The Eldest Lady’s Tale.

Verily a strange tale is mine and ’tis this:—Yon two black
bitches are my eldest sisters by one mother and father; and these
two others, she who beareth upon her the signs of stripes and the
third our procuratrix are my sisters by another mother. When my
father died, each took her share of the heritage and, after a
while my mother also deceased, leaving me and my sisters german
three thousand diners; so each daughter received her portion of a
thousand diners and I the same, albe the youngest. In due course
of time my sisters married with the usual festivities and lived
with their husbands, who bought merchandise with their wives
monies and set out on their travels together. Thus they threw me
off. My brothers in law were absent with their wives five years,
during which period they spent all the money they had and,
becoming bankrupt, deserted my sisters in foreign parts amid
stranger folk. After five years my eldest sister returned to me
in beggar’s gear with her clothes in rags and tatters [FN#302] and
a dirty old mantilla; [FN#303] and truly she was in the foulest
and sorriest plight. At first sight I did not know my own sister;
but presently I recognised her and said "What state is this?" "O
our sister," she replied, "Words cannot undo the done; and the
reed of Destiny hath run through what Allah decreed." Then I sent
her to the bath and dressed her in a suit of mine own, and boiled
for her a bouillon and brought her some good wine and said to
her, "O my sister, thou art the eldest, who still standest to us
in the stead of father and mother; and, as for the inheritance
which came to me as to you twain, Allah hath blessed it and
prospered it to me with increase; and my circumstances are easy,
for I have made much money by spinning and cleaning silk; and I
and you will share my wealth alike." I entreated her with all
kindliness and she abode with me a whole year, during which our
thoughts and fancies were always full of our other sister Shortly
after she too came home in yet fouler and sorrier plight than
that of my eldest sister; and I dealt by her still more honorably
than I had done by the first, and each of them had a share of my
substance. After a time they said to me, ’O our sister, we desire
to marry again, for indeed we have not patience to drag on our
days without husbands and to lead the lives of widows bewitched;"
and I replied, "O eyes of me! [FN#304] ye have hitherto seen
scanty weal in wedlock, for now-a-days good men and true are
become rarities and curiosities; nor do I deem your projects
advisable, as ye have already made trial of matrimony and have
failed." But they would not accept my advice and married without
my consent: nevertheless I gave them outfit and dowries out of my
money; and they fared forth with their mates. In a mighty little
time their husbands played them false and, taking whatever they
could lay hands upon, levanted and left them in the lurch.
Thereupon they came to me ashamed and in abject case and made
their excuses to me, saying, Pardon our fault and be not wroth
with us; [FN#305] for although thou art younger in years yet art
thou older in wit; henceforth we will never make mention of
marriage; so take us back as thy hand maidens that we may eat our
mouthful." Quoth I, "Welcome to you, O my sisters, there is
naught dearer to me than you." And I took them in and redoubled
my kindness to them. We ceased not to live after this loving
fashion for a full year, when I resolved to sell my wares abroad
and first to fit me a conveyance for Bassorah; so I equipped a
large ship, and loaded her with merchandise and valuable goods
for traffic, and with provaunt and all needful for a voyage, and
said to my sisters, "Will ye abide at home whilst I travel, or
would ye prefer to accompany me on the voyage?" "We will travel
with thee," answered they, "for we cannot bear to be parted from
thee." So I divided my monies into two parts, one to accompany me
and the other to be left in charge of a trusty person, for, as I
said to myself, "Haply some accident may happen to the ship and
yet we remain alive; in which case we shall find on our return
what may stand us in good stead." I took my two sisters and we
went a voyaging some days and nights; but the master was careless
enough to miss his course, and the ship went astray with us and
entered a sea other than the sea we sought. For a time we knew
naught of this; and the wind blew fair for us ten days, after
which the look out man went aloft to see about him and cried,
"Good news!" Then he came down rejoicing and said, "I have seen
what seemeth to be a city as ’twere a pigeon." Hereat we rejoiced
and, ere an hour of the day had passed, the buildings showed
plain in the offing and we asked the Captain, "What is the name
of yonder city?" and he answered By Allah I wot not, for I never
saw it before and never sailed these seas in my life: but, since
our troubles have ended in safety, remains for you only to land
there with your merchandise and, if you find selling profitable,
sell and make your market of what is there; and if not, we will
rest here two days and provision ourselves and fare away." So we
entered the port and the Captain went up town and was absent
awhile, after which he returned to us and said, "Arise; go up
into the city and marvel at the works of Allah with His creatures
and pray to be preserved from His righteous wrath!" So we landed
and going up into the city, saw at the gate men hending staves in
hand; but when we drew near them, behold, they had been
translated [FN#306] by the anger of Allah and had become stones.
Then we entered the city and found all who therein woned into
black stones enstoned: not an inhabited house appeared to the
espier, nor was there a blower of fire. [FN#307] We were awe
struck at the sight and threaded the market streets where we
found the goods and gold and silver left lying in their places;
and we were glad and said, "Doubtless there is some mystery in
all this." Then we dispersed about the thorough-fares and each
busied himself with collecting the wealth and money and rich
stuffs, taking scanty heed of friend or comrade. As for myself I
went up to the castle which was strongly fortified; and, entering
the King’s palace by its gate of red gold, found all the vaiselle
of gold and silver, and the King himself seated in the midst of
his Chamberlains and Nabobs and Emirs and Wazirs; all clad in
raiment which confounded man’s art. I drew nearer and saw him
sitting on a throne incrusted and inlaid with pearls and gems;
and his robes were of gold-cloth adorned with jewels of every
kind, each one flashing like a star. Around him stood fifty
Mamelukes, white slaves, clothed in silks of divers sorts holding
their drawn swords in their hands; but when I drew near to them
lo! all were black stones. My understanding was confounded at the
sight, but I walked on and entered the great hall of the
Harim, [FN#308] whose walls I found hung with tapestries of gold
striped silk and spread with silken carpets embroidered with
golden cowers. Here I saw the Queen lying at full length arrayed
in robes purfled with fresh young [FN#309] pearls; on her head was
a diadem set with many sorts of gems each fit for a ring [FN#310]
and around her neck hung collars and necklaces. All her raiment
and her ornaments were in natural state but she had been turned
into a black stone by Allah’s wrath. Presently I espied an open
door for which I made straight and found leading to it a flight
of seven steps. So I walked up and came upon a place pargetted
with marble and spread and hung with gold-worked carpets and
tapestry, amiddlemostof which stood a throne of juniper wood
inlaid with pearls and precious stones and set with bosses of
emeralds. In the further wall was an alcove whose curtains,
bestrung with pearls, were let down and I saw a light issuing
therefrom; so I drew near and perceived that the light came from
a precious stone as big as an ostrich egg, set at the upper end
of the alcove upon a little chryselephantine couch of ivory and
gold; and this jewel, blazing like the sun, cast its rays wide
and side. The couch also was spread with all manner of silken
stuffs amazing the gazer with their richness and beauty. I
marvelled much at all this, especially when seeing in that place
candles ready lighted; and I said in my mind, "Needs must some
one have lighted these candles." Then I went forth and came to
the kitchen and thence to the buttery and the King’s treasure
chambers; and continued to explore the palace and to pace from
place to place; I forgot myself in my awe and marvel at these
matters and I was drowned in thought till the night came on. Then
I would have gone forth, but knowing not the gate I lost my way,
so I returned to the alcove whither the lighted candles directed
me and sat down upon the couch; and wrapping myself in a
coverlet, after I had repeated somewhat from the Koran, I would
have slept but could not, for restlessness possessed me. When
night was at its noon I heard a voice chanting the Koran in
sweetest accents; but the tone thereof was weak; so I rose, glad
to hear the silence broken, and followed the sound until I
reached a closet whose door stood ajar. Then peeping through a
chink I considered the place and lo! it was an oratory wherein
was a prayer niche [FN#311] with two wax candles burning and lamps
hanging from the ceiling. In it too was spread a prayer carpet
whereupon sat a youth fair to see; and before him on its
stand [FN#312] was a copy of the Koran, from which he was reading.
