loveliness and grace and perfection; and a certain lewd youth and an
obscene setting eyes on her, fell in love with her and loved her with
exceeding passion, but she was chaste and inclined not to adultery. It
chanced one day that her husband went on a journey to a certain town,
whereupon the young man fell to sending to her many times a day; but she
made him no reply At last, he resorted to an old woman, who dwelt hard
by, and after saluting her he sat down and complained to her of his
sufferings for love of the woman and his longing to enjoy her. Quoth
she, “I will warrant thee this; no harm shall befal thee, for I will
surely bring thee to thy desire, Inshallah,—an it please Allah the Most
High!” At these words he gave her a dinar and went his way. When the
morning morrowed she appeared before the woman and, renewing an old
acquaintance with her, fell to visiting her daily, eating the undertime
with her and the evening meal and carrying away food for her children.
Moreover, she used to sport and jest with her, till the wife became
corrupted[189] and could not endure an hour without her company. Now she
was wont, when she left the lady’s house, to take bread and fat
wherewith she mixed a little pepper and to feed a bitch, that was in
that quarter; and thus she did day by day, till the bitch became fond of
her and followed her wherever she went. One day she took a cake of dough
and, putting therein an overdose of pepper, gave it to the bitch to eat,
whereupon the beast’s eyes began to shed tears, for the heat of the
pepper, and she followed the old woman, weeping. When the lady saw this,
she was amazed and asked the ancient, “O my mother, what ails this bitch
to weep?” Answered she, “Learn, O my heart’s love, that hers is a
strange story. Know that she was once a close friend of mine, a lovely
and accomplished young lady, a model of comeliness and perfect grace. A
young Nazarene of the quarter fell in love with her and his passion and
pining increased on him, till he took to his pillow, and he sent to her
times manifold, begging her to have compassion on him and show him
mercy, but she refused, albeit I gave her good counsel, saying:—O my
daughter, have pity on him and be kind and consent to all he wisheth.
She gave no heed to my advice, until, the young man’s patience failing
him, he complained at last to one of his friends, who cast an
enchantment on her and changed her human shape into canine form. When
she saw what transformation had befallen her and that there was none to
pity her case save myself, she came to my house and began to fawn on me
and buss my hands and feet and whine and shed tears, till I recognised
her and said to her:—How often did I not warn thee?; but my advice
profited thee naught.”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Five Hundred and Eighty-fifth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the old trot
related to the young lady the tale of the bitch and recounted the case
in her cunning and deceit, with the view to gain her consent and said to
her, “When the enchanted beast came to me and wept I reminded her:—How
often did I not warn thee?; but my advice profited thee naught. However,
O my daughter, seeing her misery, I had compassion on her case and kept
her by me; and as often as she bethinketh herself of her former estate,
she weepeth thus, in pity for herself.” When the lady heard this, she
was taken with great alarm and said, “O my mother, by Allah, thou
affrightest me with this thy story.” “Why so?” asked the old woman.
Answered the lady, “Because a certain handsome young man fell in love
with me and hath sent many times to me, but hitherto I have repelled
him; and now I fear lest there befal me the like of what befel this
bitch.” “O my daughter,” rejoined the old woman, “look thou to what I
counsel thee and beware of crossing me, for I am in great fear for thee.
