When it was the One Hundred and Seventy-sixth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Prince Kamar al-Zaman had prayed (conjoining them in one) the prayers of sundown and nightfall, he sat down on the well and began reciting the Koran, and he repeated “The Cow,” the “House of Imrán,” and “Y. S.;” “The Compassionate,” “Blessed be the King,” “Unity” and “The two Talismans’’²³⁷; and he ended with blessing and supplication and with saying, “I seek refuge with Allah from Satan the stoned.”²³⁸ Then he lay down upon his couch which was covered with a mattress of satin from al-Ma’adin town, the same on both sides and stuffed with the raw silk of Irak; and under his head was a pillow filled with ostrich-down And when ready for sleep, he doffed his outer clothes and drew off his bag-trousers and lay down in a shirt of delicate stuff smooth as wax; and he donned a head-kerchief of azure Marázi²³⁹ cloth; and at such time and on this guise Kamar al-Zaman was like the full-orbed moon, when it riseth on its fourteenth night. Then, drawing over his head a coverlet of silk, he fell asleep with the lanthorn burning at his feet and the wax-candle over his head, and he ceased not sleeping through the first third of the night, not knowing what lurked for him in the womb of the Future, and what the Omniscient had decreed for him. Now, as Fate and Fortune would have it, both tower and saloon were old and had been many years deserted; and there was therein a Roman well inhabited by a Jinniyah of the seed of Iblis²⁴⁰ the Accursed, by name Maymúnah, daughter of Al-Dimiryát, a renowned King of the Jánn.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

²³⁷ The Chapters are: 2, 3, 36, 55, 67 and the two last (“Daybreak” cxiii. and “Men” cxiv.), which are called Al–Mu’izzatáni (vulgar Al–Mu’izzatayn), the “Two Refuge-takings or Preventives,” because they obviate enchantment. I have translated the two latter as follows:—

“Say:—Refuge I take with the Lord of the Day-break
from mischief of what He did make
from mischief of moon eclipse-showing
and from mischief of witches on cord-knots blowing
and from mischief of envier when envying.”

“Say:—Refuge I take with the Lord of men
the sovran of men
the God of men
from the Tempter, the Demon
who tempteth in whisper the breasts of men
and from Jinnis and (evil) men.”

²³⁸ The recitations were Náfilah, or superogatory, two short chapters only being required and the taking refuge was because he slept in a ruin, a noted place in the East for Ghuls as in the West for ghosts.

²³⁹ Lane (ii. 222) first read “Múroozee” and referred it to the Murúz tribe near Herat he afterwards (iii. 748) corrected it to “Marwazee,” of the fabric of Marw (Margiana) the place now famed for “Mervousness.” As a man of Rayy (Rhages) becomes Rází (e.g. Ibn Fáris al-Razí), so a man of Marw is Marázi, not Murúzi nor Márwazi. The “Mikna’ “ was a veil forming a kind of “respirator,” defending from flies by day and from mosquitos, dews and draughts by night. Easterns are too sensible to sleep with bodies kept warm by bedding, and heads bared to catch every blast. Our grandfathers and grandmothers did well to wear bonnets-de-nuit, however ridiculous they may have looked.

²⁴⁰ Iblis, meaning the Despairer, is called in the Koran (chaps. xviii. 48) “One of the genii (Jinnis) who departed from the command of his Lord.” Mr. Rodwell (in loco) notes that the Satans and Jinnis represent in the Koran (ii. 32, etc.) the evil-principle and finds an admixture of the Semitic Satans and demons with the “Genii from the Persian (Babylonian ?) and Indian (Egyptian ?) mythologies.”

When it was the One Hundred and Seventy-seventh Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the name of the Jinniyah in question was Maymunah, daughter of Al–Dimiryat; a renowned King of the Jann. And as Kamar al-Zaman continued sleeping till the first third of the night, Maymunah came up out of the Roman well and made for the firmament, thinking to listen by stealth to the converse of the angels; but when she reached the mouth of the well, she saw a light shining in the tower, contrary to custom; and having dwelt there many years without seeing the like, she said to herself, “Never have I witnessed aught like this”; and, marvelling much at the matter, determined that there must be some cause therefor. So she made for the light and found the eunuch sleeping within the door; and inside she saw a couch spread, whereon was a human form with the wax-candle burning at his head and the lanthorn at his feet, and she wondered to see the light and stole towards it little by little. Then she folded her wings and stood by the bed and, drawing back the coverlid, discovered Kamar al-Zaman’s face. She was motionless for a full hour in admiration and wonderment; for the lustre of his visage outshone that of the candle; his face beamed like a pearl with light; his eyelids were languorous like those of the gazelle; the pupils of his eyes were intensely black and brilliant²⁴¹; his cheeks were rosy red; his eye-brows were arched like bows and his breath exhaled a scent of musk, even as saith of him the poet,

“I kissed him: darker grew those pupils,²⁴² which
Seduce my soul, and cheeks flushed rosier hue;
O heart, if slanderers dare to deem there be
His like in chasms, Say ‘Bring him hither, you!’ ”

Now when Maymunah saw him, she pronounced the formula of praise,²⁴³ and said, “Blessed be Allah, the best of Creators!”; for she was of the true-believing Jinn; and she stood awhile gazing on his face, exclaiming and envying the youth his beauty and loveliness. And she said in herself, “By Allah! I will do no hurt to him nor let any harm him; nay, from all of evil will I ransom him, for this fair face deserveth not but that folk should gaze upon it and for it praise the Lord. Yet how could his family find it in their hearts to leave him in such desert place where, if one of our Márids came upon him at this hour, he would assuredly slay him.” Then the Ifritah Maymunah bent over him and kissed him between the eyes, and presently drew back the sheet over his face which she covered up; and after this she spread her wings and soaring into the air, flew upwards. And after rising high from the circle of the saloon she ceased not winging her way through air and ascending skywards till she drew near the heaven of this world, the lowest of the heavens. And behold, she heard the noisy flapping of wings cleaving the welkin and, directing herself by the sound, she found when she drew near it that the noise came from an Ifrit called Dahnash. So she swooped down on him like a sparrow-hawk and, when he was aware of her and knew her to be Maymunah, the daughter of the King of the Jinn, he feared her and his side-muscles quivered; and he implored her forbearance, saying, I conjure thee by the Most Great and August Name and by the most noble talisman graven upon the seal-ring of Solomon, entreat me kindly and harm me not!” When she heard these words her heart inclined to him and she said, “Verily, thou conjurest me, O accursed, with a mighty conjuration. Nevertheless, I will not let thee go, till thou tell me whence thou comest at this hour.” He replied, “O Princess, Know that I come from the uttermost end of China-land and from among the Islands, and I will tell thee of a wonderful thing I have seen this night. If thou kind my words true, let me wend my way and write me a patent under thy hand and with thy sign manual that I am thy freedman, so none of the Jinn-hosts, whether of the upper who fly or of the lower who walk the earth or of those who dive beneath the waters, do me let or hindrance.” Rejoined Maymunah, “And what is it thou hast seen this night, O liar, O accursed! Tell me without leasing and think not to escape from my hand with falses, for I swear to thee by the letters graven upon the bezel of the seal-ring of Solomon David son (on both of whom be peace!), except thy speech be true, I will pluck out thy feathers with mine own hand and strip off thy skin and break thy bones!” Quoth the Ifrit Dahnash son of Shamhúrish²⁴⁴ the Flyer, “I accept, O my lady, these conditions.”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

²⁴¹ Of course she could not see his eyes when they were shut; nor is this mere Eastern inconsequence. The writer means, “had she seen them, they would have showed,” etc.

