|
Story Of The First Sheykh And The GazelleStory Of The First Sheykh And The Gazelle
Story Of The First Sheykh And The Gazelle
Then said the sheykh, Know, O `Efrit, that his gazelle is the daughter of
my paternal uncle, and she is of my flesh and my blood. I took her as my wife
when she was young, and I lived with her about thirty years; but I was not
blessed with a child by her; so I took to me a concubine slave, and by her I
was blessed with a male child, like the rising full moon, with beautiful eyes,
and delicately-shaped eyebrows, and perfectly-formed limbs; and he grew up
by little and little until he attained the age of fifteen years. At this
period, unexpectedly had occasion to journey to a certain city, and went
thither with a great stock of merchandise.
Now my cousin, this gazelle, had studied enchantment and divination from
her early years; and during my absence, she transformed the youth above
mentioned into a calf; and his mother, into a cow; and committed them to the
care of the herdsman: and when I returned, after a long time, from my journey,
I asked after my son and his mother, and she said, Thy slave is dead, and thy
son hath fled, and I know not whither he is gone. After hearing this, I
remained for the space of a year with mourning heart and weeping eye, until
the Festival of the Sacrifice;^1 when I sent to the herdsman, and ordered him
to choose for me a fat cow; and he brought me one, and it was my concubine,
whom this gazelle had enchanted. I tucked up my skirts and sleeves, and took
the knife in my hand, and prepared myself to slaughter her; upon which she
moaned and cried so violently that I left her, and ordered the herdsman to
kill and skin her: and he did so, but found in her neither fat nor flesh, nor
anything but skin and bone; aud I repented of slaughtering her, when
repentance was of no avail. I therefore gave her to the herdsman, and said to
him, Bring me a fat calf: and he brought me my son, who was transformed into a
calf. And when the calf saw me, he broke his rope, and came to me, and fawned
upon me, and wailed and cried, so that I was moved with pity for him; and I
said to the herdsman, Bring me a cow, and let this -
[Footnote 1: The Grest Festival, commencing on the 10th of Dhu-l-Hijjeh, when
the pilgrims, halting on their return from mount `Arafat to Mekkeh, in the
valley of Mine, perform their sacrifice.]
Here Shahrazad perceived the light of morning, and disco tinued the
recitation with which she had been allowed thus far to proceed. Her sister
said to her, How excellent is thy story! and how pretty! and how pleasant! and
how sweet! - but she answered, What is this in comparison with that which will
relate to thee in the next night, if I live, and the King spare me! And the
King said, By Allah, I will not kill her until I hear the remainder of her
story. Thus they pleasantly passed the night until the morning, when the King
went forth to his hall of judgment, and the Wezir went thither with the
grave-clothes under his arm: and the King gave judgment, and invested and
displaced, until the close of the day, without informing the Wezir of that
which had happened; and the minister was greatly astonished. The court was
then dissolved; and the King returned to the privacy of his palace.
[On the second and each succeeding night, Shahrazad continued so to
interest King Shahriyar by her stories as to induce him to defer putting her
to death, in expectation that her fund of amusing tales would soon be
exhausted; and as this is expressed in the original work in nearly the same
words at the close of every night, such repetitions will in the present
translation be omitted.]
When the sheykh, continued Shahrazad, observed the tears of the calf, his
heart sympathized with him, and he said to the herdsman, Let this calf remain
with the cattle. - Meanwhile, the Jinni wondered at this strange story; and
the owner of the gazelle thus proceeded.
O lord of the kings of the Jann, while this happened, my cousin, this
gazelle, looked on, and said, Slaughter this calf; for he is fat: but I could
not do it; so I ordered the herdsman to take him back; and he took him and
went away. And as I was sitting, on the following day, he came to me, and
said, O my master, I have to tell thee something that thou wilt be rejoiced to
hear; and a reward is due to me for bringing good news. I answered, Well: -
and he said, O merchant, I have a daughter who learned enchantment in her
youth from an old woman in our family; and yesterday, when thou gavest me the
calf, I took him to her, and she looked at him, and covered her face, and
wept, and then laughed, and said, O my father, hath my condition become so
degraded in thy opinion that thou bringest before me strange men? - Where,
said I, are any strange men? and wherefore didst thou weep and laugh? She
answered, This calf that is with thee is the son of our master, the merchant,
and the wife of our master hath enchanted both him and his mother; and this
was the reason of my laughter; but as to the reason of my weeping, it was on
account of his mother, because his father had slaughtered her. - And I was
excessively astonished at this; and scarcely was I certain that the light of
morning had appeared when I hastened to inform thee.
When I heard, O Jinni, the words of the herdsman, I went forth with him,
intoxicated without wine, from the excessive joy and happiness that I
received, and arrived at his house, where his daughter welcomed me, and kissed
my hand; and the calf came to me, and fawned upon me. And I said to the
herdsman`s daughter, Is that true which thou hast said respecting this calf?
She answered, Yes, O my master; he is verily thy son, and the vital spirit of
thy heart. - O maiden, said I, if thou wilt restore him, all the cattle and
other property of mine that thy father hath under his care shall be thine.
Upon this, she smiled, and said, O my master, I have no desire for the
property unless on two conditions: the first is, that thou shalt marry me to
him; and the second, that I shall enchant her who enchanted him, and so
restrain her; otherwise, I shall not be secure from her artifice. On hearing,
O Jinni, these her words, I said, And thou shalt have all the property that is
under the care of thy father basides; and as to my cousin, even her blood
shall be lawful to thee. So, when she heard this, she took a cup, and filled
it with water, and repeated a spell over it, and sprinkled with it the calf,
saying to him, If God created thee a calf, remain in this form, and be not
changed; but if thou be enchanted, return to thy original form, by permission
of God, whose name be exalted! - upon which he shook, and became a man; and I
threw myself upon him, and said, I conjure thee by Allah that thou relate to
me all that my cousin did to thee and to thy mother. So he related to me all
that had happened to them both; and I said to him, O my son, God hath given
thee one to liberate thee, and to avenge thee: - and I married to him, O
Jinni, the herdsman`s daughter; after which, she transformed my cousin into
this gazelle. And as I happened to pass this way, I saw this merchant, and
asked him what had happened to him; and when he had informed me, I sat down to
see the result. - This is my story. The Jinni said, This is a wonderful tale;
and I give up to thee a third of my claim to his blood.
The second sheykh, the owner of the two hounds, then advanced, and said
to the Jinni, If I relate to thee the story of myself and these hounds, and
thou find it to be in like manner wonderful, wilt thou remit to me, also, a
third of thy claim to the blood of this merchant? The Jinni answered, Yes.
|
