make her submit, but
felt reluctant to be unkind to her. Besides, I had an instinct that
gentle means had the best chance of success; so, a little soothed, I
turned towards home, which I reached about the hour of dinner.

As soon as I appeared, Amina ordered dinner to be served, and we sat
down together. As usual, she persisted in only picking a few grains of
rice, and I resolved to speak to her at once of what lay so heavily on
my heart.

"Amina," I said, as quietly as possible, "you must have guessed the
surprise I felt, when the day after our marriage you declined to eat
anything but a few morsels of rice, and altogether behaved in such a
manner that most husbands would have been deeply wounded. However I
had patience with you, and only tried to tempt your appetite by the
choicest dishes I could invent, but all to no purpose. Still, Amina,
it seems to me that there be some among them as sweet to the taste as
the flesh of a corpse?"

I had no sooner uttered these words than Amina, who instantly
understood that I had followed her to the grave-yard, was seized with a
passion beyond any that I have ever witnessed. Her face became purple,
her eyes looked as if they would start from her head, and she
positively foamed with rage.

I watched her with terror, wondering what would happen next, but little
thinking what would be the end of her fury. She seized a vessel of
water that stood at hand, and plunging her hand in it, murmured some
words I failed to catch. Then, sprinkling it on my face, she cried
madly:

"Wretch, receive the reward of your prying, and become a dog."

The words were not out of her mouth when, without feeling conscious
that any change was passing over me, I suddenly knew that I had ceased
to be a man. In the greatness of the shock and surprise--for I had no
idea that Amina was a magician--I never dreamed of running away, and
stood rooted to the spot, while Amina grasped a stick and began to beat
me. Indeed her blows were so heavy, that I only wonder they did not
kill me at once. However they succeeded in rousing me from my stupor,
and I dashed into the court-yard, followed closely by Amina, who made
frantic dives at me, which I was not quick enough to dodge. At last
she got tired of pursuing me, or else a new trick entered into her
head, which would give me speedy and painful death; she opened the gate
leading into the street, intending to crush me as I passed through.
Dog though I was