Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/395

 Cairene Folklore. 375

road and met with an old man. He said to him : ' Good Sir, what sort of creature are you ?' The other replied : ' I am an afrtt.' The husband asked : ' Where are you going? ' The afrit answered : ' I have run away from a woman named Bakhtiya (Luck) ; I fell across her in the well ; I left the well and went off. But come with me, we will be friends ; we will go to the city, and I will enter the body of the Sultan's daughter and you shall act as doctor ; when you come to the palace, and sit in the palace, I will go out of her body ; she shall be as well as she was before, and then they will give you bakshish ; but afterwards I will next go into the body of the vizier's daughter ; you may come, but I won't go out of her, so don't come, for it would be better they should kill you.' When they got to the city the afrit entered the body of the Sultanas daughter ; the man walked along the road crying : ' A physician ! I heal, I'm a healer ! ' When they heard him in the palace they called to him saying : ' Are you a clever physician ? ' ' Yes,' he answ^ered, ' a clever one.' They said : ' This girl is very ill ; if you cure her, I will give you plenty of bakshish.' He replied : ' Very well,' and added : " I must stay in a room along with the girl and must have a sheep richly stewed.' So he stayed in the palace three days, eating and drinking with great satisfaction, since he had had nothing to eat (pre- viously). The afrit left the girl, and the girl became as well as she had been before, and they gave him bakshish and they gave him clothes. The afrit went into the vizier's daughter; (so) the vizier sent to the sultan to ask for the physician. The physician went to the vizier's house, and the vizier said to him : ' If the girl is not cured I will cut off your head.' The man sat in the room with the girl two or three days ; but the afrit did not rise up out of her ; so the man said : ' My brother, depart ! ' The afrit replies : ' No, I will not depart.' Then the man asked the vizier to let him and the girl go into the garden ; when they had gone into the garden, and were staying there the