Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 7.djvu/309

281 said, ‘By Allah, my poor fellow, I am sorry for thee! Why, I make thy ten dinars every day! Hast thou a mind to take service with me and I will teach thee the art of fishing and share my gain with thee? So shalt thou earn five dinars a day and be my knave and I will protect thee against thy master with this staff.’ ‘I will well,’ answered Er Reshid; and Khelifeh said, ‘Then get off thy she-ass and tie her up, so she may serve us to carry the fish hereafter, and come hither, that I may teach thee to fish forthright.’

So the Khalif alighted and hobbling his mule, tucked his skirts into his girdle, and Khelifeh said to him, ‘Harkye, piper, lay hold of the net thus and put it over thine arm thus and cast it into the Tigris thus.’ Accordingly, Er Reshid took heart of grace and casting the net, as the fisherman showed him, pulled at it, but could not draw it up. So Khelifeh came to his aid and tugged at it with him; but the two together could not pull it up: whereupon, ‘O piper of ill omen,’ said the fisherman, ‘I took thy gown in place of my clothes; but, if I find my net torn, I will have thine ass for it and will beat thee to boot, till thou bepiss and bemire thyself!’ Quoth Er Reshid, ‘Let us both pull at once.’

So they both pulled at once and succeeded with difficulty in dragging the net ashore, when they found it full of fish of all kinds and colours; and Khelifeh said to Er Reshid, ‘By Allah, O piper, thou art an ugly fellow; but, if thou apply thyself to fishing, thou wilt make a fine fisherman. But now thou wert better mount thine ass and go to the market and fetch me a pair of frails, and I will take care of the fish, till thou return, when we will load it on thine ass’s back. I have scales and weights and all we require, and thou wilt have nothing to do but to hold the scales and take the money; for we have here twenty dinars’ worth of fish. So be quick with the frails and loiter not.’