Wanderers’ Club, _August_ 15, 1885.
The Book Of The
THOUSAND NIGHTS AND A NIGHT
(ALF LAYLAH WA LAYLAH.)
In the Name of Allah,
the Compassionating, the Compassionate!
PRAISE BE TO ALLAH * THE BENEFICENT KING * THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE
* LORD OF THE THREE WORLDS * WHO SET UP THE FIRMAMENT WITHOUT PILLARS
IN ITS STEAD * AND WHO STRETCHED OUT THE EARTH EVEN AS A BED * AND
GRACE, AND PRAYER-BLESSING BE UPON OUR LORD MOHAMMED * LORD OF
APOSTOLIC MEN * AND UPON HIS FAMILY AND COMPANION TRAIN * PRAYER AND
BLESSINGS ENDURING AND GRACE WHICH UNTO THE DAY OF DOOM SHALL REMAIN *
AMEN! * O THOU OF THE THREE WORLDS SOVEREIGN!
And afterwards. Verily the works and words of those gone before us have
become instances and examples to men of our modern day, that folk may
view what admonishing chances befel other folk and may therefrom take
warning; and that they may peruse the annals of antique peoples and all
that hath betided them, and be thereby ruled and restrained:—Praise,
therefore, be to Him who hath made the histories of the Past an
admonition unto the Present! Now of such instances are the tales called
"A Thousand Nights and a Night," together with their far famed legends
and wonders. Therein it is related (but Allah is All knowing of His
hidden things and All ruling and All honoured and All giving and All
gracious and All merciful [FN#1]) that, in tide of yore and in time
long gone before, there was a King of the Kings of the Banu Sásán in
the Islands of India and China, a Lord of armies and guards and
servants and dependents.[FN#2] He left only two sons, one in the prime
of manhood and the other yet a youth, while both were Knights and
Braves, albeit the elder was a doughtier horseman than the younger. So
he succeeded to the empire; when he ruled the land and lorded it over
his lieges with justice so exemplary that he was beloved by all the
peoples of his capital and of his kingdom. His name was King
Shahryár[FN#3], and he made his younger brother, Shah Zamán hight, King
of Samarcand in Barbarian land. These two ceased not to abide in their
several realms and the law was ever carried out in their dominions; and
each ruled his own kingdom, with equity and fair dealing to his
subjects, in extreme solace and enjoyment; and this condition
continually endured for a score of years. But at the end of the
twentieth twelvemonth the elder King yearned for a sight of his younger
brother and felt that he must look upon him once more. So he took
counsel with his Wazír[FN#4] about visiting him, but the Minister,
finding the project unadvisable, recommended that a letter be written
and a present be sent under his charge to the younger brother with an
invitation to visit the elder. Having accepted this advice the King
forthwith bade prepare handsome gifts, such as horses with saddles of
gem encrusted gold; Mamelukes, or white slaves; beautiful handmaids,
high breasted virgins, and splendid stuffs and costly. He then wrote a
letter to Shah Zaman expressing his warm love and great wish to see
him, ending with these words, "We therefore hope of the favour and
affection of the beloved brother that he will condescend to bestir
himself and turn his face us wards. Furthermore we have sent our Wazir
to make all ordinance for the march, and our one and only desire is to
see thee ere we die; but if thou delay or disappoint us we shall not
survive the blow. Wherewith peace be upon thee!" Then King Shahryar,
having sealed the missive and given it to the Wazir with the offerings
aforementioned, commanded him to shorten his skirts and strain his
strength and make all expedition in going and returning. "Harkening and
obedience!" quoth the Minister, who fell to making ready without stay
and packed up his loads and prepared all his requisites without delay.
