Part 112

As soon as the princess got into the house, she called for the head cook; and after she had given him directions about the entertainment for the sultan, she said to him, Besides all this you must dress an extraordinary dish for the sultan’s own eating, which nobody else must have any thing to do with besides yourself. This dish must be of cucumbers stuffed with these pearls; and at the same time she opened the box, and showed him the pearls.

The chief cook, who had never heard of such a dish, started back, and showed by his looks his thoughts; which the princess penetrating into, said, I see you take me to be mad to order such a dish, which you never heard of, and which one may say with certainty was never made. I know this as well as you; but I am not mad, and give you these orders with the most perfect recollection. You must go and invent and do the best you can, and bring me back what pearls are left. The cook could make no reply, but took the box and went away with it: and afterwards the princess gave directions to all the servants to have every thing in order, both in the house and gardens, to receive the sultan.

Next day the two princes went to the place appointed; and as soon as the sultan of Persia came, the chase began, which lasted till the heat of the sun obliged him to leave off. While prince Bahman stayed to conduct the sultan to their house, prince Perviz rode before to show the way, and when he came in sight of the house, spurred his horse, to inform the princess Parizade that the sultan was coming; but she had been told by some servants whom she placed to give notice before, and the prince found her waiting ready to receive him.

When the sultan entered the court-yard, and alighted at the portico, the princess Parizade came and threw herself at his feet, and the two princes informed him she was their sister, and besought him to accept of her respects.

The sultan stooped to help her up, and after he had gazed some time on her beauty, and, struck with her good person, noble air, and a _je ne scai quoi_, which seemed different from the country where she lived, he said, The brothers are worthy of the sister, and she worthy of them; and to judge of her understanding by her person, I am not amazed that the brothers would do nothing without their sister’s consent; but, added he, I hope to be better acquainted with you, madam, after I have seen the house.

Sir, said the princess, it is only a plain country-house, fit for such people as we are, who live retired from the great world. It is not to be compared with houses in great cities, much less with magnificent palaces of sultans. I cannot perfectly agree with you in opinion, said the sultan, very obligingly, for its first appearance makes me suspect you; however, I will not pass my judgment upon it till I have seen it all; therefore be pleased to conduct me through the apartments.

The princess led the sultan through all the rooms but the hall; and, after he had considered them all very attentively, and admired their variety, My fair one, said he to the princess Parizade, do you call this a country-house? The finest and largest cities would soon be deserted, if all country-houses were like yours. I am no longer surprised that you take so much delight in it, and despise the town. Now let me see the garden, which I doubt not is answerable to the house.

The princess opened a door which led into the garden; and the first object that presented itself to the sultan’s view was the golden fountain. Surprised at so rare a sight, he asked from whence came that wonderful water, which gave so much pleasure to behold; where was its source? and by what art it was made to play so high, that he thought nothing in the world was to be compared to it? He said he would presently take a nearer view of it.

Then the princess led him to the spot where the harmonious tree was planted; and there the sultan heard a concert, which was different from all the concerts he had ever heard in his life: and stopping to see where the musicians were, he could discern nobody far nor near; but still distinctly heard the music, which ravished his senses. My fair one, said he, to the princess Parizade, where are the musicians whom I hear? Are they under ground, or invisible in the air? Such excellent, charming voices, will hazard nothing by being seen; on the contrary, they would please the more.

Sir, answered the princess smiling, it is not musicians, but the tree your majesty sees before you, which forms this concert; and if you will give yourself the trouble to go a little nearer to it, you will not doubt it, and the voices will be the more distinct.

The sultan went nearer, and was so charmed with the sweet harmony, that he would never have been tired with hearing it, but that his desire to have a nearer view of the fountain of yellow water forced him away. Fair one, said he, tell me, I pray you, whether this wonderful tree was found in your garden by chance, or if it was a present made to you, or have you procured it from some foreign country? It must certainly have come a great way off, otherwise, curious as I am after natural rarities, I should have heard of it. What name do you call it by?

