Latest / Arabian Nights Tales from Volume 09 / 021 - Night 929 - 930

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021 - Night 929 - 930 · Arabian Nights Tales from Volume 09

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Speaker 1: Section twenty one of the Book of the Thousand Knights
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Speaker 1: and the Night Volume nine, the c CE LibriVox recording.
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Speaker 1: All librovox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visitly befox dot org. The
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Speaker 1: Book of the Thousand Knights and the Night Volume nine
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Speaker 1: by Anonymous, translated by Richard Francis Burton, Night Night hundred
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Speaker 1: twenty nine, when it was the nine hundred and twenty
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Speaker 1: ninth night. She pursued, it has reached me, almighty monarch,
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Speaker 1: that king word Khan said to his Wazir, Indeed, I
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Speaker 1: have left my wisdom inclination to women, and have altogether
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Speaker 1: renounced my infatuation for them. But how shall I do
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Speaker 1: to punish them in retaliation of their misdeeds? For the
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Speaker 1: slaying of thy sire Seamus was of their malice and
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Speaker 1: not of my own will. And I know not what
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Speaker 1: ailed my reason that I consented with their proposal to
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Speaker 1: slay him. Then he cried, ah me and groaned and lamented,
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Speaker 1: saying well away, and alas for the loss of my
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Speaker 1: Wazir and his just judgment and admirable administration, and for
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Speaker 1: the loss of his like of the Wazirs and heads
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Speaker 1: of the state, and of the goodliness of their ab
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Speaker 1: councils and sagacious O King, quoth the boy minister, know
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Speaker 1: that the fot does not with women alone, for that
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Speaker 1: they are like unto a pleasing stock in trade, where
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Speaker 1: to the lusts of the lookers on inclined to whosoever
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Speaker 1: lostt and bieth, they sell it. But whose bieth not
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Speaker 1: none forceth him to buy, so that the fote is
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Speaker 1: of him who biath, especially if he know the harmfulness
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Speaker 1: of that merchandise. Now I warn thee, as did my
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Speaker 1: sire before me, But thou acceptedst not to his counsel,
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Speaker 1: answered the king, O Wazir. Indeed, I have fixed this
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Speaker 1: phote upon myself, even as thou hast said, And I
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Speaker 1: have no excuse except divine for ordainment, rejoined the Wazir,
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Speaker 1: O King. Now that Almighty Allah has created us and
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Speaker 1: endowed us with capability, and appointed to us free will
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Speaker 1: and choice. So if we will, we do, and if
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Speaker 1: we will we do not. The Lord commanded us not
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Speaker 1: to do harm lest sin attached to us. Wherefore it
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Speaker 1: befitteth us to take come of what sou is right
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Speaker 1: to do. For that the Almighty biddeth us not but
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Speaker 1: good in all cases, and forbiddest us only from evil.
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Speaker 1: But what we do we do of our own design
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Speaker 1: beat fair or forty, quoth the King. Thou sayest sooth,
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Speaker 1: And indeed my phot arose from my surrendering myself to
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Speaker 1: my lusks albeide. Often and often my better self warned
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Speaker 1: me from this, and thy sire Shemus also warned me
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Speaker 1: often and often, But my lusts overcame my wits. Hast Thou, then,
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Speaker 1: with thee aught that may withhold me from again committing
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Speaker 1: this error, and whereby my reason may be victorious over
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Speaker 1: the desires of my soul, quoth the Wazir. Yes, I
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Speaker 1: can tell THEE, but will restrain THEE from relapsing into
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Speaker 1: this fault. And it is that thou doest the garment
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Speaker 1: of ignorance and done that of understanding, and disobey thy passions,
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Speaker 1: and obey thy Lord, and revert to the policy of
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Speaker 1: the just King, thy sire, and fulfill thy duties to
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Speaker 1: allow the most high and to thy people, and apply
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Speaker 1: thyself to the defense of thy faith and the promotion
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Speaker 1: of thy subjects welfare, and rule thyself a right, and
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Speaker 1: forbear the slaughter of thy people, and look to the
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Speaker 1: end of things, and severe thyself from tyranny and oppression,
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Speaker 1: and arrogance and lewdness, and practice justice, equity and humility,
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Speaker 1: and bow before the of the Almighty, and applied thyself
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Speaker 1: to gentle dealing with those of his creatures over whom
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Speaker 1: he said the and be assiduous as it resithth the
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Speaker 1: in fulfilling their prayers unto d And thou be constant heroine.
