[Transcriber's Note:
The first edition of this translation was published in London in
1802 in five volumes. It was translated indirectly by Edward Forster
from the French translation of Antoine Galland titled Les mille et
une nuits.]
THE
ARABIAN NIGHTS.
VOL. II.
THE
ARABIAN NIGHTS.
IN FOUR VOLUMES,
TRANSLATED
BY
EDWARD FORSTER, M. A.
THE FOURTH EDITION.
VOL. II.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR WILLIAM MILLER, ALBEMARLE-STREET,
Reprinted by Assignment, for
THOMAS TEGG, NO. 111, CHEAPSIDE.
1815.
W. Lewis, Printer, St. John’s Square, London.
THE
ARABIAN NIGHTS.
THE HISTORY
OF THE LITTLE HUNCHBACK.
In the city of Casgar, which is situated near the farther extremity
of Great Tartary, there formerly lived a tailor, who had the good
fortune to possess a very beautiful wife, between whom and her
husband there existed the strongest mutual affection. One day, while
the tailor was at work in his shop, a little hunchbacked fellow came
and sat down at the door, and began playing on a tymbal, which he
accompanied with his voice. The tailor was much pleased with his
performance, and resolved to carry him home, that he might entertain
his wife, who would equally, he thought, with himself, be amused in
the evening with his pleasant and humorous songs. He immediately
therefore made the proposal to the little hunchback, who readily
accepted the invitation; and the tailor directly shut up his shop,
and took him home with him.
They were no sooner arrived than the tailor’s wife, who had
already set out the table, as it was near supper time, placed upon
it a very nice dish of fish, which she had been dressing. They all
three then sat down; but in eating, the little hunchback had the
misfortune to swallow a large fish-bone, which stuck fast in his
throat, and almost instantly killed him, before the tailor or his
wife could apply any relief. They were both most dreadfully
frightened at this accident; for, as it happened in their house,
they had great reason to fear it might come to the knowledge of some
of the officers of justice, who would punish them as murderers; the
husband, however, thought of an expedient to get rid of the dead
body.
He recollected, that there lived in his neighbourhood, a physician,
who was a Jew; and he formed a plan, which he directly began to put
in execution. He and his wife took up the body, one by the head and
the other by the feet, and carried it to the physician’s house.
They knocked at the door, which was at the bottom of a steep and
narrow flight of stairs that led to his apartment. A maid servant
immediately came down, without even staying for a light; and opening
the door, asked them what they wanted. “I will thank you to go and
tell your master,” said the tailor, “that we have brought him a
patient, who is very ill, and for whom we request his advice.
Stop,” added he, holding out a piece of money in his hand, “give
him this in advance, that he may be assured we do not intend he
should lose his labour for nothing.” While the servant went back
to inform her master, the Jewish physician, of this good news, the
tailor and his wife quickly carried the body of the little hunchback
up stairs, left him close to the door, and returned home as fast as
possible.
In the mean time the servant went and told the physician, that a man
and a woman were waiting for him at the door, and requested him to
go down to see a sick person whom they had brought for that purpose.
She then gave him the money she had received from the tailor.
Transported with joy at the idea of being paid beforehand, he
conceived it must be a most excellent patient, that they had brought
him; and one who ought not to be neglected. “Bring a light
directly,” cried he to the girl, “and follow me.”--“Having
said this, he ran towards the staircase in such a hurry, that he did
not wait for the light, and encountering little hunchback, he gave
him such a blow with his foot, as sent him from the top of the
stairs to the bottom; and he had some difficulty to prevent himself
from following him. “Why don’t you come with the light?” he
called out to the servant. She at last appeared, and they went down
stairs. When the physician found that what had rolled down stairs
turned out to be a dead man, he was so alarmed at the sight, that he
invoked Moses, Aaron, Joshua, Esdras, and all the other prophets of
the law to his assistance. “Wretch, that I am,” exclaimed he,
“why did I not wait for the light? why did I go down in the dark?
I have completely killed the sick man, whom they brought to me. I am
the cause of his death, and if the good ass [1] of Esdras does not
come to my assistance, I am a lost man. Alas, alas, they will come
and drag me hence as a murderer.”
Notwithstanding the perplexity he was in, he had the precaution to
shut his door, for fear, that as any one passed along the street,
they might perchance discover the unfortunate accident, of which he
believed himself to be the cause. He immediately took up the body,
and carried it into his wife’s apartment, who was near fainting
when she saw him come in with his fatal load. “Alas,” she cried,
“we are quite lost, if we cannot find some means of getting rid of
this dead man before to-morrow morning. We shall inevitably forfeit
our lives, if we keep him till day breaks. What a misfortune! how
could you kill this man?”--“Never mind, in this dilemma, how it
happened,” said the Jew, “our only business at present is how to
remedy so dreadful a calamity.”
The physician and his wife then consulted together upon the best
means of ridding themselves of the body during the night. The
husband pondered a long time, but could think of no stratagem likely
to extricate them from this embarrassment; but his wife was more
fertile in invention, and said, “A thought occurs to me. Let us
take the carcase up to the terrace of our house, and let him down
the chimney, into that of our neighbour’s, the mussulman.”
