him the contents of the letters which he had brought from the Sultan; and the Viceroy, after kissing them, put them to his head, and said, Who is thine offender? He answered, A man who is by trade a cook. And instantly the Viceroy ordered his Chamberlains to repair to his shop; and they went thither; but found it demolished, and everything that had been in it broken; for when the Wezir went to the palace, his servants did as he had commanded them. They were then waiting his return from the palace; and Bedr-edDin was saying within himself, What can they have discovered in the confection, that such an event as this should have befallen me? And when the Wezir returned from the Viceroy, and had received his permission to take his offender and to depart with him, he entered the encampment, and called for the cook. They brought him, therefore, with his hands bound behind him with his turban ; and when he saw his uncle he wept bitterly, and said, O my master, what crime have ye found in me? The Wezir said to him, Art thou he who cooked the confection of pomegranate-grains? He answered, Yes: and have ye found in it anything that requires one's head to be struck off? This, replied the Wezir, is the smallest part of thy recompense.Wilt thou not, said Bedr-ed-Din, acquaint me with my crime? The Wezir answered, Yea, immediately. And forthwith he called out to the young men, saying, Bring the camels!

They then took Bedr-ed-Din, and put him in a chest, and, having locked him up in it, commenced their journey, and continued on their way till the approach of night, when they halted and ate, and, taking out Bedr-ed-Din, fed him; after which they put him again into the chest, and in like manner proceeded to another station. Here also they took him out; and the Wezir said to him, Art thou he who cooked the confection of pomegranate-grains? He answered, Yes, O my master. And the Wezir said, Shackle his feet. And they did so, and restored him to the chest. They then continued their journey to Cairo; and when they arrived at the quarter called Er-Reydaniyeh,50 the Wezir commanded to take out Bedr-ed-Din again from the chest, and to bring a carpenter, to whom he said, Make, for this man, a cross.

-What, said Bedr-ed-Din, dost thou mean to do with it? The Wezir answered, I will crucify thee upon it, and nail thee to it, and then parade thee about the city.-Wherefore, demanded Bedr-ed-Din, wilt thou treat me thus? The Wezir replied, For thy faulty preparation of the confection of pomegranate-grains, because thou madest it deficient in pepper. Because of its deficiency in pepper, exclaimed Bedr-ed-Din, wilt thou do all this to me? Art thou not satisfied with having thus imprisoned me, and fed me every day with only one meal?-The Wezir answered, For its deficiency in pepper, thy recompense shall be nothing less than death. And Bedr-ed-Din was amazed, and bewailed his lot, and remained a while absorbed in reflection. The Wezir, therefore, said to him, Of what art thou thinking? He answered, Of imbecile minds, such as thine; for if thou wert a man of sense thou wouldst not have treated me in this manner on account of the deficiency of pepper.—It is incumbent on us, replied the Wezir, to punish thee, that thou mayest not do the like again :-to which Bedr-ed-Din rejoined, The least of the things thou hast done to me were a sufficient punishment. The Wezir, however, said, Thy death is unavoidable.-All this conversation took place while the carpenter was preparing the cross; and Bedr-edDin was looking on.

Thus they both continued until the approach of night, when Bedr-ed-Din's uncle took him and put him again into the chest, saying, To-morrow shall be thy crucifixion. He then waited until he perceived that he was asleep; upon which he remounted, and, with the chest borne before him, entered the city, and repaired to his house: and when he had arrived there he said to his daughter Sitt-el-Hosn, Praise be to God who hath restored to thee the son of thine uncle! Arise, and furnish the house as it was on the night of the bridal display. She therefore ordered her female slaves to do so; and they arose, and lighted the candles; and the Wezir brought out the paper upon which he had written his inventory of the furniture of the house, and read it, and ordered them to put every thing in its place, so that the beholder would not doubt that this was the very night of the bridal display. He directed them to put Bedr-ed-Din's

turban in the place where its owner had deposited it, and in like manner the trousers, and the purse which was beneath the mattress, and ordered his daughter to adorn herself as she was on the bridal night, and to enter the bride-chamber; saying to her, When the son of thine uncle comes into thy chamber, say to him, Thou hast loitered since thou withdrewest from me this night :-and request him to return and converse with thee till day.-Having thus arranged everything, the Wezir took out Bedr-ed-Din from the chest, removed the shackles from his feet, and stripped him of his outer clothes, leaving him in his shirt.

