The Arabian Nights Entertainments
the other. Then the wall of the room opened, but instead of the maiden
a black slave came out. He was enormously tall, and carried a large
green stick with which he touched the fish, saying in a terrible voice,
"Fish, fish, are you doing your duty?" To these words the fish lifting
up their heads replied, "Yes, yes. If you reckon, we reckon. If you
pay your debts, we pay ours. If you fly, we conquer, and are content."
The black slave overturned the pan in the middle of the room, and the
fish were turned to cinders. Then he stepped proudly back into the
wall, which closed round him.
"After having seen this," said the Sultan, "I cannot rest. These fish
signify some mystery I must clear up."
He sent for the fisherman. "Fisherman," he said, "the fish you have
brought us have caused me some anxiety. Where did you get them from?"
"Sire," he answered, "I got them from a lake which lies in the middle
of four hills beyond yonder mountains."
"Do you know this lake?" asked the Sultan of the grand-vizir.
"No; though I have hunted many times round that mountain, I have never
heard of it," said the vizir.
As the fisherman said it was only three hours' journey away, the sultan
ordered his whole court to mount and ride thither, and the fisherman
led them.
They climbed the mountain, and then, on the other side, saw the lake as
the fisherman had described. The water was so clear that they could
see the four kinds of fish swimming about in it. They looked at them
for some time, and then the Sultan ordered them to make a camp by the
edge of the water.
When night came the Sultan called his vizir, and said to him, "I have
resolved to clear up this mystery. I am going out alone, and do you
stay here in my tent, and when my ministers come to-morrow, say I am
not well, and cannot see them. Do this each day till I return."
The grand-vizir tried to persuade the Sultan not to go, but in vain.
The Sultan took off his state robe and put on his sword, and when he
saw all was quiet in the camp he set forth alone.
He climbed one of the hills, and then crossed the great plain, till,
just as the sun rose, he beheld far in front of him a large building.
When he came near to it he saw it was a splendid palace of beautiful
black polished marble, covered with steel as smooth as a mirror.
He went to the gate, which stood half open, and went in, as nobody came
when he knocked. He passed through a magnificent courtyard and still
saw no one, though he called aloud several times.
He entered large halls where the carpets were of silk, the lounges and
sofas covered with tapestry from Mecca, and the hangings of the most
beautiful Indian stuffs of gold and silver. Then he found himself in a
splendid room, with a fountain supported by golden lions. The water
out of the lions' mouths turned into diamonds and pearls, and the
leaping water almost touched a most beautifully-painted dome. The
palace was surrounded on three sides by magnificent gardens, little
lakes, and woods. Birds sang in the trees, which were netted over to
keep them always there.
Still the Sultan saw no one, till he heard a plaintive cry, and a voice
which said, "Oh that I could die, for I am too unhappy to wish to live
any longer!"
The Sultan looked round to discover who it was who thus bemoaned his
fate, and at last saw a handsome young man, richly clothed, who was
sitting on a throne raised slightly from the ground. His face was very
sad.
The sultan approached him and bowed to him. The young man bent his
head very low, but did not rise.
"Sire," he said to the Sultan, "I cannot rise and do you the reverence
that I am sure should be paid to your rank."
"Sir," answered the Sultan, "I am sure you have a good reason for not
doing so, and having heard your cry of distress, I am come to offer you
my help. Whose is this palace, and why is it thus empty?"
Instead of answering the young man lifted up his robe, and showed the
Sultan that, from the waist downwards, he was a block of black marble.
The Sultan was horrified, and begged the young man to tell him his
story.
"Willingly I will tell you my sad history," said the young man.
The Story of the Young King of the Black Isles
You must know, sire, that my father was Mahmoud, the king of this
country, the Black Isles, so called from the four little mountains
which were once islands, while the capital was the place where now the
great lake lies. My story will tell you how these changes came about.
My father died when he was sixty-six, and I succeeded him. I married
my cousin, whom I loved tenderly, and I thought she loved me too.
But one afternoon, when I was half asleep, and was being fanned by two
of her maids, I heard one say to the other, "What a pity it is that our
mistress no longer loves our master! I believe she would like to kill
him if she could, for she is an enchantress."
I soon found by watching that they were right, and when I mortally
wounded a favourite slave of hers for a great crime, she begged that
she might build a palace in the garden, where she wept and bewailed him
for two years.
At last I begged her to cease grieving for him, for although he could
not speak or move, by her enchantments she just kept him alive. She
turned upon me in a rage, and said over me some magic words, and I
instantly became as you see me now, half man and half marble.
Then this wicked enchantress changed the capital, which was a very
populous and flourishing city, into the lake and desert plain you saw.
The fish of four colours which are in it are the different races who
lived in the town; the four hills are the four islands which give the
name to my kingdom. All this the enchantress told me to add to my
troubles. And this is not all. Every day she comes and beats me with
a whip of buffalo hide.
