She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Shams
al-Din said to his wife, "Thou art the cause of my vexation." She
asked, "Wherefore?" and he answered, "When I opened my shop this
morning, I saw that each and every of the merchants had with him
a son or two sons or more, sitting in their shops like their
fathers; and I said to myself:--He who took thy sire will not
spare thee. Now the night I first visited thee,[FN#27] thou
madest me swear that I would never take a second wife over thee
nor a concubine, Abyssinian or Greek or handmaid of other race;
nor would lie a single night away from thee: and behold, thou art
barren, and having thee is like boring into the rock." Rejoined
she, "Allah is my witness that the fault lies with thee, for that
thy seed is thin." He asked, "And what showeth the man whose
semen is thin?" And she answered, "He cannot get women with
child, nor beget children." Quoth he, "What thickeneth the seed?
tell me and I will buy it: haply, it will thicken mine." Quoth
she, "Enquire for it of the druggists." So he slept with her that
night and arose on the morrow, repenting of having spoken angrily
to her; and she also regretted her cross words. Then he went to
the market and, finding a druggist, saluted him; and when his
salutation was returned said to him, "Say, hast thou with thee a
seed-thickener?" He replied, "I had it, but am out of it: enquire
thou of my neighbour." Then Shams al-Din made the round till he
had asked every one, but they all laughed at him, and presently
he returned to his shop and sat down, sore troubled. Now there
was in the bazar a man who was Deputy Syndic of the brokers and
was given to the use of opium and electuary and green
hashish.[FN#28] He was called Shaykh Mohammed Samsam and being
poor he used to wish Shams al-Din good morrow every day. So he