Page:Three crump twin brothers of Damascus (1).pdf/4

4 to do: there could be but one criminal, and here seemed to be three; and never a one of them would own himself to be the man: he thought he could not do better, then to inform the King of Damascus of so singular an affair He carried the three crumps before his throne; and the Prince having examined them himself, without being able to find out the truth gave command, in order to discover it, that each of them should have a hundred bastinadoes upon the soles of his feet. They began with Syahou, and afterwards proceeded to Ibad; but both of them being ignorant whether Babekan was the criminal or no, so much resemblance there was between them, they endured the bastinado without giving the King any clearer information than he had before. Batekan afterwards received his quota of stripes; but being judge in his own cause, he did not think fit to betray himself; he made the most earnest protestations of his innocence, and the King not knowing which was the murderer, and unwilling to put to death two innocents with one criminal, thus contented with banishing them all three from Damascus for ever.

Ibad, Syahouk and Babekan were obliged to comply with this sentence immediately: departed from the city and having considered what they should do Ibad and Syahouk were entirely for keeping together: but Babekan having represented to them that let them go where they would, so long as they were together they would always be the jest of the public, and that if they were single they would each be, infinitely less observed; this reason prevailed over the opinion of the other two. They parted, from each other, and taking every one a different road, Babeken, after having travelled through several towns of