If thou know not his abiding-place, describe his semblance to me, that I
may fetch him to thee, and let not any one’s heart be angered against
thee.” So the lady described him to her, and she showed not to know him
and said, “When I go out, I will ask after him.” But when she left the
lady, she went straight to the young man and said to him, “Be of good
cheer, for I have played with the girl’s wits; so to-morrow at noon wait
thou at the head of the street, till I come and carry thee to her house,
where thou shalt take thine ease with her the rest of the day and all
night long.” At this the young man rejoiced with exceeding joy and gave
her two dinars, saying, “When I have won my wish of her, I will give
thee ten gold pieces.” Then she returned to the lady and said to her, “I
have seen him and spoken with him on this matter. I found him exceeding
wroth with thee and minded to do thee a harm, but I plied him with fair
words till he agreed to come to-morrow at the time of the call to
noon-prayer.” When the lady heard this she rejoiced exceedingly and
said, “O my mother, if he keep his promise, I will give thee ten
dinars.” Quoth the old woman, “Look to his coming from none but from
me.” When the next morn morrowed she said to the lady, “Make ready the
early meal and forget not the wine and adorn thyself and don thy richest
dress and decoration, whilst I go and fetch him to thee.” So she clad
herself in her finest finery and prepared food, whilst the old woman
went out to look for the young man, who came not. So she went around
searching for him, but could come by no news of him, and she said to
herself, “What is to be done? Shall the food and drink she hath gotten
ready be wasted and I lose the gold pieces she promised me? Indeed, I
will not allow my cunning contrivance to come to naught, but will look
her out another man and carry him to her.” So she walked about the
highways till her eyes fell on a pretty fellow, young and
distinguished-looking, to whom the folk bowed and who bore in his face
the traces of travel. She went up to him and saluting him, asked, “Hast
thou a mind to meat and drink and a girl adorned and ready?” Answered
he, “Where is this to be had?” “At home, in my house,” rejoined she and
carrying him to his own house, knocked at the door. The lady opened to
them and ran in again, to make an end of her dressing and perfuming;
whilst the wicked old woman brought the man, who was the husband and
house-master, into the saloon and made him sit down congratulating
herself on her cunning contrivance. Presently in walked the lady, who no
sooner set eyes on her husband sitting by the old trot than she knew him
and guessed how the case stood; nevertheless, she was not taken aback
and without stay or delay bethought her of a device to hoodwink him. So
she pulled off her outer boot and cried at her husband, “Is this how
thou keepest the contract between us? How canst thou betray me and deal
thus with me? Know that, when I heard of thy coming, I sent this old
woman to try thee and she hath made thee fall into that against which I
warned thee: so now I am certified of thine affair and that thou hast
broken faith with me. I thought thee chaste and pure till I saw thee,
with my own eyes, in this old woman’s company and knew that thou didst
frequent loose baggages.” So saying, she fell to beating him with her
slipper about the head, and crying out, “Divorce me! Divorce me!”;
whilst he excused himself and swore to her, by Allah the Most High, that
he had never in his life been untrue to her nor had done aught of that
whereof she suspected him. But she stinted not to weep and scream and
bash him, crying out and saying, “Come to my help, O Moslems!”; till he
laid hold of her mouth with his hand and she bit it. Moreover, he
humbled himself to her and kissed her hands and feet, whilst she would
not be appeased and continued to cuff him. At last, she winked at the
old woman to come and hold her hand from him. So she came up to her and
kissed her hands and feet, till she made peace between them and they sat
down together; whereupon the husband began to kiss her hands, saying,
“Allah Almighty requite thee with all good, for that thou hast delivered
me from her!” And the old woman marvelled at the wife’s cunning and
ready wit. “This, then, O King” (said the Wazir) “is one of many
instances of the craft and malice and perfidy of women.” When the King
heard this story, he was persuaded by it and turned from his purpose to
slay his son;——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say
her permitted say.
Now when it was the Five Hundred and Eighty-sixth Night,
She said, it hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the fourth
Wazir had told his tale, the King turned from his purpose to slay his
son; but, on the fifth day, the damsel came in to him hending a bowl of
poison in hand, calling on Heaven for help and buffeting her cheeks and
face, and said to him, “O King, either thou shalt do me justice and
avenge me on thy son, or I will drink up this poison-cup and die, and
the sin of my blood shall be on thy head at the Day of Doom. These thy
Ministers accuse me of malice and perfidy, but there be none in the
world more perfidious than men. Hast thou not heard the story of the
Goldsmith and the Cashmere[190] singing-girl?” “What befel the twain, O
damsel?” asked the King; and she answered, saying:—There hath come to my
knowledge, O august King, a tale of
_THE GOLDSMITH AND THE CASHMERE SINGING-GIRL_.
