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The Third Kalandar's Tale
KNOW, O my lady, that I also am a king and the son of a king and my name
is Ajib son of Khazib. When my father died I succeeded him, and I ruled
and did justice and dealt fairly by all my lieges. I delighted in sea
trips, for my capital stood on the shore, before which the ocean stretched
far and wide, and near hand were many great islands with sconces and
garrisons in the midst of the main. My fleet numbered fifty merchantmen,
and as many yachts for pleasance, and a hundred and fifty sail ready
fitted for holy war with the unbelievers.
It fortuned that I had a mind to enjoy myself on the islands aforesaid, so
I took ship with my people in ten keel and, carrying with me a month's
victual, I set out on a twenty days' voyage. But one night a head wind
struck us, and the sea rose against us with huge waves. The billows sorely
buffeted us and a dense darkness settled round us. We gave ourselves up
for lost, and I said, "Whoso endangereth his days, e'en an he 'scape
deserveth no praise." Then we prayed to Allah and besought Him, but
the storm blasts ceased not to blow against us nor the surges to strike us
till morning broke, when the gale fell, the seas sank to mirrory
stillness, and the sun shone upon us kindly clear. Presently we made an
island, where we landed and cooked somewhat of food, and ate heartily and
took our rest for a couple of days. Then we set out again and sailed other
twenty days, the seas broadening and the land shrinking.
Presently the current ran counter to us, and we found ourselves in strange
waters, where the Captain had lost his reckoning, and was wholly
bewildered in this sea, so said we to the lookout man, "Get thee to
the masthead and keep thine eyes open." He swarmed up the mast and
looked out and cried aloud, "O Rais, I espy to starboard something
dark, very like a fish floating on the face of the sea, and to larboard
there is a loom in the midst of the main, now black and now bright."
When the Captain heard the lookout's words, he dashed his turban on the
deck and plucked out his beard and beat his face, saying: "Good news
indeed! We be all dead men, not one of us can be saved." And he fell
to weeping and all of us wept for his weeping and also for our lives, and
I said, "O Captain, tell us what it is the lookout saw."
"O my Prince," answered he, "know that we lost our course
on the night of the storm, which was followed on the morrow by a two days'
calm during which we made no way, and we have gone astray eleven days'
reckoning from that night, with ne'er a wind to bring us back to our true
course. Tomorrow by the end of the day we shall come to a mountain of
black stone hight the Magnet Mountain, for thither the currents carry us
willy-nilly. As soon as we are under its lea, the ship's sides will open
and every nail in plank will fly out and cleave fast to the mountain, for
that Almighty Allah hath gifted the loadstone with a mysterious virtue and
a love for iron, by reason whereof all which is iron traveleth toward it.
And on this mountain is much iron, how much none knoweth save the Most
High, from the many vessels which have been lost there since the days of
yore. The bright spot upon its summit is a dome of yellow laton from
Andalusia, vaulted upon ten columns. And on its crown is a horseman who
rideth a horse of brass and holdeth in hand a lance of laton, and there
hangeth on his bosom a tablet of lead graven with names and
talismans." And he presently added, "And, O King, none
destroyeth folk save the rider on that steed, nor will the egromancy be
dispelled till he fall from his horse."
Then, O my lady, the Captain wept with exceeding weeping and we all made
sure of death doom and each and every one of us farewelled his friend and
charged him with his last will and testament in case he might be saved. We
slept not that night, and in the morning we found ourselves much nearer
the Loadstone Mountain, whither the waters drave us with a violent send.
When the ships were close under its lea, they opened and the nails flew
out and all the iron in them sought the Magnet Mountain and clove to it
like a network, so that by the end of the day we were all struggling in
the waves round about the mountain. Some of us were saved, but more were
drowned, and even those who had escaped knew not one another, so stupefied
were they by the beating of the billows and the raving of the winds.
As for me, O my lady, Allah (be His name exalted!) preserved my life that
I might suffer whatso He willed to me of hardship, misfortune, and
calamity, for I scrambled upon a plank from one of the ships and the wind
and waters threw it at the feet of the mountain. There I found a
practicable path leading by steps carven out of the rock to the summit,
and I called on the name of Allah Almighty and breasted the ascent,
clinging to the steps and notches hewn in the stone, and mounted little by
little. And the Lord stilled the wind and aided me in the ascent, so that
I succeeded in reaching the summit. There I found no resting place save
the dome, which I entered, joying with exceeding joy at my escape, and
made the wudu ablution and prayed a two-bow prayer, a thanksgiving to God
for my preservation.
Then I fell asleep under the dome, and heard in my dream a mysterious
voice saying, "O son of Khazib! When thou wakest from thy sleep, dig
under thy feet and thou shalt find a bow of brass and three leaden arrows
inscribed with talismans and characts. Take the bow and shoot the arrows
at the horseman on the dome top and free mankind from this sore calamity.
