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Story Script
Story Script
CHARACTERS:
Narrator
Khaleefeh (Male)
Jaafar (Male)
Old Fisherman
Crier
Young Man
Sheykh (Male)
Jaafar’s Daughter
Messenger
KHALEEFEH: “We will go down to-night into the city, and inquire
respecting the affairs of those who are at present in authority, and him against
whom any one shall complain we will displace.”
JAẠFAR REPLIED,
JAAFAR: “I hear and obey.”
AND WHEN THE KHALEEFEH HAD GONE FORTH WITH HIM AND
MESROOR, AND THEY HAD PASSED THROUGH SEVERAL OF THE
MARKET-STREETS, THEY PROCEEDED ALONG A LANE, AND SAW
THERE AN OLD MAN, WITH A NET AND BASKET UPON HIS HEAD, AND A
STAFF IN HIS HAND, WALKING AT HIS LEISURE, AND RECITING THESE
VERSES:
KHALEEFEH: “Wilt thou, return with us to the river, and station thyself on
the bank of the Tigris, and cast thy net for my luck? If thou wilt do so I will
purchase of thee whatever cometh up for a hundred pieces of gold.”
SAID THE KHALEEFEH. THE FISHERMAN REJOICED WHEN HE HEARD
THESE WORDS, AND SAID
SO HE WENT AGAIN TO THE RIVER, AND CAST HIS NET, AND, HAVING
WAITED TILL IT SANK, DREW THE CORDS, AND DRAGGED BACK THE
NET, AND THERE CAME UP IN IT A CHEST, LOCKED AND HEAVY. WHEN
THE KHALEEFEH SAW IT, HE FELT ITS WEIGHT, AND FOUND IT TO BE
HEAVY; AND HE GAVE A HUNDRED PIECES OF GOLD TO THE
FISHERMAN, WHO WENT AWAY, WHILE MESROOR, ASSISTED BY
JAẠFAR, TOOK UP THE CHEST, AND CONVEYED IT, IN COMPANY WITH
THE KHALEEFEH, TO THE PALACE, WHERE THEY LIGHTED THE
CANDLES, AND PLACED THE CHEST BEFORE THE KHALEEFEH.
JAẠFAR AND MESROOR THEN BROKE IT OPEN, AND THEY FOUND IN IT
A BASKET OF PALM-LEAVES SEWED UP WITH RED WORSTED; AND
THEY CUT THE THREADS, AND SAW WITHIN IT A PIECE OF CARPET,
AND, LIFTING UP THIS, THEY FOUND BENEATH IT AN IZÁR, AND WHEN
THEY HAD TAKEN UP THE IZÁR THEY DISCOVERED UNDER IT A
DAMSEL LIKE MOLTEN SILVER, KILLED, AND CUT IN PIECES. WHEN
THE KHALEEFEH BEHELD THIS, TEARS RAN DOWN HIS CHEEKS, AND,
LOOKING TOWARDS JAẠFAR, HE EXCLAIMED,
KHALEEFEH: “O dog of Wezeers, shall people be murdered in my time,
and be thrown into the river, and become burdens upon my responsibility? By
Allah, I must retaliate for this damsel upon him who killed her, and put him to
death! By the truth of my descent from the Khaleefehs of the sons of
El-'Abbás, if thou do not bring to me him who killed this woman, that I may
avenge her upon him, I will crucify thee at the gate of my palace, together with
forty of thy kinsmen!”
JAAFAR: “How shall I discover him who killed this damsel, that I may take
him before the Khaleefeh? And if I take to him any other person, he will
become a weight upon my conscience. I know not what to do.”
FOR THREE DAYS HE REMAINED IN HIS HOUSE, AND ON THE FOURTH
DAY THE KHALEEFEH SENT TO SUMMON HIM, AND, WHEN HE HAD
PRESENTED HIMSELF BEFORE HIM, SAID TO HIM,
ANSWERED JAẠFAR,
JAAFAR: “am I acquainted with things hidden from the senses, that I should
know who is her murderer?”
OLD SHEYKH: “O Wezeer, believe not the words of this young man, for no
one killed the damsel but myself; therefore retaliate her death upon me.”
THE YOUNG MAN, HOWEVER, SAID,
JAAFAR: “O Prince of the Faithful, the murderer of the damsel hath come.”
