man who owned the maid entered Bassorah, he was perplexed for not
knowing the Hashimi’s house. So I accosted (said he) a grocer and,
taking of him inkcase and paper, sat down to write. He admired my
handwriting and seeing my dress stained and soiled, questioned me of my
case, to which I replied that I was a stranger and poor. Quoth he, “Wilt
thou abide with me and order the accounts of my shop and I will give
thee thy food and clothing and half a dirham a day for ordering the
accompts of my shop?”; and quoth I, “’Tis well,” and abode with him and
kept his accounts and ordered his income and expenditure for a month, at
the end of which he found his income increased and his disbursements
diminished; wherefore he thanked me and made my wage a dirham a day.
When the year was out, he proposed to me to marry his daughter and
become his partner in the shop. I agreed to this and went in to my wife
and applied me to the shop. But I was broken in heart and spirit, and
grief was manifest upon me; and the grocer used to drink and invite me
thereto, but I refrained for melancholy. I abode on this wise two years
till, one day, as I sat in the shop, behold, there passed by a parcel of
people with meat and drink, and I asked the grocer what was the matter.
Quoth he, “This is the day of the pleasure-makers, when all the
musicians and dancers of the town go forth with the young men of fortune
to the banks of the Ubullah river[50] and eat and drink among the trees
there.” The spirit prompted me to solace myself with the sight of this
thing and I said in my mind, “Haply among these people I may foregather
with her I love.” So I told the grocer that I had a mind to this and he
said, “Up and go with them an thou please.” He made me ready meat and
drink and I went till I came to the River of Ubullah, when, behold, the
folk were going away: I also was about to follow, when I espied the Rais
of the bark wherein the Hashimi had been with the damsel and he was
going along the river. I cried out to him and his company who knew me
and took me on board with them and said to me, “Art thou yet alive?”;
and they embraced me and questioned me of my case. I told them my tale
and they said, “Indeed, we thought that drunkenness had gotten the
better of thee and that thou hadst fallen into the water and wast
drowned.” Then I asked them of the damsel, and they answered, “When she
came to know of thy loss, she rent her raiment and burnt the lute and
fell to buffeting herself and lamenting and when we returned with the
Hashimi to Bassorah we said to her, “Leave this weeping and wailing.”
Quoth she, “I will don black and make me a tomb beside the house and
abide thereby and repent from singing.[51] We allowed her so to do and
on this wise she abideth to this day.” Then they carried me to the
Hashimi’s house, where I saw the damsel as they had said. When she
espied me, she cried out a great cry, methought she had died, and I
embraced her with a long embrace. Then said the Hashimi to me, “Take
her;” and I said, “’Tis well: but do thou free her and according to thy
promise marry her to me.” Accordingly he did this and gave us costly
goods and store of raiment and furniture and five hundred dinars,
saying, “This is the amount of that which I purpose to allow you every
month, but on condition that thou be my cup-companion and that I hear
the girl sing when I will.” Furthermore, he assigned us private quarters
and bade transport thither all our need; so, when I went to the house, I
found it filled full of furniture and stuffs and carried the damsel
thither. Then I betook me to the grocer and told him all that had
betided me, begging to hold me guiltless for divorcing his daughter,
without offence on her part; and I paid her her dowry[52] and what else
behoved me.[53] I abode with the Hashimi in this way two years and
became a man of great wealth and was restored to the former estate of
prosperity wherein I had been at Baghdad, I and the damsel. And indeed
Allah the Bountiful put an end to our troubles and loaded us with the
gifts of good fortune and caused our patience to result in the
attainment of our desire: wherefore to Him be the praise in this world
and the next whereto we are returning.[54] And among the tales men tell
is that of
-----
Footnote 37:
A descendant of Háshim, the Apostle’s great-grandfather from whom the
Abbasides were directly descended. The Ommiades were less directly
akin to Mohammed, being the descendants of Hashim’s brother, Abd
al-Shams. The Hashimis were famed for liberality; and the quality
seems to have been inherited. The first Háshim got his name from
_crumbling_ bread into the Saríd or brewis of the Meccan pilgrims
during “The Ignorance.” He was buried at Ghazzah (Gaza) but his tomb
was soon forgotten.
Footnote 38:
_i.e._ thy lover.
