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

As for his mother, Shah Khatun, great was her longing for her child and she thought of him ever and news of him was cut off from her, so her life was troubled and she foresware sleep and could not make mention of him before King Caesar her spouse. Now she had a Castrato who had come with her from the court of her uncle King Sulayman Shah, and he was intelligent, quickwitted, right-reded. So she took him apart one day and said to him, shedding tears the while, “Thou hast been my Eunuch from my childhood to this day; canst thou not therefore get me tidings of my son, seeing that I cannot speak of his matter?” He replied, “O

my lady, this is an affair which thou hast concealed from the commencement, and were thy son here, ‘twould not be possible for thee to entertain him, lest[FN#243] thine honour be smirched with the king; for they would never credit thee, since the news hath been bruited abroad that thy son was slain by his uncle.” Quoth she, “The case is even as thou sayst and thou speaketh sooth; but, provided I know that my son is alive, let him be in these parts pasturing sheep and let me not sight him nor he sight me.”

He asked, “How shall we manage in this matter?” and she answered, “Here be my treasures and my wealth: take all thou wilt and bring me my son or else tidings of him.” Then they devised a device between them, which was that they should feign some business in their own country, to wit that she had wealth there buried from the time of her husband, Malik Shah, and that none knew of it but this Eunuch who was with her, so it behoved him to go fetch it.

Accordingly she acquainted the king her husband with that and sought his permit for the Eunuch to fare: and the king granted him leave of absence for the journey and charged him devise a device, lest he come to grief. The Castrato, therefore, disguised himself in merchant’s habit and repairing to Bahluwan’s city, began to make espial concerning the youth’s case; whereupon they told him that he had been prisoned in a souterrain and that his uncle had released him and despatched him to such a place, where they had slain him. When the Eunuch heard this, the mishap was grievous to him and his breast was straitened and he knew not what to do. It chanced one day of the days that a certain of the horsemen, who had fallen in with the young Malik Shah by the water and clad him and given him spendingmoney, saw the Eunuch in the city, habited as a merchant, and recognising him, questioned him of his case and of the cause of his coming. Quoth he, “I came to sell merchandise;” and quoth the horseman, “I will tell thee somewhat, an thou canst keep it secret.” Answered the Neutral, “That I can! What is it?” and the other said, “We met the king’s son Malik Shah, I and sundry of the Arabs who were with me, and saw him by such a water and gave him spendingmoney and sent him towards the land of the Roum, near his mother, for that we feared for him lest his uncle Bahluwan slay him.” Then he told him all that had passed between them, whereat the Eunuch’s countenance changed and he said to the cavalier “Thou art safe!” The knight replied, “Thou also art safe though thou come in quest of him.”

