Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange (Hardcover Classics)

by Malcolm C (Tr Lyons

  ‘ “When he called my mother she came in and embraced me, starting to complain of her longing for me and telling me that she could not bear to be parted from me. She said that al-Yasar had sworn that if he found her with me he would have her drowned in the sea. ‘I am angry with him,’ I told her; ‘I only see him once a month and I regret what I did.’ ‘Where are your wiles and schemes that can rescue you from this?’ she asked, and I told her that I would see to it straight away.

  ‘ “I gave her a thousand dinars and told her: ‘Go round the whole city and look for some strong poison. Try it out on a dog or a cock, and if it has an instant effect bring it to me, for my release and my life depend on this.’ She took the money and after she had been away for a while she came back with a small jug in which was a phial containing poison and yellow grease. ‘I’ve brought you what you want,’ she told me, and when I asked her what it was she said: ‘I went on through the city until I was directed to a chemist to whom I gave the thousand dinars without telling him who I was and I went on flattering him until he gave me this ointment, which you must put on your hands and feet. The poison only works on the feet, but if you have smeared yourself with the grease it will do you no harm. Sprinkle it wherever you want, and if anyone treads in it bare-footed, it will get into his feet and he will die. So now do what you want.’

  ‘ “I was delighted and I sprinkled a little of the poison by the door of my room and on the carpet. I brought in the steward and made him sit on the king’s bed, so that he would take his shoes off, and I began to eat and drink with him. I then told my mother to go to one of the king’s servant girls and tell her that she had gone to ask about me. She had not found the steward but as the door was open she had suspected that something was not right. So she had kept herself out of sight in order to look in, and she had found him drinking on the bed with me. Filled with concern about this and, maddened by distress and anger, she had been at a loss for words and so had told this to the girl. I went on: ‘If the girl asks you what she should do about the steward, tell her that you don’t know. She envies and hates me and so she will go off and tell the king, and, if he comes, the trick I have planned against him will succeed.’

  ‘ “My mother went off and did what I had told her, after which the servant girl hurried to tell the king. He got up in a fit of jealous rage to run to my room bare-footed and tripping over the skirt of his robe, brandishing a drawn sword. When he reached the door and saw the steward sitting beside me, he believed what he had been told about me. He lost control of himself and told the steward to get up and leave. When the man did, his legs collapsed and immediately afterwards the king trod on the poison and collapsed without a word. My old mother had followed him to stop him from coming in to me and she too stepped in the poison and fell dead.

  ‘ “I had smeared on the ointment and I left in disguise, only to be met on the road by a coal-black slave who had been one of my father’s servants and who knew me. He was living alone and he took me to his house, where I stayed in hiding. News that al-Yasar had been killed had spread through the city. He had been succeeded by his young son, who was twelve years old, but then suddenly my former husband, al-Yasr, had put in an appearance with a band of supporters. He had fought against the youngster whose father I had killed and after many had fallen he won control of the kingdom, taking his place on the throne. He then proclaimed a general pardon, and the city settled down, with the people content to obey his orders.

  ‘ “He then ordered it to be proclaimed that whoever brought me to him could have whatever he wanted, and he made an energetic search for me in many places. For my part, I stayed with the black man for ten days, during which he never left me, night or day. This vexed me; I lost patience and wanted to free myself from him. One day I left him sleeping and went around the house, where I found a rope. I took this and put it round his neck without him noticing it in his drunken sleep. I started to choke him and, sensing this, he woke and shouted for help, drumming his heels, while I tightened the noose until he died.

  ‘ “The neighbours had heard his cry and they burst in to find him dead, with me sitting weeping and wailing for him. ‘By the Lord of the Ka‘ba,’ they exclaimed, ‘this is ‘Arus al-‘Ara’is!’ After this they took hold of me and, leaving the dead man where he was, they brought me to al-Yasr. When he saw me he prostrated himself to God, before smiling at me and saying: ‘ ‘Arus al-‘Ara’is, you are beautiful and desirable, but the blessings of this world are more attractive than you.’

