ABSTRACT
Among other relations it is told that there was once in Cairo a man named Wardān, who was by profession a mutton butcher. Every day a girl of magnificent face and form, but with very tired eyes and pale complexion, would come to his shop, followed by a porter charged with a basket, and, after choosing a portion of the choicest meat that he had and also some ram's eggs, would pay for them with a piece of gold weighing more than two dīnārs. When the meat was stowed in the basket, she would go in turn to all the other shops in the market, buying something from each of the merchants. She continued this daily practice for so long that at last Wardān, the butcher, having become very curious concerning the appearance and silence and habits of this youthful purchaser, resolved to search out the mystery and thus leave his mind free for other speculations.
