Reading A, Week 5: Arabian Nights

(Arabian Nights from the Untextbook)

Sultan Schahriar had a wife he loved more than anything & he lavished her with things.  He later found out she had deceived him so completely that he had to obey the law of the land & have the grand-vizir put her to death.  He was so upset that he thought all women must be the same, so he would rid the land of as many of them as possible.  Every evening he would marry a new wife & every morning he would have the grand-vizir put them to death.  There was so much sorrow on the land that no one knew how to cope.  The grand-vizir had two daughters himself.  The oldest was Scheherazade and she was very beautiful but also very clever.  Scheherazade went to her father & said that she hoped to end the curse that was on the land and begged her father to let her marry the Sultan.  He was very distraught at this because if she failed, he would have to kill his own daughter.  But she begged & he agreed.  She asked to speak to her younger sister, Dinarzade, to tell her of a plan.  Scheherazade was going to beg that her little sister be allowed to sleep in the same room with them as it was their last night together.  The little sister was to rise an hour before dawn and ask for Scheherazade to tell her one of her charming stories as it was the last time she would ever hear them.  So Scheherazade was married to the Sultan & the plan went as planned.  The Sultan allowed Scheherazade to tell her story.

The first story Scheherazade told was of the Merchant and the Genie (or genius).  She told the story and made it so thrilling, but when she saw that it was daylight & time for the Sultan to begin his day, Dinarzade said what a wonderful story it was.  Scheherazade said it was indeed but the rest was even more thrilling, if only the Sultan would let her live another day to tell the rest.  So the Sultan agreed, wanting to hear the end of the story.  And this went on for days, the Sultana telling a story but not finishing it, while the Sultan allows her another day to finish the story.  The story is of a merchant who accidentally kills the son of a genie.  The genie is going to kill the merchant in revenge for his son's death.  The merchant gets the genie to allow him a year to go say goodbye to his wife & kids and settle his affairs.  So the merchant does all this & at the year mark goes back to the genie to await his fate.  While waiting, he meets 3 old men who find the story fascinating and want to see what will happen.  When the genie returns to kill the merchant, the first old man tells the genie to please wait & let him tell his story & if the genie finds it interesting, he will forgive 1/3 of the merchant's fate.  The genie agrees.

The first old man tells his tale, explaining how the hind (female deer) he has with him is his wife.  His wife couldn't have children so he adopted the son of his favorite slave as his heir.  The wife hated both the boy & his mother and while the old man was away on business she learned magic & turned the mother into a cow & the son into a calf.  The old man came back and wanted a feast.  He said to bring the fattest cow, which was the mother.  The cow shed tears & the man couldn't sacrifice her himself but told his steward to.  When he did, he found the cow to be nothing but skin & bones.  The old man then said to sacrifice a calf instead, and the steward unknowingly brought the calf that was his son.  The calf made the man so sad that he couldn't sacrifice the calf so he had another one brought & sacrificed.  Now the steward's daughter knew magic & upon seeing the calf, she smiled & then wept.  She told her father that she was happy because the calf was the son, but sad because his mother was the cow that had been killed.  The steward told the old man this & he asked the daughter if she could reverse the spell.  She could, but only if she could have the boy as her husband and punish the one responsible.  The old man agreed, but only if she spared his wife's life.  So she brought his son back & turned his wife into the hind.  The son is now a widower & has disappeared so the old man is in search of him, bringing the hind along so no one will harm her.  The genie did like the story & agreed to give him 1/3 of the merchant's fate.  The second old man says that the genie will find his story even more exciting & if so, he will grant him another 1/3 of the merchant's fate.  The genie agrees.

The story of the second old man:  The second old man tells the genie that he & the two black dogs are brothers & when their father died he left them 1000 coins each & they all became merchants.  The oldest brother, one of the dogs, decided to sell all that he had & travel to other countries as a merchant.  He bought the things he needed for the journey.  A year later a beggar showed up at the old man's shop & asked "don't you recognize me, your brother?" When I asked how he did, he said he couldn't tell the tale because it would bring back misery.  So the old man gave his brother a bath, his finest robes, and gave him 1000 coins again because he found that his money had doubled in the year.  The oldest brother accepted and they lived together as before.  The second brother decided then to travel.  The other two brother tried to talk him out of it, but he joined a caravan & after a year returned the same way the eldest brother had.  The old man had made another 1000 coins so he treated this brother the same as the eldest brother and they all went back to living as before.  After a while my two brothers begged me to go on a journey with them.  I refused for 5 years, but finally agreed.  We went to buy what we needed for the journey when I saw that they had no money left.  I had 6,000 coins so I gave them 1,000 each, kept 1,000 for myself and buried the other 3,000 in my house.  We set out on our journey and I met an old beggar woman who convinced me to take her as my wife.  She was so good to me that I fell in love with her.  My brothers were so jealous that one night they threw me & my wife overboard.  But my wife was a fairy in disguise so she saved us.  She was going to kill my brothers in revenge but I begged her to spare them.  So she put me back in my home & shop, turned my brother into dogs & they must stay dogs for 10 years.  She told me where I could find her later.  So I was on the road to find her with my 2 brothers, when I found this merchant & decided to wait & see what happened to him.  Isn't that fascinating, great Genie?  The genie agreed & gave up 1/3 of the merchant's fate.  The 3rd old man told the genie that his story was even more fascinating and if the genie agreed, he should give up the final 1/3 of the merchant's punishment.  The genie agreed and listened to the story & finally spared the merchant's life.  The 3 old men went on their way with the merchant's thanks and the merchant went home to his wife & children.  But Scheherazade didn't know the 3rd man's tale & told her husband that if he thought these were wonderful stories, they were nothing compared to the Story of the Fisherman, if he would only allow her to live another day to hear it.

There was an old poor fisherman who could barely support his wife & 3 children.  Every day he went to fish & had a rule not to throw out his net more than 4 times a day.  The first 3 times the net came back heavy, but with nothing but trash.  He cried out, please don't forsake me an old man before he threw out his net the last time.  This time he brought back a heavy pot, with a lead top & a seal in it.  He thought surely there was something valuable in it, but when he opened it there was nothing but smoke, then he saw a genie come out.  The genie was grateful to be out but as the fisherman asked for his story, the genie threatened to kill the old man.  The fisherman said, but I just freed you, don't you remember?  The genie explained how he was made captive & why he had to kill the fisherman.  The fisherman tricked the genie saying he didn't believe how the genie would even fit in the vase, so the genie went back into it & the fisherman sealed him up saying he would throw him back in the sea with a warning to all other fishermen to not free the genie.  The old man told the genie he wouldn't free him again & told the genie a story.

There were more stories told, taking more days for the Sultan to listen to them, but that is all I'm putting in today's assignment.

Bibliography:  Arabian Nights.  Web link.