pleasure and mine is the care;
As the bleacher who blacketh his brow in the sun ✿ To whiten the
raiment which other men wear."[28]
But thou, O fool, art full of zeal and thou toilest and molest before
the master; and thou tearest and wearest and slayest thyself for the
comfort of another. Hast thou never heard the saw that saith, None to
guide and from the way go wide? Thou wendest forth at the call to
dawn-prayer and thou returnest not till sundown; and through the
livelong day thou endurest all manner hardships; to wit, beating and
belabouring and bad language. Now hearken to me, Sir Bull! when they
tie thee to thy stinking manger, thou pawest the ground with thy
forehand and lashest out with thy hind hoofs and pushest with thy horns
and bellowest aloud, so they deem thee contented. And when they throw
thee thy fodder thou fallest on it with greed and hastenest to line thy
fair fat paunch. But if thou accept my advice it will be better for
thee and thou wilt lead an easier life even than mine. When thou goest
a-field and they lay the thing called Yoke on thy neck, lie down and
rise not again though haply they swinge thee; and, if thou rise, lie
down a second time; and when they bring thee home and offer thee thy
beans, fall backwards and only sniff at thy meat and withdraw thee and
taste it not, and be satisfied with thy crushed straw and chaff; and on
this wise feign thou art sick, and cease not doing thus for a day or
two days or even three days, so shalt thou have rest from toil and
moil." When the Bull heard these words he knew the Ass to be his friend
and thanked him, saying, "Right is thy rede;" and prayed that all
blessings might requite him, and cried, "O Father Wakener![29] thou
hast made up for my failings." (Now[30] the merchant, O my daughter,
understood all that passed between them.) Next day the driver took the
Bull, and settling the plough on his neck,[31] made him work as wont;
but the Bull began to shirk his ploughing, according to the advice of
the Ass, and the ploughman drubbed him till he broke the yoke and made
off; but the man caught him up and leathered him till he despaired of
his life. Not the less, however, would he do nothing but stand still
and drop down till the evening. Then the herd led him home and stabled
him in his stall: but he drew back from his manger and neither stamped
nor ramped nor butted nor bellowed as he was wont to do; whereat the
man wondered. He brought him the beans and husks, but he sniffed at
them and left them and lay down as far from them as he could and passed
the whole night fasting. The peasant came next morning; and, seeing the
manger full of beans, the crushed-straw untasted and the ox lying on
his back in sorriest plight, with legs outstretched and swollen belly,
he was concerned for him, and said to himself, "By Allah, he hath
assuredly sickened and this is the cause why he would not plough
yesterday." Then he went to the merchant and reported, "O my master,
the Bull is ailing; he refused his fodder last night; nay more, he hath
not tasted a scrap of it this morning." Now the merchant-farmer
understood what all this meant, because he had overheard the talk
between the Bull and the Ass, so quoth he, "Take that rascal donkey,
and set the yoke on his neck, and bind him to the plough and make him
do Bull's work." Thereupon the ploughman took the Ass, and worked him
through the livelong day at the Bull's task; and, when he failed for
weakness, he made him eat stick till his ribs were sore and his sides
were sunken and his neck was flayed by the yoke; and when he came home
in the evening he could hardly drag his limbs along, either forehand or
hind-legs. But as for the Bull, he had passed the day lying at full
length and had eaten his fodder with an excellent appetite, and he
ceased not calling down blessings on the Ass for his good advice,
unknowing what had come to him on his account. So when night set in and
the Ass returned to the byre the Bull rose up before him in honour, and
said, "May good tidings gladden thy heart, O Father Wakener! through
thee I have rested all this day and I have eaten my meat in peace and
quiet." But the Ass returned no reply, for wrath and heart-burning and
fatigue and the beating he had gotten; and he repented with the most
grievous of repentance; and quoth he to himself: "This cometh of my
folly in giving good counsel; as the saw saith, I was in joy and
gladness, nought save my officiousness brought me this sadness. But I
will bear in mind my innate worth and the nobility of my nature; for
what saith the poet?
Shall the beautiful hue of the Basil[32] fail ✿ Tho' the beetle's foot
o'er the Basil crawl?
And though spider and fly be its denizens ✿ Shall disgrace attach to
the royal hall?
The cowrie,[33] I ken, shall have currency ✿ But the pearl's clear
drop, shall its value fall?
