am I?" Quoth she, "Thou art the Commander of the Faithful;" and
he said, "Thou liest, O calamity![FN#33] If I be indeed the
Commander of the Faithful, bite my finger." So she came to him
and bit it with her might, and he said to her, "It sufficeth."
Then he said to the chief eunuch, "Who am I?" And he answered,
"Thou art the Commander of the Faithful." So he left him and
turning to a little white slave, said to him, "Bite my ear;" and
he bent down to him and put his ear to his mouth. Now the slave
was young and lacked understanding; so he closed his teeth upon
Aboulhusn's ear with his might, till he came near to sever it;
and he knew not Arabic, so, as often as Aboulhusn said to him,
"It sufficeth," he concluded that he said, "Bite harder," and
redoubled his bite and clenched his teeth upon the ear, whilst
the damsels were diverted from him with hearkening to the
singing-girls, and Aboulhusn cried out for succour from the boy
and the Khalif [well-nigh] lost his senses for laughter.

Then he dealt the boy a cuff and he let go his ear, whereupon
Aboulhusn put off his clothes and abode naked, with his yard and
his arse exposed, and danced among the slave-girls. They bound
his hands and he wantoned among them, what while they [well-nigh]
died of laughing at him and the Khalif swooned away for excess of
laughter. Then he came to himself and going forth to Aboulhusn,
said to him, "Out on thee, O Aboulhusn! Thou slayest me with
laughter." So he turned to him and knowing him, said to him, "By
Allah, it is thou slayest me and slayest my mother and slewest
the sheikhs and the Imam of the Mosque!"

Then the Khalif took him into his especial favour and married him
and bestowed largesse on him and lodged him with himself in the