Mad Mehmed

Once upon a time in the old old days when the camel was only a spy, when

toads rose in the air on wings, and I myself rode in the air while I

walked on the ground, and went up hill and down dale at the same time,

in those days, I say, there were two brothers who dwelt together.

All that they had inherited from their father were some oxen and other

beasts, and a sick mother. One day the spirit of division seized upon

the younger brother (he was half-witted besides, Allah help him!), and

he went to his brother and said: “Look now, brother! at these two

stables! One of them is as new as new can be, while the other is old and

rotten. Let us drive our cattle hither, and whatever goes into the new

stable shall be mine, and all the rest shall be thine.”

“Not so, Mehmed,” said the elder brother; “let whatever goes into the

old stable be thine!” To this also the half-crazy Mehmed agreed. That

same day they went and drove up their cattle, and all the cattle went

into the new stable except a helpless old ox that was so blind that it

mistook its way and went into the old stable instead. Mehmed said never

a word, but took the blind old ox into the fields to graze; every

morning early he drove it thither, and late every evening he drove it

back again. One day when he was on the road, the wind began to shake a

big wayside tree so violently that its vast branches whined and

whimpered again. “Hi! whimpering old dad!” said the fool to the tree,

“hast thou seen my elder brother?” But the tree, as if it didn’t hear,

only went on whining. The fool flew into such a rage at this that he

caught up his chopper and struck at the tree, when out of it gushed a

whole stream of golden sequins. At this the fool rallied what little

wits he had, hastened home, and asked his brother to lend him another

ox, as he wanted to plough with a pair. He found a cart also, and some

empty sacks. These he filled with earth, and set out forthwith for his

tree. There he emptied his sacks of their earth, filled them with

sequins instead, and when he returned home in the evening, his brother

well-nigh dropped down for amazement at the sight of the monstrous

treasure.

They could think of nothing now but dividing it, so the younger brother

went to their neighbour for a three-peck measure to measure it with.

Now the neighbour was curious to know what such clodpoles could have to

measure. So he took and smeared the bottom of the measure with tar, and,

sure enough, when the fool brought the measure back a short time

afterwards, a sequin was sticking to the bottom of it. The neighbour

immediately went and told it to another, who went and told it to a

third, and so it was not long before everybody knew all about it.

Now the wiser brother knew not what might happen to them now that they

had all this money, and he began to feel frightened. So he snatched up

his pick and shovel, dug a trench, buried the treasure, and made off as

fast as his heels could carry him. On the way it occurred to the wise

brother that he had done foolishly in not shutting the door of the hut

behind him, so he sent off his younger brother to do it for him. So the

fool went back to the house, and he thought to himself: “Well, since I

am here, I ought not to forget my old mother either.” So he filled a

huge cauldron with water, boiled it, and soused his old mother in it so

thoroughly that her poor old head was never likely to speak again. After

that he propped the old woman against the wall with the broom, tore the

door off its hinges, threw it over his shoulders, and went and rejoined

his brother in the wood.

The elder brother looked at the door, and listened to the sad case of

his poor old mother, but scold and chide his younger brother as he might

the latter grew more cock-a-hoop than ever--he fancied he had done such

a clever thing. He had brought the door away with him, he said, in order

that no one might get into the house. The wise brother would have given

anything to have got rid of the fool, and began turning over in his mind

how he might best manage it. He looked before him and behind him, he

looked down the high-road, and there were three horsemen galloping

along. The thought instantly occurred to the pair of them that these

horsemen were on their track, so they scrambled up a tree forthwith,

door and all. They were scarcely comfortably settled when the three

horsemen drove up beneath the tree and encamped there. The dusk of

evening had come on at the very nick of time, so that they could not see

the two brothers.

Now the two brothers would have done very well indeed up in the tree had

not one of them been a fool. Mehmed the fool began to practise

pleasantries which disturbed the repose of the horsemen beneath the

tree. Presently, however, came a crash--bang!--and down on the heads of

the three sleepers fell the great heavy door from the top of the tree.

“The end of the world has come, the end of the world has come!” cried

they, and they rushed off in such a fright that no doubt they haven’t

ceased running to this very day. This finished the business so far as

the elder brother was concerned. In the morning he arose and went on his

way, and left the foolish younger brother by himself.

Thus poor silly Mehmed had to go forth into the wide world alone. He

went on and on till he came to a village, by which time he was very

hungry. There he stood in the gate of a mosque, and got one or two

paras[6] from those who went in and out till he had enough to buy

himself something to eat. At that moment a fat little man came out of

the mosque, and casting his eyes on Mehmed, asked him if he would like

to enter his service.

“I don’t mind if I do,” replied Mehmed, “but only on condition that

neither of us is to get angry with the other for any cause whatever. If

thou art wroth with me I’ll kill thee, and if I get wroth with thee thou

mayest kill me also.” The fat man agreed to these terms, for there was a

great lack of servants in that village.

In order to make short work of the fat little man the fool began by at

once chasing all the hens and sheep off his master’s premises. “Art

angry, master?” he then inquired of his lord. His master was amazed, but

he only answered: “Angry? Not I! Why should I be?” At the same time he

entrusted nothing more to him, but let him sit in the house without

anything to do.

His master had a wife and child, and Mehmed had to look after them. He

liked to dandle the child up and down, but he knocked it about and hurt

it, so clumsy was he; so he soon had to leave that off. But the wife

began to be afraid that her turn would come next, sooner or later, so

she persuaded her husband to run away from the fool one night. Mehmed

overheard what they said, hid himself in their storebox, and when they

opened it in the next village out he popped.

