The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 4 - Sir Richard Francis Burton (robert munsch read aloud txt) 📗

When it was the Two Hundred and Fifty-third Night, She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Ala al-Din said to his mother, “Of a truth all the sons of the merchants put me to shame and said, ‘Naught is more honourable for a merchant’s son than travel for gain.’” “O my son, hast thou a mind to travel?” “Even so!” “And whither wilt thou go?” “To the city of Baghdad; for there folk make double the cost price on their goods.” “O my son, thy father is a very rich man and, if he provide thee not with merchandise, I will supply it out of my own monies.” “The best favour is that which is soonest bestowed; if this kindness is to be, now is the time.” So she called the slaves and sent them for cloth packers, then, opening a store house, brought out ten loads of stuffs, which they made up into bales for him. Such was his case; but as regards his father, Shams al-Din, he looked about and failed to find Ala al-Din in the garden and enquiring after him, was told that he had mounted mule and gone home; so he too mounted and followed him. Now when he entered the house, he saw the bales ready bound and asked what they were; whereupon his wife told him what had chanced between Ala al-Din and the sons of the merchants; and he cried, “O my son, Allah’s malison on travel and stranger-hood! Verily Allah’s Apostle (whom the Lord bless and preserve!) hath said, ‘It is of a man’s happy fortune that he eat his daily bread in his own land’, and it was said of the ancients, ‘Leave travel, though but for a mile.’” Then quoth he to his son, “Say, art thou indeed resolved to travel and wilt thou not turn back from it?” Quoth the other, “There is no help for it but that I journey to Baghdad with merchandise, else will I doff clothes and don dervish gear and fare a-wandering over the world.” Shams al-Din rejoined, “I am no penniless pauper but have great plenty of wealth;” then he showed him all he owned of monies and stuffs and stock-in-trade and observed, “With me are stuffs and merchandise befitting every country in the world.” Then he showed him among the rest, forty bales ready bound, with the price, a thousand dinars, written on each, and said, “O my son take these forty loads, together with the ten which thy mother gave thee, and set out under the safeguard of Almighty Allah. But, O my child, I fear for thee a certain wood in thy way, called the Lion’s Copse,[FN#39] and a valley highs the Vale of Dogs, for there lives are lost without mercy.” He said, “How so, O my father?”; and he replied, “Because of a Badawi bandit named Ajlan.” Quoth Ala al-Din, “Such is Allah’s luck; if any share of it be mine, no harm shall hap to me.” Then they rode to the cattle bazar, where behold, a cameleer[FN#40] alighted from his she mule and kissing the Consul’s hand, said to him, “O my lord, it is long, by Allah, since thou hast employed us in the way of business.” He replied, “Every time hath its fortune and its men,[FN#41] and Allah have truth on him who said,

‘And the old man crept o’er the worldly ways So bowed, his beard o’er his knees down flow’th: Quoth I, ‘What gars thee so doubled go?’ Quoth he (as to me his hands he show’th)

‘My youth is lost, in the dust it lieth; * And see, I bend me to find my youth.’”[FN#42]

Now when he had ended his verses, he said, “O chief of the caravan, it is not I who am minded to travel, but this my son.”

Quoth the cameleer, “Allah save him for thee.” Then the Consul made a contract between Ala al-Din and the man, appointing that the youth should be to him as a son, and gave him into his charge, saying, “Take these hundred gold pieces for thy people.”

Moreover he bought his son threescore mules and a lamp and a tomb-covering for the Sayyid Abd al-Kadir of G�l�n[FN#43] and said to him, “O my son, while I am absent, this is thy sire in my stead: whatsoever he biddeth thee, do thou obey him.” So saying, he returned home with the mules and servants and that night they made a Khitmah or perfection of the Koran and held a festival—in honour of the Shaykh Abd al-Kadir al-Jil�ni. And when the morrow dawned, the Consul gave his son ten thousand dinars, saying, “O

my son, when thou comest to Baghdad, if thou find stuffs easy of sale, sell them; but if they be dull, spend of these dinars.”

Then they loaded the mules and, taking leave of one another, all the wayfarers setting out on their journey, marched forth from the city. Now Mahmud of Balkh had made ready his own venture for Baghdad and had moved his bales and set up his tents without the walls, saying to himself, “Thou shalt not enjoy this youth but in the desert, where there is neither spy nor marplot to trouble thee.” It chanced that he had in hand a thousand dinars which he owed to the youth’s father, the balance of a business-transaction between them; so he went and bade farewell to the Consul, who charged him, “Give the thousand dinars to my son Ala al-Din;” and commended the lad to his care, saying, “He is as it were thy son.” Accordingly, Ala al-Din joined company with Mahmud of Balkh.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

