jeweller quitted his wife, he repented having bespoken her thus and,
returning to his shop, he sat there in disquiet sore and anxiety galore,
between belief and unbelief. About eventide he went home alone, not
bringing Kamar al-Zaman with him: whereupon quoth his wife, “Where is
the merchant?”; and quoth he, “In his lodgings.” She asked, “Is the
friendship between thee and him grown cold?” and he answered, “By Allah,
I have taken a dislike to him, because of that which hath betided me
from him.”[428] Quoth she, “Go fetch him, to please me.” So he arose and
went in to Kamar al-Zaman in his house; where he saw his own goods
strewn about and knew them. At this sight, fire was kindled in his heart
and he fell a-sighing. Quoth the youth, “How is it that I see thee
melancholy?” Obayd was ashamed to say, “Here are my goods in thy house:
who brought them hither?”; so he replied only, “A vexation hath betided
me; but come thou with me to my house, that we may solace ourselves
there.” The other rejoined, “Let me be in my place: I will not go with
thee.” But the jeweller conjured him to come and took him to his house,
where they supped and passed the evening together, Kamar al-Zaman
talking with the jeweller, who was drowned in the sea of solicitude and
for a hundred words, wherewith the guest bespoke him, answered him only
one word. Presently, the handmaid brought them two cups of drink, as
usual, and they drank; whereupon the jeweller fell asleep, but the youth
abode on wake, because his cup was not drugged. Then came Halimah and
said to her lover, “How deemest thou of yonder cornuted, who is drunken
in his heedlessness and weeteth not the wiles of women? There is no help
for it but that I cozen him into divorcing me. To-morrow, I will
disguise myself as a slave-girl and walk after thee to his shop, where
do thou say to him, O master, I went to-day into the Khan of
Al-Yasirjíyah, where I saw this damsel and bought her for a thousand
dinars. Look at her for me and tell me whether she was cheap at that
price or dear. Then uncover to him my face and breasts and show all of
me to him; after which do thou carry me back to thy house, whence I will
go to my chamber by the secret passage, so I may see the issue of our
affair with him.” Then the twain passed the night in mirth and
merriment, converse and good cheer, dalliance and delight till dawn,
when she returned to her own place and sent the handmaid to arouse her
lawful lord and her lover. Accordingly they arose and prayed the
dawn-prayer and brake their fast and drank coffee, after which Obayd
repaired to his shop and Kamar al-Zaman betook himself to his own house.
Presently, in came Halimah to him by the tunnel, in the guise of a
slave-girl, and indeed she was by birth a slave-girl.[429] Then he went
out and she walked behind him, till he came to the jeweller’s shop and
saluting him, sat down and said, “O master, I went into the Khan of
Al-Yasirjiyah to-day, to look about me, and saw this damsel in the
broker’s hands. She pleased me; so I bought her for a thousand dinars
and I would have thee look upon her and see if she be cheap at that
price or no.” So saying, he uncovered her face and the jeweller saw her
to be his own wife, clad in her costliest clothes, tricked out in her
finest trinkets and kohl’d and henna’d, even as she was wont to adorn
herself before him in the house. He knew with full knowledge her face
and dress and trinkets, for those he had wrought with his own hand, and
he saw on her fingers the seal-rings he had newly made for Kamar
al-Zaman, whereby he was certified with entire assurance that she was
indeed his very wife. So he asked her, “What is thy name, O
slave-girl?”; and she answered, “Halimah,” naming to him her own name;
whereat he was amazed and said to the youth, “For how much didst thou
buy her?” He replied, “For a thousand dinars”; and the jeweller
rejoined, “Thou hast gotten her gratis; for her rings and clothes and
trinkets are worth more than that.” Said Kamar al-Zaman, “May Allah
rejoice thee with good news! Since she pleaseth thee, I will carry her
to my house;” and Obayd said, “Do thy will.” So he took her off to his
house, whence she passed through the secret passage to her own apartment
and sat there. Meanwhile, fire flamed in the jeweller’s heart and he
