She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the water-carrier receiving the dinar, looked at the giver with disdain and said “Good luck to thee! Good luck to thee! Little folk are one thing and great folk another.” Now when Mercury Ali heard this, he caught hold of the man’s gaberdine and drawing on him a poignard of price, such an one as that whereof the poet speaketh in these two couplets, “Watered steel-blade, the world perfection calls, * Drunk with the viper poison foes appals, Cuts lively, burns the blood whene’er it falls; * And picks up gems from pave of marble halls;”[FN#217] cried to him, “O Shaykh, speak reasonably to me! Thy water-skin is worth if dear three dirhams, and the gugglets I emptied on the ground held a pint or so of water.” Replied the water-carrier “’Tis well,” and Ali rejoined, “I gave thee a golden ducat: why, then dost thou belittle me? Say me, hast thou ever seen any more valiant than I or more generous than I?” Answered the water-carrier; “I have indeed, seen one more valiant than thou and eke more generous than thou; for, never, since women bare children, was there on earth’s face a brave man who was not generous.” Quoth Ali, “And who is he thou deemest braver and more generous than I?” Quoth the other, “Thou must know that I have had a strange adventure. My father was a Shaykh of the Water-carriers who give drink in Cairo and, when he died, he left me five male camels, a he-mule, a shop and a house; but the poor man is never satisfied; or, if he be satisfied he dieth. So I said to myself:—I will go up to Al-Hijaz; and, taking a string of camels, bought goods on tick, till I had run in debt for five hundred ducats, all of which I lost in the pilgrimage. Then I said in my mind:—If I return to Cairo the folk will clap me in jail for their goods. So I fared with the pilgrims-caravan of Damascus to Aleppo and thence I went on to Baghdad, where I sought out the Shaykh of the Water-carriers of the city and finding his house I went in and repeated the opening chapter of the Koran to him. He questioned me of my case and I told him all that had betided me, whereupon he assigned me a shop and gave me a water-skin and gear. So I sallied forth a-morn trusting in Allah to provide, and went round about the city.” I offered the gugglet to one, that he might drink; but he cried, “I have eaten naught whereon to drink; for a niggard invited me this day and set two gugglets before me; so I said to him:—O son of the sordid, hast thou given me aught to eat that thou offerest me drink after it? Wherefore wend thy ways, O water-carrier, till I have eaten somewhat: then come and give me to drink.” Thereupon I accosted another and he said:—Allah provide thee! And so I went on till noon, without taking hansel, and I said to myself, ‘Would Heaven I had never come to Baghdad!’ Presently, I saw the folk running as fast as they could; so I followed them and behold, a long file of men riding two