than sleepy, finish for us thy tale, that we may cut short the watching
of this our latter night!” She replied:——With love and good will! It
hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding,
lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming and
worthy celebrating, that the Sultan sat until morning-tide expecting his
wife to bring him tidings of the youth that he might take him and bury
him. But the Queenmother repaired to her daughter’s apartment where she
found the door locked and bolted upon the couple; so she knocked for
them whilst her eyes were tear-stained and she was wailing over the loss
of her daughter’s love-liesse. Hereat the Princess awoke and she arose
and opened the door when behold, she found her mother weeping so she
asked her, “What caused thee shed tears, O Mother mine, whilst my
enjoyment hath been the completest?” Asked she, “And what hath joyed
you?” So the daughter led her to the middlemost of the apartment where
she found the Basilisk (which was like the section of a palm-trunk)
lying dead upon a huge tray and she saw her son-in-law sleeping upon the
bedstead[574] and he was like a fragment of the moon on the fourteenth
night. The mother bowed head towards him and kissed him upon the brow
saying, “Verily and indeed thou deservest safety!” Then she went forth
from him lullilooing aloud and bade all the handmaids raise the cry of
joy[575] and the Palace was turned topsy-turvy with gladness and
delight. When the Sultan heard this he arose and asked “What may be the
news? Are we in grief or in gladness;” and so saying he went forth when
suddenly he was met by his wife in the highest delight who took him and
led him to the apartment of her daughter. There he also espied the
Basilisk stretched dead upon the tray and the youth his son-in-law lying
asleep upon the bedstead, whereat from the stress of his joyance he fell
to the floor in a fainting-fit which lasted an hour or so. But when he
revived he cried, “Is this wake or rather is’t sleep?” after which he
arose and bade the musicians of his band beat the kettledrums and blow
the shawms and the trumps and he commanded adorn the city; and the
citizens did all his bidding. The decorations remained during seven days
in honour of the safety of the Sultan’s son-in-law, and increased were
their joys and fell from them all annoys, and the Sultan took to
distributing and giving alms and largessing and making presents to the
Fakirs and the miserable and he robed his nobles with honourable robes
and fed the captives and the prisoners one and all[576]; and the naked
he clothed, and those anhungered he feasted in honour of his daughter.
Then said the Sultan, “By Allah, this youth deserveth naught save that I
make him my partner and share with him my good, for he hath banished
from us our dule and our dolours and eke on account of himself and his
own sake.” After this he made over to him half of his realm and his
riches and the Sultan would rule one day and his son-in-law the other
and their joys endured for the space of a full-told year. Then the
Sovran was seized of a sickness, so he bequeathed to his son-in-law all
he had and everything he owned; and but a little time elapsed before his
malady increased day by day until he fared to the ruth of Almighty Allah
and the youth sat in his stead as Sovran and Sultan. Such was his case;
but as regards the matter of his sire, the King’s son of Al-’Irak, when
he promised his wife that he would certainly go forth and travel and
search for their son, he ceased not wending through the regions for a
length of nights and days until Destiny threw him into such-and-such a
city; and from the excess of what he had suffered of toil and travail he
tarried therein a time. Now the Shaykh of the Caravans (who had found
the babe in the tent and had taken him and had tended and adopted him,
and from whom the youth when grown to man’s estate had disappeared on
the hunting excursion and returned not to his parents) also set out
a-seeking him and fell diligently to searching for tidings of him and
roaming from place to place. Presently he was cast by doom of Destiny
into the same city; and, as he found none to company with, he was
suddenly met on one of the highways by the youth’s true father and the
twain made acquaintance and became intimate until they nighted and
morning’d in the same stead; withal neither knew what was his companion.
