Short Stories Old and New - Selected and Edited by C. Alphonso Smith
The first care of the robbers was to examine the cave. They found all
the bags Cassim had brought to the door, but did not miss what Ali Baba
had taken. As for Cassim himself, they guessed rightly that, once
within, he could not get out again; but how he had managed to learn
their secret words that let him in, they could not tell. One thing was
certain,--there he was; and to warn all others who might know their
secret and follow in Cassim's footsteps, they agreed to cut his body
into four quarters--to hang two on one side and two on the other, within
the door of the cave. This they did at once, and leaving the place of
their hoards well closed, mounted their horses and set out to attack the
caravans they might meet.
II
THE MANNER OF CASSIM'S DEATH CONCEALED
When night came, and Cassim did not return, his wife became very uneasy.
She ran to Ali Baba for comfort, and he told her that Cassim would
certainly think it unwise to enter the town till night was well
advanced. By midnight Cassim's wife was still more alarmed, and wept
till morning, cursing her desire to pry into the affairs of her brother
and sister-in-law. In the early day she went again, in tears, to Ali
Baba.
He did not wait for her to ask him to go and see what had happened to
Cassim, but set out at once for the forest with his three asses. Finding
some blood at the door of the cave, he took it for an ill omen; but when
he had spoken the words, and the door had opened, he was struck with
horror at the dismal sight of his brother's body. He could not leave it
there, and hastened within to find something to wrap around it. Laying
the body on one of his asses, he covered it with wood. The other two
asses he loaded with bags of gold, covering them also with wood as
before. Then bidding the door shut, he came away, but stopped some time
at the edge of the forest, that he might not go into the town before
night. When he reached home he left the two asses, laden with gold, in
his little yard for his wife to unload, and led the other to his
sister-in-law's house.
Ali Baba knocked at the door, which was opened by Morgiana, a clever
slave, full of devices to conquer difficulties. When he came into the
court and unloaded the ass, he took Morgiana aside, and said to her:--
"You must observe a strict secrecy. Your master's body is contained in
these two panniers. We must bury him as if he had died a natural death.
Go now and tell your mistress. I leave the matter to your wit and
skillful devices."
They placed the body in Cassim's house, and, charging Morgiana to act
well her part, Ali Baba returned home with his ass.
Early the next morning, Morgiana went to a druggist, and asked for a
sort of lozenge used in the most dangerous illness. When he asked her
for whom she wanted it, she answered with a sigh: "My good master
Cassim. He can neither eat nor speak." In the evening she went to the
same druggist, and with tears in her eyes asked for an essence given to
sick persons for whose life there is little hope. "Alas!" said she, "I
am afraid even this will not save my good master."
All that day Ali Baba and his wife were seen going sadly between their
house and Cassim's, and in the evening nobody was surprised to hear the
shrieks and cries of Cassim's wife and Morgiana, who told everybody that
her master was dead.
The next morning at daybreak she went to an old cobbler, who was always
early at work, and, putting a piece of gold in his hand, said:--
"Baba Mustapha, you must bring your sewing-tackle and come with me; but
I must tell you, I shall blindfold you when we reach a certain place."
"Oh! oh!" replied he, "you would have me do something against my
conscience or my honor."
"God forbid!" said Morgiana, putting another piece of gold in his hand;
"only come along with me, and fear nothing."
Baba Mustapha went with Morgiana, and at a certain place she bound his
eyes with a handkerchief, which she never unloosed till they had entered
the room of her master's house, where she had put the corpse together.
"Baba Mustapha," said she, "you must make haste, and sew the parts of
this body together, and when you have done, I will give you another
piece of gold."
After Baba Mustapha had finished his task, she blindfolded him again,
gave him the third piece of gold she had promised, and, charging him
with secrecy, took him back to the place where she had first bound his
eyes. Taking off the bandage, she watched him till he was out of sight,
lest he should return and dog her; then she went home.
At Cassim's house she made all things ready for the funeral, which was
duly performed by the imaum[*] and other ministers of the mosque.
Morgiana, as a slave of the dead man, walked in the procession, weeping,
beating her breast, and tearing her hair. Cassim's wife stayed at home,
uttering doleful cries with the women of the neighborhood, who,
according to custom, came to mourn with her. The whole quarter was
filled with sounds of sorrow.
[* Imaum, a Mohammedan priest.]
