into the Harem and lay down therein when the Monitor, having
collected from his school-fellows some hundred-and-eighty
Nusfs,[FN#138] came in to me and cried, "Take this, O our lord,
and expend the money upon thy health." Thereupon I said to
myself, "Ho, Such-an-one! every Thursday[FN#139] thou dost not
collect sixty Faddahs from the boys," and I cried to him, "Go,
let them forth for a holiday." So he went and dismissed them from
school to the playground. On the next day he collected as much as
on the first and came in to me and said, "Expend these moneys, O
our lord, upon thy health." He did the same on the third day and
the fourth, making the boys contribute much coin and presenting
it to me; and on such wise he continued till the tenth day, when
he brought the money as was his wont. At that time I happened to
hold in my hand a boiled egg which I purposed eating, but on
sighting him I said in myself, "An he see thee feeding he will
cut off the supplies." So I crammed the egg into my chops--And
Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and fell silent and
ceased to say her permitted say. Then quoth her sister Dunyazad,
"How sweet is thy story, O sister mine, and how enjoyable and
delectable!" Quoth she, "And where is this compared with that I
would relate to you on the coming night, an the Sovran suffer me
to survive?" Now when it was the next night and that was

The Three Hundred and Sixty-fourth Night,

Dunyazad said to her, "Allah, upon thee, O my sister, an thou be
other than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short
the watching of this our latter night!" She replied, "With love
and good will!" It hath reached me, O auspicious King, the
director, the right-guiding, lord of the rede which is benefiting