On Sun and Moon of palace cast thy sight,
Enjoy her flowerlike face, her fragrant light.
Thine eyes shall never see in hair so black
Beauty encase a brow so purely white.
The ruddy rosy cheek proclaims her claim,
Though fail her name whose beauties we indite.
As sways her gait, I smile at hips so big
And weep to see the waist they bear so slight.
When the porter looked upon her, his wits were waylaid and his
senses were stormed so that his crate went nigh to fall from his head,
and he said to himself, "Never have I in my life seen a day more
blessed than this day!" Then quoth the lady portress to the lady
cateress, "Come in from the gate and relieve this poor man of his
load." So the provisioner went in, followed by the portress and the
porter, and went on till they reached a spacious ground-floor hall,
built with admirable skill and beautified with all manner colors and
carvings, with upper balconies and groined arches and galleries and
cupboards and recesses whose curtains hung before them. In the midst
stood a great basin full of water surrounding a fine fountain, and
at the upper end on the raised dais was a couch of juniper wood set
with gems and pearls, with a canopy like mosquito curtains of red
satin-silk looped up with pearls as big as filberts and bigger.
Thereupon sat a lady bright of blee, with brow beaming brilliancy,
the dream of philosophy, whose eyes were fraught with Babel's gramarye
and her eyebrows were arched as for archery. Her breath breathed
ambergris and perfumery and her lips were sugar to taste and carnelian
to see. Her stature was straight as the letter l and her face shamed
the noon sun's radiancy; and she was even as a galaxy, or a dome
with golden marquetry, or a bride displayed in choicest finery, or a
noble maid of Araby. The third lady, rising from the couch, stepped
forward with graceful swaying gait till she reached the middle of
the saloon, when she said to her sisters: "Why stand ye here? Take
it down from this poor man's head!" Then the cateress went and stood
before him and the portress behind him while the third helped them,
and they lifted the load from the porter's head, and, emptying it of
all that was therein, set everything in its place. Lastly they gave
him two gold pieces, saying, "Wend thy ways, O Porter."
But he went not, for he stood looking at the ladies and admiring
what uncommon beauty was theirs, and their pleasant manners and kindly
dispositions (never had he seen goodlier). And he gazed wistfully at
that good store of wines and sweet-scented flowers and fruits and
other matters. Also he marveled with exceeding marvel, especially to
see no man in the place, and delayed his going, whereupon quoth the
eldest lady: "What aileth thee that goest not? Haply thy wage be too
little?" And, turning to her sister, the cateress, she said, "Give him
another dinar!" But the porter answered: "By Allah, my lady, it is not
for the wage, my hire is never more than two dirhams, but in very
sooth my heart and my soul are taken up with you and your condition. I
wonder to see you single with ne'er a man about you and not a soul
to bear you company. And well you wot that the minaret toppleth o'er
unless it stand upon four, and you want this same fourth, and
women's pleasure without man is short of measure, even as the poet
said:
"Seest not we want for joy four things all told-
The harp and lute, the flute and flageolet-
And be they companied with scents fourfold,
Rose, myrtle, anemone, and violet.
Nor please all eight an four thou wouldst withhold-
Good wine and youth and gold and pretty pet.
"You be three and want a fourth who shall be a person of good sense and prudence, smart-witted, and one apt to keep careful counsel." His words pleased and amused them much, and they laughed at him and said: "And who is to assure us of that? We are maidens, and we fear to entrust our secret where it may not be kept, for we have read in a certain chronicle the lines of one Ibn al-Sumam:
"Hold fast thy secret and to none unfold,
Lost is a secret when that secret's told.
An fail thy breast thy secret to conceal,
How canst thou hope another's breast shall hold?"
When the porter heard their words, he rejoined: "By your lives! I am a man of sense and a discreet, who hath read books and perused chronicles. I reveal the fair and conceal the foul and I act as the poet adviseth:
"None but the good a secret keep,
And good men keep it unrevealed.
It is to me a well-shut house
With keyless locks and door ensealed."
