who were then present, made those ladies be placed behind the hanging of the door of the room that was next his bedchamber, and kept by him the three calenders; who, by their respectful behaviour, gave sufficient proof that they were not ignorant before whom they had the honour to appear.  When the ladies were placed, the caliph turned towards them, and said, When I shall acquaint you, that I came last night, disguised in a merchant’s habit, into your house, it will certainly alarm you, and make you fear that you have offended me; and perhaps you believe that I have sent for you to no other end but to show some marks of my resentment:  But be not afraid; you may rest assured that I have forgotten all that has passed, and am very well satisfied with your conduct.  I wish that all the ladies of Bagdad had as much discretion as you have given proof of before me.  I shall always remember the moderation you made use of, after the incivility we had committed.  I was then a merchant of Moussol, but am at present Haroun Alraschid, the seventh caliph of the glorious house of Abbas, who holds the place of our great prophet.  I have only sent for you to know who you are, and to ask for what reason one of you, after severely whipping the two black bitches, did weep with them? and I am no less curious to know why another of you has her bosom full of scars?  Though the caliph pronounced these words very distinctly, so that the three ladies heard them well enough, yet the vizier Giafar did, out of ceremony, repeat them over again.

Zobeide, after the caliph by his discourse encouraged her, satisfied his curiosity in this manner.

The story of Zobeide.

Commander of the faithful, says she, the relation I am about to give to your majesty is one of the strangest that ever was heard.  The two black bitches and myself are sisters by the same father and mother; and I shall acquaint you by what strange accident they came to be metamorphosed.  The two ladies that live with me, and are now here, are also my sisters by the father’s side, but by another mother; she that has the scars on her breast is Amine, the other is Safie, and mine is Zobeide.

After our father’s death, the estate that he left us was equally divided among us; and so soon as those two sisters received their portions, they went from me to live with their mother.  My other two sisters and myself staid with our mother, who was then alive, and, when she died, left each of us a thousand sequins.  As soon as we received our portions, the two elder (for I am the youngest) being married, followed their husbands, and left me alone.  Some time after, my eldest sister’s husband sold all that he had; and with that money, and my sister’s portion, they both went into Africa, where her husband, by riotous living and debauchery, spent all; when, finding himself reduced to poverty, he found a pretext for divorcing my sister, and put her away.  She returned to this city, and having suffered incredible