The Arabian Nights (New Deluxe Edition) (31 page)

I looked down from the terrace of the palace and saw again the ten couches with the blue bedding and realized that the palace was the same one that belonged to the ten one-eyed young men who had admonished me and whose admonition I had refused to follow. I went down from the roof and sat down amid the couches, and hardly had I done so when I saw the young men and their old companion approaching. When they saw me, they cried, “You are not welcome or wanted here. By God, we will not let you stay. May you perish.” I replied, “All I wanted to know was why you smeared your faces with blue and black soot.” They said, “Each of us suffered the same misfortune as you did. We all lived the best of lives in bliss, feeding on chicken, sipping wine from crystal cups, resting on silk brocade, and sleeping on the breasts of fair women. We had to wait one more day to gain a year of pleasures, such food and drink and such entertainment, but because of our curious eyes, we lost our eyes, and now, as you see, we are left to mourn our misfortune.” I said, “Do not blame me for what I did, for I have become like you. Indeed, I want you to bring me all ten black trays to blacken my face,” and I burst into bitter tears. They replied, “By God, by God, we will never harbor you or let you stay with us. Get out of here, go to Baghdad, and find someone to help you there.”

When I saw that there was no avail against their harsh treatment and when I recalled the miseries written on my forehead, how I killed the young man and how ‘I would be sitting pretty but for my curiosity,' I could no longer stand it. I shaved off my beard and eyebrows, renounced everything, and roamed the world, a one-eyed dervish. Then God granted me safe passage and I reached Baghdad on the evening of this very night. Here I met these two men standing at a loss, and I greeted them and said, “I am a stranger,” and they replied, “We are strangers like you.” We formed an extraordinary group, for by coincidence, all three of us happened to be blind in the right eye. This, my lady, was the cause of losing my eye and shaving off my beard.

It is related, O happy King, that after the girl heard the dervishes' tales, she said to them, “Stroke your heads and go your way,” but they replied, “By God, we will not go until we hear our companions' tales.” Then, turning to the caliph, Ja'far, and Masrur, the girl said, “Tell us your tales.” Ja'far stood forth and said, “O my lady, we are citizens of Mosul who have come to your city for trade. When we arrived here, we took lodgings in the merchants' inn and we traded and sold our goods. Tonight a merchant of your city held a party and invited all the merchants in the inn, including our group, to his house, where we had a good time, with choice wine, entertainment, and singing girls. Then there was argument and yelling among some of the guests, and the prefect of police raided the place. Some of us were arrested and some escaped. We were among those who escaped, and when we went to the inn, late at night, we found the door locked, not to be opened again till sunrise. We wandered helplessly, not knowing where to go, for fear that the police would catch up with us, arrest us, and humiliate us. God drove us to your house, and when we heard the beautiful singing and the sound of carousing, we knew that there was a company having a party inside and said to ourselves that we would enter at your service and spend the rest of our night with you to entertain you and to make our pleasure complete. It pleased you to offer us your hospitality and to be generous and kind. This was the cause of our coming to you.”

The dervishes said, “O our lady and mistress, we wish you to grant us as a favor the lives of these three men and to let us depart with gratitude.” Looking at the entire group, the girl replied, “I grant you your lives, as a favor to all.” When they were outside the house, the caliph asked the dervishes, “Men, where are you going, for it is still dark?” They replied, “By God, sir, we do not know where to go.” He said, “Come and sleep at our place.” Then, turning to Ja'far, the caliph said, “Take these men home with you for the night and bring them before me early tomorrow morning, so that we may chronicle for each his adventure that we have heard tonight.” Ja'far did as the caliph bade him, while the caliph returned to his palace. But the caliph was agitated and stayed awake, pondering the mishaps of the dervishes and how they had changed from being sons of kings to what they were now, and burning with curiosity to hear the stories of the flogged girl and the other with the two black bitches. He could not sleep a wink and waited impatiently for the morning.

No sooner had the day dawned than he sat on his throne, and when Ja'far entered and kissed the ground before him, he said, “This is no time for dawdling. Go and bring me the two ladies, so that I may hear the story of the two bitches, and bring the dervishes with you,” yelling at him, “Hurry!” Ja'far withdrew and came back soon with the three girls and the three dervishes. Then placing the dervishes next to him and the girls behind a curtain, he said, “Women, we forgive you because of your generosity and kindness to us. If you do not know who is the one sitting before you, I shall introduce him. You are in the presence of the seventh of the sons of ‘Abbas, al-Rashid, son of al-Mahdi son of al-Hadi and brother of al-Saffah son of Mansur. Take courage, be frank, and tell the truth and nothing but the truth, and do not lie, for ‘you should be truthful even if the truth sends you to burning Hell.' Explain to the caliph why you beat the two black bitches, why you weep after you beat them, and why they weep with you.”

But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she lapsed into silence. Then Dinarzad said, “Sister, what a strange and amazing story!” Shahrazad replied, “What is this compared with what I shall tell you tomorrow night if the king spares me and lets me live!”

