Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 4.djvu/307

and bringing out two myriads^[1] of gold pieces, said to the witnesses, 'This our lord and master, Ibrahim son of Al-Mahdi, paternal-uncle of the Commander of the Faithful, seeketh in marriage my sister such an one; and I call you to witness that I give her in wedlock to him and that he hath settled upon her ten thousand dinars.' And he said to me, 'I give thee my sister in marriage, at the portion aforesaid.' 'I consent,' answered I, 'and am herewith content.' Whereupon he gave one of the bags to her and the other to the witnesses, and said to me, 'O our lord, I desire to adorn a chamber for thee, where thou mayst sleep with thy wife.' But I was abashed at his generosity and was ashamed to lie with her in his house; so I said, 'Equip her and send her to my place.' And by thy being, O Commander of the Faithful, he sent me with her such an equipage that my house, for all its greatness, was too strait to hold it! And I begot on her this boy that standeth in thy presence." Then Al-Maamun marvelled at the man's generosity and said, "Gifted of Allah is he! Never heard I of his like." And he bade Ibrahim bin al-Mahdi bring him to court, that he might see him. He brought him and the Caliph conversed with him; and his wit and good breeding so pleased him that he made him one of his chief officers. And Allah is the Giver, the Bestower! Men also relate the tale of

THE WOMAN WHOSE HANDS WERE CUT OFF FOR GIVING ALMS TO THE POOR.

A certain King once made proclamation to the people of his realm saying, "If any of you give alms of aught, I will verily and assuredly cut off his hand;" wherefore all the people abstained from alms-deed, and none could give anything to any one. Now it chanced that one day a beggar accosted a certain woman (and indeed hunger was sore upon him), and said to her, "Give me an alms"—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

1. Arab. "Badrah," as has been said, is properly a weight of 10,000 dirhams or drachmas; but popularly used for largesse thrown to the people at festivals.