There was once, long ago and in ages and times long gone before, a Grecian sage called Daniel, who had disciples and scholars; and the wise men of Greece were obedient to his bidding and relied upon his learning. as well had Allah denied him a man child. One night, as he lay musing and weeping over the lack of a son who might inherit his lore, he bethought him that Allah (extolled and exalted be He!) hears the prayer of those who resort to Him and that there is no doorkeeper at the door of His bounties and that He favours whom He will without compt and sends no supplicant empty away; nay He fills their hands with favours and benefits. So he besought the Almighty, the Bountiful, to vouchsafe him a son to succeed him, and to endow him abundantly with His beneficence. Then he returned home and carnally knew his wife who conceived by him the same night.—

When it was the Four Hundred and Eighty third night

Then he farewelled her and heaving one sigh, departed the world and all that is within it—the mercy of Allah the Most Highest be upon Him! His family and friends wept over him and washed him and bore him forth in great state and buried him; after which they go on their way home. But few days passed before his widow bare a handsome boy and named him Hasib Karim al-Din, as her husband charged her; and immediately after his birth she summoned the astrologers, who calculated his ascendants and drawing his horoscope, said to her, "Know, O woman! That this birth will live many a year; but that will be after a great peril in the early part of his life, wherefrom If he escape, he will be given the knowledge of all the exact sciences." So saying they went their ways. She suckled him two years, then weaned him, and when he was five years old, she placed him in a school to learn his book, but he would read nothing. So she took him from school and set him to learn a trade; but he would not master any craft and there came no work from his hands. The mother wept over this and the folk said to her, "Marry him: Perhaps he will take heart for his wife and learn him a trade."

So she sought out a girl and married him to her; but, despite marriage and the lapse of time, he remained idle as before, and would do nothing. One day, some neighbours of hers, who were woodcutters, came to her and said, "Buy your son an ass and cords and an axe and let him go with us to the mountain and we will all of us cut wood for fuel. The price of the wood shall be his and ours, and he shall provide you and his wife with his share." When she heard this, she joyed with exceeding joy and bought her son an ass and cords and hatchet; then, carrying him to the woodcutters, delivered him into their hands and solemnly committed him to their care. They said, "Have no concern for the boy, our Lord will provide for him: he is the son of our Shaykh." So they carried him to the mountain, where they cut firewood and loaded their asses therewith; then returned to the city and, selling what they had cut, spent the monies on their families. This they did on the next day and the third and did not stop for some time, till it chanced one day, a violent storm of rain broke over them, and they took refuge in a great cave till the downfall should pass away. Now Hasib Karim al-Din went apart from the rest into a corner of the cavern and sitting down, fell to smiting the floor with his axe. Presently, he noted that the ground sounded hollow under the hatchet; so he dug there awhile and came to a round flagstone with a ring in it. When he saw this, he was glad and called his comrades the woodcutters, —

When it was the Four Hundred and Eighty fourth night

Hasib, said, "I will stay and keep watch over it till you bring your pots and pans." So they left him on guard there and, repairing to the city, fetched vessels, which they filled with honey and loading their asses therewith, carried them to the streets and sold the contents. They returned on the morrow and thus they did several days in succession, sleeping in the town by night and drawing off the stuff by day, whilst Hasib abode on guard by it till but little remained, when they said one to other, "It was Hasib Karim al-Din found the honey, and to morrow he will come down to the city and complain against us and claim the price of it, saying, ' 'Twas I found it;' nor is there escape for us but that we let him down into the cistern, to bale out the rest of the honey,

The Queen Of The Serpents. 301 and leave him there; so will he die of hunger, and none shall know of him." They all fell in with this plot as they were making for the place; and, when they reached it, one said to him, "O Hasib, go down into the pit and bale out for us the rest of the honey." So he went down and passed up to them what remained of the honey, after which he said to them, "Draw me up, for there is nothing left." They made him no answer; but, loading their asses, went off to the city and left him alone in the cistern. Thereupon he fell to weeping and crying, "There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great!" Such was his case; but as regards his comrades, when they reached the city and sold the honey, they repaired to Hasib's mother, weeping, and said to her, "May your head outlive your son Hasib!" She asked, "What brought about his death?" and they answered, "We were cutting wood on the mountain top, when there fell on us a heavy downfall of rain and we took shelter from it in a cavern; and suddenly your son's ass broke loose and fled into the valley, and he ran after it, to turn it back, when there came out upon them a great wolf, who tore your son in pieces and ravined the ass."

When the mother heard this, she beat her face and strewed dust on her head and fell to mourning for her son; and she kept life and soul together only by the meat and drink which they brought her every day. As for the woodcutters they opened them shops and became merchants and spent their lives in eating and drinking and laughing and frolicking. Meanwhile Hasib Karim al-Din, who did not stop to weep and call for help, sat down upon the cistern edge when behold, a great scorpion fell down on him; so he rose and killed it. Then he took thought and said, "The cistern was full of honey; how came this scorpion here?" Accordingly he got up and examined the well right and left, till he found a crevice from which the scorpion had fallen and saw the light of day shining through it. So he took out his woodman's knife and enlarged the hole, till it was big as a window, when he crept through it and, after walking for some time, came to a vast gallery, which led him to a huge door of black iron bearing a padlock of silver in which was a key of gold. He stole up to the door and, looking through the chink, saw a great light shining within; so he took the key and opening the door, went on for some time, till he came to a large artificial lake, in which he caught sight of something that shimmering like silver. He walked up to it and at last he saw, close by a hillock of green jasper and on the hill top, a golden throne studded with all manner gems,—

When it was the Four Hundred and Eighty fifth night

When he heard her speak in this way, he took heart and she bade the serpents bring him something of food. So they brought apples and grapes and pomegranates and pistachio nuts and filberts and walnuts and almonds and bananas and set them before him, and the Queen serpent said, "Welcome, O youth! What is your name?" Answered he, "Hasib Karim al-Din;" and she rejoined, "O Hasib, eat of these fruits, for we have no other meat and fear you nothing from us at all." Hearing this, he ate his fill and praised Allah Almighty; and presently they took away the trays from before him, and the Queen said, "Tell me, O Hasib, from where you are and how came you here and what has befallen you." So he told her his story from beginning to end, the death of his father; his birth; his being sent to school where he learnt nothing, his becoming a wood cutter; his finding the honey cistern; his being abandoned within it; his killing the scorpion, his widening the crevice; his finding the iron door and his coming upon the Queen, and he ended his long tale with saying, "These be my adventures from beginning to end and only Allah knows what will happen me after all this!" The Queen, said, after listening to his words, "Nothing save good shall happen you:"—

When it was the Four Hundred and Eighty sixth night

"I hear an obey your hest," answered he; and she began to tell in these words