But one night of the nights the two sat down in talk and the true sire
asked the adoptive father, “O my brother, tell us the cause of thy going
forth from thy country and of thy coming hither?” Answered his comrade,
“By Allah, O my brother, my tale is a wondrous and mine adventure is a
marvellous.” Quoth he, “And how?” and quoth the other, “I was Shaykh of
the Cafilahs on various trading journeys, and during one of them I
passed by a way of the ways where I found a pavilion pitched at a
forking of the roads. So I made for it and dismounted my party in that
place and I glanced at the tent but we found none therein, whereupon I
went forwards and entered it and saw a babe new-born strown upon his
back and sucking his fingers.[577] So I raised him between my hands and
came upon a purse of two hundred dinars set under his head; and I took
the gold and carried it off together with the child.” But when his
comrade, the true father, heard this tale from him he said to himself,
“This matter must have been after such fashion,” and he was certified
that the foundling was his son, for that he had heard the history told
by the mother of the babe with the same details essential and
accidental. So he firmly believed[578] in these words and rejoiced
thereat, when his comrade continued, “And after that, O my brother, I
bore off that babe and having no offspring I gave him to my wife who
rejoiced therein and brought him a wet-nurse to suckle him for the usual
term. When he had reached his sixth year I hired a Divine to read with
him and teach him writing and the art of penmanship[579]; and, as soon
as he saw ten years, I bought him a horse of the purest blood, whereon
he learnt cavalarice and the shooting of shafts and the firing of
bullets until he attained his fifteenth year. Presently one day of the
days he asked to go a-hunting in the wilderness, but we his parents (for
he still held me to be his father and my wife his mother) forbade him in
fear of accidents; whereupon he waxed sore sorrowful and we allowed him
leave to fare forth.”——And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day
and fell silent and ceased saying her permitted say. Then quoth her
sister Dunyazad, “How sweet and tasteful is thy story, O sister mine,
and how enjoyable and delectable!” Quoth she, “And where is this
compared with that I would relate to you on the coming night an the
Sovran suffer me to survive?” Now when it was the next night and that
was
The Eight Hundred and Twenty-first Night
Dunyazad said to her, “Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other
than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching
of this our latter night!” She replied:——With love and good will! It
hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding,
lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming and
worthy celebrating, that the adoptive father pursued to his comrade, “So
we permitted him to hie a-hunting, and he farewelled us and went forth
from us and left us, whereat we fell to beweeping him; and inasmuch as
until this present he hath not returned to us, I have set out to seek
him and here am I in this place searching for traces of him.
Peradventure may Allah Almighty deign unite me with him and gar me
forgather with him; for, Walláhi! from the hour he went from us sleep
hath done us no good nor have we found relish in food.” And when the
speech was ended, quoth his comrade, “O my brother, whenas he is not the
son of thy loins and he could prove himself perverse to thee, what must
be the condition in his regard of the father who begat him and the
mother who enwombed him?” He replied, “Theirs must be cark and care and
misery beyond even mine;” and the other rejoined, “By Allah, O my
brother, verily the relation thou hast related anent this child proveth
that he is, by God, my child and of mine own seed, for in sooth his
mother gave birth to him in that stead where she left him being unable
to carry him with her, but now she beweepeth the loss of him through the
nights and the days.” “O my brother,” quoth the adoptive father, “we
twain, I and thou, will indeed make public search and open inquiry for
him through the lands, and Allah Almighty shall guide us himwards.” When
morning came the pair went forth together intending to journey from that
city, but by doom of the Decreer the Sultan on that very day set out to
visit the gardens; and, when the travellers heard tidings thereof, one
said to the other, “Let us stay and solace ourselves with a sight of the
royal suite and after we will wend our ways.” Said his comrade, “’Tis
well.” So they took their station to await the issuing forth of the
Sultan, who suddenly rode out amid his suite as the two stood leaning
beside the road and looking at the Sultan, when behold, his glance fell
upon the two men. He at once recognised the father who had reared him,
and when he gazed at the other standing beside him his heart was opened
to the love of him albeit he weeted naught of their tie of blood nor
believed that any was his sire save the Shaykh who had adopted him.
