the key and opened the door. The young man entered after him.
Aben Hassen the Fool found himself in a vast vaulted room, lit
by the light of a single carbuncle set in the centre of the dome
above. In the middle of the marble floor was a great basin twenty
paces broad, and filled to the brim with money such as he had found
in the brazen vessel in the garden.
The young man could not believe what he saw with his own eyes. “Oh,
marvel of marvels!” he cried; “little wonder you could give me
boundless wealth from such a storehouse as this.”
Zadok laughed. “This,” said he, “is nothing; come with me.”
He led him from this room to another--like it vaulted, and like it
lit by a carbuncle set in the dome of the roof above. In the middle
of the floor was a basin such as Aben Hassen the Fool had seen in
the other room beyond; only this was filled with gold as that had
been filled with silver, and the gold was like that he had found
in the garden. When the young man saw this vast and amazing wealth
he stood speechless and breathless with wonder. The Demon Zadok
laughed. “This,” said he, “is great, but it is little. Come and I
will show thee a marvel indeed.”
He took the young man by the hand and led him into a third
room--vaulted as the other two had been, lit as they had been by
a carbuncle in the roof above. But when the young man’s eyes saw
what was in this third room, he was like a man turned drunk with
wonder. He had to lean against the wall behind him, for the sight
made him dizzy.
In the middle of the room was such a basin as he had seen in the
two other rooms, only it was filled with jewels--diamonds and
rubies and emeralds and sapphires and precious stones of all
kinds--that sparkled and blazed and flamed like a million stars.
Around the wall, and facing the basin from all sides, stood six
golden statues. Three of them were statues of the kings and three
of them were statues of the queens who had gathered together all
this vast and measureless wealth of ancient Egypt.
There was space for a seventh statue, but where it should have
stood was a great arched door of adamant. The door was tight shut,
and there was neither lock nor key to it. Upon the door were
written these words in letters of flame:
“Behold! beyond this door is that alone which shall satisfy all thy
desires.”
“Tell me, Zadok,” said the young man, after he had filled his soul
with all the other wonders that surrounded him--“tell me what is
there that lies beyond that door?”
“That I am forbidden to tell thee, O master!” said the King of the
Demons of the Earth.
[Illustration]
“Then open the door for me,” said the young man; “for I cannot open
it for myself, as there is neither lock nor key to it.”
“That also I am forbidden to do,” said Zadok.
“I wish that I knew what was there,” said the young man.
The Demon laughed. “Some time,” said he, “thou mayest find for
thyself. Come, let us leave here and go to the palace which thy
father built years ago, and which he left behind him when he
quitted this place for the place in which thou knewest him.”
He led the way and the young man followed; they passed through the
vaulted rooms and out through the door of adamant, and Zadok locked
it behind them and gave the key to the young man.
“All this is thine now,” he said; “I give it to thee as I gave it
to thy father. I have shown thee how to enter, and thou mayst go in
whenever it pleases thee to do so.”
They ascended the steps, and so reached the garden above. Then
Zadok struck his heel upon the ground, and the earth closed as
it had opened. He led the young man from the spot until they had
come to a wide avenue that led to the palace beyond. “Here I leave
thee,” said the Demon, “but if ever thou hast need of me, call and
I will come.”
Thereupon he vanished like a flash, leaving the young man standing
like one in a dream.
He saw before him a garden of such splendor and magnificence as he
had never dreamed of even in his wildest fancy. There were seven
fountains as clear as crystal that shot high into the air and fell
back into basins of alabaster. There was a broad avenue as white as
snow, and thousands of lights lit up everything as light as day.
Upon either side of the avenue stood a row of black slaves, clad in
garments of white silk, and with jewelled turbans upon their heads.
Each held a flaming torch of sandal-wood. Behind the slaves stood
a double row of armed men, and behind them a great crowd of other
slaves and attendants, dressed each as magnificently as a prince,
blazing and flaming with innumerable jewels and ornaments of gold.
But of all these things the young man thought nothing and saw
nothing; for at the end of the marble avenue there arose a palace,
the like of which was not in the four quarters of the earth--a
palace of marble and gold and carmine and ultramarine--rising into
the purple starry sky, and shining in the moonlight like a vision
of Paradise. The palace was illuminated from top to bottom and
from end to end; the windows shone like crystal, and from it came
sounds of music and rejoicing.
When the crowd that stood waiting saw the young man appear, they
shouted: “Welcome! welcome! to the master who has come again! To
Aben Hassen the Fool!”
