Then Khelbes used to attend the learned man’s assembly, whilst the other would go in to his wife and abide with her, on such wise as he thought good, till the learned man arose from his session; and when Khelbes saw that he purposed rising, he would speak a word for the lover to hear, whereupon he went forth from Khelbes’s wife, and the latter knew not that calamity was in his own house.  At last the learned man, seeing Khelbes do on this wise every day, began to misdoubt of him, more by token of that which he knew of his character, and suspicion grew upon him; so, one day, he advanced the time of his rising before the wonted hour and hastening up to Khelbes, laid hold of him and said to him, ’By Allah, an thou speak a single syllable, I will do thee a mischief!’ Then he went in to his wife, with Khelbes in his grasp, and behold, she was sitting, as of her wont, nor was there about her aught of suspicious or unseemly.

The learned man bethought him awhile of this, then made for Khelbes’s house, which adjoined his own, still holding the latter; and when they entered, they found the young man lying on the bed with Khelbes’s wife; whereupon quoth he to him, ’O accursed one, the calamity is with thee and in thine own house!’ So Khelbes put away his wife and went forth, fleeing, and returned not to his own land.  This, then,” continued the vizier, “is the consequence of lewdness, for whoso purposeth in himself craft and perfidy, they get possession of him, and had Khelbes conceived of himself that[FN#266] which he conceived of the folk of dishonour and calamity, there had betided him nothing of this.  Nor is this story, rare and extraordinary though it be, more extraordinary or rarer than that of the pious woman whose husband’s brother accused her of lewdness.”

When the king heard this, wonderment gat hold of him and his admiration for the vizier redoubled; so he bade him go to his house and return to him [on the morrow], according to his wont.  Accordingly, the vizier withdrew to his lodging, where he passed the night and the ensuing day.

End of Vol.  I.

Tales from the Arabic, Volume 1
Endnotes

[FN#1] Breslau Text, vol. iv. pp. 134-189, Nights cclxxii.-ccxci.  This is the story familiar to readers of the old “Arabian Nights” as “Abon Hassan, or the Sleeper Awakened” and is the only one of the eleven tales added by Galland to his version of the (incomplete) Ms. of the Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night procured by him from Syria, the Arabic original of which has yet been discovered. (See my “Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night,” Vol.  IX. pp. 264 et seq.) The above title is of course intended to mark the contrast between the everyday (or waking) hours of Aboulhusn and his fantastic life in the Khalif’s palace, supposed by him to have passed in a dream, and may also be rendered “The Sleeper and the Waker.”

[FN#2] i.e.  The Wag.

[FN#3] Always noted for debauchery.