A Certain King, who had a son devoted to hunting and coursing, ordered one of his Wazirs to attend upon him wherever he might go. One day the youth set out for the chase accompanied by his father's Minister; and as they jogged on together, a big wild beast came in sight. The Wazir cried to the King's son, "Up and at that noble quarry!" So the Prince followed it until he was lost to every eye and the chase escaped him in the waste; confused, he knew not which way to turn when lo! a damsel appeared ahead and she was in tears. The King's son asked, "Who are you?" and she answered, "I am daughter to a King among the Kings of Hind, and I was travelling with a caravan in the desert when drowsiness overcame me, and I fell from my beast unwittingly; by which I am cut off from my people and sore bewildered." The Prince, hearing these words, pitied her case and, mounting her on his horse's crupper, travelled until he passed by an old ruin, when the damsel said to him, "O my master, I wish to obey a call of nature": he therefore set her down at the ruin where she delayed so long that the King's son thought she was only wasting time; so he followed her without her knowledge and behold, she was a Ghúlah, a wicked Ogress, who was saying to her brood, "O my children, this day I bring you a fine fat youth for dinner;" whereto they answered, "Bring him quick to us, O our mother, that we may browse upon him our bellies full."

The Prince hearing their talk made sure of death and his side muscles quivered in fear for his life, so he turned away and was about to flee. The Ghulah came out and seeing him in sore affright (for he was trembling in every limb) cried, "Why are you afraid?" and he replied, "I have hit upon an enemy whom I greatly fear." The Ghulah asked, "Did you not say that you are a King's son?" and he answered, "Even so." Then she said, "Why do you not give your enemy something of money and so satisfy him?" He said, "He will not be satisfied with my purse but only with my life, and I mortally fear him and am a man under oppression." She replied, "If you are so distressed, as you think, ask aid against him from Allah, who will surely protect you from his ill doing and from the evil whereof you are afraid." Then the Prince raised his eyes heavenwards and cried, "O You who answers the necessitous when he calls upon You and dispels his distress—O my God! Grant me victory over my foe and turn him from me, for You over all things are Almighty."

The Ghulah, hearing his prayer, turned away from him, and the Prince returned to his father, and told him the tale. The King summoned the Wazir to his presence and then and there slew him. You likewise, O King, if you continue to trust this leach, will be made to die the worst of deaths. He whom you made much of and whom you entertained as an intimate will work your destruction. Do you not see how he healed the disease from outside your body by something grasped in your hand? Be not assured that he will not destroy you by something held in like manner! Replied King Yunan, "You have spoken truth, O Wazir, it may well be as you hint, O my well advising Minister; and perhaps this Sage has come as a spy searching to put me to death; for assuredly if he cured me by something held in my hand, he can kill me by something given me to smell." Then the King asked, "O Minister, what must be done with him?" and the Wazir answered, "Send after him this very instant and summon him to your presence; and when he shall come strike him across the neck; and thus will you rid yourself of him and his wickedness, and deceive him before he can deceive you." "You have again spoken truth, O Wazir," said the King and sent one to call the Sage who came in joyful mood for he knew not what the Compassionate had appointed for him; as a certain poet says by way of illustration:—

O You who fear Fate, confiding fare Trust all to Him who built the world and wait: What Fate says "Be" Of necessity must be, my lord! And safe are you from th' undecreed of Fate.

As Duban the physician entered he addressed the King in these lines:—

An fail I of my thanks to you nor thank you day by day For whom composed I prose and verse, for whom my say and lay? You lavishedst your generous gifts before they were craved by me You lavishedst your boons unsought sans pretext or delay: How shall I stint my praise of you, how shall I cease to laud The grace of you in secresy and patentest display? Nay; I will thank your benefits, for aye your favours lie Light on my thought and tongue, though heavy on my back they weigh.

And he said further on the same theme:—

Turn you from grief nor care a jot! Commit your needs to Fate and Lot! Enjoy the Present passing well And let the Past be clean forgot; For whatever Perhaps seems worse Shall work your weal as Allah know: Allah shall do whate'er He wills And in His will oppose Him not.

And further still:—

To th' All wise Subtle One trust worldly things Rest you from all whereto the worldling clings: Learn wisely well nothing comes by your will But even as wills Allah, King of Kings.

And lastly:—

Gladsome and gay forget yours every grief Full often grief the wisest hearts outwore: Thought is but folly in the feeble slave Shun it and so be saved evermore.

