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wickedness! Then they opened the garden-gate and cried out, and
the folk came to them from all sides, saying, What ails you?
Quoth they, We found this damsel in company with a youth, who
was doing lewdness with her; but he escaped from our hands.
Now it was the use of the people of those days to expose an
adulteress to public ignominy for three days and after stone
her. So they pilloried her three days, whilst the two old men
came up to her daily and laying their hands on her head, said,
Praised be God who hath sent down His vengeance on thee!
On the fourth day, they carried her away, to stone her; but a
lad of twelve years old, by name Daniel, followed them to the
place of execution and said to them, Hasten not to stone her,
till I judge between them. So they set him a chair and he sat
down and caused bring the old men before him separately. (Now
he was the first that separated witnesses.) Then said he to the
first, What sawest thou? So he repeated to him his story, and
Daniel said, In what part of the garden did this befall? On
the eastern side, replied the elder, under a pear-tree. Then
he called the other old man and asked him the same question;
and he replied, On the western side of the garden, under an
apple-tree. Meanwhile the damsel stood by, with her hands and
eyes uplift to heaven, imploring God for deliverance. Then God
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the Most High sent down His vengeful thunder upon the two old
men and consumed them and made manifest the innocence of the
damsel.
This was the first of the miracles of the Prophet Daniel, on
whom and on the Prophet be blessing and peace!
JAAFER THE BARMECIDE AND THE OLD
BEDOUIN.
The Khalif Haroun er Reshid went out one day, with Abou Yousuf
the minion and Jaafer the Barmecide and Abou Nuwas, into the
desert, where they fell in with an old man, leant upon his ass.
The Khalif bade Jaafer ask him whence he came; so he said to
him, Whence comest thou? From Bassora, answered the
Bedouin. And whither goest thou? asked Jaafer. To Baghdad,
said the other. And what wilt thou do there? asked Jaafer. I
go to seek medicine for my eye, replied the old man. Quoth the
Khalif, O Jaafer, make us sport with him. If I jest with
him, answered Jaafer, I shall hear what I shall not like.
But Er Reshid rejoined, I charge thee, on my authority, jest
with him.
So Jaafer said to the Bedouin, If I prescribe thee a remedy
that shall profit thee, what wilt thou give me in return?
Quoth the other, God the Most High will requite thee for me
with better than I can give thee. Harkye, then, said Jaafer,
and I will give thee a prescription, which I have given to
none but thee. What is that? asked the Bedouin; and Jaafer
answered, Take three ounces of wind-wafts and the like of
sunbeams and moonshine and lamp-light; mix them together and
let them lie in the wind three months. Then bray them three
months in a mortar without a bottom and laying them in a cleft
platter, set it in the wind other three months; after which use
three drachms every night in thy sleep, and (God willing) thou
shalt be cured.
When the Bedouin heard this, he stretched himself out on the
ass s back and letting fly a terrible great crack of wind, said
to Jaafer, Take this, in payment of thy prescription. When I
have followed it, if God grant me recovery, I will give thee a
slave-girl, who shall serve thee in thy lifetime a service,
wherewith God shall cut short thy term; and when thou diest and
God hurries thy soul to the fire, she shall blacken thy face
with her ordure, of her mourning for thee, and lament and
buffet her face, saying, O frosty-beard, what a ninny thou
wast! [FN125] The Khalif laughed till he fell backward, and
ordered the Bedouin three thousand dirhems.
THE KHALIF OMAR BEN KHETTAB AND THE
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YOUNG BEDOUIN.
The sheriff[FN126] Hussein ben Reyyan relates that the Khalif
Omar ben Khettab was sitting one day, attended by his chief
counsellors, judging the folk and doing justice between his
subjects, when there came up to him two handsome young men,
haling by the collar a third youth, perfectly handsome and
well dressed, whom they set before him. Omar looked at him and
bade them loose him; then, calling him near to himself, said
to them, What is your case with him? O Commander of the
Faithful, answered they, we are two brothers by one mother
and known as followers of the truth. We had a father, a very
old man of good counsel, held in honour of the tribes, pure of
basenesses and renowned for virtues, who reared us tenderly,
whilst we were little, and loaded us with favours, when we
grew up; in fine, a man abounding in noble and illustrious
qualities, worthy of the poet s words:
Is Abou es Sekr of Sheiban[FN127]? they questioned of me;
and No, I answered, my life upon it! But Sheiban s of
him, I trow.
How many a father hath ris n in repute by a noble son, As
Adnan,[FN128] by God s Apostle, to fame and glory did
grow!
He went forth this day to his garden, to take his pleasure
amongst its trees and pluck the ripe fruits, when this young
man slew him and swerved from the road of righteousness;
wherefore we demand of thee the retribution of his crime and
call upon thee to pass judgment upon him, according to the
commandment of God.
The Khalif cast a terrible look at the accused youth and said
to him, Thou hearest the complaint of these young men; what
hast thou to say in reply? Now he was stout of heart and ready
of speech, having doffed the wede of faint-heartedness and put
off the apparel of affright; so he smiled and after paying the
usual ceremonial compliment to the Khalif, in the most eloquent
and elegant words, said, O Commander of the Faithful, I have
given ear to their complaint, and they have said sooth in that
which they avouch, so far as they have set out what befell; and
the commandment of God is a decreed decree.[FN129] But I will
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