THE ARABIAN NIGHTS - TALES OF 1001 NIGHTS Part 3

SHE CONTINUED:

I have heard, O auspicious king, that THE YOUNG MAN SAID:

I struck the slave with the intention of cutting off his head but I had failed to sever his jugular and only cut his gullet, skin and flesh. He let out a loud snort and as my wife stirred, I stepped back, returned the sword to its sheath and went back to the city, where I entered the palace and lay down on my bed until morning. There was my wife coming to and lay down on my bed until morning. There was my wife coming to wake me, with her hair shorn, wearing mourning. She said: `Cousin, don't object to what I am doing, as I have had news that my mother has died and that my father has been killed fighting the infidels, while one of my brothers has died of a fatal sting and the other of a fall. It is right for me to weep and grieve.'

When I heard this, I did not tell her what I knew but said: `Do what you think proper and I shall not oppose you.' From the beginning to the end of a whole year she remained miserable and in mourning, and then she said to me: `I want you to build me a tomb shaped like a dome beside your palace, which I shall set aside for grief and call the House of Sorrows.' `Do as you please,' I said, and she built her House of Sorrows, over which a dome was, covering what looked like a tomb. She brought the slave there and installed him in it, but he could no longer be of any service to her. He went on drinking wine, but since the day that I had wounded him he could no longer speak, and he was alive only because his allotted span had not yet come to an end. Every day, morning and evening, my wife would go to the tomb weeping and lamenting for him, and she would give him wine and broth.

Things went on like this until it came to the second year. I had been long-suffering and had paid no attention to her, until one day, when I came to her room unexpectedly, I found her exclaiming tearfully: `Why are you absent from my sight, my heart's delight? Talk to me, O my soul; speak to me, my darling.' She recited:

If you have found consolation, love has left me no endurance.

My heart loves none but you.

Take my bones and my soul with you wherever you may go,

And where you halt, bury me opposite you.

Call out my name over my grave and my bones will moan in

answer,

Hearing the echo of your voice.

Then she went on:

My wishes are fulfilled on the day I am near you,

While the day of my doom is when you turn from me.

I may pass the night in fear, threatened with destruction,

But union with you is sweeter to me than safety.

Next she recited:

If every blessing and all this world were mine,

Together with the empire of the Persian kings,

To me this would not be worth a gnat's wing,

If my eyes could not look on you.

When she had finished speaking and weeping, I said to her: `Cousin, that is enough of sorrow, and more weeping will do you no good.' `Do not try to stop me doing what I must do,' she said, `for in that case, I shall kill myself.' I said no more and left her to do what she wanted, and she went on grieving, weeping and mourning for a second year and then a third. One day, I went to her when something had put me out of temper and I was tired of the violence of her distress. I found her going towards the tomb beneath the dome, saying: `Master, I hear no word from you. Master, why don't you answer me?' Then she recited: from you. Master, why don't you answer me?' Then she recited:

Grave, grave, have the beloved's beauties faded?

And has the brightness and the radiance gone?

Grave, you are neither earth nor heaven for me,

So how is it you hold both sun and moon?

When I heard what she said and the lines she recited, I became even angrier than before and I exclaimed: `How long will this sorrow last?'

Then I recited myself:

Grave, grave, has his blackness faded?

And has the brightness and the foulness failed?

Grave, you are neither basin nor a pot,

So how is it you hold charcoal and slime?

When she heard this, she jumped up and said: `Damn you, you dog. It was you who did this to me and wounded my heart's darling. You have caused me pain and robbed him of his youth, so that for three years he has been neither dead nor alive.' To which I replied: `Dirty whore, filthiest of the fornicators and the prostitutes of black slaves, yes, it was I who did that.' Then I drew my sword and aimed a deadly blow at her, but when she heard what I said and saw that I was intending to kill her, she burst out laughing and said: `Off, you dog! What is past cannot return and the dead cannot rise again, but God has given the man who did this to me into my power. Because of him there has been an unquenchable fire in my heart and a flame that cannot be hidden.'

Then, as she stood there, she spoke some unintelligible words and Then, as she stood there, she spoke some unintelligible words and added: `Through my magic become half stone and half man.' It was then that I became as you see me now, unable to stand or to sit, neither dead nor alive. After this, she cast a spell over the whole city, together with its markets and its gardens. It had contained four different groups, Muslims, Christians, Jews and Magians, and these she transformed into fish the white fish being the Muslims, the red the Magians, the blue the Christians and the yellow the Jews and she transformed the four islands into four mountains that surround the pool. Every day she tortures me by giving me a hundred lashes with her whip until the blood flows down over my shoulders. Then she dresses me in a hair shirt of the kind that I am wearing on my upper half, over which she places this splendid gown.

