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THE LADY'S FIRST STORY [2]. There are two kings, of whom one brings up his son rigorously but well, while the other indulges his in every whim; the latter kills his father and plays the tyrant towards his people, who call in the first king's son and aid him to obtain possession of their country and conquer their tyrannical sovereign, who is put to death.
THE SECOND VEZIR'S STORY [3]. A khoja has a parrot which tells him that during his absence his wife entertains her lover. On being reprimanded by her husband, the lady plays a trick by means of which the parrot loses credit with the khoja.
THE LADY'S SECOND STORY [4]. A sickly prince is cured by a physician who, having learned from the queen that the boy's real father is a Turkman, causes him to be fed with food proper to that people.
THE THIRD VEZIR'S STORY [5]. (a) An aged king, feeling he is about to die and unable to decide to which of his three sons to leave the throne, causes each to rule for three days in succession, whereupon the youngest is chosen by the people. (b) The old king causes his own obsequies to be performed before his death.
THE LADY'S THIRD STORY [6]. A powerful king, who makes war upon a weak neighbour, is five times defeated and at length slain by the latter, who follows the counsels of a wise vezir.
THE FOURTH VEZIR'S STORY [7]. (a) Moses slays Og the son of Anak, king of the ' Adis. (b) Afterwards he invades the country of Balaam the son of Beor, who, prevailed upon by his wife, curses Moses so that he wanders forty years in the wilderness; wherefore, at the prayer of Moses, Balaam dies an infidel.
THE LADY'S FOURTH STORY [8]. A certain king, who is desirous of seeing Khizr, gives a poor man much wealth on condition that he shows him the prophet within three years; at the end of which time, the poor man, having failed in his engagement, is brought before the king, accompanied by Khizr in disguise, who tells the king the origin of his vezirs from the several punishments they suggest for the poor man.
THE FIFTH VEZIR'S STORY [9]. A certain vezir, who receives frequent visits from Khizr, retires from his office, whereon Khizr ceases to visit him. On Khizr once again appearing, he asks the reason of this, and is told by the prophet that only so long as he attends to his duty is there any connection between them.
THE LADY'S FIFTH STORY [10]. A Moorish magician, being enamoured of a boy, teaches him certain charms whereby he may have access to a buried treasure after learning which the boy seeks to kill the Moor and remain sole master of the treasure.
THE SIXTH VEZIR'S STORY [11]. A tailor and his wife make an agreement that whichever survives the other shall not marry again, but continue to mourn as long as life lasts. The woman dies, and the tailor is discovered by Jesus weeping over her tomb. Jesus restores her to life, and, while the tailor is gone to fetch her clothes, she goes away with the prince of the country, who happens to pass by. When the tailor finds her, she denies him and persuades the prince to put him to death, whereupon Jesus appears and, telling the truth, causes the woman to die again and the tailor to be released.
THE LADY'S SIXTH STORY [12]. The son of a robber is adopted by a king; when he grows up, he falls in love with the king's daughter, runs off with her, kills the king and turns robber.
THE SEVENTH VEZIR'S STORY [13]. A king, who is desirous of having soldiers without pay, is shown by a learned vezir how it is impossible to procure such.
THE LADY'S SEVENTH STORY [14]. Solomon sends the simurgh to bring the sparrow to his court; but the latter, being beside his mate, vaunts and brags and refuses to obey the prophet and his messenger.
THE EIGHTH VEZIR'S STORY [15]. A certain vezir perceives by a sign that his good fortune has reached its highest point, and, consequently, prepares for adversity; a year afterwards he learns by another sign that his evil fortune has reached its lowest point, and, consequently, prepares for prosperity.
THE LADY'S EIGHTH STORY [16]. A king, dying, tells his three sons where he has hidden a vase of jewels. On his death they fail to find it, and, knowing that one of themselves must have taken it, go before the cadi that he may judge between them. He finds out the thief by telling a story of a girl, whose bridegroom having allowed her to keep an appointment with her lover, is nobly treated by her lover and by a robber whom she meets.
