wife, his life is not worth prolonging. Now I have some fifty
Dame Partlets; and I please this and provoke that and starve one
and stuff another; and through my good governance they are all
well under my control. This our master pretendeth to wit and
wisdom, and he hath but one wife, and yet knoweth not how to
manage her." Asked the Dog, "What then, O Cock, should the master
do to win clear of his strait?" "He should arise forthright,"
answered the Cock, "and take some twigs from yon mulberry tree
and give her a regular back basting and rib roasting till she
cry:--I repent, O my lord! I will never ask thee a question as
long as I live! Then let him beat her once more and soundly, and
when he shall have done this he shall sleep free from care and
enjoy life. But this master of ours owns neither sense nor
judgment." "Now, daughter Shahrazad," continued the Wazir, "I
will do to thee as did that husband to that wife." Said
Shahrazad, "And what did he do?" He replied, "When the merchant
heard the wise words spoken by his Cock to his Dog, he arose in
haste and sought his wife's chamber, after cutting for her some
mulberry twigs and hiding them there; and then he called to her,
"Come into the closet that I may tell thee the secret while no
one seeth me and then die." She entered with him and he locked
the door and came down upon her with so sound a beating of back
and shoulders, ribs, arms and legs, saying the while, "Wilt thou
ever be asking questions about what concerneth thee not?" that
she was well nigh senseless. Presently she cried out, "I am of
the repentant! By Allah, I will ask thee no more questions, and
indeed I repent sincerely and wholesomely." Then she kissed his
hand and feet and he led her out of the room submissive as a wife
should be. Her parents and all the company rejoiced and sadness
and mourn ing were changed into joy and gladness. Thus the