THERE lived once, in a city of Persia a goldsmith who delighted in women
and in drinking wine. One day, being in the house of one of his
intimates, he saw painted on the wall the figure of a lutanist, a
beautiful damsel, beholder never beheld a fairer or a more pleasant. He
looked at the picture again and again, marvelling at its beauty, and
fell so desperately in love with it, that he sickened for passion and
came near to die. It chanced that one of his friends came to visit him
and sitting down by his side, asked how he did and what ailed him,
whereto the goldsmith answered, “O my brother, that which ails me is
love, and it befel on this wise. I saw the figure of a woman painted on
the house-wall of my brother such an one and became enamoured of it.”
Hereupon the other fell to blaming him and said, “This was of thy lack
of wit; how couldst thou fall in love with a painted figure on a wall,
that can neither harm nor profit, that seeth not neither heareth, that
neither taketh nor withholdeth.” Said the sick man, “He who painted
yonder picture never could have limned it save after the likeness of
some beautiful woman.” “Haply,” rejoined his friend, “he painted it from
imagination.” “In any case,” replied the goldsmith, “Here am I dying for
love of the picture, and if there live the original thereof in the
world, I pray Allah Most High to protect my life till I see her.” When
those who were present went out, they asked for the painter of the
picture and, finding that he had travelled to another town, wrote him a
letter, complaining of their comrade’s case and enquiring whether he had
drawn the figure of his own inventive talents or copied it from a living
model; to which he replied, “I painted it after a certain singing-girl
belonging to one of the Wazirs in the city of Cashmere in the land of
Hind.” When the goldsmith heard this, he left Persia for Cashmere-city,
where he arrived after much travail. He tarried awhile there till one
day he went and clapped up an acquaintance with a certain of the
citizens who was a druggist, a fellow of a sharp wit, keen, crafty; and,
being one eventide in company with him, asked him of their King and his
polity; to which the other answered, saying, “Well, our King is just and
righteous in his governance, equitable to his lieges and beneficent to
his commons and abhorreth nothing in the world save sorcerers; but,
whenever a sorcerer or sorceress falls into his hands, he casteth them
into a pit without the city and there leaveth them in hunger to die.”
Then he questioned him of the King’s Wazirs, and the druggist told him
of each Minister, his fashion and condition, till the talk came round to
the singing-girl and he told him, “She belongeth to such a Wazir.” The
goldsmith took note of the Minister’s abiding place and waited some
days, till he had devised a device to his desire; and one night of rain
and thunder and stormy winds, he provided himself with thieves’ tackle
and repaired to the house of the Wazir who owned the damsel. Here he
hanged a rope-ladder with grappling-irons to the battlements and climbed
up to the terrace-roof of the palace. Thence he descended to the inner
court and, making his way into the Harim, found all the slave-girls
lying asleep, each on her own couch; and amongst them reclining on a
couch of alabaster and covered with a coverlet of cloth of gold a
damsel, as she were the moon rising on a fourteenth night. At her head
stood a candle of ambergris, and at her feet another, each in a
candlestick of glittering gold, her brilliancy dimming them both; and
under her pillow lay a casket of silver, wherein were her jewels. He
raised the coverlet and drawing near her, considered her straitly, and
behold, it was the lutanist whom he desired and of whom he was come in
quest. So he took out a knife and wounded her in the back parts, a
palpable outer wound, whereupon she awoke in terror; but, when she saw
him, she was afraid to cry out, thinking he came to steal her goods. So
she said to him, “Take the box and what is therein, but slay me not, for
I am in thy protection and under thy safeguard[191] and my death will
profit thee nothing.” Accordingly, he took the box and went away.——And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Five Hundred and Eighty-seventh Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the goldsmith
