The Tale of the Porter and the Young Girls
stopped eventually before the door of a house. She knocked at the door and immediately a Christian opened to her, who gave her, in exchange for a d(n&r, a great measure of olive-clear wine which she put into the basket, saying to the porter: ‘Lift and follow me.’ ‘By All&h, this is a day of days!’ exclaimed the porter, as he lifted his basket and followed the girl. Arrived at the stall of a fruiterer, she bought Syrian apples, Osm&ni quinces, peaches from Uman, jasmine of Aleppo, Damascene nenuphars, cucumbers from the Nile, limes from Egypt, Sult&n( citrons, myrtle berries, flowers of henna, bloodred anemones, violets, pomegranate bloom, and the narcissus. All these she put into the porter’s basket, and said: ‘Lift!’; so he lifted and followed her until she came to a butcher’s stall. Here she said: ‘Cut me ten pounds of mutton.’ So they cut her ten pounds which she wrapped in banana leaves and put into the IHINDI-BOOKS
basket, and said: ‘Lift!’ He lifted and followed her to an almond seller, from whom she bought every kind of almond that there is. Then the porter followed her to a sweetmeat seller from whom she bought a great platter which she covered with things from the stall: openwork sugar tarts with butter, velvet pastries perfumed with musk and stuffed deliciously, s&b*n(yah biscuits, small cakes, lime tarts, honey-tasting jam, those sweets called 51 THE TALE OF THE PORTER AND THE YOUNG GIRLS mushabbak, little souffléd patties called lukaim&tal-K&d(, and those others named combs of Zainab which are made with butter and mingled with milk and honey. All these pleasant things she put upon the platter and then placed the platter in the basket. ‘If you had told me, I would have brought a mule,’ said the porter. Smiling at his jest, she stopped at the stall of a distiller of perfumes and bought ten sorts of IHINDI-BOOKS
waters, rose water, water of orange flowers, willow flower, violet and other kinds; she bought also a spray of rose-musk-scented water, grains of male incense, aloe wood, ambergris and musk; finally she selected candles of Alexandrian wax and put all in the basket, saying: ‘Lift and follow!’ Obediently the porter took up his basket and followed the young lady until she came to a splendid palace, having a great court set in an inner garden; it was tall, magnificent and foursquare, and the door had two leaves of ebony, plated with plates of red gold. The young girl rapped gently upon the door and it flew wide open. Then the porter looked at her who had opened the door and saw that she was a child having a slim and gracious body, the very model of all a young girl should be, not only for her round and prominent IHINDI-BOOKS
breasts, not only for her beauty and her air of breeding, but also for the perfection of her waist and of her carriage. Her brow was as white as the first ray fallen from the new moon, her eyes were the eyes of a gazelle, and the brows above them were as the crescent moons of Ramad&n. Her cheeks were anemones, her mouth the scarlet seal of Sulaim&n, her face pale as the full moon when she first rises above the grasses, her breasts twin passion-fruit. As for her young white pliant belly, it lay hid beneath her robe like some precious love letter in a silken case. Seeing her, the porter felt that he was losing his wits and nearly let the basket slip from his shoulders. ‘As All&h lives, this is the most blessed day of all my life!’ he said. Standing within, the young portress said to her sister the cateress and also to the porter: ‘Enter, and be your welcome as great as it is good!’ They went in and came at last to an ample hall
giving on the central court, hung over with silk brocade and gold brocade, and full of fair gold-crusted furniture. There were vases and carved seats, curtains and close-shut presses all about it, and in the middle a marble couch, inlaid with pearl and diamond, covered with a red satin quilt. On the bed lay a third girl who exceeded all the marvel that a girl can be. Her eyes were Babylonian, for all witchcraft
has its seat in THE THOUSAND NIGHTS AND ONE NIGHT 52 Babylon. Her body was slim as the letter alif, her face so fair as to confuse the bright sun. She was as a star among the shining of the stars, a true Arabian woman, as the poet says: Who sings your slender body is a reed His simile a little misses, Reeds must be naked to be fair indeed While your sweet garments are but added blisses. Who sings your body is a slender bough Also commits a kindred folly, Boughs to be fair must have green leaves enow And you, my white one, must be naked wholly. The young girl got up from the bed, moved a few paces into the middle of the hall until she was near her two sisters and then said to them: ‘Why are you standing still like this? Take the basket from the porter’s head.’ Then the cateress came in front of the
