The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 8 - Sir Richard Francis Burton (best e reader for epub .TXT) 📗

cold and Prime was come to it with his roses: its flowers were kindly ripe and welled forth its rills. Indeed, it was a city goodly of ordinance and disposition; its folk were of the best of men, and when the gates thereof were shut, its folk were safe.[FN#443] And it was even as is said of it in these couplets, “Quoth I to a comrade one day, * A man of good speech and rare, ‘Describe Alexandria.’ * Quoth he, ‘Tis a march-town fair.’

Quoth I, ‘Is there living therein?’ * And he, ‘An the wind blow there.’”

 

Or as saith one of the poets,

 

“Alexandria’s a frontier;[FN#444] Whose dews of lips are sweet and clear;

How fair the coming to it is, * So one therein no raven speer!”

 

Nur al-Din walked about the city and ceased not walking till her came to the merchants’ bazar, whence he passed on to the mart of the money-changers and so on in turn to the markets of the confectioners and fruiterers and druggists, marvelling, as he went, at the city, for that the nature of its qualities accorded with its name.[FN#445] As he walked in the druggists’ bazar, behold, an old man came down from his shop and saluting him, took him by the hand and carried him to his home. And Nur al-Din saw a fair bystreet, swept and sprinkled, whereon the zephyr blew and made pleasantness pervade it and the leaves of the trees overshaded it. Therein stood three houses and at the upper end a mansion, whose foundations were firm sunk in the water and its walls towered to the confines of the sky. They had swept the space before it and they had sprinkled it freshly; so it exhaled the fragrance of flowers, borne on the zephyr which breathed upon the place; and the scent met there who approached it on such wise as it were one of the gardens of Paradise. And, as they had cleaned and cooed the bystreet’s head, so was the end of it with marble spread. The Shaykh carried Nur al-Din into the house and setting somewhat of food before him ate with his guest. When they had made an end of eating, the druggist said to him, “When camest thou hither from Cairo?”; and Nur al-Din replied, “This very night, O my father.” Quoth the old man, “What is thy name?”; and quoth he, “Ali Nur al-Din.” Said the druggist, “O my son, O Nur al-Din, be the triple divorce incumbent on me, an thou leave me so long as thou abidest in this city; and I will set thee apart a place wherein thou mayst dwell.” Nur al-Din asked, “O my lord the Shaykh, let me know more of thee”; and the other answered, “Know, O my son, that some years ago I went to Cairo with merchandise, which I sold there and bought other, and I had occasion for a thousand dinars. So thy sire Taj al-Din weighed them out[FN#446]

for me, all unknowing me, and would take no written word of me, but had patience with me till I returned hither and sent him the amount by one of my servants, together with a gift. I saw thee, whilst thou wast little; and, if it please Allah the Most High, I will repay thee somewhat of the kindness thy father did me.” When Nur al-Din heard the old man’s story, he showed joy and pulling out with a smile the purse of a thousand dinars, gave it to his host the Shaykh and said to him, “Take charge of this deposit for me, against I buy me somewhat of merchandise whereon to trade.”

Then he abode some time in Alexandria city taking his pleasure every day in its thoroughfares, eating and drinking ad indulging himself with mirth and merriment till he had made an end of the hundred dinars he had kept by way of spending-money; whereupon he repaired to the old druggist, to take of him somewhat of the thousand dinars to spend, but found him not in his shop and took a seat therein to await his return. He sat there gazing right and left and amusing himself with watching the merchants and passers-by, and as he was thus engaged behold, there came into the bazar a Persian riding on a shemule and carrying behind him a damsel; as she were argent of alloy free or a fish Balti[FN#447] in mimic sea or a doe-gazelle on desert lea. Her face outshone the sun in shine and she had witching eyne and breasts of ivory white, teeth of marguerite, slender waist and sides dimpled deep and calves like tails of fat sheep;[FN#448]

and indeed she was perfect in beauty and loveliness, elegant stature and symmetrical grace, even as saith one, describing her,[FN#449]

 

“‘Twas as by will of her she was create * Nor short nor long, but Beauty’s mould and mate:

Rose blushes reddest when she sees those cheeks * And fruits the bough those marvel charms amate:

Moon is her favour, Musk the scent of her * Branch is her shape:�

she passeth man’s estate:

‘Tis e’en as were she cast in freshest pearl * And every limblet shows a moon innate.”

 

Presently the Persian lighted down from his shemule and, making the damsel also dismount, loudly summoned the broker and said to him as soon as he came, “Take this damsel and cry her for sale in the market.” So he took her and leading her to the middlemost of the bazar disappeared for a while and presently he returned with a stool of ebony, inlaid with ivory, and setting it upon the ground, seated her thereon. Then he raised her veil and discovered a face as it were a Median targe[FN#450] or a cluster of pearls:[FN#451] and indeed she was like the full moon, when it filleth on its fourteenth night, accomplished in brilliant beauty. As saith the poet,

 

“Vied the full moon for folly with her face, * But was eclipsed[FN#452] and split for rage full sore; And if the spiring B�n with her contend * Perish her hands who load of fuel bore!”[FN#453]

 

And how well saith another,

 

“Say to the fair in the wroughten veil * How hast made that monk-like worshipper ail?

