Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange (Hardcover Classics) (62 page)

She then approached him with a hot iron, whose heat startled him awake. She told him: ‘The suffering you must endure for this woman cannot compare with what her first husband endured.’ ‘And what was that?’ he asked. She said: ‘Queen Mahliya in Egypt suffers from a disease of the stomach that attacks her every year, and the pain can only be relieved by the liver of a lion. This is the time for her next attack, and she has sent out troops to find a lion. They are on their way here now.’ ‘What is to be done?’ he asked, and she said: ‘Go off with this bill of exchange of yours and when you have got the money for it come back after the lion hunt has finished and you can consummate your marriage. For this is what the queen did with my first son-in-law, who lies buried here. She had him caught and removed his liver, which she cut up in pieces, and we buried him here with us, as you see.’

The lion was very disturbed and told her: ‘I’m afraid that I may meet
her men on my way, so think of some trick that might rescue me from them.’ She said: ‘Go to that cup and smear your body and face with its perfume and then take this ring and fasten it on your neck, so that when they see you they will think that you are a fool.’ The lion did all that and then fled away as fast as he could, hiding by day and travelling at night, until he reached Mauhub, altered and deformed.

‘Noble lion,’ Mauhub said, ‘you are in any ugly state, so tell me what happened.’ The lion told him the whole story from beginning to end, of his encounter with the old woman and how he had fled from Mahliya lest she kill him and cut out his liver. He added that he had not been able to give her the letter. Mauhub laughed at the story, astonished at the trick that had been played but furiously angry at the stupidity of the lion and how his passion for women had got the better of him. He then courteously asked him to pass over the letter, but when he saw Mahliya’s writing he snorted and cursed before telling the lion: ‘I didn’t think that you would manage things as badly as this. Didn’t you realize that this is the answer to my letter written in her own hand?’ The lion wept at what had happened to him, and when the lioness who had suckled Mauhub heard what the old woman had done with him and how ugly he had become, she abandoned him and would not go near him.

Mauhub went to tell his father what had happened to the lion, and he opened Mahliya’s letter to read to him. She had written: ‘In the name of God, hidden in splendour, Lord of heaven and earth, Who makes the water flow: know, Mauhub, that whoever puts on the robes of contemptible treachery and deceives his dear ones loses all respect. How often does he want to reproach his friends for abandoning him? If he aims at glory, he is numbered amongst the miserable, and if he seeks, he will not reach his goal and will be close to injury on his return. If you are threatening me with the number of your warriors, you face defeat and have lost your wits. The likes of one who has a lion as his vizier is despicable. Come or go. As far as I am concerned you can do what you want, as it is all equal to me. Goodbye.’

When Mauhub had finished reading the letter his father said: ‘My son, I advised you after the first letter that, before she could enlist help against you, you should go and take her by surprise. You refused and would not accept my advice. So now I think that you should go to her yourself with your troops and your servants and not rely on anyone else. When you get to her country you can take her by force, for you should not humble yourself before a weak woman with an insignificant
kingdom, may God exalt you. Wealth is collected in this world to be spent in the pursuit of love, while men are recruited and equipment and weapons are acquired to give support.’

Mauhub told his father that he would follow his advice and he collected his people and those who knew the way to Egypt, asking them how he should go. They said that he should go by sea, as the land route was hard and difficult, and its lack of water and distance would not support armies. Accordingly Shimrakh ordered the launching of fifty ships, ten of which were filled with savage lions under the command of his own lions. Another ten carried wild elephants commanded by one of his viziers, as these were used in battle at that time, while thirty were filled with horses, men and weapons. Mauhub was on the finest and best of them with the most equipment.

His father, together with his countrymen, said goodbye to him as he set out and the ships put to sea with a favourable wind. They enjoyed a good and a safe voyage until they reached a place called Raya. Mahliya’s father had died there, and the sorcerers together with the people of the country were unsettled. They knew about her affair with Mauhub and thought of deposing her, but she tricked them by providing herself with a strong castle in which she could be safe from them and alone with Mauhub.

