case in the nick of need:
So live for thyself nursing hope of none ✿ Such counsel I give thee:
enow, take heed!
The SECOND BEHEST is, O my son: Deal harshly with none lest fortune
with thee deal hardly; for the fortune of this world is one day with
thee and another day against thee and all worldly goods are but a loan
to be repaid. And I have heard a poet say:—
Take thought nor haste to win the thing thou wilt; ✿ Have ruth on man
for ruth thou may'st require:
No hand is there but Allah's hand is higher; ✿ No tyrant but shall rue
worse tyrant's ire!
The THIRD BEHEST is, Learn to be silent in society and let thine own
faults distract thine attention from the faults of other men: for it is
said:—In silence dwelleth safety, and thereon I have heard the lines
that tell us:—
Reserve's a jewel, Silence safety is; ✿ Whenas thou speakest many a
word withhold:
For an of Silence thou repent thee once, ✿ Of speech thou shalt repent
times manifold.
The FOURTH BEHEST, O my son, is Beware of wine-bibbing, for wine is the
head of all frowardness and a fine solvent of human wits. So shun, and
again I say, shun mixing strong liquor; for I have heard a poet
say:—[392]
From wine[393] I turn and whoso wine-cups swill; ✿ Becoming one of
those who deem it ill:
Wine driveth man to miss salvation-way,[394] ✿ And opes the gateway
wide to sins that kill.
The FIFTH BEHEST, O my son, is Keep thy wealth and it will keep thee;
guard thy money and it will guard thee; and waste not thy substance
lest haply thou come to want and must fare a-begging from the meanest
of mankind. Save thy dirhams and deem them the sovereignest salve for
the wounds of the world. And here again I have heard that one of the
poets said:—
When fails my wealth no friend will deign befriend: ✿ When wealth
abounds all friends their friendship tender:
How many friends lent aid my wealth to spend; ✿ But friends to lack of
wealth no friendship render.
On this wise Nur al-Din ceased not to counsel his son Badr al-Din Hasan
till his hour came and, sighing one sobbing sigh, his life went forth.
Then the voice of mourning and keening rose high in his house and the
Sultan and all the grandees grieved for him and buried him; but his son
ceased not lamenting his loss for two months, during which he never
mounted horse, nor attended the Divan nor presented himself before the
Sultan. At last the King, being wroth with him, stablished in his stead
one of his Chamberlains and made him Wazir, giving orders to seize and
set seals on all Nur al-Din's houses and goods and domains. So the new
Wazir went forth with a mighty posse of Chamberlains and people of the
Divan, and watchmen and a host of idlers to do this and to seize Badr
al-Din Hasan and carry him before the King, who would deal with him as
he deemed fit. Now there was among the crowd of followers a Mameluke of
the deceased Wazir who, when he had heard this order, urged his horse
and rode at full speed to the house of Badr al-Din Hasan; for he could
not endure to see the ruin of his old master's son. He found him
sitting at the gate with head hung down and sorrowing, as was his wont,
for the loss of his father; so he dismounted and kissing his hand said
to him, "O my lord and son of my lord, haste ere ruin come and lay
waste!" When Hasan heard this he trembled and asked, "What may be the
matter?"; and the man answered, "The Sultan is angered with thee and
hath issued a warrant against thee, and evil cometh hard upon my track;
so flee with thy life!" At these words Hasan's heart flamed with the
fire of bale, and his rose-red cheek turned pale, and he said to the
Mameluke, "O my brother, is there time for me to go in and get me some
worldly gear which may stand me in stead during my strangerhood?" But
the slave replied, "O my lord, up at once and save thyself and leave
this house, while it is yet time." And he quoted these lines:—
Escape with thy life, if oppression betide thee, ✿ And let the house
tell of its builder's fate!
Country for country thou'lt find, if thou seek it; ✿ Life for life
never, early or late.
