Page:Muhammad Diyab al-Itlidi - Historical Tales and Anecdotes of the Time of the Early Khalîfahs - Alice Frere - 1873.djvu/192

Rh impatient at the delay in payment.' I said, 'The jar is thine whenever thou pleaseth.' So he went off in haste, and returned with men and ropes. And they dragged it forth, and carried it away quickly to his dwelling. But when he had turned it upside-down, there was only what I had put into it. Then not a moment was lost before the mother came with her slave-girls. And there was nothing great or small in my house which she did not carry off, leaving me as a beggar upon the bare ground, and treating me with every sort of unkindness. And this, God save the Amîr! is my condition; and in my trouble and anguish of heart I have taken refuge in the mosques."

Then said el-Hajjâj, "O Khâlid! make over to the young man rich garments, and Armenian carpets, and a slave boy and girl, and a mule, and ten thousand dirhems." And he added, "O young man! come to Khâlid to-morrow morning, and thou shalt receive all the goods from him."

So the young man went out from el-Hajjâj. He says: And when I reached the door of my house, I overheard the daughter of my uncle saying, "Would to God I knew what has delayed the son of my uncle!