“The output and consumption of pipkins was at an exact unchangeable level; the revenue a fixed amount. The profit of the trade I held came to some 20,000 dinars in the year, the full purchase of which should be, say, 200,000 dinars.
“I prayed earnestly for guidance, and one night as I so prayed an idea was revealed to me by the Most High.
“I approached the king and told him how, all my life, I had nourished the secret belief that a trade necessary to the whole community should not, in justice, be controlled by a private individual, but should rather be the full property of the state, of which His Majesty was the sole guardian.
“The king listened to me with rapt attention as I unfolded with an inspired eloquence my faith that no one man should intercept profits which were due to the work of all. ‘It is your majesty,’ I cried, ‘who alone should have control over what concerns the body corporate of your people.’ He and he alone should superintend the purchase of pipkins, should regulate their sales, should receive all sums paid for them, and should use that revenue as he might think best for himself and the commonwealth. ‘While I was struggling in the dust and confusion of commercial life,’ I concluded, ‘I had no leisure to work out my scheme in its entirety, nor even to appreciate its serene equity—but now … now, I see, I understand, I know!’
“Carried away by the fire of my conviction, my royal master could no longer brook delay. He bade me put the idea in its main lines before him at once, and assured me it should at once be put into execution.
“I thereupon pulled out a paper showing that since I was fully agreeable to take no more than the cash value of the trade plus goodwill and plus certain probable gains which I might reasonably expect in the future, I would be amply compensated if I were to hand all over to the commonwealth for the merely nominal sum of half a million dinars—500,000. ‘A sum which,’ I continued, ‘is of little moment to Your Majesty; especially as it will be met by the taxation of your willing and loyal subjects.’
“The matter was at once concluded. My great act of renunciation was everywhere acclaimed with transports of public joy. Every honour was heaped upon me. The king himself pronounced my panegyric at the farewell banquet given in my honour, and an inscription was ordered to be encrusted in the most gorgeous tiles on the chief gate of the city: ‘On the tenth day of the month Shaaban in the three hundred and third year from the Flight of the Prophet, by the act of Mahmoud the Magnificent all citizens became in the matter of Pipkins his common heirs.’ ”
The merchant had been so moved by these old memories that he had difficulty in proceeding. He was silent for a few moments, and then ended in a more subdued tone.
“The sum of 500,000 dinars, well packed, will load without discomfort some dozen camels. These and their drivers were provided me by a grateful nation. I passed out of the town at sunrise, attended by a vast concourse of the populace who pressed round me in a delirium of grateful cries, and so took my way eastward across the mountains and left this happy vale forever.”
At that moment the detestable falsetto of the muezzin was heard from the neighbouring minaret, and the boys, all dazed at the recital of such triumphs, left the presence of their uncle as though it had been that of a God.
IV
Al-Kantara, or “The Bridge”
When the hour of public executions had arrived and the boys were assembled once more at their uncle’s feet to hear the story of his fortunes, (their minds full of his last success), the old man, still occupied with that pleasing memory, began at once the continuation of his life.
“I left the valley, as I told you, my dear nephews, nourished by the memory of a whole people’s gratitude and giving thanks to God who had made me the humble instrument of so great a good. They err who think that great wealth is marked with oppression, or that the rich man has despoiled the populace. Upon the contrary, the fortunes of the wealthy are but an index of what excellent work they have done for all; and I, for my part, equally joined in my heart the memory of all the benefits I had conferred upon my kind in the matter of pipkins, and my overflowing satisfaction at the heavy bags of coin which swayed upon the backs of my camels.
“Day after day we proceeded, my caravan and I, through the high hills, pitching our camp each evening by some wooded torrent side and nourishing ourselves with the provisions with which I had amply stored my company at my departure.
“Such scenes were solemn and inclined the mind to reverence. Never had my prayers been more sincere and deep than they were during the long watches I passed in the cloudless nights of those mountains, in the solemnity of their vast woods; and the holy thoughts of grateful affluence harmonized with the ceaseless voices of the forest.
“I had during this long journey through the barrier range but little opportunity to exercise those gifts in which I may humbly say I excel. For these villages were few and poor and the opportunities for talent were rare. It was indeed my duty to keep my hand in, as the saying goes, and not to let my wealth diminish as I passed. Thus I would, for mere practice, strike some little bargain from time to time. I would purchase obsolete arms from some village less backward than the rest and sell them at some further stage onward to rude mountaineers who had not even heard
