Note 166 — NIGHT ADVENTURE OF HARUN AL-RASHID AND THE YOUTH MANJAB.[106] (continued 2)

In text “Wa min-hum man fáha,” evidently an error of the scribe for “Man nafá-hu.” Scott (vi. 351), after the fashion of the “Improver-school,” ends the tale, which is somewhat tailless, after this fashion. “At the same instant, the Sultan and his courtiers found themselves assaulted by invisible agents, who, tearing off their robes, whipped them with scourges till the blood flowed in streams from their lacerated backs. At length the punishment ceased, but the mortification of the Sultan did not end here, for all the gold which the Dirveshe had transmuted returned to its original metals. Thus, by his unjust credulity, was a weak Prince punished for his ungrateful folly. The barber and his son also were not to be found, so that the sultan could gain no intelligence of the Dirveshe, and he and his courtiers became the laughing-stock of the populace for years after their merited chastisement.” Is nothing to be left for the reader’s imagination?