Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 2.djvu/43

 Nur al-Din AH and the Damsel Ants at- Jolts. ~ a$ its drinker, presser, seller and carrier!." "Hear two words~of me." "Say on." "If yon cursed ass 1 which standeth there be cursed, will aught of his curse alight upon thee?" "By no means!" "Then take this dinar and these two dirhams and mount yonder ass and, halting afar from the wine-shop, call the first man thou seest buying liquor and say to him : Take these two dirhams for thyself, and with this dinar buy me some wine and set it on the ass. So shalt thou be neither the presser, nor the buyer, nor the carrier ; and no part of the curse will fall upon thee " At this Shaykh Ibrahim laughed and said, " By Allah, O my son, I [never saw one wilier of wit than thou art, nor heard aught sweeter than thy speech." So he did as he was bidden by Nur al-Din who thanked him and said, " We twq*are now dependent on thee, and it is only meet that thou comply with our wishes; so bring us here what we require." " O my son," replied he, " this is my buttery before thee" (and it was the store-room provided for the Commander of the Faithful) ; " so go in, and take whatso thou wilt, for there is over and above what thou wantesf." Nur al- Din then entered the pantry and found therein vessels of gold and silver and crystal set with all kinds of gems, and was amazed and delighted with what he saw. Then he took out what he needed and set it on and poured the wine into flagons and glass ewers, whilst Shaykh Ibrahim brought them fruit and flowers and aro- matic herbs. Then the old man withdrew and sat down at a distance from them, whilst they drank and made merry, till the wine got the better of them, so that their cheeks reddened and their eyes wantoned like the gazelle's; and their locks became dishevelled and their brightness became yet more beautiful. Then said Shaykh Ibrahim to himself, " What aileth me to sit .apart from them ? Why should I not sit with them ? When shall I ever find myself in company with the like of these two that favour two moons ? " So he stepped forward and sat down on the edge of the dais, and Nur al-Din said to him, " O my lord, my life on thee, come nearer to us ! " He came and sat by them, when The ass is held to be ill-omened. I have noticed the braying elsewhere. According to Mandeville the Devil did not enter the Ark with the Ass, but he left it when Noah said " Benedicite." In his day (A.D. 1322) and in that of Benjamin of Tudela, people had seen and touched the ship on Ararat, the Judi (Gordieei) mountains; and this dates from Berosus (S.C. 250) who, of course, refers to the Ark of Xisisthrus. S Josephus Ant. i. 3, 6; and Rodwell (Koran, pp. 65, 530).