CONTENTS OF THE FIFTH VOLUME.

PAGE
THE EBONY HORSE[1]
(Lane, Vol. II., Chapt. XVII. Story of the Magic Horse: pp. 517–545.)
UNS AL-WUJUD AND THE WAZIR’S DAUGHTER ROSE-IN-HOOD[32]
(Chapt. XVIII. Story of Uns el-Wujood and El-Ward fi’l-Akmam: p. 549.)
ABU NOWAS WITH THE THREE BOYS AND THE CALIPH HARUN AL-RASHID[64]
ABDALLAH BIN MA’AMAR WITH THE MAN OF BASSORAH AND HIS SLAVE-GIRL[69]
(Anecdote of a Man and his Slave-Girl: p. 578.)
THE LOVERS OF THE BANU OZRAH[70]
(Anecdote of Two Victims of Love: p. 579.)
THE WAZIR OF AL-YAMAN AND HIS YOUNG BROTHER[71]
THE LOVES OF THE BOY AND GIRL AT SCHOOL[73]
(Love in a School: p. 580.)
AL-MUTALAMMIS AND HIS WIFE UMAYMAH[74]
HARUN AL-RASHID AND ZUBAYDAH IN THE BATH[75]
HARUN AL-RASHID AND THE THREE POETS[77]
MUS’AB BIN AL-ZUBAYR AND AYISHAH HIS WIFE[79]
ABU AL-ASWAD AND HIS SLAVE-GIRL[80]
HARUN AL-RASHID AND THE TWO SLAVE-GIRLS[81]
HARUN AL-RASHID AND THE THREE SLAVE-GIRLS[81]
THE MILLER AND HIS WIFE[82]
(Lane, Vol. II. Anecdote of a Faithless Wife: p. 582.)
THE SIMPLETON AND THE SHARPER[83]
(Anecdote of a Simpleton and a Sharper: p. 582.)
THE KAZI ABU YUSUF WITH HARUN AL-RASHID AND QUEEN ZUBAYDAH[85]
THE CALIPH AL HAKIM AND THE MERCHANT[86]
(Anecdote of El-Hakim bi-amri-llah and a Merchant of Cairo: p. 583.)
KING KISRA ANUSHIRWAN AND THE VILLAGE DAMSEL[87]
(Anecdote of Anooshirwán: p. 884.)
THE WATER-CARRIER AND THE GOLDSMITH’S WIFE[89]
KHUSRAU AND SHIRIN AND THE FISHERMAN[91]
(Anecdote of Khusrow and Sheereen and a Fisherman: p. 585.)
YAHYA BIN KHALID AND THE POOR MAN[92]
(Anecdote of Yahya el-Barmekee: p. 586.)
MOHAMMED AL-AMIN AND THE SLAVE-GIRL[93]
(Mohammad el-Emeen and the Slave-Girl El-Bedr el-Kebeer: p. 587.)
THE SONS OF YAHYA BIN KHALID AND SAID BIN SALIM[94]
(Anecdote of El-Fadl and Ja’afar the Barmekee: p. 588.)
THE WOMAN’S TRICK AGAINST HER HUSBAND[96]
(Anecdote of a Deceitful Wife: p. 589.)
THE DEVOUT WOMAN AND THE TWO WICKED ELDERS[97]
JA’AFAR THE BARMECIDE AND THE OLD BADAWI[98]
OMAR BIN AL-KHATTAB AND THE YOUNG BADAWI[99]
(Anecdote of a Homicide: p. 589.)
AL-MAAMUN AND THE PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT[105]
THE THIEF AND THE MERCHANT[107]
(Anecdote of an Impudent Thief: p. 592.)
MASRUR THE EUNUCH AND IBN AL-KARIBI[109]
(Compact of Mesroor with Ibn el-Karibee: p. 594.)
THE DEVOTEE PRINCE[111]
(Lane, Vol. II. Anecdote of a Devotee Son of Harun er-Rasheed: p. 595.)
THE SCHOOLMASTER WHO FELL IN LOVE BY REPORT[117]
THE FOOLISH DOMINIE[118]
THE ILLITERATE WHO SET UP FOR A SCHOOLMASTER[119]
(Anecdote of an Illiterate Schoolmaster: p. 599.)
THE KING AND THE VIRTUOUS WIFE[121]
ABD AL-RAHMAN THE MAGHRIBI’S STORY OF THE RUKH[122]
(The Rukh: p. 600.)
ADI BIN ZAYD AND THE PRINCESS HIND[124]
DI’IBIL AL-KHUZA’I WITH THE LADY AND MUSLIM BIN AL-WALID[127]
ISAAC OF MOSUL AND THE MERCHANT[129]
THE THREE UNFORTUNATE LOVERS[133]
HOW ABU HASAN BRAKE WIND[135]
THE LOVERS OF THE BANU TAYY[137]
(Result of Restraint upon Two Lovers: p. 601.)
THE MAD LOVER[138]
(Anecdote of a Distracted Lover: p. 602.)
THE PRIOR WHO BECAME A MOSLEM[141]
(The Converted Prior: p. 603.)
THE LOVES OF ABU ISA AND KURRAT AL-AYN[145]
(Aboo’Esa and Kurrat el-‘Eyn: p. 606.)
AL-AMIN AND HIS UNCLE IBRAHIM BIN AL-MAHDI[152]
AL-FATH BIN KHAKAN AND AL-MUTAWAKKIL[153]
THE MAN’S DISPUTE WITH THE LEARNED WOMAN CONCERNING THE RELATIVE EXCELLENCE OF MALE AND FEMALE[154]
ABU SUWAYD AND THE PRETTY OLD WOMAN[163]
ALI BIN TAHIR AND THE GIRL MUUNIS[164]
THE WOMAN WHO HAD A BOY AND THE OTHER WHO HAD A MAN TO LOVER[165]
ALI THE CAIRENE AND THE HAUNTED HOUSE IN BAGHDAD[166]
(Lane, Vol. II., Chapt. XIX. Story of ‘Alee of Cairo: p. 609.)
THE PILGRIM MAN AND THE OLD WOMAN[186]
(Anecdote of a Townsman and a Bedaweeyeh: p. 635.)
ABU AL-HUSN AND HIS SLAVE-GIRL TAWADDUD[189]
THE ANGEL OF DEATH WITH THE PROUD KING AND THE DEVOUT MAN[246]
THE ANGEL OF DEATH AND THE RICH KING[248]
THE ANGEL OF DEATH AND THE KING OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL[250]
(A Tyrannical King and the Angel of Death: p. 636.)
ISKANDAR ZU AL-KARNAYN AND A CERTAIN TRIBE OF POOR FOLK[252]
THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF KING ANUSHIRWAN[254]
THE JEWISH KAZI AND HIS PIOUS WIFE[256]
THE SHIPWRECKED WOMAN AND HER CHILD[259]
THE PIOUS BLACK SLAVE[261]
THE DEVOUT TRAY-MAKER AND HIS WIFE[264]
(Advantages of Piety and Industry: p. 637.)
AL-HAJJAJ BIN YUSUF AND THE PIOUS MAN[269]
THE BLACKSMITH WHO COULD HANDLE FIRE WITHOUT HURT[271]
THE DEVOTEE TO WHOM ALLAH GAVE A CLOUD FOR SERVICE AND THE DEVOUT KING[274]
THE MOSLEM CHAMPION AND THE CHRISTIAN DAMSEL[277]
(Lane, Vol. II. Anecdote of a Moslem Warrior and a Christian Maiden: p. 639.)
THE CHRISTIAN KING’S DAUGHTER AND THE MOSLEM[283]
THE PROPHET AND THE JUSTICE OF PROVIDENCE[286]
(The Justice of Providence: p. 612.)
THE FERRYMAN OF THE NILE AND THE HERMIT[288]
THE ISLAND KING AND THE PIOUS ISRAELITE[290]
ABU AL-HASAN AND ABU JA’AFAR THE LEPER[294]
THE QUEEN OF THE SERPENTS[298]
  a. The Adventures of Bulukiya[304]
  b. The Story of Janshah[329]

THE EBONY HORSE.[[1]]

There was once in times of yore and ages long gone before, a great and puissant King, of the Kings of the Persians, Sábúr by name, who was the richest of all the Kings in store of wealth and dominion and surpassed each and every in wit and wisdom. He was generous, open handed and beneficent, and he gave to those who sought him and repelled not those who resorted to him; and he comforted the broken-hearted and honourably entreated those who fled to him for refuge. Moreover, he loved the poor and was hospitable to strangers and did the oppressed justice upon the oppressor. He had three daughters, like full moons of shining light or flower-gardens blooming bright; and a son as he were the moon; and it was his wont to keep two festivals in the twelvemonth, those of the Nau-Roz, or New Year, and Mihrgán the Autumnal Equinox,[[2]] on which occasions he threw open his palaces and gave largesse and made proclamation of safety and security and promoted his chamberlains and viceroys; and the people of his realm came in to him and saluted him and gave him joy of the holy day, bringing him gifts and servants and eunuchs. Now he loved science and geometry, and one festival-day as he sat on his kingly throne there came in to him three wise men, cunning artificers and past masters in all manner of craft and inventions, skilled in making things curious and rare, such as confound the wit; and versed in the knowledge of occult truths and perfect in mysteries and subtleties. And they were of three different tongues and countries, the first a Hindi or Indian,[[3]] the second a Roumi or Greek and the third a Farsi or Persian. The Indian came forwards and, prostrating himself before the King, wished him joy of the festival and laid before him a present befitting his dignity; that is to say, a man of gold, set with precious gems and jewels of price and hending in hand a golden trumpet. When Sabur[[4]] saw this, he asked, “O sage, what is the virtue of this figure?”; and the Indian answered, “O my lord, if this figure be set at the gate of thy city, it will be a guardian over it; for, if an enemy enter the place, it will blow this clarion against him and he will be seized with a palsy and drop down dead.” Much the King marvelled at this and cried, “By Allah, O sage, an this thy word be true, I will grant thee thy wish and thy desire.” Then came forward the Greek and, prostrating himself before the King, presented him with a basin of silver, in whose midst was a peacock of gold, surrounded by four-and-twenty chicks of the same metal. Sabur looked at them and turning to the Greek, said to him, “O sage, what is the virtue of this peacock?” “O my lord,” answered he, “as often as an hour of the day or night passeth, it pecketh one of its young and crieth out and flappeth its wings, till the four-and-twenty hours are accomplished; and when the month cometh to an end, it will open its mouth and thou shalt see the crescent therein.” And the King said, “An thou speak sooth, I will bring thee to thy wish and thy desire.” Then came forward the Persian sage and, prostrating himself before the King, presented him with a horse[[5]] of the blackest ebony-wood inlaid with gold and jewels, and ready harnessed with saddle, bridle and stirrups such as befit Kings; which when Sabur saw, he marvelled with exceeding marvel and was confounded at the beauty of its form and the ingenuity of its fashion. So he asked, “What is the use of this horse of wood, and what is its virtue and what the secret of its movement?”; and the Persian answered, “O my lord, the virtue of this horse is that, if one mount him, it will carry him whither he will and fare with its rider through the air and cover the space of a year in a single day.” The King marvelled and was amazed at these three wonders, following thus hard upon one another on the same day, and turning to the sage, said to him, “By Allah the Omnipotent, and our Lord the Beneficent, who created all creatures and feedeth them with meat and drink, an thy speech be veritable and the virtue of thy contrivance appear, I will assuredly give thee whatsoever thou lustest for and will bring thee to thy desire and thy wish!”[[6]] Then he entertained the sages three days, that he might make trial of their gifts; after which they brought the figures before him and each took the creature he had wroughten and showed him the mystery of its movement. The trumpeter blew the trump; the peacock pecked its chicks and the Persian sage mounted the ebony horse, whereupon it soared with him high in air and descended again. When King Sabur saw all this, he was amazed and perplexed and felt like to fly for joy and said to the three sages, “Now I am certified of the truth of your words and it behoveth me to quit me of my promise. Ask ye, therefore, what ye will, and I will give you that same.” Now the report of the King’s daughters had reached the sages, so they answered, “If the King be content with us and accept of our gifts and allow us to prefer a request to him, we crave of him that he give us his three daughters in marriage, that we may be his sons-in-law; for that the stability of Kings may not be gainsaid.” Quoth the King, “I grant you that which you wish and you desire,” and bade summon the Kazi forthright, that he might marry each of the sages to one of his daughters. Now it fortuned that the Princesses were behind a curtain, looking on; and when they heard this, the youngest considered her husband to be and behold, he was an old man,[[7]] an hundred years of age, with hair frosted, forehead drooping, eyebrows mangy, ears slitten, beard and mustachios stained and dyed; eyes red and goggle; cheeks bleached and hollow; flabby nose like a brinjall, or egg-plant[[8]]; face like a cobbler’s apron, teeth overlapping and lips like camel’s kidneys, loose and pendulous; in brief a terror, a horror, a monster, for he was of the folk of his time the unsightliest and of his age the fright-fullest; sundry of his grinders had been knocked out and his eye-teeth were like the tusks of the Jinni who frighteneth poultry in hen-houses. Now the girl was the fairest and most graceful of her time, more elegant than the gazelle however tender, than the gentlest zephyr blander and brighter than the moon at her full; for amorous fray right suitable; confounding in graceful sway the waving bough and outdoing in swimming gait the pacing roe; in fine she was fairer and sweeter by far than all her sisters. So, when she saw her suitor, she went to her chamber and strewed dust on her head and tore her clothes and fell to buffeting her face and weeping and wailing. Now the Prince, her brother, Kamar al-Akmár, or the Moon of Moons hight, was then newly returned from a journey and, hearing her weeping and crying came in to her (for he loved her with fond affection, more than his other sisters) and asked her, “What aileth thee? What hath befallen thee? Tell me and conceal naught from me.” So she smote her breast and answered, “O my brother and my dear one, I have nothing to hide. If the palace be straitened upon thy father, I will go out; and if he be resolved upon a foul thing, I will separate myself from him, though he consent not to make provision for me; and my Lord will provide.” Quoth he, “Tell me what meaneth this talk and what hath straitened thy breast and troubled thy temper.” “O my brother and my dear one,” answered the Princess, “Know that my father hath promised me in marriage to a wicked magician who brought him, as a gift, a horse of black wood, and hath bewitched him with his craft and his egromancy; but, as for me, I will none of him, and would, because of him, I had never come into this world!” Her brother soothed her and solaced her, then fared to his sire and said, “What be this wizard to whom thou hast given my youngest sister in marriage, and what is this present which he hath brought thee, so that thou hast killed[[9]] my sister with chagrin? It is not right that this should be.” Now the Persian was standing by and, when he heard the Prince’s words, he was mortified and filled with fury and the King said, “O my son, an thou sawest this horse, thy wit would be confounded and thou wouldst be amated with amazement.” Then he bade the slaves bring the horse before him and they did so; and, when the Prince saw it, it pleased him. So (being an accomplished cavalier) he mounted it forthright and struck its sides with the shovel-shaped stirrup-irons; but it stirred not and the King said to the Sage, “Go show him its movement, that he also may help thee to win thy wish.” Now the Persian bore the Prince a grudge because he willed not he should have his sister; so he showed him the pin of ascent on the right side of the horse and saying to him, “Trill this,” left him. Thereupon the Prince trilled the pin and lo! the horse forthwith soared with him high in ether, as it were a bird, and gave not overflying till it disappeared from men’s espying, whereat the King was troubled and perplexed about his case and said to the Persian, “O sage, look how thou mayst make him descend.” But he replied, “O my lord, I can do nothing, and thou wilt never see him again till Resurrection-day, for he, of his ignorance and pride, asked me not of the pin of descent and I forgot to acquaint him therewith.” When the King heard this, he was enraged with sore rage; and bade bastinado the sorcerer and clap him in jail, whilst he himself cast the crown from his head and beat his face and smote his breast. Moreover, he shut the doors of his palaces and gave himself up to weeping and keening, he and his wife and daughters and all the folk of the city; and thus their joy was turned to annoy and their gladness changed into sore affliction and sadness. Thus far concerning them; but as regards the Prince, the horse gave not over soaring with him till he drew near the sun, whereat he gave himself up for lost and saw death in the skies, and was confounded at his case, repenting him of having mounted the horse and saying to himself, “Verily, this was a device of the Sage to destroy me on account of my youngest sister; but there is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great! I am lost without recourse; but I wonder, did not he who made the ascent-pin make also a descent-pin?” Now he was a man of wit and knowledge and intelligence; so he fell to feeling all the parts of the horse, but saw nothing save a screw, like a cock’s head, on its right shoulder and the like on the left, when quoth he to himself, “I see no sign save these things like buttons.” Presently he turned the right-hand pin, whereupon the horse flew heavenwards with increased speed. So he left it and looking at the sinister shoulder and finding another pin, he wound it up and immediately the steed’s upwards motion slowed and ceased and it began to descend, little by little, towards the face of the earth, while the rider became yet more cautious and careful of his life.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

Now when it was the Three Hundred and Fifty-eighth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Prince wound up the sinister screw, the steed’s upward motion slowed and ceased, and it began to descend, little by little, towards the earth while the rider became yet more cautious and careful of his life. And when he saw this and knew the uses of the horse, his heart was filled with joy and gladness and he thanked Almighty Allah for that He had deigned deliver him from destruction. Then he began to turn the horse’s head whithersoever he would, making it rise and fall at pleasure, till he had gotten complete mastery over its every movement. He ceased not to descend the whole of that day, for that the steed’s ascending flight had borne him afar from the earth; and, as he descended, he diverted himself with viewing the various cities and countries over which he passed and which he knew not, never having seen them in his life. Amongst the rest, he descried a city ordered after the fairest fashion in the midst of a verdant and riant land, rich in trees and streams, with gazelles pacing daintily over the plains; whereat he fell a-musing and said to himself, “Would I knew the name of yon town and in what land it is!” And he took to circling about it and observing it right and left. By this time, the day began to decline and the sun drew near to its downing; and he said in his mind, “Verily I find no goodlier place to night in than this city; so I will lodge here and early on the morrow I will return to my kith and kin and my kingdom; and tell my father and family what hath passed and acquaint him with what mine eyes have seen.” Then he addressed himself to seeking a place wherein he might safely bestow himself and his horse and where none should descry him, and presently behold, he espied a-middle-most of the city a palace rising high in upper air surrounded by a great wall with lofty crenelles and battlements, guarded by forty black slaves, clad in complete mail and armed with spears and swords, bows and arrows. Quoth he, “This is a goodly place,” and turned the descent-pin, whereupon the horse sank down with him like a weary bird, and alighted gently on the terrace-roof of the palace. So the Prince dismounted and ejaculating “Alhamdolillah”—praise be to Allah[[10]]—he began to go round about the horse and examine it, saying, “By Allah, he who fashioned thee with these perfections was a cunning craftsman, and if the Almighty extend the term of my life and restore me to my country and kinsfolk in safety and reunite me with my father, I will assuredly bestow upon him all manner bounties and benefit him with the utmost beneficence.” By this time night had overtaken him and he sat on the roof till he was assured that all in the palace slept; and indeed hunger and thirst were sore upon him, for that he had not tasted food nor drunk water since he parted from his sire. So he said within himself, “Surely the like of this palace will not lack of victual;” and, leaving the horse above, went down in search of somewhat to eat. Presently, he came to a staircase and descending it to the bottom, found himself in a court paved with white marble and alabaster, which shone in the light of the moon. He marvelled at the place and the goodliness of its fashion, but sensed no sound of speaker and saw no living soul and stood in perplexed surprise, looking right and left and knowing not whither he should wend. Then said he to himself, “I may not do better than return to where I left my horse and pass the night by it; and as soon as day shall dawn I will mount and ride away.”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

