The Arabian Nights Entertainments - Anonymous (best novels to read in english .TXT) 📗

of prayer is come; be pleased, therefore, to let me wash myself, that I may be fit to say my prayers. My brother looked at her, and saw that she was a woman far advanced in years: though he knew her not, he granted what she required, and then sat down again, being still full of his new adventure. He put his gold into a long strait purse, proper to carry at his girdle. The old woman, in the mean time, said her prayers, and, when she had done, came to my brother, and bowed twice to the ground, so low that she almost touched it with her forehead; then raising herself up, she wished my brother all manner of happiness, and thanked him for his civility. Being meanly clad, and very humble to him, he thought she asked alms, upon which he offered her two pieces of gold. The old woman stepped back in a sort of surprise, as if my brother had done her an injury. Heavens! said she, what is the meaning of this? Is it possible, sir, said she, that you take me for an impudent beggar? Did you think I came so boldly into your house to ask alms? Take back your money; I have no need of it, thanks to Heaven! I belong to a young lady of this city, who is a charming beauty, and very rich; she does not let me want for any thing.

My brother was not cunning enough to perceive the craft of the old woman, who only refused the two pieces of gold that she might catch more. He asked her if she could not procure him the honour of seeing her lady. With all my heart, replied she, she will be very well satisfied to marry, and to put you in possession of her estate, by making you master of her person. Take up your money, and follow me. My brother being ravished with his good luck of finding so great a sum of money, and almost at the same time a beautiful and rich wife, his eyes were shut to all other considerations; so that he took his five hundred pieces of gold, and followed the old woman. She walked before him, and he followed at a distance, to the gate of a great house, where she knocked. He came up to her just as a young Greek slave opened the gate. The old woman made him enter first, went across a court very well paved, and introduced him into a hall, the furniture of which confirmed him in the good opinion he had conceived of the mistress of the house. While the old woman went to acquaint the lady, he sat down, and, the weather being hot, pulled off his turban, and laid it by him. He speedily saw the young lady come in, whose beauty and rich apparel perfectly surprised him. He got up as soon as he saw her. The lady, with a smiling countenance, prayed him to sit down again, and placed herself by him. She told him she was very glad to see him; and, after having spoken some engaging words, said, We do not sit here at our conveniency. Come, give me your hand. At these words, she presented her's, and carried him into an inner chamber, where she entertained him for some time; then she left him, bidding him stay, and she would be with him in a moment. He expected her; but, instead of the lady, came in a great black slave, with a scimitar in his hand; and looking upon my brother with a terrible aspect, said to him fiercely, What have you to do here? Alnaschar was so full of fear at the sight of the slave, that he had no power to answer. The black stripped him, carried off his gold, and gave him several cuts with his scimitar. My unhappy brother fell to the ground, where he lay without motion, though he had still the use of his senses. The black, thinking him to be dead, asked for salt; the Greek slave brought him a basin full; they rubbed my brother's wounds with it; who had so much command of himself, notwithstanding the intolerable pain it put him to, that he lay still without showing any sign of life. The black and the Greek slave having retired, the old woman who drew my brother into the snare, came and dragged him by the feet to a trap-door, which she opened, and threw him into a place under ground, among the corpses of several other people who had been murdered. He perceived this as soon as he came to himself; for the violence of his fall had taken away his senses. The salt rubbed into his wounds preserved his life, and he recovered strength by degrees, so as to be able to walk. After two days he opened the trap-door during the night; and, finding a proper place in the court to hide himself, continued there till break of day, when he saw the cursed old woman open the gate, and go out to seek another prey. He staid in the place some time after she went out, that she might not see him, and then came to me for shelter, when he told me of his adventures.

In a month he was perfectly cured of his wounds by medicines that I gave him, and resolved to avenge himself of the old woman who had put upon him such a barbarous cheat. To this end, he took a bag, large enough to contain five hundred pieces of gold, and filled it with pieces of glass.

My brother, continued the barber, one morning fastened the bag of glass about him, disguised himself like an old woman, and took a scimitar under his gown. He met the old woman walking through the town to seek her prey: he went up to her, and, counterfeiting a woman's voice, said, Cannot you lend me a pair of scales? I am a woman newly come from Persia, have brought five hundred pieces of gold with me, and would know if they will hold out according to your weights. Good woman, answered the old hag, you could not have applied to a more proper person. Follow me; I will bring you to my son, who changes money, and will weigh them himself, to save you the trouble. Let us make haste, for fear he be gone to his shop. My brother followed her to the house where she carried him the first time, and the Greek slave opened the door.

