The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 06 (of 10)
General
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 06 (of 10)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
Then he took the mule to the Jew, who seeing him asked, “The other is
dead?” Answered Judar, “May thy head live!”; and the Jew said, “This is
the reward of the covetous!” Then he took the mule and gave Judar an
hundred dinars, with which he returned to his mother. “O my son,” said
she, “whence hast thou this?” So he told her, and she said, “Go not
again to Lake Karun, indeed I fear for thee from the Moors.” Said he,
“O my mother, I do but cast them in by their own wish, and what am I to
do? This craft bringeth me an hundred dinars a day and I return
speedily; wherefore, by Allah, I will not leave going to Lake Karun,
till the race of the Magháribah[FN#267] is cut off and not one of them
is left.” So, on the morrow which was the third day, he went down to
the lake and stood there, till there came up a third Moor, riding on a
mule with saddle bags and still more richly accoutred than the first
two, who said to him, “Peace be with thee, O Judar, O son of Omar!” And
the fisherman saying in himself, “How comes it that they all know me?”
returned his salute. Asked the Maghribi, “Have any Moors passed by
here?” “Two,” answered Judar. “Whither went they?” enquired the Moor,
and Judar replied, “I pinioned their hands behind them and cast them
into the lake, where they were drowned, and the same fate is in store
for thee.” The Moor laughed and rejoined, saying, “O unhappy! Every
life hath its term appointed.” Then he alighted and gave the fisherman
the silken cord, saying, “Do with me, O Judar, as thou didst with
them.” Said Judar, “Put thy hands behind thy back, that I may pinion
thee, for I am in haste, and time flies.” So he put his hands behind
him and Judar tied him up and cast him in. Then he waited awhile;
presently the Moor thrust both hands forth of the water and called out
to him, saying, “Ho, good fellow, cast out thy net!” So Judar threw the
net over him and drew him ashore, and lo! in each hand he held a fish
as red as coral. Quoth the Moor, “Bring me the two caskets that are in
the saddle bags.” So Judar brought them and opened them to him, and he
laid in each casket a fish and shut them up. Then he pressed Judar to
his bosom and kissed him on the right cheek and the left, saying,
“Allah save thee from all stress! By the Almighty, hadst thou not cast
the net over me and pulled me out, I should have kept hold of these two
fishes till I sank and was drowned, for I could not get ashore of
myself.” Quoth Judar, “O my lord the pilgrim, Allah upon thee, tell me
the true history of the two drowned men and the truth anent these two
fishes and the Jew.”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
to say her permitted say.
When it was the Six Hundred and Tenth Night,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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