6- The Caliph Haroon al Rusheed - Page 2

pass on without doing it, held him fast by his clothes.

The caliph, surprised both at the words and action of the blind
man, said, "I cannot comply with your request. I will not lessen
the merit of my charity, by treating you as you would have me."
After these words, he endeavoured to get away from the blind man.

The blind man, who expected this reluctance of his benefactor,
exerted himself to detain him. "Sir," said he, "forgive my
boldness and importunity; I desire you would either give me a box
on the ear, or take your alms back again, for I cannot receive it
but on that condition, without breaking a solemn oath, which I
have sworn to God; and if you knew the reason, you would agree
with me that the punishment is very slight."

The caliph, unwilling to be detained any longer, yielded to the
importunity of the blind man, and gave him a very slight blow:
whereupon he immediately let him go, thanked and blessed him.
When the caliph and vizier had got so me small distance from the
blind man, the caliph said to Jaaffier, "This blind man must
certainly have some very uncommon reasons, which make him behave
himself in this manner to all who give him alms. I should be glad
to know them; therefore return, tell him who I am, and bid him
not fail to come to my palace about prayer-time in the afternoon
of to-morrow, that I may have some conversation with him."

The grand vizier returned, bestowed his alms on the blind man,
and after he had given him a box on the ear, told him the
caliph's order, and then returned to the caliph.

When they came into the town, they found in a square a great
crowd of spectators, looking at a handsome well-shaped young man,
who was mounted on a mare, which he drove and urged full speed
round the place, spurring and whipping the poor creature so
barbarously, that she was all over sweat and blood.

The caliph, amazed at the inhumanity of the rider, stopped to ask
the people if they knew why he used the mare so ill; but could
learn nothing, except that for some time past he had every day,
at the same hour, treated her in the same manner.

At they went along, the caliph bade the grand vizier take
particular notice of the place, and not fail to order the young
man to attend the next day at the hour appointed to the blind
man. But before the caliph got to his palace, he observed in a
street, which he had not passed through a long time before, an
edifice newly built, which seemed to him to be the palace of some
one of the great lords of the court. He asked the grand vizier if
he knew to whom it belonged; who answered he did not, but would
inquire; and thereupon asked a neighbour, who told him that the
house