Now when it was the Three Hundred and Fifty-ninth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that quoth the king’s son to himself, “I may not do better than pass the night by my horse; and as soon as day shall dawn I will mount and ride away.” However, as he tarried talking to himself, he espied a light within the palace, and making towards it, found that it came from a candle that stood before a door of the Harim, at the head of a sleeping eunuch, as he were one of the Ifrits of Solomon or a tribesman of the Jinn, longer than lumber and broader than a bench. He lay before the door, with the pommel of his sword gleaming in the flame of the candle, and at his head was a bag of leather[[11]] hanging from a column of granite. When the Prince saw this, he was affrighted and said, “I crave help from Allah the Supreme! O mine Holy One, even as Thou hast already delivered me from destruction, so vouchsafe me strength to quit myself of the adventure of this palace!” So saying, he put out his hand to the budget and taking it, carried it aside and opened it and found in it food of the best. He ate his fill and refreshed himself and drank water, after which he hung up the provision-bag in its place and drawing the eunuch’s sword from its sheath, took it, whilst the slave slept on, knowing not whence destiny should come to him. Then the Prince fared forwards into the palace and ceased not till he came to a second door, with a curtain drawn before it; so he raised the curtain and behold, on entering he saw a couch of the whitest ivory, inlaid with pearls and jacinths and jewels, and four slave-girls sleeping about it. He went up to the couch, to see what was thereon, and found a young lady lying asleep, chemised with her hair[[12]] as she were the full moon rising[[13]] over the Eastern horizon, with flower-white brow and shining hair-parting and cheeks like blood-red anemones and dainty moles thereon. He was amazed at her as she lay in her beauty and loveliness, her symmetry and grace, and he recked no more of death. So he went up to her, trembling in every nerve and, shuddering with pleasure, kissed her on the right cheek; whereupon she awoke forthright and opened her eyes, and seeing the Prince standing at her head, said to him, “Who art thou and whence comest thou?” Quoth he, “I am thy slave and thy lover.” Asked she, “And who brought thee hither?” and he answered, “My Lord and my fortune.” Then said Shams al-Nahár[[14]] (for such was her name), “Haply thou art he who demanded me yesterday of my father in marriage and he rejected thee, pretending that thou wast foul of favour. By Allah, my sire lied in his throat when he spoke this thing, for thou art not other than beautiful.” Now the son of the King of Hind had sought her in marriage, but her father had rejected him, for that he was ugly and uncouth, and she thought the Prince was he. So, when she saw his beauty and grace (for indeed he was like the radiant moon) the syntheism[[15]] of love gat hold of her heart as it were a flaming fire, and they fell to talk and converse. Suddenly, her waiting-women awoke and, seeing the Prince with their mistress, said to her, “Oh my lady, who is this with thee?” Quoth she, “I know not; I found him sitting by me, when I woke up: haply ‘tis he who seeketh me in marriage of my sire.” Quoth they, “O my lady, by Allah the All-Father, this is not he who seeketh thee in marriage, for he is hideous and this man is handsome and of high degree. Indeed, the other is not fit to be his servant.”[[16]] Then the handmaidens went out to the eunuch, and finding him slumbering awoke him, and he started up in alarm. Said they, “How happeneth it that thou art on guard at the palace and yet men come in to us, whilst we are asleep?” When the black heard this, he sprang in haste to his sword, but found it not; and fear took him and trembling. Then he went in, confounded, to his mistress and seeing the Prince sitting at talk with her, said to him, “O my lord, art thou man or Jinni?” Replied the Prince, “Woe to thee, O unluckiest of slaves: how darest thou even the sons of the royal Chosroes[[17]] with one of the unbelieving Satans?” And he was as a raging lion. Then he took the sword in his hand and said to the slave, “I am the King’s son-in-law, and he hath married me to his daughter and bidden me go in to her.” And when the eunuch heard these words he replied, “O my lord, if thou be indeed of kind a man as thou avouchest, she is fit for none but for thee, and thou art worthier of her than any other.” Thereupon the eunuch ran to the King, shrieking loud and rending his raiment and heaving dust upon his head; and when the King heard his outcry, he said to him, “What hath befallen thee?: speak quickly and be brief; for thou hast fluttered my heart.” Answered the eunuch, “O King, come to thy daughter’s succour; for a devil of the Jinn, in the likeness of a King’s son, hath got possession of her; so up and at him!” When the King heard this, he thought to kill him and said, “How camest thou to be careless of my daughter and let this demon come at her?” Then he betook himself to the Princess’s palace, where he found her slave-women standing to await him and asked them, “What is come to my daughter?” “O King,” answered they, “slumber overcame us and, when we awoke, we found a young man sitting upon her couch in talk with her, as he were the full moon; never saw we aught fairer of favour than he. So we questioned him of his case and he declared that thou hadst given him thy daughter in marriage. More than this we know not, nor do we know if he be a man or a Jinni; but he is modest and well bred, and doth nothing unseemly or which leadeth to disgrace.” Now when the King heard these words, his wrath cooled and he raised the curtain little by little and looking in, saw sitting at talk with his daughter a Prince of the goodliest with a face like the full moon for sheen. At this sight he could not contain himself, of his jealousy for his daughter’s honour; and, putting aside the curtain, rushed in upon them drawn sword in hand like a furious Ghul. Now when the Prince saw him he asked the Princess, “Is this thy sire?”; and she answered, “Yes.”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

Now when it was the Three Hundred and Sixtieth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Prince saw the King rushing in upon them, drawn sword in hand, like a furious Ghul he asked the Princess, “Is this thy sire?”; and she answered, “Yes.” Whereupon he sprang to his feet and, seizing his sword, cried out at the King with so terrible a cry that he was confounded. Then the youth would have fallen on him with the sword; but the King seeing that the Prince was doughtier than he, sheathed his scymitar and stood till the young man came up to him, when he accosted him courteously and said to him, “O youth, art thou a man or a Jinni?” Quoth the Prince, “Did I not respect thy right as mine host and thy daughter’s honour, I would spill thy blood! How darest thou fellow me with devils, me that am a Prince of the sons of the royal Chosroes who, had they wished to take thy kingdom, could shake thee like an earthquake from thy glory and thy dominions and spoil thee of all thy possessions?” Now when the King heard his words, he was confounded with awe and bodily fear of him and rejoined, “If thou indeed be of the sons of the Kings, as thou pretendest, how cometh it that thou enterest my palace without my permission, and smirchest mine honour, making thy way to my daughter and feigning that thou art her husband and claiming that I have given her to thee to wife, I that have slain Kings and King’s sons, who sought her of me in marriage? And now who shall save thee from my might and majesty when, if I cried out to my slaves and servants and bade them put thee to the vilest of deaths they would slay thee forthright? Who shall deliver thee out of my hand?” When the Prince heard this speech of the King he answered, “Verily, I wonder at thee and at the shortness and denseness of thy wit! Say me, canst covet for thy daughter a mate comelier than myself, and hast ever seen a stouter hearted man or one better fitted for a Sultan or a more glorious in rank and dominion than I?” Rejoined the King, “Nay, by Allah! but I would have had thee, O youth, act after the custom of Kings and demand her from me to wife before witnesses, that I might have married her to thee publicly; and now, even were I to marry her to thee privily, yet hast thou dishonoured me in her person.” Rejoined the Prince, “Thou sayest sooth, O King, but if thou summon thy slaves and thy soldiers and they fall upon me and slay me, as thou pretendest, thou wouldst but publish thine own disgrace, and the folk would be divided between belief in thee and disbelief in thee. Wherefore, O King, thou wilt do well, meseemeth, to turn from this thought to that which I shall counsel thee.” Quoth the King, “Let me hear what thou hast to advise;” and quoth the Prince, “What I have to propose to thee is this: either do thou meet me in combat singular, I and thou; and he who slayeth his adversary shall be held the worthier and having a better title to the kingdom; or else, let me be this night and, whenas dawns the morn, draw out against me thy horsemen and footmen and servants; but first tell me their number.” Said the King, “They are forty thousand horse, besides my own slaves and their followers,[[18]] who are the like of them in number.” Thereupon said the Prince, “When the day shall break, do thou array them against me and say to them”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

Now when it was the Three Hundred and Sixty-first Night,

She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that quoth the Prince, “When day shall break, do thou array them against me and say to them:—This man is a suitor to me for my daughter’s hand, on condition that he shall do battle single-handed against you all; for he pretendeth that he will overcome you and put you to the rout, and indeed that ye cannot prevail against him. After which, leave me to do battle with them: if they slay me, then is thy secret the surer guarded and thine honour the better warded; and if I overcome them and see their backs, then is it the like of me a King should covet to his son-in-law.” So the King approved of his opinion and accepted his proposition, despite his awe at the boldness of his speech and amaze at the pretensions of the Prince to meet in fight his whole host, such as he had described it to him, being at heart assured that he would perish in the fray and so he should be quit of him and freed from the fear of dishonour. Thereupon he called the eunuch and bade him go to his Wazir without stay and delay and command him to assemble the whole of the army and cause them don their arms and armour and mount their steeds. So the eunuch carried the King’s order to the Minister, who straightway summoned the Captains of the host and the Lords of the realm and bade them don their harness of derring-do and mount horse and sally forth in battle array. Such was their case; but as regards the King, he sat a long while conversing with the young Prince, being pleased with his wise speech and good sense and fine breeding. And when it was daybreak he returned to his palace and, seating himself on his throne, commanded his merry men to mount and bade them saddle one of the best of the royal steeds with handsome selle and housings and trappings and bring it to the Prince. But the youth said, “O King, I will not mount horse, till I come in view of the troops and review them.” “Be it as thou wilt,” replied the King. Then the two repaired to the parade-ground, where the troops were drawn up, and the young Prince looked upon them and noted their great number; after which the King cried out to them, saying, “Ho, all ye men, there is come to me a youth who seeketh my daughter in marriage; and in very sooth never have I seen a goodlier than he; no, nor a stouter of heart nor a doughtier of arm, for he pretendeth that he can overcome you, single-handed, and force you to flight and that, were ye an hundred thousand in number, yet for him would ye be but few. Now when he chargeth down on you, do ye receive him upon point of pike and sharp of sabre; for, indeed, he hath undertaken a mighty matter.” Then quoth the King to the Prince, “Up, O my son, and do thy devoir on them.” Answered he, “O King, thou dealest not justly and fairly by me: how shall I go forth against them, seeing that I am afoot and the men be mounted?” The King retorted, “I bade thee mount, and thou refusedst; but choose thou which of my horses thou wilt.” Then he said, “Not one of thy horses pleaseth me, and I will ride none but that on which I came.” Asked the King, “And where is thy horse?” “Atop of thy palace.” “In what part of my palace?” “On the roof.” Now when the King heard these words, he cried, “Out on thee! this is the first sign thou hast given of madness. How can the horse be on the roof? But we shall at once see if thou speak truth or lies.” Then he turned to one of his chief officers and said to him, “Go to my palace and bring me what thou findest on the roof.” So all the people marvelled at the young Prince’s words, saying one to other, “How can a horse come down the steps from the roof? Verily this is a thing whose like we never heard.” In the mean time the King’s messenger repaired to the palace and mounting to the roof, found the horse standing there and never had he looked on a handsomer; but when he drew near and examined it, he saw that it was made of ebony and ivory. Now the officer was accompanied by other high officers, who also looked on and they laughed to one another, saying, “Was it of the like of this horse that the youth spake? We cannot deem him other than mad; however, we shall soon see the truth of his case.”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

Now when it was the Three Hundred and Sixty-second Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the high officials looked upon the horse, they laughed one to other and said, “Was it of the like of this horse that the youth spake? We cannot deem him other than mad; however, we shall soon see the truth of his case. Peradventure herein is some mighty matter, and he is a man of high degree.” Then they lifted up the horse bodily and, carrying it to the King, set it down before him, and all the lieges flocked round to look at it, marvelling at the beauty of its proportions and the richness of its saddle and bridle. The King also admired it and wondered at it with extreme wonder; and he asked the Prince, “O youth, is this thy horse?” He answered, “Yes, O King, this is my horse, and thou shalt soon see the marvel it showeth.” Rejoined the King, “Then take and mount it,” and the Prince retorted, “I will not mount till the troops withdraw afar from it.” So the King bade them retire a bowshot from the horse; whereupon quoth its owner, “O King, see thou; I am about to mount my horse and charge upon thy host and scatter them right and left and split their hearts asunder.” Said the King, “Do as thou wilt; and spare not their lives, for they will not spare thine.” Then the Prince mounted, whilst the troops ranged themselves in ranks before him, and one said to another, “When the youth cometh between the ranks, we will take him on the points of our pikes and the sharps of our sabres.” Quoth another, “By Allah, this is a mere misfortune: how shall we slay a youth so comely of face and shapely of form?” And a third continued, “Ye will have hard work to get the better of him; for the youth had not done this, but for what he knew of his own prowess and pre-eminence of valour.” Meanwhile, having settled himself in his saddle, the Prince turned the pin of ascent; whilst all eyes were strained to see what he would do, whereupon the horse began to heave and rock and sway to and fro and make the strangest of movements steed ever made, till its belly was filled with air and it took flight with its rider and soared high into the sky. When the King saw this, he cried out to his men, saying, “Woe to you! catch him, catch him, ere he ‘scape you!” But his Wazirs and Viceroys said to him, “O King, can a man overtake the flying bird? This is surely none but some mighty magician or Mar¡d of the Jinn or devil, and Allah save thee from him. So praise thou the Almighty for deliverance of thee and of all thy host from his hand.” Then the King returned to his palace after seeing the feat of the Prince and, going in to his daughter, acquainted her with what had befallen them both on the parade-ground. He found her grievously afflicted for the Prince and bewailing her separation from him; wherefore she fell sick with violent sickness and took to her pillow. Now when her father saw her on this wise, he pressed her to his breast and kissing her between the eyes, said to her, “O my daughter, praise Allah Almighty and thank Him for that He hath delivered us from this crafty enchanter, this villain, this low fellow, this thief who thought only of seducing thee!” And he repeated to her the story of the Prince and how he had disappeared in the firmament; and he abused him and cursed him knowing not how dearly his daughter loved him. But she paid no heed to his words and did but redouble in her tears and wails, saying to herself, “By Allah, I will neither eat meat nor drain drink, till Allah reunite me with him!” Her father was greatly concerned for her case and mourned much over her plight; but, for all he could do to soothe her, love-longing only increased on her.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

Now when it was the Three Hundred and Sixty-third Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the King mourned much over his daughter’s plight but, for all he could do to soothe her, love-longing only increased on her. Thus far concerning the King and Princess Shams al-Nahár; but as regards Prince Kamar al-Akmar, when he had risen high in air, he turned his horse’s head towards his native land, and being alone mused upon the beauty of the Princess and her loveliness. Now he had enquired of the King’s people the name of the city and of its King and his daughter; and men had told him that it was the city of Sana’á.[[19]] So he journeyed with all speed, till he drew near his father’s capital and, making an airy circuit about the city, alighted on the roof of the King’s palace, where he left his horse, whilst he descended into the palace and seeing its threshold strewn with ashes, thought that one of his family was dead. Then he entered, as of wont, and found his father and mother and sisters clad in mourning raiment of black, all pale of faces and lean of frames. When his sire descried him and was assured that it was indeed his son, he cried out with a great cry and fell down in a fit, but after a time coming to himself, threw himself upon him and embraced him, clipping him to his bosom and rejoicing in him with exceeding joy and extreme gladness. His mother and sisters heard this; so they came in and seeing the Prince, fell upon him, kissing him and weeping, and joying with exceeding joyance. Then they questioned him of his case; so he told them all that had past from first to last, and his father said to him, “Praised be Allah for thy safety, O coolth of my eyes and core of my heart!” Then the King bade hold high festival, and the glad tidings flew through the city. So they beat drums and cymbals and, doffing the weed of mourning, they donned the gay garb of gladness and decorated the streets and markets; whilst the folk vied with one another who should be the first to give the King joy, and the King proclaimed a general pardon and opening the prisons, released those who were therein prisoned. Moreover, he made banquets for the people, with great abundance of eating and drinking, for seven days and nights and all creatures were gladsomest; and he took horse with his son and rode out with him, that the folk might see him and rejoice. After awhile the Prince asked about the maker of the horse, saying, “O my father, what hath fortune done with him?”; and the King answered, “Allah never bless him nor the hour wherein I set eyes on him! For he was the cause of thy separation from us, O my son, and he hath lain in gaol since the day of thy disappearance.” Then the King bade release him from prison and, sending for him, invested him in a dress of satisfaction and entreated him with the utmost favour and munificence, save that he would not give him his daughter to wife; whereat the Sage raged with sore rage and repented of that which he had done, knowing that the Prince had secured the secret of the steed and the manner of its motion. Moreover, the King said to his son, “I reck thou wilt do well not to go near the horse henceforth and more especially not to mount it after this day; for thou knowest not its properties, and belike thou art in error about it.” Now the Prince had told his father of his adventure with the King of Sana’a and his daughter and he said, “Had the King intended to kill thee, he had done so; but thine hour was not yet come.” When the rejoicings were at an end, the people returned to their places and the King and his son to the palace, where they sat down and fell to eating and drinking and making merry. Now the King had a handsome handmaiden who was skilled in playing the lute; so she took it and began to sweep the strings and sing thereto before the King and his son of separation of lovers, and she chanted the following verses:—

Deem not that absence breeds in me aught of forgetfulness; ✿ What should remember I did you fro’ my remembrance wane?

