The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 14 by Sir Richard Francis Burton (the best books to read TXT) 📕

and all the guests came forward and fell to eating and drinking. Thereupon the King’s cousin-wife brought a plate seasoned with Bhang and set it before the concubine who had no sooner eaten it and it had settled in her stomach than she trembled as with sudden palsy and fell to the ground without power of motion. Then the Queen bade place her in a box and having locked her therein sent for one who was Skaykh of the Brokers and committed to him the coffer saying, “Do thou sell it for an hundred gold pieces whilst it is locked and fast locked and suffer not any open it, otherwise we will work for the cutting off of thy hands.” He replied, “To hear is to obey;” and took up the box and went with it to the market-street where he said to the brokers, “Cry for sale this coffer at an hundred dinars and if any attempt to open it, open it not to any by any manner of means.” So they took their station and made auction of it for an hundred gold pieces, when by the decree of Destiny the Bhang-eater passed down the street exulting in his hundred dinars which he had found in the crock while levelling the wall belonging to the woman. Thereupon he came up and having paid the price required carried off his coffer saying in his mind, “My luck is my livelihood.” After this he went to his own cell and opened it and found there the handmaid in condition as though drunken with wine. Such is the history of that concubine Kut al-Kulub and she fell not into the hand of the Bhang-eater save by the wile and guile of the Sultan’s cousin-wife. But when she recovered from her fainting fit and gazed around and understood what had befallen her she concealed her secret and said to the man, “Verily this thy cell becometh us not;” and, as she had somewhat of gold pieces with her and a collar of jewels around her neck worth a thousand dinars, she brought out for him some money and sent him forth to hire for them a house in the middle of the quarter beffiting great folk and when this was done she had herself transported thither. Then she would give him every day spending-money to buy whatso she ever required and she would cook the delicatest dishes fit for the eating of the Kings wherewith she fed herself and her owner. This continued for twenty days when suddenly the Sultan returned from his hunting party and as soon as he entered his palace he asked for Kut al-Kulub.—And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and fell silent and ceased to say her permitted say. Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, “How sweet is thy story, O sister mine, and how enjoyable and delectable!” Quoth she, “And where is this compared with that I should relate to you on the coming night, an the Sovran suffer me to survive?” Now when it was the next night and that was

 

The Four Hundred and Seventh Night, Dunyazad said to her, “Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching of this our latter night!” She replied, “With love and good will!” It hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding, lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming and worthy celebrating, that as soon as the Sultan returned from the chase he asked after Kut al-Kuluh from his exceeding desire to her, and the daughter of his uncle told him the tidings saying, “By Allah, O King of the Age, three days after thou faredst forth there came upon her malaise and malady wherein she abode six days and then she deceased to the mercy of Almighty Allah.” He exclaimed, “There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great! Verily we are the Almighty’s and unto Him shall we return.” Then befel him the extreme of grief and straitness of breast and he passed that night in exceeding cark and care for Kut al-Kulub. And when it was morning he sent after the Wazir and summoned him between his hands and bade him go forth to the Tigris-bank and there approve some place whereon he might build a palace which should command all roads. The Minister replied, “Hearkening and obeying;” and hied to do his lord’s bidding taking with him architects[FN#269] and others, and having found a piece of level ground he ordered them to measure an hundred ells of length for the building by a breadth of seventy cubits. Presently he sent for surveyors and master-masons whom he commanded to make ready every requisite for the work, of ashlar and lime and lead; also to dig trenches for the base of the walls. Then they fell to laying the foundations, and the builders and handicraftsmen began to pile the stones and prepare the loads while the Wazir stood by them bidding and forbidding. Now when it was the third day, the Sultan went forth the Palace to look at the masons and artizans who were working at the foundations of his new edifice. And as soon as he had inspected it, it pleased him, so he said to the Wazir, “Wall�hi! none would befit this palace save and except Kut al-Kulub, when ‘twould have been full of significance;” and so saying he wept with sore weeping at the remembrance of her. Quoth the Wazir to him, “O King of the Age, have patience when calamity afflicteth thee, even as said one of them with much meaning, anent long-suffering:—

 

‘Be patient under weight of wrath and blow of sore calamities: *

The Nights compressed by Time’s embrace gravid� miras gerunt res.’”[FN#270]

 

Then quoth the Sultan, “‘Tis well, O Wazir, I know that patience is praiseworthy and fretfulness is blameworthy, for indeed quoth the poet:—

