Know that most marvellous was that which befell me but yesterday, before I foregathered with the Hunchback. It so chanced that in the early day I was at the marriage feast of one of my companions, who had gotten together in his house some twenty of the handicraftsmen of this city, amongst them tailors and silk spinners and carpenters and others of the same ilk. As soon as the sun had risen, they set food before us that we might eat. When behold, the master of the house entered, and with him a foreign youth, well-favoured by the people of Baghdad, wearing clothes as handsome as could be. He was of right comely presence save that he was lame of one leg. He came and saluted us and we stood up to receive him. But when he was about to sit down he espied amongst us a certain man who was a Barber. Thereupon he refused to be seated and would have gone away. But we stopped him and our host also stayed him,
Tale of the Tailor. 301 making oath that he should not leave us and asked him, "What is the reason of your coming in and going out again at once?" He answered, "By God, O my lord, do not hinder me, for the cause of my turning back is that Barber of bad omen, that black-faced, that never-do-well!" When the house master heard these words he marvelled with extreme marvel and said, "How comes this young man, who hails from Baghdad, to be so troubled and perplexed about this Barber?" Then we looked at the stranger and said, "Explain the cause of your anger against the Barber." "O fair company," the youth said, "there befell me a strange adventure with this Barber in Baghdad, which is my native city. He was the cause of the breaking of my leg and of my lameness, and I have sworn never to sit in the same place with him, nor even tarry in any town where he happens to abide. I have bidden adieu to Baghdad and travelled far from it and came to stay in this your city, yet I have hardly passed one night before I meet him again. But not another day shall go by before I fare forth from here."
We said to him, "In God's name, tell us the tale," and the youth replied (the Barber changing colour from brown to yellow as he spoke): "Know, O fair company, that my father was one of the chief merchants of Baghdad, and Almighty Allah had blessed him with no son but myself. When I grew up and reached manhood, my father was received into the mercy of Allah (whose Name be exalted!) and left me money and eunuchs, servants and slaves. I used to dress well and eat well. Now Allah had made me a hater of womankind, and one day, as I was walking along a street in Baghdad, a party of females met me face to face in the footway. So I fled from them and, entering an alley which was no thoroughfare, sat down upon a stone bench at its other end. I had not sat there long before the latticed window of one of the houses opposite was thrown open, and there appeared at it a young lady, as she were the full moon at its fullest. Never in my life had I seen her like. She began to water some flowers on the window sill. She turned right and left and, seeing me watching her, shut the window and went away. Thereupon fire was suddenly enkindled in my heart. My mind was possessed with her and my hatred of women turned to love of woman.
I continued sitting there, lost to the world, till sunset when lo! The Kazi of the city came riding by with his slaves before him and his eunuchs behind him, and dismounting, entered the house in which the damsel had appeared. By this I knew that he was her father. So I went home sorrowful and cast myself upon my carpet bed in grief. Then my handmaids flocked in and sat about me, not knowing what ailed me. But I addressed no speech to them, and they wept and wailed over me. Presently, in came an old woman who looked at me and saw with a glance what was the matter with me. So she sat down by my head and spoke me fair, saying, "O my son, tell me all about it and I will be the means of your union with her." So I related to her what had happened and she answered, "O my son, this one is the daughter of the Kazi of Baghdad who keeps her in the closest seclusion. The window where you saw her is her chamber, while her father occupies the large saloon in the lower story. She is often there alone and I am wont to visit at the house.
