8 The Tale of Aladdin

CHAPTER 8 The Tale of Aladdin THE THIRTY-FIRST NIGHT The following night, when Scheherazade was in bed, her sister Dinarzad said, "Please, sister, tell us one of your lovely little tales."The king added, "Let it be more amazing than what came before." Scheherazade replied, "With the

greatest pleasure!" It is said, O great King, that there once was a poor tailor who lived in China with a son named Aladdin. The father worked very hard, while Aladdin was quite lazy and spent his days playing with other boys in the streets, returning home only for his daily meals. The father kept working right up until the day he died. After this, Aladdin's mother sold the shop and started to spin yarn for cloth so the family could have money. Aladdin was fifteen years old then, and he continued in his lazy ways. One day, a stranger came up to Aladdin. He told the boy he was his uncle and that he had come to pray at his dead brother's grave. The stranger returned home with Aladdin for dinner, and the man told his story, bringing Aladdin's mother to tears.

The next day, the stranger took Aladdin to the market and bought him new clothing. The uncle showed Aladdin the better parts of the city, and offered to put him to work as a merchant. Aladdin walked with the man for a long time. They left the city, passing the gardens beyond it and traveling up a high mountain. Here the stranger built a fire. When it grew hot, he said a spell over it. The sky grew dark and the earth shook, opening up to reveal a great slab of marble. Aladdin was afraid, but the stranger told him to lift the slab and go down into the earth below. "You will see three rooms, with jars full of silver and gold," he said. "But do not stop there. In the fourth room, there is a garden of fruit trees and a staircase leading up to an altar. Above this altar, you will find a lamp. Pour out the oil and bring the lamp back to me." The stranger gave Aladdin a ring to wear for protection, and the boy went down into the earth.

He did everything the stranger had told him to, but when he returned, he could not quite reach the top of the opening without help. "O my son," the stranger told him, "give me the lamp so that I can help you climb up." Aladdin was afraid to give the stranger the lamp and said, "No, Uncle, the lamp is safe with me. Give me your hand and help lift me out of this place." The man asked again for the lamp, and Aladdin said no again. This went on for some time, and the stranger became more and more angry. Finally, the stranger closed the slab and said another spell, covering the slab with earth and leaving Aladdin trapped in the dark. But morning drew near Scheherazade, and she fell silent. Dinarzad said to her sister, "Sister, what an amazing story!" Scheherazade replied, "It is nothing compared with what I will tell you tomorrow, if the king lets me live."

THE THIRTY-SECOND NIGHT The following night, when Scheherazade was in bed, her sister Dinarzad said, "Please, sister, tell us more of this amazing tale." The king added, "Tell us more of what happened to Aladdin." Scheherazade replied, "With great pleasure!" It is said, O great King, that the stranger was really a great wizard and that he had learned his art in Africa. There he had heard of a great treasure in China that lay buried in the earth. It was said that among the riches was a lamp that could make its owner more powerful than a thousand kings. The wizard had heard that only a certain poor boy of that city could remove the lamp from its resting place, and that the boy's name was Aladdin. So the wizard had come looking for the boy. He planned to use him to get

the lamp and, afterward, to kill him. Now Aladdin was trapped beneath the earth. He found that all the rooms had been closed. He cried and rubbed his hands together, calling upon God to deliver him. He happened to rub the ring the stranger had given him and, when he did so, a genie suddenly appeared before him. The genie said, "Ask what you wish, for I must obey whoever wears that ring on his finger." Aladdin was overjoyed and asked the genie to put him back aboveground. Immediately the earth opened, and the boy was saved. Aladdin returned home and his mother wept with happiness, for she had not seen him for three days. Aladdin told her of everything that had happened to him. Then he went to sleep. Aladdin slept for three days. When he woke up, his mother asked him to take some of the fabric she had woven to the market and sell it for food. The boy suggested selling the lamp instead, and his mother thought that was a good idea. She