to be given him with a bull’s pizzle over his shoulders, and caused him afterwards to be carried through the town on a camel, with one crying before him, Thus are such men punished as enter people’s houses by force!  After treating him thus, they banished him from the town, and forbade him ever to return to it.  Some people, who met him after the second misfortune, brought me word where he was; and I went and fetched him to Bagdad privately, and gave him all the assistance I could.

The caliph, continued the barber, did not laugh so much at this story as at the other:  he was pleased to bewail the unfortunate Alcouz, and ordered something to be given me.  But, without giving his servants time to obey his orders, I continued my discourse, and said to him, My sovereign lord and master, you see that I do not speak much; and since your majesty has been pleased to do me the favour to listen to me so far, I beg you would likewise hear the adventures of my two other brothers; I hope they will be as diverting as those of the former.  You may make a complete history of them, which will not be unworthy of your library.  I do myself the honour, then, to acquaint you that my fifth brother was called Alnaschar.

THE STORY OF THE BARBER’S FIFTH BROTHER.

Alnaschar, as long as our father lived, was very lazy; instead of working for his living, he used to go a begging in the evening, and to live upon what he got the next day.  Our father died in a very old age, and left among us seven hundred drams of silver, which we equally divided; so that each of us had one hundred to his share.  Alnaschar, who never had so much money before in his possession, was very much perplexed to know what he should do with it; he consulted a long time with himself, and at last resolved to lay it out in glasses, bottles, and other glass-work, which he bought of a great merchant, He put them all in an open basket, and chose a very little shop, where he sat with the basket before him, and his back against the wall, expecting that somebody would come and buy his ware.  In this posture he sat with his eyes fixed on his basket; and beginning to rave, spoke the following words loud enough to be heard by a neighbour tailor:  This basket, said he, cost me one hundred drams, which are all I have in the world; I shall make two hundred of it by retailing my glass; and of these two hundred drams, which I will again lay out in glass, I shall make four hundred; and, going on thus, I shall make at last make four thousand drams; of four thousand I shall easily make eight thousand; and when I come to ten thousand, I will leave off selling glass, turn jeweller and trade in diamonds, pearls, and all sorts of precious stones.  Then, when I am as rich as I can wish, I will buy a fine house, a great estate, slaves, eunuchs, and horses:  I will keep a good house, make a great figure in the world, and will send for all the musicians and dancers