dinar and he filled her basket. Then she went away and behold, up
came another servant, seeking a dinar's worth of fish; nor did
the folk cease till it was the hour of mid-afternoon prayer and
Khalif had sold ten golden dinars' worth of fish. Then, being
faint and famisht, he folded and shouldered his net and,
repairing to the market, bought himself a woollen gown, a calotte
with a plaited border and a honey-coloured turband for a dinar
receiving two dirhams by way of change, wherewith he purchased
fried cheese and a fat sheep's tail and honey and setting them in
the oilman's platter, ate till he was full and his ribs felt
cold[FN#276] from the mighty stuffing. Then he marched off to his
lodgings in the magazine, clad in the gown and the honey-coloured
turband and with the nine golden dinars in his mouth, rejoicing
in what he had never in his life seen. He entered and lay down,
but could not sleep for anxious thoughts and abode playing with
the money half the night. Then said he in himself, "Haply the
Caliph may hear that I have gold and say to Ja'afar, 'Go to
Khalif the Fisherman and borrow us some money of him.' If I give
it him, it will be no light matter to me, and if I give it not,
he will torment me; but torture is easier to me than the giving
up of the cash.[FN#277] However, I will arise and make trial of
myself if I have a skin proof against stick or not." So he put
off his clothes and taking a sailor's plaited whip, of an hundred
and sixty strands, ceased not beating himself, till his sides and
body were all bloody, crying out at every stroke he dealt himself
and saying "O Moslems! I am a poor man! O Moslems, I am a poor
man! O Moslems, whence should I have gold, whence should I have
coin?" till the neighbours, who dwelt with him in that place,
hearing him crying and saying, "Go to men of wealth and take of
them," thought that thieves were torturing him, to get money from