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in the city are on this wise, caverns, great and small, in the mountains; as likewise are those of all the other cities of the sea. For every one who is minded to make him a house repairs to the king and says to him, ‘I wish to make me a house in such a place.’ Whereupon the king sends with him a band of the fish called peckers, which have beaks that crumble the hardest rock, appointing a certain dole of fish to their wage. They betake themselves to the mountain chosen by the owner of the house and hew therein the house, whilst the owner catches fish for them and feeds them, till the cavern is finished, when they depart and the owner of the house takes up his abode therein. After this wise do all the people of the sea; they traffic not with one another nor serve each other save by means of fish; and their food is fish and they themselves are a kind of fish.’
Then he said to him, ‘Enter.’ So Abdallah entered and the merman cried out, saying, ‘Ho, daughter mine!’ whereupon there came to him a damsel with a face like the round of the moon and long hair, heavy buttocks, languishing black eyes and slender waist; but she was naked and had a tail. When she saw the fisherman, she said to her father, ‘O my father, what is this lacktail thou hast brought with thee?’ ‘O my daughter,’ answered he, ‘this is my friend of the land, from whom I use to bring thee the fruits of the earth. Come hither and salute him.’ So she came forward and saluted the fisherman with eloquent tongue and fluent speech; and her father said to her, ‘Bring victual for our guest, by whose coming a blessing hath betided us:’ whereupon she brought him two great fishes, each the bigness of a lamb, and the merman said to him, ‘Eat.’ So he ate, in his own despite, for stress of hunger; because he was weary of eating fish and they had nothing else.
Before long, in came the merman’s wife, who was fair
