There was once a merchant man, who prospered in trade, and at one time his every dirham won him fifty. Presently, his luck turned against him and he knew it not; so he said to him self, "I have wealth galore, yet do I toil and travel from country to country; so better had I abide in my own land and rest myself in my own house from this travail and trouble and sell and buy at home." Then he made two parts of his money, and with one bought wheat in summer, saying, "Whenas winter comes, I shall sell it at a great profit." But, when the cold set in wheat fell to half the price for which he had purchased it, at which he was concerned with sore chagrin and left it till the next year. However, the price then fell yet lower and one of his intimates said to him, "You have no luck in this wheat; so do you sell it at whatever price." Said the merchant, "Ah, long have I profited! So 'tis allowable that I lose this time. Allah is all knowing! If it abide with me ten full years, I will not sell it save for a gaining bargain:"

Then he walled up in his anger the granary door with clay, and by the ordinance of Allah Almighty, there came a great rain and descended from the terrace roofs of the house in which was the wheat so that the grain rotted; and the merchant had to pay the porters from his purse five hundred dirhams for them to carry it forth and cast it without the city, the smell of it having become fulsome. So his friend said to him, "How often did I tell you you had no luck in wheat? But you would not give ear to my speech, and now it behoves you to go to the astrologer and question him of yours ascendant." Accordingly the trader betook himself to the astrologer and questioned him of his star, and astrophil said to him, "Yours ascendant is adverse. Put not forth your hand to any business, for you will not prosper by that." However, he paid no heed to the astrologer's words and said in himself, "If I do my business, I am not afraid of anything." Then he took the other half of his money, after he had spent the first in three years, and builded him a ship, which he loaded with a cargaison of whatever seemed good to him and all that was with him and embarked on the sea, so he might voyage questing gain.

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The ship remained in port some days, till he should be certified where he would go, and he said, "I will ask the traders what this merchandise profits and in what land 'tis wanted and how much can it gain." They directed him to a far country, where his dirham should produce an hundredfold. So he set sail and made for the land in question; but, as he went, there blew on him a furious gale, and the ship foundered. The merchant saved him self on a plank and the wind cast him up, naked as he was, on the sea shore, where stood a town close by. He praised Allah and gave Him thanks for his preservation; then, seeing a great village near hand, he betook himself there and saw, seated within it, a very old man, whom he acquainted with his case and that which had happened him. The Shaykh grieved for him with sore grieving, when he heard his tale and set food before him. He ate of it and the old man said to him, "Tarry here with me, so I may make you my overseer and factor over a farm I have here, and you will have of me five dirhams a day."

Answered the merchant, "Allah make fair your reward, and requite you with His boons and bounties." So he abode in this employ, till he had sowed and reaped and threshed and winnowed, and all was clean in his hand and the Shaykh appointed neither agent nor inspector, but relied utterly upon him. Then the merchant bethought himself and said, "I doubt me the owner of this grain will never give me my due; so the better counsel were to take of it after the measure of my wage; and if he give me my right, I will return to him that I have taken." So he laid hands upon the grain, after the measure of that which fell to him, and hid it in a hiding place. Then he carried the rest and meted it out to the old man, who said to him, "Come, take your wage, for which I conditioned with you, and sell the grain and buy with the price clothes and what not else; and though you abide with me ten years, yet will you still have this hire and I will acquit it to you in this way." the merchant said to himself, "Indeed, I have done a foul deed by taking it without his permission." Then he went to fetch that which he had hidden of the grain, but found it not and returned, perplexed and sorrowful, to the Shaykh, who asked him, "What ails you to be mournful?" and he answered, "I thought you would not pay me my due;

so I took of the grain, after the measure of my hire; and now you have paid me all my right and I went to bring back to you that which I had hidden from you, but found it gone, for those who had come upon it have stolen it." The Shaykh was wroth, when he heard these words, and said to the merchant, "There is no device against ill luck! I had given you this but, of the sorriness of your doom and your fortune, you have done this deed, O oppressor of yours own self! You deemedst I would not fulfil to you your wage; but, By God, nevermore will I give you anything." Then he drove him away from him. So the merchant went forth, woeful, grieving, weeping eyed, and wandered along the sea shore, till he came to a sort of duckers diving in the sea for pearls. They saw him weeping and wailing and said to him, "What is your case and what makes you shed tears?" So he acquainted them with his history, from beginning to end, by which the duckers knew him and asked him, "Are you such an one, son of such an one?"

