Arabian Nights tales part -1

Among the histories of past peoples, a story is told that in the old days in the islands of India and China there was a Sasanian king, a master of armies, guards, servants and retainers, who had two sons, an elder and a younger. Although both of them were champion horsemen, the elder was better than his brother; he ruled over the lands, treating his subjects with justice and enjoying the affection of them all. His name was King Shahriyar, while his younger brother, who ruled Persian Samarkand, was called Shah Zaman. For ten years both of them continued to reign justly, enjoying pleasant and untroubled lives, until Shahriyar felt a longing to see Shah Zaman and sent off his vizier to fetch him. `To hear is to obey,' said the vizier, and after he had travelled safely to Shah Zaman, he brought him greetings and told him that his brother wanted a visit from him.

Shah Zaman agreed to come and made his preparations for the journey. He had his tents put up outside his city, together with his camels, mules, servants and guards, while his own vizier was left in charge of his lands. He then came out himself, intending to leave for his brother's country, but at midnight he thought of something that he had forgotten and went back to the palace. When he entered his room, it was to discover his wife in bed with a black slave. The world turned dark for him and he said to himself: `If this is what happens before I have even left the city, what will this damned woman do if I spend time away with my brother?' So he drew his sword and struck, killing both his wife and my brother?' So he drew his sword and struck, killing both his wife and her lover as they lay together, before going back and ordering his escort to move off.

When he got near to Shahriyar's city, he sent off messengers to give the good news of his arrival, and Shahriyar came out to meet him and greeted him delightedly. The city was adorned with decorations and Shahriyar sat talking happily with him, but Shah Zaman remembered what his wife had done and, overcome by sorrow, he turned pale and showed signs of illness. His brother thought that this must be because he had had to leave his kingdom and so he put no questions to him until, some days later, he mentioned these symptoms to Shah Zaman, who told him: `My feelings are wounded,' but did not explain what had happened with his wife. In order to cheer him up, Shahriyar invited him to come with him on a hunt, but he refused and Shahriyar set off by himself.

In the royal palace there were windows that overlooked Shahriyar's garden, and as Shah Zaman was looking, a door opened and out came twenty slave girls and twenty slaves, in the middle of whom was Shahriyar's very beautiful wife. They came to a fountain where they took off their clothes and the women sat with the men. `Mas`ud,' the queen called, at which a black slave came up to her and, after they had embraced each other, he lay with her, while the other slaves lay with the slave girls and they spent their time kissing, embracing, fornicating and drinking wine until the end of the day.

When Shah Zaman saw this, he told himself that what he had suffered was less serious. His jealous distress ended and, after convincing himself that his own misfortune was not as grave as this, he went on eating and drinking, so that when Shahriyar returned and the brothers greeted one another, Shahriyar saw that Shah Zaman's colour had come back; his another, Shahriyar saw that Shah Zaman's colour had come back; his face was rosy and, following his earlier loss of appetite, he was eating normally. `You were pale, brother,' Shahriyar said, `but now you have got your colour back, so tell me about this.' `I'll tell you why I lost colour,' his brother replied, `but don't press me to tell you how I got it back.' `Let me know first how you lost it and became so weak,' Shahriyar asked him, and his brother explained: `When you sent your vizier to invite me to visit you, I got ready and had gone out of the city when I remembered a jewel that was intended as a present for you, which I had left in my palace. I went back there to find a black slave sleeping in my bed with my wife, and it was after I had killed them both that I came on to you. I was full of concern about the affair and this was why I became pale and sickly, but don't make me say how I recovered.' Shahriyar, however, pressed him to do this, and so Shah Zaman finally told him all that he had seen.

`I want to see this with my own eyes,' said Shahriyar, at which Shah Zaman suggested that he pretend to be going out hunting again and then hide with him so that he could test the truth by seeing it for himself.

Shahriyar immediately announced that he was leaving to hunt; the tents were taken outside the city and the king himself went out and took his seat in one of them, telling his servants that nobody was to be allowed in to visit him. Then secretly he made his way back to the palace where his brother was and sat down by the window overlooking the garden. After a while the slave girls and their mistress came there with the slaves and they went on acting as Shah Zaman had described until the call for the afternoon prayer.

Shahriyar was beside himself and told his brother: `Come, let us leave at once. Until we can find someone else to whom the same kind of thing happens, we have no need of a kingdom, and otherwise we would be better dead.' They left by the postern gate and went on for some days and nights until they got to a tall tree in the middle of a meadow, where there was a spring of water by the seashore. They drank from the spring and sat down to rest, but after a time the sea became disturbed and from it emerged a black pillar, towering up into the sky and moving towards the meadow. This sight filled the brothers with alarm and they climbed up to the top of the tree to see what was going to happen. What then appeared was a tall jinni, with a large skull and a broad breast, carrying a chest on his head. He came ashore and went up to sit under the tree on top of which the brothers were hiding. The jinni then opened the chest, taking from it a box, and when he had opened this too, out came a slender girl, as radiant as the sun, who fitted the excellent description given by the poet `Atiya:

She shone in the darkness, and day appeared As the trees shed brightness over her.

Her radiance makes suns rise and shine,

While, as for moons, she covers them in shame.

When veils are rent and she appears,

All things bow down before her.

As lightning flashes from her sanctuary,

A rain of tears floods down.