The King said to him, "Know you why I have summoned you?" and the Sage replied, "Allah Most Highest alone knows hidden things!" But the King rejoined, "I summoned you only to take your life and utterly to destroy you." Duban the Wise wondered at this strange address with exceeding wonder and asked, "O King, why would you slay me, and what ill have I done you?" and the King answered, "Men tell me you are a spy sent here with intent to slay me; and lo! I will kill you before I be killed by you;" then he called to his Sworder, and said, "Strike off the head of this traitor and deliver us from his evil practices." The Sage said, "Spare me and Allah will spare you; slay me not or Allah shall slay you." And he repeated to him these very words, even as I to you, O Ifrit, and yet you would not let me go, being bent upon my death. King Yunan only rejoined, "I shall not be safe without slaying you; for, as you healed me by something held in hand, so am I not secure against your killing me by something given me to smell or otherwise." Said the physician, "This then, O King, is your requital and reward; you return only evil for good." The King replied, "There is no help for it; die you must and without delay."

Now when the physician was certified that the King would slay him without waiting, he wept and regretted the good he had done to others rather than the good it returned. As one has said on this subject:—

Of wit and wisdom is Maymunah bare Whose sire in wisdom all the wits outstrlpps: Man may not tread on mud or dust or clay Save by good sense, else tripps he and slipps.

Hereupon the Sworder stepped forward and bound the Sage Duban's eyes and bared his blade, saying to the King, "By your leave;" while the physician wept and cried, "Spare me and Allah will spare you, and slay me not or Allah shall slay you," and began repeating:—

I was kind and 'scaped not, they were cruel and escaped; And my kindness only led me to Ruination Hall; If I live I'll never be kind; if I die, then all be damned Who follow me, and curses their kindliness befall.

"Is this," continued Duban, "the return I meet from you? You give me, it seems, but a crocodile's boon." The King said, "What is the tale of the crocodile?", and the physician said, "It is impossible for me to tell it in this my state; in God's name, spare me, as you hope Allah shall spare you." And he wept with exceeding weeping. Then one of the King's favourites stood up and said, "O King! Grant me the blood of this physician; we have never seen him sin against you, or do anything save heal you from a disease which baffled every leach and man of science." Said the King, "You know not the cause of my putting to death this physician, and this it is. If I spare him, I doom myself to certain death; for one who healed me of such a malady by something held in my hand, surely can slay me by something held to my nose; and I fear lest he kill me for a price, since perhaps he is some spy whose sole purpose in coming here was to compass my destruction. So there is no help for it; die he must, and then only shall I be sure of my own life."

Again cried Duban, "Spare me and Allah shall spare you; and slay me not or Allah shall slay you." But it was in vain. Now when the physician, O Ifrit, knew for certain that the King would kill him, he said, "O King, if there be no help but I must die, grant me some little delay that I may go down to my house and release myself from my obligations and direct my folk and my neighbours where to bury me and distribute my books of medicine. Amongst these I have one, the rarest of rarities, which I would present to you as an offering: keep it as a treasure in your treasury." "And what is in the book?" asked the King and the Sage answered, "Things beyond counting; and the least of the secrets is that if, directly after you have cut off my head, you open three leaves and read three lines of the page to your left hand, my head shall speak and answer every question you choose to ask of it." The King wondered with exceeding wonder and shaking with delight at the novelty, said,

"O physician, do you really tell me that when I cut off your head it will speak to me?" He replied, "Yes, O King!" The King said, "This is indeed a strange matter!" And immediately sent him closely guarded to his house, and Duban then and there settled all his obligations. Next day he went up to the King's audience hall, where Emirs and Wazirs, Chamberlains and Nabobs, Grandees and Lords of Estate were gathered together, making the presence chamber gay as a garden of flower beds. And lo! the physician came up and stood before the King, bearing a worn old volume and a little metal case full of powder, like that used for the eyes. Then he sat down and said, "Give me a tray." So they brought him one and he poured the powder upon it and levelled it and then spoke as follows: "O King, take this book but do not open it till my head falls; then set it upon this tray, and bid press it down upon the powder, when directly the blood will cease flowing. That is the time to open the book." The King thereupon took the book and made a sign to the Sworder, who arose and struck off the physician's head, and placing it on the middle of the tray, pressed it down upon the powder. The blood stopped flowing, and the Sage Duban unclosed his eyes and said, "Now open the book, O King!" The King opened the book, and found the leaves stuck together; so he put his finger to his mouth and, by moistening it, he easily turned over the first leaf, and in like way the second, and the third, each leaf opening with much trouble; and when he had unstuck six leaves he looked over them and, finding nothing written thereon, said, "O physician, there is no writing here!" Duban replied, "Turn over yet more;" and he turned over three others in the same way. Now the book was poisoned;

and before long the venom penetrated his system, and he fell into strong convulsions and cried out, "The poison has done its work!" Whereupon the Sage Duban's head began to improvise:—

There be rulers who have ruled with a foul tyrannic sway But they soon became as though they had never, never been: Just, they had won justice: they oppressed and were opprest By Fortune, who requited them with ban and bane and teen: So they faded like the morn, and the tongue of things repeats "Take this for that, nor vent upon Fortune's ways your spleen."

