Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 2.djvu/76

 56 A If Laylak wa Lay t ah. When I revived I found myself a clean eunuch with nothing left, and my master said to me, " Even as thou hast burned my heart for <the things I held dearest, so have I burnt thy heart for that of thy members whereby thou settest most store ! " Then he took me and sold me at a profit, for that I was become an eunuch. And I ceased not bringing trouble upon all, wherever I was sold, and was shifted from lord to lord and from notable to notable, being sold and being bought, till I entered the palace of the Commander of the Faithful. But now my spirit is broken and my tricks are gone from me, so alas ! are my ballocks. When the two slaves heard his history, they laughed at him and chaffed him and said, '< Truly thou art skite 1 and skite-son ! Thou liedest an odious lie." Then quoth they to the third slave, " Tell us thy tale." " O sons of my uncle," quoth he, "all that ye have said is idle : I will tell you the cause of my losing my testicles, and indeed I deserved to lose even more, for I futtered both my mistress and my master's eldest son and heir : but my story is a long one and this is not the time to tell it; for the dawn, O my cousins, draweth near and if morning come upon us with this chest still unburied, we shall get into sore disgrace and our lives will pay for it. So up with you and open the door and, when we get back to the palace, I will tell you my story and the cause of my losing my precious stones." Then he swarmed up and dropped down from the wall inside and opened the door, so they entered and, setting down the lantern, dug between four tombs a hole as long as the chest and of the same breadth. Kafur plied the spade and Sawab removed the earth by baskets-full till they reached the depth of the stature of a man ; 2 when they laid the chest in the hole and threw back the earth over it : then they went forth and shutting the door disappeared from Ghanim's eyes. When all was quiet and he felt sure that he was left alone in the place, his thought was busied about what the chest The Kazi (in folk-lore mostly a fool) fails, and his wife bids him ask the man to supper for a trial of wits on the same condition. She begins with compliments and ends by producing five eggs which she would have him distribute equally amongst the three ; and, when he is perplexed, she gives one to each of the men taking three for herself. Where- upon the "Dozd" wends his way, having lost his booty as his extreme stupidity deserved. In the text the eunuch, Kafur, is made a " Sandali " or smooth-shaven, so that he was of no use to women. Arab. " Khara," the lowest possible word : Yd Khara ! is the commonest of insults, used also by modest women. I have heard one say it to her son. omitted in that sadly superficial book, Lane's Modern Egyptians, App. B
 * Arab. " Kamah, a measure of length, a fathom, also called "Ba'a." Both are