A plain and literal translation of the Arabian nights entertainments, now entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night. Volume 7 (of 17). Народное творчество
him, till Al-Damigh entered, when Gharib related to them all that had befallen him in the land of the Jinn, whereat they all marvelled. Then he lay with Fakhr Taj till near daybreak, when he took leave of his wives and his uncle and mounted Kurajan’s back, nor was the darkness dispelled before the two Marids set him down in the city of Oman. Then he and his men armed and he bade open the gates when, behold, up came a horseman from the host of the Indians, with Jamrkan and Sa’adan and the rest of the captive captains whom he had delivered, and committed them to Gharib. The Moslems, rejoicing in their safety, donned their mails and took horse, while the kettle drums beat a point of war; and the Miscreants also drew up in line.–And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Moslem host mounted and rode to the plain of cut and thrust, the first to open the door of war was King Gharib who, drawing his sword Al-Mahik, drove his charger between the two ranks and cried out, saying, “Whoso knoweth me hath enough of my mischief and whoso unknoweth me, to him I will make myself known. I am Gharib, King of Al-Irak and Al-Yaman, brother of Ajib.” When Ra’ad Shah, son of the King of Hind, heard this, he shouted to his captains, “Bring me Ajib.” So they brought him and Ra’ad Shah said to him, “Thou wottest that this quarrel is thy quarrel and thou art the cause of all this slaughter. Now yonder standeth thy brother Gharib middle-most the fight-field and stead where sword and spear we shall wield; go thou to him and bring him to me a prisoner, that I may set him on a camel arsy-versy, and make a show of him and carry him to the land of Hind.” Answered Ajib, “O King, send out to him other than I, for I am in ill-health this morning.” But Ra’ad Shah snarked and snorted and cried, “By the virtue of the sparkling Fire and the light and the shade and the heat, unless thou fare forth to thy brother and bring him to me in haste, I will cut off thy head and make an end of thee.” So Ajib took heart and urging his horse up to his brother in mid-field, said to him, “O dog of the Arabs and vilest of all who hammer down tent-pegs, wilt thou contend with Kings? Take what to thee cometh and receive the glad tidings of thy death.” When Gharib heard this, he said to him, “Who art thou among the Kings?” And Ajib answered, saying, “I am thy brother, and this day is the last of thy worldly days.” Now when Gharib was assured that he was indeed his brother Ajib, he cried out and said, “Ho, to avenge my father and mother!” Then giving his sword to Kaylajan,54 he drave at Ajib and smote him with his mace a smashing blow and a swashing, that went nigh to beat in his ribs, and seizing him by the mail-gorget tore him from the saddle and cast him to the ground; whereupon the two Marids pounced upon him and binding him fast, dragged him off dejected and abject; whilst Gharib rejoiced in the capture of his enemy and repeated these couplets of the poet:—
I have won my wish and my need have scored
Unto Thee be the praise and the thanks, O our Lord!
I grew up dejected and abject; poor,
But Allah vouchsafed me all boons implored:
I have conquered countries and mastered men
But for Thee were I naught, O thou Lord adored!
When Ra’ad Shah saw how evilly Ajib fared with his brother, he called for his charger and donning his harness and habergeon, mounted and dashed out a-field. As soon as he drew near King Gharib, he cried out at him, saying, “O basest of Arabs and bearer of scrubs,55 who art thou, that thou shouldest capture Kings and braves? Down from thy horse and put elbows behind back and kiss my feet and set my warriors free and go with me in bond of chains to my reign that I may pardon thee and make thee a Shaykh in our own land, so mayst thou eat there a bittock of bread.” When Gharib heard these words he laughed till he fell backwards and answered, saying, “O mad hound and mangy wolf, soon shalt thou see against whom the shifts of Fortune will turn!” Then he cried out to Sahim, saying, “Bring me the prisoners;” so he brought them, and Gharib smote off their heads; whereupon Ra’ad Shah drave at him, with the driving of a lordly champion and the onslaught of a fierce slaughterer and they falsed and feinted and fought till nightfall, when the kettle-drums beat the retreat.–And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the kettle-drums beat the retreat, the two Kings parted and returned, each to his own place where his people gave him joy of his safety. And the Moslems said to Gharib, “’Tis not thy wont, O King, to prolong a fight;” and he replied, “O folk, I have done battle with many royalties56 and champions; but never saw I a harder hitter than this one. Had I chosen to draw Al-Mahik upon him, I had mashed his bones and made an end of his days: but I delayed with him, thinking to take him prisoner and give him part enjoyment in Al-Islam.” Thus far concerning Gharib; but as regards Ra’ad Shah, he returned to his marquee and sat upon his throne, when his Chiefs came in to him and asked him of his adversary, and he answered, “By the truth of the sparkling Fire, never in my life saw I the like of yonder brave! But to-morrow I will take him prisoner and lead him away dejected and abject.” Then they slept till daybreak, when the battle-drums beat to fight and the swords in baldric were dight; and war-cries were cried amain and all mounted their horses