Arabian Nights

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 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.’ They were in a terrible fright when they found that she had seen them and answered her in the same manner, ‘Allah upon thee 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 before 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 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 knowing 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 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 Destiny 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 for sample

’Ware sleights and ’ware smarts!

Iblis ousted Adam

(See ye not?) thro’ their arts.

‘And another saith:

‘Stint thy blame, man!

’Twill drive to a passion without bound;

My fault is not so heavy as fault in it hast found.

If true lover I become, then to me there cometh not

Save what happened unto many in

the by-gone stound.

For wonderful is he and right

worthy of our praise

Who from wiles of female wits

kept him safe and kept him sound.’

Hearing these words they marvelled with exceeding marvel, and she went from them to the Ifrit and, taking up his head on her thigh as before, said to them softly, ‘Now wend your ways and bear yourselves beyond the bounds of his malice.’ So they fared forth saying either to other, ‘Allah! Allah!’ and, ‘There be no Majesty and there be no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great; and with Him we seek refuge from women’s malice and sleight, for a truth it hath no mate in might. Consider, O my brother, the ways of this marvellous lady with an Ifrit who is so much more powerful than we are. Now since there hath happened to him a greater mishap than that which befell us and which should bear us abundant consolation, so return we to our countries and capitals, and let us decide never to intermarry with womankind and presently we will show them what will be our action.’

Thereupon they rode back to the tents of King Shahryar, which they reached on the morning of the third day; and, having mustered the Wazirs and Emirs, the Chamberlains and high officials, he gave a robe of honour to his Viceroy and issued orders for an immediate return to the city. There he sat him upon his throne and sending for the Chief Minister, the father of the two damsels who (Insh-allah!) will presently be mentioned, he said, ‘I command thee to take my wife and smite her to death; for she hath broken her plight and her faith.’ So he carried her to the place of execution and did her die. Then King Shahryar took brand in hand and repairing to the Serraglio slew all the concubines and their Mamelukes. He also sware himself by a binding oath that whatever wife he married he would abate her maidenhead at night and slay her next morning to make sure of his honour; ‘For,’ said he, ‘there never was nor is there one chaste woman upon the face of earth.’

CHAPTER 2 The Tale of the Ensorcelled Prince

Know then, O my lord, that whilome my sire was King of this city, and his name was Mahmud, entitled Lord of the Black Islands, and owner of what are now these four mountains. He ruled threescore and ten years, after which he went to the mercy of the Lord and I reigned as Sultan in his stead. I took to wife my cousin, the daughter of my paternal uncle.1 and she loved me with such abounding love that whenever I was absent she ate not and she drank not until she saw me again. She cohabited with me for five years till a certain day when she went forth to the Hammam bath; and I bade the cook hasten to get ready all requisites for our supper. And I entered this palace and lay down on my bed where I was wont to sleep and bade two damsels to fan my face, one sitting by my head and the other at my feet.

But I was troubled and made restless by my wife’s absence and could not sleep; for although my eyes were closed my mind and thoughts were wide awake. Presently I heard the slave-girl at my head say to her at my feet, ‘O Masudah, how miserable is our master and how wasted in his youth and oh! the pity of his being so betrayed by our mistress, the accursed whore!’ The other replied, ‘Yes indeed: Allah curse all faithless women and adulterous; but the like of our master, with his fair gifts, deserveth something better than this harlot who lieth abroad every night.’ Then quoth she who sat by my head, ‘Is our lord dumb or fit only for bubbling that he questioneth her not!’ and quoth the other, ‘Fie on thee! doth our Lord know her ways or doth she allow him his choice? Nay, more, doth she not drug every night the cup she giveth him to drink before sleep-time, and put Bhang1 into it? So he sleepeth and wotteth not whither she goeth, nor what she doeth; but we know that, after giving him the drugged wine, she donneth her richest raiment and perfumeth herself and then she fareth out from him to be away till break of day; then she cometh to him, and burneth a pastille under his nose and he awaketh from his deathlike sleep.’

When I heard the slave-girl’s words, the light became black before my sight and I thought night would never fall. Presently the daughter of my uncle came from the baths; and they set the table for us and we ate and sat together a fair half-hour quaffing our wine as was ever our wont. Then she called for the particular wine I used to drink before sleeping and reached me the cup; but, seeming to drink it according to my wont, I poured the contents into my bosom; and, lying down, let her hear that I was asleep. Then, behold, she cried, ‘Sleep out the night, and never wake again: by Allah I loathe thee and I loathe thy whole body, and my soul turneth in disgust from cohabiting with thee; and I see not the moment when Allah shall snatch away thy life!’

