that of my father and my mother, nor can I ever forget it.' O
dear my son, thou art as a dragon mounted upon a bramble-bush,
and the two a-middlemost a stream, which when the wolf saw he
cried, 'A mischief on a mischief and let one more mischievous
counsel the twain of them.' O dear my son, with delicate food I
fed thee and thou didst not fodder me with the driest of bread;
and of sugar and the finest wines I gave thee to drink, while
thou grudgedst to me a sup of cold water. O dear my son, I taught
thee and tendered thee with the tenderest of tending and garred
thee grow like the lofty cedar of Lebanon, but thou didst
incriminate me and confine me in fetters by thine evil
courses.[FN#85] O dear my son, I nourished a hope that thou
wouldst build me a strong tower wherein I might find refuge from
mine adversary and foil my foes; but thou hast been to me as a
burier, a grave-digger, who would thrust me into the bowels of
the earth: however, my Lord had mercy upon me. O dear my son, I
willed thee well and thou rewardedst me with ill-will and foul
deed; wherefore, 'tis now my intent to pluck out thine eyes and
hack away thy tongue and strike off thy head with the sword-edge
and then make thee meat for the wolves; and so exact retaliation
from thine abominable actions." Hereupon Nadan made answer and
said to Haykar his uncle, "Do with me whatso thy goodness would
do and then condone thou to me all my crimes, for who is there
can offend like me and can condone like thee? And now I pray thee
take me into thy service and suffer me to slave in thy house and
groom thy horses, even to sweeping away their dung, and herd thy
hogs; for verily I am the evil-doer and thou art the beneficent;
I am the sinner and thou art the pardoner." "O dear my son,"
rejoined Haykar, "Thou favourest the tree which, albe planted by
the side of many waters, was barren of dates and her owner