The adventures of Hatim Taï, a romance

by Unknown

The journey of Hatim in search of the pearl.

The narrators of past events have informed us that Hatim, after leaving Shahabad on his sixth adventure, came to a certain desert, across which he bent his course. After he had walked two farasangs, he came to a solitary tree, at the foot of which was a rude seat formed of stone. As the evening was approaching, he there sat down; and having passed some time in reflection with his head stooping towards his knee, the mantle of night began to overspread the world. In the meantime a brace of fowls, dazzling in all the splendor of the seven colors, came and perched upon the tree above him. Those birds were of the species called Natika (having the power of speech), which frequent the shores of the sea of Kahrmān; and by special providence they rested on that tree for the night.

The female bird said to the male, “I like not the air of these regions in which we have halted, and I wish we were safe in our own country.”—“I agree with you,” said the male; “and though it was my intention to stay here for some days, yet, as you dislike the place, we will depart early in the morning.”—“Well,” said the female, “I only hope you will abide by your resolution, and that to-morrow’s sun will shine upon us far hence.”—“Why all this anxiety?” rejoined the male; “you know well that I speak nothing but the truth.”

A short time after, the female natika again broke silence, saying, “Tell me, my dear mate, who is this wanderer from the haunts of men who is seated on the stones below, with his head sunk in the lap of reflection, and his brow stamped with the seal of sorrow?”—“He is the best of men,” replied the male, “and his anxiety is occasioned because he knows not whither to direct his course in quest of a pearl of the size of a Murghab’s[1] egg. Now Murghab is also the name of the place where these pearls are to be found. But to proceed: this man is Hatim Taï, the noble and generous prince of Yemen. He is now wandering in search of this pearl, not for his own sake, but in order to serve another person. He has left his princely home, and his fond parents, in order to promote the happiness of his fellow-creatures.”

“But,” rejoined the female, “inexperienced as Hatim is, how can he ever find the pearl in question?”—“I shall direct him,” replied the male, “if it is your wish, though it may not be altogether for our welfare.”—“Nothing is more noble,” said the female, “than to do good to others, and assuredly we shall ourselves reap the benefit thereof in the end.”—“Listen to me then, my dear consort,” said the male natika, “and you shall hear how this rare pearl of the Murghab is to be procured. You are aware that our species have lived since the creation of the world on the shores of the sea of Kahrman, and only once in thirty years our females laid an egg of this kind. But for some time past our race has been deprived of the virtue of producing these pearls, and those that have been formerly produced are sunk to an unfathomable depth in the sea. Of these pearls two only are above ground, and these originally fell into the hands of Chamchan, the king of Kahrman. He again gave one of them as a rare present to Shamshân, a neighboring prince of great wealth and splendor in his time. Shamshân died without issue; and his splendid capital was soon after reduced to a lifeless desert, while his wealth passed into the hands of strangers, and the pearl, after many changes of owner, is now in the possession of Husn Banu, the daughter of Burzakh the merchant.

“As to the other pearl, it happened that Chamchan, the king of Kahrman, died in early life, and another took possession of his crown. Without any warning the widowed queen was forced to fly for her life, and the pearl of the Murghab was the only part of her property which she had time to secure. With this rare treasure she left her palace, and fled through the desert till she reached the sea of Kahrman. There she sat down exhausted, not knowing whither to proceed, till a merchant with his ship approached in order to take in fresh water. When the queen saw the vessel she cried aloud for assistance, and the merchant himself came to her in a boat, and conveyed her on board.

“The merchant, whose name was Simbar, was a benevolent man, who had seen much of the world. He treated the queen with the utmost kindness; and on hearing the cause of her distress, he adopted her as his daughter, and conveyed her to his own country. A beautiful son was born to the happy couple during the next year. As Simbar had no children of his own, he appointed this child sole heir of his wealth. Meanwhile, the child grew up endowed with princely virtues, and by the time he came to manhood his generous patron Simbar died.

“Shortly after, the young prince was appointed chief of that province; and as he was a youth of superior discernment, and had abundance of wealth at command, he soon raised himself to be king of that country and the adjacent islands. After his death, his descendants reigned there for many a generation, till the auspicious era of Sulaiman of Iram (on whom be peace), who reduced into their possession the whole extent of the Koh-i-Kāf and the coast of the sea of Kulzum. Since the reign of the prophet Sulaiman, the race has reigned in those regions, but then their intercourse ceased with the inhabitants of the earth. They no longer form a part of the human race, nor dareth a son of Adam visit their dominions.

“In the course of time the pearl came into the hands of a fairy, in the possession of whose son it now is. His name is Mahyār Sulaimani, and his father was of the race of Adam, so that he partakes of the twofold nature of man and fairy. He reigns in the island of Barzakh[2], and is on friendly terms with the demons, whose territories are contiguous to his kingdom; for he knows the powerful spell of Sulaiman, and no demon dares injure him.

“Mahyar Sulaimani has an only daughter, now seven years old, and whosoever shall be able to tell the history of the pearl, is to have the daughter in marriage, with the pearl for her dowry. He is a man of profound knowledge, having in his possession the books of his progenitor the great Sulaiman. In these books are many rare secrets; among others, the method of procuring the pearl of the Murghab, should the one which he has be lost. Since the reign of Sulaiman (on whom be peace), our race has not produced a single pearl, nor is it lawful for us to tell what I have now stated to you, a secret known to Mahyar alone. But to this generous youth, who has been for years exerting himself in the cause of his fellow-creatures, it is proper that I should disclose this much of the subject that now occupies his thought.”