Excerpt from
The book of the thousand nights and a night, translated from the
Arabic by
Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton ;
reprinted from the original edition and edited by Leonard
C. Smithers ; in twelve volumes (London : H. S. Nichols & Co., 1894)
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IN days of yore and in times and tides long gone before, there dwelt in a certain town of
Persia two brothers, one named
Kasim
and the other
Ali Baba, who at their father's demise had divided the little wealth he had left to them with equitable division, and
had lost no time in wasting and spending it all. The elder, however, presently took to himself a wife, the daughter of an opulent
merchant, so that when his father-in-law fared to the mercy of Almighty
Allah, he became owner of a large shop filled with rare
goods and costly wares and of a
storehouse stocked with precious stuffs, likewise of much gold that was buried in the ground.
Thus was he known throughout the city as a substantial man. But the woman whom
Ali Baba had married was poor and needy.
They lived, therefore, in a mean hovel, and Ali Baba eked out a
scanty livelihood by the sale of fuel which he daily collected in
the jungle and carried about the town to the
bazaar upon his three asses.
Now it chanced one day that
Ali Baba had cut dead branches and dry fuel sufficient for his need, and had placed the load upon
his beasts, when suddenly he espied a dust cloud spiring high in air to his right and moving rapidly toward him, and when he
closely considered it, he descried a troop of
horsemen riding on amain and about to reach him. At this sight he was sore
alarmed, and fearing lest perchance they were a band of bandits who would slay him and drive off his donkeys, in his affright he
began to run. But forasmuch as they were near-hand and he could not escape from out the forest, he drove his animals laden
with the fuel into a byway of the bushes and swarmed up a thick trunk of a huge tree to hide himself therein. And he sat upon a
branch whence he could descry everything beneath him whilst none below could catch a glimpse of him above, and that tree
grew close beside a rock which towered high abovehead.
The horsemen, young, active, and doughty riders, came close up to the rock face and all dismounted, whereat
Ali Baba took
good note of them, and soon he was fully persuaded by their mien and demeanor that they were a troop of
highwaymen who,
having fallen upon a
caravan, had despoiled it and carried off the spoil and brought their booty to this place with intent of
concealing it safely in some cache. Moreover, he observed that they were forty in number.
Ali Baba saw the robbers, as soon as
they came under the tree, each unbridle his horse and hobble it. Then all took off their saddlebags, which proved to he full of
gold and silver. The man who seemed to he the captain presently pushed forward, load on shoulder, through thorns and thickets,
till he came up to a certain spot, where he uttered these strange words: "
Open, Sesame!" And forthwith appeared a wide
doorway in the face of the rock. The robbers went in, and last of all their chief, and then the portal shut of itself.
Long while they stayed within the cave whilst
Ali Baba was constrained to abide perched upon the tree, reflecting that if he came
down, peradventure the band might issue forth that very moment and seize him and slay him. At last he had determined to mount
one of the horses and driving on his asses, to return townward, when suddenly the portal flew open. The
robber chief was first
to issue forth, then, standing at the entrance, he saw and counted his men as they came out, and lastly he spake the
magical
words, "Shut, Sesame!" whereat the door closed of itself. When all had passed muster and review, each slung on his saddlebags
and bridled his own horse, and as soon as ready they rode off, led by the leader, in the direction whence they came.
Ali Baba
remained still perched on the tree and watched their departure, nor would he descend until what time they were clean gone out
of sight, lest perchance one of them return and look around and descry him.
Then he thought within himself: "I too will try the virtue of those magical words and see if at my bidding the door will open and
close." So he called out aloud, "
Open, Sesame!" And no sooner had he spoken than straightway the
portal flew open and he
entered within. He saw a large cavern and a vaulted, in height equaling the stature of a full-grown man, and it was hewn in the
live stone and, lighted up with light that came through air holes and bull's-eyes in the upper surface of the rock which formed the
roof. He had expected to find naught save outer
gloom in this robbers' den, and he was surprised to see the whole room filled
with bales of all manner stuffs, and heaped up from sole to ceiling with camelloads of silks and brocades and embroidered cloths
and mounds on mounds of varicolored carpetings. Besides which, he espied coins golden and silvern without measure or
account, some piled upon the ground and others bound in learthern bags and sacks. Seeing these goods and moneys in such
abundance, Ali Bab determined in his mind that not during a few years only but for many generations thieves must have stored
their
gains and spoils in this place.