Then she rose and donned her fairest dress and perfumed her person and slung my sword over her shoulder; and, opening the gates of the palace went her ill way. I rose and followed her as she left the palace and she threaded the streets until she came to the city gate, where she spoke words I understood not, and the padlocks dropped of themselves as if broken and the gate-leaves opened. She went forth (and I after her without her noticing aught) till she came at last to the outlying monds1 and a reed fence built about a round-roofed hut of mud-bricks.

As she entered the door, I climbed upon the roof which commanded a view of the interior, and Io! my fair cousin had gone in to a hideous negro slave with his upper lip like the cover of a pot, and his lower like an open pot; lips which might sweep up sand from the gravel-floor of the cot. He was to boot a leper and a paralytic, lying upon a strew of sugar-cane trash and wrapped in an old blanket and the foulest rags and tatters. She kissed the earth before him, and he raised his head so as to see her and said, ‘Woe to thee! what call hadst thou to stay away all this time? Here have been with me sundry of the black brethren, who drank their wine and each had his young lady, and I was not content to drink because of thine absence.’ Then she, ‘O my lord, my heart’s love and coolth of my eyes, knowest thou not that I am married to my cousin whose very look I loathe, and hate myself when in his company? And did not I fear for thy sake, I would not let a single sun arise before making his city a ruined heap wherein raven should croak and howlet hoot, and jackal and wolf harbour and loot; nay I had removed its very stones to the back side of Mount Kaf.’

Rejoined the slave, ‘Thou liest, damn thee! Now I swear an oath by the valour and honour of blackamoor men (and deem not out manliness to be the poor manliness of white men), from today forth if thou stay away till this hour, I will not keep company with thee nor will I glue my body with thy body and strum and belly-pump. Dost play fast and loose with us, thou cracked pot, that we may satisfy thy dirty lusts? Stinkard! Bitch! Vilest of the vile whites!’ When I heard his words, and saw with my own eyes what passed between these two wretches, the world waxed dark before my face and my soul knew not in what place it was. But my wife humbly stood up weeping before and wheedling the slave, and saying, ‘O my beloved, and very fruit of my heart, there is none left to cheer me but thy dear self; and, if thou cast me off who shall take me in, O my beloved, O light of my eyes?’

And she ceased not weeping and abasing herself to him until he deigned be reconciled with her. Then was she right glad and stood up and doffed her clothes, even to her petticoat-trousers, and said, ‘O my master what hast thou here for thy handmaiden to eat?’ ‘Uncover the basin,’ he grumbled, ‘and thou shalt find at the bottom the broiled bones of some rats we dined on; pick at them, and then go to that slop-pot where thou shalt find some leavings of beer which thou mayest drink.’ So she ate and drank and washed her hands, and went and lay down by the side of the slave, upon the cane-trash, and stripping herself stark naked, she crept in with him under his foul coverlet and his rags and tatters.

When I saw my wife, my cousin, the daughter of my uncle, do this deed I clean lost my wits, and climbing down from the roof, I entered and took the sword which she had with her and drew it, determined to cut down the twain. I first struck at the slave’s neck and thought that the death decree had fallen on him for the groaned a loud hissing groan, but I had cut only the skin and flesh of the gullet and the two arteries! It awoke the daughter of my uncle, so I sheathed the sword and fared forth for the city; and, entering the palace, lay upon my bed and slept till morning when my wife aroused me and I saw that she had cut off her hair and had donned mourning garments. Quoth she: ‘O son of my uncle, blame me not for what I do; it hath just reached me that my mother is dead, and my father hath been killed in holy war, and of my brothers one hath lost his life by a snake-sting and the other by falling down some precipice; and I can and should do naught save weep and lament.’

When I heard her words I refrained from all reproach and said only: ‘Do as thou list; I certainly will not thwart thee.’ She continued sorrowing, weeping and wailing one whole year from the beginning of its circle to the end, and when it was finished she said to me: ‘I wish to build me in thy palace a tomb with a cupola, which I will set apart for my mourning and will name the House of Lamenations.’ Quoth I again: ‘Do as thou list!’