When thou hast shot him he shall fall into the sea, and the horse will
also drop at thy feet. Then bury it in the place of the bow. This done,
the main will swell and rise till it is level with the mountain head, and
there will appear on it a skiff carrying a man of laton (other than he
thou shalt have shot) holding in his hand a pair of paddles. He will come
to thee, and do thou embark with him, but beware of saying Bismillah or of
otherwise naming Allah Almighty. He will row thee for a space of ten days,
till he bring thee to certain islands called the Islands of Safety, and
thence thou shalt easily reach a port and find those who will convey thee
to thy native land. And all this shall be fulfilled to thee so thou call
not on the name of Allah."
Then I started up from my sleep in joy and gladness and, hastening to do
the bidding of the mysterious voice, found the bow and arrows and shot at
the horseman and tumbled him into the main, whilst the horse dropped at my
feet, so I took it and buried it. Presently the sea surged up and rose
till it reached the top of the mountain, nor had I long to wait ere I saw
a skiff in the offing coming toward me. I gave thanks to Allah, and when
the skiff came up to me, I saw therein a man of brass with a tablet of
lead on his breast inscribed with talismans and characts, and I embarked
without uttering a word. The boatman rowed on with me through the first
day and the second and the third, in all ten whole days, till I caught
sight of the Islands of Safety, whereat I joyed with exceeding joy and for
stress of gladness exclaimed, "Allah! Allah! In the name of Allah!
There is no god but the God and Allah is Almighty." Thereupon the
skiff forthwith upset and cast me upon the sea, then it righted and sank
deep into the depths.
Now I am a fair swimmer, so I swam the whole day till nightfall, when my
forearms and shoulders were numbed with fatigue and I felt like to die, so
I testified to my faith, expecting naught but death. The sea was still
surging under the violence of the winds, and presently there came a billow
like a hillock and, bearing me up high in air, threw me with a long cast
on dry land, that His will might be fulfilled. I crawled upon the beach
and doffing my raiment, wrung it out to dry and spread it in the sunshine.
Then I lay me down and slept the whole night. As soon as it was day, I
donned my clothes and rose to look whither I should walk. Presently I came
to a thicket of low trees and, making a cast round it, found that the spot
whereon I stood was an islet, a mere holm, girt on all sides by the ocean,
whereupon I said to myself, "Whatso freeth me from one great calamity
casteth me into a greater!"
But while I was pondering my case and longing for death, behold, I saw
afar off a ship making for the island, so I clomb a tree and hid myself
among the branches. Presently the ship anchored and landed ten slaves,
blackamoors, bearing iron hoes and baskets, who walked on till they
reached the middle of the island. Here they dug deep into the ground until
they uncovered a plate of metal, which they lifted, thereby opening a
trapdoor. After this they returned to the ship and thence brought bread
and flour, honey and fruits, clarified butter, leather bottles containing
liquors, and many household stuffs; also furniture, table service, and
mirrors; rugs, carpets, and in fact all needed to furnish a dwelling. And
they kept going to and fro, and descending by the trapdoor, till they had
transported into the dwelling all that was in the ship.
After this the slaves again went on board and brought back with them
garments as rich as may be, and in the midst of them came an old old man,
of whom very little was left, for Time had dealt hardly and harshly with
him, and all that remained of him was a bone wrapped in a rag of blue
stuff, through which the winds whistled west and east. As saith the poet
of him:
Time gars me tremble. Ah, how sore the balk!
While Time in pride of strength doth ever stalk.
Time was I walked nor ever felt I tired,
Now am I tired albe' I never walk!
And the Sheikh held by the hand a youth cast in beauty's mold, all
elegance and perfect grace, so fair that his comeliness deserved to be
proverbial, for he was as a green bough or the tender young of the roe,
ravishing every heart with his loveliness and subduing every soul with his
coquetry and amorous ways. They stinted not their going, O my lady, till
all went down by the trapdoor and did not reappear for an hour, or rather
more; at the end of which time the slaves and the old man came up without
the youth and, replacing the iron plate and carefully closing the door
slab as it was before, they returned to the ship and made sail and were
lost to my sight.
When they turned away to depart, I came down from the tree and, going to
the place I had seen them fin up, scraped off and removed the earth, and
in patience possessed my soul till I had cleared the whole of it away.