had entered the Wazir’s palace he wounded the damsel slightly in the
back parts and, taking the box which contained her jewels, wended his
way. And when morning morrowed he donned clothes after the fashion of
men of learning and doctors of the law and, taking the jewel-case went
in therewith to the King of the city, before whom he kissed the ground
and said to him, “O King, I am a devout man; withal a loyal well-wisher
to thee and come hither a pilgrim to thy court from the land of
Khorasan, attracted by the report of thy just governance and righteous
dealing with thy subjects and minded to be under thy standard. I reached
this city at the last of the day and finding the gate locked and barred,
threw me down to sleep without the walls; but, as I lay betwixt sleep
and wake, behold, I saw four women come up; one riding on a broom-stick,
another on a wine-jar, a third on an oven-peel and a fourth on a black
bitch,[192] and I knew that they were witches making for thy city. One
of them came up to me and kicked me with her foot and beat me with a
fox’s tail she had in her hand, hurting me grievously, whereat I was
wroth and smote her with a knife I had with me, wounding her in the back
parts, as she turned to flee from me. When she felt the wound, she fled
before me and in her flight let drop this casket, which I picked up and
opening, found these costly jewels therein. So do thou take it, for I
have no need thereof, being a wanderer in the mountains,[193] who hath
rejected the world from my heart and renounced it and all that is in it,
seeking only the face of Allah the Most High.” Then he set the casket
before the King and fared forth. The King opened the box and emptying
out all the trinkets it contained, fell to turning them over with his
hand, till he chanced upon a necklace whereof he had made gift to the
Wazir to whom the girl belonged. Seeing this, he called the Minister in
question and said to him, “This is the necklace I gave thee?” He knew it
at first sight and answered, “It is; and I gave it to a singing girl of
mine.” Quoth the King, “Fetch that girl to me forthwith.” So he fetched
her to him, and he said, “Uncover her back parts and see if there be a
wound therein or no.” The Wazir accordingly bared her backside and
finding a knife-wound there, said, “Yes, O my lord, there is a wound.”
Then said the King, “This is the witch of whom the devotee told me, and
there can be no doubt of it,” and bade cast her into the witches’ well.
So they carried her thither at once. As soon as it was night and the
goldsmith knew that his plot had succeeded, he repaired to the pit,
taking with him a purse of a thousand dinars, and, entering into
converse with the warder, sat talking with him till a third part of the
night was passed, when he broached the matter to him, saying, “Know, O
my brother, that this girl is innocent of that they lay to her charge
and that it was I brought this calamity upon her.” Then he told him the
whole story, first and last, adding, “Take, O my brother, this purse of
a thousand dinars and give me the damsel, that I may carry her to my own
land, for these gold pieces will profit thee more than keeping her in
prison; moreover Allah will requite thee for us, and we too will both
offer up prayers for thy prosperity and safety.” When the warder heard
this story, he marvelled with exceeding marvel at that device and its
success; then taking the money, he delivered the girl to the goldsmith,
conditioning that he should not abide one hour with her in the city.
Thereupon the goldsmith took the girl and fared on with her, without
ceasing, till he reached his own country and so he won his wish. “See,
then, O King” (said the damsel), “the malice of men and their wiles. Now
thy Wazirs hinder thee from doing me justice on thy son; but to-morrow
we shall stand, both thou and I, before the Just Judge, and He shall do
me justice on thee, O King.” When the King heard this, he commanded to
put his son to death; but the fifth Wazir came in to him and kissing the
ground before him, said, “O mighty King, delay and hasten not to slay
thy son: speed will oftentimes repentance breed; and I fear for thee
lest thou repent, even as did the man who never laughed for the rest of
his days.” “And how was that, O Wazir?” asked the King. Quoth he:—I have
heard tell, O King, this tale concerning
_THE MAN WHO NEVER LAUGHED DURING THE REST OF HIS DAYS_.
