I was taken home from my native country by a slave-driver who sold me to
a certain Apparitor.[90] My purchaser had a daughter three years old,
with whom I was brought up, and they used to make mock of me, letting me
play with her and dance for her[91] and sing to her, till I reached the
age of twelve and she that of ten; and even then they did not forbid me
seeing her. One day I went in to her and found her sitting in an inner
room, and she looked as if she had just come out of the bath which was
in the house; for she was scented with essences and reek of aromatic
woods, and her face shone like the circle of the moon on the fourteenth
night. She began to sport with me, and I with her. Now I had just
reached the age of puberty; so my prickle stood at point, as it were a
huge key. Then she threw me on my back and, mounting astraddle on my
breast, fell a-wriggling and a-bucking upon me till she had uncovered my
yard. When she saw it standing with head erect, she hent it in hand and
began rubbing it upon the lips of her little slit[92] outside her
petticoat-trousers. Thereat hot lust stirred in me and I threw my arms
round her, while she wound hers about my neck and hugged me to her with
all her might, till, before I knew what I did, my pizzle split up her
trousers and entered her slit and did away her maidenhead. When I saw
this, I ran off and took refuge with one of my comrades. Presently her
mother came in to her; and, seeing her in this case, fainted clean away.
However she managed the matter advisedly and hid it from the girl's
father out of good will to me; nor did they cease to call to me and coax
me, till they took me from where I was. After two months had passed by,
her mother married her to a young man, a barber who used to shave her
papa, and portioned and fitted her out of her own monies; whilst the
father knew nothing of what had passed. On the night of consummation
they cut the throat of a pigeon-poult and sprinkled the blood on her
shift.[93] After a while they seized me unawares and gelded me; and,
when they brought her to her bridegroom, they made me her Agha,[94] her
eunuch, to walk before her wheresoever she went, whether to the bath or
to her father's house. I abode with her a long time enjoying her beauty
and loveliness by way of kissing and clipping and coupling with her,[95]
till she died, and her husband and mother and father died also; when
they seized me for the Royal Treasury as being the property of an
intestate, and I found my way hither, where I became your comrade. This,
then, O my brethren, is the cause of my cullions being cut off; and
peace be with you! He ceased and his fellow began in these words the
_TALE OF THE SECOND EUNUCH, KAFUR._
Know, O my brothers that, when beginning service as a boy of eight, I
used to tell the slave-dealers regularly and exactly one lie every year,
so that they fell out with one another, till at last my master lost
patience with me and, carrying me down to the market, ordered the
brokers to cry, "Who will buy this slave, knowing his blemish and making
allowance for it?" He did so and they asked him, "Pray, what may be his
blemish?" and he answered, "He telleth me one single lie every year."
Now a man that was a merchant came up and said to the broker, "How much
do they allow for him with his blemish?" "They allow six hundred
dirhams," he replied; and said the other, "Thou shalt have twenty
dirhams for thyself." So he arranged between him and the slave-dealer
who took the coin from him and the broker carried me to the merchant's
house and departed, after receiving his brokerage. The trader clothed me
with suitable dress, and I stayed in his service the rest of my
twelvemonth, until the new year began happily. It was a blessed season,
plenteous in the produce of the earth, and the merchants used to feast
every day at the house of some one among them, till it was my master's
turn to entertain them in a flower-garden without the city. So he and
the other merchants went to the garden, taking with them all that they
required of provaunt and else beside, and sat eating and carousing and
drinking till mid-day, when my master, having need of some matter from
his home, said to me, "O slave, mount the she-mule and hie thee to the
house and bring from thy mistress such and such a thing and return
quickly." I obeyed his bidding and started for the house but, as I drew
near it, I began to cry out and shed tears, whereupon all the people of
the quarter collected, great and small; and my master's wife and
daughters, hearing the noise I was making, opened the door and asked me
what was the matter. Said I, "My master was sitting with his friends
beneath an old wall, and it fell on one and all of them; and when I saw
what had happened to them, I mounted the mule and came hither in haste
to tell you." When my master's daughters and wife heard this, they
screamed and rent their raiment and beat their faces, whilst the
neighbours came around them. Then the wife overturned the furniture of
the house, one thing upon another, and tore down the shelves and broke
the windows and the lattices and smeared the walls with mud and indigo,
saying to me, "Woe to thee, O Kafur! come help me to tear down these
cupboards and break up these vessels and this chinaware,[96] and the
rest of it." So I went to her and aided her to smash all the shelves in
the house with whatever stood upon them, after which I went round about
the terrace-roofs and every part of the place, spoiling all I could and
leaving no china in the house unbroken till I had laid waste the whole,
crying out the while "Well-away! my master!" Then my mistress fared
forth bare-faced wearing a head-kerchief and naught else, and her
daughters and the children sallied out with her, and said to me, "O
Kafur, go thou before us and show us the place where thy master lieth
dead, that we may take him from under the fallen wall and lay him on a
bier and bear him to the house and give him a fine funeral." So I went
forth before them crying out, "Alack, my master!"; and they after me
with faces and heads bare and all shrieking, "Alas! Alas for the man!"
