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O thou Veiler,[FN#502] deign to veil me with Thy curtain of

concealment!" So he took him up on his shoulders and, going forth

with him from his house about the latter end of the night,

carried him to the nearest end of the bazar, where he set him up

on his feet against the wall of a shop at the head of a dark

lane, and left him and went away. After a while up came a

Nazarene,[FN#503] the Sultan's broker who, much bemused with

liquor, was purposing for the Hammam bath as his drunkenness

whispered in his ear, "Verily the call to matins[FN#504] is

nigh." He came plodding along and staggering about till he drew

near the Hunchback and squatted down to make water[FN#505] over

against him; when he happened to glance around and saw a man

standing against the wall. Now some person had snatched off the

Christian's turband[FN#506] in the first of the night; so when he

saw the Hunchback hard by he fancied that he also meant to steal

his headdress.