No sooner had the head ceased speaking than the King rolled over dead. Now I would have you know, O Ifrit, that if King Yunan had spared the Sage Duban, Allah would have spared him; but he refused so to do and decreed his death, and that is why Allah slew him; and you too, O Ifrit, if you had spared me, Allah would have spared you. Then Dunyazad said, "O my sister, how pleasant is your tale, and how tasteful; how sweet, and how grateful!" She replied, "And where is this compared with what I could tell you this coming night, if I live and the King spare me?" Said the King in himself, "By God, I will not slay her until I hear the rest of her story, for truly it is wondrous." They rested that night in mutual embrace until dawn: then the King went forth to his Darbār; the Wazirs and troops came in and the audience hall was crowded; so the King gave orders and judged and appointed and deposed and commanded and prohibited the rest of that day, when the court broke up, and King Shahryar entered his palace.

When it was the Sixth night

Her sister, Dunyazad, said to her, "Pray finish for us your story;" and she answered, "I will if the King give me leave." "Say on," said the King. And she continued: when the Fisherman said to the Ifrit, "If you had spared me I would have spared you, but nothing would satisfy you save my death; so now I will do you die by jailing you in this jar and I will hurl you into this sea." Then the Marid roared aloud and cried, "In God's name, O Fisherman, do not! Spare me, and pardon my past doings; and, as I have been tyrannous, so be you generous, for it is said among sayings that go current:

Tale of the Fisherman and the Jinni. 61

O you who do good to him who has done you evil, suffice for the ill doer his ill deeds, and do not deal with me as did Umamah to 'Atikah." Asked the Fisherman, "And what was their case?" and the Ifrit answered, "This is not the time for story telling and I in this prison; but set me free and I will tell you the tale." The Fisherman said, "Leave this language: there is no help but that you be thrown back into the sea nor is there any way for your getting out of it for ever and ever. Vainly I placed myself under your protection, and I humbled myself to you with weeping, while you sought only to slay me, who had done you no injury deserving this at your hands; nay, so far from injuring you by any evil act, I worked you nothing but good in releasing you from that jail of yours. Now I knew you to be an evil doer when you did to me what you did, and know, that when I have cast you back into the sea, I will warn whomsoever may fish you up of what has befallen me with you, and I will advise him to toss you back again; so will you abide here under these waters till the End of Time shall make an end of you."

But the Ifrit cried aloud, "Set me free; this is a noble occasion for generosity and I make covenant with you and vow never to do you hurt and harm; nay, I will help you to what shall put you out of want." The Fisherman accepted his promises on both conditions, not to trouble him as before, but on the contrary to do him service, and, after making firm the covenant and swearing him a solemn oath by God Most Highest, he opened the cucurbit. Thereupon the pillar of smoke rose up till all of it was fully out; then it thickened and once more became an Ifrit of hideous presence, who at once administered a kick to the bottle and sent it flying into the sea. The Fisherman, seeing how the cucurbit was treated and making sure of his own death, lost control of his bladder and said to himself, "This promises badly;" but he fortified his heart, and cried, "O Ifrit, Allah has said: 'Perform your covenant; for the performance of your covenant shall be inquired into hereafter.' You have made a vow to me and have sworn an oath not to play me false lest Allah play you false, for truly He is a jealous God who respites the sinner, but lets him not escape. I say to you as said the Sage Duban to King Yunan, 'Spare me so Allah may spare you!'" The Ifrit burst into laughter and stalked away, saying to the Fisherman, "Follow me;" and the man paced after him at a safe distance (for he was not assured of escape) till they had passed round the suburbs of the city. Thence they struck into the uncultivated grounds, and crossing them descended into a broad wilderness, and lo! in the midst of it stood a mountain tarn. The Ifrit waded in to the middle and again cried, "Follow me;" and when this was done he took his stand in the centre and bade the man cast his net and catch his fish. The Fisherman looked into the water and was much astonished to see within it variously coloured fishes, white and red, blue and yellow; however he cast his net and, hauling it in, saw that he had netted four fishes, one of each colour. At that he rejoiced greatly, and even more when the Ifrit said to him, "Carry these to the Sultan and set them in his presence; then he will give you what shall make you a wealthy man; and now accept my excuse, for by God at this time I know no other way of benefiting you, inasmuch as I have lain in this sea eighteen hundred years and have not seen the face of the world save within this hour. But I would not have you fish here save once a day."

