SOME CURRENT PERSIAN TALES. 381 



the Police seized the head, and gave him a sounding box on the ear, saying, " Bastard ! 

 do you take people's sovereigns and beat them too?" He then turned to Scald- 

 head and said, " As to what you have eaten, don't pay for it ; consider it an exchange 

 for the beating you got. Here is your sovereign ; take it and be off." Scald-head 

 seized the money and disappeared from view. He came to his companions and casting 

 down the sovereign exclaimed, " Ah, you sons of dogs ! ' here are my earnings. To- 

 morrow it will be your turn : you must then go and display your cunning." 



The next day the lot fell on the opium-smoker, so he agreed to go off and ( make ' The Adven- 

 something. He rose early and exclaimed, " O God ! what cheatery can I devise to get Opium- 

 hold of some money so that my companions may not abuse me ? ' ' Casting his cloak smoker - 

 over one shoulder he went out and wandered from street to street, till at length he met 

 a woman who said to him, " Man ! are you not a stranger hereabouts ? " He said, " Yes, 

 sister ; I am a stranger ; I do not know my way about." She said, " Will you come with 

 me to the house of the Qazl and give me a divorce ? 8 I will pay you ten tumans." He 

 said, " Willingly, sister, come along ; you go ahead, I will follow." To earn the money 

 he went with the woman to the QazVs house. When he entered he saw a venerable 

 Qazl with a thick beard and an enormous turban seated reading to himself. The opium- 

 smoker greeted him and said, " Oh Qazl ! this is my wife. I don't want her. Grant me 

 a divorce." The Qazl said, " Oh man ! why art thou divorcing this woman ? " He re- 

 plied, " This wife is no use to me. Without permission she gads about, and a wife that 

 gads about without the permission of her husband is of no use to him." The Qazl saw 

 the matter admitted of no alternative, so h.2 began to read the formula of divorce. When 

 the divorce was complete, the woman called the man aside and produced an infant from 

 her bosom ' and said, " Here, hold it, till I come outside and pay you your money." The 

 opium-smoker took the baby in his arms and went out to the corner of the street, and 

 stood there waiting for the woman. When he saw that the woman did not turn up to 

 take her child, he went back to the house of the Qazl and said, " Oh Qazl ! where has 

 the woman gone whom I divorced?" The Qazl replied, "Fellow! you divorced her. 

 How do I know what's become of her ? You know where she lives : go and find her." 



The child is now in the arms of the opium-smoker. He is hungry, the child is 

 hungry ; he wanders from street to street. At one time he says to it, " Who is your 

 father ? " at another, ' ' Where is your mother gone that you should have fallen to my 

 lot ? " At last he decided to leave the infant in a quiet corner and to make off. He 

 came to a dilapidated mosque. By chance someone had, only the day before, left a 

 foundling in this spot, and the attendant of the mosque was consequently on the watch. 

 He saw someone approach very stealthily, take a child from under his cloak, place it 

 on the ground, and hurry away. The servant ran after him calling out, " Oh son of a 

 burnt-father ! whence are you bringing these fatherless foundlings to foist on us ? " He 

 seized him, gave him a sound thrashing and then put in his arms both the infants, i.e., 



1 Lutis often playfully address each other as Babd-sag, Pidar-sag, etc. No offence is meant. 



2 i.e., by his personating the husband the woman could get a written deed of divorce that would enable her to marry again. 



3 Women, when they go out, always wear a chddar, and this would completely conceal the infant. 



