rare, scaled and cleaned the fish and laid them in a frying-pan over the fire. But scarcely had she done so when the wall of the kitchen divided, and there issued forth from it a damsel of moon-like beauty richly apparelled, holding a rod of myrtle in her hand. With this she struck the fish that lay in the frying-pan, and cried—
"O fish of my pond,
Are ye true to your bond?"
And immediately the four fishes lifted their heads from the frying fat and answered—
"Even so, the bond holds yet;
Paid by thee, we pay the debt.
With give and take is the reckoning met."
Thereupon the damsel upset the pan into the fire and retired through the wall in the same way that she had come, leaving the four fish all charred to a cinder.
The cook, beholding her labour thus brought to naught, began to weep and bewail herself, expecting no less than instant dismissal, and was still loud in her lamentations when the Vizier arrived to see if the fish were ready.
On hearing her account of what had occurred,
36]
