was talking with his favourites, and had sat down by him, after a
conversation on different subjects, the sultan, addressing
himself to prince Ahmed, said, "Son, when you came and dispelled
those clouds of melancholy which your long absence had brought
upon me, you made the place you had chosen for your retreat a
mastery. I was satisfied with seeing you again, and knowing that
you were content with your condition, sought not to penetrate
into your secret, which I found you did not wish I should. I know
not what reason you had thus to treat a father, who ever was and
still continues anxious for your happiness. I now know your good
fortune. I rejoice with you, and much approve of your conduct in
marrying a fairy so worthy of your love, and so rich and powerful
as I am informed she is. Powerful as I am, it was not possible
for me to have procured for you so great a match. Now you are
raised to so high a rank, as to be envied by all but a father, I
not only desire to preserve the good understanding which has
hitherto subsisted between us, but request that you will use your
influence with your wife, to obtain her assistance when I may
want it. I will therefore make a trial of your interest this day.
"You are not insensible at what a great expense, not to say
trouble to my generals, officers, and myself, every time I take
the field, they provide tents, mules, camels, and other beasts of
burden, to carry them. If you consider the pleasure you would do
me, I am persuaded you could easily procure from the fairy a
pavilion that might be carried in a man's hand, and which would
extend over my whole army; especially when you let her know it is
for me. Though it may be a difficult thing to procure, she will
not refuse you. All the world knows fairies are capable of
executing most extraordinary undertakings."
Prince Ahmed never expected that the sultan his father would have
made a demand like this, which appeared to him so difficult, not
to say impossible. Though he knew not absolutely how great the
power of genii and fairies was, he doubted whether it extended so
far as to furnish such a tent as his father desired. Moreover, he
had never asked any thing of the fairy Perie Banou, but was
satisfied with the continual proofs she had given him of her
passion, and had neglected nothing to persuade her that his heart
perfectly corresponded without any views beyond maintaining
himself in her good graces: he was therefore in the greatest
embarrassment what answer to make. At last he replied, "If, sir,
I have concealed from your majesty what has happened to me, and
what course I took after finding my arrow, the reason was, that I
thought it of no great importance to you to be informed of such
circumstances; and though I know not how this mystery has been
revealed to you, I cannot deny but your information is correct. I
have married the fairy you speak of. I love her, and am persuaded
she loves me in return. But I can say nothing as to the influence
your majesty believes I have over her. It is what I have not yet
proved, nor thought of trying, but could wish you would dispense
with my making the experiment, and let me enjoy the happiness of
loving and being beloved, with all that disinterestedness I had
proposed to myself. However, the demand of a father is a command
upon every child, who, like me, thinks it his duty to obey him in
every thing. And though it is with the greatest reluctance, I
will not fail to ask my wife the favour your majesty desires, but
cannot promise you to obtain it; and if I should not have the
honour to come again to pay you my respects, it will be the sign
that I have not been able to succeed in my request: but
beforehand, I desire you to forgive me, and consider that you
yourself have reduced me to this extremity."
"Son," replied the sultan of the Indies, "I should be sorry that
what I ask should oblige you to deprive me of the gratification
of seeing you as usual. I find you do not know the power a
husband has over a wife; and yours would shew that her love to
you was very slight, if, with the power she possesses as a fairy,
she should refuse so trifling a request as that I have begged you
to make. Lay aside your fears, which proceed from your believing
yourself not to be loved so well as you love her. Go; only ask
her. You will find the fairy loves you better than you imagine;
and remember that people, for want of requesting, often lose
great advantages. Think with yourself, that as you love her, you
could refuse her nothing; therefore, if she loves you, she will
not deny your requests."
All these representations of the sultan of the Indies could not
satisfy prince Ahmed, who would rather he had asked anything else
than, as he supposed, what must expose him to the hazard of
displeasing his beloved Perie Banou; and so great was his
vexation that he left the court two days sooner than he used to
do.