The young man then wept and recited:

O my God, I must endure Your judgement and decree,

And if that pleases You, I shall do this.

Tyrants have wronged me and oppressed me here,

But Paradise may be my recompense.

My sufferings have left me in sad straits,

But God's choice as His favoured Prophet intercedes for me.

The king then turned to the youth and said: `Although you have freed me from one worry, you have added another to my cares. Where is the woman and where is the tomb with the wounded slave?' `He is lying in his tomb beneath the dome,' said the young man, `and she is in that chamber opposite the door. She comes out once each day at sunrise, and the first thing she does is to strip me and give me a hundred lashes. I weep and call out but I cannot move to defend myself, and after she has tortured me, she takes wine and broth to the slave. She will come early tomorrow.' `By God, young man,' said the king, `I shall do you a service for which I shall be remembered and which will be recorded until the end of time.' He then sat talking to him until nightfall, when they both slept.

Close to dawn the king rose, stripped off his clothes, drew his sword and went to where the slave lay, surrounded by candles, lamps, perfumes and unguents. He came up to the slave and killed him with one blow, before lifting him on to his back and throwing him down a well in the palace. After that, he wrapped himself in the slave's clothes and lay down in the tomb with the naked sword by his side. After an hour, the damned sorceress arrived, but before she entered the tomb, she first stripped her cousin of his clothes, took a whip and beat him. He cried out in pain: `The state that I am in is punishment enough for me, cousin; have pity on me.' `Did you have pity on me,' she asked, `and did you leave me, my beloved?' She beat him until she was tired and the blood flowed down his sides; then she dressed him in a hair shirt under his robe, and went off to carry the slave a cup of wine and a bowl of broth.

At the tomb she wept and wailed, saying: `Master, speak to me; master, talk to me.' She then recited:

How long will you turn away, treating me roughly?

Have I not shed tears enough for you?

How do you intend abandoning me?

If your object is the envious, their envy has been cured.

Shedding tears, she repeated: `Master, talk to me.' The king lowered his voice, twisted his tongue, and speaking in the accent of the blacks, he said: `Oh, oh, there is no might and no power except with God, the Exalted, the Omnipotent!' When she heard this, she cried out with joy and then fainted. When she had recovered, she said: `Master, is this true?' The king, in a weak voice, said: `You damned woman, do you deserve that anyone should talk to you or speak with you?' `Why is that?' she asked. `Because all day long you torture your husband, although he cries for help, and from dusk to dawn he stops me from sleeping as he calls out his entreaties, cursing both me and you. He disturbs me and harms me, and but for this I would have been cured. It is this that keeps me from answering you.' `With your permission,' she replied, `I shall release him.' `Do that,' said the king, `and allow me to rest.' `I hear and obey,' she replied and, after going from the tomb to the palace, she took a bowl, filled it with water and spoke some words over it. As the water boiled and bubbled, like a pot boiling on the fire, she sprinkled her husband with it and said: `I conjure you by the words that I have recited, if you are in this state because of my magic, revert from this shape to what you were before.'

A sudden shudder ran through the young man and he rose to his feet, overjoyed at his release, calling out: `I bear witness that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is the Apostle of God my God bless him and give him peace.' His wife shouted at him, saying: `Go, and don't come back, or else I shall kill you!' He left her and she went back to the tomb, where she said: `Master, come out to me, so that I may see your beautiful form.' In a weak voice the king replied: `What have you done? You have brought me relief from the branch but not from the root.' `My beloved, my black darling,' she said, `what is the root?' `Curse you, you beloved, my black darling,' she said, `what is the root?' `Curse you, you damned woman!' he replied. `It is the people of the city and of the four islands. Every night at midnight the fish raise their heads asking for help and cursing me and you. It is this that stops my recovery. Go and free them quickly and then come back, take my hand and help me to get up, for I am on the road to recovery.'

On hearing these words and thinking that he was the slave, the sorceress was delighted and promised in God's Name willingly to obey his command. She got up and ran joyfully to the pool, from which she took a little water...

Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then when it was the ninth night, SHE CONTINUED:

I have heard, O auspicious king, that after the sorceress had taken water from the pool and spoken some unintelligible words over it, the fish danced, lifted their heads and immediately rose up, as the magic spell was removed from the city. It became inhabited again, the merchants buying and selling and each man practising his craft, while the islands were restored to their former state. The sorceress went straight away to the tomb and said to the king: `Give me your noble hand, my darling, and get up.' In a low voice, the king replied: `Come to me.' When she did this he, with the drawn sword in his hand, struck her in the breast as she clung on to him, so that it emerged gleaming from her back. With another blow he cut her in two, and threw the two halves on the ground.

When he came out he found the young man whom she had enchanted standing waiting for him, congratulating him on his escape, kissing his hand and thanking him. The king asked him whether he would prefer to stay in his own city, or to go with him to his. `King of the age,' said the young man, `do you know how long a journey it is to your city?' `Two and a half days,' replied the king. `If you have been sleeping,' said the young man, `wake up. Between you and your city is a full year's worth of hard travelling. You only got here in two and a half days because this place was under a spell. But I shall not part from you for the blink of an eye.' The king was glad and said: `Praise be to God, Who has given you to me. You shall be my son, for all my life I have been granted no other.'

They embraced with great joy and then walked to the palace. Here the young man told his courtiers to make ready for a journey and to collect supplies and whatever was needed. This took ten days, after which the young man and the king set off, the latter being in a fever of anxiety to get back his own city. They travelled with fifty mamluks and magnificent gifts, and their journey continued day and night for a whole year until, as God had decreed their safety, they eventually reached their goal. Word was sent to the vizier that the king had arrived safe and sound, and he, together with his soldiers, who had despaired of him, came to greet him, kissing the ground before him and congratulating

him on his safe arrival.

The king then entered the city to take his seat on his throne, and the vizier, on presenting himself and hearing of all that had happened to the young man, added his own congratulations. Then, when things were settled, the king presented gifts to many people and he told the vizier to fetch the man who had brought him the fish and who had been responsible for saving the people of the enchanted city. A messenger was sent to him and when he was brought to the palace, the king presented him with robes of honour and asked him about his circumstances, and whether he had any children. The fisherman replied that he had two daughters and one son. The king sent for them and married one of the girls himself, giving the other to the young man. The fisherman's son was made treasurer, while the vizier was invested and sent off as ruler of the capital of the Black Islands, the young man's city. With him were sent the fifty mamluks who had come with the king, and he was given robes of honour to take to the emirs of the city. He kissed the king's hands and started out immediately, while the king remained with the young man. The fisherman, meanwhile, had become the richest man of his age, while his daughters remained as wives of kings until they died.

This, however, is not more remarkable than what happened to the porter. There was an unmarried porter who lived in the city of Baghdad.

One day, while he was standing in the market, leaning on his basket, a woman came up to him wrapped in a silken Mosuli shawl with a floating ribbon and wearing embroidered shoes fringed with gold thread. When she raised her veil, beneath it could be seen dark eyes which, with their eyelashes and eyelids, shot soft glances, perfect in their quality. She turned to the porter and said in a sweet, clear voice: `Take your basket and follow me.' Almost before he was sure of what she had said, he rushed to pick up the basket. `What a lucky day, a day of good fortune!' he exclaimed, following her until she stopped by the door of a house. She knocked at it and a Christian came down to whom she gave a dinar, taking in exchange an olive-coloured jar of strained wine. She put this in taking in exchange an olive-coloured jar of strained wine. She put this in the basket and said to the porter: `Pick this up and follow me.' `By God,' repeated the porter, `this is a blessed and a fortunate day!' and he did what she told him.

She then stopped at a fruiterer's shop, where she bought Syrian apples, Uthmani quinces, Omani peaches, jasmine and water lilies from Syria, autumn cucumbers, lemons, sultani oranges, scented myrtle, privet flowers, camomile blossoms, red anemones, violets, pomegranate blooms and eglantine. All these she put into the porter's basket, telling him to pick it up. This he did and he followed her until she stopped at the butcher's, where she got the man to cut her ten ratls' weight of meat. He did this, and after paying him, she wrapped the meat in banana leaves and put it in the basket, giving the porter his instructions. He picked up the basket and followed her to the grocer, from whom she bought pistachio kernels for making a dessert, Tihama raisins and shelled almonds. The porter was told to pick them up and to follow her. Next she stopped at the sweetmeat seller's shop. This time she bought a bowl and filled it with all that he had sugar cakes, doughnuts stuffed with musk, `soap' cakes, lemon tarts, Maimuni tarts, `Zainab's combs', sugar fingers and `qadis' snacks'.

