Chapter 5, The Second Dervish's Tale.
The Sixteenth Night The following night, when Sarazad was in bed, her sister Denarzad said Please sister, tell us one of your lovely little tales.
The king added, Let it be more amazing than what came before.
Sarazad replied, With the greatest pleasure.
It is said, O happy king, that everyone was amazed at the tale of the first dervish.
The caliph said to Jafar, In all my life I have never heard such a tale.
Then the second dervish came forward and said, Lord, my lady, I was not born one-eyed.
My father was a king and he taught me how to read and write and I turned to the study of calligraphy.
I perfected my art until word of my skill spread to every town and reached all the great kings.
One day the king of India sent my father gifts and asked him to send me to him.
My father prepared me for the trip with six riding horses.
We rode for a full month until one day we came upon a cloud of dust.
When the dust cleared, we saw fifty horsemen shining like steel lions in their armor.
They were bandits.
We said to them, we are messengers to the king of India.
You must not harm us.
Still, they attacked.
I barely escaped alive, wandering off without knowing which direction to go.
I had been mighty and rich, but then I became poor.
For a month, I traveled during the day, sleeping at night wherever I could and eating the plants and fruits of the earth to survive.
Finally, I arrived at a beautiful city, weak from exhaustion and hunger.
I entered the city, not knowing where to go, and was lucky to pass a tailor sitting in his shop.
I greeted him, and he invited me in.
I told him everything that had happened to me.
He looked troubled and told me Young men, do not tell your secret to anyone, for the king of this city is your father's greatest enemy.
Then he brought me some food, and we ate together.
When it was dark, he let me sleep in a small space behind his shop.
I stayed there for three weeks.
Then he asked me, Don't you have any skill to earn your living with?
I replied that I was a writer, and he said, Such skills are not much in demand in this city.
Take an axe and a rope and go cut wood in the wilderness for your living.
Then he brought me an axe and a rope and put me under the charge of some woodcutters.
I went out with them, cut wood all day long, and came back carrying my bundle on my head.
I sold the wood and brought the money to the tailor.
In this way I spent an entire year.
One day I went out into the wilderness and came to a thick patch of trees.
There was a great stump there, and when I dug around it with my axe, I came upon a ring attached to a wooden plank.
I pulled the ring to raise the plank and found a staircase.
I went down the steps and found a grand underground palace.
Down there was a girl who looked as bright as the shining sun and whose voice chased all sorrow away.
But morning drew near Sarazot, and she fell silent.
Dinarzad said to her sister, Sister, what an amazing story.
Sarazad replied It is nothing compared with what I will tell you tomorrow, if the king lets me live.
The Seventeenth Night.
The following night, when Sarazad was in bed, her sister Denersad said Please sister, tell us more of this lovely tale.
The king added, Let it be the rest of the second dervish's tale.
Sarazad replied, Very well.
I heard oh happy king.
That the second dervish said When the girl saw me, she asked me a man or a demon?
I replied, I am a man.
She asked, What brought you here?
I have lived in this place for twenty-five years without ever seeing another person.
I replied, My good fortune brought me here to take away your sorrows.
Then I told my story to her, and she felt sad for me and told me her story as well.
She was the daughter of a king from a distant island.
On the night of her wedding, a demon flew away with her and set her down in that place.
Once every ten days, he visited her, and the rest of the time she was alone.
If she needed the demon, all she had to do was touch two lines engraved on the doorway.
The demon was not due for six more days, and so I stayed there with the princess.
I soon fell in love and said to her My beautiful one, let me carry you up and save you from this prison.
She replied, Oh, be still.
The demon is frightening and I am afraid to leave him.
I grew very angry then and said This very instant I will smash the engraved inscription and let the demon come so that I may destroy him.
When she heard my words, the princess grew pale and said Oh, for God's sake, don't do it.
But I was too angry to listen and I kicked the door with my foot.
But morning drew near Sarazad, and she fell silent.
Then Sarazad said to her sister, Sister, what a wonderful and amazing story.
Sarazad replied, It is nothing compared with what I will tell you tomorrow if the king lets me live.
The Eighteenth night.
The following night, when Sarazad was in her bed, her sister Denarzad said Please sister, tell us more of this amazing tale.
The king added, Let it be the end of the second dervish's tale.
Sarazad replied, With the greatest pleasure.
It is said, O happy king, that the second dervish said to the woman As soon as I kicked the step, there was thunder and lightning and the earth began to shake and everything turned dark.
The princess cried out, "'Get up and run for your life!'
I fled up the staircase, but in my great terror I left my sandals and axe behind.
I had almost reached the top when I saw the palace floor split open and the demon appear.'
When I reached the outside, I replaced the trapdoor as it was before and covered it with earth.
I was very sorry, as I thought of the princess who had lived quietly and peacefully for twenty-five years before I disturbed her.
I blamed myself for what I had done.
I walked on until I came to my friend, the tailor.
He was worried and had been waiting for me.
He was glad to see me.
I thanked him and went to my little room behind the shop.
A bit later, the tailor came to see me and said There is an old gentleman waiting outside who has your axe and sandals and is looking for you.
When I heard this, I started to tremble.
While we were talking, the wall split open and the old gentleman was there.
It was the demon.
But morning drew near Sarazad, and she fell silent.
Then Arzad said to her sister, Sister, what an amusing story.
Sarazad replied, It is nothing compared with what I will tell you tomorrow if the king lets me live.
The Nineteenth Night.
