al-Zaman heard the words of the Wazir he was enraged with sore rage and
said to him, "'Tis manifest to me in very deed that you people taught
the eunuch to do as he did and forbade him to tell me what became of the
young lady who lay with me last night. But thou, O Wazir, art cleverer
than the eunuch; so do thou tell me without stay or delay, whither went
the young lady who slept on my bosom last night; for it was you who sent
her and bade her sleep in my embrace and we lay together till dawn; but,
when I awoke, I found her not. So where is she now?" Said the Wazir, "O
my lord Kamar al-Zaman, Allah's name encompass thee about! By the
Almighty, we sent none to thee last night, but thou layest alone, with
the door locked on thee and the eunuch sleeping behind it, nor did there
come to thee young lady or any other. Regain thy reason, O my lord, and
stablish thy senses and occupy not thy mind with vanities." Rejoined
Kamar al-Zaman who was incensed at his words, "O Wazir, the young lady
in question is my beloved, the fair one with the black eyes and rosy
cheeks, whom I held in my arms all last night." So the Minister wondered
at his words and asked him, "Didst thou see this damsel last night with
thine own eyes on wake or in sleep?" Answered Kamar al-Zaman, "O
ill-omened old man, dost thou fancy I saw her with my ears? Indeed, I
saw her with my very eyes and awake, and I touched her with my hand, and
I watched by her full half the night, feeding my vision on her beauty
and loveliness and grace and tempting looks. But you had schooled her
and charged her to speak no word to me; so she feigned sleep and I lay
by her side till dawn, when I awoke and found her gone." Rejoined the
Wazir, "O my lord Kamar al-Zaman, haply thou sawest this in thy sleep;
it must have been a delusion of dreams or a deception caused by eating
various kinds of food, or a suggestion of the accursed devils." Cried
the Prince, "O pestilent old man! wilt thou too make a mock of me and
tell me this was haply a delusion of dreams, when that eunuch confessed
to the young lady, saying:—At once I will return to thee and tell thee
all about her?" With these words, he sprang up and rushed at the Wazir
and gripped hold of his beard (which was long[273]) and, after gripping
it, he twisted his hand in it and haling him off the couch, threw him on
the floor. It seemed to the Minister as though his soul departed his
body for the violent plucking at his beard; and Kamar al-Zaman ceased
not kicking the Wazir and basting his breast and ribs and cuffing him
with open hand on the nape of his neck till he had well-nigh beaten him
to death. Then said the old man in his mind, "Just as the eunuch-slave
saved his life from this lunatic youth by telling him a lie, thus it is
even fitter that I do likewise; else he will destroy me. So now for my
lie to save myself, he being mad beyond a doubt." Then he turned to
Kamar al-Zaman and said, "O my lord, pardon me; for indeed thy father
charged me to conceal from thee this affair of the young lady; but now I
am weak and weary and wounded with tunding; for I am an old man and lack
strength and bottom to endure blows. Have, therefore, a little patience
with me and I will tell thee all and acquaint thee with the story of the
young woman." When the Prince heard this, he left off drubbing him and
said, "Wherefore couldst thou not tell me the tale until after shame and
blows? Rise now, unlucky old man that thou art, and tell me her story."
Quoth the Wazir, "Say, dost thou ask of the young lady with the fair
face and perfect form?" Quoth Kamar al-Zaman, "Even so! Tell me, O
Wazir, who it was that led her to me and laid her by my side, and who
was it that took her away from me by night; and let me know forthright
whither she is gone, that I myself may go to her at once. If my father
did this deed to me that he might try me by means of that beautiful
girl, with a view to our marriage, I consent to wed her and free myself
of this trouble; for he did all these dealings with me only because I
refused wedlock. But now I consent and I say again, I consent to
matrimony: so tell this to my father, O Wazir, and advise him to marry
me to that young lady; for I will have none other and my heart loveth
none save her alone. Now rise up at once and haste thee to my father and
counsel him to hurry on our wedding and bring me his answer within this
very hour." Rejoined the Wazir, "'Tis well!" and went forth from him,
hardly believing himself out of his hands. Then he set off from the
tower, walking and tripping up as he went, for excess of fright and
agitation, and he ceased not hurrying till he came in to King
Shahriman.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying
her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred and Eighty-ninth Night,
She said, it hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir fared
forth from the tower, and ceased not running till he came in to King
Shahriman, who said to him as he sighted him, "O thou Wazir, what man
hath brought thee to grief and whose mischief hath treated thee in way
unlief; how happeneth it that I see thee dumb-foundered and coming to me
thus astounded?" Replied the Wazir, "O King! I bring thee good news."
