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nought resembling the hawk in bulk and body save the kite and deemed well of her. So she brought the hawk and the kite together and counselled the former to make friends with the latter. Now it chanced that the hawk fell sick and the kite abode with him a long while [and tended him] till he recovered and became whole and strong; wherefore he thanked her [and she departed from him]. But after awhile the hawk’s sickness returned to him and he needed the kite’s succour. So the locust went out from him and was absent from him a day, after which she returned to him with a[nother] locust,[1] saying, “I have brought thee this one.” When the hawk saw her, he said, “God requite thee with good! Indeed, thou hast done well in the quest and hast been subtle in the choice.”
All this, O my brother,’ continued the merchant, ‘befell because the locust had no knowledge of the secret essence that lieth hid in apparent bodies. As for thee, O my brother, (may God requite thee with good!) thou wast subtle in device and usedst precaution; but precaution sufficeth not against fate, and fortune fore-ordained baffleth contrivance. How excellent is the saying of the poet! And he recited the following verses:
It chances whiles that the blind man escapes a pit, Whilst he who is clear of sight falls into it.
The ignorant man may speak with impunity A word that is death to the wise and the ripe of wit.
- ↑ There appears to be some mistake here, but I have no means of rectifying it. The passage is probably hopelessly corrupt and a portion of the conclusion of the story seems to have dropped out.