This mussulman was one of the sultan’s purveyors; and it was his
office to furnish oil, butter, and all other articles of a similar
kind. His warehouse for these things was in his dwelling-house,
where the rats and mice used to make great havoc and destruction.
The Jewish physician having approved of his wife’s plan, they took
the little hunchback and carried him to the roof of the house, and
having first fastened a cord under his arms, they let him gently
down the chimney into the purveyor’s apartment. They managed this
so adroitly, that he remained standing on his feet against the wall,
exactly as if he were alive. As soon as they found they had landed
him, they drew up the cords, and left him precisely in the situation
I have related. They had hardly gone down from the terrace, and
retired to their chamber, when the purveyor went into his. He was
just returned from a wedding feast, which he had been invited to
partake of on that evening; and he had a lantern in his hand. He was
very much surprised at seeing, by means of this light, a man
standing up in the chimney: but as he was naturally of a brave and
courageous disposition, and as he thought it was a thief, he seized
hold of a large stick, with which he directly ran at little
hunchback, “Ah, ah,” he cried, “I thought it was the rats and
mice who eat my butter and tallow; and it is you, who come down the
chimney, and rob me. I don’t think you will ever wish to visit me
again.” In saying this he attacked hunchback, and gave him many
hard blows. The body at last fell down, with its face on the ground.
The purveyor then redoubled his blows; but at length remarking, that
the body he struck did not make the least motion, he stopped to
observe it. Perceiving then that it was a dead man, fear succeeded
to rage. “What have I done, miserable wretch that I am!” he
exclaimed. “Alas I have carried my vengeance too far. Good God,
have pity upon me, or my life is gone. I wish all the butter and oil
were destroyed a thousand times over, before they had caused me to
commit so criminal an action.” He remained pale and confounded;
and imagined he already saw the officers of justice coming to
conduct him to his punishment: he knew not what course to follow.
While the sultan of Casgar’s purveyor was beating the little
hunchback, he did not perceive his hump; the instant he did, he
poured out an hundred imprecations on it. “Oh, you rascal of a
hunchback, you dog of deformity? would to God you had robbed me of
all my fat and grease before I had found you here. I should not then
have got into the scrape I have, and be hanged to you, and your
rascally hump. O ye stars, which shine in the heavens,” he cried,
“shed your light to lead me out of the imminent danger in which I
am.” Having said this, he took the body of the hunchback upon his
shoulders, went out of his chamber, and walked into the street,
where he set it upright against a shop, and having done this, he
made the best of the way to his house, without once looking behind
him.
A little while before day-break, a Christian merchant who was very
rich, and who furnished the palace of the sultan with most things
which were wanted there, having passed the night in revelry and
debauchery, was just come from home in his way to a bath. Although
he was much intoxicated, he had still sufficient recollection to
know, that the night was far advanced, and that the people would
very soon be called to early prayers. It was for this reason that he
was making all the haste he could in order to arrive at the bath,
for fear any mussulman, as he was going to mosque, should meet him,
and order him to prison as a drunkard. When he was at the end of the
street, however, he stopped, for some occasion or other, close to
the shop against which the sultan’s purveyor had placed little
hunchback’s body, which at the very first touch fell directly
against the merchant’s back. The latter took him for a robber,
that was attacking him; and therefore knocked him down with his
fist, with which he struck him on the head. He immediately repeated
his blows, and began calling out, “Thief, thief.”
The guard, belonging to that quarter of the city, came directly on
hearing his cries; and seeing that it was a Christian who was
beating a mussulman, (for little hunchback was of our religion,)
“What business have you,” he said, “to ill-treat a mussulman
in that manner?”--“He wanted to rob me,” answered the
merchant, “and he attacked me behind in order to seize me by my
throat.”--“You have revenged yourself pretty well,” replied
the guard, taking hold of the merchant’s arm, and pulling him
away, “let him go therefore.” At the same time he held out his
hand to the hunchback, to assist him in getting up; but observing
that he was dead, “Oh, oh,” he cried, “is it thus then, that a
Christian has the impudence to assassinate a mussulman.” Having
said this, he arrested the Christian merchant, and carried him
before the magistrate of the police, from whence they sent him to
prison, till the judge had risen, and was ready to examine the
accused. In the mean time the merchant became completely sober; and
the more he reflected upon this adventure, the less could he
comprehend how a single blow with the fist was capable of taking
away the life of a man.
Upon the report of the guard, and after having seen the body, which
they had brought with them, the judge examined the Christian
merchant, who could not deny the crime, although he in fact was not
guilty of it. As the little hunchback belonged to the sultan, for he
was one of his buffoons, the judge determined not to put the
Christian to death, till he had learnt the will of the prince. He
went, therefore, to the palace, in order to give an account of what
had passed to the sultan; who having heard the whole story, replied,
“I have no mercy to show towards a Christian who kills a
mussulman; go and do your duty.” At these words the judge of the
police went back, and ordered a gibbet to be erected; and then sent
some criers through the city to make known, that a Christian was
going to be hanged for having killed a mussulman.
