The Morals of Dervishes
STORY LVII
A bareheaded and barefooted pedestrian who had arrived from Kufah with the Hejâz-caravan [of pilgrims] joined us, strutted about, and recited: "I am neither riding a camel nor under a load like a camel; I am neither a lord of subjects nor the slave of a potentate; grief for the present, or distress for the past, does not trouble me; I draw my breath in comfort and then spend my life.
A camel-driver shouted to him: "O Dervish! Where art thou going? Return! for thou wilt expire from hardships."
He paid no attention, but entered the desert and marched.
When we reached the [station at the] palm-grove of Mahmûd, the rich man was on the point of death, and the Dervish, approaching his pillow, said: "We have not expired from hardships, but thou hast died on a dromedary."
A man wept all night near the head of a patient; when the day dawned he died, and the patient revived. Many a fleet charger has fallen dead, while a lame ass has reached the station alive. Often healthy persons were in the soil buried, and the wounded did not die.
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