So the guardian promptly opened the gate, and the cadi entered within
the fortification, then went up into the palace and found the princess
there saying her evening prayers. He hid behind the lamp in a corner
which was dark. When her prayer was finished, the Princess Djouher-
Manikam cast her eyes in that direction and saw there was someone
standing there in the shadow, so three times again she said the "verse
of the Throne"; but she saw that the vision had not yet vanished from
her eyes.
Then the princess said in her heart: "What in the world is that? Is it
a ghost? Is it a demon? Is it a djinn? If it were, it would have
necessarily disappeared when I recited the 'verse of the Throne.'"
The cadi heard these words and said: "O Princess Djouher-Manikam, it is
I, the cadi."
"What are you doing here?" asked the princess. He answered, "I wish to
marry you."
The Princess Djouher-Manikam said: "O cadi! Why do you act so to me?
Have you then no fear of God the most high and worthy of all praise? Do
you not blush before the face of my ancestor the prophet Mahomet, the
envoy of God? May the peace and blessings of God be upon him! As for
me, I am the servant of the Lord and I belong to the religion of the
envoy of God. I fear to marry now. And you, cadi, why do you act so? My
father gave you a charge. He sent you a letter which commanded you to
protect the country and all who dwelt in his palace. Why do you conduct
yourself in this fashion toward me?"
The cadi, hearing these words of the Princess Djouher-Manikam, felt a
great confusion in his heart. He went out of the palace and returned
home full of trouble and emotion. When it was day, the cadi sent a
letter to the King Haroun-er-Raschid at Mecca. It was thus conceived:
"Your Majesty left me to be guardian of his kingdom, his palace, and
his daughter. Now, the Princess Djouher-Manikam desires to marry me.
This is the reason why I send this letter to your Majesty." Thus spake
the cadi in his letter.
When it reached the prince and he had read it, he immediately summoned
his son Minbah-Chahaz. He came in haste, and the King gave him a
cutlass and said, "Return to Bagdad and slay your sister, because she
will bring shame upon the family by marrying now."
Minbah-Chahaz bowed before his father. Then he set out to return to his
own country.
Arriving at the end of his journey, he entered the city, and went up to
the palace of the Princess Djouher-Manikam. She was filled with joy and
said, "Welcome, O my brother!"
Minbah-Chahaz answered, "O my little sister, our parents will remain
for the great pilgrimage."
The brother and sister thus chatting together, the Princess Djouher-
Manikam said, "O my brother, I wish to sleep."
"It is well, my sister," answered Minbah-Chahaz; "sleep while your
brother combs his little sister's hair." And the princess Djouher-
Manikam slept.
Her brother then took a cushion, which he slipped under the head of the
young virgin his sister; then he thought in his heart: "If I do not
execute the commands of my father, I shall be a traitor to him. But,
alas, if I kill my sister, I shall not have a sister any more. If I do
not kill her, I shall certainly commit a crime against the most high,
because I shall not have obeyed the order of my father. I will fulfil
then my father's will. It is a duty obligatory on all children. What
good are these subterfuges?" His resolution thus confirmed, he bound
his handkerchief over his eyes and directed his cutlass against his
sister's neck. But at that instant, by the will of God the most high, a
little gazelle came up and, by the power of God the most high, placed
its neck upon the neck of the princess Djouher-Manikam, saying, "I will
take the place of the princess Djouher-Manikam." And the little gazelle
was killed by Minbah-Chahaz. That done he unbound his eyes and saw a
little gazelle lying dead with its throat cut, by the side of his young
sister the princess Djouher-Manikam.
At this sight, Minbah-Chahaz was stricken with astonishment. He thought
in his heart: "Since it is so with my sister, she must be entirely
innocent, and cannot have commited the least fault. Nevertheless,
although I am confident that she was calumniated by the cadi I must
tell my father that I have killed her."
Minbah-Chahaz set out then for Mecca, to find the prince his father.
When he had arrived at Mecca he presented to his father the cutlass
still stained with blood. The King Haroun-er-Raschid cried, "Praise be
to God, the Lord of the worlds. Our shame is now effaced, since you
have poniarded your sister and she is dead." Such were the deeds of
this first story.
The princess Djouher-Manikam, having awakened after the departure of
Minbah-Chahaz, saw that her brother was no longer there, but that at
her side there was a little gazelle with its throat cut. She thought in
her heart: "The cadi has slandered me to my father, and that is why my
brother came here with orders to kill me." The princess Djouher-Manikam
felt a great shame and thought in her heart, "Since it is so, I must
retire to a hidden place." Now in the King's park there was a solitary
place in the midst of a vast deserted plain. There was a pond of very
agreeable appearance there, many kinds of fruit-trees and flowers, and
an oratory beautifully built. The princess Djouher-Manikam set out and
retired to this place to pray to God the most high and worthy of all
praise. She was established there for some time when, by the will of
God the most high, a certain thing happened.