The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 03 (of 10)
General
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 03 (of 10)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
Replied the wolf, "O thou clement one, speak not with the tongue of
enemies nor look with their eyes; but fulfil the covenant of fellowship
with me, ere the time of applying remedy cease to be. Rise and make
ready to get me a rope and tie one end of it to a tree; then let the
other down to me, that I may lay hold of it, so haply I shall from this
my strait win free, and I will give thee all my hand possesseth of
wealth and fee." Quoth the fox, "Thou persistest in conversation
concerning what will not procure thy liberation. Hope not for this, for
thou shalt never, never get of me wherewithal to set thee at liberty;
but call to mind thy past misdeeds and the craft and perfidy thou didst
imagine against me and bethink thee how near thou art to being stoned
to death. For know that thy soul is about the world to quit and cease
in it and depart from it; so shalt thou to destruction hie and ill is
the abiding-place thou shalt aby!"[FN#153] Rejoined the wolf, "O Father
of the Fortlet, hasten to return to amity and persist not in this
rancorous enmity. Know that whoso from ruin saveth a soul, is as if he
had quickened it and made it whole; and whoso saveth a soul alive, is
as if he had saved all mankind.[FN#154] Follow not frowardness, for the
wise forbid it: and it were most manifest frowardness to leave me in
this pit draining the agony of death and dight to look upon mine own
doom, whenas it lieth in thy power to deliver me from my stowre. So do
thy best to release me and deal with me benevolently." Answered the
fox, "O thou base and barbarous wretch, I compare thee, because of the
fairness of thy professions and expressions, and the foulness of thy
intentions and thy inventions to the Falcon and the Partridge." Asked
the wolf, "How so?"; and the fox began to tell
The Tale of the Falcon[FN#155] and the Partridge.[FN#156]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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