Every type of pastry was piled on to a plate and put into the basket, at which the porter exclaimed: `If you had told me, I'd have brought a donkey with me to carry all this stuff.' The girl smiled and gave him a cuff on the back of the neck. `Hurry up,' she said. `Don't talk so much and you will get your reward, if God Almighty wills it.' Then she stopped at the perfume seller's where she bought ten types of scented water including rosewater, orange-flower water, waters scented with water lilies and with willow flowers two sugar loaves, a bottle of musk- scented rosewater, a quantity of frankincense, aloes, ambergris, musk and Alexandrian candles. These entire she put in the basket, telling the porter to pick it up and follow her.

He carried his basket and followed her to a handsome house, overlooking a spacious courtyard. It was a tall, pillared building, whose door had two ebony leaves, plated with red gold. The girl halted by the door, raised the veil from her face and knocked lightly, while the porter remained standing behind her, his thoughts occupied with her beauty. The door opened and, as its leaves parted, the porter looked at the person who had opened it. He saw a lady of medium height, with jutting breasts, beautiful, comely, and resplendent, with a perfect and well- proportioned figure, a radiant brow, red cheeks and eyes rivalling those of a wild cow or a gazelle. Her eyebrows were like the crescent moon of the month of Sha`ban; she had cheeks like red anemones, a mouth like the seal of Solomon, coral red lips, teeth like camomile blossoms or pearls on a string, and a gazelle-like neck. Her bosom was like an ornate fountain, with breasts like twin pomegranates; she had an elegant belly and a navel that could contain an ounce of unguent. She was as the poet described:

Look at the sun and the moon of the palaces,

At the jewel in her nose and at her flowery splendour.

Your eye has not seen white on black

United in beauty as in her face and in her hair.

She is rosy-cheeked; beauty proclaims her name,

Even if you are not fortunate enough to know of her.

She swayed and I laughed in wonder at her haunches,

But her waist prompted my tears.

As the porter stared at her, he lost his wits and the basket almost fell from his head. `Never in my life,' he repeated, `have I known a more blessed day than this!' The girl who had answered the door said to the other, who had brought the provisions: `Come in and take the basket from this poor porter.' So the two girls went in, followed by the porter, and they went on until they reached a spacious, well-designed and beautiful courtyard, with additional carvings, vaulted chambers and alcoves, and furnished with sofas, wardrobes, cupboards and curtains. In the middle of it was a large pool filled with water on which floated a skiff, and at its upper end was a couch of juniper wood studded with gems over which was suspended a mosquito net of red satin, the buttons of whose fastenings were pearls as big as or bigger than hazelnuts.

From within this emerged a resplendent girl of pleasing beauty, glorious as the moon, with the character of a philosopher. Her eyes were bewitching, with eyebrows like bent bows; her figure was slender and straight as the letter alif; her breath had the scent of ambergris; her lips were carnelian red, sweet as sugar; and her face would shame the light of the radiant sun. She was like one of the stars of heaven, a golden dome, an unveiled bride or a noble Bedouin lady, as described by the poet:

It is as though she smiles to show stringed pearls,

Hailstones or flowers of camomile.

The locks of her hair hang black as night,

While her beauty shames the light of dawn.

This third girl rose from the couch and walked slowly to join her sisters in the centre of the hall. `Why are you standing here?' she said. `Take the basket from the head of this poor porter.' The provision buyer or housekeeper came first, followed by the doorkeeper, and the third girl helped them to lower the basket, after which they emptied out its contents and put everything in its place. Then they gave the porter two dinars and told him to be off. For his part, he looked at the lovely girls, the most beautiful he had ever seen, with their equally delightful natures. There were no men with them and, as he stared in astonishment at the wine, the fruits, the scented blossoms and all the rest, he was reluctant to leave. `Why don't you go?' asked the girl. `Do you think that we didn't pay you enough?' and with that, she turned to her sister and said: `Give him another dinar.' `By God, lady,' said the porter, `it was not that I thought that the payment was too little, for my fee would not come to two dirhams, but you have taken over my heart and soul. How is it that you are alone with no men here and no pleasant companion? You know that there must be four to share a proper feast and women cannot enjoy themselves except with men. As the poet says:

Do you not see that four things join for entertainment

Harp, lute, zither and pipe,

Matched by four scented flowers

Rose, myrtle, gillyflower, anemone.