The jinni looked at her and said:

`Mistress of the nobly born, whom I snatched away on your wedding night, I want to sleep for a while.' He placed his head on her knee and fell asleep, while she, for her part, looked up at the tree, on top of which were the two kings. She lifted the jinni's head from her knee and put it on the ground, before gesturing to them to come down and not to fear him. `For God's sake, don't make us do this,' they told her, but she replied: `Unless you come, I'll rouse him against you and he will put you to the cruellest of deaths.' This so alarmed them that they did what they were told and she then said: `Take me as hard as you can or else I'll wake him up.' Shahriyar said fearfully to his brother: `Do as she says.' But Shah Zaman refused, saying: `You do it first.'

They started gesturing to each other about this and the girl asked why, repeating: `If you don't come up and do it, I'll rouse the jinni against you.' Because they were afraid, they took turns to lie with her, and when they had finished, she told them to get up. From her pocket she then produced a purse from which she brought out a string on which were hung five hundred and seventy signet rings. She asked them if they knew what these were and when they said no, she told them: `All these belonged to lovers of mine who cuckolded this jinni, so give me your own rings.' When they had handed them over, she went on: `This jinni snatched me away on my wedding night and put me inside a box, which he placed inside this chest, with its seven heavy locks, and this, in turn, he put at the bottom of the tumultuous sea with its clashing waves. What he did not know was that, when a woman wants something, nothing can get the better of her, as a poet has said:

Do not put your trust in women

Or believe their covenants.

Their satisfaction and their anger

Both depend on their private parts.

They make a false display of love,

But their clothes are stuffed with treachery.

Take a lesson from the tale of Joseph,

And you will find some of their tricks.

Do you not see that your father, Adam,

Was driven out from Eden thanks to them?

Another poet has said:

Blame must be matched to what is blamed;

I have grown big, but

my offence has not.

I am a lover, but what I have done

Is only what men did before me in old days.

What is a cause for wonder is a man

Whom women have not trapped by their allure.'

When the two kings heard this, they were filled with astonishment and said to each other: `Jinni though he may be, what has happened to him is worse than what happened to us and it is not something that anyone else has experienced.' They left the girl straight away and went back to Shahriyar's city, where they entered the palace and cut off the heads of the queen, the slave girls and the slaves.

Every night for the next three years, Shahriyar would take a virgin, deflower her and then kill her. This led to unrest among the citizens; they fled away with their daughters until there were no nubile girls left in the city. Then, when the vizier was ordered to bring the king a girl as in the city. Then, when the vizier was ordered to bring the king a girl as usual, he searched but could not find a single one, and had to go home empty-handed, dejected and afraid of what the king might do to him.

This man had two daughters, of whom the elder was called Shahrazad and the younger Dunyazad. Shahrazad had read books and histories, accounts of past kings and stories of earlier peoples, having collected, it was said, a thousand volumes of these, covering peoples, kings and poets. She asked her father what had happened to make him so careworn and sad, quoting the lines of a poet:

Say to the careworn man: `Care does not last, And as joy passes, so does care.'

When her father heard this, he told her all that had happened between him and the king from beginning to end, at which she said: `Father, marry me to this man. Either I shall live or else I shall be a ransom for the children of the Muslims and save them from him.' `By God,' he exclaimed, `you are not to risk your life!' She insisted that it had to be done, but he objected: `I'm afraid that you may experience what happened to the donkey and the bull with the merchant.' `What was that,' she asked, `and what happened to the two of them?'

HER FATHER TOLD HER:

You must know, my daughter, that a certain merchant had both wealth and animals and had been given by Almighty God a knowledge of the languages of beasts and birds. He lived in the country and had at home a donkey and a bull. One day the bull went to the

donkey's quarters and found them swept out and sprinkled with water; there was sieved barley and straw in his trough, while the donkey was lying there at his ease. At times his master would ride him out on some errand, but he would then be taken back.

One day the merchant heard the bull say to the donkey: `I congratulate you. Here am I, tired out, while you are at your ease, eating sieved barley. On occasion the master puts you to use, riding on you but then bringing you back again, whereas I am always ploughing and grinding corn.' The donkey replied: `When they put the yoke on your neck and want to take you out to the fields, don't get up, even if they beat you, or else get up and then lie down again. When they bring you back and put beans down for you, pretend to be sick and don't eat them; for one, two or three days neither eat nor drink and you will have a rest from your hard labour.'

The next day, when the herdsman brought the bull his supper, the creature only ate a little and next morning, when the man came to take the bull out to do the ploughing, he found him sick and said sadly: `This was why he could not work properly yesterday.' He went to the merchant and told him: `Master, the bull is unwell and didn't eat any of his food yesterday evening.' The merchant realized what had happened and said: `Go and take the donkey to do the ploughing all day in his place.'

When the donkey came back in the evening after having been used for ploughing all day, the bull thanked him for his kindness in having given him a day's rest, to which the donkey, filled with the bitterest regret, made no reply. The next morning, the herdsman came and took him out to plough until evening, and when the donkey got back, his neck had been rubbed raw and he was half dead with tiredness. When the bull saw him, he thanked and praised him, but the donkey said: `I was sitting at my ease, but was unable to mind my own business.' Then he went on: `I have some advice to give you. I heard our master say that, he went on: `I have some advice to give you. I heard our master say that, if you don't get up, you are to be given to the butcher to be slaughtered, and your hide is to be cut into pieces. I am afraid for you and so I have given you this advice.'