porter, the portress came behind him and, helped by their third sister, they relieved him of his burden. When they had taken everything out of the basket, they arranged all neatly and gave two d(n&rs to the porter, saying: ‘Turn and be gone, O porter!’ But he looked at the young girls, admiring the perfection of their beauty, and thought that he had never seen the like. He noticed that there was no man with them and, marvelling at all the drinks, fruits, perfumed flowers, and other good things, had no desire to go away. The eldest of the girls said: ‘Why do you not go? Do you find your payment too little?’ and then, turning to her sister the cateress: ‘Give him a third d(n&r.’ But the porter said: ‘As All&h lives, fair ladies, my ordinary pay is but two half d(n&rs; you have paid me well enough and yet all my heart and the inner parts of my soul are troubled about you. I cannot help asking myself what this life of yours is, that you live alone and have no man here to bear you human company. Do you not know that a minaret is of no value unless it be one of the four minarets of a mosque? You are but three, my ladies, you need a fourth. Women cannot be truly happy without men. The poet has said: “There can be no harmony save
with four joined instruments: the lute, the harp, the cithern and flagiolet.” Now you are only three, my ladies; you need a flagiolet, a fourth instrument, a man of discretion, full both of sentiment and intellect, a gifted artist with sealed lips!’ 53 THE TALE OF THE PORTER AND THE YOUNG GIRLS ‘But, porter,’ said the young girls, ‘do you not know that we are virgins and so are fearful of confiding ourselves to the indiscretion of a man? We also have read the poets, and they say: “Confide in none; a secret told is a secret spoiled.”’ Hearing this, the porter cried: ‘I swear on your dear lives, my ladies, th
at I am a man sure, faithful and discreet, one who has studied the annals and read books. I speak of only pleasing things and am carefully silent about all the rest. I act up always to the saying of the poet: I know the duties of high courtesy, Your dearest secrets shall be safe with me; I’ll shut them in a little inner room And seal the lock and throw away the key. Their hearts were much moved towards the porter when they heard his verses and all the rhymes and rhythms he recited, and in jest they said: ‘You must know that we have spent a great sum of money on this place. Have you the silver to pay us back? For
we would not ask you to sit with us unless you paid the reckoning. We take it you desire to stay here, to become our companion in the wine and, above all, to keep us waking all the night until the shadow of the dawn fall on our faces.’ ‘Love without gold is a poor makeweight in the scales,’ added the eldest of the girls, the mistress of the house; and the portress said: ‘If you have nothing, get you gone with nothing!’ But here the cateress interrupted, saying: ‘Let us leave this joke, my sisters. As All&h lives, this boy has not spoiled our day and another might not have been so patient. I myself will undertake to pay for him.’ At this the porter rejoiced with all his heart and said to the cateress: ‘By All&h, I owe this wonderful bargain all to you!’ ‘Stay with us, then, brave porter,’ she replied, ‘and rest assured that you shall be the darling of our eyes.’ So saying, she rose and, after clasping his waist, began to arrange the flasks, to clarify and pour the wine, and to set places for the feast near a pool of water in the centre of the hall. She brought in everything of which they might have need, handed the wine, and saw that all
were seated. The porter with these girls on every hand thought that he was dreaming in his sleep. Soon the cateress took the wine flagon and filled a cup from which each drank three times. Then she filled it afresh and passed it to her sisters and then to the porter, who drank and said these lines: THE THOUSAND NIGHTS AND ONE NIGHT 54 In this red wine is liveliness And strength and well-being, In this red wine is all caress And every wanton thing; Drink deep and you will find, I trust, In this red wine is very lust. On this he kissed the hands of the three girls and drained die cup. Then he went up to the mistress of the house, saying: ‘Mistress, I am your slave, your thing, your chattel!’ and he recited, in her honour, this stanza of a certain poet: I stand most like a slave Outside your door, Must I an entrance crave In vain for ever more? There is one gift I have— I stand most like a slave. Then, ‘Drink
, my friend,’ said she, ‘and may the wine be sweet and wholesome in its going down: may it give you strength to set out upon that road where lies all bodily well-being.’ The porter took the cup, kissed the
