corner of the head-cloth as a mouth-veil[FN#56] before his face.
Then said he to the fisherman, "Get thee about thy business!; and
the man kissed the Caliph's feet and thanked him and improvised
the following couplets,

"Thou hast granted more favours than ever I craved; * Thou hast
satisfied needs which my heart enslaved:
I will thank thee and thank whileas life shall last, * And my
bones will praise thee in grave engraved!"

Hardly had the fisherman ended his verse, when the lice began to
crawl over the Caliph's skin, and he fell to catching them on his
neck with his right and left and throwing them from him, while he
cried, "O fisherman, woe to thee! what be this abundance of lice
on thy gaberdine." "O my lord," replied he, "they may annoy thee
just at first, but before a week is past thou wilt not feel them
nor think of them." The Caliph laughed and said to him, "Out on
thee! Shall I leave this gaberdine of thine so long on my body?"
Quoth the fisherman, "I would say a word to thee but I am ashamed
in presence of the Caliph!"; and quoth he, "Say what thou hast to
say." "It passed through my thought, O Commander of the
Faithful," said the fisherman, "that, since thou wishest to learn
fishing so thou mayest have in hand an honest trade whereby to
gain thy livelihood, this my gaberdine besitteth thee right
well."[FN#57] The Commander of the Faithful laughed at this
speech, and the fisherman went his way. Then the Caliph took up
the basket of fish and, strewing a little green grass over it,
carried it to Ja'afar and stood before him. Ja'afar thinking him
to be Karim the fisherman feared for him and said, "O Karim, what
brought thee hither? Flee for thy life, for the Caliph is in the