CHAPTER III.

COMMENCING WITH PART OF THE NINTH NIGHT, AND ENDING WITH PART OF THE

EIGHTEENTH.

THE STORY OF THE PORTER AND THE LADIES OF BAGHDÁD, AND OF THE THREE

ROYAL MENDICANTS, &c.

There was a man of the city of Baghdád, who was unmarried, and he was a

porter; and one day, as he sat in the market, reclining against his

crate,[III_1] there accosted him a female wrapped in an

izár[III_2] of the manufacture of El-Móṣil,[III_3] composed of

gold-embroidered silk, with a border of gold lace at each end, who

raised her face-veil, and displayed beneath it a pair of black eyes,

with lids bordered by long lashes, exhibiting a tender expression, and

features of perfect beauty; and she said, with a sweet voice, Bring thy

crate, and follow me.

The porter had scarcely heard her words when he took up his crate, and

he followed her until she stopped at the door of a house, and knocked;

whereupon there came down to her a Christian, and she gave him a piece

of gold, and received for it a quantity of olives, and two large vessels

of wine,[III_4] which she placed in the crate, saying to the

porter, Take it up, and follow me. The porter exclaimed, This is,

indeed, a fortunate day!--and he took up the crate, and followed her.

She next stopped at the shop of a fruiterer, and bought of him Syrian

apples, and 'Othmánee quinces,[III_5] and peaches of 'Omán, and

jasmine of Aleppo, and water-lilies of Damascus, and cucumbers of the

Nile, and Egyptian limes, and Sulṭánee citrons, and sweet-scented

myrtle, and sprigs of the ḥennà-tree, and chamomile, and anemones, and

violets, and pomegranate flowers, and eglantine: all these she put into

the porter's crate, and said to him, Take it up. So he took it up, and

followed her until she stopped at the shop of a butcher, to whom she

said, Cut off ten pounds of meat;--and he cut it off for her, and she

wrapped it in a leaf of a banana-tree, and put it in the crate, and said

again, Take it up, O porter:--and he did so, and followed her. She next

stopped at the shop of a seller of dry fruits, and took some of every

kind of these, and desired the porter to take up his burden. Having

obeyed, he followed her until she stopped at the shop of a confectioner,

where she bought a dish, and filled it with sweets of every kind that he

had,[III_6] which she put into the crate; whereupon the porter

ventured to say, If thou hadst informed me beforehand, I had brought

with me a mule to carry all these things. The lady smiled at his remark,

and next stopped at the shop of a perfumer, of whom she bought ten kinds

of scented waters; rose-water, and orange-flower-water, and

willow-flower-water,[III_7] &c.; together with some sugar, and a

sprinkling-bottle[III_8] of rose-water infused with musk, and some

frankincense, and aloes-wood, and ambergris, and musk, and wax candles;

and, placing all these in the crate, she said, Take up thy crate, and

follow me. He, therefore, took it up, and followed her until she came to

a handsome house, before which was a spacious court. It was a lofty

structure, with a door of two leaves, composed of ebony, overlaid with

plates of red gold.[III_9]

The young lady stopped at this door, and knocked gently; whereupon both

its leaves were opened, and the porter, looking to see who opened it,

found it to be a damsel of tall stature, high-bosomed, fair and

beautiful, and of elegant form, with a forehead like the bright new

moon, eyes like those of gazelles, eyebrows like the new moon of

Ramaḍán,[III_10] cheeks resembling anemones, and a mouth like the

seal of Suleymán:[III_11] her countenance was like the full moon in

its splendour, and the forms of her bosom resembled two pomegranates of

equal size. When the porter beheld her, she captivated his reason, the

crate nearly fell from his head, and he exclaimed, Never in my life have

I seen a more fortunate day than this! The lady-portress, standing

within the door, said to the cateress and the porter, Ye are

welcome:--and they entered, and proceeded to a spacious

saloon,[III_12] decorated with various colours, and beautifully

constructed, with carved wood-work, and fountains, and benches of

different kinds, and closets with curtains hanging before them; there

was also in it, at the upper end,[III_13] a couch of alabaster

inlaid with large pearls and jewels, with a musquito-curtain of red

satin suspended over it, and within this was a young lady with eyes

possessing the enchantment of Bábil,[III_14] and a figure like the

letter Alif,[III_15] with a face that put to shame the shining sun:

