LOVING LAILÍ

LOVING LAILÍ

To notes O NCE there was a king called King Dantál, who had a

great many rupees and soldiers and horses. He

had also an only son called Prince Majnún, who

was a handsome boy with white teeth, red lips, blue eyes, red

cheeks, red hair, and a white skin. This boy was very fond

of playing with the Wazír’s son, Husain Mahámat, in King

Dantál’s garden, which was very large and full of delicious

fruits, and flowers, and trees. They used to take their little

knives there and cut the fruits and eat them. King Dantál

had a teacher for them to teach them to read and write.

One day, when they were grown two fine young men,

Prince Majnún said to his father, “Husain Mahámat and I

should like to go and hunt.” His father said they might go,

so they got ready their horses and all else they wanted for

their hunting, and went to the Phaláná country, hunting all

the way, but they only found jackals and birds.

The Rájá of the Phaláná country was called Múnsúk

Rájá, and he had a daughter named Lailí, who was very

beautiful; she had brown eyes and black hair.

One night, some time before Prince Majnún came to her

father’s kingdom, as she slept, God sent to her an angel in

the form of a man who told her that she should marry Prince

Majnún and no one else, and that this was God’s command

to her. When Lailí woke she told her father of the angel’s

visit to her as she slept; but her father paid no attention to [ Pg 74] her story. From that time she began repeating, “Majnún,

Majnún; I want Majnún,” and would say nothing else. Even

as she sat and ate her food she kept saying, “Majnún, Majnún;

I want Majnún.” Her father used to get quite vexed with

her. “Who is this Majnún? who ever heard of this Majnún?”

he would say. “He is the man I am to marry,”

said Lailí. “God has ordered me to marry no one but

Majnún.” And she was half mad. Meanwhile, Majnún and

Husain Mahámat came to hunt in the Phaláná country; and

as they were riding about, Lailí came out on her horse to

eat the air, and rode behind them. All the time she kept

saying, “Majnún, Majnún; I want Majnún.” The prince

heard her, and turned round. “Who is calling me?” he

asked. At this Lailí looked at him, and the moment she

saw him she fell deeply in love with him, and she said to

herself, “I am sure that is the Prince Majnún that God says

I am to marry.” And she went home to her father and said,

“Father, I wish to marry the prince who has come to your

kingdom; for I know he is the Prince Majnún I am to marry.”

“Very well, you shall have him for your husband,” said Múnsúk

Rájá. “We will ask him to-morrow.” Lailí consented to wait,

although she was very impatient. As it happened, the prince

left the Phaláná kingdom that night, and when Lailí heard he

was gone, she went quite mad. She would not listen to a word

her father, or her mother, or her servants said to her, but

went off into the jungle, and wandered from jungle to jungle,

till she got farther and farther away from her own country.

All the time she kept saying, “Majnún, Majnún; I want

Majnún;” and so she wandered about for twelve years.

At the end of the twelve years she met a fakír—he was

really an angel, but she did not know this—who asked her,

“Why do you always say, ‘Majnún, Majnún; I want Majnún’?”

She answered, “I am the daughter of the king of

the Phaláná country, and I want to find Prince Majnún; tell [ Pg 75] me where his kingdom is.” “I think you will never get

there,” said the fakír, “for it is very far from hence, and you

have to cross many rivers to reach it.” But Lailí said she did

not care; she must see Prince Majnún. “Well,” said the

fakír, “when you come to the Bhágírathí river you will see a

big fish, a Rohú; and you must get him to carry you to

Prince Majnún’s country, or you will never reach it.”

She went on and on, and at last she came to the Bhágírathí

river. There there was a great big fish called the Rohú fish.

It was yawning just as she got up to it, and she instantly

jumped down its throat into its stomach. All the time she

kept saying, “Majnún, Majnún.” At this the Rohú fish

was greatly alarmed and swam down the river as fast as he

could. By degrees he got tired and went slower, and a

crow came and perched on his back, and said, “Caw, caw.”

“Oh, Mr. Crow,” said the poor fish, “do see what is in my

stomach that makes such a noise.” “Very well,” said the

crow, “open your mouth wide, and I’ll fly down and see.”

