I will give
thee the queen and the right-hand rook and the left-hand knight;
if thou beat me, take my clothes, and if I beat thee, I will
take thine.' 'I agree to this,' replied he, and they replaced
the pieces, she giving him the queen, rook and knight. Then
said she, 'Move, O master.' So he moved, saying in himself,
'I cannot but win, with such an advantage,' and made a combination;
but she moved on, little by little, till she made one of her pawns
a queen and pushing up to him pawns and other pieces, to take off
his attention, set one in his way and tempted him with it.[FN#348]
Accordingly, he took it and she said to him, 'The measure is meted
out and the equilibrium established. Eat, O man, till thou pass
repletion; nought shall be thy ruin but greediness. Knowest thou
not that I did but tempt thee, that I might beguile thee? See:
this is check-mate: put off thy clothes.' 'Leave me my trousers,'
quoth he, 'so God requite thee;' and he swore by Allah that he
would contend with none, so long as Taweddud abode at the Court
of Baghdad. Then he took off his clothes and gave them to her
and went away.
Then came the backgammon-player, and she said to him, 'If I
beat thee, what wilt thou give me?' Quoth he, 'I will give thee
ten suits of brocade of Constantinople, figured with gold, and
ten suits of velvet and a thousand dinars, and if I beat thee,
I ask nothing but that thou write me an acknowledgment thereof.
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