THE BEGINNING THE TALE OF SHAH RAYAR SHAH ZAMAN IO I wo brothers were kings Shah Rayar the older ruled the land beyond the Indus River Shah Zaman the younger ruled the land of Samarqand One day Shah Rayar missed his brother the sent his adviser his vizier to fetch him Shah Zaman happily prepared horses and camels with supplies for the journey But the night before leaving he found his wife romancing a kitchen boy Shah Zaman cried then got furious How could she He was a shah a ruler He put them to death When Shah Zaman arrived at his brother s home he kept thinking of his secret disgrace He couldn t eat He couldn t sleep Shah Rayar decided a hunt might cheer him up But Shah Zaman refused to go So Shah Rayar left without him Shah Zaman sat and moaned when what was that his brother s wife strutted across the garden with servant girls They stopped below Shah Zaman s window so close he could see that some were girls yes but others were boys They kissed and I tangled together l How awful His brother s wife was worse than his own But oh this was the way of the world Shah Zaman no longer felt T singled out for misery He ate that evening he slept that night When Shah Rayar returned he found his brother recovered What blight caused you to fade before Shah Zaman didnt want to answer But Shah Rayar insisted So Shah Zaman told what his own wife had done I condemned them both Shah Rayar gasped Good Tell me now how you recovered I l
PREVIOUS PAGES Again Shah Zaman didn t want to answer Again Shah Rayar Shah Zaman insisted So Shah Zaman told what his brother s wife had done secretly watched Shah Rayar was stunned He had to see for himself They announced his brother s wife another hunt and left immediately But then they snuck back and spied and her servants in on the queen and her servants frolicking again the garden Alas Shah Rayar ripped at his hair Nothing could be counted on his brother had He no longer wanted this life The brothers agreed to wander as been betrayed just vagabonds Only if they met someone with misfortunes greater than as Shah Zaman had been betrayed theirs would they return Wives were wicked They stopped near the shore A roar came from the water The brothers hid in a tree A demon jinni tall as a pillar broad as a camel sloshed out of the sea On his head balanced a glass chest with four locks The jinni opened it and lifted out a woman A Righteous Gorgeous wife I need sleep He laid his head on her lap and his snores rumbled the earth Number The woman saw the brothers in the tree She insisted they roll on the ground with her Give me your rings she said The men each gave her a ring She opened a purse and shook out more rings Turkish gold Egyptian silver Ethiopian ivory blue lapis lazuli and bloodred carnelian Now I have exactly one from each man I have romanced as this jinni slept That s what he gets for locking me up The brothers ran off The jinni s wife was wicked like all women Four antique books are They vowed never to marry again and they returned home Shah stacked together on a desk Rayar condemned his wife and her servants to death Four is the righteous number in many ancient He thought about the beautiful woman in the chest and his Islamic cultures The ear needs four instruments insides twisted in confusion He didn t want to risk the pain a wife for the best music lute brought Yet he needed a wife for love between husband and wife harp zither and double flute The nose needs four helps mortals reach for the Almighty So that night he made his ter flowers for the best scents rose myrtle anemone and rible vow From thence forward Shah Rayar would marry daily and lower The soul needs the next morning he would have his bride slain four books for support Torah Psalms the Gospel The poor vizier spent each day finding a new bride for Shah and the Koran A table needs four legs for support Rayar And all perished Parents mourned for their daughters we A man can take four wives not wicked No Their daughters were gentle people Every breath of or fewer The ist goes on other cultures that revere joy in the kingdom died four include Byzantine Celtic Chinese Etruscan Hindu Hopi Maya Navajo and
A FATHER S PLEAS THE TALES OF THE DONKEY THE OX THE MERCHANTS The vizier s daughters were Scheherazade and Dinarzad Scheherazade studied philosophy literature medicine She recited poetry She understood the lessons of history And she had a giant heart She looked around at the daily slaughter of girls at the grief of parents and that heart broke Father I will marry Shah Rayar and I will save the people or die trying The vizier argued with her Scheherazade insisted The vizier grew angry Scheherazade grew intransigent The vizier shouted What happened to the donkey and the ox with the merchant will happen to you What happened to them So the vizier told this tale merchant could understand animal language He kept what he heard secret however for he feared if he told he d die One day he heard the ox say to the donkey You re lucky to live in a swept stall with cool drinking water and sifted barley to eat Your only work is carrying the merchant on errands But me I pull a plow all day The yoke cuts my neck I slurp muddy water gobble dirty beans and sleep in filth Rebel said the donkey Lie down and moan After that the ox wouldn t budge He wouldn t eat He lay on his back The merchant who expected this told the plowman to yoke the donkey instead So the donkey pulled the load Meanwhile the ox chewed cud at when the donkey returned exhausted and bleeding the ox thanked him for such good advice The vizier looked at his generous but headstrong daughter He couldn t bear the thought of that head on Shah Rayar pillow and what would happen to it later See For the sake of everything holy Daughter don t expose yourself to peril Scheherazade had thought about the dilemma nonstop She was smart so she had to try I