Now there remained none in the quarter, neither man nor woman, nor
epicene, nor youth nor maid, nor child nor old trot, but went with us
smiting their faces and weeping bitterly, and I led them leisurely
through the whole city. The folk asked them what was the matter,
whereupon they told them what they had heard from me, and all exclaimed,
"There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah!" Then said one
of them, "He was a personage of consequence; so let us go to the
Governor and tell him what hath befallen him." When they told the
Governor,——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Fortieth Night,[97]
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when they told the
Governor, he rose and mounted and, taking with him labourers, with
spades and baskets, went on my track, with many people behind him; and I
ran on before them, howling and casting dust on my head and beating my
face, followed by my mistress and her children keening for the dead. But
I got ahead of them and entered the garden before them, and when my
master saw me in this state, I smiting my face and saying, "Well-away!
my mistress Alas! Alas! Alas! who is left to take pity on me, now that
my mistress is gone? Would I had been a sacrifice for her!", he stood
aghast and his colour waxed yellow and he said to me, "What aileth thee
O Kafur! What _is_ the matter?" "O my lord," I replied, "when thou
sentest me to the house, I found that the saloon-wall had given way and
had fallen like a layer upon my mistress and her children!" "And did not
thy mistress escape?" "No, by Allah, O my master; not one of them was
saved; the first to die was my mistress, thine elder daughter!" "And did
not my younger daughter escape?"; "No, she did not!" "And what became of
the mare-mule I use to ride, is she safe?" "No, by Allah, O my master,
the house-walls and the stable-walls buried every living thing that was
within doors, even to the sheep and geese and poultry, so that they all
became a heap of flesh and the dogs and cats are eating them and not one
of them is left alive." "And hath not thy master, my elder son,
escaped?" "No, by Allah! not one of them was saved, and now there is
naught left of house or household, nor even a sign of them: and, as for
the sheep and geese and hens, the cats and dogs have devoured them."
