The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade By Edgar Allan Poe
Truth is stranger than fiction. bered, that, in the usual version of the tales, OLD SAYING. a certain monarch having good cause to be jealous of his queen, not only puts her to Having had occasion, lately, in the death, but makes a vow, by his beard and the course of some Oriental investigations, to prophet, to espouse each night the most beau- consult the Tellmenow Isitsoornot, a work tiful maiden in his dominions, and the next which (like the Zohar of Simeon Jochaides) morning to deliver her up to the executioner. is scarcely known at all, even in Europe; and Having fulfilled this vow for many years to which has never been quoted, to my knowl- the letter, and with a religious punctuality edge, by any American—if we except, and method that conferred great credit perhaps, the author of the “Cu- upon him as a man of devout feel- riosities of American Litera- ing and excellent sense, he was ture”;—having had occasion, interrupted one afternoon I say, to turn over some pag- (no doubt at his prayers) es of the first—mentioned by a visit from his grand very remarkable work, I vizier, to whose daugh- was not a little astonished ter, it appears, there had to discover that the liter- occurred an idea. Her ary world has hitherto been name was Scheherazade, strangely in error respecting and her idea was, that she the fate of the vizier’s daugh- would either redeem the ter, Scheherazade, as that fate is land from the depopulating depicted in the “Arabian Nights”; tax upon its beauty, or perish, af- and that the denouement there given, if not ter the approved fashion of all heroines, in altogether inaccurate, as far as it goes, is at the attempt. Accordingly, and although we least to blame in not having gone very much do not find it to be leap-year (which makes farther. the sacrifice more meritorious), she deputes For full information on this interesting her father, the grand vizier, to make an of- topic, I must refer the inquisitive reader to fer to the king of her hand. This hand the the “Isitsoornot” itself, but in the meantime, king eagerly accepts—(he had intended to I shall be pardoned for giving a summary of take it at all events, and had put off the mat- what I there discovered. It will be remem- ter from day to day, only through fear of the — —
Created for Lit2Go on the web at fcit.usf.edu The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade By Edgar Allan Poe vizier),—but, in accepting it now, he gives pleasant than hanging, only a trifle more all parties very distinctly to understand, that, genteel. The king’s curiosity, however, pre- grand vizier or no grand vizier, he has not the vailing, I am sorry to say, even over his sound slightest design of giving up one iota of his religious principles, induced him for this vow or of his privileges. When, therefore, the once to postpone the fulfilment of his vow fair Scheherazade insisted upon marrying the until next morning, for the purpose and with king, and did actually marry him despite her the hope of hearing that night how it fared father’s excellent advice not to do any thing in the end with the black cat (a black cat, I of the kind—when she would and did marry think it was) and the rat. The night having him, I say, will I, nill I, it was with her beau- arrived, however, the lady Scheherazade not tiful black eyes as thoroughly open as the na- only put the finishing stroke to the black cat ture of the case would allow. It seems, how- and the rat (the rat was blue) but before she ever, that this politic damsel (who had been well knew what she was about, found herself reading Machiavelli, beyond doubt), had a deep in the intricacies of a narration, having very ingenious little plot in her mind. On the reference (if I am not altogether mistaken) to night of the wedding, she contrived, upon I a pink horse (with green wings) that went, forget what specious pretence, to have her in a violent manner, by clockwork, and was sister occupy a couch sufficiently near that of wound up with an indigo key. With this his- the royal pair to admit of easy conversation tory the king was even more profoundly in- from bed to bed; and, a little before cock- terested than with the other—and, as the day crowing, she took care to awaken the good broke before its conclusion (notwithstanding monarch, her husband (who bore her none all the queen’s endeavors