There was once, in the land of Fars, a man who wedded a woman higher than himself in rank and nobler of lineage, but she had no guardian to preserve her from want. She loathed to marry one who was beneath her; yet she wived with him because of need, and took of him a bond in writing to the effect that he would ever be under her order to bid and forbid and would never thwart her in word or in deed. Now the man was a Weaver and he bound himself in writing to pay his wife ten thousand dirhams in case of default. After such fashion they abode a long while till one day the wife went out to fetch water, of which she had need, and saw a leach who had spread a carpet close by the road, on which he had set out great store of simples and implements of medicine and he was speaking and muttering charms, whilst the folk flocked to him from all quarters and girt him about on every side. The Weaver's wife marvelled at the largeness of the physician's fortune and said in herself, "Were my husband thus, he would lead an easy life and that in which we are of straitness and poverty would be widened to him." Then she returned home, cark full and care full, and when her husband saw her in this condition, he questioned her of her case and she said to him, "truly, my breast is harrowed by reason of you and of the very goodness of yours intent," presently adding, "Narrow means suit me not and you in your present craft gainest nothing; so either do you seek out a business other than this or pay me my rightful due and let me go on their way." Her husband chid her for this and advised her to take patience; but she would not be turned from her design and said to him, "Go forth and watch that

Tale Of The Weaver Who Became A Leach. 195 physician how he does and learn from him what he says." he said, "Let not your heart be troubled," and added, "I will go every day to the session of the leach." So he began resorting daily to the physician and committing to memory his answers and that which he spoke of jargon, till he had gotten a great matter by rote, and all this he learned and thoroughly digested it. Then he returned to his wife and said to her, "I have stored up the physician's sayings in memory and have mastered his manner of muttering and diagnoses and prescribing remedies and I know by heart the names of the medicines and of all the diseases, and there abides of your bidding nothing undone: so what do you command me now to do?" She said, "Leave the loom and open yourself a leach's shop;" but He said, "My fellow townsmen know me and this affair will not profit me, save in a land of strangerhood; so come, let us go out from this city and get us to a foreign land and there live." And she said, "Do whatever you wiliest."

Accordingly, he arose and taking his weaving gear, sold it and bought with the price drugs and simples and wrought himself a carpet, with which they set out and journeyed to a certain village, where they took up their abode. Then the man fell to going round about the hamlets and villages and outskirts of towns, after donning leach's dress; and he began to earn his livelihood and make much gain. Their affairs prospered and their circumstances were bettered; Why they praised Allah for their present ease and the village became to them a home. In this way he lived for a long time, but at length he wandered anew, and the days and the nights did not stop to transport him from country to country, till he came to the land of the Roum and lighted down in a city of the cities of it, in which was Jálínús the Sage; but the Weaver knew him not, nor was aware who he was. So he fared forth, as was his wont, in quest of a place where the folk might be gathered together, and hired the courtyard of Jalinus.

There he spread his carpet and setting out on it his simples and instruments of medicine, praised himself and his skill and claimed a cleverness such as none but he might claim. Jalinus heard that which he affirmed of his understanding and it was certified unto him and established in his mind that the man was a skilled leach of the leaches of the Persians and he said in himself, "Unless he had confidence in his knowledge and were minded to confront me and contend with me, he had not sought the door of my house neither had he spoken that which he has spoken." And care and doubt gat hold upon Jalinus: so he drew near the Weaver and addressed himself to see how his doings should end, whilst the folk began to flock to him and describe to him their ailments, and he would answer them of it, hitting the mark one while and missing it another while, so that nothing appeared to Jalinus of his fashion by which his mind might be assured that he had justly estimated his skill. Presently, up came a woman with a urinal, and when the Weaver saw the phial afar off, he said to her, "This is the water of a man, a stranger." she said, "Yes;" and he continued, "Is he not a Jew and is not his ailment flatulence?" "Yes," replied the woman, and the folk marvelled at this; Why the man was magnified in the eyes of Jalinus, for that he heard speech such as was not of the usage of doctors, seeing that they know not urine but by shaking it and looking straitly thereon, neither know they a man's water from a woman's water, nor a stranger's from a countryman's, nor a Jew's from a Sharif's.

Then the woman asked, "What is the remedy?" and the Weaver answered, "Bring the honorarium." So she paid him a dirham and he gave her medicines contrary to that ailment and such as would only aggravate the complaint. When Jalinus saw what appeared to him of the man's incapacity, he turned to his disciples and pupils and bade them fetch the mock doctor, with all his gear and drugs. Accordingly they brought him into his presence without delay, and when Jalinus saw him before him, he asked him, "Know you me?" and the other answered, "No, nor did I ever set eyes on you before this day." the Sage, said, "Do you know Jalinus?" and the Weaver, said, "No." Then said Jalinus, "What drave you to do that which you do?" So he acquainted him with his adventure,

Tale Of The Weaver Who Became A Leach. 197 especially with the dowry and the obligation by which he was bound with regard to his wife at which the Sage marvelled and certified himself anent the matter of the marriage settlement. Then he bade lodge him near himself and entreated him with kindness and took him apart and said to him, "Expound to me the story of the urine phial and from where you knew that the water within it was that of a man, and he a stranger and a Jew, and that his ailment was flatulence?" The Weaver replied, "'Tis well. You must know that we people of Persia are skilled in physiognomy, and I saw the woman to be rosy cheeked, blue eyed and tall statured. Now these qualities belong to women who are enamoured of a man and are distracted for love of him; moreover, I saw her burning with anxiety; so I knew that the patient was her husband. As for his strangerhood, I noted that the dress of the woman differed from that of the townsfolk, Why I knew that she was a foreigner; and in the mouth of the phial I saw a yellow rag, which garred me know that the sick man was a Jew and she a Jewess. Moreover, she came to me on first day; and 'tis the Jews' custom to take meat puddings and food that has passed the night and eat them on the Saturday their Sabbath, hot and cold, and they exceed in eating; Why flatulence and indigestion happen them. Thus I was directed and guessed that which you have heard."

Now when Jalinus heard this, he ordered the Weaver the amount of his wife's dowry and bade him pay it to her and said to him, "Divorce her." Furthermore, he forbade him from returning to the practice of physic and warned him never again to take to wife a woman of rank higher than his own; and he gave him his spending money and charged him return to his proper craft. "Nor" (continued the Wazir), "is this tale stranger or rarer than the story of the Two Sharpers who each cozened his Compeer." When King Shah Bakht heard this, he said to himself, "How like is this story to my present case with this Minister, who has not his like!" Then he bade him hie to his own house and come again at eventide.

The Twenty first Night of the Month

Whenas nighted the night, the Wazir presented himself before the King, who bade him relate the promised story. So he said, "I hear and I obey. Give ear, O king, to