said to himself, “I will go see my wife. If she be at home, this
slave-girl must be her counterpart, and glory be to Him who alone hath
no counterpart! But, if she be not at home, ’tis she herself without a
doubt.” Then he set off running, and coming to his house, found his wife
sitting in the same clothes and ornaments he had seen upon her in the
shop; whereupon he beat hand upon hand, saying, “There is no Majesty and
there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great!” “O man,”
asked she, “art thou mad or what aileth thee? ’Tis not thy wont to do
thus, and needs must it be that something hath befallen thee.” Answered
he, “If thou wilt have me tell thee be not vexed.” Quoth she, “Say on”;
so he said, “Our friend the merchant hath bought a slave-girl, whose
shape is as thy shape and her height as thy height; moreover, her name
is even as thy name and her apparel is the like of thine apparel. Brief,
she resembleth thee in all her attributes, and on her fingers are
seal-rings like thy seal-rings and her trinkets are as thy trinkets. So,
when he displayed her to me, methought it was thyself and I was
perplexed concerning my case. Would we had never seen this merchant nor
companied with him; and would he had never left his own country and we
had not known him, for he hath troubled my life which before was serene,
causing ill-feeling to succeed good faith and making doubt to enter into
my heart.” Said she, “Look in my face, belike I am she who was with him
and he is my lover and I disguised myself as a slave-girl and agreed
with him that he should display me to thee, so he might lay a snare for
thee.” He replied, “What words are these? Indeed, I never suspected that
thou wouldst do the like of this deed.” Now this jeweller was unversed
in the wiles of women and knew not how they deal with men, nor had he
heard the saying of him who said:—
A heart bore thee off in chase of the fair, ✿ As fled Youth and came Age
wi’ his hoary hair:
Laylà troubles me and love-joys are far; ✿ And rival and risks brings us
cark and care.
An would’st ask me of woman, behold I am ✿ In physic of womankind wise
and ware:
When grizzleth man’s head and his monies fail, ✿ His lot in their love
is a poor affair.
Nor that of another:[430]—
Gainsay women; he obeyeth Allah best, who saith them nay And he prospers
not who giveth them his bridle-rein to sway;
For they’ll hinder him from winning to perfection in his gifts, Though a
thousand years he study, seeking after wisdom’s way.
And a third:—
Women Satans are, made for woe of man: ✿ To Allah I fly from such
Satanesses!
Whom they lure by their love he to grief shall come ✿ And lose bliss of
world and the Faith that blesses.
Said she, “Here am I sitting in my chamber; so go thou to him forthright
and knock at the door and contrive to go in to him quickly. An thou see
the damsel with him ’tis a slave-girl of his who resembleth me (and
Glory be to Him who hath no resemblance![431]) But, an thou see no
slave-girl with him, then am I myself she whom thou sawest with him in
the shop, and thine ill thought of me will be stablished.” “True,”
answered Obayd, and went out leaving her, whereupon she passed through
the hidden passage and seating herself by Kamar al-Zaman, told him what
had passed, saying, “Open the door quickly and show me to him.” Now, as
they were talking, behold, there came a knocking at the door. Quoth
Kamar al-Zaman, “Who is at the door?”; and quoth the jeweller, “I, thy
friend; thou displayedst to me thy slave-girl in the bazar, and I
rejoiced for thee in her, but my joy in her was not completed; so open
the door and let me look at her again.” Rejoined he, “So be it,” and
opened the door to him, whereupon he saw his wife sitting by him. She
rose and kissed their hands; and he looked at her; then she talked with
him awhile and he saw her not to be distinguished from his wife in aught
and said, “Allah createth whatso He will.” Then he went away more
disheartened than before and returned to his own house where he saw his
wife sitting, for she had foregone him thither by the souterrain.——And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Nine Hundred and Seventy-fifth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young lady
