A man of the pilgrims once slept a long sleep and awaking，found no trace of the caravan. So he arose and walked onbut lost his way and presently came to a tentat whose door he saw an old woman and a dog by herasleep. He went up to the tent and saluting the old womansought of her food. 'Go to yonder valley，'said she'and catch thy sufficiency of serpentsthat I may broil of them for thee and give thee to eat.'I dare not catch serpents，'answered the pilgrim；'nor did I ever eat them.'Quoth the old woman'I will go with thee and catch them；fear not.'So she went with himfollowed by the dogto the valleyand catching a sufficient number of serpents，proceeded to broil them. He saw nothing for it but to eatfor fear of hunger and exhaustion；so he ate of the serpents.
Then he was athirst and asked for water to drink. 'Go to the spring and drink，'answered she. So he went to the spring and found the water thereof bitter；yet needs must he drink of it，for all its bitternessbecause of the violence of his thirst.
Then he returned to the old woman and said to her'O old womanI marvel at thy choosing to abide in this place and putting up with such meat and drink！'And how is it then in thy country？'asked she. 'In my country，'answered he'are wide and spacious houses and ripe and delicious fruits and sweet and abundant waters and goodly viands and fat meats and plentiful flocks and all things pleasant and all the goods of lifethe like whereof are notsave in the Paradise that God the Most High hath promised to His pious servants.'All this，'replied she'have I heard： but tell mehave you a Sultan who ruleth over you and is tyrannical in his rule and under whose hand you arewhoif one of you commit a faulttaketh his goods and undoth him and whowhen he willturneth you out of your houses and uprooteth youstock and branch？'Indeedthat may be，'answered the man. 'Thenby Allah，'rejoined she，'these your delicious viands and dainty life and pleasant estatewith tyranny and oppressionare but a corroding poisonin comparison wherewithour food and fashionwith freedom and safetyare a healthful medicine. Hast thou not heard that the best of all boonsafter the true Faithare health and security？'
Now these [quoth he who tells the tale] may be by the just rule of the Sultanthe Vicar of God in His earthand the goodness of his policy. The Sultan of times past needed but little awfulnessfor thatwhen the people saw himthey feared him；but the Sultan of these days hath need of the most accomplished policy and the utmost majestyfor that men are not as men of time past and this our age is one of folk depraved and greatly calamitousnoted for folly and hardness of heart and inclined to hatred and enmity. Ifthereforethe Sultan that is set over them be（which God the Most High forfend）weak or lack of policy and majestywithout doubt，this will be the cause of the ruin of the land. Quoth the proverb'A hundred years of the Sultan's tyrannyrather than one of the tyranny of the peopleone over another.'When the people oppress one anotherGod setteth over them a tyrannical Sultan and a despotic King. Thus it is told in history that there wasone daypresented to El Hejjaj ben Yousuf a docketin which was written'Fear God and oppress not His servants with all manner of oppression.'When he read thishe mounted the pulpit（for he was ready of speech，）and said'O folk'God the Most High hath set me over youby reason of your[evil] deeds；and though I dieyet will ye not be delivered from oppressionwith your evil deeds；for God the Most High hath created many like unto me. If it be not Iit will be a more fertile than I in mischief and a mightier in oppression and a more strenuous in violenceeven as saith the poet：
For no hand is there but the hand of God is over it And no oppressor but shall be with worse than he oppress.
Tyranny is feared： but justice is the best of all things. We beg God to better our case.'
