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By Allah, I must have slept in the numerocent and have seen the

whole of this in a dream; but how long was that dream!" "Allah

upon thee," said Sitt al-Husn, "and what more sawest thou?" So he

related all to her; and presently said, "By Allah had I not woke

up they would have nailed me to a cross of wood!" "Wherefore?"

asked she; and he answered, "For putting too little pepper in the

conserve of pomegranate-grains, and meseemed they demolished my

shop and dashed to pieces my pots and pans, destroyed all my

stuff and put me in a box; they then sent for the carpenter to

fashion a cross for me and would have crucified me thereon. Now

Alham-dolillah!