1001 Arabian Nights (Season 1 : Episode 14 - Tale of the First Kalandar)

MISTRESS, I am going to tell you the things which led up to the shaving of my beard and the loss of my eye. Know that my father was a king and that he had a brother who was king over another city. Also it was fated that, on the day of my birth, a son was born to my uncle. Years passed, and my cousin and I grew to manhood. I must tell you that it was my custom from time to time to visit my uncle and stay some months with him. The last time I visited him, my cousin gave me great and generous welcome, killed the finest sheep for me, clarified the rarest wines in my honour. When we had drunken and the wine had somewhat got the better of us, my cousin said to me:

 

‘Dear friend and best loved cousin, I have a favour to ask of you which I beg you not to refuse.’ ‘I grant it with all my heart,’ I answered, and also, at his request, swore on our sacred Religion that I would do as he bid me. Thereon he went away and came back in a few minutes with a sumptuously dressed, delicately-perfumed lady, accoutred in everything with great expense. Pointing her out to me, he begged me to take her and to precede him to a certain tomb, lying in the middle

of many others, whose exact situation he pointed out to me. As I could not refuse because of my oath, I led the lady with me to the tomb, under the dome of which we entered and sat down to wait for my cousin. Soon he joined us, bringing with him a vessel of water, a sack containing plaster, and a little axe. With this axe he lifted the stones of the slab of the tomb one by one and dug in the earth beneath till he exposed a cover about the size of a small door. This he opened, and below it I saw a vaulted stairway. Turning to the woman, my cousin said: ‘It is for you to choose,’ and without a word the lady went down the stairs and disappeared. Then said my cousin to me:

 

‘Cousin, this is what you must do to complete your vow: when I have gone, put back the cover and the earth, mix the plaster, and so plaster down the stones that none can say: “Someone has been opening this old tomb.” It is quite possible, for I have been working here a year and only Allah knows it.’ Then, adding: ‘My only grief is that I am going away from you, dear cousin,’ he went down the stairs and was lost in the depths of the tomb. When he had gone from sight, I fastened down the cover and worked at the tomb till it appeared untouched. Returning to my uncle’s palace, I found that he was away hunting; so I lay down and slept all night. But when morning came I thought over all that my cousin and I had done and repented bitterly but uselessly. I went back to the tombs and searched all day till nightfall without being able to find the one I sought; so, when I returned to the palace, I could neither eat nor drink for thinking of my cousin. I lay all night in pain and at daybreak returned to the burial ground, grieving that I had hearkened to my cousin and searching in vain among all the tombs. Having hunted for seven days without finding the one into which he had gone down, I grew almost mad and, both to rest my mind and to distract my grief, set out on the return journey to my father’s country. No sooner had I come to the gates of the city than a rabble rushed out at me and bound my arms to my sides. I was utterly astonished, seeing I was the prince of that place, and that among those men were servants of my father and my own young slaves.

‘Alas, alas, what has happened to my father?’ I said to myself, and

then began to question those who had bound me, without receiving

any reply. But finally one of my young slaves who was among them

said to me: ‘Fate has gone up against your father, his soldiers have

mutinied and his waz(r has killed him; we were set here in ambush to

wait your coming.’

They took me up, more dead than alive with grief at the death of

my father, and brought me into the presence of the waz(r who had

killed him. Now there was an ancient enmity between me and this

waz(r, which had come about through my passion for shooting with

the arbalest. For one day, while I was on the terrace of our palace, a

great bird lit on the terrace of the waz(r’s palace, where the waz(r

happened to be walking. I fired and, missing the bird, hit the waz(r in

the eye and put it out, as had been ordained by Allah. As it is written:

God writes for eternity, this is not given to men;

But even He cannot rewrite it again,

And we walk in the wake of His pen.

We have followed the tracing of the letters of God, my friend,

The outline was not ours to mar or to mend;

Sit quiet and wait for the end.

