Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 3 (of 6) Part 2
General
Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 3 (of 6) Part 2
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
Thus Abdallah and his mother contrived to live for a time, till at
length he resolved to carry the candlestick to the Dervish, hoping to
obtain from him the treasure which he had seen in the vault. He
remembered his name and city, and on reaching his dwelling he found the
Dervish living in a magnificent palace with fifty porters at the gate.
Quoth the Dervish, when Abdallah appeared before him, “Thou art an
ungrateful wretch! Hadst thou known the value of the candlestick, thou
wouldst never have brought it to me. I will show thee its true use.”
Then the Dervish placed a light in each branch, whereupon twelve
dervishes appeared and began to whirl, but on his giving each a blow
with a cane in an instant they were changed into twelve heaps of
sequins, diamonds and other precious stones.
Ungrateful as Abdallah had shown himself, yet the Dervish gave him two
camels laden with gold and a slave, telling him he must depart the next
morning. During the night Abdallah stole the candlestick and placed it
at the bottom of one of his sacks. In the morning he took his leave of
the generous Dervish and set off. When about half a day’s journey from
his own city he sold the slave, that there should be no witness to his
former poverty, and bought another in his stead. Arriving home, he
carefully placed his loads of treasure in a private chamber, and then
put a light in each branch of the candlestick, and when the twelve
dervishes appeared, as usual, he dealt each a blow with a cane. But he
had not observed that the Dervish employed his left hand, and he had
naturally used his right, in consequence of which the twelve dervishes
each drew from under their robes a heavy club and beat him till he was
nearly dead, and then vanished, as did also the treasure, the camels,
the slave, and the wonder-working candlestick.
It is to be regretted that the author has not stated the sources whence
he drew his stories, but that they are without exception of Eastern
extraction does not admit of any doubt: some are taken from the
“Panchatantra,” “Hitopadesa,” or “Anvár-i Suhaylí,” and others are found
in other Asiatic story-books. I have however not met with the foregoing
elsewhere than in Noble’s little volume. The beginning of the story is
near akin to that of Aladdin: for the wicked magician who pretends to
take the tailor’s son under his care we have a dervish who in good faith
takes charge of the son of a poor widow who had nursed him through a
severe illness. The cave scene is very similar in both, only the
magician performs diabolical incantations, while the dervish practises
“white magic” and prays to Allah for assistance. The twelve-branched
candlestick takes the place of the Wonderful Lamp. Like Aladdin, young
Abdallah is shut in the cavern, though not because he refused to give up
the candlestick until he was safe above ground again, but because his
cupidity induced him to pocket some of the treasures which filled the
cave.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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