Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/383

 Cairene Folklore. 363

present for the sultan.' He asked : ' (If) the sultan grants you a favour, what will you give me ? ' He replied : ' I will give you a quarter.' The porter said : ' Very good, pass on.' The fellow entered the palace and found the sultan and the vizier, and the sultan's children, sitting (there). He makes obeisance to the sultan; the sultan asks him : ' What have you got, good sir ? ' He answered : ' I have a present for you.' The sultan said : ' A present, of what sort is it ? ' He answered : ' Food.' The sultan said: 'AH right, I have not yet eaten.' They placed the food in the middle of them and sat down to eat. The sultan said to the fellow: 'Set on!' {literally, display). He replied : ' Your servant ! ' and took the cock, broke its head and gave it to the sultan, saying: 'The head! you shall take the head.' And he gave the neck to the vizier, saying: 'The neck! you shall have the neck.' And he gave the children the wings and said to them : ' The wings 1 and you shall take the wings.' The sultan exclaimed : 'What's this, O vizier?' Then the vizier replied: 'The head includes all the people ; therefore you take the head.' The sultan was greatly pleased with the fellow and said : ' Ask what I shall give you !' He answered : 'I want eight hundred blows with the kurbash.' The sultan said : ' My man, think of something else ! ' He said : ' No, I want eight hundred blows with the kurbash.' When they were going to give him the eight hundred lashes he cried : ' Wait a little ! I have a partner ! ' They went to the first gate; he said to them : 'Give the Nubian two hundred!' When they had given the fellow two hundred blows they went to the second gate : he told them to give the porter of it another two hundred. Next they came to the third gate ; and he told them to give the porter of it another two hundred. They went to the fourth gate and he told them to give the porter there another two hundred. The sultan asked : ' What is the meaning of this, good sir ? ' He replied: 'Your majesty, when I came the fellow said to