The Arabian Nights Entertainments — Volume 02

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• Publié par: thawyag
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 153
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Arabian
Nights Entertainments vol. 2, by Anon. (#2 in our
series by Anon.)
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Title: The Arabian Nights Entertainments vol. 2Author: Anon.
Release Date: May, 2004 [EBook #5665] [Yes, we
are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This
file was first posted on August 5, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG
EBOOK, THE ARABIAN NIGHTS
ENTERTAINMENTS VOL. 2 ***
This eBook was produced by JC Byers.
Text scanned and proofread by JC Byers
(http://www.capitalnet.com/~jcbyers/index.htm)
The "Aldine" Edition of
The Arabian Nights Entertainments
Illustrated by S. L. Wood
FROM THE TEXT OF DR. JONATHAN SCOTTIn Four Volumes
Volume 2
London
Pickering and Chatto
1890
Contents of Volume II.
The Story of the Little Hunch-Back
The Story Told by the Christian Merchant
The Story Told by the Sultan of Casgar's
Purveyor
The Story Told by the Jewish Physician
The Story Told by the Tailor
The Story Told by the Barber
The Story Told by the Barber's Eldest Brother
The Story Told by the Barber's Second Brother
The Story Told by the Barber's Third Brother
The Story Told by the Barber's Fourth Brother
The Story Told by the Barber's Fifth Brother
The Story Told by the Barber's Sixth Brother
The History of Aboulhassen Ali Ebn Ecar, and
Schemselnihar,
Favourite of Caliph Haroon Al Rusheed
The Story of the Loves of Kummir Al Zummaun,Prince of the Isles
of the Children of
Khaledan, and of Badoura, Princess of China
The Story of the Princes Amgiad and Assad
The Story of the Prince Amgiad and a Lady of
the City of
Magicians
The Story of Noor Ad Deen and the Fair Persian
THE STORY OF THE
LITTLE HUNCH-BACK.
There was in former times at Casgar, on the
extreme boundaries of Tartary, a tailor who had a
pretty wife, whom he affectionately loved, and by
whom he was beloved with reciprocal tenderness.
One day while he was at work, a little hunch-back
seated himself at the shop door and began to sing,
and play upon a tabor. The tailor was pleased withhis performance, and resolved to take him to his
house to entertain his wife: "This little fellow," said
he, "will divert us both this evening." He accordingly
invited him, and the other readily accepted the
invitation: so the tailor shut up his shop, and
carried him home. Immediately after their arrival
the tailor's wife placed before them a good dish of
fish; but as the little man was eating, he unluckily
swallowed a bone, which, notwithstanding all that
the tailor and his wife could do, choked him. This
accident greatly alarmed them both, dreading, if
the magistrates should hear of it, that they would
be punished as murderers. However, the husband
devised a scheme to get rid of the corpse. He
reflected that a Jewish doctor lived just by, and
having formed his plan, his wife and he took the
corpse, the one by the feet and the other by the
head, and carried it to the physician's house. They
knocked at the door, from which a steep flight of
stairs led to his chamber. The servant maid came
down without any light, and opening the door,
asked what they wanted. "Have the goodness,"
said the tailor, "to go up again, and tell your master
we have brought him a man who is very ill, and
wants his advice. Here," continued he, putting a
piece of money into her hand, "give him that
beforehand, to convince him that we do not mean
to impose." While the servant was gone up to
inform her master, the tailor and his wife hastily
conveyed the hunchbacked corpse to the head of
the stairs, and leaving it there, hurried away.
In the mean time, the maid told the doctor, that a
man and woman waited for him at the door,desiring he would come down and look at a sick
man whom they had brought with them, and
clapped into his hand the money she had received.
The doctor was transported with joy; being paid
beforehand, he thought it must needs be a good
patient, and should not be neglected. "Light, light,"
cried he to the maid; "follow me quickly." As he
spoke, he hastily ran towards the head of the stairs
without waiting for a light, and came against the
corpse with so much violence that he precipitated it
to the bottom, and had nearly fallen with it. "Bring
me a light," cried he to the maid; "quick, quick." At
last she brought one, and he went down stairs with
her; but when he saw that what he had kicked
down was a dead man, he was so frightened, that
he invoked Moses, Aaron, Joshua, Esdras, and all
the other prophets of his nation. "Unhappy man
that I am," said he, "why did I attempt to come
without a light! I have killed the poor fellow who
was brought to me to be cured: doubtless I am the
cause of his death, and unless Esdras's ass come
to assist me, I am ruined: Mercy on me, they will
be here out of hand, and drag me out of my house
for a murderer."
Notwithstanding the perplexity and confusion into
which he was thrown, he had the precaution to
shut his door, for fear any one passing by should
observe the accident of which he reckoned himself
to be the author. He then took the corpse into his
wife's chamber, who was ready to swoon at the
sight. "Alas," cried she, "we are utterly ruined and
undone, unless we can devise some expedient to
get the corpse out of our house this night. If weharbour it till morning we are lost. What a
deplorable misfortune is this! What have you done
to kill this man?" "That is not now the question,"
replied the Jew; "our business at present is, to find
a remedy for the evil which threatens us."
The doctor and his wife consulted how to dispose
of the corpse that night. The doctor racked his
brain in vain, he could not think of any stratagem to
relieve his embarrassment; but his wife, who was
more fertile in invention, said, "A thought is just
come into my head; let us carry the corpse to the
terrace of our house, and throw it down the
chimney of our Mussulmaun neighbour."
This Mussulmaun was one of the sultan's
purveyors for furnishing oil, butter, and articles of a
similar nature, and had a magazine in his house,
where the rats and mice made prodigious havoc.
The Jewish doctor approving the proposed
expedient, the wife and he took the little hunch-
back up to the roof of the house; and clapping
ropes under his arm-pits, let him down the chimney
into the purveyor's chamber so dexterously that he
stood upright against the wall, as if he had been
alive. When they found he had reached the
bottom, they pulled up the ropes, and left the
corpse in that posture. They were scarcely got
down into their chamber, when the purveyor, who
had just returned from a wedding feast, went into
his room, with a lanthorn in his hand. He was not a
little surprised to discover a man standing in his
chimney; but being a stout fellow, andapprehending him to be a thief, he took up a stick,
and making straight up to the hunch-back, "Ah!"
said he, "I thought the rats and mice ate my butter
and tallow; but it is you who come down the
chimney to rob me? However, I think you will have
no wish to come here again." Upon this he
attacked hunch-back, and struck him several times
with his stick. The corpse fell down flat on the
ground, and the purveyor redoubled his blows. But,
observing that the body did not move, he stood a
little time to regard it; and then, perceiving it to be
dead, fear succeeded his anger. "Wretched man
that I am," said he, "what have I done! I have killed
a man; alas, I have carried my revenge too far.
Good God, unless thou pity me my life is gone!
Cursed, ten thousand times accursed, be the fat
and the oil that occasioned me to commit so
criminal an action." He stood pale and
thunderstruck; he fancied he already saw the
officers come to drag him to condign punishment,
and could not tell what resolution to take.
The sultan of Casgar's purveyor had never noticed
the little man's hump-back when he w