Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 4 (of 6)
General
Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 4 (of 6)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
And when he beheld that condition of things he turned from his
home in haste and without stay or delay left it about the hour of
mid-afternoon and fared forth from the city. There he found a
caravan bound to some bourne or other, so he proceeded therewith
hardly believing in his own safety and he ceased not accompanying
the Cafilah[FN#264] for the space of five days till it made the
city the travellers sought, albeit he was fatigued and footsore
from the stress of hardships and weariness he had endured. So he
entered the place and wandered about until he found a Khan
wherein he hired him a cell by way of nighting-stead and every
day he would go forth to seek service for wages whereby he might
make a livelihood. Now one day of the days a woman met him face
to face on the highway and said to him, "Dost thou do service?"
and said he, "Indeed I do, O my lady." She continued, "There is a
wall about my place which I desire to level and build another in
lieu thereof for that 'tis old and very old." He replied to her,
"'Tis well," and she took him and repaired with him to her house
and showing him the wall in question handed to him a pickaxe and
said, "Break it down as much as thou art able be it for two or
three days, and heap up the stones in one place and the dried mud
in another." He replied, "Hearkening and obedience;" after which
she brought to him somewhat of food and of water and he ate and
drank and praised Almighty Allah. After this he rose and began
breaking down the wall and he ceased not working and piling up
the stones and the dried mud until it was sunset time when the
woman paid him to his wage ten faddahs and added a something of
food which he took and turned towards his own cell. As soon as it
was the second day he repaired to the house of the woman who
again gave him somewhat to break his fast and he fell to felling
the wall even as he had done on the first day and he worked till
noon; but when it was midday and all the household was asleep, lo
and behold! he found in the middle of the foundation a
crock[FN#265] full of gold. So he opened it and considered its
contents whereat he was rejoiced and he went forth without
leisure or loss of time seeking his own cell and when he reached
it he locked himself within for fear lest any look upon him. Then
he opened the crock and counted therein one hundred dinars which
he pouched in his purse and stowed away in his breast-pocket.
Presently he returned, as he was, to break down the rest of the
wall and whilst he was trudging along the highway suddenly he
sighted a box surrounded by a crowd of whom none knew what might
be its contents and its owner was crying out, "For an hundred
gold pieces!" Thereupon the Bhang-eater went forwards saying to
himself, "Buy thee yonder box for the hundred dinars and thy luck
be thy lot, for it there be inside of it aught of wonderful 'tis
well, and if otherwise thou shalt stand by thy bad bargain." So
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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