Страница 663 из 1116

Why then waste I my time in grief, until I * find no friend to

bear my weight of woe How sleep upon a fire that flames

unquenched? * Upon the flames to rest were hard enow!"

Asked her husband, "And what shall I do with him?"; and she

answered, "Rise and take him in thine arms and spread a silken

kerchief over him; then I will fare forth, with thee following me

this very night and if thou meet any one say, 'This is my son,

and his mother and I are carrying him to the doctor that he may

look at him.'" So he rose and taking the Hunchback in his arms

bore him along the streets, preceded by his wife who kept crying,

"O my son, Allah keep thee! what part paineth thee and where hath

this small-pox[FN#497] attacked thee?" So all who saw them said

"'Tis a child sick of small-pox." [FN#498] They went along asking

for the physician's house till folk directed them to that of a

leach which was a Jew.