forewent her spouse by the souterrain as he fared through the door and
sat down in her upper chamber;[432] so as soon as he entered she asked
him, “What hast thou seen?” and he answered, “I found her with her
master; and she resembleth thee.” Then said she, “Off to thy shop and
let this suffice thee of ignoble suspicion and never again deem ill of
me.” Said he, “So be it: accord me pardon for what is past.” And she,
“Allah grant thee grace!”;[433] whereupon he kissed her right and left
and went back to his shop. Then she again betook herself to Kamar
al-Zaman through the underground passage, with four bags of money, and
said to him, “Equip thyself at once for the road and be ready to carry
off the money without delay, against I devise for thee the device I have
in mind.” So he went out and purchased mules and loaded them and made
ready a travelling litter, he also bought Mamelukes and eunuchs and
sending, without let or hindrance, the whole without the city, returned
to Halimah and said to her, “I have made an end of my affairs.” Quoth
she, “And I on my side am ready; for I have transported to thy house all
the rest of his monies and treasures and have left him nor little nor
much, whereof he may avail himself. All this is of my love for thee, O
dearling of my heart, for I would sacrifice my husband to thee a
thousand times. But now it behoveth, thou go to him and farewell him,
saying:—I purpose to depart after three days and am come to bid thee
adieu: so do thou reckon what I owe thee for the hire of the house, that
I may send it to thee and acquit my conscience. Note his reply and
return to me and tell me; for I can no more: I have done my best, by
cozening him, to anger him with me and cause him to put me away, but I
find him none the less infatuated with me. So nothing will serve us but
to depart to thine own country.” And quoth he, “O rare! an but swevens
prove true!”[434] Then he went to the jeweller’s shop and sitting down
by him, said to him, “O master, I set out for home in three days’ time,
and am come to farewell thee. So I would have thee reckon what I owe
thee for the hire of the house, that I may pay it to thee and acquit my
conscience.” Answered Obayd, “What talk is this? Verily, ’tis I who am
indebted to thee. By Allah, I will take nothing from thee for the rent
of the house, for thou hast brought down blessings upon us! However,
thou desolatest me by thy departure, and but that it is forbidden to me,
I would certainly oppose thee and hinder thee from returning to thy
country and kinsfolk.” Then he took leave of him, whilst they both wept
with sore weeping and the jeweller went with him, and when they entered
Kamar al-Zaman’s house, there they found Halimah who stood before them
and served them; but when Obayd returned home, he found her sitting
there; nor did he cease to see her thus in each house in turn, for the
space of three days, when she said to Kamar al-Zaman, “Now have I
transported to thee all that he hath of monies and hoards and carpets
and things of price, and there remaineth with him naught save the
slave-girl, who used to come in to you with the night-drink: but I
cannot part with her, for that she is my kinswoman and she is dear to me
as a confidante. So I will beat her and be wroth with her and when my
spouse cometh home, I will say to him:—I can no longer put up with this
slave-girl nor stay in the house with her; so take her and sell her.
Accordingly he will sell her and do thou buy her, that we may carry her
with us.” Answered he, “No harm in that.” So she beat the girl and when
the jeweller came in, he found her weeping and asked her why she wept.
Quoth she, “My mistress hath beaten me.” He then went in to his wife and
said to her, “What hath that accursed girl done, that thou hast beaten
her?” She replied, “O man, I have but one word to say to thee, and ’tis
that I can no longer bear the sight of this girl; so take her and sell
her, or else divorce me.” Quoth he, “I will sell her that I may not
cross thee in aught;” and when he went out to go to the shop he took her
and passed with her by Kamar al-Zaman. No sooner had he gone out than
his wife slipped through the underground passage to Kamar al-Zaman, who
placed her in the litter, before the Shaykh her husband reached him.