to get through with the worse will because he intended to wring it in time for the bowstringing), there was her neck on the morrow),—she managed to again no resource but to postpone that cer- awaken him, I say, (although on account of emony as before, for twenty-four hours. The a capital conscience and an easy digestion, next night there happened a similar accident he slept well) by the profound interest of a with a similar result; and then the next—and story (about a rat and a black cat, I think) then again the next; so that, in the end, the which she was narrating (all in an undertone, good monarch, having been unavoidably of course) to her sister. When the day broke, deprived of all opportunity to keep his vow it so happened that this history was not al- during a period of no less than one thousand together finished, and that Scheherazade, in and one nights, either forgets it altogether by the nature of things could not finish it just the expiration of this time, or gets himself then, since it was high time for her to get up absolved of it in the regular way, or (what is and be bowstrung—a thing very little more more probable) breaks it outright, as well as
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Created for Lit2Go on the web at fcit.usf.edu The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade By Edgar Allan Poe the head of his father confessor. At all events, into cutting them short—a grievous piece of Scheherazade, who, being lineally descended misconduct, for which I only trust that Allah from Eve, fell heir, perhaps, to the whole sev- will forgive me. But even yet it is not too late en baskets of talk, which the latter lady, we to remedy my great neglect—and as soon as I all know, picked up from under the trees in have given the king a pinch or two in order to the garden of Eden-Scheherazade, I say, fi- wake him up so far that he may stop making nally triumphed, and the tariff upon beauty that horrible noise, I will forthwith entertain was repealed. you (and him if he pleases) with the sequel Now, this conclusion (which is that of of this very remarkable story.” Hereupon the the story as we have it upon record) is, no sister of Scheherazade, as I have it from the doubt, excessively proper and pleasant—but “Isitsoornot,” expressed no very particular in- alas! like a great many pleasant things, is tensity of gratification; but the king, having more pleasant than true, and I am indebted been sufficiently pinched, at length ceased altogether to the “Isitsoornot” for the means snoring, and finally said, “hum!” and then of correcting the error. “Le mieux,” says a “hoo!” when the queen, understanding these French proverb, “est l’ennemi du bien,” and, in words (which are no doubt Arabic) to signify mentioning that Scheherazade had inherited that he was all attention, and would do his the seven baskets of talk, I should have added best not to snore any more—the queen, I say, that she put them out at compound interest having arranged these matters to her satisfac- until they amounted to seventy-seven. tion, re-entered thus, at once, into the his- “My dear sister,” said she, on the thou- tory of Sinbad the sailor: sand-and-second night, (I quote the language “‘At length, in my old age, [these are the of the “Isitsoornot” at this point, verbatim) words of Sinbad himself, as retailed by Sche- “my dear sister,” said she, “now that all this herazade]—‘at length, in my old age, and after little difficulty about the bowstring has blown enjoying many years of tranquillity at home, I over, and that this odious tax is so happily re- became once more possessed of a desire of vis- pealed, I feel that I have been guilty of great iting foreign countries; and one day, without indiscretion in withholding from you and acquainting any of my family with my design, the king (who I am sorry to say, snores—a I packed up some bundles of such merchan- thing no gentleman would do) the full con- dise as was most precious and least bulky, and, clusion of Sinbad the sailor. This person went engaged a porter to carry them, went with him through numerous other and more interest- down to the sea-shore, to await the arrival of ing adventures than those which I related; any chance vessel that might convey me out but the truth is, I felt sleepy on the particular of the kingdom into some region which I had night of their narration, and so was seduced not as yet explored.
