صفحة 718 من 1116

Is thy hand thus by the creation of God or hath some accident

befallen it?" "O my brothers," he answered, "it is not only thus

with this thumb, but also with my other thumb and with both my

great toes, as you shall see." So saying he uncovered his left

hand and his feet, and we saw that the left hand was even as the

right and in like manner that each of his feet lacked its great

toe. When we saw him after this fashion, our amazement waxed

still greater and we said to him, "We have hardly patience enough

to await thy history and to hear the manner of the cutting off of

thy thumbs, and the reason of thy washing both hands one hundred

and twenty times." Know then, said he, that my father was chief

of the merchants and the wealthiest of them all in Baghdad city

during the reign of the Caliph Harun al Rashid; and he was much

given to wine drinking and listening to the lute and the other

instruments of pleasaunce; so that when he died he left nothing.