Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 8.djvu/360

344 visited it, O my brother?’ ‘No,’ answered the fisherman; ‘for I was poor and had not what to spend by the way, nor have I been at my ease but since I knew thee and thou bestowedst on me this good fortune. But it behoves me to visit it, after I have made the pilgrimage to the Holy House of God, and nought withholds me therefrom but my love for thee, for I cannot leave thee for one day.’

‘And dost thou set the love of me,’ rejoined the merman, ‘before the visitation of the tomb of Mohammed (whom God bless and preserve!), who shall intercede for thee on the day of appearance before God and shall save thee from the fire and through whose intercession thou shalt enter Paradise? And dost thou, for the love of the world, leave to visit the tomb of thy Prophet Mohammed, whom God bless and preserve?’ ‘No, by Allah,’ replied Abdallah. ‘I set the visitation of the Prophet’s tomb above all else, and I crave thy leave to visit it this year.’ ‘I grant thee leave,’ answered the merman; ‘but I have a trust to give thee; so come thou with me into the sea, that I may carry thee to my city and my house and entertain thee there and give thee a deposit; and when thou standest by the Prophet’s tomb, do thou lay it thereon, saying, “O apostle of God, Abdallah the merman salutes thee and sends thee this present, imploring thine intercession to save him from the fire.”’

‘O my brother,’ said the fisherman, ‘thou wast created in the water and it is thine abiding-place and doth thee no hurt; but, if thou shouldst come forth to the land, would any harm betide thee?’ ‘Yes,’ answered the merman; ‘my body would dry up and the breezes of the land would blow upon me and I should die.’ ‘And I, in like manner,’ rejoined the fisherman, ‘was created on the land and it is my abiding-place; but, if I went down into the sea, the water would enter my belly and