them, “Sufficeth ye not, O ye wretched Jinns, that which hath befallen me?  But the fault is not yours:  the fault is of your Chief who transmewed you from Jinn shape to mortal shape.  I seek refuge against you this night by the Throne-verse and the Chapter of Sincerity[FN#56] and the Two Preventives!"[FN#57] So saying the Wag put off all his clothes till he was naked, with prickle and breech exposed and danced among the slave-girls.  They bound his hands and he wantoned among them, while they died of laughing at him and the Caliph swooned away for excess of laughter.  Then he came to himself and going forth the curtain to Abu al-Hasan, said to him, “Out on thee, O Abu al-Hasan!  Thou slayest me with laughter.”  So he turned to him and knowing him, said to him, “By Allah, ’tis thou slayest me and slayest my mother and slewest the Shaykhs and the Imam of the Mosque!” After which he kissed ground before him and prayed for the permanence of his prosperity and the endurance of his days.  The Caliph at once robed him in a rich robe and gave him a thousand dinars; and presently he took the Wag into especial favour and married him and bestowed largesse on him and lodged him with himself in the palace and made him of the chief of his cup-companions, and indeed he was preferred with him above them and the Caliph advanced him over them all.  Now they were ten in number, to wit, Al-’Ijli and Al-Rakashi and ’Ibdan and Hasan al-Farazdak and Al-Lauz and Al-Sakar and Omar al-Tartis and Abu Nowas and Abu Ishak al-Nadim and Abu al-Hasan al-Khali’a, and by each of them hangeth a story which is told in other than this book.[FN#58] And indeed Abu al-Hasan became high in honour with the Caliph and favoured above all, so that he sat with him and the Lady Zubaydah bint al-Kasim, whose treasuress Nuzhat al-Fuad[FN#59] hight, was given to him in marriage.  After this Abu al-Hasan the Wag abode with his wife in eating and drinking and all delight of life, till whatso was with them went the way of money, when he said to her, “Harkye, O Nuzhat al-Fuad!” Said she, “At they service;” and he continued, “I have it in mind to play a trick on the Caliph[FN#60] and thou shalt do the same with the Lady Zubaydah, and we will take of them at once, to begin with, two hundred dinars and two pieces of silk.  She rejoined, “As thou willest, but what thinkest thou to do?” And he said, “We will feign ourselves dead and this is the trick.  I will die before thee and lay myself out, and do thou spread over me a silken napkin and loose my turban over me and tie my toes and lay on my stomach a knife and a little salt.[FN#61] Then let down thy hair and betake thyself to thy mistress Zubaydah, tearing thy dress and slapping thy face and crying out.  She will ask thee, ‘What aileth thee?’ and do thou answer her, ’May thy head outlive Abu al-Hasan the Wag; for he is dead.’  She will mourn for me and weep and bid her new treasuress give thee an hundred dinars and a piece of silk[FN#62] and will