the branch and went forth by the way he came in. When he vanished from
their sight the King inspected the fish; and, finding them all charred
black as charcoal, was utterly bewildered and said to the Wazir,
"Verily this is a matter whereanent silence cannot be kept, and as for
the fishes, assuredly some marvellous adventure connects with them." So
he bade bring the Fisherman and asked him, saying "Fie on thee, fellow!
whence come these fishes?" and he answered, "From a tarn between four
heights lying behind this mountain which is in sight of thy city."
Quoth the King, "How many days' march?" Quoth he, "O our lord the
Sultan, a walk of half hour." The King wondered and, straightway
ordering his men to march and horsemen to mount, led off the Fisherman
who went before as guide, privily damning the Ifrit. They fared on till
they had climbed the mountain and descended unto a great desert which
they had never seen during all their lives; and the Sultan and his
merry men marvelled much at the wold set in the midst of four
mountains, and the tarn and its fishes of four colours, red and white,
yellow and blue. The King stood fixed to the spot in wonderment and
asked his troops and all present, "Hath any one among you ever seen
this piece of water before now?" and all made answer, "O King of the
age, never did we set eyes upon it during all our days." They also
questioned the oldest inhabitants they met, men well stricken in years,
but they replied, each and every, "A lakelet like this we never saw in
this place." Thereupon quoth the King, "By Allah I will neither return
to my capital nor sit upon the throne of my forbears till I learn the
truth about this tarn and the fish therein." He then ordered his men to
dismount and bivouac all around the mountain; which they did; and
summoning his Wazir, a Minister of much experience, sagacious, of
penetrating wit and well versed in affairs, said to him, "'Tis in my
mind to do a certain thing, whereof I will inform thee; my heart
telleth me to fare forth alone this night and root out the mystery of
this tarn and its fishes. Do thou take thy seat at my tent-door, and
say to the Emirs and Wazirs, the Nabobs and the Chamberlains, in fine
to all who ask thee:—The Sultan is ill at ease, and he hath ordered me
to refuse all admittance;[109] and be careful thou let none know my
design." And the Wazir could not oppose him. Then the King changed his
dress and ornaments and, slinging his sword over his shoulder, took a
path which led up one of the mountains and marched for the rest of the
night till morning dawned; nor did he cease wayfaring till the heat was
too much for him. After his long walk he rested for a while, and then
resumed his march and fared on through the second night till dawn, when
suddenly there appeared a black point in the far distance. Hereat he
rejoiced and said to himself, "Haply some one here shall acquaint me
with the mystery of the tarn and its fishes." Presently, drawing near
the dark object he found it a palace built of swart stone plated with
iron; and, while one leaf of the gate stood wide open, the other was
shut. The King's spirits rose high as he stood before the gate and
rapped a light rap; but hearing no answer he knocked a second knock and
a third; yet there came no sign. Then he knocked his loudest but still
no answer, so he said, "Doubtless 'tis empty." Thereupon he mustered up
resolution, and boldly walked through the main gate into the great hall
and there cried out aloud, "Holla, ye people of the palace! I am a
stranger and a wayfarer; have you aught here of victual?" He repeated
his cry a second time and a third but still there came no reply; so
strengthening his heart and making up his mind he stalked through the
vestibule into the very middle of the palace and found no man in it.
Yet it was furnished with silken stuffs gold-starred; and the hangings
were let down over the door-ways. In the midst was a spacious court off
which set four open saloons each with its raised daïs, saloon, facing
saloon; a canopy shaded the court and in the centre was a jetting fount
with four figures of lions made of red gold, spouting from their mouths
water clear as pearls and diaphanous gems. Round about the palace birds
were let loose and over it stretched a net of golden wire, hindering
them from flying off; in brief there was everything but human beings.
The King marvelled mightily thereat, yet felt he sad at heart for that
he saw no one to give him an account of the waste and its tarn, the
fishes, the mountains and the palace itself. Presently as he sat
between the doors in deep thought behold, there came a voice of lament,
as from a heart grief-spent and he heard the voice chanting these
verses:—
I hid what I endured of him[110] and yet it came to light, ✿ And
nightly sleep mine eyelids fled and changed to sleepless night:
Oh world! Oh Fate! withhold thy hand and cease thy hurt and harm ✿ Look
and behold my hapless sprite in dolour and affright:
Wilt ne'er show ruth to highborn youth who lost him on the way ✿ Of
Love, and fell from wealth and fame to lowest basest wight.
Jealous of Zephyr's breath was I as on your form he breathed ✿ But
whenas Destiny descends she blindeth human sight,[111]
What shall the hapless archer do who when he fronts his foe ✿ And bends
his bow to shoot the shaft shall find his string undight?
When cark and care so heavy bear on youth[112] of generous soul ✿ How
shall he 'scape his lot and where from Fate his place of flight?
Now when the Sultan heard the mournful voice he sprang to his feet;
and, following the sound, found a curtain let down over a chamber-door.
He raised it and saw behind it a young man sitting upon a couch about a
cubit above the ground; and he fair to the sight, a well shaped wight,
with eloquence dight; his forehead was flower-white, his cheek rosy
bright, and a mole on his cheek-breadth like an ambergris-mite; even as
the poet doth indite:—
A youth slim-waisted from whose locks and brow ✿ The world in blackness
and in light is set.
Throughout Creation's round no fairer show ✿ No rarer sight thine eye
hath ever met:
A nut-brown mole sits throned upon a cheek ✿ Of rosiest red beneath an
eye of jet.[113]
The King rejoiced and saluted him, but he remained sitting in his
caftan of silken stuff purfled with Egyptian gold and his crown studded
with gems of sorts; but his face was sad with the traces of sorrow. He
returned the royal salute in most courteous wise adding, "O my lord,
thy dignity demandeth my rising to thee; and my sole excuse is to crave
thy pardon."[114] Quoth the King, "Thou art excused, O youth; so look
upon me as thy guest come hither on an especial object. I would thou
acquaint me with the secrets of this tarn and its fishes and of this
palace and thy loneliness therein and the cause of thy groaning and
wailing." When the young man heard these words he wept with sore
weeping;[115] till his bosom was drenched with tears and began
reciting:—
Say him who careless sleeps what while the shaft of Fortune flies ✿ How
many doth this shifting world lay low and raise to rise?
Although thine eye be sealed in sleep, sleep not th' Almighty's eyes ✿
And who hath found Time ever fair, or Fate in constant guise?
Then he sighed a long-fetched sigh and recited:—
Confide thy case to Him, the Lord who made mankind; ✿ Quit cark and
care and cultivate content of mind;
Ask not the Past or how or why it came to pass: ✿ All human things by
Fate and Destiny were designed!
The King marvelled and asked him, "What maketh thee weep, O young man?"
and he answered, "How should I not weep, when this is my case!"
Thereupon he put out his hand and raised the skirt of his garment, when
lo! the lower half of him appeared stone down to his feet while from
his navel to the hair of his head he was man. The King, seeing this his
plight, grieved with sore grief and of his compassion cried, "Alack and
well-away! in very sooth, O youth, thou heapest sorrow upon my sorrow.