girl’s hand and, in a sweetly-modulated voice, sang very low these verses of the poet: I gave my love a wine Splendidly red as are her cheeks, I said; Then she: ‘I cannot drink these cheeks of mine.’ ‘Ah, let me speak,’ I said, ‘Thou can’st not drink those cheeks of thine; Then drink these tears and blood of mine!’ Again the young girl took the cup to the porter and, after holding it to his lips, sat down beside her sister. Soon they began to dance and sing and to play with the wonderful petals, the porter all the time taking them in his arms and kissing them, while one said saucy things to him, another drew him to her, and the third beat him with flowers. They went on drinking until the grape sat throned above their reason, and, when her reign was fully established, the portress rose and stripped off all her clothes until she was naked. Jumping into the water of the fountain, she began to play with it, taking it in her mouth and blowing 55 THE TALE OF THE PORTER AND THE YOUNG GIRLS it noisily at the porter,
washing all her body, and letting it run between her childish thighs. At length she got out of the fountain, threw herself on the porter’s lap, stretched out on her back and, pointing to the thing which was between her thighs, said: ‘My darling, do you know the name of that?’ ‘Aha,’ answered the porter, ‘usually that is
called the house of compassion.’ Then she cried: ‘Y*, y*! Are you not ashamed?’ and taking him by the neck she began to slap him. ‘No, no!’ he cried. ‘It is called the thing.’ But she shook her head, and ‘Then it is your behind piece,’ said the porter. Again she shook her head, and ‘It is your hornet,’ said he. At these words she began to slap him so hard that she abraded his skin. ‘You tell me its name!’ he shouted, and she told him: ‘Basil of the bridges.’ ‘At last,’ cried the porter. ‘Praise be to All&h for your safety, O my basil of the bridges!’ After that, they let the cup go round and round; and the second girl, taking off
her clothes, jumped into the basin. There she did as her sister had done and then, getting out, threw herself on to the porter’s lap. Pointing to her thighs and the thing between them, she said: ‘Light of my life, what is the name of that?’ ‘Your crack,’ he answered. ‘O listen to his naughty word!’ she cried, and slapped him so hard that the hall echoed with the sound. ‘Then it is basil of the bridges,’ he hazarded, but she again cried that it was not and went on slapping his neck. ‘Well, what is its name?’ he yelled, and she answered: ‘The husked sesame.’ Now the third girl, in her turn, got up, undressed, and went down into the basin, where she did as her sisters had done. Afterwards she put on some of her clothes and stretched herself over the thighs of the porter. ‘Guess the name of that,’ she said, pointing to her delicate parts. The porter tried this name and that and ended by asking her to tell him and cease her slapping. ‘The kh&n of Abu-Mans*r,’ she replied. Then, in reprisal, the porter rose, undressed and went down into the water, and lo! his blade swam level with the surface. He washed as the girls had done, came out of the basin, and, throwing himself into the lap of the portress, rested his feet in that of the
cateress. Pointing to his organ, he asked the mistress of the house: ‘What is his name, my queen?’ At this all the girls laughed till they fell over on their backs, and cried together: ‘Your zabb!’ ‘No,’ he said, and took a little bite at each by way of forfeit. Then they cried: ‘Your tool, then!’ But he said: ‘No,’ and pinched their breasts. ‘But it is your tool,’ they cried in astonishment, THE THOUSAND NIGHTS AND ONE NIGHT 56 ‘for it is hot. It is your zabb, because it moves.’ Each time the porter shook his head and kissed and bit and pinched and hugged them until they laughed again. In the end they had to ask him to tell them; and the porter reflected a moment, looked between his thighs, and winking, said: ‘Ladies, this child, my zabb, says for himself: “My name is the Mighty Ungelt Mule who feeds on the basil of bridges, feasts on husked sesame, and stays the night in father Mans*r’s kh&n.”’ At these IHINDI-BOOKS
words, the girls laughed so much that they fell over on their bottoms; and afterwards all four went on drinking from the same cup until the approach of evening. When night fell, they said to the porter: ‘Be gone, now, turn your face and let us see the width of your shoulders.’ But the porter cried: ‘By All&h, it is easier for my soul to quit my body than for me to quit your house, my ladies! Let us make the night continue the sweet day, and to-morrow all can part and follow their destiny upon the road of All&h.’ The young cateress then spoke up saying: ‘By my life, sisters, let us ask him to pass the night with us; we will have many good laughs at the naughty fellow who is so shameless and yet so gentle.’ The others agreed, and said to the porter: ‘Very well, you can stay with us this night on condition that you obey implicitly and ask no reason or explanation of anything you see.’ ‘I agree to that, ladies,’ he said. ‘Get up, then, and read what is over the door,’ they commanded; so he rose, and found over the door these words lettered in gold: ‘Speak not of that which concerns you not or you will hear that which shall please you not.’ Reading this, the porter said: ‘Ladies, I call you to witness that I will never speak of IHINDI-BOOKS that
