said Bedreddin; for I swear to you that I was all yesterday at Balsora.  He had no sooner said these words, than all the people fell into a fit of laughter, and cried out, He is a fool, he is a madman.  There were some, however, who pitied him because of his youth; and one among the company said to him, My son, you must certainly be crazed; you do not consider what you say; how is it possible that a man could yesterday be at Balsora, the same night at Cairo, and next morning at Damascus?  Sure you are asleep still; come, rouse up your spirits.  What I say, answered Bedreddin, is so true, that last night I was married in the city of Cairo.  All those that laughed before could not forbear laughing again when he said so.  Recollect yourself, says the same person that spoke before; you have dreamed all this, and that fancy still possesses your brain.  I am sensible of what I say, answered the young man:  Pray can you tell me how it was possible to go in a dream to Cairo, where I am very certain I was in person, and where my bride was seven times brought before me, each time dressed in a different habit, and where I saw an ugly hump-backed fellow to whom they intended to give her?  Besides, I want to know what is become of my gown, my turban, and the bag of sequins I had at Cairo.  Though he assured them that all these things were matters of fact, yet they could not forbear laughing at him, which put him into such confusion that he knew not well what to think.

After Bedreddin had confidently affirmed all that he said to be true, he rose up to go into the town, and every one that followed him called out, A madman, a fool.  Upon this, some looked out at their windows, some came to their doors, and others joined with those that were about him, calling out as they did, but not knowing for what.  In this perplexity Bedreddin happened to reach a pastry-cook’s shop, and went into it to avoid the rabble.  This pastry-cook had formerly been captain of a troop of Arabian robbers who plundered the caravans; and though he was become a citizen of Damascus, where he behaved himself with decorum, yet he was dreaded by all those who knew him; wherefore, as soon as he came out to the rabble that followed Bedreddin, they dispersed.  The pastry-cook, seeing them all gone, asked him what he was, and who brought him hither?  Bedredclin told him all, not even concealing his birth, nor the death of his father the grand vizier:  He afterwards gave him an account why he left Balsora; how, after he fell asleep the night following upon his father’s tomb, he found himself, when he awaked, at Cairo, where he had married a lady; and, finally, in what amazement he was when he found himself at Damascus, without being able to penetrate into all those wonderful events.