I was minded to ask thee the mystery of the fishes only: whereas now I
am concerned to learn thy story as well as theirs. But there is no
Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the
Great.[116] Lose no time, O youth, but tell me forthright thy whole
tale." Quoth he, "Lend me thine ears, thy sight and thine insight;" and
quoth the King, "All are at thy service!" Thereupon the youth began,
"Right wondrous and marvellous is my case and that of these fishes; and
were it graven with gravers upon the eye-corners it were a warner to
whoso would be warned." "How is that?" asked the King, and the young
man began to tell
_THE TALE OF THE ENSORCELLED PRINCE._
Know then, O my lord, that whilome my sire was King of this city, and
his name was Mahmúd, entitled Lord of the Black Islands, and owner of
what are now these four mountains. He ruled threescore and ten years,
after which he went to the mercy of the Lord and I reigned as Sultan in
his stead. I took to wife my cousin, the daughter of my paternal
uncle,[117] and she loved me with such abounding love that whenever I
was absent she ate not and she drank not until she saw me again. She
cohabited with me for five years till a certain day when she went forth
to the Hammam bath; and I bade the cook hasten to get ready all
requisites for our supper. And I entered this palace and lay down on
the bed where I was wont to sleep and bade two damsels to fan my face,
one sitting by my head and the other at my feet. But I was troubled and
made restless by my wife's absence and could not sleep; for although my
eyes were closed my mind and thoughts were wide awake. Presently I
heard the slave-girl at my head say to her at my feet, "O Mas'údah, how
miserable is our master and how wasted in his youth and oh! the pity of
his being so betrayed by our mistress, the accursed whore!"[118] The
other replied, "Yes indeed: Allah curse all faithless women and
adulterous; but the like of our master, with his fair gifts, deserveth
something better than this harlot who lieth abroad every night." Then
quoth she who sat by my head, "Is our lord dumb or fit only for
bubbling that he questioneth her not!" and quoth the other, "Fie on
thee! doth our lord know her ways or doth she allow him his choice?
Nay, more, doth she not drug every night the cup she giveth him to
drink before sleep-time, and put Bhang[119] into it? So he sleepeth and
wotteth not whither she goeth, nor what she doeth; but we know that,
after giving him the drugged wine, she donneth her richest raiment and
perfumeth herself and then she fareth out from him to be away till
break of day; then she cometh to him, and burneth a pastile under his
nose and he awaketh from his deathlike sleep." When I heard the
slave-girls' words, the light became black before my sight and I
thought night would never fall. Presently the daughter of my uncle came
from the baths; and they set the table for us and we ate and sat
together a fair half-hour quaffing our wine as was ever our wont. Then
she called for the particular wine I used to drink before sleeping and
reached me the cup; but, seeming to drink it according to my wont, I
poured the contents into my bosom; and, lying down, let her hear that I
was asleep. Then, behold, she cried, "Sleep out the night, and never
wake again: by Allah, I loathe thee and I loathe thy whole body, and my
soul turneth in disgust from cohabiting with thee; and I see not the
moment when Allah shall snatch away thy life!" Then she rose and donned
her fairest dress and perfumed her person and slung my sword over her
shoulder; and, opening the gates of the palace, went her ill way. I
rose and followed her as she left the palace and she threaded the
streets until she came to the city gate, where she spoke words I
understood not, and the padlocks dropped of themselves as if broken and
the gate-leaves opened. She went forth (and I after her without her
noticing aught) till she came at last to the outlying mounds[120] and a
reed fence built about a round-roofed hut of mud-bricks. As she entered
the door, I climbed upon the roof which commanded a view of the
interior. And lo! my fair cousin had gone in to a hideous negro slave
with his upper lip like the cover of a pot, and his lower like an open
pot; lips which might sweep up sand from the gravel-floor of the cot.
He was to boot a leper and a paralytic, lying upon a strew of
sugar-cane trash and wrapped, in an old blanket and the foulest rags
and tatters. She kissed the earth before him, and he raised his head so
as to see her and said, "Woe to thee! what call hadst thou to stay away
all this time? Here have been with me sundry of the black brethren, who
drank their wine and each had his young lady, and I was not content to
drink because of thine absence." Then she, "O my lord, my heart's love
and coolth of my eyes,[121] knowest thou not that I am married to my
cousin whose very look I loathe, and hate myself when in his company?
And did not I fear for thy sake, I would not let a single sun arise
before making his city a ruined heap wherein raven should croak and
howlet hoot, and jackal and wolf harbour and loot; nay I had removed
its very stones to the back side of Mount Káf."[122] Rejoined the
slave, "Thou liest, damn thee! Now I swear an oath by the valour and
honour of blackamoor men (and deem not our manliness to be the poor
manliness of white men), from to-day forth if thou stay away till this
hour, I will not keep company with thee nor will I glue my body with
thy body and strum and belly-bump. Dost play fast and loose with us,
thou cracked pot, that we may satisfy thy dirty lusts? stinkard! bitch!
