Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 8.djvu/213

201 [origin and] issue in Him. He allotteth His favours to His creatures, as it liketh Him; to some He giveth store of gifts and others may hardly get their daily bread. Some He maketh lords and captains, and others recluses, who abstain from the world and aspire but to Him, for He it is who saith, “I am He who harmeth and who advantageth; I make whole and make sick, I enrich and impoverish, I slay and quicken; in my hand is everything and all things have their issue in Me.” Wherefore it behoveth all folk to praise Him.

Thou, O king, art of the fortunate pious men of whom it is said, “The happiest of the just is he for whom God uniteth the goods of this world and the next, who is content with that which God allotteth to him and giveth Him thanks for that which He hath established.” And indeed he who is froward and seeketh other than that which God hath decreed unto him and for him resembleth the fox [and shall fare as he did] with the wild ass.’ ‘And what is the story of the fox and the wild ass?’ asked the king. ‘Know, O king,’ replied the vizier, ‘that THE FOX AND THE WILD ASS.

A certain fox was wont every day to leave his earth and go forth in quest of prey. One day, as he was in a certain mountain, the night overtook him and he set out to return. On his way, he fell in with another fox, and each began to tell the other of the prey he had gotten. Quoth the new-comer, “The other day I chanced upon a wild ass and rejoiced in this and thanked God the Most High for bringing him into my power, for that I was anhungred and it was three days since I had eaten. So I tore out his heart and ate it and was full and returned to my earth. That was three days ago and since then I have found