and of deeds fair-seeming and worthy celebrating, that the
Schoolmaster said to himself, "If the Monitor see thee eating the
egg now in thy hand he will cut off the supplies and assert thee
to be sound." So (continued he) I crammed the egg into my chops
and clapped my jaws together. Hereupon the lad turned to me and
cried, "O my lord, thy cheek is much swollen;" and I, "'Tis only
an imposthume." But he drew a whittle[FN#140] forth his sleeve
and coming up to me seized my cheek and slit it, when the egg
fell out and he said, "O my lord, this it was did the harm and
now 'tis passed away from thee." Such was the cause of the
splitting of my mouth, O our lord the Sultan. Now had I cast away
greed of gain and eaten the egg in the Monitor's presence, what
could have been the ill result? But all this was of the weakness
of my wit; for also had I dismissed the boys every day about
mid-afternoon, I should have gained naught nor lost aught
thereby. However the Dealer of Destiny is self-existent, and this
is my case. Then the Sultan turned to the Wazir and laughed and
said, "The fact is that whoso schooleth boys is weak of wit;" and
said the other, "O King of the Age, all pedagogues lack
perceptives and reflectives; nor can they become legal witnesses
before the Kazi because verily they credit the words of little
children without evidence of the speech being or factual or
false. So their reward in the world to come must be
abounding!"[FN#141] Then the Sultan asked the limping man,
saying, "And thou, the other, what lamed thee?" So he began to
tell