The Arabian Nights, Volume II of IV

by Unknown

The Barmecide found my brother possessed of so much knowledge of various sorts, that in the course of a few days he entrusted him with the care of all his house and other affairs; and my brother acquitted himself of his charge during the time it lasted, which was twenty years, to the complete satisfaction of his employer. At the end of this period, the generous Barmecide, worn out with old age, paid the common debt of nature; and as he did not leave any heirs, they confiscated all his fortune to the use of the prince. They even took from my brother every thing he had saved. Finding himself thus reduced to the state he was in at first, he joined a caravan of pilgrims, going to Mecca, with the intention of making, by means of their charitable disposition, the same pilgrimage. During their journey, the caravan was unfortunately attacked and plundered by a party of Bedouin [12] Arabs, who were more numerous than the pilgrims.

My brother thus became the slave of a Bedouin, who for many days continually gave him the bastinado, in order to induce him to get himself ransomed. Schacabac protested to him, that it was all to no purpose for him to ill-treat him in this manner. “I am your slave,” said he, “and you may dispose of me as you like; but I declare to you, that I am in the most extreme poverty, and that it is not in my power to ransom myself.” My brother tried every expedient to convince him of his wretched condition: he endeavored to soften him by his tears, but the Bedouin was inexorable; and through revenge, at finding himself disappointed of a considerable sum of money, which he fully expected to receive, he absolutely took his knife and slit up the lips of my brother, and by this inhuman act, he endeavoured to repay himself for the loss he supposed himself to have suffered.

This Bedouin had a wife who was rather handsome; and he very soon after left my brother with her, when he went on his excursions. At these times, his wife left no means untried to console him for the rigour of his situation. She even gave him to understand she was in love with him; but he dared not return her passion, for fear he should have reason to repent of it: he, therefore, took every precaution to avoid being alone with her, whenever she seemed to wish it. She, at length, became so much accustomed to joke, and amuse herself with the hard-hearted Schacabac, whenever she met him, that she one day forgot herself, and did it in the presence of her husband. My poor brother, without in the least thinking he was observed, for so his ill-luck would have it, returned her pleasantries. The Bedouin immediately imagined that they passed their time, during his absence, in a way not very consistent with his honor. This suspicion put him into the greatest rage; he threw himself upon my brother, and after mutilating him in the most barbarous manner, he carried him on a camel to the top of a high desert mountain, where he left him. The road to Bagdad happened to pass over this very mountain, and some travellers, who accidentally met him there, informed me where he was to be found. I made all the haste I could to the place; and I found the unfortunate Schacabac in the most deplorable condition it was possible to be in. I afforded him every assistance and aid he stood in need of, and brought him back with me into the city.

This was what I related to the caliph Mostanser Billah (added the barber.) The prince very much applauded my conduct, by reiterated fits of laughter. “This must be the reason,” he said to me, “that they have given you, and so justly, the name of ‘Silent,’ and no one can say you do not deserve it. Nevertheless, I have some private reasons for wishing you to leave the town; I, therefore, order you immediately to quit the city. Go, and never let me hear of you again.” I yielded to necessity, and travelled for many years in distant parts. I at length was informed, that the caliph was dead; I returned, therefore, to Bagdad, where I did not find one of my brothers alive. It was on my return to this city, that I rendered to this lame young man the important service which you have been informed of. You are also witnesses of his great ingratitude, and of the injurious manner in which he has treated me. Instead of acknowledging his great obligations to me, he has chosen rather to wander at a distance from his own country in order to avoid me. As soon as I discovered that he had left Bagdad, and although no person could give me any information of the road he had taken, or into what country he had travelled, I did not hesitate a moment, but instantly set out to seek him. I passed on from province to province for a considerable length of time; and I accidentally met him to-day at a time I least expected it. And least of all did I expect to find him so irritated against me.

Having in this manner related the history of the lame young man and the barber of Bagdad to the sultan of Casgar, the tailor went on as follows:

When the barber had finished his story, we plainly perceived the young man was not wrong in accusing him of being a great chatterer. We nevertheless wished that he should remain with us and partake of the feast which the master of the house had prepared for us. We then sat down at table, and continued to enjoy ourselves till the time of the last prayers before sun-set. All the company then separated; and I returned to my shop, where I remained, till it was time to shut it up, and go to my house.

It was during this interval, that the little hunchback, who was half drunk, came before my shop; when he sat down and sung, and played on the symbal. I thought that by taking him home with me, I should afford some entertainment to my wife; and it was for this reason only, that I invited him. My wife gave us a dish of fish for supper, to which I helped the little hunchback, who immediately began to eat, without taking sufficient care to avoid the bones, and instantly fell down senseless before us. We tried every thing in our power to relieve him, but without effect; and then, in order to free ourselves from the embarrassment into which this melancholy accident had thrown us, and the great fright it caused us, we did not hesitate a moment to carry the body out of our house, and induce the Jewish physician to receive it in the manner your majesty has heard. The Jewish physician let it down into the apartment of the purveyor, and the purveyor carried it into the street, where the merchant thought he had killed him. This, Sire, (added the tailor,) is what I wished to say to your majesty in my justification. It is for you to determine, whether we are worthy of your clemency, or your anger; whether we deserve to live or die.”

The sultan of Casgar’s countenance expressed so much satisfaction and content, that it gave new life to the tailor and his companions. “I cannot deny,” he said, “that I am more astonished at the history of the lame young man, of the barber, and with the adventures of his brothers, than at any thing in the history of my buffoon. But before I send you all four back to your own houses, and even before I order the burial of the little hunchback, I wish to see this barber, who has been the cause of your pardon. And since he is now in my capital, it will not be difficult to satisfy my curiosity.” He immediately ordered one of his attendants to go and find him out, and to take the tailor with him, who knew where he most probably was.

The officer and tailor were not long absent, and brought back the barber with them, whom they presented to the sultan. He appeared like a man of about ninety. His beard and eyebrows were as white as snow; his ears hung down a considerable length, and his nose was very long. The sultan could scarcely refrain from laughter at the sight of him. “Man of silence,” said he to the barber, “I understand that you are acquainted with many wonderful histories, I wish very much that you would relate one of them to me.”—“Sire,” replied the barber, “for the present, we will, if it please your majesty, not speak of the histories which I may know; but I most humbly entreat you to permit me to ask one question: and that is, for what reason this Christian, this Jew, this mussulman, and this hunchback, whom I see extended on the ground, are in your majesty’s presence.” The sultan smiled at the liberty the barber took, and said, “Of what consequence can that be to you?”—“Sire,” returned the barber, “it is of consequence to me to make this inquiry; namely, that your majesty may know, that I am not that great talker which some people pretend; but a man who has very justly acquired the title of the Silent.”

The sultan of Casgar had the complaisance to satisfy the barber’s great curiosity. He desired the adventures of the little hunchback to be related to him, since he seemed so very anxious to hear it. When the barber had heard the whole story, he shook his head, as if he meant it to be understood, that he thought there was something which he could not well comprehend. “Truly,” he exclaimed, “This is a very wonderful history: but I should vastly like to examine this little hunchback a little more closely.” He then went near to him, and sat down on the ground. He took his head between his knees, and after examining him very attentively, he suddenly burst out into a violent fit of laughter; and with so little restraint, that he absolutely fell backwards, without at all considering that he was in the presence of the sultan of Casgar. He then got up laughing heartily the whole time. “You may very well say,” he at length cried, “that no one dies without a cause. If ever a history deserved to be written in letters of gold, it is this of the hunchback.”