Volume Five-第75章

'Tis all in my house and I have forgotten where it is.'As they were talking，there passed by them one who knew the Fisherman and said to him，'O Khalif，what bringeth thee hither？'Quoth the porter，'O uncle，where is Khalif's house？'and quoth he，''Tis in the ruined Khan in the Raw sin Quarter.'[287] Then said Zurayk to Khalif，'Go to；would Heaven thou hadst never lived nor been！'And the Fisherman trudged on，followed by the porter，till they came to the place when the Hammal said，'O thou whose daily bread Allah cut off in this world，have we not passed this place a score of times？ Hadst thou said to me，'Tis in such a stead；thou hadst spared me this great toil；but now give me my wage and let me wend my way.'Khalif replied'Thou shalt have silver，if not gold.Stay here，till I bring thee the same.'So he entered his lodging and taking a mallet he had there，studded with forty nails （wherewith an he smote a camel，he had made an end of it）；rushed upon the porter and raised his forearm to strike him therewith；but Zurayk cried out at him，saying，'Hold thy hand！ I have no claim on thee，'and fled.Now having got rid of the Hammal，Khalif carried the chest into the Khan，whereupon the neighbours came down and flocked about him，saying，'O Khalif；whence hadst thou this robe and this chest？'Quoth he，'From my apprentice Al-Rashid who gave them to me，'and they said，'The pimp is mad！ Al-Rashid will assuredly hear of his talk and hang him over the door of his lodging and hang all in the Khan on account of the droll.This is a fine farce！'Then they helped him to carry the chest into his lodging and it filled the whole closet.[288] Thus far concerning Khalif；but as for the history of the chest，it was as follows： The Caliph had a Turkish slave-girl，by name Kut al-Kulāb，whom he loved with love exceeding and the Lady Zubaydah came to know of this from himself and was passing jealous of her and secretly plotted mischief against her.So，whilst the Commander of the Faithful was absent a-sporting and a-hunting，she sent for Kut al-Kulub and，inviting her to a banquet，set before her meat and wine，and she ate and drank.Now the wine was drugged with Bhang；so she slept and Zubaydah sent for her Chief Eunuch and putting her in a great chest，locked it and gave it to him，saying，'Take this chest and cast it into the river.'Thereupon he took it up before him on a he-mule and set out with it for the sea，but found it unfit to carry；so，as he passed by the trunk-market，he saw the Shaykh of the brokers and salesmen and said to him，'Wilt thou sell me this chest，O uncle？'The broker replied，'Yes，we will do this much.'