THE STORY OF THE HUNCHBACK WITH THE TAILOR, THE JEW, THE CHRISTIAN, AND THE BARBER OF BAGHDAD
The steward starts his story, about a man who has no thumbs and no big toes.
The Steward's Narrative, Part 1.
ON THE NINTH NIGHT
Sheherazade said:
It happened to me, O fortunate King, that when the King of China said: "I will hang you all!" The steward then came forward, prostrated himself before the king, and said to him: "If you allow me, I will tell you a story which has happened to me recently and which is much more astonishing than the one of the Hunchback. If, then, you judged it thus after having heard it, you would do us all grace!" And the King of China said: "So be it! Let's take a look at your story!" So the steward said:
“Know, O king of ages and time, that last night I was invited to a wedding feast where there were many doctors of the law and scholars versed in the Holy Book. When the reading of the Koran was over, the tablecloth was laid out, the dishes were put down and everything needed for the feast was brought. Now, among other things on the tablecloth, there was a garlic dish, called kabsa, which has a great reputation and which is very delicious, especially if the rice which makes the base is well done and if the garlic and the aromatics which season it are at the desired dose. So all of us, the guests, began to eat it with great appetite, except for one of us who absolutely refused to touch this dish of kabsa. And when we pressured him hard to taste even a bite of it, he swore he wouldn't. Then we redoubled our entreaties; but he says to us: “Please! stop pressuring me. I have been tried enough as it is, for once I had the misfortune to taste it." And he recited this verse to us:
“If you no longer want to recognize your old friend,
And if you want to avoid him,
Do not waste your time using stratagems: flee him!"
So we didn't want to insist any longer. But we asked him: “By Allah! what is the reason that prevents you from eating this delicious kabsa?" He replied: "I have sworn not to eat kabsa until I have washed my hands forty times in a row with soda, forty times with potash, and forty times with soap, in all a hundred and twenty times." So the master of the house ordered his servants to bring water and the things that the guest had requested. And the guest then proceeded to wash his hands exactly the number of times that he had mentioned; then he sat down again, but very reluctantly, and he stretched out his hand towards the common dish where we were all eating, and, all trembling and hesitating, he began to eat from this dish of kabsa. And we were very surprised at that, but we were even more astonished when we looked at his hand: we saw that this hand lacked a thumb and had only four fingers. And the guest ate like this only with four fingers. So we said: “By Allah upon you! tell us how it is that you no longer have a thumb! Or is it a deformity that you have from birth, and which is simply the work of Allah? Or are you the victim of an accident?" So he answered: “My brothers, you have not seen everything! It's not just one thumb that I'm missing, but both. Because I don't have a thumb on my left hand either. And my two feet also have only four toes. Besides, see for yourself!" And he showed us his other hand and uncovered to us his two feet, and we saw that indeed each had only four toes. Then our astonishment still increased, and we said to him: "Our impatience is at its height, and we would very much like to learn the cause which made you thus lose your two thumbs and your two big toes and the reason which made you also wash your hands a hundred and twenty times in a row. So he told us this:
"Know, O all of you, that my father was a merchant among the great merchants; and he was even the greatest of the merchants of the city of Baghdad, at the time of the Harun Al-Rachid caliphate. My father was a great lover of good wines and pleasures; he loved the music of our stringed instruments, the oud and the qanun. So when he died he left me no money, for he had spent it all. But all the same, as he was my father, I buried him according to his rank, gave funeral feasts in his honor, and mourned for him for days and nights. After which, I went to see the shop which had been his, I opened it, and I found nothing there of any value; on the contrary, I found that he had left large debts. So I went to find my father's creditors, made them patient, and reassured them as best I could. Then I set to work, selling and buying, and paying the debts, week by week, according to the gain I made. And I continued to do so until I had paid all the debts and even increased my first capital by my regular earnings.
Now, one day when I was sitting in my shop, I saw a girl, and in my life, I never saw anything more beautiful. She was dressed in beautiful clothes and was riding on a mule. In front of her walked a eunuch and behind her another eunuch. She stopped her mule at the beginning of the souk, dismounted, and entered the souk, followed by one of the two eunuchs. And this eunuch said to her: “O my mistress, please! do not enter the souk like this, and do not show yourself like this to passers-by. You will bring us great calamities, Let's get out of here!" And the eunuch tried to stop her. But she paid little attention to his words, and began to inspect all the shops in the souk, one after the other, and she saw no shop better kept and more beautiful than mine. Then she walked over to my side, still followed by the eunuch, sat down in my shop, and wished me peace. And I, never in my life had I heard a sweeter voice or sweeter words. And she uncovered her face. So I looked at her, and the mere sight of her threw me into the greatest confusion and stole my heart. And I couldn't take my eyes off her face, and I recited these two stanzas:
“Say to the beauty with the soft veil, as soft as the wing of the pigeon,
Tell her how helpful death would be to me if I think of my sufferings.
Tell her to be good, a little! For her, I gave up my tranquility to approach her wing!"
When she heard my verses, she immediately replied to me with these stanzas:
“My heart, I have worn it out loving him. And yet this heart refuses other loves.
And my eyes, if by chance they ever see a foreign beauty, my eyes can no longer rejoice.
I swore never to tear your love from my heart.
And yet my heart is sad and thirsty for your love.
I drank from a cup where I found pure love.
Oh! Why did you not wet your lips with this cup where I found love!…”
Then she said to me: "O young merchant, do you have any beautiful fabrics to show us?" I said, “O my mistress, your slave is a poor merchant, and has nothing worthy of you. So have the patience to wait a bit. Because, as it is still early morning, the other merchants have not yet opened their shops. Presently, I myself will go and buy you from them everything you might need in expensive fabrics." Then I began to chat with her and I was drowned in the sea of her love and lost in the madness of the ardor she inspired in me. But when the other merchants opened their shops, I got up and went out to buy her everything she had ordered; and the whole purchase which I made, and which I took on my account, amounted to the sum of five thousand drachmas. And I gave it all to the eunuch; and he went with her and went to the side where the other eunuch was waiting for her with the mule, at the entrance of the souk, and she went away. But she asked me no account and made no mention of the money she owed me, which I had taken upon myself to pay to the merchants. And she didn't even tell me who she was or where her house was. And I, on my side, was ashamed to tell her about it; and I then undertook to pay the merchants the five thousand drachmas at the end of the week, for I hoped that the girl would come to pay me. Then I returned home intoxicated with love. And they brought me dinner; but I scarcely touched it, for I was absorbed in the thought of her beauty and charms. And when I wanted to fall asleep, I could not.
At this point in her narration, Sheherazade saw the morning appear and quietly fell silent.
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Eighth Night