weight in money, as we have promised."--"Wilt thou," said the poet, "send one of the attendants to carry it?"--"To carry what?" asked the King; "is it not upon a paper here in thy possession?"--"No, O our lord the Sulṭán," replied the poet; "at the time I composed it I could not procure a piece of paper upon which to write it, and could find nothing but a fragment of a marble column left me by my father; so I engraved it upon this; and it lies in the court of the palace." He had brought it, wrapped up, on the back of a camel. The King, to fulfil his promise, was obliged to exhaust his treasury; and to prevent a repetition of this trick (of which he afterwards discovered El-Aṣma'ee to have been the author), in future rewarded the poets according to the usual custom of kings.[156] The following case is also related as an exception to the common custom of great men, with regard to the bestowal of rewards on poets:--"A poet praised a governor in some verses, and the latter ordered an ass's barda'ah (or stuffed saddle) and girth to be given to him. The poet went away with them on his shoulder; and, being asked what he had got, answered, 'I have praised our honoured lord in the best of my verses, and he hath bestowed on me some of the most magnificent articles of his apparel.'"[157] NOTE 16.--_On the Bath._ The ḥammám, or bath, is a favourite resort of both men and women of all classes among the Muslims who can afford the trifling expense which it requires; and (it is said) not only of human beings, but also of evil genii; on which account, as well as on that of decency, several precepts respecting it have been dictated by Moḥammad. It is frequented for the purpose of performing certain ablutions required by the religion, or by a regard for cleanliness, and for its salutary effects, and for mere luxury.