The young man walked up the avenue of marble to the palace,
surrounded by the armed attendants in their dresses of jewels and
gold, and preceded by dancing-girls as beautiful as houris, who
danced and sung before him. He was dizzy with joy. “All--all this,”
he exulted, “belongs to me. And to think that if I had listened to
the Talisman of Solomon I would have had none of it.”
That was the way he came back to the treasure of the ancient kings
of Egypt, and to the palace of enchantment that his father had
quitted.
For seven months he lived a life of joy and delight, surrounded
by crowds of courtiers as though he were a king, and going from
pleasure to pleasure without end. Nor had he any fear of an end
coming to it, for he knew that his treasure was inexhaustible. He
made friends with the princes and nobles of the land. From far and
wide people came to visit him, and the renown of his magnificence
filled all the world. When men would praise any one they would
say, “He is as rich,” or as “magnificent,” or as “generous, as
Aben Hassen the Fool.”
[Illustration]
So for seven months he lived a life of joy and delight; then
one morning he awakened and found everything changed to grief
and mourning. Where the day before had been laughter, to-day
was crying. Where the day before had been mirth, to-day was
lamentation. All the city was shrouded in gloom, and everywhere was
weeping and crying.
Seven black slaves stood on guard near Aben Hassen the Fool as he
lay upon his couch. “What means all this sorrow?” said he to one of
the slaves.
Instantly all the slaves began howling and beating their heads, and
he to whom the young man had spoken fell down with his face in the
dust, and lay there twisting and writhing like a worm.
“He has asked the question!” howled the slaves--“he has asked the
question!”
“Are you mad?” cried the young man. “What is the matter with you?”
At the doorway of the room stood a beautiful female slave, bearing
in her hands a jewelled basin of gold, filled with rose-water, and
a fine linen napkin for the young man to wash and dry his hands
upon. “Tell me,” said the young man, “what means all this sorrow
and lamentation?”
Instantly the beautiful slave dropped the golden basin upon the
stone floor, and began shrieking and tearing her clothes. “He has
asked the question!” she screamed--“he has asked the question!”
The young man began to grow frightened; he arose from his couch,
and with uneven steps went out into the anteroom. There he found
his chamberlain waiting for him with a crowd of attendants and
courtiers. “Tell me,” said Aben Hassen the Fool, “why are you all
so sorrowful?”
Instantly they who stood waiting began crying and tearing their
clothes and beating their hands. As for the chamberlain--he was a
reverend old man--his eyes sparkled with anger, and his fingers
twitched as though he would have struck if he had dared. “What,” he
cried, “art thou not contented with all thou hast and with all that
we do for thee without asking the forbidden question?”
Thereupon he tore his cap from his head and flung it upon the
ground, and began beating himself violently upon the head with
great outcrying.
Aben Hassen the Fool, not knowing what to think or what was to
happen, ran back into the bedroom again. “I think everybody in
this place has gone mad,” said he. “Nevertheless, if I do not find
out what it all means, I shall go mad myself.”
Then he bethought himself, for the first time since he came to that
land, of the Talisman of Solomon.
“Tell me, O Talisman,” said he, “why all these people weep and wail
so continuously?”
“Rest content,” said the Talisman of Solomon, “with knowing that
which concerns thine own self, and seek not to find an answer that
will be to thine own undoing. Be thou also further advised: do not
question the Demon Zadok.”
“Fool that I am,” said the young man, stamping his foot; “here am I
wasting all this time when, if I had but thought of Zadok at first,
he would have told me all.” Then he called aloud, “Zadok! Zadok!
Zadok!”
Instantly the ground shook beneath his feet, the dust rose in
clouds, and there stood Zadok as black as ink, and with eyes that
shone like fire.
“Tell me,” said the young man; “I command thee to tell me, O Zadok!
why are the people all gone mad this morning, and why do they weep
and wail, and why do they go crazy when I do but ask them why they
are so afflicted?”
“I will tell thee,” said Zadok. “Seven-and-thirty years ago
there was a queen over this land--the most beautiful that ever was
seen. Thy father, who was the wisest and most cunning magician in
the world, turned her into stone, and with her all the attendants
in her palace. No one since that time has been permitted to enter
the palace--it is forbidden for any one even to ask a question
concerning it; but every year, on the day on which the queen was
turned to stone, the whole land mourns with weeping and wailing.
And now thou knowest all!”
