Another story of the kind is told of Ibrahìm Pasha. They say that, while in Jerusalem, he encouraged the fellahìn of the country to bring their produce to the city, assuring them that his soldiers would be punished if they hurt them or took anything from them without payment. One day, a woman from Silwân, with a basket of jars filled with leben,[1] came and complained of a soldier having seized one of her jars and drunk off the contents without so much as “By your leave.” Ibrahìm asked her when this had happened, and if she thought she could identify the soldier. She replied that it had happened just this minute, and she would know the man again among ten thousand.
“We shall see,” said Ibrahìm, and called his trumpeter. Soon every soldier in the city was on parade before the castle; and the Pasha led the woman down the ranks, asking her to pick out the offender. She pointed to a certain man and stopped before him. Ibrahìm asked if she was sure it was the culprit, and she swore by Allah she was not mistaken. Three times he put the question, and she replied that she was quite sure. Then he drew his sword, and, with a deft stroke, cut the soldier open, releasing the leben, still undigested. “It is lucky for you, you were right,” he remarked to the woman, “or your fate would have been far worse than this soldier’s.”
- ↑ Curds, or else buttermilk.
