But
Scheherazade rejoiced with exceeding joy and get ready all she required and
said to her younger sister, Dunyazade: "Note well what directions I
entrust to thee! When I have gone into the King I will send for thee, and when
thou comest to me and seest that he hath had his carnal will of me, do thou say
to me: 'O my sister, an thou be not sleepy, relate to me some new story,
delectable and delightsome, the better to speed our waking hours.' And I will
tell thee a tale which shall be our deliverance, if so Allah please, and which
shall turn the King from his bloodthirsty custom." Dunyazade answered
"With love and gladness."
So
when it was night, their father the Wazir carried Scheherazade to the King, who
was gladdened at the sight and asked, "Hast thou brought me my need?"
And he answered, "I have." But when the King took her to his bed and
fell to toying with her and wished to go in to her, she wept, which made him
ask, "What aileth thee?" She replied, "O King of the Age, I have
a younger sister, and lief would I take leave of her this night before I see
the dawn." So he sent at once for Dunyazade and she came and kissed the
ground between his hands, when he permitted her to take her seat near the foot
of the couch. Then the King arose and did away with his bride's maidenhead and
the three fell asleep.
But
when it was midnight Scheherazade awoke and signaled to her sister Dunyazade,
who sat up and said, "Allah upon thee, O my sister, recite to us some new
story, delightsome and delectable, wherewith to while away the waking hours of
our latter night." "With joy and goodly gree," answered
Scheherazade, "if this pious and auspicious King permit me."
"Tell on," quoth the King, who chanced to be sleepless and restless
and therefore was pleased with the prospect of hearing her story. So
Scheherazade rejoiced, and thus, on the first night of the Thousand Nights and
a Night, she began her recitations.
IT
hath reached me, O auspicious King, that there was a fisherman well stricken in
years who had a wife and three children, and withal was of poor condition. Now
it was his custom to cast his net every day four times, and no more. On a day
he went forth about noontide to the seashore, where he laid down his basket
and, tucking up his shirt and plunging into the water, made a cast with his net
and waited till it settled to the bottom. Then he gathered the cords together
and haled away at it, but found it weighty. And however much he drew it
landward, he could not pull it up, so he carried the ends ashore and drove a
stake into the ground and made the net fast to it. Then he stripped and dived
into the water all about the net, and left not off working hard until he had
brought it up.
He
rejoiced thereat and, donning his clothes, went to the net, when he found in it
a dead jackass which had torn the meshes. Now when he saw it, he exclaimed in
his grief, "There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah the
Glorious, the Great!" Then quoth he, "This is a strange manner of
daily bread," and he began reciting in extempore verse:
"O
toiler through the glooms of night in peril and in pain,
Thy
toiling stint for daily bread comes not by might and main!
Seest
thou not the fisher seek afloat upon the sea
His
bread, while glimmer stars of night as set in tangled skein?
Anon
he plungeth in despite the buffet of the waves,
The
while to sight the bellying net his eager glances strain,
Till
joying at the night's success, a fish he bringeth home
Whose
gullet by the hook of Fate was caught and cut in twain.
When
buys that fish of him a man who spent the hours of night
Reckless
of cold and wet and gloom in ease and comfort fain,
Laud
to the Lord who gives to this, to that denies, his wishes
And
dooms one toil and catch the prey and other eat the fishes." Then quoth
he, "Up and to it. I am sure of His beneficence, Inshallah!" So he
continued:
"When thou art seized of Evil Fate, assume
The
noble soul's long-suffering. 'Tis thy best.
Complain not to the creature, this be 'plaint
From
one most Ruthful to the ruthlessest."
The
fisherman, when he had looked at the dead ass, got it free of the toils and
wrung out and spread his net. Then he plunged into the sea, saying, "In
Allah's name!" and made a cast and pulled at it, but it grew heavy and
settled down more firmly than the first time. Now he thought that there were
fish in it, and he made it fast and, doffing his clothes, went into the water,
and dived and haled until he drew it up upon dry land. Then found he in it a
large earthern pitcher which was full of sand and mud, and seeing this, he was
greatly troubled. So he prayed pardon of Allah and, throwing away the jar,
wrung his net and cleansed it and returned to the sea the third time to cast
his net, and waited till it had sunk. Then he pulled at it and found therein
potsherds and broken glass. Then, raising his eyes heavenward, he said: "O
my God! Verily Thou wettest that I cast not my net each day save four times.
