The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 15 by Sir Richard Francis Burton (classic romance novels .TXT) 📖

dogs’ trysting-site?’ and when I heard her speech, O Commander of the Faithful, I hanged my head groundwards and could not return a reply, nor even attempt to address her could I. Said she, ‘Woe to thee, did I not say to thee, ‘O Manjab hight, thou who with curs dost unite and no foregatherer with friendly wight?’ Woe to thee, and he lied not who said that in menkind there be no trust. But how, O Manjab, didst thou prefer this slave-girl before me and make her my equal in dress and semblance? However, O ye women, do ye send and bring the Kazi and the assessors at this moment and instant.’ So they fetched them without stay or delay, and they produced the obligation which had been written, with the penalty duly attested by testimony. Then she said to the witnesses, ‘Read all that for him,’ and they did so and asked me, ‘What hast thou to say about this obligation and the punishment for breaking it?’ Answered I, ‘The document is right and fair, nor have I aught to utter thereanent.’ Hereupon, O Prince of True Believers, she summoned the Governor and his officials, and I confessed before them and bore witness against myself, when they reviled me and abused me, and I told them the tale full and complete. But they would not excuse me and they all cried, ‘Verily, thou deserves splitting or quartering;[FN#143] thou who wouldst abandon this beauty and perfection and brilliancy and stature and symmetry and wouldst throw thyself upon a slave-girl black as charcoal; thou who wouldst leave this semblance which is like the splendours of moonlight and wouldst follow yon fulsome figure which resembleth the murks of night.’ Hereupon, O Prince of True Believers, she said to the Governor, ‘Hearken unto what I tell thee. I bear witness against myself that I have excused him the cutting off his hand and tongue and the plucking out his eyes; but do ye redeem my rights of him by one condition.’ ‘And what may that be?’ asked they; and she answered, ‘A thousand stripes upon his right side, and as many upon his left ribs.’ Hereupon, O

Commander of the Faithful, they seized me and smote me upon my right flank until I was estranged from the world,[FN#144] and after they took a handful of salt, which they rubbed upon the wounds.[FN#145] Then they applied a thousand stripes to my left ribs, and threw over me a ragged robe wherewith to veil my shame.

But my flanks had been torn open by such a bastinado, nor did I recover for a space of three days, when I found myself lying cast-out upon a dunghill. Seeing this my condition, I pulled myself together, and arising walked to the mansion wherein I was wont to wone; but I found the door locked with three padlocks and it was empty and void, nor was voice or sound to be heard therein at all, and ‘twas, as said one of the poets in this couplet, ‘The chambers were like a beehive well stocked; * When the bees quitted them they became empty.’[FN#146]

 

So I lingered there an hour of time, when a woman suddenly came out from one of the neighbouring houses and asked me, ‘What dost thou want, O asker; and what seekest thou?’ I answered, ‘We are in quest of the owners of this mansion;’ and said she, ‘Here they were in crowds and then they abandoned it, and may Allah have mercy upon him who spake these two couplets, ‘They fared and with faring fled rest from me * And my parted heart no repose can see:

Have ruth on a wight with a heart weighed by woes * Seest not how their door is without a key?’

 

Then indeed I repented, O Commander of the Faithful, over that I had done and regretted what had befallen me and what had proceeded from me of ill-deeds, and quoth I to the woman who had addressed me, ‘Allah upon thee, O my mistress, say me hast thou of their traces any tidings?’ “—And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and fell silent, and ceased saying her permitted say. Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, “How sweet and tasteful is thy tale, O sister mine, and how enjoyable and delectable!” Quoth she, “And where is this compared with that I would relate to you on the coming night an the Sovran suffer me to survive?” Now when it was the next night and that was

 

The Six Hundred and Forty-eighth Night, Dunyazad said to her, “Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching of this our latter night.” She replied, “With love and good will!” It hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding, lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming and worthy celebrating, that Manjab, speaking to the woman, said, “O my lady, say me, dost thou know of their traces any tidings, and hast thou come upon any manifest news?” Said she, “This thing was to befal thee of old, O thou poor fellow, even as quoth the poet in the following couplets, ‘My tears flow fast, my heart knows no rest * And melts my soul and cares aye molest:

Would Heaven mine eyeballs their form beheld * And flies my life, and ah! who shall arrest?

‘Tis wondrous the while shows my form to sight, * Fire burns my vitals with flamey crest!

Indeed for parting I’ve wept, and yet * No friend I find to mine aid addrest:

Ho thou the Moon in a moment gone * From sight, wilt thou rise to a glance so blest?

