Page:Abdullah--Thief of Bagdad.djvu/136

130 THE THIEF OF BAGDAD feet. From her, too, he had inherited the neat, furry little tail, very much like a goat's, that he whisked from side to side to drive away the flies and mosquitoes and that he used to gesture with as mere humans use their hands.

And violently he gestured with his tail when the Prince told him about Zobeid and his overwhelming love for her.

"Bah!" exclaimed Hakim Ali. "Your words are as wind in my ears! Personally I disapprove of women. The Lord God created them only so as to prevent life from being as charming and agreeable as it might otherwise be."

"You dislike women?"

"I do not care for them. These seven centuries or so have I been a confirmed bachelor."

"But"—objected the Prince—"I love her."

"Did not the Prophet Mohammed—on Him the salute!—say that Allah has not left any calamity more hurtful to man than woman?" came the other's pious quotation.

"Doubtless the Prophet—on Him the blessings!—was right. But still—I love Zobeid. For the sake of one of her precious eyelashes