Accordingly, after considering them he bade carry them both to the House
of Hospitality, so they led them thither and did his bidding. Hereupon
the twain said to themselves, “Wherefore hath the Sultan made us his
guests? Nor he knoweth us nor we know him and needs must this have a
cause.” But after leaving them the King rode to the gardens where he
tarried the whole day, and when it was sunset he returned to his Palace,
and at supper-tide commanded the men be brought before him. They salam’d
to him and blessed him and he returned their salutations, and bade them
take seat at the trays whereat none other was present. They obeyed his
order much wondering thereat the while and musing in their minds, “What
condition is this?” They ate till they were satisfied, after which the
food-trays were removed and they washed their hands and drank coffee and
sherbets; then, by command of the King, they sat down to converse when
the Sultan addressed them instead of the others, whereat they marvelled
self-communing and saying, “What can be the cause?” But as soon as all
the attendants had been dismissed to their quarters and no one remained
save the Sultan and his guests (three in all and no more), and it was
the first third of the night, the King asked them, “Which of you
availeth to tell a tale which shall be a joyance to our hearts?” The
first to answer him was the true father, who said:—Walláhi; O King of
the Age, there befel me an adventure which is one of the wonders of the
world, and ’tis this. I am son to a King of the Kings of the earth who
was wealthy of money and means, and who had the goods of life beyond
measure. He feared for my safety because he had none other save myself,
and one day of the days, when I craved leave to go a-hunting in the
wilderness, he refused me in his anxiety for my safety. (Hereat, quoth
the Sultan in himself, “By Allah, the story of this man is like my
history!”) So quoth I:—O King, unless I fare forth to sport, verily I
will slay myself, and quoth my sire:—O my son, do thou go ride to the
chase, but leave us not long for the hearts of us two, I and thy mother,
will be engrossed by thee. Said I, “Hearing and obeying,” and I went
down to the stable to take a steed; and finding a smaller stall wherein
was a horse chained to four posts and, on guard beside him two slaves
who could never draw near him, I approached him and fell to smoothing
his coat. He remained silent and still whilst I took his furniture and
set it upon his back, and girthed his saddle right tight and bridled him
and loosed him from the four posts, and during all this he never started
nor shied at me by reason of the Fate and Fortune writ upon my forehead
from the Secret World. Then I got him ready and mounted him and went
forth——And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day, and fell silent
and ceased to say her permitted say. Then quoth her sister Dunyazad,
“How sweet is thy story, O sister mine, and how enjoyable and
delectable!” Quoth she, “And where is this compared with that I would
relate to you on the coming night an the King suffer me to survive?” Now
when it was the next night and that was
The Eight Hundred and Twenty-third Night,
Dunyazad said to her, “Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other
than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching
of this our latter night!” She replied:——With love and good will! It
hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding,
lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming and
worthy celebrating, that the man who was bespeaking the Sultan pursued
to him, “Then I mounted him and rode him over the gravelly ground
without the city when behold, he snorted and snarked and shook his crest
and started at speed and galloped with me and bolted, swiftly as though
he were a bird in the firmament of heaven.” On this wise he fell to
recounting all that had befallen in the cave between him and the
Merchant’s daughter and what had betided him by decree of Allah; how he
had left her for his own land and how had her sire come and carried her
away; also in what manner she had been delivered of a son by him on the
road and had left her babe-child in the tent hoping that someone might
find him and take him and tend him; and, lastly, how he had married the
child’s mother and what was the cause of his going forth and his coming
to that place that he might seek his son. Hereupon the Sultan turned to
his adoptive father whom hitherto he had believed to be his real parent
saying, “And thou, the other, dost thou know any tale like that told to
us by thy comrade?” So the Shaykh recounted to him the whole history as
hath before been set forth from incept to conclusion, nor hid from him
aught thereof. Then the Sultan declared himself to his true sire,
saying, “Thou art my father and there befel such things and such,” after
which said his adoptive parent, “Walláhi, O my son, verily none is thy
father save this one from whose loins thou art sprung, for I only found
thee in the pavilion and took thee and tended thee in my home. But this
is thy very parent in very deed.” Hereat all the three fell upon one
another’s necks and kissed one another and the Sultan cried, “Praise to
Him who hath united us after disunion!” and the others related to him
anent his maternal grandfather how he was a Merchant, and concerning his
paternal grandsire how he was a Monarch. Anon each of the two was
ordered to revisit his own country and convey his consort and his
children; and the twain disappeared for the space of a year and a month
and at length returned to the young King. Hereupon he set apart for them
palaces and settled them therein and they tarried with him until such
time as there came to them the Destroyer of delights and the Severer of
societies.
