The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 3

R >> Richard F. Burton >> The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 3

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"What can the slave do when pursued by Fate, *
O justest Judge! whatever be his state?[FN#394]
Whom God throws hand bound in the depths and says, *
Beware lest water should thy body wet?"[FN#395]

Now when she read these lines, she had ruth upon him and said to
Bahram, "Sell me this slave." He replied, "O my lady, I cannot
sell him, for I have parted with all the rest and none is left
with me but he." Quoth the Queen, "I must need have him of thee,
either by sale or way of gift." But quoth Bahram, "I will neither
sell him nor give him." Whereat she was wroth and, taking As'ad
by the hand, carried him up to the castle and sent to Bahram,
saying, "Except thou set sail and depart our city this very
night, I will seize all thy goods and break up thy ship." Now
when the message reached the Magian, he grieved with sore grief
and cried, "Verily this voyage is on no wise to be commended."
Then he arose and made ready and took all he needed and awaited
the coming of the night to resume his voyage, saying to the
sailors, "Provide yourselves with your things and fill your
water-skins, that we may set sail at the last of the night." So
the sailors did their business and awaited the coming of
darkness. Such was their case; but as regards Queen Marjanah,
when she had brought As'ad into the castle, she opened the
casements overlooking the sea and bade her handmaids bring food.
They set food before As'ad and herself and both ate, after which
the Queen called for wine.--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
day and ceased saying her permitted say.

When it was the Two Hundred and Thirty-fifth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Queen
Marjanah bade her handmaids bring wine and they set it before
her, she fell to drinking with As'ad. Now, Allah (be He extolled
and exalted!) filled her heart with love for the Prince and she
kept filling his cup and handing it to him till his reason fled;
and presently he rose and left the hall to satisfy a call of
nature. As he passed out of the saloon he saw an open door
through which he went and walked on till his walk brought him to
a vast garden full of all manner fruits and flowers; and, sitting
down under a tree, he did his occasion. Then he rose and went up
to a jetting fountain in the garden and made the lesser ablution
and washed his hands and face, after which he would have risen to
go away; but the air smote him and he fell back, with his clothes
undone and slept, and night overcame him thus. So far concerning
him; but as concerns Bahram, the night being come, he cried out
to his crew, saying, "Set sail and let us away!"; and the'
answered, "We hear and obey, but wait till we fill our water-
skins and then we will set sail." So they landed with their water
skins and went round about the castle, and found nothing but
garden-walls: whereupon they climbed over into the garden and
followed the track of feet, which led them to the fountain; and
there they found As'ad lying on his back. They knew him and were
glad to find him; and, after filling their water-skins, they bore
him off and climbed the wall again with him and carried him back
in haste to Bahram to whom they said, "Hear the good tidings of
thy winning thy wish; and gladden thy heart and beat thy drums
and sound thy pipes; for thy prisoner, whom Queen Marjanah took
from thee by force, we have found and brought back to thee"; and
they threw As'ad down before him. When Bahram saw him, his heart
leapt for joy and his breast swelled with gladness. Then he
bestowed largesse on the sailors and bade them set sail in haste.
So they sailed forthright, intending to make the Mountain of Fire
and stayed not their course till the morning. This is how it
fared with them; but as regards Queen Marjanah, she abode awhile,
after As'ad went down from her, awaiting his return in vain for
he came not; thereupon she rose and sought him, yet found no
trace of him. Then she bade her women light flambeaux and look
for him, whilst she went forth in person and, seeing the garden-
door open, knew that he had gone thither. So she went out into
the garden and finding his sandals lying by the fountain,
searched the place in every part, but came upon no sign of him;
and yet she gave not over the search till morning. Then she
enquired for the ship and they told her, "The vessel set sail in
the first watch of the night"; wherefor she knew that they had
taken As'ad with them, and this was grievous to her and she was
sore an-angered. She bade equip ten great ships forthwith and,
making ready for fight, embarked in one of the ten with her
Mamelukes and slave-women and men-at-arms, all splendidly
accoutred and weaponed for war. They spread the sails and she
said to the captains, "If you overtake the Magian's ship, ye
shall have of me dresses of honour and largesse of money; but if
you fail so to do, I will slay you to the last man." Whereat fear
and great hope animated the crews and they sailed all that day
and the night and the second day and the third day till, on the
fourth they sighted the ship of Bahram, the Magian, and before
evening fell the Queen's squadron had surrounded it on all sides,
just as Bahram had taken As'ad forth of the chest and was beating
and torturing him, whilst the Prince cried out for help and
deliverance, but found neither helper nor deliverer: and the
grievous bastinado sorely tormented him. Now while so occupied,
Bahram chanced to look up and, seeing himself encompassed by the
Queen's ships, as the white of the eye encompasseth the black, he
gave himself up for lost and groaned and said, "Woe to thee, O
As'ad! This is all out of thy head." Then taking him by the hand
he bade his men throw him overboard and cried, "By Allah I will
slay thee before I die myself!" So they carried him along by the
hands and feet and cast him into the sea and he sank; but Allah
(be He extolled and exalted!) willed that his life be saved and
that his doom be deferred; so He caused him to sink and rise
again and he struck out with his hands and feet, till the
Almighty gave him relief, and sent him deliverance; and the waves
bore him far from the Magian's ship and threw him ashore. He
landed, scarce crediting his escape, and once more on land he
doffed his clothes and wrung them and spread them out to dry;
whilst he sat naked and weeping over his condition, and bewailing
his calamities and mortal dangers, and captivity and stranger
hood. And presently he repeated these two couplets,

