TALE

THE TALE OF THE BULL AND THE ASS
KNOW, O my daughter, that there was once a merchant who owned much

money and many men, and who was rich in cattle and camels. He had also
a wife and family, and he dwelt in the country, being experienced in

husbandry and devoted to agriculture. Now Allah Most High had
endowed him with understanding the tongues of beasts and birds of

every kind, but under pain of death if he divulged the gift to any. So
he kept it secret for very fear. He had in his cow house a bull and an

ass, each tethered in his own stall, one hard by the other. As the
merchant was sitting near-hand one day with his servans and his

children were playing about him, he heard and bull say to the ass:
"Hail and health to thee O Father of Waking! for that thou

enjoyest rest and good ministering. All under thee is clean-swept
and fresh-sprinkled. Men wait upon thee and feed thee, and thy

provaunt is sifted barley and thy drink pure spring water, while I
(unhappy creature!) am led forth in the middle of the night, when they

set on my neck the plow and a something called yoke, and I tire at
cleaving the earth from dawn of day till set of sun. I am forced to do

more than I can and to bear all manner of ill-treatment from night to
night. After which they take me back with my sides torn, my neck

flayed, my legs aching, and mine eyelids sored with tears. Then they
shut me up in the byre and throw me beans and crushed straw mixed with

dirt and chaff, and I lie in dung and filth and foul stinks through
the livelong night. But thou art ever in a place swept and sprinkled

and cleansed, and thou art always lying at ease, save when it
happens (and seldom enough!) that the master hath some business,

when he mounts thee and rides thee to town and returns with thee
forthright. So it happens that I am toiling and distrest while thou

takest thine ease and thy rest. Thou sleepest while I am sleepless,
I hunger still while thou eatest thy fill, and I win contempt while

thou winnest goodwill."
When the bull ceased speaking, the ass turned toward him and said:

"O Broad-o'-Brow, O thou lost one! He lied not who dubbed thee
bullhead, for thou, O father of a bull, hast neither forethought nor

contrivance. Thou art the simplest of simpletons, and thou knowest
naught of good advisers. Hast thou not heard the saying of the wise?

"For others these hardships and labors I bear,
And theirs is the pleasure and mine is the care,

As the bleacher who blacketh his brow in the sun
To whiten the raiment which other men wear.

But thou, O fool, art full of zeal, and thou toilest and moilest
before the master, and thou tearest and wearest and slayest thyself

for the comfort of another. Hast thou never heard the saw that saith
'None to guide and from the way go wide'? Thou wendest forth at the

call to dawn prayer and thou returnest not till sundown, and through
the livelong day thou endurest all manner hardships: to wit, beating

and belaboring and bad language.
"Now hearken to me, Sir Bull! When they tie thee to thy stinking

manger, thou pawest the ground with thy forehand and lashest out
with thy hind hoofs and pushest with thy horns and bellowest aloud, so

they deem thee contented. And when they throw thee thy fodder, thou
fallest on it with greed and hastenest to line thy fair fat paunch.

But if thou accept any advice, it will be better for thee, and thou
wilt lead an easier life even than mine. When thou goest afield and

they lay the thing called yoke on thy neck, be down and rise not
again, though haply they swings thee. And if thou rise, lie down a

second time. And when they bring thee home and offer thee thy beans,
fall backward and only sniff at thy meat and withdraw thee and taste

it not, and be satisfied with thy crushed straw and chaff. And on this
wise feign thou art sick, and cease not doing thus for a day or two

days or even three days; so shalt thou have rest from toil and moil."
When the Bull heard these words, he knew the ass to be his friend

and thanked him, saying, "Right is thy rede," and prayed that all
blessings might requite him, and cried: "O Father Wakener! Thou hast

made up for my failings." (Now the merchant, O my daughter, understood
all that passed between them.) Next day the driver took the bull

and, settling the plow on his neck, made him work as wont. But the
bull began to shirk his plowing, according to the advice of the ass,

and the plowman drubbed him till he broke the yoke and made off. But
the man caught him up and leathered him till he despaired of his life.

Not the less, however, would he do nothing but stand still and drop
down till the evening. Then the herd led him home and stabled him in

his stall, but he drew back from his manger and neither stamped nor
ramped nor butted nor bellowed as he was wont to do, whereat the man

wondered. He brought him the beans and husks, but he sniffed at them
and left them and lay down as far from them as he could and passed the

whole night fasting. The peasant came next morning and, seeing the
manger full of beans, the crushed straw untasted, and the ox lying

on his back in sorriest plight, with legs outstretched and swollen
belly, he was concerned for him, and said to himself, "By Allah, he

hath assuredly sickened, and this is the cause why he would not plow
yesterday."

Then he went to the merchant and reported: "O my master, the bull is
ailing. He refused his fodder last night- nay, more, he hath not

tasted a scrap of it this morning." Now the merchant-farmer understood
what all this meant, because he had overheard the talk between the

bull and the ass, so quoth he, "Take that rascaldonkey, and set the
yoke on his neck, and bind him to the plow and make him do bull's

work." Thereupon the plowman took the ass, and worked him through the
livelong day at the bull's task. And when be failed for weakness, he

made him eat stick till his ribs were sore and his sides were sunken
and his neck was rayed by the yoke. And when he came home in the

evening he could hardly drag his limbs along, either forehand or
hind legs. But as for the bull, he had passed the day lying at full

length, and had eaten his fodder with an excellent appetite, and he
ceased not calling down blessings on the ass for his good advice,

unknowing what had come to him on his account.
So when night set in and the ass returned to the byre, the bull rose

up before him in honor, and said: "May good tidings gladden thy heart,
O Father Wakener! Through thee I have rested all this day, and I

have eaten my meat in peace and quiet." But the ass returned no reply,
for wrath and heartburning and fatigue and the beating he had

gotten. And he repented with the most grievous of repentance, and
quoth he to himself: "This cometh of my folly in giving good

counsel. As the saw saith, I was in joy and gladness, naught save my
officiousness brought me this sadness. And now I must take thought and

put a trick upon him and return him to his place, else I die." Then he
went aweary to his manger while the bull thanked him and blessed him.

And even so, O my daughter (said the Wazir) thou wilt die for lack
of wits. Therefore sit thee still and say naught and expose not thy

life to such stress, for, by Allah, I offer thee the best advice,
which cometh of my affection and kindly solicitude for thee. "O my

father," she answered, "needs must I go up to this King and be married
to him." Quoth he, "Do not this deed," and quoth she, "Of a truth I

will." Whereat he rejoined, "If thou be not silent and bide still, I
will do with thee even what the merchant did with his wife." "And what

did be?" asked she.
Know then (answered the Wazir) that after the return of the ass

the merchant came out on the terrace roof with his wife and family,
for it was a moonlit night and the moon at its full. Now the terrace

overlooked the cow house, and presently as he sat there with his
children playing about him, the trader heard the ass say to the

bull, "Tell me, O Father Broad-o'-Brow, what thou purposest to do
tomorrow." The bull answered: "What but continue to follow thy