' Thereupon be will commit me to the
Chief of Police, saying, 'Strip him of his clothes and torment him
with the bastinado till he confess and give up the hundred dinars in
his possession.' Wherefore, meseemeth to provide against this
predicament, the best thing I can do is to rise forthright and bash
myself with the whip, so to use myself to beating." And his hashish
said to him, "Rise, doff thy dress."
So he stood up, and putting off his clothes, took a whip he had by
him and set handy a leather pillow. Then he fell to lashing himself,
laying every other blow upon the pillow and roaring out the while-:
"Alas! Alas! By Allah, 'tis a false saying, O my lord, and they have
lied against me, for I am a poor fisherman and have naught of the
goods of the world!" The noise of the whip falling on the pillow and
on his person resounded in the still of night and the folk heard it,
and amongst others the merchants, and they said: "Whatever can ail the
poor fellow, that he crieth and we hear the noise of blows falling
on him? 'Twould seem robbers have broken in upon him and are
tormenting him." Presently they all came forth of their lodgings at.
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