THE BOOK OF THE THOUSAND NIGHTS AND ONE NIGHT.
THE MERCHANT OF OMAN.
The Khalif Haroun er Reshid was one night exceeding wakeful; so he called Mesrour and said to him, ‘Fetch me Jaafer in haste.’ Accordingly, he went out and returned with the vizier, to whom said the Khalif, ‘O Jaafer, wakefulness hath gotten hold of me this night and forbiddeth sleep from me, nor know I what shall do it away from me.’ ‘O Commander of the Faithful,’ answered Jaafer, ‘the wise say, “Looking on a mirror, entering the bath and hearkening unto song do away care and chagrin.”’ ‘O Jaafer,’ rejoined Haroun, ‘I have done all this, but it hath brought me no whit of relief, and I swear by my pious forefathers, except thou contrive that which shall do away this [restlessness] from me, I will strike off thy head.’
Quoth Jaafer, ‘O Commander of the Faithful, wilt thou do that which I shall counsel thee?’ ‘And what is that?’ asked the Khalif. ‘It is,’ replied the vizier, ‘that thou take boat with us and drop down the Tigris with the tide to a place called Kern es Serat, so haply we may hear or see some new thing, for it is said, “The solace of care is in one of three things; to wit, that a man see what he never before saw or hear what he never yet heard or tread an earth he hath never yet trodden.” It may be this shall be the means of doing away thy restlessness, O Commander of the Faithful, if it be the will of God the Most High.
