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

him of himself.” And they talked over this matter in sore anger and agitation. Meanwhile as the Sultan Habib sat in the garden with the handmaids waiting upon him and upon the Princess Durrat al-Ghawwas, there suddenly swooped upon them a huge bird which presently changed form to a Shaykh seemly of aspect and semblance who approached and kissing their feet humbled himself before the lover and his beloved. The youth marvelled at such action of the Shaykh, and signalled to the Princess as to ask, “Who may be this old man?”

and she answered in the same way, “This is the Wazir who caused me forgather with thee;” presently adding to the Shaykh, “What may be thy need?” “I came hither for the sake of thee,” he replied, “and unless thou fare forthright to thy country and kingdom the rule of the J�nn will pass from thy hand; for that the Lords of the land and Grandees of the realm seek thy loss and not a few of the nobles have asked me saying, O Wazir, where is our Queen? I answered, She is within her palace and to-day she is busied with some business.

But such pretext cannot long avail, and thou, unless thou return with me to the region of thy reign there shall betray thee some one of the Marids and the hosts will revolt against thee and thy rule will go to ruin and thou wilt be degraded from command and sultanate.” “What then is thy say and what thy bidding?” enquired she, and he replied, “Thou hast none other way save departure from this place and return to thy realm.” Now when these words reached the ear of Durrat al-Ghawwas, her breast was straitened and she waxed sorrowful with exceeding sorrow for severance from her lover whom she addressed in these words, “What sayest thou anent that thou hast heard? In very sooth I desire not parting from thee and the ruin of my reign as little do I design; so come with me, O

dearling of my heart, and I will make thee liege lord over the Isles of the Sea and sole master thereof.” Hereat the Sultan Habib said in his soul, “I cannot endure parting from my own people; but as for thee thy love shall never depart from thee:” then he spake aloud, “An thou deign hear me, do thou abandon that which thou purposest and bid thy Wazir rule over the Isles and thy patrial stead; so shall we twain, I and thou, live in privacy for all time and enjoy the most joyous of lives.” “That may never be,” was her only reply; after which she cried to the Wazir saying, “Carry me off that I fare to my own land.” Then after farewelling her lover, she mounted the Emir-Wazir’s back[FN#401] and bade him bear her away, whereat he took flight and the forty handmaidens flew with him, towering high in air. Presently, the Sultan Habib shed bitter tears; his mother hearing him weeping sore as he sat in the garden went to her husband and said, “Knowest thou not what calamity hath befallen thy son that I hear him there groaning and moaning”” Now when the parents entered the garden, they found him spent with grief and the tears trickled adown his cheeks like never-ceasing rain-showers;[FN#402] so they summoned the pages who brought cucurbits of rosewater wherewith they besprinkled his face. But as soon as he recovered his senses and opened his eyes, he fell to weeping with excessive weeping and his father and mother likewise shed tears for the burning of their hearts and asked him, “O Habib, what calamity hath come down to thee and who of his mischief hath overthrown thee? Inform us of the truth of thy case.” So he related all that had betided between him and Durrat-al-Ghawwas, and his mother wept over him while his father cried, “O Habib, do thou leave this say and this thy desire cast away that the joys of meat and drink and sleep thou may enjoy alway.” But he made answer, “O

my sire, I will not slumber upon this matter until I shall sleep the sleep of death.” “Arise thou, O my child,” rejoined the Emir, “and let us return homewards,”[FN#403] but the son retorted, “Verily I will not depart from this place wherein I was parted from the dearling of my heart.” So the sire again urged him saying, “These words do thou spare nor persist in this affair because therefrom for thee I fear;” and he fell to cheering him and comforting his spirits. After a while the Sultan Habib arose and fared homewards beside his sire who kept saying to him, “Patience, O my child, the while I assist thee in thy search for this young lady and I send those who shall bring her to thee.” “O my father,”

rejoined the son, “I can no longer endure parting from her; nay, ‘tis my desire that thou load me sundry camels with gold and silver and plunder and moneys that I may go forth to seek her: and if I win to my wish and Allah vouchsafe me length of life I will return unto you; but an the term of my days be at hand then the behest be to Allah, the One, the Omnipotent. Let not your breasts be straitened therefor and do ye hold and believe that if I abide with you and see not the beloved of my soul I shall perish of my pain while you be standing by to look upon my death. So suffer me to wayfare and attain mine aim; for from the day when my mother bare me ‘twas written to my lot that I journey over wild and wold and that I see and voyage over the seas sevenfold.” Hereupon he fell to improvising these verses,

 

“My heart is straitened with grief amain * And my friends and familiars have wrought me pain;

And whene’er you’re absent I pine, and fires * In my heart beweep what it bears of bane:

O ye, who fare for the tribe’s domain, * Cry aloud my greetings to friends so fain!”

