The Twenty-fourth Night of the Month

When it was night, the King summoned the Wazir and sought of him the hearing of the story. Al Rahwan replied, “Hearkening and obedience! Listen, O august sovran, to

The Tale of the King and his Chamberlain’s Wife [FN#488]

There was once, in days of yore and in ages and times long gone before, a King of the kings of the Persians, who was much addicted to the love of fair women. His courtiers spoke him of the wife of a certain of his Chamberlains, a model of beauty and loveliness and perfect grace, and this egged him on to go in to her. When she saw him, she knew him and said to him, “What urgeth the King to this that he doeth?” and he replied, saying, “Verily, I long for thee with excess of longing and there is no help but that I enjoy thy favours.” And he gave her of wealth that after whose like women lust; but she said, “I cannot do the deed whereof the king speaketh, for fear of my husband; “[FN#489] and she refused herself to him with the most rigorous of refusals and would not suffer him to win his wish. So the king went out in wrath, and forgot his girdle in the place. Now it chanced that her husband entered immediately after his lord had departed, and saw the girdle and knew it. He was aware of the king’s love for women; so quoth he to his wife, “What be this I see with thee?” Quoth she, “I’ll tell thee the truth,” and recounted to him the occurrence; but he believed her not and suspicion entered his heart. As for the King, he passed that night in care and concern, and when the morning morrowed, he summoned that Chamberlain and made him governor of one of his provinces; then he bade him betake himself thither, purposing, after he should have departed and fared afar, to foregather with his wife. The Chamberlain perceived his project and kenned his intent; so he answered, saying, “To hear is to obey!” presently adding, “I will go and order my affairs and give such injunctions as may be needed for the well doing of my affairs; then will I go about the sovran’s commission.” And the King said, “Do this and make haste.” So the Chamberlain went about that which he needed and assembling his wife’s kinsfolk, said to them, “I am determined to dismiss my wife.” They took this ill of him and complained of him and summoning him before the sovereign, sat prosecuting him. Now the King had no knowledge of that which had passed; so he said to the Chamberlain, “Why wilt thou put her away and how can thy soul consent to this and why takest thou unto thyself a fine and fertile piece of land and presently forsakest it?” Answered the husband, “Allah amend the king! By the Almighty, O my King, I saw therein the trail of the lion and fear to enter that land, lest the lion devour me; and the like of my affair with her is that which befel between the Crone and the Draper’s Wife. The king asked, “What is their adventure?” and the Chamberlain answered, “Hear, O king,

The Story of the Crone and the Draper’s Wife [FN#490]