Sir, replied the princess, this tree has no other name than that of the singing tree, and is not a native of this country. It will be too long to tell you by what adventures it came here; its history is connected with the yellow water and the speaking bird, which came to me at the same time, and which your majesty may see after you have taken a nearer view of the golden water. But if it be agreeable to your majesty, after you have rested yourself, and recovered the fatigue of hunting, which must be the greater because of the sun’s intense heat, I will do myself the honour of relating it to you.

My fair one, replied the sultan, my fatigue is so well recompensed by the wonderful things you have shown me, that I do not feel it in the least. I think only of the trouble I give you. Let us finish by seeing the yellow water. I am impatient to see and admire the speaking bird.

When the sultan came to the yellow water, his eyes were fixed so stedfastly upon the fountain, that he could not take them off. At last, addressing himself to the princess, he said, As you tell me, fair one, that this water has no spring or communication hereabouts, by any means whatsoever, I conclude that it is foreign, as well as the singing tree.

Sir, replied the princess, it is as your majesty says; and to let you know that this water has no communication with any spring, I must inform you, that the basin is one entire stone, so that the water cannot come in at the sides or underneath. But what your majesty will think most wonderful is, that all this water proceeded but from one flagon, which I emptied into this basin, which increased of itself to the quantity you see, by a property peculiar to itself, and formed this fountain. Well, said the sultan, going from the fountain, this is enough for one time. I promise myself the pleasure to come and visit it very often; but now let us go and see the speaking bird.

As he went towards the hall, the sultan perceived a prodigious number of singing birds in the trees thereabouts, (filling the air with their songs and warblings,) and asked why there were so many there, and none on the other trees in the garden? The reason, sir, answered the princess, is, because they come from all parts around to accompany the song of the speaking bird, which your majesty may perceive in a cage on one of the windows of the hall we are going into; and if you attend, you will perceive that his notes are sweeter than those of all the other birds, even the nightingale’s.

The sultan went into the hall; and as the bird continued singing, the princess raised her voice, and said, My slave, here is the sultan; pay your compliments to him. The bird left off singing that instant, and all the other birds ceased alternately, and said, The sultan is welcome here: God prosper him, and prolong his life! As the entertainment was served on the sofa near the window where the bird was, the sultan replied, as he was sitting down at the table, Bird, I thank you, and I am overjoyed to find in you the sultan and king of birds.

As soon as the sultan saw the dish of cucumbers set before him, thinking it was stuffed in the best manner, he reached out his hand and took one; but when he cut it, he was in an extreme surprise to find it dressed with pearls. What novelty is this? said he; and with what design were these cucumbers stuffed thus with pearls, since pearls are not to be eaten? Then he looked at the two princes and princess, to ask them the meaning of it: when the bird, interrupting him, said, Can your majesty be in so great astonishment at cucumbers stuffed with pearls, which you see with your own eyes, and yet could so easily believe that the sultaness your wife was delivered of a dog, a cat, and a piece of wood? I believed it, replied the sultan, because the midwives assured me of it. Those midwives, sir, replied the bird, were the sultaness’s two sisters, who, envious of her happiness in being preferred by your majesty before them, to satisfy their envy and revenge, have abused your majesty so easily. If you interrogate them, they will confess their crime. The two brothers and the sister whom you see before you, are your own children, whom they exposed, and who were taken in by the intendant of your gardens, who provided nurses for them, and took care of their education.

This discourse of the bird’s presently cleared up the sultan’s understanding. Bird, cried he, I easily believe the truth which you discover to me. The inclination which drew me to them, and the tenderness I have always had for them, told me but too plainly they are my own blood. Come then, my children, come, my daughter, let me embrace you, and give you the first marks of a father’s love and tenderness. Then he rose up, and after having embraced the two princes and the princess, and mingled his tears with theirs, he said, It is not enough, my children; you must embrace each other, not as the children of the intendant of my gardens, to whom I have been very much obliged for preserving your lives, but as my own children, of the royal blood of the sultans of Persia, whose glory, I am persuaded, you will maintain.

