The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 10 | Page 5

it be with drip-honey?" Ma'aruf was ashamed to object, because the
pastry-cook was to have patience with him for the price, and said,

"Give it me with drip-honey." So he fried a vermicelli-cake for him
with butter and drenched it with drip-honey, till it was fit to present to
Kings. Then he asked him, "Dost thou want bread[FN#8] and cheese?";
and Ma'aruf answered, "Yes." So he gave him four half dirhams worth
of bread and one of cheese, and the vermicelli was ten nusfs. Then said
he, "Know, O Ma'aruf, that thou owest me fifteen nusfs; so go to thy
wife and make merry and take this nusf for the Hammam;[FN#9] and
thou shalt have credit for a day or two or three till Allah provide thee
with thy daily bread. And straiten not thy wife, for I will have patience
with thee till such time as thou shalt have dirhams to spare." So Ma'aruf
took the vermicelli-cake and bread and cheese and went away, with a
heart at ease, blessing the pastry-cook and saying, "Extolled be Thy
perfection, O my Lord! How bountiful art Thou!" When he came home,
his wife enquired of him, "Hast thou brought the vermicelli-cake?"; and,
replying "Yes," he set it before her. She looked at it and seeing that it
was dressed with cane-honey,[FN#10] said to him, "Did I not bid thee
bring it with bees' honey? Wilt thou contrary my wish and have it
dressed with cane-honey?" He excused himself to her, saying, "I
bought it not save on credit;" but said she, "This talk is idle; I will not
eat Kunafah save with bees' honey." And she was wroth with it and
threw it in his face, saying, "Begone, thou pimp, and bring me other
than this !" Then she dealt him a buffet on the cheek and knocked out
one of his teeth. The blood ran down upon his breast and for stress of
anger he smote her on the head a single blow and a slight; whereupon
she clutched his beard and fell to shouting out and saying, "Help, O
Moslems!" So the neighbours came in and freed his beard from her grip;
then they reproved and reproached her, saying, "We are all content to
eat Kunafah with cane-honey. Why, then, wilt thou oppress this poor
man thus? Verily, this is disgraceful in thee!" And they went on to
soothe her till they made peace between her and him. But, when the
folk were gone, she sware that she would not eat of the vermicelli, and
Ma'aruf, burning with hunger, said in himself, "She sweareth that she
will not eat; so I will e'en eat." Then he ate, and when she saw him
eating, she said, "Inshallah, may the eating of it be poison to destroy the
far one's body."[FN#11] Quoth he, "It shall not be at thy bidding," and
went on eating, laughing and saying, "Thou swarest that thou wouldst
not eat of this; but Allah is bountiful, and to-morrow night, an the Lord

decree, I will bring thee Kunafah dressed with bees' honey, and thou
shalt eat it alone." And he applied himself to appeasing her, whilst she
called down curses upon him; and she ceased not to rail at him and
revile him with gross abuse till the morning, when she bared her
forearm to beat him. Quoth he, "Give me time and I will bring thee
other vermicelli-cake." Then he went out to the mosque and prayed,
after which he betook himself to his shop and opening it, sat down; but
hardly had he done this when up came two runners from the Kazi's
court and said to him, "Up with thee, speak with the Kazi, for thy wife
hath complained of thee to him and her favour is thus and thus." He
recognised her by their description; and saying, "May Allah Almighty
torment her!" walked with them till he came to the Kazi's presence,
where he found Fatimah standing with her arm bound up and her
face-veil besmeared with blood; and she was weeping and wiping away
her tears. Quoth the Kazi, "Ho man, hast thou no fear of Allah the Most
High? Why hast thou beaten this good woman and broken her forearm
and knocked out her tooth and entreated her thus?" And quoth Ma'aruf,
"If I beat her or put out her tooth, sentence me to what thou wilt; but in
truth the case was thus and thus and the neighbours made peace
between me and her." And he told him the story from first to last. Now
this Kazi was a benevolent man; so he brought out to him a quarter
dinar, saying, "O man, take this and get her Kunafah with bees' honey
and do ye make peace, thou and she." Quoth Ma'aruf,