nocence." "Good!
and how is his mother?" "She, too, is free from the shadow of sorrow."
"And how is my beauteous camel, so strong to bear his load?" "Thy camel
is sleek and fat." "My house-dog, too, that guards my gate, pray how is
he?" "He is on the mat before thy door, by day, by night, on constant
guard." The merchant, having thus his doubts and fears removed, resumed
his meal with freshened appetite, but gave nought to the poor nomad,
and, having finished, closed his wallet. The Bedouin, seeing his
stinginess, writhed with the pangs of hunger. Presently a gazelle passed
rapidly by them, at which he sighed heavily, and the merchant inquiring
the cause of his sorrow, he said: "The cause is this--had not thy dog
died he would not have allowed that gazelle to escape!" "My dog!"
exclaimed the merchant. "Is my doggie, then, dead?" "He died from
gorging himself with thy camel's blood." "Who hath cast this dust on
me?" cried the merchant. "What of my camel?" "Thy camel was slaughtered
to furnish the funeral feast of thy wife." "Is my wife, too, dead?" "Her
grief for Ahmed's death was such that she dashed her head against a
rock." "But, Ahmed," asked the father--"how came he to die?" "The house
fell in and crushed him." The merchant heard this tale with full belief,
rent his robe, cast sand upon his head, then started swiftly homeward to
bewail his wife and son, leaving behind his well-filled wallet, a prey
to the starving desert-wanderer.[34]

[34] A variant of this story is found in Le Grand's _Fabliaux
et Contes_, ed. 1781, tome iv, p. 119, and it was
probably brought from the East during the Crusades:
Maimon was a valet to a count. His master, returning
home from a tourney, met him on the way, and asked him
where he was going. He replied, with great coolness,
that he was going to seek a lodging somewhere. "A
lodging!" said the count. "What then has happened at
home?" "Nothing, my lord. Only your dog, whom you love
so much, is dead." "How so?" "Your fine palfrey, while
being exercised in the court, became frightened, and in
running fell into the well." "Ah, who startled the
horse?" "It was your son, Damaiseau, who fell at its
feet from the window." "My son!--O Heaven! Where, then,
were his servant and his mother? Is he injured?" "Yes,
sire, he has been killed by falling. And when they went
t