²⁴² The eyes are supposed to grow darker under the influence of wine and sexual passion.

²⁴³ To keep off the evil eye.

²⁴⁴ Like Dahnash this is a fanciful P. N., fit only for a Jinni. As a rule the appellatives of Moslem “genii” end in–ús (oos), as Tarnús, Huliyánus, the Jewish in—nas, as Jattunas; those of the Tarsá (the “funkers” i.e. Christians) in—dús, as Sidús, and the Hindus in—tús, as Naktús (who entered the service of the Prophet Shays, or Seth, and was converted to the Faith). The King of the Genii is Malik Katshán who inhabits Mount Kaf; and to the west of him lives his son-in-law, Abd al-Rahman with 33,000 domestics: these names were given by the Apostle Mohammed. “Baktanús” is lord of three Moslem troops of the wandering Jinns, which number a total of twelve bands and extend from Sind to Europe. The Jinns, Divs, Peris (“fairies”) and other pre-Adamitic creatures were governed by seventy-two Sultans all known as Sulayman and the last I have said was Ján bin Ján. The angel Háris was sent from Heaven to chastise him, but in the pride of victory he also revolted with his followers the Jinns whilst the Peris held aloof. When he refused to bow down before Adam he and his chiefs were eternally imprisoned but the other Jinns are allowed to range over earth as a security for man’s obedience. The text gives the three orders. flyers. walkers and divers.

When it was the One Hundred and Seventy-eight Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Dahnash spoke thus to Maymunah, “I accept, O my lady, these conditions.” Then he resumed, “Know, O my mistress, that I come to-night from the Islands of the Inland Sea in the parts of China, which are the realms of King Ghayúr, lord of the Islands and the Seas and the Seven Palaces. There I saw a daughter of his, than whom Allah hath made none fairer in her time: I cannot picture her to thee, for my tongue would fail to describe her with her due of praise; but I will name to thee a somewhat of her charms by way of approach. Now her hair is like the nights of disunion and separation and her face like the days of union and delectation; and right well hath the poet said when picturing her,

‘She dispread the locks from her head one night,
Showing four fold nights into one night run
And she turned her visage towards the moon,
And two moons showed at moment one.’

She hath a nose like the edge of the burnished blade and cheeks like purple wine or anemones blood-red: her lips as coral and carnelian shine and the water of her mouth is sweeter than old wine; its taste would quench Hell’s fiery pain. Her tongue is moved by wit of high degree and ready repartee: her breast is a seduction to all that see it (glory be to Him who fashioned it and finished it!); and joined thereto are two upper arms smooth and rounded; even as saith of her the poet Al–Walahán,²⁴⁵

‘She hath wrists which, did her bangles not contain,
Would run from out her sleeves in silvern rain.’

She hath breasts like two globes of ivory, from whose brightness the moons borrow light, and a stomach with little waves as it were a figured cloth of the finest Egyptian linen made by the Copts, with creases like folded scrolls, ending in a waist slender past all power of imagination; based upon back parts like a hillock of blown sand, that force her to sit when she would fief stand, and awaken her, when she fain would sleep, even as saith of her and describeth her the poet,

‘She hath those hips conjoined by thread of waist,
Hips that o’er me and her too tyrannise
My thoughts they daze whene’er I think of them,
And weigh her down whene’er she would uprise.’²⁴⁶

And those back parts are upborne by thighs smooth and round and by a calf like a column of pearl, and all this reposeth upon two feet, narrow, slender and pointed like spear-blades,²⁴⁷ the handiwork of the Protector and Requiter, I wonder how, of their littleness, they can sustain what is above them. But I cut short my praises of her charms fearing lest I be tedious.”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

²⁴⁵ i.e. distracted (with love); the Lakab, or poetical name, of apparently a Spanish poet.

²⁴⁶ Nothing is more “anti-pathetic” to Easterns than lean hips and flat hinder-cheeks in women and they are right in insisting upon the characteristic difference of the male and female figure. Our modern sculptors and painters, whose study of the nude is usually most perfunctory, have often scandalised me by the lank and greyhound-like fining off of the frame, which thus becomes rather simian than human.

²⁴⁷ The small fine foot is a favourite with Easterns as well as Westerns. Ovid (A.A.) is not ashamed “ad teneros Oscula (not basia or suavia) ferre pedes.” Ariosto ends the august person in

Il breve, asciutto, e ritondetto piece,
(The short-sized, clean-cut, roundly-moulded foot).

And all the world over it is a sign of “blood,” i.e. the fine nervous temperament.

When it was the One Hundred and Seventy-ninth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Ifrit Dahnash bin Shamhurish said to the Ifritah Maymunah, “Of a truth I cut short my praises fearing lest I be tedious.” Now when Maymunah heard the description of that Princess and her beauty and loveliness, she stood silent in astonishment; whereupon Dahnash resumed, “The father of this fair maiden is a mighty King, a fierce knight, immersed night and day in fray and fight; for whom death hath no fright and the escape of his foe no dread, for that he is a tyrant masterful and a conqueror irresistible, lord of troops and armies and continents and islands, and cities and villages, and his name is King Ghayur, Lord of the Islands and of the Seas and of the Seven Palaces. Now he loveth his daughter, the young maiden whom I have described to thee, with dearest love and, for affection of her, he hath heaped together the treasures of all the kings and built her therewith seven palaces, each of a different fashion; the first of crystal, the second of marble, the third of China steel, the fourth of precious stones and gems of price, the fifth of porcelain and many-hued onyxes and ring bezels, the sixth of silver and the seventh of gold. And he hath filled the seven palaces with all sorts of sumptuous furniture, rich silken carpets and hangings and vessels of gold and silver and all manner of gear that kings require; and hath bidden his daughter to abide in each by turns for a certain season of the year; and her name is the Princess Budur.²⁴⁸ Now when her beauty became known and her name and fame were bruited abroad in the neighbouring countries, all the kings sent to her father to demand her of him in marriage, and he consulted her on the matter, but she disliked the very word wedlock with a manner of abhorrence and said, O my father, I have no mind to marry; no, not at all; for I am a sovereign Lady and a Queen suzerain ruling over men, and I have no desire for a man who shall rule over me. And the more suits she refused, the more her suitors’ eagerness increased and all the Royalties of the Inner Islands of China sent presents and rarities to her father with letters asking her in marriage. So he pressed her again and again with advice on the matter of espousals; but she ever opposed to him refusals, till at last she turned upon him angrily and cried, ‘O my father, if thou name matrimony to me once more, I will go into my chamber and take a sword and, fixing its hilt in the ground, will set its point to my waist; then will I press upon it, till it come forth from my back, and so slay myself.’ Now when the King heard these her words, the light became darkness in his sight and his heart burned for her as with a flame of fire, because he feared lest she should kill herself; and he was filled with perplexity concerning her affair and the kings her suitors. So he said to her ‘If thou be determined not to marry and there be no help for it abstain from going and coming in and out.’ Then he placed her in a house and shut her up in a chamber, appointing ten old women as duennas to guard her, and forbade her to go forth to the Seven Palaces; moreover, he made it appear that he was incensed against her, and sent letters to all the kings, giving them to know that she had been stricken with madness by the Jinns; and it is now a year since she hath thus been secluded.” Then continued the Ifrit Dahnash, addressing the Ifritah Maymunah, “And I, O my lady go to her every night and take my fill of feeding my sight on her face and I kiss her between the eyes: yet, of my love to her, I do her no hurt neither mount her, for that her youth is fair and her grace surpassing: every one who seeth her jealouseth himself for her. I conjure thee, therefore, O my lady, to go back with me and look on her beauty and loveliness and stature and perfection of proportion; and after, if thou wilt, chastise me or enslave me; and win to thy will, for it is shine to bid and to forbid.” So saying, the Ifrit Dahnash bowed his head towards the earth and drooped his wings downward; but Maymunah laughed at his words and spat in his face and answered, “What is this girl of whom thou pratest but a potsherd wherewith to wipe after making water?²⁴⁹ Faugh! Faugh! By Allah, O accursed, I thought thou hadst some wondrous tale to tell me or some marvellous news to give me. How would it be if thou were to sight my beloved? Verily, this night I have seen a young man, whom if thou saw though but in a dream, thou wouldst be palsied with admiration and spittle would flow from thy mouth.” Asked the Ifrit, “And who and what is this youth?”; and she answered, “Know, O Dahnash, that there hath befallen the young man the like of what thou tellest me befel thy mistress; for his father pressed him again and again to marry, but he refused, till at length his sire waxed wroth at being opposed and imprisoned him in the tower where I dwell: and I came up to-night and saw him.” Said Dahnash, “O my lady, shew me this youth, that I may see if he be indeed handsomer than my mistress, the Princess Budur, or not; for I cannot believe that the like of her liveth in this our age.” Rejoined Maymunah, “Thou liest, O accursed, O most ill-omened of Marids and vilest of Satans!²⁵⁰ Sure am I that the like of my beloved is not in this world.”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

