When my people saw me thus, they fell
a-shrieking and buffeting their faces; but I signed to them to
hold their peace, and they were silent. Then the two men went
their way and I threw myself down on my bed, where I lay the rest
of the night and awoke not till the forenoon, when I found my
people collected round me and they said, 'What hath befallen thee
and what (evil) hath smitten thee with its mischief?' Quoth I,
'Bring me to drink.' So they brought me wine, and I drank what I
would and said to them, 'Wine got the better of me and it was
this caused the state in which ye saw me' Then they went away,
and I made my excuses to my friends and asked if any of the goods
that had been stolen from my other house had been returned.'
'Yes,' answered they. 'Some of them have come back: and the
manner of their coming was that a man came and threw them down
in the doorway and we saw him not.' So I comforted myself and
abode two days, unable to rise, at the end of which time I
began to regain strength and went to the bath, for I was worn
out with fatigue and troubled at heart for Ali ben Bekkar and
Shemsennehar, because I had no news of them all this time and
could neither get to Ali's house nor rest in my own, out of fear
for myself.
Pages:
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138