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virtue of the noble prophet, the benign, the compassionate, were I to show thee a thousand cities a day for a thousand years, and in each city a thousand marvels, I should not have shown thee one carat of the four-and-twenty carats of the cities of the sea and its wonders! I have but shown thee our own province and country, nothing more.’
‘O my brother,’ said the fisherman, ‘since this is the case, what I have seen sufficeth me, for I am sick of eating fish, and these fourscore days I have been in thy company, thou hast fed me morning and night upon nothing but raw fish, neither broiled nor boiled.’ ‘And what is broiled and boiled?’ asked the merman. Quoth Abdallah, ‘We broil fish with fire and boil it [in water] and dress it in various ways and make many dishes of it.’ ‘And how should we come by fire in the sea?’ rejoined the other. ‘We know not broiled nor boiled nor aught else of the kind.’ Quoth the fisherman, ‘We also fry it in olive-oil and oil of sesame,’ and the merman said, ‘How should we come by olive-oil and oil of sesame in the sea? Verily we know nothing of that thou namest.’
‘True,’ said Abdallah, ‘but, O my brother, thou hast shown me many cities; yet hast thou not shown me thine own city.’ Quoth the merman, ‘As for mine own city, we passed it long since, for it is near the land whence we came, and I only left it and came with thee hither, thinking to divert thee with the sight of the [greater] cities of the sea.’ ‘That which I have seen of them sufficeth me,’ replied Abdallah; ‘and now I would have thee show me thine own city.’ ‘So be it,’ answered the other and returning on his traces, carried him back thither and said to him, ‘This is my city.’
Abdallah looked and saw a city small by comparison with those he had seen; then he entered with his companion and they fared on till they came to a cavern. Quoth the merman, ‘This is my house and all the houses
