Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 3.djvu/347

317 ate. Then they asked him what had happened and he said, ‘When I closed my eyes, I saw in my sleep Hatim et Taï, who came to me with a sword in his hand and said to me, “Thou comest to us and we have nothing by us.” Then he smote my she-camel with his sword, and she would have died, though ye had not come to her and cut her throat.’ Next morning the prince mounted the beast of one of his companions and taking the latter up behind him, set out and fared on till midday, when they saw a man coming towards them, mounted on a camel and leading another, and said to him, ‘Who art thou?’ ‘I am Adi, son of Hatim et Taï,’ answered he. ‘Where is Dhoulkeraa, prince of Himyer?’ ‘This is he,’ replied they, and he said to the prince, ‘Take this camel in place of thine own, which my father slaughtered for thee.’ ‘Who told thee of this?’ asked Dhoulkeraa, and Adi answered, ‘My father appeared to me in a dream last night and said to me, “Harkye, Adi; Dhoulkeraa, King of Himyer, sought hospitality of me and I, having nought to give him, slaughtered him his she-camel, that he might eat: so do thou carry him a she-camel to ride, for I have nothing.”’ And Dhoulkeraa took her, marvelling at the generosity of Hatim et Taï, alive and dead. MAAN BEN ZAÏDEH AND THE THREE GIRLS.

It is told of Maan ben Zaïdeh that, being out one day a-hunting, he became athirst and would have drunk, but his men had no water with them. Presently, he met three damsels, bearing three skins of water; so he begged drink of them, and they gave him to drink. Then he sought of