The Ifrit then gave him God speed, saying, "Allah grant we meet again;" and struck the earth with one foot, whereupon the ground clove asunder and swallowed him up. The Fisherman, much marvelling at what had happened to him with the Ifrit, took the fish and made for the city; and as soon as he reached home he filled an earthen bowl with water and within it threw the fish which began to struggle and wriggle about. Then he bore off the bowl upon his head and, repairing to the King's palace (even as the Ifrit had bidden him) laid the fish before the presence; and the King wondered with exceeding wonder at the sight, for never in his lifetime had he seen fishes like these in quality or in conformation. So he said, "Give those fish to the stranger slave girl who now cooks for us," meaning the bond maiden whom the King of Roum had sent to him only three days before, so that he had not yet made trial of her talents

Tale of the Fisherman and the Jinni. 63 in the dressing of meat. Thereupon the Wazir carried the fish to the cook and bade her fry them saying, "O damsel, the King sends this message to you: I have not treasured you, O delight of my heart! Save for this moment of need; so approve yourself to us this day with your delicate handiwork and your savoury cooking; for this dish of fish is a present sent to the Sultan and evidently a rarity." The Wazir, after he had carefully charged her, returned to the King, who commanded him to give the Fisherman four hundred dinars: he gave them accordingly, and the man took them to his heart and ran off home stumbling and falling and rising again and deeming the whole thing to be a dream. However, he bought for his family all they wanted and lastly he went to his wife in huge joy and gladness. So far concerning him; but as regards the cookmaid, she took the fish and cleansed them and set them in the frying pan, basting them with oil till one side was cooked. Then she turned them over and, behold, the kitchen wall split asunder, and from it came a young lady, fair of form, oval of face, perfect in grace, with eyelids outlined in kohl. Her dress was a silken head kerchief fringed and tasselled with blue: a large ring hung from either ear; a pair of bracelets adorned her wrists; rings with bezels of priceless gems were on her fingers; and she seized in hand a long rod of rattan cane which she thrust into the frying pan, saying, "O fish! O fish! Be you constant to your covenant?" When the cookmaid saw this apparition she swooned away. The young lady repeated her words a second time and a third time, and at last the fishes raised their heads from the pan, and saying in articulate speech "Yes! Yes!" began with one voice to recite:—

Come back and so will I! Keep faith and so will I! And if you glad forsake, I'11 requite till quits we cry!

After this the young lady upset the frying pan and went forth by the way she came in and the kitchen wall closed upon her. When the cookmaid recovered from her fainting fit, she saw the four fishes charred black as charcoal, and crying out, "All is lost in his first attempt," she again fell swooning to the ground. Whilst she was in this state the Wazir came for the fish and looking upon her as insensible, not knowing what day of the week it was, he shoved her with his foot and said, "Bring the fish for the Sultan!" Thereupon recovering from her fainting fit she wept and informed him of her case and all that had befallen her. The Wazir marvelled greatly and exclaiming, "This is none other than a very strange matter!", he sent after the Fisherman and said to him, "You, O Fisherman, must needs fetch us four fishes like those you brought before." Thereupon the man repaired to the tarn and cast his net; and when he hauled it in, lo! four fishes were within it exactly like the first. These he at once carried to the Wazir, who went in with them to the cookmaid and said, "Up with you and fry these in my presence, that I may see this business." The damsel arose and cleansed the fish, and set them in the frying pan over the fire; however they remained there but a little while before the wall split asunder and the young lady appeared, clad as before and holding in hand the wand which she again thrust into the frying pan, saying, "O fish! O fish! Be you constant to your old covenant?" And behold, the fish lifted their heads, and repeated "Yes! Yes!" And recited this couplet:

Come back and so will I! Keep faith and so will I! But if you glad forsake I'll requite till quits we cry!

When it was the Seventh night

So he went and told him what had happened, whereupon the King said, "There is no help for it but that I see this with my own eyes." Then he sent for the Fisherman and

Tale of the Fisherman and the Jinni. 65 commanded him to bring four other fish like the first and to take with him three men as witnesses. The Fisherman at once brought the fish: and the King, after ordering them to give him four hundred gold pieces, turned to the Wazir and said, "Up and fry me the fishes here before me!" The Minister, replying "I hear and I obey," bade bring the frying pan, threw within it the cleansed fish and set it over the fire; when lo! the wall split asunder, and out burst a black slave like a huge rock or a remnant of the ancient tribe of Ad bearing in hand a branch of a green tree, and he cried in loud and terrible tones, "O fish! O fish! Be you all constant to your ancient covenant?" whereupon the fishes lifted their heads from the frying pan and said, "Yes! Yes! We are true to our vow;" and they again recited the couplet:

Come back and so will I! Keep faith and so will I! But if you glad forsake I'll requite till quits we cry!

Then the huge black slave approached the frying pan and upset it with the branch and went forth by the way he came in. When he vanished from their sight the King inspected the fish; and finding them all charred black as charcoal, was utterly bewildered and said to the Wazir, "Truly this is a matter about which silence cannot be kept, and as for the fishes, assuredly some marvellous adventure connects with them." So he bade bring the Fisherman and asked him, saying "Fie on you, fellow! From where came these fishes?" and he answered, "From a tarn between four heights lying behind this mountain which is in sight of your city." The King said, "How many days' march?" He said, "O our lord the Sultan, a walk of half an hour." The King wondered and, straightway ordering his men to march and horsemen to mount, led off the Fisherman who went before as guide, secretly cursing the Ifrit. They fared on till they had climbed the mountain and descended into a great desert which they had never seen during all their lives; and the Sultan and his merry men marvelled much at the waste set in the midst of four mountains, and the tarn and its fishes of four colours, red and white, yellow and blue.