When I knocked out the waz(r’s eye, he dared not say anything because

my father was the King of the city; but now, when I stood before him

with arms bound to my sides, he ordered my head to be cut off. For

what crime?’ I asked, and, ‘What crime is greater than this?’ he

answered, pointing to his eye-socket. ‘I did it by accident,’ I said.

‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘you did it by accident and I will do it on purpose.’

Then, ordering me to be brought within his reach, he put forward

his finger and pulled out my left eye.

Since then I have been one-eyed, as you all see.

Not content with this, the waz(r had me bound completely and

put in a chest, which he delivered to his sword-bearer, saying: ‘This is

your affair. Draw your sword, take him out beyond the city, kill him,

and leave him as food for the wild beasts.’

So the sword-bearer carried me outside the city, lifted me out of

the chest and was about to bind my eyes, when I began to weep and

intone these lines:

When you wept apart,

In the days of my power I regarded your tears;

I thought you a steel shield proof against spears,

And you are the lance-head pressed against my heart.

You had proved your aim,

The great bowman I had looked for to confound my foes;

I knew yours from the arrows of all bows;

True-flying to my heart I see the same.

When the sword-bearer heard these lines, he remembered that he

had been my father’s sworder also and that I had been very good to

him; so he exclaimed: ‘How can I kill you, I who am your slave?’

Then he said to me: ‘Flee, for I spare your life; but never return to

this land or you will die and be the cause of my death also. The poet

has said:

Go, my friend, you shall not die,

Leave the houses;

There are other lands to try

Full of free carouses.

Is it not a silly thing

To be put on,

When the whole world breaks in Spring

For you to set your foot on?

Somewhere, somehow, you will pass,

That is certain;

But when you’ll see the under-grass

Lies still behind the curtain.

The lion grows each yellow thew

Near Samarkand;

Remember that his soul grows too

In the freedom of the sand.’

I kissed his hands, when he had said these lines, and could hardly

believe that I was safe until I had fled forward a long way.

As I went, I consoled myself for the loss of my eye by thinking on

my deliverance from death, and so proceeded until I reached my

uncle’s city again. When I found my uncle and told him of the fate of

my father and how I had lost my eye, he wept bitterly, crying: ‘Nephew,

nephew, you add another grief to all my griefs, another sorrow to my

sorrows. My own boy has been missing for many days and none can

tell me what has happened to him.’ He swooned and, coming out of

his swoon, continued: ‘My child, I was grieving bitterly for my son,

now I must grieve for you and your father. But remember, my boy, it

is better to have lost an eye than to have lost life itself.’

At this, I could no longer keep silent as to what had happened to

my cousin; so I told my uncle the whole truth and he rejoiced

exceedingly at my story. ‘Take me quickly to the tomb!’ he cried,

and I was forced to admit I could not find it.

Nevertheless, we went together to the burial ground and this

time, after a long search, I recognised the tomb. We both rejoiced

and, after entering the dome and displacing the stones, the earth and

the cover, made our way down fifty steps of the staircase. At the

bottom we were met by a great smoke which blinded us, but my

uncle said that word which takes away all fear: ‘There is no power

and dominion save in Allah, Almighty, Most High!’

We journeyed through the smoke and came to a great hall, filled

with flour and every kind of grain and provision of all sorts. In the

middle of the hall we saw a curtain draped above a bed, and, when

we looked into the interior of the bed, my uncle recognised his son

who was lying there in the arms of the woman who had gone down

with him. But they were both nothing save black cinders, just as if

they had been thrown into a pit of fire.

My uncle, seeing this, spat in his son’s face, crying: ‘This is your

reward, O wicked youth, the punishment of this world. There yet

remains the punishment of another world, more terrible and lasting

longer.’ So saying, my uncle took off his slipper and struck his dead

son’s face with the heel of it.

At this point Shahrazad saw the approach of day and discreetly

fell silent.

