“Tie him up,” commanded the vizir.
So they tied him up and beat him until his back was all raw, and being unable to stand the pain he cried, “Let up! I will show you the place.”
So he led them to the house of the king of the snakes, who, when he saw him, said, “Didn’t I tell you you would come back to kill me?”
“How could I help it?” cried Hasseeboo. “Look at my back!”
“Who has beaten you so dreadfully?” asked the king.
“The vizir.”
“Then there’s no hope for me. But you must carry me yourself.”
As they went along, the king said to Hasseeboo, “When we get to your town I shall be killed and cooked. The first skimming the vizir will offer to you, but don’t you drink it; put it in a bottle and keep it. The second skimming you must drink, and you will become a great physician. The third skimming is the medicine that will cure your sultan. When the vizir asks you if you drank that first skimming say, ‘I did.’ Then produce the bottle containing the first, and say, ‘This is the second, and it is for you.’ The vizir will take it, and as soon as he drinks it he will die, and both of us will have our revenge.”
Everything happened as the king had said. The vizir died, the sultan recovered, and Hasseeboo was loved by all as a great physician.