The sorcerers, who had been in the service of the pharaoh, lived in Samannud and its districts. There was a division between two groups of them, each one of which said that the queen should live with them, and when this became clear, they collected wise counsellors and asked their advice as to where to build a fortress equidistant between the lands of the sorcerers and those of the ordinary citizens, to which everyone would have to go.

They could find no better or more extensive a place than the site of this fortress, whose stones were less numerous than its swarms of reptiles, snakes, scorpions and other wild creatures. It was a home of
jinn
, and the islands in the sea there were overrun by crocodiles. Mahliya was advised to build whatever kind of fortress she wanted there. Accordingly she summoned a chamberlain of hers called Nun and told him what to build, laying down limits and defining height, thickness and strength.

Nun hurried to obey, and the queen provided great rewards for her subjects who had been on the point of abandoning allegiance to her but whose services she now employed. To start with Nun found himself thwarted by the swarming reptiles who were the masters of the place, so
he collected the sorcerers and asked them what he should do about this. They told him that reptiles and snakes would hide away if they heard the screech of an owl, and so he collected owls and let them loose in the danger spot. The reptiles dispersed, and the wild beasts were hunted down. When the site had been cleared of them, the stones were removed and the fortress was built. At their widest, its walls had room enough for twenty horses, and the fortress itself covered three square miles. At its corners were four towers, in each of which a thousand riders with their weapons could pass the night, and surmounting these were a thousand turrets around whose roofs a horseman could ride. In the centre of each was a great pit in which fires were kindled.

The west wall was set in the middle of the Nile, with two gates, one for the common people and the other for their superiors. The gates could only be reached by boat, and at that time there was no island there but only the stream which now flows behind the island. One branch of this was allowed to flow through the middle of the fortress and come out at its upper end. When the castle was destroyed, the present island was formed over its ruins, and the river was diverted away from where it had been. On the land side there was one gate used for hunting parties and excursions. These gates were made of gilded brass, and every one of them was topped with a huge dome of silver covered with various types of brocade, on which was placed a great bird that would whistle when the wind blew. It took forty men to open and shut each of them.

In the middle of this was a great palace, forty cubits high and forty square, supporting a golden dome, with four doors of sandalwood, juniper, teak, ebony and Indian aloes wood. The doors were covered with hangings and heavy brocade, and above each of them was placed a cleverly constructed brass falcon that turned and whistled with the wind. Mahliya would sit there as she could see whoever was coming by land or water over a distance of four miles.

The place was filled with lovely slave girls, and Nun moved all Mahliya’s possessions there and beside it he built a church for her with a thousand steps to match the number of her viziers. When she went up to it, one of them would sit on each step until she came out after Mass. A thousand silver candles were hung there, fuelled with oil of jasmine, and there were pictures of prophets and saints, all this being looked after by a hundred Byzantine eunuchs. Ten other churches were built for the congregations of ordinary people. Around the fortress palm-trees were
planted, seeds sown and canals constructed. When all this work had been done, it was surrounded by talismans to ward off snakes, wild beasts and all kinds of reptiles, as well as crocodiles, none of which ever came near it. Two beacons were placed there that could be seen from Bulaq. This is now called ‘The Island’, but originally it was the causeway leading to the garden of the fortress. It could only be used by those who had some wrong to complain of or some business to transact.

When there was nothing left to do, Nun went to greet Mahliya and tell her that her fortress had been completed, detailing what he had done and wishing her the fulfilment of her wishes and continued prosperity. She gave him robes of honour and rewarded him generously, but she kept the fortress shut, swearing that she would only enter it with Mauhub, whom she never forgot or ceased to mention, thanks to the pleasure she took in his name.