When he returned, the fairy, to whom he always before had
appeared with a gay countenance, asked him the cause of the
alteration she perceived in his looks; and finding that instead
of answering he inquired after her health, to avoid satisfying
her, she said to him, "I will answer your question when you have
answered mine." The prince declined a long time, protesting that
nothing was the matter with him; but the more he denied the more
she pressed him, and said, "I cannot bear to see you thus: tell
me what makes you uneasy, that I may remove the cause, whatever
it may be; for it must be very extraordinary if it is out of my
power, unless it be the death of the sultan your father; in that
case, time, with all that I will contribute on my part, can alone
comfort you."
Prince Ahmed could not long withstand the pressing instances of
the fairy. "Madam," said he, "God prolong the sultan my father's
life, and bless him to the end of his days. I left him alive and
in perfect health; therefore that is not the cause of the
melancholy you perceive in me. The sultan, however, is the
occasion of it, and I am the more concerned because he has
imposed upon me the disagreeable necessity of importuning you.
You know the care I have at your desire taken to conceal from him
the happiness I have enjoyed in living with you, and of having
received the pledge of your faith after having pledged my love to
you. How he has been informed of it I cannot tell."
Here the fairy interrupted prince Ahmed, and said, "But I know.
Remember what I told you of the woman who made you believe she
was sick, on whom you took so much compassion. It is she who has
acquainted your father with what you have taken so much care to
hide from him. I told you that she was no more sick than you or
I, and she has made it appear so; for, in short, after the two
women, whom I charged to take care of her, had given her the
water sovereign against all fevers, but which however she had no
occasion for, she pretended that it had cured her, and was
brought to take her leave of me that she might go the sooner to
give an account of the success of her undertaking. She was in so
much haste, that she would have gone away without seeing my
palace if I had not, by bidding my two women shew it her, given
her to understand that it was worth her seeing. But proceed and
tell me what is the necessity your father has imposed on you to
be so importunate, which, be persuaded, however, you can never be
to your affectionate wife."
"Madam," pursued prince Ahmed, "you may have observed that
hitherto I have been content with your love, and have never asked
you any other favour: for what, after the possession of so
amiable a wife, can I desire more? I know how great your power
is, but I have taken care not to make proof of it to please
myself. Consider then, I conjure you, that it is not myself, but
the sultan my father, who, indiscreetly as I think, asks of you a
pavilion large enough to shelter him, his court, and army, from
the violence of the weather, when he takes the field, and which a
man may carry in his hand. Once more remember it is not I, but
the sultan my father who asks this favour."
"Prince," replied the fairy smiling, "I am sorry that so trifling
a matter should disturb and make you so uneasy as you appear. I
see plainly two things have contributed towards it: one is, the
law you have imposed on yourself, to be content with loving me,
being beloved by me, and deny yourself the liberty of soliciting
the least favour that might try my power. The other, I do not
doubt, whatever you may say, was, that you thought that what your
father asked was out of my power. As to the first, I commend you,
and shall love you the better, if possible, for it; and for the
second, I must tell you that what the sultan your father requests
is a trifle; as upon occasion I can do him more important
service. Therefore be easy in your mind, and persuaded that far
from thinking myself importuned I shall always take real pleasure
in performing whatever you can desire." Perie Banou then sent for
her treasurer, to whom, when she came, she said, "Noor-Jehaun"
(which was her name), "bring me the largest pavilion in my
treasury." Noor-Jehaun returned presently with a pavilion, which
could not only be held, but concealed in the palm of the hand,
when it was closed, and presented it to her mistress, who gave it
prince Ahmed to look at.
When prince Ahmed saw the pavilion, which the fairy called the
largest in her treasury, he fancied she had a mind to banter him,
and his surprise soon appeared in his countenance; which Perie
Banou perceiving, she burst out a laughing. "What! prince," cried
she, "do you think I jest with you? You will see that I am in
earnest. Noor-Jehaun," said she to her treasurer, taking the tent
out of prince Ahmed's hands, "go and set it up, that he may judge
whether the sultan his father will think it large enough."
