two dogs with me, though this be to me ruin-rife and the ending of my term of life." Rejoined the other, "Allah will veil[FN#484] thee, even as thou hast veiled my face with the Caliph!" Then Abdullah took a present beseeming the Commander of the Faithful and mounting the dogs with him, each on a camel, bound with chains[FN#485] of gold, journeyed with Abu Ishak to Baghdad, where he went in to the Caliph and kissed ground before him. He deigned bid him sit; so he sat down and brought the two dogs before Al-Rashid, who said to him "What be these dogs, O Emir Abdullah?" Whereupon they fell to kissing the floor between his hands and wagging their tails and weeping, as if complaining to him. The Caliph marvelled at this and said to the governor, "Tell me the history of these two dogs and the reason of thy beating them and after entreating them with honour." He replied, "O Vicar of Allah, these be no dogs, but two young men, endowed with beauty and seemliness, symmetry and shapeliness, and they are my brothers and the sons of my father and mother." Asked the Caliph, "How is it that they were men and are become dogs?"; and he answered, "An thou give me leave, O Prince of True Believers, I will acquaint thee with the truth of the circumstance." Said Al-Rashid, "Tell me and 'ware of leasing, for 'tis of the fashion of the hypocrites, and look thou tell truth, for that is the Ark[FN#486] of safety and the mark of virtuous men." Rejoined Abdullah, "Know then, O vice-regent of Allah, when I tell thee the story of these dogs, they will both bear witness against me: an I speak sooth they will certify it and if I lie they will give me the lie." Cried the Caliph, "These are of the dogs; they cannot speak nor answer; so how can they testify for thee or against thee?" But Abdullah said to them, "O my brothers, if I speak a lying word, do ye lift your heads and stare with your eyes; but, if I say sooth hang down your heads and lower your eyes." Then said he to the Caliph, "Know, O Commander of the Faithful, that we are three brothers by one mother and the same father. Our sire's name was Fazil and he was so named because his mother bare two sons at one birth, one of whom died forthright and the other twin remained alive, wherefore his sire named him Fazil—the Remainder. His father brought him up and reared him well, till he grew to manhood when he married him to our mother and died. Our mother conceived a first time and bare this my first brother, whom our sire named Mansъr; then she conceived again and bare this my second brother, whom he named Nбsir[FN#487]; after which she conceived a third time and bare me, whom he named Abdullah. My father reared us all three till we came to man's estate, when he died, leaving us a house and a shop full of coloured stuffs of all kinds, Indian and Greek and Khorбsбni and what not, besides sixty thousand dinars. We washed him and buried him to the ruth of his Lord, after which we built him a splendid monument and let pray