The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 6
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Richard F. Burton >> The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 6
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When it was the Five Hundred and Fifty-second Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the
Seaman continued:--And the men gathering pepper in the island
questioned me of my case, when I acquainted them with all the
hardships and perils I had suffered and how I had fled from the
savages; whereat they marvelled and gave me joy of my safety,
saying, "By Allah, this is wonderful! But how didst thou escape
from these blacks who swarm in the island and devour all who fall
in with them; nor is any safe from them, nor can any get out of
their clutches?" And after I had told them the fate of my
companions, they made me sit by them, till they got quit of their
work; and fetched me somewhat of good food, which I ate, for I
was hungry, and rested awhile, after which they took ship with me
and carrying me to their island-home brought me before their
King, who returned my salute and received me honourably and
questioned me of my case. I told him all that had befallen me,
from the day of my leaving Baghdad-city, whereupon he wondered
with great wonder at my adventures, he and his courtiers, and
bade me sit by him; then he called for food and I ate with him
what sufficed me and washed my hands and returned thanks to
Almighty Allah for all His favours praising Him and glorifying
Him. Then I left the King and walked for solace about the city,
which I found wealthy and populous, abounding in market-streets
well stocked with food and merchandise and full of buyers and
sellers. So I rejoiced at having reached so pleasant a place and
took my ease there after my fatigues; and I made friends with the
townsfolk, nor was it long before I became more in honour and
favour with them and their King than any of the chief men of the
realm. Now I saw that all the citizens, great and small, rode
fine horses, high-priced and thorough-bred, without saddles or
housings, whereat I wondered and said to the King, "Wherefore, O
my lord, dost thou not ride with a saddle? Therein is ease for
the rider and increase of power." "What is a saddle?" asked he:
"I never saw nor used such a thing in all my life;" and I
answered, "With thy permission I will make thee a saddle, that
thou mayest ride on it and see the comfort thereof." And quoth
he, "Do so." So quoth I to him, "Furnish me with some wood,"
which being brought, I sought me a clever carpenter and sitting
by him showed him how to make the saddle-tree, portraying for him
the fashion thereof in ink on the wood. Then I took wool and
teased it and made felt of it, and, covering the saddle-tree with
leather, stuffed it and polished it and attached the girth and
stirrup leathers; after which I fetched a blacksmith and
described to him the fashion of the stirrups and bridle-bit. So
he forged a fine pair of stirrups and a bit, and filed them
smooth and tinned[FN#45] them. Moreover, I made fast to them
fringes of silk and fitted bridle-leathers to the bit. Then I
fetched one of the best of the royal horses and saddling and
bridling him, hung the stirrups to the saddle and led him to the
King. The thing took his fancy and he thanked me; then he mounted
and rejoiced greatly in the saddle and rewarded me handsomely for
my work. When the King's Wazir saw the saddle, he asked of me one
like it and I made it for him. Furthermore, all the grandees and
officers of state came for saddles to me; so I fell to making
saddles (having taught the craft to the carpenter and
blacksmith), and selling them to all who sought, till I amassed
great wealth and became in high honour and great favour with the
King and his household and grandees. I abode thus till, one day,
as I was sitting with the King in all respect and contentment, he
said to me, "Know thou, O such an one, thou art become one of us,
dear as a brother, and we hold thee in such regard and affection
that we cannot part with thee nor suffer thee to leave our city;
wherefore I desire of thee obedience in a certain matter, and I
will not have thee gainsay me." Answered I, "O King, what is it
thou desirest of me? Far be it from me to gainsay thee in aught,
for I am indebted to thee for many favours and bounties and much
kindness, and (praised be Allah!) I am become one of thy
servants." Quoth he, "I have a mind to marry thee to a fair,
clever and agreeable wife who is wealthy as she is beautiful; so
thou mayst be naturalised and domiciled with us: I will lodge
thee with me in my palace; wherefore oppose me not neither cross
me in this." When I heard these words I was ashamed and held my
peace nor could make him any answer,[FN#46] by reason of my much
bashfulness before him. Asked he, "Why dost thou not reply to me,
O my son?"; and I answered saying, "O my master, it is thine to
