mountedst and we went with thee, thou didst not bid us guard
him;" and Gharib exclaimed, "There is no Majesty and there is no
Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great!" But Al-Damigh said
to him, "Hasten not nor be concerned, for where can he go, and we
in pursuit of him?" Now the manner of Ajib's escape was in this
wise. His page Sayyar had been ambushed in the camp and when he
saw Gharib mount and ride forth, leaving none to guard his enemy
Ajib, he could hardly credit his eyes. So he waited awhile and
presently crept to the tent and taking Ajib, who was senseless
for the pain of the bastinado, on his back, made off with him
into the open country and fared on at the top of his speed from
early night to the next day, till he came to a spring of water,
under an apple tree. There he set down Ajib from his back and
washed his face, whereupon he opened his eyes and seeing Sayyar,
said to him, "O Sayyar, carry me to Cufa that I may recover there
and levy horsemen and soldiers wherewith to overthrow my foe: and
know, O Sayyar, that I am anhungered." So Sayyar sprang up and
going out to the desert caught an ostrich-poult and brought it to
his lord. Then he gathered fuel and deftly using the fire sticks
kindled a fire,, by which he roasted the bird which he had
hallal'd[FN#9] and fed Ajib with its flesh and gave him to drink
of the water of the spring, till his strength returned to hits,
after which he went to one of the Badawi tribal encampments, and
stealing thence a steed mounted Ajib upon it and journeyed on
with him for many days till they drew near the city of Cufa. The
Viceroy of the capital came out to meet and salute the King, whom
he found weak with the beating his brother had inflicted upon
him; and Ajib entered the city and called his physicians. When
they answered his summons, he bade them heal him in less than ten
days' time: they said, "We hear and we obey," and they tended him