The Story of the First Sheykh and the Gazelle

Then said the sheykh, Know, O 'Efrit, that this gazelle
is the daughter of my paternal uncle, and she is of my flesh
and my blood. I took her as my wife when she was young,
and lived with her about thirty years ; but I was not blessed
with a child by her ; so I took to me a concubine slave, and
by her I was blessed with a male child, like the rising full
moon, with beautiful eyes, and delicately-shaped eyebrows,
and perfectly-formed limbs ; and he grew up by little and
little until he attained the age of fifteen years. At this
period, I unexpectedly had occasion to journey to a certain
city, and went thither with a great stock of merchandise.

Now my cousin, this gazelle, had studied enchantment
and divination from her early years ; and during my absence,
she transformed the youth above mentioned into a calf; and
his mother, into a cow; and committed them to the care of
the herdsman : and when I returned, after a long time, from
my journey, I asked after my son and his mother, and she
said, Thy slave is dead, and they son hath fled, and I know
not whither he is gone. After hearing this, I remained for
the space of a year with mourning heart and weeping eye,
until the Festival of the Sacrifice ;^ when I sent to the herds-
man, and ordered him to choose for me a fat cow; and he
brought me one, and it was my concubine, whom this
gazelle had enchanted. I tucked up my skirts and sleeves,
and took the knife in my hand, and prepared myself to
slaughter her ; upon which she moaned and cried so violently
that I left her, and ordered the herdsman to kill and skin
her: and he did so, but found in her neither fat nor flesh,
nor anything but skin and bone ; and I repented of slaughter-
ing her, when repentance was of no avail. I therefore
gave her to the herdsman, and said to him. Bring me a fat
calf: and he brought me my son, who was transformed into
a calf. And when the calf saw me, he broke his rope, and
came to me, and fawned upon me, and wailed and cried,
so that I was moved with pity for him; and I said to the
herdsman. Bring me a cow, and let this —

Here Shahrazad perceived the light of morning, and dis-
continued the recitation with which she had been allowed
thus far to proceed. Her sister said to her, How excellent
is thy story ! and how pretty ! and how pleasant ! and how
sweet ! — but she answered, What is this in comparison with
that which I will relate to thee in the next night, if I live,
and the King spare me ! And the King said. By Allah,
I will not kill her until I hear the remainder of her story.
Thus they pleasantly passed the night until the morning,
when the King went forth to his hall of judgment, and the
Wezir went thither with the grave-clothes under his arm :
and the King gave judgment, and invested and displaced,
until the close of the day, without informing the Wezir of
that which had happened; and the minister was greatly as-
tonished. The court was then dissolved; and the King
returned to the privacy of his palace.

[On the second and each succeeding night, Shahrazad
continued so to interest King Shahriyar by her stories as to
induce him to defer putting her to death, in expectation that
her fund of amusing tales would soon be exhausted ; and as
this is expressed in the original work in nearly the same
words at the close of every night, such repetitions will in the
present translation be omitted.]

When the sheykh, continued Shahrazad, observed the tears
of the calf, his heart sympathized with him, and he said to
the herdsman. Let this calf remain with the cattle. — Mean-
while, the Jinni wondered at this strange story; and the
owner of the gazelle thus proceeded.

O lord of the kings of the Jann, while this happcnetl,
my cousin, this gazelle, looked on, and said, Slaughter this
calf; for he is fat: but I could not do it; so I ordered the
herdsman to take him back ; and he took him and went
away. And as I was sitting, on the following day, he came
to me, and said, O my master, I have to tell thee something
that thou wilt be rejoiced to hear; and a reward is due to
me for bringing good news. I answered, Well: — and he
said, O merchant, I have a daughter who learned enchant-
ment in her youth from an old woman in our family; and
yesterday, when thou gavest me the calf, I took him to her,
and she looked at him, and covered her face, and wept, and
then laughed, and said, O my father, hath my condition
become so degraded in thy opinion that thou bringest before
me strange men? — Where, said I, are any strange men? and
wherefore didst thou weep and laugh? She answered, This
calf that is with thee is the son of our master, the merchant,
and the wife of our master hath enchanted both him and
his mother ; and this was the reason of my laughter ; but
as to the reason of my weeping, it was on account of his
mother, because his father had slaughtered her. — And I was
excessively astonished at this ; and scarcely was I certain
that the light of morning had appeared when I hastened to
inform thee.

When I heard, O Jinni, the words of the herdsmen, I
went forth with him, intoxicated without wine, fsom the
excessive joy and happiness that I received, and arrived at
his house, where his daughter welcomed me, and kissed my
hand ; and the calf came to me, and fawned upon me. And
I said to the herdsman's daughter. Is that true which thou
hast said respecting this calf? She answered. Yes, O my
master; he is verily thy son, and the vital spirit of thy
heart. — O maiden, said I, if thou wilt restore him, all the
cattle and other property of mine that thy father hath under
his care shall be thine. Upon this, she smiled, and said,

my master, I have no desire for the property unless on
two conditions : the first is, that thou shalt marry me to
him ; and the second, that I shall enchant her who enchanted
him, and so restrain her ; otherwise. I shall not be secure
from her artifice. On hearing, O Jinni, these her words,

1 said, And thou shalt have all the property that is under
the care of thy father besides ; and as to my cousin, even
her blood shall be lawful to thee. So, when she heard this,
she took a cup, and filled it with water, and repeated a
spell over it, and sprinkled with it the calf, saying to him,
If God created thee a calf, remain in this form, and be not
changed; but if thou be enchanted, return to thy original
form, by permission of God, whose name be exalted ! —
upon which he shook, and became a man ; and I threw
myself upon him, and said, I conjure thee by Allah that
thou relate to me all that my cousin did to thee and to thy
mother. So he related to me all that had happened to them
both; and I said to him, O my son, God hath given thee one
to liberate thee, and to avenge thee : — and I married to
him, O Jinni, the herdsman's daughter; after which, she
transformed my cousin into this gazelle. And as I happened
to pass this way, I saw this merchant, and asked him what
had happened to him ; and when he had informed me. I sat
down to see the result. — This is my story. The Jinni said,
This is a wonderful tale; and I give up to thee a third of
my claim to his blood.

The second sheykh, the owner of the two hounds, then
advanced, and said to the Jinni, If I relate to thee the story
of myself and these hounds, and thou find it to be in like
manner wonderful, wilt thou remit to me, also, a third of
thy claim to the blood of this merchant? The Jinni
answered. Yes.