Sushmajee
Shishu Sansaar | Arabian Nights Stories-2
Arabian Nights Stories-2 | |
Story No 41-2/5 |
Alaaddeen Meets the Genie Alaaddeen opened the door, climbed down the steps, crossed the halls, crossed the garden, picked the lamp, threw its wick and the oil and put it under his robe. As he was coming down the terrace, he stopped to see the fruits around there. All the trees were laden with extraordinary fruits of different colors on each tree. Some were yellow, some white, some green, some blue, some orange. The white ones were pearls, the colorless ones were diamonds, the deep red ones were rubies, and the green ones were emeralds. All of them were so big that he had never seen such big fruits before this. He was completely ignorant of their values, and would have preferred figs or grapes instead. He took some of them just for their size and colors and beauty and filled his two large pockets and the two new purses his uncle bought for him. He wrapped some in the skirts of his robe and some he put in his breast pocket. Then he came back to the steps and climbing up he said to the magician - "Uncle, give me a hand to come up." Magician said - "First you give me the lamp." "I will give it to you as soon as I come up." But Alaaddeen was so heavy with fruits that he was unable to climb up without help. The magician got angry and again threw the incense into the fire, said two magical words upon it and the door of the cave got shut and the earth spread over it like before. The magician had learned about this lamp in Africa and it brought him to this part of the country. He knew that he had to get it through some other person, so he chose Alaaddeen, but when he was about to get the lamp, and in hurry in the fear lest somebody sees them quarreling, he shut the cave. He thought to leave China for Africa the same day but stayed there for a day or two more. There was no sign of Alaaddeen being heard from that cave, but he forgot to take the ring he put on Alaaddeen's finger which guarded him, although he did not know its importance. Alaaddeen cried and cried for help but his cries could not be heard. When he got tired of crying, he went back to the same garden from where he came. But its door which got opened by magic was now closed. He sat down on the steps and started crying in a loud voice. He remained there for two days without eating or drinking. The third day, in despair he started rubbing his hands, and while doing this he rubbed the ring also unknowingly. As the ring got rubbed a terrible huge Genie appeared from the earth. He said to the boy - "What do I do for you? I am the slave of whoever has the ring on their finger." If there was some other time, Alaaddeen would have been frightened, but in this time of danger, he immediately said - "Take me out of this place if you can." As soon as he finished his words, the earth opened up and he found himself out of the cave from where he entered the cave. With a little effort he could make out where he was and then he ran away towards his house. As he reached his house he fell in his mother's lap and the mother who thought him lost or dead was very happy to see him. She gave him food and he told her whatever happened to him since Friday. He showed her his lamp and various color fruits which he brought from there. His mother also did not know about those fruits. As Alaaddeen finished his story, she abused his uncle as traitor, barbarian, deceiver and much more. Next day when Alaaddeen rose he asked for food. Mother said - "I don't have any food left now, I have spun some cotton, I will sell it in the market and buy some bread for our dinner." Alaaddeen said - "Keep it for some other time, bring my lamp, I will sell it and get some money out of it for our food at least for a couple of days." His mother brought the lamp and looking at it said - "It is very dirty, let me clean it, maybe you can get some more money for the cleaned lamp." She took some sand and water and as she started rubbing the lamp with it, a huge Genie appeared before her. He said to her - "What do I do for you? I am the slave who have the lamp in their hands." Alaaddeen's mother got frightened to see him and fainted, but Alaaddeen had already seen such thing before, so he immediately said - "We are hungry, get some food for us." The Genie disappeared immediately and within a moment he reappeared with a large silver plate on his head and 12 covered plates, 6 large loaves on another plate, two bottles of wine and two silver cups in his hands. He kept all these things on a table and disappeared again before Alaaddeen's mother became conscious. His mother was very surprised to see all this and asked him - "Has Sultaan made this available for us?" Both sat and ate to their satisfaction, but his mother kept looking and admiring the plates. After eating the mother asked Alaaddeen to tell him all that happened while she was unconscious. Alaaddeen told her that this Genie was not the same he saw in the cave. That was ring's Genie and this was lamp's Genie. But his mother was very frightened with that Genie that she asked him to sell the lamp. But Alaaddeen pacified her saying that the Genie will do anything for them, so she need not to worry about. And he will never take off this ring also, because without it she would never seen him again. Next day Alaaddeen thought to sell the plate for food, so he took the plate to market and showed it to a man in private to see if he would buy it. The man immediately knew that it was a good silver, so he asked the price for that plate, but since Alaaddeen did not know about that metal, he said, "Whatever you will give, I will take it." The man was not expected this answer so he gave him a gold coin for that plate and bought it. This price was actually the 60th part of the price of that plate, but Alaaddeen took it and ran away to his home. On the way he bought a bread and gave rest of the money to his mother. Thus he sold all the plates to the same man for the same price. Now it was the turn of the large plate which was 10 times heavier than the previous plates. So the man gave him 10 gold pieces and bought the plate. This money was enough for him. They lived on that money for a few days. After some time, he again needed food to eat so he again rubbed the lamp and when the Genie appeared before him, he asked him to bring some food for them. He brought the food for like before. After eating the food he again started selling the plates. When he was going to sell it, an honest goldsmith saw him going hiding something, so he called him and said - "I have been seeing you for a few days carrying something and then coming without it. I think you are selling something to that man. He is the most wicked person here around. I assure you, if you will show me the thing that you are selling to him, I will give you its full price or send you to an appropriate person." At this Alaaddeen showed him the plate. The goldsmith could make out that it was made of the finest silver he had ever seen. Alaaddeen told him that he had sold 12 such plates to him for a gold coin each. The goldsmith gave Alaaddeen a good scolding, weighed the plate and told its price to be of 60 gold coins and gave them to him. Alaaddeen was so grateful to him that he sold all the plates to him and never went to any other place to sell his plates. Now this money was enough for them for some time. During this period, Alaaddeen visited shops of many other merchants where they sold costly things. He came to know that those fruits he gathered from the cave were not the fruits but were the costly stones of extraordinary value. And those stones he saw in the shops were very small and not so beautiful also. He decided not to say anything to anybody about them.
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Created by Sushma Gupta on January 15, 2002
Contact: sushmajee@yahoo.com
Modified on 09/19/13