Flowers from a Persian Garden and Other Papers Part 7

The Hebrew Rabbis who compiled the Talmud were, some of them, witty as well as wise--indeed I have always held that wisdom and wit are cousins german, if not full brothers--and our specimens of Oriental Wit and Humour may be fittingly concluded with a few Jewish jests from a scarce little book, ent.i.tled, _Hebrew Tales_, by Hyman Hurwitz: An Athenian, walking about in the streets of Jerusalem one day, called to a little Hebrew boy, and, giving him a _pruta_ (a small coin of less value than a farthing), said: "Here is a pruta, my lad, bring me something for it, of which I may eat enough, leave some for my host, and carry some home to my family." The boy went, and presently returned with a quant.i.ty of salt, which he handed to the jester. "Salt!" he exclaimed, "I did not ask thee to buy me salt." "True," said the urchin; "but didst thou not tell me to bring thee something of which thou mightest eat, leave, and take home? Of this salt there is surely enough for all three purposes."[40]

[40] In the Rev. J. Hinton Knowles' _Folk-Tales of Kashmir_ a merchant gives his stupid son a small coin with which he is to purchase something to eat, something to drink, something to gnaw, something to sow in the garden, and some food for the cow. A clever young girl advises him to buy a water-melon, which would answer all the purposes required.--P. 145.

Another Athenian desired a boy to buy him some cheese and eggs. Having done so, "Now, my lad," said the stranger, "tell me which of these cheese were made of the milk of white goats and which of black goats?"

The little Hebrew answered: "Since thou art older than I, and more experienced, first do thou tell me which of these eggs came from white and which from black hens."

Once more did a Hebrew urchin prove his superiority in wit over an Athenian: "Here, boy," said he, "here is some money; bring us some figs and grapes." The lad went and bought the fruit, kept half of it for himself, and gave the other half to the Athenian. "How!" cried the man, "is it the custom of this city for a messenger to take half of what he is sent to purchase?" "No," replied the boy; "but it is our custom to speak what we mean, and to do what we are desired." "Well, then, I did not desire thee to take half of the fruit." "Why, what else could you mean," rejoined the little casuist, "by saying, 'Bring _us_?' Does not that word include the hearer as well as the speaker?" The stranger, not knowing how to answer such reasoning, smiled and went his way, leaving the shrewd lad to eat his share of the fruit in peace.

"There is no rule without some exception," as the following tale demonstrates: Rabbi Eliezar, who was as much distinguished by his greatness of mind as by the extraordinary size of his body, once paid a friendly visit to Rabbi Simon. The learned Simon received him most cordially, and filling a cup with wine handed it to him. Eliezar took it and drank it off at a draught. Another was poured out--it shared the same fate. "Brother Eliezar," said Simon, jestingly, "rememberest thou not what the wise men have said on this subject?" "I well remember,"

replied his corpulent friend, "the saying of our instructors, that people ought not to take a cup at one draught. But the wise men have not so defined their rule as to admit of no exception; and in this instance there are not less than three--the _cup_ is small, the _receiver_ is large, and your WINE, brother Simon, is DELICIOUS!"

TALES OF A PARROT.

I

GENERAL PLAN OF EASTERN ROMANCES--THE "TUTI NAMA," OR PARROT-BOOK--THE FRAME-STORY--TALES: THE STOLEN IMAGES--THE WOMAN CARVED OUT OF WOOD--THE MAN WHOSE MARE WAS KICKED BY A MERCHANT'S HORSE.

Oriental romances are usually constructed on the plan of a number of tales connected by a general or leading story running throughout, like the slender thread that holds a necklace of pearls together--a familiar example of which is the _Book of the Thousand and One Nights_, commonly known amongst us under the t.i.tle of _Arabian Nights Entertainments_. In some the subordinate tales are represented as being told by one or more individuals to serve a particular object, by the moral, or warning, which they are supposed to convey; as in the case of the _Book of Sindibad_, in which a prince is falsely accused by one of his father's ladies, and defended by the king's seven vazirs, or counsellors, who each in turn relate to the king two stories, the purport of which being to warn him to put no faith in the accusations of women, to which the lady replies by stories representing the wickedness and perfidy of men; and that of the _Bakhtyar Nama_, in which a youth, falsely accused of having violated the royal harem, obtains for himself a respite from death during ten days by relating to the king each day a story designed to caution him against precipitation in matters of importance. In others supernatural beings are the narrators of the subordinate tales, as in the Indian romances, _Vetala Panchavinsati_, or Twenty-five Tales of a Demon, and the _Sinhasana Dwatrinsati_, or Tales of the Thirty-two Speaking Statues--literally, Thirty-two (Tales) of a Throne. In others, again, the relators are birds, as in the Indian work ent.i.tled _Hamsa Vinsati_, or Twenty Tales of a Goose.