Thus the manner of Cassim's death was hushed up, and, besides his widow,
Ali Baba, and Morgiana, the slave, nobody in the city suspected the
cause of it. Three or four days after the funeral, Ali Baba removed his
few goods openly to his sister-in-law's house, in which he was to live
in the future; but the money he had taken from the robbers was carried
thither by night. As for Cassim's warehouse, Ali Baba put it entirely
under the charge of his eldest son.
III
THE ROBBERS' PLOT FOILED BY MORGIANA
While all this was going on, the forty robbers again visited their cave
in the forest. Great was their surprise to find Cassim's body taken
away, with some of their bags of gold.
"We are certainly found out," said the captain; "the body and the money
have been taken by some one else who knows our secret. For our own
lives' sake, we must try and find him. What say you, my lads?"
The robbers all agreed that this must be done.
"Well," said the captain, "one of you, the boldest and most skillful,
must go to the town, disguised as a stranger, and try if he can hear any
talk of the man we killed, and find out where he lived. This matter is
so important that the man who undertakes it and fails should suffer
death. What say you?"
One of the robbers, without waiting to know what the rest might think,
started up, and said: "I submit to this condition, and think it an honor
to expose my life to serve the troop."
This won great praise from the robber's comrades, and he disguised
himself at once so that nobody could take him for what he was. Just at
daybreak he entered the town, and walked up and down till he came by
chance to Baba Mustapha's stall, which was always open before any of the
shops.
The old cobbler was just going to work when the robber bade him
good-morrow, and said:--
"Honest man, you begin to work very early; how can one of your age see
so well? Even if it were lighter, I question whether you could see to
stitch."
"You do not know me," replied Baba Mustapha; "for old as I am I have
excellent eyes. You will not doubt me when I tell you that I sewed the
body of a dead man together in a place where I had not so much light as
I have now."
"A dead body!" exclaimed the robber amazed.
"Yes, yes," answered Baba Mustapha; "I see you want to know more, but
you shall not."
The robber felt sure that he was on the right track. He put a piece of
gold into Baba Mustapha's hand, and said to him:--
"I do not want to learn your secret, though you could safely trust me
with it. The only thing I ask of you is to show me the house where you
stitched up the dead body."
"I could not do that," replied Baba Mustapha, "if I would. I was taken
to a certain place, whence I was led blindfold to the house, and
afterwards brought back again in the same manner."
"Well," replied the robber, "you may remember a little of the way that
you were led blindfold. Come, let me blind your eyes at the same place.
We will walk together, and perhaps you may recall the way. Here is
another piece of gold for you."
This was enough to bring Baba Mustapha to his feet. They soon reached
the place where Morgiana had bandaged his eyes, and here he was
blindfolded again. Baba Mustapha and the robber walked on till they came
to Cassim's house, where Ali Baba now lived. Here the old man stopped,
and when the thief pulled off the band, and found that his guide could
not tell him whose house it was, he let him go. But before he started
back for the forest himself, well pleased with what he had learned, he
marked the door with a piece of chalk which he had ready in his hand.
Soon after this Morgiana came out upon some errand, and when she
returned she saw the mark the robber had made, and stopped to look at
it.
"What can this mean?" she said to herself. "Somebody intends my master
harm, and in any case it is best to guard against the worst." Then she
fetched a piece of chalk, and marked two or three doors on each side in
the same manner, saying nothing to her master or mistress.
When the robber rejoined his troop in the forest, and told of his good
fortune in meeting the one man that could have helped him, they were all
delighted.
"Comrades," said the captain, "we have no time to lose. Let us set off
at once, well armed and disguised, enter the town by twos, and join at
the great square. Meanwhile our comrade who has brought us the good news
and I will go and find out the house, and decide what had best be done."
Two by two they entered the town. Last of all went the captain and the
spy. When they came to the first of the houses which Morgiana had
marked, the spy pointed it out. But the captain noticed that the next
door was chalked in the same manner, and asked his guide which house it
was, that or the first. The guide knew not what answer to make, and was
still more puzzled when he and the captain saw five or six houses marked
after this same fashion. He assured the captain, with an oath, that he
had marked but one, and could not tell who had chalked the rest, nor
could he say at which house the cobbler had stopped.
There was nothing to do but to join the other robbers, and tell them to
go back to the cave. Here they were told why they had all returned, and
the guide was declared by all to be worthy of death. Indeed, he
condemned himself, owning that he ought to have been more careful, and
prepared to receive the stroke which was to cut off his head.