"Allah, my patience fails: I have no ward; *
My breast is straitened and clean cut my cord;
To whom shall wretched slave of case complain *
Save to his Lord? O thou of lords the Lord!"

Then, having ended his verse, he rose and donned his clothes but
he knew not whither to go or whence to come; so he fed on the
herbs of the earth and the fruits of the trees and he drank of
the streams, and fared on night and day till he came in sight of
a city; whereupon he rejoiced and hastened his pace; but when he
reached it,--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
to say her permitted say.

When it Was the Two Hundred and Thirty-sixth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when he
reached the city the shades of evening closed around him and the
gates were shut. Now by the decrees of Pate and man's lot this
was the very city wherein he had been a prisoner and to whose
King his brother Amjad was Minister. When As'ad saw the gate was
locked, he turned back and made for the burial-ground, where
finding a tomb without a door, he entered therein and lay down
and fell asleep, with his face covered by his long
sleeve.[FN#396] Meanwhile, Queen Marjanah, coming up with
Bahram's ship, questioned him of As'ad. Now the Magian, when
Queen Marjanah overtook him with her ships, baffled her by his
artifice and gramarye; swearing to her that he was not with him
and that he knew nothing of him. She searched the ship, but found
no trace of her friend, so she took Bahram and, carrying him back
to her castle, would have put him to death, but he ransomed
himself from her with all his good and his ship; and she released
him and his men. They went forth from her hardly believing in
their deliverance, and fared on ten days' journey till they came
to their own city and found the gate shut, it being eventide. So
they made for the burial-ground, thinking to lie the night there
and, going round about the tombs, as Fate and Fortune would have
it, saw the building wherein As'ad lay wide open; whereat Bahram
marvelled and said, "I must look into this sepulchre." Then he
entered and found As'ad lying in a corner fast asleep, with his
head covered by his sleeve; so he raised his head, and looking in
his face, knew him for the man on whose account he had lost his
good and his ship, and cried, "What! art thou yet alive?" Then he
bound him and gagged him without further parley, and carried him
to his house, where he clapped heavy shackles on his feet and
lowered him into the underground dungeon aforesaid prepared for
the tormenting of Moslems, and he bade his daughter by name
Bostan,[FN#397] torture him night and day, till the next year,
when they would again visit the Mountain of Fire and there offer
him up as a sacrifice. Then he beat him grievously and locking
the dungeon door upon him, gave the keys to his daughter. By and
by, Bostan opened the door and went down to beat him, but finding
him a comely youth and a sweet-faced with arched brows and eyes
black with nature's Kohl,[FN#398] she fell in love with him and
asked him, "What is thy name?" "My name is As'ad," answered he;
whereat she cried, "Mayst thou indeed be happy as thy
name,[FN#399] and happy be thy days! Thou deservest not torture
and blows, and I see thou hast been injuriously entreated." And
she comforted him with kind words and loosed his bonds. Then she
questioned him of the religion of Al-Islam and he told her that
it was the true and right Faith and that our lord Mohammed had
approved himself by surpassing miracles[FN#400] and signs
manifest, and that fire-worship is harmful and not profitable;
and he went on to expound to her the tenets of Al-Islam till she
was persuaded and the love of the True Faith entered her heart.
Then, as Almighty Allah had mixed up with her being a fond
affection for As'ad, she pronounced the Two Testimonies[FN#401]
of the Faith and became of the people of felicity. After this,
she brought him meat and drink and talked with him and they
prayed together: moreover, she made him chicken stews and fed him
therewith, till he regained strength and his sickness left him
and he was restored to his former health. Such things befel him
with the daughter of Bahram, the Magian; and so it happened that
one day she left him and stood at the house-door when behold, she
heard the crier crying aloud and saying, "Whoso hath with him a
handsome young man, whose favour is thus and thus, and bringeth
him forth, shall have all he seeketh of money; but if any have
him and deny it, he shall be hanged over his own door and his
property shall be plundered and his blood go for naught." Now
As'ad had acquainted Bostan bint Bahram with his whole history:
so, when she heard the crier, she knew that it was he who was
sought for and, going down to him, told him the news. Then he
fared forth and made for the mansion of the Wazir, whom, when
As'ad saw, exclaimed, "By Allah, this Minister is my brother
Amjad!" Then he went up (and the damsel walking behind him) to
the Palace, where he again saw his brother, and threw himself
upon him; whereupon Amjad also knew him and fell upon his neck
and they embraced each other, whilst the Wazir's Mamelukes
dismounted and stood round them. They lay awhile insensible and,
when they came to themselves, Amjad took his brother and carried
him to the Sultan, to whom he related the whole story, and the
Sultan charged him to plunder Bahram's house.--And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

When it was the Two Hundred and Thirty-seventh Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Sultan
ordered Amjad to plunder Bahram's house and to hang its owner. So
Amjad despatched thither for that purpose a company of men, who
sacked the house and took Bahram and brought his daughter to the
Wazir by whom she was received with all honour, for As'ad had
told his brother the torments he had suffered and the kindness
she had done him. Thereupon Amjad related in his turn to As'ad
all that had passed between himself and the damsel; and how he
had escaped hanging and had become Wazir; and they made moan,
each to other, of the anguish they had suffered for separation.
Then the Sultan summoned Bahram and bade strike off his head; but
he said, "O most mighty King, art thou indeed resolved to put me
to death?" Replied the King, "Yes, except thou save thyself by
becoming a Moslem." Quoth Bahram, "O King, bear with me a little
while!" Then he bowed his head groundwards and presently raising
it again, made pro fession of The Faith and islamised at the
hands of the Sultan. They all rejoiced at his conversion and
Amjad and As'ad told him all that had befallen them, whereat he
wondered and said, "O my lords, make ready for the journey and I
will depart with you and carry you back to your father's court in
a ship." At this they rejoiced and wept with sore weeping but he
said, "O my lords, weep not for your departure, for it shall
reunite you with those you love, even as were Ni'amah and Naomi."
"And what befel Ni'amah and Naomi?" asked they. "They tell,"
replied Bahram, "(but Allah alone is All knowing) the following
tale of

End of Vol. 3

Arabian Nights, Volume 3
Footnotes

[FN#1] This "horripilation," for which we have the poetical term
"goose-flesh," is often mentioned in Hindu as in Arab literature.

[FN#2] How often we have heard this in England!

[FN#3] As a styptic. The scene in the text has often been
enacted in Egypt where a favourite feminine mode of murdering men
is by beating and bruising the testicles. The Fellahs are
exceedingly clever in inventing methods of manslaughter. For
some years bodies were found that bore no outer mark of violence,
and only Frankish inquisitiveness discovered that the barrel of a
pistol had been passed up the anus and the weapon discharged
internally Murders of this description are known in English
history; but never became popular practice.

[FN#4] Arab. "Zakar," that which betokens masculinity. At the
end of the tale we learn that she also gelded him; thus he was a
"Sandal)," a rase.

[FN#5] See vol. i. p. 104. {see Volume 1, Note 188}

[FN#6] The purity and intensity of her love had attained to a
something of prophetic strain.

[FN#7] Lane corrupts this Persian name to Shah Zeman (i. 568).

[FN#8] i.e. the world, which includes the ideas of Fate, Time,
Chance.

[FN#9] Arab. "Barid," silly, noyous, contemptible; as in the
proverb

Two things than ice are colder cold:--
An old man young, a young man old.

A "cold-of-countenance"=a fool: "May Allah make cold thy
face!"=may it show want and misery. "By Allah, a cold speech!"=a
silly or abusive tirade (Pilgrimage, ii. 22).

[FN#10] The popular form is, "often the ear loveth before the
eye."

[FN#11] Not the first time that royalty has played this prank,
nor the last, perhaps.

[FN#12] i.e. the Lady Dunya.

[FN#13] These magazines are small strongly-built rooms on the
ground floor, where robbery is almost impossible.

[FN#14] Lit. "approbation," "benediction"; also the Angel who
keeps the Gates of Paradise and who has allowed one of the
Ghilman (or Wuldan) the boys of supernatural beauty that wait
upon the Faithful, to wander forth into this wicked world.

[FN#15] In Europe this would be a plurale majestatis, used only
by Royalty. In Arabic it has no such significance, and even the
lower orders apply it to themselves; although it often has a
soup‡on of "I and thou."

[FN#16] Man being an "extract of despicable water" (Koran xxxii.
7) ex spermate genital), which Mr. Rodwell renders "from germs of
life," "from sorry water."

[FN#17] i.e. begotten by man's seed in the light of salvation
(Nur al-huda).

[FN#18] The rolls of white (camphor-like) scarf-skin and sordes
which come off under the bathman's glove become by miracle of
Beauty, as brown musk. The Rubber or Shampooer is called in Egypt
"Mukayyis" (vulgarly "Mukayyisati") or "bagman," from his "Kis,"
a bag-glove of coarse woollen stuff. To "Johnny Raws" he never
fails to show the little rolls which come off the body and prove
to them how unclean they are, but the material is mostly dead
scarf-skin

[FN#19] The normal phrase on such occasions (there is always a
"dovetail" de rigueur) "Allah give thee profit!"

[FN#20] i.e. We are forced to love him only, and ignore giving
him a rival (referring to Koranic denunciations of "Shirk," or
attributing a partner to Allah, the religion of plurality,
syntheism not polytheism): see, he walks tottering under the
weight of his back parts wriggling them whilst they are rounded
like the revolving heavens.

[FN#21] Jannat al-Na'im (Garden of Delight); the fifth of the
seven Paradises made of white diamond; the gardens and the
plurality being borrowed from the Talmud. Mohammed's Paradise, by
the by, is not a greater failure than Dante's. Only ignorance or
pious fraud asserts it to be wholly sensual; and a single verse
is sufficient refutation: "Their prayer therein shall be 'Praise
unto thee, O. Allah!' and their salutation therein shall be
'Peace!' and the end of their prayer shall be, 'Praise unto God,
the Lord of all creatures"' (Koran x. 10-11). See also lvi. 24-
26. It will also be an intellectual condition wherein knowledge
will greatly be increased (lxxxviii viii. 17-20). Moreover the
Moslems, far more logical than Christians, admit into Paradise
the so-called "lower animals."