These only become pleasant with another four

Wine, gardens, a beloved and some gold.

There are three of you and so you need a fourth, who must be a man of There are three of you and so you need a fourth, who must be a man of intelligence, sensible, clever and one who can keep a secret.'

The three girls were surprised by what the porter said, and they laughed at him and asked: `Who can produce us a man like that? We are girls and are afraid of entrusting our secrets to someone who would not keep them. We have read in an account what the poet Ibn al-Thumam once said:

Guard your secret as you can, entrusting it to none,

For if you do, you will have let it go.

If your own breast cannot contain your secret,

How is it to be held by someone else?

And Abu Nuwas has said:

Whoever lets the people know his secret

Deserves a brand imprinted on his forehead.'

When the porter heard what they said, he exclaimed: `By God, I am an intelligent and a trustworthy man; I have read books and studied histories; I make public what is good and conceal what is bad. As the poet says:

Only the trustworthy can keep a secret,

And it is with the good that secrets are concealed.

With me they are kept locked inside a room

Whose keys are lost and whose door has been sealed.'

When the girls heard this quotation, they said: `You know that we have spent a great deal of money on this place. Do you have anything with you which you can use to pay us back? We shall not let you sit with us as our companion and to look on our comely and beautiful faces until you pay down some money. Have you not heard what the author of the proverb said: "Love without cash is worthless"?' The doorkeeper said: `My dear, if you have something, you are someone, but if you have nothing, then go without anything.' At that point, however, the housekeeper said: `Sisters, let him be. For, by God, he has not failed us today, whereas someone else might not have put up with us, and whatever debt he may run up, I will settle for him.' The porter was delighted and thanked her, kissing the ground, but the girl who had been on the couch said: `By God, we shall only let you sit with us on one condition, which is that you ask no questions about what does not concern you, and if you are inquisitive you will be beaten.' `I agree, lady,' said the porter. `I swear by my head and my eye, and here I am, a man with no tongue.'

The housekeeper then got up, tucked up her skirts, set out the wine bottles and strained the wine. She set green herbs beside the wine-jar and brought everything that might be needed. She then brought out the wine-jar and sat down with her two sisters, while the porter, sitting between the three of them, thought he must be dreaming. From the wine-jar that she had fetched she filled a cup, drank it, and followed it with a second and a third. Then she filled the cup and passed it to her sister and finally to the porter. She recited:

Drink with pleasure and the enjoyment of good health,

For this wine is a cure for all disease.

The porter took the cup in his hand, bowed, thanked her and recited:

Wine should be drunk beside a trusted friend,

One of pure birth from the line of old heroes.

For wine is like the wind, sweet if it passes scented flowers,

But stinking if it blows over a corpse.

Then he added:

Take wine only from a fawn,

Subtle in meaning when she speaks to you,

Resembling the wine itself.

After he had recited these lines, he kissed the hand of each of the girls. Then he drank until he became tipsy, after which he swayed and recited:

The only blood we are allowed to drink

Is blood that comes from grapes.

So pour this out for me, and may my life

And all I have, both new and old,

Serve to ransom your gazelle-like eyes.

Then the housekeeper took the cup, filled it and gave it to the doorkeeper, who took it from him with thanks and drank it. She then filled it for the lady of the house, before pouring another cup and passing it to the porter, who kissed the ground in front of her, thanked her and recited:

Fetch wine, by God; bring me the brimming glass.

Pour it for me; this is the water of life.

He then went up to the mistress of the house and said: `Lady, I am your slave, your mamluk and your servant.' He recited:

By the door there stands a slave of yours,

Acknowledging your kindly charity.

May he come in, fair one, to see your loveliness?

I swear by love itself I cannot leave.

She replied: `Enjoy yourself, drink with pleasure and the well-being that follows the path of health.' He took the cup, kissed her hand and chanted:

I gave her old wine, coloured like her cheeks,

Unmixed and gleaming like a fiery brand.

She kissed it and said, laughingly:

`How can you pour us people's cheeks?'

I said: `Drink: this comes from my tears;

Its redness is my blood;

My breath has heated it within the glass.'

She replied with the line:

Companion, if you have wept blood for me,

Pour it obediently for me to drink.