When the maidens heard his verse and its poetical application addressed to them, they said: "Thou knowest that we have laid out all our moneys on this place. Now say, hast thou aught to offer us in return for entertainment? For surely we will not suffer thee to sit in our company and be our cup companion, and gaze upon our faces so fair and so rare, without paying a round sum. Wettest thou not the saying:
"Sans hope of gain
Love's not worth a grain"?
Whereto the lady portress added, "If thou bring anything, thou art a
something; if no thing, be off with thee, thou art a nothing." But the
procuratrix interposed, saying: "Nay, O my sisters, leave teasing him,
for by Allah he hath not failed us this day, and had he been other
he never had kept patience with me, so whatever be his shot and scot I
will take it upon myself."
The porter, overjoyed, kissed the ground before her and thanked her,
saying, "By Allah, these moneys are the first fruits this day hath
given me." Hearing this, they said, "Sit thee down and welcome to
thee," and the eldest lady added: "By Allah, we may not suffer thee to
join us save on one condition, and this it is, that no questions be
asked as to what concerneth thee not, and frowardness shall be soundly
flogged." Answered the porter: "I agree to this, O my lady. On my head
and my eyes be it! Look ye, I am dumb, I have no tongue." Then arose
the provisioneress and, tightening her girdle, set the table by the
fountain and put the flowers and sweet herbs in their jars, and
strained the wine and ranged the flasks in rows and made ready every
requisite. Then sat she down, she and her sisters, placing amidst them
the porter, who kept deeming himself in a dream. And she took up the
wine flagon and poured out the first cup and drank it off, and
likewise a second and a third. After this she filled a fourth cup,
which she handed to one of her sisters, and lastly, she crowned a
goblet and passed it to the porter, saying:
"Drink the dear draught, drink free and fain
What healeth every grief and pain."
He took the cup in his hand and, Touting low, returned his best thanks and improvised:
"Drain not the bowl save with a trusty friend,
A man of worth whose good old blood all know.
For wine, like wind, sucks sweetness from the sweet
And stinks when over stench it haply blow."
Adding:
"Drain not the bowl, save from dear hand like thine,
The cup recalls thy gifts, thou, gifts of wine."
After repeating this couplet he kissed their hands and drank and was drunk and sat swaying from side to side and pursued:
"All drinks wherein is blood the Law unclean
Doth hold save one, the bloodshed of the vine.
Fill! Fill! Take all my wealth bequeathed or won,
Thou fawn! a willing ransome for those eyne."
Then the cateress crowned a cup and gave it to the portress, who took it from her hand and thanked her and drank. Thereupon she poured again and passed to the eldest lady, who sat on the couch, and filled yet another and handed it to the porter. He kissed the ground before them, and after drinking and thanking them, he again began to recite:
"Here! Here! By Allah, here!
Cups of the sweet, the dear!
Fill me a brimming bowl,
The Fount o' Life I speer."
Then the porter stood up before the mistress of the house and said, "O lady, I am thy slave, thy Mameluke, thy white thrall, thy very bondsman," and he began reciting:
"A slave of slaves there standeth at thy door,
Lauding thy generous boons and gifts galore.
Beauty! May he come in awhile to 'joy
Thy charms? For Love and I part nevermore!"
Then the lady took the cup and drank it off to her sisters'
health, and they ceased not drinking (the porter being in the midst of
them) and dancing and laughing and reciting verses and singing ballads
and ritornellos. All this time the porter was carrying on with them,
kissing, toying, biting, handling, groping, fingering whilst one
thrust a dainty morsel in his mouth and another slapped him, and
this cuffed his cheeks, and that threw sweet flowers at him. And he
was in the very paradise of pleasure, as though he were sitting in the
seventh sphere among the houris of Heaven. And they ceased not to be
after this fashion till night began to fall. Thereupon said they to
the porter, "Bismillah, O our master, up and on with those sorry old
shoes of thine and turn thy face and show us the breadth of thy
shoulders!" Said he: "By Allah, to part with my soul would be easier
for me than departing from you. Come, let us join night to day, and
tomorrow morning we will each wend our own way." "My life on you,"
said the procuratrix, "suffer him to tarry with us, that we may
laugh at him. We may live out our lives and never meet with his
like, for surely he is a right merry rogue and a witty." So they said:
"Thou must not remain with us this night save on condition that thou
submit to our commands, and that whatso thou seest, thou ask no
questions thereanent, nor inquire of its cause." "All right," rejoined
he, and they said, "Go read the writing over the door."