Then appeared the trapdoor, which was of wood, in shape and size like a
millstone, and when I lifted it up, it disclosed a winding staircase of
stone. At this I marveled and, descending the steps tier I reached the
last, found a fair hall, spread with various kinds of carpets and silk
stuffs, wherein was a youth sitting upon a raised couch and leaning back
on a round cushion with a fan in his hand and nosegays and posies of sweet
scented herbs and flowers before him. But he was alone and not a soul near
him in the great vault. When he saw me he turned pale, but I saluted him
courteously and said: "Set thy mind at ease and calm thy fears. No
harm shall come near thee. I am a man like thyself and the son of a king
to boot, whom the decrees of Destiny have sent to bear thee company and
cheer thee in thy loneliness. But now tell me, what is thy story and what
causeth thee to dwell thus in solitude under the ground?"
When he was assured that I was of his kind and no Jinni, he rejoiced and
his fine color returned, and, making me draw near to him, he said: "O
my brother, my story is a strange story and 'tis this. My father is a
merchant jeweler possessed of great wealth, who hath white and black
slaves traveling and trading on his account in ships and on camels, and
trafficking with the most distant cities, but he was not blessed with a
child, not even one. Now on a certain night he dreamed a dream that he
should be favored with a son, who would be short-lived, so the morning
dawned on my father, bringing him woe and weeping. On the following night
my mother conceived and my father noted down the date of her becoming
pregnant. Her time being fulfilled, she bare me, whereat my father
rejoiced and made banquets and called together the neighbors and fed the
fakirs and the poor, for that he had been blessed with issue near the end
of his days. Then he assembled the astrologers and astronomers who knew
the places of the planets, and the wizards and wise ones of the time, and
men learned in horoscopes and nativities, and they drew out my birth
scheme and said to my father: "Thy son shall live to fifteen years,
but in his fifteenth there is a sinister aspect. An he safely tide it
over, he shall attain a great age. And the cause that threateneth him with
death is this. In the Sea of Peril standeth the Mountain Magnet hight, on
whose summit is a horseman of yellow laton seated on a horse also of brass
and bearing on his breast a tablet of lead. Fifty days after this rider
shall fall from his steed thy son will die and his slayer will be he who
shoots down the horseman, a Prince named Ajib son of King Khazib."
My father grieved with exceeding grief to hear these words, but reared me
in tenderest fashion and educated me excellently well till my fifteenth
year was told. Ten days ago news came to him that the horseman had fallen
into the sea and he who shot him down was named Ajib son of King Khazib."
My father thereupon wept bitter tears at the need of parting with me and
became like one possessed of a Jinni. However, being in mortal fear for
me, he built me this place under the earth, and stocking it with all
required for the few days still remaining, he brought me hither in a ship
and left me here. Ten are already past, and when the forty shall have gone
by without danger to me, he will come and take me away, for he hath done
all this only in fear of Prince Ajib. Such, then, is my story and the
cause of my loneliness."
When I heard his history I marveled and said in my mind, "I am the
Prince Ajib who hath done all this, but as Allah is with me I will surely
not slay him!" So said I to him: "O my lord, far from thee be
this hurt and harm and then, please Allah, thou shalt not suffer cark nor
care nor aught disquietude, for I will tarry with thee and serve thee as a
servant, and then wend my ways. And after having borne thee company during
the forty days, I will go with thee to thy home, where thou shalt give me
an escort of some of thy Mamelukes with whom I may journey back to my own
city, and the Almighty shall requite thee for me." He was glad to
hear these words, when I rose and lighted a large wax candle and trimmed
the lamps and the three lanterns, and I set on meat and drink and
sweetmeats. We ate and drank and sat talking over various matters till the
greater part of the night was gone, when he lay down to rest and I covered
him up and went to sleep myself.
Next morning I arose and warmed a little water, then lifted him gently so
as to awake him and brought him the warm water, wherewith he washed his
face, and said to me: "Heaven requite thee for me with every
blessing, O youth! By Allah, if I get quit of this danger and am saved
from him whose name is Ajib bin Khazib, I will make my father reward thee
and send thee home healthy and wealthy. And if I die, then my blessing be
upon thee." I answered, "May the day never dawn on which evil
shall betide thee, and may Allah make my last day before thy last
day!" Then I set before him somewhat of food and we ate, and I got
ready perfumes for fumigating the hall, wherewith he was pleased. Moreover
I made him a mankalah cloth; and we played and ate sweetmeats and we
played again and took our pleasure till nightfall, when I rose and lighted
the lamps, and set before him somewhat to eat, and sat telling him stories
till the hours of darkness were far spent. Then he lay down to rest and I
covered him up and rested also.
