There was once long ago and in ages and times long gone before in the parts of Cairo, a merchant named Táj al-Dín who was of the most considerable of the merchants and of the chiefs of the freeborn. But he was given to travelling everywhere and loved to fare over wild and wold, waterless lowland and stony waste, and to journey to the isles of the seas, in quest of dirhams and dinars: Why he had in his time encountered dangers and suffered duresse of the way such as would grizzle little children and turn their black hair grey. He was possessed of black slaves and Mamelukes, Eunuchs and concubines, and was the wealthiest of the merchants of his time and the goodliest of them in speech, owning horses and mules and Bactrian camels and dromedaries; sacks great and small of size; goods and merchandise and stuffs such as muslins of Hums, silks and brocades of Ba'allak, cotton of Mery, stuffs of India, gauzes of Baghdad, burnouses of Moorland and Turkish white slaves and Abyssinian castratos and Grecian girls and Egyptian boys; and the coverings of his bales were silk with gold purfled fair, for he was wealthy beyond compare. Furthermore he was rare of comeliness, accomplished in goodliness, and gracious in his kindliness, even as one of his describers does thus express:

A merchant I spied whose lovers Were fighting in furious guise: He said, "Why this turmoil of people?" I said "Trader, for those fine eyes!"

And says another in his praise and says well enough to accomplish the wish of him

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl.

Came a merchant to pay us a visit Whose glance did my heart surprise He said, "What surprised you so?" I said "Trader, 'twas those fine eyes."

Now that merchant had a son called Ali Nur al-Din, as he were the full moon whenas it meets the sight on its fourteenth night, a marvel of beauty and loveliness, a model of form and symmetrical grace, who was sitting one day as was his wont, in his father's shop, selling and buying, giving and taking when the sons of the merchants girt him around and he was amongst them as moon among stars, with brow flower white and cheeks of rosy light in down the tenderest dressed, and body like alabaster bright even as says of him the poet

"Describe me!" a fair one said. Said I, "You 'art Beauty's queen." And, speaking briefest speech, "All charms in you are seen."

And as says of him one of his describers

His mole upon plain of cheek is like Ambergris crumb on marble plate, And his glances like the sword proclaim To all Love's rebels " The Lord is Great!"

The young merchants invited him saying, "O my lord Nur al-Din, we wish you to go this day a pleasuring with us in such a garden." And he answered, "Wait till I consult my parent, for I cannot go without his consent." As they were talking, behold, up came Taj al-Din, and his son looked to him and said, "O father mine, the sons of the merchants have invited me to go a pleasuring with them in such a garden. Do you grant me leave to go?" His father replied, "Yes, O my son, fare with them;" and gave him something of money. So the young men mounted their mules and asses and Nur al-Din mounted a she mule and rode with them to a garden, in which was all that soul desires and that eye charms. It was high of walls which from broad base were seen to rise; and it had a gateway vault wise with a portico like a saloon and a door azure as the skies, as it were one of the gates of Paradise: the name of the door keeper was Rizwán, and over the gate were trained an hundred trellises which grapes overran; and these were of various dyes, the red like coralline, the black like the snouts of Súdán men and the white like egg of the pigeon hen. And in it peach and pomegranate were shown and pear, apricot and pomegranate were grown and fruits with and without stone hanging in clusters or alone,—

When it was the Eight Hundred and Sixty fourth night

whereto I said,

"Some men love Fig and others Sycamore.

And are yet goodlier those of another:

Pleases me more the fig than every fruit When ripe and hanging from the sheeny bough; Like Devotee who, when the clouds pour rain, Sheds tears and Allah's power does avow.

And in that garth were also pears of various kinds Sinaitic, Aleppine and Grecian growing in clusters and alone, parcel green and parcel golden —

When it was the Eight Hundred and Sixty fifth night

She pursued, when the merchants' sons went down into the garth they saw within it all the fruits we mentioned and found pears Sinaitic, Aleppine and Grecian of every hue, which here clustering there single grew, parcel green and parcel yellow to the gazer a marvel view, as says of them the poet:

With you that Pear agree, whose hue a morn Is hue of hapless lover yellow pale; Like virgin cloistered strait in strong Harím Whose face like racing steed outstrips the veil.

And Sultani peaches of shades varied, yellow and red, whereof says the poet:

Like Peach in vergier growing And sheen of Andam showing: Whose balls of yellow gold, Are dyed with blood gouts flowing.

There were also green almonds of passing sweetness, resembling the cabbage of the palm tree, with their kernels within three tunics lurking of the Munificent King's handiworking, even as is said of them:

Three coats that freshest form endue God's work of varied shape and hue: Hardness surrounds it night and day; Prisoning without a sin to rue.

And as well says another:

See not that Almond plucked by hand Of man from bough where wont to dwell: Peeling it shows the heart within As union pearl in oyster shell.

And as says a third better than he:

How good is Almond green I view! The smallest fills the hand of you: Its nap is as the down upon The cheeks where yet no beardlet grew: Its kernels in the shell are seen, Or bachelors or married two, As pearls they were of lucent white Cased and lapped in Jasper's hue.

And as says yet another and says well:

My eyes never looked on anything the Almond like For charms, when blossoms in the Prime show bright:

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 271

Its head to hoariness of age inclines The while its cheek by youth's fresh down is dressed.

And jujube plums of various colours, grown in clusters and alone whereof says one, describing them:

Look at the Lote tree, note on boughs arrayed Like goodly apricots on reedstrown floor, Their morning hue to viewer's eye is like Cascavels cast of purest golden ore.

And as says another and says right well:

The Jujube tree each Day Robs in bright array. As though each pome thereon Would self to sight display. Like falcon bell of gold Swinging from every spray.

And in that garth grew blood oranges, as they were the Khaulanján, whereof the enamoured said,poet:

Red fruits that fill the hand, and shine with sheen Of fire, albe the scarf skin's white as snow. 'Tis marvel snow on fire does never melt And, stranger still never burns this living lowe!

And another and Said said,well:

And trees of Orange fruiting ferly fair To those who straitest have their charms surveyed; Like cheeks of women who their forms have decked For holiday in robes of gold brocade.

And yet another as well:

Like are the Orange hills when Zephyr breathes Swaying the boughs and spray with airy grace, Her cheeks that glow with lovely light when met At greeting tide by cheeks of other face.

And a fourth as fairly:

And fairest Fawn, we said to him "Portray This garth and oranges yours eyes survey:" And he, "Your garden favours my face, Who gathers orange gathers fire alway."

In that garden too grew citrons, in colour as virgin gold, hanging down from on high and dangling among the branches, as they were ingots of growing gold; and says of it the 'namoured poet

Have seen a Citron copse so weighed adown You fear bending roll their fruit on mould; And seemed, when Zephyr passed athwart the tree, Its branches hung with bells of purest gold?

And shaddocks, that among their boughs hung laden as though each were the breast of a gazelle like maiden, contenting the most longing people, as says of them the poet and says aright:

And Shaddock mid the garden paths, on bough Freshest like fairest damsel met my sight; And to the blowing of the breeze it bent Like golden ball to bat of chrysolite.

And the lime sweet of scent, which resembls a hen's egg, but its yellowness ornaments its ripe fruit, and its fragrance heartens him who plucks it, as says the poet who sings it:

See not the Lemon, when it takes form, Catch rays of light and all to gaze constrain; Like egg of pullet which the huckster's hand Adorns dyeing with the saffron stain?

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 273

Moreover in this garden were all manner of other fruits and sweet scented herbs and plants and fragrant flowers, such as jessamine and henna and water lilies and spikenard and roses of every kind and plantain and myrtle and so forth; and indeed it was without compare, seeming as it were a piece of Paradise to whoever beheld it. If a sick man entered it, he came forth from it like a raging lion, and tongue avails not to its description, by reason of that which was within it of wonders and rarities which are not found but in Heaven: and how should it be otherwise when its door keeper's name was Rizwan? Though widely different were the stations of those twain! Now when the sons of the merchants had walked about gazing at the garden after taking their pleasure within it, they sat down in one of its pavilions and seated Nur al-Din in their midst.—

When it was the Eight Hundred and Sixty sixth night

one of them said, "There is no harm in them, especially roses, which are not to be resisted" Answered the gardener, "'Tis well, but it is of our wont not to give roses but in exchange for pleasant converse; so whoever would take anything of it, let him recite some verses suitable to the situation." Now they were ten sons of merchants of whom one said, "Agreed: give me of it and I will recite you something of verse apt to the case." Accordingly the gardener gave him a bunch of roses which he took and at once improvised these three couplets:

The Rose in highest stead I rate For that her charms never satiate; All fragrant flow'rs be troops to her Their general of high estate: Where she is not they boast and vaunt; But, when she comes, they stint their prate.

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 275

Then the gardener gave a bunch to another and he recited these two couplets:

Take, O my lord, to you the Rose Recalling scent by musk be shed Like virginette by lover eyed Who with her sleeves enveils head.

Then he gave a bunch to a third who recited these two couplets:

Choice Rose that gladdens heart to see her sight; Of Nadd recalling fragrance exquisite. The branchlets clip her in her leaves for joy, Like kiss of lips that never spoke in spite.

Then he gave a bunch to a fourth and he recited these two couplets:

See not that rosery where Rose a flowering displays Mounted upon her steed of stalk those marvels manifold? As though the bud were ruby stone and girded all around With chrysolite and held within a little hoard of gold.

Then he gave a posy to a fifth and he recited these two couplets:

Wands of green chrysolite bare issue, which Were fruits like ingots of the growing gold And drops, a dropping from its leaves, were like The tears my languorous eyelids railed and rolled.

Then he gave a sixth a bunch and he recited these two couplets:

O Rose, you rare of charms that do contain All gifts and Allah's secrets singular, You'rt like the loved one's cheek where lover fond And glad of Union sticks the gold dinár.

Then he gave a bunch to a seventh and he recited these two couplets:

To Rose I said "What gars your thorns to be put forth For all who touch you cruellest injury?" She said, "These flowery troops are troops of me Who be their lord with spines for armoury."

And he gave an eighth a bunch and he recited these two couplets:

Allah save the Rose which yellows a morn Florid, vivid and like the nugget ore; And bless the fair sprays that displayed such flowers And mimic suns goldbegilded bore.

Then he gave a bunch to a ninth and he recited these two couplets

The bushes of golden hued Rose excite, In the love sick lover joys manifold: 'Tis a marvel shrub watered every day With silvern lymph and it fruits gold.

Then he gave a bunch of roses to the tenth and last and he recited these two couplets:

See not how the hosts of the Rose display Red hues and yellow in rosy field? I compare the Rose and her arming thorn To emerald lance piercing golden shield.

And whilst each one seized bunch in hand, the gardener brought the wine service and setting it before them, on a tray of porcelain arabesqued with red gold, recited these two couplets:

Dawn heralds day light: so wine pass round, Old wine, fooling sage till his wits he tyne: Know I not for its purest clarity An 'tis wine in cup or 'tis cup in wine.

Then the gardener filled and drank and the cup went round, till it came to Nur al-Din's turn, whereupon the man filled and handed it to him; but he said, "This thing I know it not nor have I ever drunken of it, for within it is great offence and the Lord of All might has forbidden it in His Book."

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 277

Answered the gardener, "O my Lord Nur al-Din, If you forbear to drink only by reason of the sin, truly Allah (extolled and exalted be He!) is bountiful, of sufferance great, forgiving and compassionate and pardons the mortalest sins: His mercy embracs all things, Allah's ruth be upon the poet who says:

Be as you will, for Allah is bountiful And when you sinnest feel you nothing alarm: But 'ware of twofold sins nor ever dare To give God partner or mankind to harm.

Then one of the sons of the merchants said, "My life on you, O my lord Nur al-Din, drink of this cup!" And another conjured him by the oath of divorce and yet another stood up persistently before him, till he was ashamed and taking the cup from the gardener, drank a draught, but spat it out again, crying, "'Tis bitter." Said the young gardener," O my lord Nur al-Din, know you not that sweets taken by way of medicine are bitter? Were this not bitter, 'twould lack of the manifold virtues it possesses; amongst which are that it digests food and disperses cark and care and dispells flatulence and clarifies the blood and clears the complexion and quickens the body and heartens the hen hearted and fortifies the sexual power in man; but to name all its virtues would be tedious. one of the said,poets:

We'll drink and Allah pardon sinners all And cure of ills by sucking cups I'll find: Nor anything the sin deceives me; yet said He "In it there be advantage to mankind."

Then he sprang up without delay and opened one of the cupboards in the pavilion and taking out a loaf of refined sugar, broke off a great slice which he put into Nur al-Din's cup, saying, "O my lord, If you fear to drink wine, because of its bitterness, drink now, for 'tis sweet." So he took the cup and emptied it: whereupon one of his comrades filled him another, saying, "O my lord Nur al-Din, I am your slave," and another did the like, saying, ' I am one of your servants," and a third said, "For my sake!" And a fourth, "in God's name, O my lord Nur al-Din, heal my heart!" And so they did not stop plying him with wine, each and every of the ten sons of merchants till they had made him drink a total of ten cups. Now Nur al-Din's body was virgin of wine bibbing, or never in all his life had he drunken vine juice till that hour, Why its fumes wrought in his brain and drunkenness was stark upon him and he stood up (and indeed his tongue was thick and his speech stammering) and said, "O company, By God, you are fair and your speech is goodly and your place pleasant; but there needs hearing of sweet music; for drink without melody lacks the chief of its essentiality, even as says the poet:

Pass round the cup to the old and the young man, too, And take the bowl from the hand of the shining moon, But without music, I charge you, forbear to drink; I see even horses drink to a whistled tune.

Therewith up sprang the gardener lad and mounting one of the young men's mules, was absent awhile, after which he returned with a Cairene girl, as she were a sheep's tail fat and delicate, or an ingot of pure silvern ore or a dinar on a porcelain plate or a gazelle in the wold forlore. She had a face that put to shame the shining sun and eyes Babylonian and brows like bows bended and cheeks rose painted and teeth pearly hued and lips sugared and glances languishing and breasts ivory white and body slender and slight, full of folds and with dimples dressed and hips like pillows stuffed and thighs like columns of Syrian stone, and between them what was something like a sachet

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 279 of spices in wrapper swathed, the poet of her in these said,couplets:

Had she shown her shape to idolaters' sight, They would gaze on her face and their gods detest: And if in the East to a monk she'd show'd, He'd quit Eastern posture and bow to West. If she crached in the sea and the briniest sea Her lips would give it the sweetest zest.

And another in these said,couplets:

Brighter than Moon at full with kohl'd eyes she came Like Doe, on chasing whelps of Lioness intent: Her night of murky locks lets fall a tent on hero A tent of hair that lacks no pegs to hold the tent; And roses lighting up her roseate cheeks are fed By hearts and livers flowing fire for languishment: An 'spied her all the Age's Fair to her they'd rise Humbly, and cry " The meed belongs to precedent!"

