The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 1 by Sir Richard Francis Burton (classic literature list TXT) 📕

Time hath recorded gifts she gave the great; * But none recorded shine which be far higher

Allah ne’er orphan men by loss of thee * Who be of Goodness mother. Bounty’s sire.

And I wrote in Rayh�ni or larger letters elegantly curved[FN#230]:—

Thou hast a reed[FN#231] of rede to every land, * Whose driving causeth all the world to thrive; Nil is the Nile of Misraim by thy boons * Who makest misery smile with fingers five

Then I wrote in the Suls[FN#232] character:—

There be no writer who from Death shall fleet, * But what his hand hath writ men shall repeat: Write, therefore, naught save what shall serve thee when * Thou see’s on Judgment-Day an so thou see’s!

Then I wrote in the character Naskh[FN#233]:—

When to sore parting Fate our love shall doom, * To distant life by Destiny decreed,

We cause the inkhorn’s lips to ‘plain our pains, * And tongue our utterance with the talking reed.

And I wrote in the T�m�r character[FN#234]:—

Kingdom with none endures; if thou deny * This truth, where be the Kings of earlier earth?

Set trees of goodliness while rule endures, * And when thou art fallen they shall tell thy worth.

And I wrote in the character Muhakkak[FN#235]:—

When oped the inkhorn of thy wealth and fame * Take ink of generous heart and gracious hand; Write brave and noble deeds while write thou can * And win thee praise from point of pen and brand.

Then I gave the scroll to the officials and, after we all had written our line, they carried it before the King. When he saw the paper no writing pleased him save my writing; and he said to the assembled courtiers, “Go seek the writer of these lines and dress him in a splendid robe of honour; then mount him on a she mule,[FN#236] let a band of music precede him and bring him to the presence.” At these words they smiled and the King was wroth with them and cried, “O accursed! I give you an order and you laugh at me?” “O King,” replied they, “if we laugh ‘tis not at thee and not without a cause.” “And what is it?” asked he; and they answered, “O King, thou orderest us to bring to thy presence the man who wrote these lines; now the truth is that he who wrote them is not of the sons of Adam,[FN#237] but an ape, a tail-less baboon, belonging to the ship captain.” Quoth he, “Is this true that you say?” Quoth they, “Yea! by the rights of thy munificence!” The King marvelled at their words and shook with mirth and said, “I am minded to buy this ape of the Captain.”

Then he sent messengers to the ship with the mule, the dress, the guard and the state drums, saying, “Not the less do you clothe him in the robe of honour and mount him on the mule and let him be surrounded by the guards and preceded by the band of music.”

They came to the ship and took me from the Captain and robed me in the robe of honour and, mounting me on the she mule, carried me in state procession through the streets’, whilst the people were amazed and amused. And folk said to one another, “Halloo! is our Sultan about to make an ape his Minister?”; and came all agog crowding to gaze at me, and the town was astir and turned topsy turvy on my account. When they brought me up to the King and set me in his presence, I kissed the ground before him three times, and once before the High Chamberlain and great officers, and he bade me be seated, and I sat respectfully on shins and knees,[FN#238] and all who were present marvelled at my fine manners, and the King most of all. Thereupon he ordered the lieges to retire; and, when none remained save the King’s majesty, the Eunuch on duty and a little white slave, he bade them set before me the table of food, con taining all manner of birds, whatever hoppeth and flieth and treadeth in nest, such as quail and sand grouse. Then he signed me to eat with him; so I rose and kissed ground before him, then sat me down and ate with him. And when the table was removed I washed my hands in seven waters and took the reed-case and reed; and wrote instead of speaking these couplets:—

Wail for the little partridges on porringer and plate; * Cry for the ruin of the fries and stews well marinate: Keen as I keen for loved, lost daughters of the Kat�-grouse,[FN#239] * And omelette round the fair enbrowned fowls agglomerate:

O fire in heart of me for fish, those deux poissons I saw, *

Bedded on new made scones[FN#240] and cakes in piles to laniate.

For thee, O vermicelli! aches my very maw! I hold Without thee every taste and joy are clean annihilate Those eggs have rolled their yellow eyes in torturing pains of fire Ere served with hash and fritters hot, that delicatest cate.

Praised be Allah for His baked and roast and ah! how good * This pulse, these pot-herbs steeped in oil with eysill combinate!

When hunger sated was, I elbow-propt fell back upon * Meat pudding[FN#241] wherein gleamed the bangles that my wits amate.

Then woke I sleeping appetite to eat as though in sport * Sweets from broceded trays and kickshaws most elaborate.