THE NINTH VEZIR'S STORY [17]. A slave-girl spills some food over the Khalif Harun-er-Reshld when he is in a wrathful mood. As he is about to kill her, she turns away his anger and incites him to generous deeds by an apposite quotation from the Koran.
THE LADY'S NINTH STORY [18]. (a) A dying king gives enigmatic counsels to his three sons, which they, not understanding aright, misapply. (b) A dervish shows them their error by telling them a story of a monk and a dervish who conversed before a king by making signs with their hands, and who, while they thought they understood each other, did not really do so.
THE TENTH VEZIR'S STORY [19]. An Egyptian prince finds at Mekka the purse of a khoja, who, when his property is freely restored to him, prays that the prince may become master of his wife and all his possessions, which eventually happens.
THE LADY'S TENTH STORY [20]. A merchant, dying, leaves an allowance to each of his sons, which they squander, and so are reduced to beggary; whereupon the merchants, fearing their bad example, persuade the king to put them to death; they save themselves by showing the king that their father commended them to money rather than to God.
THE ELEVENTH VEZIR'S STORY [21]. A king, while drunk, orders his favourite, the son of his vezir, to be put to death; the boy is, however, saved by his father, and on the king repenting is restored to him.
THE LADY'S ELEVENTH STORY [22]. Barsisa, a devotee, tempted by Satan, violates and murders a king's daughter who is sent to him that his prayers may cure her of an illness. When he is being hanged, Satan persuades him to worship him, and then mocks him and leaves him.
THE TWELFTH VEZIR'S STORY [23]. By feigning to understand the language of birds, Ayaz induces Sultan Mahmud to restore all the ruined places in his empire.
THE LADY'S TWELFTH STORY [24]. A weaver pretends to a king that he can weave a turban such that only those born in wedlock can see. The king orders him to do so, and for a time he manages to deceive the king and his vezirs.
THE THIRTEENTH VEZIR'S STORY [25]. A prince, whose ruling star is afflicted during thirty years, wanders for that period in strange countries suffering many hardships and dangers; at length, at the end of that term, he becomes a king and is reunited to his sons whom he had lost.
THE LADY'S THIRTEENTH STORY [26]. A king, who is childless, having requested a dervish to pray for him, and sent a ram to the convent, by and by gets a son; on a second occasion he sends a horse and gets another son, and on a third he sends a mule and gets a third son. The first son turns out brave, the second sagacious, and the third stubborn.
THE FOURTEENTH VEZIR'S STORY [27]. The angels in Heaven speak slightingly of the children of Adam, whereupon God endows with human passions Harut and Marut, two of their number chosen by themselves, and sends them down to earth to be tempted. They commit all manner of evil, and are punished by being hanged head downward in a well at Babylon till the ResurrectionDay.
THE LADY'S FOURTEENTH STORY [28], Certain opium-eaters enter a tomb to eat, but forget to shut the gate. They begin to quarrel as to who shall get up and close it, and agree that he who speaks first shall do so. Dogs come in and eat up their food and bite one of them, who cries out, and is thereupon told by the others to shut the gate, though there is now no use in doing so.
THE FIFTEENTH VEZIR'S STORY [29]. A king whose son dies of an unknown malady, has him cut open and discovers a bone on the top of his heart; this he gets made into a knife-handle which he leaves one day in a watermelon where it melts. Having thus found out what would have cured his son, he dies of grief for not having known it earlier.
THE LADY'S FIFTEENTH STORY [30]. Luqman the sage, being called to cure a sick king, says his recovery can only be effected by the slaughter of the prince. He pretends to kill him before the king, who recovers through his delight at finding his son is not really slain.
THE SIXTEENTH VEZIR'S STORY [31]. A dervish, who diverts a king with verses and stories, receives a hint to go away, but by a witty answer induces the king to let him remain.
