The Arabian Nights II (14 page)

The next day, as soon as it was daylight, Marjana, who knew that there was on the square a cobbler who was a good man, very advanced in age, who every day was the first to open his shop, much earlier than the others, went out to see him. She went up to him and, wishing him good morning, put a gold coin in his hand. Baba Mustafa, who was known to everyone by this name and who was cheerful by nature and always had a ready word for banter, squinted at the coin, because it was not light yet, and, seeing that it was gold, said, “Good first gift of the day! What do you want? Here I am, ready to serve you.” Marjana said, “Baba Mustafa, take whatever you need for sewing and come quickly with me, but on condition that I put a bandage over your eyes when we come to such and such a place.” At these words, Baba Mustafa pretended to be difficult, saying, “Oh, oh! you want me to do something against my conscience and my honor!” Marjana put another gold coin in his hand and said, “God forbid that I should ask you to do anything you could not do honorably. Just come, and fear nothing.”

Baba Mustafa followed Marjana, who, after bandaging his eyes with a handkerchief at the place she had indicated, led him to the house of her deceased master, and she did not remove the handkerchief until they were in the room where she had put the body, placing each quarter in its proper place. When she removed the handkerchief, she said to him, “Baba Mustafa, I brought you here, so that you may sew together these pieces. Don't lose any time, and when you finish, I will give you another gold coin.” When Baba Mustafa finished his work, Marjana again put the bandage over his eyes, in the same room, and after giving him the third gold coin, which she had promised him, and asking him to keep the secret, led him back to the same place where she had first placed the bandage over his eyes. There, after she removed the bandage again, she let him return to his shop, following
him with her eyes until he disappeared from sight, lest he should be curious to retrace his steps, in order to spy on her.

Marjana had heated some water to wash Qasim's body. So 'Ali Baba, who arrived just as she returned, washed it, perfumed it with incense, and wrapped it in a shroud, with the usual ceremonies. Then the joiner brought the coffin that 'Ali Baba had taken care to order. In order to prevent him from noticing anything, Marjana received the coffin at the door and, after paying him and sending him on his way, assisted 'Ali Baba in placing the body inside. After 'Ali Baba nailed down the top planks firmly, she went to the mosque to say that all was ready for the burial. The men at the mosque, whose function it was to wash the body, offered to perform the task, but she told them that it had been done already, and she had hardly returned when the religious leader and other clergymen from the mosque arrived. Four neighbors, who had assembled there, carried the coffin on their shoulders and followed the leader, as he recited his prayers, to the cemetery.

As for Qasim's wife, she stayed at home, grieving and uttering pitiful cries with the women of the neighborhood, who, according to custom, went to her house during the funeral and joined her with their lamentations, filling with grief the whole neighborhood and beyond. In this way, the baleful manner of Qasim's death was hidden, and 'Ali Baba, his widow, and Marjana kept the secret so well, that, far from knowing it, no one in the whole city had the slightest suspicion of it.

Three days after Qasim's burial, 'Ali Baba moved the little furniture he had, together with the money he had taken from the thieves' treasure, which he carried only at night, to the house of his brother's widow, to live there. This made known his marriage to his sister-in-law, and, as such marriages were not unusual, according to their religion, no one was surprised. As for Qasim's shop, 'Ali Baba had a son, who had for some time finished his apprenticeship with another prominent merchant, who had always testified to his good conduct, and 'Ali Baba gave him the shop, with the promise that, if he continued to conduct himself wisely, he would marry him as well as he deserved.

Let us leave 'Ali Baba, enjoying the early fruits of his good fortune, and let us speak of the forty thieves. They returned to their hiding place in the forest at the appointed time, but they were very much surprised not to find Qasim's body and even more surprised to see that the bags of gold had diminished. Their captain said, “We are exposed and lost, and if we are not careful, and if we don't look immediately for a remedy, we will slowly lose the great riches that our ancestors and we have amassed with great toil and trouble. All we can assess of the damage done to us is that the thief, whom we took by surprise,
knew the secret of opening the door and that we arrived luckily at the appointed time, just as he was leaving. However, he was not the only one, for another must know it too. The removal of his body and the diminishing of our treasure are incontestable proof of it, and since there is no indication that more than two knew the secret, having killed one, we must also kill the other. What do you say, brave men? Don't you agree with me?”

