been a brave and doughty man of war, a Kahramán,[313] in his day, but
was grown passing old and decrepit. Now it pleased Allah to vouchsafe
him, in his extreme senility, a son, whom he named Ajíb[314]—the
Wonderful—because of his beauty and loveliness; so he committed the babe
to the midwives and wet-nurses and handmaids and serving-women, and they
reared him till he was full seven years old, when his father gave him in
charge to a divine of his own folk and faith. The priest taught him the
laws and tenets of their Misbelief and instructed him in philosophy and
all manner of other knowledge, and it needed but three full-told years
ere he was proficient therein and his spirit waxed resolute and his
judgment mature; and he became learned, eloquent and philosophic[315];
consorting with the wise and disputing with the doctors of the law. When
his father saw this of him, it pleased him and he taught him to back the
steed and stab with spear and smite with sword, till he grew to be an
accomplished cavalier, versed in all martial exercises; and, by the end
of his twentieth year, he surpassed in all things all the folk of his
day. But his skill in weapons made him grow up a stubborn tyrant and a
devil arrogant, using to ride forth a-hunting and a-chasing amongst a
thousand horsemen and to make raids and razzias upon the neighbouring
knights, cutting off caravans and carrying away the daughters of Kings
and nobles; wherefore many brought complaints against him to his father,
who cried out to five of his slaves and when they came said, “Seize this
dog!” So they seized Prince Ajib and, pinioning his hands behind him,
beat him by his father’s command till he lost his senses; after which
the King imprisoned him in a chamber so dark one might not know heaven
from earth or length from breadth; and there he abode two days and a
night. Then the Emirs went in to the King and, kissing the ground
between his hands, interceded with him for the Prince, and he released
him. So Ajib bore with his father for ten days, at the end of which he
went in to him as he slept by night and smote his neck. When the day
rose, he mounted the throne of his sire’s estate and bade his men arm
themselves cap-à-pie in steel and stand with drawn swords in front of
him and on his right hand and on his left. By and by, the Emirs and
Captains entered and finding their King slain and his son Ajib seated on
the throne were confounded in mind and knew not what to do. But Ajib
said to them, “O folk, verily ye see what your King hath gained. Whoso
obeyeth me, I will honour him, and whoso gainsayeth me, I will do with
him that which I did with my sire.” When they heard these words they
feared lest he do them a mischief; so they replied, “Thou art our King
and the son of our King;” and kissed ground before him; whereupon he
thanked them and rejoiced in them. Then he bade bring forth money and
apparel and clad them in sumptuous robes of honour and showered largesse
upon them, wherefore they all loved him and obeyed him. In like manner
he honoured the governors of the Provinces and the Shaykhs of the
Badawin, both tributary and independent, so that the whole kingdom
submitted to him and the folk obeyed him and he reigned and bade and
forbade in peace and quiet for a time of five months. One night,
however, he dreamed a dream as he lay slumbering; whereupon he awoke
trembling, nor did sleep visit him again till the morning. As soon as it
was dawn he mounted his throne and his officers stood before him, right
and left. Then he called the oneiromants and the astrologers and said to
them, “Expound to me my dream!” “What was the dream?” asked they; and he
answered, “As I slept last night, I saw my father standing before me,
with his yard uncovered, and there came forth of it a thing the bigness
of a bee, which grew till it became as a mighty lion, with claws like
hangers. As I lay wondering at this lo! it ran upon me and smiting me
with its claws, rent my belly in sunder; whereupon I awoke startled and
trembling. So expound ye to me the meaning of this dream.” The
interpreters looked one at other; and, after considering, said, “O
mighty King, this dream pointeth to one born of thy sire, between whom
and thee shall befal strife and enmity, wherein he shall get the better
of thee: so be on thy guard against him, by reason of this thy vision.”