Then she builded for herself a cenotaph wherein to mourn, and set on its centre a dome under which showed a tomb like a Santon’s sepulchre. Thither she carried the slave and lodged him; but he was exceeding weak by reason of his wound, and unable to do her love-service; he could only drink wine and from the day of his hurt he spake not a word, yet he lived on because his appointed hour was not come. Every day, morning and evening, my wife went to him and wept and wailed over him and gave him wine and strong soups, and left not off doing after this manner a second year; and I bore with her patiently and paid no heed to her. One day, however, I went in to her unawares; and I found her weeping and beating her face and crying: ‘Why art thou absent from my sight, O my heart’s delight? Speak to me, O my life; talk with me, O my love?’ Then she recited these verses:

‘For your love my patience fails and albeit you forget

I may not; nor to other love my heart can make reply:

Bear my body, bear my soul wheresoever you may fare

And where you pitch the camp let my body buried lie:

Cry my name above my grave, and an answer shall return

The moaning of my bones responsive to your cry.’

Then she recited, weeping bitterly the while:

‘The day of my delight is the day when draw you near

And the day of mine affright is the day you turn away:

Though I tremble through the night in my bitter dread of death

When I hold you in my arms I am free from all affray.’

Once more she began reciting:

‘Though a-mourn I may awake with all happiness in hand

Though the world all be mine and like Kisra-kings I reign;

To me they had the worth of the winglet of the gnat

When I fail to see thy form, when I look for thee in vain.’

When she had ended for a time her words and her weeping I said to her: ‘O my cousin, let this thy mourning suffice, for in pouring forth tears there is little profit!’ ‘Thwart me not,’ answered she, ‘in aught I do, or I will lay violent hands on myself!’ So I held my peace and left her to go her own way; and she ceased not to cry and keen and indulge her affliction for yet another year. At the end of the third year I waxed weary of this longsome mourning, and one day I happened to enter the cenotaph when vexed and angry with some matter which had thwarted me, and suddenly I heard her say: ‘O lord, I never hear thee vouchsafe a single word to me! Why dost thou not answer me, O my master?’ and she began reciting:

‘O thou tomb! O thou tomb! be his beauty set in shade?

Hast thou darkened that countenance all sheeny as the noon?

O thou tomb! neither earth nor yet heaven art to me

Then how cometh it in thee are conjoined my sun and moon?’

When I heard such verses as these rage was heaped upon my rage; I cried out: ‘Well-away! how long is this sorrow to last?’ and I began repeating:

‘O thou tomb! O thou tomb! be his horrors set in blight?

Hast thou darkened his countenance that sickeneth the soul?

O thou tomb! neither cess-pool nor pipkin art to me

Then how cometh it in thee are conjoined soil and coal?’

When she heard my words she sprang to her feet crying: ‘Fie upon thee, thou cur! all this is of thy doings; thou hast wounded my heart’s darling and thereby worked me sore woe and thou hast wasted his youth so that these three years he hath lain abed more dead than alive!’ In my wrath I cried: ‘O thou foulest of harlots and filthiest of whores ever known by negro slaves who are hired to have at thee! Yes indeed it was I who did this good deed:’ and snatching up my sword I drew it and made at her to cut her down. But she laughed my words and mine intent to scorn crying: ‘To heel, hound that thou art! Alas for the past which shall no more come to pass nor shall any one avail the dead to raise. Allah hath indeed now given into my hand him who did to me this thing, a deed that hath burned my heart with a fire which died not and a flame which might not be quenched!’

Then she stood up; and pronouncing some words to me unintelligible, she said: ‘By virtue of my egromancy become thou half stone and half man;’ whereupon I became what thou seest, unable to rise or to sit, and neither dead nor alive. Moreover she ensorcelled the city with all its streets and garths, and she turned by her gramarye the four islands into four mountains around the tarn whereof thou questionest me; and the citizens, who were of four different faiths, Moslem, Nazarene, Jew and Magian, she transformed by her enchantments into fishes; the Moslems are the white, the Magians red, the Christians blue and the Jews yellow. And every day she tortureth me and scourgeth me with an hundred stripes, each of which draweth floods of blood and cutteth the skin of my trousers to strips; and lastly she clotheth my upper half with a hair-cloth and then throweth over them these robes.