"And what is it?" quoth Shariman, and quoth the Wazir, "Know that thy
son Kamar al-Zaman's wits are clean gone and that he hath become stark
mad." Now when the King heard these words of the Minister, light became
darkness in his sight and he said, "O Wazir, make clear to me the nature
of his madness." Answered the Wazir, "O my lord, I hear and I obey."
Then he told him that such and such had passed and acquainted him with
all that his son had done; whereupon the King said to him, "Hear, O
Wazir, the good tidings which I give thee in return for this thy fair
news of my son's insanity; and it shall be the cutting off of thy head
and the forfeiture of my favour, O most ill-omened of Wazirs and foulest
of Emirs! for I feel that thou hast caused my son's disorder by the
wicked advice and the sinister counsel thou hast given me first and
last. By Allah, if aught of mischief or madness have befallen my son I
will most assuredly nail thee upon the palace-dome and make thee drain
the bitterest draught of death!" Then he sprang up and, taking the Wazir
with him, fared straight for the tower and entered it. And when Kamar
al-Zaman saw the two, he rose to his father in haste from the couch
whereon he sat and kissing his hands drew back and hung down his head
and stood before him with his arms behind him, and thus remained for a
full hour. Then he raised his head towards his sire; the tears gushed
from his eyes and streamed down his cheeks and he began repeating:—
"Forgive the sin 'neath which my limbs are trembling,
For the slave seeks for mercy from his master;
I've done a fault, which calls for free confession,
Where shall it call for mercy, and forgiveness?"[274]
When the King heard this, he arose and embraced his son, and kissing him
between the eyes, made him sit by his side on the couch; then he turned
to the Wazir and, looking on him with eyes of wrath, said, "O dog of
Wazirs, how didst thou say of my son such and such things and make my
heart quake for him?" Then he turned to the Prince and said, "O my son,
what is to-day called?" He answered, "O my father, this day is the
Sabbath, and to-morrow is First day: then come Second day, Third,
Fourth, Fifth day and lastly Friday."[275] Exclaimed the King, "O my
son, O Kamar al-Zaman, praised be Allah for the preservation of thy
reason! What is the present month called in our Arabic?" "Zú'l-Ka'adah,"
answered Kamar al-Zaman, "and it is followed by Zú'l-hijjah; then cometh
Muharram, then Safar, then Rabí'a the First and Rabí'a the Second, the
two Jamádás, Rajab, Sha aban, Ramazán and Shawwál." At this the King
rejoiced exceedingly and spat in the Wazir's face, saying, "O wicked old
man, how canst thou say that my son is mad? And now none is mad but
thou." Hereupon the Minister shook his head and would have spoken, but
bethought himself to wait awhile and see what might next befal. Then the
King said to his child, "O my son, what words be these thou saidest to
the eunuch and the Wazir, declaring:—I was sleeping with a fair damsel
this night?[276] What damsel is this of whom thou speakest?" Then Kamar
al-Zaman laughed at his father's words and replied, "O my father, know
that I can bear no more jesting; so add me not another mock or even a
single word on the matter, for my temper hath waxed short by that you
have done with me. And know, O my father, with assured knowledge, that I
consent to marry, but on condition that thou give me to wife her who lay
by my side this night; for I am certain it was thou sentest her to me
and madest me in love with her and then despatchedst a message to her
before the dawn and tookest her away from beside me." Rejoined the King,
"The name of Allah encompass thee about, O my son, and be thy wit
preserved from witlessness!"——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day
and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred and Ninetieth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that quoth King
Shahriman to his son Kamar al-Zaman, "The name of Allah encompass thee
about, O my son, and be thy wit preserved from witlessness! What thing
be this young lady whom thou fanciest I sent to thee last night and then
