hall bid thee.' And
he answered, 'Good.' Then she began the conjuration and said,
'Phantom, phantom that goest by night, with tail upright[341] thou
cam'st to us; now get thee gone with tail upright. Begone into the
garden to the foot of the great peach tree; there shalt thou find an
anointed twice-anointed one[342] and an hundred turds of my sitting
hen;[343] set thy mouth to the flagon and get thee gone again and do
thou no hurt to my Gianni nor to me.' Then to her husband, 'Spit,
Gianni,' quoth she, and he spat. Federigo, who heard all this from
without and was now quit of jealousy, had, for all his vexation, so
great a mind to laugh that he was like to burst, and when Gianni spat,
he said under his breath '[Would it were] thy teeth!'

[Footnote 341: _i.e._ pene arrecto.]

[Footnote 342: _i.e._ a fattened capon well larded.]

[Footnote 343: _i.e._ eggs.]

The lady, having thrice conjured the phantom on this wise, returned to
bed with her husband, whilst Federigo, who had not supped, looking to
sup with her, and had right well apprehended the words of the
conjuration, betook himself to the garden and finding the capons and
wine and eggs at the foot of the great peach-tree, carried them off to
his house and there supped at his ease; and after, when he next
foregathered with the lady, he had a hearty laugh with her anent the
conjuration aforesaid. Some say indeed that the lady had actually
turned the ass's skull towards Fiesole, but that a husbandman, passing
through the vineyard, had given it a blow with a stick and caused it
spin round and it had become turned towards Florence, wherefore
Federigo, thinking himself summoned, had come thither, and that the
lady had made the conjuration on this wise: 'Phantom, phantom, get
thee gone in God's name; for it was not I turned the ass's head; but
another it was, God put him to shame! and I am here with my Gianni in
bed'; whereupon he went away and abode without supper or lodging. But
a neighbour of mine, a very ancient lady, telleth me that, according
to that which she heard, when a child, both the one and the other were
true; but that the latter happened, not to Gianni Lotteringhi, but to
one Gianni di Nello, who abode at Porta San Piero and was no less
exquisite a ninny than the other. Wherefore, dear my ladies, it
abideth at your election to take whether of the two orisons most
pleaseth you, except you will have both. They have great virtue in
such cases, as you have h