And now I must take thought and put a trick upon him and return him to
his place, else I die." Then he went aweary to his manger, while the
Bull thanked him and blessed him. And even so, O my daughter, said the
Wazir, thou wilt die for lack of wits; therefore sit thee still and say
naught and expose not thy life to such stress; for, by Allah, I offer
thee the best advice, which cometh of my affection and kindly
solicitude for thee. "O my father," she answered, "needs must I go up
to this King and be married to him." Quoth he, "Do not this deed;" and
quoth she, "Of a truth I will:" whereat he rejoined, "If thou be not
silent and bide still, I will do with thee even what the merchant did
with his wife." "And what did he?" asked she. Know then, answered the
Wazir, that after the return of the Ass the merchant came out on the
terrace-roof with his wife and family, for it was a moonlit night and
the moon at its full. Now the terrace overlooked the cowhouse and
presently, as he sat there with his children playing about him, the
trader heard the Ass say to the Bull, "Tell me, O father Broad o' Brow,
what thou purposest to do to-morrow?" The Bull answered, "What but
continue to follow thy counsel, O Aliboron? Indeed it was as good as
good could be and it hath given me rest and repose; nor will I now
depart from it one tittle: so, when they bring me my meat, I will
refuse it and blow out my belly and counterfeit crank." The Ass shook
his head and said, "Beware of so doing, O Father of a Bull!" The Bull
asked, "Why," and the Ass answered, "Know that I am about to give thee
the best of counsel, for verily I heard our owner say to the herd, If
the Bull rise not from his place to do his work this morning and if he
retire from his fodder this day, make him over to the butcher that he
may slaughter him and give his flesh to the poor, and fashion a bit of
leather[34] from his hide. Now I fear for thee on account of this. So
take my advice ere a calamity befal thee; and when they bring thee thy
fodder eat it and rise up and bellow and paw the ground, or our master
will assuredly slay thee: and peace be with thee!" Thereupon the Bull
arose and lowed aloud and thanked the Ass, and said, "To-morrow I will
readily go forth with them;" and he at once ate up all his meat and
even licked the manger. (All this took place and the owner was
listening to their talk.) Next morning the trader and his wife went to
the Bull's crib and sat down, and the driver came and led forth the
Bull who, seeing his owner, whisked his tail and brake wind, and
frisked about so lustily that the merchant laughed a loud laugh and
kept laughing till he fell on his back. His wife asked him, "Whereat
laughest thou with such loud laughter as this?"; and he answered her,
"I laughed at a secret something which I have heard and seen but cannot
say lest I die my death." She returned, "Perforce thou must discover it
to me, and disclose the cause of thy laughing even if thou come by thy
death!" But he rejoined, "I cannot reveal what beasts and birds say in
their lingo for fear I die. Then quoth she, "By Allah, thou liest! this
is a mere pretext: thou laughest at none save me, and now thou wouldest
hide somewhat from me. But by the Lord of the Heavens! an thou disclose
not the cause I will no longer cohabit with thee: I will leave thee at
once." And she sat down and cried. Whereupon quoth the merchant, "Woe
betide thee! what means thy weeping? Fear Allah and leave these words
and query me no more questions." "Needs must thou tell me the cause of
that laugh," said she, and he replied, "Thou wottest that when I prayed
Allah to vouchsafe me understanding of the tongues of beasts and birds,
I made a vow never to disclose the secret to any Under pain of dying on
the spot." "No matter," cried she, "tell me what secret passed between
the Bull and the Ass and die this very hour an thou be so minded;" and
she ceased not to importune him till he was worn out and clean
distraught. So at last he said, "Summon thy father and thy mother and
our kith and kin and sundry of our neighbours," which she did; and he
sent for the Kazi[35] and his assessors, intending to make his will and
reveal to her his secret and die the death; for he loved her with love
exceeding because she was his cousin, the daughter of his father's
brother, and the mother of his children, and he had lived with her a
life of an hundred and twenty years. Then, having assembled all the
family and the folk of his neighbourhood, he said to them, "By me there
hangeth a strange story, and 'tis such that if I discover the secret to
any, I am a dead man." Therefore quoth every one of those present to
the woman, "Allah upon thee, leave this sinful obstinacy and recognise
the right of this matter, lest haply thy husband and the father of thy
children die." But she rejoined, "I will not turn from it till he tell
me, even though he come by his death." So they ceased to urge her; and
the trader rose from amongst them and repaired to an outhouse to
perform the Wuzu-ablution,[36] and he purposed thereafter to return and
to tell them his secret and to die. Now, daughter Shahrazad, that
merchant had in his out-houses some fifty hens under one cock, and
whilst making ready to farewell his folk he heard one of his many
farm-dogs thus address in his own tongue the Cock, who was flapping his
wings and crowing lustily and jumping from one hen's back to another
and treading all in turn, saying "O Chanticleer! how mean is thy wit
and how shameless is thy conduct! Be he disappointed who brought thee
up?[37] Art thou not ashamed of thy doings on such a day as this?" "And
what," asked the Rooster, "hath occurred this day?," when the Dog
answered, "Dost thou not know that our master is this day making ready
for his death? His wife is resolved that he shall disclose the secret
taught to him by Allah, and the moment he so doeth he shall surely die.
