🧚 Opening, part 11

He spoke to each of them apart, and showed the impossibility of one princess being the wife of three brothers, and the troubles they would create if they persisted in their purpose.1 He did all he could to persuade them to abide by a declaration of the princess in favor of one of them; or that all should agree to resign their claims to her hand, that she might marry a stranger.2 But as he found them equally obstinate, he sent for them all together, and said, “My sons, since I have not been able to persuade you in this matter, and as I have no wish to use my authority to give the princess your cousin to one in preference of another, I have thought of a plan which will please you all, and preserve harmony among you, if you will but hear me and follow my advice.3 I think it would not be amiss if you were to travel separately into different countries, so that you might not meet each other; and I promise my niece in marriage to him who shall bring me the most extraordinary rarity.4 I will give each of you a sum suited to your rank, and for the purchase of the rarity you shall search after.”5

The three princes cheerfully consented to this proposal, as each flattered himself fortune might prove favorable to him, and give him possession of the Princess Nouronnihar.6 The sultan gave them the money he promised, and issued orders for the preparations for their travels.7 Early next morning they all went out at the same gate of the city, each dressed like a merchant, attended by a trusty officer habited as a slave, and all well mounted and equipped.8 They proceeded the first day’s journey together; and at night when they were at supper, they agreed to travel for a twelvemonth, and that day a year later to meet again at the khan where they were stopping; so that as they had all three taken leave together of the sultan, they might return in company.9 The next morning by break of day, after they had embraced and wished each other good success, they mounted their horses and each took a different road.10

Prince Houssain, the eldest brother, who had heard of the extent, power, riches, and splendor of the kingdom of Bisnagar, bent his course towards the Indian coast; and after three months’ travelling with different caravans, sometimes over deserts and barren mountains, and sometimes through populous and fertile countries, arrived at Bisnagar, the capital of the kingdom of that name, and the residence of its king.11 He lodged at a khan appointed for foreign merchants, and soon learned that there were four principal bazaars where merchants of all sorts kept their shops, on a large extent of ground, in the centre of the city.12

Prince Houssain went to one of these bazaars on the next day.13 It was large, divided into several vaulted avenues, and shaded from the sun, but yet very light.14 The shops were of the same size and proportion; and all who dealt in the same sort of goods lived in one avenue.15

The number of shops stocked with all kinds of merchandise—as the finest linens from several parts of India; silks and brocades from Persia; porcelain from Japan—surprised him very much; but when he came to the shops of the goldsmiths and jewellers, he was in a kind of ecstasy at beholding such quantities of wrought gold and silver, and was dazzled by the lustre of the pearls, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and other precious stones exposed for sale.16

After Prince Houssain had passed through that quarter, street by street, a merchant, perceiving him go by much fatigued, invited him to sit down in front of his shop.17 He had not been seated long before a crier appeared, with a piece of carpet on his arm, about six feet square, and offered it at forty purses.18 The prince called to the crier, and when he had examined the carpet, told him that he could not comprehend how so small a piece of carpet, and of so indifferent an appearance, could be held at so high a price unless it had something very extraordinary in it which he knew nothing of.19

“You have guessed right, sir,” replied the crier; “whoever sits on this piece of carpet may be transported in an instant wherever he desires to be.”20

“If the carpet,” said he to the crier, “has the virtue you attribute to it, I shall not think forty purses too much.”21

“Sir,” replied the crier, “I have told you the truth, and with the leave of the master of this shop we will go into the back warehouse, where I will spread the carpet, and when we have both sat down, and you have formed the wish to be transported into your apartment at the khan, if we are not conveyed thither, it shall be no bargain.”22

On this proposal they went into the merchant’s back-shop, where they both sat down on the carpet; and as soon as the prince had formed his wish to be transported into his apartment at the khan, he in an instant found himself and the crier there.23 After this convincing proof of the virtue of the carpet, he counted to the crier forty purses of gold, and gave him twenty pieces for himself.24

In this manner Prince Houssain became the possessor of the carpet, and was overjoyed that at his arrival at Bisnagar he had found so rare a curiosity, which he never doubted must of course gain him the possession of Nouronnihar, as his younger brothers could not meet with anything to be compared with it.25 By sitting on this carpet, it was in his power to be at the place of meeting that very day; but as he would be obliged to wait there for his brothers until the time they had agreed on, he chose to make a longer abode in this capital.26

When Prince Houssain had seen all the wonders of the city, he wished to be nearer his dear Princess Nouronnihar, and having paid all the charges, and returned the key of his apartment to the owner of the khan, he spread the carpet, and as soon as he had formed his wish he and the officer whom he had brought with him were transported to the inn at which he and his brothers were to meet, and where he passed for a merchant till their arrival.27

Prince Ali, the second brother, who had designed to travel into Persia, after he had parted with his brothers, joined a caravan, and in four months arrived at Shiraz, the capital of that empire.28

On the next morning after his arrival, while the merchants opened their bales of merchandise, Prince Ali took a walk into that quarter of the town where is the bazaar of the jewellers, in which they sold precious stones, gold and silver works, and other choice and valuable articles, for which Shiraz was celebrated.29

Among the criers who passed backwards and forwards with samples of several sorts of goods, he was not a little surprised to see one who held in his hand an ivory tube, about a foot in length, and about an inch thick, which he cried at forty purses.30 At first he thought the crier mad, and asked him what he meant by asking forty purses for that tube which seemed to be a thing of no value.31

The crier replied, “Sir, you are not the only person that takes me for a madman on account of this tube; you shall judge yourself whether I am or not, when I have told you its peculiar power.32 By looking through this tube, you will see whatever object you wish to behold.”33