The Arabian Nights Entertainments by Anonymous (best books to read .txt) 📕

Meanwhile I had a great deal of liberty, so that there was scarcely any notice taken of what I did; and this gave me an opportunity one day to get at a distance from the houses, and to make my escape. An old man who saw me, and suspected my design, called to me as loud as he could to return; but, instead of obeying him, I redoubled my pace, and, quickly got out of sight. At that time there was none but an old man about the houses, the rest being abroad, and not to come home till night, which was pretty usual with them. Therefore, being sure that they could not come time enough to pursue me, I went on till night, when I stopped to rest a little, and to eat some of the provisions I had taken care of; but I speedily set forward again, and travelled seven days, avoiding those places which seemed to be inhabited, and lived for the most part upon cocoa nuts, which served me both for meat and drink. On the eighth day I came near the sea, and saw all of a sudden white people like myself gathering pepper, of which there was great plenty in that place; this I took to be a good omen, and went to them without any scruple. The people who gathered pepper came to meet me, and, as soon as they saw me, asked me in Arabic, who I was, and whence I came? I was overjoyed to hear them speak in my own language, and willingly satisfied their curiosity by giving them an account of my shipwreck, and how I fell into the hands of the blacks. Those blacks, replied they, eat men; but by what miracle did you escape their cruelty? I told them the same story I now told you, at which they were wonderfully surprised. I staid with them till they had gathered their quantity of pepper, and then sailed with them to the island from whence they came. They presented me to their king, who was a good prince: He had the patience to hear the relation of my adventures, which surprised him; and he afterwards gave me clothes, and commanded care to be taken of me. The island was very well peopled, plentiful of everything, and the capital was a place of great trade. This agreeable place of retreat was very comfortable to me after my misfortune, and the kindness of this generous prince towards me completed my satisfaction. In a word, there was not a person more in favour with him than myself, and by consequence every man in court and city sought how to oblige me; so that in a very little time I was looked upon rather as a native than a stranger. I observed one thing which to me appeared very extraordinary; all the people, the king himself not excepted, rode their horses without bridles or stirrups. This made me one day take the liberty to ask the king how that came to pass. His majesty answered, that I talked to him of things which nobody knew the use of in his dominions. I went immediately to a workman, and gave him a model for making the stock of a saddle. When that was done, I covered it myself with velvet and leather, and embroidered it with gold. I afterwards went to a locksmith, who made me a bridle according to the pattern I showed him, and then he also made me some stirrups. When I had all things completed, I presented them to the king, and put them upon one of his horses. His majesty mounted immediately, and was so mightily pleased with them, that he testified his satisfaction by large presents to me. I could not avoid making several others for his ministers and principal officers of his household, who all of them made me presents that enriched me in a little time. I also made for the people of quality in the city, so that I gained great reputation and regard from everybody.

As I made my court very exactly to the king, he says to me one day, Sindbad, I love thee; and all my subjects, who know thee, treat thee according to my example. I have one thing to demand of thee, which thou must grant. Sir, answered I, there is nothing but what I will do as a mark of my obedience to your majesty, whose power over me is absolute. I have a mind thou shouldst marry, replies he, that thou mayst stay in my dominions, and think no more of thy own country. I dared not resist the prince's will, and he gave me one of the ladies of his court, a noble, beautiful, chaste, and rich lady. The ceremonies of marriage being over, I went and dwelt with the lady, and for some time we lived in perfect harmony. I was not, however, very well satisfied with my condition, and therefore designed to make my escape on the first occasion, and to return to Bagdad, winch my present establishment, however advantageous, could not make me forget. While I was thinking on this, the wife of one of my neighbours, with whom I had contracted a very strict friendship, fell sick and died. I went to see and comfort him in his affliction; and finding him swallowed up with sorrow, I said to him as soon as I saw him, God preserve you, and grant you a long life. Alas! replies he, how do you think I should obtain that favour you wish me? I have not above an hour to live. Pray, says I, do not entertain such a melancholy thought; I hope it will not be so, but that I shall enjoy your company for many years. I wish you, says he, a long life; but for me, my days are at an end, for I must be buried this day with my wife. This is a law which our ancestors established in this land, and always observed it inviolably. The living husband is interred with the dead wife, and the living wife with the dead husband. Nothing can save me; every one must submit to this law. While he was entertaining me with an account of this barbarous custom, the very hearing of which frightened me cruelly, his kindred, friends, and neighbours, came in a body to assist at the funeral. They put on the corpse the woman's richest apparel, as if it had been her wedding-day, and dressed her with all her jewels; then they put her into an open coffin, and, lifting it up, began their march to the place of burial. The husband walked at the head of the company, and followed the corpse. They went up to an high mountain, and, when they came thither, took up a great stone, which covered the mouth of a very deep pit, and let down the corpse with all its apparel and jewels. Then the husband, embracing his kindred and friends, suffered himself to be put into another open coffin without resistance, with a pot of water and seven little loaves, and was let down in the same manner as his wife. The mountain was pretty long, and reached to the sea. The ceremony being ever, they covered the hole again with the stone, and returned.