The King stood fixed to the spot in wonderment and asked his troops and all present, "Has anyone among you ever seen this piece of water before now?" and all made answer, "Never did we set eyes upon it during all our days." They also questioned the oldest inhabitants they met, men well stricken in years, but they replied, each and every, "A lakelet like this we never saw in this place." Thereupon the King said, "By God I will neither return to my capital nor sit upon the throne of my forebears till I learn the truth about this tarn and the fish within it." He then ordered his men to dismount and bivouac all around the mountain; which they did; and summoning his Wazir, a Minister of much experience, sagacious, of penetrating wit and well versed in affairs, said to him, "It is in my mind to do a certain thing, whereof I will inform you; my heart tells me to fare forth alone this night and root out the mystery of this tarn and its fishes. Do you take your seat at my tent door, and say to the Emirs and Wazirs, the Nabobs and the Chamberlains, in short to all who ask you: 'The Sultan is ill at ease, and he has ordered me to refuse all admittance'; and be careful you let none know my design."

And the Wazir could not oppose him. Then the King changed his dress and ornaments and, slinging his sword over his shoulder, took a path which led up one of the mountains and marched for the rest of the night till morning dawned; nor did he cease journeying till the heat was too much for him. After his long walk he rested for a while, and then resumed his march and fared on through the second night till dawn, when suddenly there appeared a black point in the far distance. At this he rejoiced and said to himself, "Perhaps someone here shall acquaint me with the mystery of the tarn and its fishes." Presently, drawing near the dark object he found it a palace built of dark stone plated with iron; and, while one leaf of the gate stood wide open, the other was shut. The King's spirits rose high as he stood before the gate and rapped a light rap; but hearing no answer he knocked a second knock and a third;

Tale of the Fisherman and the Jinni. 67 yet there came no sign. Then he knocked his loudest but still no answer, so he said, "Doubtless it is empty." Thereupon he mustered up resolution and boldly walked through the main gate into the great hall and there cried out aloud, "Hallo, you people of the palace! I am a stranger and a wayfarer; have you anything here of provisions?" He repeated his cry a second time and a third but still there came no reply; so strengthening his heart and making up his mind he stalked through the vestibule into the very middle of the palace and found no man in it. Yet it was furnished with silken stuffs gold-starred; and the hangings were let down over the doorways. In the midst was a spacious court off which set four open saloons each with its raised dais, saloon facing saloon; a canopy shaded the court and in the centre was a jetting fountain with four figures of lions made of red gold, spouting from their mouths water clear as pearls and transparent gems. Round about the palace birds were let loose and over it stretched a net of golden wire, hindering them from flying off; in brief there was everything but human beings. The King marvelled mightily at that, yet felt sad at heart for he saw no one to give him account of the waste and its tarn, the fishes, the mountains and the palace itself. Presently, as he sat between the doors in deep thought behold, there came a voice of lament, as from a heart grief-spent and he heard the voice chanting these verses:—

I hid what I endured of him and yet it came to light, And nightly sleep my eyelids fled and changed to sleepless night: Oh world! Oh Fate! withhold your hand and cease your hurt and harm Look and behold my hapless sprite in dolour and affright: Will never show ruth to highborn youth who lost him on the way Of Love and fell from wealth and fame to lowest basest people. Jealous of Zephyr's breath was I as on your form he breathed But whenas Destiny descends she blinds human sight What shall the hapless archer do who when he fronts his foe And bends his bow to shoot the shaft shall find his string undone? When cark and care so heavy bear on youth of generous soul How shall he 'scape his lot and where from Fate his place of flight?

Now when the Sultan heard the mournful voice he sprang to his feet; and, following the sound, found a curtain let down over a chamber door. He raised it and saw behind it a young man sitting upon a couch about a cubit above the ground; and he was fair to the sight, a well-shaped youth, with eloquent bearing; his forehead was flower white, his cheek rosy bright, and a mole on his cheek breadth like an ambergris mote; even as the poet has indited:—

A youth slim waisted from whose locks and brow The world in blackness and in light is set. Throughout Creation's round no fairer show No rarer sight yours eye has ever met: A nut brown mole sits throned upon a cheek Of rosiest red beneath an eye of jet.

