Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 8.djvu/327

315 empire, yet do our souls grudge to pay it; and how then should the poor afford it?’ Quoth the king, ‘O my grandees, for this time let each of you give him a hundred dinars and a white slave and a black and a slave-girl.’ ‘It is well,’ answered they; ‘but after to-day each who enters shall give him only what he can afford, without grudging.’ ‘So be it,’ said the king; and they gave him each as he had said.

Now the number of the nobles who were washed with the king that day was four hundred souls; so that the sum of that which they gave him was forty thousand dinars, besides four hundred black and four hundred white slaves and a like number of slave-girls. Moreover, the king gave him ten thousand dinars, besides ten white slaves and ten black and a like number of slave-girls; whereupon Abousir kissed the earth before him and said, ‘O august king, lord of just judgment, what place will suffice me for all these slaves and women?’ Quoth the king, ‘O lackwit, I bade not my nobles deal thus with thee but that we might gather together unto thee great plenty of wealth; for maybe thou wilt bethink thee of thy country and family and yearn unto them and be minded to return to thy native place; so shalt thou take from our country store of wealth, to maintain thyself withal, what while thou livest in thine own land.’ ‘O king of the age,’ replied Abousir, ‘ [sic](may God advance thee!) these many slaves and women are a king’s behoof, and hadst thou ordered me ready money, it were more profitable to me than this army; for they must eat and drink and be clothed, and whatever betideth me of wealth, it will not suffice to their support.’

The king laughed and said, ‘By Allah, thou sayst sooth! They are indeed a mighty host, and thou mayst not avail unto their maintenance; but wilt thou sell them to me for a hundred dinars each?’ Quoth Abousir, ‘I sell them to