STORY OF THE YOUTH WHO WOULD FUTTER HIS FATHER’S WIVES.[580]
It is related that there was a man who had a grown-up son, but the youth
was a ne’er-do-well,[581] and whatever wife his sire wedded, the son
would devise him a device to lie with her and have his wicked will of
her, and he so managed the matter that his father was forced to divorce
her. Now the man once married a bride beautiful exceedingly and,
charging her beware of his son, jealously guarded her from him.——And
Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and fell silent and ceased to
say her permitted say. Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, “How sweet is thy
story, O sister mine, and how enjoyable and delectable!” Quoth she, “And
where is this compared with that I would relate to you on the coming
night an the King suffer me to survive?” Now when it was the next night,
and that was
The Eight Hundred and Thirty-second Night,
Dunyazad said to her, “Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be not
sleeping, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching of
this our latter night!” She replied:——With love and good will! It hath
reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding, lord of
the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming and worthy
celebrating, that the father applied himself to safe-guarding his wife
and gave her a charge warning her with threats against his son and
saying, “Whenas I wed ever a woman, yonder youth by his cunning manageth
to have his wicked will of her.” Quoth she, “O Man, what be these words
thou speakest? This thy son is a dog, nor hath he power to do with me
aught, and I am a lady amongst women.” Quoth he, “Indeed I but charge
thee to have a care of thyself.[582] Haply I may hie me forth to wayfare
and he will lay some deep plot for thee and work with thee as he wrought
with others.” She replied, “O Man, hold thyself secure therefrom for an
he bespeak me with a single word I will slipper him with my
papoosh;”[583] and he rejoined, “May safety be thine!” He cohabited with
her for a month till one day of the days when he was compelled to
travel; so he went in to his wife and cautioned her and was earnest with
her saying, “Have a guard of thyself from my son the debauchee for ’tis
a froward fellow, a thief, a _misérable_, lest he come over thee with
some wile and have his will of thee.” Said she, “What words are these?
Thy son is a dog nor hath he any power over me in aught whereof thou
talkest, and if he bespeak me with one injurious word, I will slipper
him soundly with my foot-gear.”[584] He rejoined, “If thou happen to
need aught[585] never even mention it to him;” and she, “Hearkening and
obedience.” So he farewelled her and fared forth wholly intent upon his
wayfare. Now when he was far enough from the town the youth came to the
grass-widow but would not address a single word to her, albeit fire was
lighted in his heart by reason of her being so beautiful. Accordingly he
contrived a wile. It happened to be summer-tide so he went[586] to the
house and repaired to the terrace-roof, and there he raised his clothes
from his sitting-place and exposed his backside stark naked to the
cooling breeze; then he leant forwards propped on either elbow and,
spreading his hands upon the ground, perked up[587] his bottom. His
stepmother looked at him and marvelling much said in her mind, “Would
Heaven I knew of this froward youth what may be his object!”[588]
However he never looked at her nor ever turned towards her but he abode
quiet in the posture he had chosen. She stared hard at him and at last
could no longer refrain from asking him, “Wherefore dost thou on this
wise?” He answered, “And why not? I am doing that shall benefit me in
the future, but what that is I will never tell thee; no never.” She
repeated her question again and again, and at last he replied, “I do
thus when ’tis summer-tide and a something of caloric entereth my belly
through my backside and when ’tis winter the same cometh forth and
warmeth my body; and in the cool season I do the same and the frigoric
cometh forth in the dog-days and keepeth me in heats like these, fresh
and comfortable.[589]” She asked, “An I do what thou doest, shall it be
the same to me.” and he answered, “Aye.” Herewith she came forward
beside him and raised her raiment from her behind till the half of her
below the waist was stark naked;——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
day and fell silent and ceased saying her permitted say. Then quoth her
sister Dunyazad, “How sweet and tasteful is thy tale, O sister mine, and
how enjoyable and delectable!” Quoth she, “And where is this compared
with that I would relate to you on the coming night an the Sovran suffer
me to survive?” Now when it was the next night and that was
The Eight Hundred and Thirty-third Night,
Dunyazad said to her, “Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other
than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching
of this our latter night!” She replied:——With love and good will! It
hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding,
lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming and
worthy celebrating, that the grass-widow came forward beside her stepson
and raised her raiment from her behind until the half of her below the
waist was stark naked; and she did even as her husband’s son had done,
and perked up her buttocks, leaning heavily upon her knees and elbows.
Now when she acted on this wise the youth addressed her saying, “Thou
canst not do it aright.” “How so?” “Because the wind passing in through
the postern passeth out through thy portal, thy solution of continuity.”
“Then how shall I do?” “Stopper thy slit wherethrough the air passeth.”
