“Bear patiently, my soul may be thy ransom, what thou hast met of sorrow and of anguish,

May not for long the time of parting last, nor flag the beasts that bring us to reunion;

Through aid of God, the Mighty, the Creator.”

Then he said to him: “I commend thee to the keeping of one who is a good master,” and tucked up his skirt and turned away. But the lad remained sobbing and wailing until the other might have gone the length of a mile, and when he had recovered himself and stopped the flow of his tears, he said: “Dost thou know for what I have wailed and what has been my object therein?” I said: “It is, I trow, the separation from thy master which has made thee weep.” Said he: “Thou art in one valley, and I am in another, and what a distance there is between a wisher and his wish.” Then he indited:

“By Allah, weeping was I not for friend departed, nor eke for loss of any pleasure or delight,

But tears were flowing from my eyelids for a fool, whose eyes, though opened wide, led into pitfalls him,

So that he came to grief and was sadly disgraced, and lost his white engraven ones, his lustrous coin.

Woe thee, have not those subtle words warned thee enough, that I was free, and hence not lawful was my sale?

For clear as daylight should it be what Joseph meant.”

Now I looked at his speech as a thing seen in the mirror of one who jests, or the exhibition of one indulging in pleasantry, but he waxed obstinate [restive] with the obstinacy [restiveness] of one who claims a right, and protested not to be tainted with the clay of servile condition; so we jostled about in an altercation which terminated in fisticuffs and led to an appeal to the judge. When we had explained the case to the Kadi, and read to him our Sura, he said: “Indeed, he who has warned has excused himself, he who has put one on his guard is like one who has given information, he who has made one see the state of affairs, has done no damage. Now what you both have said in explanation, demonstrates that this lad has tried to rouse thee, but thou wouldst not be awaked, and has advised thee, but thou wouldst not understand; therefore veil the ailment of thy stupidity and hide it, and blame thyself, but blame not him; beware to lay hold on him, and to wish to make him thy slave, for he is free of body, and not subject to be exposed for sale. It was only yesterday that his father brought him into my presence, a little while before sunset, declaring him to be his branch that he had grown, and that he had no heir but him.” Then I said to the Kadi: “And knowest thou his father? may Allah put him to shame!” He replied: “How should Abû Zayd be unknown for whose wound there is no retaliation, and of whom every Kadi has stories to tell and proclamation to make.” Then I gnashed my teeth in anger and said, “There is no power and no strength, but in Allah, the Exalted, the Great,” becoming wide awake, but when the time had slipped, and making sure that his face-veil was a net of his cunning, and the crowning couplet of his poem. So my mishap made me cast down my looks, and I swore that I would never again deal with the bearer of a face-veil as long as I lived, bewailing all the while my losing bargain, and the shame to which I should be put amongst my comrades. Then the Kadi said to me, when he saw my distress and became clearly aware of the brunt of my burning grief: “Ay such a one, thy loss has given thee a lesson, and he who has roused [awakened] thy wits, has not done thee an injury; take then warning by thy adventure and conceal from thy friends what has befallen thee; remember always what has occurred to thee, so as to keep in mind the admonition which thy money has administered thee and mould thyself after the disposition of one who has been tried and shown patience and who has profited by the examples set before him.” Said Al Ḥârith, son of Hammâm: Thereupon I took leave from him, donning the raiment of shame and sorrow and trailing my skirt of defrauded folly, and I purposed to show Abû Zayd my aversion by shunning him, and to cut him for the remainder of my life, deliberately keeping aloof from his abode, and avoiding to see him, until he came upon me in a narrow path, and welcomed me with the welcome of an affectionate friend, though all I did was to frown at him and keep silent. Then he said: “What ails thee that thou turnest up thy nose at thy mate?” Answered I: “Hast thou forgotten that thou hast plotted against me, and cheated me, and done the thing which thou hast done?” Then he puffed his cheek and cracked it at me in derision, after which he indited appeasingly:

“O thou who show’st estrangement and curl’st up thy brow in savage scowl,

And featherest the shafts of blame that hit as hard, nay, harder, than arrows sharp

And sayest who sells a free-born man, as a nigger is sold or a dusky nag,

Cut short thy say, and know I am not the first therein as thou seem’st to think:

Heretofore the tribes sold Joseph, though they were what people know they were.

So it is; and by the holy house that in Tihâmeh is visited

And those who circumambulate it, emaciated, with ashen locks,

Not had I stood in this place of shame, I swear it, if I owned a coin.

So excuse thy brother, and bother not with the blame of one who ignores the facts.”

Thereupon he said: “My excuse is plain and thy dirhems are gone. But if thy shrinking from me and thy aversion towards me arises from the excess of thy tender concern for the remainder of thy pelf, I am not of those who sting twice and make one tread upon two cinders, and if thou art cross and givest way to thy stinginess, in order to escape the bait that hangs in my nets, the mourning-women will weep over thy wits.” Said Al Hârith, son of Hammâm: So he deluded me by his deceitful utterance and his powerful sorcery into turning his friend and becoming attached to him again, flinging the remembrance of his exploit behind me, though it was an abominable thing.