Time dies but never dies the fondest love for you we bear; ✿ And in your love I’ll die and in your love I’ll arise again.[[20]]

When the Prince heard these verses, the fires of longing flamed up in his heart and pine and passion redoubled upon him. Grief and regret were sore upon him and his bowels yearned in him for love of the King’s daughter of Sana’a; so he rose forthright and, escaping his father’s notice, went forth the palace to the horse and mounting it, turned the pin of ascent, whereupon birdlike it flew with him high in air and soared towards the upper regions of the sky. In early morning his father missed him and, going up to the pinnacle of the palace, in great concern, saw his son rising into the firmament; whereat he was sore afflicted and repented in all penitence that he had not taken the horse and hidden it; and he said to himself, “By Allah, if but my son return to me, I will destroy the horse, that my heart may be at rest concerning my son.” And he fell again to weeping and bewailing himself——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

Now when it was the Three Hundred and Sixty-fourth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King that the King again fell to weeping and bewailing himself for his son. Such was his case; but as regards the Prince, he ceased not flying on through air till he came to the city of Sana’a and alighted on the roof as before. Then he crept down stealthily and, finding the eunuch asleep, as of wont, raised the curtain and went on little by little, till he came to the door of the Princess’s alcove[[21]]-chamber and stopped to listen; when lo! he heard her shedding plenteous tears and reciting verses, whilst her women slept round her. Presently, overhearing her weeping and wailing quoth they, “O our mistress, why wilt thou mourn for one who mourneth not for thee?” Quoth she, “O ye little of wit, is he for whom I mourn of those who forget or who are forgotten?” And she fell again to wailing and weeping, till sleep overcame her. Hereat the Prince’s heart melted for her and his gall-bladder was like to burst, so he entered and, seeing her lying asleep without covering,[[22]] touched her with his hand; whereupon she opened her eyes and espied him standing by her. Said he, “Why all this crying and mourning?” And when she knew him, she threw herself upon him, and took him around the neck and kissed him and answered, “For thy sake and because of my separation from thee.” Said he, “O my lady, I have been made desolate by thee all this long time!” But she replied, “‘Tis thou who hast desolated me; and hadst thou tarried longer, I had surely died!” Rejoined he, “O my lady, what thinkest thou of my case with thy father and how he dealt with me? Were it not for my love of thee, O temptation and seduction of the Three Worlds, I had certainly slain him and made him a warning to all beholders; but, even as I love thee, so I love him for thy sake.” Quoth she, “How couldst thou leave me: can my life be sweet to me after thee?” Quoth he, “Let what hath happened suffice: I am now hungry, and thirsty.” So she bade her maidens make ready meat and drink, and they sat eating and drinking and conversing till night was well nigh ended; and when day broke he rose to take leave of her and depart, ere the eunuch should awake. Shams al-Nahar asked him, “Whither goest thou?”; and he answered, “To my father’s house, and I plight thee my troth that I will come to thee once in every week.” But she wept and said, “I conjure thee, by Allah the Almighty, take me with thee whereso thou wendest and make me not taste anew the bitter-gourd[[23]] of separation from thee.” Quoth he, “Wilt thou indeed go with me?” and quoth she, “Yes.” “Then,” said he, “arise that we depart.” So she rose forthright and going to a chest, arrayed herself in what was richest and dearest to her of her trinkets of gold and jewels of price, and she fared forth her handmaids recking naught. So he carried her up to the roof of the palace and, mounting the ebony horse, took her up behind him and made her fast to himself, binding her with strong bonds; after which he turned the shoulder-pin of ascent, and the horse rose with him high in air. When her slave-women saw this, they shrieked aloud and told her father and mother, who in hot haste ran to the palace-roof and looking up, saw the magical horse flying away with the Prince and Princess. At this the King was troubled with ever-increasing trouble and cried out, saying, “O King’s son, I conjure thee, by Allah, have ruth on me and my wife and bereave us not of our daughter!” The Prince made him no reply; but, thinking in himself that the maiden repented of leaving father and mother, asked her, “O ravishment of the age, say me, wilt thou that I restore thee to thy mother and father?”: whereupon she answered, “By Allah, O my lord, that is not my desire: my only wish is to be with thee, wherever thou art; for I am distracted by the love of thee from all else, even from my father and mother.” Hearing these words the Prince joyed with great joy, and made the horse fly and fare softly with them, so as not to disquiet her; nor did they stay their flight till they came in sight of a green meadow, wherein was a spring of running water. Here they alighted and ate and drank; after which the Prince took horse again and set her behind him, binding her in his fear for her safety; after which they fared on till they came in sight of his father’s capital. At this, the Prince was filled with joy and bethought himself to show his beloved the seat of his dominion and his father’s power and dignity and give her to know that it was greater than that of her sire. So he set her down in one of his father’s gardens without the city where his parent was wont to take his pleasure; and, carrying her into a domed summer-house prepared there for the King, left the ebony horse at the door and charged the damsel keep watch over it, saying, “Sit here, till my messenger come to thee; for I go now to my father, to make ready a palace for thee and show thee my royal estate.” She was delighted when she heard these words and said to him, “Do as thou wilt;”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

Now when it was the Three Hundred and Sixty-fifth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the maiden was delighted when she heard these words and said to him, “Do as thou wilt;” for she thereby understood that she should not enter the city but with due honour and worship, as became her rank. Then the Prince left her and betook himself to the palace of the King his father, who rejoiced in his return and met him and welcomed him; and the Prince said to him, “Know that I have brought with me the King’s daughter of whom I told thee; and have left her without the city in such a garden and come to tell thee, that thou mayst make ready the procession of estate and go forth to meet her and show her thy royal dignity and troops and guards.” Answered the King, “With joy and gladness”; and straightway bade decorate the town with the goodliest adornment. Then he took horse and rode out in all magnificence and majesty, he and his host, high officers and household, with drums and kettledrums, fifes and clarions and all manner instruments; whilst the Prince drew forth of his treasuries jewellery and apparel and what else of the things which Kings hoard and made a rare display of wealth and splendour: moreover he got ready for the Princess a canopied litter of brocades, green, red and yellow, wherein he set Indian and Greek and Abyssinian slave-girls. Then he left the litter and those who were therein and preceded them to the pavilion where he had set her down; and searched but found naught, neither Princess nor horse. When he saw this, he beat his face and rent his raiment and began to wander round about the garden, as he had lost his wits; after which he came to his senses and said to himself, “How could she have come at the secret of this horse, seeing I told her nothing of it? Maybe the Persian sage who made the horse hath chanced upon her and stolen her away, in revenge for my father’s treatment of him.” Then he sought the guardians of the garden and asked them if they had seen any pass the precincts; and said, “Hath any one come in here? Tell me the truth and the whole truth or I will at once strike off your heads.” They were terrified by his threats; but they answered with one voice, “We have seen no man enter save the Persian sage, who came to gather healing herbs.” So the Prince was certified that it was indeed he that had taken away the maiden——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

Now when it was the Three Hundred and Sixty-sixth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Prince heard their answer, he was certified that the Sage had taken away the maiden and abode confounded and perplexed concerning his case. And he was abashed before the folk and, turning to his sire, told him what had happened and said to him, “Take the troops and march them back to the city. As for me, I will never return till I have cleared up this affair.” When the King heard this, he wept and beat his breast and said to him, “O my son, calm thy choler and master thy chagrin and come home with us and look what King’s daughter thou wouldst fain have, that I may marry thee to her.” But the Prince paid no heed to his words and farewelling him departed, whilst the King returned to the city and their joy was changed into sore annoy. Now, as Destiny issued her decree, when the Prince left the Princess in the garden-house and betook himself to his father’s palace, for the ordering of his affair, the Persian entered the garden to pluck certain simples and, scenting the sweet savour of musk and perfumes that exhaled from the Princess and impregnated the whole place, followed it till he came to the pavilion and saw standing at the door the horse which he had made with his own hands. His heart was filled with joy and gladness, for he had bemourned its loss much since it had gone out of his hand: so he went up to it and, examining its every part, found it whole and sound; whereupon he was about to mount and ride away, when he bethought himself and said, “Needs must I first look what the Prince hath brought and left here with the horse.” So he entered the pavilion and, seeing the Princess sitting there, as she were the sun shining sheen in the sky serene, knew her at the first glance to be some high-born lady and doubted not but the Prince had brought her thither on the horse and left her in the pavilion, whilst he went to the city, to make ready for her entry in state procession with all splendour. Then he went up to her and kissed the earth between her hands, whereupon she raised her eyes to him and, finding him exceedingly foul of face and favour, asked, “Who art thou?”; and he answered, “O my lady, I am a messenger sent by the Prince who hath bidden me bring thee to another pleasance nearer the city; for that my lady the Queen cannot walk so far and is unwilling, of her joy in thee, that another should forestall her with thee.” Quoth she, “Where is the Prince?”; and quoth the Persian, “He is in the city, with his sire and forthwith he shall come for thee in great state.” Said she, “O thou! say me, could he find none handsomer to send to me?”; whereat loud laughed the Sage and said, “Yea verily, he hath not a Mameluke as ugly as I am; but, O my lady, let not the ill-favour of my face and the foulness of my form deceive thee. Hadst thou profited of me as hath the Prince, verily thou wouldst praise my affair. Indeed, he chose me as his messenger to thee, because of my uncomeliness and loathsomeness in his jealous love of thee: else hath he Mamelukes and negro slaves, pages, eunuchs and attendants out of number, each goodlier than other.” Whenas she heard this, it commended itself to her reason and she believed him; so she rose forthright——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

Now when it was the Three Hundred and Sixty-seventh Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Persian sage acquainted the Princess with the case of the King’s son, she believed him; so she rose forthright; and, putting her hand in his, said, “O my father, what hast thou brought me to ride?” He replied, “O my lady, thou shalt ride the horse thou camest on;” and she, “I cannot ride it by myself.” Whereupon he smiled and knew that he was her master and said, “I will ride with thee myself.” So he mounted and, taking her up behind him bound her to himself with firm bonds, while she knew not what he would with her. Then he turned the ascent-pin, whereupon the belly of the horse became full of wind and it swayed to and fro like a wave of the sea, and rose with them high in air nor slackened in its flight, till it was out of sight of the city. Now when Shams al-Nahar saw this, she asked him, “Ho thou! what is become of that thou toldest me of my Prince, making me believe that he sent thee to me?” Answered the Persian, “Allah damn the Prince! he is a mean and skin-flint knave.” She cried, “Woe to thee! How darest thou disobey thy lord’s commandment?” Whereto the Persian replied, “He is no lord of mine: knowest thou who I am?” Rejoined the Princess, “I know nothing of thee save what thou toldest me;” and retorted he, “What I told thee was a trick of mine against thee and the King’s son: I have long lamented the loss of this horse which is under us; for I constructed it and made myself master of it. But now I have gotten firm hold of it and of thee too, and I will burn his heart even as he hath burnt mine; nor shall he ever have the horse again; no, never! So be of good cheer and keep thine eyes cool and clear; for I can be of more use to thee than he; and I am generous as I am wealthy; my servants and slaves shall obey thee as their mistress; I will robe thee in finest raiment and thine every wish shall be at thy will.” When she heard this, she buffeted her face and cried out, saying, “Ah, well-away! I have not won my beloved and I have lost my father and mother!” And she wept bitter tears over what had befallen her, whilst the Sage fared on with her, without ceasing, till he came to the land of the Greeks[[24]] and alighted in a verdant mead, abounding in streams and trees. Now this meadow lay near a city wherein was a King of high puissance, and it chanced that he went forth that day to hunt and divert himself. As he passed by the meadow, he saw the Persian standing there, with the damsel and the horse by his side; and, before the Sage was ware, the King’s slaves fell upon him and carried him and the lady and the horse to their master who, noting the foulness of the man’s favour and his loathsomeness and the beauty of the girl and her loveliness, said, “O my lady, what kin is this oldster to thee?” The Persian made haste to reply, saying, “She is my wife and the daughter of my father’s brother.” But the lady at once gave him the lie and said, “O King, by Allah, I know him not, nor is he my husband; nay, he is a wicked magician who hath stolen me away by force and fraud.” Thereupon the King bade bastinado the Persian and they beat him till he was well-nigh dead; after which the King commanded to carry him to the city and cast him into jail; and, taking from him the damsel and the ebony horse (though he knew not its properties nor the secret of its motion), set the girl in his serraglio and the horse amongst his hoards. Such was the case with the Sage and the lady; but as regards Prince Kamar al-Akmar, he garbed himself in travelling gear and taking what he needed of money, set out tracking their trail in very sorry plight; and journeyed from country to country and city to city seeking the Princess and enquiring after the ebony horse, whilst all who heard him marvelled at him and deemed his talk extravagant. Thus he continued doing a long while; but, for all his enquiry and quest, he could hit on no news of her. At last he came to her father’s city of Sana’a and there asked for her, but could get no tidings of her and found her father mourning her loss. So he turned back and made for the land of the Greeks, continuing to enquire concerning the twain as he went——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

Now when it was the Three Hundred and Sixty-eighth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the King’s son made for the land of the Greeks, continuing to enquire concerning the two as he went along, till, as chance would have it, he alighted at a certain Khan and saw a company of merchants sitting at talk. So he sat down near them and heard one say, “O my friends, I lately witnessed a wonder of wonders.” They asked, “What was that?” and he answered, “I was visiting such a district in such a city (naming the city wherein was the Princess), and I heard its people chatting of a strange thing which had lately befallen. It was that their King went out one day hunting and coursing with a company of his courtiers and the lords of his realm; and, issuing from the city, they came to a green meadow where they espied an old man standing, with a woman sitting hard by a horse of ebony. The man was foulest-foul of face and loathly of form, but the woman was a marvel of beauty and loveliness and elegance and perfect grace; and as for the wooden horse, it was a miracle, never saw eyes aught goodlier than it nor more gracious than its make.” Asked the others, “And what did the King with them?”; and the merchant answered, “As for the man the King seized him and questioned him of the damsel and he pretended that she was his wife and the daughter of his paternal uncle; but she gave him the lie forthright and declared that he was a sorcerer and a villain. So the King took her from the old man and bade beat him and cast him into the trunk-house. As for the ebony horse, I know not what became of it.” When the Prince heard these words, he drew near to the merchant and began questioning him discreetly and courteously touching the name of the city and of its King; which when he knew, he passed the night full of joy. And as soon as dawned the day he set out and travelled sans surcease till he reached that city; but, when he would have entered, the gatekeepers laid hands on him, that they might bring him before the King to question him of his condition and the craft in which he skilled and the cause of his coming thither—such being the usage and custom of their ruler. Now it was supper-time when he entered the city, and it was then impossible to go in to the King or take counsel with him respecting the stranger. So the guards carried him to the jail, thinking to lay him by the heels there for the night; but, when the warders saw his beauty and loveliness, they could not find it in their hearts to imprison him: they made him sit with them without the walls; and, when food came to them, he ate with them what sufficed him. As soon as they had made an end of eating, they turned to the Prince and said, “What countryman art thou?” “I come from Fars,” answered he, “the land of the Chosroës.” When they heard this they laughed and one of them said, “O Chosroan,[[25]] I have heard the talk of men and their histories and I have looked into their conditions; but never saw I or heard I a bigger liar than the Chosroan which is with us in the jail.” Quoth another, “And never did I see aught fouler than his favour or more hideous than his visnomy.” Asked the Prince, “What have ye seen of his lying?”; and they answered, “He pretendeth that he is one of the wise! Now the King came upon him, as he went a-hunting, and found with him a most beautiful woman and a horse of the blackest ebony, never saw I a handsomer. As for the damsel, she is with the King, who is enamoured of her and would fain marry her; but she is mad, and were this man a leach as he claimeth to be, he would have healed her, for the King doth his utmost to discover a cure for her case and a remedy for her disease, and this whole year past hath he spent treasures upon physicians and astrologers, on her account; but none can avail to cure her. As for the horse, it is in the royal hoard-house, and the ugly man is here with us in prison; and as soon as night falleth, he weepeth and bemoaneth himself and will not let us sleep.”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

Now when it was the Three Hundred and Sixty-ninth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the warders had recounted the case of the Persian egromancer they held in prison and his weeping and wailing, the Prince at once devised a device whereby he might compass his desire; and presently the guards of the gate, being minded to sleep, led him into the jail and locked the door. So he overheard the Persian weeping and bemoaning himself, in his own tongue, and saying, “Alack, and alas for my sin, that I sinned against myself and against the King’s son, in that which I did with the damsel; for I neither left her nor won my will of her! All this cometh of my lack of sense, in that I sought for myself that which I deserved not and which befitted not the like of me; for whoso seeketh what suiteth him not at all, falleth with the like of my fall.” Now when the King’s son heard this, he accosted him in Persian, saying, “How long will this weeping and wailing last? Say me, thinkest thou that hath befallen thee that which never befel other than thou?” Now when the Persian heard this, he made friends with him and began to complain to him of his case and misfortunes. And as soon as the morning morrowed, the warders took the Prince and carried him before their King, informing him that he had entered the city on the previous night, at a time when audience was impossible. Quoth the King to the Prince, “Whence comest thou and what is thy name and trade and why hast thou travelled hither?” He replied, “As to my name I am called in Persian Harjah;[[26]] as to my country I come from the land of Fars; and I am of the men of art and especially of the art of medicine and healing the sick and those whom the Jinns drive mad. For this I go round about all countries and cities, to profit by adding knowledge to my knowledge, and whenever I see a patient I heal him and this is my craft.”[[27]] Now when the King heard this, he rejoiced with exceeding joy and said, “O excellent Sage, thou hast indeed come to us at a time when we need thee.” Then he acquainted him with the case of the Princess, adding, “If thou cure her and recover her from her madness, thou shalt have of me everything thou seekest.” Replied the Prince, “Allah save and favour the King: describe to me all thou hast seen of her insanity and tell me how long it is since the access attacked her; also how thou camest by her and the horse and the Sage.” So the King told him the whole story, from first to last, adding, “The Sage is in gaol.” Quoth the Prince, “O auspicious King, and what hast thou done with the horse?” Quoth the King, “O youth, it is with me yet, laid up in one of my treasure-chambers,” whereupon said the Prince within himself, “The best thing I can do is first to see the horse and assure myself of its condition. If it be whole and sound, all will be well and end well; but, if its motor-works be destroyed, I must find some other way of delivering my beloved.” Thereupon he turned to the King and said to him, “O King, I must see the horse in question: haply I may find in it somewhat that will serve me for the recovery of the damsel.” “With all my heart,” replied the King, and taking him by the hand, showed him into the place where the horse was. The Prince went round about it, examining its condition, and found it whole and sound, whereat he rejoiced greatly and said to the King, “Allah save and exalt the King! I would fain go in to the damsel, that I may see how it is with her; for I hope in Allah to heal her by my healing hand through means of the horse.” Then he bade them take care of the horse and the King carried him to the Princess’s apartment, where her lover found her wringing her hands and writhing and beating herself against the ground, and tearing her garments to tatters as was her wont; but there was no madness of Jinn in her, and she did this but that none might approach her. When the Prince saw her thus, he said to her, “No harm shall betide thee, O ravishment of the three worlds;” and went on to soothe her and speak her fair, till he managed to whisper, “I am Kamar al-Akmar;” whereupon she cried out with a loud cry and fell down fainting for excess of joy; but the King thought this was epilepsy[[28]] brought on by her fear of him, and by her suddenly being startled. Then the Prince put his mouth to her ear and said to her, “O Shams al-Nahar, O seduction of the universe, have a care for thy life and mine and be patient and constant; for this our position needeth sufferance and skilful contrivance to make shift for our delivery from this tyrannical King. My first move will be now to go out to him and tell him that thou art possessed of a Jinn and hence thy madness; but that I will engage to heal thee and drive away the evil spirit, if he will at once unbind thy bonds. So when he cometh in to thee, do thou speak him smooth words, that he may think I have cured thee, and all will be done for us as we desire.” Quoth she, “Hearkening and obedience;” and he went out to the King in joy and gladness, and said to him, “O august King, I have, by thy good fortune, discovered her disease and its remedy, and have cured her for thee. So now do thou go in to her and speak her softly and treat her kindly, and promise her what may please her; so shall all thou desirest of her be accomplished to thee.”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

