There was once a man which was a fuller, and he used every day to
go forth to the Tigris-bank a-cleaning clothes; and his son was
wont to go with him that he might swim whilst his father was
fulling, nor was he forbidden from this. One day, as the boy was
swimming,
[FN#165] he was taken with cramp in the forearms and
sank, whereupon the fuller plunged into the water and caught hold
of him; but the boy clung about him and pulled him down and so
father and son were both drowned. "Thus it is with thee, O King.
Except thou prevent thy son and do me justice on him, I fear lest
both of you sink together, thou and he."--And Shahrazad perceived
the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it Was the Five Hundred and Eightieth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
favourite had told her tale of the Fuller and his son, she ended
with, "I fear lest both of you sink together, thou and he.
Moreover," continued she, "for an instance of the malice of men,
I have heard tell a tale concerning The Rake's Trick against the Chaste Wife.
