The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 07 (of 10)
General
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 07 (of 10)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
When it was the Six Hundred and Fifty-ninth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Gharib asked
the slave-women saying, “Who may be yonder maid,” they replied, “This
is Star o’ Morn, daughter to the Blue King.” Then Gharib turned to
Mura’ash and said to him, “O King of the Jinn, I have a mind to take
yonder damsel to wife.” Replied Mura’ash, “The palace and all that
therein is, live stock and dead, are the prize of thy right hand; for,
hadst thou not devised a stratagem to destroy the Blue King and Barkan,
they had cut us off to the last one: wherefore the treasure is thy
treasure and the folk thy thralls.” Gharib thanked him for his fair
speech and going up to the girl, gazed steadfastly upon her and loved
her with exceeding love, forgetting Fakhr Taj the Princess and even
Mahdiyah. Now her mother was the Chinese King’s daughter whom the Blue
King had carried off from her palace and perforce deflowered, and she
conceived by him and bare this girl, whom he named Star o’ Morn, by
reason of her beauty and loveliness; for she was the very Princess of
the Fair. Her mother died when she was a babe of forty days, and the
nurses and eunuchs reared her, till she reached the age of seventeen;
but she hated her sire and rejoiced in his slaughter. So Gharib put his
palm to hers[FN#44] and went in unto her that night and found her a
virgin. Then he bade pull down the Pied Palace and divided the spoil
with the true-believing Jinn, and there fell to his share
one-and-twenty thousand bricks of gold and silver and money and
treasure beyond speech and count. Then Mura’ash took Gharib and showed
him the Mountain Kaf and all its marvels; after which they returned to
Barkan’s fortress and dismantled it and shared the spoil thereof. Then
they repaired to Mura’ash’s capital, where they tarried five days, when
Gharib sought to revisit his native country and Mura’ash said, “O King
of mankind, I will ride at thy stirrup and bring thee to thine own
land.” Replied Gharib, “No, by the virtue of Abraham the Friend, I will
not suffer thee to weary thyself thus, nor will I take any of the Jinn
save Kaylajan and Kurajan.” Quoth the King, “Take with thee ten
thousand horsemen of the Jinn, to serve thee;” but quoth Gharib, “I
will take only as I said to thee.” So Mura’ash bade a thousand Marids
carry him to his native land, with his share of the spoil; and he
commanded Kaylajan and Kurajan to follow him and obey him; and they
answered, “Hearkening and obedience.” Then said Gharib to the Marids,
“Do ye carry the treasure and Star o’ Morn;” for he himself thought to
ride his flying steed. But Mura’ash said to him, “This horse, O my
brother, will live only in our region, and, if it come upon man’s
earth, ’twill die: but I have in my stables a sea-horse, whose fellow
is not found in Al-Irak, no, nor in all the world is its like.” So he
caused bring forth the horse, and when Gharib saw it, it interposed
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.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account