THE STORY OF SINDBAD THE SAILOR
ON THE FOURTEENTH NIGHT
Sheherazade said:
… On the morning of the eighth day, I came to the opposite shore of the island and saw men like me, white and dressed in garments, who were busy picking peppercorns from the trees with which that region was covered. When they saw me, they came around me and spoke to me in my language, Arabic, which for so long I had not heard. They asked me who I was and where I came from. I answered: “O good people, I am a strange and poor man! And I told them what I had experienced of misfortunes and dangers. My story astonished them marvelously, and they congratulated me on having been able to escape the swallowers of human flesh, offered me food and drink, let me rest for an hour, and then took me away in their boat to introduce me to their king whose residence was another neighboring island.
The island in which this king reigned had as its capital a densely populated city, abundant in all the things of life, rich in souks and merchants whose shops were provided with expensive objects, and pierced with beautiful streets where many riders circulated on splendid horses, but without saddles or stirrups. So when I was presented to the king, I did not fail, after the salams, to tell him of my astonishment at seeing the men riding their horses bareback. And I said to him: "For what reason, O our master and suzerain, do you not use the saddle here? It is such a convenient object for riding! And then it makes the rider better in control of his horse!"
The king was very surprised at my words and asked me: “But what is a saddle? This is something we have never seen in our life!" I said to him: "Will you then allow me to make you a saddle so that you can try out its convenience and experience its pleasure?" He replied: “Certainly! »
I then sent for a skilled carpenter and I had him execute, before my eyes, the wood of a saddle exactly according to my instructions. And I stayed with him until he finished it. So I myself furnished this saddle wood with stuffing wool and leather and finished adorning it all around with gold embroidery and tassels of various colors. I then sent for a blacksmith, to whom I taught the art of making a bit and stirrups; and he executed these things perfectly, for I did not leave him for a moment.
When everything was in perfect condition, I chose the finest horse from the king's stables and saddled and bred and harnessed it splendidly, without forgetting to put on it the various ornamental accessories, such as long trains, silk tassels and of gold, tassel, and blue collar. And I immediately went to present him to the king, who had been waiting for him for several days with great impatience.
The king mounted it immediately and felt so confident and was so pleased with this invention that he expressed his joy to me with sumptuous gifts and great largesse.
When the grand-vizier had seen this saddle, and ascertained its superiority over the old fashion, he begged me to make him a similar one. And I agreed to make it. Then all the greats of the kingdom and the high dignitaries also wanted to have a saddle and ordered it from me. And they gave me gifts which in a short time made me the richest and most respected man in town.
I had become the king's friend, and as I was going to his house one day as usual, he turned to me and said: "You know very well, Sindbad, how much I love you! You have become, in my palace, like one of mine, and I can no longer do without you, nor bear the idea that a day will come when you will leave us. So I want to ask you something without seeing you refuse me!" I answered: “O king, command! Your power over me is consolidated by your benefits and by the gratitude that I owe you for all the good that I have been indebted to you since my arrival in this kingdom!" He replied: “I want to marry you in our house with a beautiful, pretty, perfect woman, rich in money and qualities so that she will decide you to always stay in our city and my palace. I therefore ask you not to reject my offer and my words!"
Me, at this speech, I was very confused, I lowered my head, and I could not make an answer, so much timidity restrained me. So the king asked me: "Why don't you answer me, my child?" I replied, "O king of time, business is your business, and I am your slave!" He immediately sent for the kadi and the witnesses, and gave me, on the spot, as a wife a noblewoman, of high lineage, very rich, owner of furniture, of built properties and land, and endowed with great beauty. At the same time, he made me a present of a palace, all furnished, with servants, male and female slaves, and a truly royal household.
Also, I lived in perfect rest, and I arrived at the limit of expansion. I was looking forward to one day being able to escape from this city and return to Baghdad with my wife; for I loved her very much and she also loved me, and the harmony between us was perfect. But when a thing has been fixed by fate, no human power can deviate from it. And what created being can know the future? I had, alas! to experience once again that all our projects are childish games in the face of the will of destiny.
