When the officers brought him before the magistrate, he asked him where he had the goods which he carried home last night?  Sir, replied Alnaschar, I am ready to tell you all the truth; but allow me first to have recourse to your clemency, and to beg your promise that nothing shall be done to me.  I give it you, said the magistrate.  Then my brother told him the whole story without disguise, from the time the old woman came into his house to say her prayers, to the time the lady made her escape, after he had killed the black, the Greek slave, and the old woman; and as for what he had carried to his house, he prayed the judge to leave him part of it for the five hundred pieces of gold that he was robbed of.

The judge, without promising any thing, sent his officers to bring all off; and, having put the goods into his own wardrobe, commanded my brother to quit the town immediately, and never to return; for he was afraid, if my brother had staid in the city, he would have found some way to represent this injustice to the caliph.  In the mean time, Alnaschar obeyed without murmuring, and left that town to go to another.  By the way he met with highwaymen, who stripped him naked; and when the ill news was brought to me, I carried him a suit, and brought him in secretly again to the town, where I took the like care of him as I did of his other brothers.

THE STORY OF THE BARBER’S SIXTH BROTHER.

I am now only to tell the story of my sixth brother, called Schacabac, with the hare-lips.  At first he was industrious enough to improve the hundred drams of silver which fell to his share, and became very well to pass; but a reverse of fortune brought him to beg his bread, which he did with a great deal of dexterity.  He studied chiefly to get into great men’s houses by means of their servants and officers, that he might have access to their masters, and obtain their charity.  One day, as he passed by a magnificent house, whose high gate showed a very spacious court, where there was a multitude of servants, he went to one of them, and asked to whom that house belonged.  Good man, replied the servant, whence do you come, that you ask such a question?  Does not all that you see make you understand that it is the palace of a Bermecide? [Footnote:  The Bermecides were, as has been mentioned, a noble family of persia, who settled at Bagdad.] My brother, who very well knew the liberality and generosity of the Bermecides, addressed himself to one of his porters, (for he had more than one,) and prayed him to give him an alms.  Go in, said he; nobody hinders you, and address yourself to the master of the house; he will send you back satisfied.

My brother, who expected no such civility, thanked the porter, and with his permission entered the palace, which was so large, that it took him a considerable time to reach the Bermecide’s apartment.  At last he came to a fine square building, of excellent architecture, and entered by a porch, through which he saw one of the finest gardens, with gravel-walks of several colours, extremely pleasant to the eye.  The lower apartments round this square were most of them open, and shut only with great curtains, to keep out the sun, which were opened again when the heat was over.