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

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Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange (Hardcover Classics) Page 52

by Malcolm C (Tr Lyons


  With him there was a beautiful gazelle that he had caught the first time he went hunting with Mahliya and which he had admired so much that he had kept it near him. When he was alone with his grief and his unbroken sorrows, the gazelle began to shed tears and moan, attracting his attention and astonishment. In the morning he sent for one of the priests of Baal and when the man came he said: ‘Look at this gazelle. I have seen something that alarmed me, for when something happened to me last night that made me cry, I saw it shedding tears to match mine.’ The priest said: ‘This is a human woman who is under a spell. Hers is a remarkable story, and I see that she will bring you great joy. If Your Majesty orders me to release her so that he may learn what she knows, I shall do it.’ ‘I should like that,’ said Mauhub, and the priest said something in a low voice, after which the gazelle shivered and became a lovely girl, whose beauty vied with the sun and put the moon to shame. Mauhub gave her something with which to cover herself and then started to ask her about herself and what had happened to her.

  She said: ‘Great King Mauhub, know that this a marvellous affair and that my story is long, remarkable and strange, and I shall tell it to you so that you may learn from it and take pleasure in it. I am a woman of the stock of the old kings of Persia. My name is Haifa’, and I am the daughter of Jairun al-Mushawir, a king of Persia, handsome, a skilled horseman and a man both powerful and eloquent. I was his only child, and because of his love for me he built me a palace beside his own, filling it with furnishings and curtains. He made a garden for it in which he let loose various kinds of wild beasts and birds, causing streams to flow through it. He placed me there with a trustworthy nurse and he would send me all kinds of food and drink, but I would only see him once a year.

  ‘When I reached maturity, I found myself inspired to act slyly and I was attracted to obscenity, as the power of destiny encircled me. I went to the castle wall on the garden side and removed a stone so that I could look out. I was amazed at what I saw of the gardens, because I had thought that I and my nurse were alone in the world. After a time while I was watching I caught sight of a most beautiful gazelle. I had never seen anything like it in the palace. It had dark eyes with golden pupils, white patches on its legs and coloured horns that were like branches. It stopped opposite me as I admired it, and while I kept looking I called to my nurse and showed it to her. She too admired it, and I asked her to find some way of catching it, and she went down, stopped it and then took hold of it and brought it to me. I held it joyfully and fed it on husked sesame seeds dipped in honey, and I mixed milk and wine for it. I devoted all my attention to it, and, while I never stopped looking at it, it never stopped looking at me.

  ‘While I was sitting one day, the gazelle shivered violently and then appeared to me as a handsome young man. He looked at me, and I was startled and alarmed by his appearance, and he then came up speaking to me in pure, pleasant language that was sweeter than honey and softer than butter. “Don’t be afraid, delight of my eyes and goal of my hopes,” he said, “for you should know that I am a prince of the jinn who appear in the guise of gazelles, looking at this and that as we wander through desert wastes, and we enjoy ourselves in orchards and at the sight of lovely faces without arousing any suspicions. I have been living for some time in your garden and I saw you looking out like a branch of the ban tree or a shoot of sweet basil. I stayed bemused by love, looking at you again and again without your knowledge until love for you got the better of me and as my love-sickness increased I presented myself to you. I am known as the white-footed gazelle.”

  ‘He came forward, kissing my feet and sucking at them, and, by God, he made a great impression on my heart, attaching himself to it and taking over my hearing and my sight. I said: “Prince, I have fallen in love with you this instant, but my father is a giant who acts like a pharaoh, and I fear both for myself and for you.” “Lady,” he replied, “do not be sad but take comfort and consolation. I shall not ask you to do anything wrong, as my only concern is to look at you and enjoy your friendship. At night I shall be with you in my own shape but when morning comes I shall go back to being a gazelle. We can enjoy ourselves and play without anyone knowing.”

