Supplemental Nights to The Book of the Thousand and One Nights, Sir Richard Francis Burton [best short books to read .TXT] 📗

folk straightway gathered together and loud rose the cries and the clamours between them; but the most part of them said, “Carry their case up to the Sultan.” So they referred the matter to the king, who was none other than Salim’s sister Salma. Then they repaired to the palace and the dragoman went in to Salma and said to her, “O

king of the age, here is a Hindi woman, who cometh from the land of Hind, and she hath laid hands on a servant, a young man, claiming him as her husband, who hath been lost to her these two years, and she journeyed not hither save for his sake, and in very sooth these many days she hath done almsdeeds in thy city.

And here is a fellow, a Kitchener, who declareth that the young man is his slave.”[FN#547] When the Queen heard these words, her vitals quivered and she groaned from a grieving heart and called to mind her brother and that which had betided him. Then she bade those around her bring them between her hands, and when she saw them, she knew her brother and was about to cry aloud; but her reason restrained her; yet she could not prevent herself rising up and sitting down.[FN#548] At last, however, she enforced her soul to patience and said to them, “Let each and every of you acquaint me with his case.” So Salim came forward and kissing ground before the king, lauded him and related to him his story from first to last, until the time of their coming to that city, he and his sister, telling him how he had entered the place and had fallen into the hands of the Cook and that which had betided him and whatso he had suffered from him of beating and collars, of fetters and pinioning, till the man had made him his brother’s Mameluke, a boughten slave, and how the brother had sold him in Hind and he had become king by marrying the Princess: and how life was not lovesome to him till he should foregather with his sister and now the same Cook bad fallen in with him a second time and had pinioned and fettered him. Brief, he acquainted her with that which had betided him of sickness and sorrow for the space of a whole year. When he had made an end of his speech, his wife straightways came forward and told her story, from incept to termination, how her mother bought him[FN#549] from the Cook’s partner and the people of the kingdom came under his rule; nor did she cease telling till she came, in her history, to that city and acquainted the king with the manner of her meeting her husband. When she had made an end of her adventure, the Kitchener exclaimed, “Alack, what befals us from lying rascals. By Allah, O

king, this woman lieth against me, for this youth is my rearling[FN#550] and he was born of one of my slavegirls. He fled from me and I found him again.” When the Queen heard the last of the talk, she said to the Cook, “The decree between you shall not be save in accordance with justice.” Then she dismissed all those who were present and turning to her brother, said to him, “Indeed thy truth is stablished with me and the sooth of thy speech, and praised be Allah who hath brought about reunion between thee and thy wife! So now begone with her to thy country and cease to seek thy sister Salma and depart in peace.” But, hearing this, Salim replied, “By Allah, by the might of the All-knowing King, I will not turn back from seeking my sister till I die or I find her, Inshallah!” Then he called his sister to mind and improvised from a heart disappointed, troubled, afflicted these couplets,

 

“O thou who blam’st me for my heart, in anger twitting me, *

Hadst tasted what my heart did taste, thou wouldst be pitying me!

By Allah, O my chider for my sister leave, ah! leave * My heart to moan its grief and feel the woes befitting me.

Indeed I grew to hold her dear privily, publicly; * And in my bosom bides a pang at no time quitting me; And in my vitals burns a flame that ne’er was equalled by * The fire of hell and blazeth high to Death committing me.”

 

Now when his sister Salma heard what he said, she could no longer restrain her soul, but threw herself upon him and discovered to him her case. When he knew her, he threw himself upon her swooning awhile; after which he came to himself and cried, “Lauded be the Lord, the Bountiful, the Beneficent!” Then they plained each to other of that they had suffered from the pangs of parting, whilst Salim’s wife wondered at this and Salma’s patience and endurance pleased her. So she saluted her with the Salam, and thanked her for her fair boons, saying, “By Allah, O

my lady, all that we are in of gladness never befel us save by thy blessing; so praised be Allah who deigned vouchsafe us thy sight!” Then they tarried all three, Salma, Salim and his wife, in joy and happiness and delight three days, veiled from the folk; and it was bruited abroad in the city that the king had found his brother, who was lost for many a year, and had saved him from the Cook’s house. On the fourth day, all the troops and the lieges assembled together to see the King and standing at his gate, craved leave to enter. Salma bade admit them; so they entered and paid her royal suit and service and gave her joy of her brother’s safe return. She bade them do homage to Salim, and they consented and sware fealty to him; after which they kept silence awhile, so they might hear what the king should command.

