The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 1

R >> Richard F. Burton >> The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 1

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"An there be one who shares with me her love, * I'd strangle Love
tho' life by Love were slain
Saying, O Soul, Death were the nobler choice, * For ill is Love
when shared 'twixt partners twain."

Then he repeated to the slave, "Smite her, O Sa'ad!" And when the
slave who was sitting upon me made sure of the command he bent
down to me and said, "O my mistress, repeat the profession of
Faith and bethink thee if there be any thing thou wouldst have
done; for verily this is the last hour of thy life." "O good
slave," said I, "wait but a little while and get off my head that
I may charge thee with my last injunctions." Then I raised my
head and saw the state I was in, how I had fallen from high
degree into lowest disgrace; and into death after life (and such
life!) and how I had brought my punishment on myself by my own
sin; where upon the tears streamed from mine eyes and I wept with
exceed ing weeping. But he looked on me with eyes of wrath, and
began repeating:--

"Tell her who turneth from our love to work it injury sore, * And
taketh her a fine new love the old love tossing o'er:
We cry enough o' thee ere thou enough of us shalt cry! * What
past between us cloth suffice and haply something
more."[FN#347]

When I heard this, O Commander of the Faithful, I wept and looked
at him and began repeating these couplets:--

"To severance you doom my love and all unmoved remain; * My
tear sore lids you sleepless make and sleep while I
complain:
You make firm friendship reign between mine eyes and
insomny; * Yet can my heart forget you not, nor tears can I
restrain:
You made me swear with many an oath my troth to hold for aye; *
But when you reigned my bosom's lord you wrought me traitor
bane:
I loved you like a silly child who wots not what is Love; * Then
spare the learner, let her not be by the master slain!
By Allah's name I pray you write, when I am dead and gone, *
Upon my tomb, This died of Love whose senses Love had ta'en:
Then haply one shall pass that way who fire of Love hath felt, *
And treading on a lover's heart with ruth and woe shall
melt."

When I ended my verses tears came again; but the poetry and the
weeping only added fury to his fury, and he recited:--

"'Twas not satiety bade me leave the dearling of my soul, * But
that she sinned a mortal sin which clips me in its clip:
She sought to let another share the love between us twain, * But
my True Faith of Unity refuseth partnership."[FN#348]

When he ceased reciting I wept again and prayed his pardon and
humbled myself before him and spoke him softly, saying to myself,
"I will work on him with words; so haply he will refrain from
slaying me, even though he take all I have." So I complained of
my sufferings and began to repeat these couplets:--

"Now, by thy life and wert thou just my life thou hadst not
ta'en, * But who can break the severance law which parteth
lovers twain!
Thou loadest me with heavy weight of longing love, when I * Can
hardly bear my chemisette for weakness and for pain:
I marvel not to see my life and soul in ruin lain: * I marvel
much to see my frame such severance pangs sustain."

When I ended my verse I wept again; and he looked at me and
reviled me in abusive language,[FN#349] repeating these
couplets:--

"Thou wast all taken up with love of other man, not me; * 'Twas
thine to show me severance face, ''twas only mine to see:
I'll leave thee for that first thou wert of me to take thy leave
* And patient bear that parting blow thou borest so
patiently:
E'en as thou soughtest other love, so other love I'll seek, * And
make the crime of murdering love thine own atrocity."

