July 11. Story of the Day: The Barber's Fifth Brother

This episode comes from the Arabian Nights as rendered by Isabel, Lady Burton, wife of Sir Richard Burton. You can read more about Lady Burton at Wikipedia.

This is the most elaborate example that I know of ATU 1430 Air Castles in which the daydreamer imagines a chain of events, one leading to another, ever up the social ladder... until reality intrudes again at the end.

In addition to this very detailed account of the brother's daydreaming, the story goes on to narrate the brother's further adventures; you can read that online at Internet Archive.

Looking for more stories? Click here for previous Stories-of-the-Day.

THE BARBER'S TALE OF HIS FIFTH BROTHER

My fifth brother Al-Nashshar, the Babbler, the same who was cropped of both ears, O Commander of the Faithful, was an asker wont to beg of folk by night and live on their alms by day. Now when our father, who was an old man well stricken in years, sickened and died, he left us seven hundred dirhams whereof each son took his hundred; but, as my fifth brother received his portion, he was perplexed and knew not what to do with it. While in this uncertainty he bethought him to lay it out on glassware of all sorts and turn an honest penny on its price. So he bought an hundred dirhams worth of verroterie and, putting it into a big tray, sat down to sell it on a bench at the foot of a wall against which he leant back. As he sat with the tray before him he fell to musing and said to himself:

Know, O my good Self, that the head of my wealth, my principal invested in this glassware, is an hundred dirhams.

I will assuredly sell it for two hundred, with which I will forthright buy other glass and make by it four hundred; nor will I cease to sell and buy on this wise, till I have gotten four thousand and soon find myself the master of much money.

With these coins I will purchase merchandise and jewels and attars (perfumes), and gain great profit on them; till, Allah willing, I will make my capital a hundred thousand dirhams.

Then I will purchase a fine house with white slaves [from the Caucasus] and eunuchs and horses; and I will eat and drink and disport myself; nor will I leave a singing man or a singing woman in the city, but I will summon them to my palace and make them perform before me.

All this he counted over in his mind, while the tray of glassware, worth an hundred dirhams, stood on the bench before him; and, after looking at it, he continued:

And when, Inshallah! my capital shall have become one hundred thousand dinars, I will send out marriage brokeresses to require for me in wedlock the daughters of Kings and Wazirs.

And I will demand to wife the eldest daughter of the Prime Minister; for it hath reached me that she is perfect in beauty and prime in loveliness and rare in accomplishments.

I will give a marriage-settlement of one thousand dinars; and, if her father consent, well: but if not I will take her by force from under his very nose.

When she is safely homed in my house, I will buy ten little eunuchs and for myself a robe of the robes of Kings and Sultans; and get me a saddle of gold and a bridle set thick with gems of price.

Then I will mount with the Mamelukes preceding me and surrounding me, and I will make the round of the city, whilst the folk salute me and bless me; after which I will repair to the Wazir (he that is father of the girl), with armed white slaves before and behind me and on my right and on my left.

When he sees me, the Wazir stands up, and seating me in his own place sits down much below me; for that I am to be his son-in-law.

Now I have with me two eunuchs carrying purses, each containing a thousand dinars ; and of these I deliver to him the thousand, his daughter's marriage-settle- ment, and make him a free gift of the other thousand, that he may have reason to know my generosity and liberality and my greatness of spirit and the littleness of the world in my eyes.

And for ten words he addresses to me I answer him two.

Then back I go to my house, and if one come to me on the bride's part, I make him a present of money and throw on him a dress of honour; but if he bring me a gift, I give it back to him and refuse to accept it, they may learn what a proud spirit is mine which never condescends to derogate. Thus I establish my rank and status.

When this is done I appoint her wedding night and adorn my house showily! gloriously!

And as the time for parading the bride is come, I don my finest dress and sit down on a mattress of gold brocade, propping up my elbow with a pillow, and turning neither to the right nor to the left; but looking only straight in front for the haughtiness of my mind and the gravity of my understanding.

And there before me stands my wife in her raiment and ornaments, lovely as the full moon; and I, in my loftiness and dread lordliness, 1 will not glance at her till those present say to me, "O our lord and our master, thy wife, thy handmaid, standeth before thee; vouchsafe her one look for standing wearieth her."

Then they kiss the ground before me many times; whereupon I raise my eyes and cast at her one single glance and turn my face earthwards again.

Then they bear her off to the bride-chamber, and I arise and change my clothes for a far finer suit; and, when they bring in the bride a second time, I deign not to throw her a look till they have begged me many times; after which I glance at her out of the corner of one eye, and then bend down my head. I continue acting after this fashion till the parading  and displaying are completed.

Thereupon I order one of my eunuchs to bring me a bag of five hundred dinars which I give as largesse to the tirewomen present and bid them one and all lead me to the bride-chamber.

When they leave me alone with her I neither look at her nor speak to her, but sit with my face to the wall showing my contempt, that each and every may again remark how high and haughty I am.

Presently her mother comes in to me; and kissing my head and hand, says to me,  "O my lord, look upon thine handmaid who longs for thy favour; so heal her broken spirit!"

I give her no answer ; and when she sees this she rises and kisses my feet many times and says, " O my lord, in very sooth my daughter is a beautiful maid, and if thou show her this backwardness and aversion, her heart will break; so do thou incline to her and speak to her and soothe her mind and spirit."

Then she rises and fetches a cup of wine; and says to her daughter, "Take it and hand it to thy lord."

But as she approaches me I leave her standing between my hands and sit, propping my elbow on a round cushion embroidered with gold thread, leaning lazily back, and without looking at her in the majesty of my spirit, so that she may deem me indeed a Sultan and a mighty man.

Then she says to me, "O my lord, Allah upon thee, do not refuse to take the cup from the hand of thine handmaid, for verily I am thy bondswoman."

But I do not speak to her and she presses me, saying, "There is no help but that thou drink it;" and she puts it to my lips.

Then I shake my fist in her face and kick her with my foot thus...

So he let out with his toe and knocked over the tray of glassware which fell to the ground and, falling from the bench, all that was on it was broken to bits.

"O foulest of fools, this comes from the pride of my spirit!" cried my brother; and then, O Commander of the Faithful, he buffeted his face and rent his garments, and kept on weeping and beating himself. The folk who were flocking to their Friday prayers saw him; and some of them looked at him and pitied him, whilst others paid no heed to him, and in this way my brother lost both capital and profit.

(painting by Charles Robertson)

NOTES

Al-Nashshar from Nashr = sawing: so the fiddler in Italian is called the "village-saw" (Sega del villagio). He is the Alnaschar of Galland, Addison and Richardson.

The tale is very old. It appears as the Brahman and the Pot of Rice in the Panchatantra ; and Professor Benfey believes (as usual with him) that this, with many others, derives from a Buddhist source. But I would distinctly derive it from Aesop's market-woman who kicked over her eggs, for reasons given in the Terminal Essay. In the " Kalilah and Dimnah" and its numerous offspring it is the "Ascetic with his Jar of Oil and Honey;" in Rabelais (i. 33) Echephron's shoemaker spills his milk, and so La Perette in La Fontaine. Hence, too, the Latin proverb, "Ante victoriam canere Iriumphum" = to sell the skin before catching the bear; to count your chickens before they're hatched. See M. Max Muller's "Chips," vol. iii., appendix. The curious reader will compare my version with that which appears at the end of Richardson's Arabic Grammar (Edition of 1811): he had a better, or rather a fuller MS. (p. 199) than any yet printed, the property of Sir W. Jones.