“It is to be feared,” said the Sheikh of the beggars, “that the man might chance to die of this sort of purification, though indeed it be very wholesome for him, and I am not altogether against it.”
“Let us make him our slave,” said a third who had himself been the slave of a poor man who had died without heirs. “The fellow is strong. Let us buy millstones and make him grind barley for us in this cellar. In this way he will not eat our food for nothing.”
After this many others gave advice of the same kind. But while they were talking there was a great clattering and noise upon the stone steps which led down into the cellar, and a man fell over the last step and rolled over and over into the very midst of the council, railing and lamenting.
“It is that ass of Egypt,” said the Sheikh of the beggars. “I know him by the clattering of the wooden hoofs he wears on his hands, and also by his braying. Let him also give his opinion when he is recovered from his fall.”
“It is strange and marvellous,” said one, “that he who has no legs should suffer so many falls, being, by the will of Allah, always upon the Earth. For when we first saw him we found him fainting upon the ground, having fallen from the wall of a garden, though no man could tell how he had climbed upon it.”
“I had been transported to the top of the wall as in a dream,” replied the cripple, “for there were dates in that garden. But having eaten too greedily of them I fell asleep on the top and I dreamed that my body was torn by hyenas; and waking suddenly I fell down. For the dates were yet green.”
“This may or may not be true,” said the blind man. “For you are an Egyptian. Let us, however, hear what you have to advise in the matter of Abdullah and his wife, whom we have taken prisoners.”
“I fear that you mock me, O my lord,” answered the man. “But if I am mocked, I will advise that this Abdullah be also made a sport of, for us first, and for the people of Riad afterwards.”
“Tell us how this may be done, for a good jest is better than salt for roasting, and the sheep lie here bound before us.”
“Take this man, then,” said the cripple, “and uncover his face, and hold him fast. Then let one of us get the razor and shave off all his beard and his eyebrows, and the hair of his head even to the nape of his neck. Then if he came suddenly before her who bore him and cried, ‘Mother,’ she would cover her face and answer, ‘Begone, thou ostrich’s egg!’ For she would not know him. And tomorrow we will take his excellent clothes from him and put them upon our Sheikh. But we will dress Abdullah in rags such as would not serve to wipe the mud from a slave’s shoes in the time of the subsiding waters, and we will tie his hands under his armpits and put a halter over his head and lead him about the city. Then he will cry out against us to the people, saying that he is Abdullah, but we will also cry out in answer: ‘See this madman, who believes himself to be a sheikh of Bedouins though Allah has given him no beard! O people of Riad, you may know that the spring is come, by the braying of this ass.’ ”
“Yet I see now that there may be wisdom in brayings,” said the Sheikh of the beggars, “though Balaam ibn Beor shut his ears against it, and was punished for his cursing so that his tongue hung down to his breast, all his days, like that of a thirsty dog. This is good counsel, for in this way we shall not shed the man’s blood, nor render ourselves guilty of his death; but I think we shall earn a great reward from Khaled, and his kingdom will be saved in laughter.”
During all this time Abdullah had not moved, knowing that he was in the power of many enemies and beyond all reach of help, but when he heard the decision of the Sheikh of the beggars he was filled with shame and rolled himself from side to side upon the floor, as though trying to escape from the bonds that held him. Almasta, for her part, lay quietly where they had put her, for she saw that all chance of success was gone and was pondering how she might take advantage of what happened, to save herself.
Then the beggars laid hold of Abdullah and held him, while others took the sack from his head. He was indeed half smothered with dust, so that at first he could not speak aloud, but coughed and sneezed like a dog that has thrust its nose into a dust-heap to find the bone which is hidden underneath. But presently he recovered his breath and began to rail at them and curse them. To this they paid no attention, but brought the oil lamp near him, and one began to rub soap upon his face and head while another got the razor with which the beggars shaved their heads and began to whet it upon his leathern girdle.
“Do not waste the precious stones of your eloquence upon a barber,” said the Sheikh of the beggars, “but reserve your breath and the rich treasures of your speech until you are
