Thousand & One Nights: 68th Night:

This is the second part of the storyof  Second Lady of Baghdad house. This is an inner story within the Frame story told by Shahrazad. The lady had inherited a great deal of money from her father. She had also inherited ninety thousand dinars from her deceased husband. She had been enjoying a pleasant and content life in Baghdad. She was married again by a handsome and wealthy man, who made her take a pledge that she would not look at any other man.

One day she visited a fabric merchant to purchase some fabrics. She was accompanied by her maids and an old woman, who fostered many orphans. The young fabric merchant demanded that he be allowed to kiss on her cheek in exchange of his fabric. According to the advice of the old woman she turned her face to him. He put his mouth on her face and bit off a piece of her flesh. She fainted. When she came to herself the shop was locked and the merchant disappeared.

The story to continue:

The old woman who advised her to turn her face cursed herself for the advice. She did not expect that sex-starved youth would do such a perversed act. Expressing her anguish and grief she said, "O my lady, God has saved you from something worse. Take heart and let us go. When you go home, pretend to be sick, and cover yourself up, and I will bring you powders and plasters that will heal your cheek within three days."

I rose, and we walked slowly until we reached the house, where I collapsed on the floor with pain. Then I rose, and walked towards the bed. The old woman brought me wine, I gulped it and collapsed again into my bed, and covered myself up.

My husband came in the evening and asked, "O my darling, what is the matter with you?"

"I have a headache." 

He lighted a candle. Coming close to me, he looked at my face in the candle light and saw the wound, and asked, "What is this?" 

I replied, "When I went today to the market to buy some fabric, a camel driver with a load of firewood jostled me in a narrow passage, and one of the pieces tore my veil and cut my cheek as you see."

"Tomorrow I shall ask the governor of the city to hang every camel driver in this city."

I replied, "O my lord, this does not warrant hanging innocent men and bearing the guilt of their death."

"Then, who did it?" He asked.

"I was riding a rented donkey, and when the donkey driver  drove it hard

it stumbled and threw me to the ground and I fell on a piece of glass that happened to be there and cut my cheek."

He said, "By God, I shall not let the sun rise before I go to the Ja'far Barmakid and ask him to hang every donkey driver and every sweeper in this city."

I said, "By God, my lord, this is not what really happened to me. Don't hang people because of me."

"What then is the real cause of your wound?" He asked.

I replied, "I suffered what God had foreordained for me." He kept pressing me relentlessly, and I kept mumbling and resisting him until he drove me to speak rudely to him. He cried out and a door opened and out came three black slaves, who at his bidding, dragged me out of my bed and threw me down on my back in the middle of the room. Then he ordered one slave to sit on my knees, the other to hold my head, and the third to draw his sword, saying to him, "You Sa'd, strike her and with one blow cut her in half and let each of you carry one half and throw it into Tigris river for the fish to feed upon. This is the punishment of those who violate the vow." Then he angrily recited the following verses:

If there be one who shares the one I love, 

I will kill my love even though my soul dies 

Better nobly to die, o soul, 

Than share a love for which another vies.

Then he ordered the slave to strike me with the sword. The slave bent down to me and said, "O my lady, have you any wish, this is the last moments of your life?"

"Get off me," I replied, "so that I may tell him something." I raised my head, thinking of my condition, how I had fallen from high esteem to disgrace, and from life to death, I wept bitterly. But my husband looked at me angrily and recited the following verses:

She left for another lover

Bored with me? or disdain.

I replied with the following verses:

You set my heart burning with love

Left my eyes to smart and you slept 

All alone I thought of you and wept 

In my sorrow did I keep a vigil

You promised to be always faithful 

You had my heart;  you broke the vow

Innocent I kill not my love.

He heard my verses and grew angrier, and came his verses:

She wished a sin and let 

Another share her love.

I replied:

You burdened me with your love.

Being weak your absence is a bless.

He yelled at the slave, "Cut her in half and rid me of her. Her life is worthless."

In between these war of verses, I gave up myself for lost. Suddenly the old woman came and threw herself at his feet, and said tearfully, "O son, by the right of rearing you up, by the breasts that fed you, pardon her for my sake. You are still young, and you should not bear the guilt of her death, for as it is said, 'whoever slays shall be slain'. Why bother her? Drive her out of your hearth and heart." She kept weeping and imploring until he relented and said, "But I must brand her and leave a permanent mark on her." Then he ordered the slaves to strip me of all my clothes and stretch me on the floor, and when they sat on me to pin me down, he rose and fetching a quince rod, and  blows fell on my sides until I despaired of life and lost consciousness.

After that he bade the slaves to take me to my own home. It was getting dark, and the old woman showed them the way.

They threw me into my house and departed. I lay sick in bed for four months. When I recovered and was able to get up, I went to look for my husband's house. It was ruined. The entire alley, from beginning to end was torn down. Piles of rubble were littered in the site, where the house stood. I went to this girl, a sister of mine on my father's side. I found her with these two black bitches. I asked her what happened to the house and its owner. "Who is safe from the accidents of life?" Yes it was an accident on which man has no control.

 I brought them here, and we have been living together without men. Every day this girl, shopper used to go to market to buy for us the necessaries and provisions. We have been living like this for a long time. 

Yesterday, when our sister went to market as usual she returned with the porter, whom we allowed to stay to divert us. Less than a quarter of the night had passed these three dervishes joined us, and we sat talking, and when the third of a night had gone by, three respectable merchants from Mosul joined us and told us about their adventures. We, the girls made them pledge a vow which they broke. We wanted to know from where these people had come and we made them narrate it. We pardoned them and they departed. This morning we were unexpectedly summoned by your excellency. This is our story.

End of the Night.