Now when it was the Three Hundred and Seventieth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Prince feigned himself a leach and went in to the damsel and made himself known to her and told her how he purposed to deliver her, she cried “Hearkening and obedience!” He then fared forth from her and sought the King and said, “Go thou in to her and speak her softly and promise her what may please her; so shall all thou desirest of her be accomplished to thee.” Thereupon the King went in to her and when she saw him, she rose and kissing the ground before him, bade him welcome and said, “I admire how thou hast come to visit thy handmaid this day;” whereat he was ready to fly for joy and bade the waiting-women and the eunuchs attend her and carry her to the Hammam and make ready for her dresses and adornment. So they went in to her and saluted her, and she returned their salams with the goodliest language and after the pleasantest fashion; whereupon they clad her in royal apparel and, clasping a collar of jewels about her neck, carried her to the bath and served her there. Then they brought her forth, as she were the full moon; and, when she came into the King’s presence, she saluted him and kissed ground before him; whereupon he joyed in her with joy exceeding and said to the Prince, “O Sage, O philosopher, all this is of thy blessing. Allah increase to us the benefit of thy healing breath!”[[29]] The Prince replied, “O King, for the completion of her cure it behoveth that thou go forth, thou and all thy troops and guards, to the place where thou foundest her, not forgetting the beast of black wood which was with her; for therein is a devil; and, unless I exorcise him, he will return to her and afflict her at the head of every month.” “With love and gladness,” cried the King, “O thou Prince of all philosophers and most learned of all who see the light of day.” Then he brought out the ebony horse to the meadow in question and rode thither with all his troops and the Princess, little weeting the purpose of the Prince. Now when they came to the appointed place, the Prince, still habited as a leach, bade them set the Princess and the steed as far as eye could reach from the King and his troops, and said to him, “With thy leave, and at thy word, I will now proceed to the fumigations and conjurations, and here imprison the adversary of mankind, that he may never more return to her. After this, I shall mount this wooden horse which seemeth to be made of ebony, and take the damsel up behind me; whereupon it will shake and sway to and fro and fare forwards, till it come to thee, when the affair will be at an end; and after this thou mayst do with her as thou wilt.” When the King heard his words, he rejoiced with extreme joy; so the Prince mounted the horse, and, taking the damsel up behind him, whilst the King and his troops watched him, bound her fast to him. Then he turned the ascending-pin and the horse took flight and soared with them high in air, till they disappeared from every eye. After this the King abode half the day, expecting their return; but they returned not. So when he despaired of them, repenting him greatly of that which he had done and grieving sore for the loss of the damsel, he went back to the city with his troops. He then sent for the Persian who was in prison and said to him, “O thou traitor, O thou villain, why didst thou hide from me the mystery of the ebony horse? And now a sharper hath come to me and hath carried it off, together with a slave-girl whose ornaments are worth a mint of money, and I shall never see anyone or anything of them again!” So the Persian related to him all his past, first and last, and the King was seized with a fit of fury which well-nigh ended his life. He shut himself up in his palace for a while, mourning and afflicted; but at last his Wazirs came in to him and applied themselves to comfort him, saying, “Verily, he who took the damsel is an enchanter, and praised be Allah who hath delivered thee from his craft and sorcery!” And they ceased not from him, till he was comforted for her loss. Thus far concerning the King; but as for the Prince, he continued his career towards his father’s capital in joy and cheer, and stayed not till he alighted on his own palace, where he set the lady in safety; after which he went in to his father and mother and saluted them and acquainted them with her coming, whereat they were filled with solace and gladness. Then he spread great banquets for the towns-folk——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

Now when it was the Three Hundred and Seventy-first Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the King’s son spread great banquets for the towns-folk and they held high festival a whole month, at the end of which time he went in to the Princess and they took their joy of each other with exceeding joy. But his father brake the ebony horse in pieces and destroyed its mechanism for flight; moreover the Prince wrote a letter to the Princess’s father, advising him of all that had befallen her and informing him how she was now married to him and in all health and happiness, and sent it by a messenger, together with costly presents and curious rarities. And when the messenger arrived at the city which was Sana’a and delivered the letter and the presents to the King, he read the missive and rejoiced greatly thereat and accepted the presents, honouring and rewarding the bearer handsomely. Moreover, he forwarded rich gifts to his son-in-law by the same messenger, who returned to his master and acquainted him with what had passed; whereat he was much cheered. And after this the Prince wrote a letter every year to his father-in-law and sent him presents till, in course of time, his sire King Sabur deceased and he reigned in his stead, ruling justly over his lieges and conducting himself well and righteously towards them, so that the land submitted to him and his subjects did him loyal service; and Kamar al-Akmar and his wife Shams al-Nahar abode in the enjoyment of all satisfaction and solace of life, till there came to them the Destroyer of delights and Sunderer of societies; the Plunderer of palaces, the Caterer for cemeteries and the Garnerer of graves. And now glory be to the Living One who dieth not and in whose hand is the dominion of the worlds visible and invisible! Moreover I have heard tell the tale of


[1]. This tale (one of those translated, by Galland) is best and fullest in the Bresl. Edit. iii. 329.

[2]. Europe has degraded this autumnal festival, the Sun-fête Mihrgán (which balanced the vernal Nau-roz) into Michaelmas and its goose-massacre. It was so called because it began on the 16th of Mihr, the seventh month; and lasted six days, with feasts, festivities and great rejoicings in honour of the Sun, who now begins his southing-course to gladden the other half of the world.

[3]. “Hindí” is an Indian Moslem as opposed to “Hindú,” a pagan, or Gentoo.

[4]. The orig. Persian word is “Sháh·púr” = King’s son: the Greeks (who had no sh) (preferred Σαβὼρ); the Romans turned it into Sapor and the Arabs (who lack the p) into Sábúr. See p. x. Hamzæ Ispahanensis Annalium Libri x.: Gottwaldt, Lipsiæ mdcccxlviii.

[5]. The magic horse may have originated with the Hindu tale of a wooden Garuda (the bird of Vishnu) built by a youth for the purpose of a vehicle. It came with the “Moors” to Spain and appears in “Le Cheval de Fust,” a French poem of the thirteenth Century. Thence it passed over to England as shown by Chaucer’s “Half-told tale of Cambuscan (Janghíz Khan?) bold,” as

The wondrous steed of brass

On which the Tartar King did ride;

And Leland (Itinerary) derives “Rutlandshire” from “a man named Rutter who rode round it on a wooden horse constructed by art magic.” Lane (ii. 548) quotes the parallel story of Cleomades and Claremond which Mr. Keightley (Tales and Popular Fictions, chapt. ii) dates from our thirteenth century. See Vol. i., p. [160].

[6]. All Moslems, except those of the Máliki school, hold that the maker of an image representing anything of life will be commanded on the Judgement Day to animate it, and failing will be duly sent to the Fire. This severity arose apparently from the necessity of putting down idol-worship and, perhaps, for the same reason the Greek Church admits pictures but not statues. Of course the command has been honoured with extensive breaching: for instance all the Sultans of Stambul have had their portraits drawn and painted.

[7]. This description of ugly old age is written with true Arab verve.

[8]. Arab. “Badinján”: Hind. Bengan: Pers. Bádingán or Badilján; the Mala insana (Solanum pomiferum or S. Melongena) of the Romans, well known in Southern Europe. It is of two kinds, the red (Solanum lycopersicum) and the black (S. Melongena). The Spaniards know it as “berengeria” and when Sancho Panza (Part ii. chapt. 2) says, “The Moors are fond of egg-plants” he means more than appears. The vegetable is held to be exceedingly heating and thereby to breed melancholia and madness; hence one says to a man that has done something eccentric, “Thou hast been eating brinjalls.”

[9]. Again to be understood Hibernice “kilt.”

[10]. i.e. for fear of the evil eye injuring the palace and, haply, himself.

[11]. The “Sufrah” before explained as acting provision-bag and table-cloth.

[12]. Eastern women in hot weather, lie mother-nude under a sheet here represented by the hair. The Greeks and Romans also slept stripped and in mediæval England the most modest women saw nothing indelicate in sleeping naked by their naked husbands. The “night-cap” and the “night-gown” are comparatively modern inventions.

[13]. Hindu fable turns this simile into better poetry, “She was like a second and a more wondrous moon made by the Creator.”

[14]. “Sun of the Day.”

[15]. Arab. “Shirk” = worshipping more than one God. A theological term here most appropriately used.

[16]. The Bul. Edit. as usual abridges (vol. i. 534). The Prince lands on the palace-roof where he leaves his horse, and finding no one in the building goes back to the terrace. Suddenly he sees a beautiful girl approaching him with a party of her women, suggesting to him these couplets:—

She came without tryst in the darkest hour, ✿ Like full moon lighting horizon’s night:

Slim-formed, there is not in the world her like ✿ For grace of form or for gifts of sprite:

“Praise him who made her from semen-drop,” ✿ I cried, when her beauty first struck my sight:

I guard her from eyes, seeking refuge with ✿ The Lord of mankind and of morning-light.

The two then made acquaintance and “follows what follows.”

[17]. Arab. “Akásirah,” explained (vol. i., 75) as the plur. of Kisrá.

[18]. The dearest ambition of a slave is not liberty but to have a slave of his own. This was systematised by the servile rulers known in history as the Mameluke Beys and to the Egyptians as the Ghuzz. Each had his household of servile pages and squires, who looked forward to filling the master’s place as knight or baron.

[19]. The well-known capital of Al-Yaman, a true Arabia Felix, a Paradise inhabited by demons in the shape of Turkish soldiery and Arab caterans. According to Moslem writers Sana’a was founded by Shem son of Noah who, wandering southward with his posterity after his father’s death, and finding the site delightful, dug a well and founded the citadel, Ghamdán, which afterwards contained a Maison Carrée rivalling (or attempting to rival) the Meccan Ka’abah. The builder was Surahbíl who, says M. C. de Perceval coloured its four faces red, white, golden and green; the central quadrangle had seven stories (the planets) each forty cubits high, and the lowest was a marble hall ceiling’d with a single slab. At the four corners stood hollow lions through whose mouths the winds roared. This palatial citadel-temple was destroyed by order of Caliph Omar. The city’s ancient name was Azal or Uzal whom some identify with one of the thirteen sons of Joktan (Genesis xi. 27): it took its present name from the Ethiopian conquerors (they say) who, seeing it for the first time, cried “Hazá Sana’ah!” meaning in their tongue, this is commodious, etc. I may note that the word is Kisawahili (Zanzibarian) e.g. “Yámbo sáná—is the state good?” Sana’a was the capital of the Tabábi’ah or Tobba Kings who judaized; and the Abyssinians with their Negush made it Christian while the Persians under Anushirwán converted it to Guebrism. It is now easily visited but to little purpose; excursions in the neighbourhood being deadly dangerous. Moreover the Turkish garrison would probably murder a stranger who sympathised with the Arabs, and the Arabs kill one who took part with their hated and hateful conquerors. The late Mr. Shapira of Jerusalem declared that he had visited it and Jews have great advantages in such travel. But his friends doubted him.

[20]. The Bresl. Edit. (iii. 347) prints three vile errors in four lines.

[21]. Alcove is a corruption of the Arab. Al-Kubbah (the dome) through Span. and Port.

[22]. Easterns as a rule sleep with head and body covered by a sheet or in cold weather a blanket. The practice is doubtless hygienic, defending the body from draughts when the pores are open; but Europeans find it hard to adopt; it seems to stop their breathing. Another excellent practice in the East and, indeed amongst barbarians and savages generally, is training children to sleep with mouths shut: in after life they never snore and in malarious lands they do not require Outram’s “fever-guard,” a swathe of muslin over the mouth. Mr. Catlin thought so highly of the “shut mouth” that he made it the subject of a book.

[23]. Arab. “Hanzal” = coloquintida, an article often mentioned by Arabs in verse and prose; the bright coloured little gourd attracts every eye by its golden glance when travelling through the brown-yellow waste of sand and clay. A favourite purgative (enough for a horse) is made by filling the inside with sour milk which is drunk after a night’s soaking: it is as active as the croton-nut of the Gold Coast.

[24]. The Bresl. Edit. iii. 354 sends him to the “land of Sín” (China).

[25]. Arab. “Yá Kisrawi!” = O subject of the Kisrá or Chosroë; the latter explained in vol. i., 75. “Fars” is the origin of “Persia”; and there is a hit at the prodigious lying of the modern race, whose forefathers were so famous as truth-tellers. “I am a Persian, but I am not lying now,” is a phrase familiar to every traveller.

[26]. There is no such name: perhaps it is a clerical error for “Har jáh” = (a man of) any place. I know an Englishman who in Persian called himself “Mirza Abdullah-i-Híchmakáni” = Master Abdullah of Nowhere.

[27]. The Bresl. Edit. (loc. cit.) gives a comical description of the Prince assuming the dress of an astrologer-doctor, clapping an old book under his arm, fumbling a rosary of beads, enlarging his turband, lengthening his sleeves and blackening his eyelids with antimony. Here, however, it would be out of place. Very comical also is the way in which he pretends to cure the maniac by “muttering unknown words, blowing in her face, biting her ear,” etc.

[28]. Arab. “Sar’a” = falling sickness. Here again we have in all its simplicity the old nursery idea of “possession” by evil spirits.

[29]. Arab. “Nafahát” = breathings, benefits, the Heb. Neshamah opp. to Nephesh (soul) and Ruach (spirit). Healing by the breath is a popular idea throughout the East and not unknown to Western Magnetists and Mesmerists. The miraculous cures of the Messiah were, according to Moslems, mostly performed by aspiration. They hold that in the days of Isa physic had reached its highest development, and thus his miracles were mostly miracles of medicine; whereas, in Mohammed’s time, eloquence had attained its climax and accordingly his miracles were those of eloquence, as shown in the Koran and Ahádís.

UNS AL-WUJUD AND THE WAZIR’S DAUGHTER AL-WARD FI’L-AKMAM OR ROSE-IN-HOOD.[[30]]

There was once, in days of yore and in ages and times long gone before, a King of great power and lord of glory and dominion galore; who had a Wazir Ibrahim hight, and this Wazir’s daughter was a damsel of extraordinary beauty and loveliness, gifted with passing brilliancy and the perfection of grace, possessed of abundant wit, and in all good breeding complete. But she loved wassail and wine and the human face divine and choice verses and rare stories; and the delicacy of her inner gifts invited all hearts to love, even as saith the poet, describing her:—

Like moon she shines amid the starry sky, ✿ Robing in tresses blackest ink outvie.

The morning-breezes give her boughs fair drink, ✿ And like a branch she sways with supple ply:

She smiles in passing us. O thou that art ✿ Fairest in yellow robed, or cramoisie,

Thou playest with my wit in love, as though ✿ Sparrow in hand of playful boy were I.[[31]]

Her name was Rose-in-Hood and she was so named for her young and tender beauty and the freshness of her brilliancy; and the King loved her in his cups because of her accomplishments and fine manners. Now it was the King’s custom yearly to gather together all the nobles of his realm and play with the ball.[[32]] So when the day came round whereon the folk assembled for ball-play, the Minister’s daughter seated herself at her lattice, to divert herself by looking on at the game; and, as they were at play, her glance fell upon a youth among the guards than whom never was seen a comelier face nor a goodlier form; for he was bright of favour showing white teeth when he smiled, tall-statured and broad-shouldered. She looked at him again and again and could not take her fill of gazing; and presently said to her nurse, “What is the name of yonder handsome young man among the troops?” Replied the nurse, “O my daughter, the dear fellows are all handsome. Which of them dost thou mean?” Said Rose-in-Hood, “Wait till he come past and I will point him out to thee.” So she took an apple and as he rode by dropped it on him, whereupon he raised his head, to see who did this, and espied the Wazir’s daughter at the window, as she were the moon of fullest light in the darkness of the night; nor did he withdraw his eyes, till his heart was utterly lost to her, and he recited these lines:—

Was’t archer shot me, or was’t thine eyes ✿ Ruined lover’s heart that thy charms espies?

Was the notchèd shaft[[33]] from a host outshot, ✿ Or from latticed window in sudden guise?

When the game was at an end, and all had left the ground, she asked her nurse, “What is the name of that youth I showed thee?”; and the good woman answered, “His name is Uns al-Wujud;” whereat Rose-in-Hood shook her head and lay down on her couch, with thoughts a-fire for love. Then, sighing deeply, she improvised these couplets:—

He missed not who dubbed thee, “World’s delight,” ✿ A world’s love conjoining to bounty’s light:[[34]]

O thou, whose favour the full moon favours, ✿ Whose charms make life and the living bright!

Thou hast none equal amongst mankind; ✿ Sultan of Beauty, and proof I’ll cite:

Thine eyebrows are likest a well-formed Nún,[[35]] ✿ And thine eyes a Sád,[[36]] by His hand indite;

Thy shape is the soft, green bough that gives ✿ When asked to all with all-gracious sprite:

Thou excellest knights of the world in stowre, ✿ With delight and beauty and bounty dight.

