ity of the
Judge. He allowed the miser to aver, as loudly as he pleased, that he
was burying his slippers, and had found no treasure, but at the same
time demanded the treasure he had found. Casem talked to no purpose.
Wearied out at last with his own asseverations, he paid the money, and
departed, cursing the very souls of the pantofles.

Determined to get rid of these unhappy moveables, our hero walked to
some distance from the city, and threw them into a reservoir, hoping
he had now fairly seen the last of them; but the evil genii, not yet
tired of tormenting him, guided the pantofles precisely to the mouth
of the conduit. From this point they were carried along into the city,
and, sticking at the mouth of the aqueduct, they stopped it up, and
prevented the water from flowing into the basin. The overseers of the
city fountains, seeing that the water had stopped, immediately set
about repairing the damage, and at length dragged into the face of day
the old reprobate slippers, which they immediately took to the Cadi,
complaining loudly of the damage they had caused.

The unfortunate proprietor was now condemned to pay a fine still
heavier than before; but far was he from having the luck of seeing his
chattels detained. The Cadi, having delivered the sentence, said, like
a conscientious magistrate, that he had no power of retaining other
peoples' property, upon which the slippers, with much solemnity, were
faithfully returned to their distracted master. He carried them home
with him, meditating as he went--and as well as he was able to
meditate--how he should destroy them; at length he determined upon
committing them to the flames. He accordingly tried to do so, but
they were too wet; so he put them on a terrace to dry. But the evil
genii, as aforesaid, had reserved a still more cruel accident than any
before; for a dog, whose master lived hard by, seeing these strange
wild fowl of a pair of shoes, jumped from one terrace to the other,
till he came to the miser's, and began to play with one of them: in
his sport he dropped it over the balustrade, and it fell, heavy with
hobnails and the accumulated dirt of years, on the tender head of an
infant, and killed him on the spot. The parents went straight to the
Cadi, and complained that they had found their child dead, and Casem's
pantofle lying by it, upon which the Judge condemned him to pay a very
heavy fine.

Casem returned home, and taking the pantofles, went back to