When he had ended his verses he again cried out to the slave,
"Cut her in half and free us from her, for we have no profit of
her. So the slave drew near me, O Commander of the Faithful and I
ceased bandying verses and made sure of death and, despairing of
life, committed my affairs to Almighty Allah, when behold, the
old woman rushed in and threw herself at my husband's feet and
kissed them and wept and said, "O my son, by the rights of my
fosterage and by my long service to thee, I conjure thee pardon
this young lady, for indeed she hath done nothing deserving such
doom. Thou art a very young man and I fear lest her death be laid
at thy door; for it is said:--Whoso slayeth shall be slain. As
for this wanton (since thou deemest her such) drive her out from
thy doors, from thy love and from thy heart." And she ceased not
to weep and importune him till he relented and said, 'I pardon
her, but needs must I set on her my mark which shall show upon
her all my life." Then he bade the slaves drag me along the
ground and lay me out at full length, after stripping me of all
my clothes;[FN#350] and when the slaves had so sat upon me that I
could not move, he fetched in a rod of quince tree and came down
with it upon my body, and continued beating me on the back and
sides till I lost consciousness from excess of pain, and I
despaired of life. Then he commanded the slaves to take me away
as soon as it was dark, together with the old woman to show them
the way and throw me upon the floor of the house wherein I dwelt
before my marriage. They did their lord's bidding and cast me
down in my old home and went their ways. I did not revive from my
swoon till dawn appeared, when I applied myself to the dressing
of my wounds with ointments and other medicaments; and I
medicined myself, but my sides and ribs still showed signs of the
rod as thou hast seen. I lay in weakly case and confined to my
bed for four months before I was able to rise and health returned
to me. At the end of that time I went to the house where all this
had happened and found it a ruin; the street had been pulled down
endlong and rubbish heaps rose where the building erst was; nor
could I learn how this had come about. Then I betook myself to
this my sister on my father's side and found her with these two
black bitches. I saluted her and told her what had betided me and
the whole of my story and she said, "O my sister, who is safe
from the despite of Time and secure? Thanks be to Allah who has
brought thee off safely;" and she began to say:--

"Such is the World, so bear a patient heart * When riches leave
thee and when friends depart!"

Then she told me her own story, and what had happened to her with
her two sisters and how matters had ended; so we abode together
and the subject of marriage was never on our tongues for all
these years. After a while we were joined by our other sister,
the procuratrix, who goeth out every morning and buyeth all we
require for the day and night; and we continued in such condition
till this last night. In the morning our sister went out, as
usual, to make her market and then befel us what befel from
bringing the Porter into the house and admitting these three
Kalandar men., We entreated them kindly and honourably and a
quarter of the night had not passed ere three grave and
respectable merchants from Mosul joined us and told us their
adventures. We sat talking with them but on one condition which
they violated, whereupon we treated them as sorted with their
breach of promise, and made them repeat the account they had
given of themselves. They did our bidding and we forgave their
offence; so they departed from us and this morning we were
unexpectedly summoned to thy presence. And such is our story! The
Caliph wondered at her words and bade the tale be recorded and
chronicled and laid up in his muniment-chambers.--And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