At last they took the merchant out of prison, and conducted him on
foot to the gallows. The executioner having fastened the cord round
the merchant’s neck, was just going to draw him up into the air,
when the sultan’s purveyor, making his way through the crowd,
approached the executioner, and called out, “Stop, stop, do not be
in a hurry; it is not he who has committed the murder; I have done
it.” The judge of the police, who attended the execution,
immediately interrogated the purveyor, who gave him a long and
minute detail of the manner in which he had killed the little
hunchback; and he concluded by saying, that he had carried the body
to the place where the Christian merchant had found it. “You are
going,” added he, “to sacrifice an innocent person, since he
could not kill a man that was not alive. It is enough for me to have
slain a mussulman, without having to charge my conscience with the
murder of a Christian, who is not criminal.”
When the purveyor of the sultan of Casgar had thus publicly accused
himself of being the author of the hunchback’s death, the judge
could not do otherwise than act with justice towards the merchant.
“Let the Christian merchant go,” said he to the executioner,
“and hang this man in his place, since it is evident, by his own
confession, that he is the guilty person. The executioner
immediately released the merchant, and put the rope round the neck
of the purveyor; and at the very instant that he was going to
complete the punishment, he heard the voice of the Jewish physician,
who desired them to stop the execution that instant, that he might
come and take his place at the foot of the gallows.
“Sir,” said he, as soon as he was come before the judge, “this
mussulman, whom you are about to deprive of his life, does not
deserve to die; I alone am the guilty wretch. About the middle of
last night, a man and a woman, who are total strangers to me, came
and knocked at my door, with a sick person, whom they brought with
them: my servant went instantly to the door without waiting for a
light, and having first received a piece of money from one of them,
she came to me and said, that they wished I would come down and look
at the sick person. While she was bringing me this message, they
brought the patient up to the top of the stairs, and then
disappeared. I went directly out, without waiting till my servant
had lighted a candle; and meeting with the sick man in the dark, I
gave him an unintentional kick, and he fell from the top to the
bottom of the staircase. I then discovered that he was dead, and
that he was a mussulman, and the very same little hunchback whose
murderer you now wish to punish. My wife and myself took the body
and carried it to the roof of our home, whence we let it down into
that of our neighbour, the purveyor, whose life you are now going
most unjustly to take away; as we were the persons who placed the
body in his apartment, by lowering it down the chimney. When the
purveyor discovered him, he took him for a thief, and treated him as
such. He knocked him down, and believed he had killed him; but this
is not the fact, as you may now be convinced by my confession. I
alone am the author of the murder; and although it was
unintentional, I am resolved to expiate my crime, and not charge my
conscience with the death of two mussulmen, by suffering you to take
away the life of the sultan’s purveyor, whose innocence I thus
clearly prove to you. Dismiss him then, if you please, and put me in
his place; since no one but myself was the cause of the
hunchback’s death.
As soon as the judge was convinced that the Jewish physician was the
true murderer, he ordered the executioner to take him, and set the
purveyor at liberty. The cord was now placed round the neck of the
physician, and he had hardly a moment to live, when the voice of the
tailor was heard, who entreated the executioner not to proceed,
while he made his way to the judge of the police, to whom, on his
approach, he said, “You have been very near, sir, causing the
death of three innocent persons; but if you will have the patience
to listen to me, you shall be informed of the true murderer of the
hunchback. If his death ought to be expiated by that of another
person, mine is the one to be taken.
“As I was at work in my shop yesterday evening, a little before
dark, and in a disposition well suited to enjoy any amusement, this
little hunchback came up to it half drunk, and sat down. He
immediately began to sing, and went on for some time, when I
proposed to him to come and pass the evening at my house. He no
sooner agreed to it, than I conducted him thither. We sat down to
table almost directly, and I helped him to a little piece of fish;
in eating of which a bone stuck fast in his throat, and in spite of
every thing that my wife and I could do to relieve him, he died in a
very short time. We were much afflicted at his death; and for fear
of being taken up on account of it, we carried the body to the door
of the Jewish physician. I knocked, and told the servant, who opened
it, to go back to her master as soon as possible, and request him
from us to come down, to see a patient, whom we had brought to him;
and that he might not refuse coming, I charged her to put into his
own hand a piece of money, which I gave her for that purpose. She
was no sooner gone up, than I carried the little hunchback to the
top of the stairs, and laid him on the first step: having done this,
my wife and myself made the best of our way home. When the physician
came out in order to go down, he stumbled against the hunchback, and
rolled him down from the top to the bottom, which made him suppose
he was the cause of his death. Since, however,” added he, “the
case is as it is, let the physician go, and take my life instead of
his.”
The judge of the police, and all the spectators, were filled with
astonishment at the various strange events that the death of the
little hunchback seemed to have given rise to. “Let the physician
then depart,” said the judge, “and hang the tailor, since he
confesses the crime. I must candidly own, that this adventure is a
very extraordinary one, and is worthy of being written in letters of
gold.” When the executioner had set the physician at liberty, he
put the cord round the tailor’s neck.