The following night, when Sarazad was in her bed, her sister Denizad said Please sister, tell more of this amazing tale.
The king added, Let it be the rest of the second dervish's story.
Sarazad replied, With the greatest pleasure.
I heard, oh happy king, that the second dervish told the woman.
Then the demon rose up, and he was terrible.
He had a mighty sword in his hands, and he held it up to strike me down.
I begged and pleaded with him for my life, telling him that he had no reason to kill me.
You are the man who visited my palace in the woods. and who took my woman for your own, he cried.
I told him he was wrong that I had never seen such a palace or such a woman.
I begged and pleaded for a long time until finally he put down his sword.
I will not kill you, said the demon, but I will not let you go unharmed.
Then he snatched me up and flew with me upward until the earth looked like a distant cloud.
Soon he sat me down on a mountain.
He took a little dust, mumbled a spell, and at that very instant I turned into an ape.
Then the demon flew away.
When I saw that I was an ape, I cried and felt sorry for myself.
I went down from the mountain and walked for a month.
I crossed a desert until I got to the shore.
I stood there looking out at the ocean until I saw the shape of a ship.
It got closer and closer.
It looked as if it would pass right by me.
I waved to the ship, running back and forth with a branch in my hand.
When the sailors saw me, they said to the captain, You have risked our lives for an ape.
Let us kill him.
When I heard what they said, I got to knees and begged for my life.
The captain said, This ape has asked me for help.
No one will harm him while he is under my care.
He took me onto the ship and treated me kindly.
For fifty days the ship sailed under a good wind until we got to a great city.
No sooner had we docked than we were visited by messengers from the king of the city.
Good sailors.
The messenger said our king sends you this piece of paper and asks each of you to write one line on it.
A wise man and a great calligrapher has died, and the king will only replace him with someone who can write as well as he could.
And they handed the sailors a roll of paper and each of them took a turn writing out a line.
When they came to me, I snatched the roll from their hands and they screamed at me, fearing that I would throw it into the sea or tear it into pieces.
But I showed them that I only wanted to write on it.
They were quite amazed by this, but the captain said Let him write what he likes, and if he writes well, I will adopt him for my son, because I have never seen a more intelligent or well-behaved ape.
Then I held the pen, dipped it in the ink, and wrote some lines.
I handed them the roll, and they took it back in amazement.
But morning drew near Sarazad, and she fell silent.
Dedarzad said to her sister, Sister, what an amazing story.
Sarazad replied It is nothing compared with what I will tell you tomorrow, if the king lets me live.
The Twentieth Night.
The following night, when Sarazad was in bed, her sister Denarzad said Please sister, tell us more of this lovely tale.
The king added, Make it the end of the second dervish's story.
Sarazad replied, Very well.
It is told, O happy king, that the second dervish said to the woman messengers, took the scroll and returned with it to the king.
My writing pleased him, and he said, Take this robe of honor to the person who wrote these lines.
The men smiled and said, O king of the age and the world, the writer of these lines is an ape.
The king asked, Is it true?
They told him it was, and the king was greatly amazed.
Then he said, I wish to see this ape.
He sent his messengers to me, and they dressed me with the robe of honor and took me to him.
When I saw the king, I bowed down three times before him.
Then I kissed the ground once, and he noted my fine manners.
This is a wonder, said the king, and he ordered a table of food set before him.
He asked me to eat with him.
I ate only a little before writing out some more lines for him.
The king read what I wrote and said if a man had this skill, he would pass all other men.
Just then, the king's daughter appeared.
She wore a veil on her face.
Oh, father, she said, do you think so little of me that you would expose me to this man?
The king was astonished and said, daughter, there is no one here but this ape.
Why do you veil your face?
She replied, an ape?
Why, this is a wise and kind man put under a spell by a demon.
Then the king turned to his daughter and said, How do you know this?
She replied, Oh, father, I have copied and learned a hundred books of spells.
I could move the stones of your city into the ocean and even beyond the ends of the earth.
I could make the sky darken, turning day into night for a hundred days.
The king said O daughter, free this ape from his spell so that I may make him my vizier and allow him to marry you.
She replied, As you wish.
The king's daughter began to whisper a spell and then ordered a bowl of water.
She sprinkled me with the water and said, I command you to be yourself again.
Suddenly I stood before her as a man.
But there was little time for joy.
In a flash, the demon appeared in the sky, taking the form of a terrible lion.
We were all terrified.
The world turned dark all around us.
The demon cursed the princess for what she had done.
She answered him by turning into a great serpent and flying into the air.
There was an incredible battle that shook the castle under our feet.
The fight lasted for some time, with the girl and the demon taking the shapes of different animals.
Finally, there was the sound of a great explosion.
A bright light flashed in the sky.
It was this light that blinded me in one eye.
The floor shook beneath me, and I could see that the walls of the palace were crumbling.
I ran as fast as I could, barely escaping before the entire palace collapsed.
I left the palace ruins, my heart heavy with sadness.
I went to shave my beard and eyebrows so as to look like a dervish.
I traveled through many countries, my sorrow growing worse and worse.
I hoped to find the caliph so that I might tell him my tale.
I arrived here this night and met these men at the gates.
This is my story, and such is the reason for losing an eye and shaving my beard.
The woman replied, You may go.
But he replied, By God, I will stay until I hear the tales of the others.
But morning drew near Sarazad, and she fell silent.
Denarzad said to her sister, Sister, what an amazing story!
Sarazad replied It is nothing compared with what I will tell you tomorrow, if the king lets me live.
