Page:Folk-lore of the Holy Land.djvu/190

they still persisted, the wazìr was heard shouting, ‘Drive away those dogs, and thrash them soundly. That will teach them to plague their betters.” The order was so well obeyed that the twain escaped with their bare lives. Bruised and bleeding they reached the palace about midnight. When they had put off their disguise, the Sultan sent privately for a dumb physician to tend their wounds. He then called together his council of ministers, and, having described the whereabouts of the goatherd’s dwelling, told them all to go and stand near it, but without disturbing the inmates. “When the lord of that house comes out in the morning,” greet him with the utmost respect, and say that I request the favour of a visit from him. Escort him hither honourably and, between you, bring the bodies of four goats which you will find near his door.”

The goatherd feared for his life, in the morning, when he found his hut the centre of a crowd of courtiers and soldiers. Nor was his alarm diminished by the respectfulness of their manner towards him as they invited him to the Sultan’s palace, nor by their inexplicable conduct in picking up the dead goats and carrying them as honoured corpses.

When the procession reached the palace, the Sultan made the goatherd sit beside him and ordered the record of his dispute with the wazìr to be read aloud for all to hear. The recital ended, the Sultan told the story of his adventures on the previous evening. Then turning to the wazir, he said, “You have betrayed your own cause! No one in this