Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 7.djvu/292

266 A night often acts upon troubles, as whiles on an abscess it acts, Whereon, till it ripen, it worketh and doth it for bursting prepare. And so with the shiftings of fortune, they pass o’er a man and then cease And after no longer they irk him nor come to his memory fore’er.

Then he said to himself, ‘I will make this one more cast, trusting in God, so haply He may not disappoint my expectation.’ So saying, he rose and casting the net as far as he could into the river, gathered the cords in his hands and waited awhile. Then he pulled at it and finding it heavy, handled it gently and drew it in, little by little, till he got it ashore, when he found in it a one-eyed, lame ape. Quoth Khelifeh, ‘There is no power and no virtue but in God! Verily, we are God’s and to Him we return! What miserable ill-luck and sorry fortune is this! What is come to me this blessed day? But all this is of the ordinance of God the Most High!’ Then he bound the ape with a cord to a tree that grew on the river-bank, and taking a whip he had with him, raised it in the air, thinking to bring it down upon him, when God made the ape speak with a fluent tongue, saying, ‘O Khelifeh, hold thy hand and beat me not, but leave me bounden to this tree and go down to the river and cast thy net, confiding in God, for He will give thee thy daily bread.’

So he went down to the river and casting his net, let the cords run out. Then he pulled it in and found it heavier than before; so he tugged at it, till he brought it to land, when, behold, there was another ape in it, with front teeth wide apart, eyes pencilled with kohl and hands stained with henna; and he was laughing and wore a tattered waistcloth about his middle. Quoth Khelifeh, ‘Praised be God who hath changed the fish of the river into apes!’ Then, going up to the first ape, he said to him, ‘See, O unlucky wretch, how foul was the counsel