poison I'd ta'en her life.

One day she said to him, "O Ma'aruf, I wish thee to bring me this
night a vermicelli-cake dressed with bees' honey."[FN#5] He
replied, "So Allah Almighty aid me to its price, I will bring it
thee. By Allah, I have no dirhams to-day, but our Lord will make
things easy."[FN#6] Rejoined she,--And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

When it was the Nine Hundred and Ninetieth Night,

She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Ma'aruf
the Cobbler said to his spouse, "By Allah, I have no dirhams
to-day, but our Lord will make things easy to me!" She rejoined,
"I wot naught of these words; look thou come not to me save with
the vermicelli and bees' honey; else will I make thy night black
as thy fortune whenas thou fellest into my hand." Quoth he,
"Allah is bountiful!" and going out with grief scattering itself
from his body, prayed the dawn-prayer and opened his shop. After
which he sat till noon, but no work came to him and his fear of
his wife redoubled. Then he arose and went out perplexed as to
how he should do in the matter of the vermicelli-cake, seeing he
had not even the wherewithal to buy bread. Presently he came to
the shop of the Kunafah-seller and stood before it, whilst his
eyes brimmed with tears. The pastry-cook glanced at him and said,
"O Master Ma'aruf, why dost thou weep? Tell me what hath befallen
thee." So he acquainted him with his case, saying, "My wife would
have me bring her a Kunafah; but I have sat in my shop till past
mid-day and have not gained even the price of bread; wherefore I
am in fear of her." The cook laughed and said, "No harm shall