 
 this day with me ; wherefore do thou doff thy robe and don this red 
 gown." So she took away his clothes and made him assume the red 
 gown and set on his head an old patched rag she had by her ; after 
 which she said to him, " O our lord, this day is thy day and none 
 shall share in it with thee ; but first, of thy favour and benevolence, 
 write me an order for my brother's release from gaol that my heart 
 may be at ease." Quoth he, " Hearkening and obedience : on my 
 head and eyes be it ! " and wrote a letter to his treasurer, saying : — 
 " As soon as this communication shall reach thee, do thou set Such- 
 an-one free, without stay or delay ; neither answer the bearer a 
 word." Then he sealed it and she took it from him, when, behold, 
 someone knocked at the door. He asked, " Who is that ? " and 
 she answered, " My husband." "What shall I do?" said he, and 
 she, " Enter this cabinet, till I send him away and return to thee." 
 So she clapped him into the second compartment from the bottom 
 and padlocked the door on him ; and meanwhile the Kazi heard all 
 they said. Then she went to the house-door and opened it, where- 
 upon lo ! the Wazir entered. She kissed the ground before him and 
 received him with all honour and worship, saying, " O my lord, thou 
 exaltest us by thy coming to our house ; Allah never deprive us of 
 the light of thy countenance ! " Then she seated him on the divan 
 and said to him, " O my lord, doff thy heavy dress and turband and 
 don these lighter vestments." So he put off his robe and turband 
 and she clad him in a blue cassock and a tall red bonnet, and said 
 to him, " Erst thy garb was that of the Wazirate ; so leave it to its 
 own time and don this light gown, which is better fitted for carous- 
 ing and making merry." As they were talking there came a knocking 
 at the door, and the Wazir asked her, " Who is that ! " to which she 
 answered, "My husband." Quoth he, "What is to be done?" 
 Quoth she, " Enter this cabinet till I get rid of him and come back 
 to thee, and fear thou nothing." So she put him in the third com- 
 partment and locked the door on him, after which she went out and 
 opened the house-door when lo and behold ! in came the King. As 
 soon as she saw him she kissed ground before him, and taking him 
 by the hand, led him into the saloon and seated him on the divan 
 at the upi)er end. Then said she to him, " \'erily, O King, thou 
 dost us high honour, and if we brought thee to gift the world and all
 
 112 
 
 Alf Lay 1 ah wa Lay I ah. 
 
 that therein is, 'twould not be worth a single one of thy steps 
 
 towards us." And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day 
 
 and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 KToto hjjbcn It teas \\)z Jpibc f^iintrfti ant !tCmetB=fiftt Nigjbt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 King entered the lady's house she said to him, "Had we brought 
 thee to gift the world and all which is therein, 'twould not be worth 
 a single one of thy steps towards us." And when he had taken his 
 seat upon the divan she said, " Give me leave to speak one word." 
 "Say what thou wilt," answered he; and she said, "O my lord, 
 take thine ease and doff thy robe and turband." Now his robe 
 was worth a thousand dinars ; and when he put it off she clad 
 him in a patched gown, worth at the very most ten dirhams, 
 and fell to talking and jesting with him ; all this while the folk in 
 the cabinet hearing everything that passed, but not daring to say a 
 word. Now, as they were speaking, someone knocked at the door 
 and he asked her, "Who is that?" "My husband," answered 
 she, and he, " Make him go away of his own good will, or I will 
 fare forth to him and send him away perforce." Replied she, " Nay, 
 O my lord, have patience till I send him away by my skilful contri- 
 vance." " And I, how shall I do ? " enquired the King ; whereupon 
 she took him by the hand and making him enter the fourth com- 
 partment of the cabinet, locked it upon him. Then she went out 
 and opened the house door when behold, the carpenter entered and 
 saluted her. Quoth she, " What manner of thing is this cabinet 
 thou hast made me ? " " What aileth it, O my lady ? " asked he, and 
 she answered, "The top compartment is too strait." Rejoined 
 he, " Not so ;" and she, " Go in thyself and see ; it is not wide 
 enough for thee." Quoth he, " It is wide enough for four," and 
 entered the fifth compartment, whereupon she locked the door on 
 him. Then she took the letter of the Chief of Police and carried it 
 to the Treasurer who, having read and understood it, kissed it and 
 delivered her lover to her. She told him all she had done and he 
 said, " And how shall we act now ? " She answered, " We will re- 
 move hence to another city, for after this work there is no tarrying 
 for us here." So the twain packed up what goods they had and, 
 loading them on camels, set out forthright for another city. Mean- 
 while, the five abode each in his compartment of the cabinet without 
 eating or drinking three whole days, until at last the Judge cried out 
 and said, "What sorrow is this?" The Chief of Pohce recognised
 
 The Lady and her Five Suitors. i r 3 
 
 the Kazi's voice and answered, saying aloud, "Allah increase thy 
 reward, O Kazi !" And when the Kazi heard him, he knew him 
 for the Wali. Then the Chief of Police lifted up his voice and said, 
 "What means this sorrow?" and theWazir answered, saying, "Allah 
 increase thy reward, O Wali ! " whereupon he knew him to be the 
 Minister. Then the Wazir lifted up his voice and said, " V/ hat 
 means this sorrow ? " But when the King heard and recognised his 
 Minister's voice, he held his peace and concealed his affair. Then 
 said the Wazir, " Curse ^ this woman for her dealing with us ! She 
 hath brought hither all the Chief Officers of the state, except the 
 King." Quoth the King, " Hold your peace, for I was the first to 
 fall into the toils of this wretch." Whereat cried the carpenter, 
 " And I, what have I done ? I made her a cabinet for four gold 
 pieces, and when I came to seek my hire, she tricked me into enter- 
 ing this compartment and locked the door on me." And they fell 
 to talking with one another, diverting the King and doing away his 
 chagrin. Presently the neighbours came up to the house and, seeing 
 it deserted, said one to other, " But yesterday our neighbour, the 
 wife of Such-an-one, was in it ; but now no sound is to be heard 
 therein nor is soul to be seen. Let us break open the doors and 
 see how the case stands, lest it come to the ears of the Wali or the 
 King and we be cast into prison and regret not doing this thing 
 before." So they broke open the doors and entered the saloon, 
 where they saw a large wooden cabinet and heard men within 
 groaning for hunger and thirst. Then said one of them, " Is there 
 a Jinni in this cabinet ? " and his fellow, " Let us heap fuel about it 
 and burn it with fire." When the Kazi heard this, he bawled out to 
 
 them, " Do it not ! " And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day 
 
 and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 :tCol« toljcu It \Dag tljc Jfibc |Duntirct( antr Xinctn-si.xtij Kigjbt, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 the neighbours proposed to heap fuel about the cabinet and to burn 
 it the Kazi bawled out to them, " Do it not!" And they said to 
 one another, "Verily the Jinn make believe to be mortals and speak 
 with men's voices." Thereupon the Kazi repeated somewhat of the 
 Sublime Koran and said to the neighbours, " Draw near to the 
 
 ^ Here the word "la'an" is used which most Moslems express by some euphe- 
 mism. The vulgar Egyptian says " Na'al" (Saprc' and Sapristi for Sacri and 
 Sacristic) ; the Hindostani express it " I send him the three letters" — lam, ayn 
 and niin. 
 
 VOL. IV. H
 
 114 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 cabinet wherein we are." So they drew near and he said, " I am So- 
 and-so the Kazi, and ye are Such-an-one and Such-an-one, and we 
 are here a company." Quoth the neighbours, "Who brought you 
 here ? " And he told them the whole case from beginning to end. 
 Then they fetched a carpenter who opened the five doors and let 
 out Kazi, Wazir, Wali, King and carpenter in their queer disguises ; 
 and each, when he saw how the others were accoutred, fell a-laughing 
 at them. Now she had taken away all their clothes ; so every one 
 of them sent to his people for fresh clothes and put them on and 
 went out, covering himself therewith from the sight of the folk. 
 Consider, therefore, O our lord the King (said the Wazir) what a 
 trick this woman played off upon the folk ! And I have heard tell 
 also a tale of 
 
 THE THREE WISHES, OR THE MAI^ WHO LONGED 
 TO SEE THE NIGHT OF TO WER. 
 
 A CERTAIN man had longed all his life to look upon the Night of 
 Power,^ and one night it befel that he gazed at the sky and saw the 
 angels, and Heaven's gates thrown open ; and he beheld all things 
 prostrating themselves before their Lord, each in its several stead. 
 So he said to his wife, " Harkye, Such-an-one, verily Allah hath 
 shown me the Night of Power, and it hath been proclaimed to me, 
 from the invisible world, that three prayers will be granted unto me ; 
 
 ^ Arab. " Laylat al-Kadr " = Night of Power or of Divine Decrees. It is 
 " better than a thousand months " (Koran xcvii. 3), but unhappily the exact time 
 is not known although all agree that it is one of the last ten in Ramazan. The 
 latter when named by Kilab ibn Murrah, ancestor of Mohammed, about two 
 centuries before Al-Islam, corresponded with July-August and took its name 
 from " Ramza " or intense heat. But 'the Prophet, in the tenth Hijrah year, 
 most unwisely forbid "Nasy"= triennial intercalation (Koran ix. 36) and thus 
 the lunar month went round all the seasons. On the Night of Power the Koran 
 was sent down from the Preserved Tablet by Allah's throne, to the first or lunar 
 rieaven whence Gabriel brought it for opportunest revelation to the Apostle 
 (Koran xcvii.). Also during this night all Divine Decrees for the ensuing year 
 are taken from the Tablet and are given to the angels for execution whilst, the 
 gates of Heaven being open, prayer (as in the text) is sure of success. This mass 
 of absurdity has engendered a host of superstitions everywhere varying. Lane 
 (Mod. Egypt, chapt. xxv.) describes how some of the Faithful keep tasting a cup 
 of salt water which should become sweet in the Night of Nights. In (Moslem) 
 India not only the sea becomes sweet, but all the vegetable creation bows down 
 before Allah. The exact time is known only to Prophets ; but the pious sit 
 through the Night of Ramazan 27th (our 26th) praying and burning incense- 
 pastilles. In Stambul this is ofHcially held to be the Night of Power. So in 
 medieval Europe on Christmas Eve the ca'tle worshipped God in their stalls and 
 I have met peasants in France and Italy who firmly believed that brute beasts on 
 that night not only speak but predict the events of the coming year.
 
 The Three Wishes. 115 
 
 so I consult thee for counsel as to what shall I ask." Quoth she, 
 " O man, the perfection of man and the sign of his nobility is his 
 nose ; therefore do thou pray Allah to heighten thy nose and magnify 
 it." So he lifted up his hands to heaven and said, •' O Allah, 
 heighten my nose and magnify it." Hardly had he spoken when his 
 nose became as long as a column and he could neither sit nor stand 
 nor move about nor even stir from his stead. So he said to his wife, 
 " O accursed woman, what is to be done ? This is thy list, by reason 
 of thy bad counsel." She replied, "No, by Allah, I did not ask for 
 this length and huge bulk of nose, for which the gate of a street were 
 too strait. Pray heaven to make it less." So he raised his eyes to 
 Heaven and said, " O Allah, rid me of this thing and deliver me 
 therefrom." And immediately his nose disappeared altogether and 
 his face became clean smooth. When his wife saw this, she said, 
 " I have no occasion for thee, now thou art become noseless as a 
 baboon ; " and he answered her saying, " All this cometh of thine 
 ill-omened counsel and thine imbecile judgment. I had three 
 prayers accepted of Allah, wherewith I might have gotten me my 
 good, both in this world and in the next, and now two wishes are 
 gone in pure waste, by thy ill will, and there remaineth but one." 
 Quoth she, " Pray Allah the Most High to restore thee thy 
 nose as it was." So he prayed to his Lord and his face was 
 restored to its first estate. Thus the man lost his three wishes 
 by the ill counsel and lack of wit in the woman ; " And 
 this, O King " (said the Wazir) " have I told thee that thou 
 mightest be certified of the thoughtlessness of women and their 
 inconsequence and silliness and see what cometh of hearkening to 
 their counsel. Wherefore be not persuaded by them to slay thy 
 son, thy heart's core, who shall cause thy remembrance to survive 
 thee." The King gave ear to his Minister's words and forebore to 
 put his son to death ; but, on the seventh day, the damsel came in, 
 shrieking, and after lighting a great fire in the King's presence, made 
 as she would cast herself therein ; whereupon they laid hands on 
 her and brought her before him. He asked her, " Why hast thou 
 done this ? " and she answered, " Except thou do me justice on thy 
 son, I will cast myself into this very fire and accuse thee of this on 
 the Day of Resurrection, for I am a-weary of my life, and before 
 coming into thy presence I wrote my last will and testament and 
 gave alms of my goods and resolved upon death. And thou wilt 
 repent with all repentance, even as did the King, of having punished 
 the pious woman who kept the Hammam." Quoth the King, "How 
 was that ?" and quoth she: — I have heard tell, O King, this tale 
 concerning
 
 Ti6 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 THE STOLEN NECKLACE. 
 
 There was once a devotee, a recluse, a woman who had devoted 
 herself to religion. Now she used to resort to a certain King's 
 palace/ whose dwellers were blessed by her presence and she was 
 held of them in high honour. One day she entered that palace 
 according to her custom and sat down beside the King's wife. 
 Presently the Queen gave her a necklace worth a thousand dinars, 
 saying, " Keep this for me, O woman, whilst I go to the Hammam." 
 So she entered the bath, which was in the palace, and the pious 
 woman remxaining in the place where the Queen was and awaiting 
 her return laid the necklace on the prayer-carpet and stood up to 
 pray. As she was thus engaged, there came a magpie^ which 
 snatched up the necklace while she was not looking, and carrying it 
 off, hid it inside a crevice in a corner of the palace-walls. When the 
 Queen came out of the bath, she sought the necklace of the recluse, 
 who also searched for it, but found it not nor could light on any 
 trace of it ; so she said to the King's wife, " By Allah, O my daughter, 
 none hath been with me. When thou gavest me the necklace, I 
 laid it on the prayer-carpet, and I know not if one of the servants 
 saw it and took it without my heed, whilst I was engaged in prayer. 
 Almighty Allah only knoweth what is come of it ! " When the 
 King heard what had happened, he bade his Queen put the bath- 
 woman to the question by fire and grievous blows, And Shah- 
 
 razad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her 
 permitted say. 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 King bade his Queen question the bath-woman with fire and grievous 
 blows, they tortured her with all manner tortures, but could not 
 
 '■ Hence the misfortune befel her : the pious especially avoid temporal palaces. 
 
 ^ This is our tale of "The Maid and the Magpie;" the Mac. Edit, does not 
 specify the " Tayr " (any bird), but the Bresl. Edit, has Ak'ak, a pie. The true 
 Magpie (C /'zVa) called Buzarai (?) and Zaghzaghan Abu Massah [— the Sweeper, 
 from its tail) is found on the Libanus and Anti-Libanus (Unexplored Syria ii. 
 77-143) but I never saw it in other parts of Syria or in Arabia. It is completely 
 ignored by the Reverend Mr. Tristram in his painfully superficial book " The 
 Natural Elistory of the Bible," published by the Society for Promoting Christian 
 Knowled;:e, London, 1873.
 
 The T7iw Figeons. 117 
 
 bring her to confess or to accuse any. Then he commanded to cast 
 her into prison and manacle and fetter her ; and they did as he 
 bade. One day, after this, as the King sat in the inner court of his 
 palace, with the Queen by his side and water flowing around him, 
 he saw the pie fly into a crevice in a corner of the wall and pull out 
 the necklace, whereupon he cried out to a damsel who was with 
 him, and she caught the bird and took the necklace from it. By 
 this the King knew that the pious bath-woman had been wronged 
 and repented of that he had done with her. So he sent for her to 
 the presence and fell to kissing her head and with many tears 
 sought pardon of her. Moreover, he commanded much treasure to 
 be given to her, but she refused and would none of it. However, she 
 forgave him and went away, swearing never again to enter anyone's 
 house. So she betook herself to wandering in the mountains and 
 valleys and worshipped God until she died, and Almighty Allah have 
 mercy upon her ! And for an instance of the malice of the male 
 sex (continued the damsel) I have heard, O King, tell this tale of 
 
 THE TWO pigeons: 
 
 A PAIR of pigeons once stored up wheat and barley in their nest 
 during the winter, and when the summer came, the grain shrivelled 
 and became less ; so the male pigeon said to his wife, " Thou hast 
 eaten of this grain." Replied she, "No, by Allah, I have never 
 touched it ! " But he believed not her words and beat her with his 
 wings and pecked her with his bill, till he killed her. When the 
 cold season returned, the corn swelled out and became as before, 
 whereupon he knew that he had slain his wife wrongously and 
 wickedly, and he repented when repentance availed him naught. 
 Then he lay down by her side, mourning over her and weeping for 
 grief, and left meat and drink, till he fell sick and died. " But " 
 (added the damsel) "I know a story of the malice of men more 
 extraordinary than either of these." Quoth the King, " Let us hear 
 what thou hast to tell ;" and quoth she : — I have heard tell, O King, 
 this 
 
 ^ This is " The Story of the Two Partridges," told at great length in the Look 
 of Sindibad. See De Sacy's text in the Kalilah wa Damnah, quoted in ihe 
 '* Book of Kalilah and Damnah " (p. 306).
 
 ii8 A If Lay la h iva Lay la k. 
 
 STORY OF PRINCE BEHRAM AND THE PRINCESS 
 
 AL-DATMA. 
 
 There was once a King's daughter, who had no equal in her time 
 for beauty and lovehness and symmetrical stature and grace, 
 brilliancy and the art of ravishing the wits of the masculine race and 
 her name was Al-Datma. She used to boast, " Indeed there is none 
 like me in this age." Nor was there one more accomplished than 
 she in horsemanship and martial exercises and all that behoveth a 
 cavalier. So all the Kings' sons sought her to wife ; but she would 
 take none of them, saying, " No man shall marry me except he 
 overcome me at lunge of lance and stroke of sword in fair field and 
 patent plain. If any can do this, I will willingly wed him ; but, if I 
 overcome him, I will take his horse and clothes and arms and write 
 with fire upon his forehead : — This is the freedman of Al-Datma." 
 Now the sons of the Kings flocked to her from every quarter far 
 and near, and she overcame them and put them to shame, stripping 
 them of their arms and branding them with fire. Presently the son 
 of a King of the Kings of the Persians, by name Behram ibn Taji, 
 heard of her and journeyed from afar to her father's court, bringing 
 with him men and horses and great store of wealth and royal 
 treasures. When he drew near the city, he sent her parent a rich 
 present and the King came out to meet him and honoured him with 
 the utmost honour. Then the King's son sent a message to him by 
 his Wazir, demanding his daughter's hand in marriage ; but the 
 King answered, saying, " O my son, as regards my daughter Al- 
 Datma, I have no power over her, for she hath sworn by her soul to 
 marry none except he overcome her in the listed field. Quoth the 
 Prince, I journeyed hither from my father's court with no other 
 object but this ; I came here to woo and for thine alliance to sue ; " 
 and quoth the King, " Thou shalt meet her to-morrow." So next day 
 he sent to bid his daughter who, making ready for battle, donned her 
 harness of war, and the folk, hearing of the coming joust, flocked 
 from all sides to the field. Presently the Princess rode into the lists, 
 armed cap-a-pie and belted and with vizor down, and the Persian 
 King's son came out single-handed to meet her, equipped at all 
 points after the fairest of fashions. Then they drove at each other 
 and fought a great while, wheeling and falsing, advancing and 
 retreating, till the Princess, finding in him such courage and skill as 
 she had seen in none else, began to fear for herself lest he put her to 
 shame before the bystanders and knew that he would assuredly over
 
 Prince Behra?n and the Pri?icess Al-Daima. 119 
 
 come her. So she resolved to trick him and, raising her vizor, lo ! 
 her face appeared more brilHant than the full moon, which when he 
 saw, he was confounded by her beauty and his strength failed and 
 his spirit faltered. When she perceived this, she fell upon him at 
 unawares in his moment of weakness, and tare him from his saddle, 
 and he became in her hands as he were a sparrow in the clutches of 
 an eagle, knowing not what was done with him for amazement and 
 confusion. So she took his steed and clothes and armour and, 
 branding him with fire, let him wend his ways. When he recovered 
 from his stupor, he abode several days without meat or drink or 
 sleep for despite and love of the girl which had taken hold upon his 
 heart. Then he sent a letter by certain of his slaves to his father, 
 advising him that he could not return home till he had won the 
 Princess or died for want of her. When his sire got the letter, he 
 was sore concerned for his son and would have succoured him by 
 sending troops and soldiers ; but his Wazirs dissuaded him from 
 this and exhorted him to patience ; so he committed his affair to 
 Almighty Allah. Meanwhile, the Prince cast about for a means of 
 coming to his desire ; and presently, disguising himself as a decrepit 
 old man, with a white beard over his own black beard, repaired to a 
 garden of the Princess wherein she used to walk most of her days. 
 Here he sought out the gardener and said to him, " I am a stranger 
 from a far country and from my youth upwards I have been a 
 gardener, and in the grafting of trees and the culture of fruits and 
 flowers and care of the vine none is more skilled than I." When 
 the gardener heard this, he rejoiced in him with exceeding joy and 
 carried him into the garden, where he commended him to his under- 
 lings, and the Prince betook himself to the service of the garden and 
 the tending of the trees and the bettering of their fruits and im- 
 proving the Persian water-wheels and disposing the irrigation- 
 channels. One day, as he was thus employed, lo ! he saw some 
 slaves enter the garden, leading mules laden with carpets and 
 vessels, and asked them the meaning of this, to which they 
 answered, " The Princess is minded to take her pleasure." When 
 he heard these words he hastened to his lodging and, fetching 
 some of the jewels and ornaments he had brought witli him from 
 home, sat down in the garden and spread somewhat of them out 
 
 before him, shaking and making a show of extreme old age 
 
 And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her 
 permitted say.
 
 I20 
 
 A If Lay /ah iva Lay I ah. 
 
 Nolo luDen it teas ti)C J^ibe |l^unt(rcti anti Kinctj)=£ig!)tf) ISTiQ^t, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the son of 
 the Persian King, after disguising himself as an old man shotten in 
 years and taking a seat in the garden, spread out somewhat of the 
 jewels and ornaments before him and made a show of shaking and 
 trembling as if for decrepitude and the weakness of extreme senility. 
 After an hour or so a company of damsels and eunuchs entered 
 with the Princess in their midst, as she were the moon among the 
 stars, and dispersed about the garden, plucking the fruits and 
 diverting themselves. Presently they espied a man sitting under 
 one of the trees ; and, making towards him (who was the Prince), 
 found him a very old man, whose hands and feet trembled for 
 decrepitude, and before him store of precious jewels and royal 
 ornaments. So they marvelled at his case and asked him what he 
 did there with the jewels; when he answered, "With these trinkets 
 I would fain buy me to wife one of you." They laughed together 
 at him and said, " If one of us marry thee, what wilt thou do with 
 her?" Said he, " I will give her one kiss and divorce her." Then 
 quoth the Princess, " I give this damsel to wife." So he rose and 
 coming up to her, leaning on a staff and shivering and staggering, 
 kissed her and gave her the jewels and ornaments ; whereat she 
 rejoiced and they, laughing at him, went their w^ay. Next day, they 
 came again to the garden, and iinding him seated in the same place, 
 with more jewels and ornaments than before spread in front of him, 
 asked him, " O Shaykh, what wilt thou do with this jewellery ?" and 
 he answered, saying, "I. wish therewith to take one of you to wife 
 even as yesterday." So the Princess said, " I marry thee to this 
 damsel ; " and he came up to her and kissed her and gave her the 
 jewels, and they all went their ways. But, seeing such generosity to 
 her handmaids, the Princess said in herself, " I have more riglit to 
 all these fine things, than these baggages, and no harm can betide 
 me." So when morning morrovved she went down from her chamber 
 singly into the garden, in the habit of one of her damsels, and 
 presenting herself privily before the Prince, said to him, " O Shaykh, 
 the King's daughter hath sent me to thee, that thou mayst marry 
 me." He looked at her and knew her ; so he answered, " With love 
 and gladness," and gave her jewels and ornaments of the finest and 
 costliest. Then he rose to kiss her, but, when he came up to her, 
 he pulled the beard from his face and said to her, " Dost thou not 
 know me ? " Asked she, " Who art thou ? " and he answered, " I am 
 Behram, the King's son of Persia, who have changed my favour and
 
 Prince Behram and the Princess Al-Datma. 121 
 
 am become a stranger to my people and estate for thy sake and have 
 lavished my treasures for thy love." Then love for him entered her 
 heart, wherefore she promised to wed him, and she gathered together 
 her monies and treasures and sent to him, acquainting him therewith, 
 to the intent that he also might equip himself with his wealth and 
 needs ; and they agreed upon a night on which to depart. So, at 
 the appointed time, they mounted race-horses and set out under 
 cover of the gloom, nor did morning morrow till they had traversed 
 a great distance ; and they ceased not faring forwards till they drew 
 near his father's capital in the land of the Persians. When the King 
 heard of his son's coming, he rode out to meet him with his troops 
 and rejoiced in him with exceeding joy. Then, after a few days, he 
 sent the Princess's father a splendid present, and a letter to the 
 effect that his daughter was with him and demanding her wedding 
 equipage. Al-Datma's father came out to meet the messengers with 
 the greatest gladness (for that he had deemed his daughter lost and 
 had grieved sore for her loss) ; after which he made bride-feasts and, 
 summoning the Kazi and the witnesses, let draw up the marriage- 
 contract between his daughter and the Prince of Persia. He invested 
 the envoys with robes of honour, then he made ready her equipage 
 and despatched it to her ; and Prince Behram abode with her till 
 death sundered their union. See therefore, O King (continued the 
 favourite), the malice of men in their dealing with women. As for 
 me, I will not go back from my due till I die. So the King once 
 more commanded to put his son to death ; but the seventh Wazir 
 came in to him and kissing the ground before him, said, " O King, 
 have patience with me whilst I speak these words of good counsel 
 to thee ; how many patient and slow-moving men unto their hope 
 attain, and how many who are precipitate fall into shameful state ! 
 Now I have seen how this damsel hath profligately excited the King 
 by lies to horrible and unnatural cruelties ; but I his Mameluke, 
 whom he hath overwhelmed with his favours and bounties, do proffer 
 him true and loyal counsel ; for that I, O King, know of the malice 
 of women that which none knoweth save myself; and in particular 
 there hath reached me, on this subject, the story of the old woman 
 and the son of the merchant with its warning instances." Asked the 
 King, " And what fell out between them, O Wazir ? " and the seventh 
 Wazir answered : — I have heard tell, O King, the tale of
 
 122 Alf Laylah zva Laylah. 
 
 THE HOUSE WITH THE BELVEDERE} 
 
 A WEALTHY merchant had a son who was very dear to him and who 
 said to him one day, " O my father, I have a boon to beg of thee." 
 Quoth the merchant, " O my son, what is it, that I may give it thee 
 and bring thee to thy desire, though it were the Hght of mine eyes." 
 Quoth the youth, " Give me money, that I may journey with the 
 merchants to the city of Baghdad and see its sights and sail on the 
 Tigris and look upon the palace of the Caliphs^ ; for the sons of the 
 merchants have described these things to me and I long to see them 
 for myself" Said the father, " O my child, O my little son, how can 
 I endure to part from thee?" But the youth replied, "I have said 
 my say and there is no help for it but I journey to Baghdad, with 
 thy consent or e'en without it : such a longing for its sight hath 
 
 fallen upon me as can only be assuaged by the going thither." 
 
 And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased 
 saying her permitted say. 
 
 Notu tojbfn it tocis tj^c jpi'bc |^uni3r£li anU Nuutj)=nint]^ Nigi)t, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the mer- 
 chant's son said to his sire, " There is no help for it but that I 
 journey to Baghdad." Now when the father saw that there was no 
 help for it, he provided his son with goods to the value of thirty 
 thousand gold pieces and sent with him certain merchants in whom 
 he trusted, committing him to their charge. Then he took leave of 
 the youth, who journeyed with his friends the merchants till they 
 reached Baghdad, the House of Peace, where he entered the market 
 and hired him a house, so handsome and delectable and spacious 
 and elegant that on seeing it he well-nigh lost his wits for admira- 
 tion : for therein were pavilions facing one another, with floors of 
 coloured marbles and ceilings inlaid with gold and lapis lazuli, and 
 its gardens were full of warbling birds. So he asked the door- 
 keeper^ what was its monthly rent, and he replied, " Ten dinars." 
 
 ^ The Story of the Hidden Robe, in the Book of Sindibad ; where it is told 
 with all manner of Persian embellishments. 
 
 '^ Now turned into Government offices for local administration ; a " Tribunal 
 of Commerce," etc. 
 
 ■* Arab. "Bawwab," a personage as important as the old French concierge and 
 a man of trust who has charge of the keys and with letting vacant rooms. In
 
 The House with the Belvedere. 123 
 
 Quoth the young man, " Speakest thou soothly or dost thou but 
 jest with me ? " Quoth the porter, " By Allah, I speak naught but 
 the truth, for none who taketh up his abode in this house lodgeth 
 in it more than a week' or two." " And how is that ? " quoth the 
 youth; and quoth the porter, "O my son, whoever dwelleth in 
 this house cometh not forth of it, except sick or dead, wherefore 
 it is known amongst all the folk of Baghdad, so that none offereth 
 to inhabit it, and thus cometh it that its rent is fallen so low." 
 Hearing this the young merchant marvelled with exceeding marvel 
 and said, " Needs must there be some reason for this sickening 
 and perishing." However, after considering awhile and seeking 
 refuge with Allah from Satan the Stoned, he rented the house and 
 took up his abode there. Then he put away apprehension from his 
 thought and busied himself with selling and buying ; and some days 
 passed by without any such ill case befalling him in the house as 
 the door-keeper had mentioned. One day as he sat upon the bench 
 before his door, there came up a grizzled crone, as she were a snake 
 speckled white and black, calling aloud on the name of Allah, 
 magnifying Him inordinately and, at the same time, putting away 
 the stones and other obstacles from the path." Seeing the youth 
 sitting there, she looked at him and marvelled at his case ; where- 
 upon quoth he to her, " O woman, dost thou know me or am I like 
 any thou knowest?" When she heard him speak, she toddled up to 
 him and saluting him with the salam, asked, " How long hast dwelt in 
 this house ? " Answered he, " Two months, O my mother ;" and she 
 said, "It was hercat I marvelled; for I, O my son, know thee not. 
 
 Egypt the Berber from the Upper Nile is the favourite Suisse ; being held more 
 honest or rather less rascally than the usual Egyptian. These Berbers, however, 
 are true barbarians, overfond of Biizah (the beer of Osiris) and not unfrequently 
 dangerous. They are supposed by Moslems to descend from the old Syrians 
 exiielled by Joshua. For the favourite chaff against them, euing the dog (not 
 the puppy-pie), see Pilgrimage i. 93. They are the " Paddies " of Egypt, to 
 whom all kinds of bulls and blunders are attributed. 
 
 ' Arab. " Juma'ah," which means either P'riday or a week. In pre-Moslem 
 times it was called Al-Arubah (the other week-days being Shiyar or Saturday, 
 Bawal. Hahan, Jabar, Dabar ard Famunis or Thur.-day). Juma'ah, literally = 
 " Meeting "or Congregation (-day), was mnde to represent ihe Jewish Sabbath 
 and the Christian Sunday because on that day Allah ended the work of creation ; 
 it was also the date of Mohammed's entering Al-Medinah. According to 
 Al-Bayzawi, it was called Assembly-day because Ka'ab ibn Lov\a, one of the 
 Prophet's ancestors, used to gather the people before him on Fridays. Moslems 
 are not forbidden to do secular work after the congregational piayers at the hour 
 when they must "hasten to the commemoration of Allah and leave merchan- 
 dising" (Koran, chapt. Ixii. 9). 
 
 - This is done only by the very pious : if they see a bit of bread they kiss it, 
 place it upon their heads and deposit it upon a wall or some other place where it 
 will not be trodden on. She also removed the stones lest haply they prove 
 stumbling-blocks to some Moslem foot.
 
 124 Alf Laylah wa Lay! ah. 
 
 neither dost thou know me, nor yet art thou hke unto anyone I know ; 
 but I marvelled for that none other than thou hath taken up his abode 
 in this house but hath gone forth from it, dead or dying, saving thee 
 alone. Doubtless, O my son, thou hast perilled thy young years ; 
 but I suppose thou hast not gone up to the upper story neither 
 looked out from the Belvedere there." So saying, she went her 
 way and he fell a-pondering her words and said to himself, " I have 
 not gone up to the top of the house ; nor did I know that there was 
 a Belvedere there." Then he arose forthright and going in, searched 
 the by-ways of the house till he espied, in a wall-corner, a narrow 
 door, between whose posts ^ the spider had woven her webs, and said 
 in himself, " Haply the spider hath not webbed over the door, but 
 because death and doom is within." However, he heartened him- 
 self with the saying of God the Most High, "Say, nothing shall 
 befal us but what Allah hath written for us ; " ^ and opening the 
 door, ascended a narrow flight of stairs, till he came to the terrace- 
 roof, where he found a Belvedere, in which he sat down to rest and 
 solace himself with the view. Presently, he caught sight of a fine 
 house and a well cared for, hard by, surmounted by a lofty Belve- 
 dere, overlooking the whole of Baghdad, in which sat a damsel fair 
 as a Houri. Her beauty took possession of his whole heart and 
 made away with his reason, bequeathing to him the pains and 
 patience of Job and the grief and weeping of Jacob. And as he 
 looked at her and considered her curiously, an object to enamour 
 an ascetic and make a devotee lovesick, fire was lighted in his heart 
 and he cried, " Folk say that whoever taketh up his abode in this 
 house dieth or sickeneth. An this be so, yon damsel is assuredly 
 the cause. Would Heaven I knew how I shall win free of this 
 affair, for my wits are clean gone ! " Then he descended from the 
 terrace, pondering his case, and sat down in the house, but being 
 unable to rest, he went out and took his seat at the door, absorbed 
 in melancholy thought when, behold, up came the old woman a-foot, 
 praising and magnifying Allah as she went. When he saw her, he 
 rose and, accosting her with a courteous salam and wishes for her 
 life being prolonged, said to her, " O my mother, I was healthy 
 and hearty till thou madest mention to me of the door leading to 
 the Belvedere ; so I opened it and ascending to the top of the house, 
 saw thence what stole away my senses ; and now methinks I am a 
 
 ' Arab. "Ashjar," which may mean either the door-posts or the wooden bolts. 
 Lane (iii. 174) translates it " among the trees" — in a room ! 
 
 " Koran (i.\. 51), where Mohammed reproaches the unbelievers for not ac- 
 companying him to victory or martyrdom.
 
 The House ivith the Belvedere. 125 
 
 lost man, and I know no physician for mc but thyself." When she 
 heard this, she laughed and said, " No harm shall befal thee, 
 Inshallah — so Allah please ! " Whereupon he rose and went into 
 the house and coming back with an hundred dinars in his sleeve 
 said to her, " Take this, O my mother, and deal with me the dealing 
 of lords with slaves and succour me quickly for, if I die, a claim for 
 my blood will meet thee on the Day of Doom." Answered she, 
 " With love and gladness ; but, O my son, I expect thou lend me 
 thine aid in some small matter, whereby hangs the winning of thy 
 wish." Quoth he, '■ What wouldst thou have me do, O my mother ?" 
 Quoth she, " Go to the silk-market and enquire for the shop of Abu al- 
 Fath bin Kaydam. Sit thee down on his counter and salute him and 
 say to him, "Give me the face-veil ^ thou hast by thee adorned with 
 gold :" for he hath none handsomer in his shop. Then buy it of 
 him, O my son, at his own price, however high, and keep it till I come 
 to thee to-morrow, Allah Almighty willing." So saying, she went 
 away and he passed the night upon live coals of the Ghaza-wood.- 
 Next morning he took a thousand ducats in his pocket and repairing 
 to the silk-market, sought out the shop of Abu al-Fath, to whom he was 
 directed by one of the merchants. He found him a man of dignified 
 aspect, surrounded by pages, eunuchs and attendants ; for he was a 
 merchant of great wealth and consideration, befriended by the Caliph ; 
 and of the blessings which Allah the Most High had bestowed upon 
 him was the damsel who had ravished the young man's heart. She 
 was his wife and had not her match for beauty, nor was her like to 
 be found with any of the sons of the Kings. The young man saluted 
 him and Abu al-Fath returned his salami and bade him be seated. So 
 he sat down by him and said to him, " O merchant, I wish to look at 
 such a face-veil." Accordingly he bade his slave bring him a bundle 
 of silk from the inner shop and, opening it, brought out a number of 
 veils, whose beauty amazed the youth. Among them was the veil 
 he sought ; so he bought it for fifty gold pieces and bore it home 
 
 well pleased. And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and 
 
 ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 ' Arab. "Kind'," a true veil, not the " Burka'" or " nose bag " with the peep- 
 holes. It is opposed to the ' ' Taikah" or " head-veil." Europeans inveigh against 
 the veil which represents the Icup of Louis (^)ualorze's d.iy : it is on the contrary 
 the most coquettish of contrivances, hiding coarse skins, fleshy noses, wide mouths 
 and vanishing chins ; ai.d showing only lustrous and liquid black eyes. Moreover 
 a pretty woman, when she wishes, will always let you see something under the 
 veil. (Pili;rimage i. 337). 
 
 ■■* A yellow-tlowered artcmisia or absinthe whose wood burns like holm-oak. 
 (Unexplored Syria ii. 43).
 
 126 Alf LaylaJi wa Lay la h. 
 
 iSofo foj^tn It tons i\^t ^ix l^imJjrclit]^ iSigJbt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the youth 
 after buying the veil of the merchant bore it home ; but hardly had 
 he reached the house when lo ! up came the old woman. He rose 
 to her and gave her his purchase when she bade him bring a live 
 coal, with which she burnt one of the corners of the veil, then folded 
 it up as before and, repairing to Abu al-Fath's house knocked at the 
 door. Asked the damsel, " Who is there? " and she answered, " I, 
 Such-an-one." Now the damsel knew her for a friend of her mother, 
 so, when she heard her voice, she came out and opening the door to 
 her, said, " What brought thee here, O my mother? My mamma 
 hath left me and gone to her own house." Replied the old woman, 
 " O my daughter, I know thy mother is not with thee, for I have 
 been with her in her home, and I come not to thee, but because I 
 fear to pass the hour of prayer ; wherefore I desire to make my 
 Wuzu-ablution with thee, for I know thou art clean and thy house 
 pure."i The damsel admitted the old trot who saluted her and 
 called down blessings upon her. Then she took the ewer and went 
 into the wash-house, where she made her ablutions and prayed in a 
 place there. Presently, she came out again and said to the damsel, 
 *' O my daughter, show me another place where I may pray, for the 
 prayer I have prayed I account null and void." Thereupon the 
 damsel took her by the hand and said to her, " O my mother, come 
 and pray on my carpet, where my husband sits. So she stood there 
 and prayed and worshipped, bowed and prostrated ; and presently, 
 she took the damsel unawares and made shift to slip the veil under 
 the cushion, unseen of her. Then she blessed her and went her 
 ways. Now as the day was closing Abu al-Fath came home and sat 
 down upon the carpet, whilst his wife brought him food and he ate 
 of it his sufficiency and washed his hands ; after which he leant 
 back upon the cushion. Presently, he caught sight of a corner of 
 the veil protruding from under the cushion ; so he pulled it out and 
 considered it straitly, when, knowing it for that he had sold to the 
 young man, he at once called his wife and said, "Whence hadst 
 thou this veil ? " And she swore an oath to him, saying, " None 
 hath come to me but thou." The merchant was silent for fear of 
 scandal, and said to himself, " If I open up this chapter, I shall be 
 put to shame before all Baghdad ;" for he was one of the intimates 
 
 ^ The Farz or obligatory prayers, I have noted, must be recited (if necessary) 
 in the most impure place ; not so the other orisons. Hence the use of the " Saj- 
 jadah " or prayer-rug, an article too well known to require description.
 
 The House with the Belvedere. 127 
 
 of the Caliph, and so he could do nothing save hold his peace. So 
 he asked no questions, but said to his wife, whose name was Mah- 
 ziyah, " It hath reached me that thy mother lieth ill of heart-ache ^ 
 and all the women are with her, weeping over her ; wherefore I 
 order thee to go to her." Accordingly, she repaired to her mother's 
 house and found her in the best of health : and she asked her 
 daughter, "What brings thee here at this hour?" So she told her 
 what her husband had said and sat with her awhile ; when behold, 
 up came porters, who brought her clothes from her husband's 
 house, and transporting all her paraphernalia and what not else 
 belonged to her of goods and vessels, deposited them in her 
 mother's lodging. When the mother saw this, she knew that her 
 daughter was divorced and she said to her daughter, "Tell me 
 what hath passed between thee and thy husband, to bring about 
 this." But she swore to her that she knew not the cause thereof 
 and that there had befallen nothing between them to call for this 
 conduct. Quoth her mother, " Needs must there be a cause for 
 this." And she answered, saying, " I know of none, and after this, 
 with Almighty Allah be it to make provision ! " Whereupon her 
 mother fell a-weeping and lamented her daughter's separation 
 from the like of this man, by reason of his sufficiency and fortune 
 and the greatness of his rank and dignity. On this wise things 
 abode some days, after which the curst, ill-omened old woman, 
 whose name was Miryam the Koranist,- paid a visit to IMahziyah 
 in her mother's house and saluted her cordially, saying, " \\'hat ails 
 thee, O my daughter, O my darling? Indeed, thou hast troubled 
 my mind." Then she went in to her mother and said to her, " O 
 my sister, what is this business about thy daughter and her hus- 
 band ? It hath reached me that he hath divorced her ! What hath 
 she done to call for this ? " Quoth the mother, " Belike her husband 
 will return to her by the blessed influence of thy prayers, O Hdfizah: 
 so do thou pray for her, O my sister, for thou art a day-faster and 
 a night-prayer." Then the three fell to talking together and the old 
 woman said to the damsel, "O my daughter, grieve not for, if Allah 
 
 ^ An^lic^ a stomach-ache, a colic. 
 
 ^ Arab. " Al-IIalizah " which has two meanings. Properly it signifies the third 
 order of Tiaditionists out of a total of five, or those who know 300,000 traditions 
 and their ascrijitions. Popularly "one who can recite the Koran by role." 
 There are six great Tradilionists whose words are held to be ]irinie authorities ; 
 (i) Al-Bokhari ; (2) Muslim ; and these are entitled Al-Sahihayn, The (two 
 true) authorities. After them (3) Al-Tirmidi ; and (4) Abu Daud ; these four 
 being the authors of the "Four Sunan ; " the others are (5) Al-Nasai and (6) 
 Ibn Majah (see Jarrett's Al-Siyuti pp. 2, 6 ; and, for modern Arab studies, 
 Pilgrimage i. 154 ci scq.).
 
 128 A If Lay la h wa Laylah. 
 
 please, I will make peace between thee and thy husband before 
 many days." Then she left them and going to the young merchant, 
 said to him, " Get ready a handsome entertainment for us, for I will 
 bring her to thee this very night." So he sprang up and went forth 
 and provided all that was fitting of meat and drink and so forth, 
 then sat down to await the twain ; whilst the old woman returned 
 to the girl's mother and said to her, " O my sister, we have a 
 splendid bride-feast to-night ; so let thy daughter go with me, that 
 she may divert herself and make merry with us and throw off her 
 cark and care, and forget the ruin of her home. I will bring her 
 back to thee even as I took her away." The mother dressed her 
 daughter in her finest dress and costliest jewels and accompanied 
 her to the door, where she commended her to the old woman's 
 charge, saying, "'Ware lest thou let any of Almighty Allah's crea- 
 tures look upon her, for thou knowest her husband's rank with the 
 Caliph ; and do not tarry, but bring her back to me as soon as 
 possible." The old woman carried the girl to the young man's 
 house which she entered, thinking it the place where the wedding 
 was to be held : but as soon as she came into the sitting-saloon, 
 
 And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased 
 
 saying her permitted say. 
 
 iSoh) tofitn It tons t&e ^ix |^unti«ti antr jpirst i^iflftt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that as soon as 
 the damsel entered the sitting-saloon, the youth sprang up to her 
 and flung his arms round her neck and kissed her hands and feet. 
 She was confounded at his loveliness, as well as at the beauty of 
 the place and the profusion of meat and drink, flowers and per- 
 fumes that she saw therein, and deemed all was a dream. When 
 the old woman saw her amazement, she said to her, " The name of 
 Allah be upon thee, O my daughter ! Fear not ; I am here sitting 
 with thee and will not leave thee for a moment. Thou art worthy 
 of him and he is worthy of thee." So the damsel sat down shame- 
 fast and in great confusion ; but the young man jested with her and 
 entertained her with laughable stories and loving verses, till her 
 breast broadened and she became at her ease. Then she ate and 
 drank, and growing warm with wine, took the lute and sang these 
 couplets : — 
 
 My friend who went hath returned once more ; * Oh, the welcome light that 
 
 such beauty shows ! 
 And, but for the fear of those arrowy eyes, * From his lovely cheek I had culled 
 
 the rose.
 
 TJie House with the Belvedere. 129 
 
 And when the youth saw that she to his beauty did incline he waxt 
 drunken without wine and his hfe was a hght matter to him com- 
 pared with his love. Then the girl promised to wed the youth, and 
 when sufficient time had elapsed after her divorce she did so ; but 
 after a while he divorced her, and she went back to her mother. 
 Then Miryam the old Koranist came in to the youth and saluted 
 him, saying, " Come, let us restore this girl to her husband, for we 
 have been the cause of their separation and it is unrighteous." 
 Asked he, " How shall I do ? " and she answered, " Go to Abu al- 
 Fath's shop and salute him and sit down by him till thou seest me 
 pass by, when do thou rise in haste and catch hold of my dress and 
 abuse me and threaten me, demanding of me the veil. And then 
 do thou say to the merchant : — Thou knowest, O my lord, the face- 
 veil I bought of thee for fifty dinars ? It so chanced that my hand- 
 maid put it on and burnt a corner of it by accident ; so she gave it 
 to this old woman, who took it, promising to get it fine-drawn ^ and 
 return it, and went away, nor have I seen her from that day to this 
 day." " With joy and good will," replied the young man, and rising 
 forthright, walked to the shop of the silk merchant, with whom he 
 sat awhile till behold, the old woman passed telling her beads on a 
 rosary she held in hand ; whereupon he sprang up and laying hold 
 of her dress began to revile and to rail at her, whilst she answered 
 him with fair words, saying, "Indeed, my son, thou art excusable." 
 So the people of the bazar flocked round the two, crying, "What may 
 be the matter? " and he replied, " O folk, I bought of this merchant a 
 veil for fifty dinars and gave it to my slave-girl, who wore it awhile, 
 then sat down to fumigate it with perfume. Presently a spark flew 
 out of the censer and, lighting on the edge of the veil, burnt a hole 
 in it. So we committed it to this pestilent old woman, that she 
 might give it to who should fine-draw it and return it to us ; but 
 from that time we have never set eyes on her again till this time." 
 Answered the old woman, " This young man speaks sooth. I had 
 the veil from him, but I took it with me into one of the houses 
 where I am wont to visit and forgot it there, nor do I know where 
 I left it ; and, being a poor woman, I feared its owner and dared 
 not face him." Now the girl's husband was listening to all they 
 
 said, And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to 
 
 say her permitted say. 
 
 ^ Arab. " Rcifw": the "Rafu-gar" or fine-drawer in India, who does this 
 artistic style of darning, is famed for skill. 
 
 VOL. IV,
 
 130 Alf Laylah iva Lay /ah. 
 
 Nofo tuj^Eix it toas \^t ^ix l^untirctr antr ^cconU Nigibt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 young man seized the old woman and spoke to her of the veil as 
 she had primed him, the girl's husband was listening to all they 
 said, from beginning to end, and when he heard the tale which the 
 crafty old woman had contrived with the young man, he rose to his 
 feet and cried, " Allah Almighty ! I crave pardon of the Omnipotent 
 One for my sins and for what my heart suspected ! " And he praised 
 the Lord who had discovered to him the truth. Then he accosted 
 the old woman and said to her, "Dost thou use to visit us?"^ 
 Replied she, " O my son, I visit you and other than you, for the 
 sake of alms ; but from that day to this day, none hath given me news 
 of the veil." Asked the merchant, " Hast thou enquired at my 
 house ? " and she answered, " O my lord, I did indeed go to thy 
 house and ask ; but they told me that the person of the house ^ had 
 been divorced by the merchant ; so I went away and asked no 
 farther ; nor have I enquired of anybody else until this day." Here- 
 upon the merchant turned to the young man and said, " Let the 
 old woman go her way ; for the veil is with me." So saying, he 
 brought it out from the shop and gave it to the fine-drawer before all 
 present. Then he betook himself to her who had been his wife 
 and, giving her somewhat of money, wedded her again, after making 
 abundance of excuses to her and asking pardon of Allah, because 
 he knew not what the old woman had done. (Said the Wazir), 
 This then, O King, is an instance of the malice of women, and for 
 another to the same purport, I have heard tell the following tale 
 anent 
 
 THE KING'S SON AND THE IFRIT'S MISTRESS:^ 
 
 A CERTAIN King's son was once walking alone for his pleasure, when 
 he came to a green meadow, abounding in trees laden with fruit and 
 birds singing on the boughs, and a river running athwart it. The 
 place pleased him : so he sat down there and taking out some dried 
 
 ^ The question sounds strange to Europeans, but in the Moslem East a man 
 knows nothing, except by hearsay, of the women who visit his wife. 
 
 " Arab. " Ahl al-bayt,"so as not rudely to say "wife." 
 
 ^ This is a mere abstract of the tale told in the Introduction. Here, however, 
 the rings are about eighty ; there the number varies from ninety to five hundred 
 and seventy. A similar story is to be found in the Epic Songs of Russia.
 
 The Kin^s Son and the Ifrifs Mistress. 131 
 
 fruits he had brought with him, began to eat, when lo ! he espied a 
 great smoke rising up to heaven and, taking fright, he cUmbed up 
 into a tree and hid himself among the branches. Thence he saw an 
 Ifrit rise out of the midst of the stream bearing on his head a chest 
 of marble, secured by a padlock. He set down the chest on the 
 meadow-sward and opened it and there came forth a damsel of 
 mortal race like the sun shining in the sheeny sky. After seating her 
 he solaced himself by gazing on her awhile, then laid his head upon 
 her lap and fell asleep, whereat she lifted up his head and laying it 
 upon the chest, rose and walked about. Presently, she chanced to 
 raise her eyes to the tree wherein was the Prince, and seeing him, 
 signed to him to come down. He refused, but she swore to him, 
 saying, " Except thou come down and do as I bid thee, I will wake 
 the Ifrit and point thee out to him, when he will straightway slay 
 thee." The King's son, fearing she would do as she said, came down, 
 whereupon she kissed his hands and feet and said to him, " Give me 
 this seal-ring I see on thy finger." wSo he gave her his signet and 
 she set it in a silken kerchief she had with her, wherein were more 
 than fourscore others. When the Prince saw this, he asked her, 
 "What dost thou with all these rings?" and she answered, "In very 
 sooth this Ifrit carried me off from my father's palace and shut me 
 in this box, which he beareth about on his head wherever he goeth, 
 with the keys about him ; and he hardly leaveth me one moment 
 alone of the excess of his jealousy over me. When I saw this, I 
 swore that I would defeat his watchfulness, and these rings thou seest 
 are after the tale of the men who have spoken wdth me ; for I took 
 from each a seal-ring and laid it in this kerchief." Then she added, 
 " And now go thy ways, that I may look for another than thyself, for 
 the Ifrit will not awake yet awhile." Hardly crediting what he had 
 heard, the Prince returned to his father's palace, but the King knew 
 naught of the damsel's malice (for she feared not this and took no 
 count thereof), and seeing that his son had lost his ring, he bade put 
 him to death. Then he rose from his place and entered his palace ; 
 but his Wazirs came in to him and prevailed with him to abandon 
 his purpose. The same night, the King sent for all of them and 
 thanked them for having dissuaded him from slaying his son ; and 
 the Prince also thanked them, saying, "It was well done of you to 
 counsel my father to let me live and, Inshallah ! I will soon requite 
 you abundantly." Then he related to them how he had lost the 
 ring, and they offered up prayers for his long life and advancement 
 and withdrew. "See then, O King" (said the Wazir), "the malice 
 of women and what they do unto men." The King hearkened to 
 the Minister's counsel ajid again countermanded his order to slay his
 
 132 A If Lay la h wa Laylah. 
 
 son. Next morning, it being the eighth day, as the King sat in his 
 audience-chamber in the midst of his Grandees and Emirs and Wazirs 
 and Olema, the Prince entered, with his hand in that of his governor, 
 Al-Sindibad, and praised his father and his Ministers and lords and 
 divines in the most eloquent words and thanked them for having 
 saved his life ; so that all who were present wondered at his eloquence 
 and fluency of speech. His father rejoiced in him with exceeding, 
 all-surpassing joy, and calling him to him, kissed him between the 
 eyes. Then he summoned his preceptor, Al-Sindibad, and asked him 
 why his son had kept silence these seven days, to which he replied, 
 " O our lord, the truth is, 'twas I who enjoined him to this, in my 
 fear for him of death : I knew this from the day of his birth ; and, 
 when I took his nativity, I found it written in the stars that, if he 
 should speak during this period, he would surely die ; but now the 
 danger is over, by the King's fortune." At this the King was glad 
 and said to his Wazirs, " If I had killed my son, would the fault 
 have fallen on me or the damsel or on the preceptor, Al-Sindibad ? " 
 But all present refrained from replying, and Al-Sindibad said to the 
 
 Prince, " Answer thou, O my son." And Shahrazad was surprised 
 
 by the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 tN'ofo 6of)en ft teas t!)e ^ix ^untrretr anD ^jbitti tNTiglbt, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Al-Sindibad said, "Answer thou, O my son," the Prince replied, 
 " I have heard tell that a merchant at whose house certain guests 
 once alighted sent his slave-girl to the market to buy a jar of clotted 
 milk.^ So she bought it and set out on her return home ; but on 
 the way there passed over her a kite, holding and squeezing a serpent 
 in its claws, and a drop of the serpent's venom fell into the milk- 
 jar, unknown of the girl. So, when she came back, the merchant 
 
 ^ Arab, and Heb. " Laban " (opp. to " Laban-halib," or simply " Halib "= 
 fresh milk), milk artificially soured, the Dahin of India, the Kisalina of the Slavs 
 and our Corstophine cream. But in The Nights, contrary to modern popular 
 usage, "Laban" is also applied to fresh milk. The soured form is universally 
 in the East eaten with rice and enters into the Salatah or cucumber-salad. I 
 have noted elsewhere that all the Galactophagi, the nomades who live on milk, 
 use it in the soured never in the fresh form. The Badawi have curious prejudices 
 about it : it is a disgrace to sell it (though not to exchange it), and " Labban," 
 or " milk-vendor,'' is an insult. The Brahui and Beloch nomades have the same 
 pundonor, possibly learnt from the Arabs (Pilgrimage i. 363). For 'Igt (Akit), 
 Mahir, Saribah, Jamidah and other lacteal preparations, see ibid. i. 362.
 
 The Sandal-Wood Merchant and the Sharpers. 133 
 
 took the milk from her and drank of it, he and his guests ; but 
 hardly had it settled in their stomachs when they all died.^ Now 
 consider, O King, whose was the fault in this matter?" Thereupon 
 some present said, " It was the fault of the company who drank the 
 milk without examining it ; " and other some, " That of the girl, 
 who left the jar without cover." But Al-Sindibad asked the Prince, 
 " What sayest thou, O my son ? " Answered he, " I say that the 
 folk err ; it was neither the fault of the damsel nor of the company, 
 for their appointed hour was come, their divinely decreed provision 
 was exhausted and Allah had fore-ordained them to die thus." ^ 
 When the courtiers heard this, they marvelled greatly and lifted up 
 their voices, blessing the King's son, and saying, " O our lord, thou 
 hast made a reply sans J>eur, and thou art the sagest man of thine 
 age sans reprochey " Indeed, I am no sage," answered the Prince ; 
 "the blind Shaykh and the son of three years and the son of five 
 years were wiser than I." Said the bystanders, *' O youth, tell us 
 the stories of these three who were wiser than thou art, O youth." 
 Answered he : — AVith all my heart. I have heard tell this tale 
 concerning 
 
 THE SANDAL-WOOD MERCHANT AND THE 
 
 SHARPERS? 
 
 There once lived an exceeding rich merchant, who was a great 
 traveller and who visited all manner of places. One day, being 
 minded to journey to a certain city, he asked those who came 
 thence, saying, " What kind of goods brought most profit there ? " and 
 they answered, " Chanders-wood ; for it selleth at a high price." 
 So he laid out all his money in sandal and set out for that city ; and, 
 arriving there at close of day, behold, he met an old woman driving 
 her sheep. Quoth she to him, "\\'ho art thou, O man? "and quoth 
 
 ^ I need hardly say that the poison would have been utterly harmless, unless 
 there had been an abrasion of the skin. The slave-girl is blamed for carrying 
 the jar uncovered because thus it would attract the evil eye. In the Book of 
 Sindiliad the tale appears as the Story of the Poisoned Guests ; and the bird is 
 a stork. 
 
 '' The Prince expresses the pure and still popular Moslem feeling ; and yet the 
 learned and experienced Mr. Rcdhouse would confuse this absolute Predestina- 
 tion with Providence. 
 
 ^ In the Book of Sindibad this is the Story of the Sandal-wood Merchant and 
 the Advice of the Blind Old Man. Mr. Clouston (p. 163) quotes a Talmudic 
 joke which is akin to the Shaykh's advice and a reply of Tyi Eulenspicgel, the 
 arch-rogue, which has also a family resemblance.
 
 134 Alf Lay la h wa Lay I ah. 
 
 he, " I am a stranger, a merchant." " Beware of the townsfolk," 
 said she, " for they are cheats, rascals, robbers who love nothing 
 more than imposing on the foreigner that they may get the better of 
 him and devour his substance. Indeed I give thee good counsel." 
 Then she left him and on the morrow there met him one of the 
 citizens who saluted him and asked him, " O my lord, whence 
 comest thou?" Answered the merchant, "From such a place." 
 "And what merchandise hast thou brought with thee ?" enquired 
 the other ; and replied he, " Chanders-wood, for it is high of price with 
 you." Quoth the townsman, " He blundered who told thee that ; 
 for we burn nothing under our cooking-pots save sandal-wood, whose 
 worth with us is but that of fuel." When the merchant heard this he 
 sighed and repented and stood balanced between belief and unbelief. 
 Then he alighted at one of the Khans of the city ; and, when it was 
 night, he saw a merchant make fire of chanders-wood under his 
 cooking-pot. Now this was the man who had spoken with him and 
 this proceeding was a trick of his. When the townsman saw the 
 merchant looking at him, he asked, " Wilt thou sell me thy sandal- 
 wood for a measure ^ of whatever thy soul shall desire ? " "I sell it 
 to thee," answered the merchant ; and the buyer transported all the 
 wood to his own house and stored it up there ; whilst the seller pur- 
 posed to take an equal quantity of gold for it. Next morning the 
 merchant, who was a blue-eyed man, went out to walk in the city 
 but, as he went along, one of the townsfolk, who was blue-eyed and 
 one-eyed to boot, caught hold of him, saying, "Thou art he who 
 stole my eye and I will never let thee go." ^ The merchant denied 
 this, saying, " I never stole it : the thing is impossible." Where- 
 upon the folk collected round them and besought the one-eyed man 
 to grant him till the morrow, that he might give him the price of his 
 eye. So the merchant procured one to be surety for him, and they 
 let him go. Now his sandal had been rent in the struggle with the 
 one-eyed man ; so he stopped at a cobbler's stall and gave it to him, 
 saying, " Mend it and thou shalt have of me what shall content 
 thee." Then he went on, till he came to some people sitting at play 
 of forfeits and sat down with them, to divert his cark and care. 
 They invited him to play with them and he did so ; but they prac- 
 
 ^ Arab. " Sa'a," a measure of corn, etc., to be given in alms. The Kamus 
 makes it = four mudds (each being 1/3 lbs.) ; the people understand by it four 
 times the measure of a man's two open hands. 
 
 - i.e. till thou restore my eye to me. This style of prothesis without apodosis 
 is very common in Arabic and should be preserved in translation, as it adds a 
 naivete to the style. We find it in Genesis iii. 2, " And now lest he put forth his 
 hand," etc.
 
 The Saiidal-Wood Merchant and the Sharpers. 135 
 
 tised on him and overcoming him, offered him his choice ^ either to 
 drink up the sea or disburse all the money he had. " Have patience 
 with me till to-morrow," said he^, and they granted him the delay 
 he sought ; whereupon he went away, sore concerned for what had 
 betided him and not knowing how he should do, and sat down in a 
 solitary place heart-heavy, careful, thought-opprest. And behold, 
 the old woman passed by and seeing him thus, said to him, " Perad- 
 venture the townsfolk have gotten the better of thee, for I see thee 
 troubled at that which hath befallen thee : recount to me what aileth 
 thee." So he told her all that had passed from first to last, and she 
 said, "As for him who diddled thee in the matter of the chanders- 
 wood, thou must know that with us it is worth ten gold pieces a 
 jDOund. But I will give thee a counsel, whereby I trust thou shalt 
 deliver thyself ; and it is this. Go to such and such a gate whereby 
 lives a blind Shaykh, a cripple, who is knowing, wise as a wizard and 
 experienced ; and all repair to him and ask him what they require, 
 when he counsels them what will be for their advantage ; for he is 
 versed in craft - and magic and trickery. Now he is a sharper and 
 the sharpers resort to him by night ; therefore, I repeat, go thou to 
 his lodging and hide thyself from thine adversaries, so thou mayst 
 hear what they say, unseen of them ; for he telleth them which party 
 got the better and which got the worse ; and haply thou shalt learn 
 from them some plan which may avail to deliver thee from them." 
 
 And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say 
 
 her permitted say. 
 
 Xofco toljen it toas tijc ^(.x ^I'^untiiciJ anti JPouvti) yfgijt, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the old woman 
 said to the merchant, " Go this night to that expert who is fre- 
 quented by the townsfolk and hide thine identity : haply shalt thou 
 hear from him some plan which shall deliver thee from thine adver- 
 saries." So he went to the place she mentioned and hid himself 
 albeit he took seat near the blind man. Before long, up came the 
 Shaykh's company who were wont to choose him for their judge : 
 they saluted the oldster and one another and sat down round him, 
 
 ' They were playing at Murahanah, like cbiklren amongst us. It is also called 
 "Ilukm wa Riza"= order and consent. The penalty is usually something ridi- 
 culous, but here it was villainous. 
 
 ^ Every Moslem capital has a " Shaykh of the thieves," who holds regular 
 levees and who will return stolen articles for a consideration ; and this has lasted 
 since the days of Diodorus Siculus (Pilgrimage i. 91).
 
 136 Alf Lay/ah wa Laylah. 
 
 whereupon the merchant recognised his four adversaries. The 
 Chief set somewhat of food before them and they ate ; then each 
 began to tell what had befallen him during his day, and amongst 
 the rest came forward he of the chanders-wood and told the Shaykh 
 how he had bought of one man sandal below its price, and had 
 agreed to pay for it a Sa'a or measure of whatever the seller should 
 desire. Quoth the old man, " Thine opponent hath the better of 
 thee." Asked the other, "How can that be?" and the Shaykh 
 answered, " What if he say, I will take the measure full of gold or 
 silver, wilt thou give it to him ? " " Yes," replied the other, " I will 
 give it to him and still be the gainer." And the Shaykh answered, 
 " But if he say, I will take the measure full of fleas,^ half male 
 and half female, what wilt thou do ? " So the sharper knew that he 
 was worsted. Then came forward the one-eyed man and said, " O 
 Shaykh, I met to-day a blue-eyed man, a stranger to the town ; so I 
 picked a quarrel with him and caught hold of him, saying : — 'Twas 
 thou robbedst me of my eye ; nor did I let him go till some became 
 surety for him that he should return to me to-morrow and satisfy me 
 for my eye." Quoth the oldster, " If he will he may have the better 
 of thee and thou the worse." "How so?" said the sharper; and 
 the Chief said, " He may say to thee, Pluck out thine eye, and I will 
 pluck out one of mine ; then we will weigh them both, and if thine 
 eye be of the same weight as mine, thou sayest sooth in what thou 
 avouchest. So wilt thou owe him the legal price of his eye and be 
 stone bUnd, whilst he will still see with his other eye." So the 
 sharper knew that the merchant might baffle him with such plea. 
 Then came the cobbler ; and said, " O Shaykh, a man brought me his 
 sandal-shoe to-day, saying, Mend this ; and I asked him. What wage 
 wilt thou give me ? when he answered, Thou shalt have of me what 
 will content thee. Now nothing will content me but all the wealth 
 he hath." Quoth the oldster, " An he will, he may take his sandal 
 from thee and give thee nothing." " How so ? " quoth the cobbler ; 
 and quoth the Shaykh, " He has but to say to thee, The Sultan's 
 
 ^ The idea would readily occur in Egypt where the pulex is still a plague, 
 and where the young traveller who lodges in the Fellah's huts is strongly 
 advised to use night-garments which keep out the vermin. Yet the Sultan 
 is said to hold his court at Tiberias. " Male and female," says the rogue, 
 otherwise it would be easy to fill a bushel with fleas. The insect was un- 
 known to older India according to some and was introduced by strangers. 
 This immigration is quite possible. In 1863 the jigger or chigoe {F. penetrans) 
 was not found in Western Africa ; when I returned there in 1882 it had passed 
 over from the Brazil and had become naturalised along the Congo and on the 
 equatorial African seaboard. The Arabs call shrimps and prawns "sea-fleas" 
 (barguth-al-bahr) showing an inland race. (See Pilgrimage i. 322.)
 
 The Sandal- Wood Merchant and the Sharpers. 137 
 
 enemies are put to the rout ; his foes are waxed weak and his children 
 and helpers are multiplied. Art thou content or no ? If thou say, 
 I am content/ he will take his sandal and go away ; and if thou say, 
 I am not content, he will take his sandal and beat thee therewith 
 over the face and neck." So the cobbler owned himself worsted. 
 Then came forward the gamester and said, " O Shaykh, I played at 
 forfeits with a man to-day and beat him, and quoth I to him : — 
 If thou drink the sea I will give thee all my wealth ; and if not I 
 will take all that is thine." Replied the Chief, " If he will he may 
 worst thee." "How so?" asked the sharper, and the Shaykh 
 answered, " He hath but to say. Hold for me the mouth of the sea 
 in thine hand and give it me and I will drink it. But thou wilt 
 not be able to do this ; so he will baffle thee with such plea. When 
 the merchant heard this, he knew how it behoved him to deal with 
 his adversaries. Then the sharpers left the Shaykh and the merchant 
 returned to his lodging. Now when morning morrowed, the game- 
 ster came to him and summoned him to drink the sea ; so he said to 
 him, " Hold for me its mouth and I will drink it up." Whereupon 
 he confessed himself beaten and redeemed his forfeit by paying 
 an hundred gold pieces. Then came the cobbler and sought of him 
 what should content him. Quoth the merchant, " Our Lord the 
 Sultan hath overcome his foes and destroyed his enemies and his 
 children are multiplied. Art thou content or no ? " "I am content," 
 quoth the cobbler and, giving up the shoe - without wage, went 
 away. Next came the one-eyed man and demanded the legal price 
 of his eye. Said the merchant, " Pluck out thine eye, and I will 
 pluck out mine : then we will weigh them, and if they are equal in 
 weight, I will acknowledge thy truth, and pay thee the price of thine 
 eye ; but, if they differ, thou liest and I will sue thee for the price of 
 mine eye." Quoth the one-eyed man, " Grant me time ;" but the 
 nierchant answered, saying, " I am a stranger and grant time to none, 
 nor will I part from thee till thou pay." So the sharper ransomed his 
 eye by paying him an hundred ducats and went away. Last of all 
 came the buyer of the chanders-wood and said, " Take the price of 
 
 * Submission to the Sultan and the tidings of his well-being should content 
 every Eastern subject, liut, as Oriental history shows, the form of government 
 is a Despotism tempered by assassination. And under no rule is man socially 
 freer, and his condition contrasts strangely with the grinding social tyranny 
 which characterises every mode of democracy or constitutionalism, i.e. political 
 equality. 
 
 - Here the text has " Marki'd) " = a shoe ; elsewhere " Na'al" = a sandal, 
 especially with wooden sole. In classical Arabia, however, " Na'al " may be a 
 shoe, a horse shoe (iron-plate, not rim of iron like ours). The Bresl. Edit, has 
 " Wata,"any foot gear.
 
 1 2 8 Alf Laylah wa Lay la h. 
 
 thy ware." Asked the merchant, " What wilt thou give me ? " and 
 the other answered, " We agreed for a Sa'a-measure of whatever 
 thou shouldst desire ; so, if thou wilt, take it full of gold and silver." 
 " Not I, " rejoined the merchant, " not I ! Nothing shall serve me 
 but I must have it full of fleas, half male and half female." Said the 
 sharper, " I can do nothing of the kind ; " and, confessing him- 
 self beaten, returned him his sandal-wood and redeemed himself from 
 him with an hundred sequins, to be off his bargain. Then the mer- 
 chant sold the chanders-wood at his own price and, quitting that 
 
 city of sharpers, returned to his own land. And Shabrazad was 
 
 surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 Nob) totcn it toas x^^z ^ix l^imtitcli antr jpiftf) i^igftt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 merchant had sold his chanders-wood and had taken the money he 
 quitted that city and returned to his own land. Then the Prince 
 continued, " But this is not more wondrous than the tale of the 
 three-year-old child." "What may that be ? " asked the King, and 
 the Prince answered : — I have heard tell this tale of 
 
 THE DEB A UCHEE AND THE THREE- YEAR-OLD 
 
 CHLLD. 
 
 Know, O King that a certain profligate man, once heard of a 
 beautiful and lovely woman who dwelt in a city other than his own. 
 So he journeyed thither, taking with him a present, and wrote her 
 a note, setting forth all that he suffered for her and how his passion 
 for her had driven him to forsake his native land and come to her ; 
 and he ended by praying for an assignation. She gave him leave 
 to visit her and, as he entered her abode, she stood up and received 
 him with all honour and worship, kissing his hands and entertaining 
 him with the best entertainment of meat and drink. Now she had 
 a little son, but three years old, whom she left and busied herself in 
 cooking rice.^ Presently the man began to woo her, but she replied, 
 " My son is sitting hearing us. " Quoth the man, " He is a httle 
 child, understanding not neither knowing how to speak." Quoth 
 
 ^ Water-melons (batayikh) says the Mac. Edit., a misprint for Aruz or rice. 
 Water-melons are served up raw cut into square mouthfuls, to be eaten with rice 
 and meat ! they serve excellently well to keep the palate clean and cool.
 
 The Stolen Purse. 139 
 
 the woman, " Thou wouldst not say thus if thou knew his inteUigence." 
 When the boy saw that the rice was done he wept with bitter weeping 
 and his mother said to him, " What makes thee weep, O my son ? " 
 "Ladle me out some rice," answered he, "and put clarified butter 
 into it." So she ladled him out somewhat of rice and put butter 
 therein ; and the child ate a little, then began to weep again. Quoth 
 she, " What ails thee now, O my son ? " and quoth he, " O mother 
 mine, I want some sugar with my rice." At this said the man, who 
 was an-angered, " Thou art none other than a curst child." " Curst 
 thyself, by Allah," answered the boy, " seeing thou weariest thyself in 
 riot, and journeyest from city to city. As for me, I wept because I 
 had somewhat in my eye, and my tears brought it out ; and now 
 I have eaten rice with butter and sugar and am content ; so which 
 is the curst of us twain ? " The man was confounded at this rebuke 
 from a little child and forthright grace entered him and he was re- 
 claimed ; wherefore he went out and returned to his own country, 
 where he lived a contrite life till he died. As for the story of the 
 five-year-old child (continued the Prince), I have heard tell, O King, 
 the following anent 
 
 THE STOLEN PURSE. 
 
 Four merchants once owned in common a thousand gold pieces ; 
 so they laid them mingled together in one purse and set out to buy 
 merchandise therewith. They happened, as they wended their way, 
 on a beautiful garden ; so they left the purse with a woman who had 
 care of the garden, saying to her, " Mind thee, thou shalt not give it 
 back save when all four of us in person demand it of thee." She 
 agreed to this and they entered and strolled awhile about the garden- 
 walks and ate and drank and made merry, after which one of them 
 said to the others, " I have with me scented fuller's-earth ; come, let 
 us wash our heads therewith in this running water." Quoth another, 
 "We lack a comb;" and a third, "Let us ask the keeper; belike 
 she hath a comb." Thereupon one of them arose and accosting the 
 care-taker, said to her, " Give me the purse." Said she, " Not until 
 ye be all present or thy fellows bid me give it thee." Then he called 
 to his companions (who could see him but not hear him) saying, 
 "She will not give it me;" and they said to her, "Give it him," 
 thinking he meant the comb. So she gave him the purse and he 
 took it and made off as fast as he could. When the three others 
 were weary of waiting, they went to the keeper and asked her, "Why 
 wilt thou not give him the comb ? " Answered she, " He demanded
 
 1 40 Alf Laylah 7cia Laylah. 
 
 naught of me save the purse, and I gave not that same but with your 
 consent, and he went his way with it." When they heard her words 
 they buffeted their faces and, laying hands upon her, said, "We 
 authorized thee only to give him the comb ;" and she rejoined, " He 
 named not a comb to me." Then they seized her and haled her 
 before the Kazi, to whom they related their claim and he condemned 
 her to make good the purse and bound over sundry of her debtors 
 
 to answer for her. And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day 
 
 and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 :Nroto tuficn It toas tibt ^tx l^unttrctr antt ^fxtf) Nig!)!, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Kazi 
 condemned the care-taker to make good the purse and bound over 
 sundry of her debtors to answer for her. So she went forth, con- 
 founded and knowing not her way out of the difficulty. Presently 
 she met a five-year-old boy who, seeing her troubled, said to her, 
 " What ails thee, O my mother ? " But she gave him no answer, 
 contemning him because of his tender age, and he repeated his 
 question a second time and a third time till, at last, she told him all 
 that had passed,^ not forgetting the condition that she was to keep the 
 purse until all four had demanded it of her. Said the boy, " Give 
 me a dirham to buy sweetmeats withal and I will tell thee how thou 
 mayst acquit thyself." So she gave him a silver and said to him, 
 " What hast thou to say ? " Quoth he, " Return to the Kazi, and say 
 to him. It was agreed between myself and them that I should not 
 give them the purse, except all four of them were present. Let them 
 all four come and I will give them the purse, as was agreed." So 
 she went back to the Kazi and said to him as the boy had coun- 
 selled ; and he asked the merchants, " Was it thus agreed between 
 you and this woman ? " and they answered, " Yes." Quoth the Kazi, 
 "Then bring me your comrade and take the purse." So they went 
 in quest of their fellow, whilst the keeper came off scot-free and 
 went her way without let or hindrance. And Allah is Omniscient ! ^ 
 
 ^ The text recounts the whole story over again — more than European patience 
 cau bear. 
 
 " The usual formula when telling an improbable tale. But here it is hardly 
 called for : the same story is told (on weak authority) of the Alewife, the Three 
 Graziers and Attorney-General Noy (temp. James II. 1577-1634) when five years 
 old (Journ. Asiat. Soc. N.S. xxx. 280). The same feat had been credited to 
 Thomas Egerton, Lord Chancellor in A.D. 1540-1617 (Chalmers, Biographical 
 Dictionary xxiii. 267-68). But the story had already found its way into the
 
 The Craft and Malice of JVo/ne7i. 141 
 
 When the King and his Wazir and those present in the assembly- 
 heard the Prince's words they said to his father, " O our lord the 
 liege, in very sooth thy son is the most accomplished man of his 
 time;" and they called down blessings upon the King and the 
 Prince. Then the King strained his son to his bosom and kissed 
 him between the eyes and questioned him of what had passed 
 between the favourite and himself; and the Prince sware to him, 
 by Almighty Allah and by His Holy Prophet that it was she who 
 had required him of love which he refused, adding, " Moreover, she 
 promised me that. she would give thee poison to drink and kill thee, 
 so should the kingship be mine ; whereupon I waxed wroth and 
 signed to her : — O accursed one, whenas I can speak I will requite 
 thee ! Accordingly she feared me and did what she did." The King 
 believed his words and sending for the favourite said to those 
 present, " How shall we put this damsel to death ? " Some coun- 
 selled him to cut out her tongue and other some to burn it with 
 fire ; but, when she came before the King, she said to him^ " My 
 case with thee is like unto naught save the tale of the fox and the 
 folk." "How so?" asked he ; and she said: — I have heard, O 
 King, tell a 
 
 popular jest-books such as "Tales and Quick Answers, very Mery and Pleasant 
 to Rede" (1530); " Jacke of Dover's Quest of Inquirie for the Foole of all 
 Fooles " (1604) under the title " The Foole of Westchester"; and in ''Witty 
 and Entertaining Exploits of George Buchanan, commonly called the King's 
 Fool." The banker-bard Rogers (in Italy) was told a similar story concerning a 
 widow of the Lambertini house (xiv"" century). Thomas Wright (Introduction to 
 the Seven Sages) says he had met the tale in Latin (xiii"^-xiv''^ centuries) and a 
 variant in the " Nouveaux Contes a rire" (Amsterdam 1737), under the title 
 "Jugement Subtil du Due d'Ossone centre Deux Marchands." Its origin is 
 evidently the old Sindibad-nameh translated from Syriac into Greek (" .Syntipas," 
 xi*-'' century) ; into Hebrew (Mishle Sandabar, xii'^'' century), and from the 
 Arabian version into old Castilian, " Libro de los Engannos et los Asayamientos 
 de las Mugeres " (A. D. 1255), whereof a translation is appended to Professor 
 Comparetti's " Ricerche intorne al Libro di Sindihad," translated by Mr. II. C. 
 Coote for the Folk-Lore Society. The Persian metrical form (an elaboration of 
 one much older) dates from 1375 ; and gave rise to a host of imitations such as the 
 Turkish Tales of the P'orty Wazirs (?) and the Canarcse " Kalha Manjari," where 
 four persons contend about a purse. Sec also Gladwin's " Persian Moonshee," 
 No. vi. of " Pleasing Stories ; " and Mr. Clouston's paper, " The Lost Purse," 
 in the Glasgow Evening limes. All are the Eastern form of Gavarni's " Enfants 
 terribles," shcnving the portentous jirecocity for which some children (infant 
 phenomena, calculating boys, etc. etc.) have been famous.
 
 142 Alf Layiah wa Laylah. 
 
 STOR V OF THE FOX AND THE FOLK^ 
 
 A Fox once made his way into a city by the wall and, entering a 
 currier's store-house, played havoc with all therein and spoiled the 
 skins for the owner. One day, the currier set a trap for him and 
 taking him, beat him with the hides, till he fell down senseless, 
 whereupon the man deeming him to be dead, cast him out into the 
 road by the city-gate. Presently, an old woman who was walking by, 
 seeing the fox said, " This is a fox whose eye, hung about a child's 
 neck, is salutary against weeping." So she pluckt out his right eye 
 and went away. Then passed a boy, who said, " What does this 
 tail on this fox ? " and cut off his brush. After a while, up came a 
 man and saying, " This is a fox whose gall cleareth away film and 
 dimness from the eyes, if they be anointed therewith like kohl," took 
 out his knife to slit up the fox's paunch. But Reynard said in him- 
 self, "We bore with the plucking out of the eye and the cutting off 
 of the tail ; but as for the slitting of the paunch, there is no putting 
 up with that ! " So saying, he sprang up and made off through the 
 gate of the city, hardly believing in his escape. Quoth the King, 
 " I excuse her, and in my son's hands be her doom. If he will, let 
 him torture her, and if he will, let him kill her." Quoth the Prince, 
 *' Pardon is better than vengeance and mercy is of the quality of the 
 noble ; " and the King repeated, " 'Tis for thee to decide, O my 
 son." So the Prince set her free, saying, " Depart from our neigh- 
 bourhood and Allah pardon what is past ! " Therewith the King 
 rose from his throne of estate and seating his son thereon, crowned 
 him with his crown and bade the Grandees of his realm swear fealty 
 and commanded them do homage to him. And he said, " O folk, 
 indeed, I am stricken in years and desire to withdraw apart and 
 devote myself only to the service of my Lord ; and I call you to 
 witness that I divest myself of the kingly dignity, even as I have 
 divested myself of my crown and set it on my son's head." So 
 the troops and officers swore fealty to the Prince, and his father gave 
 himself up to the worship of his Lord, nor stinted from this, 
 whilst his son abode in his kingship, doing justice and righteous- 
 ness ; and his power was magnified and his sultanate strengthened 
 and he abode in all delight and solace of life, till there came to him 
 The Certainty, 
 
 1 From the Bresl. Edit. xii. 381. The Sa'Iab or Abu Hosayn (Father of the 
 Fortlet) is the fox, in Marocco Akkab: Talib Yusuf and Wa'wi being the jackal. 
 Arabs have not preserved " Jakal " from the Heb. Shu'al and Persian Sahghal 
 (not Shagul) as the Rev. Mr. Tristram misinforms his readers (Nat. Hist. p. 85).
 
 Judar and his Brethren. 143 
 
 JUDAR^ AND HIS BRETHREN. 
 
 There was once a man and a merchant named Omar and he had 
 for issue three sons, the eldest called Salim, the youngest Jiidar, and 
 the cadet Sali'm. He reared them all till they came to man's estate, 
 but the youngest he loved more than his brothers, who, seeing this, 
 waxed jealous of Judar and hated him. Now when their father, who 
 was a man stricken in years, saw that his two eldest sons hated their 
 brother, he feared lest after his death trouble should befal him from 
 them. So he assembled a company of his kinsfolk, together with 
 divers men of learning and property-distributors of the Kazi's court, 
 and bidding men bring all his coins and cloth, said to them, " O folk, 
 divide ye this money and stuff into four portions according to the 
 law." They did so, and he gave one part to each of his sons and 
 kept the fourth himself, saying, "This was my good and 1 have 
 divided it among them in my lifetime ; and this that I have kept 
 shall be for my wife, their mother, wherewithal to provide for her 
 
 subsistence when she shall be a widow." And Shahrazad was 
 
 surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 iSoto fo^cn it tuns Wyt ^(a: f^untircti anU ^cbentfj Jiigj^t, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 merchant had divided his money and stuff into four portions, he 
 said, " This share shall be for my wife, their mother, wherewithal to 
 provide for her subsistence when she shall be a widow." A little 
 while after this he died, and neither of the two elder brothers was 
 content with his share,^ but sought more of Judar, saying, " Our 
 father's wealth is in thy hands." So he appealed to the judges ; and 
 the Moslems who had been jiresent at the partition came and bore 
 witness of that which they knew, wherefore the judge forbade 
 them from one another; but Judar and his brothers wasted 
 much money in bribes to him. After this, the twain left him 
 awhile ; presently, however, they began again to plot against 
 him and he appealed a second time to the magistrate, who once 
 
 ^ The name is old and classical Arabic : in Antar the young Amazon Jayda was 
 called Judar in public (Story of Jaydri and Khalid). It is also, as will be seen, 
 the name of a quarter in Cairo, and men are often called after such places, e.g. 
 Al-Jubni from the Suk al-Jubn in Damascus. The story is exceedingly Egyptian 
 and the style abounds in Cairene vulgarisms, especially in the Uresl. Edit. 
 ix. 311. 
 
 - Had the merchant left his property to be divided after his death and not made 
 a will, the widow would have had only onc-eighlh instead of a fourth.
 
 144 -^V Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 more decided in his favour ; but all three lost much money which 
 went to the judges. Nevertheless Salim and Salim forbore not to 
 seek his hurt and to carry the case from court to court, ^ he and they 
 losing till they had given all their good for food to the oppressors 
 and they became poor, all three. Then the two elder brothers went 
 to their mother and flouted her and beat her, and seizing her money 
 drave her away. So she betook herself to her son Judar and told 
 him how his brothers had dealt with her and fell to cursing the 
 twain. Said he, " O my mother, do not curse them, for Allah will 
 requite each of them according to his deed. But, O mother mine, 
 see, I am become poor, and so are my brethren, for strife occa- 
 sioneth loss ruin-rife, and we have striven amain, and fought, I and 
 they, before the judges, and it hath profited us naught : nay, we have 
 wasted all our father left us and are disgraced among the folk by reason 
 of our testimony one against other. Shall I then contend with them 
 anew on thine account and shall we appeal to the judges ? This may 
 not be ! Rather do thou take up thine abode with me, and the scone 
 I eat I will share with thee. Do thou pray for me and Allah will 
 give me the means of thine alimony. Leave them to receive of the 
 Almighty the recompense of their deed, and console thyself with 
 the saying of the poet who said : — 
 
 If a fool oppress thee bear patiently : * And from Time expect thy revenge to 
 
 see ; 
 Shun tyranny ; for if hill oppressed * A hill, 'twould be shattered by 
 
 tyranny." 
 
 And he soothed and comforted her till she consented and took up 
 her dwelling with him. Then he gat him a net and went a-fishing 
 every day in the river or the banks about Bulak and old Cairo or 
 some other place in which there was water ; and one day he would 
 earn ten coppers,- another twenty and another thirty, which he 
 spent upon his mother and himself, and they ate well and drank 
 well. But. as for his brothers, they plied no craft and neither sold 
 nor bought ; misery and ruin and overwhelming calamity entered 
 their houses and they wasted that which they had taken from their 
 mother and became of the wretched naked beggars. So at times 
 
 ^ Lit. "from tyrant to tyrant," i.e. from official to official, Al-Zalamah, the 
 "tyranny" of popular parlance. 
 
 - The coin is omitted in the text but it is evidently the " Nusf " or half-dirham. 
 Lane (iii. 235), noting that the dinar is worth 170 "nusfs" in this tale, thinks 
 that it was written (or copied?) after the Osmanli Conquest of Egypt. Unfortu- 
 nately he cannot tell the precise period when the value of the small change fell 
 so low.
 
 Judar and his Bretlireii. 145 
 
 they would come to their mother, humbhng themselves before her 
 exceedingly and complaining to her of hunger ; and she (a mother's 
 heart being pitiful) would give them some mouldy, sour-smelling 
 bread or, if there were any meat cooked the day before, she would 
 say to them " Eat it quick and go ere your brother come ; for 
 'twould be grievous to him and he would harden his heart against 
 me, and ye would disgrace me with him." So they would eat in 
 haste and go. One day of the days they came in to their mother, 
 and she set cooked meat and bread before them ; and as they were 
 eating, behold, in came their brother Judar, at whose sight the 
 parent was put to shame and confusion, fearing lest he should be 
 wroth with her ; and she bowed her face earthwards abashed before 
 her son. But he smiled in their faces, saying, " Welcome, O my 
 brothers ! A blessed day ! ^ How comes it that ye visit me this 
 blessed day ? " Thea he embraced them both and entreated them 
 lovingly, saying to them, " I thought not that ye would have left me 
 desolate by your absence nor that ye would have forborne to come 
 and visit me and your mother." Said they, "By Allah, O our 
 brother, we longed sore for thee and naught withheld us but abash- 
 ment because of what befel between us and thee ; but indeed we 
 have repented much. 'Twas Satan's doing, the curse of Allah the 
 Most High be upon him ! And now we have no blessing but thy- 
 self and our mother." And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day 
 
 and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 Noll) tofjcn It tons tlje ^t.x l^untJrcb anK (IBtgfjtfj Nigftt, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Judar 
 entered his place and saw his brothers, he welcomed them both, 
 saying, " And I have no blessing but you twain." And his mother 
 exclaimed, "Allah whiten thy face, and increase thy prosperity, for 
 thou art the most generous of us all, O my son ! " Then he said, 
 "Welcome to you both ! Abide with me; for the Lord is bountiful 
 and good aboundeth with me." So he made peace with them, and 
 they supped and nighted with him ; and next morning, after they 
 had broken their fast, Judar shouldered his net and fared out, trust- 
 ing in The Opener, ^ whilst the two others also went forth and were 
 absent till mid-day, when they returned and their mother set the 
 
 * Arab. " Yaum mubarak ! " still a popular exclamation. 
 " i.e. of the door of daily bread. 
 
 VOL. IV. K
 
 146 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 noon-meal before them. At nightfall Judar came home, bearing 
 meat and greens; and they abode on this wise a month's space, Judar 
 catching fish and selling it and spending the price on his mother 
 and his brothers, and these eating and frolicking till, one day, it 
 chanced he went down to the river-bank and throwing his net, 
 brought it up empty. He cast it a second time, but again it came 
 up empty and he said in himself, " No fish in this place ! " So he 
 removed to another and threw the net there, but without avail. And 
 he ceased not to remove from place to place till nightfall, but caught 
 not a single sprat ^ and said to himself, " Wonderful ! Hath the fish 
 fled the river or what ? " Then he shouldered the net and made for 
 home, chagrined, concerned, feeling for his mother and brothers and 
 knowing not how he should feed them that night. Presently, he 
 came to a baker's oven and saw the folk crowding for bread, with 
 silver in their hands, whilst the baker took no note of them. So he 
 stood there sighing, and the baker said to him, " Welcome to thee, 
 O Judar ! Dost thou want bread ? " But he was silent and the 
 baker continued, " An thou have no dirhams, take thy sufficiency and 
 thou shalt get credit." Thereat Judar said, " Give me ten coppers' 
 worth of bread and take this net in pledge." Rejoined the baker, 
 " Nay, my poor fellow, the net is thy gate of earning thy livelihood, 
 and if I take it from thee, I shall close up against thee the door of 
 thy subsistence. Take thee ten Nusfs' worth of bread and take these 
 other ten, and to-morrow bring me fish for the twenty." " On my 
 head and eyes be it ! " quoth Judar, and took the bread and money 
 saying, "To-morrow the Lord will dispel the trouble of my case and 
 will provide me the means of acquittance." Then he bought meat 
 and vegetables and carried them home to his mother, who cooked them 
 and they supped and went to bed. Next morning he arose at day- 
 break and took the net, and his mother said to him, " Sit down and 
 break thy fast." But he said, "Do thou and my brothers break- 
 fast," and went down to the river about Bulak, where he ceased not 
 to cast once, twice, thrice ; and to shift about all day, without aught 
 falling to him, till the hour of mid-afternoon prayer, when he shoul- 
 dered his net and went away sore dejected. His way led him per- 
 force by the booth of the baker who, when he saw him, counted out 
 to him the loaves and the money, saying, " Come, take it and go ; 
 if it be not to-day, 'twill be to-morrow." Judar would have excused 
 himself, but the baker said to him, "Go! There needeth no 
 
 ^ Arab. " Sirah," a small fish differently described (De Sacy, " Relation de 
 I'Egypte par Abd-allatif," pp. 278—288 : Lane, Nights iii. 234). It is not found 
 in Sonnini's list.
 
 Judar and his Brethren. 147 
 
 excuse ; hadst thou netted aught, it would be with thee ; so seeing 
 thee empty-handed, I knew thou hast gotten naught; and if to- 
 morrow thou have no better luck, come and take bread and be not 
 abashed, for I will give thee credit." Accordingly Judar took the 
 bread and money and went home. On the third day also he sallied 
 forth and fished from tank to tank until the time of afternoon-prayer, 
 but caught nothing ; so he went to the baker and took the bread and 
 silver as usual. On this wise he did seven days running, till he 
 became disheartened and said in himself, " To-day I go to the Lake 
 Kariin."^ So he went thither and was about to cast his net, when 
 there came up to him unawares a Maghrabi, a Moor, clad in splendid 
 attire and riding a she-mule with a pair of gold-embroidered saddle- 
 bags on her back and all her trappings also adorned. The Moor 
 alighted and said to him, " Peace be upon thee, O Judar, O son ot 
 Omar ! " " And on thee likewise be peace, O my lord the pilgrim ! " 
 replied the fisherman. Quoth the Maghrabi, " O Judar, I have need 
 of thee and, given thou obey me, thou shalt get great good and shalt 
 be my companion and manage my affairs for me." Quoth Judar, 
 " O my lord, tell me what is in thy mind and I will obey thee with- 
 out demur." Said the Moor, " Repeat the Fatihah, the Opening 
 Chapter of the Koran." - So he recited it with him and the Moor, 
 bringing out a silken cord, said to Judar, " Pinion my elbows behind 
 me with this cord as fast as fast can be, and cast me into the lake ; 
 then wait a little while ; and, if thou see me put forth my hands 
 above the water, raising them high ere my body show, cast thy net 
 over me and drag me out in haste ; but if thou see me come up feet 
 foremost, then know that I am dead ; in which case do thou leave 
 me and take the mule and saddle-bags and carry them to the mer- 
 chants' bazar, where thou wilt find a Jew by name Shamayah. Give 
 him the mule and he will give thee an hundred dinars, which do 
 thou take and go thy ways and keej) the matter secret with all 
 secrecy." So Judar tied his arms tightly behind his back and he 
 kept saying, "Tie tighter." Then said he, "Push me till I fall into 
 the lake :" so he pushed him in and he sank. Judar stood waiting 
 some time till, behold, the Moor's feet appeared above the water, 
 whereupon he knew that he was dead. So he drove the mule to 
 the bazar, where, seated on a stool at the door of his storehouse, he 
 saw the Jew who, spying the mule, cried, " In very sooth the man 
 
 ^ A tank or lakelet in the southern parts of Cairo, long ago filled up ; Von 
 Hammer believes it inherited the name of the old Charon's Lake of Memphis, 
 over which corpses were ferried. 
 
 * Thus making the agreement a kintl of religious covenant, as Catholics would 
 recite a Pater or an Ave Maria.
 
 148 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 hath perished," adding, "and naught undid him but covetousness." 
 Then he took the mule from Judar and gave him an hundred dinars, 
 charging him to keep the matter secret." So Judar went and bought 
 what bread he needed, saying to the baker, " Take this gold piece ! " 
 and the man summed up what was due to him and said, " I still owe 
 
 thee two days' bread," And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn 
 
 of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 §lm b)]^£n It toas tfte ^ix l^untfreU antr iiint!) iStg^t, 
 
 She continued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Judar, 
 when the baker after summing up what was due to him, said, " I 
 still owe thee two days' bread," replied, " Good," and went on to 
 the butcher, to whom he gave a gold piece and took meat, saying. 
 Keep the rest of the dinar on account." Then he bought vegetables 
 and going home, found his brothers importuning their mother for 
 victual, whilst she cried, " Have patience till your brother come 
 home, for I have naught." So he went in to them and said, " Take 
 and eat ;" and they fell on the food like cannibals. Then he gave 
 his mother the rest of his gold saying, " If my brothers come to 
 thee, give them wherewithal to buy food and eat in my absence." 
 He slept well that night and next morning he took his net and 
 going down to Lake Karun stood there and was about to cast his 
 net, when behold, there came up to him a second Maghribi, riding 
 on a she-mule more handsomely accoutred than he of the day 
 before and having with him a pair of saddle-bags of which each 
 pocket contained a casket. " Peace be with thee, O Judar ! " said 
 the Moor : " And with thee be peace, O my lord the pilgrim ! " 
 replied Judar. Asked the Moor, " Did there come to thee yester- 
 day a Moor riding on a mule like this of mine ? " Hereat Judar 
 was alarmed and answered, " I saw none," fearing lest the other 
 say, " Whither went he ? " and if he replied, " He was drowned in 
 the lake," that haply he should charge him with having drowned 
 him ; wherefore he could not but deny. Rejoined the Moor, 
 " Harkye, O unhappy ! ^ this was my brother, who is gone before 
 me." Judar persisted, " I know naught of him." Then the Moor 
 enquired, " Didst thou not bind his arms behind him and throw 
 him into the lake, and did he not say to thee : — If my hands ap- 
 pear above the water first, cast thy net over me and drag me out in 
 
 ' Arab. "Ya miskin"=0 poor devil; mesquin, meschino, words evidently 
 derived from the East.
 
 Judar and his Brethren, 149 
 
 haste ; but if my feet show first, know that I am dead and carry 
 the mule to the Jew Shamayah, who shall give thee an hundred 
 dinars." Quoth Judar, " Since thou knowest all this why and 
 wherefore dost thou question me?" and quoth the Moor, "I 
 would have thee do with me as thou didst with my brother." 
 Then he gave him a silken cord, saying, " Bind my hands behind 
 me and throw me in, and if I fare as did my brother, take the 
 mule to the Jew and he will give thee other hundred dinars." 
 Said Judar," Come on ;" so he came and he bound him and pushed 
 him into the lake, where he sank. Then Judar sat watching and 
 after awhile, his feet appeared above the water and the fisher said, 
 *' He is dead ! Inshallah, may Maghribis come to me every day, and 
 I will pinion them and push them in and they shall die ; and I will 
 content me with an hundred dinars for each dead man." Then he 
 took the mule to the Jew, who seeing him asked, " The other is 
 dead ? " Answered Judar, " May thy head live ! " and the Jew said, 
 " This is the reward of the covetous ! " Then he took the mule and 
 gave Judar an hundred dinars, with which he returned to his mother." 
 " O my son," said she, " whence hast thou this ? " So he told her, 
 and she said, " Go not again to Lake Karun, indeed I fear for thee 
 from the Moors." Said he, "O my mother, I do but cast them in 
 by their own wish, and what am I to do ? This craft bringeth me an 
 hundred dinars a day and I return speedily ; wherefore, by Allah, I 
 will not leave going to Lake Karun, till the trace of the Magharibah ' 
 is cut off and not one of them is left." So on the morrow, which 
 was the third day, he went down to the lake and stood there, till 
 there came up a third Moor, riding on a mule wdth saddle-bags and 
 still more richly accoutred than the first two, who said to him 
 "Peace be with thee, O Judar, O son of Omar!" And the 
 fisherman saying in himself, " How comes it that they all know 
 me?" returned his salute. Asked the Maghribi, "Have any 
 Moors passed by here?" "Two," answered Judar. "Whither 
 went they?" enquired the Moor, and Judar replied, "I pinioned 
 their hands behind them and cast them into the lake, where they 
 were drowned, and the same fate is in store for thee." The Moor 
 laughed and rejoined, saying, " O unhappy ! every life hath its term 
 
 ' riur. of Maghribi, a Western man, a Moor. I have already derived the 
 word through the Lat. " Maurus '' from Maghribiyun. Europeans being unable 
 to pronounce tlie Ghayn or gh (like the modern Cairencs) would turn it into 
 " Ma'anyiin." They are mostly of the Maliki school (for which see Sale) and 
 arc famous as magicians and ircasurc-finders. Amongst the suite of the late Amir 
 Abd al-Kalir, who lived many years and died in Damascus, we found several men 
 profoundly versed in Eastern spiritualism and occultism.
 
 150 A If Laylah wa Lay/ ah. 
 
 appointed." Then he ahghted and gave the fisherman the silken 
 cord, saying, " Do with me, O Judar, as thou didst with them." Said 
 Judar, " Put thy hands behind thy back, that I may pinion thee, for 
 I am in haste, and time flies." So he put his hands behind him and 
 Judar tied him up and cast him in. Then he waited awhile ; pre- 
 sently the Moor thrust both hands forth of the water and called out 
 to him, saying, "Ho, good fellow, cast out thy net!" So Judar 
 threw the net over him and drew him ashore, and lo ! in each hand 
 he held a fish as red as coral. Quoth the Moor, " Bring me the two 
 caskets that are in the saddle-bags." So Judar brought them and 
 opened them to him, and he laid in each casket a fish and shut them 
 up. Then he pressed Judar to his bosom and kissed him on the 
 right cheek and the left, saying, " Allah save thee from all stress ! 
 By the Almighty, hadst thou not cast the net over me and pulled 
 me out, I should have kept hold of these two fishes till I sank 
 and was drowned, for I could not get ashore of myself." Quoth 
 Judar, " O my lord the pilgrim, Allah upon thee, tell me the true 
 history of the two drowned men and the truth anent these two fishes 
 
 and the Jew." And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and 
 
 ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 iiofo to|)cn It toas t]^e ^i.x l^untirclJ anti ®cntD iSiaj^t, 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Judar asked the Maghribi, saying, " Prithee tell me first of the 
 drowned men," the Maghribi answered : — Know, O Judar, that 
 these drowned men were my two brothers, by name Abd al-Salam 
 and Abd al-Ahad. My own name is Abd al-Samad, and the Jew 
 also is our brother ; his name is Abd al-Rahi'm and he is no Jew, 
 but a true believer of the Maliki school. Our father, whose name 
 was Abd al-Wadud,^ taught us magic and the art of solving mysteries 
 and bringing hoards to light, and we applied ourselves thereto, till 
 we compelled the Ifrits and Marids of the Jinn to do us service. 
 By-and-by, our sire died and left us much wealth, and we divided 
 amongst us his treasures and talismans, till we came to the books, 
 when we fell out over a volume called " The Fables of the Ancients," 
 whose like is not in the world, nor can its price be paid of any, nor 
 is its value to be evened with gold and jewels ; for in it are par- 
 ticulars of all the hidden hoards of the earth and the solution of 
 
 ^ The names are respectively, Slave of the Salvation ; of the One (God) ; 
 of the Eternal ; of the Compassionate ; and of the Loving.
 
 Judar and his Brethren. 151 
 
 every secret. Our father was wont to make use of this book, of 
 which we had some small matter by heart, and each of us desired 
 to possess it, that he might acquaint himself with what was therein. 
 Now when we fell out there was in our company an old man by 
 name Cohen Al-Abtan,^ who had reared our sire, and taught him 
 divination and gramarye, and he said to us, " Bring me the book." 
 So we gave it to him and he continued : — Ye are my son's sons, 
 and it may not be that I should wrong any of you. So whoever is 
 minded to have the volume, let him address himself to achieve the 
 treasure of Al-ShamardaP and bring me the celestial planisphere 
 and the Kohl-phial and the seal-ring and the sword. For the ring 
 hath a Marid that serveth it called Al-Ra'ad al-Kasif ;'^ and whoso 
 hath possession thereof, neither King nor Sultan may prevail against 
 him ; and if he will, he may therewith make himself master of the 
 earth, in all the length and breadth thereof. As for the brand, if 
 its bearer draw it and brandish it against an army, the army will be 
 put to the rout : and if he say the while, " Slay yonder host," there 
 will come forth of that sword lightning and fire, that will kill the 
 whole many. As for the planisphere, its possessor hath only to 
 turn its face toward any country, east or west, with whose sight he 
 hath a mind to solace himself, and therein he will see that country 
 and its people, as they were between his hands and he sitting in his 
 place ; and if he be wroth with a city and hath a mind to burn it, 
 he hath but to face the planisphere towards the sun's disc, saying, 
 " Let such a city be burnt," and that city will be consumed with fire. 
 As for the Kohl-phial, whoever pencilleth his eyes therefrom, he 
 shall espy all the treasures of the earth. And I make this condition 
 with you, which is that whoever failcth to hit upon the hoards shall 
 forfeit his right ; and that none save he who shall achieve the 
 treasure and bring me the four precious things which be therein 
 shall have any claim to take this book. So we all agreed to this 
 condition, and he continued, " O my sons, know that the treasure 
 of Al-Shamardal is under the commandment of the sons of the Red 
 King, and your father told me that he had himself essayed to open 
 the treasure, but could not ; for the sons of the Red King fled from 
 him into the land of Egypt and took refuge in a lake there, called 
 Lake Karun, whither he pursued them, but could not prevail over 
 ithem, by reason of their stealing into that lake, which was guarded 
 
 ^ i.e. " the most profound" ; the root is that of "Batini,"a gnostic, a re- 
 probate. 
 
 " i.e. the Tall One. 
 
 ^ The Thunder loud-pealing or (ear-) breaking.
 
 152 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 by a spell." And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day 
 
 and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 :Nrofco luDcn it toas tf)£ ^ix il^unJjreti anU lEUbnutj ISTigftt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 Cohen Al-Abtan had told the youths this much, he continued his 
 tale as follows, " So your father returned empty-handed and unable 
 to win to his wish ; and after failing he complained to me of his 
 ill-success, whereupon I drew him an astrological figure and found 
 that the treasure could be achieved only by means of a young 
 fisherman of Cairo, hight Judar bin Omar, the place of fore- 
 gathering with whom was at Lake Karun, for that he should be the 
 means of capturing the sons of the Red King and that the charm 
 would not be dissolved, save he should bind the hands of the 
 treasure-seeker behind him and cast him into the lake, there to do 
 battle with the sons of the Red King. And he whose lot it was to 
 succeed would lay hands upon them ; but, if it were not destined to 
 him he should perish and his feet appear above water. As for him 
 who was successful, his hands would show first, whereupon it behoved 
 that Judar should cast the net over him and draw him ashore." Now 
 quoth my brothers Abd al-Salam and Abd al-Ahad, "We will wend 
 and make trial, although we perish ; " and quoth I, " And I also will 
 go ; " but my brother Abd al-Rahim (he whom thou sawest in the 
 habit of a Jew) said, " I have no mind to this." Thereupon we 
 agreed with him that he should repair to Cairo in the disguise of a 
 Jewish merchant, so that, if one of us perished in the lake, he might 
 take his mule and saddle-bags and give the bearer an hundred 
 dinars. The first that came to thee the sons of the Red King slew, 
 and so did they with my second brother ; but against me they could 
 not prevail and I laid hands on them. Cried Judar, " And where 
 is thy catch?" Asked the Moor, "Didst thou not see me shut them 
 in the caskets ? " " Those were fishes," said Judar. " Nay," answered 
 the Maghribi, "they are Ifrits in the guise of fish. But, O Judar," 
 continued he, " thou must know that the treasure can be opened 
 only by means of thee : so say, wilt thou do my bidding and go with 
 me to the city Fez and Mequinez' where we will open the treasure? 
 
 ^ Arab. " Fas and Miknas," which the writer evidently regards as one city. 
 "Fds" means a hatchet from the tradition of one having been found, says Ibn 
 Sa'id, when digging the base under the founder Idris bin Idris (A-D. S08). His 
 sword was placed on the pinnacle of the minaret built by the Imam Abu Ahmad
 
 Jndar and his Brethren. 153 
 
 and after I will give thee what thou wilt and thou shalt ever be my 
 brother in the bond of Allah and return to thy family with a joyful 
 heart." Said Judar, " O my lord the pilgrim, I have on my neck a 
 
 mother and two brothers," And Shahrazad perceived the dawn 
 
 of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 :i<"oto tojbcn It toas t|)c ^i.x l^untircti antr ^toclfti) Xigbt, 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Judar 
 said to the Maghribi, " I have on my neck a- mother and two brothers, 
 whose provider I am ; and if I go with thee, who shall give them 
 bread to eat ? " Replied the Moor, " This is an idle excuse ! if it be 
 but a matter of exjDenditure, I will give thee a thousand ducats for 
 thy mother, wherewith she may provide herself till thou come back ; 
 and indeed thou shalt return before the end of four months." So 
 when Judar heard mention of the thousand dinars, he said, " Here 
 with them, O Pilgrim, and I am thy man ; " and the Moor, pulling 
 out the money, gave it to him, whereupon he carried it to his mother 
 and told her what had passed between them, saying, " Take these 
 thousand dinars and expend of them upon thyself and my brothers, 
 whilst I journey to Marocco with the Moor, for I shall be absent 
 four months, and great good will betide me; so bless me, O my 
 mother ! " Answered she, " O my son, thou desolatest me and I fear 
 for thee." "O my mother," rejoined he, "no harm can befal him 
 who is in Allah's keeping, and the Maghribi is a man of worth ; " and 
 he went on to praise his condition to her. Quoth she, "Allah 
 incline his heart to thee ! Go with him, O my son ; peradventure, 
 he will give thee somewhat." So he took leave of his mother and 
 rejoined the Moor Abd al-Samad, who asked him, " Hast thou con- 
 sulted thy mother?" " Yes," answered Judar; "and she blessed 
 me." "Then mount behind me," said the Maghribi. So Judar 
 mounted the mule's crupper and they rode on from noon till the 
 time of mid-afternoon prayer, when the fisherman was an-hungered ; 
 but seeing no victual with the Moor, said to him, " O my lord the 
 pilgrim, belike thou hast forgotten to bring us aught to eat by the 
 way? " Asked the Moor, " Art thou hungry?" and Judar answered, 
 "Yes." So Abd al-Samad alighted and made Judar alight and take 
 
 bin Abi I'akr enclosed in a golden etui studded witli pearls and precious stones. 
 From the local pronunciation " Fes " is derived the red cap of the nearer Moslem 
 East (see Ibn Batutah, p. 230).
 
 154 -^U Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 down the saddle-bags ;^ then he said to him, "What wilt thou have, 
 O my brother?" "Anything." "Allah upon thee, tell me what 
 thou hast a mind to." " Bread and cheese." "O my poor fellow ! 
 bread and cheese besit thee not; wish for something good." "Just 
 now everything is good to me." " Dost thou like nice browned 
 chicken ? " " Yes ! " " Dost thou like rice and honey ? " " Yes ! " 
 And the Moor went on to ask him if he liked this dish and that 
 dish till he had named four-and-twenty kinds of meats ; and Judar 
 thought to himself, " He must be daft ! Where are all these 
 dainties to come from, seeing he hath neither cook nor kitchen ! 
 But I'll say to him, 'Tis enough!" So he cried, "That will do: 
 thou makest me long for all these meats and I see nothing." 
 Quoth the Moor, " Thou art welcome, O Judar ! " and, putting 
 his hand into the saddle-bags, pulled out a golden dish con- 
 taining two hot browned chickens. Then he thrust his hand a 
 second time and drew out a golden dish, full of Kabobs ; - 
 nor did he stint taking out dishes from saddle-bags, till he had 
 brought forth the whole of the four-and-twenty kinds he had named, 
 whilst Judar looked on. Then said the Moor, " Fall to, poor fellow ! " 
 and Judar said to him, " O my lord, thou carriest in yonder saddle- 
 bags kitchen and kitcheners ! " The Moor laughed and replied, 
 " These are magical saddle-bags and have a servant, who would bring 
 us a thousand dishes an hour, if we called for them." Quoth Judar, 
 " By Allah, a neat thing in saddle-bags ! " ^ Then they ate their fill 
 and threw away what was left ; after which the Moor replaced the 
 empty dishes in the saddle-bags and putting in his hand, drew out 
 an ewer. They drank and making the Wuzu-ablution, prayed the 
 mid-afternoon prayer ; after which Abd al-Samad replaced the ewer 
 and the two caskets in the saddle-bags and throwing them over the 
 mule's back, mounted and cried, " Up with thee and let us be off," 
 presently adding, " O Judar, knowest thou how far we have come 
 since we left Cairo ?" " Not I, by Allah," replied he, and Abd al- 
 Samad, " We have come a whole month's journey." Asked Judar, 
 " And how is that ? " and the Moor answered, " Know, O Judar, that 
 this mule under us is a Marid of the Jinn who every day performeth 
 a year's journey ; but, for thy sake, she hath gone an easier pace." 
 
 ^ Arab. "Al-Khurj," whence the Span. Las Alforjas. 
 
 ~ Arab. " Kabab," mutton or lamb cut into small squares and grilled upon 
 skewers : it is the roast meat of the nearer East where, as in the West, men have 
 not learned to cook meat so as to preserve all its flavour. This is found in the 
 " Asa'o " of the Argentine Gaucho who broils the flesh while still quivering and 
 before the fibre has time to set. Hence it is perfectly tender, if the animal be 
 young, and it has a " meaty'' taste half lost by keeping. 
 
 ^ In the original the P.'s D. obliged me with " a meat thing in saddle-bags."
 
 Judar and his BrethroL. 155 
 
 Then they set out again and fared on westwards till nightfall, when 
 they halted and the Maghribi brought out supper from the saddle- 
 bags, and after like fashion, in the morning, he took forth where- 
 withal to break their fast. So they rode on four days, journeying 
 till midnight and then alighting and sleeping until dawn, when they 
 fared on again ; and all that Judar had a mind to, he sought of the 
 Moor, who brought it out of the saddle-bags. On the fifth day, they 
 arrived at Fez and Mequinez and entered the city, where all who 
 met the Maghribi saluted him and kissed his hands ; and he con- 
 tinued riding through the streets, till he came to a certain door, at 
 which he knocked, whereupon it opened and out came a girl like the 
 moon, to whom said he, " O my daughter, O Rahmah,^ open us the 
 upper chamber." " On my head and eyes, O my father ! " replied 
 she and went in, swaying to and fro with a graceful and swimming 
 gait hke a thirsting gazelle, movements that ravished Judar's reason, 
 and he said, " This is none other than a King's daughter." So she 
 opened the upper chamber, and the Moor, taking the saddle-bags 
 from the mule's back, said, " Go, and God bless thee ! " when lo ! 
 the earth clove asunder and, swallowing the mule, closed up again 
 as before. And Judar said, " O Protector ! praised be Allah, who 
 hath kept us in safety on her back ! " Quoth the Maghribi, " Marvel 
 not, O Judar. I told thee that the mule was an Ifrit ; but come with 
 us into the upper chamber." So they went up into it, and Judar 
 was amazed at the profusion of rich furniture and pendants of gold 
 and silver and jewels and other rare and precious things which he 
 saw there. As soon as they were seated, the Moor bade Rahmah 
 bring him a certain bundle - and opening it, drew out a dress worth 
 a thousand dinars, which he gave to Judar, saying, " Don this dress, 
 O Judar, and welcome to thee !" So Judar put it on and became a 
 fair ensample of the Kings of the West. Then the Maghribi laid 
 the saddle-bags before him, and, putting in his hand, pulled out dish 
 after dish, till they had before them a tray of forty kinds of meat 
 when he said to Judar, " Come near, O my master ! eat and excuse 
 
 us " And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased 
 
 saying her permitted say. 
 
 ^ Equivalent to our puritanical " Mercy." 
 
 ^ Arab. '* Bukjah," from the Persian Bukcheh : a favourite way of keeping fine 
 clothes in the East is to lay them folded in a piece of rough long-cloth with pepper 
 and spices to drive away moths.
 
 156 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 iBofo tolben ft tons i\t ^ix l^untitctr nnlr ®]^irtccnt]b J^igtt, 
 
 She continued, it hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the 
 Maghribi having served up in the pavihon a tray of forty kinds 
 of meat, said to Judar, " Come near, O my master, and excuse us 
 for that we know not what meats thou desirest ; but tell us what 
 thou hast a mind to, and we will set it before thee without delay." 
 Replied Judar, " By Allah, O my lord the pilgrim, I love all kinds 
 of meat and unlove none ; so ask me not of aught, but bring all 
 that Cometh to thy thought, for save eating to do I have naught." 
 After this he tarried twenty days with the Moor, who clad him in new 
 clothes every day, and all this time they ate from the saddle-bags ; 
 for the Maghribi bought neither meat nor bread nor aught else, nor 
 cooked, but brought everything out of the bags, even to various 
 sorts of fruit. On the twenty-first day, he said, " O Judar, up with 
 thee ; this is the day appointed for opening the hoard of Al-Shamar- 
 dal." So he rose and they went afoot ^ without the city, where they 
 found two slaves, each holding a she-mule. The Moor mounted 
 one beast and Judar the other, and they ceased not riding till noon, 
 when they came to a stream of running water, on whose banks Abd 
 al-Samad alighted saying, " Dismount, O Judar ! " Then he signed 
 with his hand to the slaves and said, " To it ! " So they took the 
 mules and going each his own way, were absent awhile, after which 
 they returned, one bearing a tent, which he pitched, and the other 
 carpets, which he spread in the tent and laid mattrasses, pillows and 
 cushions therearound. Then one of them brought the caskets con- 
 taining the two fishes ; and another fetched the saddle-bags ; where- 
 upon the Maghribi arose and said, " Come, O Judar ! " So Judar 
 followed him into the tent and sat down beside him ; and he brought 
 out dishes of meat from the saddle-bags and they ate the morning 
 meal. Then the Moor took the two caskets and conjured over them 
 both, whereupon there came from within voices that said, " Adsumus, 
 at thy service, O diviner of the world ! Have mercy upon us ! " and 
 called aloud for aid. But he ceased not to repeat conjurations and 
 they to call for help, till the two caskets flew in sunder, the frag- 
 ments flying about, and there came forth two men, with pinioned 
 hands saying, " Quarter, O diviner of the world ! What wilt thou 
 
 ' This is always specified, for respectable men go out of town on horse-back, 
 never on " foot-back," as our friends the Boers say. I have seen a Syrian put to 
 sore shame when compelled by politeness to walii with me, and every acquaint- 
 ance he met addressed him, " Anta Zalamah ! " — What ! afoot !
 
 Judar and his Brethn'?i. 157 
 
 with us ? " Quoth he, " My will is to burn you both with fire, except 
 ye make a covenant with me, to open to me the treasure of Al- 
 Shamardal." Quoth they, " We promise this to thee, and we will 
 open the treasure to thee, so thou produce to us Judar bin Omar, 
 the fisherman, for the hoard may not be opened except by his means, 
 nor can any enter therein save Judar." Cried the Maghribi, " Him 
 of whom ye speak, I have brought, and he is here, listening to you, 
 and looking at you." Thereupon they covenanted with him to open 
 the treasure to him, and he released them. Then he brought out a 
 hollow wand and tablets of red carnelian which he laid on the rod ; 
 and after this he took a chafing-dish and setting charcoal thereon, 
 blew one breath into it and it kindled forthwith. Presently he 
 brought incense and said, " O Judar, I am now about to begin the 
 necessary conjurations and fumigations, and when I have once 
 begun, I may not speak, or the charm will be naught ; so I will teach 
 thee first what thou must do to win thy wish." "Teach me," quoth 
 Judar. "Know," quoth the Moor, " that when I have recited the 
 spell and thrown on the incense, the water will dry up from the 
 river's bed and discover to thee a golden door, the bigness of the 
 city-gate, with two rings of metal thereon ; whereupon do thou go 
 down to the door and knock a light knock and wait awhile ; then 
 knock a second time a knock louder than the first and wait another 
 while; after which give three knocks in rapid succession, and thou 
 wilt hear a voice ask : — Who knocketh at the door of the treasure, 
 unknowing how to solve the secrets? Do thou answer: — I am 
 Judar the fisherman, son of Omar ; and the door will open and there 
 will come forth a figure with a brand in hand who w^ll say to thee : 
 If thou be that man, stretch forth thy neck, that I may strike off thy 
 head. Then do thou stretch forth thy neck and fear not ; for, when 
 he lifts his hand and smites thee with the sword, he will fall down 
 before thee, and in a little thou wilt see him a body without a soul ; 
 and the stroke shall not hurt thee nor shall any harm befal thee ; 
 but, if thou gainsay him, he will slay thee. When thou hast undone 
 his enchantment by obedience, enter and go on till thou see another 
 door, at which do thou knock, and there will come forth to thee a 
 horseman riding a mare with a lance on his shoulder and say to 
 thee : — What bringeth thee hither, where none may enter, nor man 
 nor Jinni? And he will shake his lance at thee. Bare thy breast 
 to him and he will smite thee and fall down forthright and thou 
 shalt see him a body without a soul ; but if thou cross him he will 
 kill thee. Then go on to the third door, whence there will come 
 forth to thee a man with a bow and arrows in his hand and take 
 aim at thee. Bare thy breast to him and he will shoot at thee and
 
 1 58 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 fall down before thee, a body without a soul ; but if thou oppose 
 
 him, he will kill thee. Then go on to the fourth door" Aftd 
 
 Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her per- 
 mitted say. 
 
 i^oto toj^cn it toas t^c ^ix l^unUrcti antJ jPourteent]^ iSiaSt, 
 
 She continued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the 
 Maghribi said to Judar, "Go on to the fourth door and knock and 
 it shall be opened to thee, when there will come forth to thee a lion 
 huge of bulk which will rush upon thee, opening his mouth and 
 showing he hath a mind to devour thee. Have no fear of him, 
 neither flee from him : but when he cometh to thee, give him thy 
 hand and he will bite at it and fall down straightway, nor shall 
 aught of hurt betide thee. Then enter the fifth door, where thou 
 shalt find a black slave, who will say to thee, Who art thou ? Say, I 
 am Judar ! and he will answer, If thou be that man, open the sixth 
 door. Then do thou go up to the door and say, O Isa, tell Musa 
 to open the door ; whereupon the door will fly open and thou wilt 
 see two dragons, one on the left hand and another on the right, 
 which will open their mouths and fly at thee, both at once. Do 
 thou put forth to them either hand and they will bite each a hand 
 and fall down dead ; but an thou resist them, they will slay thee. 
 Then go to the seventh door and knock, whereupon there will come 
 forth to thee thy mother and say : — Welcome, O my son ! Come, 
 that I may greet thee ! But do thou reply, Hold off" from me and 
 doff" thy dress. And she will make answer : — O my son, I am thy 
 mother and I have a claim upon thee for suckling thee and for rear- 
 ing thee : how then wouldst thou strip me ? Therewith do thou 
 say. Except thou put off" thy clothes, I will kill thee ! and look to 
 thy right, where thou wilt see a sword hanging up. Take it and 
 draw it upon her, saying. Strip ! whereupon she will wheedle thee 
 and humble herself to thee ; but have thou no ruth on her nor be 
 beguiled ; nor do thou cease to threaten her with death, till she doff" 
 her robe and fall down, whereupon the enchantment will be dis- 
 solved and the charms undone, and thou wilt be safe as to thy life. 
 Then enter the hall of treasure, where thou wilt behold the gold lying 
 in heaps ; but pay no need to aught thereof, but look to a closet at 
 the upper end of the hall, where thou wilt see a curtain drawn. 
 Draw back the curtain and thou shalt descry the enchanter, Al-Sham- 
 ardal, lying upon a couch of gold, with something at his head, round 
 and shining like the moon, which is the celestial planisphere. He is
 
 Judar and his Brethren. 159 
 
 baldrick'd with the sword •} on his finger is the ring and about his 
 neck hangs a chain, to which hangs the Kohl-phial. Bring me the 
 four talismans, and beware lest thou forget aught of that which I 
 have told thee, or thou wilt repent and there will be risk for thee." 
 And he repeated his directions a second and a third and a fourth 
 time, till Judar said, " I have them by heart ; but who may face 
 all these enchantments that thou namest and endure against these 
 mighty terrors ? " Replied the Moor, " O Judar, fear not, for they 
 are semblances without life ;" and he went on to hearten him, till 
 he said, " I put my trust in Allah." Then Abd al-Samad threw 
 perfumes on the chafing-dish, and addressed himself to reciting con- 
 jurations for a time when, behold, the water disappeared and un- 
 covered the river-bed and discovered the door of the treasure, 
 whereupon Judar went down to the door and knocked. Therewith 
 he heard a voice saying, " Who knocketh at the door of the treasure, 
 unknowing how to solve the secrets ?" Quoth he, " I am Judar son 
 of Omar 3" whereupon the door opened and there came forth a figure 
 with a drawn sword, who said to him, " Stretch forth thy neck." So 
 he stretched forth his neck and the species smote him and fell down, 
 lifeless. Then he went on to the second door and did the like, nor 
 did he cease to do thus, till he had undone the enchantments of the 
 first six doors and came to the seventh door, whence there issued 
 forth to him his mother, saying, " I salute thee, O my son ! " He 
 asked, "What art thou?" and she answered, " O my son, I am thy 
 mother who reared thee." Quoth he, '• Put off thy robe." Quoth 
 she, " Thou art my son, how wouldst thou strip me ? " But he said 
 " Strip, or I will strike off thy head with this sword ;" and he stretched 
 out his hand to the brand and drew it upon her saying, " Except 
 thou strip, I will slay thee." Then the strife became long between 
 them and as often as he redoubled on her his threats, she entreated 
 him saying, "O my son, is thy heart stone?" till he answered, 
 " Thou sayest sooth ; put not off thy robe." At once, as he uttered 
 these words, she cried out, "He hath made default; beat him!'' 
 Whereupon there fell upon him blows like rain-drops and the 
 
 ' This tale, including the Enchanted Sword which slays whole armies, was 
 adopted in Europe as we sec in Straparola (iv. 3), and the "Water of Life" 
 which the Grimms found in Hesse, etc., "Gammer Grcthel's German Popular 
 Stories," Edgar Taylor, Bells, 1878 ; and now published in fuller form as 
 ** Grimm's Household Tales," by Sirs. Hunt, with Introduction by A. Lang, 
 2 vols. Svo, 1884. It is curious that so biting and carping a critic, who will con- 
 descend to notice a misprint in another's book, should lay himself open to general 
 animadversion by such a rambling farrago of half-digested knowledge as that 
 which composes Mr. Andrew Lang's Introduction.
 
 i6o Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 servants of the treasure flocked to him and dealt him a drubbing which 
 he forgot not in all his days ; after which they thrust him forth and 
 threw him down without the treasure and the hoard-doors closed of 
 
 themselves, whilst the waters of the river returned to their bed. 
 
 And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying 
 her permitted say. 
 
 iSohj foj^m It toas t^e ^i.x ?^untircli anti jpiftecntjb i^igbt, 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 the servants of the treasure beat Judar and cast him out and the 
 hoard-doors closed of themselves, whilst the river-waters returned to 
 their bed, Abd al-Samad the Maghribi took Judar up in haste and 
 repeated conjurations over him, till he came to his senses but still 
 dazed as with drink, when he asked him, " What hast thou done, O 
 wretch ? " Answered Judar, " O my brother, I undid all the oppos- 
 ing enchantments till I came to my mother, and there befel between 
 her and myself a long contention. But I left her her robe out of pity, 
 and behold, she cried out and said, He hath made default; beat 
 him ! Whereupon there came out upon me folk, whence I know 
 not, and beating me with a belabouring which was a Sister of Death, 
 thrust me forth ; nor did I know what befel me after this." Quoth 
 the Moor, " Did I not warn thee not to swerve from my directions ? 
 Verily, thou hast injured me and hast injured thyself: for if thou 
 hadst made her obey, we had won to our wish ; but now thou must 
 abide with me till this day next year." Then he cried out to the 
 two slaves, who struck the tent forthright and loaded it on the 
 beasts ; then they were absent awhile and presently returned with 
 the two mules ; and the twain mounted and rode back to the city of 
 Fez, where Judar tarried with the Maghribi, eating well and drinking 
 well and donning a grand dress every day, till the year was ended 
 and the anniversary morning dawned. Then the Moor said to him, 
 " Come with me, for this is the appointed day ; " and Judar said, 
 " 'Tis well." So the Maghribi carried him without the city, where 
 they found the two slaves with the mules, and rode on till they 
 reached the river. Here the slaves pitched the tent and furnished it ; 
 and the Moor brought forth the tray of food and they ate the morn- 
 ing meal ; after which Abd al-Samad produced the wand and the 
 tablets as before and, kindling the fire in the chafing-dish, made 
 ready the incense. Then said he, " O Judar, I wish to renew my 
 charge to thee." " O my lord the pilgrim," replied he, "if I have
 
 Judar and his Brct]irc7i. i6i 
 
 forgotten the bastinado, I have forgotten the injunctions."^ Asked 
 the Moor, " Dost thou indeed remember them ? " and he answered, 
 "Yes." Quoth the Moor, "Keep thy wits, and think not that the 
 woman is thy very mother ; nay, she is but an enchantment in her 
 semblance, whose purpose is to find thee defauking. Thou camest 
 off ahve the first time ; but if thou trip this time, they will slay thee." 
 Quoth Judar, " If I slip this time, I deserve to be burnt of them." 
 Then Abd al-Samad cast the perfumes into the fire and recited the 
 conjurations, till the river dried up ; whereupon Judar descended 
 and knocked. The door opened and he entered and undid the 
 several enchantments, till he came to the seventh door and the 
 semblance of his mother appeared before him, saying, " Welcome,'^ 
 O my son ! " But he said to her, " How am 1 thy son, O accursed ? 
 Strip ! " And she began to wheedle him, but he was firm and he 
 said to her, " Strip, O accursed ! " So she put off her robe and 
 became a body without a soul. Then he entered the hall of the 
 treasures, where he saw gold lying in heaps, but paid no heed to it 
 and passed on to the closet at the upper end, where he saw the 
 enchanter Al-Shamardal lying on a couch of gold, baldrick'd with 
 the sword, with the ring on his finger, the Kohl-phial on his 
 breast and the , celestial planisphere hanging over his head. So 
 he loosed the sword and taking the ring, the Kohl-phial and the 
 planisphere, went forth, when behold, a band of music sounded 
 for him and the servants of the treasure cried out, saying, " Mayest 
 thou be assained with that thou hast gained, O Judar ! " Nor did 
 the music leave sounding, till he came forth of the treasure to the 
 Maghribi, who gave up his conjurations and fumigations and rose 
 up and embraced him and saluted him. Then Judar made over 
 to him the four hoarded talismans, and he took them and cried out 
 to the slaves, who carried away the tent and brought the mules. So 
 they mounted and returned to Fez-city, where the Moor fetched the 
 saddle-bags and brought forth dish after dish of meat, till the tray 
 was full, and said, " O my brother, O Judar, eat ! " So he ate till 
 he was satisfied, when the Moor emptied what remained of the meats 
 and other dishes and returned the empty platters to the saddle-bags. 
 Then quoth he, " O Judar, thou hast left home and native land on 
 our account and thou hast accomplished our dearest desire ; where- 
 fore thou hast a right to require a reward of us. Ask, therefore, 
 what thou wilt, it is Almighty Allah who giveth unto thee by our 
 
 ^ These retorts of Judar are exactly what a sharp Egyptian Fellah would say on 
 such occasions. 
 
 ^ Arab. " Saldmat," plur. of Saldm, a favourite Egyptian welcome. 
 
 VOL. IV. L
 
 1 62 Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 means.^ Ask thy will and be not ashamed, for thou art deserving." 
 " O my lord," quoth Judar, " I ask first of Allah the Most High 
 and then of thee, that thou give me yonder saddle-bags." So the 
 Maghribi called for them and gave them to him saying, " Take 
 them, for they are thy due ; and, if thou hadst asked of me aught 
 else instead, I had given it to thee. Eat from them, thou and thy 
 family ; but, my poor fellow, these will not profit thee, save by 
 way of provision, and thou hast wearied thyself with us and we 
 promised to send thee home rejoicing. So we will join to these 
 other saddle-bags, full of gold and gems, and forward thee back 
 to thy native land, where thou shalt become a gentleman and a 
 merchant and clothe thyself and thy family ; nor shalt thou want 
 ready money for thine expenditure. And know that the manner 
 of using our gift is on this wise. Put thy hand therein and say : — 
 O servant of these saddle-bags, I conjure thee by the virtue of the 
 Mighty Names which have power over thee, bring me such a dish ! 
 And he will bring thee whatsoever thou askest, though thou shouldst 
 call for a thousand different dishes a day." So saying, he filled him 
 a second pair of saddle-bags half with gold and half with gems and 
 precious stones ; and, sending for a slave and a mule, said to him, 
 " Mount this mule, and the slave shall go before thee and show thee 
 the way, till thou come to the door of thy house, where do thou 
 take the two pair of saddle-bags and give him the mule, that he may 
 bring it back. But admit none into thy secret ; and so we commend 
 thee to Allah ! " " May the Almighty increase thy good ! " replied 
 Judar and, laying the two pairs of saddle-bags on the mule's back, 
 mounted and set forth. The slave went on before him and the mule 
 followed the man all that day and night, and on the morrow Judar 
 entered Cairo by the Gate of Victory," where he saw his mother seated, 
 saying, " Alms, for the love of Allah!" At this sight he well-nigh lost 
 
 ^ This sentence expresses a Moslem idea which greatly puzzles strangers. 
 Arabic has no equivalent of our " Thank you " (Kassara 'llah Khayr-ak being a 
 mere blessing — Allah increase thy weal !), nor can Al-Islam express gratitude 
 save by a periphrase. The Moslem acknowledges a favour by blessing the donor 
 and by wishing him increase of prosperity : " May thy shadow never be less ! " 
 means, Mayest thou always extend to me thy shelter and protection. I have 
 noticed this before, but it merits repetition. Strangers, and especially English- 
 men, are very positive and very much mistaken upon a point which all who have 
 to do with Egyptians and Arabs ought thoroughly to understand. Old dwellers 
 in the East know that the theory of ingratitude in no way interferes with the 
 sense of gratitude innate in man (and beast) and that the "lively sense of favours 
 to come," is as quick in Orient -land as in Europe. 
 