And thus I continued to do, O my lady, for days and nights, and affection
for him took root in my heart and my sorrow was eased, and I said to
myself: "The astrologers lied when they predicted that he should be
slain by Ajib bin Khazib. By Allah, I will not slay him." I ceased
not ministering to him and conversing and carousing with him and telling
him all manner tales for thirty-nine days. On the fortieth night the youth
rejoiced and said: "O my brother, Alhamdolillah!- praise be to Allah-
who hath preserved me from death, and this is by thy blessing and the
blessing of thy coming to me, and I prayed God that He restore thee to thy
native land. But now, O my brother, I would thou warm me some water for
the ghusl ablution and do thou kindly bathe me and change my
clothes." I replied, "With love and gladness," and I heated
water in plenty and carrying it in to him, washed his body all over, the
washing of health, with meal of lupins, and rubbed him well and changed
his clothes and spread him a high bed whereon he lay down to rest, being
drowsy after bathing.
Then said he, "O my brother, cut me up a watermelon, and sweeten it
with a little sugar candy." So I went to the storeroom and bringing
out a fine watermelon, I found there, set it on a platter and laid it
before him saying, "O my master, hast thou not a knife?"
"Here it is," answered he, "over my head upon the high
shelf." So I got up in haste and, and, taking the knife, drew it from
its sheath, but my foot slipped in stepping down and I fell heavily upon
the youth holding in my hand the knife, which hastened to fulfill what had
been written on the Day that decided the destinies of man, and buried
itself, as if planted, in the youth's heart. He died on the instant. When
I saw that he was slain and knew that I had slain him, mauger myself I
cried out with an exceeding loud and bitter cry and beat my face and rent
my raiment and said: "Verily we be Allah's and unto Him we be
returning, O Moslems! O folk fain of Allah! There remained for this youth
but one day of the forty dangerous days which the astrologers and the
learned had foretold for him, and the predestined death of this beautiful
one was to be at my hand. Would Heaven I had not tried to cut the
watermelon! What dire misfortune is this I must bear, lief or loath? What
a disaster! What an affliction! O Allah mine, I implore thy pardon and
declare to Thee my innocence of his death. But what God willeth, let that
come to pass."
When I was certified that I had slain him, I arose and, ascending the
stairs, replaced the trapdoor and covered it with earth as before. Then I
looked out seaward and saw the ship cleaving the waters and making for the
island, wherefore I was afeard and said, "The moment they come and
see the youth done to death, they will know 'twas I who slew him and will
slay me without respite." So I climbed up into a high tree and
concealed myself among its leaves, and hardly had I done so when the ship
anchored and the slaves landed with the ancient man, the youth's father,
and made direct for the place, and when they removed the earth they were
surprised to see it soft. Then they raised the trapdoor and went down and
found the youth lying at full length, clothed in fair new garments, with a
face beaming after the bath, and the knife deep in his heart. At the sight
they shrieked and wept and beat their faces, loudly cursing the murderer,
whilst a swoon came over the Sheikh so that the slaves deemed him dead,
unable to survive his son. At last they wrapped the slain youth in his
clothes and carried him up and laid him on the ground, covering him with a
shroud of silk.
Whilst they were making for the ship the old man revived, and, gazing on
his son who was stretched out, fell on the ground and strewed dust over
his head and smote his face and plucked out his beard, and his weeping
redoubled as he thought of his murdered son and he swooned away once more.
After a while a slave went and fetched a strip of silk whereupon they lay
the old man and sat down at his head. All this took place and I was on the
tree above them watching everything that came to pass, and my heart became
hoary before my head waxed gray, for the hard lot which was mine, and for
the distress and anguish I had undergone, and I fell to reciting:
"How many a joy by Allah's will hath fled
With flight escaping sight of wisest head!
How many a sadness shall begin the day,
Yet grow right gladsome ere the day is sped!
How many a weal trips on the heels of ill,
Causing the mourner's heart with joy to thrill!"
But the old man, O my lady, ceased not from his swoon till near sunset,
when he came to himself and, looking upon his dead son, he recalled what
had happened, and how what he had dreaded had come to pass, and he beat
his face and head. Then he sobbed a single sob and his soul fled his
flesh. The slaves shrieked aloud, "Alas, our lord!" and showered
dust on their heads and redoubled their weeping and wailing. Presently
they carried their dead master to the ship side by side with his dead son
and, having transported all the stuff from the dwelling to the vessel, set
sail and disappeared from mine eyes. I descended from the tree and,
raising the trapdoor, went down into the underground dwelling, where
everything reminded me of the youth, and I looked upon the poor remains of
him and began repeating these verses:
"Their tracks I see, and pine with pain and pang,
And on deserted hearths I weep and yearn.
And Him I pray who doomed them depart
Some day vouchsafe the boon of safe return."
