266
A whittle of watered steel, perfect of temper and bright, With vipers poison it plies the folk whom it meets in fight;
If it fall, it sundereth limbs and sheddeth the blood forthright And picks up a jewel, to boot, from marble hard and white.
said to him, ‘O old man, speak reasonably to me! Thy water-skin is at the utmost worth three dirhems, and the cups I emptied on the ground held a pint or so of water.’ ‘It is well,’ replied the water-carrier; and Ali said, ‘I gave thee a dinar: why, then, dost thou belittle me? Hast thou ever seen any more valiant than I or more generous?’ ‘Ay,’ answered the water-carrier; ‘I have seen one more valiant than thou and eke more generous; for, never, since women have borne children, was there on the face of the earth a man of valour who was not generous.’ ‘And who is he whom thou deemest braver and more generous than I?’ asked Ali.
‘Know,’ replied the other, ‘that I had a strange adventure of late. My father was Sheikh of the water-carriers in Cairo, and when he died, he left me five camels and a mule and shop and house: but the poor man is never content; or, if he be content, he dieth. So I said to myself, “I will go to the Hejaz,” and taking a file of camels, bought [goods] on credit, till I had run in debt for five hundred dinars, all of which I lost in the pilgrimage. Then I said in myself, “If I return to Cairo, the folk will put me in prison for their goods.” So I returned with the Syrian pilgrims to Aleppo, and thence I went on to Baghdad, where I sought out the Sheikh of the water-carriers of the city and repeated the first chapter of the Koran to him. He questioned me of my case and I told him what had befallen me, whereupon he assigned me a shop and gave me a water-skin and gear. So I sallied forth, trusting in God to provide, and went round about the city. I offered the cup to one, that he might drink; but he said, “I have eaten nought whereon to drink; for a niggardly fellow invited
