slayer[256] aside hath hied:
Grief-wine have I drunken, and down my cheeks ✿ Dance tears to the song
of the camel-guide:
For union-blessing I strive though sure, ✿ In Budur and Su'ád all my
bliss shall bide:[257]
Wot I not which of three gave me most to 'plain, ✿ So hear them numbered
ere thou decide:
Those Sworders her eyne, that Lancer her fig- ✿ ure, or ring-mail'd
Locks which her forehead hide.
Quoth she (and I ask of her what so wights ✿ Or abide in towns or in
desert ride[258])
To me, "In thy heart I dwell; look there!" ✿ Quoth I, "Where's my heart,
ah where? ah where?"
When Maymunah heard these lines from the Ifrit, she said, "Thou hast
done well, O Dahnash! But say thou which of the two is the handsomer?"
And he answered, "My mistress Budur is handsomer than thy beloved!"
Cried Maymunah, "Thou liest, O accursed. Nay, my beloved is more
beautiful than thine!" But Dahnash persisted, "Mine is the fairer." And
they ceased not to wrangle and challenge each other's words till
Maymunah cried out at Dahnash and would have laid violent hands on him;
but he humbled himself to her and, softening his speech, said, "Let not
the truth be a grief to thee, and cease we this talk, for all we say is
to testify in favour of our lovers; rather let each of us withdraw the
claim and seek we one who shall judge fairly between us which of the two
be fairer; and by his sentence we will abide." "I agree to this,"
answered she and smote the earth with her foot, whereupon there came out
of it an Ifrit blind of an eye, humpbacked and scurvy-skinned, with
eye-orbits slit up and down his face.[259] On his head were seven horns
and four locks of hair fell to his heels; his hands were pitchfork-like
and his legs mast-like and he had nails as the claws of a lion, and feet
as the hoofs of the wild ass.[260] When that Ifrit rose out of the earth
and sighted Maymunah, he kissed the ground before her and, standing with
his hands clasped behind him, said, "What is thy will, O my mistress, O
daughter of my King?"[261] She replied, "O Kashkash, I would have thee
judge between me and this accursed Dahnash." And she made known to him
the matter, from first to last, whereupon the Ifrit Kashkash looked at
the face of the youth and then at the face of the girl; and saw them
lying asleep, embraced, each with an arm under the other's neck, alike
in beauty and loveliness and equal in grace and goodliness. The Marid
gazed long upon them, marvelling at their seemlihead; and, after
carefully observing the twain, he turned to Maymunah and Dahnash, and
repeated these couplets:—
Go, visit her thou lovest, and regard not
The words detractors utter; envious churls
Can never favour love. Oh! sure the Merciful
Ne'er made a thing more fair to look upon,
Than two fond lovers in each others' arms,
Speaking their passion in a mute embrace.
When heart has turned to heart, the fools would part them
Strike idly on cold steel. So when thou 'st found
One purely, wholly thine, accept her true heart,
And live for her alone. Oh! thou that blamest
The love-struck for their love, give o'er thy talk,
How canst thou minister to a mind diseased?[262]
Then he turned again to Maymunah and Dahnash and said to them, "By
Allah, if you will have the truth, I tell you fairly the twain be equal
in beauty, and loveliness and perfect grace and goodliness, nor can I
make any difference between them on account of their being man and
woman. But I have another thought which is that we wake each of them in
turn, without the knowledge of the other, and whichever is the more
enamoured shall be held inferior in seemlihead and comeliness." Quoth
Maymunah, "Right is this recking," and quoth Dahnash, "I consent to
this." Then Dahnash changed himself to the form of a flea and bit Kamar
al-Zaman, whereupon he started from sleep in a fright——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred and Eighty-third Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Dahnash changed
himself to the form of a flea and bit Kamar al-Zaman who started from
sleep in a fright and rubbed the bitten part, his neck, and scratched it
hard because of the smart. Then turning sideways, he found lying by him
something whose breath was sweeter than musk and whose skin was softer
than cream. Hereat marvelled he with great marvel and he sat up and
looked at what lay beside him; when he saw it to be a young lady like an
union pearl, or a shining sun, or a dome seen from afar on a well-built
wall; for she was five feet tall, with a shape like the letter[263] ا,
bosomed high and rosy-cheeked; even as saith of her the poet:—
Four things which ne'er conjoin, unless it be ✿ To storm my vitals and
to shed my blood:
Brow white as day and tresses black as night ✿ Cheeks rosy red and lips
which smiles o'erflood.