When the bull heard what the donkey had to say, he thanked him and said: `Tomorrow I'll go out with the men.' He then finished off all his food, using his tongue to lick the manger. While all this was going on, the merchant was listening to what the animals were saying. The next morning, he and his wife went out and sat by the byre as the herdsman arrived and took the bull out. When the bull saw his master, he flourished his tail, farted and galloped off, leaving the man laughing so much that he collapsed on the ground. His wife asked why, and he told her: `I was laughing because of something secret that I saw and heard, but I can't tell you or else I shall die.' `Even if you do die,' she insisted, `you must tell me the reason for this.' He repeated that he could not do it for fear of death, but she said: `You were laughing at me,' and she went on insisting obstinately until she got the better of him. In distress, he summoned his children and sent for the qadi and the notaries with the intention of leaving his final instructions before telling his wife the secret and then dying. He had a deep love for her, she being his cousin and the mother of his children, while he himself was a hundred and twenty years old.

When all his family and his neighbours were gathered together, he explained that he had something to say to them, but that if he told the secret to anyone, he would die. Everyone there urged his wife not to press him and so bring about the death of her husband and the father of her children, but she said: `I am not going to stop until he tells me, and I shall let him die.' At that, the others stayed silent while the merchant got shall let him die.' At that, the others stayed silent while the merchant got up and went to the byre to perform the ritual ablution, after which he would return to them and die.

The merchant had a cock and fifty hens, together with a dog, and he heard the dog abusing the cock and saying: `You may be cheerful, but here is our master about to die.' When the cock asked why this was, the dog told him the whole story. `By God,' exclaimed the cock, `he must be weak in the head. I have fifty wives and I keep them contented and at peace while he has only one but still can't keep her in order. Why doesn't he get some mulberry twigs, take her into a room and beat her until she either dies or repents and doesn't ask him again?'

The vizier now said to his daughter Shahrazad: `I shall treat you as that man treated his wife.' `What did he do?' she asked, AND HE WENT ON:

When he heard what the cock had to say to the dog, he cut some mulberry twigs and hid them in a room, where he took his wife. `Come,' he said, `so that I can speak to you in here and then die with no one looking on.' She went in with him and he locked the door on her and started beating her until she fainted. `I take it all back,' she then said, and she kissed his hands and feet, and after she had repented, she and her husband went out to the delight of their family and the others there.

They lived in the happiest of circumstances until their deaths.

Shahrazad listened to what her father had to say, but she still insisted on her plan and so he decked her out and took her to King Shahriyar. She had given instructions to her younger sister, Dunyazad, explaining: `When I go to the king, I shall send for you. You must come, and when you see that the king has done what he wants with me, you are to say: "Tell me a story, sister, so as to pass the waking part of the night." I shall then tell you a tale that, God willing, will save us.'

Shahrazad was now taken by her father to the king, who was pleased to see him and said: `Have you brought what I want?' When the vizier said yes, the king was about to lie with Shahrazad but she shed tears and when he asked her what was wrong, she told him: `I have a young sister and I want to say goodbye to her.' At that, the king sent for Dunyazad, and when she had embraced Shahrazad, she took her seat beneath the

bed, while the king got up and deflowered her sister. They then sat talking and Dunyazad asked Shahrazad to tell a story to pass the waking hours of the night.

`With the greatest pleasure,' replied Shahrazad, `if our cultured king gives me permission.' The king was restless and when he heard what the sisters had to say, he was glad at the thought of listening to a story and so he gave his permission to Shahrazad.

Nights 1 to 20

SHAHRAZAD SAID:

I have heard, O fortunate king, that a wealthy merchant, who had many dealings throughout the lands, rode out one day to settle a matter of business in one of them. When it became hot, he sat down under a tree and put his hand in his saddlebag, from which he took out a piece of bread and a date. He ate and when he had finished with the date he threw away its stone, at which a huge `ifrit appeared, with a drawn sword in his hand. This `ifrit came up to the merchant and said: `Get up so that I can kill you as you killed my son.' `How did I kill your son?' asked the merchant, and the `ifrit told him: `When you ate that date and threw away the stone, it struck my son in the chest as he was walking, and he died instantly.' `We belong to God and to Him do we return,' recited the merchant, adding: `There is no might and no power except with God, the Exalted, the Omnipotent. If I killed him, this was by accident, so please forgive me.' `I must kill you,' insisted the `ifrit, and he dragged off the merchant, threw him down on the ground and raised his sword to strike.

With tears in his eyes, the merchant exclaimed: `I entrust my affair to with tears in his eyes, the merchant exclaimed: `I entrust my affair to God!' and he then recited these lines:

Time is two days, one safe and one of peril,

And our lives are of two halves, one fair,

one overcast.

Say to those who reproach us for what

Time has done:

`Does Time oppose any but great men?'

Do you not see that when the storm winds blow?

It is the tall trees that they strike?

Corpses rise to the surface of the sea,

While it is in its depths that pearls lie hid.

It may be that Time will mishandle us,

Subjecting us to constant harm.

Though in the heavens there are countless stars,

Only the sun and moon suffer eclipse.

There are both green and dry boughs on the earth,

But we throw stones only at those with fruit.

You think well of the days when they are fine,

So do not fear the evil that fate brings.

