The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 15 - Sir Richard Francis Burton (world best books to read txt) 📗

head; and I took the gold and carried it off together with the child.” But when his comrade, the true father, heard this tale from him he said to himself, “This matter must have been after such fashion,” and he was certified that the foundling was his son, for that he had heard the history told by the mother of the babe with the same details essential and accidental. So he firmly believed[FN#577] in these words and rejoiced thereat, when his comrade continued, “And after that, O my brother, I bore off that babe and having no offspring I gave him to my wife who rejoiced therein and brought him a wetnurse to suckle him for the usual term. When he had reached his sixth year I hired a Divine to read with him and teach him writing and the art of penmanship;[FN#578] and, as soon as he saw ten years, I bought him a horse of the purest blood, whereon he learnt cavalarice and the shooting of shafts and the firing of bullets until he attained his fifteenth year. Presently one day of the days he asked to go a-hunting in the wilderness, but we his parents (for he still held me to be his father and my wife his mother) forbade him in fear of accidents; whereupon he waxed sore sorrowful and we allowed him leave to fare forth.”—And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and fell silent and ceased saying her permitted say. Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, “How sweet and tasteful is thy story, O sister mine, and how enjoyable and delectable!” Quoth she, “And where is this compared with that I would relate to you on the coming night an the Sovran suffer me to survive?” Now when it was the next night and that was The Eight Hundred and Twenty-first Night, Dunyazad said to her, “Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching of this our latter night!” She replied, “With love and good will!” It hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding, lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming and worthy celebrating, that the adoptive father pursued to his comrade, “So we permitted him to hie a-hunting, and he farewelled us and went forth from us and left us, whereat we fell to beweeping him; and inasmuch as until this present he hath not returned to us, I have set out to seek him and here am I in this place searching for traces of him.

Peradventure may Allah Almighty deign unite me with him and gar me forgather with him; for, Wall�hi! from the hour he went from us sleep hath done us no good nor have we found relish in food.”

And when the speech was ended, quoth his comrade, “O my brother, whenas he is not the son of thy loins and he could prove himself perverse to thee, what must be the condition in his regard of the father who begat him and the mother who enwombed him?” He replied, “Theirs must be cark and care and misery beyond even mine;” and the other rejoined, “By Allah, O my brother, verily the relation thou hast related anent this child proveth that he is, by God, my child and of mine own seed, for in sooth his mother gave birth to him in that stead where she left him being unable to carry him with her; but now she beweepeth the loss of him through the nights and the days.” “O my brother,” quoth the adoptive father, “we twain, I and thou, will indeed make public search and open inquiry for him through the lands, and Allah Almighty shall guide us himwards.” When morning came the pair went forth together intending to journey from that city, but by doom of the Decreer the Sultan on that very day set out to visit the gardens; and, when the travellers heard tidings thereof, one said to the other, “Let us stay and solace ourselves with a sight of the royal suite and after we will wend our ways.” Said his comrade, “‘Tis well.” So they took their station to await the issuing forth of the Sultan, who suddenly rode out amid his suite as the two stood leaning beside the road and looking at the Sultan, when behold, his glance fell upon the two men. He at once recognised the father who had reared him, and when he gazed at the other standing beside him his heart was opened to the love of him albeit he weeted naught of their tie of blood nor believed that any was his sire save the Shaykh who had adopted him.

