Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 4, 1893.djvu/207

till one day he said to himself: "I have now become a king, let me go to the court-house and see what law and justice are." When he came there he sees the wazir sitting on a throne; so he came up, thinking he would sit on the throne with the wazir, but the wazir said: "Keep off! You are a goatherd, and have a goatherd's wit!" He turned back and went home. Next day he went again while the wazir was seated on the throne, and again the wazir told him to get away, and that day also he went home. The third day he came again, and the wazir again spoke as before. Then the goatherd struck the wazir, and drove him away, and threw him off the throne, and cast him forth out of the town. The wazir fled away, and the goat-herd exercised the royal sway, and sat upon the throne. The wazir became poor and hungry, and one day he went out and sat on the river-bank. He sees a flower come floating down on the water, and he put out his hand and pulled it out. He saw it was a flower of heavenly beauty, and thought he would take it to the king, and perchance he would show him some favour. So he took it to the king, and the king took it into his house and gave it to his wives. The two wives began to quarrel about the flower, each one saying, "I will have it." The king came back to the wazir, and said: "Bring me another flower like this by to-morrow morning, or I will rip you up." The wazir returned, and sat down on the river-bank, thinking, "Where can I find another such flower?" He sat there all day, and passed the night there too. When the sun rose in the morning, he said to himself: "Now there is no way back for me; if I go back the king will rip me up; rather than go back to die, I will here and now jump into the river." With that he threw himself into the river. When he got to the bottom he sees a heavenly garden laid out, and, going on, he sees a lordly fort built there. He went in, and there, God be praised! the Holy Prophet was holding his court, and the goatherd who had become the new king was standing before him, and fanning him to keep off flies!