I marvelled to see him alone alive amongst the people of the city
and entering saluted him; whereupon he raised his eyes and
returned my salam. Quoth I, "Now by the Truth of what thou
readest in Allah’s Holy Book, I conjure thee to answer my
question." He looked upon me with a smile and said, "O handmaid
of Allah, first tell me the cause of thy coming hither, and I in
turn will tell what hath befallen both me and the people of this
city, and what was the reason of my escaping their doom." So I
told him my story whereat he wondered; and I questioned him of
the people of the city, when he replied, "Have patience with me
for a while, O my sister!" and, reverently closing the Holy Book,
he laid it up in a satin bag. Then he seated me by his side; and
I looked at him and behold, he was as the moon at its full, fair
of face and rare of form, soft sided and slight, of well
proportioned height, and cheek smoothly bright and diffusing
light; in brief a sweet, a sugar stick, [FN#313]. even as saith
the poet of the like of him in these couplets:—

That night th’ astrologer a scheme of planets drew, * And lo! a
graceful shape of youth appeared in view:
Saturn had stained his locks with Saturninest jet, * And spots of
nut brown musk on rosy side face blew: [FN#314]
Mars tinctured either cheek with tinct of martial red; * Sagittal
shots from eyelids Sagittarius threw:
Dowered him Mercury with bright mercurial wit; * Bore off the
Bear [FN#315] what all man’s evil glances grew:
Amazed stood Astrophil to sight the marvel birth * When louted
low the Moon at full to buss the Earth.

And of a truth Allah the Most High had robed him in the raiment
of perfect grace and had purfled and fringed it with a cheek all
beauty and loveliness, even as the poet saith of such an one:—

By his eyelids shedding perfume and his fine slim waist I swear,
* By the shooting of his shafts barbed with sorcery passing
rare;
By the softness of his sides, [FN#316] and glances’ lingering
light, * And brow of dazzling day-tide ray and night within
his hair;
By his eyebrows which deny to who look upon them rest, * Now
bidding now forbidding, ever dealing joy and care;
By the rose that decks his cheek, and the myrtle of its
moss, [FN#317] * By jacinths bedded in his lips and pearl his
smile lays bare;
By his graceful bending neck and the curving of his breast, *
Whose polished surface beareth those granados, lovely pair;
By his heavy hips that quiver as he passeth in his pride, * Or he
resteth with that waist which is slim beyond compare;
By the satin of his skin, by that fine unsullied sprite; * By the
beauty that containeth all things bright and debonnair;
By that ever open hand; by the candour of his tongue; * By noble
blood and high degree whereof he’s hope and heir;
Musk from him borrows muskiness she loveth to exhale * And all
the airs of ambergris through him perfume the air;
The sun, methinks, the broad bright sun, before my love would
pale * And sans his splendour would appear a paring of his
nail. [FN#318]

I glanced at him with one glance of eyes which caused me a
thousand sighs; and my heart was at once taken captive wise, so I
asked him, "O my lord and my love, tell me that whereof I
questioned thee;" and he answered, "Hearing is obeying! Know O
handmaid of Allah, that this city was the capital of my father
who is the King thou sawest on the throne transfigured by Allah’s
wrath to a black stone, and the Queen thou foundest in the alcove
is my mother. They and all the people of the city were Magians
who fire adored in lieu of the Omnipotent Lord [FN#319] and were
wont to swear by lowe and heat and shade and light and the
spheres revolving day and night. My father had ne’er a son till
he was blest with me near the last of his days; and he reared me
till I grew up and prosperity anticipated me in all things. Now
it so fortuned that there was with us an old woman well stricken
in years, a Moslemah who, inwardly believing in Allah and His
Apostle, conformed outwardly with the religion of my people; and
my father placed thorough confidence in her for that he knew her
to be trustworthy and virtuous; and he treated her with ever
increasing kindness believing her to be of his own belief. So
when I was well nigh grown up my father committed me to her
charge saying:—Take him and educate him and teach him the rules
of our faith; let him have the best in structions and cease not
thy fostering care of him. So she took me and taught me the
tenets of Al-Islam with the divine ordinances [FN#320] of the Wuzu
ablution and the five daily prayers and she made me learn the
Koran by rote, often repeating:—Serve none save Allah Almighty!
