Arabian Nights

by abc

  The ten years are nearly passed, and I am on the road to find her.

  As in passing I met this merchant and the old man with the hind,

  I stayed with them.

  This is my history, O prince of genii! Do you not think it

  is a most marvellous one?

  "Yes, indeed," replied the genius, "and I will give up to you

  the third of the merchant's punishment."

  Then the third old man made the genius the same request as the

  other two had done, and the genius promised him the last third

  of the merchant's punishment if his story surpassed both the others.

  So he told his story to the genius, but I cannot tell you what it was,

  as I do not know.

  But I do know that it was even more marvellous than either of the others,

  so that the genius was astonished, and said to the third old man,

  "I will give up to you the third part of the merchant's punishment.

  He ought to thank all three of you for having interested yourselves

  in his favour. But for you, he would be here no longer."

  So saying, he disappeared, to the great joy of the company.

  The merchant did not fail to thank his friends, and then each went

  on his way. The merchant returned to his wife and children,

  and passed the rest of his days happily with them.

  "But, sire," added Scheherazade, "however beautiful are the stories I

  have just told you, they cannot compare with the story of the Fisherman."

  The Story of the Fisherman

  Sire, there was once upon a time a fisherman so old and so poor that

  he could scarcely manage to support his wife and three children.

  He went every day to fish very early, and each day he made a rule not

  to throw his nets more than four times. He started out one morning

  by moonlight and came to the sea-shore. He undressed and threw his nets,

  and as he was drawing them towards the bank he felt a great weight.

  He though he had caught a large fish, and he felt very pleased.

  But a moment afterwards, seeing that instead of a fish he only had in

  his nets the carcase of an ass, he was much disappointed.

  Vexed with having such a bad haul, when he had mended his nets,

  which the carcase of the ass had broken in several places, he threw

  them a second time. In drawing them in he again felt a great weight,

  so that he thought they were full of fish. But he only found a large

  basket full of rubbish. He was much annoyed.

  "O Fortune," he cried, "do not trifle thus with me, a poor fisherman,

  who can hardly support his family!"

  So saying, he threw away the rubbish, and after having washed his

  nets clean of the dirt, he threw them for the third time. But he

  only drew in stones, shells, and mud. He was almost in despair.

  Then he threw his nets for the fourth time. When he thought he had

  a fish he drew them in with a great deal of trouble. There was no

  fish however, but he found a yellow pot, which by its weight seemed

  full of something, and he noticed that it was fastened and sealed

  with lead, with the impression of a seal. He was delighted.

  "I will sell it to the founder," he said; "with the money I shall

  get for it I shall buy a measure of wheat."

  He examined the jar on all sides; he shook it to see if it would rattle.

  But he heard nothing, and so, judging from the impression of the seal

  and the lid, he thought there must be something precious inside.

  To find out, he took his knife, and with a little trouble he opened it.

  He turned it upside down, but nothing came out, which surprised

  him very much. He set it in front of him, and whilst he was

  looking at it attentively, such a thick smoke came out that he

  had to step back a pace or two. This smoke rose up to the clouds,

  and stretching over the sea and the shore, formed a thick mist,

  which caused the fisherman much astonishment. When all the smoke

  was out of the jar it gathered itself together, and became a thick

  mass in which appeared a genius, twice as large as the largest giant.

  When he saw such a terrible-looking monster, the fisherman would

  like to have run away, but he trembled so with fright that he could

  not move a step.

  "Great king of the genii," cried the monster, "I will never again

  disobey you!"

  At these words the fisherman took courage.

  "What is this you are saying, great genius? Tell me your history

  and how you came to be shut up in that vase."

  At this, the genius looked at the fisherman haughtily. "Speak to me

  more civilly," he said, "before I kill you."

  "Alas! why should you kill me?" cried the fisherman. "I have just

  freed you; have you already forgotten that?"

  "No," answered the genius; "but that will not prevent me from

  killing you; and I am only going to grant you one favour,

  and that is to choose the manner of your death."

  "But what have I done to you?" asked the fisherman.

  "I cannot treat you in any other way," said the genius, "and if you

  would know why, listen to my story.

  "I rebelled against the king of the genii. To punish me, he shut

  me up in this vase of copper, and he put on the leaden cover

  his seal, which is enchantment enough to prevent my coming out.