This occupied him three days, and on the dawn of the fourth he took
leave of his King and marched right away, over desert and hill' way,
stony waste and pleasant lea without halting by night or by day. But
whenever he entered a realm whose ruler was subject to his Suzerain,
where he was greeted with magnificent gifts of gold and silver and all
manner of presents fair and rare, he would tarry there three
days,[FN#5] the term of the guest rite; and, when he left on the
fourth, he would be honourably escorted for a whole day's march. As
soon as the Wazir drew near Shah Zaman's court in Samarcand he
despatched to report his arrival one of his high officials, who
presented himself before the King; and, kissing ground between his
hands, delivered his message. Hereupon the King commanded sundry of his
Grandees and Lords of his realm to fare forth and meet his brother's
Wazir at the distance of a full day's journey; which they did, greeting
him respectfully and wishing him all prosperity and forming an escort
and a procession. When he entered the city he proceeded straightway to
the palace, where he presented himself in the royal presence; and,
after kissing ground and praying for the King's health and happiness
and for victory over all his enemies, he informed him that his brother
was yearning to see him, and prayed for the pleasure of a visit. He
then delivered the letter which Shah Zaman took from his hand and read:
it contained sundry hints and allusions which required thought; but,
when the King had fully comprehended its import, he said, "I hear and I
obey the commands of the beloved brother!" adding to the Wazir, "But we
will not march till after the third day's hospitality." He appointed
for the Minister fitting quarters of the palace; and, pitching tents
for the troops, rationed them with whatever they might require of meat
and drink and other necessaries. On the fourth day he made ready for
wayfare and got together sumptuous presents befitting his elder
brother's majesty, and stablished his chief Wazir viceroy of the land
during his absence. Then he caused his tents and camels and mules to be
brought forth and encamped, with their bales and loads, attendants and
guards, within sight of the city, in readiness to set out next morning
for his brother's capital. But when the night was half spent he
bethought him that he had forgotten in his palace somewhat which he
should have brought with him, so he re turned privily and entered his
apartments, where he found the Queen, his wife, asleep on his own
carpet bed, embracing with both arms a black cook of loathsome aspect
and foul with kitchen grease and grime. When he saw this the world
waxed black before his sight and he said, "If such case happen while I
am yet within sight of the city what will be the doings of this damned
whore during my long absence at my brother's court?" So he drew his
scymitar and, cutting the two in four pieces with a single blow, left
them on the carpet and returned presently to his camp without letting
anyone know of what had happened. Then he gave orders for immediate
departure and set out at once and began his travel; but he could not
help thinking over his wife's treason and he kept ever saying to
himself, "How could she do this deed by me? How could she work her own
death?," till excessive grief seized him, his colour changed to yellow,
his body waxed weak and he was threatened with a dangerous malady, such
an one as bringeth men to die. So the Wazir shortened his stages and
tarried long at the watering stations and did his best to solace the
King. Now when Shah Zaman drew near the capital of his brother he
despatched vaunt couriers and messengers of glad tidings to announce
his arrival, and Shahryar came forth to meet him with his Wazirs and
Emirs and Lords and Grandees of his realm; and saluted him and joyed
with exceeding joy and caused the city to be decorated in his honour.
When, however, the brothers met, the elder could not but see the change
of complexion in the younger and questioned him of his case whereto he
replied, "Tis caused by the travails of wayfare and my case needs care,
for I have suffered from the change of water and air! but Allah be
praised for reuniting me with a brother so dear and so rare!" On this
wise he dissembled and kept his secret, adding, "O King of the time and
Caliph of the tide, only toil and moil have tinged my face yellow with
bile and hath made my eyes sink deep in my head." Then the two entered
the capital in all honour; and the elder brother lodged the younger in
a palace overhanging the pleasure garden; and, after a time, seeing his
condition still unchanged, he attributed it to his separation from his
country and kingdom. So he let him wend his own ways and asked no
questions of him till one day when he again said, "O my brother, I see
thou art grown weaker of body and yellower of colour." "O my brother,"
replied Shah Zaman "I have an internal wound:"[FN#6] still he would not
tell him what he had witnessed in his wife. Thereupon Shahryar summoned
doctors and surgeons and bade them treat his brother according to the
rules of art, which they did for a whole month; but their sherbets and
potions naught availed, for he would dwell upon the deed of his wife,
and despondency, instead of diminishing, prevailed, and leach craft
treatment utterly failed. One day his elder brother said to him, "I am
going forth to hunt and course and to take my pleasure and pastime;
maybe this would lighten thy heart." Shah Zaman, however, refused,
saying, "O my brother, my soul yearneth for naught of this sort and I
entreat thy favour to suffer me tarry quietly in this place, being
wholly taken up with my malady." So King Shah Zaman passed his night in
the palace and, next morning, when his brother had fared forth, he
removed from his room and sat him down at one of the lattice windows
overlooking the pleasure grounds; and there he abode thinking with
saddest thought over his wife's betrayal and burning sighs issued from
