Supplemental Nights to The Book of the Thousand and One Nights by Sir Richard Francis Burton (acx book reading txt) 📕

The Story of the Merchant Who Lost his Luck.[FN#149]

There was once a merchant man, who prospered in trade, and at one time his every dirham won him fifty. Presently, his luck turned against him and he knew it not; so he said to himself, “I have wealth galore, yet do I toil and travel from country to country; so better had I abide in my own land and rest myself in my own house from this travail and trouble and sell and buy at home.”

Then he made two parts of his money, and with one bought wheat in summer, saying, “Whenas winter cometh, I shall sell it at a great profit.” But, when the cold set in wheat fell to half the price for which he had purchased it, whereat he was concerned with sore chagrin and left it till the next year. However, the price then fell yet lower and one of his intimates said to him, “Thou hast no luck in this wheat; so do thou sell it at whatsoever price.”

Said the merchant, “Ah, long have I profited! so ‘tis allowable that I lose this time. Allah is all-knowing! An it abide with me ten full years, I will not sell it save for a gaining bargain.”[FN#150] Then he walled up in his anger the granary-door with clay, and by the ordinance of Allah Almighty, there came a great rain and descended from the terrace-roofs of the house wherein was the wheat so that the grain rotted; and the merchant had to pay the porters from his purse five hundred dirhams for them to carry it forth and cast it without the city, the smell of it having become fulsome. So his friend said to him, “How often did I tell thee thou hadst no luck in wheat? But thou wouldst not give ear to my speech, and now it behoveth thee to go to the astrologer[FN#151] and question him of thine ascendant.”

Accordingly the trader betook himself to the astrologer and questioned him of his star, and astrophil said to him, “Thine ascendant is adverse. Put not forth thy hand to any business, for thou wilt not prosper thereby.” However, he paid no heed to the astrologer’s words and said in himself, “If I do my business, I am not afraid of aught.” Then he took the other half of his money, after he had spent the first in three years, and builded him a ship, which he loaded with a cargaison of whatso seemed good to him and all that was with him and embarked on the sea, so he might voyage questing gain. The ship remained in port some days, till he should be certified whither he would wend, and he said, “I will ask the traders what this merchandise profiteth and in what land ‘tis wanted and how much can it gain.” They directed him to a far country, where his dirham should produce an hundredfold. So he set sail and made for the land in question; but, as he went, there blew on him a furious gale, and the ship foundered. The merchant saved himself on a plank and the wind cast him up, naked as he was, on the sea-shore, where stood a town hard by. He praised Allah and gave Him thanks for his preservation; then, seeing a great village nigh hand, he betook himself thither and saw, seated therein, a very old man, whom he acquainted with his case and that which had betided him. The Shaykh grieved for him with sore grieving, when he heard his tale and set food before him. He ate of it and the old man said to him, “Tarry here with me, so I may make thee my overseer[FN#152]

