each other such pleasant company that they absolutely
decline to divorce, and elect to pay the fine. This money is provided
for them by Harun-ar-Rashid, who visits them one night with three of
his companions all disguised as dervishes, and they are charmed with
Zobeidah's performance on the lute, her singing, and her recitations.

Ala Aldin then goes to the Court, where he rises to high favour and
receives various good appointments. To his great grief he loses his
wife, who dies, as he supposes, and is buried with the usual mourning,
but in reality turns up again at the end of the tale, and is re-united
to her husband. It appears that a servant of the Jinn had carried her
off to another country, leaving a Jinneyah to be buried in her place.

To make up for the loss of Zobeidah, the Khalif gives Ala Aldin one of
his own slave-girls, Kut al Kulub by name, and sends her, with all her
belongings, to his house. Ala Aldin will not have anything to do with
her, on the grounds--"What was the master's should not become the
man's;" but he lodges, boards, and treats her handsomely. Eventually
Harun takes her back, and orders a slave-girl to be bought at his
expense in the market for ten thousand dinars for Ala Aldin. This is
done, and a girl named Jessamine is purchased and given to him. He
sets her at once free and marries her.

But at the time of the purchase another man had been bidding for this
same girl, and, being much in love with her, his family determine to
assist him in getting hold of her. A whole lot of fresh characters
then appear on the scene, and, after much plotting and intrigue, Ala
Aldin is arrested and sentenced to death. He, however, escapes to
Alexandria, and there opens a shop. Further adventures follow, till he
finds himself at Genoa, where he remains for some time as servant in a
church. Meanwhile at Baghdad his wife Jessamine has borne him a son,
named Asdan, who grows up, and in time discovers the author and nature
of the theft of which his father had been accused, and thus prepares
the way for his return to the city of the Khalifs. This is brought
about by the Princess Husn Maryam at Genoa, with whom Ala Aldin finds
his first wife Zobeidah, and they all set out on a wonderful couch and
go first to Alexandria, then to Cairo to visit his parents, and
finally to Baghdad, where he marries the princess and lives happy ever
afterwards.

Ali the Persian and the Kurd Sharper is a very short story, but quite