[Illustration]
“What you tell me,” said the young man, “passes wonder. But tell me
further, O Zadok, is it possible for me to see this queen whom my
father turned to stone?”
“Nothing is easier,” said Zadok.
“Then,” said the young man, “I command you to take me to where she
is, so that I may see her with mine own eyes.”
“I hear and obey,” said the Demon.
He seized the young man by the girdle, and in an instant flew away
with him to a hanging-garden that lay before the queen’s palace.
“Thou art the first man,” said Zadok, “who has seen what thou art
about to see for seven-and-thirty years. Come, I will show thee a
queen, the most beautiful that the eyes of man ever looked upon.”
[Illustration]
He led the way, and the young man followed, filled with wonder and
astonishment. Not a sound was to be heard, not a thing moved, but
silence hung like a veil between the earth and the sky.
Following the Demon, the young man ascended a flight of steps, and
so entered the vestibule of the palace. There stood guards in armor
of brass and silver and gold. But they were without life--they were
all of stone as white as alabaster. Thence they passed through room
after room and apartment after apartment crowded with courtiers
and nobles and lords in their robes of office, magnificent beyond
fancying, but each silent and motionless--each a stone as white as
alabaster. At last they entered an apartment in the very centre of
the palace. There sat seven-and-forty female attendants around a
couch of purple and gold. Each of the seven-and-forty was beautiful
beyond what the young man could have believed possible, and each
was clad in a garment of silk as white as snow, embroidered with
threads of silver and studded with glistening diamonds. But each
sat silent and motionless--each was a stone as white as alabaster.
Upon the couch in the centre of the apartment reclined a queen with
a crown of gold upon her head. She lay there motionless, still.
She was cold and dead--of stone as white as marble. The young man
approached and looked into her face, and when he looked his breath
became faint and his heart grew soft within him like wax in a flame
of fire.
He sighed; he melted; the tears burst from his eyes and ran down
his cheeks. “Zadok!” he cried--“Zadok! Zadok! What have you done to
show me this wonder of beauty and love! Alas! that I have seen her;
for the world is nothing to me now. O Zadok! that she were flesh
and blood, instead of cold stone! Tell me, Zadok, I command you to
tell me, was she once really alive as I am alive, and did my father
truly turn her to stone as she lies here?”
“She was really alive as thou art alive, and he did truly transform
her to this stone,” said Zadok.
“And tell me,” said the young man, “can she never become alive
again?”
“She can become alive, and it lies with you to make her alive,”
said the Demon. “Listen, O master. Thy father possessed a wand,
half of silver and half of gold. Whatsoever he touched with silver
became converted to stone, such as thou seest all around thee here;
but whatsoever, O master, he touched with the gold, it became
alive, even if it were a dead stone.”
“Tell me, Zadok,” cried the young man; “I command you to tell me,
where is that wand of silver and gold?”
“I have it with me,” said Zadok.
“Then give it to me; I command you to give it to me.”
“I hear and obey,” said Zadok. He drew from his girdle a wand, half
of gold and half of silver, as he spoke, and gave it to the young
man.
“Thou mayst go now, Zadok,” said the young man, trembling with
eagerness.
Zadok laughed and vanished. The young man stood for a while looking
down at the beautiful figure of alabaster. Then he touched the
lips with the golden tip of the wand. In an instant there came
a marvellous change. He saw the stone melt, and begin to grow
flexible and soft. He saw it become warm, and the cheeks and lips
grow red with life. Meantime a murmur had begun to rise all through
the palace. It grew louder and louder--it became a shout. The
figure of the queen that had been stone opened its eyes.
“Who are you?” it said.
Aben Hassen the Fool fell upon his knees. “I am he who was sent to
bring you to life,” he said. “My father turned you to cold stone,
and I--I have brought you back to warm life again.”
[Illustration]
The queen smiled--her teeth sparkled like pearls. “If you have
brought me to life, then I am yours,” she said, and she kissed him
upon the lips.
He grew suddenly dizzy; the world swam before his eyes.
* * * * *
For seven days nothing was heard in the town but rejoicing and joy.
The young man lived in a golden cloud of delight. “And to think,”
said he, “if I had listened to that accursed Talisman of Solomon,
called ‘The Wise,’ all this happiness, this ecstasy that is now
mine, would have been lost to me.”
* * * * *
“Tell me, beloved,” said the queen, upon the morning of the seventh
day--“thy father once possessed all the hidden treasure of the
ancient kings of Egypt--tell me, is it now thine as it was once
his?”