  Then he had the vase thrown into the sea. During the first period

  of my captivity I vowed that if anyone should free me before a hundred

  years were passed, I would make him rich even after his death.

  But that century passed, and no one freed me. In the second century I

  vowed that I would give all the treasures in the world to my deliverer;

  but he never came.

  "In the third, I promised to make him a king, to be always near him,

  and to grant him three wishes every day; but that century passed

  away as the other two had done, and I remained in the same plight.

  At last I grew angry at being captive for so long, and I vowed

  that if anyone would release me I would kill him at once,

  and would only allow him to choose in what manner he should die.

  So you see, as you have freed me to-day, choose in what way you

  will die."

  The fisherman was very unhappy. "What an unlucky man I am to have

  freed you! I implore you to spare my life."

  "I have told you," said the genius, "that it is impossible.

  Choose quickly; you are wasting time."

  The fisherman began to devise a plot.

  "Since I must die," he said, "before I choose the manner of my death,

  I conjure you on your honour to tell me if you really were in

  that vase?"

  "Yes, I was" answered the genius.

  "I really cannot believe it," said the fisherman. "That vase could

  not contain one of your feet even, and how could your whole body

  go in? I cannot believe it unless I see you do the thing."

  Then the genius began to change himself into smoke, which, as before,

  spread over the sea and the shore, and which, then collecting

  itself together, began to go back into the vase slowly and evenly

  till there was nothing left outside. Then a voice came from the

  vase which said to the fisherman, "Well, unbelieving fisherman,

  here I am in the vase; do you believe me now?"

  The fisherman instead of answering too
k the lid of lead and shut

  it down quickly on the vase.

  "Now, O genius," he cried, "ask pardon of me, and choose by what death

  you will die! But no, it will be better if I throw you into the sea

  whence I drew you out, and I will build a house on the shore to warn

  fishermen who come to cast their nets here, against fishing up such

  a wicked genius as you are, who vows to kill the man who frees you."

  At these words the genius did all he could to get out, but he

  could not, because of the enchantment of the lid.

  Then he tried to get out by cunning.

  "If you will take off the cover," he said, "I will repay you."

  "No," answered the fisherman, "if I trust myself to you I

  am afraid you will treat me as a certain Greek king treated

  the physician Douban. Listen, and I will tell you."

  The Story of the Greek King and the Physician Douban

  In the country of Zouman, in Persia, there lived a Greek king.

  This king was a leper, and all his doctors had been unable to cure him,

  when a very clever physician came to his court.

  He was very learned in all languages, and knew a great deal about

  herbs and medicines.

  As soon as he was told of the king's illness he put on his best

  robe and presented himself before the king. "Sire," said he,

  "I know that no physician has been able to cure your majesty,

  but if you will follow my instructions, I will promise to cure you

  without any medicines or outward application."

  The king listened to this proposal.

  "If you are clever enough to do this," he said, "I promise to make

  you and your descendants rich for ever."

  The physician went to his house and made a polo club, the handle

  of which he hollowed out, and put in it the drug he wished to use.

  Then he made a ball, and with these things he went the next day to

  the king.

  He told him that he wished him to play at polo. Accordingly the

  king mounted his horse and went into the place where he played.

  There the physician approached him with the bat he had made, saying,

  "Take this, sire, and strike the ball till you feel your hand and whole

  body in a glow. When the remedy that is in the handle of the club

  is warmed by your hand it will penetrate throughout your body.

  The you must return to your palace, bathe, and go to sleep,

  and when you awake to-morrow morning you will be cured."

  The king took the club and urged his horse after the ball which he

  had thrown. He struck it, and then it was hit back by the courtiers

  who were playing with him. When he felt very hot he stopped playing,

  and went back to the palace, went into the bath, and did all that

  the physician had said. The next day when he arose he found,

  to his great joy and astonishment, that he was completely cured.

  When he entered his audience-chamber all his courtiers, who were

  eager to see if the wonderful cure had been effected, were overwhelmed

  with joy.

  The physician Douban entered the hall and bowed low to the ground.

  The king, seeing him, called him, made him sit by his side, and showed

  him every mark of honour.

  That evening he gave him a long and rich robe of state, and presented

  him with two thousand sequins. The following day he continued

  to load him with favours.

  Now the king had a grand-vizir who was avaricious, and envious,

  and a very bad man. He grew extremely jealous of the physician,

  and determined to bring about his ruin.

