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Rh children and wife, and riches. They resolved upon this course, but just at this juncture, Barkamárís came in, and after making his salutation, said, “I and the king are sons of the same father; if he will acquaint me with his opinion, it may be that I may be able to suggest something,—do not take my youth into consideration.” So they informed him of the facts. He then said, “It seems proper that I should stake my life for the king: let an order be given for me to be dressed like a woman, and let all the officers dress their sons in like manner as damsels, and let us each conceal a knife in our hair, and carry a trumpet also concealed; then send us to the king. When we are brought before the king they will tell him that I am the damsel, he will keep me for himself and give the others to his officers. When the king retires with me I will rip up his belly with the knife and sound the trumpet. When the other youths hear this they will know that I have done my work, and they must also do theirs. All the officers of the army will thus be slain. You must be prepared, and when you hear the trumpet, you must sally forth with your soldiers and we will exterminate the foe.” Rawwál was delighted and did as was proposed. It succeeded, not one of the enemy’s horsemen escaped, all were slain and cast down from the mountain. Rawwál’s power increased. [The Wazír excites the king’s suspicions against Barkamárís, who feigns madness.] One day in the hot season, Barkamárís was wandering barefoot about the city, and came to the gate of the king’s palace. Meeting no hindrance he entered, and found his brother and the damsel sitting on a throne sucking sugar cane. When Rawwál saw him he observed that there could be no porters at the gate, otherwise the poor mendicant would never have got in. Taking pity on him, he gave him a bit of sugar cane. The mendicant took it, and picked up a piece of the shell of the cane to scrape and clean it with. When the king saw that he wanted to clean the cane, he told the damsel to give him a knife. She rose and gave the knife to Barkamárís, who cleaned the sugar cane with it, and craftily watched until the king was off his guard. Then he sprung upon him, and plunging the knife into his navel, ripped him up. After that he seized his feet