his tortured breast. And as he continued in this case lo! a postern of
the palace, which was carefully kept private, swung open and out of it
came twenty slave girls surrounding his bother's wife who was wondrous
fair, a model of beauty and comeliness and symmetry and perfect
loveliness and who paced with the grace of a gazelle which panteth for
the cooling stream. Thereupon Shah Zaman drew back from the window, but
he kept the bevy in sight espying them from a place whence he could not
be espied. They walked under the very lattice and advanced a little way
into the garden till they came to a jetting fountain amiddlemost a
great basin of water; then they stripped off their clothes and behold,
ten of them were women, concubines of the King, and the other ten were
white slaves. Then they all paired off, each with each: but the Queen,
who was left alone, presently cried out in a loud voice, "Here to me, O
my lord Saeed!" and then sprang with a drop leap from one of the trees
a big slobbering blackamoor with rolling eyes which showed the whites,
a truly hideous sight.[FN#7] He walked boldly up to her and threw his
arms round her neck while she embraced him as warmly; then he bussed
her and winding his legs round hers, as a button loop clasps a button,
he threw her and enjoyed her. On like wise did the other slaves with
the girls till all had satisfied their passions, and they ceased not
from kissing and clipping, coupling and carousing till day began to
wane; when the Mamelukes rose from the damsels' bosoms and the
blackamoor slave dismounted from the Queen's breast; the men resumed
their disguises and all, except the negro who swarmed up the tree,
entered the palace and closed the postern door as before. Now, when
Shah Zaman saw this conduct of his sister in law he said in himself,
"By Allah, my calamity is lighter than this! My brother is a greater
King among the kings than I am, yet this infamy goeth on in his very
palace, and his wife is in love with that filthiest of filthy slaves.
But this only showeth that they all do it[FN#8] and that there is no
woman but who cuckoldeth her husband, then the curse of Allah upon one
and all and upon the fools who lean against them for support or who
place the reins of conduct in their hands." So he put away his
melancholy and despondency, regret and repine, and allayed his sorrow
by constantly repeating those words, adding, " 'Tis my conviction that
no man in this world is safe from their malice!" When supper time came
they brought him the trays and he ate with voracious appetite, for he
had long refrained from meat, feeling unable to touch any dish however
dainty. Then he returned grateful thanks to Almighty Allah, praising
Him and blessing Him, and he spent a most restful night, it having been
long since he had savoured the sweet food of sleep. Next day he broke
his fast heartily and began to recover health and strength, and
presently regained excellent condition. His brother came back from the
chase ten days after, when he rode out to meet him and they saluted
each other; and when King Shahryar looked at King Shah Zaman he saw how
the hue of health had returned to him, how his face had waxed ruddy and
how he ate with an appetite after his late scanty diet. He wondered
much and said, "O my brother, I was so anxious that thou wouldst join
me in hunting and chasing, and wouldst take thy pleasure and pastime in
my dominion!" He thanked him and excused himself; then the two took
horse and rode into the city and, when they were seated at their ease
in the palace, the food trays were set before them and they ate their
sufficiency. After the meats were removed and they had washed their
hands, King Shahryar turned to his brother and said, "My mind is
overcome with wonderment at thy condition. I was desirous to carry thee
with me to the chase but I saw thee changed in hue, pale and wan to
view, and in sore trouble of mind too. But now Alham-dolillah—glory be
to God!—I see thy natural colour hath returned to thy face and that
thou art again in the best of case. It was my belief that thy sickness
came of severance from thy family and friends, and absence from capital
and country, so I refrained from troubling thee with further questions.
But now I beseech thee to expound to me the cause of thy complaint and
thy change of colour, and to explain the reason of thy recovery and the
return to the ruddy hue of health which I am wont to view. So speak out
and hide naught!" When Shah Zaman heard this he bowed groundwards
awhile his head, then raised it and said, "I will tell thee what caused
my complaint and my loss of colour; but excuse my acquainting thee with
the cause of its return to me and the reason of my complete recovery:
indeed I pray thee not to press me for a reply." Said Shahryar, who was
much surprised by these words, "Let me hear first what produced thy
pallor and thy poor condition." "Know, then, O my brother," rejoined
Shah Zaman, "that when thou sentest thy Wazir with the invitation to
place myself between thy hands, I made ready and marched out of my
city; but presently I minded me having left behind me in the palace a
string of jewels intended as a gift to thee. I returned for it alone
and found my wife on my carpet bed and in the arms of a hideous black
cook. So I slew the twain and came to thee, yet my thoughts brooded
over this business and I lost my bloom and became weak. But excuse me
if I still refuse to tell thee what was the reason of my complexion
returning." Shahryar shook his head, marvelling with extreme marvel,
and with the fire of wrath flaming up from his heart, he cried,
"Indeed, the malice of woman is mighty!" Then he took refuge from them
with Allah and said, "In very sooth, O my brother, thou hast escaped
many an evil by putting thy wife to death,[FN#9] and right excusable
were thy wrath and grief for such mishap which never yet befel crowned
King like thee. By Allah, had the case been mine, I would not have been
satisfied without slaying a thousand women and that way madness lies!