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The following night Shahrazad said:

I heard, O happy King, that when the girl who was the mistress of the house heard what Ja'far said to her on behalf of the Commander of the Faithful, she said:

 

8.
The phoenix, a mythological bird.

[The Tale of the First Lady, the Mistress of the House]

MY CASE IS
so strange and my tale is so amazing that were it engraved with needles at the corner of the eye, it would be a lesson for those who wish to consider. The two black bitches are my sisters by the same mother and father. These two girls, the one whose body bears the marks of the rod and the other who is the shopper are sisters by another mother. When our father died and the inheritance was divided, the three of us lived with our mother, while the other two sisters lived with their own mother. After a while, our mother also died, leaving us three thousand dinars, which we divided equally among ourselves. Since I was the youngest of the three, my two sisters prepared their dowries and got married before me.

The husband of the eldest sister bought merchandise with his money and hers, and the two of them set out on their travels. They were absent for five years, during which time he threw away and wasted all her money. Then he deserted her, leaving her to wander alone in foreign lands, trying to find her way back home. After five years she returned to me, dressed like a beggar in tattered clothes and a dirty old cloak. She was in a most miserable plight. When I saw her, I was stunned, and I asked her, “Why are you in this condition?” She replied, “Words are useless, for ‘the pen has brought to pass that which had been decreed.'” O Commander of the Faithful, I took her at once to the bath, dressed her with new clothes, prepared for her some broth, and gave her some wine to drink. I took care of her for a month, and then I said to her, “Sister, you are the eldest, and you have now taken the place of our mother. You and I will share my wealth equally, for God has blessed my share of the inheritance, and I have made much money by spinning and producing silk.” I treated her with the utmost kindness, and she lived with me for a whole year, during which time our minds were on our other sister. Shortly she too came home in a worse plight than the first. I treated her just as I had treated the other, clothing her and taking care of her.

A little later, they said to me, “Sister, we would like to get married, for it is not fitting that we live without husbands.” I replied, “Sister, there is little good in marriage, for it is hard to find a good man. You got married, but nothing good came of it. Let us stay together and live by ourselves.” But, O Commander of the Faithful, they did not listen to my advice and married again without my consent. This time I was obliged to provide them with dowries from my own pocket. Soon their husbands betrayed them; they took what they could, cleared out, and left their wives behind. My two sisters came to me with apologies, saying, “Sister, although you are younger than the two of us in years, you are older in wisdom. We will never mention marriage again. Take us back, and we shall be your servants to earn our upkeep.” I replied, “Sisters, none is dearer to me than you.” I took them in and treated them even more generously than before. We spent the third year together, and all that time my wealth kept increasing, and my circumstances kept getting better and better.

One day, O Commander of the Faithful, I resolved to take my merchandise to Basra.
⁹
I fitted a large ship and loaded it with merchandise, provisions, and other necessities. Then we set out, and for many days we sailed under a fair wind. Soon we discovered that we had strayed from our course, and for twenty days we were lost on the high seas. At the end of the twentieth day, the lookout man, climbing the masthead, cried out, “Good news!” Then he joyfully came down, saying, “I have seen what seems to be a city that looks like a fat pigeon.” We were happy, and in less than an hour our ship entered the harbor, and I disembarked to visit the city. When I came to the gate, I saw people standing there with staves in their hands, but as I drew nearer, I saw that they had been turned by a curse into stone. I went into the city and saw that all the people in their shops had been turned into stone. Not one of them breathed or gave a sign of life. I walked through the streets and found out that the entire city had been turned into hard stone. When I came to the upper end of the city, I saw a door plated with red gold, draped with a silk curtain, and hung with a lamp. Saying to myself, “By God, this is strange! Can it be that there are human beings here!” I entered through the door and found myself in a hall that led to another and then another, and as I kept going from hall to hall all alone, without meeting anyone, I became apprehensive. Then I entered the harem quarters and found myself in an apartment bearing the royal insignia and hung throughout with drapes of gold brocade. There I saw the queen, the king's wife, wearing a dress decorated with opulent pearls, each as big as a hazelnut, and a crown studded with precious stones.

But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she lapsed into silence. Then Dinarzad said to her sister, “Sister, what an entertaining story!” Shahrazad replied, “What is this compared with what I shall tell you tomorrow night if the king spares me and lets me live!”

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The following night Shahrazad said:

I heard, O King, that the girl who was the mistress of the house said to the caliph:

O Commander of the Faithful, the queen wore a crown studded with all kinds of gems, and the apartment was spread with silk tapestries embroidered with gold. In the middle of the hall I saw an ivory bed plated with burnished gold, set with two bosses of green emeralds, and draped with a canopylike net strung with pearls. I saw something glitter, sending rays through the net, and when I approached and put my head in, I saw there, O Commander of the Faithful, set on a pedestal, a gem as big as an ostrich egg, with an incandescent glow and a brilliant light that dazzled the eyes. I also saw silk bedding and a silk coverlet, and beside the pillow, I saw two lighted candles. But there was nobody in the bed. I marveled at the sight, and astonished to find the gem and the two lighted candles, I said to myself, “Someone must have lighted these candles.” Then I proceeded to other rooms and came to the kitchen, then the wine cellar, then the king's treasure chambers. I continued to explore the palace, going from room to room, absorbed in the wonderful sights and the amazing state of the city's inhabitants, until I forgot myself and was surprised by the night. I searched for the gate of the castle, but I lost my way and could not find it, and for a long time I wandered in the dark without finding a place of refuge save the canopied bed with the candles. I lay down there, covered myself with the coverlet, and tried to go to sleep, but I could not.