Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 4.djvu/182

 aforesaid Ja'afar an ode in his honour, for which he rewarded him with a thousand dinars; and the Badawi took them and, returning to his own country, lived upon them, he and his family, for the rest of the year. Accordingly, he came with his ode at the wonted time and, finding that Ja'afar had been crucified, betook himself to the place where his body was hanging, and there made his camel kneel down and wept with sore weeping and mourned with grievous mourning; and he recited his ode and fell asleep. Presently Ja'afar the Barmecide appeared to him in a vision and said, "Verily thou hast wearied thyself to come to us and findest us as thou seest; but go to Bassorah and ask for a man there whose name is such and such, one of the merchants of the town, and say to him, 'Ja'afar, the Barmecide, saluteth thee and biddeth thee give me a thousand dinars, by the token of the bean.'" Now when the wild Arab awoke, he repaired to Bassorah, where he sought out the merchant and found him and repeated to him what Ja'afar had said in the dream; whereupon he wept with weeping so sore that he was like to depart the world. Then he welcomed the Badawi and seated him by his side and made his stay pleasant and entertained him three days as an honoured guest; and when he was minded to depart he gave him a thousand and five hundred dinars, saying, "The thousand are what is commanded to thee, and the five hundred are a gift from me to thee; and every year thou shalt have of me a thousand gold pieces." Now when the Arab was about to take leave, he said to the merchant, "Allah upon thee, tell me the story of the bean, that I may know the origin of all this." He answered: "In the early part of my life I was poor and hawked hot beans about the streets of Baghdad to keep