THE STORY OF THE PORTER WITH THE YOUNG LADIES

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So, the three young ladies allow the porter to stay. Then, they all drink and dance.

And one of the young ladies gets naked and asks sexually oriented questions to the porter! Is this the beginning of an orgy?

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ON THE SECOND NIGHT

Sheherazade said:

As the porter was not leaving, the eldest of the young ladies said to him: “But why are you not moving? Would you find your salary low?" And she turned to her sister, the breadwinner, and said: "Give him another third dinar." But the porter said, "By Allah, O my mistresses, my regular salary is only two half dinars! And I did not find this salary modest. But my heart and my inner being are working on you. And I wonder what your life can be since you live alone and you have no man here to keep you human company. Don't you know that a minaret is only really good if it is one of the four minarets of the mosque? Now, O my mistresses, you are only three and you lack a fourth! However, you know that the happiness of women only becomes perfect with men! And, as the poet says, a chord cannot be harmonious unless four instruments come together: a harp, a lute, a zither, and a flageolet! Now, oh my mistresses, there are only three of you, and you lack the fourth instrument, the flageolet, which would be a wise man, full of heart and intelligence, a skilled artist and knowing how to keep a secret!"

And the young ladies said to him: “But, O porter, do you not know that we are virgins? So we are very afraid to confide in an indiscreet person. And we have read the poets who say: Beware of any confidence because a revealed secret is immediately lost!"

At these words, the porter exclaimed: “I swear it on your life, O my mistresses! I am a wise, sure and faithful man, who has read the books and studied the annals! I only tell pleasant things, and I keep carefully, without speaking about it, all the sad things. On all occasions, I act according to the words of the poet:

Only the well-endowed man knows how to hide the secret.
Only the best of humans know how to keep a promise.
At home the secret is locked in a house with solid padlocks
Whose key is lost and the door sealed!

On hearing the verses of the porter, and all the stanzas he recited to them and his creations of rhythms, they softened much; but, to pretend only, they said to him: “You know, O porter, that we have spent a very large sum of money on this palace. So do you have on you what to compensate us for it? Because we will only invite you to sit with us if you spend gold. Is it not your desire to stay with us, to become our drinking companions, and above all to keep us awake all night until dawn appears on our faces?" Then the eldest of the young ladies, mistress of the house, added: “A love without money cannot, in the pan of the balance, serve as a good counterweight!" And the portress said, "If you have nothing, go away with nothing!" But, at that moment, the provider intervened, and she said: “O my sisters, let us cease! because by Allah! this boy did nothing to diminish our day! Besides, had he been someone else, he would not have had this patience with us. Moreover, all that will come to him as an expense, I undertake to pay for it in his place."

Then the porter rejoiced exceedingly and said to the provider: “By Allah! the first gain of the day, it is to you alone that I owe it!" Then all three said to him: "O brave porter, stay here, and be sure that you will be on our head and in our eye!" Immediately the provider stood up and tightened her waist. Then she put away the flasks, clarified the wine by decanting it, prepared the meeting place near the pond, and brought in their presence everything they might need. Then she offered the wine, and everyone sat down; and the porter, in the midst of them, imagined that he was dreaming in sleep.

Then the provider offered the flask of wine: and they filled the cup and drank it, and a second time, and a third time. Then the provider filled it again and presented it to her sisters, then to the porter. And the porter said a few lines:

Drink this wine! He is the cause of all joy.
It makes its drinker possessor of strength and health.
It is the only healing remedy for all ills!
No one drinks wine, the cause of all joy, without being pleasantly moved by it!
Only intoxication is capable of saturating us with voluptuousness!

Then he kissed the hands of the three young ladies and emptied the cup. Then he went to the mistress of the house and said to her: “O my mistress, I am your slave, your thing and your property!" and recited a line from the poet in her honor:

At your door, a slave of your eyes is standing, the least of your slaves perhaps!
But he knows his mistress! He is aware of her generosity and her benefits.
And above all, he knows the thanks that are due to her.

Then she said to him: “Drink, my friend! and may this drink be healthy and of delicious digestion! And may it give you strength on the path to true health!*

Then the porter took the cup, kissed the young woman's hand, and in a soft, modulated, muted voice, he sang these verses of the poet:

I offered my girlfriend a wine as radiant as her cheeks,
Her cheeks were so luminous that the light of a flame alone could bring them to life!
She deigned to accept it, but she said to me all laughing:
How do you want me to drink my own cheeks?...
I say to her: "Drink, O flame of this heart!
This liquor is my precious tears, its redness is my blood,
And its mixture in the cup is my whole soul!

Then the girl took the cup from the porter, raised it to her lips, then went to sit beside her sister. And all began to dance, to sing, and to play with the exquisite flowers; and all the while the porter took them in his arms and kissed them, and one told him jokes, and the other drew him to her, and the third struck him with flowers. And they continued to drink until the ferment had played in their reason. When the wine reigned completely, the young portress got up, stripped off all her clothes, and became completely naked. Then she threw herself into the pond and began to play with the water; then she took the water in her mouth and noisily sprinkled it on the porter. Then she washed all her limbs and ran the water between her young thighs. Then she got out of the water and threw herself into the bosom of the porter, lying on her back, and said to him, making a sign towards the thing between her thighs:

“O my darling, do you know the name of that?" And the porter replied: “Ha! Ha! it is usually called the house of mercy!" So she exclaimed, “Youh! Youh! Aren't you ashamed?" And she took him by the neck and began to beat him. So he said, “No! No! it's called a vulva!" But she said, "Something else!" And the porter said, "Then it's your butt piece!" And she replied: "Another thing!" So he said, "It's your hornet!" She began, at these words, to hit him so hard on the neck that she wore his skin. So he said to her: “Tell me its name!" And she answered: "The basilisk of the bridges!" Then the porter exclaimed: “At last! Praise be to Allah for your salvation, O my basilisk of the bridges!"

— At this point in her narration, Sheherazade saw the morning appear and quietly fell silent.

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First Night

Third Night