“Yes,” said the young man, “it is now all mine as it was once all
his.”
“And do you really love me as you say?”
“Yes,” said the young man, “and ten thousand times more than I
say.”
“Then, as you love me, I beg one boon of you. It is that you show
me this treasure of which I have heard so much, and which we are to
enjoy together.”
The young man was drunk with happiness. “Thou shalt see it all,”
said he.
Then, for the first time, the Talisman spoke without being
questioned. “Fool!” it cried; “wilt thou not be advised?”
“Be silent,” said the young man. “Six times, vile thing, you would
have betrayed me. Six times you would have deprived me of joys that
should have been mine, and each was greater than that which went
before. Shall I now listen the seventh time? Now,” said he to the
queen, “I will show you our treasure.” He called aloud, “Zadok,
Zadok, Zadok!”
Instantly the ground shook beneath their feet, the dust rose in
clouds, and Zadok appeared, as black as ink, and with eyes that
shone like coals of fire.
“I command you,” said the young man, “to carry the queen and myself
to the garden where my treasure lies hidden.”
Zadok laughed aloud. “I hear thee and obey thee, master,” said he.
He seized the queen and the young man by the girdle, and in an
instant transported them to the garden and to the treasure-house.
“Thou art where thou commandest to be,” said the Demon.
The young man immediately drew a circle upon the ground with his
finger-tip. He struck his heel upon the circle. The ground opened,
disclosing the steps leading downward. The young man descended the
steps with the queen behind him, and behind them both came the
Demon Zadok.
The young man opened the door of adamant and entered the first of
the vaulted rooms.
When the queen saw the huge basin full of silver treasure, her
cheeks and her forehead flushed as red as fire.
They went into the next room, and when the queen saw the basin of
gold her face turned as white as ashes.
They went into the third room, and when the queen saw the basin of
jewels and the six golden statues her face turned as blue as lead,
and her eyes shone green like a snake’s.
“Are you content?” asked the young man.
The queen looked about her. “No!” cried she, hoarsely, pointing
to the closed door that had never been opened, and whereon were
engraved these words:
“_=Behold! Beyond this door is that alone which shall satisfy all
thy desires.=_”
[Illustration]
“No!” cried she. “What is it that lies behind yon door?”
“I do not know,” said the young man.
“Then open the door, and let me see what lies within.”
“I cannot open the door,” said he. “How can I open the door, seeing
that there is no lock nor key to it?”
“If thou dost not open the door,” said the queen, “all is over
between thee and me. So do as I bid thee, or leave me forever.”
They had both forgotten that the Demon Zadok was there. Then the
young man bethought himself of the Talisman of Solomon. “Tell me, O
Talisman,” said he, “how shall I open yonder door?”
“Oh, wretched one!” cried the Talisman, “oh, wretched one! fly
while there is yet time--fly, for thy doom is near! Do not push the
door open, for it is not locked!”
The young man struck his head with his clinched fist. “What a fool
am I!” he cried. “Will I never learn wisdom? Here have I been
coming to this place seven months, and have never yet thought to
try whether yonder door was locked or not!”
“Open the door!” cried the queen.
They went forward together. The young man pushed the door with his
hand. It opened swiftly and silently, and they entered.
Within was a narrow room as red as blood. A flaming lamp hung from
the ceiling above. The young man stood as though turned to stone,
for there stood a gigantic Black Demon with a napkin wrapped around
his loins and a scimitar in his right hand, the blade of which
gleamed like lightning in the flame of the lamp. Before him lay a
basket filled with sawdust.
When the queen saw what she saw she screamed in a loud voice, “Thou
hast found it! thou hast found it! Thou hast found what alone can
satisfy all thy desires! Strike, O slave!”
The young man heard the Demon Zadok give a yell of laughter. He saw
a whirl and a flash, and then he knew nothing.
The Black had struck--the blade had fallen, and the head of Aben
Hassen the Fool rolled into the basket of sawdust that stood
waiting for it.