When he stood within the cave, its door had closed upon him, yet he was not dismayed, since he had kept in memory the
magical words, and he took no heed of the precious stuffs around him, but applied himself only and wholly to the sacks of
ashrafis. Of these he carried out as many as he judged sufficient burthen for the beasts, then he loaded them upon his animals,
and covered his plunder with sticks and fuel, so none might discern the bags but might think that he was carrying home his usual
ware. Lastly he called out, "Shut, Sesame!" and forthwith the door closed, for the spell so wrought that whensoever any entered
the cave, its portal shut of itself behind him, and as he issued therefrom, the same would neither open nor close again till he had
pronounced the words "Shut, Sesame!" Presently, having laden his asses, Ali Baba urged them before him with all speed to the
city and reaching home, he drove them into the yard, and, shutting close the outer door, took down first the sticks and fuel and
after the bags of
gold, which he carried in to his wife.
She felt them, and finding them full of
coin, suspected that
Ali Baba had been robbing, and fell to berating and blaming him for
that he should do so ill a thing. Quoth
Ali Baba to his wife,
"Indeed I am no robber, and rather do thou rejoice with me at our
good fortune." Hereupon he told her of his adventure, and began to pour the gold from the bags in heaps before her, and her
sight was dazzled by the sheen and her heart delighted at his recital and adventures. Then she began counting the gold, whereat
quoth Ali Baba:
"O silly woman, how long wilt thou continue turning over the coin? Now let me dig a hole wherein to hide this
treasure, that none may know its secret." Quoth she:
"Right is thy rede! Still would I weigh the moneys and have some inkling of
their amount," and he replied,
"As thou pleasest, but see thou tell no man." So she went off in haste to Kasim's home to borrow
weights and
scales wherewith she might balance the ashrafis and make some reckoning of their value. And when she could not
find
Kasim, she said to his wife, "Lend me, I pray thee, thy scales for a moment." Replied her sister-in-law, "Hast thou need of
the bigger balance or the smaller?" and the other rejoined, "I need not the large scales, give me the little," and her sister-in-law
cried, "Stay here a moment whilst I look about and find thy want."
With this pretext
Kasim's wife went aside and secretly smeared
wax and
suet over the pan of the balance, that she might know
what thing it was
Ali Baba's wife would weigh, for she made sure that whatso it be, some bit thereof would stick to the wax and
fat. So the woman took this opportunity to satisfy her
curiosity, and Ali Baba's wife, suspecting naught thereof, carried home the
scales and began to weigh the gold, whilst Ali Baba ceased not digging. And when the money was weighed, they twain stowed it
into the hole, which they carefully filled up with earth. Then the good wife took back the scales to her kinswoman, all unknowing
that an
ashrafi had adhered to the cup of the scales. But when Kasim's wife espied the gold coin, she fumed with
envy and
wrath, saying to herself: "So ho! They borrowed my balance to weigh out ashrafis?" And she marveled greatly whence so poor a
man as Ali Baba had gotten such store of
wealth that he should he obliged to weigh it with a pair of scales.
Now after long pondering the matter, when her husband returned home at eventide, she said to him: "O man, thou deemest
thyself a wight of
wealth and
substance, but lo! thy brother
Ali Baba is an emir by the side of thee, and richer far than thou art.
He hath such heaps of gold that he must needs weigh his moneys with scales, whilst thou, forsooth, art satisfied to count thy
coin." "Whence knowest thou this?" asked
Kasim. And in answer his wife related all anent the pair of scales, and how she found
an
ashrafi stuck to them, and shewed him the gold coin, which bore the mark and superscription of some ancient king. No sleep
had Kasim all that night by reason of his
envy and
jealousy and
covetise, and next morning he rose betimes and going to Ali
Baba, said: "O my brother, to all appearance thou art poor and needy, but in effect thou hast a store of wealth so abundant that
perforce thou must weigh thy gold with scales." Quoth Ali Baba: "What is this thou sayest? I understand thee not. Make clear
thy purport." And quoth
Kasim, with ready rage: "Feign not that thou art ignorant of what I say, and think not to deceive me."
Then, showing him the ashrafi, he cried: "Thousands of gold coins such as these thou hast put by, and meanwhile my wife found
this one stuck to the cup of the scales." Then
Ali Baba understood how both
Kasim and his wife knew that he had store of
ashrafis, and said in his mind that it would not avail him to keep the matter hidden, but would rather cause ill will and mischief,
and thus he was induced to tell his brother every whit concerning the bandits and also of the treasure trove in the cave.