 * Outside this noble gate, the Bab al-Nasr, there is a great cemetery, wherein, 
 by the by, lies Burckhardt, my predecessor as a Hajj to Mecca and Al- 
 Medinah. Hence many beggars are always found squatting in its neighbour- 
 hood.
 
 Judar and his Brethren. 163 
 
 his wits and, alighting, threw himself upon her: and when she saw him 
 she wept. Then he mounted her on the mule and walked by her 
 stirrup/ till they came to the house, where he set her down and, 
 taking the saddle-bags, left the she-mule to the slave, who led her 
 away and returned with her to his master, for that both slave and 
 mule were devils. As for Judar, it was grievous to him that his 
 mother should beg ; so, when they were in the house, he asked 
 her, "O my mother, are my brothers well?" and she answered, 
 "They are both well." Quoth he, "Why dost thou beg by the 
 wayside?" Quoth she, "Because I am hungry, O my son;" and 
 he, " Before I went away, I gave thee an hundred dinars one day, 
 the like the next, and a thousand on the day of my departure." 
 " O my son, they cheated me and took the money from me, 
 saying : — We will buy goods with it. Then they drove me away, 
 and I fell to begging by the wayside, for stress of hunger." " O 
 my mother, no harm shall befal thee, now I am come ; so have 
 no concern, for these saddle-bags are full of gold and gems, and 
 good aboundeth with me." " Verily, thou art blessed, O my son ! 
 Allah accept of thee and increase thee of His bounties ! Go, O my 
 son, fetch us some victual, for I slept not last night for excess of 
 hunger, having gone to bed supperless." "Welcome to thee, O my 
 mother ! Call for what thou wilt to eat, and I will set it before thee 
 this moment ; for I have no occasion to buy from the market, nor 
 need I any to cook." "O my son, I see naught with thee." " I have 
 with me in these saddle-bags all manner of meats." "O my son, 
 whatever is ready will serve to stay hunger." " True, when there is 
 no choice, men are content with the smallest thing ; but when there 
 is plenty, they like to eat what is good : and I have abundance ; so 
 call for what thou hast a mind to." " O my son, give me some hot 
 bread and a slice of cheese." " O my mother, this befitteth not thy 
 condition." "Then give me to eat of that which besitteth my case, 
 for thou knowest it." " O my mother," rejoined he, " what suit thine 
 estate are browned meat and roast chicken and peppered rice, and it 
 becometh thy rank to eat of sausages and stuffed cucumbers and 
 stuffed lamb and stuffed ribs of mutton and vermicelli with broken 
 almonds and nuts and honey and sugar and fritters and almond 
 cakes." But she thought he was laughing at her and making mock 
 of her ; so she said to him, " Yauh ! " Yauh !- what is come to thee ? 
 
 ^ Friends sometimes walk alongside the rider holding the stirrup in sign of 
 affection and respect, especially to the returning pilgrim. 
 
 '" Equivalent to our Alas ! It is woman's word never used by men ; and 
 foreigners must be most careful of this distinction under pain of incurring some-
 
 1 64 Alf Laylah wa Laylah 
 
 Dost thou dream or art thou daft ?" Asked he, " Why deemest thou 
 that I am mad ?" and she answered, " Because thou namest to me 
 all manner rich dishes. Who can avail unto their price, and who 
 knoweth how to dress them ?" Quoth he, " By my life ! thou shalt 
 eat of all that I have named to thee, and that at once ;" and quoth 
 she, " I see nothing ;" and he, " Bring me the saddle-bags." So she 
 fetched them and feeling them, found them empty. However, she 
 laid them before him and he thrust in his hand and pulled out dish 
 after dish, till he had set before her all he had named. Whereupon 
 asked she, " O my son, the saddle-bags are small and moreover they 
 are empty ; yet hast thou taken thereout all these dishes. Where 
 then were they all ?" and he answered, " O my mother, know that 
 these saddle-bags, which the Moor gave me, are enchanted and they 
 have a servant whom, if one desire aught, he hath but to adjure by 
 the Names which command him, saying, " O servant of these saddle- 
 bags, bring me such a dish ! and he will bring it." Quoth his 
 mother, " And may I put out my hand and ask of him ?" Quoth he, 
 " Do so." So she stretched out her hand and said, " O servant of 
 the saddle-bags, by the virtue of the Names which command thee, 
 bring me stuffed ribs." Then she thrust in her hand and found a 
 dish containing delicate stuffed ribs of lamb. So she took it out, 
 and called for bread and what else she had a mind to : after which 
 Judar said to her, " O my mother, when thou hast made an end of 
 eating, empty what is left of the food into dishes other than these, 
 and restore the empty platters to the saddle-bags carefully." So she 
 arose and laid them up in a safe place. " And look, O mother mine, 
 that thou keep this secret," added he ; "and whenever thou hast a 
 mind to aught, take it forth of the saddle-bags and give alms and 
 feed my brothers, whether I be present or absent." Then he fell to 
 eating with her, and behold, while they were thus occupied, in came 
 his two brothers, whom a son of the quarter^ had apprised of his 
 return, saying, " Your brother is come back, riding on a she-mule, 
 with a slave before him, and wearing a dress that hath not its like." 
 So they said to each other, " Would to Heaven we had not evilly 
 entreated our mother ! There is no hope but that she will surely 
 tell him how we did by her, and then, oh our disgrace with him !" 
 But one of the twain said, " Our mother is soft-hearted, and if she 
 tell him, our brother is yet tenderer over us than she ; and, given we 
 
 thing worse than ridicule. I remember an officer in the Bombay Army who, 
 having learned Hindostani from women, always spoke of himself in the feminine 
 and hugely scandalised the Sepoys. 
 
 ^ i.e. a neighbour. The "quarters" of a town in the East are often on the 
 worst of terms. See Pilgrimage, iii. 95.
 
 Judar and his Brethren. 165 
 
 excuse ourselves to him, he will accept our excuse." So they went 
 in to him and he rose to them and saluting them with the friendliest 
 salutation, bade them sit down and eat. So they ate till they were 
 satisfied, for they were weak with hunger; after which Judar said to 
 them, " O my brothers, take what is left and distribute it to the poor 
 and needy." "O brother," replied they, "let us keep it to sup 
 withal. " But he answered, " When supper-time cometh, ye shall 
 have more than this." So they took the rest of the victual and 
 going out, gave it to every poor man who passed by them, saying, 
 " Take and eat," till nothing was left. Then they brought back the 
 dishes and Judar said to his mother, " Put them in the saddle-bags." 
 
 And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say 
 
 her permitted say. 
 
 tNTofo foficn it iuns tijc ^i.x ^unljrcti anti ^utccntib Nigf)t, 
 
 She continued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Judar, 
 when his brethren had finished their under-meal, said to his mother, 
 " Put back the platters in the saddle-bags." And when it was even- 
 tide, he entered the saloon and took forth of the saddle-bags a table 
 of forty dishes ; after which he went up to the upper room and, 
 sitting down between his brothers, said to his mother, " Bring the 
 supper." ^ So she went down to the saloon and, finding there the 
 dishes ready, laid the tray and served up the forty dishes, one after 
 other. Then they ate the evening meal, and when they had done, 
 Judar said to his brothers, "Take and feed the poor and needy." 
 Accordingly they took what was left and gave alms thereof, and 
 presently he brought forth to them sweetmeats, whereof they ate, and 
 what was left he bade them give to the neighbours. On the morrow, 
 they brake their fast after the same fashion, and thus they fared ten 
 days, at the end of which time quoth Salim to Sali'm, " How cometh 
 it that our brother settcth before us a banquet in the morning, a ban- 
 cjuet at noon, and a banquet at sundown, besides sweetmeats late at 
 night, and all that is left he giveth to the poor ? Verily, this is the 
 fashion of Sultans. Yet we never see him buy aught, and he hath 
 neither kitchener nor kitchen, nor doth he light a fire. Whence 
 hath he this great plenty ? Hast thou not a mind to discover the 
 cause of all this?" Quoth Sali'm, "By Allah, I know not: but 
 
 ' In the patriarchal stage of society the mother waits upon her adult sons. 
 Even in Dahnalia 1 found, in many old-fashioned houses, the ladies of the family 
 waiting on the guests. Very pleasant, but somewhat startling at first.
 
 1 66 ■ Alf Laylah iva Lay la h. 
 
 knowest thou any who will tell us the truth of the case?" Quoth 
 Salim, " None will tell us save our mother." So they laid a plot and 
 repairing to their mother one day, in their brother's absence, said to 
 her, " O our mother, we are hungry." Replied she, " Rejoice, for 
 ye shall presently be satisfied ;" and going into the saloon, sought of 
 the servant of the saddle-bags hot meats, which she took out and set 
 before her sons. "Oour mother,'' cried they, " this meat is hot; 
 yet hast thou not cooked, neither kindled a fire," Quoth she, " It 
 Cometh from the saddle-bags ;" and quoth they, "What manner of 
 things be these saddle-bags ? " She answered, " They are enchanted, 
 and the required is produced by the charm :" she then told her sons 
 their virtue, enjoining them to secrecy. Said they, " The secret shall 
 be kept, O our mother ; but teach us the manner of this." So she 
 taught them the fashion thereof and they fell to putting their hands 
 into the saddle-bags and taking forth whatever they had a mind to. 
 But Judar knew naught of this. Then quoth Salim privily to Salim, 
 " O my brother, how long shall we abide with Judar servant-wise and 
 eat of his alms ? Shall we not contrive to get the saddle-bags from 
 him and make off with them ? " " And how shall we make shift to 
 do this?" "We will sell him to the galleys." "How shall we do 
 that? " "We two will go to the Rais, the Chief Captain of the Sea 
 of Suez and bid him to an entertainment with two of his company. 
 What I say to Judar do thou confirm, and at the end of the night I 
 will show thee what I will do." So they agreed upon the sale of their 
 brother, and going to the Captain's quarters said to him, " O Rais, 
 we have come to thee on an errand that will please thee." " Good," 
 answered he; and they continued, "We two are brethren, and we 
 have a third brother, a vile fellow and good-for-nothing. When our 
 father died, he left us some money, which we shared amongst us, 
 and he took his part of the inheritance and wasted it in froward- 
 ness and debauchery, till he was reduced to poverty, when he came 
 upon us and cited us before the magistrates, avouching that we 
 had taken his good and that of his father, and we disputed the 
 matter before the judges and lost the money. Then he waited 
 awhile and attacked us a second time, until he brought us to 
 beggary ; nor will he desist from us, and we are utterly weary 
 of him ; wherefore we would have thee buy him of us." Quoth 
 the Captain, " Can ye cast about with him and bring him to me 
 here ? If so, I will pack him off to sea forthright." Quoth they, 
 "We cannot manage to bring him here; but be thou our guest 
 this night and bring with thee two of thy men, not one more ; and 
 when he is asleep, we will aid one another to fall upon him, we 
 five, and seize and gag him. Then shalt thou carry him forth the
 
 Judar a?id his Brethren. 167 
 
 house, under cover of the night, and after do thou with him as 
 thou wilt." Rejoined the Captain, " With all my heart ! Will ye 
 sell him for forty dinars ? " and they, " Yes, come after nightfall to 
 such a street, by such a mosque, and thou shalt find one of us 
 awaiting thee." And he replied, " Now be off." Then they repaired 
 to Judar and waited awhile, after which Sdlim went up to him and 
 kissed his hand. Quoth Judar, "What ails thee, O my brother?" 
 And he made answer, saying, " Know that I have a friend, who hath 
 many a time bidden me to his house in thine absence and hath ever 
 hospitably entreated me, and I owe him a thousand kindnesses, as 
 my brother here wotteth. I met him to-day and he invited me to 
 his house, but I said to him : — I cannot leave my brother Judar. 
 Quoth he. Bring him with thee ; and quoth I : — He will not consent 
 to that : but if ye will be my guests, thou and thy brothers ' * * * * 
 (for his brothers were sitting with him) : and I invited them thinking 
 that they would refuse. But he accepted my invitation for all of 
 them, saying, Look for me at the gate of the little mosque," and I 
 will come to thee, I and my brothers. And now I fear they will 
 come and am ashamed before thee. So wilt thou hearten my heart 
 and entertain them this night, for thy good is abundant, O my 
 brother ? Or if thou consent not, give me leave to take them into 
 the neighbours' houses. '^ Replied Judar, "Why shouldst thou carry 
 them into the neighbours' houses? Is our house then so strait or 
 have we not wherewith to give them supper? Shame on thee to 
 consult me ! Thou hast but to call for what thou needest and have 
 rich viands and sweetmeats and to spare. Whenever thou bringest 
 home folk in my absence, ask thy mother, and she will set before 
 thee victual more than enough. Go and fetch them ; blessings have 
 descended upon us through such guests." So Sdlim kissed his hand 
 and going forth, sat at the gate of the little mosque till after sun- 
 down, when the Captain and his men came uj) to him, and he 
 carried them to the house. When Judar saw them he bade them 
 welcome and seated them and made friends of them, knowing not 
 what the future had in store for him at their hands. Then he called 
 to his mother for supper, and she fell to taking dishes out of the 
 saddle-bags, whilst he said, " Bring such and such meats," till she 
 had set forty different dishes before them. They ate their sufficiency 
 and the tray was taken away, the sailors thinking the while that this 
 liberal entertainment came from Sdlim. A\'hcn a third part of the 
 
 ^ Here the apodosis would be " We can all sup together.' 
 '^ Arab. " Zawiyah " (= oratory), wliicli is to a Masjid what a chapel is to a 
 church.
 
 1 68 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 night was past, Judar set sweetmeats before them and SaHm served 
 them, whilst his two brothers sat with the guests, till they sought to 
 sleep. Accordingly Judar lay down and the others with him, who 
 waited till he was asleep, when they fell upon him together, and 
 gagging and pinioning him, before he was awake, carried him forth 
 of the house,^ under cover of the night, And Shahrazad was sur- 
 prised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 iEoto tu^cn ft toas tjbf ^ix l^unHrctr anij ^£bcntcent]b iSigljt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that they seized 
 Judar and carrying him forth of the house under cover of the night, 
 at once packed him off to Suez, where they shackled him and set 
 him to work as a galley-slave \ and he ceased not to serve thus in 
 silence a whole year.^ So far concerning Judar ; but as for his 
 brothers, they went in next morning to his mother and said to her, 
 " O our mother, our brother Judar is not awake." Said she, " Do ye 
 wake him." Asked they, "Where lieth he?" and she answered, 
 "With the guests." They rejoined, " Haply he went away with them 
 whilst we slept, O mother. It would seem that he had tasted of 
 strangerhood and yearned to get at hidden hoards ; for we heard him 
 at talk with the Moors, and they said to him. We will take thee with 
 us and open the treasure to thee." She enquired, "Hath he then 
 been in company with Moors ? " and they replied, saying, " Were 
 they not our guests yester-night ? " And she, " Most like he hath 
 gone with them, but Allah will direct him on the right way ; for there 
 is a blessing upon him and he will surely come back with great 
 good." But she wept, for it was grievous to her to be parted from 
 her son. Then said they to her, " O accursed woman, dost thou 
 love Judar with all this love, whilst as for us, whether we be absent 
 or present, thou neither joyest in us nor sorrowest for us ? Are we 
 not thy sons, even as Judar is thy son ? " She said, " Ye are indeed 
 my sons : but ye are reprobates who deserve no favour of me, for 
 since your father's death I have never seen any good in you ; whilst 
 as for Judar, I have had abundant good of him and he hath 
 heartened my heart and entreated me with honour ; wherefore it 
 behoveth me to weep for him, because of his kindness to me and 
 
 ^ Arab. " Kasr," prop, a palace: so the Tuscan peasant speaks of his 
 "palazzo." 
 
 " This sale of a free-born Moslem was mere felony. But many centuries later 
 Englishmen used to be sold and sent to the plantations in America,
 
 Judar a/id his Brethren. 169 
 
 to you." When they heard this, they abused her and beat her ; 
 after which they sought for the saddle-bags, till they found the two 
 pairs and took the enchanted one and all the gold from one pouch 
 and jewels from the other of the unenchanted, saying, " This was 
 our father's good." Said their mother, " Not so, by Allah ! it 
 belongeth to your brother Judar, who brought it from the land of 
 the Magharibah." Said they, " Thou liest ; it was our father's 
 property ; and we will dispose of it as we please." Then they 
 divided the gold and jewels ; but a brabble arose between them 
 concerning the enchanted saddle-bags, Salim saying, " I will have 
 them ; " and Salim saying, " I will take them ; " and they came to 
 high words. Then said she, "O my sons, ye have divided the gold 
 and the jewels, but this may not be divided, nor can its value be 
 made up in money ; and if it be cut in twain, its spell will be 
 voided ; so leave it with me and I will give you to eat from it at 
 all times and be content to take a morsel with you. If ye allow 
 me aught to clothe me, 'twill be of your bounty, and each of you 
 shall traffic with the folk for himself. Ye are my sons and I am 
 your mother ; wherefore let us abide as we are, lest your brother 
 come back and we be disgraced." But they accepted not her 
 words and passed the night, wrangling with each other. Now it 
 chanced that a Janissary^ of the King's guards was a guest in the 
 house adjoining Judar's and heard them through the open window. 
 So he looked out and listening, heard all the angry words that passed 
 between them and saw the division of the spoil. Next morning he 
 presented himself before the King of Egypt, whose name was Sham s 
 al-Daulah,^ and told him all he had heard, whereupon he sent for 
 Judar's brothers and put them to the (]^uestion, till they confessed ; 
 and he took the two pairs of saddle-bags from them and clapped 
 them in prison, appointing a satiicient daily allowance to their 
 mother. Now as regards Judar, he abode a whole year in service 
 at Suez, till one day, being in a ship bound on a voyage over 
 the sea, a wind arose against them and cast the vessel upon a 
 rock projecting from a mountain, where she broke up and all on 
 board were drowned and none gat ashore save Judar. As soon as 
 he landed he fared on inland, till he reached an encampment of 
 Badawin, who questioned him of his case, and he told them he 
 
 ' Arab. " Kawwas," lit. an archer, suggesting Ics archers de la Sainte Her- 
 mandoiie. In former days it denoted a sertjeant, an apparitor, an oliiccr who 
 executed magisterial orders. In modern Kgypt he became a policeman (Pil- 
 grimage i. 29). As "Cavass" he appears in gorgeous uniforni and sword, an 
 orderly attached to jniblic offices and Consulates. 
 
 • A purely imaginary King.
 
 170 A If Lay la h wa Laylah. 
 
 had been a sailor. ^ Now there was in camp a merchant, a native 
 of Jiddah, who took pity on him and said to him, " Wilt thou take 
 service with me, O Egyptian, and I will clothe thee and carry thee 
 with me to Jiddah ? " so Judar took service with him and accom- 
 panied him to Jiddah, where he showed him much favour. After 
 a while his master the merchant set out on a pilgrimage to Meccah, 
 taking Judar with him, and when they reached the city, the Cairene 
 repaired to the Haram temple, to circumambulate the Ka'abah. 
 As he was making the prescribed circuits," he suddenly saw his 
 
 friend Abd al-Samad the Moor doing the like ; And Shahrazad 
 
 perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 Noto \s)^%\\ it teas tf)e %\x f^untireti anti ^igj^tontt Nigtt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Judar, as he 
 was making the circuits, suddenly saw his friend Abd al-Samad also 
 circumambulating ; and when the Maghribi caught sight of him, he 
 saluted him and asked him of his state ; whereupon Judar wept and 
 told him all that had befallen him. So the Moor carried him to his 
 lodging and entreated him with honour, clothing him in a dress 
 of which the like was not, and saying to him, " Thou hast seen the 
 end of thine ills, O Judar." Then he drew out for him a geomantic 
 figure, which showed what had befallen Salim and Sali'm and said 
 to Judar, " Such and such things have befallen thy brothers and 
 they are now in the King of Egypt's prison ; but thou art right 
 welcome to abide with me and accomplish thine ordinances of 
 pilgrimage and all shall be well." Replied Judar, " O my lord, let 
 me go and take leave of the merchant with whom I am and after I 
 will come back to thee." " Dost thou owe money ? " asked the 
 Moor, and he answered " No." Said Abd al-Samad, " Go thou and 
 take leave of him and come back forthright, for bread hath claims 
 of its own from the ingenuous." So Judar returned to the merchant 
 and bade him farewell, saying, '* I have fallen in with my brother."'^ 
 " Go bring him here," said the merchant, " and we will make him an 
 
 ^ The Bresl. Edit. (ix. 370) here and elsewhere uses the word " Niitiya " = 
 Nauta, for the common Bahriyah or Mallah. 
 
 ^ Arab. " Tawaf," the name given to the sets (Ashwat) of seven circuits with 
 the left shoulder presented to the Holy House ; that is walking " widdershins " 
 or "against the sun" ("with the sun" being like the movement of a watch). 
 For the requisites of this rite see Pilgrimage iii. 234. 
 
 2 Arab. " Akh ; " brother has a wide signification amongst Moslems and may 
 be used to and of any of the Saving Faith.
 
 Judar and his Brethren. 171 
 
 entertainment." But Judar answered, saying, " He hath no need 
 of that ; for he is a man of wealth and hath many servants." Then 
 the merchant gave Judar twenty dinars, saying, " Acquit me of 
 responsibility ; '" and he bade him adieu and went forth from him. 
 Presently, he saw a poor man, so he gave him the twenty ducats and 
 returned to the Moor, with whom he abode till they had accom- 
 plished the pligrimage-rites when Abd al-Samad gave him the seal- 
 ring, that he had taken from the treasure of Al-Shamardal, saying, 
 " This ring will win thee thy wish, for it enchanteth and hath a 
 servant, by name Al-Ra'ad al-Kasif ; so whatever thou hast a mind 
 to of the wants of this world, rub this ring and its servant will appear 
 and do all thou biddest him." Then he rubbed the ring before 
 him, whereupon the Jinni appeared, saying, " Here am I, O my lord ! 
 Ask what thou wilt and it shall be given thee. Hast thou a mind to 
 people a ruined city or ruin a populous city ? to slay a king or to 
 rout a host?" "O Ra'ad," said Abd al-Samad, "this is become 
 thy lord ; do thou serve him faithfully." Then he dismissed him 
 and said to Judar, " Rub the ring and the servant will appear ; and 
 do thou command him to do whatever thou desirest, for he will not 
 gainsay thee. Now go to thine own country and take care of the 
 ring, for by means of it thou wilt baffle thine enemies ; and be not 
 ignorant of its puissance." " O my lord," quoth Judar, " with thy 
 leave, I will set out homewards." Quoth the Maghribi, " Summon 
 the Jinni and mount upon his back ; and if thou say to him : — 
 Bring me to my native city this very day, he will not disobey thy 
 commandment." So he took leave of Moor Abd al-Samad and 
 rubbed the ring, whereupon Al-Ra'ad presented himself, saying, 
 " Here am I ; ask and it shall be given to thee." Said Judar, 
 " Carry me to Cairo this day ; " and he replied, " Thy will be done ;" 
 and, taking him on his back, flew with him from noon till midnight, 
 when he set him down in the courtyard of his mother's house and 
 disappeared. Judar went in to his mother, who rose weeping, and 
 greeted him fondly, and told him how the King had beaten his 
 brothers and cast them into gaol and taken the two pairs of saddle- 
 bags ; which when he heard, it was no light matter to him and he 
 said to her, "Grieve not for the past ; I will show thee what I can do 
 and bring my brothers hither forthright." So he rubbed the ring, 
 whereupon its servant appeared, saying, " Here am I ! Ask and 
 thou shalt have." Quoth Judar, "I bid thee bring me my two 
 brothers from the prison of the King." So the Jinni sank into the 
 
 ' Said by the master wliea dismissing a servant, and meaning " I have not 
 failed in my duty to thee ! " The answer is, " Allah acquit thee thereof! "
 
 172 Alf Laylah wa Lay /ah. 
 
 earth and came not up but in the midst of the gaol where Sahm and 
 Sah'm lay in piteous plight and sore sorrow for the plagues of prison/ 
 so that they wished for death, and one of them said to the other, 
 " By Allah, O my brother, affliction is longsome upon us ! How 
 long shall we abide in this prison ? Death would be relief." As he 
 spoke, behold, the earth clove in sunder and out came Al-Ra'ad, who 
 took both up and plunged with them into the earth. They swooned 
 away for excess of fear, and when they recovered, they found them- 
 selves in their mother's house and saw Judar seated by her side. 
 Quoth he, " I salute you, O my brothers ! you have cheered me by 
 your presence." And they bowed their heads and burst into tears. 
 Then said he, " Weep not, for it w^as Satan and covetousness that 
 led you to do thus. How could you sell me? But I comfort 
 myself with the thought of Joseph, whose brothers did with him even 
 
 more than ye did with me, because they cast him into the pit." 
 
 And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying 
 her permitted say. 
 
 Noto tojben ft tons X\yz ^ix f^unUrctr antr :Nrinct£mt]b Nigbt, 
 
 She continued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Judar 
 said to his brothers, "How could you do with me thus? But repent 
 unto Allah and crave pardon of Him, and He will forgive you both, 
 for He is the Most Forgiving, the Merciful. As for me, I pardon 
 you and welcome you : no harm shall befal you. Then he comforted 
 them and set their hearts at ease and related to them all he had 
 suffered, till he fell in with Shaykh Abd al-Samad, and told them 
 also of the seal-ring. They replied, " O our brother, forgive us this 
 time ; and, if we return to our old ways, do with us as thou wiliest." 
 Quoth he, " No harm shall befal you ; but tell me what the King did 
 with you." Quoth they, " He beat us and threatened us with death 
 and took the two pairs of saddle-bags from us." " Will he not care ? " ^ 
 said Judar, and rubbed the ring, whereupon Al-Ra'ad appeared. When 
 his brothers saw him, they were affrighted and thought Judar would 
 bid him slay them ; so they fled to their mother, crying, " O our 
 
 ' A Moslem prison is like those of Europe a century ago ; to think of it gives 
 goose-skin. Easterns laugh at our idea ot penitentiary and the Arabs of Bombay 
 call it " Al-Bibtan " (the Garden) because the court contains a few trees and 
 shrubs. And with them a garden always suggests an idea of Paradise. There 
 are indeed only two eflicacious forms of punishment all the world over, corporal 
 for the poor and fines for the rich, the latter being the severer form. 
 
 ■ i.e. he shall answer for this.
 
 Judar and his Brethre?i. 173 
 
 mother, we throw ourselves on thy generosity ; do thou intercede 
 for us, O our mother ! " And she said to them, " O my sons, fear 
 nothing ! " Then said Judar to the servant, " I command thee to 
 bring me all that is in the King's treasury of goods and such ; let 
 nothing remain and fetch the two pairs of saddle-bags he took from 
 my brothers." " I hear and I obey," replied Al-Ra'ad ; and, dis- 
 appearing, straightway gathered together all he found in the treasury 
 and returned with the two pairs of saddle-bags and the deposits 
 therein and laid them before Judar, saying, " O my lord, I have left 
 nothing in the treasury." Judar gave the treasure to his mother 
 bidding her keep it and laying the enchanted saddle-bags before him, 
 said to the Jinni, " I command thee to build me this night a lofty 
 palace and overlay it with liquid gold and furnish it with magnificent 
 furniture : and let not the day dawn, ere thou be quit of the whole 
 work." Replied he, " Thy bidding shall be obeyed ; " and sank into 
 the earth. Then Judar brought forth food and they ate and took 
 their ease and lay down to sleep. Meanwhile, Al-Ra'ad summoned 
 his attendant Jinn and bade them build the palace. So some of them 
 fell to hewing stones and some to building, whilst others plastered 
 and painted and furnished ; nor did the day dawn ere the ordinance 
 of the palace was complete ; whereupon Al-Ra'ad came to Judar and 
 said to him, *' O my lord, the palace is finished and in best order, an 
 it please thee to come and look on it." So Judar went forth with 
 his mother and brothers and saw a palace, whose like there was not 
 in the whole world ; and it confounded all minds with the goodliness 
 of its ordinance. Judar was delighted with it while he was passing 
 along the highway and withal it had cost him nothing. Then he 
 asked his mother, " Say me, wilt thou take up thine abode in this 
 palace?" and she answered, "I will, O my son," and called down 
 blessings upon him. Then he rubbed the ring and bade the Jinni 
 fetch him forty handsome white handmaids and forty black damsels 
 and as many Mamelukes and negro slaves. " Thy will be done," 
 answered Al-Ra'ad and betaking himself, with forty of his attendant 
 Jinns to Hind and Sind and Persia, snatched up every beautiful girl 
 and boy they saw, till they had made up the required number. More- 
 over, he sent other fourscore, who fetched comely black girls, and 
 forty others brought male chattels and carried them all to Judar's 
 house, which they filled. Then he showed them to Judar, who was 
 pleased with them and said, " Bring for each a dress of the finest." 
 " Ready ! " replied the servant. Then quoth he, " Bring a dress for 
 my mother and another for myself, and also for my brothers." So 
 the Jinni fetched all that was needed and clad the female slaves, 
 saying to them, " This is your mistress : kiss her hands and cross
 
 174 Alf Laylah wa Lay la h. 
 
 her not, but serve her, white and black." The Mamelukes also 
 dressed themselves and kissed Judar's hands ; and he and his brothers 
 arrayed themselves in the robes that the Jinni had brought them, and 
 Judar became like unto a King and his brothers as Wazirs. Now his 
 house was spacious ; so he lodged Salim and his slave-girls in one 
 part thereof and Sali'm and his slave-girls in another, whilst he and 
 his mother took up their abode in the new palace ; and each in 
 his own place was like a Sultan. So far concerning them ; but as 
 regards the King's Treasurer, thinking to take something from the 
 treasury, he went in and found it altogether empty, even as saith 
 the poet : — 
 
 'Twas as a hive of bees that greatly thrived; * But, when the bee-swarm fled, 
 'twas clean unhived.^ 
 
 So he gave a great cry and fell down in a fit. When he came to 
 himself, he left the door open and going in to King Shams al- 
 Daulah, said to him, " O Commander of the Faithful,^ I have to 
 inform thee that the treasury hath become empty during the night." 
 Quoth the King, "What hast thou done with my monies which were 
 therein ? " Quoth he, " By Allah, I have not done aught with them 
 nor know I what is come of them ; I visited the place yesterday 
 and saw it full ; but to-day when I went in, I found it clean empty, 
 albeit the doors were locked, the walls were unpierced^ and the 
 bolts ^ are unbroken; nor hath a thief entered it." Asked the 
 King, " Are the two pairs of saddle-bags gone ? " " Yes," replied 
 the Treasurer ; whereupon the King's reason flew from his head 
 
 ■ And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say 
 
 her permitted say. 
 
 ^ A pun upon "Khali'yah" (bee-hive) and " Khaliyah " (empty). Khaliyah 
 is properly a hive of bees with a honey-comb in the hollow of a tree-trunk, 
 opposed to Kawwarah, hive made of clay or earth (Al-Hariri ; Ass. of Tiflis). 
 There are many other terms, for Arabs are curious about honey. Pilgrimage 
 iii. no. 
 
 ^ Lane (iii. 237) supposes by this title that the author referred his tale to the 
 days of the Caliphate. " Commander of the Faithful " was, I have said, the style 
 adopted by Omar in order to avoid the clumsiness of " Caliph " (successor) of the 
 Caliph (Abu Bakr) of the Apostle of Allah. 
 
 ^ Eastern thieves count four modes of housebreaking; (i) picking out burnt 
 bricks ; (2) cutting through unbaked bricks ; (3) wetting a mud wall and (4) boring 
 through a wooden wall (Vikram and the Vampire, p. 172). 
 
 * Arab. "Zabbah," lit. a lizard (fem.) also a wooden lock, the only one used 
 throughout Egypt. An illustration of its curious mechanism is given in Lane 
 (M. E. Introduction).
 
 Judar afid his Brethren. 175 
 
 Nob) tofjcn it toas tjbc ^ix l^untrrcti anti ^focntictft Nigjbt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 Treasurer informed the King that all in the treasury had been 
 plundered, including the two pairs of saddle-bags, the King's reason 
 flew from his head and he rose to his feet, saying, " Go thou before 
 me." Then he followed the Treasurer to the treasury and he found 
 nothing there, whereat he was wroth with him ; and he said to them, 
 " O soldiers, know that my treasury hath been plundered during the 
 night, and I know not who did this deed and dared thus to outrage 
 me, without fear of me." Said they, " How so ? " and he replied, 
 " Ask the Treasurer." So they questioned him, and he answered, 
 saying, "Yesterday I visited the treasury and it was full, but this 
 morning when I entered it I found it empty, though the walls were 
 unpierced and the doors unbroken." They all marvelled at this and 
 could make the King no answer, when in came the Janissary, who 
 had denounced Salim and Salim, and said to Shams al-Daulah, " O 
 King of the age, all this night I have not slept for that which I saw," 
 And the King asked, "And what didst thou see?" " Know, O 
 King of the age," answered the Kawwas, " that all night long I have . 
 been amusing myself with watching builders at work ; and, when it 
 was day, I saw a palace ready edified, whose like is not in the world. 
 So I asked about it and was told that Judar had come back with 
 great wealth and Mamelukes and slaves and that he had freed his 
 two brothers from prison, and built this palace, wherein he is as a 
 Sultan." Quoth the King, " Go, look in the prison." So they went 
 thither and not finding Salim and Sah'm, returned and told the 
 King, who said, " It is plain now who be the thief; he who took 
 Salim and Sah'm out of prison it is who hath stolen my monies." 
 Quoth the Wazir, " O my lord, and who is he ? " and quoth the 
 King, "Their brother Judar, and he hath taken the two pairs of 
 saddle-bags ; but, O Wazir, do thou send him an Emir with fifty men 
 to seal up his goods and lay hands on him and his brothers and 
 bring them to me, that I may hang them." And he was sore en- 
 raged and said, " Ho, off with the Emir at once, and fetch them, 
 that I may put them to death." But the Wazir said to him, " Be 
 thou merciful, for Allah is merciful and hastcth not to punish His 
 servants when they sin against Him. Moreover, he who can build 
 a palace in a single night, as these say, none in the world can vie 
 with him ; and verily I fear lest the Emir fall into difficulty for 
 Judar. Have patience, therefore, whilst I devise some device of
 
 176 Alf Laylali, wa Laylah. 
 
 getting at the truth of the case, and so shalt thou win thy wish, O 
 King of the age." Quoth the King, " Counsel me how I shall do, 
 O Wazir." And the Minister said, " Send him an Emir with an 
 invitation ; and I will make much of him for thee and make a show 
 of love for him and ask of his estate ; after which we will see. If 
 we find him stout of heart, we will use sleight with him, and if weak 
 of will, then do thou seize him and do with him thy desire." The 
 King agreed to this and despatched one of his Emirs, Othman 
 hight, to go and invite Judar and say to him, " The King biddeth 
 thee to a banquet;" and the King said to him, "Return not 
 except with him." Now this Othman was a fool, proud and 
 conceited ; so he went forth upon his errand, and when he came 
 to the gate of Judar's palace, he saw before the door an Eunuch 
 seated upon a chair of gold, who at his approach rose not, but 
 sat as if none came near, though there were with the Emir fifty 
 footmen. Now this Eunuch was none other than Al-Ra'ad al- 
 Kasif, the servant of the ring, whom Judar had commanded to don 
 the guise of an eunuch and sit at the palace-gate. So the Emir rode 
 up to him and asked him, " O slave, where is thy lord ? " whereto he 
 answered, " In the palace ; " but he stirred not from his leaning 
 posture ; whereupon the Emir Othman waxed wroth and said to 
 him, " O pestilent slave, art thou not ashamed, when I speak to 
 thee, to answer me, sprawling at thy length, like a gallows-bird ? " 
 Replied the Eunuch, " Off and multiply not words." Hardly had 
 Othman heard this, when he was filled with rage and drawing his 
 mace ^ would have smitten the Eunuch, knowing not that he was a 
 devil ; but Al-Ra'ad leapt upon him and taking the mace from him, 
 dealt him four blows with it. Now when the fifty men saw their lord 
 beaten, it was grievous to them ; so they drew their swords and ran 
 to slay the slave ; but he said, " Do ye draw on us, O dogs ? " and 
 rose at them with the mace, and every one whom he smote, he broke 
 his bones and drowned him in his blood. So they fell back before 
 him and fled, whilst he followed them, beating them, till he had 
 driven them far from the palace-gate ; after which he returned and 
 
 sat down on his chair at the door, caring for none. And Shah- 
 
 razad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her per- 
 mitted say. 
 
 ^ Arab. " Dabbiis." The Eastern mace is well known to English collectors; 
 it is always of metal, and mostly of steel, with a short handle like our facetiously 
 called "life-preserver." The head is in various forms, the simplest a ball, smooth 
 and round, or broken into sundry high and angular ridges like a melon, and in 
 select weapons shaped like the head of some animal, bull, deer, etc. See Night 
 dcxlvi.
 
 Judar and Jiis Brctlircn. 177 
 
 Nobj toTjcn ft tons tfjc ^ix l^untrrcU antJ ^tucntii-first ^NTiglbt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Eunuch 
 having put to flight the Emir Othman, the King's officer, and his 
 men, till they were driven far from Judar's gate, returned and sat 
 down on his chair at the door, caring for none. But as for the 
 Emir and his company, they returned, discomfited and tunded, to 
 King Shams al-Daulah, and Othman said, " O King of the age, 
 when I came to the palace gate, I espied an Eunuch seated there 
 in a chair of gold and he was passing proud, for when he saw me 
 approach, he stretched himself at full length albeit he had been 
 sitting in his chair and entreated me contumeliously, neither offered 
 to rise to me. Thereupon I began to speak to him and he answered 
 v.'ithout stirring, whereat wrath gat hold of me and I drew the mace 
 upon him, thinking to smite him. But he snatched it from me and 
 beat me and my men therewith and overthrew us ; so we fled from 
 before him and could not prevail against him." At this, the King 
 was wroth and said, " Let an hundred men go down to him." 
 Accordingly, the hundred men went down to attack him ; but he 
 arose and fell upon them with the mace and ceased not smiting 
 them till he had put them to the rout ; when he regained his chair ; 
 upon which they returned to the King and told him what had 
 passed, saying, " O King of the age, he beat us and we fled for 
 fear of him." Then the King sent two hundred men against him, 
 but these also he put to the rout, and Shams Al-Daulah said to 
 his Minister, " I charge thee, O Wazir, take five hundred men 
 and bring this Eunuch in haste, and with him his master Judar and 
 his brothers." Replied the Wazir, " O King of the Age, I need no 
 soldiers, but will go down to him alone and unarmed." " Go," 
 quoth the King, "and do as thou seest suitable." So the Wazir 
 laid down his arms and donning a white habit, ^ took a rosary in 
 his hand and set out afoot alone and unattended. When he came 
 to Judar's gate, he saw the slave sitting there ; so he went up to 
 
 ^ The red habit is a sign of wrath and vengeance, and the Persian Kings like 
 Fath All Shall used to wear it when about to order some horrid jmnishmcnt, 
 such as the " Shakk ; " in this a man was hung up by his heels and cut in two 
 downwards to the neck, when a turn of the chopper left that untouched. White 
 robes denoted peace and mercy as well as joy. The " white " hand and " black " 
 hand have been explained. A " white death " is quiet and natural, with forgive- 
 ness of sins : a " black death" is violent and dreadful, as by str.mgulation : a 
 " green death " is robing in rags and patches like a dervish ; and a " red death " 
 is by war or bloodshed (A. 1'. ii. 670). Among the mystics the latter is the 
 resistance of man to his passions. 
 
 VOL. IV. M
 
 178 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 him and seating himself by his side courteously, said to him, 
 " Peace be with thee ! " whereto he replied, " And on thee be 
 peace, O mortal ! What wilt thou ? " When the Wazir heard him 
 say " O mortal," he knew him to be of the Jinn and quaked for 
 fear; then he asked him, " O my lord, tell me, is thy master Judar 
 here ? " Answered the Eunuch, "Yes, he is in the palace." Quoth 
 the Minister, " O my lord, go thou to him and say to him : — King 
 Shams al-Daulah saluteth thee and biddeth thee honour his 
 dwelling with thy presence and eat of a banquet he hath made for 
 thee." Quoth the Eunuch, "Tarry thou here, whilst I consult him." 
 So the Wazir stood in a respectful attitude, whilst the Marid went up 
 to the palace and said to Judar, " Know, O my lord, that the King 
 sent to thee an Emir and fifty men, and I beat them and drove them 
 away. Then he sent an hundred men and I beat them also ; then 
 two hundred, and these also I put to the rout. And now he hath 
 sent thee his Wazir unarmed, bidding thee visit him and eat of his 
 banquet. What sayst thou ?" Said Judar, " Go, bring the Wazir 
 hither." So the Marid went down and said to him, " O Wazir, come 
 speak with my lord." " On my head be it," replied he and going in 
 to Judar, found him seated, in greater state than the King, upon a 
 carpet, whose like the King could not spread, and was dazed and 
 amazed at the goodliness of the palace and its decoration and 
 appointments, which made him seem as he were a beggar in com- 
 parison. So he kissed the ground before Judar and called down 
 blessings on him ; and Judar said to him, " What is thy business, O 
 Wazir?" Replied he, " O my lord, thy friend King Shams al-Daulah 
 saluteth thee with the salam and longeth to look upon thy face ; 
 wherefore he hath made thee an entertainment. So say, wilt thou 
 heal his heart and eat of his banquet ?" Quoth Judar, " If he be 
 indeed my friend, salute him and bid him come to me." " On my 
 head be it," quoth the Minister. Then Judar bringing out the ring 
 rubbed it and bade the Jinni fetch him a dress of the best, which he 
 gave to the Wazir, saying, " Don this dress and go tell the King 
 what I say." The Wazir donned the dress, the like whereof he had 
 never donned, and returning to the King told him what had passed 
 and praised the palace and that which was therein, saying, " Judar 
 biddeth thee to him." So the King called out, " Up, ye men ; 
 mount your horses and bring me my steed, that we may go to 
 Judar !" Then he and his suite rode off for the Cairene palace. 
 Meanwhile Judar summoned the Marid and said to him, " It is my 
 will that thou bring me some of the Ifrits at thy command in the 
 guise of guards and station them in the open square before the 
 palace, that the King may see them and be awed by them ; so shall
 
 Jtidar and his Brethren. 179 
 
 his heart tremble and he shall know that my power and majesty be 
 greater than his." Thereupon Al-Ra'ad brought him two hundred 
 Ifrits of great stature and strength, in the guise of guards, magni- 
 ficently armed and equipped, and when the King came and saw 
 these tall burly fellows his heart feared them. Then he entered the 
 palace, and found Judar sitting in such state as nor King nor Sultan 
 could even. So he saluted him and made his obeisance to him ; yet 
 Judar rose not to him nor did him honour nor said " Be seated," but 
 
 left him standing,- -And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day 
 
 and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 Nob) iBj^en it toas ti)C ^ix f^untirftJ nnn ®fo£nti)=s£ccint( Ntgljt, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 King entered, Judar rose not to him, nor did him honour nor even 
 said "Be seated!" but left him standing,^ so that fear entered into 
 him and he could neither sit nor go away and said to himself, " If 
 he feared me, he would not leave me thus unheeded ; peradventure 
 he will do me a mischief, because of that which I did with his 
 brothers." Then said Judar, " O King of the age, it beseemeth not 
 the like of thee to wrong the folk and take away their good." 
 Replied the King, " O my lord, deign excuse me, for greed impelled 
 me to this and fate was thereby fulfilled ; and, were there no offending, 
 there would be no forgiving." And he went on to excuse himself for 
 the past and pray to him for pardon and indulgence till he recited 
 amongst other things this poetry : — 
 
 O thou of generous seed and true nobility, * Reproach me not for that whiclx 
 
 came from me to thee : 
 We pardon thee an tliou have wrought us any wrong * And if I wrought thee 
 
 wrong I pray thee pardon me ! 
 
 And he ceased not to humble himself before him, till he said, 
 " Allah pardon thee !" and bade him be seated. So he sat down and 
 Judar invested him with garments of pardon and immunity and 
 ordered his brothers spread the table. \Vhcn they had eaten, he 
 clad the whole of the King's company in robes of honour and gave 
 them largesse ; after \yhich he bade the King depart. So he went 
 forth and thereafter came every day to visit Judar and held not his 
 Divan save in his house : wherefore friendshii) and familiarity waxed 
 
 ' This in the East is the way '■'■pour se fairc valoir''^; whilst Europeans would 
 hold it a mere " bit of impudence," aping dignity.
 
 i8o Alf Laylah wa Lay la h. 
 
 great between them, and they abode thus awhile, till one day 
 the King, being alone with his Minister, said to him, " O Wazir, 
 I fear lest Judar slay me and take the kingdom away from me." 
 Replied the Wazir, " O King of the Age, as for his taking the king- 
 dom from thee, have no fear of that, for Judar's estate is greater 
 than that of the King, and to take the kingdom would be a lowering 
 of his dignity ; but, if thou fear that he kill thee, thou hast a 
 daughter : give her to him to wife and thou and he will be of one 
 condition." Quoth the King, "O Wazir, be thou intermediary be- 
 tween us and him ;" and quoth the Minister, " Do thou invite him 
 to an entertainment and pass the night with him in one of thy 
 saloons. Then bid thy daughter don her richest dress and orna- 
 ments and pass by the door of the saloon. When he seeth her, he 
 will assuredly fall in love with her, and when we know this, I will 
 turn to him and tell him that she is thy daughter and engage him 
 in converse and lead him on, so that thou shalt seem to know 
 nothing of the matter, till he ask her of thee to wife. When thou 
 has married him to the Princess, thou and he will be as one thing 
 and thou wilt be safe from him ; and if he die, thou wilt inherit all 
 he hath, both great and small." Replied the King, " Thou sayest 
 sooth, O my Wazir," and made a banquet and invited thereto Judar 
 who came to the Sultan's palace and they sat in the saloon in great 
 good cheer till the end of the day. Now the King had commanded 
 his wife to array the maiden in her richest raiment and ornaments 
 and carry her by the door of the saloon. She did as he told her, 
 and when Judar saw the Princess, who had not her match for beauty 
 and grace, he looked fixedly at her and said, " Ah ! " and his limbs 
 were loosened ; for love and longing and pine and passion were sore 
 upon him ; fondness and transport gat hold upon him and he turned 
 wan and pale. Quoth the Wazir, " May no harm befal thee, O my 
 lord ! Why do I see thee change colour and in suffering ? " Asked 
 Judar, " O Wazir, whose daughter is this damsel ? Verily she hath 
 enthralled me and ravished my reason." Replied the Wazir, " She is 
 the daughter of thy friend the King ; and if she please thee, I will 
 speak to him that he marry thee to her." Quoth Judar, "Do so, 
 O Wazir, and as I live, I will bestow on thee what thou wilt and 
 we will give the King whatsoever he shall ask to her dowry ; and we 
 will become friends and kinsfolk." Quoth the Minister, " It shall 
 go hard but thy desire be accomplished." Then he turned to the 
 King and said in his ear, " O King of the Age, thy friend Judar 
 seeketh alliance with thee and will have me ask of thee for him the 
 hand of thy daughter, the Princess Asiyah ; so disappoint me not, 
 but accept my intercession, and what dowry soever thou askest he
 
 Judar and his Brethren. i8i 
 
 will give thee." Said the King, " The dowry I have already re- 
 ceived, and as for the girl, she is his handmaid : I give her to him 
 
 to wife and he will do me honour by accepting her." And 
 
 Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her 
 permitted say. 
 
 ISTob) tof)m it toas t|be ^ix l^untireti ant( ^bjcntr)--t]^tvtr Nigf)!, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 Wazir whispered the King, " Judar seeketh alliance with thee by 
 taking thy daughter to wife," the other replied, " The dowry I have 
 already received, and the girl is his handmaid : he will do me honour 
 by accepting her." So they spent the rest of that night together 
 and on the morrow the King held a court, to which he summoned 
 great and small, together with the Shaykh al-Islam.^ Then Judar 
 demanded the Princess in marriage and the King said, " The dowry 
 I have received." Thereupon they drew up the marriage-contract 
 and Judar sent for the saddle-bags containing the jewels and gave 
 them to the King as settlement upon his daughter. The drums beat 
 and the pipes sounded and they held high festival, whilst Judar 
 married the girl. Thenceforward he and the King were as one 
 flesh and they abode thus for many days, till Shams al-Daulah died, 
 whereupon the troops proclaimed Judar Sultan, and he refused ; 
 but they importuned him till he consented, and they made him 
 King in his father-in-law's stead. Then he bade build a cathedral- 
 mosque over the late King's tomb in the Bundukaniyah ^ quarter 
 and endowed it. Now the quarter of Judar's house was called 
 Yamdniyah ; but, when he became Sultan he built therein a con- 
 gregational mosque and other buildings, wherefore the quarter was 
 named after him and was called the Judariyah ^ quarter. More- 
 over, he made his brother Salim his Wazir of the right and his 
 brother Sah'm his Wazir of the left hand ; and thus they abode a 
 year and no more ; for, at the end of that time, SaUm said to Sah'm, 
 
 ' The Chief Mufti or Doctor of the Law, an appointment first made by the 
 Osmanli Mohammed II., when he captured Constantinople in A.D. 1453. '^'^" 
 fore that time the functions were discharged by the Kazi al-Kuzdt (Kazi-in-Chief), 
 the Chancellor. 
 
 "^ So called because here lived the makers of crossbows (Arab. Bunduk, now 
 meaning a fire-piece, musket, etc.). It is the modern district about the well- 
 known Khan al-IIamzawi. 
 
 •* Pronounced " Goodareeyyah," and so called after one of the troops of the 
 Fatimite Caliphs. The name " Yamaniyah " is probably due to the story-teller's 
 inventiveness.
 
 1 82 Alf Laylah wa Laylali. 
 
 "O my brother, how long is this state to last? Shall we pass our 
 whole lives in slavery to our brother Judar ? We shall never enjoy 
 luck or lordship whilst he lives," adding, " so how shall we do to kill 
 him and take the ring and the saddle-bags?" Replied Salim, "Thou 
 art craftier than I ; do thou devise a device, whereby we may kill 
 him." " If I effect this," asked Salim, " wilt thou agree that I be 
 Sultan and keep the ring and that thou be my right-hand Wazir and 
 have the saddle-bags ? " Salim answered, " I consent to this ; " and 
 they agreed to slay Judar their brother for love of the world and of 
 dominion. So they laid a snare for Judar and said to him, " O our 
 brother, verily we have a mind to glory in thee and would fain have 
 thee enter our houses and eat of our entertainment and solace our 
 hearts." Replied Judar, " So be it ; in whose house shall the 
 banquet be?" " In mine," said Salim, "and after thou hast eaten 
 of my victual, thou shalt be the guest of my brother." Said Judar, 
 " 'Tis well," and went with him to his house, where he set before 
 him poisoned food, of which when he had eaten, his flesh rotted 
 from his bones and he died.^ Then Sahm came up to him and 
 would have drawn the ring from his finger, but it resisted him ; so 
 he cut off the finger with a knife. Then he rubbed the ring and the 
 Marid presented himself, saying, " Here am I ! Ask what thou wilt." 
 Quoth Salim, " Take my brother Salim and put him to death and 
 carry forth the two bodies, the poisoned and the slaughtered, and 
 cast them down before the troops." So the Marid took Salim and 
 slew him ; then, carrying the two corpses forth, he cast them down 
 before the chief officers of the army, who were sitting at table in the 
 parlour of the house. When they saw Judar and Salim slain, they 
 raised their hands from the food and fear gat hold of them and they 
 said to the Marid, " Who hath dealt thus with the Sultan and the 
 Wazir ? " Replied the Jinni, " Their brother Salim." And behold, 
 Salim came up to them and said, " O soldiers, eat and make merry, 
 for Judar is dead and I have taken to me the seal-ring, whereof the 
 Marid before you is the servant ; and I bade him slay my brother 
 Salim lest he dispute the kingdom with me, for he was a traitor and 
 I feared lest he should betray me. So now I am become Sultan 
 over you ; will ye accept of me ? If not, I will rub the ring and 
 
 ' I have noted that as a rule in The Nights poetical justice is administered 
 with much rigour and exactitude. Here, however, the tale-teller allows the good 
 brother to be slain by the two wicked brothers as he permitted the false queens 
 to escape the sword of Kamar al-Zaman. But Judar with all his goodness 
 proved himself an arrant softy and was no match for two atrocious villains ; and 
 ihere may be overmuch of forgiveness as of every other good thing.
 
 Judar and his Brclhren. 183 
 
 bid the Marid slay you all, great and small." And Shahrazad 
 
 perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 Jioto h3l)cn \X iuns tijc ^ix |i.^untirct) anti ^tucntii--fourt]b i^tg^t, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Salim said to the officers, " Will ye accept me as your Sultan, 
 otherwise I will rub the ring and the Marid shall slay you all, great 
 and small ?" they replied, "We accept thee to King and Sultan." 
 Then he bade bury his brother and summoned the Divan ; and 
 some of the folk followed the funeral, while others forewent him in 
 state procession to the audience-hall of the palace, where he sat down 
 on the throne and they did homage to him as King ; after which he 
 said, "It is my will to marry my brother Judar's wife." Quoth 
 they, "Wait till the days of widowhood are accomplished," ^ Quoth 
 he, " I know not days of widowhood nor aught else. As my head 
 liveth, I needs must wed her this very night." So they drew up the 
 marriage-contract and sent to tell the Princess Asiyah, who replied, 
 " Bid him enter." Accordingly, he went in to her and she received 
 him with a show of joy and welcome ; but by and by she gave him 
 poison in water and made an end of him. Then she took the ring 
 and broke it, that none might possess it thenceforward, and tore up 
 the saddle-bags ; after which she sent to the Shaykh al-Islam and 
 other great Officers of state, telling them what had passed and 
 saying to them, " Choose ye out a King to rule over you." And 
 this is all that hath come down to us of the Story of Judar and 
 his Brethren.''' But I have also heard, O King, a tale called the 
 
 ^ In such case the '"iddah" would be four months and ten days. 
 
 ^ Not quite true. Weil's German version, from a MS. in the Ducal Library 
 of Saxe-Gotha, gives the " Story of Judar.of Cairo and Mahmud of Tunis" in a 
 very different form. It has been pleasantly " translated (from the German) and 
 edited" by Mr. W. F. Kirby, of the British Museum, under the title of "The 
 New Arabian Nights" (London: \V. Swan Sonnenschein and Co.), and the 
 author kindly sent me a copy. "New Arabian Nights" seem now to have 
 become a fashionable title applied without any signification : such at least is 
 the pleasant collection of Nineteenth Century Novelettes, published under that 
 designation by Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson (Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly, 
 1884).
 
 1 84 Alf Laylah wa Layiali. 
 
 HISTORY OF GHARIB AND HIS BROTHER A/IB, 1 
 
 There was once in olden time a King of might, Kundamir hight, 
 who had been a brave and doughty man of war, a Kahraman ^ in his 
 day, but was grown passing old and decrepit. Now it pleased Allah 
 to vouchsafe him, in his extreme senility, a son, whom he named 
 Ajib ^ — the Wonderful — because of his beauty and loveliness ; so he 
 committed the babe to the handmaids and serving-women, and they 
 reared him till he was full seven years old, when his father gave him 
 in charge to a divine of his own folk and faith. The priest taught 
 him the laws and tenets of their Misbelief and instructed him in 
 philosophy and all manner of other knowledge, and it needed but 
 three full-told years ere he was proficient therein and his spirit waxed 
 resolute and his judgment mature ; and he became learned, eloquent 
 and philosophic ; ^ consorting with the wise and disputing with the 
 doctors of the law. When his father saw this of him, it pleased him 
 and he taught him to back the steed and stab with spear and smite 
 with sword, till he grew to be an accomplished cavalier, versed in all 
 martial exercises ; and, by the end of his twentieth year, he surpassed 
 in all things all the folk of his day. But his skill in weapons made 
 him grow up a stubborn tyrant and a devil arrogant, wont to ride 
 forth a-hunting and a-chasing amongst a thousand horsemen and to 
 make raids and razzias upon the neighbouring knights, cutting off 
 caravans and carrying away the daughters of Kings and nobles ; 
 wherefore many brought complaints against him to his father, who 
 cried out to five of his slaves and when they came said, " Seize this 
 dog ! " So they seized Prince Ajib and, pinioning his hands behind 
 him, beat him by his father's command till he lost his senses ; after 
 
 ^ Von Hammer holds this story to be a satire on Arab superstition and the 
 compulsory propagation, the compelle intrare, of Al-Islam. Lane (iii. 235) 
 omits it altogether for reasons of his own. I differ with great diffidence from the 
 learned Baron whose Oriental reading was extensive ; but the tale does not seem 
 to justify his explanations. It appears to me simply one of the wilder romances, 
 full of purposeful anachronisms {e.g. dated between Abraham and Moses, yet 
 quoting the Koran) and written by someone familiar with the history of Oman. 
 The style too is peculiar, in many places so abrupt that much manipulation is 
 required to make it presentable : it suits, however, the rollicking, violent, brigand- 
 like life which it depicts. There is only one incident about the end which justifies 
 Von Hammer's suspicion. 
 
 ^ The Persian hero of romance who converses with the Simurgh or Griffin. 
 
 ■^ The word is as much used in Egypt as wunderbar in Germany. As an 
 exclamation it is equivalent to " mighty fine ! " 
 
 * In modern days used in a bad sense, as a freethinker, etc. So Dalilah the 
 Wily is noted to be a philosopheress.
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib. 185 
 
 which the King imprisoned him in a chamber so dark one might not 
 know heaven from earth or length from breadth ; and there he abode 
 two days and a night. Then the Emirs went in to the King and, 
 kissing the ground between his hands, interceded with him for the 
 Prince, and he released him. So Ajib bore with his father for ten 
 days, at the end of which he went in to him as he slept by night and 
 smote his neck. When the day rose, he mounted the throne of his 
 sire's estate and bade his men arm themselves cap-k-pie in steel and 
 stand with drawn swords in front of him and on his right hand and 
 on his left. By and by, the Emirs and Captains entered and finding 
 their King slain and his son Ajib seated on the throne were con- 
 founded in mind and knew not what to do. But Ajib said to 
 them, " O folk, verily ye see what your King hath gained. Whoso 
 obeyeth me, I will honour him, and whoever gainsayeth me, I 
 will do with him that which I did with my sire." When they 
 heard these words they feared lest he do them a mischief; so they 
 replied, " Thou art our King and the son of our King ; " and kissed 
 ground before him ; whereupon he thanked them and rejoiced in 
 them. Then he bade bring forth money and apparel and clad 
 them in sumptuous robes of honour and showered largesse upon 
 them, wherefore they all loved him and obeyed him. In like 
 manner he honoured the governors of the Provinces and the 
 Shaykhs of the Badawin, both tributary and independent, so that 
 the whole kingdom submitted to him and the folk obeyed him and 
 he reigned and bade and forbade in peace and quiet for a time of 
 five months. One night, however, he dreamed a dream as he lay 
 slumbering ; whereupon he awoke trembling, nor did sleep visit 
 him again till the morning. As soon as it was dawn he mounted 
 his throne and his officers stood before him, right and left : then 
 he called the oneiromants and the astrologers and said to them, 
 "Expound to me my dream!" "What was the dream?" asked 
 they ; and he answered, " As I slept last night, I saw my father 
 standing before me, and there came forth of his moutli a thing the 
 bigness of a bee, which grew till it became as a mighty lion, with 
 claws like hangers. As I lay wondering at this, lo ! it ran upon me 
 and smiting me with its claws, rent my body in sunder ; whereupon 
 I awoke startled and trembling. So expound ye to me the meanmg 
 of this dream." The interpreters looked one at other ; and, after 
 considering, said, "O mighty King, this dream pointeth to one born 
 of thy sire, between whom and thee shall bcfal strife and enmity, 
 wherein he shall get the better of thee : so be on thy guard against 
 him, by reason of this thy vision." When Ajib heard these words, 
 he said, " I have no brother whom I should fear; so this your speech
 
 1 86 A If Lay la h wa Laylah. 
 
 is mere lying." They replied, "We tell thee naught save what we 
 know ; " but he was angered with them and bastinadoed them. 
 Then he rose and, going in to the paternal palace, he found that one 
 of his father's wives was mother of a male child ; whereupon he gave 
 an order to two of his slaves, saying, " Take this damsel and her 
 babe, ye twain, and carry them to the sea-shore and drown them. 
 So they took her forthright and, going to the sea-shore, designed to 
 drown her, when they looked at her and seeing her to be of singular 
 beauty and loveliness said to each other, " Why should we drown 
 this damsel ? Let we rather carry her to the forest and sell her to 
 the blacks." Then they took her and fared on with her days and 
 nights till they had borne her afar off and had brought her to a 
 bushy forest, abounding in fruit-trees and streams. Here they fell 
 out one with the other, and while so doing a company of blacka- 
 moors came down upon them, and they drew their swords and both 
 sides fell to laying on load. The fight waxed hot with cut and 
 thrust ; and the two slaves fought their best ; but the blacks slew 
 them both in less than the twinkling of an eye. So the damsel 
 abode alone and wandered about the forest, eating of its fruits and 
 drinking of its founts, she and her child, whom she named Gharib, 
 the Stranger, by reason of her strangerhood. Then she sorrowed 
 
 for the estate she had lost and its honour and solace; And 
 
 Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her 
 permitted say. 
 
 iJ^oto iuben it toas tf)e ^ix |^unt(rcU antJ ®h3£ntB=fift]b NiQJbt^ 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the damsel 
 abode in the bush harrowed at heart and a-sorrowed ; but she 
 suckled her babe albeit she was full of grief and fear for her loneli- 
 ness. Now behold, one day, there came horsemen and footmen 
 into the forest with hawks and hounds and horses laden with par- 
 tridges and cranes and wild geese and divers and other water-fowl ; 
 and young ostriches and hares and gazelles and wild oxen and 
 lynxes and wolves and lions.^ Presently, the Arabs entered the 
 thicket and came upon the damsel, sitting with her child on her 
 breast a-suckling him : so they drew near and asked her, " Say, art 
 
 ^ The game is much mixed up after Arab fashion. The "Tufat" is the 
 Siyahgosh = Black-ears of India {Felis caracal), the Persian lynx, which gives 
 very good sport with Dachshunds. Lynxes still abound in the thickets near 
 Cairo.
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajih. 187 
 
 thou a mortal or a Jinniyab ?" Answered she, " I am a mortal, O 
 Chief of the Arabs." Thereupon they told their Emir, whose name 
 was Mardas, Prince of the Band Kahtan,^ and who had come forth 
 that day to hunt with five hundred of his cousins and the nobles of 
 his tribe, and who in the course of the chase had happened upon 
 her. He bade them bring her before him, which they did, and she 
 related to him her past from first to last, whereat he marvelled. 
 Then he cried to his kinsmen and escort to continue the chase, after 
 which they took her and returned to their encampment, where the 
 Emir appointed her a separate dwelling-place and five damsels to 
 serve her ; and he loved her with exceeding love and she bare a 
 man child and named him Sahim al-Layl." He grew up with his 
 brother Gharib among the nurses and throve and waxed upon the 
 lap of the Emir Mardas who, in due time committed the two boys 
 to a Fakih for instruction in the things of their Faith ; after which 
 he gave them in charge to valiant knights of the Arabs, for training 
 them to smite with sword and lunge with lance and shoot with shaft ; 
 so by the time they reached the age of fifteen, they knew all they 
 needed and surpassed each and every brave of their tribe ; for 
 Gharib would undertake a thousand horse and Sahim al-Layl no 
 fewer. Now Mardas had many enemies, and the men of his tribe 
 were the bravest of all the Arabs, being doughty cavaliers, none 
 might warm himself at their fire.^ In his neighbourhood was an 
 Emir of the Arabs, Hassan bin Sabit hight, who was his intimate 
 friend ; and he took to wife a noble lady of his tribe and bade all 
 liis friends to the wedding, amongst them Mardas lord of the Banu 
 Kahtan, who accepted his invitation and set forth with three hundred 
 riders of his tribe, leaving other four hundred to guard the women. 
 Hasan met him with honour and seated him in his highest stead. 
 Then came all the cavaliers to the bridal and he made them bride- 
 feasts and held high festival by reason of the marriage, after which 
 the Arabs departed to their dwelling-places. When Mardas came 
 
 ^ The " Sons of Kahtan," especially the Ya'arubali tiibe, made mucli history 
 in Oman. Ya'arub (the cponymus) is written Ya'arab and Va'aiib ; but Ya'arut) 
 (from Ya'arubu, aorist of 'Aruba) is best, because according to all authorities he 
 was the first to cultivate primitive Arabian speech and Araljic poetry. (Caussin 
 de Perceval's Hist, des Arabes, i. 50, etc.) 
 
 ^ He who shooteth an arrow by night. See the death of Antar shot down in 
 the dark by the archer Jazar, son of Jabir, who had been blinded by a red-hot 
 sabre passed before his eyes. I may note that it is a mere ticiion of Al-Asma'i, 
 as the real 'Antar (or 'Antarah) lived to a good old age, and probably died the 
 "straw-death." 
 
 ^ See vol. i. p. 376, for a reminiscence of masterful King Kulayb and his Himi 
 or domain. Here the phrase would mean, " None could approach them wLcn 
 they were wroth ; none were safe from their rage."
 
 1 88 Alf Laylah wa Lay la h. 
 
 in sight of his camp, he saw slain men lying about and birds 
 hovering over them right and left ; and his heart sank within him 
 at the sight. Then he entered the camp and was met by Gharib, 
 clad in complete suit of ring-mail, who gave him joy of his safe 
 return. Quoth Mardas, " What meaneth this case, O Gharib ? " 
 and quoth Gharib, " Al-Hamal bin Majid attacked us with five 
 hundred horsemen of his tribe." Now the reason of this was that 
 the Emir Mardas had a daughter called Mahdiyah, seer never saw 
 fairer than she, and Al-Hamal, lord of the Banu Nabhan,i heard of 
 her charms ; whereupon he took horse with five hundred of his 
 men and rode to Mardas to demand her hand ; but he was not 
 accepted and was sent away disappointed."^ So he awaited till 
 Mardas was absent on his visit to Hassan, when he mounted with his 
 champions, and, falling upon the camp of the Banu Kahtan, slew a 
 number of their knights and the rest fled to the mountains. Now 
 Gharib and his brother had ridden forth a-hunting and chasing with 
 an hundred horse and returned not till midday, when they found 
 that Al-Hamal had seized the camp and all therein and had carried 
 off the maidens, among whom was Mahdiyah, driving her away with 
 the captives. When Gharib saw this, he lost his wits for rage and 
 cried out to Sahim, saying, "O my brother, O son of an accursed 
 dam,^ they have plundered our camp and carried off our women and 
 children !" Up and at the enemy, that we may deliver the captives !" 
 So Gharib and Sahim and their hundred horse rushed upon the foe, 
 and Gharib's wrath redoubled, and he reaped a harvest of heads 
 slain, giving the champions death-cup to drain, till he won to Al- 
 Hamal and saw Mahdiyah among the captives. Then he drave at 
 the lord of the Banu Nabhan braves ; with his lance lunged him 
 and from his destrier hurled him ; nor was the time of mid-afternoon 
 prayer come before he had slain the most part of the foe and put to 
 rout the rest and rescued the captives; whereupon he returned to 
 the camp in triumph, bearing the head of Al-Hamal on the point 
 of his lance and improvising these couplets : — 
 
 ^ The sons of Nabhan (whom Mr. Badger calls Nebhan) supplied the old 
 Mahks or Kings of Oman (History of the Imams and Sayyids of Oman, etc., 
 London, Hakluyt Soc. 1871). 
 
 " This is a sore insult in Arabia, where they have not dreamt of a " Jawab- 
 club," like that of Calcutta in the old days, to which only men who had been half 
 a dozen times " jawab'd " (= refused in Anglo-Indian jargon) could belong. " I 
 am not a steed to be struck on the nose," say the Arabs. 
 
 ^ Again "inverted speech" : it is as if we said, "Now, you're a mighty fine 
 fellow, so," etc. " Allah curse thee ! Thou hast guarded thy women alive and 
 dead ; " said the man of Sulaym in admiration after thrusting his spear into the 
 eye of dead Rabi'ah.
 
 The History of Gliarib and his Brother Ajib. 189 
 
 I am he who is known on the day of fight, * And tlie Jinns of earth at my 
 
 shade take fright : 
 And a sword have I, when my right hand wields, * Death hastens from left on 
 
 mankind to alight ; 
 I have eke a lance and who look thereon * See a crescent-head of the liveliest 
 
 light ;i 
 And Gharib I'm hight, of my tribe the brave * And, if few my men, feel I naught 
 
 affright. 
 
 Hardly had Gharib made an end of these verses when up came 
 Mardas who, seeing the slain and the vultures, was sore troubled and 
 with fluttering heart asked the cause. The youth, after due greetings, 
 related all that had befallen the tribe in his step-sire's absence. So 
 Mardas thanked him and said, " Thou hast well requited our foster- 
 age-pains in rearing thee, O Gharib ! " then he alighted and entered 
 his pavilion, and the men stood about him, all the tribe praising 
 Gharib and saying, "O our Emir, but for Gharib not one of the 
 
 tribe had been saved !" And Mardas again thanked him. And 
 
 Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her per- 
 mitted say. 
 
 No&j foj^en It foas S^z ^\\ l^untrrctr nntr ^focntii=sixt]^ Nfgi^t, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Mardas, 
 hearing the tribesmen's praises of Gharib, again thanked him for 
 his derring-do. But the youth, when he had delivered Mahdiyah 
 from Al-Hamal whom he slew, was smitten by the shaft of her glances 
 and fell into the nets of her allurements, wherefore his heart could 
 not forget her and he became drowned in love and longing and the 
 sweets of sleep forsook him and he had no joy of drink or meat. 
 He would spur his horse up to the mountain-tops, where he would 
 spend the day in composing verses and return at nightfall ; and 
 indeed manifest upon him were the signs of affection and distraction. 
 He discovered his secret to one of his companions and it became 
 noised abroad in the camp, till it reached the ears of Mardas, who 
 
 ' The Badawi use javelins or throw-spears of many kinds, especially the prettily 
 worked Mizrak (Pilgrimage i. 349) ; spears for footmen (Shalfah, a bamboo or 
 palm-stick with a head about a hand broad), and the knightly lance, a male 
 bamboo some 12 feet long with iron heel and a long tapering point often of open 
 work or damascened steel, under which are tufts of black ostrich feathers, one or 
 two. I never saw a crescent-shaped head as the text suggests. It is a " Pundonor " 
 not to sell these weapons: you say, "Give me that article and I will satisfy 
 thee ! " After which the Sons of the Sand will haggle over each copper as if you 
 were cheapening a sheep (Ibid. iii. 73).
 
 IQO Alf Lay /ah wa Laylah. 
 
 thundered and lightened and rose up and sat down and snarked and 
 snorted and reviled the sun and the moon, saying, "This is the 
 reward of him who reareth the sons of evil ! But except I kill 
 Gharib, I shall be put to shame." ^ Then he consulted one of the 
 wise men of his tribe and after telling his secret took counsel with 
 him of killing the youth. Quoth the elder, " O Emir, 'twas but 
 yesterday that he freed thy daughter from captivity. If there be no 
 help for it but thou must slay him, let it be by the hand of another 
 than thyself, so none of the folk may misdoubt of thee." Quoth 
 Mardas, " Advise me how I may do him die, for I look to none 
 but to thee for his death." " O Emir," answered the other, "wait 
 till he go forth to hunt and chase, when do thou take an hundred 
 horse and lie in wait for him in some cave till he pass ; then fall 
 upon him unawares and cut him in pieces, so shalt thou be quit of 
 his reproach." Said Mardas, " This should serve me well ; " and 
 chose out an hundred and fifty of his furious knights and Amale- 
 kites^ whom he lessoned to his will. Then he watched Gharib till 
 one day, he went forth to hunt and rode far away amongst the 
 dells and hills ; whereupon Mardas followed him with his men, 
 ill-omened wights, and lay in wait for him by the way against he 
 should return from the chase that they might sally forth and slay 
 him. But as they lay in ambush among the trees behold, there fell 
 upon them five hundred true Amalekites, who slew sixty of them 
 and made fourscore and ten prisoners and trussed up Mardas with 
 his arms behind his back. Now the reason of this was that when 
 Gharib put Al-Hamal and his men to the sword, the rest fled and 
 ceased not flying till they reached their lord's brother and told him 
 what had happened, whereat his Doomsday rose and he gathered 
 
 ^ The shame was that Gharib had seen the girl and had fallen in love with her 
 beauty, instead of applying for her hand in recognised form. These punctilios 
 of the Desert are peculiarly nice and tetchy ; nor do strangers readily realise 
 them. 
 
 ^ The Arabs derive these Noachidse from Imlik, great-grandson of Shem, who 
 after the confusion of tongues settled at Sana'a, then moved North to Meccah and 
 built the fifth Ka'abah. The dynastic name was Arkam, M. C. de Perceval's 
 "Arcam," which he would identify with Rekem (Numbers xxxi. 8). The last 
 Arkam fell before an army sent by Moses to purge the Ploly Land (Al-Hijaz) of 
 idolatry. Commentators on the Koran (chapt. vii.) call the Pharaoh of Moses 
 Al-Walid and derive him from the Amalekites : we have lately ascertained that 
 this Mene-Ptah was of the Shepherd-Kings and thus, according to the older 
 Moslems, the Hyksos were of the seed of Imlik. (Pilgrimage ii. Ii6 ; and 
 iii. 190.) In .Syria they fought with Joshua son of Nun. The tribe or rather 
 nationality was famous and powerful : we know little about it and I may safely 
 predict that when the Amalekite country shall have been well explored, it will 
 produce monuments second in importance only to the Hittites. " A nomadic 
 tribe which occupied the Peninsula of Sinai " (Smith's Diet, of the Bible) is 
 peculiarly superficial, even for that most superficial of books.
 
 The History of Gharib a?id his Brother Ajib. 191 
 
 together his Amalekites and choosing out five hundred cavahers, 
 each fifty ells high/ set out with them in quest of blood-revengement 
 for his brother. By the way he fell in with Mardas and his com- 
 ])anions and there happened between them what happened ; after 
 which he bade his men alight and rest, saying, " O folk, the Idols 
 have given us an easy blood-wreak : so guard )'e Mardas and his 
 tribesmen, till I carry them away and do them die with the foulest 
 of deaths." When Mardas saw himself a prisoner, he rej^ented of 
 what he had done and said, " This is the reward of rebelling against 
 the Lord ! " Then the enemy passed the night rejoicing in their 
 victory, whilst Mardas and his men despaired of life and made sure 
 of doom. So far concerning them ; but as regards Sahim al-Layl, 
 who had been wounded in the fight with Al-Hamal, he w^ent in to 
 his sister Mahdiyah, and she rose to him and kissed his hands, saying, 
 " May thy two hands ne'er wither nor thine enemies have occasion 
 to be blyther ! But for thee and Gharib, we had not escaped 
 captivity among our foes. Know, however, O my brother, that thy 
 father hath ridden forth with an hundred and fifty horse, purposing 
 to slaughter Gharib ; and thou wottest it would be sore loss and foul 
 wrong to slay him, for that it was he who saved your shame and 
 rescued your good." When Sahim heard this, the light in his sight 
 became night, he donned his battle-harness, and, mounting steed, 
 rode for the place where Gharib was a-hunting. He presently came 
 up with him and found that he had taken great plenty of game ; so 
 he accosted him and saluted him and said, " O my brother, why 
 didst thou go forth without telling me ? " Replied Gharib, " By 
 Allah, naught hindered me but that I saw thee wounded and 
 thought to give thee rest." Then said Sahim, " O my brother, 
 beware of my sire ! " and told him how Mardas was abroad with 
 an hundred and fifty men, seeking to slay liim. Quoth Gharib, 
 " Allah shall cause his treason to cut his own throat." Then the 
 brothers set out campwards, but night overtook them by the way 
 and they rode on in the darkness, till they drew near the Wady 
 wherein the enemy lay and heard the neighing of steeds in the 
 gloom ; whereupon said Sahim, " O my brother, my father and his 
 men are ambushed in yonder valley; let us flee from it." But 
 Gharib dismounted and throwing his bridle to his brother, said to 
 him, " Stay in this stead till I come back to thee." Then he went 
 on till he drew in sight of the folk, when he saw that they were not 
 of his tribe and heard them naming Mardas and saying, " We will 
 not slay him, save in his own land." Wherefore he knew that his 
 
 ' The Amalekites were giants who lived 500 years (Pilgrimage, loc. ci(.).
 
 192 Alf Laylah zva Laylah. 
 
 uncle Mardas was their prisoner, and said, " By the life of Mahdiyah, 
 I will not depart hence till I have delivered her father, that she may 
 not be troubled ! " Then he sought and ceased not seeking till he 
 hit upon Mardas and found him bound with cords ; so he sat down 
 by his side and said to him, " Heaven deliver thee, O uncle, from 
 these bonds and this shame ! " When Mardas saw Gharib his reason 
 fled, and he said to him, " O my son, I am under thy protection : so 
 deliver me in right of my fosterage of thee !" Quoth Gharib, " If I 
 dehver thee, wilt thou give me Mahdiyah ? " Quoth the Emir, " O 
 my son, by whatever I hold sacred, she is thine to all time ! " So he 
 loosed him, saying, " Make for the horses, for thy son Sahim is 
 there ; " and Mardas crept along like a snake till he came to his son, 
 who rejoiced in him and congratulated him on his escape. Mean- 
 while, Gharib unbound one after another of the prisoners, till he had 
 freed the whole ninety and they were all far from the foe. Then he 
 sent them their weapons and war-horses, saying to them, " Mount 
 ye and scatter yourselves round about the enemy and cry out, Ho, 
 sons of Kahtan ! And when they awake, do ye remove from them 
 and encircle them in a thin ring." ^ So he waited till the last and 
 third watch of the night, when he cried out, " Ho, sons of Kahtan ! " 
 and his men answered in like guise, crying, " Ho, sons of Kahtan ! " 
 as with one voice ; and the mountains echoed their slogan, so that 
 it seemed to the raiders as though the whole tribe of Banu Kahtan 
 were assailing them ; wherefore they all snatched up their arms and 
 
 fell upon one another And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn 
 
 of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 tNTofo hjj^en ft toas tlbc ^ix l^untrreU anti ^&3tntg--sebent]^ Ij^'x^x 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 raiders 2 awoke from sleep and heard Gharib and his men crying 
 out, " Ho, sons of Kahtan ! " they imagined that the whole tribe 
 
 ^ His men being ninety against five hundred. 
 
 "^ Arab. " Kaum " (pron. Gum) here = a razzia, afterwards — a tribe. 
 Relations between Badawi tribes are of three kinds; (i) Ashab, allies offensive 
 and defensive, friends who intermarry ; (2) Kiman (plur. of Kaum) when the 
 blood-feud exists, and (3) Akhwan — brothers. The last is a complicated affair ; 
 " Akhawat " or brotherhood, denotes the tie between patron and client (a noble 
 and an ignoble tribe) or between the stranger and the tribe which claims an imme- 
 morial and unalienable right to its own lands. Hence a small fee (Al-Rifkah) 
 must be paid and the traveller and his beast become "dakhil,"or entitled to 
 brother-help. The guardian is known in the West as Rafik ; Rabi'a in Eastern 
 Arabia ; Ghafi'r in " Sinai ; " amongst the Somal, Abban and the Gallas Mogasa. 
 Further details are given in Pilgrimage iii. 85-87.
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib. 193 
 
 was assailing them ; wherefore they snatched up their arms and 
 fell one upon other with mighty slaughter. Gharib and his men 
 held aloof, and they fought one another till daybreak, when Gharib 
 and Mardas and their ninety warriors came down upon them and 
 killed some of them and put the rest to flight. Then the Banu 
 Kahtan took the horses of the fugitives and the weapons of the slain 
 and returned to their tribal camp, whilst Mardas could hardly credit 
 his deliverance from the foe. When they reached the encamp- 
 ment, the stay-at-home folk all came forth to meet them and re- 
 joiced in their safe return. Then they alighted and betook them to 
 their tents ; and all the youths of the tribe flocked to Gharib's stead 
 and great and small saluted him and did him honour. But when 
 Mardas saw this and the youths encircling his stepson, he waxed 
 more jealous of Gharib than before and said to his kinsfolk, " Verily, 
 hatred of Gharib groweth on my heart, and what irketh me most is 
 that I see these flocking about him ! And to-morrow he will demand 
 Mahdiyah of me." Quoth his confidant, " O Emir, ask of him some- 
 what he cannot avail to do." This pleased Mardas who passed a 
 pleasant night and on the morrow, as he sat on his stuffed carpet, 
 with the Arabs about him, Gharib entered, followed by his men and 
 surrounded by the youth of the tribe, and kissed the ground before 
 Mardas who, making a show of joy, rose to do him honour and 
 seated him beside himself. Then said Gharib, " O uncle, thou 
 madest me a promise; do thou fulfil it." Replied the Kmir, "O 
 my son, she is thine to all time ; but thou lackest wealth." Quoth 
 Gharib, " O uncle, ask of me what thou wiliest, and I will fall upon 
 the Emirs of the Arabs in their houses and on the Kings in their 
 towns and bring thee fee ^ enough to fence the land from East to 
 West." " O my son," quoth Mardas, " I have sworn by all the Idols 
 that I would not give Mahdiyah save to him who should take my 
 blood-revenge of mine enemy and do away my reproach." " O 
 uncle," said Gharib, " tell me with which of the Kings thou hast a 
 feud, that I may go to him and break his throne upon his pate." " O 
 my son," replied Mardas, " I once had a son, a champion of cham- 
 pions, and he went forth one day to chase and hunt with an hundred 
 horse. They fared on from valley to valley, till they had wandered 
 faraway amongst the mountains and came to the Wady of Blossoms 
 and the Castle of Ham bin Shays bin Shaddad bin Khalad. Now 
 in this place, O my son, dwelleth a black giant, seventy cubits high, 
 who fights with trees from their roots uptorn ; and when my son 
 
 ' Arab. "Mai," here = Badawi money, flocks and herds, our "fee" Iroin 
 feoh, vieh, calllc ; as pecunia from pccus, etc., etc. 
 
 VOL. IV. N
 
 194 A If Lay I ah wa Lay /ah. 
 
 reached his Wady, the tyrant sallied out upon him and his men and 
 slew them all, save three braves, who escaped and brought me the 
 news. So I assembled my champions and fared forth to fight the 
 giant, but could not prevail against him ; wherefore I was baulked 
 of my revenge and swore that I would not give my daughter in 
 marriage save to him who should avenge me of my son." Said 
 Gharib, " O uncle, I will go to this Amalekite and take the wreak of 
 thy son on him with the help of Almighty Allah." And Mardas, 
 answered saying, " O Gharib, if thou get the victory over him, 
 thou wilt gain of him such booty of wealth and treasures as fires 
 may not devour." Cried Gharib, " Swear to me before witnesses 
 thou wilt give me her to wife, so that with heart at ease I may go 
 forth to find my fortune." Accordingly, Mardas swore this to 
 him and took the elders of the tribe to witness ; whereupon Gharib 
 fared forth, rejoicing in the attainment of his hopes, and went in to 
 his mother, to whom he related what had passed. " O my son," 
 said she, " know that Mardas hateth thee and doth but send thee 
 to this mountain, to bereave me of thee ; then take me with thee 
 and let us depart the tents of this tyrant." But he answered, " O 
 my mother, I will not depart hence till I win my wish and foil my 
 foe." Thereupon he slept till morning arose with its sheen and 
 shone, and hardly had he mounted his charger when his friends, 
 the young men, came up to him ; two hundred stalwart knights 
 armed cap-a-pie and cried out to him, saying, "Take us with thee ; 
 we will help thee and company thee by the way." And he rejoiced 
 in them and cried, " Allah requite you for us with good ! " adding, 
 " Come, my friends, let us go." So they set out and fared on the 
 first day and the second day till evening, when they halted at the 
 foot of a towering mount and baited their horses. As for Gharib, he 
 left the rest and walked onwards to that mountain, till he came to a cave 
 whence issued a light. He entered and found, at the higher facing 
 end of the cave, a Shaykh, three hundred and forty years old, whose 
 eyebrows overhung his eyes and whose moustachios hid his mouth. 
 Gharib at this sight was filled with awe and veneration, and the 
 hermit said to him, " Methinks thou art of the idolaters, O my son, 
 stone-worshippingi in the stead of the All-powerful King, the Creator 
 
 1 The litholatry of the old Arabs is undisputed : Manat the goddess-idol was a 
 large rude stone, and when the Meccans sent out colonies these carried with them 
 stones of the Holy Land to be set up and worshipped like the Ka'abah. I have 
 suggested (Pilgrimage iii. 159) that the famous Black Stone of Meccah, which 
 appears to me a large aerolite, is a remnant of this worship and that the tomb of 
 Eve near Jeddah was the old " Sakhrah tawilah " or Long Stone (ibid. iii. 388). 
 Jeddah is now translated the grandmother, alluding to Eve, a myth of late 
 growth : it is properly Juddah = a plain lacking water.
 
 The History of G ha rib and his Brother Ajib. 195 
 
 of Night and Day and of the sphere rolling on her way." When 
 Gharib heard his words, his side muscles quivered and he said, " O 
 Shaykh, where is this Lord of whom thou speakest, that I may 
 worship Him and take my fill of His sight ?" Replied the Shaykh, 
 " O my son, this is the Supreme Lord, upon whom none may look 
 in this world. He seeth and is not seen. He is the Most High of 
 aspect and is present everywhere in His works. He it is who 
 maketh all the made and ordereth time to vade and fade ; He is the 
 Creator of men and Jinn and sendeth the Prophets to guide His 
 creatures into the way of right. Whoever obeyeth Him, He bringeth 
 into Heaven, and whoever gainsayeth Him, He casteth into Hell." 
 Asked Gharib, "And how, O uncle, saith whoso worshippeth 
 this puissant Lord who over all hath power ?" " O my son," 
 answered the Shaykh, " I am of the tribe of Ad, which were trans- 
 gressors in the land and believed not in Allah. So He sent unto 
 them a Prophet named Hud, but they called him liar and he 
 destroyed them by means of a deadly wind ; but I believed, together 
 with some of my tribe, and we were saved from destruction.^ More- 
 over, I was present with the tribe of Thamud and saw what befel 
 them with their Prophet Salih. After Salih, the Almighty sent a 
 Prophet called Abraham the Friend, ^ to Nimrod son of Canaan, and 
 there befel what befel between them. Then my companions died in 
 the Saving Faith and I continued in this cave to serve Allah the 
 Most High, who provideth my daily bread without my taking 
 thought." Quoth Gharib, " O uncle, what shall I say, that I may 
 become of the troop of this mighty Lord ?" " Say," replied the old 
 man : — " There is no god but the God, and Abraham is the Friend 
 of God." So Gharib embraced the Faith of Submission^ with heart 
 .and tonaue and the Shaykh said to him, " May the sweetness of 
 belief and devotion be stablished in thy heart !" Then he taught him 
 somewhat of the biblical ordinances and scriptures of Al-Islam and 
 said to him, " What is thy name ?" and he rei)lied, " My name is 
 
 ' The First Adites, I have said, did not all perish: a few believers retired with 
 the prophet Ilud illeher?) to Ilazramaut. The Second Adites, who had Marib 
 of the Dam for capital and Lukman for king, were dispersed by the Flood of Al- 
 Yaman. Their dynasty lasted a thousand years, the exodus taking place according 
 to De Sacy in A.D. 150-170 or shortly after A.D. 100 (C. de Perceval), and was 
 overthrown by Ya'arul) bin Kahtan, the first Arabist ; see Night dcxxv. 
 
 ^ This title has been noticed: it suggests the "Saint Abraham" of our 
 mediaeval travellers. Every great prophet has his agnomen : Adam the Pure (or 
 Elect) of Allah ; Noah the Najiy (or saved) of Allah ; Moses (Kalim) the Speaker 
 with Allah ; Jesus the Ruh (Spirit, breath) or Kalam (the word) of Allah. For 
 Mohammed's see Al-Busiri's Mantle-poem vv. 31-58. 
 
 ^ Koran (chapt. iii. 17), " Verily the true religion in the sight of Allah is Islam," 
 i.e. resigning or devoting myself to the Lord, with a suspicion of " Salvation" 
 conveyed by the root Salima, he was safe.
 
 196 Alf Laylah wa Laylali. 
 
 Gharib." Asked the old man, "Whither art thou bound, O Gharib !" 
 So he told him all his history, till he came to the mention of the 
 Ghiil of the Mountain whom he sought, And Shahrazad per- 
 ceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 iSoto tof)en it tons tj^e ^I'x ?^untrtctr antr '^tDentg=£ig]bt]^ iSigl^t, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Gharib became a Moslem and told the Shaykh his past, from first 
 to last, till he came to the mention of the Mountain Ghul whom he 
 sought, the old man asked him, " O Gharib, art thou mad that thou 
 goest forth against the Ghul of the Mountain single handed?" and 
 he answered, " O my lord, I have with me two hundred horse." 
 "O Gharib," rejoined the hermit, "hadst thou ten thousand 
 riders yet shouldest thou not prevail against him, for his name 
 is The-Ghul-who-eateth-men-we-pray-AUah-for-safety, and he is of 
 the children of Ham. His father's name was Hindi, who peopled 
 Hind and named it, and he left this son after him, whom he 
 called Sa'adan the Ghul. Now the same was, O my son, even in his 
 sire's lifetime, a cruel tyrant and a rebellious devil and had no other 
 food than flesh of the sons of Adam. His father when about to 
 die forbade him from this, but he would not be forbidden and he 
 redoubled in his frowardness, till Hindi banished him and drove 
 him forth the Land of Hind, after battles and sore travail. Then he 
 came to this country and fortifying himself herein, established his 
 home in this place, whence he is wont to sally forth and cut the road 
 of all that come and go, presently returning to the valley he haunteth. 
 Moreover, he hath begotten five sons, warlike warlocks, each one 
 of whom will do battle with a thousand braves, and he hath flocked 
 the valley with his booty of treasure and goods, besides horses and 
 camels and cattle and sheep. Wherefore 1 fear for thee from him ; 
 so do thou implore Almighty Allah to further thee against him by 
 the Tahli'l, the formula of Unity, and when thou drivest at the 
 Infidels, cry : — God is Most Great ! for, saying, There is no god but 
 the God, confoundeth those who misbelieve." Then the Shaykh 
 gave him a steel mace, an hundred pounds in weight, with ten rings 
 which clashed like thunder when the wielder brandished it, and a 
 sword forged of a thunderbolt,^ three ells long and three spans 
 
 ^ Arab. " Sa'ikah," which is supposed to be a stone. The allusion is to Antar's 
 sword " Dhami." made of a stone, black, brilliant and hard as a rock (an aerolite), 
 which had struck a camel on the right side and had come out by the left. The 
 blacksmith made it into a blade three feet long by two spans broad, a kind of
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib. 197 
 
 broad, wherewith if one smote a rock, the stroke would cleave 
 it in sunder. Moreover, he gave him a hauberk and target and a 
 book and said to him, " Return to thy tribe and expound unto them 
 Al-Islam." So Gharib left him, rejoicing in his new Faith, and 
 fared till he found his companions, who met him with salams, say- 
 ing, " What made thee tarry thus ? " Whereupon he related to 
 them that which had befallen him and expounded to them Al-Islam, 
 and they all islamised. Early next morning, Gharib mounted and 
 rode to the hermit to farewell him, after which he set out to return 
 to his camp when behold, on his way, there met him a horseman 
 cap-^-pie armed so that only his eyes appeared, who made at him, 
 saying, " Doff what is on thee, O scum ^ of the Arabs ; or I will 
 do thee die ! " Therewith Gharib drave at him and there befel 
 between them a battle such as would make a new-born child turn 
 grey and melt the flinty rock with its sore affray ; but presently the 
 Badawi did off his face-veil, and lo, it was Gharib's half-brother 
 Sahim al-Layl. Now the cause of his coming thither was that when 
 Gharib set out in quest of the Mountain-Ghul, Sahim was absent, 
 and on his return, not seeing his brother, he went in to his mother, 
 whom he found weeping. He asked the reason of her tears and she 
 told him what had happened of his brother's journey, whereupon, 
 without allowing himself aught of rest, he donned his war-gear and 
 mounting rode after Gharib, till he overtook him and there befel 
 between them what befel. When, therefore, Sahim discovered his 
 face, Gharib knew him and saluted him, saying, " What moved thee 
 to do this ? " Quoth Sahim, " I had a mind to measure myself with 
 thee in the field and make trial of my lustihood in cut and thrust." 
 Then they rode together and on the way Gharib expounded Al-Islam 
 to Sahim, who embraced the Faith ; nor did they cease riding till 
 they were hard upon the valley. Meanwhile, the Mountain-Ghul 
 espied the dust of their horses' feet and said to his sons, " O my 
 sons, mount and fetch me yonder loot." So the five took horse and 
 made for the party. When Gharib saw the five Amalckites approach- 
 
 falchion or chopper, cased it with gold and called it Dhami (the "Trenchant") 
 from its sharpness. But he said to the owner : — 
 
 The sword is trenchant, O son of the Ghalib clan, 
 Trenchant in sooth, but where is the sworder-man ? 
 
 Whereupon the owner struck off the maker's head, a most satisfactory answer to 
 all but one. 
 
 ' Arab. "Kuta'ah:" lit. a bit cut off, fragment, nail-paring, but here un 
 diminutif. 1 have described this scene in Pilgrimage iii. 68. Latro often says, 
 "Thy gear is wanted by the daughter of my paternal uncle" (wife), and thus 
 parades his politeness by asking in a lady's name.
 
 198 Alf Laylali wa Laylah. 
 
 ing, he plied shovel-iron upon his steed's flank and cried out, say- 
 ing, " Who are ye, and what is your race and what do ye require ? " 
 Whereupon Falhiin bin Sa'adan, the eldest of the five, came out 
 and said, " Dismount ye and bind one another ^ and we will drive 
 you to our father, that he may roast various of you and boil various, 
 for it is long since he hath tasted the flesh of Adam-son." When 
 Gharib heard these words he drove at Falhun, shaking his mace, 
 so that the rings rang like the roaring thunder and the giant was 
 confounded. Then he smote him a light blow with the mace 
 between the shoulders, and he fell to the ground like a tall-trunked 
 palm-tree ; whereupon Sahim and some of his men fell upon him 
 and pinioned him ; then, putting a rope about his neck, they haled 
 him along like a cow. Now when his brothers saw him a prisoner, 
 they charged home upon Gharib, who took three ^ of them captive 
 and the fifth fled back to his sire, who said to him, " What is behind 
 thee and where are the brothers of thee?" Quoth he, "Verily, a 
 beardless youth, forty cubits high, hath taken them prisoner." 
 Quoth Sa'adan, " May the sun pour no blessing on you ! " and, going 
 down from his hold, tore up a huge tree, with which he went in 
 quest of Gharib and his folk ; and he was on foot, for that no horse 
 might carry him, because of the bigness of his body. His son fol- 
 lowed him and the twain went on till they came up with Gharib and 
 his company, when the Ghul fell upon them, without word said, and 
 slew five men with his club. Then he made at Sahim and struck 
 at him with his tree, but Sahim avoided the blow and it fell harm- 
 less ; whereat Sa'adan was wroth and throwing down the weapon, 
 sprang upon Sahim and caught him in his pounces as the sparrow- 
 hawk catcheth up the sparrow. Now when Gharib saw his brother 
 in the Ghul's clutches, he cried out, saying, " AUaho Akbar — God 
 is most Great ! Oh the favour of Abraham the Friend, the Mu- 
 hammad,^ the Blessed One (whom Allah keep and assain ! ) " 
 
 And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying 
 her permitted say. 
 
 ' As will appear, the two brothers were joined by a party of horsemen. 
 
 " " Four" says the Mac. Edit, forgetting Falhun with characteristic inconse- 
 quence. 
 
 ^ Muhammad (the deserving great praise) is the name used by men ; Ahmad 
 (more laudable) by angels, and Mahmi'id (praised) by devils. For a similar play 
 upon the name, " Allah, Allah, Muhammad ast " (God is God the praiseworthy), 
 see Dabistan ii. 416.
 
 The History of Gharib a?id his Brother Ajib. 199 
 
 XohJ h)I)£n it tons djc ^i.t p^unDrcU ani3 Cllricntjj^ninti) Nigftt, 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Gharib saw his brother in the clutches of the Ghul, he cried out, 
 saying, " Oh the favour of Ibrahim the Friend, the Blessed One 
 (whom Allah keep and assain !) " and drave his charger at Sa'adan, 
 shaking his mace, till the rings loud rang. Then he cried out again, 
 " God is most Great ! " and smote the Ghul on the flat of the ribs with 
 his mace, whereupon he fell to the ground insensible, and loosed 
 his grip on Sahim ; nor did he come to himself ere he was pinioned 
 and shackled. When his son saw this, he turned and fled ; but 
 (iharib drove steed after him and smiting him with his mace between 
 the shoulders, threw him from his horse. So they bound him with 
 his father and brethren and haltering them with ropes, haled them 
 all six along like baggage-camels, till they reached the Ghul's castle, 
 which they found full of goods and treasures and things of price j 
 and there they also came upon twelve hundred Ajamis, men of 
 Persia, bound and shackled. Gharib sat down on Sa'adan's chair, 
 which had aforetime belonged to Sasa ^ bin Shays bin Shaddad bin 
 Ad, causing Sahim to stand on his right and his companions on his 
 either hand, and sending for the Ghul of the Mountain, said to him, 
 " How findest thou thyself, O accursed ? " Replied Sa'adan, " O 
 my lord, in the sorriest of plights for abasement and mortification ; 
 my sons and I, we are bound with ropes like camels." Quoth Gharib 
 " It is my will that you enter my faith, the faith Al-Islam hight, 
 and acknowledge the Unity of the All-knowing King whose All- 
 might created Light and Night and every thing, — there is no God 
 but He, the Recruiting King ! — and confess the mission and prophet- 
 hood of Abraham the Friend (on whom be the Peace!)." So the Ghul 
 and his sons made the required profession after the goodliest fashion, 
 and Gharib bade loose their bonds ; whereupon Sa'adan wept and 
 would have kissed his feet, he and his sons : but Gharib forbade 
 them and they stood with the rest who stood before him. Then 
 said Gharib, " Harkye, Sa'adan ! " and he replied, " At thy service, 
 O my lord!" Quoth Gharib, 'MVhat are these captives?" "O 
 my lord," quoth the Ghul, " these arc my game from the land of the 
 Persians and are not the only ones." Asked Gharib, " And who 
 is with them? "and Sa'adan answered, "O my lord, there is with 
 
 ' The Mac. Edit, here gives " Sas," but elsewhere *' Sasa," which is the correct 
 form.
 
 2 00 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 them the Princess Fakhr Taj, daughter of King Sabiir, of Persia,^ 
 and an hundred damsels hke moons." When Gharib heard this, he 
 marvelled and said, "O Emir, how came ye by these?" Replied 
 Sa'adan, " I went forth one night with my sons and five of my slaves 
 in quest of booty, but finding no spoil in our way, we dispersed over 
 wilds and wolds and fared on, hoping we might happen on some- 
 what of prey and not return empty-handed, till we found ourselves 
 in the land of the Persians. Presently, we espied a dust-cloud and 
 sent on to reconnoitre one of our slaves, who was absent awhile and 
 presently returned and said : — O my lord, this is the Princess Fakhr 
 Taj, daughter of Sabur, King of the Persians, Turcomans and 
 Medes ; and she is on a journey, attended by two thousand horse. 
 Quoth I, Thou hast gladdened us with good news ! We could have 
 no finer loot than this. Then I and my sons fell upon the Persians 
 and slew of them three hundred men and took the Princess and 
 twelve hundred cavaliers prisoners, together with all that was with 
 her of treasure and riches, and brought them to this our castle." 
 Quoth Gharib, "Hast thou offered any violence to the Princess 
 Fakhr Taj ? " Quoth Sa'adan, " Not I, as thy head liveth and by 
 the virtue of the Faith I have but now embraced ! " Gharib replied, 
 " It was well done of thee, O Sa'adan, for her father is King of the 
 world and doubtless he will despatch troops in quest of her and lay 
 waste the dweUings of those who took her. And whoso looketh not 
 to issue and end hath not Fate to friend. But where is the damsel ?" 
 Said Sa'adan, " I have set apart a pavilion for her and her women ; " 
 and said Gharib, " Show me her lodging," whereto Sa'adan rejoined, 
 " Hearkening and obedience ! " So he carried him to the pavilion, 
 and there he found the Princess mournful and cast down, weeping 
 for her former condition of dignity and delight. When Gharib saw 
 her, he thought the moon was near him and magnified Allah, the 
 All-hearing, the All-seeing. The Princess also looked at him and 
 saw him a princely cavalier, with valour shining from between his 
 
 ^ Sapor the Second (A.D. 310-330) was compelled to attack the powerful 
 Arab hordes of Oman, most of whom, like the Tayy, Aus and Khazraj, the Banu 
 Nabhan and the Hinawi, left Al-Yaman A.D. 100-170, and settled in the north 
 and north-east of Al-Najd. This great exodus and dispersion of the tribes was 
 caused, as has been said, by the bursting of the Dam of Marib originally built 
 by Abd al-Shams Saba, father of Himyar. These Yamanian races were-plunged 
 into poverty and roamed northwards, planting themselves amongst the Arabs of 
 Ma' add son of Adnan Hence the kingdom of Ghassan in Syria whose phy- 
 larchs under the Romans {i.e. Greek Emperors of Constantinople) controlled 
 Palestine Tertia, the Arabs of Syria and Palestine ; and the kingdom of Hirah, 
 whose Lakhmite Princes, dependent upon Persia, managed the Arabs of the 
 Euphrates, Oman and Al-Bahrayn. The Ma'addites still continued to occupy the 
 central plateau of Arabia, a feature analogous with India " above the Ghauts."
 
 The History of GJiarib atid his Brother Ajib. 201 
 
 eyes and testifying for him and not against him so she rose and 
 kissed his hands, tlien fell at his feet, saying, " O hero of the age, 
 I am under thy protection ; guard me from this Ghul, for I fear lest 
 he devour me. So take me to serve thine handmaidens." Quoth 
 Gharib, " Thou art safe and thou shalt be restored to thy father and 
 the seat of thy worship." Whereupon she prayed that he might live 
 long and have advancement in rank and honour. Then he bade 
 unbind the Persians and, turning to the Princess, said to her, " What 
 brought thee forth of thy palace to the wilds and wastes, so that the 
 highway-robbers made prize of thee ? " She replied, " O my lord, 
 my father and all the people of his realm, Turks and Daylamites, are 
 Magians, fire worshipping, and not the All-powerful King. Now in 
 our country is a monastery called the Monastery of the Fire, whither 
 every year the daughters of the Magians and worshippers of the Fire 
 resort at the time of their festival and abide there a month, after 
 which they return to their houses. So I and my damsels set out, as 
 of wont, attended by two thousand horse, whom my father sent with 
 me to guard me ; but by the way this Ghul came out against us and 
 slew some of us and, taking the rest captive, imprisoned us in this 
 hold. This, then, is what befel me, O valiant champion, whom 
 Allah guard against the shifts of Time ! " And Gharib said, " Fear 
 not ; for I will bring thee to thy palace and the seat of thy honours." 
 Wherefore she blessed him and kissed his hands and feet. Then 
 he went out from her, after having commanded to treat her with 
 respect, and slept till morning, when he made the Wuzu-ablution 
 and prayed a two-bow prayer, alter the rite of our father Abraham the 
 Friend (on whom be the Peace !), whilst the Ghul and his sons and 
 Gharib's company all did the like after him. Then he turned to the 
 Ghul and said to him, " O Sa'adan, wilt thou not show me the Wady 
 of Blossoms ? " ' "I will, O my lord," answered he. So Gharib 
 and his company and Princess Fakhr Taj and her maidens all rose 
 and went forth, whilst Sa'adan commanded his slaves and slave-girls 
 to slaughter and cook and make ready the morning-meal and bring 
 it to them among the trees. For the Giant had an hundred and 
 fifty handmaids and a thousand chattels to pasture his camels and 
 oxen and sheep. When they came to the valley, they found it 
 beautiful exceedingly and passing all degree : and birds on tree sang 
 joyously and the mocking-nightingalc trilled out her melody, and the 
 cushat filled with her moan the mansions made by the Deity, 
 
 ' I have described (Pilgrimage i. 370) ihe grisly spot which a Badawi will 
 dignify l)y the name of Wady al-VVard = Vale of Roses.
 
 2 02 Alf Laylah wa Lay la h. 
 
 And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her 
 permitted say. 
 
 Koto to|)cn it luas tf)e ^ix l^untiati anti ®]^ittiEtb ISTigi)!, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Gharib 
 and his merry men and the Giant and his tribe reached the Wady 
 of Blossoms they found birds flying free ; the cushat filling with her 
 moan mansions made by the Deity, the bulbul singing as if 
 'twere human harmony and the merle whom to describe tongue 
 faileth utterly ; the turtle, whose plaining maddens men for love- 
 ecstasy, and the ringdove and the popinjay answering her with 
 fluency. There also were trees laden with all manner of fruitery, 
 of each two kinds,^ the pomegranate, sweet and sour, upon branches 
 growing luxuriantly ; the almond-apricot,^ the camphor-apricot^ and 
 the almond Khorasan hight ; the plum, with whose branches the 
 boughs of the myrobalan were entwined tight ; the orange, as it 
 were a cresset flaming light, the shaddock weighed down with heavy 
 freight ; the lemon, that cures lack of appetite, the citron against 
 jaundice of sovereign might, and the date, red and yellow-bright, 
 the especial handiwork of Allah the Most High. Of the like of this 
 place saith the enamoured poet : — 
 
 When its birds in the lake make melody, * The lorn lover yearneth its sight 
 
 to see : 
 ' Tis as Eden breathing a fragrant breeze, * With its shade and fruits and rills 
 
 flowing free. 
 
 Gharib marvelled at the beauty of that Wady and bade them set 
 up there the pavilion of Fakhr Taj the Chosroite ; so they pitched it 
 among the trees and spread it with rich tapestries. Then he sat 
 down and the slaves brought food and they ate their sufficiency ; 
 after which quoth Gharib, " Harkye, Sa'adan ! " and quoth he, " At 
 thy service, O my lord." " Hast thou aught of wine ? " asked Gharib, 
 
 ^ Koran xiii. 3, " Of every fruit two different kinds," i.e. large and small, 
 black and white, sweet and sour, hard and soft. 
 
 - A graft upon an almond-tree, which makes its kernel sweet and gives it an 
 especial delicacy of flavour. See Russell's (excellent) Natural History of 
 Aleppo, p. 21. 
 
 •* So called from the flavour of the kernel : it is well known at Damascus where 
 a favourite fruit is the dried apricot with an almond by way of kernel. There 
 are many preparations of apricots, especially the " Mare's skin " (Jild al-faras or 
 Kamar al-din) a paste folded into slieets and exactly resembling the article from 
 which it takes a name. When wanted it is dissolved in water and eaten as a 
 relish with bread or biscuit (Pilgrimage i. 289).
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib. 203 
 
 and Sa'adan answered, " Yes, I have a cistern full of old wine." Said 
 Gharib, " Bring us somewhat of it." So Sa'adan sent ten slaves, 
 who returned with great plenty of wine, and they ate and drank and 
 were mirthful and merry. And Gharib bethought him of Mahdiyah 
 and improvised these couplets : — 
 
 I mind our union days when ye were nigh, * And flames my heart with love' 
 
 consuming lowe. 
 By Allah, ne'er of will I quitted you : * But shifts of Time from you compelled 
 
 me go : 
 I'eace and fair luck and greetings thousand-fold * To you, from exiled lover's 
 
 pining woe. 
 
 They abode eating and drinking and taking their pleasure in the 
 valley for three days, after which they returned to the castle. Then 
 Gharib called Sahim and said to him, "Take an hundred horse and 
 go to thy father and mother and thy tribe, the Banu Kahtan, and 
 bring them all to this place, here to pass the rest of their days, 
 whilst I carry the Princess of Persia back to her father. As for thee, 
 
 Sa'adan, tarry thou here with thy sons, till I return to thee." 
 Asked Sa'adan, " And why wilt thou not carry me with thee to the 
 land of the Persians ? " and Gharib answered, " Because thou 
 stolest away King Sabur's daughter, and if his eye fall on thee he 
 will eat thy flesh and drink thy blood." When the Ghul heard this, 
 he laughed a loud laugh, as it were the pealing thunder, and said, 
 "O my lord, by the life of thy head, if the Persians and INIedes 
 united against me, I would make them quaff the cup of annihilation/' 
 Quoth Gharib, " 'Tis as thou sayest ;' but tarry thou here in fort till 
 
 1 return to thee ; " and quoth the Ghul, " I hear and I obey." 
 Then Sahim departed with his comrades of the Banu Kahtan for the 
 dwelling-places of their tribe, and Gharib set out with Princess 
 Fakhr Taj and her company, intending for the cities of Sabur, King 
 of the Persians. Thus far concerning them ; but as regards King 
 Sabur, he abode awaiting his daughter's return from the Monastery 
 of the Fire, and when the appointed time passed by and she came 
 not, flames raged in his heart. Now he had forty Wazirs, whereof 
 the oldest, wisest and chiefest was hight Daydan : so he said to him, 
 "O Minister, verily my daughter delaycth her return and I have no 
 news of her though the appointed time is past ; so do thou send a 
 courier to the Monastery of the Fire to learn what is come of her." 
 " Hearkening and obedience," replied Daydan ; and, summoning 
 the chief of the couriers, said to him, " Wend thou forthright to the 
 
 1 It 
 
 Anta kama takul " = the vulgarest Cairene.
 
 204 A If Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 Monastery." So he lost no time, and when he reached it he asked 
 the monks of the King's daughter, but they said, " We have not seen 
 her this year." Thereat the courier returned to the city of Isbanir ^ 
 and told the Wazir, who went in to the King and acquainted him with 
 the message. Now when Sabur heard this, he cast his crown on 
 the ground, tore his beard and fell down in a trance. They sprinkled 
 water upon him, and presently he came to himself, tearful-eyed and 
 heavy-hearted, and repeated the words of the poet : — 
 
 When I far-parted Patience call and tears, * Tears come to call, but Patience 
 
 never hears : 
 What, then, if Fortune parted us so far ? * Fortune and Perfidy are peers and 
 
 feres ! 
 
 Then he called ten of his captains and bade them mount with a 
 thousand horse and ride in different directions, in quest of his 
 daughter. So they mounted forthright and departed each with his 
 thousand ; whilst Fakhr Taj's mother clad herself and her women in 
 black and strewed ashes on her head and sat weeping and lamenting. 
 
 Such was their case ; And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn 
 
 of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 IS^oto tDf)cn It foas tjb^ ^ix l^unUutr antr ^i^irtg-first Niatt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that King Sabur 
 sent his troops in quest of his daughter, whose mother clad herself 
 and her women in black. Such was their case ; but as regards the 
 strange adventures of Gharib and the Princess, they journeyed on 
 ten days, and on the eleventh day appeared a dust-cloud which rose 
 to the confines of the sky ; whereupon Gharib called the Emir of 
 the Persians and said to him, " Go learn the cause thereof." " I 
 hear and obey," replied he, and drave his charger, till he came under 
 the cloud of dust, where he saw folk and enquired of them. Quoth 
 one of them, " We are of the Banu Hattal and are questing for 
 plunder ; our Emir is Samsam bin Al-Jirah and w^e are five thousand 
 horse." The Persians returned in haste and told their saying to 
 Gharib, who cried out to his men of the Banu Kahtan and to the 
 Persians, saying, "Don your arms!" They did as he bade them 
 
 ^ This may be Ctesiphon, the ancient capital of the Chosroes, on the Tigris 
 below Baghnad : and spoken of elsewhere in The Nights ; especially as, in Night 
 dclxvii., it is called Isbanir Al-Madain ; Madain Kisra (the cities of Chosroes) 
 being the Arabic name of the old dual city.
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib. 205 
 
 and presently up came the Arabs, who were shouting, " A plunder! 
 a plunder ! " Quoth Gharib, " Allah confound you, O dogs of 
 Arabs ! " Then he loosed his horse and drove at them with the 
 career of a right valiant knight, shouting, '' AUaho Akbar ! Ho for the 
 Faith of Abraham the Friend, on whom be the Peace ! " And there 
 befel between them great fight and sore fray and the sword went 
 round in sway and there was much said and say ; nor did they leave 
 fighting till fled the day and gloom came, when they drew from one 
 another away. Then Gharib numbered his tribesmen and found 
 that five of the Banu Kahtan had fallen and three-and-seventy of the 
 Persians ; but of the Banu Hattal they had slain more than five 
 hundred horse. As for Samsam, he alighted and sought nor meat 
 nor sleep, but said, " In all my life I never saw such a fighter as 
 this youth ! Anon he fighteth with the sword and anon with the 
 mace ; but, to-morrow I will go forth on champion wise and defy him 
 to combat of twain in battle plain where edge and point are fain and 
 I will cut off these Arabs." Now, when Gharib returned to his 
 camp, the Princess Fakhr Taj met him, weeping and affrighted for 
 the terror of that which had befallen, and kissed his foot in the 
 stirrup, saying, "May thy hands never wither nor thy foes be blyther, 
 O champion of the age ! Alhamdolillah — Glory to God — who hath 
 saved thee alive this day ! Verily, I am in fear for thee from yonder 
 Arabs." When Gharib heard this, he smiled in her face and 
 heartened and comforted her, saying, " Fear not, O Princess ! Did 
 the enemy fill this wild and wold, yet would I scatter them by the 
 might of Allah Almighty." She thanked him and prayed that he 
 might be given the victory over his foes ; after which she returned to 
 her women and Gharib went to his tent, where he cleansed himself 
 of the blood of the Infidels, and they lay on guard through the 
 night. Next morning, the two hosts mounted and sought the plain 
 where cut and thrust ruled sovereign. The first to push into the 
 open was Gharib, who drave his charger till he was near the Infidels 
 and cried out, " Who is for jousting with me ? Let no sluggard 
 or weakling come out to me!" ^^'hereupon there rushed forth a 
 giant Amalekite of the lineage of the tribe of Ad, armed with an 
 iron flail twenty pounds in weight, and drove at Gharib, saying, " O 
 scum of the Arabs, take what cometh to thee and learn the glad 
 tidings that thy last hour is at hand ! " So saying, he aimed a blow 
 at Gharib, but he avoided it and the flail sank a cubit into the 
 ground. Now the Badawi was bent double with the blow ; so 
 Gharib smote him with his mace and clove his forehead in sunder ; 
 and he fell down dead and Allah hurried his soul to Hell-fire. Then 
 Gharib charged and wheeled and called for champions ; so there
 
 2o6 Alf Laylah wa Lay /ah. 
 
 came out to him a second and a third and a fourth and so on, till 
 ten had come forth to him and he slew them all. When the Infidels 
 saw his form of fight and his swashing blows they hung back and 
 forebore to fare forth to him, whereupon Samsam looked at them 
 and said, " Allah never bless you ! I will go forth to him." So he 
 donned his battle-gear and drove his charger into mid-field, where 
 he fronted the foe and cried out to Gharib, saying, " Fie on thee, O 
 dog of the Arabs ! hath thy strength waxed so great that thou 
 shouldst defy me in the open field and slaughter my men ? " And 
 Gharib replied, " Up and take blood-revenge for the slaughter of 
 thy braves ! " Presently Samsam ran at Gharib who awaited him 
 with broadened breast and heart enheartened, and they smote each 
 at other with maces, till the two hosts marvelled and every eye was 
 fixed on them. Then they wheeled about in the field and struck at 
 each other two strokes ; but Gharib avoided Samsam's stroke which 
 wreak had wroke and dealt him a buffet that beat in his breastbone 
 and cast him to the ground — stone dead. Thereupon all his host 
 ran at Gharib as one man, and he ran at them, crying, " God is 
 most Great ! Help and Victory for us and shame and defeat for 
 those who misbelieve the faith of Abraham the Friend, on whom be 
 
 the PeacC'!" And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and 
 
 ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 i^ohj bjj^cn it tuns t^t ^ix l^unUixtr anU ®5ittB=stcontf iiiglbt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Sam- 
 sam's tribesmen rushed upon Gharib as one man, he ran at them 
 crying, " God is most Great ! Help and Victory for us and shame 
 and defeat for the miscreants ! " Now when the Infidels heard the 
 name of the All-powerful King, the One, the All-conquering, whom 
 the sight comprehendeth not, but He comprehendeth the sight, ^ 
 they looked at one another and said, " What is this say that maketh 
 our side-muscles tremble and weakeneth our resolution and causeth 
 the life to fail in us ? Never in our lives heard we aught goodlier 
 than this saying ! " adding, " Let us leave fighting, that we may ask 
 its meaning." So they held their hands from the battle and dis- 
 mounted ; and their elders assembled and held counsel together, 
 
 ^ Koran vi. 103. The translation is Sale's which I have generally preferred, 
 despite many imperfections: Lane renders this sentence, "The eyes see not 
 Him, but He seeth the eyes ; " and Mr. Rod well, " No vision taketh in Him (?), 
 but He taketh in all vision ; " and (better) " No eyesight reacheth to Him."
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brotlier AJib. 207 
 
 seeking to go to Gharib and saying, " Let ten of us repair to him ! " 
 So they chose out ten of their best, who set out for Gharib's tents. 
 Now he and his people had ahghted and returned to their camp, 
 marvelHng at the withdrawal of the Infidels from the fight. But, 
 presently, lo and behold ! the ten came up and seeking speech of 
 Gharib, kissed the earth before him and wished him glory and 
 lasting life. Quoth he to them, " What made you leave fighting? " 
 and quoth they, " O my lord, thou didst affright us with the words 
 thou shoutedst out at us." Then asked Gharib, " What calamity do 
 ye worship? " and they answered, "We worship Wadd and Suwa'a 
 and Yaghus,! lords of the tribe of Noah ; " and Gharib, " We serve 
 none but Allah Almighty, Maker of all things and Provider of all 
 livings. He it is who created the heavens and the earth and 
 stablished the mountains ; who made water to well from the stones 
 and the trees to grow and feedeth wald beasts in wold ; for He is 
 Allah the One, the All-powerful Lord." When they heard this, 
 their bosoms broadened to the words of Unity-faith, and they said, 
 "Verily, this be a Lord high and great, compassionating and 
 compassionate ! " adding, " And what shall we say, to become of 
 the Moslems, of those which submit themselves to him ? " Quoth 
 Gharib, " Say : — There is no god but the God, and Abraham is the 
 Friend of God." So the ten made veracious profession of the 
 veritable religion and Gharib said to them, " If the sweet savour 
 of Al-Islam be indeed stablished in your hearts, fare ye to your 
 tribe and expound the faith to them ; and if they profess, they 
 shall be saved, but if they refuse we will burn them with fire." 
 So the ten elders returned and expounded Al-Islam to their 
 people and set forth to them the path of truth and creed, and they 
 embraced the Faith of Submission with heart and tongue. Then 
 they repaired on foot to Gharib's tent and kissing ground between 
 
 * Sale (sect, i) tells us all that w.is then known of these three which, with 
 Ya'uk and Nasr and the three " daut^htcrs of God," Goddesses or Energies 
 (the Hindu Saktis) Allat, Al-Uzza and INIanal mentioned in the Koran, were the 
 chiefs of the pre-Islamitic i'antlieon. I cannot hut suspect that all will be con- 
 nected with old Habylonian worship. Al-Baydawi (on Ivor. Ixxi 22) says of 
 Wadd, Suwa'a, Yaghus, Ya'iik and Nasr that they were names of pious men 
 between Adam and Noah, afterwards deified : Yaghus was the giant idol of the 
 Mazhaj tribe at Akamah of Al-Yaman and afterwards at Najran. Al-Uzza was 
 widely worshipped : her idol (of the tree Semiirat) belonging to Ghatafan was 
 destroyed after the Prophet's order by Khiilid bin Walid. Allat or .M-Lat is 
 written by I'ocock (spec, no) " Ilahat " ?.<:. deities in general; but Herodotus 
 evidently refers to one god when he makes the Arabs worship Dionysus as 
 OpoToX and Urania as AXiXdr and the " tashdid " in Allat would, to a Greek 
 ear, introduce another syllable (Alilat). This was the goddess of the Kuravsh 
 and Thakif, whose temple at Taif was circuited like the Ka'abah before 
 Mohammed destroyed it.
 
 2o8 Alf Lay/ah iva Laylah. 
 
 his hands wished him honour and high rank, saying, " O our lord, 
 we are become thy slaves ; so command us what thou wilt, for we 
 are to thee audient and obedient and we will never depart from 
 thee, since Allah hath guided us into the right way at thy hands." 
 Replied he, " Allah abundantly requite you ! Return to your 
 dwellings and march forth with your good and your children and 
 forego me to the Wady of Blossoms and the castle of Sasa bin 
 Shays/ whilst I carry the Princess Fakhr Taj, daughter of Sabur, 
 King of the Persians, back to her father and return to you." 
 " Hearkening and obedience," said they and straightway returned 
 to their encampment, rejoicing in Al-Islara, and expounded the 
 True Faith to their wives and children, who became Believers. 
 Then they struck their tents and set forth, with their good and 
 cattle, for the Wady of Blossoms. When they came in sight of 
 the castle of Shays, Sa'adan and his sons sallied forth to them, 
 but Gharib had charged them, saying, " If the Ghul of the Moun- 
 tain come out to you and offer to attack you, do ye call upon the 
 name of Allah the All-Creator, and he will leave his hostile intent 
 and receive you hospitably." So when he would have fallen upon 
 them they called aloud upon the name of Almighty Allah and 
 straightway he received them kindly and asked them of their case. 
 They told him all that had passed between Gharib and themselves, 
 whereupon he rejoiced in them and lodged them with him and 
 loaded them with favours. Such was their case ; but as regards 
 Gharib, he and his, escorting the Princess, fared on five days' journey 
 towards the City of Isbanir, and on the sixth day they saw a dust- 
 cloud. So Gharib sent one of the Persians to learn the meaning of 
 this and he went and returned swiftlier than bird in flight, saying, 
 " O my lord, these be a thousand horse of our comrades, whom the 
 King hath sent in quest of his daughter Fakhr Taj." When Gharib 
 heard this he commanded his company to halt and pitch the tents. 
 So they halted and waited till the new comers reached them, when 
 they went to meet them and told Tiiman, their captain, that the 
 Princess was with them ; whereupon he went in to Gharib and kiss- 
 ing the ground before him, enquired for her. Gharib sent him to 
 her pavilion, and he entered and kissed her hands and feet and 
 acquainted her with what had befallen her father and mother. 
 She told him in return all that had betided her and how Gharib 
 
 ^ Shays (Shayth) is Ab Seth (Father Seth) of the Hebrews, a name containing 
 the initial and terminal letters of the Egypto-Phoenico- Hebrew Alphabet and the 
 " Abjad " of the Arab. Those cmious about its connection with the name of 
 Allah (El), the Zodiacal signs and with the constellations, visions but not wholly 
 uninteresting, will consult " Unexplored Syria" (vol. i. 33).
 
 The Histo?y of Gharib and his BrotJier AJib. 209 
 
 had delivered her from the Ghul'of the Mountain, And Shahr- 
 
 azad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her per- 
 mitted say. 
 
 Nofo fajlbcn It hjas tfjc ^ix |l^unftrctf nntr ^fjirtij-Hjiiti ISTiQfjt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 King's daughter, Fakhr Taj, had told Tuman all that had befallen 
 her from the Mountain-Ghul, and how he had imprisoned her and 
 would have devoured her but for Gharib, adding, " And indeed, it 
 behoveth my sire to give him the half of his reign," Tuman arose 
 and returned to Gharib and kissed his hands and feet and thanked 
 him for his good dealing, saying, "With thy leave, O my lord, I 
 vvill return to Isbanir City and deliver to our King the good news 
 of his daughter's approach." " Go," replied Gharib, " and take of 
 him the gift of glad tidings." So Tuman returned with all dili- 
 gence to Isbanir, the Cities, and entering the palace, kissed ground 
 before the King, who said to him, "What is there of new, O bringer 
 of good news ? " Quoth Tuman, " I will not speak thee, till thou 
 give me the gift of glad tidings." Quoth the King, "Tell me thy 
 glad tidings and I will content thee." So Tuman said, '''O King, 
 I bring thee joyful intelligence of the return of Princess Fakhr 
 Taj." When Sabur heard his daughter's name, he fell down 
 fainting and they sprinkled rose-water on him, till he recovered 
 and cried to Tuman, " Draw near to me and tell me all the good 
 which hath befallen her." So he came forward and acquainted him 
 with all that had betided the Princess ; and Sabur beat hand upon 
 hand, saying, " Unhappy thou, O Fakhr Taj ! " ^ And he bade give 
 Tuman ten thousand gold pieces and conferred on him the govern- 
 ment of Isfahan City and its dependencies. Then he cried out to 
 his Emirs, saying, " Mount, all of you, and fare we forth to meet the 
 Princess Fakhr Taj ! " and the Chief Eunuch went in to the Queen- 
 mother and told her and all the Harim the good news, whereat she 
 rejoiced and gave him a robe of honour and a thousand dinars. 
 Moreover, the people of the city heard of this and decorated the 
 market streets and houses. Then the King and Tuman took horse 
 and rode till they had sight of Gharib, when Sabur footed it and 
 made some steps towards Gharib, who also dismounted and advanced 
 to meet him ; and they embraced and saluted each other, and Sabur 
 
 ' The exclamation of an honest Fellah. 
 VOL. IV. O
 
 2 1 o Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 bent over Gharib's hand and kissed it and thanked him for his 
 favours.^ They pitched their pavihons in face of each other, and 
 Sabur went in to his daughter, who rose and embracing him told 
 him all that had befallen her and how Gharib had rescued her from 
 the clutches of the Ghul of the Mountain. Quoth the King, " By 
 thy life, O Princess of fair ones, I will overwhelm him with gifts ! " 
 and quoth she, " O my father, make him thy son-in-law, that he may 
 be to thee a force against thy foes, for he is passing valiant." Her 
 father replied, " O my daughter, knowest thou not that King Khirad 
 Shah seeketh thee in marriage and that he hath cast the brocade ^ 
 and hath given an hundred thousand dinars in settlement, and he 
 is King of Shiraz and its dependencies and is lord of empire and 
 horsemen and footmen ? " But when the Princess heard these words 
 she said, "O my father! I desire not that whereof thou speakest, and 
 if thou constrain me to that I have no mind to, I will slay myself." 
 So Sabur left her and went in to Gharib, who rose to him ; and they 
 sat awhile together ; but the King could not take his fill of looking 
 upon him ; and he said in his mind, " By Allah, my daughter is 
 excusable if she love this Badawi ! " Then he called for food and 
 they ate and passed the night together. On the morrow, they took 
 horse and rode till they arrived at the City of Isbanir and entered, 
 stirrup to stirrup, and it was for them a great day. Fakhr Taj repaired 
 to her palace and the abiding-place of her rank, where her mother 
 and her women received her with cries of joy and loud lullilooings. 
 As for King Sabur, he sat down on his throne and seated Gharib 
 on his right hand, whilst the Princes and Chamberlains, the Emirs, 
 Wazirs and Nabobs stood on either hand and gave him joy of the 
 recovery of his daughter. Said Sabur, "Whoever loveth me let him 
 bestow a robe of honour on Gharib," and there fell dresses of honour 
 on him like drops of rain. Then Gharib abode the King's guest 
 ten days when he would have departed, but Sabur clad him in an 
 honourable robe and swore him by his faith that he should not march 
 for a whole month. Quoth Gharib, " O King, I am plighted to one 
 of the girls of the Arabs and I desire to marry her." Quoth the 
 King, "Whether is the fairer, thy betrothed or Fakhr Taj?" "O 
 King of the age," replied Gharib, " what is the slave beside the lord ? " 
 
 ^ This is Antar with the Chosroe who "kissed the Absian hero between the 
 eyes and bade him adieu, giving him as a last token a rich robe." The coarser 
 hand of the story-teller exaggerates everything till he makes it ridiculous. 
 
 * The context suggests that this is a royal form of " throwing the hand- 
 kerchief; " but it does not occur elsewhere. In fact, the European idea seems 
 to have arisen from the oriental practice of sending presents in napkins or 
 kerchiefs.
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib. 211 
 
 And Sabur said, " Fakhr Taj is become thy handmaid, for that thou 
 didst rescue her from the pounces of the Ghul, and she shall have 
 none other husband than thyself." Thereupon Gharib rose and 
 kissed ground, saying, " O King of the Age, thou art a sovereign and 
 I am but a poor man, and belike thou wilt ask a heavy dower." 
 Replied the King, "O my son, know that Khirad Shah, lord of 
 Shiraz and dependencies thereof, seeketh her in marriage and hath 
 appointed an hundred thousand dinars to her dower ; but I have 
 chosen thee before all men, that I may make thee the sword of my 
 kingship and my shield against vengeance." ^ Then he turned to 
 his Chief Officers and said to them, " Bear witness - against me, 
 O Lords of mine Empire, that I marry my daughter Fakhr Taj to 
 
 my son Gharib ! " And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day 
 
 and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 Nofo foibcn it foas ttc ^ii li^unbretr antr '^Tftirtii-fouttj^ Ntgf)t, 
 
 She continued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sabur, 
 
 King of 'Ajam-land said to his Chief Officers, " Bear ye witness 
 
 against me that I marry my daughter, Fakhr Taj, to my son 
 
 Gharib ! " With that he joined palms ^ with him and she became 
 
 his wife. Then said Gharib, " Appoint me a dower and I will 
 
 bring it to thcc, for I have in the Castle of Sasa wealth and treasures 
 
 beyond count." Replied Sabur, " O my son, I want of thee neither 
 
 treasure nor wealth and I will take nothing for her dower save the 
 
 head of Jamrkan King of Dasht and the city of Ahwaz.^" Quoth 
 
 Gharib, " O King of the age, I will fetch my folk forthright and go 
 
 to thy foe and spoil his realm." Quoth Sabur, " Allah rc(}uite thee 
 
 with good ! " and dismissed the lords and commons, thinking, " If 
 
 Gharib go forth against Jamrkan, he will never more return." 
 
