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thou gavest me! None but thou made me light on this second ape: and for that thou gavest me good-morrow with thy one eye and thy lameness,[1] I am become distressed and weary, without dirhem or dinar.’ So saying, he took a stick and flourishing it thrice in the air, was about to bring it down upon the lame ape, when it cried out for mercy and said to him, ‘I conjure thee, by Allah, spare me for this my fellow’s sake and seek of him thy need; for he will guide thee to thy desire!’
So he held his hand from him and throwing down the stick, went up to the second ape, who said to him, ‘O Khelifeh, this [my] speech[2] will profit thee nothing, except thou hearken to what I say to thee; but, if thou do my bidding and cross me not, I will be the means of thine enrichment.’ ‘And what hast thou to say to me,’ asked Khelifeh, ‘that I may obey thee therein?’ ‘Go and cast thy net a third time,’ replied the ape; ‘and after I will tell thee what to do.’ So he took his net and going down to the river, cast it once more and waited awhile. Then he drew it in and finding it heavy, laboured at it till he got it ashore, when he found in it yet another ape; but this one was red, with a blue waistcloth about his middle; his hands and feet were stained with henna and his eyes blackened with kohl.
When Khelifeh saw this, he exclaimed, ‘Glory to God the Great! Extolled be the perfection of the Lord of Dominion! This is indeed a blessed day from first to last: its ascendant was fortunate in the countenance of
- ↑ All semi-civilized nations, and particularly those of the East, attach great importance to omens of this kind, and few superstitions are more widely prevalent than the belief that the first object seen in the morning governs the fortunes of the day for good or evil. The Arabs consider it especially unlucky to meet a one-eyed person or cripple on such occasions.
- ↑ i.e. that which I am about to tell thee.
