Bottomless Saddlebags

Nights 607-623

This is the story of Judar. He has two nasty brothers who mistreat him and his mother. Aside from that, Judar gets great luck and acquires many magical items. The most notable items are his saddlebags: they are like Bugs Bunny’s endless pockets: full of any food he can imagine. But in the end, his brothers betray him one final time and kill him.

It’s a lot of fun along the way. We see many powerful talismans and a spellbook called “Legends of the Ancients” (p. 617, Night 610) that helps him grow his powers even further. Some of his trials are funny, in a dark kind of way. At one of them a demon appears in his mother’s form, and Judar is forced to threaten the demon to strip off all its clothes while in his mother’s form. He can’t bring himself to do it, and his failure delays his victory by a year. (pp. 624-626, Night 614).

Once he finally gets his power, I didn’t approve of how he used it. He sends jinns flying all over the world to [“carry] off beautiful girls and youths whenever they saw them” to be his slaves (p. 639, Night 619). Not great! Then he builds a big castle and hires “devils” to protect him from his enemies (p. 640, Night 620). I have to say, I didn’t mind that he met a bad end. 

For Magic cards, Judar and his saddlebags are certainly the inspiration for the card “Jandor’s Saddlebags.” I wasn’t sure if that one was going to show up or not.