Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/295

267 me to-day and set two gugglets before me; so I said to him, ‘O son of the sordid, hast thou given me aught to eat, that I should drink after it?’ So go thy ways, O water-carrier, till I have eaten somewhat. Then come and give me to drink.” Then I accosted another and he said, “God provide thee!” And so I went on till noon, without taking aught, and I said to myself, “Would I had never come to Baghdad!”

Presently, I saw the folk running; so I followed them and saw a long file of cavaliers, riding two and two and clad in steel, with double neck-rings and felt bonnets and burnouses and swords and bucklers. I asked one of the folk whose suite this was, and he answered, “That of Captain Ahmed ed Denef.” Quoth I, “And what is he?” “He is town-captain of Baghdad,” answered the other, “and to him is committed the care of the suburbs. He gets a thousand dinars a month from the Khalif and Hassan Shouman has the like. Moreover, each of his men gets a hundred dinars a month; and they are now returning to their barrack from the Divan.” Ahmed saw me and cried out to me to give him to drink. So I filled the cup and gave it him, and he shook it and emptied it out, like unto thee; and thus he did a second time. Then I filled the cup a third time and he took a draught; after which he said to me, “O water-carrier, whence comest thou?” “From Cairo,” answered I, and he, “May God keep Cairo and her people! What brings thee hither?” So I told him my story and gave him to know that I was a debtor fleeing from debt and distress. Quoth he, “Thou art welcome to Baghdad.” Then he gave me five dinars and said to his men, “Be generous to him, for the love of God.” So each of them gave me a dinar and Ahmed said to me, “What while thou abidest in Baghdad, thou shalt have of us the like every time thou givest us to drink.”

Accordingly, I paid them frequent visits and good ceased