When he had finished, the `ifrit said: `Stop talking, for, by God, I am most certainly going to kill you.' ``Ifrit,' the merchant said, `I am a wealthy man, with a wife and children; I have debts and I hold deposits, so let me go home and give everyone their due before returning to you at the start of the new year. I shall take a solemn oath and swear by God that I shall come back to you and you can then do what you want with me. God will be the guarantor of this.' The `ifrit trusted him and let him go, after which he went home, settled all his affairs, and gave everyone what was owed them. He told his wife and children what had happened, gave them his injunctions and stayed with them until the end of the year, when he got up, performed the ritual ablution and, with his shroud under his arm, said goodbye to his family and all his relations as well as his neighbours, and set off reluctantly, while they all wept and wailed. He came to the orchard on what was New Year's Day, and as he sat there weeping over his fate, a very old man approached him, leading a gazelle on a chain. The newcomer greeted him and asked him why he was sitting there alone, when the place was a haunt of jinn. The merchant told the story of his encounter with the `ifrit, and the old man exclaimed: `By God, brother, you are a very pious man and your story is so wonderful that were it written with needles on the corners of men's eyes, it would be a lesson for those who take heed.'

He took his seat by the merchant's side and promised not to leave until he had seen what happened to him with the `ifrit. As the two of them sat there talking, the merchant was overcome by an access of fear together with ever-increasing distress and apprehension. It was at this point that a second old man arrived, having with him two black Salukis.

After greeting the two men, he asked them why they were sitting in this haunt of jinn and they told him the story from beginning to end. No sooner had he sat down with them than a third old man, with a dappled mule, came up, greeted them and asked why they were there, at which they repeated the whole story but there is no point in going over it again.

As soon as the newcomer had sat down, a huge dust-devil appeared in the middle of the desert, clearing away to show the `ifrit with a drawn sword in his hand and sparks shooting from his eyes. He came up to the three, dragged the merchant from between them and said: `Get up so that I can kill you as you killed my beloved son.' The merchant sobbed and wept, while the three old men shed tears, wailed and lamented. Then the first of them, the man with the gazelle, left the others, kissed the `ifrit's hand and said: `Jinni, royal crown of the jinn, if I tell you the story of my connection with this gazelle, will you grant me a third share in this merchant's blood?' The `ifrit agreed to do this if he found the story marvellous, AND SO THE OLD MAN BEGAN HIS TALE:

Know, `ifrit, that this gazelle is my cousin, my own flesh and blood. I married her when she was still young and stayed with her for thirty years without her bearing me a child. So I took a concubine and she bore me a son, the perfection of whose eyes and eyebrows made him look like the full moon when it appears. He grew up and when he was fifteen I had occasion to travel to a certain city, taking with me a great quantity

of trade goods. My wife, now this gazelle, had studied sorcery since her youth and she turned the boy into a calf and his mother into a cow, handing them over to the herdsman. When, after a long absence, I got back from my journey, I asked about the two of them and my wife told me that the woman had died and that the boy had run away, where she did not know.

For a year I remained sad at heart and tearful until `Id al-Adha came round and I sent to tell the herdsman to bring me a fat cow. What he brought me was my slave girl whom my wife had enchanted. I tucked up my clothes, took the knife in my hand and was about to slaughter her, when she gave a cry, howled and shed tears. This astonished me and, feeling pity for her, I left her and told the herdsman to fetch me another. At that my wife called out: `Kill this one, as I have no finer or fatter cow.' I went up again to do the killing and again the cow gave a cry, at which I told the herdsman to slaughter her and then skin her. He did this, only to discover that there was neither flesh nor fat in the carcass, but only skin and bone. I was sorry for what I had done at a time when regret was of no use, and I gave the cow to the herdsman, telling him to bring me a fat calf. He brought me my son, and when this `calf ' caught sight of me, he broke his tether and rolled in the dust in front of me, howling and shedding tears. Again I felt pity and told the herdsman to leave the calf and fetch me a cow, and again my wife, now this gazelle, called to me, insisting that I must slaughter the calf that day. `This is a noble and a blessed day,' she pointed out. `The sacrifice must be a good one and we have nothing fatter or finer than this calf.' `Look at what happened with the cow that you told me to kill. This led to a disappointment and we got no good from it at all, leaving me full of regret at having slaughtered it. This time I am not going to do what you say or kill this calf.' `By God the Omnipotent, the Compassionate, the Merciful, you must do this on this noble day, and if you don't, then you are not my husband and I am not your wife.' On hearing these harsh words, but not realizing what she intended to do, I went up to the calf with the knife in my hand.

Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. `What a good, pleasant, delightful and sweet story this is!' exclaimed Dunyazad, at which Shahrazad told her: `How can this compare with what I shall tell you this coming night, if I am still alive and the king spares me?' `By God,' the king said to himself, `I am not going to kill her until I hear the rest of the story,' and so they spent the rest of the time embracing one another until the sun had fully risen. The rest of the time embracing one another until the sun had fully risen. The king then went to his court as the vizier came with the shroud under his arm, and he gave his judgements, appointing some officials and dismissing others, until evening, but to the vizier's great surprise he gave no instructions about his daughter. The court was then dismissed and King Shahriyar returned to his palace.

When it was the second night, Dunyazad said to Shahrazad: `Sister, finish your story of the merchant and the `ifrit for us.' `With pleasure,' replied Shahrazad, `if the king gives me permission,' and when the king gave it, SHE WENT ON: I have heard, O fortunate king and rightly guided ruler, that when the merchant was about to cut the throat of the calf, he was moved by pity and told the herdsman to keep the calf among the other beasts.

