Page:Folk-lore of the Holy Land.djvu/233

moment the transfer was made the child stopped crying as if by magic and began to laugh, which so pleased the unconscious father, that, before handing him back to the nurse, he bought him loads of sweet-meats from a passing vendor.

The woman, going back to her mistress, extolled the beauty and goodness of the youth who had quieted the baby for her. A hope at once flashed upon the mother’s mind. She commanded the nurse to take her to that young man.

The couple, meeting, knew one another, and the signet-rings confirmed their intuitions. They were married forthwith, and with the Sultan’s favour; and it is said that they lived happy ever after.

When the milkman had finished his story, I said, “would it not have been better for the young man to have invoked the name of Allah without putting himself under the protection of the jinni? Had he trusted in Allah alone, all this would not have happened.” “No,” was the answer, “Allah only does good. Had he omitted to claim protection from the owner of the field, the jinni would have hurt him, if not carried him off while he slept. By claiming hospitality he prevented anything of that sort, and so nothing but good resulted to him.”

A fellâheh of El Welejeh^[1] lost an eye a few years