A few days after the marriage of Abdurrahman's daughter with the son of
the Grand Vizier, the Caliph ordered his treasurer to bring him the two
jars of ointment which he had bought of Abdurrahman.
When he saw them they were so very small that he could not avoid an
exclamation of surprise.
"By Allah," said Haroun, "but the old man has had a good price!"
Although the jars were both very small, yet they were not of the same
size, one being half as large again as the other.
"And," said Giafer, "I must inform your Majesty that the larger jar is
that which cost a thousand pieces of gold, and the smaller ten thousand
pieces."
"Hand them to me," said the Caliph, "that I may see them more closely."
Then holding the jars in his hands, he read the inscription on the
larger jar: "The Ointment Marvellous. This jar to be opened by no one
but the purchaser thereof, who will be informed by a writing contained
in the jar of the uses and wonderful properties of the ointment." On
the smaller jar were the words, "Most Marvellous Ointment," and
following those words an inscription precisely similar to that on the
larger jar: "This jar to be opened by no one but the purchaser thereof,
who will be informed by a writing contained in the jar of the uses and
wonderful properties of the ointment."
When he had read the inscriptions on the jars, the Caliph handed back
the smaller jar to the Grand Vizier, and ordered him to return it to
the treasurer to be carefully preserved until he should require it.
Then opening the larger jar, he took out a writing he found immediately
inside. This was folded, and upon the outside was written, "To be read
by the purchaser of the ointment only."
The Caliph therefore opened it and read these words: "Whosoever thou
art who hast bought this small jar of ointment for the price of one
thousand pieces of gold, being as yet ignorant of the power and virtues
of the ointment, rejoice, for thy faith and liberality are not wasted.
Whensoever thou shalt anoint thine eyes with the ointment in this jar,
for the space of three hours afterwards thou shalt see through all
solid substances that lie fifty feet in front of thee as though,
instead of being opaque and dense as stone or brick, they were clear
and translucent as a diamond of the first water. But of this power
tell no man anything, lest thou lose it."
When the Caliph had read these words, he sat some time silent. The
Grand Vizier standing beside him was curious to learn the secret of the
ointment, and wondered at the long silence of his master.
At length the Caliph rose, and placed the jar of ointment with his own
hands in a cabinet which he locked, and of which he himself kept the
key.
Giafer, whose curiosity was fully aroused by the taciturnity of Haroun
on this occasion, could not help asking, "Is your Majesty satisfied or
disappointed with your purchase of the ointment?"
"It remains to be proved," said the Caliph, smiling, "whether the
ointment is as valuable as is asserted. When the proper opportunity
presents itself, I will test it. Meanwhile, Grand Vizier, the proverb
is never to be forgotten, 'The inquisitive are ever in danger.'"
After this Giafer perceived that it would be wiser to say no more.
They then conversed some time on various public questions and State
affairs, and at length, when dismissing Giafer, the Caliph said, "Do
not fail to come at the usual hour this evening that we may wander
disguised through Bagdad, as I have already arranged to do."
Giafer arrived at the palace punctually at the hour appointed by the
Caliph, and, disguised in the habits of merchants, Haroun and his
Vizier sallied forth according to their wont, accompanied only by
Mesrúr, who followed them at a short distance.
Before leaving the palace, Haroun Alraschid, retiring for a few moments
from his attendants, had applied to his eyes some of the ointment out
of the jar he had placed in his cabinet.
On reaching the streets and looking about him, he discovered to his
great joy and contentment that the efficacy of the ointment had been
nowise exaggerated by what was stated in the writing which he had found
within the jar.
Wherever they went he could see, instead of the mere blank outer walls,
the interior of the dwellings, and the inhabitants of every house
employed in any avocation that they might happen at that moment to be
engaged in. In one room he would see three or four men seated
together, the evening meal being finished, and discussing quietly the
occupations of the day or the prospects of the future. In another room
the women of the family would be visible to him, with their faces
uncovered; thought of horror and insult for the men could they but have
guessed it! Here, some were eating sweetmeats, sipping sherbet and
gossiping. There, others were engaged adding to their charms by
staining their eyelids, dyeing their hair, or other adornments of the
toilet which it is not lawful for men to imagine, much less to behold.
The Caliph walked along this evening looking first on this side, then
on that, and appeared so much interested with all he saw that he seemed
altogether oblivious of Giafer's existence, and spoke to him never a
word.
