One Thousand and One Nights Read Free Page A

observed unseen, they chatted, sang and laughed around the fountain below his window. Gradually they began to undress in a leisurely fashion, with a complete lack of inhibition, and Shahzaman nearly cried out in surprise when he realised the ten black slave girls were in fact men, who stood with their penises erect like bayonets, their firm buttocks jutting out as though a cup and saucer might balance on them. Shahzaman looked to see how his brother’s wife would react; but she nonchalantly laughed and laughed, stopping only to call out lustily, “Mas’ud … Mas’ud!” Another black slave jumped over a wall and fell on her, like a coconut fruit falling to the ground. Again Shahzaman tried not to cry out in mortification as she spread her legs for the slave, lifting them until the soles of her feet faced the sky. At this, the ten white slave girls and the black slave men paired off and began to make love as though they hadeach been waiting for a signal from their Queen, while Mas’ud made love to her in the centre, and the sounds of their ecstasy and pleasure rose up to where Shahzaman stood hidden.
    Shahzaman threw his hands up to his face and rushed from the window, but he couldn’t stay away. He peeked again and again, watching as the couples disported themselves over and over, until midday, when everyone washed at the fountain, splashing each other with water, before putting on their clothes. The ten black men became ten black slave girls and disappeared behind the gate. Mas’ud jumped over the garden wall and disappeared.
    Seeing the grounds empty, as if nothing had happened, Shahzaman cried out, “Oh brother of mine, you are the ruler of the entire world, length and width, the towering knight, the implacable, the pious; and yet your wife seems to find delight only with the slave Mas’ud between her thighs. And to add insult to injury, they were at it in your own home. If only it was just your wife, but all your concubines and slaves too … as if to them your status is little more than an onion skin.What treacherous world is this, which fails to distinguish between a sovereign king and a nobody?”
    When Shahrayar came back from his hunting trip, Shahzaman greeted him with great joy and vigour. Shahrayar noticed that his brother had regained colour in his cheeks and life in his eyes. The brothers sat down to eat, and Shahrayar saw how Shahzaman fell upon his food with great alacrity and relish and sighed with relief. “How delighted I am to come back and find you brimming with energy, cheerful and happy. So tell me what had made you so miserable when you arrived … and what has brought about this speedy recovery?”
    “I had a great wound to my soul and my heart was set on fire, for I caught my wife in the arms of one of the kitchen boys in her quarters before I set out to come to you. My anger took control andI avenged myself by slaying both of them and hurling their bodies in a trench, like two dead cockroaches,” Shahzaman answered.
    At this Shahrayar exclaimed, “Shame, shame, I am filled with horror at this revelation of the deceit and wickedness of women. But how fortunate you were, my beloved brother, in killing your wife for betraying you; she who was the cause of your misery and malaise. She was a snake hiding in the grass, waiting to strike the hand which fed her. And how fortunate, too, that you killed this kitchen boy who dared to disrespect a king. Never have I heard of such a thing! Had I been in your place I should have lost my mind, gone insane and slaughtered with my own sword hundreds, thousands of women. Let us celebrate and praise God for saving you from this turmoil. But now you must explain to me how you have managed to rise above your calamity and sorrow.”
    “I beg you, my brother, in God’s name, to forgive me for not answering this question,” Shahzaman replied.
    “But you must tell me. I am bewildered by the ease with which you overcame your grief in just ten days, as