for the cutting off of thy hands." He replied, "To hear is to
obey;" and took up the box and went with it to the market-street
where he said to the brokers, "Cry for sale this coffer at an
hundred dinars and if any attempt to open it, open it not to any
by any manner of means." So they took their station and made
auction of it for an hundred gold pieces, when by the decree of
Destiny the Bhang-eater passed down the street exulting in his
hundred dinars which he had found in the crock while levelling
the wall belonging to the woman. Thereupon he came up and having
paid the price required carried off his coffer saying in his
mind, "My luck is my livelihood." After this he went to his own
cell and opened it and found there the handmaid in condition as
though drunken with wine. Such is the history of that concubine
Kut al-Kulub and she fell not into the hand of the Bhang-eater
save by the wile and guile of the Sultan's cousin-wife. But when
she recovered from her fainting fit and gazed around and
understood what had befallen her she concealed her secret and
said to the man, "Verily this thy cell becometh us not;" and, as
she had somewhat of gold pieces with her and a collar of jewels
around her neck worth a thousand dinars, she brought out for him
some money and sent him forth to hire for them a house in the
middle of the quarter beffiting great folk and when this was done
she had herself transported thither. Then she would give him
every day spending-money to buy whatso she ever required and she
would cook the delicatest dishes fit for the eating of the Kings
wherewith she fed herself and her owner. This continued for
twenty days when suddenly the Sultan returned from his hunting
party and as soon as he entered his palace he asked for Kut
al-Kulub.--And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and
fell silent and ceased to say her permitted say. Then quoth her