Another lively scene of fictitious altercation between Abû Zayd, who for once has assumed the popular character of a cupper, and his precocious son, for the purpose of replenishing their exhausted pockets. The chief merit of the composition lies again in the marvellous forcibleness and comprehensiveness of diction, which runs through all the notes of the oratorial scale, from outspoken vulgarity redeemed by an amusing touch of quaintness in the numerous proverbial sayings, to the enouncement of sublime moral precepts in the most elaborate forms of versification. To quote one instance of the latter, there is a poem of considerable length, the permanent rhyme of which consists of two words, consecutive words each time, of exactly the same sound, but totally different meaning, as: Iẕâ mâ ’ltahabat aḥshâ’u-hu bi ’t̤-t̤awá t̤awá, “when his entrails burn with hunger (t̤awá), he bears it silently” (t̤awá). That Ḥarîri himself attached some value and importance to this Assembly, may be gathered from the fact, that he accompanied it with a short com­mentary of his own, the substance of which will be found embodied in the notes to this volume.

Al Ḥârith, son of Hammâm, related: I needed a cupping, while I was staying in Hajr al-Yemâmeh, and accordingly was directed to a Shaykh who cupped skilfully. So I sent my slave-boy to summon him into my presence and kept waiting for him, but he was slow to return after he had gone, so that I began to fancy that he had run away, or met with accident after accident. Then he came back like one who has failed in his errand and disappointed his master. Said I to him: “Woe betide thee, for the tardiness of Find, and thy fire-shaft missing to give a spark.” Then he pre­tended that the Shaykh was busier than the woman of the two butter-bags and in the midst of a battle like the battle of Hunain. Now I loathed to go to a cupper’s place, and I was at a loss between sallying forth and lagging behind. Finally I saw that there was no rebuke upon him who goes to the privy. Thereupon, when I had reached his shop and got sight of his face, I perceived an old man of cleanly aspect, surrounded by ring upon ring of onlookers and throng upon throng [of customers]. Before him stood a youth like [the sharp sword] Ṣamṣâmah, about to be cupped, the Shaykh saying to him: “I see thou hast stretched forth thy head, before thou bringest out thy scrap, and hast offered me thy nape without saying to me ‘This is for thee.’ But I am not of those who sell ready goods for owed money, nor look out for the shadow after the substance. So if thou dole out thy coin, thou wilt be cupped in both thy neck-veins, but if thou deem stinting better, and hoarding more becoming in thyself, then read the Sura, ‘he frowned and turned away,’ and vanish from out of my sight, or else” Then the youth said: “By Him who has forbidden the forging of lies, as He has forbidden the chase in the two sacred precincts, I am more penniless than the babe two days old, so trust to the flow of my mountain slope, and grant me a delay until times have mended with me.” Said the Shaykh to him: “Fair promises are like the shoot of a tree, that has an equal chance that it perish, or that the fresh date be gathered from it. So what will teach me, whether I am to reap fruit from thy tree, or to derive from it an ailment? Furthermore what relying is there that, when thou hast gotten thyself far away, thou wilt fulfil what thou promisest? For in sooth, treachery has become as the whiteness in a horse’s forefeet amongst the adorn­ments of this generation, so rid me, by Allah, of thy bothering, and take thee off to where the wolf howls.” Then the lad advanced towards him, overcome with shame, and said: “By Allah, none breaks faith, save the mean, the contemptible, and none resorts to the pond of treachery but the worthless, and if thou knewest who I am, thou wouldst not let me hear ribald talk; but thou hast spoken in ignorance, and where it behoved thee to prostrate thyself, thou hast foully aspersed, and how abject are exile and poverty, and how beautiful is the speech of him who said:

“The stranger, who trails his skirt pompously, meets but with scorn, how will he fare then abroad, if food and drink fail him?

But no distress brings disgrace upon the high-minded man: camphor and musk, well ye know, though pounded spread fragrance,

The ruby is often tried in Ghaḍa-fire’s fiercest glow, the fire abates but the ruby still remains ruby.”

Said the Shaykh to him: “O thou bane of thy father, who causest thy kindred to wail, art thou in a place to brag of, and of an account to be blazed forth? or in the place of a hide to be flayed, and of a nape to be cupped? And granted thy house be such as thou claimest, results therefrom the cupping of the hind-part of thy neck? By Allah, if thy father lorded it over Abd al-Manâf, or if ‘Abd al-Madân humbled himself to thy maternal uncle, hammer not cold iron, and seek not that which thou wilt not find, and boast when thou boastest, of thy belongings, not of thy forefathers, and of thy gatherings, not of the roots from which thou springest, and of thy own qualities, not of thy rotten bones, and of thy valuables, not of thy pedigree. Yield not to thy ambition or it will abase thee [bring thee to fall], nor follow thy lust lest it lead thee astray. I commend to Allah him who said to his son:

“Be upright, my dear son, for the straight tree will spread its roots, whereas, when it grows crooked it speedily pines away,

Obey not abasing greed, but behave as a man who bears in silence the pangs of hunger, that gnaw at his vital parts;

And battle against lust that destroys thee, for many who had soared to the stars, enslaved by lust, fell and came to grief.

Be helpful to thy kinsfolk, for shameful it is to see the pinch of distress in those depending upon the free.

And keep to the friend who when the times turn their back on thee, betrays not, but proves faithful, when matters go wrong with thee.