Accordingly, after considering them he bade carry them both to the House of Hospitality, so they led them thither and did his bidding. Hereupon the twain said to themselves, “Wherefore hath the Sultan made us his guests? Nor he knoweth us nor we know him and needs must this have a cause.” But after leaving them the King rode to the gardens where he tarried the whole day, and when it was sunset he returned to his Palace, and at suppertide commanded the men be brought before him. They salam’d to him and blessed him and he returned their salutations, and bade them take seat at the trays whereat none other was present. They obeyed his order much wondering thereat the while and musing in their minds, “What condition is this?” They ate till they were satisfied, after which the food-trays were removed and they washed their hands and drank coffee and sherbets; then, by command of the King, they sat down to converse when the Sultan addressed them instead of the others, whereat they marvelled self-communing and saying, “What can be the cause?” But as soon as all the attendants had been dismissed to their quarters and no one remained save the Sultan and his guests (three in all and no more), and it was the first third of the night, the King asked them, “Which of you availeth to tell a tale which shall be a joyance to our hearts?” The first to answer him was the true father, who said, “Wall�hi, O King of the Age, there befel me an adventure which is one of the wonders of the world, and ‘tis this. I am son to a King of the Kings of the earth who was wealthy of money and means, and who had the goods of life beyond measure. He feared for my safety because he had none other save myself, and one day of the days, when I craved leave to go a-hunting in the wilderness, he refused me in his anxiety for my safety.” (Hereat, quoth the Sultan in himself, “By Allah, the story of this man is like my history!”) “So quoth I, �O King, unless I fare forth to sport, verily I will slay myself,’ and quoth my sire, �O my son, do thou go ride to the chase, but leave us not long for the hearts of us two, I and thy mother, will be engrossed by thee.’ Said I, �Hearing and obeying,’ and I went down to the stable to take a steed; and finding a smaller stall wherein was a horse chained to four posts and, on guard beside him, two slaves who could never draw near him, I approached him and fell to smoothing his coat. He remained silent and still whilst I took his furniture and set it upon his back, and girthed his saddle right tight and bridled him and loosed him from the four posts, and during all this he never started not shied at me by reason of the Fate and Fortune writ upon my forehead from the Secret World. Then I got him ready and mounted him and went forth”—And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day, and fell silent and ceased to say her permitted say. Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, “How sweet is thy story, O sister mine, and how enjoyable and delectable!” Quoth she, “And where is this compared with that I would relate to you on the coming night an the King suffer me to survive?” Now when it was the next night and that was

 

The Eight Hundred and Twenty-third Night, Dunyazad said to her, “Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching of this our latter night!” She replied, “With love and good will!” It hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding, lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming and worthy celebrating, that the man who was bespeaking the Sultan pursued to him, “Then I mounted him and rode him over the gravelly ground without the city when behold, he snorted and snarked and shook his crest and started at speed and galloped with me and bolted, swiftly as though he were a bird in the firmament of heaven.” On this wise he fell to recounting all that had befallen in the cave between him and the Merchant’s daughter and what had betided him by decree of Allah; how he had left her for his own land and how had her sire come and carried her away; also in what manner she had been delivered of a son by him on the road and had left her babe-child in the tent hoping that someone might find him and take him and tend him; and, lastly, how he had married the child’s mother and what was the cause of his going forth and his coming to that place that he might seek his son. Hereupon the Sultan turned to his adoptive father whom hitherto he had believed to be his real parent saying, “And thou, the other, dost thou know any tale like that told to us by thy comrade?” So the Shaykh recounted to him the whole history as hath before been set forth from incept to conclusion, nor hid from him aught thereof. Then the Sultan declared himself to his true sire, saying, “Thou art my father and there befel such things and such,” after which said his adoptive parent, “Wall�hi, O my son, verily none is thy father save this one from whose loins thou art sprung, for I only found thee in the pavilion and took thee and tended thee in my home.

But this is thy very parent in very deed.” Hereat all the three fell upon one another’s necks and kissed one another and the Sultan cried, “Praise to Him who hath united us after disunion!”

and the others related to him anent his maternal grandfather how he was a Merchant, and concerning his paternal grandsire how he was a Monarch. Anon each of the two was ordered to revisit his own country and convey his consort and his children; and the twain disappeared for the space of a year and a month and at length returned to the young King. Hereupon he set apart for them palaces and settled them therein and they tarried with him until such time as there came to them the Destroyer of delights and the Severer of societies.

 

Story of the Youth Who Would Futter His Father’s Wives.[FN#579]

 

It is related that there was a man who had a grown-up son, but the youth was a ne’er-do-well,[FN#580] and whatever wife his sire wedded, the son would devise him a device to lie with her and have his wicked will of her, and he so managed the matter that his father was forced to divorce her. Now the man once married a bride beautiful exceedingly and, charging her beware of his son, jealously guarded her from him.—And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and fell silent and