Be patient, soul of me! Time is a haughty, jealous wight; * Today he seems dark-lowering and tomorrow fair to sight.[FN#242]

Then I rose and seated myself at a respectful distance while the King read what I had written, and marvelled, exclaiming, “O the miracle, that an ape should be gifted with this graceful style and this power of penmanship! By Allah, ‘tis a wonder of wonders!” Presently they set before the King choice wines in flagons of glass and he drank: then he passed on the cup to me; and I kissed the ground and drank and wrote on it:—

With fire they boiled me to loose my tongue,[FN#243] And pain and patience gave for fellowship: Hence comes it hands of men upbear me high And honey dew from lips of maid I sip!

And these also:—

Morn saith to Night, “withdraw and let me shine;” * So drain we draughts that dull all pain and pine:[FN#244]

I doubt, so fine the glass, the wine so clear, * If ‘tis the wine in glass or glass in twine.

The King read my verse and said with a sigh, “Were these gifts[FN#245] in a man, he would excel all the folk of his time and age!” Then he called for the chess board, and said, “Say, wilt thou play with me?”; and I signed with my head, “Yes.” Then I came forward and ordered the pieces and played with him two games, both of which I won. He was speechless with surprise; so I took the pen case and, drawing forth a reed, wrote on the board these two couplets:—

Two hosts fare fighting thro’ the livelong day * Nor is their battling ever finished,

Until, when darkness girdeth them about, * The twain go sleeping in a single bed.[FN#246]

The King read these lines with wonder and delight and said to his Eunuch,[FN#247] “O Mukbil, go to thy mistress, Sitt al-Husn,[FN#248] and say her, ‘Come, speak the King who biddeth thee hither to take thy solace in seeing this right wondrous ape!”’ So the Eunuch went out and presently returned with the lady who, when she saw me veiled her face and said, “O my father! hast thou lost all sense of honour? How cometh it thou art pleased to send for me and show me to strange men?” “O Sitt al-Husn,” said he, “no man is here save this little foot page and the Eunuch who reared thee and I, thy father. Prom whom, then, cost thou veil thy face?” She answered, “This whom thou deemest an ape is a young man, a clever and polite, a wise and learned and the son of a King; but he is ensorcelled and the Ifrit Jirjaris, who is of the seed of Iblis, cast a spell upon him, after putting to death his own wife the daughter of King Ifitamus lord of the Islands of Abnus.” The King marvelled at his daughter’s words and, turning to me, said, “Is this true that she saith of thee?”; and I signed by a nod of my head the answer, “Yea, verily;” and wept sore.

Then he asked his daughter, “Whence knewest thou that he is ensorcelled?”; and she answered, “O my dear papa, there was with me in my childhood an old woman, a wily one and a wise and a witch to boot, and she taught me the theory of magic and its practice; and I took notes in writing and therein waxed perfect, and have committed to memory an hundred and seventy chapters of egro mantic formulas, by the least of which I could transport the stones of thy city behind the Mountain Kaf and the Circum ambient Main,[FN#249] or make its site an abyss of the sea and its people fishes swimming in the midst of it.” “O my daughter,” said her father, “I conjure thee, by my life, disenchant this young man, that I may make him my Wazir and marry thee to him, for indeed he is an ingenious youth and a deeply learned.” “With joy and goodly gree,” she replied and, hending in hand an iron knife whereon was inscribed the name of Allah in Hebrew characters, she described a wide circle—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

When it was the Fourteenth Night, She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Kalandar continued his tale thus:—O my lady, the King’s daughter hent in hand a knife whereon were inscribed Hebrew characters and described a wide circle in the midst of the palace hall, and therein wrote in Cufic letters mysterious names and talismans; and she uttered words and muttered charms, some of which we under stood and others we understood not. Presently the world waxed dark before our sight till we thought that the sky was falling upon our heads, and lo! the Ifrit presented himself in his own shape and aspect. His hands were like many pronged pitch forks, his legs like the masts of great ships, and his eyes like cressets of gleaming fire. We were in terrible fear of him but the King’s daughter cried at him, “No welcome to thee and no greeting, O dog!” whereupon he changed to the form of a lion and said, “O traitress, how is it thou hast broken the oath we sware that neither should contraire other!” “O accursed one,” answered she, “how could there be a compact between me and the like of thee?” Then said he, “Take what thou has brought on thy self;”

and the lion opened his jaws and rushed upon her; but she was too quick for him; and, plucking a hair from her head, waved it in the air muttering over it the while; and the hair straightway became a trenchant sword blade, wherewith she smote the lion and cut him in twain. Then the two halves flew away in air and the head changed to a scorpion and the Princess became a huge serpent and set upon the accursed scorpion, and the two fought, coiling and uncoiling, a stiff fight for an hour at least. Then the scorpion changed to a vulture and the serpent became an eagle which set