Scheherazade continued with the tale.
Continuation of the story of the sixth night
Oh worthy king! It had reached me that when the fish spoke, and the young lady upset the frying-pan with her rod, and went forth by the way she came, and obviously, the wall closed, the wazir cried out:
"This can´t be hidden from the King!"
So, he went and told him what had happened, who stated:
"There is no help for this, but I have to see this with my own eyes."
Then, he sent for the fisherman and commanded him to bring four other fish like the first ones, and took with him three men as witnesses. The fisherman brought the fish, and the king, after ordering to give him four hundred gold pieces, turned to the wazir and expressed:
"Do it!"
"Fry the fish here before me!"
The wazir replied:
"I hear and obey!"
He brought the frying-pan, threw there the cleaned fish and set them over the fire. Afterwards, the wall split in two and out of burst, appeared a slave, like a huge rock or a remnant of her tribe, bearing in the hand a branch of a green tree, and she cried in loud and terrible tones:
"Oh fish!"
"Oh fish!"
"Will you fulfill your promise?"
In those moments, the fish lifted their heads from the frying-pan and said:
"Yes!"
"Yes!"
And they recited again the couplet:
"Come back and we will imitate you!"
"Keep your promise and we will keep ours!"
"If you want to quit, we will not cease until you declare yourself defeated!"
Then, the huge slave approached the frying-pan, upset it with the branch and went forth by the way she came in.
When she vanished from their sight, the king inspected the fish, and finding them all charred black as charcoal, was utterly bewildered and said to the wazir:
"Certainly, this is a matter where silence can´t be kept, and as for the fishes, assuredly some marvelous adventure connects with them."
So, he ordered to bring the fisherman and asked him:
"Fellow!"
"From where do these fish come from?"
He answered:
"From a lake between four heights, lying behind this mountain, which is in sight of the city."
The king said:
"How many days' march?"
The fisherman replied:
"Oh our lord, the sultan, it is a walk of half hour."
The king was wondered and ordered his men to march and horsemen to mount, led off the fisherman, who went as their guide, but, in private he was damning the efrit.
They stopped after climbing the mountain and descended unto a great desert, which they had never seen during all their lives. The sultan and his merry men were amazed at this world set in the midst of four mountains, and with the lake and its fish of four colors: red, white, yellow and blue.
The king stood fixed to the spot in wonderment and asked his troops and all present:
"Had any one among you ever seen this piece of water before now?"
And all answered, in the same way:
"Oh king of the age!"
"Never did we set eyes upon it during all our days."
They also questioned the oldest inhabitants they met, men well stricken in years, but they replied, each and every time:
"We never saw a lake like this."
Therefore, the king said:
"By Allah!"
"I will not return to my capital nor sit upon the throne of my forbears, until I learn the truth about this lake and the fish there."
He ordered his men to dismount and walk all around the mountain, which they did, and summoning his wazir, a minister of much experience, sagacious, of penetrating wit and well versed in affairs, said to him:
"In my mind, I know there is a certain thing to do, I will inform you, but it is in my heart to go alone this night and root out the mystery of this lake and its fish."
"Take your seat at my tent-door, and say to the emirs, wazirs, nabobs and chamberlains, in the same way to all who ask: 'the sultan is ill and he had ordered me to refuse all admittance.' "
"And be careful, no one must know my will."
The wazir could not oppose him. Then, the king changed his dress and ornaments, and slinging his sword over his shoulder, took a path which led up to one of the mountains and marched for the rest of the night, until morning dawned. Nor did he cease wayfaring until the heat was too much for him. After his long walk, he rested for a while, and then resumed his march and fared on through the second night, until dawn, when suddenly there appeared a black point in the far distance. Here, he rejoiced and said to himself:
"Happily, some one here shall acquaint me with the mystery of the lake and its fish."
Drawing near the dark object, he found a palace built of swart stone, plated with iron, and while one leaf of the gate stood wide open, the other was shut. The king's spirits rose high as he stood before the gate and rapped a light, but hearing no answer, he knocked for a second and third time. Nonetheless, there came no sign.
Then, he knocked his loudest, but still there was no answer. So, he said:
"Doubtless, this is empty."
Next, he mustered up some resolution, and boldly walked through the main gate into the great hall, and there he cried out aloud:
"I am Here! I am Here! People of the palace!"
"I am a stranger and a traveler."
"Have you been out of here?"
He repeated his cry for a second and a third time, but still there came no reply. So, strengthening his heart and making up his mind, he stalked through the vestibule into the very middle of the palace and found no one here. It was furnished with silken and gold starred stuffs, and the hangings were let down over the doorways. In the midst was a spacious court, which set four open saloons, and in the center was a jetting fount with four figures of lions made of red gold, spouting from their mouths water clear as pearls and diaphanous gems. Round about the palace, the birds were let loose and over it there was a net of golden wire, hindering them from flying off. In brief, there was everything but no human beings.
