The Barmecide found my brother to be a man of so much wit and understanding, that in a few days after he entrusted him with the care of his household and all his affairs.  My brother acquitted himself very well in that employment for twenty years; at the end of which the generous Barmecide died, and leaving no heirs, all his property was confiscated to the use of the prince; and my brother lost all he had acquired.  Being reduced to his first condition, he joined a caravan of pilgrims going to Mecca, designing to accomplish that pilgrimage by their charity; but unfortunately the caravan was attacked and plundered by a number of Bedouins, superior to that of the pilgrims.  My brother was then taken as a slave by one of the Bedouins, who put him under the bastinado for several days, to oblige him to ransom himself.  Schacabac protested that it was all in vain.  “I am your slave,” said he, “you may dispose of me as you please; but I declare to you that I am extremely poor, and not able to redeem myself.”  In a word, my brother discovered to him all his misfortunes, and endeavoured to soften him with tears; but the Bedouin was not to be moved, and being vexed to find himself disappointed of a considerable sum of which he reckoned himself sure, he took his knife and slit my brother’s lips. to avenge himself by this inhumanity for the loss that he thought he had sustained.

The Bedouin had a handsome wife, and frequently when he went on his excursions left my brother alone with her.  At such times she used all her endeavours to comfort my brother under the rigour of his slavery.  She gave him tokens enough that she loved him, but he durst not return her passion, for fear he should repent; and therefore avoided being alone with her, as much as she sought the opportunity to be alone with him.  She was so much in the habit of caressing and playing with the miserable Schacabac, whenever she saw him, that one day she happened to act in the same manner, in the presence of her husband.  My brother, without taking notice that he observed them (so his sins would have it), played likewise with her.  The Bedouin, immediately supposing that they lived together in a criminal manner, fell upon my brother in a rage, and after he had mutilated him in a barbarous manner, carried him on a camel to the top of a desert mountain, where he left him.  The mountain was on the road to Bagdad, so that the passengers who saw him there informed me where he was.  I went thither speedily, and found unfortunate Schacabac in a deplorable condition:  I gave him what help he stood in need of, and brought him back to the city.

This is what I told the caliph; that prince applauded me with new fits of laughter.  “Now,” said he, “I cannot doubt but they justly give you the surname of Silent.  No one can say the contrary for certain reasons, however, I command you to depart this town immediately, and let me hear no more of you.”  I yielded to necessity, and travelled for several years in distant countries.