So he rose and went to the entrance and there found written in
letters of gold wash: WHOSO SPEAKETH OF WHAT CONCERNETH HIM NOT
SHALL HEAR WHAT PLEASETH HIM NOT! The porter said, "Be ye witnesses
against me that I will not speak on whatso concerneth me not." Then
the cateress arose and set food before them and they ate. After
which they changed their drinking place for another, and she lighted
the lamps and candles and burned ambergris and aloe wood, and set on
fresh fruit and the wine service, when they fell to carousing and
talking of their lovers. And they ceased not to eat and drink and
chat, nibbling dry fruits and laughing and playing tricks for the
space of a full hour, when lo! a knock was heard at the gate.
The knocking in no wise disturbed the seance, but one of them rose
and went to see what it was and presently returned, saying, "Truly our
pleasure for this night is to be perfect." "How is that?" asked
they, and she answered: "At the gate be three Persian Kalandars with
their beards and heads and eyebrows shaven, and all three blind of the
left eye- which is surely a strange chance. They are foreigners from
Roumland with the mark of travel plain upon them. They have just
entered Baghdad, this being their first visit to our city, and the
cause of their knocking at our door is simply because they cannot find
a lodging. Indeed one of them said to me: 'Haply the owner of this
mansion will let us have the key of his stable or some old outhouse
wherein we may pass this night.' For evening had surprised them and,
being strangers in the land, they knew none who would give them
shelter. And, O my sisters, each of them is a figure o' fun after
his own fashion, and if we let them in we shall have matter to make
sport of." She gave not over persuading them till they said to her:
"Let them in, and make thou the usual condition with them that they
speak not of what concerneth them not, lest they hear what pleased
them not."
So she rejoiced and, going to the door, presently returned with
the three monoculars whose beards and mustachios were clean-shaven.
They salaamed and stood afar off by way of respect, but the three
ladies rose up to them and welcomed them and wished them joy of
their safe arrival and made them sit down. The Kalandars looked at the
room and saw that it was a pleasant place, clean-swept and garnished
with flowers, and the lamps were burning and the smoke of perfumes was
spiring in air, and beside the dessert and fruits and wine, there were
three fair girls who might be maidens. So they exclaimed with one
voice, "By Allah, 'tis good!" Then they turned to the porter and saw
that he was a merry-faced wight, albeit he was by no means sober and
was sore after his slappings. So they thought that he was one of
themselves and said, "A mendicant like us, whether Arab or foreigner!"
But when the porter heard these words, he rose up and, fixing his
eyes fiercely upon them, said: "Sit ye here without exceeding in talk!
Have you not read what is writ over the door? Surely it befitteth
not fellows who come to us like paupers to wag your tongues at us."
"We crave thy pardon, O Fakir," rejoined they, "and our heads are
between thy hands." The ladies laughed consumedly at the squabble and,
making peace between the Kalandars and the porter, seated the new
guests before meat, and they ate. Then they sat together, and the
portress served them with drink, and as the cup went round merrily,
quoth the porter to the askers, "And you, O brothers mine, have ye
no story or rare adventure to amuse us withal?"
Now the warmth of wine having mounted to their heads, they called
for musical instruments, and the portress brought them a tambourine of
Mosul, and a lute of Irak, and a Persian harp. And each mendicant took
one and tuned it, this the tambourine and those the lute and the harp,
and struck up a merry tune while the ladies sang so lustily that there
was a great noise. And whilst they were carrying on, behold, someone
knocked at the gate, and the portress went to see what was the
matter there.
