Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 9.djvu/258

226 him such of the virtues of wine as he thought well and repeating to him what occurred to him of verses and pleasant anecdotes on the subject, till Marouf addressed himself to sucking the lips of the cup and cared no longer for aught else. The vizier ceased not to fill for him and he to drink and enjoy himself and make merry, till he lost his reason and could not distinguish right from wrong. When the vizier saw that drunkenness had attained in him to utterance and overpassed the limit, he said to him, ‘By Allah, O merchant Marouf, it wonders me whence thou gottest these jewels whose like the kings of the Chosroës possess not! In all our lives never saw we a merchant possessed of riches like unto thine or more generous than thou, for thy fashion is the fashion of kings and not the fashion of merchants. So, God on thee, do thou acquaint me with this, that I may know thy rank and condition.’ And he went on to ply him with questions and cajole him, till Marouf, being bereft of reason, said to him, ‘I am neither merchant nor king,’ and told him his whole story from first to last.

Then said the vizier, ‘I conjure thee by Allah, O my lord Marouf, show us the ring, that we may see its fashion.’ So, in his drunkenness, he pulled off the ring and said, ‘Take it and look upon it.’ The vizier took it and turning it over, said, ‘If I rub it, will the genie appear?’ ‘Yes,’ replied Marouf. ‘Rub it and he will appear to thee, and do thou divert thyself with the sight of him.’ So the vizier rubbed the ring and immediately the genie appeared and said, ‘Here am I, at thy service, O my lord! Ask and it shall be given to thee. Wilt thou lay waste a town or build a city or slay a king? Whatsoever thou seekest, I will do for thee, without fail.’ The vizier pointed to Marouf and said, ‘Take up yonder knave and cast him down in the most desolate of desert lands, where he shall find nothing to eat nor drink, so he