and I will teach thee the art of fishing and share my gain with
thee? So shalt thou make five dinars a day and be my slavey and
I will protect thee against thy master with this staff." Quoth
Al-Rashid, "I will well"; and quoth Khalifah, "Then get off thy
she-ass and tie her up, so she may serve us to carry the fish
hereafter, and come hither, that I may teach thee to fish
forthright." So Al-Rashid alighted and hobbling his mule, tucked
his skirts into his girdle, and Khalifah said to him, "O piper,
lay hold of the net thus and put it over thy forearm thus and
cast it into the Tigris thus." Accordingly, the Caliph took
heart of grace and, doing as the fisherman showed him, threw the
net and pulled at it, but could not draw it up. So Khalifah came
to his aid and tugged at it with him; but the two together could
not hale it up: where upon said the fisherman, "O piper of ill-
omen, for the first time I took thy gown in place of my clothes;
but this second time I will have thine ass and will beat thee to
boot, till thou bepiss and beskite thyself! An I find my net
torn." Quoth Al-Rashid, "Let the twain of us pull at once." So
they both pulled together and succeeded with difficulty in
hauling that net ashore, when they found it full of fish of all
kinds and colours;--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased to say her permitted say.

When it was the Eight Hundred and Thirty-eighth Night,

She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when
Khalifah the Fisherman and the Caliph hauled that net ashore,
they found it full of fish of all kinds; and Khalifah said to Al-
Rashid, "By Allah, O piper, thou art foul of favor but, an thou
apply thyself to fishing, thou wilt make a mighty fine fisherman.