Then said she:--I have heard, O auspicious King, that Prince
Husayn also saw a fête once a year within the city of Bishangarh
and the Ryots all, both great and small, gathered together and
circumambulated the Pagodas; chiefly circuiting one which in size
and grandeur surpassed all others. Great and learned Pandits
versed in the Shástras[FN#323] made journeys of four or five
months and greeted one another at that festival; thither too the
folk from all parts of India pilgrimaged in such crowds that
Prince Husayn was astounded at the sight; and, by reason of the
multitudes that thronged around the temples, he could not see the
mode in which the gods were worshipped. On one side of the
adjacent plain which stretched far and wide, stood a new-made
scaffolding of ample size and great magnificence, nine storeys
high, and the lower part supported by forty pillars; and here one
day in every week the King assembled his Wazirs for the purpose
of meting out justice to all strangers in the land. The palace
within was richly adorned and furnished with costly furniture:
without, upon the wall faces were limned homely landscapes and
scenes of foreign parts and notably all manner beasts and birds
and insects even gnats and flies, portrayed with such skill of
brain and cunning of hand that they seemed real and alive and the
country-folk and villagers seeing from afar paintings of lions
and tigers and similar ravenous beasts, were filled with awe and
dismay. On the other three sides of the scaffolding were
pavilions, also of wood, built for use of the commons,
illuminated and decorated inside and outside like the first, and
wroughten so cunningly that men could turn them round, with all
the people in them, and moving them about transfer them to
whatsoever quarter they willed. On such wise they shifted these
huge buildings by aid of machinery;[FN#324] and the folk inside
could look upon a succession of sports and games. Moreover, on
each side of the square elephants were ranged in ranks, the
number amounting to well nigh one thousand, their trunks and ears
and hinder parts being painted with cinnabar and adorned with
various lively figures; their housings were of gold brocade and
their howdahs purfled with silver, carrying minstrels who
performed on various instruments, whilst buffoons delighted the
crowd with their jokes and mimes played their most diverting
parts. Of all the sports, however, which the Prince beheld, the
elephant-show amused him most and Wiled him with the greatest
admiration. One huge beast, which could be wheeled about where
the keepers ever listed, for that his feet rested upon a post
which travelled on casters, held in his trunk a flageolet whereon
he played so sweetly well that all the people were fain to cry
Bravo! There was another but a smaller animal which stood upon
one end of a beam laid crosswise upon, and attached with hinges
to, a wooden block eight cubits high, and on the further end was
placed an iron weight as heavy as the elephant, who would press
down for some time upon the beam until the end touched the
ground, and then the weight would raise him up again.[FN#325]
Thus the beam swung like a see saw aloft and adown; and, as it
moved, the elephant swayed to and fro and kept time with the
bands of music, loudly trumpeting the while. The people moreover
could wheel about this elephant from place to place as he stood
balanced on the beam; and such exhibitions of learned elephants
were mostly made in presence of the King. Prince Husayn spent
well nigh a year in sight-seeing amongst the fairs and festivals
of Bishangarh; and, when the period of the fraternal compact drew
near, he spread his carpet upon the court-ground behind the Khan
wherein he lodged, and sitting thereon, together with his suite
and the steeds and all he had brought with him, mentally wished
that he might be transported to the caravanserai where the three
brothers had agreed to meet. No sooner had he formed the thought
than straightway, in the twinkling of an eye, the carpet rose
high in air and sped through space and carried them to the
appointed stead where, still garbed as a merchant he remained in
expectation of his brothers' coming. Hearken now, O auspicious
King, to what befel Prince Ali, the second brother of Prince
Husayn. On the third day after he had parted from the two others,
he also joined a caravan and journeyed towards Persia; then,
after a march of four months arriving at Shiraz, the capital of
Iran-land, he alighted at a Khan, he and his fellow-travellers
with whom he had made a manner of friendship; and, passing as a
jeweller, there took up his abode with them. Next day the traders
fared forth to buy wares and to sell their goods; but Prince Ali,
who had brought with him naught of vendible, and only the things
he needed, presently doffed his travelling dress, and in company
with a comrade of the caravan entered the chief Bazar, known as
the Bazistán,[FN#326] or cloth-market. Ali strolled about the
place, which was built of brick and where all the shops had
arched roofs resting on handsome columns; and he admired greatly
to behold the splendid store-houses exposing for sale all manner
goods of countless value. He wondered much what wealth was in the
town if a single market street contained riches such as these.
And as the brokers went about crying their goods for sale, he saw
one of them hending in hand an ivory tube in length about a
cubit, which he was offering for sale at the price of thirty
thousand Ashrafis. Hearing such demand Prince Ali thought to
himself, "Assuredly this fellow is a fool who asketh such a price
for so paltry a thing."--And as the morn began to dawn Shahrazad
held her peace till