for a full told hour, after which he turned to the Fox and said, “O my brother, I behold and can distinguish a bird flying and a dust-trail hieing.”  “Consider them narrowly, O my brother,” cried the Fox (whose side-muscles quivered) “lest this be sign of greyhound;” and the other replied, “The Truth is known to Allah alone, yet I seem now to see a something lengthy of leg, lean of flank, loose of ears, fine of forehand and full of quarter, and at this moment it draweth near and is well nigh upon us—­O fine!"[FN#279] Now when the Fox heard these words he cried to the Cock, “O my brother, I must farewell thee!” and so saying he arose and committed his legs to the wind and he had recourse to the Father of Safety.[FN#280] Seeing this, the Cock also cried, “Why thus take to flight when thou hast no spoiler thy heart to affright?” Replied the Fox, “I have a fear of the Greyhound, O my brother, for that he is not of my friends or of my familiars;” and the Cock rejoined, “Didst thou not tell me thou camest as Commissioner of the Kings to these wastes proclaiming a peace and safety amongst all the beasts and the birds?” “O my brother Chanticleer,” retorted the other, “this feral, Greyhound hight, was not present at the time when pacifcation was proclaimed, nor was his name announced in the Congress of the beasts; and I for my part have no love lost with him, nor between me and him is there aught of security.”  So saying the Fox turned forthright to fly, routed with the foulest of routing, and the Cock escaped the foe by his sleight and sagacity with perfect safety and security.  Now after the Fox had turned tail and fled from him Chanticleer came down from the wall and regained his farm, lauding Allah Almighty who had conveyed him unharmed to his own place.  And here he related unto his fellows what had befallen him with the Fox and how he had devised that cunning device and thereby freed himself from a strait wherein, but for it, the foe had torn him limb by limb.

Finis.

History of what befel the fowl-let with the
Fowler

Here we begin to invite the History of what befel the Fowl-let from the Fowler.[FN#281]

They relate (but Allah is All-knowing) that there abode in Baghdad-city a huntsman-wight in venerie trained aright.  Now one day he went forth to the chase taking with him nets and springes and other gear he needed and fared to a garden-site with trees bedight and branches interlaced tight wherein all the fowls did unite; and arriving at a tangled copse he planted his trap in the ground and he looked around for a hiding-place and took seat therein concealed.  Suddenly a Birdie approaching the trap-side began scraping the earth and, wandering round about it, fell to saying in himself, “What may this be?  Would Heaven I wot, for it seemeth naught save a marvellous creation of Allah!” Presently he considered the decoy which was half buried in the ground and