command, O King of the age!" So he summoned the Kazi and the
witnesses and married me straightway to a lady of a noble tree
and high pedigree; wealthy in moneys and means; the flower of an
ancient race; of surpassing beauty and grace, and the owner of
farms and estates and many a dwelling-place.--And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the Five Hundred and Fifty-third Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the
Seaman continued in these words:--Now after the King my master
had married me to this choice wife, he also gave me a great and
goodly house standing alone, together with slaves and officers,
and assigned me pay and allowances. So I became in all ease and
contentment and delight and forgot everything which had befalled
me of weariness and trouble and hardship; for I loved my wife
with fondest love and she loved me no less, and we were as one
and abode in the utmost comfort of life and in its happiness. And
I said in myself, "When I return to my native land, I will carry
her with me." But whatso is predestined to a man, that needs must
be, and none knoweth what shall befal him. We lived thus a great
while, till Almighty Allah bereft one of my neighbours of his
wife. Now he was a gossip of mine; so hearing the cry of the
keeners I went in to condole with him on his loss and found him
in very ill plight, full of trouble and weary of soul and mind. I
condoled with him and comforted him, saying, "Mourn not for thy
wife who hath now found the mercy of Allah; the Lord will surely
give thee a better in her stead and thy name shall be great and
thy life shall be long in the land, Inshallah!"[FN#47] But he
wept bitter tears and replied, "O my friend, how can I marry
another wife and how shall Allah replace her to me with a better
than she, whenas I have but one day left to live?" "O my
brother," said I, "return to thy senses and announce not the glad
tidings of thine own death, for thou art well, sound and in good
case." "By thy life, O my friend," rejoined he, "to-morrow thou
wilt lose me and wilt never see me again till the Day of
Resurrection." I asked, "How so?" and he answered, "This very day
they bury my wife, and they bury me with her in one tomb; for it
is the custom with us, if the wife die first, to bury the husband
alive with her and in like manner the wife, if the husband die
first; so that neither may enjoy life after losing his or her
mate." "By Allah," cried I, "this is a most vile, lewd custom and
not to be endured of any!" Meanwhile, behold, the most part of
the townsfolk came in and fell to condoling with my gossip for
his wife and for himself. Presently they laid the dead woman out,
as was their wont; and, setting her on a bier, carried her and
her husband without the city, till they came to a place in the
side of the mountain at the end of the island by the sea; and
here they raised a great rock and discovered the mouth of a
stone-rivetted pit or well,[FN#48] leading down into a vast
underground cavern that ran beneath the mountain. Into this pit
they threw the corpse, then tying a rope of palm-fibres under the
husband's armpits, they let him down into the cavern, and with
him a great pitcher of fresh water and seven scones by was of
viaticum.[FN#49] When he came to the bottom, he loosed himself
from the rope and they drew it up; and, stopping the mouth of the
pit with the great stone, they returned to the city, leaving my
friend in the cavern with his dead wife. When I saw this, I said
to myself, "By Allah, this fashion of death is more grievous than
the first!" And I went in to the King and said to him, "O my
lord, why do ye bury the quick with the dead?" Quoth he, "It hath
been the custom, thou must know, of our forbears and our olden
Kings from time immemorial, if the husband die first, to bury his
wife with him, and the like with the wife, so we may not sever
them, alive or dead." I asked, "O King of the age, if the wife of
a foreigner like myself die among you, deal ye with him as with
yonder man?"; and he answered, "Assuredly, we do with him even as
thou hast seen." When I heard this, my gall-bladder was like to
burst, for the violence of my dismay and concern for myself: my
wit became dazed; I felt as if in a vile dungeon; and hated their
society; for I went about in fear lest my wife should die before
me and they bury me alive with her. However, after a while, I
comforted myself, saying, "Haply I shall predecease her, or shall
have returned to my own land before she die, for none knoweth
which shall go first and which shall go last." Then I applied
myself to diverting my mind from this thought with various
occupations; but it was not long before my wife sickened and
complained and took to her pillow and fared after a few days to
the mercy of Allah; and the King and the rest of the folk came,
as was their wont, to condole with me and her family and to
console us for her loss and not less to condole with me for
myself. Then the women washed her and arraying her in her richest
raiment and golden ornaments, necklaces and jewellery, laid her
on the bier and bore her to the mountain aforesaid, where they
lifted the cover of the pit and cast her in; after which all my
intimates and acquaintances and my wife's kith and kin came round
me, to farewell me in my lifetime and console me for my own
death, whilst I cried out among them, saying, "Almighty Allah
never made it lawful to bury the quick with the dead! I am a
stranger, not one of your kind; and I cannot abear your custom,
and had I known it I never would have wedded among you!" They
heard me not and paid no heed to my words, but laying hold of me,
bound me by force and let me down into the cavern, with a large
gugglet of sweet water and seven cakes of bread, according to
their custom. When I came to the bottom, they called out to me to
cast myself loose from the cords, but I refused to do so; so they
threw them down on me and, closing the mouth of the pit with the
stones aforesaid, went their ways,--And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the Five Hundred and Fifty-fourth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the
Seaman continued:--When they left me in the cavern with my dead
wife and, closing the mouth of the pit, went their ways, I looked
about me and found myself in a vast cave full of dead bodies,
that exhaled a fulsome and loathsome smell and the air was heavy
with the groans of the dying. Thereupon I fell to blaming myself
for what I had done, saying, "By Allah, I deserve all that hath
befallen me and all that shall befal me! What curse was upon me
to take a wife in this city? There is no Majesty and there is no
Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great! As often as I say,
I have escaped from one calamity, I fall into a worse. By Allah,
this is an abominable death to die! Would Heaven I had died a
decent death and been washed and shrouded like a man and a
Moslem. Would I had been drowned at sea or perished in the
mountains! It were better than to die this miserable death!" And
on such wise I kept blaming my own folly and greed of gain in
that black hole, knowing not night from day; and I ceased not to
ban the Foul Fiend and to bless the Almighty Friend. Then I threw
myself down on the bones of the dead and lay there, imploring
Allah's help and in the violence of my despair, invoking death
which came not to me, till the fire of hunger burned my stomach
and thirst set my throat aflame when I sat up and feeling for the
bread, ate a morsel and upon it swallowed a mouthful of water.
After this, the worst night I ever knew, I arose, and exploring
the cavern, found that it extended a long way with hollows in its
sides; and its floor was strewn with dead bodies and rotten
bones, that had lain there from olden time. So I made myself a
place in a cavity of the cavern, afar from the corpses lately
thrown down and there slept. I abode thus a long while, till my
provision was like to give out; and yet I ate not save once every
day or second day; nor did I drink more than an occasional
draught, for fear my victual should fail me before my death; and
I said to myself, "Eat little and drink little; belike the Lord
shall vouchsafe deliverance to thee!" One day, as I sat thus,
pondering my case and bethinking me how I should do, when my
bread and water should be exhausted, behold, the stone that
covered the opening was suddenly rolled away and the light
streamed down upon me. Quoth I, "I wonder what is the matter:
haply they have brought another corpse." Then I espied folk
standing about the mouth of the pit, who presently let down a
dead man and a live woman, weeping and bemoaning herself, and
with her an ampler supply of bread and water than usual.[FN#50] I
saw her and she was a beautiful woman; but she saw me not; and
they closed up the opening and went away. Then I took the leg-
bone of a dead man and, going up to the woman, smote her on the
crown of the head; and she cried one cry and fell down in a
swoon. I smote her a second and a third time, till she was dead,
when I laid hands on her bread and water and found on her great
plenty of ornaments and rich apparel, necklaces, jewels and gold
trinkets;[FN#51] for it was their custom to bury women in all
their finery. I carried the vivers to my sleeping place in the
cavern-side and ate and drank of them sparingly, no more than
sufficed to keep the life in me, lest the provaunt come speedily
to an end and I perish of hunger and thirst. Yet did I never
wholly lose hope in Almighty Allah. I abode thus a great while,
killing all the live folk they let down into the cavern and
taking their provisions of meat and drink; till one day, as I
slept, I was awakened by something scratching and burrowing among
the bodies in a corner of the cave and said, "What can this be?"
