er
of the purveyor, and the purveyor propped it up in the street, where it
was thought to have been killed by the merchant.

"This, Sire, is the story which I was obliged to tell to satisfy your
highness. It is now for you to say if we deserve mercy or punishment;
life or death?"

The Sultan of Kashgar listened with an air of pleasure which filled the
tailor and his friends with hope. "I must confess," he exclaimed,
"that I am much more interested in the stories of the barber and his
brothers, and of the lame man, than in that of my own jester. But
before I allow you all four to return to your own homes, and have the
corpse of the hunchback properly buried, I should like to see this
barber who has earned your pardon. And as he is in this town, let an
usher go with you at once in search of him."

The usher and the tailor soon returned, bringing with them an old man
who must have been at least ninety years of age. "O Silent One," said
the Sultan, "I am told that you know many strange stories. Will you
tell some of them to me?"

"Never mind my stories for the present," replied the barber, "but will
your Highness graciously be pleased to explain why this Jew, this
Christian, and this Mussulman, as well as this dead body, are all here?"

"What business is that of yours?" asked the Sultan with a smile; but
seeing that the barber had some reasons for his question, he commanded
that the tale of the hunchback should be told him.

"It is certainly most surprising," cried he, when he had heard it all,
"but I should like to examine the body." He then knelt down, and took
the head on his knees, looking at it attentively. Suddenly he burst
into such loud laughter that he fell right backwards, and when he had
recovered himself enough to speak, he turned to the Sultan. "The man
is no more dead than I am," he said; "watch me." As he spoke he drew a
small case of medicines from his pocket and rubbed the neck of the
hunchback with some ointment made of balsam. Next he opened the dead
man's mouth, and by the help of a pair of pincers drew the bone from
his throat. At this the hunchback sneezed, stretched himself and
opened his eyes.

The Sultan and all those who saw this operation did not know which to
admire most, the constitution of the hunchback who had apparently been
dead for a whole night and most of one day, or the skill of the barber,
whom everyone now began to look upon as a great man. His Highness
desired th