²⁴⁸ i.e. “full moons”: the French have corrupted it to “Badoure”; we to “Badoura.” winch is worse.

²⁴⁹ As has been said a single drop of urine renders the clothes ceremoniously impure, hence a Stone or a handful of earth must be used after the manner of the torche-cul. Scrupulous Moslems, when squatting to make water, will prod the ground before them with the point o f stick or umbrella, so as to loosen it and prevent the spraying of the urine.

²⁵⁰ It is not generally known to Christians that Satan has a wife called Awwá (“Hawwá” being the Moslem Eve) and, as Adam had three sons, the Tempter has nine, viz., Zu ‘l-baysun who rules in bazars. Wassin who prevails in times of trouble. Awan who counsels kings; Haffan patron of wine-bibbers; Marrah of musicians and dancers; Masbut of news-spreaders (and newspapers ?); Dulhán who frequents places of worship and interferes with devotion. Dasim, lord of mansions and dinner tables, who prevents the Faithful saying “Bismillah” and “Inshallah,” as commanded in the Koran (xviii. 23), and Lakís, lord of Fire worshippers (Herklots, chap. xxix. sect. 4).

When it was the One Hundred and Eightieth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Ifritah Maymunah spake thus to the Ifrit Dahnash, “Sure am I that the like of my beloved is not in this world! Art thou mad to fellow thy beloved with my beloved?” He said, “Allah upon thee, O my lady, go back with me and look upon my mistress, and after I will with thee and look upon thy beloved.” She answered, “It must needs be so, O accursed, for thou art a knavish devil; but I will not go with thee nor shalt thou come with me, save upon condition of a wager which is this. If the lover thou lovest and of whom thou boastest so bravely, prove handsomer than mine whom I mentioned and whom I love and of whom I boast, the bet shall be shine against me; but if my beloved prove the handsomer the bet shall be mine against thee.” Quoth Dahnash the Ifrit, “O my lady, I accept this thy wager and am satisfied thereat; so come with me to the Islands.” Quoth Maymunah; “No! for the abode of my beloved is nearer than the abode of shine: here it is under us; so come down with me to see my beloved and after we will go look upon thy mistress.” “I hear and I obey,” said Dahnash. So they descended to earth and alighted in the saloon which the tower contained; then Maymunah stationed Dahnash beside the bed and, putting out her hand, drew back the silken coverlet from Kamar al-Zaman’s face, when it glittered and glistened and shimmered and shone like the rising sun. She gazed at him for a moment, then turning sharply round upon Dahnash said, “Look, O accursed, and be not the basest of madmen; I am a maid, yet my heart he hath waylaid.” So Dahnash looked at the Prince and long continued gazing steadfastly on him then, shaking his head, said to Maymunah, “By Allah, O my lady, thou art excusable; but there is yet another thing to be considered, and this is, that the estate female differeth from the male. By Allah’s might, this thy beloved is the likest of all created things to my mistress in beauty and loveliness and grace and perfection; and it is as though they were both cast alike in the mould of seemlihead.” Now when Maymunah heard these words, the light became darkness in her sight and she dealt him with her wing so fierce a buffet on the head as well-nigh made an end of him. Then quoth she to him, “I conjure thee, by the light of his glorious countenance, go at once, O accursed, and bring hither thy mistress whom thou lovest so fondly and foolishly, and return in haste that we may lay the twain together and look on them both as they lie asleep side by side; so shall it appear to us which be the goodlier and more beautiful of the two. Except thou obey me this very moment, O accursed, I will dart my sparks at thee with my fire and consume thee; yea, in pieces I will rend thee and into the deserts cast thee, that to stay at home and wayfarer an example thou be!” Quoth Dahnash, “O my lady, I will do thy behests, for I know forsure that my mistress is the fairer and the sweeter.” So saying the If rit flew away and Maymunah flew with him to guard him. They were absent awhile and presently returned, bearing the young lady, who was clad in a shift of fine Venetian silk, with a double edging of gold and purfled with the most exquisite of embroidery having these couplets worked upon the ends of the sleeves,

“Three matters hinder her from visiting us, in fear
Of hate-full, slandering envier and his hired spies:
The shining light of brow, the trinkets’ tinkling voice,
And scent of essences that tell whene’er she tries:
Gi’en that she hide her brow with edge of sleeve, and leave
At home her trinketry, how shall her scent
disguise?’’²⁵¹

And Dahnash and Maymunah stinted not bearing that young lady till they had carried her into the saloon and had laid her beside the youth Kamar al-Zaman.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

When it was the One Hundred and Eighty-first Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Ifrit Dahnash and the Ifritah Maymunah stinted not bearing Princess Budur till they descended and laid her on the couch beside Kamar al— Zaman. Then they uncovered both their faces, and they were the likest of all folk, each to other, as they were twins or an only brother and sister; and indeed they were a seduction to the pious, even as saith of them the poet Al–Mubín,

“O heart! be not thy love confined to one,
Lest thou by doting or disdain be undone:
Love all the fair, and thou shalt find with them
If this be lost, to thee that shall be won.”

And quoth another,

“Mine eyes beheld two lying on the ground;
Both had I loved if on these eyne they lay!”

So Dahnash and Maymunah gazed on them awhile, and he said, “By Allah, O my lady, it is good! My mistress is assuredly the fairer.” She replied, “Not so, my beloved is the fairer; woe to thee, O Dahnash! Art blind of eye and heart that lean from fat thou canst not depart? Wilt thou hide the truth? Dost thou not see his beauty and loveliness and fine stature and symmetry? Out on thee, hear what I purpose to say in praise of my beloved and, if thou be a lover true to her thou dost love, do thou the like for her thou Lovest.” Then she kissed Kamar al-Zaman again and again between the eyes and improvised this ode,

“How is this? Why should the blamer abuse thee in his pride? What shall console my heart for thee, that art but slender bough?

A Nature Kohl’d²⁵² eye thou hast that witcheth far and wide; From pure platonic love²⁵³ of it deliverance none I trow!

Those glances, fell as plundering Turk, to heart such havoc deal As never havocked scymitar made keenest at the curve.

On me thou layest load of love the heaviest while I feel So feeble grown that under weight of chemisette I swerve.

