and two and clad in steel, with double neck-rings and felt bonnets and burnouses and swords and bucklers. I asked one of the folk whose suite this was, and he answered, ‘That of Captain Ahmad al-Danaf.’ Quoth I, ‘And what is he?’ and quoth the other, ‘He is town-captain of Baghdad and her Divan, and to him is committed the care of the suburbs. He getteth a thousand dinars a month from the Caliph and Hasan Shuman hath the like. Moreover, each of his men draweth an hundred dinars a month; and they are now returning to their barrack from the Divan.’ And lo! Calamity Ahmad saw me and cried out, ‘Come give me drink.’ So I filled the cup and gave it him, and he shook it and emptied it out, like unto thee; and thus he did a second time. Then I filled the cup a third time and he took a draught as thou diddest; after which he asked me, ‘O water-carrier, whence comest thou?’ And I answered, ‘From Cairo,’ and he, ‘Allah keep Cairo and her citizens! What may bring thee thither?’ So I told him my story and gave him to understand that I was a debtor fleeing from debt and distress. He cried, ‘Thou art welcome to Baghdad’; then he gave me five dinars and said to his men, ‘For the love of Allah be generous to him.’ So each of them gave me a dinar and Ahmad said to me, ‘O Shaykh, what while thou abidest in Baghdad thou shalt have of us the like every time thou givest us to drink.’ Accordingly, I paid them frequent visits and good ceased not to come to me from the folk till, one day, reckoning up the profit I had made of them, I found it a thousand dinars and said to myself, The best thing thou canst do is to return to Egypt. So I went to Ahmad’s house and kissed his hand, and he said, What seekest thou? Quoth I, I have a mind to depart; and I repeated these two couplets:— Sojourn of stranger, in whatever land, * Is like the castle based upon the wind: The breaths of breezes level all he raised. * And so on homeward-way’s the stranger’s mind. I added, The caravan is about to start for Cairo and I wish to return to my people. So he gave me a she-mule and an hundred dinars and said to me, I desire to send somewhat by thee, O Shaykh! Dost thou know the people of Cairo? Yes, answered I;——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. When it was the Seven Hundred and Tenth Night,