When it was the Nineteenth Night,

She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the
Caliph commanded this story and those of the sister and the
Kalandars to be recorded in the archives and be set in the royal
muniment-chambers. Then he asked the eldest lady, the mistress of
the house, "Knowest thou the whereabouts of the Ifritah who
spelled thy sisters?"; and she answered, "O Commander of the
Faithful, she gave me a ringlet of her hair saying: --Whenas thou
wouldest see me, burn a couple of these hairs and I will be with
thee forthright, even though I were beyond Caucasus-mountain."
Quoth the Caliph, "Bring me hither the hair." So she brought it
and he threw the whole lock upon the fire As soon as the odour of
the burning hair dispread itself, the palace shook and trembled,
and all present heard a rumbling and rolling of thunder and a
noise as of wings and lo! the Jinniyah who had been a serpent
stood in the Caliph's presence. Now she was a Moslemah, so she
saluted him and said, "Peace be with thee O Vicar[FN#351] of
Allah;" whereto he replied, "And with thee also be peace and the
mercy of Allah and His blessing." Then she continued, "Know that
this damsel sowed for me the seed of kindness, wherefor I cannot
enough requite her, in that she delivered me from death and
destroyed mine enemy. Now I had seen how her sisters dealt with
her and felt myself bound to avenge her on them. At first I was
minded to slay them, but I feared it would be grievous to her, so
I transformed them to bitches; but if thou desire their release,
O Commander of the Faithful, I will release them to pleasure thee
and her for I am of the Moslems." Quoth the Caliph, "Release them
and after we will look into the affair of the beaten lady and
consider her case carefully; and if the truth of her story be
evidenced I will exact retaliation[FN#352] from him who wronged
her." Said the Ifritah, "O Commander of the Faithful, I will
forthwith release them and will discover to thee the man who did
that deed by this lady and wronged her and took her property, and
he is the nearest of all men to thee!" So saying she took a cup
of water and muttered a spell over it and uttered words there was
no understanding; then she sprinkled some of the water over the
faces of the two bitches, saying, "Return to your former human
shape!" whereupon they were restored to their natural forms and
fell to praising their Creator. Then said the Ifritah, "O
Commander of the Faithful, of a truth he who scourged this lady
with rods is thy son Al-Amin brother of Al-Maamun ;[FN#353] for
he had heard of her beauty and love liness and he played a
lover's stratagem with her and married her according to the law
and committed the crime (such as it is) of scourging her. Yet
indeed he is not to be blamed for beating her, for he laid a
condition on her and swore her by a solemn oath not to do a
certain thing; however, she was false to her vow and he was
minded to put her to death, but he feared Almighty Allah and
contented himself with scourging her, as thou hast seen, and with
sending her back to her own place. Such is the story of the
second lady and the Lord knoweth all." When the Caliph heard
these words of the Ifritah, and knew who had beaten the damsel,
he marvelled with mighty marvel and said, "Praise be to Allah,
the Most High, the Almighty, who hath shown his exceeding mercy
towards me, enabling me to deliver these two damsels from sorcery
and torture, and vouchsafing to let me know the secret of this
lady's history! And now by Allah, we will do a deed which shall
be recorded of us after we are no more." Then he summoned his son
Al-Amin and questioned him of the story of the second lady, the
portress; and he told it in the face of truth; whereupon the
Caliph bade call into presence the Kazis and their witnesses and
the three Kalandars and the first lady with her sisters german
who had been ensorcelled; and he married the three to the three
Kalandars whom he knew to be princes and sons of Kings and he
appointed them chamberlains about his person, assigning to them
stipends and allowances and all that they required, and lodging
them in his palace at Baghdad. He returned the beaten lady to his
son, Al-Amin, renewing the marriage contract between them and
gave her great wealth and bade rebuild the house fairer than it
was before. As for himself he took to wife the procuratrix and
lay with her that night: and next day he set apart for her an
apartment in his Serraglio, with handmaidens for her service and
a fixed daily allowance And the people marvelled at their
Caliph's generosity and natural beneficence and princely widsom;
nor did he forget to send all these histories to be recorded in
his annals. When Shahrazad ceased speaking Dunyazad exclaimed, "O
my own sister, by Allah in very sooth this is a right pleasant
tale and a delectable; never was heard the like of it, but
prithee tell me now another story to while away what yet
remaineth of the waking hours of this our night." She replied,
"With love and gladness if the King give me leave;" and he said,
"Tell thy tale and tell it quickly." So she began, in these
words,

THE TALE OF THE THREE APPLES

They relate, O King of the age and lord of the time and of these
days, that the Caliph Harun al-Rashid summoned his Wazir Ja'afar
one night and said to him, 'I desire to go down into the city and
question the common folk concerning the conduct of those charged
with its governance; and those of whom they complain we will
depose from office and those whom they commend we will promote."
Quoth Ja'afar, "Hearkening and obedience!" So the Caliph went
down with Ja'afar and Eunuch Masrur to the town and walked about
the streets and markets and, as they were threading a narrow
alley, they came upon a very old man with a fishing-net and crate
to carry small fish on his head, and in his hand a staff; and, as
he walked at a leisurely pace, he repeated these lines:--

"They say me: --Thou shinest a light to mankind * With thy lore
as the night which the Moon doth uplight!
I answer, "A truce to your jests and your gibes; * Without luck
what is learning?--a poor-devil wight!
If they take me to pawn with my lore in my pouch, * With my
volumes to read and my ink-case to write,
For one day's provision they never could pledge me; * As likely
on Doomsday to draw bill at sight:"
How poorly, indeed, doth it fare wi' the poor, * With his pauper
existence and beggarly plight:
In summer he faileth provision to find; * In winter the
fire-pot's his only delight:
The street-dogs with bite and with bark to him rise, * And each
losel receives him with bark and with bite:
If he lift up his voice and complain of his wrong, * None pities
or heeds him, however he's right;
And when sorrows and evils like these he must brave * His
happiest homestead were down in the grave."

When the Caliph heard his verses he said to Ja'afar, "See this
poor man and note his verses, for surely they point to his
necessities." Then he accosted him and asked, "O Shaykh, what be
thine occupation?" and the poor man answered, "O my lord, I am a
fisherman with a family to keep and I have been out between
mid-day and this time; and not a thing hath Allah made my portion
wherewithal to feed my family. I cannot even pawn myself to buy
them a supper and I hate and disgust my life and I hanker after
death." Quoth the Caliph, "Say me, wilt thou return with us to
Tigris' bank and cast thy net on my luck, and whatsoever turneth
up I will buy of thee for an hundred gold pieces?" The man
rejoiced when he heard these words and said, "On my head be it! I
will go back with you;" and, returning with them river-wards,
made a cast and waited a while; then he hauled in the rope and
dragged the net ashore and there appeared in it a chest padlocked
and heavy. The Caliph examined it and lifted it finding it
weighty; so he gave the fisherman two hundred dinars and sent him
about his business; whilst Masrur, aided by the Caliph, carried
the chest to the palace and set it down and lighted the candles.
Ja'afar and Masrur then broke it open and found therein a basket
of palm-leaves corded with red worsted. This they cut open and
saw within it a piece of carpet which they lifted out, and under
it was a woman's mantilla folded in four, which they pulled out;
and at the bottom of the chest they came upon a young lady, fair
as a silver ingot, slain and cut into nineteen pieces. When the
Caliph looked upon her he cried, "Alas!" and tears ran down his
cheeks and turning to Ja'afar he said, "O dog of Wazirs, [FN#354]
shall folk be murdered in our reign and be cast into the river to
be a burden and a responsibility for us on the Day of Doom? By
Allah, we must avenge this woman on her murderer and he shall be
made die the worst of deaths!" And presently he added, " Now, as
surely as we are descended from the Sons of Abbas, [FN#355] if
thou bring us not him who slew her, that we do her justice on
him, I will hang thee at the gate of my palace, thee and forty of
thy kith and kin by thy side." And the: Caliph was wroth with
exceeding rage. Quoth Ja'afar, "Grant me three days' delay;" and
quoth the Caliph, "We grant thee this." So Ja'afar went out from
before him and returned to his own house, full of sorrow and
saying to himself, "How shall I find him who murdered this
damsel, that I may bring him before the Caliph? If I bring other
than the murderer, it will be laid to my charge by the Lord: in
very sooth I wot not what to do." He kept his house three days
and on the fourth day the Caliph sent one of the Chamberlains for
him and, as he came into the presence, asked him, "Where is the
murderer of the damsel?" to which answered Ja'afar, "O Commander
of the Faithful, am I inspector of " murdered folk that I should
ken who killed her?" The Caliph was furious at his answer and
bade hang him before the palace-gate and commanded that a crier
cry through the streets of Baghdad, "Whoso would see the hanging
of Ja'afar, the Barmaki, Wazir of the Caliph, with forty of the
Barmecides, [FN#356] his cousins and kinsmen, before the
palace-gate, let him come and let him look!" The people flocked
out from all the quarters of the city to witness the execution of
Ja'afar and his kinsmen, not knowing the cause. Then they set up
the gallows and made Ja'afar and the others stand underneath in
readiness for execution, but whilst every eye was looking for the
Caliph's signal, and the crowd wept for Ja'afar and his cousins