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Created for Lit2Go on the web at fcit.usf.edu The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade By Edgar Allan Poe
“‘Having deposited the packages upon was entirely covered with metallic scales, of a the sands, we sat down beneath some trees, color like that of the moon in misty weather. and looked out into the ocean in the hope The back was flat and nearly white, and from of perceiving a ship, but during several hours it there extended upwards of six spines, about we saw none whatever. At length I fancied half the length of the whole body. that I could hear a singular buzzing or hum- “‘The horrible creature had no mouth ming sound; and the porter, after listening that we could perceive, but, as if to make up awhile, declared that he also could distin- for this deficiency, it was provided with at guish it. Presently it grew louder, and then least four score of eyes, that protruded from still louder, so that we could have no doubt their sockets like those of the green dragon- that the object which caused it was approach- fly, and were arranged all around the body in ing us. At length, on the edge of the horizon, two rows, one above the other, and parallel we discovered a black speck, which rapidly to the blood-red streak, which seemed to an- increased in size until we made it out to be swer the purpose of an eyebrow. Two or three a vast monster, swimming with a great part of these dreadful eyes were much larger than of its body above the surface of the sea. It the others, and had the appearance of solid came toward us with inconceivable swiftness, gold. throwing up huge waves of foam around its “‘Although this beast approached us, as I breast, and illuminating all that part of the have before said, with the greatest rapidity, it sea through which it passed, with a long line must have been moved altogether by necro- of fire that extended far off into the distance. mancy—for it had neither fins like a fish nor “‘As the thing drew near we saw it very dis- web-feet like a duck, nor wings like the sea- tinctly. Its length was equal to that of three shell which is blown along in the manner of of the loftiest trees that grow, and it was as a vessel; nor yet did it writhe itself forward as wide as the great hall of audience in your pal- do the eels. Its head and its tail were shaped ace, O most sublime and munificent of the precisely alike, only, not far from the latter, Caliphs. Its body, which was unlike that of were two small holes that served for nostrils, ordinary fishes, was as solid as a rock, and and through which the monster puffed out of a jetty blackness throughout all that por- its thick breath with prodigious violence, tion of it which floated above the water, with and with a shrieking, disagreeable noise. the exception of a narrow blood-red streak “‘Our terror at beholding this hideous that completely begirdled it. The belly, which thing was very great, but it was even surpassed floated beneath the surface, and of which we by our astonishment, when upon getting a could get only a glimpse now and then as nearer look, we perceived upon the creature’s the monster rose and fell with the billows, back a vast number of animals about the size
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Created for Lit2Go on the web at fcit.usf.edu The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade By Edgar Allan Poe and shape of men, and altogether much re- through which (putting it to his mouth) sembling them, except that they wore no gar- he presently addressed us in loud, harsh, ments (as men do), being supplied (by nature, and disagreeable accents, that, perhaps, we no doubt) with an ugly uncomfortable cover- should have mistaken for language, had they ing, a good deal like cloth, but fitting so tight not come altogether through the nose. to the skin, as to render the poor wretches “‘Being thus evidently spoken to, I was laughably awkward, and put them apparently at a loss how to reply, as I could in no man- to severe pain. On the very tips of their heads ner understand what was said; and in this dif- were certain square-looking boxes, which, ficulty I turned to the porter, who was near at first sight, I thought might have been in- swooning through affright, and demanded of tended to answer as turbans, but I soon dis- him his opinion as to what species of mon- covered that they were excessively heavy and ster it was, what it wanted, and what kind of solid, and I therefore concluded they were creatures those were that so swarmed upon contrivances designed, by their great weight, its back. To this the porter replied, as well to keep the heads of the animals steady and as he could for trepidation, that he had once safe upon their shoulders. Around the necks before heard of this sea-beast; that it was a of the creatures were fastened black collars, cruel demon, with bowels of sulphur and (badges of servitude, no