infamy, as if he were a vile accomplice of thy crime? For shame, O
sinful depredator, O defrauder of the poor!'

Rashid gaped at him, and then looked at me. I held out my hand for the
grapes.

'Touch them not, for they are stolen!' cried Suleyman.

'I know not what thou wouldst be at, O evil joker,' said Rashid, with
warmth; 'but if thou callest me a thief again, I'll break thy head.'

'_I_ call thee thief? Thou art mistaken, O my soul! By Allah! I am but
the mouthpiece of thy master here, who says that to pluck grapes out
of this vineyard is to steal.'

Rashid looked towards me, half incredulous, and, seeing that I ate the
grapes with gusto, answered with a laugh:

'He does not understand our customs, that is all. By Allah! there is
no man in this land so churlish or so covetous as to begrudge to
thirsty wayfarers a bunch of grapes out of his vineyard or figs or
apricots from trees beside the road. To go into the middle of the
vineyard and pick fruit there would be wrong, but to gather from the
edge is quite allowable. If we were to come with sumpter-mules and
load them with the grapes, that would be robbery; but who but the most
miserly would blame us for picking for our own refreshment as we pass,
any more than he would stop the needy from gleaning in the fields when
corn is cut. What your Honour thinks a crime, with us is reckoned as a
kindness done and taken.'

'Aye,' said Suleyman, whose gift was for interpretations, 'and in the
same way other matters which your Honour blames in us as faults are in
reality but laudable and pious uses. Thus, it is customary here among
us to allow the servant to help himself a little to his master's
plenty in so far as food and means of living are concerned. The
servant, being wholly given to his master's service, having no other
means of living, still must live; aye, and support a wife and children
if he have them; and it is the custom of our great ones to pay little
wages, because they have but little ready money. Upon the other hand,
they have possessions and wide influence, in which each servant is
their partner to a small extent. No one among them would object to
such small profits as that cook of yours, whom you condemned so
fiercely, made while in your service. If the master does not care to
let the servant gain beyond his wages, he must pay him wages high
enough for his existence--certainly higher wages than you paid that
cook.'

'I paid him what he asked,' I said