for the way and what little of fine raiment had been left to him, he quitted Cairo intending for his own country.  Now the Emir hearing this tale of the Shahbandar wondered thereof with extreme wonderment and said to the Gentleman, “An thou have finished do thou fare forth and go about thy business.”  Accordingly he went from him still garbed in gaberdine and bonnet on head when the house-master asked his wife, “Who of them here remaineth with thee?” And she answered, “Have patience and I will bring thee the third.”  So she arose and opening another closet summoned the Flesher and taking him by the hand, whilst he was ashamed and abashed, led him till he stood before her spouse and the poor fellow availed not to raise his eyes from the ground.  Presently the husband considered him and knew him and was certified that he was Such-and-such the Chief Butcher and head of the craft, so he said to him, “Ho thou the clever one, do thou dance for us a wee and after that tell us a tale.”  Accordingly he stood up and clapped hands and fell to dancing and prancing till such time as he dropped down for fatigue; after which he said, “O my lord, I have by me a tale anent the craft and cunning of women.”  Asked the other, “And what may it be?” and the Butcher began to relate the tale of

The Lady with Two Coyntes.

It is told of a woman which was a fornicatress and adulteress and a companion of catastrophes and calamities that she was married to a K im-mak m[FN#386] who had none of the will of mankind to womankind, at all, at all.  Now the wife was possessed of beauty and loveliness and she misliked him for that he had no desire to carnal copulation, and there was in the house a Syce-man who was dying for his love of her.  But her husband would never quit his quarters, and albeit her longing was that the horse-keeper might possess her person and that she and he might lie together, this was impossible to her.  She abode perplext for some sleight wherewith she might serve her mate, and presently she devised a device and said to him, “O my lord, verily my mother is dead and ’tis my wish to hie me and be present at her burial and receive visits of condolence for her; and, if she have left aught by way of heritage, to take it and then fare back to thee.”  “Thou mayest go,” said he, and said she, “I dread to fare abroad alone and unattended; nor am I able to walk, my parent’s house being afar.  Do thou cry out to the Syce that he fetch me hither an ass and accompany me to the house of my mother, wherein I shall lie some three nights after the fashion of folk.”  Hereupon he called to the horse-keeper and when he came before him, ordered the man to bring an ass,[FN#387] and mount his mistress and hie with her; and the fellow, hearing these words, was hugely delighted.  So he did as he was bidden, but instead of going to the house they twain, he and she, repaired to a garden carrying with them a flask of wine and disappeared for the whole day and made merry and took