“It is certainly most surprising,” cried he, when he had heard it all, “but I should like to examine the body.”  He then knelt down, and took the head on his knees, looking at it attentively.  Suddenly he burst into such loud laughter that he fell right backwards, and when he had recovered himself enough to speak, he turned to the Sultan.  “The man is no more dead than I am,” he said; “watch me.”  As he spoke he drew a small case of medicines from his pocket and rubbed the neck of the hunchback with some ointment made of balsam.  Next he opened the dead man’s mouth, and by the help of a pair of pincers drew the bone from his throat.  At this the hunchback sneezed, stretched himself and opened his eyes.

The Sultan and all those who saw this operation did not know which to admire most, the constitution of the hunchback who had apparently been dead for a whole night and most of one day, or the skill of the barber, whom everyone now began to look upon as a great man.  His Highness desired that the history of the hunchback should be written down, and placed in the archives beside that of the barber, so that they might be associated in people’s minds to the end of time.  And he did not stop there; for in order to wipe out the memory of what they had undergone, he commanded that the tailor, the doctor, the purveyor and the merchant, should each be clothed in his presence with a robe from his own wardrobe before they returned home.  As for the barber, he bestowed on him a large pension, and kept him near his own person.

The Adventures of Prince Camaralzaman and the Princess Badoura

Some twenty days’ sail from the coast of Persia lies the isle of the children of Khaledan.  The island is divided into several provinces, in each of which are large flourishing towns, and the whole forms an important kingdom.  It was governed in former days by a king named Schahzaman, who, with good right, considered himself one of the most peaceful, prosperous, and fortunate monarchs on the earth.  In fact, he had but one grievance, which was that none of his four wives had given him an heir.

This distressed him so greatly that one day he confided his grief to the grand-vizir, who, being a wise counsellor, said:  “Such matters are indeed beyond human aid.  Allah alone can grant your desire, and I should advise you, sire, to send large gifts to those holy men who spend their lives in prayer, and to beg for their intercessions.  Who knows whether their petitions may not be answered!”

The king took his vizir’s advice, and the result of so many prayers for an heir to the throne was that a son was born to him the following year.

Schahzaman sent noble gifts as thank offerings to all the mosques and religious houses, and great rejoicings were celebrated in honour of the birth of the little prince, who was so beautiful that he was named Camaralzaman, or “Moon of the Century.”