-I was lying at mine ease: nought but my officiousness brought me
unease." "Needs must thou," she broke in, "make me a doer of this
good deed, and let him kill me an he will: I shall only die a
ransom for others." "O my daughter," asked he. "and how shall
that profit thee when thou shalt have thrown away thy life?" and
she answered, "O my father it must be, come of it what will!" The
Wazir was again moved to fury and blamed and reproached her,
ending with, "In very deed--I fear lest the same befal thee which
befel the Bull and the Ass with the Husband man." "And what,"
asked she, "befel them, O my father?" Whereupon the Wazir began
the





Tale of the Bull[FN#23] and the Ass.


Know, O my daughter, that there was once a merchant who owned
much money and many men, and who was rich in cattle and camels;
he had also a wife and family and he dwelt in the country, being
experienced in husbandry and devoted to agriculture. Now Allah
Most High had endowed him with under standing the tongues of
beasts and birds of every kind, but under pain of death if he
divulged the gift to any. So he kept it secret for very fear. He
had in his cow house a Bull and an Ass each tethered in his own
stall one hard by the other. As the merchant was sitting near
hand one day with his servants and his children were playing
about him, he heard the Bull say to the Ass, "Hail and health to