Page:Tales from the Arabic, Vol 1.djvu/110

90 STORY OF ABOU SABIR.

There was once a man, a headman [of a village], by name Abou Sabir, and he had much cattle and a fair wife, who had borne him two sons. They abode in a certain village and there used to come thither a lion and devour Abou Sabir’s cattle, so that the most part thereof was wasted and his wife said to him one day, ‘This lion hath wasted the most part of our cattle. Arise, mount thy horse and take thy men and do thine endeavour to kill him, so we may be at rest from him.’ But Abou Sabir said, ‘Have patience, O woman, for the issue of patience is praised. This lion it is that transgresseth against us, and the transgressor, needs must Allah destroy him. Indeed, it is our patience that shall slay him, and he that doth evil, needs must it revert upon him.’ A little after, the king went forth one day to hunt and falling in with the lion, he and his troops, gave chase to him and ceased not [to follow] after him till they slew him. This came to Abou Sabir’s knowledge and he said to his wife, ‘Said I not to thee, O woman, that whoso doth evil, it shall revert upon him? Belike, if I had sought to slay the lion myself, I had not availed against him, and this is the issue of patience.’

It befell, after this, that a man was slain in Abou Sabir’s village; wherefore the Sultan caused plunder the village, and they plundered the headman’s goods with the rest. So his wife said to him, ‘All the Sultan’s officers know thee; so do thou prefer thy plaint to the king, that he