The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 16, Sir Richard Francis Burton [novels to read for beginners TXT] 📗

might be; nor could he do aught save groan and cry, “Ah miserable me! who shall enjoy thy presence, O full Moon of the Age and who shall look upon that comeliness and loveliness?” And he ceased not being feverish and to twist and turn upon his couch until late morning, and he was as one lost with love; but as soon as it was the undurn-hour Attaf came in to him and said, “How is thy health? My thoughts have been settled on thee: and I see that thy slumber hath lasted until between dawn and midday: indeed I deem that thou hast lain awake o’ night and hast not slept until so near the midforenoon.”

“O my brother, I have no Kayf,”[FN#330] replied Ja’afar. So the host forthwith sent a white slave to summon a physician, and the man did his bidding, and after a short delay brought one who was the preventer[FN#331] of his day. And when ushered into Ja’afar’s room he addressed the sick man, “There is no harm to thee and boon of health befal thee;[FN#332] say me what aileth thee?” “All is excitement[FN#333] with me,” answered the other, whereat the Leach putting forth his fingers felt the wrist of his patient, when he found the pulsations pulsing strong and the intermissions intermitting regularly.[FN#334] Nothing this he was ashamed to declare before his face, “Thou art in love!” so he kept silence and presently said to Attaf, “I will write thee a recipe containing all that is required by the case.” “Write!”

said the host, and the Physician sat down to indite his prescription, when behold, a white slave came in and said to his lord, “Thy Harim requireth thee.” So the host arose and retired to learn what was requireth of him in the women’s apartments, and when his wife saw him she asked, “O my lord, what is thy pleasure that we cook for dinner and supper?” “Whatsoever may be wanted,”

he rejoined and went his ways, for since Ja’afar had been guested in his house Attaf had not once entered the inner rooms according as he had before declared to the Minister. Now the Physician during the host’s visit to the Harem had written out the prescription and had placed it under the pillow of the patient, and as he was leaving the house he came suddenly upon the housemaster on return to the men’s apartment, and Attaf asked him, “Hast thou written thy perscription?” “Yes,” answered the Leach, “I have written it and set it under his head.” Thereupon the host pulled out a piastre[FN#335] and therewith fee’d the physician; after which he went up to Ja’afar’s couch and drew the paper from under his pillow and read it and saw therein written,[FN#336] “O Attaf, verily thy guest is a lover, so do thou look for her he loveth and for his state purvey and make not overmuch delay.” So the host addressed his guest, saying, “Thou art now become one of us: why then hide from me thy case and conceal from me thy condition? This Doctor, than whom is none keener or cleverer in Damascus, hath learned all that befel thee.” Hereupon he produced the paper and showed it to Ja’afar, who took it and read it with a smile; then he cried, “This Physician is a master leach and his saying is soothfast. Know that on the day when I went forth from thee and sauntered about the streets and lanes, there befel me a matter which I never had thought to have betided me; no, never; and I know not what shall become of me for that, O my brother, Attaf, my case is one involving life-loss.” And he told him all that had happened to himself; how when seated upon the bench a lattice had been unclosed afront of him and he had seen a young lady, the loveliest of her time, who had thrown it open and had come forward to water her window-garden; adding, “Now my heart was upstirred by love to her, and she had suddenly withdrawn after looking down the street and closed the casement as soon as she had seen a stranger gazing upon her. Again and again I was minded to rise and retire, but desire for her kept me seated in the hope that haply she would again throw open the lattice and allow me the favour of another glimpse, so could I see her a second time. However, inasmuch as she did not show till evening came on I arose and repaired hither, but of my exceeding agitation for the ardour of love to her I was powerless to touch meat or drink, and my sleep was broken by the excess of desire for her which had homed in my heart. And now, O my brother Attaf, I have made known to thee whatso betided me.” When the host heard these words, he was certified that the house whereof Ja’afar spoke was his house and the lattice his own lattice and the lovely and lovesome young lady his wife the daughter of his paternal uncle, so he said in his thought, “There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great.

Verily we were Allah’s and unto Him shall we return!” But presently he rgained himself in the nobility of his nature, and he continued, “O Ja’afar, thine intent is pure for that the dame thou sawest yesterday was divorced by her husband; and I will straightway fare to her father and bespeak him to the end that none may lay hand upon her; and then will I return and let thee ken all concerning her.” So saying he arose and went at once to his cousin-wife[FN#337] who greeted him and kissing his hand said to him, “Is thy guest a-going?” Said he, “By no means; the cause of my coming to thee is not his going, the reason thereof is my design of sending thee to the home of thy people, for that thy father anon met me in the market-street and declared to me that thy mother is dying of a colick, and said to me, ‘Go send her daughter without delay so that she may see her parent alive and meet her once more.’” Accordingly the young wife arose; and, hardly knowing how she moved for tears at such tidings, she took her slave-girls with her and repairing to her home rapped at the door, and her mother who opened to her cried on seeing her, “May this thy coming (Inshallah!) be well, O my daughter, but how is it thou comest thus unexpected?” “Inshallah!” said the wife, “thou art at rest from the colick?” and the mother rejoined, “Who told thee I was colicky? but pass thou within.” So she entered the court and her father, Abdullah Chelebi hight,[FN#338] hearing her footstep from an inner room, asked, “What is there to do?”

