The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night/Story of the Hunchback
STORY OF THE HUNCHBACK.
There lived once in the city of Bassora a tailor, who was openhanded and loved pleasure and merrymaking: and he was wont, he and his wife, to go out by times, a-pleasuring, to the public places of recreation. One day they went out as usual and were returning home in the evening, when they fell in with a hunchback, the sight of whom would make the disappointed laugh and dispel chagrin from the sorrowful. So they went up to look at him and invited him to go home and make merry with them that night. He consented and accompanied them to their house; whereupon, the night being now come, the tailor went out to the market and buying fried fish and bread and lemon and conserve of roses by way of dessert, set them before the hunchback, and they ate. Presently, the tailor’s wife took a great piece of fish and cramming it into the hunchback’s mouth, clapped her hand over it, saying, ‘By Allah, thou must swallow it at one gulp; and I will give thee no time to chew it.’ So he bolted it; but there was a great bone in it, which stuck in his gullet, and his hour being come, it choked him, and he died at once.Night xxv. When the tailor saw this, he exclaimed, ‘There is no power and no virtue but in God! Alas, poor wretch, that he should have come by his death at our hands!’ ‘Why dost thou waste time in idle lamentation?’ rejoined his wife. ‘Hast thou not heard it said . . . . . ?’ And she repeated the following verses:
What ails me that I waste the time in idle grief, Until I find no friend mishap for me to bear?
Who but a fool would sit upon an unquenched fire? To wait upon mischance as great a folly were.
‘What is to be done?’ asked he; and she replied, ‘Rise and take the hunchback in thine arms and cover him with a silk handkerchief: then go out with him, and I will go before thee: and if thou meet any one, say, “This is my son: his mother and I are taking him to the doctor, that he may look at him.”’ So he rose and taking the hunchback in his arms, carried him along the streets, preceded by his wife, who kept saying, ‘O my son, God keep thee! Where has this smallpox attacked thee and in what part dost thou feel pain?’ So that all who saw them said, ‘It is a child ill of smallpox.’ They went along, enquiring for a doctor, till the people directed them to the house of one, who was a Jew. They knocked at the gate, and a black servant-maid came down and opened the door and seeing a man carrying a child and a woman with him, said to them, ‘What is your business?’ ‘We have a sick child here,’ answered the tailor’s wife, ‘whom we want the doctor to look at: so take this quarter-dinar and give it to thy master, and let him come down and see my son.’ The girl went up to tell her master, leaving the tailor and his wife in the vestibule, whereupon the latter said to her husband, ‘Let us leave the hunchback here and be off.’ So the tailor carried the dead man to the top of the stairs and propping him up against the wall, went away, he and his wife. Meanwhile the serving-maid went in to the Jew and said to him, ‘There are a man and a woman at the gate, with a sick child; and they have given me a quarter-dinar for thee, that thou mayst go down and see the child and prescribe for him.’ When the Jew saw the quarter-dinar, he was glad and rose hastily and went down in the dark. Hardly had he made a step, when he stumbled on the dead body and threw it down, and it rolled to the bottom of the stairs. So he cried out to the girl to make haste with the light, and she brought it, whereupon he went down and examining the hunchback, found that he was dead. ‘O Esdras and Moses and the ten Commandments!’ exclaimed he; ‘O Aaron and Joshua, son of Nun! I have stumbled against the sick person and he has fallen downstairs and is dead! How shall I get the body out of my house?’ Then he took it up and carrying it into the house, told his wife what had happened. Quoth she, ‘Why dost thou sit still? If he be found here when the day rises, we shall both of us lose our lives. Let us carry him up to the roof and throw him over into the house of our neighbour the Muslim; for if he abide there a night, the dogs will come down on him from the terraces and eat him all up.’ Now the neighbour in question was controller of the Sultan’s kitchen and was wont to bring home great store of fat and broken meats; but the cats and mice used to eat it, or, if the dogs scented a fat sheep’s tail, they would come down from the roofs and tear at it; and in this way he lost much of what he brought home. So the Jew and his wife carried the hunchback up to the roof, and letting him down, through the windshaft, into the controller’s house, stood him up against the wall and went away. Hardly had they done so, when the controller, who had been spending the evening with some of his friends, hearing a recitation of the Koran, came home and going up with a lighted candle, found a man standing in the corner, under the ventilator. When he saw this, he said, ‘By Allah, this is a fine thing! He who steals my goods is none other than a man.’ Then he turned to the hunchback and said to him, ‘So it is thou that stealest the meat and fat. I thought it was the cats and dogs, and I kill the cats and dogs of the quarter and sin against them. And all the while it is thou comest down through the windshaft! But I will take my wreak of thee with my own hand.’ So he took a great cudgel and smote him on the breast, and he fell down. Then he examined him and finding that he was dead, cried out in horror, thinking that he had killed him, and said, ‘There is no power and no virtue but in God the Supreme, the Omnipotent!’ And he feared for himself and said, ‘May God curse the fat and the sheep’s tails, that have caused this man’s death to be at my hand!’ Then he looked at the dead man and seeing him to be humpbacked, said, ‘Did it not suffice thee to be a hunchback, but thou must turn thief and steal meat and fat? O Protector, extend to me Thy gracious protection!’ Then he took him up on his shoulders and going forth with him, carried him to the beginning of the market, where he set him on his feet against the wall of a shop, at the corner of a dark lane, and went away. After awhile, there came up a Christian, the Sultan’s broker, who had sallied forth, in a state of intoxication, intending for the bath, for in his drunkenness he thought that matins were near. He came staggering along, till he drew near the hunchback and squatted down over against him to make water, when, happening to look round, he saw a man standing against the wall. Now some one had snatched off the broker’s turban early in the night, and seeing the hunchback standing there, he concluded that he meant to play him the same trick. So he clenched his fist and smote him on the neck. Down fell the hunchback, whilst the broker called to the watchman of the market and fell on the dead man, pummelling and throttling him in the excess of his drunken rage. Presently, the watchman came up and finding a Christian kneeling on a Muslim and beating him, said to the former, ‘What is the matter?’ ‘This fellow tried to snatch off my turban,’ answered the broker; and the watchman said, ‘Get up from him.’ So he rose, and the watchman went up to the hunchback and finding him dead, exclaimed, ‘By Allah, it is a fine thing that a Christian should kill a Muslim!’ Then he seized the broker and tying his hands behind him, carried him to the house of the prefect of police, where they passed the night; and all the while the broker kept saying, ‘O Messiah! O Virgin! how came I to kill this man? Indeed, he must have been in a great hurry to die of one blow with the fist!’ And his drunkenness left him and reflection came in its stead. As soon as it was day, the prefect came out and commanded to hang the supposed murderer and bade the executioner make proclamation of the sentence. So they set up a gallows, under which they made the broker stand, and the hangman put the rope round his neck and was about to hoist him up, when behold, the controller of the Sultan’s kitchen, passing by, saw the broker about to be hanged, and pressing through the crowd, cried out to the executioner, saying, ‘Stop! Stop! I am he who killed the hunchback.’ Quoth the prefect, ‘What made thee kill him?’ And he replied, ‘I came home last night and found this man who had come down the windshaft to steal my goods; so I struck him with a cudgel on the breast and he died. Then I took him up and carried him to the market and set him up against the wall in such a place. Is it not enough for me to have killed a Muslim, without burdening my conscience with the death of a Christian also? Hang therefore none but me.’ When the prefect heard this, he released the broker and said to the executioner, ‘Hang up this man on his own confession.’ So he loosed the rope from the broker’s neck and threw it round that of the controller, and placing him under the gallows, was about to hang him, when behold, the Jewish physician pushed through the press and cried out, ‘Stop! It was I and none else who killed him! I was sitting at home last night, when a man and a woman knocked at the door, carrying this hunchback, who was sick, and gave my servant a quarter-dinar, bidding her give it to me and tell me to come down to see him. Whilst she was gone, they brought the hunchback into the house and setting him on the stairs, went away. Presently, I came down and not seeing him, stumbled on him in the dark, and he fell to the foot of the stair and died forthright. Then we took him up, I and my wife, and carried him on to the roof, whence we let him down, through the windshaft, into the house of this controller, which adjoins my own. When he came home and found the hunchback, he took him for a robber and beat him, so that he fell to the ground, and he concluded that he had killed him. So is it not enough for me to have killed one Muslim unwittingly, without burdening myself with the death of another wittingly? When the prefect heard the Jew’s story, he said to the hangman, ‘Let the controller go, and hang the Jew.’ So the hangman took the Jew and put the rope round his neck, when behold, the tailor pressed through the folk and cried out to him, ‘Hold thy hand! None killed him save I, and it fell out thus. I had been out a-pleasuring yesterday and coming back in the evening, met this hunchback, who was drunk and singing lustily to a tambourine. So I carried him to my house and bought fish, and we sat down to eat. Presently, my wife took a piece of fish and crammed it down the hunchback’s throat; but it went the wrong way and stuck in his gullet and choked him, so that he died at once. So we lifted him up, I and my wife, and carried him to the Jew’s house, where the girl came down and opened the door to us, and I said to her, “Give thy master this quarter-dinar and tell him that there are a man and a woman at the door, who have brought a sick person for him to see.” So she went in to tell her master, and whilst she was gone, I carried the hunchback to the top of the stair, where I propped him up, and went away with my wife. When the Jew came out, he stumbled over him and thought that he had killed him.’ Then he said to the Jew, ‘Is not this the truth?’ ‘It is,’ replied the Jew. And the tailor turned to the prefect and said, ‘Let the Jew go, and hang me.’ When the prefect heard the tailor’s story, he wondered at the adventure of the hunchback and exclaimed, ‘Verily, this is a matter that should be recorded in books!’ Then he said to the hangman, ‘Let the Jew go, and hang the tailor on his own confession.’ So the hangman took the tailor and put the rope round his neck, saying, ‘I am tired of taking this man and loosing that, and no one hanged after all.’
Now the hunchback in question was the favourite buffoon of the Sultan, who could not bear him out of his sight: so when he got drunk and did not make his appearance that night or next day, the Sultan asked the courtiers about him and they replied, ‘O our lord, the chief of the police has come upon him dead and ordered his murderer to be hanged: but, as the hangman was about to hoist him up, there came a second and a third and a fourth, each declaring himself to be the sole murderer and giving the prefect an account of the manner in which the crime had been committed.’ When the King heard this, he cried out to one of his chamberlains, saying, ‘Go down to the chief of the police and bring me all four of them.’ So the chamberlain went down at once to the place of execution, where he found the hangman on the point of hanging the tailor and cried out to him to stop. Then he gave the King’s order to the prefect, who took the tailor, the physician, the controller and the broker, and brought them all, together with the dead hunchback, before the King. When he came into the presence, he kissed the earth and told the King all that had passed; whereat he was moved to wonder and mirth and commended the story to be written in letters of gold, saying to the courtiers, ‘Did you ever hear a more wonderful story than that of this hunchback?’ With this came forward the Christian broker and said, ‘O King of the age, with thy leave, I will tell thee a thing that happened to myself and which is still stranger and more wonderful and pleasant than the story of the hunchback.’ Quoth the King, ‘Let us hear it.’ Then said the broker, ‘O King of the age, I came to this city with merchandise, and Fate made me settle here with you, but
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This, then, is my story, O King of the age. Is it not more marvellous than that of the hunchback?’ ‘Not so,’ answered the King; ‘and needs must you all be hanged.’Night xxvii. Then came forward the controller of the Sultan’s kitchen and said, ‘With thy leave, I will tell thee what happened to me but lately and if it be more marvellous than the story of the hunchback, do thou grant us our lives.’ ‘So be it,’ answered the King. Then said the controller, ‘Know, O King, that
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Quoth the King, ‘This story is not more agreeable than that of the hunchback: on the contrary, it is less so, and you must all be hanged.’ Then came forward the Jewish physician and kissing the earth, said, ‘O King of the age, I will tell thee a story more wonderful than that of the hunchback.’ ‘Tell on,’ answered the King; and the Jew said, ‘The strangest adventure that ever befell me was as follows:
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Quoth the King, ‘This thy story is not more wonderful than that of the hunchback, and I will certainly hang you all. However, there still remains the tailor, who was the head of the offending.’ Then he said to the tailor, ‘O tailor, if thou canst tell me aught more wonderful than the story of the hunchback, I will pardon you all your offenses.’ So the tailor came forward and said, ‘Know, O King of the age, that a most rare thing happened to me yesterday before I fell in with the hunchback.