The King rejoiced and saluted him, but he remained sitting in his caftan of silken stuff embroidered with Egyptian gold and his crown studded with gems of various kinds; but his face was sad with the traces of sorrow. He returned the royal salute in most courteous manner adding, "O my lord, your dignity demands my rising to you; and my sole excuse is to crave your pardon." The King said, "You are excused, O youth; so look upon me as your guest come here on a special errand. I would have you acquaint me with the secrets of this tarn and its fishes and of this palace and your loneliness within it and the cause of your groaning and wailing." When the young man heard these words he wept with sore weeping; till his bosom was drenched with tears and began reciting:—

Say him who careless sleeps what while the shaft of Fortune flies How many does this shifting world lay low and raise to rise? Although your eye be sealed in sleep, sleep not the Almighty's eyes And who has found Time ever fair, or Fate in constant guise?

Then he sighed a long fetched sigh and recited:—

Confide your case to Him, the Lord who made mankind; Quit cark and care and cultivate content of mind; Ask not the Past or how or why it came to pass: All human things by Fate and Destiny were designed!

Tale of the Fisherman and the Jinni. 69

The King marvelled and asked him, "What makes you weep, O young man?" and he answered, "How should I not weep, when this is my case!" Thereupon he put out his hand and raised the skirt of his garment, when lo! the lower half of him appeared stone down to his feet while from his navel to the hair of his head he was man. The King, seeing this his plight, grieved with sore grief and in his compassion cried, "Alas and well away! In very truth, O youth, you add sorrow upon my sorrow. I was minded to ask you the mystery of the fishes only: whereas now I am concerned to learn your story as well as theirs. But there is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great! Lose no time, O youth, but tell me directly your whole tale." He said, "Lend me your ears, your sight and your insight;" and the King said, "All are at your service!" Thereupon the youth began, "Right wondrous and marvellous is my case and that of these fishes; and were it graven with gravers upon the eye corners it were a warning to whoever would be warned." "How is that?" asked the King, and the young man began to tell

The Tale Of The Ensorcelled Prince.

Know then, O my lord, that in times past my sire was King of this city, and his name was Mahmúd, entitled Lord of the Black Islands, and owner of what are now these four mountains. He ruled for seventy years, after which he went to the mercy of the Lord and I reigned as Sultan in his stead. I took to wife my cousin, the daughter of my paternal uncle, and she loved me with such abounding love that whenever I was absent she ate not and she drank not until she saw me again. She was with me for five years till a certain day when she went forth to the Hammam bath; and I bade the cook hasten to get ready all things for our supper.

And I entered this palace and lay down on the bed where I was wont to sleep and bade two damsels to fan my face, one sitting by my head and the other at my feet. But I was troubled and made restless by my wife's absence and could not sleep; for although my eyes were closed my mind and thoughts were wide awake. Presently, I heard the slave girl at my head say to her at my feet, "O Mas'údah, how miserable is our master and how wasted in his youth and oh! the pity of his being so betrayed by our mistress, the accursed woman!" The other replied, "Yes indeed: Allah curse all faithless women and adulterous ones; but the like of our master, with his fair gifts, deserves something better than this woman who goes out every night." Then she who sat by my head said, "Is our lord dumb or fit only for babbling that he does not question her?" and the other said, "Fie on you! Does our lord know her ways or does she allow him his choice? Nay, more, does she not drug every night the cup she gives him to drink before sleep time, and put hashish into it?

So he sleeps and knows not where she goes, nor what she does; but we know that after giving him the drugged wine, she dons her richest raiment and perfumes herself and then she goes out from him to be away till break of day; then she comes to him, and burns incense under his nose and he awakes from his deathlike sleep." When I heard the slave girl's words, the light became dark before my sight and I thought night would never fall. Presently, the daughter of my uncle came from the baths; and they set the table for us and we ate and sat together for a fair half hour quaffing our wine as was ever our wont. Then she called for the particular wine I used to drink before sleeping and reached me the cup; but, seeming to drink it according to my wont, I poured the contents into my bosom; and, lying down, let her hear that I was asleep. Then, behold, she cried, "Sleep out the night, and never wake again: By God, I loathe you and I loathe your whole body, and my soul turns in disgust from being with you; and I see not the moment when Allah shall snatch away your life!"

Then she rose and donned her fairest dress and perfumed her person and slung my sword over her shoulder; and, opening the gates of the palace, went her vile way. I rose and followed her as she left the palace and she threaded the streets until she came to the city gate, where she spoke words I understood not, and the padlocks dropped of themselves as if broken and the gate leaves opened. She went forth (and I after her without her noticing anything) till she came at last to the outlying mounds and a reed fence built about a round-roofed hut of mud bricks. As she entered the door, I climbed upon the roof which commanded a view of the interior, and lo! my fair cousin had gone in to a hideous negro slave with his upper lip like the cover of a pot, and his lower like an open pot; lips which might sweep up sand from the gravel floor of the hut. He was besides a leper and a paralytic, lying upon a strew of sugar cane trash and wrapped in an old blanket and the foulest rags and tatters. She kissed the earth before him, and he raised his head so as to see her and said, "Woe to you! What call had you to stay away all this time? Here have been with me sundry of the black brethren, who drank their wine and each had his young lady, and I was not content to drink because of your absence." Then she, "O my lord, my heart's love and delight of my eyes, know you not that I am married to my cousin whose very look I loathe, and hate myself when in his company? And did not I fear for your sake,