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Speaker 1: May thy days be serene, And may Hollah of his
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Speaker 1: mercy pardon THEE and make THEE loved and feared of
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Speaker 1: all who look on THEE. So shall thy foes be
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Speaker 1: brought to not, for the Omnipotent shall rout their hosts,
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Speaker 1: And thou shalt have acceptance with him, and of his
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Speaker 1: creatures be dreaded, and to them, indeed quoth the King. Indeed,
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Speaker 1: thou hast quickened my vitals and illumined my heart with
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Speaker 1: thy sweet speech, and hast opened the eyes of myne
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Speaker 1: i clear scene after blindness, and I am resolved to
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Speaker 1: do whatso thou hast set forth to me, with the
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Speaker 1: help of the Almighty, leaven my former case of lust
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Speaker 1: and sinfulness, and bringing force my soul from durance ile
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Speaker 1: to deliverance, and from fear to safety. So it behooves
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Speaker 1: THEE to be joyful hear it, and contented for that.
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Speaker 1: I am become to THEE as a son mowering my
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Speaker 1: more of age, and thou to me as a dear father,
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Speaker 1: despite thy tenderness of ears. And it has become incumbent
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Speaker 1: on me to do mine utmost endeavor in all Thou
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Speaker 1: commandest me. Wherefore I think the bounty of Allah and
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Speaker 1: thy bounty, because He has vouchsafed me by THEE fair
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Speaker 1: fortune and goodly guidance and just judgment to ward off
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Speaker 1: my cark and care. And the security of my liege
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Speaker 1: has been brought about by thy hand through the excellence
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Speaker 1: of thy knowledge and the goodliness of thy contrivance. And
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Speaker 1: Thou from this hour shalt be the counselor of my
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Speaker 1: kingdom and equal to myself in all but sitting upon
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Speaker 1: the throne. And whatso thou dost shall be law to me,
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Speaker 1: and none shall disobey thy world. Young in years, thou
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Speaker 1: thou be, for that thou art old in wit and knowledge.
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Speaker 1: So I thank Allah, who janeed grant thee to me,
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Speaker 1: that thou mayst guide me into the way of salvation
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Speaker 1: and out of the crooked path of perdition. Quoth the Wazir,
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Speaker 1: o auspicious King, No, that no merit is due to
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Speaker 1: me forgiving Dee the loyal counsel for that to secure
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Speaker 1: thee by deed and world is one of the things
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Speaker 1: which is incumbent on me, saying that I am but
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Speaker 1: a plant of thy bounty, and not I alone, but
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Speaker 1: one before me was overwhelmed with thy beneficence, so that
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Speaker 1: we are both like partakers in thy honors and favors.
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Speaker 1: And how shall we not acknowledge this? Moreover? Thou, o King, art,
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Speaker 1: our shepherd and ruler, and he who wardeth off from
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Speaker 1: us our foes, and to whom are committed our protection
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Speaker 1: and our guardian constant in endeavor for our safety. Indeed,
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Speaker 1: though we lavished our lives in thy service, yet should
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Speaker 1: we not fulfill that which is incumbent on us of
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Speaker 1: gratitude to Dee. But we suplice Allah Almighty, who has
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Speaker 1: set d over us, and may d our ruler and
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Speaker 1: beseech him vouchsafe y long life and success in all
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Speaker 1: Thine enterprises. And not to make trial of D with
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Speaker 1: afflictions in thy time, but bring D to thy desire,
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Speaker 1: and make D to reverence it till the day of
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Speaker 1: thy death, and lengthen thine arms in generosity, so thou
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Speaker 1: mayst have commanded over every wise man, and subdue every
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Speaker 1: wicked man, And all the wise and brave be found
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Speaker 1: with D in thy ron, all the ignorant and cowardly
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Speaker 1: be plucket out from thy reign. And we pray Him
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Speaker 1: to withhold from thy people scarcity and calamity, and so
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Speaker 1: among them the seed of love and friendship, and cause
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Speaker 1: them to joy of this world its prosperity, and of
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Speaker 1: the next felicity, of His grace and bounty and hidden mercies. Amen.
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Speaker 1: Footnote one hundred eighty two Arab, meaning of which the
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Speaker 1: Hebrew form is Amen from the root omnius, stability, constancy
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Speaker 1: in both tongues. It is a particle of affirmation or consent.
