Good God, cried I, must I be beat and bruised unmercifully, and to complete my affliction, have my hand cut off, for eating of a ragout with garlic, and forgetting to wash my hands? What proportion is there between the punishment and the crime? Curse on the ragout, and on the cook that dressed it, and on him that served it up. All the ladies that were by, and had witnessed my receiving the thousand strokes, took pity of me when they heard the cutting off of my hand spoken of. Dear madam, dear sister, said they to the favourite lady, you carry your resentment too far. We own he is a man quite ignorant of the world, of your quality, and the respect due to you; but we beseech you to overlook and pardon the fault he has committed. I have not received suitable satisfaction, said she; I will teach him to know the world; I will make him bear sensible marks of his impertinence, and be cautious hereafter how he tastes a garlic ragout without washing his hands. Afterwards, they continued their solicitations, and fell down at her feet, and kissing her fair hands, Good madam, said they, in the name of God, moderate your wrath, and grant the favour we request. She answered not a word, but got up, and after uttering a thousand reproaches against me, walked out of the chamber, and all the ladies followed her, leaving me in inconceivable affliction. I continued there ten days, without seeing any body but an old woman slave that brought me victuals. I asked her what was become of the favourite lady. She is sick, said the old woman; she is sick of the poisoned smell you infected her with. Why did you not take care to wash your hands after eating of that cursed ragout? Is it possible, thought I to myself, that these ladies can be so nice and so vindictive for so small a fault! I loved my wife, notwithstanding all her cruelty, and could not help pitying her. One day the old woman told me my spouse was recovered, and gone to bathe, and would come to see me the next day. So, said she, I would have you call up your patience, and endeavour to accommodate yourself to her humour: for she is otherwise a woman of good sense and discretion, and beloved by all the ladies about the court of Zobeide, our respectable mistress. In effect, my wife came next night, and accosted me thus: You see I am too good in seeing you again after the affront you have offered me; but still I cannot be reconciled to you till I have punished you according to your demerit, in not washing your hands after eating the garlic ragout. This said, she called the ladies, who, by her order, threw me upon the ground; and after binding me fast, she had the barbarity to cut off my thumbs and great toes herself with a razor. One of the ladies applied a certain root to stanch the blood; but by bleeding and by the pain, I swooned away.