 

Now when the Emir Salamah heard these his son’s verses, he bade pack for him four camel loads of the rarest stuffs, and he largessed to him a she-dromedary laden with thrones of red gold; then he said to him, “Lo, O my son, I have given thee more than thou askedst.” “O my father,” replied Habib, “where are my steed and my sword and my spear?” Hereat the pages brought forward a mail-coat Davidian[FN#404] and a blade Maghrabian and a lance Khattian and Samharian, and set them between his hands; and the Sultan Habib donning the habergeon and drawing his sabre and sitting lance in rest backed his steed, which was of the noblest blood known to all the Arabs. Then quoth he, “O my father, is it thy desire to send with me a troop of twenty knights that they may escort me to the land of Al-Yaman and may anon bring me back to thee?” “My design,” quoth the sire, “is to despatch those with thee who shall befriend thee upon the road;” and, when Habib prayed him do as he pleased, the Emir appointed to him ten knights, valorous wights, who dreaded naught of death however sudden and awesome.

Presently, the youth farewelled his father and mother, his family and his tribe, and joining his escort, mounted his destrier when Salamah, his sire, said to his company, “Be ye to my son obedient in all he shall command you;” and said they, “Hearing and obeying.”

Then Habib and his many turned away from home and addressed them to the road when he began to improvise the following lines, My longing grows less and far goes my cark * After flamed my heart with the love-fire stark;

As I ride to search for my soul’s desire * And I ask of those faring to Al-Ir�k.”

 

On this wise it befel the Sultan Habib and his farewelling his father and mother; but now lend ear to what came of the knights who escorted him. After many days of toil and travail they waxed discontented and disheartened; and presently taking counsel one with other, they said, “Come, let us slay this lad and carry off the loads of stuffs and coin he hath with him; and when we reach our homes and be questioned concerning him, let us say that he died of the excess of his desire to Princess Durrat al-Ghawwas.” So they followed this rede, while their lord wotted naught of the ambush laid for him by his followers. And having ridden through the day when the night of offence[FN#405] was dispread, the escort said, “Dismount we in this garden[FN#406] that here we may take our rest during the dark hours, and when morning shall morrow we will resume our road.” The Sultan Habib had no mind to oppose them, so all alighted and in that garden took seat and whatso of victual was with them produced; after which they ate and drank their sufficiency and lay down to sleep all of them save their lord, who could not close eye for excess of love-longing. “O Habib, why and wherefore sleepest thou not?” they asked, and he answered, “O

comrades mine, how shall slumber come to one yearning for his dearling, and verily I will lie awake nor enjoy aught repose until such time as I espy the lifeblood of my heart, Durrat al-Ghawwas.”

Thereupon they held their peace; and presently they held council one with other saying, “Who amongst us can supply a dose of Bhang that we may cast him asleep and his slaughter may be easy to us?”

“I have two Misk�ls weight[FN#407] of that same,” quoth one of them, and the others took it from him and presently, when occasion served, they put it into a cup of water and presented it to Habib.

He hent that cup in hand and drank off the drugged liquid at a single draught; and presently the Bhang wrought in his vitals and its fumes mounted to his head, mastering his senses and causing his brain to whirl round, whereupon he sank into the depths of unconsciousness. Then quoth his escort, “As soon as his slumber is soundest and his sleep heaviest we will arise and slay him and bury him on the spot where he now sleepeth: then will we return to his father and mother, and tell them that of love-stress to his beloved and of excessive longing and pining for her he died.” And upon this deed of treachery all agreed. So when dawned the day and showed its sheen and shone clear and serene the knights awoke and seeing their lord drowned[FN#408] in sleep they arose and sat in council, and quoth one of them, “Let us cut his throat from ear to ear;”[FN#409]

and quoth another, “Nay, better we dig us a pit the stature of a man and we will cast him amiddlemost thereof and heap upon him earth so that he will die, nor shall any know aught about him.”

Hearing this said one of the retinue, whose name was Rab�‘a,[FN#410] “But fear you naught from Almighty Allah and regard ye not the favours wherewith his father fulfilled you, and remember ye not the bread which ye ate in his household and from his family?

Indeed �twas but a little while since his sire chose you out to escort him that his son might take solace with you instead of himself, and he entrusted unto you his heart’s core, and now ye are pleased to do him die and thereby destroy the life of his parents.

Furthermore, say me doth your judgment decide that such ill-work can possibly abide hidden from his father? Now I swear by the loyalty[FN#411] of