Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 8.djvu/314

302 shaving-gear and went round about the deck among the passengers. One man he shaved for two cakes of bread and another for a piece of cheese, and he was in demand, because there was no other barber on board. So he bargained with every one who said to him, ‘Ho, master, shave me!’ for two cakes of bread and a para, and they gave him whatever he sought, so that, by sundown, he had gotten thirty cakes of bread and thirty paras, besides store of cheese and olives and botargoes.

Amongst the rest he shaved the captain, to whom he complained of his lack of victual for the voyage, and the captain said to him, ‘Have no care for that, so long as ye sail with us; for thou art welcome to bring thy comrade every night and sup with me.’ Then he returned to the dyer, whom he found still asleep; so he aroused him; and when Aboukir awoke, he found at his head bread and cheese and olives and botargoes galore and said, ‘Whence gottest thou all this?’ ‘From the bounty of God the Most High,’ replied Abousir. Then Aboukir would have eaten; but the barber said to him, ‘Eat not of this, O my brother; but leave it to serve us another time; for know that I shaved the captain and complained to him of our lack of victual: whereupon quoth he, “Bring thy comrade and sup both of ye with me every night and welcome.” And this night we sup with him for the first time.’ But Aboukir replied, ‘I am sea-sick and cannot rise from my place; so let me sup off these things and go thou alone to the captain.’ ‘So be it,’ said Abousir and sat looking at the other, as he ate, and saw him hew off gobbets, as the quarryman hews stone from the mountain, and gulp them down with the gulp of an elephant that has not eaten for days, bolting one mouthful before he was rid of the previous one and glaring the while at that which was before him with the glower of a ghoul and blowing as the hungry bull blows over his beans and straw.