LITTLE HUNCH-BACK. 201

is this! What did you do to kill this man? "—“ That is not
the question,” replied the Jew ; “our business is now to find
out a remedy for such a shocking accident.”

The doctor and his wife consulted together how to get rid of
the corpse that night. The doctor racked his brains in vain;
he could not think of any stratagem to get clear ; but his wife,
who was more fertile in invention, said, “ I have a thought just
come into my head : Jet us carry the corpse to the leads of our
house, and tumble him down the chimney into the house of
the Mussulman, our next neighbour.” This Mussulman was
one of the sultan’s purveyors for furnishing oil, butter, and all
sorts of fat articles, and had a magazine in his house where
the rats and mice made prodigious havoc. ‘The Jewish doctor
approving the proposed expedient, his wife and he took the
little Hunch-back up to the roof of the house ; and clapping
ropes under his armpits, let him down the chimney into the
purveyor's chamber, so softly and so dexterously, that he stood.
upright against the wall, as if he had been alive. When they
found that he had reached the bottom, they pulled up the
ropes, and left the corpse in that posture. They were scarce got
down into their chamber, when the purveyor went into his,
being just come from a wedding-feast, with a lantern in his
hand. He was greatly surprised when, by the light of his
Jantern, he descried a man standing upright in his chimney ;
but being naturally a stout man, and apprehending it was a
thief, he took up a good stick, and making straight up to the
Huneh-back, “Ah,” said he, “I thought it was the rats and
mice that eat my butter and tallow, but it is you come down
the chimney to rob me! I think you will not come here again
upon this errand.” This said, he falls upon the man, and gives
him many strokes with his stick. ‘The corpse fell down flat
on the ground, and the purveyor redoubled his blows; but,