But when the twelfth night had come

SHE SAID:

It is related, O auspicious King, that, while the Khal(fah and Jafar

and all who were there listened intently, the kalandar continued his

tale to the girl who was the mistress of the house:

When my uncle slippered his son’s face, I was sore astonished and

wept for my cousin and the girl lying there in the likeness of

charcoal. So I cried: ‘Uncle, as Allah lives, restrain yourself! I am in

the throes of grief at what has happened to your son, yes, for both

him and her, lying there like charcoal; but most at seeing you, his

father, beating his dead face with a slipper.’ Then my uncle

explained to me saying: ‘Nephew, you must know that this child of

mine was inflamed with love for his own sister. I kept him away from

her and used to console myself with the thought that they were so

young. But nothing of the sort! Hardly had they become pubic

when they did evil together and I found them out. I was scarcely able

to believe my eyes, and scolded him with a terrible scolding, saying:

“Beware of these filthy actions which none ever did before and none

will ever do after. Otherwise we shall become shamed and

despicable among kings. Riders will carry the tale about the earth.

Take care then that you do not do this again, or I will first curse you

and then slay you!” Afterwards I kept them sedulously apart, but the

wretched girl also loved him with an inordinate love and Satan

completed his work within them.

‘When my son saw that he was kept away from his sister, he

secretly prepared this chamber underground, filled it with food and,

taking advantage of my absence at the hunt, came down here with

her.

‘Then the wrath of the Highest kindled against them, and the fire

of the Highest burned them both together. But their punishment in

the next world will be more terrible and lasting.’

Then my uncle wept and I wept and he said to me: ‘Henceforward

you shall be my son in the place of this one.’

When I had sat there for an hour, considering the sorry ways of

the world, my father’s death and usurped throne, the loss of my eye

which you all have seen, and that strange end which had come to my

cousin, I wept again from the bottom of my heart.

Eventually we came up out of the tomb, heaped earth upon it

and, leaving it exactly as it had been before, made our way home.

But hardly had we gone in and seated ourselves than we became

aware of sounds of war, drums and trumpets, and the galloping of

soldiers in the streets. The city became full of noise and shouting

and dust raised by horses’ hoofs. We were at a loss to understand

what these things might mean until the king, my uncle, asked an

attendant, who said: ‘The waz(r, who has killed your brother, has

massed all his troops of soldiers and come against us in forced

marches to take the city by assault. And the people, seeing that they

were not in a state to resist him, have opened the gates and given

him the city.’

I was thrown into great despondency at these words, coming as

they did on top of all the trials and sufferings which had visited us. I

did not know what to do, considering that, if I showed myself, the

people of the city as well as the soldiers who had been my father’s

would recognise me and kill me out of hand. So, not being able to

think of any other expedient, I shaved my beard, put on these rags

and left the city. By tedious stages I reached Baghdad, hoping to find

safety and also someone who would admit me into the presence of

the Prince of Believers, Har*n al-Rash(d, the Khal(fah of God, that I

might tell him my story and all my sorrows.

It was only to-night that I arrived in the city and I did not know

my way about it. By chance I met this other kalandar and, while we

were talking together, we were joined by our third companion, also

a kalandar. Recognising each other as strangers, we wended our way

in the darkness together till the kind hand of Destiny led us to your

house, my mistress.

That is the story of my shaved beard and my lost eye.

When she had heard the tale of the first kalandar, the mistress of

the house said to him: ‘That is well, make your bow and depart with

all speed.’

The first kalandar answered: ‘Indeed, mistress, I shall not stir from

here until I have heard the tales of all the other companions.’

So, while all were marvelling at the story and the Khal(fah was

even whispering to Jafar: ‘Never in all my life have I heard a like

adventure,’ the first kalandar sat down cross-legged on the floor and

the second kalandar, advancing, kissed the earth between the hands

of the young mistress of the house and said:

 

Thanks for Reading. To be continued.