None could tell
their number save Allah. No sooner had we arrived than we were visited
by certain Mameluke officials from the King of that city, who, after
boarding us, greeted the merchants and, giving them joy of safe
arrival, said: "Our King welcometh you, and sendeth you this roll of
paper, whereupon each and every of you must write a line. For ye shall
know that the King's Minister, a calligrapher of renown, is dead,
and the King hath sworn a solemn oath that he will make none Wazir
in his stead who cannot write as well as he could."
He then gave us the scroll, which measured ten cubits long by a
breadth of one, and each of the merchants who knew how to write
wrote a line thereon, even to the last of them, after which I stood up
(still in the shape of an ape) and snatched the roll out of their
hands. They feared lest I should tear it or throw it overboard, so
they tried to stay me and scare me, but I signed to them that I
could write, whereat all marveled, saying, "We never yet saw an ape
write." And the Captain cried: "Let him write, and if he scribble
and scrabble we will kick him out and kill him.
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