again that I sent to withdraw her from thee before dawn? By the Lord, O
my son, I know nothing of this affair, and Allah upon thee, tell me if
it be a delusion of dreaming or a deception caused by indisposition. For
verily thou layest down to sleep last night with thy mind occupied anent
marriage and troubled with the talk of it (Allah damn marriage and the
hour when I spake of it and curse him who counselled it!); and without
doubt or diffidence I can say that being moved in mind by the mention of
wedlock thou dreamedst that a handsome young lady embraced thee and
didst fancy thou sawest her when awake. But all this, O my son, is but
an imbroglio of dreams." Replied Kamar al-Zaman, "Leave this talk and
swear to me by Allah, the All-creator, the Omniscient; the Humbler of
the tyrant Cæsars and the Destroyer of the Chosroes, that thou knowest
naught of the young lady nor of her woning-place." Quoth the King, "By
the Might of Allah Almighty, the God of Moses and Abraham, I know naught
of all this and never even heard of it; it is assuredly a delusion of
dreams thou hast seen in sleep." Then the Prince replied to his sire, "I
will give thee a self-evident proof that it happened to me when on
wake."——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred and Ninety-first Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Kamar al-Zaman
said to his sire, "I will give thee a self-evident proof that this
happened to me when on wake. Now let me ask thee, did it ever befal any
man to dream that he was battling a sore battle and after to awake from
sleep and find in his hand a sword-blade besmeared with blood? Answered
the King, "No, by Allah, O my son, this hath never been." Rejoined Kamar
al-Zaman, "I will tell thee what happened to me and it was this.
Meseemed I awoke from sleep in the middle of the past night and found a
girl lying by my side, whose form was like mine and whose favour was as
mine. I embraced her and turned her about with my hand and took her
seal-ring, which I put on my finger, and she pulled off my ring and put
it on hers. Then I went to sleep by her side, but refrained from her for
shame of thee, deeming that thou hadst sent her to me, intending to
tempt me with her and incline me to marriage, and suspecting thee to be
hidden somewhere whence thou couldst see what I did with her. And I was
ashamed even to kiss her on the mouth for thy account, thinking over
this temptation to wedlock; and, when I awoke at point of day, I found
no trace of her, nor could I come at any news of her, and there befel me
what thou knowest of with the eunuch and with the Wazir. How then can
this case have been a dream and a delusion, when the ring is a reality?
Save for her ring on my finger I should indeed have deemed it a dream;
but here is the ring on my little finger: look at it, O King, and see
what is its worth." So saying, he handed the ring to his father, who
examined it and turned it over, then looked to his son and said,
"Verily, there is in this ring some mighty mystery and some strange
secret. What befel thee last night with the girl is indeed a hard nut to
crack, and I know not how intruded upon us this intruder. None is the
cause of all this pother save the Wazir; but, Allah upon thee, O my son,
take patience, so haply the Lord may turn to gladness this thy grief and
to thy sadness bring complete relief: as quoth one of the poets:—
Haply shall Fortune draw her rein, and bring ✿ Fair chance, for she is
changeful, jealous, vain:
Still I may woo my want and wishes win, ✿ And see on heels of care
unfain, the fain.
And now, O my son, I am certified at this hour that thou art not mad;
but thy case is a strange one which none can clear up for thee save the
Almighty." Cried the Prince, "By Allah, O my father, deal kindly with me
and seek out this young lady and hasten her coming to me; else I shall
die of woe and of my death shall no one know." Then he betrayed the
ardour of his passion; and turned towards his father and repeated these
two couplets:—
If your promise of personal call prove untrue, ✿ Deign in vision to
grant me an interview:
Quoth they, "How can phantom[277] appear to the sight ✿ Of a youth,
whose sight is fordone, perdue?"
