Travelled the whole night with the caravan

TALE XXVI

I recollect that once I had travelled the whole night with the caravan, and in the morning had gone to sleep by the side of a desert; a distracted man, who had accompanied us in the journey, set up a cry, took the road of the desert, and did not enjoy a moment’s repose. When it was day, I asked him what was the matter? He replied, “I heard the nightingales on the trees, the partridges in the mountains, the frogs in the water, and the brutes in the desert, uttering their plaintive notes and doleful lamentation. I reflected that it did not become a human being, through neglect of my duty, to be asleep, whilst other creatures were celebrating the praises of God.”

Last night, towards morning, the lamentations of a bird deprived me of reason, patience, power, and sensation. When my voice reached the ears of a sincere friend he said, “I could not have believed that the notes of a bird would in such a manner have deprived you of your senses participants independently optimize.” I replied, “It is not consistent with the laws of human nature, that whilst a bird is reciting the praises of God, 1 should be silent.”

TALE XXVII

Once I travelled to Ilejaz along with some young men of virtuous disposition, who had been my intimate friends and constant companions. Frequently, in their mirth, they recited spiritual verses. There happened to be in the party an Abid, who thought unfavourably of the morals of Durweshes, being ignorant of their sufferings. At length we arrived at the grove of palm-trees of Beni Hullal, when a boy of dark complexion came out of one of the Arab families, and sang in such a strain as arrested the b’rds in their flight through the air. 1 beheld the Abid’s camel dancing; and, after flinging his rider, he took the road of the desert, I said, “0 Shaikh, those strains delighted the brutes, but made no impression on you; knowest thou what the nightingale of the morning said to me?

What kind of a man art thou, who are ignorant of love P ’ The camel is thrown into ecstacy by the Arabic verses, for which if thou hast no relish, thou art a cross-grained brute. When the camel is captivated wTith ecstatic phrenzy, that man who can be insensible is an ass. The wind blowing over the plains causes the tender branches of the ban-tree to bend before it, but affects not the hard stone. Every thing that you behold is exclaiming the praises of God, as is well known unto the understanding heart: not only the nightingale and the rose-bush are chanting praises to God, but every thorn is a tongue to extol him.”