So the Rohú opened his jaws and the crow flew down, but

he came up again very quickly. “You have a Rakshas in

your stomach,” said the crow, and he flew away. This news

did not comfort the poor Rohú, and he swam on and on

till he came to Prince Majnún’s country. There he stopped.

And a jackal came down to the river to drink. “Oh, jackal,”

said the Rohú, “do tell me what I have inside me.” “How

can I tell?” said the jackal. “I cannot see unless I go inside

you.” So the Rohú opened his mouth wide, and the jackal

jumped down his throat; but he came up very quickly,

looking much frightened and saying, “You have a Rakshas

in your stomach, and if I don’t run away quickly, I am

afraid it will eat me.” So off he ran. After the jackal

came an enormous snake. “Oh,” says the fish, “do tell me

what I have in my stomach, for it rattles about so, and keeps

saying, ‘Majnún, Majnún; I want Majnún.’” The snake said, [ Pg 76] “Open your mouth wide, and I’ll go down and see what it

is.” The snake went down: when he returned he said,

“You have a Rakshas in your stomach; but if you will let

me cut you open, it will come out of you.” “If you do that,

I shall die,” said the Rohú. “Oh, no,” said the snake,

“you will not, for I will give you a medicine that will make

you quite well again.” So the fish agreed, and the snake

got a knife and cut him open, and out jumped Lailí.

She was now very old. Twelve years she had wandered

about the jungle, and for twelve years she had lived inside

her Rohú; and she was no longer beautiful, and had lost

her teeth. The snake took her on his back and carried her

into the country, and there he put her down, and she wandered

on and on till she got to Majnún’s court-house, where

King Majnún was sitting. There some men heard her crying,

“Majnún, Majnún; I want Majnún,” and they asked her

what she wanted. “I want King Majnún,” she said. So they

went in and said to Prince Majnún, “An old woman outside

says she wants you.” “I cannot leave this place,” said he;

“send her in here.” They brought her in and the prince

asked her what she wanted. “I want to marry you,” she

answered. “Twenty-four years ago you came to my father

the Phaláná Rájá’s country, and I wanted to marry you then;

but you went away without marrying me. Then I went

mad, and I have wandered about all these years looking for

you.” Prince Majnún said, “Very good.” “Pray to God,”

said Lailí, “to make us both young again, and then we shall

be married.” So the prince prayed to God, and God said

to him, “Touch Lailí’s clothes and they will catch fire, and

when they are on fire, she and you will become young again.”

When he touched Lailí’s clothes they caught fire, and she

and he became young again. And there were great feasts,

and they were married, and travelled to the Phaláná country

to see her father and mother.

[ Pg 77] Now Lailí’s father and mother had wept so much for

their daughter that they had become quite blind, and her

father kept always repeating, “Lailí, Lailí, Lailí.” When

Lailí saw their blindness, she prayed to God to restore their

sight to them, which he did. As soon as the father and

mother saw Lailí, they hugged her and kissed her, and then

they had the wedding all over again amid great rejoicings.

Prince Majnún and Lailí stayed with Múnsúk Rájá and his

wife for three years, and then they returned to King

Dantál, and lived happily for some time with him.

They used to go out hunting, and they often went from

country to country to eat the air and amuse themselves.

One day Prince Majnún said to Lailí, “Let us go through

this jungle.” “No, no,” said Lailí; “if we go through this

jungle, some harm will happen to me.” But Prince Majnún

laughed, and went into the jungle. And as they were going

through it, God thought, “I should like to know how much

Prince Majnún loves his wife. Would he be very sorry if

she died? And would he marry another wife? I will see.”

So he sent one of his angels in the form of a fakír into the

jungle; and the angel went up to Lailí, and threw some powder

in her face, and instantly she fell to the ground a heap

of ashes.

Prince Majnún was in great sorrow and grief when he

saw his dear Lailí turn into a little heap of ashes; and he

went straight home to his father, and for a long, long time

he would not be comforted. After a great many years he

grew more cheerful and happy, and began to go again into

his father’s beautiful garden with Husain Mahámat. King

Dantál wished his son to marry again. “I will only have

Lailí for my wife; I will not marry any other woman,” said

Prince Majnún. “How can you marry Lailí? Lailí is

dead. She will never come back to you,” said the father.

