Thereupon I swooned away and she sprinkled the severed
parts with a powder which staunched the blood; and I said, 'Never
again will I eat of ragout of cumin-seed without washing my hands
forty times with potash, forty times with galingale and forty
times with soap!' And she took of me an oath to that effect. So
when the ragout was set before me, my colour changed and I said
to myself, 'It was this that was the cause of the cutting off of
my thumbs and toes.' And when ye forced me, I said, 'I must needs
fulfil the oath I have taken.'" "And what befell thee after
this?" asked the others. "After this," replied he, "her heart was
appeased and I lay with her that night. We abode thus awhile,
till she said to me, one day, 'It befits not that we continue in
the Khalif's palace: for none ever came hither but thou, and thou
wonst not in but by the grace of the Lady Zubeideh. Now she has
given me fifty thousand dinars; so take this money and go out and
buy us a commodious house.' So I went forth and bought a handsome
and spacious house, whither she transported all her goods and
valuables." Then (continued the controller) we ate and went away:
and after, there happened to me with the hunchback that thou
wottest of. This then is my story and peace be on thee.' Quoth
the King, 'This story is not more agreeable than that of the
hunchback: on the contrary, it is less so, and you must all be
hanged.
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