My love for thee as wottest well is habit, and my lowe Is nature; to all others false is all the love I tender:

Now were my heart but like to shine I never would say No; Only my wasted form is like thy waist so gracious slender:

Out on him who in Beauty’s robe for moon like charms hath fame, And who is claimed by mouth of men as marvel of his tribe!

‘Of man what manner may he be’ (ask they who flyte and blame) ‘For whom thy heart is so distressed?’ I only cry ‘Describe!’

Oh stone-entempered heart of him! learn of his yielding grace And bending form to show me grace and yielding to consent.

Oh my Prince Beautiful, thou hast an Overseer in place²⁵⁴ Who irketh me, and eke a Groom whose wrong cloth ne’er relent.

Indeed he lieth who hath said that all of loveliness Was pent in Joseph: in thy charms there’s many and many a Joe!

The Genii dread me when I stand and face to face address; But meeting thee my fluttering heart its shame and terror show.

I take aversion semblance and I turn from thee in fright, But more aversion I assume, more love from me dost claim;

That hair of jetty black! That brow e’er raying radiant light! Those eyne wherein white jostles black!²⁵⁵ That dearling

dainty frame!”

When Dahnash heard the poesy which Maymunah spake in praise of her beloved, he joyed with exceeding joy and marvelled with excessive wonderment.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say

²⁵² Arab. “Kahlá.” This has been explained. Mohammed is said to have been born with “Kohl’d eyes.”

²⁵³ Hawá al-‘uzrí, before noticed (Night cxiv.).

²⁵⁴ These lines, with the Názir (eye or steward), the Hájib (Groom of the Chambers or Chamberlain) and Joseph, are also repeated from Night cxiv. For the Nazir see Al–Hariri (Nos. xiii. and xxii.)

²⁵⁵ The usual allusion to the Húr (Houris) from “Hangar,” the white and black of the eye shining in contrast. The Persian Magi also placed in their Heaven (Bihisht or Minu) “Huran,” or black-eyed nymphs, under the charge of the angel Zamiyád.

When it was the One Hundred and Eighty-second Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Ifrit Dahnash heard the poesy which Maymunah spake in praise of her beloved, he shook for exceeding joy and said, “Thou hast celebrated thy beloved in song and thou hast indeed done well in praise of him whom thou lovest! And there is no help for it but that I also in my turn do my best to enfame my mistress, and recite somewhat in her honour.” Then the Ifrit went up to the Lady Budur; and’ kissing her between the eyes, looked at Maymunah and at his beloved Princess and recited the following verses, albeit he had no skill in poesy,

“Love for my fair they chide in angry way;
Unjust for ignorance, yea unjustest they!
Ah lavish favours on the love mad, whom
Taste of thy wrath and parting woe shall slay:
In sooth for love I’m wet with railing tears,
That rail mine eyelids blood thou mightest say:
No marvel what I bear for love, ’tis marvel
That any know my “me” while thou’rt away:
Unlawful were our union did I doubt
Thy love, or heart incline to other May.”

And eke these words:—

“I feed eyes on their stead by the valley’s side,
And I’m slain and my slaver²⁵⁶ aside hath tried:
Grief-wine have I drunken, and down my cheeks
Dance tears to the song of the camel-guide:
For union-blessing I strive though sure,
In Budur and Su’ad all my bliss shall bide:²⁵⁷
Wot I not which of three gave me most to ‘plain,
So hear them numbered ere thou decide:
Those Sworders her eyne, that Lancer her fig—
—ure, or ring-mail’d Locks which her forehead hide.
Quoth she (and I ask of her what so wights
Or abide in towns or in desert ride²⁵⁸ )
To me, ‘In thy heart I dwell, look there!’
Quoth I, ‘Where’s my heart ah where? ah where?’”

When Maymunah heard these lines from the Ifrit, she said, “Thou hast done well, O Dahnash! But say thou which of the two is the handsomer?” And he answered, “My mistress Budur is handsomer than thy beloved!” Cried Maymunah, “Thou liest, O accursed. Nay, my beloved is more beautiful than shine!” But Dahnash persisted, “Mine is the fairer.” And they ceased not to wrangle and challenge each other’s words till Maymunah cried out at Dahnash and would have laid violent hands on him, but he humbled himself to her and, softening his speech, said, “Let not the truth be a grief to thee, and cease we this talk, for all we say is to testify in favour of our lovers; rather let each of us withdraw the claim and seek we one who shall judge fairly between us which of the two be fairer; and by his sentence we will abide.” “I agree to this,” answered she and smote the earth with her foot, whereupon there came out of it an Ifrit blind of an eye, humpbacked and scurvy-skinned, with eye-orbits slit up and down his face.²⁵⁹ On his head were seven horns and four locks of hair fell to his heels; his hands were pitchfork-like and his legs mast-like and he had nails as the claws of a lion, and feet as the hoofs of the wild ass.²⁶⁰ When that If rit rose out of the earth and sighted Maymunah, he kissed the ground before her and, standing with his hands clasped behind him, said, “What is thy will, O my mistress, O daughter of my King?”²⁶¹ She replied, “O Kashkash, I would have thee judge between me and this accursed Dahnash.” And she made known to him the matter, from first to last, whereupon the Ifrit Kashkash looked at the face of the youth and then at the face of the girl; and saw them lying asleep, embraced, each with an arm under the other’s neck, alike in beauty and loveliness and equal in grace and goodliness. The Marid gazed long upon them, marvelling at their seemlihead; and, after carefully observing the twain, he turned to Maymunah and Dahnash, and reseated these couplets.

“Go, visit her thou lovest, and regard not The words detractors utter, envious churls Can never favour love. Oh! sure the Merciful Ne’er made a thing more fair to look upon, Than two fond lovers in each others’ arms, Speaking their passion in a mute embrace. When heart has turned to heart, the fools would part them Strike idly on cold steel. So when thou’st found One purely, wholly shine, accept her true heart, And live for her alone. Oh! thou that blamest The love-struck for their love, give o’er thy talk, How canst thou minister to a mind diseased?”²⁶²

Then he turned again to Maymunah and Dahnash and said to them, “By Allah, if you will have the truth, I tell you fairly the twain be equal in beauty, and loveliness and perfect grace and goodliness, nor can I make any difference between them on account of their being man and woman. But I have another thought which is that we wake each of them in turn, without the knowledge of the other, and whichever is the more enamoured shall be held inferior in seemlihead and comeliness.” Quoth Maymunah, “Right is this recking,” and quoth Dahnash, “I consent to this.” Then Dahnash changed himself to the form of a flea and bit Kamar al-Zaman, whereupon he started from sleep in a fright.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

²⁵⁶ In the first hemistich, “bi-shitt ‘it wády” (by the wady-bank): in the second, “wa shatta ‘l wády” (“and my slayer”— i.e. wády act. part. of wady, killing—“hath paced away”).

²⁵⁷ The double entendre is from the proper names Budúr and Su’ád (Beatrice) also meaning “auspicious (or blessed) full moons.”

²⁵⁸ Arab. “Házir” (also Ahl al-hazer, townsmen) and Bádi, a Badawi, also called “Ahl al-Wabar,” people of the camel’s hair (tent) and A’aráb (Nomadic) as opposed to Arab (Arab settled or not). They still boast with Ibn Abbas, cousin of Mohammed, that they have kerchiefs (not turbands) for crowns, tents for houses, loops for walls, swords for scarves and poems for registers or written laws.

²⁵⁹ This is a peculiarity of the Jinn tribe when wearing hideous forms. It is also found in the Hindu Rakshasa.