doubt,) such as we blood of fire, created by evil genii as the keep on our dogs, only much wider and in- means of inflicting misery upon mankind; finitely stiffer, so that it was quite impossible that the things upon its back were vermin, for these poor victims to move their heads such as sometimes infest cats and dogs, only in any direction without moving the body at a little larger and more savage; and that these the same time; and thus they were doomed vermin had their uses, however evil—for, to perpetual contemplation of their noses—a through the torture they caused the beast by view puggish and snubby in a wonderful, if their nibbling and stingings, it was goaded not positively in an awful degree. into that degree of wrath which was requisite “‘When the monster had nearly reached to make it roar and commit ill, and so ful- the shore where we stood, it suddenly pushed fil the vengeful and malicious designs of the out one of its eyes to a great extent, and emit- wicked genii. ted from it a terrible flash of fire, accompa- “This account determined me to take nied by a dense cloud of smoke, and a noise to my heels, and, without once even look- that I can compare to nothing but thunder. ing behind me, I ran at full speed up into As the smoke cleared away, we saw one of the the hills, while the porter ran equally fast, odd man-animals standing near the head of although nearly in an opposite direction, so the large beast with a trumpet in his hand, that, by these means, he finally made his es-
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Created for Lit2Go on the web at fcit.usf.edu The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade By Edgar Allan Poe cape with my bundles, of which I have no rooster). With your permission, I will trans- doubt he took excellent care—although this late. ‘Washish squashish,’ and so forth:—that is a point I cannot determine, as I do not re- is to say, ‘I am happy to find, my dear Sinbad, member that I ever beheld him again. that you are really a very excellent fellow; we “‘For myself, I was so hotly pursued by a are now about doing a thing which is called swarm of the men-vermin (who had come to circumnavigating the globe; and since you are the shore in boats) that I was very soon over- so desirous of seeing the world, I will strain a taken, bound hand and foot, and conveyed point and give you a free passage upon back to the beast, which immediately swam out of the beast.’” When the Lady Scheherazade again into the middle of the sea. had proceeded thus far, relates the “Isitsoor- “‘I now bitterly repented my folly in not,” the king turned over from his left side quitting a comfortable home to peril my life to his right, and said: in such adventures as this; but regret being “It is, in fact, very surprising, my dear useless, I made the best of my condition, and queen, that you omitted, hitherto, these latter exerted myself to secure the goodwill of the adventures of Sinbad. Do you know I think man-animal that owned the trumpet, and them exceedingly entertaining and strange?” who appeared to exercise authority over his The king having thus expressed himself, we fellows. I succeeded so well in this endeavor are told, the fair Scheherazade resumed her that, in a few days, the creature bestowed history in the following words: “Sinbad went upon me various tokens of his favor, and in on in this manner with his narrative to the the end even went to the trouble of teaching caliph—‘I thanked the man-animal for its me the rudiments of what it was vain enough kindness, and soon found myself very much to denominate its language; so that, at length, at home on the beast, which swam at a pro- I was enabled to converse with it readily, and digious rate through the ocean; although the came to make it comprehend the ardent de- surface of the latter is, in that part of the sire I had of seeing the world. world, by no means flat, but round like a “‘Washish squashish squeak, Sinbad, pomegranate, so that we went—so to say— hey-diddle diddle, grunt unt grumble, hiss, either up hill or down hill all the time.’ “That fiss, whiss,’ said he to me, one day after din- I think, was very singular,” interrupted the ner—but I beg a thousand pardons, I had king. “Nevertheless, it is quite true,” replied forgotten that your majesty is not conversant Scheherazade. “I have my doubts,” rejoined with the dialect of the Cock-neighs (so the the king; “but, pray, be so good as to go on man-animals were called; I presume because with the story.” their language formed the connecting link “I will,” said the queen. “’The beast,’ con- between that of the horse and that of the tinued Sinbad to the caliph, ‘swam, as I have
