Thereupon I went down into the midst of the place and the ape,
becoming aware of me, would have torn me in pieces; but I made
haste to pull out my knife and slit his paunch. The noise
aroused the young lady, who awoke, terrified and trembling; and
when she saw the ape in this plight, she gave such a shriek,
that her soul well-nigh departed her body. Then she fell down
in a swoon, and when she came to herself, she said to me, "What
moved thee to do thus? By Allah, I conjure thee to send me after
him!" But I spoke her fair and engaged to her that I would stand
in the ape's stead, in the matter of much clicketing, till her
trouble subsided and I took her to wife.
However, I fell short in this and could not endure to it; so I
complained of her case to a certain old woman, who engaged to
manage the affair and said to me, "Thou must bring me a cooking-
pot full of virgin vinegar and a pound of pyrethrum."[FN#68]
So I brought her what she sought, and she laid the pyrethrum
in the pot with the vinegar and set it on the fire, till it
boiled briskly. Then she bade me serve the girl, and I served
her, till she fainted away, when the old woman took her up, and
she unknowing, and set her kaze to the mouth of the cooking-pot.
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