and laughed alternately and at last she said:--O my father, hath
mine honour become so cheap to thee that thou bringest in to me
strange men? I asked her:--Where be these strange men and why
wast thou laughing, and crying?; and she answered, Of a truth
this calf which is with thee is the son of our master, the
merchant; but he is ensorcelled by his stepdame who bewitched
both him and his mother: such is the cause of my laughing; now
the reason of his weeping is his mother, for that his father slew
her unawares. Then I marvelled at this with exceeding marvel and
hardly made sure that day had dawned before I came to tell thee."
When I heard, O Jinni, my herdsman's words, I went out with him,
and I was drunken without wine, from the excess of joy and
gladness which came upon me, until I reached his house. There his
daughter welcomed me and kissed my hand, and forthwith the calf
came and fawned upon me as before. Quoth I to the herdsman's
daughter, "Is this true that thou sayest of this calf?" Quoth
she, "Yea, O my master, he is thy son, the very core of thy
heart." I rejoiced and said to her, "O maiden, if thou wilt
release him thine shall be whatever cattle and property of mine
are under thy father's hand." She smiled and answered, "O my
master, I have no greed for the goods nor will I take them save
on two conditions; the first that thou marry me to thy son and
the second that I may bewitch her who bewitched him and imprison
her, otherwise I cannot be safe from her malice and
malpractices." Now when I heard, O Jinni, these, the words of the
herdsman's daughter, I replied, "Beside what thou askest all the
cattle and the house hold stuff in thy father's charge are thine
and, as for the daughter of my uncle, her blood is lawful to
thee." When I had spoken, she took a cup and filled it with
water: then she recited a spell over it and sprinkled it upon the