388 LIEUT.-COL. D. C. PHTLLOTT i 



She took it out and held it to the sun and cast the reflection on to the face of her lover. 

 He looked up and saw the woman scratching her face. 1 The lover understood the signal 

 and added these words — " When suddenly I awoke out of my dream." Those present said 

 to him, " Did all these things happen to you in a dream ? " The man said, " Certainly. 

 Do such things happen in real life ? " 2 The assembly got up and thrashed the cloth- 

 seller. " Effeminate creature ! " said they, " Why did you tell these lies ? Why did 

 you make these false and silly charges against your wife ? " An order was issued for 

 the cloth-seller to be impaled, s and after the legal period of four months and ten days* 

 the woman was married to the stranger, and he had by her, in a few years, five children — 

 two girls and three boys. And now my tale is told. 



IV. 

 STORY OF MUHAMMAD JA'FAR. 



Once upon a time there was a servant. One day his master sent him to a distant 

 village to collect certain dues. Before he reached his destination the sky became 

 overcast ; night and a snow-storm overtook him. He was lost in the midst of the 

 desert and knew not what to do, when suddenly the notes of a cornet struck on his ear 

 coming somewhere from his right. 



He turned and went in the direction of the sound when the rolling of a hand-drum 

 also reached him, and a few steps further on, the outline of a fort loomed in view. The 

 snow fell thicker, and he had lost all trace of his whereabouts. He went to the gate, 

 pulled his horse through it, and found himself in a street ; a few steps further on, he came 

 to a great door. He pushed open the door and pulled in the horse after him. Search- 

 ing in his pocket he produced his pipe and tobacco pouch, and striking a match saw by 

 its light that he was in a large outhouse containing mangers and a store of chopped 

 straw. Thanking God that his horse would not go hungry, he tied it up to a manger 

 and cast before it a quantity of straw. " If," said he to himself, " I go in search of a 

 dinner, some one is certain to come and steal the bit and stirrups. Well, I shan't die 

 of hunger in one night." So saying he mounted the platform of the outhouse, shook 

 his felt to remove the snow, covered himself with it, and putting the horse's nose-bag 

 under his head, fell asleep. A little later he became aware that some one, a woman, had 

 put her head inside the door and had called " Muham Ja'far " three times. Said he to 

 himself, " Muham Ja'far must be the husband, or the brother, or the son of this woman. 

 Certainly she has brought some pilo ' or something of the kind to give him secretly. 



1 Vide page 405, note 3. 



' i.e., 'you had not courage to speak the truth but fabricated these lies to get a divorce.' 



3 The punishment for gazf, or falsely accusing a married woman of adultery, is 80 stripes. 



* Vide page 405, note 4. 



6 Pilo is rice cooked with butter, meat and spices : Chulo is rice only, cooked with butter. 