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Speaker 1: It is true, so be it. The Hebrew has also
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Speaker 1: a mannah, which means verily truly. End of footnote. For
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Speaker 1: He is over all things omnipotent, and there is not
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Speaker 1: difficult unto him. To him all things tend. When the
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Speaker 1: King heard the Wazir's prayer. He was mightily rejoiced and
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Speaker 1: inclined to him with his whole heart, saying, now a Wazir,
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Speaker 1: thou art to me in lieu of brother and son,
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Speaker 1: and father and naught. But death shall divide me from
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Speaker 1: thee oh that my hand possess, thou shalt have the
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Speaker 1: disposal of. And if I have no child to succeed me,
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Speaker 1: thou shalt sit on my throne in my stead. For
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Speaker 1: thou art the worthiest of all the folk of my room,
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Speaker 1: and thou wilt invest thee with my kingship in the
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Speaker 1: presence of the grandees of my state, and appointee my
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Speaker 1: hair apparent to inherit the kingdom after me Inshallah and
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Speaker 1: Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say
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Speaker 1: her permitted say and of night nine hundred twenty nine,
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Speaker 1: nine nine hundred thirty. When it was the nine hundred
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Speaker 1: and thirtieth night, she resumed. It has reached me o
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Speaker 1: auspicious king, that King wird Khan said to the son
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Speaker 1: of Simus, the willam Wazir. Presently, I will name D
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Speaker 1: my successor and make D my hair upward, and I
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Speaker 1: will call the grandees of mine empire to witness the ritum.
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Speaker 1: Then he summoned his secretary and bade him write to
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Speaker 1: all the lords of his land, convoking them at his court,
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Speaker 1: and caused proclamation to be made in his city to
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Speaker 1: all the townsfolk great and small. Bid in every one
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Speaker 1: of the emirs and governors, and chamberlains, and other officers
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Speaker 1: and dignitaries to his presence, as well as the olema
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Speaker 1: and literati learned in the law. He held to boot
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Speaker 1: a grand divan and made a banquet. Never was its
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Speaker 1: like seene anywhere, and their two He bade all the
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Speaker 1: folk high and low. So they assembled and aboding merry, making,
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Speaker 1: eating and drinking a month's space, after which the king
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Speaker 1: clothed the whole of his household and the poor of
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Speaker 1: his kingdom, and bestowed on the men of knowledge abandoned largesse.
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Speaker 1: Then he choose out the number of the olemma and
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Speaker 1: wise men who were known to the son of Shemus,
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Speaker 1: and caused them going to him, bidding him choose out
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Speaker 1: of them six, that he might make them wazars under
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Speaker 1: commandment of the boy. Accordingly, he selected six of the
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Speaker 1: odors of them. In years and the best in whits
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Speaker 1: and fullest of law, and the quickest of memory and judgment,
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Speaker 1: and presented them to the King, who clapped them in
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Speaker 1: wazerial habits, saying, he here become my ministers, under the
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Speaker 1: commandment of this my grand Wazir, the son of whatsoever
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Speaker 1: he says to you, orbiddess, you to do, ye shall
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Speaker 1: never and in no wise depart from it. How but
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Speaker 1: he is the youngest of you in ears, for he
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Speaker 1: is the eldest of you in intellect and intelligence. Then
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Speaker 1: he seated them upon chiers adorned with gold after the
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Speaker 1: usage of wazirs, and appointed to them stupends and allowances,
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Speaker 1: biding them choose out such of the notables of the
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Speaker 1: kingdom and officers of the troops present at a banquet,
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Speaker 1: as were abjects for the service of the state, that
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Speaker 1: he might fake them captains of tens and captains of
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Speaker 1: hundreds and captains of thousands, and appoint to them dignities
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Speaker 1: and stupend and assign them provision after the manner of grandees.
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Speaker 1: This they did with entire diligence, And he bade them
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Speaker 1: also handsel all who were present with large gifts, and
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Speaker 1: dismissed them each to his country with honor and renown.