“Then I’ll not have any wife at all,” said Prince Majnún.

[ Pg 78] Meanwhile Lailí was living in the jungle where her husband

had left her a little heap of ashes. As soon as Majnún

had gone, the fakír had taken her ashes and made them

quite clean, and then he had mixed clay and water with the

ashes, and made the figure of a woman with them, and so

Lailí regained her human form, and God sent life into it.

But Lailí had become once more a hideous old woman, with

a long, long nose, and teeth like tusks; just such an old

woman, excepting her teeth, as she had been when she came

out of the Rohú fish; and she lived in the jungle, and neither

ate nor drank, and she kept on saying, “Majnún, Majnún;

I want Majnún.”

At last the angel who had come as a fakír and thrown the

powder at her, said to God, “Of what use is it that this

woman should sit in the jungle crying, crying for ever,

‘Majnún, Majnún; I want Majnún,’ and eating and drinking

nothing? Let me take her to Prince Majnún.” “Well,” said

God, “you may do so; but tell her that she must not

speak to Majnún if he is afraid of her when he sees her;

and that if he is afraid when he sees her, she will become a

little white dog the next day. Then she must go to the palace,

and she will only regain her human shape when Prince

Majnún loves her, feeds her with his own food, and lets her

sleep in his bed.” So the angel came to Lailí again as a

fakír and carried her to King Dantál’s garden. “Now,” he

said, “it is God’s command that you stay here till Prince

Majnún comes to walk in the garden, and then you may

show yourself to him. But you must not speak to him, if he

is afraid of you; and should he be afraid of you, you will

the next day become a little white dog.” He then told her

what she must do as a little dog to regain her human form.

Lailí stayed in the garden, hidden in the tall grass, till

Prince Majnún and Husain Mahámat came to walk in the

garden. King Dantál was now a very old man, and Husain [ Pg 79] Mahámat, though he was really only as old as Prince Majnún,

looked a great deal older than the prince, who had been

made quite young again when he married Lailí.

As Prince Majnún and the Wazír’s son walked in the

garden, they gathered the fruit as they had done as little

children, only they bit the fruit with their teeth; they did not

cut it. While Majnún was busy eating a fruit in this way,

and was talking to Husain Mahámat, he turned towards him

and saw Lailí walking behind the Wazír’s son. “Oh, look,

look!” he cried, “see what is following you; it is a Rakshas

or a demon, and I am sure it is going to eat us.” Lailí looked

at him beseechingly with all her eyes, and trembled with age

and eagerness; but this only frightened Majnún the more.

“It is a Rakshas, a Rakshas!” he cried, and he ran quickly

to the palace with the Wazír’s son; and as they ran away,

Lailí disappeared into the jungle. They ran to King Dantál,

and Majnún told him there was a Rakshas or a demon in the

garden that had come to eat them. “What nonsense,” said

his father. “Fancy two grown men being so frightened by

an old ayah or a fakír! And if it had been a Rakshas, it

would not have eaten you.” Indeed King Dantál did not

believe Majnún had seen anything at all, till Husain Mahámat

said the prince was speaking the exact truth. They

had the garden searched for the terrible old woman, but

found nothing, and King Dantál told his son he was very

silly to be so much frightened. However, Prince Majnún

would not walk in the garden any more.

The next day Lailí turned into a pretty little dog; and in

this shape she came into the palace, where Prince Majnún

soon became very fond of her. She followed him everywhere,

went with him when he was out hunting, and helped

him to catch his game, and Prince Majnún fed her with

milk, or bread, or anything else he was eating, and at night

the little dog slept in his bed.

