THE FORTY THIEVES 209

acting so as that my brother should appear
to have died a natural death. I think you
may leave the management of the business to
Morgiana, and I will contribute all that lies in
my power to your consolation.” .
What could Cassim’s widow do better than
accept of this proposal? For though her first
husband had left behind him a plentiful sub-
stance, his brother was now much richer, and by .
the discovery of this treasure might be still more
so. Instead, therefore, of rejecting the offer,
she regarded it as the sure means of comfort;
and drying up her tears, which had begun to
flow abundantly, and suppressing. the outcries
usual with women who have lost their husbands,
showed Ali Baba that she approved of his pro-
posal. Ali Baba left the widow, recommended
to Morgiana to act her part well, and then
returned home with his ass. |
Morgiana went out at the same time to an
apothecary, and asked for a sort of lozenges
which he prepared, and were very efficacious in
the most dangerous disorders. The apothecary
inquired who was ill at her master’s? She re-
plied with a sigh, her good master Cassim
himself: that they knew not what his disorder
was, but that he could neither eat nor speak.