Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 8.djvu/123

111 thou hadst that kerchief.’ And Noureddin answered, ‘It is the handiwork of my mother, who made it for me with her own hand.’ ‘Wilt thou sell it to me?’ asked the Frank. ‘By Allah, O accursed one,’ replied Noureddin, ‘I will not sell it to thee nor to any other, for she made none other than it.’ ‘Sell it to me,’ repeated the Frank, ‘and I will give thee to its price five hundred dinars ready money; and let her who made it make thee another and a handsomer.’ But Noureddin said, ‘I will not sell it at all, for there is not the like of it in this city.’ ‘O my lord,’ insisted the Frank, ‘wilt thou sell it for six hundred dinars of fine gold?’ And he went on to add to his offer hundred by hundred, till he bid nine hundred dinars; but Noureddin said, ‘God will provide me otherwise than by my selling it. I will never sell it, no, not for two thousand dinars nor more than that.’

Then the Frank went on to tempt him with money, till he bid him a thousand dinars, and the merchants present said, ‘We sell thee the kerchief at that price: pay down the money.’ Quoth Noureddin, ‘By Allah, I will not sell it!’ But one of the merchants said to him, ‘O my son, the worth of this kerchief is a hundred dinars at most and that to an eager purchaser, and if this Frank pay thee down a thousand for it, thy profit will be nine hundred dinars, and what profit canst thou desire greater than that? Wherefore it is my counsel that thou sell him the kerchief at that price and gain nine hundred dinars by this accursed Frank, the enemy of God and of the faith, and bid her who wrought it make thee other or handsomer than it.’

Noureddin was abashed at the merchants and sold the kerchief to the Frank, who, in their presence, paid him down the thousand dinars, with which he would have returned to Meryem, to tell her what had passed; but the stranger said, ‘Harkye, O company of merchants, stop