' 'What is thy wage?' asked the Vizier, and the gardener
answered, 'One dinar every month and no more.' Then the Vizier
looked round about the garden and seeing in its midst a pavilion,
lofty but old and dilapidated, said to the keeper, 'O elder, I am
minded to do here a good work, by which thou shalt remember me.'
'O my lord,' rejoined the other, 'what is that?' 'Take these
three hundred dinars,' answered the Vizier. When the keeper heard
speak of the dinars, he said, 'O my lord, do what thou wilt.' So
the Vizier gave him the money, saying, 'God willing, we will work
a good work in this place.' Then they left the garden and
returned to their lodging, where they passed the night. Next day,
the Vizier sent for a plasterer and a painter and a skilful
goldsmith, and furnishing them with all the tools and materials
that they required, carried them to the garden, where he bade
them plaster the walls of the pavilion and decorate it with
various kinds of paintings. Then he sent for gold and ultramarine
and said to the painter, 'Paint me on the wall, at the upper end
of the saloon, a fowler, with his nets spread and birds lighted
round them and a female pigeon fallen into the net and entangled
therein by the bill. Let this fill one compartment of the wall,
and on the other paint the fowler seizing the pigeon and setting
the knife to her throat, whilst the third compartment of the
picture must show a great hawk seizing the male pigeon, her mate,
and digging his talons into him.
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