see thee so changed in looks?"; and I answered, "My head paineth me and
I am far from well." Whereupon she was vexed and was concerned on my
account and said, "Burn not my heart, O my lord, but sit up and raise
thy head and recount to me what hath happened to thee to-day, for thy
face tells me a tale." "Leave this talk," replied I. But she wept and
said, "Meseems thou art tired of me, for I see thee contrary to thy
wont." But I was silent; and she kept on talking to me albeit I gave
her no answer, till night came on. Then she set food before me, but I
refused it fearing lest she see me eating with my left hand and said to
her, "I have no stomach to eat at present." Quoth she, "Tell me what
hath befallen thee to-day, and why art thou so sorrowful and broken in
spirit and heart?" Quoth I, "Wait awhile; I will tell thee all at my
leisure." Then she brought me wine, saying, "Down with it, this will
dispel thy grief: thou must indeed drink and tell me of thy tidings." I
asked her, "Perforce must I tell thee?"; and she answered, "Yes." Then
said I, "If it needs must be so, then give me to drink with thine own
hand." She filled and drank,[547] and filled again and gave me the cup
which I took from her with my left hand and wiped the tears from my
eyelids and began repeating:—
When Allah willeth aught befal a man ✿ Who hath of ears and eyes and
wits full share;
His ears He deafens and his eyes He blinds ✿ And draws his wits e'en as
we draw a hair[548]
Till, having wrought His purpose, He restores ✿ Man's wits, that warned
more circumspect he fare.
When I ended my verses I wept, and she cried out with an exceeding loud
cry, "What is the cause of thy tears? Thou burnest my heart! What makes
thee take the cup with thy left hand?" Quoth I, "Truly I have on my
right hand a boil;" and quoth she, "Put it out and I will open it for
thee."[549] "It is not yet time to open it," I replied, "So worry me
not with thy words, for I will not take it out of the bandage at this
hour." Then I drank off the cup, and she gave not over plying me with
drink until drunkenness overcame me and I fell asleep in the place
where I was sitting; whereupon she looked at my right hand and saw a
wrist without a fist. So she searched me closely and found with me the
purse of gold and my severed hand wrapped up in the bit of rag.[550]
With this such sorrow came upon her as never overcame any and she
ceased not lamenting on my account till the morning. When I awoke I
found that she had dressed me a dish of broth of four boiled chickens,
which she brought to me together with a cup of wine. I ate and drank
and laying down the purse, would have gone out; but she said to me,
"Whither away?"; and I answered, "Where my business calleth me;" and
said she, "Thou shalt not go: sit thee down." So I sat down and she
resumed, "Hath thy love for me so overpowered thee that thou hast
wasted all thy wealth and hast lost thine hand on my account? I take
thee to witness against me and also Allah be my witness that I will
never part with thee, but will die under thy feet; and soon thou shalt
see that my words are true." Then she sent for the Kazi and witnesses
and said to them, "Write my contract of marriage with this young man,
and bear ye witness that I have received the marriage-settlement."[551]
When they had drawn up the document she said, "Be witness that all my
monies which are in this chest and all I have in slaves and handmaidens
and other property is given in free gift to this young man." So they
took act of this statement enabling me to assume possession in right of
marriage; and then withdrew, after receiving their fees. Thereupon she
took me by the hand and, leading me to a closet, opened a large chest
and said to me, "See what is herein;" and I looked and behold, it was
full of kerchiefs. Quoth she, "This is the money I had from thee and
every kerchief thou gavest me, containing fifty dinars, I wrapped up
and cast into this chest; so now take thine own, for it returns to
thee, and this day thou art become of high estate. Fortune and Fate
afflicted thee so that thou didst lose thy right hand for my sake; and
I can never requite thee; nay, although I gave my life 'twere but
little and I should still remain thy debtor." Then she added, "Take
charge of thy property;" so I transferred the contents of her chest to
my chest, and added my wealth to her wealth which I had given her, and
my heart was eased and my sorrow ceased. I stood up and kissed her and
thanked her; and she said, "Thou hast given thy hand for love of me and
how am I able to give thee an equivalent? By Allah, if I offered my
life for thy love, it were indeed but little and would not do justice
to thy claim upon me." Then she made over to me by deed all that she
possessed in clothes and ornaments of gold and pearls, and goods and
farms and chattels, and lay not down to sleep that night, being sorely
grieved for my grief, till I told her the whole of what had befallen
me. I passed the night with her. But before we had lived together a
month's time she fell sorely sick and illness increased upon her, by
reason of her grief for the loss of my hand, and she endured but fifty
days before she was numbered among the folk of futurity and heirs of
immortality. So I laid her out and buried her body in mother earth and
let make a pious perlection of the Koran[552] for the health of her
soul, and gave much money in alms for her; after which I turned me from
the grave and returned to the house. There I found that she had left
much substance in ready money and slaves, mansions, lands and domains,
and among her storehouses was a granary of sesame-seed, whereof I sold
part to thee; and I had neither time nor inclination to take count with
thee till I had sold the rest of the stock in store; nor, indeed, even
