papoosh sprawling amiddlemost the room.  Then they made sure that the shelf had not been broken except by the violence of that slipper, and they examined it when, behold, the house-master cried, saying, “This be the papoosh of Abu Kasim the Drummer.”  Hereupon he took it and carried it to the Governor who summoned me and set me before him; then he made me responsible for the phials and whatso was therein and for the repairing of the terrace-roof and upraising it again.  And lastly he handed to me the slipper which was exceedingly long and broad and heavy and, being cruel old it showed upwards of an hundred and thirty patches nor was it unknown to any of the villagers.  So I took it and fared forth and, being anangered with the article, I resolved to throw it into some dark hole or out-of-the-way place; —­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 and tasteful is thy tale, O sister mine, and 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 Four Hundred and Second 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 deeds fair-seeming and worthy celebrating, that Abu Kasim the Drummer continued to the Sultan; I resolved to throw it into some dark hole or out-of-the-way place; and presently I came to the watercloset of the Hammam and cast it into the conduit saying, “Now shall none ever see it again; nor shall I be troubled with its foul aspect for the rest of my life.”  Then I returned home and abode there the first day and the second, but about noon on the third a party of the Governor’s men came and seized me and bore me before him; and no sooner did he see me than he cried out, “Throw him!” Accordingly they laid me out at fullest length and gave me an hundred cuts with a scourge[FN#252] which I bore stoutly and presently said, “O my Sultan,[FN#253] what be the cause of this fustigation and wherefor do they oppress me?” Said he, “O man, the conduit[FN#254] of the jakes attached to the Mosque was choked by thy slipper and the flow, unable to pass off, brimmed over, whereby sundry houses belonging to the folk were wrecked."[FN#255] I replied, “O my lord, can a slipper estop the flowing of a water that feedeth a Hammam?” Thereupon the Governor said to me, “Take it away and if any find it in his place and again bring me a complaint thereanent, I will cut off thy head.”  So they haled me away after tossing my slipper to me, and I repaired to the Efendi[FN#256] of the town and said to him, “O our lord, I have a complaint