The officious Dinarzade being awake long before day, called to the
sultaness; If you be not asleep, sister, consider that it is time to
tell the remaining part of the story to our lord the sultan.
Scheherazade, addressing herself to the sultan, said, Sir, your
majesty may be pleased to know that the calender pursued his story
thus:
Madam, said he, this discourse of the fair princesses grieved me
extremely. I omitted not to make them sensible how much their
absence would afflict me. I thanked them for their good advice, and
assured them that I would follow it, and willingly do what was much
more difficult in order to secure the happiness of passing the rest
of my days with ladies of such rare qualifications. We took leave of
one another with much tenderness, and having embraced them all, they
departed, and I was left alone in the castle.
Their agreeable company, the good cheer, the concert of music, and
other pleasures, had so much diverted me during the whole year, that
I neither had time nor the least desire to see the wonderful things
contained in this enchanted palace. I did not so much as take notice
of a thousand rare objects that were every day in my sight; for I
was so occupied with the charming beauty of those ladies, and took
so much pleasure in seeing them wholly employed to oblige me, that
their departure afflicted me very sensibly; and though their absence
was to be only forty days, it seemed to me an age to live without
them.
I promised myself not to forget the important advice they had given
me, not to open the golden door; but as I was permitted to satisfy
my curiosity in every thing else, I took the first of the keys of
the other doors, which were hung in good order.
I opened the first door, and came into an orchard, which I believe
the universe could not equal. I could not imagine any thing that
could surpass it, but that which our religion promises us after
death: the symmetry, the neatness, the admirable order of the trees,
the abundance and diversity of a thousand sorts of unknown fruits,
their freshness and beauty, ravished my sight.
I ought not to forget, madam, to acquaint you, that this delicious
orchard, was watered after a very particular manner; there were
channels so artificially and proportionably dug, that they carried
water in abundance to the roots of such trees as wanted it for
making them produce their leaves and flowers. Others carried it to
those that had their fruit budded; some carried it in lesser
quantities to those whose fruits were swelling, and others carried
only so much as was just requisite to water those which had their
fruit come to perfection, and only wanted to be ripened. They far
exceeded the ordinary fruits of our gardens in bigness. Lastly,
those channels that watered the trees, whose fruit was ripe, had no
more moisture than just what would preserve them from withering.
I could never be weary of looking at and admiring so sweet a place;
and I should never have left it, had I not conceived a great idea of
the other things which I had not seen. I went out at last with my
mind filled with those wonders; I shut that door, and opened the
next.
Instead of an orchard, I found a flower-garden, which was no less
extraordinary in its kind. It contained a spacious plot, not watered
so profusely as the former, but with greater niceness, furnishing no
more water than just what each flower required. The roses,
jessamines, violets, daffodills, hyacinths, anemonies, tulips,
crows-foots, pinks, lilies, and an infinite number of flowers, which
do not grow in other places but at certain times, were there
flourishing all at once, and nothing could be more delicious than
the fragrant smell of this garden.
I opened the third door, where I found a large aviary, paved with
marble of several fine uncommon colours. The cage was made of sandal
wood and wood of aloes. It contained a vast number of nightingales,
goldfinches, canary-birds, larks, and other rare singing-birds,
which I never heard of; and the vessels that held their seed and
water were of the most precious jasper or agate.
Besides, this aviary was so exceedingly neat, that considering its
extent, one would think there could not be less than a hundred
persons to keep it so clean; but all this while not one soul
appeared, either here or in the gardens where I had been; and yet I
could not perceive a weed, or any superfluous thing there. The sun
went down, and I retired, charmed with the chirping notes of the
multitude of birds, who then began to perch upon such places as
suited them to repose on during the night. I went to my chamber,
resolving to open all the rest of the doors the days following,
excepting that of gold.
I failed not to open the fourth door next day, and if what I had
seen before was capable of surprising me, that which I saw then put
me in a perfect ecstasy. I went into a large court surrounded with
buildings of an admirable structure, the description of which I will
pass by, to avoid prolixity.
This building had forty doors, all open, and through each of them
was an entrance into a treasury, several of which would purchase the
largest kingdoms. The first contained heaps of pearls; and, what is
almost incredible, the number of those stones which are most
precious, and as large as pigeons’ eggs, exceeding the number of
those of the ordinary size. In the second treasury there were
diamonds, carbuncles, and rubies; in the third, emeralds; in the
fourth, ingots of gold; in the fifth, money; in the sixth, ingots of
silver; in the two following there was also money. The rest
contained amethysts, chrysolites, topazes, opals, turquoises, and
hyacinths, with all the other stones unknown to us, without
mentioning agate, jasper, cornelian, and coral, of which there was a
storehouse filled, not only with branches, but whole trees.
Transported with amazement and admiration, I cried out to myself,
after having seen all these riches, If all the treasures of the
kings of the universe were gathered together in one place, they
could not come near this: what good fortune have I to possess all
this wealth with so many admirable princesses.
I shall not stay, madam, to tell you the particulars of all the
other rare and precious things I saw the following days. I shall
only say that thirty-nine days afforded me but just as much time as
was necessary to open ninety-nine doors, and to admire all that
presented itself to my view; so that there was only the hundredth
door left, the opening of which was forbidden to me.
Day began to appear in the apartments of the sultan of the Indies,
which imposed silence upon Scheherazade. But Schahriar was too much
taken with this pleasing story, not to hear the remainder of it next
day, and accordingly he got up with that resolution.