ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES

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 scantylivelihood 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