crash that had a brazen mountain opposed him he would have moved it from
its base. The master being aware that the youth was his superior in
strength, engaged him in that strange feat of which he had kept him
ignorant. The youth was unacquainted with its guard. Advancing,
nevertheless, the master seized him with both hands, and, lifting him
bodily from the ground, raised him above his head and flung him on the
earth. The crowd set up a shout. The king ordered them to give the
master an honorary dress and handsome largess, and the youth he
addressed with reproach and asperity, saying, "You played the traitor
with your own patron, and failed in your presumption of opposing him."
He replied, "O sire! my master did not overcome me by strength and
ability, but one cunning trick in the art of wrestling was left which he
was reserved in teaching me, and by that little feat had to-day the
upper hand of me." The master said, "I reserved myself for such a day as
this. As the wise have told us, 'Put it not so much into a friend's
power that, if hostilely disposed, he can do you an injury.' Have you
not heard what that man said who was treacherously dealt with by his own
pupil:--'Either in fact there was no good faith in this world, or nobody
has perhaps practised it in our days. No person learned the art of
archery from me who did not in the end make me his butt.'"


XXVIII

A solitary dervish had taken up his station at the corner of a desert. A
king was passing by him. Inasmuch as contentment is the enjoyment of a
kingdom, the dervish did not raise his head, nor show him the least mark
of attention; and, inasmuch as sovereignty is regal pomp, the king took
offence, and said, "The tribe of ragged mendicants resemble brute
beasts, and have neither grace nor good manners." The vizir stepped up