Then, O my lady, I went up again by the trapdoor, and every day I used
to wander round about the island and every night I returned to the
underground hall. Thus I lived for a month, till at last, looking at the
western side of the island, I observed that every day the tide ebbed,
leaving shallow water for which the flow did not compensate, and by the
end of the month the sea showed dry land in that direction. At this I
rejoiced, making certain of my safety, so I arose and, fording what little
was left of the water, got me to the mainland, where I fell in with great
heaps of loose sand in which even a camel's hoof would sink up to the
knee. However, I emboldened my soul and, wading through the sand, behold,
a fire shone from afar burning with a blazing light. So I made for it
hoping haply to find succor and broke out into these verses:
"Belike my Fortune may her bridle turn
And Time bring weal although he's jealous hight,
Forward my hopes, and further all my needs,
And passed ills with present weals requite."
And when I drew near the fire aforesaid, lo! it was a palace with gates
of copper burnished red which, when the rising sun shone thereon, gleamed
and glistened from afar, showing what had seemed to me a fire. I rejoiced
in the sight, and sat down over against the gate, but I was hardly settled
in my seat before there met me ten young men clothed in sumptuous gear,
and all were blind of the left eye, which appeared as plucked out. They
were accompanied by a Sheikh, an old, old man, and much I marveled at
their appearance, and their all being blind in the same eye. When they saw
me, they saluted me with the salaam and asked me of my case and my
history, whereupon I related to them all what had befallen me and what
full measure of misfortune was mine. Marveling at my tale, they took me to
the mansion, where I saw ranged round the hall ten couches each with its
blue bedding and coverlet of blue stuff and a-middlemost stood a smaller
couch furnished like them with blue and nothing else.
As we entered each of the youths took his seat on his own couch and the
old man seated himself upon the smaller one in the middle, saying to me,
"O youth, sit thee down on the floor, and ask not of our case nor of
the loss of our eyes." Presently he rose up and set before each young
man some meat in a charger and drink in a larger mazer, treating me in
like manner, and after that they sat questioning me concerning my
adventures and what had betided me. And I kept telling them my tale till
the night was far spent. Then said the young men: "O our Sheikh, wilt
not thou set before us our ordinary? The time is come." He replied,
"With love and gladness," and rose and, entering a closet,
disappeared, but presently returned bearing on his head ten trays each
covered with a strip of blue stuff. He set a tray before each youth and,
lighting ten wax candles, he stuck one upon each tray, and drew off the
covers and lo! under them was naught but ashes and powdered charcoal and
kettle soot. Then all the young men tucked up their sleeves to the elbows
and fell a-weeping and wailing and they blackened their faces and smeared
their clothes and buffeted their brows and beat their breasts, continually
exclaiming, "We were sitting at our ease, but our frowardness brought
us unease!" They ceased not to do thus till dawn drew nigh, when the
old man rose and heated water for them, and they washed their face and
donned other and clean clothes.
Now when I saw this, O my lady, for very wonderment my senses left me and
my wits went wild and heart and head were full of thought, till I forgot
what had betided me and I could not keep silence, feeling I fain must
speak out and question them of these strangenesses. So I said to them:
"How come ye to do this after we have been so openhearted and
frolicsome? Thanks be to Allah, ye be all sound and sane, yet actions such
as these befit none but madmen or those possessed of an evil spirit. I
conjure you by all that is dearest to you, why stint ye to tell me your
history, and the cause of your losing your eyes and your blackening your
faces with ashes and soot?" Hereupon they turned to me and said,
"O young man, hearken not to thy youthtide's suggestions, and
question us no questions." Then they slept and I with them, and when
they awoke the old man brought us somewhat oi food. And after we had eaten
and the plates and goblets had been removed, they sat conversing till
nightfall, when the old man rose and lit the wax candles and lamps and set
meat and drink before us.
After we had eaten and drunken we sat conversing and carousing in
companionage till the noon of night, when they said to the old man,
"Bring us our ordinary, for the hour of sleep is at hand!" So he
rose and brought them the trays of soot and ashes, and they did as they
had done on the preceding night, nor more, nor less. I abode with them
after this fashion for the space of a month, during which time they used
to blacken their faces with ashes every night, and to wash and change
their raiment when the morn was young, and I but marveled the more and my
scruples and curiosity increased to such a point that I had to forgo even
food and drink.
At last I lost command of myself, for my heart was aflame with fire
unquenchable and lowe unconcealable, and I said, "O young men, will
ye not relieve my trouble and acquaint me with the reason of thus
blackening your faces and the meaning of your words, 'We were sitting at
our ease, but our frowardness brought us unease'?" Quoth they,
"'Twere better to keep these things secret." Still I was
bewildered by their doings to the point of abstaining from eating and
drinking and at last wholly losing patience, quoth I to them: "There
is no help for it. Ye must acquaint me with what is the reason of these
doings." They replied: "We kept our secret only for thy good. To
gratify thee will bring down evil upon thee and thou wilt become a
monocular even as we are." I repeated, "There is no help for it,
and if ye will not, let me leave you and return to mine own people and be
at rest from seeing these things, for the proverb saith:
"Better ye 'bide and I take my leave;
For what eye sees not heart shall never grieve."
