THE MAN OF UPPER EGYPT AND HIS FRANKISH
WIFE.


We lay one night in the house of a man of the Sa'id or Upper
Egypt, and he entertained us and entreated us hospitably. Now he
was a very old man with exceeding swarthiness, and he had little
children, who were white, of a white dashed with red. So we said
to him, "Harkye, such an one, how cometh it that these thy
children are white, whilst thou thyself art passing swart?" and
he said, "Their mother was a Frankish woman, whom I took prisoner
in the days of Al-Malik al-Nasir Salah al-Din,[FN#28] after the
battle of Hattin,[FN#29] when I was a young man." We asked, "And
how gottest thou her?" and he answered, "I had a rare adventure
with her." Quoth we, "Favour us with it;" and quoth he, "With all
my heart! You must know that I once sowed a crop of flax in these
parts and pulled it and scutched it and spent on it five hundred
gold pieces; after which I would have sold it, but could get no
more than this therefor, and the folk said to me, 'Carry it to
Acre: for there thou wilt haply make good gain by it.' Now Acre
was then in the hands of the Franks; [FN#30] so I carried my flax
thither and sold part of it at six months' credit. One day, as I
was selling, behold, there came up a Frankish woman (now 'tis the
custom of the women of the Franks to go about with market streets
with unveiled faces), to buy flax of me, and I saw of her beauty
what dazed my wits. So I sold her somewhat of flax and was easy
with her concerning the price; and she took it and went away.