a dinar;' for I love to eat of my own fishing." Accordingly
Ja'afar repeated to the young white slaves what the Caliph had
said and directed them where to find the man. They came down upon
Khalif and snatched the fish from him; and when he saw them and
noted their goodliness, he doubted not but that they were of the
black-eyed Houris of Paradise: so he caught up a couple of fish
and ran into the river, saying, "O Allah mine, by the secret
virtue of these fish, forgive me!" Suddenly, up came the chief
eunuch, questing fish, but he found none; so seeing Khalif
ducking and rising in the water, with the two fish in his hands,
called out to him, saying, "O Khalif, what hast thou there?"
Replied the fisherman, "Two fish," and the eunuch said, "Give
them to me and take an hundred dinars for them." Now when Khalif
heard speak of an hundred dinars, he came up out of the water and
cried, "Hand over the hundred dinars." Said the eunuch, "Follow
me to the house of Al-Rashid and receive thy gold, O Khalif; and,
taking the fish, made off to the Palace of the Caliphate.
Meanwhile Khalif betook himself to Baghdad, clad as he was in the
Caliph's gown, which reached only to above his knees,[FN#283]
turbanded with the piece he had cut off therefrom and girt about
his middle with a rope, and he pushed through the centre of the
city. The folk fell a-laughing and marvelling at him and saying,
"Whence hadst thou that robe of honour?" But he went on, asking,
"Where is the house of Al-Rash d[FN#284]?;" and they answered,
"Say, 'The house of Al-Rashid';" and he rejoined, "'Tis all the
same," and fared on, till he came to the Palace of the Caliphate.
Now he was seen by the tailor, who had made the gown and who was
standing at the door, and when he noticed it upon the Fisherman,
he said to him, "For how many years hast thou had admission to
the palace?" Khalif replied "Ever since I was a little one;" and