Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 9.djvu/51

33 the river below Bassora. If he say to thee, “I cannot go farther than a parasang [from the city],” do thou answer, “As thou wilt;” but, when he shall have come so far, tempt him with money to carry thee farther; and the first garden thou wilt see after this will be that of the lady Jemileh. Go up to the gate and there thou wilt see two high steps, carpeted with brocade, and seated thereon a hunchback like unto me. Do thou complain to him of thy case and solicit his favour: it may be he will have compassion on thee and bring thee to the sight of her, though but for a moment from afar. This is all I can do for thee; and except he be moved to pity for thee, we are dead men, thou and I. This then is my counsel, and the matter rests with God the Most High.’ Quoth Ibrahim, ‘I seek aid of God; what He wills, is; and there is no power and no virtue save in Him!’ Then he returned to his lodging and taking the things the tailor had named, laid them in a small bag.

On the morrow, as soon as it was day, he went down to the bank of the Tigris, where he found a boatman asleep; so he awoke him and giving him ten dinars, bade him row him down the river below Bassora. ‘O my lord,’ answered the man, ‘[it must be] on condition that I go no farther than a parasang; for if I overpass that distance by a span, I am a lost man, and thou too.’ ‘Be it as thou wilt,’ said Ibrahim. So he took him and dropped down the river with him till he drew near the garden, when he said to him, ‘O my son, I can go no farther; for, if I overpass this limit, we are both dead men.’ Whereupon Ibrahim pulled out other ten dinars and gave them to him, saying, ‘Take this spending-money and better thy case therewithal.’ The boatman was ashamed to refuse him and fared on with him, saying, ‘I commit the affair to God the Most High!’ When they came to the garden, the youth arose, in his joy, whilst the boat was yet a spear’s cast

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