448 THE ARABIAN NIGHTS’ ENTERTAINMENTS.

 

Abou Hassan, whose views and inclinations were very different from
those of his father, determined to make another use of his wealth. His
father had never allowed him any money but what was just necessary
for subsistence, and as he had always envied his rich companions, who
wanted for nothing, and who debarred themselves from none of those
pleasures to which their wealth entitled them, he resolved to distinguish
himself by extravagances proportionable to his fortune. To this end
he divided his riches into two parts; with one half he bought houses in
the city and farms in the country, with a resolution never to touch the
income arising from them, which was very large, but to lay it all by as
he received it. With the other half, which consisted of ready money,
he designed to make himself amends for the time he had lost by the
severe restraint in which his father had always kept him.

With this intent, Abou Hassan made the acquaintance of wealthy
youths of his own age and rank, who thought of nothing but how to
make their time pass agreeably. Hivery day he gave them splendid
entertainments, at which the most delicate viands were served up, and
the most exquisite wines flowed in profusion, while concerts of the best
vocal and instrumental musie by performers of both sexes heightened
their pleasures. These entertamments, renewed every day, were so
expensive to Abou Hassan that he could not support the extravagance
above one year. As soon as he discontinued his feasts, and pleaded
poverty as the excuse, his friends forsook him; whenever they saw
him they avoided him, and if by chance he met any of them, and
tried to stop them, they always excused themselves on some pretence
or other.

Abou Hassan was more affected by this behaviour of his friends, who
had forsaken him so basely and ungratefully, after all the protestations
they had made him of inviolable attachment, than by the loss of the
money he had so foolishly squandered. He went melancholy and
thoughtful into his mother’s apartment, and sat down on the end of a
sofa at a distance from her.

‘What is the matter with you, son?’ said his mother, seeing him
thus depressed. ‘ Why are you so dejected? You could not certainly
be more concerned if you had lost all you had. You have still, how-
ever, a good estate. I do not, therefore, see why you should plunge
yourself into this deep melancholy.’

At these words Abou Hassan melted into tears; and in the midst of
his sighs exclaimed, ‘Ah! mother, how insupportable poverty must be ;
it deprives us of joy, as the setting of the sun does of light. A poor
man is looked upon, both by friends and relations, as a stranger. You
know, mother, how I have treated my friends for this year past, and
now they have left me when they suppose I can treat them no longer.
Bismillah! praise be to God! Ihave yet my lands and farms, and I
shall now know how to use what is left. But I am resolved to try how
far my friends, who deserve not that I should call them so, will carry
their ingratitude. I will go to them one after another, and when I