“How shall I stopper it?” “An thou stopper it not thy toil will be in
vain.” “Dost thou know how to stopper it?” “Indeed I do!” “Then rise up
and stopper it.” Hearing these words he arose, because indeed he greeded
for her, and came up behind her as she rested upon her elbows and knees
and hending in hand his prickle nailed it into her coynte and did manly
devoir. And after having his will of her he said, “Thou hast now done
thy best for me and thy belly is filled full of the warm breeze.” On
this wise he continued every day, enjoying the wife of his father for
some time during his wayfare, till the traveller returned home, and on
his entering the house the bride rose and greeted him and said, “Thou
hast been absent overlong!”[590] The man sat with her awhile and
presently asked of her case for that he was fearful of his son; so she
answered, “I am hale and hearty!” “Did my son ask thee of aught?” “Nay,
he asked me not, nor did he ever address me: withal, O Man, he hath
admirable and excellent expedients and indeed he is deeply versed in
natural philosophy.” “What expedients and what natural philosophy?” “He
tucketh up his dress and exposeth his backside to the breeze which now
passeth into his belly and benefiteth him throughout the cold season,
and in winter he doeth exactly what he did in summer with effect as
beneficial. And I also have done as he did.” Now when the husband heard
these her words he knew that the youth had practised upon her and had
enjoyed his desire of her; so he asked her, “And what was it thou
diddest?” She answered, “I did even as he did. However the breeze would
not at first enter into my belly for whatever passed through the back
postern passed out of the front portal, and the youth said to
me:—Stopper up thy solution of continuity. I asked him, Dost thou know
how to stopper it? and he answered, Indeed I do! Then he arose and
blocked it with his prickle; and every day I continued to do likewise
and he to stopper up the peccant part with the wherewithal he hath.” All
this was said to the husband who listened with his head bowed
groundwards; but presently he raised it and cried, “There is no Majesty
and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great;” and
suddenly as they were speaking on that subject the youth came in to
them——And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and fell silent and
ceased to say her permitted say. Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, “How
sweet is thy story, O sister mine, and how enjoyable and delectable!”
Quoth she, “And where is this compared with that I would relate to you
on the coming night an the King suffer me to survive?” Now when it was
the next night and that was
The Eight Hundred and Thirty-fourth Night,
Dunyazad said to her, “Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be not
sleeping, finish for us thy tale, that we may cut short the watching of
this our latter night!” She replied:——With love and good will! It hath
reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding, lord of
the rede which is benefiting, and of deeds fair-seeming and worthy
celebrating, that the youth came in to his father and found his
stepmother relating to him all they had done whilst he was away and the
man said to him, “Wherefore, O youth, hast thou acted on such wise?”
Said the son, “What harm have I done? I only dammed the waterway that
the warm air might abide in her belly and comfort her in the cold
season.” So the father knew that his son had played this trick in order
to have his will of her. Hereat he flew into a fury[591] and forthright
divorced her, giving her the contingent dowry; and she went her ways.
Then the man said in his mind, “I shall never get the better of this boy
until I marry two wives and ever keep them each with other, so that he
may not cozen the twain.” Now after a couple of weeks he espoused a fair
woman fairer than his former and during the next month he wived with a
second and cohabited with the two brides. Then quoth the youth in his
mind, “My papa hath wedded two perfect beauties and here am I abiding in
single blessedness. By Allah, there is no help but that I play a prank
upon both of them!” Then he fell to seeking a contrivance but he could
not hit upon aught for that whenever he entered the house he found his
two step-mothers sitting together and thus he could not avail to address
either. But his father never fared forth from home or returned to it
without warning his wives and saying, “Have a care of yourselves against
that son of mine. He is a whoremonger and he hath made my life
distraught, for whenever I take to myself a wife he serveth some sleight
upon her; then he laugheth at her and so manageth that I must divorce
her.” At such times the two wives would cry, “Walláhi, an he come near
us and ask us of amorous mercy we will slap him with our slippers.”
Still the man would insist, saying, “Be ye on your guard against him,”
and they would reply, “We are ever on our guard.” Now one day the women
said to him, “O man, our wheat is finished,” and said he, “Be ye
watchful while I fare to the Bazar in our market-town which lieth hard
by and fetch you the corn.” So he left them and made for the town,——And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and fell silent and ceased saying
her permitted say. Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, “How sweet and
tasteful is thy tale, O sister mine, and how enjoyable and delectable!”
Quoth she, “And where is this compared with that I would relate to you
on the coming night an the Sovran suffer me to survive?” Now when it was
the next night and that was
The Eight Hundred and Thirty-fifth Night,