Then quoth Salma, “Ho, ye gathering of soldiers and subjects, ye wot that ye forced me willy-nilly to accept the kingship and besought me thereof and I consented to your desires anent my being raised to rule over you; and I did this against my will; for I would have you know that I am a woman and that I disguised myself and donned man’s dress, so peradventure my case might be concealed when I lost my brother. But now Allah hath deigned reunite me with my brother, and it is no longer lawful to me that I be king and Sultan over the people, and I a woman; because there is no Sultanate for women, whenas men are present.[FN#551]

For this reason, an it suit you, set my brother on the throne of the kingdom, for this is he; and I will busy myself with the worship of Allah the Most High and thanksgiving to Him for my reunion with my brother. Or, an ye prefer it, take your kingship and make whom ye will ruler and liege lord thereof.” Upon this the folk all cried out, saying, “We accept him to king over us;”

and they did him suit and service and gave him joy of the kingship. So the preachers preached the sermon[FN#552] in his name and the court-poets praised him; and he lavished largesse upon the soldiery and the suite and overwhelmed them with favours and bounties and was prodigal to the Ryots of justice and equity, with goodly policy and polity. When he had effected this much of his affect, he caused bring forth the Cook and his household to the divan, but spared the old woman who had nursed him, because she had been the cause of his deliverance. Then all assembled without the town and he tormented the Cook and those who were with him with all manner torments, after which he did him to die by the foulest of deaths[FN#553] and burning him with fire, scattered his ashes far and wide in the air. After this Salim abode in the governance, invested with the Sultanate, and ruled the people a whole year, when he returned to Al-Mans�rah and sojourned there another year. And he and his wife ceased not to go from city to city and tarry in this a year and that a year, till he was vouchsafed children and they grew up, whereupon he appointed him of his sons, who was found fitting, to be his deputy in one kingdom and he ruled in the other; and he lived, he and his wife and children, what while Almighty Allah willed.[FN#554] “Nor” (continued the Wazir), “O King of the age, is this story rarer or stranger than the King of Hind and his wronged and envied Minister.” When the King heard this, his mind was occupied,[FN#555] and he bade the Wazir hie to his own house.

 

The Twenty-eighth and Last Night of the Month.

 

When the evening evened, the King summoned the Minister and bade him tell the story of the King of Hind and his Wazir. So he said, “Hearkening and obedience. Give ear, O auspicious King, to

The Tale of the King of Hind and his Wazir.

 

There was once in the Hind-land a king illustrious of worth, endowed with understanding and policy, and his name was Shah Bakht. He had a Minister, a godly man and a sagacious, right prudent in rede, conformable to him in governance and just in judgment; for which cause his enviers were many and many were the hypocrites who sought faults in him and set snares for him, so that they insinuated into King Shah Bakht’s eyes hatred against him and sowed in his heart despite towards him; and plot followed plot, and their rancour waxed until the king was brought to arrest him and lay him in jail and to confiscate his wealth and degrade him from his degree. When they knew that there was left him no possession for which the king might lust, they feared lest the sovran release him, by the influence of the Wazir’s good counsel upon the king’s heart, and he return to his former case, so should their machinations be marred and their degrees degraded, for that they knew that the king would heed whatso he had known from that man nor would forget aught wherewith he was familiar in him. Now it came to pass that a certain person of perverted belief[FN#556] found a way to the adorning of falsehood with a semblance of fair-seeming and there proceeded from him that whereby the hearts of the folk were occupied, and their minds were corrupted by his lying tales; for that he made use of Indian quiddities[FN#557] and forged them into proof for the denial of the Maker the Creator, extolled be His might and exalted be He and glorified and magnified above the speech of the deniers. He avouched that it is the planets which order all worldly affairs and he set down twelve mansions[FN#558] to twelve Zodiacal signs and made each sign thirty degrees,[FN#559] after the number of the days of the month, so that in twelve mansions there are three hundred and sixty, after the number of the days of the year; and he wrought a work, wherein he lied and was an infidel and denied the Deity, be He for ever blessed! Then he laid hold of the king’s heart and the enviers and haters aided him against the Minister and won the royal favour and corrupted his intent against the Wazir, so that he got of him that which he got and at last his lord banished him and thrust him away. By such means the wicked man obtained that which he sought of the Minister and the case was prolonged till the affairs of the kingdom became disordered, by dint of ill government, and the most part of the king’s reign fell off from