a selection of tales for students of ICL
selected and edited by
D. L. Ashliman
© 2002
The first "spunky woman" in the collection The Thousand and One Nights, also known as The Arabian Nights is, of course Sheherazade, the teller of the tales. According to the collection's frame story, a king, convinced that all women are inherently disloyal, takes a new bride each night, then has her executed the following morning in order to assure that he will never be deceived by an unfaithful wife. This gruesome pattern is broken when he marries the beautiful and resourceful Sheherazade, who entertains her husband each night by telling him a story. However, she cleverly postpones each story's conclusion, so her husband always has to let her live one more day in order to find out how last night's tale ends. The pattern continues for 1001 nights, by which time the king is sufficiently in love with Sheherazade that he abandons his plan to continue killing his wives.
Since its first translation into a European language (French) between 1704 and 1717, The Thousand and One Nights has been recognized as a universal classic of fantasy narrative. It is, of course, a much older work and one with a complicated genealogy. Based on Indian, Persian, and Arab folklore, this work dates back at least 1000 years as a unified collection, with many of its individual stories undoubtedly being even older.
One of the collection's forebears is a book of Persian tales, likely of Indian origin, titled A Thousand Legends. These stories were translated into Arabic about 850, and at least one reference from about the year 950 calls them The Thousand and One Nights. Arabic stories, primarily from Baghdad and Cairo were added to the ever evolving collection, which by the early 1500's had assumed its more-or-less final form.
It is related that there was a qadi in the city of Tarabulus in Syria during the reign of the Khalifah Harun al-Rashid, who exercised the functions of his office with a notorious severity. His only servant, and the only woman in his harem, was an old negress like a Nile buffalo, for the man's parsimony equaled the rigor of his judgments. Allah curse him!
Though he was abundantly rich, he lived on stale bread and onions. Also his avarice went hand in hand with an ostentation of generosity. When a neighbor called about mealtime, the qadi would cry to the negress, "Lay the gold-fringed cloth!"
No one was ever invited to the repast which followed, and the show of the cloth, instead of being taken as an indication of bounty, passed into a proverb; so that a man who had been ill-served at any feast would say, "I ate at the qadi's gold-fringed cloth." It will be seen that this wretched old man, to whom Allah had given both riches and honor, lived a life which would have sickened a starving dog. May he burn in Hell!
One day, certain folk who wished to influence the qadi to give a favorable judgment, said to him, "O, our master, why do you not take a wife? That old negress is not worthy of you."
"Who would find me a wife?" asked the qadi, and one of them answered, "I have a very beautiful daughter. Your slave would be highly honored if you would take her to your house."
The qadi promptly accepted this offer, and the marriage took place at once. The girl was conducted to her husband's house in the evening and, being most discreet and amiable, refused to show her surprise when no food was produced and no mention made of it. The guests and witnesses stayed on in hope for some time and then, as the kitchen fire was not even lighted, returned to their own homes, cursing the bridegroom's meanness.
The young wife had begun to starve before she heard her husband tell the negress to lay the gold-fringed cloth. As she was accustomed to plenty of excellent food in her father's house, she went forward eagerly as soon as the cloth was laid, but only to discover that the sole dish was a basin containing three bits of brown bread and three onions. As she sat in amaze, the qadi took one of the pieces of bread himself, gave the like to the negress, and invited the girl to devour her share, saying, "Do not fear to abuse the gifts of Allah!" He swallowed his portion with great gusto, and the negress made but one mouthful of hers, for it was the first meal of the day; but for all her good will, the unfortunate wife could not swallow a mouthful of the horrible stuff. She left the table, fasting and bitterly resenting the darkness of her destiny.
Three days passed, and on each the gold-fringed cloth was set with brown bread and sorrowful onions. But on the fourth day, the qadi, hearing cries from his harem, went to investigate and was met by the negress who told him that her mistress had revolted against that house and had sent to fetch her father.
The qadi sought his wife with furious flaming eyes, heaped curses upon her, accused her of all debauchery, cut away her hair by force, and repudiated her by the third divorce. Casting her forth into the street, he shut the door violently behind her. May Allah damn the foul old knave!
A few days afterwards this avaricious son of avarice found another wife in the person of the daughter of certain folk who wished to stand well with him. He married again; but the poor child, after three days of onions, revolted and was divorced. Yet this served as no lesson to others who needed the good graces of that horrible old man, and he married several other daughters on the same terms, casting them forth after a day or so, because they could not abide the onions.
But a time came when the multitude of his divorces was noised abroad and grew to be the general subject of conversation in the harems. The matrons banded together and decreed that henceforth the miser was to be considered unmarriageable.
Now that no woman would have it, the qadi began to be tormented by his father's inheritance and took long walks to cool its importunity. One evening, he saw a woman approaching him mounted upon a gray mule, and was very much affected by the richness of her clothes and possibility of her figure. He gave a twist to the sad ends of his moustaches and bowed before her respectfully, saying, "Whence come you, noble lady?"
"Along this road," she answered.
"I know that," answered the qadi with a chuckle, "but from what city?"
"From Mosul," said she.
"Are you married or single?" said he.
"Single," said she.
"If you would like to be my wife," said he, "I will bind the bargain by becoming your husband."
"Tell me where you live," said she, "and I will let you know tomorrow."
The qadi told her where he lived; but she knew already, she knew. She left him with charming glances out of the corners of her eyes.
Next morning she sent a message to the qadi saying that she would marry him if she received a dowry of fifty dinars. The miser had a violent struggle with himself, but he sent the fifty dinars, bidding the negress to bring back the bride. As soon as the girl arrived at his house, the marriage contract was written out, and the witnesses went away unfed.
Soon the qadi called to the negress, saying, "Lay the gold-fringed cloth." When the basin was brought in, holding three dry crusts and three onions, the new bride took her portion and ate it with relish, saying, "I thank Allah for an excellent repast."
She smiled gratefully at the qadi, and he cried, "I also thank him that he has sent me, out of his generosity, a wife who is all perfection, who takes today's little and tomorrow's much with equal mind!" But the blind pig did not know the destiny which lay in wait for him in the cunning brain of that delightful woman.
Next morning, when her husband was away at the divan, the girl inspected all the rooms of the house and came at last to a cabinet whose door was closed with three enormous locks and strengthened by three strong iron bars. She walked about and about this cabinet with the liveliest curiosity, until she found a hole in one of the moldings which would almost admit the passage of a finger. Setting her eye to it, she was overjoyed to see all the qadi's accumulated treasure of gold and silver set in open copper jars upon the floor inside. Being determined to profit by this discovery, she procured a long palm stalk and, smearing the end of it with a sticky paste, passed it through the hole in the molding. By twisting it about in the mouth of one of the jars, she caused several gold pieces to adhere to it, and triumphantly withdrew them.