Hereupon the young man again shed tears and began reciting:

‘In patience, O my God, I endure my lot and fate;

I will bear at will of Thee whatsoever be my state:

They oppress me; they torture me; they make my life a woe

Yet haply Heaven’s happiness shall compensate my strait:

Yea, straitened is my life by the bane and hate o’ foes

But Mustafa and Murtaza shall ope me Heaven’s gate.’

After this the Sultan turned towards the young Prince and said, ‘O youth, thou hast removed one grief only to add another grief; but now, O my friend, where is she; and where is the mausoleum wherein lieth the wounded slave?’ ‘The slave lieth under yon dome,’ quoth the young man, ‘and she sitteth in the chamber fronting yonder door. And every day at sunrise she cometh forth, and first strippeth me, and whippeth me with an hundred strokes of the leathern scourge, and I weep and shriek; but there is no power of motion in my lower limbs to keep her off me. After ending her tormenting me she visiteth the slave, bringing him wine and boiled meats. And tomorrow at an early hour she will be here.’

Quoth the King, ‘By Allah, O youth I will assuredly do thee a good deed which the world shall not willingly let die, and an act of derring-do which shall be chronicled long after I am dead and gone by.’ Then the King sat him by the side of the young Prince and talked till nightfall, when he lay down and slept; but, as soon as the false dawn showed, he arose and doffing his outer garments bared his blade and hastened to the place wherein lay the slave. Then was he ware of lighted candles and lamps, and perfume of incenses and unguents; and, directed by these, he made for the slave and struck him one stroke killing him on the spot: after which he lifted him on his back and threw him into a well that was in the palace.

Presently he returned and, donning the slave’s gear, lay down at length within the mausoleum with the drawn sword laid close to and along his side. After an hour or so the accursed witch came; and, first going to her husband, she stripped off his clothes and, taking a whip, flogged him cruelly while he cried out, ‘Ah! enough for me the case I am in! take pity on me, O my cousin!’ But she replied, ‘Didst thou take pity on me and spare the life of my true love on whom I doated?’ Then she drew the cilice over his raw and bleeding skin and threw the robe upon all and went down to the slave with a goblet of wine and a bowl of meat-broth in her hands. She entered under the dome weeping and wailing, ‘Well-away!’ and crying, ‘O my lord! speak a word to me! O my master! talk awhile with me!’ and began to recite these couplets:

‘How long this harshness, this unlove, shall bide?

Suffice thee not tear-floods thou hast espied?

Thou dost prolong our parting purposely

And if wouldst please my foe, thou’rt satisfied!’

Then she wept again and said, ‘O my lord! speak to me, talk with me!’ The King lowered his voice and, twisting his tongue, spoke after the fashion of the blackamoors and said, ‘’Lack! ’lack! there be no Ma’esty and there be no Might save in Allauh, the Gloriose, the Great!’ Now when she heard these words she shouted for joy, and fell to the ground fainting; and when her senses returned she asked, ‘O my lord, can it be true that thou hast power of speech?’ and the King making his voice small and faint answered, ‘O my cuss! dost thou deserve that I talk to thee and speak with thee?’ ‘Why and wherefore?’ rejoined she; and he replied, ‘The why is that all the livelong day thou tormentest thy hubby; and he keeps calling on ’eaven for aid until sleep is strange to me even from evenin’ till mawnin’, and he prays and damns, cussing us two, me and thee, causing me disquiet and much bother: were this not so, I should long ago have got my health; and it is this which prevents my answering thee.’ Quoth she, ‘With thy leave I will release him from what spell is on him;’ and quoth the King, ‘Release him and let’s have some rest!’

She cried, ‘To hear is to obey;’ and, going from the cenotaph to the palace, she took a metal bowl and filled it with water and spake over it certain words which made the contents bubble and boil as a cauldron seetheth over the fire. With this she sprinkled her husband saying, ‘By virtue of the dread words I have spoken, if thou became thus by my spells, come forth out of that form into thine own former form.’ And lo and behold! the young man shook and trembled; then he rose to his feet and, rejoicing at his deliverance, cried aloud, ‘I testify that there is no god but the God, and in very truth Mohammed is His Apostle, whom Allah bless and keep!’ Then she said to him, ‘Go forth and return not hither, for if thou do I will surely slay thee;’ screaming these words in his face. So he went from between her hands.

1An Arab holds that he has a right to marry his first cousin, the daughter of his father’s brother.