Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 2.djvu/75

 Tale of the Second Eunuch, Kafur. 55 the face of Allah ! " " By Allah," rejoined I, if thou free me, I will not free thee till my year is completed and I have told theethe half-lie which is left. When this is done, go down with me to the slave-market and sell me as thou boughtest me to whoso will buy me with my blemish ; but thou shalt not manumit me, for I have no handicraft whereby to gain my living ; 1 and this my demand is a matter of law which the doctors have laid down in the Chapter of Emancipation." 2 While we were at these words, up came the crowd of people, and the neighbours of the quarter, men, women and children, together with the Governor and his suite offering con- dolence. So my master and the other merchants went up to him and informed him of the adventure, and how this was but a half-lie, at which all wondered, deeming it a whole lie and a big one. And they cursed me and reviled me, while I stood laughing and grinning at them, till at last I asked, "How shall my master slay me when he bought me with this my blemish ? " Then my master returned home and found his house in ruins, and it was I who had laid waste the greater part of it, 3 having broken things which were worth much money, as also had done his wife, who said to him, " 'Twas Kafur who broke the vessels and chinaware." Thereupon his rage redoubled and he struck hand upon hand exclaiming, " By Allah ! in my life never saw I a whoreson like this slave ; and he saith this is but a half-lie ! How, then, if he had told me a whole lie ? He would ruin a city, aye or even two." Then in his fury he went to the Governor, and they gave me a neat thing in the bastinado-line and made me eat stick till I was lost to the world and a fainting- fit came on me ; and, whilst I was yet senseless, they brought the barber who docked me and gelded me 4 and cauterised the wound. Here the slave refuses to be set free and starve. For a master so to do without ample reason is held disgraceful. I well remember the weeping and wailing throughout Sind when an order from Sir Charles Napier set free the negroes whom British philan- thropy thus doomed to endure if not to die of hunger. Manumission, which is founded upon Roman law, is an extensive subject discussed in the Hiddyah and other canonical works. The slave here lays down the law incorrectly, but his claim shows his truly " nigger " impudence. This is quite true to nature. The most remarkable thing in the wild central African is his enormous development of "destructiveness." At Zanzibar I never saw a slave break a glass or plate without a grin or a chuckle of satisfaction. (the two eggs) a double entendre which has given rise to many tales. For instance in the witty Persian book " Dozd o Kazi " (The Thief and the Judge) a footpad strips the man of learning and offers to return his clothes if he can ask him a puzzle in law or religion.
 * Arab. Khass^-ni M ; Khusyatani (vulg.) i being the testicles, also called "bayzatin"