and drink and be cheerful so as to fortify thyself for travel."
Upon this the Persian began making preparation of all things
needed, such as presents and rarities; and he took of Al-Rabi'a
in all the sum of ten thousand dinars, together with horses and
camels and beasts of burden and other requisites. Then Ni'amah
farewelled his father and mother and journeyed with the physician
to Aleppo. They could find no news of Naomi there so they fared
on to Damascus, where they abode three days, after which the
Persian took a shop and he adorned even the shelves with vessels
of costly porcelain, with covers of silver, and with gildings and
stuffs of price. Moreover, he set before himself vases and
flagons of glass full of all manner of ointments and ups, and he
surrounded them with cups of crystal--and, placing astrolabe and
geomantic tablet facing him, he donned a physician's habit and
took his seat in the shop. Then he set Ni'amah standing before
him clad in a shirt and gown of silk and, girding his middle with
a silken kerchief gold-embroidered, said to him, "O Ni'amah,
henceforth thou art my son; so call me naught but sire, and I
will call thee naught but son." And he replied, "I hear and I
obey." Thereupon the people of Damascus flocked to the Persian's
shop that they might gaze on the youth's goodliness and the
beauty of the shop and its contents, whilst the physician spoke
to Ni'amah in Persian and he answered him in the same tongue, for
he knew the language, after the wont of the sons of the notables.
So that Persian doctor soon became known among the townsfolk and
they began to acquaint him with their ailments, and he to
prescribe for them remedies. Moreover, they brought him the water
of the sick in phials,[FN#13] and he would test it and say, "He,
whose water this is, is suffering from such and such a disease,"
and the patient would declare, "Verily this physician sayeth