This was the reason why the Jew was willing to sell them to me so cheap; and it was for this reason that he would not stay at Grand Cairo himself to reap the profits of his speculation.

Indeed, if I had paid attention to it at the proper time, a slight circumstance might have revealed the truth to me.

Whilst I was bargaining with the Jew, before he opened the chest, he swallowed a large dram of brandy, and stuffed his nostrils with sponge dipped in vinegar; he told me, he did to prevent his perceiving the smell of musk, which always threw him into convulsions.
"The horror I felt when I discovered that I had spread the infection of the plague, and that I had probably caught it myself, overpowered my senses--a cold dew spread over all my limbs, and I fell upon the lid of the fatal chest in a swoon.

It is said that fear disposes people to take the infection; however this may be, I sickened that evening, and soon was in a raging fever.

It was worse for me whenever the delirium left me, and I could reflect upon the miseries my ill-fortune had occasioned.