which concerns me not.’ At this point Shahraz&d saw the approach of morning and discreetly fell silent. But when the tenth night had come DUNYAZ-D SAID: ‘Finish your tale, dear sister.’ So Shahraz&d answered: ‘Gladly and as in duty bound,’ and thus continued: It is related, O auspicious King, that when the porter had made his promise to the girls, the cateress rose and set meat before them all, which they ate with good appetite. After the meal, candles were lighted, 57 THE TALE OF THE PORTER AND THE YOUNG GIRLS perfumed wood and incense burned, and all began to drink again and to eat the various delicacies from the market; especially the porter who also recited well-formed verses all the time, shutting his eyes and shaking his head. Suddenly they heard a knocking on the door, which, though it did not interrupt their pleasure, caused the portress to rise. She came back, saying: ‘Indeed, to-night’s pleasure is to be perfect, for there are three strangers at the door with shaved beards and each blind of the left eye, which is a strange coincidence. It is easy to see that they come from the lands of R*m, each has different features and yet their faces all match in their fittingness for being
laughed at. If we let them in, we can have much fun at their expense.’ She persuaded her companions, who said: ‘Tell them that they may come in, but be sure they understand the condition: “Speak not of that which concerns you not or you will hear that which shall please you not.”’ So the young girl ran IHINDI-BOOKS
joyously to the door and came back leading the three one-eyed men, who indeed had shaved beards, moustaches twisted back, and all the signs of that brotherhood of beggars called kalandars. As soon as they came in, they wished peace to the company, backing one by one as they did so; on which the girls stood up and invited them to be seated. The three men, after they had sat down, looked at the porter, who was very drunk, and supposing him to belong to their brotherhood, said among themselves: ‘Here is another kalandar; he is sure to bear us friendly company.’ But the porter, who had heard what they
said, jumped to his feet and, eyeing them sternly and a little squintingly, said: ‘All right, all right, my friends, make yourselves at home; and begin by digesting those words written above the door.’ The girls burst out laughing at his words and said to each other: ‘We are going to have fun with these kalandars and the porter.’ They set food before the kalandars—who ate like kalandars!—then wine—and the kalandars drank turn and turn about, reaching out again and again for the cup. When the drink was passing round at a rare pace, the porter said: ‘Come, brothers, have you not some good tale of
marvellous adventure in your scrips to amuse us?’ Cheered by this suggestion, the kalandars asked for musical instruments and, when the portress had fetched out a Mosul drum fitted with crotals, a lute of Ir&k, and a Persian flagiolet, they stood up and began to play while the girls sang with them. The porter became frenzied with pleasure and kept on shouting: ‘Ha! y& All&h!’, so struck was he by the harmonious voices of the singers. THE THOUSAND NIGHTS AND ONE NIGHT 58 In the middle of all this, knocking was again heard upon the door and the portress rose to see who was there. Now this was the reason for the second knocking on the door: That night the Khal(fah, H&r*n al-Rash&d, had gone down to wander about his city to see and hear for himself what might be going on there. He was accompanied by his waz(r, Jafar al-Barmaki, and by Masr*r, his sword-bearer, the instrument of his
justice. You must know that it was a habit of his to disguise himself as a merchant and make such expeditions. While he was walking through the streets of the city, he passed that palace and heard the sounds of music and gaiety which issued from it. Then said the Khal(fah to Jafar: ‘I wish to enter that place to see those singers.’ Jafar answered: ‘They must be a crowd of drunkards. If we go in some hurt may come to you.’ But the Khal(fah said: ‘Certainly we must go in. I wish to find a way in which we can enter and take them by surprise.’ ‘I hear and I obey,’ said Jafar at this command and, going up to the door, he knocked. When the young portress opened the door, the waz(r said to her: ‘My mistress, we are merchants from Tiberias. Ten days ago we came to Baghd&d with our goods and took lodging in the kh&n of the merchants. One of the other traders at the kh&n asked us to his house to-night to eat with
