Your second, Ja’afar hight, is his Wazir; ✿ A Sáhib,[[197]] Sahib-son of high degree:
The third is called Masrur who wields the sword: ✿ Now, if in words of mine some truth you see,
I have won every wish by this event ✿ Which fills my heart with joy and gladdest gree.
When they heard these words Ja’afar swore to him an ambiguous oath that they were not those he named, whereupon he laughed and said:—Know, O my lords, that I am not the Commander of the Faithful and that I do but style myself thus, to win my will of the sons of the city. My true name is Mohammed Ali, son of Ali the Jeweller, and my father was one of the notables of Baghdad, who left me great store of gold and silver and pearls and coral and rubies and chrysolites and other jewels, besides messuages and lands, Hammam-baths and brickeries, orchards and flower-gardens. Now as I sat in my shop one day surrounded by my eunuchs and dependents, behold, there came up a young lady, mounted on a she-mule and attended by three damsels like moons. Riding up to my shop she alighted and seated herself by my side and said, “Art thou Mohammed the Jeweller?” Replied I, “Even so! I am he, thy Mameluke, thy chattel.” She asked, “Hast thou a necklace of jewels fit for me?” and I answered, “O my lady, I will show thee what I have; and lay all before thee and, if any please thee, it will be of thy slave’s good luck; if they please thee not, of his ill fortune.” Now I had by me an hundred necklaces and showed them all to her; but none of them pleased her and she said, “I want a better than those I have seen.” I had a small necklace which my father had bought at an hundred thousand dinars and whose like was not to be found with any of the great kings; so I said to her, “O my lady, I have yet one necklace of fine stones fit for bezels, the like of which none possesseth, great or small.” Said she, “Show it to me,” so I showed it to her, and she said, “This is what I wanted and what I have wished for all my life;” adding, “What is its price?” Quoth I, “It cost my father an hundred thousand dinars;” and she said, “I will give thee five thousand dinars to thy profit.” I answered, “O my lady, the necklace and its owner are at thy service and I cannot gainsay thee.” But she rejoined, “Needs must thou have the profit, and I am still most grateful to thee.” Then she rose without stay or delay; and, mounting the mule in haste, said to me, “O my lord, in Allah’s name, favour us with thy company to receive the money; for this thy day with us is white as milk.”[[198]] So I shut the shop and accompanied her, in all security, till we came to a house, on which were manifest the signs of wealth and rank; for its door was wrought with gold and silver and ultramarine, and thereon were written these two couplets:—
Hola, thou mansion! woe ne’er enter thee; ✿ Nor be thine owner e’er misused of Fate;
Excellent mansion to all guests art thou, ✿ When other mansions to the guest are strait.
The young lady dismounted and entered the house, bidding me sit down on the bench at the gate, till the money-changer should arrive. So I sat awhile, when behold, a damsel came out to me and said, “O my lord, enter the vestibule; for it is a dishonour that thou shouldst sit at the gate.” Thereupon I arose and entered the vestibule and sat down on the settle there; and, as I sat, lo! another damsel came out and said to me, “O my lord, my mistress biddeth thee enter and sit down at the door of the saloon, to receive thy money.” I entered and sat down, nor had I sat a moment when behold, a curtain of silk which concealed a throne of gold was drawn aside, and I saw seated thereon the lady who had made the purchase; and round her neck she wore the necklace which looked pale and wan by the side of a face as it were the rounded moon. At her sight, my wit was troubled and my mind confounded, by reason of her exceeding beauty and loveliness; but when she saw me she rose from her throne and coming close up to me, said, “O light of mine eyes, is every handsome one like thee pitiless to his mistress?” I answered, “O my lady, beauty, all of it, is in thee and is but one of thy hidden charms.” And she rejoined, “O Jeweller, know that I love thee and can hardly credit that I have brought thee hither.” Then she bent towards me and I kissed her and she kissed me and, as she caressed me, drew me towards her and to her breast she pressed me.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Two Hundred and Ninety-first Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Jeweller continued:—Then she bent towards me and kissed and caressed me; and, as she caressed me, drew me towards her and to her breast she pressed me. Now she knew by my condition that I had a mind to enjoy her; so she said to me, “O my lord, wouldst thou foregather with me unlawfully? By Allah, may he not live who would do the like of this sin and who takes pleasure in talk unclean! I am a maid, a virgin whom no man hath approached, nor am I unknown in the city. Knowest thou who I am?” Quoth I, “No, by Allah, O my lady!”; and quoth she, “I am the Lady Dunyá, daughter of Yáhyá bin Khálid the Barmecide and sister of Ja’afar, Wazir to the Caliph.” Now as I heard this, I drew back from her, saying, “O my lady, it is no fault of mine if I have been over-bold with thee; it was thou didst encourage me to aspire to thy love, by giving me access to thee.” She answered, “No harm shall befal thee, and needs must thou attain thy desire in the only way pleasing to Allah. I am my own mistress and the Kazi shall act as my guardian in consenting to the marriage contract; for it is my will that I be to thee wife and thou be to me man.” Then she sent for the Kazi and the witnesses and busied herself with making ready; and, when they came, she said to them, “Mohammed Ali, bin Ali the Jeweller, seeketh me in wedlock and hath given me the necklace to my marriage-settlement; and I accept and consent.” So they wrote out the contract of marriage between us; and ere I went in to her the servants brought the wine-furniture and the cups passed round after the fairest fashion and the goodliest ordering; and, when the wine mounted to our heads, she ordered a damsel, a lute-player,[[199]] to sing. So she took the lute and sang to a pleasing and stirring motive these couplets:—
He comes; and fawn and branch and moon delight these eyne ✿ Fie[[200]] on his heart who sleeps o’ nights without repine;