"To leave you my horse! What mean you by that?"
"I mean that he belongs to me. Know you not that we are now in the town of the just Cadi, and that if we bring the case before him, he will certainly decide in my favor?"
"Why should he do so, when the animal belongs to me?"
"Don't you think that when he sees us two,--you with your strong straight limbs, which Allah has given you for the purpose of walking, and I with my weak legs and distorted feet,--he will decree that the horse shall belong to him who has most need of him?"
"Should, he do so, he would not be the _just_ Cadi," said Bou-Akas.
"Oh! as to that," replied the cripple, laughing, "although he is just, he is not infallible."
"So!" thought the Scheik to himself, "this will be a capital opportunity of judging the judge." He said aloud, "I am content--we will go before the Cadi."
Arrived at the tribunal, where the judge, according to the eastern custom, was publicly administering justice, they found that two trials were about to go on, and would of course take precedence of theirs. The first was between a _taleb_ or learned man, and a peasant. The point in dispute was the _taleb's_ wife, whom the peasant had carried off, and whom he asserted to be his own better half, in the face of the philosopher who demanded her restoration. The woman, strange circumstance! remained obstinately silent, and would not declare for either; a feature in the case which rendered its decision excessively difficult. The judge heard both sides attentively, reflected for a moment, and then said, "Leave the woman here, and return to-morrow." The _savant_ and the laborer each bowed and retired; and the next cause was called. This was a difference between a butcher and an oil-seller. The latter appeared covered with oil, and the former was sprinkled with blood.
The butcher spoke first:--"I went to buy some oil from this man, and in order to pay him for it, I drew a handful of money from my purse. The sight of the money tempted him. He seized me by the wrist. I cried out, but he would not let me go; and here we are, having come before your worship, I holding my money in my hand, and he still grasping my wrist. Now, I swear by the Prophet, that this man is a liar, when he says that I stole his money, for the money is truly mine own."