damsel's own evil temper which made her pretend to be dead, and she
immediately commanded that the damsel should be tortured. First of all
they extended her stark naked on the icy-cold marble pavement--not a
sign of life, not a shiver did she give. Then they held her over a slow
fire on a gridiron--she never moved a muscle. Then they sent and sought
for red ants in the garden among the puspáng-trees and scattered them
all over her body. Yet the girl never once quaked beneath the stings of
the poisonous insects. Finally they thrust sharp needles down to the
very quicks of her nails, and still the damsel did not stir. Then the
Sultana Asseki, full of fury, seized a whip, and lashed away at the
damsel's body till she could lash no more, yet she could not thrash a
soul into the lifeless body."

"By Allah!" cried Halil, smiting the table with his heavy fist at this
point of the narration, "that Sultana deserves to be sewn up in a
leather sack and cast into the Bosphorus."

"Why, 'tis only a tale, you know," said Gül-Bejáze, stroking mockingly
the chin of worthy Halil Patrona, and then she resumed her story. "The
Sultan commanded that Irene should be expelled from the harem, for he
had no desire to see this living corpse anywhere near him, and the
Sultana gave her as a present to the Padishah's nephew, the son of his
own brother.

"The prince was a pale, handsome youth, as those whom women love much
are generally wont to be. He was kept in a remote part of the Seraglio,
for although every joy of life was his, and he was surrounded by wealth,
pomp, and slave-girls, he was never permitted to quit the Seraglio. The
Sultana herself led Irene to him, thinking that the fine eyes of the
handsome youth would be the best talisman against the enchantment