Now the cause of that knocking, O King (quoth Scheherazade) was
this, the Caliph Harun al-Rashid had gone forth from the palace, as
was his wont now and then, to solace himself in the city that night,
and to see and hear what new thing was stirring. He was in
merchant's gear, and he was attended by Ja'afar, his Wazir, and by
Masrur, his Sworder of Vengeance. As they walked about the city, their
way led them toward the house of the three ladies, where they heard
the loud noise of musical instruments and singing and merriment. So
quoth the Caliph to Ja'afar, "I long to enter this house and hear
those songs and see who sing them." Quoth Ja'afar, "O Prince of the
Faithful, these folk are surely drunken with wine, and I fear some
mischief betide us if we get amongst them." "There is no help but that
I go in there," replied the Caliph, "and I desire thee to contrive
some pretext for our appearing among them." Ja'afar replied, "I hear
and I obey," and knocked at the door, whereupon the portress came
out and opened. Then Ja'afar came forward and, kissing the ground
before her, said, "O my lady, we be merchants from Tiberias town. We
arrived at Baghdad ten days ago and, alighting at the merchants'
caravanserai, we sold all our merchandise. Now a certain trader
invited us to an entertainment this night, so we went to his house and
he set food before us and we ate. Then we sat at wine and wassail with
him for an hour or so when he gave us leave to depart. And we went out
from him in the shadow of the night and, being strangers, we could not
find our way back to our khan. So haply of your kindness and
courtesy you will suffer us to tarry with you this night, and Heaven
will reward you!"
The portress looked upon them and, seeing them dressed like
merchants and men of gave looks and solid, she returned to her sisters
and repeated to them Ja'afar's story, and they took compassion upon
the strangers and said to her, "Let them enter." She opened the door
to them, when said they to her, "Have we thy leave to come in?"
"Come in," quoth she, and the Caliph entered, followed by Ja'afar
and Masrur. And when the girls saw them they stood up to them in
respect and made them sit down and looked to their wants, saying,
"Welcome, and well come and good cheer to the guests, but with one
condition!" "What is that?" asked they, and one of the ladies
answered, "Speak not of what concerneth you not, lest ye hear what
pleaseth you not." "Even so," said they, and sat down to their wine
and drank deep.
Presently the Caliph looked on the three Kalandars and, seeing them,
each and every blind of the left eye, wondered at the sight. Then he
gazed upon the girls, and he was startled and he marveled with
exceeding marvel at their beauty and loveliness. They continued to
carouse and to converse, and said to the Caliph, "Drink!" But he
replied, "I am vowed to pilgrimage," and drew back from the wine.
Thereupon the portress rose and, spreading before him a tablecloth
worked with gold, set thereon a porcelain bowl into which she poured
willow-flower water with a lump of snow and a spoonful of sugar candy.
The Caliph thanked her and said in himself, "By Allah, I will
recompense her tomorrow for the kind deed she hath done." The others
again addressed themselves to conversing and carousing, and when the
wine gat the better of them, the eldest lady, who ruled the house,
rose and, making obeisance to them, took the cateress by the hand
and said, "Rise, O my sister, and let us do what is our devoir."
Both answered "Even so!"
Then the portress stood up and proceeded to remove the table service
and the remnants of the banquet, and renewed the pastilies and cleared
the middle of the saloon. Then she made the Kalandars sit upon a
sofa at the side of the estrade, and seated the Caliph and Ja'afar and
Masrur on the other side of the saloon, after which she called the
porter, and said: "How scant is thy courtesy! Now thou art no
stranger- nay, thou art one of the household." So he stood up and,
tightening his waistcloth, asked, "What would ye I do?" And she
answered, "Stand in thy place." Then the procuratrix rose and set in
the midst of the saloon a low chair and, opening a closet, cried to
the porter, "Come help me."
So he went to help her and saw two black bitches with chains round
their necks, and she said to him, "Take hold of them," and he took
them and led them into the middle of the saloon. Then the lady of
the house arose and tucked up her sleeves above her wrists and,
seizing a scourge, said to the porter, "Bring forward one of the
bitches." He brought her forward, dragging her by the chain, while the
bitch wept and shook her head at the lady, who, however, came down
upon her with blows on the sconce. And the bitch howled and the lady
ceased not beating her till her forearm failed her. Then, casting
the scourge from her hand, she pressed the bitch to her bosom and,
wiping away her tears with her hands, kissed her head. Then said she
to the porter, "Take her away and bring the second." And when he
brought her, she did with her as she had done with the first.
