Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 7.djvu/307

279 Accordingly, as soon as the Friday prayers were over, they left the mosque and mounting their mules, rode forth to the chase. They fared on into the open country, engaged in talk, and their attendants outwent them. Presently the heat became oppressive and the Khalif said to his vizier, ‘O Jaafer, I am sore athirst.’ Then he looked round and espying a figure in the distance on a high mound, said to Jaafer, ‘Seest thou what I see?’ ‘Yes, O Commander of the Faithful,’ answered the vizier; ‘I see a dim figure on a high mound; belike he is the keeper of a garden or of a cucumber-plot, and in either case, water will not be lacking in his neighbourhood. I will go to him and fetch thee some.’ But Er Reshid said, ‘My mule is swifter than thine; so do thou abide here, on account of the troops, whilst I go myself to him and get of him drink and return.’

So saying, he spurred his mule, which started off like fleeting wind or lapsing water and brought him, in the twinkling of an eye, to the mound, when he found the figure he had seen to be none other than Khelifeh the fisherman, naked and wrapped in the net; and indeed he was horrible to look upon, as he swayed to and fro, with eyes like flaming cressets for very redness and dishevelled hair, covered with dust, as he were an Afrit or a lion. The Khalif saluted him and he returned his salutation; and he was angry and fires might have been kindled at his breath. Quoth Er Reshid, ‘O man, hast thou any water?’ And Khelifeh answered, ‘O fellow, art thou blind or mad? Get thee to the river Tigris, for it is behind this mound.’

So the Khalif turned the mound and going down to the river, drank and watered his mule: then he returned to Khelifeh and said to him, ‘Harkye, sirrah, what ails thee to stand here, and what is thy calling?’ Quoth the fisherman, ‘This is a stranger question than that about