“Thou mettest anon,” replied his daughter, “Attaf thy son-in-law in the Bazar and didst tell him that my mother was sore afflicted with a colick.” Hearing this he exclaimed, “This day I went not once to the market-street nor have I seen a soul!” Now they had not ceased conversing ere the door was rapped; and as the slave girls opened it, they saw porters laden with the young lady’s gear and garments and they led the men into the court where the father asked them, “Who sent these stuffs?” “Attaf,” they replied, and setting down their loads within went their way.

Then the father turned to his daughter and said to her, “What deed hast done that my son-in-law bade take up thy gear and have it sent after thee?” And the mother said to him, “Hold thy peace and speak not such speech lest the honour of the house be blamed and shamed.” And as they were talking, behold, up came Attaf companied by a party of friends when his father-in-law asked him, “Wherefore hast thou done on this wise?” “To-day,” answered he, “there came from me a wrongous oath: on account of my inclination to thy daughter my heart is dark as night whereas her good name is whiter than my turband and ever bright.[FN#339] Furthermore an occasion befell and this oath fell from my mouth and I bade her be the owner of herself.[FN#340] And now will I beweep the past and straightway set her free.” So saying he wrote a writ of repudiation and returning to Ja’afar said, “From early dawn I have wearied myself[FN#341] for thy sake and have so acted that no man can lay hand upon her. And at last thou mayst now enjoy life and go to the gardens and the Hammams and take thy pleasure until the days of her widowhood[FN#342] be gone by.” Replied Ja’afar, “Allah quicken thee for what thou wroughtest of kindness to me,” and Attaf rejoined, “Find for thyself something thou requirest, O my brother.”[FN#343] Then he fell to taking him every day amongst the crowd of pleasure-seekers and solacing him with a show of joyous spectacles[FN#344] till the term of divorce had sped, when he said to the Wazir, “O Ja’afar, I would counsel thee with an especial counsel.” “And what may it be, O my brother?” quoth the other; and quoth he, “Know, O my lord, that many of the folk have found the likeness between thy Honour and Ja’afar the Barmecide, wherefore must I fain act on this wise. I will bring thee a troop of ten Mamelukes and four servants on horseback, with whom do thou fare privily and by night forth the city and presently transmit to me tidings from outside the walls that thou the Grand Wazir, Ja’afar the Barmecide, art recalled to court and bound thither from Egypt upon business ordered by the Sultan. Hereat the Governor of Damascus, ‘Abd al-Malik bin Marv�n[FN#345] and the Grandees of Syria will flock forth to meet and greet thee with f�tes and feasts, after which do thou send for the young lady’s sire and of him ask her to wife. Then I will summon the Kazi and witnesses and will write out without stay or delay the marriage-writ with a dower of a thousand dinars the while thou makest ready for wayfare, and if thou journey to Homs or to Hamah do thou alight at whatso place ever pleaseth thee. Also I will provide thee of spending-money as much as thy soul can desire and supply to thee raiment and gear, horses and bat-animals, tents and pavilions of the cheap and of the dear, all thou canst require. So what sayest thou concerning this counsel?” “Fair fall it for the best of rede which hath no peer,” replied Ja’afar. Hereupon Attaf arose and gathering his men about his guest sent him forth the city when the Minister wrote a write and dispatched it by twenty horsemen with a trader to inform the Governor of Syria that Ja’afar the Barmecide was passing that way and was about to visit Damascus on the especial service of the Sultan. So the Kap�j�[FN#346] entered Damascus and read out the Wazirial letter[FN#347] announcing Ja’afar’s return from Egypt. Hereat the Governor arose and after sending a present of provisions[FN#348] without the walls bade pitch the tents, and the Grandees of Syria rode forth to meet the Minister, and the Headmen of the Province set out to greet him, and he entered with all honour and consideration. It was indeed a day fit to be numbered among the days of a man’s life, a day of general joyance for those present, and they read the Farm�n and they offered the food and the forage to the Chamberlain and thus it became known to one and all of the folk that a writ of pardon had come to Ja’afar’s hands and on this wise the bruit went abroad, far and near, and the Grandees brought him