 When morning morrowcd the King mounted with Gharib and 
 
 bidding all his troops take horse rode forth to the plain, where he 
 
 said to his men, " Do ye tilt with spears and gladden my heart." 
 
 So the champions of Persia-land played one against other and 
 
 ^ i.e. if the disappointed suitor attack me. 
 
 - i.e. if ever I be tempted to deny it. 
 
 ' Arab. " Musafahah," the Arab fashion of shaking hands. The right palms 
 arc applied flat to each other ; then the fmgers are squeezed and the hand is 
 raised to the forehead (Pilgrimage ii. 332). 
 
 ■• A city and province of Khuzistan, the old Susiana. Dasht may be either 
 the town in Khurasan or the " forests" (dasht) belonging to .■Vhwaz (/Vhuaz in 
 D'Herbelot).
 
 212 Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 Gharib said, " O King of the age, I have a mind to tilt with the 
 horsemen of 'Ajam-land, but on one condition." Asked the King, 
 "What is that?" and answered Gharib, "It is that I shall don a 
 light tunic and take a headless lance, with a pennon dipped in 
 saffron, whilst the Persian champions sally forth and tilt against me 
 with sharp spears. If any conquer me, I will render myself to him : 
 but, if I conquer him I will mark him on the breast and he shall 
 leave the plain." Then the King cried to the commander of the 
 troops to bring forward the champions of the Persians ; so he chose 
 out from amongst the Princes one thousand two hundred of his 
 stoutest champions, and the King said to them, in the Persian tongue, 
 " Whoever slayeth this Badawi may ask of me what he willeth." So 
 they strove with one another for precedence and charged down 
 upon Gharib and truth was distinguished from falsehood and jest 
 from earnest. Quoth Gharib. " I put my trust in Allah, the God of 
 Abraham the Friend, the Deity who hath power over all and from 
 whom naught is hidden, the One, the Almighty, whom the sight 
 comprehendeth not ! " Then an Amalekite-like giant of the Persian 
 champions rushed out to him, but Gharib let him not stand long 
 before him ere he marked him and covered his breast with saffron ; 
 and, as he turned away, he smote him on the nape with the shaft of 
 his lance, and he fell to the ground and his pages bore him from 
 the lists. ^ Then a second champion came forth against him and he 
 overcame him and marked him on the breast ; and thus did he with 
 a third and a fourth and a fifth ; and there came out against him 
 champion after champion till he had overcome them all and marked 
 them on the breast ; for Almighty Allah gave him the victory over 
 them and they fared forth vanquisht from the plain. Then the 
 servants set food and strong wine before them and they ate and 
 drank, till Gharib's wits were dazed by the drink. By and by, he 
 went out and would have returned, but lost his way and entered the 
 palace of Fakhr Taj. When she saw him, her reason fled and she 
 cried out to the women, "Go forth from me to your own places !" 
 So they withdrew and she rose and kissed Gharib's hand, saying, 
 "Welcome to my lord, who delivered me from the Ghul ! Indeed 
 I am thine handmaid for ever and ever." Then she seated him by 
 her side and they talked together till the morning. Meanwhile the 
 King thought that he had departed ; but on the morrow he went in 
 to him and Sabur rose to him and made him sit beside him. Then 
 entered the tributary kings and kissing the ground stood ranged in 
 
 ^ This is the contest between " Antar and the Satrap Khosrewan at the Court 
 of Monzar," but without its tragical finish.
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib. 213 
 
 rows on the right and left and fell to talking of Gharib's valour and 
 saying, " Extolled be He who gave him such prowess albeit he is so 
 young in years ! " As they were thus engaged, behold, all espied 
 from the palace-windows the dust of horse approachmg, and the 
 King cried out to his scouts, saying, ''Woe to you ! Go and bring 
 me news of yonder dust ! " So a cavalier took horse and riding off, 
 returned after a while, and said, " O King, we found under that 
 dust an hundred horse belonging to an Emir hight Sahim al-Layl." 
 Gharib hearing these words, cried out, "O my lord, this is my 
 brother, whom I had sent on an errand, and I will go forth to 
 meet him." So saying, he mounted with his hundred men of 
 the Banu Kahtan and a thousand Persians, and rode to meet 
 his brother in great state, but greatness belongeth to God 
 alone. ^ When the two came up with each other, they dis- 
 mounted and embraced, and Gharib said to Sahim, " O my 
 brother, hast thou brought our tribe to the Castle of Sasa and the 
 Wady of Blossoms?" "O my brother," replied Sahim, "when the 
 perfidious dog Mardas heard that thou hadst made thee master ot 
 the stronghold belonging to the Mountain-Ghul, he was sore 
 chagrined and said : — Except I march hence, Gharib will come and 
 carry off my daughter Mahdiyah without dower. So he took his 
 daughter and his goods and set out with his tribe for the land of Al- 
 Irak, where he entered the city of Cufa and put himself under the 
 protection of King Ajib, seeking to give him his daughter to wife." 
 When Gharib heard his brother's story, he well-nigh yielded up the 
 ghost for rage and said, " By the virtue of the faith of Al-Islam, the 
 faith of Abraham the Friend, and by the Supreme Lord, I will 
 assuredly go to the land of Al-Irak and fierce war upon it I will set on 
 foot." Then they returned to the city and going in to the King, 
 kissed ground before him. He rose to Gharib and saluted Sahim ; 
 after which the elder brother told him what had happened and he 
 put ten captains at his commandment, under each one's hand ten 
 thousand horse of the doughtiest of the Arabs and the 'Ajams, who 
 equipped themselves and were ready to depart in three days. Then 
 Gharib set out and journeyed till he reached the Castle of Sasa, 
 whence the Ghul and his sons came forth to meet him, and dis- 
 mounting, kissed his feet in the stirrui)s. He told them all that had 
 passed and the giant said, " O my lord, do thou abide in this thy 
 castle, whilst I with my sons and servants repair to Al-Irak and lay 
 
 ^ Elliptical, " he rode out in great state, that is to say if greatness can truly be 
 attributed to man," for, etc.
 
 2 14 Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 waste the city Al-Rustak^ and bring to thy hand all its defenders 
 bound in straitest bond." But Gharib thanked him and said, " O 
 Sa'adan, we will all go." So he made him ready and the whole body 
 set out for Al-Irak, leaving a thousand horse to guard the Castle. 
 Thus far concerning them ; but as regards Mardas, he arrived with 
 his tribe in the land of Al-Irak bringing with him a handsome present 
 and fared for Cufa-city which he entered. Then, he presented him- 
 self before Ajib and kissed ground between his hands and, after 
 wishing him what is wished to kings, said, " O my lord, I come to 
 
 place myself under thy protection." And Shahrazad was surprised 
 
 by the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Mardas, 
 coming into the presence of Ajib, said to him, " I come to place 
 myself under thy protection !" Quoth Ajib, " Tell me who hath 
 wronged thee, that I may protect thee against him, though it were 
 Sabur, King of the Persians and Turcomans and Daylamites." 
 Quoth Mardas, " O King of the Age, he who hath wronged me is 
 none other than a youth whom I reared in my bosom. I found him 
 in his mother's lap in a certain valley and took her to wife. She 
 brought me a son, whom I named Sahim al-Layl, and her own son, 
 Gharib hight, grew up on my knees and became a blasting thunder- 
 bolt and a lasting calamity,- for he smote Al-Hamal,^ Prince of the 
 Banu Nabhan, and slew footmen and threw horsemen. Now I have 
 a daughter, who befitteth thee alone, and he sought her of me ; so 
 I required of him the head of the Ghul of the Mountain, wherefore 
 he went to him and, after engaging him in combat singular, made 
 the master his man and took the Castle of Sasa bin Shays bin 
 Shaddad bin Ad, wherein are the treasures of the ancients and the 
 hoards of the moderns. Moreover, I hear that, become a Moslem, 
 he goeth about summoning the folk to his faith. He is now gone to 
 
 ^ According to D'Herbelot {s.v. Rostac) it is a name given to the villages of 
 Khorasan, as " Souad " (Sawad) to those of Al-Irak, and Makhlaf to those of Al- 
 Yaman : there is, however, a well-known Al-Rustak (which like Al-Bahrayn 
 always takes the article) in the Province of Oman West of Maskat ; and, as it 
 rhymes with "Irak," it does well enough. Mr, Badger calls this ancient 
 capital of the Ya'arubah Imams " er-Rastak " (Imams of Oman). 
 
 '" i.e. a furious knight. 
 
 ^ In the Mac. Edit. "Hassan," which may rhyme with Nabhan, but it is a 
 mere blunder.
 
 The History of Gharib and his BrotJier Ajib. 215 
 
 bear the Princess of Persia, whom he deUvered from the Ghul, back 
 to her father, King Sabur, and will not return but with the treasures 
 of the Persians." When Ajib heard the story of Mardas he changed 
 colour to yellow and was in ill case and made sure of his own 
 destruction ; then he said, " O Mardas, is the youth's mother with 
 thee or with him ?" and Mardas replied, " She is with me in my tents." 
 Quoth Ajib, "What is her name?" and quoth Mardas, "Her name 
 is Nusrah." " 'Tis very she," rejoined Ajib and sent for her to the 
 presence. Now when she came before him, he looked on her and 
 knew her and asked her, " O accursed, where are the two slaves I sent 
 with thee ? " and she answered, " They slew each other on my 
 account ; " whereupon Ajib bared his blade and smote her and cut 
 her in twain. Then they dragged her away and cast her out ; but 
 trouble and suspicion entered Ajib's heart and he cried, " O Mardas, 
 give me thy daughter to wife." He rejoined, " She is one of thine 
 handmaids : I give her to thee to wife, and I am thy slave." Said 
 Ajib, " I desire to look upon this son of a slave, Gharib, that I may 
 destroy him and cause him taste all manner of torments." Then he 
 bade give IMardas, to his daughter's dowry, thirty thousand dinars 
 and an hundred pieces of silk brocaded and fringed with gold and 
 an hundred pieces of silk-bordered stuffs and kerchiefs and golden 
 collars. So he went forth with this mighty fine dowry and set him- 
 self to equip Mahdiyah in all diligence. Such was their case ; but 
 as regards Gharib, he fared on till he came to Al-Jazi'rah, which is 
 the first town of Al-Irak^ and is a walled and fortified city and hard 
 by it he called a halt. When the townsfolk saw his army encamped 
 before it, they bolted the gates and manned the walls, then went to 
 the King of the city, who was called Al-Damigh, the Brainer, for 
 that he used to brain the champions in the open field of fight, and 
 told him what was come upon them. So he looked forth from the 
 battlements of the palace and seeing a conquering host, all of them 
 Persians, encamped before the city, said to the citizens, " O folk, 
 what do yonder 'Ajams want ? " and they replied, " We know not." 
 Now Al-Damigh had among his officers a man called Saba' al- 
 Kifar, the Desert-lion, keen of wit and penetrating as he were a 
 flame of fire ; so he called him and said to him, " Go to this stranger 
 host and find out who they be and what they want and return 
 quickly." Accordingly, he sped like the wind to the Persian tents, 
 where a company of Arabs rose up and met him saying, "Who art 
 thou and what dost thou require ? " He replied, " I am a mes- 
 
 ' In Classical Arabic Irak (like Yaman, Bahrayn and Rustak) always takes the 
 article. But sec p. 237.
 
 2 1 6 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 senger and an envoy from the lord of the city to your chief." So 
 they took him and carried him through the hnes of tents, paviUons 
 and standards, till they came to Gharib's Shahmiyanah and told him 
 of the mission. He bade them bring him in and they did so, where- 
 upon he kissed ground before Gharib and wished him honour and 
 length of days. Quoth Gharib, " What is thine errand ? " and quoth 
 Saba' al-Kifar, " I am an envoy from the lord of the city of Al-Jazirah, 
 Al-Damigh, brother of King Kundamir, lord of the city of Cufa and 
 the land of Al-Irak." When Gharib heard his father's name, the tears 
 railed from his eyes in rills and he looked at the messenger and said 
 " What is thy name?" and he replied, " My name is Saba' al-Kifar." 
 Said Gharib, " Return to thy lord and tell him that the commander 
 of this host is called Gharib, son of Kundamir, King of Cufa, whom 
 his son Ajib slew, and he is come to take blood-revenge for his sire 
 on Ajib the perfidious hound." So Saba' al-Kifar returned to the 
 city and in great joy kissed the ground, when Al-Damigh said, 
 " What is going on there, O Saba' al-Kifar ? " He replied, " O my 
 master, the leader of yon host is thy nephew, thy brother's son," and 
 told him all. The King deemed himself in a dream and asked the 
 messenger, "O Saba' al-Kifar, is this thou tellest me true?" and 
 the Desert-lion answered, "As thy head liveth, it is sooth ! " Then 
 Al-Damigh bade his chief officers take horse forthright and all rode 
 out to the carnp, whence Gharib came forth and met him and they 
 embraced and saluted each other ; after which Gharib carried him 
 to his tents and they sat down on beds of estate. Al-Damigh 
 rejoiced in Gharib, his brother's son, and presently turning to him, 
 said, " I also have yearned to take blood-revenge for thy father, but 
 could not avail against the dog thy brother ; for that his troops are 
 many and my troops are few." Replied Gharib, " O uncle, here am 
 I come to avenge my sire and blot out our shame and rid the realm 
 of Ajib." Said Al-Damigh, " O son of my brother, thou hast two 
 blood-wreaks to take, that of thy father and that of thy mother." 
 Asked Gharib, "And what aileth my mother?" and Al-Damigh 
 
 answered, "Thy brother Ajib hath slain her!" And Shahrazad 
 
 perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 Noto \xs^m ft toas tf)c ^I'x l^untrrcH antJ ^i^irtg-sixt^ Nfgftt, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O ^auspicious King, that when 
 Gharib heard these words of his uncle Al-Damigh, " Verily thy 
 brother Ajib hath slain her ! " he asked what was the cause 
 thereof and was told of all that had happened, especially how
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib. 217 
 
 Mardas had promised his daughter to Ajib. Thereupon Gharib's 
 reason fled from his head and he swooned away and was nigh upon 
 death. No sooner did he come to himself than he cried out to the 
 troops, saying, " To horse ! " But Al-Damigh said to him, " O son 
 of my brother, wait till I make ready mine affairs and mount among 
 my men and fare with thee at thy stirrup." Replied Gharib, " I 
 have no patience to wait ; do thou equip thy troops and join me at 
 Cufa." Thereupon Gharib mounted with his troops and rode, till 
 he came to the town of Babel, ^ whose folk took fright at him. Now 
 there was in this town a King called Jamak, under whose hand were 
 twenty thousand horsemen, and there gathered themselves together to 
 him from the villages other fifty thousand horse, who pitched their 
 tents facing the city. Then Gharib wrote a letter and sent it to King 
 Jamak by a messenger, who came up to the city-gate and cried out, 
 saying, " I am an envoy ;" whereupon the Warder of the Gate went 
 in and told Jamak, who .said, " Bring him to me." So he led in the 
 messenger who, kissing the ground before the King, gave him the 
 letter, and Jamak opened it and read its contents as follows : " Praise 
 be to Allah, Lord of the Three Worlds, Lord of all things, who giveth 
 to all creatures their daily bread and who over all things is Omni- 
 potent ! These from Gharib, son of King Kundamir, lord of Al-Irak 
 and Cufa, to Jamak. Immediately this letter reacheth thee, let not 
 thy reply be other than to break thine idols and confess the unity of 
 the All-knowing King, Creator of light and darkness, Creator of all 
 things, the All-powerful ; and except thou do as I bid thee, I will 
 make this day the blackest of thy days. Peace be on those who 
 follow in the wake of Salvation, fearing the issues of evil and who obey 
 the best of the Most High King, Lord of this world and the next. 
 Him who saith to a thing : — Be ; and it becometh ! " Now when 
 Jamak read this letter, his eyes paled and his colour failed and he 
 cried out to the messenger, " Go to thy lord and say to him : — To- 
 morrow, at daybreak there shall be fight and conflict and it shall 
 a])pear who is the conquering hero." So he returned and told 
 Gharib, who bade his men make ready for battle, whilst Jamak com- 
 manded his tents to be pitched in face of Gharib's camp : and his 
 troops poured forth like the surging sea and passed the night with 
 intention of slaughter. As soon as dawned the day, the two hosts 
 mounted and drew up in battle-array and beat their drums amain 
 and dravc their steeds of swiftest strain ; and they filled the whole 
 earthly plain ; and the champions to come out were fain. Now the 
 
 ^ The story-tellor goes back from Kufah founded in Omar's day to the times of 
 Abraham.
 
 2i8 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 first who sallied forth a-championing to the field was the Ghul of 
 the Mountain, bearing on shoulder a terrible tree, and he cried out 
 between the two hosts, saying, " I am Sa'adan the Ghul ! Who is 
 for fighting, who is for jousting ? Let no sluggard come forth to me 
 or weakling." And he called aloud to his sons, saying, "Woe to you! 
 Bring me fuel and fire, for I am an-hungered." So they cried upon 
 their slaves who brought firewood and kindled a fire in the heart of 
 the plain. Then there came out to him a man of the Kafirs, an 
 Amalekite of the unbeheving Amalekites, bearing on his shoulder a 
 mace like the mast of a ship, and drove at Sa'adan the Ghul, saying, 
 "Woe to thee, O Sa'adan !" When the giant heard this, he waxed 
 furious beyond measure and raising his tree-club aimed at the Infidel 
 a blow that hummed through the air. The Amalekite met the stroke 
 with his mace, but the tree beat down his guard and descending 
 by its own weight, together with the weight of the mace upon his 
 head, beat in his brain-pan, and he fell like a long-stemmed palm- 
 tree. Thereupon Sa'adan cried to his slaves, saying, "Take this 
 fatted calf and roast him quickly." So they hastened to skin the 
 Infidel and roasted him and brought him to the Ghul, who ate his 
 flesh and crunched his bones.^ Now when the Kafirs saw how 
 Sa'adan did with their fellow, their hair and pile stood on end ; 
 their skins quaked, their colour changed, their hearts died within 
 them and they said to one another, " Whoever goeth out against 
 this Ghul, he eateth him and cracketh his bones and causeth 
 him to lack the zephyr-wind of the world." Wherefore they held 
 their hands, quailing for fear of the Ghul and his sons and turned 
 to fly, making for the town ; but Gharib cried out to his troops, saying, 
 " Up and after the runaways ! " Accordingly the Persians and Arabs 
 drave after the King of Babel and his host and caused sword to smite 
 them till they slew of them twenty thousand or more. Then the fugi- 
 tives crowded together in the city -gate and they killed of them much 
 people ; and they could not avail to shut the gate. So the Arabs 
 and the Persians entered with them, fighting, and Sa'adan, snatching 
 a mace from one of the slain, wielded it in the enemy's face and 
 gained the city race-course. Thence he fought his way through the 
 foe and broke into the King's palace, where he met with Jamak and 
 
 ^ This manoeuvre has often been practised : especially by the first Crusaders 
 under Bohemond (Gibbon) and in late years by the Arab slavers in Eastern Inter- 
 tropical Africa. After their skirmishes with the natives they quartered and 
 " brittled " the dead like game, roasted and boiled the choice parts and pretended 
 to eat the flesh. The enemy, who was not afraid of death, was struck with 
 terror by the idea of being devoured ; and this seems instinctive to the unde- 
 veloped mind.
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib- 219 
 
 so smote him with the mace, that he toppled senseless to the ground. 
 Then he fell upon those who were in the palace and pounded them 
 into pieces, till all that were left cried out, " Quarter ! Quarter ! " 
 
 and Sa'adan said to them, " Pinion your King ! " And Shahrazad 
 
 was surprised by the dawn of day, and ceased saying her permitted 
 say. 
 
 XolB iri^cn It toas tj^c ^\x fl^untitrtr anti ^i)frti}=scbi:nt|^ Wigj^t, 
 
 Shahrazad continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that 
 Sa'adan having broken into the palace of King Jamak and pounded 
 to pieces those therein, the survivors cried out, " Quarter ! Quarter ! " 
 and Sa'adan said to them, " Pinion your King ! " So they bound 
 Jamak and took him up, and Sa'adan drove them before him like 
 sheep and brought them to Gharib's presence, after the most part of 
 the citizens had perished by the enemy's swords. When the King 
 of Babel came to himself, he found himself bound and heard 
 Sa'adan say, " I will sup to-night off this King Jamak : " where- 
 upon he turned to Gharib and cried to him, " I throw myself on thy 
 mercy." Replied Gharib, " Become a Moslem, and thou shalt be 
 safe from the Ghul and from the vengeance of the Living One who 
 ceaseth not." So Jamak professed Al-Islam with heart and tongue 
 and Gharib bade loose his bonds. Then he expounded The Faith 
 to his people and they all became True Believers ; after which 
 Jamak returned to the city and despatched thence provision and 
 henchmen to Gharib and wine to the camp before Babel where 
 they passed the night. On the morrow, Gharib gave the signal for 
 the march and they fared on till they came to Mayyafliriki'n,^ which 
 they found empty, for its people had heard what had befallen Babel 
 and had fled to Cufa-city and told Ajib. When he heard the news, 
 his Doom-day appeared to him and he assembled his braves and 
 informing them of the enemy's approach ordered them make ready 
 to do battle with his brother's host ; after which he numbered them 
 and found them thirty thousand horse and ten thousand foot.- So, 
 needing more, he levied other fifty thousand men, cavalry and 
 infantry, and taking horse amid a mighty host, rode forwards, till he 
 came upon his brother's army encamped before Mosul and pitched 
 
 ^ Mayyafarikin, whose adjective for shortness is " Farikf ": the place is often 
 mentioned in The Nights as the then capital of Diyar Bakr, thirty parasangs from 
 Nasibin, the classical Nisihis, between the upper Euphrates and Tigris. 
 
 ^ This proportion is singular to moderns but characterised Arab and more 
 especially Turcoman armies.
 
 2 20 Aif Laylah wa Lay 1 ah. 
 
 his tents in front of their Hnes. Then Gharib wrote a writ and said 
 to his officers, "Which of you will carry this letter to Ajib?" 
 Whereupon Sahim sprang to his feet and cried, ''O King of the age, 
 I will bear thy missive and bring thee back an answer." So Gharib 
 gave him the epistle and he repaired to the pavilion of Ajib who, 
 when informed of his coming, said, " Admit him ! " and when he 
 stood in the presence asked him, " Whence comest thou ? " Answered 
 Sahim, " From the King of the Arabs and the Persians, son-in-law 
 of Chosroe, King of the world, who sendeth thee a writ ; so do thou 
 return him a reply." Quoth Ajib, " Give me the letter ; " accordingly 
 Sahim gave it to him and he tore it open and found therein : — " In 
 the name of Allah the Compassionating, the Compassionate ! Peace 
 on Abraham the Friend await ! But afterwards. As soon as this 
 letter shall come to thy hand, do thou confess the Unity of the 
 Bountiful King, Causer of causes and Mover of the clouds;^ and 
 leave worshipping idols. An thou do this thing, thou art my 
 brother and ruler over us and I will pardon thee the deaths of my 
 father and mother, nor will I reproach thee with what thou hast 
 done. But an thou obey not my bidding, behold, I will hasten to 
 thee and cut off thy head and lay waste thy realm. Verily, I 
 give thee good counsel, and the Peace be on those who pace the 
 path of salvation and obey the Most High King ! " When Ajib 
 read these words and knew the threat they contained, his eyes 
 sank into the crown of his head and he gnashed his teeth and flew 
 into a furious rage. Then he tore the letter in pieces and threw it 
 away, which vexed Sahim and he cried out upon Ajib, saying, 
 " Allah wither thy hand for the deed thou hast done ! " ^ With this 
 
 ^ Such is the bathos caused by the Saja'-assonance : in the music of the 
 Arabic it contrasts strangely with the baldness of translation. The same is the 
 case with the Koran, beautiful in the original and miserably dull in European 
 languages : it is like the glorious style of the " Anglican Version " by the side of 
 its bastard brothers in Hindostani or Marathi ; one of these marvels of stupidity 
 translating the " Lamb of God " by " God's little goat." 
 
 - This incident is taken from the Life of Mohammed who, in the "Year of 
 Missions" (A.H. 7) sent letters to foreign potentates bidding them embrace Al- 
 Islam ; and, his seal being in three lines, Mohammed | Apostle | of Allah, 
 Khusrau Parwiz (rrthe Charming) was offended because his name was placed 
 below Mohammed's. 60 he tore the letter in pieces adding, says Firdausi, these 
 words : — 
 
 Hath the Arab's daring performed such feat, 
 
 Fed on camel's milk and the lizard's meat, 
 
 That he cast on Kayanian crown his eye ? 
 
 Fie, O whirling world ! on thy faith and fie ! 
 
 Hearing of this insult Mohammed exclaimed, "Allah shall tear his kingdom! " a 
 prophecy which was of course fulfilled, or we should not have heard of it. These 
 lines are horribly mutilated in the Dabistan, iii. 99.
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib. 221 
 
 Ajib cried out to his men, saying, " Seize yonder hound and hew 
 him in pieces with your hangers." So they ran at Sahim ; but he 
 bared blade and fell upon them and slew of them more than fifty 
 braves ; after which he cut his way out, though bathed in blood, 
 and won back to Gharib, who said, "What is this case, O Sahim?" 
 And he told him what had passed, whereat he grew livid for rage 
 and crying, " Allaho Akbar — God is Most Great !" — bade the battle- 
 drums beat. So the fighting-men donned their hauberks and coats 
 of straitwoven mail and baldrick'd themselves with their swords ; 
 the footmen drew out in battle-array, whilst the horsemen mounted 
 their prancing horses and dancing camels and levelled their long 
 lances, and the champions rushed into the field. Ajib and his 
 
 men also took horse and host charged down upon host. And 
 
 Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her per- 
 mitted say. 
 
 iSofo to!)cn ft iDns t]^c ^i.x |^unt(rcti nnU ^jbirtij-figfjtlb iatgljt, 
 
 She pursued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Gha- 
 rib and his merry men took horse, Ajib and his troops also mounted 
 and host charged down upon host. Then ruled the Kazi of Battle, 
 in whose ordinance is no wrong, for a seal is on his lips and he 
 speaketh not ; and the blood railed in rills and purfled earth with 
 curious embroidery ; heads grew gray and hotter waxed battle and 
 fiercer. Feet slipped and stood firm the valiant and pushed forwards, 
 whilst turned the faint-heart and fled, nor did they leave fighting till 
 the day darkened and the night starkened. Then clashed the cymbals 
 of retreat and the two hosts drew apart each from other, and returned 
 to their tents, where they nighted. Next morning, as soon as it was 
 day, the cymbals beat to battle and derring-do, and the warriors 
 donned their harness of fight and baldrick'd ^ their blades the brightest 
 bright and with the brown lance bedight mounted doughty steed every 
 knight and cried out, saying, " This day no flight ! " And the two 
 hosts drew out in battle array, like the surging sea. The first to open 
 the chapter - of war was Sahim, who dravc his destrier between the 
 
 ^ This "Taklid" must not be translated "girt on the sword." The Arab 
 carries his weapon by a baldricic or baniioleer passed over Ins right shoulder. In 
 modern days the " Majdal" over the left shoulder supports on the riqht hip a 
 line of Tatdrif or brass cylinders for cartridges ; the other cross-belt (Al-Masdar) 
 bears on the left side the Kharizali or bull"t-pouch of hide ; and the Ilizdm or 
 waist-belt holds the dagger and extra cartridges. (Pilgrimage iii. go). 
 
 - Arab. "Bab," which may mean door or gate. The [ilural form (Abwab) 
 occurs in the next line, meaning that he displayed all manner of martial prowess.
 
 222 Alf Laylah wa Lay /ah. 
 
 two lines and played with swords and spears and turned over all the 
 Capitula of combat till men of choicest wits were confounded. Then 
 he cried out, saying, "Who is for fighting? Who is for jousting ? 
 Let no sluggard come out or weakling ! " Thereupon there rushed 
 at him a horseman of the Kafirs, as he were a flame of fire ; but 
 Sahim let him not stand long before him ere he overthrew him with 
 a thrust. Then a second came forth and he slew him also, and a 
 third and he tare him in twain, and a fourth and he did him to death ; 
 nor did they cease sallying out to him and he left not slaying them, 
 till it was noon, by which time he had laid low two hundred braves. 
 Then Ajib cried to his men, " Charge once more," and sturdy host 
 on sturdy host down bore and great was the clash of arms and battle- 
 roar. The shining swords out rang ; the blood in streams ran and 
 and footman rushed upon footman ; Death showed in van and 
 horse-hoof was shodden with skull of man ; nor did they cease from 
 sore smiting till waned the day and the night came on in black 
 array, when they drew apart and, returning to their tents, passed the 
 night there. As soon as morning morrowed the two hosts mounted 
 and sought the field of fight ; and the Moslems looked for Gharib 
 to back steed and ride under the standards as was his wont, but 
 he came not. So Sahim sent to his brother's pavilion a slave who, 
 finding him not, asked the tent-pitchers,^ but they answered, " We 
 know naught of him." Whereat he was greatly concerned and 
 went forth and told the troops, who refrained from battle, saying, 
 "An Gharib be absent, his foe will destroy us." Now there was 
 for Gharib's absence a cause strange but true which we will set 
 out in order due. And it was thus. When Ajib returned to his 
 camp on the preceding night, he called one of his guardsmen by 
 name Sayyar and said to him, " O Sayyar, I have not treasured 
 thee save for a day like this ; and now I bid thee enter among 
 Gharib's host and pushing into the marquee of their lord, bring 
 him hither to me and prove how wily thy cunning be." And 
 Sayyar said, " I hear and I obey." So he repaired to the enemy's 
 camp and stealing into Gharib's pavilion, under the darkness of 
 the night, when all the men had gone to their places of rest, stood 
 up as though he were a slave to serve Gharib, who presently, 
 being athirst, called to him for water. So he brought him a pitcher 
 of water, drugged with Bhang, and Gharib could not fulfil his need 
 ere he fell down with head distancing heels, whereupon Sayyar 
 wrapped him in his cloak and carrying him to Ajib's tent, threw him 
 
 ^ Arab. " Farrash " (also used in Persian), a man of general utility who pitches 
 tents, sweeps the floors, administers floggings, etc., etc. (Pilgrimage iii. 90).
 
 The History of Gharib aiid his Brother Ajib. 223 
 
 down at his feet. Quoth Ajib, " O Sayyar, what is this ? " Quoth 
 he, "This be thy brother Gharib ; " whereat Ajib rejoiced and said, 
 " The blessings of the Idols light upon thee ! Loose him and wake 
 him." So they made him snuff up vinegar and he came to himself 
 and opened his eyes ; then, finding himself bound and in a tent 
 other than his own, exclaimed, "There is no Majesty and there is 
 no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great ! " Thereupon 
 Ajib cried out at him, saying, " Dost thou draw on me, O dog, and 
 seek to slay me and take on me thy blood-wreak of thy father and 
 thy mother ? I will send thee this very day to them and rid the 
 world of thee." Replied Gharib, " Kafir hound ! soon shalt thou 
 see against whom the wheels of fate shall revolve and who shall be 
 overthrown by the wrath of the Almighty King, Who wotteth what 
 is in hearts and Who shall leave thee in Gehenna tormented and 
 confounded ! Have ruth on thyself and say with me : — There is 
 no god but the God, and Abraham is the Friend of God ! " When 
 Ajib heard Gharib's words, he snarked and snorted and railed at 
 his god, the Stone, and called for the sworder and the leather-rug of 
 blood ; but his Wazir, who was at heart a Moslem though outwardly 
 a Miscreant, rose and kissing ground before him, said, " Patience, 
 O King, deal not hastily, but wait till we know the conquered from 
 the conqueror. If we prove the victors, we shall have power to 
 kill him and, if we be beaten, his being alive in our hands will be 
 a strength to us." And the Emirs said, ^' The Minister speaketh 
 
 sooth ! " And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and 
 
 ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 iJ^Toto toljcn it foas tijc S'l"*: IL^unUrctr anti ^fjtrtn^nfntfj "^i^x, 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Ajib proposed to slay Gharib, the Wazir rose and said, " Deal not 
 hastily, for we always have power to kill him ! " So Ajib bade lay 
 his brother Gharib in irons and chain him up in his own tent and 
 set a thousand stout warriors to guard him. Meanwhile Gharib's 
 host, when they awoke that morning and found not their King, 
 were as sheep sans shepherd ; but Sa'adan the Ghul cried out at 
 them, saying, " O folk, don your war-gear and trust to your Lord to 
 defend you ! " So Arabs and Ajams mounted horse, after clothing 
 themselves in hauberks of iron and shirting themselves in strait- 
 knit mail, and sallied forth to the field, the Chiefs and the colours 
 moving in van. Then dashed out the Ghul of the Mountain, with 
 a club on his shoulder, two hundred pounds in wei;3^ht, and wheeled
 
 2 24 Alf Laylah wa Lay la h. 
 
 and careered, saying, " Ho, worshippers of idols, come ye out and 
 renown it this day, for 'tis a day of onslaught ! Whoso knoweth 
 me hath enough of my mischief and whoso knoweth me not, I will 
 make myself known to him. I am Sa'adan, servant of King Gharib. 
 Who is for jousting ? Who is for fighting ? Let no faint-heart come 
 forth to me to-day or weakling." And there rushed upon him a 
 champion of the Infidels, as he were a flame of fire, and drove at 
 him, but Sa'adan charged home at him and dealt him with his club 
 a blow which broke his ribs and cast him lifeless to the earth. Then 
 he called out to his sons and slaves, saying, " Light the bonfire, and 
 whoso falleth of the Kafirs do ye dress him and roast him well in 
 the flame, then bring him to me that I may break my fast on him ! " 
 So they kindled a fire midmost the plain and laid thereon the slain, 
 till he was cooked, when they brought him to Sa'adan, who gnawed 
 his flesh and crunched his bones. When the Miscreants saw the 
 Mountain-Ghul do this deed they were affrighted with sore affright, 
 but Ajib cried out to his men, saying, " Out on you ! Fall upon the 
 Ogre and hew him in hunks with your scymitars ! " So twenty 
 thousand men ran at Sa'adan, whilst the footmen circled round him 
 and rained upon him darts and shafts so that he was wounded in 
 four-and-twenty places, and his blood run down upon the earth, and 
 he was alone. Then the host of the Moslems drave at the heathenry, 
 calling for help upon the Lord of the Three Worlds, and they 
 ceased not from fight and fray till the day came to an end, when 
 they drew apart. But the Infidels had captured Sa'adan, as he 
 were a drunken man for loss of blood ; and they bound him fast 
 and set him by Gharib who, seeing the Ghul a prisoner, said, 
 " There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the 
 Glorious, the Great ! O Sa'adan, what case is this?" "O my lord," 
 replied Sa'adan, " it is Allah (extolled and exalted be He !) who 
 ordaineth joy and annoy and there is no help but this and that 
 betide." And Gharib rejoined, " Thou speakest sooth, O Sa'adan ! " 
 But Ajib passed the night in joy and he said to his men, Mount ye 
 on the morrow and fall upon the Moslems so shall not one of them 
 be left alive." And they replied, " Hearkening and obedience !" 
 This is how it fared with them ; but as regards the Moslems, they 
 passed the night, dejected and weeping for their King and Sa'adan ; 
 but Sahim said to them, " O folk, be not concerned, for the aidance 
 of Almighty Allah is nigh." Then he waited till midnight, when he 
 assumed the garb of a tent-pitcher ; and, repairing to Ajib's camp, 
 made his way between the tents and pavilions till he came to the 
 King's marquee, where he saw him seated on his throne surrounded 
 by his Princes. So he entered and going up to the candles which
 
 The History of Gharib arid his Brother A/id. 225 
 
 burnt in the tent, snuffed them and sprinkled levigated henbane on 
 the wicks ; after which he withdrew and waited without the marquee, 
 till the smoke of the burning henbane reached Ajib and his Princes 
 and they fell to the ground like dead men. Then he left them and 
 went to the prison tent, where he found Gharib and Sa'adan, guarded 
 by a thousand braves, who were overcome with sleep. So he cried 
 out at the guards^ saying, " Woe to you ! Sleep not ; but watch your 
 prisoners and light the cressets." Presently he filled a cresset with 
 firewood, on which he strewed henbane, and lighting it, went round 
 about the tent with it, till the smoke entered the nostrils of the 
 guards, and they all fell asleep drowned by the drug ; when he 
 entered the tent and finding Gharib and Sa'adan also insensible he 
 aroused them by making them smell and sniff at a sponge full of 
 vinegar he had with him. Thereupon he loosed their bonds and 
 collars, and when they saw him, they blessed him and rejoiced in 
 him. After this they went forth and took all the arms of the guards 
 and Sahim said to them, " Go to your own camp ;" while he re- 
 entered Ajib's pavilion and, wrapping him in his cloak, lifted him up 
 and made for the Moslem encampment. And the Lord, the Com- 
 passionate, protected him, so that he reached Gharib's tent in safety 
 and unrolled the cloak before him. Gharib looked at its contents 
 and seeing his brother Ajib bound, cried out, " AUaho Akbar — God 
 is Most Great ! Aidance ! Victory !" And he blessed Sahim and 
 bade him arouse Ajib. So he made him smell the vinegar mixed 
 with incense, and he opened his eyes and, finding himself bound 
 
 and shackled, hung down his head earthwards. And Shahrazad 
 
 perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 :^Coli] tufjcn it Inas tljc ^fx fXTuntrictr antf Jfortictl) Xigfjt, 
 
 She said, it hath reached me, O auspicious King, that after Sahim 
 had aroused Ajib, whom he had made insensible with henbane, and 
 had brought to his brother Gharib, the captive opened his eyes and, 
 feeling himself bound and shackled, hung down his head earthwards. 
 Thereupon cried Sahim, "O Accursed, lift thy head !" So he raised 
 his eyes and found himself amongst Arabs and Ajams and saw his 
 brother seated on the throne of his estate and the place of his 
 power, wherefore he was silent and spake not. Then Gharib cried 
 out and said, " Strip me this hound !" So they stripped him and 
 came down upon him with whips, till tliey weakened his body and 
 subdued his pride, after which Gharib set over him a guard of an 
 hundred knights. And when this fraternal correction had been 
 
 VOL. IV. P
 
 2 26 A If Lay la h wa Lay la h. 
 
 administered they heard shouts of, " There is no God but the God !" 
 and "God is Most Great !" from the camp of the Kafirs. Now the 
 cause of this was that, ten days after his nephew King Al-Damigh, 
 Gharib's uncle, had set out from Al-Jazirah, with twenty thousand 
 horse, and on nearing the field of battle, had despatched one of his 
 scouts to get news. The man was absent a whole day, at the end 
 of which time he returned and told Al-Damigh all that had happened 
 to Gharib with his brother. So he waited till the night, when he fell 
 upon the Infidels, crying out, " Allaho Akbar !" and put them to the 
 edge of the biting scymitar. When Gharib heard the Takbir,^ he 
 said to Sahim, " Go find out the cause of these shouts and war-cries." 
 So Sahim repaired to the field of battle and questioned the slaves 
 and camp followers, who told him that King Al-Damigh had come 
 up with twenty thousand men and had fallen upon the idolaters by 
 night, saying, " By the virtue of Abraham the Friend, I will not 
 forsake my brother's son, but will play a brave man's part and beat 
 back the host of Miscreants and please the Omnipotent King !" ^o 
 Sahim returned and told his uncle's derring-do to Gharib, who cried 
 out to his men, saying, " Don your arms and mount your steeds 
 and let us succour my father's brother !" So they took horse 
 and fell upon the Infidels and put them to the edge of the 
 sharp sword. By the morning they had killed nigh fifty thousand 
 of the Kafirs and made other thirty thousand prisoners, and the rest 
 of Ajib's army dispersed over the length and breadth of earth. Then 
 the Moslems returned in victory and triumph, and Gharib rode out 
 to meet his uncle, whom he saluted and thanked for his help. Quoth 
 Al-Damigh, " I wonder if that dog Ajib fell in this day's affair." 
 Quoth Gharib, " O uncle, be of good cheer and keep thine eyes cool 
 and clear : know that he is with me in chains." When Al-Damigh 
 heard this he rejoiced with exceeding joy and the two kings dis- 
 mounted and entered the pavilion, but found no Ajib there ; where- 
 upon Gharib exclaimed, " O glory of Abraham the Friend (with 
 whom be the Peace !)," adding, "Alas, what an ill end is this to a 
 glorious day!" and he cried out to the tent-pitchers, saying, "Woe 
 to you ! Where is my enemy who oweth me so much ? " Quoth 
 they, "When thou mountedst and we went with thee, thou didst 
 not bid us guard him ; " and Gharib exclaimed, " There is no Majesty 
 and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great ! " But 
 Al-Damigh said to him, " Hasten not nor be concerned, for where 
 can he go, and we in pursuit of him?" Now the manner of Ajib's 
 
 ' i.e. the slogan-cry of " Allaho Akbar," which M. C. Barbier de Meynard 
 compares with the Christian " Te Deum."
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib. 227 
 
 escape was in this wise. His page Sayyar had been ambushed in 
 the camp and when he saw Gharib mount and ride forth, leaving 
 none to guard his enemy Ajib, he could hardly credit his eyes. So 
 he waited awhile and presently crept to the tent and taking on his 
 back Ajib, who was senseless for the pain of the bastinado, made 
 off with him into the open country and fared on at the top of his 
 speed from early night to the next day, till he came to a spring of 
 water, under an apple tree. There he set down Ajib from his back 
 and washed his face, whereupon he opened his eyes and seeing 
 Sayyar, said to him, " O Sayyar, carry me to Cufa that I may recover 
 there and levy horsemen and soldiers wherewith to overthrow my 
 foe : and know, O Sayyar, that I am anhungered." So Sayyar 
 sprang up and going out to the desert caught an ostrich-poult and 
 brought it to his lord. Then he gathered fuel and deftly using the 
 fire-sticks kindled a fire, by which he roasted the bird which he had 
 hallal'd ^ and fed Ajib with its flesh and gave him to drink of the 
 water of the spring, till his strength returned to him, after which he 
 went to one of the Badawi tribal encampments, and stealing thence 
 a steed mounted Ajib upon it and journeyed on with him for many 
 days till they drew near the city of Cufa. The Viceroy of the 
 capital came out to meet and salute the King, whom he found weak 
 with the beating his brother had inflicted upon him ; and Ajib 
 entered the city and called his physicians. When they answered his 
 summons, he bade them heal him in less than ten days' time : they 
 said, " We hear and we obey," and they tended him till he became 
 whole of the sickness that was upon him and of the punishment. 
 Then he commanded his Wazirs to write letters to all his Nabobs 
 and vassals, and he indited one-and-twenty writs and despatched 
 them to the Governors, who assembled their troops and set out for 
 
 Cufa by forced marches. And Shahrazad was surprised by the 
 
 dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 Nob \sA)i\\ it toas tbc ^ix IDuntiietr anti jportii-first Xt'gibt, 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Ajib 
 sent orders to assemble the troops, who marched forthright to Cufa. 
 Meanwhile, Gharib, being troubled for Ajib's escape, despatched in 
 quest of him a thousand braves, who dispersed on all sides and 
 sought him a day and a night, but found no trace of him ; so they 
 
 ' The Anglo- Indian term for the Moslem rite of killing animals for food. 
 (Pilgrimage i. 377.)
 
 2 28 Alf Laylah wa Lay la h. 
 
 returned and told Gharib, who called for his brother Sahim, but 
 found him not ; whereat he was sore concerned, fearing for him from 
 the shifts of Fortune. And lo ! Sahim entered and kissed ground 
 before Gharib, who rose, when he saw him, and asked, " Where hast 
 thou been, O Sahim?" He answered, "O King, I have been to 
 Cufa and there I find that the dog Ajib hath made his way to his 
 capital and is healed of his hurts : also, he hath written letters to his 
 vassals and sent them to his Nabobs who have brought him troops." 
 When Gharib heard this, he gave the command to march ; so they 
 struck tents and fared for Cufa. When they came in sight of the city, 
 they found it compassed about with a host like the surging main, 
 having neither beginning nor end. So Gharib with his troops en- 
 camped in face of the Kafirs and set up his standards, and darkness 
 fell down upon the two hosts, whereupon they lighted camp-fires and 
 kept watch till daybreak. Then King Gharib rose and making the 
 Wuzu-ablution, prayed a two-bow prayer according to the rite of our 
 father Abraham the Friend (on whom be the Peace !) after which he 
 commanded the battle-drums to sound the point of war. Accord- 
 ingly, the kettle-drums beat to combat and the standards fluttered 
 whilst the fighting men armour donned and their horses mounted 
 and themselves displayed and to plain fared. Now the first to open 
 the gate of war was King Al-Damigh, who urged his charger between 
 the two opposing armies and displayed himself and played with the 
 swords and the spears, till both hosts were confounded and at him 
 marvelled, after which he cried out, saying, " Who is for jousting ? " 
 Let no sluggard come out to me or weakling ; for I am Al-Damigh, 
 the King, brother of Kundamir the King." Then there rushed forth 
 a horseman of the Kafirs, as he were a flame of fire, and drave at 
 Al-Damigh, without word said ; but the King received him with a 
 lance-thrust in the breast so dour that the point issued from between 
 his shoulders and Allah hurried his soul to the fire, the abiding- 
 place dire. Then came forth a second he slew, and a third he slew 
 likewise, and they ceased not to come out to him and he to slay 
 them, till he had made an end of six-and-seventy fighting men. 
 Hereupon the Miscreants and men of might hung back and would 
 not encounter him ; but Ajib cried out to his men and said, " Fie 
 on you, O folk ! if ye all go forth to meet him, one by one, he will 
 not leave any of you, sitting or standing. Charge on him all at once 
 and cleanse of them our earthly wone and strew their heads for 
 your horses' hoofs like a plain of stone ! " So they waved the awe- 
 striking flag and host was heaped upon host ; blood rained in streams 
 upon earth and railed, and ruled the Judge of battle, in whose 
 ordinance is no unright. The fearless stood firm on feet in the
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib. 229 
 
 stead of fight, whilst the faint-heart gave back and took to flight, 
 thinking the day would never come to an end nor the curtains of 
 gloom would be drawn by the hand of Night ; and they ceased not 
 to battle with swords and to smite till light darkened and murk 
 starkened. Then the kettle-drums of the Infidels beat the retreat, 
 but Gharib, refusing to stay his arms, drave at the Paynimry, and the 
 Believers in Unity, the Moslems, followed him. How many heads 
 and hands they shore, now many necks and sinews they tore, how- 
 many knees and spines they mashed and how many grown men and 
 youths they to death bashed I With the first gleam of morning grey 
 the Infidels broke and fled away, is disorder and disarray ; and the 
 Moslems followed them till middle-day and took over twenty 
 thousand of them, whom they brought to their tents in bonds to stay. 
 Then Gharib sat down before the gate of Cufa and commanded a 
 herald to proclaim pardon and protection for every wight who should 
 leave the worship to idols dight and profess the unity of His All- 
 might, the Creator of mankind and of light and night. So was made 
 proclamation as he bade in the streets of Cufa and all that were 
 therein embraced the True Faith, great and small ; then they issued 
 forth in a body and renewed their Islam before King Gharib, who 
 rejoiced in them with exceeding joy and his breast broadened and 
 he threw off all annoy. Presently he enquired of Mardas and his 
 daughter Mahdiyah, and, being told that he had taken up his abode 
 behind the Red Mountain, he called Sahim and said to him, " Find 
 out for me what is become of thy father." Sahim mounted steed 
 without stay or delay and set his berry-brown spear in rest and fared 
 on in quest till he reached the Red Mountain, where he sought for 
 his father, yet found no trace of him nor of his tribe ; however, he 
 saw in their stead an elder of the Arabs, a very old man, broken 
 with excess of years, and asked him of the folk and whither they 
 were gone. Replied he, " O my son, when Mardas heard of 
 Gharib's descent upon Cufa he feared with great fear and, taking his 
 daughter and his folk, set out with his handmaids and negroes into 
 the wild and wold, and I wot not whither he went." So Sahim, 
 hearing the Shaykh's words, returned to Gharib and told him 
 thereof, whereat he was greatly concerned. Then he sat down on 
 his father's throne and, opening his treasuries, distributed largesse 
 to each and every of his braves. And he took up his abode in Cufa 
 and sent out spies to get news of Ajib ; he likewise summoned the 
 Grandees of the realm, who came and did him homage ; as also did 
 the citizens and he bestowed on them sumptuous robes of honour 
 and commended the Ryots to their care. And Shahrazad per- 
 ceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
 
 230 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 iBoIu tulbtn It foas t]^c ^ix f^untircti anU Jfortg=SEConlJ iStgJbt, 
 
 She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Gharib, 
 after giving robes of honour to the citizens of Cufa and com- 
 mending the Ryots to their care, went out on a day of the days 
 to hunt, with an hundred horse, and fared on till he came to a 
 Wady, abounding in trees and fruits and rich in rills and birds. 
 It was a pasturing-place for roes and gazelles, to the spirit a 
 delight whose scents reposed from the langour of fight. They 
 encamped in the valley, for the day was clear and bright, and 
 there passed the night. On the morrow, Gharib made the Wuzu- 
 ablution and prayed the two-bow dawn-prayer, offering up praise 
 and thanks to Almighty Allah ; when, lo and behold ! there arose a 
 clamour and confusion in the meadows, and he bade Sahim go see 
 what was to do. So Sahim mounted forthright and rode till he 
 espied goods being plundered and horses haltered and women 
 carried off and children crying out. Whereupon he questioned one 
 of the shepherds, saying, "What be all this?" and they replied, 
 " This is the Harim of Mardas, Chief of the Banu Kahtan, and his 
 good and that of his clan ; for yesterday Jamrkan slew Mardas and 
 made prize of his women and children and household stuff and all 
 the belonging of his tribe. It is his wont to go a-raiding and to cut 
 off highways and waylay wayfarers and he is a furious tyrant ; neither 
 Arabs nor Kings can prevail against him and he is the scourge and 
 curse of this country." Now when Sahim heard these news of his 
 sire's slaughter and the looting of his Harim and property, he re- 
 turned to Gharib and told him the case, wherefore fire was added to 
 his fire and his spirit chafed to wipe out his shame and his blood- 
 revenge to claim ; so he rode with his men after the robbers till he 
 overtook them and fell upon them, crying out and saying, " Almighty 
 Allah upon the rebel, the traitor, the infidel ! " and he slew in a 
 single charge one-and-twenty fighting men. Then he halted in mid- 
 field, with no coward's heart, and cried out, "Where is Jamrkan? 
 Let him come out to me, that I may make him quaff the cup of 
 disgrace and rid of him earth's face ! " Hardly had he made an 
 end of speaking, when forth rushed Jamrkan, as he were a calamity 
 of calamities or a piece of a mountain cased in steel. He was a 
 mighty huge^ Amalekite ; and he drave at Gharib without speech or 
 salute, like the fierce tyrant he was. And he was armed with a 
 
 ^ Arab. *' tawilan jiddan " — a hideous Cairenism in these days ; but formerly 
 used by Al-Mas'udi and other good writers.
 
 The History of Gharib and his BrotJier Ajib. 231 
 
 mace of China steel, so heavy, so potent, that had he smitten a hill 
 he had smashed it. Now when he charged, Gharib met him like a 
 hungry lion, and the brigand aimed a blow at his head with his 
 mace ; but he evaded it and it smote the earth and sank therein 
 half a cubit deep. Then Gharib took his battle flail and smiting 
 Jamrkan on the wrist, crushed his fingers and the mace dropped 
 from his grasp ; whereupon Gharib bent down from his seat in the 
 saddle and snatching it up, swiftlier than the blinding leven, smote 
 him therewith full on the flat of the ribs, and he fell to the earth 
 like a long-stemmed palm-tree. So Sahim took him and pinioning 
 him, haled him off with a rope, and Gharib's horsemen fell on those 
 of Jamrkan and slew fifty of them : the rest fled ; nor did they cease 
 flying till they reached their tribal camp and raised their voices in 
 clamour ; whereupon all who were in the Castle came out to meet 
 them and asked the news. They told the tribe what had passed ; 
 and when they heard that their chief was a prisoner, they set out for 
 the valley vying one with other in their haste to deliver him. Now 
 when King Gharib had captured Jamrkan and had seen his braves 
 take flight, he dismounted and called for Jamrkan, who humbled 
 himself before him, saying, " I am under thy protection, O champion 
 of the age ! " Replied Gharib, " O dog of the Arabs, dost thou cut 
 the road for the servants of Almighty Allah, and fearest thou not the 
 Lord of the Worlds ? " " O my master," asked Jamrkan, " and who 
 is the Lord of the Worlds?" " O dog," answered Gharib, "and 
 what calamity dost thou worship ? " He said, " O my lord, I worship 
 a god made of dates^ kneaded with butter and honey, and at times I 
 eat him and make me another." When Gharib heard this, he 
 laughed till he fell backwards and said, " O miserable, there is none . 
 worship-worth save Almighty Allah, who created thee and created all 
 things and provideth all creatures with daily bread, from whom 
 nothing is hid and He over all things is Omnipotent." Quoth 
 Jamrkan, "And where is this great god, that I may worship him?" 
 Quoth Gharib, " O fellow, know that this God's name is Allah — the 
 God — and it is He who fashioned the heavens and the earth and 
 caused the trees to grow and the waters to flow. He created wild 
 beasts and birds and Paradise and Hell-fire and veileth Himself from 
 all eyes, seeing and of none being seen. He, and He only, is the 
 Dweller on high. Extolled be His perfection ! There is no God but 
 
 ^ Arab. " 'Ajwah," enucleated dates pressed together into a solid mass so as to 
 be sliced with a knife like cold pudding. The allusion is to the dough-idols 
 of the Hanifah tribe, whose eating their gods made the saturnine Caliph Omar 
 laugh.
 
 232 A If Laylah wa Layiah. 
 
 He ! " \Vhen Jamrkan heard these words, the ears of his heart were 
 opened, his skin shuddered with horripilation, and he said, " O my 
 lord, what shall I say that I may become of you and that this mighty 
 Lord may accept of me?" Replied Gharib, "Say: — There is no 
 god but the God, and Abraham the Friend is the Apostle of God ! " 
 So he pronounced the profession of the Faith and was written of 
 the people of felicity. Then quoth Gharib, "Say me, hast thou 
 tasted the sweetness of Al-Islam ? " and quoth the other, " Yes ; " 
 whereupon Gharib cried, " Loose his bonds ! " So they unbound 
 him and he kissed ground before Gharib and his feet. Now whilst 
 this was going on, behold, they espied a great cloud of dust that 
 
 towered till it walled the wold And Shahrazad was surprised by 
 
 the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 :N'oIm fajljcn ft teas tj^c ^ix l^untirctr antr jJortB^tbirU Nigijt, 
 
 She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Jamrkan 
 islaiaised and kissed the ground between the hands of Gharib ; and, 
 as they were thus, behold, a great cloud of dust towered till it 
 walled the wold and Gharib said to Sahim, " Go and see for us what 
 it be." So he went forth, like a bird in full flight, and presently 
 returned, saying, " O King of the Age, this dust is of the Banu Amir, 
 the comrades of Jamrkan." Whereupon quoth Gharib to the new 
 Moslem, " Ride out to thy people and offer to them Al-Islam : an 
 they profess, they shall be saved ; but, an they refuse, we will put 
 them to the sword." So Jamrkan mounted and driving steed towards 
 his tribesmen, cried out to them ; and they knew him and dis- 
 mounting, came up to him on foot and said, "We rejoice in thy 
 safety, O our lord ! " Said he, " O folk, whoso obeyeth me shall be 
 saved ; but whoso gainsayeth me, I will cut him in twain with this 
 scymitar." And they made answer, saying, " Command us what thou 
 wilt, for we will not oppose thy commandment." Quoth he, " Then 
 say with me : — There is no god but the God, and Abraham is the 
 Friend of God ! " They asked, " O our lord, whence haddest thou 
 these words ? " And he told them what had befallen him with 
 Gharib, adding, " O folk, know ye not that I am your chief in battle- 
 plain and where men of cut and thrust are fain ; and yet a man 
 single-handed me to prisoner hath ta'en and made me the cup of 
 shame and disgrace to drain ? " When they heard his speech, they 
 spoke the word of Unity, and Jamrkan led them to Gharib, at whose 
 hands they renewed their professions of Al-Islam and wished him 
 glory and victory, after they had kissed the earth before him. Gharib
 
 The History of G ha rib and his Brother Ajib. 233 
 
 rejoiced in them and said to them, " O folk, return to your people 
 and expound Al-Islam to them ; " but all replied, " O our lord, we 
 will never leave thee, whilst we live ; but we will go and fetch our 
 families and return to thee." And Gharib said, "Go and join me 
 at the city of Cufa." So Jamrkan and his comrades returned to 
 their tribal camp and offered Al-Islam to their women and children, 
 who all to a soul embraced the true Faith, after which they dismantled 
 their abodes and struck their tents and set out for Cufa driving before 
 them their steeds, camels and sheep. During this time Gharib 
 returned to Cufa, where the horsemen met him in state. He entered 
 his palace and sat down on his sire's throne with his champions 
 ranged on either hand. Then the spies came forwards, and informed 
 him that his brother Ajib had made his escape and had taken refuge 
 with Jaland ^ bin Karkar, lord of the city of Oman and land of Al- 
 Yaman ; whereupon Gharib cried aloud to his host, " O men, make 
 you ready to march in three days." Then he expounded AlTslam 
 to the thirty thousand men he had captured in the first affair and 
 exhorted them to profess and take service with him. Twenty 
 thousand embraced the Faith, but the rest refused and he slew them. 
 Then came forward Jamrkan and his tribe and kissed the ground 
 before Gharib, who bestowed on him a splendid robe of honour and 
 made him captain of his vanguard, saying, " O Jamrkan, mount 
 with the Chiefs of thy kith and kin and twenty thousand horse 
 and fare on before us to the land of Jaland bin Karkar." " Heark- 
 ening and obedience," answered Jamrkan and, leaving the women 
 and children of the tribe in Cufa, he set forward. Then Gharib 
 passed in review the Harim of Mardas and his eye lit upon 
 Mahdiyah, who was among the women, wherewith he fell down 
 fainting. They sprinkled rose-water on his face, till he came to 
 himself, when he embraced Mahdiyah and carried her into a sitting - 
 chamber, where he sat with her ; and they talked together that night . 
 Next morning he went out and sitting down on the throne of his 
 kingship, robed his uncle Al-Damigh with a robe of honour ; and 
 appointed him his viceroy over all Al Irak, commending Mahdiyah 
 lo his care, till he should return from his expedition against Ajib ; 
 and, when the order was accepted, he set out for the land of 
 Al-Yaman and the City of Oman with twenty thousand horse and 
 ten thousand foot. Now, when Ajib and his defeated army drew in 
 
 ' Mr. Payne writes "Julned." In a fancy name we must not look for 
 grammar; but a quiescent lam (/) followed bv nun («) is unknown to Arabic, 
 while we find sundry cases of " Ian " (fath'd lam and niiu), antl Jalandah nuans 
 noxious or injurious. In Oman also there was a ilynasty called Julandali, for 
 which see Mr. liadt^er xiii. rnxxA passim.
 
 2 34 Alf Laylah wa Lay /ah. 
 
 sight of Oman, King Jaland saw the dust of their approach and 
 sent, to find out its meaning scouts who returned and said, " Verily 
 this is the dust of one hight Ajib, lord of Al-Irak." And Jaland 
 wondered at his coming to his country and, when assured of the 
 tidings, he said to his officers, "Fare ye forth and meet him." So 
 they went out and met him and pitched tents for him at the city- 
 gate ; and Ajib entered in to Jaland, weeping-eyed and heavy- 
 hearted. Now Jaland's wife was the daughter of Ajib's paternal 
 uncle and he had children by her ; so, when he saw his kinsmen. 
 in this plight, he asked for the truth of what ailed him and Ajib 
 told him all that had befallen him, first and last, from his brother 
 and said, " O King, Gharib biddeth the folk worship the Lord of 
 the Heavens and forbiddeth them from the service of images and 
 other of the gods." When Jaland heard these words he raged and 
 revolted and said, "By the virtue of the Sun, Lord of Life and 
 Light, 1 will not leave one of thy brother's folk in existence ! But 
 where didst thou quit them and how many men are they ? " 
 Answered Ajib, "I left them in Cufa and they be fifty thousand 
 horse." Whereupon Jaland called his Wazir Jawamard,^ saying, 
 " Take thee seventy thousand horse and fare to Cufa and bring me 
 the Moslems alive, that I may torture them with all manner of 
 tortures." So Jawamard departed with his host and fared through 
 the first day and the second till the seventh day, when he came to 
 a Wady abounding in trees and rills and fruits. Here he called a 
 
 halt And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to 
 
 say her permitted say. 
 
 Nob) \xi%i\\ ix toas t^t ^I'x l^untireU anti Jportg-fourt!) l>Cfgf)t, 
 
 She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Jaland sent Jawamard with his army to Cufa, they came upon a 
 Wady abounding in trees and rills, where a halt was called and 
 they rested till the middle of the night, when the Wazir gave the 
 signal for departure and, mounting, rode on before them till hard 
 upon dawn, at which time he descended into a well-wooded valley, 
 whose flowers were fragrant and whose birds warbled on boughs, 
 as they swayed gracefully to and fro, and Satan blew into his sides 
 and puffed him up with pride and he improvised these couplets and 
 cried : — 
 
 ' Doubtless for Jawan-mard — un giovane, a brave.
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib. 235 
 
 I plunge with my braves in the seething sea ; * Seize the foe in my strength 
 
 and my valiancy ; 
 And the doughtiest knights wot me well to be * Friend to friend and fierce foe 
 
 to mine enemy. 
 I will load Gharib with the captive's cliains ♦ Right soon, and return in all joy 
 
 and glee : 
 For Fve donned my mail and my weapons wield * And on all sides cliarge at 
 
 the chivalry.' 
 
 Hardly had Jawamard made an end of his verses when there came 
 out upon him from among the trees a horseman of terrible mien, 
 covered and clad in steely sheen, who cried out to him, saying, 
 " Stand, O riff-raff of the Arabs ! Doff thy dress and ground 
 thine arms-gear and dismount thy destrier and fly with thy life ! " 
 When Jawamard heard this, the light in his eyes became darkest 
 night and he drew his sabre and drove at Jamrkan, for he it was, 
 saying, " O thief of the Arabs, wilt thou cut the road for me who 
 am captain of the host of Jaland bin Karkar and am come to 
 bring Gharib and his men in bond ? " When Jamrkan heard these 
 words, he said, " How cooling is this to my heart and liver !" And 
 he made at Jawamard versifying in these couplets : — 
 
 I'm the noted knight in the field of fight, * Whose sabre and spear every foe 
 
 affright ! 
 Jamrkan am I, to my foes a fear, * With a lance-lunge known unto every 
 
 knight : 
 Gharib is my lord, nay, my pontiff, my prince, * Wliere the two hosts dash 
 
 very lion of might : 
 An Imam of the Faith, pious, striking awe * On the plain where his foes like 
 
 the fawn take flight ; 
 Whose voice bids folk to the faith of the Friend, * False, doubling idols and 
 
 gods despite ! 
 
 Now Jamrkan had fared on with his tribesmen ten days' journey 
 from Cufa-city and called a halt on the eleventh day till midnight, 
 when he ordered a march and rode on ahead of them till he 
 descended into the valley aforesaid and heard Jawamard reciting 
 his verses. So he drave at him as the driving of a ravening lion, 
 and smiting him with his sword, clove him in twain and waited till 
 his captains came up, when he told them what had passed and 
 said to them, "Take each of you five thousand men and disperse 
 roiuul about the Wady, whilst I and the JJanu Amir lall upon the 
 enemy's van, shouting, AUaho Akbar — God is Most Great ! When 
 ye hear my slogan, do ye charge them, crying like me upon the 
 
 ' Mr. Payne transposes the distichs, making the last first. I have followed the 
 Arabic order finding it in the Mac. and Bui. kdits. (ii. 129).
 
 236 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 Lord, and smite them with the sword." " We hear and we obey." 
 answered they and turning back to their braves did his bidding and 
 spread themselves about the sides of the valley in the twilight fore- 
 running the dawn. Presently, lo and behold ! up came the army of 
 Al-Yaman, like a flock of sheep, filling plain and steep, and Jamrkan 
 and the Banu Amir fell upon them, shouting, " Allaho Akbar ! " till 
 all heard it, Moslems and Miscreants. Whereupon the True 
 Believers ambushed in the valley answered from every side and the 
 hills and mountains responsive cried and all things replied, green 
 and dried, saying, " God is Most Great ! Aidance and Victory to 
 us from on High ! Shame to the Miscreants who His name deny ! " 
 And the Kafirs were confounded and smote one another with sabres 
 keen whilst the True Believers and pious fell upon them like flames 
 of fiery sheen and naught was seen but heads flying and blood 
 jetting and faint-hearts hieing. By the time they could see one 
 another's faces, two-thirds of the Infidels had perished and Allah 
 hastened their souls to the fire and abiding-place dire. The rest 
 fled and to the deserts sped whilst the Moslems pursued them to 
 slay and take captives till middle-day, when they returned in triumph 
 with seven thousand prisoners ; and but six-and-twenty thousand of 
 the Infidels escaped and the most of them wounded. Then the 
 Moslems collected the horses and arms, the loads and tents of the 
 enemy and despatched them to Cufa with an escort of a thousand 
 
 horse. And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and 
 
 ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 Nofco fojben It bas \\z ^ix l^unUixtr antf Jportg^fift]^ :Nrigi)t, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Jamrkan in 
 his battle with Jawamard slew him and slew his men ; and, after 
 taking many prisoners and much money and many horses and 
 loads, sent them with an escort of a thousand riders, to Cufa city. 
 Then he and the army of Al-Islam dismounted and expounded the 
 saving Faith to the prisoners, who made profession with heart and 
 tongue; whereupon they released them from bonds and embraced 
 them and rejoiced in them. Then Jamrkan made his troops, who 
 had swelled to a mighty army, rest a day and a night and marched 
 with the dawn, intending to attack Jaland bin Karkar in the city 
 of Oman ; whilst the thousand horse fared back to Cufa with the 
 loot. When they reached the city, they went in to King Gharib 
 and told him what had passed, whereat he rejoiced and gave them 
 joy and, turning to the Ghul of the Mountain, said, " Take horse
 
 The History of Gharil> and his Brother Ajib. 237 
 
 with twenty thousand and follow Jamrkan." So Sa'adan and his 
 sons mounted and set out, amid twenty thousand horse for Oman. 
 iVEeanwhile, the fugitives of the defeated Kafirs reached Oman and 
 went in to Jaland, weeping and crying, "Woe!" and "Euin!" 
 whereat he was confounded and said to them, '• What calamity hath 
 befallen you ? " So they told him what had happened and he said, 
 "Woe to you ! How many men were they?" They replied, "O 
 King, there were twenty standards, under each a thousand men." 
 When Jaland heard these words he said, " May the sun pour no 
 blessing on you ! Fie upon you ! What ! shall twenty thousand 
 overcome you, and you seventy thousand horse and Jawamard able 
 to withstand three thousand in field of fight? " Then, in the excess 
 of his rage and mortification, he bared his blade and cried out to 
 those who were present, saying, " Fall on them ! " So the courtiers 
 drew their swords upon the fugitives and annihilated them to 
 the last man and cast them to the dogs. Then Jaland cried aloud 
 to his son, saying, "Take an hundred thousand horse and go to Al- 
 Irak and lay it waste altogether." Now this son's name was Kilrajan 
 and there was no doughtier knight in all the force ; for he could 
 charge single-handed three thousand riders. So he and his host 
 made haste to equip themselves and marched in battle-array, rank 
 following rank, with the Prince at their head, glorifying himself 
 and improvising these couplets : — 
 
 I'm Al-Kurajan, and my name is known * To beat all who in wold or in city 
 
 wone ! 
 How many a soldier my sword at will * Struck down like a cow on the ground 
 
 bestrown ? 
 How many a soldier I've forced to fly * And have rolled their heads as a ball is 
 
 thrown ? 
 Now I'll drive and harry the land Irak' * And like rain I'll shower the blood 
 
 of fone ; 
 And lay hands on Gharib and his men, whose doom * To the wise a warning 
 
 will soon be shown ! 
 
 The host fared on twelve days' journey and, while they were still 
 marching, behold, a great dust-cloud arose before them and walled 
 the horizon and the whole region. So Kurajan sent out scouts, 
 saying, " Go forth and bring me tidings of what meaneth this dust." 
 They went till they passed under the enemy's standards and presently 
 returning, said, " O King, verily this is the dust of the Moslems." 
 Whereat he was glad and said, " Did ye count them ? " and they 
 answered, "We counted the colours and they numbered twenty." 
 
 ' Al-Irak like Al-Yaman may lose the article in verse.
 
 238 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 Quoth he, ' By my faith, I will not send one man-at-arms against 
 
 them, but will go forth to them alone by myself and strew their 
 
 heads under the horses' hooves ! " Now this was the army of 
 
 Jamrkan who, espying the host of the Kafirs and seeing them as a 
 
 surging sea, called a halt ; so his troops pitched the tents and set up 
 
 the standards, calling upon the name of the All-wise One, the 
 
 Creator of light and gloom, Lord of all creatures. Who seeth while 
 
 Him none see, the High to infinity, extolled and exalted be He ! 
 
 There is no God but He ! The Miscreants also halted and pitched 
 
 their tents, and Kurajan said to them, " Keep on your arms, and in 
 
 armour sleep, for during the last watch of the night we will mount 
 
 and trample yonder handful under feet ! " Now, one of Jamrkan's 
 
 spies was standing nigh and heard what Kurajan had contrived ; so 
 
 lie returned to the host and told his chief who said to them, " Arm 
 
 yourselves, and as soon as it is night, bring me all the mules and 
 
 •camels and hang all the bells and clinkets and rattles ye have about 
 
 their necks." Now they had with them more than twenty thousand 
 
 ■camels and mules. So they waited till the Infidels fell asleep, when 
 
 Jamrkan commanded them to mount, and they arose to ride, and on 
 
 the Lord of the Worlds they relied. Then said Jamrkan, " Drive 
 
 the camels and mules to the Miscreants' camp and push them with 
 
 your spears for goads ! " They did as he bade and the beasts rushed 
 
 upon the enemy's tents, whilst the bells and clinkets and rattles 
 
 jangled ^ and the Moslems followed at their heels, shouting, " God is 
 
 Most Great ! " till all the hills and mountains resounded with the 
 
 name of the Highmost Deity, to whom belong glory and majesty ! 
 
 The cattle hearing this terrible din, took fright and rushed upon 
 
 the tents and trampled the folk, as they lay asleep. And Shah- 
 
 xazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted 
 
 say. M 
 
 1 
 
 Koto tol^cn it toas tjbe ^ix l^unUrftr antr jportg^stxtD tN'igj^t, ' 
 
 She continued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Jamrkan fell upon them with his men and steeds and camels, and 
 the camp lay sleeping, the idolaters started up in confusion and, 
 snatching up their arms, fell upon one another with smiting, till 
 the most part were slaughtered. And when the day broke, they 
 
 ^ Arab. "Ka'ka'ah": hence Jabal Ka'ka'an, the higher levels in Meccah, of 
 old inhabited liy the Jurhamites and so called from tlieir clashing and jangling 
 arms : whist the Amalekites dwelt in the lower grounds called Jiyad from their 
 generous steeds (Pilgrimage iii. 191).
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib. 239 
 
 looked and found no Moslem slain, but saw them all on horse- 
 back, armed and armoured ; wherefore they knew that this was 
 a sleight which had been played upon them, and Kurajan cried out 
 to the remnant of his folk, " O sons of slaves, what we had a 
 mind to do with them, that have they done with us and their craft 
 hath gotten the better of our cunning." And they were about to 
 charge when, lo and behold ! a cloud of dust rose high and walled 
 the horizon-sky, when the wind smote it, so that it spired aloft 
 and spread pavilion-wise in the lift and there it hung ; and pre- 
 sently appeared beneath it the glint of helmet and gleam of hauberk 
 and splendid warriors, baldrick'd with their tempered swords and 
 holding in rest their supple spears. When the Kafirs saw this, 
 they held back from the battle and each army sent out, to know 
 the meaning of this dust, scouts, who returned with the news that 
 it was an army of Moslems. Now this was the host of the Moun- 
 tain-Ghul whom Gharib had despatched to Jamrkan's aid, and 
 Sa'adan himself rode in their van. So the two hosts of the True 
 Believers joined company and rushing upon the Paynimry like a 
 flame of fire, plied them with keen sword and Rudaynian spear 
 and quivering lance, what while day was darkened and eyes 
 for the much dust starkened. The valiant stood fast and the 
 faint-hearted coward fled and to the wilds and the wolds swift 
 sped, whilst the blood over earth was like torrents shed ; nor did 
 they cease from fight till the day took flight and in gloom came 
 the night. Then the Moslems drew apart from the Miscreants and 
 returned to their tents, where they ate and slept, till the darkness 
 fled away and gave place to smiling day ; when they prayed the 
 dawn-prayer and mounted to battle. Now Kurajan had said to 
 his men as they drew off from fight (for indeed two-thirds of their 
 number had perished by sword and spear), '' O folk, to-morrow, 
 I will champion it in the stead of war where cut and thrust jar, and 
 where braves push and wheel I will take the field." So, as soon as 
 light was seen and morn appeared with its shine and sheen, took 
 horse the hosts twain and shouted their slogans amain and bared the 
 brand and hent lance in hand and in ranks took stand. The first 
 to open the door of war was Kurajan, who cried out, saying, " Let 
 no coward come out to me this day nor craven ! " Whereupon 
 Jamrkan and Sa'adan stood by the colours, but there ran at him a 
 captain of the Banu Amir and the two drave each at other awhile, 
 like two rams butting. Presently Kurajan seized the Moslem by the 
 jerkin under his hauberk and, dragging him from his saddle, dashed 
 him to the ground where he left him ; upon which the Kafirs laid 
 hands on him and bound him and bore him off to their tents ; whilst
 
 240 Alf Laylah iva LaylaJi. 
 
 Kurajan wheeled about and careered and offered battle, till another 
 captain came out, whom also he took prisoner ; nor did he leave to 
 do thus till he had made prize of seven captains before mid-day. 
 Then Jamrkan cried out with so mighty a cry, that the whole field 
 made reply and heard it the armies twain, and ran at Kurajan with 
 a heart in rageful pain, improvising these couplets : — 
 
 Jamrkan am I ! and a man of might, * Whom the warriors fear with a sore 
 
 affright : 
 I waste the forts and I leave the walls * To wail and weep for the wights I 
 
 smite : 
 Then, O Kurajan, tread the rightful road * And quit the paths of thy foul 
 
 unright : 
 Own the One True God, who dispread the skies * And made founts to flow and 
 
 the hills pegged tight : 
 An the slave embrace the True Faith, he'll 'scape * Hell-pains and in Heaven 
 
 be deckt and dight ! 
 
 When Kurajan heard these words, he snarked and snorted and foully 
 abused the sun and the moon and drave at Jamrkan, versifying with 
 these couplets : — 
 
 I'm Kiirajan, of this age the knight ; * And my shade to the lions of Shara' ^ is 
 
 blight : 
 I storm the forts and snare kings of beasts * And warriors fear me in field of 
 
 fight; 
 Then, harkye Jamrkan, if thou doubt my word, * Come forth to the combat and 
 
 try my might ! 
 
 When Jamrkan heard these verses, he charged him with a stout heart 
 and they smote each at other with swords till the two hosts lamented 
 for them, and they lunged with lance and great was the clamour 
 between them : nor did they leave fighting till the time of mid-after- 
 noon prayer was passed and the day began to wane. Then Jamrkan 
 drave at Kurajan and smiting him on the breast with his mace,^ 
 cast him to the ground, as he were the trunk of a palm-tree ; and 
 the Moslems pinioned him and dragged him off with ropes like a 
 camel. Now when the Miscreants saw their Prince captive, a hot 
 fever-fit of folly seized on them and they bore down upon the True 
 Believers thinking to rescue him ; but the Moslem champions met 
 them and left most of them prostrate on the earth, whilst the rest 
 
 ^ Al-Shara', a mountain in Arabia, famed for its fierce lions. 
 
 ^ See p. 176. "This (mace) is a dangerous weapon when struck on the 
 shoulders or unguarded arm : I am convinced that a blow with it on a head 
 armoured with a salade (cassia cselata, a light iron helmet) would stun a man," 
 says La Brocquiere.
 
 The History of Gliarib mid his Brother Ajib. 241 
 
 turned and souglit safety in flight, seeking surer site, while the 
 clanking sabres their bodies smite. The Moslems ceased not 
 pursuing them till they had scattered them over mount and wold, 
 when they returned from them to the spoil ; whereof was great store 
 of horses and tents and so forth : — good look to it for a spoil ! 
 Then Jamrkan went in to Kurajan and expounded to him Al-Islam, 
 threatening him with death unless he embraced the Faith. But he 
 refused ; so they cut off his head and stuck it on a spear, after 
 which they fared on towards Oman ' city. But as regards the 
 Kafirs, the survivors returned to Jaland and made known to him the 
 slaying of his son and the slaughter of his host, hearing which he 
 cast his crown to the ground and buffeting his face, till the blood 
 ran from his nostrils, fell fainting to the floor. They sprinkled 
 rosewater on his head, till he came to himself and cried to his 
 Wazir, " Write letters to all my Governors and Nabobs and bid 
 them leave not a smiter with the sword nor a lunger with the 
 lance nor a bender of the bow, but bring them all to me in one 
 body." So he wrote letters and despatched them by runners to 
 the Governors, who levied their power and joined the King with a 
 prevailing host, whose number was one hundred and eighty thousand 
 men. Then they made ready tents and camels and noble steeds 
 and were about to march when, behold, up came Jamrkan and 
 Sa'adan the Ghul, with seventy thousand horse, as they were lions 
 fierce-faced, all steel-encased. When Jaland saw the Moslems 
 trooping on he rejoiced and said, " By the virtue of the Sun, and 
 her resplendent light, I will not leave alive one of my foes ; no, not 
 one to carry the news, and I will lay waste the land of Al-Irak, that 
 I may take my wreak for my son, the havoc-making champion bold ; 
 nor shall my fire be quenched or cooled ! " Then he turned to 
 Ajib and said to him, " O dog of Al-Irak, 'twas thou broughtest this 
 calamity on us ! But by the virtue of that which I worship, except 
 I avenge me of mine enemy I will do thee die after foulest fashion !" 
 When Ajib heard these words he was troubled with sore trouble and 
 blamed himself ; but he waited till nightfall, when the Moslems had 
 pitched their tents for rest. Now he had been degraded and 
 expelled the royal camp together with those who were left to him of 
 his suite : so he said to them, " O my kinsmen, know that Jaland 
 and I are dismayed with exceeding dismay at the coming of the 
 
 • Oman, which the natives pronounce " Aman," is the region best known by 
 its capital, Maskat. These are tlie Omana Mosclia and Omanum Emporium of 
 Ptolemy and the Periplus. Ibn liatutah writes Amman, but the best dictionaries 
 give " Oman." (N.B. — Mr. P)adgcr, p. I, wrongly derives Sachalitis from 
 " Sawahily " : it is evidently " Sahili ''). 
 
 VOL. IV. Q
 
 242 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 Moslems, and I know that he will not avail to protect me from my 
 brother nor from any other ; so it is my counsel that we make our 
 escape, whilst all eyes sleep, and flee to King Ya'arub bin Kahtan,^ 
 for that he hath more of men and is stronger of reign." They, 
 hearing his advice, exclaimed " Right is thy rede," whereupon he 
 bade them kindle fires at their tent-doors and march under cover of 
 the night. They did his bidding and set out, so by daybreak they 
 had already fared far away. As soon as it was morning Jaland 
 mounted with two hundred and sixty thousand fighting-men, clad 
 cap-k-pie in hauberks and cuirasses and strait-knit mail-coats, the 
 kettle-drums beat a point of war and all drew out for cut and thrust 
 and fight and fray. Then Jamrkan and Sa'adan rode forth with forty 
 thousand stalwart fighting-men, under each standard a thousand 
 cavaliers, doughty champions, foremost in champaign. The two 
 hosts drew out in battles and bared their blades and levelled their 
 limber lances, for the drinking of the cup of death ; and the first to 
 open the gate of strife was Sa'adan, as he were a mountain of 
 syenite or a Marid of the Jinn. Then dashed out to him a cham- 
 pion of the Infidels, and the Ghul slew him and casting him to the 
 earth, cried out to his sons and slaves, saying, " Light the fire and 
 roast me this dead one." They did as he bade and brought him the 
 roast and he ate it and crunched the bones, whilst the Kafirs stood 
 looking on from afar ; and they cried out, " O for aid from the light- 
 giving Sun ! " and were affrighted at the thought of being slain by 
 Sa'adan. Then Jaland shouted to his men, saying, " Slay me 
 yonder loathsome beast ! " Whereupon another captain of his host 
 drove at the Ghul ; but he slew him, and he ceased not to slay horse- 
 man after horseman, till he had made an end of thirty men. With 
 this the blamed Kafirs held back and feared to face him, crying, 
 " Who shall cope with Jinns and Ghuls ? " But Jaland raised his 
 voice, saying, " Let an hundred horse charge him and bring him to 
 me, bound or slain." So an hundred horse set upon Sa'adan with 
 swords and spears, and he met them with a heart firmer than flint, 
 proclaiming the unity of the Requiting King, whom no one thing 
 diverteth from other thing. Then he cried aloud, " Allaho Akbar ! " 
 and, smiting them with his sword, made their heads fly, and in one 
 onset he slew of them four-and-seventy whereupon the rest took to 
 flight. So Jaland shouted aloud to ten of his captains, each com- 
 
 ^ The name I have said of a quasi historical personage, son of Joktan, the first 
 Arabist and the founder of the Tobba (" successor") dynasty in Al-Yaman ; 
 while Jurham, his l^rother, established that of Al-Hijaz. The name is probably 
 chosen because well-known.
 
 The History of Gharib mid his Brother Ajib. 243 
 
 manding a thousand men, and said to them, " Shoot his horse with 
 arrows till it fall under him, and then lay hands on him." There- 
 with ten thousand horse drove at Sa'adan who met them with a stout 
 heart : and Jamrkan, seeing this, bore down upon the Miscreants 
 with his Moslems, crying out, " God is Most Great ! " Before they 
 could reach the Ghul, the enemy had slain his steed and taken him 
 prisoner ; but they ceased not to charge the Infidels, till the day 
 grew dark for dust and eyes were blinded, and the sharp sword 
 clanged while firm stood the valiant cavalier and destruction over- 
 took the faint-heart in his fear ; till the Moslems were amongst the 
 
 Paynims like a white patch on a black bull. And Shahrazad 
 
 was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her per- 
 mitted say. 
 
 Nob) toiben it foas tfie ^fx l^unUrcti antr jportij=scbcnt]b Ni'att, 
 
 She pursued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that battle 
 raged between the Moslems and the Paynims till the True 
 Believers were like a white patch on a black bull. Nor did they 
 stint from the mellay till the darkness fell down, when they drew 
 apart, after there had been slain of the Infidels men without compt. 
 Then Jamrkan and his men returned to their tents ; but they were 
 in great grief for Sa'adan, so that neither meat nor sleep was sweet 
 to them, and they counted their host and found that less than a 
 thousand had been slain. But Jamrkan said, " O folk to-morrow I 
 will go forth into the battle-plain and place where cut and thrust 
 obtain, and slay their champions and make prize of their families 
 after taking them captives and I will ransom Sa'adan therewith, by 
 the leave of the Requiting King, whom no one thing diverteth from 
 other thing ! " Wherefore their hearts were heartened and they 
 joyed as they separated to their tents. Meanwhile Jaland entered 
 his pavilion and sitting down on his sofa of estate, with his folk 
 about him, called for Sa'adan and forthright on his coming, said to 
 him, " O dog run mad and least of the Arab brood and carrier of 
 firewood, who was it slaughtered my son Kurajan, the brave of the 
 age, slayer of heroes and caster down of warriors ? " Quoth the Ghul, 
 " Jamrkan slew him, captain of the armies of King Gharib, Prince of 
 cavaliers, and I roasted and ate him, for I was anhungered." When 
 Jaland heard these words, his eyes sank into his head for rage and 
 he bade his swordbearer smite Sa'adan's neck. So he came forward 
 in that intent, whereupon Sa'adan stretched himself mightily and 
 bursting his bonds, snatched the sword from the headsman and 
 hewed off his head. Then he made at Jaland, who threw himself
 
 244 -^^f Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 down from the throne and fled ; whilst Sa'adan fell on the bystanders 
 and killed twenty of the King's chief officers, and all the rest took 
 to flight. Therewith loud rose the crying in the camp of the Infidels 
 and the Ghul sallied forth of the pavilion and falling upon the troops 
 smote them with the sword, right and left, till they opened and left 
 a lane for him to pass ; nor did he cease to press forward cutting at 
 them on either side, till he won free of the Miscreants' tents and 
 made for the Moslem camp. Now these had heard the uproar 
 among their enemies and said, *' Haply some calamity hath befallen 
 them." But whilst they were in perplexity, behold, Sa'adan stood 
 amongst them and they rejoiced at his coming with exceeding joy ; 
 more especially Jamrkan, who saluted him with the salam as did 
 other True Believers and gave him joy of his escape. Such was the 
 case with the Moslems ; but as regards the Miscreants, when, after 
 the Ghul's departure, they and their King returned to their tents, 
 Jaland said to them, " O folk, by the virtue of the Sun's light-giving 
 ray and by the darkness of the Night and the light of the Day and 
 the Stars that stray, I thought not this day to have escaped death in 
 mellay ; for, had I fallen into yonder fellow's hands, he had eaten 
 me, as I were a kernel of wheat or a barley-corn or any other grain." 
 They replied, "O King, never saw we any do the like of this Ghul." 
 And he said, " O folk, to-morrow do ye all don arms and mount 
 steed and trample them under your horses' hooves." Meanwhile the 
 Moslems had ended their rejoicings at Sa'adan's return and Jamrkan 
 said to them, "To-morrow, I will show you my derring-do and what 
 behoveth the like of me, for by the virtue of Abraham the Friend, I 
 will slay them with the foulest of slaughters and smite them with the 
 bite of the sword, till all who have understanding confounded at 
 them shall stand. But I mean to attack both right and left wings ; 
 so, when ye see me drive at the King under the standards, do ye 
 charge behind me with a resolute charge, and Allah's it is to decree 
 what thing shall be ! " Accordingly the two sides lay upon their 
 arms till the day broke through night and the sun appeared to sight. 
 Then they mounted swiftlier than the twinkling of the eyelid ; the 
 raven of the wold croaked and the two hosts, looking each at other 
 with the eye of fascination, formed in line-array and prepared for 
 fight and fray. The first to open the chapter of war was Jamrkan, 
 who wheeled and careered and off'ered fight in field ; and Jaland and 
 his men w^ere about to charge when, behold, a cloud of dust uprolled 
 till it walled the wold and overlaid the day. Then the four winds 
 smote it and away it floated torn to rags, and there appeared be- 
 neath it cavaliers, with helms black and garb white and many a 
 princely knight and lances that bite and swords that smite and
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib. 245 
 
 footmen who lion-like knew no affright. Seeing this both armies 
 left fighting and sent out scouts to reconnoitre and report who thus 
 had come in main and might. So they went and within the dust- 
 cloud disappeared from sight, and returned after awhile with the 
 news aright that the approaching host was one of Moslems, under 
 the command of King Gharib. When the True Believers heard 
 from the scouts of the coming of their King, they rejoiced and driving 
 out to meet him, dismounted and kissing the earth between his hands, 
 
 And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say 
 
 her permitted say. 
 
 Note fcofjcn it tuns \\t ^i.x fi^untrrcti nn^ Jportti=ticji)t5 ^igi)t, 
 
 She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 the Moslems saw the presence of their King Gharib, they joyed 
 with exceeding joy ; and, kissing the earth between his hands, 
 saluted him and gat around him whilst he welcomed them and 
 rejoiced in their safety. Then they escorted him to their camp 
 and pitched pavilions for him and set up standards ; and Gharib 
 sat down on his couch of estate, with his Grandees about hiin ; 
 and they related to him all that had befallen, especially to Sa'adan. 
 Meanwhile the Kafirs sought for Ajib and finding him not among 
 them nor in their tents, told Jaland of his flight, whereat his Dooms- 
 day rose and he bit his fingers, saying, " By the Sun's light-giving 
 round, he is a perfidious hound and hath fled with the rascal rout to 
 desert-ground. But naught save force of hard fighting will serve us 
 to repel these foes \ so fortify your resolves and hearten your hearts 
 and beware of the Moslems." And Gharib also said to the True 
 Believers, "Strengthen your courage and fortify your hearts and seek 
 aid of your Lord, beseeching Him to vouch^,afe you the victory over 
 your enemies." They replied, " O King, soon thou shalt see what we 
 will do in battle-plain where men cut and thrust amain." So the two 
 hosts slept till the day arose with its sheen and shone and the rising 
 sun rained light upon hill and down, when Gharib prayed the two- 
 bow prayer, after the rite of Abraham the Friend (on whom be the 
 Peace !) and wrote a letter, which he despatched by his brother 
 Sahim to the King of the Kafirs. When Sahim reached the enemies' 
 camp, the guards asked him what he wanted, and he answered them, 
 " I want your ruler."i Quoth they, " Wait till we consult him con- 
 
 ' Arab " Hakim " : lit. one who orders ; often confounded by the unscicnlific 
 with Hakim, a doctor, a philosopher. The latter re-appears in the lleb. 
 Khakham applied in modern days lo the Jewish scribe who lakes the place of 
 the Kabbi.
 
 246 Alf Laylah wa Lay la h. 
 
 cerning thee;" and he waited, whilst they went in to their Sovran and 
 told him of the coming of a messenger, and he cried, " Hither with 
 him to me !" So they brought Sahim before Jaland, who said to him, 
 " Who hath sent thee ? " Quoth he, "King Gharib sends me, whom 
 Allah hath made ruler over Arab and 'Ajam ; receive his letter and 
 return its reply." Jaland took the writ and opening it, read as 
 follows : — " In the name of Allah, the Compassionating, the Com- 
 passionate * the One, the All-knowing, the supremely Great, * the 
 Immemorial, the Lord of Noah and Salih and Hiid and Abraham 
 and of all things He made ! * The Peace be on him who followeth 
 in the way of righteousness and who feareth the issues of froward- 
 ness * who obeyeth the Almighty King and followeth the Faith 
 saving and preferreth the next world to any present thing ! + But 
 afterwards : O Jaland, none is worthy of worship save Allah alone, 
 the Victorious, the One, Creator of night and day and the sphere 
 revolving alway * Who sendeth the holy Prophets and garreth the 
 streams to flow and the trees to grow, who vaulted the heavens and 
 spread out the earth like a carpet below * Who feedeth the birds 
 in their nests and the wild beasts in the deserts * for He is Allah 
 the All-powerful, the Forgiving, the Long-suffering, the Protector, 
 whom eye comprehendeth on no wise and who maketh night on day 
 arise * He who sent down the Apostles and their Holy Writ. 
 Know, O Jaland, that there is no faith but the Faith of Abraham 
 the Friend ; so cleave to the Creed of Salvation and be saved from 
 the biting glaive and the Fire which followeth the grave + But, an 
 thou refuse Al-Islam look for ruin to haste and thy reign to be waste 
 and thy traces untraced * And, lastly, send me the dog Ajib hight, 
 that I may take from him my father's and mother's blood-wit." 
 When Jaland had read this letter, he said to Sahim, "Tell thy lord 
 that Ajib hath fled, he and his folk, and I know not whither he is 
 gone ; but, as for Jaland, he will not forswear his faith, and to- 
 morrow there shall be battle between us and the Sun shall give us 
 the victory." So Sahim returned to his brother with this reply, and 
 jwhen the morning morrowed, the Moslems donned their arms and 
 armour and bestrode their stout steeds, calling aloud on the name 
 of the All-conquering King, Creator of bodies and souls, and magni- 
 fying Him with " Allaho Akbar." Then the kettle-drums of battle 
 beat until earth trembled, and sought the field all the lordly warriors 
 and doughty champions. The first to open the gate of battle was 
 Jamrkan, who drave his charger into mid-plain and played with sword 
 and javelin, till the understanding was amazed ; after which he cried 
 out, saying, "Ho! who is for tilting? Ho! who is for fighting? 
 Let no sluggard come out to me to-day nor weakling ! I am the
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib. 247 
 
 slayer of Kurajan bin Jaland ; who will come forth to avenge 
 him ? " When Jaland heard the name of his son, he cried out to 
 his men, " O slaves, bring me yonder horseman who slew my son, 
 that I may eat his flesh and drink his blood." So an hundred fight- 
 ing men charged at Jamrkan, but he slew the most part of them and 
 put their chief to flight ; which feat when Jaland saw, he cried out 
 to his folk, "At him all at once and assault him with one assault." 
 Accordingly they waved the awe-striking banners and host was 
 heaped on host ; Gharib rushed on with his men and Jamrkan did 
 the same and the two sides met like two seas together clashing. 
 The Yamani sword and spear wrought havoc and breasts were rent, 
 whilst both armies saw the Angel of Death face to face and the dust 
 of the battle rose to the skirts of the sky. Ears went deaf and 
 tongues went dumb and doom from every side came on whilst 
 valiant stood fast and faint-heart fled : and they ceased not from 
 fight and fray till ended the day, when the drums beat the retreat 
 
 and the two hosts drew apart and returned, each to its tents. 
 
 And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying 
 her permitted say. 
 
 iBoto tolicn it fcons tfjc ^i.x |^untirct( nntr Jportn-nintD iltgtt, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when King 
 Gharib ended the battle and the two hosts drew ai)art and each had 
 returned to his own tents, he sat down on the throne of his realm 
 and the place of his reign, whilst his chief officers ranged them- 
 selves about him, and he said, " I am sore concerned for the flight 
 of the cur Ajib and I know not whither he is gone. Except I 
 overtake him and take my wreak of him, I shall die of despite." 
 Whereupon Sahim came forward and kissing the earth before him, 
 said, "O King, I will go to the army of the Kafirs and find out 
 what is come of the perfidious dog Ajib." Quoth Gharib, " Go, 
 and learn the truth anent the hog." So Sahim disguised himself 
 in the habit of the Infidels and became as he were of them ; then, 
 making for the enemy's camp, he found them all asleep, drunken 
 with war and battle, and none were on wake save only the guards. 
 He passed on and presently came to the King's pavilion, where he 
 found King Jaland asleep unattended; so he crept up and made 
 him smell and sniff" up levigated Bhang and he became as one 
 dead. 'I hen Sahim went out and took a male mule, and wrapping 
 the King in the coverlet of his bed, laid him on its back ; after 
 which he threw a mat over him and led the beast to the Moslem
 
 248 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 camp. Now when he came to Gharib's pavilion and would have 
 entered, the guards knew him not and prevented him, saying, "Who 
 art thou ? " He laughed and uncovered his face, and they knew him 
 and admitted him. When Gharib saw him he said, " What bearest 
 thou there, O Sahim ! " and he replied, " O King, this is Jaland bin 
 Karkar." Then he uncovered him, and Gharib knew him and said, 
 "Arouse him, O Sahim." So he made him smell vinegar^ and 
 frankincense ; and he cast the Bhang from his nostrils and, opening 
 his eyes, found himself among the Moslems ; whereupon quoth he, 
 " What is this foul dream ? " and closing his eyelids again would 
 have slept ; but Sahim dealt him a kick, saying, " Open thine eyes, 
 
 accursed ! " So he opened them and asked, " Where am I ? " and 
 Sahim answered, *' Thou art in the presence of King Gharib bin Kun- 
 damir. King of Irak." When Jaland heard this, he said, " O King, 
 
 1 am under thy protection ! Know that I am not at fault, but that 
 he who led us forth to fight thee was thy brother, and the same cast 
 enmity between us and then fled." Quoth Gharib, " Knowest thou 
 whither he is gone ?" and quoth Jaland, " No, by the light-giving Sun, 
 I know not whither." Then Gharib bade lay him in bonds and set 
 guards over him, whilst each captain returned to his own tent, and 
 Jamrkan while wending said to his men, " O sons of my uncle, I 
 purpose this night to do a deed wherewith I may whiten my face with 
 King Gharib." Quoth they, " Do as thou wilt, we hearken to thy 
 commandment and obey it." Quoth he, " Arm yourselves and, 
 muffling your steps while I go with you, let us fare softly and disperse 
 about the Infidel's camp, so that the very ants shall not be ware of you ; 
 and, when you hear me cry Allaho Akbar, do ye the like and cry out, 
 saying, God is Most Great ! and hold back and make/or the city-gate ; 
 and we seek aid from the Most High." So the folk armed themselves 
 cap-a-pie and waited till the noon of night, when they dispersed 
 about the enemy's camp and tarried awhile when, lo and behold ! 
 Jamrkan smote shield with sword and shouted, "Allaho Akbar!" 
 Thereupon they all cried out the like, till rang again valley and 
 mountain, hills, sands and ruins. The Miscreants awoke in dismay 
 and fell one upon other, and the sword went round amongst them ; 
 the Moslems drew back and made for the city gates, where they slew 
 the warders and, entering, made themselves masters of the town, 
 with all that was therein of treasure and women. Thus it befel 
 with Jamrkan ; but as regards King Gharib, hearing the noise and 
 
 ^ As has been seen, acids have ever been and are still administered as counter - 
 inebriants, while hot spices and sweets greatly increase the effect of Bhang, opium , 
 henbane, datura, &c.
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib, 249 
 
 clamour of "God is Most Great," he mounted with his troops to the 
 last man and sent on in advance Sahim who, when he came near the 
 field of fight, saw that Jamrkan had fallen upon the Kafirs with the 
 Banu Amir by night and made them drink the cup of death. So he 
 returned and told all to his brother, who called down blessings on 
 Jamrkan. And the Infidels ceased not to smite one another with 
 the biting sword and expending their strength till the day rose and 
 lighted up the land, when Gharib cried out to his men, " Charge, O 
 ye noble, and do a deed to please the All-knowing King ! " So the 
 True Believers fell upon the idolaters and plied upon every false 
 hypocritical breast the keen sword and the quivering spear. They 
 sought to take refuge in the city ; but Jamrkan came forth upon 
 them with his kinsmen, who hemmed them in between two moun- 
 tain-ranges, and slew an innumerable host of them, and the rest fled 
 
 into the wastes and wolds ; And Shahrazad perceived the dawn 
 
 of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 Noto hjljcn It tons t^c ^{.x |l^untitctr nnt( jpiftictf) ]!Cigi)t, 
 
 She continued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 the Moslem host charged upon the Miscreants they hewed them in 
 pieces with the biting scymitar and the rest fled to the wastes and 
 wolds ; nor did the Moslems cease pursuing them with the sword, 
 till they had scattered them abroad in the plains and stony places. 
 Then they returned to Oman city, and King Gharib entered the 
 palace of the King and, sitting down on the throne of his kingship, 
 with his Grandees and Ofiicers ranged right and left, sent for J aland. 
 They brought him m haste and Gharib expounded to him AlTslam ; 
 but he rejected it ; wherefore Gharib bade crucify him on the gate 
 of the city, and they shot at him with shafts till he was like unto a 
 porcupine. Then Gharib honourably robed Jamrkan and said to 
 him, " Thou shalt be lord of this city and ruler thereof with power 
 to loose and to bind therein, for it was thou didst open it with thy 
 sword and thy folk." And Jamrkan kissed the King's feet, thanked 
 him and wished him abiding victory and glory and every blessing. 
 Moreover Gharib opened Jaland's treasuries and saw what was 
 therein of coin, whereof he gave largesse to his captains and 
 standard-bearers and fighting-men, yea, even to the girls and 
 children; and thus he lavished his gilts ten days long. After this, 
 one night he dreamt a terrible dream and awoke, troubled and 
 trembling. So he aroused his brother Sahim and said to him, " I 
 saw in my vision that we were in a wide valley, when there pounced
 
 250 , Alf Lay la h zva Laylah. 
 
 down on us two ravening birds of prey, never in my life saw I greater 
 than they ; their legs were like lances, and as they swooped we were 
 in sore fear of them." Replied Sahim, " O King, this be some 
 great enemy ; so stand on thy guard against him." Gharib slept 
 not the rest of the night and, when the day broke, he called for his 
 courser and mounted. Quoth Sahim, "Whither goest thou, my 
 brother?" and quoth Gharib, " I awoke heavy at heart; so I mean 
 to ride abroad ten days and broaden my breast." Said Sahim, 
 "Take with thee a thousand braves;" but Gharib replied^ " I will 
 not go forth but with thee and only thee." So the two brothers 
 mounted and, seeking the dales and leasows, fared on from Wady 
 to Wady and from meadow to meadow, till they came to a valley 
 abounding in streams and sweet-smelling flowers and trees laden 
 with all manner eatable fruits, two of each kind. Birds warbled 
 on the branches their various strains ; the mocking-bird trilled out 
 her sweet notes fain and the turtle filled with her voice the plain. 
 There sang the nightingale, whose chant arouses the sleeper, and 
 the merle with his note like the voice of man and the cushat and 
 the ring-dove, whilst the parrot with its eloquent tongue answered 
 the twain. The valley pleased them and they ate of its fruits and 
 drank of its waters, after which they sat under the shadow of its 
 trees till drowsiness overcame them and they slept — glory be to Him 
 who sleepeth not ! As they lay asleep, lo ; two fierce Marids 
 swooped down on them and, taking each one on his shoulders, 
 towered with them high in air, till they were above the clouds. So 
 Gharib and Sahim awoke and found themselves betwixt heaven and 
 earth ; whereupon they looked at those who bore them and saw that 
 they were two Marids, the head of the one being as that of a dog 
 and the head of the other as that of an ape^ with hair like horses' 
 tails and claws like lions' claws, and both were big as great palm- 
 trees. When they espied this case, they exclaimed, "There is no 
 Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the 
 Great !" Now the cause of this was that a certain King of the Kings 
 of the Jinn, hight Mura'ash, had a son called Sa'ik, who loved a 
 damsel of the Jinn, named Najmah ;- and the twain used to fore- 
 gather in that Wady under the semblance of two birds. Gharib 
 and Sahim saw them thus and deeming them birds, shot at them 
 with shafts but wounding only Sa'ik whose blood flowed. Najmah 
 
 ^ Compare the description of the elephant-faced Vetala (Katha S.S. Fasc. xi. 
 p. 388). 
 
 2 The lover's name Sa'ik = the Striker (with lightning) ; Najmah, the beloved 
 — the star.
 
 The History of Gharib atid his Brother A jib. 251 
 
 mourned over him ; then, fearing lest the Hke calamity befal herself, 
 snatched up her lover and flew with him to his father's palace, 
 where she cast him down at the gate. The warders bore him in and 
 laid him before his sire who, seeing the pile sticking in his rib 
 exclaimed, " Alas, my son ! Who hath done with thee this thing, 
 that I may lay waste his abiding-place and hurry on his destruction, 
 although he were the greatest of the Kings of the Jann ?" Thereupon 
 Sa'ik opened his eyes and said, " O my father, none slew me save a 
 mortal in the Valley of Springs." Hardly had he made an end of 
 these words, when his soul departed ; whereupon his father buffeted 
 his face, till the blood streamed from his mouth, and cried out to 
 two Marids, saying, " Hie ye to the Valley of Springs and bring me 
 all who are therein." So they betook themselves to the Wady in 
 question, where they found Gharib and Sahim asleep, and, snatching 
 
 them up, carried them to King Mura'ash.i And Shahrazad was 
 
 surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 BM InDcn it toas tijc g?i.x l^uttlircU nntr Jiftu-first iaiglbt, 
 
 She continued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the 
 two Marids, after snatching up Gharib and Sahim, in their sleep, 
 carried them to Mura'ash, king of the Jann, whom they saw seated 
 on the throne of his kingship, as he were a huge mountain, with four 
 heads on his body, the first that of a lion, the second that of an 
 elephant, the third that of a panther, and the fourth that of a lynx. 
 The Marids set them down before Mura'ash and said to him, " O 
 King, these twain be they we found in the Valley of Springs." 
 Thereupon he looked at them with wrathful eyes and snarked and 
 snorted and shot sparks from his nostrils, so that all who stood by 
 feared him. Then said he, " O dogs of mankind, ye have slain my 
 son and lighted fire in my liver." Quoth Gharib, "Who is thy son, 
 and who hath seen him?" Quoth Mura'ash, "Were ye not in the 
 Valley of Springs and did ye not see my son there, in the guise 
 of a bird, and did ye not shoot at him with wooden bolts that 
 he died?" Replied Gharib, "I know not who slew him; and, 
 by the virtue of the Great God, the One, the Immemorial who 
 knoweth things all, and of Abraham the Friend, we saw no bird, 
 neither slew we bird or beast !" Now when Mura'ash heard Gharib 
 
 ' I have modified the last three lines of the Mac. Edit, which contain a 
 repetition evidently introduced by the carelessness of the copyist.
 
 252 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 swear by Allah and His greatness and by Abraham the Friend, he 
 knew him for a Moslem (he himself being a worshipper of Fire, not 
 of the All-powerful Sire), so he cried out to his folk, " Bring me my 
 Goddess.^" Accordingly they brought a brazier of gold and, setting it 
 before him, kindled therein fire and cast on drugs, whereupon there 
 arose therefrom green and blue and yellow flames, and the King and 
 all who were present prostrated themselves before the brazier, whilst 
 Gharib and Sahim ceased not to attest the Unity of Allah Almighty, 
 to cry out, " God is Most Great " and to bear witness to His 
 Omnipotence. Presently, Mura'ash raised his head and, seeing the 
 two Princes standing in lieu of falling down to worship, said to them, 
 "O dogs, why do ye not prostrate yourselves?" Replied Gharib, 
 " Out on you, O ye accursed ! Prostration befitteth not man save to 
 the Worshipful King, who bringeth forth all creatures into beingness 
 from nothingness and maketh water to well from the barren rock- 
 wall, Him who inclineth heart of sire unto new-born scion and who 
 may not be described as sitting or standing ; the God of Noah and 
 Salih and Hud and Abraham the Friend, Who created Heaven and 
 Hell and trees and fruit as well,^ for He is Allah, the One, the All- 
 powerful." When Mura'ash heard this, his eyes sank into his head'^ 
 and he cried out to his guards, saying, " Pinion me these two dogs 
 and sacrifice them to my Goddess." So they bound them and were 
 about to cast them into the fire when, behold, one of the crenelles 
 of the palace-parapet fell down upon the brazier and brake it and 
 put out the fire, which became ashes flying in air. Then quoth 
 Gharib, " God is Most Great ! He giveth aid and victory and He 
 forsaketh those who deny Him, Fire worshipping and not the 
 Almighty King ! " Presently quoth Mura'ash, " Thou art a sorcerer 
 and hast bewitched my Goddess, so that this thing hath befallen 
 her." Gharib replied, " O madman, an the fire had soul or sense it 
 would have warded ofl" from self all that hurteth it." When Mura'ash 
 heard these words, he roared and bellowed and reviled the Fire, 
 saying, " By my Faith, I will not kill you save by the fire ! " Then 
 he bade cast them into gaol ; and, calling an hundred Marids, 
 caused them bring much fuel and set fire thereto. So they brought 
 great plenty of wood and made a huge blaze, which flamed up 
 mightily tifl the morning, when Mura'ash mounted an elephant, 
 bearing on its back a throne of gold dubbed with jewels, and the 
 tribes of the Jinn gathered about him in their various kinds. 
 
 ^ Arab. "Rabbat-i," my she-Lord, fire (nar) being feminine. 
 
 - The prose-rhyme is answerable for this galimatias. 
 
 ■^ A commoQ phrase equivalent to our " started from his head.
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib. 253 
 
 Presently they brought in Gharib and Sahim who, seeing the 
 flaming of the fire, sought help of the One, the All-Conquering 
 Creator of night and day, Him of All-might, whom no sight com- 
 prehendeth, but who comprehendeth all sights, for He is the 
 Subtle, the All-knowing. And they ceased not humbly beseeching 
 Him till, behold, a cloud arose from West to East and, pouring 
 down showers of rain, like the swollen sea, quenched the fire. 
 When the King saw this, he was affrighted, he and his troops, and 
 entered the palace, where he turned to the Wazirs and Grandees 
 and said to them, " How say ye of these two men ? " They replied, 
 " O King, had they not been in the right, this thing had not be- 
 fallen the Fire ; wherefore we say that they be true men which 
 speak sooth." Rejoined Mura'ash, " Verily the truth hath been 
 displayed to me, ay, and the manifest way, and I am certified that 
 the worship of the Fire is false ; for, were it goddess, it had 
 warded off from itself the rain which quenched it and the stone 
 which broke its brazier and beat it into ashes. Wherefore I believe 
 in Him who created the fire and the light and the shade and the 
 heat. And ye, what say ye ? " They answered, " O King, we also 
 hear and follow and obey." So the King called for Gharib and 
 embraced him and kissed him between the eyes and then summoned 
 Sahim ; whereupon the bystanders all crowded to kiss their hands 
 
 and heads. And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and 
 
 ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 Xotu bijcn It tuas tijc ^i.v |£)untirctr anb Jpift|}-scconti Xi'gfjt, 
 
 She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Mura'ash and his men found salvation in the Saving Faith, Al-Islam, 
 he called for Gharib and Sahim and kissed them between the eyes 
 and so did all the Grandees who crowded to kiss their hands and 
 heads. Then Mura'ash sat down on the throne of his kingship 
 and, seating Gharib on his right and Sahim on his left hand, said 
 to them, " O mortals, what shall we say, that we may become 
 Moslems?" Replied Gharib, "Say: — There is no god but the 
 God, and Abraham is the Friend of God ! " So the King and his 
 folk professed Al-Islam with heart and tongue, and Gharib abode 
 with them awhile, teaching tlKin the ritual of prayer. But presently 
 he called to mind his people and sighed, whereupon quoth Mura'ash, 
 "Verily, trouble is gone and joy and gladness are come." Quoth 
 Gharib, " O King, I have many foes and I fear for my folk from 
 them." Then he related to him his history with his brother Ajib
 
 254 -^V Laylah 7va Laylah. 
 
 from first to last, and the King of the Jinns said, " O King of men, 
 I will send one who shall bring thee news of thy people, for I will 
 not let thee go till I have had my fill of thy face." Then he called 
 two doughty Marids, by name Kaylajan and Kiirajan, and after 
 they had done him homage, he bade them repair to Al-Yaman and 
 bring him news of Gharib's army. They replied, " To hear is to 
 obey," and departed. Thus far concerning the brothers ; but as 
 regards the Moslems, they arose in the morning and led by their 
 captains rode to King Gharib's palace, to do their service to him ; 
 but the eunuchs told them that the King had mounted with his 
 brother and had ridden forth at peep o' day. So they made for the 
 valleys and mountains and followed the track of the Princes, till 
 they came to the Valley of the Springs, where they found their 
 arms cast down and their two gallant steeds grazing, and said, " The 
 King is missing from this place, by the glory of Abraham the 
 Friend ! " Then they mounted and sought in the valley and the 
 mountains three days, but found no trace of them ; whereupon they 
 began the mourning ceremonies and, sending for couriers, said to 
 them, " Do ye disperse yourselves about the cities and sconces and 
 castles, and seek ye news of our King." "Hearkening and obedi- 
 ence ! " cried the couriers, who dispersed hither and thither each 
 over one of the Seven Climes and sought everywhere for Gharib, 
 but found no trace of him. Now when the tidings came to Ajib 
 by his spies that his brother was lost and there was no news of the 
 missing, he rejoiced and going in to King Ya'arub bin Kahtan, 
 sought of him aid, which he granted and gave him two hundred 
 thousand Amalekites, wherewith he set out for Al-Yaman and sat 
 down before the city of Oman. Jamrkan and Sa'adan saUied forth 
 and offered him battle, and there were slain of the Moslems much 
 folk, so the True Believers retired into the city and shut the gates 
 and manned the walls. At this moment up came the two Marids 
 Kaylajan and Kurajan and, seeing the Moslem beleagured, waited 
 till nightfall, when they fell upon the Miscreants and plied them with 
 sharp swords of the swords of the Jinn, each twelve cubits long ; if a 
 man smote therewith a rock, verily he would cleave it in sunder. 
 They charged the Idolaters, shouting, " Allaho Akbar ! God is 
 Most Great ! He giveth aid and victory and forsaketh those who 
 deny the Faith of Abraham the Friend ! " and whilst they raged 
 amongst the foes, fire issued from their mouths and nostrils, and 
 they made great slaughter amongst them. Thereupon the Infidels 
 ran out of their tents offering battle but, seeing these strange things, 
 were confounded and their hair stood on end and their reason fled. 
 So they snatched up their arms and fell one upon other, whilst the
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib. 255 
 
 Marids shore off their heads, as a reaper eareth grain, crying, "God 
 is Most Great ! We are the lads of King Gharib, the friend of 
 Mura'ash, King of the Jinn ! " The sword ceased not to go round 
 amongst them till the night was half spent, when the Misbelievers 
 imacfining that the mountains were all Ifrits, loaded their tents and 
 treasure and baggage upon camels and made off; and the first 
 
 to fly was Ajib. And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of 
 
 day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 .floto tolim it tons t!je ^tx |t^unt(rcli nnti jpift)j-tf)irti iSiQlit, 
 
 She resumed. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the 
 Misbelievers made off, and the first to fly was Ajib. Thereupon 
 the Moslems gathered together, marvelling at this that had betided 
 the Infidels and fearing the tribesmen of the Jinn. But the Marids 
 ceased not from pursuit till they had driven them far away into the 
 hills and wolds ; and but fifty thousand rebels ^ of two hundred 
 thousand escaped with their lives and made for their own land, 
 wounded and sore discomfited. Then the two Jinns returned and 
 said to them, " O host of the Moslems, your lord King Gharib and 
 his brother Sahim salute you : they are the guests of Mura'ash, King 
 of the Jann, and will be with you anon." When Gharib's men heard 
 that he was safe and well, they joyed with exceeding joy and said to 
 the Marids, "Allah gladden you twain with good news, O noble 
 spirits!" So Kurajan and Kaylajan returned to Mura'ash and 
 Gharib ; and acquainted them with that which had happened, 
 whereat Gharib, finding the two sitting together, felt heart at ease 
 and said, " Allah abundantly requite you ! " Then (luoth King 
 Mura'ash, " O my brother, I am minded to show thee our country 
 and the city of Japhet- son of Noah (on whom be the Peace!)." 
 Quoth Gharib, " O King, do what seemcth good to thee." So he 
 
 ^ Arab. "Mariduna"= rebels (against Allah and His orders). 
 
 - Arab. " Yafis " or " Yafat." He had eleven sons and was entitled Abu al- 
 Turk because this one engendered the Turcomans as others did the Chinese, 
 Scythians, Slavs (Saklab), Gog, Magog, and the Muscovites or Russians. 
 According to the Moslems there was a rapid falling off in size amongst this 
 family. Noah's grave at Karak (the Ruin), a suburb of Zahlah, in La Broc- 
 qui^re's "Valley of Noah, where the Ark was built," is 140 ft. 10 in. long by 
 
 8 ft. 8 in. broad. (N.B. — It is a l)it of the old acjueduct which Mr. Porter, the 
 learned author of the " Ciant Cities of Bashan," quotes as a " traditional memorial 
 of primeval giants " — taliluis carduis pascuntur asini !). Nabi Ham measures only 
 
 9 ft. 6 in. between headstone and foolstone, being, in fact, about as long as his 
 father was broad.
 
 256 Alf Laylah wa Layiah. 
 
 called for three noble steeds and, mounting, he and Gharib and 
 Sahim set out with a thousand Marids, as they were a piece of a 
 mountain cloven lengthwise. They fared on, solacing themselves 
 with the sight of valleys and mountains, till they came to Jabarsa,^ 
 the city of Japhet son of Noah (on whom be the Peace !) where the 
 townsfolk all, great and small, came forth to meet King Mura'ash 
 and brought them into the city in great state. Then Mura'ash went 
 up to the palace of Japhet son of Noah and sat down on the throne 
 of his kingship, which was of alabaster, ten stages high and latticed 
 with wands of gold wherefrom hung all manner coloured silks. The 
 people of the city stood before him and he said to them, " O seed of 
 Yafis bin Nuh, what did your fathers and grandfathers worship ? " 
 They replied, "We found them worshipping Fire and followed their 
 example, as thou well knowest." " O folk," rejoined Mura'ash, 
 " we have been shown that the fire is but one of the creatures of 
 Almighty Allah, Creator of all things; and when we knew this, 
 we submitted ourselves to God, the One, the All-powerful, Maker, 
 of night and day and the sphere revolving alway, Whom compre- 
 hendeth no sight, but Who comprehendeth all sights, for He is the 
 Subtle, the All-wise. So seek ye Salvation and ye shall be saved 
 from the wrath of the Almighty One and from the fiery doom in the 
 world to come." And they embraced Al-Islam with heart and 
 tongue. Then Mura'ash took Gharib by the hand and showed him 
 the palace and its ordinance and all the marvels it contained, till 
 they came to the armoury, wherein were the arms of Japhet son of 
 Noah. Here Gharib saw a sword hanging to a pin of gold and 
 asked, "O King, whose is that?" Mura'ash answered, " 'Tis the 
 sword of Yafis bin Nuh, wherewith he was wont to do battle against 
 men and Jinn. The sage Jardum forged it and graved on its back 
 names of might.^ It is named Al-Mahik — the Annihilator — for that 
 it never descendeth upon a man, but it annihilateth him, nor upon a 
 Jinni, but it crusheth him ; and if one smote therewith a mountain 
 'twould overthrow it." When Gharib heard tell of the virtues of the 
 sword, he said, " I desire to look on this blade j" and Mura'ash 
 said, " Do as thou wilt." So Gharib put out his hand, and, bending 
 the sword, drew it from its sheath ; whereupon it flashed and Death 
 crept on its edge and glittered ; and it w^as twelve spans long and 
 three broad. Now Gharib wished to become owner of it, and King 
 
 ^ See Night dcliv. 
 
 "^ According to Turcoman legends (evidently post-Mohf mmedan) Noah gave 
 his sen Japhet a stone inscribed with the Greatest Name, ard it had the virtue of 
 bringing on or driving off rain. The Moghuls long preserved the tradition and 
 hence probably the sword in the text.
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib. 257 
 
 Mura'ash said, " An thou canst smite with it, take it." " 'Tis well," 
 Gharib replied, and took it up, and it was in his hand as a staff; 
 wherefore all who were present, men and Jinn, marvelled and said, 
 "Well done, O Prince of Knights ! " Then said Mura'ash " Lay 
 thy hand on this hoard for which the Kings of the earth sigh in vain, 
 and mount, that I may show thee the city." Then they took horse 
 and rode forth the palace, with men and Jinns attending them on 
 
 foot, And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to 
 
 say her permitted say. 
 
 jlotu hj^en ft tons \\t ^'\\ f^untrrcti antJ Jpiftii-fourtfj iligl^t, 
 
 She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Gharib and King Mura'ash rode forth the palace of Japhet, with 
 men and Jinns attending them on foot, they passed through the 
 streets and thoroughfares of the town, by palaces and deserted 
 mansions and gilded doorways, till they issued from the gates 
 and entered gardens full of trees fruit-bearing and waters welling 
 and birds speaking and celebrating the praises of Him to wliom 
 belong Majesty and Eternity ; nor did they cease to solace them- 
 selves in the land till nightfall, when they returned to the palace 
 of Japhet son of Noah and they brought them the table of food. 
 So they ate and Gharib turned to the King of the Jann and said to 
 him, " O King, I would fain return to my folk and my force ; for I 
 know not their i)light after me." Replied Mura'ash, " By Allah, O 
 my brother, I will not part with thee for a full month, till I have 
 had my fill of thy sight." Now Gharib could not say nay, so he 
 abode with him in the city of Japhet, eating and drinking and 
 making merry, till the month ended, when Mura'ash gave him great 
 store of gems and precious ores, emeralds and balass-rubies, 
 diamonds and other jewels, ingots of gold and silver and likewise 
 ambergris and musk and brocaded silks and else of rarities and 
 things of price. Moreover he clad him and Sahim in silken robes 
 of honour gold-inwoven and set on ( iharib's head a crown jewelled 
 with pearls and diamonds of inestimable value. All these treasures 
 he made up into even loads for him and, calling five hundred 
 Marids, said to them, " Get ye ready to travel on the morrow, that 
 we may carry King Gharib and Sahim back to their own country." 
 And they answered, "We hear and we obey." So they passed the 
 night in tlic city, purposing to depart on the morrow, but, next 
 morning, as they were about to set forth behold, they espied a great 
 host advancing upon the city, with horses neighing and kettle-drums 
 
 VOL. IV. R
 
 258 A If Lay la h wa Lay la h. 
 
 beating and trumpets braying and riders filling the earth for they 
 numbered threescore and ten thousand Marids, flying and diving, 
 under a King called Barkan. Now this Barkan was lord of the City 
 of Carnelian and the Castle of Gold, and under his rule were five 
 hill-strongholds, in each five hundred thousand Marids ; and he and 
 his tribe worshipped the Fire, not the Omnipotent Sire. He was a 
 cousin of Mura'ash, the son of his father's brother, and the cause of 
 his coming was that there had been among the subjects of King 
 Mura'ash a misbelieving Marid, who professed Al-Islam hypo- 
 critically, and he stole away from his people and made for the 
 Valley of Carnelian, where he went in to King Barkan and, kissing 
 the earth before him, wished him abiding glory and prosperity. 
 Then he told him of Mura'ash being converted to Al-Islam, 
 and Barkan said, " How came he to tear himself away from his 
 faith ? " ^ So the rebel told him what had passed and, when Barkan 
 heard it, he snorted and snarked and railed at Sun and Moon 
 and sparkling Fire, saying, " By the virtue of my faith, I will surely 
 slay mine uncle's son and his people and this mortal, nor will I leave 
 one of them alive ! " Then he cried out to the legions of the Jinn 
 and choosing of them seventy thousand Marids, set out and fared 
 on till he came to Jabarsa ^ the city of Japhet, and encamped before 
 its gates. When Mura'ash saw this, he despatched a Marid, saying, 
 " Go to this host and learn all that it wanteth and return hither in 
 haste." So the messenger rushed away to Barkan's camp, where 
 the Marids flocked to meet him and said to him, " Who art thou ? " 
 Replied he, "An envoy from King Mura'ash;" whereupon they 
 carried him in to Barkan, before whom he prostrated himself, 
 saying, " O my lord, my master hath sent me to thee, to learn tidings 
 of thee." Quoth Barkan, " Return to thy lord and say to him : — 
 
 This is thy cousin Barkan, who is come to salute thee ! " And 
 
 Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her 
 permitted say. 
 
 Nob iuften it toas i\^t ^\i l^untrrctr anti ipifte^fiftlb Nigbt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 Marid-envoy of Mura'ash was borne before Barkan and said to him, 
 
 ^ This expresses Moslem sentiment ; the convert to Al-Islam being theoretically 
 respected and practically despised. The Turks call him a " Burma " = twister, a 
 turncoat, and no one either trusts him or believes in his sincerity. 
 
 ^ The name of the city first appears here : it is found also in the Bui. Edit., 
 vol. ii., p. 132.
 
 The Flistory of Gharib a7id his Brother Ajib. 259 
 
 ** O my lord, my master hath sent me to thee to learn tidings of 
 thee," Barkan replied, " Return to thy lord and say to him : — This is 
 thy cousin Barkan who is come to salute thee ! " So the messenger 
 went back and told Mura'ash, who said to Gharib, "Sit thou on thy 
 throne whilst I go and salute my cousin and return to thee." Then 
 he mounted and rode to the camp of his uncle's son. Now this was 
 a trick ^ of Barkan, to bring Mura'ash out and seize upon him, and he 
 said to his Marids, whom he had stationed about him, " When ye 
 see me embrace him,^ lay hold of him and pinion him." And they 
 replied, " To hear is to obey." So, when King Mura'ash came up 
 and entered Barkan's pavilion, the owner rose to him and threw his 
 arms round his neck ; whereat the Jann fell upon Mura'ash and 
 pinioned him and chained him. Mura'ash looked at Barkan and 
 said, " What manner of thing is this ? " Quoth Barkan, " O dog of 
 the Jann, wilt thou leave the faith of thy fathers and grandfathers 
 and enter a faith thou knowest not? " Rejoined Mura'ash, " O son 
 of my uncle, indeed I have found the faith of Abraham the Friend 
 to be the True Faith and all other than it vain." Asked Barkan, 
 " And who told thee of this ? " and Mura'ash answered, " Gharib, 
 King of Al-Irak, whom I hold in the highest honour." " By the 
 right of the Fire and the Light and the Shade and the Heat," cried 
 Barkan, " I will assuredly slay both thee and him ! " And he cast 
 him into gaol. Now when Mura'ash's henchman saw what had be- 
 fallen his lord, he fled back to the city and told the King's legionaries 
 who cried out and mounted. Quoth Gharib, " What is the matter ? " 
 And they told him all that had passed, whereupon he cried out to 
 Sahim, " Saddle me one of the chargers that King Mura'ash gave 
 me." Said Sahim, " O my brother, wilt thou do battle with the 
 Jinn?" Gharib replied, "Yes, I will fight them with the sword of 
 Japhet son of Noah, seeking help of the Lord of Abraham the Friend 
 (on whom be the Peace !) for He is the Lord of all things and sole 
 Creator ! " So Sahim saddled him a sorrel horse of the horses of 
 the Jinn, as he were a castle strong among castles, and he armed and 
 mounting, rode out with the legions of the Jinn, hauberk'd cap-k- 
 pie. Then Barkan and his host mounted also and the two hosts 
 drew out in lines facing each other. The first to open the gate of 
 war was Gharib, who drave his steed into the mid-field and bared 
 the enchanted blade, whence issued a glittering light that dazzled 
 the eyes of all the Jinn and struck terror to their hearts. Then he 
 
 ' Arab. " 'Araala hilah," a Syro- Egyptian vulgarism. 
 ''■ i.e. his cousin, but^he will not use the word.
 
 2 6o Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 played ^ with the sword till their wits were wildered, and cried out, 
 saying, "Allaho Akbar ! I am Gharib, King of Irak. There is no 
 Faith save the Faith of Abraham the Friend ! " Now when Barkan 
 heard Gharib's words, he said, " This is he who seduced my cousin 
 from his religion ; so, by the virtue of my faith, I will not sit down 
 on my throne till I have decapitated this Gharib and suppressed his 
 breath of life and forced my cousin and his people back to their 
 behef ; and whoso baulketh me, him will I destroy." Then he 
 mounted an elephant paper-white as he were a tower plastered with 
 gypsum, and goaded him with a spike of steel which ran deep into 
 his flesh, whereupon the elephant trumpeted and made for the battle- 
 plain where cut and thrust obtain ; and, when he drew near Gharib, 
 he cried out to him, saying, " O dog of mankind, what made thee 
 come into our land, to debauch my cousin and his folk and pervert 
 them from one faith to other faith. Know that this day the last 
 of thy worldly days." Gharib replied, " Avaunt,^ O vilest of the 
 Jann ! " Therewith Barkan drew a javelin and making it quiver ^ in 
 his hand, cast it at Gharib ; but it missed him. So he hurled a 
 second javelin at him ; but Gharib caught it in mid-air and after 
 poising it launched it at the elephant. It smote him on the flank 
 and came out on the other side, whereupon the beast fell to the earth 
 dead and Barkan was thrown to the ground, like a great palm-tree. 
 Before he could stir, Gharib smote him with the flat of Japhet's 
 blade on the nape of the neck, and he fell flat upon earth in a 
 fainting-fit ; whereupon the Marids swooped down on him and 
 surrounding him pinioned his elbows. When Barkan's people saw 
 their king a prisoner, they drove at the others, seeking to rescue him, 
 but Gharib and the Islamised Jinns fell upon them and gloriously 
 done for Gharib ! indeed that day he pleased the Lord who answereth 
 prayer and slaked his vengeance with the talisman-sword ! Whom- 
 soever he smote, he clove him in sunder and before his soul could 
 depart he became a heap of ashes in the fire ; whilst the two hosts 
 of the Jinn shot each other with flamey meteors till the battle-field 
 was wrapped in smoke. And Gharib tourneyed right and left among 
 the Kafirs who gave way before him, till he came to King Barkan's 
 pavilion, with Kaylajan and Kurajan on his either hand, and cried 
 out to them, " Loose your lord !" So they unbound Mura'ash and 
 
 ' Arab. " La'ab," meaning very serious use of the sword : we still preserve the 
 old " sword-play." 
 
 - Arab. " Ikhsa," from a root meaning to drive away a dog. 
 
 ' Arab. " Hazza-hu," the quivering motion given to the " Harbah " (a light 
 throw-spear or javelin) before it leaves the hand.
 