The safety of the troop still demanded that the second comer to the cave
should be found, and another of the gang offered to try it, with the
same penalty if he should fail. Like the other robber, he found out Baba
Mustapha, and, through him, the house, which he marked, in a place
remote from sight, with red chalk.
But nothing could escape Morgiana's eyes, and when she went out, not
long after, and saw the red chalk, she argued with herself as before,
and marked the other houses near by in the same place and manner.
The robber, when he told his comrades what he had done, prided himself
on his carefulness, and the captain and all the troop thought they must
succeed this time. Again they entered the town by twos; but when the
robber and his captain came to the street, they found the same trouble.
The captain was enraged, and the robber as much confused as the former
guide had been. Thus the captain and his troop went back again to the
cave, and the robber who had failed willingly gave himself up to death.
IV
THE ROBBERS, EXCEPT THE CAPTAIN, DISCOVERED AND KILLED BY MORGIANA
The captain could not afford to lose any more of his brave fellows, and
decided to take upon himself the task in which two had failed. Like the
others, he went to Baba Mustapha, and was shown the house. Unlike them
he put no mark on it, but studied it carefully and passed it so often
that he could not possibly mistake it.
When he returned to the troop, who were waiting for him in the cave, he
said:--
"Now, comrades, nothing can prevent our full revenge, as I am certain of
the house. As I returned I thought of a way to do our work, but if any
one thinks of a better, let him speak."
He told them his plan, and, as they thought it good, he ordered them to
go into the villages about, and buy nineteen mules, with thirty-eight
large leather jars, one full of oil, and the others empty. Within two or
three days they returned with the mules and the jars, and as the mouths
of the jars were rather too narrow for the captain's purpose, he caused
them to be widened. Having put one of his men into each jar, with the
weapons which he thought fit, and having a seam wide enough open for
each man to breathe, he rubbed the jars on the outside with oil from the
full vessel.
Thus prepared they set out for the town, the nineteen mules loaded with
the thirty-seven robbers in jars, and the jar of oil, with the captain
as their driver. When he reached Ali Baba's door, he found Ali Baba
sitting there taking a little fresh air after his supper. The captain
stopped his mules, and said:--
"I have brought some oil a great way to sell at to-morrow's market; and
it is now so late that I do not know where to lodge. Will you do me the
favor to let me pass the night with you?"
Though Ali Baba had seen the captain in the forest, and had heard him
speak, he could not know him in the disguise of an oil-merchant, and
bade him welcome. He opened his gates for the mules to go into the yard,
and ordered a slave to put them in a stable and feed them when they were
unloaded, and then called Morgiana to get a good supper for his guest.
After supper he charged her afresh to take good care of the stranger,
and said to her:--
"To-morrow morning I intend to go to the bath before day; take care to
have my bathing linen ready; give it to Abdalla" (which was his slave's
name), "and make me some good broth against my return." After this he
went to bed.
In the mean time the captain of the robbers went into the yard, and took
off the lid of each jar, and told his people what they must do. To each,
in turn, he said:--
"As soon as I throw some stones out of the chamber window where I lie,
do not fail to come out, and I will join you at once."
Then he went into the house, and Morgiana showed him his chamber, where
he soon put out the light, and laid himself down in his clothes.
To carry out Ali Baba's orders, Morgiana got his bathing linen ready,
and bade Abdalla to set on the pot for the broth; but soon the lamp went
out, and there was no more oil in the house, nor any candles. She knew
not what to do, till the slave reminded her of the oil-jars in the yard.
She thanked him for the thought, took the oil-pot, and went out. When
she came nigh the first jar, the robber within said softly: "Is it
time?"
Of course she was surprised to find a man in the jar instead of the oil,
but she saw at once that she must keep silence, as Ali Baba, his family,
and she herself were in great danger. Therefore she answered, without
showing any fear: "Not yet, but presently." In this manner she went to
all the jars and gave the same answers, till she came to the jar of oil.
By this means Morgiana found that her master had admitted to his house
thirty-eight robbers, of whom the pretended oil-merchant, their captain,
was one. She made what haste she could to fill her oil-pot, and returned
to her kitchen, lighted her lamp, and taking a great kettle went back to
the oil-jar and filled it. Then she set the kettle on a large wood fire,
and as soon as it boiled went and poured enough into every jar to stifle
and destroy the robber within.
