Malayan literature; comprising romantic tales, epic poetry and royal ...

i6o MALAYAN LITERATURE
words, went to the woman, and with a salutation said, '
May
I approach ? '
'*
The woman answered, '
If it be by way of goodness, come/
" He approached her and questioned her about her situa-
tion.
" The woman said :
'
I come from a far place ; and as it was
dark when I arrived here, I could not enter the city. So I
stopped at this place. My children and I are suffering from
hunger and we cannot sleep.'
" '
The Caliph inquired, What is there in this kettle ? '
" '
The woman answered :
Nothing but water. I put it in
the kettle so that the children should imagine that I was cook-
ing rice— perhaps, then, they would go to sleep and stop cry-
ing so loudly.'
" As soon as Omar had heard these words he returned
promptly to the city of Medina. Arriving at a shop where
they sold flour, be bought some and put it into a sack. In
another shop he bought some meat. Then lifting the sack to
his shoulders he carried it out of the city. I said to him :
" ' O prince of the believers, give me this sack, that I may
carry it for you.'
" *
If you bear the weight of this sack,' said his glorious
Majesty to me, '
who will bear the weight of my fault, and
who will clear me from the prayer of this woman in the afflic-
tion of her heart when she complained to the Lord of my neg-
'
ligence ?
"
Omar, having said these words, continued to walk in tears
until he had come near the woman and her children. Then
he gave her the flour and the meat, and they ate till their hun-
ger was appeased. The woman with a satisfied heart cried :
" *
May God the most high hear my prayer and render you
benefits, since you are so full of compassion for the servants
of God and are so much better than Omar.'
" The Caliph said to her, ' O
woman, blame not Omar, for
"
he knew not how you fared.'
There was once a king in the country of Syria named Ma-
lik-es-Saleh, very pious and just, and continually preoccu-
pied with the state of his subjects. They say that every night
he went to the mosque, cemeteries, and other solitary places,
in search of strangers, fakirs, and poor people who had neither