“O brave was the boon which I held in my right ✿; Yet, O Maker of man, ’twas in self-despight. Had my lot and my luck been of opulence, ✿ This emptiness never had proved my plight.”
Hereupon the Fowl-let farewelled the Fowler and took flight until he reached his home and household, where he seated him and recited all that had befallen him with the Birder, to wit, how the man had captured him, and how he had escaped by sleight, and he fell to improvising:—
“I charged you, O brood of my nestlings, and said, ✿ Ware yon Wady, nor seek to draw near a stead Where sitteth a man who with trap and with stakes ✿ Entrapped me, drew knife and would do me dead. And he longed to destroy me, O children, but I ✿ Was saved by the Lord and to you was sped.”
And here endeth the History of the Fowl-let and the Fowler entire and complete.
=Here we begin to write and indite the Tale of a man of Syria, Attaf hight.=[310]
They relate (but Allah is All-knowing of His unknown and All-cognisant of what forewent in the annals of folk and the wonders of yore, and of times long gone before!) that in the city of Shám[311] there dwelt of old a man Attáf hight, who rivalled Hátim of Tayy[312] in his generosity and his guest-love and in his self-control as to manners and morals. Now he lived in the years when the Caliph Harun al-Rashid was reigning in Baghdad-city, and it happened on a day of the days that this Commander of the Faithful awoke morne and melancholic, and right straitened was his breast. So he arose, and taking Ja’afar the Barmecide and Masrúr the Eunuch passed with them into the place where his treasures were stored. Presently quoth he to the Wazir, “O Ja’afar, open to me this door that I may solace me with the sight, and my breast may be broadened and haply be gladdened by such spectacle.” The Minister did the bidding of his lord, who, finding a room full of books, put forth his hand, and taking up one of the volumes, opened and read. Then he fell to weeping thrice, and thrice to laughing aloud,[313] whereat the Wazir considered him and cried, “O King of the Age, how is it I espy thee reading and weeping and laughing at one and the same moment when none so act save madmen and maniacs?”[314] And having spoken on this wise he held his peace; but the Prince of True Believers turned himwards and cried, “O dog of the sons of Bermak, I see thee going beyond thy degree and quitting the company of sensible men, and thou speakest vainly making me a madman in saying:—None laugh and cry at one and the same time save maniacs?” With these words the Caliph restored the volume to its place in the Treasury and bade lock the door, after which the three returned to the Divan. Here the Commander of the Faithful regarded Ja’afar and exclaimed, “Go thou forth from before me and address me not again nor seat thee upon the Wazirial seat until thou answer thine own question and thou return me a reply concerning that which is writ and aligned in yonder book I was reading, to the end thou learn why I wept and wherefore I laught at one and the same hour.” And he cried at him in anger saying, “Off and away with thee, nor face me again save with the answer, else will I slay thee with the foulest of slaughter.” Accordingly Ja’afar fared forth and hardly could he see with his eyes, and he kept saying to himself, “Indeed I have fallen with a sore fall; foul befal it for a fall; how fulsome it is!” Then he fared homewards where he encountered face to face his father Yahyá the Bermaki, who was issuing from the mansion and he recounted to him the tale, whereat his parent said, “Go at once, abide not here, but turn thee Damascus-wards until shall terminate this decline of fortune and this disjunction of favour, and at the ending thereof thou shalt see wonders therein.”[315] Ja’afar replied, “Not until I shall have laid a charge upon my Harím;”[316] but Yahya cried, “Enter not these doors, hie thee at once to Al-Shám, for even so ’tis determined by Destiny.” Accordingly the Wazir gave ear to his sire, and taking a bag containing one thousand dinars and slinging on his sword farewelled him; then, mounting a she-mule, alone and unattended by slave or page, he rode off and he ceased not riding for ten days full-told until he arrived at the Marj[317] or mead of Damascus.