Page:Tales from the Arabic, Vol 1.djvu/94

74 the smell of it was noisome. So his friend said to him, ‘How often did I tell thee thou hadst no luck in wheat? But thou wouldst not give ear to my speech, and now it behoveth thee to go to the astrologer and question him of thy star.’ Accordingly the merchant betook himself to the astrologer and questioned him of his star, and the astrologer said to him, ‘Thy star is unpropitious. Put not thy hand to any business, for thou wilt not prosper therein.’ However, he paid no heed to the astrologer’s words and said in himself, ‘If I do my occasion, I am not afraid of aught.’ Then he took the other part of his money, after he had spent therefrom three years, and built [therewith] a ship, which he loaded with all that seemed good to him and all that was with him and embarked on the sea, so he might travel.

The ship tarried with him some days, till he should be certified what he would do, and he said, ‘I will enquire of the merchants what this merchandise profiteth and in what country it lacketh and how much is the gain thereon.’ [So he questioned them and] they directed him to a far country, where his dirhem should profit a hundredfold. Accordingly, he set sail and steered for the land in question; but, as he went, there blew on him a tempestuous wind and the ship foundered. The merchant saved himself on a plank and the wind cast him up, naked as he was, on the sea-shore, hard by a town there. So he praised God and gave Him thanks for his preservation; then, seeing a great village hard by, he betook himself thither and saw, seated therein, a very old man, whom he