I continued thus ten days, without seeing any body but an old female slave that brought me victuals.  I asked her what was become of the favourite lady.  “She is sick,” said the old woman; “she is sick of the poisoned smell with which you infected her.  Why did you not take care to wash your hands after eating of that cursed dish?” “Is it possible,” thought I, “that these ladies can be so nice, and so vindictive for such a trifling fault!” I loved my wife notwithstanding all her cruelty, and could not help pitying her.

One day the old woman told me my spouse was recovered, and gone to bathe, and would come to see me the next day.  “So,” said she, “I would have you call up your patience, and endeavour to accommodate yourself to her humour.  For she is in other respects a woman of good sense and discretion, and beloved by all the ladies about the court of our respected mistress Zobeide.”

My wife accordingly came on the following evening, and accosted me thus:  “You perceive that I must possess much tenderness to you, after the affront you have offered me:  but still I cannot be reconciled till I have punished you according to your demerit, in not washing your hands after eating of the garlic dish.”  She then called the ladies, who, by her order, threw me upon the ground; and after binding me fast, she had the barbarity to cut off my thumbs and great toes herself, with a razor.  One of the ladies applied a certain root to staunch the blood; but by bleeding and by the pain, I swooned away.

When I came to myself, they gave me wine to drink, to recruit my strength.  “Ah! madam,” said I to my wife, “if ever I again eat of a dish with garlic in it, I solemnly swear to wash my hands a hundred and twenty times with alkali, with ashes, and with soap.”  “Well,” replied she, “upon that condition I am willing to forget what is past, and live with you as my husband.”

“This,” continued the Bagdad merchant, addressing himself to the company, “is the reason why I refused to eat of the dish seasoned with what is now on the table.”

The ladies applied to my wounds not only the root I mentioned, but likewise some balsam of Mecca, which they were well assured was not adulterated, because they had it out of the caliph’s own dispensatory.  By virtue of that admirable balsam, I was in a few days perfectly cured, and my wife and I lived together as agreeably as if I had never eaten of the garlic dish.  But having been all my lifetime used to enjoy my liberty, I grew weary of being confined to the caliph’s palace; yet I said nothing to my wife on the subject, for fear of displeasing her.  However, she suspected my feelings; and eagerly wished for liberty herself, for it was gratitude alone that made her continue with Zobeide.  She represented to her mistress in such lively terms the constraint I was under, in not living in the city with people of my own rank, as I had always done, that the good princess chose rather to deprive herself of the pleasure of having her favourite about her than not to grant what we both equally desired.