repose from the
troubles of the preceding days, and recreate himself with hunting and
fishing, and collect new strength in the peaceful serenity of his
country estate.

But custom is often stronger than our inclinations: he had become so
accustomed to an active life, that his thoughts always returned to his
wares in his warehouse, or to his ships that were transporting his
goods over distant seas. Hence it happened that he soon entertained a
hope of drawing large profits, as well as the restoration of his
health, from this country residence. He employed himself very
successfully in the chase and in fishing, or in raising choice flowers
in the beds before his house, or else with the care of rare foreign
birds, which he fed and kept in a large aviary. But these only charmed
him for a time: the chase of wild beasts appeared to him too soon to
be but a cruel sport; fishing was tedious; the cultivation of his
flowers, too, was monotonous; and, if he contemplated the imprisoned
foreign birds, he heartily pitied them because they were deprived of
freedom. One day he had tried everything to divert himself, but
without success; at last he seated himself, half discontented, in the
open colonnade which extended along the side of his country house,
and his eye glanced over the flower-beds before him into the extreme
distance: there his gaze could follow over a small tract the course of
the river Schat al Arab, which, rising at the mouths of the Euphrates
and Tigris, flows between shores clothed with verdure. Some large
merchant ships were sailing by; several fishing-boats were visible.

"Ah, thou magnificent stream!" exclaimed Jussuf, who had given himself
to reflection after he had viewed it for some time; "what a pity that
thou must fall into the sea so soon below the kingly town of Balsora!
There thou art, wasted and forgotten; the navigator on the great sea
never thinks that the streams of his native country flow mingled with
the waves through which the keel of his ship cuts. Now, then,"
continued he, after a short reflection, "it is all the better for me:
now I am still active in business; my ships set out at morning, noon,
and evening; my camels march to India through the deserts of Arabia,
and the plains of Tartary and Persia; thousands and thousands of men
call me still the rich and great merchant Jussuf, and praise me as the
most lucky of mortals; yet a little while, and my existence will be
lost as thine, in the sea of