So you will not win to her save through me. Now set your wits to work and be of good cheer." With these words, she went away. I took heart at what she said and my people rejoiced that day, seeing me rise in the morning safe and sound. By and by the old woman returned looking downcast, and said, "O my son, do not ask me how I fared with her! When I told her that, she cried at me, 'If you hold not your peace, O hag of ill omen, and leave not such talk, I will entreat you as you deserve and you will die by the foulest of deaths.' But I must try with her a second time." When I heard this it added ailment to my ailment. The neighbours visited me and judged that I was not long for this world. But after some days, the old woman came to me and, putting her mouth close to my ear, whispered, "O my son, I claim from you the gift of good news." With this my soul returned to me and I said, "Whatever you will shall be yours." Thereupon she began, "Yesterday I went to the young lady. Seeing me broken in spirit and shedding tears,
Tale of the Tailor. 303 from reddened eyes, asked me, 'O my dear, what ails you that I see your breast so straitened?' I answered her, weeping bitterly, 'O my lady, I am just come from the house of a youth who loves you and who is about to die for sake of you!' She said (and her heart was softened), 'And who is this youth of whom you speak?' I said, 'He is to me as a son and the fruit of my body. He saw you some days ago at the window watering your flowers. Espying your face and wrists, he fell in love at first sight. I let him know what happened to me the last time I was with you. Whereupon his ailment increased, he took to the pillow and he is nothing now but a dead man, and no doubt of it.' At this she turned pale and asked, 'All this for my sake?' I answered, 'Ay, by God! What would you have me do?' She said, 'Go back to him and greet him for me and tell him that I am twice more heartsick than he is. And on Friday, before the hour of public prayer, bid him come to the house. I will come down and open the door for him.
Then I will carry him up to my chamber and foregather with him for a while, and let him depart before my father returns from the Mosque.'" When I heard the old woman's words, all my sickness suddenly fell from me, my anguish ceased and my heart was comforted; I took off what clothes were on me and gave them to her and, as she turned to go, she said' "Keep a good heart!" "I have not a jot of sorrow left" I replied. My household and intimates rejoiced in my recovery and I abode thus till Friday' when behold, the old woman came in and asked me how I did, to which I answered that I was well and in good case. Then I donned my clothes and perfumed myself and sat down to await the congregation going in to prayers, that I might betake myself to her. But the old woman said to me, "You have time and to spare: so you would do well to go to the Hammam and have your hair shaven off (especially after your ailment), so as not to show traces of sickness." "This were the best way," answered I, "I have just now bathed in hot water, but I will have my head shaved."
Then I said to my page, "Go to the bazar and bring me a barber, a discreet fellow and one not inclined to meddling or impertinent curiosity or likely to split my head with his excessive talk." The boy went out at once and brought back with him this wretched old man, this Shaykh of ill omen. When he came in he saluted me and I returned his salutation; then He said, "Of a truth I see you thin of body;" and I, said, "I have been ailing." He continued, "Allah drive far away from you your woe and your sorrow and your trouble and your distress." "Allah grant your prayer!" said I. He pursued, "All gladness to you, O my master, for indeed recovery is come to you. Do you wish to be polled or to be blooded? Indeed it was a tradition of Ibn Abbas (Allah accept of him!) that the Apostle said, 'whoever cutts his hair on a Friday, the Lord shall avert from him threescore and ten calamities;' and again is related of him also that he said, 'Cupping on a Friday keeps from loss of sight and a host of diseases.' " "Leave this talk," I cried; "come, shave me my head at once for I can't stand it."
