第864页 / 共1116页

He remained weeping a long while, and at last up came a beautiful

lady, the scent of musk exhaling from her, who was going to

Friday prayers riding a mule with a gold saddle and followed by

several eunuchs. When she saw the broken glass and my brother

weeping, her kind heart was moved to pity for him, and she asked

what ailed him and was told that he had a tray full of glass ware

by the sale of which he hoped to gain his living, but it was

broken, and (said they), "there befell him what thou seest."

Thereupon she called up one of her eunuchs and said to him, Give

what thou hast with thee to this poor fellow!". And he gave my

brother a purse in which he found five hundred dinars; and when

it touched his hand he was well nigh dying for excess of joy and

he offered up blessings for her. Then he returned to his abode a

substantial man; and, as he sat considering, some one rapped at

the door. So he rose and opened and saw an old woman whom he had

never seen.