Of this last cla.s.s is the popular Persian work, _Tuti Nama_, (Tales of a Parrot, or Parrot-Book), of which I purpose furnis.h.i.+ng some account, as it has not yet been completely translated into English. This work was composed, according to Pertsch, in A.D. 1329, by a Persian named Nakhshabi, after an older Persian version, now lost, which was made from a Sanskrit work, also no longer extant, but of which the modern representative is the _Suka Saptati_, or Seventy Tales of a Parrot.[41]

The frame, or leading story, of the Persian Parrot-Book is to the following effect:

[41] Ziyau-'d-Din Nakhshabi, so called from Nakhshab, or Nasaf, the modern Kas.h.i.+, a town situated between Samarkand and the Oxus, led a secluded life in Bada'um, and died, as stated by 'Abdal-Hakk, A.H. 751 (A.D.

1350-1).--Dr. Rieu's _Catalogue of Persian MSS. in the British Museum_.--In 1792 the Rev. B. Gerrans published an English translation of twelve of the fifty-two tales comprised in the _Tuti Nama_, but the work is now best known in Persia and India from an abridgment made by Kadiri in the last century, which was printed, with a translation, at London in 1801.

A merchant who had a very beautiful wife informs her one day that he has resolved to travel into foreign countries in order to increase his wealth by trade. His wife endeavours to persuade him to remain at home in peace and security instead of imperiling his life among strangers.

But he expatiates on the evils of poverty and the advantages of wealth: "A man without riches is fatherless, and a home without money is deserted. He that is in want of cash is a nonent.i.ty, and wanders in the land unknown. It is, therefore, everybody's duty to procure as much money as possible; for gold is the delight of our lives--it is the bright live-coal of our hearts--the yellow links which fasten the coat of mail--the gentle stimulative of the world--the complete coining die of the globe--the traveller who speaks all languages, and is welcome in every city--the splendid bride unveiled--the defender, register, and mirror of jehandars. The man who has dirhams [_Scottice_, 'siller'--_Fr._ 'l'argent'] is handsome; the sun never s.h.i.+nes on the inauspicious man without money."[42] Before leaving home the merchant purchased at great cost in the bazaar a wonderful parrot, that could discourse eloquently and intelligently, and also a sharak, a species of nightingale, which, according to Gerrans, "imitates the human voice in so surprising a manner that, if you do not see the bird, you cannot help being deceived"; and, having put them into the same cage, he charged his spouse that whenever she had any matter of importance to transact she should first obtain the sanction of both birds.

[42] "He that has money in the scales," says Saadi, "has strength in his arms, and he who has not the command of money is dest.i.tute of friends in the world."--Hundreds of similar sarcastic observations on the power of wealth might be cited from the Hindu writers, such as: "He who has riches has friends; he who has riches has relations; he who has riches _is even a sage_!" The following verses in praise of money are, I think, worth reproducing, if only for their whimsical arrangement:

Honey, Our Money We find in the end Both relation and friend; 'Tis a helpmate for better, for worse.

Neither father nor mother, Nor sister nor brother, Nor uncles nor aunts, Nor dozens Of cousins, Are like a friend in the purse.

Still regard the main chance; 'Tis the clink Of the c.h.i.n.k Is the music to make the heart dance.