 The History of G ha rib and his Brother Ajib. 261 
 
 broke his fetters, and And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day 
 
 and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 Nolo toljtn It toas tljc ^ix l^untrrcti anK JFiftii=si.xtf) Nioftt, 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 King Gharib cried out to Kaylajan and Kurajan, saying, " Loose 
 your lord ! " they unbound Mura'ash and broke his fetters, and he 
 said to them, " Bring me my arms and my winged horse. Now he 
 had two flying steeds, one of which he had given to Gharib and the 
 other he had kept for himself; and this he mounted after he had 
 donned his battle-harness. Then he and Gharib fell upon the enemy, 
 flying through the air on their winged horses, and the true-believing 
 Jinn followed them, shouting " AUaho Akbar — God is Most Great ! " 
 — till plains and hills, valleys and mountains re-worded the cry. The 
 Infidels fled before them and they returned, after having slain more 
 than thirty thousand Marids and Satans, to the city of Japhet, where 
 the two Kings sat down on their couches of estate and sought Barkan, 
 but found him not ; for after capturing him they were diverted from 
 him by stress of battle, where an Ifrit of his servants made his way 
 to him and loosing him, carried him to his folk, of whom he found 
 part slain and the rest in full flight. So he flew up with the King 
 high in air and set him down in the City of Carnelian and Castle of 
 Gold where Barkan seated himself on the throne of his kingship. 
 Presently, those of his people who had survived the affair came in to 
 him and gave him joy of his safety ; and he said, " O folk, where is 
 safety ? My army is slain and they took me prisoner and have rent 
 in pieces mine honour among the tribes of the Jann." Quoth they, 
 " O King, 'tis ever thus that Kings still afflict and are afflicted." 
 Quoth he, " There is no help but I take my wreak and wipe out my 
 shame, else shall I be for ever disgraced among the tribes of the 
 Jann." Then he wrote letters to the Governors of his fortresses, 
 who came to him right loyally and, when he reviewed them, he 
 found three hundred and twenty thousand fierce Marids and Satans ; 
 who said to him, " What is thy need ? " And he replied, " Get ye 
 ready to set out m three days' time ; " whereto they rejoined " Heark- 
 ening and obedience ! " On this wise it befel King Barkan ; but as 
 regards Mura'ash, when he discovered his prisoner's escape, it was 
 grievous to him and he said, "Had we set an hundred Marids to 
 guard him, he had not fled ; but whither shall he go from us ? " 
 Then said he to Gharib, " Know, O my brother, that Barkan is 
 perfidious and will never rest from wreaking blood-revenge on us, but
 
 262 A If Laylah wa Lay la h. 
 
 will assuredly assemble his legions and return to attack us ; where- 
 fore I am minded to forestall him and follow the trail of his defeat, 
 whilst he is yet weakened thereby." Replied Gharib, " This is the 
 right rede, and will best serve our need ; " and Mura'ash said, " Oh 
 my brother, let the Marids bear thee back to thine own country and 
 leave me to fight the batdes of the Faith against the Infidels, that I 
 may be lightened of my sin-load." But Gharib rejoined, "By the 
 virtue of the Clement, the Bountiful, the Veiler, I will not go hence 
 till I do to death all the misbelieving Jinn ; and Allah hasten their 
 souls to the fire and dwelling-place dire ; and none shall be saved 
 but those who worship Allah the One, the Victorious ! But do thou 
 send Sahim back to the city of Oman, so haply he may be healed 
 of his ailment." For Sahim was sick. So Mura'ash cried to the 
 Marids, saying, "Take ye up Sahim and these treasures and bear 
 them to Oman city ;" and after replying, " We hear and we obey," 
 they took them and made for the land of men. Then Mura'ash 
 wrote letters to all his Governors and Captains of fortresses and 
 they came to him with an hundred and sixty thousand warriors. So 
 they made them ready and departed for the City of Carnelian and 
 the Castle of Gold, covering in one day a year's journey and halted 
 in a valley, where they encamped and passed the night. Next 
 morning as they were about to set forth, behold, the vanguard of 
 Barkan's army appeared, whereupon the Jinn cried out and the two 
 hosts met and fell each upon other in that valley. Then the engage- 
 ment was dight and there befel a sore fight as though an earthquake 
 shook the site and fair plight waxed foul plight. Earnest came and 
 jest took flight, and parley ceased 'twixt wight and wight,^ whilst 
 long lives were cut short in a trice and the Unbelievers fell into 
 disgrace and despite ; for Gharib charged them, proclaiming the 
 Unity of the Worshipful, the All-might, and shore through necks and 
 left heads rolling in the dust ; nor did night betide before nigh 
 seventy thousand of the Miscreants were slain, and of the 
 Moslemised over ten thousand Marids had fallen. Then the kettle- 
 drums beat the retreat, and the two hosts drew apart, And 
 
 Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her 
 permitted say. 
 
 ' Here the translator must either order the sequence of the sentences or follow 
 the rhyme.
 
 The History of Gharib ajid his Brother Ajib. 263 
 
 iBoto b3f)en it tons t^c ^ix fl^untivcb anti jpiftjj^seijcntD i^igtt, 
 
 She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 the two hosts drew apart, Gharib and Mura'ash relumed to their 
 tents, after wiping their weapons, and supper being set before them, 
 they ate and gave each other joy of their safety, and the loss of 
 their Marids being so small. As for Barkan, he returned to his 
 tent, grieving for the slaughter of his champions, and said to his 
 officers, " O folk, an we tarry here and do batde with them on this 
 wise in three days' time we shall be cut off to the last wight." Quoth 
 they, " And how shall we do, O King? " Quoth Barkan, " We will 
 fall upon them under cover of night whilst they are deep in sleep, 
 and not one of them shall be left to tell the tale. So take your arms 
 and when I give the word of command, attack and fall on your 
 enemies as one." Now there was amongst them a Marid named 
 Jandal whose heart inclined to Al-Islam ; so when he heard the 
 Kafirs' plot, he stole away from them and going in to King Mura'ash 
 and King Gharib, told the twain what Barkan had devised ; where- 
 upon Mura'ash turned to Gharib and said to him, " O my brother, 
 what shall we do? " Gharib replied, "To-night we will fall upon the 
 Miscreants and chase them into the wilds and the wolds if it be the 
 will of the Omnipotent King." Then he summoned the Captains 
 of the Jann and said to them, " Arm yourselves, you and yours ; 
 and, as soon as 'tis dark, steal out of your tents on foot, hundreds 
 after hundreds, and lie in ambush among the mountains ; and 
 when ye see the enemy engaged among the tents, do ye fall upon 
 them from all quarters. Hearten your hearts and rely on your Lord 
 and ye shall certainly conquer ; and behold, I am with you ! " So, 
 as soon as it was dark night, the Infidels attacked the camp, invoking 
 aid of the Fire and the Light; but when they came among the tents, 
 the Moslems fell upon them, calling for help on the Lord of the 
 Worlds and saying, " O Most Merciful of Mercifuls, O Creator of all 
 createds ! " till they left them like mown grass, cut down and dead. 
 Nor did morning dawn before the most part of the Unbelievers were 
 species without souls and the rest made for the wastes and marshes, 
 whilst Gharib and Mura'ash returned triumphant and victorious ; and, 
 making prize of the enemy's baggage, they rested till the morrow, 
 when they set out for the City of Carnelian and Castle of Gold. 
 As for Barkan, when the battle had turned against him and most 
 of his lieges were slain, he fled through the dark with the remnant 
 of his power to his capital where he entered his palace and 
 assembling his legionaries said to them, "O folk, whoso hath
 
 264 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 aught of price, let him take it and follow me to the Mountain 
 Kaf, to the Blue King, lord of the Pied Palace ; for he it is who 
 shall avenge us." So they took their women and children and 
 goods and made for the Caucasus-mountain. Presently Mura'ash 
 and Gharib arrived at the City of Carnelian and Castle of Gold to 
 find the gates open and none left to give them news ; whereupon 
 they entered and Mura'ash led Gharib that he might show him the 
 city, whose walls were builded of emeralds and its gates of red car- 
 nelian, with studs of silver, and the terrace-roofs of its houses and 
 mansions reposed upon beams of lign-aloes and sandal-wood. So 
 they took their pleasure in its streets and alleys, till they came to the 
 Palace of Gold and entering passed through seven vestibules, when 
 they drew near to a building, whose walls were of royal balass-rubies 
 and its pavement of emerald and jacinth. The two Kings were 
 astounded at the goodliness of the place and fared on from vestibule 
 to vestibule, till they had passed through the seventh and happened 
 upon the inner court of the palace wherein they saw four daises, each 
 different from the others, and in the midst a jetting fount of red 
 gold, compassed about with golden lions, ^ from whose mouths issued 
 water. These were things to daze man's wit. The estrade at the 
 upper end was hung and carpeted with brocaded silks of various 
 colours and thereon stood two thrones of red gold, inlaid with 
 pearls and jewels. So Mura'ash and Gharib sat down on Barkan's 
 
 thrones and held high state in the Palace of Gold. And 
 
 Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her per- 
 mitted say. 
 
 Koh) tujbfn it toas t^c ^i.x f^untirctJ nntr Jpifty=tigi)tft :Nristt, 
 
 She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Mura'ash 
 and Gharib took seat on Barkan's thrones and held high state. Then 
 said Gharib to Mura'ash, "What thinkest thou to do?" And 
 Mura'ash replied, " O King of mankind, I have despatched an 
 hundred horse to learn where Barkan is, that we may pursue him." 
 Then they abode three days in the palace, till the scouting Marids 
 returned with the news that Barkan had fled to the Mountain Kaf 
 and craved protection of the Blue King who granted it ; whereupon 
 quoth Mura'ash to Gharib, " What sayest thou, O my brother ? " and 
 quoth Gharib, " Except we attack them they will attack us." So 
 
 ^ Possibly taken from the Lions' Court in the Alhambra = (Dar) Al-hamra, 
 the Red House. 
 
 1
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib. 265 
 
 they bade the host make ready for departure and after three days, 
 they were about to set out with their troops, when the Marids, who 
 had carried Sahim and the presents back to Oman, returned and 
 kissed ground before Gharib. He questioned them of their people 
 and they repUed, " After the last affair, thy brother Ajib, leaving 
 Ya'arub bin Kahtan, fled to the King of Hind and, submitting his 
 case, sought his protection. The King granted his prayer and writing 
 letters to all his governors, levied an army as it were the surging sea, 
 having neither beginning nor end, wherewith he purposeth to invade 
 Al-Irak and lay it waste." When Gharib heard this, he said, "Perish 
 the Misbelievers ! Verily, Allah Almighty shall give the victory to 
 Al-Islam and I will soon show them hew and foin." Said Mura'ash, 
 "O King of humans, by the virtue of the Mighty Name, I must 
 needs go with thee to thy kingdom and destroy thy foes and bring 
 thee to thy wish." Gharib thanked him and they rested on this 
 resolve till the morrow, when they set out, intending for Mount 
 Caucasus and marched many days till they reached the City of 
 Alabaster and the Pied Palace. Now this city was fashioned of 
 alabaster and precious stones by Barik bin Faki', father of the Jinn, 
 and he also founded the Pied Palace, which was so named because 
 edified with one brick of gold alternating with one of silver, nor was 
 there builded aught like it in all the world. When they came within 
 half a day's journey of the city, they halted to take their rest, and 
 Mura'ash sent out to reconnoitre a scout who returned and said, " O 
 King, within the City of Alabaster are legions of the Jinn, for 
 number as the leaves of the trees or as the drops of rain." So 
 Mura'ash said to Gharib, " How shall we do, O King of mankind ? " 
 He replied, "O King, divide your men into four bodies and encom- 
 pass with them the camp of the Infidels ; then, in the middle of the 
 night, let them cry out, saying: — God is Most Great! and with- 
 draw and watch what happeneth among the tribes of the Jinn." So 
 Mura'ash did as Gharib counselled and the troops waited till midnight, 
 when they encircled the foe and shouted " Allaho Akbar ! Ho for 
 the Faith of Abraham the Friend, on whom be the Peace!" The 
 Misbelievers at this cry awoke in affright and snatching up their 
 arms, fell one upon other till the morning, when most part of them 
 were dead bodies and but few remained. Then Gharib cried out 
 to the True Believers, saying, " Up and at the remnant of the 
 Kafirs ! Behold I am with you, and Allah is your helper ! " So 
 the Moslems drave at the enemy and Gharib bared his magical 
 blade Al-Mahik and fell upon the foe, lopping off noses and making 
 heads wax hoary and whole ranks turn tail. At last he came up 
 with Barkan and smote him and bereft him of life and he fell down.
 
 266 - A If Lay /ah wa Lay I ah. 
 
 drenched in his blood. On hke wise he did with the Blue King, 
 and by undurn-hour not one of the Kafirs was left alive to tell the 
 tale. Then Gharib and Mura'ash entered the Pied Palace and found 
 its walls builded of alternate courses of gold and silver, with door- 
 sills of crystal and keystones of greenest emerald. In its midst was 
 a fountain adorned with bells and pendants and figures of birds and 
 beasts spouting forth water, and thereby a dais ^ furnished with gold- 
 brocaded silk, bordered or embroidered with jewels : and they found 
 the treasures of the palace past count or description. Then they 
 entered the women's court, where they came upon a magnificent 
 serraglio and Gharib saw, among the Blue King's woman-folk a girl 
 clad in a dress worth a thousand dinars, never had he beheld a 
 goodlier. About her were an hundred slave-girls, upholding her 
 train with golden hooks, and she was in their midst as the moon 
 among stars. When he saw her, his reason was confounded and he 
 said to one of the waiting women, "Who may be yonder maid?" 
 Quoth they, "This is the Blue King's daughter, Star o' Morn." 
 
 And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased 
 
 saying her permitted say. 
 
 Noto foiim It fcoas tjb^ ^ix l^untJtetr antr Jp{ftB=nint]b WiQftt, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Gharib 
 asked the slave-women saying, " Who may be yonder maid ? " they 
 replied, "This is Star o' Morn, daughter to the Blue King." Then 
 Gharib turned to Mura'ash and said to him, " O King of the Jinn, 
 I have a mind to take yonder damsel to wife." Replied Mura'ash, 
 " The palace and all that therein is, live stock and dead, are the 
 prize of thy right hand ; for, hadst thou not devised a stratagem to 
 destroy the Blue King and Barkan, they had cut us off to the last 
 one : wherefore the treasure is thy treasure and the folk thy thralls." 
 Gharib thanked him for his fair speech and going up to the girl, 
 gazed steadfastly upon her and loved her with exceeding love, 
 forgetting Fakhr Taj the Princess and even Mahdiyah. Now her 
 mother was the Chinese King's daughter whom the Blue King had 
 carried off from her palace, and she bare this girl, whom he named 
 
 ' Arab. " Shazarwan," from Pers. Shadurwan, a palace, cornice, etc. That 
 of the Meccan Ka'abah is a projection of about a foot broad in pent-house shape 
 sloping downwards and two feet above the granite pavement : its only use appears 
 in the large brass rings welded into it to hold down the covering. Ihere are two 
 breaks in it, one under the doorway and the other opposite Ishmael's tomb ; and 
 pilgrims are directed during circuit to keep the whole body outside it.
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib. 267 
 
 Star o' Morn, by reason of her beauty and loveliness ; for she was 
 the very Princess of the Fair. Her mother died when she was a 
 babe of forty days, and the nurses and eunuchs reared her, till she 
 reached the age of seventeen ; but she hated her sire and rejoiced 
 in his slaughter. So Gharib put his palm to hers ^ and married her 
 that night. Then he bade pull down the Pied Palace and divided 
 the spoil with the true-believing Jinn, and there fell to his share one- 
 and-twenty thousand bricks of gold and silver and money and 
 treasure beyond speech and count. Then Mura'ash took Gharib 
 and showed him the Mountain Kaf and all its marvels ; after which 
 they returned to Barkan's fortress and dismantled it and shared the 
 spoil thereof. Presently they repaired to Mura'ash's capital, where 
 they tarried five days, when Gharib sought to revisit his native country 
 and Mura'ash said, " O King of mankind, I will ride at thy stirrup 
 and bring thee to thine own land." Replied Gharib, " No, by the 
 virtue of Abraham the Friend, I will not suffer thee to weary thyself 
 on this wise, nor will I take any of the Jinn save Kaylajan and 
 Kurajan." Quoth the King, "Take with thee ten thousand horse- 
 men of the Jinn, to serve thee ; " but quoth Gharib, " I will take 
 only as I said to thee." So Mura'ash bade a thousand Marids 
 carry him to his native land, with his share of the spoil ; and he 
 commanded Kaylajan and Kurajan to follow him and obey him ; 
 and they answered, " Hearkening and obedience." Then said 
 Gharib to the Marids, "Do ye carry the treasure and Star o' Morn; " 
 for he himself thought to ride the flying steed. But Mura'ash said, 
 to him, "This horse, O my brother, will live only in our region, and 
 if it come upon man's earth, 'twill die : but I have in my stables a 
 sea-horse, whose fellow is not found in Al-Irak, no, nor in all the 
 world is its like." So he caused bring forth the horse, and when 
 Gharib saw it, it interposed between him and his wits.- Then they 
 bound it and Kaylajan bore it on his shoulders and Kurajan took 
 what he could carry. And Mura'ash embraced Gharib and wept 
 for parting from him, saying, "O my brother, if aught befal thee 
 wherein thou art powerless, send for me and I will come to thine aid 
 with an army able to lay waste the whole earth and what is thereon." 
 Cihaiib thanked him for his kindness and zeal for the True Faith 
 and took leave of him ; whereupon the Marids set out with Gharib 
 and his goods ; and, after traversing fifty years' journey in two days 
 and a night, alighted near the city of Oman and halted to take 
 rest. Then Gharib sent out Kaylajan to learn news of his people, 
 
 ' The " IMusafahnh " liefore noticed. 
 '" i.e. he was confounded at its beauty.
 
 2 68 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 and he returned and said, " O King, the city is beleaguered by a host 
 of Infidels, as they were the surging sea, and thy people are fighting 
 them. The drums beat to battle and Jamrkan goeth forth as cham- 
 pion in the field." When Gharib heard this, he cried aloud, "God 
 is Most Great ! " and said to Kaylajan, " Saddle me the steed and 
 bring me my arms and spear ; for to-day the valiant shall be known 
 from the recreant in the place of war and battle-stead. So Kaylajan 
 brought him all he sought and Gharib armed and belting in baldrick 
 Al-Mahik, mounted the sea-horse and made towards the hosts. 
 Quoth Kaylajan and Kurajan to him, " Set thy heart at rest and let 
 us go to the Kafirs and scatter them abroad in the wastes and wilds 
 till, by the help of Allah, the All-powerful, we leave not a soul alive, 
 no, not a blower of the fire." But Gharib said, " By the virtue of 
 Abraham the Friend, I will not let you fight them without me and 
 behold, I mount ! " Now the cause of the coming of that great host 
 
 was right marvellous.^ And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day 
 
 and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Gharib had bidden Kaylajan go and learn news of his people, the 
 Jinn fared forth and presently returning said, " Verily around thy 
 city is a mighty host ! " Now the cause of its coming was that Ajib, 
 having fled the field after Ya'arub's army had been put to the rout, 
 said to his people, " O folk, if we return to Ya'arub bin Kahtan, he 
 will say to us : — But for you, my son and my people had not been 
 slain ; and he will put us to death, even to the last man. Where- 
 fore, methinks we were better go to Tarkanan, King of Hind, and 
 beseech him to avenge us." Replied they, " Come, let us go thither ; 
 and the blessing of the Fire be upon thee ! " So they fared days 
 and nights till they reached King Tarkanan's capital city and, after 
 asking and obtaining permission to present himself, Ajib went in to 
 him and kissed ground before him. Then he wished him what men 
 use to wish to royalty and said to him, " O King, protect me, so may 
 protect thee the sparkling Fire and the Night with its thick dark- 
 ness!" Tarkanan looked at Ajib and asked, "Who art thou and 
 what dost thou want? " to which the other answered, " I am Ajib, 
 King of Al-Irak ; my brother hath wronged me and gotten the 
 mastery of the land and the subjects have submitted themselves to 
 
 ^ Arab. '"Ajib," punning on the name.
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib. 269 
 
 him. Moreover, he hath embraced the faith of Al-Islam and he 
 ceaseth not to chase me from country to country ; and behold, I 
 am come to seek protection of thee and thy power." When Tar- 
 kanan heard Ajib's words, he rose and sat down and cried, " By 
 the virtue of the Fire, I will assuredly avenge thee and will let 
 none serve other than my goddess the Fire ! " And he called aloud 
 to his son, saying, " O my son, make ready to go to Al-Irak and 
 lay it waste and bind all who serve aught but the Fire and tor- 
 ment them and make an example of them ; yet slay them not, but 
 bring them to me, that I may ply them with various tortures and 
 make them taste the bitterness of humiliation and leave them a 
 warning to whoever will be warned in this our while." Then he 
 chose out to accompany him eighty thousand fighting men on horse- 
 back and the like number on giraffes,^ besides ten thousand elephants, 
 bearing on their backs seats ^' of sandal-wood, latticed with golden 
 rods, plated and studded with gold and silver and shielded with 
 pavoises of gold and emerald ; moreover he sent good store of war- 
 chariots, in each eight men fighting with all kinds of weapons. 
 Now the Prince's name was Ra'ad Shah,^ and he was the champion 
 of his time for prowess, having no peer. So he and his army 
 equipped them in ten days' time, then set out as they were a bank 
 of clouds, and fared on two months' journey, till they came upon 
 Oman city and encompassed it, to the joy of Ajib, who thought 
 himself assured of victory. Jamrkan and Sa'adan and all their 
 fighting-men sallied forth into the field of fight whilst the kettle- 
 drums beat to battle and the horses neighed. At this moment up 
 came King Gharib, who, as we have said, had been warned by 
 Kaylajan ; and he urged on his steed and entered among the 
 Infidels waiting to see who should come forth and open the chapter 
 of war. Then out rushed Sa'adan the Ghul and offered combat, 
 whereupon there issued forth to him one of the champions of 
 Hind ; but Sa'adan scarce let him take stand in front ere he smote 
 him with his mace and crushed his bones and stretched him on the 
 ground ; and so did he with his second and third, till he had slain 
 thirty fighting men. Then there dashed out at him an Indian 
 cavalier, by name Battash al-Akran,* uncle to King Tarkanan and 
 
 ^ Arab. " Zarraf" (whence our word) from "Zarf"= walking hastily : the old 
 *' catnelopard " which originated the nursery idea of its origin. It is one of the 
 most timid of the anielojie tribe and unfit (or riding. 
 
 - Arab. "Taklit," a uselul word, meaning even a saddle. The usual term is 
 •' Ilaudaj "= the Anglo-Indian " huwdah." 
 
 ^ " Thunder- King," Arab, and Persian. 
 
 •* i.e. "He %vho violently assaults his peers" (the best men of the age).
 
 270 Alf Lay 1 ah wa Lay 1 ah. 
 
 of his day the doughtiest man, reckoned worth five thousand horse 
 in battle-plain and cried out to Sa'adan, saying, " O thief of the 
 Arabs, hath thy daring reached that degree that thou shouldst slay 
 the Kings of Hind and their champions and capture their horsemen ? 
 But this day is the last of thy worldly days." When Sa'adan heard 
 these words, his eyes waxed blood-red and he drave at Battash and 
 aimed a stroke at him with his club ; but he evaded it and the force 
 of the blow bore Sa'adan to the ground ; and before he could re- 
 cover himself, the Indians pinioned him and haled him off to their 
 tents. Now when Jamrkan saw his comrade a prisoner, he cried 
 out, saying, " Ho, for the Faith of Abraham the Friend ! " and 
 clapping heel to his horse, ran at Battash. They wheeled about 
 awhile, till Battash charged Jamrkan and catching him by his 
 jerkin ^ tare him from his saddle and cast him to the ground ; 
 whereupon the Indians bound him and dragged him away to their 
 tents. And Battash ceased not to overcome all who came out to 
 him. Captain after Captain till he had made prisoners of four-and- 
 twenty Chiefs of the Moslems, whereat the True Believers were 
 sore dismayed. When Gharib saw what had befallen his braves, 
 he drew from beneath his knee ^ a mace of gold weighing six-score 
 
 pounds which had belonged to Barkan, King of the Jann And 
 
 Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her 
 permitted say. 
 
 iiobj tofien it toas tf)e ^ix f^imtrrtU nnU gbixtp-first iSigftt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Gharib 
 beheld what had befallen his braves he drew forth a golden mace 
 which had belonged to Barkan King of the Jann and clapped heel 
 
 Bathat al-Kubra = the Great Disaster, is applied to the unhappy "Battle of 
 Bedr" (Badr) on Ramazan 17, A.H. 2 (= Jan. 13, 624) when Mohammed was 
 so nearly defeated that the Angels were obliged to assist him (Koran, chapts. iii. 
 11; i. 42 ; viii 9). Mohammed is soundly rated by Christian writers for be- 
 heading two prisoners, Utbah ibn Rabi'a who had once spat on his face, and 
 Nazir ibn Haris who recited Persian romances and preferred them to the 
 "foolish fables of the Koran." What would our forefathers have done to a 
 man who spat in the face of John Knox and openly preferred a French play to 
 the Pentateuch ? 
 
 ' Arab. " Jilbab," either habergeon (mail-coat) or the buff-jacket worn 
 under it. 
 
 ^ A favourite way, rough and ready, of carrying light weapons ; often alluded 
 to in The Nights. So I'ihusrawan in Antar carried " under his thighs four small 
 darts, each like a blazing flame."
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib. 271 
 
 to his sea-horse, which bore him hke the wind-gust into mid-field. 
 Then he let drive at Battash, crying out, " God is Most Great ! He 
 giveth aid and victory and He abaseth whoso reject the Faith of 
 Abraham the Friend!" and smote him with the mace, whereupon 
 he fell to the ground and Gharib, turning to the Moslems, saw his 
 brother Sahim and said to him, " Pinion me this hound." When 
 Sahim heard his brother's words, he ran to Battash and bound him 
 hard and fast and bore him off, whilst the Moslem braves wondered 
 who this knight could be, and the Indians said one to other, "Who is 
 this horseman which came out from among them and hath taken 
 our Chief prisoner ? " Meanwhile Gharib continued to offer battle 
 and there issued forth to him a Captain of the Hindis whom he 
 felled to earth with his mace, and Kaylajan and Kurajan pinioned 
 him and delivered him over to Sahim ; nor did Gharib leave to do 
 thus, till he had taken prisoner two-and-fifty of the doughtiest 
 Captains of the army of Hind. Then the day came to an end and 
 the kettle-drums beat the retreat; whereupon Gharib left the field 
 and rode towards the Moslem camp. The first to meet him was 
 Sahim, who kissed his feet in the stirrups and said, " May thy hand 
 never wither, O champion of the age ! Tell us who thou art among 
 the braves." So Gharib raised his vizor of mail and Sahim knew 
 him and cried out, saying, " This is your King and your lord Gharib, 
 who is come back from the land of the Jann !" When the Moslems 
 heard Gharib's name, they threw themselves off their horses' backs, 
 and, crowding about him, kissed his feet in the stirrups and saluted 
 him, rejoicing in his safe return. Then they carried him into the 
 city of Oman, where he entered his palace and sat down on the 
 throne of his kingship, whilst his officers stood around him in the 
 utmost joy. Food was set on and they ate, after which Gharib 
 related to them all that had betided him with the Jinn in Mount 
 Kaf, and they marvelled thereat with exceeding marvel and praised 
 Allah for his safety. Then he dismissed them to their sleeping- 
 places ; so they withdrew to their several lodgings, and when none 
 abode with him but Kaylajan and Kurajan, who never left him, he 
 said to them, "Can ye carry me to Cufa that I may take pleasure in 
 my Harim, and bring me back before the end of the night ?"' They 
 replied, " O our lord, this thou askest is easy." Now the distance 
 between Cufa and Oman is sixty days' journey for a diligent horse- 
 man, and Kaylajan said to Kurajan, " I will carry him going and 
 thou coming back." So he took up Gharib and flew off with him, in 
 company with Kurajan ; nor was an hour past before they set him 
 down at the gate of his palace, in Cufa. He went in to his uncle 
 Al-Damigh, who rose to him and saluted him ; after which quoth
 
 272 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 Gharib, "How is it with my wives Fakhr Taj ^ and Mahdiyah?" 
 Al-Damigh answered, "They are both well and in good case." Then 
 the Eunuch went in and acquainted the women of the Harim with 
 Gharib's coming, whereat they rejoiced and raised the trill of joy 
 and gave him the reward for good news. Presently in came King 
 Gharib, and they rose and saluting him, conversed with him, till Al- 
 Damigh entered, when Gharib related to them all that had befallen 
 him in the land of the Jinn, whereat they all marvelled. Then he 
 abode there till near daybreak, when he took leave of his wives and 
 his uncles and mounted Kurajan's back, nor was the darkness 
 dispelled before the two Marids set him down in the city of Oman. 
 Then he and his men armed and he bade open the gates when, 
 behold, up came a horseman from the host of the Indians, with 
 Jamrkan and Sa'adan and the rest of the captive captains whom he 
 had delivered, and committed them to Gharib. The Moslems, 
 rejoicing in their safety, donned their mails and took horse, while 
 the kettle-drums beat a point of war; and the Miscreants also drew 
 
 up in line. And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased 
 
 to say her permitted say. 
 
 jloto tD^cn ft teas \\z ^fx f^un&rctr anti ^ixtp-stcontr Jligj^t, 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 the Moslem host mounted and rode to the plain of cut and thrust, the 
 first to open the door of war was King Gharib who, drawing his sword 
 Al-Mahik, drove his charger between the two ranks and cried out, 
 saying, " Whoso knoweth me hath enough of my mischief, and whoso 
 unknoweth me, to him I will make myself known. I am Gharib, King 
 of Al-Irak and Al-Yaman, brother of Ajib." When Ra'ad Shah, son 
 of the King of Hind, heard this, he shouted to his captains, " Bring me 
 Ajib." So they brought him and Ra'ad Shah said to him, " Thou 
 wottest that this quarrel is thy quarrel and thou art the cause of all 
 this slaughter. Now yonder standeth thy brother Gharib amiddle- 
 most the fightfield and stead where sword and spear we shall wield ; 
 go thou to him and bring him to me a prisoner, that I may set him 
 on a camel, face to crupper, and make a show of him and carry him 
 
 ^ Mr. Payne very reasonably supplants Fakhr Taj (who in Night dcxxxiv. is 
 left in her father's palace and who is reported to be dead in Night dclxvii.) by 
 Star o' Morn. But the former is also given in the Bui. Edit. (ii. 148), so the 
 story-teller must have forgotten all about her. I leave it as a model specimen of 
 Eastern incuriousness.
 
 The History of Gharib and Jiis Brother Ajib. 273 
 
 to the land of Hind." Answered Ajib, "O King, send out to him 
 other than myself, for I am in ill-health this morning." But Ra'ad 
 Shah snarked and snorted and cried, " By the virtue of the sparkling 
 Fire and the Light and the Shade and the Heat, unless thou fare forth 
 to thy brother and bring him to me in haste, I will cut off thy head and 
 make an end of thee." So Ajib took heart and urging his horse up 
 to his brother in mid-field, said to him, " O dog of the Arabs and 
 vilest of all who hammer down tent-pegs, wilt thou contend with 
 Kings? Take what to thee cometh and receive the glad tidings of 
 thy death." When Gharib heard this, he said to him, "Who art 
 thou among the Kings?" And Ajib answered, saying, "I am thy 
 brother, and this day is the last of thy worldly days." Now when 
 Gharib was assured that he was indeed his brother Ajib, he cried 
 out and said, " Ho, to avenge my father and mother ! " Then 
 giving his sword to Kaylajan,i he drave at Ajib and smote him with 
 his mace a smashing blow and a swashing, that went nigh to beat in 
 his ribs, and seizing him by the mail-gorget tore him from the 
 saddle and cast him to the ground ; whereupon the two Marids 
 pounced upon him and binding him fast, dragged him off dejected 
 and abject ; whilst Gharib rejoiced in the capture of his enemy and 
 repeated these couplets of the poet : — 
 
 I have won my wish and my need have scored ; * Unto Thee be the praise and 
 
 the thanks, O our Lord ! 
 I grew up dejected and abject-poor, * But Allah vouchsafed me all boons 
 
 implored : 
 I have conquered countries and mastered men, * But for thee were I naught, 
 
 O thou Lord adored ; 
 
 When Ra'ad Shah saw how evilly Ajib fared with his brother, he 
 called for his charger and donning his harness and habergeon, 
 mounted and dashed out a-field. As soon as he drew near King 
 Gharib, he cried out at him, saying, "O basest of Arabs and bearer 
 of scrubs,* who art thou, that thou shouldest capture Kings and 
 braves? Down from thy horse and put elbows behind back and 
 kiss my feet and set my warriors free and go with me in bond 
 of chains to my reign that I may pardon thee and make thee a 
 
 ^ There is some chivalry in his unwillingness to use the magical blade. As a 
 rule the Knights of Romance utterly ignore fair play and take every dirty advan- 
 tage in the magic line that comes to hand. 
 
 '■^ Ar^>b. " Hamnuil al-I latabi "= one who carries to market the fuel-sticks 
 which he picks up in the waste. In the Koran (chapt. cxi.) it is applied to Umm 
 Jamil, wifeol Mohammed's hostile cousin, Abd al-Uzza, there termed Abu Lahab 
 (Father of smokeless Flame) with the implied meaning that she will bear fuel to 
 feed Hell-fire. 
 
 VOL. IV. S
 
 274 A If Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 Shaykh in our own land, so mayst thou eat there a bittock of 
 bread." When Gharib heard these Avords, he laughed till he fell 
 backwards and answered, saying, " O mad hound and scald wolf, 
 soon shalt thou see against whom the shifts of Fortune will tend ! " 
 Then he cried out to Sahim, saying, " Bring me the prisoners ; " so 
 he brought them, and Gharib smote off their heads ; whereupon 
 Ra'ad Shah drave at him, with the driving of a lordly champion and 
 the onslaught of a fierce slaughterer and they falsed and feinted and 
 
 fought till nightfall, when the kettle-drums beat the retreat. And 
 
 Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her 
 permitted say. 
 
 :^(roto toj^cn It toas tj^e &ix l^unUrtti antj ^ixtg-tfiirti :KrigDt, 
 
 She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 kettle-drums beat the retreat, the two Kings parted and returned, 
 each to his own place, where his people gave him joy of his safety. 
 And the Moslems said to Gharib, " 'Tis not thy wont, O King, to 
 prolong a fight ; " and he replied, " O folk, I have done battle with 
 many royalties • and champions ; but never saw I a harder hitter 
 than this one. Had I chosen to draw Al-Mahik upon him, I had 
 mashed his bones and made an end of his days ; but I delayed with 
 him, thinking to take him prisoner and give him part enjoyment in 
 Al-Islam." Thus far concerning Gharib ; but as regards Ra'ad 
 Shah, he returned to his marquee and sat upon his throne, when his 
 Chiefs came in to him and asked him of his adversary, and he 
 answered, " By the truth of the sparkling Fire, never in my life saw 
 I the like of yonder brave ! But to-morrow I will take him prisoner 
 and lead him away dejected and abject." Then they slept till day- 
 break, when the battle-drums beat to fight and the swords in baldrick 
 
 ^ Arab. "Akyal," lit. whose word (Kaul) is obeyed, a title of the Himyarite 
 Kings, of whom Al-Bergendi relates that one of them left an inscription at 
 Samarcand, which many centuries ago no man could read. This evidently 
 alludes to the dynasty which preceded the " Tobba" and to No. xxiv, Shamar 
 Yar'ash (Shamar the Palsied). Some make him son of Malik surnamed Nashir 
 al-Ni'am (Scatterer of Blessings) others of Afrikus (No. xviii.), who, according to 
 Al-Jannabi, Ahmad bin Yusuf and Ibn Ibdun (Pocock, Spec. Plist. Arab.) 
 founded the Berber (Barbar) race, the remnants of the Canaanites expelled by the 
 "robber, Joshua son of Nun," and became the eponymus of "Africa." This 
 word which, under the Romans, ^denoted a small province on the Northern sea- 
 board, is, I would suggest, Afar-Kahi (Afar-land), the Afar being now the 
 Dunkali race, the country of Osiris whom my learned friend, the late Mariette 
 Pasha derived from the Egyptian "Punt" identified by him with the Somali 
 country. This would make " Africa," as it ought to be, an Egyptian (Coptic) 
 term.
 
 The History of Gharib arid his Brother Ajib. 275 
 
 were dicrht : and war-cries were cried amain and all mounted their 
 horses of generous strain and drew out into the field, filling every 
 wide place and hill and plain. The first to open the door of war 
 was the rider outrageous and the lion rageous, King Gharib, who 
 drave his steed between the two hosts and wheeled and careered 
 over the field, crying, " Who is for fray, who is for fight ? Let no 
 sluggard come forth to me this day nor dullard ! " Before he had 
 made an end of speaking, out rushed Ra'ad Shah, riding on an 
 elephant, as he were a vast tower, in a seat girthed with silken bands ; 
 and between the elephant's ears sat the driver, bearing in hand a 
 hook, wherewith he goaded the beast and directed him right and 
 left. When the elephant drew near Gharib's horse, and the steed 
 saw a creature it had never before set eyes on, it took fright ; ^ where- 
 fore Gharib dismounted and gave the horse to Kaylajan. Then he 
 drew Al-Mahik and advanced to meet Ra'ad Shah a-foot, walking on 
 till he faced the elephant. Now it was Ra'ad Shah's wont, when he 
 found himself overmatched by any brave, to mount an elephant, 
 taking with him an implement called the lasso,^ which was in the 
 shape of a net, wide at base and narrow at top with a running cord 
 of silk passed through rings along its edges. With this he would 
 attack horsemen and casting the meshes over them, draw the running 
 noose and drag the rider off his horse and make him prisoner ; and 
 thus had he conquered many cavaliers. So, as Gharib came up to 
 him, he raised his hand and, despreading the net over him, pulled 
 him on to the back of the elephant and cried out to the beast to 
 return to the Indian camp. But Kaylajan and Kurajan had not left 
 Gharib and, when they beheld what had befallen their lord, they 
 laid hold of the elephant, whilst Gharib strove with the net, till he 
 rent it in sunder. Upon this the two Marids seized Ra'ad Shah and 
 bound him with a cord of palm-fibre. Then the two armies drove 
 each at other and met with a shock like two seas crashing or two 
 mountains together dashing, whilst the dust rose to the confines of 
 the sky and blinded was every eye. The battle waxed fierce and 
 fell, the blood ran in rills, nor did they cease to wage war with lunge 
 of lance and sway of sword in lustiest way, till the day darkened 
 and the night starkened, when the drums beat the retreat and tlie 
 
 ' Herodotus (i. 80) notes this concerning the camel. Elephants are not 
 allowed to walk the streets in Anglo-Indian cities, where they have caused many 
 accidents. 
 
 ■ Arab. " Wahk " or " Wahak," suggesting the Roman retiarius. But the lasso 
 pure and simple, the favourite weapon ol shepherd and herdsmen was well known to 
 tile old Egyptians and in ancient India. It forms one of the T-Ietters in the 
 hieroglyphs.
 
 276 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 two hosts drew asunder.^ Now the Moslems were evilly entreated 
 that day by reason of the riders on elephants and giraffes,^ and many 
 of them were killed and most of the rest were wounded. This was 
 grievous to Gharib, who commanded the hurt to be medicined and 
 turning to his Chief Oi^cers, asked them what they counselled. 
 Answered they, " O King, 'tis only the elephants and giraffes that 
 irk us ; were we but quit of them, we should overcome the enemy." 
 Quoth Kaylajan and Kurajan, " We twain will unsheath our swords 
 and fall on them and slay the most part of them." But there came 
 forward a man of Oman, who had been privy counsellor to Jaland, 
 and said, "O King, I will be surety for the host, an thou wilt but 
 hearken to me and follow my counsel." Gharib turned to his Cap- 
 tains and said to them, " Whatsoever this wise man shall say to you, 
 
 that do ! " And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and 
 
 ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 Nofo tojbcn it teas tj^t ^I'x l^untireti antr ^fxtB=foutt]^ Niglbt, 
 
 She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Gharib said to his captains, " Whatsoever this wise man shall say 
 to you, that do;" they replied, " Hearing and obeying !" So the 
 Omani chose out ten captains and asked them, " How many braves 
 have ye under your hands ? " and they answered, " Ten thousand 
 fighting-men." Then he carried them into the armoury and armed 
 five thousand of them with harquebuses and other five thousand 
 with cross-bows and taught them to shoot with these new weapons.^ 
 
 ^ Compare with this and other Arab battle-pieces the Pandit's description in 
 the Katha Sarit Sagara, e.g. "Then a confused battle arose with dint of arrow, 
 javelin, lance, mace and axe, costing the lives of countless soldiers (N.B. — Millions 
 are nothing to him) ; rivers of blood flowed with the bodies of elephants and horses 
 for alligators, with the pearls from the heads of elephants for sands and with the 
 heads of heroes for stones. That feast of battle delighted the flesh-loving demons 
 who, drunk with blood instead of wine, were dancing with the palpitating trunks," 
 etc., etc. Fasc. xii. 526. 
 
 - The giraffe is here mal-place ZLgdiin : it is, I repeat, one of the most timid of 
 the antelope tribe. Nothing can be more graceful than this huge game as it 
 stands under a tree extending its long and slender neck to the foliage above it ; 
 but when in flight all the limbs seem loose and the head is carried almost on a 
 level with the back. 
 
 ^ The fire-arms may have been inserted by the copier ; the cross-bow (Arcu- 
 balista) is of unknown antiquity. I have remarked in my Book of the Sword 
 (p. 19) that the bow is the first crucial evidence of the distinction between the 
 human weapon and the bestial arm, and proves a difference of degree if not of 
 kind between man and the so-called lower animals. I note from Yule's Marco 
 Polo (ii. 143) " that the cross-bow was re-introduced into European warfare 
 during the twelfth centuiy " ; but the arbalest was well known to the bon roi 
 Charlemagne (Regnier Sat. X.)
 
 The History of Gliarib and his Brother Ajib. 277 
 
 Now as soon as it was day, the Indians came out to the field, armed 
 cap-k-pie, with the elephants, giraffes and champions in their van ; 
 whereupon Gharib and his men mounted and both hosts drew out 
 and the big drums beat to battle. Then the man of Oman cried out 
 to the archers and harquebusiers to shoot, and they plied the 
 elephants and giraffes with shafts and leaden bullets, which entered 
 the beasts' lianks, whereat they roared out and turning upon their 
 own ranks, trod them down with their hooves. Presently the 
 Moslems charged the Misbelievers and outflanked them right and 
 left, whilst the elephants and giraffes trampled them and drove them 
 into the hills and wolds, whither the Moslems followed hard upon 
 them with the keen-edged sword and but few of the giraffes and 
 elephants escaped. Then King Gharib and his folk returned, re- 
 joicing in their victory ; and on the morrow they divided the loot 
 and rested five days ; after which King Gharib sat down on the 
 throne of his kingship and sending for his brother Ajib, said to him, 
 "O dog, why hast thou assembled the Kings against us? But He 
 who hath power over all things hath given us the victory over thee. 
 So embrace the Saving Faith and thou shalt be saved, and I will 
 forbear to avenge my father and mother on thee therefor, and I will 
 make thee King again as thou wast, placing myself under thy hand." 
 But Ajib said, " I will not leave my faith." So Gharib bade lay him 
 in irons and appointed an hundred stalwart slaves to guard him ; after 
 which he turned to Ra'ad Shah and said to him, " How sayst thou 
 of the faith of Al-Islam ? " Replied he, " O my lord, I will enter thy 
 1^'aith ; for, were it not a true Faith and a goodly, thou hadst not 
 conquered us. Put forth thy hand and I will testify that there is no 
 god but the God, and Abraham the Friend is the Aposde of God." 
 At this Gharib rejoiced and said to him, " Is thy heart indeed 
 .stablished in the sweetness of this Belief?" And he answered, 
 saying, " Yes, O my lord ! " Then quoth Gharib, " O Ra'ad Shah, 
 wilt thou go to thy country and thy kingdom?" and quoth he, "O 
 my lord, my father will put me to death, for that I have left his 
 faith." Gharib rejoined, " I will go with thee and make thee King 
 of the country and constrain the folk to obey thee, by tlie help of 
 Allah, the Bountiful, the Beneficent." And Ra'ad Shah kissed his 
 hands and feet. Then Gharib rewarded the counsellor who had 
 caused the rout of the foe and gave him great wealth ; after which 
 he turned to Kaylajan aud Kurajan, and said to them, " Harkye, 
 Chiefs of the Jinn, 'tis my will that ye carry me, together with Ra'ad 
 Shah and Jamrkan and Sa'adan to the land of Hind." " We hear 
 and we obey," answered they. So Kurajan took up Jamrkan and 
 Sa'adan, whilst Kaylajan took Gharib and Ra'ad Shah and made for
 
 278 Alf Laylali 7ua Laylah. 
 
 the land of Hind. And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of 
 
 day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 Noto ioj^tn it loas tljc ^ix l^unUixlr an& ^(.xtg-fiftf) Kigfit, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the two 
 Marids had taken up Gharib and Jamrkan, Sa'adan the Ghul and 
 Ra'ad Shah, they flew on with them from sundown till the last of the 
 night, when they set them down on the terrace of King Tarkanan's 
 palace at Cashmere. Now news was brought to Tarkanan by the 
 remnants of his host of what had befallen his son, whereat he slept 
 not neither took delight in aught, and he was troubled with sore 
 trouble. As he sat in his Harim pondering his case, behold, Gharib 
 and his company descended the stairways of the palace and came in 
 to him ; and when he saw his son and those who were with him, he 
 was confused and fear took him of the Marids. Then Ra'ad Shah 
 turned to him and said, " How long wilt thou persist in thy froward- 
 ness, O traitor and worshipper of the Fire ? Woe to thee ! Leave 
 worshipping the Fire and serve the Magnanimous Sire, Creator of 
 day and night, Whom attaineth no sight." When Tarkanan heard 
 his son's speech, he cast at him an iron club he had by him : but it 
 missed him and fell upon a buttress of the palace and smote out 
 three stones. Then cried the King, "O dog, thou hast destroyed 
 mine army and hast forsaken thy faith and comest now to make me 
 do likewise ! " With this Gharib went up to him and dealt him a 
 cuff on the neck which knocked him down ; whereupon the Marids 
 bound him fast and all the Harim-women fled. Then Gharib sat 
 down on the throne of kingship and said to Ra'ad Shah, " Do thou 
 justice upon thy father." So Ra'ad Shah turned to him and said, 
 "O perverse old man, become one of the saved and thou shalt be 
 saved from the fire and the wrath of the All-powerful." But Tar- 
 kanan cried, " I will not die except in my own faith." Whereupon 
 Gharib drew Al-Mahik and smote him therewith, and he fell to the 
 earth in two pieces, and Allah hurried his soul to the fire and 
 abiding-place dire.^ Then Gharib bade hang his body over the 
 palace gate and they hung one half on the right hand and the other 
 on the left and waited till day, when Gharib caused Ra'ad Shah don 
 the royal habit and sit down on his father's throne, with himself on 
 
 ^ In Al- Islam this was unjustifiable homicide, excused only because the Kafir 
 had tried to slay his own son. He should have been summoned to become a 
 tributary and then, on express refusal, he might legally have been put to death.
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib. 279 
 
 his dexter hand and Jamrkan and Sa'adan and the Marids standing 
 right and left; and he said to Kaylajan and Kurajan, "Whoso 
 entereth of the Princes and Officers, seize him and bind him, and 
 let not a single Captain escape you." And they answered, " Hear- 
 kening and obedience ! " Presently, the Officers made for the 
 palace, to do their service to the King, and the first to appear was 
 the Chief Captain who, seeing King Tarkanan's dead body cut in 
 half and hanging on either side of the gate, was seized with terror 
 and amazement. Then Kaylajan laid hold of him by the collar and 
 threw him and pinioned him ; after which he dragged him into the 
 palace and before sunrise they had bound three hundred and fifty 
 Captains and set them before Gharib, who said to them, " O folk, 
 have you seen your King hanging at the palace-gate ? " Asked they, 
 " Who hath done this deed 1 " and he answered, " I did it, by the 
 help of Allah Almighty ; and whoso opposeth me, I will do with 
 him likewise." Then quoth they, " What is thy will with us ? " and 
 quoth he, "I am Gharib, King of Al-Irak, he who slew your 
 warriors ; and now Ra'ad Shah hath embraced the Faith of Salvation 
 and is become a mighty King and ruler over you. Do ye become 
 True Believers and all shall be well with you ; but if ye refuse, you 
 shall repent it." So they pronounced the profession of the Faith 
 and were enrolled among the people of felicity. Then said Gharib, 
 " Are your hearts indeed stablished in the sweetness of the Belief? "' 
 and they replied, " Yes ; " whereupon he bade release them and 
 clad them in robes of honour, saying, " Go to your people and 
 expound Al-Islam to them. Whoso accepteth the Faith, spare him ; 
 
 but if he refuse, slay him." And Shahrazad perceived the dawn 
 
 of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 Noto toljcn It toas t!j£ ^ix |L}unt(rctr nnU ^atu^sixtf) X tgM, 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that King 
 Gharib said to the troops of Ra'ad Shah, " Go to your people and 
 offer Al-Islam to them. Whoso accepteth the Faith, spare him ; but 
 if he refuse, slay him." Accordingly, they went out and, assembling 
 the men under their command, explained what had taken place and 
 expounded Al-Islam to them, and they all professed, except a few, 
 whom they put to death ; after which they returned and told Gharib, 
 who blessed Allah and glorified Him, saying, " Praised be the 
 Almighty who hath made this thing easy to us without strife!" 
 Then he al)ode in Cashmere of India forty days, till he had ordered 
 the affairs of the country and cast down the shrines and temples of
 
 28o Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 the Fire and built in their stead mosques and cathedrals, whilst 
 Ra'ad Shah made ready for him rarities and treasures beyond count 
 and despatched them to Al-Irak in ships. Then Gharib mounted 
 on Kaylajan's back and Jamrkan and Sa'adan on that of Kurajan, 
 after they had taken leave of Ra'ad Shah, and journeyed through 
 the night till break of day, when they reached Oman city where 
 their troops met them and saluted them and rejoiced in them. Then 
 they set out for Cufa, and there Gharib called for his brother Ajib 
 and commanded to hang him. So Sahim brought hooks of iron and 
 driving them into the tendons of Ajib's heels, hanged him over the 
 gate ; and Gharib bade them shoot him ; so they riddled him with 
 arrows, till he was like unto a porcupine. Then Gharib entered his 
 palace and sitting down on the throne of his kingship, passed the 
 day in ordering the affairs of the state. At nightfall he went in to 
 his Harim, where Star o' Morn came to meet him and embraced 
 him and gave him joy, she and her women, of his safety. He spent 
 that day with her and on the morrow, after he had made the Ghusl- 
 ablution and prayed the dawn-prayer, he sat down on his throne and 
 commanded preparation to be made for his marriage with Mahdiyah. 
 Accordingly they slaughtered three thousand head of sheep and two 
 thousand oxen and a thousand he-goats and five hundred camels 
 and the like number of horses, beside four thousand fowls and 
 great store of geese; never was such wedding in Al-Islam to that 
 day. Then he abode with Mahdiyah ten days ; after which he com- 
 mitted the kingdom to his uncle Al-Damigh, charging him to rule 
 the lieges justly, and journeyed with his women and warriors, till he 
 came to the ships laden with the treasures and rarities which Ra'ad 
 Shah had sent him, and divided the monies among his men, who 
 from poor became rich. Presently they fared on till they reached 
 the city of Babel, where he bestowed on Sahim al-Layl a robe of 
 
 honour and appointed him Sultan of the city. And Shahrazad 
 
 was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted 
 say, 
 
 Noh) tDj^tn ft hjas tf)c ^ix IBuntrrtU antf ^ixtg^stbtntf) Nigjbt, 
 
 She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Gharib, 
 after robing his brother Sahim and appointing him Sultan, abode 
 with him ten days, after which he set out again and journeyed, nor 
 stinted travel till he reached the castle of Sa'adan the Ghul, where 
 they rested five days. Then quoth Gharib to Kaylajan and 
 Kurajan, " Pass over to Isbanir al-Madain, to the palace of the
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib. 281 
 
 Chosroe, and find what is come of Fakhr Taj and bring me one of 
 the King's kinsmen, who shall acquaint me with what hath passed." 
 Quoth they, " We hear and we obey," and set out forthright for 
 Isbanir. As they flew between heaven and earth, behold, they 
 caught sight of a mighty army, as it were the surging sea, and 
 Kiylajan said to Kurajan, " Let us descend and determine what be 
 this host." So they alighted and walking among the troops, found 
 them Persians and questioned the soldiers whose men they were 
 and whither they were bound; whereto they made answer, "We 
 are en route for Al-Irak, to slay Gharib and all who accompany him." 
 When the Marids heard these words, they repaired to the pavilion 
 of the Persian general, whose name was Rustam, and waited till the 
 soldiers slept, when they took up Rustam, bed and all, and made 
 for the castle where Gharib lay. They arrived there by midnight 
 and going to the door of the King's pavilion, cried, " Permission ! " 
 which when he heard, he sat up and said, " Come in." So they 
 entered and set down the couch with Rustam asleep thereon. 
 Gharib asked, " Who be this ? " and they answered, " This be a 
 Persian Prince, whom we met coming with a great host, thinking to 
 slay thee and thine, and we have brought him to thee, that he may 
 tell thee what thou hast a mind to know." " Fetch me an hundred 
 braves ! " cried Gharib, and they fetched them ; whereupon he bade 
 them, " Draw your swords and stand at the head of this Persian 
 carle ! " Then they awoke him and he opened his eyes ; and, 
 finding an arch of steel over his head, shut them again, crying, 
 " What be this foul dream ?" But Kaylajan pricked him with his 
 sword-point and he sat up and said, "Where am I?" Quoth 
 Sahim, " Thou art in the presence of King Gharib, son-in-law of the 
 King of the Persians. What is thy name and whither goest thou ? " 
 AVhen Rustam heard Gharib's name, he bethought himself and said 
 in his mind, " Am I asleep or awake ? " Whereupon Sahim dealt 
 him a buffet, saying, "Why dost thou not answer?" And he raised 
 his head and asked, " Who brought me from my tent out of the 
 midst of my men ? " Gharib answered, " These two Marids brought 
 thee." So he looked at Kaylajan and Kurajan and trembled. Then 
 the Marids fell upon him, baring their tusks and brandishing their 
 blades, and said to him, " Wilt thou not rise and kiss ground before 
 King Gharib?" And he trembled the more at them and was 
 assured that he was not asleep ; so he stood up and kissed the 
 ground between the hands of Gharib, saying, " The blessing of the 
 Fire be on thee, and long life be thy lot, O King ! " Gharib cried, 
 " O dog of the Persians, fire is not worshipful, for that it is harmful 
 and profitcth not save in cooking food." Asked Rustam, " Who
 
 282 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 then is worshipful ? " and Gharib answered, " Alone worshipworth is 
 God, who formed thee and fashioned thee and created the heavens 
 and the earth." Quoth the Ajami, "What shall I say that I may 
 become of the party of this Lord and enter thy Faith ? " and quoth 
 Gharib, " Say : — There is no god but the God, and Abraham is the 
 Friend of God." So Rustam pronounced the profession of the 
 Faith and was enrolled among the people of felicity. Then said he 
 to Gharib, " Know, O my lord, that thy father-in-law. King Sabur, 
 seeketh to slay thee ; and indeed he hath sent me with an hundred 
 thousand men, charging me to spare none of you." Gharib rejoined, 
 " Is this my reward for having delivered his daughter from death 
 and dishonour ? Allah will requite him his ill intent. But what is 
 thy name ? " The Persian answered, " My name is Rustam, general 
 of Sabur ; " and Gharib, " Thou shalt have the like rank in my 
 army," adding, " But tell me, O Rustam, how is it with the Princess 
 Fakhr Taj ? " " May thy head live, O King of the age ! " " What 
 was the cause of her death?" Rustam replied, "O my lord, no 
 sooner hadst thou left us than one of the Princess's women went in 
 to King Sabur and said to him : — my master, didst thou give 
 Gharib leave to wed the Princess my mistress ? whereto he 
 answered : — No, by the virtue of the Fire ! and drawing his sword, 
 went in to his daughter and said to her : — O foul baggage, why 
 didst thou suffer yonder Badawi to wed thee ? Then she was 
 silent and hung down her head. Whereupon he cast her into prison 
 till nightfall, when he called two of his courtiers and said to them : — 
 Carry her afar off and throw her into the river Jayhun and tell none. 
 They did his commandment, and indeed her memory is forgotten and 
 
 her time is past." And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and 
 
 ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 ^ofo bj^tn it fcoas tjbf ^ix f^imtruli anli ^ixtg^tiQlbtft Kigiit, 
 
 She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Gharib asked news of Fakhr Taj, Rustam informed him that she 
 had been drowned in the river by her sire's command. And when 
 Gharib heard this, the world waxed wan before his eyes and he cried, 
 " By the virtue of Abraham the Friend, I will assuredly go to yonder 
 dog and overwhelm him and lay waste his realm ! " Then he sent 
 letters to Jamrkan and to the governors of Mosul and Mayyafarikin ; 
 and, turning to Rustam, said to him, " How many men hadst thou 
 in thine army ! " He replied, " An hundred thousand Persian 
 horse ;" and Gharib rejoined, " Take ten thousand horse and go
 
 The History of G ha rib and his Brother Ajib. 2 S3 
 
 to thy people and occupy them with war ; I will follow on thy trail." 
 So Rustam mounted and taking ten thousand Arab horse made for 
 his tribe, saying in himself, "I will do a deed shall whiten my face 
 with King Gharib." So he fared on seven days, till there remained 
 but half a day's journey between him and the Persian camp ; when, 
 dividing his host into four divisions he said to his men, " Surround 
 the Persians on all sides and fall upon them with the sword." They 
 rode on from eventide till midnight, when they had compassed the 
 camp of the 'Ajamis, who were slumbering in security, and fell upon 
 them, shouting, " God is Most Great ! " Whereupon the Persians 
 started up from sleep and their feet slipped and the sabre went round 
 amongst them ; for the All-knowing King was wroth with them, and 
 Rustam wrought amongst them as fire in dry fuel ; till, by the end 
 of the night, the whole of the Persian host was slain or wounded or 
 fled, and the Moslems made prize of their tents and baggage, horses, 
 camels and treasure-chests. Then they alighted and rested in the 
 tents of the 'Ajamis till King Gharib came up and, seeing what 
 Rustam had done and how he had gained by stratagem a great and 
 complete victory, he invested him with a robe of honour and said to 
 him, " O Rustam, it was thou didst put the Persians to the rout ; where- 
 fore all the spoil is thine." So he kissed Gharib's hand and thanked 
 him, and they rested till the end of the day, when they set out for 
 King Sabur's capital. Meanwhile the fugitives of the defeated force 
 reached Isbanir and went in to Sabur, crying out and saying, 
 "Alas!" and "Well-away!" and "Woe worth the day!" Quoth 
 he, " What hath befallen you and who with his mischief hath 
 smitten you ? " Accordingly they told him all that had passed and 
 said, " Naught befel us except that thy general Rustam, fell upon us 
 in the darkness of night because he had turned Moslem ; nor did 
 Gharib come near us." When the King heard this, he cast his 
 crown to the ground and said, " There is no worth left us ! " Then 
 he turned to his son, Ward Shah 1 and said to him, " O my son, 
 there is none for this affair save thou." Answered AVard Shah, " By 
 thy life, O my father, I will assuredly bring Gharib and his chiefs of 
 the people in chains and slay all who are with him." Then he num- 
 bered his army and found it two hundred and twenty thousand men. 
 So they slept, intending to set forth on the morrow ; but, next morn- 
 ing, as they were about to march, behold, a cloud of dust arose and 
 spread till it walled the world and baffled the sight of the farthest- 
 seeing wight. Now Sabur had mounted to farewell his son, and 
 
 ' i.e. " Rose King," like the Sikh name " Gulab Singh" = Rosewater Lion, 
 sounding in translation almost too absurd to be true.
 
 284 A If Lay /ah zva Laylah. 
 
 when he saw this mighty great dust, he let call a runner and said to 
 him, "Go find me out the cause of this dust-cloud." The scout 
 went and returned, saying, " O my lord, Gharib and his braves are 
 upon you ;" whereupon they unloaded their bat-beasts and drew out 
 in line of battle. When Gharib came up and saw the Persians 
 ranged in row, he cried out to his men, saying, " Charge with the 
 blessing of Allah ! " Whereat they Avaved the flags, and the Arabs 
 and the 'Ajamis drave one at other and folk were heaped upon folk. 
 Blood ran like water and all souls saw death face to face ; the cou- 
 rageous advanced and pressed forward to assail and the coward hung 
 back and turned tail and they ceased not from fight and fray till 
 ended day, when the kettle-drums beat the retreat and the two hosts 
 drew apart. Then Sabur commanded to pitch his camp hard over 
 the city-gate, and Gharib set up his pavilions in front of theirs ; and 
 
 everyone went to his tent And Shahrazad was surprised by the 
 
 dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 two hosts drew apart, everyone went to his tent until the morning. 
 As soon as it was day, the two hosts mounted their strong steeds 
 and levelled their lances and wore their harness of war ; then they 
 raised their slogan-cries and drew out in battle-array, whilst came 
 forth all the lordly knights and the lions of fights. Now the first to 
 open the gate of battle was Rustam, who urged his charger into mid- 
 field and cried out, " God is Most Great ! I am Rustam, champion- 
 in-chief of the Arabs and 'Ajams. Who is for tilting, who is for 
 fighting ? Let no sluggard come out to me this day or weakling ! " 
 Then there rushed forth to him a champion of the Persians ; the two 
 charged each other and there befel between them a sore fight, till 
 Rustam sprang upon his adversary and smote him with a mace he 
 had with him, seventy pounds in weight, and beat his head down 
 upon his breast, and he fell to the earth, dead and in his blood 
 drowned. This was no light matter to Sabur and he commanded 
 his men to charge ; so they drave at the Moslems, invoking the aid 
 of the light-giving Sun, whilst the True Believers called for help 
 upon the Magnanimous King. But the 'Ajams, the Miscreants, out- 
 numbered the Arabs, the Moslems, and made them drain the cup of 
 death ; which when Gharib saw he drew his sword Al-Mahik and 
 crying out his war-cry, fell upon the Persians, with Kaylajan and 
 Kurajan at either stirrup ; nor did he leave playing upon them with
 
 The History of Gliaril) and his Brother Ajih. 285 
 
 blade till he hewed his way to the standard-bearer and smote him 
 on the head with the flat of his sword, whereupon he fell down in a 
 fainting-fit and the two Marids bore him off to their camp. When 
 the Persians saw the standard fall, they turned and fled and for the 
 city-gates made ; but the Moslems followed them with the blade and 
 they crowded together to enter the city, so that they could not shut 
 the gates and there died of them much people. Then Rustam and 
 Sa'adan, Jamrkan and Sahim, Al-Damigh, Kaylajan and Kurajan 
 and all the braves Mohammedan and the champions of Faith 
 Unitarian fell upon the misbelieving Persians in the gates, and the 
 blood of the Kafirs ran in the streets like a torrent till they threw 
 down their arms and harness and called out for quarter ; whereupon 
 the Moslems stayed their swords from the slaughter and drove them 
 to their tents, as one driveth a flock of sheep. Meanwhile Gharib 
 returned to his pavilion, where he doffed his gear and washed him- 
 self of the blood of the Infidels ; after which he donned his royal 
 robes and sat down on his chair of estate. Then he called for the 
 King of the Persians and said to him, " O dog of the 'Ajams, what 
 moved thee to deal thus with thy daughter ? How seest thou me 
 unworthy to be her husband ? " And Sabur answered, saying, " O 
 King, punish me not because of that deed which I did ; for I 
 repent me and confronted thee not in fight but in my fear of thee."^ 
 When Gharib heard these words he bade throw him flat and beat 
 him ; so they bastinadoed him, till he could no longer groan, and 
 cast him among the prisoners. Then Gharib expounded Al-Islam 
 to the Persians and one hundred and twenty thousand of them 
 embraced The Faith, and the rest he put to the sword. Moreover 
 all the citizens professed Al-Islam and Gharib mounted and entered 
 in great state the city Isbanir Al-Madain. Presently he went into the 
 King's i)alace and sitting down on Sabur's throne, gave robes and 
 largesse and distributed the booty and treasure among the Arabs 
 and Persians ; wherefore they loved him and wished him victory 
 and honour and endurance of days. But Fakhr Taj's mother 
 remembered her daughter and raised the voice of mourning for her, 
 and the palace was filled with wails and cries. Gharib heard this 
 and entering the Harim, asked the women what ailed them, where- 
 upon the Princess's mother came forward and said, " O my lord, thy 
 presence put me in mind of my daughter and how she would have 
 joyed in thy coming, had she been alive and well." Gharib wept 
 
 ^ "Repentance acquitteth the penitent" is a favourite and noble saying 
 popular in Al-Islam. It is first found in Seneca ; and, like all such golden sen- 
 tences, is probably as old as the dawn of literature.
 
 286 Alf Laylah tva Laylah. 
 
 for her and sitting down on his throne, called for Sabur, and they 
 brought him stumbling in his shackles. Quoth Gharib to him, " O 
 dog of the Persians, what didst thou do with thy daughter ? " 
 '■'■ I gave her to such an one and such an one," quoth the King, 
 " saying : — Drown her in the river Jayhun." Therewith Gharib sent 
 for the two men and asked them, " Is what he saith true ? " 
 Answered they, " Yes ; but, O King, we did not drown her ; nay we 
 took pity on her and left her on the banks of the Jayhun, saying : — 
 Save thyself and return not to the city, lest the King slay thee and 
 
 slay us with thee. This is all we know of her." And Shahrazad 
 
 perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 :t<roto fajf)En it foas tl^e ^fx |Buntiwti anti ^cbcntiftj^ Nigl)t, 
 
 She continued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the 
 two men ended the tale of Fakhr Taj with these words, " And we 
 left her upon the bank of the river Jayhun." Now, when Gharib 
 heard this he bade bring the astrologers and said to them, " Strike 
 me a board of geomancy and find out what is come of Fakhr Taj, 
 and whether she is still in the bonds of life or dead." They did 
 so and said, "O King of the age, it is manifest to us that the 
 Princess is alive and hath borne a male child ; but she is with a 
 tribe of the Jinn, and will be parted from thee twenty years ; 
 count, therefore, how many years thou hast been absent in travel." 
 So he reckoned up the years cf his absence and found them eight 
 years and said, " There is no Majesty and there is no Might save 
 in Allah, the Glorious, the Great ! " ^ Then he sent for all Sabur's 
 Governors of towns and strongholds and they came and did him 
 homaf^e. Now one day after this, as he sat in his palace, behold, a 
 cloud of dust appeared in the distance and spread till it walled the 
 whole land and darkened the horizon. So he summoned the two 
 Marids and bade them reconnoitre, and they went forth under the 
 dust cloud and snatching up a horseman of the advancing host, 
 returned and set him down before Gharib, saying, " Ask this fellow, 
 for he is of the army." Quoth Gharib, "Whose power is this?" 
 and the man answered, "O King, 'tis the army of Khirad Shah,- 
 King of Shiraz, who is come forth to fight thee." Now the cause of 
 
 ^ Here an ejaculation of impatience. 
 
 2 i.e. "King Intelligence": it has a ludicrous sound suggesting only 
 "Dandanha-i-Khirad"= wisdom-teeth. The Mac. Edit, persistently keeps 
 <' Ward Shah," a copyist-error.
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib. 287 
 
 Khirad Shah's coming was this. When Gharib defeated Sabur's 
 army, as hath been related, and took him prisoner, the King's son 
 fled with a handful of his father's force, and ceased not flying till he 
 reached the city of Shiraz, where he went into King Khirad Shah 
 and kissed ground before him, whilst the tears ran down his cheeks. 
 When the King saw him in this case, he said to him, " Lift thy head, 
 
 youth, and tell me what maketh thee weep." He replied, " O King, 
 a King of the Arabs, by name Gharib, hath fallen on us and captured 
 the King my sire and slain the Persians, making them drain the cup 
 of death." And he told him all that had passed from first to last. 
 Quoth Khirad Shah, " Is my wife ^ well ? " and quoth the Prince, 
 *' Gharib hath taken her." Cried the King, "As my head liveth, 
 
 1 will not leave a Badawi or a Moslem on the face of the earth ! " 
 Presently he wrote letters to his Viceroys, who levied their troops 
 and joined him with an army which when reviewed numbered eighty- 
 five thousand men. Then he opened his armouries and distributed 
 arms and armour to the troops, after which he set out with them and 
 journeyed till he came to Isbanir, and all encamped before the city- 
 gate. Hereupon Kaylajan and Kurajan came in to Gharib and 
 kissing his knee said to him, " O our Lord, heal our hearts and give 
 us this host to our share;" and he said, "Up and at them !" So 
 the two Marids flew aloft high in the lift and lighting down in the 
 pavilion of the King of Shiraz, found him seated on his chair of 
 estate, with the Prince of Persia, Ward Shah son of Sabur, sitting on 
 his right hand, and about him his Captains, with whom he was taking 
 counsel for the slaughter of the Moslems. Kaylajan came forward 
 and caught up the Prince and Kurajan snatched up the King and 
 the twain flew back with them to (iharib, who caused beat them till 
 they fainted. Then the Marids returned to the Shirazian camp and, 
 drawing their swords, which no mortal man had strength to wield, 
 fell upon the Misbelievers and Allah hurried their souls to the fire 
 and abiding-place dire, whilst they saw no one and nothing save two 
 swords flashing and reaping men, as a husbandman reapeth corn. 
 So they left their tents and mounting their horses bare-backed, fled, 
 and the Marids pursued them two days and slew of them much 
 people ; after which they returned and kissed Gharib's hand. He 
 thanked them for the deed they had done and said to them, " The 
 •spoil of the Infidels is yours alone : none shall share with you 
 therein ; whereat they called down blessings on him and going forth, 
 
 ^ i.e. P'akhr Taj, who had been promised hiiu in marriage. See Night 
 tlcxxxiii.
 
 288 Alf Laylah tva Lay la h. 
 
 gathered the booty together and abode in their homes. On this 
 
 wise it fared with them ; but as regards Gharib and his heges, 
 
 And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying 
 her permitted say. 
 
 iBofo fcotirn It foas i^t ^ix i^tintircU ant( ^tbentp-fitst igigj^t, 
 
 She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that after 
 Gharib had put to flight the host of Khirad Shah, he bade Kay- 
 lajan and Kurajan take the spoil to their own possession nor share 
 it with any ; so they gathered the booty and abode in their own 
 homes. Meanwhile the remains of the beaten force ceased not 
 flying till they reached the city of Shiraz and there lifted up the 
 voice of weeping and began the ceremonial lamentations for those 
 of them that had been slain. Now King Khirad Shah had a 
 brother Siran the Sorcerer hight, than whom there was no greater 
 wizard in his day, and he lived apart from his brother in a certain 
 stronghold, called the Fortalice of Fruits,^ in a place abounding in 
 trees and streams and birds and blooms, half a day's journey from 
 Shiraz. So the fugitives betook them thither and went into Siran 
 the Sorcerer, weeping and wailing aloud. Quoth he, " O folk, what 
 causeth you to weep ? " and they told him all that had happened 
 especially how the two Marids had carried off his brother Khirad 
 Shah ; whereupon the hght of his eyes became night and he said, 
 " By the virtue of my faith, T will certainly slay Gharib and all his 
 men and leave not one aHve to tell the tale ! " Then he pro- 
 nounced certain magical words and summoned the Red King, who 
 appeared and Siran said to him, " Fare for Isbanir and fall on 
 Gharib, as he sitteth upon his throne." Replied he, " Hearkening 
 and obedience ! " and, gathering his troops, repaired to Isbanir and 
 assailed Gharib, who seeing him, drew his sword Al-Mahik and he 
 and Kaylajan and Kurajan fell upon the army of the Red King 
 and slew of them five hundred and thirty and wounded the King 
 himself with a grievous wound ; whereupon he and his people fled 
 and stayed not in their flight, till they reached the Fortalice of 
 Fruits and went into Siran, crying out and exclaiming, " Woe ! " 
 and " Ruin ! " And the Red King said to Siran, " O sage, Gharib 
 hath with him the enchanted sword of Japhet son of Noah, and 
 
 
 1 The name does not appear till further on, after vague Eastern fashion, which 
 h ere and elsewhere I have not had the heart to adopt. The same may be found 
 in Ariosto, passim.
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib. 289 
 
 whomsoever he smiteth therewith he severeth him in sunder, and 
 with him also are two Marids from Mount Caucasus, given to him 
 by King Mura'ash. He it is who slew the Blue King and Barkan 
 Lord of the Carnelian City, and did to death much people of the 
 Jinn." When the Enchanter heard this, he said to the Red King, 
 "Go," and he went his ways; whereupon he resumed his conjura- 
 tions, and calling up a Marid, by name Zu'azi'a, gave him a drachm 
 of levigated Bhang and said to him, "Go thou to Isbanir, and 
 enter King Gharib's palace and assume the form of a sparrow. 
 Wait till he fall asleep and there be none with him ; then put the 
 Bhang up his nostrils and bring him to me." "To hear is to obey," 
 replied the Marid and flew to Isbanir, where, changing himself into 
 a sparrow, he perched on the window of the palace and waited till 
 all Gharib's attendants retired to their rooms and the King himself 
 slept. Then he flew down and going up to Gharib, blew the 
 powdered Bhang into his nostrils, till he lost his senses, whereupon 
 he wrapped him in the bed-coverlet and flew off with him, like the 
 storm-wind, to the Fortalice of Fruits ; where he arrived at mid- 
 night and laid his prize before Siran. The Sorcerer thanked him 
 and would have put Gharib to death, as he lay senseless under 
 Bhang ; but a man of his people withheld him, saying, " O Sage, 
 an thou slay him, his friend King Mura'ash will fall on us with all 
 his Ifrits and lay waste our realm." " How then shall we do with 
 him?" asked Siran, and the other answered, "Cast him into the 
 Jayhun while he is still under Bhang and he .shall be drowned and 
 none will know who threw him in." And Siran bade the Marid take 
 Gharib and cast him into Jayhun river.. And Shahrazad per- 
 ceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 iSoto h3fKn tt (uas tfjc ^t.x ^^untrcti anti 5:cbcntii=sccontr ilfgljt, 
 
 She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the 
 Marid took Gharib and carried him to the Jayhun purposing to 
 cast him therein, hut it was grievous to him to drown him, where- 
 fore he made a raft of wood and binding it with cords, pushed it 
 out (and Gharib thereon) into the current, which carried it away. 
 Thus fared it with Gharib ; but as regards his people, when they 
 awoke in the morning and went in to do their service to their King, 
 they found him not and seeing his rosary on the throne, awaited 
 him awhile, but he came not. So they sought out the head Cham- 
 berlain and said to him, "Go into the Harim and look for the King : 
 for 'tis not his habit to tarry till this time." Accordingly, the Cham- 
 
 VOL. IV. 1"
 
 290 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 berlain entered the Serraglio and enquired for the King, but the 
 women said, " Since yesterday we have not seen him." Thereupon 
 he returned and told the Officers, who were confounded and said, 
 "Let us see if he have gone to take his pleasure in the gardens." 
 Then they went out and questioned the gardeners if they had seen 
 the King, and they answered, " No ; " whereat they were sore 
 concerned and searched all the garths till the end of the day, when 
 they returned in tears. Moreover, the two Marids sought for him 
 all round the city, but came back after three days, without having 
 happened on any tidings of him. So the people donned black and 
 made their complaint to the Lord of all worshipping men Who doth 
 as he is fain. Meanwhile, the current bore the raft along for five 
 days till it brought it to the salt sea, where the waves disported with 
 Gharib, and his stomach, being troubled, threw up the Bhang. Then 
 he opened his eyes and finding himself in the midst of the main, a 
 plaything of the billows, said, "There is no Majesty and there is no 
 Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great ! Would to Heaven I 
 wot who hath done this deed by me ! " Presently as he lay, 
 perplexed concerning his case, lo ! he caught sight of a ship sailing 
 by and signalled with his sleeve to the sailors, who came to him and 
 took him up, saying, "Who art thou and whence comest thou?" 
 He replied, " Do ye feed me and give me to drink, till I recover 
 myself; and after I will tell you who I am." So they brought him 
 water and victual, and he ate and drank and Allah restored to him 
 his reason. . Then he asked them, " O folk, what countrymen are ye 
 and what is your Faith?" and they answered, "We are from Karaj^ 
 and we worship an idol called Minkash." Cried Gharib, " Perdition 
 to you and your idol ! O dogs, none is worthy of worship save 
 Allah who created all things, who saith to a thing, Be ! and it 
 becometh." When they heard this, they rose up and fell upon him 
 in great wrath and would have seized him. Now he was without 
 weapons, but whomsoever he struck, he smote down and deprived 
 of life, till he had felled forty men, after which they overcame him 
 by force of numbers and bound him fast, saying, " We will not 
 slay him save in our own land, that we may first show him to our 
 King." Then they sailed on till they came to the city of Karaj, 
 
 And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased 
 
 saying her permitted say. 
 
 ' A town in Persian Irak, unhappily far from the "Salt sea."
 
 The History of Gharib a?id his Brother Ajib. 291 
 
 Noto toi^cn it tons tljc ^ix l^untirctj anH ^fbcntg-tfjirt :Nrigtt, 
 
 She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 the ship's crew seized Gharib and bound him fast they said, " We 
 will not slay him save in our own land." Then they sailed on till 
 they came to the city of Karaj, the builder whereof was an Amalekite, 
 fierce and furious ; and he had set up at each gate of the city a 
 magical figure of copper which, whenever a stranger entered, blew a 
 blast on a trumpet, that all in the city heard it and fell upon the 
 stranger and slew him, except he embraced their creed. When 
 Gharib entered the city, the figure stationed at the gate blew such a 
 horrible blast that the King was affrighted and going in to his idol, 
 found fire and smoke issuing from its mouth, nose and eyes. Now 
 a Satan had entered the heart of the idol and speaking as with its 
 tongue, said, " O King, there is come to thy city one hight Gharib, 
 King of Al-Irak, who biddeth the folk quit their belief and worship 
 his Lord ; wherefore, when they bring him before thee, look thou 
 spare him not." So the King went out and sat down on his throne ; 
 and presently, the sailors brought in Gharib and set him before the 
 presence, saying, " O King, we found this youth shipwrecked in the 
 midst of the sea, and he is a Kafir and believeth not in our gods." 
 Then they told him all that had passed and the King said, " Carry 
 him to the house of the Great Idol and cut his throat before him, 
 so haply our god may look lovingly upon us." But the Wazir said, 
 " O King, it befitteth not to slaughter him thus, for he would die in 
 a moment : better we imprison him and build a pyre of fuel and 
 burn him with fire." Thereupon the King commanded to cast 
 Gharib into gaol and caused wood to be brought, and they made a 
 mighty pyre and set fire to it, and it burnt till the morning. Then 
 the King and the people of the city came forth and the Ruler sent 
 to fetch Gharib ; but his lieges found him not ; so they returned 
 and told their King who said, "And how made he his escape?" 
 Quoth they, "We found the chains and shackles cast down and the 
 doors fast locked." Whereat the King marvelled and asked, " Hath 
 this fellow to Heaven up flown or into the earth gone down?" and 
 they answered, " We know not." Then said the King, " I will go 
 and question my god, and he will inform me whither he is gone." 
 So he rose and went in, to prostrate himself to his idol, but found it 
 not and began to rub his eyes and say, "Am I in sleep or on 
 wake ? " Then he turned to his Wazir and said to him, " Where is 
 my god and where is my prisoner? By my faith, O dog of \\'azirs,
 
 292 Alf Laylah wa LaylaJi. 
 
 haddest thou not counselled me to burn him, I had slaughtered 
 him ; for it is he who hath stolen my god and fled ; and there is no 
 help but I take blood-wreak of him ! " Then he drew his sword 
 and struck off the Wazir's head. Now there was for Gharib's escape 
 with the idol a strange cause and it was on this wise. When they 
 had shut him up in a cell adjoining the domed shrine under which 
 stood the idol, he rose to pray, calling upon the name of Almighty 
 Allah and seeking deliverance of Him, to whom be honour and 
 glory ! The Marid who had charge of the idol and spoke in its 
 name, heard him and fear got hold upon his heart and he said, " O 
 shame upon me ! Who is this seeth me while I see him not ? " So 
 he went in to Gharib and throwing himself at his feet, said to him, 
 " O my Lord, what must I say that I may become of thy company 
 and enter thy religion ? " Replied Gharib, " Say : — There is no god 
 but the God, and Abraham is the Friend of God." So the Marid 
 pronounced the profession of Faith and was enrolled among the 
 people of felicity. Now his name was Zalzal, son of Al-Muzalzil,^ 
 one of the Chiefs of the Kings of the Jinn. Then he unbound 
 
 Gharib and taking him and the idol, made for the higher air. 
 
 And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her 
 permitted say. 
 
 Nofo hj|)cn It teas tjbf Sbix f^untrrtH antr ^tbtntn^fourtf) Xig^t, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Marid 
 took up Gharib and the idol and made for the higher air. Such 
 was his case ; but as regards the King, when his soldiers saw what 
 had befallen and the slaughter of the Wazir they renounced the 
 worship of the idol and drawing their swords, slew the King ; after 
 which they fell on one another, and the sword went round amongst 
 them three days, till there abode alive but two men, one of whom 
 prevailed over the other and killed him. Then the boys attacked 
 the survivor and slew him and fell to fighting amongst themselves, 
 till they were all killed ; and the women and girls fled to the hamlets 
 and forted villages ; wherefore the city became desert and none 
 dwelt therein but the owl. Meanwhile, the Marid Zalzal flew with 
 Gharib towards his own country, the Island of Camphor and the 
 Castle of Crystal and the Land of the Enchanted Calf, so called 
 because its King Al-Muzalzil had a pied calf, which he had clad in 
 
 1 " Earthquake, son of Ennosigaius " (the Earthquake-maker).
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib. 293 
 
 housings brocaded with red gold, and worshipped as a god. One 
 day the King and his people went in to the calf and found him 
 trembling ; so the King said, " O my god, what hath troubled thee ?" 
 whereupon the Satan in the calf s heart cried out and said, " O 
 Muzalzil, verily thy son hath deserted to the Faith of Abraham the 
 Friend, at the hands of Gharib Lord of Al-Irak ; " and went on to 
 tell him all that had passed from first to last. When the King heard 
 the words of his calf he was confounded and going forth, sat down 
 upon his throne. Then he summoned his Grandees, who came in a 
 body, and he told them what he had heard from the idol, whereat 
 they marvelled and said, "What shall we do, O King?" Quoth he, 
 "When my son cometh and ye see him embrace me, do ye lay hold 
 of him ;" and they said, " Hearkening and obedience ! " After two 
 days came Zalzal and Gharib, with the King's idol of Karaj, but no 
 sooner had they entered the palace-gate than the Jinn seized on 
 them and carried them before Al-Muzalzil, who looked at his son 
 with eyes of ire and said to him, " O dog of the Jann, hast thou left 
 thy faith and that of thy fathers and grandfathers ? " Quoth Zalzal, 
 " I have embraced the True Faith, and on Hke wise do thou (woe be 
 to thee !) seek salvation and thou shalt be saved from the wrath of 
 the King Almighty in sway. Creator of Night and Day." Therewith 
 his father waxed wroth and said, " O son of shame, dost confront 
 me with these words ? " Then he bade clap him in prison and 
 turning to Gharib, said to him, " O wretch of a mortal, how hast 
 thou abused my son's wit and seduced him from his Faith ? " Quoth 
 Gharib, " Indeed I have brought him out of wrongousness into the 
 way of righteousness, out of Hell into Heaven and out of unfaith to 
 the True Faith." Whereupon the King cried out to a Marid called 
 Sayyar, saying, "Take this dog and cast him into the Wady of Fire, 
 that he may perish." Now this valley was in the " Waste Quarter " ' 
 and was thus named from the excess of its heat and the flaming of 
 its fire, which was so fierce that none who went down therein could 
 live an hour, but was destroyed ; and it was compassed about by 
 mountains high and slippery wherein was no opening. So Sayyar 
 took up Gharib and flew with him towards the Valley of Fire, till 
 he came within an hour's journey thereof, when being weary, he 
 alighted in a valley full of trees and streams and fruits, and setting 
 down from his back Gharib, chained as he was, fell asleep for 
 fatigue. When Gharib heard him snore, he strove with his bonds 
 
 ' Arab. " Riiba' al-Kharab " or " Ruha' al-Khalf " (empty quarter), the great 
 central wilderness of Arabia covering some 50,000 square miles and still left white 
 on our latest maps (Pilgrimage, i. 14).
 
 2 94 -^^f Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 till he burst them ; then, taking up a heavy stone, he cast it down 
 on the Marid's head and crushed his bones, so that he died on the 
 
 spot. Then he fared on into the valley And Shahrazad was 
 
 surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 She continued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Gharib 
 after killing the Marid fared on into the valley and found himself in 
 a great island in mid-ocean, full of all fruits that lips and tongue 
 could desire. So he abode alone on the island, drinking of its 
 waters and eating of its fruits and of fish that he caught, and days 
 and years passed over him, till he had sojourned there in his 
 solitude seven years. One day, as he sat, behold, there came down 
 on him from the air two Marids, each carrying a man : and seeing 
 him they said, " Who art thou, O fellow, and of which of the tribes 
 art thou ? " Now they took him for a Jinni, because his hair was 
 grown long ; and he replied, saying, " I am not of the Jann," where- 
 upon they questioned him, and he told them all that had befallen 
 him. They grieved for him and one of the Ifrits said, "Abide thou 
 here till we bear these two lambs to our King, that he may break his 
 fast on the one and sup on the other, and after we will come back 
 and carry thee to thine own country." He thanked them and said, 
 " Where be the lambs ? " Quoth they, " These two mortals are the 
 lambs." And Gharib said, " I take refuge with Allah the God of 
 Abraham the Friend, the Lord of all creatures, who hath power over 
 everything ! " Then the Marids flew away and Gharib abode 
 awaiting them two days, when one of them returned, bringing with 
 him a suit of clothes wherewith he clad him. Presently he took 
 him up and flew with him sky-high out of sight of earth, till Gharib 
 heard the angels glorifying God in heaven, and a flaming shaft 
 issued from amongst them and made for the Marid, who fled from 
 it towards the earth. The meteor pursued him, till he came within 
 a spear's cast of the ground, when Gharib leaped from his shoulders 
 and the fiery shaft overtook the Marid, who became a heap of ashes. 
 As for Gharib, he fell into the sea and sank two fathoms deep, after 
 which he rose to the surface and swam for two days and two nights, 
 till his strength failed him and he made certain of death. But on 
 the third day, as he was despairing, he caught sight of an island 
 steep and mountainous : so he swam for it and landing, walked on 
 inland, where he rested a day and a night, feeding on the growth of 
 the ground. Then he climbed to the mountain top, and, descending
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother AJil>. 295 
 
 the counterslope, fared on two days till he came in sight of a walled 
 and bulwarked city, abounding in trees and rills. He walked up to 
 it ; but, when he reached the gate, the warders seized on him, and 
 carried him to their Queen, whose name was Jan Shah.^ Now she 
 was five hundred years old, and every man who entered the city, 
 they brought to her and she slew him and so had she slain many 
 men. When she saw Gharib, he pleased her mightily ; so she asked 
 him, " What be thy name and Faith and whence comest thou ? " and 
 he answered, " My name is Gharib, King of Irak, and I am a 
 Moslem." Said she, " Leave this Creed and enter mine and I will 
 marry thee and make thee King." But he looked at her with eyes 
 of ire and cried, " Perish thou and thy faith ! " Cried she, " Dost 
 thou blaspheme my idol, which is of red carnelian, set with pearls 
 and gems ? " And she called out to her men, saying, " Imprison 
 him in the house of the idol; haply 'twill soften his heart." So 
 they shut him up in the domed shrine and locking the doors upon 
 
 him, went their way. And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day 
 
 and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 i^oto toljca it tuas tijc ^ix ^L^untiiftr ant( grtbcnty-suti) iSigJ^t, 
 
 She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 they took Gharib, they jailed him in the idol's domed shrine ; and 
 locking the doors upon him, went their way. As soon as they 
 were gone, Gharib gazed at the idol, which was of red carnelian, 
 with collars of pearls and precious stones about its neck, and 
 presently he went close to it and lifting it up, dashed it on the 
 ground and brake it in bits ; after which he lay down and slept till 
 daybreak. When morning morrowed, the Queen took seat on her 
 throne and said, " O men, bring me the prisoner." So they opened 
 the temple doors and entering, found the idol broken in pieces, 
 whereupon they buffeted their faces till the blood ran from the 
 corners of their eyes. Then they made at Gharib to seize him ; but 
 he smote one of them with his fist and slew him, and so did he with 
 another and yet another, till he had slain five-and-twenty of them 
 and the rest fled and went in to the Queen Jan Shah, shrieking 
 loudly. Quoth she, "What is the matter? "and quoth they, "The 
 prisoner hath broken thine idol and slain thy men," and told her all 
 that had passed. When she heard this, she cast her crown to the 
 
 ^ Pers. "Life King ; " women also assume the tiile of Shah.
 
 296 A If Lay la h zva Laylah. 
 
 ground and said, " There is no worth left in idols ! " Then she 
 mounted amid a thousand fighting-men and rode to the temple, 
 where she found Gharib had gotten him a sword and came forth and 
 was slaying men and overthrowing warriors. When she saw his 
 prowess, her heart was drowned in the love of him and she said to 
 herself, " I have no need of the idol and care for naught save this 
 Gharib, that he may live in my heart the rest of my life." Then she 
 cried to her men, " Hold aloof from him and leave him to himself !" 
 then, going up to him she muttered certain magical words, where- 
 upon his arm became benumbed, his forearm relaxed and the sword 
 dropped from his hand. So they seized him and pinioned him, as 
 he stood confounded, stupefied. Then the Queen returned to her 
 palace, and seating herself on her seat of estate, bade her people 
 withdraw and leave Gharib with her. When they were alone, she 
 said to him, " O dog of the Arabs, wilt thou shiver my idol and slay 
 my people ? " He replied, " O accursed woman, had he been a god 
 he had defended himself ! " Quoth she, " Wed me and I will 
 forgive thee all thou hast done." But he replied, saying, " I will do 
 naught of this ;" and she said, " By the virtue of my faith, I will 
 torture thee with grievous torture ! " So she took water and con- 
 juring over it, sprinkled it upon him and he became an ape. And 
 she used to feed and water and keep him in a closet, appointing one 
 to care for him ; and in this plight he abode two years. Then she 
 called him to her one day and said to him, "Wilt thou hearken to 
 me?" And he signed to her with his head, " Yes." So she 
 rejoiced and freed him from the enchantment. Then she brought 
 him food and he ate and talked with her and kissed her, so that she 
 trusted in him ; but presently at unawares he seized her by the neck 
 and brake it, nor did he arise from her till life had left her. Then, 
 seeing an open cabinet, he went in and found there a sword of 
 jewelled^ steel and a targe of Chinese iron : so he armed himself 
 cap-a-pie and waited till the day ; as soon as it was morning, he 
 went forth and stood at the gate of the palace. When the Emirs 
 came and would have gone in to do their service to the Queen, 
 they found Gharib standing at the gate, clad in complete war gear ; 
 and he said to them, " O folk, leave the service of idols and worship 
 the All-wise King, Creator of Night and Day, the Lord of men, the 
 Quickener of dry bones, for He made all things and hath dominion 
 
 ^ Arab. " Mujauhar " : the watery or wavy mark upon Eastern blades is called 
 the " jauhar," lit. = jewel, and fig. = damascened. The peculiarity is also called 
 water and grain, which gives rise to a host of double-enlendres, puns, paronomasias 
 and conceits more or less frigid.
 
 The History of Gharib a?id his Brother Ajib. 297 
 
 over all." When the Kafirs heard this, they ran at him, but he fell 
 on them like a rending lion and charged through them again and 
 again, slaying of them much people; And Shahrazad was sur- 
 prised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 :j<'o&) bjfjcn it luas tj^c^ix |l^untiicti anti Scbcntij-scbcnt]^ H^Tig^t, 
 
 She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 Kafirs fell upon Gharib, he slew of them much people ; but, when 
 the night came, they overcame him by stress of numbers and would 
 have taken him by strenuous effort, when behold, there descended 
 upon the Infidels a thousand Marids, under the command of Zalzal, 
 who plied them with the keen sabre and made them drink the cup 
 of destruction, whilst Allah hurried their souls to Hell-fire, till but 
 few were left of the people of Jan Shah to tell the tale and the rest 
 cried out, " Quarter ! Quarter ! " and believed in the Requiting 
 King, whom no one thing diverteth from other thing, the Destroyer 
 of the Jababirah^ and Exterminator of the Akasirah, Lord of this 
 world and of the next. Then Zalzal saluted Gharib and gave him 
 joy of his safety ; and Gharib said to him, " How knewest thou of 
 my case ? " and he replied, " O my lord, my father kept me in 
 prison two years, after sending thee to the Valley of Fire ; then he 
 released me, and I abode with him another year, till I was restored 
 to favour with him, when I slew him and his troops submitted to 
 me. I ruled them for a year's space till, one night, I lay down to 
 sleep, having thee in thought, and saw thee in a dream, fighting 
 against the people of Jan Shah ; wherefore I took these thousand 
 Marids and came to thee." And Gharib marvelled at this happy 
 conjuncture. Then he seized upon Jan Shah's treasures and those 
 of the slain and appointed a ruler over the city ; after which the 
 Marids took up Gharib and the monies and he lay the same night 
 in the Castle of Crystal. He abode Zalzal's guest six months, when 
 he desired to depart; so Zalzal gave him rich presents and despatched 
 three thousand Marids, who brought the spoils of Karaj-city and 
 added them to those of Jan Shah. Then Zalzal loaded forty thou- 
 sand Marids with the treasure and himself taking up Gharib, flew 
 with his host towards the city of Isbanir al-Madain, where they 
 arrived at midnight. But as Gharib glanced around he saw the 
 
 ' Etymolopically mcanincj tyrants or giants ; and applied to great heathen 
 conquerors like Nimrod and the mighty rulers of Syria, the Anakim Giants and 
 other peoples of Hebrew fable. The Akasirah are the Chosroes before noticed.
 
 298 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 walls invested on all sides by a conquering host,^ as it were the 
 surging sea, so he said to Zalzal, " O my brother, what is the cause 
 of this siege and whence came this army ? " Then he alighted on 
 the terrace-roof of his palace and cried out, saying, "Ho, Star o' 
 Morn ! Ho, Mahdiyah ! " Whereupon the twain started up from 
 sleep in amazement and said, " Who calleth us at this hour ? " 
 Quoth he, " 'Tis I, your lord, Gharib, the Marvellous One of the 
 deeds wondrous." When the Princesses heard their lord's voice, 
 they rejoiced and so did the women and the eunuchs. Then Gharib 
 went down to them and they threw themselves upon him and 
 lullilooed with cries of joy, so that all the palace rang again and 
 the captains of the army awoke and said, "What is to do?" So 
 they made for the palace and asked the eunuchs, " Hath one of the 
 King's women given birth to a child?" and they answered, "No ; 
 but rejoice ye, for King Gharib hath returned to you." Accordingly 
 they rejoiced, and Gharib, after salams to the women, came forth 
 amongst his comrades, who threw themselves upon him and kissed 
 his hands and feet, returning thanks to Almighty Allah and praising 
 Him. Then he sat down on his throne, with his officers sitting 
 about him, and questioned them of the beleaguring army. They 
 replied, " O King, these troops sat down before the city three days 
 ago and there are amongst them Jinns as well as men ; but we know 
 not what they want, for we have had with them neither battle nor 
 speech." And presently they added, "The name of the commander 
 of the besieging army is Murad Shah and he hath with him an 
 hundred thousand horse and three thousand foot, besides two 
 hundred tribesmen of the Jinn." Now the manner of his coming 
 
 was wondrous. And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and 
 
 ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 Notu tof)£n it toas tj^c ^ix f^unUrclr ant( ^ctjcntg=ttg]^t]b ^igiJt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the cause of 
 this army coming upon Isbanir city was wondrous. When the two 
 men, whom Sabur had charged to drown his daughter Fakhr Taj 
 let her go, bidding her flee for her life, she went forth distracted, 
 unknowing whither to turn and saying, " Where is thine eye, O 
 Gharib, that thou mayst see my case and the misery I am in ? " and 
 
 ' Arab. " Askar jarrar," lit. " drawing ": so in Egyptian slang " Nas jarrar ' 
 — folk who wish to draw your money out of your pocket, greedy cheats.
 
 The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib, 299 
 
 wandered on from country to country, and from valley to valley, till 
 she came to a AVady abounding in trees and streams, in whose midst 
 stood a strong-based castle and a lofty-builded, as it were one of the 
 pavilions of Paradise. So she betook herself thither and entering 
 the fortalice, found it hung and carpeted with stuffs of silk and great 
 plenty of gold and silver vessels ; and therein were an hundred 
 beautiful damsels. When the maidens saw Fakhr Taj, they came 
 up to her and saluted her, deeming her of the virgins of the Jinn, 
 and asked her of her case. Quoth she, " I am daughter to the 
 Persians' King ; " and told them all that had befallen her ; which 
 when they heard, they wept over her and condoled with her and 
 comforted her, saying, " Be of good cheer and keep thine eyes cool 
 and clear, for here thou shalt have meat and drink and raiment, and 
 we all are thy handmaids." She called down blessings on them 
 and they brought her food, of which she ate till she was satisfied. 
 Then quoth she to them, "Who is the owner of this palace and 
 lord over you girls ? " and quoth they, " King Salsal, son of Dal, 
 is our master ; he passeth a night here once in every month and 
 fareth in the morning to rule over the tribes of the Jann." So 
 Fakhr Taj took up her abode with them and after five days she gave 
 birth to a male child, as he were the moon. They named him 
 Murad Shah, and he grew up in his mother's lap. After a while 
 came King Salsal, riding on a paper-white elephant, as he were a 
 tower plastered with lime and attended by the troops of the Jinn. 
 He entered the palace, where the hundred damsels met him and 
 kissed ground before him, and amongst them Fakhr Taj. When the 
 King saw her, he looked at her and said to the others, "Who is 
 yonder damsel?" and they replied, "She is the daughter of Sabur, 
 King of the Persians and Turks and Daylamites." Quoth he, "Who 
 brought her hither?" So they repeated to him her story; whereat 
 he was moved to pity for her and said to her, " Grieve not, but take 
 patience till thy son be grown a man, when I will go to the land 
 of the 'Ajams and strike off thy father's head from between his 
 shoulders and seat thy son on the throne in his stead." So she rose 
 and kissed his hands and blessed him. Then she abode in the 
 castle and her son grew up and was reared with the children of the 
 King. They used to ride forth together a-hunting and birding and 
 he became skilled in the chase of wild beasts and ravening lions and 
 ate of their flesh, till his heart became harder than the rock. When 
 he reached the age of fifteen, his spirit waxed big in him and he said 
 to Fakhr Taj, " O my mamma, who is my papa ?" She replied, " O 
 my son, Gharib, King of Al-Irak, is thy father, and I am the King's 
 daughter of the Persians," and she told him her story. Quoth he.
 
 o 
 
 oo • Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 " Did ray grandfather indeed give orders to slay thee and my father 
 Gharib?" and quoth she, "Yes." Whereupon he, " By the claim 
 thou hast on me for rearing me, I will assuredly go to thy father's 
 
 city and cut off his head and bring it into thy presence ! " And 
 
 Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her 
 permitted say. 
 
 :iSroli3 tojbm it toas Ifte §btx l^unUrctr nntr ^cbcntg-ntnt]^ Kifii)!, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Murad 
 Shah, son of Fakhr Taj, thus bespake his mother, she rejoiced in his 
 speech. Now he used to go a-riding with two hundred Marids till 
 he grew to man's estate, when he and they fell to making raids and 
 cutting off the roads and they pushed their razzias ever farther till 
 one day he attacked the city of Shiraz and took it. Then he pro- 
 ceeded to the palace and cut off the King's head, as he sat on his 
 throne, and slew many of his troops, whereupon the rest cried, 
 " Quarter ! Quarter ! " and kissed his stirrups. Finding that they 
 numbered ten thousand horse, he led them to Balkh, where he slew 
 the King of the city and put his men to the rout and made himself 
 master of the riches of the place. Thence he passed to Niirayn,^ at 
 the head of an army of thirty thousand horse, and the Lord of 
 Nurayn came out to meet him, with treasure and tribute, and did 
 him homage. Then he went on to Samarcand of the Persians and 
 took the city, and after that to Akhlat^ and took that town also ; nor 
 was there any city he came to but he captured it. Thus Murad 
 Shah became the head of a mighty host, and all the booty he made 
 and spoils in the sundry cities he divided among his soldiery, who 
 loved him for his valour and munificence. At last he came to Isbanir 
 al-Madain and sat down before it, saying, " Let us wait till the rest 
 of my army come up, when I will seize on my grandfather and solace 
 my mother's heart by smiting his neck in her presence." So he sent 
 for her, and by reason of this there was no battle for three days, when 
 Gharib and Zalzal arrived with the forty thousand Marids, laden with 
 treasure and presents. They asked concerning the beseigers, but 
 none could enlighten them beyond saying that the host had been 
 there encamped for three days without a fight taking place. Pre- 
 sently came Fakhr Taj, and her son Murad Shah embracing her 
 said, "Sit in thy tent till I bring thy father to thee." And she 
 
 ^ In Turkistan : the name means "Two lights." 
 
 ^ In Armenia, mentioned by Sadik Isfahani (Transl. p. 62).
 
 The History of Gharib ajid his Brother Ajib. 301 
 
 sought succour for him of the Lord of the worlds, the Lord of the 
 heavens and the Lord of the earth. Next morning, as soon as it 
 was day, Murad Shah mounted and rode forth, with the two hundred 
 Marids on his right hand and the Kings of men on his left, whilst 
 the kettle-drums beat to battle. "When Gharib heard this, he also 
 took horse and, calling his people to the combat, rode out, with 
 the Jinn on his dexter hand and the men on his sinistral. Then 
 came forth Murad Shah, armed cap-a-pie, and drave his charger 
 right and left, crying, " O folk, let none come forth to me but 
 your King : if he conquer me, he shall be lord of both armies, 
 and if I conquer him, I will slay him, as I have slain others." 
 When Gharib heard his speech, he said, " Avaunt, O dog of the 
 Arabs ! " And they charged each at other and lunged with 
 lances till they broke, then hewed at each other with swords, till 
 the blades were notched ; nor did they cease to advance and retire 
 and wheel and career till the day was half spent and their horses 
 fell down under them, when they dismounted and gripped each 
 other. Then Murad Shah seizing Gharib lifted him up and strove 
 to dash him to the ground ; but Gharib caught him by the ears 
 and pulled him with his might, till it seemed to the youth as if the 
 heavens were falling on the earth ;^ and he cried out with his heart 
 in his mouth, saying, "I yield myself to thy mercy, O Knight of 
 
 the Age ! " So Gharib bound him, And Shahrazad perceived 
 
 the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 Notn toljcn It tuas tfjc ^t.x |Dunbrctr anti iSfg^tictl) Kigibt, 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Gharib caught Murad Shah by the ears and well nigh tore them off, 
 he cried, "I yield myself to thy mercy, O Knight of the Age!" 
 So Ghnrib bound him, and the Marids his comrades would have 
 charged and rescued him, but Gharib fell on them with a thousand 
 Marids and was about to smite them down, when they cried out, 
 "Quarter! Quarter!" and threw away their arms. Then Gharib 
 returned to his Shahmiyanah which was of green silk, embroidered 
 with red gold and set with pearls and gems ; and, seating himself on 
 his throne, called for Murad Shah. So they brought him, shuffling 
 in his manacles and shackles. 'When the prisoner saw him, he hung 
 
 ^ Tbis is the only hidicrou'; incident in the tale, which justifies Von Hammer's 
 suspicion. Compare it with the realistic combat between Ruttam and his son 
 Sohrab.
 
 302 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 down his head for shame; and Gharib said to him, "O dog of 
 the Arabs, who art thou that thou shouldst ride forth and measure 
 thyself against Kings ? " Replied Murad Shah, " O my lord, 
 reproach me not, for indeed I have excuse." Quoth Gharib, 
 "What manner of excuse hast thou?" And quoth he, "Know, 
 O my lord, that I came out to avenge my mother and my father 
 on Sabur, King of the Persians ; for he would have slain them ; 
 but my mother escaped and I know not whether he killed my father 
 or not." When Gharib heard these words, he replied, "By Allah, 
 thou art indeed excusable ! But who were thy father and mother 
 and what are their names?" Murad Shah said, "My sire was 
 Gharib, King of Al-Irak, and my mother Fakhr Taj, daughter of 
 King Sabur of Persia." When Gharib heard this, he gave a great 
 cry and fell down fainting. They sprinkled rose-water on him till 
 he came to himself, when he said to Murad Shah, " Art thou indeed 
 Gharib's son by Fakhr Taj ?" and he replied, "Yes." Cried Gharib, 
 " Thou art a champion, the son of a champion. Loose my child ! " 
 And Sahim and Kaylajan went up to Murad Shah and set him free. 
 Then Gharib embraced his son and, seating him beside himself, 
 said to him, " Where is thy mother ? " " She is with me in my 
 tent," answered Murad Shah ; and Gharib said, " Bring her to me." 
 So Murad Shah mounted and repaired to his camp, where his com- 
 rades met him, rejoicing in his safety, and asked him of his case ; 
 but he answered, " This is no time for questions." Then he went 
 in to his mother and told her what had passed ; whereat she was 
 gladdened with exceeding gladness : so he carried her to Gharib, 
 and they two embraced and rejoiced in each other. Presently Fakhr 
 Taj and Murad Shah islamised and expounded The Faith to their 
 troops, who all made profession with heart and tongue. After this, 
 Gharib sent for Sabur and his son Ward Shah, and upbraided them 
 for their evil dealing and expounded Al-Islam to them ; but they 
 refused to profess ; wherefore he crucified them on the gate of the 
 city and the people decorated the town and held high festival. 
 Then Gharib crowned Murad Shah with the crown of the Chosroes 
 and made him King of the Persians and Turks and Medes ; more- 
 over, he made his uncle Al-Damigh, King over Al-Irak, and all the 
 peoples and lands submitted themselves to Gharib. And he abode 
 in his kingship, doing justice among his lieges, wherefore all the 
 people loved him, and he and his wives and comrades ceased not 
 from all solace of life, till there came to them the Destroyer of 
 delights and Sunderer of societies \ and extolled be the perfection of 
 Him whose glory endureth for ever and aye and whose boons em- 
 brace all His creatures ! This is everything that hath come down
 
 Othah and Rayya. 303 
 
 to us of the history of Gharib and Ajib. And Abdullah bin 
 Ma'amar al-Kaysi hath thus related the tale of 
 
 0TB A m AND RAYYA. 
 
 I WENT one year on the pilgrimage to the Holy House of Allah, 
 and when I had accomplished my pilgrimage, I turned back for 
 visitation of the tomb of the Prophet, whom Allah bless and keep ! 
 One night, as I sat in the Garden,^ between the tomb and the pulpit, 
 I heard a low moaning in a soft voice ; so I listened to it and it 
 said : — 
 
 Have the doves that moan in the lotus-tree * Woke grief in thy heart and bred 
 
 misery? 
 Or doth memory of maiden in beauty deckt * Cause this doubt in thee, this 
 
 despondency ? 
 
 night, thou art longsome for love-sick sprite * Complaining of Love and its 
 
 ecstacy : 
 Tliou makest him wakeful, who burns with fire * Of a love, like the live coal's 
 
 ardency. 
 The moon is witness my heart is held * By a moonlight brow of the brightest 
 
 blee : 
 
 1 reckt not to see me by I^ove ensnared * Till ensnared before I could reck or 
 
 see. 
 
 Then the voice ceased and not knowing whence it came to me I 
 abode perplexed ; but lo ! it again took up its lament and recited : — 
 
 Came Rayya's phantom to grieve thy sight * Jn the thickest gloom of the black- 
 haired Night ? 
 
 And hath love of sluml)er deprived those eyes * And the riiantom-vision vexed 
 thy sprite P 
 
 I cried to the Night, whose glooms were like * Seas that surge and billow 
 with might, with might : — 
 
 " O Night, thou art longsome to lover who * Hath no aid nor help save 
 the morning- lii^ht ! " 
 
 She replied, "Complain not that I am long : * ' Tis love is the cause of thy 
 longsome plight I " 
 
 Now, at the first of the couplets, I sprang up and made for the 
 
 * I cannot understand why Trebutien, iii., 457, writes this word Afba. He 
 remarks that it is the " Oina and Riya'' of Jami, elegantly translated by M. de 
 Chezy in the Journal Asiatique, vol. i. 144. 
 
 ^ I have described this part of the Mcdinah Mosque in Pilgrimnge, ii. 62-69. 
 The name d-rives from a saying of Mohammed (of which there are many variants), 
 '* Between my tomb and my pulpit is a garden of the Gardens of Paradise " 
 (Burckliardt, Arabia, p 337). The whole Southern portico (not only a part) 
 now enjoys that honoured name and the tawdry decorations are intended to suggest 
 a parterre.
 
 304 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 quarter whence the sound came ; nor had the voice ended repeating 
 them, ere I was with the speaker and saw a youth of the utmost 
 beauty, the hair of whose side-face had not sprouted and in whose 
 cheeks tears had worn twin trenches. And Shahrazad was sur- 
 prised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 :tCofe toijcn ft feas i\^z ^ix f^untrrctr antr 1Eigf)tg=fitst tNTigjbt, 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King that 
 Abdullah ibn Ma'amar al-Kaysi thus continued : — So I sprang up 
 and made for the quarter whence the sound came ; nor had the voice 
 ended repeating the verses, ere I was with the speaker and saw a 
 youth on whose side-face the hair had not sprouted, and in whose 
 cheeks tears had worn twin trenches. Quoth I to him, " Fair befal 
 thee for a youth!" and quoth he, "And thee also! Who art thou?" 
 I replied, " Abdullah bin Ma'amar al-Kaysi ; " and he said, " Dost 
 thou want aught ?" I rejoined, " I was sitting in the Garden and 
 naught hath troubled me this night but thy voice. With my life 
 would I ransom thee ! What aileth thee ? " He said, " Sit thee 
 down." So I sat down and he continued, " I am Otbah bin al- 
 Hubab bin al-Mundhir bin al-Jamuh the Ansarf.^ I went out in the 
 morning to the Mosque Al-Ahzab^ and occupied myself there 
 awhile with prayer-bows and prostrations, after which I withdrew 
 apart, to worship privily. But lo ! up came women, as they were 
 moons, walking with a swaying gait, and surrounding a damsel of 
 passing loveliness, perfect in beauty and grace, who stopped before 
 me and said : — O Otbah, what sayst thou of union with one who 
 seeketh union with thee ? Then she left me and went away ; and 
 since that time I have heard no tidings of her nor come upon any 
 trace of her ; and behold, I am distracted and do naught but remove 
 from place to place. " Then he cried out and fell to the ground 
 fainting. When he came to himself, it was as if the damask of his 
 cheeks were dyed with safflower,^ and he recited these couplets : — 
 
 ^ Mohammed's companions (Ashab), numbering some five thousand, were divided 
 into two orders, the Muhajirin (fugitives) or Meccans who accompanied the 
 Apostle to Al-Medinah (Pilgrimage ii. 138) and the Ansar (Auxiliaries) or 
 Medinites who invited him to their city and lent him zealous aid (Ibid. ii. 130). 
 The terms constantly occur in Arab history. 
 
 - The "Mosque of the Troops,'' also called Al-Fath (victory), the largest of 
 the Four Mosques : " it is still a place of pious visitation where prayer is granted. 
 Koran, chap, xxxiii., and Pilgrimage ii. 325. 
 
 ^ Arab. "Al-Wars," with two meanings. The Alfaz Adwiyah gives it = 
 Kurkum, curcuma, turmeric, safran d'Inde ; but popular usage asaigns it to Usfur, 
 Kurtum oxiz.'H^QVi&x [carthannis iinctorius). I saw the shrub growing all about
 
 Otbah aJid Rayya. 305 
 
 I see you with my heart from far countrie « Would Heaven you also me from 
 
 far could see ! 
 My heart and eyes for you are sorrowing ; * My soul with you abides and you 
 
 with me. 
 I take no joy in life when you're unseen * Or Heaven or Garden of Eternity. 
 
 Said I, " O Otbah, O son of my uncle, repent to thy Lord and 
 crave pardon for thy sin ; for before thee is the terror of standing 
 up to Judgment." He repHed, " Far be it from me so to do. I 
 shall never leave to love till the two mimosa-gatherers return." ^ 
 I abode with him till daybreak, when I said to him, " Come let us 
 go to the Mosque Al-Ahzab." So we went thither and sat there, till 
 we had prayed the midday prayers, when lo ! up came the women ; 
 but the damsel was not among them. Quoth they to him, " O 
 Otbah, what thinkest thou of her who seeketh union with thee?" 
 He said, " And what of her ? " and they replied, " Her father hath 
 taken her and departed to Al-Samawah."^ I asked them the name 
 of the damsel and they said, " She is called Rayya, daughter of Al- 
 Ghitn'f al-Sulami." ^ Whereupon Otbah raised his head and recited 
 these verses : — 
 
 My friends, Rayya hath mounted soon as morning shone, * And to Samawah's 
 
 wold her caravan is gone. 
 My friends, I've wept till I can weep no more, Oh, say, * Hath anyone a tear 
 
 that I can take on loan ? 
 
 Then said I to him, " O Otbah, I have brought with me great wealth 
 wherewith I desire to succour generous men ; and by Allah, I will 
 lavish it before thee,'* so thou mayst attain thy desire and more than 
 thy desire ! Come with me to the assembly of the Ansaris." So 
 we rose and went, till we entered their assembly, when I salam'd to 
 
 Harar which exports it, and it is plentiful in Al-Yaman (Niebuhr, p. 133), where 
 women affect it to stain the skin a light yellow and remove freckles ; it is also an 
 internal remedy in leprosy. But the main use is that of a dye, and the Tob- 
 stained with Wars is almost universal in some parts of Arabia. Sonnini (p. 510 
 describes it at length and says that Europeans in Egypt call it "Parrot -seeds" 
 because the bird loves it, and the Levant traders " Saffrenum." 
 
 ^ Two men of the great 'Anazah race went forth to gather Karaz, the fruit of 
 the Sant {Mimosa Nilotica) both used for tanning, and never returned. Hence 
 the proverb which is obsolete in conversation. See Burckhardt, Prov. 659 : 
 where it takes the place of " ad Gnvcas Ka/einias." 
 
 • Name of a desert (Mafazah) and a settlement on the Euphrates' bank between 
 Basrah and the site of old Kufah, near Kerbela, the well-known visitation place 
 in Babylonian Irak. 
 
 ' Of the Banu Sulaym tribe ; the adjective is Sulami not Sulaymi. 
 
 * Aral). " Amrim-ak " = before thee (in space) ; from the same root as Imam = 
 antistes, leader of prayer ; and conducing to perpetual puns, e.g. " You are Imam-i 
 (my leader) and therefore should be Amam-i" (in advance of me). 
 
 VOL, IV, U
 
 30 6 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 them and they returned my greeting civilly. Then quoth I, " O 
 assembly, what say ye of Otbah and his father ? " and they replied, 
 *' They are of the Princes of the Arabs." I continued, " Know 
 that he is smitten with the calamity of love and I desire your further- 
 ance to Al-Samawah. And they said, " To hear is to obey." So 
 they mounted with us, the whole party, and we rode till we drew 
 near the place of the Banu Sulaym. Now when Ghitrif heard of 
 our being near, he hastened forth to meet us, saying, " Long life to 
 you, O nobles ! " whereto we replied, " And to thee also ! Behold, 
 we are thy guests." Quoth he, " Ye have alighted at a most hospi- 
 table abode and ample ; " and dismounting he cried out, " Ho, all 
 ye slaves, come down ! " So they came down and spread skin-rugs 
 and cushions and slaughtered sheep and cattle ; but we said, " We 
 will not taste of thy food, till thou have accomplished our need." He 
 asked, " And what is your need ? " and we answered, " We demand thy 
 noble daughter in marriage for Otbah bin Hubab bin Mundhir the 
 illustrious and well-born." "O my brethren," said he, "she whom 
 you demand is owner of herself, and I will go in to her and tell her." 
 So he rose in wrath ^ and went in to Rayya, who said to him, " O my 
 papa, why do I see thee show anger?" And he replied, saying, 
 " Certain of the Ansaris have come upon me to demand thy hand of 
 me in marriage." Quoth she, " They are noble chiefs ; the Prophet, 
 on whom be the choicest blessings and peace, intercedeth for them 
 •with Allah. For whom among them do they ask me ? " Quoth he, 
 " For a youth known as Otbah bin al-Hubab ; " and she said, " I have 
 heard of Otbah that he performeth what he promiseth and findeth 
 what he seeketh." Ghitrif cried, "I swear that I will never marry 
 thee to him ; no, never, for there hath been reported to me some- 
 what of thy converse with him." Said she, "What was that? 
 But in any case, I swear that the Ansaris shall not be uncivilly 
 rejected; wherefore do thou offer them a fair excuse." "How so?" 
 " Make the dowry heavy to them and they will desist." " Thou 
 sayst well," said he, and going out in haste, told the Ansaris, " The 
 damsel of the tribe ^ consenteth ; but she requireth a dowry worthy 
 herself. Who engageth for this ? " " I," answered I. Then said 
 he, " I require for her a thousand bracelets of red gold and five 
 thousand dirhams of the coinage of Hajar ^ and an hundred pieces 
 
 ' He was angry, as presently appears, because he had heard of certain love 
 passages between the two, and this in Arabia is a dishonour to the family. 
 
 - Euphemy for " my daughter." 
 
 ^ The Badawin call a sound dollar " Kirsh hajar" or " Riyal hajar" = a 
 stone dollar ; but the word is spelt with the greater h.
 
 Otbah and Rayya. 307 
 
 of woollen cloth and striped stuffs^ of Al-Yaman and five bladders 
 of ambergris." Said I, " Thou shalt have that much ; dost thou 
 consent?" and he said, "I do consent." So I despatched to Al- 
 Medinah the Illumined " a party of the Ansaris, who brought all for 
 which I had become surety ; whereupon they slaughtered sheep and 
 cattle and the folk assembled to eat of the food. We abode thus 
 forty days when Ghitrif said to us, " Take your bride." So we set 
 her in a dromedary-litter and her father equipped her with thirty 
 camel-loads of things of price ; after which we farewelled him and 
 journeyed till we came within a day's journey of Al-Medinah the 
 Illumined, when there fell upon us horsemen, with intent to plunder, 
 and methinks they were of the Banu Sulaym. Otbah drove at them 
 and slew of them much people, but fell back, wounded by a lance- 
 thrust and presently dropped to the earth. Then there came to us 
 succour of the country people, who drove away the highwaymen ; 
 but Otbah's days were ended. So we said, " Alas for Otbah, oh ! " 
 and the damsel hearing it cast herself down from the camel and 
 throwing herself upon him, cried out grievously and repeated these 
 couplets : — 
 
 Patient I seemed, yet Patience shown by me * Was but self-guiling till thy sight 
 I see : 
 
 Had my soul done as due my life had gone, * Had fled before mankind, fore- 
 stalling thee : 
 
 Then, after me and thee none shall to friend * Be just, nor any soul with soul 
 agree. 
 
 Then she sobbed a single sob and gave up the ghost. We dug one 
 grave for them and laid them in the earth, and I returned to the 
 dwellings of my people, where I abode seven years. After that I be- 
 took me again to Al-Hijaz and entering Al-Medinah the Illumined 
 for pious visitation said in my mind, " By Allah, I will go again to 
 Otbah's tomb ! " So I repaired thither, and, behold, over the grave 
 
 ^ Arab. " Burdah and Habarah." The former, often translated " mantle," is a 
 thick woollen slulf, brown or grey, woven oblong and used like a plaid by day and 
 by night. Mohammed's Burdah woven in his Harem and given to the poet, Ka'ab, 
 was 7^ ft. long by 40 : it is still in the upper Serraglio of Stambul. In early days 
 the stuff was mostly striped ; now it is either plain or with lines so narrow that it 
 looks like one colour. The Haljarah is a Burd made in Al-Yaman and not to be 
 confounded with the Egyptian mantilla of like name (Lane, M. E. chapt. iii.). 
 
 2 Every Eastern city has its special title. AI-Medinah in entitled " Al- 
 Munawwarah " (the Illumined) from the blinding light which surrounds the 
 Prophet's tomb and which does not show to eyes profane (Pilgrimage ii. 3). I 
 presume that the idea arose from the huge lamps of "The Garden." I have 
 noted that Mohammed's coffin suspended by magnets is an idea unknown to 
 Moslems, but we find the fancy in Al-IIarari related of St. Peter, " Simon 
 Cephas (the rock) is in the City of Great Rome, in its largest church within a 
 silver ark hanging by chains from the ceiling." (Lee, Ibn Balutah, p. 161.)
 
 3o8 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 was a tall tree, on which hung fillets of red and green and yellow 
 stuffs.' So I asked the people of the place, " How be this tree 
 called ? " and they answered, "The tree of the Bride and the Bride- 
 groom." I abode by the tomb a day and a night, then went my 
 way ; and this is all I know of Otbah, — Almighty Allah have mercy 
 upon him ! And they also tell this tale of 
 
 HIND DA UGHTER OF AL-NU'MAN AND AL-HAJJAJ? 
 
 It is related that Hind daughter of Al-Nu'man was the fairest 
 woman of her day, and her beauty and loveliness were reported to 
 Al-Hajjaj, who sought her in marriage and lavished much treasure 
 on her. So he took her to wife, engaging to give her a dowry of 
 two hundred thousand dirhams in case of divorce, and he abode 
 with her a long time. One day he went in to her and found her 
 looking at her face in the mirror and saying : — 
 
 Hind is an Arab filly purest bred, * Which hath been wedded to a mongrel 
 mule. ^ 
 
 * Here the fillets are hung instead of the normal rag-strips to denote an 
 honoured tomb. Lane (iii. 242) and many others are puzzled about the use of 
 these articles. In many cases they are suspended to trees in order to transfer 
 sickness from the body to the tree and whoever shall touch it. The Sawahili 
 people term such articles a Keti (seat or vehicle) for the mysterious haunter of the 
 tree, who prefers occupying it to the patient's person. Briefly the custom, still 
 popular throughout Arabia, is African and Fetish. 
 
 ^ Al-Mas'udi (chap, xcv.), mentions a Hind bint Asma and tells a facetious 
 story of her and the " enemy of Allah, " the poet Jarir. 
 
 * Here the old Shiah hatred of the energetic conqueror of Oman crops out 
 again. Hind's song is that of Maysum concerning her husband Mu'awdyah, 
 which Mrs. Godfrey Clark ('Ilam-en-Nas, p. 108) thus translates : — 
 
 A hut that the winds make tremble 
 
 Is dearer to me than a noble palace : 
 And a dish of crumbs on the floor of my home 
 
 Is dearer to me than a varied feast ; 
 And the soughing of the breeze through every crevice 
 
 Is dearer to me than the beating of drums. 
 
 Compare with Dr. Carlyle's No. X. : — 
 
 The russet suit of camel's hair 
 
 With spirits light and eye serene 
 Is dearer to my bosom far 
 
 Than all the trappings of a queen, etc. etc. 
 
 And with mine (Pilgrimage iii. 262) : — 
 
 O take these purple robes away. 
 
 Give back my cloak of camel's hair 
 And bear me from this towering pile 
 
 To where the black tents flap i' the air, etc. etc.
 
 Hind Daughter of Al-Nu'inan and Al-Hajjaj. 309 
 
 When Al-Hajjaj heard this, he turned back and went his way, unseen 
 of Hind ; and, being minded to put her away, he sent Abdullah bin 
 Tahir to her, to divorce her. So Abdullah went in to her and said 
 to her, "Al-Hajjaj Abu Mohammed saith to thee : — Here be the two 
 hundred thousand dirhams of the contingent dowry he oweth thee ; 
 and he hath deputed me to divorce thee." Replied she, " O Ibn 
 Tahir, I gladly agree to this ; for know that I never for one day took 
 pleasure in him ; so, if we separate, by Allah, I shall never regret 
 him, and these two hundred thousand dirhams I give to thee as a 
 reward for the glad tidings thou bringest me of my release from 
 yonder dog of the Thakafites." ^ After this, the Commander of the 
 Faithful, Abd al-Malik bin Marwan, heard of her beauty and loveli- 
 ness, her stature and symmetry, her sweet speech and the amorous 
 
 grace of her glances, and sent to her to ask her in marriage ; And 
 
 Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted 
 say. 
 
 Note totcn it tons \\z %\x |[^unt(rcti nnU 15ig]btp=scconti Nigi)t, 
 
 She resumed. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the 
 Prince of True Believers, Abd al-Malik bin Marwan, hearing of the 
 lady's beauty and loveliness, sent to ask her in marriage ; and she 
 wrote him in reply a letter, in which, after the glorification of Allah 
 and benediction of His Prophet, she said, " O Commander of the 
 Faithful, I will not consent save on one condition, and if thou ask 
 me what it is, I reply that Al-Hajjaj lead my camel to the town 
 where thou tarriest, barefoot and clad as he is." " When the Caliph 
 read her letter, he laughed long and loud and sent to Al-Hajjaj, 
 bidding him do as she desired. He dared not disobey the order, so 
 he submitted to the Caliph's commandment and sent to Hind, 
 telling her to make ready for the journey. So she made ready and 
 mounted her litter, when Al-Hajjaj with his suite came up to Hind's 
 door and as she mounted and her damsels and eunuchs rode around 
 her, he dismounted and took the halter of her camel and led it 
 along, barefooted, whilst she and her damsels and tirewomen 
 laughed and jeered at him and made mock of him. Then she said 
 to her tirewoman, " Draw back the curtain of the litter;" and she 
 
 * Al-Hajjaj's tribal name was Al-Thakifi or descendant of Tliakff. According 
 to Al-Mas'udi he was son of Farijjhah (llie tall beauty) by Yv'tsuf bin Ukayl the 
 Thakalite. 
 
 - Making him a " Kawwad " = leader ; a true piece of feminine spite. But 
 the Caliph prized Al-Hajjaj too highly to treat him as in the text.
 
 3IO Alf Laylah wa LaylaJi. 
 
 drew back the curtain, till Hind was face to face with Al-Hajjaj, 
 whereupon she laughed at him and he improvised this couplet : — 
 
 Though now thou jeer, O Hind, how many a night * I've left thee wakeful 
 sighing for the light. 
 
 And she answered him with these two : — 
 
 We reck not, an our life escape from bane, * For waste of wealth and gear that 
 
 went in vain : 
 Money naay be regained and rank re- won * When one is cured of malady and 
 
 pain. 
 
 And she ceased not to laugh at him and make sport of him, till they 
 drew near the city of the Caliph, when she threw down a dinar 
 with her own hand and said to Al-Hajjaj, " O camel-driver, I have 
 dropped a dirham ; look for it and give it to me." So he looked 
 and seeing naught but the dinar, said, ''This is a dinar." She 
 replied, " Nay, 'tis a dirham." But he said, "This is a dinar." Then 
 quoth she, " Praised be Allah who hath given us in exchange for a 
 paltry dirham a dinar ! Give it us." And Al-Hajjaj was abashed at 
 this. Then he carried her to the palace of the Commander of the 
 
 Faithful, and she went in to him and became his favourite. 
 
 And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying 
 her permitted say. 
 
 iSoto hjf)£n it fcaas t^t ^ix l^untiwK anli dBisStB-tfiittr iEigtit, 
 
 She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that men also 
 tell a tale anent 
 
 KHUZAYMAH BIN BISHR AND IKRIMAT 
 AL-FA YYAZ.^ 
 
 There lived once, in the days of the Caliph Sulayman bin Abd 
 al-Malik,2 a man of the Banu Asad, by name Khuzaymah bin Bishr, 
 
 ' i.e. "The overflowing," with benefits ; on account of his generosity. 
 
 ^ The seventh Ommiade, A.H. 96-99 (715-719). He died of his line appetite 
 after eating at a sitting a lamb, six fowls, seventy pomegranates, and \\\ lbs. of 
 currants. He was also proud of his youth and beauty and was wont to say, 
 "Mohammed was the Apostle and Abu Bakr witness to the Truth; Omar the 
 Discriminator and Othman the Bashful, Mu'awiyah the Mild and Yazid the 
 Patient ; Abd al-Malik the Administrator and Walid the Tyrant : but I am the 
 Young King! "
 
 Khuzaymah bin Bishr and Ikrimat al-Fayyaz. 311 
 
 who was famed for bounty and abundant wealth and excellence and 
 righteous dealing with his brethren. He continued thus till times 
 grew strait with him and he became in need of the aid of those 
 Moslem brethren on whom he had lavished favour and kindness. 
 So they succoured him a while and then grew weary of him, which 
 when he saw, he went in to his wife, who was the daughter of his 
 father's brother, and said to her, " O my cousin, I find a change in 
 my brethren ; wherefore I am resolved to keep my house till death 
 come to me." So he shut his door and abode in his home, living 
 on that which he had by him, till it was spent and he knew not what 
 to do. Now Ikrimat al-Raba'i, surnamed Al-Fayyaz, Governor of 
 Mesopotamia,^ had known him, and one day, as he sat in his 
 audience-chamber, mention was made of Khuzaymah, whereupon 
 quoth Ikrimat, " How is it with him?" And quoth they, " He is in 
 a plight past telling, and hath shut his door and keepeth the house." 
 Ikrimat rejoined, "This cometh but of his excessive generosity; but 
 how is it that Khuzaymah bin Bishr findeth nor comforter nor 
 requiter ? " And they replied, " He hath found naught of this." So 
 when it was night, Ikrimat took four thousand dinars and laid them 
 in one purse ; then, bidding saddle his beast, he mounted and rode 
 privily to Khuzaymah's house, attended only by one of his pages, 
 carrying the money. When he came to the door, he alighted and 
 taking the purse from the page, made him withdraw afar off; after 
 which he went uj) to the door and knocked. Khuzaymah came out 
 to him, and he gave him the purse, saying, " Better thy case here- 
 with." He took it and, finding it heavy, put it from his hand and 
 laying hold of the bridle of Ikrimat's horse, asked, "Who art thou? 
 My soul be thy ransom ! " Answered Ikrimat, " O man, I come not 
 to thee at a time like this desiring that thou shouldst know me." 
 Khuzaymah rejoined, " I will not let thee go till thou make thyself 
 known to me," whereupon Ikrimat said, " I am hight Jabir Atharat 
 al-Kirdm."^ Quoth Khuzaymah, "Tell me more." But Ikrimat 
 cried, " No," and fared forth, whilst Khuzaymah went in to his cousin 
 and said to her, " Rejoice for Allah hath sent us speedy relief and 
 wealth ! if these be but dirhams, yet are they many. Arise and light 
 the lamp." She said, "I have not wherewithal to light it." So he 
 spent the night handling the coins and felt by their roughness that 
 they were dinars, but could not credit it. Meanwhile Ikrimat re- 
 turned to his own house and found that his wife had missed him 
 
 _^ Arab. " Al-Jazfrah," "the Island ;" name of the region and the capital. 
 '■* i.e. " Repairer of the Slips of the Generous," an evasive reply, which of course 
 did not deceive the questioner.
 
 o 
 
 12 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 and asked for him, and when they told her of his riding forth, she 
 misdoubted of him and said to him, " Verily the Wali of Al-Jazirah 
 rideth not abroad after such an hour of the night, unattended and 
 secretly, save to a wife or a mistress." He answered, " Allah knoweth 
 that I went not forth to either of these." "Tell me then wherefore 
 thou wentest forth ? " "I went not forth at this hour save that none 
 should know it." "I must needs be told." "Wilt thou keep the 
 matter secret, if I tell thee?" "Yes !" So he told her of the state 
 of the case, adding, "Wilt thou have me swear to thee?" Answered 
 she, " No, no ; my heart is set at ease and trusteth in that which thou 
 hast told me." As for Khuzaymah, soon as it was day he made his 
 peace with his creditors and set his affairs in order ; after which he 
 got him ready and set out for the Court of Sulayman bin Abd 
 al-Malik, who was then sojourning in Palestine.^ When he came to 
 the royal gate, he sought admission of the Chamberlain, who went in 
 and told the Caliph of his presence. Now he was renowned for his 
 beneficence and Sulayman knew of him; so he bade admit him. 
 When he entered, he saluted the Caliph after the usual fashion of 
 saluting ^ and the King asked, " O Khuzaymah, what hath kept thee 
 so long from us ? " Answered he, " Evil case," and quoth the Caliph, 
 " What hindered thee from having recourse to us ? " Quoth he, " My 
 infirmity, O Commander of the Faithful ! " " And why," said 
 Sulayman, " comest thou to us now? " Khuzaymah replied, " Know, 
 O Commander of the Faithful, that I was sitting one night late in 
 my house, when a man knocked at the door and did thus and thus ;" 
 and he went on to tell him of all that had passed between Ikrimat 
 and himself from first to last. Sulayman asked, " Knowest thou the 
 man ? " and Khuzaymah answered, " No, O Commander of the 
 Faithful, he was reserved ^ and would say naught save : — I am hight 
 Jabir Atharat al-Kiram." When Sulayman heard this, his heart 
 burned within him for anxiety to discover the man, and he said, " If 
 we knew him, truly we would requite him for his generosity." Then 
 he bound for Khuzaymah a banner'*^ and made him Governor of 
 Mesopotamia, in the stead of Ikrimat al-Fayyaz ; and he set out for 
 Al-Jazirah. When he drew near the city, Ikrimat and the people of 
 the place came forth to meet him and they saluted each other and 
 went on into the town, where Khuzaymah took up his lodging in the 
 
 ^ Arab. " Falastin," now obsolete. The word has echoed far west and the 
 name of the noble race has been degraded to "Philister," a bourgeois, a greasy 
 burgher. 
 