Now the heart of the Caliph was touched at these cruel doings. His
chest straitened and he lost all patience in his desire to know why
the two bitches were so beaten. He threw a wink at Ja'afar, wishing
him to ask, but the Minister, turning toward him, said by signs, "Be
silent!" Then quoth the portress to the mistress of the house, "O my
lady, arise and go to thy place, that I in turn may do my devoir." She
answered, "Even so," and, taking her seat upon the couch of juniper
wood, pargetted with gold and silver, said to the portress and
cateress, "Now do ye what ye have to do." Thereupon the portress sat
upon a low seat by the couch side, but the procuratrix, entering a
closet, brought out of it a bag of satin with green fringes and two
tassels of gold. She stood up before the lady of the house and,
shaking the bag, drew out from it a lute which she tuned by tightening
its pegs; and when it was in perfect order, she began to sing these
quatrains:
"Ye are the wish, the aim of me,
And when, O love, thy sight I see,
The heavenly mansion openeth,
But Hell I see when lost thy sight.
From thee comes madness, nor the less
Comes highest joy, comes ecstasy.
Nor in my love for thee I fear
Or shame and blame, or hate and spite.
When Love was throned within my heart
I rent the veil of modesty,
And stints not Love to rend that veil,
Garring disgrace on grace to alight.
The robe of sickness then I donned,
But rent to rags was secrecy.
Wherefore my love and longing heart
Proclaim your high supremest might.
The teardrop railing adown my cheek
Telleth my tale of ignomy.
And all the hid was seen by all
And all my riddle ree'd aright.
Heal then my malady, for thou
Art malady and remedy!
But she whose cure is in thy hand
Shall ne'er be free of bane and blight.
Burn me those eyne that radiance rain,
Slay me the swords of phantasy.
How many hath the sword of Love
Laid low, their high degree despite?
Yet will I never cease to pine,
Nor to oblivion will I flee.
Love is my health, my faith, my joy,
Public and private, wrong or right.
O happy eyes that sight thy charms,
That gaze upon thee at their gree!
Yea, of my purest wish and will
The slave of Love I'll aye be hight."
When the damsel heard this elegy in quatrains, she cried out
"Alas! Alas!" and rent her raiment, and fell to the ground fainting.
And the Caliph saw scars of the palm rod on her back and welts of
the whip, and marveled with exceeding wonder. Then the portress
arose and sprinkled water on her and brought her a fresh and very fine
dress and put it on her. But when the company beheld these doings,
their minds were troubled, for they had no inkling of the case nor
knew the story thereof. So the Caliph said to Ja'afar: "Didst thou not
see the scars upon the damsel's body? I cannot keep silence or be at
rest till I learn the truth of her condition and the story of this
other maiden and the secret of the two black bitches." But Ja'afar
answered: "O our lord, they made it a condition with us that we
speak not of what concerneth us not, lest we come to hear what
pleaseth us not."
Then said the portress, "By Allah, O my sister, come to me and
complete this service for me." Replied the procuratrix, "With joy
and goodly gree." So she took the lute and leaned it against her
breasts and swept the strings with her finger tips, and began singing:
"Give back mine eyes their sleep long ravished,
And say me whither be my reason fled.
I learnt that lending to thy love a place,
Sleep to mine eyelids mortal foe was made.
They said, `We held thee righteous. Who waylaid
Thy soul?' 'Go ask his glorious eyes,' I said.
I pardon all my blood he pleased to shed.
Owning his troubles drove him blood to shed.
On my mind's mirror sunlike sheen he cast,
Whose keen reflection fire in vitals bred.
Waters of Life let Allah waste at will,
Suffice my wage those lips of dewy red.
And thou address my love thou'lt find a cause
For plaint and tears or ruth or lustilied.
In water pure his form shall greet your eyne,
When fails the bowl nor need ye drink of wine."
Then she quoted from the same ode:
"I drank, but the draught of his glance, not wine,
And his swaying gait swayed to sleep these eyne.