  ‘ “He immediately summoned carpenters and told them to make him a big chest, which was to be lined inside and out with pitch. The townspeople knew about me and were eager to blame him, saying: ‘O king, if you take ‘Arus al-‘Ara’is back into your palace, we shall no longer obey you, for since the day she was born we have seen no good from her but only trouble and care.’ He told them not to worry, adding: ‘I swore that if she fell into my hands I would not spare her life and I shall throw her into the sea. Whoever wants to watch can come to the shore.’

  ‘ “He brought out the chest, put me into it and locked it, after which he had me carried to the shore and every single person in the city came out to watch, setting up canopies to shield them from the heat. I was put on board a boat which sailed ten parasangs away from the city, after which the crew threw me into the sea and went back. I could not move in the box and the waves tossed it to and fro until they brought me to this green sea. It was there that the black jinni whom I killed came across it and he dragged it to the shore, without knowing what was in it.

  ‘ “When he had opened it he took me out and was astonished by my beauty. He muttered words that I could not understand, before leaving me and going off. Some time later he came back with a large quantity of delicious fruits of all kinds, the like of which I had never tasted or seen. There was also a fat ram which he slaughtered with a knife and whose flesh he cut up and cooked after starting a fire. He fed me and I ate until I was full and I drank water after which he started to dally and play with me until he fell on top of me and I let him take me.

  ‘ “For a time I stayed on the island with him, and then one day he brought this glass chest. He put me in it and fastened it shut, after which he threw me into the sea and started to take me round the seas and islands with him, showing me remarkable sights and wonders. I could understand what he said, as he spoke and acted like a human, and one day he sat telling me about the wonders of the sea and what was in the islands. He told me that on a certain island there was a huge quantity of red sand which, when the sun rose over it, turned to fire that would burn any creature that passed. When I heard this, it made me want to burn up my city and everyone in it.

  ‘ “For some days I changed my behaviour towards the jinni and scowled at him, although before that we had been on friendly terms and I had been in the habit of flirting with him and showing affection. He said: ‘Light of my eyes, why is it that I see you frowning at me and acting differently? I have not been used to this, and if there is something that you want or need, tell me and don’t hide it, for I shall get you whatever you want.’

  ‘ “ ‘I have been thinking of my cousin and how badly he treated me,’ I told him, ‘as well as how all the people of my city came together to have me thrown into the sea in the chest from which you rescued me. I want to pay them back for the evil that they did.’ ‘What do you want?’ he said, and I told him: ‘Fill this chest with the sand that you talked about and then shut it. You and I can climb to the top of the mountain beside the city and we can then scatter the sand over it all at night when the people are asleep. Next morning when the sun gets hot they will all be burned, and no single one of them will survive.’

  ‘ “He exclaimed disapprovingly: ‘There will be good people amongst them as well as children and old men, together with beasts.’ ‘They are evil,’ I told him, ‘and this has to be done if I am ever going to love you again. There is no one there that I think about or worry about.’ After a time he raised his head and told
me that I could be happy again, as he would do it.

  ‘ “He left me for a time and then came back with the chest filled with sand. ‘Get up, lady,’ he said, ‘for I have done what you wanted.’ Together we went to the city, arriving there at night, and we scattered all the sand that we had over it, until we had done everything that we wanted. Next morning when the sun rose and it began to get hot the fire spread through the city and burned it all, as we sat watching on the mountain. ‘Now I am happy and satisfied,’ I said, and I came back here filled with joy and contentment.

  ‘ “The jinni was in the habit of leaving me on the island and going off around the seas and the other islands to tell me about them. When I had no one and nothing to see I would often become discontented and so I used to go for walks. One day, when the jinni had gone off and I was doing this, I came across a weeping man with torn clothes standing by the sea shore. He was young and handsome, and I went up to him and greeted him. ‘What has happened to you?’ I asked, ‘and how do you come to be here? Tell me the truth and don’t hide anything from me, for I am a human like you.’