And how well says a third bard:

Three things for ever hinder her to visit us, for fear Of the intriguing spy and eke the rancorous envier; Her forehead's lustre and the sound of all her ornaments And the sweet scent her creases hold of ambergris and myrrh. Grant with the border of her sleeve she hide her brow and doff Her ornaments, how shall she do her scent away from her?

She was like the moon when at fullest on its fourteenth night, and was clad in a garment of blue; with a veil of green, over brow flower white that all wits amazed and those of understanding amated —And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

When it was the Eight Hundred and Sixty seventh night

She said, "I fear disgrace," I said "Cut short This talk, no shift of days your thoughts affray." at which she raised her veil from fairest face And crystal spray on gems began to stray: And I indeed was glad to kiss her cheek, Lest she complain of me on Judgment Day. And at such tide before the Lord on High We first of lovers were redress to pray: So "Lord, prolong this reckoning and review" (Prayed I) "that longer I may sight my may."

Then said the young gardener to her, "Know you, O lady of the fair, brighter than any constellation which illumins air we sought, in bringing you here nothing but that you should entertain with converse this comely youth, my lord Nur al-Din, for he has come to this place only this day." And the girl replied, "Would you had told me, that I might have brought what I have with me!" Rejoined the gardener, "O my lady, I will go and fetch it to you." " As you will," said she: and he, "Give me a token." So she gave him a kerchief and he fared forth in haste and returned after awhile, bearing a green satin bag with slings of gold. The girl took the bag from him and opening it shook it, whereupon there fell thereout two and thirty

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 281 pieces of wood, which she fitted one into other, male into female and female into male till they became a polished lute of Indian workmanship. Then she uncovered her wrists and laying the lute in her lap, bent over it with the bending of mother over babe, and swept the strings with her finger tips; whereupon it moaned and resounded and after its olden home yearned; and it remembered the waters that gave it drink and the earth from where it sprang and in which it grew and it minded the carpenters who cut it and the polishers who polished it and the merchants who made it their merchandise and the ships that shipped it; and it cried and called aloud and moaned and groaned; and it was as if she asked it of all these things and it answered her with the tongue of the case, reciting these couplets:

A tree whilere was I the Bulbul's home To whom for love I bowed my grass green head: They moaned on me, and I their moaning learnt And in that moan my secret all men read: The woodman felled me falling sans offence, And slender lute of me (as view you) made: But, when the fingers smite my strings, they tell How man despite my patience did me dead; Hence boon companions when they hear my moan Distracted grow as though by wine misled: And the Lord softens every heart to me, And I am hurried to the highmost stead: All who in charms excel glad clasp my waist.; Gazelles of languid eyne and Houri maid: Allah never part fond lover from his joy Nor live the loved one who unkindly fled.

Then the girl was silent awhile, but presently taking the lute in lap, again bent over it, as mother bends over child, and preluded in many different modes; then, returning to the first, she sang these couplets:

Would they the lover seek without ado, He to his heavy grief had bid adieu:

With him had vied the Nightingale on bough As one far parted from his lover's view: Rouse you! awake! The Moon lights Union night As tho' such Union woke the Morn anew. This day the blamers take of us no heed And lute strings bid us all our joys ensue. See not how four fold things conjoin in one Rose, myrtle, scents and blooms of golden hue. Yea, here this day the four chief joys unite Drink and dinars, beloved and lover true: So win your worldly joy, for joys go past And nothing but storied tales and legends last.

When Nur al-Din heard the girl sing these lines he looked on her with eyes of love and could scarce contain himself for the violence of his inclination to her; and on like wise was it with her, because she glanced at the company who were present of the sons of the merchants and she saw that Nur al-Din was amongst the rest as moon among stars; for that he was sweet of speech and replete with amorous grace, perfect in stature and symmetry, brightness and loveliness, pure of all defect, than the breeze of morn softer, than Tasnim blander, as says of him the poet:

By his cheeks' unfading damask and his smiling teeth I swear, By the arrows that he feathers with the witchery of his air, By his sides so soft and tender and his glances bright and keen, By the whiteness of his forehead and the blackness of his hair, By his arched imperious eyebrows, chasing slumber from my lids With their yeas and noes that hold me 'twixt rejoicing and despair, By the scorpions that he launches from his ringlet clustered brows, Seeking still to slay his lovers with his rigours unaware, By the myrtle of his whiskers and the roses of his cheek , By his lips' incarnate rubies and his teeth's fine pearls and rare, By the straight and tender sapling of his shape, which for its fruit Does the twin pomegranates, shining in his snowy bosom, wear, By his heavy hips that tremble, both in motion and repose, And the slender waist above them, all too slight their weight to bear, By the silk of his apparel and his quick and sprightly wit, By all attributes of beauty that are fallen to his share; Lo, the musk exhales its fragrance from his breath, and eke the breeze From his scent the perfume borrows, that it scatters everywhere. Yea, the sun in all his splendour cannot with his brightness vie And the crescent moon's a fragment that he from his nails does pare.

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 283

When it was the Eight Hundred and Sixty eighth night

When she heard him thus improvise the girl gazed at him with loving eyes and redoubled in passion and desire for him increased upon her, and indeed she marvelled at his beauty and loveliness, symmetry and grace, so that she could not contain herself, but took the lute in lap again and sang these couplets:

He blames me for casting on him my sight And parts fro' me bearing my life and sprite: He repels me but kens what my heart endures As though Allah himself had inspired the people: I portrayed his portrait in palm of hand And cried to my eyes, "Weep your doleful plight." For neither shall eyes of me spy his like Nor my heart have patience to bear its blight: Why, will I tear you from breast, O Heart As one who regards him with jealous spite. And when say I, "O heart be consoled for pine," 'Tis that heart to none other shall ever incline:

Nur al-Din wondered at the charms of her verse and the elegance of her expression and the sweetness of her voice and the eloquence of her speech and his wit fled for stress of love and longing, and ecstasy and distraction, so that he could not refrain from her a single moment, but bent to her and strained her to his bosom; and she in like manner bowed her form over his and abandoned herself to his embrace and kissed him between the eyes. Then he kissed her on the mouth and played with her at kisses, after the manner of the billing of doves; and she met him with like warmth and did with him as she was done by till the others were distracted and rose to their feet; whereupon Nur al-Din was ashamed and held his hand from her.

Then she took her lute and, preluding thereon in manifold modes, lastly returned to the first and sang these couplets:

A Moon, when he bends him those eyes lay bare A brand that gars gazing gazelle despair: A King, rarest charms are the host of him And his lance like shape men with cane compare: Were his softness of sides to his heart transferred His friend had not suffered such cark and care: Ah for hardest heart and for softest sides! Why not that to these alter, make here go there? O you who accusest my love excuse: Take eternal and leave me the transient share.

When Nur al-Din heard the sweetness of her voice and the rareness of her verse, he inclined to her for delight and could not contain himself for excess of wonderment; so he recited these couplets:

Methought she was the forenoon sun until she donned the veil But lit she fire in vitals mine still flaring fierce and high, How had it hurt her If she deigned return my poor salám With finger tips or even vouchsafed one little wink of eye? The cavalier who spied her face was wholly stupefied By charms that glorify the place and every charm outvie. " Be this the Fair who makes you pine and long for love liesse? Indeed you are excused!" "This is my fairest she;" (I said) Who shot me with the shaft of looks nor deigns to rue my woes Of stranger hood and broken heart and love I must aby: I rose a morn with vanquished heart, to longing love a prey And weep I through the live long day and all the night I cry.

The girl marvelled at his eloquence and elegance and taking her lute, smote thereon with the goodliest of performance, repeating all the melodies, and sang these couplets

By the life o' your face, O you life o' my sprite! I'll never leave your love for despair or delight: When art cruel your vision stands close by my side And the thought of you haunts me when far from sight: O who saddenest my glance albe weeting that I No love but your love will for ever requite? Your cheeks are of Rose and your lips dews are wine; Say, will grudge them to us in this charming site?

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 285 at this Nur al-Din was gladdened with extreme gladness and wondered with the utmost wonder, so he answered her verse with these couplets:

The sun yellowed not in the murk gloom lien But lay pearl enveiled 'neath horizon chine; Nor showed its crest to the eyes of Morn But took refuge from parting with Morning shine. Take my tear drops that trickle as chain on chain And they'll tell my case with the clearest sign, An my tears be likened to Nile flood, like Malak's flooded flat be this love o' mine. She said, "Bring your riches!" I said "Come, take!" "And your sleep?" " Yes, take it from lids of eyne!"

When the girl heard Nur al-Din's words and noted the beauty of his eloquence her senses fled and her wit was dazed and love of him gat hold upon her whole heart. So she pressed him to her bosom and fell to kissing him like the billing of doves, whilst he returned her caresses with successive kisses; but preeminence appertains to precedence. When she had made an end of kissing, she took the lute and recited these couplets:

Alas, alack and well away for blamer's calumny! Whether or not I make my moan or plead or show no plea: O spurner of my love I never of you so hard would deem That I of you should be despised, of you my property. I wont at lovers' love to rail and for their passion chide, But now I glad debase myself to all who rail at you: Yea, only yesterday I wont all amourists to blame But now I pardon hearts that pine for passion's ecstacy; And of my stress of parting stowre on me so heavy weighs At morning prayer to Him I'll cry, "In your name, O All!"

And also these two couplets

His lovers said, "Unless he deign to give us all a drink Of wine, of fine old wine his lips deal in their purity; We to the Lord of Threefold Worlds will pray to grant our prayer And all ex claim with single cry " In your name, O Ali!"

Nur al-Din, hearing these lines and their rhyme, marvelled at the fluency of her tongue and thanked her, praising her grace and passing seductiveness; and the damsel, delighted at his praise, arose without delay and doffing that was upon her of outer dress and trinkets till she was free of all encumbrance sat down on his knees and kissed him between the eyes and on his cheek mole. Then she gave him all she had put off—

When it was the Eight Hundred and Sixty ninth night

She pursued, the girl gave to Nur al-Din all she had doffed, saying, "O beloved of my heart, in very truth the gift is after the measure of the giver." So he accepted this from her and gave it back to her and kissed her on the mouth and cheeks and eyes. When this was ended and done, for nothing is durable save the Living, the Eternal, Provider of the peacock and the owl, Nur al-Din rose from the seance and stood upon his feet, because the darkness was now fallen and the stars shone out; whereupon the damsel to him said, "where away, O my lord?"; and He said, "To my father's home." Then the sons of the merchants conjured him to night with them, but he refused and mounting his she mule, rode, without stopping, till he reached his parent's house, where his mother met him and said to him, "O my son, what has kept you away till this hour? By God, you have troubled myself and your sire by yours absence from us, and our hearts have been occupied with you." Then she came up to him, to kiss him on his mouth, and smelling the fumes of the wine said, "O my son, how is it that, after prayer and worship you have become a wine bibber and a rebel against Him to whom belong creation and commandment?" But Nur al-Din threw himself down on the bed and lay there. Presently, in came his sire and said, "What ails Nur al-Din to lie thus?"; and his mother answered, "'Twould seem his head aches for the air of the garden." So Taj al-Din went up to his son, to ask him of his ailment, and salute him,

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 287 and smelt the reek of wine. Now the merchant loved not wine drinkers; so he said to Nur al-Din, "Woe to you, O my son! Is folly come to such a pass with you, that you drink wine?" When Nur al-Din heard his sire say this, he raised his hand, being yet in his drunkenness, and dealt him a buffet, when by decree of the Decreer the blow lit on his father's right eye which rolled down on his cheek; whereupon he fell a swoon and lay within it awhile. They sprinkled rose water on him till he recovered, when he would have beaten his son; but the mother withheld him, and he swore, by the oath of divorce from his wife that, as soon as morning morrowed, he would assuredly cut off his son's right hand. When she heard her husband's words, her breast was straitened and she feared for her son and did not stop to soothe and appease his sire, till sleep overcame him. Then she waited till moon rise, when she went in to her son, whose drunkenness had now departed from him, and said to him, "O Nur al-Din, what is this foul deed you did with your sire?"

He asked, "And what did I with him?"; and answered she, "You dealt him a buffet on the right eye and struck it out so that it rolled down his check; and he has sworn by the divorce oath that, as soon as morning shall morrow he will without fail cut off your right hand." Nur al-Din repented him of that he had done, whenas repentance profited him nothing, and his mother said to him, "O my son, this penitence will not profit you; nor will anything avail you but that you arise immediately and seek safety in flight: go forth the house privily and take refuge with one of your friends and there what Allah shall do await, for he changes case after case and state upon state." Then she opened a chest and taking out a purse of an hundred dinars said, "O my son, take these dinars and provide your wants therewith, and when they are at an end, O my son, send and let me know of it, that I may send you other than these, and at the same time convey to me news of yourself privily: Perhaps Allah will decree you relief and you will return to your home."

And she farewelled him and wept passing sore, nothing could be more. Thereupon Nur al-Din took the purse of gold and was about to go forth, when he espied a great purse containing a thousand dinars, which his mother had forgotten by the side of the chest. So he took this also and binding the two purses about his middle, set out before dawn threading the streets in the direction of Búlák, where he arrived when day broke and all creatures arose, attesting the unity of Allah the Opener and went forth each of them upon his several business, to win that which Allah had unto him allotted. Reaching Bulak he walked on along the river bank till he sighted a ship with her gangway out and her four anchors made fast to the land. The folk were going up into her and coming down from her, and Nur al-Din, seeing some sailors there standing, asked them where they were bound, and they answered, "To Rosetta city." He said, "Take me with you;" and They said, "Well come, and welcome to, you to you, O goodly one!" So he betook himself directly to the market and buying what he needed of vivers and bedding and covering, returned to the port and went on board the ship, which was ready to sail and tarried with him but a little while before she weighed anchor and fared on, without stopping, till she reached Rosetta, where Nur al-Din saw a small boat going to Alexandria. So he embarked in it and traversing the sea arm of Rosetta fared on till he came to a bridge called Al-Jámí, where he landed and entered Alexandria by the gate called the Gate of the Lote tree. Allah protected him, so that none of those who stood on guard at the gate saw him, and he walked on till he entered the city.—

When it was the Eight Hundred and Seventies night

He said, "'Tis a march town fair."

I said "Is there living within it?" And he, "An the wind blow there."

Or as says one of the poets:

Alexandria's a frontier; Whose dews of lips are sweet and clear; How fair the coming to it is, So one within it no raven speer!