It was just when the fortress was completed that Mauhub arrived at Raya, which is two days’ journey from Qulzum. He disembarked and held a meeting of his army leaders and his strategists. Before that he let his viziers know that he was proposing to advance on Egypt and attack Mahliya treacherously and without warning. ‘A king like you,’ they told him, ‘should not use treachery. Your superiority to Mahliya means that you have no reason to attack her. Delay; move slowly and send her a letter of warning. This will give you the moral high ground, while another point is that we know nothing of this country and of its roads, and if we don’t have to fight that will be our good fortune.’

Mauhub accordingly wrote to Mahliya, telling her that he had come to her country because of his yearning for her, his desire to be near her and other such remarks. He sent this off, but when the messenger got to Qulzum, its governor imprisoned him and wrote to Mahliya, telling him that Mauhub’s ships had arrived, carrying a large and well-equipped force. He also forwarded Mauhub’s letter, which she sent back unopened with its seal unbroken, saying that it should be returned to its writer.

When Mauhub got it back in this state he was furiously angry as well as saddened. In order to fight against his lions Mahliya had prepared four thousand buffaloes with their horns covered in iron and their necks protected by collars of Chinese steel, while against the elephants she prepared five thousand wildcats. She collected her men and organized her armies, supplying them with money and arms. All these were sent to Qulzum while Mahliya herself, without telling her people, went to a hermitage near Qulzum and stayed there.

When Mauhub’s lion saw his master’s anger, mixed as it was with passion for Mahliya, he went up to him and said: ‘Know, O king, that I am the one who has suffered in body and been robbed of what I found sweet. I want you to send me out to start the fight so that I may settle her affair for you, destroy her armies and bring her to you.’ Mauhub ordered him to attack, and Mahliya sent out her buffaloes. When they met she encouraged them to attack the lions, almost all of whom were killed within a day. There were only two wounded survivors, one of whom was Mauhub’s lion, who was ashamed to go back to him and so went to the mountains of Qulzum, where he hid in a cave. The other went to Mauhub and told him what had happened, to his great grief.

He next sent out the elephants, telling their leader to make sure of victory in any attack. When they got to the land of Qulzum they were drawn up in ranks, with the cavalry behind them, and swords carried in their trunks, ready for what their leader was sure would be a successful attack. Before he knew it, however, the wild cats charged, fastening on to the trunks of the elephants and biting them, while seizing the men in their usual way. As a result both elephants and men were all killed except for their leader, who went back with the news to Mauhub.

Mauhub’s spirit was broken and, realizing that he was beaten, he thought of returning home. His viziers and his closest advisors came to him and said: ‘May God recompense the king for what has been lost, but his own survival and that of those who are with him is the most important thing. It was their lack of intelligence that caused the loss of the lions, for it is thanks to intelligence and organization that we see men conquer in war. We praise God, Victorious in battle, Who clears away sorrows. Stay where you are out of sight of the fighting and we shall settle the affair of Mahliya for you.’

It was then that Mahliya sent a beautiful bird under a spell to trick Mauhub. He was lying on his back, thinking things over, with his servants around him. The bird settled on the mast of his ship, and, for all that he was an experienced hunter, he had never seen a finer. It had a red beak with yellow eyes, green wings and a white body. He was so filled with admiration for its beauty that it took up the whole of his attention, diverting him from his problems. He took a cross-bow and shot a pellet at the bird, but missed. It flew off to the shore, where it sat on a palm-tree, and Mauhub called for a small boat, boarded it and, after landing, he shot at the bird but missed again. It flew to another tree, and Mauhub followed it. He was so eager to catch it that he
followed it from tree to tree and place to place until his search had led him far out of sight of his fleet.

Mahliya sent clever sorcerers to the ships, whose anchor cables they cut, and they stirred up the sea against them, leaving them to stray, scatter and founder. At that the bird flew for safety high into the sky, and Mauhub, despairing of success, went back to his ships, but could find no trace of them or learn what had happened. He sat weeping in self-pity all day long, and as evening approached Mahliya sent out a fisherman, who was also a sorcerer, to bring him to her. As he sat by the shore shedding sad tears the fisherman approached with his net over his shoulder and halted opposite him. Every fish that he caught he would broil and eat.