As The Sheep Gave No Answer, I Asked
Him Whether He Were Mahometan, Jew, Or Christian.
And willing to make
him a Mahometan, I repeated the formula as before, which signifies,
"There is but one God, and Mahomet is his prophet," being the words the
Mahometans rehearse as their profession of faith.
As the sheep answered
never a word to all I could say, I at length broke his leg with staff.
The queen took much delight in these my mad tricks, and commanded the
carcass of this sheep to be given me, and I never eat meat with more
relish or better appetite. Three days afterwards I killed an ass that
used to bring water to the palace, because he would not say these words
and be a Mahometan. One day I handled a Jew so very roughly, that I had
near killed him. On another occasion I threw many stones at a person who
called me a Christian clog, but he threw them back at me with such
vengeance, that he hurt me sore, on which I returned to my prison, of
which I barricadoed the door with stones, and lay there for two days, in
great pain, without meat or drink, so that the queen and others thought
me dead, but the door was opened by command of the queen. Those Arabian
dogs used to deride me, giving me stones in place of bread, and pieces
of white marble, pretending that they were lumps of sugar, and others
gave me bunches of grapes all full of sand.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 119 of 842
Words from 31842 to 32101
of 230997
