their sherbets, Shams al-Din mounted his she mule and putting his
son upon another, rode to the market, followed by his boy. But
when the market folk saw their Consul making towards them,
foregoing a youth as he were a slice of the full moon on the
fourteenth night, they said, one to other, "See thou yonder boy
behind the Consul of the merchants; verily, we thought well of
him, but he is, like the leek, gray of head and green at
heart."[FN#35] And Shaykh Mohammed Samsam, Deputy Syndic of the
market, the man before mentioned, said to the dealers, "O
merchants, we will not keep the like of him for our Shaykh; no,
never!" Now it was the custom anent the Consul when he came from
his house of a morning and sat down in his shop, for the Deputy
Syndic of the market to go and recite to him and to all the
merchants assembled around him the Fatihah or opening chapter of
the Koran,[FN#36] after which they accosted him one by one and
wished him good morrow and went away, each to his business place.
But when Shams al-Din seated himself in his shop that day as
usual, the traders came not to him as accustomed; so he called
the Deputy and said to him, "Why come not the merchants together
as usual?" Answered Mohammed Samsam, "I know not how to tell thee
these troubles, for they have agreed to depose thee from the
Shaykh ship of the market and to recite the Fatihah to thee no
more." Asked Shams al-Din, "What may be their reason?"; and asked
the Deputy, "What boy is this that sitteth by thy side and thou a
man of years and chief of the merchants? Is this lad a Mameluke
or akin to thy wife? Verily, I think thou lovest him and inclines
lewdly to the boy." Thereupon the Consul cried out at him,
saying, "Silence, Allah curse thee, genus and species! This is my
son." Rejoined the Deputy, "Never in our born days have we seen
thee with a son," and Shams al-Din answered, "When thou gavest me