The Story of the Humpback

There was, in ancient times, in the city of El-Basrah, a
tailor who enjoyed an ample income, and was fond of
sport and merriment. He was in the habit of going out
occasionally with his wife, that they might amuse themselves
with strange and diverting scenes ; and one day they went
forth in the afternoon, and, returning home in the evening,
met a humpbacked man, whose aspect was such as to excite
laughter in the angry, and to dispel anxiety and grief: so
they approached him to enjoy the pleasure of gazing at him,
and invited him to return with them to their house, and to
join with them in a carousal that night.

He assented to their proposal; and after he had gone
with them to the house, the tailor went out to the market ;
night having then approached. He bought some fried fish,
and bread and limes and sweetmeat, and, returning wnth
them, placed the fish before the humpback, and they sat
down to eat; and the tailor's wife took a large piece of fish,
and crammed the humpback with it, and, closing his mouth
with her hand, said. By Allah, thou shalt not swallow it but
by gulping it at once, and I will not give thee time to chew
it. He therefore swallowed it; but it contained a large and
sharp bone, which stuck across in his throat, his destiny
having so determined, and he expired. The tailor exclaimed.
There is no strength nor power but in God, the High, the
Great ! Alas, that this poor creature should not have died
but in this manner by our hands! — Wherefore this idling?
exclaimed the woman. — And what can I do? asked her hus-
band. — Arise, she answered, and take him in thy bosom, and
cover him with a silk napkin: I will go out first, and do thou
follow me, this very night, and say. This is my son, and this
is his mother ; and we are going to convey him to the
physician, that he may give him some medicine.

No sooner had the tailor heard these wor.ds than he arose,
and took the humpback in his bosom. His wife, accompany-
ing him, exclaimed, O my child ! may Allah preserve thee !
Where is the part in which thou feelest pain; and where
hath this small-pox attacked thee? — So every one who saw
them said, They are conveying a child smitten with the
small-pox. Thus they proceeded, inquiring, as they went,
for the abode of the physician; and the people directed them
to the house of a physician who was a Jew; and they
knocked at the door, and there came down to them a black
slave-girl, who opened the door, and beheld a man carrying
(as she imagined) a child, and attended by its mother; and
she said. What is your business? — We have a child here,
answered the tailor's wife, and we want the physician to see
him: take, then, this quarter of a piece of gold, and give it
to thy master, and let him come down and see my son; for
he is ill. The girl, therefore, went up, and the tailor's wife,
entering the vestibule, said to her husband, Leave the hump-
back here, and let us take ourselves away. And the tailor,
accordingly, set him up against the wall, and went out with
his wife.

The slave-girl, meanwhile, went in to the Jew, and said
to him. Below, in the house, is a sick person, with a woman
and a man : and they have given me a quarter of a piece of
gold for thee, that thou mayest prescribe for them what may
suit his case. And when the Jew saw the quarter of a piece
of gold, he rejoiced, and, rising in haste, went down in the
dark: and in doing so, his foot struck against the lifeless
humpback. O Ezra ! he exclaimed — O Heavens and the Ten
Commandments ! O Aaron, and Joshua son of Nun ! It
seemeth that I have stumbled against this sick person, and
he hath fallen down the stairs and died ! And how shall I
go forth with one killed from my house ? O Ezra's ass

Ozeyr, or Ezra, " riding on an ass by the ruins of Jerusalem, after it
liad been destroyed by the Chaldeans, doubted in his mind by what means
Hod could raise the city and its inhabitants again; whereupon God caused
liim to die, and he remained in that condition a hundred years; at the end
of which God restored him to life, and he found a basket of figs and a
cruse of wine he had with him, not in the least spoiled or corrupted, but
his ass was dead, the bones only remaining; and these, while the Prophet

He then raised him, and took him up from the court of
the house to his wife, and acquainted her with the accident.

And why sittest thou here idle ? said she ; for if thou
remain thus until daybreak our lives will be lost: let me
and thee, then, take him up to the terrace, and throw him
into the house of our neighbour the Muslim; for he is the
steward of the Sultan's kitchen, and often do the cats come
to his house, and eat of the food which they find there; as
do the mice too; and if he remain there for a night, the
dogs will come down to him from the terraces and eat him
up entirely. So the Jew and his wife went up, carrying the
humpback, and let him down by his hands and feet to the
pavement ; placing him against the wall ; which having done,
they descended.

Not long had the humpback been thus deposited when the
steward returned to his house, and opened the door, and,
going up with a lighted candle in his hand, found a son of
Adam standing in the corner next the kitchen ; upon which
he exclaimed. What is this? By Allah, the thief that hath
stolen our goods is none other than a son of Adam, who
taketh what he findeth of flesh or grease, even though I
keep it concealed from the cats and the dogs; and if I
killed all the cats and dogs of the quarter it would be of no
use; for he cometh down from the terraces! — And so saying,
he took up a great mallet, and struck him with it, and then,
drawing close to him, gave him a second blow with it upon
the chest, when the humpback fell down, and he found that
he was dead ; whereupon he grieved, and said. There is no
strength nor power but in God! And he feared for himself,
and exclaimed. Curse upon the grease and the flesh, and
upon this night, in which the destiny of this man hath been
accomplished by my hand! Then, looking upon him, and
perceiving that he was a humpback, he said. Is it not enough
that thou art humpbacked, but must thou also be a robber,
and steal the flesh and the grease? O Protector, cover me
with thy gracious shelter ! — And he lifted him upon his
shoulders, and descended, and went forth from the house,
towards the close of the night, and stopped not until he
had conveyed him to the commencement of the market-
street, where he placed him upon his feet by the side of a
shop at the entrance of a lane, and there left him and retired.