So he rose and put forth his hand in most leisurely way and took out a kerchief and unfolded it, and lo! it contained an astrolabe with seven parallel plates mounted in silver. Then he went to the middle of the court and raised head and instrument towards the sun's rays and looked for a long while. When this was over, he came back and said to me, "Know that there have elapsed of this our day, which be Friday, and this Friday be the tenth of the month Safar in the six hundred and fifty third year since the Hegira or Flight of the Apostle (on whom be the bestest of blessings and peace!) and the seven thousand three hundred and twenties year of the era of Alexander, eight degrees and six minutes. Furthermore the ascendant of this our day is, according to the exactest science of computation, the planet Mars; and it so happens that Mercury is in conjunction with him, denoting
Tale of the Tailor. 305 an auspicious moment for hair cutting; and this also makes manifest to me that you desire union with a certain person and that your intercourse will not be propitious. But after this there occurrs a sign respecting a matter which will befall you and whereof I will not speak." "O you," cried I, "By God, you weariest me and scatterest my wits and your forecast is other than good; I sent for you to poll my head and nothing else: so up and shave me and prolong not your speech." "By God," he replied, "if you but knew what is about to befall you, you would do nothing this day, and I counsel you to act as I tell you by computation of the constellations." "By God," i said, "never did I see a barber who excelled in judicial astrology save yourself: but I think and I know that you are most prodigal of frivolous talk. I sent for you only to shave my head, but you come and pesterest me with this sorry prattle." "What more would you have?" he replied. "Allah has bounteously bestowed on you a Barber who is an astrologer, one learned in alchemy and white magic; syntax, grammar, and lexicology; the arts of logic, rhetoric and elocution; mathematics, arithmetic and algebra; astronomy, astromancy and geometry; theology, the Traditions of the Apostle and the Commentaries on the Koran. Furthermore, I have read books galore and digested them and have had experience of affairs and comprehended them. In short I have learned the theorick and the practick of all the arts and sciences; I know everything of them by rote and I am a past master in tota re scibili. Your father loved me for my lack of officiousness, argal, to serve you is a religious duty incumbent on me. I am no busy body as you seemest to suppose, and on this account I am known as The Silent Man, also, The Modest Man. Why it behoves you to render thanks to Allah Almighty and not cross me, for I am a true counsellor to you and benevolently minded towards you. Would that I were in your service a whole year that you might do me justice; and I would ask you no wage for all this." When I heard his flow of words, I said to him,
"Doubtless you will be my death this day!"—
When it was the Thirties night
"O master mine," he replied, "I am he, The Silent Man called, by reason of the fewness of my words, to distinguish me from my six brothers. For the eldest is called al-Bakbúk, the prattler; the second al-Haddár, the babbler; the third al-Fakík, the gabbler; the fourth, his name is al-Kuz al-aswání, the long necked Gugglet, from his eternal chattering; the fifth is al-Nashshár, the tattler and tale teller; the sixth Shakáshik, or many clamours; and the seventh is famous as al-Sámit, The Silent Man, and this is my noble self!" Whilst he redoubled his talk, I thought my gall bladder would have burst; so I said to the servant, "Give him a quarter dinar and dismiss him and let him go from me in the name of God who made him. I won't have my head shaved today." "What words be these, O my lord?" he cried. "By God! I will accept no hire of you till I have served you and have ministered to your wants; and I care not if I never take money of you. If you know not my quality, I know yours; and I owe your father, honest man, on whom Allah Almighty have mercy! Many a kindness, for he was a liberal soul and a generous. By God, he sent for me one day, as it were this blessed day, and I went in to him and found a party of his intimates about him. he to me, said, 'Let me blood;' so I pulled out my astrolabe and, taking the sun's altitude for him, I ascertained that the ascendant was inauspicious and the hour unfavourable for blooding. I told him of this, and he did according to my bidding and awaited a better opportunity. So I made these lines in honour of him:—
I went to my patron some blood to let him, But found that the moment was far from good: So I sat and I talked of all strangenesses, And with jests and jokes his good will I wooed: They pleased him and he cried, 'O man of wit, You have proved you perfect in merry mood!'
