Part 41

She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the damsel said to Sayf al-Muluk, “Then the King of the Jann, after he had acquainted me with his case, embraced me and kissed me, saying, ‘Abide here and fear nothing’; whereupon he went away from me for an hour and presently returned with these tables and carpets and furniture. He comes to me every Third[FN#420] and abideth with me three days and on Friday, at the time of mid-afternoon prayer, he departeth and is absent till the following Third. When he is here, he eateth and drinketh and kisseth and huggeth me, but doth naught else with me, and I am a pure virgin, even as Allah Almighty created me. My father’s name is Táj al-Mulúk, and he wotteth not what is come of me nor hath he hit upon any trace of me. This is my story: now tell me thy tale.” Answered the Prince, “My story is a long and I fear lest while I am telling it to thee the Ifrit come.” Quoth she “He went out from me but an hour before thy entering and will not return till Third: so sit thee down and take thine ease and hearten thy heart and tell me what hath betided thee, from beginning to end.” And quoth he, “I hear and I obey.” So he fell to telling her all that had befallen him from commencement to conclusion but, when she heard speak of Badi’a al-Jamal, her eyes ran over with railing tears and she cried, “O Badi’a al-Jamal, I had not thought this of thee! Alack for our luck! O Badi’a al-Jamal, dost thou not remember me nor say, ‘My sister Daulat Khatun whither is she gone?’” And her weeping redoubled, lamenting for that Badi’a al-Jamal had forgotten her.[FN#421] Then said Sayf al-Muluk, “O Daulat Khatun, thou art a mortal and she is a Jinniyah: how then can she be thy sister?” Replied the Princess, “She is my sister by fosterage and this is how it came about. My mother went out to solace herself in the garden, when labour-pangs seized her and she bare me. Now the mother of Badi’a al-Jamal chanced to be passing with her guards, when she also was taken with travail-pains; so she alighted in a side of the garden and there brought forth Badi’a al-Jamal. She despatched one of her women to seek food and childbirth-gear of my mother, who sent her what she sought and invited her to visit her. So she came to her with Badi’a al-Jamal and my mother suckled the child, who with her mother tarried with us in the garden two months. And before wending her ways the mother of Badi’a al-Jamal gave my mother somewhat,[FN#422] saying, ‘When thou hast need of me, I will come to thee a-middlemost the garden,’ and departed to her own land; but she and her daughter used to visit us every year and abide with us awhile before returning home. Wherefore an I were with my mother, O Sayf al-Muluk, and if thou wert with me in my own country and Badi’a al-Jamal and I were together as of wont, I would devise some device with her to bring thee to thy desire of her: but I am here and they know naught of me; for that an they kenned what is become of me, they have power to deliver me from this place; however, the matter is in Allah’s hands (extolled and exalteth be He!) and what can I do?” Quoth Sayf al-Muluk, “Rise and let us flee and go whither the Almighty willeth;” but, quoth she, “We cannot do that: for, by Allah, though we fled hence a year’s journey that accursed would overtake us in an hour and slaughter us.” Then said the Prince, “I will hide myself in his way, and when he passeth by I will smite him with the sword and slay him.” Daulat Khatun replied, “Thou canst not succeed in slaying him save thou slay his soul.” Asked he, “And where is his soul?”; and she answered, “Many a time have I questioned him thereof but he would not tell me, till one day I pressed him and he waxed wroth with me and said to me, ‘How often wilt thou ask me of my soul? What hast thou to do with my soul?’ I rejoined, ‘O Hátim,[FN#423] there remaineth none to me but thou, except Allah; and my life dependeth on thy life and whilst thou livest, all is well for me; so, except I care for thy soul and set it in the apple of this mine eye, how shall I live in thine absence? An I knew where thy soul abideth, I would never cease whilst I live, to hold it in mine embrace and would keep it as my right eye.’ Whereupon said he to me, ‘What time I was born, the astrologers predicted that I should lose my soul at the hands of the son of a king of mankind. So I took it and set it in the crop of a sparrow, and shut up the bird in a box. The box I set in a casket, and enclosing this in seven other caskets and seven chests, laid the whole in a alabastrine coffer,[FN#424] which I buried within the marge of yon earth-circling sea; for that these parts are far from the world of men and none of them can win hither. So now see I have told thee what thou wouldst know, and do thou tell none thereof, for it is a secret between me and thee.’”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