It is strange men should dwell in the house of abjection, ✿ When the
plain of God's earth is so wide and so great![395]
At these words of the Mameluke, Badr al-Din covered his head with the
skirt of his garment and went forth on foot till he stood outside of
the city, where he heard folk saying, "The Sultan hath sent his new
Wazir to the house of the old Wazir, now no more, to seal his property
and seize his son Badr al-Din Hasan and take him before the presence,
that he may put him to death;" and all cried, "Alas for his beauty and
his loveliness!" When he heard this he fled forth at hazard, knowing
not whither he was going, and gave not over hurrying onwards till
Destiny drove him to his father's tomb. So he entered the cemetery and,
threading his way through the graves, at last he reached the sepulchre
where he sat down and let fall from his head the skirt of his long
robe[396] which was made of brocade with a gold-embroidered hem whereon
were worked these couplets:—
O thou whose forehead, like the radiant East, ✿ Tells of the stars of
Heaven and bounteous dews:
Endure thine honour to the latest day, ✿ And Time thy growth of glory
ne'er refuse!
While he was sitting by his father's tomb behold, there came to him a
Jew as he were a Shroff,[397] a money-changer, with a pair of
saddle-bags containing much gold, who accosted him and kissed his hand,
saying, "Whither bound, O my lord: 'tis late in the day and thou art
clad but lightly and I read signs of trouble in thy face?" "I was
sleeping within this very hour," answered Hasan, "when my father
appeared to me and chid me for not having visited his tomb; so I awoke
trembling and came hither forthright lest the day should go by without
my visiting him, which would have been grievous to me." "O my lord,"
rejoined the Jew[398] "thy father had many merchantmen at sea and, as
some of them are now due, it is my wish to buy of thee the cargo of the
first ship that cometh into port with this thousand dinars of gold." "I
consent," quoth Hasan, whereupon the Jew took out a bag full of gold
and counted out a thousand sequins which he gave to Hasan, the son of
the Wazir, saying, "Write me a letter of sale and seal it." So Hasan
took a pen and paper and wrote these words in duplicate, "The writer,
Hasan Badr al-Din, son of Wazir Nur al-Din, hath sold to Isaac the Jew
all the cargo of the first of his father's ships which cometh into
port, for a thousand dinars, and he hath received the price in
advance." And after he had taken one copy the Jew put it into his pouch
and went away; but Hasan fell a-weeping as he thought of the dignity
and prosperity which had erst been his and he began reciting:—
This house, my lady, since you left is now a home no more ✿ For me, nor
neighbours, since you left, prove kind and neighbourly:
The friend, whilere I took to heart, alas! no more to me ✿ Is friend;
and even Luna's self displayeth lunacy:
You left and by your going left the world a waste, a wold, ✿ And lies a
gloomy murk upon the face of hill and lea:
O may the raven-bird whose cry our hapless parting croaked ✿ Find ne'er
a nesty home and eke shed all his plumery!
At length my patience fails me; and this absence wastes my flesh; ✿ How
many a veil by severance rent our eyes are doomèd see:
Ah! shall I ever sight again our fair past nights of yore; ✿ And shall
a single house become a home for me once more?
Then he wept with exceeding weeping and night came upon him; so he
leant his head against his father's grave and sleep overcame him: Glory
to Him who sleepeth not! He ceased not slumbering till the moon rose,
when his head slipped from off the tomb and he lay on his back, with
limbs outstretched, his face shining bright in the moonlight. Now the
cemetery was haunted day and night by Jinns who were of the True
Believers, and presently came out a Jinniyah who, seeing Hasan asleep,
marvelled at his beauty and loveliness and cried, "Glory to God! this
youth can be none other than one of the Wuldán of Paradise."[399] Then
she flew firmament-wards to circle it, as was her custom, and met an
Ifrit on the wing who saluted her and she said to him, "Whence comest
thou?" "From Cairo," he replied. "Wilt thou come with me and look upon
the beauty of a youth who sleepeth in yonder burial place?" she asked,
and he answered, "I will." So they flew till they lighted at the tomb
and she showed him the youth and said, "Now diddest thou ever in thy
born days see aught like this?" The Ifrit looked upon him and
exclaimed, "Praise be to Him that hath no equal! But, O my sister,
shall I tell thee what I have seen this day?" Asked she, "What is
that?" and he answered, "I have seen the counterpart of this youth in
the land of Egypt. She is the daughter of the Wazir Shams al-Din and
she is a model of beauty and loveliness, of fairest favour and formous
form, and dight with symmetry and perfect grace. When she had reached
the age of nineteen,[400] the Sultan of Egypt heard of her and, sending
