" So he called to
him, "Hallo, hunchback!" The groom made no answer but a grunt,
thinking it was the Afrit who spoke to him. But the Vizier cried
out at him, saying, "Speak, or I will cut off thy head with this
sword." Then said the hunchback, "By Allah, O Chief of the
Afrits, I have not lifted my head since thou didst set me here;
so, God on thee, have mercy on me!" "What is this thou sayest?"
quoth the Vizier. "I am no Afrit; I am the father of the bride."
"It is enough that though hast already gone nigh to make me lose
my life," replied the hunchback, "go thy ways ere he come upon
thee who served me thus. Could ye find none to whom to marry me
but the mistress of an Afrit and the beloved of a buffalo? May
God curse him who married me to her and him who was the cause of
it?" Then said the Vizier to him, "Come, get up out of this
place." "Am I mad," answered the groom, "that I should go with
thee without the Afrit's leave? He said to me, 'When the sun
rises, get up and go thy way.' So has the sun risen or no? for I
dare not budge till then." "Who brought thee hither?" asked the
Vizier; and the hunchback replied, "I came here last night to do
an occasion, when behold, a mouse came out of the water and
squeaked and grew to a buffalo and spoke to me words that entered
my ears. Then he left me here and went away, accursed be the
bride and he who married me to her!" The Vizier went up to him
and set him on his feet; and he went out, running, not crediting
that the sun had risen, and repaired to the Sultan, to whom he
related what had befallen him with the Afrit.
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