After the two princes and princess had embraced each other mutually with new satisfaction, the sultan sat down to table again with them, and finished his meal in haste; and when he had done, he said, My children, you see in me your father: tomorrow I will bring the sultaness your mother, therefore prepare to receive her.

Afterwards the sultan mounted his horse, and returned in all haste to his capital. The first thing he did, as soon as he alighted and entered his palace, was to command the grand vizier to try the sultaness’s two sisters. They were taken from their houses separately, convicted, and condemned to be quartered; which sentence was put into execution within an hour.

In the mean time, the sultan Khosrouschah, followed by all the lords of his court who were then present, went on foot to the door of the great mosque; and after he had taken the sultaness out of the strict confinement she had languished under for so many years, embracing her in the miserable condition she was then in, he said to her with tears in his eyes, I come, madam, to ask your pardon for the injustice I have done you, and to make you the reparation I ought to do; which I have begun, by punishing the persons who put the abominable cheat upon me; and I hope you will look upon it as complete, when I present to you two accomplished princes, and a charming lovely princess, our children. Come and resume your former rank, with all the honours which are your due. All this was done and said before great crowds of people, who flocked from all parts at the first news of what was passing, and immediately spread the news through the town.

Next morning early, the sultan and sultaness, whose mournful humiliating dress was changed into magnificent robes suitable to her, went with all their court to the house built by the intendant of the gardens, where the sultan presented the princes Bahman and Perviz, and the princess Parizade, to the sultaness. These, madam, said he, are the two princes your sons, and this princess your daughter; embrace them with the same tenderness I have done, since they are worthy both of me and you. The tears flowed plentifully down their cheeks at these tender embraces, especially the sultaness’s, for the comfort and joy of having two such princes for her sons, and such a princess for her daughter, on whose accounts she had endured such afflictions so long.

The two princes and the princess had prepared a magnificent repast for the sultan and sultaness, and their court. As soon as that was over, the sultan led the sultaness into the garden, and showed her the harmonious tree and the beautiful effect of the yellow fountain. As for the bird, she had seen him in his cage, and the sultan had spared no panegyric in his praise during the repast.

When there was nothing to detain the sultan any longer, he took horse again, and with the princes Bahman and Perviz on his right and left hand, and the sultaness and the princess at his left, preceded and followed by all the officers of his court, according to their rank, returned to his capital. Crowds of people came out to meet them, and with acclamations of joy ushered them into the city, where all eyes were fixed not only upon the sultaness, the two princes, and the princess, but also upon the bird, which the princess carried before her in his cage, admiring his sweet notes, which had drawn all the other birds about him, which followed him, flying from tree to tree in the country, and from one house-top to another in the city. The princes Bahman and Perviz, and the princess Parizade, were at length brought to the palace with this pomp, and nothing was to be seen or heard all that night but illuminations and rejoicings both in the palace and in the utmost parts of the city, which lasted many days.

The sultan of the Indies could not but admire the prodigious and inexhaustible memory of the sultaness his wife, who had entertained him so many nights with so many different stories.

A thousand and one nights had passed away in those innocent amusements, which contributed so much towards removing the sultan’s unhappy prejudice against the fidelity of women. His temper was softened. He was convinced of the merit and great wisdom of the sultaness Scheherazade. He remembered with what courage she exposed herself voluntarily to be his wife, without fearing the death to which she knew she subjected herself, as the many sultanesses did before her.

These considerations, and the many other good qualities he knew her to be mistress of, induced him at last to forgive her. I see, lovely Scheherazade, said he, that you can never be at a loss for this sort of little stories which have so long diverted me. You have appeased my anger. I freely renounce, in your favour, the cruel law I had imposed on myself. I restore you completely to my favour, and will have you be looked upon as the deliverer of the many damsels I had resolved to have sacrificed to my unjust resentment.

The sultaness cast herself at his feet, and embraced them tenderly with all the marks of the most lively and perfect gratitude.

The grand vizier was the first that learned this agreeable news from the sultan’s own mouth. It presently was carried to the city, towns, and provinces; and gained the sultan, and the lovely Scheherazade, his consort, universal applause, and the blessings of all the people of the large empire of the Indies.