  ‘ “When he heard this, his fears were calmed, and he said: ‘Yesterday I was on board a ship which was carrying many merchants on their way from China. I fell asleep near the ship’s side and this morning I found myself here. What happened or how I came here I don’t know, and, as you can see, I am filled with dismay.’ I told him to relax and have no fear, adding that I had a jinni friend with whom I lived, but I would not tell him about the castaway or where he was and I would try to find a place on the high ground where he and I could stay eating and drinking while the jinni was away, until God released us both.

  ‘ “He calmed down and was happy as I took him by the hand and showed him the spring, bringing him quantities of fruit and grilled fish. He ate and drank, after which he regained his spirits and asked me to lie with him, which, to his delight, I agreed to do. I hid him in a particular spot on the island, where I used to visit him.

  ‘ “Later when I was eating and drinking with the jinni and I was toying with him, I told him that I had a question for him, and when he asked what it was I said: ‘A young servant of mine was sitting near the side of a ship at sea and one night he was snatched away. I don’t know how this was or who did it, but after a time he came back safe and sound. Do you know of anyone who was carried off from a ship without knowing how?’ ‘Yes,’ he said; ‘he must have been taken by a bear-like creature called a mibqar, which comes up to ships when they are under way with their sails set. It swims alongside and, before anyone can detect it, it seizes any sleeping young man, putting its arms beneath his spine without his noticing. It then transfers him, sunk in sleep, to its back and takes him to an island. It goes to another beast like an ape, which comes to the man while he is still asleep and kills him as best it can, cutting his throat and drinking his blood. After eating his flesh it buries him in the sand. It must have been this beast that removed your servant, although he managed to escape.’

  ‘ “One day, when the jinni had gone off, I went to the young man and ate and drank with him, but while we were enjoying the greatest pleasure, I heard the sound of the jinni muttering as he came towards the place where I was, looking for me. I was afraid lest he come and disapprove of my being there so I told the young man to shelter in an overgrown spot that the jinni would find impenetrable. Then I went to the jinni, exclaiming: ‘Oh my eyes!’ and pretending to have just woken up. I was trembling with fear, as he didn’t believe that I had been asleep there, and so he prowled around. He got to where the young man had taken shelter but when he found that he could not get in to search it he came back and walked around me for a time before leaving.

  ‘ “I felt sure in my heart that he had gone to fetch fire to set the place alight – as in fact he did – but meanwhile I had called to the young man, who had come out in a state of fright. I showed him the way that would take him to the furthest point of the island, telling him to hurry off and hide himself there before the jinni returned. Soon after he had gone the jinni came back holding something coloured like resin that I didn’t recognize. When he set it alight it blazed up like sulphur, and, in spite of the fact that the thicket was damp, I was amazed at how in no time at all it had caught fire. ‘What is this fire?’ I asked, and he told me that he had become suspicious of me when he saw me sleeping here. ‘I shall sleep with you by the spring,’ I told him, and he kissed my head, my eye and my body, offering an excuse, which I accepted.

  ‘ “For some days I stayed with him but when he left I would go off to the young man and eat and drink with him. Then one day, when the jinni was away and I had gone to visit the young man, I found him lying under a tree at the end of the island. His face was black and his nose, lips, ears and penis had been cut off. He was weeping and wailing, and when I asked him what had happened he said: ‘Lady, when you left me these last days I was lonely and felt sad. One night I climbed this tree and fell asleep until the moon rose and the stars came out. Just then out of the sea emerged the most beautiful girl. She was fair-complexioned with small eyes and ears that were almost invisible. She had no fingers and no buttocks while her hair was softer than silk. I stared at her in astonishment as she played on the shore, singing in a lovely voice words that I could not understand and dancing most beautifully. Then she came under my tree and threw herself down, stretching out to sleep. When she was quite still, I was overcome by a lustful urge to lie with her, so I climbed down and threw myself on top of her as she slept. She woke up and began to struggle violently, hissing in my face like a cat. So strongly did she struggle that I could not satisfy my lust, and she slipped from my hands like a fish from the hand of a fisherman, but in spite of this I had managed to take her by force before she finally escaped me and dived into the sea.

  ‘ “ ‘In the morning I was filled with passionate regret that she had managed to get away and I spent the day filled with sorrowful thoughts, finding no pleasure in food or drink. Yesterday, however, before I knew it, there she was again, doing what she had done on the first night and going to sleep under the tree. I told myself that if she had not liked what I had done before, she would not have come back, and I had no doubt that this night she would let me lie with her.

  ‘ “ ‘My lust increased, stirred up by Iblis, and I climbed down and approached her, only to have her seize hold of me and call out, at which some twenty others like her emerged from the sea. They surrounded me and began to beat me until I fainted. Then each of them started to bite me. One ate my right ear and another my left; the very first one ate my testicles and another my nose, after which they all dived into the sea and went off, leaving me here in the state you can see.’

  ‘ “I was furiously angry with him for having betrayed me by lusting for someone else, so I left him without a word and went back filled with evil thoughts. When the jinni returned I told him where the man was and incited him to kill him. ‘Let me take him back to civilization and return him to his own country,’ said the jinni, but I told him that he had tried to rape me. This infuriated the jinni, who went to him and, taking him by his feet and his clothes, hurled him into the sea.

  ‘ “While I was staying with the jinni, one day, when he was sitting and telling me about the marvels of the sea and its islands, he told me about a bird like a swift whose excrement if applied to the eyes would produce instant blindness, while on another island was a tree whose fruit, if eaten by a woman, would cause her to give birth to a son. He told me of herbs that would harm men and others that would help against every illness, of a type of kohl that would clear the sight and another that would blind it.

  ‘ “I was astonished by what I heard and I was impressed by what he told me. I wanted to see the island and its marvellous plants so that I could take them with me when I went back to civilized lands, but when I told him that I wanted him to take me there he exclaimed in horror, telling me that a marid who lived there was his enemy. He could not go to the marid’s island and neither could the marid c
ome to his without his knowledge. ‘Are you afraid?’ I asked him, adding: ‘I have almost given up faith in you.’ I went on pestering him until he put me in the glass box and set off on the sea with me.

  ‘ “I asked him how the box was made and how it was that when it was shut no one knew how to open it. He agreed to tell me and said: ‘There was a king called al-Hulaifi‘, the son of al-Munkadir, who had a profound knowledge of the wonders of magic. He wanted to build a coastal city for himself but, for all the time he spent on it, whatever he put up by day lay in ruins in the morning. He did not know what to do and was plunged in grief. Then, as he spent a night by the shore, he caught sight of variously coloured creatures, some with human faces and bodies like fish, some with heads like bulls and bodies like donkeys and some with heads like pigs and hands like men. Some resembled elephants with heads of snakes and others were like men but had only one leg and tails like sheep. When they ran, nothing could catch them. It was God alone who could count how many of these there were. The king saw them coming out of the sea and going round the buildings, removing stone after stone and throwing them into the sea until there was nothing left.

  ‘ “ ‘When he saw this he realized what was wrong and he remained keeping a cautious watch until he managed to catch a mermaid. He treated her gently and with courtesy, doing her no harm but asking her about the beasts he had seen and how he could get rid of them. She agreed to tell him how to do this in return for her freedom. The king, however, did not understand enough of her language and so he summoned a servant of his who had been sent to him as a present from the Indian islands. He asked the man whether he knew this type of creature and when the man said that he did, as there were many of them in his own country, the king asked if he understood what the mermaid was saying.

  ‘ “ ‘The man said: “She is telling you to make twenty glass chests, each containing the likeness of an owl. Put them in the sea, and when the creatures see them they will flee from them and not return.” The king was surprised by this but he released the mermaid and when he had done what she said he never saw the creatures coming back again. He finished building his city, which is still there to this day and is known as Alexandria.’ In the course of his wanderings amongst the seas and the islands my jinni found one of these boxes and removed the owl from it. This is it and he used to put me in it and take me round with him wherever he went.