Tale of the Tailor. 307
I, said, 'O you Lord of men, save you Lend me art and wisdom I'm fou and wood: In you gather grace, boon, bounty, suavity; And I guerdon the world with lore, science and gravity.,
Your father was delighted and cried out to the servant, 'Give him an hundred and three gold pieces with a robe of honour!' The man obeyed his orders, and I awaited an auspicious moment, when I blooded him; and he did not baulk me; nay he thanked me and I was also thanked and praised by all present. When the blood letting was over I had no power to keep silence and asked him, 'By God, O my lord, what made you say to the servant, Give him an hundred and three dinars?'; and he answered, 'One dinar was for the astrological observation, another for your pleasant conversation, the third for the phlebotomisation, and the remaining hundred and the dress were for your verses in my commendation."' "May Allah show small mercy to my father," exclaimed I, "for knowing the like of you." He laughed and ejaculated, "There is no god but the God and Mohammed is the Apostle of God! Glory to Him that changes and is changed not! I took you for a man of sense, but I see you babblest and dotest for illness. Allah has said in the Blessed Book, 'Paradise is prepared for the goodly who bridle their anger and forgive men,' and so forth; and in any case you are excused. Yet I cannot conceive the cause of your hurry and flurry; and you must know that your father and your grandfather did nothing without consulting me, and indeed it has been said truly enough, 'Let the adviser be prized'; and, 'There is no vice in advice'; and it is also said in certain saws, 'whoever has no counsellor elder than he, will never himself an elder be'; and the poet says:—
Whatever needful thing you undertake, Consult th' experienced and contraire him not!
And indeed you will never find a man better versed in affairs than I, and I am here standing on my feet to serve you. I am not vexed with you: why should you be vexed with me? But whatever happen I will bear patiently with you in memory of the much kindness your father shewed me." "By God," cried I, "O you with tongue long as the tail of a jackass, you persistest in pestering me with your prate and you becomest more longsome in your long speeches, when all I want of you is to shave my head and go your way!" Then he lathered my head saying,
"I perceive you are vexed with me, but I will not take it ill of you, for your wit is weak and you are but a laddy: it was only yesterday I used to take you on my shoulder and carry you to school." "O my brother'" i said, "for Allah's sake do what I want and go your gait!" And I rent my garments. When he saw me do this he took the razor and fell to sharpening it and gave not over stropping it until my senses were well near leaving me. Then he came up to me and shaved part of my head; then he held his hand and then he said, "O my lord, haste is Satan's gait whilst patience is of Allah the Compassionate. But you, O my master, I ken you know not my rank; for truly this hand alights upon the heads of Kings and Emirs and Wazirs, and sages and doctors learned in the law, and the poet said of one like me:
All crafts are like necklaces strung on a string, But this Barber's the union pearl of the band: High over all craftsmen he ranks, and why? The heads of the Kings are under his hand!"
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Then i said, "Do leave off talking about what concerns you not: indeed you have straitened my breast and distracted my mind." He said, "Meseems you are a hasty man;" and I, said, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" And he, "I counsel you practise restraint of self, for haste is Satan's pelf which bequeaths only repentance and ban and bane, and He (upon whom be blessings and peace!) has said, 'The best of works is that in which deliberation lurks;' but I, By God! Have some doubt about yours affair; and so I should like you to let me know what it is you are in such haste to do; for I fear me it is other than good." Then he continued, "It wants three hours yet to prayer time; but I do not wish to be in doubt upon this matter; nay, I must know the moment exactly, for truly, 'A guess shot in times of doubt, oft brings harm about;' especially in the like of me, a superior person whose merits are famous amongst mankind at large; and it does not befit me to talk at random, as do the common sort of astrologers." So saying, he threw down the razor and taking up the astrolabe, went forth under the sun and stood there a long time; after which he returned and counting on his fingers said to me, "There remain still to prayer time three full hours and complete, neither more nor yet less, according to the most learned astronomicals and the wisest makers of almanacks." "in God's name," cried I, "hold your tongue with me, for you break my liver in pieces."
So he took the razor and, after sharpening it as before and shaving other two hairs of my head, he again held his hand and said, "I am concerned about your hastiness and indeed you would do well to let me into the cause of it; 't were the better for you, as you know that neither your father nor your grandfather ever did a single thing save by my advice." When I saw that there was no escape from him I said to myself, "The time for prayer draws near and I wish to go to her before the folk come out of the mosque. If I am delayed much longer, I know not how to come at her." Then I said aloud, "Be quick and stint this talk and impertinence, for I have to go to a party at the house of some of my intimates." When he heard me speak of the party, he said, "This your day is a blessed day for me! In very truth it was but yesterday I invited a company of my friends and I have forgotten to provide anything for them to eat. This very moment I was thinking of it: Alas, how I shall be disgraced in their eyes!" "Be not distressed about this matter," answered I; "have I not told you that I am bidden to an entertainment this day?