Returning to her own apartment, she gave the money to the negress, saying, "Go out to the market and buy fresh rolls sprinkled with sesame, some saffron rice, some tender lamb, and the finest fruits and pastries which you can find."
The negress went forth in eager astonishment and brought back all these excellent things to her mistress, who made her partake of them in equal shares. "Light of my head," the poor old woman cried, "may this succulent generosity turn to fair white fat upon you! I have never eaten such a meal!"
"You may feed thus every day if you will only keep silence and say nothing to the qadi," answered the girl; so the negress kissed her hand and promised absolute discretion.
"Lay the gold-fringed cloth!" cried the qadi when he returned at noon; but his wife served him with the remains of her own excellent meal. He ate greedily until he could hold no more, and then asked the source of the provision.
"Dear master," replied the girl, "I have many relations in this city; one of them sent these dishes to me. I would have thought nothing of them, had it not been for the joy it gives me to share them with you." And the qadi rejoiced in his soul that he had married such a wife.
Next morning the palm stalk was no less successful, so that the wife was able to purchase a lamb stuffed with pistachios, and other admirable matters. She invited some of their neighbors to eat with her, and all the women feasted pleasantly until the hour of the qadi's return. Soon after the guests had departed, carrying with them the promise that these joyful mornings should often be repeated, the qadi entered and bade the negress spread the gold-fringed cloth. But when he was served with even more delicate and numerous viands than the day before, he became a little anxious and asked his wife how she had come by such costly things.
The girl, who was herself waiting upon him, answered without hesitation, "Dear master, you must take no more thought for our nourishment. One of my aunts sent me these few trifling dishes. Oh I am happy if my master is satisfied." The qadi congratulated himself on having married so thoughtful and well-related a damsel, and set about stuffing himself to the supreme limit of his capacity.
At the end of a year of such living the qadi had become so fat and had developed so notorious a belly that the people used the thing as a proverb, saying, "As large as the qadi's belly!" "As stupendous as the qadi's belly!" The poor fool did not know that his wife had sworn to avenge all those unfortunate girls whom he had starved and shorn and cast aside; but you shall now hear how thoroughly she carried out her attention.
Among the neighbors whom she fed daily was a pregnant woman, the wife of a necessitous porter and already the mother of five children. One day her hostess said to her, "Dear neighbor, as Allah has given you a numerous family and very little else, would you like to hand over your baby to me when it is born, that I, who am barren, may care for it and rear it as my own? If you agree and promise to keep absolute silence, I will see that you and yours never feel the pinch of poverty again."
The porter's wife accepted this offer and promised absolute secrecy. On the day appointed by Allah she gave birth to a boy who was twice the size of an ordinary infant, and the qadi's wife received him.
That morning the girl prepared a dish consisting of beans, peas, white haricots, cabbage, lentils, onions, cloves of garlic, various heavy grains and powdered spices. The qadi's enormous belly was quite empty when he returned for the midday meal, so he took helping after helping of this mixture, until all was finished.
"Make me such a dish every day," he said. "It slips most pleasantly and easily down the throat."
"May it be both delicious and digestible!" answered his wife.
The qadi congratulated himself, as he had so often done before, on the excellent choice of a wife; but an hour afterwards his belly began visibly to swell. A noise as of a far-off tempest made itself heard inside him. Low grumblings and far thunders shook the walls of his being and brought in their train sharp colics, spasms, and a final agony. He grew yellow in the face and began to roll groaning about the floor, holding his belly in his two hands.
"Allah, Allah!" he cried. "I have a terrible storm within! Who will deliver me?"
Soon his paunch became as tight as a gourd, and his cries brought his wife running. She made him swallow a powder of anise and fennel, which was soon to have its effect, and, at the same time, to console and encourage him, began rubbing and patting the afflicted part, as if he had been a little sick child. Suddenly she ceased the movement of her hand and uttered a piercing cry, "Yu, yu, a miracle a prodigy! O master, my master!"
In violent contortions the qadi stammered forth, "What is the matter, what is the miracle?"
But she only answered, "Yu, yu! O my master, my master!"
"Tell me what the matter is!" he yelled, and she passed her hand afresh over that tempestuous belly, as she replied, "Exalted be the name of the Highest! He says, and it is done! Who shall discover his secret purposes, my master?"
Between two howls, the qadi gasped, "May Allah curse you for torturing me so! What is the matter? Tell me at once!"
Then said his wife, "Master, dear master, his will be done! You are with child! And your time is close at hand!"
The qadi rose up at these incredible words, and cried, "Have you gone made? How can a man be pregnant?"
"As Allah lives I do not know," she answered, "but the child is moving in your belly; I have felt it kicking and touched its head. Allah scatters increase where he will, may his name be exalted! Pray for the prophet, my husband!"
So the qadi groaned out in the midst of his convulsion, "May the blessing of Allah be upon him!"
Then his pains increased, and he fell howling to the floor in a crisis of agony. Suddenly came relief. A long and thunderous fart broke from him, shaking the foundations of the house and throwing its utterer violently forward, so that he swooned. Then followed a multitude of other escapes, gradually diminishing in sound but rolling and re-echoing through the troubled air. Last came a single deafening explosion, and all was still.
As the qadi came gradually to himself, he saw a little mattress by his side, on which a newborn baby, swaddled in linens, lay squalling and grimacing. His wife bent over him, saying, "Praise be to Allah and to his prophet for this happy deliverance!" Then she went on murmuring the sacred names over her husband and the child, until the qadi did not know whether he dreamed or whether his recent sufferings had turned his head. But when he came to consider the matter calmly, the sight of the child, the cessation of his pains, and the memory of the tempest which had escaped from his belly, forced him to believe in this miraculous birth. Also maternal love caused him to accept the infant.
"Surely Allah may bring forth his people according to his will!" he said. "Even a man, if he is fated to do so, may bear a child in due season! Get me a nurse, dear wife, for I cannot feed the child myself."
"I had already thought of that. I have one waiting in the harem," she replied. "But a mother's milk is best of all. Are you sure that your breasts have not swelled?"
The qadi felt anxiously, and answered, "No, there is nothing there."
The young wife rejoiced at the success of her strategy and, after telling the qadi that he must keep his bed for forty days and forty nights, gave him such medicines as are usual and petted him till he fell into a doze. Being worn out by his colic, the old man slept for a long time, and when he woke found his body as well as his mind was ill at ease.
His first care was to enjoin secrecy on his wife, saying, "I am lost for ever if folk get to know that the qadi has given birth to a veritable child."