THE LADY'S SIXTEENTH STORY [32]. Hasan of Maymand, having been dismissed from the vezirate by Sultan Mahmiid, overhears some children playing, and from a speech made by one of these prepares a petition which is the cause of his being reinstated in office.
THE SEVENTEENTH VEZIR'S STORY [33]. During a famine in Mekka, a woman, who has a store of wheat, offers to give some to a youth if he will commit adultery with her. He, having resolved to mutilate himself, feigns to consent, when he finds a way of escape and has ten camel-loads of wheat miraculously bestowed on him.
THE LADY'S SEVENTEENTH STORY [34]. A young sharper buys a sequin's worth of sweetmeats from a confectioner and then steals the sequin, whereupon the confectioner manages by a trick to recover the coin from the sharper, who gets it again by another trick; the confectioner recovers it a second time, and is once more wheedled out of it by the sharper.
THE EIGHTEENTH VEZIR'S STORY [35]. (a) A man clad in black and riding on a black ass comes to Sultan Mahmud's court and asks for some money, on being refused which, he insults the king who, pleased at his boldness, bestows a gift on him. (b) A khoja, who refuses to buy his beard from an abdal, is finally induced to give the latter a hundred aspres by a jest that he makes.
THE LADY'S EIGHTEENTH STORY [36]. A young cobbler, going from Orfa to Aleppo, rescues a girl, who by and by employs him to kill her faithless lover, who had attempted to slay her. She turns out to be the king's daughter and is eventually married to the cobbler.
THE NINETEENTH VEZIR'S STORY [37]. Hasan of Basra attends the mourning ceremony on the anniversary of the death of a king's son, and is so affected thereby that he abandons the world and turns dervish.
THE LADY'S NINETEENTH STORY [38]. An old gardener, having mounted his son upon an ass, is going to his garden, when he is met by certain persons who jeer at him; he then makes the boy get down and mounts himself, when certain others jeer at him; next he makes the boy get up before, and then behind, him, always with the same result; at length, both go on foot and thus reach the garden.
THE TWENTIETH VEZIR'S STORY [39]. A king buys from a dervish a word of counsel, which is in the end the means of saving his life.
THE LADY'S TWENTIETH STORY [40]. A whole encampment is plunged into mourning by believing the word of children.
THE TWENTY-FIRST VEZIR'S STORY [41]. A king's wife shuts up her lover in a chest and then tells her husband what she has done. When he is about to open the chest, she deceives him by a false speech, and makes him crave her pardon for having doubted her fidelity.
THE LADY'S TWENTY-FIRST STORY [42]. An abdal rides out hawking with a king, but, being ignorant of the sport, makes a stupid mistake which angers the king, who is, however, appeased by a jest that the abdal makes.
THE TWENTY-SECOND VEZIR'S STORY [43]. A king who is about to hang an abdal who loves his son, sees himself in a vision consigned to Hell, after which he is more lenient in his dealings.
THE LADY'S TWENTY-SECOND STORY [44]. A certain noble who is envious of the king's favourite courtier, plays the latter a trick which causes the king to give him a note ordering his death. The envious man meets the courtier, and, thinking the note to be an order for a gift, asks and gets it from him, and so is put to death in his stead.
THE TWENTY-THIRD VEZIR'S STORY [45]. A merchant tells his son that should he ever come to want he is to hang himself from a certain ring in the ceiling. After his father's death, the youth, having wasted all his substance, does as he was told, when the ceiling gives way and he discovers much gold hidden there. He reforms; and, after a time, he buys from a snake-charmer a serpent which proves to be the princess of the jinn, for whose ransom he obtains a magic mirror which enables him to carry off the daughter of the king of his country. The king gets possession, through witches, of the youth, the mirror and the princess. The youth is freed from the king's prison by the mice who are in fear of his cat, and recovers the princess and mirror; but again loses them to the witches, by whom he is himself killed.