Thereupon they said to me, "Remember, O youth, that should ill
befall thee, we will not again harbor thee nor suffer thee to abide
amongst us." And bringing a ram, they slaughtered it and skinned it.
Lastly they gave me a knife, saying: "Take this skin and stretch
thyself upon it and we will sew it around thee. Presently there shall come
to thee a certain bird, hight roc, that will catch thee up in his pounces
and tower high in air and then set thee down on a mountain. When thou
feelest he is no longer flying, rip open the pelt with this blade and come
out of it. The bird will be scared and will fly away and leave thee free.
After this fare for half a day, and the march will place thee at a palace
wondrous fair to behold, towering high in air and builded of khalanj, lign
aloes and sandalwood, plated with red gold, and studded with all manner
emeralds and costly gems fit for seal rings. Enter it and thou shalt will
to thy wish, for we have all entered that palace, and such is the cause of
our losing our eyes and of our blackening our faces. Were we now to tell
thee our stories it would take too long a time, for each and every of us
lost his left eye by an adventure of his own."
I rejoiced at their words, and they did with me as they said, and the bird
roc bore me off and set me down on the mountain. Then I came out of the
skin and walked on till I reached the palace. The door stood open as I
entered and found myself in a spacious and goodly hall, wide exceedingly,
even as a horse course. And around it were a hundred chambers with doors
of sandal and aloe woods plated with red gold and furnished with silver
rings by way of knockers. At the head or upper end of the hall I saw forty
damsels, sumptuously dressed and ornamented and one and all bright as
moons. None could ever tire of gazing upon them, and all so lovely that
the most ascetic devotee on seeing them would become their slave and obey
their will. When they saw me the whole bevy came up to me and said:
"Welcome and well come and good cheer to thee, O our lord! This whole
month have we been expecting thee. Praised be Allah Who hath sent us one
who is worthy of us, even as we are worthy of him!"
Then they made me sit down upon a high divan and said to me, "This
day thou art our lord and master, and we are thy servants and thy
handmaids, so order us as thou wilt." And I marveled at their case.
Presently one of them arose and set meat before me and I ate and they ate
with me whilst others warmed water and washed my hands and feet and
changed my clothes, and others made ready sherbets and gave us to drink,
and all gathered around me, being full of joy and gladness at my coming.
Then they sat down and conversed with me till nightfall, when five of them
arose and laid the trays and spread them with flowers and fragrant herbs
and fruits, fresh and dried, and confections in profusion. At last they
brought out a fine wine service with rich old wine, and we sat down to
drink and some sang songs and others played the lute and psaltery and
recorders and other instruments, and the bowl went merrily round. Hereupon
such gladness possessed me that I forgot the sorrows of the world one and
all and said: "This is indeed life. O sad that 'tis fleeting!"
I enjoyed their company till the time came for rest, and our heads were
all warm with wine, when they said, "O our lord, choose from amongst
us her who shall be thy bedfellow this night and not lie with thee again
till forty days be past." So I chose a girl fair of face and perfect
in shape, with eyes kohl-edged by nature's hand, hair long and jet-black,
with slightly parted teeth and joining brows. 'Twas as if she were some
limber graceful branchlet or the slender stalk of sweet basil to amaze and
to bewilder man's fancy. So I lay with her that night. None fairer I ever
knew. And when it was morning, the damsels carried me to the hammam bath
and bathed me and robed me in fairest apparel. Then they served up food,
and we ate and drank and the cup went round till nightfall, when I chose
from among them one fair of form and face, soft-sided and a model of
grace, such a one as the poet described when he said:
On her fair bosom caskets twain I scanned,
Sealed fast with musk seals lovers to withstand.
With arrowy glances stand on guard her eyes,
Whose shafts would shoot who dares put forth a hand.
With her I spent a most goodly night, and, to be brief, O my mistress,
I remained with them in all solace and delight of life, eating and
drinking, conversing and carousing, and every night lying with one or
other of them. But at the head of the New Year they came to me in tears
and bade me farewell, weeping and crying out and clinging about me,
whereat I wondered and said: "What may be the matter? Verily you
break my heart!" They exclaimed, "Would Heaven we had never
known thee, for though we have companied with many, yet never saw we a
pleasanter than thou or a more courteous." And they wept again.
"But tell me more clearly," asked I, "what causeth this
weeping which maketh my gall bladder like to burst?" And they
answered: "O lord and master, it is severance which maketh us weep,
and thou, and thou only, art the cause of our tears. If thou hearken to us
we need never be parted, and if thou hearken not we part forever, but our
hearts tell us that thou wilt not listen to our words and this is the
cause of our tears and cries." "Tell me how the case standeth."
