صفحة 189 من 1116

"Is this," continued Duban, "the return I meet from thee? Thou

givest me, meseems, but crocodile boon." Quoth the King,"What is

the tale of the crocodile?", and quoth the physician, "Impossible

for me to tell it in this my state; Allah upon thee, spare me, as

thou hopest Allah shall spare thee." And he wept with exceeding

weeping. Then one of the King's favourites stood up and said, "O

King! grant me the blood of this physician; we have never seen

him sin against thee, or doing aught save healing thee from a

disease which baffled every leach and man of science." Said the

King, "Ye wot not the cause of my putting to death this

physician, and this it is. If I spare him, I doom myself to

certain death; for one who healed me of such a malady by

something held in my hand, surely can slay me by something held

to my nose; and I fear lest he kill me for a price, since haply

he is some spy whose sole purpose in coming hither was to compass

my destruction.