Then the Tailor said to the King of China: "When we heard the Barber's tale and saw how much he talked and how he had wronged this young man, we seized him and locked him up. After that, we sat down peacefully and ate and drank and enjoyed the fine food from the wedding feast until the time for the afternoon prayer.

When I left the gathering and returned home, my wife greeted me with angry looks. She said, "You go out for pleasure with your friends and leave me here alone to suffer! Unless you take me out and give me some amusement for the rest of the day, I will cut the rope and divorce you!" So I took her out and we amused ourselves until supper time, when we returned home. There we encountered this Hunchback, who was full of drink and singing these verses:

"Clear is the wine, fine is the cup; They go together, cup and wine: It is wine and not a cup! It is a cup and not wine!"

I invited him to have supper with us and went out to buy fried fish. When we sat down to eat, my wife took a piece of bread and a fish bone and shoved them into his mouth. He choked, and though I beat him hard on the back, he died. Then I took his body and threw it into the house of this doctor here, the Jew. The Jewish doctor threw it into the house of the Reeve, and the Reeve threw it onto the street where this Nazarene broker found it. This, then, is what happened to me yesterday. Is it not more wonderful than the tale of the Hunchback?"

When the King of China heard the Tailor's story, he nodded with pleasure and said with great surprise, "What has passed between this young man and the talkative Barber is indeed more pleasant and wonderful than the tale of my lying Hunchback." He ordered one of his chamberlains to go with the Tailor and bring the Barber out of jail, saying, "I wish to hear the talk of this so-called Silent Man, for it shall be the reason for your release and pardon. Then we will bury the Hunchback, who has been dead since yesterday, and erect a tomb over him."

When it was the Thirty fourth night

The chamberlain and the Tailor went to the jail and released the Barber, then brought him back to the King. The Sultan of China looked at him carefully and saw an ancient man, well past ninety years old, with dark skin, a white beard, and white eyebrows, with long ears and a prominent nose, and an expression that seemed both vacant and conceited. The King laughed at the sight of him and said, "O Silent Man, I wish to hear something of your history." The Barber replied, "Allow me first to ask what tale belongs to this Nazarene, this Jew, this Muslim, and this Hunchback—the corpse—whom I see here? And what is the purpose of this assembly?" The King of China asked, "And why do you ask?" The Barber answered, "I ask so that your Majesty will know that I am not a forward man, a busybody, or an impertinent meddler, and that I am innocent of their false accusations of excessive talk. For I am he whose name is the Silent Man, and truly my surname is most fitting, as the poet says:

When men give a nickname or surname, Know that nature and name often share the same."

Then the King said, "Explain to the Barber what happened to the Hunchback at supper and repeat to him the stories told by the Nazarene, the Jew, the Reeve, and the Tailor. But do not tell me the same tale twice." They did as he commanded, and the Barber shook his head and said, "By God, this is a marvel of marvels! Now let me see the body of that Hunchback." They unwound the burial shroud from the corpse. The Barber sat down and, taking the Hunchback's head in his lap, looked at his face and laughed so hard he fell backward on his back. He said, "There is wonder in every death, but the death of this Hunchback is worthy to be recorded in letters of liquid gold!"

The bystanders were amazed at his words. The King was astonished and said to him, "What is wrong with you, O Silent Man? Explain your words!" The Barber said, "I swear by your gracious favour that there is still life in this hunchback!" He pulled out of his belt a barber's case and took from it a jar of ointment. He rubbed the ointment on the Hunchback's neck and throat. Then he took a pair of iron tweezers and inserted them into the Hunchback's throat, drawing out a fish bone soaked in blood.

At that moment, the Hunchback sneezed loudly and jumped up as if nothing had happened. He put his hand to his face and said, "I testify that there is no god but God, and I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of God."

Everyone present was amazed. The King of China laughed until he nearly fainted, and so did all the others. The Sultan said, "By God, this is the most marvellous thing I have ever witnessed! O Muslims, O soldiers, did any of you ever see a man die and come back to life? Truly, had Allah not given this Hunchback the Barber, he would have remained dead!" They all said, "By God, it is a marvel of marvels!"

Then the King of China ordered the tale to be recorded, and it was written down and placed in the royal archives. After that, he gave fine robes of honour to the Jew, the Nazarene, and the Reeve, and bade them depart with great respect. He gave the Tailor a magnificent robe and appointed him as his personal tailor with suitable pay and allowances. He made peace between the Tailor and the Hunchback, and gave the Hunchback a splendid suit and a generous allowance. He treated the Barber with equal generosity, giving him a gift and a robe of honour. He also appointed him to a handsome salary and made him the Barber Surgeon of the State and one of his royal companions. So they lived together in the greatest pleasure and delight until there came to them the Destroyer of all pleasures, the Depopulator of palaces and the Filler of graves.

Yet, O most gracious King, continued Shahrazad, this tale is not more wonderful than the tale of the two Wazirs and Anis al-Jalis. Her sister Dunyazad asked, "And what might that be?" whereupon Shahrazad began to relate the following tale:

END OF VOL. 1.