The Arabian Nights II (31 page)

The African magician, who had looked on the happiness of coming so soon and so easily into Princess Badr al-Budur's good graces as impossible, told her that he could not find words strong enough to express to her how much he appreciated her favors. But the sooner to put an end to a conversation from which he would not have been able to extricate himself had he proceeded any further, he changed the subject to the wines of Africa, which she had initiated, and said to her that of all the advantages Africa can be proud of, that of producing excellent wines is one of the principal ones, particularly in that part of the country where she was. He said that he had a seven-year-old barrel that was never opened and that it is not praising it too much to say that it surpassed the most exquisite wines in the world, adding, “If my princess will give me leave, I will go and fetch two bottles and return immediately.” The princess said, “I should be sorry to put you to that trouble. It is better to send for them.” The African magician replied, “It is necessary that I go myself, for nobody but I knows where the key to the storeroom is, and nobody but I knows the secret of unlocking the door.” The princess said, “If this is so, go then and come
back quickly, for the more time you take, the greater will be my impatience to see you again. We will sit down to supper as soon as you return.”

The African magician, full of hope of his anticipated happiness, did not run, but rather flew, to fetch the seven-year-old wine, and returned very quickly. The princess, who had no doubt that he would hurry, put with her own hand the powder 'Ala al-Din had given her in the cup set apart and prepared the table. They sat down at the table opposite to each other, in such a way that the magician's back was turned toward the sideboard. The princess offered him some of the best dishes at the table and said, “If you please, I will entertain you with singing and music, but since we are only two, you and I, it seems to me that conversation may be more agreeable.” The magician looked on this choice as a new favor.

After they ate a few bits, the princess called for some wine and drank the magician's health, and then said to him, “You were right to praise your wine, for I have never tasted any so delicious.” He replied, holding in his hand the cup that had been presented to him, “My wine acquires a new virtue by your praise of it.” The princess said, “Then drink my health. You will find that I know wines.” He drank to her health and, returning the cup, said, “I consider myself happy to have reserved this wine for such a good occasion. I too confess that I have never before drunk any so excellent in so many ways.”

After they ate and drank three cups each, the princess, who had succeeded in charming the African magician by her civility and obliging manners, at last gave the signal to the slave-girl who was serving the wine, bidding her to bring her cup filled to the brim with wine and likewise to fill the magician's cup and present it to him. When they both had their cups in their hands, she said to him, “I do not know what you do here, when you love each other and drink together, as we are doing now. Back home in China, the lover and his beloved exchange cups and drink each other's health.” So saying, she offered him the cup that was in her hand and held out the other hand to receive his. The African magician hastened to make this exchange, with all the more pleasure, since he looked on this favor as the most certain indication that he had completely conquered the princess's heart, and this raised his happiness to its utmost. Before he drank, he said, with his cup in his hand, “Princess, we Africans are by no means so refined as the Chinese in enlivening the art of love with such grace notes, and having been instructed in a lesson I was ignorant of, I now know to what extent I should appreciate the favor done me. I will never forget it, lovely princess, for, by drinking out of your cup, I have found the life that your cruelty, had it continued, would have made me despair of.”

Princess Badr al-Budur, who began to be exasperated with the talk of the African magician, interrupted him, saying, “Let us drink first, and then you may say what you wish afterward,” and at the same time, brought the cup to her mouth, hardly touching it with her lips, while the African magician, eager to drink his wine first, drank it all, without leaving a drop. In finishing it, he had bent his head back, to show his eagerness, and he remained in this state for some time, while the princess kept her cup at her lips until she saw that his eyes began to turn and he fell on his back, lifeless.

The princess had no need to order someone to go and open the door for 'Ala al-Din. As soon as the word was given that the African magician had fallen on his back, her women, who had stationed themselves at some paces from each other, from the hall to the foot of the stairs, opened the door. 'Ala al-Din went up, entered the hall, and saw the African magician stretched backward on the sofa. Princess Badr al-Budur got up and ran to him to express her joy by embracing him, but he stopped her, saying, “Princess, it is not time yet. Do me a favor by retiring to your apartment, and let me be left alone here, while I endeavor to transport you back to China as quickly as you were brought from there.”

As soon as the princess and her slave-girls and eunuchs were out of the hall, 'Ala al-Din shut the door and, going to the body of the African magician, who lay lifeless, opened his vest and pulled out the lamp, which was wrapped up in the manner the princess had described to him. He unwrapped it, and as soon as he rubbed it, the demon appeared, and after he made his usual compliments, 'Ala al-Din said to him, “Demon, I have summoned you, in order to command you, on behalf of the lamp, your good mistress, to see to it that this palace be immediately carried back to China, to the same part and the same spot from where it was brought here.” The demon indicated with a nod that he was going to obey and disappeared. Immediately, the palace was transported to China, and its removal was only felt by two very mild shocks, the one when it was lifted up, the other when it was set down, both occurring at a very little interval from each other.

'Ala al-Din went down to the princess's apartment and, embracing her, said, “Princess, I can assure you that your joy and mine will be complete tomorrow morning.” As the princess had not yet finished her supper, and 'Ala al-Din was hungry, the princess bade the food, which was served but hardly touched, be brought down from the hall with the twenty-four windows. The princess and 'Ala al-Din ate together and drank of the African magician's good old wine, and after a conversation, which must have been very satisfying, they retired to their apartment.

From the time of the disappearance of 'Ala al-Din's palace and of Princess Badr al-Budur, her father the king was inconsolable at what he imagined was the loss of his daughter. He hardly slept night or day, and instead of avoiding everything that could prolong his affliction, he, on the contrary, sought it assiduously. Thus, whereas before he used to go every morning into the room with the view to enjoy that agreeable sight, he now went there many times a day, to renew his tears and to plunge himself deeper and deeper into the most profound grief, by the thought that he would never again see what had given him so much pleasure and that he had lost what was the most dear to him in the world.

