Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 7.djvu/329

301 will buy somewhat whereof you may eat, thou and she.’ So he said, ‘My house is in such a quarter.’ And the merchant rejoined, ‘Thou hast done well. May God not give thee health, O unlucky one!’

Then he called two of his slaves and said to them, ‘Carry this man to the shop of Muhsin the money-changer and bid him give him a thousand dinars and bring him back to me in haste.’ So they carried him to the money-changer, who gave him the money, and returned with him to their master, whom they found mounted on a dapple mule, with slaves and servants about him, and by his side another mule like his own, saddled and bridled. Quoth the jeweller to Khelifeh, ‘In the name of God, mount this mule.’ ‘Nay,’ replied he; ‘I fear lest she throw me.’ ‘By Allah,’ said Ibn el Kirnas, ‘but thou must mount!’ So he came up and mounting her, face to crupper, caught hold of her tail and cried out; whereupon she threw him on the ground and they laughed at him: but he rose and said, ‘Did I not tell thee I would not mount this great ass?’ Ibn el Kirnas left him in the market and repairing to the Khalif, told him of the damsel; after which he returned and removed her to his own house.

Meanwhile, Khelifeh went home to look after the damsel and found the people of the quarter assembled together, saying, ‘Verily, Khelifeh is to-day altogether undone! Where can he have gotten this damsel?’ Quoth one of them, ‘He is a mad pimp: belike he found her by the way, drunk, and carried her to his own house, and his absence shows that he knows his crime.’ As they were talking, up came Khelifeh, and they said to him, ‘What a plight is thine, O unhappy wretch! Knowest thou not what is come to thee?’ ‘No, by Allah!’ answered he. And they said, ‘But now there came slaves and took