 ^ Saying, " The Peace be with thee, O Prince of True Believers ! " 
 
 •* Arab. " Mutanakkir," which may also mean proud or in disguise. 
 
 * On appointment as viceroy.
 
 Khuzaymah bin Bishr a?id Ikrimat al-Fayyaz. 313 
 
 Government-house and bade take security for Ikrimat and that he 
 should be called to account.^ So an account was taken against him 
 and he was found to be in default for much money ; whereupon 
 Khuzaymah required of him payment, but he said, " I have no means 
 of paying aught." Quoth Khuzaymah, " It must be paid \ " and quoth 
 Ikrimat, " I have it not ; do what thou hast to do." So Khuzaymah 
 
 ordered him to gaol. And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day 
 
 and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 Noto fajj^en it iuas tjbc ^ix |^untjrct( anti 15igi)tii=fourtf) l!<rig|)t, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Khuzaymah, 
 having ordered the imprisonment of Ikrimat al-Fayyaz, sent to him 
 again to demand payment of the debt ; but he replied, " I am not of 
 those who preserve their wealth at the expense of their honour ; do 
 what thou wilt." Then Khuzaymah bade load him with irons and 
 kept him in prison a month or more, till confinement began to tell 
 upon him and he became wasted. After this, tidings of his plight 
 travelled to the daughter of his uncle who was troubled with sore 
 concern thereat and, sending for a freedvvoman of hers, a woman of 
 abundant judgment and experience, said to her, "Go forthwith to 
 the Emir Khuzaymah's gate and say : — I have a counsel for the 
 Emir. If they ask what it is, add : — I will not tell it save to him- 
 self; and when thou enterest to him, beg to see him in private and 
 when private ask him : — What be this deed thou hast done ? Hath 
 Jabir Atharat al-Kiram deserved of thee no better reward than to be 
 cast into strait prison and hard bond of irons ? " The woman did 
 as she was bid, and when Khuzaymah heard her words, he cried out 
 at the top of his voice, saying, " Alas, the baseness of it ! Was it 
 indeed he?" And she answered, "Yes." Then he bade saddle his 
 beast forthwith and, summoning the honourable men of the city, 
 repaired with them to the prison, and opening the door, went in 
 with them to Ikrimat, whom they found sitting in evil case, worn 
 out and wasted with blows and misery. When he looked at Khuzay- 
 mah, he was abashed and hung his head ; but the other bent down 
 to him and kissed his face; whereupon he raised his head and asked, 
 "What makcth thee do this?" Answered Khuzaymah. "The 
 generosity of thy dealing and the vilcness of my requital." And 
 
 ^ The custom with outgoing Governors. It was adopted by the .Spaniards 
 and Portuguese, especially in America. The generosity of Ikrimat without the 
 slightest regard to justice or common honesty is characteristic of the Arab in 
 story-books.
 
 314 Alf Laylah wa Lay la h. 
 
 Ikrimat said, " Allah pardon us and thee ! " Then Khuzaymah 
 commanded the jailor to strike off Ikrimat's fetters and clap them 
 on his own feet; but Ikrimat said, "What is this thou wilt do?" 
 Quoth the other, " I have a mind to suffer what thou hast suffered." 
 Quoth Ikrimat, " I conjure thee by Allah, do not so ! " Then they 
 went out together and returned to Khuzaymah's house, where Ikri- 
 mat would have farewelled him and wended his way ; but he forbade 
 him and Ikrimat said, " What is thy will of me ? " Replied Khu- 
 zaymah, " I wish to change thy case, for my shame before the 
 daughter of thine uncle is yet greater than my shame before thee." 
 So he bade clear the bath and entering with Ikrimat, served him 
 there in person and when they went forth he bestowed on him a 
 splendid robe of honour and mounted him and gave him much 
 money. Then he carried him to his house and asked his leave to 
 make his excuses to his wife and obtained her pardon. After this 
 he besought him to accompany him to the Caliph, who was then 
 abiding at Ramlah,^ and he agreed. So they journeyed thither, and 
 when they reached the royal quarters the Chamberlain went in and 
 acquainted the Caliph Sulayman bin Abd al-Malik with Khuzaymah's 
 arrival, whereat he was troubled and said, "What! is the Governor 
 of Mesopotamia come without our command? This can be only 
 on some grave occasion." Then he bade admit him and said, before 
 saluting him, " What is behind thee, O Khuzaymah ? " Replied he, 
 " Good, O Commander of the Faithful." Asked Sulayman, *' What 
 bringeth thee ? " and he answered, saying, " I have discovered Jabir 
 Atharat al-Kiram and thought to gladden thee with him, knowing 
 thine excessive desire to know him and thy longing to see him." 
 "Who is he?" quoth the Caliph, and quoth Khuzaymah, "He is 
 Ikrimat al-Fayyaz." So Sulayman called for Ikrimat, who ap- 
 proached and saluted him as Caliph ; and the King welcomed him 
 and making him draw near his sitting-place, said to him, " O Ikri- 
 mat, thy good deed to him hath brought thee naught but evil," 
 adding, " Now write down in a note thy needs each and every, and 
 that which thou desirest." He did so and the Caliph commanded 
 to do all that he required and that forthwith. Moreover he gave 
 him ten thousand dinars more than he asked for and twenty chests 
 of clothes over and above that he sought, and calling for a spear, 
 bound him a banner and made him Governor over Armenia and 
 Azarbijan ^ and Mesopotamia, saying, " Khuzaymah's case is in thy 
 
 ^ The celebrated half-way house between Jaffa and Jerusalem. 
 
 ^ Alias the Kohistan or mountain region, Susiana^(Khuzistan) whose capital 
 was Susa ; and the head quarters of fire-worship. Azar (fire) was the name of 
 Abraham's father whom Eusebius calls " Athar " (Pilgrimage iii. 336).
 
 Yunus t/ie Scribe and the Caliph Walid din Sahl. 315 
 
 hands ; an thou wilt, continue him in his office, and if thou wilt, 
 degrade him." And Ikrimat said, " Nay, but I restore him to his 
 office, O Commander of the Faithful." Then they went out from 
 him and ceased not to be Governors under Sulayman bin Abd al- 
 Malik all the days of his Caliphate. And they also tell a tale of 
 
 YUNUS THE SCRIBE AND THE CALIPH WALID 
 
 BIN SAHL. 
 
 There lived in the reign of the Cahph Hisham,^ son of Abd al- 
 Malik, a man named Yiinus the Scribe, well-known to the general, 
 and he set out one day on a journey to Damascus, having with him 
 a slave-girl of surpassing beauty and loveliness, whom he had taught 
 all that was needful to her and whose price was an hundred thousand 
 dirhams. When they drew near to Damascus, the caravan halted 
 by the side of a lake and Yunus went down to a quiet place with his 
 damsel and took out some victual he had with him and a leather 
 bottle of wine. As he sat at meat, behold, came up a young man of 
 goodly favour and dignified presence, mounted on a sorrel horse and 
 followed by two eunuchs, and said to him, " Wilt thou accept me to 
 guest ? " " Yes," replied Yunus. So the stranger alighted and said, 
 " Give me to drink of thy wine." Yunus gave him to drink and he 
 said, " If it please thee, sing us a song." So Yunus sang this couplet 
 extempore : — 
 
 She joineth charms were never seen conjoined in mortal dress : * And for her 
 love she makes me love my tears and wakefulness. 
 
 At which the stranger rejoiced with exceeding joy and Yunus 
 
 gave him to drink again and again, till the wine got the better of 
 
 him and he said, "Bid thy slave-girl sing." So she improvised 
 this couplet : — 
 
 A Houri, by whose charms my heart is moved to sore distress ; « Nor wand of 
 tree nor sun nor moon her rivals I confess ! 
 
 The stranger was overjoyed with this and they sat drinking till 
 nightfall, when they prayed the evening-prayer and the youth said 
 
 ^ Tenth Ommiade A.Il. 105-125 (= 724-743), a wise and discreet ruler with 
 an inclination to avarice and asceticism. According to some, the Ommiades pro- 
 duced only three statesmen, Mu'awiyah, Abd al-Malik and Ilisham ; and the 
 reign of the latter was the end of sage government and wise administration.
 
 3i6 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 to Yunus, " What bringeth thee to our city ? " He repHed, " Quest 
 
 of wherewithal to pay my debts and better my case." Quoth the 
 
 other, " Wilt thou sell me this slave-girl for thirty thousand 
 
 dirhams?" whereto quoth Yunus, "I must have more than 
 
 that." He asked, "Will forty thousand content thee?" but 
 
 Yunus answered, " That would only settle my debts, and I should 
 
 remain empty-handed." Rejoined the stranger, " We will take her 
 
 of thee at fifty thousand dirhams ^ and give thee a suit of clothes 
 
 to boot and the expenses of thy journey and make thee a sharer 
 
 in my condition as long as thou livest." Cried Yunus, " I sell her 
 
 to thee on these terms." Then said the young man, " Wilt thou 
 
 trust me to bring thee the money to-morrow and let me take her 
 
 with me, or shall she abide with thee till I pay thee down her 
 
 price ? " Whereto wine and shame and awe of the stranger led 
 
 Yunus to reply, " I will trust thee ; take her and Allah bless thee 
 
 in her ! " Whereupon the visitor bade one of his pages set her 
 
 before him on his beast, and mounting his own horse, farewelled 
 
 Yunus and rode away out of sight. Hardly had he left him, when 
 
 the seller bethought himself and knew that he had erred in selling 
 
 her and said in his mind, "What have I done ? I have delivered my 
 
 slave-girl to a man with whom I am unacquainted, neither know I who 
 
 he is ; and grant that I were acquainted with him, how am I to get 
 
 at him ? " So he abode in thought till the morning, when he prayed 
 
 the dawn-prayers and his companions entered Damascus, whilst he 
 
 sat, perplexed and wotting not what to do, till the sun scorched him 
 
 and it irked him to abide there. He thought to enter the city, but 
 
 said in his mind, " If I enter Damascus, I cannot be sure but that 
 
 the messenger will come and find me not, in which case I shall have 
 
 sinned against myself a second sin." Accordingly he sat down in 
 
 the shade of a wall that was there, and towards the wane of day, up 
 
 came one of the eunuchs whom he had seen with the young man, 
 
 whereat great joy possessed Yunus and he said to himself, " I know 
 
 not that aught hath ever given me more delight than the sight of 
 
 this fellow." When the Eunuch reached him, he said to him, " O 
 
 my lord, we have kept thee long waiting ; " but Yunus disclosed 
 
 nothing to him of the torments of anxiety he had suffered. Then 
 
 quoth the Eunuch, " Knowest thou the man who bought the girl of 
 
 thee?" and quoth Yunus, "No, "to which the other rejoined, "'Twas 
 
 WaUd bin Sahl," the Heir Apparent." And Yunus was silent. Then 
 
 ^ About ;,^2,ooo, which seems a long price ; but in those clays Damascus had 
 been enriched with the spoils of the world adjacent. 
 
 2 Eleventh Ommiade dynasty, A.H. 125—126 ( = 743—744). Ibn Sahl (son
 
 Yunus the Scribe and the Caliph Walid bin Sahl. 317 
 
 said the Eunuch, "Ride," and made him mount a horse he had with 
 him and they rode till they came to a mansion, where they dis- 
 mounted and entered. Here Yunus found the damsel, who sprang 
 up at his sight and saluted him. He asked how she had fared 
 with him who had bought her and she answered, " He lodged me 
 in this apartment and ordered me all I needed." Then he sat with 
 her awhile, till suddenly one of the servants of the house-owner 
 came in and bade him rise and follow him. So he followed the man 
 into the presence of his master and found him yester-night's guest : 
 whom he saw seated on his couch and who said to him, " Who art 
 thou?" " I am Yunus the Scribe." " Welcome to thee, O Yunus ! 
 by Allah, I have long wished to look on thee ; for I have heard of 
 thy report. How didst thou pass the night ? " " Well, may Almighty 
 Allah advance thee ! " " Peradventure thou repentedest thee of that 
 thou didst yesterday and saidst to thyself : I have delivered my slave- 
 girl to a man with whom I am not acquainted, neither know I his 
 name nor whence he cometh?" "Allah forbid, O Emir, that I 
 should repent over her ! Had I made gift of her to the Prince, she 
 
 were the least of the gifts that are given unto him," And Shah- 
 
 razad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her 
 permitted say. 
 
 jaoto toljcn it toas tbc ^ix |Buntirctr anU (JBigttLi=fift5 i^i'stt, 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Yunus the Scribe said to Walid, " Allah forbid I should repent 
 over her ! Had I made gift of her to the Prince, she were the least 
 of gifts that are given to him, nor indeed is she worthy of his rank," 
 Walid rejoined, " By Allah, but I repented me of having carried her 
 away from thee and said to myself: — This man is a stranger and 
 knoweth me not, and I have taken him by surprise and acted 
 inconsiderately by him, in my haste to take the damsel ! Dost thou 
 recall what passed between us ? " Quoth Yunus, " Yes ! " and quoth 
 Walid, " Dost thou sell this damsel to me for fifty thousand 
 
 of ease, i.e. free and easy) was a nickname ; he was the son of Yazi'd II. and 
 brother of Ilisham. He scandalised the lieges by his ]irofligacy, wishing to make 
 the pilgrimage in order to drink upon the Ka'abah roof; so they attacked the 
 palace and lynched him. His death is supposed to have been brought about 
 (27th of Jamada al-Akhiiah = April 16, 744) by his cousin and successor Yazid 
 (No. iii.) surnamed the Retrencher. The tale in the text speaks well for him ; 
 but generosity amongst the Arabs covers a multitude of sins, and people say, 
 " Better a liberal sinner than a stingy saint."
 
 3i8 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 dirhams ? " And Yunus said, " I do." Then the Prince called to one 
 of his servants to bring him fifty thousand dirhams and a thousand 
 and five hundred dinars to boot, and gave them all to Yunus, 
 saying, " Take the slave's price : the thousand dinars are for thy 
 fair opinion of us and the five hundred are for thy viaticum and for 
 what present thou shalt buy for thy people. Art thou content ? " 
 " I am content," answered Yunus and kissed his hands, saying, 
 " By Allah, thou hast filled my eyes and my hand and my heart ! " 
 Quoth Walid, " By Allah, I have as yet had no meeting with her 
 nor have I taken my fill of her singing. Bring her to me ! " So 
 she came and he bade her sit, then said to her, "Sing." And she 
 sang these verses : — 
 
 thou who dost comprise all Beauty's boons ! * O sweet of nature, fain of 
 
 coquetry ! 
 In Turks and Arabs many beauties dwell ; * But, O my fawn, in none thy 
 
 charms I see. 
 Turn to thy lover, O my fair, and keep * Thy word, though but in visioned 
 
 phantasy : 
 I'm not the first for thee who fared distraught ; * Slain by thy love how many a 
 
 many be ! 
 
 1 am content with thee for worldly share * Dearer than life and good art thou 
 
 to me ! 
 
 When he heard this, he was delighted exceedingly and praised 
 Yunus for his excellent teaching of her and her fair education. 
 Then he bade his servants bring him a roadster with saddle and 
 housings for his riding, and a mule to carry his gear, and said to 
 him, " O Yunus, when it shall reach thee that command hath come 
 to me, do thou join me ; and, by Allah, I will fill thy hands with 
 good and advance thee to honour and make thee rich as long as 
 thou livest ! " So Yunus said, " I took his goods and went my 
 ways ; and when Walid succeeded to the Caliphate, I repaired to 
 him ; and, by Allah, he kept his promise and entreated me with 
 high honour and munificence. Then I abode with him in all con- 
 tent of ease and rise of rank and mine affairs prospered and my 
 wealth increased and goods and farms became mine, such as sufficed 
 me and will suffice my heirs after me ; nor did I cease to abide 
 with Walid till he was slain — the mercy of Almighty Allah be on 
 him ! " And men tell a tale concerning
 
 Harun al-Rashid and the Arab Girl. 319 
 
 HARUN AL-RASHID AND THE ARAB GIRL. 
 
 The Caliph Harun al-Rashid was walking one day with Ja'afar the 
 Barmecide, when he espied a company of girls drawing water and 
 went up to them, having a mind to drink. As he drew near, one of 
 them turned to her fellows and improvised these lines : — 
 
 Thy Phantom bid thou fleet and fly * Far from the couch whereon I lie ; 
 
 So I may rest and quench the fire, * Bonfire in bones aye flaming high ; 
 
 My love-sick form Love's restless palm * Rolls o'er the rug whereon I sigh : 
 
 How 'tis with me thou wottest well * How long, then. Union wilt deny ? 
 
 The Caliph marvelled at her elegance and eloquence, And 
 
 Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her 
 permitted say. 
 
 BM tofjcn It tuas tfjc ^fx l^untirctr im^ ©tgfttij-sut]^ iSigftt, 
 
 She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the 
 Caliph, hearing the girl's verses, marvelled at her elegance and 
 eloquence, and said to her, " O daughter of nobles, are these thine 
 own or a quotation?" Replied she, " They are my very own," and 
 he rejoined, "An thou say sooth keep the sense and change the 
 rhyme." So she said : — 
 
 Eid thou thy Phantom distance keep * And quit this couch the while I sleep; 
 So I may rest and quench the flames * Through all my body rageful creep, 
 In love-sick one, whom passion's palms * Roll o'er the bed where grief I weep. 
 How 'tis with me thou wottest well ; * All but thy Union hold I cheap ! 
 
 Quoth the Caliph, " This also is stolen ; " and quoth she, " Nay, 
 'tis my very own." He said, " If it be indeed thine own, change 
 the rhyme again and keep the sense." So she recited the follow- 
 ing :— 
 
 Unto thy Phantom deal behest « To shun my couch the while I rest, 
 
 So I repose and quench the lire * Th'>t burns what lies within my breast. 
 My weary form Love's restless palm « Rolls o'er with boon of sleep unblest, 
 How 'tis with me thou wottest well * When Union's bought 'tis haply best ! 
 
 Quoth Al-Rashid, "This too is stolen ;" and quoth she, "Not so, 
 'tis mine." He said, " If thy words be true, change the rhyme once 
 more." And she recited : — 
 
 Drive off the ghost that ever shows ♦ Beside my couch when I'd rejiose, 
 
 So I may rest and quench the fire « Beneath my ribs e'er flames and glows,
 
 220 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 In love-sick one, whom passion's palms * Roll o'er the couch where weeping 
 
 flows, 
 How 'tis with me thou wottest well * Will Union come as Union goes ? 
 
 Then said the Cahph, "Of what part of this camp art thou?" and 
 she rephed, " Of its middle in dwelHng and of its highest in tent- 
 poles." ^ Wherefore he knew that she was the daughter of the tribal 
 chief. "And thou," quoth she, "of what art thou among the guar- 
 dians of the horses ? " and quoth he, " Of the highest in tree and of 
 the ripest in fruit." "Allah protect thee, O Commander of the 
 Faithful ! " said she, and kissing ground called down blessings on 
 him. Then she went away with the maidens of the Arabs, and the 
 Caliph said to Ja'afar, " There is no help for it but I take her to 
 wife." So Ja'afar repaired to her father and said to him, "The 
 Commander of the Faithful hath a mind to thy daughter." He 
 replied, "With love and goodwill, she is a gift as a handmaid to 
 His Highness our Lord the Commander of the Faithful." So he 
 equipped her and carried her to the Caliph, who took her to wife 
 and visited her daily, and she became of the dearest of his women to 
 him. Furthermore, he bestowed on her father largesse such as suc- 
 coured him among Arabs, till he was transported to the mercy of 
 Almighty Allah. The Caliph, hearing of his death, went in to her 
 greatly troubled ; and, when she saw him looking afflicted, she 
 entered her chamber and doffing all that was upon her of rich 
 raiment, donned mourning apparel and raised lament for her father. 
 It was said to her, "What is the reason of this?" and she replied, 
 " My father is dead." So they repaired to the Caliph and told him 
 and he rose and going in to her, asked her who had informed her of 
 her father's death; and she answered, "It was thy face, O Com- 
 mander of the Faithful!" Said he, "How so?" and she said, 
 " Since I have been with thee, I never saw thee on such wise till 
 this time, and there was none for whom I feared save my father, by 
 reason of his great age ; but may thy head live, O Commander of 
 the Faithful ! " The Caliph's eyes filled with tears and he condoled 
 with her ; but she ceased not to mourn for her father, till she 
 followed him — Allah have mercy on the twain ! " And a tale is also 
 told of 
 
 ^ The tents of black wool woven by the Badawi women are generally supported 
 by three parallel rows of poles lencthways and crosFways 'the highest line being 
 the central) and the covering is pegged down. Thus the outline of the roofs 
 forms two or more hanging curves, and these characterise the architecture of the 
 Tartars and Chinese ; they are still preserved in the Turkish (and sometimes in 
 the European) " Kiosque," and they have extended to the Brazil, where the up- 
 turned eaves, often painted vermilion below, at once attract the traveller's notice, 
 and suggest Macao.
 
 Ibrahitn of Mosul and the Devil. 321 
 
 IBRAHIM OF MOSUL AND THE DEVIL} 
 
 Quoth Abu Ishak Ibrahim al-Mausili : — I asked Al-Rashid once to 
 give me a day's leave that I might be private with the people of my 
 household and my brethren, and he gave me leave for Saturday the 
 Sabbath. So I went home and betook myself to making ready meat 
 and drink and other necessaries, and bade the doorkeepers shut the 
 doors and let none come in to me. However, presently, as I sat in 
 my sitting-chamber, with my women who were looking after my 
 wants, behold, there appeared an old man of comely and reverend 
 aspect," clad in white clothes and a shirt of fine stuff, with a doctor's 
 turband on his head and a silver-handled staff in his hand, and the 
 house and porch were full of the perfumes wherewith he was scented. 
 I was greatly vexed at his coming in to me and thought to turn away 
 the doorkeepers ; but he saluted me after the goodliest fashion and I 
 returned his greeting and bade him be seated. So he sat down and 
 began entertaining me with stories of the Arabs and their verses, till 
 my anger left me and methought my servants had sought to pleasure 
 me by admitting a man of such good breeding and fine culture. 
 Then I asked him, " Art thou for meat ? " and he answered, " I 
 have no need of it." "And for drink?" quoth I, and quoth he, 
 "That is as thou wilt." Accordingly I drank off a pint of wine and 
 poured him out the like. Then said he, " O Abu Ishak, wilt thou 
 sing us somewhat, so we may hear of thine art that wherein thou 
 excellest high and low ? " His words angered me ; but I swallowed 
 my anger and taking the lute played and sang. "Well done, O Abu 
 Ishak ! " ^ said he ; whereat my wrath redoubled and I said to my- 
 self, " Is it not enough that he should intrude upon me, without my 
 leave, and importune me thus, but he must call me by name, as 
 though he knew not the right way to address me? " Quoth he, " An 
 thou wilt sing something more we will requite thee." I dissembled 
 my annoyance and took the lute and sang again, taking pains with 
 what I sang and rising thereto altogether, in consideration of his 
 
 1 Lane introduced this tale into vol. i., p. 223, notes on chapt. iii., apparently 
 not knowing that it was in The Nights. He cjivcs a mere abstract, omitting all 
 the verse, a' d he borrowed it cither from the Halbat al-Kumayt (chapt. xiv.) or 
 from Al-Mas'udi (chapt. cxi.). See the French translation, voh vi. p. 340. 
 
 - In Al-Abs'udi the Devil is "a young man fair of favour and formous of 
 figure," which is more appropriate to a "Tempter," He also wears light stufls 
 of dyed silks. 
 
 3 It would liavc been more courteous in an utter stranger to say, O my lord! 
 VOL. IV. X
 
 322 Alf Laylah wa Layiah. 
 
 saying, "We will requite thee." And Shahrazad perceived the 
 
 dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 JiohJ bj^ctx ft toas tj^e ^ix |^untirct( antr ^igj^tg-tigj^t^ i^igSt 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 the Shaykh said to Abu Ishak, " If thou wilt sing something more 
 we will requite thee," I dissembled my annoyance (continued 
 Ibrahim) and, taking the lute, sang again with great attention to my 
 singing and rising altogether thereto, in consideration of his saying, 
 "We will requite thee." He was delighted, and cried, "Well done, 
 
 my lord ! " presently adding, " Dost thou give me leave to sing? " 
 " As thou wilt," answered I, deeming him weak of wit, for that he 
 should think to sing in my presence, after that which he had heard 
 from me. So he took the lute and swept the strings, and by Allah, 
 
 1 fancied they spoke in Arabic tongue, with a sweet and liquid and 
 murmurous voice ; than he began and sang these couplets : — 
 
 I bear a hurt heart, who will sell me for this * A heart whole and free from all 
 
 canker and smart ? 
 Nay, none will consent or to barter or buy * Such loss, ne'er from sorrow and 
 
 sickness to part : 
 I groan wi' the groaning of wine-wounded men * And pine for the pining ne'er 
 
 freeth my heart. 
 
 And by Allah, meseemed the doors and the walls and all that was 
 in the house answered and sang with him, for the beauty of his voice, 
 so that I fancied my very limbs and clothes replied to him, and I 
 abode amazed and unable to speak or move, for the trouble of my 
 heart. Then he sang these couplets : — 
 
 Culvers of Liwa ! ^ to your nests return ; * Your mournful voices thrill this heart 
 
 of mine. 
 Then back a-copse they flew, and well-nigh took * My life and made me tell my 
 
 secret pine. 
 With cooing call they one who's gone, as though * Their breasts were maddened 
 
 with the rage of wine : 
 Ne'er did mine eyes their like for culvers see * Who weep, yet tear-drops never 
 
 dye their eyne. 
 
 And also these couplets : — 
 
 O Zephyr of Najd, when from Najd thou blow, * Thy breathings heap only new 
 woe on woe ! 
 
 ^ The Arab Tempe (of fiction, not of grisly fact). 
 
 1
 
 Ibrahim of Mosul and the Devil. 323 
 
 The turtle bespake me in bloom of morn « From the cassia-twig and the willow- 
 bough ; 
 
 She moaned with the moaning of love-sick youth * And exposed love-secret I 
 ne'er would show : 
 
 They say lover wearies of love when near * And is cured of love an afar he go : 
 
 I tried either cure which ne'er cured my love ; * But that nearness is better than 
 farness I know :' 
 
 Yet, — the nearness of love shall no 'vantage prove * An whoso thou lovest deny 
 thee of love. 
 
 Then said he, " O Ibrahim, sing this song after me, and preserving 
 the mode thereof in thy singing, teach it to thy slave-girls." Quoth 
 I, " Repeat it to me." But he answered, " There needs no repeti- 
 tion ; thou hast it by heart, nor is there more to learn." Then he 
 suddenly vanished from my sight. At this I was amazed and 
 running to my sword drew it and made for the door of the Harem, 
 but found it closed and said to the women, " What have ye heard ?" 
 Quoth they, " We have heard the sweetest of singing and the 
 goodliest." Then I went forth amazed to the house-door and, 
 finding it locked, questioned the doorkeepers of the old man. They 
 replied, " What old man ? By Allah, no one hath gone in to thee 
 this day !" So I returned pondering the matter, when behold, there 
 arose from one of the corners of the house, a voice, saying, " O 
 Abu Ishak, no harm shall befal thee. 'Tis I, Abu Murrah,^ who 
 have been thy cup-companion this day, so fear nothing ! " Then I 
 mounted and rode to the palace, where I told Al-Rashid what had 
 passed, and he said, " Repeat to me the airs thou heardest from 
 him." So I took the lute and played and sang them to him ; for, 
 behold, they were rooted in my heart. The Caliph was charmed 
 with them and drank thereto, albeit he was no confirmed wine- 
 bibber, saying, "Would he would some day pleasure us with his 
 company, as he hath pleasured thee ! "^ Then he ordered me a 
 ]:)rescnt and I took it and went away. And men relate this story 
 ancnt 
 
 ' These four lines are in Al-Mas'udi, chapt. cxviii. Fr. trans, vii. 313, but that 
 author does not tell us who wrote them. 
 
 - i.e. Father of Bitterness = the Devil. This legend of the Foul Fiend 
 appearing to Ibrahim of Mosul (and also to Ishak, N. dcxcv.) seems to have been 
 accepted by contemporaries and reminds us of similar visitations in Europe — 
 notably to Dr. Faust. I once began to write a biography of the Devil ; but I found 
 that European folk-lore had made such an unmitigated fool of the grand old 
 Typhon-Ahriman as to take away from him all human interest. 
 
 ^In Al-Mas'udi the Caliph exclaims, " Verily thou hast received a visit from 
 Satan ! "
 
 324 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 THE LOVERS OF THE BANU OZRAH?- 
 
 Quoth Masrur the Eunuch : — The Cah'ph Harun Al-Rashid was 
 very wakeful one night and said to me, " See which of the poets is 
 at the door to-night." So I went out and finding Jamil bin Ma'amar 
 al-Ozri^ in the antechamber, said to him, " Answer the Commander 
 of the Faithful." Quoth he, " I hear and I obey," and going in 
 with me, saluted the Caliph, who returned his greeting and bade 
 him sit down. Then he said to him, " O Jamil, hast thou any of 
 thy wonderful new stories to tell us ?" He replied, "Yes, O Com- 
 mander of the Faithful : wouldst thou fainer hear that which I have 
 seen with mine eyes or that which I have only heard ? " Quoth the 
 Caliph, " Tell me something thou hast actually beheld." Quoth 
 Jamil, " 'Tis well, O Prince of True Believers ; incline thy heart to 
 me and lend me thine ears." The Caliph took a bolster of red 
 brocade, purfled with gold and stuffed with ostrich-feathers and, 
 laying it under him, propped up both elbows thereon ; then he said 
 to Jamil, "Now^ for thy tale, O Jamil ! " Thereupon he begun : — 
 Know, O Commander of the Faithful, that I was once desperately 
 
 enamoured of a certain girl and used to pay her frequent visits, 
 
 And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased 
 saying her permitted say. 
 
 She pursued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 the Caliph had propped his elbows upon the brocaded cushion, he 
 said, " Out with thy tale, O Jamil ! " and the poet begun : — Know, 
 O Commander of the Faithful, I was desperately in love with a girl 
 and used often to visit her, because she was my desire and delight 
 of all the things of this world. After a while, her people removed 
 with her, by reason of scarcity of pasture, and I abode some time 
 
 ^ Al-Mas'udi, chapt. cxix. (Fr. transl. vii. 351) mentions the " Banu Odhrah " 
 as famed for lovers ai d tells the pathetic tale of 'Orwah and ' Afra. 
 
 ^ Jamil bin Ma'amar the poet has been noticed before ; and he has no business 
 here as he died years before Al-Rashid was born. The tale begins like that of 
 Ibn Mansur and the Lady Budur (Night cccxxvii.), except that Mansur does not 
 offer his valuable advice. 
 
 ^ Arab. " Halumma," an interjection = bring ! a congener of the Heb. 
 " Hali'im " : the grammarians of Kufah and Bassorah are divided concerning 
 its origin.
 
 The Lovers of the Bafiu Ozrah. 325 
 
 without seeing her, till I grew restless and longed for her sight and 
 my soul^ urged me to journey to her. One night, I could hold out 
 no longer ; so I rose and saddling my she-camel, bound on my 
 turband and donned my oldest dress.^ Then I baldricked myself 
 with my sword and slinging my spear behind me, mounted and rode 
 forth in quest of her. I fared on fast till, one night, it was pitch 
 dark and exceeding black, yet I persisted in the hard task of 
 climbing down Wadys and up hills, hearing on all sides the roaring 
 of lions and howling of wolves and the cries of the wild beasts. 
 My reason was troubled thereat and my heart sank within me ; but 
 for all that my tongue ceased not to call on the name of Almighty 
 Allah. As I went along thus, sleep overtook me and the camel 
 carried me aside out of my road, till, presently, something^ smote 
 me on the head, and I woke, startled and alarmed, and found 
 myself in a pasturage full of trees and streams and birds on the 
 branches, warbling their various speech and notes. As the trees 
 were tangled I alighted and, taking my camel's halter in hand, fared 
 on softly with her, till I got clear of the thick growth and came out 
 into the open country, where I adjusted her saddle and mounted 
 again, knowing not where to go nor whither the Fates should lead 
 me : but, presently, peering afar into the desert, I espied a fire in 
 its middle depth. So I smote my camel and made for the fire. 
 When I drew near, I saw a tent pitched, and fronted by a spear 
 stuck in the ground, with a pennon flying "* and horses tethered and 
 camels feeding, and said in myself, " Doubtless there hangeth some 
 grave matter by this tent, for I see in the desert none other than it." 
 So I went up thereto and said, " Peace be with you, O people of the 
 tent, and the mercy of Allah and his blessing ! " Whereupon there 
 came forth to me a young man as youths are when nineteen years 
 old, who was like the full moon shining in the East, with valour 
 written between his eyes, and answered, saying, " And with thee 
 be the Peace, and Allah's mercy and His blessing ! O brother of 
 the Arabs, methinks thou hast lost thy way ? " Replied I, " Even 
 so; direct me right, Allah have mercy upon thee !" He rejoined, " O 
 brother of the Arabs, of a truth this our land is infested with lions 
 and the night is exceeding dark and dreary, beyond measure cold 
 
 ' Arab. " Nafs-i," which here corresponds with "the flesh," the "Old 
 Adam," &c. 
 
 '^ Arab. " Atmarf '' used for travel. The Anglo-Americans are the only people 
 who have the common sense to travel (where they are not known) in their "store 
 clothes " and reserve the worst for where they are known. 
 
 ' e.g. a branch or bou5j;h. 
 
 * Arab. " Rayah kaimah," which Lane translates a "beast standing" !
 
 326 Alf Laylah iva Laylah. 
 
 and gloomy, and I fear lest the wild beasts rend thee in pieces; 
 wherefore do thou alight and abide with me this night in ease and 
 comfort, and to-morrow I will put thee in the right way." Accord- 
 ingly, I dismounted and hobbled my she-camel with the end of her 
 halter -^ then I put off my heavy upper clothes and sat down. Pre- 
 sently the young man took a sheep and slaughtered it and kindled a 
 brisk fire ; after which he went into the tent and bringing out finely 
 powdered salt and spices, fell to cutting off pieces of mutton and 
 roasting them over the fire and feeding me therewith, weeping at one 
 while and sighing at another. Then he groaned heavily and wept 
 sore and improvised these couplets : — 
 
 There remains to him naught save a flitting breath * And an eye whose babe ever 
 
 wandereth. 
 There remains not a joint in his limbs, but what * Disease firm fixt ever tor- 
 
 tureth. 
 His tears are flowing, his vitals burning ; * Yet for all his tongue still he 
 
 silenceth. 
 All foemen in pity beweep his woes ; * Ah for freke whom the foeman pitieth ! 
 
 By this I knew, O Commander of the Faithful, that the youth was 
 a distracted lover (for none knoweth passion save he who hath tasted 
 the passion-savour), and quoth I to myself, " Shall I ask him ? " 
 But I consulted my judgment and said, "How shall I assail him 
 with questioning, and I in his abode ? " So I restrained myself and 
 ate my sufficiency of the meat. When we had made an end of 
 eating, the young man arose and, entering the tent, brought out a 
 handsome basin and ewer and a silken napkin, whose ends were 
 purfled with red gold, and a sprinkling-bottle full of rose-water 
 mingled with musk. I marvelled at his dainty delicate ways and 
 said in my mind, " Never wot I of delicacy in the desert." Then we 
 washed our hands and talked a while, after which he went into the tent 
 and, making a partition between himself and me with a piece of red 
 brocade, said to me, " Enter, O Chief of the Arabs, and take thy 
 rest ; for thou hast suffered more of toil and travel than sufificeth 
 this night and in this thy journey." So I entered and finding a bed 
 of green brocade, doffed my dress and passed a night such as I had 
 
 never passed in my life. And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of 
 
 day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 ^ Tying up the near foreleg just above the knee ; and even with this a camel 
 can hop over sundry miles of ground in the course of a night. The hobbling is 
 shown in Lane (Nights, vol. ii. p. 46).
 
 The Lovers of the Batiu Ozrah. ^2^ 
 
 Noto tui^en it toa5 tTj£ ^fx l^untfreti nnti Ninetictlj l!\lgljt, 
 
 She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Jamil 
 spoke, saying : — Never in my Hfe passed I a night hke that. I pon- 
 dered the young man's case till the world was dark and all eyes 
 slept, when I was aroused by the sound of a low voice, never heard 
 I a softer or sweeter. I raised the curtain which hung between us 
 and saw a damsel (never beheld I a fairer of face), by the young 
 man's side and they were both weeping and complaining, one to 
 other of their longing for Union. ^ Quoth I, "By Allah, I wonder 
 who may be this second one ! When I entered this tent, there was 
 none therein save this young man." And after reflection I added, 
 " Doubtless this damsel is of the daughters of the Jinn and is 
 enamoured of this youth ; so they have secluded themselves with 
 each other in this solitary place." Then I considered her closely 
 and behold, she was a mortal and an Arab girl, whose face, when 
 she unveiled, shamed the shining sun, and the tent was lit up by 
 the light of her countenance. When I was assured that she was 
 his beloved, I bethought me of lover-jealousy ; so I let drop the 
 curtain and covering my face, fell asleep. As soon as it was dawn 
 I arose and donning my clothes, made the Wuzu-ablution and 
 prayed such prayers as are obligatory and which I had deferred. 
 Then I said, " O brother of the Arabs, wilt thou direct me into 
 the right road and thus add to thy favours ? " He replied, " At thy 
 leisure, O chief of the Arabs ; the term of the guest-rite is three 
 days,2 and I am not one to let thee go before that time." So I 
 abode with him three days, and on the fourth day as we sat talking, 
 I asked him of his name and lineage. Quoth he, "As for my 
 lineage, I am of the Band Ozrah ; my name is Such-an-one, son of 
 Such-an-one and my father's brother is called Such-an-one." And 
 behold, O Commander of the Faithful, he was the son of my paternal 
 uncle and of the noblest house of the Banu Ozrah. Said I, " O my 
 cousin, what moved thee to act on this wise, secluding thyself in the 
 waste and leaving thy fair estate and that of thy father and thy slaves 
 
 ' As opposed to "Severance" in the old knightly language of love, which is 
 now apparently lost to the world. I tried it in the Lyricks of Camoens and 
 found that I was speaking a forgotten tongue, which mightily amused the common 
 sort of critic and reviewer. 
 
 " More exactly three days and eight hours, after which the guest becomes a 
 friend and, as in the Argentine prairies, is expected to do friend's duty. The 
 popular saying is, " The entertainment of a guest is three days ; the viaticum 
 (jiiizah) is a day and a night, and whatso exccedelh this is an alms."
 
 328 A// Lay la k wa Lay la h. 
 
 and handmaids?" When he heard my words, his eyes filled with 
 tears and he replied, " Know, O my cousin, that I fell madly in love 
 of the daughter of my father's brother, fascinated by her, distracted 
 for her, passion-possessed as by a Jinn, wholly unable to let her out 
 of my sight. So I sought her in marriage of her sire, but he refused 
 and married her to a man of the Banu Ozrah, who carried her to 
 his abiding-place this last year. When she was thus far removed 
 from me and I was prevented from looking on her, the excess of 
 love-longing drove me to forsake my clan ^ and friends and fortune 
 and take up my abode in this desert, where I have grown used to 
 my sohtude." I asked, "Where are their dweUings?" and he 
 answered, "They are hard by, on the crest of yonder hill ; and every 
 night, at the dead time, when all eyes sleep, she stealeth secretly out 
 of the camp, unseen of anyone, and I satisfy my desire of her 
 converse and she of mine.^ So I abide thus, solacing myself with 
 her a part of the night, till Allah work out that which is to be 
 wrought ; either I shall compass my hope, in spite ^ of the envious, 
 or Allah will determine for me and He is the best of determinators." 
 Now when the youth told me his case, O Commander of the Faithful, 
 I was concerned for him and perplexed by reason of my jealousy 
 for his honour ; so I said to him, " O son of my uncle, wilt thou 
 that I point out to thee a plan and suggest to thee a project whereby 
 (please Allah) thou shalt find perfect welfare and the way of right 
 and successful issue whereby the Almighty shall do away from thee 
 that thou dreadest ? " He replied, " Say on, O my cousin ; " and 
 quoth I, " When it is night and the girl cometh, set her on my she- 
 camel which is swift of pace, and mount thou thy steed, whilst I 
 bestride one of these dromedaries. So we will fare on all night and 
 when the morrow morns we shall have traversed wolds and wastes, 
 and thou wilt have attained thy hope and won the beloved of thy 
 heart. The Almighty's earth is wide, and by Allah, I will back thee 
 
 with heart and wealth and sword." And Shahrazad was surprised 
 
 by the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 ^ Arab. '"Ashirah." Books tell us there are seven degrees of connection 
 among the Badawin : Sha'ab, tribe or rather race, nation (as the Anazah) 
 descended from a common ancestor : Kabilah, the tribe proper (whence les Kabyles); 
 Fasilah (sept), Imarah, Ashirah (all a man's connections) ; Fakhiz (lit. the thigh, 
 i.e. his blood relations), and Batn (belly) his kith and kin. Practically Kabilah 
 is the tribe, Ashirah the clan, and Bayt the household ; while Hayy may be 
 anything between tribe and kith and kin. 
 
 " This is the true platonic love of noble Arabs, the Ishk 'uzri. 
 
 ^ Arab. " 'Ala raghm," a favourite term. It occurs in theology ; for instance, 
 when the Shi'ahs are asked the cause of such and such a ritual distinction they 
 will reply, " Ala Raghmi '1-Tasannun " : lit.= to spite the Sunnis.
 
 The Lovers of the Banu Ozrah. 
 
 iSoto fof)t;n It toas tj^c ^fx |L^untircti anti Ninctg-first iaigftt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Jamil advised the elopement and night journey, promising his aid 
 as long as he lived, the youth accepted and said, " O cousin, wait 
 till I take counsel with her, for she is quick-witted and prudent and 
 hath insight into affairs." So (continued Jamil) when the night 
 darkened and the hour of her coming arrived, and he awaiting her 
 at the appointed tide, she delayed beyond her usual time, and I saw 
 him go forth the door of the tent and opening his mouth, inhale the 
 wafts of breeze that blew from her quarter, as if to snuff her perfume, 
 and he repeated these two couplets : — 
 
 Breeze of East who bringest me gentle air * From the place of sojourn where 
 dwells my fair : 
 
 Breeze, of the lover thou bearest sign * Canst not of her coming a signal 
 
 bear? 
 
 Then he entered the tent and sat weeping awhile 3 after which he 
 said to me, " O my cousin, some mischance must have betided the 
 daughter of mine uncle, or some accident must have hindered her 
 from coming to me this night," presently addmg, " But abide 
 where thou art, till I bring thee the news." And he took sword 
 and shield and was absent a while of the night, after which he 
 returned, carrying something in hand and called aloud to me. So I 
 hastened to him and he said, " O my cousin, knowest thou what 
 hath happened?-" I replied, " No, by Allah ! " Quoth he, " Verily, 
 
 1 am distraught concerning my cousin this night ; for, as she was 
 coming to me, a lion met her in the way and devoured her, and 
 there remaineth of her but what thou seest." So saying, he threw 
 down what he had in his hand, and behold, it was the damsel's tur- 
 band and what was left of her bones. Then he wept sore and casting 
 down his bow,' took a bag and went forth again saying, " Stir not 
 hence till I return to thee, if it please Almighty Allah." He was 
 absent a while and presently returned, bearing in his hand a lion's 
 head, which he threw on the ground and called for water. So 
 I brought him water, with which he washed the lion's mouth and 
 
 ^ In the text ** Al-Kaus," for which Lane and Payne substitute a shield. The 
 bow had not been mentioned but — ri'importe, the Arab reaier would say. In the 
 text it is left at home because it is a cowardly, far-killing weapon compared with 
 sword and lance. Hence the .Spaniard calls, and justly calls, the kniie the " bravest 
 of arms," as it wants a man behind it.
 
 33 o Alf Layiah 7va Laylah. 
 
 fell to kissing it and weeping ; and he mourned for her exceedingly 
 and recited these couplets : — 
 
 Ho thou lion who broughtest thyself to woe, * Thou art slain and worse sorrows 
 
 my bosom rend ! 
 Thou hast reft me of fairest companionship, * Made her home Earth's womb till 
 
 the world shall end. 
 To Time, who hath wrought me such grief, I say, * "Allah grant in her stead 
 
 never show a friend ! " 
 
 Then said he to me, " O cousin, I conjure thee by Allah and the 
 claims of kindred and consanguinity i between us, keep thou my 
 charge. Thou wilt presently see me dead before thee ; whereupon 
 do thou wash me and shroud me and these that remain of my 
 cousin's bones in this robe and bury us both in one grave and write 
 thereon these two couplets : — 
 
 On Earth surface we lived in rare ease and joy * By fellowship joined in one house 
 
 and home. 
 But Fate with her changes departed us, * And the shroud conjoins us in Earth's 
 
 cold womb. 
 
 Then he wept with sore weeping and, entering the tent, was absent 
 awhile, after which he came forth, groaning and crying out ; and 
 soon he gave one sob and departed this world. When I saw that 
 he was indeed dead, it was grievous to me and so sore was my 
 sorrow for him that I had well-nigh followed him for excess of 
 mourning over him. Then I laid him out and did as he had 
 enjoined me, shrouding his cousin's remains with him in one robe 
 and laying the twain in one grave. I abode by their tomb three days, 
 after which I departed and continued to pay frequent pious visits ^ to 
 the place for two years. This then is their story, O Commander of 
 the Faithful ! Al-Rashid was pleased with Jamil's story and rewarded 
 him with a robe of honour and a handsome present. And men also 
 tell a tale concerning 
 
 ^_ Arab. *' Rahim "or " Rihm " = womb, uterine relations, pity or sympathy, 
 which may here be meant. 
 
 ^ Reciting Fatihahs and so forth, as I have described in the Cemetery of Al- 
 Medinah (ii. 300). Moslems do not pay for prayers to benefit the dead like the 
 majority of Christendom and, accordint; to Calvanistic Wahhabi-ism, their prayers 
 and blessings are of no avail. But the mourner's heart loathes reason and he 
 prays for his dead instinctively.
 
 The Badawi ajid his Wife. 331 
 
 THE BAD A IVI AND HIS WIFE} 
 
 Caliph Mu'awiyah was sitting one day in his palace ^ at Damascus, 
 in a room whose windows were open on all four sides, that the 
 breeze might enter from every quarter. Now it was a day of 
 excessive heat, with no breeze from the mountains stirring, and the 
 middle of the day, when the heat was at its height, and the Caliph 
 saw a man coming along, scorched by the heat of the ground and 
 limping, as he fared on barefoot. Mu'awiyah considered him awhile 
 and said to his courtiers, " Hath Allah (may He be extolled and 
 exalted !) created any more miserable than he who need must hie 
 abroad at such an hour and in such sultry tide as this ? " Quoth one 
 of them, '■'- Haply he seeketh the Commander of the Faithful ;" and 
 quoth the Caliph, " By Allah, if he seek me, I will assuredly give to 
 him, and if he be wronged, I will certainly succour him. Ho, boy ! 
 Stand at the door, and if yonder wild Arab seek to come in to me, 
 forbid him not therefrom." So the page went out and presently 
 the Arab came up to him and he said, " What dost thou want ? " 
 Answered the other, " I want the Commander of the Faithful," and 
 the page said, " Enter." So he entered and saluted the Caliph, 
 
 And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say 
 
 her permitted say. 
 
 Notu toljcn It tuas tljc ^i.x |l^unl(rct( nntJ Xinctij-scconti Xigl^t, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the page 
 allowed him to enter, the Badawi saluted the Caliph, who said to 
 him, " Who art thou ? " Replied the Arab, *' I am a man of the 
 Band Tamim."^ "And what bringeth thee here at this season?" 
 
 ^ Lane transfers this to vol. i. 520 (notes to chapt. vii.) ; and gives a mere 
 abstract as of that preceding. 
 
 '■* We learn from Ibn Jjatutah that it stood South of the Great Mosque and 
 afterwards became the Coi)pcrsmiths' Bazar. The site was known as Al-Khazra 
 the Green) and the building was destroyed by the Abl)asidcs. See iJefrcmcry 
 and Sanguinetti, i. 206. 
 
 ^ This great tribe, or rather nation, has been noticed before. The name means 
 "Strong," and derives from one Tamim bin Murr of the race of Adnan, nat. 
 circ. A. D. 121. They still hold the North-Easlern uplands of N.ijd, comprising 
 the great desert Al-Dahna and extend to Al-Bahrayn ; they are split up into a 
 multitude of clans and septs ; and they can l)oast of producing two famous 
 sectarians. One was Abdullah bin Suffar, head of the Suffriyah ; and the other 
 Abdullah bin Ibaz (Ibadh), whence the Ibaziyah heretics of Oman who long 
 included her princes. Mr. Palgrave wrongly writes Abadecyah and Biadeeyah 
 and my " Bayazi " was an Arab vulgarism used by the Zanzibarians. Dr. Badger 
 rightly prefers Ibaziyah which he writes Ibadhiyah (Hist, of the Imams, etc.).
 
 33^ Alf Laylah lua Laylah. 
 
 asked Mu'awiyah ; and the Arab answered, " I come to thee, 
 complaining and thy protection imploring." " Against whom ? " 
 " Against Marwan bin al-Hakam/ thy deputy," rephed he, and 
 began reciting : — 
 
 Mu'awiyah,- thou gen'rous lord, and best of men that be ; * And oh, thou lord 
 
 of learning, grace and fair humanity, 
 Thee-wards I come because my way of life is strait to me : * O help ! and let me 
 
 not despair thine equity to see. 
 Deign thou redress the wrong that dealt the tyrant whim of him * Who better 
 
 had my life destroyed than made such wrong to dree. 
 He robbed me of my wife Su'ad and proved him worst of foes, * Stealing mine 
 
 honour 'mid my folk with foul iniquity ; 
 And went about to take my life before th' appointed day » Hath dawned which 
 
 Allah made my lot by Destiny's decree. 
 
 Now when Mu'awiyah heard him recite these verses, with the fire 
 flashing from his mouth, he said to him, '* Welcome and fair wel- 
 come, O brother of the Arabs ! Tell me thy tale and acquaint me 
 with thy case." Replied the Arab, ''O Commander of the Faithful, 
 I had a wife whom I loved passing dear with love none came near ; 
 and she was the coolth of mine eyes and the joy of my heart ; and I 
 had a herd of camels, whose produce enabled me to maintain my 
 condition ; but there came upon us a bad year which killed off hoof 
 and horn and left me naught. Whenas what was in my hand failed 
 me and wealth fell from me and I lapsed into evil case, I at once 
 became abject and a burden to those who erewhile wished to visit 
 me; and when her father knew it, he took her from me and abjured 
 me and drove me forth without ruth. So I repaired to thy deputy, 
 Marwan bin al-Hakam, and asked his aid. He summoned her sire 
 and questioned him of my case, when he denied any knowledge of 
 me. Quoth I : — Allah assain the Emir ! An it please him to send 
 for the woman and question her of her father's saying, the truth will 
 appear. So he sent for her and brought her ; but no sooner had 
 he set eyes on her than he fell in love with her ; so, becoming my 
 rival, he denied me succour and was wroth with me, and sent me to 
 prison, where I became as I had fallen from heaven and the wind 
 had cast me down in a far land. Then said Marwan to her father : — 
 Wilt thou give her to me to wife, on a present settlement of a 
 
 ^ Governor of Al-Medinah under Mu'awiyah and afterwards (A.H. 64-65 = 
 683-4) fourth Ommiade. Al-Siyiiti (p. 216) will not account him amongst the 
 princes of the Faithful, holding him a rebel against Al-Zubayr. Ockley makes 
 Ibn al-Zubayr ninth and Marwan tenth Caliph. 
 
 ^ The address, without the vocative particle, is more emphatic j and the P.N. 
 Mu'awiyah seems to court the omission.
 
 The Badawi and his Wife. 333 
 
 thousand dinars and a contingent dowry of ten thousand dirhams,^ 
 and I will engage to free her from yonder wild Arab ! Her father 
 was seduced by the bribe and agreed to the bargain ; whereupon 
 Marwan sent for me and looking at me like an angry lion, said to 
 me : — O Arab, divorce Su'ad. I replied : — ^I will not put her away ; 
 but he set on me a company of his servants, who tortured me with 
 all manner of tortures, till I found no help for it but to divorce her. I 
 did so and he sent me back to prison, where I abode till the days of 
 her purification were accomplished, when he married her and let me 
 go. So now I come hither in thee hoping and thy succour implor- 
 ing and myself on thy protection throwing." And he spoke these 
 couplets : — 
 
 Within my heart is fire * Which ever flameth higher ; 
 Within my frame are pains * For skill of leach too dire. 
 Live coals in vitals burn * And sparks from coal up spire : 
 Tears flood mine eyes and down * Coursing my cheek ne'er tire : 
 Only God's aid and thine * I crave for my desire ! 
 
 Then he was convulsed,^ and his teeth chattered and he fell down 
 in a fit, squirming like a scotched snake. When Mu'awiyah heard 
 his story and his verse, he said, " Marwan bin al-Hakam hath 
 transgressed against the laws of the Faith and hath violated the 
 
 Harim of True Believers ! " And Shahrazad was surprised by the 
 
 dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 Xolxi tofjcn It tons tijc ^tx |L^untircti anb Xinctij^tlbirtr tX^icrfjt, 
 
 She continued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 the Caliph Mu'awiyah heard the wild Arab's words, he said, " The 
 son of Al-Hakam hath indeed transgressed against the laws of the 
 Faith and hath violated the Harim of True Believers," presently 
 adding, " O Arab, thou earnest to me with a story, the like whereof 
 I never heard ! " Then he called for inkcase and paper and wrote 
 to Marwan as follows : — Verily it hath reached me that thou trans- 
 gressest the laws of the Faith with regard to thy lieges. Now it 
 bchoveth the Wali who governcth the folk to keep his eyes from their 
 sins. And after he wrote many words, which (quoth he who told 
 
 ' This may also mean that the ^^500 were the woman's '* mahr " or marriage 
 dowry and the £i,oo a present to Ijuy the father's consent. 
 
 * Quite true to nature. See an account of the quasi-epileptic fits to which 
 .Syrians are subject and Ly them called Al-Wahtab in " The Inner Life of Syria," 
 i- 233-
 
 334 -^^f Laylah zva Laylah. 
 
 me the tale) I omit, for brevity's sake, and amongst them these 
 couplets : — 
 
 Thou wast invested (woe to thee !)^ with rule for thee unfit : * Crave thou of Allah 
 
 pardon for thine inhumanity. 
 Th' unhappy youth to us is come complaining mid his groans * And asks redress 
 
 for parting-grief and saddened me through thee. 
 An oath have I to Allah sworn shall never be forsworn ; * Nay, for I'll do what 
 
 Faith and Creed command me to decree. 
 An thou dare cross me in whate'er to thee I now indite * I of thy iiesh assuredly 
 
 will make the vulture free. 
 Divorce Su'ad, equip her well, and in the hottest haste * With Al-Kumayt and 
 
 Ziban's son, hight Nasr, send to me. 
 
 Then he folded the letter and, sealing it with his seal, delivered it 
 to Al-Kumayt^ and Nasr bin Zi'ban (whom he was wont to employ 
 on weighty matters, because of their trustiness) who took the missive 
 and carried it to Al-Medinah, where they went in to Marwan and, 
 saluting him, delivered to him the writ and told him how the case 
 stood. He read the letter and fell a-weeping ; but he went in to 
 Su'ad (as 'twas not in his power to refuse obedience to the Caliph) 
 and, acquainting her with the case, divorced her in the presence of 
 Al-Kumayt and Nasr ; after which he equipped her and delivered 
 her to them, together with a letter to the Caliph, wherein he versified 
 as follows : — 
 
 Hurry not, Prince of Faithful men ! with best of grace thy vow * I will accom- 
 plish as 'twas vowed and with the gladdest gree. 
 
 I sinned not with evil sin when loved her I, then how * Canst charge me with a 
 shameless deed or any villainy? 
 
 Soon comes to thee that splendid sun which hath no living peer * On earth, nor 
 aught in mortal men or Jinns her like shall see. 
 
 This he sealed with his own signet and gave to the messengers who 
 returned with Su'ad to Damascus and delivered to Mu'awiyah the 
 letter, and when he had read it he cried, " Verily, he hath obeyed 
 handsomely, but he exceedeth in his praise of the woman," Then 
 he called for her and saw beauty such as he had never seen, for 
 comeliness and loveliness, stature and symmetrical grace ; moreover, 
 he talked with her and found her fluent of speech and choice in 
 words. Quoth he, " Bring me the Arab." So they fetched the man. 
 who came, sore disordered for shifts and changes of fortune, and 
 
 ^ Arab. "Wayha-k," here equivalent to Wayla-k. M. C. Barbierde Meynard 
 renders the first "mon ami" and the second "miserable." 
 
 - This is an instance when the article (Al) is correctly used with one proper 
 name and not with another. Al-Kumayt (P. N. of poet) lit. means a bay horse 
 with black points : Nasr is victory.
 
 The Badawi and his Wife. 33.=; 
 
 Mu'awiyah said to him, " O Arab, an thou wilt freely give her up to 
 me, I will bestow upon thee in her stead three slave girls, high- 
 bosomed maids like moons, with each a thousand dinars ; and I will 
 assign thee on the Treasury such an annual sum as shall content thee 
 and enrich thee." When the Arab heard this, he groaned one groan 
 and swooned away, so that Mu'awiyah thought he was dead ; and, 
 as soon as he revived, the Caliph said to him, " What aileth thee ? " 
 The Arab answered, " With heavy heart and in sore need have I 
 appealed to thee from the injustice of Marwan bin al-Hakam ; but 
 to whom shall I appeal from thine injustice?" And he versified 
 in these couplets : — 
 
 Make me not (Allah save the Caliph !) one of the betrayed * Who from the 
 
 fiery sands to fire must sue for help and aid : 
 Deign thou restore Su'jid to this afflicted heart distraught, * Which every morn 
 
 and eve by sorest sorrow is waylaid ; 
 Loose thou my bonds and grudge me not and give her back to me ; * And if 
 
 thou do so ne'er thou shalt for lack of thanks upbraid ! 
 
 Then said he, " By Allah, O Commander of the Faithful, wert thou 
 to give me all the riches contained in the Caliphate, yet would I not 
 take them without Su'ad." And he recited this couplet : — 
 
 I love Su'ad and unto all but hers my love is dead, « Each morn I feel her love 
 to me is drink and daily bread. 
 
 Quoth the Caliph, "Thou confessest to having divorced her and 
 Marwan owned the like : so now we will give her free choice. An 
 she choose other than thee, we will marry her to him, and if she 
 choose thee, we will restore her to thee." Replied the Arab, " Do 
 so." So Mu'awiyah said to her, " What sayest thou, O Su'ad ? 
 Which dost thou choose ; the Commander of the Faithful, with his 
 honour and glory and dominion and palaces and treasures and all 
 else thou seest at his command, or Marwan bin al-Hakam with his 
 violence and tyranny, or this Arab, with his hunger and poverty ? " 
 So she improvised these couplets ; — 
 
 This one, whom hunger plagues, and rags enfold, * Dearer than tribe and kith 
 
 and kin I hold ; 
 Than crowned head, or deputy Marwan, * Or all who boast of silver coins 
 
 and gold. 
 
 Then said she, " By Allah, O Commander of the Faithful, I will not 
 forsake him for the shifts of Fortune or the perfidies of Fate, there 
 being between us old companionship we may not forget, and love 
 beyond stay and let ; and indeed 'tis but just that I bear with him
 
 336 Alf Laylah wa Lay /ah. 
 
 in his adversity, even as I shared with him in prosperity." The 
 Caliph marvelled at her wit and love and constancy and, ordering 
 her ten thousand dirhams, delivered her to the Arab, who took his 
 wife and went away.^ And they likewise tell a tale of 
 
 THE LOVERS OF BASSO RAH. 
 
 The Cahph Harun al-Rashid was sleepless one night ; so he sent 
 for Al-Asma'i and Husayn al Khali'a 2 and said to them, " Tell me 
 a story you twain and do thou begin, O Husayn." He said, " 'Tis 
 well, O Commander of the Faithful ;" and thus began : — Some years 
 ago, I dropped down stream to Bassorah, to present to Mohammed 
 bin Sulayman al-Rabi'i ^ a Kasidah or elegy I had composed in his 
 praise ; and he accepted it and bade me abide with him. One day, 
 I went out to Al-Mirbad,* by way of Al-Muhaliyah ; & and, being 
 oppressed by the excessive heat, walked up to a great door, to ask 
 for drink, when I was suddenly aware of a damsel, as she were a 
 branch swaying, with eyes languishing, eyebrows arched and finely 
 pencilled and smooth cheeks rounded, clad in a gown the colour of 
 a pomegranate-flower, and a mantilla of Sana'a ^ work ; but the 
 perfect whiteness of her body overcame the redness of her gown. 
 Moreover, O Prince of True Believers, round her neck was slung 
 an amulet of red gold that fell down upon her breast, and on the 
 plain of her forehead were browlocks like jet.' Her eyebrows 
 joined and her eyes were like lakes ; she had an aquiline nose and 
 thereunder shell-like lips showing teeth like pearls. Pleasantness 
 prevailed in every part of her ; but she seemed dejected, disturbed, 
 distracted, and in the vestibule came and went, walking upon the 
 
 1 This anecdote, which reads like truth, is ample set-off for a cart-load of 
 abuse of women. But even the Hindus, determined misogynists in books, some- 
 times relent. Says the Katha Sarit Sagara : "80 you see. King, honourable 
 matrons are devoted to their husbands, and it is not the rnse that all women are 
 always bad " (ii. 624). Let me hope that after all this Mistress Su'ad did not 
 lead her husband a hardish life. 
 
 ^ Al-Khali'a has been explained : the translation of Al-Mns'udi (vi. 10) renders 
 it "scelerat." Abu AH al-Husayn the Wag was a Bassorite and a worthy com- 
 panion of Abu Nowas, the honest old debauchee; but he adorned the Court of 
 Al-Amin the son, not of Al-Rashid the father. 
 
 ^ Governor of Bassorah, but not in Al-Husayn's day. 
 
 * The famous market-place where poems were recited ; mentioned by Al-Hariri. 
 
 ^ A quarter of Bassorah. 
 
 fi Capital of Al-Yaman, and then famed for its leather and other work. 
 
 ■^ Arab. ^'Sabaj " (not Sabah, as the Mac. Edit, misprints it) ; I am not sure 
 of its meaning.
 
 The Lovers of Bassorah. 337 
 
 hearts of her lovers, whilst her legs ^ made mute the voices of their 
 ankle-rings ; and indeed she was as saith the poet : — 
 
 Each portion of her charms we see * Seems of the whole a simile. 
 
 I was overawed by her, O Commander of the Faithful, and drew 
 near her to greet her, and behold, the house and vestibule and 
 highways breathed fragrant with musk. So I saluted her and she 
 returned my salam with a voice dejected and heart depressed and 
 with the ardour of passion consumed. Then said I to her, " O my 
 lady, I am an old man and a stranger and sore troubled by thirst : 
 wilt thou order me a draught of water, and win reward in heaven ? " 
 She cried, " Away, O Shaykh, from me ! I am distracted from all 
 
 thought of meat and drink." And Shahrazad perceived the 
 
 dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 Noto fcciljen it luas t^e ^tx fi^untireD anti KinttB=fourt$ NiQi)t, 
 
 She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the 
 damsel said, " O Shaykh, I am distracted from all thought of meat 
 and drink." Quoth I (continued Husayn), "By what ailment, O 
 my lady ? " and quoth she, " I love one who dealeth not justly by 
 me and I adore one who of me will none. Wherefore I am afflicted 
 with the wakefulness of those who wake star-gazing." I asked, " O 
 my lady, is there on the wide expanse of earth one to whom thou 
 hast a mind and who to thee hath no mind?" Answered she, 
 "Yes; and this for the perfection of beauty and loveliness and 
 goodness wherewith he is endowed." " And why standest thou in 
 this porch ? " inquired I. " This is his road," replied she, " and 
 the hour of his passing by." I said, "O my lady, have ye ever 
 foregathered and had such converse as might cause this passion ? " 
 At this she heaved a deep sigh ; the tears rained down her cheeks, 
 as they were dew falling upon roses, and she versified with these 
 couplets : — 
 
 We were like willow-boughs in garden shining * And scented joys in happiest 
 
 life combining : 
 Whenas one bough from other self would rend * And oh ! thou seest this for 
 
 that repining ! 
 
 ' A truly Arab conceit, suggesting — 
 
 The mind, the music breathing from her face ; 
 
 her legs moved rhythmically, suggesting the movement and consequent sound of 
 a musical instrument. 
 
 VOL. IV. Y
 
 338 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 Quoth I, '^O maid, and what betideth thee of thy love for this 
 man ? " and quoth she, " I see the sun upon the walls of his folk and 
 I think the sun is he ; or haply I catch sight of him unexpectedly 
 and am confounded and the blood and the life fly my body and I 
 abide in unreasoning plight a week or e'en a se'nnight." Said I, 
 " Excuse me, for I also have suffered that which is upon thee of 
 love-longing and distraction of soul and wasting of frame and loss 
 of strength ; and I see in thee pallor of complexion and emaciation, 
 such as testify of the fever-fits of love. But how shouldst thou 
 be unsmitten of passion and thou a sojourner in the land of 
 Bassorah ? " Said she, " By Allah, before I fell in love of this 
 youth, I was perfect in beauty and loveliness and amorous grace 
 which ravished all the Princes of Bassorah, till he fell in love with 
 me." I asked, " O maid, and who parted you ? " and she answered, 
 "The vicissitudes of fortune; but the manner of our separation was 
 strange ; and 'twas on this wise. One New Year's day I was 
 speaking by chance with a stranger when he came by unobserved 
 and, seeing me thus, was wroth at the sight and made off, as the 
 
 Arab filly hearing the tinkle of her bridle." And Shahrazad was 
 
 surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 Noto hjj^cn it foas tj^e §bix f^untivttf anlr TSrinetg-fift]^ Nfgj^t, 
 
 She resumed. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the 
 maiden said to Husayn al-Khali'a, "When my lover saw me speaking 
 with a stranger, as I described to thee, he went forth in anger. 
 And 'tis now, O Shaykh, three years ago, and since then I have 
 never ceased to excuse myself to him and coax him and crave his 
 indulgence, but he will neither cast a look at me from the corner of 
 his eye, nor write me a word nor speak to me by messenger nor hear 
 from me aught." Quoth I, " Harkye, maid, is he an Arab or an 
 Ajam?" and quoth she, "Out on thee ! He is of the Princes of 
 Bassorah." "Is he old or young?" asked I; and she looked at 
 me laughingly and answered, " Thou art certainly a simpleton ! He 
 is like the moon on the night of its full, smooth cheeked and 
 beardless, nor is there any defect in him except his aversion to me." 
 Then I put the question, "What is his name? "and she replied, 
 "What wilt thou do with him?" I rejoined, " I will do my best to 
 come at him, that I may bring about reunion between you." Said 
 she, " I will tell thee on condition that thou carry him a note ; " and 
 I said, " I have no objection to that." Then quoth she, " His name 
 
 %
 
 The Lovers of Bassorah. 339 
 
 is Zamrah bin al-Mughayrah, hight Abii al-Sakha,^ and his palace is 
 in the Mirbad." Therewith she called to those within for inkcase 
 and paper and tucking up^ her sleeves, showed two wrists like 
 broad rings of silver. She then wrote after the Basmalah as follows, 
 " My lord, the omission of blessings'^ at the head of this my letter 
 shows mine insufificiency, and know that had my prayer been 
 answered, thou hadst never left me ; for how often have I prayed 
 that thou shouldst not leave me, and yet thou didst leave me ! 
 Were it not that distress with me exceedeth the bounds of restraint, 
 that which thy servant hath forced herself to do in writing this 
 writ were an aidance to her, despite her despair of thee, because of 
 her knowledge of thee that thou wilt fail to answer. Do thou fulfil 
 her desire, my lord, of a sight of thee from the porch, as thou passest 
 in the street, wherewith thou wilt quicken the dead soul in her. Or, 
 far better for her still than this, do thou write her a letter with thine 
 own hand (Allah endow it with all excellence !), and appoint it in 
 requital of the intimacy that was between us in the nights of time 
 past, whereof thou must preserve the memory. My lord, was I not 
 to thee a true lover ? If thou answer my prayer, I will give to thee 
 thanks and to Allah praise ; and so — The Peace ! " ^ Then she 
 gave me the letter and I went away. Next morning I repaired to 
 the door of the Viceroy Mohammed bin Sulayman, where I found 
 an assembly of the notables of Bassorah, and amongst them a youth 
 who adorned the gathering and surpassed in beauty and brightness 
 all who were there ; and indeed the Emir Mohammed set him above 
 himself. I asked who he was and behold, it was Zamrah himself : 
 so I said in my mind, " Verily, there hath befallen yonder unhappy 
 one that which hath befallen her ! " * Then I betook myself to the 
 Mirbad and stood waiting at the door of his house, till he came riding 
 up in state, when I accosted him and, invoking more than usual 
 blessings on him, handed him the missive. When he read it and 
 understood it he said to me, " O Shaykh, we have taken other in her 
 stead. Say me, wilt thou see the substitute?" I answered, "Yes." 
 Whereupon he called out a woman's name, and there came forth a 
 damsel who shamed the two greater lights ; walking the gait of one 
 who hasteneth without fear, to whom he gave the note, saying, " Do 
 
 ^ " Abu al-Sakha" (pronounced Abussakha) = Father of munificence. 
 
 - Arab. " Shammara," also used for gathering up the grown, so as to run the 
 faster. 
 
 ^ i.e. lilessing the Prophet and all True Believers (herself included). 
 
 * The style of this letter is that of a public scribe in a Cairo market-place thirty 
 years ago. 
 
 ^ i.e. she could not help falling in love with this beauty man.
 
 340 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 thou answer it." When she read it, she turned pale at the contents 
 and said to me, " O old man, crave pardon of Allah for this thou 
 hast brought." So I went out, O Commander of the Faithful, drag- 
 ging my feet and, returning to her, asked leave to enter. When she 
 saw me, she asked, " What is behind thee? " and I answered, "Evil 
 and despair." Quoth she, " Have thou no concern of him. Where 
 are Allah and His power ? " ^ Then she ordered me five hundred 
 dinars and I took them and went away. Some days after I passed 
 by the place and saw there horsemen and footmen. So I went in 
 and lo ! these were the companions of Zamrah, who were begging 
 her to return to him ; but she said, "No, by Allah, I will not look 
 him in the face ! " And she prostrated herself in gratitude to Allah 
 and exultation over Zamrah's defeat. Then I drew near her, and 
 she pulled out to me a letter, wherein was written, after the Bis- 
 millah, " My lady, but for my forbearance towards thee (whose life 
 Allah lengthen !) I would relate somewhat of what betided from thee 
 and set out my excuse, in that thou transgressedst against me, 
 whenas thou wast manifestly a sinner against thyself and myself in 
 breach of vows and lack of constancy and preference of another 
 over us ; for, by Allah, on whom we call for help against that which 
 was of thy free-will, thou didst transgress against the love of me ; 
 and so — The Peace ! " Then she showed me the presents and 
 rarities he had sent her, which were of the value of thirty thousand 
 dinars. I saw her again after this, and Zamrah had married her. 
 Quoth Al-Rashid, " Had not Zamrah been beforehand with us, I 
 should certainly have married her myself." ^ And men tell the 
 tale of 
 
 ' "Kudrat," used somewhat in the sense of our vague "Providence." The 
 sentence means, leave Omnipotence to manage him. Mr. Redhouse, who forces 
 a likeness between Moslem and Christian theology, tells us that " Qader is un- 
 justly translated by Fate and Destiny, an old pagan idea abhorrent to Al-Islam, 
 which reposes on God's providence." He makes Kaza and Kismet quasi 
 synonymes of "Qaza" and "Qader," the former signifying God's decree, the 
 latter our allotted portion ; and he would render both by Dispensation. Of 
 course it is convenient to forget the Guarded Tablet of the learned and the Night 
 of Power and skull-sutures of the vulgar. The eminent Turkish scholar would 
 also translate Salat by worship (Du'a being prayer) because it signifies a simple 
 act of adoration without entreaty. If he will read the Opener of the Koran, 
 recited in every set of prayers, he will find an especial request to be " led to the 
 path which is straight." These vagaries are seriously adopted by Mr. E. J. W. 
 Gibb in his Ottoman Poems (p. 245, etc.), London : Triibner and Co., 1882 ; and 
 they deserve, I think, reprehension ; because they serve only to mislead : and the 
 high authority of the source whence they come necessarily recommends them to 
 many. 
 
 * The reader will have noticed the likeness of this tale to that of Ibn Mansur 
 and the Lady Budiir. For this reason Lane leaves it untranslated (iii. 252).
 
 Ishak of Mosul and his Mistress and the Devil. 341 
 
 ISHAK OF MOSUL AND HIS MISTRESS AND 
 
 THE J)EVIL} 
 
 Quoth Ishak bin Ibrahim al-Mausili : — I was in my house one 
 night in the winter-time, when the clouds had dispread themselves 
 and the rains poured down in torrents, as from the mouths of water- 
 skins, and the folk forbore to come and go about the ways for that 
 which was therein of rain and slough. Now I was straitened in 
 breast because none of my brethren came to me nor could I go to 
 them, by reason of the mud and mire ; so I said to my servant, 
 "Bring me wherewithal I may divert myself" Accordingly he, 
 brought me meat and drink, but I had no heart to eat without some- 
 one to keep me company, and I ceased not to look out of window 
 and watch the ways till nightfall, when I bethought myself of a 
 damsel belonging to one of the sons of Al-Mahdi,^ whom I loved 
 and who was skilled in singing and playing upon instruments of 
 music, and said to myself, " Were she here with us this evening, my 
 joy would be complete and my night would be abridged of the 
 melancholy and restlessness which are upon me." At this moment 
 one knocked at the door, saying, " Shall a beloved enter in who 
 standeth at the door? " Quoth I to myself, " Meseems the plant of 
 my wish hath fruited." So I went to the door and found my mistress 
 with a long green skirt ^ wrapped about her and a kerchief of bro- 
 cade on her head, to fend her from the rain. She was covered with 
 mud to her knees and all that was upon her was drenched with 
 water from gargoyles "* and house-spouts ; in short, she was in 
 sorry plight. So I said to her, " O my mistress, what bringeth thee 
 hither through all this mud ? " Replied she, " Thy messenger came 
 
 ^ Lane also omits this tale (iii. 252). See Night dclxxxviii. for a variant of the 
 story. 
 
 - Third Abbasidc, A. II. 158-169 ( = 775-785), and father of Harun Al-Rashid. 
 He is known chiefly for his eccentricities, such as cutting the throats of all his 
 carrier-pigeons, making a man dine off marrow and sugar, and having snow sent 
 to him at Mcccah, a distance of 700 miles. 
 
 ^ Arab. " Mirt ;" the dictionaries give a short shift, cloak or breeches of wool 
 or coarse silk. 
 
 ■* Arab. "Mayazib" plur. of the Pers. Mizab (orig. Mfz-i-ab = channel of 
 water) a spout for roof-rain. That which drains the Ka'abah on the N.W. side 
 is called Mizab al-Rahmah (Gargoyle of Mercy), and pilgrims stand under it for 
 a douche of holy water. It is supposed to l>e of gold, but really of silver gold- 
 plated, and is described by Burckhardt and myself (Pilgrimage iii. 164). The 
 length is 4 feet 10 in. ; width 9 in. ; height of sides 8 in. ; and slope at mouth 
 I foot 6 in. long.
 
 342 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 and set forth to me that which was with thee of love and longing, so 
 that I could not choose but yield and hasten to thee." I marvelled 
 
 at this, And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased 
 
 to say her permitted say. 
 
 NofcD tojbm it teas X^z ^ix l^untrretr antr NmaB=sixt]b Nig!)t, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 
 damsel came and knocked at Ishak's door, he went forth to her and 
 
 cried, " O my lady, what bringeththee hither through all this mud?" 
 
 and she replied, " Thy messenger came and set forth to me that 
 
 which was with thee of love and longing, so that I could not choose 
 
 but yield and hasten to thee." I marvelled at this, but did not hke 
 
 to tell her that I had sent no messenger; wherefore I said, " Praised 
 
 be Allah for that He hath brought us together, after all I have 
 
 suffered by the mortification of patience ! Verily, hadst thou delayed 
 
 an hour longer, I must have run to thee, because of much love for 
 
 thee and longing for thy presence." Then I called to my boy for 
 
 water, that I might better her plight, and he brought a kettle full of 
 
 hot water such as she wanted. I bade pour it over her feet, whilst 
 
 I set to work to wash them myself; after which I called for one of 
 
 my richest dresses, and clad her therein after she had doffed the 
 
 muddy clothes. Then, as soon as we were comfortably seated, I 
 
 would have called for food, but she refused and I said to her, " Art 
 
 thou for wine ? " and she replied, " Yes." So I fetched cups and 
 
 she asked me, "Who shall sing?" "I, O my princess ! " "I care 
 
 not for that ! " " One of my damsels ? " "I have no mind to that 
 
 either ! " " Then sing thyself." " Not I ! " " Who then shall sing for 
 
 thee?" I enquired, and she rejoined, "Go out and seek someone 
 
 to sing for me." So I went out, in obedience to her, though I 
 
 despaired of finding anyone in such weather, and fared on till I 
 
 came to the main street, where I suddenly saw a bhnd man striking 
 
 the earth with his staff and saying, " May Allah not requite with 
 
 weal those with whom I was. When I sang, they listened not, and 
 
 when I was silent, they made light of me." So I said to him, " Art 
 
 thou a singer ? " and he replied, " Yes." Quoth I, " Wilt thou finish 
 
 thy night with us and cheer us with thy company ? " and quoth he, 
 
 " If it be thy will, take my hand." So I took his hand and, leading 
 
 him to my house, said to the damsel, "O my mistress, I have 
 
 brought a blind singer, with whom we may take our pleasure and he 
 
 will not see us." She said, "Bring him to me." So I brought him 
 
 in and invited him to eat. He ate but a very little and washed his
 
 Ishak of Mosul and his Mistress and the Devil. 343 
 
 hands, after which I brought him wine and he drank three cupsful. 
 Then he said to me, " Who art thou ? " and I repHed, " I am Ishak 
 bin Ibrahim al-MausiH." Quoth he, "I have heard of thee and now 
 I rejoice in thy company ; " and I, " O my lord, I am glad in thy 
 gladness." He said, " O Ishak, sing to me." So I took the lute, by 
 way of jest, and cried, " I hear and I obey." When I had made an 
 end of my song, he said to me, " O Ishak, thou comest nigh to be 
 a singer ! " His words belittled me in mine own eyes and I threw 
 the lute from my hand ; whereupon he said, " Hast thou not with 
 thee someone who is skilled in singing ? " Quoth I, " I have a 
 damsel with me;" and quoth he, "Bid her sing." I asked him, 
 "Wilt thou sing, when thou hast had enough of her singing?" and 
 he answered, " Yes." So she sang and he said, " Nay, thou hast 
 shown no art." Whereupon she flung the lute from her hand in 
 wrath and cried, " We have done our best : if thou have aught, 
 favour us with it by way of an alms." Quoth he, " Bring me a 
 lute hand hath not touched." So I bade the servant bring him a 
 new lute and he turned it and preluding in a mode I knew not 
 began to sing, improvising these couplets : — 
 
 Clove through the shades and came to me in night so dark and sore * The Lover 
 
 weeting of herself ' twas trysting-tide once more : 
 Naught startled us but her salam and first of words she said * " May a beloved 
 
 enter in who standeth at the door ?" 
 
 When the girl heard this, she looked at me askance and said, 
 " ^^'hat secret was between us could not thy breast hold for one 
 hour, but thou must discover it to this man ? " However, I swore 
 to her that I had not told him and excused myself to her and fell 
 to kissing her hands till she laughed and, turning to the blind man, 
 said to him, " Sing, O my lord ! " So he took the lute and sang this 
 couplet : — 
 
 Ah, often have I sought the fair ; how often lief and fain * My kisses felt the 
 finger ends that bear the varied stain ! 
 
 So I said to her, " O my princess, who can have told him what we 
 were about?" Replied she, "True," and we moved away from 
 him. Presently quoth he, "I must needs rest;" and quoth I, " O 
 boy, take the candle and go before him." Then he went out and 
 tarried a long while. So we went in search of him, but could not 
 find him ; and behold, the doors were locked and the keys in the 
 closet, and we knew not whether to heaven he had flown or into 
 earth had sunk down. AVhcrefore I knew that he was Iblis and that he
 
 344 ^^ Lay la h wa Laylah. 
 
 had done me slave's duty, and I returned, recalling to myself the 
 words of Abu Nowas in these couplets : — 
 
 I marvel in Iblis such pride to see * Beside his low intent and villeiny : 
 
 He sinned to Adam who to bow refused, * Yet slaves for all of Adam's progeny. 
 
 And they tell a tale concerning 
 
 THE LOVERS OF AL-MEDLNAH. 
 
 Quoth Ibrahim the father of Ishak,^ I was ever a devoted friend to 
 the Barmecide family. And it so happened to me one day, as I sat 
 at home quite alone, a knock was heard at the door ; so my servant 
 went out and returned, saying, " A comely youth is at the door, 
 asking admission." I bade admit him and there came in to me 
 a young man, on whom were signs of sickness, and he said, " I 
 have long wished to meet thee, for I have need of thine aid." 
 " What is it thou requirest ? " asked I. Whereupon he pulled out 
 three hundred dinars and laying them before me, said, " I beseech 
 thee to accept these and compose me an air to two couplets I have 
 
 made." Said I, " Repeat them to me ;" And Shahrazad was 
 
 surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 iioto toj^tn It toas tjbe ^ix l^imbwU anU iBmctB-stbtntS iSiQJbt, 
 
 She continued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 the youth came in to Ibrahim and placed the gold in his hands, 
 saying, " Prithee accept it and compose me an air to two couplets/' 
 He replied, " Recite them to me," whereupon he recited : — 
 
 By Allah, glance of mine ! thou hast opprest * My heart, so quench the fire that 
 
 burns my breast. 
 Blames me the world because in him ^ I live * Yet cannot see him till in shroud 
 
 I rest. 
 
 Accordingly, quoth Ibrahim, I set the verses to an air plaintive as a 
 dirge and sang it to him ; whereupon he swooned away and I thought 
 that he was dead. However, after a while, he came to himself, and 
 
 'The Mac. and Bui. Edits, have by mistake "son of Ishak." Lane has 
 " Is-hak the son of Ibrahim," following Trebutien (iii. 483), but suggests in a note 
 the right reading as above. 
 
 " Again masculine for feminine.
 
 The Lovers of Al-Medinah. 345 
 
 said to me, " Repeat the air." But I conjured him by Allah to 
 excuse me, saying, " I fear lest thou die." "Would Heaven it were 
 so ! " replied he and ceased not humbly to importune me, till I had 
 pity on him and repeated it ; whereupon he cried out with a grievous 
 cry and fell into a ht worse than before and I doubted not but that 
 he was dead ; yet I sprinkled rose-water on him till he revived and 
 sat up. I praised Allah for his recovery and laying the ducats before 
 him, said, "Take thy money and depart from me." Quoth he, " I 
 have no need of the money and thou shalt have the like of it, if thou 
 wilt repeat the air." My breast broadened at the mention of the 
 money and I said, " I will repeat it, but on three conditions : the 
 first, that thou tarry with me and eat of my victual, till thou regain 
 strength ; the second, that thou drink wine enough to hearten thy 
 heart ; and the third, that thou tell me thy tale." He agreed to 
 this and ate and drank ; after which he said : — " I am of the citizens 
 of Al-Medinah and I went forth one day a-pleasuring with my 
 friends ; and, following the road to Al-Akik,^ saw a company of girls 
 and amongst them a damsel as she were a branch pearled with dew, 
 with eyes whose sidelong glances were never withdrawn till they 
 had stolen away his soul who looked on them. The maidens 
 rested in the shade till the end of the day, when they went away, 
 leaving in my heart wounds slow to heal. I returned next morning 
 to scent out news of her, but found none who could tell me of her ; 
 so I sought her in the streets and markets, but could come on no 
 trace of her ; wherefore I fell ill of grief and told my case to one of 
 my kinsmen, who said to me, No harm shall befal thee : the days of 
 spring are not yet past and the skies show sign of rain,- whereupon 
 she will go forth, and I will go out with thee, and do thou thy will. 
 
 ^ There are two valleys of this name. The Upper Al-Akik contains the whole 
 site of Al-Medinah ; the Lower is on the Meccan road, about four miles S.W. of 
 the city. The Prophet called it ' blessed" because ordered by an angel to pray 
 therein. The poets have said pretty things about it, e.g. 
 
 O friend, this is the vale Akik ; here stand and strive in thought, 
 If not a very lover, strive to be by love distraught ! 
 
 for whose esoteric moaning see Pilgrimage ii. 24. I passed through Al-Akik in 
 July when it was dry iis summer dust and its "beautiful trees" were mere 
 vegetable mummies. 
 
 ^ Those who live in the wet climates of the Northern temperates can hardly 
 understand the delight of a shower in rainless lands, like Arabia and Nubia. In 
 Sind we used lo strip and stand in tlie downfall and raise faces skywards to get 
 the full benehi ot lUo doujhe. In Southern Persia lood is hastily cojked at such 
 times, wine strained, Kaliuns made ready and horses saddled for a ride to the 
 nearest gardens and a happy drinking-bout under tlie cypresses, it a man 
 refused, his friends would say ot him, '■ See how he turns his back upon the 
 blessing of Allah ! " (like an ass which presents its tail lo the weather).
 
 346 ■ Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 His words comforted my heart and I waited till Al-Akik ran with 
 water, when I went forth with my friends and kinsmen and sat in the 
 very same place where I first saw her. We had not been seated long 
 before up came the women, like horses running for a wager ; and I 
 whispered to a girl of my kindred, " Say to yonder damsel — Quoth 
 this man to thee, He did well who spoke this couplet : — 
 
 She shot my heart with shaft, then turned on heel * And flying dealt fresh wound 
 and scarring wheal." 
 
 So she went to her and repeated my words, to which she replied, 
 saying, " Tell him that he said well who answered in this couplet : — 
 
 The like of whatso feelest thou we feel ; * Patience ! perchance swift cure our 
 hearts shall heal." 
 
 I refrained from further speech for fear of scandal and rose to go 
 away. She rose at my rising, and I followed and she looked back 
 at me, till she saw I had noted her abode. Then she began to come 
 to me and I to go to her, so that we foregathered and met often, till 
 the case was noised abroad and grew notorious and her sire came to 
 know of it. However, I ceased not to meet her most assiduously 
 and complained of my condition to my father, who assembled our 
 kindred and repaired to ask her in marriage for me of her sire, 
 who cried, " Had this been proposed to me before he gave her a 
 bad name by his assignations, I would have consented ; but now 
 the thing is notorious and I am loath to verify the saying of the 
 folk." Then (continued Ibrahim) I repeated the air to him and he 
 went away, after having acquainted me with his abode, and we 
 became friends. Now I was devoted to the Barmecides ; so next 
 time Ja'afar bin Yahya sat to give audience, I attended, as was my 
 wont, and sang to him the young man's verses. They pleased him 
 and he drank some cups of wine and said, " Fie upon thee ! 
 whose song is this ? " So I told him the young man's tale and he 
 bade me ride over to him and give him assurances of the winning 
 of his wish. Accordingly I fetched him to Ja'afar who asked him 
 to repeat his story. He did so and Ja'afar said, "Thou art now 
 under my protection : trust me to marry thee to her." So his 
 heart was comforted and he abode with us. When the morning 
 morrowed Ja'afar mounted and went in to Al-Rashid, to whom he 
 related the story. The Caliph was pleased with it and sending for 
 the young man and myself, commanded me to repeat the air and 
 drank thereto. Then he wrote to the Governor of Al-Hijaz, bidding 
 him despatch the girl's father and his household in honourable 
 fashion to his presence and spare no expense for their outfit So,
 
 Al-Malik Al-Nasir and his Wazir. 347 
 
 in a little while they came, and the Caliph, sending for the man, 
 commanded him to marry his daughter to her lover ; after which he 
 gave him an hundred thousand dinars, and the father went back to 
 his folk. As for the young man, he abode one of Ja'afar's cup-com- 
 panions till there happened what happened ; ^ whereupon he returned 
 with his household to Al-Medinah ; may Almighty Allah have mercy 
 upon their souls, one and all ! And they also tell, O auspicious 
 King, a tale of 
 
 AL-MALIK AL-NASLR AND HIS WAZIR. 
 
 There was given to Abu Amir bm Marwan,^ a slave-girl of the 
 Christians, than whom never fell eyes on a handsomer. Al-Nasir 
 the conquering Soldan saw her and said to Abu Amir, who was 
 his Wazir, " Whence cometh this girl ? " Replied he, " From 
 Allah;" whereupon the other, "Wilt thou terrify us with stars 
 and make us prisoner with moons ? " Abu Amir excused himself 
 to him and preparing a present, sent it to him with the girl, to 
 whom he said, " Be thou part of the gift : were it not of necessity, 
 my soul had not consented to give thee away." And he wrote with 
 her these two couplets : — ■ 
 
 My lord, this full moon takes in Heaven of thee new birth ; * Nor can deny we 
 
 Heaven excelleth humble earth : 
 Thee with my soul I please and — oh ! the pleasant case ! * No man e'er saw I 
 
 who to give his soul prefer'th. 
 
 The thing pleased Al-Nasir and he requited him with much treasure 
 and the Minister became high in favour with him. After this, there 
 was presented to the Wazir another slave-girl, one of the loveliest 
 women in the world, and he feared lest this should come to the 
 King's ears and he desire her, and the like should happen as with 
 the first. So he made up a present still costlier than the first and 
 
 sent it with her to the King, And Shahrazad perceived the dawn 
 
 of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 ^ i.e. the destruction of the Barmecides. 
 
 '■' He was Wazir to the Great " Saladin" (Salah al-Din =:one conforming with 
 the Faith) : Saladin is also entitled Al-Malik al-Nasir = the Conquering King. 
 He was a Kurd, and one of the noblest of men. He lies in the great Amawi 
 Mosque of Damascus and I have never visited a tomb with more reverence.
 
 34^ Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 :&<rofo fo^cn It toas tfie ^ix l^untfrtti anti Nm£tg--tig]&t]b Nig!)t, 
 
 She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir 
 Abu Amir, when presented with the beautiful slave-girl, feared lest 
 it come to the Conquering King's ears and that the like should 
 happen as with the first, so he made up a present still cosdier than 
 before and sent it with her to his master, accompanying it with 
 these couplets : — 
 
 My lord, this be the Sun, the Moon thou hadst before ; * So the two greater 
 
 lights now in thy Heaven unite : 
 Conjunction promising to me prosperity, * And Kausar-draught to thee and 
 
 Eden's long delight. 
 Earth shows no charms, by Allah, ranking as their third, * Nor King who 
 
 secondeth our Conquering King in might. 
 
 Wherefore his credit redoubled with Al-Nasir; but, after a while, 
 one of his enemies maligned him to the King, alleging that there 
 still lurked in him a love for the girl and that he ceased not to weep 
 for her and to gnash his teeth for having given her away. Cried 
 the King, " Wag not thou thy tongue at him, or I will shear off thy 
 head." However, he wrote Abu Amir a letter, as from the girl, to 
 the following effect : " O my lord, thou knowest that thou wast all 
 and one to me and that I never ceased from delight with thee. 
 Albeit I am with the Sultan, yet would I choose rather solitude 
 with thee, but that I fear the King's majesty : wherefore devise 
 thou to demand me of him." This letter he sent to Abu Amir by 
 a little foot-page, whom he enjoined to say, " This is from Such-an- 
 one : the King never speaketh to her." When the Wazir read the 
 letter and heard the cheating message, he noted the poison-draught ^ 
 and wrote on the back of the note these couplets : — 
 
 Shall man experience-lectured ever care * Fool-like to thrust his head in lion's 
 
 lair? 
 I'm none of those whose wits to love succumb * Nor witless of the snares my 
 
 foes prepare : 
 Wert thou my sprite, I'd give thee loyally ; * Shall sprite, from body sundered, 
 
 backwards fare ? 
 
 When Al-Nazir knew of this answer, he marvelled at the Wazir's 
 quickness of wit and would never again lend ear to aught of 
 insinuations against him. Then he said to him, "How didst 
 
 ^ Arab. " Ahassa bi'1-Shurbah ;" in our idiom " he smelt a rat.
 
 Tlie Rogueries of Dalilah and her Daughter Zaynab. 349 
 
 thou escape falling into the net?" And he replied, "Because my 
 reason is unentangled in the toils of passion." And they also tell 
 a tale of the 
 
 ROGUERIES OF DALILAH THE CRAFTY AND HER 
 DAUGHTER ZAYNAB THE CONEY-CATCHERS 
 
 There lived in the time of Harun al-Rashid a man named Ahmad 
 al-Danaf and another Hasan Shiiman- hight, the twain past 
 masters in fraud and feints, who had done rare things in their day ; 
 wherefore the Caliph invested them with caftans of honour and 
 made them Captains of the watch for Baghdad (Ahmad of the 
 right hand and Hasan of the left hand) ; and appointed to each of 
 them a stipend of a thousand dinars a month and forty stalwart men 
 to be at their bidding. Moreover to Calamity Ahmad was com- 
 mitted the watch of the district outside the walls. So Ahmad and 
 Hasan went forth in company of the Emir Khalid, the Wali or Chief 
 of Police, attended each by his forty followers on horseback, and 
 preceded by the Crier, crying aloud and saying, " By command of 
 the Caliph ! None is Captain of the watch of the right hand but 
 Ahmad al-Danaf and none is Captain of the watch of the left hand 
 but Hasan Shuman, and both are to be obeyed when they bid and 
 are to be held in all honour and worship." Now there was in the 
 city an old woman called Dalilah the Crafty, who had a daughter by 
 name Zaynab the Coney-catcher. They heard the proclamation 
 made and Zaynab said to Dalilah, " See, O my mother, this fellow, 
 Ahmad al-Danaf ! He came hither from Cairo, a fugitive, and 
 played the double-dealer in Baghdad, till he got into the Caliph's 
 company and is now become Captain of the right hand, whilst that 
 mangy chap Hasan Shuman is Captain of the left hand, and each 
 hath a table spread morning and evening and a monthly wage of a 
 thousand dinars ; whereas we abide unemployed and neglected in 
 this house, without estate and without honour, and have none to ask 
 of us." Now Dalilah's husband had been town-captain of Baghdad 
 with a monthly wage of one thousand dinars ; but he died leaving 
 
 ' This and the next tale, both highly characteristic, are omitted by Lane 
 (iii. 254) on "account of its vulgarity, rendered more objectionable by indecent 
 incidents." It has been honoured with a lithographed reprint at Cairo A.H. 
 1278, and the Bresl. Edit., ix. 193, calls it the "Tale of Ahmad al-Danaf with 
 Dalilah." 
 
 - "Ahmad, the Distressing Sickness," or " Calamity ;" Hasan the Pestilent 
 and Dalilah the Rogue.
 
 35 o Alf Lay I ah wa Laylah. 
 
 two daughters, one married and with a son by name Ahmad al-Laki't^ 
 or Ahmad the Abortion ; and the other called Zaynab, a spinster 
 And this Dalilah was a past mistress in all manner of craft and 
 trickery and double dealing ; she could wile the very dragon out of 
 his den and Iblis himself might have learnt deceit of her. Her 
 father ^ had also been governor of the carrier-pigeons to the Caliph 
 with a solde of one thousand dinars a month. He used to rear the 
 birds to carry letters and messages, wherefore in time of need each 
 was dearer to the Caliph than one of his own sons. So Zaynab said 
 to her mother, " Up and play off some feint and fraud that may 
 
 haply make us notorious " And Shahrazad was surprised by the 
 
 dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 j^ofo bl^m it teas ^z %\i l^untitetf antr J^inetg-nrntS iSigj^t, 
 
 She resumed. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Zaynab 
 thus addressed her dam, " Up and play off some feint and fraud 
 which may haply make us notorious in Baghdad, so perchance we 
 shall win our father's stipend for ourselves." Replied the old trot, 
 "As thy head liveth, O my daughter, I will play off higher-class 
 rogueries in Baghdad than ever played Calamity Ahmad or Hasan 
 the Pestilent." So saying, she rose and threw over her face the 
 Lisam-veil and donned clothes such as the poorer Sufis wear, 
 petticoat-trousers falling over her heels, and a gown of white wool 
 with a broad girdle. She also took a pitcher ^ and filled it with 
 water to the neck ; after which she set three dinars in the mouth and 
 stopped it up with a plug of palm-fibre. Then she threw round her 
 shoulder, baldrick-wise, a rosary as big as a load of firewood, and 
 taking in her hand a flag, made of parti-coloured rags, red and yellow 
 and green, went out, crying, " Allah ! Allah ! " with tongue celebrat- 
 ing the praises of the Lord, whilst her heart galloped over the Devil's 
 race-course, seeking how she might play some sharping trick upon 
 town. She walked from street to street, till she came to an alley 
 swept and watered and marble-paved, where she saw a vaulted gate- 
 way, with a threshold of alabaster, and a Moorish porter standing at 
 
 ^ A foundling, a contemptible fellow. 
 
 - In the Mac. Edit. " her husband ": the end of the tale shows the error, infra, 
 p. 373. The Bresl. Edit., x. 195, informs us that Dalilah was a " Faylasufiyah " 
 = philosopheress, 
 
 ^ Arab. *' Ibrik," usually a ewer, a spout-pot, from the Pers. Ab-n'z = water- 
 pourer : the old woman thus vaunted her ceremonial purity. The basin and ewer 
 are called in poetry " the two rumourers," because they rattle when borne about.
 
 The Rogueries of Dalilah a7id her Daughter Zaynab. 351 
 
 the door, which was of sandal-wood plated with brass and furnished 
 with a ring of silver for knocker. Now this house belonged to the 
 Chief of the Caliph's Serjeant-ushers, a man of great wealth in fields, 
 houses and allowances, called the Emir Hasan Sharr al-Tarik, or 
 Evil of the Way, and therefor called because his blow forewent his 
 word. He was married to a fair damsel, Khatiin ^ hight, whom he 
 loved and who had made him swear, on the night of his marriage, 
 that he would take none other to wife over her nor lie abroad for a 
 single night. And so things went on till one day, he went to the 
 Divan and saw that each Emir had with him a son or two. Then 
 he entered the Hammam-bath and looking at his face in the 
 mirror, noted that the white hairs in his beard overlay its black, and 
 he said in himself, " Will not He who took thy sire bless thee with 
 a son ? " So he went in to his wife, in angry mood, and she said to 
 him, " Good evening to thee " ; but he replied, " Get thee out of 
 my sight : from the day I saw thee I have seen naught of good." 
 " How so ? " quoth she. Quoth he, " On the night of my wedding 
 thee, thou madest me swear to take no other wife over thee, and this 
 very day I have seen each Emir with a son and some with two. So 
 I minded me of death*; and also that to me hath been vouchsafed 
 neither son nor daughter and that whoever leaveth no male hath no 
 memory. This, then, is the reason of my anger, for thou art 
 barren." Cried she, " Allah's name upon thee." Said he, " When 
 I return from my journey, I will take another wife ; " and she, " My 
 luck is with Allah ! " Then he went out from her and both re- 
 pented of the sharp words spoken each to other. Now as the Emir's 
 wife looked forth of her lattice, as she were a Bride of the Hoards,' 
 for the jewellery upon her, behold, there stood Dalilah espying her, 
 and seeing her clad in costly clothes and ornaments, said to herself, 
 " 'T would be a rare trick, O Dalilah, to entice yonder young lady 
 from her husband's house and strip her of all her jewels and clothes 
 and make off with the whole lot." So she took up her stand under 
 the windows of the Emir's house, and fell to calling aloud upon 
 Allah's name and saying, " Be present, O ye Walis, ye friends of 
 the Lord I " Whereupon every woman in the street looked from 
 her lattice and, seeing a matron clad, after Sufi fashion, in clothes 
 of white wool, as she were a pavilion of light, said, "Allah bring us 
 
 ^ Khatiin in Turk, is = a lady, a dame of high degree ; at times, as here and 
 elsewhere, it becomes a P. N. 
 
 * Arab. " Maut," a word mostly avoided in the Koran and by the Founder of 
 Christianity. 
 
 ^ i.e. Beautiful as the fairy damsels who guard enchanted treasures, such as 
 that of Al-Shamardal.
 
 352 Alf Laylah wa Lay I ah. 
 
 a blessing by the aidance of this pious old person, from whose face 
 issueth light ! " And Khatun, the wife of the Emir Hasan, burst 
 into tears and said to her handmaid, " Get thee down, O Makbiilah, 
 and kiss the hand of Shaykh Abu All, the porter, and say to him : — 
 Let yonder Religious enter to my lady, so haply she may get a 
 blessing of her." So she went down to the porter and kissing his 
 hand, said to him, "My mistress telleth thee: — Let yonder pious 
 old woman come in to me, so may I get a blessing of her ; and 
 
 behke her benediction may extend to us likewise." And Shah- 
 
 razad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted 
 say. 
 
 '^^\xi folb^^n It foas tibe ^ebm |^unt(rtlit]b ^igSt, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 handmaid went down and said to the porter, "Suffer yonder 
 Religious enter to my lady, so haply she may get a blessing of her, 
 and we too may be blessed, one and all," the gate-keeper went up 
 to Dalilah and kissed her hand, but she forbade him, saying, 
 " Away from me, lest my ablution be made null and void.^ Thou, 
 also art of the attracted God-wards and kindly looked upon by 
 Allah's Saints, and under His especial guardianship. May He deliver 
 thee from this servitude, O Abu Ali ! " Now the Emir owed three 
 months' wage to the porter, who was straitened thereby, but knew 
 not how to recover his due from his lord ; so he said to the old 
 woman, "O my mother, give me to drink from thy pitcher, so I 
 may win a blessing through thee." She took the ewer from her 
 shoulder and whirled it about in air, so that the plug flew out of its 
 mouth and the three dinars fell to the ground. The porter saw 
 them and picked them up, saying in his mind, " Glory to God ! 
 This old woman is one of the Saints that have hoards at their com- 
 mand ! It hath been revealed to her of me that I am in want of 
 money for daily expenses ; so she hath conjured me these three ducats 
 out of the air." Then said he to her, " Take, O my aunt, these three 
 dinars which fell from thy pitcher;" and she replied, "Away with 
 them from me ? I am of the folk who occupy not themselves with the 
 things of the world, no never ! Take them and use them for thine own 
 benefit, in lieu of those the Emir oweth thee." Quoth he, " Thanks to 
 Allah for succour ! This is of the chapter of revelation ! " Thereupon 
 
 ^ i.e. by contact with a person in a state of ceremonial impurity ; servants are 
 not particular upon this point and " Salat mamlukiyah " (Mameluke's prayers) 
 means praying without ablution.
 
 The Rogueries of Dalilah and her Daughter Zaynab. 353 
 
 the maid accosted her and, kissing her hand, carried her up to her 
 mistress. She found the lady as she were a treasure, whose guardian 
 tahsman had been loosed ; and Khatun bade her welcome and 
 kissed her hand. Quoth she, " O my daughter, I come not to thee 
 save for thy weal and by Allah's will." Then Khatun set food before 
 her; but she said, "O my daughter, I eat naught except of the food 
 of Paradise and I keep continual fast, breaking it but five days in 
 the year. But, O my child, I see thee chagrined and desire that 
 thou tell me the cause of thy concern." " O my mother," replied 
 Khatun, "I made my husband swear on my wedding-day that he 
 would wive none but me, and he saw others with children and longed 
 for them and said to me : — Thou art a barren thing ! I answered : — 
 Thou art a mule ; so he left me in anger, saying, When I come 
 back from my journey, I will take another wife ; for he owneth villages 
 and lands and large allowances, and if he had children by another, 
 they will possess the money and take the estates from me." Said 
 Dalilah, "O my daughter, knowest thou not of my master, the 
 Shaykh Abii al-Hamla.t,i whom if any debtor visit, Allah quitteth 
 him of his debt, and if a barren woman, she becometh a mother?" 
 Khatun replied, " O my mother, since the day of my wedding I have 
 not gone forth the house, no, not even to pay visits of condolence or 
 congratulation." The old woman rejoined, "O my child, I will carry 
 thee to him and do thou cast thy burden on him and make a vow to 
 him : haply when thy husband shall return from his journey thou shalt 
 bear a girl or a boy ; but, be it female or male, it shall be a dervish 
 of the Shaykh Abu al-Hamlat." Thereupon Khatun rose and arrayed 
 herself in her richest raiment and, donning all her jewellery, said, 
 " Keep thou an eye on the house," to her maid, who replied, " I hear 
 and obey, O my lady." Then she went down and the porter Abu 
 All met her and asked her, "Whither away, O my lady ?" "I go to 
 visit the Shaykh Abu al-Hamlat," answered she ; and he, " Be a 
 year's fast incumbent on me ! Verily yon Religious is of Allah's 
 saints and full of holiness, O my lady, and she hath hidden treasure 
 at her command, for she gave me three dinars of red gold and 
 divined my case, without my asking her, and knew that I was in want." 
 Then the old woman went out with the young lady Khatun, saying to 
 her, " Inshallah, O my daughter, when thou hast visited the Shaykh 
 Abu al-Hamlat, there shall betide thee solace of soul, and by leave 
 of Almighty Allah thou shalt become a mother, and thy husband 
 the Emir shall love thee by the blessing of the Shaykh and shall 
 
 ' i.e. Father of assaults, burdens, or motherhood ; the last being here the 
 meaning. 
 
 VOL. IV. /
 
 354 -^V Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 never again let thee hear a despiteful word." Quoth Khatun, " I will 
 go with thee to visit him, O my mother ! " But Dalilah said to her- 
 self, " Where shall I strip her and take her clothes and jewellery, 
 with the folk coming and going ? " Then she said to her, " O my 
 daughter, walk thou behind me, within sight of me, for this thy 
 mother is a woman sorely burthened : everyone who hath a burthen 
 casteth it on me and all who have pious offerings ^ to make give them 
 to me and kiss my hand." So the young lady followed her at a 
 distance, whilst her anklets tinkled and her hair-coins ^ clinked as 
 she went, till they reached the bazar of the merchants. Presently, 
 they came to the shop of a young merchant, by name Sidi Hasan, 
 who was very handsome^ and had no hair on his face. He saw the 
 lady approaching and fell to casting stolen glances at her, which 
 when the old woman saw, she beckoned to her and said, " Sit down 
 in this shop, till I return to thee." Khatun obeyed her and sat down 
 in the shop-front of the young merchant, who cast at her one glance 
 of eyes that cost him a thousand sighs. Then the old woman 
 accosted him and saluted him, saying, " Tell me, is not thy name 
 Sidi Hasan, son of the merchant Mohsin ? " He replied, " Yes ; 
 who told thee my name ? " Quoth she, " Folk of good repute direct 
 me to thee. Know that this young lady is my daughter and her 
 ather was a merchant, who died and left her much money. She is 
 now of marriageable age and the wise say : — Offer thy daughter in 
 marriage and not thy son ; and all her life she hath not come forth 
 the house till this day. Now a divine warning and a command given 
 in secret bid me wed her to thee ; so, if thou art poor, I will give thee 
 capital and will open for thee instead of one shop two shops." There- 
 upon quoth the young merchant to himself, "I asked Allah for a bride, 
 and He hath given me three things, to wit, coin, clothing, and charm." 
 Then he continued to the old trot, " O my mother, that whereto 
 thou directest me is well ; but this long while my mother saith to 
 me : — I wish to marry thee, but I object, replying, I will not marry 
 except on the sight of my own eyes." Said Dalilah, " Rise and 
 follow my steps, and I will show her to thee."* So he rose and took 
 a thousand dinars, saying in himself, " Haply we may need to buy 
 
 somewhat " And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day 
 
 and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 ^ Ex votos and so forth. 
 
 ^ Arab. " Iksah," plaits, braids, also the little gold coins and other ornaments 
 worn in the hair, now mostly by the middle and lower classes. Low Europeans 
 sometimes take advantage of the native dancing girls by detaching these valuables, 
 a form of the " Kinchin lay" peculiar to the Nile Valley. 
 
 ^ In Bresl. Edit. Malih kawi (pron. 'awi), a Cairene vulgarism. 
 
 * Meaning without veil or upper clothing.
 
 The Rogueries of Dalilah and her Daughter Zaynab. 355 
 
 i^ofo ^\m it inns ti)E ^cbcn |I^untirEtf anti jpfrst iStgfjt, 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the 
 old woman said to Hasan, son of Mohsin the merchant, " Rise up 
 and follow me, and I will show her to thee." So he rose and took 
 with him a thousand dinars, saying in himself, " Haply we may need 
 to buy somewhat or pay the fees for drawing up the marriage con- 
 tract." The old woman bade him walk behind the young lady at a 
 distance but within shot of sight and said to herself, " Where wilt 
 thou carry the young lady and the merchant that thou mayest strip 
 them both whilst his shop is still shut ? " Then she walked on and 
 Khatun after her, followed by the young merchant, till she came to 
 a dyery, kejDt by a master dyer, by name Hajj Mohammed, a man of 
 ill-repute. He heard the tinkle of the ankle rings and, raising his 
 head, saw the lady and the young man. Presently the old woman 
 came up to him and, after salaming to him and sitting down opposite 
 him, asked him, " Art thou not Hajj Mohammed the dyer?" He 
 answered, " Yes, I am he : what dost thou want ? " Quoth she, 
 " Verily, folks of fair repute have directed me to thee. Look at 
 yonder handsome girl, my daughter, and that comely beardless 
 youth, my son ; I brought them both up and spent much money 
 on both of them. Now, thou must know that I have a big old 
 ruinous house which I have shored up with wood, and the builder 
 saith to me : — Go and live in some other place, lest belike it fall 
 upon thee ; and when this is repaired return hither. So I went 
 forth to seek me a lodging, and people of worth directed me to thee, 
 and I wish to lodge my son and daughter with thee." Quoth the 
 dyer in his mind, " Verily, here is fresh butter upon cake come to 
 thee." But he said to the old woman, '"Tis true I have a house 
 and saloon and upper floor ; but I cannot spare any part thereof, 
 for I want it all for guests and for the indigo-growers my clients." 
 She replied, " O my son, 'twill only be for a month or two at the 
 most, till our house l)e repaired, and we are strange folk. Let the 
 guest-chamber be shared between us and thee, and by thy life, O 
 my son, an thou desire that thy guests be ours, we will welcome them 
 and eat with them and sleep with them." Then he gave her the 
 keys, one big and one small and one crooked, saying to her, " The 
 key is that of the house, the crooked one that of the saloon and the 
 little one that of the upper floor." So Dalilah took the keys and 
 fared on, followed by the lady who forewent the young merchant, till 
 she came to the lane wherein was the house. She opened the
 
 356 A If Laylah wa Lay /ah. 
 
 door and entered, introducing the damsel to whom said she, "O 
 my daughter, this (pointing to the saloon) is the lodging of the 
 Shaykh Abu al-Hamlat ; but go thou into the upper floor and 
 loose thy outer veil and wait till I come to thee." So she went 
 up and sat down. Presently appeared the young merchant, whom 
 Dalilah carried into the saloon, saying, " Sit down, whilst I fetch 
 my daughter and show her to thee." So he sat down and the old 
 trot went up to Khatun who said to her, " I wish to visit the 
 Shaykh, before the folk come." Replied the beldame, " O my 
 daughter, we fear for thee." Asked Khatun, "Why so?" and 
 Dalilah answered, " Because here is a son of mine, a natural who 
 knoweth not summer from winter, but goeth ever unclothed. He is 
 the Shaykh's deputy and, if he saw a girl like thee come to visit 
 his chief, he would snatch her earrings and tear her ears and rend 
 her silken robes. ^ So do thou doff thy jewellery and mantilla and 
 I will keep them for thee, till thou hast made thy pious visitation." 
 Accordingly the damsel did off her outer dress and jewels and 
 gave them to the old woman, who said, " I will lay them for thee 
 on the Shaykh's curtain, that a blessing may betide thee." Then 
 she went out, leaving the lady without her veil, and hid the clothes 
 and jewels in a place on the staircase ; after which she betook 
 herself to the young merchant, whom she found impatiently awaiting 
 the girl, and he cried, " Where is thy daughter, that I may see her?" 
 But she smote palm on breast and he said, "What aileth thee?" 
 Quoth she, " Would there were no such thing as the ill neighour and 
 the envious ! They saw thee enter the house with me and asked 
 me of thee ; and I said : — This is a bridegroom I have found for 
 my daughter. So they envied me on thine account and said to my 
 girl. Is thy mother tired of keeping thee, that she marrieth thee to 
 a leper ? Thereupon I swore to her that she should see that thou 
 art whole." Quoth he, " I take refuge with Allah from the envious," 
 and baring his fore-arm, showed her that it was like silver. Said 
 she, " Have no fear 5 thou shalt see her, even as she shall see thee ;" 
 and he said, " Let her come and look at me." Then he put off his 
 pelisse and sables and his girdle and dagger and the rest of his 
 raiment, except his shirt and bag-trousers, and would have laid the 
 purse of a thousand dinars with them, but Dalilah cried, "Give them 
 to me, that I may take care of them." So she took them and 
 fetching the girl's clothes and jewellery shouldered the whole and 
 
 ^ It is in accordance to custom that the Shaykh be attended by a half-witted 
 fanatic, who would be made furious by seeing gold and silks in the reverend 
 presence so coyly curtained. 
 
 1
 
 The Rogueries of Dalllah and her Daughter Zaynab. 357 
 
 locking the door upon them went her ways. And Shahrazad per- 
 ceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 Nofo Iril^en it tons t]^e ^cbcn l^untrrcti nnH ^ccontr ^^tgjbt, 
 
 She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 the old woman had taken the property of the young merchant and 
 the damsel and wended her ways, having locked the door upon them, 
 she deposited her spoils with a druggist of her acquaintance and 
 returned to the dyer, whom she found sitting, awaiting her. Quoth 
 he, " Inshallah, the house pleaseth thee ?" and quoth she, "There 
 is a blessing in it ; and I go now to fetch porters to carry hither 
 our goods and furniture. But my children would have me bring 
 them a panade with meat ; so do thou take this dinar and buy 
 the dish and go and eat the morning meal with them." Asked the 
 dyer, " Who shall guard the dyery meanwhile and the people's goods 
 that be therein ? " and the old woman answered, " Thy lad ! " " So 
 be it," rejoined he, and taking a dish and cover, went out to do her 
 bidding. So far concerning the dyer, who will again be mentioned 
 in the tale ; but as regards the old v/oman, she fetched the clothes 
 and jewels she had left with the druggist and going back to the 
 dyery, said to the lad, " Run after thy master, and I will not stir 
 hence till you both return." " To hear is to obey," answered he and 
 went away, while she began to collect all the customers' goods. 
 Presently, there came up an ass-driver, a scavenger, who had been 
 out of work for a week and who was an Hashish-eater to boot ; and 
 she called him, saying, " Hither, O donkey-boy ! " So he came to 
 her and she asked, " Knowcst thou my son the dyer ? " whereto he 
 answered, "Yes, I know him." Then she said, "The poor fellow 
 is insolvent and loaded with debts, and as often as he is put in 
 prison, I set him free. Now we wish to see him declared bankrupt 
 and I am going to return the goods to their owners ; so do thou 
 lend me thine ass to carry the load and receive this dinar to its hire. 
 When I am gone, take the handsaw and empty out the vats and jars 
 and break them, so that if there come an officer from the Kazi's 
 court, he may find nothing in the dyery." Quoth he, " I owe the 
 Hajj a kindness and will do something for Allah's love." So she 
 laid the things on the ass and, the Protector protecting her, made 
 for her own house ; so that she arrived there in safety and went in 
 to her daughter Zaynab, who said to her, " O my mother, my heart 
 hath been with thee ! What hast thou done by way of roguery ? " 
 Dalilah replied, " I have played off four tricks on four wights ; the 
 wife of the sergeant-usher, a young merchant, a dyer and an ass-
 
 358 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 driver, and have brought thee all their spoil on the donkey-boy's 
 beast." Cried Zaynab, "O my mother, thou wilt never more be 
 able to go about the town, for fear of the sergeant-usher, whose 
 wife's raiment and jewellery thou hast taken, and the merchant 
 whom thou hast stripped, and the dyer whose customers' goods 
 thou hast stolen and the owner of the ass." Rejoined the 
 old woman, " Pooh, my girl ! I reck not of them, save the 
 donkey-boy, who knoweth me." Meanwhile the dyer bought the 
 meat-panade and set out for the house, followed by his servant with 
 the food on head. On his way thither, he passed his shop, where 
 he found the donkey-boy breaking the vats and jars and saw that 
 there was neither stuff nor liquor left in them and that the dyery 
 was in ruins. So he said to him, " Hold thy hand, O ass-driver ; " 
 and the donkey-boy desisted and cried, " Praised be Allah for thy 
 safety, O master! Verily my heart was with thee." "Why so?" 
 " Thou art become bankrupt and they have filed a docket of thine 
 insolvency." " Who told thee this?" "Thy mother told me, and 
 bade me break the jars and empty the vats, that the Kazi's officers 
 might find nothing in the shop, if they should come." "Allah 
 confound the far one!" cried the dyer; "my mother died long 
 ago." And he beat his breast, exclaiming, "Alas, for the loss of my 
 goods and those of the folk ! " The donkey-boy also wept and 
 ejaculated, " Alas, for the loss of my ass ! " and he said to the dyer, 
 " Give me back my beast which thy mother stole from me." The 
 dyer laid hold of him by the throat and fell to buffeting him, saying, 
 "Bring me the old woman;" whilst the other buffeted him in 
 return, saying, " Give me back my beast." • So they beat and cursed 
 
 each other, till the folk collected around them And Shahrazad 
 
 was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted 
 say. 
 
 Nob) toi^m it Iras Ij^e ^tbtn f^untrreti antr ^j^irU Isi'x^x, 
 
 She resumed. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the dyer 
 caught hold of the donkey-boy and the donkey-boy caught hold of 
 the dyer and they beat and cursed each other till the folk collected 
 round them and one of them asked, " What is the matter, O Master 
 Mohammed ? " The ass-driver answered, " I will tell thee the tale," 
 and related to them his story, saying, "I deemed I was doing the 
 dyer a good turn ; but, when he saw me he beat his breast and said, 
 My mother is dead. And now, I for one require my ass of him, it 
 being he who hath put this trick on me, that he might make me lose 
 ray beast." Then said the folk to the dyer, " O Master Mohammed,
 
 The Rogueries of Dalilah a?id her Daughter Zaynab. 359 
 
 dost thou know this matron, that thou didst entrust her with the 
 dyery and all therein ? " And he replied, " I know her not ; but she 
 took lodgings with me to-day, she and her son and daughter." 
 Quoth one, " In my judgment, the dyer is bound to indemnify the 
 ass-driver." Quoth another, "Why so?" "Because," replied the 
 first, " he trusted not the old woman nor gave her his ass save only 
 because he saw that the dyer had entrusted her with the dyery and 
 its contents." And a third said, " O master, since thou hast lodged 
 her with thee, it behoveth thee to get the man back his ass." Then 
 they made for the house, and the tale will come round to them 
 again. Meanwhile, the young merchant remained awaiting the old 
 woman's coming with her daughter, but she came not nor did her 
 daughter ; whilst the young lady in like manner sat expecting her 
 return with leave from her son, the God-attended one, the Shaykh's 
 deputy, to go in to the holy presence. So, weary of waiting, she 
 rose to visit the Shaykh by herself, and went down into the saloon, 
 where she found the young merchant, who said to her, " Come 
 hither ! where is thy mother, who brought me to marry thee ? " She 
 replied, " My mother is dead, art thou the old woman's son, the 
 ecstatic, the deputy of the Shaykh Abu al-Hamlat ? " Quoth he, 
 " The swindling old trot is no mother of mine ; she hath cheated 
 me and taken my clothes and a thousand dinars." Quoth Khatun, 
 "And me also hath she swindled, for she brought me to see the 
 Shaykh Abu al-Hamlat, and in lieu of so doing she hath stripped 
 me." Thereupon he, " I look to thee to make good my clothes and 
 my thousand dinars;" and she, "I look to thee to make good my 
 clothes and jewellery." And, behold, at this moment in came the 
 dyer and seeing them both stripped of their outer raiment, said to 
 them, " Tell me where your mother is." So the young lady related 
 all that had befallen her, and the young merchant related all that had 
 betided him, and the master-dyer exclaimed, " Alas, for the loss of 
 my goods and those of the folk ! " and the ass-driver ejaculated, 
 " Alas, for my ass ! Give me, O dyer, my ass ! " Then said the dyer, 
 "This old woman is a sharper. Come forth, that I may lock the 
 door." Quoth the young merchant, " 'Twere a disgrace to thee that 
 we should enter thy house dressed and go forth from it undressed." 
 So the dyer clad him and the damsel and sent her back to her house 
 where we shall find her after the return of her husband. Then he 
 shut the dyery and said to the young merchant, " Come, let us go 
 and search for the old woman and hand her over to the Wali,^ the 
 
 ^ LJurckhardt notes that the Wali, or chief police officer at Cairo, was 
 exclusively termed Al-Agha, and quotes the proverb (No. 156), " One night the
 
 360 A If Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 Chief of Police." So they and the ass-man repaired to the house 
 of the master of pohce, and made their complaint to him. Quoth 
 he, "O folk, what want ye?" and when they told him he rejoined, 
 " How many old women are there not in the town ! Go ye and 
 seek for her and lay hands on her and bring her to me, and I will 
 torture her for you and make her confess." So they sought for her 
 all round the town ; and an account of them will presently be given. ^ 
 As for old Dalilah the Wily, she said, " I have a mind to play off 
 another trick," to her daughter who answered, " O my mother, I fear 
 for thee j" but the beldam cried, " I am like the bean husks which 
 fall proof against fire and water." So she rose, and donning a slave- 
 girl's dress of such as serve people of condition, went out to look 
 for some one to defraud. Presently she came to a by-street, spread 
 with carpets and hghted with hanging lamps, and heard a noise of 
 singing women and drumming of tambourines. Here she saw a 
 handmaid bearing on her shoulder a boy, clad in trousers laced with 
 silver and a little Aba-cloak of velvet, with a pearl-embroidered 
 Tarbush-cap on his head, and about his neck a collar of gold set 
 with jewels. Now the house belonged to the Provost of the Mer- 
 chants of Baghdad, and the boy was his son : he had a daughter, 
 to boot, who was promised in marriage, and it was her betrothal 
 they were celebrating that day. There was with her mother a com- 
 pany of noble dames and singing-women, and whenever she went 
 upstairs or down, the boy clung to her ; so she called the slave-girl 
 and said to her, " Take thy young master and play with him, till the 
 company break up." Seeing this, Dalilah asked the handmaid, 
 "What festivities are these in your mistress's house?" and was 
 answered, "She celebrates her daughter's betrothal this day, and 
 she hath singing-women with her." Quoth the old woman to her- 
 self, " O Dalilah, the thing to do is to spirit away this boy from the 
 
 maid ! " And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased 
 
 to say her permitted say. 
 
 Noto toSnx It foas tl^e ^cbcn l^untfrcb anti Jpourt]^ Nigj^t, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the old 
 trot said to herself, " O Dalilah, the thing to do is to spirit away this 
 
 rogue repented and cried : — What ! no Wali (Al-Agha) to lay rogues by the 
 heels ? " Some of these Egyptian by-words are most amusing and charac- 
 teristic. 
 
 ^ Lit. for " we leave them for the present :" the formula is much used in this 
 tale, showing another hand, author or copyist.
 
 The Rogueries of Dalilah and her Daughter Zaynab. 361 
 
 boy from the maid ! " she began crying out, " O disgrace ! O ill 
 luck ! " Then pulling out a brass token, resembling a dinar, she 
 said to the maid, who was a simpleton, "Take this ducat and go in 
 to thy mistress and say to her : — Umm al-Khayr rejoiceth with thee 
 and is beholden to thee for thy favours, and on the day of assembly 
 she and her daughters will visit thee and handsel the tiring-women 
 with the usual gifts." Said the girl, " O my mother, my young 
 master here catcheth hold of his mamma, whenever he seeth her :" 
 and she replied, " Give him to me, whilst thou goest in and comesi 
 back." So she gave her the child and taking the token, went in ; 
 whereupon Dalilah made off with the boy to a by-lane, where she 
 stripped him of his clothes and jewels, saying to herself, " O Dalilah, 
 'twould indeed be the finest of tricks, even as thou hast cheated the 
 maid and taken the boy from her, so now to carry on the game and 
 pawn him for a thousand dinars. So she repaired to the jewel-bazar, 
 where she saw a Jew goldsmith seated with a cage full of jewellery 
 before him, and said to herself, "'Twould be a rare trick to chouse 
 this Jew fellow and get a thousand gold pieces worth of jewellery 
 from him and leave the boy in pledge for it." Presently the Jew 
 looked at them and seeing the boy with the old woman, knew him 
 for the son of the Provost of the Merchants. Now the Israelite was 
 a man of great wealth, but would envy his neighbour if he sold and 
 himself did not sell ; so espying Dalilah, he said to her, " What 
 seekest thou, O my mistress ? " She asked, " Art thou Master 
 Azariah ' the Jew ? " having first enquired his name of others; and he 
 answered, "Yes." Quoth she, "This boy's sister, daughter of the 
 Shahbandar of the Merchants, is a promised bride, and to-day they 
 celebrate her betrothal; and she hath need of jewellery. So give me 
 two pair of gold ankle-rings, a brace of gold bracelets, and pearl ear- 
 drops, with a girdle, a poignard and a seal-ring." He brought them 
 out and she took of him a thousand dinars' worth of jewellery, saying, 
 "I will take these ornaments on approval ; and whatever pleaseth them 
 they will keep and I will bring thee the price and leave this boy with 
 thee till then." He said, " Be it as thou wiliest ! " So she took the 
 jewellery and made off to her own house, where her daughter asked 
 her how the trick had sjjcd. She told her how she had taken and 
 stripped the Shahbandar's boy, and Zaynab said, "Thou wilt never 
 be able to walk abroad again in the town." Meanwhile, the maid 
 went in to her mistress and said to her, " O my lady, Umm al-Khayr 
 saluteth thee and rejoiceth with thee and on assembly-day she will 
 come, she and her daughters, and give the customary presents." 
 
 1 Arab. " Uzrah."'
 
 362 Alf Laylah wa Lay /ah. 
 
 Quoth her mistress, "Where is thy young master?" Quoth the 
 slave-girl, " I left him with her lest he cling to thee, and she gave 
 me this, as largesse for the singing-women." So the lady said to 
 the chief of the singers, "Take thy money;" and she took it and 
 found it a brass counter ; whereupon the lady cried to the maid, 
 " Get thee down, O fool, and look to thy young master." Accord- 
 ingly, she went down and finding neither boy nor old woman, 
 shrieked aloud and fell on her face. Their joy was changed into 
 annoy, and behold, the Provost came in, when his wife told him all 
 that had befallen, and he went out in quest of the child, whilst the 
 other merchants also fared forth and each sought his own road. 
 Presently, the Shahbandar, who had looked everywhere, espied his 
 son seated in the Jew's shop and said to the owner, "This is my 
 son." " 'Tis well," answered the Jew. So he took him up, without 
 asking for his clothes, of the excess of his joy at finding him ; but 
 the Jew laid hold of him, saying, " Allah succour the Caliph against 
 thee ! "^ The Provost asked, " What aileth thee, O Jew ? " and he 
 answered, "Verily the old woman took of me a thousand dinars' 
 worth of jewellery for thy daughter, and left this lad in pledge for 
 the price ; and I had not trusted her, but that she offered to leave 
 the child whom I knew for thy son." Said the Provost, " My 
 daughter needeth no jewellery ; give me the boy's clothes." There- 
 upon the Jew shrieked out, " Come to my aid, O Moslems ! " but at 
 that moment up came the dyer and the ass-man and the young mer- 
 chant, who were going about, seeking the old woman, and enquired 
 the cause of their jangle. So they told them the case and they said, 
 " This old woman is a cheat, who hath cheated us before you." 
 Then they recounted to them how she had dealt with them, and the 
 Provost said, " Since I have found my son, be his clothes his 
 ransom ! If I come upon the old woman, I will require them of 
 her," And he carried the child home to his mother, who rejoiced 
 in his safety. Then the Jew said to the three others, " Whither go 
 ye ? " and they answered, " We go to look for her." Quoth the Jew, 
 " Take me with you," presently adding, " Is there any one of you 
 knoweth her?" The donkey-boy cried, "I know her;" and the 
 Jew said, "If we all go forth together, we shall never catch her, 
 for she will flee from us. Let us each take a different road, and be 
 our rendezvous at the shop of Hajj Mas'ud, the Moorish barber." 
 They agreed to this and set off, each in a different direction. 
 Presently, Dalilah sallied forth again to play her tricks and the ass- 
 driver met her and knew her ; so he caught hold of her and said 
 
 ^ i.e. " Thou art unjust and violent enough to wrong even the Caliph.
 
