FullReads

[Footnote 206] Without the city.

When he was gone, the old man bade the trooper wash the kitchen-vessels and made ready passing goodly food. When the king returned, he set the meat before him, and he tasted food whose like he had never known; whereat he marvelled and asked who had dressed it. So they acquainted him with the old man’s case and he summoned him to his presence and awarded him a handsome recompense.[207] Moreover, he commanded that they should cook together, he and the cook, and the old man obeyed his commandment.

[Footnote 207] According to the conclusion of the story, this recompense consisted in an augmentation of the old man’s allowances of food. See post, p. 245.

Awhile after this, there came two merchants to the king with two pearls of price and each of them avouched that his pearl was worth a thousand dinars, but there was none who availed to value them. Then said the cook, ‘God prosper the king! Verily, the old man whom I bought avouched that he knew the quintessence of jewels and that he was skilled in cookery. We have made proof of him in cookery and have found him the skilfullest of men; and now, if we send after him and prove him on jewels, [the truth or falsehood of] his pretension will be made manifest to us.’

So the king bade fetch the old man and he came and stood before the Sultan, who showed him the two pearls. Quoth he, ‘As for this one, it is worth a thousand dinars.’ And the king said, ‘So saith its owner.’ ‘But for this other,’ continued the old man, ‘it is worth but five hundred.’ The folk laughed and marvelled at his saying, and the merchant, [the owner of the second pearl], said to him, ‘How can this, which is greater of bulk and purer of water and more perfect of rondure, be less of worth than that?’ And the old man answered, ‘I have said what is with me.'[208] Then said the king to him, ‘Indeed, the outward appearance thereof is like unto that of the other pearl; why then is it worth but the half of its price?’ ‘Yes,’ answered the old man, ‘[its outward resembleth the other]; but its inward is corrupt.’ ‘Hath a pearl then an outward and an inward?’ asked the merchant, and the old man said, ‘Yes. In its inward is a boring worm; but the other pearl is sound and secure against breakage.’ Quoth the merchant, ‘Give us a token of this and prove to us the truth of thy saying.’ And the old man answered, ‘We will break the pearl. If I prove a, liar, here is my head, and if I speak truth, thou wilt have lost thy pearl.’ And the merchant said, ‘I agree to that.’ So they broke the pearl and it was even as the old man had said, to wit, in its midst was a boring worm.

[Footnote 208] i.e. I have given my opinion.

The king marvelled at what he saw and questioned him of [how he came by] the knowledge of this. ‘O king,’ answered the old man, ‘this [kind of] jewel is engendered in the belly of a creature called the oyster and its origin is a drop of rain and it is firm to the touch [and groweth not warm, when held in the hand]; so, when [I took the second pearl and felt that] it was warm to the touch, I knew that it harboured some living thing, for that live things thrive not but in heat.'[209] So the king said to the cook, ‘Increase his allowance.’ And he appointed to him [fresh] allowances.

[Footnote 209] This passage is evidently corrupt. I have amended it, on conjecture, to the best of my power.

Awhile after this, two merchants presented themselves to the king with two horses, and one said, ‘I ask a thousand dinars for my horse,’ and the other, ‘I seek five thousand for mine.’ Quoth the cook, ‘We have experienced the old man’s just judgment; what deemeth the king of fetching him?’ So the king bade fetch him, and when he saw the two horses, he said, ‘This one is worth a thousand and the other two thousand dinars.’ Quoth the folk, ‘This [horse that thou judgeth the lesser worth] is an evident thoroughbred and he is younger and swifter and more compact of limb than the other, ay, and finer of head and clearer of skin and colour. What token, then, hast thou of the truth of thy saying?’ And the old man said, ‘This ye say is all true, but his sire is old and this other is the son of a young horse. Now, when the son of an old horse standeth still [to rest,] his breath returneth not to him and his rider falleth into the hand of him who followeth after him; but the son of a young horse, if thou put him to speed and make him run, [then check him] and alight from off him, thou wilt find him untired, by reason of his robustness.’