Thousand & One Nights: Eleventh Night: The fisherman & The Demon contd.

The following night, the story continued.

The Fisherman: "By the God, tell me whether you were really inside this jar."

Demon: I was imprisoned in this jar.

Fisherman: You are lying, this jar is not enough for you. Not even for your feet and hands.  How can it be large enough for your whole body?

Demon: By God I was inside. Don't you believe it?

Fisherman: No. I don't.

The Demon shook himself and turned into smoke, which rose, stretched over the sea, spread over the land, then gathered, and little by little began to enter the jar. When the smoke disappeared completely, the demon shouted from within, "Fisherman, here I am in the jar.  Do you believe me now?"

The fisherman at once took out the sealed led stopper and clamped it on the mouth of the jar. Then he cried out: "Demon, now tell me how you wish to die. For I will throw you into the sea, build a house right here and stop any fisherman who come to fish and warn him that there is a demon here, who will kill whoever comes and pulls him out."  The demon that he had fallen to the trickery of the Fishermen, and that he could not escape from the jar. He shouted, "Don't do this!" But the fisherman replied, "Yes." Then in a soft and submissive voice the demon asked, "Fisherman, What do you intend to do?" The fisherman replied, "I intend to throw you into the sea. You remained  there for thousands of years. This time I will let you stay until Doomsday. Haven't I said to you, 'If you spare me, God will spare you. Destroy me, God will destroy you.'? But you refused. Now it is my turn."

The demon said, "If you open the jar, I will reward you and make you rich."

The Fisherman: "You are lying. Your situation and mine is like that of King Yunan and the sage Duban."

Demon: "What is their story?"

The Day broke. The story teller took their leave.