25
anear neither know they a man’s water from a woman’s water, nor a stranger’s [from a countryman’s], nor a Jew’s from a Sherif’s.[1] Then said the woman, ‘What is the remedy?’ Quoth the weaver, ‘Pay down the fee.’ So she paid him a dirhem and he gave her medicines contrary to that ailment and such as would aggravate the patient’s malady.
When Galen saw what appeared to him of the [mock] physician’s incapacity, he turned to his disciples and pupils and bade them fetch the other, with all his gear and drugs. So they brought him into his presence on the speediest wise, and when Galen saw him before him, he said to him, ‘Knowest thou me?’ ‘No,’ answered the other, ‘nor did I ever set eyes on thee before this day.’ Quoth the sage, ‘Dost thou know Galen?’ And the weaver said, ‘No.’ Then said Galen, ‘What prompted thee to that which thou dost?’ So he related to him his story and gave him to know of the dowry and the obligation by which he was bound with regard to his wife, whereat Galen marvelled and certified himself of the matter of the dower.
Then he bade lodge him near himself and was bountiful to him and took him apart and said to him, ‘Expound to me the story of the phial and whence then knewest that the water therein was that of a man, and he a stranger and a Jew, and that his ailment was indigestion?’ ‘It is well,’ answered the weaver. ‘Thou must know that we people of Persia are skilled in physiognomy[2] and
