Pagina 359 de 1116

Then I gave the scroll to the officials and, after we all had

written our line, they carried it before the King. When he saw

the paper no writing pleased him save my writing; and he said to

the assembled courtiers, "Go seek the writer of these lines and

dress him in a splendid robe of honour; then mount him on a she

mule,[FN#236] let a band of music precede him and bring him to

the presence." At these words they smiled and the King was wroth

with them and cried, "O accursed! I give you an order and you

laugh at me?" "O King," replied they, "if we laugh 'tis not at

thee and not without a cause." "And what is it?" asked he; and

they answered, "O King, thou orderest us to bring to thy presence

the man who wrote these lines; now the truth is that he who wrote

them is not of the sons of Adam,[FN#237] but an ape, a tail-less

baboon, belonging to the ship captain." Quoth he, "Is this true

that you say?" Quoth they, "Yea!