  ‘I set aside a pleasant room for him in my quarters and at nightfall I would go there with him and lock the door on us both. He would show himself to me in the most handsome of shapes, and we would eat and drink, enjoying recitations of poetry and marvellous conversation. He would tell me about pleasant things and sing jinn songs, before lying down on my bed. We would embrace each other and renew our covenant, swearing that neither of us would betray the other or take any substitute. We were swimming in an ocean of love and following one another in its pleasure and in the enjoyment of its sweetness, with no fear of hostile fate or of observant eyes. We were two matching branches or two shoots of sweet basil, doing nothing evil to arouse suspicion, and our love could not be crushed until treacherous Time put us to the test.

  ‘One night after we had been drinking we lay down for a healthful sleep, exchanging embraces, anointed with crushed musk, and enjoying conversation. The prince’s eyes then closed, and he fell asleep before me, to my great sorrow and distress. I was looking at his face and enjoying his beauty as though I was looking at a full moon or a sun appearing through the cloud, but just then my father suffered a painful seizure, which roused him from his bed. The maids and the servants shrieked, and the attendants and the children tore their clothes. I lost my wits and, being reluctant to disturb the prince from his sleep, I gradually removed his hand from me and got up. I opened the door of my palace and called to my nurse, whom I took with me to my father.

  ‘I stayed with him until he had recovered consciousness, but when the prince woke and did not find me there he went round the palace and when he could not see me he thought what any lover would think of his beloved and remained in a state of perplexity, alarm and distress. When he looked at the palace door and found it open, he was confirmed in his suspicion and, thinking that I had betrayed him, he turned back to his gazelle shape and fled away to his own land, alone and sorrowful. When I left my father and came back to the garden in an agitated state I could not find him. I rushed out, slapping my face in my confusion, not knowing in the darkness where to head for or where I was going. I went on from land to land and place to place until I despaired and was sure that I was going to die.

  ‘During the course of my travels I came on a valley full of grass and greenery with a stream of running water whiter than milk. There were many ostriches there, as big as elephants, which were grazing on the greenery and going back and forth to the river. With them was a man of dazzling beauty who appeared to be herding them with a palm branch in his hand. When he saw me he called out harshly and came up, speaking roughly in a voice like rumbling thunder. “Woman, where have you come from?” he asked, adding: “There is no way through for you here.”

  ‘I burst into tears at this reception and exclaimed: “Alas for my gazelle! Alas for my master!” He then asked: “Who are you looking for?” and I told him: “I am Haifa’, the daughter of King Muhallab of Persia, and I have come in search of a gazelle with white feet or a man in a shirt.” He said: “This mountain marks the end of the lands of the jinn, and as it hard, black and smooth, you must go back to where you might find a way to your beloved. Otherwise you can spend the night as my guest, for it might be that a jinni will pass by, and I could ask him about this, for I feel pity for you in my heart.”

  ‘I sat with him, and he brought me food. When night fell a large and noisy company of jinn arrived. When I looked I saw amongst them a huge one in human shape riding on a snake as big as a towering palm-tree with another great snake wound round his head as a turban. When he opened his mouth fire came from his throat, and everyone else in his company, who were smaller than him, were mounted on snakes. He was preceded by a man carrying a banner, with huge and terrible flames flashing from the top of his spear.

  ‘He stopped beside my host, who greeted him and after we
lcoming him asked him whether in the course of his many wanderings he had come across my gazelle. He said in reply that this was the son of the king of his people and that between us was a distance of a two-year journey. “What do you want from him,” he asked, “for his father is an oppressive tyrant?” The ostrich-herd replied: “I want to meet him, as there is something that I need, so tell me the way.” The snake rider said: “If you want to get to him, mount one of these ostriches of yours, choosing one that is large and old, whose feathers have moulted away. It will take you the two-year journey in a single night and bring you to an old woman. When you see her, give her my name and make her swear by what she owes me. God willing, she will take you to the land of the gazelle.” He and his company then went off like a breath of wind, leaving the ground scorched.