The king was amazed at this, but felt sad at heart because he saw no one that could give him an account of the mountain and its lake, the fish, the mountains and the palace itself. Presently, as he sat between the doors, in deep thought behold, there came a voice of lament, as from a heart grief-spent and he heard the voice, chanting these verses:
"I hid what I endured of him and yet it came to light."
"And nightly sleep mine, eyelids fled and changed to sleepless night: Oh world! Oh Fate!"
"Withhold thy hand and cease to hurt and harm."
"Look and behold my hapless sprite in pain and suffering."
"Will never show ruth to the highborn, the youth who lost him on the way of love, and fell from wealth and fame to lowest base."
"Jealous of Zephyr's breath was I as on your form, he breathed, but when the Destiny descends, it was blind of human sight."
"What shall the hapless archer do who when he confronts his foe and bends him to bow to shoot the shaft, and shall find his string not tight?
When cark and care of so heavy bear on the youth of generous soul, how shall he escape and from where of fate his place of flight will come?"
Now, when the sultan heard the mournful voice, he sprang to his feet, and following the sound, found a curtain let down over a chamber door. The bold king raised this, and saw behind it a young man, sitting upon a couch about a cubit above the ground. He was fair to the sight, a well shaped weight, with eloquence, his forehead was flower-white, his cheek was rosy bright, and a mole' on his cheek-breadth like an ambergris-mite; even as the Poet would indicate:
"The young man is slender and gentle!"
"His dark hair is so black that it forms the night!"
"His forehead is so white that it lights up the night!"
"Never did the eyes of men witness such a feast as the spectacle of his graces!"
"You will know him among all young men by the mole he has on the rose of his cheek, precisely under one of his eyes!"
The king rejoiced and saluted him, who remained sitting in his caftan of silken stuff, purfled with Egyptian gold and his crown studded with gems of sorts, but his face was sad with traces of sorrow. He returned the royal salute, in the most courteous wise way, adding:
"Oh my lord, dignity and my rising to you, and my sole excuse is to crave your pardon."
The king replied:
"You are excused."
"Oh youth!"
"So, look upon me as your guest and come with a special object."
"I would acquaint you with the secrets of this lake and its fish and of this palace and thy loneliness, therein and the cause of my groaning and wailing."
When the young man heard these words, he wept with sore weeping, until his chest was drenched with tears and began reciting:
"Say to him, who careless sleeps while the shaft of Fortune flies or how many of this shifting world lays low and raises?"
"Although your eye is sealed in sleep, you don´t sleep with the Almighty's eyes, and had found Time ever fair, or Fate in constant guise?"
Then, he sighed a long-fetched sigh and recited:
"Confide that case to Him, the Lord who made humankind, or quit cark and care, and cultivate content of mind."
"Don´t ask for the Past or how or why it came to pass: Oh! All human things by Fate and Destiny were designed!"
The king was marveled and asked him:
"Oh young man!"
"What made you weep?"
And he answered:
"How should I not weep, when this is my case!"
Therefore, he put out his hand and raised the skirt of his garment. The lower half of him down to his feet appeared as stone, while from his navel to the hair of his head, he was man. The king, seeing this plight, grieved with sore grief and of with compassion cried:
"Alack and well-away!"
"Too suffering!"
"Oh youth!"
"The greatest sorrow upon my sorrow."
"I was minded to ask you only the mystery of the fish, whereas now I am concerned to learn your story as well as theirs."
"But, there is no Majesty and there is no Might, only in Allah, the Glorious, the Great!"
"Lose no time…"
"Oh youth!"
"But, tell me forthright your whole story."
He replied:
"Lend me your ears, your sight and your insight."
And the king answered:
"All are at your service!"
Then, the youth began:
"Right wondrous and marvelous is my case and that of these fish, and were it graven with gravers upon the eye-corners, as a warning to whose that would be warned."
The king asked:
"How is that?"
And the young man began to tell his story.
Story of the enchanted prince
Know then, Oh my lord! That my father was king of this city, and his name was Mahmud, entitled as Lord of the Black Islands, and owner of what are now these four mountains. He ruled sixty years, after which he went to the mercy of the Lord and I reigned as sultan in his stead. I took my cousin as wife, the daughter of my paternal uncle, and she loved me with such abounding love that whenever I was absent, she didn´t eat or drink until seeing me again. She cohabited with me for five years, until a certain day, when my wife went forth to the hammam, and I bade the cook, getting ready all requisites for our supper. And I entered this palace and lay down on the bed, where I was wont to sleep and bade two damsels to fan my face, one sitting by my head and the other at my feet. But, I was troubled and restless by my wife's absence and could not sleep. Although, my eyes were closed, my mind and thoughts were wide awake.
