embraced the old men and thanked them, and these Shaykhs wished
him joy on being saved and fared forth each one for his own city.
Yet this tale is not more wondrous than the fisherman's story."
Asked the King, "What is the fisherman's story?" And she answered
by relating the tale of





THE FISHERMAN AND THE JINNI.


It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that there was a Fisher
man well stricken in years who had a wife and three children, and
withal was of poor condition. Now it was his custom to cast his
net every day four times, and no more. On a day he went forth
about noontide to the sea shore, where he laid down his basket;
and, tucking up his shirt and plunging into the water, made a
cast with his net and waited till it settled to the bottom. Then
he gathered the cords together and haled away at it, but found it
weighty; and however much he drew it landwards, he could not pull
it up; so he carried the ends ashore and drove a stake into the
ground and made the net fast to it. Then he stripped and dived
into the water all about the net, and left not off working hard
until he had brought it up. He rejoiced thereat and, donning his
clothes, went to the net, when he found in it a dead jackass
which had torn the meshes. Now when he saw it, he exclaimed in
his grief, "There is no Majesty, and there is no Might save in
Allah the Glorious, the Great!" Then quoth he, "This is a strange