Nur al-Din walked about the city and did not stop walking till he came to the merchants' bazar, from where he passed on to the mart of the money changers and so on in turn to the markets of the confectioners and fruiterers and druggists, marvelling, as he went, at the city, for that the nature of its qualities accorded with its name. As he walked in the druggists' bazar, behold, an old man came down from his shop and saluting him, took him by the hand and carried him to his home. And Nur al-Din saw a fair by street, swept and sprinkled, on which the zephyr blew and made pleasantness pervade it and the leaves of the trees overshaded it. within it stood three houses and at the upper end a mansion, whose foundations were: firm sunk in the water and its walls towered to the confines of the sky. They had swept the space before it and they had sprinkled it freshly; so it exhaled the fragrance of flowers, borne on the zephyr which breathed upon the place; and the scent met there who approached it on such wise as it were one of the gardens of Paradise. And, as they had cleaned and cooled the by street's head, so was the end of it with marble spread. The Shaykh carried

Nur al-Din into the house and setting something of food before him ate with his guest. When they had made an end of eating, the druggist said to him, "When came you here from Cairo?"; and Nur al-Din replied, "This very night, O my father." the old man said, "What is your name? "; and He said, "Ali Nur al-Din." Said the druggist, "O my son, O Nur al-Din, be the triple divorce incumbent on me, If you leave me so long as you abide in this city; and I will set you apart a place in which you may dwell." Nur al-Din asked, "O my lord the Shaykh, let me know more of you"; and the other answered, "Know, O my son, that some years ago I went to Cairo with merchandise, which I sold there and bought other, and I had occasion for a thousand dinars. So your sire Taj al-Din weighed them out for me, all unknowing me, and would take no written word of me, but had patience with me till I returned here and sent him the amount by one of my servants, together with a gift. I saw you, whilst you were little; and, if it please Allah the Most High, I will repay you something of the kindness your father did me."

When Nur al-Din heard the old man's story, he showed joy and pulling out with a smile the purse of a thousand dinars, gave it to his host the Shaykh and said to him, "Take charge of this deposit for me, against I buy me something of merchandise on which to trade." Then he abode some time in Alexandria city taking his pleasure every day in its thoroughfares, eating and drinking and indulging himself with mirth and merriment till he had made an end of the hundred dinars he had kept by way of spending money; whereupon he repaired to the old druggist, to take of him something of the thousand dinars to spend, but found him not in his shop and took a seat within it to await his return. He sat there gazing right and left and amusing himself with watching the merchants and passers by, and as he was thus engaged behold, there came into the bazar a Persian riding on a she mule and carrying behind him a damsel; as she were argent of alloy free or a fish Balti in mimic sea or a doe gazelle on desert lea. Her face outshone the sun in shine and she had witching eyne and breasts of ivory white,

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 291 teeth of marguerite, slender waist and sides dimpled deep and calves like tails of fat sheep; and indeed she was perfect in beauty and loveliness, elegant stature and symmetrical grace, even as says one, describing her:

'Twas as by will of her she was create Nor short nor long, but Beauty's mould and mate: Rose blushes reddest when she sees those cheeks And fruits the bough those marvel charms amate: Moon is her favour, Musk the scent of her Branch is her shape: she passes man's estate: 'Tis even as were she cast in freshest pearl And every limblet shows a moon innate.

Presently, the Persian lighted down from his she mule and making the damsel also dismount loudly summoned the broker and said to him as soon as he came," Take this damsel and cry her for sale in the market." So he took her and leading her to the middlemost of the bazar disappeared for a while and presently he returned with a stool of ebony, inlaid with ivory, and setting it upon the ground, seated her thereon. Then he raised her veil and discovered a face as it were a Median targe or a cluster of pearls: and indeed she was like the full moon, when it fills on its fourteenth night, accomplished in brilliant beauty. As says the poet:

Vied the full moon for folly with her face, But was eclipsed and split for rage full sore; And if the spiring Bán with her contend Perish her hands who load of fuel bore

And how well says another:

Say to the fair in the wroughten veil How have made that monk like worshipper ail?

Light of veil and light of face under it Made the hosts of darkness to fly from bale; And, when came my glance to steal look at cheek, With a meteor shaft the Guard made me quail.

Then said the broker to the merchants, " How much do you bid for the union pearl of the diver and prize quarry of the fowler?" one said, "She is mine for an hundred dinars." And another said, "Two hundred," and a third, "Three hundred"; and they did not stop to bid, one against other, till they made her price nine hundred and fifty dinars, and there the biddings stopped awaiting acceptance and consent.—

When it was the Eight Hundred and Seventy first night

Asked the Persian, "Does she consent to this? I desire to fall in with her wishes, for I sickened on my journey here and this hand maid tended me with all possible tenderness, Why I sware not to sell her but to him whom she should like and approve, and I have put her sale in her own hand. So do you consult her and if she say, I consent, sell her to whom you will: but If she say, No, sell her not." So the broker went up to her and he asked, "O Princess of fair ones, know that your master puts your sale in yours own hands, and your price has reached nine hundred and fifty dinars; do you give me leave to sell you?" She answered, "Show me him who is minded to buy me before clinching the bargain." So he brought her up to one of the merchants a man stricken with years and decrepit; and she looked at him

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 293 a long while, then turned to the broker and said to him, "O broker, are you jinn mad or afflicted in your wit?" he replied, "Why do you ask me this, O Princess of fair ones?"; and she said, "Is it permitted you of Allah to sell the like of me to that decrepit old man, who says of his wife's case these couplets:

she to me said and sore enraged for wounded pride was she, For she in truth had bidden me to that which might not be, "An if you swive me not directly, as one should swive his wife, You be made a cuckold straight, reproach it not to me. Meseems your yard is made of wax, for very flaccidness; For when I rub it with my hand, it softens instantly."

And he said likewise of his yard:

I have a yard that sleeps in base and shameful way When grants my lover boon for which I sue and pray: But when I wake o' mornings all alone in bed, 'Tis glad o' foin and fence and fierce for futter play.

And again quote he of it of his yard

I have a froward yard of temper ill Dishonouring him who shows it most regard: It stands when sleep I, when I stand it sleeps Heaven pity not who pities that yard!

When the old merchant heard this ill flouting from the damsel, he was wroth with wrath exceeding beyond which was no proceeding and said to the broker, "O most ill omened of brokers, you have not brought into the market this ill conditioned wench but to gibe me and make mock of me before the merchants." Then the broker took her aside and said to her, "O my lady, be not wanting in self respect. The Shaykh at whom you did mock is the Syndic of the bazar and Inspector of it and a committee man of the council of the merchants." But she laughed and improvised these two couplets:

It behoves folk who rule in our time, And 'tis one of the duties of magistrateship, To hang up the Wall above his door And beat with a whip the Mohtasib!

Adding, "By God, O my lord, I will not be sold to that old man; so sell me to other than him, for Perhaps he will be abashed at me and vend me again and I shall become a mere servant and it beseems not that I sully myself with menial service; and indeed you know that the matter of my sale is committed to myself." He replied, "I hear and I obey," and carried her to a man which was one of the chief merchants. And when standing close by him the broker asked, "How sayst you, O my lady? Shall I sell you to my lord Sharíf al-Din here for nine hundred and fifty gold pieces?" She looked at him and, seeing him to be an old man with a dyed beard, said to the broker, "Are you silly, that you would sell me to this worn out Father Antic? Am I cotton refuse or threadbare rags that you marchest me about from greybeard to greybeard, each like a wall ready to fall or an Ifrit smitten down of a fire ball? As for the first, the poet had him in mind when he said

"I sought of a fair maid to kiss her lips of coral red, But, "No, by Him who fashioned things from nothingness!" she said. Unto the white of hoary hairs I never had a mind, And shall my mouth be stuffed, indeed, with cotton, before I'm dead?"

And how goodly is the saying of the poet:

The wise have said that white of hair is light that shines and robes The face of man with majesty and light that awes the sight; Yet until hoary seal shall stamp my parting place of hair I hope and pray that same may be black as the blackest night. Albe Time whitened beard of man be like the book he bears When to his Lord he must return, I'd rather 'twere not white,

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 295

And yet goodlier is the saying of another:

A guest has stolen on my head and honour may he lack! The sword a milder deed has done that dared these locks to hack. Avaunt, O Whiteness, in which nothing of brightness gladdens sight You 'rt blacker in the eyes of me than very blackest black!

As for the other, he is a model of wantonness and scurrilousness and a blackener of the face of hoariness; his dye acts the foulest of lies: and the tongue of his case recits these lines:

she to me said "I see you dy'st your hoariness;" and I, "I do but hide it from your sight, O you my ear and eye!" She laughed out mockingly and said, "A wonder 'tis indeed! You so aboundest in deceit that even your hair's a lie."

And how excellent is the saying of the poet:

O you who dyest hoariness with black, That youth wi' you abide, at least in show; Look you, my lot was dyed black whilome And (take my word!) none other hue 'twill grow.

When the old man with dyed beard heard such words from the slave girl, he raged with exceeding rage in fury's last stage and said to the broker, "O most ill omened of brokers, this day you have brought to our market nothing save this gibing baggage to flout at all who are within it, one after other, and fleer at them with flyting verse and idle jest?" And he came down from his shop and smote on the face the, broker who took her an angered and carried her away saying to her, "By God, never in my life saw I a more shameless wench than yourself! You have cut off my daily bread and yours own this day and all the merchants will bear me a grudge on yours account." Then they saw on the way a merchant called Shihab al-Din who bid ten dinars more for her, and the broker he asked leave to sell her to him. She said, "Trot him out that I may see him and question him of a certain thing, which if he have in his house, I will be sold to him; and if not, then not." So the broker left her standing there and going up to Shihab al-Din, said to him, "O my lord, know that damsel tells me she has a mind to ask you somewhat, which If you have, she will be sold to you. Now you have heard what she said to your fellows, the merchants,"—

When it was the Eight Hundred and Seventy second night

the merchant said, "here with her to me." " Hearing and obeying," answered the broker and fetched for the purchaser the damsel, who looked at him and said, "O my lord, Shihab al-Din have you in your house round cushions stuffed with ermine strips?" Replied Shihab al-Din, "Yes, O Princess of fair ones, I have at home half a score such cushions; but I conjure you By God, tell me, what will you do with them?" She said, "I will bear with you till you be asleep, when I will lay them on your mouth and nose and press them down till you die." Then she turned to the broker and said to him, "O you refuse of brokers, It seems to me you are mad, in that you showest me this hour past, first to a pair of grey beards, in each of whom are two faults, and then you proferrest me to my lord Shihab al-Din in which be three defects; firstly, he is dwarfish, secondly, he has a nose which is big, and thirdly, he has a beard which is long. Of him one of the said,poets:

We never heard of people nor yet espied Who amid men three gifts has unified: To wit, a beard one cubit long, a snout Span long and figure tall a finger wide:

And another said,poet:

From the plain of his face springs a minaret Like a bezel of ring on his finger set: Did creation enter that vasty nose No created thing would elsewhere be met.

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 297

When Shihab al-Din heard this, he came down from his shop and seized the broker by the collar, saying, "O scurviest of brokers, what ails you to bring us a damsel to flout and make mock of us, one after other, with her verses and talk that a curse is?" So the broker took her and carried her away from before him and fared, saying, "By God, all my life long, since I have plied this profession never set I eyes on the like of you for unmannerliness nor anything more curst to me than your star, for you have cut off my livelihood this day and I have gained no profit by you save cuffs on the neck nape and catching by the collar!" Then he brought her to the shop of another merchant, owner of negro slaves and white servants, and stationing her before him, said to her, "Will you be sold to this my lord 'Alá al-Din?" She looked at him and seeing him hump backed said, "This is a Gobbo," and the poet of said,him:

Drawn in your shoulders are and spine thrust out, As seeking star which Satan gave the lout; Or as he tasted had first smack of scourge And looked in marvel for a second bout.

And says another on the same theme:

As one of you who mounted mule, A sight for men to ridicule: Is 't not a farce? Who feels surprise An start and bolt with him the mule?

And another on a similar subject:

Oft hunchback adds to his bunchy back Faults which gar folk upon his front look black: Like branch distort and dried by length of days With citrons hanging from it loose and slack.

With this the broker hurried up to her and, carrying her to another merchant, said to her, "Will you be sold to this one?" She looked at him and said, "In very truth this man is blue eyed; how will you sell me to him?" one of the said,poets:

His eyelids sore and bleared Weakness of frame denote: Arise, you folk and see Within his eyes the mote!

Then the broker carried her to another and she looked at him and seeing that he had a long beard, said to the broker, "Fie upon you! This is a ram, whose tail has sprouted from his gullet. Will you sell me to him, O unluckiest of brokers? Have you not heard say: Ali long of beard are little of wits? Indeed, after the measure of the length of the beard is the lack of sense; and this is a well known thing among men of understanding." As says one of the poets:

never was a man with beard grown overlong, Tho' be he therefor reverenced and fear'd, But who the shortness noted in his wits Added to longness noted in his beard.

And Said another:

I have a friend with a beard which God has made to grow to a useless length, It is like unto one of the nights of winter long and dark and cold.

With this the broker took her and turned away with her, and she asked, "where go you with me?" He answered, "Back to your master the Persian; it suffice me what has befallen me because of you this day; for you have been the means of spoiling both my trade and his by yours ill manners." Then she looked about the market right and left, front and rear till, by the decree of the Decreer her eyes fell on Ali Nur al-Din the Cairene. So she gazed at him and saw him to be a comely youth of straight slim form and smooth of face, fourteen years old, rare in beauty and loveliness and elegance and amorous grace like the full moon on the fourteenth night with forehead flower white, and cheeks rosy red, neck like alabaster and teeth than jewels finer and dews of lips sweeter than sugar, even as says of him one of his describers:

Came to match him in beauty and loveliness rare Full moons and gazelles, but I said "Soft fare! Fare softly, gazelles, nor yourselves compare With him and, O Moons, all your pains forbear!"

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 299

And how well says another bard:

Slim waisted loveling, from his hair and brow Men wake a morn in night and light renewed. Blame not the mole that dwells on his cheek For Nu'uman's bloom aye shows spot negro hued.

When the slave girl beheld Nur al-Din he interposed between her and her wits; she fell in love to him with a great and sudden fall and her heart was taken with affection for him;—

When it was the Eight Hundred and Seventy third night

She pursued, when the slave girl beheld Nur al-Din, her heart was taken with affection for him; so she turned to the broker and said to him, "Will not that young merchant who is sitting among the traders in the gown of striped broadcloth bid somewhat more for me?" The broker replied, "O lady of fair ones, that young man is a stranger from Cairo, where his father is chief of the trader guild and surpasses all the merchants and notables of the place. He is but lately come to this our city and lodgs with one of his father's friends; but he has made no bid for you nor more nor less." When the girl heard the broker's words, she drew from her finger a costly signet ring of ruby and said to the man," Carry me to that youth, and if he buy me, this ring shall be yours, in requital of your travail with me this day." The broker rejoiced at this and brought her up to Nur al-Din, and she considered him straitly and found him like the full moon, perfect in loveliness and a model of fine stature and symmetric grace, even as says of him one of his describers:

Waters of beauty over his cheeks flow bright, And rain his glances shafts that sorely smite: Choked are his lovers If he deal disdain's Bitterest draught denaying love delight. His forehead and his stature and my love Are perfect perfected perfection dressed; His raiment folds enfold a lovely neck As crescent moon in collar buttoned tight: His eyne and twinned moles and tears of me Are night that nights to the nightliest night.