'Twas not grape juice gript me but grasp of Past,
'Twas not bowl o'erbowled me but gifts divine.
His coiling curllets my soul ennetted
And his cruel will all my wits outwitted."
After a pause she resumed:
"If we 'plain of absence, what shall we say?
Or if pain afflict us, where wend our way?
An I hire a truchman to tell my tale,
The lovers' plaint is not told for pay.
If I put on patience, a lover's life
After loss of love will not last a day.
Naught is left me now but regret, repine,
And tears flooding cheeks forever and aye.
O thou who the babes of these eyes hast fled,
Thou art homed in heart that shall never stray.
Would Heaven I wot hast thou kept our pact
Long as stream shall flow, to have firmest fay?
Or hast forgotten the weeping slave,
Whom groans afflict and whom griefs waylay?
Ah, when severance ends and we side by side
Couch, I'll blame thy rigors and chide thy pride!"
Now when the portress heard her second ode, she shrieked aloud and said: "By Allah! 'Tis right good!" and, laying hands on her garments, tore them as she did the first time, and fell to the ground fainting. Thereupon the procuratrix rose and brought her a second change of clothes after she had sprinkled water on her. She recovered and sat upright and said to her sister the cateress, "Onward, and help me in my duty, for there remains but this one song." So the provisioneress again brought out the lute and began to sing these verses:
"How long shall last, how long this rigor rife of woe
May not suffice thee all these tears thou seest flow?
Our parting thus with purpose fell thou dost prolong
Is't not enough to glad the heart of envious foe?
Were but this lying world once true to lover heart,
He had not watched the weary night in tears of woe.
Oh, pity me whom overwhelmed thy cruel will,
My lord, my king, 'tis time some ruth to me thou show.
To whom reveal my wrongs, O thou who murdered me?
Sad, who of broken troth the pangs must undergo!
Increase wild love for thee and frenzy hour by hour,
And days of exile minute by so long, so slow.
O Moslems, claim vendetta for this slave of Love,
Whose sleep Love ever wastes, whose patience Love lays low.
Doth law of Love allow thee, O my wish! to lie
Lapt in another's arms and unto me cry 'Go!'?
Yet in thy presence, say, what joys shall I enjoy
When he I love but works my love to overthrow?"
When the portress heard the third song, she cried aloud and,
laying hands on her garments, rent them down to the very skirt and
fell to the ground fainting a third time, again showing the scars of
the scourge. Then said the three Kalandars, "Would Heaven we had never
entered this house, but had rather nighted on the mounds and heaps
outside the city! For verily our visit hath been troubled by sights
which cut to the heart." The Caliph turned to them and asked, "Why
so?" and they made answer, "Our minds are sore troubled by this
matter." Quoth the Caliph, "Are ye not of the household?" and quoth
they, "No, nor indeed did we ever set eyes on the place till within
this hour." Hereat the Caliph marveled and rejoined, "This man who
sitteth by you, would he not know the secret of the matter?" And so
saying he winked and made signs at the porter. So they questioned
the man, but he replied: "By the All-might of Allah, in love all are
alike! I am the growth of Baghdad, yet never in my born days did I
darken these doors till today, and my companying with them was a
curious matter." "By Allah," they rejoined, "we took thee for one of
them and now we see thou art one like ourselves."
Then said the Caliph: "We be seven men, and they only three women
without even a fourth to help them, so let us question them of their
case. And if they answer us not, fain we will be answered by force."
All of them agreed to this except Ja'afar, who said, "This is not my
recking. Let them be, for we are their guests and, as ye know, they
made a compact and condition with us which we accepted and promised to
keep. Wherefore it is better that we be silent concerning this matter,
and as but little of the night remaineth, let each and every of us
gang his own gait." Then he winked at the Caliph and whispered to him,
"There is but one hour of darkness left and I can bring them before
thee tomorrow, when thou canst freely question them all concerning
their story." But the Caliph raised his head haughtily and cried out
at him in wrath, saying: "I have no patience left for my longing to
hear of them. Let the Kalandars question them forthright." Quoth
Ja'afar, "This is not my rede."