He answered, "Yes;" whereupon they condoled with him and wept sore for him and said to him, "Abide here till we dive upon your luck this next time and whatever betids us shall be between us and you." Accordingly, they ducked and brought up ten oyster shells, in each two great unions: at which they marvelled and said to him, "By God, your luck has reappeared and your good star is in the ascendant!" Then the pearl fishers gave him the ten pearls and said to him, "Sell two of them and make them your stock in trade: and hide the rest against the time of your straitness." So he took them, joyful and contented, and applied himself to sewing eight of them in his gown, keeping the two others in his mouth; but a thief saw him and went and advertised his fellows of him; whereupon they gathered together upon him, and took his gown and departed from him. When they were gone away, he arose, saying, "The two unions I have will suffice me," and made for the nearest city, where he brought out the pearls for sale. Now as Destiny would have it, a certain jeweller of the town had been robbed of ten unions, like those which were with the merchant; so, when he saw the two pearls in the broker's hand, he asked him, "To whom do these belong?" and the broker answered,

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"To that man." The jeweller, seeing the merchant in pauper case and clad in tattered clothes, suspected him and said to him, "Where be the other eight pearls?" The merchant thought he asked him of those which were in the gown, whenas the man had purposed only to surprise him into confession, and replied, "The thieves stole them from me." When the jeweller heard his reply, he was certified that it was the people who had taken his good; so he laid hold of him and haling him before the Chief of Police, said to him, "This is the man who stole my unions: I have found two of them upon him and he confesses to the other eight." Now the Wall knew of the theft of the pearls; so he bade throw the merchant into jail. Accordingly they imprisoned him and whipped him, and he lay in trunk a whole year, till, by the ordinance of Allah Almighty, the Chief of Police arrested one of the divers aforesaid, and imprisoned him in the prison where the merchant was jailed. The ducker saw him and knowing him, questioned him of his case; whereupon he told them his tale, and that which had befallen him; and the diver marvelled at the lack of his luck. So, when he came forth of the prison, he acquainted the Sultan with the merchant's case and told him that it was he who had given him the pearls. The Sultan bade bring him forth of the jail, and asked him of his story, whereupon he told him all that had befallen him, and the Sovran pitied him and assigned him a lodging in his own palace, together with pay and allowances for his support.

Now the lodging in question adjoined the king's house, and whilst the merchant was rejoicing in this and saying, "Truly, my luck has returned, and I shall live in the shadow of this king for the rest of my life," he espied an opening walled up with clay and stones. So he cleared the opening the better to see what was behind it, and behold, it was a window giving upon the lodging of the king's women. When he saw this, he was startled and affrighted and rising in haste, fetched clay and stopped it up again.

But one of the eunuchs saw him, and suspecting him, repaired to the Sultan, and told him of this. So he came and seeing the stones pulled out, was wroth

The Story Of The Merchant Who Lost His Luck. 51 with the merchant and said to him, "Be this my reward from you, that you seek to unveil my Harim?" Thereupon he bade pluck out his eyes; and they did as he commanded. The merchant took his eyes in his hand and said, "How long, O star of ill omen, will you afflict me? First my wealth and now my life!" And he bewailed himself, saying, "Striving profits me nothing against evil fortune. The Compassionate aided me not, and effort was worse than useless." "On like wise, O king," continued the youth, "whilst fortune was favourable to me, all that I did came to good; but now that it has turned against me, everything turns to my ill." When the youth had made an end of his tale, the king's anger subsided a little, and he said, "Return him to the prison, for the day draws to an end, and tomorrow we will look into his affair, and punish him for his ill deeds."

The Second Day