The `ifrit was listening with astonishment to what the old man with the gazelle was saying, AND THE MAN WENT ON:

Lord of the kings of the jinn, while all this was going on, my wife, now this gazelle, was looking on and telling me to kill the calf, because it was fat, but I could not bring myself to do this and so I told the herdsman to take it away, which he did. The next day, as I was sitting there, he came back to me and said: `I have something to tell you that will please you, and you owe me a reward for my good news.' I agreed to this and he went on: `Master, I have a daughter who, as a young girl, was taught magic by an old woman we had staying with us. Yesterday when you gave me the calf, I went to the girl and, when she saw it, she covered her face, shed tears but then burst into laughter. Then she said: "Father, do you hold me so cheap that you bring strange men in to me?" "Where are these strange men," I asked, "and why are you laughing and crying?" She said: "This calf you have with you is our master's son, who is under a spell laid upon him and his mother by his father's wife. This is why I was laughing, but the reason why I wept was that his father killed his mother." I was astonished by this and as soon as I found that it was morning, I came to tell you.'

When I heard what the man had to say, I went out with him, drunk, although not on wine, with the joy and delight that I was feeling. When I got to his house his daughter welcomed me, kissing my hands, while the calf came and rolled on the ground in front of me. I asked her: `Is what you say about this calf true?' `Yes, master,' she assured me. `This is your darling son.' `Girl,' I told her, `if you free him, you can have all the beasts and everything else that your father looks after.' She smiled and said: `Master, I only want this on two conditions, the first being that you marry me to him and the second that I be allowed to put a spell on the one who enchanted him and keep her confined, for otherwise I shall not be safe from her scheming.'

When I heard what she had to say, I promised to give her what she wanted as well as everything that was in her father's charge, adding that I would even give her permission to kill my wife. At that, she took a bowl, filled it with water and recited a spell over it, after which she sprinkled the water over the calf, saying: `If you are a calf and this is how Almighty God created you, stay in this shape and don't change, but if you are under a spell, then return to your original shape with the permission of Almighty God.' The calf shuddered and became a man, at which I fell on him and said: `For God's sake, tell me what my wife did to you and your mother.' He told me what had happened, and I said: `My son, God has sent you a rescuer to restore your rights.' I then married the herdsman's daughter to him and she transformed my wife into this gazelle, saying: `This is a beautiful shape and not a brutish one, repellent to the sight.'

The girl stayed with us for some time until God chose to take her to Himself and my son went off to India, the country of the man with whom you have had this experience. I myself took my wife, this gazelle, and have travelled from place to place looking for news of him until fate brought me here and I saw this merchant sitting weeping. This is my story.

`It is indeed a marvellous tale,' the `ifrit agreed, `and I grant you a third share in his blood.'

At this point, the old man with the two Salukis came up and asked the `ifrit: `If I tell you what happened to me and my brothers, these two dogs, and you find it the most amazing and astonishing of stories, will you transfer to me a third of this man's offence?' The `ifrit agreed AND THE MAN BEGAN:

Lord of the kings of the jinn, these two dogs are my brothers, I being the third. On his death my father left us three thousand dinars and each one of us opened a shop for trade. I had not been there for long before my eldest brother, now one of these dogs, sold the contents of his shop for a thousand dinars, bought trade goods and set off on his travels.

He had been away for a whole year when one day as I was in my shop a beggar came up to me and stopped. I wished him well, but he said, in tears: `Don't you know me anymore?' When I looked at him closely, I saw that this was my brother and so I got up to welcome him and brought him into the shop. I asked him how he was and he said: `Don't ask. My wealth has gone and my circumstances have changed.' I took him to the baths, gave him some of my own clothes and then brought him back home. Then I checked my accounts and the sales figures of my shop and I found that I had made a profit of a thousand dinars on a capital of two thousand. I divided this with my brother, telling him to forget that he had ever travelled abroad. He took the money gladly and opened another shop.

Sometime later, my second brother, now this other dog, sold everything he had, with the intention of travelling. We tried unsuccessfully to stop him, but he bought trade goods and set out with some others. He too spent a whole year away before coming back to me in the same state as his brother. `Brother,' I told him, `didn't I tell you not to go?' But he replied: `This was something decreed by fate, and here am I, a poor man, penniless and without even a shirt.' I took him to the baths and gave him a new suit of my own clothes to put on, before bringing him to my shop, where we then ate and drank. I told him: `Brother, I check the accounts of my shop once every new year and any surplus I find I shall share with you.' When I did my audit, I found that I had two thousand dinars, and after praising the Exalted Creator, I gave him a thousand and kept the other thousand myself.

My brother opened another shop, but after a time he and my other brother proposed that I should go off with them on a voyage. I refused, asking: `What did you get from your travels to make me imagine that I could make a profit?' I refused to listen to them and we stayed there could make a profit?' I refused to listen to them and we stayed there trading in our shops. Every year they would make the same proposal to me and I would not agree, until after six years I finally accepted and told them I would go with them. I asked them to show me what money they had, only to find that they had nothing at all, having squandered everything on food, drink and entertainment. I didn't say a word to them but checked the accounts of my shop and sold what I owned together with all my shop goods, leaving me, to my delight, with a total of six thousand dinars. I divided this in half, telling my brothers that they and I could have three thousand dinars with which to trade, while I would bury the remaining three thousand in case the same thing happened to me as had happened to them. In that case I would have money left over to allow us to reopen our shops. They agreed to this and I handed each of them a thousand dinars, keeping a thousand for myself.