Then words ran high and talk answered talk, and they disputed as
to who should first put the question, but at last all fixed upon the
porter. And as the jangle increased the house mistress could not but
notice it and asked them, "O ye folk! On what matter are ye talking so
loudly?" Then the porter stood up respectfully before her and said: "O
my lady, this company earnestly desire that thou acquaint them with
story of the two bitches and what maketh thee punish them so
cruelly, and then thou fallest to weeping over them and kissing
them. And lastly, they want to hear the tale of thy sister and why she
hath been bastinadoed with palm sticks like a man. These are the
questions they charge me to put, and peace be with thee." Thereupon
quoth she who was the lady of the house to the guests, "Is this true
that he saith on your part?" and all replied, "Yes!" save Ja'afar, who
kept silence.
When she heard these words she cried: "By Allah, ye have wronged us,
O our guests, with grievous wronging, for when you came before us we
made compact and condition with you that whoso should speak of what
concerneth him not should hear what pleaseth him not. Sufficeth ye not
that we took you into our house and fed you with our best food? But
the fault is not so much yours as hers who let you in." Then she
tucked up her sleeves from her wrists and struck the floor thrice with
her hand, crying, "Come ye quickly!" And lo! a closet door opened
and out of it came seven Negro slaves with drawn swords in hand, to
whom she said, "Pinion me those praters' elbows and bind them each
to each." They did her bidding and asked her: "O veiled and
virtuous! Is it thy high command that we strike off their heads?"
But she answered, "Leave them awhile that I question them of their
condition before their necks feel the sword." "By Allah, O my lady!"
cried the porter, "slay me not for other's sin. All these men offended
and deserve the penalty of crime save myself. Now, by Allah, our night
had been charming had we escaped the mortification of those
monocular Kalandars whose entrance into a populous city would
convert it into a howling wilderness." Then he repeated these verses:
"How fair is ruth the strong man deigns not smother!
And fairest fair when shown to weakest brother.
By Love's own holy tie between us twain,
Let one not suffer for the sin of other."
When the porter ended his verse, the lady laughed despite her wrath,
and came up to the party and spake thus: "Tell me who ye be, for ye
have but an hour of life. And were ye not men of rank and perhaps
notables of your tribes, you had not been so froward and I had
hastened your doom." Then said the Caliph: "Woe to thee, O Ja'afar,
tell her who we are lest we be slain by mistake, and speak her fair
before some horror befall us." "'Tis part of thy deserts," replied he,
whereupon the Caliph cried out at him, saying, "There is a time for
witty words and there is a time for serious work." Then the lady
accosted the three Kalandars and asked them, "Are ye brothers?" when
they answered, "No, by Allah, we be naught but fakirs and foreigners."
Then quoth she to one among them, "Wast thus born blind of one eye?"
and quoth he, "No, by Allah, 'twas a marvelous matter and a wondrous
mischance which caused my eye to be torn out, and mine is a tale
which, if it were written upon the eye corners with needle gravers,
were a warner to whoso would be warned." She questioned the second and
third Kalandar, but all replied like the first, "By Allah, O our
mistress, each one of us cometh from a different country, and we are
all three the sons of kings, sovereign princes ruling over suzerains
and capital cities."
Thereupon she turned toward them and said: "Let each and every of
you tell me his tale in due order and explain the cause of his
coming to our place, and if his story please us, let him stroke his
head and wend his way." The first to come forward was the hammal,
the porter, who said: "O my lady, I am a man and a porter. This
dame, the cateress, hired me to carry a load and took me first to
the shop of a vintner, then to the booth of a butcher, thence to the
stall of a fruiterer, thence to a grocer who also sold dry fruits,
thence to a confectioner and a perfumer-cum-druggist, and from him
to this place, where there happened to me with you what happened. Such
is my story, and peace be on us all!" At this the lady laughed and
said, "Rub thy head and wend thy ways!" But he cried, "By Allah, I
will not stump it till I hear the stories of my companions!" Then came
forward one of the monoculars and began to tell her
The First Kalandar's Tale.