her to a banquet, set before her meat and wine, and she ate and
drank. Now the wine was drugged with Bhang; so she slept and
Zubaydah sent for her Chief Eunuch and putting her in a great
chest, locked it and gave it to him, saying, "Take this chest and
cast it into the river." Thereupon he took it up before him on a
he-mule and set out with it for the sea, but found it unfit to
carry; so, as he passed by the trunk-market, he saw the Shaykh of
the brokers and salesmen and said to him, "Wilt thou sell me this
chest, O uncle?" The broker replied, "Yes, we will do this much."
"But," said the Eunuch, "look thou sell it not except locked;"
and the other, "'Tis well; we will do that also."[FN#289] So he
set down the chest, and they cried it for sale, saying, "Who will
buy this chest for an hundred dinars?"; and behold, up came
Khalif the Fisherman and bought the chest after turning it over
right and left; and there passed between him and the porter that
which hath been before set out. Now as regards Khalif the
Fisherman; he lay down on the chest to sleep, and presently Kut
al-Kulub awoke from her Bhang and finding herself in the chest,
cried out and said, "Alas!" Whereupon Khalif sprang off the
chest-lid and cried out and said, "Ho, Moslems! Come to my help!
There are Ifrits in the chest." So the neighbours awoke from
sleep and said to him, "What mattereth thee, O madman?" Quoth he,
"The chest is full of Ifrits;" and quoth they, "Go to sleep; thou
hast troubled our rest this night may Allah not bless thee! Go in
and sleep, without madness." He ejaculated, "I cannot sleep;" but
they abused him and he went in and lay down once more. And
behold, Kut al-Kulub spoke and said, "Where am I?" Upon which
Khalif fled forth the closet and said, "O neighbours of the
hostelry, come to my aid!" Quoth they, "What hath befallen thee?
Thou troublest the neighbours' rest." "O folk, there be Ifrits in