The captain's proposal was found by his comrades to be so sensible that they all approved of it and agreed that they had to forego all other enterprises, devoting themselves only to this one and not abandoning it until they succeeded. The chief said, “I had expected no less of your courage and boldness, but, above all, one of you, who is hardy, clever, and enterprising, must go into the city, unarmed and disguised as a foreign traveler, and must use all his skill to find out if there is any mention of the strange death of the man whom we slaughtered as he deserved, as well as who he was and where he lived. It is important for us to know this beforehand, in order not to do anything that we may regret later or to expose ourselves in a country where we have been undetected for such a long time and where it is in our great interest to remain so. But in order to give an incentive to the one among you who will volunteer for this mission and to prevent him from making a mistake by bringing us back a false report, instead of a true one, which could cause our ruin, I ask you whether you don't consider it proper that in this case he should submit to the penalty of death?”

Without waiting for the others to express their opinions, one of the thieves said, “I submit, and I glory in risking my life by accepting this commission. If I don't succeed, you will at least remember that I lacked neither the willingness nor the courage for the common good of the group.” This thief, after receiving the lavish praises of the captain and his comrades, disguised himself in such a way that no one could guess what he was. He left the company and set out at night, taking such measures that he entered the city just as it was beginning to get light. He advanced until he reached a square where he saw only one shop open. It was the shop of Baba Mustafa.

Baba Mustafa was seated on his chair, with the awl in his hand, ready to work. The thief went up to him and wished him good morning and, noticing his advanced age, said to him, “Fellow, you start work very early in the morning, but it is not possible that you can still see clearly, old as you are, and even when it gets clearer, I doubt whether your eyes are good enough for sewing.” Baba Mustafa replied, “Whoever you may be, you must not know me. Old as I seem to you, I still have excellent eyes, and you will no longer doubt it when I tell you that, not long ago, I sewed up a dead man, in a place where it was not any lighter than it is now.” The thief was overjoyed at his
discovery, by coming at the outset to a man, who, without being asked and all by himself gave him, without doubt, the information that had brought him there. He asked in astonishment, “A dead man?” and, in order to make Baba Mustafa talk, he added, “Why sew up a dead man? You apparently mean to say that you sewed the shroud in which he was wrapped.” Baba Mustafa replied, “No, no, I mean what I am saying. You want to make me talk, but you will get nothing more out of me.”

The thief did not need any further explanation to be convinced that he had found out what he had come for. He pulled out a gold coin and, putting it in Baba Mustafa's hand, said to him, “I don't wish to share your secret, even though I can assure you that I would not have divulged it, if you had revealed it to me. I only ask you to do me a favor and tell me or take me to the house where you sewed up the dead man.” Baba Mustafa replied, holding the gold coin and about to give it back, “Even if I have the desire to accede to your wish, I assure you that I cannot do it; take my word. The reason is that I was led to a certain place where a bandage was placed over my eyes, and from there I was led to the house from where, after I finished what I had to do, I was led back in the same way to the same place. You see how impossible it is to help you.” The thief said, “You can at least remember partly the way you took while the bandage was placed over your eyes. Come with me; I beg you. I will place a bandage over your eyes at that place, and we will walk together, taking the same streets and the same turns you are able to recall, and since every effort deserves a recompense, here is another gold coin. Come, do me this favor I ask of you.” So saying, he put a gold coin in Baba Mustafa's hand.