The treasurer went out immediately with it from the palace, and
carried it to such a distance, that when she had set it up, one
end reached to the palace. The prince, so far from thinking it
small, found it large enough to shelter two armies as numerous as
that of the sultan his father; and then said to Perie Banou, "I
ask my princess a thousand pardons for my incredulity: after what
I have seen, I believe there is nothing impossible to you." "You
see," said the fairy, "that the pavilion is larger than your
father may have occasion for; but you are to observe that it has
one property, that it becomes larger or smaller, according to the
extent of the army it is to cover, without applying any hands to
it."
The treasurer took down the tent again, reduced it to its first
size, brought it and put it into the prince's hands. He took it,
and without staying longer than till the next day, mounted his
horse, and went with the usual attendants to the sultan his
father.
The sultan, who was persuaded that such a tent as he had asked
for was beyond all possibility, was in great surprise at the
prince's speedy return. He took the tent, but after he had
admired its smallness, his amazement was so great that he could
not recover himself when he had set it up in the great plain
before-mentioned, and found it large enough to shelter an army
twice as large as he could bring into the field. Regarding this
excess in its dimension as what might be troublesome in the use,
prince Ahmed told him that its size would always be
proportionable to his army.
To outward appearance the sultan expressed great obligation to
the prince for so noble a present, desiring him to return his
thanks to the fairy; and to shew what a value he set upon it,
ordered it to be carefully laid up in his treasury. But within
himself he felt greater jealousy than his flatterers and the
sorceress had suggested to him; considering, that by the fairy's
assistance the prince his son might perform things infinitely
above his own power, notwithstanding his greatness and riches;
therefore, more intent upon his ruin, he went to consult the
sorceress again, who advised him to engage the prince to bring
him some of the water of the fountain of lions.
In the evening, when the sultan was surrounded as usual by all
his court, and the prince came to pay his respects among the
rest, he addressed himself to him in these words: "Son, I have
already expressed to you how much I am obliged for the present of
the tent you have procured me, which I esteem the most valuable
curiosity in my treasury: but you must do one thing more, which
will be no less agreeable to me. I am informed that the fairy
your spouse makes use of a certain water, called the water of the
fountain of lions, which cures all sorts of fevers, even the most
dangerous; and as I am perfectly well persuaded my health is dear
to you, I do not doubt but you will ask her for a bottle of that
water, and bring it me as a sovereign remedy, which I may use as
I have occasion. Do me this important service, and complete the
duty of a good son towards a tender father."
Prince Ahmed, who believed that the sultan his father would have
been satisfied with so singular and useful a tent as that which
he had brought, and that he would not have imposed any new task
upon him which might hazard the fairy's displeasure, was
thunderstruck at this new request, notwithstanding the assurance
she had given him of granting him whatever lay in her power.
After a long silence, he said, "I beg of your majesty to be
assured, that there is nothing I would not undertake to procure
which may contribute to the prolonging of your life, but I could
wish it might not be by the means of my wife. For this reason I
dare not promise to bring the water. All I can do is, to assure
you I will request it of her; but it will be with as great
reluctance as I asked for the tent."
The next morning prince Ahmed returned to the fairy Perie Banou,
and related to her sincerely and faithfully all that had passed
at his father's court from the giving of the tent, which he told
her he received with the utmost gratitude, to the new request he
had charged him to make. He added: "But, my princess, I only tell
you this as a plain account of what passed between me and my
father. I leave you to your own pleasure, whether you will
gratify or reject this his new desire. It shall be as you
please."
"No, no," replied the fairy, "I am glad that the sultan of the
Indies knows that you are not indifferent to me. I will satisfy
him, and whatever advice the sorceress may give him (for I see
that he hearkens to her counsel), he shall find no fault with you
or me. There is much wickedness in this demand, as you will
understand by what I am going to tell you. The fountain of lions
is situated in the middle of a court of a great castle, the
entrance into which is guarded by four fierce lions, two of which
sleep alternately, while the other two are awake. But let not
that frighten you. I will supply you with means to pass by them
without danger."
The fairy Perie Banou was at that time at work with her needle;
and as she had by her several clues of thread, she took up one,
and presenting it to prince Ahmed, said, "First take this clue of
thread, I will tell you presently the use of it. In the second
place, you must have two horses; one you must ride yourself, and
the other you must lead, which must be loaded with a sheep cut
into four quarters, that must be killed to-day. In the third
place, you must be provided with a bottle, which I will give you,
to bring the water in. Set out early to-morrow morning, and when
you have passed the iron gate throw before you the clue of
thread, which will roll till it reaches the gates of the castle.
Follow it, and when it stops, as the gates will be open, you will
see the four lions. The two that are awake will, by their
roaring, wake the other two. Be not alarmed, but throw each of
them a quarter of the sheep, and then clap spurs to your horse,
and ride to the fountain. Fill your bottle without alighting, and
return with the same expedition. The lions will be so busy eating
they will let you pass unmolested."
Prince Ahmed set out the next morning at the time appointed him
by the fairy, and followed her directions punctually. When he
arrived at the gates of the castle, he distributed the quarters
of the sheep among the four lions, and passing through the midst
of them with intrepidity, got to the fountain, filled his bottle,
and returned safe. When he had got a little distance from the
castle gates, he turned about; and perceiving two of the lions
coming after him, drew his sabre, and prepared himself for
defence. But as he went forwards, he saw one of them turn out of
the road at some distance, and shewed by his head and tail that
he did not come to do him any harm, but only to go before him,
and that the other stayed behind to follow. He therefore put his
sword again into its scabbard. Guarded in this manner he arrived
at the capital of the Indies; but the lions never left him till
they had conducted him to the gates of the sultan's palace; after
which they returned the way they had come, though not without
alarming the populace, who fled or hid themselves to avoid them,
notwithstanding they walked gently and shewed no signs of
fierceness.
A number of officers came to attend the prince while he
dismounted, and conduct him to the sultan's apartment, who was at
that time conversing with his favourites. He approached the
throne, laid the bottle at the sultan's feet, kissed the rich
carpet which covered the footstool, and rising, said, "I have
brought you, sir, the salutary water which your majesty so much
desired to store up among other rarities in your treasury; but at
the same time wish you such health as never to have occasion to
make use of it."
After the prince had concluded his compliment, the sultan placed
him on his right hand, and said, "Son, I am much obliged to you
for this valuable present; as also for the great danger you have
exposed yourself to on my account (which I have been informed of
by the sorceress, who knows the fountain of lions); but do me the
pleasure, continued he, to inform me by what address, or rather
by what incredible power, you have been preserved."
"Sir," replied prince Ahmed, "I have no share in the compliment
your majesty is pleased to make me; all the honour is due to the
fairy my spouse, and I take no other merit than that of having
followed her advice." Then he informed the sultan what that
advice was, by the relation of his expedition, and how he had
conducted himself. When he had done, the sultan, who shewed
outwardly all the demonstrations of joy, but secretly became more
and more jealous, retired into an inward apartment, whence he
sent for the sorceress.
The sorceress, on her arrival, saved the sultan the trouble of
telling her of the success of prince Ahmed's journey, which she
had heard before she came, and therefore was prepared with a new
request. This she communicated to the sultan, who declared it the
next day to the prince, in the midst of all his courtiers, in
these words: "Son, I have one thing yet to ask of you; after
which, I shall expect nothing more from your obedience, nor your
interest with your wife. This request is, to bring me a man not
above a foot and a half high, whose beard is thirty feet long,
who carries upon his shoulders a bar of iron of five hundred
weight, which he uses as a quarter-staff, and who can speak."
Prince Ahmed, who did not believe that there was such a man in
the world as his father had described, would gladly have excused
himself; but the sultan persisted in his demand, and told him the
fairy could do more incredible things.
Next day the prince returned to the subterraneous kingdom of
Perie Banou, to whom he related his father's new demand, which,
he said, he looked upon to be a thing more impossible than the
two first. "For," added he, "I cannot imagine there is or can be
such a man in the world; without doubt he has a mind to try
whether I am silly enough to search, or if there is such a man he
seeks my ruin. In short, how can we suppose that I should lay
hold of a man so small, armed as he describes? what arms can I
use to reduce him to submission? If there are any means, I beg
you will tell me how I may come off with honour this time also."
