The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, vol 4 | Page 9

me to Damascus; and Almighty Allah
willing, I will not return thence but with the damsel." Then he turned to
the youth and asked, "What is thy name?"; and he answered "Ni'amah."
Quoth the Persian, "O Ni'amah, sit up and be of good heart, for Allah
will reunite thee with the damsel." And when he sat up the leach
continued, "Be of good cheer for we set out for Damascus this very day:
put thy trust in the Lord and eat and drink and be cheerful so as to
fortify thyself for travel." Upon this the Persian began making
preparation of all things needed, such as presents and rarities; and he
took of Al-Rabi'a in all the sum of ten thousand dinars, together with
horses and camels and beasts of burden and other requisites. Then
Ni'amah farewelled his father and mother and journeyed with the
physician to Aleppo. They could find no news of Naomi there so they
fared on to Damascus, where they abode three days, after which the
Persian took a shop and he adorned even the shelves with vessels of

costly porcelain, with covers of silver, and with gildings and stuffs of
price. Moreover, he set before himself vases and flagons of glass full of
all manner of ointments and ups, and he surrounded them with cups of
crystal--and, placing astrolabe and geomantic tablet facing him, he
donned a physician's habit and took his seat in the shop. Then he set
Ni'amah standing before him clad in a shirt and gown of silk and,
girding his middle with a silken kerchief gold-embroidered, said to him,
"O Ni'amah, henceforth thou art my son; so call me naught but sire, and
I will call thee naught but son." And he replied, "I hear and I obey."
Thereupon the people of Damascus flocked to the Persian's shop that
they might gaze on the youth's goodliness and the beauty of the shop
and its contents, whilst the physician spoke to Ni'amah in Persian and
he answered him in the same tongue, for he knew the language, after
the wont of the sons of the notables. So that Persian doctor soon
became known among the townsfolk and they began to acquaint him
with their ailments, and he to prescribe for them remedies. Moreover,
they brought him the water of the sick in phials,[FN#13] and he would
test it and say, "He, whose water this is, is suffering from such and such
a disease," and the patient would declare, "Verily this physician sayeth
sooth." So he continued to do the occasions of the folk and they to
flock to him, till his fame spread throughout the city and into the
houses of the great. Now, one day as he sat in his-shop, behold, there
came up an old woman riding on an ass with a stuffed saddle of
brocade embroidered with jewels; and, stopping before the Persian's
shop, drew rein and beckoned him, saying, "Take my hand." He took
her hand, and she alighted and asked him "Art thou the Persian
physician from Irak?" "Yes," answered he, and she said, "Know that I
have a sick daughter." Then she brought out to him a phial--and the
Persian looked at it and said to her, "O my mistress, tell me thy
daughter's name, that I may calculate her horoscope and learn the hour
in which it will befit her to drink medicine." She replied, "O my brother
the Persian,[FN#14] her name is Naomi."-- And Shahrazad perceived
the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Forty-second Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Persian

heard the name of Naomi, he fell to calculating and writing on his hand
and presently said, "O my lady, I cannot prescribe a medicine for her
till I know what country woman she is, because of the difference of
climate: so tell me in what land she was brought up and what is her
age." The old woman replied "She is fourteen years old and she was
brought up in Cufa of Irak." He asked, "And how long hath she
sojourned in this country?" "But a few months," answered she. Now
when Ni'amah heard the old woman's words and recognised the name
of his slave- girl, his heart fluttered and he was like to faint. Then said
the Persian, "Such and such medicines will suit her case;" and the old
woman rejoined, "Then make them up and give me what thou hast
mentioned, with the blessing of Almighty Allah." So saying, she threw
upon the shop board ten gold pieces, and he looked at Ni'amah and
bade him prepare the necessary drugs; whereupon she also looked at
the youth and exclaimed, "Allah have thee in his keeping,