His eyebrows and his features and my frame Crescents on crescents are as crescents slight: His pupils pass the wine cup to his friends Which, albe sweet, tastes bitter to my sprite; And to my thirsty throat pure drink he dealt From smiling lips what day we were unite: Then is my blood to him, my death to him His right and rightful and most righteous right.

The girl gazed at Nur al-Din and said, "O my lord, in God's name, am I not beautiful?"; and he replied, "O Princess of fair ones, is there in the world a comelier than you?" She rejoined, "Then why see you all the other merchants bid high for me and art silent nor say a word neither addest one dinar to my price? 'Twould seem I please you not, O my lord!" He said, "O my lady, were I in my own land, I had bought you with all that my hand possesses of monies;" and She said, "O my lord, I said not, Buy me against your will yet, did you but add some what to my price, it would hearten my heart, though you buy me not, so the merchants may say: Were not this girl handsome, that merchant of Cairo had not bidden for her, for the Cairenes are connoisseurs in slave girls." These words abashed Nur al-Din and he blushed and said to the broker, "How high are the biddings for her?" He replied, "Her price has reached nine hundred and sixty dinars, besides brokerage, as for the Sultan's dues, they fall on the seller." Nur al-Din said, "Let me have her for a thousand dinars, brokerage and price." And the damsel hastening to the fore and leaving the broker said" I sell myself to this handsome young man for a thousand dinars." But Nur al-Din held his peace. one said, "We sell to him;" and another, "He deserves her;" and a third, "Accursed, son of accursed, is he who bids and does not buy!"; and a fourth, "By God, they befit each other!" Then, before Nur al-Din could think, the broker fetched Kazis and witnesses, who wrote out a contract of sale and purchase; and the broker handed the paper to Nur al-Din, saying, "Take your slave girl and Allah bless you in her

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 301 for she beseems none but you and none but you beseems her," And he recited these two couplets

Boon Fortune sought him in humblest way And came to him draggle tailed, all a stir: And none is fittest for him but she And none is fittest but he for her.

at this Nur al-Din was abashed before the merchants; so he arose without delay and weighed out the thousand dinars which he had left as a deposit with his father's friend the druggist, and taking the girl, carried her to the house in which the Shaykh had lodged him. When she entered and saw nothing but ragged patched carpets and worn out rugs, she said to him, "O my lord, have I no value to you and am I not worthy that you should bear me to yours own house and home in which are your goods, that you bring me into your servant's lodging? Why do you not carry me to your father's dwelling?" He replied, "By God, O Princess of fair ones, this is my house in which I dwell; but it belongs to an old man, a druggist of this city, who has set it apart for me and lodged me within it. I told you that I was a stranger and that I am of the sons of Cairo city." She rejoined, "O my lord, the least of houses suffice till your return to your native place; but, in God's name, O my lord, go now and fetch us something of roast meat and wine and dried fruit and dessert."

Nur al-Din said, "By God, O Princess of fair ones, I had no money with me but the thousand dinars I paid down to your price nor possess I any other good. The few dirhams I owned were spent by me yesterday." She said, "Have you no friend in the town, of whom you may borrow fifty dirhams and bring them to me, that I may tell you what you will do therewith?" And he said, "I have no intimate but the druggist." Then he betook himself directly to the druggist and said to him, "Peace be with you, O uncle!" He returned his salam and said to him, "O my son, what have you bought for a thousand dinars this day?" Nur al-Din replied, "I have bought a slave girl;" and the oldster rejoined, "O my son, are you mad that you give a thousand dinars for one slave girl? Would I knew what kind of slave girl she is?" Nur al-Din said, "She is a damsel of the children of the Franks;"—

When it was the Eight Hundred and Seventy fourth night

and the Shaykh said, "O my son, the best of the girls of the Franks are to be had in this our town for an hundred dinars, and By God, O my son, they have cheated you in the matter of this damsel! However, If you have taken a fancy to her, lie with her this night and do your will of her and tomorrow morning go down with her to the market and sell her, though you lose by her two hundred dinars, and reckon that you have lost them by shipwreck or have been robbed of them on the road." Nur al-Din replied, "Right is your advice, O uncle, but you know that I had but the thousand dinars wherewith I purchased the damsel, and now I have not a single dirham left to spend; so I desire of your favour and bounty that you lend me fifty dirhams, to provide me as well, till tomorrow, when I will sell her and repay you out of her price." Said the old man, "Willingly, O my son," and counted out to him the fifty dirhams. Then he said to him, "O my son, you are but young in years and the damsel is fair, so Perhaps your heart will be taken with her and it will be grievous to you to vend her.

Now you have nothing to live on and these fifty dirhams will readily be spent and you will come to me and I shall lend you once and twice and thrice, and so on up to ten times; but, If you come to me after this, I will not return your salam and our friendship with your father will end ill." Nur al-Din took the fifty dirhams and returned with them to the damsel, who said to him, "O my lord, go you at once to the market and fetch me twenty dirhams' worth of stained silk of five colours and with the other thirty buy meat and bread and fruit and wine and flowers." So he went to the market and purchasing for her all she sought,

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 303 brought it to her, whereupon she rose and tucking up her sleeves, cooked food after the most skilful fashion, and set it before him. He ate and she ate with him, till they had enough, after which she set on the wine, and she drank and he drank, and she did not stop to ply him with drink and entertain him with discourse, till he became drunken and fell asleep. Thereupon she arose without delay and taking out of her bundle a budget of Táiff leather opened it and drew forth a pair of knitting needles, wherewith she fell to work and did not stop till she had made a beautiful zone, which she folded up in a wrapper after cleaning it and ironing it and laid it under her pillow. Then she doffed her dress till she was mother naked and lying down beside Nur al-Din shampoo'd him till he awoke from his heavy sleep. He found by his side a maiden like virgin silver, softer than silk and delicater than a tail of fatted sheep than standard more conspicuous and goodlier than the red camel, in height five feet tall with breasts firm and full, brows like bended bows, eyes like gazelles' eyes and cheeks like blood red anemones, a slender waist with dimples laced and a navel holding an ounce of the unguent benzoin, thighs like bolsters stuffed with ostrich down, and between them what the tongue fails to set forth and at mention whereof the tears jet forth. Brief it was as it were she to whom the poet alluded in these two couplets:

From her hair is Night, from her forehead Noon From her side face Rose; from her lip wine boon: From her Union Heaven, her Severance Hell: Pearls from her teeth; from her front full Moon.

And how excellent is the saying of another bard:

A Moon she rises, Willow wand she waves Breathes ambergris and gazes a gazelle. Meseems that sorrow wooes my heart and wins And when she wends makes haste within it to dwell. Her face is fairer than the Stars of Wealth And sheeny brows the crescent Moon excel.

And a third said,also:

They shine fullest Moons, unveil Crescent bright; Sway tenderest Branches and turn wild kine; 'Mid which is a Dark eyed for love of whose charms The Sailors would joy to be ground low li'en.

So Nur al-Din turned to her at once and clasping her to his bosom, sucked first her upper lip and then her under lip and slid his tongue between the twain into her mouth. Then he rose to her and found her a pearl unthridden and a filly none but he had ridden. So he abated her maidenhead and had of her amorous delight and there was knitted between them a love bond which might never know breach nor severance. He rained upon her cheeks kisses like the falling of pebbles into water, and struck with stroke upon stroke, like the thrusting of spears in battle brunt; for that Nur al-Din still yearned after clipping of necks and sucking of lips and letting down of tress and pressing of waist and biting of cheek and cavalcading on breast with Cairene buckings and Yamani wrigglings and Abyssinian sobbings and Hindí pamoisons and Nubian lasciviousness and Riff leg liftings and Damiettan moanings and Sa'ídí hotness and Alexandrian languishment and this damsel united in herself all these virtues, together with excess of beauty and loveliness, and indeed she was even as says of her the poet:

This is she I will never forget till I die Nor draw near but to those who to her draw near. A being for semblance like Moon at full Praise her Maker, her Modeller glorify! Tho' be sore my sin seeking love liesse, On esperance day never repent can I; A couplet reciting which none can know Save the youth who in couplets and rhymes shall cry, "None weets love but who bears its load Nor passion, save pleasures and pains he aby."

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 305

So Nur al-Din lay with the damsel through the night in solace and delight,—

When it was the Eight Hundred and Seventy fifth night

Answered she, " O my lord, 'tis the silk you bought yesterday for twenty dirhams. Rise now and go to the Persian bazar and give it to the broker, to cry for sale, and sell it not for less than twenty gold pieces in ready money." Nur al-Din said, "O Princess of fair ones how can a thing, that cost twenty dirhams and will sell for as many dinars, be made in a single night?"; and She said, "O my lord, you know not the value of this thing; but go to the market therewith and give it to the broker, and when he shall cry it, its worth will be made manifest to you. Herewith he carried the zone to the market and gave it to the broker, bidding him cry it, whilst he himself sat down on a masonry bench before a shop. The broker fared forth and returning after a while said to him, "O my lord, rise take the price of your zone, for it has fetched twenty dinars money down." When Nur al-Din heard this, he marvelled with exceeding marvel and shook with delight. Then he rose, between belief and misbelief, to take the money and when he had received it, he went directly and spent it all on silk of various colours and returning home, gave his purchase to the damsel, saying, "Make this all into girdles and teach me likewise how to make them, that I may work with you; for never in the length of my life saw I a fairer craft than this craft nor a more abounding in gain and profit. By God, 'tis better than the trade of a merchant a thousand times!"

She laughed at his language and said, "O my lord, go to your friend the druggist and borrow other thirty dirhams of him, and tomorrow repay him from the price of the girdle the thirty together with the fifty already loaned to you." So he rose and repaired to the druggist and said to him, "O Uncle, lend me other thirty dirhams, and tomorrow, Almighty Allah willing, I will repay you the whole fourscore." The old man weighed him out thirty dirhams, wherewith he went to the market and buying meat and bread, dried fruits, and flowers as before, carried them home to the damsel whose name was Miriam, the Girdle girl. She rose directly and making ready rich meats, set them before her lord Nur al-Din; after which she brought the wine service and they drank and plied each other with drink. When the wine began to play with their wits, his pleasant address and inner grace pleased her, and she recited these two couplets

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 307

Said I to Slim waist who the wine engraced Brought in musk scented bowl and a superfine, "Was it prest from your cheek?" He replied "Nay, nay! When did man from Roses ever press the Wine?"

And the damsel did not stop to carouse with her lord and ply him with cup and bowl and require him to fill for her and give her to drink of that which sweetens the spirits, and whenever he put forth hand to her, she drew back from him, out of coquetry. The Wine added to her beauty and loveliness, and Nur al-Din recited these two couplets:

Slim waist craved wine from her companeer; Cried (in meeting of friends when he feared for his fere,) "If you pass not the wine you will pass the night, A banisht my bed! And he felt sore fear.

They did not stop drinking till drunkenness overpowered Nur al-Din and he slept; whereupon she rose directly and fell to work upon a zone, as was her wont. When she had wrought it to end, she wrapped it in paper and doffing her clothes, lay down by his side and enjoyed dalliance and delight till morn appeared.—

When it was the Eight Hundred and Seventy sixth night

So he went to the bazar and sold the girdle for twenty dinars, after which he repaired to the druggist and paid him back the eighty dirhams, thanking him for his bounties and calling down blessings upon him. He asked, "O my son, have you sold the damsel?"; and Nur al-Din answered, "Would you have me sell the soul out of my body?" and told him all that had passed, from commencement to conclusion, at which the druggist joyed with joy galore, than which could be no more and said to him, "By God, O my son, you gladdenest me! God willing, may you ever be in prosperity! Indeed I wish you well by reason of my affection for your father and the continuance of my friendship with him." Then Nur al-Din left the Shaykh and At once going to the market, bought meat and fruit and wine and all that he needed according to his custom and returned therewith to Miriam. They abode thus a whole year in eating and drinking and mirth and merriment and love and good comradeship, and every night she made a zone and he sold it on the morrow for twenty dinars, wherewith he bought their needs and gave the rest to her, to keep against a time of necessity.

After the year she said to him one day, "O my lord, whenas you sellest the girdle tomorrow, buy for me with its price silk of six colours, because I am minded to make you a kerchief to wear on your shoulders, such as never son of merchant, no, nor King's son, ever rejoiced in its like." So next day he fared forth to the bazar and after selling the zone brought her the dyed silks she sought and Miriam the Girdle girl wrought at the Kerchief a whole week, for, every night, when she had made an end of the zone, she would work awhile at the kerchief till it was finished. Then she gave it to Nur al-Din, who put it on his shoulders and went out to walk in the market place, whilst all the merchants and folk and notables of the town crowded about him, to gaze on his beauty and that of the kerchief which was of the most beautiful. Now it chanced that one night, after this, he awoke from sleep and found Miriam weeping passing sore and reciting these couplets:

Nears my parting fro' my love, nigher draws the Severance day Ah well away for parting! and again ah well away! And in tway is torn my heart and O pine I'm doomed to bear For the nights that erst witnessed our pleasurable play! No help for it but Envier the twain of us espy With evil eye and win to us his lamentable way. For nothing to us is sorer than the jealousy of men And the backbiter's eyne that with calumny affray.

He said, "O my lady Miriam, what ails you to weep?"; and she replied, "I weep for the anguish of parting for my heart presags me of it."

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 309

He said, "O lady of fair ones, and who shall interpose between us, seeing that I love you above all creatures and tender you the most?"; and She said, "And I love you twice as well as you me; but fair opinion of fortune still garrs folk fall into affliction, and right well says the poet:

Think'st you yourself all prosperous, in days which prosp'rous be, Nor fear you impending ill, which comes by Heaven's decree? We see the orbs of heav'n above, how numberless they are, But sun and moon alone eclips'd, and not a lesser star! And many a tree on earth we see, some bare, some leafy green, Of them, not one is hurt with stone save that has fruitful been! See'st not th' refluent ocean, bear carrion on its tide, While pearls beneath its wavy flow, fixed in the deep, abide?

