Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 9.djvu/52

34 from the land, and springing ashore, cast himself down, whilst the boatman turned and fled.

Then Ibrahim went up to the garden-gate, which stood open, and saw in the porch a couch of ivory, whereon sat a humpbacked man of pleasant favour, clad in gold-laced clothes and bearing in his hand a mace of silver, plated with gold. So he hastened up to him and seizing his hand, kissed it; whereupon quoth the hunchback, ‘O my son, who art thou and whence comest thou and who brought thee hither?’ And indeed, when he saw the youth, he was amazed at his beauty. ‘O uncle,’ answered Ibrahim, ‘I am an ignorant boy and a stranger;’ and he wept. The hunchback took pity on him and taking him up on the couch, wiped away his tears and said to him, ‘No harm shall come to thee. If thou be in debt, may God quit thy debt; and if thou be in fear, may He appease thy fear!’ ‘O uncle,’ replied Ibrahim, ‘I am neither in fear nor in debt, but have wealth in plenty, thanks to God.’ ‘Then, O my son,’ rejoined the other, ‘what is thine occasion, that thou venturest thyself and thy beauty to a place, wherein is destruction?’

So he told him his story and discovered to him his case, whereupon he bowed his head awhile, then said to him, ‘Was it the humpbacked tailor who directed thee to me?’ ‘Yes,’ answered Ibrahim, and the keeper said, ‘This is my brother, and he is a blessed man. But, O my son, had not the love of thee gotten hold upon my heart and had I not taken compassion on thee, verily thou wert lost, thou and my brother and the porter of the khan and his wife. For know that this garden hath not its like on the face of the earth and that it is called the Garden of the Pearl, nor hath any entered it in all my life, except the Sultan and myself and its mistress Jemileh; and I have dwelt here twenty years and never yet saw any else come hither. Every forty days the lady Jemileh comes hither in