Then, after ending his poetry, Kamar al-Zaman again turned to his
father, with submission and despondency, and shedding tears in flood,
began repeating these lines——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred and Ninety-second Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Kamar
al-Zaman had repeated to his father these verses, he wept and complained
and groaned from a wounded heart; and added these lines:—
Beware that eye-glance which hath magic might; ✿ Wherever turn those
orbs it bars our flight:
Nor be deceived by low sweet voice, that breeds ✿ A fever festering in
the heart and sprite:
So soft that silky skin, were rose to touch it ✿ She'd cry and
tear-drops rain for pain and fright:
Did Zephyr e'en in sleep pass o'er her land, ✿ Scented he'd choose to
dwell in scented site:
Her necklets vie with tinkling of her belt; ✿ Her wrists strike either
wristlet dumb with spite:
When would her bangles buss those rings in ear, ✿ Upon the lover's eyne
high mysteries 'light:
I'm blamed for love of her, nor pardon claim; ✿ Eyes are not profiting
which lack foresight:
Heaven strip thee, blamer mine! unjust art thou; ✿ Before this fawn must
every eye low bow.[278]
After which he said, "By Allah, O my father, I cannot endure to be
parted from her even for an hour." The King smote hand upon hand and
exclaimed, "There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the
Glorious, the Great! No cunning contrivance can profit us in this
affair." Then he took his son by the hand and carried him to the palace,
where Kamar al-Zaman lay down on the bed of languor and the King sat at
his head, weeping and mourning over him and leaving him not, night or
day, till at last the Wazir came in to him and said, "O King of the age
and the time, how long wilt thou remain shut up with thy son and hide
thyself from thy troops? Haply, the order of thy realm may be deranged,
by reason of thine absence from thy Grandees and Officers of State. It
behoveth the man of understanding, if he have various wounds in his
body, to apply him first to medicine the most dangerous; so it is my
counsel to thee that thou remove thy son from this place to the pavilion
which is in the palace overlooking the sea; and shut thyself up with him
there, setting apart in every week two days, Thursday and Monday, for
state receptions and progresses and reviews. On these days let thine
Emirs and Wazirs and Chamberlains and Viceroys and high Officials and
Grandees of the realm and the rest of the levies and the lieges have
access to thee and submit their affairs to thee; and do thou their needs
and judge among them and give and take with them and bid and forbid. And
the rest of the week thou shalt pass with thy son, Kamar al-Zaman, and
cease not thus doing till Allah shall vouchsafe relief to you twain.
Think not, O King, that thou art safe from the shifts of Time and the
strokes of Change which come like a traveller in the night; for the wise
man is ever on his guard and how well saith the poet:—
Thou deemedst well of Time when days went well, ✿ And fearedst not what
ills might bring thee Fate:
The Nights so fair and restful cozened thee, ✿ For peaceful Nights bring
woes of heavy weight.
Oh children of mankind whom Time befriends, ✿ Beware of Time's deceits
or soon or late!"[279]
When the Sultan heard his Wazir's words he saw that they were right and
deemed his counsel wise, and it had effect upon him for he feared lest
the order of the state be deranged; so he rose at once and bade
transport his son from his sick room to the pavilion in the palace
overlooking the sea. Now this palace was girt round by the waters and
was approached by a causeway twenty cubits wide. It had windows on all
sides commanding an ocean-view; its floor was paved with parti-coloured
marbles and its ceiling was painted in the richest pigments and figured
with gold and lapis-lazuli. They furnished it for Kamar al-Zaman with
splendid upholstery, embroidered rugs and carpets of the richest silk;
and they clothed the walls with choice brocades and hung curtains
bespangled with gems of price. In the midst they set him a couch of
juniper[280]-wood inlaid with pearls and jewels, and Kamar al-Zaman sat
down thereon, but the excess of his concern and passion for the young
lady had wasted his charms and emaciated his body; he could neither eat
nor drink nor sleep; and he was like a man who had been sick twenty
years of sore sickness. His father seated himself at his head, grieving
for him with the deepest grief, and every Monday and Thursday he gave
his Wazirs and Emirs and Chamberlains and Viceroys and Lords of the
realm and levies and the rest of his lieges leave to come up to him in
that pavilion. So they entered and did their several service and duties
and abode with him till the end of the day, when they went their ways
and the King returned to his son in the pavilion whom he left not night
nor day; and he ceased not doing on this wise for many days and nights.
