Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 4.djvu/161

137 If her fingers, indeed, have traced a single line on her cheek, I trow, in my heart of hearts full many a line she hath writ O thou, whom Jaafer alone of men possesses, may God Grant Jaafer to drink his fill of the wine of thy beauty and wit!

When El Mutawekkil died, all his women forgot him save Mehboubeh, who ceased not to mourn for him, till she died and was buried by his side, the mercy of God be on them both! WERDAN THE BUTCHER HIS ADVENTURE WITH THE LADY AND THE BEAR.

There lived once in Cairo, in the days of the Khalif El Hakim bi Amrillah, a butcher named Werdan, who dealt in sheep’s flesh; and there came to him every forenoon a lady and gave him a dinar, whose weight was nigh two and a half Egyptian dinars, saying, ‘Give me a lamb.’ So he took the money and gave her the lamb, which she delivered to a porter she had with her; and he put it in his basket and she went away with him to her own place. This went on for some time, the butcher profiting a dinar by her every day, till at last he began to be curious about her and said to himself, ‘This woman buys a dinar’s worth of meat of me every day, paying ready money, and never misses a day. Verily, this is a strange thing!’ So he took an occasion of questioning the porter, in her absence, and said to him, ‘Whither goest thou every day with yonder woman?’ ‘I know not what to make of her,’ answered the porter; ‘for, every day, after she hath taken the lamb of thee, she buys fresh and dried fruits and wax candles and other necessaries of the table, a dinar’s worth, and takes of a certain Nazarene two flagons of wine, for which she pays him another dinar. Then she loads me with the whole and I go with her to the Vizier’s Gardens, where she blindfolds me, so that I cannot see where I set my