I would not let a single sun arise before making his city a ruined heap in which raven should croak and owl hoot, and jackal and wolf harbour and loot; nay I had removed its very stones to the back side of Mount Kaf." Replied the slave, "You lie, damn you! Now I swear an oath by the valour and honour of black men (and deem not our manliness to be the poor manliness of white men), from today forth if you stay away till this hour, I will not keep company with you nor will I glue my body with your body and—well, be crude about it. Do not play fast and loose with us, you cracked pot, to satisfy your dirty lusts! Stinkard! Curse you! Vilest of vile white women!" When I heard his words, and saw with my own eyes what passed between these two wretches, the world grew dark before my face and my soul knew not in what place it was. But my wife humbly stood up weeping before him and wheedling the slave, and saying, "O my beloved, and very fruit of my heart, there is none left to cheer me but your dear self; and, if you cast me off who shall take me in, O my beloved, O light of my eyes?" And she did not stop weeping and abasing herself to him until he deigned to be reconciled with her. Then was she right glad and stood up and doffed her clothes, even to her petticoat trousers, and said, "O my master what have you here for your handmaiden to eat?" "Uncover the basin," he grumbled, "and you will find at the bottom the broiled bones of some rats we dined on; pick at them, and then go to that slop pot where you will find some leavings of beer which you may drink."

So she ate and drank and washed her hands, and went and lay down by the side of the slave, upon the cane trash and, stripping herself stark naked, she crept in with him under his foul coverlet and his rags and tatters. When I saw my wife, my cousin, the daughter of my uncle, do this deed I clean lost my wits, and climbing down from the roof, I entered and took the sword which she had with her and drew it, determined to cut down both of them. I first struck at the slave's neck and thought that the death decree had fallen on him:—

When it was the Eighth night

Hereupon the young man shed tears again and began reciting:—

In patience, O my God, I endure my lot and fate; I will bear at will of You whatever be my state: They oppress me; they torture me; they make my life a woe Yet Perhaps Heaven's happiness shall compensate my strait: Yea, straitened is my life by the bane and hate o' foes But Mustafá and Murtazá shall ope me Heaven's gate.

After this the Sultan turned towards the young Prince and said, "O youth, you have removed one grief only to add another; but now, O my friend, where is she; and where is the mausoleum in which lies the slave?" "The slave lies under that dome," the young man said, "and she sits in the chamber fronting that door. And every day at sunrise she comes forth, and first strips me, and whips me with a hundred strokes of the leather scourge, and I weep and shriek; but there is no power of motion in my lower limbs to keep her off me. After ending her torment of me she visits the slave, bringing him wine and boiled meats.

And tomorrow at an early hour she will be here." The King said, "By God, O youth, I will assuredly do you a good deed which the world shall not willingly let die, and an act of valour which shall be chronicled long after I am dead and gone." Then the King sat him by the side of the young Prince and talked till nightfall, when he lay down and slept; but, as soon as the false dawn showed, he arose and doffing his outer garments bared his blade and hastened to the place in which lay the slave. Then he was aware of lighted candles and lamps, and the perfume of incenses and unguents; and, directed by these, he made for the slave and struck him one stroke killing him on the spot: after which he lifted him on his back and threw him into a well that was in the palace. Presently, he returned and, donning the slave's clothes, lay down at length within the mausoleum with the drawn sword laid close to and along his side. After an hour or so the accursed woman came; and, first going to her husband, she stripped off his clothes and, taking a whip, flogged him cruelly while he cried out, "Ah! enough for me the case I am in! Take pity on me, O my cousin!" But she replied, "Did you take pity on me and spare the life of my true love on whom I doted?" Then she drew the hair shirt over his raw and bleeding skin and threw the robe over all and went down to the slave with a goblet of wine and a bowl of meat broth in her hands. She entered under the dome weeping and wailing, "Well away!" And crying, "O my lord! Speak a word to me! O my master! Talk awhile with me!" And began to recite these couplets:—

How long this harshness, this unlove, shall bide? Suffice you not tear floods you have espied? You do prolong our parting purposely And if would please my foe, you'rt satisfied!

Then she wept again and said, "O my lord! Speak to me, talk with me!" The King lowered his voice and, twisting his tongue, spoke after the fashion of

Tale of the Fisherman and the Jinni. 79 the black men and said, "Alas! Alas! There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great!"