When Ajib heard their words, he said, “I have no brother whom I should
fear; so this your speech is mere lying.” They replied, “We tell thee
naught save what we know;” but he was an-angered with them and
bastinadoed them. Then he rose and, going in to the paternal palace,
examined his father’s concubines and found one of them seven months gone
with child; whereupon he gave an order to two of his slaves, saying,
“Take this damsel, ye twain, and carry her to the sea-shore and drown
her.” So they took her forthright and, going to the sea-shore, designed
to drown her, when they looked at her and seeing her to be of singular
beauty and loveliness said to each other, “Why should we drown this
damsel? Let us rather carry her to the forest and live with her there in
rare love-liasse.” Then they took her and fared on with her days and
nights till they had borne her afar off and had brought her to a bushy
forest, abounding in fruit-trees and streams, where they both thought at
the same time to win their will of her; but each said, “I will have her
first.” So they fell out one with the other concerning this, and while
so doing a company of blackamoors came down upon them, and they drew
their swords and both sides fell to laying on load. The mellay waxed hot
with cut and thrust; and the two slaves fought their best; but the
blacks slew them both in less than the twinkling of an eye. So the
damsel abode alone and wandered about the forest, eating of its fruits
and drinking of its founts, till in due time she gave birth to a boy,
brown but clean-limbed and comely, whom she named Gharíb, the Stranger,
by reason of her strangerhood. Then she cut his navel-string and
wrapping him in some of her own clothes, gave him to suck, harrowed at
heart, and with vitals sorrowing for the estate she had lost and its
honour and solace.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Six Hundred and Twenty-fifth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the damsel abode
in the bush harrowed at heart and a-sorrowed; but she suckled her babe
albeit she was full of grief and fear for her loneliness. Now behold,
one day, there came horsemen and footmen into the forest with hawks and
hounds and horses laden with partridges and cranes and wild geese and
divers and other waterfowl; and young ostriches and hares and gazelles
and wild oxen and lynxes and wolves and lions.[316] Presently, these
Arabs entered the thicket and came upon the damsel, sitting with her
child on her breast a-suckling him: so they drew near and asked her,
“Say art thou a mortal or a Jinniyah?” Answered she, “I am a mortal, O
Chiefs of the Arabs.” Thereupon they told their Emir, whose name was
Mardás, Prince of the Banú Kahtán,[317] and who had come forth that day
to hunt with five hundred of his cousins and the nobles of his tribe,
and who in the course of the chase had happened upon her. He bade them
bring her before him, which they did and she related to him her past
from first to last, whereat he marvelled. Then he cried to his kinsmen
and escort to continue the chase, after which they took her and returned
to their encampment, where the Emir appointed her a separate
dwelling-place and five damsels to serve her; and he loved her with
exceeding love and went in to her and lay with her. She conceived by him
straightway, and, when her months were accomplished, she bare a man
child and named him Sahím al-Layl.[318] He grew up with his brother
Gharib among the nurses and throve and waxed upon the lap of the Emir
Mardas who, in due time committed the two boys to a Fakih for
instruction in the things of their faith; after which he gave them in
charge to valiant knights of the Arabs, for training them to smite with
sword and lunge with lance and shoot with shaft; so by the time they
reached the age of fifteen, they knew all they needed and surpassed each
and every brave of their tribe; for Gharib would undertake a thousand
horse and Sahim al-Layl no fewer. Now Mardas had many enemies, and the
men of his tribe were the bravest of all the Arabs, being doughty
cavaliers, none might warm himself at their fire.[319] In his
neighbourhood was an Emir of the Arabs, Hassán bin Sábit hight, who was
his intimate friend; and he took to wife a noble lady of his tribe and
bade all his friends to the wedding, amongst them Mardas lord of the
Banu Kahtan, who accepted his invitation and set forth with three
hundred riders of his tribe, leaving other four hundred to guard the
women. Hassan met him with honour and seated him in the highest stead.
