on me, it will be at thy peril,"
exclaimed Sarah, her eyes flashing angrily.

"Pshaw!" he cried, losing patience, and he raised his hand.

This time the cudgel of the spirit invisible to Pharaoh did not strike
him: it came down gently and rested lightly on the king's
out-stretched arm. And Pharaoh could not move it. He grew pale and
trembled.

"Art thou a witch?" he gasped, at last.

Sarah was so angry when she heard this insult that she flashed a
signal with her eyes to the spirit, and the latter plied his cudgel
lustily about the king's head and shoulders, making the monarch break
out in most unkingly howls of pain.

"Thy pardon, thy pardon, I crave," he managed to scream. "I mean not
what I said. I am ill--very ill. My body aches. My arm is paralyzed."

The cudgeling ceased and Pharaoh was able to move his arm. He writhed
in agony, for he was bruised all over. He rushed hastily away, saying
he would return on the morrow. Sarah found herself locked in, but she
was not again disturbed.

Pharaoh, however, had further adventures. The spirit was in merry mood
and had a night's entertainment at the king's expense. No sooner did
the king lie down upon his bed than the spirit tilted it and sent him
sprawling on the floor. Whenever Pharaoh tried to lie down the same
thing happened. He went from one room to another, but all efforts at
rest were unavailing. Every bed rejected him and every chair and
couch did the same, although when he commanded others to lie down they
did so quite comfortably. He tried lying down with one of his
attendants, but while the latter was able to remain undisturbed,
Pharaoh found himself bodily lifted, stood upon his head, spun around
and then rolled over on the ground.

His physicians could provide no remedy, his magicians--hastily
summoned from their own slumbers--could afford no explanation, and
Pharaoh spent a terrible night wandering from room to room and up and
down the corridors, where the corners seemed to go out of their way to
bump against him and the stairs seemed to go down when he wanted to
walk up, and vice-versa. Such a higgledy-piggeldy palace was never
seen. Worse still, with the first streak of dawn he noticed that he
was smitten with leprosy.

Hastily he sent for Abraham and said: "Who and what thou art I know
not. Thou and thy sister have brought a plague upon me. I desired to
make her my queen, but now I say to you: Rid me of this leprosy and
get thee hence with thy