  ‘My host told me that this was the king of the snakes, who journeys from east to west. He added: “I shall take you to the old woman he mentioned. She is the queen of the crows who part lovers, while I am king of the ostriches who unite hearts. It was I who was responsible for the love between you and the gazelle, for these servants of mine roam through the world promoting love amongst God’s servants. When you get to her tell her that Hirmas, king of the ostriches, sends her his greetings and says: ‘This is my ring and my messenger. I feel pity in my heart for Haifa’ and I have entrusted her with this letter for you.’ ”

  ‘He wrote a letter, which he passed to me before summoning an enormous ostrich, which had lost all its feathers, leaving its skin smooth. He told it: “Take this human to the land of the old queen of the crows. See that she has an easy ride and then come back quickly.” I sat on its back, holding on to its neck as it flew between sky and earth, keeping my eyes shut. When dawn broke it told me to open them and get down, for this was the country of the old queen. I dismounted and found myself in a red land with interlacing trees, some of which were red with red leaves and green citrus-like fruit. There were flowing streams with fish to be seen in the clear water feeding on the green weeds, while on every tree there were as many as a thousand crows, both black and piebald.

  ‘While I was in the shade of the trees, admiring their leaves and their fruit, I suddenly came on a great red dome set over an ebony couch on which sat a grim-faced and frowning old woman wearing dyed clothes, with ten jewelled bracelets on each arm, ten anklets on each foot and ten rings on each finger. She had a crown of red gold studded with jewels of all kinds. She held a sceptre of green emerald and flanking her on each side were two black ‘ifrits with hooked iron clubs in their hands.

  ‘When she saw me she gave orders to these two who took hold of me and brought me before her. She addressed me harshly, asking who I was, where I lived, where I had come from and who had brought me to a land in which she had never seen a human before. I was so frightened by her and her appearance that I could find nothing to say in reply. She laughed more and more and repeated: “Where do you come from and how did you get to my country?” This unlocked my tongue, and I said: “I am al-Haifa’, the daughter of King Muhallab of Persia. I fell in love with a jinni known as ‘the white-footed gazelle’ ”, and I went on to tell her everything that had happened from beginning to end until tears overcame me and I could no longer control myself. I then handed her the letter from the king of the ostriches. She took it and, after reading it, she exclaimed: “Welcome to the letter and the one who wrote it!”

  ‘She went on: “I am the old queen of the jinn crows who part lovers and companions. My nature is rude and rough, and I have never shown pity to anyone. It is through me that husbands are parted from their wives, companions from companions, and lovers from their beloveds, and in every land I am represented in this by an emir of the crows. Out of all these I feel pity for you and you alone, because you have come here and submitted to me obediently. I also owe a debt of honour to the writer of the letter, who has asked me to be kind to you and to bring you to what you want, satisfying your needs and doing what you tell me.”

  ‘She gestured to one of her two ‘ifrits and told him to fetch her the emir of the crows in Persia, and in no time at all he was back with a crow flapping its wings on its head. He took the bird before the queen, to whom it prostrated itself. She asked it: “What did you do in Persia on such-and-such a night in such-and-such a month?” The bird said: “I parted two dear friends who were suffering from the pangs of love. They were like two branches or in their perfect beauty like two gazelles. For two whole years they had enjoyed the finest fruits of love.” “You wronged a pair of pure and charming lovers,” she told it. “You should not have parted them, for mankind is divided according to ranks and classes, and in a case like this, you should have asked my permission, and, had I not acted wrongly myself, I would have had you beaten. So now go and fetch me the messenger of love who cautions friends so that he may return this woman to her beloved and fulfil her wishes.” “What was it that she lost and who is she?” asked the crow. “Look at her,” the queen told him, and when he did he said: “This is the lover of the white-footed gazelle, and she is the daughter of the king of Persia.” The queen said: “Tell me in God’s name why did you separate this pair?” “I was jealous,” the crow said, “and I made a mistake about her which I shall never repeat with anyone else.” “Bring me the messenger to take her to her beloved,” the queen repeated.’