We provided ourselves with what we had to have in the way of trade goods and made our preparations for travel, hiring a ship and loading our goods on board. After a whole month's journey, we brought them to a city, where they fetched us a ten-fold profit. We were about to sail off again when on the shore we came across a girl dressed in rags and tatters. She kissed my hand and asked if I was a charitable man, in which case she would reward me. `I love charity and good deeds,' I told her, `even if you give me no reward.' `Marry me, master,' she said, `and take me to your country. I have given myself to you; treat me kindly, for I am someone who deserves kindness and generosity. I shall pay you back for this and don't be misled by the state I am in now.'

When I heard this, I felt a yearning for her, as God, the Great and Glorious, had decreed, and so I took her, gave her clothes and provided her with elegantly furnished accommodation on the ship. I treated her with elegantly furnished accommodation on the ship. I treated her with respect and as our journey went on, I fell so deeply in love with her that I could not bear to leave her by night or by day. In my concern for her I neglected my brothers, who grew jealous of me, envying my wealth and the quantity of my goods. They spent their time eyeing all this, and they discussed killing me and taking what I had, saying: `Let us kill our brother and then all this will be ours.' Satan made this seem good to them and so, finding me alone and asleep by the side of my wife, they picked us both up and threw us overboard.

My wife woke; a shudder ran through her and she became an `ifrita. She then carried me to an island where she left me for a time before coming back at dawn and saying: `I am your servant and it was I who saved your life by carrying you off, with the permission of Almighty God. You must know that I am one of the jinn and when I saw you I fell in love with you, as God had decreed. For I believe in Him and in His Apostle, may God bless him and give him peace. I came to you wearing rags, as you saw, but you married me and now I have saved you from drowning. I am angry with your brothers and will have to kill them.'

I was astonished to hear this and I thanked her for what she had done but forbade her to kill my brothers. I then told her the whole story of my dealings with them and this prompted her to say: `Tonight I shall fly off to them, sink their ship and destroy them.' I implored her in God's Name not to do that, reminding her of the proverb that tells those who do good to those who wrong them `The evil-doer's own deeds are punishment enough for him' and pointing out that, at all events, they were my brothers. She continued to insist, despite my pleading with her, and she then flew off with me and put me down on the roof of my own house. I opened the doors, brought out the money that I had buried and opened the doors, brought out the money that I had buried and opened up my shop, after greeting the people there and buying goods for trade.

When I went home that evening, I found these two dogs tied up and when they caught sight of me, they came up with tears in their eyes and attached themselves to me. Before I realized what was happening, my wife told me: `These are your brothers.' `Who did this to them?' I asked, and she said: `I sent a message to my sister; it was she who transformed them, and they will not be freed from the spell for ten years.' My brothers have now been like this for ten years and I was on my way to get them released when I came across this man. He told me his story and I decided not to leave him until I saw what was going to happen between you and him. This is my tale.

`It is a marvellous one,' agreed the `ifrit, adding: `I grant you a third share in the blood he owes for his crime.'

The third old man, with the mule, now said: `If I tell you a more amazing story than these two, will you grant me the remaining share?'

The `ifrit agreed AND THE MAN WENT ON:

Sultan and leader of the jinn, this mule was my wife. I had been away for a year on my travels, and when I had finished, I came back to her.

This was at night and I saw a black slave lying in bed with her; the two of them talked, flirted, laughed, kissed and played with each other. My wife caught sight of me and came to me with a jug of water over which she uttered a spell. She sprinkled the water over me and said: `Leave this shape of yours and take the form of a dog.' Immediately I became a dog and she drove me out through the door of the house.

I went on until I came to a butcher's shop, where I started gnawing bones. The butcher saw me and took me into his house, where his daughter covered her face from me and said: `Are you bringing a man in daughter covered her face from me and said: `Are you bringing a man in to me?' `Where is there a man?' asked her father, and she said: `This dog is a man over whom his wife has cast a spell, but I can free him from it.'

`Do that, for God's sake,' said her father, and she took a jug of water, spoke some words over it and sprinkled some of it on me. `Go back to your original shape,' she said, and that is what I did.

I kissed the girl's hand and said: `I would like you to use your magic to do to my wife what she did to me.' She gave me some water and told me: `When you find her asleep, sprinkle this water over her and say what you like, for she will become whatever you want.' I took the water and went to my wife, whom I found sleeping. I sprinkled her with the water and said: `Leave this shape and become a mule,' which she did there and then, and it is she whom you can see, sultan and chief of the kings of the jinn.

`Is that true?' the man asked the mule, at which it nodded its head, conveying by gesture the message:

`That is my story and that is what happened to me.'

When the old man had finished his tale, the `ifrit, trembling with delight, granted him a third of the merchant's blood.

compare with what I shall tell you this coming night, if I am still alive and the king spares me?' `By God,' the king said to himself, `I am not going to kill her until I hear the rest of this remarkable story,' and so they spent the rest of the time embracing one another until the sun had they spent the rest of the time embracing one another until the sun had fully risen. The king then went to his court; the troops arrived together with the vizier, and when everyone was there, he gave his judgements, appointing some officials, dismissing others, and issuing orders and prohibitions until evening. The court was then dismissed and the king returned to his palace, where, when night came, he lay again with Shahrazad.