him. After the meal, which lasted an hour in which we ate and drank excellently, he gave us leave to depart. We came out but, the night being dark and we strangers, lost our way to the kh&n where we lodge. So now we beg you of your great goodness to let us come in and pass the night at your house. All&h will reward your kindness.’ The portress looked at them closely and, seeing that they had the appearance of most respectable merchants, went in to ask the advice of her two companions. The other two said: ‘Let them come in!’ So she returned to the door, crying: ‘Enter!’ On this invitation the Khal(fah and Jafar and Masr*r came in and the girls rose, putting themselves at their service and saying: ‘Be very welcome. Take your’ ease here, dear companions; but accept, we pray, this one condition: “Speak not of that which concerns you not or you will hear that which shall please you not.”’ The newcomers answered: ‘Be it so,’ and sat down with the others. While they were being invited to drink and to send round the cup, the Khal(fah looked at the three kalandars and was astonished to see that
each was blind of the left eye; then at the girls and was overcome with surprise at all 59 THE TALE OF THE PORTER AND THE YOUNG GIRLS their beauty and grace. When the girls, in their ministrations to the guests, offered the Khal(fah a cup of the rarest wine, he refused, saying: ‘I am vowed to pilgrimage.’ So the portress got up and placed a little table of finest inlay before him on which she set a cup of Chinese porcelain into which she poured spring water refreshed with snow, mingling sugar and rosewater within it. The Khal(fah accepted this, thanking her cordially and saying to himself: ‘To-morrow I shall reward her for her kindness.’ The girls continued to act the hostess and pass about the wine till the wits of the companions were dancing dizzily. Then she who was the mistress of the house rose up and, having asked if any wanted more, took the cateress by the hand saying: ‘Rise, my sister, that we may do that which we have to do.’ ‘Be it as you say,’ the other answered. On this the portress also rose and, telling the kalandars to get up from the centre of the hall and seat themselves by the door, herself cleared and tidied the central space. The other two called to the porter: ‘By All&h, your friendship is of but little use! You are no stranger here but belong to the house.’ On this the porter stood up, lifted the skirts of his robe and tightened his belt, saying: Tell me what to do and I shall do it.’
‘Follow me,’ said the portress. So he followed her out of the hall and saw two black bitches with chains round their necks, which, as he was bid, he led back into the middle of the hall. Then the eldest pulled up her sleeves, took a whip, and told the porter to lead forward one of the bitches. When he had done so, dragging her by the chain, the animal began to weep, raising its head piteously towards the girl; but the latter, without seeming to notice, fell upon it, beating it over the head with her whip till the bitch yelled and wept and she herself could strike no more. Then she threw down the whip and, taking the bitch in her arms, clasped it to her breast, wiped away its tears, and kissed its head which she held between her hands. After a little, she said to the porter: ‘Bring me the other, and take this one back.’ So the porter brought the other bitch forward and the girl treated it as she had the first. The Khal(fah felt his heart
filled with pity at this sight; his breast shook with grief and he signed with his eye to Jafar to question the young woman. But Jafar signed to him that it were better to keep silent. Soon the mistress of the house turned to her sisters saying: ‘Come, let us do as is our custom.’ They answered: ‘Yes’; so she got up on to the marble bed which was plated with gold and silver and THE THOUSAND NIGHTS AND ONE NIGHT 60 said to the other two: ‘Let it be done!’ Then the portress also got up on to the bed; but the cateress went into her own room and brought back a satin bag fringed with green silk. Halting before the other two, she opened the bag and drew a lute from it. First tuning this and then playing upon it, she sang these lines of love and all the sadness of love: Love at my door Knocked and I gave him bed. IHINDI-BOOKS
When sleep saw this He took offence and fled. ‘Give me back sleep; Where has he gone?’ I said. They said: ‘Our friend That kept the sure straight way, Who has done this To send you so astray, To lead you blind Into the sand?’ said they. I said: ‘Not I, But she must answer make. I could but cry: My blood, which is hers to take, Lies heavily Not spilled yet for her sake. I chose a girl To put my thought in her; She is my thought, My thought’s her imager; Now she is gone Fire is my comforter. See for yourselves! Even All&h like a lover From molten threads Of the syrup of life wove her; Then made all gems And fruits with what was over.’ 61 THE TALE OF THE PORTER AND THE YOUNG GIRLS But they said:
Fool, Small joy and, for the rest, Torture and tears And hugging to the breast Shades on a pool. The first drink is the best.’ ‘If I am drunk I came not so by drinking, It was enough To see the ruby winking There in the glass— Sleep saw it too, I’m thinking. It’s not that time Has passed, but that so has she, It’s not that love Won’t last, but that nor will she, Not that life’s gone, But that she’s gone from me. My soul is bound By the scents of her body, Jasmine and musk And rose of her body, Amber and nard, The scents of her body.’ ‘All&h comfort you, my sister,’ cried out the portress, when the song was finished; then, tearing all her clothes in an ecstasy of grief, she fell in a faint upon the floor. Her body being in some sort bared, the Khal(fah was able to see upon it the prints of whips and rods, a circumstance which astonished and appalled him. But the cateress came and cast water in her sister’s face until she recovered consciousness; then she brought her a new robe and helped her into it. The Khal(fah
whispered to Jafar: ‘You do not seem moved by this. Do you not see the marks of the scourge on the woman? I can hardly keep silent and I will know no rest until I have found out the truth of all this and of the matter of the two bitches.’ ‘Lord and Master,’ answered Jafar, ‘remember the condition: “Speak not of THE THOUSAND NIGHTS AND ONE NIGHT 62 that which concerns you not or you will hear that which shall please you not.”’ While they were talking thus, the cateress again took up the lute and, pressing it against her rounded breast, sounded the chords and sang: If one came to us plaining of love, What would we answer? Seeing that we also are drowned in love, What would we do? If we charged a speaker to speak for us, What would he know of it? He has brought us within two fingers of the pit of death, He has cut our heart-strings that they might hold him no more, Has he kept one withered seed of
all our love? Does he think at all that we are stricken and with what disease? All that he has forgotten we shall call upon God to remember. If one came to us plaining of love, What would we answer? Seeing that we also are drowned in love, What would we do? If we charged a speaker to speak for us, What would he know of it? Again the portress wept at this sad song and tore her robe and fell back fainting; and again the cateress cast water in her face, raised her up and put another robe on her, while the eldest oft hem said to her: ‘Courage, courage, for the final song! It is our duty.’ So the cateress tuned the lute afresh and sang: Cease this parting as of years, I have no more tears. Your absence is no longer needed,
It has succeeded. Men have the months and years alway, Women but a day. How shall I call a murder on You, when the body’s nearly gone That showed what you had done? 63 THE TALE OF THE PORTER AND THE YOUNG GIRLS How cry a debt when the wet White cheek hardly remaineth yet Where was written the debt? My sighs fan up your flame, That would be well if the game You hunted were still the same. Mussulm&ns, make a feud, Cover him with the rude Hates of a multitude. Yet do not—for all that he Felt of your cruelty Would be felt by me. Rather crush me beneath your feet And he’ll not feel his pulses beat At the other side of the street. Again the portress fell fainting and again her naked body showed the marks of whips and rods. The three kalandars began whispering together when they saw
this: ‘It had been better for us we had never come into this house, even though we had to sleep on the naked ground; for what we have just seen is enough to melt the marrow in our spines.’ The Khal(fah turned to them and said: ‘Why is that?’ ‘We are afraid of what has happened,’ they answered. ‘Is that so?’ said the Khal(fah, ‘then you are not of this house?’ ‘We are not,’ they answered, ‘we imagined it
belonged to that man beside you.’ ‘By All&h, it does not!’ cried the porter. ‘This is the very first time that I have entered here. Also, God knows, it would have been better for me to have slept on the rubbish heaps among the ruins.’ So they concerted with each other and said: ‘We are seven men to three women, let us demand an explanation of these things and, if they will not answer willingly, we can use force.’ They all agreed to this except Jafar, who said: ‘Do you think that right and equitable? Remember, we are their guests and that they laid down certain conditions which we swore to keep. The night is nearly over; it would be better for each of us to go forth and seek his destiny upon the road of All&h.’ Then, winking at the Khal(fah and drawing him aside, he THE THOUSAND NIGHTS AND ONE NIGHT 64 continued: ‘We have but one more hour to stay here. Tomorrow I promise that I will bring them up before you, and then we can compel them to tell their story.’ But the Khal(fah said: ‘I have not the