But now praise be to Allah who hath tempered to thee thy tribulation,
and needs must thou acquaint me with that which so suddenly restored to
thee complexion and health, and explain to me what causeth this
concealment." "O King of the Age, again I pray thee excuse my so
doing!" "Nay, but thou must." "I fear, O my brother, lest the recital
cause thee more anger and sorrow than afflicted me." "That were but a
better reason," quoth Shahryar, "for telling me the whole history, and
I conjure thee by Allah not to keep back aught from me." Thereupon Shah
Zaman told him all he had seen, from commencement to conclusion, ending
with these words, "When I beheld thy calamity and the treason of thy
wife, O my brother, and I reflected that thou art in years my senior
and in sovereignty my superior, mine own sorrow was belittled by the
comparison, and my mind recovered tone and temper: so throwing off
melancholy and despondency, I was able to eat and drink and sleep, and
thus I speedily regained health and strength. Such is the truth and the
whole truth." When King Shahryar heard this he waxed wroth with
exceeding wrath, and rage was like to strangle him; but presently he
recovered himself and said, "O my brother, I would not give thee the
lie in this matter, but I cannot credit it till I see it with mine own
eyes." "An thou wouldst look upon thy calamity," quoth Shah Zaman,
"rise at once and make ready again for hunting and coursing.[FN#10] and
then hide thyself with me, so shalt thou witness it and thine eyes
shall verify it." "True," quoth the King; whereupon he let make
proclamation of his intent to travel, and the troops and tents fared
forth without the city, camping within sight, and Shahryar sallied out
with them and took seat amidmost his host, bidding the slaves admit no
man to him. When night came on he summoned his Wazir and said to him,
"Sit thou in my stead and let none wot of my absence till the term of
three days." Then the brothers disguised themselves and returned by
night with all secrecy to the palace, where they passed the dark hours:
and at dawn they seated themselves at the lattice overlooking the
pleasure grounds, when presently the Queen and her handmaids came out
as before, and passing under the windows made for the fountain. Here
they stripped, ten of them being men to ten women, and the King's wife
cried out, "Where art thou, O Saeed?" The hideous blackamoor dropped
from the tree straightway; and, rushing into her arms without stay or
delay, cried out, "I am Sa'ad al Din Saood!"[FN#11] The lady laughed
heartily, and all fell to satisfying their lusts, and remained so
occupied for a couple of hours, when the white slaves rose up from the
handmaidens' breasts and the blackamoor dismounted from the Queen's
bosom: then they went into the basin and, after performing the Ghusl,
or complete ablution, donned their dresses and retired as they had done
before. When King Shahryar saw this infamy of his wife and concubines
he became as one distraught and he cried out, "Only in utter solitude
can man be safe from the doings of this vile world! By Allah, life is
naught but one great wrong." Presently he added, "Do not thwart me, O
my brother, in what I propose;" and the other answered, "I will not."
So he said, "Let us up as we are and depart forthright hence, for we
have no concern with Kingship, and let us overwander Allah's earth,
worshipping the Almighty till we find some one to whom the like
calamity hath happened; and if we find none then will death be more
welcome to us than life." So the two brothers issued from a second
private postern of the palace; and they never stinted wayfaring by day
and by night, until they reached a tree a middle of a meadow hard by a
spring of sweet water on the shore of the salt sea. Both drank of it
and sat down to take their rest; and when an hour of the day had gone
by: lo! they heard a mighty roar and uproar in the middle of the main
as though the heavens were falling upon the earth; and the sea brake
with waves before them, and from it towered a black pillar, which grew
and grew till it rose skywards and began making for that meadow. Seeing
it, they waxed fearful exceedingly and climbed to the top of the tree,
which was a lofty; whence they gazed to see what might be the matter.