[ Pg 80] But one night the little dog disappeared, and in its stead

there lay the little old woman who had frightened him so

much in the garden; and now Prince Majnún was quite sure

she was a Rakshas, or a demon, or some such horrible thing

come to eat him; and in his terror he cried out, “What do

you want? Oh, do not eat me; do not eat me!” Poor

Lailí answered, “Don’t you know me? I am your wife

Lailí, and I want to marry you. Don’t you remember how

you would go through that jungle, though I begged and

begged you not to go, for I told you that harm would happen

to me, and then a fakír came and threw powder in my

face, and I became a heap of ashes. But God gave me my

life again, and brought me here, after I had stayed a long,

long while in the jungle crying for you, and now I am

obliged to be a little dog; but if you will marry me, I shall

not be a little dog any more.” Majnún, however, said

“How can I marry an old woman like you? how can you

be Lailí? I am sure you are a Rakshas or a demon come

to eat me,” and he was in great terror.

In the morning the old woman had turned into the little

dog, and the prince went to his father and told him all that

had happened. “An old woman! an old woman! always

an old woman!” said his father. “You do nothing but

think of old women. How can a strong man like you be

so easily frightened?” However, when he saw that his son

was really in great terror, and that he really believed the

old woman would come back at night, he advised him to

say to her, “I will marry you if you can make yourself a

young girl again. How can I marry such an old woman as

you are?”

That night as he lay trembling in bed the little old woman

lay there in place of the dog, crying, “Majnún, Majnún, I

want to marry you. I have loved you all these long, long

years. When I was in my father’s kingdom a young girl, I [ Pg 81] knew of you, though you knew nothing of me, and we

should have been married then if you had not gone away

so suddenly, and for long, long years I followed you.”

“Well,” said Majnún, “if you can make yourself a young

girl again, I will marry you.”

Lailí said, “Oh, that is quite easy. God will make me a

young girl again. In two days’ time you must go into the

garden, and there you will see a beautiful fruit. You must

gather it and bring it into your room and cut it open yourself

very gently, and you must not open it when your father

or anybody else is with you, but when you are quite alone;

for I shall be in the fruit quite naked, without any clothes at

all on.” In the morning Lailí took her little dog’s form, and

disappeared in the garden.

Prince Majnún told all this to his father, who told him to

do all the old woman had bidden him. In two days’ time

he and the Wazír’s son walked in the garden, and there

they saw a large, lovely red fruit. “Oh!” said the Prince,

“I wonder shall I find my wife in that fruit.” Husain

Mahámat wanted him to gather it and see, but he would

not till he had told his father, who said, “That must be

the fruit; go and gather it.” So Majnún went back and

broke the fruit off its stalk; and he said to his father,

“Come with me to my room while I open it; I am

afraid to open it alone, for perhaps I shall find a Rakshas

in it that will eat me.” “No,” said King Dantál; “remember,

Lailí will be naked; you must go alone, and do not be

afraid if, after all, a Rakshas is in the fruit, for I will stay

outside the door, and you have only to call me with a loud

voice, and I will come to you, so the Rakshas will not be

able to eat you.”

Then Majnún took the fruit and began to cut it open

tremblingly, for he shook with fear; and when he had cut

it, out stepped Lailí, young and far more beautiful than she [ Pg 82] had ever been. At the sight of her extreme beauty, Majnún

fell backwards fainting on the floor.

Lailí took off his turban and wound it all round herself

like a sárí (for she had no clothes at all on), and then she

called King Dantál, and said to him sadly, “Why has Majnún

fallen down like this? Why will he not speak to me?

He never used to be afraid of me; and he has seen me so

many, many times.” King Dantál answered, “It is because

you are so beautiful. You are far, far more beautiful than

you ever were. But he will be very happy directly.” Then

the King got some water, and they bathed Majnún’s face

and gave him some to drink, and he sat up again. Then

Lailí said, “Why did you faint? Did you not see I am

Lailí?” “Oh!” said Prince Majnún, “I see you are Lailí

come back to me, but your eyes have grown so wonderfully

beautiful, that I fainted when I saw them.” Then they were

all very happy, and King Dantál had all the drums in the

place beaten, and had all the musical instruments played on,

and they made a grand wedding-feast, and gave presents to

the servants, and rice and quantities of rupees to the fakírs.

