28 THE MOST WRETCHED. 



"Ruler of the world," exclaimed an aged man, 

 who forced himself before his companions, " thou 

 wouldest dive into the ocean of grief, to gather out 

 of it the pearls of wisdom. Thy slave was a fisher 

 in the waters of the great river which rolls its waves 

 around the walls of thy city : while yet but a youth, 

 as I was casting my net, a mighty prince came by 

 the side of the stream ; he looked at me for some 

 time, and then taking from his finger a diamond of 

 inestimable value, he flung it into the water. * After 

 thou shalt fish up that ring,* said he, * thou needest 

 to fish no more ; thou mayest clothe thee in silk and 

 gold, and sleep upon heaped rose leaves ! ' Oh, 

 Allah ! how gloriously did it sparkle in the sunshine, 

 as it sunk into the water ! From that instant 1 

 could think only of the ring : I dreamed of it a 

 thousand nights ; and every day, at the first glimpse 

 of the dawn, did I hasten to the river with my nets, 

 searching in vain for that jewel. The fish I caught 

 barely supplied my wife and children with a wretched 

 subsistence ; but we were never sad, because of the 

 ring. We thought — * one day it will come up, and 

 then we shall be rich and great, and never want to 

 labour any more.' Forty and seven years have I 

 lived in this hope : my wife died, and my children 

 left me — but I still had the ring to console me. 

 Yesterday, I went as usual, I just cast in my net, as 

 I had done ten thousand times before, and on taking 

 it up — Holy Prophet ! I saw, tangled in its meshes, 

 the ring ; — the very gem I had sought and fished 

 for all my life time to that very hour. It shone 

 brighter than the gates of Paradise ! I siezed hold 

 of it — I had it in my hand — I wiped away the dew, 

 that seemed like a httle cloud upon its face — I turned 

 it toward the sun that I might behold it in all its 

 beauty — alas, the radiance of its lustre dazzled my 

 sight, I let it fall again into the river, and the current 

 swept it away ! '* 



The old man burst into tears and lamentations, so 

 that the hall resounded with the sobbings of his grief, 



