第515页 / 共1116页

Presently in came a messenger from the Caliph and said to him,

"The Commander of the Faithful is in the most violent rage that

can be, and he sendeth to seek thee and he sweareth that the day

shall certainly not pass without thy being hanged unless the

slave be forth-coming." When Ja'afar heard this he wept, and his

children and slaves and all who were in the house wept with him.

After he had bidden adieu to everybody except his youngest

daughter, he proceeded to farewell her; for he loved this wee

one, who was a beautiful child, more than all his other children;

and he pressed her to his breast and kissed her and wept bitterly

at parting from her; when he felt something round inside the

bosom of her dress and asked her, "O my little maid, what is in

thy bosom pocket?"; "O my father," she replied, "it is an apple

with the name of our Lord the Caliph written upon it.