vilest of the vile whites!" When I heard his words, and saw with my own
eyes what passed between these two wretches, the world waxed dark
before my face and my soul knew not in what place it was. But my wife
humbly stood up weeping before and wheedling the slave, and saying, "O
my beloved, and very fruit of my heart, there is none left to cheer me
but thy dear self; and, if thou cast me off who shall take me in, O my
beloved, O light of my eyes?" And she ceased not weeping and abasing
herself to him until he deigned be reconciled with her. Then was she
right glad and stood up and doffed her clothes, even to her
petticoat-trousers, and said, "O my master what hast thou here for thy
handmaiden to eat?" "Uncover the basin," he grumbled, "and thou shalt
find at the bottom the broiled bones of some rats we dined on; pick at
them, and then go to that slop-pot where thou shalt find some leavings
of beer[123] which thou mayest drink." So she ate and drank and washed
her hands, and went and lay down by the side of the slave, upon the
cane-trash and, stripping herself stark naked, she crept in with him
under his foul coverlet and his rags and tatters. When I saw my wife,
my cousin, the daughter of my uncle, do this deed[124] "I clean lost my
wits, and climbing down from the roof, I entered and took the sword
which she had with her and drew it, determined to cut down the twain. I
first struck at the slave's neck and thought that the death decree had
fallen on him:"——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to
say her permitted say.
[Illustration]
Now when it was the Eighth Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young
ensorcelled Prince said to the King, "When I smote the slave with
intent to strike off his head, I thought that I had slain him; for he
groaned a loud hissing groan, but I had cut only the skin and flesh of
the gullet and the two arteries! It awoke the daughter of my uncle, so
I sheathed the sword and fared forth for the city; and, entering the
palace, lay upon my bed and slept till morning when my wife aroused me
and I saw that she had cut off her hair and had donned mourning
garments. Quoth she:—O son of my uncle, blame me not for what I do; it
hath just reached me that my mother is dead, and my father hath been
killed in holy war, and of my brothers one hath lost his life by a
snake-sting and the other by falling down some precipice; and I can and
should do naught save weep and lament. When I heard her words I
refrained from all reproach and said only:—Do as thou list; I certainly
will not thwart thee. She continued sorrowing, weeping and wailing one
whole year from the beginning of its circle to the end, and when it was
finished she said to me:—I wish to build me in thy palace a tomb with a
cupola, which I will set apart for my mourning and will name the House
of Lamentations."[125] Quoth I again:—Do as thou list! Then she builded
for herself a cenotaph wherein to mourn, and set on its centre a dome
under which showed a tomb like a Santon's sepulchre. Thither she
carried the slave and lodged him; but he was exceeding weak by reason
of his wound, and unable to do her love-service; he could only drink
wine and from the day of his hurt he spake not a word, yet he lived on
because his appointed hour[126] was not come. Every day, morning and
evening, my wife went to him and wept and wailed over him and gave him
wine and strong soups, and left not off doing after this manner a
second year; and I bore with her patiently and paid no heed to her. One
day, however, I went in to her unawares; and I found her weeping and
beating her face and crying:—Why art thou absent from my sight, O my
heart's delight? Speak to me, O my life; talk with me, O my love? Then
she recited these verses:—
For your love my patience fails and albeit you forget ✿ I may not; nor
to other love my heart can make reply:
Bear my body, bear my soul wheresoever you may fare ✿ And where you
pitch the camp let my body buried lie:
Cry my name above my grave, and an answer shall return ✿ The moaning of
my bones responsive to your cry.[127]
Then she recited, weeping bitterly the while:—
The day of my delight is the day when draw you near ✿ And the day of
mine affright is the day you turn away:
Though I tremble through the night in my bitter dread of death ✿ When I
hold you in my arms I am free from all affray.
Once more she began reciting:—
Though a-morn I may awake with all happiness in hand ✿ Though the world
all be mine and like Kisra-kings[128] I reign;
To me they had the worth of the winglet of the gnat ✿ When I fail to
see thy form, when I look for thee in vain.
