Quoth the Afrit, "Is the world so small that thou
canst find none to marry but my mistress?'' But he was silent,
and the Afrit said, "Answer me, or I will make thee a dweller in
the dust." "By Allah," replied the hunchback, "I am not to blame,
for they forced me to marry her, and I knew not that she had a
buffalo for a gallant; but I repent to God and to thee. What wilt
thou have me do?" Quoth the Afrit, "I swear to thee that, if thou
leave this place or speak before sunrise, I will wring thy neck!
When the sun rises, go thy way and never return to this house."
So saying, he seized the hunchback and set him upside down
against the wall, with his head in the slit and his feet in the
air, and said to him, "I will leave thee here and watch thee
till sunrise; and if thou stir before then, I will seize thee by
the feet and dash out thy brains against the wall." Meanwhile
Bedreddin Hassan entered the bride chamber and sat down in the
alcove. Presently, in came the bride, attended by an old woman,
who stopped at the door of the chamber and said, "O father of
symmetry,[FN#63] arise and take what God sends thee." Then the
old woman went away, and the bride, whose name was the Lady of
Beauty, entered, heart-broken and saying to herself, "By Allah, I
will never yield myself to him, though he kill me!" When she came
to the alcove, she saw Bedreddin sitting there and said, "O my
friend, thou here at this hour! By Allah, I was wishing that thou
wast my husband or that thou and the groom were partners in me!"
"How should the groom have access to thee," asked Bedreddin,
"and how should he share with me in thee?" Quoth she "Who is my
husband, thou or he?" "O Lady of Beauty," replied Bedreddin, "all
this was only a device to conjure the evil eye from us.
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