"Do not alarm yourself, prince," replied the fairy: "you ran a
risk in fetching the water of the fountain of the lions for your
father; but there is no danger in finding this man. It is my
brother Schaibar, who is so far from being like me, though we
both had the same father, that he is of so violent a nature, that
nothing can prevent his giving bloody marks of his resentment for
a slight offence; yet, on the other hand, is so liberal as to
oblige any one in whatever they desire. He is made exactly as the
sultan your father has described him; and has no other arms than
a bar of iron of five hundred pounds weight, without which he
never stirs, and which makes him respected. I will send for him,
and you shall judge of the truth of what I tell you; but prepare
yourself not to be alarmed at his extraordinary figure." "What!
my queen," replied prince Ahmed, "do you say Schaibar is your
brother? Let him be ever so ugly or deformed I shall be so far
from being frightened at his appearance, that I shall love and
honour him, and consider him as my nearest relation."
The fairy ordered a gold chafing-dish to be set with a fire in it
under the porch of her palace, with a box of the same metal: out
of the latter she took some incense, and threw it into the fire,
when there arose a thick cloud of smoke.
Some moments after, the fairy said to prince Ahmed, "Prince,
there comes my brother; do you see him?" The prince immediately
perceived Schaibar, who was but a foot and a half high, coming
gravely with his heavy bar on his shoulder; his beard thirty feet
long, which supported itself before him, and a pair of thick
moustaches in proportion, tucked up to his ears, and almost
covering his face: his eyes were very small, like a pig's, and
deep sunk in his head, which was of an enormous size, and on
which he wore a pointed cap: besides all this, he had a hump
behind and and before.
If prince Ahmed had not known that Schaibar was Perie Banou's
brother, he would not have been able to behold him without fear;
but knowing who he was, he waited for him with the fairy, and
received him without the least concern.
Schaibar, as he came forwards, looked at the prince with an eye
that would have chilled his soul in his body, and asked Perie
Banou, when he first accosted her, who that man was? To which she
replied, "He is my husband, brother; his name is Ahmed; he is a
son of the sultan of the Indies. The reason why I did not invite
you to my wedding was, I was unwilling to divert you from the
expedition you were engaged in, and from which I heard with
pleasure you returned victorious; on his account I have taken the
liberty now to call for you."
At these words, Schaibar, looking at prince Ahmed with a
favourable eye, which however diminished neither his fierceness
nor savage look, said, "Is there any thing, sister, wherein I can
serve him? he has only to speak. It is enough for me that he is
your husband, to engage me to do for him whatever he desires."
"The sultan his father," replied Perie Banou, "has a curiosity to
see you, and I desire he may be your guide to the sultan's
court." "He needs but lead the way; I will follow him," replied
Schaibar. "Brother," resumed Perie Banou, "it is too late to go
to-day, therefore stay till to-morrow morning; and in the mean
time, as it is fit you should know all that has passed between
the sultan of the Indies and prince Ahmed since our marriage, I
will inform you this evening."
The next morning, after Schaibar had been informed of all that
was proper for him to know, he set out with prince Ahmed, who was
to present him to the sultan. When they arrived at the gates of
the capital, the people, as soon as they saw Schaibar, ran and
hid themselves in their shops and houses, shutting their doors,
while others taking to their heels, communicated their fear to
all they met, who stayed not to look behind them; insomuch, that
Schaibar and prince Ahmed, as they went along, found all the
streets and squares desolate, till they came to the palace, where
the porters, instead of preventing Schaibar from entering, ran
away too; so that the prince and he advanced without any obstacle
to the council-hall, where the sultan was seated on his throne
and giving audience. Here likewise the officers, at the approach
of Schaibar, abandoned their posts, and gave them free
admittance.
Schaibar, carrying his head erect, went fiercely up to the
throne, without waiting to be presented by prince Ahmed, and
accosted the sultan of the Indies in these words: "You have asked
for me," said he; "see, here I am, what would you have with me?"