` You can not imagine , my lord , how awkward it is to walk with three legs , especially when your knees are as stiff as mine were . At length after much difficulty I reached a market-garden , and hid myself deep down among the cabbages , where I passed a quiet night . ` The next morning , at sunrise , I felt some one stooping over me and examining me closely . `` What have you got there , Zinebi ? '' said the voice of a man a little way off . ' `` The most beautiful pot in the whole world , '' answered the woman beside me , `` and who would have dreamed of finding it among my cabbages ! '' ` Mohammed lifted me from the ground and looked at me with admiration . That pleased me , for every one likes to be admired , even if he is only a pot ! And I was taken into the house and filled with water , and put on the fire to boil . ` For three years I led a quiet and useful life , being scrubbed bright every day by Zinebi , then a young and beautiful woman . ` One morning Zinebi set me on the fire , with a fine fillet of beef inside me to cook , for dinner . Being afraid that some of the steam would escape through the lid , and that the taste of her stew would be spoilt , she looked about for something to put over the cover , but could see nothing handy but her husband 's turban . She tied it firmly round the lid , and then left the room . For the first time during three years I began to feel the fire burning the soles of my feet , and moved away a little -- doing this with a great deal more ease than I had felt when making my escape to Mohammed 's garden . I was somehow aware , too , that I was growing taller ; in fact in a few minutes I was a man again . -LSB- Illustration : ZINEBI PUTS THE TURBAN ON THE POT -RSB- ` After the third hour of prayer Mohammed and Zinebi both returned , and you can guess their surprise at finding a young man in the kitchen instead of a copper pot ! I told them my story , which at first they refused to believe , but in the end I succeeded in persuading them that I was speaking the truth . For two years more I lived with them , and was treated like their own son , till the day when they sent me to this city to seek my fortune . And now , my lords , here are the two letters which I found in my turban . Perhaps they may be another proof in favour of my story . '
Whilst Neangir was speaking , the blood from the Jew 's wound had gradually ceased to flow ; and at this moment there appeared XXXXX the doorway a lovely Jewess , about twenty-two years old , her hair and her dress all disordered , as if she had been flying from some great danger .
For by if in of off than that through till