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When the father came to himself he wiped away the blood and tore

off a strip from his turband and bound up his head, blaming

himself the while, and saying, "I wronged the lad by shutting up

my shop and following, so that he thought I was some evil-minded

fellow." Then he returned to his place where he busied himself

with the sale of his sweetmeats; and he yearned after his mother

at Bassorah, and wept over her and broke out repeating:-

"Unjust it were to bid the World [FN#460] be just * And blame her

not: She ne'er was made for justice: Take what she gives thee,

leave all grief aside, * For now to fair and then to foul her

lust is."