Presently, she added, "O my lord Nur al-Din, If you desire to nonsuit separation, be on your guard against a swart visaged oldster, blind of the right eye and lame of the left leg; for he it is who will be the cause of our severance. I saw him enter the city and I opine that he is come here in quest of me." Replied Nur al-Din, "O lady of fair ones, if my eyes light on him, I will slay him and make an example of him." Rejoined she, "O my lord, slay him not; but talk not nor trade with him, neither buy nor sell with him nor sit nor walk with him nor speak one word to him, no, not even the answer prescribed by law and I pray Allah to preserve us from his craft and his mischief?" Next morning, Nur al-Din took the zone and carried it to the market, where he sat down on a shop bench and talked with the sons of the merchants, till the drowsiness preceding slumber overcame him and he lay down on the bench and fell asleep. Presently, behold, up came the Frank whom the damsel had described to him, in company with seven others, and seeing Nur al-Din lying asleep on the bench, with his head wrapped in the kerchief which Miriam had made for him and the edge of it in his grasp, sat down by him and seized the end of the kerchief in hand and examined it turning it over for some time. Nur al-Din sensed that there was something and awoke; then, seeing the very man of whom Miriam had warned him sitting by his side, cried out at him with a great cry which startled him. the Frank said, "What ailed' you to cry out thus at us? Have we taken from you anything?"; and Nur al-Din said, "By God, O accursed, had you taken anything from me, I would carry you before the Chief of Police!" Then said the Frank, "O Moslem, I conjure you by your faith and by that in which you believest, inform me from where you had this kerchief;" and Nur al-Din replied, "Tis the handiwork of my lady mother,—

When it was the Eight Hundred and Seventy seventh night

She pursued, when the Frank asked Nur al-Din anent the maker of the kerchief, he answered, saying, "In very truth this kerchief is the handiwork of my mother, who made it for me with her own hand." the Frank said," Will you sell it to me and take ready money for it?," and Nur al-Din said, "By God, I will not sell it to you or to any else, for she made none other than it." "Sell it to me and I will give you to its price this very moment five hundred dinars, money down; and let her who made it make you another and a finer." " I will not sell it at all, for there is not the like of it in this city." " O my lord, will you sell it for six hundred ducats of fine gold?" And the Frank went on to add to his offer hundred by hundred, till he bid nine hundred dinars; but Nur al-Din said, "Allah will open to me otherwise than by my vending it. I will never sell it, not for two thousand dinars nor more than that; no, never." The Frank did not stop to tempt him with money, till he bid him a thousand dinars, and the merchants present said, "We sell you the kerchief at that price: pay down the money." Nur al-Din said, "I will not see it, I swear By God!" But one of the merchants said to him, "Know you, O my son,

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 311 that the value of this kerchief is an hundred dinars at most and that to an eager purchaser, and if this Frank pay you down a thousand for it, your profit will be nine hundred dinars, and what gain can you desire greater than this gain? Why 'tis my advice that you sell him this kerchief at that price and bid her who wrought it make you other finer than it: so will you profit nine hundred dinars by this accursed Frank, the enemy of Allah and of The Faith." Nur al-Din was abashed at the merchants and sold the kerchief to the Frank, who, in their presence, paid him down the thousand dinars, with which he would have returned to his handmaid to congratulate her on what had passed; but the stranger said, "Harkye, O company of merchants, stop my lord Nur al-Din, for you and he are my guests this night. I have a jar of old Greek wine and a fat lamb, fresh fruit, flowers and confections; Why do you all cheer me with your company tonight and not one of you tarry behind." So the merchants said, "O my lord Nur al-Din, we desire that you be with us on the like of this night, so we may talk together, we and you, and we pray you, of your favour and bounty, to bear us company, so we and you, may be the guests of this Frank, for he is a liberal man."

And they conjured him by the oath of divorce and hindered him by main force from going home. Then they rose directly and shutting up their shops, took Nur al-Din and fared with the Frank, who brought them to a goodly and spacious saloon, in which were two daises. Here he made them sit and set before them a scarlet tray cloth of goodly workmanship and unique handiwork, wroughten in gold with figures of breaker and broken, lover and beloved, asker and asked, on which he ranged precious vessels of porcelain and crystal, full of the costliest confections, fruits and flowers, and brought them a flagon of old Greek wine. Then he bade slaughter a fat lamb and kindling fire, proceeded to roast of its flesh and feed the merchants therewith and give them draughts of that wine, winking at them the while to ply Nur al-Din with drink. Accordingly they did not stop plying him with wine till he became drunken and took leave of his wits; so when the Frank saw that he was drowned in liquor, he said to him, "O my lord Nur al-Din, you gladdenest us with your company tonight: welcome, and again welcome to you?"

Then he engaged him awhile in talk, till he could draw near to him, when he said, with dissembling speech, "O my lord, Nur al-Din, will you sell me your slave girl, whom you bought in presence of these merchants a year ago for a thousand dinars? I will give you at this moment five thousand gold pieces for her and you will thus make four thousand ducats profit." Nur al-Din refused, but the Frank did not stop to ply him with meat and drink and lure him with lucre, still adding to his offers, till he bid him ten thousand dinars for her; whereupon Nur al-Din, in his drunkenness, said before the merchants, "I sell her to you for ten thousand dinars: hand over the money." At this the Frank rejoiced with joy exceeding and took the merchants to witness the sale. They passed the night in eating and drinking, mirth and merriment, till the morning, when the Frank cried out to his pages, saying, "Bring me the money." So they brought it to him and he counted out ten thousand dinars to Nur al-Din, saying," O my lord, take the price of your slave girl, whom you soldest to me last night, in the presence of these Moslem merchants."

Replied Nur al-Din, "O accursed, I sold you nothing and you lie anent me, for I have no slave girls." the Frank said, "In very truth you did sell her to me and these merchants were witnesses to the bargain." Thereupon all said, "Yes, indeed! You soldest him your slave girl before us for ten thousand dinars, O Nur al-Din and we will all bear witness against you of the sale. Come, take the money and deliver him the girl, and Allah will give you a better than she in her stead. Does it irk you, O Nur al-Din, that you bought the girl for a thousand dinars and have enjoyed for a year and a half her beauty and loveliness and taken your fill of her converse and her favours? Furthermore you have gained some ten thousand golden dinars by the sale of the zones which she made you every day and you soldest for twenty sequins, and after all this you have sold her again at a profit of nine thousand dinars over and above her original price. And as well you deniest the sale and belittlest and make difficulties about the profit! What gain is greater than this gain and what profit would you have profitabler than this profit? If you love her you have had your fill of her all this time: so take the money and buy you another handsomer than she; or we will marry you to one of our daughters, lovelier than she, at a dowry of less than half this price, and the rest of the money will remain in your hand as capital." And the merchants did not stop to ply him with persuasion and specious arguments till he took the ten thousand dinars, the price

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 313 of the damsel, and the Frank At once fetched Kazis and witnesses, who drew up the contract of sale by Nur al-Din of the handmaid called Miriam the Girdle girl. Such was his case; but as regards the damsel's, she sat awaiting her lord from morning till sundown and from sundown till the noon of night; and when he returned not, she was troubled and wept with sore weeping. The old druggist heard her sobbing and sent his wife, who went in to her and finding her in tears, said to her, "O my lady, what ails you to weep?" She said, "O my mother, I have sat waiting the return of my lord, Nur al-Din all day; but he comes not, and I fear lest some one have played a trick on him, to make him sell me, and he have fallen into the snare and sold me."—

When it was the Eight Hundred and Seventy eighth night

Said the other, "O my lady Miriam, were they to give your lord this hall full of gold as your price, yet would he not sell you, for what I know of his love to you. But, O my lady, Perhaps there be a company come from his parents at Cairo and he has made them an entertainment in the lodging where they alighted, being ashamed to bring them here, for that the place is not spacious enough for them or because their condition is less than that he should bring them to his own house; or Perhaps he preferred to conceal yours affair from them, so passed the night with them; and God willing! Tomorrow he will come to you safe and sound. So burden not your soul with cark and care, O my lady, for of a certainty this is the cause of his absence from you last night and I will abide with you this coming night and comfort you, until your lord return to you." So the druggist's wife abode with her and cheered her with talk throughout the dark hours and, when it was morning, Miriam saw her lord enter the street followed by the Frank and In the very middle of a company of merchants, at which sight her side muscles quivered and her colour changed and she fell a shaking, as ship shaks in mid ocean for the violence of the gale. When the druggist's wife saw this, she said to her,

"O my lady Miriam what ails you that I see your case changed and your face grown pale and show disfeatured?" she replied, "By God, O my lady, my heart forebods me of parting and severance of union!" And she bemoaned herself with the saddest sighs, reciting these couplets:—

Incline not to parting, I pray; For bitter its savour is aye. even the sun at his setting turns pale To think he must part from the day; And so, at his rising, for joy Of reunion, he's radient and gay.

Then Miriam wept passing sore wherethan nothing could be more, making sure of separation, and cried to the druggist's wife, "O my mother, said I not to you that my lord Nur al-Din had been tricked into selling me? I doubt not but he has sold me this night to that Frank, albeit I bade him beware of him; but deliberation avails not against destiny. So the truth of my words is made manifest to you." Whilst they were talking, behold, in came Nur al-Din, and the damsel looked at him and saw that his colour was changed and that he trembled and there appeared on his face signs of grief and repentance: so she said to him, "O my lord Nur al-Din, It seems to me you have sold me." Whereupon he wept with sore weeping and groaned and lamented and recited these couplets:

When ever the Lord 'gainst any man, Would fulminate some harsh decree, And he be wise, and skilled to hear, And used to see; He stops his ears, and blinds his heart, And from his brain ill judgment tears, And makes it bald as 'twere a scalp, Reft of its hairs; Until the time when the whole man Be pierced by this divine command; Then He restores him intellect To understand.

Then Nur al-Din began to excuse himself to his handmaid, saying,

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 315

"By God, O my lady Miriam, truly runs the Reed with whatever Allah has decreed. The folk put a cheat on me to make me sell you, and I fell into the snare and sold you. Indeed, I have sorely failed of my duty to you; but Perhaps He who decreed our disunion will vouchsafe us reunion." She said, "I warned you against this, for this it was I dreaded." Then she strained him to her bosom and kissed him between the eyes, reciting these couplets

Now, by your love! your love I'll never forget, Though lost my life for stress of pine and fret: I weep and wail through livelong day and night As moans the dove on sandhill tree beset. O fairest friends, your absence spoils my life; Nor find I meeting place as erst we met.

At this juncture, behold, the Frank came in to them and went up to Miriam, to kiss her hands; but she dealt him a buffet with her palm on the cheek, saying, "Avaunt, O accursed! You have followed after me without surcease, till you have cozened my lord into selling me! But O accursed, all shall yet be well, God willing!" The Frank laughed at her speech and wondered at her deed and excused himself to her, saying, "O my lady Miriam, what is my offence? Your lord Nur al-Din here sold you of his full consent and of his own free will. Had he loved you, by the right of the Messiah, he had not transgressed against you! And had he not fulfilled his desire of you, he had not sold you." one of the poets said,:

Whom I irk let him fly fro' me fast and faster If I name his name I am no directer. Nor the wide wide world is to me so narrow That I act expecter to this rejecter.

Now this handmaid was the daughter of the King of France, the which is a wide and spacious city, abounding in manufactures and rarities and trees and flowers and other growths, and resembls the city of Constantinople; and for her going forth of her father's city there was a wondrous cause and by that hangs a marvellous tale which we will set out in due order, to divert and delight the hearer

When it was the Eight Hundred and Seventy ninth night

She said, "O my lord, I ask of you that you sell me not but to the man of my choice." He answered, "So be it. I guarantee you. By God, O Miriam, I will not sell you but to him of whom you will approve, and I put your sale in yours own hand." And she rejoiced in this with joy exceeding. Now the Persian had expounded to her Al-Islam and she became a Moslemah and learnt of him the rules of worship. Furthermore during that period the Persian had taught her the tenets of The Faith and the observances incumbent upon her: he had made her learn the Koran by heart and master something of the theological sciences and the traditions of the Prophet; after which, he brought her to Alexandria city and sold her to Nur al-Din, as we have before set out. Meanwhile, when her father, the King of France, heard what had befallen his daughter and her company, he saw Doomsday break and sent after her ships full of knights and champions, horsemen and footmen; but they fell not in any trace of her whom they sought in the Islands of the Moslems; so all returned to him, crying out and saying, "Well away!"

And " Ruin!" And " Well worth the day!" The King grieved for her with exceeding grief and sent after her that one eyed lameter, blind of the left, for that he was his chief Wazir, a stubborn tyrant and a froward devil, full of craft and guile, bidding him make search for her in all the lands of the Moslems and buy her, though with a ship load of gold. So the accursed sought her, in all the islands of the Arabs and all the cities of the Moslems, but found no sign of her till he came to Alexandria city where he made quest for her and presently discovered that she was with Nur al-Din Ali the Cairene, being directed to the trace of her by the kerchief aforesaid, for that none could have wrought it in such goodly guise but she. Then he bribed the merchants to help him in getting her from Nur al-Din and beguiled her lord into selling her, as has been already related. When he had her in his possession, she did not stop to weep and wail: so he said to her, "O my lady Miriam, put away from you this mourning and grieving and return with me to the city of your sire, the seat of your kingship and the place of your power and your home, so you may be among your servants and attendants and be quit of this abasement and this stranger hood. Enough has happened me of travail, of travel and of disbursing monies on yours account, for your father bade me buy you back, though with a shipload of gold; and now I have spent near a year and a half in seeking you."

And he fell to kissing her hands and feet and humbling himself to her; but the more he kissed and grovelled she only redoubled in wrath against him, and said to him, "O accursed, may Almighty Allah not vouchsafe you to win your wish!" Presently, his pages brought her a she mule with gold embroidered housings and mounting her thereon, raised over her head a silken canopy, with staves of gold and silver, and the Franks walked round about her, till they brought her forth the city by the sea gate, where they took boat with her and rowing out to a great ship in harbour embarked within it. Then the monocular Wazir cried out to the sailors, saying, "Up with the mast!" So they set it up directly and spreading the newly bent sails and the colours manned the sweeps and put out to sea. Meanwhile Miriam continued to gaze upon Alexandria, till it disappeared from her eyes,

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 319 when she fell a weeping in her privacy with sore weeping—

When it was the Eight Hundred and Eighties night

And burn my liver hottest coals of passion And parting on my heart sore suffering wreaks. How shall I face this fiery love concealing When fro' my wounded lids the tear aye leaks?

In this plight Miriam abode during all the voyage; no peace was left her at all nor would patience come at her call. Such was her case in company with the Wazir, the monocular, the lameter; but as regards Nur al-Din the Cairene, when the ship had sailed with Miriam, the world was straitened upon him and he had neither peace nor patience. He returned to the lodging where they twain had dwelt, and its aspect was black and gloomy in his sight. Then he saw the metier wherewith she had been wont to make the zones and her dress that had been upon her beauteous body: so he pressed them to his breast, whilst the tears gushed from his eyes and he recited these couplets

Say me, will Union after parting ever return to be After long lasting torments, after hopeless misery? Alas! Alas! what wont to be shall never more return But grant me still return of dearest her these eyne may see. I wonder me will Allah deign our parted lives unite And will my dear one's plighted troth preserve with constancy! nothing am I save the prey of death since parting parted us; And will my friends consent that I a weird so deadly dree? Alas my sorrow! Sorrowing the lover scant avails; Indeed I melt away in grief and passion's ecstacy: Past is the time of my delight when were we two conjoined: Would Heaven I know if Destiny my esperance will degree! Redouble then, O Heart, your pains and, O my eyes, o'erflow With tears till not a tear remain within these eyne of me? Again alas for loved ones lost and loss of patience eke! For helpers fail me and my griefs are grown beyond decree. The Lord of Threefold Worlds I pray He deign to me return My lover and we meet as wont in joy and jubilee.