 

When Time shall turn on thee, have patience for ‘tis best of plight: * Ease shall pursue unease and naught but suffrance make it light;’

 

and by Allah, O Wazir, human nature is never free from sad thought and remembrance. Verily that damsel pleased me and I delighted in her; nor can I ever think to find one like her in beauty and loveliness.” Thereupon the Wazir fell to guiding the Sultan with fair words until his breast was broadened and the two began to solace themselves by inspecting the masons. After this the Sultan would go forth every morning for solace to Tigris-bank and tidings reached the ears of Kut al-Kulub that her lord was engaged on building a riverine palace, whereupon she said to the Bhang-eater, “Day by day we expend money upon our condition, and our outgoing is without incoming, so ‘twere but right that each morning thou fare and work with the workmen who are edifying a mansion for the Sultan, inasmuch as the folk declare that he is of temper mild and merciful and haply thou shalt gain from him profit and provision.” “O my lady,” he replied, “by Allah, I have no patience to part with thee or to be far from thee;” and he said so because he loved her and she loved him, for that since the time he had found her locked in the box and had looked upon her he had never required of her her person and this was indeed from his remembrance, for he bore in mind but too well what had befallen him from the Khwajah’s daughter. And she on her side used to say, “‘Tis a wondrous thing that yon Bhang-eater never asketh me aught nor draweth nigh me seeing that I be a captive of his right hand.” So she said to him, “Assuredly thou dost love me?” and said he, “How can it be otherwise when thou art the blood of my life and the light of mine eyes?” “O light of mine eyes,” she replied, “take this necklace and set it in thy breastpocket and go work at the Sultan’s palace, and as often as thou shalt think of me, do thou take it out and consider it and smell it and it shall be as if thou wert to see me.” Hearing this he obeyed her and went forth till he reached the palace where he found the builders at work and the Sultan and the Wazir sitting in a Kiosk hard by overseeing the masons and the workmen; —And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and fell silent and ceased saying her permitted say. Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, “How sweet and tasteful is thy tale, O sister mine, and enjoyable and delectable!” Quoth she, “And where is this compared with that I would relate to you on the coming night an the Sovran suffer me to survive?” Now when it was the next night and that was The Four Hundred and Eighth Night, Dunyazad said to her, “Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching of this our latter night!” She replied, “With love and good will!” It hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding, lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deed fair-seeming and worthy celebrating, that when the Bhang-eater joined the masons he saw the Sultan and Wazir overseeing them; and, as soon as the King sighted him, he opened his breast to him and said, “O man, wilt thou also do work?” and said the other, “Yes.” So he bade him labour with the builders and he continued toiling till hard upon noontide, at which time he remembered his slave-girl and forthright he bowed his head upon his bosom-pocket and he sniffed thereat. The Wazir saw him so doing and asked him, “What is the meaning of thy sniffing at what is in thy poke?” and he answered him, “No matter.” However the Minister espied him a second time occupied in like guise and quoth he to the Sultan, “Look, O King of the Age, at yon labourer who is hiding something in his pocket and smelling thereat.”

“Haply,” responded the Sovran, “there is in his pouch something he would look at.” However when the Sultan’s glance happened to fall that way he beheld the Bhang-eater sniffing and smelling at his poke, so he said to the Wazir, “Wall�hi! Verily this workman’s case is a strange.” Hereupon both fixed their eyes upon him and they saw him again hiding somewhat in his pouch and smelling at it. The Wazir cried, “Verily this fellow is a-fizzling and he boweth his head toward his breast in order that he may savour his own farts.”[FN#271] The Sultan laughed and said, “By Allah, if he do on this wise ‘tis a somewhat curious matter, or perhaps, O Wazir, he have some cause to account for it; at any rate do thou call out to him and ask him.” So the Wazir arose and drawing near to him asked him saying, “Ho, this one![FN#272] every time thou fizzlest thou smellest and sniffest at thy fizzlings;” whereto answered the workman, “Wag not thy tongue with these words seeing thou art in the presence of a King glorious of degree.” Quoth the Minister, “What is the matter with thee in this case that thou art sniffing at thy pocket?” and quoth the labourer, “Verily my beloved is in my pouch.” The Wazir wondered hereat and reported the same to the Sultan who cried, “Return to him and say, ‘Is it possible that thou display to us thy beloved who is in thy breastpocket?’” So he returned to him and said, “Show us what there is in thy pouch.” Now the origin of this necklace was that the King