Part 34 (1/2)
”Khosh amedeid! you are welcome,” said the pacha, as Menouni made his low obeisance ”Now let us have another story I don't care how long it is, only let us have no h to tire the patience of a dervish”
”Your sublihness shall be obeyed,” replied Menouni ”Would it please you to hear the story of Yussuf, the Water-Carrier?”
”Yes, that sounds better You may proceed”
THE WATER-CARRIER
May it please your highness, it so happened that the great Haroun Alraschid was one night seized with one of those fits of sleepless melancholy hich it had pleased Allah to temper his splendid destiny, and which fits are, indeed, the common lot of those who are raised by fortune above the ordinary fears and vicissitudes of life
”I can't say that I ever have them,” observed the pacha ”How is that, Mustapha?”
”Your highness has as undoubted a right to the, ”but if Idown to the ear of the pacha, ”you have discovered the re water of the _Giaour_”
”Very true,” replied the pacha; ”Haroun Alraschid, if I recollect right, was very strict in his observances of the precepts of the Koran After all, he was but a pastek--a water-melon You may proceed, Menouni”
The caliph, oppressed, as I before observed to your highness, with this fit of melancholy, despatched Mesrour for his chief vizier, Giaffar Bermuki, who, not unaccustomed to this nocturnal summons, speedily presented himself before the commander of the faithful ”Father of true believers! descendant of the Prophet!” said the minister, with a profound obeisance, ”thy slave waits but to hear, and hears but to obey”
”Giaffar,” replied the caliph, ”I a inquietude, and would fain have thee devise some means for my relief
Speak--what sayest thou?”
”Hasten, O azing on the brightto the voice of the bul-bul, you will await in pleasing contemplation the return of the sun”
”Not so,” replied the caliph
”By the beard of the Prophet! the caliph was right, and that Giaffar was a fool I never heard that staring at the moon was an aed the caliph ”My gardens, my palaces, and my possessions, are no more to me a source of pleasure”
”By the sword of the Prophet! now the caliph appears to be the fool,”
interrupted the pacha
”Shall we then repair to the Hall of the Ancients, and pass the night in reviving the s are stored therein?”
continued Giaffar
”Counsel avails not,” replied the caliph; ”the records of the past will not suffice to banish the cares of the present”
”Then,” said the vizier, ”will the Light of the world seek refuge froo forth with the humblest of his slaves to witness the condition of his people?”
”Thou hast said well,” replied the caliph; ”I will go with thee into the bazaar, and witness, unknown, the amusements of my people after the labours of the day”
Mesrour, the chief eunuch, was at hand, and hastened for the needful disguises After having clad theed their faces of an olive hue, the caliph, accompanied by Giaffar and Mesrour, the latter armed with a scilio Giaffar, who knew from experience the quarter likely to prove most fertile in adventure, led the caliph past the e of Boats over the Tigris, continued his way to that part of the city on the Mesopotamian side of the river, which was inhabited by the wine-sellers and others, who adularities, as well as to the wants, of the good people of Bagdad For a short ti anybody; but passing through a narrow alley, their steps were arrested by the sound of aThe caliph waited awhile, in expectation of its ceasing; but he ht apparently have waited until dawn of day, for verse was poured forth after verse; a s of liquor froth, his patience being exhausted, the caliph ordered Mesrour to knock loudly at the singer's dwelling Hearing the noise, the fellow opened the jalousie, and ca down, and perceiving the three interrupters of his mirth, he bawled out--”What rascals are you that disturb an honest one!--fly!--aith you, scum of the earth!”