Giafer found the walk rather dull. And the more dull he found it the
more surprised he was at the unusual patience exhibited by the
Commander of the Faithful, who uttered no impatient exclamations, but
whose countenance bore an expression of satisfaction and interest far
enough removed from any kind of irritability or ill-humour.
They had wandered in this way for a long time through many of the
least-frequented and least-interesting thoroughfares of the city, the
Grand Vizier scarcely knowing whether he were more bored by the walk or
astonished at the evident satisfaction of his master, when suddenly the
Caliph stood still, leaning against the wall of a house and staring
intently at the blank wall of the house immediately opposite.
After they had stood thus for some minutes, the Caliph looking fixedly
and with evidently increasing interest and excitement at the dead wall
opposite, Giafer became seriously alarmed, fearing that his master had
either lost his wits or was going to have a fit. He was, in fact, so
much frightened by the extraordinary behaviour of the Caliph, which had
continued all the evening, that he continued to stand beside him and
watch him, himself motionless and speechless.
All at once the Caliph, still gazing intently before him, grasped
Giafer by the arm and whispered to him as though others were present--
"Go, take Mesrúr with you; go round that house, down the turning
yonder, and arrest them as they come out of the gate."
For a moment Giafer, who seriously believed that the Caliph had become
demented, hesitated. But the habit of obedience prevailed, and putting
his hand to his head, the usual sign of implicit devotion to the royal
will, he beckoned Mesrúr, whose figure at a little distance from them
was the only living object visible in the street, and they disappeared
together down the narrow turning which the Caliph had indicated.
We must now explain what it was that caused the Caliph to remain so
long gazing at the house before the outer wall of which he was standing.
As he came along the street he saw in the garden of the house, which
lay immediately behind the high wall in front of him, a sight very
different from any of those which had hitherto been disclosed to him.
Lying on the grass beneath a wide spreading tree in the middle of the
garden was the apparently lifeless form of a very beautiful young lady.
Her clothes were of the finest materials, and her neck, arms, and
ankles were adorned with magnificent jewellery, composed of gold,
diamonds, pearls, and other precious stones. Standing beside her, and
looking down upon her with a disturbed and angry countenance, was an
old man, richly dressed, and evidently the master of the house, whose
face, now distorted with passion, must at all times have worn a fierce
and malevolent expression. After thus standing and watching her for a
few minutes the old man, stooping down, took hold of her hand, as
though to ascertain that she were really dead; and when, as he released
it, the arm fell heavily again to the earth, he again stood
contemplating for some minutes the youthful and lovely figure at his
feet. Presently he clapped his hands, and some slaves appearing, he
gave them some brief directions, on receiving which they went again
into the house, returning shortly with a great empty sack or bag. In
this they placed gently and carefully enough the body of the young
lady, and lifting the sack, carried it between them towards a side gate
opening into a narrow lane that ran down by one side of the walled
enclosure which formed the garden of the mansion.
The Caliph saw the old man point with his finger to this side gate,
evidently bidding them carry forth their burden at that entrance.
It was at this moment that he had grasped the arm of the Grand Vizier,
and had whispered to him the order to proceed at once with Mesrúr and
arrest the men he should find coming along the lane.
Giafer, as we have seen, after a brief hesitation went back to where
Mesrúr was standing, and acquainting him rapidly with the Caliph's
order, they crossed the street and entered the lane as they had been
commanded.
They had not proceeded many steps down the lane before they met the
slaves bearing the great sack.
Giafer and Mesrúr drawing their swords, demanded sternly what they had
there, and whither they were going.
The slaves, when they saw two men with drawn swords barring the way,
put down their burden quickly and would have fled, but Mesrúr
exclaimed--
"Stop, for I will cut down the first man among you that dares stir hand
or foot."
Then one of the slaves answered and said, "Sirs, we are carrying this
package by order of our master, therefore please to let us pass."
But Giafer said, "Slaves, who is your master? And what have you in
this sack, and whither do you carry it? I command you, in the name of
the Prince of the Faithful, to answer these questions truly."
"Sir," said the slave who had spoken already, "our master is the Emir
Bargash ibn Beynin, who lives in this house at the side of which we are
standing, and he will, if he chooses, tell you what is in the sack and
whither it is going, but we dare not say anything."
The Grand Vizier might probably have returned a very rough answer to
this speech, or even have cut down the slave who uttered it, but at
that moment the Caliph himself entered the lane, accompanied by a guard
of soldiers, who happened to be patrolling the city in that direction,
and whom the Caliph had summoned to his assistance.
