Then, before she laid the table, the Maugrabin fell to relating
to her [his history] and said to her, "O wife of my brother, let
it not amaze thee that in all thy days thou never sawest me
neither knewest of me in my late brother's lifetime, for that I
left this country forty years agone and became an exile from my
native land. I journeyed to the lands of Hind and Sind and all
the country of the Arabs and coming presently into Egypt,
sojourned awhile in the magnificent city [of Cairo], which is the
wonder of the world. [FN#172] Ultimately I betook myself to the
land of Hither Barbary [FN#173] and sojourned there thirty years'
space, [FN#174] till one day of the days, as I sat, [FN#175] O wife
of my brother, I bethought me of my country and my native place
and of my late brother and longing waxed on me to see him and I
fell a-weeping and lamenting over my strangerhood and distance
from him. In fine, my yearning for him importuned me till I
resolved to journey to this country, the which was the falling-
place of my head [FN#176] and my native land, that I might see my
brother. And I said in myself, "O man, how long wilt thou be an
exile [FN#177] from thy country and thy native place, whenas thou
hast an only brother and no more? Arise and journey and look upon
him ere thou die. Who knoweth the calamities of fate and the
vicissitudes of the days? Sore pity 'twere that thou shouldst die
and not see thy brother. Moreover, Allah (praised be He) hath
given thee abundant wealth and it may be thy brother is in poor
case and straitened, and thou wilt help him, an [FN#178] thou see
him." So I arose forthright and equipped myself for travel; then,
reciting the Fatiheh [FN#179], I took horse, after the Friday
prayer, and came, after many hardships and fatigues,--which I
suffered, till the Lord (to whom belong might and majesty)
protected [me],--to this city. I entered it and as I went about