When the young king had finished his sad story he burst once more into
tears, and the Sultan was much moved.
"Tell me," he cried, "where is this wicked woman, and where is the
miserable object of her affection, whom she just manages to keep alive?"
"Where she lives I do not know," answered the unhappy prince, "but she
goes every day at sunrise to see if the slave can yet speak to her,
after she has beaten me."
"Unfortunate king," said the Sultan, "I will do what I can to avenge
you."
So he consulted with the young king over the best way to bring this
about, and they agreed their plan should be put in effect the next day.
The Sultan then rested, and the young king gave himself up to happy
hopes of release. The next day the Sultan arose, and then went to the
palace in the garden where the black slave was. He drew his sword and
destroyed the little life that remained in him, and then threw the body
down a well. He then lay down on the couch where the slave had been,
and waited for the enchantress.
She went first to the young king, whom she beat with a hundred blows.
Then she came to the room where she thought her wounded slave was, but
where the Sultan really lay.
She came near his couch and said, "Are you better to-day, my dear
slave? Speak but one word to me."
"How can I be better," answered the Sultan, imitating the language of
the Ethiopians, "when I can never sleep for the cries and groans of
your husband?"
"What joy to hear you speak!" answered the queen. "Do you wish him to
regain his proper shape?"
"Yes," said the Sultan; "hasten to set him at liberty, so that I may no
longer hear his cries."
The queen at once went out and took a cup of water, and said over it
some words that made it boil as if it were on the fire. Then she threw
it over the prince, who at once regained his own form. He was filled
with joy, but the enchantress said, "Hasten away from this place and
never come back, lest I kill you."
So he hid himself to see the end of the Sultan's plan.
The enchantress went back to the Palace of Tears and said, "Now I have
done what you wished."
"What you have done," said the Sultan, "is not enough to cure me.
Every day at midnight all the people whom you have changed into fish
lift their heads out of the lake and cry for vengeance. Go quickly,
and give them their proper shape."
The enchantress hurried away and said some words over the lake.
The fish then became men, women, and children, and the houses and shops
were once more filled. The Sultan's suite, who had encamped by the
lake, were not a little astonished to see themselves in the middle of a
large and beautiful town.
As soon as she had disenchanted it the queen went back to the palace.
"Are you quite well now?" she said.
"Come near," said the Sultan. "Nearer still."
She obeyed. Then he sprang up, and with one blow of his sword he cut
her in two.
Then he went and found the prince.
"Rejoice," he said, "your cruel enemy is dead."
The prince thanked him again and again.
"And now," said the Sultan. "I will go back to my capital, which I am
glad to find is so near yours."
"So near mine!" said the King of the Black Isles.
"Do you know it is a whole year's journey from here? You came here in
a few hours because it was enchanted. But I will accompany you on your
journey."
"It will give me much pleasure if you will escort me," said the Sultan,
"and as I have no children, I will make you my heir."
The Sultan and the prince set out together, the Sultan laden with rich
presents from the King of the Black Isles.
The day after he reached his capital the Sultan assembled his court and
told them all that had befallen him, and told them how he intended to
adopt the young king as his heir.
Then he gave each man presents in proportion to his rank.
As for the fisherman, as he was the first cause of the deliverance of
the young prince, the Sultan gave him much money, and made him and his
family happy for the rest of their days.
The Story of the Three Calenders, Sons of Kings,
and of Five Ladies of Bagdad
In the reign of the Caliph Haroun-al-Raschid, there lived at Bagdad a
porter who, in spite of his humble calling, was an intelligent and
sensible man. One morning he was sitting in his usual place with his
basket before him, waiting to be hired, when a tall young lady, covered
with a long muslin veil, came up to him and said, "Pick up your basket
and follow me." The porter, who was greatly pleased by her appearance
and voice, jumped up at once, poised his basket on his head, and
accompanied the lady, saying to himself as he went, "Oh, happy day!
Oh, lucky meeting!"
The lady soon stopped before a closed door, at which she knocked. It
was opened by an old man with a long white beard, to whom the lady held
out money without speaking. The old man, who seemed to understand what
she wanted, vanished into the house, and returned bringing a large jar
of wine, which the porter placed in his basket. Then the lady signed
to him to follow, and they went their way.
The next place she stopped at was a fruit and flower shop, and here she
bought a large quantity of apples, apricots, peaches, and other things,
with lilies, jasmine, and all sorts of sweet-smelling plants. From
this shop she went to a butcher's, a grocer's, and a poulterer's, till
at last the porter exclaimed in despair, "My good lady, if you had only
told me you were going to buy enough provisions to stock a town, I
would have brought a horse, or rather a camel." The lady laughed, and
told him she had not finished yet, but after choosing various kinds of
scents and spices from a druggist's store, she halted before a
magnificent palace, at the door of which she knocked gently. The
porteress who opened it was of such beauty that the eyes of the man
were quite dazzled, and he was the more astonished as he saw clearly