fearing wolves or hyaenas. So I sprang up and seizing the leg-
bone aforesaid, made for the noise. As soon as the thing was ware
of me, it fled from me into the inward of the cavern, and lo! it
was a wild beast. However, I followed it to the further end, till
I saw afar off a point of light not bigger than a star, now
appearing and then disappearing. So I made for it, and as I drew
near, it grew larger and brighter, till I was certified that it
was a crevice in the rock, leading to the open country; and I
said to myself, "There must be some reason for this opening:
either it is the mouth of a second pit, such as that by which
they let me down, or else it is a natural fissure in the
stonery." So I bethought me awhile and nearing the light, found
that it came from a breach in the back side of the mountain,
which the wild beasts had enlarged by burrowing, that they might
enter and devour the dead and freely go to and fro. When I saw
this, my spirits revived and hope came back to me and I made sure
of life, after having died a death. So I went on, as in a dream,
and making shift to scramble through the breach found myself on
the slope of a high mountain, overlooking the salt sea and
cutting off all access thereto from the island, so that none
could come at that part of the beach from the city.[FN#52] I
praised my Lord and thanked Him, rejoicing greatly and heartening
myself with the prospect of deliverance; then I returned through
the crack to the cavern and brought out all the food and water I
had saved up and donned some of the dead folk's clothes over my
own; after which I gathered together all the collars and
necklaces of pearls and jewels and trinkets of gold and silver
set with precious stones and other ornaments and valuables I
could find upon the corpses; and, making them into bundles with
the grave clothes and raiment of the dead, carried them out to
the back of the mountain facing the sea-shore, where I
established myself, purposing to wait there till it should please
Almighty Allah to send me relief by means of some passing ship. I
visited the cavern daily and as often as I found folk buried
alive there, I killed them all indifferently, men and women, and
took their victual and valuables and transported them to my seat
on the sea-shore. Thus I abode a long while,--And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the Five Hundred and Fifty-fifth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the
Seaman continued:--And after carrying all my victuals and
valuables from the cavern to the coast I abode a long while by
the sea, pondering my case, till one day I caught sight of a ship
passing in the midst of the clashing sea, swollen with dashing
billows. So I took a piece of a white shroud I had with me and,
tying it to a staff, ran along the sea-shore, making signals
therewith and calling to the people in the ship, till they espied
me and hearing my shouts, sent a boat to fetch me off. When it
drew near, the crew called out to me, saying, "Who art thou and
how camest thou to be on this mountain, whereon never saw we any
in our born days?" I answered, "I am a gentleman[FN#53] and a
merchant, who hath been wrecked and saved myself on one of the
planks of the ship, with some of my goods; and by the blessing of
the Almighty and the decrees of Destiny and my own strength and
skill, after much toil and moil I have landed with my gear in
this place where I awaited some passing ship to take me off." So
they took me in their boat together with the bundles I had made
of the jewels and valuables from the cavern, tied up in clothes
and shrouds, and rowed back with me to the ship, where the
captain said to me, "How camest thou, O man, to yonder place on
yonder mountain behind which lieth a great city? All my life I
have sailed these seas and passed to and fro hard by these
heights; yet never saw I here any living thing save wild beasts
and birds." I repeated to him the story I had told the
sailors,[FN#54] but acquainted him with nothing of that which had
befallen me in the city and the cavern, lest there should be any
of the islandry in the ship. Then I took out some of the best
pearls I had with me and offered them to the captain, saying, "O
my lord, thou hast been the means of saving me off this mountain.
I have no ready money; but take this from me in requital of thy
kindness and good offices." But he refused to accept it of me,
saying, "When we find a shipwrecked man on the sea-shore or on an
island, we take him up and give him meat and drink, and if he be
naked we clothe him; nor take we aught from him; nay, when we
reach a port of safety, we set him ashore with a present of our
own money and entreat him kindly and charitably, for the love of
Allah the Most High." So I prayed that his life be long in the
land and rejoiced in my escape, trusting to be delivered from my
stress and to forget my past mishaps; for every time I remembered
being let down into the cave with my dead wife I shuddered in
horror. Then we pursued our voyage and sailed from island to
island and sea to sea, till we arrived at the Island of the Bell,
which containeth a city two days' journey in extent, whence after
a six days' run we reached the Island Kala, hard by the land of
Hind.[FN#55] This place is governed by a potent and puissant King
and it produceth excellent camphor and an abundance of the Indian
rattan: here also is a lead mine. At last by the decree of Allah,
we arrived in safety at Bassorah-town where I tarried a few days,
then went on to Baghdad-city, and, finding my quarter, entered my
house with lively pleasure. There I foregathered with my family
and friends, who rejoiced in my happy return and gave my joy of
my safety. I laid up in my storehouses all the goods I had
brought with me, and gave alms and largesse to Fakirs and beggars
and clothed the widow and the orphan. Then I gave myself up to
pleasure and enjoyment, returning to my old merry mode of life.
"Such, then, be the most marvellous adventures of my fourth
voyage, but to-morrow if you will kindly come to me, I will tell
you that which befel me in my fifth voyage, which was yet rarer
and more marvellous than those which forewent it. And thou, O my
brother Sindbad the Landsman, shalt sup with me as thou art
wont." (Saith he who telleth the tale), When Sindbad the Seaman
had made an end of his story, he called for supper; so they
spread the table and the guests ate the evening meal; after which
he gave the Porter an hundred dinars as usual, and he and the
rest of the company went their ways, glad at heart and marvelling
at the tales they had heard, for that each story was more
extraordinary than that which forewent it. The porter Sindbad
passed the night in his own house, in all joy and cheer and
wonderment; and, as soon as morning came with its sheen and
shone, he prayed the dawn-prayer and repaired to the house of
Sindbad the Seaman, who welcomed him and bade him sit with him
till the rest of the company arrived, when they ate and drank and
made merry and the talk went round amongst them. Presently, their
host began the narrative of the fifth voyage,--And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the Five Hundred and Fifty-sixth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the host
began in these words the narrative of
The Fifth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman.