While all this was passing, and the executioner was preparing to
hang the tailor, the sultan of Casgar, who never passed any length
of time without seeing the little hunchback, his buffoon, ordered
him into his presence; when one of the attendants replied, “Little
hunchback, sire, whom your majesty is so desirous to see, after
having got drunk yesterday, escaped from the palace, contrary to his
usual custom, in order to wander about the city; and this morning he
was found dead. They have brought a man before the judge of the
police, who was accused of his murder, and the judge immediately
ordered a gibbet to be erected. At the very moment they were going
to hang the accused person, another man came up to the gallows, and
then a third, who each accused themselves, and declared the former
to be innocent of the murder. All this took up some time, and the
judge is at this moment in the very act of examining this third man,
who says that he is the real murderer.”
On hearing this, the sultan of Casgar sent one of his attendants to
the place of execution, “Go,” he cried, “with all possible
speed, and tell the judge instantly to bring all the accused persons
before me; and order them also to bring the body of poor little
hunchback, whom I wish once more to see.” The officer instantly
went, and arrived at the very moment that the executioner began to
draw the cord, in order to hang the tailor. He called out to them as
loud as he could to suspend the execution. As the hangman knew the
officer, he durst not proceed, but let the tailor live. The officer,
having now come up to the judge, declared the will of the sultan.
The judge obeyed, and proceeded to the palace with the tailor, the
Jew, the purveyor, and the Christian merchant, and ordered four of
his people to carry the body of the hunchback.
As soon as they were come into the presence of the sultan, the judge
prostrated himself at his feet; and when he got up, he gave a
faithful and accurate detail of every thing that related to the
adventure of little hunchback. The sultan thought it so very
singular, that he commanded his own historian to write it down, with
all its particulars: then addressing himself to those who were
present, he said, “Have any one of you ever heard a more wonderful
adventure than this, which is now happened to the hunchback, my
buffoon?” The Christian merchant, having first prostrated himself
so low at the sultan’s feet, that his head touched the ground,
then spoke as follows: “Powerful monarch, I think I am acquainted
with a still more surprising history than that which you have just
heard recited; and if your majesty will grant me permission, I will
relate it. The circumstances are of such a nature, that no person
can hear them without being affected at the narrative.” The sultan
having permitted him to speak, he began his story in these words:
THE STORY
TOLD BY THE CHRISTIAN MERCHANT.
Before I begin, sire, the account which your majesty has consented
to listen to, I must, if you please, just remark, that I have not
the honour of being born in any spot within the limits of your
empire. I am a stranger: a native of Cairo, in Egypt, of Coptic
parents, and by religion a Christian. My father was by profession a
broker, and had amassed a considerable fortune, which, when he died,
he left to me. I followed his example, and pursued the same line of
business. One day, when I was in the public grain market at Cairo,
which is frequented by the dealers in all sorts of grain, a young
merchant, very well made, handsomely dressed, and mounted upon an
ass, accosted me. He saluted me, and opening a handkerchief, in
which he had a sample of sesamè, he showed it to me, and inquired
how much a large measure of grain of a similar quality was worth. I
examined the sample, which the young merchant had put into my hands,
and told him, that, according to the present price, a large measure
was worth a hundred drachms of silver. “Look then,” he said,
“for a merchant who will buy it at that price, and come to the
gate, called Victory, where you will see a khan, separate from every
other house, and I will wait for you there.” Having said this, he
went away, and left me the sample of sesamè, which I showed to
different merchants on the spot, who all said, they would take as
much as I would sell them, at one hundred and ten drachms of silver
a measure; and at this rate I should gain ten drachms for each
measure sold.
Pleased with so much profit, I went directly to the Victory gate,
where the merchant was waiting for me. He carried me into his
warehouse, which was full of sesamè. I had it measured, and there
were about one hundred and fifty large measures. I then loaded it
upon asses and went and sold it for five thousand drachms [2] of
silver. “Of this sum,” said the young man to me, “you have a
right, according to our agreement, to five hundred drachms, after
the rate of ten drachms a measure; what remains belongs to me, but
as I have no immediate want of it, go in and put it by for me, till
I shall come and demand it of you.” I told him, it should be ready
at any time, that he should wish to come for it, or send any one to
demand it. I kissed his hand, when he left me; and went home, very
well satisfied with his generosity.
A whole month passed without my seeing him; at the end of which time
he appeared. “Where,” he asked me, “are the four thousand five
hundred drachms of silver, which you owe me?”--“They are all
ready,” I replied, “and I will immediately count them out to
you.” As he was mounted upon an ass, I requested him to alight,
and do me the honour to eat with me before he received his money.
