THE PORTER AND THE THREE LADIES OF BAGHDAD

ONCE upon a time there was a porter in Baghdad who was a bachelor
and who would remain unmarried. It came to pass on a certain day, as

he stood about the street leaning idly upon his crate, behold, there
stood before him an honorable woman in a mantilla of Mosul silk

broidered with gold and bordered with brocade. Her walking shoes
were also purred with gold, and her hair floated in long plaits. She

raised her face veil and, showing two black eyes fringed with jetty
lashes, whose glances were soft and languishing and whose perfect

beauty was ever blandishing, she accosted the porter and said in the
suavest tones and choicest language, "Take up thy crate and follow

me."
The porter was so dazzled he could hardly believe that he heard

her aright, but he shouldered his basket in hot haste, saying in
himself, "O day of good luck! O day of Allah's grace!" and walked

after her till she stopped at the door of a house. There she rapped,
and presently came out to her an old man, a Nazarene, to whom she gave

a gold piece, receiving from him in return what she required of
strained wine clear as olive oil, and she set it safely in the hamper,

saying, "Lift and follow." Quoth the porter, "This, by Allah, is
indeed an auspicious day, a day propitious for the granting of all a

man wisheth." He again hoisted up the crate and followed her till
she stopped at a fruiterer's shop and bought from him Shami apples and

Osmani quinces and Omani peaches, and cucumbers of Nile growth, and
Egyptian limes and Sultani oranges and citrons, besides Aleppine

jasmine, scented myrtle berries, Damascene nenuphars, flower of privet
and camomile, blood-red anemones, violets, and pomegranate bloom,

eglantine, and narcissus, and set the whole in the porter's crate,
saying, "Up with it."

So he lifted and followed her till she stopped at a butcher's
booth and said, "Cut me off ten pounds of mutton." She paid him his

price and he wrapped it in a banana leaf, whereupon she laid it in the
crate and said, "Hoist, O Porter." He hoisted accordingly, and

followed her as she walked on till she stopped at a grocer's, where
she bought dry fruits and pistachio kernels, Tihamah raisins,

shelled almonds, and all wanted for dessert, and said to the porter,
"Lift and follow me." So he up with his hamper and after her till

she stayed at the confectioner's, and she bought an earthenplatter,
and piled it with all kinds of sweetmeats in his shop, open-worked

tarts and fritters scented with musk, and "soap cakes," and lemon
loaves, and melon preserves, and "Zaynab's combs," and "ladies'

fingers," and "Kazi's titbits," and goodies of every description,
and placed the platter in the porter's crate. Thereupon quoth he

(being a merry man), "Thou shouldest have told me, and I would have
brought with me a pony or a she-camel to carry all this market stuff."

She smiled and gave him a little cuff on the nape, saying, "Step out
and exceed not in words, for (Allah willing!) thy wage will not be

wanting."
Then she stopped at a perfumer's and took from him ten sorts of

waters, rose scented with musk, orange-flower, water-lily,
willow-flower, violet and five others. And she also bought two

loaves of sugar, a bottle for perfume-spraying, a lump of male
incense, aloe wood, ambergris, and musk, with candles of Alexandria

wax, and she put the whole into the basket, saying, "Up with thy crate
and after me." He did so and followed until she stood before the

greengrocer's, of whom she bought pickled sallower and olives, in
brine and in oil, with tarragon and cream cheese and hard Syrian

cheese, and she stowed them away in the crate, saying to the porter,
"Take up thy basket and follow me." He did so and went after her

till she came to a fair mansion fronted by a spacious court, a tall,
fine place to which columns gave strength and grace. And the gate

thereof had two leaves of ebony inlaid with plates of red gold. The
lady stopped at the door and, turning her face veil sideways,

knocked softly with her knuckles whilst the porter stood behind her,
thinking of naught save her beauty and loveliness.

Presently the door swung back and both leaves were opened, whereupon
he looked to see who had opened it, and behold, it was a lady of

tall figure, some five feet high, a model of beauty and loveliness,
brilliance and symmetry and perfect grace. Her forehead was

flower-white, her cheeks like the anemone ruddy-bright. Her eyes were
those of the wild heifer or the gazelle, with eyebrows like the

crescent moon which ends Sha'aban and begins Ramazan. Her mouth was
the ring of Solomon, her lips coral-red, and her teeth like a line

of strung pearls or of camomile petals. Her throat recalled the
antelope's, and her breasts, like two pomegranates of even size, stood

at bay as it were. Her body rose and fell in waves below her dress
like the rolls of a piece of brocade, and her navel would hold an

ounce of benzoin ointment. In fine, she was like her of whom the
poet said:

On Sun and Moon of palace cast thy sight,
Enjoy her flowerlike face, her fragrant light.

Thine eyes shall never see in hair so black
Beauty encase a brow so purely white.

The ruddy rosy cheek proclaims her claim,
Though fail her name whose beauties we indite.

As sways her gait, I smile at hips so big
And weep to see the waist they bear so slight.

When the porter looked upon her, his wits were waylaid and his
senses were stormed so that his crate went nigh to fall from his head,

and he said to himself, "Never have I in my life seen a day more
blessed than this day!" Then quoth the lady portress to the lady

cateress, "Come in from the gate and relieve this poor man of his
load." So the provisioner went in, followed by the portress and the

porter, and went on till they reached a spacious ground-floor hall,
built with admirable skill and beautified with all manner colors and

carvings, with upper balconies and groined arches and galleries and
cupboards and recesses whose curtains hung before them. In the midst

stood a great basin full of water surrounding a fine fountain, and
at the upper end on the raised dais was a couch of juniper wood set

with gems and pearls, with a canopy like mosquito curtains of red
satin-silk looped up with pearls as big as filberts and bigger.

Thereupon sat a lady bright of blee, with brow beaming brilliancy,
the dream of philosophy, whose eyes were fraught with Babel's gramarye

and her eyebrows were arched as for archery. Her breathbreathed
ambergris and perfumery and her lips were sugar to taste and carnelian

to see. Her stature was straight as the letter l and her face shamed
the noon sun's radiancy; and she was even as a galaxy, or a dome

with golden marquetry, or a bride displayed in choicest finery, or a
noble maid of Araby. The third lady, rising from the couch, stepped

forward with graceful swaying gait till she reached the middle of
the saloon, when she said to her sisters: "Why stand ye here? Take

it down from this poor man's head!" Then the cateress went and stood
before him and the portress behind him while the third helped them,

and they lifted the load from the porter's head, and, emptying it of
all that was therein, set everything in its place. Lastly they gave

him two gold pieces, saying, "Wend thy ways, O Porter."
But he went not, for he stood looking at the ladies and admiring

what uncommon beauty was theirs, and their pleasant manners and kindly
dispositions (never had he seen goodlier). And he gazed wistfully at

that good store of wines and sweet-scented flowers and fruits and
other matters. Also he marveled with exceeding marvel, especially to

see no man in the place, and delayed his going, whereupon quoth the
eldest lady: "What aileth thee that goest not? Haply thy wage be too

little?" And, turning to her sister, the cateress, she said, "Give him
another dinar!" But the porter answered: "By Allah, my lady, it is not

for the wage, my hire is never more than two dirhams, but in very