THE END

Footnotes:

[1] This game is played on horseback.

[2] This introduction is not in the last French edition.

[3] A sort of Mahometan Monks.

[4] It is remarkable that the names of “Sindbad” and “Hindbad” are both derived from the old Persian language. “Bad” signifies a city; “Sind” and “Hind” are the territories on either side of the Indus. “Sind,” indeed, is its original name, but “Hind” is of those countries which lie betwixt it and the Ganges. --Hole

[5] A port in the Persian gulf.

[6] These islands, according to the Arabians, are beyond China, and are so called from a tree which bears a fruit of that name. They are, without doubt, the isles of Japan; which are not, however, far from Abyssinia.

[7] Mr. Hole, p. 27, says this is probably one of the three islands near Ceylon, called Ilhas de Cavalos, from the wild horses, to which the Dutch annually send mares to improve the breed. --Wolf’s Account of Ceylon; but p. 256 he alters his opinion.

[8] We meet with king Mihrage in the accounts of India and China by two Mahomedan travellers in the ninth century, and the island of Zapage, and the Friendly Islands, answers to Borneo. --Hole.

[9] The same in one of the islands of Eolus. Perhaps the roaring of the waves among the rocks. --Hole. Like the cave in Britain, mentioned by Clemens Alexandrinus, where the wind produced a sound as of cymbals.

[10] Degial, with the Mahometans, is the same as Antichrist with us. According to them, he is to appear about the end of the world, and will conquer all the earth, except Mecca, Medina, Tarsus, and Jerusalem, which are to be preserved by angels which he shall set round them.

[11] The sea serpents on the Malabar coast. --Hole.

[12] Martini mentions fishes with birds’ faces in the China seas. --Hole.

[13] The Turkish sequin is about nine shillings sterling.

[14] Marco Paolo, in his Travels, and Father Martini, in his History of China, speak of this bird called “Ruch,” and say it will take up an elephant and a rhinoceros. See also Vigafetto, in Ramusio’s Collection of Voyages, 1369. The combat between eagles and elephants is to be found in Pliny, Solinus, and Diodorus Siculus. --Hole.

[15] Of serpents devoured by eagles, see Marco Paolo, hereafter cited. --Hole.

[16] Epiphanius, in a treatise on the twelve stones in the Jewish high priest’s breast-plate, tells a like story of the Jacinths in the deserts of Scythia. Marco Paolo places it beyond Malabar, in a situation which would suit Golconda. See also Benjamin of Tudela, who travelled between 1160 and 1173. --Hole.

[17] Ptolemy places the island of Satyrs, inhabited by cannibals, to the eastward of the island of Sunda. --Hole.

[18] These are described by William de Rubruquis, 1253, and supposed to be apes. --Hole.

[19] The long-eared people, mentioned by Strabo and Pliny, vii. 2; and Marsden’s History of Sumatra, p. 47. --Hole.

[20] Without going back to the Cyclops in the ninth book of the Odyssey, Sir John Mandeville will furnish such one-eyed giants in one of the Indian islands. --Hole.

[21] It would seem the Arabian author has taken this story from Homer’s Odyssey.

[22] Possibly Timor, which Linschoten celebrates for its woods and wildernesses of sanders. Purchas’ Pilgrims, ii. p. 1784. --Hole.

[23] Ellian, Hist. An. xvi. 16. describes tortoises fifteen cubits long, the shells big enough to cover a house; and Mandeville says three men might hide under them in the island of Calonah, not far from Java. --Hole.

[24] The hippopotamus.

[25] The manatre.

[26] In the sea of Andaman, or bay of Bengal, the Mahometan travellers, in the ninth century, mention negro cannibals. Ptolemy places them in the same bay in the Nicobar island. -- Hole.

[27] The lotus of Homer’s Odyssey, the intoxicating “seed” of Sumatra, mentioned by Davis, 1597; and the herb “dutroa” of Linschoten, or “dutro” of Lobo: “dutry” and “bung,” or “bang,” of Fryer. --Hole.

