Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 1.djvu/393

365 the beaten track, came to the gate of the city, but found it shut and saw none going or coming nor heard aught but the dogs barking and the wolves howling, for it was now the middle of the night. At this he exclaimed, ‘There is no power and no virtue but in God! I was in fear for my property and came back on its account, but now I find the gate shut and am become in fear for my life!’ And he retraced his steps, seeking a place where he might pass the night, till he found a tomb enclosed by four walls, with a palm-tree in its midst and a gate of granite. The gate stood open; so he entered and lay down, but sleep came not to him and fright and oppression beset him, for that he was alone among the tombs. So he rose to his feet and opening the door, looked out and saw, in the distance, a light making for the tomb from the direction of the city-gate. At this he was afraid and hastening to shut the gate, climbed up into the palm-tree and hid himself among the branches. The light came nearer and nearer, till he could see three black slaves, two carrying a chest and a third a lantern, an adze and a basket of plaster. When they came to the tomb, one of those who were carrying the chest cried out to the other, ‘Hello, Sewab!’ ‘What ails thee, O Kafour?’ said the other. ‘Were we not here at nightfall,’ asked the first, ‘and did we not leave the gate open?’ ‘True,’ replied Sewab. ‘See,’ said the other, ‘it is now shut and barred.’ ‘How small is your wit!’ broke in the bearer of the lantern, whose name was Bekhit. ‘Do ye not know that the owners of the gardens use to come out of Baghdad to tend them, and when the night overtakes them, they enter this place and shut the gate, for fear the blacks like ourselves should catch them and roast them and eat them?’ ‘Thou art right,’ replied the others; ‘but, by Allah, none of us is less of wit than thou!’ ‘If you do not believe me,’ said Bekhit, ‘let us go into the tomb