صفحة 509 من 1116

So I left my house and betaking me to my shop sat there buying

and selling; and about midday behold, a great ugly black slave,

long as a lance and broad as a bench, passed by my shop holding

in hand one of the three apples wherewith he was playing. Quoth

I, "O my good slave, tell me whence thou tookest that apple, that

I may get the like of it?" He laughed and answered, "I got it

from my mistress, for I had been absent and on my return I found

her lying ill with three apples by her side, and she said to me,

'My horned wittol of a husband made a journey for them to

Bassorah and bought them for three dinars.' So I ate and drank

with her and took this one from her." [FN#359] When I heard such

words from the slave, O Commander of the Faithful, the world grew

black before my face, and I arose and locked up my shop and went

home beside myself for excess of rage.