An thou be ‘stranged of estrangement who * Of men shall save me?

Would God I wist!

Fate hath won the race in departing me * And who with Fate can avail contest?’”

 

“Then, O Commander of the Faithful, my longings grew and I poured fast tears in torrents and I was like to choke with my sobs, so I arose to walk about the city highways and I clung from wall to wall for what befel me of despight and affright at the disappearance of them,[FN#147] and as I wandered about I repeated these verses,

 

‘To man I’m humbled when my friends lost I * And missed the way of right where hardships lie:

Sorrow and sickness long have been my lot * To bear, when need was strong to justify:

Say me, shall any with their presence cheer— * Pity my soul?

Then bless my friend who’s nigh!

I kiss your footprints for the love of you, * I greet your envoy e’en albeit he lie.’

 

After this, O Prince of True Believers, I remained immersed in cark and care and anxious thought, and as ever I wandered about behold, a man met me and said, ”Tis now three days since they marched away and none wotteth where they have alighted.’[FN#148]

So I returned once more to the mansion-door and I sat beside it to take my rest when my glance was raised and fell upon the lintel and I saw attached to it a folded paper which I hent in hand and found written therein these lines, ‘Scant shall avail with judgment just the tear * When at love-humbled heart man dareth jeer:

I was thy dearling, fain with thee to dwell But thou transgressedst nor return canst speer: And if by every means thou find me not, From thee I fled and other hold I dear:

I come in dreams to see if sore thy heart; * Let it take patience in its woe sincere:

Thou dost beweep our union fled, but I * Wist that such weeping brings no profit clear:

Ho, stander at my door, once honoured guest, * Haply my tidings thou some day shalt hear.’

 

Thereupon, O Commander of the Faithful, I returned to my mother and sister and told them the tale of what had betided me, first and last, and the twain wept over me and my parent said, ‘I thought not, O my son, that such case as this would come down upon thee; withal every calamity save Death is no calamity at all; so be thou of longsuffering, O my child, for the compensation of patience is upon Allah; and indeed this that hath happened to thee hath happened unto many the likes of thee, and know thou that Fate is effectual and Sort is sealed. Hast thou not heard the words of the poet who spoke these couplets,[FN#149]

 

‘The world aye whirleth with its sweet and sour * And Time aye trippeth with its joy and stowre:

Say him to whom life-change is wilful strange * Right wilful is the world and risks aye low’r:

See’st now how Ocean overwhelms his marge * And stores the pearl-drop in his deepest bow’r:

On Earth how many are of leafy trees, * But none we harvest save what fruit and flow’r:

See’st not the storm-winds blowing fierce and wild * Deign level nothing save the trees that tow’r?

In Heaven are stars and planets numberless * But none save Sun and Moon eclipse endure.

Thou judgest well the days when Time runs fair * Nor fearest trouble from Fate’s evil hour:

Thou wast deceived what time the Nights were fain, * But in the bliss o’ nights ‘ware days of bane.’

 

Now when I heard these words of my mother, O Prince of True Believers, and what she addressed to me of wise sayings and poetry, I took patience and rendered account to Allah;”—And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and fell silent and ceased to say her permitted say. Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, “How sweet is thy story, O sister mine, and how enjoyable and delectable!” Quoth she, “And where is this compared with that I would relate to you on the coming night an the King suffer me to survive?” Now when it was the next night and that was The Six Hundred and Forty-ninth Night, Dunyazad said to her, “Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching of this our latter night!” She replied, “With love and good will!” It hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding, lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming and worthy celebrating, that Manjab said, “O Commander of the Faithful, I had patience and rendered my account to Allah Almighty. Then my mother fell to nursing me, with medicines and unguents and what not else of remedies wherefrom cometh health until I was healed, yet there remained to me the scars even as thou sawest. But I inscribed not those lines upon my house which thou didst espy, O Commander of the Faithful, save that the news thereof might reach thee, and that naught be concealed from thee of my tidings and my past fate, and present condition. And this is the whole that hath befallen me.”[FN#150]

Now when the Caliph Harun al-Rashid heard these words he smote hand upon hand and cried, “There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah the Glorious, the Great.” Then he cried upon the Minister Ja’afar the Barmecide, and said to him, “O Wazir, unless thou bring me information of this affair and root out this matter and make manifest to me the condition of this youth, verily I will smite thy neck.” The Minister answered, “Hearing and obeying: however, do thou, O Commander of the Faithful, give me three days’ delay,” and the Caliph rejoined, “I have granted this to thee.” Hereupon Ja’afar went forth like unto one blind and deaf, unseeing