Arabian Nights

by Richard Burton

  “It’s my master, Kasim, who’s sick,” she said. “He’s not said a word or eaten anything for many days now, and we’re afraid he may die.”

  The next day Morgiana went again and asked the druggist for more medicine given to the sick to help them rally when they may be on the brink of death. The man gave her the potion, and as she took it, she sighed loudly, wept a few tears, and said, “I fear that he may not even have the strength to drink this draught. I think it will be all over for him before I reach the house.”

  Early on the second day, Morgiana covered her face with a veil and went to a man named Baba Mustafa, an old tailor, who made shrouds and sewed cloths together, and as soon as she saw him open his shop, she gave him a gold coin and said, “I want you to let me bind a kerchief over your eyes and then to come along with me.”

  When Mustafa hesitated, she placed a second gold coin in his palm and pleaded with him to follow her. Since he was a greedy man, he finally agreed, and she tied a kerchief over his eyes and led him by the hand to the house in which the dead body of her master was lying. Then after taking off the kerchief in the darkened room, she told him to sew the quarters of the corpse, limb to limb, and after throwing a cloth over the body, she said, “Make haste and sew a shroud according to the size of this dead man, and I’ll give you another ducat.”

  Baba Mustafa quickly made the cloth so that it fit the body, and Morgiana paid him the promised gold coin. Then she tied the kerchief around his eyes once more and led him back to his shop. After this she returned home as fast as she could, and with the help of Ali Baba, she washed the body in warm water and then covered the corpse with the shroud and placed it upon a clean place ready for burial. When all this was done, Morgiana went to the mosque and notified an imam, a leader of prayer, that a funeral was awaiting the mourners in a certain household, and she requested that he come and read the prayers for the dead. The imam consented and returned with her. Then four neighbors lifted the bier, carried it on their shoulders, and went forth with the imam and others, who customarily gave their assistance at such obsequies. After the funeral prayers had ended, four other men carried off the coffin, and Morgiana walked before it with a bare head, striking her breast and wailing loudly, while Ali Baba and the neighbors followed behind. Finally they entered the cemetery in this order, and buried him. Then, leaving him to Munkar and Nakir—the Questioners of the Dead—they all made their way to their homes.

  According to the custom of the city, the women of the neighborhood soon gathered together in the house of mourning and sat with Kasim’s widow, comforting her until she was somewhat resigned to her fate and felt better. Meanwhile, Ali Baba stayed forty days at home in ceremonial lamentation for the loss of his brother. So nobody in the town except himself, Kasim’s widow, and Morgiana knew anything about the secret. When the forty days of mourning were over, Ali Baba moved all the property that had belonged to the deceased to his own house and publicly married the widow. Then he appointed his nephew, his brother’s eldest son, to take charge of Kasim’s shop and carry on the business, for he had lived with a wealthy merchant a long time and had learned all about matters concerned with trade, such as selling and buying.

  And Scheherazade noticed that dawn was approaching and stopped telling her story. When the next night arrived, however, she received the king’s permission to continue her tale and said,

  * * *

  Now, one day, the robbers happened to return to the cave and were extremely startled to find no sign or trace of Kasim’s body, and they also noticed that much of the gold had been carried off.

  “We must look into this matter right away,” said the chief, “or else we’ll suffer more losses, and our treasure that we and our forefathers have amassed over the course of many years will disappear.”

  All the robbers agreed, and they came to the conclusion that the man whom they had slain had known the magic words to open the door. Moreover, they believed that someone besides him had knowledge of the spell and had carried away the body and much of the gold as well. Therefore, they decided that they had to make discreet inquiries to find out who the man might be. To begin their search, they thought it best to choose one of the more cunning robbers among them to disguise himself in the dress of some merchant from a foreign country. He was to go into the city and move from quarter to quarter and from street to street to find out whether any townsman had recently died. If so, he was to learn where he lived, and with this clue they might be able to find the scoundrel they sought. When they had fully finished discussing their plans, one of the robbers said, “I’d like your permission to take on this task. I’ll go into town and try to dig up all the information we need, and if I fail, you may take my life.”

  Thereupon, this bandit disguised himself as a foreigner and snuck into the city during the night. Early the next morning he went to the market square and saw that the only shop open was that of Baba Mustafa, the tailor, who sat upon his working stool with thread and needle in hand. The thief wished him a good morning and asked, “How can you see what you’re sewing? It’s still dark.”

  “Well, I can see that you’re a stranger and don’t know my reputation!” said the tailor. “Despite my years, my eyesight is so keen that only yesterday I sewed together a dead body while sitting in a very dark room.”

  The bandit immediately realized that he had stumbled onto something important, and in order to obtain some further clues, he said, “I think you’re just joking with me. How could you possibly stitch a cerecloth for a corpse or sew shrouds?”

  “I don’t care whether you believe me,” said the tailor. “And don’t ask me any more questions.”

  Thereupon, the robber put a gold coin in his hand and continued, “I’m not interested in discovering what you’re hiding. However, you can rest assured that my breast, like every honest man’s, is the grave of secrets. The only thing I want to learn from you is the house in which you did your work. Can you direct me to it or lead me there?”