The third is done and as yet Thou hast vouchsafed me nothing. So this time, O
my God, deign give me my daily bread."
Then,
having called on Allah's name, he again threw his net and waited its sinking
and settling, whereupon he haled at it but could not draw it in for that it was
entangled at the bottom. He cried out in his vexation, "There is no
Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah!" and he began reciting:
"Fie on this wretched world, an so it be
I must
be whelmed by grief and misery.
Tho'
gladsome be man's lot when dawns the morn,
He
drains the cup of woe ere eve he see.
Yet
was I one of whom the world when asked
'Whose
lot is happiest?' would say, ''Tis he!'"
Thereupon
he stripped and, diving down to the net, busied himself with it till it came to
land. Then he opened the meshes and found therein a cucumber-shaped jar of
yellow copper, evidently full of something, whose mouth was made fast with a
leaden cap stamped with the seal ring of our Lord Solomon, son of David (Allah
accept the twain!). Seeing this, the fisherman rejoiced and said, "If I
sell it in the brass bazaar, 'tis worth ten golden dinars." He shook it,
and finding it heavy, continued: "Would to Heaven I knew what is herein.
But I must and will open it and look to its contents and store it in my bag and
sell it in the brass market." And taking out a knife, he worked at the
lead till he had loosened it from the jar. Then he laid the cup on the ground
and shook the vase to pour out whatever might be inside. He found nothing in
it, whereat he marveled with an exceeding marvel. But presently there came
forth from the jar a smoke which spired heavenward into ether (whereat he again
marveled with mighty marvel), and which trailed along earth's surface till
presently, having reached its full height, the thick vapor condensed, and
became an Ifrit huge of bulk, whose crest touched the clouds while his feet
were on the ground. His head was as a dome, his hands like pitchforks, his legs
long as masts, and his mough big as a cave. His teeth were like large stones,
his nostrils ewers, his eyes two lamps, and his look was fierce and lowering.
Now
when the fisherman saw the Ifrit, his side muscles quivered, his teeth
chattered, his spittle dried up, and he became blind about what to do. Upon
this the Ifrit looked at him and cried, "there is no god but the God, and
Solomon is the prophet of God," presently adding: "O Apostle of
Allah, slay me not. Never again will I gainsay thee in word nor sin against
thee in deed." Quoth the fisherman, "O Marid, diddest thou say
Solomon the Apostle of Allah? And Solomon is dead some thousand and eight
hundred years ago, and we are now in the last days of the world! What is thy
story, and what is thy account of thyself, and what is the cause of thy
entering into this cucurbit?"
Now
when the Evil Spirit heard the words of the fisherman, quoth he: "There is
no god but the God. Be of good cheer, O Fisherman!" Quoth the fisherman,
"Why biddest thou me to be of good cheer?" And he replied,
"Because of thy having to die an ill death in this very hour." Said
the fisherman, "Thou deservest for thy good tidings the withdrawal of
Heaven's protection, O thou distant one! Wherefore shouldest thou kill me, and
what thing have I done to deserve death, I who freed thee from the jar, and
saved thee from the depths of the sea, and brought thee up on the dry
land?" Replied the Ifrit, "Ask of me only what mode of death thou
wilt die, and by what manner of slaughter shall I slay thee." Rejoined the
fisherman, "What is my crime, and wherefore such retribution?" Quoth
the Ifrit, "Hear my story, O Fisherman!" And he answered, "Say
on, and be brief in thy sayinig, for of very sooth my life breath is in my
nostrils."
Thereupon
quoth the Jinni: "Know that I am one among the heretical Jann, and I
sinned against Solomon, David-son (on the twain be peace!), I together with the
famous Sakhr al-Jinni, whereupon the Prophet sent his Minister, Asaf son of
Barkhiya, to seize me. And this Wazir brought me against my will and led me in
bonds to him (I being downcast despite my nose), and he placed me standing
before him like a suppliant. When Solomon saw me, he took refuge with Allah and
bade me embrace the True Faith and obey his behests. But I refused, so, sending
for this cucurbit, he shut me up therein and stopped it over with lead, whereon
he impressed the Most High Name, and gave his orders to the Jann, who carried
me off and cast me into the midmost of the ocean. There I abode a hundred
years, during which I said in my heart, 'Whoso shall release me, him will I
enrich forever and ever.'
