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Paunch o bran,[1] to give me my due and let me go!’ The eunuch heard him, but was ashamed to answer him before Jaafer; and the latter saw the fisherman beckoning and talking to him, though he knew not what he said; so he said to Sendel, misliking his behaviour, ‘O eunuch, what would yonder poor fellow with thee?’ ‘Dost thou not know him, O my lord the vizier?’ asked Sendel; and Jaafer answered, ‘By Allah, I know him not! How should I know a man I have never seen before?’ ‘O my lord,’ rejoined the eunuch, ‘this is the fisherman whose fish we seized on the banks of the Tigris. I came too late to get any and was ashamed to return to the Commander of the Faithful, empty-handed, when all the rest had some. Presently I espied the fisherman standing in mid-stream, calling on God, with four fish in his hands, and said to him, “Give me what thou hast there and take their price.” So he gave me the fish and I put my hand into my pocket, to give him somewhat, but found it empty and said, “Come to me in the palace, and I will give thee wherewithal to succour thy poverty.” Accordingly, he came to me to-day and I was putting my hand to my pouch, to give him somewhat, when thou camest forth and I rose to wait on thee and was diverted with thee from him, till he grew tired of waiting; and this is how he comes to be standing here.’
Night dcccxli.When the vizier heard this, he smiled and said, ‘O
- ↑ It is not on record, as might be supposed from the speech of Khelifeh, that Jaafer was stout or (to borrow a Rabelaisian word) ventripotent: on the contrary, he appears to have been a man of unusual elegance and distinction, and it would seem, therefore, that the fisherman who is represented as a blundering fool, without perception or knowledge to temper his ignorant assurance) bestowed on him the nickname of “Paunch o’ bran” at random, after the manner of his class in every age and country.