When the jeweller came up and the lover saw the slave-girl with him, he
asked him, “What girl is this?”; and the other answered, “’Tis my
slave-girl who used to serve us with the night-drink; she hath disobeyed
her mistress who is wroth with her and hath bidden me sell her.” Quoth
the youth, “An her mistress have taken an aversion to her, there is for
her no abiding with her; but sell her to me, that I may smell your scent
in her, and I will make her handmaid to my slave Halimah.” “Good,”
answered Obayd: “take her.” Asked Kamar al-Zaman, “What is her price?”;
but the jeweller said, “I will take nothing from thee, for thou hast
been bountiful to us.” So he accepted her from him and said to Halimah,
“Kiss thy lord’s hand.” Accordingly, she came out from the litter and
kissing Obayd’s hand, remounted, whilst he looked hard at her. Then said
Kamar al-Zaman, “I commend thee to Allah, O Master Obayd! Acquit my
conscience of responsibility.[435]” Answered the jeweller, “Allah acquit
thee! and carry thee safe to thy family!” Then he bade him farewell and
went to his shop weeping, and indeed it was grievous to him to part from
Kamar al-Zaman, for that he had been his friend and friendship hath its
debtorship; yet he rejoiced in the dispelling of the doubts which had
befallen him anent his wife, since the young man was now gone and his
suspicions had not been stablished. Such was his case; but as regards
Kamar al-Zaman, the young lady said to him, “An thou wish for safety,
travel with me by other than the wonted way.”——And Shahrazad perceived
the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Nine Hundred and Seventy-sixth Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Halimah
said to Kamar al-Zaman, “An thou wish for safety, travel with me by
other than the wonted way,” he replied, “Hearing and obeying;” and,
taking a road other than that used by folk, fared on without ceasing
from region to region till he reached the confines of Egypt-land[436]
and sent his sire a letter by a runner. Now his father the merchant Abd
al-Rahman was sitting in the market among the merchants, with a heart on
fire for separation from his son, because no news of the youth had
reached him since the day of his departure; and while he was in such
case the runner came up and cried, “O my lords, which of you is called
the merchant Abd al-Rahman?” They said, “What wouldst thou of him?”; and
he said, “I have a letter for him from his son Kamar al-Zaman, whom I
left at Al-Arísh.[437]” At this Abd al-Rahman rejoiced and his breast
was broadened and the merchants rejoiced for him and gave him joy of his
son’s safety. Then he opened the letter and read as follows:—“From Kamar
al-Zaman to the merchant Abd al-Rahman. And after Peace be upon thee and
upon all the merchants! An ye ask concerning us, to Allah be the praise
and the thanks. Indeed we have sold and bought and gained and are come
back in health, wealth and weal.” Whereupon Abd al-Rahman opened the
door[438] of rejoicing and made banquets and gave feasts and
entertainments galore, sending for instruments of music and addressing
himself to festivities after rarest fashion. When Kamar al-Zaman came to
Al-Sálihiyah,[439] his father and all the merchants went forth to meet
him, and Abd al-Rahman embraced him and strained him to his bosom and
sobbed till he swooned away. When he came to himself he said, “Oh, ’tis
a boon day O my son, whereon the Omnipotent Protector hath reunited us
with thee!” And he repeated the words of the bard:—
The return of the friend is the best of all boons, ✿ And the joy-cup
circles o’ morns and noons:
So well come, welcome, fair welcome to thee, ✿ The light of the time and
the moon o’ full moons.
Then, for excess of joy, he poured forth a flood of tears from his eyes
and he recited also these two couplets:—
The Moon o’ the Time,[440] shows unveilèd light; ✿ And, his journey
done, at our door doth alight:
His locks as the nights of his absence are black ✿ And the sun upstands
from his collar’s[441] white.
