passers stop and stand in espalier to gaze upon her. When she came to Ala al-Din’s shop, she sat down thereon and said to him, “Blessed be the day to thee, O my lord Ala al-Din! Allah prosper thee and be good to thee and perfect thy gladness and make it a wedding of weal and welfare!” He knitted his brows and frowned in answer to her; then asked her, “Wherein have I failed of thy due, or what have I done to harm thee, that thou shouldst requite me after this fashion?” She answered, “Thou hast been no wise in default; but ’tis yonder inscription written on the door of thy shop that irketh me and vexeth my heart. An thou have the courage to change it and write up the contrary thereof, I will deliver thee from thine evil plight.” And he answered, “Thy requirement is right easy: on my head and eyes!” So saying he brought out a sequin[270] and summoning one of his Mamelukes, said to him, “Get thee to Such-an-one the Scribe and bid him write us an epigraph, adorned with gold and lapis lazuli, in these words, THERE BE NO CRAFT SAVE WOMEN’S CRAFT, FOR INDEED THEIR CRAFT IS A MIGHTY CRAFT[271] AND OVERCOMETH AND HUMBLETH THE FALSES OF MEN.” And she said to the white slave, “Fare thee forthright.” So he repaired to the Scribe, who wrote him the scroll, and he brought it to his master, who set it on the door and asked the damsel, “Is thy heart satisfied?” She answered, “Yes! Arise forthwith and get thee to the place before the citadel, where do thou foregather with all the mountebanks and ape-dancers and bear-leaders and drummers and pipers and bid them come to thee to-morrow early, with their kettle-drums and flageolets, whilst thou art drinking coffee with thy father-in-law the Kazi, and congratulate thee and wish thee joy, saying:—A blessing, O son of our uncle! Indeed, thou art the vein[272] of our eye! We rejoice for thee, and if thou be ashamed of us, verily we pride ourselves upon thee; so, although thou banish us from thee, know that we will not forsake thee, albeit thou forsake us. And do thou fall to throwing dinars and dirhams amongst them; whereupon the Kazi will question thee, and do thou answer him, saying:—My father was an ape-dancer and this is our original condition; but our Lord opened on us the gate of fortune and we have gotten us a name amongst the merchants and with their provost. Upon this he will say to thee, Then thou art an ape-leader of the tribe of the mountebanks? and do thou rejoin, I may in nowise deny my origin, for the sake of thy daughter and in her honour. The Kazi will say, It may not be that thou shalt be given the daughter of a Shaykh who sitteth upon the carpet of the Law and whose descent is traceable by genealogy to the loins of the Apostle of Allah,[273] nor is it meet that his daughter be in the power of a man who is an ape-dancer, a minstrel. Then do thou reply, Nay, O Efendi, she is my lawful wife, and every hair of her is worth a thousand lives, and I will not put her