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Kemerezzeman betook himself to the old woman, who exclaimed, when she saw him, ‘I see the marks of dalliance on thy face: tell me what thou hast seen.’ Quoth he, ‘I have seen nothing. Only I supped with the master of the house in a saloon and prayed the evening prayer, after which we fell asleep and woke not till the morning.’ She laughed and said, ‘What are those marks on thy cheeks and lips?’ ‘It was the mosquitoes of the saloon that did this with me,’ answered he. ‘It is well,’ rejoined she. ‘But did the same thing betide the master of the house?’ ‘Nay,’ replied he; ‘on the contrary, he told me that the mosquitoes of that saloon molest not bearded men, but bite those only who have no hair on their faces, and that, whenever he hath to guest one who is beardless, the latter awakes, complaining of the mosquito-bites; but, if he have a beard, there befalls him nothing of this.’ ‘Good,’ said she. ‘Sawest thou ought but this?’ and he answered, ‘I found four huckle-bones in my pocket.’ Quoth she, ‘Show them to me.’
So he gave them to her and she laughed and said, ‘Thy mistress laid these in thy pocket.’ ‘How so?’ asked he; and she replied, ‘It is as if she said to thee, in the language of signs, “An thou wert in love, thou wouldst not sleep, for a lover sleeps not: but thou art yet a child and fit for nothing but to play with these huckle-bones. So what ails thee to fall in love with the fair?” Now she came to thee by night and finding thee asleep, devoured thy cheeks with kisses and left thee this sign. But this will not suffice her of thee and she will certainly send her husband to invite thee again to-night; so, when thou goest home with him, hasten not to fall asleep, and on the morrow bring me five hundred dinars and acquaint me with what hath passed, and I will tell thee what more thou shalt do. ‘I hear and obey,’ answered he and went back to the khan.
