"
replied he, "you would have me do something against my conscience, or
against my honor?"
"God forbid," said Morgiana, putting another piece of gold into his
hand, "that I should ask anything that is contrary to your honor! Only
come along with me, and fear nothing."
Baba Mustapha went with Morgiana, who, after she had bound his eyes
with a handkerchief at the place she had mentioned, conveyed him to
her deceased master's house, and never unloosed his eyes till he had
entered the room where she had put the corpse together. "Baba
Mustapha," said she, "you must make haste and sew the parts of this
body together; and when you have done, I will give you another piece
of gold."
After Baba Mustapha had finished his task, she blindfolded him again,
gave him the third piece of gold as she had promised, and
recommending secrecy to him, carried him back to the place where she
first bound his eyes, pulled off the bandage, and let him go home, but
watched him that he returned toward his stall, till he was quite out
of sight, for fear he should have the curiosity to return and dodge
her; she then went home.
Morgiana, on her return, warmed some water to wash the body, and at
the same time Ali Baba perfumed it with incense, and wrapped it in the
burying clothes with the accustomed ceremonies. Not long after the
proper officer brought the bier, and when the attendants of the
mosque, whose business it was to wash the dead, offered to perform
their duty, she told them it was done already. Shortly after this the
imaun and the other ministers of the mosque arrived. Four neighbors
carried the corpse to the burying-ground, following the imaun, who
recited some prayers. Ali Baba came after with some neighbors, who
often relieved the others in carrying the bier to the burying-ground.
Morgiana, a slave to the deceased, followed in the procession,
weeping, beating her breast, and tearing her hair. Cassim's wife
stayed at home mourning, uttering lamentable cries with the women of
the neighborhood, who came, according to custom, during the funeral,
and joining their lamentations with hers filled the quarter far and
near with sounds of sorrow.
In this manner Cassim's melancholy death was concealed and hushed up
between Ali Baba, his widow, and Morgiana his slave, with so much
contrivance that nobody in the city had the least knowledge or
suspicion of the cause of it. Three or four days after the funeral,
Ali Baba removed his few goods
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