Such was the case with Kamar al-Zaman, son of King Shahriman; but as
regards Princess Budur, daughter of King Ghayur, Lord of the Isles and
the Seven Palaces, when the two Jinns bore her up and laid her on her
bed, she slept till daybreak, when she awoke and sitting upright looked
right and left, but saw not the youth who had lain in her bosom. At this
her vitals fluttered, her reason fled and she shrieked a loud shriek
which awoke all her slave-girls and nurses and duennas. They flocked in
to her; and the chief of them came forward and asked, "What aileth thee,
O my lady?" Answered the Princess, "O wretched old woman, where is my
beloved, the handsome youth who lay last night in my bosom? Tell me
whither he is gone." Now when the duenna heard this, the light starkened
in her sight and she feared from her mischief with sore affright, and
said to her, "O my Lady Budur, what unseemly words are these?" Cried the
Princess, "Woe to thee, pestilent crone that thou art! I ask thee again
where is my beloved, the goodly youth with the shining face and the
slender form, the jetty eyes and the joined eyebrows, who lay with me
last night from supper-tide until near daybreak?" She rejoined, "By
Allah, O my lady, I have seen no young man nor any other. I conjure
thee, carry not this unseemly jest too far lest we all lose our lives;
for perhaps the joke may come to thy father's ears and who shall then
deliver us from his hand?"——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred and Ninety-third Night,
She said, "It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the duenna
bespake the Lady Budur in these words, 'Allah upon thee, O my lady!
carry not this unseemly jest too far; for perhaps it may come to thy
father's ears, and who shall then deliver us from his hand?'" The
Princess rejoined, "In very sooth a youth lay with me last night, one of
the fairest-faced of men." Exclaimed the duenna, "Heaven preserve thy
reason! indeed no one lay with thee last night." Thereupon the Princess
looked at her hand and, finding Kamar al-Zaman's seal-ring on her finger
in stead of her own, said to her, "Woe to thee, thou accursed! thou
traitress! wilt thou lie to me and tell me that none lay with me last
night and swear to me a falsehood in the name of the Lord?" Replied the
duenna, "By Allah, I do not lie to thee nor have I sworn falsely." Then
the Princess was incensed by her words and, drawing a sword she had by
her, she smote the old woman with it and slew her;[281] whereupon the
eunuch and the waiting-women and the concubines cried out at her, and
ran to her father and, without stay or delay, acquainted him with her
case. So the King went to her, and asked her, "O my daughter, what
aileth thee?"; and she answered, "O my father, where is the youth who
lay with me last night?" Then her reason fled from her head and she cast
her eyes right and left and rent her raiment even to the skirt. When her
sire saw this, he bade the women lay hands on her; so they seized her
and manacled her, then putting a chain of iron about her neck, made her
fast to one of the palace-windows and there left her.[282] Thus far
concerning Princess Budur; but as regards her father, King Ghayur, the
world was straitened upon him when he saw what had befallen his
daughter, for that he loved her and her case was not a little grievous
to him. So he summoned on it the doctors and astrologers and men skilled
in talisman-writing and said to them, "Whoso healeth my daughter of what
ill she hath, I will marry him to her and give him half of my kingdom;
but whoso cometh to her and cureth her not, I will strike off his head
and hang it over her palace-gate." Accordingly, all who went in to her,
but failed to heal her, he beheaded and hung their heads over the
palace-gates, till he had beheaded on her account forty doctors and
crucified forty astrologers; wherefor the general held aloof from her,
all the physicians having failed to medicine her malady; and her case
was a puzzle to the men of science and the adepts in cabalistic
characters. And as her longing and passion redoubled and love and
distraction were sore upon her, she poured forth tears and repeated
these couplets:—
My fondness, O my moon, for thee my foeman is, ✿ And to thy comradeship
the nights my thought compel:
In gloom I bide with fire that flames below my ribs, ✿ Whose lowe I make
comparison with heat of Hell:
I'm plagued with sorest stress of pine and ecstasy; ✿ Nor clearest
noontide can that horrid pain dispel.