When it was the third night, Dunyazad asked her sister to finish the story. `With pleasure,' said Shahrazad and went on: `I have heard, O fortunate king, that the third old man told the `ifrit a more remarkable story than the other two, and that in his astonishment and delight the `ifrit granted him the remaining share of the blood debt and allowed the merchant to go free. For his part, the merchant went and thanked the old men, who congratulated him on his safety, after which each of them went home. This, however, is not more surprising than the tale of the fisherman.' When the king asked what that was, she went on:

I have heard, O fortunate king, that there once was a poor, elderly fisherman with a wife and three children, who was in the habit of casting his net exactly four times each day. He went out to the shore at noon one day, put down his basket, tucked up his shirt, waded into the sea and cast his net. He waited until it had sunk down before pulling its cords together and then, finding it heavy, he tried unsuccessfully to drag it in. He took one end of it to the shore and fixed it to a peg that he drove in there, after which he stripped and dived into the sea beside it, where he continued tugging until he managed to get it up. He climbed out delightedly, put his clothes back on and went up to the net, only to find that what was in it was a dead donkey, and that the donkey had made a hole in the net. The fisherman was saddened by this and recited the formula: `There is no might and no power except with God, the Exalted, the Omnipotent,' before saying: `This is a strange thing that God has given me by way of food!' and then reciting:

You who court danger, diving in the dark of night, Give up; your efforts do not win your daily bread from God.

The fisherman rises to earn his keep;

There is the sea, with stars woven in the sky.

He plunges in, buffeted by waves,

His eyes fixed on his billowing net.

Happy with his night's work, he takes back home

A fish, its jaw caught up on his pronged hook.

This fish is bought from him by one who spent his night Out of the cold, enjoying his comforts.

Praise be to God, Who gives and Who deprives;

For one man eats the fish; another catches it.

He encouraged himself, saying that Almighty God would show favour and reciting:

When you are faced with hardship, clothe yourself

In noble patience; that is more resolute.

Do not complain, then, to God's servants; you complain

To those who have no mercy of the Merciful.

He freed the donkey from the net, which he then wrung out before spreading it out again and going back into the sea. Invoking the Name of God, he made another cast, waited until the net had settled, and found it heavier and more difficult to move than before. Thinking that it must be full of fish, he fastened it to his peg, stripped off his clothes and dived in to free it. After tugging at it he got it up on shore, only to discover that what was in it was a large jar full of sand and mud. Saddened by this sight, he recited:

Troubles of Time, give up!

Stop, even if you have not had enough.

I came out looking for my daily bread,

But I have found there is no more of this.

How many a fool reaches the Pleiades!

How many wise men lie hidden in the earth!

The fisherman threw away the jar, wrung out his net, cleaned it and went back a third time to the sea, asking God to forgive him. He made his cast and waited for the net to settle before drawing it in, and this time what he found in it were bits of pots, bottles and bones. He was furious and, shedding bitter tears, he recited:

You have no power at all over your daily bread;

Neither learning nor letters will fetch it for you.

Fortune and sustenance are divided up;

One land is fertile while another suffers drought.

Time's changes bring down cultured men,

While fortune lifts the undeserving up.

Come, death, and visit me, for life is vile;

Falcons are brought down low while ducks are raised on high.

Feel no surprise if you should see a man of excellence

In poverty, while an inferior holds sway.

One bird circles the earth from east to west;

Another gets its food but does not have to move.

He then looked up to heaven and said: `O my God, You know that I only cast my net four times a day. I have done this thrice and got nothing, so this time grant me something on which to live.' He pronounced the Name of God and cast his net into the sea. He waited until it had settled and then he tried to pull it in, but found that it had snagged on the bottom. He recited the formula: `There is no power and no might except with God,' and went on:

How wretched is this kind of world

That leaves us in such trouble and distress!

In the morning it may be that things go well,

But I must drink destruction's cup when evening comes.

Yet when it is asked who leads the easiest life,

Men would reply that this was I.

The fisherman stripped off his clothes and, after diving in, he worked his hardest to drag the net to shore. Then, when he opened it up, he found in it a brass bottle with a lead seal, imprinted with the inscription of our master Solomon, the son of David, on both of whom be peace. The fisherman was delighted to see this, telling himself that it would fetch ten gold dinars if he sold it in the brass market. He shook it and,

discovering that it was heavy as well as sealed, he said to himself: `I wonder what is in it? I'll open it up and have a look before selling it.' He took out a knife and worked on the lead until he had removed it from the bottle, which he then put down on the ground, shaking it in order to pour out its contents. To his astonishment, at first nothing came out, but then their emerged smoke which towered up into the sky and spread over the surface of the ground. When it had all come out, it collected and solidified; a tremor ran through it and it became an `ifrit with his head in the clouds and his feet on the earth. His head was like a dome, his hands were like winnowing forks and his feet like ships' masts. He had a mouth like a cave with teeth like rocks, while his nostrils were like jugs and his eyes like lamps. He was dark and scowling.

When he saw this `ifrit the fisherman shuddered; his teeth chattered; his mouth dried up and he could not see where he was going. At the sight of him the `ifrit exclaimed: `There is no god but the God of Solomon, His prophet. Prophet of God, do not kill me for I shall never disobey you again in word or in deed.'

``Ifrit,' the fisherman said, `you talk of Solomon, the prophet of God, but Solomon died eighteen hundred years ago and we are living in the last age of the world. What is your story and how did you come to be in this bottle?' To which the `ifrit replied: `There is no god but God. I have good news for you, fisherman.'

