Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/243

215 Then he wept sore and entering the tent, was absent awhile, after which he came forth, groaning and crying out. Then he gave one sob and departed this world. When I saw that he was indeed dead, it was grievous to me and so sore was my sorrow for him that I had well-nigh followed him for excess of lamentation over him. Then I laid him out and did as he had enjoined me, shrouding the damsel’s remains with him in one garment and burying them in one grave. I abode by their grave three days, after which I departed and continued to pay frequent visits to the place for two years. This then is their story, O Commander of the Faithful.’

The Khalif was pleased with Jemil’s story and rewarded him with a dress of honour and a handsome present. THE BEDOUIN AND HIS WIFE.

The Khalif Muawiyeh was sitting one day in his palace at Damascus, in a room the windows whereof were open on all four sides, that the breeze might enter from all quarters. Now it was a day of excessive heat, with no air stirring, and in the middle of the day, when the heat was at its sultriest, the Khalif, chancing to look forth, saw a man coming along, scorched by the heat of the ground and limping, as he fared on barefoot. Muawiyeh considered him awhile and said to his courtiers, ‘Hath God [may He be blessed and glorified!] created any more wretched than he who needs must stir abroad at such an hour and in such weather as this?’ Quoth one of them, ‘Peradventure, he seeketh the Commander of the Faithful.’ ‘By Allah,’ exclaimed the Khalif, ‘if he seek me, I will assuredly give to him, and if he be wronged, I will succour him. Ho, boy! Stand at the door, and if yonder Arab seek to come in to me, forbid him not therefrom.’

So the page went out and presently the Arab came up to