When she had ended for a time her words and her weeping I said to
her:—O my cousin, let this thy mourning suffice, for in pouring forth
tears there is little profit! Thwart me not, answered she, in aught I
do, or I will lay violent hands on myself! So I held my peace and left
her to go her own way; and she ceased not to cry and keen and indulge
her affliction for yet another year. At the end of the third year I
waxed aweary of this longsome mourning, and one day I happened to enter
the cenotaph when vexed and angry with some matter which had thwarted
me, and suddenly I heard her say:—O my lord, I never hear thee
vouchsafe a single word to me! Why dost thou not answer me, O my
master? and she began reciting:—
O thou tomb! O thou tomb! be his beauty set in shade ✿ Hast thou
darkened that countenance all-sheeny as the noon?
O thou tomb! neither earth nor yet heaven art to me ✿ Then how cometh
it in thee are conjoined my sun and moon?
When I heard such verses as these rage was heaped upon my rage; I cried
out:—Well-away! how long is this sorrow to last? and I began
repeating:—
O thou tomb! O thou tomb! be his horrors set in blight? ✿ Hast thou
darkenèd his countenance that sickeneth the soul?
O thou tomb! neither cess-pool nor pipkin art to me ✿ Then how cometh
it in thee are conjoinèd soil and coal?
When she heard my words she sprang to her feet crying:—Fie upon thee,
thou cur! all this is of thy doings; thou hast wounded my heart's
darling and thereby worked me sore woe and thou hast wasted his youth
so that these three years he hath lain abed more dead than alive! In my
wrath I cried:—O thou foulest of harlots and filthiest of whores ever
futtered by negro slaves who are hired to have at thee![129] Yes indeed
it was I who did this good deed; and snatching up my sword I drew it
and made at her to cut her down. But she laughed my words and mine
intent to scorn crying: To heel, hound that thou art! Alas[130] for the
past which shall no more come to pass nor shall any one avail the dead
to raise. Allah hath indeed now given into my hand him who did to me
this thing, a deed that hath burned my heart with a fire which died not
and a flame which might not be quenched! Then she stood up; and,
pronouncing some words to me unintelligible, she said:—By virtue of my
egromancy become thou half stone and half man; whereupon I became what
thou seest, unable to rise or to sit, and neither dead nor alive.
Moreover she ensorcelled the city with all its streets and garths, and
she turned by her gramarye the four islands into four mountains around
the tarn whereof thou questionest me; and the citizens, who were of
four different faiths, Moslem, Nazarene, Jew and Magian, she
transformed by her enchantments into fishes; the Moslems are the white,
the Magians red, the Christians blue and the Jews yellow.[131] "And
every day she tortureth me and scourgeth me with an hundred stripes,
each of which draweth floods of blood and cutteth the skin of my
shoulders to strips; and lastly she clotheth my upper half with a
hair-cloth and then throweth over them these robes." Hereupon the young
man again shed tears and began reciting:—
In patience, O my God, I endure my lot and fate; ✿ I will bear at will
of Thee whatsoever be my state:
They oppress me; they torture me; they make my life a woe ✿ Yet haply
Heaven's happiness shall compensate my strait:
Yea, straitened is my life by the bane and hate o' foes ✿ But Mustapha
and Murtazá[132] shall ope me Heaven's gate.