[FN#22] Sed vitam faciunt balnea, vine, Venus! The Hammam to
Easterns is a luxury as well as a necessity; men sit there for
hours talking chiefly of money and their prowess with the fair;
and women pass half the day in it complaining of their husbands'
over-amativeness and contrasting their own chaste and modest
aversion to camel congress.

[FN#23] The frigidarium or cold room, coolness being delightful
to the Arab.

[FN#24] The calidarium or hot room of the bath.

[FN#25] The Angel who acts door-keeper of Hell; others say he
specially presides over the torments of the damned (Koran xliii.
78).

[FN#26] The Door-keeper of Heaven before mentioned who, like the
Guebre Zamiyad has charge of the heavenly lads and lasses, and
who is often charged by poets with letting them slip.

[FN#27] Lane (i. 616), says "of wine, milk, sherbet, or any other
beverage." Here it is wine, a practice famed in Persian poetry,
especially by Hafiz, but most distasteful to a European stomach.
We find the Mu allakah of Imr al-Keys noticing "our morning
draught." Nott (Hafiz) says a "cheerful cup of wine in the
morning was a favourite indulgence with the more luxurious
Persians. And it was not uncommon among the Easterns, to salute
friend by saying."May your morning potation be agreeable to you!"
In the present day this practice is confined to regular
debauchees.

[FN#28] Koran xii. 31. The words spoken by Zulaykha's women
friends and detractors whom she invited to see Beauty Joseph.

[FN#29] A formula for averting fascination. Koran, chaps. cxiii.
1. "Falak" means "cleaving" hence the breaking forth of light
from darkness, a "wonderful instance of the Divine power."

[FN#30] The usual delicate chaff.

[FN#31] Such letters are generally written on a full-sized sheet
of paper ("notes" are held slighting in the East) and folded till
the breadth is reduced to about one inch. The edges are gummed,
the ink, much like our Indian ink, is smeared with the finger
upon the signet ring; the place where it is to be applied is
slightly wetted with the tongue and the seal is stamped across
the line of junction to secure privacy. I have given a specimen
of an original love-letter of the kind in "Scinde, or the Unhappy
Valley," chaps. iv.

[FN#32] Arab. "Salb" which may also mean hanging, but the usual
term for the latter in The Nights is "shanak." Crucifixion,
abolished by the superstitious Constantine, was practised as a
servile punishment as late as the days of Mohammed Ali Pasha the
Great e malefactors were nailed and tied to the patibulum or
cross-piece without any sup pedaneum or foot-rest and left to
suffer tortures from flies and sun, thirst and hunger. They often
lived three days and died of the wounds mortifying and the
nervous exhaustion brought on by cramps and convulsions. In many
cases the corpses were left to feed the kites and crows; and this
added horror to the death. Moslems care little for mere hanging.
Whenever a fanatical atrocity is to be punished, the malefactor
should be hung in pig-skin, his body burnt and the ashes publicly
thrown into a common cesspool.

[FN#33] Arab "Shaytan" the insolent or rebellious one is a common
term of abuse. The word I. Koramc, and borrowed as usual from the
Jews. "Satan" occurs four times in the O.T. of which two are in
Job where, however, he is a subordinate angel.

[FN#34] Arab. "Alak" from the Koran xxii. 5. " O men...consider
that we first created you of dust (Adam); afterwards of seed
(Rodwell's "moist germs of life"); afterwards of a little
coagulated (or clots of) blood." It refers to all mankind except
Adam, Eve and Isa. Also chaps. xcvi. 2, which, as has been said
was probably the first composed at Meccah. Mr. Rodwell (v. 10)
translates by 'Servant of God" what should be "Slave of Allah,"
alluding to Mohammed's original name Abdullah. See my learned
friend Aloys Sprenger, Leben, etc., i.155.