When it was the Two Hundred and Fifty-fourth Night, She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Ala al-Din joined company with Mahmud of Balkh who, before beginning the march, charged the youth’s cook to dress nothing for him, but himself provided him and his company with meat and drink. Now he had four houses, one in Cairo, another in Damascus, a third in Aleppo and a fourth in Baghdad. So they set out and ceased not journeying over waste and wold till they drew near Damascus when Mahmud sent his slave to Ala al-Din, whom he found sitting and reading. He went up to him and kissed his hands, and Ala al-Din having asked him what he wanted, he answered, “My master saluteth thee and craveth thy company to a banquet at his place.” Quoth the youth, “Not till I consult my father Kamal al-Din, the captain of the caravan.” So he asked advice of the Makaddam,[FN#44] who said, “Do not go.” Then they left Damascus and journeyed on till they came to Aleppo, where Mahmud made a second entertainment and sent to invite Ala al-Din; but he consulted the Chief Cameleer who again forbade him. Then they marched from Aleppo and fared on, till there remained between them and Baghdad only a single stage. Here Mahmud prepared a third feast and sent to bid Ala al-Din to it: Kamal-al-Din once more forbade his accepting it, but he said, “I must needs go.” So he rose and, slinging a sword over his shoulder, under his clothes, repaired to the tent of Mahmud of Balkh, who came to meet him and saluted him. Then he set before him a sumptuous repast and they ate and drank and washed hands. At last Mahmud bent towards Ala al-Din to snatch a kiss from him, but the youth received the kiss on the palm of his hand and said to him, “What wouldest thou be at?” Quoth Mahmud, “In very sooth I brought thee hither that I might take my pleasure with thee in this jousting ground, and we will comment upon the words of him who saith, ‘Say, canst not come to us one momentling, * Like milk of ewekin or aught glistening

And eat what liketh thee of dainty cake, * And take thy due of fee in silverling,

And bear whatso thou wilt, without mislike, * Of spanling, fistling or a span long thing?’”

Then Mahmud of Balkh would have laid hands on Ala al-Din to ravish him; but he rose and baring his brand, said to him, “Shame on thy gray hairs! Hast thou no fear of Allah, and He of exceeding awe?[FN#45] May He have mercy on him who saith, ‘Preserve thy hoary hairs from soil and stain, * For whitest colours are the easiest stained!’”

And when he ended his verses he said to Mahmud of Balkh, “Verily this merchandise[FN#46] is a trust from Allah and may not be sold. If I sold this property to other than thee for gold, I would sell it to thee for silver; but by Allah, O filthy villain, I will never again company with thee; no, never!” Then he returned to Kamal-Al-Din the guide and said to him, “Yonder man is a lewd fellow, and I will no longer consort with him nor suffer his company by the way.” He replied, “O my son, did I not say to thee, ‘Go not near him’? But if we part company with him, I fear destruction for ourselves; so let us still make one caravan.” But Ala al-Din cried, “It may not be that I ever again travel with him.” So he loaded his beasts and journeyed onwards, he and his company, till they came to a valley, where Ala al-Din would have halted, but the Cameleer said to him, “Do not halt here; rather let us fare forwards and press our pace, so haply we make Baghdad before the gates are closed, for they open and shut them with the sun, in fear lest the Rejectors[FN#47] should take the city and throw the books of religious learning into the Tigris.” But Ala al Din replied to him, “O my father, I came not forth from home with this merchandise, or travelled hither for the sake of traffic, but to divert myself with the sight of foreign lands and folks;” and he rejoined, “O my son, we fear for thee and for thy goods from the wild Arabs.” Whereupon the youth answered “Harkye, fellow, art thou master or man? I will not enter Baghdad till the morning, that the sons of the city may see my merchandise and know me.” “Do as thou wilt,” said the other “I have given thee the wisest advice, but thou art the best judge of thine own case.” Then Ala al-Din bade them unload the mule; and pitch the tent; so they did his bidding and abode there till the middle of the night, when he went out to obey a call of nature and suddenly saw something gleaming afar off. So he said to Kamal-al-Din, “O captain, what is yonder glittering?” The Cameleer sat up and, considering it straitly, knew it for the glint of spear heads and the steel of Badawi weapons and swords.

And lo and behold! this was a troop of wild Arabs under a chief called Ajl�n Ab� N�ib, Shaykh of the Arabs, and when they neared the camp and saw the bales and baggage, they said one to another, “O night of loot!” Now when Kamal-al-Din heard these their words he cried, “Avaunt, O vilest of Arabs!” But Abu Naib so smote him with his throw spear in the breast, that the point came out gleaming from his back, and he fell down dead at the tent door.

Then cried the water carrier,[FN#48] “Avaunt, O foulest of Arabs!” and one of them smote him with a sword upon the shoulder, that it issued shining from the tendons of the throat, and he also fell down dead. (And all this while Ala Al-Din stood looking on.) Then the Badawin surrounded and charged the caravan from