After this the Sultan turned towards the young Prince and said, "O
youth, thou hast removed one grief only to add another grief; but now,
O my friend, where is she; and where is the mausoleum wherein lieth the
wounded slave?" "The slave lieth under yon dome," quoth the young man,
"and she sitteth in the chamber fronting yonder door. And every day at
sunrise she cometh forth, and first strippeth me, and whippeth me with
an hundred strokes of the leathern scourge, and I weep and shriek; but
there is no power of motion in my lower limbs to keep her off me. After
ending her tormenting me she visiteth the slave, bringing him wine and
boiled meats. And to-morrow at an early hour she will be here." Quoth
the King, "By Allah, O youth, I will assuredly do thee a good deed
which the world shall not willingly let die, and an act of derring-do
which shall be chronicled long after I am dead and gone by." Then the
King sat him by the side of the young Prince and talked till nightfall,
when he lay down and slept; but, as soon as the false dawn[133] showed,
he arose and doffing his outer garments[134] bared his blade and
hastened to the place wherein lay the slave. Then was he ware of
lighted candles and lamps, and the perfume of incenses and unguents;
and, directed by these, he made for the slave and struck him one stroke
killing him on the spot: after which he lifted him on his back and
threw him into a well that was in the palace. Presently he returned
and, donning the slave's gear, lay down at length within the mausoleum
with the drawn sword laid close to and along his side. After an hour or
so the accursed witch came; and, first going to her husband, she
stripped off his clothes and, taking a whip, flogged him cruelly while
he cried out, "Ah! enough for me the case I am in! take pity on me, O
my cousin!" But she replied, "Didst thou take pity on me and spare the
life of my true love on whom I doated?" Then she drew the cilice over
his raw and bleeding skin and threw the robe upon all and went down to
the slave with a goblet of wine and a bowl of meat-broth in her hands.
She entered under the dome weeping and wailing, "Well-away!" and
crying, "O my lord! speak a word to me! O my master! talk awhile with
me!" and began to recite these couplets:—
How long this harshness, this unlove, shall bide? ✿ Suffice thee not
tear-floods thou hast espied?
Thou dost prolong our parting purposely ✿ And if wouldst please my foe,
thou'rt satisfied!
Then she wept again and said, "O my lord! speak to me, talk with me!"
The King lowered his voice and, twisting his tongue, spoke after the
fashion of the blackamoors and said "'lack! 'lack! there be no Ma'esty
and there be no Might save in Allauh, the Gloriose, the Greät!" Now
when she heard these words she shouted for joy, and fell to the ground
fainting; and when her senses returned she asked, "O my lord, can it be
true that thou hast power of speech?" and the King making his voice
small and faint answered, "O my cuss! dost thou deserve that I talk to
thee and speak with thee?" "Why and wherefore?" rejoined she; and he
replied "The why is that all the livelong day thou tormentest thy
hubby; and he keeps calling on 'eaven for aid until sleep is strange to
me even from evenin' till mawnin', and he prays and damns, cussing us
two, me and thee, causing me disquiet and much bother: were this not
so, I should long ago have got my health; and it is this which prevents
my answering thee." Quoth she, "With thy leave I will release him from
what spell is on him;" and quoth the King, "Release him and let's have
some rest!" She cried, "To hear is to obey;" and, going from the
cenotaph to the palace, she took a metal bowl and filled it with water
and spake over it certain words which made the contents bubble and boil
as a cauldron seetheth over the fire. With this she sprinkled her
husband saying, "By virtue of the dread words I have spoken, if thou
becamest thus by my spells, come forth out of that form into thine own
former form." And lo and behold! the young man shook and trembled; then
he rose to his feet and, rejoicing at his deliverance, cried aloud, "I
testify that there is no god but _the_ God, and in very truth Mohammed
is His Apostle, whom Allah bless and keep!" Then she said to him, "Go
forth and return not hither, for if thou do I will surely slay thee;"
screaming these words in his face. So he went from between her hands;
and she returned to the dome and, going down to the sepulchre, she
said, "O my lord, come forth to me that I may look upon thee and thy
goodliness!" The King replied in faint low words, "What[135] thing hast
thou done? Thou hast rid me of the branch but not of the root." She
asked, "O my darling! O my negroling! what is the root?" And he
answered, "Fie on thee, O my cuss! The people of this city and of the
four islands every night when it's half passed lift their heads from
the tank in which thou hast turned them to fishes and cry to Heaven and
call down its anger on me and thee; and this is the reason why my
body's baulked from health. Go at once and set them free; then come to
me and take my hand, and raise me up, for a little strength is already
back in me." When she heard the King's words (and she still supposed
him to be the slave) she cried joyously, "O my master, on my head and
on my eyes be thy command, Bismillah[136]!" So she sprang to her feet
and, full of joy and gladness, ran down to the tarn and look a little
of its water In the palm of her hand—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn
of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Ninth Night,