patience to wait till to-morrow.’ The others continued their planning, some saying this and some saying that, but it all came back to the question: ‘Who is to ask them?’ At last it was decided that the porter should do so. So, when the girls said: ‘Good folk, what are you talking about?’, the porter rose to his feet and, standing up straight before the lady of the house, addressed her courteously: ‘My queen, I ask and pray you in the name of All&h, on behalf of all us jolly fellows, to tell us the tale of those two bitches and why you so beat them and then weep over them and kiss them. Tell us, too, for we wait to hear it, the cause of the marks of whips and rods on the body of your sister. This we ask of you; that is all, my queen.’ Then the lady of the house questioned them: ‘Is this that the porter has said asked in the name of all?’ And each, with the exception of Jafar, answered: ‘Yes.’ Jafar said nothing. The eldest girl,
hearing this answer of theirs, exclaimed: ‘As All&h lives, you who are our guests have done us here the most grievous of wrongs. We bound you to this condition: “Speak not of that which concerns you not or you will hear that which shall please you not.” Was it not enough for you to come into our house and eat our good food? Perhaps, though, it was less your fault than the fault of our sister who let you in.’ So saying, she pulled the sleeves of her robe away from her wrist and beat the floor with her foot three times, calling: ‘Come quick, come quick!’ The door of one of the great curtained presses opened and out glided seven strong negroes carrying sharpened swords. To these she said: ‘Bind the arms of these prattling guests and fasten them one to the other.’ This the negroes did, saying: ‘O mistress, O hidden flower beyond the sight of men, may we cut off their heads?’ ‘Have patience for an hour,’ she answered. ‘I wish to know what sort of men they are before they die.’ On this the porter cried: ‘By All&h, mistress
queen, do not kill me for the crime of others. All these have sinned, committing a notable crime against you, but not I. As God lives, how happy, how paradisal would our night have been if we had never set eyes on these illomened kalandars. I have always said that kalandars could lay waste the loveliest of cities just by coming into it.’ And he added these lines: 65 THE TALE OF THE PORTER AND THE YOUNG GIRLS The fairest gift of strength is clemency If the weak offend; So do not, for our love’s sake, punish me For the fault of a friend. The eldest girl burst out laughing when the porter had finished speaking. At this point Shahraz&d saw the approach of day and discreetly fell silent. But when the eleventh night had come SHE SAID: It is related, O auspicious King, that when the eldest girl burst out
laughing after having been angry, she came down to the company and said: ‘Tell me all that there is to tell, for you have but one hour to live. I give you this indulgence because you are poor folk. If you were among the most noble, great ones of your tribes or even governors, it is true that I would hurry on your
punishment.’ ‘Jafar, we are in sorry case,’ said the Khal(fah, ‘tell her who we are or she may kill us.’ ‘Which is exactly what we deserve,’ said Jafar. Then said the Khal(fah. ‘There is a time for being witty and a time for being serious, there is a time for everything.’ Now first of all the eldest girl approached the kalandars and asked them: ‘Are you brothers?’ To this they answered: ‘No, by All&h, we are only
poor men of the poorest who live by cupping and scarifying.’ Then she turned to one of them and said: ‘Were you born without one eye?’ ‘As God lives, I was not,’ he answered, ‘but the tale of the way I lost my eye is so extraordinary that, if it were written with a needle in the corner of another eye, yet would it be a lesson to the circumspect.’ The second and the third made the same kind of answer; then all three said: ‘Each of us was born in a different country; the stories of our lives are strange and our adventures pass the marvellous.’ ‘Well, then,’ said the girl, ‘each of you must tell his story and the reason of his coming to our house. Should the tale seem good to us, each then may make his bow and go his way.’
The first who came forward was the porter; and he said: ‘My queen, I am a porter, nothing more. Your cateress here gave me things to carry and led me to you. You know well what happened to me after I got here and, if I refuse to be more particular, you know why. THE THOUSAND NIGHTS AND ONE NIGHT 66 That is all my tale. I will not add another word to it, and All&h bless you.’ Then said the eldest girl: ‘Get you gone, make your bow and let us see the last of you.’ ‘But,’ said the porter, ‘no, by God, I will not stir until I have heard the tales of these friends of mine.’ Then the first kalandar came forward to tell his tale, and said:
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