Footnote 39:
_i.e._ of those destined to hell; the especial home of Moslem
suicides.
Footnote 40:
Arab. “’Ummál” (plur. of ’Ámil) viceroys or governors of provinces.
Footnote 41:
A town of Irák Arabi (Mesopotamia) between Baghdad and Bassorah built
upon the Tigris and founded by Al-Hajjaj: it is so called because the
“Middle” or half-way town between Basrah and Kufah. To this place were
applied the famous lines:—
“In good sooth a right noble race are they;
Whose men “yea” can’t say nor their women “nay.”
Footnote 42:
_i.e._ robed as thou art.
Footnote 43:
_i.e._ his kinsfolk of the Hashimis.
Footnote 44:
See vol. ii. 24.
Footnote 45:
Arab. “Sur’itu” = I was possessed of a Jinn, the common Eastern
explanation of an epileptic fit long before the days of the Evangel.
See vol. iv. 89.
Footnote 46:
Arab. “Zí’ah,” village, feoff or farm.
Footnote 47:
Arab. “Taríkah.”
Footnote 48:
“Most of the great Arab musicians had their own peculiar fashion of
tuning the lute, for the purpose of extending its register or
facilitating the accompaniment of songs composed in uncommon keys and
rhythms or possibly of increasing its sonority, and it appears to have
been a common test of the skill of a great musician, such as Ishac
el-Mausili or his father Ibrahim, to require him to accompany a
difficult song on a lute purposely untuned. As a (partial) modern
instance of the practice referred to in the text, may be cited
Paganini’s custom of lowering or raising the G string of the violin in
playing certain of his own compositions. According to the Kitab
el-Aghani, Ishac el-Mausili is said to have familiarized himself, by
incessant practice, with the exact sounds produced by each division of
the strings of the four course lute of his day, under every imaginable
circumstance of tuning.” It is regrettable that Mr. Payne does not
give us more of such notes.
Footnote 49:
See vol. vii. 363 for the use of these fumigations.
Footnote 50:
In the Mac. Edit. “Aylah” for Ubullah: the latter is one of the
innumerable canals, leading from Bassorah to Ubullah-town a distance
of twelve miles. Its banks are the favourite pleasure-resort of the
townsfolk, being built over with villas and pavilions (now no more)
and the orchards seem to form one great garden, all confined by one
wall. See Jaubert’s translation of Al-Idrisi, vol. i. pp. 368–69. The
Aylah, a tributary of the Tigris, waters (I have noted) the Gardens of
Bassorah.
Footnote 51:
Music having been forbidden by Mohammed who believed with the vulgar
that the Devil has something to do with it. Even Paganini could not
escape suspicion in the nineteenth century.
Footnote 52:
The “Mahr,” or Arab dowry consists of two parts, one paid down on
consummation and the other agreed to be paid to the wife, contingently
upon her being divorced by her husband. If she divorce him this
portion, which is generally less than the half, cannot be claimed by
her; and I have related the Persian abomination which compels the
woman to sacrifice her rights. See vol. iii. p. 304.
Footnote 53:
_i.e._ the cost of her maintenance during the four months of single
blessedness which must or ought to elapse before she can legally marry
again.
Footnote 54:
Lane translates most incompletely, “To Him, then, be praise, first and
last!”
