Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 2.djvu/90

63 compensate us with his bounties and cause our mourning to cease. What sayst thou, O my son? Shall we walk abroad to view Damascus and cheer our spirits?” “Thy will is mine,” replied Zoulmekan. So the stoker took him by the hand, and they sallied forth and walked on, till they came to the stables of the Viceroy of Damascus, where they found camels laden with chests and carpets and brocaded stuffs and saddle-horses and Bactrian camels and slaves, white and black, and folk running to and fro and a great bustle. Quoth Zoulmekan, “I wonder to whom all these camels and stuffs and servants belong!” So he asked one of the slaves, and he replied, “These are presents that the Viceroy of Damascus is sending to King Omar ben Ennuman, with the tribute of Syria.” When Zoulmekan heard his father’s name, his eyes filled with tears and he repeated the following verses:

Then he wept and the stoker said to him, “O my son, thou art hardly yet recovered; so take heart and do not weep, for I fear a relapse for thee.” And he applied himself to comfort him and cheer him, whilst Zoulmekan sighed and bemoaned his strangerhood and separation from his sister and his family and repeated the following verses, with tears streaming from his eyes: