him in his scrip. He kept wandering about, but could not find the path,
and sunk under his fatigue. A party of travellers arrived where his body
lay; they saw the dirams spread before him, and these verses written in
the sand:--"Were he possessed of all the gold of Jafier (a famous gold
refiner), a man without food could not satisfy his appetite. To a
wretched mendicant, parched in the desert, a boiled turnip would relish
better than an ingot of virgin silver."
XIX
I had never complained of the vicissitudes of fortune, nor murmured at
the ordinances of heaven, excepting on one occasion, that my feet were
bare, and I had not wherewithal to shoe them. In this desponding state I
entered the metropolitan mosque at Cufah, and there I beheld a man that
had no feet. I offered up praise and thanksgiving for God's goodness to
myself, and submitted with patience to my want of shoes.--In the eye of
one satiated with meat a roast fowl is less esteemed at his table than a
salad; but to him who is stinted of food a boiled turnip will relish
like a roast fowl.
XX
A king, attended by a select retinue, had, on a sporting excursion
during the winter, got at a distance from any of his hunting seats, and
the evening was closing fast, when they espied from afar a peasant's
cottage. The king said: "Let us repair thither for the night, that we
may shelter ourselves from the inclemency of the weather." One of the
courtiers replied: "It would not become the dignity of the sovereign to
take refuge in the cottage of a low peasant; we can pitch a tent here
and kindle a fire." The peasant saw what was passing; he came forward
with what refreshments he had at hand, and, laying them before the king,
kissed the earth of subserviency, and said: "The lofty dignity of the
king would not be lowered by this condescension; but these gentlemen did
not choose that the condition of a peasant should be exalted." The king
was pleased with this speech; and they passed the night at his cottage.
In the morning he bestowed an honorary dress and handsome largess upon
him. I have heard that the peasant was resting his hand for some paces
upon the king's stirrup, and saying: "The state and pomp of the
sovereign suffered no degradation by his condescension in becoming a
guest at the cottage of a peasant; but the corner of the peasant's cap
rose to a level with the sun when the shadow of such a monarch as thou
art fell upon his head."
XXI
They tell a
|