When she had finished her verses, she wrote them on a sheet of paper, which she folded in a piece of gold-embroidered silk and placed under her pillow. Now one of her nurses had seen her; so she came up to her and held her in talk till she slept, when she stole the scroll from under her pillow; and, after reading it, knew that she had fallen in love with Uns al-Wujud. Then she returned the scroll to its place and when her mistress awoke, she said to her, “O my lady, indeed I am to thee a true counsellor and am tenderly anxious on thy account. Know that love is a tyrant and the hiding it melteth iron and entaileth sickness and unease; nor for whoso confesseth it is there aught of reproach.” Rejoined Rose-in-Hood, “And what is the medicine of passion, O nurse mine?” Answered the nurse, “The medicine of passion is enjoyment.” Quoth she, “And how may one come by enjoyment?” Quoth the other, “By letters and messages, my lady; by whispered words of compliment and by greetings before the world;[[37]] all this bringeth lovers together and makes hard matters easy. So if thou have aught at heart, mistress mine, I am the fittest to keep thy secret and do thy desires and carry thy letters.” Now when the damsel heard this, her reason flew and fled for joy; but she restrained herself from speech till she should see the issue of the matter, saying within herself, “None knoweth this thing of me, nor will I trust this one with my secret, till I have tried her.” Then said the woman, “O my lady, I saw in my sleep as though a man came to me and said:—Thy mistress and Uns al-Wujud love each other; so do thou serve their case by carrying their messages and doing their desires and keeping their secrets; and much good shall befal thee. So now I have told thee my vision and it is thine to decide.” Quoth Rose-in-Hood, after she heard of the dream,——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

Now when it was the Three Hundred and Seventy-second Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King that Rose-in-Hood asked her nurse after hearing of the dream, “Tell me, canst thou keep a secret, O my nurse?”; whereto she answered, “And how should I not keep secrecy, I that am of the flower of the free?”[[38]] Then the maiden pulled out the scroll, whereon she had written the verses and said, “Carry me this my letter to Uns al-Wujud and bring me his reply.” The nurse took the letter and, repairing to Uns al-Wujud, kissed his hands and greeted him right courteously, then gave him the paper; and he read it and, comprehending the contents, wrote on the back these couplets:—

I soothe my heart and my love repel; ✿ But my state interprets my love too well:

When tears flow I tell them mine eyes are ill, ✿ Lest the censor see and my case foretell,

I was fancy-free and unknew I Love; ✿ But I fell in love and in madness fell.

I show you my case and complain of pain, ✿ Pine and ecstasy that your ruth compel:

I write you with tears of eyes, so belike ✿ They explain the love come my heart to quell;

Allah guard a face that is veiled with charms, ✿ Whose thrall is Moon and the Stars as well:

In her beauty I never beheld the like; ✿ From her sway the branches learn sway and swell:

I beg you, an ‘tis not too much of pains, ✿ To call;[[39]] ‘twere boon without parallel.

I give you a soul you will haply take. ✿ To which Union is Heaven, Disunion Hell.

Then he folded the letter and kissing it, gave it to the go-between and said to her, “O nurse, incline thy lady’s heart to me.” “To hear is to obey,” answered she and carried the script to her mistress, who kissed it and laid it on her head, then she opened it and read it and understood it and wrote at the foot of it these couplets:—

O whose heart by our beauty is captive ta’en, ✿ Have patience and all thou shalt haply gain!

When we knew that thy love was a true affect, ✿ And what pained our heart to thy heart gave pain,

We had granted thee wished-for call and more; ✿ But hindered so doing the chamberlain.

When the night grows dark, through our love’s excess ✿ Fire burns our vitals with might and main:

And sleep from our beds is driven afar, ✿ And our bodies are tortured by passion-bane.

“Hide Love!” in Love’s code is the first command; ✿ And from raising his veil thy hand restrain:

I fell love-fulfillèd by yon gazelle: ✿ Would he never wander from where I dwell!

Then she folded the letter and gave it to the nurse, who took it and went out from her mistress to seek the young man; but, as she would fare forth, the chamberlain met her and said to her, “Whither away?” “To the bath,” answered she; but in her fear and confusion, she dropped the letter, without knowing it, and went off unrecking what she had done; when one of the eunuchs, seeing it lying in the way, picked it up. When the nurse came without the door, she sought for it, but found it not, so turned back to her mistress and told her of this and what had befallen her. Meanwhile, the Wazir came out of the Harim and seated himself on his couch; whereupon behold, the eunuch, who had picked up the letter, came in to him, hending it in hand and said, “O my lord, I found this paper lying upon the floor and picked it up.” So the Minister took it from his hand, folded as it was, and opening it, read the verses as above set down. Then, after mastering the meaning, he examined the writing and knew it for his daughter’s hand; whereupon he went to her mother, weeping so abundant tears that his beard was wetted. His wife asked him, “What maketh thee weep, O my lord?”; and he answered, “Take this letter and see what is therein.” So she took it and found it to be a love-letter from her daughter Rose-in-Hood to Uns al-Wujud: whereupon the ready drops sprang to her eyes; but she composed her mind, and, gulping down her tears, said to her husband, “O my lord, there is no profit in weeping: the right course is to cast about for a means of keeping thine honour and concealing the affair of thy daughter.” And she went on to comfort him and lighten his trouble; but he said, “I am fearful for my daughter by reason of this new passion. Knowest thou not that the Sultan loveth Uns al-Wujud with exceeding love? And my fear hath two causes. The first concerneth myself; it is, that she is my daughter: the second is on account of the King; for that Uns al-Wujud is a favourite with the Sultan and peradventure great troubles shall come out of this affair. What deemest thou should be done?”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

Now when it was the Three Hundred and Seventy-third Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir, after recounting the affair of his daughter, asked his wife, “What deemest thou should be done?” And she answered, “Have patience whilst I pray the prayer for right direction.” So she prayed a two-bow prayer according to the prophetic[[40]] ordinance for seeking divine guidance; after which she said to her husband, “In the midst of the Sea of Treasures[[41]] standeth a mountain named the Mount of the Bereaved Mother (the cause of which being so called shall presently follow in its place, Inshallah!); and thither can none have access, save with pains and difficulty and distress: do thou make that same her abiding-place.” Accordingly the Minister and his wife agreed to build on that mountain a virgin castle and lodge their daughter therein with the necessary provision to be renewed year by year and attendants to cheer and to serve her. Accordingly he collected carpenters, builders and architects, and despatched them to the mountain, where they builded her an impregnable castle, never saw eyes the like thereof. Then he made ready vivers and carriage for the journey and, going in to his daughter by night, bade her prepare to set out on a pleasure-excursion. Thereupon her heart presaged the sorrows of separation and, when she went forth and saw the preparations for the journey, she wept with sore weeping and wrote that upon the door which might acquaint her lover with what had passed and with the transports of passion and grief that were upon her, transports such as would make the flesh to shiver and hair to stare, and melt the hardest stone with care, and tear from every eye a tear. And what she wrote were these couplets:—

By Allah, O thou house, if my beloved a morn go by, ✿ And greet with signs and signals lover e’er is wont to fly,

I pray thee give him our salams in pure and fragrant guise, ✿ For he indeed may never know where we this eve shall lie.

I wot not whither they have fared, thus bearing us afar ✿ At speed, and lightly-quipt, the lighter from one love to fly:

When starkens night, the birds in brake or branches snugly perched ✿ Wail for our sorrow and announce our hapless destiny:

The tongue of their condition saith, “Alas, alas for woe, ✿ And heavy brunt of parting-blow two lovers must aby”:

When viewed I separation-cups were fillèd to the brim ✿ And us with merest sorrow-wine Fate came so fast to ply,

I mixed them with becoming share of patience self to excuse, ✿ But Patience for the loss of you her solace doth refuse.

Now when she ended her lines, she mounted and they set forward with her crossing and cutting over wold and wild and riant dale and rugged hill, till they came to the shore of the Sea of Treasures here they pitched their tents and built her a great ship, wherein they went down with her and her suite and carried them over to the mountain. The Minister had ordered them, on reaching the journey’s end, to set her in the castle and to make their way back to the shore, where they were to break up the vessel. So they did his bidding and returned home, weeping over what had befallen. Such was their case; but as regards Uns al-Wujud, he arose from sleep and prayed the dawn-prayer, after which he took horse and rode forth to attend upon the Sultan. On his way, he passed by the Wazir’s house, thinking perchance to see some of his followers as of wont; but he saw no one and, looking upon the door, he read written thereon the verses aforesaid. At this sight, his senses failed him; fire was kindled in his vitals and he returned to his lodging, where he passed the day in trouble and transports of grief, without finding ease or patience, till night darkened upon him, when his yearning and love-longing redoubled. Thereupon, by way of concealment, he disguised himself in the ragged garb of a Fakir,[[42]] and set out wandering at random through the glooms of night, distracted and knowing not whither he went. So he wandered on all that night and next day, till the heat of the sun waxed fierce and the mountains flamed like fire and thirst was grievous upon him. Presently, he espied a tree, by whose side was a thin thread of running water; so he made towards it and sitting down in the shade, on the bank of the rivulet, essayed to drink, but found that the water had no taste in his mouth;[[43]] and, indeed his colour had changed and his face had yellowed, and his feet were swollen with travel and travail. So he shed copious tears and repeated these couplets:—

The lover is drunken with love of friend; ✿ On a longing that groweth his joys depend:

Love-distracted, ardent, bewildered, lost ✿ From home, nor may food aught of pleasure lend:

How can life be delightsome to one in love, ✿ And from lover parted, ‘twere strange, unkenned!

I melt with the fire of my pine for them, ✿ And the tears down my cheek in a stream descend.

Shall I see them, say me, or one that comes ✿ From the camp, who th’ afflicted heart shall tend?

And after thus reciting he wept till he wetted the hard dry ground; but anon without loss of time he rose and fared on again over waste and wold, till there came out upon him a lion, with a neck buried in tangled mane, a head the bigness of a dome, a mouth wider than the door thereof and teeth like elephants’ tusks. Now when Uns al-Wujud saw him, he gave himself up for lost and, turning[[44]] towards the Temple of Meccah, pronounced the professions of the faith and prepared for death. He had read in books that whoso will flatter the lion, beguileth him,[[45]] for that he is readily duped by smooth speech and gentled by being glorified; so he began and said, “O Lion of the forest! O Lord of the waste! O terrible Leo! O father of fighters! O Sultan of wild beasts! Behold, I am a lover in longing, whom passion and severance have been wronging; since I parted from my dear, I have lost my reasoning gear; wherefore, to my speech do thou give ear and have ruth on my passion and hope and fear.” When the lion heard this, he drew back from him and sitting down on his hind-quarters, raised his head to him and began to frisk tail and paws; which when Uns al-Wujud saw, he recited these couplets:—

Lion of the wold wilt thou murther me, ✿ Ere I meet her who doomed me to slavery?

I am not game and I bear no fat; ✿ For the loss of my love makes me sickness dree;

And estrangement from her hath so worn me down ✿ I am like a shape in a shroud we see.

O thou sire of spoils,[[46]] O thou lion of war, ✿ Give not my pains to the blamer’s gree.

I burn with love, I am drowned in tears ✿ For a parting from lover, sore misery!

And my thoughts of her in the murk of night ✿ For love hath made my being unbe.

As he had finished his lines the lion rose——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

Now when it was the Three Hundred and Seventy-fourth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that as Uns al-Wujud ended his lines, the lion arose and stalked slowly up to him, with eyes tear-railing and licked him with his tongue, then walked on before him, signing to him as though saying, “Follow me.” So he followed him, and the beast ceased not leading him on for a while till he brought him up a mountain, and guided him to the farther side, where he came upon the track of a caravan over the desert, and knew it to be that of Rose-in-Hood and her company. Then he took the trail and, when the lion saw that he knew the track for that of the party which escorted her, he turned back and went his way; whilst Uns al-Wujud walked along the foot-marks day and night, till they brought him to a dashing sea, swollen with clashing surge. The trail led down to the sandy shore and there broke off; whereby he knew that they had taken ship and had continued their journey by water. So he lost hope of finding his lover and with hot tears he repeated these couplets:—

Far is the fane and patience faileth me; ✿ How can I seek them[[47]] o’er the abysmal sea;

Or how be patient, when my vitals burn ✿ For love of them, and sleep waxed insomny?

Since the sad day they left the home and fled, ✿ My heart’s consumèd by love’s ardency:

Sayhun, Jayhun,[[48]] Euphrates-like my tears, ✿ Make flood no deluged rain its like can see:

Mine eyelids chafed with running tears remain, ✿ My heart from fiery sparks is never free;

The hosts of love and longing pressèd me ✿ And made the hosts of patience break and flee.

I’ve risked my life too freely for their love; ✿ And risk of life the least of ills shall be.

Allah ne’er punish eye that saw those charms ✿ Enshrined, and passing full moon’s brillancy!

I found me felled by fair wide-opened eyes, ✿ Which pierced my heart with stringless archery:

And soft, lithe, swaying shape enraptured me ✿ As sway the branches of the willow-tree:

Wi’ them I covet union that I win, ✿ O’er love-pains cark and care, a mastery.

For love of them aye, morn and eve I pine, ✿ And doubt all came to me from evil eyne.

And when his lines were ended he wept, till he swooned away, and abode in his swoon a long while; but as soon as he came to himself, he looked right and left and seeing no one in the desert, he became fearful of the wild beasts; so he clomb to the top of a high mountain, where he heard the voice of a son of Adam speaking within a cave. He listened and lo! they were the accents of a devotee, who had forsworn the world and given himself up to pious works and worship. He knocked thrice at the cavern-door, but the hermit made him no answer, neither came forth to him; wherefore he groaned aloud and recited these couplets:—

What pathway find I my desire t’obtain, ✿ How ‘scape from care and cark and pain and bane?

All terrors join to make me old and hoar ✿ Of head and heart, ere youth from me is ta’en:

Nor find I any aid my passion, nor ✿ A friend to lighten load of bane and pain.

How great and many troubles I’ve endured! ✿ Fortune hath turned her back I see unfain.

Ah mercy, mercy on the lover’s heart, ✿ Doomed cup of parting and desertion drain!

A fire is in his heart, his vitals waste, ✿ And severance made his reason vainest vain.

How dread the day I came to her abode ✿ And saw the writ they wrote on doorway lain!

I wept, till gave I earth to drink my grief; ✿ But still to near and far[[49]] I did but feign:

Then strayed I till in waste a lion sprang ✿ On me, and but for flattering words had slain:

I soothed him: so he spared me and lent me aid, ✿ He too might haply of love’s taste complain.

O devotee, that idlest in thy cave, ✿ Meseems eke thou hast learned Love’s might and main;

But if, at end of woes, with them I league, ✿ Straight I’ll forget all suffering and fatigue.

Hardly had he made an end of these verses when, behold! the door of the cavern opened and he heard one say, “Alas, the pity of it!”[[50]] So he entered and saluted the devotee, who returned his salam and asked him, “What is thy name?” Answered the young man, “Uns al-Wujud.” “And what caused thee to come hither?” quoth the hermit. So he told him his story in its entirety, omitting naught of his misfortunes; whereat he wept and said,

“O Uns al-Wujud, these twenty years have I passed in this place, but never beheld I any man here, until yesterday, when I heard a noise of weeping and lamentation and, looking forth in the direction of the sound, saw many people and tents pitched on the sea-shore; and the party at once proceeded to build a ship, in which certain of them embarked and sailed over the waters. Then some of the crew returned with the ship and breaking it up, went their way; and I suspect that those who embarked in the ship and returned not, are they whom thou seekest. In that case, O Uns al-Wujud, thy grief must needs be great and sore and thou art excusable, though never yet was lover but suffered love-longing.” Then he recited these couplets:—

Uns al-Wujud, dost deem me fancy-free, ✿ When pine and longing slay and quicken me?

I have known love and yearning from the years ✿ Since mother-milk I drank, nor e’er was free.

Long struggled I with Love, till learnt his might; ✿ Ask thou of him, he’ll tell with willing gree.

Love-sick and pining drank I passion-cup, ✿ And well-nigh perished in mine agony.

Strong was I, but my strength to weakness turned, ✿ And eye-sword brake through Patience armoury:

Hope not to win love-joys, without annoy; ✿ Contrary ever links with contrary.

But fear not change from lover true; be true ✿ Unto thy wish, some day thine own ‘twill be.

Love hath forbidden to his votaries ✿ Relinquishment as deadliest heresy.

The eremite, having ended his verse, rose and, coming up to Uns al-Wujud, embraced him,——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

Now when it was the Three Hundred and Seventy-fifth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the eremite, having ended his verse, rose and coming up to Uns al-Wujud embraced him, and they wept together, till the hills rang with their cries and they fell down fainting. When they revived, they swore brotherhood[[51]] in Allah Almighty; after which said Uns al-Wujud, “This very night will I pray to God and seek of Him direction[[52]] anent what thou shouldst do to attain thy desire.” Thus it was with them; but as regards Rose-in-Hood, when they brought her to the mountain and set her in the castle and she beheld its ordering, she wept and exclaimed, “By Allah, thou art a goodly place, save that thou lackest in thee the presence of the beloved!”[[53]] Then seeing birds in the island, she bade her people set snares for them and put all they caught in cages within the castle; and they did so. But she sat at a lattice and bethought her of what had passed, and desire and passion and distraction redoubled upon her, till she burst into tears and repeated these couplets:—

O to whom now, of my desire complaining sore, shall I ✿ Bewail my parting from my fere compellèd thus to fly?

Flames rage within what underlies my ribs, yet hide them I ✿ In deepest secret dreading aye the jealous hostile spy:

I am grown as lean, attenuate as any pick of tooth,[[54]] ✿ By sore estrangement, absence, ardour, ceaseless sob and sigh.

Where is the eye of my beloved to see how I’m become ✿ Like tree stripped bare of leafage left to linger and to die.

They tyrannisèd over me whom they confined in place ✿ Whereto the lover of my heart may never draw him nigh:

I beg the Sun for me to give greetings a thousandfold, ✿ At time of rising and again when setting from the sky,

To the belovèd one who shames a full moon’s loveliness, ✿ When shows that slender form that doth the willow-branch outvie.

If Rose herself would even with his cheek, I say of her ✿ “Thou art not like it if to me my portion thou deny:”[[55]]

His honey-dew of lips is like the grateful water draught ✿ Would cool me when a fire in heart upflameth fierce and high:

How shall I give him up who is my heart and soul of me, ✿ My malady my wasting cause, my love, sole leach of me?

Then, as the glooms of night closed around her, her yearning increased and she called to mind the past and recited also these couplets:—

‘Tis dark: my transport and unease now gather might and main, ✿ And love-desire provoketh me to wake my wonted pain:

The pang of parting takes for ever place within my breast, ✿ And pining makes me desolate in destitution lain.

