Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/312

284 it is his.” So the light-fingered gentry come and try to take the purse, but cannot; for he lays at his feet cakes of lead, whilst he fries his fish and tends the fire; and whenever a thief thinks to take him unawares and makes a snatch at the purse, he casts a disc of lead at him and kills him or does him a mischief. So, O Ali, wert thou to tackle him, thou wouldst be as one who jostles a funeral, unknowing who is dead; for thou art no match for him, and we fear his mischief for thee. Indeed, thou hast no call to marry Zeyneb, and he who leaves a thing alone lives without it.’ ‘This were shame, O comrades,’ answered Ali. ‘Needs must I take the purse: but bring me a woman’s habit.’

So they brought him women’s clothes and he clad himself therein and stained his hands with henna. Then he took a lamb and killing it, took out the guts and filled them with the blood and bound them between his thighs; after which he donned women’s trousers and walking boots. Moreover, he made himself a pair of false breasts with pelican’s pouches and filled them with milk and tied round his hips a piece of linen, which he stuffed with cotton, [to represent a big belly and buttocks], girding himself over all with a silk handkerchief well starched. Then he veiled himself and went out, whilst all who saw him exclaimed, ‘What a fine pair of buttocks!’ Presently he saw an ass-driver coming, so he gave him a dinar and mounting, rode till he came to Zureic’s shop, where he saw the purse hung up and the gold glittering through the meshes. Now Zureic was frying fish, and Ali said to the ass-man, ‘O driver, what is that smell?’ ‘It is the smell of Zureic’s fish,’ answered he. Quoth Ali, ‘I am