=Sleeper Awakened= (_The_). Abou Hassan, the son of a rich merchant at Bagdad, inherited a good fortune; but, being a prudent man, made a vow to divide it into two parts: all that came to him from rents he determined to set apart, but all that was of the nature of cash he resolved to spend on pleasure. In the course of a year he ran through this fund, and then made a resolve in future to ask only one guest at a time to his board. This guest was to be a stranger, and never to be asked a second time. It so happened that the Caliph Haroun-al-Raschid, disguised as a merchant, was on one occasion his guest, and heard Abou Hassan say that he wished he were caliph for one day, and he would punish a certain imân for tittle-tattling. Haroun-al-Raschid thought that he could make capital of this wish for a little diversion; so, drugging the merchant’s wine, he fell into a profound sleep, was conveyed to the palace, and, on waking, was treated as the caliph. He ordered the imân to be punished, and sent his mother a handsome gift; but at night, another sleeping draught being given him, he was carried back to his own house. When he woke he could not decide if he had been in a dream or not, but his conduct was so strange that he was taken to a mad-house. He was confined for several days, and, being discharged, the caliph in disguise again visited him, and repeated the same game, so that next day he could not tell which had been the dream. At length the mystery was cleared up, and he was given a post about the caliph’s person, and the sultana gave him a beautiful slave for his wife. Abou Hassan now played a trick on the caliph. He pretended to be dead, and sent his young wife to the sultana to announce the sad news. Zobeida, the sultana, was very much grieved, and gave her favorite a sum of money for the funeral expenses. On her return she played the dead woman, and Abou Hassan went to the caliph to announce his loss. The caliph expressed his sympathy, and, having given him a sum of money for the funeral expenses, went to the sultana to speak of the sad news of the death of the young bride. “The bride?” cried Zobeida; “you mean the bridegroom, commander of the faithful.” “No, I mean the bride,” answered the caliph, “for Abou Hassan has but just left me.” “That cannot be, sire,” retorted Zobeida, “for it is not an hour ago that the bride was here to announce his death.” To settle this moot point, the chief of the eunuchs was sent to see which of the two was dead; and Abou, who saw him coming, got the bride to pretend to be dead, and set himself at her head bewailing, so the man returned with the report that it was the bride who was dead, and not the bridegroom. The sultana would not believe him, and sent her aged nurse to ascertain the fact. As she approached, Abou Hassan pretended to be dead, and the bride to be the wailing widow; accordingly, the nurse contradicted the report of the eunuch. The caliph