till he came to the Kazi's presence, where he found Fatimah
standing with her arm bound up and her face-veil besmeared with
blood; and she was weeping and wiping away her tears. Quoth the
Kazi, "Ho man, hast thou no fear of Allah the Most High? Why hast
thou beaten this good woman and broken her forearm and knocked
out her tooth and entreated her thus?" And quoth Ma'aruf, "If I
beat her or put out her tooth, sentence me to what thou wilt; but
in truth the case was thus and thus and the neighbours made peace
between me and her." And he told him the story from first to
last. Now this Kazi was a benevolent man; so he brought out to
him a quarter dinar, saying, "O man, take this and get her
Kunafah with bees' honey and do ye make peace, thou and she."
Quoth Ma'aruf, "Give it to her." So she took it and the Kazi made
peace between them, saying, "O wife, obey thy husband; and thou,
O man, deal kindly with her.[FN#12]" Then they left the court,
reconciled at the Kazi's hands, and the woman went one way,
whilst her husband returned by another way to his shop and sat
there, when, behold, the runners came up to him and said, "Give
us our fee." Quoth he, "The Kazi took not of me aught; on the
contrary, he gave me a quarter dinar." But quoth they "'Tis no
concern of ours whether the Kazi took of thee or gave to thee,
and if thou give us not our fee, we will exact it in despite of
thee." And they fell to dragging him about the market; so he sold
his tools and gave them half a dinar, whereupon they let him go
and went away, whilst he put his hand to his cheek and sat
sorrowful, for that he had no tools wherewith to work. Presently,
up came two ill-favoured fellows and said to him, "Come, O man,
and speak with the Kazi; for thy wife hath complained of thee to
him." Said he, "He made peace between us just now." But said
they, "We come from another Kazi, and thy wife hath complained of