Appendix B.

The three untranslated tales in Mr. E. J. W. Gibb’s “Forty
Vezirs.”

The thirty-eighth VEZIR’S story. 
(Page 353 of Mr. Gibb’s translation.)

There was in the city of Cairo a merchant, and one day he bought a slave-girl, and took her to his house.  There was in his house an ape; this the merchant fetched and dragged up to the slave-girl.  He said, “Yield thyself over to this, and I will set thee free.”  The slave-girl did so of necessity, and she conceived by him.  When her time was come she bare a son all of whose members were shaped like those of a man, save that he had a tail like an ape.  The merchant and the slave-girl occupied themselves bringing up this son.  One day, when the son was five or six months old, the merchant filled a large cauldron with milk, and lighted a great fire under it.  When it was boiling, he seized the son and cast him into the cauldron; and the girl began to lament.  The merchant said, “Be silent, make no lamentation; go and be free;” and he gave her some sequins.  Then he turned, and the cauldron had boiled so that not even any bones were left.  The merchant took down the cauldron, and placed seven strainers, one above the other; and he took the scum that had gathered on the liquid in the cauldron and filtered it through the seven strainers, and he took that which was in the last and put it into a bottle.  And the slave-girl bare in her heart bitter hatred against the merchant, and she said in herself, “Even as thou hast burned my liver will I burn thee;” and she began to watch her opportunity. (One day) the merchant said to her, “Make ready some food,” and went out.  So the girl cooked the food, and she mixed some of that poison in the dish.  When the merchant returned she brought the tray and laid it down, and then withdrew into a corner.  The merchant took a spoonful of that food, and as soon as he put it into his mouth, he knew it to be the poison, and he cast the spoon that was in his hand at the girl.  A piece, of the bigness of a pea, of that poisoned food fell from the spoon on the girl’s hand, and it made the place where it fell black.  As for the merchant, he turned all black, and swelled till he became like a blown-out skin, and he died.  But the slave-girl medicined herself and became well; and she kept what remained of the poison and sold it to those who asked for it.

The fortieth VEZIR’S story. 
(Page 366 in Mr. Gibb’s translation.)

There was of old time a tailor, and he had a fair wife.  One day this woman sent her slave-girl to the carder’s to get some cotton teased.  The slave-girl went to the carder’s shop and gave him cotton for a gown to get teased.  The carder while teasing the cotton displayed his yard to the slave-girl.  She blushed and passed to his other side.  As she thus turned round the carder displayed his yard on that side also.  Thus the