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Created for Lit2Go on the web at fcit.usf.edu The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade By Edgar Allan Poe related, up hill and down hill until, at length, a quantity of ashes that the sun was entire- we arrived at an island, many hundreds of ly blotted out from the heavens, and it be- miles in circumference, but which, neverthe- came darker than the darkest midnight; so less, had been built in the middle of the sea that when we were even at the distance of a by a colony of little things like caterpillars’” hundred and fifty miles from the mountain, “Hum!” said the king. it was impossible to see the whitest object, “’Leaving this island,’ said Sinbad—(for however close we held it to our eyes.’” Scheherazade, it must be understood, took no “Hum!” said the king. notice of her husband’s ill-mannered ejacula- “’After quitting this coast, the beast con- tion) ‘leaving this island, we came to another tinued his voyage until we met with a land in where the forests were of solid stone, and so which the nature of things seemed reversed— hard that they shivered to pieces the finest- for we here saw a great lake, at the bottom of tempered axes with which we endeavoured to which, more than a hundred feet beneath the cut them down.”’ surface of the water, there flourished in full “Hum!” said the king, again; but Schehe- leaf a forest of tall and luxuriant trees.’” razade, paying him no attention, continued “Hoo!” said the king. in the language of Sinbad. “‘Passing beyond “Some hundred miles farther on brought this last island, we reached a country where us to a climate where the atmosphere was so there was a cave that ran to the distance of dense as to sustain iron or steel, just as our thirty or forty miles within the bowels of the own does feather.’” earth, and that contained a greater number “Fiddle de dee,” said the king. “Proceed- of far more spacious and more magnificent ing still in the same direction, we presently palaces than are to be found in all Damascus arrived at the most magnificent region in the and Bagdad. From the roofs of these palaces whole world. Through it there meandered a there hung myriads of gems, liked diamonds, glorious river for several thousands of miles. but larger than men; and in among the streets This river was of unspeakable depth, and of a of towers and pyramids and temples, there transparency richer than that of amber. It was flowed immense rivers as black as ebony, and from three to six miles in width; and its banks swarming with fish that had no eyes.’” which arose on either side to twelve hundred “Hum!” said the king. “‘We then swam feet in perpendicular height, were crowned into a region of the sea where we found a lofty with ever-blossoming trees and perpetual mountain, down whose sides there streamed sweet-scented flowers, that made the whole torrents of melted metal, some of which were territory one gorgeous garden; but the name twelve miles wide and sixty miles long while of this luxuriant land was the Kingdom of from an abyss on the summit, issued so vast Horror, and to enter it was inevitable death.’”
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Created for Lit2Go on the web at fcit.usf.edu The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade By Edgar Allan Poe
“Humph!” said the king. tion, that they give daily instructions in the “‘We left this kingdom in great haste, and, science of geometry to the wise men of the after some days, came to another, where we empire. The king of the place having offered were astonished to perceive myriads of mon- a reward for the solution of two very diffi- strous animals with horns resembling scythes cult problems, they were solved upon the upon their heads. These hideous beasts dig for spot—the one by the bees, and the other by themselves vast caverns in the soil, of a funnel the birds; but the king keeping their solution shape, and line the sides of them with, rocks, a secret, it was only after the most profound so disposed one upon the other that they fall researches and labor, and the writing of an instantly, when trodden upon by other ani- infinity of big books, during a long series of mals, thus precipitating them into the mon- years, that the men-mathematicians at length ster’s dens, where their blood is immediately arrived at the identical solutions which had sucked, and their carcasses afterwards hurled been given upon the spot by the bees and by contemptuously out to an immense distance the birds.’” from “the caverns of death.”’” “Oh my!” said the king. “Pooh!” said the king. “‘We had scarcely lost sight of this em- “‘Continuing our progress, we perceived pire when we found ourselves close upon an- a district with vegetables that grew not upon other, from whose shores there flew over our any soil but in the air. There were others that heads a flock of fowls a mile in breadth, and sprang from the substance of other vegeta- two hundred and forty miles long; so that, bles; others that derived their substance from although they flew a mile during every min- the bodies of living animals; and then again, ute, it required no less than four hours for the there were others that