on of the fine shawl
and napkin in which the head had been wrapped.

The baker Hassan and his son Mahmud were heating their oven, inserting
therein thorns, chips, and old rubbish at a great rate, when their
attention was arrested by the extraordinary whinings and barking of a
dog, that was a constant customer at the oven for stray bits of bread,
and much befriended by Hassan and his son, who were noted for being
conscientious Mussulmans.

"Look, Mahmud," said the father to the son, "see what is the matter with
the dog: something extraordinary is in the wind."

The son did what his father bade him, and seeing no reason for the dog's
noises, said, "_Bir chey yok_, there is nothing," and drove him away.

But the howlings not ceasing, Hassan went himself, and found the dog
most extremely intent upon smelling and pointing at the tailor's pipkin.
He jumped upon Hassan, then at the pot, then upon Hassan again, until
the baker no longer doubted that the beast took great interest in its
contents. He therefore gently drew off the lid, when need I mention his
horror and surprise at seeing a human head staring him in the face?

"Allah! Allah!" cried the baker; but being a man of strong nerves,
instead of letting it fall, as most people would have done, he quietly
put on the lid again, and called his son to him.

"Mahmud," said he, "this is a bad world, and there are bad men in it.
Some wicked infidel has sent a man's head to bake; but thanks to our
good fortune, and to the dog, our oven has been saved from pollution,
and we can go on making our bread with clean hands and clear
consciences. But since the devil is at work, let others have a visit
from him as well as ourselves. If it be known that we have had a dead
man's head to bake, who will ever employ us again? we must starve, we
must shut up our oven; we shall get the reputation of mixing up our
dough with human grease, and if perchance a hair is found, it will
immediately be said that it came from the dead man's beard."

Mahmud, a youth of about twenty, who partook of his father's
insensibility and coolness, and who, moreover, had a great deal of dry
humour and ready wit, looked upon the incident in the light of a good
joke, and broke out into a hearty laugh when he saw the ugly picture
which the grinning head made, set in its earthen frame.

"Let us pop it into the shop of Kior Ali, the barber, opposite," said
the youth; "he is just beginning to open it, and as he has