So everything in my house, eatable and drinkable, shall be yours, if you will only get through your work and make haste to shave my head." He replied, "Allah requite you with good! Specify to me what is in your house for my guests that I may be ware of it." I, said, "Five dishes of meat and ten chickens with reddened breasts and a roasted lamb." "Set them before me," He said, "that I may see them." So I told my people to buy, borrow or steal them and bring them in anywise, and had all this set before him. When he saw it he cried, "The wine is wanting," and I replied, "I have a flagon or two of good old grape juice in the house," and he said, "Have it brought out!" So I sent for it and he exclaimed, "Allah bless you for a generous disposition! But there are still the essences and perfumes." So I bade them set before him a box containing Nadd, the best of compound perfumes, together with fine lign aloes, ambergris and musk unmixed, the whole worth fifty dinars. Now the time grew strait and my heart straitened with it; so I said to him, "Take it all and finish shaving my head by the life of Mohammed (whom Allah bless and keep!)." "By God," he said, "I will not take it till I see all that is in it." So I bade the page open the box and the Barber laid down the astrolabe, leaving the greater part of my head unpolled; and, sitting on the ground, turned over the scents and incense and aloes wood and essences till I was well near distraught. Then he took the razor and coming up to me shaved off some few hairs and repeated these lines
"The boy like his father shall surely show, As the tree from its parent root shall grow.'
Then he said, "By God, O my son, I know not whether to thank you or your father; for my entertainment this day is all due to your bounty and beneficence; and, although none of my company be worthy of it, yet I have a set of honourable men, to wit Zantút the bath keeper and Salí'a the corn chandler; and Sílat the bean seller; and Akrashah the greengrocer;
Tale of the Tailor. 311 and Humayd the scavenger; and Sa'íd the camel man; and Suwayd the porter; and Abu Makárish the bathman; and Kasím the watchman; and Karím the groom. There is not among the whole of them a bore or a bully in his cups; nor a meddler nor a miser of his money, and each and every has some dance which he dances and some of his own couplets which he carols; and the best of them is that, like your servant, your slave here, they know not what much talking is nor what forwardness means. The bath keeper sings to the tom tom a song which enchants; and he stands up and dances and chants,
I am going, O mammy, to fill up my pot.'
As for the corn chandler he brings more skill to it than any; he dances and sings,
'O Keener, O sweetheart, you fallest not short
and he leaves no one's vitals sound for laughing at him. But the scavenger sings so that the birds stop to listen to him and dances and sings,
'News my wife wots is not locked in a box!'
And he has privilege, for 'tis a shrewd rogue and a witty; and speaking of his excellence I am wont to say,
My life for the scavenger! right well I love him, Like a waving bough he is sweet to my sight:
Fate joined us one night, when to him I said,> (The while I grew weak and love gained more might) 'Your love burns my heart!' 'And no wonder,' he said,> 'When the drawer of dung turns a stoker people.'
And indeed each is perfect in whatever can charm the wit with joy and jollity;" adding presently, "But hearing is not seeing; and indeed if you make up your mind to join us and put off going to your friends, 'twill be better for us and for you. The traces of illness are yet upon you and Perhaps you are going among folk who be mighty talkers, men who commune together of what concerns them not; or there may be amongst them some forward fellow who will split your head, and you half your size from sickness." "This shall be for some other day," answered I, and laughed with heart angered: "finish your work and go, in Allah Almighty's guard, to your friends, for they will be expecting your coming." "O my lord," he replied, "I seek only to introduce you to these fellows of infinite mirth, the sons of men of worth, amongst whom there is neither procacity nor dicacity nor loquacity; for never, since I grew to years of discretion, could I endure to consort with one who asks questions concerning what concerns him not, nor have I ever frequented any save those who are, like myself, men of few words. In truth if you were to company with them or even to see them once, you would forsake all your intimates." "Allah fulfil your joyance with them," i said, "needs must I come amongst them some day or other."
