THE TALE OF THREE APPLES

CHARACTERS:

Narrator

Khaleefeh (Male)

Jaafar (Male)

Old Fisherman

Crier

Young Man

Sheykh (Male)

The Murdered Woman

The Slave (Male)

Old Gardener (Male)

Young Man’s Son

Jaafar’s Daughter

Messenger

ONE NIGHT, AFTER THE ADVENTURE ABOVE DESCRIBED, THE

KHALEEFEH HÁROON ER-RASHEED SAID TO JAẠFAR, HIS WEZEER,

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:

OLD FISHERMAN: “They say to me, Thou shinest among mankind, by

thy knowledge, like the moonlight night: But I answer, Abstain from thus
addressing me, since there is no knowledge without power: For if they would
pawn me, and my knowledge with me, and all my papers and inkhorn too, For
one day's food, they would never find the pledge accepted to the day of
judgment. As for the poor, and his condition, and his whole life, how full of
trouble! In the summer he fails to earn his food, and in winter he warms
himself over the fire-pot. The dogs follow him wherever he goes, and any
reviler, and he cannot repel him. If he states his case, and proves himself
wronged, the judge will not admit his plea. Such, then, being the poor man's
life, his fittest place is in the burial-ground.”

THE KHALEEFEH, WHEN HE HEARD HIS RECITATION, SAID TO JAẠFAR,

KHALEEFEH: “Observe this poor man, and consider these verses; for they
indicate his necessity.”

THEN APPROACHING THE MAN, HE SAID TO HIM,

KHALEEFEH: “O sheykh, what is thine occupation?”

OLD FISHERMAN: “O my master,”

ANSWERED THE OLD MAN

OLD FISHERMAN: “I am a fisherman, and have a family to maintain, and

I went forth from my house at noon, and have remained until now, but God
hath allotted me nothing wherewith to obtain food for my household; therefore
I have hated myself, and wished for death.”

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

OLD FISHERMAN: “On my head be your commands: I will return with

you.”

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!”

AND THE KHALEEFEH WAS ENRAGED. JAẠFAR REPLIED.

JAAFAR: “Grant me a delay of three days.”

KHALEEFEH: “I grant thee the delay.”

REPLIED THE KHALEEFEH. JAẠFAR THEN WENT FORTH FROM HIS

PRESENCE, AND TOOK HIS ROUTE THROUGH THE CITY, SORROWFUL,
AND SAYING WITHIN HIMSELF,

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,

KHALEEFEH: “Where is the murderer of the damsel?”

JAAFAR: “O Prince of the Faithful,”

ANSWERED JAẠFAR,

JAAFAR: “am I acquainted with things hidden from the senses, that I should
know who is her murderer?”

THE KHALEEFEH, INCENSED AT THIS ANSWER, GAVE ORDERS TO

CRUCIFY HIM AT THE GATE OF HIS PALACE, AND COMMANDED A
CRIER TO PROCLAIM THROUGH THE STREETS OF BAGHDÁD,

CRIER: “Whosoever desireth to amuse himself by seeing the crucifixion of

Jaạfar El-Barmekee, the Wezeer of the Khaleefeh, and the crucifixion of his
kinsmen, at the gate of the Khaleefeh's palace, let him come forth and amuse
himself.”
SO THE PEOPLE CAME FORTH FROM EVERY QUARTER TO SEE THE
CRUCIFIXION OF JAẠFAR AND HIS KINSMEN; AND THEY KNEW NOT
THE CAUSE OF THIS. THE KHALEEFEH THEN GAVE ORDERS TO SET
UP THE CROSSES; AND THEY DID SO, AND PLACED THE WEZEER AND
HIS KINSMEN BENEATH, TO CRUCIFY THEM, AND WERE AWAITING
THE KHALEEFEH'S PERMISSION, WHILE THE PEOPLE WEPT FOR
JAẠFAR AND HIS RELATIVES. BUT WHILE THEY WERE THUS WAITING,
A HANDSOME AND NEATLY-DRESSED YOUNG MAN CAME FORWARD
QUICKLY THROUGH THE CROWD, AND, APPROACHING THE WEZEER,
SAID TO HIM,

YOUNG MAN: “Safety to thee from this predicament, O chief of Emeers,

and refuge of the poor! It was I who killed the woman whom ye found in the
chest: kill me therefore for her, and retaliate her death upon me.”

WHEN JAẠFAR HEARD THESE WORDS, HE REJOICED FOR HIS OWN

DELIVERANCE, AND GRIEVED FOR THE YOUNG MAN: BUT WHILE HE
WAS SPEAKING TO HIM, LO, AN OLD SHEYKH PRESSED HASTILY
THROUGH THE CROWD TO HIM AND THE YOUNG MAN, AND, HAVING
SALUTED THEM, SAID,

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,

YOUNG MAN: “O Wezeer, this is an old man, imbecile through age; he

knoweth not what he saith: it was I who killed her; avenge her therefore upon
me.—O my son, said, thou art young, and wilt find pleasure in the world; and I
am old, and satiated with the world: I will be a ransom for thee and for the
Wezeer and his kinsmen; and no one killed the damsel but myself: by Allah,
therefore, hasten to retaliate upon me.”

ON WITNESSING THIS SCENE, THE WEZEER WAS ASTONISHED; AND

HE TOOK THE YOUNG MAN AND THE SHEYKH TO THE KHALEEFEH,
AND SAID,

JAAFAR: “O Prince of the Faithful, the murderer of the damsel hath come.”

KHALEEFEH: “Where is he?”

SAID THE KHALEEFEH.