When it was the Seven Hundred and Seventieth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Daulat Khatun acquainted Sayf al-Muluk with the whereabouts of the soul of the Jinni who had carried her off and repeated to him his speech ending with, “And this is a secret between me and thee!” “I rejoined,” quoth she, “‘To whom should I tell it, seeing that none but thou cometh hither with whom I may talk thereof?’ adding, ‘By Allah, thou hast indeed set thy soul in the strongest of strongholds to which none may gain access! How should a man win to it, unless the impossible be fore-ordained and Allah decree like as the astrologers predicted?’ Thereupon the Jinni, ‘Peradventure one may come, having on his finger the seal-ring of Solomon son of David (on the twain be peace!) and lay his hand with the ring on the face of the water, saying, ‘By the virtue of the names engraven upon this ring, let the soul of such an one come forth!’ Whereupon the coffer will rise to the surface and he will break it open and do the like with the chests and caskets, till he come to the little box, when he will take out the sparrow and strangle it, and I shall die.’” Then said Sayf al-Muluk, “I am the King’s son of whom he spake, and this is the ring of Solomon David-son on my finger: so rise, let us go down to the sea-shore and see if his words be leal or leasing!” Thereupon the two walked down to the sea-shore and the Princess stood on the beach, whilst the Prince waded into the water to his waist and laying his hand with the ring on the surface of the sea, said, “By the virtue of the names and talismans engraven on this ring, and by the might of Sulayman bid Dáúd (on whom be the Peace!), let the soul of Hatim the Jinni, son of the Blue King, come forth!” Whereat the sea boiled in billows and the coffer of alabaster rose to the surface. Sayf al-Muluk took it and shattered it against the rock and broke open the chests and caskets, till he came to the little box and drew thereout the sparrow. Then the twain returned to the castle and sat down on the throne; but hardly had they done this, when lo and behold! there arose a dust-cloud terrifying and some huge thing came flying and crying, “Spare me, O King’s son, and slay me not; but make me thy freedman, and I will bring thee to thy desire!” Quoth Daulat Khatun, “The Jinni cometh; slay the sparrow, lest this accursed enter the palace and take it from thee and slaughter me and slaughter thee after me.” So the Prince wrung the sparrow’s neck and it died, whereupon the Jinni fell down at the palace-door and became a heap of black ashes. Then said Daulat Khatun, “We are delivered from the hand of yonder accursed; what shall we do now?”; and Sayf al-Muluk replied, “It behoveth us to ask aid of Allah Almighty who hath afflicted us; belike He will direct us and help us to escape from this our strait.” So saying, he arose and pulling up[FN#425] half a score of the doors of the palace, which were of sandal-wood and lign-aloes with nails of gold and silver, bound them together with ropes of silk and floss[FN#426]-silk and fine linen and wrought of them a raft, which he and the Princess aided each other to hale down to the sea-shore. They launched it upon the water till it floated and, making it fast to the beach, returned to the palace, whence they removed all the chargers of gold and saucers of silver and jewels and precious stones and metals and what else was light of load and weighty of worth and freighted the raft therewith. Then they embarked after fashioning two pieces of wood into the likeness of paddles and casting off the rope-moorings, let the raft drift out to sea with them, committing themselves to Allah the Most High, who contenteth those that put their trust in Him and disappointeth not them who rely upon Him. They ceased not faring on thus four months until their victual was exhausted and their sufferings waxed severe and their souls were straitened; so they prayed Allah to vouchsafe them deliverance from that danger. But all this time when they lay down to sleep, Sayf al-Muluk set Daulat Khatun behind him and laid a naked brand at his back, so that, when he turned in sleep the sword was between them.[FN#427] At last it chanced one night, when Sayf al-Muluk was asleep and Daulat Khatun awake, that behold, the raft drifted landwards and entered a port wherein were ships. The Princess saw the ships and heard a man, he being the chief and head of the captains, talking with the sailors; whereby she knew that this was the port of some city and that they were come to an inhabited country. So she joyed with exceeding joy and waking the Prince said to him, “Ask the captain the name of the city and harbour.” Thereupon Sayf al-Muluk arose and said to the captain, “O my brother, how is this harbour hight and what be the names of yonder city and its King?” Replied the Captain, “O false face![FN#428] O frosty beard! an thou knew not the name of this port and city, how camest thou hither?” Quoth Sayf al-Muluk, “I am a stranger and had taken passage in a merchant ship which was wrecked and sank with all on board; but I saved myself on a plank and made my way hither; wherefore I asked thee the name of the place, and in asking is no offence.” Then said the captain, “This is the city of ‘Amáriyah and this harbour is called Kamín al-Bahrayn.”[FN#429] When the Princess heard this she rejoiced with exceeding joy and said, “Praised be Allah!” He asked, “What is to do?”; and she answered, “O Sayf al-Muluk, rejoice in succour near hand; for the King of this city is my uncle, my father’s brother.”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

When it was the Seven Hundred and Seventy-first Night,