But he said, "Would it were this very day, for I had set my heart upon your making one of us; yet if you must go to your friends today, I will take these good things, wherewith you have honoured and favoured me, to my guests and leave them to eat and drink and not wait for me; whilst I will return to you in haste and accompany you to your little party; for there is no ceremony between me and my intimates to prevent my leaving them. Fear not, I will soon be back with you and go with you whithersoever you go. There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great!" I shouted, "Go you to your friends and make merry with them; and do let me go to my and be with them this day, for they expect me." But the Barber cried, "I will not let you go alone;" and I replied, "The truth is none can enter where I am going save myself." He rejoined, "I suspect that today you are for an assignation with some woman, else you had taken me with you; yet am I the right man to take, one who could aid you to the end you wish.
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But I fear me you are running after strange women and you will lose your life; for in this our city of Baghdad one cannot do anything in this line, especially on a day like Friday: our Governor is an angry man and a mighty sharp blade." "Shame on you, you wicked, bad, old man!" cried I, "Be off! What words are these you give me?" "O cold of wit," he cried, "you say to me what is not true and you hide your mind from me, but I know the whole business for certain and I seek only to help you this day with my best endeavour." I was fearful lest my people or my neighbours should hear the Barber's talk, so I kept silence for a long time whilst he finished shaving my head; by which time the hour of prayer was come and the Khutbah, or sermon, was about to follow. When he had done, I said to him, "Go to your friends with their meat and drink, and I will await your return. Then we will fare together." In this way I hoped to pour oil on troubled waters and to trick the accursed loon, so Perhaps I might get quit of him; but he said, "You are cozening me and you would go alone to your appointment and cast yourself into jeopardy, from where there will be no escape for you.
Now By God! And again By God! Do not go till I return, that I may accompany you and watch the issue of yours affair." "So be it," I replied, "do not be long absent." Then he took all the meat and drink I had given him and the rest of it and went out of my house; but the accursed fellow gave it in charge of a porter to carry to his home but hid himself in one of the alleys. As for me I rose on the instant, for the Muezzins had already called the Salam of Friday, the salutation to the Apostle; and I dressed in haste and went out alone and, hurrying to the street, took my stand by the house in which I had seen the young lady.
I found the old woman on guard at the door awaiting me, and went up with her to the upper story, the damsel's apartment. Hardly had I reached it when behold, the master of the house returned from prayers and entering the great saloon, closed the door. I looked down from the window and saw this Barber (Allah's curse upon him!) sitting over against the door and said, "How did this devil find me out?" At this very moment, as Allah had decreed it for rending my veil of secrecy, it so happened that a handmaid of the house master committed some offence for which he beat her. She shrieked out and his slave ran in to intercede for her, whereupon the Kazi beat him to boot, and he also roared out. The damned Barber fancied that it was I who was being beaten; so he also fell to shouting and tore his garments and scattered dust on his head and kept on shrieking and crying "Help! Help!" So the people came round about him and he went on yelling, "My master is being murdered in the Kazi's house!" Then he ran clamouring to my place with the folk after him, and told my people and servants and slaves; and, before I knew what was doing, up they came tearing their clothes and letting loose their hair and shouting, "Alas, our master!"; and this Barber leading the rout with his clothes rent and in sorriest plight; and he also shouting like a madman and saying, "Alas for our murdered master!"
And they all made an assault upon the house in which I was. The Kazi, hearing the yells and the uproar at his door, said to one of his servants, "See what is the matter"; and the man went forth and returned and said, "O my master, at the gate there are more than ten thousand souls what with men and women, and all crying out, 'Alas for our murdered master!'; and they keep pointing to our house." When the Kazi heard this, the matter seemed serious and he grew wroth; so he rose and opening the door saw a great crowd of people; at which he was astounded and said, "O folk! What is there to do?"
