burton--1001-nights--sample

Quoth the Sage, “Spare me and Allah will spare thee; slay me not or
Allah shall slay thee.” And he repeated to him these very words, even
as I to thee, O Ifrit, and yet thou wouldst not let me go, being bent
upon my death.
King Yunan only rejoined, “I shall not be safe without slaying thee;
for, as thou healedst me by something held in hand, so am I not secure
against thy killing me by something given me to smell or otherwise.”
Said the physician, “This then, O King, is thy requital and reward;
thou returnest only evil for good.” The King replied, “There is no help
for it; die thou must and without delay.”
Now when the physician was certified that the King would slay him
without waiting, he wept and regretted the good he had done to other
than the good. As one hath said on this subject: —
Of wit and wisdom is Maymúnah 33 bare * Whose sire in wisdom all
the wits outstrippeth:
Man may not tread on mud or dust or clay * Save by good sense, else
trippeth he and slippeth.
Hereupon the Sworder stepped forward and bound the Sage Duban’s
eyes and bared his blade, saying to the King, “By thy leave;” while the
physician wept and cried, “Spare me and Allah will spare thee, and
slay me not or Allah shall slay thee,” and began repeating: —
I was kind and ’scapèd not, they were cruel and escaped; * And my
kindness only led me to Ruination Hall;
If I live I’ll ne’er be kind; if I die, then all be damned * Who follow me,
and curses their kindliness befal.
33
Some proverbial name now forgotten.
97