When this deed, worthy of the courage of Morgiana, was done without any
noise, as she had planned, she returned to the kitchen with the empty
kettle, put out the lamp, and left just enough of the fire to make the
broth. Then she sat silent, resolving not to go to rest till she had
seen through the window that opened on the yard whatever might happen
there.
It was not long before the captain of the robbers got up, and, seeing
that all was dark and quiet, gave the appointed signal by throwing
little stones, some of which hit the jars, as he doubted not by the
sound they gave. As there was no response, he threw stones a second and
a third time, and could not imagine why there was no answer to his
signal.
Much alarmed, he went softly down into the yard, and, going to the first
jar to ask the robber if he was ready, smelt the hot boiled oil, which
sent forth a steam out of the jar. From this he suspected that his plot
was found out, and, looking into the jars one by one, he found that all
his gang were dead. Enraged to despair, he forced the lock of a door
that led from the yard to the garden, and made his escape. When Morgiana
saw him go, she went to bed, well pleased that she had saved her master.
and his family.
Ali Baba rose before day, and went to the baths without knowing of what
had happened in the night. When he returned he was very much surprised
to see the oil-jars in the yard and the mules in the stable.
"God preserve you and all your family," said Morgiana when she was asked
what it meant; "you will know better when you have seen what I have to
show you."
So saying she led him to the first jar, and asked him to see if there
was any oil. When he saw a man instead, he started back in alarm.
"Do not be afraid," said Morgiana; "he can do neither you nor anybody
else the least harm. He is dead. Now look into all the other jars."
Ali Baba was more and more amazed as he went on, and saw all the dead
men and the sunken oil-jar at the end. He stood looking from the jars to
Morgiana, till he found words to ask: "And what is become of the
merchant?"
"Merchant!" answered she; "he is as much one as I am."
Then she led him into the house, and told of all that she had done, from
the first noticing of the chalk-mark to the death of the robbers and the
flight of their captain. On hearing of these brave deeds from Morgiana's
own lips, Ali Baba said to her:--
"God, by your means, has delivered me from death. For the first token of
what I owe you, I give you your liberty from this moment, till I can
fully reward you as I intend."
Near the trees at the end of Ali Baba's long garden, he and Abdalla dug
a trench large enough to hold the bodies of the robbers. When they were
buried there, Ali Baba hid the jars and weapons; and as the mules were
of no use to him, he sent them at different times to be sold in the
market by his slave.
V
THE CAPTAIN DISCOVERED AND KILLED BY MORGIANA
The captain of the forty robbers had returned to his cave in the forest,
but found himself so lonely there that the place became frightful to
him. He resolved at the same time to avenge the fate of his comrades,
and to bring about the death of Ali Baba. For this purpose he returned
to the town, disguised as a merchant of silks. By degrees he brought
from his cavern many sorts of fine stuffs, and to dispose of these he
took a warehouse that happened to be opposite Cassim's, which Ali Baba's
son had occupied since the death of his uncle.
He took the name of Cogia Houssain, and as a newcomer was very civil to
the merchants near him. Ali Baba's son was one of the first to converse
with him, and the new merchant was most friendly. Within two or three
days Ali Baba came to see his son, and the captain of the robbers knew
him at once, and soon learned from his son who he was. From that time
forth he was still more polite to Ali Baba's son, who soon felt bound to
repay the many kindnesses of his new friend.
As his own house was small, he arranged with his father that on a
certain afternoon, when he and the merchant were passing by Ali Baba's
house, they should stop, and he should ask them both to sup with him.
This plan was carried out, though at first the merchant, with whose own
plans it agreed perfectly, made as if to excuse himself. He even gave it
as a reason for not remaining that he could eat no salt in his victuals.
"If that is all," said Ali Baba, "it need not deprive me of the honor of
your company"; and he went to the kitchen and told Morgiana to put no
salt into anything she was cooking that evening.
Thus Cogia Houssain was persuaded to stay, but to Morgiana it seemed
very strange that any one should refuse to eat salt. She wished to see
what manner of man it might be, and to this end, when she had finished
what she had to do in the kitchen, she helped Abdalla carry up the
dishes. Looking at Cogia Houssain, she knew him at first sight, in spite
of his disguise, to be the captain of the robbers, and, scanning him
very closely, saw that he had a dagger under his garment.