`What is that?' the fisherman asked, and the `ifrit said: `I am now going to put you to the worst of deaths.' `For this good news, leader of the `ifrits,' exclaimed the fisherman, `you deserve that God's protection be removed from you, you damned creature. Why should you kill me and what have I done to deserve this? It was I who saved you from the bottom of the sea and brought you ashore.'

But the `ifrit said: `Choose what death you want and how you want me to kill you.' `What have I done wrong,' asked the fisherman, `and why are you punishing me?' The `ifrit replied: `Listen to my story,' and the fisherman said: `Tell it, but keep it short as I am at my last gasp.' `Know, fisherman,' the `ifrit told him, `that I was one of the apostate jinn, and that together with Sakhr, the jinni, I rebelled against Solomon, the son of David, on both of whom be peace. Solomon sent his vizier, Asaf, to fetch me to him under duress, and I was forced to go with him in a state of humiliation to stand before Solomon. "I take refuge with God!" exclaimed Solomon when he saw me, and he then offered me conversion to the Faith and proposed that I enter his service. When I refused, he called for this bottle, in which he imprisoned me, sealing it with lead and imprinting on it the Greatest Name of God. Then, at his command, the jinn carried me off and threw me into the middle of the sea.

`For a hundred years I stayed there, promising myself that I would give whoever freed me enough wealth to last him for ever, but the years passed and no one rescued me. For the next hundred years I told myself that I would open up all the treasures of the earth for my rescuer, but still no one rescued me. Four hundred years later, I promised that I would grant three wishes, but when I still remained imprisoned, I became furiously angry and said to myself that I would kill whoever saved me, giving him a choice of how he wanted to die. It is you who are my rescuer, and so I allow you this choice.'

When the fisherman heard this, he exclaimed in wonder at his bad luck in freeing the `ifrit now, and he went on: `Spare me, may God spare you, and do not kill me lest God place you in the power of one who will kill you.' `I must kill you,' insisted the `ifrit, `and so choose how you want to die.' Ignoring this, the fisherman made another appeal, calling on the `ifrit to show gratitude for his release. `It is only because you freed me that I am going to kill you,' repeated the `ifrit, at which the fisherman said: `Lord of the `ifrits, I have done you good and you are repaying me with evil. The proverbial lines are right where they say:

We did them good; they did its opposite,

And this, by God, is how the shameless act.

Whoever helps those who deserve no help,

Will be like one who rescues a hyena.'

`Don't go on so long,' said the `ifrit when he heard this, `for death is coming to you.' The fisherman said to himself: `This is a jinni and I am a human. God has given me sound intelligence which I can use to find a way of destroying him, whereas he can only use vicious cunning.' So he asked: `Are you definitely going to kill me?' and when the `ifrit confirmed this, he said: `I conjure you by the Greatest Name inscribed on the seal of Solomon and ask you to give me a truthful answer to a question that I have.' `I shall,' replied the `ifrit, who had been shaken and disturbed by the mention of the Greatest Name, and he went on: `Ask your question but be brief.' The fisherman went on: `You say you were in this bottle, but there is not room in it for your hand or your foot, much less all the rest of you.' `You don't believe that I was in it?' asked the `ifrit, to which the fisherman replied: `I shall never believe it until I see it

with my own eyes.'

Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say.

When it was the fourth night, Dunyazad asked her to finish the story, if she was not sleepy, and so she went on:

I have heard, O fortunate king, that when the fisherman told the `ifrit that he would not believe him until he saw this with his own eyes, a shudder ran through the `ifrit and he became a cloud of smoke hovering over the sea. Then the smoke coalesced and entered the jar bit by bit until it was all there. Quickly the fisherman picked up the brass stopper with its inscription and put it over the mouth of the bottle. He called out to the `ifrit: `Ask me how you want to die. By God, I am going to throw you into the sea and then build myself a house in this place so that I can stop anyone who comes fishing by telling them that there is an `ifrit here who gives anyone who brings him up a choice of how he wants to be killed.'

When the `ifrit heard this and found himself imprisoned in the bottle, he tried to get out but could not, as he was prevented by Solomon's seal, and he realized that the fisherman had tricked him. `I was only joking,' he told the fisherman, who replied: `You are lying, you most despicable, foulest and most insignificant of `ifrits,' and he took up the bottle. `No, no,' called the `ifrit, but the fisherman said: `Yes, yes,' at which the `ifrit asked him mildly and humbly what he intended to do with him. `I am going to throw you into the sea,' the fisherman told him. `You may have been there for eighteen hundred years, but I shall see to it that you stay there until the Last Trump. Didn't I say: "Spare me, may God spare you, and do not kill me lest God place you in the power of one who will kill you"? But you refused and acted treacherously towards me. Now God has put you in my power and I shall do the same to you.' `Open the bottle,' implored the `ifrit, `so that I can do you good.' `Damned liar,' said the fisherman. `You and I are like the vizier of King Yunan and Duban the sage.' `What is their story?' asked the `ifrit, AND THE FISHERMAN REPLIED:

You must know, `ifrit, that once upon a time in the old days in the land of Ruman there was a king called Yunan in the city of Fars. He was a wealthy and dignified man with troops and guards of all races, but he was also a leper, who had taken medicines of various kinds and used ointments, but whose illness doctors and men of learning had been unable to cure.

Arabian Nights tales part - 2