They could get no news
of Num there, so fared on to Damascus, where they abode three
days, after which the Persian took a shop and adorned its shelves
with gilding and stuffs of price and stocked them with vessels of
costly porcelain, with covers of silver. Moreover, he set before
himself vases and flagons of glass full of all manner ointments
and syrups, surrounded by cups of crystal, and donning a
physician's habit, took his seat in the shop, with his astrolabe
and geomantic tablet before him. Then he clad Nimeh in a shirt
and gown of silk and girding his middle with a silken kerchief
embroidered with gold, made him sit before himself, saying to
him, "O Nimeh, henceforth thou art my son; so call me nought but
father and I will call thee son." And he replied, "I hear and
obey." The people of Damascus flocked to gaze on the youth's
goodliness and the beauty of the shop and its contents, whilst
the physician spoke to Nimeh in Persian and he answered him in
the same tongue, for he knew the language, after the wont of the
sons of the notables. The Persian soon became known among the
townsfolk and they began to resort to him and acquaint him with
their ailments, for which he prescribed. Moreover, they brought
him the water of the sick in phials, and he would examine it and
say, "He, whose water this is, is suffering from such and such a
disease.
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