²⁶⁰ Which, by the by, are small and beautifully shaped. The animal is very handy with them, as I learnt by experience when trying to “Rareyfy” one at Bayrut.

²⁶¹ She being daughter of Al–Dimiryát, King of the Jinns. Mr. W. F. Kirby has made him the subject of a pretty poem.

²⁶² These lines have occurred in Night xxii. I give Torrens’s version (p. 223) by way of variety.

When it was the One Hundred and Eighty-third Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Dahnash changed himself to the form of a flea and bit Kamar al-Zaman who started from sleep in a fright and rubbed the bitten part, his neck, and scratched it hard because of the smart. Then turning sideways, he found lying by him something whose breath was sweeter than musk and whose skin was softer than cream. Hereat marvelled he with great marvel and he sat up and looked at what lay beside him; when he saw it to be a young lady like an union pearl, or a shining sun, or a dome seen from afar on a well built wall; for she was five feet tall, with a shape like the letter Alif²⁶³, bosomed high and rosy checked; even as saith of her the poet,

“Four things which ne’er conjoin, unless it be
To storm my vitals and to shed my blood:
Brow white as day and tresses black as night
Cheeks rosy red and lips which smiles o’erflood.”

And also quoth another,

“A Moon she rises, Willow wand she waves,
Breathes Ambergris, and gazes, a Gazelle:
Meseems that sorrow woes my heart and wins
And, when she wendeth hastes therein to dwell!”

And when Kamar al-Zaman saw the Lady Budur, daughter of King Ghayur, and her beauty and comeliness, she was sleeping clad in a shift of Venetian silk, without her petticoat-trousers, and wore on her head a kerchief embroidered with gold and set with stones of price: her ears were hung with twin earrings which shone like constellations and round her neck was a collar of union pearls, of size unique, past the competence of any King. When he saw this, his reason was confounded and natural heat began to stir in him; Allah awoke in him the desire of coition and he said to himself, “Whatso Allah willeth, that shall be, and what He willeth not shall never be!” So saying, he put out his hand and, turning her over, loosed the collar of her chemise; then arose before his sight her bosom, with its breasts like double globes of ivory; whereat his inclination for her redoubled and he desired her with exceeding hot desire, He would have awakened her but she would not awake, for Dahnash had made her sleep heavy; so he shook her and moved her, saying, “O my beloved, awake and look on me; I am Kamar al-Zaman.” But she awoke not, neither moved her head; where-upon he considered her case for a long hour and said to himself, “If I guess aright, this is the damsel to whom my father would have married me and these three years past I have refused her; but Inshallah!—God willing—as soon as it is dawn, I will say to him, ‘Marry me to her, that I may enjoy her.’”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

²⁶³ Arab. “Kámat Alfiyyah,” like an Alif, the first of the Arabic alphabet, the Heb. Aleph. The Arabs, I have said, took the flag or water leaf form and departed very far from the Egyptian original (we know from Plutarch that the hieroglyphic abecedarium began with “a”), which was chosen by other imitators, namely the bull’s head, and which in the cursive form, especially the Phœnician, became a yoke. In numerals “Alif” denotes one or one thousand. It inherits the traditional honours of Alpha (as opposed to Omega) and in books, letters and writings generally it is placed as a monogram over the “Bismillah,” an additional testimony to the Unity. (See vol. i. p. 1.) In mediæval Christianity this place of honour was occupied by the cross: none save the wildest countries have preserved it, but our vocabulary still retains Criss’ (Christ-)cross Row, for horn-book, on account of the old alphabet and nine digits disposed in the form of a Latin cross. Hence Tickell (“The Horn-book”):

——Mortals ne’er shall know
More than contained of old the Chris’-cross Row.

When it was the One Hundred and Eighty-fourth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Kamar al- Zaman said to himself, “By Allah, when I see dawn I will say to my sire, ‘Marry me to her that I may enjoy her’; nor will I let half the day pass ere I possess her and take my fill of her beauty and loveliness.” Then he bent over Budur to buss her, whereat the Jinniyah Maymunah trembled and was abashed and Dahnash, the Ifrit, was like to fly for joy. But, as Kamar al- Zaman was about to kiss her upon the mouth, he was ashamed before Allah and turned away his head and averted his face, saying to his heart, “Have patience.” Then he took thought awhile and said, “I will be patient; haply my father when he was wroth with me and sent me to this jail, may have brought my young lady and made her lie by my side to try me with her, and may have charged her not to be readily awakened when I would arouse her, and may have said to her, ‘Whatever thing Kamar al-Zaman do to thee, make me ware thereof’; or belike my sire standeth hidden in some stead whence (being himself unseen) he can see all I do with this young lady; and to morrow he will scold me and cry, ‘How cometh it that thou sayest, I have no mind to marry; and yet thou didst kiss and embrace yonder damsel?’ So I will withhold myself lest I be ashamed before my sire; and the right and proper thing to do is not to touch her at this present, nor even to look upon her, except to take from her somewhat which shall serve as a token to me and a memorial of her; that some sign endure between me and her.” Then Kamar al-Zaman raised the young lady’s hand and took from her little finger a seal-ring worth an immense amount of money, for that its bezel was a precious jewel and around it were graven these couplets,

“Count not that I your promises forgot,
Despite the length of your delinquencies
Be generous, O my lord, to me inclining;
Haply your mouth and cheeks these lips may kiss:
By Allah, ne’er will I relinquish you
Albe you will transgress love’s boundaries.”

Then Kamar al-Zaman took the seal-ring from the little finger of Queen Budur and set it on his own; then, turning his back to her, went to sleep.²⁶⁴ When Maymunah the Jinniyah saw this, she was glad and said to Dahnash and Kashkash, “Saw ye how my beloved Kamar al-Zaman bore himself chastely towards this young lady? Verily, this was of the perfection of his good gifts; for observe you twain how he looked on her and noted her beauty and loveliness, and yet embraced her not neither kissed her nor put his hand to her, but turned his back and slept.” Answered they, “Even so!” Thereupon Maymunah changed herself into a flea and entering into the raiment of Budur, the loved of Dahnash, crept up her calf and came upon her thigh and, reaching a place some four carats²⁶⁵ below her navel, there bit her. Thereupon she opened her eyes and sitting up in bed, saw a youth lying beside her and breathing heavily in his sleep, the loveliest of Almighty Allah’s creatures, with eyes that put to shame the fairest Houris of Heaven; and a mouth like Solomon’s seal, whose water was sweeter to the taste and more efficacious than a theriack, and lips the colour of coral-stone, and cheeks like the blood red anemone, even as saith one, describing him in these couplets,

“My mind’s withdrawn from Zaynab and Nawár²⁶⁶
By rosy cheeks that growth of myrtle bear;
I love a fawn, a tunic-vested boy,
And leave the love of bracelet-wearing Fair:
My mate in hall and closet is unlike
Her that I play with, as at home we pair.
Oh thou, who blam’st my flight from Hind and Zaynab,
The cause is clear as dawn uplighting air!
Would’st have me fare²⁶⁷ a slave, the thrall of thrall,
Cribbed, pent, confined behind the bar and wall?”

Now when Princess Budur saw him, she was seized by a transport of passion and yearning and love-longing,—And Shahrazad per ceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

²⁶⁴ The young man must have been a demon of chastity.

²⁶⁵ Arab. “Kirát” from i.e. bean, the seed of the Abrus precatorius, in weight=two to three (English) grains; and in length=one finger-breadth here; 24 being the total. The Moslem system is evidently borrowed from the Roman “as” and “uncia.”

²⁶⁶ Names of women.

