burton--1001-nights--sample

my word for it, if thine adventures be more marvellous and wondrous.”
Thereupon he thus began
The Second Shaykh’s Story.
Know, O lord of the Kings of the Jann! that these two dogs are my
brothers and I am the third. Now when our father died and left us a
capital of three thousand gold pieces, I opened a shop with my share,
and bought and sold therein, and in like guise did my two brothers,
each setting up a shop. But I had been in business no long while before
the elder sold his stock for a thousand dinars, and after buying outfit
and merchandise, went his ways to foreign parts. He was absent one
whole year with the caravan; but one day as I sat in my shop, behold,
a beggar stood before me asking alms, and I said to him, “Allah open
thee another door!” 16 Whereupon he answered, weeping the while,
“Am I so changed that thou knowest me not?” Then I looked at him
narrowly, and lo! it was my brother, so I rose to him and welcomed
him; then I seated him in my shop and put questions concerning his
case. “Ask me not,” answered he; “my wealth is awaste and my state
hath waxed un-stated!” So I took him to the Hammám-bath 17 and clad
him in a suit of my own and gave him lodging in my house.
Moreover, after looking over the accounts of my stock-in-trade and
the profits of my business, I found that industry had gained me one
thousand dinars, while my principal, the head of my wealth, amounted
to two thousand. So I shared the whole with him saying, “Assume that
16
The formula used in refusing alms to an “asker” or in rejecting an insufficient
offer: “Allah will open to thee!” (some door of gain — not mine)! Another favourite
ejaculation is “Allah Karim” = Allah is All-beneficent! meaning Ask Him, not me.
17
The public bath.
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