Light of veil and light of face under it * Made the hosts of darkness to fly from bale;

And, when came my glance to steal look at cheek. * With a meteor-shaft the Guard made me quail.”[FN#454]

 

Then said the broker to the merchants,[FN#455] “How much do ye bid for the union-pearl of the diver and prize-quarry of the fowler?” Quoth one, “She is mine for an hundred dinars.” And another said, “Two hundred,” and a third, “Three hundred”; and they ceased not to bid, one against other, till they made her price nine hundred and fifty dinars, and there the biddings stopped awaiting acceptance and consent.[FN#456]—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

 

When it was the Eight Hundred and Seventy-first Night, She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the merchants bid one against other till they made the price of the girl nine hundred and fifty dinars. Then the broker went up to her Persian master and said to him, “The biddings for this thy slavegirl have reached nine hundred and fifty dinars: so say me, wilt thou sell her at that price and take the money?” Asked the Persian, “Doth she consent to this? I desire to fall in with her wishes, for I sickened on my journey hither and this handmaid tended me with all possible tenderness, wherefore I sware not to sell her but to him whom she should like and approve, and I have put her sale in her own hand. So do thou consult her and if she say, ‘I consent,’ sell her to whom thou wilt: but an she say, ‘No,’ sell her not.” So the broker went up to her and asked her, “O Princess of fair ones, know that thy master putteth thy sale in thine own hands, and thy price hath reached nine hundred and fifty dinars; dost thou give me leave to sell thee?” She answered, “Show me him who is minded to buy me before clinching the bargain.” So he brought her up to one of the merchants a man stricken with years and decrepit; and she looked at him a long while, then turned to the broker and said to him, “O broker, art thou Jinn-mad or afflicted in thy wit?” Replied he, “Why dost thou ask me this, O Princess of fair ones?”; and said she, “Is it permitted thee of Allah to sell the like of me to yonder decrepit old man, who saith of his wife’s case these couplets, ‘Quoth she to me,—and sore enraged for wounded pride was she, *

For she in sooth had bidden me to that which might not be,—

‘An if thou swive me not forthright, as one should swive his wife, * Thou be made a cuckold straight, reproach it not to me.

Meseems thy yard is made of wax, for very flaccidness; * For when I rub it with my hand, it softens instantly.’[FN#457]

 

And said he likewise of his yard,

 

‘I have a yard that sleeps in base and shameful way * When grants my lover boon for which I sue and pray: But when I wake o’ mornings[FN#458] all alone in bed, * ‘Tis fain o’ foin and fence and fierce for futter-play.’

 

And again quoth he thereof of his yard, ‘I have a froward yard of temper ill * Dishonoring him who shows it most regard:

It stands when sleep I, when I stand it sleeps * Heaven pity not who pitieth that yard!’”

 

When the old merchant heard this ill flouting from the damsel, he was wroth with wrath exceeding beyond which was no proceeding and said to the broker, “O most ill-omened of brokers, thou hast not brought into the market this ill-conditioned wench but to gibe me and make mock of me before the merchants.” Then the broker took her aside and said to her, “O my lady, be not wanting in self-respect. The Shaykh at whom thou didst mock is the Syndic of the bazar and Inspector[FN#459] thereof and a committee-man of the council of the merchants.” But she laughed and improvised these two couplets,

 

“It behoveth folk who rule in our time, * And ‘tis one of the duties of magistrateship,

To hand up the Wali above his door * And beat with a whip the Mohtasib!”

 

Adding, “By Allah, O my lord, I will not be sold to yonder old man; so sell me to other than him, for haply he will be abashed at me and vend me again and I shall become a mere servant[FN#460]

and it beseemeth not that I sully myself with menial service; and indeed thou knowest that the matter of my sale is committed to myself.” He replied, “I hear and I obey,” and carried her to a man which was one of the chief merchants. And when standing hard by him the broker asked, “How sayst thou, O my lady? Shall I sell thee to my lord Shar�f al-D�n here for nine hundred and fifty gold pieces?” She looked at him and, seeing him to be an old man with a dyed beard, said to the broker, “Art thou silly, that thou wouldst sell me to this worn out Father Antic? Am I cotton refuse or threadbare rags that thou marchest me about from greybeard to greybeard, each like a wall ready to fall or an Ifrit smitten down of a fire-ball? As for the first, the poet had him in mind when he said,[FN#461]

 

‘I sought of a fair maid