glowed all over with whole flock to pass over us—in which there intense fire; others that moved from place were several millions of millions of fowl.’” to place at pleasure, and what was still more “Oh fy!” said the king. wonderful, we discovered flowers that lived “‘No sooner had we got rid of these and breathed and moved their limbs at will birds, which occasioned us great annoyance, and had, moreover, the detestable passion of than we were terrified by the appearance of mankind for enslaving other creatures, and a fowl of another kind, and infinitely larger confining them in horrid and solitary prisons than even the rocs which I met in my former until the fulfillment of appointed tasks.’” voyages; for it was bigger than the biggest of “Pshaw!” said the king. the domes on your seraglio, oh, most Mu- “‘Quitting this land, we soon arrived at nificent of Caliphs. This terrible fowl had no another in which the bees and the birds are head that we could perceive, but was fash- mathematicians of such genius and erudi- ioned entirely of belly, which was of a prodi-
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Created for Lit2Go on the web at fcit.usf.edu The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade By Edgar Allan Poe gious fatness and roundness, of a soft-look- nation of the most powerful magicians, who ing substance, smooth, shining and striped lived with worms in their brain, {*19} which, with various colors. In its talons, the monster no doubt, served to stimulate them by their was bearing away to his eyrie in the heavens, painful writhings and wrigglings to the most a house from which it had knocked off the miraculous efforts of imagination!’” roof, and in the interior of which we distinct- “Nonsense!” said the king. ly saw human beings, who, beyond doubt, “‘Among the magicians, were domesti- were in a state of frightful despair at the hor- cated several animals of very singular kinds; rible fate which awaited them. We shouted for example, there was a huge horse whose with all our might, in the hope of frighten- bones were iron and whose blood was boiling ing the bird into letting go of its prey, but water. In place of corn, he had black stones it merely gave a snort or puff, as if of rage for his usual food; and yet, in spite of so and then let fall upon our heads a heavy sack hard a diet, he was so strong and swift that which proved to be filled with sand!’” he would drag a load more weighty than the “Stuff!” said the king. grandest temple in this city, at a rate surpass- “‘It was just after this adventure that we ing that of the flight of most birds.’” encountered a continent of immense extent “Twattle!” said the king. and prodigious solidity, but which, neverthe- “‘I saw, also, among these people a hen less, was supported entirely upon the back of without feathers, but bigger than a camel; a sky-blue cow that had no fewer than four instead of flesh and bone she had iron and hundred horns.’” brick; her blood, like that of the horse, (to “That, now, I believe,” said the king, “be- whom, in fact, she was nearly related,) was cause I have read something of the kind be- boiling water; and like him she ate nothing fore, in a book.” but wood or black stones. This hen brought “‘We passed immediately beneath this forth very frequently, a hundred chickens in continent, (swimming in between the legs of the day; and, after birth, they took up their the cow, and, after some hours, found our- residence for several weeks within the stom- selves in a wonderful country indeed, which, ach of their mother.’” I was informed by the man-animal, was his “Fa! lal!” said the king. own native land, inhabited by things of his “‘One of this nation of mighty conjurors own species. This elevated the man-animal created a man out of brass and wood, and very much in my esteem, and in fact, I now leather, and endowed him with such ingenu- began to feel ashamed of the contemptuous ity that he would have beaten at chess, all familiarity with which I had treated him; for I the race of mankind with the exception of found that the man-animals in general were a the great Caliph, Haroun Alraschid. Anoth-
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Created for Lit2Go on the web at fcit.usf.edu The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade By Edgar Allan Poe er of these magi constructed (of like mate- tions of an elastic body, while it was spring- rial) a creature that put to shame even the ing backward and forward at the rate of nine genius of him who made it; for so great were hundred millions of times in a second.’” its reasoning powers that, in a second, it per- “Absurd!” said the king. formed calculations of so vast an extent that “’Another of these magicians, by means they would have required the united labor of of a fluid that nobody ever yet saw, could fifty thousand fleshy men for a year. But a make the corpses of his friends brandish their still more wonderful