She then took the cup, drank it and sat down with her sister. They continued to drink, with the porter seated between them, and as they drank, they danced, laughed and sang, reciting poems and lyrics. The porter began to play with them, kissing, biting, rubbing, feeling, touching and taking liberties. One of them would give him morsels to eat, another would cuff him and slap him, and the third would bring him scented flowers. With them he was enjoying the pleasantest of times, as though he was seated among the houris of Paradise.

They went on in this way until the wine had taken its effect on their heads and their brains. When it had got the upper hand of them, the doorkeeper stood up, stripped off her clothes until she was naked, and letting down her hair as a veil, she jumped into the pool. She sported in the water, ducking her head and then spitting out the water, after which she took some in her mouth and spat it over the porter. She washed her limbs and between her thighs, after which she came out from the water and threw herself down on his lap. `My master, my darling, what is the name of this?' she said, pointing to her vagina. `Your womb,' he replied. `Oh!' she said. `Have you no shame?' and she seized him by the neck and started to cuff him. `Your vagina,' he said, and she cuffed him again on the back of his neck, saying: `Oh! Oh! How disgusting! Aren't you ashamed?' `Your vulva,' he replied. `Do you feel no shame for your honour?' and she struck him a blow with her hand. `Your hornet,' he said, at which the lady of the house pounced on him and beat him, saying: `Don't speak like that.'

With every new name that he produced, the girls beat him more and more, until the back of his neck had almost dissolved under their slaps. more, until the back of his neck had almost dissolved under their slaps. They were laughing among themselves, until he asked: `What do you call it, then?' `The mint of the dykes,' replied the doorkeeper. `Thank God, I am safe now,' said the porter. `Good for you, mint of the dykes.' Then the wine was passed round again, and the housekeeper got up, took off her clothes and threw herself on to the porter's lap. `What is this called, light of my eyes?' she asked, pointing at her private parts. `Your vagina,' he said. `Oh, how dirty of you!' she exclaimed, and she struck him a blow that resounded around the hall, adding: `Oh! Oh! Have you no shame?' `The mint of the dykes,' he said, but blows and slaps still rained on the back of his neck. He tried another four names, but the girls kept on saying: `No, no!' `The mint of the dykes,' he repeated, and they laughed so much that they fell over backwards. Then they fell to beating his neck, saying: `No, that's not its name.' He said: `O my sisters, what is it called?' `Husked sesame,' they said. Then the housekeeper put her clothes back on and they sat, drinking together, with the porter groaning at the pain in his neck and shoulders.

After the wine had been passed round again, the lady of the house, the most beautiful of the three, stood up and stripped off her clothes. The porter grasped the back of his neck with his hand and massaged it, saying: `My neck and my shoulders are common property.' When the girl was naked, she jumped into the pool, dived under water, played around and washed herself. To the porter in her nakedness she looked like a sliver of the moon, with a face like the full moon when it rises or the dawn when it breaks. He looked at her figure, her breasts and her heavy buttocks as they swayed, while she was naked as her Lord had created her. `Oh! Oh!' he said, and he recited:

If I compare your figure to a sappy branch,

I load my heart with wrongs and with injustice.

Branches are most beautiful when concealed with leaves,

While you are loveliest when we meet you naked.

On hearing these lines, the girl came out of the pool and sat on the porter's lap. She pointed at her vulva and said: `Little master, what is the name of this?' `The mint of the dykes,' he replied, and when she exclaimed in disgust, he tried `the husked sesame'. `Bah!' she said. `Your womb,' he suggested. `Oh! Oh! Aren't you ashamed?' and she slapped the back of his neck. Whatever name he produced, she slapped him, saying: `No, no,' until he asked: `Sisters, what is it called?' `The khan of Abu Mansur,' they replied. `Praise God that I have reached safety at last,' he said. `Ho for the khan of Abu Mansur!' The girl got up and put on her clothes and they all went back to what they had been doing.

For a time the wine circulated among them and the porter then got up, undressed and went into the pool. The girls looked at him swimming in the water and washing under his beard and beneath his armpits, as they had done. Then he came out and threw himself into the lap of the lady of the house, with his arms in the lap of the doorkeeper and his feet and legs in the lap of the girl who had bought the provisions. Then he pointed to his penis and said: `Ladies, what is the name of this?' They all laughed at this until they fell over backwards. `Your zubb,' one of them suggested. `No,' he said, and he bit each of them. `Your air,' they said, but he repeated `No', and embraced each of them.

Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the tenth night,