After a while his master and his wife agreed together that they would go

and sleep at night on the shores of a lake. They took Mehmed with them,

and put his bed right on the water’s edge, that he might tumble in when

he went to sleep. However, the fool was not such a fool but that he made

his master’s wife jump into the lake instead of himself. “Art angry,

master?” cried he.--“Angry indeed! How can I help being angry when I see

my property wasted, and my wife and child killed, and myself a

beggar--and all through thee!” Then the fool seized his master, put him

in mind of their compact, and pitched him into the water.

Mehmed now found himself all alone, so he went forth into the wide world

once more. He went on and on, did nothing but drink sweet coffee, smoke

chibooks, look about over his shoulder, and walk leisurely along at his

ease. As he was thus knocking about, he chanced to light upon a

five-para piece, which he speedily changed for some lebleb,[7] which he

immediately fell to chewing, and, as he chewed, part of it fell into a

wayside spring, whereupon the fool began roaring loud enough to split

his throat: “Give me back my lebleb, give me back my lebleb!” At this

frightful bawling a Jinn popped up his head, and he was so big that his

upper lip swept the sky, while his lower lip hid the earth. “What dost

thou require?” asked the Jinn.--“I want my lebleb, I want my lebleb!”

cried Mehmed.

The Jinn ducked down into the spring, and when he came up again, he held

a little table in his hand. This little table he gave to the fool and

said: “Whenever thou art hungry thou hast only to say: ‘Little table,

give me to eat;’ and when thou hast eaten thy fill, say: ‘Little table,

I have now had enough.’”

So Mehmed took the table and went with it into a village, and when he

felt hungry he said: “Little table, give me to eat!” and immediately

there stood before him so many beautiful, nice dishes that he couldn’t

make up his mind which to begin with. “Well,” thought he, “I must let

the poor people of the village see this wonder also,” so he went and

invited them all to a great banquet.

The villagers came one after another, they looked to the right, they

looked to the left, but there was no sign of a fire, or any preparations

for a meal. “Nay, but he would needs make fools of us!” thought they.

But the young man brought out his table, set it in the midst, and cried:

“Little table, give me to eat!” and there before them stood all manner

of delicious meats and drinks, and so much thereof that when the guests

had stuffed themselves to the very throat, there was enough left over to

fill the servants. Then the villagers laid their heads together as to

how they might manage to have a meal like this every day. “Come now!”

said some of them, “let us steal a march upon Mehmed one day and lay

hands upon his table, and then there will be an end to the fool’s

glory.” And they did so.

What could the poor, empty-bellied fool do then? Why he went to the

wayside spring and asked again: “I want my lebleb, I want my lebleb!”

And he asked and asked so long that at last the Jinn popped up his head

again out of the spring and inquired what was the matter. “I want my

lebleb, I want my lebleb!” cried the fool.--“But where’s thy little

table?”--“They stole it.”

The big-lipped Jinn again popped down, and when he rose out of the

spring again he had a little mill in his hand. This he gave to the fool

and said to him: “Grind it to the right and gold will flow out of it,

grind it to the left and it will give thee silver.” So the youth took

the mill home and ground it first to the right and then to the left, and

huge treasures of gold and silver lay heaped about him on the floor. So

he grew such a rich man that his equal was not to be found in the

village, nay, nor in the town either.

But no sooner had the people of the village got to know all about the

little mill than they laid their heads together and schemed and schemed

till the mill also disappeared[8] one fine morning from Mehmed’s

cottage. Then Mehmed ran off to the spring once more and cried: “I want

my lebleb, I want my lebleb!”

“But where is thy little table? Where is thy little mill?” asked the

big-lipped Jinn.

“They have stolen them both from me,” lamented the witless one, and he

wept bitterly.

Again the Jinn bobbed down, and this time he brought up two sticks with

him. He gave them to the fool, and impressed upon him very strongly on

no account to say: “Strike, strike, my little sticks!”

Mehmed took the sticks, and first he turned them to the right and then

to the left, but could make nothing of them. Then he thought he would

just try the effect of saying: “Strike, strike, my little sticks!” and

no sooner were the words out of his mouth than the sticks fell upon him

unmercifully, and belaboured him on every part of the body that can

feel--the head, the foot, the arm, the back--till he was nothing but one

big ache. “Stop, stop, my little sticks!” cried he, and lo! the two

sticks were still. Then, for all his aches and pains, Mehmed rejoiced

greatly that he had found out the mystery.

He had no sooner got home with the two sticks than he called together

all the villagers, but said not a word about what he meant to do. In

less than a couple of hours everybody had assembled there, and awaited

the new show with great curiosity. Then Mehmed came with his two sticks

and cried: “Strike, strike, my little sticks, strike, strike!” whereupon

the two sticks gave the whole lot of them such a rub-a-dub-dubbing that

it was as much as they could do to howl for mercy. “Now,” said Mehmed,

who was getting his wits back again, “I’ll have no mercy till you have

given back to me my little table and my little mill.”

The people of the village, all bruised and bleeding as they were,

consented to everything, and hurried off for the little table and the

little mill. Then Mehmed cried: “Stand still, my little sticks!” and

there was peace and quiet as before.

Then the man took away the three gifts to his own village, and as he now

had money he grew more sensible, and there also he found his brother. He

gave all the buried treasure to his brother, and each of them sought out

a damsel meet to be a wife, and married, and lived each in a world of

his own. And there was not a wiser man in that village than Mad Mehmed

now that he had grown rich.

[6] Farthings.

[7] Roasted pepper.

[8] _Lit._ the place of the mill was cold one morning.