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wildings of the earth,’ rejoined the fox, ‘hast thou forgotten thine arrogance and pride and tyranny and how thou disregardedst the due of comradeship and wouldst not take counsel by what the poet says:
Do no oppression, whilst the power thereto is in thine hand, For still in danger of revenge the sad oppressor goes.
Thine eyes will sleep anon, what while the opprest, on wake, call down Curses upon thee, and God’s eye shuts never in repose.’
‘O Aboulhussein,’ replied the wolf, ‘reproach me not for past offences; for forgiveness is expected of the noble, and the practice of kindness is the best of treasures. How well says the poet:
Hasten to do good works, whenever thou hast the power, For thou art not able thereto at every season and hour.’
And he went on to humble himself to the fox and say to him, ‘Haply, thou canst do somewhat to deliver me from destruction.’ ‘O witless, deluded, perfidious, crafty wolf,’ answered the fox, ‘hope not for deliverance, for this is but the just reward of thy foul dealing.’ Then he laughed from ear to ear and repeated the following verses:
A truce to thy strife to beguile me! For nothing of me shalt thou gain.
Thy prayers are but idle; thou sowedst Vexation; so reap it amain.
‘O gentlest of beasts of prey,’ said the wolf, ‘I deem thee too faithful to leave me in this pit.’ Then he wept and sighed and recited the following verses, whilst the tears streamed from his eyes:
O thou, whose kindnesses to me are more than one, I trow, Whose bounties unto me vouchsafed are countless as the sand,
No shift of fortune in my time has ever fall’n on me, But I have found thee ready still to take me by the hand.
‘O stupid enemy,’ said the fox, ‘how art thou reduced to humility and obsequiousness and abjection and submission, after disdain and pride and tyranny and arrogance! Verily, I companied with thee and cajoled thee but for