now have I made an end of receiving the price. So I desire thou baulk
me not in what I am about to say to thee: twice have I eaten of thy
food and I wish to give thee as a present the monies for the sesame
which are by thee. Such is the cause of the cutting of my right hand
and my eating with my left. "Indeed," said I, "thou hast shown me the
utmost kindness and liberality." Then he asked me, "Why shouldst thou
not travel with me to my native country whither I am about to return
with Cairene and Alexandrian stuffs? Say me, wilt thou accompany me?;"
and I answered "I will." So I agreed to go with him at the head of the
month, and I sold all I had and bought other merchandise; then we set
out and travelled, I and the young man, to this country of yours, where
he sold his venture and bought other investment of country stuffs and
continued his journey to Egypt. But it was my lot to abide here, so
that these things befel me in my strangerhood which befel last night,
and is not this tale, O King of the age, more wondrous and marvellous
than the story of the Hunchback? "Not so," quoth the King, "I cannot
accept it: there is no help for it but that you be hanged, every one of
you."——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day, and ceased saying her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Twenty-seventh Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the King of
China declared "There is no help for it but that you be hanged," the
Reeve of the Sultan's Kitchen came forward and said, "If thou permit me
I will tell thee a tale of what befel me just before I found this
Gobbo; and, if it be more wondrous than his story, do thou grant us our
lives." And when the King answered "Yes" he began to recount
_THE REEVE'S TALE._
Know, O King, that last night I was at a party where they made a
perlection of the Koran and got together doctors of law and religion
skilled in recitation and intoning; and, when the readers ended, the
table was spread and amongst other things they set before us was a
marinated ragout[553] flavoured with cumin-seed. So we sat down, but
one of our number held back and refused to touch it. We conjured him to
eat of it but he swore he would not; and, when we again pressed him, he
said, "Be not instant with me; sufficeth me that which hath already
befallen me through eating it"; and he began reciting:—
Shoulder thy tray and go straight to thy goal; ✿ And, if suit thee this
Kohl, why,—use this Kohl![554]
When he ended his verse we said to him, "Allah upon thee, tell us thy
reason for refusing to eat of the cumin-ragout?" "If so it be," he
replied, "and needs must I eat of it, I will not do so except I wash my
hand forty times with soap, forty times with potash and forty times
with galangale,[555] the total being one hundred and twenty washings."
Thereupon the hospitable host bade his slaves bring water and whatso he
required; and the young man washed his hand as afore mentioned. Then he
sat down, as if disgusted and frightened withal, and dipping his hand
in the ragout, began eating and at the same time showing signs of
anger. And we wondered at him with extreme wonderment, for his hand
trembled and the morsel in it shook and we saw that his thumb had been
cut off and he ate with his four fingers only. So we said to him,
"Allah upon thee, what happened to thy thumb? Is thy hand thus by the
creation of God or hath some accident befallen it?" "O my brothers," he
answered, "it is not only thus with this thumb, but also with my other
thumb and with both my great toes, as you shall see." So saying he
uncovered his left hand and his feet, and we saw that the left hand was
even as the right and in like manner that each of his feet lacked its
great toe. When we saw him after this fashion, our amazement waxed
still greater and we said to him, "We have hardly patience enough to
await thy history and to hear the manner of the cutting off of thy
thumbs, and the reason of thy washing both hands one hundred and twenty
times." Know then, said he, that my father was chief of the merchants
and the wealthiest of them all in Baghdad-city during the reign of the
Caliph Harun al-Rashid; and he was much given to wine-drinking and
listening to the lute and the other instruments of pleasaunce; so that
when he died he left nothing. I buried him and had perlections of the
Koran made for him, and mourned for him days and nights: then I opened
his shop and found that he had left in it few goods, while his debts
were many. However I compounded with his creditors for time to settle
their demands and betook myself to buying and selling, paying them
something from week to week on account; and I gave not over doing this
till I had cleared off his obligations in full and began adding to my
principal. One day, as I sat in my shop, suddenly and unexpectedly
there appeared before me a young lady, than whom I never saw a fairer,
wearing the richest raiment and ornaments and riding a she mule, with
one negro-slave walking before her and another behind her. She drew
rein at the head of the exchange-bazar and entered followed by an
eunuch who said to her, "O my lady come out and away without telling
any one, lest thou light a fire which will burn us all up." Moreover he
stood before her guarding her from view whilst she looked at the
merchants' shops. She found none open but mine; so she came up with the
eunuch behind her and sitting down in my shop saluted me; never heard I
aught fairer than her speech or sweeter than her voice. Then she
unveiled her face, and I saw that she was like the moon and I stole a
glance at her whose sight caused me a thousand sighs, and my heart was
captivated with love of her, and I kept looking again and again upon
her face repeating these verses:—
Say to the charmer in the dove-hued veil, ✿ Death would be welcome to
abate thy bale!
