There was once, of old time, in one of the tribes of the Arabs, a woman pregnant by her husband, and they had a hired servant, a man of insight and understanding. When the woman came to her delivery time, she gave birth to a girl child in the night and they sought fire of the neighbours. So the Hireling went in quest of fire. Now there was in the camp a Divineress, and she questioned him of the new born child, If it was male or female. He said, "'Tis a girl;" and She said, "That girl will whore with an hundred men and a hireling shall wed her and a spider shall slay her." When the hired man heard this, he returned upon his steps and going in to the woman, took the child from her by wily management and slit its maw: then he fled forth into the wold at haphazard and abode in strangerhood while Allah so willed. He gained much money; and, returning to his own land, after twenty years' absence, alighted in the neighbourhood of an old woman, whom he wheedled and treated with liberality, requiring of her a young person whom he might enjoy without marriage. she said, "I know none but a certain fair woman, who is renowned for this industry."

Then she described her charms to him and made him lust after her, and he said, "Hasten to her this minute and lavish upon her whatever she asks." So the crone betook herself to the girl and discovered his wishes to her and invited her to him; but she answered, "'Tis true that I was in the habit of whoredom, but now I have repented to Almighty Allah and have no more longing to this: nay, I desire lawful wedlock; so, if he be content with that which is legal, I am between his hands." The old woman returned to the man and told him what the damsel said; and he lusted after her, because of her beauty and her penitence; so he took her to wife, and when he went in to her, he loved her and after like fashion she loved him. Thus they abode a great while, till one day he questioned her of the cause of a scar he espied on her body, and she said, "I know nothing of it save that my mother told me a marvellous thing concerning it." he asked, "What was that?" and she answered, "My mother declared that she gave birth to me one night of the wintry nights and despatched a hired man, who was with us, in quest of fire for her. He was absent a little while and presently returning, took me

The Tale Of The Hireling And The Girl. 193 and slit my maw and fled. When my mother saw this, chagrin seized her and compassion possessed her; so she sewed up my stomach and nursed me till the wound healed by the ordinance of Allah (to whom belong Might and Majesty)." When her husband heard this, he said to her, "What is your name and what may be the name of your mother and who may be your father?" She told him their names and her own, by which he knew that it was she whose maw he had slit and said to her, "And where are your father and mother?" "They are both dead." "I am that Hireling who slit your stomach." "Why did you that?" "Because of a saying I heard from the wise woman." "What was it?" "She declared you would play the whore with an hundred men and that I after that should wed you." "Ay, I have whored with an hundred men, no more and no less, and behold, you have married me." "The Divineress also foresaid that you should die, at the last of your life, of the bite of a spider. Indeed, her saying has been verified of the fornication and the marriage, and I fear lest her word come true no less in the death."

Then they betook themselves to a place without the city, where he builded him a mansion of solid stone and white stucco and stopped its inner walls and plastered them; leaving not within it or cranny or crevice, and he set in it two slave girls whose services were sweeping and wiping, for fear of spiders. Here he abode with his wife a great while, till one day the man espied a spider on the ceiling and beat it down. When his wife saw it, she said, "This is that which the wise woman foresaid would slay me; so, by your life, suffer me to kill it with my own hand." Her husband forbade her from this, but she conjured him to let her destroy the spider; then, of her fearfulness and her eagerness, she took a piece of wood and smote it. The wood brake of the force of the blow, and a splinter from it entered her hand and wrought upon it, so that it swelled. Then her fore arm also swelled and the swelling spread to her side and thence grew till it reached her heart and she died. "Nor" (continued the Wazir), "is this stranger or more wondrous than the story of the Weaver who became a Leach by commandment of his wife." When the King heard this, his admiration redoubled and he said, "In very truth, Destiny is written to all creatures, and I will not accept anything that is said against my Minister the loyal counsellor." And he bade him He to his home.

The Twenties Night of the Month

When the evening evened, the King bade summon his Minister and he presented himself before him, whereupon he required of him the hearing of the story. So the Wazir said, "I hear and I obey. Give ear, O King, to