The morning 'Ala al-Din's palace was brought back to its place, it was barely there when the king went into the room with the view. When the king entered, being withdrawn into himself and in deep grief, he cast his eyes sadly toward that part of the square where he expected to see nothing but empty air and did not notice the palace. But when he perceived that that vacancy was filled up, he thought at first that it was the effect of the fog, but, looking more carefully, he realized that it was without doubt 'Ala al-Din's palace. Then joy and gladness replaced pain and sadness. He returned hurriedly to his apartment and ordered a horse to be saddled and brought to him, and as soon as it was brought, he mounted and rode out, thinking that he could not ride fast enough to get to 'Ala al-Din's palace.

'Ala al-Din, who foresaw what would happen, rose that morning at daybreak, and as soon as he took out from his closet one of his most magnificent suits and put it on, he went up to the hall with the twenty-four windows, from where he saw the king coming. He went down just in time to receive the king at the foot of the great staircase, and helped him to dismount. The king said to him, “ 'Ala al-Din, I cannot speak to you, unless I see and embrace my daughter.” 'Ala al-Din led the king to the apartment of Princess Badr al-Budur, who had been told by 'Ala al-Din that she was. no longer in Africa, but in China, in the capital of her father the king, and next to his palace, and had just finished dressing herself. The king embraced her several times, with his face bathed in tears, and the princess, on her part, showed him all the signs of her extreme joy at seeing him again. It took the king some time before he could speak, for so great was his emotion to recover his dear daughter, after he had given her up for lost.

At last he spoke, saying, “I would like to believe, daughter, that your joy to see me again makes you seem so little changed, as if no misfortune has befallen you. Yet I am convinced that you must have suffered a great deal, for one cannot be suddenly transported with an entire palace, as you have been, without great fright and terrible anguish. I would like you to tell me all about it and to conceal nothing from me.”
The princess, who was very pleased to satisfy the king's demand, said, “My lord, if I seem so little changed, I beg your majesty to consider that I received a new life only yesterday morning by the presence of 'Ala al-Din, whom I had looked on and mourned as lost to me, and whom the happiness of seeing and embracing has almost brought me back to my former state. But my greatest pain was to be torn off from your majesty and my dear husband, not only because of my feeling for my husband, but also because of my anxiety that he, though innocent, should feel the painful consequences of your anger, to which I knew he was exposed. I suffered only a little from the insolence of my abductor, who made unpleasant speeches, for I always knew, by my power over him, how to put a stop to them, and I was as little constrained as I am now.

“As to my abduction, 'Ala al-Din had no part in it. I alone, though very innocent, am to blame for it.” To persuade the king of the truth of what she said, she told him in detail how the African magician disguised himself as a seller of lamps and offered to exchange new lamps for old ones; how she amused herself by exchanging 'Ala al-Din's lamp, unaware of its secret and its importance; how, after the exchange, the palace and she herself were lifted up and transported to Africa, with the African magician, who was recognized by two of her slave-girls and by the eunuch who made the exchange of the lamp, when, after the success of his audacious enterprise he had the audacity to pay her the first visit and to propose marriage to her; how he persecuted her till 'Ala al-Din's arrival, and how the two of them took measures together to take from him the lamp that he carried with him; and finally how they succeeded, particularly by her dissimulation in inviting him to have supper with her and giving him the cup with the powder, adding, “The rest I leave to 'Ala al-Din to relate to you.”

'Ala al-Din had little more to tell the king, but said, “When the secret door was opened, I went up into the hall with twenty-four windows and saw the African magician lying dead on the sofa, as a result of the violent effect of the powder. As it was not proper for the princess to stay there any longer, I begged her to go down into her apartment, with her slave-girls and her eunuchs. As soon as I was alone, I took the lamp out of the magician's breast and made use of the same secret he used to remove the palace and abduct the princess. By that means, the palace was returned to its former place and I had the happiness to bring back the princess to your majesty, as you had commanded me. I do not wish to impose on your majesty, but if you wish to take the trouble to go up into the hall, you will see the magician punished as he deserves.”

The king, to be completely assured of the truth, got up instantly and went up into the hall, and when he saw the African magician dead
and his face already turned livid by the violent effect of the poison, he embraced 'Ala al-Din with great tenderness and said to him, “Son, do not be displeased at my action against you, for I was driven to it by paternal love, and I deserve to be forgiven my excessive reaction.” 'Ala al-Din replied, “My lord, I do not have the slightest reason to complain of your majesty's conduct, since you did only what you were forced to do. This magician, this infamous creature, this basest of men, was the sole cause of my misfortune. When your majesty has leisure, I will give you an account of another wicked action he took against me, which was no less sinister than this and from which I was saved only by the grace of God in a very peculiar way.” The king replied, “I will take an opportunity, and very soon, to hear it, but for now, let us think only of rejoicing and getting rid of this odious object.”

'Ala al-Din ordered the magician's corpse to be removed and thrown on the dunghill for the birds and beasts to feed on. In the meantime, the king ordered the tambourines, the drums, the trumpets, and other musical instruments to announce the public rejoicing and proclaimed a feast of six days to celebrate the return of the princess and 'Ala al-Din with his palace. Thus 'Ala al-Din escaped for the second time the almost inevitable danger of losing his life. But this was not the last, for he was to face it a third time, as I shall now relate.

The African magician had a younger brother, who was no less skilled than he in magic. One may even say that he surpassed him in villainy and pernicious schemes. They did not always live together, or in the same city, but often when one was in the east and the other was in the west, they did not fail to inform each other, by geomancy, in which part of the world and in what condition they were and whether they needed each other's assistance.