²⁶⁷ Arab. “Amsa” (lit. he passed the evening) like “asbaha” (he rose in the morning) “Azhá” (he spent the forenoon) and “bata” (he spent the night), are idiomatically used for “to be in any state, to continue” without specification of time or season.

When it was the One Hundred and Eighty-fifth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when
Princess Budur saw Kamar al-Zaman she was forthwith seized with a
transport of passion and yearning and love longing, and she said
to herself, “Alas, my shame! This is a strange youth and I know
him not. How cometh he to be lying by my side on one bed?” Then
she looked at him a second time and, noting his beauty and
loveliness, said, “By Allah, he is indeed a comely youth and my
heart²⁶⁸ is well-nigh torn in sunder with longing for him!
But alas, how am I shamed by him! By the Almighty, had I known it
was this youth who sought me in marriage of my father, I had not
rejected him, but had wived with him and enjoyed his loveliness!”
Then she gazed in his face and said, “O my lord and light of mine
eyes, awake from sleep and take thy pleasure in my beauty and
grace.” And she moved him with her hand; but Maymunah the
Jinniyah let down sleep upon him as it were a curtain, and
pressed heavily on his head with her wings so that Kamar al-Zaman
awoke not. Then Princess Budur shook him with her hands and said,
“My life on thee, hearken to me; awake and up from thy sleep and
look on the narcissus and the tender down thereon, and enjoy the
sight of naked waist and navel; and touzle me and tumble me from
this moment till break of day! Allah upon thee, O my lord, sit up
and prop thee against the pillow and slumber not!” Still Kamar
al-Zaman made her no reply but breathed hard in his sleep.
Continued she, “Alas! Alas! thou art insolent in thy beauty and
comeliness and grace and loving looks! But if thou art handsome,
so am I handsome; what then is this thou dost? Have they taught
thee to flout me or hath my father, the wretched old
fellow,²⁶⁹ made thee swear not to speak to me to-night?” But
Kamar al-Zaman opened not his mouth neither awoke, whereat her
passion for him redoubled and Allah inflamed her heart with love
of him. She stole one glance of eyes that cost her a thousand
sighs: her heart fluttered, and her vitals throbbed and her hands
and feet quivered; and she said to Kamar al-Zaman “Talk to me, O
my lord! Speak to me, O my friend! Answer me, O my beloved, and
tell me thy name, for indeed thou hast ravished my wit!” And
during all this time he abode drowned in sleep and answered her
not a word, and Princess Budur sighed and said, “Alas! Alas! why
art thou so proud and self satisfied?” Then she shook him and
turning his hand over, saw her seal-ring on his little finger,
whereat she cried a loud cry, and followed it with a sigh of
passion and said, “Alack! Alack! By Allah, thou art my beloved
and thou lovest me! Yet thou seemest to turn thee away from me
out of coquetry, for all, O my darling, thou camest to me, whilst
I was asleep and knew not what thou didst with me, and tookest my
seal-ring; and yet I will not pull it off thy finger.” So saying,
she opened the bosom of his shirt and bent over him and kissed
him and put forth her hand to him, seeking somewhat that she
might take as a token, but found nothing. Then she thrust her
hand into his breast and, because of the smoothness of his body,
it slipped down to his waist and thence to his navel and thence
to his yard, whereupon her heart ached and her vitals quivered
and lust was sore upon her, for that the desire of women is
fiercer than the desire of men,²⁷⁰ and she was ashamed of
her own shamelessness. Then she plucked his seal-ring from his
finger, and put it on her own instead of the ring he had taken,
and bussed his inner lips and hands, nor did she leave any part
of him unkissed; after which she took him to her breast and
embraced him and, laying one of her hands under his neck and the
other under his arm-pit, nestled close to him and fell asleep by
his side.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to
say her permitted say.

When it was the One Hundred and Eighty-sixth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Princess Budur fell asleep by the side of Kamar al-Zaman, after doing that which she did, quoth Maymunah to Dahnash, Night thou, O accursed, how proudly and coquettishly my beloved bore himself, and how hotly and passionately thy mistress showed herself to my dearling? There can be no doubt that my beloved is handsomer than shine; nevertheless I pardon thee.” Then she wrote him a document of manumission and turned to Kashkash and said, “Go, help Dahnash to take up his mistress and aid him to carry her back to her own place, for the night waneth apace and there is but little left of it.” “I hear and I obey;” answered Kashkash. So the two Ifrits went forward to Princess Budur and upraising her flew away with her; then, bearing her back to her own place, they laid her on her bed, whilst Maymunah abode alone with Kamar al-Zaman, gazing upon him as he slept, till the night was all but spent, when she went her way. As soon as morning morrowed, the Prince awoke from sleep and turned right and left, but found not the maiden by him and said in his mind, “What is this business? It is as if my father would incline me to marriage with the damsel who was with me and have now taken her away by stealth, to the intent that my desire for wedlock may redouble.” Then he called out to the eunuch who slept at the door, saying, “Woe to thee, O damned one, arise at once!” So the eunuch rose, bemused with sleep, and brought him basin and ewer, whereupon Kamar al-Zaman entered the water closet and did his need;²⁷¹ then, coming out made the Wuzu-ablution and prayed the dawn-prayer, after which he sat telling on his beads the ninety-and-nine names of Almighty Allah. Then he looked up and, seeing the eunuch standing in service upon him, said, “Out on thee, O Sawáb! Who was it came hither and took away the young lady from my side and I still sleeping?” Asked the eunuch, ‘O my lord, what manner of young lady?” “The young lady who lay with me last night,” replied Kamar al-Zaman. The eunuch was startled at his words and said to him, “By Allah, there hath been with thee neither young lady nor other! How should young lady have come in to thee, when I was sleeping in the doorway and the door was locked? By Allah, O my lord, neither male nor female hath come in to thee!” Exclaimed the Prince, “Thou liest, O pestilent slave!: is it of thy competence also to hoodwink me and refuse to tell me what is become of the young lady who lay with me last night and decline to inform me who took her away?” Replied the eunuch (and he was affrighted at him), “By Allah, O my lord, I have seen neither young lady nor young lord!” His words only angered Kamar al-Zaman the more and he said to him, “O accursed one, my father hath indeed taught thee deceit! Come hither.” So the eunuch came up to him, and the Prince took him by the collar and dashed him to the ground; whereupon he let fly a loud fart²⁷² and Kamar al-Zaman, kneeling upon him, kicked him and throttled him till he fainted away. Then he dragged him forth and tied him to the well-rope, and let him down like a bucket into the well and plunged him into the water, then drew him up and lowered him down again. Now it was hard winter weather, and Kamar al-Zaman ceased not to plunge the eunuch into the water and pull him up again and douse him and haul him whilst he screamed and called for help; and the Prince kept on saying “By Allah, O damned one, I will not draw thee up out of this well till thou tell me and fully acquaint me with the story of the young lady and who it was took her away, whilst I slept.”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

²⁷¹ This morning evacuation is considered, in the East, a sine quâ non of health; and old Anglo–Indians are unanimous in their opinion of the “bard fajar” (as they mispronounce the dawn-clearance). The natives of India, Hindús (pagans) and Hindís (Moslems), unlike Europeans, accustom themselves to evacuate twice a day, evening as well as morning. This may, perhaps, partly account for their mildness and effeminacy; for:—

C’est la constipation qui rend l’homme rigoureux.

The English, since the first invasion of cholera, in October, 1831, are a different race from their costive grandparents who could not dine without a “dinner-pill.” Curious to say the clyster is almost unknown to the people of Hindostan although the barbarous West Africans use it daily to “wash ‘um belly,” as the Bonney-men say. And, as Sonnini notes to propose the process in Egypt under the Beys might have cost a Frankish medico his life.

