answered, "Ay, by Allah, but there is a cause for it, and the
cause hath a tail!" Whereupon, cried the Cook, "Yea, by Allah,
now thou mindest me of thyself and thy dirham! Yes, he gave me a
dirham and but a quarter of the coin is spent. Come back and
take the rest of the price of thy dirham." For he understood
what was to do, at the mention of the tail; "and I, O my brother"
(added Abu al-Hasan), "my story hath a cause, which I will tell
thee." The Caliph laughed at his speech and said, "By Allah,
this is none other than a pleasant tale! Tell me thy story and
the cause." Replied the host, "With love and goodly gree! Know,
O my lord, that my name is Abu al-Hasan al-Khali'a and that my
father died and left me abundant wealth of which I made two
parts. One I laid up and with the other I betook myself to
enjoying the pleasures of friendship and conviviality and
consorting with intimates and boon-companions and with the sons
of the merchants, nor did I leave one but I caroused with him and
he with me, and I lavished all my money on comrades and good
cheer, till there remained with me naught;[FN#15] whereupon I
betook myself to the friends and fellow-topers upon whom I had
wasted my wealth, so perhaps they might provide for my case; but,
when I visited them and went round about to them all, I found no
vantage in one of them, nor would any so much as break a bittock
of bread in my face. So I wept for myself and repairing to my
mother, complained to her of my case. Quoth she:--'Such are
friends; an thou have aught, they frequent thee and devour thee,
but, an thou have naught, they cast thee off and chase thee
away.' then I brought out the other half of my money and bound
myself to an oath that I would never entertain any save one
single night, after which I would never again salute him nor
notice him; hence my saying to thee:--'Far be it, alas! that what