Ecstasy sore maltreats my soul and yearning burns my sprite, ✿ And tears betray love’s secresy which I would lief contain:

I weet no way, I know no case that can make light my load, ✿ Or heal my wasting body or cast out from me this bane.

A hell of fire is in my heart upflames with lambent tongue ✿ And Lazá’s furnace-fires within my liver place have ta’en.

O thou, exaggerating blame for what befel, enough ✿ I bear with patience whatsoe’er hath writ for me the Pen!

I swear, by Allah, ne’er to find aught comfort for their loss; ✿ ‘Tis oath of passion’s children and their oaths are ne’er in vain.

O Night! Salams of me to friends and let to them be known ✿ Of thee true knowledge how I wake and waking ever wone.

Meanwhile, the hermit said to Uns al-Wujud, “Go down to the palm-grove in the valley and fetch some fibre.”[[56]] So he went and returned with the palm-fibre, which the hermit took and, twisting into ropes, made therewith a net,[[57]] such as is used for carrying straw; after which he said, “O Uns al-Wujud, in the heart of the valley groweth a gourd, which springeth up and drieth upon its roots. Go down there and fill this sack therewith; then tie it together and, casting it into the water, embark thereon and make for the midst of the sea, so haply thou shalt win thy wish; for whoso never ventureth shall not have what he seeketh.” “I hear and obey,” answered Uns al-Wujud. Then he bade the hermit farewell after the holy man had prayed for him; and, betaking himself to the sole of the valley, did as his adviser had counselled him; made the sack, launched it upon the water, and pushed from shore. Then there arose a wind, which drave him out to sea, till he was lost to the eremite’s view; and he ceased not to float over the abysses of the ocean, one billow tossing him up and another bearing him down (and he beholding the while the dangers and marvels of the deep), for the space of three days. At the end of that time Fate cast him upon the Mount of the Bereft Mother, where he landed, giddy and tottering like a chick unfledged, and at the last of his strength for hunger and thirst; but, finding there streams flowing and birds on the branches cooing and fruit-laden trees in clusters and singly growing, he ate of the fruits and drank of the rills. Then he walked on till he saw some white thing afar off, and making for it, found that it was a strongly fortified castle. So he went up to the gate and seeing it locked, sat down by it; and there he sat for three days when behold, the gate opened and an eunuch came out, who finding Uns al-Wujud there seated, said to him, “Whence camest thou and who brought thee hither?” Quoth he, “From Ispahan and I was voyaging with merchandise when my ship was wrecked and the waves cast me upon the farther side of this island.” Whereupon the eunuch wept and embraced him, saying, “Allah preserve thee, O thou friendly face! Ispahan is mine own country and I have there a cousin, the daughter of my father’s brother, whom I loved from my childhood and cherished with fond affection; but a people stronger than we fell upon us in foray and taking me among other booty, cut off my yard[[58]] and sold me for a castrato, whilst I was yet a lad; and this is how I came to be in such case.”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

Now when it was the Three Hundred and Seventy-sixth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the eunuch who came forth from the castle, where Rose-in-Hood was confined, told Uns al-Wujud all his tale and said:—“The raiders who captured me cut off my yard and sold me for a castrato; and this is how I came to be in such case.”[[59]] And after saluting him and wishing him long life, the eunuch carried him into the courtyard of the castle, where he saw a great tank of water, surrounded by trees, on whose branches hung cages of silver, with doors of gold, and therein birds were warbling and singing the praises of the Requiting King. And when he came to the first cage he looked in and lo! a turtle dove, on seeing him, raised her voice and cried out, saying, “O Thou Bounty-fraught!” Whereat he fell down fainting and after coming to himself, he sighed heavily and recited these couplets:—

O turtle dove, like me art thou distraught? ✿ Then pray the Lord and sing “O Bounty-fraught!”

Would I knew an thy moan were sign of joy, ✿ Or cry of love-desire in heart inwrought,—

An moan thou pining for a lover gone ✿ Who left thee woe begone to pine in thought,—

Or if like me hast lost thy fondest friend, ✿ And severance long desire to memory brought?

O Allah, guard a faithful lover’s lot ✿ I will not leave her though my bones go rot!

Then, after ending his verses, he fainted again; and, presently reviving he went on to the second cage, wherein he found a ringdove. When it saw him, it sang out, “O Eternal, I thank thee!” and he groaned and recited these couplets:—

I heard a ringdove chanting plaintively, ✿ “I thank Thee, O Eternal for this misery!”

Haply, perchance, may Allah, of His grace, ✿ Send me by this long round my love to see.

Full oft[[60]] she comes with honeyed lips dark red, ✿ And heaps up lowe upon love’s ardency.

Quoth I (while longing fires flame high and fierce ✿ In heart, and wasting life’s vitality,

And tears like gouts of blood go railing down ✿ In torrents over cheeks now pale of blee),

“None e’er trod earth that was not born to woe, ✿ But I will patient dree mine agony,

So help me Allah! till that happy day ✿ When with my mistress I unite shall be:

Then will I spend my good on lover-wights, ✿ Who’re of my tribe and of the faith of me;

And loose the very birds from jail set free, ✿ And change my grief for gladdest gree and glee!”

Then he went on to the third cage, wherein he found a mocking-bird[[61]] which, when it saw him, set up a song, and he recited the following couplets:—

Pleaseth me yon Hazár of mocking strain ✿ Like voice of lover pained by love in vain.

Woe’s me for lovers! Ah how many men ✿ By nights and pine and passion low are lain!

As though by stress of love they had been made ✿ Morn-less and sleep-less by their pain and bane.

When I went daft for him who conquered me ✿ And pined for him who proved of proudest strain,

My tears in streams down trickled and I cried ✿ “These long-linkt tears bind like an adamant-chain:”

Grew concupiscence, severance long, and I ✿ Lost Patience’ hoards and grief waxed sovereign:

If Justice bide in world and me unite ✿ With him I love and Allah veil us deign,

I’ll strip my clothes that he my form shall sight ✿ With parting, distance, grief, how poor of plight!

Then he went to the fourth cage, where he found a Bulbul[[62]] which, at sight of him, began to sway to and fro and sing its plaintive descant; and when he heard its complaint, he burst into tears and repeated these couplets:—

The Bulbul’s note, whenas dawn is nigh, ✿ Tells the lover from strains of strings to fly:

Complaineth for passion Uns al-Wujud, ✿ For pine that would being to him deny.

How many a strain do we hear, whose sound ✿ Softens stones and the rock can mollify:

And the breeze of morning that sweetly speaks ✿ Of meadows in flowerèd greenery.

And scents and sounds in the morning-tide ✿ Of birds and zephyrs in fragrance vie;

But I think of one, of an absent friend, ✿ And tears rail like rain from a showery sky;

And the flamy tongues in my breast uprise ✿ As sparks from gleed that in dark air fly.

Allah deign vouchsafe to a lover distraught ✿ Someday the face of his dear to descry!

For lovers, indeed, no excuse is clear, ✿ Save excuse of sight and excuse of eye.

Then he walked on a little and came to a goodly cage, than which was no goodlier there, and in it a culver of the forest, that is to say, a wood-pigeon,[[63]] the bird renowned among birds as the minstrel of love-longing, with a collar of jewels about its neck marvellous fine and fair. He considered it awhile and, seeing it absently brooding in its cage, he shed tears and repeated these couplets:—

O culver of copse,[[64]] with salams I greet; ✿ O brother of lovers who woe must weet!

I love a gazelle who is slender-slim, ✿ Whose glances for keenness the scymitar beat:

For her love are my heart and my vitals a-fire, ✿ And my frame consumes in love’s fever-heat.

The sweet taste of food is unlawful for me, ✿ And forbidden is slumber, unlawfullest sweet.

Endurance and solace have travelled from me, ✿ And love homes in my heart and grief takes firm seat:

How shall life deal joy when they flee my sight ✿ Who are joy and gladness and life and sprite?

As soon as Uns al-Wujud had ended his verse——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

Now when it was the Three Hundred and Seventy-seventh Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that as soon as Uns al-Wujud had ended his verse, the wood-culver awoke from its brooding and cooed a reply to his lines and shrilled and trilled with its thrilling notes till it all but spake with human speech;[[65]] and the tongue of the case talked for it and recited these couplets:—

O lover, thou bringest to thought a tide ✿ When the strength of my youth first faded and died;

And a friend of whose form I was ‘namourèd, ✿ Seductive and dight with beauty’s pride;

Whose voice, as he sat on the sandhill-tree, ✿ From the Nay’s[[66]] sweet sound turned my heart aside;

A fowler snared him in net, the while ✿ “O that man would leave me at large!” he cried:

I had hoped he might somewhat of mercy show ✿ When a hapless lover he so espied;

But Allah smite him who tore me away, ✿ In his hardness of heart, from my lover’s side;

But aye my desire for him groweth more, ✿ And my heart with the fires of disjunction is fried:

Allah guard a true lover, who strives with love, ✿ And hath borne the torments I still abide!

And, seeing me bound in this cage, with mind ✿ Of ruth, release me my love to find.

Then Uns al-Wujud turned to his companion, the Ispahahi, and said, “What palace is this? Who built it and who abideth in it?” Quoth the eunuch, “The Wazir of a certain King built it to guard his daughter, fearing for her the accidents of Time and the incidents of Fortune, and lodged her herein, her and her attendants; nor do we open it save once in every year, when their provision cometh to them.” And Uns al-Wujud said to himself, “I have gained my end, though I may have long to wait.” Such was his case; but as regards Rose-in-Hood, of a truth she took no pleasure in eating or drinking, sitting or sleeping; but her desire and passion and distraction redoubled on her, and she went wandering about the castle-corners, but could find no issue; wherefore she shed tears and recited these couplets:—

They have cruelly ta’en me from him, my beloved, ✿ And made me taste anguish in prison ta’en:

They have fired my heart with the flames of love, ✿ Barred all sight of him whom to see I’m fain:

In a lofty palace they prisoned me ✿ On a mountain placed in the middle main.

If they’d have me forget him, right vain’s their wish, ✿ For my love is grown of a stronger strain.

How can I forget him whose face was cause ✿ Of all I suffer, of all I ‘plain?

The whole of my days in sorrow’s spent, ✿ And in thought of him through the night I’m lain.

Remembrance of him cheers my solitude, ✿ While I lorn of his presence and lone remain.

Would I knew if, after this all, my fate ✿ To oblige the desire of my heart will deign.

When her verses were ended, she ascended to the terrace-roof of the castle after donning her richest clothes and trinkets and throwing a necklace of jewels around her neck. Then binding together some dresses of Ba’albak[[67]] stuff by way of rope, she tied them to the crenelles and let herself down thereby to the ground. And she fared on over wastes and waterless wilds, till she came to the shore, where she saw a fisherman plying here and there over the sea, for the wind had driven him on to the island. When he saw her, he was affrighted[[68]] and pushed off again, flying from her; but she cried out and made pressing signs to him to return, versifying with these couplets:—

O fisherman no care hast thou to fear, ✿ I’m but an earth-born maid in mortal sphere;

I pray thee linger and my prayer grant ✿ And to my true unhappy tale give ear:

Pity (so Allah spare thee!) warmest love; ✿ Say, hast thou seen him—my beloved fere?

I love a lovely youth whose face excels ✿ Sunlight, and passes moon when clearest clear:

The fawn, that sees his glance, is fain to cry ✿ “I am his thrall” and own himself no peer:

Beauty hath written, on his winsome cheek, ✿ Rare lines of pregnant sense for every seer;

Who sights the light of love his soul is saved; ✿ Who strays is Infidel to Hell anear:

An thou in mercy show his sight, O rare![[69]] ✿ Thou shalt have every wish, the dearest dear,

Of rubies and what likest are to them ✿ Fresh pearls and unions new, the sea-shell’s tear:

My friend, thou wilt forsure grant my desire ✿ Whose heart is melted in love’s hottest fire.

When the fisherman heard her words, he wept and made moan and lamented; then, recalling what had betided himself in the days of his youth, when love had the mastery over him and longing and desire and distraction were sore upon him and the fires of passion consumed him, replied with these couplets:—

What fair excuse is this my pining plight, ✿ With wasted limbs and tears’ unceasing blight;

And eyelids open in the nightly murk, ✿ And heart like fire-stick[[70]] ready fire to smite;

Indeed love burdened us in early youth, ✿ And true from false coin soon we learned aright:

Then did we sell our soul on way of love, ✿ And drunk of many a well[[71]] to win her sight;

Venturing very life to gain her grace, ✿ And make high profit perilling a mite.

‘Tis Love’s religion whoso buys with life ✿ His lover’s grace, with highest gain is dight.

And when he ended his verse, he moored his boat to the beach and said to her, “Embark, so may I carry thee whither thou wilt.” Thereupon she embarked and he put off with her; but they had not gone far from land, before there came out a stern-wind upon the boat and drove it swiftly out of sight of shore. Now the fisherman knew not whither he went, and the strong wind blew without ceasing three days, when it fell by leave of Allah Almighty, and they sailed on and ceased not sailing till they came in sight of a city sitting upon the sea-shore,——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

Now when it was the Three Hundred and Seventy-eighth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the fisherman’s craft, carrying Rose-in-Hood, made the city sitting upon the sea shore, the man set about making fast to the land. Now the King of the city was a Prince of pith and puissance named Dirbás, the Lion; and he chanced at that moment to be seated, with his son, at a window in the royal palace giving upon the sea; and happening to look out seawards, they saw the fishing-boat make the land. They observed it narrowly and espied therein a young lady, as she were the full moon overhanging the horizon-edge, with pendants in her ears of costly balass-rubies and a collar of precious stones about her throat. Hereby the King knew that this must indeed be the daughter of some King or great noble and, going forth of the sea-gate of the palace, went down to the boat, where he found the lady asleep and the fisherman busied in making fast to shore. So he went up to her and aroused her, whereupon she awoke, weeping; and he asked her, “Whence comest thou and whose daughter art thou and what be the cause of thy coming hither?”; and she answered, “I am the daughter of Ibrahim, Wazir to King Shámikh; and the manner of my coming hither is wondrous and the cause thereof marvellous.” And she told him her whole story first and last, hiding naught from him; then she groaned aloud and recited these couplets:—

Tear-drops have chafed mine eyelids and rail down in wondrous wise, ✿ For parting pain that fills my sprite and turns to springs mine eyes,

For sake of friend who ever dwells within my vitals homed, ✿ And I may never win my wish of him in any guise.

He hath a favour fair and bright, and brilliant is his face, ✿ Which every Turk and Arab wight in loveliness outvies:

The Sun and fullest Moon lout low whenas his charms they sight, ✿ And lover-like they bend to him whene’er he deigneth rise.

A wondrous spell of gramarye like Kohl bedecks his eyne, ✿ And shows thee bow with shaft on string made ready ere it flies:

O thou, to whom I told my case expecting all excuse, ✿ Pity a lover-wight for whom Love-shafts such fate devise!

Verily, Love hath cast me on your coast despite of me ✿ Of will now weak, and fain I trust mine honour thou wilt prize:

For noble men, whenas perchance alight upon their bounds, ✿ Grace-worthy guests, confess their worth and raise to dignities.

Then, O thou hope of me, to lovers’ folly veil afford ✿ And be to them reunion cause, thou only liefest lord!

And when she had ended her verses, she again told the King her sad tale and shed plenteous tears and recited these couplets bearing on her case:—

We lived till saw we all the marvels Love can bear; ✿ Each month to thee we hope shall fair as Rajab[[72]] fare:

Is it not wondrous, when I saw them march amorn ✿ That I with water o’ eyes in heart lit flames that flare?

That these mine eyelids rain fast dropping gouts of blood? ✿ That now my cheek grows gold where rose and lily were?

As though the safflower hue, that overspread my cheeks, ✿ Were Joseph’s coat made stain of lying blood to wear.

Now when the King heard her words he was certified of her love and longing and was moved to ruth for her; so he said to her, “Fear nothing and be not troubled; thou hast come to the term of thy wishes; for there is no help but that I win for thee thy will and bring thee to thy desire.” And he improvised these couplets:—

Daughter of nobles, who thine aim shalt gain; ✿ Hear gladdest news nor fear aught hurt or bane!

This day I’ll pack up wealth, and send it on ✿ To Shámikh, guarded by a champion-train;

Fresh pods of musk I’ll send him and brocades, ✿ And silver white and gold of yellow vein:

Yes, and a letter shall inform him eke ✿ That I of kinship with that King am fain:

And I this day will lend thee bestest aid, ✿ That all thou covetest thy soul assain.

I, too, have tasted love and know its taste ✿ And can excuse whoso the same cup drain.[[73]]

Then, ending his verse, he went forth to his troops and summoned his Wazir; and, causing him to pack up countless treasure, commanded him carry it to King Shamikh and say to him, “Needs must thou send me a person named Uns al-Wujud;” and say moreover “The King is minded to ally himself with thee by marrying his daughter to Uns al-Wujud, thine officer. So there is no help but thou despatch him to me, that the marriage may be solemnized in her father’s kingdom.” And he wrote a letter to King Shamikh to this effect, and gave it to the Minister, charging him strictly to bring back Uns al-Wujud and warning him, “An thou fail thou shalt be deposed and degraded.” Answered the Wazir, “I hear and obey;” and, setting out forthright with the treasures, in due course arrived at the court of King Shamikh whom he saluted in the name of King Dirbas and delivered the letter and the presents. Now when King Shamikh read the letter and saw the name of Uns al-Wujud, he burst into tears and said to the Wazir “And where, oh where, is Uns al-Wujud?; he went from us and we know not his place of abiding; only bring him to me, and I will give thee double the presents thou hast brought me.” And he wept and groaned and lamented, saying these couplets:—

To me restore my dear; ✿ I want not wealth untold:

Nor crave I gifts of pearls ✿ Or gems or store of gold:

He was to us a moon ✿ In beauty’s heavenly fold.

Passing in form and soul; ✿ With roe compare withhold!

His form a willow-wand, ✿ His fruit, lures manifold;

But willow lacketh power ✿ Men’s hearts to have and hold.

I reared him from a babe ✿ On cot of coaxing roll’d;

And now I mourn for him ✿ With woe in soul ensoul’d.

