386 LIEUT.-COL. D. C. PHILLOTT : 



this bundle for me to my house." Now this woman was the wife of the owner of the 

 shop. The two quickly reached the woman's house. There they spread a feast. 1 

 They were thus engaged when the shop-keeper came and knocked at the door. They 

 skipped apart and the woman quickly rolled the man up in some matting and put him 

 in an adjoining room. The owner entered and came into the guest-chamber. He saw 

 that his wife looked disturbed and said, " What has happened to you ? " " Nothing," 

 she said, " I'm just worried about house matters." The man smoked and went out. 

 The stranger then came out of the matting and made up for deferred enjoyment. It 

 was settled that the woman should give him a hundred tumans and a suit of fine clothes. 

 The man went off and at last found his way to the shop of the cloth merchant, and 

 greeted him and said, " You took my money ; well, God has given me money. I have 

 arranged to go every day and visit such and such a woman who lives in such and such a 

 quarter and get a hundred tumans and a suit of clothes." The merchant said. " Oh you ! 

 if you go to-morrow, will you take me too ? " The man replied, " Yes, certainly I will ; 

 I'm no niggard." The next day arrived. The man came and passed by the shop door 

 of the cloth-seller and said, " Come along ; get up and let us go there." Saying this, 

 he went on ahead. By the time the merchant had closed his shop, the lover of the 

 woman had reached her house. Just as he was greeting her, the owner arrived and 

 knocked. Again the woman rolled her lover up in the bedding. The husband came in, 

 but though he searched everywhere he failed to find his wife's lover. Much disturbed 

 he went out of the house. The lover came out of the bedding and had a good time. 

 Again the woman gave her lover a hundred tumans and sent him away. The man came 

 to the shop and said to the cloth-seller, " Why did you stay away ? I went to the house 

 of the lady. Her cuckold of a husband came but did not see me there." The cloth- 

 seller adjured him saying, " You must swear to take me with you to-morrow when you 

 go." To-morrow came. The man came near the shop, and made a sign for the shop- 

 keeper to get up and accompany him. Having done this he went on ahead. He entered 

 the house and saw that his mistress had just come out of the tank. 2 While they 

 were conjugating the verb amo, amas, the husband arrived and banged the knocker on 

 the door. 3 The woman jumped up and rolling and pushing her lover crammed him into 

 the milksafe and hauled it up.* Her husband entered. The woman got him to sit down 

 exactly underneath the milksafe and then sat by his side. She saw that part of the per- 

 son of her lover was visible from underneath the milksafe and wished to make him 

 conceal himself better, so she took up a tambourine from the niche (shelf) and began to 

 sing this song to her husband :— * * * * * * * * 5 Accord- 

 ingly the man began to move, when the cord of the safe snapped and down he 

 came on the husband's head. The woman jumped up in great concern and 

 closed her husband's eyes with kisses and fondlings, while her lover gently crawled 



i Majlis chidan ; there is always an idea of wine-drinking in such expressions. 



2 i e., the tank with a fountain found in the courtyard of most Persian houses. 



5 The street doors of many Persian houses have knockers 



4 The milksafe is suspended from a hook in the ceiling and pulled up, by a cord, out of the reach of cats. 



* These lines are nonsense. 



