his hand to carry him hither and thither among the trees which
bore the best fruits; and if ever I refused to do his bidding or
loitered or took my leisure he beat me with his feet more
grievously than if I had been beaten with whips. He ceased not to
signal with his hand wherever he was minded to go; so I carried
him about the island, like a captive slave, and he bepissed and
conskited my shoulders and back, dismounting not night nor day;
and whenas he wished to sleep he wound his legs about my neck and
leaned back and slept awhile, then arose and beat me; whereupon I
sprang up in haste, unable to gainsay him because of the pain he
inflicted on me. And indeed I blamed myself and sore repented me
of having taken compassion on him and continued in this
condition, suffering fatigue not to be described, till I said to
myself, "I wrought him a weal and he requited me with my ill; by
Allah, never more will I do any man a service so long as I live!"
And again and again I besought the Most High that I might die,
for stress of weariness and misery; and thus I abode a long while
till, one day, I came with him to a place wherein was abundance
of gourds, many of them dry. So I took a great dry gourd and,
cutting open the head, scooped out the inside and cleaned it;
after which I gathered grapes from a vine which grew hard by and
squeezed them into the gourd, till it was full of the juice. Then
I stopped up the mouth and set it in the sun, where I left it for
some days, until it became strong wine; and every day I used to
drink of it, to comfort and sustain me under my fatigues with
that froward and obstinate fiend; and as often as I drank myself
drunk, I forgot my troubles and took new heart. One day he saw me
drinking and signed to me with his hand, as who should say, "What
is that?" Quoth I, "It is an excellent cordial, which cheereth
the heart and reviveth the spirits." Then, being heated with