When my master heard this the light became night before his sight; his
wits were dazed and he so lost command of his senses that he could not
stand firm on his feet: he was as one struck with a sudden palsy and his
back was like to break. Then he rent his raiment and plucked out his
beard and, casting his turband from off his head, buffetted his face
till the blood ran down and he cried aloud, "Alas, my children! Alas, my
wife! Alas, my calamity! To whom ever befel that which hath befallen
me?" The merchants, his friends, also cried aloud at his crying and wept
for his weeping and tore their clothes, being moved to pity of his case;
and so my master went out of the garden, smiting his face with such
violence that from excess of pain he staggered like one drunken with
wine. As he and the merchants came forth from the garden-gate, behold,
they saw a great cloud of dust and heard a loud noise of crying and
lamentation; so they looked and lo! it was the Governor with his
attendants and the townsfolk, a world of people, who had come out to
look on, and my master's family following them, all screaming and crying
aloud and weeping exceeding sore weeping. The first to address my owner
were his wife and children; and when he saw them he was confounded and
laughed[98] and said to them, "How is it with all of you and what befel
you in the house and what hath come to pass to you?" When they saw him
they exclaimed, "Praise be to Allah for thy preservation!" and threw
themselves upon him and his children hung about him crying, "Alack, our
father! Thanks to Allah for thy safety, O our father!" And his wife said
to him, "Art thou indeed well? Laud to Allah who hath shown us thy face
in safety!" And indeed she was confounded and her reason fled when she
saw him, and she asked, "O, my lord, how didst thou escape, thou and thy
friends the merchants?"; and he answered her, "And how fared it with
thee in the house?" Quoth they, "We were all well, whole and healthy,
nor hath aught of evil befallen us in the house, save that thy slave
Kafur came to us, bareheaded with torn garments and howling:—Alas, the
master! Alas the master! So we asked him:—What tidings, O Kafur? and he
answered:—A wall of the garden hath fallen on my master and his friends
the merchants, and they are all crushed and dead!" "By Allah," said my
master, "he came to me but now howling:—Alas, my mistress! Alas, the
children of the mistress!, and said:—My mistress and her children are
all dead, every one of them!" Then he looked round and seeing me with my
turband rent in rags round my neck, howling and weeping with exceeding
weeping and throwing dust upon my head, he cried out at me. So I came to
him and he said, "Woe to thee, O ill-omened slave! O whoreson knave! O
thou damned breed! What mischief thou hast wrought? By Allah! I will
flog thy skin from thy flesh and cut thy flesh from thy bones!" I
rejoined, "By Allah, thou canst do nothing of the kind with me, O my
lord, for thou boughtest me with my blemish; and there are honest men to
bear witness against thee that thou didst so accepting the condition,
and that thou knewest of my fault which is to tell one lie every year.
Now this is only a half-lie, but by the end of the year I will tell the
other half, then will the lie stand whole and complete." "O dog, son of
a dog!", cried my master, "O most accursed of slaves, is this all of it
but a half-lie? Verily if it be a half-lie 'tis a whole calamity! Get
thee from me, thou art free in the face of Allah!" "By Allah," rejoined
I, "if thou free me, I will not free thee till my year is completed and
I have told thee the half-lie which is left. When this is done, go down
with me to the slave-market and sell me as thou boughtest me to whoso
will buy me with my blemish; but thou shalt not manumit me, for I have
no handicraft whereby to gain my living;[99] and this my demand is a
matter of law which the doctors have laid down in the Chapter of
Emancipation."[100] While we were at these words, up came the crowd of
people, and the neighbours of the quarter, men, women and children,
together with the Governor and his suite offering condolence. So my
master and the other merchants went up to him and informed him of the
adventure, and how this was but a half-lie, at which all wondered,
deeming it a whole lie and a big one. And they cursed me and reviled me,
while I stood laughing and grinning at them, till at last I asked, "How
shall my master slay me when he bought me with this my blemish?" Then my
master returned home and found his house in ruins, and it was I who had
laid waste the greater part of it,[101] having broken things which were
worth much money, as also had done his wife, who said to him, "'Twas
Kafur who broke the vessels and chinaware." Thereupon his rage redoubled
and he struck hand upon hand exclaiming, "By Allah! in my life never saw
I a whoreson like this slave; and he saith this is but a half-lie! How,
then, if he had told me a whole lie? He would ruin a city, aye or even
two." Then in his fury he went to the Governor, and they gave me a neat
thing in the bastinado-line and made me eat stick till I was lost to the
world and a fainting-fit came on me; and, whilst I was yet senseless,
they brought the barber who docked me and gelded me[102] and cauterised
the wound. When I revived I found myself a clean eunuch with nothing
left, and my master said to me, "Even as thou hast burned my heart for
the things I held dearest, so have I burnt thy heart for that of thy
members whereby thou settest most store!" Then he took me and sold me at
a profit, for that I was become an eunuch. And I ceased not bringing
trouble upon all, wherever I was sold, and was shifted from lord to lord
and from notable to notable, being sold and being bought, till I entered
the palace of the Commander of the Faithful. But now my spirit is broken
and my tricks are gone from me, so—alas!—are my ballocks. When the two
slaves heard his history, they laughed at him and chaffed him and said,
"Truly thou art skite[103] and skite-son! Thou liedest an odious lie."
