Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 5.djvu/250



'O bibber of liquor, art not ashamed * To drink what Allah forbade thee drain? Put it far from thee and approach it not; * It holds what Allah forbade as bane.'

And quoth another to the same purport,

'I drank the sin till my reason fled: * Ill drink that reason to loss misled!'

As for the advantages that be therein, it disperseth stone and gravel from the kidneys and strengtheneth the viscera and banisheth care, and moveth to generosity and preserveth health and digestion; it conserveth the body, expelleth disease from the joints, purifieth the frame of corrupt humours, engendereth cheerfulness, gladdeneth the heart of man and keepeth up the natural heat: it contracteth the bladder, enforceth the liver and removeth obstructions, reddeneth the cheeks, cleareth away maggots from the brain and deferreth grey hairs. In short, had not Allah (to whom be honour and glory!) forbidden it, [FN#407] there were not on the face of the earth aught fit to stand in its stead. As for gambling by lots, it is a game of hazard such as diceing, not of skill." Q "What wine is best?" "That which is pressed from white grapes and kept eighty days or more after fermentation: it resembleth not water and indeed there is nothing on the surface of the earth like unto it." Q "What sayest thou of cupping?" "It is for him who is over full of blood and who hath no defect therein; and whoso would be cupped, let it be during the wane of the moon, on a day without cloud, wind or rain and on the seventeenth of the month. If it fall on a Tuesday, it will be the more efficacious, and nothing is more salutary for the brain and eyes and for clearing the intellect than cupping."--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

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

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the damsel enumerated the benefits of cupping, quoth the doctor, "