A month after our marriage, my wife came into my room with several eunuchs, each carrying a bag of silver.  When the eunuchs were gone; “You never told me,” said she, “that you were uneasy in being confined to court; but I perceived it, and have happily found means to make you contented.  My mistress Zobeide gives us permission to quit the palace; and here are fifty thousand sequins, of which she has made us a present, in order to enable us to live comfortably in the city.  Take ten thousand of them, and go and buy us a house.”

I quickly found a house for the money, and after furnishing it richly, we went to reside in it, kept a great many slaves of both sexes, and made a good figure.  We thus began to live in a very agreeable manner:  but my felicity was of short continuance; for at the end of a year my wife fell sick and died.

I might have married again, and lived honourably at Bagdad; but curiosity to see the world put me upon another plan.  I sold my house, and after purchasing several kinds of merchandize, went with a caravan to Persia; from Persia I travelled to Samarcand, and from thence to this city.

“This,” said the purveyor to the sultan of Casgar, “is the story that the Bagdad merchant related in a company where I was yesterday.”  “This story,” said the sultan, “has something in it extraordinary; but it does not come near that of the little hunch-back.”  The Jewish physician prostrated himself before the sultan’s throne, and addressed the prince in the following manner:  “Sir, if you will be so good as to hear me, I flatter myself you will be pleased with a story I have to tell you.”  “Well spoken,” said the sultan; “but if it be not more surprising than that of little hunch-back, you must not expect to live.”

The Jewish physician, finding the sultan of Casgar disposed to hear him, gave the following relation.

The Story told by the Jewish Physician.

When I was studying physic at Damascus, and was just beginning to practise that noble profession with some reputation, a slave called me to see a patient in the governor of the city’s family.  Accordingly I went, and was conducted into a room, where I found a very handsome young man, much dejected by his disorder.  I saluted him, and sat down by him; but he made no return to my compliments, only a sign with his eyes that he heard me, and thanked me.  “Pray, sir,” said I, “give me your hand, that I may feel your pulse.”  But instead of stretching out his right, he gave me his left hand, at which I was extremely surprised.  However, I felt his pulse, wrote him a prescription, and took leave.

I continued my visits for nine days, and every time I felt his pulse, he still gave me his left hand.  On the tenth day he seemed to be so far recovered, that I only deemed it necessary to prescribe bathing to him.  The governor of Damascus, who was by, in testimony of his satisfaction with my service, invested me with a very rich robe, saying, he had appointed me a physician of the city hospital, and physician in ordinary to his house, where I might eat at his table when I pleased.