One day my neighbour's wife, by Allah's command, died. As this neighbor was my friend, I went to him and tried to console him by saying: “Do not grieve beyond what is permitted, my neighbor! Allah will soon compensate you by giving you an even more blessed wife! May Allah prolong your days!" But my neighbour, amazed at my words, raised his head and said to me: “How can you wish me a long life when you know very well that I have only one hour left to live!" So I was amazed in my turn, and I said to him: “My neighbour, why do you talk like that, and have such presentiments? You are, thank Allah, healthy, and nothing threatens you! Would you kill yourself with your own hand?" He answered: “Ah! I now see your ignorance of the customs of our country. Know then that it is customary for every living husband to be buried alive with his dead wife, and for every living wife to be buried alive with her dead husband. It is inviolable! And presently I must be buried alive with my dead wife! Here everyone, including the king, must submit to this law established by the ancestors!"
At these words, I exclaimed: “By Allah! this custom is very detestable! And I will never be able to comply!"
While we were talking like this, my neighbor's relatives and friends came in and actually began to console him about his own death and that of his wife. After which, the funeral took place. The woman's body was placed in an open coffin after it had been clothed in the finest clothes and adorned with the most precious jewels. Then the convoy was formed; the husband walked at the head, behind the coffin; and everyone, including me, headed for the burial site.
We arrived outside the city at a mountain on the sea. At a certain place, I saw a sort of immense well, the stone lid of which was hastily removed. They lowered the coffin into it, in which lay the dead woman adorned with her jewels; then they seized my neighbour, who put up no resistance; they lowered him using a rope to the bottom of the well, with a large pot of water and seven loaves for provisions. This done, they closed up the orifice of the well with the large stones that formed its cover, and they returned by which way they had come.
However, I had witnessed all this in an unimaginable state of dread, thinking in my soul: “This is even worse than anything I have seen!" And, no sooner had I returned to the palace than I ran to the king and said to him: "O my master, I have traveled through many countries until today, but I have not seen anywhere such a barbarous custom as that which consists in burying the living husband with his dead wife! So I would like to know, O king of time, if the stranger is also bound by this law on the death of his wife!" He replied: “Certainly! He will be buried with her!"
When I heard these words, I felt my gall bladder burst in my liver with grief, and I left there maddened with terror and went home, already fearing that my wife had died in my absence and that I should not be compelled to undergo the frightful torture which I had witnessed. I tried in vain to console myself by saying: “Sindbad, be quiet. You will certainly die first! And, that way, you won't have to be buried alive!" This was to be of no use to me, for, shortly afterward, my wife fell ill, went to bed for a few days, and died, despite all the day and night care with which I constantly surrounded her.
Then my pain was limitless; for, in truth, I hardly thought that being buried alive was less deplorable than being devoured by the eaters of human flesh. Besides, I no longer doubted my fate when I saw the king himself come to my house to offer his condolences on the subject of my burial. He even wanted, accompanied by all the personages of the court, to do me the honor of attending my funeral by walking beside me at the head of the convoy, behind the coffin where my dead wife had been placed covered with her jewels and adorned with all her finery.
When we were at the foot of the mountain located on the sea, where the well in question opened, they lowered the body of my wife to the bottom of the hole; after which, all the assistants approached me and made me their condolences and their farewells. So I wanted to attempt the mind of the king and his assistants to exempt me from this ordeal, and I cried out in tears: "I am a foreigner, and it is not right that I be subject to your law! I also have in my country a wife who is alive and children who need me!"
But in vain I cried and sobbed, they seized me, without wanting to listen to me, fixed ropes under my arms, tied a pot of water and seven loaves of bread around me, according to custom, and lowered me to the bottom of the well. When I got to the bottom, they shouted at me, "Undo your ties so that we can remove the ropes!" But I didn't want to untie myself and continued to shoot at them to convince them to pull me up. Then they themselves let go of the ropes by throwing them at me, closed up the mouth of the well with the large stones, and went on their way, without listening to my pitiful cries...
At this point in her narration, Sheherazade saw the morning appear and quietly fell silent.
First Night - Second Night - Third Night - Fourth Night - Fifth Night - Sixth Night - Seventh Night
Eighth Night - Ninth Night - Tenth Night - Eleventh Night - Twelfth Night - Thirteenth Night