burton--1001-nights--sample

Fisherman, “What is my crime and wherefore such retribution?”
Quoth the Ifrit, “Hear my story, O Fisherman!” and he answered,
“Say on, and be brief in thy saying, for of very sooth my life-breath is
in my nostrils.” 22
Thereupon quoth the Jinni, “Know, that I am one among the heretical
Jann and I sinned against Sulayman, David-son (on the twain be
peace!) I together with the famous Sakhr al-Jinni; 23 whereupon the
Prophet sent his minister, Asaf son of Barkhiyá, to seize me; and this
Wazir brought me against my will and led me in bonds to him (I being
downcast despite my nose) and he placed me standing before him like
a suppliant. When Sulayman saw me, he took refuge with Allah and
bade me embrace the True Faith and obey his behests; but I refused, so
sending for this cucurbit 24 he shut me up therein, and stopped it over
with lead whereon he impressed the Most High Name, and gave his
orders to the Jann who carried me off, and cast me into the midmost of
the ocean. There I abode an hundred years, during which I said in my
heart, ‘Whoso shall release me, him will I enrich for ever and ever.’ But
the full century went by and, when no one set me free, I entered upon
the second five score saying, ‘Whoso shall release me, for him I will
open the hoards of the earth.’ Still no one set me free and thus four
hundred years passed away. Then quoth I, ‘Whoso shall release me, for
22
i.e. about to fly out.
23
“Sulayman,” when going out to ease himself, entrusted his seal-ring upon which
his kingdom depended to a concubine “Amínah” (the “Faithful”), when Sakhr,
transformed to the King’s likeness, came in and took it. The prophet was reduced
to beggary, but after forty days the demon fled throwing into the sea the ring which
was swallowed by a fish and eventually returned to Sulayman. This Talmudic fable
is hinted at in the Koran, and commentators have extensively embroidered it.
24
Arab. “Kumkam,” a gourd-shaped bottle of metal, china or glass, still used for
sprinkling scents.
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