The old woman carried my brother to the hall, where she bid him stay a moment till she called her son. The pretended son came, and proved to be the villanous black slave. Come, old woman, said he to my brother, rise and follow me. Having spoken thus, he went before to bring him to the place where he designed to murder him. Alnaschar got up, followed him, and, drawing his scimitar, gave him such a dexterous blow on the neck, as to cut off his head, which he took in one hand, and dragging the body with the other, threw them both into the place under ground before mentioned. The Greek slave, who was accustomed to the trade, came presently with a basin of salt; but when she saw Alnaschar with the scimitar in his hand, and without his veil, she laid down the basin, and fled. But my brother overtaking her, cut off her head also. The wicked old woman came running at the noise, and my brother seizing her, said to her, Treacherous wretch! do not you know me? Alas, sir, answered she, trembling, who are you? I do not remember that I ever saw you. I am, said he, the person to whose house you came the other day to wash and say your prayers. Hypocritical hag! said he, do not you remember it? Then she fell upon her knees to beg his pardon; but he cut her in four pieces.

There remained only the lady, who knew nothing of what had passed. He sought her out, and found her in a chamber, where she was ready to sink when she saw him. She begged her life, which he generously granted. Madam, said he, how could you live with such wicked people as I have now so justly revenged myself upon? I was, said she, wife to an honest merchant; and the cursed old woman, whose wickedness I did not know, used sometimes to come to see me. Madam, said she one day, we have a very fine wedding at our house, which you will be pleased to see, if you give us the honour of your company. I was persuaded by her, put on my best apparel, and took with me a hundred pieces of gold. I followed her; she brought me to this house, where the black has kept me since by force, and I have been three years here to my very great sorrow. By the trade which the cursed black followed, replied my brother, he must have gathered together a vast deal of riches. There is so much, said she, that you will be made for ever, if you can carry them off. Follow me, and you shall see them, said she. Alnaschar followed her to a chamber, where she showed him several coffers full of gold, which he beheld with admiration. Go, said she, fetch people enough to carry it all off. My brother needed not to be bid twice; he went out, but staid only till he got ten men together, and he brought them with him, and was much surprised to find the gate open, but more when he found the lady and the coffers all gone; for she, being more diligent than he, had carried them all away. However, being resolved not to return empty-handed, he carried off all the goods he could find in the house; which were a great deal more than enough to make up the five hundred pieces of gold of which he was robbed; but, when he went out of the house, he forgot to shut the gate. The neighbours, who saw my brother and the porters come and go, went and acquainted the magistrate with it; for they looked upon my brother's conduct as suspicious. Alnaschar slept well enough all night; but next morning, when he came out of his house, twenty of the magistrate's men seized him. Come along with us, said they; our master would speak with you. My brother prayed them to have patience for a moment, and offered them a sum of money to let him escape; but, instead of listening to him, they bound him, and forced him to go along with them. They met in the street an old acquaintance of my brother's, who stopped them a while, and asked them why they seized my brother, and offered them a considerable sum to let him escape, and to tell the magistrate that they could not find him. But this would not do; so he was carried before the magistrate.

When the officers brought him before the magistrate, he asked him where he had the goods which he carried home last night? Sir, replied Alnaschar, I am ready to tell you all the truth; but allow me first to have recourse to your clemency, and to beg your promise that nothing shall be done to me. I give it you, said the magistrate. Then my brother told him the whole story without disguise, from the time the old woman came into his house to say her prayers, to the time the lady made her escape, after he had killed the black, the Greek slave, and the old woman; and as for what he had carried to his house, he prayed the judge to leave him part of it for the five hundred pieces of gold that he was robbed of.

The judge, without promising any thing, sent his officers to bring all off; and, having put the goods into his own wardrobe, commanded my brother to quit the town immediately, and never to return; for he was afraid, if my brother had staid in the city, he would have found some way to represent this injustice to the caliph. In the mean time, Alnaschar obeyed without murmuring, and left that town to go to another. By the way he met with highwaymen, who stripped him naked; and when the ill news was brought to me, I carried him a suit, and brought him in secretly again to the town, where I took the like care of him as I did of his other brothers.

THE STORY OF THE BARBER'S SIXTH BROTHER.

I am now only to tell the story of my sixth brother, called Schacabac, with the hare-lips. At first he was industrious enough to improve the