Page:Muhammad Diyab al-Itlidi - Historical Tales and Anecdotes of the Time of the Early Khalîfahs - Alice Frere - 1873.djvu/253

224 myself, O Prince ! Had I even offered this slave-girl as a gift unto the Prince, it had been one too poor and mean and worthless."

Then he said, "By Allâh! I nevertheless blamed myself for taking her from thee, and thought, 'Here is a man from a strange country who does not know me, and verily I have come upon him at unawares, and have caused him to act foolishly by my eagerness to take away the girl!' Now dost thou remember what was the agreement between us?"

"Yes," said I.

"Thou didst sell the slave-girl for fifty thousand dirhems," he said.

"It was so," I replied.

Then he said, "Ho! slave, bring the money."

So he brought it, and placed it in his master's hands, who then said, "Bring a thousand dinârs, O slave!"

And he brought them. And then the Prince said, "Here, slave! bring another five hundred dinârs." And when he came with them, the Prince said to me, "This the price of the slave-girl; collect it together. And this thousand dinârs is for thy good opinion of us; and this five hundred dinârs is for the expenses of thy