>>> YOU ARE VIEWING A 200 LINE SAMPLE OF EBOOK# E00330 <<< TITLE: 1001 ARABIAN NIGHTS, V5 AUTHOR: RICHARD F. BURTON EBOOK: E00330 (O'Briens Book Cellar) THE BOOK OF THE THOUSAND NIGHTS AND A NIGHT A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments Translated and Annotated by Richard F. Burton VOLUME FIVE Privately Printed By The Burton Club To Doctor George Bird. My Dear Bird, This is not a strictly medical work, although in places treating of subjects which may modestly be called hygienic. I inscribe it to you because your knowledge of Egypt will enable you to appreciate its finer touches; and for another and a yet more cogent reason, namely, that you are one of my best and oldest friends. Ever yours sincerely, Richard F. Burton Athenaeum Club, October 20, 1885. Contents of the Fifth Volume 59. The Ebony Horse 60. Uns Al-Wujud and the Wazir's Daughter Al-Ward Fi'l-Akmam or Rose-In-Hood 61. Abu Nowas With the Three Boys and the Caliph Harun Al-Rashid 62. Abdallah Bin Ma'amar With the Man of Bassorah and His Slave Girl 63. The Lovers of the Banu Ozrah 64. The Wazir of Al-Yaman and His Younger Brother 65. The Loves of the Boy and Girl at School 66. Al-Mutalammis and His Wife Umaymah 67. The Caliph Marun Al-Rashid and Queen Zubaydah in the Bath 68. Harun Al-Rashid and the Three Poets 69. Mus'ab Bin Al-Zubayr and Ayishah His Wife 70. Abu Al-Aswad and His Slave-Girl 71. Harun Al-Rashid and the Two Slave-Girls 72. The Caliph Harun Al-Rashid and the Three Slave-Girls 73. The Miller and His Wife 74. The Simpleton and the Sharper 75. The Kazi Abu Yusuf With Harum Al-Rashid and Queen Zubaydah 76. The Caliph Al-Hakim and the Merchand 77. King Kisra Anushirwan and the Village Damsel 78. The Water-Carrier and the Goldsmith's Wife 79. Khusrau and Shirin and the Fisherman 80. Yahya Bin Khalid the Barmecide and the Poor Man 81. Mohammed Al-Amin and the Slave-Girl 82. The Sons of Yahya Bin Khalid and Sa'id Bin Salim Al-Bahili 83. The Woman's Trick Against Her Husband 84. The Devout Woman and the Two Wicked Elders 85. Ja'afar the Barmecide and the Old Badawi 86. The Caliph Omar Bin Al-Khattab and the Young Badawi 87. The Caliph Al-Maamum and the Pyramids of Egypt 88. The Thief and the Merchant 89. Masrur the Eunuch and Ibn Al-Karibi 90. The Devotee Prince 91. The Unwise Schoolmaster Who Fell in Love by Report 92. The Foolish Dominie 93. The Illiterate Who Set Up For a Schoolmaster 94. The King and the Virtuous Wife 95. Abd Al-Rahman the Maghribi's Story of the Rukh 96. Adi Bin Zayd and the Princess Hind 97. Di'ibil Al-Khuza'i With the Lady and Muslim Bin Al-Walid 98. Isaac of Mosul and the Merchant 99. The Three Unfortunate Lovers 100. How Abu Hasan Brake Wind 101. The Lovers of the Banu Tayy 102. The Mad Lover 103. The Prior Who Became A Moslem 104. The Loves of Abu Isa and Jurrat Al-Ayn 105. Al-Amin Son of Al-Rashid and His Uncle Ibrahim Bin Al-Mahdi 106. Al-Fath Bin Khakan and Al-Mutawakkil 107. The Man's Dispute With the Learned Woman Concerning the Relative Excellence of Male and Female 108. Abu Suwayd and the Pretty Old Woman 109. The Emir ali Bin Tahir and the Girl Muunis 110. The Woman Who had a Boy and the Other Who had a Man to Lover 111. Ali the Cairene and the Haunted House in Baghdad 112. The Pilgrim Man and the Old Woman 113. Abu Alhusn and His Slave-Girl Tawaddud 114. The Angel of Death With the Proud King and the Devout Man 115. The Angel of Death and the Rich King 116. The Angel of Death and the King of the Children of Israel 117. Iskandar Zu Al-Karnayn and a Certain Tribe of Poor Folk 118. The Righteousness of King Anushirwan 119. The Jewish Kazi and His Pious Wife 120. The Shipwrecked Woman and Her Child 121. The Pious Black Slave 122. The Devout Tray-Maker and His Wife 123. Al-Jajjaj and the Pious Man 124. The Blacksmith Who Could Handle Fire Without Hurt 125. The Devotee To Whom Allah Gave a Cloud for Service and the Devout King 126. The Moslem Champion and the Christian Damsel 127. The Christian King's Daughter and the Moslem 128. The Prophet and the Justice of Providence 129. The Ferryman of the Nile and the Hermit 130. The Island King and the Pious Israelite 131. Abu Al-Hasan and Abu Ja'afar the Leper 132. The Queen of Serpents a. The Adventures of Bulukiya b. The Story of Jansha The Book Of The THOUSAND NIGHTS AND A NIGHT THE EBONY HORSE.