Then Nur al-Din wept with weeping galore than which nothing could be more; and peering into every corner of the room, recited these two couplets:

I view their traces and with pain I pine And by their sometime home I weep and yearn; And Him I pray who parting deigned decree Some day He deign vouchsafe me their return!

Then Nur al-Din sprang to his feet and locking the door of the house, fared forth running at speed, to the sea shore from where he fixed his eyes on the place of the ship which had carried off his Miriam whilst sighs burst from his breast and tears from his lids as he recited these couplets

Peace be with you, sans you nothing compensats me The near, the far, two cases only here I see: I yearn for you at every hour and tide as yearns For water place wayfarer plodding wearily.

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 321

With you abide my hearing, heart and eyen sight And (sweeter than the, honeycomb) your memory. Then, O my Grief when fared afar your retinue And bore that ship away my sole expectancy.

And Nur al-Din wept and wailed, bemoaned himself and complained, crying out and saying, "O Miriam! O Miriam! Was it but a vision of you I saw in sleep or in the allusions of dreams?" And by reason of that which grew on him of regrets, he recited these couplets

Mazed with your love no more I can feign patience, This heart of mine has held none dear but you! And if my eye has gazed on other's beauty, never be it joyed again with sight of you! I've sworn an oath I'll never forget to love you, And sad's this breast that pines to meet with you! You'st made me drink a love cup full of passion, Blest time! When I may give the draught to you! Take with you this my form where'er you go, And when you 'rt dead let me be laid near you! Call on me in my tomb, my bones shall answer And sigh responses to a call from you! If it were asked, "What would you Heaven should order?" "His will," I answer, "First, and then what pleases you."

As Nur al-Din was in this case, weeping and crying out, "O Miriam! O Miriam!" Behold, an old man landed from a vessel and coming up to him, saw him shedding tears and heard him reciting these verses:

O Maryam of beauty return, for these eyne Are as densest clouds railing drops in line: Ask amid mankind and my railers shall say That my eyelids are drowning these eyeballs of mine.

Said the old man, "O my son, meseems you weepest for the damsel who sailed yesterday with the Frank?" When Nur al-Din heard these words of the Shaykh he fell down in a swoon and lay for a long while without life; then, coming to himself, he wept with sore weeping and improvised these couplets:

Shall we ever be unite after severance tide And return in the perfectest cheer to bide; In my heart indeed is a Lowe of 'love And I'm pained by the spies who my pain deride: My days I pass in amaze distraught, And her image a nights I would see by side: By God, no hour brings me solace of love And how can it when makebates vex me and chide? A soft sided damsel of slenderest waist Her arrows of eyne on my heart has plied? Her form is like Bán tree branch in garth Shame her charms the sun who his face most hide: Did I not fear God (be He glorified!) " My Fair be glorified!" Had I cried.

The old man looked at him and noting his beauty and grace and symmetry and the fluency of his tongue and the seductiveness of his charms, had ruth on him and his heart mourned for his case. Now that Shaykh was the captain of a ship, bound to the damsel's city; and in this ship were a hundred Moslem merchants, men of the Saving Faith; so he said to Nur al-Din, "Have patience and all will yet be well; I will bring you to her If it be the will of Allah, extolled and exalted be He!—

When it was the Eight Hundred and Eighty first night

She pursued, when the old skipper said to Nur al-Din, "I will bring you to her, God willing!" The youth asked, "When shall we set out?" and the other said, "Come but three days more and we will depart in peace and prosperity." Nur al-Din rejoiced at the captain's words with joy exceeding and thanked him for his bounty and

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 323 benevolence. Then he recalled the days of love liesse dear and union with his slave girl without peer, and he shed bitter tears and recited these couplets:

Say, will to me and you the Ruthful union show My lords! Shall ever I win the wish of me or no? A visit boon by you will shifty Time vouchsafe? And seize your image eyelids which so hungry grow? With you were Union to be sold, I Gladly would buy; But ah, I see such grace does all my means outgo!

Then Nur al-Din went directly to the market and bought what he needed of vitiacum and other necessaries for the voyage and returned to the Rais, who said to him, "O my son, what is that you have with you?" he said, "My provisions and all whereof I have need for the voyage." Thereupon the old man said laughing," O my son, are you going a pleasuring to Pompey's Pillar? truly, between you and that you seek is two months' journey an the wind be fair and the weather favourable." Then he took of him something of money and going to the bazar, bought him a sufficiency of all that he needed for the voyage and filled him a large earthen jar with fresh water. Nur al-Din abode in the ship three days until the merchants had made an end of their precautions and preparations and embarked, when they set sail and putting out to sea, fared on one and fifty days. After this, there came out upon them corsairs, pirates who sacked the ship and taking Nur al-Din and all within it prisoners, carried them to the city of France and paraded them before the King, who bade cast them into jail, Nur al-Din amongst the number. As they were being led to prison the galleon arrived with the Princess Miriam and the one eyed Wazir, and when it made the harbour, the lameter landed and going up to the King gave him the glad news of his daughter's safe return: whereupon they beat the kettledrums for good tidings and decorated the city after the goodliest fashion, Then the King took horse, with all his guards and lords and notables and rode down to the sea to meet her. The moment the ship cast anchor she came ashore, and the King saluted her and embraced her and mounting her on a blood steed, bore her to the palace, where her mother received her with open arms, and he asked of her case and whether she was a maid as before or whether she had become a woman carnally known by man. She replied, "O my mother, how should a girl, who has been sold from merchant to merchant in the land of Moslems, a slave commanded, abide a virgin?

The merchant who bought me threatened me with the bastinado and violenced me and took my maidenhead, after which he sold me to another and he again to a third." When the Queen heard these her words, the light in her eyes became night and she repeated her confession to the King who was chagrined at that and his affair was grievous to him. So he expounded her case to his Grandees and Patricians who said to him, "O King, she has been defiled by the Moslems and nothing will purify her save the striking off of an hundred Mohammedan heads." Whereupon the King sent for the True Believers he had imprisoned; and they decapitated them, one after another, beginning with the captain, till none was left save Nur al-Din. They tare off a strip of his skirt and binding his eyes therewith, led him to the rug of blood and were about to smite his neck, when behold, an ancient dame came up to the King at that very moment and said, "O my lord, you did vow to bestow upon each and every church five Moslem captives, to help us in the service of it, so Allah would restore you your daughter the Princess Miriam; and now she is restored to you, so do you fulfil your vow."

The King replied, "O my mother, by the virtue of the Messiah and the Veritable Faith, there remains to me of the prisoners but this one captive, whom they are about to put to death: so take him with you to help in the service of the church, till there come to me more prisoners of the Moslems, when I will send you other four. Had you come earlier, before they hewed off the heads of these, I had given you as many as you would have." The old woman thanked the King for his boon and wished him continuance of life, glory and prosperity. Then without loss of time she went up to Nur al-Din,

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 325 whom she raised from the rug of blood; and, looking narrowly at him saw a comely youth and a dainty, with a delicate skin and a face like the moon at her full; whereupon she carried him to the church and said to him, "O my son, doff these clothes which are upon you, for they are fit only for the service of the Sultan" So saying the ancient dame brought him a gown and hood of black wool and a broad girdle in which she clad and cowled him; and, after binding on his belt, bade him do the service of the church. Accordingly, he served the church seven days, at the end of which time behold, the old woman came up to him and said, "O Moslem, don your silken dress and take these ten dirhams and go out directly and divert yourself abroad this day, and tarry not here a single moment, lest you lose your life." He said, "What is to do, O my mother?"; and She said, "Know, O my son, that the King's daughter, the Princess Miriam the Girdle girl, has a mind to visit the church this day, to seek a blessing by pilgrimage and to make oblation thereto, a douceur of thank offering for her deliverance from the land of the Moslems and in fulfilment of the vows she vowed to the Messiah, so he would save her. With her are four hundred damsels, not one of whom but is perfect in beauty and loveliness and all of them are daughters of Wazirs and Emirs and Grandees: they will be here during this very hour and if their eyes fall on you in this church, they will hew you in pieces with swords." Thereupon Nur al-Din took the ten dirhams from the ancient dame, and donning his own dress, went out to the bazar and walked about the city and took his pleasure within it, till he knew its highways and gates,—

When it was the Eight Hundred and Eighty second night

When the damsels heard his outcry they ran at him with swords shining bright like flashes of leven light and would have slain him' directly. But the Princess turned and looking on him, knew him with fullest knowledge, and said to her maidens, "Leave this youth; doubtless he is mad, for the signs of madness be manifest on his face." When Nur al-Din heard this, he uncovered his head and rolled his eyes and made signs with his hands and twisted his legs, foaming the while at the mouth. the Princess said, "Said I not that the poor youth was mad? Bring him to me and stand off from him, that I may hear what he says; for I know the speech of the Arabs and will look into his case and see if his madness admit of cure or not" So they laid hold of him and brought him to her; after which they withdrew to a distance and she said to him," Have you come here on my account and ventured your life for my sake and feignest yourself mad?" He replied, "O my lady, have you not heard the saying of the poet?:

They said, "You'rt surely raving mad for her you lov'st;" and I, "There is no pleasantness in life but for the mad," reply. Compare my madness with herself for whom I rave; if she Accord therewith, then blame me not for that which I aby.

Miriam replied, "By God, O Nur al-Din, indeed you have sinned against yourself, for I warned you of this before it befell you: yet would you not hearken to me, but followedst yours own lust: albeit that whereof I gave you to know I learnt not by means of inspiration nor physiognomy nor dreams, but by eye witness and very sight; for I saw the one eyed Wazir and knew

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 327 that he was not come to Alexandria but in quest of me." He said, "O my lady Miriam, we seek refuge with Allah from the error of the intelligent!" Then his affliction redoubled on him and he recited this saying:

Pass over my fault, for 'tis the wise man's wont Of other's sins to take no harsh account; And as all crimes have made my breast their site, So yours all shapes of mercy should unite. Who from above would mercy seek to know, Should first be merciful to those below.

Then Nur al-Din and Princess Miriam did not stop from lovers' chiding which to trace would be tedious, relating each to other that which had befallen them and reciting verses and making moan, one to other, of the violence of passion and the pangs of pine and desire, whilst the tears ran down their cheeks like rivers, till there was left them no strength to say a word and so they continued till day departed and night darkened. Now the Princess was clad in a green dress, purfled with red gold and broidered with pearls and gems which enhanced her beauty and loveliness and inner grace; and right well the poet of said,her:

Like the full moon she shins in garments all of green,. With loosened vest and collars and flowing hair beseen. " What is your name?" I he asked, and she replied, "I'm she Who roasts the hearts of lovers on coals of love and teen. I am the pure white silver, ay, and the gold wherewith The bondmen from strait prison and dour released been." I said " I'm all with rigours consumed;" but "On a rock," Said she, "such as my heart is, your plaints are wasted clean." "Even if your heart," I answered, "be rock in very deed, Yet has God caused fair water well from the rock, I ween."

And when night darkened on them the Lady Miriam went up to her women and asked them, "Have you locked the door?"; and they answered, "Indeed we have locked it." So she took them and went with them to a place called the Chapel of the Lady Mary the Virgin. Mother of Light, because the

Nazarenes hold that there are her heart and soul. The girls betook themselves to prayer for blessings from above and circuited all the church; and when they had made an end of their visitation, the Princess turned to them and said, "I desire to pass the night alone in the Virgin's chapel and seek a blessing of it, for that yearning after it has happened me, by reason of my long absence in the land of the Moslems; and as for you, when you have made an end of your visitation, do you sleep whereso you will." Replied they, "With love and gladly: be it as you will!"; and leaving her alone in the chapel, dispersed about the church and slept. The Lady Miriam waited till they were out of sight and hearing, then went in search of Nur al-Din, whom she found sitting in a corner on live coals, awaiting her. He rose and kissed her hands and feet and she sat down and seated him by her side. Then she pulled off all that was upon her of raiment and ornaments and fine linen and taking Nur al-Din in her arms strained him to her bosom. And they did not stop, she and he, from kissing and clipping and strumming to the tune of "hocus pocus," saying the while, "How short are the nights of Union and the nights of Disunion how long are they!" And reciting these verses

O Night of Union, Time's virginal prize, White star of the Nights with auroral dyes, You garrest Dawn after Noon to rise Say are you Kohl in Morning's Eyes, Or were you Slumber to bleared eye gladly? O Night of Parting, how long your stay Whose latest hours aye the first portray, This endless circle that noways may Show breach till the coming of Judgment day, Day when dies the lover of parting grief.

As they were in this mighty delight and joy engrossing they heard one of the servants of the Saint smite the gong, upon the roof, to call the folk

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 329 to the rites of their worship, and he was even as says the poet;

I saw him strike the gong and asked of him At once, " Who made the Fawn at striking gong so knowing, eh?" And to my soul, "What smiting irks you the more Striking the gong or striking note of going, say?"

When it was the Eight Hundred and Eighty third night

I swear if but one day of rule were given to my life And I were made an Emperor of majesty and might, Adown I'd break the buttresses of churches one and all And by their slaughter rid the earth of every shaveling people.

Then the Lady Miriam pressed him to her bosom and kissed his cheek and asked him, "O Nur al-Din, how long have you been in this town?" "Seven days." "Have you walked about in it, and do you know its ways and issues and its sea gates and land gates?" "Yes!" " Know you the way to the offertory chest of the church?" " Yes!" "Since you know all this, as soon as the first third of the coming night is over, go to the offertory chest and take thence what you wish and willest. Then open the door that gives upon the tunnel leading to the sea, and go down to the harbour, where you will find a little ship and ten men within it, and when the Rais shall see you, he will put out his hand to you. Give him your hand and he will take you up into the ship, and do you wait there till I come to you. But 'ware and have a care lest sleep overtake you this night, or you will repent whenas repentance shall avail you nothing." Then the Princess farewelled him and going forth from Nur al-Din, aroused from sleep her women and the rest of the damsels, with whom she betook herself to the church door and knocked; whereupon the ancient dame opened to her and she went forth and found the knights and varlets standing without. They brought her a dapple she mule and she mounted: whereupon they raised over her head a canopy with curtains of silk, and the knights took hold of the mule's halter.