We dogs are all a-mourning; but thou clappest thy wings and clarionest
thy loudest and treadest hen after hen. Is this an hour for pastime and
pleasuring? Art thou not ashamed of thyself?"[38] "Then by Allah,"
quoth the Cock, "is our master a lack-wit and a man scanty of sense: if
he cannot manage matters with a single wife, his life is not worth
prolonging. Now I have some fifty Dame Partlets; and I please this and
provoke that and starve one and stuff another; and through my good
governance they are all well under my control. This our master
pretendeth to wit and wisdom, and he hath but one wife, and yet knoweth
not how to manage her." Asked the Dog, "What then, O Cock, should the
master do to win clear of his strait?" "He should arise forthright,"
answered the Cock, "and take some twigs from yon mulberry-tree and give
her a regular back-basting and rib-roasting till she cry:—I repent, O
my lord! I will never ask thee a question as long as I live! Then let
him beat her once more and soundly, and when he shall have done this he
shall sleep free from care and enjoy life. But this master of ours owns
neither sense nor judgment." "Now, daughter Shahrazad," continued the
Wazir, "I will do to thee as did that husband to that wife." Said
Shahrazad, "And what did he do?" He replied, "When the merchant heard
the wise words spoken by his Cock to his Dog, he arose in haste and
sought his wife's chamber, after cutting for her some mulberry-twigs
and hiding them there; and then he called to her, "Come into the closet
that I may tell thee the secret while no one seeth me and then die."
She entered with him and he locked the door and came down upon her with
so sound a beating of back and shoulders, ribs, arms and legs, saying
the while, "Wilt thou ever be asking questions about what concerneth
thee not?" that she was well nigh senseless. Presently she cried out,
"I am of the repentant! By Allah, I will ask thee no more questions,
and indeed I repent sincerely and wholesomely." Then she kissed his
hand and feet and he led her out of the room submissive as a wife
should be. Her parents and all the company rejoiced and sadness and
mourning were changed into joy and gladness. Thus the merchant learnt
family discipline from his Cock and he and his wife lived together the
happiest of lives until death. And thou also, O my daughter! continued
the Wazir, "Unless thou turn from this matter I will do by thee what
that trader did to his wife." But she answered him with much decision,
"I will never desist, O my father, nor shall this tale change my
purpose. Leave such talk and tattle. I will not listen to thy words
and, if thou deny me, I will marry myself to him despite the nose of
thee. And first I will go up to the King myself and alone and I will
say to him:—I prayed my father to wive me with thee, but he refused,
being resolved to disappoint his lord, grudging the like of me to the
like of thee." Her father asked, "Must this needs be?" and she
answered, "Even so." Hereupon the Wazir being weary of lamenting and
contending, persuading and dissuading her, all to no purpose, went up
to King Shahryar and, after blessing him and kissing the ground before
him, told him all about his dispute with his daughter from first to
last and how he designed to bring her to him that night. The King
wondered with exceeding wonder; for he had made an especial exception
of the Wazir's daughter, and said to him, "O most faithful of
Counsellors, how is this? Thou wottest that I have sworn by the Raiser
of the Heavens that after I have gone into her this night I shall say
to thee on the morrow's morning:—Take her and slay her! and, if thou
slay her not, I will slay thee in her stead without fail." "Allah guide
thee to glory and lengthen thy life, O King of the age," answered the
Wazir, "it is she that hath so determined: all this have I told her and
more; but she will not hearken to me and she persisteth in passing this
coming night with the King's Majesty." So Shahryar rejoiced greatly and
said, "'Tis well; go get her ready and this night bring her to me." The
Wazir returned to his daughter and reported to her the command saying,
"Allah make not thy father desolate by thy loss!" But Shahrazad
rejoiced with exceeding joy and gat ready all she required and said to
her younger sister, Dunyazad, "Note well what directions I entrust to
thee! When I have gone into the King I will send for thee and when thou
comest to me and seest that he hath had his carnal will of me, do thou
say to me:—O my sister, an thou be not sleepy, relate to me some new