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Speaker 1: He also charged his governors to ruled people with justice,
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Speaker 1: and enjoined them to be tender to the poor as
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Speaker 1: well as to the rich, and bade succor them from
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Speaker 1: the treasury according to their several degrees. So the Wazirs
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Speaker 1: wished him permanence of glory and continuance of life, and
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Speaker 1: he commanded to decorate the city three days in gratitude
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Speaker 1: to Allah Almighty for mercies vouchsafed to him. Such was
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Speaker 1: the case with the King and his Wazir Ibnincimus in
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Speaker 1: the ordinance of his kingdom, through his emirs and governors,
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Speaker 1: but as regards to favorite women, wives, concubines, and an others,
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Speaker 1: who by their malice and perfidy, had brought about the
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Speaker 1: slaughter of the Wazirs and had well nigh ruined the Rome.
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Speaker 1: As soon as the court was solved and all the
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Speaker 1: people had departed, each to his own place, after their
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Speaker 1: affairs had been set in order, the king summoned his
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Speaker 1: boy minister, the son of Shemus, and the other six Wazirs,
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Speaker 1: and taken them apart. Privately said to them, know, o Wazirs,
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Speaker 1: that I have been a wanderer from the right way,
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Speaker 1: drowned in ignorance, opposed to admonition, a breaker of facts
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Speaker 1: and promises, and again sayer of good counselors. And the
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Speaker 1: cause of all this was my being fooled by these
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Speaker 1: women and the wiles whereby they beset me, and the
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Speaker 1: closing lure of their speech, whereby the sea induced me
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Speaker 1: to sin. And my acceptance of this or that, I
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Speaker 1: deemed the words of them true and loyal counsel by
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Speaker 1: reason of their sweetness and softness. But lo, and behold,
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Speaker 1: they were deadly poisoned. And now I am certified that
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Speaker 1: they sought but to ruin and destroy me. Wherefore they
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Speaker 1: deserved punishment and retribution from me for justice sake, that
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Speaker 1: I may make them a warning to whoso will be warned.
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Speaker 1: And what say your just judgments? And doing them to die?
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Speaker 1: Answered the boy Wazir, Almighty King, I have already told
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Speaker 1: thee that women are not alone to blame, but that
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Speaker 1: the fault is shared between them and the men who
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Speaker 1: hurricuned to them. However, they deserved punishment and requite for
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Speaker 1: two reasons. Firstly, for the fulfillment of thy word. Because
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Speaker 1: thou art supreme King. And secondly by reason of their
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Speaker 1: presumption against THEE, and their seducing thee, and their meddling
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Speaker 1: with that which concerns them not, and whereof it befitteth
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Speaker 1: them not even to speak. Wherefore they have right well
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Speaker 1: deserved death. Ye elect that which has befallen them sufficed them,
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Speaker 1: And do thou henceforth reduce them to servant's state. But
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Speaker 1: it is thine to command in this and in order
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Speaker 1: than this. Then one of the Wazirs secounded the council
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Speaker 1: of Ibninishimus. But another of them prostrated himself before the
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Speaker 1: king and said to him, Allah prolonged the King's life,
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Speaker 1: and thou be indeed resolved to do with them that
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Speaker 1: which shall cause their death. Do with them as I
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Speaker 1: shall say to THEE. Asked word to come, and what
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Speaker 1: is dead? And Wazir answered, twere best that thou badst
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Speaker 1: some of thy female slaves. Carry the women who played
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Speaker 1: the false to the apartment bren befelt the slaughter of
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Speaker 1: thy Wazirs and wise men, and imprison them there, and
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Speaker 1: bid that they be provided with a little meat and
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Speaker 1: drink enough to keep life in their bodies. Let them
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Speaker 1: never be suffered. To go forth of that place, and
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Speaker 1: whenever one of them dies, let her abide among them
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Speaker 1: as she is till they die, all even to the
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Speaker 1: last of them. This is the least of their desert.
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Speaker 1: Because they were the cause of His great avail ay
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Speaker 1: and the origin of all the troubles and calamities that
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Speaker 1: have befallen in our time. So shall there be verified
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Speaker 1: in them the saying of the sayer, whoso diggest his
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Speaker 1: brother repeat, shall surely himself fall into it oubite of
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Speaker 1: long safety he had benefit. The king accepted the Wazir's counsel, and,
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Speaker 1: sending for four stalwart female slaves, committed the offending women
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Speaker 1: to them, bidding them bear them into the place of slaughter,
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Speaker 1: and imprison them there, and allow them every day a
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Speaker 1: little coarse food and a little troubled water. They did
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Speaker 1: with them as he bade. Wherefore the women mourned with
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Speaker 1: sore mourning, repenting them of that we which they had done,
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Speaker 1: and lamenting with crivous lamentation. Thus Allah gave them their
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Speaker 1: reward of objection in this world, and prepared for them
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Speaker 1: terment in the world to come. Nor did they cease
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Speaker 1: to abide in that murky and noisome place, whilst every
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Speaker 1: day one or other of them died, till they all perished,
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Speaker 1: even to the last of them footnote one hundred eighty three.
