husband on the dyke. When the judge came to visit his daughter he asked where he should eat. ‘Here on the dyke,’ said the robber. ‘But where is the food?’ ‘I will get it presently,’ he said. So he walked along the road and stole a young female buffalo, and brought it back and cooked it. The judge said: ‘I cannot eat this: it is unclean; its mother is calling for it.’ ‘No,’ said the robber (ḥarâmi), ‘it is clean, for I did not buy it but stole it.’ (So he knew that it was not ḥarâm in any way.) ‘Here is half of it for your uncle’s wife.’ Thereupon the judge took the half and asked no more questions—as it was for his uncle’s wife.”
IX.
“A Nubian cook came to Cairo and offered his services. ‘Can you cook?’ ‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘everything.’ So he took the meat and the chicken and the spinach and the tomatoes and the egg-plant and cooked them all together in the same dish. When the waiter brought it to the master of the house he thought it was soup. Then he asked for the next course. But there was nothing. So the cook was called, and the master said: ‘Is it not a disgrace that you should send all this food to me in this way?’ ‘Wallah!’ said the Nubian, ‘Hasan Kâshif (the ruler of Nubia before its conquest by Mohammed Ali) never ate anything like this!’”
X.
A man had a donkey with which he went to town. He walked by the side of it, and on the way met another man. ‘Peace be to you!’ said he. ‘Peace be to you!’ replied the other. Then they began to talk. Presently he asked the other: ‘What is your name?’ ‘Ez-Zûr (Necessity),’ he answered. ‘What is yours?’ ‘El-Ḥaqq (Right),’ he replied. After a little Ez-Zûr asked if he might ride on the donkey a short distance as he was tired.