“No,” he answered, “I have not time at present, I have some
urgent business, which requires my presence, and cannot stay; but,
in coming back, I will call for my money; be so good as to have it
ready for me.” Having said this, he went away. I waited for him a
long time, but it was to no purpose, for he did not return till a
month after. “This young merchant,” thought I to myself,
“places a great deal of confidence in me, to leave the sum of four
thousand five hundred drachms of silver in my hands, without knowing
any thing of me. No one besides himself would surely act thus, for
fear I should run away with the money.” At the end of the third
month, I saw him come back, mounted upon the same ass, but much more
magnificently dressed than he was before.
As soon as I perceived the young man, I went out to meet him. I
entreated him to alight, and asked, whether he wished me to count
out the money which I had of his. “Never mind that,” he replied,
in a lively and contented manner, “I am in no hurry. I know it is
in good hands: and I will come and take it when I shall have spent
all I now have, and nothing more remains. Adieu,” added he, “and
expect me again at the end of the week.” At these words, he gave
his ass a cut with his whip, and was out of sight in a moment.
“Vastly well;” said I to myself, “he has told me to expect him
in a week, and yet if I may judge from the tenor of his
conversation, I may not see him this age. Why should not I in the
mean time make some use of his money? it will be of considerable
advantage to me.”
I was not mistaken in my conjecture, for a whole year passed before
I heard any thing of the young man. At the end of this time he again
appeared, and as richly dressed as he had been the last time he
came; but there seemed to me to be something or other which affected
his spirits. I entreated him so far to honour me, as to come into my
house. “I agree to it for this once,” he replied, “but it is
only on condition, that you put yourself to no additional trouble or
expence on my account.”--“I will do exactly as you please,” I
said, “if you will favor me by coming in.” He immediately
alighted, and entered my house. I then gave orders for the
refreshments I wished to be procured, and while they were getting
ready, we entered into conversation; and when the repast was served,
we sat down to table. The very first morsel he took, I observed it
was with his left hand, and I continued all the time to be much
astonished at never seeing him make use of his right. I knew not
what to think of it. “From the very first moment,” I said to
myself, “I have known this merchant, I have always seen him behave
with the greatest politeness; and it is impossible that he can act
thus out of contempt for me. What can be the reason of his making no
use of his right hand?” This matter continued to puzzle me
extremely.
When the repast was over, and my servants had cleared every thing
away, and left the room, we went and sat down on a sofa. I then
offered, as a sort of relish, a very excellent kind of lozenge.
Still he took it with his left hand. “I entreat you, sir,” at
last I cried, “to pardon the liberty I take in asking you, how it
happens, that you always make use of your left hand, and never of
the right: some accident surely has happened to it?” At this he
gave a deep sigh, and instead of answering me, he drew out his right
arm from his robe, under which he had till now quite concealed it;
when I saw, to my utter astonishment, that his hand was cut off.
“You were much shocked, without doubt,” he said, “at seeing me
eat with my left hand; but you now see I could not do
otherwise.”--“May I inquire,” I answered, “how you had the
misfortune to lose your right hand?” At this request he began to
shed tears; after some time, however, he told me his history, which
I am now going to repeat.
“I must in the first place inform you,” said the young man,
“that I am a native of Bagdad. My father was extremely rich, and
one of the most eminent men, both as to rank and quality, in that
city. I had hardly begun to enter into the society of the world,
when I was struck with the accounts which many people, who had
travelled in that country, gave of the wonderful and extraordinary
things in Egypt, and particularly at Grand Cairo. Their conversation
made a deep impression on my mind; and I became excessively anxious
to make a journey there. But my father, who was still alive, would
not give me permission. He at length died, and as his death left me
master of my own actions, I resolved to go to Cairo. I directly
employed a large sum of money in the purchase of different sorts of
the fine stuffs and manufactures of Bagdad and Moussoul, and began
my travels.
“When I arrived at Cairo, I stopped at a khan, which they call the
khan of Mesrour. I took up my abode there, and also hired a
warehouse, in which I placed the bales of merchandize that I had
brought with me on camels. When I had arranged this business, I
retired to my apartment, in order to rest myself, and recover from
the fatigue of my journey. In the mean time my servants, to whom I
had given some money for that purpose, went and bought some
provisions, and began to dress them. After I had satisfied my
hunger, I went to see the castle, mosques, the public places, and
every thing else, that was worthy of notice.
“The next morning, I dressed myself very neatly, and after taking
from my bales a few very beautiful and rich stuffs, for the purpose
of carrying them to a bezestein, [3] to know what they would offer
me for them, I gave them to some of my slaves, and we went to the
bezestein of the Circassians. I was instantly surrounded by a
multitude of brokers and criers, who were soon informed of my
arrival. I gave a specimen of my different stuffs to several criers,
who went and showed them all over the bezestein; but I was offered
by no merchant not even so much as the original cost of the
merchandize, and the expenses of the carriage. This vexed me very
much, and the criers were witness to my resentment and vexation.
“If you will depend upon us,” they said, “we will show you a
way to lose nothing by your stuffs.” I asked them what mode I
ought to follow, in order to sell my goods to advantage.