And also quoth another:—
A Moon she rises, Willow-wand she waves, ✿ Breathes Ambergris, and
gazes, a Gazelle:
Meseems that sorrow wooes my heart and wins ✿ And, when she wendeth
hastes therein to dwell!
And when Kamar al-Zaman saw the lady Budur, daughter of King Ghayur, and
her beauty and comeliness, she was sleeping clad in a shift of Venetian
silk, without her petticoat-trousers, and wore on her head a kerchief
embroidered with gold and set with stones of price: her ears were hung
with twin earrings which shone like constellations and round her neck
was a collar of union pearls, of size unique, past the competence of any
King. When he saw this, his reason was confounded and natural heat began
to stir in him; Allah awoke in him the desire of coition and he said to
himself, "Whatso Allah willeth, that shall be, and what He willeth not
shall never be!" So saying, he put out his hand and, turning her over,
loosed the collar of her chemise; then arose before his sight her bosom,
with its breasts like double globes of ivory; whereat his inclination
for her redoubled and he desired her with exceeding hot desire. He would
have awakened her but she would not awake, for Dahnash had made her
sleep heavy; so he shook her and moved her, saying, "O my beloved, awake
and look on me; I am Kamar al-Zaman." But she awoke not, neither moved
her head; whereupon he considered her case for a long hour and said to
himself, "If I guess aright, this is the damsel to whom my father would
have married me and these three years past I have refused her; but
Inshallah!—God willing—as soon as it is dawn, I will say to him:—Marry
me to her, that I may enjoy her."——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
day and ceased to say her permitted say,
Now when it was the Hundred and Eighty-fourth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Kamar al-Zaman
said to himself, "By Allah, when I see dawn I will say to my sire:—Marry
me to her that I may enjoy her; nor will I let half the day pass ere I
possess her and take my fill of her beauty and loveliness." Then he bent
over Budur to buss her, whereat the Jinniyah Maymunah trembled and was
abashed and Dahnash, the Ifrit, was like to fly for joy. But, as Kamar
al-Zaman was about to kiss her upon the mouth, he was ashamed before
Allah and turned away his head and averted his face, saying to his
heart, "Have patience." Then he took thought awhile and said, "I will be
patient; haply my father when he was wroth with me and sent me to this
jail, may have brought my young lady and made her lie by my side to try
me with her, and may have charged her not to be readily awakened when I
would arouse her, and may have said to her:—Whatever thing Kamar
al-Zaman do to thee, make me ware thereof; or belike my sire standeth
hidden in some stead whence (being himself unseen) he can see all I do
with this young lady; and to-morrow he will scold me and cry:—How cometh
it that thou sayest, I have no mind to marry; and yet thou didst kiss
and embrace yonder damsel? So I will withhold myself lest I be ashamed
before my sire; and the right and proper thing to do is not to touch her
at this present, nor even to look upon her, except to take from her
somewhat which shall serve as a token to me and a memorial of her; that
some sign endure between me and her." Then Kamar al-Zaman raised the
young lady's hand and took from her little finger a seal-ring worth an
immense amount of money, for that its bezel was a precious jewel and
around it were graven these couplets:—
Count not that I your promises forgot, ✿ Despite the length of your
delinquencies:
Be generous, O my lord, to me inclining; ✿ Haply your mouth and cheeks
these lips may kiss:
By Allah, ne'er will I relinquish you ✿ Albe you _will_ transgress
love's boundaries.