for the Wazir her father, said to him:—Hear me, O Wazir: it hath
reached mine ear that thou hast a daughter and I wish to demand her of
thee in marriage. The Wazir replied:—O our lord the Sultan, deign
accept my excuses and take compassion on my sorrows, for thou knowest
that my brother, who was partner with me in the Wazirate, disappeared
from amongst us many years ago and we wot not where he is. Now the
cause of his departure was that one night, as we were sitting together
and talking of wives and children to come, we had words on the matter
and he went off in high dudgeon. But I swore that I would marry my
daughter to none save to the son of my brother on the day her mother
gave her birth, which was nigh upon nineteen years ago. I have lately
heard that my brother died at Bassorah, where he had married the
daughter of the Wazir and that she bare him a son; and I will not marry
my daughter but to him in honour of my brother's memory I recorded the
date of my marriage and the conception of my wife and the birth of my
daughter; and from her horoscope I find that her name is conjoined with
that of her cousin;[401] and there are damsels in foison for our lord
the Sultan. The King, hearing his Minister's answer and refusal, waxed
wroth with exceeding wrath and cried:—When the like of me asketh a girl
in marriage of the like of thee, he conferreth an honour, and thou
rejectest me and puttest me off with cold[402] excuses! Now, by the
life of my head I will marry her to the meanest of my men in spite of
the nose of thee![403] There was in the palace a horse-groom which was
a Gobbo with a bunch to his breast and a hunch to his back; and the
Sultan sent for him and married him to the daughter of the Wazir, lief
or loath, and hath ordered a pompous marriage procession for him and
that he go in to his bride this very night. I have now just flown
hither from Cairo, where I left the Hunchback at the door of the
Hammam-bath amidst the Sultan's white slaves who were waving lighted
flambeaux about him. As for the Minister's daughter she sitteth among
her nurses and tirewomen, weeping and wailing; for they have forbidden
her father to come near her. Never have I seen, O my sister, more
hideous being than this Hunchback[404] whilst the young lady is the
likest of all folk to this young man, albeit even fairer than he."——And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted
say.
Now when it was the Twenty-Second Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Jinni
narrated to the Jinniyah how the King had caused the wedding contract
to be drawn up between the hunchbacked groom and the lovely young lady
who was heart-broken for sorrow; and how she was the fairest of created
things and even more beautiful than this youth, the Jinniyah cried at
him "Thou liest! this youth is handsomer than any one of his day." The
Ifrit gave her the lie again, adding, "By Allah, O my sister, the
damsel I speak of is fairer than this; yet none but he deserveth her,
for they resemble each other like brother and sister or at least
cousins. And, well-away! how she is wasted upon that Hunchback!" Then
said she, "O my brother, let us get under him and lift him up and carry
him to Cairo, that we may compare him with the damsel of whom thou
speakest and so determine whether of the twain is the fairer." "To hear
is to obey!" replied he, "thou speakest to the point; nor is there a
righter recking than this of thine, and I myself will carry him." So he
raised him from the ground and flew with him like a bird soaring in
upper air, the Ifritah keeping close by his side at equal speed, till
he alighted with him in the city of Cairo and set him down on a stone
bench and woke him up. He roused himself and finding that he was no
longer at his father's tomb in Bassorah-city he looked right and left
and saw that he was in a strange place; and he would have cried out;
but the Ifrit gave him a cuff which persuaded him to keep silence. Then
he brought him rich raiment and clothed him therein and, giving him a
lighted flambeau, said, "Know that I have brought thee hither, meaning
to do thee a good turn for the love of Allah: so take this torch and
mingle with the people at the Hammam-door and walk on with them without
stopping till thou reach the house of the wedding-festival; then go
boldly forward and enter the great saloon; and fear none, but take thy
stand at the right hand of the Hunchback bridegroom; and, as often as
any of the nurses and tirewomen and singing-girls come up to thee,[405]
put thy hand into thy pocket which thou wilt find filled with gold.
Take it out and throw to them and spare not; for as often as thou
thrustest fingers in pouch thou shalt find it full of coin. Give
largesse by handsful and fear nothing, but set thy trust upon Him who
created thee, for this is not by thine own strength but by that of
Allah Almighty, that His decrees may take effect upon his creatures."