“Distribute them,” said they, “among different merchants, who
will sell them in small quantities, and you may come twice every
week, namely, on Mondays and Thursdays, and receive the money, for
which they have been sold. By this method you will make some profit,
instead of losing any thing, and the merchants also will have an
advantage in the business. In the mean time, you will have
opportunity and leisure to walk about and view the town, and to go
upon the Nile.”
“I followed their advice, and carried them with me to my
warehouse, from which I took out all my goods; and returning to the
bezestein, I distributed them among the several merchants whom they
pointed out to me as the most trusty and creditable. The merchants
gave me a receipt in due form, properly signed and witnessed, with
the condition, that I should make no demand for the first month.
“Having thus arranged all my business, I gave myself up entirely
to pleasure and gaiety. I contracted a friendship with several young
men about my own age, who contributed very much to make my time pass
agreeably. When the first month had elapsed, I began to call upon my
merchants regularly twice every week, accompanied by a proper public
officer, to examine their books, and a money-changer to ascertain
the goodness and different value of the various sorts of money they
paid me. In this manner I constantly brought away, on those days, a
considerable sum of money, which I took with me to the khan of
Mesrour, where I lodged. This, however, did not prevent me from
going, on the intermediate days of the week, to pass the morning
sometimes with one merchant, and sometimes with another; and I was
thus much pleased with their conversation, and with seeing what
passed in the bezestein.
“One Monday, while I was sitting in one of these merchant’s
shops, whose name was Bedreddin, a lady of distinction, as I easily
conjectured both by her air and dress, and also by a female slave
neatly attired, who followed her, entered the same shop, and sat
down close to me. Her external appearance, joined to a certain
natural grace in every thing she did, prejudiced me very much in her
favour, and excited a great desire in me to know more of her than I
did. I know not whether she perceived that I took a pleasure in
beholding her, or whether my attention pleased her or not; but she
lifted up the thick crape that hung over the muslin, which concealed
the lower part of her face, and thus gave me an opportunity of
seeing her black eyes, that quite charmed me. She at last completed
her conquest, and made me quite in love with her, by the pleasant
tone of her voice, and by her obliging and modest manner, when she
addressed herself to the merchant, and inquired after his health,
since she had seen him last.
“After she had conversed some time upon indifferent subjects, she
told him that she was in search of a particular sort of stuff, with
a gold ground: and that she came to his shop, because it contained
the best assortment of goods of any in the bezestein; and that if he
had such a thing, he would much oblige her by shewing it to her.
Bedreddin opened a good many different pieces, and having fixed upon
one, she stopped and asked the price of it. He said, he could afford
to sell it her for eleven hundred drachms of silver. ‘I will agree
to give you that sum,’ she replied, ‘though I have not the money
about me; but I hope you will give me credit for it till to-morrow,
and suffer me to carry the stuff home, and I will not fail to send
you eleven hundred drachms, for which we have agreed, in the course
of to-morrow.’ ‘Madam,’ answered the merchant, ‘I would give
you credit with the greatest pleasure, and you should have full
permission to take the stuff home with you, if it belonged to me;
but it is the property of this young man, whom you see there, and
this is one of the days fixed upon to give an account of the money
for which his goods are sold.’--‘How comes it,’ cried the
lady, ‘that you treat me in this manner? Am I not in the habit of
coming to your shop? And every time I have bought any stuffs, you
have desired me to carry them home, without first paying for them;
and have I ever failed sending you the money on the following
day?’ The merchant agreed to it. ‘It is all very true, madam,’
he answered, ‘but to-day I have occasion for the
money.’--‘Well then,’ she cried, throwing it down, ‘take
your stuff, and may God confound you, and all of your fellow
merchants, for you are all alike, and have no regard for any one but
yourselves.’ Having said this, she rose up in a passion and went
away extremely piqued against Bedreddin.
“When I saw that the lady was gone, I began to feel very much
interested about her, and before she was too far off, I called her
back, and said, ‘Do me, madam, the favour to return, and perhaps I
shall find a way to accommodate and satisfy both yourself and the
merchant.’ She came back, but made me understand it was entirely
on my account. ‘Sir,’ said I, at this moment, to the merchant,
‘how much do you say it is that you wish to receive for this
stuff, which belongs to me?’--‘Eleven hundred drachms of
silver,’ he replied, ‘nor can I possibly let it go for less.’
‘Give it then,’ said I, ‘to the lady, and permit her to carry
it home. I will give you one hundred drachms for your profit, and
give you an order to take this sum out of the account of the other
merchandize which you have of mine.’ I immediately wrote the
order, signed it, and put it into the hands of Bedreddin. Then
presenting the stuff to the lady, I said, ‘You have now, madam,
full power to take it away with you, and with respect to the money,
you may send it to-morrow, or the next day, or if you will do me the
honour to accept of the stuff, it is quite at your
service.’--‘This,’ replied the lady, ‘is very far from my
intention. You have behaved with so much politeness, and in so
obliging a manner, that I should be unworthy of appearing in the
society of men, if I did not prove my gratitude to you. May God
increase your fortune, suffer you to live a long time after I am
gone; open the gates of heaven at your death; and may all the city
publish the report of your generosity!’