Favour me with thy favours that I live: ✿ See, I stretch forth my palm
to take thy vail!
When she heard my verse she answered me saying:—
I've lost all patience by despite of you; ✿ My heart knows nothing save
love-plight to you!
If aught I sight save charms so bright of you; ✿ My parting end not in
the sight of you!
I swear I'll ne'er forget the right of you; ✿ And fain this breast
would soar to height of you:
You made me drain the love-cup, and I lief ✿ A love-cup tender for
delight of you:
Take this my form where'er you go, and when ✿ You die, entomb me in the
site of you:
Call on me in my grave, and hear my bones ✿ Sigh their responses to the
shright of you:
And were I asked "Of God what wouldst thou see?" ✿ I answer, "first His
will then Thy decree!"
When she ended her verse she asked me, "O youth, hast thou any fair
stuffs by thee?"; and I answered, "O my lady, thy slave is poor; but
have patience till the merchants open their shops, and I will suit thee
with what thou wilt." Then we sat talking, I and she (and I was drowned
in the sea of her love, dazed in the desert[556] of my passion for
her), till the merchants opened their shops; when I rose and fetched
her all she sought to the tune of five thousand dirhams. She gave the
stuff to the eunuch and, going forth by the door of the Exchange, she
mounted mule and went away, without telling me whence she came, and I
was ashamed to speak of such trifle. When the merchants dunned me for
the price, I made myself answerable for five thousand dirhams and went
home, drunken with the love of her. They set supper before me and I ate
a mouthful, thinking only of her beauty and loveliness, and sought to
sleep, but sleep came not to me. And such was my condition for a whole
week, when the merchants required their monies of me, but I persuaded
them to have patience for another week, at the end of which time she
again appeared mounted on a she-mule and attended by her eunuch and two
slaves. She saluted me and said, "O my master, we have been long in
bringing thee the price of the stuffs; but now fetch the Shroff and
take thy monies." So I sent for the money-changer and the eunuch
counted out the coin before him and made it over to me. Then we sat
talking, I and she, till the market opened, when she said to me, "Get
me this and that." So I got her from the merchants whatso she wanted,
and she took it and went away without saying a word to me about the
price. As soon as she was out of sight, I repented me of what I had
done; for the worth of the stuffs bought for her amounted to a thousand
dinars, and I said in my soul, "What manner of love is this? She hath
brought me five thousand dirhams, and hath taken goods for a thousand
dinars."[557] I feared lest I should be beggared through having to pay
the merchants their money, and I said, "They know none other but me;
this lovely lady is naught but a cheat and a swindler, who hath diddled
me with her beauty and grace; for she saw that I was a mere youth and
laughed at me for not asking her address. I ceased not to be troubled
by these doubts and fears, as she was absent more than a month, till
the merchants pestered me for their money and were so hard upon me that
I put up my property for sale and stood on the very brink of ruin."
However, as I was sitting in my shop one day, drowned in melancholy
musings, she suddenly rode up and, dismounting at the bazar-gate, came
straight towards me. When I saw her all my cares fell from me and I
forgot every trouble. She came close up to me and greeted me with her
sweet voice and pleasant speech and presently said, "Fetch me the
Shroff and weigh thy money.[558]" So she gave me the price of what
goods I had gotten for her and more, and fell to talking freely with
me, till I was like to die of joy and delight. Presently she asked me,
"Hast thou a wife?"; and I answered "No, indeed: I have never known
woman"; and began to shed tears. Quoth she "Why weepest thou?" Quoth I
"It is nothing!" Then giving the eunuch some of the gold pieces, I
begged him to be go-between[559] in the matter; but he laughed and
said, "She is more in love with thee than thou with her: she hath no
occasion for the stuffs she hath bought of thee and did all this only
for the love of thee; so ask of her what thou wilt and she will deny
thee nothing." When she saw me giving the dinars to the eunuch, she
returned and sat down again; and I said to her, "Be charitable to thy
slave and pardon him what he is about to say." Then I told her what was
in my mind and she assented and said to the eunuch, "Thou shalt carry
my message to him," adding to me, "And do thou whatso the eunuch
biddeth thee." Then she got up and went away, and I paid the merchants
their monies and they all profited; but as for me, regret at the
breaking off of our intercourse was all my gain; and I slept not the
whole of that night. However, before many days passed her eunuch came
to me, and I entreated him honourably and asked him after his mistress.
