THE STORY OF THE HUNCHBACK WITH THE TAILOR, THE JEW, THE CHRISTIAN, AND THE BARBER OF BAGHDAD
The Taylor's Narrative, Part 10.
ON THE TWENTY-FOURTH NIGHT
Sheherazade said:
The miller continued to give him great whippings and to make him turn the mill for a long time, and my brother was absolutely bellowing like an ox and sniffling under the blows.
But soon came the owner who saw him, in this state, turning the mill and receiving the blows. And he immediately went to warn his wife, who sent the young slave to my brother; and she untied him from the mill and said to him with great compassion in her voice: "My mistress asks me to tell you that she has just learned of the bad treatment you have been subjected to and that she is very saddened by the thing, and that we all take part in your sufferings." But the unfortunate Bacbouk had received so many blows and was so tired that he could not articulate a single word of reply.
While he was in this state, came the sheik, who had written his marriage contract with the slave girl; the sheik wished him peace and said: “May Allah grant you a long life! And may you have a blessed marriage! I'm sure you've just spent a night in pure happiness, in the most amusing and intimate antics, and in embraces, kisses, and fornications from evening until morning!" My brother Bacbouk said to him: “May Allah confuse the liars and the perfidious of your kind, O traitor to the thousandth power! You only threw me in there to make me turn the mill instead of the miller's ox, and that until morning!" The sheik then invited him to relate the details of the matter, and he told them. So the sheik said: “It’s very simple! Your star does not agree with the star of the young woman!" Bacbouk said: “O accursed! Go and see if you can invent yet more treacheries!" Then my brother walked away and went back to his shop, where he began to wait for some work that would enable him to earn his bread, he who had worked so much without being paid.
Now, while he was sitting, there came to him the young white slave girl, who said to him: “My mistress desires you ardently, and she asks me to tell you that she has just come up to the terrace to have the pleasure of gazing at you from the skylight." And, in fact, at that very moment, my brother saw the young woman appear at the window, who was all in tears, who was lamenting and saying: "Why, my darling, do you look so sulky, and so mad that you don't even look at me? I swear on your life that everything that happened in the mill happened without my knowledge! And as for that crazy slave girl, I don't even want you to do her the honor of looking at her anymore. I alone will now be yours!" Then my brother Bacbouk raised his head and looked at the young woman, and the mere sight of him made him forget all past tribulations, and he rested his eyes contemplating her beauty and her charms. Then he began to talk to her, and she too, until he convinced himself that all these misfortunes had happened to other people than himself.
Bacbouk, in the hope of seeing the young woman again, continued to cut and sew shirts, underpants, overdresses, and underdresses until the young slave came one day to find him and said to him: "My mistress greet you and tell you that this very night my master, her husband, is absent at a feast at the house of one of his friends, and that until morning. So she waits impatiently for you to sleep with you and spend this night in delights and all kinds of amusements!" And this stupid Bacbouk nearly completely lost his mind at this news.
Now, the perfidious young woman had devised a last plan, in collusion with her husband, to get rid of my brother and, in this way, dispense herself and her husband from paying him the price of all the clothes that they had ordered. The owner had therefore said to his wife: “How will it be necessary to persuade him to enter your home and, in this way, surprise him and drag him to the wali?" She replied: "Let me, then, do as I please, and I will deceive him with such deceit and compromise him so much that he will be hated by the whole city!"
All of this! and my brother Bacbouk had no idea! And he was unaware, moreover, of all the tricks and ambushes of which women are capable. So, in the evening, the young slave came to take him and led him to his mistress, who immediately got up, greeted him, smiled at him, and said: “By Allah! O my master, how I yearn to see you at last near me! And Bacbouk said to her: "Me too! but quickly, and above all, a kiss! And then..." But he had not yet finished speaking when the door to the room opened and the young woman's husband entered, followed by two black slaves who rushed on my brother Bacbouk, tied him up, threw him on the ground, and, to begin with, caressed his back with their whips. Then they loaded him on their shoulders and carried him to the wali, who immediately condemned him to the following penalty: after an administration of two hundred whiplashes, they hoisted him on the back of a camel, tied him to it and paraded him through all the streets of Baghdad; and a town crier shouted aloud: "This is how any man is punished who assaults the wives of his fellows!"
Now, while being walked like this, suddenly the camel became furious and began to swerve. And Bacbouk fell to the ground, and suddenly he broke his leg. And since that time he's become the cripple that he is. Moreover, the wali condemned him to exile, and Bacbouk, his leg broken, left the city. But, just in time, I was warned of all this, O Commander of the Faithful, I his brother, and I ran after him, and I brought him back here secretly, I must confess to you, and took charge of his healing, of his expenses and all his needs. And I continue to this day!"
At this point in her narration, Sheherazade saw the morning appear and quietly fell silent.
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Thwenty-third Night