[FN#1] There was once in times of yore and ages long gone before, a great and puissant King, of the Kings of the Persians, Sabur by name, who was the richest of all the Kings in store of wealth and dominion and surpassed each and every in wit and wisdom. He was generous, open handed and beneficent, and he gave to those who sought him and repelled not those who resorted to him; and he comforted the broken-hearted and honourably entreated those who fled to him for refuge. Moreover, he loved the poor and was hospitable to strangers and did the oppressed justice upon the oppressor. He had three daughters, like full moons of shining light or flower-gardens blooming bright; and a son as he were the moon; and it was his wont to keep two festivals in the twelve- month, those of the Nau-Roz, or New Year, and Mihrgan the Autumnal Equinox,[FN#2] on which occasions he threw open his palaces and gave largesse and made proclamation of safety and security and promoted his chamberlains and viceroys; and the people of his realm came in to him and saluted him and gave him joy of the holy day, bringing him gifts and servants and eunuchs. Now he loved science and geometry, and one festival-day as he sat on his kingly throne there came in to him three wise men, cunning artificers and past masters in all manner of craft and inventions, skilled in making things curious and rare, such as confound the wit; and versed in the knowledge of occult truths and perfect in mysteries and subtleties. And they were of three different tongues and countries, the first a Hindi or Indian,[FN#3] the second a Roumi or Greek and the third a Farsi or Persian. The Indian came forwards and, prostrating himself before the King, wished him joy of the festival and laid before him a present befitting his dignity; that is to say, a man of gold, set with precious gems and jewels of price and hending in hand a golden trumpet. When Sabur[FN#4] saw this, he asked, "O sage, what is the virtue of this figure?"; and the Indian answered, "O my lord, if this figure be set at the gate of thy city, it will be a guardian over it; for, in an enemy enter the place, it will blow this clarion against him and he will be seized with a palsy and drop down dead." Much the King marvelled at this and cried, "By Allah, O sage, an this thy word be true, I will grant thee thy wish and thy desire." Then came forward the Greek and, prostrating himself before the King, presented him with a basin of silver, in whose midst was a peacock of gold, surrounded by four-and-twenty chicks of the same metal. Sabur looked at them and turning to the Greek, said to him, "O sage, what is the virtue of this peacock?" "O my lord," answered he, "as often as an hour of the day or night passeth, it pecketh one of its young and crieth out and flappeth its wings, till the four-and-twenty hours are accomplished; and when the month cometh to an end, it will open its mouth and thou shalt see the crescent therein." And the King said, "An thou speak sooth, I will bring thee to thy wish and thy desire." Then came forward the Persian sage and, prostrating himself before the King, presented him with a horse[FN#5] of the blackest ebony-wood inlaid with gold and jewels, and ready harnessed with saddle, bridle and stirrups such as befit Kings; which when Sabur saw, he marvelled with exceeding marvel and was confounded at the beauty of its form and the ingenuity of its fashion. So he asked, "What is the use of this horse of wood, and what is its virtue and what the secret of its movement?"; and the Persian answered, "O my lord, the virtue of this horse is that, if one mount him, it will carry him whither he will and fare with its rider through the air and cover the space of a year in a single day." The King marvelled and was amazed at these three wonders, following thus hard upon one another on the same day, and turning to the sage, said to him, "By Allah the Omnipotent, and our Lord the Beneficent, who created all creatures and feedeth them with meat and drink, an thy speech be veritable and the virtue of thy contrivance appear, I will assuredly give thee whatsoever thou lustest for and will bring thee to thy desire and thy wish!"[FN#6] Then he entertained the sages three days, that he might make trial of their gifts; after which they brought the figures before him and each took the creature he had wroughten and showed him the mystery of its movement. The trumpeter blew the trump; the peacock pecked its chicks and the Persian sage mounted the ebony house, whereupon it soared with him high in air and descended again. When King Sabur saw all this, he was amazed and perplexed and felt like to fly for joy and said to the three sages, "Now I am certified of the truth of your words and it behoveth me to quit me of my promise. Ask ye, therefore, what ye will, and I will give you that same." Now the report of the King's daughters had reached the sages, so they answered, "If the King be content with us and accept of our gifts and allow us to prefer a request to him, we crave of him that he give us his three daughters in marriage, that we may be his sons-in-law; for that the stability of Kings may not be <<< END OF SAMPLE... (THE FULL EBOOK HAS 977713 TOTAL CHARACTERS) >>>