she and every one knew nothing could avert an event which
had been decreed since the beginning of the world. To this there was no
reply; and all agreeing that she would commit a great sin were she to
oppose herself to the decrees of Providence, she put out her bare arm,
and received the stab from my penknife with apparent fortitude. The
blood was caught, and, when the operation was over, I ordered that it
should be conveyed to a little distance from the camp, and that none but
myself should be permitted to approach it, as much of the good or
evil that might accrue to the patient from bleeding depended upon what
happened to the blood after it had flown from the body. I waited until
night, when everybody was asleep, and then with great anxiety ripped
up the lining, where to my joy I found the fifty ducats, which I
immediately concealed in an adjacent spot, and then dug a hole for the
cap, which I also concealed. In the morning I informed the Banou,
that having seen some wolves prowling about the tents, I feared that
something unlucky might happen to her blood, and that I had buried it,
caouk and all. This appeared to satisfy her; and by way of recompense
for the service I had rendered, she sent me a dish made with her
own hands, consisting of a lamb roasted whole, stuffed with rice and
raisins, accompanied by a bowl of sour milk with salt in it.

I must confess that when I became possessed of the fifty ducats, a
recollection of my poor former master, who was leading a melancholy life
in the mountains with the camels, whilst I was living in comparative
luxury, came across my mind, and I half resolved to restore them to him;
but by little and little I began to argue differently with myself. 'Had
it not been for my ingenuity,' said I, 'the money was lost for ever;
who therefore has a better claim to it than myself? If he was to
get possession of it again, it could be of no use to him in his new
profession, and it is a hundred to one but what it would be taken from
him, therefore, I had best keep it for the present: besides, it was his
fate to lose, and mine to recover it.' This settled every difficulty,
and I looked upon myself as the legitimate possessor of fifty ducats,
which I conceived no law could take from me. Meanwhile, I made an
attempt to convey to him half of the roasted lamb which I had just
received, through the means of a shepherd's boy who was going into
the mountains, and who promised not to eat any of it by t