Then the guards encompassed her about drawn brand in hand and fared on with her, followed by her, till they brought her to the palace of the King her father. Meanwhile, Nur al-Din abode concealed behind the curtain, under cover of which Miriam and he had passed the night till it was broad day, when the main door was opened and the church became full of people. Then he mingled with the folk and accosted the old Prioress, the guardian of the shrine, who said to him, "Where did you lie last night?" He said, "In the town as you bade me." She said, "O my son, you have done the right thing; for, had you nighted in the Church, she had slain you on the foulest wise." And He said, "Praised be Allah who has delivered me from the evil of this night!" Then he busied himself with the service of the church and

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 331 did not stop busying till day departed and night with darkness starkened when he arose and opened the offertory chest and took thence of jewels whatever was light of weight and weighty of worth. Then he tarried till the first watch of the night was past, when he made his way to the postern of the tunnel and opening it, went forth, calling on Allah for protection, and did not stop faring on until, after finding and opening the door, he came to the sea. Here he discovered the vessel moored to the shore near the gate; and her skipper, a tall old man of comely aspect with a long beard, standing in the waist, his ten men being ranged before him. Nur al-Din gave him his hand, as Miriam had bidden him, and the captain took it and pulling him on board of the ship cried out to his crew, saying, "Cast off the moorings and put out to sea with us, before day break." Said one of the ten, "O my lord the Captain, how shall we put out now, when the King has notified us that tomorrow he will embark in this ship and go round about the sea, being fearful for his daughter Miriam from the Moslem thieves?"

But the Rais cried out at them saying, "Woe to you, O accursed; Dare you gainsay me and bandy words with me?" So saying the old captain bared his blade and with it dealt the sailor who had spoken a thrust in the throat, that the steel came out gleaming from his nape, and another of the sailors said, "What has our comrade done of crime, that you should cut his throat?" Thereupon the captain clapped hand to sword and smote off the speaker's head, nor did he leave smiting the rest of the sailors, till he had slain them all, one after other, and cast the ten bodies ashore. Then he turned to Nur al-Din and cried out at him with a terrible great cry, that made him tremble, saying, "Go down and pull up the mooring stake." Nur al-Din feared lest he should strike him also with the sword; so he sprang up and leapt ashore and pulling up the stake jumped aboard again, swiftlier than the dazzling leven. The captain did not stop to bid him do this and do that and tack and wear here and there and look at the stars, and Nur al-Din did all that he bade him, with heart a quaking for affright; whilst he himself spread the sails, and the ship fared with the twain into the dashing sea, swollen with clashing billows.—

When it was the Eight Hundred and Eighty fourth night

Then love and gladness agitated him and he made sure of winning to his hopes and his expectancy; Why he broke out into song and chanted these couplets:

To all who unknown my love for the May From whom Fate disjoins me O say, I pray, "Ask my kith and kin of my love that aye Ensweetens my verses to lovely lay: For the loss of the tribesmen my life over sway!" Their names when named heal all malady; Cure and chase from heart every pain I dree: And my longings for love reach so high degree That my Sprite is maddened each morn I see, And am grown of the crowd to be saw and say. No blame in them will I ever espy: No! nor anything of solace sans them descry: Your love has shot me with pine, and I Bear in heart a flame that shall never die, But fire my liver with fiery ray. All folk my sickness for marvel score That in darkest night I wake evermore What ails them to torture, this heart forlore And deem right for loving my blood t' outpour: And yet—how justly unjust are they!

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 333

Would I know who 'twas could obtain of you To wrong a youth who's so glad of you: By my life and by Him who made men of you And the spy tell anything I complain of you He lies, By God, in foulest way! May the Lord my sickness never dispel, Nor ever my heart of its pains be well, What day I regret that in love I fell Or laud any land but in which you dwell: Wring my heart and you will or make glad and gay! I have vitals shall ever be true to you Though racked by the rigours not new to you before this wrong and this right I but sue to you: Do what you will to thrall who to you Shall never grudge his life at your feet to lay.

When Nur al-Din ceased to sing, the Princess Miriam marvelled at his song and thanked him therefor, saying, "whoever's case is thus it behoves him to walk the ways of men and never do the deed of curs and cowards." Now she was stout of heart and cunning in the sailing of ships over the salt sea, and she knew all the winds and their shiftings and every course of the main. So Nur al-Din said, "O my lady, had you prolonged this case on me, I had surely died for stress of affright and chagrin, more by token of the fire of passion and love longing and the cruel pangs of separation." She laughed at his speech and rising without delay brought out something of food and liquor; and they ate and drank and enjoyed themselves and made merry. Then she drew forth rubies and other gems and precious stones and costly trinkets of gold and silver and all manner things of price, light of weight and weighty of worth, which she had taken from the palace of her sire and his treasuries, and displayed them to Nur al-Din, who rejoiced within it with joy exceeding. All this while the wind blew fair for them and merrily sailed the ship nor ceased sailing till they drew near the city of Alexandria and sighted its landmarks, old and new, and Pompey's Pillar. When they made the port Nur al-Din landed directly and securing the ship to one of the

Fulling Stones, took something of the treasures that Miriam had brought with her, and said to her, "O my lady, tarry in the ship, against I return and carry you up into the city in such way as I should wish and will." She said, "It behoves that this be done quickly, for tardiness in affairs engenders repentance." He said, "There is no tardiness in me;" and, leaving her in the ship, went up into the city to the house of the druggist his father's old friend, to borrow of his wife for Miriam veil and mantilla, and walking boots and petticoat trousers after the usage of the women of Alexandria, unknowing that there was appointed to happen him of the shifts of Time, the Father of Wonders, that which was far beyond his reckoning. Thus it befell Nur al-Din and Miriam the Girdle girl; but as regards her sire the King of France, when he arose in the morning, he missed his daughter and questioned her women and her eunuchs of her. Answered they, "O our lord, she went out last night, to go to Church and after that we have no tidings of her." But, as the King talked with them, behold, there arose so great a clamour of cries below the palace, that the place rang thereto, and he said, "What may be the news?" The folk replied, "O King, we have found ten men slain on the sea shore, and the royal yacht is missing. Moreover we saw the postern of the Church, which gives upon the tunnel leading to the sea, wide open; and the Moslem prisoner, who served in the Church, is missing." the King said, "An my ship be lost, without doubt or dispute."—

When it was the Eight Hundred and Eighty fifth night

She pursued, when the King of France missed his daughter they brought him tidings of her, saying, "Your yacht is lost "; and he replied, "An the craft be lost, without dispute or doubt my daughter is in it." So he summoned without delay the Captain

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 335 of the Port and cried out at him, saying, "By the virtue of the Messiah and the Faith which is no liar, except you and your fighting men overtake my ship directly and bring it back to me, with those who are within it, I will do you die the foulest of deaths and make a terrible example of you!" Thereupon the captain went out from before him, trembling, and betook himself to the ancient dame of the Church, to whom he said, Heard you anything from the captive, that was with you, anent his native land and what countryman he was?"' And she answered, "He used to say, I come from the town of Alexandria." When the captain heard the old woman's words he returned directly to the port and cried out to the sailors, "Make ready and set sail." So they did his bidding and At once putting out to sea, fared night and day till they sighted the city of Alexandria at the very time when Nur al-Din landed, leaving the Princess in the ship. They soon espied the royal yacht and knew her; so they moored their own vessel at a distance from it and putting off in a little frigate they had with them, which drew but two cubits of water and in which were an hundred fighting men, amongst them the one eyed Wazir (for that he was a stubborn tyrant and a froward devil and a wily thief, none could avail against his craft, as he were Abu Mohammed al-Battál), they did not stop rowing till they reached the bark and boarding her, all at once, found none within it save the Princess Miriam.

So they took her and the ship, and returning to their own vessel, after they had landed and waited a long while, set sail directly for the land of the Franks, having accomplished their errand, without a fight or even drawing sword. The wind blew fair for them and they sailed on, without ceasing and with all diligence, till they reached the city of France and landing with the Princess Miriam carried her to her father, who received her, seated on the throne of his Kingship. As soon as he saw her, he said to her, "Woe to you, O traitress! What ailed you to leave the faith of your fathers and forefathers and the safeguard of the Messiah, on whom is our reliance, and follow after the faith of the Vagrants, to wit, the faith of Al-Islam, the which arose with the sword against the Cross and the Images?" Replied Miriam, "I am not at fault, I went out by night to the church, to visit the Lady Mary and seek a blessing of her, when there fell upon me unawares a band of Moslem robbers, who gagged me and bound me fast and carrying me on board the barque, set sail with me for their own country. However, I beguiled them and talked with them of their religion, till they loosed my bonds; and before I knew it your men overtook me and delivered me. And by the virtue of the Messiah and the Faith which is no liar and the Cross and the Crucified thereon, I rejoiced with joy exceeding in my release from them and my bosom broadened and I was glad for my deliverance from the bondage of the Moslems!"

Rejoined the King, "You lie, O whore! O adultress! By the virtue of that which is revealed of prohibition and permission in the manifest Evangel, I will assuredly do you die by the foulest of deaths and make you the vilest of examples! Did it not suffice you to do as you did the first time and put off your lies upon us, but you must return upon us with your deceitful inventions?" Thereupon the King bade kill her and crucify her over the palace gate; but, at that moment the one eyed Wazir, who had long been enamoured of the Princess, came in to him and said, "Ho King! Slay her not, but give her to me to wife, and I will watch over her with the utmost warding, nor will I go in unto her, till I have built her a palace of solid stone, exceeding high of foundation, so no thieves may avail to climb up to its terrace roof; and when I have made an end of building it, I will sacrifice thirty Moslems before the gate of it, as an expiatory offering to the Messiah for myself and for her."

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 337

The King granted his request and bade the priests and monks and patriarchs marry the Princess to him; so they did his bidding, whereupon he bade set about building a strong and lofty palace, befitting her rank and the workmen fell to work upon it. in this way it happened the Princess Miriam and her sire and the one eyed Wazir; but as regards Nur al-Din, when he came back with the petticoat trousers and mantilla and walking boots and all the attire of Alexandrian women which he had, borrowed of the druggist's wife, he "found the air void and the fane afar";—

When it was the Eight Hundred and Eighty sixth night

his heart sank within him and he wept floods of tears and recited these verses:

The phantom of Soada came by night to wake me towards morning while my companions were sleeping in the desert: But when we awoke to behold the nightly phantom, I saw the air vacant, and the place of visitation distant.

Then Nur al-Din walked on along the sea shore and turned right and left, till he saw folk gathered together on the beach and heard them say,

"O Moslems, there remains no honour to Alexandria city, since the Franks enter it and snatch away those who are within it and return to their own land, at their leisure nor pursued of any of the Moslems or fighters for the Faith!" Nur al-Din to them said, "What is to do?"; and They said, "O my son, one of the ships of the Franks, full of armed men, came down but now upon the port and carried off a ship which was moored here, with her that was within it, and made unmolested for their own land." Nur al-Din fell down a swoon, on hearing these words; and when he recovered they questioned him of his case and he told them all that had befallen him first and last; whereupon they all took to reviling him and railing at him, saying, "Why could you not bring her up into the town without mantilla and muffler?" And all and each of the folk gave him some grievous word, berating him with sharp speech, and shooting at him some shaft of reproach, albeit one said, "Let him be; that which has befallen him suffice him," till he again fell down in a fainting fit. And behold, at this moment, up came the old druggist, who, seeing the folk gathered together, drew near to learn what was the matter and found Nur al-Din lying a swoon in their midst.

So he sat down at his head and arousing him, said to him as soon as he recovered, "O my son, what is this case in which I see you?" Nur al-Din said, "O uncle, I had brought back in a barque my lost slave girl from her father's city, suffering patiently all I suffered of perils and hardships; and when I came with her to this port, I made the vessel fast to the shore and leaving her within it, repaired to your dwelling and took of your consort what was needful for her, that I might bring her up into the town; but the Franks came and capturing barque and damsel made off unhindered, and returned to their own land."

Now when the Shaykh, the druggist, heard this, the light in his eyes became night and he grieved with sore grieving for Nur al-Din and said to him, "O my son, why did you not bring her out of the ship into the city without mantilla? But speech avails not at this season; so rise, O my son, and come up with me to the city; Perhaps Allah will vouchsafe you a girl fairer than she, who shall console you for her. praise be to God—praised be Allah—who has not made you lose anything by her!

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 339

Nay, you have gained by her. And bethink you, O my son, that Union and Disunion are in the hands of the Most High King." Replied Nur al-Din, "By God, O uncle, I can never be consoled for her loss nor will I ever leave seeking her, though on her account I drink the cup of death!" Rejoined the druggist, "O my son, and what are you minded to do?" Nur al-Din said, "I am minded to return to the land of the Franks and enter the city of France and emperil myself there; come what may, loss of life or gain of life." the druggist said, "O my son, there is an old saw:—Not always does the crock escape the shock; and if they did you no hurt the first time, Perhaps they will slay you this time, more by token that they know you now with full knowledge." Nur al-Din said, "O my uncle, let me set out and be slain for the love of her At once and not die of despair for her loss by slow torments. Now as Fate determined there was then a ship in port ready to sail, for its passengers had made an end of their affairs and the sailors had pulled up the mooring stakes, when Nur al-Din embarked in her.

So they shook out their canvas and relying on the Compassionate, put out to sea and sailed many days, with fair wind and weather, till behold, they fell in with certain of the Frank cruisers, which were scouring those waters and seizing upon all ships they saw, in their fear for the King's daughter from the Moslem corsairs: and as often as they made prize of a Moslem ship, they carried all her people to the King of France, who put them to death in fulfilment of the vow he had vowed on account of his daughter Miriam. So, seeing the ship in which was Nur al-Din, they boarded her and taking him and the rest of the company prisoners, to the number of an hundred Moslems, carried them to the King and set them between his hands. He bade cut their throats. Accordingly they slaughtered them all immediately, one after another, till there was none left but Nur al-Din, whom the headsman had left to the last, in pity of his tender age and slender shape. When the King saw him, he knew him right well and said to him, "Are you not Nur al-Din, who was with us before?"

He said, "I was never with you; and my name is not Nur al-Din, but Ibrahim." Rejoined the King;" You lie, you are Nur al-Din, he whom I gave to the ancient dame the Prioress, to help her in the service of the church." But Nur al-Din replied, "O my lord, my name is Ibrahim." the King said, "Wait a while," and bade his knights fetch the old woman directly, saying, "When she comes and sees you, she will know If you be Nur al-Din or not." At this juncture, behold, in came the one eyed Wazir who had married the Princess and kissing the earth before the King said to him, "Know, O King, that the palace is finished; and you know now I vowed to the Messiah that, when I had made an end of building it, I would cut thirty Moslems' throats before its doors; Why I am come to take them of you, that I may sacrifice them and so fulfil my vow to the Messiah. They shall be at my charge, by way of loan, and whenas there come prisoners to my hands, I will give you other thirty in lieu of them." Replied the King, "By the virtue of the Messiah and the Faith which is no liar, I have but this one captive left!"

