The Pacha of Many Tales

The Pacha of Many Tales, by
Captain Frederick

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Frederick Marryat
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Title: The Pacha of Many Tales
Author: Captain Frederick Marryat
Release Date: October 7, 2004 [eBook #13673]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE PACHA OF MANY TALES

by
CAPTAIN MARRYAT

List of Tales
Story of the Camel-Driver
Story of the Greek Slave
Story of the Monk
Story of the Monk (continued)
Huckaback
Manuscript of the Monk
Third Voyage of Huckaback
Fourth Voyage of Huckaback
Fifth Voyage of Huckaback
Sixth Voyage of Huckaback
The Last Voyage of Huckaback
The Scarred Lover
The Story of Hudusi
Tale of the English Sailor
The Water-Carrier
The Wondrous Tale of Han

Story of the Old Woman

Prefatory Note
The Pacha of Many Tales, as indeed its title suggests, is constructed in
direct imitation of the Arabian Nights. A Pacha of olden days,
enchanted by the stories of Schezehezerade, becomes emulous of the
great Haroun, and determines to procure his own stock of entertainment.
By the assistance of a wily barber-vizier he succeeds in the attempt, and
listens with greedy credulity to the marvellous histories herein set forth.
On one occasion an English sailor is dragged into the august presence,
and demands, with all the dogged independence of his race, the reasons
for such treatment.
"You must tell lies, and you will have gold," replies the vizier.
"Tell lies," says Jack Tar, "that is, spin yarns. Well, I can do that."
The volume before us could not be more suggestively described. It is a
collection of admirable short stories of intrigue and adventure,
traveller's wonders narrated with a perfect air of good faith and no
regard for truth or probability. All the countries on the globe, and many
existing only in the imagination, are called into requisition to produce a
brilliant phantasmagoria of manners and customs. The stories move
rapidly and defy criticism by the very occasion of their being, invented
to amuse and astonish a jaded autocrat.
Hence we feel no shock in reading of an island where the commonest
utensils are made of gold, a nursery of whales, five months in the
interior of an iceberg, or a journey among the clouds during a
thunderstorm. The demand for brevity strengthens Marryat's style, and
saves him from padding. He is very happy in contriving expediences,
and evinces considerable wit in the conception, for instance, of Yussuf
the water-carrier. Some of the stories, again, are really dramatic, and
the "Second Voyage of Huckaback" (p. 126) reaches a height of weird
horror that recalls, without paling before the thought, certain passages

in The Ancient Mariner.
* * * * *
The Pacha of Many Tales was first published in The Metropolitan
Magazine, 1831-1835. During its appearance Marryat printed in the
same magazine (in 1833) a drama, The Monk of Seville, of which the
plot is almost exactly identical with The Story of the Monk (p. 44).
"Port Royal Tom," the shark, and his Government pension, also appear
in Jacob Faithful, Chap. XXV.
The Pacha of Many Tales is here printed, with a few corrections, from
the second edition in 3 vols. A.K. Newman & Co., 1844.
R.B.J
Chapter I
Every one acquainted with the manners and customs of the East must
be aware, that there is no situation of eminence more unstable, or more
dangerous to its possessor, than that of a pacha. Nothing, perhaps,
affords us more convincing proof of the risk which men will incur, to
obtain a temporary authority over their fellow-creatures, than the
avidity with which this office is accepted from the sultan; who, within
the memory of the new occupant, has consigned scores of his
predecessors to the bowstring. It would almost appear, as if the despot
but elevated a head from the crowd, that he might obtain a more fair
and uninterrupted sweep for his scimitar, when he cut it off; only
exceeded in his peculiar taste by the king of Dahomy, who is said to
ornament the steps of his palace with heads, fresh severed, each
returning sun, as we renew the decoration of our apartments from our
gay parterres. I make these observations, that I may not be accused of a
disregard to chronology, in not precisely stating the year, or rather the
months, during which flourished one of a race, who, like