"Know, O our lord, that we are the daughters of kings who have met
here and have lived together for years, and once in every year we are
perforce absent for forty days. And afterward we return and abide here for
the rest of the twelvemonth eating and drinking and taking our pleasure
and enjoying delights. We are about to depart according to our custom, and
we fear lest after we be gone thou contraire our charge and disobey our
injunctions. Here now we commit to thee the keys of the palace, which
containeth forty chambers, and thou mayest open of these thirty and nine,
but beware (and we conjure thee by Allah and by the lives of us!) lest
thou open the fortieth door, for therein is that which shall separate us
for ever." Quoth I, "Assuredly I will not open it if it contain
the cause of severance from you." Then one among them came up to me
and falling on my neck wept and recited these verses:
"If Time unite us after absent-while,
The world harsh-frowning on our lot shall smile,
And if thy semblance deign adorn mine eyes,
I'll pardon Time past wrongs and bygone guile."
And I recited the following:
"When drew she near to bid adieu with her heart unstrung,
While care and longing on that day her bosom wrung,
Wet pearls she wept and mine like red camelians rolled
And, joined in sad riviere, around her neck they hung."
When I saw her weeping I said, "By Allah, I will never open that
fortieth door, never and nowise!" and I bade her farewell. Thereupon
all departed flying away like birds, signaling with their hands farewells
as they went and leaving me alone in the palace. When evening drew near I
opened the door of the first chamber and entering it found myself in a
place like one of the pleasaunces of Paradise. It was a garden with trees
of freshest green and ripe fruits of yellow sheen, and its birds were
singing clear and keen and rills ran wimpling through the fair terrene.
The sight and sounds brought solace to my sprite, and I walked among the
trees, and I smelt the breath of the flowers on the breeze and heard the
birdies sing their melodies hymning the One, the Almighty, in sweetest
litanies, and I looked upon the apple whose hue is parcel red and parcel
yellow, as said the poet:
Apple whose hue combines in union mellow
My fair's red cheek, her hapless lover's yellow.
Then I looked upon the pear whose taste surpasseth sherbet and sugar,
and the apricot whose beauty striketh the eye with admiration, as if she
were a polished ruby.
Then I went out of the place and locked the door as it was before. When it
was the morrow I opened the second door, and entering found myself in a
spacious plain set with tall date palms and watered by a running stream
whose banks were shrubbed with bushes of rose and jasmine, while privet
and eglantine, oxeye, violet and lily, narcissus, origane, and the winter
gilliflower carpeted the borders. And the breath of the breeze swept over
these sweet-smelling growths diffusing their delicious odors right and
left, perfuming the world and filling my soul with delight. After taking
my pleasure there awhile I went from it and, having closed the door as it
was before, opened the third door, wherein I saw a high open hall
pargetted with particolored marbles and pietra dura of price and other
precious stones, and hung with cages of sandalwood and eagle wood, full of
birds which made sweet music, such as the "thousand-voiced," and
the cushat, the merle, the turtledove, and the Nubian ringdove. My heart
was filled with pleasure thereby, my grief was dispelled, and I slept in
that aviary till dawn.
Then I unlocked the door of the fourth chamber, and therein found a grand
saloon with forty smaller chambers giving upon it. All their doors stood
open, so I entered and found them full of pearls and jacinths and beryls
and emeralds and corals and carbuncles, and all manner precious gems and
jewels, such as tongue of man may not describe. My thought was stunned at
the sight and I said to myself, "These be things methinks united
which could not be found save in the treasuries of a King of Kings, nor
could the monarchs of the world have collected the like of these!"
And my heart dilated and my sorrows ceased. "For," quoth I,
"now verily am I the Monarch of the Age, since by Allah's grace this
enormous wealth is mine, and I have forty damsels under my hand, nor is
there any to claim them save myself." Then I gave not over opening
place after place until nine and thirty days were passed, and in that time
I had entered every chamber except that one whose door the Princesses had
charged me not to open.
But my thoughts, O my mistress, ever ran on that forbidden fortieth, and
Satan urged me to open it for my own undoing, nor had I patience to
forbear, albeit there wanted of the trusting time but a single day. So I
stood before the chamber aforesaid and, after a moment's hesitation,
opened the door, which was plated with red gold, and entered. I was met by
a perfume whose like I had never before smelt, and so sharp and subtle was
the odor that it made my senses drunken as with strong wine, and I fell to
the ground in a fainting fit which lasted a full hour. When I came to
myself I strengthened my heart, and entering, found myself in a chamber
whose floor was bespread with saffron and blazing with light from branched
candelabra of gold and lamps fed with costly oils, which diffused the
scent of musk and ambergris. I saw there also two great censers each big
as a mazer bowl, flaming with lign aloes, nadd perfume, ambergris, and
honeyed scents, and the place was full of their fragrance.