And the Eunuch rejoined, saying, “Truly, that is my errand: there is no rest for his mother, lying down or rising up, and she hath sent me to seek news of him.” Quoth the cavalier, “Go in safety, for he is in a quarter of the land of the Roum, even as I said to thee.” The Castrato thanked him and blessed him and mounting, returned upon his road, following the trail, whilst the knight rode with him to a certain highway, when he said to him, “This is where we left him.” Then he took leave of him and returned to his own city, whilst the Eunuch fared on along the road, enquiring in every village he entered of the youth, by the description which the rider had given him, and he ceased not thus to do till he came to the village wherein was young Malik Shah. So he entered, and dismounting, made enquiry after the Prince, but none gave him news of him; whereat he abode perplexed concerning his affair and made ready to depart. Accordingly he mounted his horse; but, as he passed through the village, he saw a cow bound with a rope and a youth asleep by her side, hending the halter in hand; so he looked at him and passed on and heeded him not in his heart; but presently he halted and said to himself, “An the youth whom I am questing have become the like of this sleeping youth whom I passed but now, how shall I know him? Alas, the length of my travail and travel! How shall I go about in search of a somebody I know not, one whom, if I saw him face to face I should not know?” So saying he turned back, musing anent that sleeping youth, and coming to him, he still sleeping, dismounted from his mare and sat down by his side. He fixed his eyes upon his face and considered him awhile and said in himself, “For aught I wot, this youth may be Malik Shah;” then he began hemming and saying, “Harkye, O youth!” Whereupon the sleeper awoke and sat up; and the Eunuch asked him, “Who be thy father in this village and where be thy dwelling?” The youth sighed and replied, “I am a stranger;” and quoth the Castrato, “From what land art thou and who is thy sire?” Quoth the other, “I am from such a land,” and the Eunuch ceased not to question him and he to answer his queries, till he was certified of him and knew him. So he rose and embraced him and kissed him and wept over his case: he also told him that he was wandering about in search of him and informed him that he was come privily from the king, his mother’s husband, and that his mother would be satisfied to weet that he was alive and well, though she saw him not. Then he re-entered the village and buying the Prince a horse, mounted him and they ceased not going till they came to the frontier of their own country, where there fell robbers upon them by the way and took all that was with them and pinioned them; after which they threw them in a pit hard by the road and went their ways and left them to die there; and indeed they had cast many folk into that pit and they had perished. The Eunuch fell a-weeping in the pit and the youth said to him, “What is this weeping and what shall it profit here?” Quoth the Castrato, “I weep not for fear of death, but of ruth for thee and the cursedness of thy case and because of thy mother’s heart and for that which thou hast suffered of horrors and that thy death should be this ignoble death, after the endurance of all manner dire distresses.” But the youth said, “That which hath betided me was writ to me and that which is written none hath power to efface; and if my life-term be advanced, none may defer it.”[FN#244] Then the twain passed that night and the following day and the next night and the next day in the hollow, till they were weak with hunger and came nigh upon death and could but groan feebly. Now it fortuned by the decree of Almighty Allah and His destiny, that Caesar, king of the Greeks, the spouse of Malik Shah’s mother Shah Khatun, went forth a-hunting that morning. He flushed a head of game, he and his company, and chased it, till they came up with it by that pit, whereupon one of them lighted down from his horse, to slaughter it, hard by the mouth of the hollow. He heard a sound of low moaning from the sole of the pit; whereat he arose and mounting his horse, waited till the troops were assembled. Then he acquainted the king with this and he bade one of his servants descend into the hollow: so the man climbed down and brought out the youth and the Eunuch in fainting condition. They cut their pinion-bonds and poured wine down their throats, till they came to themselves, when the king looked at the Eunuch and recognising him, said, “Harkye, Suchan-one!” The Castrato replied, “Yes, O my lord the king,” and prostrated himself to him; whereat the king wondered with exceeding wonder and asked him, “How camest thou to this place and what hath befallen thee?” The Eunuch answered, “I went and took out the treasure and brought it thus far; but the evil eye was behind me and I unknowing. So the thieves took us alone here and seized the money and cast us into this pit that we might die the slow death of hunger, even as they had done with others; but Allah the Most High sent thee, in pity to us.” The king marvelled, he and his, and praised the Lord for that he had come thither; after which he turned to the Castrato and said to him, “What is this youth thou hast with thee?” He replied, “O

king, this is the son of a nurse who belonged to us and we left him when he was a little one. I saw him to-day and his mother said to me, �Take him with thee;’ so this morning I brought him that he might be a servant to the king, for that he is an adroit youth and a clever.” Then the king fared on, he and his company, and with them the Eunuch and the youth, who questioned his companion of Bahluwan and his dealing with his subjects, and he replied, saying, “As thy head liveth, O my lord the king, the folk are in sore annoy with him and not one of them wisheth a sight of him, be they high or low.” When the king returned to his palace, he went in to his wife Shah Khatun and said to her, “I give thee the glad tidings of thine Eunuch’s return;” and he told her what had betided and of the youth whom he had brought with him. When she heard this, her wits fled and she would have screamed, but her reason restrained her, and the king said to her, “What is this? Art thou overcome with grief for the loss of the monies