Instead of reassuring him, his wife answered, "We are not the only folk who know of the fortunate miracle. All our neighbors have already heard about it from the nurse. And I am afraid that it will be as difficult to prevent the news from spreading through the city, as it would have been to stay the tongue of the nurse in the first place. They are all babblers."
The qadi spent the forty days upon his bed in deep mortification, not daring to move for fear of complications and internal bleeding, and brooding all the time over his monstrous accident. "Surely my foes will accuse me of many ridiculous things," he said to himself. "They will say that I have let myself be buggered in some extraordinary fashion, and that it is all very well for me to be severe in my judgments when I have given myself up to such strange immoralities that I can bear a child. As Allah lives, I am sure that they will accuse me of having been buggered, me, their virtuous qadi, and I have almost forgotten what it feels like!"
Thus he reflected, little knowing that his avarice was the cause of all his woes; and the more he thought, the blacker and more pitiable his case appeared to him. When his wife told him at last that he might rise without fear of complications, he bathed in the house, because he did not dare to go to the hammam. Finally he resolved to quit the city of Tarabulus, rather than run the risk of being recognized in the streets. He informed his wife of his intention, and she -- while pretending deep grief that he would be obliged to abandon his great office -- only made him the more fixed on flight by saying, "Evil tongues are certainly wagging about you now; but your adventure will soon be forgotten. Then you can return and devote yourself to rearing your child. -- I think that we had better call him Miracle."
"Call him what you like," answered the qadi. That night he departed from the city by stealth, leaving his wife in charge of the house and child, and journeyed in the direction of Damascus.
He came to Damascus weary, but happy in the thought that no one knew his name or story. Yet, in the next few hours, he heard the tale of his exploit repeated countless times in all the public places of that city. Also, as he had feared, each new gossip added some fresh detail to tickle the laughter of his hearers, attributing extraordinary organs to the qadi and bestowing on him every variety of that name which he dared not formulate even to himself. But happily no one knew his face, and he was able to go on his way unrecognized. Towards night he even grew so hardened that he would pause and listen to his own story. In fact, when he heard himself accused not of one child but of a whole family, he could not help laughing a little, and murmuring, "They may say what they like, as long as they do not recognize me."
Though he lived in Damascus even more miserly than before, his provision of money at length ran out, and he was obliged to sell his clothes for bread. Finally, rather than send a message to his wife in which he would have to tell her where his treasure lay, he hired himself out to a mason as a mortar carrier.
Years went by, and the old qadi, round whom the curses of the people of Tarabulus swarmed at night, became as thin as a cat locked in a barn. At last, feeling certain that the years would have effaced the memory of his misfortune, he left Damascus and came, a mere wraith of skin and bone, to his native city. As he went through the gate, he saw a group of children playing together and heard one of them say to another, "How do you expect to win when you were born in the qadi's year, the year of the Father of Farts?"
"I thank Allah," murmured the delighted qadi, "that he has caused my tale to be forgotten! Behold, some other qadi has become a proverb in the mouths of the children!" He went up to the boy who had spoken, saying, "What qadi is this whom you call the Father of Farts?"
"He was given that name," answered the child, "because once, when he had broken wind enormously, his wife made him think -- ." But nothing is to be gained by repeating the sorry story here.
Realizing for the first time that he had been fooled by his wife, the qadi left the children and ran in all haste to his own house; but the doors were open to the wind, the floor was broken, and the walls had crumbled away. In the remains of the treasure cabinet there was no gold piece or silver piece, nor hint nor smell that such had been. His neighbors, hearing him lament, told him, as well as they could for laughter, how his wife had given him up for dead and departed with all his goods into a far country. Without answering a word, he turned and left that city. Nor was anything ever heard of him again.
There was once in olden time a foolish and ignorant man who had abounding wealth, and his wife was a beautiful woman who loved a handsome youth. The gallant used to watch for the husband's absence and come to her, and this went on for a long while.
One day, when the woman was in seclusion with her lover, he said to her, "Oh my lady and my beloved, if you desire me and love me, give me possession of yourself and satisfy my need in the presence of your husband, otherwise I will never again come to you nor draw near you as long as I live."
Now she loved him with exceeding love and could not suffer his separation an hour, nor could she endure to anger him, so when she heard his words, she said to him, "Bismillah, so be it, in Allah's name, oh my darling, and the coolness of my eyes. May he not live who would vex you!"
Said he, "Today?"
And she said, "Yes, by your life," and made an appointment with him for this.
When her husband came home, she said to him, "I want to go on an outing."
And he said, "With all my heart." So he went until he came to a goodly place, abounding in vines and water. Then he took her there and pitched a tent by the side of a tall tree. She went to a place alongside the tent and made there an underground vault, in which she hid her lover
The she said to her husband, "I want to climb this tree."
And he said, "Do so."
So she climbed it, and when she came to the treetop, she cried out and slapped her face, saying, "Oh, you lecher! If these are your dealings with me before my eyes, what do you do when you are absent from me?"
"Said he, "What is wrong with you?"
And she said, "I saw you futter the woman before my very eyes."
Cried he, "Not so, by Allah! But hold your peace until I go up and see."
So he climbed the tree, and no sooner did he begin to do so than out came the lover from his hiding place and taking the woman by the legs fell to shagging her.
When the husband came to the top of the tree, he looked and beheld a man futtering his wife, so he called out, "Oh whore, what doings are these?" and he made haste to come down from the tree to the ground.
But meanwhile the lover had returned to his hiding place, and the wife asked her husband, "What did you see?"
He answered, "I saw a man shag you."
But she said, "You lie. You saw nothing. It was only your fantasy."
They did the same thing three or four times, and every time he climbed the tree the lover came up out of the underground place and mounted her, while her husband looked on, and she still said, "Do you see anything, you liar?"
"Yes," he would answer, and come down in haste, but saw no one, and she said to him, "By my life, look and speak nothing but the truth!"
Then he cried to her, "Arise, let us depart this place, for it is full of jinn and marids."
Accordingly, they returned to their house and spent the night there, and the man arose in the morning, assured that this was all but fantasy and fascination.
And so the lover won his wicked will.
A beautiful woman, whose husband had traveled abroad, fell in love with a handsome young man, who in turn came into difficulty with the law. Claiming that the young man was her brother, she asked the wali to support his case, and he acceded, but only if she would be his lover. She consented, giving him her address and setting a time for their tryst. She next petitioned a qadi. He too agreed to intercede on her brother's behalf, in return for her love, and she set the same time for his arrival that had been reserved for the wali. Then she went to a vizier, who, like the others, pledged his help, in exchange for her promise of intimacy, and his appointment was set for the same time as his predecessors. Next she took her petition to the king, and he too guaranteed a good outcome for her brother's case, if she would accept him as a lover. The arrangements were quickly made.