Then Kamar al-Zaman took the seal-ring from the little finger of Queen
Budur and set it on his own; then, turning his back to her, went to
sleep.[264] When Maymunah the Jinniyah saw this, she was glad and said
to Dahnash and Kashkash, "Saw ye how my beloved Kamar al-Zaman bore
himself chastely towards this young lady? Verily, this was of the
perfection of his good gifts; for observe you twain how he looked on her
and noted her beauty and loveliness, and yet embraced her not neither
kissed her nor put his hand to her, but turned his back and slept."
Answered they, "Even so!" Thereupon Maymunah changed herself into a flea
and entering into the raiment of Budur, the loved of Dahnash, crept up
her calf and came upon her thigh and, reaching a place some four
carats[265] below her navel, there bit her. Thereupon she opened her
eyes and sitting up in bed, saw a youth lying beside her and breathing
heavily in his sleep, the loveliest of Almighty Allah's creatures, with
eyes that put to shame the fairest Houris of Heaven; and a mouth like
Solomon's seal, whose water was sweeter to the taste and more
efficacious than a theriack, and lips the colour of coral-stone, and
cheeks like the blood-red anemone, even as saith one, describing him in
these couplets:—
My mind's withdrawn from Zaynab and Nawár[266] ✿ By rosy cheeks that
growth of myrtle bear;
I love a fawn, a tunic-vested boy, ✿ And leave the love of
bracelet-wearing Fair:
My mate in hall and closet is unlike ✿ Her that I play with, as at home
we pair.
Oh thou, who blam'st my flight from Hind and Zaynab, ✿ The cause is
clear as dawn uplighting air!
Would'st have me fare[267] a slave, the thrall of thrall, ✿ Cribbed,
pent, confined behind the bar and wall?
Now when Princess Budur saw him, she was seized by a transport of
passion and yearning and love-longing,——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn
of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred and Eighty-fifth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Princess
Budur saw Kamar al-Zaman she was forthwith seized with a transport of
passion and yearning and love-longing, and she said to herself, "Alas,
my shame! This is a strange youth and I know him not. How cometh he to
be lying by my side on one bed?" Then she looked at him a second time
and noting his beauty and loveliness, said, "By Allah, he is indeed a
comely youth and my heart[268] is well-nigh torn in sunder with longing
for him! But alas, how am I shamed by him! By the Almighty, had I known
it was this youth who sought me in marriage of my father, I had not
rejected him, but had wived with him and enjoyed his loveliness!" Then
she gazed in his face and said, "O my lord and light of mine eyes, awake
from sleep and take thy pleasure in my beauty and grace." And she moved
him with her hand; but Maymunah the Jinniyah let down sleep upon him as
it were a curtain, and pressed heavily on his head with her wings so
that Kamar al-Zaman awoke not. Then Princess Budur shook him with her
hands and said, "My life on thee, hearken to me; awake and up from thy
sleep and look on the narcissus and the tender down thereon, and enjoy
the sight of naked waist and navel; and touzle me and tumble me from
this moment till break of day! Allah upon thee, O my lord, sit up and
prop thee against the pillow and slumber not!" Still Kamar al-Zaman made
her no reply but breathed hard in his sleep. Continued she, "Alas! Alas!
thou art insolent in thy beauty and comeliness and grace and loving
looks! But if thou art handsome, so am I handsome; what then is this
thou dost? Have they taught thee to flout me or hath my father, the
wretched old fellow,[269] made thee swear not to speak to me to-night?"
But Kamar al-Zaman opened not his mouth neither awoke, whereat her
passion for him redoubled and Allah inflamed her heart with love of him.
She stole one glance of eyes that cost her a thousand sighs: her heart
fluttered, and her vitals throbbed and her hands and feet quivered; and
she said to Kamar al-Zaman "Talk to me, O my lord! Speak to me, O my
friend! Answer me, O my beloved, and tell me thy name, for indeed thou
hast ravished my wit!" And during all this time he abode drowned in
sleep and answered her not a word, and Princess Budur sighed and said,
"Alas! Alas! why art thou so proud and self-satisfied?" Then she shook
him and turning his hand over, saw her seal-ring on his little finger,
whereat she cried a loud cry, and followed it with a sigh of passion and
said, "Alack! Alack! By Allah, thou art my beloved and thou lovest me!