  The tailor took the gold greedily and replied, “A certain slave girl led me to a place which I know quite well, and there she put a kerchief around my eyes and guided me to some tenement. After that she led me to a dark room where the dead body lay dismembered. Then she untied the kerchief and told me first to sew the corpse together and afterward the shroud. When I finished my job, she blindfolded me again and led me back to the place where she had brought me and left me there. So you see, I can’t tell you the location of the house.”

  “Even though you don’t know the dwelling,” the robber said, “you can still take me to the place where you were blindfolded. Then I’ll put a kerchief over your eyes and lead you. Perhaps in this way you may hit upon the house. And if you do this favor for me, I’ll reward you with another gold ducat.”

  The bandit slipped another coin into the tailor’s palm, and Baba Mustafa put it into his pocket. Then he left his shop and walked with the robber to the place where Morgiana had tied the kerchief around his eyes. Here he told the robber to blindfold him and to lead him by the hand. Since Baba Mustafa was exceedingly clever, he was soon able to find the street where he had walked before, and after counting step by step, he suddenly came to a halt and said, “This is as far as I came with her.”

  And the two of them stopped in front of Kasim’s house, which had now become the dwelling of his brother, Ali Baba.

  Quickly the robber made some marks with white chalk upon the door so that he could easily locate it again. Then he removed the kerchief from the tailor’s eyes and said, “Baba Mustafa, I want to thank you for this favor, and may Almighty Allah reward you for your favor. Please tell me now who lives in that house over there.”

  “Quite honestly,” he responded, “I don’t know, for I’m not very familiar with this part of the city.”

  Since the robber realized that he would not be able to obtain any more valuable information from the tailor, he dismissed him and sent him back to his shop. In the meantime, the bandit went back to the meeting plac
e in the forest where his comrades were waiting for him.

  Not long after his departure, it so happened that Morgiana was struck by the white chalk marks on the door when she went out on some errand. She stood there awhile deep in thought and soon suspected that some enemy had made the signs so that he would be able to recognize the house and do some harm against her master. Therefore, she chalked the doors of all her neighbors in the same way and kept the matter secret, never revealing it either to her master or mistress. Meanwhile, the robber told his comrades about his adventure in the city and how he had found the clue. So the captain and the rest of the bandits went to the city and entered it one by one in different ways. The robber who had marked Ali Baba’s door accompanied the chief to point out the place, and when they reached the house, he exclaimed, “This is the place where our culprit lives!”

  But when the captain looked around him, he saw that all the dwellings were marked by chalk in the same fashion, and he replied in a baffled manner, “How do you know that this is the right house when all the houses here have similar chalk marks?”

  The robber was completely confounded and could not reply. Then he swore an oath and said, “I assure you that I marked one of the doors, but I don’t know where all the other marks have come from. And now, I can’t really tell you which is the right one.”

  Thereupon the captain returned to the marketplace and told his men, “All our work was in vain, because we can’t find the right house. Let’s return to our meeting place in the forest, and I’ll join you there.”

  The thieves marched off in different directions and gathered together again inside the cave. When they were all assembled, the captain decided to punish the robber who had led them astray by locking him up. Then he said, “I’ll give a special reward to whoever goes to town and brings me information that will allow us to capture the man who’s plundered our property.”

  So another one of the robbers came forward and said, “I will, and you can count on me to fulfill your wish this time.”

  After giving this robber presents and promises, the captain sent him on his way. As destiny would have it, this second robber went straight to the house of Baba Mustafa, just like the first one, and he, too, persuaded the greedy tailor with gold coins to let him lead him blindfolded in a certain quarter of the city. Once again, this thief was led to Ali Baba’s door, which he marked with red chalk to distinguish it from the others, which were still marked with white. Then he stole back to the group of thieves in the forest. However, Morgiana also spotted the red signs on the entrance of the house, and with great foresight she marked all the other doors in the same way and did not tell a soul about what she had done. Meanwhile the bandit could not help boasting, “Captain, I’ve found the house, and I put a sign on it that will clearly distinguish it from all the others in the neighborhood.”

  And Scheherazade noticed that dawn was approaching and stopped telling her story. When the next night arrived, however, she received the king’s permission to continue her tale and said,

  Once again the captain and his men went into city, but this time they found all the houses marked with red chalk. So they returned disappointed to the cave, and the chief was extremely irritated and locked his spy in jail with the other robber. Then he said to himself, “Two men have failed to find the house and have been duly punished for leading us astray. Probably nobody else in my band will dare now to follow up their work. So I believe it’s up to me to go and find the culprit’s house.” Therefore, he went back into the city, and with the help of the tailor Baba Mustafa, who had accumulated a good deal of gold coins by now, he hit upon the house of Ali Baba, but he did not mark it with a sign. Instead he memorized where it was and stamped it on the tablet of his heart. Soon afterward he returned to the forest and said to his men, “I know exactly where it is and have memorized the place. So now we won’t have any trouble in finding it. Therefore, I want you to go right away and purchase nineteen mules, one large leather jar of mustard oil, and thirty-seven vessels of the same kind, but they must be empty. Without me and our two comrades locked up in our jail, you number thirty-seven, and I intend to hide you with your weapons in the jars. Then I’ll load two of you on each mule. On the nineteenth mule there will be a man in one of the jars and oil in the other. I’ll disguise myself as an oil merchant and drive the mules into the town. Since it will be nighttime, I’ll ask the master of that house if I can stay there until morning. After this we’ll look for an opportunity in the darkness to attack and slay him. When he’s dead, we’ll recover the gold treasure that he robbed from us and bring it back on the mules.”