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"O accursed! O dog! O hog!" My servants replied; " 'Tis you who have killed our master!" He said, ' 'O good folk, and what has your master done to me that I should kill him?"—
When it was the Thirty first night
Then the Barber, said, "You did beat him and I heard him cry out;" and the Kazi, said, "But what was he doing that I should beat him, and what brought him in to my house; and from where came he and where went he?" "Be not a wicked, perverse old man!" cried the Barber, "for I know the whole story; and the long and short of it is that your daughter is in love with him and he loves her; and when you knew that he had entered the house, you bade your servants beat him and they did so: By God, none shall judge between us and you but the Caliph; or else do you bring out our master that his folk may take him, before they go in and save him Of necessity from your house, and you be put to shame." Then said the Kazi (and his tongue was bridled and his mouth was stopped by confusion before the people), "If you say truth, do you come in and fetch him out." Whereupon the Barber pushed forward and entered the house. When I saw this I looked about for a means of escape and flight, but saw no hiding place except a great chest in the upper chamber where I was.
So I got into it and pulled the lid down upon myself and held my breath. The Barber was hardly in the room before he began to look about for me, then turned him right and left and came straight to the place where I was, and stepped up to the chest and, lifting it on his head, made off as fast as he could. At this, my reason forsook me, for I knew that he would not let me be; so I took courage and opening the chest threw myself to the ground. My leg was broken in the fall, and the door being open I saw a great concourse of people looking in. Now I carried in my sleeve much gold and some silver, which I had provided for an ill day like this and the like of such occasion; so I kept scattering it amongst the folk to divert their attention from me and, whilst they were busy scrambling for it, I set off, hopping as fast as I could, through the by streets of Baghdad, shifting and turning right and left. But whithersoever I went this damned Barber would go in after me, crying aloud, "They would have bereft me of my maa-a-ster! They would have slain him who was a benefactor to me and my family and my friends! Praised be Allah who made me prevail against them and delivered my lord from their hands!"
Then to me, "Where will you go now? You would persist in following yours own evil devices, till you brought yourself to this ill pass; and, had not Allah vouchsafed me to you, never had you escaped this strait into which you have fallen, for they would have cast you into a calamity from where you never could have won free. But I will not call you to account for yours ignorance, as you are so little of wit and inconsequential and addicted to hastiness!" I said to him, "Does not what you have brought upon me suffice you, but you must run after me and talk me such talk in the bazar streets?" And I well near gave up the ghost for excess of rage against him. Then I took refuge in the shop of a weaver In the very middle of the market and sought protection of the owner who drove the Barber away; and, sitting in the back room, I said to myself, "If I return home I shall never be able to get rid of this curse of a Barber, who will be with me night and day; and I cannot endure the sight of him even for a breathing space."
So I sent out at once for witnesses and made a will, dividing the greater part of my property among my people, and appointed a guardian over them, to whom I committed the charge of great and small, directing him to sell my houses and domains. Then I set out on my travels that I might be free of this pimp; and I came to settle in your town where I have lived some time. When you invited me and I came here, the first thing I saw was this accursed pander seated in the place of honour. How then can my heart be glad and my stay be pleasant in company with this fellow who brought all this upon me, and who was the cause of the breaking of my leg and of my exile from home and native land? And the youth refused to sit down and went away. When we heard his story (continued the Tailor) we were amazed beyond measure and amused and said to the Barber,
"By God, it true what this young man says of you?" "By God," he replied, "I dealt thus by him of my courtesy and sound sense and generosity. Had it not been for me he had perished and none but I was the cause of his escape. Well it was for him that he suffered in his leg and not in his life! Had I been a man of many words, a meddler, a busy body, I had not acted thus kindly by him; but now I will tell you a tale which befell me, that you may be well assured I am a man sparing of speech in whom is no forwardness and a very different person from those six Brothers of mine; and this it is."