The woman then went to a carpenter and ordered from him a cabinet with four compartments, one above the other. "My price is four dinars or your affection" he said.
"Let it be the latter," she replied. "But only if you make a cabinet with five compartments, instead of four." The carpenter consented. The work was soon finished, and she told him when to return for his promised reward.
The appointed trysting day came. The qadi was the first to arrive, and she asked him to take off his clothes and put on a brightly colored, strangely cut robe. He had scarcely done so when there was a knock at the door. "It is my husband!" she cried. "Hide in the cabinet!" And she locked him in the lowermost compartment. So it went with the wali, the vizier, and the king.
The carpenter was the last to arrive. She lured him into the cabinet's top compartment by complaining that, contrary to her instructions, it had been built too narrow to hold a man. "Not so," said the carpenter, and climbed inside to prove his claim. The woman locked the door on her final suitor, and then abandoned the place, departing with her young lover for another city.
Three days passed, and the carpenter, unable to hold his water any longer, relieved himself on the man beneath him. Each captive did the same, turning the cabinet into a sewer of filth. With time the neighbors entered the woman's lodgings and freed the befouled and strangely costumed suitors. Thus ends the story of the woman who tricked her five suitors.
There was once a man in Cairo whose wife was famous for beauty and piety. She had a pair of plump geese in the house, heavy with delicious fat, and -- never far away from the house -- a stalwart lover whom she loved to distraction. One day the lover saw the geese and felt his appetite tempted by them, so he asked if his mistress would not cook them for him.
"I will stuff them and cook them, and you shall have them all," she replied. "Light of my eyes, I promise that my bastard of a husband shall not have a taste of them."
When her husband returned at sunset, she began twitting him for his meanness, saying that he never asked a guest to dine with him.
"That is easily remedied," answered the man. "I will buy you a dish of lamb and rice tomorrow, and ask one of our intimate friends to eat it with us."
"Rather buy me some good stuffing," she said, "and kill the two geese in the morning before you go to work. I shall stuff and roast them to a turn, and your guest will be the more delighted."
Next morning the good man killed the geese and bought the ingredients of a savory stuffing. As he handed these things to his wife, he begged her to have all ready by noon, and then went upon his way.
The wife at once set to work: She plucked and drew the geese. She stuffed them with a marvel of minced meat, rice, pistachios, almonds, raisins, pine-seeds, and fine spices, and finally watched over them in the oven until they were cooked to a golden brown perfection. Then she sent the little negress for her lover, who speedily answered the summons. They clipped each other and went to it with mutual satisfaction until the morning grew late. At last the woman gave him the two delicious geese in their entirety, and sent him back to his own house. So much for him.
At noon the woman's husband returned home with a guest, but she told him that the geese would be enough for three or four and bade him hasten to invite more of his friends. As soon as he had gone forth in all docility to do her bidding, she went up to the guest and said to him in a voice trembling with emotion, "Alas, alas, why do you not escape while there is yet time?"
"What is the matter, oh wife of my friend?" asked the man, and she answered, "As Allah lives, my husband is offended with you and has laid a snare for you to cut off your testicles and to reduce you to the sorry condition of a eunuch. He has even now gone out to collect friends to hold you down during the operation."
Without waiting to hear more, the guest jumped to his feet and, leaping into the road, ran away as if he were pursued by a Jinni.
At that moment the husband returned with two more friends, and the girl met him with a bellow, "Police, police! The geese, the geese! Your guest has stolen them, bones and grease! He climbed out by the window piece! Run after him, all of you, quickly, please, for he has stolen the geese!"
The husband rushed into the street, and beheld his late guest speeding away, with his tunic held between his teeth. "Come back, come back, in Allah's name!" he cried. "I will not take the two. You can keep one of them!"
But as he ran, the fugitive shouted over his shoulder, "Old fool, you will have to get young legs, before you catch me and take my eggs!"
In a town in Persia there dwelt two brothers, one named Cassim, the other Ali Baba. Cassim was married to a rich wife and lived in plenty, while Ali Baba had to maintain his wife and children by cutting wood in a neighboring forest and selling it in the town.
One day, when Ali Baba was in the forest, he saw a troop of men on horseback, coming toward him in a cloud of dust. He was afraid they were robbers, and climbed into a tree for safety. When they came up to him and dismounted, he counted forty of them. They unbridled their horses and tied them to trees.
The finest man among them, whom Ali Baba took to be their captain, went a little way among some bushes, and said, "Open, Sesame!" so plainly that Ali Baba heard him.
A door opened in the rocks, and having made the troop go in, he followed them, and the door shut again of itself. They stayed some time inside, and Ali Baba, fearing they might come out and catch him, was forced to sit patiently in the tree. At last the door opened again, and the Forty Thieves came out. As the Captain went in last he came out first, and made them all pass by him; he then closed the door, saying, "Shut, Sesame!"
Every man bridled his horse and mounted, the Captain put himself at their head, and they returned as they came.
Then Ali Baba climbed down and went to the door concealed among the bushes, and said, "Open, Sesame!" and it flew open.
Ali Baba, who expected a dull, dismal place, was greatly surprised to find it large and well lighted, hollowed by the hand of man in the form of a vault, which received the light from an opening in the ceiling. He saw rich bales of merchandise -- silk, stuff-brocades, all piled together, and gold and silver in heaps, and money in leather purses. He went in and the door shut behind him. He did not look at the silver, but brought out as many bags of gold as he thought his asses, which were browsing outside, could carry, loaded them with the bags, and hid it all with fagots.
Using the words, "Shut, Sesame!" he closed the door and went home.
Then he drove his asses into the yard, shut the gates, carried the money-bags to his wife, and emptied them out before her. He bade her keep the secret, and he would go and bury the gold.
"Let me first measure it," said his wife. "I will go borrow a measure of someone, while you dig the hole."
So she ran to the wife of Cassim and borrowed a measure. Knowing Ali Baba's poverty, the sister was curious to find out what sort of grain his wife wished to measure, and artfully put some suet at the bottom of the measure. Ali Baba's wife went home and set the measure on the heap of gold, and filled it and emptied it often, to her great content. She then carried it back to her sister, without noticing that a piece of gold was sticking to it, which Cassim's wife perceived directly her back was turned.
She grew very curious, and said to Cassim when he came home, "Cassim, your brother is richer than you. He does not count his money, he measures it."
He begged her to explain this riddle, which she did by showing him the piece of money and telling him where she found it. Then Cassim grew so envious that he could not sleep, and went to his brother in the morning before sunrise. "Ali Baba," he said, showing him the gold piece, "you pretend to be poor and yet you measure gold."