When Badr al-Din Hasan heard these words from the Ifrit he said to
himself, "Would Heaven I knew what all this means and what is the cause
of such kindness!" However, he mingled with the people and, lighting
his flambeau, moved on with the bridal procession till he came to the
bath where he found the Hunchback already on horseback. Then he pushed
his way in among the crowd, a veritable beauty of a man in the finest
apparel, wearing tarbush[406] and turband and a long-sleeved robe
purfled with gold; and, as often as the singing women stopped for the
people to give them largesse, he thrust his hand into his pocket and,
finding it full of gold, took out a handful and threw it on the
tambourine[407] till he had filled it with gold pieces for the
music-girls and the tirewomen. The singers were amazed by his bounty
and the people marvelled at his beauty and loveliness and the splendour
of his dress. He ceased not to do thus till he reached the mansion of
the Wazir (who was his uncle), where the Chamberlains drove back the
people and forbade them to go forward; but the singing-girls and the
tirewomen said, "By Allah we will not enter unless this young man enter
with us, for he hath given us length o' life with his largesse and we
will not display the bride unless he be present." Therewith they
carried him into the bridal hall and made him sit down defying the evil
glances of the hunchbacked bridegroom. The wives of the Emirs and
Wazirs and Chamberlains and Courtiers all stood in double line, each
holding a massy cierge ready lighted; all wore thin face-veils and the
two rows right and left extended from the bride's throne[408] to the
head of the hall adjoining the chamber whence she was to come forth.
When the ladies saw Badr al-Din Hasan and noted his beauty and
loveliness and his face that shone like the new moon, their hearts
inclined to him and the singing-girls said to all that were present,
"Know that this beauty crossed our hands with naught but red gold; so
be not chary to do him womanly service and comply with all he says, no
matter what he ask."[409] So all the women crowded round Hasan with
their torches and gazed on his loveliness and envied him his beauty;
and one and all would gladly have lain on his bosom an hour or rather a
year. Their hearts were so troubled that they let fall their veils from
before their faces and said, "Happy she who belongeth to this youth or
to whom he belongeth!"; and they called down curses on the crooked
groom and on him who was the cause of his marriage to the girl-beauty;
and as often as they blessed Badr al-Din Hasan they damned the
Hunchback, saying, "Verily this youth and none else deserveth our
Bride: ah, well-away for such a lovely one with this hideous Quasimodo;
Allah's curse light on his head and on the Sultan who commanded the
marriage!" Then the singing-girls beat their tabrets and lulliloo'd
with joy, announcing the appearing of the bride; and the Wazir's
daughter came in surrounded by her tirewomen who had made her goodly to
look upon; for they had perfumed her and incensed her and adorned her
hair; and they had robed her in raiment and ornaments befitting the
mighty Chosroes Kings. The most notable part of her dress was a loose
robe worn over her other garments: it was diapered in red gold with
figures of wild beasts, and birds whose eyes and beaks were of gems,
and claws of red rubies and green beryl; and her neck was graced with a
necklace of Yamani work, worth thousands of gold pieces, whose bezels
were great round jewels of sorts, the like of which was never owned by
Kaysar or by Tobba King.[410] And the bride was as the full moon when
at fullest on fourteenth night; and as she paced into the hall she was
like one of the Houris of Heaven—praise be to Him who created her in
such splendour of beauty! The ladies encompassed her as the white
contains the black of the eye, they clustering like stars whilst she
shone amongst them like the moon when it eats up the clouds. Now Badr
al-Din Hasan of Bassorah was sitting in full gaze of the folk, when the
bride came forward with her graceful swaying and swimming gait, and her
hunchbacked bridegroom stood up to meet[411] and receive her: she,
however, turned away from the wight and walked forward till she stood
before her cousin Hasan, the son of her uncle. Whereat the people
laughed. But when the wedding-guests saw her thus attracted towards
Badr Al-Din they made a mighty clamour and the singing-women shouted
their loudest; whereupon he put his hand into his pocket and, pulling
out a handful of gold, cast it into their tambourines and the girls
rejoiced and said, "Could we win our wish this bride were thine!" At
this he smiled and the folk came round him, flambeaux in hand like the
eyeball round the pupil, while the Gobbo bridegroom was left sitting
alone much like a tail-less baboon; for every time they lighted a
candle for him it went out willy-nilly, so he was left in darkness and
silence and looking at naught but himself.[412] When Badr al-Din Hasan
saw the bridegroom sitting lonesome in the dark, and all the
wedding-guests with their flambeaux and wax candles crowding about
himself, he was bewildered and marvelled much; but when he looked at
his cousin, the daughter of his uncle, he rejoiced and felt an inward
delight: he longed to greet her and gazed intently on her face which
was radiant with light and brilliancy. Then the tirewomen took off her
veil and displayed her in the first bridal dress which was of scarlet
satin; and Hasan had a view of her which dazzled his sight and dazed
his wits, as she moved to and fro, swaying with graceful gait;[413] and
she turned the heads of all the guests, women as well as men, for she
was even as saith the surpassing poet:—
A sun on wand in knoll of sand she showed, ✿ Clad in her cramoisy-hued
chemisette:
Of her lips honey-dew she gave me drink, ✿ And with her rosy cheeks
quencht fire she set.
