are equal in weight, I will acknowledge thy truth, and pay thee the price of thine eye; but, if they differ, thou liest and I will sue thee for the price of mine eye.”  Quoth the one-eyed man, “Grant me time;” but the merchant answered, saying, “I am a stranger and grant time to none, nor will I part from thee till thou pay.”  So the sharper ransomed his eye by paying him an hundred ducats and went away.  Last of all came the buyer of the chanders-wood and said, “Take the price of thy ware.”  Asked the merchant, “What wilt thou give me?”; and the other answered, “We agreed for a Sa’a-measure of whatever thou shouldst desire; so, if thou wilt, take it full of gold and silver.”  “Not I,” rejoined the merchant, “Not I! nothing shall serve me but I must have it full of fleas, half male and half female.”  Said the sharper, “I can do nothing of the kind;” and, confessing himself beaten, returned him his sandal-wood and redeemed himself from him with an hundred sequins, to be off his bargain.  Then the merchant sold the chanders-wood at his own price and, quitting the city of sharpers, returned to his own land, —–­And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

          When it was the Six Hundred and Fifth Night

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the merchant had sold his chanders-wood and had taken the money he quitted that city and returned to his own land.  Then the Prince continued, “But this is not more wondrous than the tale of the three-year-old child.”  “What may that be?” asked the King, and the Prince answered, “I have heard tell this tale of

The Debauchee and the Three-Year-Old Child.

Know, O King that a certain profligate man, who was addicted to the sex, once heard of a beautiful and lovely woman who dwelt in a city other than his own.  So he journeyed thither, taking with him a present, and wrote her a note, setting forth all that he suffered of love-longing and desire for her and how his passion for her had driven him to forsake his native land and come to her; and he ended by praying for an assignation.  She gave him leave to visit her and, as he entered her abode, she stood up and received him with all honour and worship, kissing his hands and entertaining him with the best entertainment of meat and drink.  Now she had a little son, but three years old, whom she left and busied herself in cooking rice.[FN#253] Presently the man said to her, “Come, let us go and lie together;” but she replied, “My son is sitting looking at us.”  Quoth the man, “He is a little child, understanding not neither knowing how to speak.”  Quoth the woman, “Thou wouldst not say thus, and thou knew his intelligence.”  When the boy saw that the rice was done, he wept with bitter weeping and his mother said to him, “What gars thee weep, O my son?” “Ladle me out some rice,” answered he, “and put clarified butter in it.”  So she ladled him out somewhat of rice and put butter