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When the King heard the tailor’s story, he shook his head for delight and showed astonishment, saying, ‘This that passed between the young man and the meddlesome barber is indeed more pleasant and more wonderful than the story of that knave of a hunchback.’ Then he bade the tailor take one of the chamberlains and fetch the barber out of his duresse, saying, ‘Bring him to me, that I may hear his talk, and it shall be the means of the release of all of you.Night xxxiv. Then we will bury the hunchback, for he is dead since yesterday, and set up a tomb over him.’ So the chamberlain and the tailor went away and presently returned with the barber. The King looked at him and behold, he was a very old man, more than ninety years of age, of a swarthy complexion and white beard and eyebrows, flap-eared, long-nosed and simple and conceited of aspect. The King laughed at his appearance and said to him, ‘O silent man, I desire thee to tell me somewhat of thy history.’ ‘O King of the age,’ replied the barber, ‘why are all these men and this dead hunchback before thee?’ Said the King, ‘Why dost thou ask?’ ‘I ask this,’ rejoined the barber, ‘that your Majesty may know that I am no impertinent meddler and that I am guiltless of that they lay to my charge of overmuch talk; for I am called the Silent, and indeed I am the man of my name, as says the poet:
Thine eyes shall seldom see a man that doth a nickname bear, But, if thou search, thou’lt find the name his nature doth declare.
So the King said, ‘Explain the hunchback’s case to him and repeat to him the stories told by the physician, the controller, the broker and the tailor.’ They did as he commanded, and the barber shook his head and exclaimed, ‘By Allah, this is indeed a wonder of wonders!’ Then said he, ‘Uncover the hunchback’s body, that I may see it.’ They did so, and he sat down and taking the hunchback’s head in his lap, looked at his face and laughed till he fell backward. Then said he, ‘To every death there is a cause; but the story of this hunchback deserves to be recorded in letters of gold!’ The bystanders were astounded at his words and the King wondered and said to him, ‘O silent man, explain thy words to us.’ ‘O King of the age,’ replied the barber, ‘by thy munificence, there is yet life in this hunchback.’ Then he pulled out from his girdle a barber’s budget, whence he took a pot of ointment and anointed therewith the neck of the hunchback and its veins. Then he took out a pair of tweezers and thrusting them down the hunchback’s throat, drew out the piece of fish and its bone, soaked in blood. Thereupon the hunchback sneezed and sat up, and passing his hand over his face, exclaimed, ‘I testify that there is no god but God and that Mohammed is His Apostle!’ At this all present wondered and the King laughed, till he fainted, and so did the others. Then said the King, ‘By Allah, this is the most wonderful thing I ever saw! O Muslims, O soldiers all, did you ever in your lives see a man die and come to life again? For verily, had not God vouchsafed him this barber to be the cause of his preservation, he had been dead!’ ‘By Allah,’ said they, ‘this is a wonder of wonders!’ Then the King caused the whole history to be recorded and laid up in the royal treasury; after which he bestowed splendid dresses of honour on the Jew, the broker and the controller and sent them away. Then he gave the tailor a costly dress of honour and appointed him his own tailor, with a suitable stipend, and made peace between him and the hunchback, on whom he also bestowed a rich and fair dress of honour and made him his boon-companion, appointing him due allowances. As for the barber, he made him a like present and appointed him state barber and one of his boon-companions, assigning him regular allowances and a fixed salary. And they all ceased not from the enjoyment of all the delights and comforts of life, till there overtook them the Destroyer of delights and the Sunderer of companies.