The Morals of Dervishes
STORY LXXI
Having become tired of my friends in Damascus, I went into the desert of Jerusalem and associated with animals, till the time when I became a prisoner of the Franks, who put me to work with infidels in digging the earth of a moat in Tarapolis, when one of the chiefs of Aleppo, with whom I had formerly been acquainted, recognised me, and said: "What state is this?" I recited:
"I fled from men to mountain and desert,
Wishing to attend upon no one but God;
Imagine what my state at present is,
When I must be satisfied in a stable of wretches."
The feet in chains with friends is better than to be friends with strangers in a garden.
He took pity on my state and ransomed me for ten dinârsfrom the captivity of the Franks, taking me to Aleppo, where he had a daughter, and married me to her, with a dowry of one hundred dinârs. After some time had elapsed, she turned out to be ill-humoured, quarrelsome, disobedient, abusive in her tongue, and embittering my life. A bad wife in a good man's home is his hell in this world already. Alas for a bad consort, alas! Preserve us, O Lord, from this punishment of fire.
One she lengthened her tongue of reproach, and said: "Art thou not the man whom my father purchased from the Franks for ten dinârs?"
I replied: " Yes, he bought me for ten dinârs, and sold me into thy hands for one hundred dinârs."
I heard that a sheep had by a great man been rescued from the
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