The merchant having protracted his absence many months (Vatsyayana, in his _Kama Sutra_, says that the man who is given to much travelling does not deserve to be married), and, his wife chancing to be on the roof of her house one day when a young foreign prince of handsome appearance pa.s.sed by with his attendants, she immediately fell in love with him--"the battle-axe of prudence dropped from her hand; the vessel of continence became a sport to the waves of confusion; while the avenues leading to the fortress of reason remained unguarded, the sugar-cane of incontinence triumphantly raised its head above the rose-tree of patience." The prince had also observed the lady, as she stood on the terrace of her house, and was instantly enamoured of her. He sends an old woman (always the obliging--"for a consideration"--go-between of Eastern lovers) to solicit an interview with the lady at his own palace in the evening, and, after much persuasion, she consents. Arraying her beauteous person in the finest apparel, she proceeds to the cage, and first consults the sharak as to the propriety of her purpose. The sharak forbids her to go, and is at once rewarded by having her head wrung off.

She then represents her case to the parrot, who, having witnessed the fate of his companion, prudently resolves to temporise with the amorous dame; so he "quenched the fire of her indignation with the water of flattery, and began a tale conformable to her temperament, which he took care to protract till the morning." In this manner does the prudent parrot prevent the lady's intended intrigue by relating, night after night, till the merchant returns home from his travels, one or more fascinating tales, which he does not bring to an end till it is too late for the a.s.signation.[43]

[43] In a Telugu MS., ent.i.tled _Patti Vrutti Mahima_ (the Value of Chaste Wives), the minister of Chandra Pratapa a.s.sumes the form of a bird owing to a curse p.r.o.nounced against him by Siva, and is sold to a merchant named Dhanadatta, whose son, Kuveradatta, is vicious. The bird by moral lessons reformed him for a time. They went to a town called Pushpamayuri, where the king's son saw the wife of Kuveradatta when he was absent from home. An illicit amour was about to begin, when the bird interposed by relating tales of chaste wives, and detained the wanton lady at home till her husband returned.

The order of the parrot's tales is not the same in all texts; in Kadiri's abridgment there are few of the Nights which correspond with those of the India Office MS. No. 2573, which may, perhaps, be partly accounted for by the circ.u.mstance that Kadiri has given only 35 of the 52 tales that are in the original text. For the general reader, however, the sequence of the tales is a minor consideration; and I shall content myself with giving abstracts of some of the best stories, irrespective of their order in any text, and complete translations of two or three others. It so happens that the Third Night is the same in Kadiri and the India Office MS. No. 2573, which comprises the complete text; and the story the eloquent bird relates on that night may be ent.i.tled

_The Stolen Images._

A goldsmith and a carpenter, travelling in company, steal from a Hindu temple some golden images, which, when they arrive in the neighbourhood of their own city, they bury beneath a tree. The goldsmith goes secretly one night and carries away the images, and next morning, when both go together to share the spoil, the goldsmith accuses the carpenter of having played him false. But the carpenter was a shrewd fellow, and so he makes a figure resembling the goldsmith, dresses it in clothes similar to what he usually wore, and procures a couple of bear's cubs, which he teaches to take their food from the skirts and sleeves of the effigy. Thus the cubs conceived a great affection for the figure of the goldsmith. He then contrives to steal the goldsmith's two sons, and, when the father comes to seek them at his house, he pretends they have been changed into young bears. The goldsmith brings his case before the kazi; the cubs are brought into court, and no sooner do they discover the goldsmith than they run up and fondle him. Upon this the judge decides in favour of the carpenter, to whom the goldsmith confesses his guilt, and offers to give up all the gold if he restore his children, which he does accordingly.[44]

[44] Many Asiatic stories relate to the concealing of treasure--generally at the foot of a tree, to mark the spot--by two or more companions, and its being secretly stolen by one of them. The device of the carpenter in the foregoing tale of abducting the rascally goldsmith's two sons, and so on, finds an a.n.a.logue in the _Panchatantra_, the celebrated Sanskrit collection of fables (Book I, Fab. 21, of Benfey's German translation), where we read that a young man, who had spent the wealth left to him by his father, had only a heavy iron balance remaining of all his possessions, and depositing it with a merchant went to another country.