"I see now why this greatest enemy of my master would eat no salt with
him. He intends to kill him; but I will prevent him."
While they were at supper Morgiana made up her mind to do one of the
boldest deeds ever conceived. She dressed herself like a dancer, girded
her waist with a silver-gilt girdle, from which hung a poniard, and put
a handsome mask on her face. Then, when the supper was ended, she said
to Abdalla:--
"Take your tabor, and let us go and divert our master and his son's
friend, as we sometimes do when he is alone."
They presented themselves at the door with a low bow, and Morgiana was
bidden to enter and show Cogia Houssain how well she danced. This, he
knew, would interrupt him in carrying out his wicked purpose, but he had
to make the best of it, and to seem pleased with Morgiana's dancing. She
was indeed a good dancer, and on this occasion outdid herself in
graceful and surprising motions. At the last, she took the tabor from
Abdalla's hand, and held it out like those who dance for money.
Ali Baba put a piece of gold into it, and so did his son. When Cogia
Houssain saw that she was coming to him, he pulled out his purse from
his bosom to make her a present; but while he was putting his hand into
it, Morgiana, with courage worthy of herself, plunged the poniard into
his heart.
"Unhappy woman!" exclaimed Ali Baba, "what have you done to ruin me and
my family?"
"It was to preserve, not to ruin you," answered Morgiana. Then she
showed the dagger in Cogia Houssain's garment, and said: "Look well at
him, and you will see that he is both the pretended oil-merchant and the
captain of the band of forty robbers. As soon as you told me that he
would eat no salt with you, I suspected who it was, and when I saw him,
I knew."
Ali Baba embraced her, and said: "Morgiana, I gave you your liberty
before, and promised you more in time; now I would make you my
daughter-in-law. Consider," he said, turning to his son, "that by
marrying Morgiana, you marry the preserver of my family and yours."
The son was all the more ready to carry out his father's wishes, because
they were the same as his own, and within a few days he and Morgiana
were married, but before this, the captain of the robbers was buried
with his comrades, and so secretly was it done, that their bones were
not found till many years had passed, when no one had any concern in
making this strange story known.
For a whole year Ali Baba did not visit the robbers' cave. At the end of
that time, as nobody had tried to disturb him, he made another journey
to the forest, and, standing before the entrance to the cave, said:
"Open, Sesame." The door opened at once, and from the appearance of
everything within the cavern, he judged that nobody had been there since
the captain had fetched the goods for his shop. From this time forth, he
took as much of the treasure as his needs demanded. Some years later he
carried his son to the cave, and taught him the secret, which he handed
down in his family, who used their good fortune wisely, and lived in
great honor and splendor.
III. RIP VAN WINKLE[*] (1819)
[* From "The Sketch Book." The elaborate Knickerbocker notes with which
Irving, following a passing fashion of the time, sought to mystify the
reader, are here omitted. They are hindrances now rather than helps.]
BY WASHINGTON IRVING (1783-1859)
[_Setting_. The Hudson River and the Kaatskill Mountains were first
brought into literature through this story, Irving being the first
American master of local color and local tradition. Since 1870 the
American short story, following the example of Irving, has been the
leading agency by which the South, the West, and New England have made
known and thus perpetuated their local scenery, legends, customs, and
dialect. Irving, however, seemed afraid of dialect. There were, it is
true, many legends about the Hudson before Irving was born, but they had
found no expression in literature. Mrs. Josiah Quincy, who made a voyage
up the Hudson in 1786, wrote: "Our captain had a legend for every scene,
either supernatural or traditional or of actual occurrence during the
war, and not a mountain reared its head unconnected with some marvellous
story." Irving, therefore, did not have to manufacture local traditions;
he only gave them wider currency and fitted them more artistically into
their natural settings.
Irving chose for his setting the twenty years that embrace the
Revolutionary War because the numerous social and political changes that
took place then enabled him to bring Rip back after his sleep into a
"world not realized." You will appreciate much better the art of this
time-setting if you will try your hand on a somewhat similar story and
place it between 1820 and 1840, when railroads, telegraph lines, and
transatlantic steamers made a new world out of the old; or, if your
story takes place in the South, you might make your background include
the interval between 1855 and 1875, when slavery was abolished, when the
old plantation system was changed, when the names of new heroes emerged,
and when new social and political and industrial problems had to be
grappled with.