she was like one of the brilliant planets, or rather, one of the most

high-born of the maidens of Arabia. This third lady,[III_16] rising

from the couch, advanced with a slow and elegant gait to the middle of

the saloon, where her sisters were standing, and said to them, Why stand

ye still? Lift down the burden from the head of this poor

porter:--whereupon the cateress placed herself before him, and the

portress behind him, and, the third lady assisting them, they lifted it

down from his head. They then took out the contents of the crate, and,

having put every thing in its place, gave to the porter two pieces of

gold, saying to him, Depart, O porter.

The porter, however, stood looking at the ladies, and admiring their

beauty and their agreeable dispositions; for he had never seen any more

handsome; and when he observed that they had not a man among them, and

gazed upon the wine, and fruits, and sweet-scented flowers, which were

there, he was full of astonishment, and hesitated to go out; upon which

one of the ladies said to him, Why dost thou not go? dost thou deem thy

hire too little? Then turning to one of her sisters, she said to her,

Give him another piece of gold.--By Allah, O my mistress, exclaimed the

porter, my hire is but two half-dirhems,[III_17] and I thought not

what ye have given me too little; but my heart and mind were occupied

with reflections upon you and your state, ye being alone, with no man

among you, not one to amuse you with his company; for ye know that the

menáreh[III_18] standeth not firmly but on four walls: now ye have

not a fourth, and the pleasure of women is not complete without men: ye

are three only, and have need of a fourth, who should be a man, a

person of sense, discreet, acute, and a concealer of secrets. We are

maidens, they replied; and fear to impart our secret to him who will not

keep it; for we have read, in a certain history, this verse:--

Guard thy secret from another: intrust it not: for he who intrusteth

a secret hath lost it.

[Illustration]

--By your existence, said the porter, I am a man of sense, and

trustworthy: I have read various books, and perused histories: I make

known what is fair, and conceal what is foul, and act in accordance with

the saying of the poet:--

None keepeth a secret but a faithful person: with the best of mankind

it remaineth concealed.

A secret is with me as in a house with a lock, whose key is lost,

and whose door is sealed.[III_19]

When the ladies heard the verses which he quoted, and the words with

which he addressed them, they said to him, Thou knowest that we have

expended here a considerable sum of money: hast thou then wherewith to

requite us? We will not suffer thee to remain with us unless thou

contribute a sum of money; for thou desirest to sit with us, and to be

our cup-companion, and to gaze upon our beautiful faces.--If friendship

is without money, said the mistress of the house, it is not equivalent

to the weight of a grain:--and the portress added, If thou hast nothing,

depart with nothing:--but the cateress said, O sister, let us suffer

him; for, verily, he hath not been deficient in his services for us this

day: another had not been so patient with us: whatever, therefore, falls

to his share of the expense, I will defray for him.--At this the porter

rejoiced, and exclaimed, By Allah, I obtained my first and only pay this

day from none but thee:--and the other ladies said to him, Sit down:

thou art welcome.

The cateress then arose, and, having tightened her girdle, arranged the

bottles, and strained the wine, and prepared the table by the pool of

the fountain. She made ready all that they required, brought the wine,

and sat down with her sisters; the porter also sitting with them,

thinking he was in a dream. And when they had seated themselves, the

cateress took a jar of wine, and filled the first cup, and drank

it:[III_20] she then filled another, and handed it to one of her

sisters; and in like manner she did to her other sister; after which she

filled again, and handed the cup to the porter, who, having taken it

from her hand, repeated this verse:--

I will drink the wine, and enjoy health; for, verily, this beverage

is a remedy for disease.

[Illustration]

The wine continued to circulate among them, and the porter, taking his