he issued therefrom, the same would neither open nor close again till he had pronounced the words, “Shut, O Simsim!” Presently, having laden his asses Ali Baba urged them before him with all speed to the city and reaching home he drove them into the yard; and, shutting close the outer door, took down first the sticks and after the bags of gold which he carried in to his wife.  She felt them and finding them full of coin suspected that Ali Baba had been robbing and fell to berating and blaming him for that he should do so ill a thing.—­And as the morn began to dawn Shahrazad held her peace till

      The end of the Six Hundred and Twenty-seventh Night,

Then said she:—­I have heard, O auspicious King, that quoth Ali Baba to his wife:  “Indeed I am no robber and rather do thou rejoice with me at our good fortune.”  Hereupon he told her of his adventure and began to pour the gold from the bags in heaps before her, and her sight was dazzled by the sheen and her heart delighted at his recital and adventures.  Then she began counting the gold, whereat quoth Ali Baba, “O silly woman how long wilt thou continue turning over the coin? now let me dig a hole wherein to hide this treasure that none may know its secret.”  Quoth she, “Right is thy rede! still would I weigh the moneys and have some inkling of their amount;” and he replied, “As thou pleasest”, but see thou tell no man.”  So she went of f in haste to Kasim’s home to borrow weights and scales wherewith she might balance the Ashrafis and make some reckoning of their value; and when she could not find Kasim she said to his wife, “Lend me, I pray thee, thy scales for a moment.”  Replied her sister-in-law,[FN#292] “Hast thou need of the bigger balance or the smaller?” and the other rejoined, “I need not the large scales, give me the little;” and her sister-in-law cried, “Stay here a moment whilst I look about and find thy want.”  With this pretext Kasim’s wife went aside and secretly smeared wax and suet over the pan of the balance, that she might know what thing it was Ali Baba’s wife would weigh, for she made sure that whatso it be some bit thereof would stick to the wax and fat.  So the woman took this opportunity to satisfy her curiosity, and Ali Baba’s wife suspecting naught thereof carried home the scales and began to weigh the gold, whilst Ali Baba ceased not digging; and, when the money was weighed, they twain stowed it into the hole which they carefully filled up with earth.  Then the good wife took back the scales to her kinswoman, all unknowing that an Ashrafi had adhered to the cup of the scales; but when Kasim’s wife espied the gold coin she fumed with envy and wrath saying to herself, “So ho ! they borrowed my balance to weigh out Ashrafis?” and she marvelled greatly whence so poor a man as Ali Baba had gotten such store of wealth that he should be obliged to weigh it with a pair of scales.  Now after long pondering the matter, when her husband returned home at eventide,