THE SILK-MERCHANT AND CAMEL-DRIVER.
A CHRISTIAN merchant, having entrusted a Turkish camel-driver with a certain number of bales of silk, to be carried from Alleppo to Constantinople, set out on the journey with him. But in the midst of the route, he fell ill and could not follow the caravan, which, by reason of this accident, arrived long before him. The camel-driver, not seeing his employer come at the expiration of a few weeks, imagined that he was dead, sold the silk, and changed his profession. At length the Christian merchant arrived, found him out, after much time spent in inquiry, and demanded his merchandise. The knave pretended he did not know him, and denied that he was ever a camel-driver. The Cadi, before whom this affair was brought, said to the Christian,—
"What's your demand?"
"I demand twenty bales of silk which I entrusted to the care of this man here."
"What do you answer to this?" said the Cadi to the camel-driver.
"I know not what he means by his bales of silk and his camels. I never saw the man before in my life," replied the camel-driver.
Then, the Cadi, turning to the Christian, asked him what proof he could bring in confirmation of what he alleged.
The merchant could allege no other than that his illness had prevented his keeping company with the camel-driver.
The Cadi called them both brutes, and desired them to withdraw from his presence. He then turned his back upon them, and, as they went out together, he thrust his head out of a window, and cried out pretty loud,—
"Camel-driver, a word with you."
The Turk immediately turned his head around, without thinking that he had lately abjured the trade and profession. Then the Cadi, obliging him to return, ordered him to be bastinadoed, and made him confess his knavery. He sentenced him also to make amends to the Christian for his silk, and to pay a considerable fine for the false oath he had taken.
Selected.