to pack up in the box. But there was nothing in the box except a few worthless clothes. The negress gave the money to the fellaḥ, who began to dance for joy. The negress also danced because her mistress had overreached the judge. When the judge saw them dancing, he began to dance too. And the woman asked him: ‘The fellaḥ dances because he has his money, and the negress because she has given it to him; but why do you dance?’ ‘Because you have had a laugh at me,’ he answered.”
VIII.
“There was a judge who had a daughter. Many suitors wanted to marry her, but he refused them all, for he was afraid that they ate unclean meat (ḥarâm). There was a robber, and when he heard of it he said: ‘I will marry her.’ They asked him: ‘How?’ He answered: ‘You will see.’ After five or six days he went one night to the house of the judge as he was sitting down to eat. The judge asked him to eat. He said: ‘Never! the food is all unclean.’ The judge said: ‘How so?’ He answered: ‘Because it has been bought: no one knows whence it comes.’ The judge said: ‘This is the man for my daughter’; and accordingly they were married. After some time the robber said to the judge: ‘Your daughter is west, but I must be east.’ The judge replied: ‘Very good.’ So the robber went away, leaving his wife behind. He went to his village; there he stole a goat and a sheep and made a feast on the dyke.[1] After a time his wife went to seek him and found him living on the dyke and eating his food there. She asked him why he did not live in a house? He answered: ‘Because I do not wish to eat anything that is unclean.’[2] So she lived with her