story, delectable and delightsome, the better to speed our waking
hours;" and I will tell thee a tale which shall be our deliverance, if
so Allah please, and which shall turn the King from his blood-thirsty
custom." Dunyazad answered "With love and gladness." So when it was
night their father the Wazir carried Shahrazad to the King who was
gladdened at the sight and asked, "Hast thou brought me my need?" and
he answered, "I have." But when the King took her to his bed and fell
to toying with her and wished to go in to her she wept; which made him
ask, "What aileth thee?" She replied, "O King of the age, I have a
younger sister and lief would I take leave of her this night before I
see the dawn." So he sent at once for Dunyazad and she came and kissed
the ground between his hands, when he permitted her to take her seat
near the foot of the couch. Then the King arose and did away with his
bride's maidenhead and the three fell asleep. But when it was midnight
Shahrazad awoke and signalled to her sister Dunyazad who sat up and
said, "Allah upon thee, O my sister, recite to us some new story,
delightsome and delectable, wherewith to while away the waking hours of
our latter night."[39] "With joy and goodly gree," answered Shahrazad,
"if this pious and auspicious King permit me." "Tell on," quoth the
King who chanced to be sleepless and restless and therefore was pleased
with the prospect of hearing her story. So Shahrazad rejoiced; and
thus, on the first night of the Thousand Nights and a Night, she began
with the
-----
Footnote 1:
Ailaho A'alam, a deprecatory formula, used because the writer is
going to indulge in a series of what may possibly be untruths.
Footnote 2:
The "Sons of Sásán" are the famous Sassanides whose dynasty ended
with the Arabian Conquest (A.D. 641). "Island" (Jazírah) in Arabic
also means "Peninsula," and causes much confusion in geographical
matters.
Footnote 3:
Shahryár not Shahriyar (Persian)="City-friend." The Bulak edition
corrupts it to Shahrbáz (City-hawk), and the Breslau to Shahrbán or
"Defender of the City," like Marz-ban=Warden of the Marshes. Shah
Zamán (Persian)="King of the Age:" Galland prefers Shah Zenan, or
"King of women," and the Bul. edit. changes it to Shah Rummán,
"Pomegranate King." Al-Ajam denotes all regions not Arab (Gentiles
opposed to Jews, Mlechchhas to Hindus, Tajiks to Turks, etc., etc.),
and especially Persia; Ajami (a man of Ajam) being an equivalent of
the Gr. Βάρβαρος. See Vol. ii., p. 1.
Footnote 4:
Galland writes "Vizier," a wretched frenchification of a mincing
Turkish mispronunciation; Torrens, "Wuzeer" (Anglo-Indian and
Gilchristian); Lane, "Wezeer" (Egyptian or rather Cairene); Payne,
"Vizier," according to his system; Burckhardt (Proverbs), "Vizír;"
and Mr. Keith-Falconer, "Vizir." The root is popularly supposed to be
"wizr" (burden) and the meaning "Minister;" Wazír al-Wuzará being
"Premier." In the Koran (chapt. xx., 30) Moses says, "Give me a Wazir
of my family, Harun (Aaron) my brother." Sale, followed by the
excellent version of the Rev. J. M. Rodwell, translates a
"Counsellor," and explains by "One who has the chief administration
of affairs under a prince." But both learned Koranists learnt their
Orientalism in London, and, like such students generally, fail only
upon the easiest points, familiar to all old dwellers in the East.
Footnote 5:
This three-days term (rest-day, drest-day and departure day) seems to
be an instinct-made rule in hospitality. Among Moslems it is a Sunnat
or practice of the Prophet.
Footnote 6:
_i.e._, I am sick at heart.
Footnote 7:
Debauched women prefer negroes on account of the size of their parts.
I measured one man in Somali-land who, when quiescent, numbered
nearly six inches. This is a characteristic of the negro race and of
African animals: _e.g._ the horse; whereas the pure Arab, man and
beast, is below the average of Europe; one of the best proofs by the
by, that the Egyptian is not an Asiatic, but a negro partially
whitewashed. Moreover, these imposing parts do not increase
proportionally during erection; consequently, the "deed of kind"
takes a much longer time and adds greatly to the woman's enjoyment.
In my time no honest Hindi Moslem would take his womenfolk to
Zanzibar on account of the huge attractions and enormous temptations
there and thereby offered to them. Upon the subject of
Imsák=retention of semen and "prolongation of pleasure," I shall find
it necessary to say more.
Footnote 8:
The very same words were lately spoken in England proving the eternal
truth of The Nights which the ignorant call "downright lies."
