Pagina 505 de 1116

No one murdered the damsel but I, so Allah upon thee, make haste

to hang me, for no life is left in me now that hers is gone." The

Wazir marvelled much at all this strangeness and, taking the

young man and the old man, carried them before the Caliph, where,

after kissing the ground seven times between his hands, he said,

"O Commander of the Faithful, I bring thee the murderer of the

damsel!" "Where is he?" asked the Caliph and Ja'afar answered,

"This young man saith, I am the murderer, and this old man giving

him the lie saith, I am the murderer, and behold, here are the

twain standing before thee." The Caliph looked at the old man and

the young man and asked, "Which of you killed the girl?" The

young man replied, "No one slew her save I;" and the old man

answered, "Indeed none killed her but myself." Then said the

Caliph to Ja'afar, "Take the twain and hang them both;" but

Ja'afar rejoined, "Since one of them was the murderer, to hang

the other were mere injustice."[FN#357] "By Him who raised the

firmament and dispread the earth like a carpet," cried the youth,

"I am he who slew the damsel;" and he went on to describe the

manner of her murder and the basket, the mantilla and the bit of

carpet, in fact all that the Caliph had found upon her.