Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 4 (of 6) — John Shaqi
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
The Three Hundred and Thirty-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
Cameleer came forward between the Sultan's hands and said, "O my
lord, verily these men have carried away the camel which
belongeth to me,[FN#9] for they have indeed described him and the
burthen he bore! And I require of our lord the Sultan that he
take from these wights and deliver to me the camel which is mine
as proved by their own words." Presently asked the Sultan, "What
say ye to the claims of this man and the camel belonging to him?"
Hereto the Princes made answer, "By Allah, O King of the Age, we
have not seen the camel, much less have we stolen him." Thereupon
the Cameleer exclaimed, "O my lord, I heard yonder one say that
the beast was blind of an eye; and the second said that he was
tail-less, and the third said that half his load was of sour
stuff and the other half was of sweet stuff." They replied,
"True, we spake these words;" and the Sultan cried to them, "Ye
have purloined the beast by this proof." They rejoined, "No, by
Allah, O my lord. We sat us in such a place for repose and
refreshment and we remarked that some of the pasture had been
grazed down, so we said, 'This is the grazing of a camel; and he
must have been blind of one eye as the grass was eaten only on
one side.' But as for our saying that he was tail-less, we noted
the droppings lying heaped[FN#10] upon the ground which made us
agree that the tail must have been cut off, it being the custom
of camels at such times to whisk their tails and scatter the dung
abroad. So 'twas evident to us that the camel had lost his tail.
But as for our saying that the load was half Halwá and half
Hámiz, we saw on the place where the camel had knelt the flies
gathering in great numbers while on the other were none: so the
case was clear to us (as flies settle on naught save the sugared)
that one of the panniers must have contained sweets and the other
sours." Hearing this the Sultan said to the Cameleer, "O man,
fare thee forth and look after thy camel; for these signs and
tokens prove not the theft of these men, but only the power of
their intellect and their penetration."[FN#11] And when the
Cameleer heard this, he went his ways. Presently the Sultan
cleared a place in the Palace and allotted to it the Princes for
their entertainment: he also directed they be supplied with a
banquet and the eunuchs did his bidding. But when it was eventide
and supper was served up, the trio sat down to it purposing to
eat; the eldest, however, having hent in hand a bannock of bread
exclaimed, "By Allah, verily this cake was baked by a woman in
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account