she rejoined, "Tell me the truth of the case, that I may order my affair; and why take the gugglet of water?" And he, To give the broker to drink," upon which she exclaimed, There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great!"; and she repeated these two couplets,[1]
"O thou who seekest separation, act leisurely, and let not the
embrace of the beloved deceive thee!
Act leisurely; for the nature of fortune is treacherous, and the
end of every union is disjunction.
Then he took the gugglet and, going out, found the Christian within the vestibule and said to him, "How comest thou here and how darest thou, O dog, enter my house without my leave?" Answered he, "O my lord, there is no difference between the door and the vestibule, and I never intended to stir hence, save to go out; and my thanks are due to thee for thy kindness and favour, thy bounty and generosity." Then he took the mug and emptying it, returned it to Ali Shar, who received it and waited for him to rise up and to go; but he did not move. So Ali said to him, "Why dost thou not rise and wend thy way?"; and he answered, "O my lord, be not of those who do a kindness and then make it a reproach, nor of those of whom saith the poet,[2]
'They're gone who when thou stoodest at their door * Would for
thy wants so generously cater:
But stand at door of churls who followed them, * They'd make high
favour of a draught of water!'"
And he continued, "O my lord, I have drunk, and now I would have thee give me to eat of whatever is in the house, though it be but a bit of bread or a biscuit with an onion." Replied Ali Shar, "Begone, without more chaffer and chatter; there is nothing in the house." He persisted, "O my lord, if there be nothing in the house, take these hundred dinars and bring us something from the market, if but a single scone, that bread and salt may pass between us."[3] With this, quoth Ali
- ↑ This tetrastich has before occurred, so I quote Lane (ii. 444).
- ↑ In Night xxxv. the same occurs with a difference.
- ↑ The old rite, I repeat, has lost amongst all but the noblest of Arab tribes the whole of its significance; and the traveller must be careful how he trusts to the phrase "Nahnu málihin" we are bound together by the salt.
