ther water-pipes.

"Unhappy man!" he cried, "are you weary of your life that you lie here
so wantonly to end it?"

Ali jumped up, and the man on his camel started, as he had not expected
thus to arouse the sleeper, although, urged by compassion, he had
called to him.

"What do you mean?" asked Ali, "what harm can I suffer in sleeping,
during the heat of noon, under these palm trees?"

"Do you not know this spring?" asked the stranger.

"No!" said Ali; and he began to tell whence he came and whither he
intended to go.

The man replied, "It seems as if the evil spirit is busy here, not
merely at midnight, but also in the clear noon day. Follow me to the
palm tree farthest from the spring there, and I will refresh you with a
cooling draught. I live in the next village, where the water is still
so bad that we are obliged to fetch our daily supply from the Tigris.
All the pitchers and pipes which you see, are filled from the river of
your native city. I cannot but laugh to think that you come to us from
the Tigris to drink; indeed that you choose the most noxious spring, of
one of which it may be said that it is supplied by hell itself."

These words would have excited Ali's curiosity immediately, had not his
thirst proved the stronger. He went with the man, who reached him a
pitcher, and said: "There, quench your thirst, and then mount my camel
with me. We shall soon be in my village, where you can take rest, and
towards the evening you may proceed quietly to Babylon."

Ali thanked him, and mounted the camel, and they rode in silence across
the plain for the rest of the way, until they came to a yet larger
oasis covered with trees and huts. Only a broad sandy road separated
them from the verdant ground which sloped down from the mountains
towards the desert in all its freshness. The water-carrier made Ali
enter his hut, where they mutually invited each other as guests, the
former asking the latter to partake of his cooling sherbet, the latter
inviting the former to partake of the good things which he had in his
knapsack.

They had scarcely satisfied their hunger and thirst, than the
water-carrier, at Ali's request, began to say "I am astonished that you
have never heard of Ali Haymmamy's spring. Know then that this spring,
as I before said, was formerly a pure one, indeed it was a mineral
spring whither innumerable paralytics resorted. It takes its name from
Ali, son-in-law of our holy prophet, who is sa