Pagina 297 de 1116

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the lady,

after laughing at the Porter despite her wrath, came up to the

party and spake thus, "Tell me who ye be, for ye have but an hour

of life; and were ye not men of rank and, perhaps, notables of

your tribes, you had not been so froward and I had hastened your

doom." Then said the Caliph, "Woe to thee, O Ja'afar, tell her

who we are lest we be slain by mistake; and speak her fair before

some horror befal us." "'Tis part of thy deserts,"replied he;

whereupon the Caliph cried out at him saying, "There is a time

for witty words and there is a time for serious work." Then the

lady accosted the three Kalandars and asked them, "Are ye

brothers?"; when they answered, "No, by Allah, we be naught but

Fakirs and foreigners." Then quoth she to one among them, "Wast

thou born blind of one eye?"; and quoth he, "No, by Allah, 'twas

a marvellous matter and a wondrous mischance which caused my eye

to be torn out, and mine is a tale which, if it were written upon

the eye corners with needle gravers, were a warner to whoso would

be warned."[FN#188] She questioned the second and third Kalandar;

but all replied like the first, "By Allah, O our mistress, each

one of us cometh from a different country, and we are all three

the sons of Kings, sovereign Princes ruling over suzerains and

capital cities." Thereupon she turned towards them and said, "Let

each and every of you tell me his tale in due order and explain

the cause of his coming to our place; and if his story please us

let him stroke his head[FN#189] and wend his way." The first to

come forward was the Hammal, the Porter, who said, "O my lady, I

am a man and a porter.