  The crow hurried off, and the queen gave Haifa’ a fruit from the trees, telling her to eat it. She said: ‘When I did, I found that it tasted sweeter than honey, and before I had finished eating the crow came back with a pleasant-looking bird like a parrot. When the old queen saw it she said to me: “When you get to the land of your gazelle, go around until you see a shaikh under a dome. Go to him submissively, tell him your name and ask him for what you want.” She then told the bird to carry me there and to do it quickly. I thought that it was too small, but the old queen had not finished speaking before it snatched me up and flew off with me between the sky and the earth, going on for the rest of the day and the following night, until next morning we came to a fresh and verdant land, delighting the eyes with the beauty of its flowers and its freshness. There were vast trees with green leaves like silk brocade and huge boughs as long as spears. The foul smell of their fruit, of a violent red, would almost take the breath away. Between them were streams of running water and gushing springs whiter than milk.

  ‘The bird put me down there and flew off. I wandered by the streams and through the trees until, all of a sudden, I came across a splendid-looking shaikh with a handsome face sitting on a bench of white marble under a marble dome covered with draperies of green brocade. In front of him were foxes, male and female, and rabbits wrestling and playing with each other. He was holding a staff of green emerald and using this to join in the play, although for all that he looked sad and gloomy. In front of him was a lofty palace built of silver bricks and bars of red gold.

  ‘When he saw me coming towards him he asked me sharply: “Damn you, who has brought you into this land of mine?” I paid no attention to this but threw myself before him and rubbed my cheek on him as I started to kiss his feet. He said: “Where do you come from, as I feel pity for you in my heart?” I told him that I was Haifa’, the daughter of King al-Muhallab of Persia, and that I had come out in search of the white-footed gazelle. I then told him my whole story from beginning to end.

  ‘When the shaikh heard about the gazelle he shed such bitter tears that he collapsed in a faint. When he recovered he said: “This gazelle is my dear son, and you too are dear to me thanks to all your toil, for both of you have suffered misery. Since he left you he has been straying through the wastes without eating or drinking and he talks bitterly of how you betrayed him. I am myself a king of the jinn, and these deserts are mine. My son often used to wander around in the form of a gazelle. He left me for two years, during which I heard nothing of him and could find no trace of him, leading me to think that he must have been hunted down. Then, after my great sorrow and despair, he came back to me and told me of how he ha
d suffered thanks to this affair of yours and he told me about you and your treachery, before fleeing away in tears. I built him this palace that you can see, intending to marry him to his cousin in it, but he refused and said: ‘Haifa’ has rights that I owe her as well as oaths and covenants, treacherous as she may be. By God, I shall never enter this palace except with her.’

  ‘ “I was at a loss to know what to do about this, but now God Almighty has given you to us both and I want you to fulfil this covenant of his and to clear away his suspicion of you.” I swore to him with solemn oaths that I had never betrayed him and that never for a second had I wanted to forget him. He thought it right to treat me as a guest and he gave me a fruit from a tree a morsel of which satisfied my hunger, and he poured me a glass of incomparably tasty wine smelling of musk. He then provided me with clothes the like of which I had never seen in my father’s kingdom.

  ‘When I was quiet and rested I fell asleep, and when I woke up the tears of my gazelle were on my face, and when I opened my eyes I saw him leaning over me. I almost died of joy but I got up, and after a long embrace we both fell to the ground, fainting, and remained unconscious for the rest of the day. When we recovered we were carried into the new palace, and servants and slaves flocked to us. We took care to reproach one another in such a way as to add fire to our longing.

  ‘We continued to enjoy a life of comfort, honour, pleasure and joy, in the greatest pleasure. For many years time was kind to us, but then there came a day when I felt a longing for the lands of men and I told this to my prince, saying that I wanted to see them again and after enjoying myself there to come back. At first he would not allow it but after I pressed him he said that, as he wanted to please me, he would let me do what I wanted. He would transform me into a gazelle and go with me in the gazelle shape in which I had first seen him. “If we are hunted down,” he said, “only a sorcerer or a diviner will be able to free us from our shapes.”

 

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