Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 7.djvu/294

268 the first ape, and the book is known by its superscription! Verily, this is a day of apes: there is not a fish left in the river, and we are come out to-day but to catch apes!’ Then he turned to the third ape and said, ‘And what art thou for another unlucky wretch?’ Quoth the ape, ‘Dost thou not know me, O Khelifeh?’ ‘Not I,’ answered the fisherman; and the ape said, ‘I am the ape of Aboussaadat the Jew money-changer.’ ‘And what dost thou for him?’ asked Khelifeh. Quoth the ape, ‘I give him good-morrow every morning, and he gains five dinars; and again at the end of the day, I give him good-even and he gains other five dinars.’ Whereupon Khelifeh turned to the first ape and said to him, ‘See, O unlucky wretch, what fine apes other folk have! As for thee, thou givest me good-morrow with thy one eye and thy lameness and thine unlucky visnomy and I become poor and bankrupt and hungry!’

So saying, he took the stick and flourishing it thrice in the air, was about to come down with it on the first ape, when Aboussaadat’s ape said to him, ‘Hold thy hand from him, O Khelifeh, and come hither to me, that I may tell thee what to do.’ So Khelifeh threw down the stick and said, ‘And what hast thou to say to me, O prince of all apes?’ ‘Leave me and the other two apes here,’ answered the ape, ‘and take thy net and cast it into the river; and whatever comes up, bring it to me, and I will tell thee what shall pleasure thee.’ ‘I hear and obey,’ answered the fisherman and took the net and gathered it on his shoulder, reciting the following verses: