and obey.” So when her husband came into her – And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Governor came in to his wife, who spoke to him as she had been taught and made him swear the divorce-oath before she would yield to his wishes. He lay with her that night and, when morning dawned, after he had made the Ghusl-ablution and prayed the dawn-prayer, he repaired to the prison and said, “O Ahmad Kamakim, O thou arch-thief, dost thou repent of thy works?”; whereto he replied, “I do indeed repent and turn to Allah and say with heart and tongue: – I ask pardon of Allah.” So the Governor took him out of jail and carried him to the Court (he being still in bilboes) and, approaching the Caliph kissed ground before him. Quoth the King, “O Emir Khalid, what seekest thou?”; whereupon he brought forward Ahmad Kamakim, shuffling and tripping in his fetters, and the Caliph said to him, “What! art thou yet alive, O Kamakim?” He replied, “O Commander of the Faithful, the miserable are long-lived.” Quoth the Caliph to the Emir, “Why hast thou brought him hither?”; and quoth he, “O Commander of the Faithful, he hath a poor old mother cut off from the world who hath none but this son and she hath had recourse to thy slave, imploring him to intercede with thee to strike off his chains, for he repenteth of his evil courses; and to make him Captain of the Watch as before.” The Caliph asked Ahmad Kamakim, “Dost thou repent of thy sins?” “I do indeed repent me to Allah, O Commander of the Faithful,” answered he; whereupon the Caliph called for the blacksmith and made him strike off his irons on the corpse-washer’s bench.92 Moreover, he restored him to his former office and charged him to walk in the ways of godliness and righteousness. So he kissed the Caliph’s hands and, being invested with the uniform of Captain of the Watch, he went forth, whilst they made proclamation of his appointment. Now for a long time he abode in the exercise of his office, till one day his mother went in to the Governor’s wife, who said to her, “Praised be Allah who hath delivered thy son from prison and restored him to health and safety! But why dost thou not bid him contrive some trick to get the girl Jessamine for son Habzalam Bazazah?” “That will I,” answered she and, going out from her, repaired to her son. She found him drunk with wine and said to him, “O my son, no one caused thy release from jail but the wife of the Governor, and she would have thee find some means to slay Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat and get his slave-girl Jessamine for her son Habzalam Bazazah.” He answered, “That will be the easiest of things; and I must needs set about it this very night.” Now this was the first night of the new month, and it was the custom of the Caliph to spend that night with the Lady Zubaydah, for the setting free of a slave-girl or a Mameluke or something of the sort. Moreover, on such occasions he used to doff his royal habit, together with his rosary and dagger-sword and royal signet, and set them all upon a chair in the sitting-saloon: and he had also a golden lanthorn, adorned with three jewels strung on a wire of gold, by which he set great store; and he would commit all these things to the charge of the eunuchry, whilst he went into the Lady Zubaydah’s apartment. So arch-thief Ahmad Kamakim waited till midnight, when Canopus shone bright, and all creatures to sleep were dight whilst the Creator veiled them with the veil of night. Then he took his drawn sword in his right and his grappling-hook in his left and, repairing to the Caliph’s sitting-saloon planted his scaling ladder and cast his grapnel on to the side of the terrace-roof; then, raising the trap-door, let himself down into the saloon, where he found the eunuchs asleep. He drugged them with hemp-fumes;93 and, taking the Caliph’s dress, dagger, rosary, kerchief, signet-ring and the lanthorn whereupon were the pearls, returned whence he came and betook himself to the house of Ala al-Din, who had that night celebrated his wedding festivities with Jessamine and had gone in unto her and gotten her with child. So arch-thief Ahmad Kamakim climbed over into his saloon and, raising one of the marble slabs from the sunken part of the floor,94 dug a hole under it and laid the stolen things therein, all save the lanthorn, which he kept for himself. Then he plastered down the marble slab as it before was, and returning whence he came, went back to his own house, saying, “I will now tackle my drink and set this lanthorn before me and quaff the cup to its light.”95 Now as soon as it was dawn of day, the Caliph went out into the sitting-chamber; and, seeing the eunuchs drugged with hemp, aroused them. Then he put his hand to the chair and found neither dress nor signet nor rosary nor dagger-sword nor kerchief nor lanthorn; whereat he was exceeding wroth and donning the dress of anger, which was a scarlet suit,96 sat down in the Divan. So the Wazir Ja’afar came forward and kissing the ground before him, said, “Allah avert all