of generous strain and drew out into the field, filling every wide place and hill and plain. The first to open the door of war was the rider outrageous and the lion rageous, King Gharib, who drave his steed between the two hosts and wheeled and careered over the field, crying, “Who is for fray, who is for fight? Let no sluggard come out to me this day nor dullard!” Before he had made an end of speaking, out rushed Ra’ad Shah, riding on an elephant, as he were a vast tower, in a seat girthed with silken bands; and between the elephant’s ears sat the driver, bearing in hand a hook, wherewith he goaded the beast and directed him right and left. When the elephant drew near Gharib’s horse, and the steed saw a creature it had never before set eyes on, it took fright;57 wherefore Gharib dismounted and gave the horse to Kaylajan. Then he drew Al-Mahik and advanced to meet Ra’ad Shah afoot, walking on till he faced the elephant. Now it was Ra’ad Shah’s wont, when he found himself overmatched by any brave, to mount an elephant, taking with him an implement called the lasso,58 which was in the shape of a net, wide at base and narrow at top with a running cord of silk passed through rings along its edges. With this he would attack horsemen and casting the meshes over them, draw the running noose and drag the rider off his horse and make him prisoner; and thus had he conquered many cavaliers. So, as Gharib came up to him, he raised his hand and, bespreading the net over him, pulled him on to the back of the elephant and cried out to the beast to return to the Indian camp. But Kaylajan and Kurajan had not left Gharib and, when they beheld what had befallen their lord, they laid hold of the elephant, whilst Gharib strove with the net, till he rent it in sunder. Upon this the two Marids seized Ra’ad Shah and bound him with a cord of palm-fibre. Then the two armies drove each at other and met with a shock like two seas crashing or two mountains together dashing, whilst the dust rose to the confines of the sky and blinded was every eye. The battle waxed fierce and fell, the blood ran in rills, nor did they cease to wage war with lunge of lance and sway of sword in lustiest way, till the day darkened and the night starkened, when the drums beat the retreat and the two hosts drew asunder.59 Now the Moslems were evilly entreated that day by reason of the riders on elephants and giraffes,60 and many of them were killed and most of the rest were wounded. This was grievous to Gharib, who commanded the hurt to be medicined and turning to his Chief Officers, asked them what they counselled. Answered they, “O King, ’tis only the elephants and giraffes that irk us; were we but quit of them, we should overcome the enemy.” Quoth Kaylajan and Kurajan, “We twain will unsheath our swords and fall on them and slay the most part of them.” But there came forward a man of Oman, who had been privy counsellor to Jaland, and said, “O King, I will be surety for the host, an thou wilt but hearken to me and follow my counsel.” Gharib turned to his Captains and said to them, “Whatsoever this wise man shall say to you that do.”–And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
There is some chivalry in his unwillingness to use the magical blade. As a rule the Knights of Romance utterly ignore fair play and take every dirty advantage in the magic line that comes to hand.
Arab. “Hammál al-Hatabi” = one who carries to market the fuel-sticks which he picks up in the waste. In the Koran (chapt. cxi.) it is applied to Umm Jamíl, wife of Mohammed’s hostile cousin, Abd al-Uzza, there termed Abú Lahab (Father of smokeless Flame) with the implied meaning that she will bear fuel to feed Hell-fire.
Arab. “Akyál,” lit. whose word (Kaul) is obeyed, a title of the Himyarite Kings, of whom Al-Bergendi relates that one of them left an inscription at Samarcand, which many centuries ago no man could read. This evidently alludes to the dynasty which preceded the “Tobba” and to No. xxiv. Shamar Yar’ash (Shamar the Palsied). Some make him son of Malik surnamed Náshir al-Ni’am (Scatterer of Blessings) others of Afríkús (No. xviii.), who, according to Al-Jannabi, Ahmad bin Yusuf and Ibn Ibdun (Pocock, Spec. Hist. Arab.) founded the Berber (Barbar) race, the remnants of the Causanites expelled by the “robber, Joshua son of Nún,” and became the eponymous of “Africa.” This word which, under the Romans, denoted a small province on the Northern Sea-board, is, I would suggest, A’far-Káhi (Afar-land), the Afar being now the Dankali race, the country of Osiris whom my learned friend, the late Mariette Pasha, derived from the Egyptian “Punt” identified by him with the Somali country. This would make “Africa,” as it ought to be, an Egyptian (Coptic) term.
Herodotus (i. 80) notes this concerning the camel. Elephants are not allowed to walk the streets in Anglo-Indian cities, where they have caused many accidents.
Arab. Wahk or Wahak, suggesting the Roman retiarius. But the lasso pure and simple, the favourite weapon of shepherd and herdsmen was well-known to the old Egyptians and in ancient India. It forms one of the T-letters in the hieroglyphs.
Compare with this and other Arab battle-pieces the Pandit’s description in the Kathá Sarit Sagara,
The giraffe is here mal-placé: it is, I repeat, one of the most timid of the antelope tribe. Nothing can be more graceful than this huge game as it stands under a tree extending its long and slender neck to the foliage above it; but when in flight all the limbs seem loose and the head is carried almost on a level with the back.