* * * * *
_“Aye, aye,” said St. George, “and so it should end. For what was
your Aben Hassen the Fool but a heathen Paniem? Thus should the
heads of all the like be chopped off from their shoulders. Is there
not some one here to tell us a fair story about a saint?”_
_“For the matter of that,” said the Lad who fiddled when the Jew
was in the bramble-bush--“for the matter of that I know a very good
story that begins about a saint and a hazel-nut.”_
_“Say you so?” said St. George. “Well, let us have it. But stay,
friend, thou hast no ale in thy pot. Wilt thou not let me pay for
having it filled?”_
_“That,” said the Lad who fiddled when the Jew was in the
bramble-bush, “may be as you please, Sir Knight; and, to tell the
truth, I will be mightily glad for a drop to moisten my throat
withal.”_
_“But,” said Fortunatus, “you have not told us what the story is to
be about.”_
_“It is,” said the Lad who fiddled for the Jew in the
bramble-bush, “about_--”
[Illustration]
Ill-Luck and the Fiddler.
Once upon a time St. Nicholas came down into the world to take a
peep at the old place and see how things looked in the spring-time.
On he stepped along the road to the town where he used to live, for
he had a notion to find out whether things were going on nowadays
as they one time did. By-and-by he came to a cross-road, and who
should he see sitting there but Ill-Luck himself. Ill-Luck’s face
was as gray as ashes, and his hair as white as snow--for he is
as old as Grandfather Adam--and two great wings grew out of his
shoulders--for he flies fast and comes quickly to those whom he
visits, does Ill-Luck.
Now, St. Nicholas had a pocketful of hazel-nuts, which he kept
cracking and eating as he trudged along the road, and just then he
came upon one with a worm-hole in it. When he saw Ill-Luck it came
into his head to do a good turn to poor sorrowful man.
“Good-morning, Ill-Luck,” says he.
“Good-morning, St. Nicholas,” says Ill-Luck.
“You look as hale and strong as ever,” says St. Nicholas.
“Ah, yes,” says Ill-Luck, “I find plenty to do in this world of
woe.”
“They tell me,” says St. Nicholas, “that you can go wherever you
choose, even if it be through a key-hole; now, is that so?”
“Yes,” says Ill-Luck, “it is.”
“Well, look now, friend,” says St. Nicholas, “could you go into
this hazel-nut if you chose to?”
“Yes,” says Ill-Luck, “I could indeed.”
“I should like to see you,” says St. Nicholas; “for then I should
be of a mind to believe what people say of you.”
“Well,” says Ill-Luck, “I have not much time to be pottering and
playing upon Jack’s fiddle; but to oblige an old friend”--thereupon
he made himself small and smaller, and--phst! he was in the nut
before you could wink.
Then what do you think St. Nicholas did? In his hand he held a
little plug of wood, and no sooner had Ill-Luck entered the nut
than he stuck the plug in the hole, and there was man’s enemy as
tight as a fly in a bottle.
“So!” says St. Nicholas, “that’s a piece of work well done.” Then
he tossed the hazel-nut under the roots of an oak-tree near by, and
went his way.
And that is how this story begins.
* * * * *
Well, the hazel-nut lay and lay and lay, and all the time that it
lay there nobody met with ill-luck; but, one day, who should come
travelling that way but a rogue of a Fiddler, with his fiddle under
his arm. The day was warm, and he was tired; so down he sat under
the shade of the oak-tree to rest his legs. By-and-by he heard a
little shrill voice piping and crying, “Let me out! let me out! let
me out!”
The Fiddler looked up and down, but he could see nobody. “Who are
you?” says he.
“I am Ill-Luck! Let me out! let me out!”
“Let you out?” says the Fiddler. “Not I; if you are bottled up here
it is the better for all of us;” and, so saying, he tucked his
fiddle under his arm and off he marched.
But before he had gone six steps he stopped. He was one of your
peering, prying sort, and liked more than a little to know all
that was to be known about this or that or the other thing that
he chanced to see or hear. “I wonder where Ill-Luck can be, to be
in such a tight place as he seems to be caught in,” says he to
himself; and back he came again. “Where are you, Ill-Luck?” says he.
“Here I am,” says Ill-Luck--“here in this hazel-nut, under the
roots of the oak-tree.”
Thereupon the Fiddler laid aside his fiddle and bow, and fell to
poking and prying under the roots until he found the nut. Then he
began twisting and turning it in his fingers, looking first on one
side and then on the other, and all the while Ill-Luck kept crying,
“Let me out! let me out!”
It was not long before the Fiddler found the little wooden plug,
and then nothing would do but he must take a peep inside the nut to
see if Ill-Luck was really there. So he picked and pulled at the
wooden plug, until at last out it came; and--phst! pop! out came
Ill-Luck along with it.
Plague take the Fiddler! say I.