Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 4 (of 6)
General
Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 4 (of 6)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
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 when the
Sultan heard the Bhang-eater's words he waxed the more furious
and would have arisen and struck off his head; but the Wazir
winked at him and whispered, "O King of the Age, I and thou are
in disguise and these men imagine that we are of the commons: so
be thou pitiful even as Almighty Allah is pitiful and willeth not
the punishment of the sinner. Furthermore, I conceive that the
twain are eaters of Hashísh, which drug when swallowed by man,
garreth him prattle of whatso he pleaseth and chooseth, making
him now a Sultan then a Wazir and then a merchant, the while it
seemeth to him that the world is in the hollow of his hand."
Quoth the Sultan, "And what may be thy description of Hashísh?"
and quoth the Wazir, "'Tis composed of hemp leaflets, whereto
they add aromatic roots and somewhat of sugar: then they cook it
and prepare a kind of confection which they eat;[FN#234] but
whoso eateth it (especially an he eat more than enough), talketh
of matters which reason may on no wise represent. If thou wouldst
know its secret properties, on the coming night (Inshallah!) we
will bring some with us and administer it to these two men; and
when they eat it the dose will be in addition to their ordinary."
After this the Sultan left them and went forth, when the
Bhang-eater said to the Kazi, "By Allah, this night we have
enjoyed ourselves and next night (if Allah please!) we will enjoy
ourselves yet more." The other replied, "Yes, but I fear from the
Sultan, lest he learn our practice and cut off our heads." "Who
shall bring the Sovran to us?" asked the other: "he is in his
palace and we are in our own place; and, granting he come, I will
divert him by recounting an adventure which befel me." The Kazi
answered, "Have no dread of the Sultan; for he may not fare forth
a-nights single-handed; nay, what while he issueth forth he must
be escorted by his high officials." Now when the next night fell,
the Kazi brought the Hashish which he divided into two halves,
eating one himself and giving the other to his companion; and
both swallowed their portions after supper and then lit the waxen
tapers and sat down to take their pleasure.[FN#235] Suddenly the
Sultan and his Wazir came in upon them during the height of their
enjoyment, and the visitors were habited in dress other than
before, and they brought with them a quantity of Bhang-confection
and also some conserve of roses: so they handed a portion of the
first to the revellers, which these accepted and ate, while they
themselves swallowed the conserve, the others supposing it to be
Hashish like what they had eaten. Now when they had taken an
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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