of it.  Did not he throw himself into danger, and could he have come off so well without my assistance?  He was too happy to escape with a lame leg.  Did not I expose myself to a greater danger in getting him out of a house where I thought he was ill-treated?  Has he any reason to complain of me, and to give me so many bad words?  This is what one gets by serving unthankful people.  He accuses me of being a prattling fellow, which is a mere slander.  Of seven brothers, I am he who speaks the least, and have most wit for my share; and, to convince you of it, gentlemen, I need only tell my own story and theirs.  Honour me, I beseech you, with your attention.

THE STORY OF THE BARBER.

In the reign of the caliph Moustancer Billah [Footnote:  He was raised to this dignity in the year of the Hegira 623, and Anno Dom. 1226; and was the thirty-sixth caliph of the race of the Abassides.], continued he, a prince famous for his vast liberality towards the poor, ten highwaymen infested the roads about Bagdad, who had for a long time committed unheard-of robberies and cruelties.  The caliph having notice of this, sent for the judge of the police some days before the feast of Bairam, and ordered him, on pain of death, to bring all the ten to him.

The judge of the police, continued the barber, used so much diligence, and sent so many people in pursuit of the ten robbers, that they were taken on the day of Bairam.  I was then walking on the banks of the Tigris, and saw ten men, richly apparelled, go into a boat.  I might have known they were robbers, had I observed the guards that were with them; but I looked only to them; and, thinking they were people who had a mind to spend the festival-day in jollity, I entered the boat with them, without saying one word, in hopes they would allow me to be one of the company.  We went down the Tigris, and landed before the caliph’s palace; and I then had time to consider with myself, and to find out my mistake.  When we came out of the boat, we were surrounded by a new troop of the judge of the police’s guard, who tied us all, and carried us before the caliph.  I suffered myself to be tied as well as the rest, without speaking one word:  for to what purpose should I have spoken, or made any resistance?  That would have been the way to have been ill treated by the guards, who would not have listened to me, for they are brutish fellows, who will hear no reason:  I was with the robbers, which was sufficient to make them believe me to be one.

When we came before the caliph, he ordered the ten highwaymen’s heads to be cut off immediately.  The executioner drew us up in a file within the reach of his arm, and by good fortune I was the last.  He cut off the heads of the ten highwaymen, beginning with the first; and when he came to me he stopped.  The caliph, perceiving that he did not meddle with me, grew angry:  Did not I command thee, said he, to cut off the heads of ten highwaymen?  Why, then, hast thou cut off but nine?  Commander of the faithful, said he, Heaven preserve me from disobeying your majesty’s orders!  Here are ten corpses upon the ground, and as many heads which I cut off; your majesty may count them.