When he returned, after some time, he went to the merchant and demanded back his balance. The merchant told him it had been eaten by rats; adding: "The iron of which it was composed was particularly sweet, and so the rats ate it." The young man, knowing that the merchant spoke falsely, formed a plan for the recovery of his balance. One day he took the merchant's young son, unknown to his father, to bathe, and left him in the care of a friend. When the merchant missed his son he accused the young man of having stolen him, and summoned him to appear in the king's judgment-hall. In answer to the merchant's accusation, the young man a.s.serted that a kite had carried away the boy; and when the officers of the court declared this to be impossible, he said: "In a country where an iron balance was eaten by rats, a kite might well carry off an elephant, much more a boy." The merchant, having lost his cause, returned the balance to the young man and received back his boy.

The Sixth Tale of the Parrot, according to the India Office MS., relates to

_The Woman Carved out of Wood._

Four men--a goldsmith, a carpenter, a tailor, and a dervish--travelling together, one night halted in a desert place, and it was agreed they should watch turn about until daybreak. The carpenter takes the first watch, and to amuse himself he carves the figure of a woman out of a log of wood. When it came to the goldsmith's turn to watch, finding the beautiful female figure, he resolved also to exhibit his art, and accordingly made a set of ornaments of gold and silver, which he placed on the neck, arms, and ankles. During the third watch the tailor made a suit of clothes becoming a bride, and put them on the figure. Lastly, the dervish, when it came to his turn to watch, beholding the captivating female form, prayed that it might be endowed with life, and immediately the effigy became animated. In the morning all four fell in love with the charming damsel, each claiming her for himself; the carpenter, because he had carved her with his own hands; the goldsmith, because he had adorned her with gems; the tailor, because he had suitably clothed her; and the dervish, because he had, by his intercession, endowed her with life. While they were thus disputing, a man came to the spot, to whom they referred the case. On seeing the woman, he exclaimed: "This is my own wife, whom you have stolen from me," and compelled them to come before the kutwal, who, on viewing her beauty, in his turn claimed her as the wife of his brother, who had been waylaid and murdered in the desert. The kutwal took them all, with the woman, before the kazi, who declared that she was his slave, who had absconded from his house with a large sum of money. An old man who was present suggested that they should all seven appeal to the Tree of Decision, and thither they went accordingly; but no sooner had they stated their several claims than the trunk of the tree split open, the woman ran into the cleft, and on its reuniting she was no more to be seen. A voice proceeded from the tree, saying: "Everything returns to its first principles"; and the seven suitors of the woman were overwhelmed with shame.[45]

[45] So, too, Boethius, in his _De Consolatione Philosophiae_, says, according to Chaucer's translation: "All thynges seken ayen to hir [i.e. their] propre course, and all thynges rejoysen on hir retournynge agayne to hir nature."--A tale current in Oude, and given in _Indian Notes and Queries_ for Sept. 1887, is an ill.u.s.tration of the maxim that "everything returns to its first principles": A certain prince chose his friends out of the lowest cla.s.s, and naturally imbibed their principles and habits. When the death of his father placed him on the throne, he soon made his former a.s.sociates his courtiers, and exacted the most servile homage from the n.o.bles. The old vazir, however, despised the young king and would render none. This so exasperated him that he called his counsellors together to advise the most excruciating of tortures for the old man. Said one: "Let him be flayed alive and let shoes be made of his skin."

The vazir e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed on this but one word, "Origin."

Said the next: "Let him be hacked into pieces and his limbs cast to the dogs." The vazir said, "Origin."

Another advised: "Let him be forthwith executed, and his house be levelled to the ground." Once more the vazir simply said, "Origin." Then the king turned to the rest, who declared each according to his opinion, the vazir noticing each with the same word. At last a young man, who had not spoken hitherto, was asked. "May it please your Majesty," said he, "if you ask my opinion, it is this: Here is an aged man, and honourable from his years, family, and position; moreover, he served in the king your father's court, and nursed you as a boy. It were well, considering all these matters, to pay him respect, and render his old age comfortable." Again the vazir uttered the word "Origin." The king now demanded what he meant by it. "Simply this, your Majesty,"

responded the vazir: "You have here the sons of shoemakers, butchers, executioners, and so forth, and each has expressed himself according to his father's trade. There is but one n.o.ble-born among them, and he has made himself conspicuous by speaking according to the manner of his race." The king was ashamed, and released the vazir.--A parallel to this is found in the Turkish _Qirq Vezir Tarikhi_, or History of the Forty Vezirs (Lady's 4th Story): according to Mr. Gibb's translation, "All things return to their origin."

I am strongly of opinion that the foregoing story is of Buddhistic extraction; but however this may be, it is not a bad specimen of Eastern humour, nor is the following, which the eloquent bird tells the lady another night:

_Of the Man whose Mare was kicked by a Merchant's Horse._

A merchant had a vicious horse that kicked a mare, which he had warned the owner not to tie near his animal. The man carried the merchant before the kazi, and stated his complaint. The kazi inquired of the merchant what he had to say in his own defence; but he pretended to be dumb, answering not a word to the judge's interrogatives. Upon this the kazi remarked to the plaintiff that since the merchant was dumb he could not be to blame for the accident. "How do you know he is dumb?" said the owner of the mare. "At the time I wished to fasten my mare near his horse he said, 'Don't!' yet now he feigns himself dumb." The kazi observed that if he was duly warned against the accident he had himself to blame, and so dismissed the case.

II

THE EMPEROR'S DREAM--THE GOLDEN APPARITION--THE FOUR TREASURE-SEEKERS.

We are not without instances in European popular fictions of two young persons dreaming of each other and falling in love, although they had never met or known of each other's existence. A notable example is the story of the Two Dreams in the famous _History of the Seven Wise Masters_. Incidents of this kind are very common in Oriental stories: the romance of _Kamarupa_ (of Indian origin, but now chiefly known through the Persian version) is based upon a dream which the hero has of a certain beautiful princess, with whom he falls in love, and he sets forth with his companions to find her, should it be at the uttermost ends of the earth. It so happens that the damsel also dreams of him, and, when they do meet, they need no introduction to each other. The Indian romance of _Vasayadatta_ has a similar plot. But the royal dreamer and lover in the following story, told by the Parrot on the 39th Night, according to the India Office MS. No. 2573, adopted a plan for the discovery of the beauteous object of his vision more conformable to his own ease:

_The Emperor's Dream._

An emperor of China dreamt of a very beautiful damsel whom he had never seen or heard of, and, being sorely pierced with the darts of love for the creature of his dreaming fancy, he could find no peace of mind. One of his vazirs, who was an excellent portrait painter, receiving from the emperor a minute description of the lady's features, drew the face, and the imperial lover acknowledged the likeness to be very exact. The vazir then went abroad with the portrait, to see whether any one could identify it with the fair original. After many disappointments he met with an old hermit, who at once recognised it as the portrait of the princess of Rum,[46] who, he informed the vazir, had an unconquerable aversion against men ever since she beheld, in her garden, a peac.o.c.k basely desert his mate and their young ones, when the tree on which their nest was built had been struck by lightning. She believed that all men were quite as selfish as that peac.o.c.k, and was resolved never to marry. Returning to his imperial master with these most interesting particulars regarding the object of his affection, he next undertakes to conquer the strange and unnatural aversion of the princess. Taking with him the emperor's portrait and other pictures, he procures access to the princess of Rum; shows her, first, the portrait of the emperor of China, and then pictures of animals in the royal menagerie, among others that of a deer, concerning which he relates a story to the effect that the emperor, sitting one day in his summer-house, saw a deer, his doe, and their fawn on the bank of the river, when suddenly the waters overflowed the banks, and the doe, in terror for her life, fled away, while the deer bravely remained with the fawn and was drowned. This story, so closely resembling her own, struck the fair princess with wonder and admiration, and she at once gave her consent to be united to the emperor of China; and we may suppose that "they continued together in joy and happiness until they were overtaken by the terminater of delights and the separator of companions."

[46] Originally, Rumelia (Rum Eyli) was only implied by the word _Rum_, but in course of time it was employed to designate the whole Turkish empire.

There can be little or no doubt, I think, that in this tale we find the original of the frame, or leading story, of the Persian Tales, ascribed to a dervish named Mukhlis, of Isfahan, and written after the _Arabian Nights_, as it is believed, in which the nurse of the Princess has to relate almost as many stories to overcome her aversion against men (the result of an incident similar to that witnessed by the Lady of Rum) as the renowned Sheherazade had to tell her lord, who entertained--for a very different reason--a bitter dislike of women.