And he pointed to Nur al-Din, saying, Take him and slaughter him at this very moment and the rest I will send you, when there come to my hands other prisoners of the Moslems." Thereupon the one eyed Wazir arose and took Nur al-Din and carried him to his palace, thinking to slaughter him on the threshold of the gate; but the painters said to him, "O my lord, we have two days' painting yet to do: so bear with us and delay to cut the throat of this captive, till we have made an end of our work; Perhaps by that time the rest of the thirty will come, so you may despatch them all at one bout and accomplish your vow in a single day." Thereupon the Wazir bade imprison Nur al-Din—

When it was the Eight Hundred and Eighty seventh night

but none could avail to steal them. Now one of them fell sick of a jaundice and there came a whiteness over his eyes; whereupon the King gathered together all the farriers in the city to treat him; but they all failed of his cure. Presently, the Wazir came into the King; and finding him troubled because of the horse, thought to do away his concern and said to him, "O King, give me the stallion and I will cure him." The King consented and caused carry the horse to the stable in which Nur al-Din lay chained; but, when he missed his brother, he cried out with an exceeding great cry and neighed, so that he affrighted all the folk. The Wazir, seeing that he did thus but because he was parted from his brother, went to tell the King, who said, "If this, which is but a beast, cannot brook to be parted from his brother, how should it be with those that have reason?" And he bade his grooms take the other horse and put him with his brother in the Wazir's stables, saying, "Tell the Minister that the two stallions be a gift from me to him, for the sake of my daughter Miriam."

Nur al-Din was lying in the stable, chained and shackled, when they brought in the two stallions and he saw that one of them had a film over his eyes. Now he had some knowledge of horses and of the doctoring of their diseases; so he said to himself, "This By God is, my opportunity! I will go to the Wazir and lie to him, saying, "I will heal you this horse: then will I do with him somewhat that shall destroy his eyes, and he will slay me and I shall be at rest from this woe full life." So he waited till the Wazir entered the stable, to look upon the steed, and said to him, "O my lord, what will be my due, If I heal this horse, and make his eyes whole again?" Replied the Wazir, "As my head lives, If you cure him, I will spare your life and give you leave to crave a boon of me!" And Nur al-Din said, "O my lord, bid my hands be unbound!" So the Wazir bade unbind him and he rose and taking virgin glass, brayed it and mixed it with unslaked lime and a menstruum of onion juice. Then he applied the whole to the horse's eyes and bound them up, saying in himself, "Now will his eyes be put out and they will slay me and I shall be at rest from this woe full life." Then he passed" the night with a heart free from the uncertainty of cark and care, humbling himself to Allah the Most High and saying, "O Lord, in Your knowledge is that which dispenses with asking and craving!"

Now when the morning morrowed and the sun shone, the Wazir came to the stable and, loosing the bandage from the horse's eyes considered them and found them finer than before, by the ordinance of the King who opens evermore. So he said to Nur al-Din, "O Moslem, never in the world saw I the like of you for the excellence of your knowledge. By the virtue of the Messiah and the Faith which is no liar, you make me with wonder to admire, for all the farriers of our land have failed to heal this horse!" Then he went up to Nur al-Din and, doing off his shackles with his own hand, clad him in a costly dress and made him his master of the Horse; and he appointed him stipends and allowances and lodged him in a story over the stables. So Nur al-Din abode awhile, eating and drinking and making merry and bidding and forbidding those who tended the horses; and whoever neglected or failed to fodder those tied up in the stable in which was his service, he would throw down and beat with grievous beating and lay him by the legs in bilboes of iron. Furthermore, he used every day to descend and visit the stallions and rub them down with his own hand, by reason of that which he knew of their value in the Wazir's eyes and his love for them; Why the Minister rejoiced in him with joy exceeding and his breast broadened and he was right glad, unknowing what was to be the issue of his case. Now in the new palace, which the one eyed Wazir had bought for the Princess Miriam, was a lattice window overlooking his old house and the flat in which Nur al-Din lodged. The Wazir had a daughter, a virgin of extreme loveliness, as she were

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 343 a fleeing gazelle or a bending branchlet, and it chanced that she sat one day at the lattice aforesaid and behold, she heard Nur al-Din singing and solacing himself under his sorrows by improvising these verses:

O my Censor who wakest a morn to see The joys of life and its jubilee! Had the fangs of Destiny bitten you In such bitter case you had pled this plea: Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree! But from Fate's despight you are safe this day; From her falsest fay and her crying "Nay!" Yet blame him not om his woes waylay Who distraught shall say in his agony, Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree! Excuse such lovers in flight abhorr'd Nor to Love's distresses yours aid 'afford: Lest your self be bound by same binding cord And drink of Love's bitterest injury. Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree! In His service I wont as the days went by With freest heart through the nights to lie; Nor tasted wake, nor of Love anything reckt before my heart to subjection summoned he: Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree! None weet of Love and his humbling wrong Save those he sickened so sore, so long, Who have lost their wits 'mid the lover throng Draining bitterest cup by his hard decree: Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree! How oft in Night's gloom he cause wake to rue Lovers' eyne, and from eye lids their sleep withdrew; Till tears to the railing of torrents grew, Overflowing cheeks, unconfined and free: Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree! How many a man he has joyed to steep In pain, and for pine has he plundered sleep, Made don garb of mourning the deepest deep And even his dreaming forced to flee: Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!

How oft sufferance fails me! How bones are wasted And down my cheeks torrent tear drops basted: And embittered She all the food I tasted However sweet it was wont to be: Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree! Most hapless of men who like me must love, And must watch when Night droops her wing from above, Who, Swimming the main where affection drove Must sigh and sink in that gloomy sea: Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me My heart is burnt by the fires I dree! Who is he to whom Love ever stinted spite And who scaped his springes and easy sleight; Who free from Love lived in life's delight? Where is he can boast of such liberty? Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree! Deign Lord such suffering people maintain Then best Protector, protect him deign! Establish him and his life assain And defend him from all calamity: Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!

And when Nur al-Din ended his say and ceased to sing his rhyming lay, the Wazir's daughter said to herself, "By the virtue of the Messiah and the Faith which is no liar, truly this Moslem is a handsome youth! But doubtless he is a lover separated from his mistress. Would Heaven I know an the beloved of this fair one is fair like unto him and if she pine for him as he for her! If she be seemly as he is, it behoves, him to pour forth tears and make moan of passion; but, If she be other than fair, his days are wasted in vain regrets and he is denied the taste of delights."—

When it was the Eight Hundred and Eighty eighth night

Now Miriam the Girdle girl, the Minister's consort, had removed to the new palace the day before and the Wazir's daughter knew that she was straitened of breast; so she was minded to seek her and talk with her and tell her the tidings of the young man and the rhymes and verses she had heard

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 345 him recite; but, before she could carry out her design the Princess sent for her to cheer her with her converse. So she went to her and found her heavy at heart and her tears hurrying down her cheeks; and whilst she was weeping with sore weeping she recited these couplets:

My life is gone but love longings remain And my breast is straitened with pine and pain: And my heart for parting to melt is glad Yet hoping that union will come again, And join us in one who now are twain. Stint your blame to him who in heart's your thrall With the wasted frame which his sorrows gall, Nor with aim of arrow his heart appal For parted lover is saddest of all, And Love's cup of bitters is sweet to drain!

the said,Wazir's daughter to her, "What ails you, O Princess, to be thus straitened in breast and sorrowful of thought?" Whereupon Miriam recalled the greatness of the delights that were past and recited these two couplets

I will bear in patience estrangement of friend And on cheeks rail tears that like torrents go: Perhaps Allah will solace my sorrow, for He Neath the ribs of unease makes ease at end.

Said the Wazir's daughter, "O Princess, let not your breast be straitened, but come with me At once to the lattice; for there is with us in the stable a comely young man, slender of shape and sweet of speech, and It seems to me he is a parted lover." Miriam asked, "And by what sign know you that he is a parted lover? "; and she answered, "O Queen, I know it by his improvising odes and verses all watches of the night and tides of the day." the Princess in herself said, "If what the Wazir's daughter says be true, these are assuredly the traits of the baffled, the wretched Ali Nur al-Din. Would I knew if indeed he be the youth of whom she speaks?" At this thought, love longing and distraction of passion redoubled on her and she rose at once and walking with the maiden to the lattice, looked down upon the stables, where she saw her love and lord Nur al-Din and fixing her eyes steadfastly upon him, knew him with the bestest knowledge of love, albeit he was sick, of the greatness of his affection for her and of the fire of passion, and the anguish of separation and yearning and distraction. Sore upon him was emaciation and he was improvising and saying:

My heart is a thrall; my tears never abate And their rains the railing of clouds amate; 'Twixt my weeping and watching and wanting love; And whining and pining for dearest mate. Ah my burning heat, my desire, my lowe! For the plagues that torture my heart are eight; And five upon five are in suite of them; So stand and listen to all I state: Mem'ry, madding thoughts, moaning languishment, Stress of longing love, plight disconsolate; In travail, affliction and strangerhood, And annoy and joy when on her I wait. Fail me patience and stay for engrossing care And sorrows my suffering soul regrate. On my heart the possession of passion grows O who ask of what fire in my heart's create, Why my tears in vitals should kindle flame, Burning heart with ardours insatiate, Know, I'm drowned in Deluge of tears and my soul From Lazá lowe fares to Háwiyah goal.

When the Princess Miriam beheld Nur al-Din and heard his loquence and verse and speech, she made certain that it was indeed her lord Nur al-Din; but she concealed her case from the Wazir's daughter and said to her, "By the virtue of the Messiah and the Faith which is no liar, I thought not you knew of my sadness!" Then she arose directly and withdrawing from the window, returned to her own place, whilst the Wazir's daughter went to her own occupations. The Princess awaited patiently awhile, then returned to the window and sat there, gazing upon her beloved Nur al-Din and delighting her eyes with his beauty and inner and outer grace. And indeed, she saw that he was like unto moon at full on fourteenth night; but he was ever sighing with tears never drying, for that he recalled whatever he had been abying. So he recited these couplets:

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 347

I hope for Union with my love which I may never obtain At all, but bitterness of life is all the gain I gain: My tears are like to the main for ebb and flow of tide; But when I meet the blamer people to staunch my tears I'm glad. Woe to the wretch who garred us part by spelling of his spells; Could I but hend his tongue in hand I'd cut his tongue in twain: Yet will I never blame the days for whatever deed they did Mingling with merest, purest gall the cup they made me drain! To whom shall I address myself; and whom but you shall seek A heart left hostage in your Court, by you a captive ta'en? Who shall avenge my wrongs on you, tyrant despotical Whose tyranny but grows the more, the more I dare complain? l made him regnant of my soul that he the reign assain But me he wasted wasting too the soul I gave to reign. Ho you, the Fawn; whom I so gladly erst gathered to my breast Enow of severance tasted I to own its might and main, You'rt he whose favours joined in one all beauties known to man, Yet I thereon have wasted all my Patience' fair domain. I entertained him in my heart whereto he brought unrest But I am satisfied that I such guest could entertain My tears for ever flow and flood, like the surging sea And would I know the track to take that I thereto attain. Yet sore I fear that I shall die in depths of my chagrin And must despair for evermore to win the wish I'd win.

When Miriam heard the verses of Nur al-Din the loving hearted, the parted; they kindled in her vitals a fire of desire, and, whilst her eyes ran over with tears, she recited these two couplets:

I longed for him I love; but, when we met, I was amazed nor tongue nor eyes I found. I had got ready volumes of reproach; But when we met, could syllable no sound.

When Nur al-Din heard the voice of Princess Miriam, he knew it and wept bitter tears, saying, "By God, this is the chanting of the Lady Miriam.—

Supplementary Note To Hasan of Bassorah

NOTE. (p. 93).—There is something wondrous naive in a lover who, when asked by his mistress to sing a song in her honour, breaks out into versical praises of her parts. But even the classical Arab authors did not disdain such themes. See in Al-Harírí (Ass. of Mayyáfarikín) where Abú Zayd laments the impotency of old age in form of a Rasy or funeral oration (Preston p. 484, and Chenery p. 221). It completely deceived Sir William Jones, who inserted it into the chapter " De Poesi Funebri, p. 527 (Poeseos Asiaticæ Commentarii) gravely noting, "Hæc Elegia non admodum dissimilis esse videtur pulcherrimi illius carminis de Sauli et Jonathani obitu; at que adeo versus iste ' ubi provocant adversarios nunquam rediit a pugnæ contentione sine spiculo sanguine imbuto,' ex Hebræo reddi videtur, A sanguine occisorum, a fortium virorum adipe, Arcus Jonathani non rediit irritus" I need hardly say with Captain Lockett (226) that this "Sabb warrior," this Arabian Achilles is the celebrated Bonus Deus or Hellespontiacus of the Ancients. The oration runs thus:

O folk I have a wondrous tale, so rare Much shall it profit hearers wise and ware! I saw in salad years a potent Brave And sharp of edge and point his warrior glaive; Who entered joust and list with hardiment Fearless of risk, of victory confident, His vigorous onset straitest places oped

And easy passage through all narrows groped: He never encountered foe in single fight But came from tilt with spear in blood stained bright Nor stormed a fortress however strong and stark— With fenced gates defended deep anti dark— When shown his flag without th' auspicious cry "Aidance from Allah and fair victory near!" Thuswise full many a night his part he played In strength and youthtide's stately garb arrayed, Dealing to fair young girl delicious joy And no less welcome to the blooming boy. But Time never ceased to stint his wondrous strength (Steadfast and upright as the gallows' length) Until the Nights o'erthrew him by their might And friends contemned him for a feckless people; Nor was a wizard but who wasted skill Over his case, nor leach could heal his ill. Then he abandoned arms abandoned him Who gave and took salutes so fierce and grim; And now lies prostrate drooping haughty crest; For who lives longest him most ills molest. Then see him, here he lies on bier for bed Who will a shroud bestow on stranger dead?

Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl. 349

A fair measure of the difference between Eastern and Western manners is afforded by such a theme being treated by their gravest writers and the verses being read and heard by the gravest and most worshipful men, whilst amongst us Preston and Chenery do not dare even to translate them. The latter, indeed, had all that immodest modesty for which English professional society is notable in this xix century. He spoiled by needlessly excluding from a scientific publication (Mem. R.A.S.) all of my Proverbia Communia Syriaca (See Unexplored Syria, i. 364) and every item which had a shade of double entendre. But Nemesis frequently found him out: during his short and obscure rule in Printing House Square The Thunderer was distinguished by two of the foulest indecencies that ever appeared in an English paper.

END OF VOL. VIII.

INDEX