and factor over a farm I have here, and thou shalt have of me five dirhams a day.” Answered the merchant, “Allah make fair thy reward, and requite thee with His boons and bounties.” So he abode in this employ, till he had sowed and reaped and threshed and winnowed, and all was clean in his hand and the Shaykh appointed neither agent nor inspector, but relied utterly upon him. Then the merchant bethought himself and said, “I doubt me the owner of this grain will never give me my due; so the better rede were to take of it after the measure of my wage; and if he give me my right, I will return to him that I have taken.” So he laid hands upon the grain, after the measure of that which fell to him, and hid it in a hiding place. Then he carried the rest and meted it out to the old man, who said to him “Come, take thy wage, for which I conditioned with thee, and sell the grain and buy with the price clothes and what not else; and though thou abide with me ten years, yet shalt thou still have this hire and I will acquit it to thee on this wise.” Quoth the merchant in himself, “Indeed, I have done a foul deed by taking it without his permission.” Then he went to fetch that which he had hidden of the grain, but found it not and returned, perplexed, sorrowful, to the Shaykh, who asked him, “What aileth thee to be mournful?” and he answered, “Methought thou wouldst not pay me my due; so I took of the grain, after the measure of my hire; and now thou hast paid me all my right and I went to bring back to thee that which I had hidden from thee, but found it gone, for those who had come upon it have stolen it.” The Shaykh was wroth, when he heard these words, and said to the merchant, “There is no device against ill luck! I had given thee this but, of the sorriness of thy doom and thy fortune, thou hast done this deed, O oppressor of thine own self! Thou deemedst I would not fulfil to thee thy wage; but, by Allah, nevermore will I give thee aught.” Then he drove him away from him. So the merchant went forth, woeful, grieving, weeping-eyed, and wandered along the sea-shore, till he came to a sort of duckers[FN#153] diving in the sea for pearls. They saw him weeping and wailing and said to him, “What is thy case and what garreth thee shed tears?” So he acquainted them with his history, from incept to conclusion, whereby the duckers knew him and asked him “Art thou Such-an-one, son of Such-an-one?” He answered “Yes;” whereupon they condoled with him and wept sore for him and said to him, “Abide here till we dive upon thy luck this next time and whatso betideth us shall be between us and thee.”[FN#154] Accordingly, they ducked and brought up ten oyster-shells, in each two great unions: whereat they marvelled and said to him,“By Allah, thy luck hath re-appeared and thy good star is in the ascendant!” Then the pearl-fishers gave him the ten pearls and said to him, “Sell two of them and make them thy stockin-trade: and hide the rest against the time of thy straitness.” So he took them, joyful and contented, and applied himself to sewing eight of them in his gown, keeping the two others in his mouth; but a thief saw him and went and advertised his fellows of him; whereupon they gathered together upon him, and took his gown and departed from him. When they were gone away, he arose, saying, “The two unions I have will suffice me,” and made for the nearest city, where he brought out the pearls for sale. Now as Destiny would have it, a certain jeweller of the town had been robbed of ten unions, like those which were with the merchant; so, when he saw the two pearls in the broker’s hand, he asked him, “To whom do these belong?” and the broker answered, “To yonder man.” The jeweller, seeing the merchant in pauper case and clad in tattered clothes, suspected him and said to him, “Where be the other eight pearls?”

The merchant thought he asked him of those which were in the gown, whenas the man had purposed only to surprise him into confession, and replied, “The thieves stole them from me.” When the jeweller heard his reply, he was certified that it was the wight who had taken his good; so he laid hold of him and haling him before the Chief of Police, said to him, “This is the man who stole my unions: I have found two of them upon him and he confesseth to the other eight.” Now the Wali knew of the theft of the pearls; so he bade throw the merchant into jail. Accordingly they imprisoned him and whipped him, and he lay in trunk a whole year, till, by the ordinance of Allah Almighty, the Chief of Police arrested one of the divers aforesaid, and imprisoned him in the prison where the merchant was jailed. The ducker saw him and knowing him, questioned him of his case; whereupon he told them his tale, and that which had befallen him; and the diver marvelled at the lack of his luck. So, when he came forth of the prison, he acquainted the Sultan with the merchant’s case and told him that it was he who had given him the pearls. The Sultan bade bring him forth of the jail, and asked him of his story, whereupon he told him all that had befallen him, and the Sovran pitied him and assigned him a lodging in his own palace, together with pay and allowances for his support. Now the lodging in question adjoined the king’s house, and whilst the merchant was rejoicing in this and saying, “Verily, my luck hath returned, and I shall live in the shadow of this king the rest of my life,” he espied an opening walled up with clay and stones. So he cleared the opening the better to see what was behind it, and behold, it was a window giving upon the lodging of the king’s women. When he saw this, he was startled and affrighted and rising in haste, fetched clay and stopped it up again. But one of the eunuchs[FN#155] saw him, and suspecting him, repaired to the Sultan, and told him of this. So he came and seeing the stones pulled out, was wroth with the merchant and said to him, “Be this my reward from thee, that thou seekest to unveil my Harim?”

Thereupon he bade pluck out his eyes; and they did as he commanded. The merchant took his eyes in his hand and said, “How long, O star of illomen, wilt thou afflict me? First my wealth and now my life!” And he bewailed himself, saying, “Striving profiteth me naught against evil fortune. The Compassionate aided me not, and effort was worse than useless.”[FN#156] “On like wise, O king,” continued the youth, “whilst fortune was favourable to me, all that I did came to good; but now that it hath turned against me, everything turneth to mine ill.” When the youth had made