ANSWERED JAẠFAR,
YOUNG MAN: “I am the murderer;”
REPLIED JAẠFAR,
YOUN MAN: “By Him who raised the heavens and spread out the earth, it
was I who killed the damsel”
YOUNG MAN: “Know, O Prince of the Faithful, that this damsel was my
wife, and the daughter of my uncle: this sheykh was her father, and is my
uncle. I married her when she was a virgin, and God blessed me with three
male children by her; and she loved me and served me, and I saw in her no
evil. At the commencement of this month she was attacked by a severe
illness, and I brought to her the physicians, who attended her until her health
returned to her; and I desired them to send her to the bath; but she said to
me”
THE MURDERED WOMAN: “I want something before I enter the bath, for I
have a longing for it.”
THE MURDERED WOMAN: I have a longing for an apple, to smell it, and
take a bite from it.”
YOUNG MAN: “So I went out immediately into the city, and searched for
the apple, and would have bought it had its price been a piece of gold: but I
could not find one. I passed the next night full of thought, and when the
morning came I quitted my house again and went about to all the gardens,
one after another; yet I found none in them. There met me, however, an old
gardener, of whom I inquired for the apple, and he said to me,”
THE SLAVE: “I got it from my sweetheart: I had been absent, and came,
and found her ill, and she had three apples; and she said to me, My
unsuspecting husband journeyed to El-Baṣrah for them, and bought them for
three pieces of gold, and I took this apple from her.”
YOUNG MAN: “When I heard the words of the slave, O Prince of the
Faithful, the world became black before my face, and I shut up my shop, and
returned to my house, deprived of my reason by excessive rage. I found not
the third apple, and said to her, Where is the apple? She answered,”
YOUNG MAN: “I was convinced thus that the slave had spoken the truth,
and I arose, and took a knife, and throwing myself upon her bosom, plunged
the knife into her: I then cut off her head and limbs, and put them in the basket
in haste, and covered them with the izár, over which I laid a piece of carpet:
then I put the basket in the chest, and, having locked this, conveyed it on my
mule, and threw it with my own hands into the Tigris. And now, I conjure thee
by Allah, O Prince of the Faithful, to hasten my death in retaliation for her
murder, as I dread, otherwise, her appeal for vengeance upon me on the day
of resurrection: for when I had thrown her into the Tigris without the
knowledge of any one, I returned to my house, and found my eldest boy
crying, though he knew not what I had done to his mother: so I said to him,
What maketh thee cry?—and he answered”
YOUNG MAN’S SON: “I took one of the apples that my mother had, and
went down with it into the street to play with my brothers, and a tall black slave
snatched it from me, and said to me, Whence came this to thee? I answered
him, My father made a journey for it, and brought it from El-Baṣrah, for the
sake of my mother; for she is sick: he bought three apples for three pieces of
gold:—but he took it from me and beat me, and went away with it; and I am
afraid that my mother may beat me on account of the apple.”
YOUNG MAN: “When I heard my son's story, I discovered that the slave
had forged a lie against the daughter of my uncle, and found that she had
been killed unjustly; and as I was weeping bitterly for what I had done, this
sheykh, my uncle and her father, came to me, and I informed him of the event;
and he seated himself by me, and wept. We wept until midnight, and
continued our mourning for her five days, ceasing not to the present day to
bewail her death. By the honour of thine ancestors, therefore, hasten my
death, to retaliate her murder upon me.”
KHALEEFEH: “By Allah, I will not put to death any but the wicked slave; for
the young man is excusable.”
JAAFAR: “Whence shall I bring him? Not every time that the jar is struck
doth it escape being broken! I have no stratagem to employ in this affair: but
He who delivered me in the first case may deliver me in the second. By Allah,
I will not go out from my house for three days; and the Truth, whose perfection
be extolled, will do what He willeth!”
SHE ANSWERED,
THE SLAVE: “O my master, I went out five days ago, and, entering one of
the by-streets of the city, I saw some children playing, and one of them had
this apple: and I snatched it from him, and beat him; and he cried, and said,
That belongs to my mother, and she is sick: she wanted my father to bring her
an apple, and he made a journey to El-Baṣrah, and brought back for her three
apples which he bought for three pieces of gold; and I took this to play with it:
—then he cried again; but, paying no regard to him, I took it away and brought
it hither; and my little mistress bought it of me for two pieces of gold.”