When I had mastered this much of knowledge she said to me:—O my
son, keep this matter concealed from thy sire and reveal naught
to him lest he slay thee. So I hid it from him and I abode on
this wise for a term of days when the old woman died, and the
people of the city redoubled in their impiety [FN#321] and
arrogance and the error of their ways. One day, while they were
as wont, behold, they heard a loud and terrible sound and a crier
crying out with a voice like roaring thunder so every ear could
hear, far and near, "O folk of this city, leave ye your fire
worshipping and adore Allah the All-compassionate King!" At this,
fear and terror fell upon the citizens and they crowded to my
father (he being King of the city) and asked him, "What is this
awesome voice we have heard, for it hath confounded us with the
excess of its terror?" and he answered, "Let not a voice fright
you nor shake your steadfast sprite nor turn you back from the
faith which is right." Their hearts inclined to his words and
they ceased not to worship the fire and they persisted in
rebellion for a full year from the time they heard the first
voice; and on the anniversary came a second cry, and a third at
the head of the third year, each year once Still they persisted
in their malpractises till one day at break of dawn, judgment and
the wrath of Heaven descended upon them with all suddenness, and
by the visitation of Allah all were metamorphosed into black
stones, [FN#322] they and their beasts and their cattle; and none
was saved save myself who at the time was engaged in my
devotions. From that day to this I am in the case thou seest,
constant in prayer and fasting and reading and reciting the
Koran; but I am indeed grown weary by reason of my loneliness,
having none to bear me company." Then said I to him (for in very
sooth he had won my heart and was the lord of my life and soul),
"O youth, wilt thou fare with me to Baghdad city and visit the
Olema and men learned in the law and doctors of divinity and get
thee increase of wisdom and understanding and theology? And know
that she who standeth in thy presence will be thy handmaid,
albeit she be head of her family and mistress over men and
eunuchs and servants and slaves Indeed my life was no life before
it fell in with thy youth. I have here a ship laden with
merchandise; and in very truth Destiny drove me to this city that
I might come to the knowledge of these matters, for it was fated
that we should meet." And I ceased not to persuade him and speak
him fair and use every art till he consented.—And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

When it was the Eighteenth Night,

She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the
lady ceased not persuading with soft speech the youth to depart
with her till he consented and said "Yes." She slept that night
lying at his feet and hardly knowing where she was for excess of
joy. As soon as the next morning dawned (she pursued, addressing
the Caliph), I arose and we entered the treasuries and took
thence whatever was light in weight and great in worth; then we
went down side by side from the castle to the city, where we were
met by the Captain and my sisters and slaves who had been seeking
for me. When they saw me they rejoiced and asked what had stayed
me, and I told them all I had seen and related to them the story
of the young Prince and the transformation wherewith the citizens
had been justly visited. Hereat all marvelled, but when my two
sisters (these two bitches, O Commander of the Faithful!) saw me
by the side of my young lover they jaloused me on his account and
were wroth and plotted mischief against me. We awaited a fair
wind and went on board rejoicing and ready to fly for joy by
reason of the goods we had gotten, but my own greatest joyance
was in the youth; and we waited awhile till the wind blewfair for
us and then we set sail and fared forth. Now as we sat talking,
my sisters asked me, "And what wilt thou do with this handsome
young man?"; and I answered, "I purpose to make him my husband!"
Then I turned to him and said, "O my lord, I have that to propose
to thee wherein thou must not cross me; and this it is that, when
we reach Baghdad, my native city, I offer thee my life as thy
handmaiden in holy matrimony, and thou shalt be to me baron and I
will be femme to thee." He answered, "I hear and I obey!; thou
art my lady and my mistress and whatso thou doest I will not
gainsay." Then I turned to my sisters and said, "This is my gain;
I content me with this youth and those who have gotten aught of
my property let them keep it as their gain with my good will."
