Franks, and employed by them, along with some Jews, in digging earth in
the ditches of Tripoli. At length one of the chiefs of Aleppo, between
whom and me an intimacy had of old subsisted, happening to pass that
way, recognized me, and said, "How is this? and how came you to be thus
occupied?" I replied: "What can I say?--I was flying from mankind into
the forests and mountains, for my resource was in God and in none else.
Fancy to thyself what my condition must now be, when forced to associate
with a tribe scarcely human?--To be linked in a chain with a company of
acquaintance were pleasanter than to walk in a garden with strangers."

He took pity on my situation; and, having for ten dinars redeemed me
from captivity with the Franks, carried me along with him to Aleppo.
Here he had a daughter, and her he gave me in marriage, with a dower of
a hundred dinars. Soon after this damsel turned out a termagant and
vixen, and discovered such a perverse spirit and virulent tongue as
quite unhinged all my domestic comfort.--A scolding wife in the dwelling
of a peaceful man is his hell, even in this world. Protect and guard us
against a wicked inmate. Save us, O Lord, and preserve us from the
fiery, or hell, torture.

Having on one occasion given a liberty to the tongue of reproach, she
was saying, "Are you not the fellow whom my father redeemed from the
captivity of the Franks for ten dinars?" I replied, "Yes, I am that same
he delivered from captivity for ten dinars, and enslaved me with you for
a hundred!" I have heard that a reverend and mighty man released a sheep
from the paws and jaws of a wolf. That same night he was sticking a
knife into its throat, when the spirit of the sheep reproached him,
saying, "Thou didst deliver me from the clutches of a wolf, when I at
length saw that thou didst prove a wolf to me thyself."