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passed in his absence. Here he dismissed the dromedaries and entering his house, went in to his mother, to salute her, but found her worn of body and wasted of bones, for much mourning and watching and weeping and lamentation, till she was grown like a skewer and could make him no answer. He asked her of his wife and children and she wept till she swooned away, whereupon he searched the house for them, but found no trace of them. So he went to the store-closet and finding it open and the chest broken and the feather-dress missing, knew that his wife had possessed herself thereof and flown away with her children. Then he returned with his mother and finding her recovered from her swoon, questioned her of his wife and children, whereupon she wept and said, ‘O my son, may God amply requite thee their loss! These are their three tombs.’
When Hassan heard these words of his mother, he gave a great cry and fell down in a swoon, in which he lay from the first of the day till noon; wherefore anguish was added to his mother’s anguish and she despaired of his life. However, after awhile, he came to himself and wept and buffeted his face and rent his clothes and went about the house in a state of distraction, reciting the following verses:
Folk have made moan of passion before me, of past years, And live and dead for absence have suffered pains and fears;
But that within my bosom I harbour, with mine eyes I’ve never seen the like of nor heard it with mine ears.
Then he drew his sword, and coming up to his mother, said to her, ‘Except thou tell me the truth of the case, I will strike off thy head and [after] kill myself.’ ‘O my son,’ answered she, ‘put up thy sword and sit down, till I tell thee what hath passed.’ So he sheathed his sword and sat by her side, whilst she recounted to him all that had passed in his absence, adding, ‘O my son, but that I
