Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 9.djvu/110

92 Meanwhile, the jeweller’s wife said to her husband, ‘Is the guest gone?’ ‘Yes,’ answered he: ‘but, O Helimeh, the mosquitoes plagued him last night and scarified his cheeks and lips, and indeed I was abashed before him.’ ‘This is the wont of the mosquitoes of our saloon,’ rejoined she; ‘for they love none but the beardless. But do thou invite him again to-night.’ So he repaired to Kemerezzeman’s lodging and bidding him, carried him to his house, where they ate and drank and prayed the evening prayerevening-prayer [sic] in the saloon, after which the maid came in and gave each of them a cup of drink, and they drank and fell asleep. Presently, in came Helimeh and said, ‘O good-for-nought, how canst thou sleep and call thyself a lover? A lover sleepeth not.’ Then she mounted on his breast and ceased not to ply him with kisses and caresses, biting and sucking his lips and so forth, till the morning, when she put a knife in his pocket and sent her maid to arouse them.

When Kemerezzeman awoke, his cheeks were on fire, for excess of redness, and his lips like coral, for dint of sucking and kissing. Quoth the jeweller, ‘Did the mosquitoes plague thee last night?’ ‘No,’ answered the young man; for, since he knew the word of the enigma, he left complaining. Then he felt the knife in his pocket and was silent. When he had broken his fast and drunk coffee, he left the jeweller and going to the khan, took five hundred dinars and carried them to the old woman, to whom he related what had passed, saying, ‘I slept in my own despite, and when I woke I found nothing but a knife in my pocket.’ ‘May God protect thee from her this next night!’ exclaimed the old woman. ‘For she saith to thee [by this sign,] “An thou sleep again, I will cut thy throat.” Thou wilt once more be bidden to the jeweller’s house to-night, and if thou sleep, she will slay thee.’

‘What is to be done?’ asked he; and she said, ‘Tell