Presently, O my lady, I espied a noble steed, black as the murks of night
when murkiest, standing ready saddled and bridled (and his saddle was of
red gold) before two mangers, one of clear crystal wherein was husked
sesame, and the other also of crystal containing water of the rose scented
with musk. When I saw this I marveled and said to myself, "Doubtless
in this animal must be some wondrous mystery." And Satan cozened me
so I led him without the palace and mounted him, but he would not stir
from his place. So I hammered his sides with my heels, but he moved not,
and then I took the rein whip and struck him withal. When he felt the
blow, he neighed a neigh with a sound like deafening thunder and, opening
a pair of wings, flew up with me in the firmament of heaven far beyond the
eyesight of man. After a full hour of flight he descended and alighted on
a terrace roof and shaking me off his back, lashed me on the face with his
tad and gouged out my left eye, causing it roll along my cheek.
Then he flew away. I went down from the terrace and found myself again
amongst the ten one-eyed youths sitting upon their ten couches with blue
covers, and they cried out when they saw me: "No welcome to thee, nor
aught of good cheer! We all lived of lives the happiest and we ate and
drank of the best. Upon brocades and cloths of gold we took our rest, and
we slept with our heads on beauty's breast, but we could not await one day
to gain the delights of a year!" Quoth I, "Behold, I have become
one like unto you and now I would have you bring me a tray full of
blackness, wherewith to blacken my face, and receive me into your
society." "No, by Allah," quoth they, "thou shalt not
sojourn with us, and now get thee hence!" So they drove me away.
Finding them reject me thus, I foresaw that matters would go hard with me,
and I remembered the many miseries which Destiny had written upon my
forehead, and I fared forth from among them heavy-hearted and
tearful-eyed, repeating to myself these words: "I was sitting at mine
ease, but my frowardness brought me to unease." Then I shaved beard
and mustachios and eyebrows, renouncing the world. and wandered in
Kalandar garb about Allah's earth, and the Almighty decreed safety for me
till I arrived at Baghdad, which was on the evening of this very night.
Here I met these two other Kalandars standing bewildered, so I saluted
them saying, "I am a stranger!" and they answered, "And we
likewise be strangers!" By the freak of Fortune we were like to like,
three Kalandars and three monoculars all blind of the left eye.
Such, O my lady, is the cause of the shearing of my beard and the manner
of my losing an eye. Said the lady to him, "Rub thy head and wend thy
ways," but he answered, "By Allah, I will not go until I hear
the stories of these others." Then the lady, turning toward the
Caliph and Ja'afar and Masrur, said to them, "Do ye also give an
account of yourselves, you men!" Whereupon Ja'afar stood forth and
told her what he had told the portress as they were entering the house,
and when she heard his story of their being merchants and Mosul men who
had outrun the watch, she said, "I grant you your lives each for each
sake, and now away with you all." So they all went out, and when they
were in the street, quoth the Caliph to the Kalandars, "O company,
whither go ye now, seeing that the morning hath not yet dawned?"
Quoth they, "By Allah, O our lord, we know not where to go."
"Come and pass the rest of the night with us," said the Caliph
and, turning to Ja'afar, "Take them home with thee, and tomorrow
bring them to my presence that we may chronicle their adventures."
Ja'afar did as the Caliph bade him and the Commander of the Faithful
returned to his palace, but sleep gave no sign of visiting him that night
and he lay awake pondering the mishaps of the three Kalandar Princes, and
impatient to know the history of the ladies and the two black bitches. No
sooner had morning dawned than he went forth and sat upon the throne of
his sovereignty and, turning to Ja'afar, after all his grandees and
officers of state were gathered together, he said, "Bring me the
three ladies and the two bitches and the three Kalandars."
So Ja'afar fared forth and brought them all before him (and the ladies
were veiled). Then the Minister turned to them and said in the Caliph's
name: "We pardon you your maltreatment of us and your want of
courtesy, in consideration of the kindness which forewent it, and for that
ye knew us not. Now however I would have you to know that ye stand in
presence of the fifth of the sons of Abbas, Harun al-Rashid, brother of
Caliph Musa al-Hadi, son of Al-Mansur, son of Mohammed the brother of Al-Saffah
bin Mohammed who was first of the royal house. Speak ye therefore before
him the truth and the whole truth!" When the ladies heard Ja'afar's
words touching the Commander of the Faithful, the eldest came forward and
said, "O Prince of True Believers, my story is one which were it
graven with needle gravers upon the eye corners, were a warner for whoso
would be warned and an example for whoso can take profit from
example." And she began to tell The Eldest
Lady's Tale.
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