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Speaker 1: To us this seems a case of hard times for
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Speaker 1: the unhappy women. But Easterns then believed and still believe
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Speaker 1: in the divinity which thus hatch in a king in
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Speaker 1: his reigning by the grace of God, and in his
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Speaker 1: being the vice regent of Allah upon earth, briefly in
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Speaker 1: the old faith of loyalty, which great and successful republics
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Speaker 1: are fast making obsolete in the West, and nowhere faster
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Speaker 1: than in England. End of footnote. And the report of
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Speaker 1: this event was bruited abroad in all lands and countries.
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Speaker 1: This is the end of the story of the king
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Speaker 1: and his Wazirs and subjects. And praise be to Allah,
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Speaker 1: who causes peoples to pass away and quickness the bones
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Speaker 1: that wrought in decay Him who alone is worthy to
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Speaker 1: be glorified and magnified away and hallowed forever an I.
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Speaker 1: And amongst the tales they tell is one of Abukir
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Speaker 1: the dire and Abusir the barber. There dwelt once in
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Speaker 1: Alexandria City, two men of home one was a dyer
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Speaker 1: by name Abukir, and the other a barber Abusir Footnote
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Speaker 1: one hundred eighty four. Abusir is a manifest corruption of
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Speaker 1: the Old Egyptian Bosiri, the Busiris of our classics, and
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Speaker 1: it gives a name to sundry villages in modern Egypt,
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Speaker 1: where it is usually pronounced Bashir. Abukir, literally the father
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Speaker 1: of pitch, is also corrupted to Abukir Bay, and the
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Speaker 1: tumlet now marks the site of jolly old Canopus, the
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Speaker 1: chosen land of Egyptian of the Boucheri end of footnote.
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Speaker 1: And they were neighbors in the market street, where their
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Speaker 1: shops stood side by side. The dyer was a swindler
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Speaker 1: and a liar, an exceeding wicked wet as if indeed
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Speaker 1: his head temples were whun out of a boulder rock,
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Speaker 1: or fashionate of the threshold of a Jewish synagogue. Nor
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Speaker 1: was he ashamed of any shameful work he wrote amongst
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Speaker 1: the folk. It was his wont when any brought him
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Speaker 1: cloths for staining, first to require of him payment under
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Speaker 1: pretense of buying thy stuffs. Therewith so the customer would
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Speaker 1: give him the wage in advance, and went his waists,
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Speaker 1: and the dyer would spend all he received on meat
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Speaker 1: and drink, after which he would sell the cloth itself
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Speaker 1: as soon as ever its owner turned his back and
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Speaker 1: wasted its worth in eating and drinking and what not else.
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Speaker 1: For he ate not but of the dentiest and most
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Speaker 1: delicate vince, nor drank, but of the best of that
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Speaker 1: which does away the width of a man. And when
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Speaker 1: the owner of the cloth came to him, he would
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Speaker 1: say to him, return to me to morrow before sunrise,
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Speaker 1: and I shall find thy staff died. So the customer
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Speaker 1: would go away, saying to himself, one day is near
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Speaker 1: another day, and return next day at the appointed time.
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Speaker 1: When the dyer would say to him, come to morrow.
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Speaker 1: Yesterday I was not at work, for I had with
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Speaker 1: me guests and was occupied with doing what their wants
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Speaker 1: required till they went. But to morrow before sunrise, come
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Speaker 1: and take thy clothes died. So he would fare forth
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Speaker 1: and return on the third day, when Abukir would say
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Speaker 1: to him, indeed, yesterday I was excuseable, for my wife
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Speaker 1: was brought to bed in the night, and all day
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Speaker 1: I was busy with manyfold matters. But tomorrow, without fail,
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Speaker 1: come and take thy class died. When the man came
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Speaker 1: again at the appointed time, he would put him off
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Speaker 1: with some other pretense. It mattered little what, and would
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Speaker 1: swear to him. Shahrazad proceeded to dawn of day and
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Speaker 1: ceased saying her permitted say and of night nine hundred
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Speaker 1: thirty