  This plan pleased the robbers, who went off and purchased the mules and huge leather jars and did everything the captain had instructed them to do. After waiting three days, they arose shortly before dawn and hid themselves in the jars. The chief then disguised himself in some merchant’s garments and loaded the jars onto the nineteen mules. When all this was done, he drove the beasts before him and reached Ali Baba’s place by nightfall.

  It so happened that the master of the house was strolling back and forth in front of his home after having enjoyed his supper. When the captain saw Ali Baba, he saluted him with the salaam and said, “I’ve come from a distant village with some oil, and unfortunately I’ve arrived too late and don’t have lodgings for the night. Please have pity on me, my lord, and allow me to stay in your courtyard. I need to give my mules some rest from carrying the jars and to feed them.”

  To be sure, Ali Baba had heard the captain’s voice when perched upon the tree, and he had seen him enter the cave. However, because of the disguise, he was not able to recognize the thief. So he gave him a hearty welcome and granted him permission to spend the night in his courtyard. He then led him to an empty shed where the mules could be tethered and ordered one of his slave boys to fetch grain and water. He also informed Morgiana that a guest had come to spend the night and said, “Make a supper for him as soon as possible and get the guest bed ready.”

  After the captain had unloaded all the jars and had fed and watered his mules, Ali Baba received him with courtesy and kindness. Summoning Morgiana, he said in her presence, “See to it that our stranger has everything he desires. Tomorrow morning I want to go to the Hammam and bathe. So give my slave boy Abdullah a suit of clean white clothes that I’ll wear after my bath. Moreover, I want you to prepare a broth tonight that I’ll be able to drink after I return home in the morning.”

  “I’ll get everything ready for you as you wish,” she replied.

  So Ali Baba retired for the night, and the captain finished his supper, went to the shed, and made sure that all the mules had food and drink for the night. Then he whispered to his men who were hiding in the jars, “When you hear my voice at midnight, open the jars quickly with your knives and come out right away.”

  When he returned to the house, Morgiana led the chief through the kitchen to the guest room, where she had prepared a bed for him.

  “If you need anything else, my lord,” she said, “just call me, and I’ll be at your service.”

  “There’s nothing else I need,” he answered, and after putting out the light, he lay down on the bed to relax and sleep until the time came to rouse his men and finish their work. Meanwhile, Morgiana did as her master had ordered her. First she took out a suit of clean white clothes and gave it to Abdullah, who had not gone to sleep yet. Then she placed the pipkin on the hearth to boil the broth and fanned the fire until it burned briskly. After a short wait she had to see if the broth was boiling, but by that time all the lamps had gone out, and she found that there was no more oil left and could not get a light, no matter where she looked. Abdullah noticed that she was irritated and said to her, “Why are you making such a fuss? There are many jars of oil in the courtyard shed. Why don’t you just go and take as much as you need?”

  Morgiana thanked him for his clever suggestion, and Abdullah, who was relaxing in the hall, went off to sleep so that he might awake on time and help Ali B
aba with his bath. Meanwhile, Morgiana took an oil can and walked to the shed, where the jars were arranged in rows. As she approached one of the vessels, the thief, who was hiding inside it, heard the footsteps and thought that it was his captain, whose command he was awaiting. So he whispered, “Is it time now for us to come out?”

  Morgiana was startled and frightened by the voice, but since she was bold and alert, she replied in a disguised voice, “It’s not time yet.” Then she said to herself, “Something strange is going on here. These jars aren’t filled with oil. I think the merchant is plotting something treacherous against my lord. May Allah the Compassionate protect us from his snare!” Once again she made her voice sound like the captain’s and said to the robber in the jar, “Be patient. It’s not time.”

  Then she went to the next jar and gave the same reply to the robber inside and so on until she had spoken to all the robbers in the vessels. “My God!” she said to herself. “My master extended his hospitality to this man because he thought he was an oil merchant, but he’s actually taken in a band of robbers, who only await the signal to attack and kill him and plunder the place!” When she finally came to the last jar, she found it brimming with oil. So she filled her can, returned to the kitchen, trimmed the lamp, and lit the wicks. Next, she took out a large caldron and set it over the fire. After filling it with oil from the jar, she heaped wood on the hearth and fanned it to a fierce flame to make sure that it would boil its contents. When this was done, she bailed it out in potfuls and carried the boiling liquid into the courtyard, where she poured the seething-hot contents into the leathern jars one by one. Since the thieves were unable to escape, they were scalded to death, and every jar contained a corpse. Thus the clever Morgiana used her keen wit to make a clean end of everything without anyone in the house knowing what had happened.