inn,[FN#264] without a door, and when he went forth to fish, he
would shoulder the net, without basket or fish-slicers,[FN#265]
and when the folk would stare at him and say to him, "O Khalif,
why not take with thee a basket, to hold the fish thou
catchest?"; he would reply, "Even as I carry it forth empty, so
would it come back, for I never manage to catch aught." One night
he arose, in the darkness before dawn, and taking his net on his
shoulder, raised his eyes to heaven and said, "Allah mine, O Thou
who subjectedst the sea to Moses son of Imr n, give me this day
my daily bread, for Thou art the best of bread-givers!" Then he
went down to the Tigris and spreading his net, cast it into the
river and waited till it had settled down, when he haled it in
and drew it ashore, but behold, it held naught save a dead dog.
So he cast away the carcase, saying, "O morning of ill doom! What
a handsel is this dead hound, after I had rejoiced in its
weight[FN#266]!" Then he mended the rents in the net, saying,
"Needs must there after this carrion be fish in plenty, attracted
by the smell," and made a second cast. After awhile, he drew up
and found in the net the hough[FN#267] of a camel, that had
caught in the meshes and rent them right and left. When Khalif
saw his net in this state, he wept and said, "There is no Majesty
and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great! I
wonder what is my offence and the cause of the blackness of my
fortune and the littleness of my luck, of all folk, so that I
catch neither cat-fish nor sprat,[FN#268] that I may broil on the
embers and eat, for all I dare say there is not in the city of
Baghdad a fisherman like me." Then with a Bismillah he cast his
net a third time, and presently drawing it ashore found therein
an ape scurvy and one-eyed, mangy, and limping, hending an ivory
rod in forehand. When Khalif saw this, he said, "This is indeed a