The Four Hundred and Forty-first Night,
Dunyazad said to her, "Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching of this our latter night!" She replied, "With love and good will!" It hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding, lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming and worthy celebrating, that the vagabonds said, "Each one of us shall take her to him for a night after the Shaykh," and so saying they left me and went their ways. Then the Chief fell to chatting with me and he was in high spirits, when suddenly my glance fell upon a rope hanging from the ceiling of that barrack and I cried, "O Shaykh!" whereto he replied, "Yes, O my lady and light of mine eyes." Said I to him, "What may be this cord thus suspended?" and said he, "This is called 'hanging-gear'; and, when any of ours requireth chastisement from my associates, we hoist him up by this rope and we bash him." Quoth I, "Hang me up and let me see how 'tis done," but quoth he, "Heaven forfend, O my lady! I will hang myself in thy stead and thou shalt look upon me." Hereat he arose and tied himself tight and cried, "Haul up this rope and make it fast in such a place!" I did his bidding and bound it right firmly and left him hanging in the air. Presently he cried, "Let go the cord," and replied I, "O Shaykh, first let me enoy the spectacle." Then I stripped him of all his clothing and drawing forth the calf's tail which was studded with nails and glass splinters, I said to him, "O Shaykh, is this the tail of a kid or of a calf?" "What woman art thou?" asked he, and I answered, "I am the owner of the calf;" and then, tucking up my two sleeves to the elbows, I beat him till I stripped him of his skin and he lost his senses and he had no breath wherewith to speak. Thereupon I arose and fell to searching the hall, where I found sundry valuables amongst which was a box, so I opened it and came upon three hundred gold pieces and a store of reals[333] and silverlings and jadids.[334] I laid hands on the whole of it and bore off somewhat of the most sumptuous dresses; and, having wrapped them all up in a sheet, I carried them away; and about dawn I went in to my mother and cried, "Take thee to the price of the calf, which I have received from the purchaser." But when the day was high and the sun waxed hot the whole troop of the Shaykh collected and said, "Verily our Elder hath slept till the undurn hour;" and one of them declared, "'Tis from enjoying so much pleasure and luxury, he and the girl; and doubtless their night hath been a white[335] night." So they ceased not talking together and each of them had his word until the noon was high, when certain of them said, "Come with us and let us rouse him from sleep:" and, saying thus, all went to the door of the hall and opened it. Hereupon they found their Shaykh hanging up and his body bleeding profusely;[336] so they asked him, "What hath befallen thee?" and he answered in a weak voice, "Verily that girl is no girl at all, but she is the youth who owned the calf." They replied, "By Allah, there is no help but that we seize him and slay him;" whereto the Elder said, "Loose me and lead me to the Hammam that I may wash clean my skin of all this blood." Then they let him down and after mounting him upon a donkey they bore him to the baths. Hereat I went to the slaughter-house and and covered my body with bullocks' blood and stuck to it pledgets of cotton so that I became like one sorely diseased and I repaired to the same Hammam propped upon a staff and required admittance. They refused me saying, "The Shaykh of the Vagabonds is now in the baths nor may anyone go in to him." Quoth I to them, "I am a man with a malady," whereto quoth one of them, "This is a poor wight, so let him come within." Accordingly I entered and found the Chief alone, whereupon I drew forth the tail and asked him, "O Shaykh, is this the tail of a calf or a kid?" "Who art thou?" said he, and I said, "I am the owner of the calf;" after which I fell to beating him with the tail until his breath was clean gone. Then I left him and went forth from the Hammam by another door so as to avoid his followers.?And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and fell silent and ceased saying her permitted say. Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, "How sweet and tasteful is thy tale, O sister mine, and how enjoyable and delectable!" Quoth she, "And where is this compared with that I should relate to you on the coming night an the King suffer me to survive?" Now when it was the next night and that was