“This speech gave me courage, and I said to her, ‘Suffer me
then, madam, only to see your face, as a return for the favour you
say I have done you. This will repay me, even with usury.’ At
these words, she turned herself towards me, and lifting up the
muslin which covered her face, she displayed a countenance most
wonderfully beautiful. I was so much struck with it, that I could
think of nothing to express what I felt at the sight. I was unable
to take my eyes off, but she quickly covered her face again, for
fear any one should perceive her, and after drawing down her long
crape veil, she took up the piece of stuff, and went out from the
shop, leaving me in a very different state from what I was in before
her arrival. My mind continued greatly troubled, and strongly
disordered for some length of time. Before I left the merchant, I
asked him if he knew who the lady was; and he told me she was the
daughter of an emir, who left her, at his death, an immense fortune.
“I had no sooner returned to the khan of Mesrour, than my people
brought up supper; but I was unable to eat the least morsel. Nor
could I close my eyes during the whole night, which appeared to me
of more than ordinary length. As soon as it was day I got up, with
the hopes of again beholding the object who thus disturbed my
repose: and with the wish, should I be so fortunate of pleasing her,
I dressed myself still nicer than I had done the day before. I then
returned to the shop of Bedreddin.
“I had not been there a great length of time before I saw the lady
approach, followed by her slave. She was much more magnificently
dressed than on the preceding day. Paying no attention to the
merchant, she addressed herself only to me. ‘You see, sir,’ she
said, ‘that I have kept my word with you very exactly. I promised
yesterday to do so, and have now come on purpose to bring you the
amount of what you had the goodness to trust me, without knowing any
thing of me. This is an act of generosity I shall never
forget.’--‘There was not the least necessity, madam,’ I
replied, ‘for you at all to hurry yourself.’ I was perfectly
easy with respect to my money, and am sorry for the trouble you have
given yourself.’--‘It would not, however, have been just in me
to have abused your good nature,’ she replied. In saying this, she
put the money into my hands, and sat down near me.
“Taking the advantage which this opportunity of conversing with
her gave me, I declared the love I felt for her; but she got up and
left me so hastily, that I believed she was offended at the
confession I made. I followed her with my eyes, as long as I could
see her; and when she was quite out of sight, I took my leave of the
merchant, and left the bezestein without knowing where I went. I was
meditating upon this adventure, when I felt some person pull me
behind; I instantly turned round to see who it was, and recognized
the young slave belonging to the lady by whom my whole mind was
absorbed. This sight delighted me. ‘My mistress,’ said she,
‘who is the young lady that spoke to you in the shop of the
merchant, wishes to speak a few words to you, if you will have the
goodness to follow me.’ I instantly went with her, and in truth
found her mistress waiting for me in the shop of a money-changer.
“She directly invited me to sit down near her, and began the
conversation by saying, ‘Be not, my dear sir, surprised that I
quitted you just now so abruptly: but I did not think it prudent,
before that merchant, to give any thing like a favourable answer to
the acknowledgment you made of my having inspired you with
sentiments of affection. Far, however, from being offended at the
confession, I own to you, it afforded me great pleasure to hear you
say, that I was not indifferent to you; and I esteem myself happy in
having acquired the regard of a man of your worth and merit. I know
not what impression the sight of me may have made upon you, but with
respect to myself, I can assure you, that I felt, on the very first
moment I saw you, a very great inclination towards you. Ever since
yesterday morning I have thought of nothing but what you said, and
my haste and anxiety to discover you this morning was so great, that
it ought to be sufficient to convince you, that you by no means
displease me. ‘Madam,’ I exclaimed, transported with love, and
filled with delight, ‘nothing I could possibly hear, could give me
half so much pleasure as what you have now had the goodness to say
to me. It is impossible for any one to feel a stronger regard than I
have done for you, from the first happy moment I set my eyes upon
you. They were quite dazzled with so many charms, and my heart
yielded without the least resistance.’--‘Let us not then,’ she
said, interrupting me, ‘lose any time in useless speeches, I do
not doubt your sincerity, and you shall immediately be convinced of
mine. Will you do me the honour of visiting my house? Or, if you had
rather, I will accompany you.’--‘Madam,’ replied I, ‘I am
quite a stranger in this city, and have only lodgings at a khan,
which is by no means a proper place to receive a lady of your rank
and quality. It will surely be much better for you to have the
goodness to acquaint me with your residence; where I shall be
delighted to have the honour of waiting upon you.’ The lady
consented to this plan. ‘On Thursday next,’ said she, ‘which
is the day after to-morrow, come directly after mid-day prayers into
the street, called Devotion-street. You have only to inquire for the
house of Abon Schamma, surnamed Bercour, and formerly chief of the
emirs; at that place you will find me.’ Having said this, we
separated, and I passed the whole of the next day with the greatest
impatience.
