ow
what to trust." He then uncovered his shoulders, and shewed the
ladies the livid weals of the blows he had received. "Look," said
he, "judge whether these strokes could come to me in a dream, or
when I was asleep. For my part, I can affirm, that they were real
blows; I feel the smart of them yet, and that is a testimonial
there is no room to doubt. Now if I received these strokes in my
sleep, it is the most extraordinary thing in the world, and
surpasses my comprehension."

In this uncertainty Abou Hassan called to one of the officers
that stood near him: "Come hither," said he, "and bite the tip of
my ear, that I may know whether I am asleep or awake." The
officer obeyed, and bit so hard, that he made him cry out loudly
with the pain; the music struck up at the same time, and the
officers and ladies all began to sing, dance, and skip about Abou
Hassan, and made such a noise, that he was in a perfect ecstasy,
and played a thousand ridiculous pranks. He threw off his
caliph's habit, and his turban, jumped up in his shirt and
drawers, and taking hold of two of the ladies' hands, began
singing, jumping and cutting capers, so that the caliph could not
contain himself, but burst into such violent laughter, that he
fell backwards, and was heard above the noise of all the
musicians. He was so long before he could check himself, that it
had like to have been fatal. At last he got up, opened the
lattice, and putting out his head, cried "Abou Hassan, Abou
Hassan, have you a mind to kill me with laughing?"

As soon as the caliph's voice was heard, every body was silent,
and Abou Hassan, among the rest, who, turning his head to see
from whence the voice came, knew the caliph, and in him
recognised the Moussul merchant, but was not in the least
daunted; on the contrary he became convinced that he was awake,
and that all that had happened to him had been real, and not a
dream. He entered into the caliph's pleasantry. "Ha! ha!" said
he, looking at him with good assurance, "you are a merchant of
Moussul, and complain that I would kill you; you have been the
occasion of my using my mother so ill, and of my being sent to a
mad-house. It was you who treated the imaum and the four scheiks
in the manner they were used, and not me; I wash my hands of it.
It is you who have been the cause of all my disorders and
sufferings: in short, you are the aggressor, and I the injured
person."

"Indeed, you are in the right, Abou Hassan," answ