Unhappy man that I am! said he, what induced me to come down
without a light? I have e'en made an end of the fellow who was
brought to me to be cured? I am undoubtedly the cause of his
death, and unless, Esras's ass[Footnote: Here the Arabian author
ridicules the Jews: this ass is that which, as the Mahometans
believe, Esdras rode upon when he came from the Babylonian
captivity to Jerusalem.] comes to assist me, I nm ruined: mercy
on me, they will be here instantly, and drag me from my house as
a murderer! But, notwithstanding the perplexity and jeopardy he
was in, he had the precaution to shut his door, lest any one
passing by in the street should observe the mischance, of which
he reckoned himself the author. He then took the corpse into his
wife's chamber, upon which she swooned away. Alas! cried she, we
are utterly ruined! undone! undone! unless we fall upon some
expedient or other to turn the corpse out of our house this
night! Beyond all question, if we harbour it till morning, our
lives must pay for it. What a sad mischance is this! Why, how did
you kill this man? That is not the question, replied the Jew; our
business now is to find out a remedy for such a shocking
accident. They then consulted together how to get rid of the
corpse that night. The doctor racked his brain in vain; he could
not think of any stratagem to get clear: but his wife, who was
more fertile in invention, said, there is a thought come into my
head; let us carry.
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