“When Thursday came, I got up very early, and dressed myself in
the handsomest robe I had. I put a purse, containing fifty pieces of
gold, into my pocket, and I set out mounted upon an ass, which I had
ordered the day before, and accompanied by the man of whom I had
hired it. When we were come into Devotion-street, I desired the
owner of the ass to inquire whereabout the house, which I was
seeking after, was: some person immediately pointed it out, and he
then conducted me to it. I alighted at the door, rewarded the man
very liberally, and dismissed him; desiring him at the same time to
observe well the house at which he left me, and not to fail to
return for me the next morning, in order to take me back to the khan
of Mesrour.
“I knocked at the door; when two little slaves, as white as snow,
very neatly dressed, immediately came and opened it. ‘Come in,
sir, if you please,’ they said, ‘our mistress has been waiting
very impatiently for you. For two whole days she has never once
ceased talking of you.’ I went into a court, and observed a
pavilion, raised about seven steps from the ground, and surrounded
with some trellis-work, which divided it from a very beautiful
garden. Besides some trees, which served at the same time both for
embellishment and shelter from the rays of the sun, there was an
infinite number of others, which were loaded with all kinds of
fruit. I was charmed with the warbling of a great many birds, which
mingled their notes with the murmurs of a fountain, that threw its
water to a vast height, in the midst of a parterre, enamelled with
flowers. The fountain also was a very pleasing sight. Four large
gilt dragons were seen at the four angles of the reservoir, which
was exactly square: and these dragons threw up the water in great
abundance, and clearer and more brilliant than rock chrystal. This
place was so full of beauties, that it gave me a very high idea of
the conquest I had made. The two little slaves desired me to go into
a saloon, that was magnificently furnished; and while one of them
was gone to inform her mistress of my arrival, the other remained
with me, and pointed out all the beauties of the saloon.
“I had not been long in this place, before the lady, whom I was so
much in love with, made her appearance, adorned with the finest
diamonds and pearls, but she appeared still more brilliant from the
lustre of her eyes than from that of her jewels. Her figure, which
was now no longer concealed by her walking dress, as when I met her
in the city, seemed to me to be the finest and most striking in the
whole world. I can never express to you the delight we experienced
at again beholding each other; indeed the strongest description
would do injustice to our feelings. I can only say, that after the
first compliments were over, we both sat down on a sofa, where we
conversed together with the greatest satisfaction imaginable. They
then served up the most delicate and exquisite dishes. We sat down
to table, and after our repast, we recommenced our conversation,
which lasted till the evening set in. They then brought us some most
excellent wine, and also some dried fruits well adapted to excite a
desire for drinking; and we drank to the sound of instruments on
which some slaves played, and accompanied at the same time with
their voices. The lady of the house also sung herself, and by this
completely confirmed her conquest, and rendered me the most
passionate of lovers. In short, I passed the whole night in a series
of all kinds of delightful pleasures.
“The next morning, having first very slily put the purse with
fifty pieces of gold in it, which I had brought with me, under her
pillow, I got up and bid her adieu. Before I went, she asked me when
I would return again. ‘I promise you, madam,’ I replied, ‘to
come back this evening.’ She seemed delighted with my answer,
conducted me herself to the door, and, at parting, she conjured me
not to forget my promise.
“The same man, who had brought me the day before, was now waiting
for me with his ass. I immediately mounted, and returned to the khan
of Mesrour. In dismissing the man, I told him I would not pay him,
but that he might come again with his ass after dinner, at the hour
I fixed.
“As soon as I was returned to my khan, my first business was to go
and purchase a nice lamb and several sorts of cakes, which I sent as
a present to the lady by a porter. I then transacted my more
important affairs, till the owner of the ass arrived, when I went
with him to the lady’s house. She received me with as much joy as
on the day before, and regaled me in quite as magnificent a style.
When I left her the next morning, I put, as before, a purse,
containing fifty pieces of gold, under the pillow, and returned to
the khan of Mesrour.
“I continued thus to visit the lady every day, and each time I
left a purse, with fifty pieces of gold in it. I pursued this plan,
till the merchants to whom I had given my merchandise to dispose of,
and whom I visited regularly twice a week, had nothing more of mine
in their hands; I then found myself without any money, or the least
chance of obtaining any.
“In this horrid state, I was ready to give myself up to despair. I
went out of my khan, without knowing what I was about, and walked
towards the castle, where there was a great multitude of people
collected to be present at a spectacle which was given by the sultan
of Egypt. When I came to the spot where the crowd was collected, I
mixed with the thickest part of it; and by chance I found myself
near a gentleman very well mounted, and very handsomely dressed. To
the pummel of his saddle there was fastened a little bag half open,
from which a green string hung out. By touching the outside of the
bag, I thought I discovered, that the green string, which hung down,
belonged to a purse, that was within side. At the very moment I was
forming this opinion, a porter, carrying a large bundle of wood,
passed so close to him on the other side of his horse, that he was
obliged to turn towards him in order to prevent the wood from
touching him, and tearing his dress. The devil at this moment
tempted me; and laying hold of the string with one hand, while with
the other I enlarged the opening of the bag, I drew out the purse
without being perceived by any one. It was very heavy, and I did not
doubt, but it was filled either with gold or silver.