There was once a man of the Drapers, who had a beautiful wife, and she was curtained[FN#491] and chaste. A certain young man saw her coming forth of the Hammam and loved her and his heart was engrossed with her. So he devised for access to her all manner of devices, but availed not to foregather with her; and when he was a weary and his patience failed for travail and trouble and his fortitude betrayed and forsook him and he was at an end of his resources against her, he complained of this to an ill omened crone,[FN#492] who promised him to bring about union between him and his beloved. He thanked her for this and promised her all manner of douceurs; and she said to him, “Hie thee to her husband and buy of him a turband cloth of fine linen, and let it be of the very best of stuff.” So he repaired to the Draper and buying of him a turband cloth of lawn, returned and gave it to the old woman, who took it and burned it in two places. Then she donned the dress of a devotee and taking the turband cloth with her, went to the Draper’s house and knocked at the door. When the Draper’s wife saw her thus habited as a holy woman, she opened to her and admitted her with kindly reception, and made much of her and welcomed her: so the crone went in to her and conversed with her awhile. Then said she to her, “I want to make the Wuzu ablution preparatory to prayer.”[FN#493] At these words the wife brought the water and she made the ablution and standing up to pray, prayed and satisfied herself; and when she had ended her orisons, she left the turband cloth in the place of prayer and fared forth. Presently, in came the Draper, at the hour of night devotions, and sitting down in the prayer place where the old woman had prayed, looked about him and espied the turband. He knew it and suspected foul play; so wrath showed in his face and he was furious with his wife and reviled her and abode his day and his night without speaking to her, during all which while she knew not the cause of his rage. Then she looked and seeing the turband cloth before him and noting the traces of burning thereon, understood that his anger was on account of this and concluded that he was in ill temper because it was burnt. When the morning morrowed, the Draper went out, still wroth with his wife, and the crone returned to her and found her changed of colour, pale of complexion, dejected and heart broken. So she questioned her of the cause, and the wife told her how her husband was angered against her on account of the burns in the turband cloth.[FN#494] Rejoined the old woman, “O my daughter, be not chagrined; for I have a son, a fine drawer, and he, by thy life, shall fine draw the holes and restore the turband cloth as it was.” The wife rejoiced in her saying and asked her, “And when shall this be?” The crone answered, “To morrow, Inshallah--an it please Allah the Most High--I will bring him to thee, at the time of thy husband’s going forth from thee, and he shall fine draw it and depart forthwith.” Then she comforted her heart and going away from her, returned to the young man and acquainted him with what had passed. Now when the Draper saw the turband cloth, he determined to divorce his wife and waited only till he could collect that which was obligatory on him of the contingent dowry and what not else,[FN#495] for fear of her people. When the crone arose in the morning, she took the young man and carried him into the Draper’s house. The wife opened the door to her and the ill omened old woman entered with him and said to the lady, “Go, fetch that which thou wouldest have fine drawn and give it to my son.” So saying, she bolted the door on her, whereupon the young man raped[FN#496] her against her will and did his want of her and went forth. Then cried the crone, “Know that this is my son and that he loved thee with exceeding love and was like to lose his life for longing after thee; so I devised for thee with this device and came to thee with this turband cloth, which is not thy husband’s, but my son’s. Now have I won to my wish; so do thou trust in me and I will put a sleight on thy husband for setting thee right with him, and thou wilt be subject to me and to him and to my son.”[FN#497] And the wife replied, “’Tis well. Do so.” Presently the old woman returned to the lover and said, “Know thou that I have engineered the affair for thee with her; and now we must mend that we have marred. Hie thee and sit with the Draper and mention to him the turband cloth, saying, ‘The turband I bought of thee I chanced to burn in two places; so I gave it to a certain old woman, to have fine drawn, and she took it and went away, and I know not her dwelling place.’[FN#498] When thou seest me pass by, rise and lay hold of me, and demand of me the cloth, to the intent that I may arrange her affair with her spouse and that matters go right with thee in her regard.” Accordingly he repaired to the Draper’s shop and sat down by him and asked him, “Thou knowest the turband cloth I bought of thee?” “Yes.” “Knowest thou what is come of it?” “No.” “After I bought it of thee, I fumigated myself[FN#499] and it fortuned that the turbandcloth was burnt in two places; so I gave it to a woman, whose son, they said, was a fine drawer, and she took it and fared forth with it; and I know not her home.” When the Draper heard this, he was startled by the thought that he had suspected his wife wrongfully, and marvelled at the story of the turband cloth, and his mind was made easy anent her. After a short while up came the old woman, whereupon the young man sprang to his feet and seizing her, demanded of her the turband cloth. Said she, “Know that I entered one of the houses and wuzu’d and prayed in the prayerplace;[FN#500] and I forgot the turband cloth there and went out. Now I weet not the house in which I prayed, nor have I been divinely directed[FN#501] thereto, and I go round about every day till the night, so haply I may light on the dwelling, for I know not its owner.” When the Draper heard these words, he said to the old woman, “Verily, Allah restoreth to thee what thing thou hast lost. Be gladdened by good news, for the turband cloth is with me and in my house.” And he arose forthright and handed to her the turband cloth, as it was, and she handed it to the young man. Then the Draper made peace with his wife and gave her raiment and jewellery, till she was content and her heart was appeased.[FN#502] When the king heard his Chamberlain’s story, he was dazed and amazed and said to him, “Abide on thy service and ear thy field for that the lion entered it, but marred it not, and he will never more return thither.” [FN#503] Then he bestowed on him an honourable robe and made him a costly present; and the man returned to his wife and people, rejoicing, his heart having been set at rest concerning his wife. “Nor” (continued the Wazir), “O King of the age, is this rarer or stranger than the story of the beautiful wife, a woman gifted of amorous grace, with the ugly Man, her husband.” When King Shah Bakht heard the Minister’s speech, he deemed it delectable and it pleased him; so he bade him hie to his house, and there he tarried his day long.