person than the pleasure
she derived from my mad pranks, as afterwards appeared. One time, when
some of the natives played the knave with me in view of the queen, whose
secret favour towards me I began to perceive, I threw off my shirt, and
went to a place near the windows, where the queen might see me all
naked, which I perceived gave her great pleasure, as she always
contrived some device to prevent me going out of her sight, and would
sometimes spend almost the whole day in looking at me. In the mean time
she often sent me secretly abundance of good meat by her maids; and when
she saw the boys or others doing me harm or vexing me, she called to me
to kill them, reviling them also as dogs and beasts.

There was a great fat sheep that was fed in the court of the palace, of
that kind whereof the tail only will sometimes weigh eleven or twelve
pounds. Under colour of my madness, I one day laid hold of this sheep,
repeating _Leila illala Mahumet resullah_, the words which the Sultan
desired me to repeat in his presence, by way of proof whether I was a
Mahometan or professed Mameluke. As the sheep gave no answer, I asked
him whether he were Mahometan, Jew, or Christian. And willing to make
him a Mahometan, I repeated the formula as before, which signifies,
"There is but one God, and Mahomet is his prophet," being the words the
Mahometans rehearse as their profession of faith. As the sheep answered
never a word to all I could say, I at length broke his leg with staff.
The queen took much delight in these my mad tricks, and commanded the
carcass of this sheep to be given me, and I never eat meat with more
relish or better appetite. Three days afterwards I killed an ass that
used to bring water to the palace, because he would not say these words
and be a Mahometan. One day I handled a Jew so very roughly, that I had
near killed him. On another occasion I threw many stones at a person who
called me a Christian clog, but he threw them back at me with such
vengeance, that he hurt me sore, on which I returned to my prison, of
which I barricadoed the door with stones, and lay there for two days, in
great pain, without meat or drink, so that the queen and others thought
me dead, but the door was opened by command of the queen. Those Arabian
dogs used to deride me, giving me stones in place of bread, and pieces
of white marble, pretending that they were lumps of sugar, and others
gave me bunches of grapes all full of sand. That they