252
had a son or two or more, and I said to myself, “He who took thy father will not spare thee.” Now the night I wedded thee, thou madest me swear that I would never take a second wife nor a concubine, Abyssinian or Greek or other, nor would lie a night from thee: and behold, thou art barren, and swiving thee is like boring into the rock.’ ‘God is my witness,’ rejoined she, ‘that the fault lies with thee, for that thy seed is thin.’ ‘And how is it with him whose seed is thin?’ asked he, and she, ‘He cannot get women with child nor beget children.’ ‘What thickens seed?’ asked he. ‘Tell me and I will try it: haply, it will thicken mine.’ Quoth she, ‘Enquire for it of the druggists.’ They slept that night and arose on the morrow, repenting each of having spoken angrily to the other. Then he went to the market and accosting a druggist, said to him, ‘Hast thou wherewithal to thicken the seed?’ ‘I had it, but am spent of it,’ answered the druggist; ‘ask my neighbour.’ So Shemseddin made the round of the bazaar, till he had asked every one; but they all laughed at him and he returned to his shop and sat down, troubled. Now there was in the market a man called Sheikh Mohammed Semsem, who was syndic of the brokers and was given to the use of opium and bang and hashish. He was poor and used to wish Shemseddin good morrow every day; so he came to him according to his wont and saluted him. The merchant returned his salute, and the other, seeing him vexed, said to him, ‘O my lord, what hath crossed thee?’ Quoth Shemseddin, ‘These forty years have I been married to my wife, yet hath she borne me neither son nor daughter; and I am told that the cause of my failure to get her with child is the thinness of my seed; so I have been seeking wherewithal to thicken it, but found it not.’ ‘I have a thickener,’ said Sheikh Mohammed; ‘but what wilt thou say to him who makes thy wife conceive by thee, after forty years’ barrenness?
