submitted to the
imperial will, and would
straightway take
another wife.
"I do not love a grudging
obedience," said the Sultan.
"I will take two!" cried Ashimullah.
"Take three," said the Sultan; and with this he dismissed
Ashimullah, giving him the space of a week in which to fulfill
the command laid upon him.
"Surely I am a most
unhappy man," mused Ashimullah. "For if I do
not obey, I shall be put to death; and if I do obey, I fear
greatly that I shall be damned." And he went home looking so
sorrowful and perplexed that all men conceived that he was
out of favor with the Sultan.
Now Ashimullah, being come to his house, went immediately to his
wife, and told her of the Sultan's commands, adding that the
matter was a sore grief to him, and not less on her
account than
on his own. "For you know well, Star of my Heart," said he,
"that I desire no wife but you!"
"I know it well, Ashimullah," answered Lallakalla tenderly.
"Moreover, I fear that I shall be damned," whispered Ashimullah.
"I'm sure you would," said Lallakalla.
Three days later it was reported through all the city, on the
authority of Hassan, the chief and
confidential servant of the
Vizier, that Ashimullah, having procured three slaves of great
beauty at an
immense cost, had
wedded them all, and thus
completed the number of wives allowed to him by the Law of the
Prophet. The first was rosy-cheeked with golden hair; the
second's
complexion was olive, and her locks black as night;
the third had a wonderful pallor, and tresses like burnished
gold.
"Thus," added Hassan, "since my lady Lallakalla's hair is brown,
his Highness the Vizier enjoys, as is his most just due, all
varieties of beauty."
When these things came to the ears of the Sultan, he was greatly
pleased with the
promptobedience of Ashimullah, and sent him a
large sum of money and his own
miniature, magnificently set in
diamonds. Moreover, he approved highly of the taste that
Ashimullah had displayed in his choice, and regretted very deeply
that he could not behold the charms of the wives of the Vizier.
Nay, so great was his
anxietyconcerning them that he determined
to send one of his Sultanas to pay a visit to the harem of
Ashimullah, in order that, while
seeming to render honor to
Ashimullah, she might report to him of the beauty of Ashimullah's
wives.
"We must make ready for the visit of the Sultana," observed
Lallakalla, with a smile.
When the Sultana returned from her visit, the Sultan came to her
without delay, and she said:
"O Most Translucent Majesty, wonderful indeed are the wives of
Ashimullah! For as they came before me, one after another, I did
not know which of them to call most beautiful; for the brown
hair, the golden, the black, and the ruddy are all most fair to
see. I would that your Majesty could behold them!"
"I would that I could!" said the Sultan, stroking his beard.
"Yet, O Sultan, since all men are
mortal, and it is not given to
any to be
perfectly happy in this world, know that there is an
alloy in the happiness of Ashimullah the Vizier. For these most
lovely ladies have, each and all of them, so strong and vehement
a
temper and so great a reciprocal
hatred, that Ashimullah is
compelled to keep them apart, each in her own
chamber, and by no
means can they be allowed to come together for an instant.
Not even my presence would have restrained them, and
therefore I
saw each alone."
"I do not object to a little
temper," observed the Sultan,
stroking his beard again. "It is a sauce to beauty, and keeps a
man alive."
"It is only toward one another that they are fierce," said the
Sultana. "For all spoke with the greatest love of Ashimullah,
and with the most dutiful respect."
"I do not see on what
account they are so fond of Ashimullah,"
said the Sultan, frowning.
That night the Sultan did not once close his eyes, for he could
think of nothing save the
marvelous and
varied beauty of the
wives of the Vizier; and between the rival charms of the black,
the brown, the ruddy, and the golden, his Majesty was so torn and
tossed about that, when he rose, his brow was troubled and his
cheek pale. And being no longer able to
endure the
torment that
he suffered, he sent the Sultana again to visit the house of
Ashimullah, bidding her observe most carefully which of the
ladies was in truth most beautiful. But the Sultana, having
returned, professed herself entirely
unable to set any one of
Ashimullah's wives above any other in any point of beauty. "For
they are all," said she, "and each in her own way, houris for
beauty."
"And this man was a Christian dog once!" murmured the Sultan.
Then his brow suddenly grew smooth, and he observed:
"Ashimullah himself will know; and, indeed, it is time that I
gave a new sign of my favor to my trusted servant Ashimullah."
Therefore he sent for Ashimullah, and spoke to him with unbounded
graciousness.
"Ashimullah, my
faithful servant," said he, "I am mindful to
confer upon you a great and signal favor; desiring to recognize
not only your services to my
throne, but also and more especially
your ready and
willingobedience in the matter of your wives.
Therefore I have
decided to exalt you and your household in
the eyes of all the Faithful, and of the whole world, by
takingfrom your house a wife for myself."
When Ashimullah heard this he went very pale, although, in truth,
what the Sultan proposed to do was always held the highest of
honors.
"And since so good and loyal a servant," pursued the Sultan,
"would desire to offer to his Sovereign nothing but the best of
all that he has, tell me, O Ashimullah, which of your wives is
fairest, that I may take her and exalt her as I have proposed."