Then, turning to the Wazir who had brought the presents and the missive, he said, “Go back to thy liege and acquaint him that Uns al-Wujud hath been missing this year past, and his lord knoweth not whither he is gone nor hath any tidings of him.” Answered the Minister of King Dirbas, “O my lord, my master said to me:—An thou fail to bring him back, thou shalt be degraded from the Wazirate and shalt not enter my city. How then can I return without him?” So King Shamikh said to his Wazir Ibrahim, “Take a company and go with him and make ye search for Uns al-Wujud everywhere.” He replied, “Hearkening and obedience;” and, taking a body of his own retainers, set out accompanied by the Wazir of King Dirbas seeking Uns al-Wujud.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

Now when it was the Three Hundred and Seventy-ninth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Ibrahim, Wazir to King Shamikh, took him a body of his retainers and, accompanied by the Minister of King Dirbas, set out seeking Uns al-Wujud. And as often as they fell in with wild Arabs or others they asked of the youth, saying, “Tell us have ye seen a man whose name is so and so and his semblance thus and thus?” But they all answered, “We know him not.” Still they continued their quest enquiring in city and hamlet and seeking in fertile plain and stony hall and in the wild and in the wold, till they made the Mountain of the Bereaved Mother; and the Wazir of King Dirbas said to Ibrahim, “Why is this mountain thus called?” He answered, “Once of old time, here sojourned a Jinniyah, of the Jinn of China, who loved a mortal with passionate love; and, being in fear of her life from her own people, searched all the earth over for a place, where she might hide him from them, till she happened on this mountain and, finding it cut off from both men and Jinn, there being no access to it, carried off her beloved and lodged him therein. There, when she could escape notice of her kith and kin, she used privily to visit him, and continued so doing till she had borne him a number of children; and the merchants, sailing by the mountain, in their voyages over the main, heard the weeping of the children, as it were the wailing of a woman bereft of her babes, and said:—Is there here a mother bereaved of her children? For which reason the place was named the Mountain of the Bereaved Mother.” And the Wazir of King Dirbas marvelled at his words. Then they landed and, making for the castle, knocked at the gate which was opened to them by an eunuch, who knew the Wazir Ibrahim and kissed his hands. The Minister entered and found in the courtyard, among the serving-men, a Fakir, which was Uns al-Wujud, but he knew him not and said, “Whence cometh yonder wight?” Quoth they, “He is a merchant, who hath lost his goods, but saved himself; and he is an ecstatic.”[[74]] So the Wazir left him and went on into the castle, where he found no trace of his daughter and questioned her women, who answered, “We wot not how or whither she went; this place misliked her and she tarried in it but a short time.” Whereupon he wept sore and repeated these couplets:—

Ho thou, the house, whose birds were singing gay, ✿ Whose sills their wealth and pride were wont display!

Till came the lover wailing for his love, ✿ And found thy doors wide open to the way;

Would Heaven I knew where is my soul that erst ✿ Was homed in house, whose owners fared away!

‘Twas stored with all things bright and beautiful, ✿ And showed its porters ranged in fair array:

They clothed it with brocades a bride become;[[75]] ✿ Would I knew whither went its lords, ah, say!

After ending his verses he again shed tears, and groaned and bemoaned himself, exclaiming, “There is no deliverance from the destiny decreed by Allah; nor is there any escape from that which He hath predestined!” Then he went up to the roof and found the strips of Ba’albak stuff tied to the crenelles and hanging down to the ground, and thus it was he knew that she had descended thence and had fled forth, as one distracted and demented with desire and passion. Presently, he turned and seeing there two birds, a gor-crow and an owl he justly deemed this an omen of ill; so he groaned and recited these couplets:—

I came to my dear friends’ door, of my hopes the goal, ✿ Whose sight mote assuage my sorrow and woes of soul:

No friends found I there, nor was there another thing ✿ To find, save a corby-crow and an ill-omened owl.

And the tongue o’ the case to me seemed to say, “Indeed ✿ This parting two lovers fond was cruel and foul!”

“So taste thou the sorrow thou madest them taste and live ✿ In grief: wend thy ways and now in thy sorrow prowl!”

Then he descended from the castle-roof, weeping, and bade the servants fare forth and search the mount for their mistress; so they sought for her, but found her not. Such was their case; but as regards Uns al-Wujud, when he was certified that Rose-in-Hood was indeed gone, he cried with a great cry and fell down in a fainting-fit, nor came to himself for a long time, whilst the folk deemed that his spirit had been withdrawn by the Compassionating One; and that he was absorbed in contemplation of the splendour, majesty and beauty of the Requiting One. Then, despairing of finding Uns al-Wujud, and seeing that the Wazir Ibrahim was distracted for the loss of his daughter, the Minister of King Dirbas addressed himself to return to his own country, albeit he had not attained the object of his journey, and while bidding his companion adieu, said to him, “I have a mind to take the Fakir with me; it may be Allah Almighty will incline the King’s heart to me by his blessing, for that he is a holy man; and thereafter, I will send him to Ispahan, which is near our country.” “Do as thou wilt,” answered Ibrahim. So they took leave of each other and departed, each for his own mother land, the Wazir of King Dirbas carrying with him Uns al-Wujud——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

Now when it was the Three Hundred and Eightieth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir of King Dirbas carried with him Uns al-Wujud who was still insensible. They bore him with them on mule-back (he unknowing if he were carried or not) for three days, when he came to himself and said, “Where am I?” “Thou art in company with the Minister of King Dirbas,” replied they and went and gave news of his recovering to the Wazir, who sent him rose-water and sherbet of sugar, of which they gave him to drink and restored him. Then they ceased not faring on till they drew near King Dirbas’s capital and the King, being advised of his Wazir’s coming, wrote to him, saying, “If Uns al-Wujud be not with thee, come not to me ever.” Now when the Wazir read the royal mandate, it was grievous to him, for he knew not that Rose-in-Wood was with the King, nor why he had been sent in quest of Uns al-Wujud, nor the King’s reason for desiring the alliance; whilst Uns al-Wujud also knew not whither they were bearing him or that the Wazir had been sent in quest of him; nor did the Wazir know that the Fakir he had with him was Uns al-Wujud himself. And when the Minister saw that the sick man was whole, he said to him, “I was despatched by the King on an errand, which I have not been able to accomplish. So, when he heard of my return, he wrote to me, saying:—Except thou have fulfilled my need enter not my city.” “And what is the King’s need?” asked Uns al-Wujud. So the Wazir told him the whole tale, and he said, “Fear nothing, but go boldly to the King and take me with thee; and I will be surety to thee for the coming of Uns al-Wujud.” At this the Wazir rejoiced and cried, “Is this true which thou sayest?” “Yes,” replied he; whereupon the Wazir mounted and carried him to King Dirbas who, after receiving their salutations said to him, “Where is Uns al-Wujud?” Answered the young man, “O King, I know where he is.” So the King called him to him and said, “Where?” Returned Uns al-Wujud, “He is nearhand and very near; but tell me what thou wouldst with him, and I will fetch him into thy presence.” The King replied, “With joy and good gree, but the case calleth for privacy.” So he ordered the folk to withdraw and, carrying Uns al-Wujud into his cabinet, told him the whole story; whereupon quoth the youth, “Robe me in rich raiment, and I will forthright bring Uns al-Wujud to thee.” So they brought him a sumptuous dress, and he donned it and said, “I am Uns al-Wujud, the World’s Delight, and to the envious a despite”; and presently he smote with his glances every sprite, and began these couplets to recite:—

My loved one’s name in cheerless solitude aye cheereth me ✿ And driveth off my desperance and long despondency:

I have no helper[[76]] but my tears that ever flow in fount, ✿ And as they flow, they lighten woe and force my grief to flee.

My longing is so violent naught like it ere was seen; ✿ My love-tale is a marvel and my love a sight to see:

I spend the night with lids of eye that never close in sleep, ✿ And pass in passion twixt the Hells and Edens heavenly.

I had of patience fairish store, but now no more have I; ✿ And love’s sole gift to me hath been aye-growing misery:

My frame is wasted by the pain of parting from my own, ✿ And longing changed my shape and form and made me other be.

Mine eyelids by my torrent tears are chafed, and ulcerate, ✿ The tears, whose flow to stay is mere impossibility.

My manly strength is sore impaired for I have lost my heart; ✿ How many griefs upon my griefs have I been doomed to dree!

My heart and head are like in age with similar hoariness ✿ By loss of Beauty’s lord,[[77]] of lords the galaxy:

Despite our wills they parted us and doomed us parted wone, ✿ While they (our lords) desire no more than love in unity.

Then ah, would Heaven that I wot if stress of parting done, ✿ The world will grant me sight of them in union fain and free—

Roll up the scroll of severance which others would unroll— ✿ Efface my trouble by the grace of meeting’s jubilee!

And shall I see them homed with me and in cup-company, ✿ And change my melancholic mood for joy and jollity?

And when he ended his verses the King cried aloud, “By Allah, ye are indeed a pair of lovers true and fain and in Beauty’s heaven of shining stars a twain: your story is wondrous and your case marvellous.” Then he told him all that had befallen Rose-in-Hood; and Uns al-Wujud said, “Where is she, O King of the age?” “She is with me now,” answered Dirbas and, sending for the Kazi and the witnesses, drew up the contract of marriage between her and him. Then he honoured Uns al-Wujud with favours and bounties and sent to King Shamikh acquainting him with what had befallen, whereat this King joyed with exceeding joy and wrote back to the following purport. “Since the ceremony of contract hath been performed at thy court, it behoveth that the marriage and its consummation be at mine.” Then he made ready camels, horses and men and sent them in quest of the pair; and when the embassy reached King Dirbas, he gave the lovers much treasure and despatched them to King Shamikh’s court with a company of his own troops. The day of their arrival was a notable day, never was seen a grander; for the King gathered together all the singing-women and players on instruments of music and made wedding banquets and held high festival seven days; and on each day he gave largesse to the folk and bestowed on them sumptuous robes of honour. Then Uns al-Wujud went in to Rose-in-Hood and they embraced and sat weeping for excess of joy and gladness, whilst she recited these couplets:—

Joyance is come, dispelling cark and care; ✿ We are united, enviers may despair.

The breeze of union blows, enquickening ✿ Forms, hearts and vitals, fresh with fragrant air:

The splendour of delight with scents appears, ✿ And round us[[78]] flags and drums show gladness rare.

Deem not we’re weeping for our stress of grief; ✿ It is for joy our tears as torrents fare:

How many fears we’ve seen that now are past! ✿ And bore we patient what was sore to bear:

One hour of joyance made us both forget ✿ What from excess of terror grey’d our hair.

And when the verses were ended, they again embraced and ceased not from their embrace, till they fell down in a swoon,——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

Now when it was the Three Hundred and Eighty-first Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Uns al-Wujud and Rose-in-Hood embraced when they foregathered and ceased not from their embrace, till they fell down in a swoon for the delight of reunion; and when they came to themselves, Uns al-Wujud recited these couplets:—

How joyously sweet are the nights that unite, ✿ When my dearling deigns keep me the troth she did plight;

When union conjoins us in all that we have, ✿ And parting is severed and sundered from sight,

To us comes the world with her favour so fair, ✿ After frown and aversion and mighty despight!

Hath planted her banner Good Fortune for us, ✿ And we drink of her cup in the purest delight.

We have met and complained of the pitiful Past, ✿ And of nights a full many that doomed us to blight.

But now, O my lady, the Past is forgot; ✿ The Compassionate pardon the Past for unright!

How sweet is existence, how glad is to be! ✿ This union my passion doth only incite.

And when he ended his verses they once more embraced, drowned in the sea of passion; and lay down together in the private apartment carousing and conversing and quoting verses and telling pleasant tales and anecdotes. On this wise seven days passed over them whilst they knew not night from day and it was to them, for very stress of gaiety and gladness, pleasure and possession, as if the seven days were but one day with ne’er a morrow. Nor did they know the seventh day,[[79]] but by the coming of the singers and players on instruments of music; whereat Rose-in-Hood beyond measure wondered and improvised these couplets:—

In spite of enviers’ jealousy, at end ✿ We have won all we hoped of the friend:

We’ve crowned our meeting with a close embrace ✿ On quilts where new brocades with sendal blend;

On bed of perfumed leather, which the spoils ✿ Of downy birds luxuriously distend.

But I abstain me from unneeded wine, ✿ When honey-dews of lips sweet must can lend:

Now from the sweets of union we unknow ✿ Time near and far, if slow or fast it wend,

The seventh night hath come and gone, O strange! ✿ How went the nights we never reckt or kenned;

Till, on the seventh wishing joy they said, ✿ “Allah prolong the meet of friend with friend!”

When she had finished her song, Uns al-Wujud kissed her, more than an hundred times, and recited these couplets:—

O day of joys to either lover fain! ✿ The loved one came and freed from lonely pain:

She blest me with all inner charms she hath; ✿ And companied with inner grace deep lain:

She made me drain the wine of love till I, ✿ Was faint with joys her love had made me drain:

We toyed and joyed and on each other lay; ✿ Then fell to wine and soft melodious strain:

And for excess of joyance never knew, ✿ How went the day and how it came again.

Fair fall each lover, may he union win ✿ And gain of joy like me the amplest gain;

Nor weet the taste of severance’ bitter fruit ✿ And joys assain them as they us assain!

Then they went forth and distributed to the folk alms and presents of money and raiment and rare gifts and other tokens of generosity; after which Rose-in-Hood bade clear the bath for her[[80]] and, turning to Uns al-Wujud said to him, “O coolth of my eyes, I have a mind to see thee in the Hammam, and therein we will be alone together.” He joyfully consented to this, and she let scent the Hammam with all sorts of perfumed woods and essences, and light the wax-candles. Then of the excess of her contentment she recited these couplets:—

O who didst win my love in other date ✿ (And Present e’er must speak of past estate);

And, oh! who art my sole sufficiency, ✿ Nor want I other friends with me to mate:

Come to the Hammam, O my light of eyes, ✿ And enter Eden through Gehenna-gate!

We’ll scent with ambergris and aloes-wood ✿ Till float the heavy clouds with fragrant freight;

And to the World we’ll pardon all her sins ✿ And sue for mercy the Compassionate;

And I will cry, when I descry thee there, ✿ “Good cheer, sweet love, all blessings on thee wait!”[[81]]

Whereupon they arose and fared to the bath and took their pleasure therein; after which they returned to their palace and there abode in the fulness of enjoyment, till there came to them the Destroyer of delights and the Sunderer of societies; and glory be to Him who changeth not neither ceaseth, and to whom everything returneth! And they also tell a tale of


[30]. Lit. “The rose in the sleeves or calyces.” I take my English equivalent from Jeremy Taylor, “So I have seen a rose newly springing from the clefts of its hood,” etc.

[31]. These lines are from the Bresl. Edit. (v. 35.) The four couplets in the Mac. Edit. are too irrelevant.

[32]. Polo, which Lane calls “Goff.”

[33]. Arab. “Muffawak” = well-notched, as its value depends upon the notch. At the end of the third hemistich Lane’s Shaykh very properly reads “baghtatan” (suddenly) for “burhatan” = during a long time.

[34]. “Uns” (which the vulgar pronounce Anas) “al-Wujúd” = Delight of existing things, of being, of the world. Uns wa júd is the normal pun = love-intimacy and liberality; and the paronomasia (which cannot well be rendered in English) reappears again and again. The story is throughout one of love; hence the quantity of verse.

[35]. The allusion to a “written N” suggests the elongated not the rounded form of the letter as in Night cccxxiv.

[36]. The fourteenth Arabic letter in its medial form resembling an eye.

[37]. This is done by the man passing his fingers over the brow as if to wipe off perspiration; the woman acknowledges it by adjusting her head-veil with both hands. As a rule in the Moslem East women make the first advances; and it is truly absurd to see a great bearded fellow blushing at being ogled. During the Crimean war the fair sex of Constantinople began by these allurements but found them so readily accepted by the Giaours that they were obliged to desist.

[38]. The greatest of all explorers and discoverers of the world will be he who finds a woman confessing inability to keep a secret.

[39]. The original is intensely prosaic—and so am I.

[40]. Arab. “Sunnat,” the practice of the Prophet. For this prayer and other silly and superstitious means of discovering the “right direction” (which is often very wrongly directed) see Lane, M. E. chapt. xi.

[41]. Arab. “Bahr” (sea or river) al-Kunúz: Lane (ii. 576) ingeniously identifies the site with the Upper Nile whose tribes, between Assouan (Syene) and Wady al-Subú’a are called the “Kunúz”—lit. meaning “treasures” or “hoards.” Philæ is still known as the “Islet of Anas (for Uns) al-Wujud;” and the learned and accurate Burckhardt (Travels in Nubia p. 5,) records the local legend that a mighty King called Al-Wujúd built the Osirian temples. I can give no information concerning Jabal al-Sakla, (Thaklá) the Mount of the woman bereft of children, beyond the legend contained in Night ccclxxix.

[42]. A religious mendicant (lit. a pauper), of whom there are two great divisions. The Shara’í acts according to the faith: the others (Lá Shara’í, or irreligious) are bound by no such prejudices and are pretty specimen of scoundrels (Pilgrimage i. 22).

[43]. Meaning his lips and palate were so swollen by drought.

[44]. It is a pious act in time of mortal danger to face the Kiblah or Meccan temple, as if standing in prayer.

[45]. Still the belief of the Badawi who tries to work upon the beast’s compassion: “O great King I am a poor man, with wife and family, so spare me that Allah spare thee!” and so forth. If not famished the lion will often stalk off looking behind him as he goes; but the man will never return by the same path; “for,” says he, “haply the Father of Roaring may repent him of a wasted opportunity.” These lion-tales are very common, witness that of Androcles at Rome and a host of others. Una and her lion is another phase. It remained for M. Jules Gérard, first the chasseur and then the tueur, du lion, to assail the reputation of the lion and the honour of the lioness.

[46]. Abú Háris = Father of spoils: one of the lion’s hundred titles.

[47]. “They” again for “she.”

[48]. Jaxartes and Oxus. The latter (Jayhun or Amu, Oxus or Bactros) is famous for dividing Iran from Turan, Persia from Tartaria. The lands to its north are known as Má wará al-Nahr (Mawerannahar) or “What is behind the stream,” = Transoxiana and their capitals were successively Samarcand and Bokhara.

[49]. Arab. “Dání wa gharíb” = friend and foe. The lines are partly from the Mac. Edit. and partly from the Bresl. Edit., v. 55.

[50]. Arab. “Wá Rahmatá-hu!” a form now used only in books

[51]. Before noted. The relationship, like that of foster-brother, has its rights, duties and privileges.

[52]. Arab. “Istikhárah,” before explained as praying for direction by omens of the rosary, opening the Koran and reading the first verse sighted, etc., etc. At Al-Medinah it is called Khírah and I have suggested (Pilgrimage, ii. 287) that it is a relic of the Azlam or Kidah (divining arrows) of paganism. But the superstition is not local: we have the Sortes Virgilianæ (Virgil being a magician) as well as Coranicæ.