Then they changed that dress and displayed her in a robe of azure; and
she reappeared like the full moon when it riseth over the horizon, with
her coal-black hair and cheeks delicately fair; and teeth shown in
sweet smiling and breasts firm rising and crowning sides of the softest
and waist of the roundest. And in this second suit she was as a certain
master of high conceits saith of the like of her:—
She came apparelled in an azure vest, ✿ Ultramarine, as skies are deckt
and dight:
I view'd th' unparallel'd sight, which show'd my eyes ✿ A moon of
Summer on a Winter-night.
Then they changed that suit for another and, veiling her face in the
luxuriance of her hair, loosed her lovelocks, so dark, so long that
their darkness and length outvied the darkest nights, and she shot
through all hearts with the magical shaft of her eye-babes. They
displayed her in the third dress and she was as said of her the sayer:—
Veiling her cheeks with hair a-morn she comes, ✿ And I her mischiefs
with the cloud compare:
Saying, "Thou veilest morn with night!" "Ah no!" ✿ Quoth she, "I shroud
full moon with darkling air!"
Then they displayed her in the fourth bridal dress and she came forward
shining like the rising sun and swaying to and fro with lovesome grace
and supple ease like a gazelle-fawn. And she clave all hearts with the
arrows of her eyelashes, even as saith one who described a charmer like
her:—·
The sun of beauty she to sight appears ✿ And, lovely-coy, she mocks all
loveliness;
And when he fronts her favour and her smile ✿ A-morn, the Sun of day in
clouds must dress.
Then she came forth in the fifth dress, a very light of loveliness like
a wand of waving willow or a gazelle of the thirsty wold. Those locks
which stung like scorpions along her cheeks were bent, and her neck was
bowed in blandishment, and her hips quivered as she went. As saith one
of the poets describing her in verse:—
She comes like fullest moon on happy night; ✿ Taper of waist, with
shape of magic might:
She hath an eye whose glances quell mankind, ✿ And Ruby on her cheeks
reflects his light:
Enveils her hips the blackness of her hair; ✿ Beware of curls that bite
with viper-bite!
Her sides are silken-soft, the while the heart ✿ Mere rock behind that
surface lurks from sight:
From the fringed curtains of her eyne she shoots ✿ Shafts which at
farthest range on mark alight:
When round her neck or waist I throw my arms ✿ Her breasts repel me
with their hardened height.
Ah, how her beauty all excels! ah how ✿ That shape transcends the
graceful waving bough!
Then they adorned her with the sixth toilette, a dress which was green.
And now she shamed in her slender straightness the nut-brown spear; her
radiant face dimmed the brightest beams of full moon and she outdid the
bending branches in gentle movement and flexile grace. Her loveliness
exalted the beauties of earth's four quarters and she broke men's
hearts by the significance of her semblance; for she was even as saith
one of the poets in these lines:—
A damsel 'twas the tirer's art had decked with snares and sleight:[414]
✿ And robed in rays as though the sun from her had borrowed light:
She came before us wondrous clad in chemisette of green, ✿ As veilèd by
its leafy screen pomegranate hides from sight:
And when he said "How callest thou the manner of thy dress?" ✿ She
answered us in pleasant way with double meaning dight;
"We call this garment _crève-cœur_; and rightly is it hight, ✿ For many
a heart wi' this we broke[415] and conquered many a sprite!"
Then they displayed her in the seventh dress, coloured between
safflower[416] and saffron, even as one of the poets saith:—
In vest of saffron pale and safflower red ✿ Musk'd, sandal'd,
ambergris'd, she came to front:
"Rise!" cried her youth, "go forth and show thyself!" ✿ "Sit!" said her
hips, "we cannot bear the brunt!"
And when I craved a bout, her Beauty said ✿ "Do, do!" and said her
pretty shame, "Don't, don't!"