" Then he took me and sold me at
a profit, for that I was become an eunuch, and I ceased not to
make trouble, wherever I came, and was shifted from Amir to Amir
and notable to notable, being bought and sold, till I entered the
palace of the Commander of the Faithful, and now my spirit is
broken and I have abjured my tricks, having lost my manhood.'
When the others heard his story, they laughed and said, 'Verily,
thou art dung, the son of dung! Thou liedst most abominably!'
Then said they to the third slave, 'Tell us thy story.' 'O my
cousins,' replied he, 'all that ye have said is idle: I will tell
you how I came to lose my cullions, and indeed, I deserved more
than this, for I swived my mistress and my master's son: but my
story is a long one and this is no time to tell it, for the dawn
is near, and if the day surprise us with this chest yet unburied,
we shall be blown upon and lose our lives. So let us fall to work
at once, and when we get back to the palace, I will tell you my
story and how I became an eunuch.' So they set down the lantern
and dug a hole between four tombs, the length and breadth of the
chest, Kafour plying the spade and Sewab clearing away the earth
by basketsful, till they had reached a depth of half a fathom,
when they laid the chest in the hole and threw back the earth
over it: then went out and shutting the door, disappeared from
Ghanim's sight.
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