The ox pleaded and nodded, the dose was administered and Malec became himself again.
"Really," said the Shah, "you have made a beast of yourself often enough, Muhammed," and he made him promise not to do it again.
But even then Malec had not learnt wisdom, and after many vicissitudes, when he was brought once more into the presence of his charmer, he found her fascination too much for his senses.
The languid Narcissus-like eyes of Geti Afraz yielded to slumber after a banquet, and she fell asleep on her sofa with Malec by her side. In tenderest mood he rained kiss after kiss upon her lips:
"Bless the sweet power of wine," he cries,
"That seals so sound her lovely eyes."
Unable to restrain himself further he laid one hand upon her lily-white bosom, and she started up with the cry, "Cursed dog, what are you doing?" and he became a dog.
For many months Malec endured this new indignity, for his uncle, the Vizier, declared that he should wear a dog's collar round his neck till the day of his death, but the princess herself, relenting of the cruel fate to which she had condemned her lover, contrived that the Shah's wife, Ruh Afza, should transform her husband into an animal in order that he might suffer what Malec was suffering.
As soon as the Shah offered his caresses to her, Ruh Afza cried out:
"Ha! you cat, what? Would you scratch me?" and immediately the Shah found himself whirled round and round, and, taking a spring with his head down and his heels up, he assumed the form of a cat. All the rest of the night he strolled through the garden caterwauling piteously.
In the morning he met the Vizier, who recognised his master, King Anushah, at once, and restored him to his normal condition.