صفحة 134 من 1116

Know, O Sultan and head of the Jann, that this mule was my wife.

Now it so happened that I went forth and was absent one whole

year; and when I returned from my journey I came to her by night,

and saw a black slave lying with her on the carpet bed and they

were talking, and dallying, and laughing, and kissing and playing

the close buttock game. When she saw me, she rose and came

hurriedly at me with a gugglet[FN#58] of water; and, muttering

spells over it, she besprinkled me and said, "Come forth from

this thy shape into the shape of a dog;" and I became on the

instant a dog. She drove me out of the house, and I ran through

the doorway nor ceased running until I came to a butcher's stall,

where I stopped and began to eat what bones were there.