conjuror fashioned for arms, kick out their legs, fight, or even get himself a mighty thing that was neither man up and dance at his will. Another had cul- nor beast, but which had brains of lead, in- tivated his voice to so great an extent that termixed with a black matter like pitch, and he could have made himself heard from one fingers that it employed with such incredible end of the world to the other. Another had speed and dexterity that it would have had so long an arm that he could sit down in no trouble in writing out twenty thousand Damascus and indite a letter at Bagdad—or copies of the Koran in an hour, and this with indeed at any distance whatsoever. Another so exquisite a precision, that in all the copies commanded the lightning to come down to there should not be found one to vary from him out of the heavens, and it came at his another by the breadth of the finest hair. This call; and served him for a plaything when it thing was of prodigious strength, so that it came. Another took two loud sounds and out erected or overthrew the mightiest empires at of them made a silence. Another constructed a breath; but its powers were exercised equal- a deep darkness out of two brilliant lights. ly for evil and for good.’” Another made ice in a red-hot furnace. An- “Ridiculous!” said the king. other directed the sun to paint his portrait, “‘Among this nation of necromancers and the sun did. Another took this luminary there was also one who had in his veins the with the moon and the planets, and having blood of the salamanders; for he made no first weighed them with scrupulous accuracy, scruple of sitting down to smoke his chibouc probed into their depths and found out the in a red-hot oven until his dinner was thor- solidity of the substance of which they were oughly roasted upon its floor. Another had made. But the whole nation is, indeed, of the faculty of converting the common metals so surprising a necromantic ability, that not into gold, without even looking at them dur- even their infants, nor their commonest cats ing the process. Another had such a delicacy and dogs have any difficulty in seeing objects of touch that he made a wire so fine as to be that do not exist at all, or that for twenty invisible. Another had such quickness of per- millions of years before the birth of the na- ception that he counted all the separate mo-
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Created for Lit2Go on the web at fcit.usf.edu The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade By Edgar Allan Poe tion itself had been blotted out from the face “Stop!” said the king—“I can’t stand of creation.”’ that, and I won’t. You have already given me Analogous experiments in respect to a dreadful headache with your lies. The day, sound produce analogous results. too, I perceive, is beginning to break. How “Preposterous!” said the king. long have we been married?—my conscience “‘The wives and daughters of these in- is getting to be troublesome again. And then comparably great and wise magi,’” continued that dromedary touch—do you take me for a Scheherazade, without being in any manner fool? Upon the whole, you might as well get disturbed by these frequent and most un- up and be throttled.” These words, as I learn gentlemanly interruptions on the part of her from the “Isitsoornot,” both grieved and as- husband—“‘the wives and daughters of these tonished Scheherazade; but, as she knew the eminent conjurers are every thing that is ac- king to be a man of scrupulous integrity, and complished and refined; and would be every quite unlikely to forfeit his word, she sub- thing that is interesting and beautiful, but mitted to her fate with a good grace. She de- for an unhappy fatality that besets them, and rived, however, great consolation, (during the from which not even the miraculous powers tightening of the bowstring,) from the reflec- of their husbands and fathers has, hitherto, tion that much of the history remained still been adequate to save. Some fatalities come untold, and that the petulance of her brute in certain shapes, and some in others—but of a husband had reaped for him a most righ- this of which I speak has come in the shape teous reward, in depriving him of many in- of a crotchet.’” conceivable adventures. “A what?” said the king. “‘A crotchet’” said Scheherazade. “‘One of the evil genii, who are perpetually upon the watch to inflict ill, has put it into the heads of these accomplished ladies that the thing which we describe as personal beauty consists altogether in the protuberance of the region which lies not very far below the small of the back. Perfection of loveliness, they say, is in the direct ratio of the extent of this lump. Having been long possessed of this idea, and bolsters being cheap in that country, the days have long gone by since it was possible to dis- tinguish a woman from a dromedary-’”
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