e met that dervish in the hands of justice, and a mob
following him. He asked: "What has befallen this man?" They answered:
"He had drunk wine and got into a quarrel, and having killed somebody,
they are now going to exact retaliation."--The God who set forth the
seven climates of this world assigned to every creature its appropriate
lot. Had that wretched cat been gifted with wings, she would not have
left one sparrow's egg on the earth. It might happen that were a weak
man to get the ability, he would rise and domineer over his weak
brethren.

The blessed Moses acknowledged the wisdom of the Creator of the
universe, and, confessing his own presumption, repeated this verse of
the Koran:--"_Were God to spread abroad his stores of subsistence to
servants, verily they would rebel all over the earth._" What happened, O
vain man! that thou didst precipitate thyself into destruction? Would
that the ant might not have the means of flying!--A mean person, when
he has got rank and wealth, will bring a storm of blows upon his head.
Was not this at last the adage of a philosopher, 'That ant is best
disposed of that has no wings.'--The father is a man of much sweetness
of disposition, but the son is full of heat and passions:--That Being,
God, who would not make thee rich, must have known thy good better than
thou couldst thyself know it.

XVII

I saw an Arab, who was standing amidst a circle of jewellers at Busrah,
and saying: "On one occasion I had missed my way in the desert, and
having no road-provision left, I had given myself up for lost, when all
at once I found a bag of pearls. Never shall I forget that relish and
delight, so long as I mistook them for parched wheat; nor that
bitterness and disappointment, when I discovered that they were real
pearls." In the mouth of the thirsty traveller, amidst parched deserts
and moving sands, pearl, or mother-of-pearl, were equally distasteful.
To a man without provision, and knocked up in the desert, a piece of
stone or of gold, in his scrip, is all one.

XVIII

An Arab, suffering under all the extremity of thirst in the desert, was
saying:--"_Would to God that yet, before I perish, I could but for one
day gratify my wish: that a stream of water might dash against my knees,
and I could fill my leathern flask or stomach with it_."

In like manner a traveller had got bewildered in the great desert, and
had neither provisions nor strength left, yet a few dirams remained with