Story CVI
STORY CVI
An Arab suffering in the desert from extreme thirst recited: "Would that before my death I could one day enjoy my wish that a river's waves might strike my knee and I might fill my water-bag."
In the same manner another traveler lost himself in an extensive region, having neither any strength nor food left; but he possessed some money, and roamed about, and, the road leaving him nowhere, he perished from exhaustion. Some people afterwards discovered his corpse, with the money in front of it, and the following written on the ground:
If possessed of all the Ja'feri gold[1]
It will avail nothing to a hungry man.
To a poor man burnt in the desert
Boiled turnips are more valuable than pure silver.
- ↑ Ja'feri gold is said to be pure gold, so called after Ja'fer, who was an alchemist. According to others, however, it was thus named after Ja'fer Barmeki, the famous vizier of Hârûn-al-Rashid, before whose time it had been customary to alloy gold, but that when he became vizier he commanded money to be coined fo pure gold only, which was then called after his name.
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