 The Rogueries of Dalilah and her Daiighter Zaynab. 363 
 
 to her, "Woe to thee ! Hast thou been long at this trade?" She 
 asked, "What aileth thee?" and he answered, "Give me back my 
 ass." Quoth she, " Cover what Allah covereth, O my son ! Dost 
 thou seek thine ass and the people's things?" Quoth he, "I want 
 my ass, that's all ; " and quoth she, " I saw that thou wast poor ; so 
 I deposited thine ass for thee with the Moorish barber. Stand off, 
 whilst I speak him fair, that he may give thee the beast." So she 
 went up to the Maghrabi and kissed his hand and shed tears. He 
 asked her what ailed her and she said, " O my son, look at my boy 
 who standeth yonder. He was ill and exposed himself to the air, 
 which injured his intellect. He used to buy asses and now, if he 
 stand he saith nothing but. My ass ! if he sit he crieth, My ass ! 
 and if he walk he crieth, My ass ! Now I have been told by a 
 certain physician that his mind is disordered and that nothing will 
 cure him but drawing two of his grinders and cauterising him twice 
 on either temple. So do thou take this dinar and call him to thee, 
 saying : — Thine ass is with me." Said the barber, " May I fast for 
 a year, if I do not give him his ass in his fist ! " Now he had with 
 him two journeymen, so he said to one of them, " Go, heat the 
 irons." Then the old woman went her way and the barber called to 
 the donkey-boy,^ saying, " Thine ass is with me, good fellow ! come 
 and take him, and as thou livest, I will give him into thy palm." So 
 he came to him and the barber carried him into a dark room, where 
 he knocked him down and the journeymen bound him hand and 
 foot. Then the Maghrabi arose and pulled out two of his grinders 
 and fired him on either temple ; after which he let him go, and he 
 rose and said, " O Moor, why hast thou used me with this usage ? " 
 (^uoth the barber, " Thy mother told me that thou hadst taken cold 
 whilst ill, and hadst lost thy reason, so that, whether sitting or 
 standing or walking, thou wouldst say nothing but My ass ! So here 
 is thine ass in thy fist." Said the other, " Allah requite thee for 
 pulling out my teeth." Then the barber told him all that the old 
 woman had related and he exclaimed, " Allah torment her ! " and 
 the twain left the shop and went out, disputing. When the barber 
 returned, he found his booth empty, for, whilst he was absent, the 
 old woman had taken all that was therein and made off with it to 
 her daughter, whom she acquainted with all that had befallen and 
 all she had done. The barber, seeing his place plundered, caught 
 hold of the donkey-boy and said to him, " Bring me thy mother ;" 
 but he answered, saying, "She is not my mother; she is a sharper 
 
 ^ I may note that a "donkey-boy" like our "post-boy" can be of any age 
 in Egypt.
 
 364 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 who hath cozened much people and stolen my ass." And lo ! at this 
 moment up came the dyer and the Jew and the young merchant, and 
 seeing the Moorish barber holding on to the ass-driver who was fired 
 on both temples, they said to him, "What hath befallen thee, O 
 donkey-boy ? " So he told them all that betided him and the barber 
 did the like ; and the others in turn related to the Moor the tricks 
 the old woman had played them. Then he shut up his shop and 
 went with them to the office of the Police-Master to whom they said, 
 " We look to thee for our case and our coin." ^ Quoth the Wali, 
 " And how many old women are there not in Baghdad ! Say me, 
 doth any of you know her ? " Quoth the ass-man, " I do ; so give 
 me ten of thine officers." He gave them half a score archers and 
 they all five went out, followed by the sergeants, and patrolled the 
 city, till they met the old woman, when they laid hands on her and 
 carrying her to the house of the Chief of Police, stood waiting under 
 his office windows till he should come forth. Presently, the warders 
 fell asleep, for excess of watching with their chief, and old Dalilah 
 feigned to follow their example, till the ass-man and his fellows slept 
 likewise, when she stole away from them and, going into the Wall's 
 Harem, kissed the hand of the mistress of the house and asked her, 
 " Where is the Chief of Police ? " The lady answered, " He is 
 asleep; what wouldst thou with him?" Quoth Dahlah, "My 
 husband is a merchant of chattels and gave me five Mamelukes 
 to sell, whilst he went on a journey. The Master of Police met me 
 and bought them of me for a thousand dinars and two hundred for 
 myself, saying : — Bring them to my house. So I have brought 
 
 them." And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and 
 
 ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 ttCoto fcojbcn it foas tj^e ^ebcn l^untrwH antr jpiftfj Nigjbt, 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the 
 old woman, entering the Harem of the Police-Master, said to his 
 wife, " Verily the Wali bought of me five slaves for one thousand 
 ducats and two hundred for myself, saying : — Bring them to my 
 quarters. So I have brought them." Hearing the old woman's 
 story she believed her and asked her, "Where are the slaves?" 
 Dalilah replied, " O my lady, they are asleep under the palace 
 
 ' They could legally demand to be recouped but the chief would have found 
 some pretext to put off payment. Such at least is the legal process of these 
 days.
 
 The Rogueries of Dalilah and her Daughter Zay7iab. 365 
 
 window;" whereupon the dame looked out and seeing the Moorish 
 barber clad in a Mameluke habit and the young merchant as he 
 were a drunken Mameluke ' and the Jew and the dyer and the ass- 
 driver as they were shaven Mamelukes, said in herself, " Each of 
 these white slaves is worth more than a thousand dinars." So she 
 opened her chest and gave the old woman the thousand ducats, 
 saying, "Fare thee forth now and come back anon; when my 
 husband waketh, I will get thee the other two hundred dinars from 
 him." Answered the old woman, " O my lady, an hundred of them 
 are thine, under the sherbet-gugglet whereof thou drinkest,^ and 
 the other hundred do thou keep for me against I come back," 
 presently adding, " Now let me out by the private door." So she 
 let her out, and the Protector protected her and she made her way 
 home to her daughter, to whom she related how she had gotten a 
 thousand gold pieces and sold her five pursuers into slavery, 
 ending with, " O my daughter, the one who troubleth me most is 
 the ass-driver, for he knoweth me." Said Zaynab, " O my mother, 
 abide quiet awhile and let what thou hast done suffice thee, for the 
 crock shall not always escape the shock." When the Chief of 
 Police awoke, his wife said to him, " I give thee joy of the five 
 slaves thou hast bought of the old woman." Asked he, " What 
 slaves?" and she answered, "Why dost thou deny it to me? 
 Allah willing, they shall become like thee people of condition." 
 Quoth he, " As my head liveth, I have bought no slaves ! Who 
 saith this?" Quoth she, " The old woman, the brokeress, from 
 whom thou boughtest them ; and thou didst promise her a thousand 
 dinars for them and two hundred for herself." Cried he, " Didst 
 thou give her the money ? " And she replied, " Yes ; for I saw the 
 slaves with my own eyes, and on each is a suit of clothes worth a 
 thousand gold pieces ; so I sent out to bid the sergeants have an 
 eye to them." The Wali went out and, seeing the five plaintiffs, 
 said to the officers, " Where are the five slaves we bought for a 
 thousand dinars of the old woman?" Said they, "There are no 
 slaves here ; only these five men, who found the old woman, and 
 seized her and brought her hither. We fell asleep, whilst waiting 
 for thee, and she stole away and entered the Harem. Presently out 
 came a maid and asked us : — Are the five with you with whom the 
 old woman came ? and we answered, Yes." Cried the Master of 
 
 ' i.e. drunk with the excess of his beauty. 
 
 - A delicate way of offering a fee. When ofticcrs commanding regiments 
 in India contracted for clothing the men, they found these douceurs under their 
 dinner-napkins. All that is now changed ; but I doubt the change being an im- 
 provement : the public is plundered by a " Board " instead of an individual.
 
 366 Alf Laylah wa Laylah, 
 
 Police, " By Allah, this is the biggest of swindles ! " and the five 
 men said, " We look to thee for our goods." Quoth the Wah, " The 
 old woman, your mistress, sold you to me for a thousand gold 
 pieces;" and quoth they, " That were not allowed of Allah ; we are 
 free-born men and may not be sold, and we appeal from thee to the 
 Caliph." Rejoined the Master of Police, " None showed her the 
 way to the house save you, and I will sell you to the galleys for two 
 hundred dinars apiece." Just then, behold, up came the Emir 
 Hasan Sharr al-Tarik who, on his return from his journey, had 
 found his wife stripped of her clothes and jewellery and heard from 
 her all that had passed ; whereupon quoth he, " The Master of 
 Police shall answer me this," and repairing to him, said, " Dost 
 thou suffer old women to go round about the town and cozen folk 
 of their goods ? This is thy duty and I look to thee for my wife's 
 property." Then said he to the five men, " What is the case with 
 you? " So they told him their stories and he said, "Ye are wronged 
 men," and turning to the Master of Police, asked him, " Why dost 
 thou arrest them?" Answered he, "None brought the old wretch 
 to my house save these five, so that she took a thousand dinars of 
 my money and sold them to my women." Whereupon the five 
 cried, " O Emir Hasan, be thou our advocate in this cause." Then 
 said the Master of Police to the Emir, " Thy wife's goods are at my 
 charge and I will be surety for the old woman. But which of you 
 knoweth her ? " They cried, " We all know her : send ten apparitors 
 with us, and we will take her." So he gave them ten men, and the 
 ass-driver said to them, " Follow me, for I should know her with 
 blue eyes." ^ Then they fared forth and lo ! they met old Dalilah 
 coming out of a by-street : so they at once laid hands on her and 
 brought her to the office of the Wali, who asked her, " Where are 
 the people's goods?" But she answered, saying, "I have neither 
 gotten them nor seen them." Then he cried to the gaoler, " Take 
 her with thee and clap her in gaol till the morning ; " but he replied, 
 " I will not take her nor will I imprison her lest she play a trick on 
 me and I be answerable for her." So the Master of Police mounted 
 and rode out with Dalilah and the rest to the bank of the Tigris, 
 where he bade the lamplighter crucify her by her hair. He drew 
 
 ^ This may mean, I should know her even were my eyes blue (or blind) with 
 cataract, and the Breslau Edit., ix. 231, reads " Ayni "= my eye ; or it may be, I 
 should know her by her staring, glittering, hungry eyes, as opposed to the 
 " Hawar " soft-black and languishing (Arab. Prov, i. 115, and ii. 848). The 
 Prophet said " blue-eyed (women) are of good omen." And when one man 
 reproached another saying "Thou art Azrak " (blue-eyed !) he retorted, "So is 
 the falcon!" " Zurkan " in Koran xx. 102, is translated by Mr. Rodwell 
 " leaden eyes ; " it ought to be blue-eyed, dim-sighted, purblind.
 
 The Rogueries of Dalilah and her Daughter Zaynab. 367 
 
 her up by the pulley and bound her on the cross ; after which the 
 Master of Police set ten men to guard her and went home. Pre- 
 sently, the night fell down and sleep overcame the watchmen. Now 
 a certain Badawi had heard one man say to a friend, " Praise be to 
 Allah for thy safe return. Where hast thou been all this time ? " 
 Replied the other, " In Baghdad, where I broke my fast on honey- 
 fritters." ^ Quoth the Badawi to himself, " Needs must I go to 
 Baghdad and eat honey-fritters therein ; " for in all his life he had 
 never entered Baghdad nor seen fritters of the sort. So he mounted 
 his horse and rode on towards Baghdad, saying in his mind, " 'Tis a 
 fine thing to eat honey-fritters ! On the honour of an Arab, I will 
 
 break my fast with honey-fritters and naught else ! " And Shah- 
 
 razad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted 
 say. 
 
 i^ohj fcojbcn it toas tljc ^cbcn l^untirctr antr ^i.xtl) iSigi)t, 
 
 She pursued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the wild 
 Arab mounted horse and made for Baghdad saying in his mind, 
 " 'Tis a fine thing to eat honey-fritters ! On the honour of an 
 Arab I will break my fast with honey-fritters and naught else ; " 
 and he rode on till he came to the place where Dalilah was 
 crucified and she heard him mutter these words. So he went up to 
 her and said to her, " What art thou ? " Quoth she, " I throw myself 
 on thy protection, O Shaykh of the Arabs ! " and quoth he, " Allah 
 indeed protect thee ! But what is the cause of thy crucifixion ? " 
 Said she, " I have an enemy, an oilman, who frieth fritters, and I 
 stopped to buy some of him, when I chanced to spit and my spittle 
 fell on the fritters. So he complained of me to the Governor, who 
 commanded to crucify me, saying : — I adjudge that ye take ten 
 pounds of honey-fritters and feed her therewith upon the cross." If 
 she eat them, let her go, but if not, leave her hanging. And my 
 stomach will not brook sweet things." Cried the Badawi, " By the 
 honour of the Arabs, I departed not the camp but that I might taste 
 of honey-fritters ! I will eat them for thee." Quoth she, " None 
 may eat them, except he be hanged in my place." So he fell into the 
 trap and unbound her ; whereupon she bound him in her stead, after 
 she had stripped him of his clothes and turband and put them on ; 
 then covering herself with his burnous and mounting his horse, she 
 rode to her house, where Zaynab asked her, " What meaneth this 
 
 Arab. " Zalabiyah bi-'Asal."
 
 368 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 plight ? " and she answered, " They crucified me ;" and told her all 
 that had befallen her with the Badawi. This is how it fared with 
 her ; but as regards the watchmen, the first who woke roused his 
 companions and they saw that the day had broken. So one of them 
 raised his eyes and cried, " Dalilah." Replied the Badawi, "By 
 Allah ! I have not eaten all night. Have ye brought the honey- 
 fritters?" All exclaimed, "This is a man and a Badawi," and one 
 of them asked him, " O Badawi, where is Dalilah and who loosed 
 her ? " He answered, " 'Twas I ; she shall not eat the honey-fritters 
 against her will ; for her soul abhorreth them." So they knew that 
 the Arab was ignorant of her case, whom she had cozened, and said 
 to one another, " Shall we flee or abide the accomplishment of that 
 which Allah hath written for us ? " As they were talking, up came 
 the Chief of Police, with all the folk whom the old woman had 
 cheated, and said to the guards, "Arise, loose Dalilah." Quoth the 
 Badawi, "We have not eaten to-night. Hast thou brought the 
 honey-fritters ? " Whereupon the Wall raised his eyes to the cross 
 and seeing the Badawi hung up in the stead of the old woman, said 
 to the watchmen, " What is this ? " " Pardon, O our lord ! " " Tell 
 me what hath happened." " We were weary with watching with thee 
 on guard and said : — Dalilah is crucified. So we fell asleep, and 
 when we awoke, we found the Badawi hung up in her stead; and we 
 are at thy mercy." " O folk, Allah's pardon be upon you ! She is 
 indeed a clever cheat !" Then they unbound the Badawi, who laid 
 hold of the Master of Police, saying, "Allah succour the Caliph 
 against thee ! I look to none but thyself for my horse and clothes ! " 
 So the Wali questioned him and he told him what had passed be- 
 tween Dalilah and himself. The magistrate marvelled and asked 
 him, " Why didst thou release her ? " and the Badawi answered, " I 
 knew not that she was a felon." Then said the others, " O Chief of 
 Police, we look to thee in the matter of our goods ; for we delivered 
 the old woman into thy hands and she was in thy guard ; and we 
 cite thee before the Divan of the Caliph." Now the Emir Hasan 
 had gone up to the Divan when in came the Wali with the Badawi 
 and the five others, saying, " Verily, we are wronged men ! " 
 " Who hath wronged you ? " asked the Caliph ; so each came for- 
 ward in turn and told his story, after which said the Master of 
 Police, " O Commander of the Faithful, the old woman cheated me 
 also and sold me these five men as slaves for a thousand dinars, 
 albeit they are free-born." Quoth the Prince of True Believers, " I 
 take upon myself all that you have lost ;" adding to the Master of 
 Police, " I charge thee with the old woman." But he shook his 
 collar, saying, " O Commander of the Faithful, I will not answer
 
 The Rogueries of Dalilah and her Daughter Zaymab. 369 
 
 for her ; for, after I had hung her on the cross, she tricked this 
 Badawi and, when he loosed her, she tied him up in her room and 
 made off with his clothes and horse." Quoth the Caliph, " Whom 
 but thee shall I charge with her? "and quoth the Wali, "Charge 
 Ahmad al-Danaf, for he hath a thousand dinars a month and one- 
 and-forty followers, at a monthly wage of an hundred dinars each." 
 So the Caliph said, " Harkye, Captain Ahmad ! " " At thy service, 
 O Commander of the Faithful," said he ; and the Caliph cried, " I 
 charge thee to bring the old woman before us." Replied Ahmad, 
 " I will answer for her." Then the Caliph kept the Badawi and the 
 
 five with him, And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day 
 
 and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 Noto toljcit It tons tljc ^cbcn fDuntireO ani3 ^cbcntl) Nigljt, 
 
 She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 Caliph said to Calamity Ahmad, " I charge thee to bring the old 
 woman before us," he said, " I will answer for her, O Commander 
 of the Faithful ! " Then the Caliph kept the Badawi and the five 
 with him, whilst Ahmad and his men went down to their hall.^ 
 saying to one another, " How shall we lay hands on her, seeing that 
 there are many old women in the town ? " And quoth Ahmad to 
 Hasan Shuman, "What counsellest thou?" Whereupon quoth one 
 of them, by name Ali Kitf al-Jamal,- to Al-Danaf, " Of what dost 
 thou take counsel with Hasan Shuman ? Is the Pestilent One any 
 great shakes ?" Said Hasan, " O AH, why dost thou disparage me? 
 By the Most Great Name, I will not company with thee at this 
 time!" and he rose and went out in wrath. Then said Ahmad, 
 " O my braves, let every sergeant take ten men, each to his own 
 quarter and search for Dalilah." Each and every did his bidding, 
 Ali included, and they said, " Ere we disperse let us agree to 
 rendezvous in the quarter Al-Kalkh." It was noised abroad in the 
 city that Calamity Ahmad had undertaken to lay hands on Dalilah 
 the W^ily, and Zaynab said to her, " O my mother, if thou be indeed 
 a trickstress, do thou befool Ahmad abDanaf and his company." 
 Answered Dalilah, " I fear none save Hasan Shuman ;" and Zaynab 
 said, " By the life of my browlock, I will assuredly get thee the 
 clothes of all the one-and-forty." Then she dressed and veiled her- 
 self and going to a certain druggist, who had a saloon with two 
 
 ' Arab. " Ka'ah," their mess-room, barracks. 
 ' i.e. Ali the camel's shoulder-blade. 
 
 VOL. IV. A A
 
 37 o Alf Laylah wa Lay la h. 
 
 doors, salamed to him and gave him an ashrafi and said to him, 
 " Take this gold piece as a douceur for thy saloon and let it to me 
 till the end of the day." So he gave her the keys and she fetched 
 carpets and so forth on the stolen ass and furnishing the place, set 
 on each raised pavement a tray of meat and wine. Then she went 
 out and stood at the door, with her face unveiled and behold, up 
 came Ali Kitf al-Jamal and his men. She kissed his hand ; and 
 he fell in love with her, seeing her to be a handsome girl, and said 
 to her, "What dost thou want?" Quoth she, "Art thou Captain 
 Ahmad al-Danaf ? " and quoth he, " No, but 1 am of his company 
 and my name is Ali Camel-shoulder." Asked she, "Whither fare 
 you ? " and he answered, " We go about in quest of a sharkish old 
 woman, who hath stolen folk's good, and we mean to lay hands on 
 her. But who art thou and what is thy business?" She replied, 
 " My father was a taverner at Mosul and he died and left me much 
 money. So I came hither, for fear of the dignities, and asked the 
 people who would protect me, to which they replied : — None but 
 Ahmad al-Danaf." Said the men, " From this day forth, thou art 
 under his protection ; " and she replied, " Hearten me by eating a 
 bit and drinking a sup of water." ^ They consented and entering, 
 ate and drank till they were drunken, when she drugged them with 
 Bhang and stripped them of their clothes and arms ; and on like 
 wise she did with the three other companions. Presently, Calamity 
 Ahmad went out to look for Dalilah, but found her not, neither set 
 eyes on any of his followers, and went on till he came to the door 
 where Zaynab was standing. She kissed his hand and he looked 
 on her and fell in love with her. Quoth she, " Art thou Captain 
 Ahmad al-Danaf?" and quoth he, "Yes: who art thou?" She 
 replied, " I am a stranger from Mosul. My father was a vintner 
 at that place and he died and left me much money wherewith I 
 came to this city, for fear of the powers that be, and opened this 
 tavern. The Master of Police hath imposed a tax on me, but it is 
 my desire to put myself under thy protection and pay thee what 
 the police would take of me, for thou hast the better right to it." 
 Quoth he, " Do not pay him aught : thou shalt have my protection 
 and welcome." Then quoth she, "Please to heal my heart and eat 
 of my victual." So he entered and ate and drank wine, till he could 
 not sit upright, when she drugged him and took his clothes and 
 
 ^ So in the Brazil you are invited to drink a copa cf agna and find a splendid 
 banquet. There is a smack of Chinese ceremony in this practice which lingers 
 t'lroughout southern Europe ; but the less advanced society is, the more it is 
 lettered by ceremony and "etiquette."
 
 The Rogueries of Dalilah and her Daughter Zaynab. 371 
 
 arms. Then she loaded her purchase on the Badawi's horse and the 
 donkey-boy's ass and made off with it, after she had aroused Ali 
 Kitf al-Jamal. Camel-shoulder awoke and found himself stripped 
 and saw Ahmad and his men drugged and stripped : so he revived 
 them with the counter-drug and they awoke and found themselves 
 stripped. Quoth Calamity Ahmad, "O lads, what is this? We were 
 going to catch her, and lo ! this hussy hath caught us ! How Hasan 
 Shuman will rejoice over us ! But we will wait till it is dark and 
 then go away." Meanwhile Pestilence Hasan said to the hall- 
 keeper, " Where are the men ? " and as he asked, up they came 
 stripped ; and he recited these two couplets ' : — 
 
 Men in their purposes are much alike, * But in their issues difference comes to 
 
 light : 
 Of men some wise are, others simple souls ; * As of the stars some dull, some 
 
 pearly bright. 
 
 Then he looked at them and asked, " Who hath played you this 
 trick and robbed you ? " and they answered, " We went in quest of 
 an old woman, and a pretty girl stripped us." Quoth Hasan, " She 
 hath done right well." They asked, "Dost thou know her?" and 
 he answered, " Yes, I know her and the old trot too." Quoth they, 
 "What shall we say to the Caliph?" and quoth he, "O Danaf, do 
 thou shake thy collar before him, and he will say : — Who is answer- 
 able for her? and if he ask why thou hast not caught her; say 
 thou : — We know her not ; but charge Hasan Shuman with her. 
 And if he give her into my charge, I will lay hands on her." So 
 they slept that night and on the morrow they went up to the Caliph's 
 Divan and kissed ground before him. Quoth he, " Where is the 
 old woman, O Captain Ahmad ? " But he shook his collar. The 
 Caliph asked him why he did so, and he answered, " I know her 
 not ; but do thou charge Hasan Shuman to lay hands on her, for 
 he knoweth her and her daughter also." Then Hasan interceded 
 for her with the Caliph, saying, " Indeed, she hath not played off 
 these tricks, because she coveted the folk's stuff, but to show her 
 cleverness and that of her daughter, to the intent that thou shouldst 
 continue her husband's stipend to her and that of her father to her 
 daughter. So if thou wilt spare her life I will fetch her to thee." 
 Cried the Calipli, " By the life of my ancestors, if she restore the 
 
 ^ The Bresl. edit. (ix. 239) prefers these lines : — 
 
 Some of us be hawks and sparrow-hawks, » And vultures some which at carrion 
 
 pike ; 
 And maidens deem all alike we be * But, save in uur lurbands, we're not alike.
 
 372 Alf Laylali wa Lay la h. 
 
 people's good, I will pardon her on thine intercession ! " And said 
 the Pestilence, " Give me a pledge, O Prince of True Believers ! " 
 ^Vhereupon Al-Rashid gave him the kerchief of pardon. So Hasan 
 repaired to Dalilah's house and called to her. Her daughter Zaynab 
 answered him and he asked her, "Where is thy mother?" "Up- 
 stairs," she answered ; and he said, " Bid her take the people's 
 good and come with me to the presence of the Caliph ; for I have 
 brought her the kerchief of pardon, and if she will not come with a 
 good grace, let her blame only herself." So Dalilah came down and 
 tying the kerchief about her neck gave him the people's good on 
 the donkey-boy's ass and the Badawi's horse. Quoth he, "There 
 remain the clothes of my Chief and his men ; " and quoth she, " By 
 the Most Great Name, 'twas not I who stripped them ! " Rejoined 
 Hasan, " Thou sayst sooth, it was thy daughter Zaynab's doing, and 
 this was a good turn she did thee." Then he carried her to the 
 Divan and laying the people's good and stuff before the Caliph, set 
 the old trot in his presence. As soon as her saw her, he bade throw 
 her down on the carpet of blood, whereat she cried, " I cast myself 
 on thy protection, O Shuman ! " So he rose and kissing the Caliph's 
 hands, said, " Pardon, O Commander of the Faithful ! " Indeed, 
 thou gavest me the kerchief of pardon." Said the Prince of True 
 Believers, " I pardon her for thy sake : come hither, O old woman ; 
 what is thy name ? " " My name is Wily Dalilah," answered she, 
 and the Caliph said, "Thou art indeed crafty and full of guile." 
 Whence she was dubbed Dalilah the Wily One. Then quoth he, 
 " Why hast thou played all these tricks on the folk and wearied our 
 hearts ? " and quoth she, " I did it not of need for their good, but 
 because I had heard of the tricks which Ahmad al-Danaf and Hasan 
 Shuman played in Baghdad and said to myself, — I too will do the 
 like. And now I have returned the folk their good." But the ass- 
 driver rose and said, " I invoke Allah's law^ between me and her; 
 for it sufficed her not to take my ass, but she must needs egg on the 
 Moorish barber to tear out my eye-teeth and fire me on both 
 
 temples ; " And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and 
 
 ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 NotD fofien it toas t^e ^tbtn l^untiveti anb <2B{g]bt5 ISTigfit, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 donkey-boy rose and cried out, " I invoke Allah's law between me 
 
 ^ Arab. "Shar'a" = holy law : here it especially applies to Al-Kisas = lex' 
 ialionis, which would order her eye-tooth to be torn out.
 
 The Rogueries of DalilaJi and her Daughter Zaynab. 373 
 
 and her ; for it sufficed her not to take my ass, but she must needs 
 egg on the barber to tear out my eye-teeth and fire me on both 
 temples;" thereupon the Cahph bade give him an hundred dinars 
 and ordered the dyer the hke, saying, " Go ; set up thy dyery 
 again." So they called down blessings on his head and went away. 
 The Badawi also took his clothes and horse and departed, saying, 
 " 'Tis henceforth unlawful and forbidden me to enter Baghdad and 
 eat honey-fritters." And the others took their goods and went 
 away. Then said the Caliph, " Ask a boon of me, O Dalilah ! " 
 and she said, " Verily, my father was governor of the carrier-pigeons 
 to thee and I know how to rear the birds ; and my husband was 
 town-captain of Baghdad. Now I wish to have the reversion of my 
 husband, and my daughter wisheth to have that of her father." The 
 Caliph granted both their requests and she said, " I ask of thee that 
 1 may be portress of thy Khan." Now he had built a Khan of three 
 stories, for the merchants to lodge in, and had assigned to its service 
 forty slaves and also forty dogs he had brought from the King of the 
 Sulaymaniyah,^ when he deposed him ; and there was in the Khan a 
 cook-slave, who cooked ior the chattels and fed the hounds for which 
 he let make collars. Said the Caliph, " O Dalilah, I will write thee 
 a patent of guardianship of the Khan, and if aught be lost therefrom, 
 thou shalt be answerable for it." "'Tis well," replied she; "but do 
 thou lodge my daughter in the pavilion over the door of the Khan, 
 for it hath terraced roofs, and carrier-pigeons may not be reared to 
 advantage save in an open space." The Caliph granted her this 
 also and she and her daughter removed to the pavilion in question, 
 where Zaynab hung up the one-and-forty dresses of Calamity Ahmad 
 and his company. Moreover, they delivered to Dalilah the forty 
 pigeons which carried the royal messages, and the Caliph appointed 
 the Wily One mistress over the forty slaves and charged them to 
 obey her. She made the place of her sitting behind the door of 
 the Khan, and every day she used to go up to the Caliph's Divan, 
 lest he should need to send a message by pigeon-post and stay 
 there till eventide whilst the forty slaves stood on guard at the 
 Khan ; and when darkness came on they loosed the forty dogs 
 that they might keep watch over the place by night. Such were 
 the doings of Dalilah the Wily One in Baghdad; and much like 
 them were 
 
 ^ i.e. of the Afghans. Sulaymani is the Egypt, and Ilijazi term for an Afghan 
 and the proverb says " Sulaymani hariimi " — the Afghan is a villainous man. See 
 Pilgrimage i. 59, which gives them a better character. The Bresl. edit, simply 
 says, "King Sulaymdn."
 
 374 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF MERCURY A LI OF CAIRO} 
 
 Now as regards the works of Mercury 'Ali; there Hved once at 
 Cairo,2 in the days of Salah the Egyptian, who was Chief of the 
 Cairo Pohce and had forty men under him, a sharper named AH, 
 for whom the Master of PoHce used to set snares and think that he 
 had fallen therein ; but, when they sought for him, they found that 
 he had fled like zaybak, or quicksilver, wherefore they dubbed him 
 Ali Zaybak or Mercury Ali of Cairo. Now one day, as he sat with 
 his men in his hall, his heart became heavy within him and his 
 breast was straitened. The hall-keeper saw him sitting with frowning 
 face and said to him, '' What aileth thee, O my Chief? If thy breast 
 be straitened take a turn in the streets of Cairo, for assuredly walk- 
 ing in her markets will do away with thy irk." So he rose up and 
 went out and threaded the streets awhile, but only increased in carle 
 and care. Presently, he came to a wine-shop and said to himself, 
 " I will go in and drink myself drunken." So he entered and seeing 
 seven rows of people in the shop, said, " Harkye, taverner ! I will 
 not sit except by myself." Accordingly, the vintner placed him in a 
 chamber alone and set strong pure wine before him whereof he 
 drank till he lost his senses. Then he sallied forth again and walked 
 till he came to the road called Red, whilst the people left the street 
 clear before him, out of fear of him. Presently, he turned and saw 
 a water-carrier trudging along, with his skin and gugglet, crying out 
 and saying, " O exchange ! There is no drink but what raisins make, 
 there is no love-delight but what of the lover we take and none 
 sitteth in the place of honour save the sensible freke ^ ! " So he said 
 to him, " Here, give me to drink ! " The water-carrier looked at 
 him and gave him the gugglet which he took and gazing into it, 
 shook it up and lastly poured it out on the ground. Asked the 
 water-carrier, "Why dost thou not drink?" and he answered, 
 saying, " Give me to drink." So the man filled the cup a second 
 time and he took it and shook it and emptied it on the ground ; 
 
 ^ This is a sequel to the Story of Dalilah and both are highly relished by Arabs. 
 The Bresl. Edit. ix. 245, runs both into one. 
 
 ^ Arab. Misr, Masr, the Capital, says Savary, applied alternately to Memphis, 
 Fostat and Grand Cairo, each of which had a Jizah (pron. Gizah), skirt, angle, 
 outlying suburb. 
 
 2 For the curious street-cries of old Cairo see Lane (M. E. chapt. xiv.) and my 
 Pilgrimage (i. 120) : here the rhymes are of Zabib (raisins), Hatib (lover) and 
 Labib (man of sense).
 
 The Adventures of Mercury AH of Cairo. 375 
 
 and thus he did a third time. Quoth the water-carrier, " An thou 
 wilt not drink, I will be off." And Ali said, " Give me to drinlc." 
 So he filled the cup a fourth time and passed it to him ; and he 
 drank and gave the man a dinar. The water-carrier looked at him 
 with disdain and said, belittling him, " Good luck to thee ! Good 
 luck to thee, my lad ! Little folk are one thing and great folk 
 
 another ! " And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day 
 
 and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 i^ob) tuljcn It tuas t()c ^tbtn ^Muitircti nu5j Jlinti) iiigtt, 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the 
 water-carrier receiving the dinar, looked at the giver with disdain 
 and said, " Good luck to thee ! Good luck to thee ! Little folk 
 are one thing and great folk another." Now when Mercury Ali 
 heard this, he caught hold of the man's gaberdine and drawing on 
 him a poignard of price, such an one as that whereof the poet 
 speaketh in these two couplets : — ■ 
 
 Watered steel-blade, the world perfection calls, * Drunk with the viper-poison 
 
 foes appals, 
 Cuts lively, burns the blood whene'er it falls ; * And picks up gems from pave 
 
 of marble halls ; ^ 
 
 cried to him, "O Shaykh, speak reasonably to me ! Thy waterskin 
 is worth if dear three dirhams, and the gugglets I emptied on the 
 ground held a pint or so of water." Replied the water-carrier, " 'Tis 
 well," and Ali rejoined, " I gave thee a golden ducat : wliy, then, 
 dost thou belittle me? Say me, hast thou ever seen any more 
 valiant than I or more generous than I ? " Answered the water- 
 carrier, " I have, indeed, seen one more valiant than thou and eke 
 more generous than thou ; for never, since women bare children, 
 was there on earth's face a brave man who was not generous." 
 Quoth Ali, " And who is he thou deemst braver and more generous 
 than 1?" Quoth the other, "Thou must know that 1 have had ^ 
 strange advcntiu-e. My father was a Shaykh of the ^Vater-carriers 
 who give drink in Cairo and, when he died, he left me five male 
 
 * The Mac. and Bui. Edits, give two silly couplets of moral advice : — 
 
 Strike with thy stubborn steel, and never fear « Aught save the Godhead of 
 
 AUmighty might ; 
 And shun ill practices and never show * Through life but generous gifts to 
 
 human sight. 
 
 The text is from the Hresl. Edit. ix. 247.
 
 376 A If Lay /ah iva Lay /ah. 
 
 camels, a he-mule, a shop and a house ; but the poor man is never 
 satisfied ; or, if he be satisfied, he dieth. So I said to myself : — I 
 will go up to Al-Hijaz; and, taking a string of camels, I bought goods 
 on tick, till I had run in debt for five hundred ducats, all of which 
 I lost during the pilgrimage. Then I said in my mind : — If I return 
 to Cairo the folk will clap me in jail for their goods. So I fared with 
 the pilgrim-caravan of Damascus to Aleppo and thence I went on 
 to Baghdad, where I sought out the Shaykh of the Water-carriers of 
 the city, and finding his house I went in and repeated the opening 
 chapter of the Koran to him. He questioned me of my case and 
 I told him all that had betided me, whereupon he assigned me a 
 shop and gave me a water-skin and gear. So I sallied forth a-morn 
 trusting in Allah to provide, and went round about the city. I 
 offered the gugglet to one, that he might drink ; but he cried, " 1 
 have eaten naught whereon to drink ; for a niggard invited me this 
 day and set two gugglets before me ; so I said to him : — O son of 
 the sordid, hast thou given me aught to eat that thou offerest me 
 drink after it ? Wherefore wend thy ways, O water-carrier, till 1 
 have eaten somewhat : then come and give me to drink. Thereupon 
 I accosted another and he said : — Allah provide thee ! And so 1 
 went on till noon, without taking hansel, and I said to myself. Would 
 Heaven I had never come to Baghdad ! Presently, I saw the folk 
 running as fast as they could; so I followed them and behold, a 
 long file of men riding two and two and clad in steel, with double 
 neck-rings and felt bonnets and burnouses and swords and bucklers. 
 I asked one of the folk whose suite this was, and he answered, That 
 of Captain Ahmad al-Danaf. Quoth 1, And what is he ? and quoth 
 the other. He is town-captain of Baghdad and her Divan, and to 
 him is committed the care of the suburbs. He getteth a thousand 
 dinars a month from the Caliph and Hasan Shuman hath the like. 
 Moreover, each of his men draweth an hundred dinars a month ; 
 and they are now returning to their barrack from the Divan. And 
 lo ! Calamity Ahmad saw me and cried out. Come, give me drink. 
 So I filled the cup and gave it him, and he shook it and emptied it 
 otit, like unto thee ; and thus he did a second time. Then I filled 
 the cup a third time and he took a draught as thou diddest ; after 
 which he asked me, O water-carrier, whence comest thou ? And I 
 answered, From Cairo, and he, Allah keep Cairo and her citizens ! 
 What may bring thee thither ? " So I told him my story and gave 
 him to understand that I was a debtor fleeing from debt and distress. 
 He cried. Thou art welcome to Baghdad ; then he gave me five 
 dinars and said to his men. For the love of Allah be generous to 
 him. So each of them gave me a dinar and Ahmad said to me, O
 
 The Adventures of Mercury AH of Cairo. 377 
 
 Shaykh, what while thou abidcst in Baghdad thou shalt have of us 
 the Hke every time thou givest us to drink. Accordingly, I paid 
 them frequent visits and good ceased not to come to me from the 
 folk till, one day, reckoning up the profit I had made of them, 1 
 found it a thousand dinars and said to myself. The best thing thou 
 canst do is to return to Egypt. So 1 went to Ahmad's house and 
 kissed his hand, and he said. What seekest thou ? Quoth I, I have 
 a mind to depart ; and I repeated these two couplets : — 
 
 Sojourn of stranger, in whatever Liiid, * Is like Ihe castle based upon the 
 
 wind : 
 The breaths of breezes level all he raised, * And so on homeward-way's 
 
 the stranger's mind. 
 
 I added, The caravan is about to start for Cairo and I wish to return 
 to my peoi)le. So he gave me a she-mule and an hundred dinars 
 and said to me, I desire to send somewhat by thee, O Shaykh ! 
 
 Dost thou know the people of Cairo ? Yes, answered I ; And 
 
 Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her per- 
 mitted say. 
 
 iiotu toDcn it Inns tijc ^cben |^un)3rcti anti ^cntl) iligljt, 
 
 She pursued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Ahmad al-Danaf had given the water-carrier a she-mule and an 
 hundred dinars and said to him, " i desire to send a trust by thee. 
 Dost thou know the people of Cairo ? " 1 answered (quoth the 
 water-carrier) Yes ; and he said. Take this letter and carry it to Ali 
 Zaybak of Cairo and say to hmi. Thy Captain saluteth thee and he 
 is now with the Caliph. So 1 took the letter and journeyed back to 
 Cairo, where I paid my debts and plied my water-carrying trade \ 
 but I have not delivered the letter, because 1 know not the abode 
 of Mercury Ali." Quoth Ali, " O elder, be of good cheer and keep 
 thine eyes cool and clear : I am that Ali, the first of the lads of 
 Captain Ahmad : here with the letter ! " So he gave him the missive 
 and he opened it and read these two couplets : — 
 
 "O adornment of beauties to thee write I * Un a paper that tlies as the 
 
 winds go by : 
 Could I fly, I had flown in desire to their arms * But a bird with cut wings, 
 
 how shall ever he fly?" 
 
 " But after salutation from Captain Ahmad al-Danaf to the eldest of 
 his sons. Mercury Ali of Cairo. Thou knowest tliat 1 tormented
 
 37^ Aif Laylah wa Lay la h. 
 
 Salah al-Din the Cairene and befooled him till I buried him alive 
 and reduced his lads to obey me, and amongst them Ali Kitf al- 
 Jamal ; and I am now become town-captain of Baghdad in the Divan 
 of the Caliph who hath made me overseer of the suburbs. An 
 thou be still mindful of our covenant, come to me ; haply thou 
 shalt play a trick in Baghdad which may promote thee to the 
 Caliph's service, so he may appoint thee stipends and allowances and 
 assign thee a lodging, which is what thou wouldst see, and so peace 
 be on thee." When Ali read this letter, he kissed it and laying it 
 on his head, gave the water-carrier ten dinars ; after which he returned 
 to his barracks and told his comrades and said to them, " I commend 
 you one to other." Then he changed all his clothes and, donning 
 a travelling cloak and a tarboosh, took a case, containing a spear of 
 bamboo-cane, four-and-twenty cubits long, made in several pieces, 
 to fit into one another. Quoth his lieutenant, " Wilt thou go a 
 journey when the treasury is empty ? " and quoth Ali, " When I 
 reach Damascus I will send you what shall suffice you." Then he 
 set out and fared on, till he overtook a caravan about to start, 
 whereof were the Shah-bandar, or Provost of the Merchants, and 
 forty other traders. They had all loaded their beasts, except the 
 Provost, whose loads lay upon the ground, and Ali heard his 
 caravan leader, who was a Syrian, say to the muleteers, " Bear a 
 hand, one of you ! " But they reviled him and abused him. Quoth 
 Ali in himself, "None will suit me so well to travel withal as this 
 leader." Now Ali was beardless and well-favoured ; so he went up 
 to and saluted the leader who welcomed him and said, "What 
 seekest thou?" Replied Ali, "O my uncle, I see thee alone with 
 forty mule-loads of goods ; but why hast thou not brought hands to 
 help thee?" Rejoined the other, "O my son, I hired two lads and 
 clothed them and put in each one's pocket two hundred dinars ; 
 and they helped me till we came to the Dervishes' Convent,^ when 
 they ran away." Quoth Ali, " Whither are you bound ? " and quoth 
 the Syrian, "To Aleppo," when Ali said, "I will lend thee a hand." 
 Accordingly they loaded the beasts and the Provost mounted his 
 she-mule and they set out, he rejoicing in Ali ; and on this wise 
 they fared on till nightfall, when they dismounted and ate and drank 
 and slept. In the morning they went on till they came to a forest 
 in which was a cave where dwelt a rending lion. Now whenever a 
 caravan passed, they would draw lots among themselves, and him on 
 whom the lot fell they would throw to the beast. So they drew lots 
 
 ' Arab. " Al-Khanakah," now more usually termed a Takiyah (Pilgrim» 
 i. 124).
 
 The Adventures of Mercury All of Cairo. 379 
 
 and the lot fell not save upon the Provost of the Merchants. And lo ! 
 
 the lion cut off their way awaiting his prey, wherefore the Provost 
 
 was sore distressed and said to the leader, "Allah disappoint the 
 
 fortunes of the far one^ and bring his journey to naught ! I charge 
 
 thee, after my death, give my loads to my children." Quoth Ali the 
 
 Clever, " What meaneth all this ? " So they told him the case and 
 
 he said, " Why do ye run from the tom-cat of the desert? I warrant 
 
 you I will kill him." So the Syrian went to the Provost and told 
 
 him of this and he said, " If he slay him, I will give him a thousand 
 
 dinars," and said the other merchants, "We will reward him likewise 
 
 one and all." With this Ali put off his mantle and there appeared 
 
 upon him a suit of steel; then he took a chopper of steel ^ and, 
 
 opening it, turned the screw ; after which he went forth alone and 
 
 standing in the road before the lion, cried out to him. The lion ran 
 
 at him, but Ali of Cairo smote him between the eyes with his 
 
 chopper and cut him in sunder, whilst the caravan-leader and the 
 
 merchants looked on. Then said he to the leader, " Have no fear, 
 
 O uncle ! " and the Syrian answered, saying, " O my son, I am thy 
 
 servant for all future time." Then the Provost embraced him and 
 
 kissed him between the eyes and gave him the thousand dinars, and 
 
 each of the other merchants gave him twenty dinars. He deposited 
 
 all the coin with the Provost and they slept that night till the 
 
 morning, when they set out again, intending for Baghdad, and fared 
 
 on till they came to the Lion's Clump and the Wady of Dogs, where 
 
 lay a villain Badawi, a brigand and his tribe, who sallied forth on 
 
 them. The folk fled from the highwaymen, and the Provost said, 
 
 " My moneys are lost ! " when, lo ! up came Ali in a buff coat hung 
 
 with bells, and bringing out his long lance, fitted the pieces together. 
 
 Then he seized one of the Arab's horses and, mounting it, cried out 
 
 to the Badawi Chief, saying, "Come out to fight me with spears ! " 
 
 Moreover he shook his bells and the Arab's mare took fright at the 
 
 noise and Ali struck the chief's spear and broke it. Then he smote 
 
 him on the neck and cut off his head.^ When the Badawin saw their 
 
 chief fall, they ran at Ali, but he cried out, saying, " Allaho Akbar — 
 
 ' Arab. "Ka'b al-ba'id" (Biesl. Edit. ix. 255) = heel or ankle, nietaph. for 
 fortune, reputation ; so tiic Arabs say ihe " Ka'b of the tribe is gone ! " here ** the 
 far one " = the caravan-leader. 
 
 ■^ Arab. "Sharit," from Sharata = he scarified; "Mishrat" = a lancet and 
 " Sharit " := a mason's rule. Mr. Payne renders "Sharit" by whinyard : it 
 must be a chopper-like weaj'on, with a pin or screw (laulab) to keep the blade 
 open like the snap of the Spaniard's cuchillo. Dozy explains it — epee, synonyme 
 de Sayf. 
 
 ^ Text "Dimagh," a Persianism when used for the head: the word properly 
 means brain or meninx.
 
 380 Alf Laylah wa Lay/ah. 
 
 God is Most Great!" — and, falling on them, broke them and put 
 them them to flight. Then he raised the Chief's head on his spear- 
 point and returned to the merchants, who rewarded him liberally 
 and continued their journey till they reached Baghdad. Thereupon 
 Ali took his money from the Provost and committed it to the Syrian 
 caravan-leader, saying, " When thou returnest to Cairo, ask for my 
 barracks and give these moneys to my deputy." Then he slept that 
 night and on the morrow he entered the city and threading the 
 streets enquired for Calamity Ahmad's quarters ; but none would 
 direct him thereto.^ So he walked on, till he came to the square 
 Al-Nafz, where he saw children at play, and amongst them a lad 
 called Ahmad al-Lakit,- and said to himself, " O my Ali, thou shalt 
 not get news of them except from their little ones." Then he turned 
 and seeing a sweetmeat-seller bought Halwa of him and called to 
 the children ; but Ahmad al-Lakit drove the rest away and coming 
 up to him, said, " What seekest thou ? " Quoth Ah, " I had a 
 son and he died and I saw him in a dream asking for sweetmeats ; 
 wherefore I have bought them and wish to give each child a bit." 
 So saying, he gave Ahmad a slice, and he looked at it and seeing a 
 dinar sticking to it, said, " Begone ! I am no beggar ; seek another 
 than I." Quoth Ali, " O my son, none but a sharp fellow taketh 
 the hire, even as he is a sharp one who giveth it. I have sought 
 all day for Ahmad al-Danaf's barrack, but none would direct me 
 thereto ; so this dinar is thine an thou wilt guide me thither." 
 Quoth the lad, " I will run before thee and do thou keep up with 
 me, till 1 come to the place, when I will catch up a pebble with 
 my foot^ and kick it against the door; and so shalt thou know it." 
 Accordingly he ran on and Ali after him, till they came to the 
 place, when the boy caught up a pebble between his toes and 
 
 kicked it against the door so as to make the place known. And 
 
 Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her 
 permitted say. 
 
 ^ They were afraid even to stand and answer this remarkable ruffian. 
 
 - Ahmad the Abortion, or the Foundling before mentioned, nephew (sister's 
 son) of Zaynab the Coney-catcher. 
 
 ^ Here the sharp lad discovers the direction without pointing it out. I need 
 hardly enlarge upon the prehensile powers of the Eastern foot : the tailor will 
 hold his cloth between his toes and pick up his needle with ihem, whilst the women 
 can knead every muscle and at times catch a mosquito between the toes.
 
 The Adventures of Mercury All of Cairo. 38 1 
 
 if^oto tof)cn It bons tlje ^cbcn Jinmijrctf nntr 15lcbcntD i^igftt, 
 
 She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Ahmad the Abortion had made known the place, Ah laid hold of 
 him and would have taken the dinar from him, but could not ; so 
 he said to him, " Go : thou deservest largesse for thou art a sharp 
 fellow, whole of wit and hearty of heart. Inshallah, if I become a 
 captain to the Caliph, I will make thee one of my lads." Then the 
 boy made off and Ali Zaybak went up to the door and knocked ; 
 whereupon quoth Ahmad al-Danaf, " O doorkeeper, open the 
 door; that is the knock of Quicksilver Ali the Cairene." So he 
 opened the door and Ali entered and saluted with the salam 
 Ahmad who embraced him, and the Forty greeted him. Then 
 Calamity Ahmad gave him a suit of clothes, saying, "When the 
 Caliph made me captain he clothed my lads and I kept this suit ^ 
 for thee." Then they seated him in the place of honour and 
 setting on meat they ate well and drink they drank hard and 
 made merry till the morning, when Ahmad said to Ali, " Beware 
 thou walk not about the streets of Baghdad, but sit thee still in 
 this barrack." Asked Ali, "Why so? Have I come hither to be 
 shut up? No, I came to look about me and divert myself." 
 Replied Ahmad, " O my son, think not that Baghdad be like 
 Cairo. Baghdad is the seat of the Caliphate ; sharpers abound 
 therein and rogueries spring therefrom as worts spring out of 
 earth." So Ali abode in the barrack three days when Ahmad 
 said to him, " I wish to present thee to the Cali])h, that he 
 may assign thee an allowance." But he replied, " When the 
 time cometh." So he let him go his own way. One day, as 
 Ali sat in the barrack, his breast became straitened and his soul 
 troubled and he said in himself, " Come, let us up and thread the 
 ways of Baghdad and broaden my bosom." So he went out and 
 walked from street to street, till he came to the middle bazar, 
 where he entered a cook-shop and dined ;- after which he went out 
 to wash his hands. Presently he saw forty slaves with felt bonnets 
 and steel cutlasses, come walking two by two ; and last of all 
 
 ^ Arab. " Ilullah " = dress. In old days it was composed of the Kurd or Rida, 
 the shouldcr-clolh from 6 to 9 or 10 feet long, and the Izar or waistcloth ■which 
 was cither tied or tucked into a girdle of leather or metal. The woman's waist- 
 cloth was called Nitah and descended to the feet, while the upper part was doubled 
 and provided with a Tikkah or string over which it fell to the knees overharging 
 the lower folds. This doubling of the " Ilujrah," or part round the waist, was 
 called the" Ilubkah." 
 
 ^ Arab. " Taghadda," the dinner being at eleven a.m. or noon.
 
 382 Alf Laylah zva Laylah. 
 
 came Dalilah the Wily, mounted on a she-mule, with a gilded 
 helmet which bore a ball of polished steel, and clad in a coat of 
 mail, and such like. Now she was returning from the Divan to 
 the Khan of which she was portress ; and when she espied Ali, 
 she looked at him fixedly and saw that he resembled Calamity 
 Ahmad in height and breadth. Moreover, he was clad in a striped 
 Aba-cloak and a burnous, with a steel cutlass by his side and 
 similar gear, while valour shone from his eyes, testifying in favour 
 of him and not in disfavour of him. So she returned to the Khan 
 and going in to her daughter, fetched a table of sand, and struck a 
 geomantic figure, whereby she discovered that the stranger's name 
 was Ali of Cairo and that his fortune overcame her fortune and that 
 of her daughter. Asked Zaynab, " O my mother, what hath befallen 
 thee that thou hast recourse to the sand-table ? " Answered Dalilah, 
 " O my daughter, I have seen this day a young man who resembleth 
 Calamity Ahmad, and I fear lest he come to hear how thou didst 
 strip Ahmad and his men and enter the Khan and play us a trick, 
 in revenge for what we did with his chief and the forty ; for 
 methinks he has taken up his lodging in Al-Danafs barrack." 
 Zaynab rejoined, " What is this ? Methinks thou hast taken his 
 measure." Then she donned her fine clothes and went out into the 
 streets. When the people saw her, they all made love to her and 
 she promised and sware and listened and coquetted and passed from 
 market to market, till she saw Ali the Cairene coming, when she 
 went up to him and said, " Allah give long life to folk of discrimina- 
 tion ! " Quoth he, " How goodly is thy form ! To whom dost thou 
 belong ? " and she answered, " I am a merchant's daughter and a 
 merchant's wife and in all my life I have never been out of doors 
 till to-day, and my only reason was that when I made ready food 
 and thought to eat, I had no mind thereto without company, so wilt 
 thou deign solace my soul and eat a mouthful with me ? " Quoth 
 he, " Whoso is invited, let him accept." Thereupon she went on 
 and he followed her from street to street, but presently he bethought 
 himself and said, "What wilt thou do and thou a stranger? But I 
 will put her off with fair words." So he said to her, " Take this 
 dinar and appoint me a day other than this ; " and she said, " By 
 the Mighty Name, it may not be but thou shalt go home with me as 
 my guest this very day." So he followed her till she came to a 
 house with a lofty porch and a wooden bolt on the door and said to 
 him, " Open this lock."i Asked he " Where is the key?" and she 
 
 ^ Arab. " Zabbah," the wooden bolt (before noticed) which forms the lock and 
 is opened by a slider and pins. It is illustrated by Lane (M. E. Introduction).
 
 The Adventures of Mercury Ali of Cairo. 38 
 
 j> 
 
 answered, " 'Tis lost." Quoth he, " Whoso openeth a lock without 
 a key is a knave whom it behoveth the ruler to punish, and I know 
 not how to open doors without keys ? ^ " With this she raised her 
 veil and showed him her face, whereat he took one glance of eyes 
 that cost him a thousand sighs. Then she let fall her veil on the 
 lock and repeating over it the names of the mother of Moses, opened 
 it without a key and entered. He followed her and saw swords and 
 steel-weapons hanging up ; and she put off her veil and sat down 
 with him. Then she brought a tray of food and wine, and they ate 
 and drank ; after which she rose and drawing water from the well, 
 poured it from the ewer over his hands, whilst he washed them. 
 Now whilst they were on this wise, she cried out and beat upon her 
 breast;, saying, " My husband had a signet-ring of ruby, which was 
 pledged to him for five hundred dinars, and I put it on ; but 'twas 
 too large for me, so I straitened it with wax, and when I let down 
 the bucket, 2 that ring must have dropped into the well. So turn thy 
 face to the door, the while I doff my dress and go down into the 
 well and fetch it." Quoth Ali, " 'Twere shame on me that thou 
 shouldst go down there, I being present ; none shall do it save I." 
 So he put off his outer clothes and tied the rope about himself and 
 she let him down into the well. Now there was much water therein 
 and she said to him, "The rope is too short ; loose thyself and drop 
 down." So he did himself loose from the rope and dropped into 
 the water, in which he sank fathoms deep without touching bottom ; 
 whilst she donned her mantilla and taking his clothes, returned to 
 
 her mother And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and 
 
 ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 :Nrofco bjjbcn it bjas t]^c ^cbcn |t)unlircti and ^bcUtl) Xfglbt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Ali 
 of Cairo was in the well, Zaynab donned her mantilla and, taking 
 his clothes, returned to her mother and said, " I have stripped Ali 
 the Egyptian and cast him into the Emir Hasan's well, whence alas 
 for his chance of escaping ! " ^ Presently, the Emir Hasan, the 
 master of the house, who had been absent at the Divan, came home 
 and, finding the door open, said to his Syce, " Why didst thou not 
 
 ^ i.e. I am not a petty thief. 
 "^ Arab. Satl = kettle, bucket. Lat. Situla (r). 
 
 ^ i.e. " there is no chance of his escaping." It may also mean, " And far from 
 him (hayhat) is escape."
 
 384 Alf Laylah wa Lay /ah. 
 
 draw the bolt?" "O my lord," replied the groom, "indeed I 
 locked it with my own hand." The Emir cried, " As my head 
 liveth, some robber hath entered my house ! " Then he went in and 
 searched, but found none and said to the groom, "Fill the ewer, 
 that I may make the Wuzu-ablution." So the man lowered the 
 bucket into the well but, when he drew it up, he found it heavy and 
 looking down, saw something therein sitting ; whereupon he let it 
 fall into the water and cried out, saying, " O my lord, an Ifrit came 
 up to me out of the well ! " Replied the Emir, " Go and fetch four 
 doctors of the law, that they may read the Koran over him, till he 
 go away." So he fetched the doctors and the Emir said to them, 
 " Sit round this well and exorcise me this Ifrit." They did as he 
 bade them ; after which the groom and another servant lowered 
 the bucket again and Ali clung to it and hid himself under it 
 patiently till he came near the top, when he sprang out and landed 
 among the doctors, who fell a-cuffing one another and crying out, 
 " Ifrit ! Ifrit ! " The Emir looked at Ali and seeing him a young 
 man, said to him, "Art thou a thief? " " No," replied Ali ; " Then 
 what dost thou in the well ? " asked the Emir ; and Ali answered, 
 " I went down to the Tigris to wash myself and dived, whereupon 
 the current carried me under the earth and I came up in this well." 
 Quoth the other, " Tell the truth." > So Ali told him all that had 
 befallen him, and the Emir gave him an old gown and let him go. 
 He returned to Calamity Ahmad's lodging and related to him all 
 that had passed. Quoth Ahmad, " Did I not warn thee that 
 Baghdad is full of women who play tricks upon men ? " And quoth 
 Ali Kitf al-Jamal, " I conjure thee by the Mighty Name, tell me how 
 it is that thou art the chief of the lads of Cairo and yet hast been 
 stripped by a girl ? " This was grievous to Ali and he repented him 
 of not having followed Ahmad's advice. Then the Calamity gave 
 him another suit of clothes and Hasan Shuman said to him, '' Dost 
 thou know the young person ? " " No," replied Ali ; and Hasan 
 rejoined, " 'Twas Zaynab, the daughter of Dalilah the Wily, the 
 portress of the Caliph's Khan ; and hast thou fallen into her toils, 
 O Ali ? " Quoth he, " Yes ; " and quoth Hasan, " O Ali, 'twas she 
 who took the Chiefs clothes and those of all his men." " This is a 
 disgrace to you all ! " " And what thinkest thou to do ? " "I 
 purpose to marry her." " Put away that thought far from thee, and 
 console thy heart of her." " O Hasan, do thou counsel me how I 
 shall do to marry her." "With all my heart: if thou wilt drink 
 
 ^ This is the way to take an Eastern when he tells a deliberate lie j and it often 
 surprises him into speaking the truth.
 
 The Adve7itiires of Mercury AH of Cairo. 385 
 
 from my hand and march under my banner, I will bring thee to 
 her." " I will well." So Hasan made Ali put off his clothes ; and, 
 taking a cauldron heated therein somewhat as it were pitch, where- 
 with he anointed him and he became like unto a blackamoor slave. 
 Moreover, he smeared his lips and cheeks and pencilled his eyes 
 with red Kohl.^ Then he clad him in a slave's habit and giving 
 him a tray of kabobs and wine, said to him, "There is a black cook 
 in the Khan who requires from the bazar only meat ; and thou art 
 now become his like ; so go thou to him civilly and accost him in 
 friendly fashion and speak to him in the blacks' lingo, and 
 salute him, saying, 'Tis long since we met in the beer-ken. 
 He will answer thee :— I have been too busy : on my hands be 
 forty slaves, for whom I cook dinner and supper, besides making 
 ready a tray for Dalilah and the like for her daughter Zaynab, 
 and the dogs' food. And do thou say to him. Come, let us eat 
 kabobs and lush swipes.- Then go with him into the saloon 
 and make him drunken and question him of his service, how 
 many dishes and what dishes he hath to cook, and ask him of 
 the dogs' food and the keys of the kitchen and the larder ; and he 
 will tell thee ; for a man, when he is drunken, telleth all he would 
 conceal were he sober. When thou hast done this, drug him and 
 don his clothes and sticking the two knives in thy girdle, take the 
 vegetable-basket and go to the market and buy meat and greens, 
 with which do thou return to the Khan and enter the kitchen and 
 the larder and cook the food. Dish it up and put Bhang in it, so 
 as to drug the dogs and the slaves and Dalilah and Zaynab and lastly 
 serve up. When all are asleep, hie thee to the upper chamber and 
 bring away every suit of clothes thou wilt find hanging there ; and, 
 if thou have a mind to marry Zaynab, bring with thee also the forty 
 carrier-pigeons." So Ali went to the Khan and going in to the cook, 
 saluted him and said, " 'Tis long since I have met thee in the beer- 
 ken." The slave replied, " I have been busy cooking for the slaves 
 and the dogs." Then he took him and making him drunken, ques- 
 tioned him of his work. Quoth the kitchener, " Every day I cook 
 five dishes for dinner and the like for supper ; and yesterday they 
 sought of me a sixth dish,^ yellow rice,"* and a seventh, a mess of 
 
 ^ The conjunctiva in Africans is seldom white ; often it is red and more 
 frequently yellow. 
 
 '^ So in the texts, possibly a clerical error for the wine which he had brought 
 with the kabobs. But beer is the especial tipple of African slaves in Egypt. 
 
 ^ Arab. " Laun," prop. = colour, hue ; but applied to genus antl species, our 
 "kind"; and especially to dishes which dilTcr in appearance ; whilst in Egypt 
 it means any dish. 
 
 * Arab. "Zardah"= rice dressed with honey and saffron. The word is still 
 common in Turkey. 
 
 VOL. IV. B B
 
 o 
 
 86 Alf Laylah wa Lay la h. 
 
 cooked pomegranate seed." Ali asked, " And what is the order of 
 thy service ? " and the slave answered, " First I serve up Zaynab's 
 tray, next DaUlah's ; then I feed the slaves and give the dogs their 
 sufficiency of meat, and the least that satisfies them is a pound 
 each." But, as fate would have it, he forgot to ask him of the keys. 
 Then he drugged him and donned his clothes ; after which he took 
 the basket and went to the market, where he bought meat and 
 greens ; — — And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and 
 ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 Noto tuljnt it toas tl)c ^cbcn l^untitcO antr ^jbirtccntl) Niglbt, 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Ali of 
 Cairo, after drugging the cook-slave with Bhang, took the two knives 
 which he stuck in his belt and, carrying the vegetable-basket, went 
 to the market where he bought meat and greens ; and, presently 
 returning to the Khan, he saw Dalilah seated at the gate, watching 
 those who went in and came out, and the forty slaves with her, 
 armed. So he heartened his heart and entered ; but Dalilah knew 
 him and said to him, " Back, O captain of thieves ! Wilt thou play 
 a trick on me in the Khan ? " Thereupon he (dressed as a slave) 
 turned and said to her, " What sayest thou, O portress ? " She asked, 
 " What hast thou done with the slave, our cook? say me if thou hast 
 killed or drugged him ? " He answered, " What cook ? Is there here 
 another slave-cook than I ? " She rejoined, " Thou liest, thou art 
 Mercury Ali the Cairene." And he said to her, in slaves' patois, " O 
 portress, are the Cairenes black or white ? I will slave for you no 
 longer." Then said the slaves to him, "What is the matter with 
 thee, O our cousin ? " Cried Dalilah, " This is none of your uncle's 
 children, but Ali Zaybak the Egyptian ; and meseems he hath either 
 drugged your cousin or killed him." But they said, " Indeed this is 
 our cousin Sa'adu'llah the cook ; " and she, " Not so, 'tis Mercury 
 Ali, and he hath dyed his skin." Quoth the sharper, "And who 
 is Ali ? I am Sa'adu'llah." Then she fetched unguent of proof, 
 with which she anointed Ali's forearm and rubbed it ; but the black 
 did not come off; whereupon quoth the slaves, " Det him go and 
 dress us our dinner." Quoth Dalilah, " If he be indeed your cousin, 
 he knoweth what you sought of him yesternight ^ and how many 
 dishes he cooketh every day." So they asked him of this and he 
 
 ' Arab. " Laylat ams," the night of yesterday (Al-barihah) not our "last 
 night," which would be the night of the day spoken of.
 
 The Adventures of Mercury AH of Cairo. 387 
 
 said, " Every day I cook you five dishes for the morning and the 
 like for the evening meal, lentils and rice and broth and stew ^ and 
 sherbet of roses ; and yesternight ye sought of me a sixth dish and 
 a seventh, to wit yellow rice and cooked pomegranate seed." And 
 the slaves said, " Right ! " Then quoth Dalilah, " In with him and 
 if he know the kitchen and the larder, he is indeed your cousin ; 
 but, if not, kill him." Now the cook had a cat which he had 
 brought up, and whenever he entered the kitchen it would stand 
 at the door and spring to his back as soon as he went in. So, 
 when Ali entered, the cat saw him and jumped on his shoulders ; 
 but he threw it off and it ran before him to the door of the kitchen 
 and stopped there. He guessed that this was the kitchen door ; so 
 he took the keys and seeing one with traces of feathers thereon, 
 knew it for the kitchen key and therewith opened the door. Then 
 he entered and setting down the greens, went out again, led by the 
 cat, which ran before him and stopped at another door. He guessed 
 that this was the larder and seeing one of the keys marked with 
 grease, knew it for the key and opened the door therewith ; where- 
 upon quoth the slaves, " O Dalilah, were he a stranger, he had not 
 known the kitchen and the larder, nor had he been able to distin- 
 guish the keys thereof from the rest ; verily, he is our cousin 
 Sa'adu'llah." Quoth she, "He learned the places from the cat and 
 distinguished the keys one from the other by the appearance : but 
 this cleverness imposeth not upon me.'''' Then he returned to the 
 kitchen where he cooked the dinner and, carrying Zaynab's tray up 
 to her room, saw all the stolen clothes hanging up ; after which he 
 went down and took Dalilah her tray and gave the slaves and the 
 dogs their rations. The like he did at sundown and drugged 
 Dalilah's food and that of Zaynab and the slaves. Now the doors 
 of the Khan were opened and shut with the sun. So Ali went forth 
 and cried out, saying, " O dwellers in the Khan, the watch is set 
 and we have loosed the dogs ; whoso stirreth out after this can blame 
 none save himself." But he had delayed the dogs' supper and put 
 poison therein ; consequently, when he set it before them they ate 
 of it and died, while the slaves and Dalilah and Zaynab still slept 
 under Bhang. Then he went up and took all the clothes and the 
 carrier-pigeons and, opening the gate, made off to the barrack of 
 the Forty, where he found Hasan Shuman the Pestilence who said 
 to him, " How hast thou fared?" Thereupon he told him what had 
 
 ^ Arab. " Yakhni," a word much used in Persia and India and properly 
 applied to the complicated broth prepared for the rice and meat. For a good 
 recipe see Ilerklols, Appendix xxix.
 
 388 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 passed and he praised him. Then he caused him put off his clothes 
 and boiled a decoction of herbs wherewith he washed him, and his 
 skin became white as it was ; after which he donned his own dress 
 and going back to the Khan, clad the cook in the habit he had taken 
 from him and made him smell to the counter-drug ; upon which the 
 slave awoke and going forth to the greengrocer's, bought vegetables 
 and returned to the Khan, Such was the case with Al-Zaybak of 
 Cairo ; but as regards Dalilah the Wily, when the day broke, one of 
 the lodgers in the Khan came out of his chamber and, seeing the 
 gate open and the slaves drugged and the dogs dead, he went in to 
 her and found her lying drugged, with a scroll on her neck and at 
 her head a sponge steeped in the counter-drug. He set the sponge 
 to her nostrils and she awoke and asked, " Where am I ? " The 
 merchant answered, "When I came down from my chamber I saw 
 the gate of the Khan open and the dogs dead and found the slaves 
 and thee drugged." So she took up the paper and read therein 
 these words, " None did this deed save Ali the Egyptian." Then 
 she awoke the slaves and Zaynab by making them smell the counter- 
 Bhang and said to them, " Did I not tell you that this was Ali of 
 Cairo?" presently adding to the slaves, "But do ye conceal the 
 matter." Then she said to her daughter, " How often have I warned 
 thee that Ali would not forego his revenge ? He hath done this deed 
 in requittal of that which thou diddest with him and he had it in his 
 power to kill thee ; but he refrained therefrom out of courtesy and a 
 desire that there should be love and friendship between us." So 
 saying, she doffed her man's gear and donned woman's attire ^ and, 
 tying the kerchief of peace about her neck, repaired to Ahmad al- 
 Danaf's barrack. Now when Ali entered with the clothes and the 
 carrier-pigeons, Hasan Shuman gave the Hall-keeper the price of 
 forty pigeons and he bought them and cooked them amongst the 
 men. Presently there came a knock at the door and Ahmad said, 
 " That is Dalilah's knock : rise and open to her, O Hall-keeper." 
 
 So he admitted her and And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of 
 
 day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 tfcCotD foi)£tx it tons ^z ^rbm fl^untirtti anU JFouttecnt^ :^iaftt, 
 
 She pursued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Dalilah was admitted, Hasan asked her, "What bringeth thee 
 
 ^ In token of defeat and in acknowledgment that she was no match for men.
 
 The Adventures of Mercury AH of Cairo. 389 
 
 hither,. O ill-omened old woman ? Verily, thou and thy brother 
 Zurayk the fishmonger are of a piece ! " and she answered, " O 
 Captain, I am in the wrong and this my neck is at thy mercy ; but 
 tell me which of you it was that played me this trick ? " Quoth 
 Calamity Ahmad, '"Twas the first of my lads." Rejoined Dalilah, 
 " For the sake of Allah intercede with him to give me back the 
 carrier-i)igeons and what not, and thou wilt lay me under great 
 •obligation." When Hasan heard this he said, " Allah requite thee, 
 O AH! Why didst thou cook the pigeons?" and Ali answered, 
 ^' I knew not that they were carrier-pigeons." Then said Ahmad, 
 " O Hall-keeper bring us the cooked pigeons." So he brought them 
 and Dalilah took a piece and tasting it, said, " This is none of the 
 carrier-pigeons' flesh, for I fed them on grains of musk and their 
 meat is become even as musk." Quoth Shuman, " An thou desire 
 to have the carrier-pigeons, comply with All's will." Asked she, 
 "What is that?" And Hasan answered, "He would have thee 
 marry him to thy daughter Zaynab." She said, " I have no com- 
 mand over her except of affection;" and Hasan said to Ali the 
 Cairene, " Give her the pigeons." So he gave them to her, and she 
 took them and rejoiced in them. Then quoth Hasan to her, " There 
 is no help but thou return us a sufficient reply ; " and Dalilah re- 
 joined, " If it be indeed his wish to marry her, it availed nothing to 
 play this clever trick upon us : it behoveth him rather to demand 
 her in marriage of her mother's brother and her guardian, Captain 
 Zurayk, him who cricth out, saying : — Ho ! a pound of fish for two 
 farthings ! and who hangeth up in his shop a purse containing two 
 thousand dinars." When the Forty heard this, they all rose and 
 cried out, saying, " What manner of blather is this, O hag ? Dost 
 thou wish to bereave us of our brother Ali of Cairo? " Then she 
 returned to the Khan and said to her daughter, " Ali the Egyptian 
 seeketh thee in marriage." Whereat Zaynab rejoiced, for she loved 
 him in her heart, and she asked her mother what had passed. So 
 she told her, adding, " I made it a condition tliat he should demand 
 thy hand of thine uncle, so I might make him fall into destruction." 
 Meanwhile Ali turned to his fellows and asked them, " What manner 
 of man is this Zurayk ? " and they answered, " He was chief of the 
 sharpers of Al-Irak land and could all but pierce mountains and lay 
 hold upon the stars. He would steal the Kohl from the eye and, in 
 brief, he had not his match for roguery ; but he hath repented his 
 sins and forsworn his old way of life and opened him a fishmonger's 
 shop. And now he hath amassed two thousand dinars by the sale 
 of fish and laid them in a purse with strings of silk, to which he hath 
 tied bells and rings and rattles of brass, hung on a peg within the
 
 390 Alf Laylah wa Lay/ah. 
 
 doorway. Every time he openeth his shop he suspendeth the said 
 purse and crieth out, saying : — Where are ye, O sharpers of Egypt, 
 
 prigs of Al-Irak, O tricksters of Ajam-land ? Behold, Zurayk the 
 fishmonger hath hung up a purse in front of his shop, and whoso 
 pretendeth to craft and cunning, and can take it by sleight, it is his. 
 So the long-fingered and greedy-minded come and try to take the 
 purse, but cannot ; for, whilst he frieth his fish and tendeth the fire, 
 he layeth at his feet scone-like circles of lead ; and whenever a thief 
 thinketh to take him unawares and maketh a snatch at the purse he 
 casteth at him a loaf of lead and slayeth him or doeth him a damage. 
 So, O Ali, wert thou to tackle him, thou wouldst be as one who 
 jostleth a funeral cortege, unknowing who is dead ; ^ for thou art no 
 match for him, and we fear his mischief for thee. Indeed, thou hast 
 no cause to marry Zaynab, and he who leaveth a thing alone liveth 
 without it." Cried Ali, " This were shame, O comrades ; needs must 
 
 1 take the purse : but bring me a young lady's habit." So they 
 
 brought him women's clothes and he clad himself therein and stained 
 
 his hands with Henna, and modestly hung down his veil. Then he 
 
 went out, and presently he saw an ass-driver coming, so he gave him 
 
 a dinar and, mounting, rode till he came to Zurayk's shop, where he 
 
 saw the purse hung up and the gold glittering through it. Now 
 
 Zurayk was frying fish, and Ali said, " O ass-man, what is that 
 
 smell ? " Replied he, " It's the smell of Zurayk's fish." Quoth Ali, 
 
 " I am a woman and the smell harmeth me ; go, fetch me a slice of 
 
 the fish." So the donkey-boy said to Zurayk, " What aileth thee to 
 
 fry fish so early and annoy women with the smell ? I have here the 
 
 the wife of the Emir Hasan Sharr al-Tarik ; so give her a bit of fish." 
 
 Thereupon Zurayk took a piece of fish and would have fried it, but 
 
 the fire had gone out and he went in to rekindle it. Meanwhile Ali 
 
 dismounted and, as Zurayk still did not appear, Ali put out his hand 
 
 to the purse ; but no sooner had he touched it than the bells and 
 
 ratdes and rings began to jingle and the gold to chink. Quoth 
 
 Zurayk, who returned at the sound, " Thy perfidy hath come to light, 
 
 O gallows-bird ! Wilt thou put a cheat on me and thou in a 
 
 woman's habit ? Now take what cometh to thee ! " And he threw 
 
 a loaf of lead at him, but it went agley and lighted on another ; 
 
 whereupon the people rose against Zurayk and said to him, "Art 
 
 thou a tradesman, or a swashbuckler ? An thou be a tradesman, 
 
 take down thy purse and spare the folk thy mischief." He replied, 
 
 " Bismillah, in the name of Allah ! On my head be it." As for 
 
 ^ The slightest movement causes a fight at a funeral or a wedding-procession 
 in the East : even amongst the " mild Hindus."
 
 The Adventures of Memory All of CaU'o. 391 
 
 Ali, he made off to the barrack and told Hasan Shuman what had 
 happened, after which he put off his woman's gear and donning a 
 groom's habit which was brought to him by his chief, took a dish 
 and five dirhams. Then he returned to Zurayk's shop and the fish- 
 monger said to him, " What dost thou want, O my master ? " ^ He 
 showed him the dirhams and Zurayk would have given him of the 
 fish in the tray, but he said, " I will have none save hot fish." So 
 he set fish in the earthen pan and finding the fire dead, went into 
 relight it ; whereupon Ali put out his hand to the purse and caught 
 hold of the end of it. The rattles and rings and bells jingled and 
 Zurayk said, "Thy trick hath not deceived me. I knew thee for all 
 thou art disguised as a groom, by the grip of thy hand on the dish 
 
 and the dirhams." And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of 
 
 day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 Xofo tuj^cn it tons tfje ^cbcn fBuntrwtr nnti jpiftccntfj :^ig6t, 
 
 She resumed. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Ali of Egypt put out his hand to the purse, the bells and rings 
 jingled and Zurayk said, "Thy trick hath not deceived me; for all 
 thou comest disguised as a groom, I knew thee by the grip of thy 
 hand on the dish and the dirhams!" So saying, he threw the 
 lead at him, but he avoided it and it fell into the pan full of hot 
 fish and broke it and overturned it, fat and all, ujion the breast and 
 shoulders of the Kazi, who was passing. The oil ran down his 
 clothes and he cried out, " O my clothes ! What a sad pickle you 
 are in! Alas, unhappy I ! AVho hath played me this trick?" 
 Answered the people, " O our lord, it was some small boy that threw 
 a stone into the i)an : but for Allah's ward, it had been worse." 
 Then they turned and seeing the loaf of lead and that it was Zurayk 
 who had thrown it, rose against him and said to him, " O Zurayk, 
 this is not allowed of Allah ! Take down the purse or it shall go 
 ill for thee." Answered he, " I will take it down, Inshallah ! " 
 Meanwhile Ali returned to the barrack and told his comrades who 
 cried, "Where is the purse?" all that had passed and they said, 
 " Thou hast exhausted two-thirds of his cunning." Then he changed 
 his groom's dress for the garb of a merchant and, going out, met a 
 snake-charmer, with a bag of serpents and a wallet containing his kit, 
 
 ^ Arab. " Va Usta " (for "UsUiz"). The Pers. term is Ustarl- a craft-master, 
 an artisan, and especially a barber. Here it is merely a polite address.
 
 392 A If Laylah iva Lay la h. 
 
 to whom said he, " charmer, come and amuse my lads, and thou 
 shalt have largesse." So he accompanied him to the barrack, where 
 he fed him and drugging him with Bhang, doffed his clothes and put 
 them on. Then he took the bags and repairing to Zurayk's shop 
 began to play the reedpipe. Quoth Zurayk, " Allah provide thee ! " 
 But All pulled out the serpents and cast them down before him ; 
 whereat the fishseller, who was afraid of snakes, fled from them into 
 the inner shop. Thereupon Ali picked up the reptiles and, thrust- 
 ing them back into the bag, stretched out his hand and caught hold 
 of the end of the purse. The rings again rang and the bells and 
 rattles jangled, and Zurayk cried, " Wilt thou never cease to play me 
 tricks ? Now thou feignest thyself a serpent-charmer ! " So saying, 
 he took up a loaf of lead, and hurled it at Ali ; but it missed him 
 and fell on the head of a groom who was passing by, following his 
 master, a trooper, and knocked him down. Quoth the soldier, 
 " Who felled him?" and the folk said, " Twas a stone fell from the 
 roof." So the soldier passed on and the people, seeing the loaf of 
 lead, went up to Zurayk and cried to him, " Take down the purse ! " 
 and he said, " Inshallah^ I will take it down this very night ! " Ali 
 ceased not to practise upon Zurayk till he had made seven different 
 attempts but without taking the purse. Then he returned the snake- 
 charmer his clothes and kit and give him due benevolence : after 
 which he went back to Zurayk's shop and heard him say, " If I 
 leave the purse here to-night, he will dig through the shop-wall and 
 take it ; I will carry it home with me." So he arose and shut the 
 the shop ; then he took down the purse and putting it in his bosom 
 set out home, till he came near his house, when he saw a wedding 
 in a neighbour's lodging and said to himself, "I will hie me home 
 and give my wife the purse and don my fine clothes and return to 
 the marriage." And Ali followed him. Now Zurayk had married a 
 black girl, one of the freed women of the Wazir Ja'afar, and she had 
 borne him a son, whom he named Abdallah, and he had promised 
 her to spend the money in the purse on the occasion of the boy's 
 circumcision and of his marriage-procession. So he went into his 
 house and, as he entered, his wife saw that his face was overcast 
 and asked him, " What hath caused thy sadness ? " Quoth he, 
 " Allah hath afflicted me this day with a rascal who made seven 
 attempts to get the purse, but without avail ;" and quoth she, " Give 
 it to me, that I may lay it up against the boy's festival-day. (Now 
 Ali, who had followed him lay hidden in a closet whence he could 
 see and hear all.) So he gave her the purse and changed his clothes 
 saying, " Keep the purse safely, O Umm Abdallah, for I am going 
 to the wedding. But she said, " Take thy sleep awhile." So he
 
 The Adventures of Mercury Ali of Cairo ^ 393 
 
 lay down and fell asleep. Presently, Ali rose and going on tiptoe to 
 the purse, took it and went to the house of the wedding and stood 
 there, looking on at the fun. Now meanwhile, Zurayk dreamt that 
 he saw a bird fly away with the purse and awaking in affright, 
 said to his wife, " Rise ; look for the purse." So she looked and 
 finding it gone, buffetted her face and said, *' Alas the blackness 
 •of thy fortune, O Umm Abdallah ! A sharker hath taken the 
 purse." Quoth Zurayk, "By Allah it can be none other than rascal 
 Ali who hath plagued me all day ! He hath followed me home 
 and seized the purse ; and there is no help but that I go and 
 get it back." Quoth she, "Except thou bring it, I will lock on 
 thee the door and leave thee to pass the night in the street." So 
 he went up to the house of the wedding, and seeing Ali looking 
 on, said to himself, " This is he who took the purse ; but he lodgeth 
 with Ahmad al-Danaf." So he forewent him to the barrack and, 
 climbing up at the back, dropped down into the saloon, where he 
 found everyone asleep. Presently there came a rap at the door 
 and Zurayk asked, "Who is there ! " " Ali of Cairo," answered the 
 knocker; and Zurayk said, "Hast thou brought the purse?" So 
 Ali thought it was Hasan Shuman and replied, " I have brought it ; ^ 
 open the door." Quoth Zurayk, " Impossible that I open to thee 
 till I see the purse ; for thy chief and I have laid a wager about it." 
 Said Ali, " Put out thy hand." So he put out his hand through the 
 hole in the side-door and Ali laid the purse in it ; whereupon Zurayk 
 took it and, going forth as he had come in, returned to the wedding. 
 Ali stood for a long while at the door, but none opened to him ; 
 and at last he gave a thundering knock that awoke all the men 
 and they said, " That is Ali of Cairo's peculiar rap." So the Hall- 
 keeper opened to him and Hasan Shuman said to him, "Hast thou 
 brought the purse ? " Replied Ali, " Enough of jesting, O Shuman ; 
 didst thou not swear that thou wouldest not open to me till I showed 
 thee the purse, and did I not give it thee through the hole in the 
 side-door ? And didst thou not say to me, I am sworn never to 
 open the door till thou show me the purse?" Quoth Hasan, "By 
 Allah, 'twas not I who took it, but Zurayk ! " Quoth Ali, " Needs 
 must I get it again," and repaired to the house of the wedding, where 
 
 ^ In common parlance Arabs answer a question (like the classics of Europe who 
 rarely used Yes and No, Yea and Nay), by repeating its last words. They have, 
 however, many aftirmative particles, e.g. Ni'am, which answers a negative, " Dost 
 thou not go?" — Ni'am (Yes!) ; and Ajal, a stronger form following a command, 
 e.g. Sir (go) — -Ajal, Yes verily. The ]iopuIar form is Aywa ('llahi) = Yes, by 
 Allah. The chief negatives are Ma and La, both often used in the sense of 
 "There is not."
 
 394 ' Alf Laylah tua Laylah. 
 
 he heard the buffoon ^ say, " Bravo,^ O Abu Abdallah ! Good luck 
 to thee with thy son ! " Said AH, " My luck is in the ascendant," 
 and going to the fishmonger's lodging, climbed over the back wall of 
 the house and found his wife asleep. So he drugged her with Bhang 
 and clad himself in her clothes. Then he took the child in his arms 
 and went round, searching, till he found a palm-leaf basket con- 
 taining buns,3 which Zurayk of his niggardliness had kept from the 
 Greater Feast. Presently the fishmonger returned and knocked 
 at the door, whereupon Ali imitated his wife's voice and asked, 
 "Who is at the door?" "Abu Abdallah," answered Zurayk, and 
 Ali said, " I swore that I would not open the door to thee, except 
 thou broughtest back the purse." Quoth the fishmonger, " I have 
 brought it." Cried Ali, " Here with it into my hand before I open 
 the door ; " and Zurayk answered, saying, " Let down the basket and 
 take it therein." So Sharper Ali let down the basket and the other 
 put the purse therein, whereupon Ali took it and drugged the child. 
 Then he aroused the woman and, making off by the back way as he 
 had entered, returned with the child and the purse and the basket 
 of cakes to the barrack and showed them all to the Forty, who 
 praised his dexterity. Thereupon he gave them cakes, which they 
 ate, and made over the boy to Hasan Shuman, saying, " This is 
 Zurayk's child ; hide it by thee." So he hid it and fetching a lamb, 
 gave it to the Hall-keeper who cooked it whole, wrapped in a cloth, 
 and laid it out shrouded as it were a dead body. Meanwhile Zurayk 
 stood awhile, waiting at the door, then gave a knock like thunder 
 and his wife said to him, "Hast thou brought the purse?" He 
 replied, " Didst thou not take it up in the basket thou diddest let 
 down but now?" and she rejoined, " I let no basket down to thee, 
 nor have I set eyes on the purse." Quoth he, " By Allah, the Sharper 
 hath been beforehand with me and hath taken the purse again ! '" 
 Then he searched the house and found the basket of cakes gone 
 
 ^ Arab. " Khalbus,'' prop, the servant of the Almah-girls who acts buffoon. 
 The " Maskharah" (whence our "mask ") corresponds with the jester or fool of 
 rnediseval Europe : amongst the Arnauts he is called " Suttari," and is known by 
 his fox's tails : he mounts a mare, tom-toms on the kettle-drum and is generally 
 one of the bravest of the corps. 
 
 - Arab. " Shiibash," pronounced in Egypt Shobash : it is the Persian Shah- 
 bash, lit. = be a King, equivalent to our bravo. Here, however, the allusion is 
 to the buffoon's cry at an Egyptian feast, " Shohbash 'alayk, ya Sahib al-faraj," 
 = a present is due from thee, O giver of the fete ! (See Lane, M. E. xxvii.) 
 
 ' Arab. " Ka'ak al-'I'd : " the former is the Arab form of the Persian " Kahk "■ 
 (still retained in Egypt), whence I would derive our word "cake." It alludes to 
 the sweet cakes which are served up with dates, the quatre mendiants and sherbets 
 during visits of the Lesser (not the Greater) Festival, at the end of the Ramazan 
 Fast. (Lane, M. E. xxv.)
 
 The AdvenUires of Mercury AH of Cairo. 395 
 
 and the child missing and cried out, saying, "Alas, my child ! " 
 Whereupon the woman beat her breast and said, " I and thou to 
 the Wazir, for none hath slain my son save this sharper, and all 
 because of thee." Cried Zurayk, " I will answer for him." So he 
 tied the kerchief of truce about his neck and going to Ahmad 
 al-Danaf's lodging, knocked at the door. The Hall-keeper ad- 
 mitted him and as he entered Hasan Shuman asked him, "What 
 bringeth thee here?" He answered, "Do ye intercede with Ali 
 the Cairene to restore me my child and I will yield to him the 
 purse of gold." Quoth Hasan, "Allah requite thee, O Ali ! Why 
 didst thou not tell me it was his child ? " " What hath befallen him ?" 
 cried Zurayk, and Hasan replied, We gave him raisins to eat and he 
 choked and died ; and this is he." Quoth Zurayk, " Alas, my son ! 
 What shall I say to his mother?" Then he rose and opening the 
 shroud, saw it was a lamb barbecued and said, " Thou makest sport 
 of me, O Ali!" Hereatthey gave him the child and Calamity Ahmad 
 said to him, " Thou didst hang up the purse, proclaiming that it 
 should be the property of any sharper who should be able to take it, 
 and Ali hath taken it ; so 'tis the very property of our Cairene." 
 Zurayk answered, " I make him a present of it ; " but Ali said to 
 him, " Do thou accept it on account of thy niece Zaynab." And 
 Zurayk replied, " I accept it." Then quoth the Forty, " We demand 
 of thee Zaynab in marriage for Ali of Cairo;" but quoth he, "I 
 have no control over her save of kindness." Hasan asked, " Dost 
 thou grant our suit ? " and he answered, " Yes, I will grant her in 
 marriage to him who can avail to her mahr or marriage-settlement." 
 "And what is her dowry? " enquired Hasan ; and Zurayk replied, 
 '• She hath sworn that none shall wed her save the man who bringeth 
 her the robe of Kamar, daughter of Azariah the Jew and the rest of 
 
 her gear." And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased 
 
 to say her permitted say. 
 
 ICohj luljcn ft luas tijc ^cbcn ^■^untJictr anO ^i.xtccntf) Xigljt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Zurayk replied to Shuman, " She hath sworn that none shall wed 
 her save the man who bringeth her the clothes of Kamar, daughter of 
 Azariah the Jew, and her crown and girdle and pantoufle^ of gold," Ali 
 cried, " If I do not bring her the clothes this very night, I renounce 
 
 ^ Arab. " Tasumah," a rare word for a peculiar slipper. Dozy (s. v.) says only, 
 pece de chaussure, sandale, pantoulle, Soulier. 
 
 espece
 
 396 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 ray claim to her." Rejoined Zurayk, " O Ali, thou art a dead man 
 if thou play any of thy pranks on Kamar." " Why so ? " asked Ali, 
 and the other answered, " Her father, Jew Azariah, is a skilful, wily, 
 perfidious magician who hath the Jinn at his service. He owneth 
 without the city a castle, whose walls are one brick of gold and one 
 of silver and which is visible to the folk only whilst he is therein : 
 when he goeth forth it disappeareth. He brought his daughter this 
 dress I speak of from an enchanted treasure, and every day he 
 layeth it in a charger of gold and, opening the windows of the 
 palace, crieth out : — Where are the sharpers of Cairo, the prigs of 
 Al-Irak, the master-thieves of Ajam-land? Whoso prevaileth to 
 take this dress, 'tis his. So all the long-fingered gentry essayed the 
 adventure, but failed to take it, and he turned them by his magic 
 into apes and asses." But Ali said, " I will assuredly take it, and 
 Zaynab shall be displayed therein."^ So he went to the shop of the 
 Jew and found him a man of stern and forbidding aspect, seated 
 with scales and stone-weights and gold and silver and nests of 
 drawers and so forth before him, and a she-mule tethered hard by. 
 Presently he rose and shutting his shop, laid the gold and silver in 
 two purses, which he placed in a pair of saddle-bags and set on the 
 she-mule's back. Then he mounted and rode till he reached the 
 city-outskirts followed, without his knowledge, by Ali, when he took 
 out some dust from a pocket-purse and, muttering over it, sprinkled 
 it upon the air. No sooner had he done this than Sharper Ali saw 
 a caslle which had not its like, and the Jew mounted the steps upon 
 his beast which was a subject Jinni ; after which he dismounted and 
 taking the saddle-bags off her back, dismissed the she-mule and 
 she vanished. Then he entered the castle and sat down. Presently, 
 he arose and opening the lattices, took a wand of gold, which he set 
 up in the open window and, hanging thereto a golden charger 
 by chains of the same metal, laid in it the dress, whilst Ah watched 
 him from behind the door, and presently he cried out, saying, 
 " Where are the sharpers of Cairo ? Where are the prigs of 
 Al-Irak, the master-thieves of the Ajam-land ? Whoso can take this 
 dress by his sleight, 'tis his ! " Then he pronounced certain 
 magical words and a tray of food spread itself before him. He ate 
 and conjured a second time, whereupon the tray disappeared ; and 
 yet a third time, when a table of wine was placed between his hands 
 and he drank. Quoth Ali, " I know not how I am to take the dress 
 except if he be drunken." Then he stole up behind the Jew, 
 
 ^ Arab. " Ijtila " — the displaying of the bride on her wedding night, so often 
 alluded to in The Nic;hts.
 
 The Adventures of Mercury Ali of Cairo. 397 
 
 hanger in grip ; but the other turned and conjured, saying to his 
 hand, " Hold with the sword ;' whereupon Ah's right arm was held 
 and abode half-way in the air bending the hanger. He put out his 
 left hand to the weapon, but it also stood fixed in the air, and so 
 with his right foot, leaving him standing on one foot. Then the 
 Jew dispelled the charm from him and Ali became as before. 
 Presently Azariah struck a table of sand and found that the thiefs 
 name w^as Mercury Ali of Cairo ; so he turned to him and said, 
 "Come nearer! Who art thou and what dost thou here?" He 
 replied, " I am Ah of Cairo, of the band of Ahmad al-Danaf. I 
 sought the hand of Zaynab, daughter of Dalilah the Wily, and she 
 demanded thy daughter's dress to her dowry ; so do thou give it to 
 me and become a Moslem, an thou wouldst save thy life." Re- 
 joined the Jew, " After thy death ! Many have gone about to steal 
 the dress, but failed to take it from me ; wherefore if thou deign be 
 advised, thou wilt begone and save thyself; for they only seek the 
 dress of thee, that thou mayst fall into destruction ; and indeed, 
 had I not seen by geomancy that thy fortune overrideth my fortunes 
 I had smitten thy neck." Ali rejoiced to hear that his luck over- 
 came that of the Jew and said to him, " There is no help for it but 
 I must have the dress and thou must become a True Believer." 
 Asked the Jew, "Is this thy will and last word? " and Ali answered, 
 " Yes." So the Jew took a cup and filling it with water, conjured 
 over it and said to Ali, " Come forth from this shape of a man into 
 the form of an ass." Then he sprinkled him with the water and 
 straightway he became a donkey, with hooves and long ears, and 
 fell to braying after the manner of asinines. The Jew drew round 
 him a circle which became a wall over against him, and drank on 
 till the morning, when he said to Ali, " I will ride thee to-day and 
 give the she-mule a rest." So he locked up the dress, the charger, 
 the rod and the charms in a cupboard^ and conjured over Ali, who 
 followed him. Then he set the saddle-bags on his back and mount- 
 ing, fared forth of the Castle, whereupon it disappeared from sight 
 and he rode into Baghdad, till he came to his shop, where he 
 alighted and emptied the bags of gold and silver into the trays before 
 him. As for Ali, he was tied up by the shop-door, where he stood 
 in his asinine form hearing and understanding all that passed, with- 
 out being able to speak. And behold, up came a young merchant 
 with whom fortune had played the tyrant and who could find no 
 easier way of earning his livelihood than water-carrying. So he 
 
 ^ Arab. " Khiskhanah "; a mixed word from " Khaysh " = can%-as or stuffs 
 generally and I'ers. " Khdnah "= house-room. Dozy (s.v.) says armoirc, bu^ct.
 
 398 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 brought his wife's bracelets to the Jew and said to him, " Give me 
 the price of these bracelets, that I may buy me an ass." Asked the 
 Jew, "What wilt thou do with him?" and the other answered, "O 
 master, I mean to fetch water from the river on his back, and earn 
 my living thereby." Quoth the Jew, " Take this ass of mine." So 
 he sold him the bracelets and received the ass-shaped Ali of Cairo 
 in part payment and carried him home. Quoth Ali to himself, " If 
 the Ass-man clap the pannel on thee and load thee with water-skins 
 and go with thee half a score journeys a day he will ruin thy health 
 and thou wilt die." So, when the water-carrier's wife came to bring 
 him his fodder, he butted her with his head. She cried aloud and 
 the neighbours came to her assistance and beat him and raised him 
 off her breast. When her husband the intended water-carrier came 
 home, she said to him, " Now either divorce me or return the ass 
 to his owner." He asked, "What hath happened.?" and she 
 answered, "This is a devil in the guise of a donkey. He sprang 
 upon me, and had not the neighbours beaten him off he had killed 
 me." Then he carried the ass back to the Jew, who said to him, 
 " Wherefore hast thou brought him back ? " and he replied, " He 
 well-nigh killed my wife." So the Jew gave him his money again 
 and he went away : and Azariah said to Ali, " Hast thou recourse to 
 
 knavery, unlucky wretch that thou art, in order that And Shah- 
 
 razad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her 
 permitted say. 
 
 jSoh) toftcn It toas tj^c ^tbcn |^unt(vcti ani3 ^tbmtcent]^ B^4% 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 the water-carrier brought back the ass, its Jew owner returned to 
 him the monies and turning to Ali of Cairo, said, " Hast thou 
 recourse to knavery, unlucky wretch that thou art, in order that 
 he may return thee to me ? But since it pleaseth thee to be an 
 ass, I will make thee a spectacle and a laughing stock to great and 
 small." Then he mounted him and rode till he came without the 
 city, when he brought out the ashes in powder and conjuring over 
 it sprinkled it upon the air and immediately the Castle appeared. 
 He entered and taking the saddle-bags off the ass's back set up 
 the rod and hung to it the charger wherein were the clothes, pro- 
 claiming aloud, " Where be the clever ones of all quarters who may 
 avail to take this dress ? " Presently he conjured as before and meat 
 was set before him and he ate and then wine when he drank ; after 
 which he took a cup of water and muttering certain words thereover,
 
 The Adventures of Mercury AH of Cairo. 399 
 
 sprinkled it on the ass Ali, saying, "Quit this form and return to thy 
 former shape." Ali straightway became a man once more and 
 Azariah said to him, " O Ali, take good advice and be content with 
 my mischief. Thou hast no call to marry Zaynab nor to take my 
 daughter's dress, for 'tis no easy matter for thee : so leave greed and 
 'twill be better for thee ; else will I turn thee into a bear or an ape 
 or set on thee an Ifrit, who will cast thee behind the Mountain Kaf." 
 He replied, " I have engaged to take the dress and needs must I 
 have it and thou must Islamise or I will slay thee." Rejoined the 
 Jew, " O Ali, thou art like a walnut ; unless it be broken it cannot 
 be eaten." Then he took a cup of water and conjuring over it, 
 sprinkled Ali with somewhat thereof, saying, "Take thou shape of 
 bear ; " whereupon he instantly became a bear and the Jew put a 
 collar about his neck, muzzled him and chained him to a picket of 
 iron. Then he sat down and ate and drank, now and then throwing 
 him a morsel of his leavings and emptying the dregs of the cup over 
 him, till the morning, when he rose and laid by the tray and the 
 dress and conjured over the bear, which followed him to the shop. 
 There the Jew sat down and emptied the gold and silver into the 
 trays before Ali, after binding him by the chain ; and the bear there 
 abode seeing and comprehending but not able to speak. Presently 
 up came a man and a merchant, who accosted the Jew and said to 
 him, " O master, wilt thou sell me yonder bear ? I have a wife 
 who is my cousin and is sick ; and they have prescribed for her 
 to eat bears' flesh and anoint herself with bears' grease." At this 
 the Jew rejoiced and said to himself, " I will sell him to this 
 merchant, so he may slaughter him and we be at peace from him." 
 And Ali also said in his mind, " By Allah, this fellow meaneth to 
 slaughter me, but deliverance is with the Almighty." Then said 
 the Jew, " He is a present from me to thee." So the merchant 
 took him and carried him to the butcher, to whom he said, " Bring 
 thy tools and company me." The butcher took his knives and 
 followed the merchant to his house, where he bound the beast 
 and fell to sharpening his blade : but, when he went up to him 
 to slaughter him, the bear escaped from his hands and, rising 
 into the air, disappeared from sight between heaven and earth ; 
 nor did he cease flying till he alighted at the Jew's castle. Now 
 the reason thereof was on this wise. When the Jew returned 
 home, his daughter questioned him of Ali and he told her what 
 had happened ; whereupon she said, " Summon a Jinni and ask him 
 of the youth, whether he be indeed Mercury Ali or another who 
 seeketh to put a cheat on thee." So Azariah called a Jinni by con- 
 jurations and questioned him of Ali ; and he replied, " 'Tis Ali of
 
 400 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 Cairo himself. The butcher hath pinioned him and whetted his 
 knife to slaughter him." Quoth the Jew, " Go, snatch him up and 
 bring him hither, ere the butcher cut his throat." So the Jinni flew 
 off and, snatching Ali out of the butcher's hand, bore him to the 
 palace and set him down before the Jew, who took a cup of water 
 and conjuring over it, sprinkled him therewith, saying, " Return 
 to thine own shape." And he straightway became a man again as 
 before." The Jew's daughter Kamar,^ seeing him to be a hand- 
 some young man, fell in love with him and he fell in love with her ; 
 and she said to him, "O unlucky one, why dost thou go about 
 to take my dress, enforcing my father to deal thus with thee ? " 
 Quoth he, " 1 have engaged to get it for Zaynab the Coney- 
 catcher, that I may wed her therewith." And she said, " Others 
 than thou have played pranks with my father to get my dress, but 
 could not win to it ; " presently adding, " so put away this thought 
 from thee." But he answered, "Needs must I have it, and thy 
 father must become a Moslem, else I will slay him." Then cried 
 the Jew, " See, O my daughter, how this unlucky fellow seeketh his 
 own destruction," adding, " Now I will turn thee into a dog." So he 
 took a cup graven with characters and full of water and conjuring over 
 it, sprinkled some of it upon Ali, saying, " Take thou form of dog ; " 
 whereupon he straightway became a dog. And the Jew and his 
 daughter drank together till the morning, when the father laid up 
 the dress and charger and mounted his mule. Then he conjured 
 over the dog, which followed him, as he rode towards the town, and all 
 dogs barked at Ali ^ as he passed, till he came to the shop of a broker, 
 a seller of second-hand goods, who rose and drove away the dogs, and 
 Ali lay down before him. The Jew turned and looked for him, but 
 finding him not, passed onwards. Presently the broker shut up his 
 shop and went home, followed by the dog, which, when his daughter 
 saw enter the house, she veiled her face and said, " O my papa, dost 
 thou bring a strange man in to me ? " He rephed, " O my daughter, 
 this is a dog." Quoth she, " Not so, 'tis Ali the Cairene, whom the 
 Jew Azariah hath enchanted ;" and she turned to the dog and said 
 to him, " Art not Ali of Cairo ? " And he signed to her with his 
 head, "Yes." Then her father asked her, " Why did the Jew en- 
 chant him?" and she answered, "Because of his daughter Kamar's 
 dress ; but I can release him." Said the broker, " If thou can 
 
 ^ The Bresl. Edit. " Kamaiiyah "= Moon-like (fern.) for Moon. 
 
 ^ Every traveller describes the manners and customs of dogs in Eastern cities 
 where they furiously attack all canine intruders. I have noticed the subject in 
 writing of Al-Medinah, where the beasts are confined to the suburbs (Pilgrimage 
 ii. 52-54) and my wife has noticed it in Inner Life of Syria.
 
 The Adventures of Mercury All of Cairo. 401 
 
 indeed do him this good office, now is the time," and she, " If he 
 will marry me, I will release him." And he signed to her with his 
 head, " Yes." So she took a cup of water, graven with certain signs. 
 and conjuring over it, was about to sprinkle Ali therewith, when lo 
 and behold ! she heard a great cry and the cup fell from her hand, 
 She turned and found that it was her father's handmaid, who had 
 cried out ; and she said to her, " O my mistress, is't thus thou 
 keepest the covenant between me and thee? None taught thee 
 this art save I, and thou didst agree with me that thou wouldst do 
 naught without consulting me and that whoso married thee should 
 marry me also." And the broker's daughter said, " 'Tis well." 
 When the broker heard the maid's words, he asked his daughter, 
 " Who taught the maid ? " and she answered, " O my papa, entjuire 
 of herself." So he put the question and she replied, " Know, O my 
 lord, that, when I was with Azariah the Jew, I used to spy upon 
 him and listen to him whilst he performed his gramarye ; and when 
 he went forth to his shop in Baghdad, I opened his books and read 
 in them, till I became skilled in the Cabbala-science. One day he 
 sold me to thee and I taught my young mistress, making it a con- 
 dition with her that she should do naught without my counsel, and 
 that whoso might wed her should wed me also." Then she took u 
 cup of water and conjuring over it, sprinkled the dog therewith ; 
 saying, "Return thou to form of man." And he straightway was 
 restored to his former shape ; whereupon the broker saluted him 
 with the salam and asked him the reason of his enchantment. So 
 
 Ali told him all that had passed, And Shahrazad perceived the 
 
 dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 ilotD tofjcn ft tons tl^c ^cbcn |Duntrrcti nnb 13igfjtctntfj iEliafjt, 
 
 She resumed. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the 
 broker, having saluted Ali of Cairo with the salam, asked him the 
 reason of his enchantment and what had befallen him ; and he 
 answered bv telling him all that had passed, when the broker said 
 to him, " Will not my daughter and the handmaid suffice thee ? " 
 but he answered, " Needs must I wed Zaynab also." Now suddenly 
 there came a rap at the door and the maid said, " Who is at the 
 door ? " The knocker replied, " Kamar, daughter of Azariah 
 the Jew ; say me, is Ali of Cniro with you ? " Replied the 
 broker's daughter, " O thou daughter of a dog ! If he be with 
 us, what wilt thou with him? Co down, O handmaid, and open 
 
 VOL. IV. C C
 
 402 Aif Lay I ah iva Lay! ah. 
 
 to her." So the maid let her in, and when she looked upon 
 Ali and he upon her, he said, " What bringeth thee hither, 
 O dog's daughter?" Quoth she, "I testify that there is no 
 god but the God and I testify that Mohammed is the Apostle 
 of God." And, having thus Islamised, she asked him, " Do men 
 in the faith of Al-Islam give marriage-portions to women or 
 do women dower men?" Quoth he, "Men endow women." 
 " Then," said she, " I come and dower myself for thee, 
 bringing thee, as my marriage-portion, my dress together with 
 the rod and charger and chains and the head of my father, 
 the enemy of thee and the foeman of Allah." And she threw 
 down the Jew's head before him. Now the cause of her 
 slaying her sire was as follows. On the night of his turning 
 Ali into a dog, she saw, in a dream, a speaker who said to her, 
 " Become a Moslemah." She did so ; and as soon as she awoke 
 next morning she expounded Al-Islam to her father who refused to 
 embrace the Faith ; so she drugged him with Bhang and killed him. 
 As for Ali, he took the gear and said to the broker, " Meet me to- 
 morrow at the Caliph's Divan, that I may take thy daughter and 
 the handmaid to wife." Then he set out rejoicing, to return to 
 the barrack of the Forty. On his way he met a sweetmeat-seller, 
 who was beating hand upon hand and saying, " There is no 
 Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the 
 Great ! Folk's labour hath waxed sinful and man is active only in 
 fraud ! " Then said he to Ali, " I conjure thee, by Allah, taste of 
 this confection ! " So Ali took a piece and ate it and fell down 
 senseless, for there was Bhang therein ; whereupon the sweetmeat- 
 seller seized the dress and the charger and the rest of the gear and 
 thrusting them into the box where he kept his sweetmeats hoisted it 
 up and made off. Presently he met a Kazi, who called to him, 
 saying, " Come hither, O sweetmeat-seller ! " So he went up to him 
 and setting down his sack, laid the tray of sweetmeats upon it and 
 asked, " What dost thou want ? " " Halwa and dragees,^ " answered 
 the Kazi and, taking some in his hand, said, " Both of these are 
 adulterated." Then he brought out sweetmeats from his breast- 
 pocket 2 and gave them to the sweetmeat-seller, saying, " Look at 
 this fashion ; how excellent it is ! Eat of it and make the like of it." 
 So he ate and fell down senseless, for the sweetmeats were drugged 
 
 ^ Arab. " Halawat wa Miilabbas "; the latter etymologically means one dressed 
 or clothed. Here it alludes to almonds, etc., clothed or coated with sugar. See 
 Dozy fs. V.) " Labas." 
 
 " Arab. '"Ubb" from a root = being long : Dozy (s.v ), says poche au sein ; 
 Habb al-'ubb is a woman's ornament.
 
 The Adventures of Mercury Ali of Cairo. 403 
 
 with Bhang, whereupon the Kazi bundled him into the sack and 
 made off with him, charger and chest and all, to the barrack of the 
 Forty. Now the Judge in question was Hasan Shuman, and the 
 reason of this was as follows. VVhen Ali had been gone some days 
 in quest of the dress and they heard no news of him, Calamity 
 Ahmad said to his men, " O lads, go and seek for your brother Ali 
 of Cairo." So they sallied forth in quest of him, and among the 
 rest Hasan Shuman the Pestilence^ disguised in a Kazi's gear. He 
 came upon the sweetmeat-seller and, knowing him for Ahmad al- 
 Lakit ^ suspected him of having played some trick upon Ali ; so he 
 drugged him and did as we have seen. Meanwhile, the other Forty 
 fared about the streets and highways making search in different 
 directions, and amongst them Ali Kitf al-Jamal, who espying a 
 crowd, made towards the people and found the Cairene Ali lying 
 drugged and senseless in their midst. So he revived him and he 
 came to himself, and seeing the folk flocking around him asked, 
 "Where am I ? " Answered Ali Camel-shoulder and his comrades, 
 " We found thee lying here drugged, but know not who drugged 
 thee." Quoth Ali, " 'Twas a certain sweetmeat-seller who drugged 
 me and took the gear from me ; but where is he gone ? " Quoth 
 his comrades, " We have seen nothing of him ; but come, rise and 
 return home with us." So they returned to the barrack, where they 
 found Ahmad al-Danaf, who greeted Ali and enquired if he had 
 brought the dress. He replied, " I was coming hither with it and 
 other matters, including the Jew's head, when a sweetmeat-seller 
 met me and drugged me with Bhang and took them from me." 
 Then he told him the whole tale, ending with, " If I come across 
 that man of goodies again, I will requite him." Presently Hasan 
 Shuman came out of a closet and said to him, "Hast thou gotten 
 the gear, O Ali ? " So he told him what had befallen him and added, 
 " If I know whither the rascal is gone and where to find the knave. 
 I would pay him out. Knowest thou whither he went ? " Answered 
 Hasan, " I know where he is," and opening the door of the closet, 
 showed him the sweetmeat-seller within, drugged and senseless. 
 Then he aroused him and he opened his eyes, and finding himself 
 in presence of Mercury Ali and Calamity Ahmad and the Forty, 
 started up and said, " Where am I and who hath laid hands on 
 me ? " Replied Shuman, " 'Twas I laid hands on thee ; " and Ali 
 cried, "O perfidious wretch, wilt thou play thy pranks on me?" 
 And he would have slain him : but Hasan said to him, " Hold thv 
 hand, for this fellow is become thy kinsman." "How my kins- 
 
 ' Who, it will be remembcrctl, was Dalilah's grandson.
 
 404 Alf Laylah wa LaylaJi. 
 
 man?" quoth Ali ; and quoth Hasan, "This is Ahmad al-Lakit, son 
 of Zaynab's sister." Then said AH to the prisoner, " Why didst thou 
 thus, O Lakit?" and he rephed, "My grandmother, DaUlah the 
 Wily, bade me do it ; only because Zurayk the fishmonger fore- 
 gathered with the old woman and said : — Mercury AH of Cairo is 
 a sharper and a past master in knavery, and he will certainly slay 
 the Jew and bring hither the dress. So she sent for me and said to 
 me, O Ahmad, dost thou know Ali of Cairo ? Answered I : — Indeed 
 I do, and 'twas I directed him to Ahmad al-Danaf's lodging when 
 he first came to Baghdad. Quoth she : — Go and set thy nets for 
 him, and if he have brought back the gear, put a cheat on him and 
 take it from him. So I went round about the highways of the city, 
 till I met a sweetmeat-seller, and buying bis clothes and stock-in- 
 trade and gear for ten dinars, did what was done." Thereupon 
 quoth Ali, " Go back to thy grandmother and Zurayk, and tell them 
 that I have brought the gear and the Jew's head and say to them : — 
 Meet me to-morrow at the CaHph's Divan, there to receive Zaynab's 
 dowry." And Calamity Ahmad rejoiced in this and said, "We 
 have not wasted our pains in rearing thee, O Ali ! " Next morning 
 Ali took the dress, the charger, the rod and the chains of gold, 
 together with the head of Azariah the Tew mounted on a pike, and 
 went up, accompanied by Ahmad al-Danaf and the Forty, to the 
 
 Divan, where they kissed ground before the Caliph And Shah- 
 
 razad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her per- 
 mitted say. 
 
 ^Nfoto tol^en ft foas ^z ^cben l^unlrretr antr :tCmftc£nt]b ^I'gfit, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Ali 
 the Cairene went up to the CaHph's Divan, accompanied by his 
 uncle Ahmad al-Danaf and his lads, they kissed ground before the 
 Caliph who turned and, seeing a youth of the most valiant aspect, 
 enquired ofCalamity Ahmad concerning him and he replied, " O 
 Commander of the Faithful, this is Mercury Ali the Egyptian 
 captain of the brave boys of Cairo, and he is the first of my lads." 
 And the Caliph loved him for the valour that shone from between 
 his eyes, testifying for him and not against him. Then Ali rose, 
 and, casting the Jew's head down before him, said, " May thine 
 every enemy be like this one, O Prince of True Believers ! " Quoth 
 Al-Rashid, "Whose head is this?" and quoth Ali, " 'Tis the head 
 of Azariah the Jew." "Who slew him?" asked the Caliph. So 
 AH related to him all that had passed, from first to last, and the
 
 The Adventures of Mercury Ali of Cairo. 405 
 
 Caliph said, " I had not thought thou wouldst kill him, for that he 
 was a sorcerer." Ali replied, " O Commander of the Faithful, my 
 Lord made me prevail to his slaughter." Then the Caliph sent the 
 Chief of Police to the Jew's palace, where he found him lying head- 
 less ; so he laid the body on a bier,i and carried it to Al-Rashid, 
 who commanded to burn it. Whereat, behold, up came Kamar and 
 kissing the ground before the Caliph, informed him that she was the 
 daughter of Jew Azariah and that she had become a Moslemah. 
 Then she renewed her profession of Faith before the Commander of 
 the Faithful and said to him " Be thou my intercessor with Sharper 
 Ali that he take me to wife." She also appointed him her guardian 
 to consent to her marriage with the Cairene, to whom he gave the 
 Jew's palace and all its contents, saying, "Ask a boon of me." 
 Quoth Ali, " I beg of thee to let me stand on thy carpet and eat of 
 thy table ; " and quoth the Caliph, " O Ali, hast thou any lads ? " 
 He replied, " I have forty lads ; but they are in Cairo." Rejoined 
 the Caliph, " Send to Cairo and fetch them hither," presently adding, 
 " But, O Ali, hast thou a barrack for them ? " " No," answered Ali ; 
 and Hasan Shuman said, " I make him a present of my barrack 
 with all that is therein, O Commander of the Faithful." However, 
 the Caliph retorted, saying, "Thy lodging is thine own, O Hasan;" 
 and he bade the treasurer give the court architect ten thousand 
 dinars, that he might build Ali a hall with four daises and forty 
 sleeping-closets for his lads. Then said he, " O Ali, hast thou any 
 further wish, that we may command its fulfilment?" and said Ali, 
 " O King of the age, be thou my intercessor with Dalilah the Wily 
 that she give me her daughter Zaynab to wife and take the dress and 
 ^ear of Azariah's girl in lieu of dower." Dalilah accepted the 
 Caliph's intercession and accepted the charger and dress and what 
 not, and they drew up the marriage contracts between Ali and 
 Zaynab and Kamar, the Jew's daughter and the broker's daughter 
 and the handmaid. Moreover, the Caliph assigned him an allowance 
 with a table morning and evening, and stipends and spending money 
 for fodder ; all of the most liberal. Then Ali the Cairene fell to 
 making ready for the wedding festivities and, after thirty days, he sent 
 a letter to his comrades in Cairo, wherein he gave them to know of 
 
 ' Arab. "Tabiit," a term applied to the Ark of the Covenant (Koran ii. 349), 
 which contained Moses' rod and shoes, Aaron's mitre, ihe manna-pot, the broken 
 Tables of the Law, and the portraits of all the j^rophets which are to a]ii)ear till 
 the end of time — an extensive list for a box measuring 3 by 2 cidjits. Euro|)eans 
 often translate it coflin, but it is properly the wooden case placed over an honoured 
 grave. "Iran" is the Ark of Moses' exposure, also the large hearse on which 
 tribal chiefs were carried to earth.
 
 4o6 AIJ Laylali wa Lay/ah. 
 
 the favours and honours which the Cahph had bestowed upon him 
 and said, " I have married four maidens and needs must ye come to 
 the wedding." So, after a reasonable time the forty lads arrived and 
 they held high festival ; he homed them in his barrack and 
 entreated them with the utmost regard and presented them to the 
 Caliph, who bestowed on them robes of honour and largesse. 
 Then the tiring-women displayed Zaynab before Ali in the 
 dress of the Jew's daughter, and he married her and the three 
 other maidens. After this it befel that Ali of Cairo was one 
 night on guard by the Caliph who said to him, " I wish thee, 
 O Ali, to tell me all that hath befallen thee from first to last with 
 Dalilah the Wily and Zaynab the Coney-catcher and Zurayk the 
 Fishmonger." So Ali related to him all his adventures and the 
 Commander of the Faithful bade record them and lay them up in 
 the royal muniment-rooms. So they wrote down all that had 
 befallen him and kept it in store with other histories for the 
 people of Mohammed the best of Mankind. And Ali and his 
 wives and comrades abode in all solace of life, and its joyance, 
 till there came to them the Destroyer of delights and Sunderer of 
 societies ; and Allah (be He extolled and exalted !) is All-Knowing ! ^ 
 And also men relate the tale of 
 
 ARDASHIR AND HAY AT AL-NUFUS.^ 
 
 There was once in the city of Shiraz a mighty King called Sayf 
 al-A'azam Shah, who had grown old, without being blessed with a 
 son. So he implored the Most High Lord, who saith to a thing, 
 " Be," and it becometh. Wherefore in time his wife gave birth to a 
 male child like the moon, whom his father named Ardashir,^ and he 
 grew up and throve and applied himself to the study of learning and 
 letters, till he attained the age of fifteen. Now there was in Al-Irak 
 a King called Abd al-Kadir who had a daughter, by name Hayat 
 al-Nufus, and she was hke the rising full moon ; but she had an 
 hatred for men and the folk very hardly dared name mankind in 
 her presence. The Kings of the Chosroes had sought her in 
 marriage of her sire ; but, when he spoke with her thereof, she 
 said, "Never will I do this; and if thou force me thereto, I will 
 
 ' i.e. "What we have related is not " Gospel Truth." 
 
 ^ Omitted by Lane (iii. 252) " because Uttle more than a repetition" of Taj 
 al-Muluk and the Lady Dunya. 
 
 ^ Artaxerxes ; in the Mac. Edit. Azdashir, a misprint.
 
 Ardashir a7id Hay at al-Nufus. 407 
 
 slay myself." Now Prince Ardashir heard of her fame and fell in 
 love with her and told his father who, seeing his case, took pity on 
 him and promised him day by day that he should marry her. So he 
 despatched his Wazir to demand her in wedlock, but King Abd 
 al-Kadir refused, and when the Minister returned to King Sayl 
 al-A'azam and acquainted him with what had befallen his mission 
 and the failure thereof, he was wroth with exceeding wrath and cried, 
 " Shall the like of me send to one of the Kings on a requisition and 
 he accomplish it not ? " Then he bade a herald make proclamation 
 to his troops, bidding them bring out the tents and equip tiiem for 
 war with all diligence, though they should borrow money for the 
 necessary expenses ; and he said, ''i will on no wise turn back, till 1 
 have laid waste King Abd al-Kadir's dominions and slain his men 
 and plundered his treasures and blotted out his traces ! " When the 
 report of this reached Ardashir he rose from his carpet-bed, and 
 going in to his father, kissed ground ^ between his hands and said, 
 
 "O mighty King, trouble not thyself with aught of this ihing" 
 
 And Snahrazad perceived the dawn ^of day and ceased to say her 
 permitted say. 
 
 Nolu tol)cn It bas tijc ^eben fl^unlivcti anU ^faJcutictD Xigljt, 
 
 She continued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 report of this reached the Prince, he went in to his sire the King 
 and, kissing ground between his hands, said, " O mighty King, 
 trouble not thy soul with aught of this thing and levy not thy 
 champions and armies neither spend thy moneys. Thou art 
 stronger than he, and if thou loose upon him this thy host, thou 
 wilt lay waste his cities and dominions and spoil his good and slay 
 his strong men and himself; but when his daughter shall come to 
 know what hath befallen her father and his people by reason of 
 her, she will slay herself, and I shall die on her account ; for I can 
 never live alter her \ no, never." Aaked the King, '' And what 
 then thinkest thou to do, (J my son ? " and the Prince answered, 
 " I will don a merchant's habit and cast about how I may win to 
 the Princess and compass my hope of her." Quoth Sayf al-A'azam, 
 " Art thou determined upon this .? " and (juoth the Prince, " Yes, O 
 
 ' I use "kiss ground " as we say " kiss hands." Ihit it must not be under- 
 stood literally : the nearest ai)i)roach would be to tuucli the earth with the 
 UHjier-iips and apply them to the lips or brow. Amongst Hindus the Ashtanga- 
 prostration incluaed actually kissing the ground.
 
 4o8 Alf Laylah wa Lay 1 ah. 
 
 my sire ; " whereupon the King called to his Wazir, and said to him, 
 " Do thou journey with my son, the core of my heart, and help him 
 to win his will and watch over him and guide him with thy sound 
 judgment, for thou standest to him even in my stead." " I hear and 
 obey," answered the Minister ; and the King gave his son three 
 hundred thousand dinars in gold and great store of jewels and 
 precious stones and goldsmiths' ware and stuffs and other things 
 of price. Then Prince Ardashir went in to his mother and kissed 
 her hands and asked her blessing. She blessed him and, forthright 
 opening her treasures, brought out to him necklaces and trinkets 
 and apparel and all manner of other costly objects hoarded up from 
 the time of the bygone Kings, whose price might not be evened 
 with coin. Moreover, he took with him of his Mamelukes and 
 negro-slaves and cattle all that he needed for the road and clad 
 himself and the Wazir and their company in traders' gear. Then 
 he farewelled his parents and kinsfolk and friends ; and, setting out, 
 fared on over wolds and wastes all hours of the day and watches of 
 the night ; and when the way was longsome upon him he improvised 
 these couplets : — 
 
 My longing bred of love with mine unease for ever grows ; * Nor against all the 
 
 wrongs of time one succourer arose ; 
 When Pleiads and the Fishes show in sky the rise I watch, * As worshipper 
 
 within whose breast a pious burning glows : 
 For Star o' Morn I speer until at last v\hen it is seen, « Fm madded with my 
 
 passion and my fancy's woes and throes : 
 I swear by you that never from your love have I been loosed ; * Naught am I 
 
 save a watcher who of slumber nothing knows ! 
 Though hard appear my hope to win, though languor aye increase, * And after 
 
 thee my patience fails and ne'er a helper shows, 
 Yet will I wait till Allah shall be pleased to join our loves ; * I'll mortify the 
 
 jealous and I'll mock me of my foes. 
 
 When he ended his verse he swooned away and the Wazir sprinkled 
 rose-water on him, till the Prince came to himself, when the Minister 
 said to him, " O King's son, possess thy soul in patience ; for the 
 consequence of patience is consolation, and behold, thou art on the 
 way to whatever thou wishest." And he ceased not to bespeak him 
 fair and comfort him till his trouble subsided ; and they continued 
 their journey with all diligence. Presently, the Prince again became 
 impatient of the length of the way and bethought him of his beloved 
 and recited these couplets : — 
 
 Longsome is absence, restlessness increaseth and despite ; * And burn my vitals 
 
 in the blaze my love and longings liglit : 
 Grows my hair gray from pains and pangs which I am doomed to bear * For 
 
 pine, while tear-floods stream from eyes and sore offend my sight :
 
 Ardashir and Hay at al-Nufus. 409 
 
 I iwear, O Hope of me, O End of every wish and will, « By Him who made 
 
 mankind and every branch with leafage dight, 
 A passion-load for thee, O my Desire, I must endure, * And boast that I do bear 
 
 such load no lover hath the might. 
 <^uestion the Night of me and Night thy soul shall satisfy * Mine eyelids never 
 
 close in sleep throughout the livelong night. 
 
 Then he wept with sore weeping and 'plained of that he suffered 
 for stress of love-longing ; but the Wazir comforted him and spoke 
 him fair, promising him the winning of his wish ; after which they 
 fared on again for a few days, when they drew near to the White 
 City, the cai)ital of King Abd al-Kadir, soon after sunrise. Then 
 said the Minister to the Prince, "Rejoice, O King's son, in all 
 good ; for see, yonder is the White City, that which thou seekest." 
 Whereat the Prince rejoiced with exceedmg joy and recited these 
 couplets :• — 
 
 My friends, I yearn in heart distraught of him ; * Longing abides and with sore 
 
 pains I brim : 
 I mourn like childless mother, nor can fmd * One to console me when the light 
 
 grows dim ; 
 Yet when the breezes blow from oft" thy land, * I feel their freshness shed on 
 
 heart and limb ; 
 And rail mine eyes like water-laden clouds, * While in a tear-sea shed by heart 
 
 I swim. 
 
 Now when they entered the White City they asked for the Merchants' 
 Khan, a place of moneyed men ; and when shown the hostelry they 
 hired three magazines and on receiving the keys ^ they laid up therein 
 .all their goods and gear. They abode in the Khan till they were 
 rested, when the Wazir applied himself to devise a device for the 
 
 Prince, And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and 
 
 •ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 ^NTotn tofjcn it bias tfjc ^cbcn ^"Juntircti anU ^tocntji-- first Nigljt, 
 
 She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the 
 Prince and the Minister alighted at the Khan and lodged their 
 goods in the ground-floor magazines and there settled their 
 servants. Then they tarried awhile till they had rested when the 
 Wazir arose and ai)plicd himself to devise a device for the Prince, 
 and said to him, " I have bethought mc of somewhat wherein. 
 
 ' The " key" is mentioned l)ccause a fee so called (Miftah) is paid on its being 
 handed to the new lodger (Pilgrimage i. 62.)
 
 4IO Alf Laylah zva Laylah. 
 
 methinks, will be success for thee, so it please Almighty Allah." 
 Quoth Ardashir, " O thou Wazir of good counsel, do what cometh 
 to thy mind, and may the Lord direct thy rede aright." Quoth the 
 Minister, " I purpose to hire thee a shop in the market-street of the 
 stuff-sellers and set thee therein ; for that all, great and small, have 
 recourse to the bazar and, meseems, when the folk see thee with 
 their own eyes sitting in the shop their hearts will incline to thee 
 and thou wilt thus be enabled to attain thy desire ; for thou art fair 
 of favour and souls incline to thee and sight rejoiceth in thee." 
 The other replied, " Do what seemeth good to thee." So the Wazir 
 forthright began to robe the Prince and himself in their richest 
 raiment and, putting a purse of a thousand dinars in his breast- 
 pocket, went forth and walked about the city, whilst all who looked 
 upon them marvelled at the beauty of the King's son, saying, 
 " Glory be to Allah who created this youth ! Blessed be Allah 
 excellentest of Creators ! " Great was the talk anent him and some 
 said, " This is no mortal, ' this is naught save a noble angel ; ' " i 
 and others, " Hath Rizwan, the door-keeper of the Kden-garden,. 
 left the gate of Paradise unguarded, that this youth hath come 
 forth ? " The people followed them to the stuff-market, where they 
 entered and stood, till there came up to them an old man of dignified 
 presence and venerable appearance, who saluted them, and they 
 returned his salam. Then the Shaykh said to them, " O my lords, 
 have ye any need that we may have the honour of accomplishing ? " 
 and the Wazir asked him, " Who art thou, O elder ? " He answered, 
 " I am the Overseer of the market." Quoth the Wazir, " Know 
 then, O Shaykh, that this is my son and I wish to hire him a shop- 
 in the bazar, that he may sit therein and learn to sell and buy and 
 take and give, and come to wot merchants' ways and habits." " I 
 hear and I obey," replied the Overseer and brought them without 
 stay or delay the key of a shop, which he caused the brokers sweep 
 and clean. And they did his bidding. Then the Wazir sent for 
 a high mattress, stuffed with ostrich-down, and set it up in the shop, 
 spreading upon it a small prayer-carpet, and a cushion fringed with 
 broidery of red gold : moreover he brought pillows and transported 
 thither so much of the goods and stuffs that he had brought with 
 him as filled the place. Next morning the young Prince came and 
 opening the shop, seated himself on the divan, and stationed two 
 Mamelukes clad in the richest of raiment before him and two black 
 slaves of the goodliest of the Abyssinians in the lower part of the 
 
 ^ Koran xii. 31, in the story of Joseph, before noticed.
 
 Ardashir and Hayat al-Ahifus. 4x1 
 
 shop. The Wazir enjoined him to keep his secret from the folk, so 
 thereby he might find aid in the winning of his wishes ; then he left 
 him and charging him to accpjaint him with what befel him in the 
 shop day by day, returned to the Khan. The Prince sat in the shop 
 till night as he were the moon at its fullest, whilst the folk, hearing 
 tell of his comeliness, flocked to the place, without errand, to gaze 
 on his beauty and loveliness and symmetry and perfect grace and 
 glorify the Almighty who created and shaped him, till none could 
 pass through that bazar for the excessive crowding of the folk about 
 him. The King's son turned right and left, abashed at the throng 
 of people that stared at him, hoping to make acquaintance with some 
 one about the court, of whom he might get news of the Princess ; 
 but he found no way to this, wherefore his breast was straitened. 
 Meanwhile, the Wazir daily promised him the attainment of his 
 desire and the case so continued for a time till, one morning, as the 
 youth sat in his shop, there came up an old woman of respectable 
 semblance and dignified presence clad in raiment of devotees^ and 
 followed by two slave-girls like moons. She stopped before the shop 
 and, having considered the Prince awhile, cried, "Glory be to God 
 who fashioned that face and perfected that figure ! " Then she saluted 
 him and he returned her salam and seated her by his side. Quoth 
 she, " Whence comest thou, O fair of favour.? " and quoth he, '■ From 
 the parts of Hind, O my mother, and I have come to this city to 
 see the world and look about me." " Honour to thee for a visitor ! 
 What goods and stuffs hast ihou ? Show me something handsome, 
 fit for Kings." " If thou wish for handsome stuffs, I will show 
 them to thee ; for I have wares that beseem persons of every con- 
 dition." " O my son, I want somewhat costly of price and seemly 
 to sight ; brief, the best thou hast." " Thou must needs tell me 
 for whom thou seekest it, that I may show thee goods according to 
 the rank of the requirer." " Thou speakest sooth, O my son," said 
 she, " I want somewhat for my mistress, Hayat al-Nufus, daughter 
 of Abd al-Kadir, lord of this land and King of this country." Now 
 when Ardashir heard his mistress's name, his reason flew for joy and 
 his heart fluttered and he gave no order to slave or servant, but, 
 putting his hand behind him, pulled out a purse of an hundred 
 dinars and offered it to the old woman, saying, " This is for the 
 washing of thy clothes." Then he again put forth his hand and 
 brought out of a wrapper a dress worth ten thousand dinars or more 
 
 ^ Probably the wtiitc woollens so often mentioned, whose use is now returning 
 to Europe, wliere men have a reasonable fear of dyed stuffs, especially since 
 Aniline conquered Cochineal.
 
