If you be not asleep, sister, said Dinarzade, next morning, I conjure you to tell us if the honest dervise came safe and sound out of the well. --Yes, replied Scheherazade, and the second calender pursued his story thus: This old well, said he, was inhabited by fairies and genies, which happened luckily for the relief of the head of the convent: for they received and supported him, and carried him to the bottom, so that he got no hurt. He perceived well enough that there was something extraordinary in his fall, which must otherwise have cost him his life; whereas he neither saw nor felt any thing. But he soon heard a voice, which said, Do you know what honest man this is, to whom we have done this piece of service? Another voice answered, No. To which the first replied, Then I will tell you. This man, out of charity, the greatest that ever was known, left the town he lived in, and has established himself in this place, in hopes to cure one of his neighbours of the envy he had conceived against him; he had acquired such a general esteem, that the envious man, not able to endure it, came hither on purpose to ruin him, which he had performed, had it not been for the assistance which we have given this honest man, whose reputation is so great, that the sultan, who keeps his residence in the neighbouring city, was to pay him a visit tomorrow, to recommend the princess his daughter to his prayers. Another voice asked, What need had the princess of the dervise’s prayers? To which the first answered, You do not know, it seems, that she is possessed by genie Maimoun, the son of Dimdim, who is fallen in love with her. But I know well how this good head of the dervises may cure her; the thing is very easy, and I will tell it you. He has a black cat in his convent, with a white spot at the end of her tail, about the bigness of a small piece of Arabian money; let him only pull seven hairs out of the white spot, burn them, and smoke the princess’s head with the fume, she will not only be presently cured, but be so safely delivered from Maimoun, the son of Dimdim, that he will never dare to come near her a second time. The head of the dervises remembered every word of the discourse between the fairies and the genies, who were very silent all the night after. The next morning by break of day, when he could discern one thing from another, the well being broken down in several places, he saw a hole, by which he crept out with ease.