[28] Sunda islands and Sumatra produce plenty of pepper and cocoa-nuts. -- Hole.

[29] Mandeville mentions the burying the wives alive with the dead husband, in the island of Calanack; and Jerom, the husband with the wives in Scythia. --Hole.

[30] He was a Mahometan, and they allow polygamy.

[31] See the escape of Aristomenes, in his life by Rowe. --Hole.

[32] Now Ceylon. Serendib is Ceylon, and Kela is Cala or Calabar, where the Arabians touched in their way to China; so that it must have been somewhere about the point of Malabar. --Renaudot.

[33] Sugar-canes, or bamboo trees.

[34] Bochart (Hieroz, vol. ii. p. 854) tells a story exactly similar, from Demur or Damur an Arabian writer, who died in 1405.

[35] An ourang-outang. --Hole.

[36] Grapes grow in the isles of Banda. Hain’s Collect. i. 464. --Hole.

[37] In the straits of Sunda. --Hole.

[38] This island, or peninsula, ends at the cape which we now call cape Comorin. It is also called Comar, and Camor. The Mahometan travellers say the king of Comar (whence they bring aloes) was subdued by Mihrage. The inhabitants are very virtuous, and debauchery with women, and the use of wine, are forbidden them. Accounts of India and China, p. 63.

[39] There still is, and has been from time immemorial, a pearl fishery in the neighbourhood of cape Comorin. See Marco Paolo. --Hole.

[40] Mr. Ives mentions wells of fresh water under the sea in the Persian gulf, near the island of Barien. --Hole.

[41] Such fountains are not unfrequent in India and Ceylon, and the Mahometan travellers speak of ambergris swallowed by whales, who are made sick by, and regorge it. --Hole.

[42] Ceylon.

[43] Geographers place it on this side the line, in the first climate. Diodorus Siculus, and Ptolemy, place it in the same island as Sindbad, though not the true one.

[44] The eastern geographers made a parasang longer than a French league.

[45] Knox and Wolf confirm this account of the situation of Ceylon, and the productions of its mountains. Pico d’Adam is the high mountain here described.

[46] Yellow vellum, or the skin of the hog deer, from Prince’s Island, in the straits of Sunda. The elephants, rubies, &c. are illustrated by Mr. Hole.

[47] Ceylon is known to produce large rubies, and the Indian ocean abounds in pearls of extraordinary size. --Hole.

[48] There is a snake in Bengal, whose skin is esteemed a cure for external pains, by applying it to the part affected. --Hole.

[49] Solomon.

[50] An ancient king of a great island of the same name in the Indies, and very much famed among the Arabians for his power and wisdom.

[51] A port on the Red Sea.

[52] A town of Arabia.

[53] A regular wind that blows six months from the east, and as many from the west.

[54] This is the last interruption the stories will receive by being divided into portions related on successive nights. The reader is therefore to suppose that Scheherazade now continues speaking without being interrupted.

[55] The Bermecides were a family that came out of Persia, and of them the grand vizier was descended.

[56] This word signifies in Arabic, Basilick, an odoriferous plant: and the Arabians call their slaves by this name, as the custom in France is to give the name of Jessamin to a footman.

[57] Nourreddin signifies in Arabic the light of religion.

[58] Bedreddin signifies the full moon of religion.

[59] That is to say, the sun of religion.

[60] All the eastern nations lie in their drawers, but this circumstance will stand him in stead in the sequel of the story.

[61] The town of Moussoul is in Mesopotamia, built over against old Nineveh.

[62] This word in Arabic signifies wonderful.

[63] That is, of the caliphs that reigned after the four first successors of Mahomet, and were so named from one of their ancestors, whose name was Ommiah.

[64] This prayer is always said two hours and a half before sun-set.

[65] The Mahometans having a custom of washing their hands five times a day, when they go to prayers, they reckon they have no occasion to wash before eating, but they always wash after eating, because they eat without forks.

[66] This is done all over the Levant, for making their drink cool.

[67] The Mahometans give this name generally to the black eunuchs.