89
Night xi.When the lady heard this, she laughed, in spite of her anger, and coming up to the guests, said to them, ‘Tell me who you are, for ye have but a little while to live, and were you not men of rank and consideration, you had never dared to act thus.’ Then the Khalif said to Jaafer, ‘Out on thee! Tell her who we are, or we shall be slain in a mistake, and speak her fair, ere an abomination befall us.’ ‘It were only a part of thy deserts,’ replied Jaafer. Whereupon the Khalif cried out at him in anger and said, ‘There is a time to jest and a time to be serious.’ Then the lady said to the Calenders, ‘Are ye brothers?’ ‘Not so,’ answered they; ‘we are only poor men and strangers.’ And she said to one of them, ‘Wast thou born blind of one eye?’ ‘No, by Allah!’ replied he; ‘but there hangs a rare story by the loss of my eye, a story which, were it graven with needles on the corners of the eye, would serve as a lesson to those that can profit by example.’ She questioned the two other Calenders, and they made a like reply, saying, ‘By Allah! O our mistress, each one of us comes from a different country and is the son of a king and a sovereign prince ruling over lands and subjects.’ Then she turned to the others and said to them, ‘Let each of you come forward in turn and tell us his history and the manner of his coming hither and after go about his business; but whoso refuses, I will cut off his head.’ The first to come forward was the porter, who said, ‘O my lady, I am a porter. This lady, the cateress, hired me and took me first to the vintner’s, then to the butcher’s, from the butcher’s to the fruiterer’s, from the fruiterer’s to the grocer’s, from the grocer’s to the greengrocer’s, from the greengrocer’s to the confectioner’s and the druggist’s, and thence to this place, where there happened to me with you what happened. This is my story; and peace be on thee!’ At this the lady laughed and said to him, ‘Begone about thy business.’ But he said, ‘By Allah, I will not budge