All this was done while he was asleep, unconscious of what was passing; and when he awoke, and found himself in an illuminated vestibule, he said within himself, Am I bewildered by dreams, or am I awake? Then rising, he advanced a little way to an inner door, and looked, and lo, he was in the house in which the bride had been displayed, and he beheld the bride-chamber and the couch and his turban and clothes. Confounded at the sight of these things, he took one step forwards and another backwards, thinking, Am I asleep or awake? And he began to wipe his forehead, and exclaimed in his astonishment, By Allah, this is the dwelling of the bride who was here displayed before me and yet I was just now in a chest. And while he was addressing himself, behold Sitt-el-Hosn lifted up the corner of the mosquito-curtain, and said, O my master, wilt thou not come in? for thou hast loitered since thou withdrewest from me this night. When he heard these words he looked at her face, and laughed, and said, Verily, these appearances are bewildering illusions of a dream! Then entering, he sighed; and as he reflected upon what had happened to him, he was perplexed at his situation, and his case seemed involved in obscurity. Looking at his turban and trousers, and the purse containing the thousand pieces of gold, he exclaimed, Allah is all-knowing !—but it seemeth to me that I am bewildered by dreams -And he was confounded in the excess of his astonishment. Upon this, therefore, Sitt-el-Hosn said to him, Wherefore do I behold thee thus astonished and perplexed? Thou wast not so in the commencement of the night.—And he laughed, and

asked her, How many years have I been absent from thee? -Allah preserve thee ! she exclaimed. The name of Allah

encompass thee! Thou hast only withdrawn to yonder apartment. What hath passed in thy mind?-On hearing this he smiled, and replied, Thou hast spoken truth; but when I withdrew from thee, sleep overcame me, and I dreamt that I was a cook in Damascus, and that I lived there twelve 51 years; and I thought that a youth of the sons of the great came to me, accompanied by a eunuch,—and he proceeded to relate what had happened to him in consequence of this youth's visit: then drawing his hand over his forehead, he felt the scar occasioned by the blow, and exclaimed, By Allah, O my mistress, it seemeth as though it were true; for he struck me with a stone upon my forehead, and cut it open it seemeth, therefore, as though this had really happened when I was awake: but probably this dream occurred when we were both asleep. I imagined in my dream that I was transported to Damascus, without tarbush or turban or trousers, and that I followed the occupation of a cook. And again, for a while, he remained utterly confounded. He then said, By Allah, I imagined that I made a confection of pomegranate-grains containing but little pepper. Verily I must have been asleep, and in my sleep have seen all this.-I conjure thee by Allah, said Sitt-elHosn, tell me what more thou sawest? And he related to her the whole; and added, If I had not awaked, they would have crucified me upon a wooden cross.-On account of what? said she. He answered, On account of the deficiency of pepper in the confection of pomegranate-grains; and I imagined that they demolished my shop, and broke all my vessels, and put me in a chest, and brought the carpenter to make a cross of wood; for they intended to crucify me upon it. Praise be to God, therefore, who caused all this to occur to me in sleep, and caused it not to happen to me when I was awake!-Sitt-el-Hosn, laughing at his words, pressed him to her bosom, and he in like manner embraced her. Then reflecting again, he said, By Allah, it seems as if it had happened when I was awake; and I knew not the reason, nor the truth of the case. And he composed himself to sleep, perplexed with his case, and sometimes saying,

I saw it in my sleep,-and at other times, I experienced it awake.

Thus he continued until the morning, when his uncle, the Wezir Shems-ed-Din, came in to him, and saluted him ; and Bedr-ed-Din, as soon as he beheld him, exclaimed, I conjure thee by Allah, tell me art not thou he who gave orders to bind my hands behind me, and to nail up my shop, on account of the confection of pomegranate-grains, because it was deficient in pepper? The Wezir answered, Know, O my son, that the truth hath appeared, and what was hidden hath been manifested. Thou art the son of my brother; and I did not this but to know if thou wert he who visited my daughter on that night. I was not convinced of this until I saw that thou knewest the house, and thy turban and trousers and gold, and the two papers; namely, the one which thou wrotest, and that which thy father, my brother, wrote: for I had never seen thee before, and therefore knew thee not; and as to thy mother, I have brought her with me from El-Basrah.-Having thus said, he threw himself upon him, and wept; and Bedr-ed-Din, full of astonishment at his uncle's words, embraced him, and in like manner wept from excess of joy. The Wezir then said to him, O my son, the cause of all this was what passed between me and thy father. And he related to him the circumstances of their case, and the cause of his father's departure to El-Basrah; after which he sent for 'Ajib; and when the father of the youth saw him, he exclaimed, This is he who threw the stone at me.-This, said the Wezir, is thy son. And Bedr-ed-Din cast himself upon him, and recited the following verses :

Long have I wept on account of our disunion; the tears overflowing from my eyelids;

And I vowed that if Providence should bring us together, I would never again mention our separation.

Joy hath overcome me to such a degree that by its excess it hath made me weep.

O eye, thou hast become so accustomed to tears that thou weepest from happiness as from grief, 52

And when he had uttered these words, his mother, beholding him, threw herself upon him, and repeated this couplet :