By this Ali Baba perceived that through his wife's folly Cassim and his wife knew their secret, so he confessed all and offered Cassim a share.
"That I expect," said Cassim; "but I must know where to find the treasure, otherwise I will discover all, and you will lose all."
Ali Baba, more out of kindness than fear, told him of the cave, and the very words to use. Cassim left Ali Baba, meaning to be beforehand with him and get the treasure for himself. He rose early next morning, and set out with ten mules loaded with great chests. He soon found the place, and the door in the rock.
He said, "Open, Sesame!" and the door opened and shut behind him. He could have feasted his eyes all day on the treasures, but he now hastened to gather together as much of it as possible; but when he was ready to go he could not remember what to say for thinking of his great riches. Instead of "Sesame," he said, "Open, Barley!" and the door remained fast. He named several different sorts of grain, all but the right one, and the door still stuck fast. He was so frightened at the danger he was in that he had as much forgotten the word as if he had never heard it.
About noon the robbers returned to their cave, and saw Cassim's mules roving about with great chests on their backs. This gave them the alarm; they drew their sabers, and went to the door, which opened on their Captain's saying, "Open, Sesame!"
Cassim, who had heard the trampling of their horses' feet, resolved to sell his life dearly, so when the door opened he leaped out and threw the Captain down. In vain, however, for the robbers with their sabers soon killed him. On entering the cave they saw all the bags laid ready, and could not imagine how anyone had got in without knowing their secret. They cut Cassim's body into four quarters, and nailed them up inside the cave, in order to frighten anyone who should venture in, and went away in search of more treasure.
As night drew on Cassim's wife grew very uneasy, and ran to her brother-in-law, and told him where her husband had gone. Ali Baba did his best to comfort her, and set out to the forest in search of Cassim. The first thing he saw on entering the cave was his dead brother. Full of horror, he put the body on one of his asses, and bags of gold on the other two, and, covering all with some fagots, returned home. He drove the two asses laden with gold into his own yard, and led the other to Cassim's house.
The door was opened by the slave Morgiana, whom he knew to be both brave and cunning. Unloading the ass, he said to her, "This is the body of your master, who has been murdered, but whom we must bury as though he had died in his bed. I will speak with you again, but now tell your mistress I am come."
The wife of Cassim, on learning the fate of her husband, broke out into cries and tears, but Ali Baba offered to take her to live with him and his wife if she would promise to keep his counsel and leave everything to Morgiana; whereupon she agreed, and dried her eyes.
Morgiana, meanwhile, sought an apothecary and asked him for some lozenges. "My poor master," she said, "can neither eat nor speak, and no one knows what his distemper is." She carried home the lozenges and returned next day weeping, and asked for an essence only given to those just about to die.
Thus, in the evening, no one was surprised to hear the wretched shrieks and cries of Cassim's wife and Morgiana, telling everyone that Cassim was dead.
The day after Morgiana went to an old cobbler near the gates of the town who opened his stall early, put a piece of gold in his hand, and bade him follow her with his needle and thread. Having bound his eyes with a handkerchief, she took him to the room where the body lay, pulled off the bandage, and bade him sew the quarters together, after which she covered his eyes again and led him home. Then they buried Cassim, and Morgiana his slave followed him to the grave, weeping and tearing her hair, while Cassim's wife stayed at home uttering lamentable cries. Next day she went to live with Ali Baba, who gave Cassim's shop to his eldest son.
The Forty Thieves, on their return to the cave, were much astonished to find Cassim's body gone and some of their money-bags.
"We are certainly discovered," said the Captain, "and shall be undone if we cannot find out who it is that knows our secret. Two men must have known it; we have killed one, we must now find the other. To this end one of you who is bold and artful must go into the city dressed as a traveler, and discover whom we have killed, and whether men talk of the strange manner of his death. If the messenger fails he must lose his life, lest we be betrayed."
One of the thieves started up and offered to do this, and after the rest had highly commended him for his bravery he disguised himself, and happened to enter the town at daybreak, just by Baba Mustapha's stall. The thief bade him good-day, saying, "Honest man, how can you possibly see to stitch at your age?"
"Old as I am," replied the cobbler, "I have very good eyes, and will you believe me when I tell you that I sewed a dead body together in a place where I had less light than I have now."
The robber was overjoyed at his good fortune, and, giving him a piece of gold, desired to be shown the house where he stitched up the dead body. At first Mustapha refused, saying that he had been blindfolded; but when the robber gave him another piece of gold he began to think he might remember the turnings if blindfolded as before. This means succeeded; the robber partly led him, and was partly guided by him, right in front of Cassim's house, the door of which the robber marked with a piece of chalk. Then, well pleased, he bade farewell to Baba Mustapha and returned to the forest. By and by Morgiana, going out, saw the mark the robber had made, quickly guessed that some mischief was brewing, and fetching a piece of chalk marked two or three doors on each side, without saying anything to her master or mistress.
The thief, meantime, told his comrades of his discovery. The Captain thanked him, and bade him show him the house he had marked. But when they came to it they saw that five or six of the houses were chalked in the same manner. The guide was so confounded that he knew not what answer to make, and when they returned he was at once beheaded for having failed.
Another robber was dispatched, and, having won over Baba Mustapha, marked the house in red chalk; but Morgiana being again too clever for them, the second messenger was put to death also.
The Captain now resolved to go himself, but, wiser than the others, he did not mark the house, but looked at it so closely that he could not fail to remember it. He returned, and ordered his men to go into the neighboring villages and buy nineteen mules, and thirty-eight leather jars, all empty except one, which was full of oil. The Captain put one of his men, fully armed, into each, rubbing the outside of the jars with oil from the full vessel. Then the nineteen mules were loaded with thirty-seven robbers in jars, and the jar of oil, and reached the town by dusk.
The Captain stopped his mules in front of Ali Baba's house, and said to Ali Baba, who was sitting outside for coolness, "I have brought some oil from a distance to sell at tomorrow's market, but it is now so late that I know not where to pass the night, unless you will do me the favor to take me in."
Though Ali Baba had seen the Captain of the robbers in the forest, he did not recognize him in the disguise of an oil merchant. He bade him welcome, opened his gates for the mules to enter, and went to Morgiana to bid her prepare a bed and supper for his guest. He brought the stranger into his hall, and after they had supped went again to speak to Morgiana in the kitchen, while the Captain went into the yard under pretense of seeing after his mules, but really to tell his men what to do.
Beginning at the first jar and ending at the last, he said to each man, "As soon as I throw some stones from the window of the chamber where I lie, cut the jars open with your knives and come out, and I will be with you in a trice."
He returned to the house, and Morgiana led him to his chamber. She then told Abdallah, her fellow slave, to set on the pot to make some broth for her master, who had gone to bed. Meanwhile her lamp went out, and she had no more oil in the house.
"Do not be uneasy," said Abdallah; "go into the yard and take some out of one of those jars."
Morgiana thanked him for his advice, took the oil pot, and went into the yard. When she came to the first jar the robber inside said softly, "Is it time?"
Any other slave but Morgiana, on finding a man in the jar instead of the oil she wanted, would have screamed and made a noise; but she, knowing the danger her master was in, bethought herself of a plan, and answered quietly, "Not yet, but presently."
She went to all the jars, giving the same answer, till she came to the jar of oil. She now saw that her master, thinking to entertain an oil merchant, had let thirty-eight robbers into his house. She filled her oil pot, went back to the kitchen, and, having lit her lamp, went again to the oil jar and filled a large kettle full of oil. When it boiled she went and poured enough oil into every jar to stifle and kill the robber inside. When this brave deed was done she went back to the kitchen, put out the fire and the lamp, and waited to see what would happen.
In a quarter of an hour the Captain of the robbers awoke, got up, and opened the window. As all seemed quiet, he threw down some little pebbles which hit the jars. He listened, and as none of his men seemed to stir he grew uneasy, and went down into the yard. On going to the first jar and saying, "Are you asleep?" he smelt the hot boiled oil, and knew at once that his plot to murder Ali Baba and his household had been discovered. He found all the gang was dead, and, missing the oil out of the last jar, became aware of the manner of their death. He then forced the lock of a door leading into a garden, and climbing over several walls made his escape. Morgiana heard and saw all this, and, rejoicing at her success, went to bed and fell asleep.
At daybreak Ali Baba arose, and, seeing the oil jars still there, asked why the merchant had not gone with his mules. Morgiana bade him look in the first jar and see if there was any oil. Seeing a man, he started back in terror. "Have no fear," said Morgiana; "the man cannot harm you; he is dead."
Ali Baba, when he had recovered somewhat from his astonishment, asked what had become of the merchant.
"Merchant!" said she, "he is no more a merchant than I am!" and she told him the whole story, assuring him that it was a plot of the robbers of the forest, of whom only three were left, and that the white and red chalk marks had something to do with it. Ali Baba at once gave Morgiana her freedom, saying that he owed her his life. They then buried the bodies in Ali Baba's garden, while the mules were sold in the market by his slaves.
The Captain returned to his lonely cave, which seemed frightful to him without his lost companions, and firmly resolved to avenge them by killing Ali Baba. He dressed himself carefully, and went into the town, where he took lodgings in an inn. In the course of a great many journeys to the forest he carried away many rich stuffs and much fine linen, and set up a shop opposite that of Ali Baba's son. He called himself Cogia Hassan, and as he was both civil and well dressed he soon made friends with Ali Baba's son, and through him with Ali Baba, whom he was continually asking to sup with him.
Ali Baba, wishing to return his kindness, invited him into his house and received him smiling, thanking him for his kindness to his son.
When the merchant was about to take his leave Ali Baba stopped him, saying, "Where are you going, sir, in such haste? Will you not stay and sup with me?"
The merchant refused, saying that he had a reason; and, on Ali Baba's asking him what that was, he replied, "It is, sir, that I can eat no victuals that have any salt in them."
"If that is all," said Ali Baba, "let me tell you that there shall be no salt in either the meat or the bread that we eat to-night."
He went to give this order to Morgiana, who was much surprised.
"Who is this man," she said, "who eats no salt with his meat?"
"He is an honest man, Morgiana," returned her master; "therefore do as I bid you."
But she could not withstand a desire to see this strange man, so she helped Abdallah to carry up the dishes, and saw in a moment that Cogia Hassan was the robber Captain, and carried a dagger under his garment.
"I am not surprised," she said to herself, "that this wicked man, who intends to kill my master, will eat no salt with him; but I will hinder his plans."
She sent up the supper by Abdallah, while she made ready for one of the boldest acts that could be thought on. When the dessert had been served, Cogia Hassan was left alone with Ali Baba and his son, whom he thought to make drunk and then to murder them. Morgiana, meanwhile, put on a headdress like a dancing-girl's, and clasped a girdle round her waist, from which hung a dagger with a silver hilt, and said to Abdallah, "Take your tabor, and let us go and divert our master and his guest."
Abdallah took his tabor and played before Morgiana until they came to the door, where Abdallah stopped playing and Morgiana made a low courtesy.
"Come in, Morgiana," said Ali Baba, "and let Cogia Hassan see what you can do"; and, turning to Cogia Hassan, he said, "She's my slave and my housekeeper."
Cogia Hassan was by no means pleased, for he feared that his chance of killing Ali Baba was gone for the present; but he pretended great eagerness to see Morgiana, and Abdallah began to play and Morgiana to dance. After she had performed several dances she drew her dagger and made passes with it, sometimes pointing it at her own breast, sometimes at her master's, as if it were part of the dance. Suddenly, out of breath, she snatched the tabor from Abdallah with her left hand, and, holding the dagger in her right hand, held out the tabor to her master. Ali Baba and his son put a piece of gold into it, and Cogia Hassan, seeing that she was coming to him, pulled out his purse to make her a present, but while he was putting his hand into it Morgiana plunged the dagger into his heart.
"Unhappy girl!" cried Ali Baba and his son, "what have you done to ruin us?"
"It was to preserve you, master, not to ruin you," answered Morgiana. "See here," opening the false merchant's garment and showing the dagger; "see what an enemy you have entertained! Remember, he would eat no salt with you, and what more would you have? Look at him! he is both the false oil merchant and the Captain of the Forty Thieves."
Ali Baba was so grateful to Morgiana for thus saving his life that he offered her to his son in marriage, who readily consented, and a few days after the wedding was celebrated with greatest splendor.
At the end of a year Ali Baba, hearing nothing of the two remaining robbers, judged they were dead, and set out to the cave. The door opened on his saying, "Open Sesame!" He went in, and saw that nobody had been there since the Captain left it. He brought away as much gold as he could carry, and returned to town. He told his son the secret of the cave, which his son handed down in his turn, so the children and grandchildren of Ali Baba were rich to the end of their lives.
It is related that there was once, in the antiquity of time and the passage of the age and of the moment, a powerful sultan whom Allah had blessed with three sons: Ali, the eldest, Hussein, the second, and Muhammad, the youngest. They were all indomitable males and heroic warriors; but the youngest was the most handsome, the bravest and the most generous. Their father loved them equally and, in the justice of his heart, had resolved to leave to each an equal part of his riches and his kingdom.
Also, when they came to marriageable age, the king called his wise and prudent wazir to him, saying, "O wazir, I wish to find wives for my three sons, and have called you to me that you may give me your advice."
The wazir reflected for an hour, and then answered, lifting his head, "O king of time, the matter is delicate, for good and evil chance are not to be told beforehand, and against the decree of destiny there is no provision. I suggest that you take the three princes, armed with their bows and arrows, up to the terrace of the palace, and there, after bandaging their eyes, make them each turn round several times, After that, let them fire their arrows straight ahead of them, and let the houses upon which the arrows fall be visited. Have the owners of the houses brought before you and ask of each his daughter in marriage for the marksman of the arrow which fell upon his house. Thus each of your sons will have a bride chosen by destiny."
"Your advice is excellent, and I shall act upon it!" cried the sultan. As soon as his sons returned from hunting, he told them of the trial which was to be made and led them up, with their bows and quivers, to the terrace of his palace.
The dignitaries of the court followed and watched with breathless interest while the eyes of the young men were bandaged.
The eldest prince was turned about, and then discharged his arrow straight in front of him. It flew through the air with great swiftness and fell upon the dwelling of a most noble lord.
In like manner the second prince's arrow fell upon the terrace of the commander-in-chief of the king's army. But, when Muhammad drew his bow, the arrow fell upon a house whose owner was not known.
The king, with his retinue, set forth to visit the three houses, and found the great lord's daughter and the commander-in-chief's daughter were girls as fair as moons, and that their parents were delighted to marry them to the two princes. But when the king visited the third house, on which Muhammed's shaft had fallen, he found in it no inhabitant except a large and lonely tortoise.
Therefore, deeming that there could be no thought for a moment of marrying a prince to such an animal, the sultan decided that the test should be made again. The youngest prince mounted again to the terrace and again shot an arrow blindfold, but it fell true upon the house of the large and lonely tortoise.
The king grew angry at this, and cried, "By Allah, your shooting is not fortunate today, my son! Pray for the prophet!"
"Blessing and peace be upon him and upon his companions and those who are faithful to him!" answered Muhammad.
"Now invoke the name of Allah," exclaimed the king, "and shoot a third arrow."
"In the name of the merciful, the compassionate!" exclaimed Muhammad, as he strongly drew his bow and sent a third shaft onto the roof of the house inhabited by the large and lonely tortoise.
When the Sultan saw, beyond any manner of doubt, that destiny favored the tortoise, he decided that his youngest son should remain a bachelor, and said to him, "My son, as this tortoise is not of our race, or our kind, or our religion, it would be better for you not to marry at all until Allah takes us again into his compassion."
But young Muhammad cried in dissent from this, "I swear by the virtues of the prophet (upon whom be prayer and peace!) that the time of my celibacy is over! If the large tortoise is written in my destiny I shall assuredly marry her."
"She is certainly written in your destiny!" cried the astonished sultan. "But it would be a monstrous thing for a human being to wed with a tortoise!"
"I have no predilection for tortoises in general," cried the prince. "It is this particular one whom I wish to marry."
The sultan, who loved his son, made no more objections but, though the weddings of Ali and Hussein were celebrated with great splendor for forty days and forty nights and then felicitously consummated, no one at court, neither his two brothers, nor their wives, nor the wives of the amirs and dignitaries, would accept an invitation to Muhammed's bridal feast, and, instead, they did all in their power to spoil and make it sad.
Poor Muhammad was bitterly humiliated by the mocking smiles and turned backs which everywhere greeted him; but of his marriage night he would say nothing, and only Allah, from whom no secrets are hid, can tell what passed between the two. It is certain, at least, that no one in that kingdom could imagine how a human youth might couple with a tortoise, even though she were as big as a stock jar.
In the time which came after the three weddings, the years and preoccupations of his reign, added to the emotion of his disappointment in Muhammad, bowed the king's back and thinned his bones. He pined away and became yellow. He lost his appetite and, with his appetite, his vision, so that he became almost completely blind.
The three princes, who loved their father dearly, resolved to leave his health no longer in the ignorant and superstitious care of the harem. When they had concerted together, they approached the sultan and kissed his hand, saying, "Dear father, your face is becoming yellow, your appetite is weakening, and your sight is failing you. If these things go on, we shall soon be tearing our garments for grief that we have lost the prop of all our life. Therefore you must listen to our counsel and obey it. We have determined that our wives and not the women of the harem shall henceforth prepare your food, for these last are great experts in the kitchen and by their cookery can give you back appetite which shall furnish strength, strength which will furnish health, and health which will restore your vision."
The sultan was deeply touched by this care on his sons' part. "May Allah shower his blessings upon you!" he said. "But I am afraid that this will be a great nuisance for your wives."
"A nuisance to our wives?" they cried. "They are your slaves and have no more urgent object in life than to prepare the food which will restore you to health. We have agreed that each of them shall prepare a separate dish, and that you shall choose your favorite in appearance, odor, and taste. Thus appetite will come back to you, and your eyes be cured."
"You know better than I do what is for the best," answered the sultan, as he embraced them.
The three princes went joyfully to their wives and bade them prepare the most admirable dish they could, and each said further, to excite a spirit of emulation, "It is essential that our father should prefer the cooking of our house."
After they had given their orders, the two elder brothers were for ever mocking Muhammad and asking him how a tortoise cooked, but he met all their jests with a calm smile.
His wife, the large and lonely tortoise, had only been waiting for such an opportunity to show what she could do. At once she set to work, and her first care was to send a confidential servant to her elder sister-in-law, begging her to send back all the rat and mouse dung which she could collect in her house, that the tortoise, who never employed any other condiment, might use these matters for seasoning the rice dishes which she was preparing for the sultan.
"As Allah lives, I will do no such thing!" said Ali's wife to herself. "If these things make really good seasoning, let the wretched tortoise find her own. I can make all the use of them that is necessary." Then aloud to the servant she said, "I regret that I have to refuse your mistress's request, but I have hardly enough rat and mouse dung for my own requirements."
When the servant returned with this answer, the tortoise laughed happily, and sent her to Hussein's wife with a request for all the hens' and pigeon's droppings which she had by her. The servant returned from this mission empty handed, with a bitter and disobliging message from the second princess. But when the tortoise had caused the words to be repeated to her, she fell into an ecstasy of contentment and laughed so heartily that she fell over on her backside.
As soon as she was a little recovered, she prepared those meats which she could cook best, covered the dish which held them with a wicker cover, and wrapped the whole in a rose-scented napkin. Then she dispatched her servant with the dish to the sultan, at the same moment as his other two daughters-in-law were sending theirs by slaves.
