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said, stopping before the bench where he was sitting. “I want the most beautiful dress you have for sale.” “For your daughter,” said he. “No, for my son.”

“He is going to be married, then,” remarked the merchant. “Alas! no,” said the woman plaintively, “but he is in love with a young woman recently married to another man, and she asks a rich dress as the price of her favour.” The merchant, astonished at the confession, said, “ A respectable old woman like you should not countenance such wickedness.” “Ah, my lord,” she moaned, “he has threatened to beat me unless I do his will.” “Well,” said he, “here is the dress, but the price is five hundred dinars, and after what you have told me, my conscience will not allow me to sell it at a lower price.” After a deal of haggling, he accepted two hundred dinars, and the old woman took the dress and went her way.

Iblis, who witnessed the transaction, exclaimed, “O foolish woman, you have harmed no one but yourself by paying two hundred dindrs for a dress that is not worth half that amount.” ‘ Wait and see,” was the reply.

The old woman went home again, and changed her apparel for that of a derwisheh, throwing a green veil over her head and hanging a great rosary with ninety-nine beads around her neck. It was noon when she again set out, taking with her the dress she had just bought, and went to the private house of the merchant from whom she had bought it. She arrived just as the muezzin of a neighbouring mosque was calling to prayer. She knocked, and, the door