of which they heavily complained.  At length we reached a draw-well, but, alas! it had no bucket or cord.  I pitied their situation, and resolved, if possible, to relieve them.  I requested them to give me their turbans, which I tied to each other; but as they were altogether not long enough to reach the water, I fixed one of the turbans round my body, and made them let one down into the well, where I filled a small cup I had with me, which they drew up repeatedly till their thirst was satisfied.  I then desired them to draw me up again, which they attempted; and I had reached nearly the mouth of the well, when I was unfortunately seized with a fit of sneezing; upon which the boys mechanically, as they had been accustomed to do in school, one and all let go their hold, crossed their arms, and exclaimed, “God have mercy upon our venerable tutor!” while I tumbled at once to the bottom of the well, and broke my back.  I cried out from the agony of pain, and the children ran on all sides for help.  At length some charitable passengers drew me out, and placing me upon an ass, carried me home; where I languished for a considerable time, and never could recover my health sufficiently again to attend to my school.  Thus did I suffer for my foolish pride:  for had I not been so tenacious of respect from my scholars, they would not upon my sneezing have let go their hold and broken my back.

When the broken-backed schoolmaster had finished his story, the old man with the wry-mouth thus began: 

Story of the Wry-mouthed Schoolmaster.

I also, O sultan, was a schoolmaster; and so strict with my pupils, that I allowed them no indulgence, but even kept them to their studies frequently after the usual hours.  At length, one more cunning than the rest resolved, in revenge, to play me a trick.  He instructed the lads as they came into school to say to me, “Dear master, how pale you look!” Not feeling myself ill, I, though surprised at their remarks, did not much regard them on the first day; but a second, and so on to a fifth passing, on each of which all the pupils on entrance uttered the same exclamation, I began to think some fatal disorder had seized me, and resolved, by way of prevention, to take physic.  I did so the following morning, and remained in my wife’s apartments; upon which the unlucky lads, clubbing their pittances together to the amount of about a hundred faloose, requested my acceptance of the money as an offering for my recovery; and I was so pleased with the present that I gave them a holiday.  The receipt of cash in so easy a manner was so agreeable to me, that I feigned illness for some days; my pupils made an offering as usual, and were allowed to play.  On the tenth day the cunning urchin who had planned the scheme came into my chamber, as customary, with an offering of faloose.  I happened then to have before me a boiled egg, which, upon seeing him enter, I clapped into my mouth, supposing,