Supplemental Nights to The Book of the Thousand and One Nights - Sir Richard Francis Burton (great books of all time .TXT) 📗

so conveyed him to the place where they first found him. Now the fellow had not made them so good sport the day before, as he did when he returned to himself; all the jest was to see how he looked upon it. In conclusion, after some little admiration, the poor man told his friends he had seen a vision, constantly beleeved it, would not otherwise be perswaded; and so the jest ended.”

 

I do not think that this is a story imported from the East: the adventure is just as likely to have happened in Bruges as in Baghd�d; but the exquisite humor of the Arabian tale is wanting-

-even Shakspeare’s Christopher Sly is not to be compared with honest Ab� al-Hasan the Wag.

 

This story of the Sleeper and the Waker recalls the similar device practised by the Chief of the Assassins—that formidable, murderous association, the terror of the Crusades—on promising novices. Von Hammer, in his “History of the Assassins,” end of Book iv., gives a graphic description of the charming gardens into which the novices were carried while insensible from hashish:

 

In the center of the Persian as well as the Assyrian territory of the Assassins, that is to say, both at Alamut and Massiat, were situated, in a space surrounded by walls, splendid gardens—true Eastern paradises. There were flower-beds and thickets of fruit-trees, intersected by canals, shady walks, and verdant glades, where the sparkling stream bubbled at every step; bowers of roses and vineyards; luxurious halls and porcelain kiosks, adorned with Persian carpets and Grecian stuffs, where drinking-vessels of gold, silver, and crystal glittered on trays of the same costly materials; charming maidens and handsome boys of Muhammed’s Paradise, soft as the cushions on which they reposed, and intoxicating as the wine which they presented. The music of the harp was mingled with the songs of birds, and the melodious tones of the songstress harmonized with the murmur of the brooks. Everything breathed pleasure, rapture, and sensuality. A youth, was deemed worthy by his strength and resolution to be initiated into the Assassin service, was invited to the table and conversation of the grand master, or grand prior; he was then intoxicated with hashish and carried into the garden, which on awaking he believed to be Paradise; everything around him, the houris in particular, contributing to confirm the delusion. After he had experienced as much of the pleasures of Paradise, which the Prophet has promised to the faithful, as his strength would admit; after quaffing enervating delight from the eyes of the houris and intoxicating wine from the glittering goblets; he sank into the lethargy produced by debility and the opiate, on awakening from which, after a few hours, he again found himself by the side of his superior. The latter endeavored to convince him that corporeally he had not left his side, but that spiritually he had been wrapped into Paradise and had there enjoyed a foretaste of the bliss which awaits the faithful who devote their lives to the service of the faith and the obedience of their chiefs.

 

THE TEN WAZIRS; OR, THE HISTORY OF KING �Z�DBAKHT AND HIS SON

Vol. XI. p. 37.

 

The precise date of the Persian original of this romance (“Bakhty�r N�ma”) has not been ascertained, but it was probably composed before the beginning of the fifteenth century, since there exists in the Bodleian Library a unique Turk� version, in the Uygur language and characters, which was written in 1434.

Only three of the tales have hitherto been found in other Asiatic storybooks. The Turk� version, according to M. Jaubert, who gives an account of the MS. and a translation of one of the tales in the Journal Asiatique, tome x. 1827, is characterised by “great sobriety of ornament and extreme simplicity of style, and the evident intention on the part of the translator to suppress all that may not have appeared to him sufficiently probable, and all that might justly be taxed with exaggeration;” and he adds that “apart from the interest which the writing and phraseology of the work may possess for those who study the history of languages, it is rather curious to see how a T�t�r translator sets to work to bring within the range of his readers stories embellished in the original with descriptions and images familiar, doubtless, to a learned and refined nation like the Persians, for foreign to shepherds.”

 

At least three different versions are known to the Malays-

-different in the frame, or leading story, if not in the subordinate tales. One of those is described in the second volume of Newbold’s work on Malacca, the frame of which is similar to the Persian original and its Arabian derivative, excepting that the name of the king is Z�dbokhtin and that of the minister’s daughter (who is nameless in the Persian) is Mahrwat.

Two others are described in Van den Berg’s account of Malay, Arabic, Javanese and other MSS. published at Batavia, 1877: p.

21, No. 132 is entitled “The History of Ghul�m, son of Z�dbukht�n, King of Ad�n, in Persia,” and the frame also corresponds with our version, with the important difference that the robber-chief who had brought up Ghul�m, “learning that he had become a person of consequence, came to his residence to visit him, but finding him imprisoned, he was much concerned, and asked the king’s pardon on his behalf, telling him at the same time how he had formerly found Ghul�m in the jungle; from which the king knew that Ghul�m was his son.” The second version noticed by Van den Berg (p. 32, No. 179), though similar in title to the Persian original, “History of Prince Bakhty�r,” differs very materially in the leading story, the outline of which is as follows: This prince, when his father was put to flight by a younger brother, who wished to dethrone him, was born in a jungle, and abandoned by his parents. A merchant named Idr�s took charge of him and brought him up. Later on he became one of the officers of state with his own father, who had in the meanwhile found another kingdom, and decided with fairness, the cases brought before him.

