writ men shall repeat:
Write, therefore, naught save what shall serve thee when ✿ Thou see't
on Judgment-Day an so thou see't!
Then I wrote in the character Naskh:—[233]
When to sore parting Fate our love shall doom, ✿ To distant life by
Destiny decreed,
We cause the inkhorn's lips to 'plain our pains, ✿ And tongue our
utterance with the talking reed.
And I wrote in the Túmár character[234]:—
Kingdom with none endures; if thou deny ✿ This truth, where be the
Kings of earlier earth?
Set trees of goodliness while rule endures, ✿ And when thou art fallen
they shall tell thy worth.
And I wrote in the character Muhakkak[235]:—
When oped the inkhorn of thy wealth and fame ✿ Take ink of generous
heart and gracious hand;
Write brave and noble deeds while write thou can ✿ And win thee praise
from point of pen and brand.
Then I gave the scroll to the officials and, after we all had written
our line, they carried it before the King. When he saw the paper no
writing pleased him save my writing; and he said to the assembled
courtiers, "Go seek the writer of these lines and dress him in a
splendid robe of honour; then mount him on a she-mule,[236] let a band
of music precede him and bring him to the presence." At these words
they smiled and the King was wroth with them and cried "O accursed! I
give you an order and you laugh at me?" "O King," replied they, "if we
laugh 'tis not at thee and not without a cause." "And what is it?"
asked he; and they answered, "O King, thou orderest us to bring to thy
presence the man who wrote these lines; now the truth is that he who
wrote them is not of the sons of Adam,[237] but an ape, a tail-less
baboon, belonging to the ship-Captain." Quoth he, "Is this true that
you say?" Quoth they "Yea! by the rights of thy munificence!" The King
marvelled at their words and shook with mirth and said, "I am minded to
buy this ape of the Captain." Then he sent messengers to the ship with
the mule, the dress, the guard and the state-drums, saying, "Not the
less do you clothe him in the robe of honour and mount him on the mule
and let him be surrounded by the guards and preceded by the band of
music." They came to the ship and took me from the Captain and robed me
in the robe of honour and, mounting me on the she-mule, carried me in
state-procession through the streets; whilst the people were amazed and
amused. And folk said to one another "Halloo! is our Sultan about to
make an ape his Minister?"; and came all agog crowding to gaze at me,
and the town was astir and turned topsy-turvy on my account. When they
brought me up to the King and set me in his presence, I kissed the
ground before him three times, and once before the High Chamberlain and
great officers, and he bade me be seated, and I sat respectfully on
shins and knees,[238] and all who were present marvelled at my fine
manners, and the King most of all. Thereupon he ordered the lieges to
retire; and, when none remained save the King's majesty, the Eunuch on
duty and a little white slave, he bade them set before me the table of
food, containing all manner of birds, whatever hoppeth and flieth and
treadeth in nest, such as quail and sand-grouse. Then he signed to me
to eat with him; so I rose and kissed ground before him, then sat me
down and ate with him. And when the table was removed I washed my hands
in seven waters and took the reed-case and reed; and wrote instead of
speaking these couplets:—
Wail for the little partridges on porringer and plate; ✿ Cry for the
ruin of the fries and stews well marinate:
Keen as I keen for loved, lost daughters of the Katá-grouse,[239] ✿ And
omelette round the fair enbrownèd fowls agglomerate:
O fire in heart of me for fish, those _deux poissons_ I saw, ✿ Bedded
on new made scones[240] and cakes in piles to laniate.
For thee, O vermicelli! aches my very maw! I hold ✿ Without thee every
taste and joy are clean annihilate.
Those eggs have rolled their yellow eyes in torturing pains of fire ✿
Ere served with hash and fritters hot, that delicatest cate,
Praisèd be Allah for His baked and roast and ah! how good ✿ This pulse,
these pot-herbs steeped in oil with eysill combinate!
When hunger sated was, I elbow-propt fell back upon ✿ Meat-pudding[241]
wherein gleamed the bangles that my wits amate.
Then woke I sleeping appetite to eat as though in sport ✿ Sweets from
brocaded trays and kickshaws most elaborate.
Be patient, soul of me! Time is a haughty, jealous wight; ✿ To-day he
seems dark-lowering and to-morrow fair to sight.[242]
Then I rose and seated myself at a respectful distance while the King
read what I had written, and marvelled, exclaiming, "O the miracle,
that an ape should be gifted with this graceful style and this power of
penmanship! By Allah, 'tis a wonder of wonders!"
Presently they set before the King choice wines in flagons of glass and
he drank: then he passed on the cup to me; and I kissed the ground and
drank and wrote on it:—
With fire they boilèd me to loose my tongue,[243] ✿ And pain and
patience gave for fellowship:
Hence comes it hands of men upbear me high ✿ And honey-dew from lips of
maid I sip!
And these also:—
Morn saith to Night, "withdraw and let me shine;" ✿ So drain we
draughts that dull all pain and pine:[244]
I doubt, so fine the glass, the wine so clear, ✿ If 'tis the wine in
glass or glass in wine.
The King read my verse and said with a sigh, "Were these gifts[245] in
a man, he would excel all the folk of his time and age!" Then he called
for the chess-board, and said, "Say, wilt thou play with me?"; and I
signed with my head, "Yes." Then I came forward and ordered the pieces
and played with him two games, both of which I won. He was speechless
with surprise; so I took the pen-case and, drawing forth a reed, wrote
on the board these two couplets:—
Two hosts fare fighting thro' the livelong day ✿ Nor is their battling
ever finishèd,
Until, when darkness girdeth them about, ✿ The twain go sleeping in a
single bed.[246]
The King read these lines with wonder and delight and said to his
Eunuch,[247] "O Mukbil, go to thy mistress, Sitt al-Husn,[248] and say
her, Come, speak the King who biddeth thee hither to take thy solace in
seeing this right wondrous ape!" So the Eunuch went out and presently
returned with the lady who, when she saw me veiled her face and said,
"O my father! hast thou lost all sense of honour? How cometh it thou
art pleased to send for me and show me to strange men?" "O Sitt
al-Husn," said he, "no man is here save this little foot-page and the
Eunuch who reared thee and I, thy father. From whom, then, dost thou
veil thy face?" She answered, "This whom thou deemest an ape is a young
man, a clever and polite, a wise and learned and the son of a King; but
he is ensorcelled and the Ifrit Jirjaris, who is of the seed of Iblis,
cast a spell upon him, after putting to death his own wife the daughter
of King Ifitamus lord of the Islands of Abnus." The King marvelled at
his daughter's words and, turning to me, said, "Is this true that she
saith of thee?"; and I signed by a nod of my head the answer "Yea,
verily;" and wept sore. Then he asked his daughter "Whence knewest thou
that he is ensorcelled?"; and she answered "O my dear papa, there was
with me in my childhood an old woman, a wily one and a wise and a witch
to boot, and she taught me the theory of magic and its practice; and I
took notes in writing and therein waxed perfect, and have committed to
memory an hundred and seventy chapters of egromantic formulas, by the
least of which I could transport the stones of thy city behind the
Mountain Kaf and the Circumambient Main,[249] or make its site an abyss
of the sea and its people fishes swimming in the midst of it." "O my
daughter," said her father, "I conjure thee, by my life, disenchant
this young man, that I may make him my Wazir and marry thee to him, for
indeed he is an ingenious youth and a deeply learned." "With joy and
goodly gree," she replied and, hending in hand an iron knife whereon
was inscribed the name of Allah in Hebrew characters, she described a
wide circle——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying
her permitted say.
Now when it was the Fourteenth Night,
[Illustration]
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Kalandar
continued his tale thus:—O my lady, the King's daughter hent in hand a
knife whereon were inscribed Hebrew characters and described a wide
circle in the midst of the palace-hall, and therein wrote in Cufic
letters mysterious names and talismans; and she uttered words and
muttered charms, some of which we understood and others we understood
not. Presently the world waxed dark before our sight till we thought
that the sky was falling upon our heads, and lo! the Ifrit presented
himself in his own shape and aspect. His hands were like many-pronged
pitchforks, his legs like the masts of great ships, and his eyes like
cressets of gleaming fire. We were in terrible fear of him but the
King's daughter cried at him, "No welcome to thee and no greeting, O
dog!" whereupon he changed to the form of a lion and said, "O
traitress, how is it thou hast broken the oath we sware that neither
should contraire other!" "O accursed one," answered she, "how could
there be a compact between me and the like of thee?" Then said he,
"Take what thou has brought on thyself;" and the lion opened his jaws
and rushed upon her; but she was too quick for him; and, plucking a
hair from her head, waved it in the air muttering over it the while;
and the hair straightway became a trenchant sword-blade, wherewith she
smote the lion and cut him in twain. Then the two halves flew away in
air and the head changed to a scorpion and the Princess became a huge
serpent and set upon the accursed scorpion, and the two fought, coiling
and uncoiling, a stiff fight for an hour at least. Then the scorpion
changed to a vulture and the serpent became an eagle which set upon the
vulture, and hunted him for an hour's time, till he became a black
tom-cat, which miauled and grinned and spat. Thereupon the eagle
changed into a piebald wolf and these two battled in the palace for a
long time, when the cat, seeing himself overcome, changed into a worm
and crept into a huge red pomegranate,[250] which lay beside the
jetting fountain in the midst of the palace hall. Whereupon the
pomegranate swelled to the size of a water-melon in air; and, falling
upon the marble pavement of the palace, broke to pieces, and all the
grains fell out and were scattered about till they covered the whole
floor. Then the wolf shook himself and became a snow-white cock, which
fell to picking up the grains purposing not to leave one; but by doom
of destiny one seed rolled to the fountain-edge and there lay hid. The
cock fell to crowing and clapping his wings and signing to us with his
beak as if to ask, "Are any grains left?" But we understood not what he
meant, and he cried to us with so loud a cry that we thought the palace
would fall upon us. Then he ran over all the floor till he saw the
grain which had rolled to the fountain edge, and rushed eagerly to pick
it up when behold, it sprang into the midst of the water and became a
fish and dived to the bottom of the basin. Thereupon the cock changed
to a big fish, and plunged in after the other, and the two disappeared
for a while and lo! we heard loud shrieks and cries of pain which made
us tremble. After this the Ifrit rose out of the water, and he was as a
burning flame; casting fire and smoke from his mouth and eyes and
nostrils. And immediately the Princess likewise came forth from the
basin and she was one live coal of flaming lowe; and these two, she and
he, battled for the space of an hour, until their fires entirely
compassed them about and their thick smoke filled the palace. As for us
we panted for breath, being well-nigh suffocated, and we longed to
plunge into the water fearing lest we be burnt up and utterly
destroyed; and the King said, "There is no Majesty and there is no
Might save in Allah the Glorious, the Great! Verily we are Allah's and
unto Him are we returning! Would Heaven I had not urged my daughter to
attempt the disenchantment of this ape-fellow, whereby I have imposed
upon her the terrible task of fighting yon accursed Ifrit against whom
all the Ifrits in the world could not prevail. And would Heaven we had
never seen this ape, Allah never assain nor bless the day of his
coming! We thought to do a good deed by him before the face of
Allah,[251] and to release him from enchantment, and now we have
brought this trouble and travail upon our heart." But I, O my lady, was
tongue-tied and powerless to say a word to him. Suddenly, ere we were
ware of aught, the Ifrit yelled out from under the flames and, coming
up to us as we stood on the estrade, blew fire in our faces. The damsel
overtook him and breathed blasts of fire at his face and the sparks
from her and from him rained down upon us, and her sparks did us no
harm, but one of his sparks alighted upon my eye and destroyed it
making me a monocular ape; and another fell on the King's face
scorching the lower half, burning off his beard and mustachios and
causing his under teeth to fall out; while a third alighted on the
Castrato's breast, killing him on the spot. So we despaired of life and
made sure of death when lo! a voice repeated the saying, "Allah is most
Highest! Allah is most Highest! Aidance and victory to all who the
Truth believe; and disappointment and disgrace to all who the religion
of Mohammed, the Moon of Faith, unbelieve," The speaker was the
Princess who had burnt the Ifrit, and he was become a heap of ashes.
Then she came up to us and said, "Reach me a cup of water." They
brought it to her and she spoke over it words we understood not, and
sprinkling me with it cried, "By virtue of the Truth, and by the Most
Great name of Allah, I charge thee return to thy former shape." And
behold, I shook and became a man as before, save that I had utterly
lost an eye. Then she cried out, "The fire! The fire! O my dear papa an
arrow from the accursed hath wounded me to the death, for I am not used
to fight with the Jann; had he been a man I had slain him in the
beginning. I had no trouble till the time when the pomegranate burst
and the grains scattered, but I overlooked the seed wherein was the
very life of the Jinni. Had I picked it up he had died on the spot, but
as Fate and Fortune decreed, I saw it not; so he came upon me all
unawares and there befel between him and me a sore struggle under the
earth and high in air and in the water; and, as often as I opened on
him a gate,[252] he opened on me another gate and a stronger, till at
last he opened on me the gate of fire, and few are saved upon whom the
door of fire openeth. But Destiny willed that my cunning prevail over
his cunning; and I burned him to death after I vainly exhorted him to
embrace the religion of Al-Islam. As for me I am a dead woman; Allah
supply my place to you!" Then she called upon Heaven for help and
ceased not to implore relief from the fire; when lo! a black spark shot
up from her robed feet to her thighs; then it flew to her bosom and
thence to her face. When it reached her face she wept and said, "I
testify that there is no god but _the_ God and that Mahommed is the
Apostle of God!" And we looked at her and saw naught but a heap of
ashes by the side of the heap that had been the Ifrit. We mourned for
her and I wished I had been in her place, so had I not seen her lovely
face who had worked me such weal become ashes; but there is no
gainsaying the will of Allah. When the King saw his daughter's terrible
death, he plucked out what was left of his beard and beat his face and
rent his raiment; and I did as he did and we both wept over her. Then
came in the Chamberlains and Grandees and were amazed to find two heaps
of ashes and the Sultan in a fainting fit; so they stood round him till
he revived and told them what had befallen his daughter from the Ifrit;
whereat their grief was right grievous and the women and the
slave-girls shrieked and keened,[253] and they continued their
lamentations for the space of seven days. Moreover the King bade build
over his daughter's ashes a vast vaulted tomb, and burn therein wax
tapers and sepulchral lamps: but as for the Ifrit's ashes they
scattered them on the winds, speeding them to the curse of Allah. Then
the Sultan fell sick of a sickness that well nigh brought him to his
death for a month's space; and, when health returned to him and his
beard grew again and he had been converted by the mercy of Allah to
Al-Islam, he sent for me and said, "O youth, Fate had decreed for us
the happiest of lives, safe from all the chances and changes of Time,
till thou camest to us, when troubles fell upon us. Would to Heaven we
had never seen thee and the foul face of thee! For we took pity on thee
and thereby we have lost our all. I have on thy account first lost my
daughter who to me was well worth an hundred men; secondly I have
suffered that which befel me by reason of the fire and the loss of my
teeth, and my Eunuch also was slain. I blame thee not, for it was out
of thy power to prevent this: the doom of Allah was on thee as well as
on us and thanks be to the Almighty for that my daughter delivered
thee, albeit thereby she lost her own life! Go forth now, O my son,
from this my city, and suffice thee what hath befallen us through thee,
even although 'twas decreed for us. Go forth in peace; and if I ever
see thee again I will surely slay thee." And he cried out at me. So I
went forth from his presence, O my lady, weeping bitterly and hardly
believing in my escape and knowing not whither I should wend. And I
recalled all that had befallen me, my meeting the tailor, my love for
the damsel in the palace beneath the earth, and my narrow escape from
the Ifrit, even after he had determined to do me die; and how I had
entered the city as an ape and was now leaving it a man once more. Then
I gave thanks to Allah and said, "My eye and not my life!" and before
leaving the place I entered the bath and shaved my poll and beard and
mustachios and eyebrows; and cast ashes on my head and donned the
coarse black woollen robe of a Kalandar. Then I fared forth, O my lady,
and every day I pondered all the calamities which had betided me, and I
wept and repeated these couplets:—
"I am distraught, yet verily His ruth abides with me, ✿ Tho' round me
gather hosts of ills, whence come I cannot see:
Patient I'll be till Patience self with me impatient wax; ✿ Patient for
ever till the Lord fulfil my destiny:
Patient I'll bide without complaint, a wronged and vanquisht man; ✿
Patient as sunparcht wight that spans the desert's sandy sea:
Patient I'll be till Aloe's[254] self unwittingly allow ✿ I'm patient
under bitterer things than bitterest aloë:
No bitterer things than aloes or than patience for mankind; ✿ Yet
bitterer than the twain to me were Patience' treachery:
My sere and seamed and seared brow would dragoman my sore ✿ If soul
could search my sprite and there unsecret secrecy:
Were hills to bear the load I bear they'd crumble 'neath the weight; ✿
'Twould still the roaring wind, 'twould quench the flame-tongue's
flagrancy,
And whoso saith the world is sweet certès a day he'll see ✿ With more
than aloes' bitterness and aloes' pungency."
Then I journeyed through many regions and saw many a city intending for
Baghdad, that I might seek audience, in the House of Peace,[255] with
the Commander of the Faithful and tell him all that had befallen me. I
arrived here this very night and found my brother in Allah, this first
Kalandar, standing about as one perplexed; so I saluted him with "Peace
be upon thee," and entered into discourse with him. Presently up came
our brother, this third Kalandar, and said to us, "Peace be with you! I
am a stranger;" whereto we replied, "And we too be strangers, who have
come hither this blessed night." So we all three walked on together,
none of us knowing the other's history, till Destiny drave us to this
door and we came in to you. Such then is my story and my reason for
shaving my beard and mustachios, and this is what caused the loss of my
eye. Said the house-mistress "Thy tale is indeed a rare; so rub thy
head and wend thy ways;" but he replied, "I will not budge till I hear
my companions' stories." Then came forward the third Kalandar, and
said, "O illustrious lady! my history is not like that of these my
comrades, but more wondrous and far more marvellous. In their case Fate
and Fortune came down on them unawares; but I drew down destiny upon my
own head and brought sorrow on mine own soul, and shaved my own beard
and lost my own eye. Hear then"
_THE THIRD KALANDAR'S TALE._