1836.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 591 



you are successful in your fishing to-morrow, you will pay me, and if not I will 

 give you credit." " God will reward you," said the fisherman, taking the ten 

 loaves : and lie went to the market to buy some vegetables. The next morning 

 he went out very early, and threw his nets all the day without catching any 

 thing. In returning home that evening he did not dare to approach the baker's 

 shop ; but the latter having seen him, called him and gave him, as he had done 

 the night before, ten loaves and ten pieces of money. Things went on in this 

 way for forty days, and the fisherman was in despair to see his debts thus in- 

 creasing without any means of discharging them. The forty-first day he said 

 to his wife, " I am going to tear my nets in pieces ; because I see that I ought 

 no longer to reckon on gaining my livelihood in that manner. I am ashamed 

 of being such a burden to the baker, and I must do some other business to pay 

 what I owe." " God is great," replied the wife; " and since he has given us 

 such a generous benefactor, he will grant us also the means of clearing ourselves 

 to him. Do not despair then, continue to throw your nets and put confidence in 

 God." The fisherman followed the advice of his wife ; he threw his nets in 

 the name of God, and said, " Be favourable to my fishing, O thou who dis- 

 pensest the gift of destiny ! If I catch a single fish I will carry it to my bene- 

 factor." The nets this time were of an extraordinary weight. Abdallah worked 

 with all his strength to bring them to the shore, but the poor fisherman, to his 

 great despair, found nothing but a dead ass, which exhaled a pestilential smell. 

 "There is neither might nor power, but in God," cried Abdallah, in clearing his 

 nets of the carcase. " It is my accursed wife," added he, " who gave me this fine 

 advice ; I told her that I was going to give up the business of fisherman, but no, 

 ' God is great ; do not despair, continue to throw your nets.' See what it is to 

 follow women's advice ! Nevertheless, I am going to tempt fortune again to-day 

 for the last time." 



The fisherman sought another place to avoid the stench of the ass, and 

 threw his nets : they were still heavier this time than the first, and Abdallah 

 found in them a being with a human form. At first he thought it was one of 

 those genii that Solomon had cast into the depth of the sea, after having shut 

 them up in brazen vessels. He, therefore, cried " Pardon ! pardon 1 O Genii 

 of Solomon !" " Fear nothing," replied the figure in the net, " I am a human 

 being like thee ; the only difference which exists between us, is that I live in the 

 depth of the sea, and you inhabit the earth." " Then," replied the fisherman, re- 

 assured by these words, " you are neither a genii nor a demon ?" " Not more the 

 one than the other," replied the inhabitant of the sea ; " I believe in God and his 

 Prophet." " But who threw thee into the waves ?" I am, by nature, an inhabitant 

 of the sea, and I serve God. When I was caught in the nets, I was trying to be 

 useful to thee, and I allowed myself to be taken ; because it would not have 

 been difficult for me to break your nets, if I had wished to escape ; but I re- 

 cognized the finger of God in this event, and I see that we have both been creat- 

 ed to be brothers and friends. The earth produces grapes, melons, peaches and 

 pomegranates : the sea abounds in coral, in pearls, in emeralds, and in rubies. 

 Bring me fruit, and I will fill your basket with the precious stones which are 

 found in the sea." " This proposition suits me marvellously, my brother," said 

 the fisherman ; " swear to me that you will keep your promise, and recite the first 

 chapter of the Koran." When the first chapter was recited, the fisherman laid 

 down his nets, and asked his companion his name. " I am called Abdallah of the 

 sea; and thou, what is thy name?" " It is truly extraordinary," said the 

 fisherman ; " my name is also Abdallah, and to distinguish us one from the other, 

 I will call myself Abdallah of the land." " Very well," replied Abdallah of the 

 sea ; " we have been created one for the other ; — wait for me here an instant, I am 

 going to search for something which I wish to make you a present of!" At these 

 words he plunged into the sea to the great grief of the fisherman, who regretted 

 having given him his liberty. " If I had kept him, thought he to himself, I 

 could have shown him for money as a curiosity, and in that manner I might have 

 gained my livelihood." 



An instant after the inhabitant of the sea re-appeared, with his hands filled with 

 rubies, pearls, and emeralds. " Do not take it ill," said heto the fisherman," that 

 I have not brought you more of them ; I had nothing to put them in, but I will 