²⁷² The Egyptian author cannot refrain from this characteristic polissonnerie; and reading it out is always followed by a roar of laughter. Even serious writers like Al-Hariri do not, as I have noted, despise the indecency.

When it was the One Hundred and Eighty-seventh Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Kamar al- Zaman said to the eunuch, “By Allah! I will not draw thee up out of this well until thou tell me the story of the young lady and who it was took her away whilst I slept.” Answered the eunuch, after he had seen death staring him in the face; “O my lord, let me go and I will relate to thee the truth and the whole tale.” So Kamar al-Zaman pulled him up out of the well, all but dead for suffering, what with cold and the pain of dipping and dousing, drubbing and dread of drowning. He shook like cane in hurricane, his teeth were clenched as by cramp and his clothes were drenched and his body befouled and torn by the rough sides of the well: briefly he was in a sad pickle. Now when Kamar al-Zaman saw him in this sorry plight, he was concerned for him; but, as soon as the eunuch found himself on the floor, he said to him, “O my lord, let me go and doff my clothes and wring them out and spread them in the sun to dry, and don others; after which I will return to thee forthwith and tell thee the truth of the matter.” Answered the Prince, “O rascal slave! hadst thou not seen death face to face, never hadst thou confessed to fact nor told me a word; but go now and do thy will, and then come back to me at once and tell me the truth.” Thereupon the eunuch went out, hardly crediting his escape, and ceased not running, stumbling and rising in his haste, till he came in to King Shahriman, whom he found sitting at talk with his Wazir of Kamar al-Zaman’s case. The King was saying to the Minister, “I slept not last night, for anxiety concerning my son, Kamar al-Zaman and indeed I fear lest some harm befal him in that old tower. What good was there in imprisoning him?” Answered the Wazir, “Have no care for him. By Allah, no harm will befal him! None at all! Leave him in prison for a month till his temper yield and his spirit be broken and he return to his senses.” As the two spoke behold, up rushed the eunuch, in the aforesaid plight, making to the King who was troubled at sight of him; and he cried “O our lord the Sultan! Verily, thy son’s wits are fled and he hath gone mad, he hath dealt with me thus and thus, so that I am become as thou seest me, and he kept saying, ‘A young lady lay with me this night and stole away secretly whilst I slept. Where is she?’ And he insisteth on my letting him know where she is and on my telling him who took her away. But I have seen neither girl nor boy: the door was locked all through the night, for I slept before it with the key under my head, and I opened to him in the morning with my own hand. When King Shahriman heard this, he cried out, saying, “Alas, my son!;” and he was enraged with sore rage against the Wazir, who had been the cause of all this case and said to him, “Go up, bring me news of my son and see what hath befallen his mind.” So the Wazir rose and, stumbling over his long skirts, in his fear of the King’s wrath, hastened with the slave to the tower. Now the sun had risen and when the Minister came in to Kamar al-Zaman, he found him sitting on the couch reciting the Koran; so he saluted him and seated himself by his side, and said to him, “O my lord, this wretched eunuch brought us tidings which troubled and alarmed us and which incensed the King.” Asked Kamar al-Zaman, “And what hath he told you of me to trouble my father? In good sooth he hath troubled none but me.” Answered the Wazir, “He came to us in fulsome state and told us of thee a thing which Heaven forfend; and the slave added a lie which it befitteth not to repeat, Allah preserve thy youth and sound sense and tongue of eloquence, and forbid to come from thee aught of offense!” Quoth the Prince, “O Wazir, and what thing did this pestilent slave say of me?” The Minister replied, “He told us that thy wits had taken leave of thee and thou wouldst have it that a young lady lay with thee last night, and thou west instant with him to tell thee whither she went and thou diddest torture him to that end.” But when Kamar al-Zaman heard these words, he was enraged with sore rage and he said to the Wazir, “’Tis manifest to me in very deed that you people taught the eunuch to do as he did.”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her per misted say.

When it was the One Hundred and Eighty-eighth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Kamar al-Zaman heard the words of the Wazir he was enraged with sore rage and said to him, “’Tis manifest to me in very deed that you people taught the eunuch to do as he did and forbade him to tell me what became of the young lady who lay with me last night. But thou, O Wazir, art cleverer than the eunuch, so do thou tell me without stay or delay, whither went the young lady who slept on my bosom last night; for it was you who sent her and bade her steep in my embrace and we lay together till dawn; but, when I awoke, I found her not. So where is she now?” Said the Wazir, “O my lord Kamar al-Zaman, Allah’s name encompass thee about! By the Almighty, we sent none to thee last night, but thou layest alone, with the door locked on thee and the eunuch sleeping behind it, nor did there come to thee young lady or any other. Regain thy reason, O my lord, and stablish thy senses and occupy not thy mind with vanities.” Rejoined Kamar al-Zaman who was incensed at his words, “O Wazir, the young lady in question is my beloved, the fair one with the black eyes and rosy cheeks, whom I held in my arms all last night.” So the Minister wondered at his words and asked him, “Didst thou see this damsel last night with shine own eyes on wake or in sleep?” Answered Kamar al-Zaman, “O ill-omened old man, dost thou fancy I saw her with my ears? Indeed, I saw her with my very eyes and awake, and I touched her with my hand, and I watched by her full half the night, feeding my vision on her beauty and loveliness and grace and tempting looks. But you had schooled her and charged her to speak no word to me; so she feigned sleep and I lay by her side till dawn, when I awoke and found her gone.” Rejoined the Wazir, “O my lord Kamar al-Zaman, haply thou sawest this in thy sleep; it must have been a delusion of dreams or a deception caused by eating various kinds of food, or a suggestion of the accursed devils.” Cried the Prince, “O pestilent old man! wilt thou too make a mock of me and tell me this was haply a delusion of dreams, when that eunuch confessed to the young lady, saying, ‘At once I will return to thee and tell thee all about her?’” With these words, he sprang up and rushed at the Wazir and gripped hold of his beard (which was long²⁷³) and, after gripping it, he twisted his hand in it and haling him off the couch, threw him on the floor. It seemed to the Minister as though his soul departed his body for the violent plucking at his beard; and Kamar al-Zaman ceased not kicking the Wazir and basting his breast and ribs and cuffing him with open hand on the nape of his neck till he had well-nigh beaten him to death. Then said the old man in his mind, “Just as the eunuch-slave saved his life from this lunatic youth by telling him a lie, thus it is even fitter that I do likewise; else he will destroy me. So now for my lie to save myself, he being mad beyond a doubt.” Then he turned to Kamar al-Zaman and said, “O my lord, pardon me; for indeed thy father charged me to conceal from thee this affair of the young lady; but now I am weak and weary and wounded with funding; for I am an old man and lack strength and bottom to endure blows. Have, therefore, a little patience with me and I will tell thee all and acquaint thee with the story of the young woman.” When the Prince heard this, he left off drubbing him and said, “Wherefore couldst thou not tell me the tale until after shame and blows? Rise now, unlucky old man that thou art, and tell me her story.” Quoth the Wazir, “Say, dost thou ask of the young lady with the fair face and perfect form?” Quoth Kamar al-Zaman, “Even so! Tell me, O Wazir, who it was that led her to me and laid her by my side, and who was it that took her away from me by night; and let me know forthright whither she is gone, that I myself may go to her at once. If my father did this deed to me that he might try me by means of that beautiful girl, with a view to our marriage, I consent to wed her and free myself of this trouble; for he did all these dealings with me only because I refused wedlock. But now I consent and I say again, I consent to matrimony: so tell this to my father, O Wazir, and advise him to marry me to that young lady; for I will have none other and my heart loveth none save her alone. Now rise up at once and haste thee to my father and counsel him to hurry on our wedding and bring me his answer within this very hour.” Rejoined the Wazir, “’Tis well!” and went forth from him, hardly believing himself out of his hands. Then he set off from the tower, walking and tripping up as he went, for excess of fright and agitation, and he ceased not hurrying till he came in to King Shahriman.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