Yet thou seemest to turn thee away from me out of coquetry, for all, O
my darling, thou camest to me, whilst I was asleep and knew not what
thou didst with me, and tookest my seal-ring; and yet I will not pull it
off thy finger." So saying, she opened the bosom of his shirt and bent
over him and kissed him and put forth her hand to him, seeking somewhat
that she might take as a token, but found nothing. Then she thrust her
hand into his breast and, because of the smoothness of his body, it
slipped down to his waist and thence to his navel and thence to his
yard, whereupon her heart ached and her vitals quivered and lust was
sore upon her, for that the desire of women is fiercer than the desire
of men,[270] and she was ashamed of her own shamelessness. Then she
plucked his seal-ring from his finger, and put it on her own instead of
the ring he had taken, and bussed his inner lips and hands, nor did she
leave any part of him unkissed; after which she took him to her breast
and embraced him and, laying one of her hands under his neck and the
other under his armpit, nestled close to him and fell asleep by his
side——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred and Eighty-sixth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Princess
Budur fell asleep by the side of Kamar al-Zaman, after doing that which
she did, quoth Maymunah to Dahnash, "Sawst thou, O accursed, how proudly
and coquettishly my beloved bore himself, and how hotly and passionately
thy mistress showed herself to my dearling? There can be no doubt that
my beloved is handsomer than thine; nevertheless I pardon thee." Then
she wrote him a document of manumission and turned to Kashkash and said,
"Go, help Dahnash to take up his mistress and aid him to carry her back
to her own place, for the night waneth apace and there is but little
left of it." "I hear and I obey;" answered Kashkash. So the two Ifrits
went forward to Princess Budur and upraising her flew away with her;
then, bearing her back to her own place, they laid her on her bed,
whilst Maymunah abode alone with Kamar al-Zaman, gazing upon him as he
slept, till the night was all but spent, when she went her way. As soon
as morning morrowed, the Prince awoke from sleep and turned right and
left, but found not the maiden by him and said in his mind, "What is
this business? It is as if my father would incline me to marriage with
the damsel who was with me and have now taken her away by stealth, to
the intent that my desire for wedlock may redouble." Then he called out
to the eunuch who slept at the door, saying, "Woe to thee, O damned one,
arise at once!" So the eunuch rose, bemused with sleep, and brought him
basin and ewer, whereupon Kamar al-Zaman entered the water-closet and
did his need;[271] then, coming out made the Wuzu-ablution and prayed
the dawn-prayer, after which he sat telling on his beads the
ninety-and-nine names of Almighty Allah. Then he looked up and, seeing
the eunuch standing in service upon him, said, "Out on thee, O Sawáb!
Who was it came hither and took away the young lady from my side and I
still sleeping?" Asked the eunuch, "O my lord, what manner of young
lady?" "The young lady who lay with me last night," replied Kamar
al-Zaman. The eunuch was startled at his words and said to him, "By
Allah, there hath been with thee neither young lady nor other! How
should young lady have come in to thee, when I was sleeping in the
doorway and the door was locked? By Allah, O my lord, neither male nor
female hath come in to thee!" Exclaimed the Prince, "Thou liest, O
pestilent slave!: is it of thy competence also to hoodwink me and refuse
to tell me what is become of the young lady who lay with me last night
and decline to inform me who took her away?" Replied the eunuch (and he
was affrighted at him), "By Allah, O my lord, I have seen neither young
lady nor young lord!" His words only angered Kamar al-Zaman the more and
he said to him, "O accursed one, my father hath indeed taught thee
deceit! Come hither." So the eunuch came up to him, and the Prince took
him by the collar and dashed him to the ground; whereupon he let fly a
loud fart[272] and Kamar al-Zaman, kneeling upon him, kicked him and
throttled him till he fainted away. Then he dragged him forth and tied
him to the well-rope, and let him down like a bucket into the well and
plunged him into the water, then drew him up and lowered him down again.
