Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/388

wife. When he arrived there, he found means to accomlihsh his object, one of the wife's neighbours being his accomplice for the reward of one thousand pieces of gold. She purchased a large chest, hid the toll-keeper in it, and giving a likely pretext, begged the merchant's wife to take charge of the chest and to keep it in a very safe place in the house. The unsuspecting wife consented, and placed the chest in her bed-chamber. Night came, and as the wife was retiring into her bed, the toll-keeper perceived through a hole in the chest that she had a mole on her right leg. As the wife lay sleeping the toll-keeper endeavoured three times to approach her bed, but three times a mysterious blast of wind prevented him from carrying out his evil intention. Thus he had to content himself with taking a watch, a necklet of pearls and a bracelet of gold which he found in the chamber, and he fled. On his return to Constantinople he sought the husband and the Cadi, and declared that he had seduced the wife of the former. As first proof, he produced the stolen watch, but the merchant merely remarked that these watches are often alike, and that perhaps it was not his wife's. Then the toll-keeper produced the necklet and bracelet. But the merchant repeated his former remark^ and was by no means convinced of his wife's infidelity. "If you place no faith in any of these tokens," said the toll-keeper, "will you then believe me if I tell you that your wife has a mole on her right leg?" This was convincing proof, and the merchant admitted that he had lost his wager. He handed over all his merchandise to the toll-keeper and was left penniless. His sole reproach to his wife was a letter containing merely these words: "What hast thou done, poor little woman, for the love of God?" When the wife received this letter, she disguised herself as a young squire and departed for Constantinople. She had great difficulty in finding her husband, but succeeded in the end. During their first meeting, the husband, who failed to recognise her in her