It is needless, gentlemen, for me to tell you that I was the only melancholy spectator of this funeral; whereas the rest were scarcely moved at it, the thing being customary to them. I could not forbear speaking my thoughts of this matter to the king: Sir, says I, I cannot enough admire the strange custom in this country of burying the living with the dead. I have been a great traveller, and seen many countries, but never heard of so cruel a law. What do you mean, Sindbad? says the king; it is a common law. I shall be interred with the queen my wife, if she die first. But, sir, says I, may I presume to demand of your majesty, if strangers be obliged to observe this law? Without doubt, replies the king, (smiling at the occasion of my question,) they are not exempted, if they be married in this island. I went home very melancholy at this answer, from fear of my wife dying first, and lest I should be interred alive with her, which occasioned me very mortifying reflections. But there was no remedy; I must have patience, and submit to the will of God. I trembled, however, at every little indisposition of my wife: but, alas! in a little time my fears came upon me all at once; for she fell sick, and died in a few days. You may judge of my sorrow: to be interred alive seemed to me as deplorable an end as to be devoured by cannibals. But I must submit; the king and all his court would honour the funeral with their presence, and the most considerable people of the city would do the like. When all was ready for the ceremony, the corpse was put into a coffin, with all the jewels and magnificent apparel. The cavalcade was begun; and, as second actor in this doleful tragedy, I went next the corpse, with my eyes full of tears, bewailing my deplorable fate. Before I came to the mountain, I made an essay on the minds of the spectators; I addressed myself to the king in the first place, and then to all those who were round me, and, bowing before them to the earth to kiss the border of their garments, I prayed them to have compassion upon me. Consider, said I, that I am a stranger, and ought not to be subject to this rigorous law, and that I have another wife and children in my own country[Footnote: He was a Mahometan, and this sect allows polygamy.]. It was to no purpose for me to speak thus, for no soul was moved at it; on the contrary, they made haste to let down my wife's corpse into the pit, and put me down the next moment in an open coffin, with a vessel full of water, and seven loaves. In short, the fatal ceremony being performed, they covered up the mouth of the pit, notwithstanding the excess of my grief, and my lamentable cries. As I came near the bottom, I discovered, by help of the little light that came from above, the nature of this subterraneous place; it was a vast long cave, and might be about fifty fathoms deep. I immediately felt an insufferable stench, proceeding from the multitude of dead corpses which I saw on the right and left; nay, I fancied that I heard some of them sigh out their last. However, when I got down, I immediately left my coffin, and getting at a distance from the corpse, held my nose, and lay down upon the ground, where I staid a long time, bathed in tears. Then reflecting upon my sad lot, It is true, said I, that God disposes all things according to the decrees of his providence; but, poor Sindbad, art not thou thyself the cause of being brought to die so strange a death? Would to God thou hadst perished in some of those tempests which thou hast escaped; then thy death would not have been so lingering and terrible in all its circumstances. But thou hast drawn all this upon thyself by thy cursed avarice. Ah, unfortunate wretch! shouldst thou not rather have staid at home, and quietly enjoyed the fruits of thy labour?

Such were the vain complaints with which I made the cave to echo, beating my head and stomach out of rage and despair, and abandoning myself to the most afflicting thoughts. Nevertheless, I must tell you, that instead of calling death to my assistance in that miserable condition, I felt still an inclination to live, and to do all I could to prolong my days. I went groping about, with my nose stopped, for the bread and water that was in my coffin, and took some of it. Though the darkness of the cave was so great that I could not distinguish day and night, yet I always found my coffin again, and the cave seemed to be more spacious and fuller of corpses than