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When they saw him in his plight, naked, with standing yard, shorn

of beard and mustachios, with eyebrows dyed red, and cheeks

ruddied with rouge, they shouted and clapped their hands at him,

and set to flogging him with skins upon his bare body till a

swoon came over him. Then they threw him on the back of an ass

and carried him to the Chief of Police. Quoth the Chief, "What is

this?" Quoth they, "This fellow fell suddenly upon us out of the

Wazir's house[FN#649] in this state." So the Prefect gave him an

hundred lashes and then banished him from Baghdad. However I went

out after him and brought him back secretly into the city and

made him a daily allowance for his living: although, were it not

for my generous humour, I could not have put up with the like of

him. Then the Caliph gave ear to

The Barber's Tale of his Third Brother.