of the Barmecides, lo and behold! a young man fair of face and
neat of dress and of favour like the moon raining light, with
eyes black and bright, and brow flower-white, and cheeks red as
rose and young down where the beard grows, and a mole like a
grain of ambergris, pushed his way through the people till he
stood immediately before the Wazir and said to him, "Safety to
thee from this strait, O Prince of the Emirs and Asylum of the
poor! I am the man who slew the woman ye found in the chest, so
hang me for her and do her justice on me!" When Ja'afar heard the
youth's confession he rejoiced at his own deliverance. but
grieved and sorrowed for the fair youth; and whilst they were yet
talking behold, another man well stricken in years pressed
forwards through the people and thrust his way amid the populace
till he came to Ja'afar and the youth, whom he saluted saying,
"Ho thou the Wazir and Prince sans-peer! believe not the words of
this youth. Of a surety none murdered the damsel but I; take her
wreak on me this moment; for, an thou do not thus, I will require
it of thee before Almighty Allah." Then quoth the young man, "O
Wazir, this is an old man in his dotage who wotteth not whatso he
saith ever, and I am he who murdered her, so do thou avenge her
on me!" Quoth the old man, "O my son, thou art young and desirest
the joys of the world and I am old and weary and surfeited with
the world: I will offer my life as a ransom for thee and for the
Wazir and his cousins. No one murdered the damsel but I, so Allah
upon thee, make haste to hang me, for no life is left in me now
that hers is gone." The Wazir marvelled much at all this
strangeness and, taking the young man and the old man, carried
them before the Caliph, where, after kissing the ground seven
times between his hands, he said, "O Commander of the Faithful, I
bring thee the murderer of the damsel!" "Where is he?" asked the
Caliph and Ja'afar answered, "This young man saith, I am the
murderer, and this old man giving him the lie saith, I am the
murderer, and behold, here are the twain standing before thee."
The Caliph looked at the old man and the young man and asked,
"Which of you killed the girl?" The young man replied, "No one
slew her save I;" and the old man answered, "Indeed none killed
her but myself." Then said the Caliph to Ja'afar, "Take the twain
and hang them both;" but Ja'afar rejoined, "Since one of them was
the murderer, to hang the other were mere injustice."[FN#357] "By
Him who raised the firmament and dispread the earth like a
carpet," cried the youth, "I am he who slew the damsel;" and he
went on to describe the manner of her murder and the basket, the
mantilla and the bit of carpet, in fact all that the Caliph had
found upon her. So the Caliph was certified that the young man
was the murderer; whereat he wondered and asked him, 'What was
the cause of thy wrongfully doing this damsel to die and what
made thee confess the murder without the bastinado, and what
brought thee here to yield up thy life, and what made thee say Do
her wreak upon me?" The youth answered, "Know, O Commander of the
Faithful, that this woman was my wife and the mother of my
children; also my first cousin and the daughter of my paternal
uncle, this old man who is my father's own brother. When I
married her she was a maid [FN#358] and Allah blessed me with
three male children by her; she loved me and served me and I saw
no evil in her, for I also loved her with fondest love. Now on
the first day of this month she fell ill with grievous sickness
and I fetched in physicians to her; but recovery came to her
little by little. and, when I wished her to go to the Hammam.
bath, she said, "There is a something I long for before I go to
the bath and I long for it with an exceeding longing." To hear is
to comply," said I. "And what is it?" Quoth she, "I have a queasy
craving for an apple, to smell it and bite a bit of it." I
replied, "Hadst thou a thousand longings I would try to satisfy
them!" So I went on the instant into the city and sought for
apples but could find none; yet, had they cost a gold piece each,
would I have bought them. I was vexed at this and went home and
said, "O daughter of my uncle. by Allah I can find none!" She was
distressed, being yet very weakly, and her weakness in. creased
greatly on her that night and I felt anxious and alarmed on her
account. As soon as morning dawned I went out again and made the
round of the gardens, one by one, but found no apples anywhere.
At last there met me an old gardener. of whom I asked about them