JAAFAR: “This young man,”

ANSWERED JAẠFAR,
YOUNG MAN: “I am the murderer;”

AND THIS SHEYKH ACCUSETH HIM OF FALSEHOOD, AND SAITH,

OLD SHEYKH “Nay, but I am the murderer.”

THE KHALEEFEH, LOOKING TOWARDS THE SHEYKH AND THE YOUNG

MAN, SAID,

KHALEEFEH: “Which of you killed this damsel?”

THE YOUNG MAN ANSWERED

YOUNG MAN: “No one killed her but myself:”

AND THE SHEYKH SAID ALSO,

OLD SHEYKH: “No one killed her but myself.”

THE KHALEEFEH THEREFORE SAID TO JAẠFAR,

KHALEEFEH: “Take them both and crucify them.”

JAAFAR: “If the murderer be one“

REPLIED JAẠFAR,

JAAFAR: “to kill the other would be unjust.”

THE YOUNG MAN THEN SAID,

YOUN MAN: “By Him who raised the heavens and spread out the earth, it
was I who killed the damsel”

AND HE GAVE AN ACCOUNT OF THE MANNER OF HIS KILLING HER,

AND DESCRIBED WHAT THE KHALEEFEH HAD FOUND. THE
KHALEEFEH THEREFORE WAS CONVINCED THAT THE YOUNG MAN
WAS HE WHO HAD KILLED THE DAMSEL; AND HE WAS ASTONISHED,
AND SAID,
KHALEEFEH: “What was the cause of thy killing this damsel unjustly, and
of thy confessing the murder without being beaten, and thy saying, Retaliate
her death upon me?”

THE YOUNG MAN ANSWERED AS FOLLOWS:

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.”

YOUNG MAN: “What is it? said I. She answered”

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,”

OLD GARDENER: “O my son, this is a rare thing, and not to be found

here, nor anywhere except in the garden of the Prince of the Faithful at El-
Baṣrah, and preserved there for the Khaleefeh.”

YOUNG MAN: “I returned therefore to my wife, and my love for her so

constrained me that I prepared myself and journeyed fifteen days, by night
and day, in going and returning, and brought her three apples which I
purchased of the gardener at El-Baṣrah for three pieces of gold; and, going in,
I handed them to her; but she was not pleased by them, and left them by her
side. She was then suffering from a violent fever, and she continued ill during
a period of ten days. After this she recovered her health, and I went out and
repaired to my shop, and sat there to sell and buy; and while I was thus
occupied, at mid-day there passed by me a black slave, having in his hand an
apple, with which he was playing: so I said to him, Whence didst thou get this
apple, for I would procure one like it? Upon which he laughed, and answered,”

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,”

THE MURDERED WOMAN: “I know not whither it is gone.”

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.”

THE KHALEEFEH WONDERED AT THE YOUNG MAN'S STORY, AND

SAID,

KHALEEFEH: “By Allah, I will not put to death any but the wicked slave; for
the young man is excusable.”

THEN LOOKING TOWARDS JAẠFAR, HE SAID TO HIM,

KHALEEFEH: “Bring before me this wicked slave who hath been the
cause of the catastrophe; or, if thou bring him not, thou shalt be put to death in
his stead.”

SO THE WEZEER DEPARTED WEEPING, AND SAYING,

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!”

SO HE REMAINED IN HIS HOUSE THREE DAYS, AND ON THE FOURTH

DAY HE CAUSED THE ḲÁḌEE TO BE BROUGHT, AND MADE HIS
TESTAMENTARY ARRANGEMENTS; AND AS HE WAS BIDDING
FAREWELL TO HIS CHILDREN, AND WEEPING, LO, THE MESSENGER
OF THE KHALEEFEH CAME AND SAID TO HIM,

MESSENGER: “The Prince of the Faithful is in a most violent rage, and

hath sent me to thee; and he hath sworn that this day shall not pass until thou
art put to death if thou do not bring to him the slave.”
ON HEARING THIS, JAẠFAR WEPT, AND HIS CHILDREN WEPT WITH
HIM; AND WHEN HE HAD BIDDEN THEM ALL FAREWELL EXCEPT HIS
YOUNGEST DAUGHTER, HE APPROACHED HER FOR THE SAME
PURPOSE. HE LOVED HER MORE THAN ALL HIS OTHER CHILDREN;
AND HE PRESSED HER TO HIS BOSOM, AND WEPT AT THE THOUGHT
OF HIS SEPARATION FROM HER; BUT, IN DOING THIS, HE FELT
SOMETHING ROUND IN HER POCKET, AND SAID TO HER,

JAAFAR: “What is in thy pocket?

SHE ANSWERED,

JAAFAR’S DAUGHTER: “O my father, it is an apple; our slave Reyḥan

brought it, and I have had it four days; he would not give it me until he had
received from me two pieces of gold.”

AT THIS MENTION OF THE SLAVE AND THE APPLE, JAẠFAR REJOICED,

AND EXCLAIMED,

JAAFAR: “O ready Dispeller of trouble!”

AND IMMEDIATELY HE ORDERED THAT THE SLAVE SHOULD BE
BROUGHT BEFORE HIM. HE WAS THEREFORE BROUGHT IN, AND HE
SAID TO HIM,

JAAFAR: “Whence came this apple?”

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.”

WHEN HE HEARD THIS STORY, JAẠFAR WAS FILLED WITH WONDER AT

DISCOVERING THAT THIS DISTRESSING EVENT, AND THE MURDER OF
THE DAMSEL, HAD BEEN OCCASIONED BY HIS SLAVE; AND HE TOOK
THE SLAVE AND WENT WITH HIM TO THE KHALEEFEH, WHO ORDERED
THAT THE STORY SHOULD BE COMMITTED TO WRITING, AND
PUBLISHED.