“It was not I,” said the jackal.

“It was you, and the proof is that you have your tail cut off.”

“But all my cousins are without tails, like me.”

“You lie, joker.”

“Let me call them and you will see.”

“Call them.”

At his call the jackals ran up, all without tails.

“Which of you is a shoemaker?” asked the lion.

“All of us,” they answered.

He said to them:  “I am going to bring you some red pepper.  You shall eat of it, and the one who says, ‘Ouch!’ that will be the one I’m looking for.”

“Go and get it.”

He brought them some red pepper, and they were going to eat it when the first jackal made a noise with his shoes, but he said to the lion, “My uncle, I did not say, ‘Ouch!’” The lion sent them away, and they went about their business.

* * * * *

THE STOLEN WOMAN

It is related that a man of the Onlad Draabad married his cousin, whom he loved greatly.  He possessed a single slave and some camels.  Fearing lest someone should carry off his wife on account of her beauty, he resolved to take her to a place where no one should see her.  He started, therefore, with his slave, his camels, and his wife, and proceeded night and day until he arrived at the shore of the great salt sea, knowing that nobody would come there.

One day when he had gone out to see his camels and his slave, leaving his wife alone in the tent, she saw a ship that had just then arrived.  It had been sent by a sultan of a far country, to seek in the islands of the salt sea a more beautiful wife for him than the women of his land.  The woman in the tent, seeing that the ship would not come first to her, went out first in front.  The people said to her, “Come on board in order to see the whole ship.”  She went aboard.  Finding her to be just the one for whom they were seeking, they seized her and took her to their Sultan.  On his return, the husband, not finding his wife, realized that she had been stolen.  He started to find the son of Keij, the Christian.  Between them there existed a friendship.  The son of Keij said to him:  “Bring a ship and seven men, whose guide I will be on the sea.  They need not go astray nor be frightened.  The city is three or four months’ journey from here.”  They set sail in a ship to find the city, and were on the way the time that he had said.

Arriving they cast their anchor near the city, which was at the top of a high mountain.  Their chief went ashore and saw a fire lighted by someone.  He went in that direction.  It was an old woman, to whom he told his story.  She gave him news of his wife.  They agreed to keep silence between themselves.  Then the old woman added:  “In this place there are two birds that devour people.  At their side are two lions like to them, and two men.  All of these keep guard over your wife.”