Presently, I heard the slave-girl at my head say to the other at my feet:
"Oh Masuda, how miserable is our master and how wasted in his youth."
"Oh! The pity of him, being so betrayed by our mistress, the accursed whore!"
The other replied:
"Yes!"
"Indeed!"
"Allah must curse all faithless and adulterous women."
"But the like of our master, with his fair gifts, deserves something better than this harlot who lies abroad every night."
Then, the one who sat by my head said:
"Is our lord dumb or fit only for bubbling that he questioned her not and not the other."
"Does our lord know her ways or she allows him his choice?
"Moreover, every night, she drugs the cup given to him before sleep-time, putting drug into it."
"So, he sleeps and doesn´t know wherever she goes, neither what she does, but we know that after giving him the drugged wine, she dresses with her richest raiment, perfurms herself and then goes out away until the break of the day. Later, she comes to him and gives a pastille under his nose, awakening him from the sleep like death."
When I heard the slave-girls' words, the light became black before my sight and I thought night would never fall.
Next, the daughter of my uncle came from the baths, and they set the table for us and we ate and sat together a fair half-hour, quaffing our wine as was ever our wont. Then, she called for the particular wine I used to drink before sleeping and reached me the cup, but, seeming to drink it according to my desires, I poured the contents into my chest, and lying down, let her hear that I was asleep. Later, she cried:
"Sleep out the night, and never wake again."
"By Allah!"
"I loathe you, my whole body and my soul to be turned in disgust from cohabiting with you, and I see not the moment when Allah shall snatch away your life!"
Then, she rose, donned her fairest dress, perfumed herself, slung my sword over her shoulder, and opening the gates of the palace, went away. I rose and followed her, while she threaded the streets until reaching the city gate, where she spoke some words. I didn´t understood these, while the padlocks dropped as if they were broken and the gate-leaves opened. She went forth (and I after her without her noticing this), until she came at last to the outlying mounds, arriving to a reed fence built about a round-roofed hut of mud-bricks. As she entered the door, I climbed upon the roof, which commanded a view of the interior.
And my not fair cousin had gone in to visit a slave, with his upper lip like the cover of a pot, and his lower like an open pot. These lips might sweep up sand from the gravel-floor of the cot. He was to boot a leper and a paralytic, lying upon a strew o sugar-cane trash and wrapped in an old blanket and the foulest rags and tatters. She kissed the earth before him, and he raised his head to see her and said:
"Woo to you!"
"What call had you received to stay away all this time ?"
"Here, I have been with sundry of the black brethren, who drank their wine and each had its young lady, and I was not content to drink because of your absence."
Then, she expressed:
"Oh my lord!"
"My heart's love and cool of my eyes."
"Do you know that I am married to my cousin, whose very look I loathe, and hate myself when I am in his company?"
"Do not fear for your sake, I would not let a single sun rise before making this city a ruined heap, where a raven should croak and a howlet should hoot, and a jackal and a wolf harbour and loot."
"I had removed its very stones to the back side of Mount Keif."
The slave continued the conversation:
"You lie!"
"You are damned!"
"Now, I swear an oath by the valor and honor of black men, and deem not our manliness to be the poor manliness of white men, from today forth if you stay away until this hour, I will not keep company with you, nor will I glue my body with your body and strum and belly-bump."
"Do you play fast and loose with us, you cracked pot?"
"Do you believe that we may satisfy your dirty lusts?"
"Stinkard! Bad woman! Vilest of the vile whites!"
When I heard his words, and saw with my own eyes what passed between these two wretches, the world waxed dark before my face and my soul didn´t know in what place it was.
But, my wife humbly stood up weeping before and wheedling the slave, and saying:
"Oh my beloved, and very fruit of my heart, there is nothing left to cheer me but by your dear self, if you cast me off, who shall take me in, oh my beloved, oh the light of my eyes?"
And she ceased weeping and abasing herself to him until he decided to be reconciled with her. Then, she was right glad and stood up and doffed her clothes, even to her petticoat-trousers, and said:
"Oh my master, what have you here for your handmaiden to eat?"
He grumbled:
"Uncover the basin and you shall find at the bottom the broiled bones of some rats we dined on, pick them, and then go to that slop-pot where you shall find some leavings of beer, which is your favorite drink."
So, she ate, drank, washed her hands, and lay down by the side of the slave, upon the cane-trash and, stripping herself stark naked. She crept in with him under his foul coverlet and his rags and tatters.
When I saw my wife, my cousin, the daughter of my uncle, do this deed, I lost my wits, and climbing down from the roof, I entered and took the sword which she had with her and drew it determined to cut down the twin. I first struck at the slave's neck and thought that the death decree had fallen on him.
And Scheherazade perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say the permitted story.
To be continued during the eighth night…