their talk from first to last, when the King turned to the Minister and asked, “What shall we do with these two fellows?” “Be patient, O King of the Age,” answered the Wazir, “until they make an end of their talk, after which whatso thou wilt do with them that will they deserve.”  “True indeed,"[FN#233] quoth the ruler, “nevertheless, instead of standing here let us go in to them.”  Now that night the boon-companions had left the door open forgetting to padlock it; so the visitors entered and salam’d to them and they returned the greeting and rose to them and bade them be seated.  Accordingly they sat down and the Sultan said to the Bhang-eater, “O man, fearest thou not aught from the Sovran, thou and thy friend; and are ye sitting up until this hour?” He replied, “The Sultan himself often fareth forth at such untimely time, and as he is a King even so am I, and yonder man is my Basha:  moreover, if the ruler think to make japery of us, we are his equals and more.”  Thereupon the Sultan turned to his Wazir and said by signals, “I purpose to strike off the heads of these fellows;” and said the Minister in the same way, “O King, needs must they have a story, for no man with his wits in his head would have uttered such utterance.  But patience were our bestest plan.”  Then cried the Bhang-eater to the Sultan, “O man, whenever we say a syllable, thou signallest to thine associate.  What is it thou wouldst notify to him and we not understanding it?  By Allah, unless thou sit respectfully in our presence we will bid our Basha strike off thy pate!”—­And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and fell silent and ceased to say her permitted say.  Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, “How sweet is thy story, O sister mine, and how enjoyable and delectable!” Quoth she, “And where is this compared with that I would relate to you on the coming night an the Sovran suffer me to survive?” Now when it was the next night and that was

The Three Hundred and Ninety-fifth Night,

Dunyazad said to her, “Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching of this our latter night!” She replied, “With love and good will!” It hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding, lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deed fair-seeming and worthy celebrating, that when the Sultan heard the Bhang-eater’s words he waxed the more furious and would have arisen and struck off his head; but the Wazir winked at him and whispered, “O King of the Age, I and thou are in disguise and these men imagine that we are of the commons:  so be thou pitiful even as Almighty Allah is pitiful and willeth not the punishment of the sinner.  Furthermore, I conceive that the twain are eaters of Hashish, which drug when swallowed by man, garreth him prattle of whatso he pleaseth and chooseth, making him now a Sultan then a Wazir and then a merchant, the while it seemeth to him that the world is in the hollow