The time of the meal arrived, and the sultan sat down before the three dishes; but, when he had lifted the lid of that sent by the eldest son's wife, there rose so foul a steam and odor of rat turds that it might well have asphyxiated an elephant.
The sultan was so disagreeably affected by this stench that he fell head over heels in a swoon, and, when his sons succeeded in bringing him to with rose-water and the use of fans, he sat up and cursed his daughter-in-law heartily.
In a little while he became calmer and consented to try the second dish; but, as soon as it was uncovered, a fetid stink of burnt birds' droppings took him by the throat and eyes so that he thought that the hour of blindness and death was upon him. It was not until the windows had been thrown open and the dish removed and benzoin burnt with incense to purify the air, that the disgusted old man felt himself strong enough to say, "What harm have I done to your wives, my sons, that they should try to dig me a grave before my time?"
The two elder princes could only answer that the thing passed their understanding; but young Muhammad kissed his father's hand and begged him to forget his previous disappointments in the delight of the third dish.
"What is that, Muhammad?" cried the king in an indignant rage. "Do you mock your old father? When women can prepare such frightful foods, do you expect me to touch the cooking of a tortoise? I can see that you have all sworn to destroy me."
Muhammad went on his knees and swore, by his life and by the verity of the faith, that the third dish would make up for all, and that he himself would eat anything of it which was not to his father's taste. He urged with such fervor and humility that the sultan at last signed to the slave to lift the third cover, and waited with a set jaw, murmuring, "I seek refuge in the protection of Allah!"
But it was the soul of all fine cooking which rose from the dish that the tortoise had prepared. It exquisitely dilated the fans of the old man's heart, it nourished the fans of his lungs, it shook the fans of this nostrils, it brought back lost appetite, it opened his eyes and clarified his vision. He ate for an hour without stopping, then drank an excellent sherbet of musk and pounded snow, and finally gurked several times from the very bottom of his satisfied stomach.
In great delight he gave thanks to Allah and praised the cooking of the tortoise. Muhammad accepted his congratulations modestly, in order not to excite the jealousy of his brothers. "That is only one of my wife's talents, dear father," he said. "Allah grant that she may some day find a chance really to earn your praises." Then he begged the king to allow his future nourishment to be entirely in the hands of the tortoise, and his delighted father readily agreed to the arrangement, which in a few weeks entirely reestablished his health and eyesight.
To celebrate his cure the sultan gave a great feast, and bade his three sons attend it with their wives. At once the two elder princesses began to make preparation that they might appear with honor and success before their father-in-law.
The large tortoise also schemed how to whiten her husband's visage before the people by the beauty of her escorting and the elegance of her clothes.
Her first step was to send her confidential servant to Ali's wife with a request for the loan of the big goose which she had in her courtyard, that the tortoise might use it as a fitting steed on which to ride to the festivities. The princess gave so peremptory a refusal that the good tortoise fell over on her backside in the convulsions of laughter which it occasioned her.
Then she sent to the second sister to borrow her large he-goat for the same purpose, and never has the tortoise been so convulsed and dilated with pure joy as was this one when she received a second and much ruder refusal.
The hour of the feast came, and the old queen's women were drawn up in good order at the outside door of the harem to receive the three royal brides. As they waited, a cloud of dust rolled towards them and, when it dissipated, they saw a gigantic goose waddling forward with the speed of the wind, throwing her legs to left and right, beating her wings, and carrying the first princess of the kingdom clinging to her neck in disordered fright. Almost immediately afterwards, a he-goat, rearing and savagely bleating, came up to the entrance also, bearing upon his back the second princess, all stained with dust and dung.
The sultan and his wife were deeply offended by this double exhibition, and the former cried, "See, they are not content with strangling and poisoning me; they wish to mock me before the people!"
The queen received the two women coldly, and an uncomfortable pause was only broken by the arrival of the third princess. The king and his wife were full of apprehension, saying to each other, "If two humans could show so absurdly, what can we expect from a tortoise? There is no power or might save in Allah!" So saying, they waited with caught breath for what might appear.
The first rank of couriers appeared, announcing the arrival of prince Muhammed's wife, and presently four handsome grooms, dressed in brocade and rich tunics with trailing sleeves, led up the palanquin. It was covered with bright-colored silks, and the black men who carried it set it down by the stairs. An unknown princess of bright splendor stepped from it, and the women, supposing her to be a maid of honor, waited for the alighting of the tortoise. Yet, when the palanquin was borne away, and this delightful vision mounted the steps alone, they recognized her as Muhammed's bride and received her with honor and effusion. The sultan's heart rejoiced to see her grace and nobility, her charming manners and musical movements.
At once the sultan bade his sons and their wives be seated by him and by the queen, and, when they had taken their places, the feast was served.
The first dish was, as usual, a profusion of rice swollen in butter. Before anyone could take a mouthful the beautiful princess lifted the dish and poured all its contents over her hair. Immediately each grain of rice turned to a pearl, and the pearls ran down the long strands of hair and tinkled to the floor in a bright cascade.
Before the company could recover its wits after so admirable a prodigy, she also lifted a large tureen, filled with thick green soup, and poured its contents over her head in the same way. The green soup changed to an infinity of emeralds among her hair, and these fell about her like green rain, to mingle their sea-tints with the pearls upon the floor.
During the delighted confusion which followed, the servants brought other supplies of rice and green soup for the guests to eat, and the two elder princesses, now yellow with jealousy, could not leave well alone. The eldest seized on the dish of rice and the second on the tureen of green soup; both poured the contents of these things upon their heads. But the rice remained rice in the hair of the first, horribly daubing her with butter, and the soup, remaining soup, ran down in a sticky course over the hair and face and garments of the second, for all the world like cow slop.
The sultan was disgusted at these accidents and commanded his two elder daughters-in-law to withdraw from the feast, also he proclaimed that he wished never to see them again, or smell them, or hear of them. Their husbands, therefore, led them away in a great rage, and you may suppose that all four noses trailed very near the ground. So much for them.
When prince Muhammad and his magic princess were left alone with the sultan, he embraced them and took them to his heart, saying, "You alone are my children!" He wrote a will leaving his throne to his youngest son and, calling together his amirs and wazirs, made his intention known to them. Then to the two young people, he said, "I wish you both to stay with me in my palace until the end."
"To hear is to obey," they answered. "Our father's desire is upon our heads and before our eyes."
That she might never again be tempted to resume the appearance of a tortoise and so shock the old sultan, the princess ordered her servant to bring the large and lonely shell which she had left at home that day and, when it was fetched, burnt it without compunction. Ever afterwards she remained in her own delightful form. And glory be to Allah who gave her a faultless body, a marvel to the eyes of men!
The giver showered his blessings upon these two and delighted them with numerous children.
Revised January 13, 2002.