 412 Alf Laylah wa Lay I ah. 
 
 and said to her, " This is of that which I have brought to your 
 country." When the old woman saw it, it pleased her and she 
 asked, " What is the price of this dress, O perfect in qualities ? " 
 Answered he, " I will take no price for it ! " whereupon she thanked 
 him and repeated her question ; but he said, " By Allah, I will take 
 no price for it. I make thee a present of it, an the Princess will 
 not accept it and 'tis a guest-gift from me to thee. Alhamdolillah— 
 Glory be to God — who hath brought us together, so that, if one day 
 I have a want, I shall find thee a helper to me in winning it ! " She 
 marvelled at the goodliness of his speech and the excess of his 
 generosity and the perfection of his courtesy and said to him, "What 
 is thy name, O my lord ? " He replied, " My name is Ardashir ;" 
 and she cried, " By Allah, this is a rare name ! Therewith are 
 Kings' sons named, and thou art in a guise of the sons of the mer- 
 chants ! " Quoth he, " Of the love my father bore me, he gave me 
 this name, but a name signifieth naught ;" and quoth she in wonder, 
 " O my son, take the price of thy goods." But he swore that he 
 would not take anything. Then the old lady said to him, " O my dear 
 one. Truth (I would have thee know) is the greatest of all things 
 and thou hast not dealt thus generously by me but for a special 
 cause : so tell me thy case and thy secret thought ; belike thou hast 
 some wish to whose winning I may help thee." Thereupon he laid 
 his hand in hers and, after exacting an oath of secrecy, told her the 
 whole story of his passion for the Princess and his condition by 
 reason thereof. The old woman shook her head and said, "True ; 
 but O my son, the wise say in the current adage : — An thou wouldest 
 be obeyed, abstain from ordering what may not be made ; and thou, 
 my son, thy name is Merchant, and though thou hadst the keys of 
 the Hidden Hoards, yet wouldst thou be called naught but Mer- 
 chant. An thou wouldst rise to high rank, according to thy station, 
 then seek the hand of a Kazi's daughter or even an Emir's ; but 
 why, O my son, aspirest thou to none but the daughter of the King 
 of the Age and the Time, and she a maid who knoweth nothing of 
 the things of the world and hath never in her life seen anything but 
 her palace wherein she dwelleth ? Yet, for all her tender age, she is 
 intelligent, shrewd, vivacious, penetrating, quick of wit, sharp of act 
 and rare of rede : her father hath no other child and she is dearer 
 to him than his life and soul. Every morning he cometh to her 
 and giveth her good-morrow, and all who dwell in the palace stand 
 in dread of her. Think not, O my son, that any dare bespeak her 
 with aught of these words ; nor is there any way for me thereto. 
 By Allah, O my son, my heart and vitals love thee and were it in 
 my power to give thee access to her, I would assuredly do it ; but I
 
 Ardashir and Hayat al-Niifus. 413 
 
 will tell thee somewhat, wherein Allah may haply appoint the healingof 
 thy heart, and I will risk life and qoods in thy cause, till I win thy will 
 for thee." He asked, "And what is that, O my mother ? " and she 
 answered, " Seek of me the daughter of a Wazir or an Emir, and I 
 will grant thy request ; but it may not be that one should mount 
 from earth to heaven at one bound." When the Prince heard this, 
 he replied to her with courtesy and sense, " O my mother, thou art a 
 woman of wit and knowest how things go. Say me, doth a man, 
 when his head irketh him, bind up his hand ? " Quoth she, " No, 
 by Allah, O my son ;" and quoth he, " Even so my heart seeketh 
 none but her and naught slayeth me but love of her. By Allah, I 
 am a dead man an I find not one to counsel me aright and succour 
 me ! Allah upon thee, O my mother, take pity on my strangerhood 
 
 and the streaming of my tears ! " And Shahrazad perceived the 
 
 dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 tN'o&j tuljcn It toas tftc ^cben l^untircti ant) ^tucntij--sccont( Nigljt 
 
 She resumed. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Arda- 
 shir, the King's son, said to the old woman, " AFah upon thee, O 
 my mother, take pity on my strangerhood and the streaming of my 
 tears." Replied she, " By Allah, O my son, thy words rend my 
 heart, but my hand hath no cunning wherewith to help thee." 
 Quoth he, " I beseech thee of thy favour, carry her a letter and kiss 
 her hands for me." So she had compassion on him and said, 
 " Write what thou wilt and I will bear it to her." When he heard 
 this he was ready to fly for joy, and calling for ink-case and paper, 
 wrote these couplets : — 
 
 Hayat al-Nufi'is, be gen'rous, and incline « To one who loving thee for 
 
 parting's doomed to pine. 
 
 1 was in all delight, in gladsomest of life, « But now I am distraught with 
 
 sufferings condign. 
 To wakefulness I cling through longsomeness of night * And with me Sorrow 
 
 chats' throurjh each sad eve of mine : 
 Pity a lover sad, a sore afflicted wretch « Whose eyelids ever ulcered are with 
 
 tearful brine ; 
 And when the morning comes at last, the real morn * He finds him drunken 
 
 and distraught with passion's wine. 
 
 ' Arab. " Samir," one who enjoys the Musamarah or niphl-talk outside the 
 Arab tents. " Snmar " is the shade of the moon, or half darkness when only 
 stars shine without a moon, or the darkness of a moonless night. Hence the 
 proverb (A. P. ii. 513) " Ma afal-hi'i al-Samar wa'l Kamar; " I will not do it by
 
 414 Alf Laylah wa Lay I ah. 
 
 Then he folded the scroll and kissing it, gave it to the old woman ; 
 after which he put his hand to a chest and took out a second 
 purse containing an hundred dinars, which he presented to her, 
 saying, '' Divide this among the slave girls." She refused it and 
 cried, " By Allah, O my son, I am not with thee for aught of this ! " 
 however, he thanked her and answered, " There is no help but 
 thou accept of it." So she took it and kissing his hands, returned 
 home ; and going in to the Princess, cried, " O 'my lady, I have 
 brought thee somewhat the like whereof is not with the people of 
 our city, and it cometh from a handsome young man, than whom 
 there is not a goodlier on earth's face ! " She asked, " O my nurse, 
 and whence cometh the youth ? " and the old woman answered, 
 " From the parts of Hind ; and he hath given me this dress of o-old 
 brocade, embroidered with pearls and gems and worth the Kingdom 
 of Chosroes and Caesar." Thereupon she opened the dress and the 
 whole palace was illuminated by its brightness, because of the beauty 
 of its fashion and the wealth of unions and jewels wherewith it was 
 broidered, and all who were present marvelled at it. The Princess 
 examined it and, judging it to be worth no less than a whole year's 
 revenue of her father's kingdom, said to the old woman, " O my 
 nurse, cometh this dress from him or from another ?"i Replied she 
 " From him ; " and Hayat al-Nufus asked, " Is this trader of our 
 town or a stranger ? " The old woman answered, " He is a foreif^ner 
 O my lady, newly come hither; and by Allah he hath servants 
 and slaves ; and he is fair of face, symmetrical of form, well 
 mannered, open-handed and open-hearted ; never saw I a goodlier 
 than he, save thyself." The King's daughter rejoined, " Indeed this 
 is an extraordinary thing, that a dress like this, which money cannot 
 buy, should be in the hands of a merchant ! What price did he set 
 on it, O my nurse ? " Quoth she, " By Allah, he would set no price 
 on it, but gave me back the money thou sentest by me and swore 
 that he would take naught thereof, saying : — 'Tis a gift from me to 
 the King's daughter ; for it beseemeth none but her ; and if she will 
 not accept it, I make thee a present of it." Cried the Princess 
 
 moondarl;ness or by moonshine, i.e. never. I have elsewhere remarked that 
 " Early to bedand early to rise " is a civilised maxim ; most barbarians sit deep 
 into the night in the light of the moon or of a camp-fire and will not rise till 
 nearly noon. They agree in our modern version of the old saw : — 
 
 Early to bed and early to rise 
 
 Makes a man surly and gives him red eyes. 
 
 The Shaykhs of Arab tribes especially transact most of their public business during 
 the dark hours. 
 
 ' Suspecting that it had been sent by some royal lover.
 
 Ardashir and Hay at al-Nufus. 415 
 
 " By Allah, this is indeed marvellous generosity and wondrous 
 munificence ! But I fear the issue of his affair, lest haply^ he be 
 brought to necessity. Why didst thou not ask him, O my nurse, 
 if he had any desire, that we might fulfil it for him?" The nurse 
 replied, "O my lady, I did ask him, and he said to me: — I have 
 indeed a desire ; but he would not tell me what it was. However, 
 he gave me this letter and said : — Carry it to the Princess." So 
 Hayat al-Nufus took the letter and opened and read it to the end ; 
 whereupon she was sore chafed and lost temper ; and, changing 
 colour for anger, she cried out to the old woman, saying, " Woe 
 to thee, O nurse ! What is the name of this dog who durst write 
 this language to a King's daughter ? What affinity is there 
 between me and this hound that he should address me thus ? By 
 Almighty Allah, Lord of the well Zemzem and of the Hati'm 
 Wall,^ but that I fear the Omnipotent, the Most High, I would send 
 and bind the cur's hands behind him and slit his nostrils, and shear 
 off his nose and ears and after, by way of example, crucify him on 
 the gate of the bazar wherein is his booth ! " When the old woman 
 heard there words, she waxed yellow ; her side-muscles ^ quivered 
 and her tongue clave to her mouth ; but she heartened her heart 
 and said, "Softly, O my lady! What is there in his letter to trouble 
 thee thus ? Is it aught but a memorial containing his complaint to 
 thee of poverty or oppression, from which he hopeth to be relieved 
 by thy favour ? " Replied she, " No, by Allah, O my nurse, 'tis 
 naught of this ; but verses and shameful words ! However, O my 
 nurse, this dog must be in one of three cases : either he is Jinn-mad, 
 and hath no wit, or he seeketh his own slaughter, or else he is 
 assisted by some one of exceeding puissance and a mighty Sultan." 
 Rejoined the old woman, " By Allah, O my lady, thou sayst sooth I 
 But reck not thou of yonder ignorant hound, for thou art seated in 
 thy lofty, firm-builded and unapproachable palace, to which the very 
 birds cannot soar neither the wind pass over it, and as for him, he 
 is clean distraught. Wherefore do thou write him a letter and chide 
 him angrily and spare him no manner of re])roof, but threaten him 
 with dreadful threats and menace him with death and say to him : — 
 
 ^ Arab. " Rubbama," a particle more emphatic than rubba, = perhaps, some- 
 times, often. 
 
 2 " The liroken (wall) "from Ilatm = breakincf. It fences the Ilijr or space 
 where Tshmael is buried. I have described it in Pilgrimage iii. 165. 
 
 ' Arab. " Partis " (plur. of farfsah) : the phrase has often occurred and is = 
 our "trembled in every nerve." As often happens in Arabic, it is "horsey;" 
 alluding to the shoulder-muscles (not shoulder-blades, Preston, p. S9) between 
 neckf^and flank which readily quiver in blood-horses when excited or frightened.
 
 4 1 6 Alf Laylah 7va Laylah. 
 
 Whence hast thou knowledge of me, that thou durst write me, O dog 
 of a merchant, O thou who trudgest far and wide all thy days in 
 wilds and wolds for the sake of gaining a dirham or a dinar? By 
 Allah, except thou awake from thy sleep and put off thine intoxi- 
 cation, I will assuredly crucify thee on the gate of the market-street 
 wherein is thy shop ! " Quoth the Princess, " I fear lest he presume, 
 if I write to him ;" and quoth the nurse, " And pray what is he and 
 what is his rank that he should presume to us? Indeed, we write 
 him but to the intent that his presumption may be cut off and his 
 fear magnified." And she ceased not craftily to persuade her, till 
 she called for ink-case and paper and wrote him these couplets : — 
 
 O thou who claimest to be prey of love and ecstasy ; * Thou, who for passion 
 
 spendest nights in grief and saddest gree : 
 Say, dost thou (haughty one !) desire the splendour of the moon ? * Did man e'er 
 
 use the moon for grace whate'er his lunacy P 
 T verily will counsel thee with rede the best to hear : * Cut short this course 
 
 ere come thou nigh sore risk, nay death, to dree ! 
 If thou do this request return, surely on thee shall fall * Sore punishment, 
 
 for vile offence a grievous penalty. 
 Be reasonable then, be wise, hark back unto thy wits ; * Behold, in very 
 
 truth I speak with best advice to thee : 
 By Him who did all things that be create from nothingness ; * Who dressed 
 
 the face of heaven with stars in brightest radiancy : 
 [f in the like of this thy speech thou dare to sin again ! * I'll surely have thee 
 
 crucified upon a trunk of tree. 
 
 Then she rolled up the letter and gave it to the old woman who 
 
 took it and, repairing to Ardashir's shop, delivered it to him, 
 
 And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying 
 her permitted say. 
 
 ^ofo tolbfn ittoas t?)c ^cbcn |^unlir£ti antr ^fotntii-tj^irtiigiglbt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the old 
 woman took that letter from Hayat al-Nufus she fared forth till she 
 found the youth who was sitting in his shop and gave it to him, 
 saying, " Read thine answer and know that when she perused thy 
 paper she was wroth with exceeding wrath ; but I soothed her and 
 spake her fair, till she consented to write thee a reply." He took 
 the letter joyfully, but, when he had read it and understood its drift, 
 he wept sore, whereat the old woman's heart ached and she cried, 
 " O my son, Allah never cause thine eyes to weep or thy heart to 
 mourn ! What can be more gracious than that she should answer 
 thy letter when thou hast done what thou diddest ? " He replied,
 
 Ardashir and Hay at al-Nufus. 417 
 
 " O my mother, what shall I do for a subtle device ? Behold, she 
 writeth to me, threatening me with death and crucifixion and for- 
 bidding me from writing to her ; and I, by Allah, see my death to 
 be better than my life ; but I beg thee of thy grace ^ to carry her 
 another letter from me." vShe said, " Write and I warrant I'll bring 
 thee an answer. By Allah, I will assuredly venture my life to win 
 for thee thy wish, though I die to pleasure thee ! " He thanked her 
 and kissing her hands, wrote these verses : — 
 
 Do you threaten me wi' death for my loving you so well ? * When Death to me 
 
 were rest and all dying is by Fate ? 
 And man's death is but a boon, when so longsome to him grows * His life, and 
 
 rejected he liv'es in lonest state : 
 Then visit ye a lover who hath ne'er a soul to aid : * Yox on pious works of men 
 
 Heaven's blessing shall await. 
 But an ye be resolved on this deed then up and on ; * I'm in bonds to you, a 
 
 bondsman confined within your gate : 
 What path have I whose patience without you is no more ? * How is this when 
 
 a lover's heart in stress of love is strait ? 
 O my lady, show me ruth, who by passion am misused ; * For all who love the 
 
 noble stand for evermore excused. 
 
 He then folded the scroll and gave it to the old woman, together 
 with two purses of two hundred dinars, which she would have refused, 
 but he conjured her by oath to accept of them. So she took them 
 both and said, " Needs must I bring thee to thy desire, despite the 
 noses of thy foes." Then she repaired to the palace and gave the 
 letter to Hayat al-Nufus, who said, " What is this, O my nurse ? 
 Here are we in a correspondence and thou coming and going ! 
 Indeed, I fear lest the matter get wind and we be disgraced." 
 Rejoined the old woman, "How so, O my lady? Who dare speak 
 such word ? " So she took the letter, and after reading and under- 
 standing it, she smote hand on hand, saying, " Verily, this is a 
 calamity which is fallen upon us, and I know not whence this young 
 man came to us ! " Quoth the old woman, " O my lady, Allah upon 
 thee, write him another letter ; but be rough with him this time and 
 say to him : — An thou write me another word after this, I will have 
 thy head struck off." Quoth the Princess, "O my nurse, I am 
 assured that the matter will not end on such wise ; 'twere better to 
 break off this exchange of letters ; and, except the puppy take warn- 
 ing by my previous threats, I will strike off his head." The old 
 woman said, " Tlicn write him a letter and give him to know this 
 
 ^ Arab. " Fazl "= exceeding goodness as in " Fazl wa ma'rifah "= virtue and 
 learning. 
 
 VOL. IV. D D
 
 4i8 Alf Laylah wa Lay /ah. 
 
 condition." So Hayat al-Nufus called for pen-case and paper and 
 wrote these couplets : — 
 
 IIo, thou heedless of Time and his sore despight ! * Ho, thou heart whom hopes 
 
 of my favours excite ! 
 Think, O pride-full ! would'st win for thyself the skies ? * Would'st attain to the 
 
 moon shining clear and bright ? 
 I will burn thee with fire that shall ne'er be quenched, * Or will slay thee with 
 
 scymitar's sharpest bite ! 
 Leave it, friend, and 'scape the tormenting pains, * Such as turn hair-partings ^ 
 
 from black to white. 
 Take my warning and fly from the road of love ; * Draw thee back from a course 
 
 nor seemly nor right ! 
 
 Then she folded the scroll and gave it to the old woman, who was 
 puzzled and perplexed by the matter. She carried it to Ardashir, 
 and the Prince read the letter and bowed his head to the earth, 
 making as if he wrote with his finger and speaking not a word. 
 Quoth the old woman, " How is it I see thee silent stay and not 
 say thy say ; " and quoth he, " O my mother, what shall I say, 
 seeing that she doth but threaten me and redoubleth in hard- 
 heartedness and aversion?" Rejoined the nurse, "Write her a 
 letter of what thou wilt : I will protect thee ; nor let thy heart 
 be cast down, for needs must I bring you twain together." He 
 thanked her for her kindness and kissing her hand, wrote these 
 couplets : — 
 
 A heart, by Allah ! never soft to lover-wight, * Who sighs for union only with 
 
 his friends, his sprite ! 
 Who with tear-ulcered eyelids evermore must bide, * When falleth upon earth 
 
 first darkness of the night : 
 Be just, be gen'rous, lend thy ruth and deign give alms * To love-molested 
 
 lover, parted, forced to flight ! 
 He spends the length of longsome night without a doze ; * Fire-brent and drent 
 
 in tear-flood flowing infinite : 
 Ah ; cut not off the longing of my fondest heart « Now disappointed, wasted, 
 
 flutt'ring for its blight. 
 
 't. 
 
 Then he folded the scroll and gave it to the old woman, together 
 with three hundred dinars, saying, "This is for the washing of thy 
 hands." She thanked him and kissed his hands, after which she 
 returned to the palace and gave the letter to the Princess, who took 
 it and read it, and throwing it from her fingers, sprang to her feet. 
 Then she walked, shod as she was with pattens of gold, set with 
 
 1 Arab. " Al-Mafarik " (plur. of Mafrak) = the pole or crown of the head, 
 where the hair parts naturally and where baldness mostly begins.
 
 Ardashir and Hay at al-Nufus. 419 
 
 pearls and jewels, till she came to her sire's palace, whilst the vein 
 of anger started out between her eyes, and none dared ask her of 
 her case. When she reached the palace, she enquired for the King, 
 and the slave-girls and concubines replied to her, " O my lady, he is 
 gone forth a-hunting and sporting." So she returned, as she were a 
 rending lioness, and bespake none for the space of three hours, when 
 her brow cleared and her wrath cooled. As soon as the old woman 
 saw that her irk and anger were past, she went up to her and, kissing 
 ground between her hands, asked her, "O my lady, whither went 
 those noble steps ? " The Princess answered, " To the palace of the 
 King my sire." "And could no one do thine errand?" enquired the 
 nurse. Replied the Princess, " No, for I went to acquaint him of 
 that which hath befallen me with yonder cur of a merchant, so he 
 might lay hands on him and on all the merchants of his bazar and 
 crucify them over their shops nor suffer a single foreign merchant to 
 tarry in our town." Quoth the old woman, " And was this thine only 
 reason, O my lady, for going to thy sire ? " and quoth Hayat al-Nufus 
 "Yes, but I found him absent a-hunting and sporting and now I 
 await his return." Cried the old nurse, "I take refuge with Allah 
 the All-hearing, the All-knowing ! Praised be He ! O my lady, thou 
 art the most sensible of women and how couldst thou think of telling 
 the King these fond words, which it behoveth none to publish?" 
 Asked the Princess, "And why so? " and the nurse answered, "Sup- 
 pose thou had found the King in his palace and told him all this tale 
 and he had sent after the merchants and commanded to hang them 
 over their shops, the folk would have seen them hanging and asked 
 the reason and it would have been answered them : — They sought to 
 
 woo the King's daughter." And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of 
 
 day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 i^ofo bjfjcn it luas tljc ^cben |l^unt(rcU anti ^tuentji-fouitf) i2tg|)t, 
 
 She continued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the old 
 woman said to the Princess, " Suppose thou had told this to the 
 King and he had ordered the merchants to be hanged, would not 
 folk have seen them and have asked the cause of the execution 
 when the answer would have been : — They sought to woo the King's 
 daughter. Then would they have disprcad divers reports concerning 
 thee, some saying one thing and some another ; for woman's good 
 name, O my lady, is like curded milk, the least dust fouleth it ; and 
 like glass, which, if it be cracked, may not be mended. So beware 
 of telling ihy sire or any other of this matter, lest thy fair fame be
 
 420 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 smirched, O mistress mine, for 'twill never profit thee to tell folk 
 aught ; no, never ! Weigh what I say with thy keen wit, and if thou 
 find it not just, do whatever thou wilt." The Princess pondered her 
 words, and seeing them to be altogether profitable and right, said, 
 "Thou speakest sooth, O my nurse ; but anger had blinded my 
 judgment." Quoth the old woman, "Thy resolve to tell no one is 
 pleasing to the Almighty ; but something remaineth to be done : we 
 must not let the shamelessness of yonder vile dog of a merchant 
 pass without notice. Write him a letter and say to him : — O vilest of 
 traders, but that I found the King my father absent, I had straight- 
 way commanded to hang thee and all thy neighbours. But thou 
 shalt gain nothing by this ; for I swear to thee, by Allah the Most 
 High, that an thou return to the like of this talk, I will blot out the 
 trace of thee from the face of earth ! And deal thou roughly with 
 him in words, so shalt thou discourage him in this attempt and arouse 
 him from his heedlessness." " And will these words cause him to 
 abstain from his offending ? " asked the Princess ; and the old woman 
 answered, " How should he not abstain ? Besides, I will talk with 
 him and tell him what hath passed." So the Princess called for ink- 
 case and paper and wrote these couplets : — 
 
 To win our favours still thy hopes are bent ; * And still to win thy will art 
 
 confident ! 
 Naught save his pride-full aim shall slay a man ; * And he by us shall die of his 
 
 intent. 
 Thou art no lord of might, no chief of men, * Nabob or Prince or Soldan 
 
 Heaven-sent : 
 And were this deed of one who is our peer, * He had returned with hair for 
 
 fear white-sprent : 
 Yet will I deign once more excuse thy sin * So from this time thou prove 
 
 thee penitent. 
 
 Then she gave the missive to the old woman, saying, " O my nurse, 
 do thou admonish this puppy lest I be forced to cut off his head and 
 sin on his account." Replied the old woman, " By Allah, O my 
 lady, I will not leave him a side to turn on ! " Then she returned 
 to the youth and, when salams had been exchanged, she gave him 
 the letter. He read it and shook his head, saying, " Verily, we are 
 Allah's and unto Him shall we return ! " adding, " O my mother, 
 what shall I do? My fortitude faileth me and my patience palleth 
 upon me ! " She replied, " O my son, be long-suffering : peradven- 
 ture, after this Allah shall bring somewhat to pass. Write that 
 which is in thy mind and I will fetch thee an answer, and be of 
 good cheer and keep thine eyes cool and clear ; for needs must 
 I bring about union between thee and her, — Inshallah ! " He
 
 Ardashir and Hay at al-Nufus. 421 
 
 blessed her and wrote to the Princess a note containing these 
 couplets : — 
 
 Since none will lend my love a helping hand, * And I by passion's bale in death 
 
 low-lain, 
 I bear a flaming fire within my heart * JBy day and night nor place of rest 
 
 attain. 
 How cease to hope in thee, my wishes' term ? * Or with my longings to be glad 
 
 and fain ? 
 The Lord of highmost Heaven to grant my prayer * Pray I, whom love of lady 
 
 fair hath slain ; 
 And, as I'm clean o'erthrown by love and fear, * To grant me speedy union 
 
 deign, oh deign ! 
 
 'I'hen he folded the scroll and gave it to the old woman, bringing 
 out at the same time a purse of four hundred dinars. She took the 
 whole and returning to the palace sought the Princess to whom she 
 gave the letter ; but the King's daughter refused to take it and 
 cried, "What is this?" Replied the old woman, "O my lady, 
 this is only the answer to the letter thou sentest to that merchant 
 dog." Quoth Hayat al-Nufus, " Didst thou forbid him as I told 
 thee?" and quoth she, "Yes, and this is his reply." So the 
 Princess took the letter and read it to the end ; then she turned 
 to the old woman and exclaimed, " Where is the result of thy 
 promise ? " " O my lady, saith he not in his letter that he repent- 
 cth and will not again offend, excusing himself for the past ? " 
 '• Not so, by Allah ! on the contrary, he increaseth." " O my lady, 
 write him a letter and thou shalt presently see what I will do with 
 him." " There needeth nor letter nor answer." " I must have a 
 letter that I may rebuke him roughly and cut off his hopes." " Thou 
 canst do that without a letter." " I cannot do it without the letter." 
 So Hayat al-Nufus called for pen-case and paper and wrote these 
 verses : — 
 
 Long have I chid thee but my chiding hindercth thee not; « How often would ir.y 
 
 verse with writ o' hand ensnare tliec, ah ! 
 Then keep thy passion hidden deep and ever unrevealed, * And if thou dare 
 
 gainsay me Earth shall no more bear thee, ah ! 
 And if, despite my warning, thou dost to such words return * Death's Messenger ' 
 
 shall go his rounds and dead declare thee, ah ! 
 Soon shall the wold's fierce chilling blast o'erblow that corse o' thine ; * And 
 
 birds o' the wild with ravening bills and beaks shall tear thee, ah ! 
 Return to righteous course ! perchance that same will profit thee : * If bent on 
 
 wilful aims aud vile I fain forswear thee, ah ! 
 
 ' Arab. " Na'i al-Maut," the person sent round to announce a death to the 
 friends and relations of the deceased, and invite them to the luneral.
 
 42 2 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 When she had made an end of her writing this, she cast the writ from 
 her hand in wrath, and the old woman picked it up and went with it 
 to Ardashir. When he read it to the last he knew that she had not 
 softened to him, but only redoubled in rage against him, and that he 
 would never win to meet her, so he bethought himself to write her 
 an answer invoking Allah's help against her. Thereupon he indited 
 these couplets : — 
 
 Lord, by the Five Shaykhs, I pray deliver me * From love, which gars me 
 
 bear such grief and misery. 
 Thou knowest what I bear for passion's fiery flame ; « What stress of sickness 
 
 for that merciless maid I dree. 
 She hath no pity on the pangs to me decreed * How long on weakly wight shall 
 
 last her tyranny ? 
 
 1 am distraught for her with passing agonies * And find no friend, O folk ! to 
 
 hear my plaint and plea. 
 How long, when Night hath drooped her pinions o'er the world * Shall I lament 
 
 in public as in privacy ! 
 For love of you I cannot find forgetfulness ; * And how forget when Patience 
 
 taketh wings to flee ? 
 O thou wild parting-bird ^ say is she safe and sure * From shift and change of 
 
 time and the world's cruelty? 
 
 Then he folded the scroll and gave it to the old woman, adding a 
 purse of five hundred dinars ; and she took it and carried it to the 
 Princess, who read it to the end and learned its purport. Then, 
 casting it from her hand, she cried, " Tell me, O wicked old woman, 
 the cause of all that hath befallen me from thee and from thy 
 cunning and thine advocacy of him, so that thou hast made me 
 write letter after letter and thou ceasest not to carry messages, going 
 and coming between us twain, till thou hast brought about a corre- 
 spondence and a connection. Thou leavest not to say : — I will 
 ensure thee against his mischief and cut off from thee his speech ; 
 but thou speakest not thus save only to the intent that I may continue 
 to write thee letters and thou to fetch and carry between us, evening 
 and morning, till thou ruin my repute. Woe to thee ! Ho, eunuchs, 
 seize her ! " Then Hayat al-Nufus bade them beat her, and they 
 
 ^ Arab. " Tair al-Bayn," any bird, not only the Hatim or black crow, which an- 
 nounces separation. Crows and ravens flock for food to the camps broken up for 
 the springtide and autumnal marches, and thus become emblems of desertion 
 and desolation. The same birds are also connected with Abel's burial in the 
 Koran (v. 34), a Jewish tradition borrowed by Mohammed. Lastly, here is a 
 paranomasia in the words " Ghurab al-Bayn" = Raven of the Wold (the black 
 bird with white breast and red beak and legs) : " Ghurab " (Htb. Oreb) connects 
 with Ghurbah = strangerhood, exile, and " Bayn " with distance, interval, dis- 
 union, the desert (between the cultivated spots). There is another and a similar 
 pun anent the Ban-tree ; the first word meaning " he fared, he left."
 
 Ardashir and Hayat al-Nnfus. 423 
 
 lashed her till her whole body flowed with blood and she fainted 
 away, whereupon the King's daughter caused her slave-women to 
 drag her forth by the feet and cast her without the palace and 
 ordered one of them stand by her head till she recovered, and say 
 to her, "The Princess hath sworn an oath that thou shalt never 
 return to and re-enter this palace ; and she hath commanded to slay 
 thee without mercy an thou dare return hither." So, when she 
 came to herself, the damsel told her what the King's daughter said 
 and she answered, " Hearkening and obedience." Presently the 
 slave-girls fetched a basket and a j^orter whom they caused carry her 
 to her own house ; and they sent after her a physician, bidding him 
 tend her assiduously till she recovered. He did what he was told 
 to do and as soon as she was whole she mounted and rode to the 
 shop of Ardashir, who was concerned with sore concern for her 
 absence and was longing for news of her. As soon as he saw her 
 he sprang up and coming to meet her, saluted her ; then he noticed 
 that she was weak and ailing ; so he questioned her of her case and 
 she told him all that had befallen her from her nursling. When he 
 heard this he found it grievous and smote hand upon hand, saying, 
 " liy Allah, O my mother, this that hath betided thee straiteneth 
 my heart ! But, what, O my mother, is the reason of the Princess's 
 hatred to men ?" Replied the old woman, "Thou must know, O my 
 son, that she hath a beautiful garden, than which there is naught 
 goodlier on earth's face and it chanced that she lay there one night. 
 In the joyance of sleep, she dreamt a dream and 'twas this, that she 
 went down into the garden, where she saw a fowler set up his net 
 and strew corn thereabout, after which he withdrew and sat down 
 afar off to await what game should fall into it. Ere an hour had 
 passed the birds flocked to pick up the corn and a male pigeon^ fell 
 into the net and struggled in it, whereat all the others took fright and 
 fled from him. His mate was amongst them, but she returned to 
 him after the shortest delay ; and, coming up to the net, sought out 
 the mesh wherein his foot was entangled and ceased not to peck at 
 it with her bill, till she severed it and released her husband, with 
 whom she flew away. All this while the fowler sat dozing, and when 
 he awoke, he looked at the net and found it spoilt. So he mended 
 it and strewed fresh grain, then withdrew to a distance and sat down 
 to watch it again. The birds soon returned and began to pick 
 up the corn, and among the rest the pair of pigeons. Presently, the 
 
 ^ Arab. " T.iyr," any ilying tiling, a hinl ; wiili true Arab carelessness the 
 writer waits till the talc is nearly ended before letting us know that the birds are 
 pigeons (Ilamam).
 
 424 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 she-pigeon fell into the net and struggled to get free ; whereupon all 
 the other birds flew away, and her mate, whom she had saved, fled 
 with the rest and did not return to her. Meantime, sleep had again 
 overcome the fowler \ and, when he awoke after long slumbering, he 
 saw the she-pigeon caught in the net ; so he went up to her and 
 freeing her feet from the meshes, cut her throat. The Princess 
 startled by the dream awoke troubled, and said : — Thus do men with 
 women, for women have pity on men and throw away their lives for 
 them, when they are in difficulties ; but if the Lord decree against a 
 woman and she fall into calamity, her mate deserteth her and 
 rescueth her not, and wasted is that which she did with him of 
 kindness. Allah curse her who putteth her trust in men, for they ill 
 requite the fair offices which women do them ! And from that day 
 she conceived an hatred to men." Said the King's son, " O my 
 mother, doth she never go out into the highways ? " and the old 
 woman replied, " Nay, O my son ; but I will tell thee somewhat 
 wherein, Allah willing, there shall be profit for thee. She hath a 
 garden which is of the goodliest pleasaunces of the age ; and every 
 year, at the time of the ripening of the fruits, she goeth thither and 
 taketh her pleasure therein only one day, nor layeth the night but in 
 her pavilion. She entereth the garden by the private wicket of the 
 palace which leadeth thereto ; and thou must know that it wanteth 
 now but a month to the time of her going forth. So take my advice 
 and hie thee this very day to the keeper of that garden and make 
 acquaintance with him and gain his good graces, for he admitteth 
 not one of Allah's creatures into the garth, because of its com- 
 munication with the Princess's palace. I will let thee know two days 
 beforehand of the day fixed for her coming forth, when do thou 
 repair to the garden, as of thy wont, and make shift to night there. 
 When the King's daughter cometh be thou hidden in some place or 
 
 other ; " And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and 
 
 ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 :tCoto toi^cn it toas t^e ^cbtn l^untrrcU ant( ®toEntB=fift]^ Nigi)t» 
 
 She pursued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the old 
 woman charged the King's son, saying, " I will let thee know two 
 days beforehand of the King's daughter going down to the garden : 
 do thou hide thee in some place or other ; and, when thou espiest 
 her, come forth and show thyself to her. When she seeth thee, she 
 will fall in love with thee, for thou art fair to look upon and love
 
 Ardashir and Hay at al-Nufus, 425 
 
 covereth all things. So keep thine eyes cool and clear '^ and be of 
 good cheer, O my son, for needs must I bring about union between 
 thee and her." The young Prince kissed her hand and thanked 
 her and gave her three pieces of Alexandrian silk and three of satin 
 of various colours, and with each piece, linen for shifts and stuff for 
 trousers, and a kerchief for the turband and fine white cotton cloth 
 of Ba'albak for the linings, so as to make her six complete suits, 
 each handsomer than its sister. Moreover, he gave her a purse 
 containing six hundred gold pieces and said to her, " This is for the 
 tailoring." She took the whole, and said to him, " O my son, art 
 thou not pleased to acquaint me with thine abiding-place and I also 
 will show thee the way to my lodging." " Yes," answered he and 
 sent a Mameluke with her to note her home and show her his own 
 house. Then he rose and bidding his slaves shut the shop, went 
 back to the Wazir, to whom he related all that had passed between 
 him and the old woman, from first to last. Quoth the Minister, " O 
 my son, should the Princess Hayat al-Nufus, come out and look 
 upon thee and thou find no favour with her, what wilt thou do ? " 
 Quoth Ardashir, "There will be nothing left but to pass from words 
 to deeds and risk my life with her ; for I will snatch her up from 
 amongst her attendants and set her behind me on a swift horse 
 and make for the wildest of the wold. If I escape, I shall have 
 won my wish, and if I perish I shall be at rest from this hateful 
 life." Rejoined the Minister, " O my son, dost thou think to do 
 this thing and live ? How shall we make our escape, seeing that 
 our country is far distant, and how wilt thou deal thus with a 
 King of the Kings of the age, who hath under his liand an hundred 
 thousand horse, nor can we be sure but that he will despatch some 
 of his troops to cut off our way ? Verily, there is no good in this 
 project which no wise man would attempt." Asked Ardashir, " And 
 how then shall we do, O Wazir of good counsel .'' For unless I win 
 her I am a dead man without a chance." The Minister answered, 
 " Wait till to-morrow when we will visit this garden and note its con- 
 dition and see what betideth us with the care-taker." So when the 
 morning morrowed they took a thousand dinars in a pouch and, 
 repairing to the garden, found it compassed about with high walls 
 and strong, rich in trees and rill-full leas and goodly fruiteries. And 
 
 'Arab. " Karr 'Aynan," The Arabs say, "Allah cool thine eye," because 
 tears of grief arc hot and those of joy cool (Al-Asma'i) ; others say the cool eye 
 is opposed to that healed by watching: and Al-Hariri (Ass. xxvii.) makes a 
 scorching afternoon " hotter than the tear of a childless motlier." In the 
 burning climate of Arabia coolth and refrigeration are equivalent to refreshment 
 and delight.
 
 426 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 indeed its flowers breathed perfume and its birds warbled amid the 
 bloom as it were a garden of the gardens of Paradise. Within the 
 door sat a Shaykh, an old man, on a stone bench and they saluted 
 him. When he saw them and noted the fairness of their favour, he 
 rose to his feet after returning their salute, and said, " O my lords, 
 perchance ye have a wish which we may have the honour of satisfy- 
 ing?" Replied the Wazir, "Know, O elder, that we are strangers 
 and the heat hath overcome us : our lodging is afar off at the other 
 end of the city ; so we desire of thy courtesy that thou take these 
 two dinars and buy us somewhat of provaunt and open us meanwhile 
 the door of this flower garden and seat us in some shaded place, 
 where there is cold water, that we may cool ourselves there, against 
 thou return with the provision, when we will eat, and thou with us, 
 and then, rested and refreshed, we shall wend our ways." So 
 saying, he pulled out of his pouch a couple of dinars and put 
 them into the keeper's hand. Now this care-taker was a man 
 aged three-score and ten, who had never in all his life possessed 
 so much money ; so, when he saw the two gold pieces in his hand, 
 he was like to fly for joy and rising forthwith opened the 
 garden gate to the Prince and the Wazir, and made them enter 
 and sit down under a wide-spreading, fruit-laden, shade-affording 
 tree, saying, " Sit ye here and go no further into the garden, for 
 it hath a privy door communicating with the palace of the 
 Princess Hayat al-Nufus." They replied, " We will not stir 
 hence." Whereupon he went out to buy what they had ordered, 
 and returned after a while with a porter bearing on his head a 
 roasted lamb and bread. They ate and drank together and talked 
 awhile, till, presently, the Wazir, looking about him in all corners 
 right and left, caught sight of a lofty pavilion at the farther end of 
 the garden ; but it was old and the plaster was peeled from its walls 
 and its buttresses were broken down. So he said to the Gardener,. 
 "O Shaykh, is this garden thine own or dost thou hire it?" and he 
 replied, " I am neither owner nor tenant of the garden, only its care- 
 taker." Asked the Minister, "And what is thy wage?" whereto the 
 old man answered, " A dinar a month," and quoth the Wazir, " Verily 
 they wrong thee, especially an thou have a family." Quoth the elder, 
 " By Allah, O my lord, I have eight children and I " — The Wazir 
 broke in, " There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, 
 the Glorious, the Great ! Thou makest me bear thy grief, my poor 
 fellow ! What wouldst thou say of him who should do thee a good 
 turn, on account of this family of thine?" Replied the old man, 
 "O my lord, whatsoever good thou dost shall be garnered up for 
 thee with God the Most High ! " ThereujDon said the Wazir, " O
 
 Ardashir ajid Hay at al-Niifus. 427 
 
 Shaykh, thou knowest this garden of thine to be a goodly place ; 
 but the pavilion yonder is old and ruinous. Now I mean to repair 
 it and stucco it anew and paint it handsomely, so that it will be the 
 finest thing in the garth ; and when the owner comes and finds the 
 pavilion restored and beautified, he will not fail to question thee 
 concerning it. Then do thou say : — O my lord, at great expense 
 I set it in repair, for that I saw it in ruins and none could make use 
 of it nor could anyone sit therein. If he enquire : — Whence hadst 
 thou the money for this ? do thou reply, I spent of my own money 
 upon the stucco, thereby thinking to whiten my face with thee and 
 hoping for thy bounties. And needs must he recompense thee fairly 
 over the extent of thine expenses. To-morrow I will bring builders 
 and plasterers and painters to repair this pavilion and will give thee 
 what I promised thee." Then he pulled out of his pocket a purse 
 of five hundred dinars and gave it to the Gardener, saying, " Take 
 these gold pieces and expend them upon thy family and let them 
 pray for me and for this my son." Thereupon the Prince asked the 
 Wazir, "What is the meaning of all this?" and he answered, "Thou 
 
 shalt presently see the issue thereof" And Shahrazad perceived 
 
 the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 XoiD tofjcn ft foas t|)e ^cbcn fi^uutivclJ antr ^tucntn--si.xtfj Xigljt, 
 
 She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 the Wazir gave five hundred ducats to the old Gardener, saying, 
 " Take these gold pieces and expend them ujjon thy family and 
 let them pray for this my son," the greybeard looked. at the gold 
 and his wits fled ; so he fell at the ^\'azir's feet, kissing them and 
 invoking blessings on him and his son ; and when they went away, 
 he said to them, "I shall expect you to-morrow; for by Allah 
 Almighty, there must be no parting between us, night or day." 
 Next morning the Wazir went to the Prince's shop and sent for 
 the Syndic of the builders ; then he carried him and his men to 
 garth, where the Gardener rejoiced in their sight. He gave them 
 the price of rations ^ and what was needful to the workmen for 
 the restoration of the pavilion, and they repaired it and stucco'd 
 it and decorated it. Then said the Minister to the painters, 
 
 ' Arab. "Muunah," the "Mona"of Maroccan travellers, meaning the pro- 
 visions supplied gratis by the unhappy villagers to all who visit them with pass- 
 ports from the Sultan. Our cousins German have lately scored a great success 
 by paying for all their rations which the Ministers of other nations, England 
 included, were mean enough to accept.
 
 428 Alf Lay la h wa Lay I ah. 
 
 " Harkye, my masters, listen to my words and apprehend my wish 
 and my aim. Know that I have a garden Uke this, where I was 
 sleeping one night among the nights and saw in a dream a fowler 
 set up nets and sprinkle corn thereabout. The birds flocked to 
 pick up the grain, and a cock-bird fell into the net, whereupon the 
 others took fright and flew away, and amongst the rest his mate : 
 but, after awhile, she returned alone and picked at the mesh that 
 held his feet, till she set him free and they flew away together. 
 Now the fowler had fallen asleep and, when he awoke, he found 
 the net empty ; so he mended it and strewing fresh grain sat down 
 afar off, waiting for game to fall into that snare. Presently the 
 birds assembled again to pick up the grains, and amongst the rest 
 the two pigeons. By-and-by, the hen-bird fell into the net, when 
 all the other birds took fright at her and flew away, and her 
 husband flew with them and did not return ; whereupon the fowler 
 came up and taking the quarry, cut her throat. Now, when her 
 mate flew away with the others, a bird of raven seized him and 
 slew him and ate his flesh and drank his blood, and I would have 
 you pourtray me the presentment of this my dream, even as I have 
 related it to you, in the liveliest colours, laying the fair scene in this 
 rare garden, with its walls and trees and rills, and dwell especially 
 on the fowler and the falcon. If ye do this I have set forth to 
 you and the work please me, I will give you what shall gladden your 
 hearts, over and above your wage." The painters, hearing these 
 words, applied themselves with all diligence to do what he required 
 of them and wrought it out in masterly style ; and when they had 
 made an end of the work, they showed it to the Wazir who, 
 seeing his so-called dream set forth as it was,^ was pleased and 
 thanked them and rewarded them munificently. Presently, the 
 Prince came in, according to his custom, and entered the pavilion, 
 unweeting what the Wazir had done. So when he saw the por- 
 traiture of the fowler and the birds and the net and beheld the male 
 pigeon in the clutches of the hawk, which had slain him and was 
 drinking his blood and eating his flesh, his understanding was con- 
 founded and he returned to the Minister and said, " O Wazir of 
 good counsel, I have seen this a day a marvel which, were it graven 
 
 ^ Arab. " Kaannahu huwa"; lit. = as he (was) he. This reminds us of the 
 great grammarian, Sibawayh, whose name the Persians derive from " Apple- 
 iiavour" (Sib + bu). He was disputing, in presence of Harun al-Rashid with a 
 rival Al-Kisa'i, and advocated the Basrian form, '' Fa-iza huwa hu " (behold, it 
 was he) against the Kufan, " P'a-iza huwa iyyahu " (behold, it was him). The 
 enemy overcame him by appealing to Badawin who spoke impurely, whereupon 
 Sibawayh left the court, retired to Khorasan and died, it is said, of a broken 
 heart.
 
 Ardashir and Hay at al-Nufus. 429 
 
 with needle-gravers on the eye-corners would be a warner to whoever 
 will be warned." Asked the Minister, " And what is that, O my 
 lord?" and the Prince answered, " Did I not tell thee of the dream 
 the Princess had and how it was the cause of her hatred for men ? " 
 " Yes," replied the Wazir ; and Ardashir rejoined, " By Allah, O 
 Minister, I have seen the whole dream pourtrayed in painting, as I 
 had eyed it with mine own eyes ; but I found therein a circum- 
 stance which was hidden from the Princess, so that she saw it not, 
 and 'tis upon this that I rely for the winning of my wish." Quoth 
 the Wazir, " And what is that, O my son ? " and quoth the Prince, 
 " I saw that, when the male bird flew away, and, leaving his mate 
 entangled in the net, failed to return and save her, a falcon pounced 
 on him and slaying him, ate his flesh and drank his blood. Would 
 to Heaven the Princess had seen the whole of the dream and had 
 beheld the cause of his failure to return and rescue her ! " Replied 
 the Wazir, " By Allah, O auspicious King, this is indeed a rare thing 
 and a wonderful ! " And the King's son ceased not to marvel at the 
 picture and lament that the King's daughter had not beheld the 
 dream to its end, saying in himself, "Would she had seen it to 
 the last or might see the whole over again, though but in the 
 imbroglio of sleep ! " Then quoth the Wazir to him, " Thou saidst 
 to me : — Why wilt thou repair the pavilion ? and I replied : — Thou 
 shalt presently see the issue thereof. And behold, now its issue 
 thou seest ; for it was I did this deed and bade the painters pourtray 
 the Princess's dream thus and paint the male bird m the pounces of 
 the falcon which eatcth his flesh and drinketh his blood ; so that 
 when she cometh to the pavilion, she will behold her dream depicted 
 and see how the cock-pigeon was slain and excuse him and turn 
 from her hate for men." When the Prince heard the Wazir's words, 
 he kissed his hands and thanked him, saying, " Verily, the like of 
 thee is fit to be Minister to the most mighty King, and, by Allah, 
 an I win my wish and return to my sire, rejoicing, I will assuredly 
 acquaint him with this, that he may redouble in honouring thee 
 and advance thee in dignity and hearken to thine every word. So 
 the Wazir kissed his hand and they both went to the old Gardener 
 and said, " Look at yonder pavilion and see how fine it is ! " And 
 he replied, " This is all of your happy thought." Then said they, 
 " O elder, when the owners of the ];lace question thee concerning 
 the restoration of the pavilion, say thou : — 'Twas I did it of my own 
 moneys ; to the intent that there may betide thee fair favour and 
 good fortune." He said, " I hear and I obey ; " and the Prince 
 continued to pay him frequent visits. Such was the case with the 
 Prince and the Wazir ; but as regards Hayat al-Nufus, when she
 
 43° Alf Lay la h wa Lay la k. 
 
 ceased to receive the Prince's letters and messages and when the 
 old woman was absent from her, she rejoiced with joy exceeding and 
 concluded that the young man had returned to his own country. 
 One day, there came to her a covered tray from her father ; so she 
 uncovered it and finding therein fine fruits, asked her waiting-women, 
 "Is the season of these fruits come?" Answered they, "Yes." 
 Thereupon she cried, " Would we might make ready to take our 
 
 pleasure in the flower-garden ! " And Shahrazad was surprised 
 
 by the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 :JCoh3 iDj^tn It tons i\it ^eben f^untiretr antr ^foentB=scbcntb ttCigfjt 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Princess, 
 after receiving the fruit from her sire, asked, " Is the season of these 
 fruits set in ? " and they answered, " Yes ! " Thereupon she cried, 
 " Would we might make ready to take our pleasure in the flower- 
 garden ! " "O my lady," they replied, "thou sayest well, and by 
 Allah, we also long for the garden !" So she enquired, "How shall 
 we do, seeing that every year it is none save my nurse who taketh 
 us to walk in the garden and who pointeth out to us the various trees 
 and plants ; and I have beaten her and forbidden her from me ? 
 Indeed, I repent me of what was done by me to her, for that, in any 
 case she is my nurse and hath over me the right of fosterage. But 
 there is no Majesty and there is no Might, save in Allah, the 
 Glorious, the Great ! " When her handmaids heard this, they all 
 sprang up ; and, kissing the ground between her hands, exclaimed, 
 " Allah upon thee, O my lady, do thou pardon her and bid her to 
 the presence ! " and quoth she, " By AUah, I am resolved upon this ; 
 but which of you will go to her, for I have prepared her a splendid 
 robe of honour?" Hereupon two damsels came forward, by name 
 Bulbul and Siwad al-'Ayn, who were comely and graceful and the 
 principals among the Princess's women, and her favourites. And 
 they said, " We will go to her, O King's daughter ! " and she said, 
 " Do what seemeth good to you." So they went to the house of the 
 nurse and knocked at the door and entered ; and she, recognising 
 the twain, received them with open arms and welcomed them. 
 When they had sat awhile with her, they said to her, " O nurse, the 
 Princess pardoneth thee and desireth to take thee back into favour." 
 She replied, " This may never be, though I drink the cup of ruin ! 
 Hast thou forgotten how she put me to shame before those who love 
 me and those who hate me, when my clothes were dyed with my 
 blood and I well nigh died for stress of beating, and after this they
 
 Ardashir and Hayat al-Nufus. 43 1 
 
 dragged me forth by the feet, Hke a dead dog, and cast me without 
 the door ? So by Allah, I will never return to her nor fill my eyes 
 with her sight ! " Quoth the two girls, "Disappoint not our pains 
 in coming to thee, nor send us away unsuccessful. Where is thy 
 courtesy to us ? Think but who it is that cometh in to visit thee : 
 canst thou wish for any higher of standing than we with the King's 
 daughter ? " She replied, " I take refuge with Allah : well I wot that 
 my station is less than yours ; were it not that the Princess's favour 
 exalted me above all her women, so that, were I wroth with the 
 greatest of them, she had died in her skin of fright." They rejoined, 
 " All is as it was and naught is in anywise changed. Indeed, 'tis 
 better than before, for the Princess humbleth herself to thee and 
 seeketh a reconciliation without intermediary." Said the old woman, 
 " By Allah, were it not for your presence and intercession with me, 
 I had never returned to her ; no, not though she had commanded to 
 slay me ! " They thanked her for this, and she rose and dressing 
 herself accompanied them to the palace. Now when the King's 
 daughter saw her, she sprang to her feet in honour, and the old 
 woman said, " Allah ! Allah ! O King's daughter, say me, whose was 
 the fault, mine or thine?" Hayat al-Nufus replied, "The fault was 
 mine, and 'tis thine to pardon and forgive. By x\llah, O my nurse, 
 thy rank is high with me and thou hast over me the right of foster- 
 age ; but thou knowest that Allah (extolled and exalted be He !) 
 hath allotted to His creatures four things, disposition, life, daily 
 bread and death ; nor is it in man's power to avert that which is 
 decreed. Verily, I was beside myself and could not recover my 
 senses; but, O my nurse, I repent of what deed I did." With this, 
 the crone's anger ceased from her, and she rose and kissed the 
 ground before the Princess, who called for a costly robe of honour 
 and threw it over her, whereat she rejoiced with exceeding joy in the 
 presence of the Princess's slaves and women. When all ended thus 
 happily, Hayat al-Nufus said to the old woman, " O my nurse, how 
 go the fruits and growth of our garth ? " and she replied, " O my 
 lady, I see excellent fruits in the town ; but I will enquire of this 
 matter and return thee an answer this very day." Then she with- 
 drew, honoured with all honour, and betook herself to Ardashir, who 
 received her with open arms, and embraced her and rejoiced in her 
 coming, for that he had expected her long and longingly. She told 
 him all that had passed between herself and the Princess and how 
 her mistress was minded to go down into the garden on such a day 
 
 And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say 
 
 her permitted say.
 
 432 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 Hob3 fofjcn ft teas \^z ^£bcn f^untiretr anti ^tutntg^fialbtfi TJ^Tigljt 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the 
 old woman betook herself to the Prince and told him all that had 
 passed between herself and the Princess Hayat al-Nufus ; and how 
 her mistress was minded to go down into the garden on such a day, 
 and said to him, " Hast thou done as I bade thee with the Warder 
 of the garden and hast thou made him taste of thy bounties ? " He 
 replied, " Yes, and the oldster is become my good friend : my way 
 is his way and he would well I had need of him." Then he told her 
 all that had happened and of the dream-paintings which the Wazir 
 had caused to be limned in the pavilion ; especially of the fowler, 
 the net and the falcon : whereat she joyed with great joy and said, 
 " Allah upon thee, do thou set thy Minister midmost thy heart, for 
 this that he hath done pointeth to the keenness of his wit and he 
 hath helped thee to the winning thy wish. So rise forthright, O my 
 son, and go to the Hammam-bath and don thy daintiest dress, 
 wherein may be our success. Then fare thou to the Gardener and 
 make shift to pass the night in the garden ; for though he should 
 give the earth full of gold, none may win to pass into it whilst the 
 King's daughter is therein. When thou hast entered, hide thee 
 where no eye may espy thee and keep concealed till thou hear me 
 cry : — O Thou whose boons are hidden, save us from that we fear ! 
 Then come forth from thine ambush and walk among the trees and 
 show thy beauty and loveliness which put the moons to shame, to 
 the intent that Princess Hayat al-Nufus may see thee and that her 
 heart and soul may be filled with love of thee ; so shalt thou attain 
 to thy wish and thy grief be gone." " To hear is to obey," replied 
 the young Prince and gave her a purse of a thousand dinars, which 
 she took and went away. Thereupon Ardashir fared straight for the 
 bath and washed ; after which he arrayed himself in the richest of 
 robes of the apparel of the Kings of the Chosroes and girt his 
 middle with a girdle wherein were conjoined all manner precious 
 stones and donned a turband inwoven with red gold and purfled 
 with pearls and gems. His cheeks shone rosy-red and his lips were 
 scarlet ; his eyelids like the gazelle's wantoned ; like a wine-struck 
 wight in his gait he swayed ; beauty and loveliness garbed him, and 
 his shape shamed the bowing of the bough. Then he put in his 
 pocket a purse containing a thousand dinars and, repairing to the 
 flower-garden, knocked at the door. The Gardener opened to him 
 and rejoicing with great joy salamed to him in most worshipful 
 fashion : then, observing that his face was overcast, he asked him
 
 Ardashir and Hayat al-NuJus. 433 
 
 how he did. The King's son answered, " Know, O elder, that I 
 am dear to my father and he never laid his hand on me till this 
 day, when words arose between us and he abused me and smote me 
 on the face and struck me with his staff and drave me away. Now 
 I have no friend to turn to and I fear the perfidy of Fortune, for 
 thou knowest that the wrath of parents is no light thing. Wherefore 
 I come to thee, O uncle, seeing that to my father thou art known, 
 and I desire of thy favour that thou suffer me abide in the garden 
 till the end of the day, or pass the night there, till Allah grant good 
 understanding between myself and my sire." When the old man 
 heard these words he was concerned anent what had occurred and 
 said, " O my lord, dost thou give me leave to go to thy sire and be 
 the means of reconciliation between thee and him ? " Replied 
 Ardashir, " O uncle, thou must know that my father is of impatient 
 nature, and irascible ; so if thou proffer him reconciliation in his 
 heat of temper he will make thee no answer ; but when a day or two 
 shall have passed, his heat will soften. Then go thou in to him 
 and thereupon he will relent." " Hearkening and obedience," 
 quoth the Gardener; "but, O my lord, do thou come with me to 
 my house, where thou shalt night with my children and my family 
 and none shall reproach this to us." Quoth Ardashir, " O uncle, I 
 must be alone when I am angry. "^ The old man said, " It irketh 
 me that thou shouldst lie solitary in the garden, when I have a 
 house." But Ardashir said, "O uncle, I have an aim in this, that 
 the trouble of my mind may be dispelled from me, and I know that in 
 this lies the means of regaining his favour and softening his heart 
 to me." Rejoined the Gardener, " I will fetch thee a carpet to 
 sleep on and a coverlet wherewith to cover thee ;" and the Prince 
 said, "There is no harm in that, O uncle." So the keeper rose 
 and opened the garden to him, and brought him the carpet and 
 coverlet, knowing not that the King's daughter was minded to 
 visit the garth. On this wise fared it with the Prince; but as 
 regards the nurse, she returned to the Princess and told her that the 
 fruits were kindly ripe on the garden trees ; whereupon she said, 
 "O my nurse, go down with me to-morrow -into the garden, that 
 we may walk about in it and take our pleasure, — Inshallah ! and 
 send meanwhile to the Gardener, to let him know what we jmr- 
 
 * This is a sign of the Saudawf or melanchohc temperament in which black 
 bile predominates. It is supposed to cause a distaste for society and a longing 
 for solitude, an unsettled hai)it of mind and neglect of worldly affairs. I re- 
 marked that in Arabia students arc subject to it, and that amongst philosophers 
 and literary men of Mecca and Al-Medmah there was hardly one who was not 
 spoken of as a " Saudawi." See Pilgrimage ii. 49, 50. 
 
 VOL. IV. EE
 
 434 -^V Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 pose." Accordingly she sent to the Gardener to say, "The Princess 
 will visit the parterre to-morrow, so leave neither water-carriers nor 
 tree-tenders therein, nor let one of Allah's creatures enter the garth." 
 When word came to him, he set his water-ways and channels in 
 order and, going to Ardashir, said to him, " O my lord, the King's 
 daughter is mistress of this garden ; and I have only to crave thy 
 pardon, for the place is thy place and I live only in thy favours, 
 except that my tongue is under thy feet.^ I must tell thee that the 
 Princess Hayat al-Nufus hath a mind to visit it to-morrow at the first 
 of the day and hath bidden me leave none therein who might look 
 upon her. So I would have thee of thy favour go forth of the 
 garden this day, for the Princess will abide only in it till the time of 
 mid-afternoon prayer and after it shall be at thy service for se'nnights 
 and fortnights, months and years." Ardashir asked, " O elder, haply 
 we have caused thee some mishap ? " and the other answered, " By 
 Allah, O my lord, naught hath betided me from thee but honour ! " 
 Rejoined the Prince, "If so it be, nothing but all good shall befal 
 thee through us ; for I will hide in the garden and none shall espy 
 me, till the King's daughter hath gone back to her palace." Said 
 the Gardener, " O my lord, an she espy the shadow of a man in the 
 garden or any of Allah's male creatures she will strike off my head ; " 
 
 And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased 
 
 saying her permitted say. 
 
 iSofo tDJbfix it toas t]^e ^ebcn l^untircti nntr ^toents=nint]^ iSigi)t, 
 
 She continued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 the Gardener said to the Prince, " An the King's daughter espy the 
 shadow of a man in her garden, she will strike off my head ; " the 
 youth replied, " Have no fear, I will on no wise let any see me. But 
 doubtless to-day thou lackest of spending-money for thy family." 
 Then he put his hand to his purse and pulled out five hundred 
 ducats, which he gave to him, saying, "Take this gold and lay it out 
 on thy family, that thy heart may be at ease concerning them." 
 When the Shaykh looked upon the gold, his life seemed a light thing 
 to him^ and he suffered the Prince to tarry where he was, charging 
 liim straitly not to show himself in the garden. Then he left him 
 loitering about. Meanwhile, when the eunuchs went in to the 
 Princess at break of day, she bade open the private wicket leading 
 
 ^ i.e. 1 am a servant and bound to tell thee what my orders are. 
 - A toucliing lesson how bribes settle matters in the East.
 
 Ardashir and Hay at al-Nufus. 435 
 
 from the palace to the parterres and donned a royal robe, embroidered 
 with pearls and jewels and gems. On her head she set a crown of 
 red gold, inlaid with pearls and gems, and she tripped in pattens of 
 cloth of gold, embroidered with fresh pearls ^ and adorned with all 
 manner precious stones. Then she put her hand upon the old 
 woman's shoulder and commanded to go forth by the privy door ; 
 but the nurse looked at the garden and, seeing it full of eunuchs and 
 handmaids walking about, eating the fruits and troubling the streams 
 and taking their ease of sport and pleasure in the water, said to the 
 Princess, " O my lady, is this a garden or a madhouse ? " Quoth the 
 Princess, " What meaneth thy speech, O nurse ? " and quoth the old 
 woman, "Verily the garden is full of slave-girls and eunuchs, eating 
 of the fruits and troubling the streams and scaring the birds and 
 hindering us from taking our ease and sporting and laughing and 
 what not else ; and thou hast no need of them. Wert thou going 
 forth of thy palace into the highway, this would be fitting, as an 
 honour and a ward to thee ; but now, O my lady, thou goest forth 
 of the wicket into the garden, where none of Almighty Allah's 
 creatures may look on thee." Rejoined the Princess, " By Allah, O 
 nurse mine, thou sayst sooth ! But how shall we do ? " and the old 
 woman said, " Bid the eunuchs send them all away and keep only 
 two of the slave-girls, that we may make merry with them." So she 
 dismissed them all, with the exception of two of her handmaids 
 who were most in favour with her. But when the old woman saw 
 that her heart was light and that the season was pleasant to her, 
 she said to her, " Now we can enjoy ourselves aright : so up 
 and let us take our pleasure in the garden." The Princess put 
 her hand upon her shoulder and went out by the private door. The 
 two waiting-women walked in front and she followed them laughing 
 at them and swaying gracefully to and fro in her ample robes ; 
 whilst the nurse forewent her, showing her the trees and feeding 
 her with fruits ; and so they fared on from place to place, till they 
 came to the pavilion, which when the King's daughter beheld and 
 saw that it had been restored, she asked the old woman, " O my 
 nurse, seest tliou yonder pavilion ? It hath been repaired and its 
 walls whitened." She answered, " By Allah, O my lady, I heard 
 say that the keeper of the garden had taken stuffs of a company of 
 merchants and sold them and bought bricks and lime and j)laster 
 
 ^ i.e. fresh from water (Arab. " Rutub"), before the air can tarnish them. The 
 pearl (margarita'j in Arab, is Lu'lu' ; the"unio"or lartje pearl Durr, piur. 
 Durar. In modern parlance, Durr is the second (juality of the twelve into which 
 pearls are divided.
 
 436 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 and stones and so forth with the price ; so I asked him what he 
 had done with all this, and he said : — I have repaired the pavilion 
 which lay in ruins ; presently adding : — And when the merchants 
 sought their due of me, I said to them, Wait till the Princess visit 
 the garden and see the repairs and they satisfy her ; then will I take 
 of her what she is pleased to bestow on me, and pay you what is 
 your due. Quoth I : — What moved thee to do this thing ? and 
 quoth he : — I saw the pavilion in ruins, the corners thrown down 
 and the stucco peeled from the walls, and none had the grace to 
 repair it ; so I borrowed the coin on my own account and restored 
 the place ; and I trust in the King's daughter to deal with me as 
 befitteth her dignity, I said : — The Princess is all goodness and 
 generosity and will no doubt requite thee. And he did all this but 
 in hopes of thy bounty." Replied the Princess, " By Allah, he hath 
 dealt nobly in rebuilding it and hath done the deed of generous men ! 
 Call me my purse-keeperess." The old woman accordingly fetched 
 the purse-keeperess, whom the Princess bade give the Gardener two 
 thousand dinars ; whereupon the nurse sent to him, bidding him to 
 the presence of the King's daughter. But when the messenger said 
 to him, "Obey the Princess's order," the Gardener felt feeble and, 
 trembling in every joint, said in himself, " Doubtless the Princess 
 hath seen the young man, and this day will be the most unlucky of 
 days for me." So he went home and told his wife and children what 
 had happened and gave them his last charges and farewelled them, 
 while they wept for and with him. Then he presented himself 
 before the Princess, with a face the colour of turmeric and ready to 
 fall flat at full length. The old woman remarked his plight and 
 hastened to forestall him, saying, "O Shaykh, kiss the earth in 
 thanksgiving to Almighty Allah and be constant in prayer to Him 
 for the Princess. I told her what thou didst in the matter of re- 
 pairing the ruined pavilion, and she rejoiced in this and bestoweth 
 on thee two thousand dinars in requital of thy pains ; so take them 
 from the purse-keeperess and kiss the earth before the King's 
 daughter and bless her and wend thy way." Hearing these words 
 he took the gold and kissed the ground before Hayat al-Nufus, 
 calling down blessings on her. Then he returned to his house, and 
 his family rejoiced in him and blessed him ^ who had been the 
 
 prime cause of this business. And Shahrazad was surprised by 
 
 the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 ^ i.e. the Wazir, but purposely left vague.
 
 Ardashir ami /lay at al-Ntifus, 437 
 
 :i^oto toljen it teas tl^e ^cbcn ^l^untircti antr ^Ijirtietb Nigi)t, 
 
 She pursued, it hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 the Care-taker took the two thousand ducats from the Princess and 
 returned to his house, all his family rejoiced in him and blessed him 
 who had been the prime cause of this business. Thus it fared with 
 these ; but as regards the old woman, she said to the Princess, " O 
 my lady, this is indeed become a fine place ! Never saw I a purer 
 white than its plastering nor properer than its painting ! I wonder 
 if he have also repaired it within : else hath he made the outside 
 white and left the inside black. Come, let us enter and inspect."' 
 So they went in, the nurse preceding, and found the interior painted 
 and gilded in the goodliest way. The Princess looked right and left, 
 till she came to the upper end of the estrade, when she fixed her 
 eyes upon the wall and gazed long and earnestly thereat ; whereupon 
 the old woman knew that her glance had lighted on the presentment 
 of her dream and took the two waiting-women away with her, that 
 they might not divert her mind. When the King's daughter had 
 made an end of examining the painting, she turned to the old 
 woman, wondering and beating hand on hand, and said to her, " O 
 my nurse, come, see a wondrous thing which, were it graven with 
 needle-gravers on the eye corners would be a warner to whoso will 
 be warned." She replied, " And what is that, O my lady ? " when 
 the Princess rejoined, " Go, look at the upper end of the estrade, 
 and tell me what thou seest there." So she went up and considered 
 the dream-drawing : then she came down, wondering, and said, " By 
 Allah, O my lady, here is depicted the garden and the fowler and 
 his net and the birds and all thou sawest in thy dream ; and verily, 
 nothing but urgent need withheld the male pigeon from returning to 
 free his mate after he had fled her, for I see him in the talons of a 
 bird of raven which hath slaughtered him and is drinking his blood 
 and rending his flesh and eating it ; and this, O my lady, caused his 
 tarrying to return and rescue her from the net. But, O my mistress, 
 the wonder is how thy dream came to be thus depicted, for, wert thou 
 minded to set it forth in painture, thou hadst not availed to portray 
 it. By Allah, this is a marvel which should be recorded in histories ! 
 Surely, O my lady, the angels appointed to attend upon the sons 
 of Adam knew chat the cock-pigeon was wronged of us, because we 
 blamed him for deserting his mate ; so they embraced his cause and 
 made manifest his excuse ; and now for the first time we see him in 
 the hawk's pounces a dead bird." Quoth the Princess, " O my nurse
 
 43 S Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 verily, Fate and Fortune had course against this bird, and we did 
 him wrong." Quoth the nurse, " O my mistress, foes shall meet 
 before Allah the Most High : but, O my lady, verily, the truth hath 
 been made manifest and the male pigeon's excuse certified to us ; 
 for had the hawk not seized him and drunk his blood and rent his 
 flesh he had not held aloof from his mate, but had returned to her, 
 and set her free from the net ; but against death there is no recourse, 
 nor, O my lady, is there aught in the world more tenderly solicitous 
 than the male for the female, among all creatures which Almighty 
 Allah hath created. And especially 'tis thus with man; for he 
 starveth himself to feed his wife, strippeth himself to clothe her, 
 angereth his family to please her and disobeyeth and denieth his 
 parents to endow her. She knoweth his secrets and concealeth 
 them and she cannot endure from him a single hour.^ An he be 
 absent from her one night, her eyes sleep not, nor is there a dearer 
 to her than he. I have heard of a certain King that, when his wife 
 fell sick and died, he buried himself alive with her, submitting himself 
 to death for the love of her and the strait companionship which was 
 between them. Moreover, a certain King sickened and died, and 
 when they were about to bury him, his wife said to her people : — 
 Let me bury myself alive with him : else will I slay myself and my 
 blood shall be on your heads. So, when they saw she would not be 
 turned from this thing, they left her, and she cast herself into the 
 grave with her dead husband, of the greatness of her love and 
 tenderness for him." And the old woman ceased not to ply \ht 
 Princess with anecdotes of conjugal love between men and women, 
 till there ceased that which was in her heart of hatred for the sex 
 masculine ; and when she felt that she had succeeded in renewing 
 in her the natural kindness of woman to man, she said to her, " 'Tis 
 time to go and walk in the garden." So they fared forth from the 
 pavilion and paced among the trees. Presently the Prince chanced 
 to turn and his eyes fell on Hayat al-Nufus ; and when he saw the 
 symmetry of her shape and the rose-clearness of her cheeks and the 
 blackness of her eyes and her exceeding grace and her passing love- 
 liness and her excelling beauty and her prevailing elegance and her 
 abounding perfection, his reason was confounded and he could not 
 take his eyes off her. Passion annihilated his right judgment and 
 love overpassed all limits in him ; his heart was aflame with the fire 
 of repine, so that he swooned away and fell to the ground. When 
 he came to himself, she had passed from his sight and was hidden 
 
 ^ The whole of the nurse's speech is admirable in its naive and striking picture 
 of conjugal affection.
 
 Ardashlr atid Hay at al-Nufus. 439 
 
 from him among the trees, And Shahrazad was surprised by the 
 
 dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 Nob3 fcoj^en it icns tfte ^ebcn |L^unlircti anti ^fjirtij -first Nig!)t, 
 
 She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Prince Ardashir, who lay hid in the garden, saw the Princess and 
 her nurse walking amongst the trees, he swooned away for very 
 love-longing. When he came to himself Hayat al-Nufus had 
 passed from his sight and was hidden from him among the trees ; 
 so he sighed from his heart-core and improvised these couplets : — 
 
 Whenas mine eyes behold her loveliness * My heart is torn with love's own 
 
 ecstasy. 
 I wake o'erlhrown, cast down on face of earth * Nor can the Princess^ my sore 
 
 torment see. 
 She turned and ravished this sad Love-thrall'd sprite ; * Mercy, by Allah, ruth ; 
 
 nay, sympathy ! 
 O Lord, afford me union, deign Thou soothe * My soul, ere grave-niche house 
 
 this corse of me ; 
 I'll kiss her ten times ten times, and times ten « For lover's wasted cheek the 
 
 kisses be ! 
 
 The old woman ceased not to lead the Princess a-pleasuring about 
 the garden, till they reached the place where the Prince lay 
 ambushed, when, behold, she said, "O Thou whose bounties are 
 hidden, vouchsafe us assurance from that we fear ! " The King's 
 son hearing the signal, left his lurking-place and, surprised by the 
 summons, walked among the trees, swaying to and fro with a proud 
 and graceful gait and a shape that shamed the branches. His brow 
 was crowned with pearly drops and his cheeks red as the afterglow, 
 extolled be Allah the Almighty in that He hath created 1 When 
 the King's daughter caught sight of him, she gazed a long while on 
 him and noticed his beauty and grace and loveliness and his eyes 
 that wantoned like the gazelle's, and his shape that outvied the 
 branches of the myrobalan ; wherefore her wits were confounded 
 and her soul captivated and her heart transfixed with the arrows of 
 his glances. Then she said to the old woman, " O my nurse, whence 
 came yonder handsome youth ? " and the nurse asked, " Where is 
 he, O my lady ? " " There he is," answered Hayat al-Nufus ; 
 " near hand, among the trees." The old woman turned right and 
 
 ' English " Prin'ceas," too often pronounced in French fashion Princess'.
 
 44° -^if Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 left, as if she knew not of his presence, and cried, " And pray, who 
 can have taught this youth the way into this garden ? " Quoth Hayat 
 al-Nufus, " Who shall give us news of the young man ? Glory be 
 to Him who created men ! But say me, dost thou know him, O my 
 nurse?" Quoth the old woman, "O my lady, he is the young 
 merchant who wrote to thee by me." The Princess broke out, " O 
 my nurse, how goodly is this youth ! Indeed he is fair of favour. 
 Methinks, there is not on the face of earth a goodlier than he ! " 
 Now when the old woman was assured that the love of him had 
 gotten possession of the Princess, she said to her, " Did I not tell 
 thee, O my lady, that he was a comely youth with a beaming favour?" 
 Replied Hayat al-Nufus, " O my nurse, King's daughters know not 
 the ways of the world nor the manners of those that be therein, for that 
 they company with none, neither give they nor take they. O my 
 nurse, how shall I do to bring about a meeting and present myself 
 to him, and what shall I say to him and what will he say to me?" 
 Said the old woman, " What device is left me ? Indeed, we were 
 confounded in this matter by thy behaviour ; " and the Princess said, 
 " O my nurse, know thou that if any ever died of passion, I shall 
 do so, and behold, I look for nothing but death on the spot by 
 reason of the fire of my love-longing." When the old woman heard 
 her words and saw the transport of her love for him, she answered, 
 " O my lady, now as for his coming to thee, there is no way thereto ; 
 and indeed thou art excused from going to him, because of thy 
 tender age ; but rise with me and follow me. I will accost him : so 
 shalt thou not be put to shame, and in the twinkling of an eye 
 affection shall ensue between you." The King's daughter cried, 
 " Go thou before me, for the decree of Allah may not be rejected." 
 Accordingly they went up to the place where Ardashir sat, as he 
 were the full moon at its fullest, and the old woman said to him, 
 " See O youth, who is present before thee ! 'Tis the daughter of 
 our King of the age, Hayat al-Nufus : bethink thee of her rank and 
 appreciate the honour she doth thee in coming to thee and rise out 
 of respect for her and stand before her." The Prince sprang to his 
 feet in an instant and his eyes met her eyes, whereupon they both 
 became as they were drunken without wine. Then the love of him 
 redoubled upon the Princess and she opened her arms and he his, 
 and they embraced ; but love overcame them and they swooned 
 away and fell to the ground and lay a long while without sense- 
 The old woman, fearing for them, carried them both into the pavilion, 
 and, sitting down at the door, said to the two waiting-women, " Seize 
 the occasion to take your pleasure in the garden, for the Princess 
 sleepeth." So they returned to their diversion. Presently the lovers
 
 Ardashir and Hay at al-Nufiis. 441 
 
 revived from their swoon and found themselves in the paviHon, 
 whereat quoth the Prince, "Allah upon thee, O Princess of fair 
 ones, is this vision or sleep-illusion ? " Then the twain embraced 
 and intoxicated themselves without wine, complaining each to 
 other of the anguish of passion ; and the Prince improvised these 
 couplets : — 
 
 Sun riseth sheen from her brilliant brow, * And her cheek shows the rosiest 
 afterglow : 
 
 And when both appear to the looker-on, * The sky-line star ne'er for shame 
 
 will show : 
 An the leven flash from those smiling lips, * Morn breaks and the rays dusk 
 
 and gloom o'erthrow. 
 And when with her graceful shape she sways, * Droops leafiest Ban-tree ' for 
 
 envy low : 
 Me her sight suffices ; naught crave I more : * Lord of Men and Morn, be her 
 
 guard from foe ! 
 The full moon borrows a part of her charms ; * The sun would rival but fails 
 
 his lowe. 
 Whence could Sol aspire to that bending grace ? * Luna see such wit and such 
 
 mind-gifts know ? 
 Who shall blame me for being all love to her, * 'Twixt accord and discord aye 
 
 doomed to woe ? 
 'Tis she won my heart with those forms that bend » What shall lover's heart 
 
 from such charms defend ? 
 
 And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say 
 
 her permitted say. 
 
 iBob) tufjcn it tuns tlje §bcbcn |i:juni3rcti nntr^I)ivtii=sccontr J^iqftt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 Prince had made an end of his verses, the Princess strained him to 
 her bosom and kissed him on the mouth and between the eyes ; 
 whereupon his soul returned to him and he fell to complaining to 
 her of that he had endured for stress of love and tyranny of longing 
 and excess of transport and distraction and all he had suffered for 
 the hardness of her heart. Hearing those words she kissed his 
 hands and feet and bared her head,- whereupon the Glooms gathered 
 
 ' In dictionaries "Ban" (Anglice ben-tree) is the myrobalan which produces 
 gum benzoin. It rcscmliles the tamarisk. Mr. Lyall (p. 74, Translations of 
 Ancient Arab Poetry, Williams and ^lOrgale, 1SS5) calls it a species of Moriiiga, 
 tall, with plentiful and intensely green foliage used for comparisons on account of 
 its straightness and graceful shape of its branches. The nut supplies a medicinal 
 oil. 
 
 ''■ A sign of extreme familiarity : the glooms are the hands and the full moons 
 are the eyes.
 
 442 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 and the full Moons dawned therein. Then said she to him, " O my 
 beloved and term of all my wishes, would the day of estrangement 
 had never been and Allah grant it may never return between us ! " 
 And they embraced and wept together, whilst she recited these 
 couplets : — 
 
 O who shamest the Moon and the sunny glow, * Thou whose slaught'ring 
 tyranny lays me low, 
 
 With the sword of a look thou hast shorn my heart, * How escape thy sword- 
 glance fatal of blow ? 
 
 Thus eke are thine eyebrows a bow that shot » My bosom with arrows of fiercest 
 lowe : 
 
 From thy cheeks' rich crop cometh Paradise ; * How, then, shall my heart the 
 rich crop forego ? 
 
 Allah lend thee the rays of most righteous light, * Draw the farthest near and a 
 tryst bestow : 
 
 Then have ruth on the bosom thy love hath seared, * And the heart that flies to 
 thy side the mo'e ! 
 
 And when she ended her recitation, passion overcame her and she 
 was distraught for love and wept copious tears rain-like streaming 
 down. This burnt the Prince's heart and he in turn became 
 troubled and distracted for love of her. So he drew nearer to her 
 and kissed her hands and wept with sore weeping and they ceased 
 not from lover-reproaches and converse and versifying, until the call 
 to mid-afternoon prayer, when they bethought them of parting and 
 she said to him, " O light of mine eyes and core of my heart, the 
 time of severance hath come between us twain : when shall we meet 
 again ? " " By Allah," replied he (and indeed her words shot him 
 as with shafts), " to mention of parting I am never fain ! " Then 
 she went forth of the pavilion, and he turned and saw her sighing 
 sighs would melt the rock and weeping shower-like tears ; where- 
 upon he for love was sunken in the sea of desolation and improvised 
 these couplets : — 
 
 O my heart's desire! grows my misery * From the stress of love, and what cure 
 
 for me ? 
 By thy face, like dawn when it lights the dark, * Ana thy hair whose hue 
 
 beareth night-tide's blee, 
 And thy form like the branch which in grace inclines * To Zephyr's^ breath 
 
 blowing fain and free, 
 By the glance of thine eyes like the fawn's soft gaze, * When she views pursuer 
 
 of high degree. 
 And thy waist down borne by the weight of hips, * These so heavy and that 
 
 lacking gravity, 
 
 ^ Arab. " Shimal"= the north wind.
 
 Afdashir and Hayat al-Niifiis. 443 
 
 By the wine of the lip-dew, the sweetest of drink, * Fresh water and musk in its 
 
 purity, 
 O gazelle of the tribe, ease my soul of grief, * And grant me thy phantom in 
 
 sleep to see ! 
 
 Now when she heard his verses in praise of her, she turned back to 
 him and embracing him, with a heart on fire for the anguish of 
 severance, cried, "Sooth the byword saith. Patience is for a lover 
 and not the lack thereof. There is no help for it but I contrive a 
 means for our reunion." Then she farewelled him and fared forth, 
 knowing not where she set her feet, for stress of her love ; nor did 
 she stay her steps till she found herself in her own chamber. When 
 she was gone, love redoubled upon the young Prince, and the delight 
 of sleep was forbidden him, and the Princess in her turn tasted not 
 food, and her patience failed. As soon as dawned the day, she sent 
 for the nurse, who came and found her condition changed, and she 
 cried, " Question me not of my case ; for all I suffer is due to thy 
 handiwork. Where is the beloved of my heart ? " " O my lady, 
 when did he leave thee ? Hath he been absent from thee more than 
 this night ? " " Can I endure absence from him an hour ? Come, 
 find some means to bring us together speedily, for my soul is like to 
 flee my body." " O my lady, have patience till I contrive thee some 
 subtle device, whereof none shall be ware." " By the Great God, 
 except thou bring him to me this very day, I will tell the King what 
 thou hast done, and he will cut off thy head ! " "I conjure thee, by 
 Allah, have patience with me, for this is a dangerous matter ! " And 
 the nurse humbled herself to her, till she granted her three days' 
 delay, saying, " O my nurse, the three days will be three years to 
 me ; and if the fourth day pass and thou bring him not, I will go 
 about to slay thee." So the old woman left her and returned to her 
 lodging, where she abode till the morning of the fourth day, when 
 she summoned the tirewomen of the town and sought of them fine 
 dyes and rouge for the painting of a virgin girl and adorning ; and 
 they brought her cosmetics of the best. Then she sent for the 
 Prince and, opening her chest, brought out a bundle containing a 
 suit of woman's ajjparel, worth five thousand dinars, and a head- 
 kerchief fringed with all manner gems. Then said she to him, " O 
 my son, hast thou a mind to meet with Hayat al-Nufus?" and he 
 replied, "Yes." So she took a pair of tweezers and pulled out the 
 hairs of his face and pencilled his eyes with Kohl.^ Then she 
 
 ' An operation well described by Juvenal — 
 
 Ilia supcrcilium, modica fuligine tactuni, 
 Obliqua producit acu, piugitque trementes 
 Attolens oculos.
 
 444 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 painted him with Henna ' from his nails to his shoulders and from 
 his insteps to his knees, and tattooed - him about the body, till he 
 was like red roses upon alabaster slabs. After a little, she washed 
 him and dried him, and bringing out a woman's dress, made him put 
 it on. Then she clad him in the royal suit aforesaid and, binding 
 the kerchief about his head, veiled him and taught him how to walk, 
 saying, "Advance thy left and drawback thy right." He did her 
 bidding and forewent her, as he were a Houri faring abroad from 
 Paradise. Then said she to him, " Fortify thy heart, for thou art 
 going to the King's palace, where there will without fail be guards 
 and eunuchs at the gate ; and if thou be startled at them and show 
 doubt or dread, they will suspect thee and examine thee, and we 
 shall both get into grievous trouble and haply lose our lives : where- 
 fore an thou feel thyself unable to this, tell me." He answered, " In 
 very sooth, this thing hath no terrors for me, so be of good cheer 
 and keep thine eyes cool and clear." Then she went out preceding 
 him till the twain came to the palace-gate, which was full of eunuchs. 
 She turned and looked at him, as much as to say, " Art thou troubled 
 or no ? " and finding him all unchanged, went on. The chief Eunuch 
 glanced at the nurse and knew her, but, seeing a damsel following 
 her, whose charms confounded the reason, he said in his mind, 
 " As for the old woman, she is the nurse ; but as for the girl who 
 is with her there is none in our land resembleth her in favour or 
 approacheth her in fairness save the Princess Hayat al-Nufus, who is 
 
 Sonnini (Travels in Egypt, chapt. xvi.) justly remarks that this pencilling the 
 angles of the eyes with Kohl, which ihe old Levant trade called alqitifoiix or 
 arqttifoux, makes them appear large and more oblong : and I have noted that the 
 modern Egyptian (especially Coptic) eye, like that of the Sphinx and the old 
 figures look in profile as if it were seen in full (Pilgrimage i. 214). 
 
 ' The same traveller notes a singular property in the Henna-flower, that when 
 smelt closely it exhales a '■ very powerful odour," hence it became a favourite with 
 women as the tea-rose with us. He finds it on the nails of mummies, and iden- 
 tifies it with the Kupros of the ancient Greeks (the moderns call it Kene or Kena) 
 and the BoTpvs t^s KVTrpov (Botrus cypri) of .Solomon's Song (i. 14). The 
 Hebr. is " Cipher," a well-known word which the A. V. translates by " a cluster 
 of camphire (?) in the vineyards of En-gedi ; " and a note on iv. 13 ineptly adds, 
 "or, cypress." 'Ihe Revised Edit, amends it to "a cluster of henna-flowers." 
 The Solomonic ('') desciiption is veiy correct : the shrub aftects vineyards, and 
 about Bombay forms fine hedges which can be smelt from a distance. 
 
 ~ Hardly the equivalent of the Arab. " Kataba " (which includes true tattooing 
 with needles), and is applied to painting "patches" of blue orgieen colour, with 
 sprigs and arabesques upon the arms and bosom of women. " Kataba " would 
 also be applied to striping the fingers with Henna, which becomes a shining 
 black under a paste ol honey, lime and sal-ammoniac. This "patching" is 
 alluded to by Strabo and Caien (Lane M. E. chapt. ii. ) ; and we may note that 
 savages and barbarians can leave nothing of beauty unadorned ; thty seem to 
 hate a plain surface like the Hindu silversmith, whose art is shown only in 
 chasing.
 
 Ardashir and Hayat al-Nufiis. 445 
 
 secluded and never goeth out. Would I knew how she came into 
 the streets and would Heaven I wot whether or no 'twas by leave of 
 the King ! " Then he rose to learn somewhat concerning her and 
 well nigh thirty eunuchs followed him ; which when the old woman 
 saw, her reason fled for fear and she said "Verily we are Allah's 
 and to Him we shall return ! Without recourse we are dead folk 
 
 this time." And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day 
 
 and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 Noiu tul)cn it luas tfjc ^cbcn fBuntrreti nnti ®]birtr)=tlj(ttt Nigbt, 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 
 the old nurse saw the head of the eunuchs and his assistants making 
 
 for her she was in exceeding fear and cried, " There is no Majesty 
 
 and there is no Might, save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great ! 
 
 Verily we are God's and unto Him we shall return ; without recourse 
 
 we be dead folk this time.'' When the head Eunuch heard her 
 
 speak thus, fear gat hold upon him, by reason of that which he 
 
 knew of the Princess's violence and that her father was ruled by her, 
 
 and he said to himself, " Belike the King hath commanded the 
 
 nurse to carry his daughter forth upon some occasion of hers, 
 
 whereof she would have none know ; and if I oppose her, she will 
 
 be wroth with me and will say : — This Eunuch fellow stopped me, 
 
 that he might pry into my affairs. Then she will do her best to kill 
 
 me, and I have no call to meddle in this matter." So saying, he 
 
 turned back, and with him the thirty assistants who drove the people 
 
 from the door of the ]-)alace ; whereupon the nurse entered and 
 
 saluted the eunuchs with her head, whilst all the thirty stood to do 
 
 her honour and returned her salam. She led in the Prince and he 
 
 ceased not following her from door to door, and the Protector j)ro- 
 
 tected them, so that they passed all the guards, till they came to the 
 
 seventh door ; it was that of the great pavilion, wherein was the 
 
 King's throne, and it communicated with the chambers of his women 
 
 and the saloons of the Harem, as well as with his daughter's pavilion. 
 
 So the old woman halted and said, " Here we are, O my son, and 
 
 glory be to Him who hath brought us thus far in safety ! But, O 
 
 my son, we cannot foregather with the Princess except by night ; for 
 
 night enveileth the fearful." He replied, "True, but what is to be 
 
 done ? " Quoth she, " Hide thee in this black hole," showing him 
 
 behind the door a dark and deep cistern, with a cover thereto. So 
 
 he entered the cistern, and she went away and left him there till 
 
 ended day, when she returned and carried him into the palace,
 
 446 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 till they came to the door of Hayat al-Nufus's apartment. The old 
 woman knocked and a little maid came out and said, " Who is at 
 the door? " Said the nurse, " 'Tis T," whereupon the maid returned 
 and craved permission of her lady, who said, " Open to her and let 
 her come in with any who may accompany her." So they entered 
 and the nurse, casting a glance around, perceived that the Princess 
 had made ready the sitting-chamber and ranged the lamps in row 
 and lighted candles of wax in chandeliers of gold and silver and 
 spread the divans and estrades with carpets and cushions. More- 
 over, she had set on trays of food and fruits and confections and she 
 had perfumed the place with musk and aloes-wood and ambergris. 
 She was seated among the lamps and the tapers and the light of her 
 face outshone the lustre of them all. When she saw the old woman 
 she said to her, "O nurse, where is the beloved of my heart?" and 
 the other replied, " O my lady, I cannot find him nor have mine eyes 
 espied him ; but I have brought thee his own sister ; and here she 
 is." Cried the Princess, "Art thou Jinn-mad? What need have I 
 of his sister ? Say me, an a man's head irk him, doth he bind up 
 his hand ? " The old woman answered, " No, by Allah, O my lady ! 
 But look on her, and if she please thee, let her be with thee." Presently 
 she uncovered the Prince's face, whereupon Hayat al-Nufus knew 
 him and running to him, embraced him : then they both fell down 
 in a swoon and lay without sense a long while. The old woman 
 sprinkled rose-water upon them till they came to themselves, when 
 she kissed him and improvised these couplets : — 
 
 Sought me this heart's dear love at gloom of night ; * I rose in honour till he sat 
 
 forthright, 
 And said, "O aim of mine, O sole delight * In such night-visit hast of guards 
 
 no fright?" 
 Replied he, "Yes, I feared much, but Love * Robbed me of all my wits and 
 
 reft my sprite." 
 
 And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say 
 
 her permitted say. 
 
 l^oto tuj^cn it foas tte ^tbm l^untirtti anti ®titti}=foutt]b ^I'stt, 
 
 She pursued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 her lover visited Hayat al-Nufus in her palace, the twain embraced 
 and she improvised some happy couplets beseeming the occasion. 
 And when she had ended her extempore lines she said, " Is it indeed 
 true that I see thee in my abode and that thou art my cup-mate and
 
 Ardashir and Hayat al-Nufiis. 447 
 
 my familiar ? " Then her reason well-nigh fled for joy and she im- 
 provised these couplets : — 
 
 With all my soul I'll ransom him who came to me in gloom * Of night, whilst 
 
 I had waited long to see his figure loom ; 
 And naught aroused me save his weeping voice of tender tone * And whispered 
 
 I, " Fair fall thy foot and welcome and well come ! " 
 
 As soon as it was day, she made him enter a place in her apart- 
 ment unknown to any and he abode there till nightfall, when she 
 brought him out and they sat in converse and carouse. Presently 
 he said to her, " I wish to return to my own country and tell my 
 father what hath passed between us, that he may equip his Wazir to 
 demand thee in marriage of thy sire." She replied, " O my love, I 
 fear, an thou return to thy country and kingdom, thou wilt be dis- 
 tracted from me and forget the love of me ; or that thy father will 
 not further thy wishes in this matter and I shall die. Meseems the 
 better counsel were that thou abide with me and in my hand-grasp, 
 I looking on thy face, and thou on mine, till I devise some plan 
 whereby we may escape together some night and flee to thy country ; 
 for I have cut off my hopes from my own people and I despair of 
 them. He rejoined, " I hear and obey ; " and they fell again to 
 their carousal and conversing. He tarried with her thus for some 
 time till, one night, the wine was pleasant to them and they talked 
 till break of day. Now it chanced that one of the Kings sent her 
 father a present, and amongst other things a necklace of union 
 jewels, nine-and-twenty grains, to whose price a King's treasures 
 might not suffice. Quoth Abd al-Kadir, " This riviere beseemeth 
 none but my daughter Hayat al-Nufus ; and, turning to an Eunuch, 
 whose jaw-teeth the Princess had knocked out for reasons best 
 known to herself,^ he called to him and said, " Carry the necklace 
 to thy lady and say to her : — One of the Kings hath sent thy father 
 this, as a present, and its price may not be paid with money ; put it 
 on thy neck." The slave took the necklace, saying in himself, 
 *' Allah Almighty make it the last thing she shall put on in 
 this world, for that she deprived me of the benefit of my grinder- 
 teeth ! " and repairing to the Princess's apartment, found the 
 
 ' A hot temper, accompanied W\\\\.voies de fait tlwA personal violence, is by 
 no means rare amongst Eastern princesses ; and terrible tales are told in Persia 
 concerning the daughters of Fath Ali Shah. P'ew men and no woman can resist 
 the temptations of absolute command. The daughter of a certain Dictator all- 
 powcrful in the Argentine Republic was once seen on horseback with a white 
 bridle of peculiar leather ; it was made of the skin of a man who had offended 
 her. The slave-girls suffer first from these masterful young persons and then it 
 is the turn of the eunuchs.
 
 448 Alf Laylah wa Lay la h. 
 
 door locked and the old woman asleep before the threshold 
 He shook her, and she awoke in affright and asked, " What dost 
 thou want?" to which he answered, "The King hath sent me 
 on an errand to his daughter." Quoth the nurse, "The key is 
 not here, go away, whilst I fetch it ; " but quoth he, " I can- 
 not go back to the King without having done his commandment." 
 So she went away, as if to fetch the key ; but fear overtook her and 
 she sought safety in flight. Then the Eunuch awaited her awhile ; 
 then, finding she did not return, he feared that the King would be 
 angry at his delay ; so he rattled at the door and shook it, where- 
 upon the bolt gave way and the leaf opened. He entered and 
 passed on, till he came to the seventh door and walking in to the 
 Princess's chamber found the place splendidly furnished and saw 
 candles and flagons there, and the Princess sitting with a young 
 man handsomer than herself; whereat he magnified Allah Almighty, 
 who had created such a youth and said, " How goodly be this 
 fashion for one who hateth men ! How came she by this fellow ? 
 Methinks 'twas on his account that she knocked out my back teeth !" 
 Then he drew the curtain and made for the door ; but the King's 
 daughter turned in affright and seeing the Eunuch, whose name was 
 Kafur, called to him. He made her no answer : so she came down 
 from the divan ; and catching hold of his skirt laid it on her head 
 and kissed his feet, saying, "Veil what Allah veileth !" Quoth he, 
 " May Allah not veil thee nor him who would veil thee ! Thou 
 didst knock out my grinders and saidst to me : — Let none make 
 mention to me aught of men and their ways ! " So saying, he dis- 
 engaged himself from her grasp and running out, locked the door 
 on them and set another Eunuch to guard it. Then he went in to 
 the King who said to him, " Hast thou given the necklace to Hayat 
 al-Nufus?" The Eunuch replied, " By Allah, thou deservest alto- 
 gether a better fate ;" and the King asked, " What hath happened ? 
 Tell me quickly ;" whereto he answered, " I will not tell thee, save 
 in private and between four eyes;" but the King retorted, saying, 
 " TeU me at once and in public." Cried the Eunuch, " Then grant 
 me immunity." The King threw him the kerchief of immunity 
 and he said, " O King, I went in to the Princess Hayat al-Nufus and 
 found her with a young man. So I locked the door upon the two 
 and came back to thee." When the King heard these words he 
 started up and taking a sword in his hand, cried out to the Rais of 
 the eunuchs, saying, "Take thy lads and go to the Princess's 
 
 chamber and bring me her and him who is with her." And 
 
 Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her 
 permitted say.
 
 Ardashir and Hayat al-Nufus. 449 
 
 She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 King commanded the head Eunuch to take his lads and to fetch and 
 set before him Hayat al-Nufus and him who was with her, the chief 
 and his men entered the Princess's apartment where he found her 
 standing up, dissolved in railing tears, and the Prince by her side. 
 The King's daughter feared for her lover ^ and said to him, " This is 
 no time for resistance." So the eunuchs carried the twain into the 
 King's presence. Thereupon Abd al-Kadir looked at her and would 
 have smitten her neck : but the Prince threw himself on the father's 
 breast, saying, "The fault was not hers but mine only: kill me 
 before thou killest her." The King made at him, to cut him down, 
 but Hayat al-Nufus cast herself on her father and said, " Kill me, 
 not him ; for he is the son of a great King, lord of all the land in its 
 length and breadth." When the King heard this, he turned to the 
 Chief Wazir, who was a gathering-place of all that is evil, and said 
 to him, "What sayst thou of this matter, O Minister?" Quoth his 
 Wazir, " What I say is that all who find themselves in such case as 
 this have need of lying, and there is nothing for it but to cut off 
 both their heads after torturing them with all manner of tortures." 
 Hereupon the King called his sworder of vengeance, who came with 
 his lads, and said to him, " Take this gallows bird and strike off his 
 head and after do the like with this girl and burn their bodies^ and 
 consult me not about them a second time." So the headsman put 
 his hand on her back, to take her ; but the King cried out at him 
 and cast at him somewhat he held in hand, which had well-nigh 
 killed him, saying, " O dog, how durst thou show ruth to those with 
 whom I am wroth? Put thy hand to her hair and drag her along by it, 
 so that she may fall on her face." Accordingly he haled her by her 
 hair and the Prince in like manner to the place of blood, where he 
 tore off a piece of his skirt, and therewith bound the Prince's eyes 
 putting the Princess last, in the hope that some one would intercede 
 for her. Then, having made ready the Prince he swung his sharp 
 sword three times (whilst all the troops wept and prayed Allah to 
 send them deliverance by some intercessor), and raised his hand to 
 cut off Ardashir's head when, behold, there arose a cloud of dust, 
 that spread and few till it veiled the view. Now the cause thereof 
 was that when the young Prince had delayed beyond measure, the 
 
 ' A neat toucli ; she was too thorough-bred to care for herself first. 
 VOL. IV. F F
 
 45° Alf Laylah wa Lay/ah 
 
 King, his sire, had levied a mighty host and had marched with it in 
 person to get tidings of his son. Such was his case ; but as regards 
 King Abd al-Kadir, when he saw this, he said, " O wights, what is 
 the meaning of yonder dust that dimmeth sights ? " The Grand 
 Wazir sprang up and went out to reconnoitre and found behind the 
 cloud men like locusts, of whom no count could be made nor aught 
 avail of aid, filling the hills and plains and valleys. So he returned 
 with the report to the King, who said to him, " Go down and learn 
 for us what may be this host and the cause of its marching upon 
 our country. Ask also of their commander and salute him for me 
 and enquire the reason of his coming. An he came in quest of 
 aught, we will aid him, and if he have a blood-feud with one of the 
 Kings, we will ride with him ; or, if he desire a gift, we will hansel 
 him ; for this is indeed a numerous host and a power uttermost, and 
 we fear for our land from its mischief." So the Minister went forth 
 and walked among the tents and troopers and body-guards, and 
 ceased not faring on from the first of the day till near sundown, 
 when he came to the warders with gilded swords in tents star- 
 studded. Passing these, he made his way through Emirs and Wazirs 
 and Nabobs and Chamberlains, to the pavilion of the Sultan, and 
 found him a mighty King. When the King's officers saw him, they 
 cried out to him, saying, " Kiss ground ! Kiss ground ! " ^ He did 
 so and would have risen, but they cried out at him a second and a 
 third time. So he kissed the earth again and again and raised his 
 head and would have stood up, but fell down at full length for excess 
 of awe. When at last he was set between the hands of the King 
 he said to him, " Allah prolong thy days and increase thy sovranty 
 and exalt thy rank, O thou auspicious King ! And furthermore, 
 of a truth. King Abd al-Kadir saluteth thee and kisseth the earth 
 before thee and asketh on what weighty business thou art come. 
 An thou seek to avenge thee for blood on any King, he will take 
 horse in thy service ; or, an thou come in quest of aught, wherein 
 it is in his power to help thee, he standeth up at thy service on 
 account thereof." So Ardashir's father replied to the Wazir, saying, 
 " O messenger, return to thy lord and tell him that the most mighty 
 King Sayf al-A'azam Shah, Lord of Shiraz, had a son who hath been 
 long absent from him and news of him have not come and all traces 
 of him have been cut off. An he be in this city, he will take him 
 and depart from you ; but, if aught have befallen him or any mis- 
 chief have ensued to him from you, his father will lay waste your 
 land and make spoil of your goods and slay your men and seize 
 
 ' Here the ground or earth is really kissed.
 
 Ardashir and Hay at al-Niifiis. 451 
 
 your women. Return, therefore, to thy lord in haste and tell him 
 this, ere evil befal him." Answered the Minister, "To hear is to 
 obey ! " and turned to go away, when the Chamberlains cried out 
 to him, saying, " Kiss ground ! Kiss ground ! " So he kissed the 
 earth a score of times and rose not till his life-breath was in his 
 nostrils.^ Then he left the King's high court and returned to the 
 city, full of anxious thought concerning the affair of this King and 
 the multitude of his troops, and going in to King Abd al-Kadir, 
 pale with fear and trembling in his side-muscles, acquainted him 
 
 with that had befallen him. And Shahrazad perceived the dawn 
 
 of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 :NrobD tofjcn it toas tftt ^cbcit i^untrrctf nnU ^ftitte=si.ict5 Tl^Tigtt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir 
 returned from the court of the Great King, pale with fear and 
 with side-muscles quivering for dread exceeding ; and acquainted 
 his lord with that had befallen him. Hereat disquietude and 
 terror for himself and for his people laid hold upon him and he 
 said to the Minister, "O Wazir, and who is this King's son?" 
 Replied the other, " 'Tis even he whom thou badest put to death, 
 but praised be Allah who hastened not his slaughter ! Else had 
 his father wasted our lands and spoiled our good." Quoth the 
 King, " See now thy corrupt judgment, in that thou didst counsel 
 us to slay him ! Where is the young man, the son of yonder 
 magnanimous King?" And quoth the Wazir, "O mighty King, 
 thou didst command him be put to death." When the King heard 
 this, he was clean distraught and cried out from his heart's core 
 and inmost of head, saying, " Woe to you ! Fetch me the Heads- 
 man forthright, lest death fall on him ! " So they fetched the 
 sworder and he said, " O King of the Age, I have smitten off his 
 head even as thou badest me." Cried Abd al-Kadir, "O dog, 
 if this be true, I will assuredly send thee after him." The Heads- 
 man replied, "O King, thou didst command me to slay him with- 
 out consulting thee a second time." Said the King, " I was in my 
 wrath ; but speak the truth, crc thou lose thy life ; " and said the 
 sworder, " O King, he is yet in the bonds of life." At this Abd 
 al-Kadir rejoiced and his heart was set at rest ; then he called for 
 Ardashir, and when he came, he stood up to receive him and kissed 
 
 ' Corresponding with our phrase, " His heart was in his mouth.'
 
 452 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 his mouth, saying, "O my son, I ask pardon of Allah Almighty for 
 the wrong I have done thee, nor say thou aught that may lower my 
 credit with thy sire, the Great King." The Prince asked, " O King 
 of the Age, and where is my father ? " and the other answered, " He 
 is come hither on thine account." Thereupon quoth Ardashir, " By 
 thy worship, I will not stir from before thee till I have cleared my 
 honour and the honour of thy daughter from that which thou laidest 
 to our charge." Accordingly this was done, after which they brought 
 forth the scent-cups and perfumed all the lords of estate and 
 Grandees ; and not one but rejoiced with exceeding joy. Then the 
 King threw his arms about Ardashir's neck and entreated him with 
 all worship and honour, bidding his chief eunuchs bear him to the 
 bath. When he came out, he cast over his shoulders a costly robe 
 and crowned him with a coronet of jewels ; he also girt him with a 
 girdle of silk, purfled with red gold and set with pearls and gems, 
 and mounted him on one of his noblest mares, with saddle and 
 trappings of gold inlaid with pearls and jewels. Then he bade his 
 Grandees and Captains mount on his service and escort him to his 
 father's presence ; and charged him tell his sire that King Abd al- 
 Kadir was at his disposal, hearkening to and obeying him in whatso 
 he should bid or forbid. " I will not fail of this," answered Arda- 
 shir and farewelling him, repaired to his father who, at sight of him, 
 was transported for delight, and springing up advanced to meet him 
 and embraced him, whilst joy and gladness spread among all the 
 host of the Great King. Then came the Wazirs and Chamberlains 
 and Captains and guards and kissed the ground before the Prince 
 and rejoiced in his coming : and it was a great day with them for 
 enjoyment, for the King's son gave leave to those of King Abd 
 al-Kadir's officers who had accompanied him and others of the 
 townsfolk, to view the ordinance of his father's host, without let 
 or stay, so they might know the multitude of the Great King's 
 troops and the might of his empire. And all who had seen him 
 selling stuffs in the linendrapers' bazar marvelled how his soul 
 could have consented thereto, considering the nobility of his spirit 
 and the loftiness of his dignity ; but it was his love and inclination 
 to the King's daughter that to this had constrained him. Mean- 
 while, news of the multitude of her lover's troops came to Hayat 
 al-Nufus, who was still jailed by her sire's commandment, till they 
 knew what he should order respecting her, whether pardon and 
 release or death and burning ; and she looked down from the 
 terrace-roof of the palace and, turning towards the mountains, saw 
 even these covered with armed men. When she beheld all those 
 warriors and knew that they were the army of Ardashir's father,
 
 Ardashir and Hay at al-Nufus. 453 
 
 she feared lest he should be diverted from her by his sire and 
 forget her and depart from her, whereupon her father would slay 
 liar. So she called a handmaid that was with her in her apartment 
 by way of service, and said to her, " Go to Ardashir, son of the 
 Great King, and fear not. When thou comest into his presence, 
 kiss the ground before him and tell him what thou art and say to 
 him : — My lady saluteth thee and would have thee to know that 
 she is a prisoner in her father's palace, awaiting his sentence, 
 whether he be minded to pardon her or put her to death, and she 
 beseecheth thee not to forget her or forsake her ; for to-day thou 
 art all-powerful ; and in whatso thou commandest no man dare 
 cross thee. ^Vherefore, if it seem good to thee to rescue her from 
 her sire and take her with thee, it were of thy bounty, for indeed she 
 endureth all these trials for thy sake. But, if this seem not good 
 to thee, for that thine affection for her is at an end, still speak to 
 thy sire, so haply he may intercede for her with her father, and he 
 depart not till he have made him set her free and taken surety 
 from and made covenant with him, that he will not go about to put 
 her to death nor work her aught of harm. This is her last word to 
 
 thee, may Allah not desolate her of thee, and so The Peace^ ! " 
 
 And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying 
 her permitted say. 
 
 jjdob) Uiljcn It tons tljE ^cben li^untircti anti ^fjirtB-sebentf) ^XTiQlbt 
 
 She continued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the 
 handmaid sent by Hayat al-Nufus made her way to Ardashir and 
 delivered him her lady's message, which when he heard, he wept 
 with sore weeping and said to her, " Know that Hayat al-Nufus is 
 my mistress and that I am her slave and the captive of her love. I 
 have not forgotten what was between us nor the bitterness of the 
 parting day ; so do thou say to her, after thou hast kissed her feet, 
 that I will speak with my father of her, and he shall send his Wazir, 
 who sought her aforetime in marriage for me, to demand her hand 
 once more of her sire, for now he dare not refuse. So, if he send to 
 her to consult her, let her make no opposition ; for I will not return 
 to my country without her." Then the handmaid returned to Hayat 
 al-Nufus ; and, kissing her hands, delivered to lier the message, 
 which, when she heard, she wept lor very joy and returned thanks 
 
 ' Very artful is the contrast of the love-lorn Princess's humility with her 
 furious behaviour, while she was yet fancy free.
 
 454 
 
 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 to Almighty Allah. Such was her case ; but as regards Ardashir, he 
 was alone with his father that night and the Great King questioned 
 him of his case, whereupon he told him all that had befallen him, 
 first and last. Then quoth the King, " What wilt thou have me do 
 for thee, O my son ? An thou desire Abd al-Kadir's ruin, I will 
 lay waste his lands and spoil his hoards and dishonour his house." 
 Replied Ardashir, " I do not desire that, O my father, for he hath 
 done nothing to me deserving thereof; but I wish for union with 
 her ; wherefore I beseech thee of thy favour to make ready a present 
 for her father (but let it be a magnificent gift !) and send it to him 
 by thy Minister, the man of just judgment." Quoth the King, " I 
 hear and consent ; " and sending for the treasures he had laid up 
 from time past, brought out all manner precious things and showed 
 them to his son, who was pleased with them. Then he called his 
 Wazir, and bade him bear the present with him ^ to King Abd al- 
 Kadir and demand his daughter in marriage for Ardashir, saying, 
 " Accept the present and return him a reply." Now from the time 
 of Ardashir's departure. King Abd al-Kadir had been troubled and 
 ceased not to be heavy at heart, fearing the laying waste of his 
 reign and the spoiling of his realm ; when behold, the Wazir came 
 in to him and saluting him, kissed ground before him. He rose up 
 standing and received him with honour; but the Minister made 
 haste to fall at his feet and kissing them cried, " Pardon, O King 
 of the Age ! The like of thee should not rise to the like of me, for 
 I am the least of servants' slaves. Know, O King, that Prince 
 Ardashir hath acquainted his father with some of the favours and 
 kindnesses thou hast done him, wherefore he thanketh thee and 
 sendeth thee in company of thy servant who standeth before thee, 
 a present, saluting thee and wishing thee especial blessings and 
 prosperities." Abd al-Kadir could not believe what he heard of the 
 excess of his fear, till the Wazir laid the present before him, when 
 he saw it to be such gift as no money could purchase nor could one 
 of the Kings of the earth avail to the like thereof, wherefore he was 
 belittled in his own eyes and springing to his feet, praised Almighty 
 Allah and glorified Him and thanked the Prince. Then said the 
 Minister to him, " O noble King, give ear to my word and know 
 that the Great King sendeth to thee, desiring thine alliance, and I 
 come to thee seeking and craving the hand of thy daughter, the 
 chaste dame and treasured gem Hayat al-Nufus, in wedlock for his 
 son Ardashir ; wherefore, if thou consent to this proposal and accept 
 
 ' Arab. " Suhbat-hu," lit. = in company with him, a popular idiom in Egypt 
 and Syria. It often occurs in the Bresl. Edit.
 
 Ardashir and Hay at al-Nufus. 455 
 
 of him, do thou agree with me for her marriage-portion." Abd al- 
 Kadir hearing these words repHed, " I hear and obey. For my part, 
 I make no objection, and nothing can be more pleasurable to me ; 
 but the girl is of full age and reason and her affair is in her own 
 hand. So be assured that I will refer it to her and she shall chose 
 for herself." Then he turned to the chief Eunuch and bade him go 
 and acquaint the Princess with the event. Accordingly he repaired 
 to the Harem and, kissing the Princess's hands, acquainted her with 
 the Great King's offer adding, " What sayest thou in answer ? " "I 
 
 hear and I obey," replied she. And Shahrazad perceived the 
 
 dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 ISTob) toljtn it tons Wyz ^cbcn |l^untri-cl3 anti ®]^iitji=ciQ!)t]^ XigSt, 
 
 She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the chief 
 Eunuch of the Harem having informed the Princess how she had 
 been demanded in marriage by the Great King and having heard 
 her reply, "I hear and I obey," returned therewith to the King and 
 gave him this answer, whereat he rejoiced with exceeding joy and, call- 
 ing for a costly robe of honour, threw it over the Wazir's shoulders. 
 Furthermore, he ordered him ten thousand dinars and bade him 
 carry the answer to the Great King and crave leave for him to pay 
 him a visit. "Hearing and obeying," answered the Minister; and, 
 returning to his master, delivered the reply and Abd al-Kadir's 
 message, and repeated all their talk, whereat he rejoiced greatly and 
 Ardashir was transported for delight and his breast broadened and 
 he was a most happy man. King Sayf al-A'azam also gave King 
 v\bd al-Kadir leave to come forth to visit him : so, on the morrow, 
 he took horse and rode to the camp of the Great King, who came to 
 meet him and, saluting him, seated him in the place of honour and 
 gave him welcome ; and they two sat whilst Ardashir stood before 
 them. Then arose an orator of the King Abd al-Kadir's court and 
 pronounced an eloquent discourse, giving the Prince joy of the 
 attainment of his desire and of his marriage with the Princess, a 
 Queen among King's daughters. When he sat down, the Great 
 King caused bring a chest full of pearls and gems, together with fifty 
 thousand dinars, and said to King Abd al-Kadir, " I am my son's 
 deputy in all that concerneth this matter." So Abd al-Kadir acknow- 
 ledged receii)t of the marriage-portion and amongst the rest, fifty 
 thousand dinars for the nuptial festivities; after which they fetched 
 the Kazis and the witnesses, who wrote out the marriage-contract 
 between the Prince and Princess, and it was a notable day, wherein
 
 456 
 
 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 all lovers made merry and all haters and enviers were mortified. 
 Then King Sayf al-A'azam asked his son, " Hast thou any wish thou 
 wouldst have fulfilled ere we depart?'' and he answered, "Yes, O 
 King ; know that I would fain take my wreak of the Wazir who 
 entreated us on evil wise and the Eunuch who forged a lie against 
 us." So the King sent forthright to Abd al-Kadir, demanding of 
 him the Minister and the Eunuch, whereupon he despatched them 
 both to him and he commanded to hang them over the city gate. 
 After this, they abode a little while and then sought of Abd al-Kadir 
 leave for his daughter to equip her for departure. So he equipped 
 her and mounted her in a Takhtrawan, a travelling litter of red gold, 
 inlaid with pearls and gems and drawn by noble steeds. She carried 
 with her all her waiting-women and eunuchs, as well as the nurse, 
 who had returned after her flight and resumed her office. Then 
 King Sayf al-A'azam and his son mounted and Abd al-Kadir mounted 
 also with all the lords of his land, to take leave of his son-in-law and 
 daughter ; and it was a day to be reckoned of the goodliest of days. 
 After they had gone some distance, the Great King conjured Abd 
 al-Kadir to turn back ; so he farewelled him and his son, after he 
 had strained him to his breast and kissed him between the eyes and 
 thanked him for his grace and favours and commended his daughter 
 to his care. Then he went in to the Princess and embraced her ; 
 and she kissed his hands and they wept in the standing-place of 
 parting. After this he returned to his capital and Ardashir and his 
 company fared on till they reached Shiraz, where they celebrated 
 the marriage-festivities anew. And they abode in all comfort and 
 solace and joyance of life, till there came to them the Destroyer 
 of delights and Severer of societies, the Depopulator of palaces and 
 the Garnerer of graveyards. And men also relate the tale of 
 
 J ULNAR THE SEA-BORN AND HER SON KING 
 BADR BASIM OF PERSIA. 
 
 There was once in days of yore and in ages and times long gone 
 before, in Ajam-land, a King Shahriman^ hight, whose abiding-place 
 was Khorasan. He had many wives, but by none of them had he 
 been blessed with boon of child, male or female, all the days of 
 his fife. One day, among the days, he bethought him of this 
 
 ' In the Mac. Edit. " Shahzaman," a corruption of Shah Zaman = King of the 
 Age. (See vol. i. 2.)
 
 Julnar the Sea-born a?id her son Badr Basini. 457 
 
 and fell lamenting for that the most part of his existence was 
 past and he had not been vouchsafed a son, to inherit the king- 
 dom after him, even as he had inherited it from his fathers and 
 forebears ; by reason whereof there betided him sore carle and care 
 and chagrin exceeding. As he sat thus one of his Mamelukes came 
 in to him and said, " O my lord, at the door is a slave-girl with her 
 merchant, and fairer than she eye hatli never seen." Quoth the 
 King, " Hither to me with merchant and maid ! " and both came in 
 to him. Now when Shahriman beheld the girl, he saw that she was 
 like a Rudaynian lance,^ and she was wrapped in a veil of purfled 
 silk. The merchant uncovered her face, whereupon the place was 
 illumined by her beauty and her seven tresses hung down to her 
 anklets like horses' tails. She had Nature-kohl'd eyes, and waist of 
 slenderest guise ; her sight healed all maladies and quenched the fire 
 of sighs, for she was even as the poet cries : — 
 
 I love her madly fur she is perfect fair, * Complete in gravity and gracious 
 
 way; 
 Her shape is midmost 'twixt o'er small and tall; * Nor long to blame nor little 
 
 to gainsay : 
 O'erfall her auklets tresses black as night # Yet in her face resplends eternal 
 
 day. 
 
 The King seeing her marvelled at her beauty and loveliness, her 
 symmetry and perfect grace, and said to the merchant, " O Shaykh, 
 how much for this maiden ? " Replied the merchant, " O my lord, 
 I bought her for two thousand dinars of the merchant who owned 
 her before m) self, since when I have travelled with her three years 
 and she hath cost me, up to the time of my coming hither, other 
 three thousand gold pieces ; but she is a gift from me to thee." 
 The King robed him with a splendid robe of honour and ordered 
 him ten thousand ducats, whereupon he kissed his hands, thanking 
 him for his bounty and beneficence, and went his ways. Then the 
 King committed the damsel to the tire -women, saying, "Amend ye 
 the case of this maiden '^ and adorn her and furnish her a bower and 
 set her therein." And he bade his chamberlains carry her everything 
 she needed and shut all the doors upon her. Now his capital wherein 
 he dwelt was called the White City and was seated on the sea-shore ; 
 so they lodged her in a chamber whose latticed casements overlooked 
 
 the main. And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and 
 
 ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 ' For a note on this subject see vol. i. 312. 
 
 " i.e. bathe her and apply cosmetics to remove all traces of travel.
 
 458 
 
 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 Koto fcD^m It toas tj^e ^eben |^untir£ti anb ^]birtB=nintf) Niai)t, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the King 
 after taking the maiden, committed her to the tire-women bidding 
 them amend her case and set her in a bower, and ordered his cham- 
 berlains to shut all the doors upon her when they had lodged her in 
 a chamber whose latticed casements overlooked the main. Then 
 Shahriman went in to her ; but she spake not to him neither took 
 any note of him.^ Quoth he, " 'Twould seem she hath been with 
 folk who have not taught her manners." Then he looked at the 
 damsel and saw her surpassing beauty and loveliness and symmetry 
 and perfect grace, with a face like the rondure of the moon at its 
 full or the sun shining in the sheeny sky. So he marvelled at her 
 charms of favour and figure and he praised Allah the Creator (mag- 
 nified be His might !), after which he walked up to her and sat him 
 down by her side ; then he called for trays spread with the richest 
 viands of all kinds and ate and fed her by mouthfuls, till she had 
 enough ; yet she spoke not one word. The King began to talk to 
 her and asked her of her name ; but she abode still silent and 
 uttered not a syllable nor made him any answer, neither ceased to 
 hang down her head groundwards ; and it was but the excess of 
 her beauty and loveliness and grace that saved her from the royal 
 wrath. Quoth he to himself, " Glory be to God, the Creator of 
 this girl ! How charming she is, save that she speaketh not ! But 
 perfection belongeth only to Allah the Most High." And he asked 
 the slave-girls whether she had spoken, and they said, " From the 
 time of her coming until now she hath not uttered a word nor have 
 we heard her address us." Then he summoned some of his women 
 and concubines and bade them sing to her and make merry with 
 her, so haply she might speak. Accordingly they played before her 
 all manner instruments of music and sports and what not and sang, 
 till the whole company was moved to mirth, except the damsel, who 
 looked at them in silence, but neither laughed nor spoke. I'he 
 King's breast was straitened ; thereupon he dismissed the women 
 and abode alone with that damsel : and devoted himself altogether 
 to her, heeding none other and forsaking all his concubines and 
 favourites, and tarried with her a whole year as it were a single day. 
 Still she spoke not till, one morning he said to her (and indeed the 
 
 ^ These pretentious and curious displays of coquetry are not uncommon in 
 handsome slave-girls when newly bought ; and it is a kind of pundonor to humour 
 
 them.
 
 Jubiar the Sea-born and her son Badr Basim. 459 
 
 love of her waxed upon him), " O desire of souls, verily passion for 
 thee is great with me, and I have forsaken for thy sake all my slave- 
 girls and concubines and women and favourites and I have made 
 thee my portion of the world and had patience with thee a whole 
 year ; and now I beseech Almighty Allah, of His favour, to soften 
 thy heart to me, so thou mayst speak to me. Or, an thou be dumb, 
 tell me by a sign, that I may give up hope of thy speech. I pray 
 the Lord (extolled be He !) to vouchsafe me by thee a man child, 
 who shall inherit the kingdom after me ; for I am old and lone and 
 have none to be my heir. Wherefore, Allah upon thee, an thou love 
 me, return me a reply." The damsel bowed her head awhile in 
 thought, and presently raising it, smiled in his face : whereat it 
 seemed to him as if lightning filled the chamber. Then she said, 
 "O magnanimous liege lord and valorous lion, Allah hath answered 
 thy prayer, for I hope to present thee with an heir to thy throne. 
 But were it not for this hope I had not spoken to thee one word." 
 When the King heard her speech, his face shone with joy and glad- 
 ness and he kissed her head and hands for excess of delight, saying, 
 " Alhamdolillah — laud to the Lord — who hath vouchsafed me the 
 things I desired ! first, thy speech ; and secondly, thy words of hope." 
 Then he rose up and went forth from her and, seating himself on 
 the throne of his kingship, in an ecstasy of happiness, bade his 
 Wazir distribute to the poor and needy and widows and others an 
 hundred thousand dinars, by way of thank-offering to Allah Most 
 High and alms on his own account. The Minister did as bidden 
 by the King who, returning to the damsel, sat with her and embraced 
 her, saying, " O my lady, my queen, whose slave I am, prithee what 
 was the cause of this thy silence ? Thou hast been with me a whole 
 year, night and day, waking and sleeping, yet hast not spoken to me 
 till this time." Slie replied, "Hearken, O King of the Age, and 
 know that I am a wretched exile, broken-hearted and far-parted from 
 my mother and my family and my brother." When the King heard 
 her words, he knew her desire and said, "As for thy saying that 
 thou art wretched, there is for such speech no ground, inasmuch as 
 my kingdom and good and all I possess are at thy service and I also 
 am become thy bondman ; but as for thy saying : — I am parted from 
 my mother and brother and family, tell me where they are and 
 I will send and fetch them to thee." Thereupon she answered, 
 " Know, then, O auspicious King, that I am called Julnar ^ the Sea- 
 
 * Arabic (which has no written "g"), from Pers. Gulnar (Gul-i-anar) pome- 
 granate-flower, the "Guliiare" of ]5yron who learnt his Orientalism at the 
 Mekhitarist (Armenian) Convent, Venice. I regret to sec the little honour now- 
 paid to the gallant poet in the land where he should be honoured the most. The
 
 460 
 
 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 born and that my father was of the Kings of the Main. He died 
 and left us his reign, but while we were yet unsettled, behold, one 
 of the other Kings arose against us and took the realm from our 
 hands. I have a brother called Salih, and my mother also is a 
 woman of the sea; but I fell out with my brother "The Pious" and 
 swore that I would throw myself into the hands of a man of the 
 folk of the land. So I came forth of the sea and sat down on the 
 edge of an island in the moonshine,^ where a passer-by found me 
 and, carrying me to his house, besought my love ; but I smote him 
 on the head, so that he all but died ; whereupon he carried me forth 
 and sold me to the merchant from whom thou hadst me, and this 
 was a good man and a virtuous ; pious, loyal and generous. Were 
 it not that thy heart loved me and that thou promotedest me over all 
 thy favourites, I had not remained with thee a single hour, but had 
 cast myself from this window into the sea and gone to my mother 
 and family ; but I was ashamed to fare themwards, for they would 
 have deemed evilly of me and would not have credited me, even 
 although I swore to them, if I told them that a King had bought me 
 with his gold and made me his portion of the world and preferred 
 me over all his wives and everything that his right hand possessed. 
 This then is my story — and The Peace ! " And Shahrazad per- 
 ceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 Nofo toj^en it toas tl)e ^tbcn l^untnttr antr jpovtiet]^ Kigl^t, 
 
 She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Julnar^ the Sea-born, answering the question of King Shahriman, 
 told him her past from first to last, the King thanked her and kissed 
 
 systematic depreciation was began by the late Mr. Thackeray, perhaps the last 
 man to value the nt)ble independence of Byron's spirit ; and it has been per- 
 petuated, I regret to see, by better judges. These critics seem wholly to ignore 
 the fact that Byron founded a school which covered Europe from Russia to Spain, 
 from Norway to Sicily, and which from England passed over to the two Americas. 
 This exceptional success, which has not yet fallen even to Shakespeare's lot, 
 was due to genius only, for the poet almost ignored study and poetic art. His 
 great misfortune was being born in England under the Georgium Sidus : any 
 Continental people, teste the great Goethe, would have regarded him as one of 
 the prime glories of his race. 
 
 ' Arab. " Fi al-Kamar," which Lane renders in the moonlight." It seems to 
 me that the allusion is to the Comorin Islands ; but the sequel speaks simply of 
 an island. 
 
 ^ The Mac. Edit, misprints Julnar as Julnaz (so the Bui. Edit. ii. 233), and 
 Lane's Jullanar is an Egyptian vulgarism. He is right in suspecting the " White 
 City " to be imaginary ; but its sea has no apparent connection with the Caspian. 
 The mermen and mermaids appear to him to be of an inferior order of the Jinn, 
 termed, Al-Ghawwasah (the Divers), who fly through air and are made of fire, 
 which at times issues from their mouths.
 
 Jiclnar the Sea-horn and her so7i Badr Bashn. 461 
 
 her between the eyes, saying, " By Allah, O my lady and light of 
 mine eyes, I cannot bear to be parted from thee one hour ; and 
 given thou leave me, I shall die forthright. What then is to be 
 done ? " Replied she, " O my lord, my family needs must be pre- 
 sent at my lying-in, that they may tend me, for the women of the 
 land know not the manner of tending the women of the sea, nor do 
 the daughters of the ocean know the manners of the daughters of 
 the earth ; and when my people come, I shall be reconciled to them 
 and they will be reconciled to me." Quoth the King, " How do 
 the people of the sea walk therein without being wetted ? " and 
 quoth she, " O King of the Age, we walk in the waters wnth our eyes 
 open, as do ye on the ground, by the blessing of the names graven 
 upon the seal-ring of Solomon David-son (on whom be peace !). 
 But, O King, when my kith and kin come, I will tell them how thou 
 boughtest me with thy gold, and hast entreated me with kindness 
 and benevolence. It behoveth that thou confirm my words to 
 them and that they witness thine estate with their own eyes and 
 they learn that thou art a King, son of a King." He rejoined, "O 
 my lady, do what seemeth good to thee and what pleaseth thee, and 
 I will consent to thee in all thou wouldst do." The damsel con- 
 tinued, "Yes, we walk in the sea and see what is therein and behold 
 the sun, moon, stars and sky, as it were on the surface of earth ; and 
 this irketh us naught. Know also that there be many peoples in 
 the main and various forms and creatures of all kinds that are on 
 the land, and that all which is on the land compared with that which 
 is in the main is but a very small matter." And the King marvelled 
 at her words. Then she pulled out from her bosom two bits of 
 Comorin lign-aloes and, kindling fire in a chafing dish, chose some- 
 what of them and threw it in, then she whistled a loud whistle and 
 spake words none understood. Thereupon arose a great smoke 
 and she said to the King, who was looking on, " O my lord, arise 
 and hide thyself in a closet, that I may show thee my brother and 
 mother and family, whilst they see thee not ; for I design to bring 
 them hither, and thou shalt presently espy a wondrous thing and 
 shalt marvel at the several creatures and strange shapes which 
 Almighty Allah hath created." So he arose without stay or delay 
 and entering a closet, fell a-watching what she should do. She con- 
 tinued her fumigations and conjurations till the sea foamed and 
 frothed turbid and there rose from it a handsome young man of a 
 bright favour, as he were the moon at its full, with brow flower- 
 white, cheeks of ruddy light and teeth like the marguerite. He was 
 the likest of all creatures to his sister and the tongue of the case 
 spoke in his praise these two couplets : —
 
 462 
 
 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 The moon groweth perfect once a month * But thy face each clay we view 
 
 perfected. 
 And the full moon dwelleth in single sign, * But to thee all hearts be a dwelHng- 
 
 stead. 
 
 After him there came forth of the sea an ancient dame with hair 
 speckled gray and five maidens, as they were moons, bearing a 
 likeness to the damsel hight Julnar. The King looked upon them as 
 they all walked upon the face of the water, till they drew near the 
 window and saw Julnar, whereupon they knew her and went in to 
 her. She rose to them and met them with joy and gladness, and 
 they embraced her and wept with sore weeping. Then said they to 
 her, " O Julnar, how couldst thou leave us four years, and we un- 
 knowing of thine abiding place ? By Allah the world hath been 
 straitened upon us for stress of severance from thee, and we have 
 had no delight of food or drink ; no, not for one day, but have wept 
 with sore weeping night and day for the excess of our longing after 
 thee ! " Then she fell to kissing the hands of the youth her brother 
 and her mother and cousins, and they sat with her awhile, question- 
 ing her of her case and of what had betided her, as well as of 
 her present estate. " Know," replied she, " that when I left you, I 
 issued from the sea and sat down on the shore of an island, where 
 a man found me and sold me to a merchant, who brought me to 
 this city and sold me for ten thousand dinars to the King of the 
 country, who entreated me with honour and forsook all his concu- 
 bines and women and favourites for my sake and was distracted by 
 me from all he had and all that was in his city." Quoth her brother, 
 " Praised be Allah, who hath reunited us with thee ! But now, O 
 my sister, 'tis my purpose that thou arise and go with us to our 
 country and people." When the King heard these words, his wits 
 fled him for fear lest the damsel accept her brother's words and he 
 himself avail not to stay her, albeit he loved her passionately, and 
 he became distracted with fear of losing her. But Julnar answered, 
 " By Allah, O my brother, the mortal who bought me is lord of this 
 city and he is a mighty sovran and a wise man, good and generous 
 with extreme generosity. Moreover, he is a personage of great 
 worth and wealth and hath neither son nor daughter. He hath 
 entreated me with honour and done me all manner of favour and 
 kindness ; nor, from the day of his buying me to this time, have I 
 heard from him an ill word to hurt my heart ; but he hath never 
 ceased to use me courteously ; doing nothing save with my counsel, 
 and I am in the best of case with him and in the perfection of fair 
 fortune. Furthermore, were I to leave him, he would perish ; for 
 he cannot endure to be parted from me an hour ; and if I left him,
 
 Julnar the Sea-born and her son Badr Basim. 463 
 
 I also should die, for the excess of the love I bear him, by reason of 
 his great goodness to me during the time of my sojourn with him ; 
 for, were my father alive, my estate with him would not be like my 
 estate with this great and glorious and puissant potentate. And 
 verily, ye see me with child by him and praise be to Allah, who 
 hath made me a daughter of the Kings of the sea, and my husband 
 the mightiest of the Kings of the land, and Allah, in very sooth, 
 
 hath compensated me for whatso I lost." And Shahrazad was 
 
 surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 Nob) foj^tn It tons tf)t ^cbcn |L^untirctr nnU jportLi^first Nigbt, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Julnar the 
 Sea-born told her brother all her tale, adding, " Allah hath not cut 
 me off, but hath compensated me for whatso I lost. Now this King 
 hath no issue, male or female, so I pray the Almighty to vouchsafe 
 me a son who shall inherit of this mighty sovran that which the Lord 
 hath bestowed upon him of lands and palaces and possessions." 
 But when her brother and the daughters of her uncle heard this 
 her speech, their eyes were cooled thereby and they said, "O Julnar, 
 thou knowest thy value with us and thou wottest the affection we 
 bear thee and thou art certified that thou art to us the dearest of all 
 creatures and thou art assured that we seek but ease for thee, with- 
 out travail or trouble. Wherefore, an thou be in unease, arise and 
 go with us to our land and our folk ; but, an thou be at thine ease 
 here, in honour and happiness, this is our wish and our will ; for we 
 desire naught save thy welfare in any case."^ Quoth she, "By 
 Allah, I am here in the utmost comfort and solace and honour and 
 grace !" When the King heard what she said, he joyed with a 
 heart set at rest and thanked her silently for this ; the love of her 
 redoubled on him and entered his heartcore and he knew that she 
 loved him as he loved her and that she desired to abide with him, 
 that she might see his child by her. Then Julnar bade her women 
 lay the tables and set on all sorts of viands, which had been cooked 
 in kitchen under her own eyes, and fruits and sweetmeats, whereof 
 she ate, she and her kinsfolk. But, presently, they said to her, " O 
 Julnar, thy lord is a stranger to us, and we have entered his house, 
 without his leave or knowledge. Thou hast extolled to us his excel- 
 lence and eke thou hast set before us of his victual whereof we have 
 
 'Arab." 'Ali kulli Hdl," a popular phrase, like the " ornary " Anglo-American 
 " anyhow."
 
