"You do not understand! and you follow with your finger along the line of those bird-tracks! Then this magic book is of no more value to you than to me. I might just as well sit in your place, and follow with my finger."
"You are quite right, Fool."
"Now I'll tell you a thing, and you can make two of it. If I can swallow a little of your drink which you cannot pour out for your own self, then will you taste mine which I do not begrudge you?"
"I can easily agree to that."
"Now then, wait a little. Before you came I had a student for companion in these night-watches, who used to work there busily, just where you sit. He was to have taught the young Lord to read and write, but every day he got hit in the head with the inkstand. I watched this foolish student carefully from the other end of the table, and saw that when he took his goosequill in his hand, and began to make all kinds of flourishes that he always worked from left to right, but as I observe your finger you go from right to left, and in that way get everything wrong end to. Now listen, and I will recite you a sweet song:
'Wolb sdniw hguor eht nehw neve,
Skaerc kao tuots eht nehw neve,
Woleb ssarg eht ni terewolf eht,
Skaerw yruf rieht tahw ton sraef.'
Did you understand? Arabic, isn't it? Now just read it backward and you will understand at once.
'Even when the rough winds blow,
Even when the stout oak creaks,
The floweret in the grass below
Fears not what their fury wreaks.'"
"Quite right, Fool, but this is written in Arabic, and Arabic, like all Eastern languages, is written from right to left."
"What is the title of your book?"