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Are thy wits clean gone?" When Badr al-Din Hasan heard this, he

laughed, [FN#480] and said, "Thou hast spoken truth; but, when I

went out from thee, I forgot myself awhile in the draught-house

and dreamed that I was a cook at Damascus and abode there ten

years; and there came to me a boy who was of the sons of the

great, and with him an Eunuch." Here he passed his hand over his

forehead and, feeling the scar, cried, "By Allah, O my lady, it

must have been true, for he struck my forehead with a stone and

cut it open from eye-brow to eye-brow; and here is the mark: so

it must have been on wake." Then he added, "But perhaps I dreamt

it when we fell asleep, I and thou, in each other's arms, for

meseems it was as though I travelled to Damascus without tarbush

and trousers and set up as a cook there." Then he was perplexed

and considered for awhile, and said, "By Allah, I also fancied

that I dressed a conserve of pomegranate-grains and put too

little pepper in it.