Commander of the Faithful, the history which I am going to relate to your majesty is, probably, one of the most surprising you have ever heard. The two black dogs and myself are three sisters by the same mother and father; and I shall, in the course of my narration, inform you by what strange accident they have been transformed into these animals. The two ladies who live with me, and who are now here, are also my sisters by the same father, but by a different mother. She, whose bosom is covered with scars, is called Aminè; the name of the other is Safiè; and I am called Zobeidè. After the death of our father, the estate which he left us was equally divided amongst us. When my two half-sisters had received their share, they went and lived with their mother; my other two sisters and I remained with ours, who was still alive, and who, when she died, left a thousand sequins to each of us. When we had received what belonged to us, my two elder sisters, for I am the youngest, married. They of course went to live with their husbands, and left me alone. Not long after their marriage, the husband of my eldest sister sold every thing he possessed, both of estate and moveables, and with the money he thus got together, and with what he received also with my sister, they both of them went over to Africa. Her husband there squandered away, in good living and dissipation, not only all his own fortune, but also that which my sister brought him. At length, finding himself reduced to the greatest distress, he found out some pretext for a divorce, and drove her from him. She returned to Bagdad, but not without suffering almost incredible evils during so long a journey. She came to seek a refuge at my house in a state so deserving of pity, that she would have excited it even in the most obdurate hearts. I received her with every mark of affection she could expect from me; I inquired of her how she came to be in so wretched a condition; she informed me with tears in her eyes of the bad conduct of her husband, and of the unworthy treatment she had experienced from him. I was affected at her misfortunes, and mingled my tears with hers. I then made her go to the bath, and supplied her from my own wardrobe; this being done, I addressed these words to her: “You are my eldest sister, and I shall always look upon you as a mother. During your absence, God has caused the little fortune which has fallen to my lot to prosper; and the occupation I have followed has been that of breeding and bringing up silk-worms. Be assured, that every thing I possess is equally yours, and that you have the same power of disposing of it as myself.”