Note 21 — ARABIC LITERATURE (continued 4)

This Assembly is well known to students. Harith is at Barka'id. The feast at the end of Ramadan is approaching, and being desirous of joining in this solemnity he goes to the public prayer in his best attire. When the congregation has formed itself into rows, after the manner of Moslem worship, he espies an old man with his eyes closed, accompanied by an old woman. The man takes out of a bag a number of papers curiously written or illuminated in variously colored inks; and the old woman, going through the rows, presents them to those whom she guesses from their appearance to be charitably disposed. One of them falls to the lot of Harith, who finds on it some strange verses full of alliterations and plays on words. He keeps it, and when the old woman, being disappointed in her appeal, returns to reclaim it, he offers her a dirhem on the condition that she will tell him the name of the author. She informs him that the old man had composed the verses, and that he was a native of Seruj. Harith then guesses that he must be Abu Zayd, and is much concerned to find that he has become blind. When the prayer is over he goes up to him and discovers that he is indeed Abu Zayd, whereupon he presents him with a garment and invites him to his house. No sooner are they in private than Abu Zayd opens his eyes, which are perfectly sound, and Harith discovers that his pretended blindness was a trick to excite pity.