Then she sighed and repeated these also:—
Salams fro' me to friends in every stead; ✿ Indeed to all dear friends
do I incline:
Salams, but not salams that bid adieu; ✿ Salams that growth of good for
you design:
I love you dear, indeed, nor less your land, ✿ But bide I far from every
need of mine!
And when the lady Budur ceased repeating her poetry, she wept till her
eyes waxed sore and her cheeks changed form and hue, and in this
condition she continued three years. Now she had a foster-brother, by
name Marzawán,[283] who was travelling in far lands and absent from her
the whole of this time. He loved her with an exceeding love, passing the
love of brothers; so when he came back he went in to his mother and
asked for his sister, the Princess Budur. She answered him, "O my son,
thy sister hath been smitten with madness and hath passed these three
years with a chain of iron about her neck; and all the physicians and
men of science have failed of healing her." When Marzawan heard these
words he said, "I must needs go in to her; peradventure I may discover
what she hath, and be able to medicine her;" and his mother replied,
"Needs must thou visit her, but wait till to-morrow, that I may contrive
some thing to suit thy case." Then she went a-foot to the palace of the
Lady Budur and, accosting the eunuch in charge of the gates, made him a
present and said to him, "I have a daughter, who was brought up with thy
mistress and since then I married her; and, when that befel the Princess
which befel her, she became troubled and sore concerned, and I desire of
thy favour that my daughter may go in to her for an hour and look on
her; and then return whence she came, so shall none know of it." Quoth
the eunuch, "This may not be except by night, after the King hath
visited his child and gone away; then come thou and thy daughter." So
she kissed the eunuch's hand and, returning home, waited till the morrow
at nightfall; and when it was time she arose and sought her son Marzawan
and attired him in woman's apparel; then, taking his hand in hers, led
him towards the palace, and ceased not walking with him till she came
upon the eunuch after the Sultan had ended his visit to the Princess.
Now when the eunuch saw her, he rose to her, and said, "Enter, but do
not prolong thy stay!" So they went in and when Marzawan beheld the Lady
Budur in the aforesaid plight, he saluted her, after his mother had
doffed his woman's garb: then he took out of their satchel books he had
brought with him; and, lighting a wax-candle, he began to recite certain
conjurations. Thereupon the Princess looked at him and recognising him,
said, "O my brother, thou hast been absent on thy travels, and thy news
have been cut off from us." He replied, "True! but Allah hath brought me
back safe and sound, I am now minded to set out again nor hath aught
delayed me but the news I hear of thee; wherefore my heart burned for
thee and I came to thee, so haply I may free thee of thy malady." She
rejoined, "O my brother, thinkest thou it is madness aileth me?" "Yes,"
answered he, and she said, "Not so, by Allah! 'tis even as saith the
poet:—
Quoth they "Thou rav'st on him thou lov'st:" quoth I, ✿ "The sweets of
love are only for th' insane!"
Love never maketh Time his friend befriend; ✿ Only the Jinn-struck wight
such boon can gain:
Well! yes, I'm mad: bring him who madded me ✿ And, if he cure my
madness, blame restrain!"
Then she let Marzawan know that she was love-daft and he said, "Tell me
concerning thy tale and what befel thee: haply there may be in my hand
something which shall be a means of deliverance for thee."——And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred and Ninety-fourth Night,