And behold, it was a Jinni,[FN#12] huge of height and burly of breast
and bulk, broad of brow and black of blee, bearing on his head a coffer
of crystal. He strode to land, wading through the deep, and coming to
the tree whereupon were the two Kings, seated himself beneath it. He
then set down the coffer on its bottom and out it drew a casket, with
seven padlocks of steel, which he unlocked with seven keys of steel he
took from beside his thigh, and out of it a young lady to come was
seen, white-skinned and of winsomest mien, of stature fine and thin,
and bright as though a moon of the fourteenth night she had been, or
the sun raining lively sheen. Even so the poet Utayyah hath excellently
said:—
She rose like the morn as she shone through the night * And she gilded
the grove with her gracious sight:
From her radiance the sun taketh increase when * She unveileth and
shameth the moonshine bright.
Bow down all beings between her hands * As she showeth charms with her
veil undight.
And she floodeth cities[FN#13] with torrent tears * When she flasheth
her look of leven-light.
The Jinni seated her under the tree by his side and looking at her
said, "O choicest love of this heart of mine! O dame of noblest line,
whom I snatched away on thy bride night that none might prevent me
taking thy maidenhead or tumble thee before I did, and whom none save
myself hath loved or hath enjoyed: O my sweetheart! I would lief sleep
a little while." He then laid his head upon the lady's thighs; and,
stretching out his legs which extended down to the sea, slept and
snored and snarked like the roll of thunder. Presently she raised her
head towards the tree top and saw the two Kings perched near the
summit; then she softly lifted off her lap the Jinni's pate which she
was tired of supporting and placed it upon the ground; then standing
upright under the tree signed to the Kings, "Come ye down, ye two, and
fear naught from this Ifrit."[FN#14] They were in a terrible fright
when they found that she had seen them and answered her in the same
manner, "Allah upon thee[FN#15] and by thy modesty, O lady, excuse us
from coming down!" But she rejoined by saying, "Allah upon you both,
that ye come down forthright, and if ye come not, I will rouse upon you
my husband, this Ifrit, and he shall do you to die by the illest of
deaths;" and she continued making signals to them. So, being afraid,
they came down to her and she rose be fore them and said, "Stroke me a
strong stroke, without stay or delay, otherwise will I arouse and set
upon you this Ifrit who shall slay you straightway." They said to her,
"O our lady, we conjure thee by Allah, let us off this work, for we are
fugitives from such and in extreme dread and terror of this thy
husband. How then can we do it in such a way as thou desirest"?" "Leave
this talk: it needs must be so;" quoth she, and she swore them by
Him[FN#16] who raised the skies on high, without prop or pillar, that,
if they worked not her will, she would cause them to be slain and cast
into the sea. Whereupon out of fear King Shahryar said to King Shah
Zaman, "O my brother, do thou what she biddeth thee do;" but he
replied, "I will not do it till thou do it before I do." And they began
disputing about futtering her. Then quoth she to the twain, "How is it
I see you disputing and demurring; if ye do not come forward like men
and do the deed of kind ye two, I will arouse upon you the Ifrit." At
this, by reason of their sore dread of the Jinni, both did by her what
she bade them do; and, when they had dismounted from her, she said,
"Well done!" She then took from her pocket a purse and drew out a
knotted string, whereon were strung five hundred and seventy[FN#17]
seal rings, and asked, "Know ye what be these?" They answered her
saying, "We know not!" Then quoth she; "These be the signets of five
hundred and seventy men who have all futtered me upon the horns of this
foul, this foolish, this filthy Ifrit; so give me also your two seal
rings, ye pair of brothers." When they had drawn their two rings from
their hands and given them to her, she said to them, "Of a truth this
Ifrit bore me off on my bride night, and put me into a casket and set
the casket in a coffer and to the coffer he affixed seven strong
padlocks of steel and deposited me on the deep bottom of the sea that
raves, dashing and clashing with waves; and guarded me so that I might
remain chaste and honest, quotha! that none save himself might have
connexion with me. But I have lain under as many of my kind as I
please, and this wretched Jinni wotteth not that Des tiny may not be
averted nor hindered by aught, and that whatso woman willeth the same
she fulfilleth however man nilleth. Even so saith one of them.—
Rely not on women; * Trust not to their hearts,
Whose joys and whose sorrows * Are hung to their parts!
Lying love they will swear thee * Whence guile ne'er departs:
Take Yusuf[FN#18] for sample * 'Ware sleights and 'ware smarts!
Iblis[FN#19] ousted Adam * (See ye not?) thro' their arts.