Directing some of the soldiers to escort the slaves and their burthen
to the palace, he ordered the officer of the guard with the rest of his
men to enter the house of the Emir, and to conduct him also at once to
the palace. He furthermore strictly charged the officer to permit the
master of the house to hold no communication whatever with any of its
inmates before leaving, and as soon as possible to send a guard to
seize and hold possession of the place until the Caliph's pleasure
should be known concerning it. After giving these orders Haroun
Alraschid returned with Giafer to the palace.
When he had changed his clothes and assumed his seat on the imperial
divan, he commanded the Emir to be brought in before him. Then,
addressing him, he said with a stern expression--
"This evening my officers have stopped and arrested a party of slaves
belonging to your household, who were carrying in a sack the body of a
young lady. They say that they carried it from your house by your
command. Explain to me, therefore, who the lady is, and what your
slaves were ordered to do with her."
The Emir Bargash ibn Beynin, having prostrated himself before the
throne of the Caliph, replied--
"Prince of the Faithful, I hasten according to your command to declare
to you the whole truth concerning the young lady whose body my slaves
were carrying in the sack. That young lady was my niece. She was
Persian by birth, my nephew having married her while staying in that
country, and brought her back with him about a year ago, when he
returned to his native land. For the last three or four months they
have been staying with me in my house in this city. I must here inform
your Majesty, though I say it with sorrow and regret, that my nephew,
who is a man of violent passions, ever treated his young wife with
scandalous severity and harshness. Often, but in vain, I have
remonstrated with him as to his conduct. At length, this evening, when
going into my garden, I found my niece lying there lifeless.
Everywhere I sought my nephew, but could not find him. I was convinced
that he had in some way been the cause of his wife's death, and that he
had fled to escape the consequences of his barbarous act. But, being
myself not a little apprehensive of the danger which might threaten
myself if the dead body were discovered in my house, I confess that I
ordered my slaves to remove it and place it in the river."
The Caliph listened with much attention to the account given him by the
Emir. After the latter had finished his narration, Haroun Alraschid
dismissed him with the injunction immediately to make diligent search
for his nephew, and to arrest him and bring him at once to the palace
as soon as he could find him.
The Caliph being now very tired retired to rest.
Meanwhile the body of the young lady, which had been carried to the
palace, was taken to the women's apartments, the ladies of the harem
being all of them devoured with curiosity to see the fair unknown.
When the body had been taken out of the sack in which it had been
placed, all were astonished at the extreme beauty of the stranger, and
the richness and value of her dress and ornaments. At length one of
the ladies who were gathered together around her declared, after
looking at her attentively and placing her hand over her heart, that
she was convinced that life was not yet extinct. Resorting to all the
remedies of use in cases of prolonged fainting fits, consciousness was
at last restored, and, after partaking of some slight nourishment, the
lovely patient fell into a natural sleep, during which she was watched
with sympathizing eyes by several eager volunteers.
Early next morning, as soon as the Caliph had risen and was dressed,
one of the Chamberlains of the palace acquainted him with the recovery
of the young lady, and that she was now so much better that she was
sitting and conversing with the other ladies in the harem.
The Caliph immediately sent the Chamberlain to announce that his
Majesty was about to pay them a visit. When the Caliph entered the
apartment where she was, the young lady, with all the ladies of the
harem who were sitting with her, rose to receive the Commander of the
Faithful, and prostrated themselves before him.
Bidding them rise, and placing the young lady on the divan near to him,
he inquired after her health; and when she answered that she was much
better, and nearly recovered from her illness of the previous evening,
he told her to relate to him the occasion of the serious and almost
fatal fainting fit into which she had fallen.
"Sire," said the young lady, with tears in her eyes, "all my trouble,
and the fact that I am now here, arises from the vile conduct of a
relative, from whom I had every reason to expect very different
treatment.
"My father was a wealthy merchant, living at Teheran, and I his only
daughter. He gave me the name of Abadeh, and spared no expense to
render his house and garden--where I lived until I was sixteen years of
age--as bright and charming as it is possible for any young girl to
desire.
"Nothing I wished for was denied me; and when one day, while on my way
to the bath, I saw Suliman, the nephew of the Emir Bargash ibn Beynin
of Bagdad, who was visiting Teheran, and could neither rest nor he
happy because I was continually thinking of him, my dear father no
sooner had learned the cause of my disquiet than he arranged a marriage
between us, giving Suliman such a handsome dower with me as made him
think himself a very fortunate young man."
Haroun Alraschid, who was a very polite man among ladies, here
interposed the remark that Suliman had much cause to consider himself
fortunate, irrespective of the dower.