Then quoth they to the third slave, "Tell us thy tale." "O sons of my
uncle," quoth he, "all that ye have said is idle: I will tell you the
cause of my losing my testicles, and indeed I deserved to lose even
more, for I futtered both my mistress and my master's eldest son and
heir: but my story is a long one and this is not the time to tell it;
for the dawn, O my cousins, draweth near and if morning come upon us
with this chest still unburied, we shall get into sore disgrace and our
lives will pay for it. So up with you and open the door and, when we get
back to the palace, I will tell you my story and the cause of my losing
my precious stones." Then he swarmed up and dropped down from the wall
inside and opened the door, so they entered and, setting down the
lantern, dug between four tombs a hole as long as the chest and of the
same breadth. Kafur plied the spade and Sawab removed the earth by
baskets-full till they reached the depth of the stature of a man;[104]
when they laid the chest in the hole and threw back the earth over it:
then they went forth and shutting the door disappeared from Ghanim's
eyes. When all was quiet and he felt sure that he was left alone in the
place, his thought was busied about what the chest contained and he said
to himself, "Would that I knew the contents of that box!" However, he
waited till day broke, when morning shone and showed her sheen:
whereupon he came down from the date-tree and scooped away the earth
with his hands, till the box was laid bare and disengaged from the
ground. Then he took a large stone and hammered at the lock till he
broke it and, opening the lid, beheld a young lady, a model of beauty
and loveliness, clad in the richest of garments and jewels of gold and
such necklaces of precious stones that, were the Sultan's country evened
with them, it would not pay their price. She had been drugged with
Bhang, but her bosom, rising and falling, showed that her breath had not
departed. When Ghanim saw her, he knew that some one had played her
false and hocussed her; so he pulled her out of the chest and laid her
on the ground with her face upwards. As soon as she smelt the breeze and
the air entered her nostrils, mouth and lungs, she sneezed and choked
and coughed; when there fell from out her throat a pill of Cretan Bhang,
had an elephant smelt it he would have slept from night to night. Then
she opened her eyes and glancing around said, in sweet voice and
gracious words, "Woe to thee O wind! there is naught in thee to satisfy
the thirsty, nor aught to gratify one whose thirst is satisfied! Where
is Zahr al-Bostan?" But no one answered her, so she turned her and cried
out, "Ho Sabíhah! Shajarat al-Durr! Núr al-Hudá! Najmat al-Subh! be ye
awake? Shahwah, Nuzhah, Halwá, Zarífah, out on you, speak![105]" But no
one answered; so she looked all around and said, "Woe's me! have they
entombed me in the tombs? O Thou who knowest what man's thought enwombs
and who givest compensation on the Day of Doom, who can have brought me
from amid hanging screens and curtains veiling the Harím-rooms and set
me down between four tombs?" All this while Ghanim was standing by: then
he said to her, "O my lady, here are neither screened rooms nor
palace-Haríms nor yet tombs; only the slave henceforth devoted to thy
love, Ghanim bin Ayyub, sent to thee by the Omniscient One above, that
all thy troubles He may remove and win for thee every wish that doth
behove!" Then he held his peace. She was reassured by his words and
cried, "I testify that there is no god but _the_ God, and I testify that
Mohammed is the Apostle of God!"; then she turned to Ghanim and, placing
her hands before her face, said to him in the sweetest speech, "O
blessed youth, who brought me hither? See, I am now come to myself." "O
my lady," he replied, "three slave-eunuchs came here bearing this
chest;" and related to her the whole of what had befallen him, and how
evening having closed upon him had proved the cause of her preservation,
otherwise she had died smothered.[106] Then he asked her who she was and
what was her story, and she answered, "O youth, thanks be to Allah who
hath cast me into the hands of the like of thee! But now rise and put me
back into the box; then fare forth upon the road and hire the first
camel-driver or muleteer thou findest to carry it to thy house. When I
am there, all will be well and I will tell thee my tale and acquaint
thee with my adventures, and great shall be thy gain by means of me." At
this he rejoiced and went outside the tomb. The day was now dazzling
bright and the firmament shone with light and the folk had begun to
circulate; so he hired a man with a mule and, bringing him to the tomb,
lifted the chest wherein he had put the damsel and set it on the mule.
