Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 2.djvu/68

 48 A If Laylah wa Laylah.^ name was Bukhayt, 1 "know ye not that the owners of the gardens use to come out from Baghdad and tend them and, when evening closes upon them, they enter this place and shut the door, for fear lest the wicked blackmen, like ourselves, should catch them and roast 'em and eat 'em." 2 " Thou sayest sooth," said the two others, " but by Allah, however that may be, none amongst us is weaker of wits than thou." " If ye do not believe me," said Bukhayt, " let us enter the tomb and I will rouse the rat for you ; for I doubt not but that, when he saw the light and us making for the place, he ran up the date-tree and hid there for fear of us." When Ghanim heard this, he said in himself, " O curstest of slaves 1 May Allah not have thee in His holy keeping for this thy craft and keenness of wit ! There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great ! How shall I win free of these blackamoors ?" Then said the two who bore the box to him of the adze, " Swarm up the wall and open the gate for us, O Bukhayt, for we are tired of carrying the chest on our necks; and when thou hast opened the gate thou shalt have one of those we catch inside, a fine fat rat which we will fry for thee after such excellent fashion that not a speck of his fat shall be lost." But Bukhayt answered, " I am afraid of somewhat which my weak wits have suggested to me : we should do better to throw the chest over the gateway ; for it is our treasure." " If we throw it 'twill break," replied they; and he said, "I fear lest there be robbers within who murder folk and plunder their goods, for evening is their time of entering such places and dividing their spoil." " O thou weak o* wits," said both the bearers of the box, " how could they ever get in here !" 3 Then they set down the chest and climb- ing over the wall dropped inside and opened the gate, whilst the third slave (he that was called Bukhayt) stood by them holding the adze, the lanthorn and the hand-basket containing the mortar. After this they locked the gate and sat down ; and presently one of them said, " O my brethren, we are wearied with walking and with lifting up and setting down the chest, and with unlocking and locking the gate ; and now 'tis midnight, and we have no breath " Little Good Luck," a dim. form of " bakht " = luck, a Persian word naturalized in Egypt.  There are, as I have shown, not a few cannibal tribes in Central Africa and these at times find their way into the slave market. s i.e. After we bar the door.