KING JALI’AD OF HIND AND HIS WAZIR SHIMAS; FOLLOWED BY THE HISTORY OF
KING WIRD KHAN, SON OF KING JALI’AD, WITH HIS WOMEN AND WAZIRS.[55]
There was once in days of yore and in ages and times long gone before,
in the land of Hind, a mighty King, tall of presence and fair of favour
and goodly of parts, noble of nature and generous, beneficent to the
poor and loving to his lieges and all the people of his realm. His name
was Jalí’ád and under his hand were two and-seventy Kings and in his
cities three hundred and fifty Kazis. He had three score and ten Wazirs
and over every ten of them he set a premier. The chiefest of all his
ministers was a man called Shimás[56] who was then[57] two-and-twenty
years old, a statesman of pleasant presence and noble nature, sweet of
speech and ready in reply; shrewd in all manner of business, skilful
withal and sagacious, for all his tender age, a man of good counsel and
fine manners versed in all arts and sciences and accomplishments; and
the King loved him with exceeding love and cherished him by reason of
his proficiency in eloquence and rhetoric and the art of government and
for that which Allah had given him of compassion and brooding care[58]
with his lieges for he was a King just in his Kingship and a protector
of his peoples, constant in beneficence to great and small and giving
them that which befitted them of good governance and bounty and
protection and security and a lightener of their loads in taxes and
tithes. And indeed he was loving to them each and every, high and low,
entreating them with kindness and solicitude and governing them in such
goodly guise as none had done before him. But, with all this, Almighty
Allah had not blessed him with a child, and this was grievous to him and
to the people of his reign. It chanced, one night, as Jali’ad[59] lay in
his bed, occupied with anxious thought of the issue of the affair of his
Kingdom, that sleep overcame him and he dreamt that he poured water upon
the roots of a tree,——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Nine Hundredth Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the King saw
himself in his vision pouring water upon the roots of a tree, about
which were many other trees; and lo and behold! there came fire out of
this tree and burnt up every growth which encompassed it; whereupon
Jali’ad awoke affrighted and trembling, and calling one of his pages
said to him, “Go fetch the Wazir Shimas in all haste.” So he betook
himself to Shimas and said to him, “The King calleth for thee forthright
because he hath awoke from his sleep in affright and hath sent me to
bring thee to him in haste.” When Shimas heard this, he arose without
stay or delay and going to the King, found him seated on his bed. He
prostrated himself before him, wishing him permanence of glory and
prosperity, and said, “May Allah not cause thee grieve, O King! What
hath troubled thee this night, and what is the cause of thy seeking me
thus in haste?” The King bade him be seated; and, as soon as he sat
down, began telling his tale and said to him, “I have dreamt this night
a dream which terrified me, and ’twas, that methought I poured water
upon the roots of a tree where about were many other trees and as I was
thus engaged, lo and behold! fire issued therefrom and burnt up all the
growths that were around it; wherefore I was affrighted and fear took
me. Then I awoke and sent to bid thee to me, because of thy knowledge
and skill in the interpretation of dreams and of that which I know of
the vastness of thy wisdom and the greatness of thine understanding.” At
this Shimas the Wazir bowed his head groundwards awhile and presently
raising it, smiled; so the King said to him, “What deemest thou, O
Shimas? Tell me the truth of the matter and hide naught from me.”
Answered Shimas, “O King, verily Allah Almighty granteth thee thy wish
and cooleth thine eyes; for the matter of this dream presageth all good,
to wit, that the Lord will bless thee with a son, who shall inherit the
Kingdom from thee, after thy long life. But there is somewhat else I
desire not to expound at this present, seeing that the time is not
favourable for interpretation.” The King rejoiced in these words with
exceeding joy and great was his contentment; his trouble departed from
him, his mind was at rest and he said, “If the case be thus of the happy
presage of my dream, do thou complete to me its exposition when the
fitting time betideth: for that which it behoveth not to expound to me
now, it behoveth that thou expound to me when its time cometh, so my joy
may be fulfilled, because I seek naught in this save the approof of
Allah extolled and exalted be He!” Now when the Wazir Shimas saw that
the King was urgent to have the rest of the exposition, he put him off
with a pretext; but Jali’ad assembled all the astrologers and
interpreters of dreams of his realm and as soon as they were in the
presence related to them his vision, saying, “I desire you to tell me
the true interpretation of this.” Whereupon one of them came forward and
craved the King’s permission to speak, which being granted, he said,
“Know, O King, that thy Wazir Shimas is nowise unable to interpret this
thy dream; but he shrank from troubling thy repose: wherefore he
disclosed not unto thee the whole thereof: but, an thou suffer me to
speak I will expose to thee that which he concealed from thee.” The King
replied, “Speak without respect for persons, O interpreter, and be
truthful in thy speech.” The interpreter said, “Know then, O King, that
there will be born to thee a boy-child who shall inherit the Kingship
from thee, after thy long life; but he shall not order himself towards
the lieges after thy fashion; nay, he shall transgress thine ordinances
and oppress thy subjects, and there shall befal him what befel the Mouse
with the Cat[60]; and I seek refuge with Almighty Allah[61]!” The King
asked, “But what is the story of the Cat and the Mouse?”; and the
interpreter answered “May Allah prolong the King’s life! They tell the
following tale of
_THE MOUSE AND THE CAT_.”
