The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, vol 3 | Page 5

al-Makan: Then quoth the youth Aziz to
Taj al-Muluk, Now when I found my life at the mercy of her slave
women with my cheeks dust soiled, and I saw her sharpen the knife, I

made sure of death and cried out to her for mercy. But she only
redoubled in ferocity and ordered the slave girls to pinion my hands
behind me, which they did; and, throwing me on my back, she seated
herself on my middle and held down my head. Then two of them came
up and squatted on my shin bones, whilst other two grasped my hands
and arms; and she summoned a third pair and bade them beat me. So
they beat me till I fainted and my voice failed. When I revived, I said to
myself, " 'Twere easier and better for me to have my gullet slit than to
be beaten on this wise!" And I remembered the words of my cousin,
and how she used to say to me, "Allah, keep thee from her mischief!";
and I shrieked and wept till my voice failed and I remained without
power to breathe or to move. Then she again whetted the knife and said
to the slave girls, "Uncover him." Upon this the Lord inspired me to
repeat to her the two phrases my cousin had taught me, and had
bequeathed to me, and I said, "O my lady, dost thou not know that
Faith is fair, Unfaith is foul?" When she heard this, she cried out and
said, "Allah pity thee, Azizah, and give thee Paradise in exchange for
thy wasted youth! By Allah, of a truth she served thee in her life time
and after her death, and now she hath saved thee alive out of my hands
with these two saws. Nevertheless, I cannot by any means leave thee
thus, but needs must I set my mark on thee, to spite yonder brazen
faced piece, who hath kept thee from me." There upon she called out to
the slave women and bade them bind my feet with cords and then said
to them, "Take seat on him!" They did her bidding, upon which she
arose and fetched a pan of copper and hung it over the brazier and
poured into it oil of sesame, in which she fried cheese.[FN#3] Then she
came up to me (and I still insensible) and, unfastening my bag trousers,
tied a cord round my testicles and, giving it to two of her women, bade
them trawl at it. They did so, and I swooned away and was for excess
of pain in a world other than this. Then she came with a razor of steel
and cut off my member masculine,[FN#4] so that I remained like a
woman: after which she seared the wound with the boiling and rubbed
it with a powder, and I the while unconscious. Now when I came to
myself, the blood had stopped; so she bade the slave girls unbind me
and made me drink a cup of wine. Then said she to me, "Go now to her
whom thou hast married and who grudged me a single night, and the
mercy of Allah be on thy cousin Azizah, who saved thy life and never

told her secret love! Indeed, haddest thou not repeated those words to
me, I had surely slit thy weasand. Go forth this instant to whom thou
wilt, for I needed naught of thee save what I have just cut off; and now
I have no part in thee, nor have I any further want of thee or care for
thee. So begone about thy business and rub thy head[FN#5] and
implore mercy for the daughter of thine uncle!" Thereupon she kicked
me with her foot and I rose, hardly able to walk; and I went, little by
little, till I came to the door of our house. I saw it was open, so I threw
myself within it and fell down in a fainting fit; whereupon my wife
came out and lifting me up, carried me into the saloon and assured
herself that I had become like a woman. Then I fell into a sleep and a
deep sleep; and when I awoke, I found myself thrown down at the
garden gate,--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to
say her permitted say.
When it was the One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir Dandan
pursued to King Zau al-Makan, The youth Aziz thus continued his
story to Taj al-Muluk: When I awoke and found myself thrown down at
the garden gate, I rose, groaning for pain and misery, and made my way
to our home and entering, I came upon my mother weeping for me,