Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 5.djvu/248

 cluster and the two auspicious planets, Jupiter and Venus, are in the ascendant; then setteth in the proper season for drinking of drugs and doing away of disease." Q "What time is it, when, if a man drink water from a new vessel, the drink is sweeter and lighter or more digestible to him than at another time, and there ascendeth to him a pleasant fragrance and a penetrating?" "When he waiteth awhile after eating, as quoth the poet,

'Drink not upon thy food in haste but wait awhile; * Else thou with halter shalt thy frame to sickness lead: And patient bear a little thirst from food, then drink; * And thus, O brother, haply thou shalt win thy need. [FN#403]'"

Q "What food is it that giveth not rise to ailments?" "That which is not eaten but after hunger, and when it is eaten, the ribs are not filled with it, even as saith Jálínús or Galen the physician, 'Whoso will take in food, let him go slowly and he shall not go wrongly.' And to conclude with His saying (on whom be blessing and peace!), 'The stomach is the house of disease, and diet is the head of healing; for the origin of all sickness is indigestion, that is to say, corruption of the meat'"--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

When it was the Four Hundred and Fifty-second Night,

She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the damsel said to the doctor, "'The stomach is the house of disease and diet is the head of healing; for the origin of all sickness is indigestion, that is to say, corruption of the meat in the stomach;'" he rejoined, "Thou hast replied aright! what sayest thou of the Hammam?" "Let not the full man enter it. Quoth the Prophet, 'The bath is the blessing of the house, for that it cleanseth the body and calleth to mind the Fire.'" Q "What Hammams are best for bathing in?" "Those whose waters are sweet and whose space is ample and which are kept well aired;