  In order to do this he asked to speak in private with the king,

  saying that he had a most important communication to make.

  "What is it?" asked the king.

  "Sire," answered the grand-vizir, "it is most dangerous for a monarch

  to confide in a man whose faithfulness is not proved, You do not know

  that this physician is not a traitor come here to assassinate you."

  "I am sure," said the king, "that this man is the most faithful and

  virtuous of men. If he wished to take my life, why did he cure me?

  Cease to speak against him. I see what it is, you are jealous of him;

  but do not think that I can be turned against him. I remember well

  what a vizir said to King Sindbad, his master, to prevent him from

  putting the prince, his son, to death."

  What the Greek king said excited the vizir's curiousity, and he

  said to him, "Sire, I beg your majesty to have the condescension

  to tell me what the vizir said to King Sindbad."

  "This vizir," he replied, "told King Sindbad that one ought not

  believe everything that a mother-in-law says, and told him this story."

  The Story of the Husband and the Parrot

  A good man had a beautiful wife, whom he loved passionately, and never

  left if possible. One day, when he was obliged by important business

  to go away from her, he went to a place where all kinds of birds

  are sold and bought a parrot. This parrot not only spoke well,

  but it had the gift of telling all that had been done before it.

  He brought it home in a cage, and asked his wife to put it in her room,

  and take great care of it while he was away. Then he departed.

  On his return he asked the parrot what had happened during his absence,

  and the parrot told him some things which made him scold his wife.

  She thought that one of her slaves must have been telling tales of her,

  but they told her it was the parrot, and she resolved to revenge

  herself on him.

  When her husband next went away for one day, she told on slave

  to turn under the bird's cage a hand-mill; another to throw water

  down from above the cage, and a third to take a mirror and turn it

  in front of its eyes, from left to right by the light of a candle.

  The slaves did this for part of the night, and did it very well.

  The next day when the husband came back he asked the parrot what

  he had seen. The bird replied, "My good master, the lightning,

  thunder and rain disturbed me so much all night long, that I cannot

  tell you what I have suffered."

  The husband, who knew that it had neither rained nor thundered in

  the night, was convinced that the parrot was not speaking the truth,

  so he took him out of the cage and threw him so roughly on the

  ground that he killed him. Nevertheless he was sorry afterwards,

  for he found that the parrot had spoken the truth.

  "When the Greek king," said the fisherman to the genius,

  "had finished the story of the parrot, he added to the vizir,

  "And so, vizir, I shall not listen to you, and I shall take

  care of the physician, in case I repent as the husband did

  when he had killed the parrot." But the vizir was determined.

  "Sire," he replied, "the death of the parrot was nothing.

  But when it is a question of the life of a king it is better to

  sacrifice the innocent than save the guilty. It is no uncertain

  thing, however. The physician, Douban, wishes to assassinate you.

  My zeal prompts me to disclose this to your Majesty. If I am wrong,

  I deserve to be punished as a vizir was once punished." "What had

  the vizir done," said the Greek king, "to merit the punishment?"

  "I will tell your Majesty, if you will do me the hon
our to listen,"

  answered the vizir."

  The Story of the Vizir Who Was Punished

  There was once upon a time a king who had a son who was very fond

  of hunting. He often allowed him to indulge in this pastime,

  but he had ordered his grand-vizir always to go with him,

  and never to lose sight of him. One day the huntsman roused a stag,

  and the prince, thinking that the vizir was behind, gave chase,

  and rode so hard that he found himself alone. He stopped,

  and having lost sight of it, he turned to rejoin the vizir,

  who had not been careful enough to follow him. But he lost his way.

  Whilst he was trying to find it, he saw on the side of the road

  a beautiful lady who was crying bitterly. He drew his horse's rein,

  and asked her who she was and what she was doing in this place,

  and if she needed help. "I am the daughter of an Indian king,"

  she answered, "and whilst riding in the country I fell asleep and

  tumbled off. My horse has run away, and I do not know what has become

  of him."

  The young prince had pity on her, and offered to take her behind him,

  which he did. As they passed by a ruined building the lady dismounted

  and went in. The prince also dismounted and followed her.

  To his great surprise, he heard her saying to some one inside,

  "Rejoice my children; I am bringing you a nice fat youth." And other

  voices replied, "Where is he, mamma, that we may eat him at once,