And pardon if thou art strong, for no good is in a man who needlessly wounds, when power of wounding is in his grasp

And guard thee of complaining, thou hearest no man of sense complain, but the fool, who snarls and growls while he checks himself.”

Then the lad said to the onlookers: “How wonderful! What a strange rarity! the nose in the sky and the rump in the water; words sweet as wine and deeds hard as flint stone.” Then he assailed the Shaykh with a sharp tongue and in burning rage, saying: “Out upon thee for a fashioner of fine speeches, who swerves from the road of kindliness. Thou preachest benevo­lence and actest with the ruthlessness of the cat. And if the briskness of thy trade is the cause of thy crustiness, then may Allah strike it with slackness and allow it to be spoiled by thy enviers, until thou art seen more bereft of customers than the cupper of Sâbât̤, and narrower, as far as thy livelihood is concerned, than the eye of the needle.” Said the Shaykh to him: “Nay, may Allah visit thee with blisters all over thy mouth, and heat of the blood, until thou art driven to a cupper of mighty roughness, heavy in charges, with blunt cupping-knives, snotty and breaking wind at every moment.” Now, when the youth saw that he was com­plaining to one who would not be silenced, and intent on opening a door that would be kept locked, he desisted from bandying words and made ready for departure. But the Shaykh knew that he deserved blame for what he had said to the youth. So he felt inclined to pacify him, and vouchsafed to submit to his claim and not to ask a fee for cupping him. The lad, however, would not hear but of going and fleeing from his presence, and the twain ceased not from argument and abuse, and tugging each other about, until the youth quaked from the strife and his sleeves got torn. Then he cried aloud over his exceedingly great loss, and the rending of his honour and his rags, while the Shaykh began to make excuses for his excesses, and to quiet the other’s tears. But the youth would not listen to his apologies nor abate his weeping until the Shaykh said to him: “May thy uncle (meaning himself) be thy ransom, and that which grieves thee pass over. Art thou not tired of wailing? Wilt thou not learn forbearance? Hast thou not heard of him, who exercised forgiveness, taking after the speech of him who said:

“Quench by thy mercy the fire of anger that recklessly a churl has kindled in thee, and pardon his trespass,

For mercy is far the best of jewels that grace the wise, and sweetest fruit, culled by man, is ready forgiveness.”

Then the youth said to him: “Forsooth, if thou wert to look at my sordid life, thou wouldst excuse my flowing tears. But the smooth-skinned make light of what the back-sore feels.” Then it was as if he became ashamed, and he left off weeping, regaining his com­posure, and he said to the Shaykh: “I have now con­formed with thy wish, so patch up what thou hast rent.” Said the Shaykh: “Get thee gone! thou over-taxest the flow of the streamlets of my bounty: spy for another’s lightning, than mine.” Then he rose to go from row to row, and begged for the gift of the standers-by, inditing while he was wending his way between them:

“I swear by Mecca’s holy house, whither flock in pilgrim’s garb the pious from far and wide:

If I possessed but food for one day, my hand would never touch the lancet or cupping-cup.

Nor would my soul, that craves for fair fame with men, con­tentedly put up with this sign of trade,

Nor had this youth complained of harshness from me or felt the lacerating prick of my sting.

But, lack-a-day, foul fortune’s fell fitfulness, left me to grope my way in pitch-darkest night

And poverty brought me to such piteous pass: the blazing pit of hell I would fain prefer!

Is there a man then whom compassion impels, and tender feelings prompt to prove kind to me?”

Said Al Ḥârith, son of Hammâm: Thereupon I was the first to commiserate with his misfortune, and doled out to him two dirhems, saying [within myself], “They are of no account, even though he should be a liar.” So he rejoiced at the first-fruit of his gathering, and augured well from them for the obtainment of what he needed; and the dirhems ceased not to pour upon him, and to come to him from all sides, until he had become possessed of verdant plenty, and a well-filled saddle­bag. Then he cheered up at this, and congratulated himself on the event, saying to the youth: “This is a spring-growth of thy sowing, and a milk-flow of which one half belongs to thee; come then to take thy share, and be not abashed.” Thus they divided the money between them to the nicety with which the fruit of the dwarf palm splits in two, and rose in perfect agreement, and when the bond of conciliation was tied between them, and the Shaykh bethought himself of going, I said to him: “My blood is heated, and I had directed my steps to thee, so wouldst thou please to cup me and rid me of my ailment?” Then he turned his glance upon me and scanned me sharply, whereupon he came close up to me and indited:

“What think’st thou of my cunning and beguiling, and what occurred ’twixt me and my kid yonder?

That I come off as victor in the contest, and feed on fertile meadows after famine?

Tell me, my heart’s core, tell me, pray, by Allah, hast ever thou set eyes upon one like me?

To open by my spell each fastened padlock? to captivate all minds by charm of witchcraft?

To blend the serious with the sportive humour? If Al Iskandarî has been before me,

The dew precedes the shower, but the shower excels the dew in fructifying bounty.”

Said the narrator: Then his poetry roused my atten­tion and made me perceive that he was our Shaykh, whom every finger points out. So I rebuked him for his lowering himself and stooping to self-abasement. But he took no notice of what he heard, and minded not my rebuke, saying: “Any shoe suits the bare-footed who walks on flints.” Wherewith he stepped away from me contemptuously, and started off, he and his son, like two racehorses.