The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night/Story of the Barber’s Second Brother
STORY OF THE BARBER’S SECOND BROTHER.
My second brother’s name was Becbac and he was the paralytic. One day, as he was going about his business, an old woman accosted him and said to him, “Harkye, stop a little, that I may tell thee of somewhat, which, if it please thee, thou shalt do for me.” My brother stopped and she went on, “I will put thee in the way of a certain thing, so thy words be not many.” “Say on,” replied my brother; and she, “What sayest thou to a handsome house and a pleasant garden, with running waters and fruits and wine and a fair-faced one to hold in thine arms from dark till dawn?” “And is all this in the world?” asked my brother. “Yes,” answered she; “and it shall be thine, so thou be reasonable and leave impertinent curiosity and many words and do as I bid thee.” “I will well, O my lady,” rejoined my brother; “but what made thee choose me of all men for this affair and what is it pleases thee in me?” Quoth she, “Did I not bid thee be sparing of speech? Hold thy peace and follow me. Thou must know that the young lady, to whom I shall carry thee, loves to have her own way and hates to be crossed, so if thou fall in with her humour, thou shalt come to thy desire of her.” And my brother said, “I will not thwart her in aught.” Then she went on and he followed her, eager to enjoy what she had promised him, till she brought him to a fine large house, richly furnished and full of servants, and carried him to an upper story. When the people of the house saw him, they said to him, “What dost thou here?” But the old woman bade them “Let him be and trouble him not; for he is a workman and we have occasion for him.” Then she brought him into a fine great gallery, with a fair garden in its midst, and made him sit down upon a handsome couch. He had not sat long, before he heard a great noise and in came a troop of damsels, with a lady in their midst, as she were the moon on the night of its full. When he saw her, he rose and made an obeisance to her; whereupon she bade him welcome and ordered him to be seated. So he sat down and she said to him. “God advance thee! Is all well with thee?” “O my lady,” replied my brother, “all is well.” Then she called for food, and they brought her a table richly served. So she sat down to eat, making a show of affection to my brother and jesting with him, though all the while she could not keep from laughing: but as often as he looked at her, she signed towards the waiting-maids, as if she laughed at them. My ass of a brother understood nothing, but concluded, in the blindness of his doting, that the lady was in love with him and would admit him to his desire. When they had finished eating, they set on wine, and there came in ten damsels like moons, with strung lutes in their hands, and fell a singing right melodiously; whereupon delight got hold upon him and he took the cup from the lady’s hands and drank it off. Then she drank a cup of wine, and he rose and bowed to her, saying, “Health to thee!” She filled him another cup and he drank it off, and she gave him a cuff on the nape of his neck; whereupon he rose and went out in a rage; but the old woman followed him and winked to him to return. So he came back and the lady bade him sit, and he sat down without speaking. Then she dealt him a second cuff, and nothing would serve her but she must make all her maids cuff him also. Quoth he to the old woman, “Never saw I aught finer than this!” And she kept saying, “Enough, enough, I conjure thee, O my lady!” The women cuffed him till he was well-nigh senseless, and he rose and went out again in a rage; but the old woman followed him and said, “Wait a little, and thou shalt come to what thou wishest.” “How much longer must I wait?” asked he. “Indeed I am faint with cuffing.” “As soon as she is warm with wine,” answered she, “thou shalt have thy desire.” So he returned to his place and sat down, whereupon all the damsels rose and the lady bade them fumigate him and sprinkle rose-water on his face. Then said she to him, “God advance thee! Thou hast entered my house and submitted to my conditions; for whoso thwarts me, I turn him away, but he who is patient has his desire.” “O my lady,” replied he, “I am thy slave and in the hollow of thy hand.” “Know then,” continued she, “that God has made me passionately fond of frolic, and whoso falls in with my humour comes by what he wishes.” Then she ordered the damsels to sing with loud voices, and they sang, till the whole company was in ecstasy: after which she said to one of the maids, “Take thy lord and do what is wanting to him and bring him back to me forthright.” So the damsel took my brother, who knew not what she would do with him; but the old woman came up to him and said, “Be patient; there remains but little to do.” At this his face cleared and he said, “Tell me what she would have the maid do with me.” “Nothing but good,” replied she, “as I am thy ransom. She only wishes to dye thine eyebrows and pluck out thy moustaches.” Quoth he, “As for the dyeing of my eyebrows, that will come off with washing, but the plucking out of my moustaches will be irksome.” “Beware of crossing her,” said the old woman; “for her heart is set on thee.” So my brother suffered them to dye his eyebrows and pluck out his moustaches, after which the damsel returned to her mistress and told her. Quoth she, “There is one thing more to be done; thou must shave his chin, that he may be beardless.” So the maid went back and told my brother what her mistress bade her do, whereupon cried my fool of a brother, “How can I do what will dishonour me among the folk?” But the old woman said, “She only wishes to do thus with thee, that thou mayst be as a beardless youth and that no hair may be left on thy face to prick her; for she is passionately in love with thee. Be patient and thou shalt attain thy desire.” So he submitted to have his beard shaved off and his face rouged, after which they carried him back to the lady. When she saw him with his eyebrows dyed, his whiskers and moustaches plucked out, his beard shaved off and his face rouged, she was affrighted at him, then laughed till she fell backward and said, “O my lord, thou hast won my heart with thy good nature!” Then she conjured him, by her life, to rise and dance; so he began to dance, and there was not a cushion in the place but she threw it at him, whilst the damsels pelted him with oranges and limes and citrons, till he fell down senseless. When he came to himself, the old woman said to him, “Now thou hast attained thy desire. There is no more beating for thee and there remains but one thing more. It is her wont, when she is heated with wine, to let no one have to do with her till she put off her clothes and remain stark naked. Then she will bid thee strip, in like manner, and run before thee from place to place, as if she fled from thee, and thou after her, till thy yard be in good point, when she will stop and give herself up to thee. So now rise and put off thy clothes.”Night xxxii. So he rose, well-nigh beside himself, and stripped himself stark naked; whereupon the lady stripped also and saying to my brother, “Follow me, if thou desire aught,” set off running in at one place and out at another and he after her, transported for desire, till his yard rose, as he were mad. Presently she entered a dark passage, and in following her, he trod upon a soft place, which gave way with him, and before he knew where he was, he found himself in the midst of the market of the fell-mongers, who were calling skins for sale and buying and selling. When they saw him in this plight, naked, with yard on end, shaven face, dyed eyebrows and rouged cheeks, they cried out and clapped their hands at him and flogged him with skins upon his naked body, till he swooned away; when they set him on an ass and carried him to the chief of the police, who said, “What is this?” Quoth they, “This fellow came out upon us from the Vizier’s house, in this plight.” So the prefect gave him a hundred lashes and banished him from Baghdad. However, I went out after him and brought him back privily into the city and made him an allowance for his living, though, but for my generous disposition, I had not put up with such a fellow.
Story of the Barber’s Third Brother.