After some time had passed very happily, Prince Majnún

and his wife went out to eat the air. They rode on the

same horse, and had only a groom with them. They came

to another kingdom, to a beautiful garden. “We must go

into that garden and see it,” said Majnún. “No, no,” said

Lailí; “it belongs to a bad Rájá, Chumman Básá, a very

wicked man.” But Majnún insisted on going in, and in

spite of all Lailí could say, he got off the horse to look at

the flowers. Now, as he was looking at the flowers, Lailí saw

Chumman Básá coming towards them, and she read in his

eyes that he meant to kill her husband and seize her. So

she said to Majnún, “Come, come, let us go; do not go near

that bad man. I see in his eyes, and I feel in my heart,

that he will kill you to seize me.” “What nonsense,” said [ Pg 83] Majnún. “I believe he is a very good Rájá. Anyhow, I

am so near to him that I could not get away.” “Well,” said

Lailí, “it is better that you should be killed than I, for if I

were to be killed a second time, God would not give me my

life again; but I can bring you to life if you are killed.”

Now Chumman Básá had come quite near, and seemed very

pleasant, so thought Prince Majnún; but when he was

speaking to Majnún, he drew his scimitar and cut off the

prince’s head at one blow.

Lailí sat quite still on her horse, and as the Rájá came

towards her she said, “Why did you kill my husband?”

“Because I want to take you,” he answered. “You cannot,”

said Lailí. “Yes, I can,” said the Rájá. “Take me, then,”

said Lailí to Chumman Básá; so he came quite close and

put out his hand to take hers to lift her off her horse. But

she put her hand in her pocket and pulled out a tiny knife,

only as long as her hand was broad, and this knife unfolded

itself in one instant till it was such a length! and then Lailí

made a great sweep with her arm and her long, long knife,

and off came Chumman Básá’s head at one touch.

Then Lailí slipped down off her horse, and she went to

Majnún’s dead body, and she cut her little finger inside her

hand straight down from the top of her nail to her palm,

and out of this gushed blood like healing medicine. Then

she put Majnún’s head on his shoulders, and smeared her

healing blood all over the wound, and Majnún woke up and

said, “What a delightful sleep I have had! Why, I feel as

if I had slept for years!” Then he got up and saw the Rájá’s

dead body by Lailí’s horse. “What’s that?” said Majnún.

“That is the wicked Rájá who killed you to seize me, just as I

said he would.” “Who killed him?” asked Majnún. “I did,”

answered Lailí, “and it was I who brought you to life.” “Do

bring the poor man to life if you know how to do so,” said

Majnún. “No,” said Lailí, “for he is a wicked man, and will [ Pg 84] try to do you harm.” But Majnún asked her for such a long

time, and so earnestly to bring the wicked Rájá to life, that

at last she said, “Jump up on the horse, then, and go far

away with the groom.” “What will you do,” said Majnún,

“if I leave you? I cannot leave you.” “I will take care

of myself,” said Lailí; “but this man is so wicked, he may

kill you again if you are near him.” So Majnún got up on the

horse, and he and the groom went a long way off and waited

for Lailí. Then she set the wicked Rájá’s head straight on

his shoulders, and she squeezed the wound in her finger till

a little blood-medicine came out of it. Then she smeared

this over the place where her knife had passed, and just as

she saw the Rájá opening his eyes, she began to run, and

she ran, and ran so fast, that she outran the Rájá, who tried

to catch her; and she sprang up on the horse behind her

husband, and they rode so fast, so fast, till they reached

King Dantál’s palace.

There Prince Majnún told everything to his father, who

was horrified and angry. “How lucky for you that you

have such a wife,” he said. “Why did you not do what she

told you? But for her, you would be now dead.” Then he

made a great feast out of gratitude for his son’s safety, and

gave many, many rupees to the fakírs. And he made so much

of Lailí. He loved her dearly; he could not do enough for

her. Then he built a splendid palace for her and his son,

with a great deal of ground about it, and lovely gardens,

and gave them great wealth, and heaps of servants to wait

on them. But he would not allow any but their servants to

enter their gardens and palace, and he would not allow

Majnún to go out of them, nor Lailí; “for,” said King

Dantál, “Lailí is so beautiful, that perhaps some one may

kill my son to take her away.”

Told by Dunkní.

[ Pg 85]