Now when she heard these words she shouted for joy, and fell to the ground fainting; and when her senses returned she asked, "O my lord, can it be true that you have power of speech?" and the King making his voice small and faint answered, "O accursed one! Do you deserve that I talk to you and speak with you?" "Why? Why?" rejoined she; and he replied, "The reason is that all the livelong day you torment your husband; and he keeps calling on Heaven for aid until sleep is strange to me even from evening till morning, and he prays and curses, damning us two, me and you, causing me disquiet and much bother: were this not so, I should long ago have got my health; and it is this which prevents my answering you." She said, "With your leave I will release him from what spell is on him;" and the King said, "Release him and let us have some rest!" She cried, "I hear and I obey;" and, going from the tomb to the palace, she took a metal bowl and filled it with water and spoke over it certain words which made the contents bubble and boil as a cauldron seethes over the fire. With this she sprinkled her husband saying, "By virtue of the dread words I have spoken, if you became thus by my spells, come forth out of that form into your own former form."

And lo and behold! the young man shook and trembled; then he rose to his feet and, rejoicing at his deliverance, cried aloud, "I testify that there is no god but God, and in very truth Mohammed is His Apostle, whom Allah bless and keep!" Then she said to him, "Go forth and return not here, for if you do I will surely slay you;" screaming these words in his face. So he went from between her hands; and she returned to the dome and, going down to the tomb, she said, "O my lord, come forth to me that I may look upon you and your beauty!" The King replied in faint low words, "What thing have you done? You have rid me of the branch but not of the root." She asked, "O my darling! O my dearest! What is the root?" And he answered, "Fie on you, O accursed one! The people of this city and of the four islands every night when half has passed lift their heads from the tank in which you have turned them to fishes and cry to Heaven and call down its anger on me and you; and this is the reason why my body is baulked from health.

Go at once and set them free; then come to me and take my hand, and raise me up, for a little strength is already back in me." When she heard the King's words (and she still supposed him to be the slave) she cried joyously, "O my master, on my head and on my eyes be your command! In God's name!" So she sprang to her feet and, full of joy and gladness, ran down to the tarn and took a little of its water in the palm of her hand—

When it was the Ninth night

"Nearer to me," the King said in a faint and feigned tone. She came close as if to embrace him when he took up the sword lying hid by his side and smote her across the breast, so that the point showed gleaming behind her back. Then he smote her a second time and cut her in twain and cast her to the ground in two halves. After which he fared forth and found the young man, now freed from the spell, awaiting him and gave him joy of his happy release while the Prince kissed his hand with abundant thanks. The King said, "Will you abide in this city or go with me to my capital?" The youth said, "Do you not know what journey is between you and your city?" "Two days and a half," answered he, whereupon said the other, "If you are asleep, O King, awake! Between you and your city is a year's march for a well-girt walker, and you had not come here in two days and a half save that the city was under enchantment. And I, O King, will never part from you;

Tale of the Fisherman and the Jinni. 81 no, not even for the twinkling of an eye." The King rejoiced at his words and said, "Thanks be to Allah who has bestowed you upon me! From this hour you are my son and my only son, for that in all my life I have never been blessed with issue." Thereupon they embraced and joyed with exceeding great joy; and, reaching the palace, the Prince who had been spell-bound informed his lords and his grandees that he was about to visit the Holy Places as a pilgrim, and bade them get ready all things necessary for the occasion. The preparations lasted ten days, after which he set out with the Sultan, whose heart burned in yearning for his city from where he had been absent a whole year. They journeyed with an escort of Mamelukes carrying all manner of precious gifts and rarities, nor did they stint their journeying day and night for a full year until they approached the Sultan's capital, and sent messengers ahead to announce their coming. Then the Wazir and the whole army came out to meet him in joy and gladness, for they had given up all hope of ever seeing their King; and the troops kissed the ground before him and wished him joy of his safety. He entered and took seat upon his throne and the Minister came before him and, when acquainted with all that had befallen the young Prince, he congratulated him on his narrow escape.

When order was restored throughout the land the King gave largesse to many of his people, and said to the Wazir, "Bring here the Fisherman who brought us the fishes!" So he sent for the man who had been the first cause of the city and the citizens being delivered from enchantment and, when he came in to the presence, the Sultan bestowed upon him a dress of honour, and questioned him of his condition and whether he had children. The Fisherman gave him to know that he had two daughters and a son, so the King sent for them and, taking one daughter to wife, gave the other to the young Prince and made the son his head treasurer. Furthermore he invested his Wazir with the Sultanate of the City in the Black Islands that formerly belonged to the young Prince, and dispatched with him the escort of fifty armed slaves together with dresses of honour for all the Emirs and Grandees. The Wazir kissed hands and fared forth on his way; while the Sultan and the Prince abode at home in all the solace and the delight of life; and the Fisherman became the richest man of his age, and his daughters wived with the Kings, until death came to them. And yet, O King! This is not more wondrous than the story of