Nineteenth Night.
Towards morning, Dinarzade called the sultaness, and said, Dear sister, my pendulum tells me it will be day speedily, therefore pray continue the history of the fisherman; I am extremely impatient to know what the issue of it was. Scheherazade, having demanded leave of Schahriar, resumed her discourse as follows: Sir, I leave it to your majesty to think how much the sultan was surprised when he saw the four fishes which the fisherman presented him. He took them up one after another, and beheld them with attention; and after having admired them a long time, take these fishes, says he to his prime vizier, and carry them to the fine cook-maid that the emperor of the Greeks has sent me. I cannot imagine but they must be as good as they are fine.
The vizier carried them himself to the cook, and, delivering them into her hands, Look ye, says he, there are four fishes newly brought to the sultan, he orders you to dress them; and, having said so, he returned to the sultan his master, who ordered him to give the fisherman four hundred pieces of gold of the coin of that country, which he did accordingly.
The fisherman, who had never seen so much cash in his lifetime, could scarcely believe his own good fortune, but thought it must needs be a dream, until he found it to be real, when he provided necessaries for his family with it.
But, sir, says Scheherazade, having told you what happened to the fisherman, I must acquaint you next with what befel the sultan's cook-maid, whom we shall find in a mighty perplexity. As soon as she had gutted the fishes, she put them upon the fire in a frying-pan with oil, and when she thought them fried enough on one side, she turned them upon the other; but, O monstrous prodigy! scarcely were they turned, when the wall of the kitchen opened, and in comes a young lady of wonderful beauty and comely size. She was clad in flowered satin, after the Egyptian manner, with pendants in her ears, necklace of large pearl, and bracelets of gold, garnished with rubies, with a rod of myrtle in her hand. She came towards the frying-pan, to the great amazement of the cook-maid, who continued immovable at this sight, and, striking one of the fishes with the end of the rod, says, "Fish, fish, art thou in thy duty?" The fish having answered nothing, she repeated these words, and then the four fishes lift up their heads altogether, and said to her, "Yes, yes, if you reckon, we reckon; if you pay your debts, we pay ours; if you fly, we overcome, and are content." As soon as they had finished these words, the lady overturned the frying-pan, and entered again into the open part of the wall, which shut immediately, and became as it was before.
The cook-maid was mightily frightened at this, and, coming a little to herself, went to take up the fishes that fell upon the earth, but found them blacker than coal, and not fit to be carried to the sultan. She was grievously troubled at it, and fell a-weeping most bitterly: Alas! says she, what will become of me? If I tell the sultan what I have seen, I am sure he will not believe me, but will be mightily enraged against me.
Whilst she was thus bewailing herself, in comes the grand vizier, and asked her if the fishes were ready? She told him all that had happened, which, we may easily imagine, astonished him mightily; but, without speaking a word to the sultan, he invented an excuse that satisfied him, and sending immediately for the fisherman, bid him bring four more such fish; for a misfortune had befallen the other, that they were not fit to be carried to the sultan. The fisherman, without saying any thing of what the genie had told him, in order to excuse himself from bringing them that very day, told the vizier he had a great way to go for them, but would certainly bring them to-morrow.
Accordingly the fisherman went away by night, and, coming to the pond, threw in his nets betimes next morning, took four such fishes as the former, and brought them to the vizier at the hour appointed. The minister took them himself, carried them to the kitchen, and shutting himself up all alone with the cook-maid, she gutted them, and put them on the fire, as she had done the four others the day before; when they were fried on the one side, and she had turned them upon the other, the kitchen-wall opened, and the same lady came in with the rod in her hand, struck one of the fishes, spoke to it as before, and all four gave her the same answer. But, sir, says Scheherazade, day appears, which obliges me to break off. What I have told you is indeed singular, but if I be alive to-morrow, I will tell you other things which are yet better worth your hearing. Schahriar, conceiving that the sequel must be very curious, resolved to hear her next night.
The Twentieth Night.
Next morning the sultan prevented Dinarzade, and says to Scheherazade, Madam, I pray you make an end of the story of the fisherman; I am impatient to hear it. Upon which the sultaness continued it thus:
Sir, after the four fishes had answered the young lady, she overturned the frying-pan with her rod, and retired into the same place of the wall from whence she came out. The grand vizier being witness to what passed, This is too surprising and extraordinary, says he, to be concealed from the sultan; I will inform him of this prodigy; which he did accordingly, and gave him a faithful account of all that had happened.
The sultan, being much surprised, was mighty impatient to see this himself. To this end, he sent immediately for the fisherman, and says to him, Friend, cannot you bring me four more such fishes? The fisherman replied, If your majesty will be pleased to allow me three days time, I will do it. Having obtained this time, he went to the pond immediately, and, at the first throwing in of his net, he took four such fishes, and brought them presently to the sultan, who was the more rejoiced at it, as he did not expect them so soon, and ordered him other four hundred pieces of gold. As soon as the sultan had the fish, he ordered them to be carried into the closet, with all that was necessary for frying them; and having shut himself up there with his vizier, that minister gutted them, put them in the pan upon the fire, and when they were fried on one side, turned them upon the other; then the wall of the closet opened; but, instead of the young lady, there came out a black, in the habit of a slave, and of a gigantic stature, with a great green baton in his hand. He advanced towards the pan, and touching one of the fishes with his baton, says to it with a terrible voice, "Fish, art thou in thy duty?" At these words, the fishes raised up their heads, and answered, "Yes, yes, we are: if you reckon, we reckon; if you pay your debts, we pay ours; if you fly, we overcome, and are content."
The fish had no sooner finished these words, than the black threw the pan into the middle of the closet, and reduced these fishes to a coal. Having done this, he retired fiercely, and entering again into the hole of the wall, it shut, and appeared just as it was before.
After what I have seen, says the sultan to the vizier, it will not be possible for me to be easy in my mind. These fish, without doubt, signify something extraordinary, in which I have a mind to be satisfied. He sent for the fisherman; and when he came, says to him, Fisherman, the fishes you have brought us make me very uneasy; where did you catch them? Sir, answers he, I fished for them in a pond situate betwixt four hills, beyond the mountain that we see from hence. Know you that pond, says the sultan to the vizier? No, sir, replies the vizier, I never so much as heard of it; and yet it is not sixty years since I hunted beyond that mountain and thereabouts. The sultan asked the fisherman, how far the pond might be from the palace? The fisherman answered, it was not above three hours journey. Upon this assurance, and there being day enough beforehand, the sultan commanded all his court to take horse, and the fisherman served them for a guide. They all ascended the mountain, and at the foot of it they saw, to their great surprise, a vast plain, that nobody had observed till then; and at last they came to the pond, which they found actually to be situate betwixt four hills, as the fisherman had said. The water of it was so transparent, that they observed all the fishes to be like those which the fisherman had brought to the palace.
The sultan staid upon the bank of the pond, and, after beholding the fishes with admiration, he demanded of his emirs and all his courtiers, if it was possible they had never seen this pond, which was within so little a way of the town. They all answered, that they had never so much as heard of it.
Since you all agree, says he, that you never heard of it, and as I am no less astonished than you are, at this novelty I am resolved not to return to my palace till I know how this pond came hither,
