The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night/The Third Old Man’s Story

1753485The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night
Volume 1 — The Third Old Man’s Story
John PayneUnknown

THE THIRD OLD MAN’S STORY.

This mule was my wife. Some time ago, I had occasion to travel and was absent from her a whole year; at the end of which time I returned home by night and found my wife in bed with a black slave, talking and laughing and toying and kissing and dallying. When she saw me, she made haste and took a mug of water and muttered over it; then came up to me and sprinkled me with the water, saying, “Leave this form for that of a dog!” And immediately I became a dog. She drove me from the house, and I went out of the door and ceased not running till I came to a butcher’s shop, where I stopped and began to eat the bones. The butcher took me and carried me into his house; but when his daughter saw me, she veiled her face and said to her father, “How is it that thou bringest a man in to me?” “Where is the man?” asked he; and she replied, “This dog is a man, whose wife has enchanted him, and I can release him.” When her father heard this, he said, “I conjure thee by Allah, O my daughter, release him!” So she took a mug of water and muttered over it, then sprinkled a little of it on me, saying, “Leave this shape and return to thy former one.” And immediately I became a man again and kissed her hand and begged her to enchant my wife as she had enchanted me. So she gave me a little of the water and said to me, “When thou seest her asleep, sprinkle her with this water and repeat the words thou hast heard me use, naming the shape thou wouldst have her take, and she will become whatever thou wishest.” So I took the water and returned home and went in to my wife. I found her asleep and sprinkled the water upon her, saying, “Quit this form for that of a mule.” And she at once became a mule; and this is she whom thou seest before thee, O Sultan and Chief of the Kings of the Jinn!’ Then he said to the mule, ‘Is it true?’ And she nodded her head and made signs as who should say, ‘Yes, indeed: this is my history and what befell me.’”

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