Then came all the cavaliers to the bridal and he made them bride-feasts
and held high festival by reason of the marriage, after which the Arabs
departed to their dwelling-places. When Mardas came in sight of his
camp, he saw slain men lying about and birds hovering over them right
and left; and his heart sank within him at the sight. Then he entered
the camp and was met by Gharib, clad in complete suit of ring-mail, who
gave him joy of his safe return. Quoth Mardas, “What meaneth this case,
O Gharib?”; and quoth Gharib, “Al-Hamal bin Májid attacked us with five
hundred horsemen of his tribe.” Now the reason of this was that the Emir
Mardas had a daughter called Mahdíyah, seer never saw fairer than she,
and Al-Hamal, lord of the Banu Nabhán,[320] heard of her charms;
whereupon he took horse with five hundred of his men and rode to Mardas
to demand her hand; but he was not accepted and was sent away
disappointed.[321] So he awaited till Mardas was absent on his visit to
Hassan, when he mounted with his champions and, falling upon the camp of
the Banu Kahtan, slew a number of their knights and the rest fled to the
mountains. Now Gharib and his brother had ridden forth a-hunting and
chasing with an hundred horse and returned not till midday, when they
found that Al-Hamal had seized the camp and all therein and had carried
off the maidens, among whom was Mahdiyah, driving her away with the
captives. When Gharib saw this, he lost his wits for rage and cried out
to Sahim, saying, “O my brother, O son of an accursed dam,[322] they
have plundered our camp and carried off our women and children! Up and
at the enemy, that we may deliver the captives!” So Gharib and Sahim and
their hundred horse rushed upon the foe, and Gharib’s wrath redoubled,
and he reaped a harvest of heads slain, giving the champions death-cup
to drain, till he won to Al-Hamal and saw Mahdiyah among the captives.
Then he drave at the lord of the Banu Nabhan braves; with his lance
lunged him and from his destrier hurled him; nor was the time of
mid-afternoon prayer come before he had slain the most part of the foe
and put to rout the rest and rescued the captives; whereupon he returned
to the camp in triumph, bearing the head of Al-Hamal on the point of his
lance and improvising these couplets:—
I am he who is known on the day of fight, ✿ And the Jinn of earth at my
shade take fright:
And a sword have I when my right hand wields, ✿ Death hastens from left
on mankind to alight;
I have eke a lance and who look thereon ✿ See a crescent-head of the
liveliest light.[323]
And Gharib I’m hight of my tribe the brave ✿ And if few my men I feel
naught affright.
Hardly had Gharib made an end of these verses when up came Mardas who,
seeing the slain and the vultures, was sore troubled and with fluttering
heart asked the cause. The youth, after due greetings, related all that
had befallen the tribe in his step-sire’s absence. So Mardas thanked him
and said, “Thou hast well requited our fosterage-pains in rearing thee,
O Gharib!”; then he alighted and entered his pavilion, and the men stood
about him, all the tribe praising Gharib and saying, “O our Emir, but
for Gharib, not one of the tribe had been saved!” And Mardas again
thanked him.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say
her permitted say.
Now when it was the Six Hundred and Twenty-sixth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Mardas, hearing
the tribesmen’s praises of Gharib, again thanked him for his derring-do.
But the youth, when he had delivered Mahdiyah from Al-Hamal whom he
slew, was smitten by the shaft of her glances and fell into the nets of
her allurements, wherefore his heart could not forget her and he became
drowned in love and longing and the sweets of sleep forsook him and he
had no joy of drink or meat. He would spur his horse up to the mountain
tops, where he would spend the day in composing verses and return at
nightfall; and indeed manifest upon him were the signs of affection and
distraction. He discovered his secret to one of his companions and it
became noised abroad in the camp, till it reached the ears of Mardas,
who thundered and lightened and rose up and sat down and snarked and
snorted and reviled the sun and the moon, saying, “This is the reward of
him who reareth the sons of adultery! But except I kill Gharib, I shall
be put to shame.”[324] Then he consulted one of the wise men of his
tribe and after telling his secret took counsel with him of killing the
youth. Quoth the elder, “O Emir, ‘twas but yesterday that he freed thy
daughter from captivity. If there be no help for it but thou must slay
him, let it be by the hand of another than thyself, so none of the folk
may misdoubt of thee.” Quoth Mardas, “Advise me how I may do him die,
for I look to none but to thee for his death.” “O Emir,” answered the
other, “wait till he go forth to hunt and chase, when do thou take an
hundred horse and lie in wait for him in some cave till he pass; then
fall upon him unawares and cut him in pieces, so shalt thou be quit of
his reproach.” Said Mardas, “This should serve me well;” and chose out