Then the merchants came up to him and saluting him, saw with him many
loads and servants and a travelling litter enclosed in a spacious
circle.[442] So they took him and carried him home; and when Halimah
came forth from the litter, his father held her a seduction to all who
beheld her. So they opened her an upper chamber, as it were a treasure
from which the talismans had been loosed;[443] and when his mother saw
her, she was ravished with her and deemed her a Queen of the wives of
the Kings. So she rejoiced in her and questioned her; and she answered,
“I am wife to thy son;” and the mother rejoined, “Since he is wedded to
thee we must make thee a splendid marriage-feast, that we may rejoice in
thee and in my son.” On this wise it befel her; but as regards the
merchant Abd al-Rahman, when the folk had dispersed and each had wended
his way, he foregathered with his son and said to him, “O my son, what
is this slave-girl thou hast brought with thee and for how much didst
thou buy her[444]?” Kamar al-Zaman said, “O my father, she is no
slave-girl; but ’tis she who was the cause of my going abroad.” Asked
his sire, “How so?”; and he answered, “’Tis she whom the Dervish
described to us the night he lay with us; for indeed my hopes clave to
her from that moment and I sought not to travel save on account of her.
The Arabs came out upon me by the way and stripped me and took my money
and goods, so that I entered Bassorah alone and there befel me there
such and such things;” and he went on to relate to his parent all that
had befallen him from commencement to conclusion. Now when he had made
an end of his story, his father said to him, “O my son, and after all
this didst thou marry her?” “No; but I have promised her marriage.” “Is
it thine intent to marry her?” “An thou bid me marry her, I will do so;
otherwise I will not marry her.” Thereupon quoth his father, “An thou
marry her, I am quit of thee in this world and in the next, and I shall
be incensed against thee with sore indignation. How canst thou wed her,
seeing that she hath dealt thus with her husband? For, even as she did
with her spouse for thy sake, so will she do the like with thee for
another’s sake, because she is a traitress and in a traitor there is no
trusting. Wherefore an thou disobey me, I shall be wroth with thee; but,
an thou give ear to my word, I will seek thee out a girl handsomer than
she, who shall be pure and pious, and marry thee to her, though I spend
all my substance upon her; and I will make thee a wedding without equal
and will glory in thee and in her; for ’tis better that folk should say,
Such an one hath married such an one’s daughter, than that they say, He
hath wedded a slave-girl sans birth or worth.” And he went on to
persuade his son to give up marrying her, by citing in support of his
say, proofs, stories, examples, verses and moral instances, till Kamar
al-Zaman exclaimed, “O my father, since the case is thus, ’tis not right
and proper that I marry her.” And when his father heard him speak on
such wise, he kissed him between the eyes, saying, “Thou art my very
son, and as I live, O my son, I will assuredly marry thee to a girl who
hath not her equal!” Then the merchant set Obayd’s wife and her handmaid
in a chamber high up in the house and, before locking the door upon the
twain, he appointed a black slave-girl to carry them their meat and
drink and he said to Halimah, “Ye shall abide imprisoned in this
chamber, thou and thy maid, till I find one who will buy you, when I
will sell you to him. An ye resist, I will slay ye both, for thou art a
traitress, and there is no good in thee.” Answered she, “Do thy will: I
deserve all thou canst do with me.” Then he locked the door upon them
and gave his Harim a charge respecting them, saying, “Let none go up to
them nor speak with them, save the black slave-girl who shall give them
their meat and drink through the casement of the upper chamber.” So she
abode with her maid, weeping and repenting her of that which she had
done with her spouse. Meanwhile Abd al-Rahman sent out the
marriage-brokers to look out a maid of birth and worth for his son, and
the women ceased not to make search, and as often as they saw one girl,
they heard of a fairer than she, till they came to the house of the
Shaykh al-Islam[445] and saw his daughter. In her they found a virgin
whose equal was not in Cairo for beauty and loveliness, symmetry and
perfect grace, and she was a thousand-fold handsomer than the wife of
Obayd. So they told Abd al-Rahman of her and he and the notables
repaired to her father and sought her in wedlock of him. Then they wrote