[53]. Arab. Wujúd al-Habíb, a pun, also meaning, “Wujúd my beloved.”

[54]. Arab. “Khilál,” as an emblem of attenuation occurring in Al-Hariri (Ass. of Alexandria, etc.); also thin as a spindle (Maghzal), as a reed, and dry as a pair of shears. In the Ass. of Barka’id the toothpick is described as a beautiful girl. The use of this cleanly article was enjoined by Mohammed:—“Cleanse your mouths with toothpicks; for your mouths are the abode of the guardian angels; whose pens are the tongues, and whose ink is the spittle of men; and to whom naught is more unbearable than remains of food in the mouth.” A mighty apparatus for a small matter; but in very hot lands cleanliness must rank before godliness.

[55]. The sense is ambiguous. Lane renders the verse:—“Thou resemblest it (rose) not of my portion” and gives two explanations “because he is of my portion,” or, “because his cheek cannot be rosy if mine is not.” Mr. Payne boldly translates—

If the rose ape his cheek, “Now God forfend,” I say, “That of my portion aught to pilfer thou shouldst try.”

[56]. Arab. “líf” (not “fibres which grow at the top of the trunk,” Lane ii. 577); but the fibre of the fronds worked like the cocoa-nut fibre which forms the now well-known Indian “coir.” This “líf” is also called “filfil” or “fulfil” which Dr. Jonathan Scott renders “pepper” (Lane i. 8) and it forms a clean succedaneum for one of the uncleanest articles of civilisation, the sponge. It is used in every Hammam and is (or should be) thrown away after use.

[57]. Arab. “Shinf;” a coarse sack, a “gunny-bag;” a net compared with such article.

[58]. The eunuch tells him that he is not a “Sandalí” = one whose penis and testes are removed; and consequently the highest valued. There are many ways of making the castrato; in some (as here) only the penis is removed, in others the testes are bruised or cut off; but in all cases the animal passion remains, for in man, unlike other animals, the fons veneris is the brain. The story of Abelard proves this. Juvenal derided the idea of married eunuchs and yet almost all these neutrals have wives with whom they practise the manifold plaisirs de la petite oie (masturbation, tribadism, irrumation, tête-bêche, feuille-de-rose, etc.), till they induce the venereal orgasm. Such was the account once given to me by a eunuch’s wife; and I need hardly say that she, like her confrerie was to be pitied. At the critical moment she held up a little pillow for her husband to bite who otherwise would have torn her cheeks or breasts.

[59]. In real life the eunuch, as a rule, avoids all allusion to his misfortune, although the slave will often describe his being sold merrily enough.

[60]. The visits are in dreamland. The ringdove thanks the Lord for her (his?) suffering in the holy martyrdom of love.

[61]. Arab. “Hazár;” I have explained it as meaning “(the bird of) a thousand (songs).”

[62]. The “Bulbul” had his day with us but he departed with Tommy Moore. We usually English the word by “nightingale;” but it is a kind of shrike or butcher-bird (Lanius Boulboul. Lath.)

[63]. The “Hamám” is a lieu commun in Arabic poetry. I have noticed the world-wide reverence for the pigeon and the incarnation of the Third Person of the Hindu Triad (Shiva), as “Kapoteshwara (Kapota-ishwara)” = pigeon or dove-god (Pilgrimage iii. 218.)

[64]. Arab. “Hamám al-Ayk.” Mr. Payne’s rendering is so happy that we must either take it from him or do worse.

[65]. All primitive peoples translate the songs of birds with human language; but, as I have noticed, the versions differ widely. The pigeon cries, “Allah! Allah!” The dove “Karim, Tawwá” (Bountiful, Pardoner!) the Katá or sand-grouse “Man sakat salam” (who is silent is safe) yet always betrays itself by its lay of “Kat-ta” and lastly the cock “Uzkurú ‘llah ya gháfilún” (Remember, or take the name of Allah, ye careless!)

[66]. “Nay,” the Dervish’s reed pipe, symbol of the sighing absent lover (i.e. the soul parted from the Creator) so famed by the Mullah-i-Rúm and Sir William Jones.

[67]. Ba’albak = Ba’al (the God)-city (bek in Coptic and ancient Egyptian). Such, at least, is the popular derivation which awaits a better. No cloth has been made there since the Kurd tribe of gallant robbers known as the “Harfúsh” (or blackguards) lorded it over old “Heliopolis.”

[68]. Thinking her to be a Jinn or Ghul in the shape of a fair woman. This Arab is a strange contrast with the English fisherman, and yet he is drawn with truth.

[69]. Arab. “Habbazá!” (good this!) or “Habba” (how good!): so “Habba bihi,” how dear he is to me.

[70]. Arab. “Zind,” and Zindah the names of the two sticks, upper and lower, hard and soft, by which fire was kindled before flint and steel were known. We find it in Al-Hariri (Ass. of Banu Haram) “no one sought fire from my fire-stick (i.e. from me as a fire-stick) and failed.” See Night dccciii.

[71]. Arab. “Názih” i.e. travelled far and wide.

[72]. “Rajab,” lit. = “worshipping:” it is the seventh lunar month and still called “Shahr-ĭ-Khudá” (God’s month) by the Persians because in pre-Islamitic times it formed with Muharram (or in its stead Safar), Zu ‘l-ka’adah and Zu ‘l-Hijjah (Nos. 1 or 2; 7, 11 and 12) the yearly peace, during which a man might not kill his father’s murderer. The idea must have taken deep root, as Arab history records only six “impious (or sacrilegious) wars,” waged despite the law. Europeans compare it with the Treuga Dei (truce of God) a seven-years peace established about A.D. 1032, by a Bishop of Aquitaine; and followed in A.D. 1245 by the Pax Regis (Royal Peace) under Louis VIII. of France. This compelled the relations of a murdered man to keep the peace for forty days after the offence was committed.

[73]. His Majesty wrote sad doggrel. He is better at finessing, and his message was a trick because Rose-in-Hood had told him that at home there were special obstacles to the marriage.

[74]. Arab. “Majzub” = drawn, attracted (literally); the popular term for one absorbed in the contemplation of the Deity. During this process the soul is supposed to quit the body leaving the latter irresponsible for its actions. I remember a scandal being caused in a village near Tunis by one of these men who suddenly started up from his seat in a dusty corner and, in presence of a small crowd of people, had connection with a she-donkey. The supporters of the holy man declared that the deed was proof positive of his exceptional holiness; but there were lewd fellows, Moslems Voltaireans, who had their doubts and held that the reverend man had so acted “for the gallery.” A similar story is told with due reserve by the late Abbe Hamilton in his book on the Cyrenaic. There are three grand divisions of the Sufis; (1) Mukímán, the stationaries; (2) Sálikán, the travellers, or progressives, and (3) Wásilán, those who reach the desired end. And No. 2 has two classes: the Sálik-i-majzúb, one progressing in Divine Love; and the other, who has made greater progress, is the Majzúb-i-Sálik (Dabistan iii. 251).

[75]. Arab. “Sundus,” a kind of brocade (low Lat. brocare, to figure cloth), silk worked in high relief with gold and silver. The idea is figurative meaning it was hung outside and inside with fine stuff, like the Ka’abah, the “Bride of Meccah.” The “lords” means simply the lost girl.

[76]. Arab. “Ayn” lit. eye, also a fount, “the eye of the landscape” (a noble simile); and here a helper, guard, assistant.

[77]. “Lord” for lady, i.e. she.

[78]. Arab. “Fi’l-khawáfik” = in the four quarters or among the flappers (standards) or amid palpitations of heart. The bride alludes to a festal reception in a town, with burning incense, drums, flags, etc., etc.

[79]. In Egypt the shorter “honey-moon” lasts a week; and on the seventh day (pop. called Al-Subú’a) bride and bridegroom receive visits with all ceremony, of course in separate apartments. The seventh day (like the fortieth, the end of six months and the anniversary) is kept for births and deaths with Khatmahs (perlections) of the Koran, “Saylah” family gatherings and so forth. The fortieth day ends the real honey-moon. See Night dccxcii.

[80]. I have noted the popular practice, amongst men as well as women, of hiring the Hammam for private parties and picnicking in it during the greater part of the day. In this tale the bath would belong to the public and it was a mere freak of the bride to bathe with her bridegroom. “Respectable” people do not.

[81]. She speaks in the last line as the barber or the bathman.

ABU NOWAS WITH THE THREE BOYS AND THE CALIPH HARUN AL-RASHID.[[82]]

Abu Nowas one day shut himself up and, making ready a richly-furnished feast, collected for it meats of all kinds and of every colour that lips and tongue can desire. Then he went forth, to seek a minion worthy of such entertainment, saying, “Allah, my Lord and my Master, I beseech Thee to send me one who befitteth this banquet and who is fit to carouse with me this day!” Hardly had he made an end of speaking when he espied three youths handsome and beardless, as they were of the boys of Paradise,[[83]] differing in complexion but fellows in incomparable beauty; and all hearts yearned with desire to the swaying of their bending shapes, even to what saith the poet:—

I passed a beardless pair without compare ✿ And cried, “I love you, both you ferly fair!”

“Money’d?” quoth one: quoth I, “And lavish too;” ✿ Then said the fair pair, Père, c’est notre affaire.

Now Abu Nowas was given to these joys and loved to sport and make merry with fair boys and cull the rose from every brightly blooming cheek, even as saith the bard:—

Full many a reverend Shaykh feels sting of flesh, ✿ Loves pretty faces, shows at Pleasure’s depot:

Awakes in Mosul,[[84]] land of purity; ✿ And all the day dreams only of Aleppo.[[85]]

So he accosted them with the salutation, and they returned his greeting with civility and all honour and would have gone their several ways, but he stayed them, repeating these couplets:—

Steer ye your steps to none but me ✿ Who hath a mine of luxury:—

Old wine that shines with brightest blee ✿ Made by the monk in monastery;

And mutton-meat the toothsomest ✿ And birds of all variety.

Then eat of these and drink of those ✿ Old wines that bring you jollity:

And have each other, turn by turn, ✿ Shampooing this my tool you see.[[86]]

Thereupon the youths were beguiled by his verses and consented to his wishes——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

Now when it was the Three Hundred and Eighty-second Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Abu Nowas beguiled the youths with his verse, they consented to his wishes, saying, “We hear and obey;” and accompanied him to his lodging, where they found all ready that he had set forth in his couplets. They sat down and ate and drank and made merry awhile, after which they appealed to Abu Nowas to decide which of them was handsomest of face and shapeliest of form. So he pointed to one of them and, having kissed him twice over, recited the following verses:—

I’ll ransom that beauty-spot with my soul; ✿ Where’s it and where is a money-dole?[[87]]

Praise Him who hairless hath made that cheek ✿ And bid Beauty bide in that mole, that mole!

Then he pointed to another and, kissing his lips, repeated these couplets:—

And loveling weareth on his cheek a mole ✿ Like musk, which virgin camphor ne’er lets off it:

My peepers marvel such a contrast seeing; ✿ And cried the Mole to me, “Now bless the Prophet.”[[88]]

Then he pointed to the third and, after kissing him half a score times repeated these couplets:—

Melted pure gold in silvern bowl to drain ✿ The youth, whose fingers wore a winey stain:

He with the drawers[[89]] served one cup of wine, ✿ And served his wandering eyes the other twain.

A loveling, of the sons of Turks,[[90]] a fawn ✿ Whose waist conjoins the double Mounts Honayn.[[91]]

Could Eve’s corrupting daughters[[92]] tempt my heart ✿ Content with two-fold lure ‘twould bear the bane.

Unto Diyar-i-Bakr (“maid-land”[[93]]) this one lures; ✿ That lures to two-mosqued cities of the plain.[[94]]

Now each of the youths had drunk two cups, and when it came to the turn of Abu Nowas, he took the goblet and repeated these couplets:—

Drink not strong wine save at the slender dearling’s hand; ✿ Each like to other in all gifts the spirit grace:

For wine can never gladden toper’s heart and soul, ✿ Unless the cup-boy show a bright and sparkling face.

Then he drank off his cup and the bowl went round, and when it came to Abu Nowas again, joyance got the mastery of him and he repeated these couplets:—

For cup-friends cup succeeding cup assign, ✿ Brimming with grape-juice, brought in endless line,

By hand of brown-lipped[[95]] Beauty who is sweet ✿ At wake as apple or musk finest fine.[[96]]

Drink not the wine except from hand of fawn ✿ Whose cheek to kiss is sweeter than the wine.

Presently the drink got into his noddle, drunkenness mastered him and he knew not hand from head, so that he lolled from side to side in joy and inclined to the youths one and all, anon kissing them and anon embracing them leg overlying leg. And he showed no sense of sin or shame, but recited these couplets:—

None wotteth best joyance but generous youth ✿ When the pretty ones deign with him company keep:

This sings to him, sings to him that, when he wants ✿ A pick-me-up[[97]] lying there all of a heap:

And when of a loveling he needeth a kiss, ✿ He takes from his lips or a draught or a nip;

Heaven bless them! How sweetly my day with them sped; ✿ A wonderful harvest of pleasure I reap:

Let us drink our good liquor both watered and pure, ✿ And agree to swive all who dare slumber and sleep.

While they were in this deboshed state behold, there came a knocking at the door; so they bade him who knocked enter, and behold, it was the Commander of the Faithful, Harun al-Rashid. When they saw him, they all rose and kissed ground before him; and Abu Nowas threw off the fumes of the wine for awe of the Caliph, who said to him, “Holla, Abu Nowas!” He replied, “Adsum, at thy service, O Commander of the Faithful, whom Allah preserve!” The Caliph asked, “What state is this?” and the poet answered, “O Prince of True Believers, my state indubitably dispenseth with questions.” Quoth the Caliph, “O Abu Nowas, I have sought direction of Allah Almighty and have appointed thee Kazi of pimps and panders.” Asked he, “Dost thou indeed invest me with that high office, O Commander of the Faithful?” and the Caliph answered “I do;” whereupon Abu Nowas rejoined, “O Commander of the Faithful, hast thou any suit to prefer to me?” Hereat the Caliph was wroth and presently turned away and left them, full of rage, and passed the night sore an-angered against Abu Nowas, who amid the party he had invited spent the merriest of nights and the jolliest and joyousest. And when daybreak dawned and the star of morn appeared in sheen and shone, he broke up the sitting and, dismissing the youths, donned his court-dress and leaving his house set out for the palace of the Caliph. Now it was the custom of the Commander of the Faithful, when the Divan broke up, to withdraw to his sitting-saloon and summon thither his poets and cup-companions and musicians, each having his own place, which he might not overpass. So it happened that day, he retired to his saloon, and the friends and familiars came and seated themselves, each in his rank and degree. Presently, in walked Abu Nowas and was about to take his usual seat, when the Caliph cried to Masrur, the sworder, and bade him strip the poet of his clothes and bind an ass’s packsaddle on his back and a halter about his head and a crupper under his rump and lead him round to all the lodgings of the slave-girls,——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

Now when it was the Three Hundred and Eighty-third Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Caliph commanded Masrur, the sworder, to strip Abu Nowas of his court-suit and bind an ass’s packsaddle on his back and a halter about his head, and a crupper under his rump and lead him round to all the lodgings of the slave-girls, and the chambers of the Harim, that the women might make mock of him; then cut off his head and bring it to him. “Hearkening and obedience,” replied Masrur and, doing with Abu Nowas as the Caliph had bidden him, led him round all the chambers whose number equalled the days of the year; but Abu Nowas was a funny fellow, so he made all the girls laugh with his buffooneries and each gave him something whereby he returned not save with a pocketful of money. And while this was going on behold, Ja’afar the Barmecide, who had been absent on an important business for the Commander of the Faithful, entered and recognising the poet, albeit in this plight, said to him, “Holla, Abu Nowas!” He said, “Here at thy service, O our lord.” Ja’afar asked, “What offence hast thou committed to bring this punishment on thee?” Thereupon he answered, “None whatsoever, except that I made our lord the Caliph a present of the best of my poetry and he presented me, in return, with the best of his raiment.” When the Prince of True Believers heard this, he laughed, from a heart full of wrath,[[98]] and pardoned Abu Nowas, and also gave him a myriad of money. And they also recount the tale of


[82]. Here the “Ana” begin; and they mostly date themselves. Of the following forty-nine, Lane (vol. ii. p. 578 et seq.) gives only twenty-two and transfers them to notes in chapt. xviii. He could hardly translate several of them in a work intended to be popular. Abu Nowás is a person carefully to be avoided; and all but anthropological students are advised to “skip” over anecdotes in which his name and abominations occur.

[83]. Arab. “Ghilmán,” the counterpart, I have said, of the so-called “Houris.”

[84]. Mosul boasts of never having been polluted with idolatrous worship, an exemption which it owes to being a comparatively modern place.

[85]. The Aleppines were once noted for debauchery; and the saying is still “Halabi Shelebi” (for Chelebi) = the Aleppine is a fellow fine.

[86]. Mr. Payne omits the last line. It refers to what Persian boys call, in half-Turkish phrase, “Alish Takish,” each acting woman after he has acted man. The best wine is still made in monasteries and the so-called Sinai convent is world-famous for its “Ráki” distilled from raisins.

[87]. i.e. what a difference there is between them!

[88]. Arab. “Salli ala ‘l-Nabi,” a common phrase; meaning not only praise him to avert the evil eye; but also used when one would impose silence upon a babbler. The latter will shuffle off by ejaculating “Al” and continue his chatter (Pilgrimage ii. 279).

[89]. Arab. “Sukát” (plur. of Sáki, cupbearer, our old “skinker”): the pure gold (tibr) is the amber-coloured wine, like the Vino d’oro of the Libanus.

[90]. That is, fair, white and red: Turkish slaves then abounded at Baghdad.

[91]. A Wady near Meccah where one of Mohammed’s battles was fought. The line means his waist is a thread connected broad breast and large hind quarters.

[92]. Arab. “Zaurá” which may mean crooked, alluding to the well-known rib.

[93]. A pun. Bakr was the name of the eponymous chief and it also means virgin, as in Abu Bakr.

[94]. Arab. “Jámi’ayn” = two cathedrals, any large (and consequently vicious) city.

[95]. Arab. “Almá,” before noticed: I cannot translate “damask-lipped” to suit European taste.

[96]. Sherbet flavoured with musk or apple to cool the mouth of “hot coppers.”

[97]. Arab. “In’ásh” lit. raising from his bier. The whole tone is rollicking and slangy.

[98]. i.e. In spite of himself: the phrase often occurs.