Greetings! The reference of which you speak is a short story by
Somerset Maugham titled "The Appointment in Samarra" and written in
1933. A wonderful little story, too. There were many sites that
presented it, so please check the search return posted at the bottom
of the answer for additional sites.
From http://www.dao.org/
"Death Speaks - There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to
market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back,
white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the
market-place I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I
saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a
threatening gesture; now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away
from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death
will not find me. The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant
mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the
horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the
market-place and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to and
said, Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you
saw him this morning? That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it
was only a start of suprise. I was astonished to see him in Bagdad,
for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra."
SEARCH TERM:
samarra appointment death
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=samarra+appointment+death |