Soon after there came a Christian, the Sultan's broker,
who, in a state of intoxication, had come forth to visit the
bath ; and he advanced staggering, until he drew near to
the humpback, when he turned his eyes, and beheld one
standing by him. Now, some persons had snatched off his
turban early in the night, and when he saw the humpback
standing there, he concluded that he intended to do the
same ; so he clenched his fist, and struck him on the neck.
Down fell the humpback upon the ground, and the Christian
called out to the watchman of the market, while, still in the
excess of his intoxication, he continued beating the hump-
back, and attempting to throttle him. As he was thus em-
ployed, the watchman came, and, finding the Christian
kneeling upon the Muslim and beating him, said, Arise, and
quit him ! He arose, therefore, and the watchman, approach-
ing the humpback, saw that he was dead, and exclaimed.
How is that the Christian dareth to kill the IMuslim?
Then seizing the Christian, he bound his hands behind him,
and took him to the house of the Wali ;" the Christian saying
within himself, O Heavens ! O Virgin ! how have I killed
this man? and how quickly did he die from a blow of the
hand ! — Intoxication had departed, and reflection had come.

The humpback and the Christian passed the remainder
of the night in the house of the Wali, and the Wali ordered
the executioner to proclaim the Christian's crime, and he
set up a gallows, and stationed him beneath it. The execu-
tioner then came, and threw the rope round his neck, and
was about to hang him, when the Sultan's steward pushed
through the crowd, seeing the Christian standing beneath
the gallows, and the people made way for him, and he said
to the executioner, Do it not, for it was I who killed him. —
Wherefore didst thou kill him ? said the Wali. He answered,
I went into my house last night, and saw that he had de-
scended from the terrace and stolen my goods; so I struck
him with a mallet upon his chest, and he died, and I carried
him out, and conveyed him to the market-street, where I set
him up in such a place, at the entrance of such a lane. Is
it not enough for me to have killed a Muslim, that a Chris-
tian should be killed on my account? Hang, then, none
but me. — The Wali, therefore, when he heard these words,
liberated the Christian broker, and said to the executioner.
Hang this man, on the ground of his confession. And he
took off the rope from the neck of the Christian, and put
it round the neck of the steward, and having stationed him
beneath the gallows, was about to hang him, when the
Jewish physician pushed through the crowd, and called out
to the executioner, saying to him. Do it not; for none killed
him but I ; and the case was this : he came to my house to be
cured of a disease, and as I descended to him I struck against
him with my foot, and he died: kill not the steward, there-
fore; but kill me. So the Wali gave orders to hang the
Jewish physician; and the executioner took off the rope
from the steward's neck, and put it round the neck of the
Jew. But, lo, the tailor came, and, forcing his way among
the people, said to the executioner, Do it not; for none killed
him but I ; and it happened thus : I was out amusing myself
during the day, and as I was returning at the commencement
of the night, I met this humpback in a state of intoxication,
with a tambourine, and singing merrily ; and I stopped to
divert myself by looking at him, and took him to my house.
I then bought some fish, and we sat down to eat, and my
wife took a piece of fish and a morsel of bread, and crammed
them into his mouth, and he was choked, and instantly died.
Then I and my wife took him to the house of the Jew, and
the girl came down and opened the door, and while she
went up to her master, I set up the humpback by the stairs,
and went away with my wife: so, when the Jew came down
and stumbled against him, he thought that he had killed him.
— And he said to the Jew, Is this true? He answered. Yes.
The tailor, then looking towards the Wali, said to him.
Liberate the Jew, and hang me. And when the Wali heard
this he was astonished at the case of the humpback, and
said. Verily this is an event that should be recorded in
books ! And he said to the executioner, Liberate the Jew,
and hang the tailor on account of his own confession. So
the executioner led him forward, saying, Dost thou put for-
ward this and take back that; and shall we not hang one?
And he put the rope round the neck of the tailor.

Now the humpback was the Sultan's buffoon, and the
Sultan could not bear him to be out of his sight; and when
the humpback had got drunk, and been absent that night and
the next day until noon, the King inquired respecting him
of some of his attendants, and they answered him, O our
lord, the Wali hath taken him forth dead, and gave orders
to hang the person who killed him, and there came a second
and a third person, each saying. None killed him but I: —
and describing to the Wali the cause of his killing him.
When the King, therefore, heard this, he called out to the
Chamberlain, and said to him. Go down to the Wali, and
bring them all hither before me. So the Chamberlain went
down, and found that the executioner had almost put to
death the tailor, and he called out to him, saying, Do it
not : — and informed the Wali that the case had been reported
to the King. And he took him, and the humpback borne
with him, and the tailor and the Jew and the Christian and
the steward, and went up with them all to the King; and
when the Wali came into the presence of the King, he kissed
the ground, and related to him all that had happened. And
the King was astonished, and was moved with merriment,
at hearing this tale; and he commanded that it should be
written in letters of gold. He then said to those who were
present, Have ye ever heard anything like the story of this
humpback? And upon this the Christian advanced, and
said, O King of the age, if thou permit me I will relate to
thee an event that hath occurred to me more wonderful and
strange and exciting than the story of the humpback. — Tell
us then thy story, said the King. And the Christian related
as follows.