 464 A If LaylaJi wa LaylaJi. 
 
 eaten ; yet have we not companied with him nor seen him, neither 
 hath he seen us nor come to our presence and eaten with us, so there 
 might be between us bread and salt." And they all left eating and 
 were wroth with her, and fire issued from their mouths, as from 
 cressets ; which when the King saw, his wits fled for excess of fear of 
 them. But Julnar arose and soothed them and going to the closet 
 where was the King her lord, said to him, " O my lord, hast thou 
 seen and heard how I praised thee and extolled thee to my people 
 and hast thou noted what they said to me of their desire to carry me 
 away with them?" Quoth he, "I both heard and saw: may the 
 Almighty abundantly requite thee for me ! By Allah, I knew not 
 the full measure of thy fondness until this blessed hour, and now I 
 doubt not of thy love to me ! " Quoth she, " O my lord, is the 
 reward of kindness aught but kindness? Verily, thou hast dealt 
 generously with me and hast entreated me with worship and I have 
 seen that thou lovest me with the utmost love, and thou hast done 
 me all manner of honour and kindness and preferred me above all 
 thou lovest and desirest. So how should my heart be content to 
 leave thee and depart from thee, and how should I do thus after all 
 thy goodness to me ? But now I desire of thy courtesy that thou 
 come and salute my family, so thou mayst see them and they thee, 
 and pure love and friendship may be between you ; for know, O 
 King of the Age, that my brother and mother and cousins love thee 
 with exceeding love, by reason of my praises of thee to them, and 
 they say : — We will not depart from thee nor go to our homes till we 
 have foregathered with the King and saluted him. For indeed they 
 desire to see thee and make acquaintance with thee." The King 
 replied, " To hear is to obey ; for this is my own very wish." So 
 saying, he rose and went in to them and saluted them with the 
 goodliest salutation ; and they sprang up to him and received him 
 with the utmost worship, after which he sat down in the palace and 
 ate with them ; and he entertained them thus for the space of thirty 
 days. Then, being desirous of returning home, they took leave of 
 the King and Queen and departed with due permission to their own 
 land, after he had done them all possible honour. A while after this, 
 Julnar bore a boy, as he were the moon at its full ; whereat the 
 utmost joy betided the King, for that he had never in his life been 
 vouchsafed son or daughter. So they held high festival and deco- 
 rated the city seven days, in the extreme of joy and jollity ; and on 
 the seventh day came Queen Julnar's mother, Farashah hight,i and 
 
 ^ In the text the name does not appear till near the end of the tale.
 
 Julnar the Sea-born and her son Badr Basini. 465 
 
 brother and cousins, whenas they knew of the birth. And Shahr- 
 
 azad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted 
 say. 
 
 :^^^oto hjljcn ft luas tijc ^cbcn fBuntirctr anti jportn-scconti Nig^t, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Julnar 
 was visited by her people, the King received them with joy at their 
 coming and said to them, " I promised that I would not give my son 
 a name till you should come and name him of your knowledge." So 
 they named him Badr Basim,^ and all agreed upon this name. Then 
 they showed the child to his uncle Salih, who took him in his arms 
 and arising began to walk about the chamber with him in all direc- 
 tions right and left. Presently he carried him forth of the palace, 
 and, going down to the salt sea, fared on with him till he was hidden 
 from the King's sight. Now when Shahriman saw him take his son 
 and disappear with him in the depth of the sea, he gave the child up 
 for lost and fell to weeping and wailing : but Julnar said to him, " O 
 King of the Age, fear not, neither grieve for thy son, for I love my 
 child more than thou and he is with my brother ; so reck thou not 
 of the sea, neither fear for him drowning. Had my brother known 
 that aught of harm would betide the little one, he had not done 
 this deed ; and he will presently bring thee thy son safe, Inshallah 
 — an it please the Almighty ! " Nor was an hour past before the 
 sea became turbid and troubled and King Salih came forth and 
 flew from the sea till he came up to them with the child lying 
 quiet and showing a face like the moon on the night of fulness. 
 Then, looking at the King he said, " Haply thou fearedst harm for 
 thy son, when I plunged into the sea with him?" Replied the 
 father, " Yes, O my lord, I did indeed fear for him and thought he 
 would never be saved therefrom." Rejoined Salih, " O King of the 
 land, we pencilled his eyes with an eye-powder we know of and 
 recited over him the names graven upon the seal-ring of Solomon 
 David-son (on whom be The Peace !), for this is what we use to do 
 with children newly born among us ; and now thou needst not 
 fear for him drowning or suffocation in all the oceans of the world, 
 if he should go down into them ; for, even as ye walk on the land, 
 so walk we in the sea." Then he pulled out of his pocket a 
 casket, graven and sealed and, breaking open the seals, emptied it ; 
 whereupon there fell from it strings of all manner jacinths and other 
 
 ' i.e. I'ull moon smiling. 
 VOL. IV. GG
 
 466 
 
 Alf Laylah wa Lay/ah. 
 
 jewels, besides three hundred bugles of emerald and other three 
 hundred hollow gems, as big as ostrich eggs, whose light dimmed 
 that of sun and moon. Quoth Salih, " O King of the Age, these 
 jewels and jacinths are a present from me to thee. We never yet 
 brought thee a gift, for that we knew not Julnar's abiding-place, 
 neither had we of her any tidings or trace ; but now that we see 
 thee to be united with her and we are all become one thing, we have 
 brought thee this present ; and every little while we will bring 
 thee the like thereof, Inshallah ! for that these jewels and jacinths 
 are more plentiful with us than pebbles on the beach, and we 
 know the good and the bad of them and their whereabouts and the 
 way to them, and they are easy to us." When the King saw the 
 jewels, his wits were bewildered and his sense was astounded and he 
 said, " By Allah, one single gem of these jewels is worth my realm ! " 
 Then he thanked for his bounty Salih the Sea-born and, looking 
 towards Queen Julnar, said, " I am abashed before thy brother, for 
 that he hath dealt munificently by me and bestowed on me this 
 splendid gift, which the folk of the land were unable to present." 
 So she thanked her brother for his deed and he said, " O King of 
 the Age, thou hast the prior claim on us and it behoveth us to thank 
 thee, for thou hast entreated our sister with kindness and we have 
 entered thy dwelling and eaten of thy victual ; and the poet saith i : — 
 
 Had /wept before she did in my passion for Saada, I had healed my soul before 
 
 repentance came. 
 But she wept before / did : her tears drew mine ; and I said, The merit belongs 
 
 to the precedent. 
 
 " And " (resumed Salih the Pious) " if we stood on our faces in thy 
 service, O King of the Age, a thousand years, yet had we not the 
 might to requite thee, and this were but a scantling of thy due." 
 The King thanked him with heartiest thanks and the Merman and 
 Merwomen abode with him forty days' space, at the end of which 
 Salih arose and kissed the ground before his brother-in-law, who 
 asked, "What wantest thou, O Salih ? " He answered, " O King of 
 the Age, indeed thou hast done us overabundant favours, and we 
 crave of thy bounties that thou deal charitably with us and grant us 
 permission to depart ; for we yearn after our people and country and 
 kinsfolk and our homes ; so will we never forsake thy service nor 
 that of my sister and my nephew ; and by Allah, O King of the Age, 
 'tis not pleasant to my heart to part from thee ; but how shall we do, 
 seeing that we have been reared in the sea and that the sojourn of 
 
 ^ These lines have occurred before, so I quote Lane ii. 499.
 
 /ulnar tJie Sea-born aiid her son Badr Basim. 467 
 
 the shore liketh us not ? " When the King heard these words he 
 rose to his feet and farewelled Sahh the Sea-born and his mother 
 and his cousins, and all wept together, because of parting, and 
 presently they said to him, " Anon we will be with thee again, nor 
 will we forsake thee, but will visit thee every few days." Then they 
 
 flew off and, descending into the depths, disappeared from sight. 
 
 And Shahrazad was surprised by the dav/n of day and ceased saying 
 her permitted say. 
 
 Nofo toljcn ft tuas t^c ^cbcn fi^untircij anlj jpotts-tljirti Nigf)t, 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the 
 relations of Julnar the Sea-born farewelled the King and her, weeping 
 together because of parting ; then they flew off and, descending into 
 the depths, disappeared from sight. After this King Shahriman 
 showed the more kindness to Julnar and honoured her with increase 
 of honour ; and the little one grew up and flourished, whilst his 
 maternal uncle and grandam and cousins visited the King every 
 few days and abode with him a month or two months at a time. 
 The boy ceased not to increase in beauty and loveliness with increase 
 of years, till he attained the age of fifteen and was unique in his 
 perfection and symmetry. He learnt writing and Koran-reading ; 
 history, syntax and lexicography ; archery, spearplay and horseman- 
 ship and what not else behoveth the sons of Kings ; nor was 
 there one of the children of the folk of the city, men or women, but 
 would talk of the youth's charms, for he was of surpassing beauty 
 and perfection, even such an one as is praised in the saying of the 
 poet : ^ — 
 
 The whiskers write upon his cheek, with ambergris on pearl, Two lines, as 'twere 
 
 with jet upon an apple, line for line. 
 Death harbours in his languid eye and slays with every glance, And in his cheek 
 
 is drunkenness, and not in any wine. 
 
 And in that of another : — 
 
 Upsprings from table of his lovely cheek' * A growth like broidery my 
 
 wonder is : 
 As 'twere a lamp that burns through night hung up » Beneath the gloom ^ in 
 
 chains of ambergris. 
 
 ' These lines occurred before. I quote Mr. Payne. 
 
 ^ Arab. " Khadd " = cheek from the eye-orbit to the place where the beard 
 grows ; also applied to the side of a rough highland, the side-planks of a litter, 
 etc., etc. 
 
 * The black hair of youth : this couplet contains a favourite conceit.
 
 468 
 
 Alf Laylah wa Lay/ah. 
 
 1 
 
 And indeed the King loved him with exceeding love, and summoning 
 his Wazir and Emirs and the Chief Officers of state and Grandees of 
 his realm, required of them a binding oath that they would make 
 Badr Basim King over them after his sire ; and they sware the oath 
 gladly, for the sovran was liberal to the lieges, pleasant in parley and 
 a very compend of goodness, saying naught but that wherein was 
 advantage for the people. On the morrow Shahriman mounted, with 
 all his troops and Emirs and Lords, and went forth into the city and 
 returned. When they drew near the palace, the King dismounted, 
 to wait upon his son who abode on horseback, and he and all the 
 Emirs and Grandees bore the saddle-cloth of honour before him, 
 each and every of them bearing it in his turn, till they came to the 
 vestibule of the palace, where the Prince alighted and his father and 
 the Emirs embraced him and seated him on the throne of kingship, 
 whilst they (including his sire) stood before him. Then Badr Basim 
 judged the people, deposing the unjust and promoting the just and 
 continued so doing till near upon noon, when he descended from 
 the throne and went in to his mother, Julnar the Sea-born, with the 
 crown upon his head, as he were the moon. When she saw him, 
 with the King standing before him, she rose and, kissing him, gave 
 him joy of the Sultanate and wished him and his sire length of life 
 and victory over their foes. He sat with her and rested till the hour 
 of mid-afternoon prayer, when he took horse and repaired, with the 
 Emirs before him, to the Maydan-plain, where he played at arms 
 with his father and his lords till nightfall, when he returned to the 
 palace preceded by all the folk. He rode forth thus every day to 
 the tilting-ground, returning to sit and judge the people and do 
 justice between earl and churl ; and thus he continued doing a 
 whole year, at the end of which he began to ride out a-hunting and 
 a-chasing and to go round about in the cities and countries under 
 his rule, proclaiming security and satisfaction and doing after the 
 fashion of Kings ; and he was unique among the people of his day 
 for glory and valour and just dealing among the subjects. And it 
 chanced that one day the old King fell sick and his fluttering heart 
 forebode him of translation to the Mansion of Eternity. His sickness 
 grew upon him till he was nigh upon death, when he called his son 
 and commended his mother and subjects to his care and caused all 
 the Emirs and Grandees once more swear allegiance to the Prince 
 and assured himself of them by strongest oaths ; after which he 
 lingered a few days and departed to the mercy of Almighty Allah. 
 His son and widow and all the Emirs and Wazirs and Lords mourned 
 over him, and they built him a tomb and buried him therein. They 
 ceased not ceremonially to mourn for him a whole month, till Salih
 
 Julnar the Sea-born and her son Badr Basini. 40 9 
 
 and his mother and cousins arrived and condoled with their grieving 
 for the King and said, " O Julnar, though the King be dead, yet hath 
 he left this noble and peerless youth and not dead is whoso leaveth 
 
 the like of him, the rending lion and the shining moon." And 
 
 Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her per- 
 mitted say. 
 
 Nofo tofien it tons tljc ^cbcn |Duntiici3 nnti jpotHj-fourtl) :Nrig!)t, 
 
 She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Salih, 
 brother of Julnar, and her mother and cousins said to her, " Albeit 
 the King be dead, yet hath he left behind him as successor this 
 noble and peerless youth, the rending lion and the shining moon." 
 Thereupon the Grandees and Notables of the Empire went in to 
 King Badr Basim and said to him, " O King, there is no harm in 
 mourning for the late sovran ; but over-mourning beseemeth none 
 save women ; wherefore occupy thou not thy heart and our hearts 
 with mourning for thy sire ; inasmuch as he hath left thee behind 
 him, and whoso leaveth the like of thee is not dead." Then they 
 comforted him and diverted him and lastly bore him to the bath. 
 When he came out of the Hammam, he donned a rich robe, pur- 
 tied with gold and embroidered with jewels and jacinths ; and, 
 setting the royal crown on his head, sat down on his throne of 
 kingship and ordered the affairs of the folk, doing equal justice 
 between strong and weak, and exacting from the prince the dues 
 of the pauper ; wherefore the people loved him with exceeding love. 
 Thus he continued doing for a full year, whilst, every now and then, 
 his kinsfolk of the sea visited him, and his life was pleasant and his 
 eye was cooled. Now it came to pass that his uncle Salih went in 
 one night of the nights to Julnar and saluted her ; whereupon she 
 rose and embracing him seated him by her side and asked him, " O 
 my brother, how art thou and my mother and my cousins." He 
 answered, " O my sister, they are well and glad and in good case, 
 lacking naught save a sight of thy face." Then she set somewhat 
 of food before him and he ate, after which talk ensued between the 
 twain and they spake of King Badr Basim and his beauty and love- 
 liness, his symmetry and skill in horsemanship and cleverness and 
 good breeding. Now Badr was propped upon his elbow hard by 
 them; and, hearing his mother and uncle speak of him, he feigned 
 sleep and listened to their talk.^ Presently Salih said to his sister, 
 
 ^ This manner of listening is not held dishonourable amongst Arabs or Easterns 
 generally ; who, however, hear as little good of themselves as Westerns declare in 
 proverb.
 
 470 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 " Thy son is now seventeen years old and is unmarried, and I fear 
 least mishap befal him and he have no son ; wherefore it is my 
 desire to marry him to a Princess of the princesses of the sea, who 
 shall be a match for him in beauty and loveliness." Quoth Julnar, 
 " Name them to me for I know them all." So Salih proceeded to 
 enumerate them to her, one by one, but to each she said, " I like 
 not this one for my son ; I will not marry him but to one who is his 
 equal in beauty and loveliness and wit and piety and good breeding 
 and magnanimity and dominion and rank and lineage." ^ Quoth 
 Salih, " I know none other of the daughters of the Kings of the sea, 
 for I have numbered to thee more than an hundred girls and not 
 one of them pleaseth thee : but see, O my sister, whether thy son 
 be asleep or no." So she felt Badr and finding on him the signs of 
 slumber said to Salih, " He is asleep ; what hast thou to say and 
 what is thine object in making sure his sleeping ? " Replied he, 
 " O my sister, know that I have bethought me of a Mermaid of the 
 mermaids who befitteth thy son ; but I fear to name her, lest he be 
 awake and his heart be taken with her love and maybe we shall be 
 unable to win to her ; so should he and we and the Grandees of the 
 realm be wearied in vain and trouble betide us through this ; for, as 
 saith the poet : — 
 
 Love, at first sight, is a spurt of spray ; '^ * But a spreading sea when it gaineth 
 sway. 
 
 When she heard these words, she cried, "Tell me the condition of 
 this girl, and her name for I know all the damsels of the sea, 
 Kings' daughters and others ; and, if I judge her worthy of him, I 
 will demand her in marriage for him of her father, though I spend 
 on her whatever my hand possesseth. So recount to me all con- 
 cerning her and fear naught, for my son sleepeth." Quoth Salih, 
 " I fear lest he be awake ; and the poet saith : — 
 
 I loved him, soon as his praise I heard ; * For oft ear loveth ere eye survey. 
 
 But Julnar said, " Speak out and be brief and fear not, O my 
 brother." So he said, "By Allah, O my sister, none is worthy of 
 thy son save the Princess Jauharah, daughter of King Al-Samandal,^ 
 
 ^ Arab. ** Hasab wa Nasab," before explained as inherited degree and acquired 
 dignity. 
 
 - Arab. " Mujajah," = spittle running from the mouth : hence Lane, " is like 
 running saliva," which, in poetry, is not pretty. 
 
 ^ Arab, and Heb. " Salmandra," from Pers. Samandal ( — dar — duk — dun, etc.), 
 a Salamander, a mouse which lives in fire, some say a bird in India and China 
 and others confuse with the chameleon (Bochart, Hiero. Part ii. chapt. vi.).
 
 Jidnar the Sea-born and her soft Badr Basim. 471 
 
 for that she is Hke unto him in beauty and loveliness and briUiancy 
 and perfection ; nor is there found, in sea or on land, a sweeter or 
 pleasanter of gifts than she ; for she is prime in comeliness and 
 seemlihead of face and symmetrical shape of perfect grace ; her 
 cheek is ruddy dight, her brow flower white, her teeth gem-bright, 
 her eyes blackest black and whitest white, her hips of heavy weight, 
 her waist slight and her favour exquisite. When she turneth she 
 shamelh the wild cattle ^ and the gazelles, and when she walketh 
 she breedeth envy in the willow branch : when she unveilelh her 
 face outshineth sun and moon, and all who look upon her she en- 
 slaveth soon : sweet-lipped and soft-sided indeed is she." Now 
 when Julnar heard what Salih said, she replied, " Thou sayest sooth, 
 O my brother ! By Allah, I have seen her many and many a time 
 and she was my companion, when we were little ones ; but now we 
 have no knowledge of each other, for constraint of distance ; nor 
 have I set eyes on her for eighteen years. By Allah, none is worthy 
 of my son but she ! " Now Badr heard all they said and mastered 
 what had passed, first and last, of these praises bestowed on Jauharah 
 daughter of King Al-Samandal ; so he fell in love with her on hear 
 say, pretending sleep the while, wherefore fire was kindled in his 
 heart on her account full sore and he was drowned in a sea without 
 
 bottom or shore. And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of 
 
 day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 Noto luljcn It tons tf)c ^cbcn fl^untircti anU jfottn--fiftl) ^NTigtt, 
 
 She resumed. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 King Badr Basim heard the words of his uncle Salih and his mother 
 Julnar, praising the daughter of King Al-Samandal, a flame of fire 
 burnt in his heart full sore and he was drowned in a sea which hath 
 nor bottom nor shore. Then Salih, looking at his sister, exclaimed, 
 " By Allah, O my sister, there is no greater fool among the Kings of 
 the sea than her father nor one more violent of temper than he ! 
 So name thou not the girl to thy son, till we demand her in marriage 
 of her father. If he favour us with his assent, we will praise Allah 
 Almighty ; and if he refuse us and will not give her to thy son to 
 wife, we will say no more about it and seek another match." 
 Answered Julnar, " Right is thy rede ; " and they parleyed no 
 more ; but Badr passed the night with a heart on fire with passion 
 
 ' Arab. " Maha," one of the four kinds of wild cows or bovine antelopes, 
 Bubalus, Antelope defassa, A. leucoryx, etc
 
 472 A If Lay la h zva Lay I ah. 
 
 for Princess Jauharah. However he concealed his case and spake 
 not of her to his mother or his uncle, albeit he was on coals of fire 
 for love of her. Now when it was morning, the King and his uncle 
 went to the Hammam-bath and washed, after which they came forth 
 and drank wine and the servants set food before them, whereof they 
 and Julnar ate their sufficiency, and washed their hands. Then 
 Salih rose and said to his nephew and sister, "With your leave, I 
 would fain go to my mother and my folk for I have been with you 
 some days and their hearts are troubled with awaiting me." But 
 Badr Basim said to him, " Tarry with us^this day ; " and he consented. 
 Then quoth the King, " Come, O my uncle, let us go forth to the 
 garden." So they sallied forth and promenaded about the pastures 
 and took their solace awhile, after which King Badr lay down under 
 a shady tree, thinking to rest and sleep ; but he remembered his 
 uncle's description of the maiden and her beauty and loveliness and 
 shed railing tears, reciting these two couplets •} — 
 
 Were it said to me while the flame is burning within me, and the fire blazing 
 
 in my heart and bowels, 
 Wouldst thou rather that thou shouldest behold them or a draught of pure 
 
 water? — I would answer, them. 
 
 Then he sighed and wept and lamented, reciting these verses 
 also : — 
 
 Who shall save me from love of a lovely gazelle, * Brighter browed than the 
 
 sunshine, my bonnibel ! 
 My heart, erst free from her love, now burns * With fire for the maid of 
 
 Al-Samandal. 
 
 When Salih heard what his nephew said, he smote hand upon 
 hand and said, " There is no God but the God ! Mohammed is the 
 Apostle of God, and there is no Majesty and there is no Might 
 save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great ! " adding, " O my son, 
 heardest thou what passed between me and thy mother respecting 
 Princess Jauharah ? " Replied Badr Basim, " Yes, O my uncle, 
 and I fell in love with her by hearsay through what I heard you 
 say. Indeed, my heart cleaveth to her and I cannot live without 
 her." Rejoined his uncle, " O King, let us return to thy mother 
 and tell her how the case standeth and crave her leave that I may 
 take thee with me and seek the Princess in marriage of her sire ; 
 after which we will farewell her and I and thou will return. 
 Indeed, I fear to take thee and go without her leave, lest she be 
 
 ' These lines have occurred before ; so I quote Lane (iii. 274) by way of 
 variety.
 
 Julnar the Sea-borti atid her so?i Badr Basim. 473 
 
 wroth with me ; and verily the right would be on her side, for 1 
 should be the cause of her separation from us. Moreover, the 
 city would be left without King and there would be none to 
 govern the citizens and look to their affairs ; so should the realm 
 be disordered against thee and the kingship depart from thy 
 hands." But Badr Basim, hearing these words, cried, " O my 
 uncle, if I return to my mother and consult her on such matter, 
 she will not suffer me to do this ; wherefore I will not return to 
 my mother nor consult her." And he wept before him and presently 
 added, " I will go with thee and tell her not and after will return." 
 When Salih heard what his nephew said, he was confused about his 
 case and said, " I crave help of the Almighty in any event." Then, 
 seeing that Badr Basim was resolved to go with him, whether his 
 mother would let him or no, he drew from his finger a seal-ring, 
 whereon were graven certain of the names of Allah the Most High, 
 and gave it to him, saying, " Put this on thy finger, and thou shalt 
 be safe from drowning and other perils and from the mischief of 
 sea-beasts and great fishes." So King Badr Basim took the ring and 
 
 set it on his finger. Then they dove into the deep And Shahr- 
 
 azad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted 
 say. 
 
 NolD fajljcn It tocis tijc ^cbcn il^untrvcti nntr Jportn-si.xtib Nigftt, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Badr Basim 
 and his uncle, after diving into the deep, fared on till they came 
 to Salih's palace, where they found Badr Basim's grandmother, the 
 mother of his mother, seated with her kinsfolk ; and, going in to 
 them, kissed their hands. When the old Queen saw Badr, she 
 rose to him and embracing him, kissed him between the eyes and 
 said to him, " A blessed coming, O my son ! How didst thou leave 
 thy mother Julnar?" He replied, "She is well in health and 
 fortune, and saluteth thee and her uncle's daughters. Then Salih 
 related to his mother what had occurred between him and his sister 
 and how King Badr Basim had fallen in love with the Princess 
 Jauharah daughter of Al-Samandal by report and told her the whole 
 tale from beginning to end, adding, " He hath not come save to 
 demand her in wedlock of her sire;" which when the old Queen 
 heard, she was wroth against her son with exceeding wrath and sore 
 troubled and concerned and said, " O Salih, O my son, in very 
 sooth thou diddest wrong to name the Princess before thy nephew, 
 knowing, as thou dost, that her father is stupid and violent, little of
 
 474 ■^{f Laylah 7va Laylah. 
 
 wit and tyrannical of temper, grudging his daughter to every suitor ; 
 for all the Monarchs of the Main have sought her hand, but he 
 rejected them all ; nay, he would none of them, saying : — Ye are no 
 match for her in beauty or in loveliness or in aught else. Where- 
 fore we fear to demand her in wedlock of him, lest he reject us, 
 even as he hath rejected others ; and we are a folk of high spirit and 
 should return broken hearted." Hearing these words Salih answered, 
 " O my mother, what is to do ? P'or King Badr Basim saith : — 
 There is no help but that I seek her in marriage of her sire, though 
 I expend my whole kingdom ; and he avoucheth that, an he take 
 her not to wife, he will die of love for her and longing." And Salih 
 continued, " He is handsomer and goodlier than she \ his father was 
 King of all the Persians, whose King he now is, and none is worthy 
 of Jauharah save Badr Basim. Wherefore I purpose to carry her 
 father a gift of jacinths and jewels befitting his dignity, and demand 
 her of him in marriage. An he object to us that he is a King, 
 behold, our man also is a King and the son of a King ; or, if he 
 object to us her beauty, behold our man is more beautiful than she; 
 or, again, if he object to us the vastness of his dominion, behold 
 our man's dominion is vaster than hers and her father's and 
 numbereth more troops and guards, for that his kingdom is greater 
 than that of Al-Samandal. Needs must I do my endeavour to 
 further the desire of my sister's son, though it relieve me of my life ; 
 because I was the cause of what hath betided ; and, even as I 
 plunged him into the ocean of her love, so will I go about to marry 
 him to her, and may Almighty Allah help me thereto ! " Rejoined 
 his mother, "Do as thou wilt, but beware of giving her father rough 
 words, whenas thou speakest with him : thou wottest his stupidity 
 and violence and I fear lest he do thee a mischief, for he knoweth 
 not respect for any." And Salih answered, "Hearkening and 
 obedience." Then he sprang up and taking two bags full of gems 
 such as rubies and bugles of emerald, noble ores and all manner 
 jewels, gave them to his servants to carry and set out with his nephew 
 for the palace of Al-Samandal. When they came thither, he sought 
 audience of the King and, being admitted to his presence, kissed 
 ground before him and saluted him with the goodliest salam. The 
 King rose to him and honouring him with the utmost honour, bade 
 him be seated. So he sat down and presently the King said to him, 
 " A blessed coming : indeed thou hast desolated us, O Salih 1 But 
 what bringeth thee to us ? Tell me thine errand that we may fulfil 
 it to thee." Whereupon Salih arose and, kissing the ground a second 
 time, said, " O King of the Age, my errand is to Allah and the 
 magnanimous liege lord and the valiant lion, the report of whose
 
 Julnar the Sea-born and he}- son Badr Basini. 475 
 
 good qualities the caravans far and near have dispread and whose 
 renown for benefits and beneficence and clemency and graciousness 
 and liberality to all climes and countries hath sped." Thereupon he 
 opened the two bags and, displaying their contents before Al- 
 Samandal, said to him, "O King of the Age, haply wilt thou accept 
 
 my gift and by showing favour to me heal my heart " And 
 
 Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying 
 her permitted say. 
 
 ^otD tolbcn it toas tj^c ^cbcn pjuntfrcb ant( Jportij--scbcntf) tUsTig^bt, 
 
 She continued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Salih offered his gift to the King, saying, " My aim and end is that 
 the Sovran show favour to me and heal my heart by accepting my 
 present," King Al-Samandal asked, "With what object dost thou 
 gift me with this gift ? Tell me thy tale and acquaint me with thy 
 requirement. An its accomplishment be in my power I will straight- 
 way accomplish it to thee and spare thee toil and trouble ; and if I 
 be unable thereunto, 'Allah compelleth not any soul aught beyond 
 its power '" ^ So Salih rose and kissing ground three times, said, 
 " O King of the Age, that which I desire thou art indeed able to do ; 
 it is in thy power and thou art master thereof; and I impose not on 
 the King a difficulty, nor am I Jinn-demented, that I should crave 
 of the King a thing whereto he availeth not ; for one of the sages 
 saith : — An thou wouldst be complied with, ask that which can be 
 readily supplied. Wherefore, that of which I am come in quest, the 
 King (whom Allah preserve !) is able to grant." The King replied, 
 "Ask what thou wouldst have, and state thy case and seek thy 
 need." Then said Salih,- " O King of the Age, know that I come 
 as a suitor, seeking the unique pearl and the hoarded jewel, the 
 Princess Jauharah, daughter of our lord the King ; wherefore, O 
 King, disappoint thou not thy suitor." Now when the King heard 
 this, he laughed till he fell backwards, in mockery of him and said, 
 " O Salih, I had thought thee a man of worth and a youth of sense, 
 seeking naught save what was reasonable and speaking not save 
 advisedly. What then hath befallen thy reason and urged thee to 
 this monstrous matter and mighty hazard, that thou scekest in 
 marriage daughters of Kings, lords of cities and climates ? Say me, 
 
 ' The last verse (286) of chapt. ii., The Cow : "compelleth " in the sense of 
 "Imrdencth." 
 
 ^ Salih's speeches are euphuistic.
 
 > 
 
 476 A If Lay /ah wa Lay la h. 
 
 art thou of a rank to aspire to this great eminence and hath thy wit 
 failed thee to this extreme pass that thou affrontest me with this 
 demand ? " RepUed Sahh, " Allah amend the King ! I seek her 
 not for myself (albeit, an I did, I am her match and more than her 
 match, for thou knowest that my father was King of the Kings of the \i^ 
 
 sea, for all thou art this day our King), but I seek her for King Badr ^ 
 
 Basim, lord of the lands of the Persians and son of King Shahriman, ^ 
 
 whose puissance thou knowest. An thou object that thou art a ■ 
 
 mighty great King, King Badr is a greater; and if thou object thy 
 daughter's beauty, King Badr is more beautiful than she and fairer 
 of form and more excellent of rank and lineage ; and he is the 
 champion of the people of his day. Wherefore, if thou grant my 
 request, O King of the Age, thou wilt have set the thing in its stead ; 
 but, if thou deal arrogantly with us, thou wilt not use us justly nor 
 travel with us the 'road which is straight.'^ Moreover, O King, thou 
 knowest that the Princess Jauharah, the daughter of our lord the 
 King, must needs be wedded, for the sage saith, a girl's lot is either 
 grace of marriage or the grave.- Wherefore, an thou mean to marry 
 her, my sisters son is worthier of her than any other man." Now 
 when King Al-Samandal heard Salih's words, he was wroth with 
 exceeding wrath ; his reason well-nigh fled and his soul was like to 
 depart his body for rage, and he cried, "O dog, shall the like of 
 thee dare to bespeak me thus and name my daughter in the 
 assemblies,^ saying that the son of thy sister Julnar is a match for 
 her? Who art thou and who is this sister of thine and who is her 
 son and who was his father,* that thou durst say to me such say and 
 address me with such address ? What are ye all, in comparison with 
 my daughter, but dogs ? " And he cried out to his pages, saying, 
 " Take yonder gallows-bird's head ! " So they drew their swords and 
 made for Salih, but he fled and for the palace-gate sped ; and reach- 
 ing the entrance, he found of his cousins and kinsfolk and servants, 
 more than a thousand horse armed cap-a-pie in iron and close 
 knitted mail-coats, bending in hand spears and naked swords glitter- 
 ing white. And these, when they saw Salih come running out of 
 the palace (they having been sent by his mother to his succour), 
 questioned him and he told them what was to do ; whereupon they 
 knew that the King was a fool and violent-tempered to boot. 
 
 ^ From the Fatihah. 
 
 " A truly Eastern saying, which ignores the " old maids " of the West. 
 
 ^ i.e. nammg her before the lieges as if the speaker were her and his superior- 
 It would have been more polite not to have gone beyond " the unique pearl and 
 the hoarded jewel :" the oHensive part ol the speech was using the girl's name. 
 
 ^ Meaning emphatically that one and all were nobodies.
 
 Jitlnar the Sea-born and her son Badr Basim. 477 
 
 So they dismounted and baring their blades, went in to the King 
 Al-Samandal, whom they found seated upon the throne of his king- 
 ship, unaware of their coming and enraged against Sahh with furious 
 rage ; and they beheld his eunuchs and pages and officers unpre- 
 pared. When the King saw them enter, drawn brand in hand, he 
 cried out to his people, saying, "Woe to you ! Take me the heads 
 of these hounds ! " But ere an hour had sped Al-Samandal's party 
 were put to the rout and relied upon flight, and Salih and his 
 
 kinsfolk seized upon the King and pinioned him. And Shahr- 
 
 azad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted 
 say. 
 
 Wofo luTjcn ft tons tfjc ^cbcn |Duntircti anti J^ortn-ciglbt]^ Nigftt, 
 
 She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Salih and his kinsfolk pinioned the King, Princess Jauharah awoke 
 and knew that her father was a captive and his guards slain. So she 
 fled forth the palace to a certain island, and climbing up into a high 
 tree, hid herself in its summit. Now when the two parties came to 
 blows, some of King Al-Samandal's pages fled, and Badr Basim 
 meeting them, questioned them of their case and they told him what 
 had happened. But when he heard that the King was a prisoner, 
 Badr feared for himself and fled, saying in his heart, " Verily, all 
 this turmoil is on my account and none is wanted but I." So he 
 sought safety in flight, security to sight, knowing not whither he 
 went ; but Destiny from Eternity fore-ordained drave him to the 
 very island where the Princess had taken refuge, and he came to the 
 tree whereon she sat and threw himself down, like a dead man, 
 thinking to lie and repose himself and knowing not there is no rest 
 for the pursued, because none knoweth what Fate hideth for him in 
 the future. As he lay down, he raised his eyes to the tree and they 
 met the eyes of the Princess. So he looked at her and seeing her 
 to be like the moon rising in the East, cried, "Glory to Him who 
 fashioned yonder perfect form, Plim who is the Creator of all things 
 and who over all things is Almighty ! Glory to the Great God, the 
 Maker, the Shaper and l'"ashioner ! By Allah, if my presentiments 
 be true, this is Jauharah, daughter of King Al-Samandal ! Methinks 
 that, when she heard of our coming to blows with her father, she fled 
 to this island and, hai)pening upon this tree, hid herself in its 
 head ; but, if this be not the Princess herself, 'tis one yet goodlier 
 than she." Then he bethought himself of her case and said in 
 himself, " I will arise and lay hands on her and question her of her
 
 47 8 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 condition; and if she be indeed the she, I will demand her in 
 wedlock of herself and so win my wish." So he stood up and said 
 to her, " O end of all desire, who art thou and who brought thee 
 hither?" She looked at Badr Basim and seeing him to be as the 
 full moon 1 when it shineth forth from under the black cloud, slender 
 of shape and sweet of smile, answered, " O fair of fashion, I am 
 Princess Jauharah, daughter of King Al-Samandal, and I took 
 refuge in this place, because Salih and his host came to blows with 
 my sire and slew his troops and took him prisoner, with some of his 
 men ; wherefore I fled, fearing for my very life f presently adding, 
 " And I weet not what Fortune hath done with my father." When 
 King Badr Basim heard these words he marvelled with exceeding 
 marvel at this strange chance and thought, " Doubtless I have won 
 my wish by the capture of her sire." Then he looked at Jauharah 
 and said to her, " Come down, O my lady ; for I am slain for love 
 of thee and thine eyes have captivated me. On my account and 
 thine are all these broils and battles : for thou must know that I am 
 King Badr Basim, Lord of the Persians, and Salih is my mother's 
 brother, and he it is who came to thy sire to demand thee of him in 
 marriage. As for me, I have quitted my kingdom for thy sake, and 
 our meeting here is the rarest coincidence. So come down to me 
 and let us twain fare for thy father's palace, that I may beseech 
 uncle Sahh to release him and I may make thee my lawful wife." 
 When Jauharah heard his words, she said in herself, " 'Twas on this 
 miserable gallows-bird's account, then, that all this hath befallen 
 and that my father hath fallen prisoner and his chamberlains and 
 suite have been slain and I have been departed from my palace, a 
 miserable exile and have fled for refuge to this island. But, an I 
 devise not against him some device to defend myself from him, he 
 may carry me oif perforce ; for he is in love and for aught that he 
 doeth a lover is not blamed." ^ Then she beguiled him with winning 
 words and soft speeches, whilst he knew not the perfidy against him 
 she purposed, and asked him, " O my lord and light of my eyes, say 
 me, art thou indeed King Badr Basim, son of Queen Julnar?" And 
 
 he answered, "Yes, O my lady!" And Shahrazad was surprised 
 
 by the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 Arab. "Badr," the usual pun. 
 
 In the East, as in the West, all being fair in love and war. 
 
 I
 
 Jidnar the Sea-horn and her son Badr Basim. 479 
 
 j^oto tolKn It toas tj^c ^cbcn ?^unl3rctf anli Jportij=n(ntf) ilidji, 
 
 She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Jauharah, 
 daughter of King Al-Samandal, asked the youth, "Art thou in very 
 sooth King Badr Basim, son of Queen Julnar ? " And he answered, 
 " Yes, O my lady ! " Then she, " May Allah cut off my father and 
 cause his kingdom cease from him and heal not his heart, neither 
 avert from him strangerhood, if he could desire a comelier than thou 
 or aught goodlier than these fair qualities of thine ! By Allah, he is 
 of Httle wit and judgment ! " presently adding, " But, O King of the 
 Age, punish him not for that he hath done ; more by token that an 
 thou love me a span, verily I love thee a cubit. Indeed, I have 
 fallen into the net of thy love and am become of the number of thy 
 slain. The love that was with thee hath transferred itself to me and 
 there is left thereof with thee but a tithe of that which is with me." 
 So saying, she came down from the tree and, drawing near him, 
 kissed him ; whereat love for her redoubled on him and doubting 
 not but she loved him, he trusted in her and returned her kisses. 
 Presently he said to her, " By Allah, O Princess, iny uncle Salih set 
 forth to me not a fortieth part of thy charms ; no, not a quarter- 
 carat^ of the four-and-twenty." Presently Jauharah pressed him to her 
 bosom and pronounced some unintelligible words ; then spat in his 
 face, saying, "Quit this form of man and take shape of bird, the 
 handsomest of birds, white of robe, with red bill and legs." Hardly 
 had she spoken when King Badr Basim found himself transformed 
 into a bird, the handsomest of birds, who shook himself and stood 
 looking at her. Now Jauharah had with her one of her slave-girls, 
 by name Marsinah;^ so she called her and said to her, "By Allah, 
 but that I fear for the life of my father, who is his uncle's prisoner, 
 I would kill him ! Allah never requite him witli good ! How un- 
 lucky was his coming to us ; for all this trouble is due to his hard- 
 headedncss ! But do thou, O slave-girl, bear him to the Thirsty 
 Island and leave him there to die of thirst." So Marsinah carried 
 him to the island in question and would have returned and left him 
 there ; but she said in herself, " By Allah, the lord of such beauty 
 
 ' Arab. "Kirat" (Kcpartoi') the bean of the Ahrus prccatorius, used as a weight 
 in Arabia and India and as a bead for decoration in Africa. It is equal to four 
 Kamhahs, or wheat grains, and about 3 grs. avoir. : and, bein^ the twenty-fourth 
 part of a Miskal, it is applied to that proportion of everything. Thus the Arabs 
 say of a perfect man, " He is of four-and-twenty Kirat," i.e. pure gold. 
 
 '■* The (she) myrtle; Kazimirski (A. de Biberstein) Dictionnaire Arabe-Franjais 
 (Paris, Maisonneuve, iZ(>j) gwGS l>l&rs,iTi = Hose de Jericho : myrtc.
 
 480 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 and loveliness deserveth not to die of thirst ! " So she went forth 
 from that island and brought him to another abounding in trees and 
 fruits and rills and, setting him down there, returned to her mistress 
 and told her, " I have left him on the Thirsty Island." Such was 
 the case with Badr Basim ; but as regards King Salih, he sought for 
 Jauharah after capturing the King and killing his folk : but, finding 
 her not, returned to his palace and said to his mother, "Where is my 
 sister's son. King Badr Basim?" "By Allah, O my son," replied 
 she, " I know nothing of him ! For when it reached him that you 
 and King Al-Samandal had come to blows and that strife and 
 slaughter had betided between you, he was affrighted and fled." 
 When Salih heard this, he grieved for his nephew and said, " O my 
 mother, by Allah, we have dealt negligently by King Badr and I fear 
 lest he perish or lest one of King Al-Samandal's soldiers or his 
 daughter Jauharah fall in with him. So should we come to shame 
 with his mother and no good betide us from her, for that I took him 
 without her leave." Then he despatched guards and scouts through- 
 out the sea and elsewhere to seek for Badr ; but they could learn no 
 tidings of him ; so they returned and told King Salih, wherefore cark 
 and care redoubled on him and his breast was straitened for King 
 Badr Basim. So far concerning nephew and uncle ; but as for Julnar 
 the Sea-born, after their departure she abode in expectation of them, 
 but her son returned not and she heard no report of him. So when 
 many days of fruitless waiting had gone by, she arose and, going 
 down into the sea, repaired to her mother, who, sighting her, rose to 
 her and kissed her and embraced her, as did the Mermaids her 
 cousins. Then she questioned her mother of King Badr Basim, and 
 she answered, saying, " O my daughter, of a truth he came hither 
 with his uncle, who took jacinths and jewels and carrying them to 
 King Al-Samandal, demanded his daughter in marriage for thy son ; 
 but he consented not and was violent against thy brother in words. 
 Now I had sent Salih nigh upon a thousand horse, and a battle 
 befel between him and King Al-Samandal ; but Allah aided thy 
 brother against him, and he slew his guards and troops and took 
 him prisoner. Meanwhile, tidings of this reached thy son, and 
 it would seem as if he feared for himself; wherefore he fled forth 
 from us, without our will, and returned not to us, nor have we 
 heard any news of him." Then Julnar enquired for King Salih, 
 and his mother said, " He is seated on the throne of his kingship, 
 in the stead of King Al-Samandal, and hath sent in all directions 
 to seek thy son and Princess Jauharah." When Julnar heard the 
 maternal words, she mourned for her son with sad mourning and 
 was highly incensed against her brother Salih for that he had taken
 
 Jnlnar the Sea-born and her son Badr Basiin. 481 
 
 him and gone down with him into the sea without her leave ; and 
 she said, " O my mother, I fear for our reahii ; as I came to thee 
 without letting any know ; and I dread tarrying with thee, lest the 
 state fall into disorder and the kingdom pass from our hands. 
 Wherefore I deem best to return and go\'ern the reign till it please 
 Allah to order our son's affair for us. But look ye forget him not 
 neither neglect his case ; for should he come to any harm, it would 
 infallibly kill me, since I see not the world save in him and delight 
 but in his life." She replied, "With love and gladness, O my 
 daughter. Ask not what we suffer by reason of his loss and 
 absence." Then she sent to seek for her grandson, whilst Julnar 
 returned to her kingdom, weeping-eyed and heavy-hearted, and 
 
 indeed the gladness of the world was straitened upon her. And 
 
 Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her per- 
 mitted say. 
 
 Noto fcoljcn it fens tfjc ^I'^ixi fl^iintrrctf antr j^iftictjb Nigbt, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Queen 
 Julnar returned from her mother to her own realm, her breast was 
 straitened and she was in ill case. So fared it with her ; but as 
 regards King Badr Basim, after Princess Jauharah had ensorcelled 
 him and had sent him with her handmaid to the Thirsty Island, 
 saying, "Leave him there to die of thirst," and Marsinah had set 
 him down in a green islet, he abode days and nights in the sem- 
 blance of a bird, eating of its fruits and drinking of its waters and 
 knowing not whither to wend nor how to fly ; till, one day, there 
 came a certain fowler to the island to catch somewhat wherewithal 
 to get his living. He espied King Badr Basim in his form of a 
 white-robed bird with red bills and legs, captivating the sight and 
 bewildering the thought ; and, looking thereat, said in himself, 
 " Verily, yonder is a beautiful bird : never saw I its like in fairness 
 or form." So he cast his net over Badr and taking him, carried 
 him to the town, mentally resolved to sell him for a high price. 
 On his way one of the townsfolk accosted him and said, " For how 
 much this fowl, O fowler?" Quoth the fowler, "What wilt thou 
 do with him an thou buy him?" Answered the other, " I will cut 
 his throat and cat him ;" whereupon said the birder, "Who could 
 have the heart to kill this bird and eat him ? Verily, I mean to 
 present him to our King, who will give me more than thou wouldest 
 give me and will not kill him, but will divert himself by gazing upon 
 his beauty and grace, for in all my life, since I have been a fowler 
 
 VOL. IV. H H
 
 482 Alf Laylah wa Laylah, 
 
 I never saw his like among land game or water-fowl. The utmost 
 thou wouldst give me for him, however much thou covet him, would 
 be a dirham, and, by Allah Almighty, I will not sell him ! " Then 
 he carried the bird ap to the King's palace and when the King saw 
 it, its beauty and grace pleased him, and the red colour of its beak 
 and legs. So he sent an Eunuch to buy it, who accosted the fowler 
 and said to him, " Wilt thou sell this bird ? " Answered he, " Nay, 
 'tis a gift from me to the King."^ So the Eunuch carried the bird 
 to the King and told him what the man had said ; and he took it 
 and gave the fowler ten dinars, whereupon he kissed ground and 
 fared forth. Then the Eunuch carried the bird to the palace and 
 placing him in a fine cage, hung him up after setting meat and 
 drink by him. When the King came down from the Divan, he 
 said to the Eunuch, " Where is the bird ? Bring it to me, that I 
 may look upon it ; for, by Allah, 'tis beautiful ! " So the Eunuch 
 brought the cage and set it between the hands of the King, who 
 looked and seeing the food untouched, said, " By Allah, I know not 
 what it will eat, that I may nourish it ! " Then he called for food 
 and they laid the tables and the King ate. Now when the bird saw 
 the flesh and meats and fruits and sweetmeats, he ate of all that was 
 upon the trays before the King, whereat the Sovran and all the 
 bystanders marvelled and the King said to his attendants, eunuchs 
 and Mamelukes, " In all my life I never saw a bird eat as doth 
 this bird ! " Then he sent an Eunuch to fetch his wife that she 
 might enjoy looking upon the bird, and he went in to summon her 
 and said, " O my lady, the King desireth thy presence, that thou 
 mayest divert thyself with the sight of a bird he hath bought. When 
 we set on the food, it flew down from its cage and perching on the 
 table, ate of all that was thereon. So arise, O my lady, and solace 
 thee with the sight, for it is goodly of aspect and is a wonder of the 
 wonders of the age." Hearing these words she came in haste ; but, 
 when she noted the bird, she veiled her face and turned to fare 
 away. The King rose up and looking at her, asked, " Why dost thou 
 veil thy face when there is none in presence save the women and 
 eunuchs who wait on thee and thy husband ? " Answered she, 
 " O King, this bird is no bird, but a man like thyself." He rejoined, 
 " Thou liest, this is too much of a jest. How should he be other 
 than a bird ? " and she " O King, by Allah, I do not jest with 
 thee nor do I tell thee aught but the truth ; for verily this bird is 
 
 S*. 1 Needless to note that the fowler had a right to expect a return present 
 worth double or treble the price of his gift. Such is the universal practice of 
 thefEast: in the West the extortioner says, " I leave it to you, sir ! " 
 
 %
 
 Julnar the Sea-born and her son Badr Basim. 483 
 
 King Badr Basim, son of King Shahriman, Lord of the land of the 
 
 Persians, and his mother is Julnar the Sea-born." And Shahrazad 
 
 was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her per- 
 mitted say. 
 
 iEoto toDen it toas tfje ^cbcn pjuntirctr nxdi jpiftjj-first iligi^t, 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 the King's wife said to the King, " Verily, this is no bird but a man 
 like thyself: he is King Badr Basim, son of King Shahriman, and his 
 mother is Julnar the Sea-born," quoth the King, "And how came he 
 in this shape ? " and quoth she, " Princess Jauharah, daughter of 
 King Al-Samandal, hath enchanted him ; " and told him all that had 
 passed with King Badr Basim from first to last.^ The King mar- 
 velled exceedingly at his wife's words and conjured her, on his life, 
 to free Badr from his enchantment (for she was the notablest 
 enchantress of her age), and not leave him in torment, saying, " May 
 Almighty Allah cut off Jauharah's hand, for a foul witch as she is ! 
 How little is her faith and how great her craft and perfidy ! " Said 
 the Queen, " Do thou say to him : — O Badr Basim, enter yonder 
 closet ! " So the King bade him enter the closet and he went in 
 obediently. Then the Queen veiled her face and taking in her 
 hand a cup of water,^ entered the closet, where she pronounced over 
 the water certain incomprehensible words ending with, " By the 
 virtue of these mighty Names and holy Verses and by the majesty of 
 Allah Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, the Quickener of the 
 dead and Appointer of the means of daily bread and the terms 
 determined, (juit this thy form wherein thou art and return to the 
 shape in which the Lord created thee ! " Hardly had she made an 
 end of her words, when the bird trembled once and became a man ; 
 and the King saw before him a handsome youth, than whom on 
 earth's face was none goodlier. But when King Badr Basim found 
 himself thus restored to his own form he cried, " There is no god but 
 the God and Mohammed is the Apostle of God ! Glory be to the 
 Creator of all creatures and Provider of their provision, and Ordainer 
 of their life-terms preordained ! " Then he kissed the King's hand 
 
 ^ And she does tell him all that the reader well knows. 
 
 '" This w;is for sprinkling him, Init the texts oniit that operation. Arabic has 
 distinct terms lor variuus forms of metamorphosis. ''Kaskh" is change from a 
 lower to a higher, as beast to man ; " Maskh " (the common expression) is the 
 reverse ; " Raskli " is from animate to inanimate (man to stone) ; and " Faskh" 
 is absolute wasting away to corruption.
 
 484 Alf Lay/ah wa Laylah. 
 
 and wished him long life, and the King kissed his head and said to 
 him, " O Badr Basim, tell me thy history from commencement to 
 conclusion." So he told him his whole tale, concealing naught ; 
 and the King marvelled thereat and said to him, " O Badr Basim, 
 Allah hath saved thee from the spell : but what hath thy judgment 
 decided and what thinkest thou to do ? " Replied he, " O King 
 of the Age, I desire of thy bounty that thou equip me a ship with a 
 company of thy servants and all that is needful; for 'tis long since 
 I have been absent and I dread lest the kingdom depart from me. 
 And I misdoubt me my mother is dead of grief for my loss ; and 
 this doubt is the stronger for that she knoweth not what is come 
 of me nor whether I am alive or dead. Wherefore, I beseech 
 thee, O King, to crown thy favours to me by granting me what I 
 seek." The King, after beholding the beauty and grace of Badr 
 Basim and listening to his sweet speech, said, " I hear and obey." So 
 he fitted him out a ship, to which he transported all that was needful 
 and which he manned with a company of his servants ; and Badr 
 Basim set sail in it, after having taken leave of the King. They 
 sailed over the sea ten successive days with a favouring wind ; but, 
 on the eleventh day, the ocean became troubled with exceeding 
 trouble, the ship rose and fell and the sailors were powerless to 
 govern her. So they drifted at the mercy of the waves, till the craft 
 neared a rock in mid-sea which fell upon her ^ and broke her up and 
 all on board were drowned, save King Badr Basim, who got astride 
 one of the planks of the vessel, after having been nigh upon destruc- 
 tion. The plank ceased not to be borne by the set of the sea, 
 whilst he knew not whither he went and had no means of directing 
 its motion, as the wind and waves wrought for three whole days. 
 But on the fourth the plank grounded with him on the sea-shore 
 where he sighted a white city, as it were a dove passing white, builded 
 upon a tongue of land that jutted out into the deep and it was goodly 
 of ordinance, with high towers and lofty walls against which the 
 waves beat. When Badr Basim saw this, he rejoiced with exceeding 
 joy, for he was well-nigh dead of hunger and thirst, and dismounting 
 from the plank, would have gone up the beach to the city ; but there 
 came down to him mules and asses and horses, in number as the 
 sea-sands and fell to striking at him and staying him from landing. 
 So he swam round to the back of the city, where he waded to shore 
 and entering the place, found none therein and marvelled at this, 
 saying, " Would I knew to whom doth this city belong, wherein is 
 
 ' I render this improbable detail literally : it can only mean that the ship was 
 dashed against a rock.
 
 /ulnar the Sea-born and her son Badr Basini. 485 
 
 no lord nor any liege, and whence came these mules and asses and 
 horses that hindered me from landing." And he mused over his 
 case. Then he walked on at hazard till he espied an old man, a 
 grocer.^ So he saluted him and the other returned his salam and 
 seeing him to be a handsome young man, said to him, " O youth, 
 whence comest thou and what brought thee to this city ? " Badr 
 told him his story ; at which the old man marvelled and said, '' O my 
 son, didst thou see any on thy way?" He replied, " Indeed, O my 
 father, I wondered in good sooth to sight a city void of folk." Quoth 
 the Shaykh, " O my son, come up into the shop, lest thou perish." 
 So Badr Basim went up into the shop and sat down; whereupon the 
 old man set before him somewhat of food, saying, ''O my son, 
 enter the inner shop ; glory be to Him who hath preserved thee 
 from yonder she-Sathanas ! " King Badr Basim was sore affrighted 
 at the grocer's words ; but he ate his fill and washed his hands ; 
 then glanced at his host and said to him, " O my lord, what is the 
 meaning of these words ? Verily thou hast made me fearful of this 
 city and its folk." Replied the old man, " Know, O my son, that 
 this is the City of the Magicians and its Queen is as she were a she- 
 Satan, a sorceress and a mighty enchantress, passing crafty and per- 
 fidious exceedingly. All thou sawest of horses and mules and asses 
 were once sons of Adam like thee and me ; they were also strangers, 
 for whoever entereth this city, being a young man like thyself, this 
 miscreant witch taketh him to husband and homeih him lor forty 
 days, after which she enchantcth him, and he becometh a mule or a 
 
 horse or an ass, of those animals thou sawest on the sea-shore. 
 
 And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her 
 permitted say. 
 
 Nob) luDcn it luas tijc ^cbcn |L'Junl3icti anti Jptftri--scconti Xt'aljt, 
 
 She pursued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the old 
 grocer related to King Badr Basim the history of the enchantress 
 ending with, " All these people hath she spelled ; and, when it was 
 thy intent to land they feared lest thou be transformed like them- 
 selves ; so they counselled thee by signs that said : — Land not, of 
 their solicitude for thee, fearing that haply she should do with thee 
 
 ^ Who was probably squatting on his shop-counter. The " Bakkal " (who must 
 not be confounded wiih the tpiaer), ht. "vender of herbs" = greengiocer, and 
 according l^) Richardson use.i incoi rectly for liaddal (?), vender of pruvisions. Popu- 
 larly it is applied to a seller ol oil, honey, butter and fruit, like the Ital. "Pizzi- 
 cagnolo " — Salsameutarius, and in N. West Africa to an inn-keeper.
 
 486 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 even as she had done with them. She possessed herself of this city 
 and seized it from its citizens by sorcery and her name is Queen 
 Lab, which being interpreted, meaneth in Arabic ' Almanac of the 
 Sun.' " ^ When Badr Basim heard what the old man said, he was 
 affrighted with sore affright and trembled hke reed in wind saying, 
 in himself, " Hardly do I feel me free from the affliction wherein I 
 was by reason of sorcery, when Destiny casteth me into yet sorrier 
 case ! " And he fell a-musing over his condition and that which had 
 betided him. When the Shaykh looked at him and saw the violence 
 of his terror, he said to him, " O my son, come, sit at the threshold 
 of the shop and look upon yonder creatures and upon their dress 
 and complexion and that wherein they are by reason of magic and 
 dread not ; for the Queen and all in the city love and tender me 
 and will not vex my heart or trouble my mind." So King Badr 
 Basim came out and sat at the shop-door, looking out upon the folk ; 
 and there passed by him a world of creatures without number. But 
 when the people saw him, they accosted the grocer and said to him, 
 " O elder, is this thy captive and thy prey gotten in these days ? " 
 The old man replied^ " He is my brother's son, I heard that his 
 father was dead ; so I sent for him and brought him here that I 
 might quench with him the fire of my home-sickness." Quoth they, 
 " Verily, he is a comely youth ; but we fear for him from Queen 
 Lab, lest she turn on thee with treachery and take him from thee, 
 for she loveth handsome young men." Quoth the Shaykh, "The 
 Queen will not gainsay my commandment, for she affecteth and 
 tendereth me ; and when she shall know that he is my brother's son, 
 she will not molest him or afflict me in him neither trouble my 
 heart on his account." Then King Badr Basim abode some months 
 with the grocer, eating and drinking, and the old man loved him 
 with exceeding love. One day, as he sat in his shop according to 
 his custom, behold, there came up a thousand eunuchs, with drawn 
 swords and clad in various kinds of raiment and girt in jewelled 
 girdles : all rode Arabian steeds and bore in baldrick Indian blades. 
 They saluted the grocer, as they passed his shop and were followed 
 by a thousand damsels like moons, clad in various raiments of 
 silks and satins fringed with gold and embroidered with jewels of 
 sorts, and spears were slung to their shoulders. In their midst rode 
 a damsel mounted on an Arab mare, saddled with a saddle of gold 
 
 _ ^ Here the Shaykh is mistaken : he should have said, "The Sun in old Per- 
 sian:" "Almanac" simply makes nonsense of the Arabian Circe's name. In 
 Arab, it is " Takwim," whence the Span, and Port. " T acuino :" in Heb. Haka- 
 matha-Takunah = sapientia dispositionis astrorum (Asiat. Research, iii. 120).
 
 /ulnar the Sea-born and her son Badr Basim. 487 
 
 set with various kinds of jewels and jacinths ; and they reached in 
 a body the Shaykh's shop. The damsels saluted him and passed 
 on, till, lo and behold ! up came Queen Lab, in great state, and 
 seeing King Badr Basim sitting in the shop, as he were the moon at 
 its full, was amazed at his beauty and loveliness and became 
 passionately enamoured of him. So she alighted and sitting down 
 by King Badr Basim said to the old man, " Whence hadst thou 
 this handsome one ? " and the Shaykh replied, " He is my brother's 
 son, and is lately come to me." Quoth Lab, " Let him be with me 
 this day, that I may talk with him ; " and quoth the old man, " Wilt 
 thou take him from me and not enchant him ? " Said she, " Yes," 
 and said he, " Swear to me." So she sware to him that she would 
 not do him any hurt or ensorcel him, and bidding bring him a fine 
 horse, saddled and bridled with a golden bridle and decked with 
 trappings all of gold set with jewels, gave the old man a thousand 
 dinars, saying, " Use this." ^ Then she took Badr Basim and carried 
 him off, as he were the full moon on its fourteenth night, whilst all 
 the folk, seeing his beauty, were grieved for him and said, " By 
 Allah, verily this youth deserveth not to be bewitched by yonder 
 Sorceress, the accursed ! " Now King Badr Basim heard all they 
 said, but was silent, committing his case to Allah Almighty, till they 
 
 came to And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and 
 
 ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 Koto to|)tn ft tons tijc ^cbcu |l'}unDvcti anti iPiftn^Ujitti Xigijt, 
 
 She resumed. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that King 
 Badr Basim ceased not faring with Queen Lab and her suite till 
 they came to her palace-gate, where the Emirs and Eunuchs and 
 Lords of the realm took foot and she bade the Chamberlains dismiss 
 her Officers and Grandees, who kissed ground and went away, 
 whilst she entered the palace with Badr Basim and her eunuchs 
 and women. Here he found a palace, whose like he had never 
 seen at all, for it was builded of gold and in its midst was a great 
 basin brimful of water midmost a vast flower-garden. He looked 
 at the garden and saw it abounding in birds of various kinds and 
 colours, warbling in all manner tongues and voices, pleasurable and 
 plaintive. And everywhere he beheld great state and dominion and 
 said, "Glory be to God, who of His bounty and long-suffering pro- 
 
 i.c. for thy daily expenses.
 
 488 Alf Laylah iva Lay /ah. 
 
 videth those who serve other than Himself ! " The Queen sat down 
 at a latticed window overlooking the garden on a couch of ivory, 
 and King Badr Basim seated himself by her side ; then she bade 
 her women bring a tray of food. So they brought a tray of red 
 gold, inlaid with pearls and jewels and spread with all manner of 
 viands, and he and she ate till they were satisfied, and washed 
 their hands ; after which the waiting-women set on flagons of gold 
 and silver and glass, together with all kinds of flowers and dishes of 
 dried fruits. Then the Queen summoned the singing-women and 
 there came ten maidens, as they were moons, bending all manner of 
 musical instruments. Queen Lab crowned a cup and, drinking it off, 
 filled another and passed it to King Badr Basim, who took it and 
 drank ; and they ceased not to drink till they had drunk their 
 sufficiency. Then she bade the damsels sing, and they sang all 
 manner modes till it seemed to Badr Basim as if the palace danced 
 with him for joy. His sense was ecstasied and his breast broadened, 
 and he forgot his strangerhood and said in himself, " Verily, this 
 Queen is young and beautiful and I will never leave her ; for her 
 kingdom is vaster than my kingdom and she is fairer than Princess 
 Jauharah." So he ceased not to carouse with her till even-tide 
 came, when they lighted the lamps and waxen candles and diffused 
 censer-perfumes ; nor did they leave drinking till they were both 
 
 drunken, and the singing-women sang the while. And Shahrazad 
 
 perceived the dawn ot day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 Koto totcn it tons tf)t ^cbcn f^untircK antr jpiftp-fourt]^ Nigi)t, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that next day 
 the Queen clad King Badr Basim in the finest of raiment and called 
 for the service of wine. So the waiting-women brought the drinking- 
 gear and they drank. Presently, the Queen arose and taking Badr 
 Basim by the hand, sat down with him on chairs and bade bring 
 food, whereof they ate, and washed their hands. Then the damsels 
 fetched the drinking-gear and fruits and flowers and confections, and 
 they ceased not to eat and drink, ^ whilst the singing-girls sang 
 various airs till the evening. They gave not over eating and drinking 
 and merry-making for a space of forty days, when the Queen said to 
 him, "O Badr Basim, say me whether is the more pleasant, this 
 place or the shop of thine uncle the grocer?" He rephed, "By 
 
 * I have already noted that the heroes and heroines of Eastern love-tales are 
 always bonnes fourchettes.
 
 Julnar the Sea-born and her son Badr Basiin. 489 
 
 Allah, O Queen, this is the pleasanter, for my uncle is but a beggarly 
 man, who vendeth pot-herbs." She laughed at his words and the 
 twain abode together in the pleasantest of case till one morning, 
 when King Badr Basim awoke from sleep and found not Queen Lab ; 
 so he said, " Would heaven I knew where can she have gone ! " And 
 indeed he was troubled at her absence and perplexed about the case, 
 for she stayed away from him a great while and did not return ; so 
 he went seeking her but not finding her, and he said to himself, 
 " Haply she is gone to the flower-garden." Thereupon he went out 
 into the garden and came to a running rill beside which he saw a 
 white she-bird and on the stream-bank a tree full of birds of various 
 •colours, and he stood and watched the birds without their seeing 
 him. And behold, a black bird flew down to that white she-bird 
 and went up to her, after which the bird changed and became a 
 woman. Badr looked at her and lo ! it was Queen Lab. So he 
 knew that the black bird was a man transformed and that she had 
 transformed herself into a bird, that he might meet her ; wherefore 
 jealousy got hold upon him and he was wroth with the Queen 
 because of the black bird. Then he returned to his place and lay 
 down and after an hour or so she came back to him and fell to 
 jesting with him ; but being sore incensed against her he answered 
 her not a word. She saw what was to do with him and was assured 
 that he had witnessed what befel her when she was a white bird and 
 was with the black bird ; yet she discovered naught to him but con- 
 cealed what ailed her. Presently he said to her, " O Queen, I would 
 have thee give me leave to go to my uncle's shop, for I long after 
 him and have not seen him these forty days." She replied, "Go to 
 him but tarry not from me, for I cannot brook to be parted from 
 thee, nor can I endure without thee an hour." He said, " I hear 
 and I obey," and mounting, rode to the shop of the Shaykh, the 
 .grocer, who welcomed him and rose to him and embracing him said 
 to him, " How hast thou fared with yonder idolatress?" He replied, 
 " I was well in health and happiness till this last night," and told 
 .him what had passed in the garden with the black bird. Now when 
 the old man heard his words, he said, " Beware of her, for know 
 that the birds upon the trees were all young men and strangers, 
 whom she loved and enchanted and turned into birds. That black 
 bird tliou sawest was one of her Mamelukes whom she loved with 
 exceeding love, till lie cast his eyes ujjon one of her women, where- 
 fore she changed him into a black bird; And Shahrazad was 
 
 surpiised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
 
 49° -^If Lay /ah wa Laylah. 
 
 :Nroto fojbfn It h)as tj^e ^tbm l^untrrttr anti Jptftg-fiftib ^iglbt, 
 
 She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Badr Basim acquainted the old grocer with all the doings of Queen 
 Lab and what he had seen of her proceedings, the Shaykh gave 
 him to know that all the birds upon the tree were young men and 
 strangers whom she had enchanted, and that the black bird was 
 one of her Mamelukes whom she had transformed. ^ " And," con- 
 tinued the Shaykh, " she transformeth herself into a she-bird that 
 he may meet her, for she still loveth him with passionate love. 
 When she found that thou knewest of her case, she plotted evil 
 against thee, for she loveth thee not wholly. But no harm shall 
 betide thee from her, so long as I protect thee; therefore fear 
 nothing ; for I am a Moslem, by name Abdallah, and there is none 
 in my day more magical than I ; yet do I not make use of magic 
 save upon constraint. Many a time have I put to naught the 
 sorceries of yonder accursed and delivered folk from her, and I 
 care not for her, because she can do me no hurt: nay, she feareth 
 me with exceeding fear, as do all in the city who, like her, are 
 magicians and serve the fire, not the Omnipotent Sire. So to- 
 morrow, come thou to me and tell me what she doth with thee; 
 for this very night she will cast about to destroy thee, and I will 
 tell thee how thou shalt do with her, that thou mayst save thyself 
 from her malice." Then King Badr Basim farewelled the Shaykh 
 and returned to the Queen whom he found awaiting him. When 
 she saw him, she rose and seating him and welcoming him brought 
 him meat and drink and the two ate till they had enough and 
 washed their hands ; after which she called for wine and they drank 
 till the night was well nigh half spent, when she plied him with cup 
 after cup till he was drunken and lost sense ^ and wit. When she 
 saw him thus, she said to him, "I conjure thee by Allah and by 
 whatso thou worshippest, if I ask thee a question wilt thou inform 
 me rightly and answer me truly?" And he being drunken, answered, 
 "Yes, O my lady." Quoth she, "O my lord and light of mine eyes, 
 when thou awokest and foundest me not, thou soughtest me, till 
 thou sawest me in the garden, under the guise of a white she-bird, 
 
 ^ Here again a little excision is necessary ; the reader already knows al^ 
 about it. 
 
 " Arab. "Hiss," prop, speaking a perception (as of sound or motion) as 
 opposed to " Hadas," a surmise or opinion without proof. 
 
 I 
 
 if
 
 Jiilnar the Sea-born and her son Badr Basim. 491 
 
 and also thou sawest the black bird with me. Now I will tell the 
 truth of this matter. That black bird was one of my Mamelukes, 
 whom I loved with exceeding love ; but one day he cast his eyes 
 upon a certain of my slave-girls, wherefore jealousy gat hold upon 
 me and I transformed him by my spells into a black bird and her 
 I slew. But now I cannot endure without him a single hour ; so, 
 whenever I please, I change myself into a she-bird and go to him, 
 even as thou hast seen. Art thou not therefore incensed against me, 
 because of this, albeit^ by the virtue of Fire and Light, Shade and 
 Heat, I love thee more than ever and have made thee my portion 
 of the world?" He answered (being drunken), "Thy conjecture 
 of the cause of my rage is correct, and it had no reason other than 
 this." With this she embraced him and kissed him and made 
 great show of love to him ; and in a little while he fell asleep. 
 Presently, about midnight, she rose from the divan and King Badr 
 Basim was awake ; but he feigned sleep and watched stealthily to 
 see what she would do. She took out of a red bag a something 
 red, which she planted a-middlemost the chamber, and it became 
 a stream, running like the sea ; after which she took a handful of 
 barley and strewing it on the ground watered it with water from 
 the river ; whereupon it became wheat in the ear, and she gathered 
 it and ground it into flour. Then she set it aside and returning to 
 the divan, lay down till morning, when Badr Basim arose and washed 
 his face and asked her leave to visit the Shaykh his uncle. She gave 
 him permission and he repaired to Abdallah and told him what had 
 passed. The old man laughed and said, '' By Allah, this miscreant 
 witch plotteth mischief against thee ; but reck thou not of her ever ! " 
 Then he gave him a pound of parched corn ^ and said to him, 
 '• Take this with thee and know that, when she seeth it, she will ask 
 thee : — What is this and what wilt thou do with it ? Do thou 
 answer : — Abundance of good things is good ; and eat of it. Then 
 will she bring forth to thee parched grain of her own and say to 
 thee : — Eat of this Sawik ; and do thou feign to her that thou catest 
 thereof, but eat of this instead, and beware and have a care lest thou 
 eat of hers even a grain ; for, an thou eat so much as a grain thereof, 
 her spells will have power over thee and she will enchant thee and 
 say to thee : — Leave this form of a man. Whereupon thou wilt quit 
 
 * Arab. " Sawik," the old and modern name for native frumenty, green grain 
 (mostly barley) toasted, i)ounHed, mixed with dates or sugar and eaten on journeys 
 when cooking is impracticable. M. C. dc Perceval (iii. 54), gives it a different 
 and now unknown name ; and Mr. Lane also applies it to " ptisane." It named 
 the " Day of Sawaykah " (for which see Pilgrimage ii. 19), called by our popular 
 authors the " War of the Meal-sacks."
 
 492 Alf Layiah wa Lay la h. 
 
 thine own shape for what shape she willeth. But, if thou eat not 
 thereof, her enchantments will be null and void and no harm 
 shall betide thee therefrom ; whereat she will be shamed with shame 
 exceeding and say to thee : — I did but jest with thee ! Then will 
 she make a show of love and fondness to thee ; but this will all be 
 but hypocrisy in her and craft. And do thou also make a show of 
 love to her and say to her : — O my lady and light of mine eyes, eat 
 of this parched barley and see how delicious it is. And if she eat 
 thereof, though it be but a grain, take water in thy hand and throw 
 it in her face, saying : — Quit this human form (for what form soever 
 thou wiliest have her assume). Then leave her and come to me and 
 I will counsel thee what to do." So Badr Basim took leave of him 
 and, returning to the palace, went in to the Queen, who said to him, ; 
 
 " Welcome and well come and good cheer to thee 1 " And she rose 
 and kissed him, saying, " Thou hast tarried long from me, O my 
 lord." He replied, " I have been with my uncle, and he gave me to 
 eat of this Sawik." Quoth she, "We have better than that." Then 
 she laid his parched Sawik in one plate and hers in another and said 
 to him, " Eat of this, for 'tis better than thine." So he feigned to 
 eat of it, and when she thought he had done so, she took water in 
 her hand and sprinkled him therewith, saying, " Quit this form, O 
 thou gallows-bird, thou miserable, and take that of a mule one-eyed '^' 
 
 and foul of favour." But he changed not ; which when she saw, she 
 arose and went up to him and kissed him between the eyes, saying, 
 " O my beloved, I did but jest with thee ; bear me no malice because 
 of this." Quoth he, " O my lady, I bear thee no whit of malice ; a 
 
 nay, I am assured that thou lovest me; but eat of this my parched * 
 
 barley." So she ate a mouthful of Abdallah's Sawik ; but forthwith, 
 when it settled in her stomach, she was convulsed ; and King Badr 
 Basim poured water into his palm and threw it in her face, saying, 
 " Quit this human form and take that of a dapple mule." No sooner 
 had he spoken than she found herself changed into a she-mule, 
 whereupon the tears rolled down her cheeks and she fell to rubbing 
 her muzzle against his feet. Then he would have bridled her, but 
 she would not take the bit ; so he left her and, going to the grocer, 
 told him what had passed. Abdallah brought out for him a bridle 
 and bade him rein her forthwith. So he took it to the palace, and 
 when she saw him, she came up to him and he set the bit in her 
 mouth and mounting her, rode forth to find the Shaykh. But when 
 the old man saw her, he rose and said to her, "Almighty Allah con- 
 found thee, O accursed woman ! " Then quoth he to Badr, " O my 
 son, there is no more tarrying for thee in this city ; so ride her and 
 fare with her whither thou wilt and beware lest thou commit the
 
 Jiibiar the Sea-horn and her son Badr Basini. 493 
 
 bridle 1 to any." King Badr thanked him and, farewelling him, fared 
 on three days, without ceasing, till he drew near another city and 
 there met him an ancient man, gray-headed and comely, who said to 
 him, "Whence comest thou, O my son?" Badr replied, "From 
 the city of this witch ;" and the oldster said, "Thou art my guest 
 to-night." He consented and went with him ; but by the way 
 behold, they met an old woman, who wept when she saw the mule, 
 and said, " There is no god but the God ! Verily this mule re- 
 sembleth my son's she-mule which is dead, and my heart acheth for 
 her ; so, Allah upon thee, O my lord, do thou sell her to me ! " He 
 replied, "By Allah, O my mother, I cannot sell her." But she 
 cried, "Allah upon thee, do not refuse my request, for my son will 
 surely be a dead man except I buy him this mule." And she im- 
 portuned him, till he exclaimed, " I will not sell her save for a 
 thousand dinars," saying in himself, " Whence should this old body 
 get a thousand gold pieces ?" Thereupon she brought out from her 
 girdle a purse containing a thousand ducats, which when King Badr 
 Basim saw, he said, " O my mother, I did but jest with thee ; I 
 cannot sell her." But the ancient man looked at him and said, 
 "O my son, in this city none may lie, for whoso lieth they put to 
 
 death." So King Badr Basim lighted down from the mule. 
 
 And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her 
 permitted say. 
 
 Noto boljcn it liias tijc ^cbcn |Duntirctr anti jpifty=si.vtf) Nigfjt, 
 
 She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 Badr Basim dismounted from and delivered the mule to the old 
 woman, she drew the bit from her mouth and, taking water in her 
 hand, sprinkled the mule therewith, saying, " O my daughter, quit 
 this shape for that form wherein thou wast aforetime ! " Upon this 
 she was straightway restored to her original semblance and the two 
 women embraced and kissed each other. So King Badr Basim 
 knew that the old woman was Queen Lab's mother and that he 
 had been tricked and would have fled ; when, lo ! the old woman 
 
 * Mr. Keightley (H. 122-24. Talcs and Popular Fictions, a book now somewhat 
 obsolete) rtmarks, " There is noihing said about the bridle in the account of the 
 sale {ivfrd]y liui I am nirc that in the oiigiral tale, Badr's misfortunes must bave 
 been owing to his having parted with it : in Chaucer's Squicr's Tale the bridle 
 would also appear to have been of some importance." lie quotes a story from 
 the Notti Piaccvol of .Strai amla, the Milanese, published at Venice in 1550. And 
 there is a popular story of the kind in Germany.
 
 494 -^V Laylah wa Lay I ah. 
 
 whistled a loud whistle and her call was obeyed by an Ifrit as he 
 were a great mountain, whereat Badr was affrighted and stood still. 
 Then the old woman mounted on the Ifrit's back, taking her 
 daughter behind her and King Badr Basim before her, and the 
 Ifrit flew off with them ; nor was it a full hour ere they were in the 
 palace of Queen Lab, who sat down on the throne of kingship and 
 said to Badr, " Gallows-bird that thou art, now am I come hither 
 and have attained to that I desired and soon will I show thee how I 
 will do with thee and with yonder old man the grocer ! How many 
 favours have I shown him ! Yet he doth me frowardness ; for thou 
 hast not attained thine end but by means of him." Then she took 
 water and sprinkled him therewith, saying, " Quit the shape wherein 
 thou art for the form of a foul-favoured fowl, the foulest of all fowls ;" 
 and she set him in a cage and cut off from him meat and drink ; but 
 one of her women seeing this cruelty, took compassion on him and 
 gave him food and water without her knowledge. One day the 
 damsel took her mistress at unawares and going forth the palace, 
 sought the old grocer, to whom she told the whole case, saying, 
 " Queen Lab is minded to make an end of thy brother's son." The 
 Shaykh thanked her and said, "There is no help but that I take the 
 city from her and make thee Queen thereof in her stead." Then he 
 whistled a loud whistle and there came forth to him an Ifrit with 
 four wings, to whom he said, " Take up this damsel and carry her to 
 the city of Julnar the Sea-born and her mother Farashah,^ for they 
 twain are the most powerful magicians on face of earth." And he 
 said to the damsel, " When thou comest thither tell them that King 
 Badr Basim is Queen Lab's captive." Then the Ifrit took up his 
 load and, flying off with her, in a little while set her down upon the 
 terrace roof of Queen Julnar's palace. So she descended and going 
 in to the Queen, kissed the earth and told her what had passed to 
 her son, first and last, whereupon Julnar rose to her and entreated 
 her with honour and thanked her. Then she let beat the drums in 
 the city and acquainted her lieges and the lords of her realm with 
 the good news that King Badr Basim was found ; after which she 
 and her mother Farashah and her brother Salih assembled all the 
 tribes of the Jinn and the troops of the main ; for the Kings of the 
 Jinn obeyed them since the taking of King Al-Samandal. Presently 
 they all flew up into the air and lighting down on the city of the 
 
 ^ Here, for the first time we find the name of the mother, who has often been 
 mentioned in the story. Farashah is the fern, or singular form of " Farash," a 
 butterfly, a moth. Lane notes that his Shaykh gives it the very unusual sense of 
 "■ a locust."
 
 /ulnar the Sea-born a7td her son Badr Basim. 495 
 
 sorceress, sacked the town and the palace and slew all the 
 Unbelievers therein in the twinkling of an eye. Then said 
 Julnar to the damsel, " Where is my son ? " And the slave- 
 girl brought her the cage and signing to the bird within, cried, 
 *'This is thy son." So Julnar took him forth of the cage and 
 sprinkled him with water, saying, "Quit this shape for the form 
 wherein thou wast aforetime ; " nor had she made an end of her 
 speech ere he shook and became a man as before ; whereupon 
 his mother, seeing him restored to human shape, embraced him 
 and he wept with sore weeping. On like wise did his uncle Salih 
 and his grandmother and the daughters of his uncle and fell to 
 kissing his hands and feet. Then Julnar sent for Shaykh Abdallah 
 and, thanking him for his kind dealing with her son, married him to 
 the damsel whom he had despatched to her with news of him, and 
 made him King of the city. Moreover, she summoned those who 
 survived of the citizens (and they were Moslems), and made them 
 swear fealty to him and take the oath of loyalty, whereto they replied, 
 " Hearkening and obedience ! " Then she and her company fare- 
 welled him and returned to their own capital. The townsfolk came 
 out to meet them, with drums beating, and decorated the place three 
 days and held high festival, of the greatness of their joy for the 
 return of their King Badr Basim. After this Badr said to his mother, 
 " O my mother, naught remains but that I marry and we be all 
 united." She replied, " Right is thy recking, O my son, but wait 
 till we ask who befitteth thee among the daughters of the Kings." 
 And his grandmother Farashah and the daughters of both his uncles 
 said, " O Badr Basim, we will help thee to win thy wish forthright." 
 Then each of them arose and fared forth questing in the lands, 
 whilst Julnar sent out her waiting women on the necks of Ifrits, 
 bidding them leave not a city nor a King's palace without noting all 
 the handsome girls that were therein. But when King Badr Basim 
 saw the trouble they were taking in this matter, he said to Julnar, 
 "O my mother, leave this thing, for none will content me save 
 Jauharah, daughter of King Al-Samandal ; for that she is indeed a 
 jewel, ^ according to her name." Replied Julnar, " I know that 
 which thou seekest ; " and bade forthright bring Al-Samandal the 
 King. As soon as he was present, she sent for Badr Basim and 
 acquainted him with the King's coming, whereupon he went in to him. 
 Now when King Al-Samandal was aware of his presence, he rose to 
 him and saluted him and bade him welcome ; and King Badr Basim 
 
 ' Punning upon Jauharah ="a jewel," a name which has an Hibernian 
 smack.
 
 496 Alf Laylah zva Laylah. 
 
 demanded of him his daughter Jauharah in marriage. Quoth he, 
 " She is thine handmaid and at thy service and disposition," and 
 despatched some of his suite bidding them seek her abode and, 
 after telling her that her sire was in the hands of King Badr Basim, to 
 bring her forthright. So they flew up into the air and disappeared and 
 they returned after a while with the Princess, who, as soon as she 
 saw her father, went up to him and threw her arms round his neck. 
 Then looking at her he said, " O my daughter, know that I have 
 given thee in wedlock to this magnanimous Sovran and valiant lion 
 King Badr Basim, son of Queen Julnar the Sea-born, for that he is 
 the goodliest of the folk of his day and most powerful and the most 
 exalted of them in degree and the noblest in rank ; he befitteth none 
 but thee and thou none but him." Answered she, " I may not gain- 
 say thee, O my sire ; do as thou wilt, for indeed chagrin and despite 
 are at an end, and I am one of his handmaids." So they summoned 
 the Kazi and the witnesses, who drew up the marriage-contract 
 between King Badr Easim and the Princess Jauharah, and the 
 citizens decorated the city and beat the drums of rejoicing, and they 
 released all who were in the jails ; whilst the King clothed the widows 
 and the orphans and bestowed robes of honour upon the Lords of 
 the Realm and Emirs and Grandees ; and they made bride-feasts 
 and held high festival night and morn for ten days, at the end of 
 which time they displayed the bride, in nine different dresses, before 
 King Badr Basim who bestowed an honourable robe upon King 
 Al-Samandal and sent him back to his country and people and kins- 
 folk. And they ceased not from living the most delectable of life 
 and the most solaceful of days, eating and drinking and enjoying 
 every luxury, till there came to them the Destroyer of delights and 
 the Sunderer of societies ; and this is the end of their story,i may 
 Allah have mercy on them all ! Moreover, O auspicious King, a 
 tale is also told concerning 
 
 KING MOHAMMED BIN SABATK AND THE 
 MERCHANT HASAN 
 
 There was once in days of yore and in ages and times long gone 
 before, a King of the Kings of the Persians, by name Mohammed 
 bin Sabaik, who ruled over Khorasan-land and used every year to go 
 on razzia into the countries of the Miscreants in Hind and Sind and 
 
 ' In the old version "All the lovers of the Magic Oueen resumed their pristine 
 forms as soon as she ceased to live ; " moreover, they were all sons of kings, 
 princes, or persons of high degree.
 
 King Mohammed Bin Sabaik and the Merchant. 497 
 
 China and the lands of Mawarannahr beyond the Oxus and other 
 regions of the barbarians and what not else. He was a just King, 
 a valiant and a generous, and loved table-talk ^ and tales and verses 
 and anecdotes and histories and entertaining stories and legends of 
 the ancients. Whoso knew a rare recital and related it to him in 
 such fashion as to please him he would bestow on him a sumptuous 
 robe of honour and clothe him from head to foot and give him a 
 thousand dinars, and mount him on a horse saddled and bridled, 
 besides other great gifts ; and the man would take all this and wend 
 his way. Now it chanced that one day there came an old man 
 before him and related to him a rare story, which pleased the King 
 and made him marvel, so he ordered him a magnificent present, 
 amongst other things a thousand dinars of Khorasan and a horse 
 with its housings and trappings. After this, the bruit of the King's 
 munificence was blazed abroad in all countries and there heard of 
 him a man, Hasan the Merchant hight, who was generous, open- 
 handed and learned, a scholar and an accomplished poet. Now 
 that King had an envious Wazir, a multum-in-parvo of ill, loving no 
 man, rich nor poor, and whoso came before the King and he gave 
 him aught, he envied him and said, " Verily this fashion annihi- 
 lateth wealth and ruineth the land ; and such is the custom of the 
 King." But this was naught save envy and despite in that Minister. 
 Presently the King heard talk of Hasan the Merchant and sending 
 for him, said to him as soon as he came into the presence, " O 
 Merchant Hasan, this Wazir of mine vexeth and thwarteth me 
 concerning the money I give to poets and boon-companions and 
 story-tellers and glee-men, and I would have thee tell me a goodly 
 history and a rare story, such as I have never before heard. If 
 it please me, I will give thee lands galore, with their forts, in free 
 tenure, in addition to thy fiefs and untaxed lands ; besides which I 
 will put my whole kingdom in thy hands and make thee my Chief 
 Wazir ; so shalt thou sit on my right hand and rule my subjects. 
 But, if thou bring me not that which I bid thee, I will take all that 
 is in thy hand and banish thee my realm." Replied Hasan, 
 " Hearkening and obedience to our lord the King ! Yet thy slave 
 beseecheth thee to have patience with him a year ; then will he tell 
 thee a tale, such as thou hast never in thy life heard, neither hath 
 other than thou heard its like, not to say a better than it." Quoth 
 the King, " I grant thee a whole year's delay." And he called for a 
 costly robe of honour wherein he robed Hasan, saying, " Keep thy 
 
 ' Arab. *' Munddamah," = conversation over the cup (Lane), used somewhat 
 in the sense of " Musamarah " = talks by moonlight. 
 
 VOL. IV. I I
 
 498 
 
 Alf Laylah 7va Laylah. 
 
 house and mount not horse, neither go nor come for a year's time, 
 till thou bring me that I seek of thee. If thou bring it, especial 
 favour awaiteth thee and thou mayest count upon that which I have 
 promised thee ; but if thou bring it not, thou art not of us nor are we 
 
 of thee." And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and 
 
 ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 Noto foi)cn it toas tl^t ^cbm f^untirEtr anti jpiftg--scbtnt]^ Nigj^t, 
 
 She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when King 
 Mohammed son of Sabaik said to Hasan the Merchant, " If thou 
 bring me that I seek of thee, especial favour awaiteth thee and thou 
 mayest now rejoice in that which I have promised thee ; but, if thou 
 bring it not, thou art not of us nor are we of thee," Hasan kissed 
 ground before the King and went out from the presence. Then he 
 chose five of the best of his Mamelukes, who could all write and read 
 and were learned, intelligent, accomplished ; and he gave each of 
 them five thousand dinars, saying, " I reared you not save for the 
 like of this day ; so do ye help me to further the King's desire and 
 deliver me from his hand." Quoth they, " What wilt thou have us 
 do? Our lives be thy ransom ! " Quoth he, "I wish you to go 
 each to a different country and seek out diligently the learned and 
 erudite and literate and the tellers of wondrous stories and marvellous 
 histories, and do your endeavour to procure me the story of Sayf al- 
 Muluk. If ye find it with anyone, pay him what price soever 
 he asketh for it although he demand a thousand dinars ; give 
 him what ye may and promise him the rest and bring me the story ; 
 for whoso happeneth on it and bringeth it to me, I will bestow 
 on him a costly robe of honour and largesse galore, and there 
 shall be to me none more worshipped than he." Then said he 
 to one of them, " Hie thou to Al-Hind and Al-Sind and all 
 their provinces and dependencies." To another, "Hie thou to the 
 home of the Persians and to China and her climates." To the 
 third, " Hie thou to the land of Khorasan with its districts." To 
 the fourth, "Hie thou to Mauritania and all its regions, districts, 
 provinces and quarters." And to the fifth, " Hie thou to Syria 
 and Egypt and their outliers." Moreover, he chose them out an 
 auspicious day and said to them, " Fare ye forth this day and be 
 diligent in the accomplishment of my need and be not slothful, 
 though the case cost you your lives." So they farewelled him and 
 departed, each taking the direction prescribed to him. Now, four 
 of them were absent four months, and searched but found nothing ;
 
 King Mohammed Bin Sabaik and the Merchatit. 499 
 
 so they returned and told their master, whose breast was straitened, 
 that they had ransacked towns and cities and countries for the thing 
 he sought, but had happened upon naught thereof. Meanwhile, the 
 fifth servant journeyed till he came to the land of Syria and entered 
 Damascus, which he found a pleasant city and a secure, abounding 
 in trees and rills, leas and fruiteries, and birds chanting the praises 
 of Allah the One, the All-powerful of sway, Creator of Night and 
 Day. Here he tarried some time, asking for his master's desire, but 
 none answered him, wherefore he was on the point of departing thence 
 to another place, when he met a young man running and stumbling 
 over his skirts. So he asked him, " Wherefore runnest thou in 
 such eagerness and whither dost thou press?" And he answered, 
 " There is an elder here, a man of learning, who every day at this 
 time taketh a seat on a stool ^ and relateth tales and stories and 
 delectable anecdotes, whereof never heard any the like ; and I am 
 running to get me a place near him and fear I shall find no room, 
 because of the much folk." Quoth the Mameluke, " Take me with 
 thee ; " and quoth the youth, " Make haste in thy walking." So he 
 shut his door and hastened with him to the place of recitation, where 
 he saw an old man of bright favour seated on a stool holding forth 
 to the folk. He sat down near him and addressed himself to hear 
 his story, till the going down of the sun, when the ancient man made 
 an end of his tale and the people, having heard it all, dispersed from 
 about him ; whereupon the Mameluke accosted him and saluted 
 him, and he returned his salam and greeted him with the utmost 
 worship and courtesy. Then said the messenger to him, "O my 
 lord the Shaykh, thou art a comely and reverend man, and thy dis- 
 course is goodly ; but I would fain ask thee of somewhat." Replied 
 the old man, "Ask what thou wilt !" Then said the Mameluke, 
 " Hast thou the story of Sayf al-Muluk and Badi'a al-Jamcil ? " Re- 
 joined the elder, " And who told thee of this story and informed 
 thee thereof? " Answered the messenger, " None told me of it, but 
 I am come from a far country, in quest of this tale, and I will pay 
 thee whatever thou askest for its price if thou have it and wilt, of thy 
 bounty and charity, impart it to me and make it an alms to me, 
 of the generosity of thy nature, for, had I my life in my hand and 
 lavished it upon thee for this thing, yet were it pleasing to my heart." 
 Replied the ancient man, '• Be of good cheer and keep thine eye 
 cool and clear : thou shalt have it ; but this is no story that one 
 
 ' Arab. " Kiirsi," a wortl of many meanings ; here it would allude to the 
 square crate-like seat of palm-fronds used by the Rdwi or public reciter of tales 
 when he is not pacing about the coffee-house.
 
 500 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 telleth in the beaten highway, nor do I give it to every one." Cried 
 the other, " By Allah, O my lord, do not grudge it me, but ask of 
 me what price thou wilt." And the oldster, " If thou wish for the 
 history give me an hundred dinars and thou shalt have it ; but upon 
 five conditions." Now when the Mameluke knew that the old man 
 had the story and was willing to sell it to him, he joyed with exceeding 
 joy and said, " I will give thee the hundred dinars by way of price 
 and ten to boot as a gratuity and take it on the conditions of which 
 thou speakest." Said the Shaykh, " Then go and fetch the gold 
 pieces, and take that thou seekest." So the messenger kissed his 
 hands and joyful and happy returned to his lodging, where he laid 
 an hundred and ten dinars ^ in a purse he had by him. As soon as 
 morning morrowed, he donned his clothes and taking the dinars, 
 repaired to the story-teller, whom he found seated at the door of his 
 house. So he saluted him and the other returned his salam. Then 
 he gave him the gold and the old man took it and carrying the 
 messenger into his house made him sit down in a convenient place, 
 when he set before him inkcase and reed-pen and paper and giving 
 him a book, said to him, " Write out what thou seekest of the night- 
 story ^ of Sayf al-Muluk from this book." Accordingly the Mameluke 
 fell to work and wrote till he had made an end of his copy, when he 
 read it to the old man, and he corrected it and presently said to him, 
 *' Know, O my son, that my five conditions are as follows ; firstly, 
 that thou tell not this story in the beaten high road nor before women 
 and slave-girls nor to black slaves nor feather-heads ; nor again to 
 boys ; but read it only before Kings and Emirs and Wazirs and men 
 of learning, such as expounders of the Koran and others." There- 
 upon the messenger accepted the conditions and kissing the ancient 
 
 man's hand, took leave of him, and fared forth. And Shahrazad 
 
 perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. 
 
 NotD tojbcn it toas tj^e ^cbnt l^unKrcti anU JFtftg=£ig]btD Nigl^t, 
 
 She continued. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when 
 the Mameluke of Hasan the Merchant had copied the tale out of 
 the book belonging to the old man of Damascus, and had accepted 
 his conditions and farewelled him, he fared forth on the same day, 
 
 ' Von Hammer remarks that this is precisely the sum (^50) paid in Egypt for 
 a MS. copy of The Nights. I may add that the Bodleian Library, Oxford, paid 
 that smn for the Wortley-Montague MS. in seven volumes. 
 
 - Arab. '' Samar," the origin of Musamarah, which see^ vol. iii. 104. 
 
 1
 
 Sayf al-Muluk and Bad'Ca al-Javial. 501 
 
 glad and joyful, and journeyed on diligently, of the excess of his 
 contentment, for that he had gotten the story of Sayf al-Muluk, till 
 he came to his own country, when he despatched his servant to bear 
 the good news to his master and say to him, " Thy Mameluke is 
 come back in safety and hath won his will and his aim." (Now of 
 the term appointed between Hasan and the King there wanted but 
 ten days.) Then, after taking rest in his own quarters, he himself 
 went in to the Merchant and told him all that had befallen him and 
 gave him the book containing the story of Sayf al-Muluk and Badi'a 
 al-Jamal, when Hasan joyed with exceeding joy at the sight and 
 bestowed on him all the clothes he had on and gave him ten 
 thoroughbred horses and the like number of camels and mules and 
 three negro chattels and two white slaves. Then Hasan took the 
 book and copied out the story plainly in his own hand ; after which 
 he presented himself before the King and said to him, " O thou 
 auspicious King, I have brought thee a night-story and a rarely 
 pleasant relation, whose like none ever heard at all." When these 
 words reached the King's ear, he sent forthright for all the Emirs, 
 who were men of understanding, and all the learned doctors and 
 folk of erudition and culture and poets and wits ; and Hasan sat 
 down and read the history before the King, who marvelled thereat 
 and approved it, as did all who were present, and they showered 
 gold and silver and jewels u])on the Merchant. Moreover, the King 
 bestowed on him a costly robe of honour of the richest of his 
 raiment and gave him a great city with its castles and outliers ; and 
 he appointed him one of his Chief Wazirs and seated him on his 
 right hand. Then he caused the scribes write the story in letters of 
 gold and lay it up in his privy treasures ; and whenever Ins breast 
 was straitened, he would summon Hasan, and the Merchant would 
 read him the story,^ which was as follows : — 
 
 STOR V OF PRINCE SA YF AL-MULUK AND TILE 
 PRINCESS BADPA AL-JAMAL. 
 
 There was once, in days of old and in ages and times long told, a 
 King in Egypt called 'Asim bin Safwan,- who was a liberal and 
 
 ' The pomp and circumstance, with which the talo is introduced to the reader 
 showing tile importance attaciietl to it. Lane, most injudiciously I tliinlc, transfers 
 the Proemium to a note in chapt. xxiv., thus converting, after his fashion, an 
 Arabian Night into an Arabian Note. 
 
 '• 'Asim = defending (honour) or defended, son of Safwan = clear, cold (dry). 
 Trebutien ii. 126, has Safran.
 
 502 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 beneficent sovran, venerable and majestic. He owned many cities 
 and sconces and fortresses and troops and warriors and had a Wazir 
 named Faris bin Salih/ and he and all his subjects worshipped 
 the Sun and the Fire, instead of the All-powerful Sire, the Glorious, 
 the Victorious. Now this King was become a very old man, 
 weakened and wasted with age and sickness and decrepitude ; for 
 he had lived an hundred and fourscore years and had no child, male 
 or female, by reason whereof he was ever in cark and care from 
 morning to night and from night to morn. It so happened that 
 one day of the days, he was sitting on the throne of his kingship 
 with his Emirs and Wazirs and Captains and Grandees in attend- 
 ance on him, according to their custom, in their several stations ; 
 and whenever there came in an Emir, who had with him a son or 
 two sons, or haply three, who stood at the sides of their sires the 
 King envied him and said in himself, " Every one of these is happy 
 and rejoiceth in his children, whilst I, I have no child, and to-morrow 
 I die and leave my reign and throne and lands and hoards, and 
 strangers will take them and none will bear me in memory nor will 
 there remain any mention of me in the world." Then he became 
 drowned in the sea of thought and for the much thronging of 
 griefs and anxieties upon his heart, like travellers faring for the 
 well, he shed tears and, descending from his throne, sat down upon 
 the floor,2 weeping and humbling himself before the Lord. Now 
 when the Wazir and notables of the realm and others who were 
 present in the assembly saw him do thus with his royal person, they 
 feared for their lives and let the poursivants cry aloud to the lieges, f 
 
 saying, " Hie ye to your homes and rest till the King recover from ^ 
 
 what aileth him." So they went away, leaving none in the presence 
 save the Minister who, as soon as the King came to himself, kissed 
 ground between his hands, and said, " O King of the Age and the 
 Time, wherefore this weeping and wailing ? Tell me who hath trans- 
 gressed against thee of the Kings or Castellans or Emirs or Grandees, .?»; 
 and inform me who hath thwarted thee, O my liege lord, that we may 
 all fall on him and tear his soul from his two sides." But he spake 
 not neither raised his head ; whereupon the Minister kissed ground 
 before him a second time and said to him, "O Master,^ I am even 
 
 * Faris = the rider, the knight, son of Salih = the righteous, the pious, the 
 just. 
 
 ^ In sign of the deepest dejection, when a man would signify that he can fall 
 no lower. 
 
 ^ Arab. " Ya Khawand " (in Bresl. Edit. vol. iv. 191) and fern, form Khawan- 
 dah (p. 20) from Pers. Khawand or Khawandagar = superior, lord, master t 
 Khudawand is still used in popular as in classical Persian, and is universally under- 
 stood in Hindostan.
 
 Sayf al-Muluk and BadVa al-Jamal. 503 
 
 as thy son and thy slave, nay, I have reared thee ; yet know I not the 
 cause of thy cark and chagrin and of this thy case ; and who should 
 know but I who should stand in my stead between thy hands? Tell 
 me therefore why this weeping and wherefore thine atiBiction." 
 Nevertheless, the King neither opened his mouth nor raised his 
 head, but ceased not to weep and cry with a loud crying and lament 
 with exceeding lamentation and ejaculate *'Alas!" The Wazir 
 took patience with him awhile, after which he said to him, "Except 
 thou tell me the cause of this thine affliction, I will set this sword 
 to my heart and will slay myself before thine eyes, rather than see 
 thee thus distressed." Then King Asim raised his head and, wiping 
 away his tears, said, "O Minister of good counsel and experience, 
 leave me to my care and my chagrin, for that which is in my heart 
 of sorrow sufficeth me." But Faris said, " Tell me, O King, the 
 cause of this thy weeping ; haply Allah will appoint thee relief at my 
 
 hands." And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and 
 
 ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 Jloixi h)|)cn it luas tlje ^ebcn |[^untirct( nnt( jpiftij-ntntf) §L\^\> 
 
 She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the 
 Wazir said to King Asim, " Tell me the cause of this thy weeping ; 
 haply Allah shall appoint thee relief at my hands." Replied the 
 King, " O Wazir, I weep not for moneys nor horses nor kingdoms 
 nor aught else, but that 1 am become an old man, yea, very old, 
 nigh upon an hundred and fourscore years of age, and I have not 
 been blessed with a child, male or female : so, when I die they 
 will bury me and my trace will be effaced and my name cut off; 
 the stranger will take my throne and reign, and none will ever 
 make mention of my bemg." Replied the Minister Faris, " O 
 King of the Age, I am older than thou by an hundred years, yet 
 have I never been blessed with boon of child and cease not day 
 and night from cark and care and concern ; so how shall we do, 
 I and thou?" Quoth Asim, " O Wazir, hast thou no device or 
 shift in ihis matter ? " and quoth the Minister, " Know, O King, 
 that I have heard of a Sovran in the land of Saba ^ by name 
 Solomon David-son (upon the twain be The Peace !),-' who pre- 
 
 ' The Biblical Sheba, whence came the Queen of many Hebrew fables. 
 
 '" These would be the interjections of the writer or story- teller. The Mac 
 Edit, is here a sketch which must be filled up by the Bresl. Edit. vol. iv. 189- 
 318 : " Tale of King Asim and his son Sayt al-.Muluk with Badi'a al-Jamal."
 
 504 Alf Lay /ah 7va Laylah. 
 
 tendeth to prophetship and avoucheth that he hath a mighty Lord 
 who can do all things and whose kingdom is in the Heavens and 
 who hath dominion over all mankind and birds and beasts and 
 over the wind and the Jinn. Moreover, he knoweth the speech of 
 birds and the language of every other created thing ; and withal, 
 he calleth all creatures to the worship of his Lord and discourseth 
 to them of their service. So let us send him a messenger in the 
 King's name and seek of him our need, beseeching him to put up 
 prayer to his Lord, that He vouchsafe each of us boon of issue. 
 If his Faith be soothfast and his Lord Omnipotent, He will 
 assuredly bless each of us with a child, male or female, and if the 
 thing thus fall out, we will enter his faith and worship his Lord ; 
 else will we take patience and devise us another device." The 
 King cried, "This is well seen, and my breast is broadened by 
 this thy speech ; but where shall we find a messenger befitting 
 this grave matter, for that this Solomon is no Kinglet, and the 
 approaching him is no light affair ? Indeed, I will send him none 
 on the like of this matter, save thyself j for thou art ancient and 
 versed in all manner affairs, and the like of thee is the like of 
 myself; wherefore I desire that thou weary thyself and journey 
 to him and occupy thyself sedulously with accomplishing this 
 matter, so haply solace may be at thy hand." The Minister said, 
 "I hear and I obey; but rise thou forthwith and seat thee upon the 
 throne, so the Emirs and Lords of the realm and officers and the 
 lieges may enter applying themselves to thy service, according to 
 their custom ; for they all went away from thee, troubled at heart 
 on thine account. Then will I go out and set forth on the Sovran's 
 errand.'' So the King arose forthright and sat down on the throne 
 of his kingship, whilst the Wazir went out and said to the Chamber- 
 lain, " Bid the folk proceed to their service, as of their wont." 
 Accordingly the troops and Captains and Lords of the land entered, 
 after they had spread the tables and ate and drank, and withdrew as 
 was their wont, after which the Wazir Faris went forth from King 
 Asim and, repairing to his own house, equipped himself for travel 
 and returned to the King, who opened to him the treasuries and 
 provided him with rarities and things of price and rich stuffs and 
 gear without compare, such as nor Emir nor Wazir hath power to 
 possess. Moreover, King Asim charged him to accost Solomon 
 with reverence, foregoing him with the salam but not exceeding in 
 speech ; " And (continued he) then do thou ask of him thy need, 
 and if he say 'Tis granted, return to us in haste, for I shall be 
 awaiting thee." Accordingly, the Minister kissed hands and took 
 the presents and, setting out, fared on night and day, till he came
 
 Sayf al-Muluk and BadVa al-Jainal. 505 
 
 within fifteen clays' journey of Saba. Meanwhile Allah (extolled 
 and exalted be He !) inspired Solomon the son of David (The Peace 
 be upon both !) and said to him, " O Solomon, the King of Egypt 
 sendeth unto thee his Chief Wazir, with a present of rarities and 
 such and such things of price ; so do thou also despatch thy 
 Counsellor Asaf bin Barkhiya to meet him with honour and with 
 victual at the halting-places ; and when he cometh to thy presence 
 say unto him : — Verily, thy King hath sent thee in quest of this and 
 that and thy business is thus and thus. Then do thou propound to 
 him The Saving Faith."^ Whereupon Solomon bade his Wazir make 
 ready a company of his retainers and go forth to meet the Minister 
 of Egypt with honour and sumptuous provision at the halting-places. 
 So Asaf made ready all that was needed for their entertainment and 
 setting out, fared on till he fell in with Faris and accosted him with 
 the salam, honouring him and his company with exceeding honour. 
 Moreover, he brought them provaunt and provender at the halting- 
 places and said to them, " Well come and welcome and fair welcome 
 to the coming guests ! Rejoice in the certain winning of your wish ! 
 Be your souls of good cheer and your eyes cool and clear and your 
 breasts be broadened ! " Quoth Faris in himself, " Who acquainted 
 him with this ? " and he said to Asaf,'- " O my lord, and who gave 
 thee to know of us and our need ? " " It was Solomon son of David 
 (on whom be The Peace!), told us of this!" "And who told our 
 lord Solomon ? " " The Lord of the heaven and the earth told him, 
 the God of all creatures ! " " This is none other than a mighty 
 God!" "And do ye not worship him?" "We worship the Sun, 
 and prostrate ourselves thereto." " O Wazir Faris, the sun is but a 
 star of the stars created by Allah (extolled and exalted be He !) 
 and Allah forbid that it should be a Lord ! Because whiles it riseth 
 and whiles it setteth, but our Lord is ever present and never absent 
 and He over all things is Omnipotent ! " Then they journeyed on 
 a little while till they came to the land Saba and drew near the 
 throne of Solomon David-son (upon the twain be The Peace !) who 
 
 ' The oath by the Seal-ring of Solomon was the Stygian "swear" in Fairy- 
 land. The signet consisted of four jewels, presented by as many angels, re- 
 presenting the Winds, the Birds, Earth (including sea) and Spirits, and the 
 gems were inscribed with as many sentences (l) To Allah belong Majesty and 
 Might ; (2) All created things praise the Lord ; (3) Heaven and earth are Allah's 
 slaves; and (4) There is no god but the God, and Mohammed is His messenger. 
 For Sakhr and his theft of the signet see Dr. Weil's "The liible, the Koran, 
 and the Talmud." 
 
 ■^ Trebutien (ii. 12S) remarks, ^^ Cet Assaf peut Hre celui auquel David adresse 
 plusicurs dc scs psaumcs el que nos interprites discnt avoir eti son maitre dc 
 chapelle" (from biblioth. Orient.).
 
 5o6 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 commanded his hosts of men and Jinn and others^ to form line 
 on their road. So the beasts of the sea and the elephants and 
 leopards and lynxes and all beasts of the land ranged themselves 
 in espalier on either side of the way, after their several kinds, and 
 similarly the Jinn drew out in two ranks, appearing all to mortal 
 eyes without concealment, in divers forms grisly and gruesome. 
 They lined the road on either hand, and the birds bespread their 
 wings over the host of creatures to shade them, warbling one to 
 other in all manner of voices and tongues. Now when the people 
 of Egypt came to this terrible array, they dreaded it and durst 
 not proceed ; but Asaf said to them, " Pass on amidst them and 
 walk forward and fear them not : for they are slaves of Solomon 
 son of David, and none of them will harm you ! " So saying, he 
 entered between the ranks, followed by all the folk and amongst 
 them the Wazir of Egypt and his company, fearful : and they ceased 
 not faring forwards till they reached the city, where they lodged the 
 embassy in the guest-house and for the space of three days enter- 
 tained them sumptuously, entreating them with the utmost honour. 
 Then they carried them before Solomon, prophet of Allah (on whom 
 be The Peace !), and when entering they would have kissed the earth 
 before him ; but he forbade them, saying, " It besitteth not a man 
 prostrate himself to earth save before Allah (to whom belong Might 
 and Majesty !), Creator of Earth and Heaven and all other things ; 
 wherefore, whosoever of you hath a mind to sit let him be seated in 
 my service, or to stand, let him stand, but let none stand to do me 
 worship." So they obeyed him, and the Wazir Faris and some 
 of his intimates sat down, whilst certain of the lesser sort remained 
 afoot to wait on him. When they had sat awhile, the servants spread 
 the tables and they all, men and beasts, ate their sufficiency.^ 
 Then Solomon bade Faris expound his errand, that it might be 
 accomplished, saying, " Speak and hide naught of that wherefor 
 thou art come ; for I know why ye come and what is your errand, 
 which is thus and thus. The King of Egypt who despatched thee, 
 Asim hight, hath become a very old man, infirm, decrepit ; and 
 Allah (whose name be exalted !) hath not blessed him with offspring 
 male or female. So he abode in cark and care and chagrin from 
 
 ^ Mermen, monsters, beasts, etc. 
 
 "^ This is in accordance with Eastern etiquette ; the guest must be fed before his 
 errand is asked. The Porte, in the days of its pride, managed in this way sorely 
 to insult the Ambassadors ot the most powerful European kingdoms, and the first 
 French Republic had the honour of abating the barbarians' nuisance. So the old 
 Scottish Highlanders never asked the name or clan of a chance guest, lest he prove 
 a foe before he had eaten their food.
 
 Sayf al-Mjiluk and BadVa al-Jamal. 507 
 
 morn to night and from night to morn. Now it happened that one 
 day of the days, as he sat upon the throne of his kingship with his 
 Emirs and Wazirs and Captains and Grandees in attendance on 
 him, he saw some of them with two sons, others with one, and others 
 with even three, who came with their sire to do him service. So he 
 said in himself, of the excess of his sorrow, " Who shall get my 
 kingdom after my death ? Will any save a stranger take it ? And 
 thus shall I pass out of being as though 1 had never been ! " On 
 this account he became drowned in the sea of thought, until his 
 eyes were flooded with tears and he covered his face with his kerchief 
 and wept with sore weeping. Then he rose from off his throne and 
 sat down upon the floor wailing and lamenting and none knew what 
 was in heart as he grovelled on the ground save Allah Almighty." 
 
 And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say 
 
 her permitted say. 
 
 Jiob) b3!)cn It toas ttjc ^cbcn |i:juntrrcti antr ^(.xtietf) jjaififtt, 
 
 She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Solomon 
 David-son (upon both of whom be peace !) after disclosing to the 
 VVazir Faris that which had passed between himself and his master. 
 King Asim, said to him, " Is this that I have told thee the truth, O 
 Wazir ? " Replied Faris, " O prophet of Allah, this thou hast said 
 is indeed sooth and verity ; but when we discoursed of this matter, 
 none was with the King and myself, nor was any ware of our case ; 
 who, then, told thee of all these things ? " Answered Solomon, *' They 
 were told to me by my Lord who knoweth whatso is concealed ^ 
 Irom the eye and what is hidden in the breasts." Quoth P'aris, " O 
 Prophet of Allah, verily this is none other than a mighty Lord and 
 an omnipotent God ! " And he Islamised with all his many. Then 
 said Solomon to him, "Thou hast with thee such and such presents 
 and rarities ;" and Faris replied, "Yes." The Prophet continued, 
 " I accept them all and give them in free gift unto thee. So do ye 
 rest, thou and thy company, in the place where you have been 
 lodging, till the iatigue of the journey shall cease from you ; and 
 to-morrow, Inshallah ! thine errand shall be accomplished to the 
 uttermost, if it be the will of Allah the Most High, Lord of Heaven 
 and earth and the light which followeth the gloom ; Creator of all 
 creatures." So Faris returned to his quarters and passed the night 
 
 ' In Bresl. Edit. (301) Khafiyah : in Mac. Khainah, the perfidy.
 
 5o8 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 in deep thought. But when morning morrowed he presented him- 
 self before the Lord Solomon, who said to him, " When thou 
 returnest to King Asim bin Safwan and you twain are re-united, do 
 ye both go forth some day armed with bow, bolts and brand, and 
 fare to such a place, where ye shall find a certain tree. Mount upon 
 it and sit silent until the midhour between noon-prayer and that of 
 mid-afternoon, when the noontide heat hath cooled ; then descend 
 and look at the foot of the tree, whence ye will see two serpents 
 come forth, one with a head like an ape's and the other with a 
 head like an Ifrit's. Shoot them ye twain with bolts and slay them 
 both ; then cut off a span's length from their heads and the like from 
 their tails and throw it away. The rest of the flesh cook, and cook 
 well, and give it to your wives to eat : then, by Allah's leave they 
 shall bear male children." Moreover, he gave him a seal-ring, a 
 sword and a wrapper containing two tunics ^ embroidered with gold 
 and jewels, saying, " O Wazir Faris, when your sons grow up to 
 man's estate, give to each of them one of these tunics." Then said 
 he, " In the name of Allah ! May the Almighty accomplish your 
 desire ! And now nothing remaineth for thee but to depart, relying 
 on the blessing of the Lord the Most High, for the King looketh for 
 thy return night and day and his eye is ever gazing on the road." 
 So the Wazir advanced to the prophet Solomon, son of David (upon 
 both of whom be The Peace !) and farewelled him and fared forth 
 from him after kissing his hands. Rejoicing in the accomplishment 
 of his errand, he travelled on with all diligence night and day, and 
 ceased not wayfaring till he drew near to Cairo, when he despatched 
 one of his servants to acquaint King Asim with his approach and 
 the successful issue of his journey ; which when the King heard, he 
 joyed with exceeding joy, he and his Grandees and Officers and 
 troops, especially in the Wazir's safe return. When they met, the 
 Minister dismounted and, kissing ground before the King, gave him 
 the glad news about the winning of his wish in fullest fashion ; after 
 which he expounded the True Faith to him, and the King and all 
 his people embraced Al-Islam with much joy and gladness. Then 
 said Asim to his Wazir, " Go home and rest this night and a week 
 to boot ; then go to the Hammam-bath and come to me, that I may 
 inform thee of what we shall have to consider." Accordingly, Faris 
 kissed ground and withdrew, with his suite, pages and eunuchs, to 
 his house, where he rested eight days ; after which he repaired to the 
 King and related to him all that had passed between Solomon and 
 
 * So in the Mac. Edit.; in the Bresl. only one " Kaba" or Kaftan ; but from 
 the sequel it seems to be a clerical error.
 
 Sayf al-Muluk and Badi'a al-Jamal. 509 
 
 himself, adding, " Do thou rise and go forth with me alone." Then 
 the King and the Minister took two bows and two bolts and repair- 
 ing to the tree indicated by Solomon, clomb up into it, and there sat 
 in silence till the mid-day heat had passed away and it was near 
 upon the hour of mid-afternoon prayer, when they descended and 
 looking about them saw a serpent-couple ^ issue from the roots of 
 the tree. The King gazed at them, marvelling to see them ringed 
 with collars of gold about their necks, and said to Faris, " O Wazir, 
 verily these snakes have golden necklaces ! By Allah, this is for- 
 sooth a rare thing ! Let us catch them and set them in a cage and 
 keep them to look upon." But the Minister said, " These hath 
 Allah created for profitable use ; - so do thou shoot one and I will 
 shoot the other with these our shafts." Accordingly they shot at 
 them with arrows and slew them ; after which they cut off a span's 
 length of their heads and tails and threw it away. Then they carried 
 the rest to the King's palace, where they called the kitchener, and 
 giving him that flesh said, " Dress this meat daintily, with onion- 
 sauce ^ and spices, and ladle it out into two saucers and bring them 
 
 hither at such an hour, without delay ! " And Shahrazad was 
 
 surprised by the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. 
 
 Nofo toficn It tons ifjc ^cfacn lEl^untirctr nnti ^t.\tii= first :X'tgf)t, 
 
 She said. It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the 
 King and the Wazir gave the serpents' flesh to the kitchener, saying, 
 " Cook it and ladle it out into two saucers and bring them hither 
 without delay ! " the cook took the meat and went with it to the 
 kitchen, where he cooked it and dressed it in skilful fashion with a 
 mighty fine onion-sauce and hot spices ; after which he ladled it out 
 into two saucers and set them before the King and the Wazir, who 
 took each a dish and gave their wives to eat of the meat. In due 
 time the Queen gave birth to a son. So the chief of her eunuchs 
 went out in haste, rejoicing, and finding the King alone, with cheek 
 on palm, pondering this thing, kissed ground between his hands 
 
 ' Arab. " Su'uban " (Thu'uban), popularly translated " basilisk." Tiie 
 Egy]itians suppose that when this serpent fnrnis a ring round the Ibn Irs (weasel 
 or ichneumon) the latter emits a pecuhar air which causes the reptile to burst. 
 
 * i.e. that prophesied by Solomon. 
 
 ' Arab. " Takliyah " from Kaly, a fry: Lane's Shaykh explained it as 
 *' onions cooked in clarified butter, after which they are put upon other cooked 
 food." The mention of onions points to EgyjH as the origin of this talc, and 
 certainly not to Arabia, where the strong-smelling bulb is hated and despised.
 
 5IO Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 and acquainted him with his good fortune. When the King heard 
 his words, he sprang to his feet and in the excess of his joy, he 
 kissed ^ the eunuch's hands and head and doffing the clothes he had 
 on, gave them to him. Moreover, he said to those who were 
 present in his assembly, " Whoso loveth me, let him bestow largesse 
 upon this man." 2 And they gave him of coin and jewels and 
 jacinths and horses and mules and estates and gardens what was 
 beyond count or calculation. At that moment in came the Wazir 
 Faris and said to Asim, " O my master, but now an eunuch came 
 to me and brought me the glad tidings that my wife Khatiin ^ hath 
 given birth to a son, whereupon, in my joy, I doffed all the clothes 
 I had on and gave them to him, together with a thousand dinars, 
 and made him Chief of the Eunuchs." Rejoined the King, " O 
 Minister, Allah (extolled and exalted be He !) hath, of His grace 
 and bounty and goodness and beneficence, made gift to us of the 
 True Faith and brought us out of night into light, and hath been 
 bountiful to us, of His favour and benevolence ; wherefore I am 
 minded to solace the folk and cause them to rejoice." Quoth Faris, 
 *'Do what thou wiliest," ^ and quoth the King, "O Wazir, go down 
 without stay or delay and set free all who are in the prisons, both 
 criminals and debtors, and whoso transgresseth after this, we will 
 requite as he deserveth even to the striking off of his head. More- 
 over, we forgive the people three years' taxes, and do thou set up 
 kitchens all round about the city walls ^ and bid the kitcheners hang 
 over the fire all kinds of cooking pots and cook all manner of meats, 
 continuing their cooking night and day, and let all comers, both of 
 our citizens and of the neighbouring countries, far and near, eat 
 and drink and carry to their houses. And do thou command the 
 people to make holiday and decorate the city seven days and shut 
 not the taverns night nor day f and if thou delay I will behead 
 
 ^ Von Hammer quotes the case of the Grand Vizer Yusuf throwing his own 
 pelisse over the shoulders of the Aleppine Merchant who brought him the news 
 of the death of his enemy, Jazzar Pasha. 
 
 2 This peculiar style of generosity was also the custom in contemporary Europe. 
 
 ' Khatun, which follows the name {e.g. Hurmat Khatun), in India corresponds 
 with the male title Khan, taken by the Pathan Moslems [e.g. Pir Khan). Khanum 
 is the affix to the Moghul or Tartar nobility, the men assuming a double designa- 
 tion, e.^. Mirza Abdallah Beg. See Oriental Collections (Ouseley's) vol. i. 97. 
 
 * Lit. " Whatso thou wouldest do, that do!" a contrast with our European 
 laconism. 
 
 ^ These are built against and outside the walls, made of palm-fronds and light 
 materials. 
 
 s Von Hammer in Trebutien (ii. 135) savs, " vSuch rejoicings are still customary 
 at Constantinople, under the name of Donanma. Lane justly remarks upon this 
 passage that the title Sultan precedes while the feminine Sultanah follows the 
 name.
 
 Sayf al-Miduk and Badi '« al-Jamal. 511 
 
 thee !"' So he did as the King bade him and the folk decorated 
 the city and citadel and bulwarks after the goodliest fashion and, 
 donning their richest attire, passed their time in feasting and sport- 
 ing and making merry. Then the King bade summon all the Olema 
 and astronomers, mathematicians and men of learning, astrologers, 
 scientists and scribes in the city, and they assembled and fell to calcu- 
 lating and noted the boy's star and nativity and drew his horoscope. 
 Then, on being summoned they rose and, kissing the earth before the 
 King, gave him the glad tidings, saying, "In very sooth the new-born 
 child is of happy augury and born under an auspicious aspect, but," 
 they added, " in the first of his life there will befall him a thing which 
 we fear to name before the King." Quoth Asim, " Speak and fear not ;'' 
 so quoth they, " O King, this boy will fare forth from this land and 
 journey in strangerhood and suffer shipwreck and hardshi]) and 
 prisonment and distress, and indeed he hath before him the sorest of 
 sufferings ; but he shall free him of them in the end, and win to his 
 wish and live the happiest of lives the rest of his days, ruling over 
 subjects with a strong hand and having dominion in the land, despite 
 enemies and enviers." Now when the King heard the astrologers' 
 words, he said, "The matter is a mystery; but all that Allah 
 Almighty hath written for the creature of good and bad cometh 
 to pass and needs must betide him from this day to that a thou- 
 sand solaces." So he paid no heed to their words or attention to 
 their speeches but bestowed on them robes of honour, as well 
 upon all who were present, and dismissed them ; when, behold, 
 in came Faris the Wazir and kissed the earth before the King, who 
 said to him, " O Wazir, go, bring thy wife and child hither, that she 
 may abide with my wife in mv palace, and they shall bring up the 
 two boys together." So Faris fetched his wife and son and they 
 committed the children to the nurses wet and dry. And after seven 
 days had passed over them, they brought them before the King and 
 said to him. ''What wilt thou name the twain?" Quoth he, " Do 
 ye name them;" but quoth they, "None nameth the son save his 
 sire." So he said, " Name my son Sayf al-Muluk, after my grand- 
 father, and call the Minister's son Sd'id - " Then he bestowed robes 
 of honour on the nurses wet and dry and said to them, " Be ye 
 ruthful over them and rear them after the goodliest fashion." So they 
 brought up the two boys diligently till they reached the age of five, 
 
 ' These words (Brcsl. Edit.) would be spoken in jest, a grim joke enough, but 
 showing the elation of the King's spirits. 
 
 • Sayf al-Muluk = "Sword (Egyptian Sif, Arab. Sayf, Gr. ^tpos"* of the 
 Kings" ; and he must not be called tout bonnement "Sayf" Sd'id = the fore- 
 arm.
 
 512 Alf Laylah wa Lay la h. 
 
 when the King committed them to a doctor of sciences ^ who taught 
 them to read the Koran and write. When they were ten years old, 
 King Asim gave them in charge to masters, who instructed them in 
 horsemanship and shooting with shafts and lunging with lance and 
 play of Polo and the like till, by the time they were fifteen years old, 
 they were clever in all manner of martial exercises, nor was there 
 one to vie with them in knightly prowess, for each would do battle 
 with a thousand men and make head against them single handed. 
 So when they came to years of discretion, King Asim never looked 
 on them, but he joyed in them with exceeding joy ; and when they 
 attained their twenty-fifth year, he took Faris his Minister apart one 
 day and said to him, " O Wazir, I am minded to consult with thee 
 concerning a thing I desire to do." Replied he, " Whatever thou 
 hast a mind to do, do it, for thy judgment is blessed." Quoth the 
 King, " O Wazir, I am become a very old and decrepit man, sore 
 stricken in years, and I desire to take up my abode in an oratory, 
 that I may worship Allah Almighty and give my kingdom^ and 
 Sultanate to my son Sayf al-Muluk, for that he is grow^n a goodly 
 youth, perfect in knightly exercises and intellectual attainments, 
 polite letters and gravity, dignity and the art of government. 
 What sayst thou, O Minister, of this project ? " And quoth 
 the counseller, " Right indeed is thy rede : the idea is a blessed 
 and a fortunate, and if thou do this, I will do the like and 
 my son Sa'id shall be the Prince's Wazir, for he is a comely 
 young man and complete in knowledge and judgment. Thus 
 shall the two youths be together, and we will order their affair and 
 neglect not their case, but guide them to goodness and in the way 
 that is strait.'"' Quoth the King, " Write letters and send them 
 by couriers to all the countries and cities and sconces and fort- 
 resses that be under our hands, bidding their chiefs be present on 
 
 ^ Arab. " Fakih "= a divine, from Fikh = theology, a man versed in law and 
 divinity, i.e. (i) the Koran and its interpretation comprehending the sacred ancient 
 history of the creation and prophets Cchapters iii., iv., v. and vi.) ; (2) the traditions 
 and legends connected with early Moslem history, and (3) some auxiliary sciences, 
 as grammar, syntax and prosody ; logic, rhetoric and philosophy. See p. 18 of 
 " El-Mas'udi's Historical Encyclopaedia, etc," by my friend Prof. Aloys Springer, 
 London 1841. This fine fragment printed by the Oriental Translation Fund has 
 been left unfinished when the Asiatic Society of Paris has ptinted in 8 vols. 8vo. 
 the text and translation of MM. Barbier de Meynard and Pavet de Courteille. 
 What a national disgrace ! And the same with the mere abridgment of Ibn 
 Batutah by Prof. Lee (Orient. Tr. Fund, 1820) when the French have the fine text 
 and translation by Defremery and Sanguinetti with index, etc. in 4 vols. 8vo. 
 1858-59. But England is now content to rank in such matters as encouragement 
 of learning, endowment of research, etc., into the basest of kingdoms, and the 
 contrast of status between the learned Societies of London and of Paris, Berlin, 
 Vienna or Rome is mortifying to an Englishman — a national opprobrium.
 
 Sayf al-Muluk atid Badi 'a al-Ja7nal. 5 1 3 
 
 such a day at the Horse-course of the Elephant." ^ So the Wazir 
 went out without stay or delay and despatched letters of this purport 
 to all the deputies and governors of fortresses and others under 
 King Asim ; and he also commanded that all in the city should be 
 present far and near, high and low. When the appointed time 
 drew nigh, King Asim bade the tent-pitchers plant pavilions in the 
 midst of the Champ-de-Mars and decorate them after the most 
 sumptuous fashion and set up the great throne whereon he sat 
 not but on festivals. And they at once did his bidding. Then 
 he and all his Nabobs and Chamberlains and Emirs sallied forth, 
 and he commanded proclamation be made to the people, saying, 
 " In the name of Allah, come forth to the Maydan 1 " So all the 
 Emirs and Wazirs and Governors of provinces and Feudatories ^ 
 came forth to the place of assembly and, entering the royal 
 pavilion, addressed themselves to the service of the King as was 
 their wont, and abode in their several stations some sitting and 
 others standing, till all the people were gathered together, when 
 the King bade spread the tables and they ate and drank and 
 prayed for him. Then he commanded the Chamberlains'* to pro- 
 claim to the people that they should not depart : so they made 
 proclamation to them, saying, " Let none of you fare hence till he 
 have heard the King's words ! " So they withdrew the curtains of 
 the royal pavilion and the King said, " Whoso loveth me, let him 
 remain till he have heard my speech ! " Whereupon all the folk 
 sat down in mind tranquil after they had been fearful, saying, 
 "Wherefore have we been summoned by the King?" Then the 
 Sovran rose to his feet, and making them swear that none would 
 stir from his stead, said to them, " O ye Emirs and Wazirs and 
 Lords of the land ; the great and the small of you, and all ye who 
 are present of the people ; say me, wot ye not that this kingdom 
 was an inheritance to me from my fathers and forefathers ? " 
 Answered they, "Yes, O King, we all know that." And he con- 
 tinued, "I and you, we all worshipped the sun and moon, till Allah 
 
 1 Arab. "Maydan al-Fil," prob. for Eirkat al-Fil, the Tank of the Elephant 
 before-menlioned. Lane quotes Al-Makrizi who in his Khitat in:orms us that 
 the lakelet was made about the end of the seventh century (A.M.), and in the 
 seventeenth year of the eighth century became the site of^stables. The Bresl. 
 Ldit. (iv. 214) reads "Maydan al-'Adl," prob. for Al-'Adil the name of the 
 King who laid out the Maydan. 
 
 * Aiab. Ashab al-Ziya', the latter word mostly signifies estates consisting, 
 strictly speaking, of land under artificial irrigation. 
 
 ^ The Bresl. Edit. iv. 215 has " Chawashiyah "= Chiaush, the Turkish word, 
 written with the Pers. "ch," a letter which in Arabic is supplanted Ly •' sh," 
 everywhere except in Marocco. 
 
 VOL. IV. K K
 
 514 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 
 
 (extolled and ex alted be He !) vouchsafed us the knowledge of the 
 True Faith and brought us out of darkness in to light, and directed 
 us to the religion of Al-Islam. Know that I am become a very old 
 man, feeble and decrepit, and I desire to take up my abode in a 
 hermitage^ there to worship Allah Almighty and crave His pardon 
 for past offences and make this my son Sayf al-Muluk ruler. Ye 
 know full well that he is a comely youth, eloquent, liberal, learned, 
 versed in affairs, intelligent, equitable ; wherefore I am minded 
 presently to resign to him my realm and to make him ruler over 
 you and seat him as Sultan in my stead, whilst I give myself to 
 solitude and to the worship of Allah in an oratory and my son and 
 heir shall judge between you. What say ye then, all of you ? " 
 Thereupon they all rose and kissing ground before him, made 
 answer with "Hearing and obedience," saying, "O our King and 
 our defender if thou should set over us one of thy blackamoor 
 slaves we would obey him and hearken to thy word and accept 
 thy command : how much more then with thy son Sayf al-Muluk ? 
 Indeed, we accept of him and approve him on our eyes and heads !" 
 So King Asim bin Safwan arose and came down from his seat and 
 seating his son on the great throne,^ took the crown from his own 
 head and set it on the head of Sayf al-Muluk and girt his middle 
 with the royal girdle.^ Then he sat down beside his son on the 
 throne of his kingship, whilst the Emirs and Wazirs and Lords of 
 the land and all the rest of the folk rose and kissed ground before 
 him, saying, " Indeed, he is worthy of the kingship and hath better 
 right to it than any other." Then the Chamberlains made procla- 
 mation crying, " Aman ! Aman ! Safety ! Safety ! " and offered up 
 prayers for his victory and prosperity. And Sayf al-Muluk scattered 
 
 gold and silver on the heads of the lieges one and all. And 
 
 Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her per- 
 mitted say. 
 
 ^ Arab. "Zawiyah" lit. a corner, a cell. Lane (M. E. chapt. xxiv.) renders 
 it "a small kiosque," and translates the famous Zawiyat al-Umyan (Blind Men's 
 Angle) near the south-eastern corner of the Azhar or great Collegiate Mosque of 
 Cairo, "Chapel of the Blind" (chapt. ix.). In popular parlance it suggests a 
 hermitage. 
 
 "^ Arab. " Takht," a Pers. word used as more emphatic than the Arab. Sarin 
 '^ This girding the sovereign is found in the hieroglyphs as a peculiarity of the 
 ancient Kings of Egypt, says Von Hammer, referring readers to Denon. 
 
 END OF VOL. IV. 
 
 VVATERLOW AND SONS LIMITBD, PRINTERS, LONDON WALL.
 
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