A Grimalkin, that is to say, a Cat, went out one night to a certain
garden, in search of what she might devour, but found nothing and became
weak for the excess of cold and rain that prevailed that night. So she
sought for some device whereby to save herself. As she prowled about in
search of prey, she espied a nest at the foot of a tree, and drawing
near unto it, sniffed thereat and purred till she scented a Mouse within
and went round about it, seeking to enter and seize the inmate. When the
Mouse smelt the Cat, he turned his back to her and scraped up the earth
with his forehand, to stop the nest-door against her; whereupon she
assumed a weakly voice and said, “Why dost thou thus, O my brother? I
come to seek refuge with thee, hoping that thou wilt take pity on me and
harbour me in thy nest this night; for I am weak because of the
greatness of my age and the loss of my strength, and can hardly move. I
have ventured into thy garden to-night, and how many a time have I
called upon death, that I might be at rest from this pain! Behold, here
am I at thy door, prostrate for cold and rain and I beseech thee, by
Allah, take of thy charity my hand and bring me in with thee and give me
shelter in the vestibule of thy nest; for I am a stranger and wretched
and ’tis said:—Whoso sheltereth a stranger and a wretched one in his
home his shelter shall be Paradise on the Day of Doom. And thou, O my
brother, it behoveth thee to earn eternal reward by succouring me and
suffering me abide with thee this night till the morning, when I will
wend my way.”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying
her permitted say.
Now when it was the Nine Hundred and First Night,
She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that quoth the Cat
to the Mouse, “So suffer me to night with thee this night, after which I
will wend my way.” Hearing these words the Mouse replied, “How shall I
suffer thee enter my nest seeing that thou art my natural foe and thy
food is of my flesh? Indeed I fear lest thou false me, for that is of
thy nature and there is no faith in thee, and the byword saith:—It
befitteth not to entrust a lecher with a fair woman nor a moneyless man
with money nor fire with fuel. Neither doth it behove me to entrust
myself to thee; and ’tis said:—Enmity of kind, as the enemy himself
groweth weaker groweth stronger.” The Cat made answer in the faintest
voice, as she were in most piteous case, saying, “What thou advancest of
admonitory instances is the truth and I deny not my offences against
thee; but I beseech thee to pardon that which is past of the enmity of
kind between me and thee; for ’tis said:—Whoso forgiveth a creature like
himself, his Creator will forgive him his sins. ’Tis true that whilome I
was thy foe, but here am I a suitor for thy friendship, and they say,
“An thou wilt have thy foe become thy friend, do with him good. O my
brother, I swear to thee by Allah and make a binding covenant with thee
that I will hurt thee nevermore and for the best of reasons, to wit,
that I have no power thereto; wherefore place thy trust in Allah and do
good and accept my oath and covenant.” Quoth the Mouse, “How can I
accept the covenant of one between whom and me there is a rooted enmity,
and whose wont it is to deal treacherously by me? Were the feud between
us aught but one of blood, this were light to me; but it is an enmity of
kind between souls, and it is said:—Whoso trusteth himself to his foe is
as one who thrusteth hand into a serpent’s[62] mouth.” Quoth the Cat,
full of wrath, “My breast is strait and my soul is faint: indeed I am
_in articulo mortis_ and ere long I shall die at thy door and my blood
will be on thy head, for that thou hadst it in thy power to save me in
mine extremity: and this is my last word to thee.” Herewith the fear of
Allah Almighty overcame the Mouse and ruth gat hold upon his heart and
he said in himself, “Whoso would have the succour of Allah the Most High
against his foe, let him entreat him with compassion and kindness show.
I rely upon the Almighty in this matter and will deliver this Cat from
this her strait and earn the divine reward for her.” So he went forth
and dragged into his nest the Cat, where she abode till she was rested
and somewhat strengthened and restored, when she began to bewail her
weakness and wasted strength and want of gossips. The Mouse entreated
her in friendly guise and comforted her and busied himself with her
service; but she crept along till she got command of the issue of the
nest, lest the Mouse should escape. So when the nest-owner would have
gone out after his wont, he drew near the Cat; whereupon she seized him
and taking him in her claws, began to bite him and shake him and take
him in her mouth and lift him up and cast him down and run after him and
cranch him and torture him.[63] The Mouse cried out for help, beseeching
deliverance of Allah and began to upbraid the Cat, saying, “Where is the
covenant thou madest with me and where are the oaths thou swarest to me?
