I Also began life,as a Schoolmaster and had under my charge some eighty boys. Now I was strict with such strictness that from morning to evening I sat amongst them and would never dismiss them to their homes before sundown. But 'tis known to you, O our lord the King, that boys' wits be short after the measure of their age, and that they love nothing save play and forgathering in the streets and quarter. as well, I took no heed of this and ever grew harder upon them till one day all met and with the intervention of the eldest Monitor they agreed and combined to play me a trick. He arranged with them that next morning none should enter the school until he had taught them, each and every, to say as they went in, "Your safety, O our lord, how yellow is your face!" Now the first who showed himself was the Monitor and he spoke as had been agreed; but I was rough with him and sent him away; then a second came in and repeated what the first had said; then a third and then a fourth, until ten boys had used the same words.

The Split Mouthed Schoolmaster. 75

So I said to myself, "Ho, Such an one! You must be unwell without weeting it:" then I arose and went into the Harem and lay down within it when the Monitor, having collected from his school fellows some hundred and eighty Nusfs, came in to me and cried, "Take this, O our lord, and expend the money upon your health." Thereupon I said to myself, "Ho, Such an one! Every Thursday you dust not collect sixty Faddahs from the boys,"

and I cried to him, "Go, let them forth for a holiday." So he went and dismissed them from school to the playground. On the next day he collected as much as on the first and came in to me and said, "Expend these moneys, O our lord, upon your health." He did the same on the third day and the fourth, making the boys contribute much coin and presenting it to me; and on such wise he continued till the tenth day, when he brought the money as was his wont. At that time I happened to hold in my hand a boiled egg which I purposed eating, but on sighting him I said in myself, "If he see you feeding he will cut off the supplies." So I crammed the egg into my chops Then her sister Dunyazad said, "How sweet is your story, O sister mine, and how enjoyable and delectable!" She said, "And where is this compared with what I would relate to you on the coming night, if the Sovran permits me to survive?"

Now when it was the next night and that was

The Three hundred and Sixty fourth Night

DUNYAZAD said to her, "Allah, upon you, O my sister, If you be other than sleepy, finish for us your tale that we may cut short the watching of this our latter night!" She replied, "With love and good will!" It has reached me,the director, the right guiding, lord of the counsel which is benefiting and of deeds fair seeming and worthy celebrating, that the Schoolmaster said to himself, "If the Monitor see you eating the egg now in your hand he will cut off the supplies and assert you to be sound." So (he continued) I crammed the egg into my chops and clapped my jaws together. Hereupon the lad turned to me and cried, "O my lord, your cheek is much swollen;" and I, " 'Tis only an imposthume." But he drew a whittle forth his sleeve and coming up to me seized my cheek and slit it, when the egg fell out and he said, "O my lord, this it was did the harm and now 'tis passed away from you." Such was the cause of the splitting of my mouth,

The Limping Schoolmaster. 77

O our lord the Sultan. Now had I cast away greed of gain and eaten the egg in the Monitor's presence, what could have been the ill result? But all this was of the weakness of my wit; for also had I dismissed the boys every day about mid afternoon, I should have gained nothing nor lost anything by that. However the Dealer of Destiny is self existent, and this is my case. Then the Sultan turned to the Wazir and laughed and said, "The fact is that whoever schools boys is weak of wit;" and said the other, ", all pedagogues lack perceptives and reflectives; nor can they become legal witnesses before the Kazi because truly they credit the words of little children without evidence of the speech being or factual or false. So their reward in the world to come must be abounding!" Then the Sultan asked the limping man, saying, "And you, the other, what lamed you?" So he began to tell