You are a cheat, said my
brother. No! no! said the old man: Good people, this very minute
that I am speaking, there is a man with his throat cut hung up in
his shop like a sheep; do any of you go thither, and see if what
I say be not true.
Before my brother had opened his trunk, he had just killed a
sheep, dressed it, and exposed it in his shop, according to
custom: he protested that what the old man said was false; but,
notwithstanding all his protestations, the mob, being prejudiced
against a man accused of such a heinous crime, would go to see
whether the matter was true. They obliged my brother to quit the
old man, laid hold of him, and ran like madmen into his shop,
where they saw a man murdered and hung up, as the old man had
told them; for he was a magician, and deceived the eyes of all
people, as he did my brother's, when he made him take leaves
instead of money. At this spectacle, one of those who held Alcouz
gave him a great blow with his fist, and said to him, Thou wicked
villain, dost thou make us eat man's flesh instead of mutton? At
the same time the old man gave him another blow, which beat out
one of his eyes, and every body that could get near him beat him;
and, not content with that, they carried him before a judge, with
the pretended carcase of the man, to be evidence against him.
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