Ashimullah was now in great
agitation, and he stammered in his
confusion:
"My wives are indeed fair; but, O Most Potent and Fearful
Majesty, they have, one and all, most diabolical
tempers."
"Surely by now I have
learned how to deal with the
tempers of
women," said the Sultan, raising his brows. "Come, Ashimullah;
tell me which is fairest."
Then Ashimullah, being at his wits' end, and catching at any
straw in order to secure a little delay, declared that it was
utterly impossible to say that any one of his wives was fairer
than any other, for they were all
perfectly beautiful.
"But describe them to me, one by one," commanded the Sultan.
So Ashimullah described his wives one by one to the Sultan, using
most exalted
eloquence, and employing every simile, metaphor,
image, figure, and trope that language contains, in the vain
attempt to express
adequately the surpassing beauty of those
ladies; yet he was most careful to set no one above any other and
to
distribute the said similes, metaphors, images, figures, and
tropes, with
absolute impartiality and
equality among them.
"By Allah, it is difficult!" said the Sultan, pulling his beard
fretfully. "I will consider your several descriptions, and send
for you again in a few days, Ashimullah."
So Ashimullah went home and told Lallakalla all that had
passed between the Sultan and himself, and how the Sultan
proposed to take one of his wives, but could not make up his mind
which lady he should prefer.
"But, alas! it is all one to me,
whichever he chooses," cried
Ashimullah, in despair.
"It is all one to me also," cried Lallakalla. "But, be sure,
dear Ashimullah, that the Sultan has some purpose in this delay.
Let us wait and see what he does. It may be that we need not yet
despair."
But Ashimullah would not be comforted, and cried out that he had
done better never to forswear his religion, but to have died at
once, as a holy martyr.
"It is too late to think of that," said Lallakalla.
Now, had not the Sultan been most lamentably bewildered and most
amazingly dazzled by the conflicting charms of the wives of
Ashimullah, beyond doubt he would not have entertained nor
carried out a
project so
impious and irreligious as that which
his
curiosity and
passion now led him into. But being
unable to eat or drink or rest until he was at ease on the
matter, he determined, all piety and law and decorum to the
contrary
notwithstanding, to look upon the faces of Ashimullah's
wives with his own eyes, and determine for himself to whom the
crown of beauty belonged, and whether the brown or the black, or
the golden or the ruddy, might most
properly and truthfully lay
claim to it. But this
resolution he ventured to
communicate to
nobody, save to the
faithful and dutiful wife whom he had sent
before to visit the house of Ashimullah. She, amazed, tried
earnestly to dissuade him, but
seeing he was not to be turned, at
last agreed to second his designs, and
enable him to fulfill his
purpose. "Though I fear no good will come of it," she sighed.
"I wonder which is in truth the fairest!" murmured the Sultan.
And he sent word to Ashimullah that the Sultana would visit his
wives on the evening of that day.
"All will be ready for her," said Lallakalla, when she received
the message from her husband.
But in the afternoon the Sultan sent men into the bazaar, and
these men caught Hassan, Ashimullah's servant, as he came to make
his daily purchases, and carried him to the Sultan, with whom he
was closeted for hard on an hour. When he came out Hassan
returned home, shaking his head sorrowfully, but patting his
purse
comfortably;
whence it appears that he suffered from a
conflict of feelings, his mind being ill at ease, but his purse
heavier. And when in the evening the Sultana came, attended only
by one tall,
formidable, and inky-black
attendant, Hassan ushered
her into the
reception room of the harem, telling her that
Lallakalla, the first wife of his master, would attend her
immediately. Then he went out, and, having brought in the big
black slave very
secretly, set him in the ante
chamber of the room
where the Sultana was, and hid him there, behind a high
screen.
And Hassan pierced a hole in the
screen, so that the big
slave could see what passed in the ante
chamber without being seen
himself. Then Hassan, still shaking his head, but also patting
his purse, went to
summon Lallakalla. But the big black slave
lay quiet behind the
screen.
Presently Lallakalla passed through and entered the room where
the Sultana was. A few moments later Ashimullah came in,
carrying over one arm several robes of silk and in the other a
large box or trunk. Ashimullah looked round
cautiously, but saw
nobody; the big black slave held his
breath, but laid his hand on
the scimitar that he wore. Ashimullah waited. Then Lallakalla
came out.
"Yes, of a truth this brown-haired one is most lovely," thought
the big slave. "It would seem impossible that the others can be
so lovely. Moreover, she looks
amiable enough. Yet I must see
the others. Which will come next?" And he
composed himself to
wait for the next, not caring whether she were the ruddy,
the golden, or the black, so that she came quickly.
But, to the
amazement of the slave, Lallakalla tore off the
silken robe she wore and cried to her husband, "Give me the blue
robe--yes, and the golden hair." And, having put on the blue
robe, she took from Ashimullah's hand something that he had taken
from the square box, and put it on her head. Then Ashimullah
gave her a smaller box, and,
taking out paints and brushes and a
mirror, she made a
complexion for herself. And thus she was
transformed into a golden-haired lady with cheeks of rosy red,