She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Dalilah was admitted, Hasan asked her, “What bringeth thee hither, O ill-omened old woman? Verily, thou and thy brother Zurayk the fishmonger are of a piece!”; and she answered, “O captain I am in the wrong and this my neck is at thy mercy; but tell me which of you it was that played me this trick?” Quoth Calamity Ahmad, “’Twas the first of my lads.” Rejoined Dalilah, “For the sake of Allah intercede with him to give me back the carrier-pigeons and what not, and thou wilt lay me under great obligation.” When Hasan heard this he said, “Allah requite thee, O Ali! Why didst thou cook the pigeons?”; and Ali answered, “I knew not that they were carrier-pigeons.” Then said Ahmad, “O hall-keeper bring us the cooked pigeons.” So he brought them and Dalilah took a piece and tasting it, said, “This is none of the carrier-pigeons’ flesh, for I fed them on grains of musk and their meat is become even as musk.” Quoth Shuman, “An thou desire to have the carrier-pigeons, comply with Ali’s will.” Asked she “What is that?” And Hasan answered, “He would have thee marry him to thy daughter Zaynab.” She said, “I have not command over her except of affection”; and Hasan said to Ali the Cairene “Give her the pigeons.” So he gave them to her, and she took them and rejoiced in them. Then quoth Hasan to her, “There is no help but thou return us a sufficient reply”; and Dalilah rejoined, “If it be indeed his wish to marry her, it availed nothing to play this clever trick upon us: it behoveth him rather to demand her in marriage of her mother’s brother and her guardian, Captain Zurayk, him who crieth out, saying, ‘Ho! a pound of fish for two farthings!’ and who hangeth up in his shop a purse containing two thousand dinars.” When the Forty heard this, they all rose and cried out, saying, “What manner of blather is this, O harlot? Dost thou wish to bereave us of our brother Ali of Cairo?” Then she returned to the Khan and said to her daughter, “Ali the Egyptian seeketh thee in marriage.” Whereat Zaynab rejoiced, for she loved him because of his chaste forbearance towards her,[FN#242] and asked her mother what had passed. So she told her, adding, “I made it a condition that he should demand thy hand of thine uncle, so I might make him fall into destruction.” Meanwhile Ali turned to his fellows and asked them, “What manner of man is this Zurayk?”; and they answered, “He was chief of the sharpers of Al-Irak land and could all but pierce mountains and lay hold upon the stars. He would steal the Kohl from the eye and, in brief, he had not his match for roguery; but he hath repented his sins and foresworn his old way of life and opened him a fishmonger’s shop. And now he hath amassed two thousand dinars by the sale of fish and laid them in a purse with strings of silk, to which he hath tied bells and rings and rattles of brass, hung on a peg within the doorway. Every time he