Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 7.djvu/62

44 bit; so he left her and going to the grocer, told him what had passed. Abdallah gave him a bridle and bade him bridle her therewith. So he returned to the palace, and when she saw him, she came up to him and he set the bit in her mouth and mounting her, rode to the grocer’s shop.

When the old man saw her, he rose and said to her, ‘God the Most High confound thee, O accursed woman!’ Then said he to Bedr, ‘O my son, there is no more abiding for thee in this city; so ride her and fare with her whither thou wilt and beware lest thou commit the bridle to any.’ Bedr thanked him and taking leave of him, fared on three days, without ceasing, till he drew near another city and there met him an old man, gray-headed and comely, who said to him, ‘Whence comest thou, O my son?’ ‘From the city of yonder enchantress,’ answered Bedr; and the old man said, ‘Thou art my guest this night.’

Bedr consented and went with him; but by the way they met an old woman, who wept, when she saw the mule, and said, ‘There is no god but God! Verily, this mule resembles my son’s mule, which is dead, and my heart aches for her; so, God upon thee, O my lord, do thou sell her to me!’ ‘By Allah, O my mother,’ answered he, ‘I cannot sell her.’ But she said, ‘God on thee, do not refuse me, for my son will surely die, except I buy him this mule.’ And she importuned him, till he said, ‘I will not sell her save for a thousand dinars,’ saying in himself, ‘Whence should this old woman get a thousand dinars?’ Thereupon she brought out from her girdle a purse, containing a thousand dinars, which when Bedr saw, he said, ‘O my mother, I did but jest with thee; I cannot sell her.’ But the old man looked at him and said, ‘O my son, none may lie in this city, for whoso lieth they put to death.’