"Thou sayest and doest well," answered the twain, but they
imagined mischief against me. We ceased not spooning before a
fair wind till we had exchanged the sea of peril for the seas of
safety and, in a few days, we made Bassorah city, whose buildings
loomed clear before us as evening fell. But after we had retired
to rest and were sound alseep, my two sisters arose and took me
up, bed and all, and threw me into the sea: they did the same
with the young Prince who, as he could not swim, sank and was
drowned and Allah enrolled him in the noble army of
Martyrs. [FN#323] As for me would Heaven I had been drowned with
him, but Allah deemed that I should be of the saved; so when I
awoke and found myself in the sea and saw the ship making off
like a dash of lightning, He threw in my way a piece of timber
which I bestrided, and the waves tossed me to and fro till they
cast me upon an island coast, a high land and an uninhabited. I
landed and walked about the island the rest of the night and,
when morning dawned, I saw a rough track barely fit for child of
Adam to tread, leading to what proved a shallow ford connecting
island and mainland. As soon as the sun had risen I spread my
garments to dry in its rays; and ate of the fruits of the island
and drank of its waters; then I set out along the foot track and
ceased not walking till I reached the mainland. Now when there
remained between me and the city but a two hours’ journey behold,
a great serpent, the bigness of a date palm, came fleeing towards
me in all haste, gliding along now to the right then to the left
till she was close upon me, whilst her tongue lolled ground wards
a span long and swept the dust as she went. She was pursued by a
Dragon [FN#324] who was not longer than two lances, and of slender
build about the bulk of a spear and, although her terror lent her
speed, and she kept wriggling from side to side, he overtook her
and seized her by the tail, whereat her tears streamed down and
her tongue was thrust out in her agony. I took pity on her and,
picking up a stone and calling upon Allah for aid, threw it at
the Dragon’s head with such force that he died then and there;
and the serpent opening a pair of wings Hew into the lift and
disappeared from before my eyes. I sat down marvelling over that
adventure, but I was weary and, drowsiness overcoming me, I slept
where I was for a while. When I awoke I found a jet black damsel
sitting at my feet shampooing them; and by her side stood two
black bitches (my sisters, O Commander of the Faithful!). I was
ashamed before her [FN#325] and, sitting up, asked her, "O my
sister, who and what art thou?"; and she answered, "How soon hast
thou forgotten me! I am she for whom thou wroughtest a good deed
and sowedest the seed of gratitude and slowest her foe; for I am
the serpent whom by Allah’s aidance thou didst just now deliver
from the Dragon. I am a Jinniyah and he was a Jinn who hated me,
and none saved my life from him save thou. As soon as thou
freedest me from him I Dew on the wind to the ship whence thy
sisters threw thee, and removed all that was therein to thy
house. Then I ordered my attendant Marids to sink the ship and I
transformed thy two sisters into these black bitches; for I know
all that hath passed between them and thee; but as for the youth,
of a truth he is drowned." So saying, she dew up with me and the
bitches, and presently set us down on the terrace roof of my
house, wherein I found ready stored the whole of what property
was in my ship, nor was aught of it missing. "Now (continued the
serpent that was), I swear by all engraver on the seal-ring of
Solomon [FN#326] (with whom be peace!) unless thou deal to each of
these bitches three hundred stripes every day I will come and
imprison thee forever under the earth." I answered, "Hearkening
and obedience!"; and away she Dew. But before going she again
charged me saying, "I again swear by Him who made the two seas
flow [FN#327] (and this be my second oath) if thou gainsay me I
will come and transform thee like thy sisters." Since then I have
never failed, O Commander of the Faithful, to beat them with that
number of blows till their blood flows with my tears, I pitying
them the while, and well they wot that their being scourged is no
fault of mine and they accept my excuses. And this is my tale and
my history! The Caliph marvelled at her adventures and then
signed to Ja’afar who said to the second lady, the Portress, "And
thou, how camest thou by the welts and wheels upon thy body?" So
she began the