Introduction- Passage and Description
The passage I have chosen for this project comes from the story of the Fisherman and the Jinni in the text One Thousand and One Nights. The passage indicated below contains the account of events that unfold as the fisherman removes the leaden cap of a brass jar he finds in his net. Along with a plume of smoke, an Ifrit appears—this passage describes in detail the physical portrayal of the Ifrit, but also its bitter and wrathful characteristics.
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For a long time, the smoke kept rising from the long-necked brass jar; then it gathered and took shape, and suddenly it shook and there stood a demon, with his feet on the ground and his head in the clouds. He had a head like a tomb, fangs like pincers, a mouth like a cave, teeth like stones, nostrils like trumpets, ears like shields, a throat like an alley, and eyes like lanterns. In short, all one can say is that he was a hideous monster.
The demon cried, “O happy day! Be glad that you will soon be put to death.”
The fisherman said, “You deserve to be put to shame for such tidings. Why do you wish to kill me, I who have released you and delivered you from the bottom of the sea and brought you back to this world?”
The demon replied, “Make a wish! Tell me how you wish to die, and what manner of death you wish me to choose.”
The fisherman replied, “What is my crime? Is this my reward from you for having delivered you?”
The demon replied, “I stayed in the sea for two hundred years, saying to myself. ‘whoever sets me free during these two hundred years, I will make him rich.’ But two hundred years went by and were followed by another two hundred, and no one set me free. Then I vowed to myself, ‘whoever sets me free, I will open for him all the treasures of the earth,’ but four hundred years went by and no one sets me free. Then I vowed to myself, ‘whoever delivers me, during these hundred years, I will make him king, myself his servant, and fulfill every day three of his wishes,’ but when another hundred years went by, I raged and raved and growled and said to myself, ‘Whoever delivers me from now on, I will either put him to the worst deaths or let him choose for himself the manner of death.’ Soon you came by and set me free. Tell me how you wish to die.”
When the fisherman was sure he was going to die, he mourned and wept, saying “I did you a good turn, and you are about to repay me with a bad one. How true is the sentiment of the following lines:
Our kindness they repaid with ugly deeds,
Upon my life, the deeds of men depraved.
He who the undeserving aids will meet
The fate of him whom the hyena saved.
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Passage: (The Story of the Fisherman and the Demon, pg. 625-626)