When Haman brought the horse and the fine clothes to Mordecai, he said to him: "Put on these beautiful garments and mount the horse, for such is the desire of the king."

And Mordecai replied: "No, I must first have my hair cut, for it is not proper to appear before the king with long hair."

But Esther had given orders to all the barbers not to cut Mordecai's hair, so that Haman himself should be compelled to do it. Haman fetched a pair of scissors from his house and began to cut Mordecai's hair, sighing deeply as he did so.

Mordecai asked him why he was sighing. And he replied: "Why should I not sigh and grieve when I remember in what high esteem I was held by the king, more than all the other counselors, and now I must act as a bath attendant and cut the hair of a Jew!"

And Mordecai replied: "O you wicked man, for twenty-two years you were a bath attendant

in a village called Karsum, and now you pretend to play the great man."

After he had cut his hair, Haman clothed Mordecai in the royal robes. Then he said to

Mordecai: "Mount the horse."

Mordecai said: "My legs have grown so weak from fasting that I am not able to raise them so high."

Thereupon Haman bent down and Mordecai stepped on Haman's back and thence on to the horse, and he rode along and mocked at Haman.

And Haman said: "Mordecai, why do you laugh at me? Is it not written: 'Rejoice not when thine

enemy falleth?' (Prov. 24.17), and you are rejoicing over me because I have sunk so low."

Then Mordecai replied to Haman: "O you wicked man, the verse refers only to a Jewish enemy, but of a wicked man like you it is said: 'Thou shall tread upon their high places'" (Deut. 33.29).

As they were riding along, Haman shouted before Mordecai: "Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honor" (Esth. 6.11). And as they passed the house of Haman, his daughter was standing at the top of the stairs and thinking: "The man who is riding on the horse is surely my father, whom the king is honoring in this manner, while he who is leading the horse is surely none other than Mordecai."

And thereupon she quickly ran down the steps, took a pail full of dirt and emptied it on the head of Haman, thinking that it was Mordecai.

Haman turned around to look, and she saw that it was her father. Thereupon she fell down the steps and broke her neck and died.