But I know well how this good head of
the dervizes may cure her; the thing is very easy, and I will
tell it you. He has a black cat in his convent, with a white spot
at the end of her tail, about the bigness of a small piece of
English money: let him only pull seven hairs out of this white
spot, burn them, and smoke the princess's head with the fume, she
will not only be perfectly cured, but be so safely delivered from
Maimoun, the son of Demdim, that he will never dare to come near
her a second time.
The head of the dervizes remembered every word of the discourse
between the fairies and the genies, who were very silent all the
night after. The next morning, by break of day, when he could
discern one thing from another, the well being broken down in
several places, he saw a hole, by which he crept out with ease.
The other dervizes who had been seeking for him, were rejoiced to
see him. He gave them a brief account of the wickedness of that
man to whom he had given so kind a reception the day before, and
retired into his cell. It was not long till the black cat, of
which the fairies and the genies had made mention in their
discourses the night before, came to fawn upon her master, as she
was accustomed to do: He took her up, and pulled seven hairs out
of the white spot that was upon her tail, and laid them aside for
his use, when occasion should serve.
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