Know, O my brothers, that when I had been awhile on shore after
my fourth voyage; and when, in my comfort and pleasures and
merry-makings and in my rejoicing over my large gains and
profits, I had forgotten all I had endured of perils and
sufferings, the carnal man was again seized with the longing to
travel and to see foreign countries and islands.[FN#56]
Accordingly I bought costly merchandise suited to my purpose and,
making it up into bales, repaired to Bassorah, where I walked
about the river-quay till I found a fine tall ship, newly builded
with gear unused and fitted ready for sea. She pleased me; so I
bought her and, embarking my goods in her, hired a master and
crew, over whom I set certain of my slaves and servants as
inspectors. A number of merchants also brought their outfits and
paid me freight and passage-money; then, after reciting the
Fatihah we set sail over Allah's pool in all joy and cheer,
promising ourselves a prosperous voyage and much profit. We
sailed from city to city and from island to island and from sea
to sea viewing the cities and countries by which we passed, and
selling and buying in not a few till one day we came to a great
uninhabited island, deserted and desolate, whereon was a white
dome of biggest bulk half buried in the sands. The merchants
landed to examine this dome, leaving me in the ship; and when
they drew near, behold, it was a huge Rukh's egg. They fell a-
beating it with stones, knowing not what it was, and presently
broke it open, whereupon much water ran out of it and the young
Rukh appeared within. So they pulled it forth of the shell and
cut its throat and took of it great store of meat. Now I was in
the ship and knew not what they did; but presently one of the
passengers came up to me and said, "O my lord, come and look at
the egg we thought to be a dome." So I looked and seeing the
merchants beating it with stones, called out to them, "Stop,
stop! do not meddle with that egg, or the bird Rukh will come out
and break our ship and destroy us."[FN#57] But they paid no heed
to me and gave not over smiting upon the egg, when behold, the
day grew dark and dun and the sun was hidden from us, as if some
great cloud had passed over the firmament.[FN#58] So we raised
our eyes and saw that what we took for a cloud was the Rukh
poised between us and the sun, and it was his wings that darkened
the day. When he came and saw his egg broken, he cried a loud
cry, whereupon his mate came flying up and they both began
circling about the ship, crying out at us with voices louder than
thunder. I called to the Rais and crew, "Put out to sea and seek
safety in flight, before we be all destroyed." So the merchants
came on board and we cast off and made haste from the island to
gain the open sea. When the Rukhs saw this, they flew off and we
crowded all sail on the ship, thinking to get out of their
country; but presently the two re-appeared and flew after us and
stood over us, each carrying in its claws a huge boulder which it
had brought from the mountains. As soon as the he-Rukh came up
with us, he let fall upon us the rock he held in his pounces; but
the master put about ship, so that the rock missed her by some
small matter and plunged into the waves with such violence, that
the ship pitched high and then sank into the trough of the sea
and the bottom of the ocean appeared to us. Then the she-Rukh let
fall her rock, which was bigger than that of her mate, and as
Destiny had decreed, it fell on the poop of the ship and crushed
it, the rudder flying into twenty pieces; whereupon the vessel
foundered and all and everything on board were cast into the
main.[FN#59] As for me I struggled for sweet life, till Almighty
Allah threw in my way one of the planks of the ship, to which I
clung and bestriding it, fell a-paddling with my feet. Now the
ship had gone down hard by an island in the midst of the main and
the winds and waves bore me on till, by permission of the Most
High, they cast me up on the shore of the island, at the last
gasp for toil and distress and half dead with hunger and thirst.
So I landed more like a corpse than a live man and throwing
myself down on the beach, lay there awhile, till I began to
revive and recover spirits, when I walked about the island and
found it as it were one of the garths and gardens of Paradise.
Its trees, in abundance dight, bore ripe-yellow fruit for
freight; its streams ran clear and bright; its flowers were fair
to scent and to sight and its birds warbled with delight the
praises of Him to whom belong permanence and all-might. So I ate
my fill of the fruits and slaked my thirst with the water of the
streams till I could no more and I returned thanks to the Most
High and glorified Him;--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day
and ceased saying her permitted say.
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