of them, and all flocked round him saying: "We will play a game
wherein none shall join save he can tell the name of his mamma and his

papa." And they all cried, "By Allah, good!" Then quoth one of them,
"My name is Majid and my mammy's name is Alawiyah and my daddy's Izz

al-Din." Another spoke in like guise and yet a third, till Ajib's turn
came, and he said, "My name is Ajib, and my mother's is Sitt

al-Husn, and my father's Shams al-Din, the Wazir of Cairo." "By
Allah," cried they, "the Wazir is not thy true father." Ajib answered,

"The Wazir is my father in very deed." Then the boys all laughed and
clapped their hands at him, saying: "He does not know who is his papa.

Get out from among us, for none shall play with us except he know
his father's name."

Thereupon they dispersed from around him and laughed him to scorn,
so his breast was straitened and he well-nigh choked with tears and

hurt feelings. Then said the monitor to him: "We know that the Wazir
is thy grandfather, the father of thy mother, Sitt al-Husn, and not

thy father. As for thy father, neither dost thou know him nor yet do
we, for the Sultan married thy mother to the hunchbacked horse

groom, but the Jinni came and slept with her and thou hast no known
father. Leave, then, comparing thyself too advantageously with the

littles ones of the school, till thou know that thou hast a lawful
father, for until then thou wilt pass for a child of adultery

amongst them. Seest thou not that even a huckster's son knoweth his
own sire? Thy grandfather is the Wazir of Egypt, but as for thy

father, we wot him not and we say indeed that thou hast none. So
return to thy sound senses!"

When Ajib heard these insulting words from the monitor and the
schoolboys and understood the reproach they put upon him, he went

out at once and ran to his mother, Sitt al-Husn, to complain, but he
was crying so bitterly that his tears prevented his speech for a

while. When she heard his sobs and saw his tears, her heart burned
as though with fire for him, and she said: "O my son, why dost thou

weep? Allah keep the tears from thine eyes! Tell me what hath
betided thee." So he told her all that he heard from the boys and from

the monitor and ended with asking, "And who, O my mother, is my
father?" She answered, "Thy father is the Wazir of Egypt." But he

said: "Do not lie to me. The Wazir is thy father, not mine! Who then
is my father? Except thou tell me the very truth I will kill myself

with this hanger."
When his mother heard him speak of his father she wept,

remembering her cousin and her bridal night with him and all that
occurred there and then, and she repeated these couplets:

"Love in my heart they lit and went their ways,
And all I love to furthest lands withdrew,

And when they left me sufferance also left,
And when we parted Patience bade adieu.

They fled and flying with my joys they fled,
In very constancy my spirit flew.

They made my eyelids flow with severance tears
And to the parting pang these drops are due.

And when I long to see reunion day, ruth I sue.
My groans prolonging sore for ruth I sue.

Then in my heart of hearts their shapes I trace,
And love and longing care and cark renew.

O ye whose names cling round me like a cloak,
Whose love yet closer than a shirt I drew,

Beloved ones, how long this hard despite?
How long this severance and this coy shy flight?"

Then she wailed and shrieked aloud and her son did the like, and
behold, in came the Wazir, whose heart burnt within him at the sight

of their lamentations and he said, "What makes you weep?" So the
Lady of Beauty acquainted him with what happened between her son and

the schoolboys, and he also wept, calling to mind his brother and what
had past between them and what had betided his daughter and how be had

failed to find out what mystery there was in the matter. Then he
rose at once and, repairing to the audience hall, went straight to the

King and told his tale and craved his permission to travel eastward to
the city of Bassorah and ask after his brother's son. Furthermore,

he besought the Sultan to write for him letters patent, authorizing
him to seize upon Badr al-Din, his nephew and son-in-law,

wheresoever he might find him. And he wept before the King, who had
pity on him and wrote royal autographs to his deputies in all climes

and countries and cities, whereat the Wazir rejoiced and prayed for
blessings on him.

Then, taking leave of his sovereign, he returned to his house, where
he equipped himself and his daughter and his adopted child Ajib with

all things meet for a long march, and set out and traveled the first
day and the second and the third and so forth till he arrived at

Damascus city. The Wazir encamped on the open space called AlHasa, and
after pitching tents, said to his servants, "A halt here for two

days!" So they went into the city upon their several occasions, this
to sell and that to buy, this to go to the hammam and that to visit

the cathedral mosque of the Banu Umayyah, the Ommiades, whose like
is not in this world. Ajib also went, with his attendanteunuch, for

solace and diversion to the city, and the servant followed with a
quarterstaff of almond wood so heavy that if he struck a camel

therewith the beast would never rise again.
When the people of Damascus saw Ajib's beauty and brilliancy and

perfect grace and symmetry (for he was a marvel of comeliness and
winning loveliness, softer than the cool breeze of the North,

sweeter than limpid waters to man in drought, and pleasanter than
the health for which sick man sueth), a mighty many followed him,

whilst others ran on before and sat down on the road until he should
come up, that they might gaze on him, till, as Destiny stopped

opposite the shop of Ajib's father, Badr al-Din Hasan. Now his beard
had grown long and thick and his wits had ripened during the twelve

years which had passed over him, and the cook and ex-rogue having
died, the so-called Hasan of Bassorah had succeeded to his goods and

shop, for that he had been formally adopted before the kazi and
witnesses. When his son and the eunuch stepped before him, he gazed on

Ajib and, seeing how very beautiful he was, his heart fluttered and
throbbed, and blood drew to blood and natural affection spake out

and his bowels yearned over him. He had just dressed a conserve of
pomegranate grains with sugar, and Heaven implanted love wrought

within him, so he called to his son Ajib and said: "O my lord, O
thou who hast gotten the mastery of my heart and my very vitals and to

whom my bowels yearn, say me, wilt thou enter my house and solace my
soul by eating of my meat?"

Then his eyes streamed with tears which he could not stay, for he
bethought him of what he had been and what he had become. When Ajib

heard his father's words, his heart also yearned himward, and he
looked at the eunuch and said to him: "Of a truth, O my good guard, my

heart yearns to this cook. He is as one that hath a son far away
from him. So let us enter and gladden his heart by tasting of his

hospitality. Perchance for our so doing Allah may reunite me with my
father." When the eunuch heard these words, he cried: "A fine thing

this, by Allah! Shall the sons of Wazirs be seen eating in a common
cookshop? Indeed I keep off the folk from thee with this

quarterstaff lest they even look upon thee, and I dare not suffer thee
to enter this shop at all."

When Hasan of Bassorah heard his speech he marveled and turned to
the eunuch with the tears pouring down his cheeks, and Ajib said,

"Verily my heart loves him!" But he answered: "Leave this talk. Thou
shalt not go in." Thereupon the father turned to the eunuch and

said, "O worthy sir, why wilt thou not gladden my soul by entering