THE LADY'S TWENTY-THIRD STORY [46]. A youth, apprentice to a geomancer, displeases his master, who seeks to punish him. They both assume form after form, till at length the youth gets the victory and kills his master.
THE TWENTY-FOURTH VEZIR'S STORY [47]. A sharper and a thief are, unknown to one another, husband to the same woman. They discover their position and ask the woman which of them she will choose to keep; she says she will choose him who performs the cleverest trick. They each perform a sharping trick, and that of the thief being judged the better, he gets the woman.
THE LADY'S TWENTY-FOURTH STORY [48]. A king, by way of jest, gives his favourite courtier in winter an order on his treasurer for six loads of snow; the courtier keeps the order till summer, and then, as the officer cannot give him so much snow at that season, gets its pecuniary value from him instead.
THE TWENTY-FIFTH VEZIR'S STORY [49]. Khalid ibn Walid by his wise words converts a monk and a whole tribe of Christians to Islam.
THE LADY'S TWENTY-FIFTH STORY [50]. A man of Khorasan who is a braggart is put to shame before a party of strangers by his son.
THE TWENTY-SIXTH VEZIR'S STORY [51]. A poor man in Cairo, having given all his substance to the master by whom his son was taught the Koran, is reduced to want, when he is warned in a dream that his portion is in Damascus. Upon repairing thither, he gets a loaf; and then, in consequence of another dream, returns to Cairo, where it is revealed to him to dig in the ground under his house. He does so, and finds a jar full of sequins; these he takes to the king who, causing the inscription to be read, finds that they are a divine gift to the poor man in reward of his virtue, to whom he thereupon restores them.
THE LADY'S TWENTY-SIXTH STORY [52], A youth who is being entertained by a young lady, hears her father coming, and, while endeavouring to escape into a cellar, falls down a flight of steps and is killed.
THE TWENTY-SEVENTH VEZIR'S STORY [53] A young woodman has a scolding wife who falls into a pit where an ifrlt lives. The next day, when the woodman goes to rescue her, he pulls out the ifrlt instead, who to reward him for delivering him from such a scold, promises to possess the king's daughter and not to leave her till the woodman conjure him. He does so, and the king, grateful for his daughter's cure, marries her to the woodman. The frit, who is in love with a neighbouring king's daughter, annoys her much, whereupon her father sends for the woodman to cure her, who frightens away the ifrit by saying that his first wife is coming.
THE LADY'S TWENTY-SEVENTH STORY [54]. The fleas send a deputation to Solomon, who is dissuaded from granting their request by a scant-bearded man; for which reason the fleas have ever since borne an especial grudge against such as are scant-bearded.
THE TWENTY-EIGHTH VEZIR'S STORY [55]. A thief who enters the cell of a devotee to steal, is so changed by passing a night with the holy man that he is immediately made one of the Forty.
THE LADY'S TWENTY-EIGHTH STORY [56]. Avicenna agrees to free Aleppo from mice provided the king does not laugh at what he sees. By means of a charm he makes the mice march in procession out of the city, but when they are partially out, the king, unable to resist, laughs at the sight, whereupon the charm is broken.
THE TWENTY-NINTH VEZIR'S STORY [57]. A woman, having agreed with her leman to play a trick on her husband, goes out next day with the latter, to whom she gives a sweetmeat which she says makes those who eat it see double. They both eat it, whereupon she climbs a tree and cries down to her husband that he has a woman with him; the husband climbs next, and seeing his wife with her leman, attributes it to the sweetmeat.
THE LADY'S TWENTY-NINTH STORY [58]. In order to reprove his presumption, Moses is sent to learn wisdom of Khizr. While they are journeying together, the latter injures a boat belonging to innocent men, slays an unoffending child, and builds up a bowing wall in a village the inhabitants whereof were inhospitable; he tells Moses the reasons for these actions and then dismisses him.
