unable to pass off, brimmed over, whereby sundry houses belonging
to the folk were wrecked."[FN#255] I replied, "O my lord, can a
slipper estop the flowing of a water that feedeth a Hammam?"
Thereupon the Governor said to me, "Take it away and if any find
it in his place and again bring me a complaint thereanent, I will
cut off thy head." So they haled me away after tossing my slipper
to me, and I repaired to the Efendi[FN#256] of the town and said
to him, "O our lord, I have a complaint against this Papoosh
which is not my property nor am I its owner: prithee do thou
write me a deed to such purport between me and the Slipper and
all who pass down this road." The Efendi replied, "O man, how
shall I write thee a deed between thee and thy Papoosh, which is
a senseless thing? Nay, take it thyself and cut it up and cast it
into some place avoided of the folk." Accordingly I seized it and
hacked it with a hatchet into four pieces which I threw down in
the four corners of the city, saying to myself the while, "By
Allah, I shall nevermore in my life hear any further of its
adventures;" and walked away barefoot. But I had thrown one bit
under a bridge that crossed a certain of the small canals; and
the season was the dries, wherefore it collected a heap of sand
which rose thereupon, and raised the pile higher until the
archway was blocked up by a mound. Now when the Nil[FN#257]
flooded and reached that archway the water was dammed up and
ceased running so the townsfolk said, "What may be the matter?
The Nile-inundation hath reached the bridge but cannot pass under
it. Come let us inspect the archway." They did so and presently
discovered the obstacle; to wit, the mound before the arch which
obstructed the waterway; whereupon a party kilted their clothes
and waded into the channel that they might clear it. But when
they came to the mound-base they found my quarter-slipper, and