Now it was hard winter weather, and Kamar al-Zaman ceased not to plunge
the eunuch into the water and pull him up again and douse him and haul
him whilst he screamed and called for help; and the Prince kept on
saying "By Allah, O damned one, I will not draw thee up out of this well
till thou tell me and fully acquaint me with the story of the young lady
and who it was took her away, whilst I slept."——And Shahrazad perceived
the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred and Eighty-seventh Night,
She said it hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Kamar al-Zaman said
to the eunuch, "By Allah! I will not draw thee up out of this well until
thou tell me the story of the young lady and who it was took her away
whilst I slept." Answered the eunuch, after he had seen death staring
him in the face; "O my lord, let me go and I will relate to thee the
truth and the whole tale." So Kamar al-Zaman pulled him up out of the
well, all but dead for suffering, what with cold and the pain of dipping
and dousing, drubbing and dread of drowning. He shook like cane in
hurricane, his teeth were clenched as by cramp and his clothes were
drenched and his body befouled and torn by the rough sides of the well:
briefly he was in a sad pickle. Now when Kamar al-Zaman saw him in this
sorry plight, he was concerned for him; but, as soon as the eunuch found
himself on the floor, he said to him,"O my lord, let me go and doff my
clothes and wring them out and spread them in the sun to dry, and don
others; after which I will return to thee forthwith and tell thee the
truth of the matter." Answered the Prince, "O rascal slave! hadst thou
not seen death face to face, never hadst thou confessed to fact nor told
me a word; but go now and do thy will, and then come back to me at once
and tell me the truth." Thereupon the eunuch went out, hardly crediting
his escape, and ceased not running, stumbling and rising in his haste,
till he came in to King Shahriman, whom he found sitting at talk with
his Wazir of Kamar al-Zaman's case. The King was saying to the Minister,
"I slept not last night, for anxiety concerning my son, Kamar al-Zaman,
and indeed I fear lest some harm befal him in that old tower. What good
was there in imprisoning him?" Answered the Wazir, "Have no care for
him. By Allah, no harm will befal him! None at all! Leave him in prison
for a month till his temper yield and his spirit be broken and he return
to his senses." As the two spoke behold, up rushed the eunuch, in the
aforesaid plight, making the King who was troubled at sight of him; and
he cried "O our lord the Sultan! Verily, thy son's wits are fled and he
hath gone mad; he hath dealt with me thus and thus, so that I am become
as thou seest me, and he kept saying:—A young lady lay with me this
night and stole away secretly whilst I slept. Where is she? And he
insisteth on my letting him know where she is and on my telling him who
took her away. But I have seen neither girl nor boy: the door was locked
all through the night, for I slept before it with the key under my head,
and I opened to him in the morning with my own hand." When King
Shahriman heard this, he cried out, saying, "Alas, my son!;" and he was
enraged with sore rage against the Wazir, who had been the cause of all
this case and said to him, "Go up, bring me news of my son and see what
hath befallen his mind." So the Wazir rose and, stumbling over his long
skirts, in his fear of the King's wrath, hastened with the slave to the
tower. Now the sun had risen and when the Minister came in to Kamar
al-Zaman, he found him sitting on the couch reciting the Koran; so he
saluted him and seated himself by his side, and said to him, "O my lord,
this wretched eunuch brought us tidings which troubled and alarmed us
and which incensed the King." Asked Kamar al-Zaman, "And what hath he
told you of me to trouble my father? In good sooth he hath troubled none
but me." Answered the Wazir, "He came to us in fulsome state and told us
of thee a thing which Heaven forfend; and the slave added a lie which it
befitteth not to repeat, Allah preserve thy youth and sound sense and
tongue of eloquence, and forbid to come from thee aught of offence!"
Quoth the Prince,"O Wazir, and what thing did this pestilent slave say
of me?" The Minister replied, "He told us that thy wits had taken leave
of thee and thou wouldst have it that a young lady lay with thee last
night, and thou wast instant with him to tell thee whither she went and
thou diddest torture him to that end." But when Kamar al-Zaman heard
these words, he was enraged with sore rage and he said to the Wazir,
"'Tis manifest to me in very deed that you people taught the eunuch to
do as he did"——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say
her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred and Eighty-eighth Night,