Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 9.djvu/203

177 him lying on the river-bank, said, ‘Here is a drowned man, whom the river hath cast up.’ Now the chief of the caravan was a man of worth and sound judgment, skilled in all sciences and versed in the art of medicine: so he said to them, ‘O folk, what is to do?’ And they answered, saying, ‘Here is a drowned man.’ Whereupon he went up to Abdallah and examining him, said to them, ‘O folk, there is yet life in this young man, who is a person of condition and a nursling of honour and fortune, and God willing, there is still hope in him.’ Then he took him and clothing him in warm apparel, nursed him and tended him three days’ journey, till he revived; but he was exceeding weak, by reason of the shock, and the chief of the caravan proceeded to medicine him with such simples as he knew, what while they fared on, without ceasing, till they had travelled thirty days’ journey from Bassora and came to a city in the land of the Persians, by name Auj. Here they alighted at a khan and spread Abdallah a bed, where he lay groaning all night and disturbing the folk with his groans.

On the morrow the porter of the khan came to the chief of the caravan and said to him, ‘What is this sick man thou hast with thee? Verily, he disturbeth us.’ Quoth the chief, ‘I found him by the way, shipwrecked and cast up by the river, and have tended him, but to no effect, for he recovereth not.’ ‘Show him to the Sheikheh Rajiheh,’ said the porter. ‘Who is she?’ asked the chief of the caravan, and the porter answered, saying, ‘There is with us a holy woman, a comely and clean maid, called Rajiheh, to whom they carry whoso hath any ailment; and he lies the night in her house and awakes on the morrow, whole and ailing nothing.’ Quoth the chief, ‘Direct me to her;’ and the porter said, ‘Take up thy sick man.man.’ [sic] So he took up Abdallah and the porter forewent him, till

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