evil from the Commander of the Faithful!” Answered the Caliph, “O Wazir, the evil is passing great!” Ja’afar asked, “What has happened?” so he told him what had occurred; and, behold, the Chief of Police appeared with Ahmad Kamakim the robber at his stirrup, when he found the Commander of the Faithful sore enraged. As soon as the Caliph saw him, he said to him, “O Emir Khalid, how goes Baghdad?” And he answered, “Safe and secure.” Cried he, “Thou liest!” “How so, O Prince of True Believers?” asked the Emir. So he told him the case and added, “I charge thee to bring me back all the stolen things.” Replied the Emir, “O Commander of the Faithful, the vinegar worm is of and in the vinegar, and no stranger can get at this place.”97 But the Caliph said, “Except thou bring me these things, I will put thee to death.” Quoth he, “Ere thou slay me, slay Ahmad Kamakim, for none should know the robber and the traitor but the Captain of the Watch.” Then came forward Ahmad Kamakim and said to the Caliph, “Accept my intercession for the Chief of Police, and I will be responsible to thee for the thief and will track his trail till I find him; but give me two Kazis and two Assessors for he who did this thing feareth thee not, nor doth he fear the Governor nor any other.” Answered the Caliph, “Thou shalt have what thou wantest; but let search be made first in my palace and then in those of the Wazir and the Chief of the Sixty.” Rejoined Ahmad Kamakim, “Thou sayest well, O Commander of the Faithful; belike the man that did this ill-deed be one who hath been reared in the King’s houshold or in that of one of his officers.” Cried the Caliph, “As my head liveth, whosoever shall have done the deed I will assuredly put him to death, be it mine own son!” Then Ahmad Kamakim received a written warrant to enter and perforce search the houses; – And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Ahmad Kamakim got what he wanted, and received a written warrant to enter and perforce search the houses; so he fared forth, taking in his hand a rod98 made of bronze and copper, iron and steel, of each three equal parts. He first searched the palace of the Caliph, then that of the Wazir Ja’afar; after which he went the round of the houses of the Chamberlains and the Viceroys till he came to that of Ala al-Din. Now when the Chief of the Sixty heard the clamour before his house, he left his wife Jessamine and went down and, opening the door, found the Master of Police without in the midst of a tumultuous crowd. So he said, “What is the matter, O Emir Khalid?” Thereupon the Chief told him the case and Ala al-Din said, “Enter my house and search it.” The Governor replied, “Pardon, O my lord; thou art a man in whom trust is reposed and Allah forfend that the trusty turn traitor!” Quoth Ala al-Din, “There is no help for it but that my house be searched.” So the Chief of Police entered, attended by the Kazi and his Assessors; whereupon Ahmad Kamakim went straight to the depressed floor of the saloon and came to the slab, under which he had buried the stolen goods and let the rod fall upon it with such violence that the marble broke in sunder and behold something glittered underneath. Then said he, “Bismillah; in the name of Allah! Mashallah; whatso Allah willeth! By the blessing of our coming a hoard hath been hit upon; wait while we go down into this hiding-place and see what is therein.” So the Kazi and Assessors looked into the hole and finding there the stolen goods, drew up a statement99 of how they had discovered them in Ala al-Din’s house, to which they set their seals. Then, they bade seize upon Ala al-Din and took his turband from his head, and officially
In order to keep his oath to the letter.
“Tabannuj” literally “hemping” (drugging with hemp or henbane) is the equivalent in Arab medicine of our “anæsthetics.” These have been used in surgery throughout the East for centuries before ether and chloroform became the fashion in the civilised West.
Arab. “Durká’ah,” the lower part of the floor, opposed to the “liwan” or daïs. Liwán = Al-Aywán (Arab. and Pers.) the hall (including the daïs and the sunken parts).
This till very late years was the custom in Persia; and Fath Ali Shah never appeared in scarlet without ordering some horrible cruelties. In Dar-For wearing a red cashmere turban was a sign of wrath and sending a blood-red dress to a subject meant that he would be slain.
That is, this robbery was committed in the palace by some one belonging to it. References to vinegar are frequent; that of Egypt being famous in those days. “Optimum et laudatissimum acetum a Romanis habebatur Ægyptum” (Facciolati); and possibly it was sweetened: the Gesta (Tale xvii.) mentions “must and vinegar.” In Arab Proverbs, “One mind by vinegar and another by wine” = each mind goes its own way. (Arab. Prov. ii. 628); or, “with good and bad,” vinegar being spoilt wine.
We have not heard the last of this old “dowsing rod”: the latest form of rhabdomancy is an electrical rod invented in the United States.
This is the
