' 'And what
befell Nimeh and Num?' asked they. 'It is told,' replied Behram,
'(but God alone is all-knowing), that
Story of Nimeh Ben Er Rebya and Num His Slave-girl
There lived once in the city of Cufa a man called Er Rebya ben
Hatim, who was one of the chief men of the town, rich in goods
and prosperous, and God had vouchsafed him a son, whom he named
Nimet Allah.[FN#73] One day, being in the slave-dealers' mart, he
saw a female slave exposed for sale, with a little girl of
wonderful beauty and grace in her hand. So he beckoned to the
broker and said to him, "What is the price of this woman and her
child?" "Fifty dinars," answered he. "Write the contract of
sale," said Er Rebya, "and take the money and give it to her
owner." Then he gave the broker the price and his brokerage and
taking the woman and her child, carried them to his house. When
his wife saw the slave, she said to her husband (who was the son
of her father's brother), "O my cousin, what is this damsel?"
Quoth he, "I bought her for the sake of the little one on her
arm, for know that, when she grows up, there will not be her like
for beauty, either in the land of the Arabs or elsewhere." "It
was well seen of thee," answered his wife.
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