There was once a man who was rich in lands and houses and monies and
goods, eunuchs and slaves, and he died and went to the mercy of Allah
the Most High; leaving a young son, who, when he grew up, gave himself
to feasting and carousing and hearing music and singing and the loud
laughter of parasites; and he wasted his substance in gifts and
prodigality till he had squandered all the money his father left
him——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Five Hundred and Eighty-eighth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young man,
when he had squandered all the money his father had left him and naught
thereof remained to him, betook himself to selling his slaves and
handmaids, lands and houses and spent the proceeds on like wise, till he
was reduced to beggary and must needs labour for his living. He abode
thus a year’s space, at the end of which time he was sitting one day
under a wall, awaiting who should hire him when behold, there came up to
him an old man of comely aspect and apparel and saluted him. The young
man asked, “O uncle, hast thou known me aforetime?” and the other
answered, “Not so, O my son, I know thee not at all, at all; but I see
the trace of gentle breeding on thee despite thy present case.” “O
uncle,” rejoined the poor man, “needs must Fate and Fortune be
accomplished; but, O uncle, O bright of blee, hast thou any occasion
wherein thou wouldst employ me?” Said the other, “I wish, O my son, to
employ thee in a slight matter.” “What is it?” quoth the young man, and
quoth the stranger, “We are eleven old men in one house, but we have
none to serve us; so an thou wilt stay and take service with us, thou
shalt have food and clothing to thy heart’s content, besides what cometh
to thee of coin and other good; and haply Allah will restore thee thy
fortune by our means.” Replied the youth, “Hearkening and obedience!”
“But I have a condition to impose on thee.” “What is that?” “O my Son,
it is that thou keep our secret in what thou seest us do, and if thou
see us weep, that thou question us not of the cause of our weeping.” “It
is well, O uncle;” “Come with me, O my son, with the blessing of Allah
Almighty.” So he followed him to the bath, where the old man caused
cleanse his body of the crusted dirt, after which he sent one to fetch a
handsome garment of linen and clad him therein. Then he carried him to
his company which was in his domicile and the youth found a house lofty
and spacious and strongly builded, wherein were sitting-chambers facing
one another; and saloons, in each one a fountain of water, with the
birds warbling over it, and windows on every side, giving upon a fair
garden within the house. The old man brought him into one of the
parlours, which was variegated with many-coloured marbles, the ceiling
thereof being decorated with ultramarine and glowing gold; and the floor
bespread with silken carpets. Here he found ten Shayks in mourning
apparel, seated one opposite other, weeping and wailing. He marvelled at
their case and purposed to ask the reason, when he remembered the
condition and held his peace. Then he who had brought him delivered to
him a chest containing thirty thousand dinars and said to him, “O my
son, spend freely from this chest what is fitting for our entertainment
and thine own; and be thou faithful and remember that wherewith I
charged thee.” “I hear and I obey,” answered he and served them days and
nights, till one of them died, whereupon his fellows washed him and
shrouded him and buried him in a garden behind the house,[194] nor did
death cease to take them, one after other, till there remained but the
Shaykh who had hired the youth for service. Then the two men, old and
young, dwelt together in that house alone for years and years, nor was
there with them a third save Allah the Most High, till the elder fell
sick; and when the younger despaired of his life, he went up to him and
condoling with him, said, “O nuncle mine, I have waited upon you twelve
years and have not failed of my duties a single hour, but have been
loyal and faithful to you and served you with my might and main.” “Yes,
O my son,” answered the old man, “thou hast served us well until all my
comrades are gone to the mercy of Allah (to whom belong honour and
glory!) and needs must I die also.” “O my lord,” said the other, “thou
art in danger of death and I would fain have thee acquaint me with the
cause of your weeping and wailing and of your unceasing mourning and
lamentation and regrets.” “O my son,” answered the old man, “it concerns
thee not to know this, so importune me not of what I may not do: for I
have vowed to Almighty Allah that I would acquaint none of His creatures
with this, lest he be afflicted with what befel me and my comrades. If,
then, thou desire to be delivered from that into which we fell, look
thou open not yonder door”[195] and pointed to a certain part of the
house; “but, if thou have a mind to suffer what we have suffered, then
open it and thou shalt learn the cause of that thou hast seen us do; and
whenas thou knowest it, thou shalt repent what time repentance will
avail thee not.”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Five Hundred and Eighty-ninth Night,