and he answered, "O my son, this fruit is a rarity with us and is
not now to be found save in the garden of the Commander of the
Faithful at Bassorah, where the gardener keepeth it for the
Caliph's eating." I returned to my house troubled by my
ill-success; and my love for my wife and my affection moved me to
undertake the journey. So I gat me ready and set out and
travelled fifteen days and nights, going and coming, and brought
her three apples which I bought from the gardener for three
dinars. But when I went in to my wife and set them before her,
she took no pleasure in them and let them lie by her side; for
her weakness and fever had increased on her and her malady lasted
without abating ten days, after which time she began to recover
health. So I left my house and betaking me to my shop sat there
buying and selling; and about midday behold, a great ugly black
slave, long as a lance and broad as a bench, passed by my shop
holding in hand one of the three apples wherewith he was playing.
Quoth I, "O my good slave, tell me whence thou tookest that
apple, that I may get the like of it?" He laughed and answered,
"I got it from my mistress, for I had been absent and on my
return I found her lying ill with three apples by her side, and
she said to me, 'My horned wittol of a husband made a journey for
them to Bassorah and bought them for three dinars.' So I ate and
drank with her and took this one from her." [FN#359] When I heard
such words from the slave, O Commander of the Faithful, the world
grew black before my face, and I arose and locked up my shop and
went home beside myself for excess of rage. I looked for the
apples and finding only two of the three asked my wife, "O my
cousin, where is the third apple?"; and raising her head
languidly she answered, "I wet not, O son of my uncle, where 'tis
gone!" This convinced me that the slave had spoken the truth, so
I took a knife and coming behind her got upon her breast without
a word said and cut her throat. Then I hewed off her head and her
limbs in pieces and, wrapping her in her mantilla and a rag of
carpet, hurriedly sewed up the whole which I set in a chest and,
locking it tight, loaded it on my he-mule and threw it into the
Tigris with my own hands. So Allah upon thee, O Commander of the
Faithful, make haste to hang me, as I fear lest she appeal for
vengeance on Resurrection Day. For, when I had thrown her into
the river and none knew aught of it, as I went back home I found
my eldest son crying and yet he knew naught of what I had done
with his mother. I asked him, "What hath made thee weep, my boy?"
and he answered, "I took one of the three apples which were by my
mammy and went down into the lane to play with my brethren when
behold, a big long black slave snatched it from my hand and said.
'Whence hadst thou this?' Quoth I, 'My father travelled far for
it, and brought it from Bassorah for my mother who was ill and
two other apples for which he paid three ducats.' He took no heed
of my words and I asked for the apple a second and a third time,
but he cuffed me and kicked me and went off with it. I was afraid
lest my mother should swinge me on account of the apple, so for
fear of her I went with my brother outside the city and stayed
there till evening closed in upon us; and indeed I am in fear of
her; and now by Allah, O my father, say nothing to her of this or
it may add to her ailment!" When I heard what-my child said I
knew that the slave was he who had foully slandered my wife, the
daughter of my uncle, and was certified that I had slain her
wrong. fully. So I wept with exceeding weeping and presently this
old man, my paternal uncle and her father, came in; and I told
him what had happened and he sat down by my side and wept and we
ceased not weeping till midnight. We have kept up mourning for
her these last five days and we lamented her in the deepest
sorrow for that she was unjustly done to die. This came from the
gratuitous lying of the slave, the blackamoor, and this was the
manner of my killing her; so I conjure thee, by the honour of
thine ancestors, make haste to kill me and do her justice upon
me, as there is no living for me after her!" The Caliph marvelled
at his words and said, "By Allah, the young man is excusable: I
will hang none but the accursed slave and I will do a deed which
shall comfort the ill-at-ease and suffering, and which shall
please the All-glorious King."--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn
of day and ceased saying her permitted say,

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