42
THE FERRYMAN OF THE NILE AND THE HERMIT.
(Quoth a certain pious man), I was once a ferryman on the Nile and used to ply between the eastern and the western banks. One day, as I sat in my boat, waiting for custom, there came up to me an old man of a bright countenance, clad in a patched gown and bearing in his hand a gourd-bottle and a staff. He saluted me and I returned his greeting; and he said to me, ‘Wilt thou ferry me over and give me to eat for the love of God the Most High?’ ‘With all my heart,’ answered I. So he entered the boat and I rowed him over to the eastern side. When he was about to land, he said to me, ‘I desire to lay a trust on thee.’ Quoth I, ‘What is it?’ ‘Know,’ rejoined he, ‘that God hath revealed to me that [my end is at hand and that] thou wilt come to me to-morrow, after the hour of noon, and wilt find me dead under yonder tree. Wash me and wrap me in the shroud thou wilt find under my head and bury me in the sand, after thou hast prayed over me and taken my gown and bottle and staff, which do thou deliver to one who will come and require them of thee.’ And I marvelled at his word.
Next day, I forgot what he had said till near the hour of afternoon-prayer, when I remembered and hastening to the appointed place, found him under the tree, dead, with a new shroud by his head, exhaling a fragrance of musk. So I washed him and shrouded him and prayed over him, then dug a hole in the sand and buried him, after I had taken his gown and bottle and staff, with which I rowed back to the western side and passed the night there.
On the morrow, as soon as the city gate was opened,