Is this my reward from thee? I brought thee into my nest and trusted
myself to thee: but sooth he speaketh that saith:—Whoso relieth on his
enemy’s promise desireth not salvation for himself. And again:—Whoso
confideth himself to his foe deserveth his own destruction. Yet do I put
my trust in my Creator, for He will deliver me from thee.” Now as he was
in this condition, with the Cat about to pounce on him and devour him,
behold, up came a huntsman, with hunting dogs trained to the chase. One
of the hounds passed by the mouth of the nest and hearing a great
scuffling, thought that within was a fox tearing somewhat; so he crept
into the hole, to get at him, and coming upon the Cat, seized on her.
When she found herself in the dog’s clutches, she was forced to take
thought anent saving herself and loosed the Mouse alive and whole
without wound. Then the hound brake her neck and dragging her forth of
the hole, threw her down dead: and thus was exemplified the truth of the
saying, “Who hath compassion shall at the last be compassionated. Whoso
oppresseth shall presently be oppressed.” “This, then, O King,” added
the interpreter, “is what befel the Mouse and the Cat and teacheth that
none should break faith with those who put trust in him; for whoever
doth perfidy and treason, there shall befal him the like of that which
befel the Cat. As a man meteth, so shall it be meted unto him, and he
who betaketh himself to good shall gain his eternal reward. But grieve
thou not, neither let this trouble thee, O King, for that assuredly thy
son, after his tyranny and oppression, shall return to the goodliness of
thy policy. And I would that yon learned man, thy Wazir Shimas, had
concealed from thee naught in that which he expounded unto thee; and
this had been well-advised of him, for ’tis said:—Those of the folk who
most abound in fear are the amplest of them in knowledge and the most
emulous of good.” The King received the interpreter’s speech with
submission and gifted him and his fellows with rich gifts; then,
dismissing them he arose and withdrew to his own apartments and fell to
pondering the issue of his affair. When night came, he went in to one of
his women, who was most in favour with him and dearest to him of them
all, and lay with her: and ere some four months had passed over her, the
child stirred in her womb, whereat she rejoiced with joy exceeding and
told the King. Quoth he, “My dream said sooth, by Allah the Helper!”;
and he lodged her in the goodliest of lodgings and entreated her with
all honour, bestowing on her store of rich gifts and manifold boons.
Then he sent one of his pages to fetch his Wazir Shimas and as soon as
he was in the presence told the Minister what had betided, rejoicing and
saying, “My dream is come true and I have won my wish. It may be this
burthen will be a man-child and inherit the Kingship after me; what
sayest thou of this, O Shimas?” But he was silent and made no reply,
whereupon cried the King, “What aileth thee that thou rejoicest not in
my joy and returnest me no answer? Doth the thing mislike thee, O
Shimas?” Hereat the Wazir prostrated himself before him and said, “O
King, may Allah prolong thy life! What availeth it to sit under the
shade of a tree, if there issue fire therefrom, and what is the delight
of one who drinketh pure wine, if he be choked thereby, and what doth it
profit to quench one’s thirst with sweet cool water, if one be drowned
therein? I am Allah’s servant and thine, O King; but there are three
things[64] whereof it besitteth not the understanding to speak, till
they be accomplished; to wit, the wayfarer, till he return from his way,
the man who is in fight, till he have overcome his foe, and the pregnant
woman, till she have cast her burthen.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn
of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Nine Hundred and Second Night,
She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that after Shimas
had enumerated to the King the three things whereof it besitteth not the
understanding to speak save after they are done, he continued, “For
know, O King, that he, who speaketh of aught before its accomplishment
is like the Fakir who had hung over his head the jar of clarified
butter.[65]” “What is the story of the Fakir,” asked the King, “and what
happened to him?” Answered the Wazir, “O King, they tell this tale anent
_THE FAKIR AND HIS JAR OF BUTTER_.[66]”