it to this pestilent old woman, that she might give it to who should fine-draw it and return it to us; but from that time we have never set eyes on her again till this day.”  Answered the old woman, “This young man speaks sooth.  I had the veil from him, but I took it with me into one of the houses where I am wont to visit and forgot it there, nor do I know where I left it; and, being a poor woman, I feared its owner and dared not face him.”  Now the girl’s husband was listening to all they said,—­And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

         When it was the Six Hundred and Second Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the young man seized the old woman and spoke to her of the veil as she had primed him, the girl’s husband was listening to all they said, from beginning to end, and when he heard the tale which the crafty old woman had contrived with the young man, he rose to his feet and said, “Allah Almighty!  I crave pardon of the Omnipotent One for my sins and for what my heart suspected!” And he praised the Lord who had discovered to him the truth.  Then he accosted the old woman and said to her, “Dost thou use to visit us?"[FN#237] Replied she, “O my son, I visit you and other than you, for the sake of alms; but from that day to this, none hath given me news of the veil.”  Asked the merchant, “Hast thou enquired at my house?” and she answered, “O my lord, I did indeed go to thy house and ask; but they told me that the person of the house[FN#238] had been divorced by the merchant; so I went away and asked no farther; nor have I enquired of anybody else until this day.”  Hereupon the merchant turned to the young man and said, “Let the old woman go her way; for the veil is with me.”  So saying he brought it out from the shop and gave it to the fine-drawer before all present.  Then he betook himself to his wife and, giving her somewhat of money, took her to himself again, after making abundance of excuses to her and asking pardon of Allah, because he knew not what the old woman had done. (Said the Wazir), “This then, O King, is an instance of the malice of women and for another to the same purport, I have heard tell the following tale anent

The King’s Son and the Ifrit’s Mistress[FN#239]

A certain King’s son was once walking alone for his pleasure, when he came to a green meadow, abounding in trees laden with fruit and birds singing on the boughs, and a river running athwart it.  The place pleased him; so he sat down there and taking out some dried fruits he had brought with him, began to eat, when lo! he espied a great smoke rising up to heaven and, taking fright, he climbed up into a tree and hid himself among the branches.  Thence he saw an Ifrit rise out of the midst of the stream bearing on his head a chest of marble, secured by a padlock.  He set down the chest on the meadow-sward and opened it and there came forth a damsel of mortal