The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, by Richard F. Burton - The Original Classic Edition. Burton Richard
illustration:--
O Thou who fearest Fate, confiding fare * Trust all to Him who
built the world and wait:
What Fate saith "Be" perforce must be, my lord! * And safe art thou from th undecreed of Fate.
As Duban the physician entered he addressed the King in these lines:--
An fail I of my thanks to thee nor thank thee day by day * For whom com posed I prose and verse, for whom my say and lay?
Thou lavishedst thy generous gifts ere they were craved by me *
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Thou lavishedst thy boons unsought sans pretext or delay: How shall I stint my praise of thee, how shall I cease to laud *
The grace of thee in secresy and patentest display?
Nay; I will thank thy benefits, for aye thy favours lie * Light on my thought and tongue, though heavy on my back they weigh.
And he said further on the same theme:--
Turn thee from grief nor care a jot! * Commit thy needs to Fate and Lot!
Enjoy the Present passing well * And let the Past be clean forgot
For whatso haply seemeth worse * Shall work thy weal as Allah wot
Allah shall do whate'er He wills * And in His will oppose Him not.
And further still.--
To th' All wise Subtle One trust worldly things * Rest thee from all whereto the worldling clings:
Learn wisely well naught cometh by thy will * But e'en as willeth
Allah, King of Kings.
And lastly.--
Gladsome and gay forget thine every grief * Full often grief the wisest hearts outwore:
Thought is but folly in the feeble slave * Shun it and so be
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saved evermore.
Said the King for sole return, "Knowest thou why I have summoned thee?" and the Sage replied, "Allah Most Highest alone kenneth hidden things!" But the King rejoined, "I summoned thee only to take thy life and utterly to destroy thee." Duban the Wise
wondered at this strange address with exceeding wonder and asked, "O King, and wherefore wouldest thou slay me, and what ill have I done thee?" and the King answered, "Men tell me thou art a spy sent hither with intent to slay me; and lo! I will kill thee ere
I be killed by thee;" then he called to his Sworder, and said, "Strike me off the head of this traitor and deliver us from his evil practices." Quoth the Sage, "Spare me and Allah will spare thee; slay me not or Allah shall slay thee." And he repeated to him these very words, even as I to thee, O Ifrit, and yet thou
wouldst not let me go, being bent upon my death. King Yunan only rejoined, "I shall not be safe without slaying thee; for, as thou healedst me by something held in hand, so am I not secure against thy killing me by something given me to smell or otherwise." Said the physician, "This then, O King, is thy requital and reward;
thou returnest only evil for good." The King replied, "There is no help for it; die thou must and without delay." Now when the physician was certified that the King would slay him without waiting, he wept and regretted the good he had done to other than the good. As one hath said on this subject:--
Of wit and wisdom is Maymunah[FN#98] bare * Whose sire in wisdom all the wits outstrippeth:
Man may not tread on mud or dust or clay * Save by good sense,
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else trippeth he and slippeth.
Hereupon the Sworder stepped forward and bound the Sage Duban's eyes and bared his blade, saying to the King, "By thy leave;"
while the physician wept and cried, "Spare me and Allah will spare thee, and slay me not or Allah shall slay thee," and began repeating:--
I was kind and 'scaped not, they were cruel and escaped; * And my kindness only led me to Ruination Hall,
If I live I'll ne'er be kind; if I die, then all be damned * Who follow me, and curses their kindliness befal.
"Is this," continued Duban, "the return I meet from thee? Thou givest me, meseems, but crocodile boon." Quoth the King,"What is the tale of the crocodile?", and quoth the physician, "Impossible
for me to tell it in this my state; Allah upon thee, spare me, as thou hopest Allah shall spare thee." And he wept with ex ceeding weeping. Then one of the King's favourites stood up and said, "O King! grant me the blood of this physician; we have never seen him sin against thee, or doing aught save healing thee from a disease which baffled every leach and man of science." Said the King, "Ye wot not the cause of my putting to death this
physician, and this it is. If I spare him, I doom myself to certain death; for one who healed me of such a malady by something held in my hand, surely can slay me by something held to my nose; and I fear lest he kill me for a price, since haply
he is some spy whose sole purpose in coming hither was to compass
my destruction. So there is no help for it; die he must, and then
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only shall I be sure of my own life." Again cried Duban, "Spare me and Allah shall spare thee; and slay me not or Allah shall
slay thee." But it was in vain. Now when the physician, O Ifrit, knew for certain that the King would kill him, he said, "O King, if there be no help but I must die, grant me some little delay
that I may go down to my house and release myself from mine obligations and direct my folk and my neighbours where to bury me and distribute my books of medicine. Amongst these I have one,
the rarest of rarities, which I would present to thee as an offering: keep it as a treasure in thy treasury." "And what is in
the book?" asked the King and the Sage answered, "Things beyond compt; and the least of secrets is that if, directly after thou
hast cut off my head, thou open three leaves and read three lines of the page to thy left hand, my head shall speak and answer every question thou deignest ask of it." The King wondered with
exceeding wonder and shaking[FN#99] with delight at the novelty, said, "O physician, cost thou really tell me that when I cut off
thy head it will speak to me?" He replied, "Yes, O King!" Quoth the King, "This is indeed a strange matter!" and forthwith sent him closely guarded to his house, and Duban then and there settled all his obligations. Next day he went up to the King's
audience hall, where Emirs and Wazirs, Chamberlains and Nabobs, Grandees and Lords of Estate were gathered together, making the presence chamber gay as a garden of flower beds. And lo! the physician came up and stood before the King, bearing a worn old volume and a little etui of metal full of powder, like that used
for the eyes.[FN#100] Then he sat down and said, "Give me a tray." So they brought him one and he poured the powder upon it
and levelled it and lastly spake as follows: "O King, take this
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book but do not open it till my head falls; then set it upon this tray, and bid press it down upon the powder, when forthright the blood will cease flowing. That is the time to open the book." The King thereupon took the book and made a sign to the Sworder, who arose and struck off the physician's head, and placing it on the middle of the tray, pressed it down upon the powder. The blood stopped flowing, and the Sage Duban unclosed his eyes and said,
"Now open the book, O King!" The King opened the book, and found
the leaves stuck together; so he put his finger to his mouth and, by moistening it, he easily turned over the first leaf, and in
like way the second, and the third, each leaf opening with much trouble; and when he had un stuck six leaves he looked over them and, finding nothing written thereon, said, "O physician, there
is no writing here!" Duban re plied, "Turn over yet more;" and he turned over three others in the same way. Now the book