[FN#35] The Hindus similarly exaggerate: "He was ready to leap
out of his skin in his delight" (Katha, etc., p. 443).

[FN#36] A star in the tail of the Great Bear, one of the "Banat
al-Na'ash," or a star close to the second. Its principal use is
to act foil to bright Sohayl (Canopus) as in the beginning of
Jami's Layla-Majnun:--

To whom Thou'rt hid, day is darksome night:
To whom shown, Soha as Sohayl is bright.

See also al-Hariri (xxxii. and xxxvi.). The saying, "I show her
Soha and she shows me the moon" (A. P. i. 547) arose as follows.
In the Ignorance a beautiful Amazon defied any man to take her
maidenhead; and a certain Ibn al-Ghazz won the game by struggling
with her till she was nearly senseless. He then asked her, "How
is thine eye-sight: dost thou see Soha?" and she, in her
confusion, pointed to the moon and said, "That is it!"

[FN#37] The moon being masculine (lupus) and the sun feminine.

[FN#38] The "five Shaykhs" must allude to that number of Saints
whose names are doubtful; it would be vain to offer conjectures.
Lane and his "Sheykh" (i. 617) have tried and failed.

[FN#39] The beauties of nature seem always to provoke hunger in
Orientals, especially Turks, as good news in Englishmen.

[FN#40] Pers. "Lajuward": Arab. "Lazuward"; prob. the origin of
our "azure," through the Romaic and the Ital. azzurro;
and, more evidently still, of lapis lazuli, for which do not see
the Dictionaries.

[FN#41] Arab. "Maurid." the desert-wells where caravans drink:
also the way to water wells.

[FN#42] The famous Avicenna, whom the Hebrews called Aben Sina.
The early European Arabists, who seem to have learned Arabic
through Hebrew, borrowed their corruption, and it long kept its
place in Southern Europe.

[FN#43] According to the Hindus there are ten stages of love-
sickness: (1) Love of the eyes (2) Attraction of the Manas or
mind; (3) Birth of desire; (4) Loss of sleep; (5) Loss of flesh;
(6) Indifference to objects of sense; (7) Loss of shame, (8)
Distraction of thought (9) Loss of consciousness; and (10) Death.

[FN#44] We should call this walk of "Arab ladies" a waddle: I
have never seen it in Europe except amongst the trading classes
of Trieste, who have a "wriggle" of their own.

[FN#45] In our idiom six doors.

[FN#46] They refrained from the highest enjoyment, intending to
marry.

[FN#47] Arab. "Jihad," lit. fighting against something;
Koranically, fighting against infidels non- believers in Al-lslam
(chaps. Ix. 1). But the "Mujahidun" who wage such war are
forbidden to act aggressively (ii. 186). Here it is a war to save
a son.

[FN#48] The lady proposing extreme measures is characteristic:
Egyptians hold, and justly enough, that their women are more
amorous than men.

[FN#49] "O Camphor," an antiphrase before noticed. The vulgar
also say "Ya Talji"=O snowy (our snowball), the polite "Ya Abu
Sumrah !" =O father of brownness.

[FN#50] i.e. which fit into sockets in the threshold and lintel
and act as hinges. These hinges have caused many disputes about
how they were fixed, for instance in caverns without moveable
lintel or threshold. But one may observe that the upper
projections are longer than the lower and that the door never
fits close above, so by lifting it up the inferior pins are taken
out of the holes. It is the oldest form and the only form known
to the Ancients. In Egyptian the hinge is called Akab=the heel,
hence the proverb Wakaf' al-bab ala 'akabin; the door standeth on
its heel; i.e. every thing in proper place.

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