THE THIRTIETH VEZIR'S STORY [59]. A quarrel about the price of a goat leads to a bloody war between two Arab tribes.
THE LADY'S THIRTIETH STORY [60]. A king who has learned a charm whereby he can enter other bodies, teaches the same to his vezir, who takes advantage of his knowledge to enter the body of the king. The latter, in the form of a parrot, after settling a dispute between a merchant and a harlot, is sold to the queen, and by and bye recovers his own body and kills the vezir.
THE THIRTY-FIRST VEZIR'S STORY [61]. A blind man discovers by inference a box of jewels that the Khalif Reshid had lost.
THE LADY'S THIRTY-FIRST STORY [62]. There are in Cesarea two cadis, enemies to one another. Certain persons slander one of them to the king, who banishes him, whereupon his rival solicits and obtains his pardon.
THE THIRTY-SECOND VEZIR'S STORY [63]. The Sultan of Egypt, thinking his wife alone is discontented while she lacks for nothing, asks his vezirs and nobles concerning their wives, and finds that they are all in the same way.
THE LADY'S THIRTY-SECOND STORY [64]. Fuzayl, being told by his son that one heart cannot contain two loves, tears from his heart the love for his son.
THE THIRTY-THIRD VEZIR'S STORY [65]. A youth, going to a certain city to see a beautiful woman of whom he has heard, sees certain strange sights on the road, which are parabolically interpreted to him by an elder whom he meets at the city gate. On his still asking for the woman, the elder smites him, whereupon he opens his eyes in Hell.
THE LADY'S THIRTY-THIRD STORY [66]. A boy, who complains of getting too little food, frowardly kicks over the pot when a large quantity is brought to him, and is consequently cursed by his parents.
THE THIRTY-FOURTH VEZIR'S STORY [67]. A Persian merchant whose wife attempts to kill him, is saved by a dog. To punish her, he makes her always eat out of the same dish with the dog.
THE LADY'S THIRTY-FOURTH STORY [68]. A king presents a famous falcon to a noble who greatly admired it, and in return the noble places his sons and warriors at the king's disposal.
THE THIRTY-FIFTH VEZIR'S STORY [69]. A certain man, by jumping when his wife tells him, has his ankle put out of joint; and by jumping again, when she tells him not, is healed.
THE LADY'S THIRTY-FIFTH STORY [70]. A king's son refuses to learn his lesson because he has taken a fancy to try how many lamps he can break at one stroke; on his whim being gratified, he studies again as before.
THE THIRTY-SIXTH VEZIR'S STORY [71]. A dervish who hides himself in a robber's cave, releases a captive whom the robbers bring in. The captive, after killing all the robbers, is near falling a victim to the resentment of their leader's mistress, but is saved by his own people, who put the woman to death.
THE LADY'S THIRTY-SIXTH STORY [72], Sultan Ala-ud-Dln, while going alone through the madhouse, is prevailed upon by one of the madmen to set him free and give him a knife. He is then compelled by the madman to clean out a filthy place with his own hands on pain of death, and at length is delivered by the appearance of the keeper.
THE THIRTY-SEVENTH VEZIR'S STORY [73]. Satan contrives that Adam and Eve eat his son in the form of a kid, so that the latter may tempt them from within while he himself does so from without.
THE LADY'S THIRTY-SEVENTH STORY [74]. Two vezirs, who are envious of a third, contrive by bribing the pages to make the king put him to death. By and by the king, overhearing the pages quarrelling about the bribe, learns the truth.
THE THIRTY-EIGHTH VEZIR'S STORY [75: untranslated]. A merchant of Cairo boils down the offspring of his slave-girl to make poison; she, in revenge, puts some of the poison into his food, so that he dies.
THE LADY'S THIRTY-EIGHTH STORY [76]. While Noah is building the ark, the unbelievers fill it with filth; to punish them, God sends on them an itch which can only be cured by being rubbed with that filth, which they consequently remove. One of Noah's sons, refusing to enter the ark, is drowned.