an hundred and fifty of his furious knights and Amalekites[325] whom he
lessoned to his will. Then he watched Gharib till one day, he went forth
to hunt and rode far away amongst the dells and hills; whereupon Mardas
followed him with his men, ill-omened wights, and lay in wait for him by
the way against he should return from the chase that they might sally
forth and slay him. But as they lay in ambush among the trees behold,
there fell upon them five hundred true Amalekites, who slew sixty of
them and made fourscore and ten prisoners and trussed up Mardas with his
arms behind his back. Now the reason of this was that when Gharib put
Al-Hamal and his men to the sword, the rest fled and ceased not flying
till they reached their lord’s brother and told him what had happened,
whereat his Doom-day rose and he gathered together his Amalekites and
choosing out five hundred cavaliers, each fifty ells high,[326] set out
with them in quest of blood-revengement for his brother. By the way he
fell in with Mardas and his companions and there happened between them
what happened; after which he bade his men alight and rest, saying, “O
folk, the idols have given us an easy blood-wreak; so guard ye Mardas
and his tribesmen, till I carry them away and do them die with the
foulest of deaths.” When Mardas saw himself a prisoner, he repented of
what he had done and said, “This is the reward of rebelling against the
Lord!” Then the enemy passed the night rejoicing in their victory,
whilst Mardas and his men despaired of life and made sure of doom. So
far concerning them; but as regards Sahim al-Layl, who had been wounded
in the fight with Al-Hamal, he went in to his sister Mahdiyah, and she
rose to him and kissed his hands, saying, “May thy two hands ne’er
wither nor thine enemies have occasion to be blither! But for thee and
Gharib, we had not escaped captivity among our foes. Know, however, O my
brother, that thy father hath ridden forth with an hundred and fifty
horse, purposing to slaughter Gharib; and thou wottest it would be sore
loss and foul wrong to slay him, for that it was he who saved your shame
and rescued your good.” When Sahim heard this, the light in his sight
became night, he donned his battle-harness; and, mounting steed, rode
for the place where Gharib was a-hunting. He presently came up with him
and found that he had taken great plenty of game; so he accosted him and
saluted him and said, “O my brother, why didst thou go forth without
telling me?” Replied Gharib, “By Allah, naught hindered me but that I
saw thee wounded and thought to give thee rest.” Then said Sahim, “O my
brother, beware of my sire!” and told him how Mardas was abroad with an
hundred and fifty men, seeking to slay him. Quoth Gharib, “Allah shall
cause his treason to cut his own throat.” Then the brothers set out
camp-wards, but night overtook them by the way and they rode on in the
darkness, till they drew near the Wady wherein the enemy lay and heard
the neighing of steeds in the gloom; whereupon said Sahim, “O my
brother, my father and his men are ambushed in yonder valley; let us
flee from it.” But Gharib dismounted and throwing his bridle to his
brother, said to him, “Stay in this stead till I come back to thee.”
Then he went on till he drew in sight of the folk, when he saw that they
were not of his tribe and heard them naming Mardas and saying, “We will
not slay him, save in his own land.” Wherefore he knew that nuncle
Mardas was their prisoner, and said, “By the life of Mahdiyah, I will
not depart hence till I have delivered her father, that she may not be
troubled!” Then he sought and ceased not seeking till he hit upon Mardas
and found him bound with cords; so he sat down by his side and said to
him, “Heaven deliver thee, O uncle, from these bonds and this shame!”
When Mardas saw Gharib his reason fled, and he said to him, “O my son, I
am under thy protection: so deliver me in right of my fosterage of
thee!” Quoth Gharib, “If I deliver thee, wilt thou give me Mahdiyah?”
Quoth the Emir, “O my son, by whatso I hold sacred, she is thine to all
time!” So he loosed him, saying, “Make for the horses, for thy son Sahim
is there:” and Mardas crept along like a snake till he came to his son,
who rejoiced in him and congratulated him on his escape. Meanwhile,
Gharib unbound one after another of the prisoners, till he had freed the
whole ninety and they were all far from the foe. Then he sent them their
weapons and war-horses, saying to them, “Mount ye and scatter yourselves
round about the enemy and cry out, Ho, sons of Kahtan! And when they
awake, do ye remove from them and encircle them in a thin ring.”[327] So
he waited till the last and third watch of the night, when he cried out,
“Ho, sons of Kahtan!” and his men answered in like guise, crying, “Ho,
sons of Kahtan,” as with one voice; and the mountains echoed their
slogan, so that it seemed to the raiders as though the whole tribe of
Banu Kahtan were assailing them; wherefore they all snatched up their
arms and fell upon one another——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day
and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Six Hundred and Twenty-seventh Night,