He was, however, put in prison on account of a supposed attempt on the king’s life, and would have been put to death had he not stayed the execution by telling various beautiful stories. Even the king came repeatedly to listen to him. At one of these visits Bakhty�r’s foster-father Idr�s was present, and related to his adopted son how he had found him in the jungle. The king, on hearing this, perceived that it was his son who had been brought up by Idr�s, recognised Bakhty�r as such, as made over to him the kingdom.”—I have little doubt that this romance is of Indian extraction.

 

STORY OF KING DADBIN AND HIS WAZIRS.—Vol. XI. p. 68.

 

This agrees pretty closely with the Turk� version of the same story (rendered into French by M. Jaubert), though in the latter the names of the characters are the same as in the Persian, King D�d�n and the Waz�rs K�mg�r and K�rd�r. In the Persian story, the damsel is tied hands and feet and placed upon a camel, which is then turned into a dreary wilderness. “Here she suffered from the intense heat and from thirst; but she resigned herself to the will of Providence, conscious of her own innocence. Just then the camel lay down, and on the spot a fountain of delicious water suddenly sprang forth; the cords which bound her hands and feet dropped off; she refreshed herself by a draught of the water, and fervently returned thanks to Heaven for this blessing and her wonderful preservation.” This two-fold miracle does not appear in the Turk� and Arabian versions. It is not the cameleer of the King of Persia, but of King D�d�n, who meets with the pious damsel in the wilderness. He takes her to his own house and one day relates his adventure to King D�d�n, who expresses a wish to see such a prodigy of sanctity. The conclusion of the Persian story is quite dramatic: The cameleer, having consented, returned at once to his house, accompanied by the king, who waited at the door of the apartment where the daughter of K�mg�r was engaged in prayer. When she had concluded he approached, and with astonishment recognised her. Having tenderly embraced her, he wept, and entreated her forgiveness. This she readily granted, but begged that he would conceal himself in the apartment while she should converse with K�rd�r, whom she sent for. When he arrived, and beheld her with a thousand expressions of fondness, he inquired how she had escaped, and told her that on the day the king had banished her into the wilderness, he had sent people to seek her and bring her to him. “How much better would it have been,” he added, “had you followed my advice, and agreed to my proposal of poisoning the king, who, I said, would one day destroy you as he had done your father! But you rejected my advice, and declared yourself ready to submit to whatever Providence should decree. Hereafter you will pay more attention to my words. But now let us not think of what is past. I am your slave, and you are dearer to me than my own eyes.” So saying, he attempted to clasp the daughter of K�mg�r in his arms, when the king, who was concealed behind the hangings, rushed furiously on him and put him to death. After this he conducted the damsel to his palace, and constantly lamented his precipitancy in having killed her father.—This tale seems to have been taken from the Persian “T�t� N�ma,” or Parrot-book, composed by Nahkshab� about the year 1306;[FN#486] it occurs in the 51st Night of the India Office MS. 2573, under the title of “Story of the Daughter of the Vaz�r Kh�ssa, and how she found safety through the blessing of her piety:” the name of the king is Bahram, and the Waz�rs are called Kh�ssa and Khal�ssa.

 

STORY OF AYLAN SHAH AND AB� TAMM�M—Vol. XI p. 82.

 

The catastrophe of this story forms the subject of the Lady’s 37th tale in the text of the Turkish “Forty Vez�rs,” translated by Mr. E. J. W. Gibb. This is how it goes: In the palace of the world there was a king, and that king had three vez�rs, but there was rivalry between them. Two of them day and night incited the king against the third, saying, “He is a traitor.” But the king believed them not. At length they promised two pages much gold, and instructed them thus: “When the king has lain down, ere he yet fall asleep, do ye feign to think him asleep, and while talking with each other, say at a fitting time, ‘I have heard from such a one that yon vez�r says this and that concerning the king, and that he hates him; many people say that vez�r is an enemy to our king.’” So they did this, and when the king heard this, he said in his heart, “What those vez�rs said is then true; when the very pages have heard it somewhat it must indeed have some foundation. Till now, I believed not those vez�rs, but it is then true.” And the king executed that vez�r.

The other vez�rs were glad and gave the pages the gold they had promised. So they took it and went to a private place, and while they were dividing it one of them said, “I spake first; I want more.” The other said, “If I had not said he was an enemy to our king, the king would not have killed him; I shall take more.”

And while they were quarrelling with one another the king passed by there, and he listened attentively to their