Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 5.djvu/171

145 said to him, ‘The King calls for thee forthright;’ and he answered, ‘I hear and obey.’ So he gave Hasib two phials and bade him drink the first scum and keep the second against his return, even as the Queen of the Serpents had foretold; after which he went away and Hasib tended the fire under the pot, till the first scum rose, when he skimmed it off and set it aside in one of the phials. After a while, the second scum rose; so he skimmed it off and putting it in the other phial, kept it for himself.

When the meat was done, he took the cauldron off the fire and sat waiting, till the Vizier came back and said to him, ‘Hast thou done as I told thee?’ ‘Yes,’ answered Hasib. Quoth the Vizier, ‘What hast thou done with the first scum?’ ‘I drank it but now,’ replied Hasib, and Shemhour said, ‘Feelst thou no change in thy body?’ ‘Yes,’ answered Hasib; ‘I feel as I were on fire from head to foot.’ The crafty Vizier made no reply, but said, ‘Give me the second phial, that I may drink what is therein, so haply I may be made whole of this ailment in my loins.’ So Hasib brought him the first phial and he drank it off, thinking it contained the second scum. Hardly had he done this, when the phial fell from his hand and he swelled out and dropped down dead; and thus was exemplified in him the saying, ‘He, who diggeth a pit for his brother, falleth into it himself.’

When Hasib saw this, he wondered and feared to drink of the second phial; but he remembered the Queen’s injunction and bethought him that the Vizier would not have reserved the second scum for himself, had there been aught of hurt therein. So he said, ‘I put my trust in God,’ and drank off the contents of the phial. No sooner had he done so than God the Most High made the fountains of wisdom to well up in his heart and opened to him the sources of knowledge, and joy and gladness overcame him. Then he laid the serpent’s flesh on a platter of brass and went forth to carry it to the palace.

VOL. V.