the tailor asked, "Whence hadest thou that gown thou hast spoilt
on this wise?" Khalif answered, "I had it of my apprentice the
trumpeter." Then he went up to the door, where he found the Chief
Eunuch sitting with the two fishes by his side: and seeing him
sable-black of hue, said to him, "Wilt thou not bring the hundred
dinars, O uncle Tulip?" Quoth he, "On my head, O Khalif," when,
behold, out came Ja'afar from the presence of the Caliph and
seeing the fisherman talking with the Eunuch and saying to him,
"This is the reward of goodness, O nuncle Tulip," went in to
Al-Rashid and said to him, "O Commander of the Faithful, thy
master the Fisherman is with the Chief Eunuch, dunning him for an
hundred dinars." Cried the Caliph, "Bring him to me, O Ja'afar;"
and the Minister answered, "Hearing and obeying." So he went out
to the Fisherman and said to him, "O Khalif, thine apprentice the
trumpeter biddeth thee to him;" then he walked on, followed by
the other till they reached the presence-chamber, where he saw
the Caliph seated, with a canopy over his head. When he entered,
Al-Rashid wrote three scrolls and set them before him, and the
Fisherman said to him, "So thou hast given up trumpeting and
turned astrologer!" Quoth the Caliph to him, "Take thee a
scroll." Now in the first he had written, "Let him be given a
gold piece," in the second, "An hundred dinars," and in the
third, "Let him be given an hundred blows with a whip." So Khalif
put out his hand and by the decree of the Predestinator, it
lighted on the scroll wherein was written, "Let him receive an
hundred lashes," and Kings, whenas they ordain aught, go not back
therefrom. So they threw him prone on the ground and beat him an
hundred blows, whilst he wept and roared for succour, but none
succoured him, and said, "By Allah, this is a good joke O
trumpeter! I teach thee fishing and thou turnest astrologer and