Her love now engrossed his heart and he fared homeward with her
rejoicing, for that she was a girl worth ten thousand gold pieces and
her raiment and ornaments would fetch a mint of money. As soon as he
arrived at his house he carried in the chest and opening it——And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Forty-first Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Ghanim son of
Ayyub arrived with the chest at his house, he opened it and took out the
young lady, who looked about her and, seeing that the place was
handsome, spread with carpets and dight with cheerful colours and other
deckings; and noting the stuffs up-piled and packed bales and other else
than that, knew that he was a substantial merchant and a man of much
money. Thereupon she uncovered her face and looked at him, and lo! he
was a fair youth; so when she saw him she loved him and said, "O my
lord, bring us something to eat." "On my head and mine eyes!" replied
he; and, going down to the bazar, bought a roasted lamb and a dish of
sweetmeats and with these dry fruits and wax-candles, besides wine and
whatsoever was required of drinking materials, not forgetting perfumes.
With all this gear he returned to the house; and when the damsel saw him
she laughed and kissed him and clasped his neck. Then she began
caressing him, which made his love wax hotter till it got the mastery of
his heart. They ate and drank and each had conceived the fondest
affection; for indeed the two were one in age and one in loveliness; and
when night came on Ghanim bin Ayyub, the Distraught, the Thrall of Love,
rose and lit the wax candles and lamps till the place blazed with
light;[107] after which he produced the wine-service and spread the
table. Then both sat down again, he and she, and he kept filling and
giving her to drink, and she kept filling and giving him to drink, and
they played and toyed and laughed and recited verses; whilst their joy
increased and they clove in closer love each to each (glory be to the
Uniter of Hearts!). They ceased not to carouse after this fashion till
near upon dawn when drowsiness overcame them and they slept where they
were, apart each from other, till the morning.[108] Then Ghanim arose
and going to the market, bought all they required of meat and vegetables
and wine and what not, and brought them to the house; whereupon both sat
down to eat and ate their sufficiency, when he set on wine. They drank
and each played with each, till their cheeks flushed red and their eyes
took a darker hue and Ghanim's soul longed to kiss the girl and to lie
with her and he said, "O my lady, grant me one kiss of that dear mouth:
perchance 'twill quench the fire of my heart." "O Ghanim," replied she,
"wait till I am drunk and dead to the world; then steal a kiss of me,
secretly and on such wise that I may not know thou hast kissed me." Then
she rose and taking off her upper dress sat in a thin shift of fine
linen and a silken head-kerchief.[109] At this passion inflamed Ghanim
and he said to her, "O my lady, wilt thou not vouchsafe me what I asked
of thee?" "By Allah," she replied, "that may not be thine, for there is
written upon my trouser-string[110] a hard word!" Thereupon Ghanim's
heart sank and desire grew on him as its object offered difficulties;
and he improvised these verses:—
I asked the author of mine ills ✿ To heal the wound with one sweet
kiss:
No! No! she cried,[111] for ever no! ✿ But I, soft whispering, urged
yes:
Quoth she, Then take it by my leave, ✿ When smiles shall pardon thine
amiss:
By force, cried I? Nay, she replied ✿ With love and gladness eke I
wis.
Now ask me not what next occurred ✿ Seek grace of God and whist of
this!
Deem what thou wilt of us, for love ✿ By calumnies the sweeter is:
Nor after this care I one jot ✿ Whether my foe be known or not.