out the marriage contract and made her a splendid wedding; after which
Abd al-Rahman gave bride-feasts and held open house forty days. On the
first day, he invited the doctors of the law and they held a splendid
nativity[446]: and on the morrow, he invited all the merchants, and so
on during the rest of the forty days, making a banquet every day to one
or other class of folk, till he had bidden all the Olema and Emirs and
Antients[447] and Magistrates, whilst the kettle-drums were drummed and
the pipes were piped and the merchant sat to greet the guests, with his
son by his side, that he might solace himself by gazing on the folk, as
they ate from the trays. Each night Abd al-Rahman illuminated the street
and the quarter with lamps and there came every one of the mimes and
jugglers and mountebanks and played all manner play; and indeed it was a
peerless wedding. On the last day he invited the Fakirs, the poor and
the needy, far and near, and they flocked in troops and ate, whilst the
merchant sat, with his son by his side.[448] And among the paupers,
behold, entered Shaykh Obayd the jeweller and he was naked and weary and
bare on his face the marks of wayfare. When Kamar al-Zaman saw him, he
knew him and said to his sire, “Look, O my father, at yonder poor man
who is but now come in by the door.” So he looked and saw him clad in
worn clothes and on him a patched gown[449] worth two dirhams: his face
was yellow and he was covered with dust and was as he were an offcast of
the pilgrims.[450] He was groaning as groaneth a sick man in need,
walking with a tottering gait and swaying now to the right and then to
the left, and in him was realized his saying who said[451]:—
Lack-gold abaseth man and doth his worth away, Even as the setting sun
that pales with ended day.
He passeth ’mongst the folk and fain would hide his head; And when
alone, he weeps with tears that never stay.
Absent, none taketh heed to him or his concerns; Present, he hath no
part in life or pleasance aye.
By Allah, whenas men with poverty are cursed, But strangers midst their
kin and countrymen are they!
And the saying of another:—
The poor man fares by everything opposed: ✿ On him to shut the door
Earth ne’er shall fail:
Thou seest men abhor him sans a sin, ✿ And foes he finds tho’ none the
cause can tell:
The very dogs, when sighting wealthy man, ✿ Fawn at his feet and wag the
flattering tail;
Yet, an some day a pauper loon they sight, ✿ All at him bark and,
gnashing fangs, assail.
And how well quoth a third:—
If generous youth be blessed with luck and wealth, ✿ Displeasures fly
his path and perils fleet:
His enviers pimp for him and par’site-wise ✿ E’en without tryst his
mistress hastes to meet.
When loud he farts they say “How well he sings!” ✿ And when he
fizzles[452] cry they, “Oh, how sweet!”
——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Nine Hundred and Seventy-seventh Night,
She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when his son
said to Abd al-Rahman, “Look at yonder pauper!” he asked, “O my son, who
is this?” And Kamar al-Zaman answered, “This is Master Obayd the
jeweller, husband of the woman who is imprisoned with us.” Quoth Abd
al-Rahman, “Is this he of whom thou toldest me?”; and quoth his son,
“Yes; and indeed I wot him right well.” Now the manner of Obayd’s coming
thither was on this wise. When he had farewelled Kamar al-Zaman, he went
to his shop and thence going home, laid his hand on the door, whereupon
it opened and he entered and found neither his wife nor the slave-girl,
but saw the house in sorriest plight, quoting in mute speech his saying
who said[453]:—
The chambers were like a bee-hive well stocked: when their bees quitted
it, they became empty.
When he saw the house void, he turned right and left and presently went
round about the place, like a madman, but came upon no one. Then he
opened the door of his treasure-closet, but found therein naught of his
money nor his hoards; whereupon he recovered from the intoxication of
fancy and shook off his infatuation and knew that it was his wife
herself who had turned the tables upon him and outwitted him with her
wiles. He wept for that which had befallen him, but kept his affair
secret, so none of his foes might exult over him nor any of his friends
be troubled, knowing that, if he disclosed his secret, it would bring
him naught but dishonour and contumely from the folk; wherefore he said
in himself, “O Obayd, hide that which hath betided thee of affliction
and ruination; it behoveth thee to do in accordance with his saying who
said:—
If a man’s breast with bane he hides be straitenèd, ✿ The breast that
tells its hidden bale is straiter still.”