"Truly she is sick with love of thee," he replied and I rejoined, "Tell
me who and what she is." Quoth he, "The Lady Zubaydah, queen-consort of
Harun al-Rashid, bought her up as a rearling[560] and hath advanced her
to be stewardess of the Harim, and gave her the right of going in and
out of her own sweet will. She spoke to her lady of thee and begged her
to marry her to thee; but she said:—I will not do this, till I see the
young man; and, if he be worthy of thee, I will marry thee to him. So
now we look for the moment to smuggle thee into the Palace and if thou
succeed in entering privily thou wilt win thy wish to wed her; but if
the affair get wind, the Lady Zubaydah will strike off thy head.[561]
What sayest thou to this?" I answered, "I will go with thee and abide
the risk whereof thou speakest." Then said he, "As soon as it is night,
go to the Mosque built by the Lady Zubaydah on the Tigris and pray the
night-prayers and sleep there." "With love and gladness," cried I. So
at nightfall I repaired to the Mosque, where I prayed and passed the
night. With earliest dawn, behold, came sundry eunuchs in a skiff with
a number of empty chests which they deposited in the Mosque, then all
of them went their ways but one, and looking curiously at him, I saw he
was our go-between. Presently in came the handmaiden, my mistress,
walking straight up to us; and I rose to her and embraced her while she
kissed me and shed tears.[562] We talked awhile; after which she made
me get into one of the chests which she locked upon me. Presently the
other eunuchs came back with a quantity of packages and she fell to
stowing them in the chests, which she locked down, one by one, till all
were shut. When all was done the eunuchs embarked the chests in the
boat and made for the Lady Zubaydah's palace. With this, thought began
to beset me and I said to myself, "Verily thy lust and wantonness will
be the death of thee; and the question is after all shalt thou win to
thy wish or not?" And I began to weep, boxed up as I was in the box and
suffering from cramp; and I prayed Allah that He deliver me from the
dangerous strait I was in, whilst the boat gave not over going on till
it reached the Palace-gate where they lifted out the chests and amongst
them that in which I was. Then they carried them in, passing through a
troop of eunuchs, guardians of the Harim and of the ladies behind the
curtain, till they came to the post of the Eunuch-in-Chief[563] who
started up from his slumbers and shouted to the damsel "What is in
those chests?" "They are full of wares for the Lady Zubaydah!" "Open
them, one by one, that I may see what is in them." "And wherefore
wouldst thou open them?" "Give me no words and exceed not in talk!
these chests must and shall be opened." So saying, he sprang to his
feet, and the first which they brought to him to open was that wherein
I was; and, when I felt his hands upon it, my senses failed me and I
bepissed myself in my funk, the water running out of the box. Then said
she to the Eunuch-in-Chief, "O steward! thou wilt cause me to be killed
and thyself too, for thou hast damaged goods worth ten thousand dinars.
This chest contains coloured dresses, and four gallon flasks of Zemzem
water;[564] and now one of them hath got unstoppered and the water is
running out over the clothes and it will spoil their colours." The
eunuch answered, "Take up thy boxes and get thee gone to the curse of
God!" So the slaves carried off all the chests, including mine; and
hastened on with them till suddenly I heard the voice of one saying,
"Alack, and alack! the Caliph! the Caliph!" When that cry struck mine
ears I died in my skin and said a saying which never yet shamed the
sayer, "There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the
Glorious, the Great! I and only I have brought this calamity upon
myself." Presently I heard the Caliph say to my mistress, "A plague on
thee, what is in those boxes?"; and she answered, "Dresses for the Lady
Zubaydah";[565] whereupon he, "Open them before me!" When I heard this
I died my death outright and said to myself, "By Allah, to-day is the
very last of my days in this world: if I come safe out of this I am to
marry her and no more words, but detection stares me in the face and my
head is as good as stricken off." Then I repeated the profession of
Faith, saying, "There is no god but _the_ God, and Mohammed is the
Apostle of God!"——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to
say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Twenty-Eighth Night,