Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 2.djvu/53

 Nur al-Din Ali and the Damsel Anis al-Jalis. 33 Who art thou," quoth he, and quoth the other, " I am Karim the fisherman : I hear thou hast a feast, so I have brought thee some fish, and of a truth 'tis good fish." When Nur aUDin heard the mention of fish, he was glad, he and the damsel, and they both said to the Shaykh, " O our lord, open the door and let him bring us his fish." So Shaykh Ibrahim opened and the Caliph came in (and he in fisherman guise), and began by saluting them. Said Shaykh Ibrahim, " Welcome to the blackguard, the robber, the dicer ! Let us see thy fish." So the Caliph showed them his catch and behold, the fishes were still alive and jumping, whereupon the damsel ex- claimed, " By Allah O my lord, these are indeed fine fish : would they were fried !" and Shaykh Ibrahim rejoined, " By Allah, O my lady, thou art right." Then said he to the Caliph, " O fisherman, why didst thou not bring us the fish ready fried ? Up now and cook them and bring them back to us." "On my head be thy commands ! " said the Caliph, " I will fry thee a dish and bring it." Said they, " Look sharp." Thereupon he went out and ran till he came up to Ja'afar when he called to him, " Hallo, Ja'afar ! " ; and he replied, " Here am I, O Commander of the Faithful, is all well ? " " They want the fish fried," said the Caliph, and Ja'afar answered, " O Commander of the Faithful, give it to me and I'll fry it for them." " By the tombs of my forbears," quoth the Caliph, " none shall fry it but I, with mine own hand ! " So he went to the gardener's hut, where he searched and found all that he required, even to salt and saffron and wild marjoram and else besides. Then he turned to the brasier and, setting on the frying-pan, fried a right good fry. When it was done, he laid it on a banana-leaf, and gathering from the garden wind-fallen fruits, limes and lemons, carried the fish to the pavilion and set the dish before them. So the youth and the damsel and Shaykh Ibrahim came forward and ate ; after which they washed their hands and Nur al-Din said to the Caliph, " By Allah, O fisherman, thou hast done us a right good deed this night." Then he put hand in pouch and, taking out three of the dinars which Sanjar had given him, said, " O fisher- man, excuse me. By Allah had I known thee before that which hath lately befallen me, I had done away the bitterness of poverty from thy heart ; but take thou this as the best I can do for thee." Then he threw the gold pieces to the Caliph, who took them and kissed them and put them in pouch. Now his sole object in doing all this was to hear the damsel sing ; so he said to Nur al-Din, 41 Thou hast rewarded me most liberally, but I beg of thy bound less VOL. IL c