The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 01 (of 10)
General
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 01 (of 10)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the old
woman said to the Barber's second brother, "Doff thy clothes," he rose,
well nigh lost in ecstasy; and, stripping off his raiment, showed
himself mother naked. Whereupon the lady stripped also and said to my
brother, "If thou want anything run after me till thou catch me." Then
she set out at a run and he ran after her while she rushed into room
after room and rushed out of room after room, my brother scampering
after her in a rage of desire like a veritable madman, with yard
standing terribly tall. After much of this kind she dashed into a
darkened place, and he dashed after her; but suddenly he trod upon a
yielding spot, which gave way under his weight; and, before he was
aware where he was, he found himself in the midst of a crowded market,
part of the bazar of the leather sellers who were crying the prices of
skins and hides and buying and selling. When they saw him in his
plight, naked, with standing yard, shorn of beard and mustachios, with
eyebrows dyed red, and cheeks ruddied with rouge, they shouted and
clapped their hands at him, and set to flogging him with skins upon his
bare body till a swoon came over him. Then they threw him on the back
of an ass and carried him to the Chief of Police. Quoth the Chief,
"What is this?" Quoth they, "This fellow fell suddenly upon us out of
the Wazir's house[FN#649] in this state." So the Prefect gave him an
hundred lashes and then banished him from Baghdad. However I went out
after him and brought him back secretly into the city and made him a
daily allowance for his living: although, were it not for my generous
humour, I could not have put up with the like of him. Then the Caliph
gave ear to
The Barber’s Tale of his Third Brother.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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