Read Online The Arabian Nights (New Deluxe Edition) by Muhsin Mahdi - Free Book Online

parents approached her and said, “Desist, for if your husband had not known for certain that he would die if he revealed his secret, he wouldn’t have gone through all this.” She replied, “I will not change my mind,” and everybody cried and prepared to mourn his death.
    Well, my daughter Shahrazad, it happened that the farmer kept fifty hens and a rooster at home, and while he felt sad to depart this world and leave his children and relatives behind, pondering and about to reveal and utter his secret, he overheard a dog of his say something in dog language to the rooster, who, beating and clapping his wings, had jumped on a hen and, finishing with her, jumped down and jumped on another. The merchant heard and understood what the dog said in his own language to the rooster, “Shameless, no-good rooster. Aren’t you ashamed to do such a thing on a day like this?” The rooster asked, “What is special about this day?” The dog replied, “Don’t you know that our master and friend is in mourning today? His wife is demanding that he disclose his secret, and when he discloses it, he will surely die. He is in this predicament, about to interpret to her the language of the animals, and all of us are mourning for him, while you clap your wings and get off one hen and jump on another. Aren’t you ashamed?” The merchant heard the rooster reply, “You fool, you lunatic! Our master and friend claims to be wise, but he is foolish, for he has only one wife, yet he does not know how to manage her.” The dog asked, “What should he do with her?”
    The rooster replied, “He should take an oak branch, push her into a room, lock the door, and fall on her with the stick, beating her mercilessly until he breaks her arms and legs and she cries out, ‘I no longer want you to tell me or explain anything.’ He should go on beating her until he cures her for life, and she will never oppose him in anything. If he does this, he will live, and live in peace, and there will be no more grief, but he does not know how to manage.” Well, my daughter Shahrazad, when the merchant heard the conversation between the dog and the rooster, he jumped up and, taking an oak branch, pushed his wife into a room, got in with her, and locked the door. Then he began to beat her mercilessly on her chest and shoulders and kept beating her until she cried for mercy, screaming, “No, no, I don’t want to know anything. Leave me alone, leave me alone. I don’t want to know anything,” until he got tired of hitting her and opened the door. The wife emerged penitent, the husband learned good management, and everybody was happy, and the mourning turned into a celebration.
    â€œIF YOU DON’T relent, I shall do to you what the merchant did to his wife.” She said, “Such tales don’t deter me from my request. If you wish, I can tell you many such tales. In the end, if you don’t take me to King Shahrayar, I shall go to him by myself behind your back and tell him that you have refused to give me to one like him and that you have begrudged your master one like me.” The vizier asked, “Must you really do this?” She replied, “Yes, I must.”
    Tired and exhausted, the vizier went to King Shahrayar and, kissing the ground before him, told him about his daughter, adding that he would give her to him that very night. The king was astonished and said to him, “Vizier, how is it that you have found it possible to give me your daughter, knowing that I will, by God, the Creator of heaven, ask you to put her to death the next morning and that if you refuse, I will have you put to death too?” He replied, “My King and Lord, I have told her everything and explained all this to her, but she refuses and insists on being with you tonight.” The king was delighted and said, “Go to her, prepare her, and bring her to me early in the