Footnote 9:
The Arab's _Tue la!_
Footnote 10:
Arab. "Sayd wa kanas": the former usually applied to fishing; hence
Sayda (Sidon)=fish-town. But noble Arabs (except the Caliph Al-Amin)
do not fish; so here it means simply "sport," chasing, coursing,
birding (oiseler), and so forth.
Footnote 11:
In the Mac. Edit, the negro is called "Mas'úd"; here he utters a kind
of war-cry and plays upon the name, Sa'ád, Sa'íd, Sa'úd, and Mas'ud,
all being derived from one root, "Sa'ad"=auspiciousness, prosperity.
Footnote 12:
The Arab singular (whence the French "génie"); fem. Jinniyah; the Div
and Rakshah of old Guebre-land and the "Rakshasa," or "Yaksha," of
Hinduism. It would be interesting to trace the evident connection, by
no means "accidental," of "Jinn" with the "Genius" who came to the
Romans through the Asiatic Etruscans, and whose name I cannot derive
from "gignomai" or "genitus." He was unknown to the Greeks, who had
the Daimon (δαίμον), a family which separated, like the Jinn and the
Genius, into two categories, the good (Agatho-dæmons) and the bad
(Kako-dæmons). We know nothing concerning the status of the Jinn
amongst the pre-Moslemitic or pagan Arabs: the Moslems made him a
supernatural anthropoid being, created of subtile fire (Koran,
chapts. xv. 27; lv. 14), not of earth like man, propagating his kind,
ruled by mighty kings, the last being Ján bin Ján, missionarised by
Prophets and subject to death and Judgment. From the same root are
"Junún"=madness (_i.e._, possession or obsession by the Jinn) and
"Majnún"=a madman. According to R. Jeremiah bin Eliazar in Psalm xli.
5, Adam was excommunicated for one hundred and thirty years, during
which he begat children in his own image (Gen. v. 3) and these were
Mazikeen or Shedeem—Jinns. Further details anent the Jinn will
presently occur.
Footnote 13:
Arab "Amsár" (cities): in Bul. Edit. "Amtár" (rains), as in Mac.
Edit. So Mr. Payne (I., 5) translates:—
And when she flashes forth the lightning of her glance, She maketh
eyes to rain, like showers, with many a tear.
I would render it, "She makes whole cities shed tears;" and prefer it
for a reason which will generally influence me—its superior
exaggeration and impossibility.
Footnote 14:
Not "A-frit," pronounced Aye-frit, as our poets have it. This variety
of the Jinn, who, as will be shown, are divided into two races like
mankind, is generally, but not always, a malignant being, hostile and
injurious to mankind (Koran xxvii. 39).
Footnote 15:
_i.e._, "I conjure thee by Allah;" the formula is technically called
"Inshád."
Footnote 16:
This introducing the name of Allah into an indecent tale is
essentially Egyptian and Cairene. But see Boccacio ii. 6; and vii. 9.
Footnote 17:
So in the Mac. Edit.; in others "ninety." I prefer the greater number
as exaggeration is a part of the humour. In the Hindu "Kathá Sárit
Ságara" (Sea of the Streams of Story), the rings are one hundred and
the catastrophe is more moral; the good youth Yashodhara rejects the
wicked one's advances; she awakes the water-sprite, who is about to
slay him, but the rings are brought as testimony and the improper
young person's nose is duly cut off. (Chapt. lxiii.; p. 80, of the
excellent translation by Prof. C. H. Tawney: for the Bibliotheca
Indica: Calcutta, 1881.) The Kathá, etc., by Somadeva (century xi),
is a poetical version of the prose compendium, the "Vrihat Kathá"
(Great Story) by Gunadhya (cent. vi).
Footnote 18:
The Joseph of the Koran, very different from him of Genesis. We shall
meet him often enough in The Nights.
Footnote 19:
"Iblis," vulgarly written "Eblis," from a root meaning The Despairer,
with a suspicious likeness to Diabolos; possibly from "Balas," a
profligate. Some translate it The Calumniator, as Satan is the Hater.
Iblis (who appears in the Arab. version of the N. Testament)
succeeded another revolting angel Al-Haris; and his story of pride,
refusing to worship Adam, is told four times in the Koran from the
Talmud (Sanhedrim 29). He caused Adam and Eve to lose Paradise (ii.
34); he still betrays mankind (xxv. 31), and at the end of time he,
with the other devils, will be "gathered together on their knees
round Hell" (xix. 69). He has evidently had the worst of the game and
we wonder, with Origen, Tillotson, Burns and many others, that he
does not throw up the cards.
Footnote 20: