of copper burnished red which, when the rising sun shone thereon,
gleamed and glistened from afar showing what had seemed to me a fire. I
rejoiced in the sight, and sat down over against the gate, but I was
hardly settled in my seat before there met me ten young men clothed in
sumptuous gear and all were blind of the left eye which appeared as
plucked out. They were accompanied by a Shaykh, an old, old man, and
much I marvelled at their appearance, and their all being blind of the
same eye. When they saw me, they saluted me with the Salam and asked me
of my case and my history; whereupon I related to them all what had
befallen me, and what full measure of misfortune was mine. Marvelling
at my tale they took me to the mansion, where I saw ranged round the
hall ten couches each with its blue bedding and coverlet of blue
stuff[283] and amiddlemost stood a smaller couch furnished like them
with blue and nothing else. As we entered each of the youths took his
seat on his own couch and the old man seated himself upon the smaller
one in the middle saying to me, "O youth, sit thee down on the floor
and ask not of our case nor of the loss of our eyes." Presently he rose
up and set before each young man some meat in a charger and drink in a
large mazer, treating me in like manner; and after that they sat
questioning me concerning my adventures and what had betided me: and I
kept telling them my tale till the night was far spent. Then said the
young men, "O our Shaykh, wilt not thou set before us our ordinary? The
time is come." He replied, "With love and gladness," and rose and
entering a closet disappeared, but presently returned bearing on his
head ten trays each covered with a strip of blue stuff. He set a tray
before each, youth and, lighting ten wax candles, he stuck one upon
each tray, and drew off the covers and lo! under them was naught but
ashes and powdered charcoal and kettle soot. Then all the young men
tucked up their sleeves to the elbows and fell a-weeping and wailing
and they blackened their faces and smeared their clothes and buffetted
their brows and beat their breasts, continually exclaiming, "We were
sitting at our ease but our frowardness brought us unease!" They ceased
not to do thus till dawn drew nigh, when the old man rose and heated
water for them; and they washed their faces, and donned other and clean
clothes. Now when I saw this, O my lady, for very wonderment my senses
left me and my wits went wild and heart and head were full of thought,
till I forgot what had betided me and I could not keep silence feeling
I fain must speak out and question them of these strangenesses; so I
said to them, "How come ye to do this after we have been so
open-hearted and frolicksome? Thanks be to Allah ye be all sound and
sane, yet actions such as these befit none but mad men or those
possessed of an evil spirit. I conjure you by all that is dearest to
you, why stint ye to tell me your history, and the cause of your losing
your eyes and your blackening your faces with ashes and soot?" Hereupon
they turned to me and said, "O young man, hearken not to thy
youthtide's suggestions and question us no questions." Then they slept
and I with them and when they awoke the old man brought us somewhat of
food; and, after we had eaten and the plates and goblets had been
removed, they sat conversing till nightfall when the old man rose and
lit the wax candles and lamps and set meat and drink before us. After
we had eaten and drunken we sat conversing and carousing in
companionage till the noon of night, when they said to the old man,
"Bring us our ordinary, for the hour of sleep is at hand!" So he rose
and brought them the trays of soot and ashes; and they did as they had
done on the preceding night, nor more, nor less. I abode with them
after this fashion for the space of a month during which time they used
to blacken their faces with ashes every night, and to wash and change
their raiment when the morn was young; and I but marvelled the more and
my scruples and curiosity increased to such a point that I had to
forego even food and drink. At last, I lost command of myself, for my
heart was aflame with fire unquenchable and lowe unconcealable and I
said, "O young men, will ye not relieve my trouble and acquaint me with
the reason of thus blackening your faces and the meaning of your
words:—We were sitting at our ease but our frowardness brought us
unease?" Quoth they "'Twere better to keep these things secret." Still
I was bewildered by their doings to the point of abstaining from eating
and drinking and, at last wholly losing patience, quoth I to them,
"There is no help for it: ye must acquaint me with what is the reason
of these doings." They replied, "We kept our secret only for thy good:
to gratify thee will bring down evil upon thee and thou wilt become a
monocular even as we are." I repeated, "There is no help for it and, if
ye will not, let me leave you and return to mine own people and be at
rest from seeing these things, for the proverb saith:—
Better ye 'bide and I take my leave: ✿ For what eye sees not heart
shall never grieve."
Thereupon they said to me, "Remember, O youth, that should ill befal
thee we will not again harbour thee nor suffer thee to abide amongst
us;" and bringing a ram they slaughtered it and skinned it. Lastly they
gave me a knife saying, "Take this skin and stretch thyself upon it and
we will sew it around thee; presently there shall come to thee a
certain bird, hight Rukh,[284] that will catch thee up in his pounces
and tower high in air and then set thee down on a mountain. When thou
feelest he is no longer flying, rip open the pelt with this blade and
come out of it; the bird will be scared and will fly away and leave
thee free. After this fare for half a day, and the march will place
thee at a palace wondrous fair to behold, towering high in air and
builded of Khalanj,[285] lign-aloes and sandal-wood, plated with red
gold, and studded with all manner emeralds and costly gems fit for
seal-rings. Enter it and thou shalt win to thy wish for we have all
entered that palace; and such is the cause of our losing our eyes and
of our blackening our faces. Were we now to tell thee our stories it
would take too long a time; for each and every of us lost his left eye
by an adventure of his own." I rejoiced at their words and they did
with me as they said; and the bird Rukh bore me off and set me down on
the mountain. Then I came out of the skin and walked on till I reached
the palace. The door stood open as I entered and found myself in a
spacious and goodly hall, wide exceedingly, even as a horse-course; and
around it were an hundred chambers with doors of sandal and aloes woods
plated with red gold and furnished with silver rings by way of
knockers.[286] At the head or upper end[287] of the hall I saw forty
damsels, sumptuously dressed and ornamented and one and all bright as
moons; none could ever tire of gazing upon them and all so lovely that
the most ascetic devotee on seeing them would become their slave and
obey their will. When they saw me the whole bevy came up to me and said
"Welcome and well come and good cheer[288] to thee, O our lord! This
whole month have we been expecting thee. Praised be Allah who hath sent
us one who is worthy of us, even as we are worthy of him!" Then they
made me sit down upon a high divan and said to me, "This day thou art
our lord and master, and we are thy servants and thy handmaids, so
order us as thou wilt." And I marvelled at their case. Presently one of
them arose and set meat before me and I ate and they ate with me;
whilst others warmed water and washed my hands and feet and changed my
clothes, and others made ready sherbets and gave us to drink; and all
gathered around me being full of joy and gladness at my coming. Then
they sat down and conversed with me till nightfall, when five of them
arose and laid the trays and spread them with flowers and fragrant
herbs and fruits, fresh and dried, and confections in profusion. At
last they brought out a fine wine-service with rich old wine; and we
sat down to drink and some sang songs and others played the lute and
psaltery and recorders and other instruments, and the bowl went merrily
round. Hereupon such gladness possessed me that I forgot the sorrows of
the world one and all and said, "This is indeed life; O sad that 'tis
fleeting!" I enjoyed their company till the time came for rest; and our
heads were all warm with wine, when they said, "O our lord, choose from
amongst us her who shall be thy bed-fellow this night and not lie with
thee again till forty days be past." So I chose a girl fair of face and
perfect in shape, with eyes Kohl-edged by nature's hand;[289] hair long
and jet black with slightly parted teeth[290] and joining brows: 'twas
as if she were some limber graceful branchlet or the slender stalk of
sweet basil to amaze and to bewilder man's fancy; even as the poet said
of such an one:—
To even her with greeny bough were vain ✿ Fool he who finds her
beauties in the roe:
When hath the roe those lively lovely limbs ✿ Or honey dews those lips
alone bestow?
Those eyne, soul-piercing eyne, which slay with love, ✿ Which bind the
victim by their shafts laid low?
My heart to second childhood they beguiled ✿ No wonder: love-sick man
again is child!
And I repeated to her the maker's words who said:—
None other charms but thine shall greet mine eyes, ✿ Nor other image
can my heart surprize:
Thy love, my lady, captives all my thoughts ✿ And on that love I'll die
and I'll arise.
So I lay with her that night; none fairer I ever knew; and, when it was
morning, the damsels carried me to the Hammam-bath and bathed me and
robed me in fairest apparel. Then they served up food, and we ate and
drank and the cup went round till nightfall when I chose from among
them one fair of form and face, soft-sided and a model of grace, such
an one as the poet described when he said:—
On her fair bosom caskets twain I scanned, ✿ Sealed fast with
musk-seals lovers to withstand;
With arrowy glances stand on guard her eyes, ✿ Whose shafts would shoot
who dares put forth a hand.
With her I spent a most goodly night; and, to be brief, O my mistress,
I remained with them in all solace and delight of life, eating and
drinking, conversing and carousing and every night lying with one or
other of them. But at the head of the new year they came to me in tears
and bade me farewell, weeping and crying out and clinging about me;
whereat I wondered and said, "What may be the matter? verily you break
my heart!" They exclaimed, "Would Heaven we had never known thee; for,
though we have companied with many, yet never saw we a pleasanter than
thou or a more courteous." And they wept again. "But tell me more
clearly," asked I, "what causeth this weeping which maketh my
gall-bladder[291] like to burst;" and they answered, "O our lord and
master, it is severance which maketh us weep; and thou, and thou only,
art the cause of our tears. If thou hearken to us we need never be
parted and if thou hearken not we part for ever; but our hearts tell us
that thou wilt not listen to our words and this is the cause of our
tears and cries." "Tell me how the case standeth?" "Know, O our lord,
that we are the daughters of Kings who have met here and have lived
together for years; and once in every year we are perforce absent for
forty days and afterwards we return and abide here for the rest of the
twelvemonth eating and drinking and taking our pleasure and enjoying
delights: we are about to depart according to our custom; and we fear
lest after we be gone thou contraire our charge and disobey our
injunctions. Here now we commit to thee the keys of the palace which
containeth forty chambers and thou mayest open of these thirty and
nine, but beware (and we conjure thee by Allah and by the lives of us!)
lest thou open the fortieth door, for therein is that which shall
separate us for ever."[292] Quoth I, "Assuredly I will not open it, if
it contain the cause of severance from you." Then one among them came
up to me and falling on my neck wept and recited these verses:—
"If Time unite us after absent-while, ✿ The world harsh frowning on our
lot shall smile;
And if thy semblance deign adorn mine eyes,[293] ✿ I'll pardon Time
past wrongs and by-gone guile."
And I recited the following:—
"When drew she near to bid adieu with heart unstrung, ✿ While care and
longing on that day her bosom wrung;
Wet pearls she wept and mine like red carnelians rolled ✿ And, joined
in sad _rivière_, around her neck they hung."
When I saw her weeping I said, "By Allah I will never open that
fortieth door, never and no wise!" and I bade her farewell. Thereupon
all departed flying away like birds; signalling with their hands
farewells as they went and leaving me alone in the palace. When evening
drew near I opened the door of the first chamber and entering it found
myself in a place like one of the pleasaunces of Paradise. It was a
garden with trees of freshest green and ripe fruits of yellow sheen;
and its birds were singing clear and keen and rills ran wimpling
through the fair terrene. The sight and sounds brought solace to my
sprite; and I walked among the trees, and I smelt the breath of the
flowers on the breeze; and heard the birdies sing their melodies
hymning the One, the Almighty in sweetest litanies; and I looked upon
the apple whose hue is parcel red and parcel yellow; as said the poet:—
Apple whose hue combines in union mellow ✿ My fair's red cheek, her
hapless lover's yellow.
Then I looked upon the quince, and inhaled its fragrance which putteth
to shame musk and ambergris, even as the poet hath said:—
Quince every taste conjoins; in her are found ✿ Gifts which for queen
of fruits the Quince have crowned;
Her taste is wine, her scent the waft of musk; ✿ Pure gold her hue, her
shape the Moon's fair round.
Then I looked upon the pear whose taste surpasseth sherbet and sugar;
and the apricot[294] whose beauty striketh the eye with admiration, as
if she were a polished ruby. Then I went out of the place and locked
the door as it was before. When it was the morrow I opened the second
door; and entering found myself in a spacious plain set with tall
date-palms and watered by a running stream whose banks were shrubbed
with bushes of rose and jasmine, while privet and eglantine, oxe-eye,
violet and lily, narcissus, origane and the winter gilliflower carpeted
the borders; and the breath of the breeze swept over these
sweet-smelling growths diffusing their delicious odours right and left,
perfuming the world and filling my soul with delight. After taking my
pleasure there awhile I went from it and, having closed the door as it
was before, opened the third door wherein I saw a high open hall
pargetted with particoloured marbles and _pietra dura_ of price and
other precious stones, and hung with cages of sandal-wood and
eagle-wood; full of birds which made sweet music, such as the
"Thousand-voiced,"[295] and the cushat, the merle, the turtle-dove and
the Nubian ring-dove. My heart was filled with pleasure thereby; my
grief was dispelled and I slept in that aviary till dawn. Then I
unlocked the door of the fourth chamber and therein found a grand
saloon with forty smaller chambers giving upon it. All their doors
stood open: so I entered and found them full of pearls and jacinths and
beryls and emeralds and corals and carbuncles, and all manner precious
gems and jewels, such as tongue of man may not describe. My thought was
stunned at the sight and I said to myself, "These be things methinks
united which could not be found save in the treasuries of a King of
Kings, nor could the monarchs of the world have collected the like of
these!" And my heart dilated and my sorrows ceased, "For," quoth I,
"now verily am I the monarch of the age, since by Allah's grace this
enormous wealth is mine; and I have forty damsels under my hand nor is
there any to claim them save myself." Then I gave not over opening
place after place until nine and thirty days were passed and in that
time I had entered every chamber except that one whose door the
Princesses had charged me not to open. But my thoughts, O my mistress,
ever ran on that forbidden fortieth[296] and Satan urged me to open it
for my own undoing; nor had I patience to forbear, albeit there wanted
of the trysting time but a single day. So I stood before the chamber
aforesaid and, after a moment's hesitation, opened the door which was
plated with red gold, and entered. I was met by a perfume whose like I
had never before smelt; and so sharp and subtle was the odour that it
made my senses drunken as with strong wine, and I fell to the ground in
a fainting fit which lasted a full hour. When I came to myself I
strengthened my heart and, entering, found myself in a chamber whose
floor was bespread with saffron and blazing with light from branched
candelabra of gold and lamps fed with costly oils, which diffused the
scent of musk and ambergris. I saw there also two great censers each
big as a mazer-bowl,[297] flaming with lign-aloes, nadd-perfume,[298]
ambergris and honied scents; and the place was full of their fragrance.
Presently, O my lady, I espied a noble steed, black as the murks of
night when murkiest, standing, ready saddled and bridled (and his
saddle was of red gold) before two mangers, one of clear crystal
wherein was husked sesame, and the other also of crystal containing
water of the rose scented with musk. When I saw this I marvelled and
said to myself, "Doubtless in this animal must be some wondrous
mystery;" and Satan cozened me, so I led him without the palace and
mounted him; but he would not stir from his place. So I hammered his
sides with my heels, but he moved not, and then I took the
rein-whip[299] and struck him withal. When he felt the blow, he neighed
a neigh with a sound like deafening thunder and, opening a pair of
wings[300] flew up with me in the firmament of heaven far beyond the
eyesight of man. After a full hour of flight he descended and alighted
on a terrace roof and shaking me off his back lashed me on the face
with his tail and gouged out my left eye causing it roll along my
cheek. Then he flew away. I went down from the terrace and found myself
again amongst the ten one-eyed youths sitting upon their ten couches
with blue covers; and they cried out when they saw me, "No welcome to
thee, nor aught of good cheer! We all lived of lives the happiest and
we ate and drank of the best; upon brocades and cloths of gold we took
our rest, and we slept with our heads on beauty's breast, but we could
not await one day to gain the delights of a year!" Quoth I, "Behold I
have become one like unto you and now I would have you bring me a tray
full of blackness, wherewith to blacken my face, and receive me into
your society." "No, by Allah," quoth they, "thou shalt not sojourn with
us and now get thee hence!" So they drove me away. Finding them reject
me thus I foresaw that matters would go hard with me, and I remembered
the many miseries which Destiny had written upon my forehead; and I
fared forth from among them heavy-hearted and tearful-eyed, repeating
to myself these words, "I was sitting at mine ease but my frowardness
brought me to unease." Then I shaved beard and mustachios and eyebrows,
renouncing the world, and wandered in Kalandar-garb about Allah's
earth; and the Almighty decreed safety for me till I arrived at
Baghdad, which was on the evening of this very night. Here I met these
two other Kalandars standing bewildered; so I saluted them saying, "I
am a stranger!" and they answered, "And we likewise be strangers!" By
the freak of Fortune we were like to like, three Kalandars and three
monoculars all blind of the left eye. Such, O my lady, is the cause of
the shearing of my beard and the manner of my losing an eye. Said the
lady to him, "Rub thy head and wend thy ways;" but he answered, "By
Allah, I will not go until I hear the stories of these others." Then
the lady, turning towards the Caliph and Ja'afar and Masrur, said to
them, "Do ye also give an account of yourselves, you men!" Whereupon
Ja'afar stood forth and told her what he had told the portress as they
were entering the house; and when she heard his story of their being
merchants and Mosul-men who had outrun the watch, she said, "I grant
you your lives each for each sake, and now away with you all." So they
all went out and when they were in the street, quoth the Caliph to the
Kalandars, "O company, whither go ye now, seeing that the morning hath
not yet dawned?" Quoth they, "By Allah, O our lord, we know not where
to go." "Come and pass the rest of the night with us," said the Caliph
and, turning to Ja'afar, "Take them home with thee and to-morrow bring
them to my presence that we may chronicle their adventures." Ja'afar
did as the Caliph bade him and the Commander of the Faithful returned
to his palace; but sleep gave no sign of visiting him that night and he
lay awake pondering the mishaps of the three Kalandar-princes and
impatient to know the history of the ladies and the two black bitches.
No sooner had morning dawned than he went forth and sat upon the throne
of his sovereignty; and, turning to Ja'afar, after all his Grandees and
Officers of state were gathered together, he said, "Bring me the three
ladies and the two bitches and the three Kalandars." So Ja'afar fared
forth and brought them all before him (and the ladies were veiled);
then the Minister turned to them and said in the Caliph's name, "We
pardon you your maltreatment of us and your want of courtesy, in
consideration of the kindness which forewent it, and for that ye knew
us not: now however I would have you to know that ye stand in presence
of the fifth[301] of the sons of Abbas, Harun al-Rashid, brother of
Caliph Músá al-Hádi, son of Al-Mansúr; son of Mohammed the brother of
Al-Saffáh bin Mohammed who was first of the royal house. Speak ye
therefore before him the truth and the whole truth!" When the ladies
heard Ja'afar's words touching the Commander of the Faithful, the
eldest came forward and said, "O Prince of True Believers, my story is
one which, were it graven with needle-gravers upon the eye-corners were
a warner for whoso would be warned and an example for whoso can take
profit from example."——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Seventeenth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that she stood forth
before the Commander of the Faithful and began to tell
_THE ELDEST LADY'S TALE._