The two pieces of gold tempted Baba Mustafa, who held them in his hand, looking at them for some time, without saying a word, as he deliberated on what he should do. At last, he pulled out his purse from his breast and, putting the coins inside, said to the thief, “I cannot guarantee you that I can remember the exact road they made me take, but since you desire it, let us go, and I will do what I can to remember.” He got up, to the great satisfaction of the thief, and, without closing his shop, in which he had nothing of consequence to lose, took the thief with him to the place where Marjana had placed the bandage over his eyes. When they arrived, he said, “It is here where they placed the bandage, and I was turned around, as you see.” The thief, who had his handkerchief ready, bandaged his eyes with it and walked beside him, sometimes leading him and sometimes letting him go by himself, until he stopped and said, “It seems to me that I did not go any further.” He was indeed standing before Qasim's house, where 'Ali Baba was living at that time. Before removing the
handkerchief from his eyes, the thief quickly marked the door with a piece of chalk, which he had ready in his hand, and, when he removed the handkerchief, he asked him whether he knew to whom the house belonged. Baba Mustafa replied that he was not from that quarter and therefore could not tell him. Seeing that he could not learn anything more from Baba Mustafa, the thief thanked him for his trouble and headed to the forest, convinced that he would be well-received.

Shortly after the thief and Baba Mustafa parted, Marjana went out of 'Ali Baba's house on some errand, and when she returned, she noticed the mark the thief had made and stopped to examine it, saying to herself, “What is the meaning of this mark? Does someone intend to harm my master, or has he made it in jest?” adding, “Whatever the intention, it is a good idea to take precaution against all eventualities.” So she too took a piece of chalk, and as two or three doors up and down the street were similar, she marked them in the same spot and returned to the house, without telling her master and mistress what she had done.

Meanwhile, the thief, who continued his journey, arrived in the forest and rejoined his companions at an early hour and reported on the success of his journey, overstating his good fortune to have found at the outset a man by whom he had found out what he had gone to look for, something that no one but he could have done. His comrades listened to him with great satisfaction, and the captain, after praising his diligence, addressed them, saying, “Comrades, we have no time to lose. Let us go well-armed, without showing it, and after we enter the city in separate groups, in order not to arouse any suspicion, let us meet in the great square, some of us on one side and some on the other, while I myself go with our comrade, who has brought us such good news, to inspect the house and decide on the best course of action.”

They applauded his statement and were soon ready to depart. They filed out two by two and three by three and, traveling at a little distance from each other, entered the city without arousing any suspicion. The captain and the man who had gone into the city that morning were the last to enter. He led the captain to the street where he had marked 'Ali Baba's house, and when he was before one of the doors which had been marked by Marjana, he showed it to him, saying that that was the house. But, as they continued walking, without stopping, in order not to arouse suspicion, the captain, noticing that the next door was marked with the same mark and in the same spot, showed it to his guide and asked him whether the house was this one or the first. The guide was confused and did not know what to say, and he was even more confused when he saw with the captain that the four or five other doors that followed had also the same mark. He
assured the captain, swearing that he had marked only one, adding, “I don't know who could have marked the other doors with very similar marks, but in this confusion I confess that I cannot tell which is the one I marked.”

The chief, seeing his plan aborted, went to the great square, where he informed his men, through the first he met, that they had wasted their efforts, that their journey was in vain, and that they had nothing else to do but to return to their common hiding place. He set the example, and the rest followed, in the same order as when they had come. When they reassembled in the forest, the captain explained to them why he had made them return, and they all declared that the guide deserved to be put to death. Even he condemned himself, by admitting that he should have taken better precautions, and he offered his neck resolutely to the man who came forward to cut off his head.

Since the preservation of the group required that the man's error not be left unpunished, the punishment was meted out, and another thief, promising to be more successful than the one who had been punished, came forward and asked the favor of being chosen. They agreed, and he departed and, as the first had done, bribed Baba Mustafa, who, with the bandage over his eyes, took him to 'Ali Baba's house, which the thief marked with red in a less noticeable spot, thinking that this was a sure way of distinguishing it from those marked with white. But shortly afterward, Marjana came out of the house as she had done on the previous day, and when she returned, she did not fail to detect the red mark with her sharp eyes, nor did she fail to mark the neighboring doors with a red pencil and on the same spot.