what hath come out for me therein? Hide naught thereof."--And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.

When it was the Eight Hundred and Forty-second Night,

She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when
Khalifah the Fisherman took up one of the papers and handed it to
the Caliph he said, "O piper, what have come out to me therein?
Hide naught thereof." So Al-Rashid received it and passed it on
to Ja'afar and said to him, "Read what is therein." He looked at
it and said, "There is no Majesty there is no Might save in
Allah, the Glorious, the Great!" Said the Caliph, "Good news,
[FN#243] O Ja'afar? What seest thou therein?" Answered the
Wazir, "O Commander of the Faithful, there came up from the
paper, 'Let the Fisherman receive an hundred blows with a
stick.'" So the Caliph commanded to beat the Fisherman and they
gave him an hundred sticks: after which he arose, saying, "Allah
damn this, O Bran-belly! Are jail and sticks part of the game?"
Then said Ja'afar, "O Commander of the Faithful, this poor devil
is come to the river, and how shall he go away thirsting? We
hope that among the alms-deeds of the Commander of the Faithful,
he may have leave to take another paper, so haply somewhat may
come out wherewithal he may succor his poverty." Said the Caliph,
"By Allah, O Ja'afar, if he take another paper and death be
written therein, I will assuredly kill him, and thou wilt be the
cause." Answered Ja'afar, "If he die he will be at rest." But
Khalifah the Fisherman said to him, "Allah ne'er gladden thee
with good news! Have I made Baghdad strait upon you, that ye
seek to slay me?" Quoth Ja'afar, "Take thee a paper and crave