When he had heard the story, Kasim exclaimed: "I would fain learn of thee the certainty of the place where thou foundest the
moneys, also the
magical words whereby the door opened and closed. And I forewarn thee, an thou tell me not the whole truth,
I will give notice of those ashrafis to the
wah, then shalt thou forfeit all thy wealth and he disgraced and thrown into gaol."
Thereupon Ali Baba told him his tale, not forgetting the magical words, and Kasim, who kept careful heed of all these matters,
next day set out, driving ten mules he had hired, and readily found the place which Ali Baba had described to him. And when he
came to the aforesaid rock and to the tree whereon Ali Baba had hidden himself, and he had made sure of the door he cried in
great joy, "
Open, Sesame!" The portal yawned wide at once and Kasim went within and saw the piles of jewels and treasures
lying ranged all around, and as soon as he stood amongst them the door shut after him, as wont to do. He walked about in
ecstasy marveling at the treasures, and when weary of admiration, he gathered together bags of ashrafis, a sufficient load for his
ten mules, and placed them by the entrance in readiness to he carried outside and set upon the beasts. But by the will of
Allah
Almighty he had clean forgotten the
cabalistic words, and cried out, "Open, Barley!" Whereat the door refused to move.
Astonished and
confused beyond measure, he named the names of all manner of grains save sesame, which had slipped from his
memory as though he had never heard the word, whereat in his dire distress he heeded not the ashrafis that lay heaped at the
entrance, and paced to and fro, backward and forward, within the cave, sorely puzzled and perplexed. The wealth whose sight
had erewhile filled his heart with joy and gladness was now the cause of bitter
grief and
sadness.
It came to pass that at noontide the robbers, returning by that way, saw from afar some mules standing beside the entrance, and
much they marveled at what had brought the beasts to that place, for inasmuch as Kasim by mischance had faded to tether or
hobble them, they had strayed about the jungle and were browsing
hither and thither. However, the thieves paid scant regard to
the estrays, nor cared they to secure them, but only wondered by what means they had wandered so far from the town. Then,
reaching the cave, the captain and his troop dismounted, and going up to the door, repeated the formula, and at once it flew
open.
Now Kasim had heard from within the cave the horse hoofs drawing nigh and yet nigher, and he fell down to the ground in a fit
of fear, never doubting that it was the clatter of the banditti who would slaughter him without fail. Howbeit, he presently took
heart of grace, and at the moment when the door flew open he rushed out hoping to make good his escape. But the unhappy ran
full tilt against the captain, who stood in front of the band, and felled him to the ground, whereupon a
robber standing near his
chief at once bared his brand and with one cut
clave Kasim clean in twain! Thereupon the robbers rushed into the cavern, and
put back as they were before the bags of ashrafis which Kasim had heaped up at the doorway ready for taking away, nor
recked they aught of those which
Ali Baba had removed, so dazed and amazed were they to discover by what means the
strange man had effected an entrance. All knew that it was not possible for any to drop through the skylights, so tall and steep
was the rock's face, withal slippery of
ascent, and also that none could enter by the portal unless he knew the magical words
whereby to open it. However, they presently quartered the
dead body of
Kasim and hung it to the door within the cavern, two
parts to the right jamb and as many to the left, that the sight might be a warning of approaching
doom for all who dared enter the
cave. Then, coming out, they closed the hoard door and rode away upon their wonted work.
Now when night fell and Kasim came not home, his wife waxed
uneasy in mind, and running round to Ali Baba, said: "O my
brother, Kasim hath not returned. Thou knowest whither he went, and sore I fear me some misfortune hath betided him." Ali
Baba also divined that a
mishap had happened to prevent his return. Not the less, however, he strove to comfort his
sister-in-law with words of cheer, and said: "O wife of my brother, Kasim haply exerciseth
discretion and, avoiding the city,
cometh by a roundabout road and will he here anon. This I do believe is the reason why he tarrieth." Thereupon, comforted in
spirit, Kasim's wife fared homeward and sat awaiting her husband's return, but when half the night was spent and still he came
not, she was as one
distraught. She feared to cry aloud for her grief, lest haply the neighbors, hearing her, should come and learn
the secret, so she wept in silence and upbraiding herself, fell to thinking: "Wherefore did I disclose this secret to him and beget
envy and
jealousy of Ali Baba? This be the fruit thereof, and hence the
disaster that hath come down upon me."
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