²⁷³ “‘Long beard and little wits,” is a saying throughout the East where the Kausaj (= man with thin, short beard) is looked upon as cunning and tricksy. There is a venerable Joe Miller about a schoolmaster who, wishing to singe his long beard short, burnt it off and his face to boot:—which reminded him of the saying. A thick beard is defined as one which wholly conceals the skin; and in ceremonial ablution it must be combed out with the fingers till the water reach the roots. The Sunnat, or practice of the Prophet, was to wear the beard not longer than one hand and two fingers’ breadth. In Persian “Kúseh” (thin beard) is an insulting term opposed to “Khush-rísh,” a well-bearded man. The Iranian growth is perhaps the finest in the world, often extending to the waist; but it gives infinite trouble, requiring, for instance, a bag when travelling. The Arab beard is often composed of two tufts on the chin-sides and straggling hairs upon the cheeks; and this is a severe mortification, especially to Shaykhs and elders, who not only look upon the beard as one of man’s characteristics, but attach a religious importance to the appendage. Hence the enormity of Kamar al-Zaman’s behaviour. The Persian festival of the vernal equinox was called Kusehnishín (Thin-beard sitting). An old man with one eye paraded the streets on an ass with a crow in one hand and a scourge and fan in the other, cooling himself, flogging the bystanders and crying heat! heat! (garmá! garmá!). For other particulars see Richardson (Dissertation, p. Iii.). This is the Italian Giorno delle Vecchie, Thursday in Mid Lent, March 12 (1885), celebrating the death of Winter and the birth of Spring.

When it was the One Hundred and Eighty-nineth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir, fared forth from the tower, and ceased not running till he came in to King Shahriman, who said to him as he sighted him, “O thou Wazir, what man hath brought thee to grief and whose mischief hath treated thee in way unlief; how happeneth it that I see thee dumb foundered and coming to me thus astounded?” Replied the Wazir, “O King! I bring thee good news.” “And what is it?” quoth Shahriman, and quoth the Wazir, “Know that thy son Kamar al-Zaman’s wits are clean gone and that he hath become stark mad.” Now when the King heard these words of the Minister, light became darkness in his sight and he said, “O Wazir, make clear to me the nature of his madness.” Answered the Wazir, “O my lord, I hear and I obey.” Then he told him that such and such had passed and acquainted him with all that his son had done; whereupon the King said to him, “Hear, O Wazir, the good tidings which I give thee in return for this thy fair news of my son’s insanity; and it shall be the cutting off of thy head and the forfeiture of my favour, O most ill-omened of Wazirs and foulest of Emirs! for I feel that thou hast caused my son’s disorder by the wicked advice and the sinister counsel thou hast given me first and last. By Allah, if aught of mischief or madness have befallen my son I will most assuredly nail thee upon the palace dome and make thee drain the bitterest draught of death!’’ Then he sprang up and, taking the Wazir, with him, fared straight for the tower and entered it. And when Kamar al-Zaman saw the two, he rose to his father in haste from the couch whereon he sat and kissing his hands drew back and hung down his head and stood before him with his arms behind him, and thus remained for a full hour. Then he raised his head towards his sire; the tears gushed from his eyes and streamed down his cheeks and he began repeating,

“Forgive the sin ‘neath which my limbs are trembling, For the slave seeks for mercy from his master; I’ve done a fault, which calls for free confession, Where shall it call for mercy, and forgiveness?’’²⁷⁴

When the King heard this, he arose and embraced his son, and kissing him between the eyes, made him sit by his side on the couch; then he turned to the Wazir, and, looking on him with eyes of wrath, said, “O dog of Wazirs, how didst thou say of my son such and such things and make my heart quake for him?” Then he turned to the Prince and said, “O my son, what is to-day called?” He answered, “O my father, this day is the Sabbath, and to morrow is First day: then come Second day, Third, Fourth, Fifth day and lastly Friday.”²⁷⁵ Exclaimed the King, “O my son, O Kamar al-Zaman, praised be Allah for the preservation of thy reason! What is the present month called in our Arabic?” “Zú‘l Ka’adah,” answered Kamar al-Zaman, “and it is followed by Zú‘l hijjah; then cometh Muharram, then Safar, then Rabí‘a the First and Rabí‘a the Second, the two Jamádás, Rajab, Sha’aban, Ramazán and Shawwál.” At this the King rejoiced exceedingly and spat in the Wazir’s face, saying, “O wicked old man, how canst thou say that my son is mad? And now none is mad but thou.” Hereupon the Minister shook his head and would have spoken, but bethought himself to wait awhile and see what might next befal. Then the King said to his child, “O my son, what words be these thou saddest to the eunuch and the Wazir, declaring, ‘I was sleeping with a fair damsel this night?’²⁷⁶ What damsel is this of whom thou speakest?” Then Kamar al-Zaman laughed at his father’s words and replied, “O my father, know that I can bear no more jesting; so add me not another mock or even a single word on the matter, for my temper hath waxed short by that you have done with me. And know, O my father, with assured knowledge, that I consent to marry, but on condition that thou give me to wife her who lay by my side this night; for I am certain it was thou sentest her to me and madest me in love with her and then despatchedst a message to her before the dawn and tookest her away from beside me.” Rejoined the King, “The name of Allah encompass thee about, O my son, and be thy wit preserved from witlessness!”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

²⁷⁴ I quote Torrens (p. 400) as these lines have occurred in Night xxxviii.

²⁷⁵ Moslems have only two names for week days, Friday, Al–Jum’ah or meeting-day, and Al–Sabt, Sabbath day, that is Saturday. The others are known by numbers after Quaker fashion with us, the usage of Portugal and Scandinavia.

²⁷⁶ Our last night.

When it was the One Hundred and Ninetieth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that quoth King Shahriman to his son Kamar al-Zaman, “The name of Allah encompass thee about, O my son, and be thy wit preserved from witlessness! What thing be this young lady whom thou fanciest I sent to thee last night and then again that I sent to withdraw her from thee before dawn? By the Lord, O my son, I know nothing of this affair, and Allah upon thee, tell me if it be a delusion of dreaming or a deception caused by indisposition. For verily thou layest down to sleep last night with thy mind occupied anent marriage and troubled with the talk of it (Allah damn marriage and the hour when I spake of it and curse him who counselled it!); and without doubt or diffidence I can say that being moved in mind by the mention of wedlock thou dreamedst that a handsome young lady embraced thee and didst fancy thou sawest her when awake. But all this, O my son, is but an imbroglio of dreams.” Replied Kamar al-Zaman, “Leave this talk and swear to me by Allah, the All creator, the Omniscient; the Humbler of the tyrant Caesars and the Destroyer of the Chosroes, that thou knowest naught of the young lady nor of her woning-place.” Quoth the King, “By the Might of Allah Almighty, the God of Moses and Abraham, I know naught of all this and never even heard of it; it is assuredly a delusion of dreams thou hast seen in sleep.’ Then the Prince replied to his sire, “I will give thee a self evident proof that it happened to me when on wake.”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.