THE THIRTY-NINTH VEZIR'S STORY [77]. A certain shepherd is by reason of his truthfulness made master of the horse. The vezirs, being envious, desire to make him lie before the king; so the grand vezir's daughter goes and persuades him to kill the king's favourite horse and advises him say it turned ill and died. When she is gone he takes counsel of his cap, and resolves to tell the truth, which he does and gains yet higher favour with the king.
THE LADY'S THIRTY-NINTH STORY [78]. An elder declares his ass to be wiser than the king's vezirs, in that he always avoids the hole wherein he once stumbled, while they are ever desirous of office, though it has occasioned the death of many of their fellows.
THE FORTIETH VEZIR'S STORY [79: untranslated]. A tailor's wife plays him false, and deceives him with a lying story.
THE LADY'S FORTIETH STORY [80], A Sultan of Egypt whose son revolts and drives him from the throne, recovers his kingdom through the aid of a vezir whom he had formerly deposed.
CONCLUSION.
APPENDIX.
THE NINTH VEZIR'S STORY [81]. A Turkman while ploughing discovers a treasure; in doubt as to whether to tell his wife, he tries her, and finds she cannot keep a secret. A smith, to whom he gives some of the gold to make into a ploughshare, tries to cheat him, and the king, instead of restoring it all to him, keeps the greater part, so that finally the Turkman dies of vexation.
THE TENTH VEZIR'S STORY [82]. One Friday a man, whose garden needs watering, and whose turn it is to grind at the mill, determines to attend mosque rather than look after his worldly business. He is rewarded by finding on his return that his garden has been sufficiently watered by a neighbour next door watering his, and that his grain has been ground by another man in mistake for his own.
THE ELEVENTH VEZIR'S STORY [83]. A king's daughter falls in love with one of the palace attendants, and has no peace until she has passed a night with him.
THE LADY'S EIGHTEENTH STORY [84]. A foolish boy, who is sent to a minstrel to be taught music, does not know that there are occasions on which he should not chant.
THE LADY'S FIRST STORY [85]. A king has a foolish son, whom he gives to a master to be instructed. On the completion of his education he is brought before his father, but returning a foolish answer to a question, is sent back to his teacher.
THE SECOND VEZIR'S STORY [86]. Samson, being betrayed by his wife to the misbelievers, is by them mutilated; but on being made whole again by Gabriel, he takes his revenge by destroying the palace of the infidel king.
THE LADY'S THIRD STORY [87]. A witch, whose son is swept away by a river, leaps into the stream seeking to save him, the result being that both are drowned.
THE SEVENTH VEZIR'S STORY [88]. A certain woman plays a trick upon a merchant, by borrowing money from him on the security of a worthless gown, which he believes to be one of value. On his complaining to the governor, the latter suggests to him a trick whereby his money is recovered, and the woman found and punished.
THE LADY'S SEVENTH STORY [89]. A carpenter's apprentice, who vaunts that he is more skillful than his master, is, on being brought to the test, baffled and put to shame.
THE NINTH VEZIR'S STORY [90]. Kay-Qubad has a prudish wife, who, having fallen in love with a slave-boy, is found by her husband in a compromising position, and put to shame.
THK LADY'S NINTH STORY [91]. A rogue stops the pilgrims from making the ablution at the Zemzem well by means of a lying story.
THE THIRTEENTH VEZIR'S STORY [92]. Abraham, being about to offer up Ishmael as a sacrifice, is prevented from doing so by the knife refusing to cut his son's throat.
THE LADY'S FIFTEENTH STORY [93]. A devotee, who is supplied by a friend with a daily allowance of oil and honey, preserves the greater portion thereof in a jar. When the jar has become full he determines to sell it in the bazaar, and buy with the price a few sheep, which will multiply, and be the means of his growing rich. But in the bazaar he accidentally breaks the jar, and all the contents are lost.
THE SIXTEENTH VEZIR'S STORY [94]. The wife of a carpenter, while entertaining her lover, becomes aware of the arrival of her husband, and contrives that the latter overhears a speech she makes to her gallant, which drives resentment from his mind.
THE LADY'S SIXTEENTH STORY [95]. A certain man, on the death of his wife, sends his four sons to make arrangements for the burial. They forget their messages, and begin to play, and so keep the funeral party waiting, whereupon their father curses them in his displeasure, and they are changed into various animals.
THE NINETEENTH VEZIR'S STORY [96], Cain, on being refused his twin sister in marriage, slays his brother Abel, to whom she was given.
THE TWENTY-THIRD VEZIR'S STORY [97]. David, being in love with the wife of Uriah, contrives that the latter is slain in battle, whereupon he is reproved by two angels from the Lord.
THE LADY'S TWENTY- NINTH STORY [98]. A certain youth is taken into the service of a king on account of his manly bearing; but on the day of battle he proves a coward, notwithstanding his brave appearance.
THE LADY'S THIRTY-FIRST STORY [99]. A khoja and a Frank play at chess together, and the former is on the point of giving up the game, and so losing all his possessions, when his slave-girl indicates to him that he has still a chance. He then sees what he should do, and defeats the Frank, who loses all his money.
THE THIRTY-SECOND VEZIR'S STORY [100]. A gardener, who catches a thief in his garden, refrains from beating him at his entreaty, and, having himself shortly afterwards fallen into a den of robbers, is saved from death by the same thief.
THE THIRTY-FOURTH VEZIR'S STORY [101]. A certain sheep-owner always kills the lamb of one of his ewes which lambs early, which so grieves her that she throws herself from a rock, and is killed.
THE LADY'S THIRTY-FOURTH STORY [102: untranslated]. A Persian khoja plays a trick upon a Baghdad khoja and his son.
THE THIRTY-SIXTH VEZIR'S STORY [103]. A youth who possesses a book on the wiles of women is being entertained by a lady, when her husband arrives. The woman hides her lover in the closet, and by a clever trick gets rid of her husband; she then brings out the youth, and tells him to add this story to his book.
THE LADY'S THIRTY-SEVENTH STORY [104]. The son of a vezir murders one of his father's slave-girls who will not comply with his wishes.
THE LADY'S SECOND STORY [105]. A king, who inquires of his councillors as to what will profit him in the world to come, is advised by them to seize every opportunity of doing good.
THE LADY'S FIFTEENTH STORY (PART 2) [106]. An opium-eater is aggrieved at a jest made by his three companions, and leaves them.
THE LADY'S SEVENTEENTH STORY [107]. A water-ousel [bird], determining to defend her little ones against a snake, is herself killed, without saving them.
THE THIRTY-SECOND VEZIR'S STORY [108]. A sick king, who purchases a boy from his parents in order to kill him, and thereby effect his own cure, is induced by a speech of the boy to spare him, whereon he is restored to health.
THE LADY'S THIRTY-SECOND STORY [109]. A charitable woman is divorced by her niggard husband for giving food to a beggar. She marries again; her first husband is reduced to beggary, and her second turns out to be the mendicant she had formerly relieved.
THE THIRTY-THIRD VEZIR'S STORY [110]. A sagacious merchant, who devises a stratagem which brings him under the favourable notice of the king, is made grand vezir, and eventually succeeds to the throne.
THE THIRTIETH VEZIR'S STORY [111]. A sheykh, seeking among his disciples for a companion for a journey, rejects those who offer to serve him, and accepts one who promises to correct him.
THE THIRTY-THIRD VEZIR'S STORY [112]. The disciples of Sheykh Ahmed Yesev have a custom of tempting strangers, and punishing such as yield, which they are finally forbidden by their master in a vision.
