Pagina 589 de 1116

so!"; and a fourth cried, "This youth is mad, is possessed of the

Jinni!" So they clapped hands at him and said to one another,

"Alas, the pity of it for his youth: by Allah a madman! and

madness is no respecter of persons." Then they said to him,

"Collect thy wits and return to thy reason! How couldest thou be

in Bassorah yesterday and Cairo yesternight and withal awake in

Damascus this morning?" But he persisted, "Indeed I was a

bridegroom in Cairo last night." "Belike thou hast been

dreaming," rejoined they, "and sawest all this in thy sleep." So

Hasan took thought for a while and said to them, "By Allah, this

is no dream; nor vision-like doth it seem! I certainly was in

Cairo where they displayed the bride before me, in presence of a

third person, the Hunchback groom who was sitting hard by.