ate their sufficiency and the tray was taken away, the sailors thinking the while that this liberal entertainment came from Salim.  When a third part of the night was past, Judar set sweetmeats before them and Salim served them, whilst his two brothers sat with the guests, till they sought to sleep.  Accordingly Judar lay down and the others with him, who waited till he was asleep, when they fell upon him together and gagging and pinioning him, before he was awake, carried him forth of the house,[FN#289] under cover of the night,—­And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

       When it was the Six Hundred and Seventeenth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that they seized Judar and carrying him forth of the house under cover of the night, at once packed him off to Suez, where they shackled him and set him to work as a galley slave; and he ceased not to serve thus in silence a whole year.[FN#290] So far concerning Judar; but as for his brothers, they went in next morning to his mother and said to her, “O our mother, our brother Judar is not awake.”  Said she, “Do ye wake him.”  Asked they, “Where lieth he?” and she answered, “With the guests.”  They rejoined, “Haply he went away with them whilst we slept, O mother.  It would seem that he had tasted of strangerhood and yearned to get at hidden hoards; for we heard him at talk with the Moors, and they said to him, ’We will take thee with us and open the treasure to thee.’” She enquired, “Hath he then been in company with Moors?;” and they replied, saying, “Were they not our guests yester night?” And she, “Most like he hath gone with them, but Allah will direct him on the right way; for there is a blessing upon him and he will surely come back with great good.”  But she wept, for it was grievous to her to be parted from her son.  Then said they to her, “O accursed woman, dost thou love Judar with all this love, whilst as for us, whether we be absent or present, thou neither joyest in us nor sorrowest for us?  Are we not thy sons, even as Judar is thy son?” She said, “Ye are indeed my sons:  but ye are reprobates who deserve no favour of me, for since your father’s death I have never seen any good in you; whilst as for Judar, I have had abundant good of him and he hath heartened my heart and entreated me with honour; wherefore it behoveth me to weep for him, because of his kindness to me and to you.”  When they heard this, they abused her and beat her; after which they sought for the saddle bags, till they found the two pairs and took the enchanted one and all the gold from one pouch and jewels from the other of the unenchanted, saying, “This was our father’s good.”  Said their mother, “Not so, by Allah!, it belongeth to your brother Judar, who brought it from the land of the Magharibah.”  Said they, “Thou liest, it was our father’s property; and we will dispose of it, as we please.”  Then they divided the gold and jewels between them;