ing them still making my house a tavern, I hoped that they would
come no more; but they came again, a fourth night, and then behaved most
indecorously, singing lewd songs, and calling out for wine and rakee
until I could bear it no more, and I then told them that I could no
longer receive them. The fat-stomached one, whom I have before
mentioned, then rose, and said, `Yussuf, we have proved your
hospitality, and we thank you. No one would have received three such
ill-favoured persons, and have regaled them for the love of God, as you
have done. We will now reward thee. Thou art a beeldar of the palace,
and we will now present thee with the sword of justice, which has been
lost since the days of the great Solomon; take this, and judge not by
its outward appearance. When commanded to take off the head of a
criminal, if he is guilty, the sword will flash like fire, and never
fail: but should he be innocent, it will become a harmless lath of
wood.' I took the present, and was about to return thanks, when the
three ill-favoured Moussul merchants gradually took the form of
celestial beings, and vanished."

"Indeed, this is a strange story--what, did the big-bellied fellow look
like an angel?"

"As an angel of light, O caliph."

"What, and the weazen-faced negro?"

"Like a houri, O caliph."

"Well, then," replied the caliph, "you shall now, Yussuf, try the power
of this wonderful sword. Strike off that criminal's head."

Yussuf returned to the robber, who remained kneeling, and walked round
him, crying out with a loud voice, "O sword, if this man be guilty, do
thy duty; but if he be, as he has declared in his dying moments,
innocent, then become thou harmless." With these words Yussuf drew his
sword, and exhibited a lath of palm-wood. "He is innocent, O caliph;
this man, being unjustly condemned, ought to be set free."

"Most certainly," replied the caliph, delighted with the manoeuvre of
Yussuf, "let him he liberated. Chief of the beeldars, we cannot part
with a man, who, like Yussuf; possesses so famous a weapon. Let there
be ten more beeldars appointed, and let Yussuf have the command of them
as chief, with the same perquisites and salary as the other chiefs."

Yussuf prostrated himself before the caliph, delighted with his good
fortune, and as he retired, he exclaimed, "I am Yussuf, my trust is in
God. Allah preserve the three Moussul merchants."

It was not long before the caliph, Giaffar, and Mesrou